#I was just joking when I said they might kill each other goddamn

[mischiefmaverick]

Did a actual fight just break out on the fucking Congress floor?!

[xomakara]

Tides of Rivalry

(re-posting from my old account seulrinnie-rinrin/xomakara-secondary)

SUMMARY | You and Hongjoong have a rivalry to be the best captain of the High Seas. You constantly bicker with each other but you both hold high respect for each other. You both get stranded on an island and then feelings ensue.

PAIRING | Hongjoong/Reader

GENRE | piratecaptain!Hongjoong, piratecaptain!Reader, smut with no (maybe a little) plot, unprotected sex (wrap it up everyone!), vaginal sex

RATING | Mature, 18+, MDNI

LENGTH | 5076 words

TAGLIST | --

NETWORKS | --

AUTHOR’S NOTE | Here's Pirate Captain Hongjoong! My ending could be better hahaha. But I hope you enjoy nevertheless.

“I’m going to kill you, Kim Hongjoong.” You muttered.

“Assuming we get out alive.” Hongjoong teased.

You and Hongjoong stood back to back, arms bound and tied together, standing on a plank about thirty feet above the ground, hanging over the side of a ship. With a huff of annoyance, you tried to kick his back leg.

“Ow! Watch it.” Hongjoong said, wincing at your kick. “We don’t want to fall overboard now do we?”

“It's your goddamn fault we’re in this mess.” You exclaimed. “Whose wonderful idea was it to play cards and then lose? Now look where we are.”

“It wasn’t my idea to bet everything I had on that cursed card game either. It’s all because of you and your shitty luck.” Hongjoong sighed.

You narrowed your eyes, struggling to look at his face. “My luck is better than your shitty, shitty luck.” You challenged, butting the back of his head with yours.

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, sweetheart.” He teased.

“Oi oi oi! Cut that out or I will cut you.” You threatened.

“How can you when we’re both tied up?” Hongjoong laughed. “Hey at least I’ll die with a beautiful woman.”

“Ha ha. Funny joke.” You managed to mumble through laughter. “At least you have a pretty face to die with.”

How you and Hongjoong ended up walking the plank together was beyond ridiculous. They say it happens when two people come together under unusual circumstances. You were playing cards with Hongjoong and some other pirate captains when one captain (Hongjoong) got too cocky and lost his entire fortune to you. But as fate was cruel, you also lost all your money to another captain who seemingly hated yours and Hongjoong’s guts.

You don’t know how it happened. You’re drinking and playing cards with the other captains, bickering with Hongjoong and all of a sudden you’re tied up alongside him, standing on a piece of wood, staring down thirty feet below.

“You and your shitty luck.” You groaned.

“You lost too, sweetheart.” He reminded you.

“Yeah, well so did you!” You retorted.

“And now we’re both stuck here because of our bad luck.” He shrugged. “Life’s a bitch.”

“I can’t believe I might fall to my death with fucking sharks swimming down there with you!” You exclaimed, letting out a groan.

“Awh sweetheart, it’s okay to admit that you like me.” Hongjoong chuckled.

“Oh fuck off.” You mumbled.

“If we were on land, I’d definitely go fuck off. You can join me.” Hongjoong laughed.

“No way.” You snapped.

“Come on. Let’s just admit that we’re attracted to each other.” Hongjoong encouraged.

“What?! Are you crazy?! We are supposed to hate each other!” You yelled.

“Really? Because all those mean things you say to me are making me really think otherwise.” Hongjoong pointed out.

“You would probably try to seduce me if we weren’t on a bloody plank.” You said.

“And what makes you think I wouldn’t?” He asked, cocking his eyebrow.

The crew of the ship that held you and Hongjoong hostage watched your little exchange from afar, with varying degrees of shock, disgust, amusement and disbelief. After a while, they were even trying to figure out what to do with the two of you.

A crewman looked at his captain, gesturing towards you and Hongjoong, and he gave a shrug. “Is that normal, Captain? Most folks would be scared to fall to their death but those two… I swear they almost seem excited.”

His captain shook his head. “Those two are always like that. Rival captains with friendly banter between them. Even after all these years, it’s not going to change anytime soon. I guess they both can’t resist teasing each other no matter what kind of situation they’re in.”

You and Hongjoong didn’t stop talking. Your antics were getting increasingly childish and immature but at least you were distracting yourself from thinking about falling off the ship to your certain death. In fact, every time one of the sailors glanced at the two of you, you'd both yell out ‘The hell you looking at!?’ and scare the shit out of them. The reactions of the crewmen were priceless. They shuddered, took a step backwards and then hurriedly returned to whatever they were doing.

“How sad is it that two pirate captains are stuck in this predicament?” You sighed.

“But hey, at least it’s better than being stuck alone right? At least we have each other.” Hongjoong smiled.

You rolled your eyes. “I would rather have another captain than you.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of pretty ladies who would love to relieve themselves with me, but none of them can compare to you.” Hongjoong jokes. “You’re the only female captain I would die for.”

“That's what you say." You snorted. "Until the next girl comes along and you forget all about me."

"There's no other girl that is a pirate captain. So you'll always be special to me." He argued.

“Nope. Not happening. I’ve had enough flirting for today.” You scoffed. You started to yell, hoping that the captain of this ship would hear you. "Yah! Chan-ah! Are you seriously gonna make Hongjoong and I stand here all day?!"

"What did we do to deserve this, kid?!" Hongjoong yelled out.

Chan, the captain of this ship, rolled his eyes. "Yah, I'm older than you!"

"By a fucking year!" Hongjoong shouted.

"Can't you guys shut up already?" Chan sighed. "If I agree to untie you, will you two shut up?"

"No guarantee!" You yelled back.

"Okay. If you won't shut up, then I'll just have one of my guys push you into the water. Then maybe you'll both shut up." Chan warned.

“Go ahead! Push us into the water! That will teach us both a lesson.” You swore, fighting hard against your bonds. “Do it! Fucking push us both into the ocean.”

“Oooh, scary!” Hongjoong laughed. “So dramatic. Chan, you know Y/N and I don't die easily."

“Then let’s prove it. What do you say, boys? Do you wanna give it a shot?” Chan asked his men.

The men on board raised their weapons. “Ready when you are, sir!”

"Push 'em." Chan ordered. Without any hesitation, one of Chan's men shoved the two of you off the plank, pushing you both over the edge.

"God fucking dammit!" You heard Hongjoon scream.

Your stomach dropped out when you felt your body falling. You closed your eyes tightly, holding your breath as you fell.

"Noooo!" You screamed. "Nooo! God damn it!"

Suddenly you heard a loud splash, followed by cheering. Everyone on board started to laugh and applaud. You couldn't believe what just happened. You and Hongjoong, still tied together, were kicking your feet in the water, fighting desperately to stay afloat. You opened your eyes just in time to see Chan grinning at you, clapping his hands and yelling "Perfect! That's what I wanted!"

"Fuck you!" You yelled as you and Hongjoong watched the ship sail away, leaving you both to fight for survival.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Calm down, Y/N." Hongjoong watched as you burst into anger. "The beach didn't do anything to you."

You and Hongjoong managed to swim to a deserted island nearby despite being tied together. It took a bit of teamwork, lots of yelling and splashing water around but somehow you made it there. As you both landed on shore, Hongjoong managed to find a sharp enough rock to cut your ropes loose. With your wrists free, you immediately stood up on shaky legs and let out a scream.

You continued to scream until you angerly plopped on the ground. You punched the dirt with your fist. You stared angrily at the ocean, cursing everything under the sun.

"I hate the whole world right now." You muttered, voice hoarse from screaming.

Hongjoong sat next to you, giving you a concerned look. "Are you alright?"

"I hate all pirates. And the sea. And the air. And nature. And life. I hate it all." You huffed.

"Stop being dramatic." Hongjoong mumbled. "We should probably find some shelter before it gets dark. There are usually a few caves around here."

"Fine. But you're building the fire. I'm tired of life." You grumbled.

Hongjoong chuckled. "I'll take care of it. You can rest."

You sighed in relief, taking in a deep breath of fresh air. You scanned the horizon, watching the setting sun dip into the ocean. "Let's go find some cave." You said.

"Alright." Hongjoong agreed.

Both of you picked up the pace, running towards the nearest mountains in hopes of finding a cave. Luckily you found a nice sized cave hidden among the rocks, big enough to accommodate the both of you. As soon as you entered the cave, you crawled inside first, laying down on the floor and covering your face with your hands.

"Thank god." You whispered to yourself.

"I think I'll sleep outside tonight." Hongjoong suggested.

"Get in here, Hongjoong." You rolled your eyes. "It's cold outside. Don't be such a baby. I don't need Seonghwa and the rest of your crew jumping down my throat for letting you sleep out there."

"Fine." He conceded as he entered the cave. "I know a better way to stay warm."

"I will punch you if you suggest sleeping together." You threatened.

"I can take you." He joked.

"You must have a death wish." You laughed.

"It's either you or the sharks out there." Hongjoong shrugged as he gathered the items to create the fire. "Now get out of those wet clothes so you don't get sick. Don't want your crew to worry about you."

You sighed. "Why do you always have to be so responsible?"

"Hey, we might be pirates, but I care about all my crew members." He defended himself. "It's the least I could do for people I consider family. You and I might be rival captains but I care about you as well. We started this journey, this rivalry since we left our little village all those years ago. We may fight each other but deep down, we're still friends. You know how I feel about you."

"Yeah, you're right." You admitted. "Sometimes I get caught up in the fighting. Sometimes I forget that we're also good friends because we're also rivals. Yeah, sometimes I need a reminder."

As the fire warmed the cave, you stared at the burning flames, slowly making your way towards sleep. You still shivered because your back was exposed to the cold night air.

Hongjoong noticed your discomfort and opened his arms. "Y/N, come here."

"Hmmph." You refused before slowly inching your way towards him. "Fine. Just this one time."

"Good girl." Hongjoong smiled. "Come here."

Hongjoong wrapped you in his arms and you couldn't help but let out a sigh when your back was finally covered by the warmth of his chest. "Feels better, doesn't it?" He teased.

You let out a small nod, burrowing deeper into his embrace.

"You know, I enjoy our rivalry and bickering but sometimes I miss the days where we would talk about random things like the weather and ask each other about our families." He continued. "We used to do that back home. Back when we were kids."

"Yeah... I miss that too..." You admitted.

"Those days were good." He said softly. "Being together and talking about nonsense, playing with animals... It made us happy. Not that I'm happy now. I love being with my crew but..."

He paused, hesitating to continue. "You know... A part of me wishes we could turn back time. Go back to those times where it was just you and me. Those simple days when we would run through fields chasing butterflies."

"Me too...We're different people now. We're captains of our own crew and ships. We have people that depend on us and the feeling of responsibility weighs heavily on our shoulders." You turn your head to look at him, his eyes soft. "Sometimes I envy you. You're not burdened with anything. Everything you touch turns to gold. The sun rises for you, the moon follows behind. All of your dreams become reality."

"Even though I have shitty, shitty luck?" He laughed lightly.

"You have everything. I mean, you have me and your crew. You've built a legacy and reputation and everything else. You're the better pirate captain between us. I wish I could be half as successful as you are. I wish I could live as peacefully as you do. As far as I know, you haven't lost a single battle. No matter how many ships you take from others, they still admire you."

"Hey, you're a good captain too." He reassured. "Don't compare yourself to me. You've achieved much more than I ever did."

You shrugged. "You're only saying that to make me feel better."

He shook his head. "You're the one who started comparing ourselves to each other in the first place."

You blushed. "You never stop surprising me, you know that? Every time I think I know you well, you throw something new at me."

"Well, it's kind of true." He admitted. "Whenever you see someone you consider your rival succeed, it makes you want to strive even harder. Maybe that's why I do it. To inspire you. To make us better people."

You let out a small laugh, shifting closer to his warmth. "Have you ever thought about what we would be doing if we never became pirates? Where would we be right now?"

"Wherever we end up, we'd still be together. Wouldn't we?" Hongjoong assured. "Whatever happens, we'll be fine. Together, no matter what."

He pulled you close to him and you rested your head on his shoulder. You let out a sigh of contentment as you listened to the steady rhythm of his heart against your ear. You never realized how soothing it was to listen to his heartbeat until now. You curled up tighter in his embrace and tried to sleep, snuggling closer to him as his warm arm wrapped around your waist.

"Hongjoong?"

"Hmm?"

"Even if we had a crappy past few days...I wouldn't want to experience this moment with anyone else but you."

He gave you a sweet smile. "Same here."

And with that, the two of you drifted into slumber.

You and Hongjoong managed to survive the night without incident. In the morning, you woke up to the smell of food cooking and Hongjoong sitting cross legged in front of a small table, cooking something over the fire.

"Where'd you find the food?" You asked as you sat up.

"Fish." Hongjoong explained as he handed you a piece of cooked fish. "I was hungry so I went fishing while you slept."

"Mmmm...thought I would never see the day where Captain Hongjoong would be feeding me fish." You smirked as you chewed on the fish.

Hongjoong let out a laugh. "I can't let the precious Captain Y/N starve."

"So, are we gonna be stuck here for a while?" You asked.

"Probably." Hongjoong replied. "Seonghwa and the guys will probably find us. Your crew is probably on the search as well. They wouldn't give up looking for us."

"Well, it seems like we're going to be living in a cave for a while." You shrugged. "Maybe we should do some exploring of this island. See what we can find. How about we start searching later today?"

"Sounds good to me." Hongjoong agreed.

The two of you spent most of the day exploring the island, finding a lot of herbs, berries and edible plants. By noon, both of you decided to return to the cave.

You and Hongjoong both sat down in front of the fire, staring intently at the red hot embers. Hongjoong looked serious, examining every detail of the fire. He stirred the ashes occasionally, breaking them apart. When the ash cooled off, he added more wood, creating another round of flames. After a few minutes, the logs burnt completely.

"Are you okay?" You asked, sensing that something was bothering him.

"What do you mean?" He asked curiously.

"You seem really focused on the fire." You observed. "Is there something wrong?"

Hongjoong paused. "Just a bit." He answered honestly. "Can't quite put my finger on it."

"That's okay." You smiled. "If you need to talk about it, I'm here for you."

"Thanks." He smiled back.

For a few moments, neither of you spoke. Both of you stared into the fire, reflecting on your memories. Some good, some bad. But they were memories nonetheless.

You couldn't remember how long you stared at the fire. All you knew was that it felt as if the world stopped moving. The fire provided the only light, preventing you from being able to tell time.

All of a sudden, you felt a warm hand resting on your thigh.

"What are you thinking about?" Hongjoong whispered, pulling you closer to him.

"Nothing." You lied.

"Lie." Hongjoong smirked. "I can tell you're lying."

"Okay, fine." You pouted. "I'm thinking about my life."

"I figured as much." Hongjoong chuckled. "Do you regret coming with me? Becoming a pirate? Everything we've been through?"

"Sometimes." You confessed. "But sometimes, I feel like I made the right decision. It's weird because usually, when I think of regrets, it's when I was younger. Whenever I thought of a future without you, it was hard for me to breathe. I guess now that I'm older, I've grown stronger and learned how to deal with life on my own."

"You don't need to prove yourself to me." Hongjoong assured. "I'm already proud of the person you've become. Even though we fight and argue, I'm glad that you chose to follow your dreams and work towards achieving them. Even though we're rivals, I'm proud of you. You're smart, beautiful, ambitious and driven. You're such a great person, Y/N."

You turned to face him. His gaze held so much warmth. It enveloped you and filled you with comfort. "Hongjoong?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think you and I will have a future together?" You asked softly. "A future where we aren't always fighting on who has the best crew, the best ship, or who is the better pirate?"

"Why do you ask?" He asked.

"Because I want to spend my life with you." You let out a small laugh. "It just got me thinking that all these squabbles and random bickering might disappear one day. One day, we might just wake up one day and realize that we fell in love with each other and decided to spend the rest of our lives together."

"Y/N." Hongjoong murmured softly.

"What?" You questioned, turning to look at him.

His expression softened and he slowly brought his lips to meet yours. He didn't speak. Instead, he simply placed his hand gently on the side of your cheek and kissed you deeply.

When you finally came up for air, you stared into his eyes. A tiny flutter in your stomach told you that this wasn't the last time you'd be kissing him.

"I knew you liked me." Hongjoong smiled, cupping your chin in his hand.

"Shut up." You laughed lightly.

"Come on." Hongjoong grabbed your hand. "Let's go explore the rest of this island. There's gotta be something here worth our time."

The two of you began walking around the island again. But this time, it was more of an intimate walk, holding hands and sneaking kisses whenever you felt like it. You found it funny how quickly things changed between the two of you. Not that it was a bad thing. Hongjoong certainly didn't seem to mind either way.

After a few hours of exploration, the two of you returned to the cave. The sun was beginning to set and both of you decided to rest.

Hongjoong walked over to the fire pit and lit a fresh batch of embers, creating enough heat to keep you warm during the night. You walked over to sit next to him and he wrapped his arms around you. You settled in his embrace, feeling safe and comfortable.

Both of you stared at the burning embers, watching them dance around in the wind.

"You know," You said, causing Hongjoong to turn his attention away from the fire to look down at you. "I'm feeling rather cold here."

"Oh really?" Hongjoong teased. "What do you propose we should do, Captain Y/N?"

You smirked playfully. "Why don't you tell me, Captain Hongjoong."

"Well..." He trailed off.

"I'm waiting." You teased.

"How about I keep you warm tonight?" He offered.

You giggled. "Hmmmm....I think I like the sound of that."

"You won't regret it." Hongjoong grinned.

And with that, he wrapped his arms around you and lowered his lips to meet yours. The kiss was gentle and tender. He ran his fingers through your hair as he continued to kiss you. And before you knew it, you were lost in a passionate haze.

Your hands ran through his hair, fiddling with his soft strands. You pressed your body closer to his, letting your tongue slip into his mouth, tasting his breath.

Before long, the two of you were making out by the fire, losing track of everything except each other. Your legs intertwined with his, your arms entwined with his. Soon, you were straddling him, grinding your hips against his.

In his eagerness to make love to you, Hongjoong slid your shirt off of your shoulders, slipping it over your head and onto the ground. His hands explored your chest, his fingertips grazing across your hardened nipples. Your breathing became ragged as his touch grew more insistent. He sucked your breast into his mouth, making sure not to miss any part of it. You moaned loudly as his tongue circled around your sensitive nipple. You clutched at his hair, pulling him closer to you.

"Hongjoong..." You let out a sigh as you felt his hands gently caressing your sides. "Please..."

He continued playing with your breasts, taking his time and paying special attention to your nipples. He pinched them gently, sucking harder at your breasts. With his tongue still circling around your nipple, he used his teeth to gently bite down, sending chills throughout your entire body.

Your breathing increased. Every touch, every lick, every tug sent tingles throughout your body. You clung to him, desperately trying to control your trembling legs. Hongjoong broke away slightly, tugging his shirt off, before continuing to ravage your breasts. His tongue now plunged into your mouth, leaving a trail of wetness along your neck. You shivered as his warm breath washed over your skin. His hands gently massaged your back as his thumbs grazed down the middle of your spine. Your head fell back and you closed your eyes, letting out a soft moan.

Suddenly, you heard a soft whimper escape from your lips. "Hongjoong...please..."

It took a few minutes for him to remove the rest of his and your clothes, leaving you both naked. Neither of you bothered to hide anything anymore. You just wanted to feel each other. Your hands moved swiftly over his body, touching every inch you could reach.

Hongjoong's hands ran down your body, stopping at your waist. He pulled you down and began to passionately kiss you again. Your hands were buried deep within his hair, his strong hands firmly gripping your hips. His erection pressed into your stomach, forcing your breathing to become even heavier.

Before you knew it, you were sitting up, straddling him and slowly lowering yourself down onto him. He gasped, biting his lip as he felt your tight muscles squeeze around his hardness. You both moaned at the same time.

With your eyes locked onto his, you began riding him, using your hips to grind against his arousal. His hands rested on your hips, gently guiding you up and down. Your breaths became ragged, your heart rate increased rapidly. Every moment seemed to pass too quickly. You leaned forward, wrapping your arms around his neck, whispering softly in his ear.

"Fuck...you feel amazing." Hongjoong murmured, running his hands up and down your back. "So tight and hot...can't believe you fit me so perfectly."

He kissed you roughly, pushing you back down onto him, moaning into your mouth as you slowly rode him. He gripped the back of your neck, deepening the kiss, plunging his tongue inside of your mouth. He rolled his hips, giving you more friction against him. As you rode him, Hongjoong peppered kisses down your neck, nibbling at your shoulder blades. The moans that escaped your lips caused him to smile.

He leaned back, looking down at you, watching you ride him. "Y/N..." He breathed. "Look at me."

Slowly, you looked up into his dark brown eyes. They had a mix of lust, desire and affection. Your hands moved from his neck, stroking his jawline, tilting his head slightly so that you could kiss him properly. Your tongue slipped into his mouth, mingling with his. His arms encircled your waist tightly, his fingers digging into your flesh as he bit down gently on your lower lip. You sighed softly as you rocked your hips faster against his arousal.

Hongjoong couldn't help but groan in pleasure. "You're driving me fucking crazy, Y/N." He whispered.

"Me too..." You whispered back, arching your back and meeting his thrusts with your own. Your breasts bounced with every thrust.

As the two of you fucked by the fire, the glittering stars above glittered in their perfection. Hongjoong kept you in his arms as you slowly sank down on him, moaning and groaning in pleasure. He licked his lips as he looked down at you, completely mesmerized by your beauty.

He never imagined falling in love with someone like you. Never thought that anyone would make him feel this way. This wasn't just a simple infatuation. It was something else entirely. Love. You made him feel complete. Complete happiness. Complete satisfaction. Complete trust. Complete adoration.

You laid your head on his shoulder, slowly rocking your hips back and forth. He hummed in pleasure, moving his hands up and down your back, grabbing your ass and lifting you slightly off of him. He let out a soft grunt as you impaled yourself on him once more.

"Don't stop...please..." You begged, raising your head and locking your gaze with his. "Just...don't stop."

He held himself inside of you, rocking gently against you. "I can't...let you go, Y/N." He whispered, panting heavily.

"Don't...please..." You begged. "Hongjoong...fuck..."

"I want to fuck you all night, Y/N." He panted. "All day, all week...all month, all year. I want to spend every second of my life with you. In the good times, in the bad times. The times when you smile, the times when you cry. You're all I want, all I need, Y/N. Do you understand? All I want is you. Forever."

"I love you." You whispered.

"Say it again." He demanded.

"I love you, Hongjoong." You repeated.

"Say it louder." He growled.

"I love you!" You shouted, closing your eyes and grinding your hips against him even faster.

"That's right." He murmured, tightening his grip on your hips. "Love me. Fuck me. Just like this."

His grip tightened on your hips as he pounded into you harder. The sound of your grunts filled the air. His face was flushed and beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. His entire body tensed up, as he prepared to release himself inside of you.

"Cum for me, love." He whispered. "Let me hear you cum for me."

"Hongjoong! Fuck!" You cried, burying your face in his shoulder as you screamed out in ecstasy.

As the climax built up within him, he pushed into you one last time, gasping and grunting as he released his seed inside of you. He moaned in bliss as he came hard inside of you.

You sat up in his embrace, kissing him lightly on the lips. Both of you caught your breath, before he chuckled lightly.

"The High Seas can wait another night." He smiled.

"But what about the fact that the sun will rise soon?" You laughed.

"It'll give us plenty of time to make love again." He winked.

"Captain Hongjoong." You purred, before pressing your lips to his again. “You know how to spoil a woman.”

The next morning, you and Hongjoong were strolling along the beach when you heard screaming. You and Hongjoong turned to look at the person, eyes widening in surprise and relief.

"Captain!"

"Captain Y/N!"

You and Hongjoong rushed towards your crews, Hongjoong getting engulfed by his men and you in yours. They all had big smiles on their faces.

"Captain Y/N!" One of your crewmembers exclaimed, throwing his arms around you. "I'm so happy you're still alive! We've been worried sick!"

"Are you guys alright?" You asked, gently patting one of your men on the shoulder.

"Yeah, we're fine. Got some nasty cuts and bruises though." A man replied.

"But..."

"But?" You looked at them.

"The ship...she's wrecked." Another crewmember spoke up. "Everything's gone."

You opened your mouth to speak, but found that no words would come out. Hongjoong placed a gentle hand on your arm, squeezing it reassuringly.

"You and your crew always have a place with us. You're family now." He smiled. "We can find you a new ship to sail on, if you'd like."

"What if I wanted to stay with you forever?" You asked, unable to contain your grin. "Be your co-captain?"

"Of course, Y/N." He grinned back, turning to look at your crew. "You all are welcome to join my crew or leave. You won't be punished either way."

"We'll go wherever our captain goes!" The crew member who had spoken first declared proudly.

"Great." Hongjoong said happily as he pulled you close to him. He kissed your forehead. "Then let's set sail for a new adventure together."

[kerubimcrepin]

Wakfu OVA - Book 2, Ush [PART 2]

Ecaflips have better hearing than most people — or, at the very least, the Ecaflip demigods do.

It's very cute that Atcham feels the need to ask them...

The fact that 2 out of 3 Jurgen-Crepins drank tea with straws in this OVA has haunted me for years.

YESS VIOLENCE.

The way he commands them and goes "calm down"... one minute after almost spiralling after thinking that Yugo and Adamai will be mad at him.

Their family has so much equality in it.

Kbity... Also, it's cute that Joris trusts Atcham the most with checking if there is someone who broke in. Atch is kind of like a dog: loves blood and violence and tearing things apart. also very loyal.

While I have said previously that I think Kerubim is a morning person and Joris is not, they have had 600 years to change that around — and I think that Kerubim values rest while Joris values work, which goes a bit against those preferences they also have.

They contain multitudes.

Despite all his insecurities, he really does think of himself as a true hero...

He looks at him with so much love.

I am going to walk i nto into into the sea

Kerubim immediately looks a bit put off by "Atcham's" behaviour.

THANK YOU SIPHO FOR THIS MEAL!!!!

The fact that they never elaborate on what Luis does is so funny because he's literally a house WHAT is he doing. And it makes me imagine things.

I'm insane... they share guard.

I imagine it goes in a "one of them sleeps for a certain amount of time while two of them are up" way. Imagine the midnight conversations.

Imagine Joris and Kerubim up together doing something. (They would probably talk a lot. They always have something to talk about.) Imagine Joris and Atcham up together doing something. (It's quiet, but they rely on each other completely. They may quietly begin playing tic-tac-toe, or arguing how to beat up whoever may break in.) Imagine Kerubim and Atcham up together doing something. (An argument happens, but it's friendly. They just keep roasting each other, like true haters.)

I'm still wondering what the fuck a dragon slime is, after all these years.

(totally not stealing this joke from @dullard) Joris coughs this up when he has a cold and every time Kerubim says "This stuff is expensive. We should—-" and Joris replies, "If you finish this sentence I am killing you."

Thank you for the meal, Sipho...

He's worried about his brother. I love them...

Still wearing the same goddamn armor he already died once in. AND he didn't fix the hole.

He's literally insane.

Cute Joris expression.

Guys I think Harebourg and Joris don't like each other.

Makes it kinda funny that in Waven quests, Harebourg seems Bonta-aligned. I guess warcrimes can be useful for building allegiances??

Writhing on the floor and growling and trying so hard..... Just to tell Harebourg to fuck off.

Hater to the bone.

This might be THE funniest Joris expression so far.

"USH TOO?!"

Thank you Ush and Sipho for feeding me. feeding me so so well.

[hostilemuppet]

wait what did dream do to make you say he should kill himself? i wasn’t ever into dsmp but i’m nosy

two main things are:

inappropriate with fans. people bring up the "disproven grooming accusations" (iirc, there were FIVE girls who accused him, and he only acknowledged two in his "debunking" video, which he spent half on speedrunning and gumball waterson) all the time but thats not it. "parasocial" has become a bit of a buzzword that means nothing anymore, but its impossible to overstate how much he fosters that sort of relationship with his fans. everything from "selling his baby photos to his most dedicated fans" to "joining fan group chats to talk about feet pics". plus, whenever he gets called out for doing something bad he ends his tweets with "love you guys" bc he knows his fans will believe it

the way he treated his coworkers (not "friends". friends dont treat each other like that). it came out recently that he was genuinely borderline abusive to tommy, who was 16 when dream was 21, to the point tommys friend phil (at the time was 32) had to step in. tommy said he had to write in his diary to "not provoke dream, its not worth it, it makes me sad" and jack (like a year or two older than tommy) says that he "fucking hates dream". dream also frequently took credit for his coworkers accomplishments, especially tommy. you might have seen this tweet?

this was because dream was taking credit for tommys success and phil had to step in bc tommy messaged him saying that he was worried dream was genuinely mad at him. after this dream said it was "just a joke" but i think its bc he just realised he had nothing on philza

theres other stuff (he was blackmailing punz and since everyone also hates punz literally no one cares about how that almost definitely means he was blackmailing others) but these are the two main reasons hes an awful person who doesnt deserve the platform he constantly misuses. its hard to explain what exactly hes been up to the past 4 years but trust me in that my hatred of him was hard earned. i used to think "he may be a bit annoying but he doesnt deserve being demonised by the internet to this level", i even liked watching the manhunts at one point! i was on his side! he proved he did not deserve the benefit of the doubt. everything from his treatment of other creators (not even just his friends! his infamous buildmart rant where he decided to insult grian despite him having nothing to do with his tantrum just bc hes good at buildmart and dream was too much of a pussy ass baby to place some goddamn blocks in the game all about placing fucking blocks NOT EVERY GAME IS GONNA BE PVP YOU BITCH) to the way hed interact with anyone saying even the slightest bad thing about him (he qrtd a teenager with like 100 followers saying they didnt like his plushies to his account followed by TWO MILLION PEOPLE) and allowing his fans to attack them (something OTHER CREATORS have told him to stop doing! like BITZEL, who was then also attacked (racially! bitzel is a brown man and dreams fans were being extremely racist to him for daring to call dream irresponsible!) after dream went on a whole rant about how "if i went to a coffee shop and the barista spit in my drink, im gonna say something to the manager and its not my fault if they get fired" (not at all the equivalent you freak)

anyway. i hate him a lot

[2knightt]

Hey love sorry to bother but I had an idea for a fic and I’m like DYING for someone to write it

So basically reader is Johnny’s gf and he takes her to meet the gang but they don’t really like her cause she’s a soc so they kick her out and tell Johnny that he should be w her ikr smth but THEN they find reader crying at the park when another soc comes hitting on her but she’s all like NO I HAVE A BF and then the gang realises she actually loves Johnny

SORRY I GOT SO CARRIED AWAY

it’s kinda specific so no worries if you don’t wanna do it ❤️

↳hit the road, jack!₊˚✧

➬ johnny cade x soc!reader

a/n; i swear im done with the shit posting lol back on the grind frlz. i didnt proofread this…lolz.

“i’m so nervous johnny, i-i can’t do it! what if they don’t like me?”

you said— half shouting, half asking.

johnny chuckled, obviously nervous.

he, himself, didn’t even know if they’d like you.

you were a soc, and the gang holds so many grudges against soc’s, johnny can’t even count em on his own two hands.

“they’ll love you, i swear.”

he said, grabbing your hands while giving you a reassuring smile.

you took a deep breath in and then a deep breath out as johnny knocked on the curtis door.

a big, tall, scary looking guy answered the door.

he looked you up and down, and you could just tell he didn’t like you.

but nonetheless, he welcomed you in.

he shook your hand, where he told you his name was darry.

lovely name, you thought as you walked in.

6 intimating dudes sat in the living room, staring at you as you walked in.

the tension was so thick you could cut it with the knife.

you thought you’d try to lift the mood by giving an awkward smile and a wave.

but that only seemed to thicken the tension.

“who’s this?”

“my uh—my girlfriend.”

johnny answered the dark haired boy, he appeared to be dallas winston—the grease everyone knew about.

“mh.”

he said back, turning his head to face the other direction.

johnny awkwardly chuckled and leaned into your ear.

he started pointing at each and every boy sitting there, telling you their names.

the smaller one was ponyboy—odd name, but who are you to judge?

sodapop—another weird name…are they all like this? you wondered.

two-bit, apparently it’s just a nickname.

steve and dallas.

you didn’t need to hear their names to know they don’t want you here.

steve got up and asked for johnny in the kitchen.

when your boyfriend left, you swear you could’ve heard a grain of sand drop.

darry, the nicest one out of them all to you so far, tried to ask you questions about yourself.

“so, what’s your name?”

“y/n. it’s uh—lovely to meet you!”

“likewise.”

and from then on, it was silent again.

you heard steve and johnny talking in the kitchen, it was hard to be quiet in a dead silent house.

“a soc, johnny? a goddamn soc?”

“yeah? so what?”

“have you forgotten what they did to you? or ANY of us?”

the gang smiled at the sentence—almost like they were proud of their friend for putting you down.

“no, of course i haven’t! but she wasn’t apart of that—she’s my girlfriend. not those soc’s that kicked the tar out of us!”

“well she might as well be. she looks the part—what if it’s a prank, johnny? ever thought of that?”

you heard steve ask johnny.

you wanted to cry, cry, cry.

your relationship was a joke to them and they hated you.

your tears started to get watery the more you thought about it.

“i uh, i gotta go. ‘m sorry—gotta go finish something. tell johnny i said bye.”

you announced, rushing out of the house.

the second you stepped out, the tears started to stream down your cheeks.

you started to run to the empty lot, you knew nobody goes there. it’d be safe, right?

well, that’s what you thought.

a bunch of greasers were already there and you didn’t want to humiliate yourself more, so you walked faster past the lot.

you sat in at a park bench near your house.

you always went there when you had nowhere else to go.

you couldn’t go home crying, your father would kill johnny. even if it wasn’t his fault.

“y/n? are you okay?”

you heard a voice ask.

you looked up and saw your friend who you haven’t spoken to in a long time.

“micheal? oh shi—i’m sorry.”

“no-no, it’s fine. what’s wrong?”

he asked, sitting beside you and placing a hand on your lower back for comfort.

“my boyfriend’s friends don’t like me, micheal! he said they’re like his family—so it ain’t never gonna work out!”

“well—i’m always here. i always thought you were a cute gal, ya know?”

your eyes went wide.

huh?

“what?”

you heard several footsteps but you pushed that detail aside to put your full attention on the situation at hand.

“i mean, if you were to end things..i AM right here. always liked you, ya know?”

“i still have a boyfriend, micheal. just because we hit a rough patch doesn’t mean we broke up.”

you spoke, your eyebrows furrowed.

what the hell was he on?

“are you INSANE, micheal?! ugh! and here i thought i could get some comfort from a FRIEND!”

you shouted, standing up and walking away.

you heard micheal kiss his teeth as you walked away.

you heard a pair of feet rush after you and you just prayed it wasn’t micheal.

“never thought i’d see you shout at someone like that, y/n!”

you heard johnny say from your left side as he caught up to you.

“johnny?! what’re you doin’? ain’t you supposed to be with your friends?”

“that’s actually why i’m HERE.”

he answered, exaggerating the last part while looking behind the two of you.

that only caused you to look behind yourself, to see your boyfriend’s friends—looking guilty.

everyone stopped walking. the gang exchanged awkward looks as everyone stood there.

“well?”

you heard your boyfriend ask the gang, with a little bit of sass in his voice.

the gang felt terrible.

they thought you were just playing a cruel prank on johnny—they just wanted to protect him.

when johnny heard that you left, he exploded on everyone.

he shouted about how if they treated you nicer, you wouldn’t have left. how if they would push their grudges away, you wouldn’t have thought johnny was a bitch.

they didn’t want to apologize, but they wanted johnny to be happy.

they still thought it was a prank until they seen you push an attractive soc away.

“we’re uh, we’re sorry y/n.”

“yeah, but you gotta understand—”

steve said, trying to defend himself until johnny interrupted him.

“she ain’t gon’ understand NOTHIN’! just tell her you’re sorry and that you’ll give ‘er a chance!”

they all sighed—with even more guilty looks.

they each apologized, one by one.

darry, the one who’s still the nicest to you, asked if you’d like to restart.

and you happily agreed!

when you got to the curtis house, you found out that you shared more in common with the greasers than you thought.

the more you and the gang got to talk, the more they liked you.

the more they began to like you, the wider johnny’s smile got.

may 29th, 2023. 7:39PM

[caffeinatedattorney]

Final thoughts! I'm going to talk about the aspects of the game bc I'm not thinking abt this anymore in a few days and I might as well since it's fresh in my mind. Also I didn't play it, I watched someone play it so I won't speak abt gameplay at all.

Harvey and Bruce are very much not okay. This batman is so angry and he's so desperate to save people. He's caught up in vengeance (defending Leslie and harvey) but clearly isn't sure what his modus operandi is just yet. That and he isn't seasoned so ppls deaths affect him and make him blame himself and hesitate. (when the inmate in black gate is pronounced dead.)

I was not expecting it to go hard on the trauma and abuse and how children act after said trauma, much less show it which was surprising! It is triggering but, depending how much you can handle, that makes it all the more engaging and heartbreaking.

I find it interesting how Bruce is the one prone to violence. He hits Harvey after Harvey says something from their fav show that triggers Bruce. I doubt ppl ever write Bruce being autistic but both Bruce and harvey come off to me as on the spectrum. With their fixation on justice, the fact they seem to be old enough to stop playing pretend but still do (though that could be just arrested development from trauma) and it seems to be their happy place as harvey is his loudest around Bruce and in the, what is it, rehabilitation center? Also they don't seem to have (m)any friends.

I remember this plot point from my own worst enemy and I like how it works here. I'm glad Leslie has a big role and connects everything together. (her telling Bruce off for making voices at her LMAO)

Harvey is more affected than Bruce is bc his trauma continues well into adulthood. He never left his fathers house, never stood up to him. I don't need him to articulate why but it feels so real and fitting and sad and I love it? It makes me feel things that he had a support system with Bruce and Leslie even if it seemingly wasn't enough.

I have a theory that the Rat King moniker is Harvey's self loathing coming to life and becoming his bigger-than-life mask. Bruce has the bat and harvey the rat. One soars through the skies and intimidates, the other burrows underground for safety and cohabitates to survive (and forms a cult)

Harvey's dissociation and the DID name drop ough. ("am I psychotic?!" ) I just felt bad. Dudes mental barriers are so high up he loses track of time (and probably feels like he's getting sucked underground). It hits hard that Bruce is one of the things that ground him despite the fear and disorientation. Wish we had seen Gilda tho. Unless they're meant to be separated?

And fuck, Harvey's voice. He's so meek and unsure the whole game. His little jokes ("this one was right outside my office. *pause* I'm fine by the way" ) . He gains strength when angry and when full of disdain (talking to matches) which is to be expected but goddamn that performance killed me. Leslie has to remind him to calm down ("be good" "be good" he repeats in an almost childish voice ) Too real. too good. He thinks of himself as weak until he's backed agaisnt the corner (when he was about to get shot he screams "Do it you coward!" )

Edit: I have this Hc of harvey putting a big front the way Bruce juggles batman and Bruce Wayne and the fact it's been validated makes me wanna go harder on it and harvey being autistic and the pressures and stress he must face. End edit.

Also interesting how they have Bruce and harvey call each other brother. Didn't want for it to come out too gay? I will say, it feels forced but I haven't sene anyone else mentioned bc its that inconsequential I guess.

I loved babs trying to help Bruce despite his attempts to push her away. ("I'm taking this crowbar" and he actually says "don't care!" ) also apparently when she leaves she turns a few times fuming and you can see it in detective mode lmao

Overall, better than I expected? I wasn't expecting harvey to be important at all. Hate the bait and switch and the fact it's a vr game bc I'll never get to try this lol. I'm glad they could expand on why Harvey and Bruce are how they are in the arkham universe.

[dtmsrpfcringe]

You really are a dumb fuck, aren't you? You repeated exactly what I said, then told me I was wrong for saying what you parroted back to me. Living in your brain must be fucking insufferable.

Your own words were that they did not know each other ten years ago. Incorrect.

They have both said that they have known each other socially (i.e., friends) since 2001. They did not become close until they were in Good Omens. Yes, that is what I said. That's what you agreed to after I corrected your initial false statement. My god, little wonder you think this blog is a good idea when these are your thought processes.

Nothing else you said makes the slightest bit of sense. I can't even decipher the point of that word salad, and I am a teacher. Why would Michael use the names of the characters when he is talking about the show that the characters are in? What? You are reaching so hard that it is comical.

You are a class act making jokes about a congenital defect that kills newborn infants. Is that the kind of thing the mother of a newborn infant who claims to be a nurse would do? We have established that you are lying about both of those things. You are just an awful person. When it comes down to the real point of this blog, you don't care about the greater good of the fandom. You only want attention. You are shouting about a tiny corner of Tumblr that draws no attention to itself. You bring attention to it. You make it loud. Even when it disappears, you keep bringing it back. What's the real point here? You want attention for yourself. You want to be the hero in a war that doesn't exist.

Maybe you don't ship the hairband. Maybe you just have bad taste in music? I don't care. Either way, you have no place calling out anyone when you support those losers. They are the epitome of the scum of society. Actual misogynists. One of them even murdered someone while driving drunk. That is just the tip of the iceberg. But someone no one knows said something mean about Georgia Tennant on Tumblr? Someone suggests that two men who keep talking about having sex and being in love might be in love. Better clutch your pearls over that! Pathetic.

bae that isn’t what you said. You said they’ve been friends for almost 25 years. Do you write things and just fucking forget them? Or can you just not stop lying?

I can’t imagine being a teacher and just constantly being so goddamn wrong, I bet your students can’t stand you.

also saying you don’t have a brain isn’t making fun of a congenital defect babe. I’m neither lying about being a mom or healthcare professional. Most people I talk to pretty regularly here have seen my baby, and it would be pretty hard work to have an entire baby to…fake being a mom??? I’m not going to put my baby’s face on here to prove to someone like you that she’s real, and frankly I think it’s a little strange you wanna see that bad babe. Like? Your obsession with an internet stranger’s newborn (i guess infant now omfg) is kinda creepy.

As for my health certification, you don’t know shit actually. I busted my ass in high school to be licensed because of the people who helped me as a kid. Also I’m not a nurse😉 you are right about that. There’s more to healthcare than your RN and MDs lol. You seem like you’d yell at underpaid healthcare workers in the worst way possible.

you obviously did understand, but didn’t want to lick your wounds and slink into the corner.

btw this group absolutely does draw attention to yourself. I found these people by looking for cute Georgia and Anna stuff and finding hate and misogyny spread about them. As for Motley Crue, I hardly listen to them anymore, if literally ever. I haven’t posted anything about them in over a year and that is why I removed 2000 of my followers on instagram and made it private to have a personal acc. I just never bothered changing the username lol. So try again I guess.

Anyways here’s my daily reminder to you that David and Michael would be disgusted with you. Hope you have the day you deserve!

Keep sending these I think we’re falling in love boo🚨🔵🚨🔵

[azazelsazaleas]

I finished watching through DS9 a few weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to do a rundown of my thoughts on it. Here goes:

- Oh my god that was fantastic. I really wish it’s given it a fair shake back when it was on the air; I was a dumb teenager who resented it for not being TNG and was going through a weird self-loathing phase where I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was the massive nerd that I am. This seriously lived up to the hype. I may have to do a TNG rewatch because this might just have upstaged it as my favorite 90s Trek.

- Andrew Robinson should’ve been made a full cast member. Ditto Max Grodenchik and Aaron Eisenberg.

- Damar’s transmission at the end of The Changing Face of Evil lives rent-free in my head. I cheered out loud at that.

- One thing the show did fantastically that a lot of other SF/fantasy properties don’t quite get right is that it lands a pitch-perfect balance of “these characters are major, important figures in the larger multinational conflict” and “this conflict is absolutely massive and not everything revolves around the same small group of people.” The fact that Sisko, Worf, Kira, Odo, et al are so important is entirely plausible and it never feels like the writers are trying to gratuitously bring everything back to them.

- That said, I kind of love that Admiral Ross’s leadership approach during the Dominion War eventually consists of doing whatever the hell Sisko tells him to do.

- God, the acting was incredible. Andrew Robinson, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Marc Alaimo, and Louise Fletcher were real standouts, but everyone was just so damned good.

- Actually, I really need to give special mention to Shimerman. The man went above and beyond to make Quark be something more than a joke character, despite how obvious it was that basically the entire production team wanted him to just be cartoonish comic relief. He worked harder to flesh out his character and show his race as a race of *people* (not just caricatures) than just about any actor playing an alien on Star Trek before him except for maybe Nimoy. Give the man a goddamn Emmy. Don’t believe me? Go rewatch the iconic root beer scene from The Way of the Warrior.

That said: I do have a few criticisms:

- Pretty much all of the (canon) romantic subplots were just…yikes. The only major exception I can think of Sisko/Yates, where they actually seemed to have a healthy dynamic, fall legitimately in love with each other, and generally treat each other like adults in a serious relationship, not bickering teenagers.

- Seriously, Worf/Jadzia got so hard to watch and then the fallout with Ezri was just ugggghhhhhhhhh stop please for the love of god

- Why did the writers need to try to romantically pair off all the female characters? Just, why?

- Kira had more sexual tension with that Romulan lady in half an episode than she did with any of her bucket-of-paint boyfriends over the course of seven years.

- I totally get the behind-the-seasons reasons why things panned out the way they did, but (hot take) I think Dax’s whole arc would’ve worked better if they had killed Jadzia off after the first season or two and brought in Ezri earlier. Jadzia was fun, but she was just too perfect to get many interesting stories and her relationship with Worf felt too much like manufactured drama. Having a trill who didn’t want to be joined, agreed to in a life or death emergency situation, and now has to reckon not only with taking on this symbiotic relationship with no preparation whatsoever but also succeeding this beloved person in the eyes of her loved ones is such a better setup for a character and it’s a pity we didn’t get to see that play out properly.

- Sisko deserved a better conclusion to his story. Give the man his damned house on Bajor and let him raise his kid with Kasidy. He’s more than earned it.

- Next time I rewatch the series, I’m skipping the mirror universe episodes and the ones with the genetically enhanced walking-90s-neurodivergent-stereotypes.

Other random thoughts:

- Dukat’s storyline should’ve ended with him getting killed at the end of Waltz. Either by Sisko, or by deluding himself so thoroughly that he does something suicidal. The pah-wraiths subplot felt like a lazy afterthought (except for the episode where he pretends to be Bajoran and starts fucking Kai Winn) and as much as I liked watching Marc Alaimo act, his story arc was basically over at the end of Sacrifice of Angels….which, incidentally is when Damar actually starts to get interesting.

- I loved the O’Brien must suffer episodes but I thought Hard Time was kind of overrated. Mostly for the plot line with the cellmate; I think I’m a little burned out on seeing stories that have a moral of “deep inside us is a line between humanity and savagery and when pushed to the limit, even the best of us would turn to murder.” It’s been done to death, and it’s really not truthful, at least for many people.

- I think I may have a little bit of a crush on Major Kira. It would never work out if I met someone like that in real life, though. I’m a laid-back, atheist, creative type; she’s a deeply devout former insurgent. Given certain real-life crushes I’ve had recently; maybe I’m just into strong women with big, expressive eyes who wear their hearts on their sleeve and have a spine made of fuckin’ steel. I have no idea what this says about me.

- MORN

- Favorite Episodes: In the Pale Moonlight, The Visitor, Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast, In Purgatory’s Shadow/By Inferno’s Light, In the Cards, Duet, The Wire, Civil Defense, The Magnificent Ferengi, basically the entire Dominion War arc.

[goshdangronpa]

For the i send ya a character and You do something

Hiyoko Saionji from the hitgame dangansopa.

also Ibuki h hehehe

Let's do one at a time ^^" Starting with your fave, Hiyoko!

Yeesh, I've gotta start putting readmores on these

Sexuality Headcanon: Not sure if there's a label for this (.......demi?), but Hiyoko seems like the type who latches onto a single person at a time, if at all. She won't consciously look for a girl or guy, may not even say someone's attractive if randomly asked, but when someone's got it, she's hooked.

Gender Headcanon: I believe that some people are only passively cisgender, meaning they've never actually ruminated on their identity and considered that they might be something else, and that trans people would be less rare (if still in a very small minority) if more people did. My hc is that Hiyoko's passively cis in SDR2, and that if she grows up, gets more exposure to the idea, and opens her mind enough to question herself, she might enjoy life as a more androgynous person ... Whoa, I just projected myself onto Hiyoko.

A ship I have with said character: I know you love hiyobuki, zombyne, and I'll never take that away from you. That said, I'm basic, so I'll go with mahiyoko for this post. What does Hiyoko like about Mahiru? She's a cute redhead who takes no crap when people fail to meet her high standards, a sweet girl who'll willingly shower with a near-total stranger in a killing game, a true friend who even helps her with her own clothes. What does Mahiru like about Hiyoko (arguably the real question)? I enjoy the notion that Mahiru's more amused by Hiyoko's antics than she lets on. Don't forget, she also has a low opinion of Mikan - not as much as Hiyoko, but not enough to defend her from what are obviously unserious insults. When you're always the serious one, it's nice to let your hair down around someone. I also like the idea that Mahiru loses her goddamn lesbian mind when Hiyoko comes back from summer break taller than her.

A BROTP I have with said character: And this is where I'll talk about Ibuki! Forget the Twilight Syndrome stuff (the writers of SDR2 sure did!). Just look at their interactions! When Hiyoko basically tries Ibuki's whole life in the first trial, Ibuki shouts in amusement something like "You've pierced me with your arrow of truth!" She either knows this girl isn't serious, or she doesn't care if she is. Then the only person in the whole goddamn group who likes Ibuki's music is the most annoying bully in the bunch. That's a terrific joke that works perfectly for Hiyoko as a character. Of course the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, who likely grew up sheltered in one of those homes where modern pop is forbidden and Harry Potter is considered Satanist, would have her mind blown by Ibuki's metal freakouts. Hiyobuki as a ship is great, but even just being besties is awesome for them ... though I think they could also enable each other in just being so mean to people lol

A NOTP I have with said character: I don't have many NOTPs in general ... but I can safely rule out Teruteru after that scene in DR3. Yiiikes.

A random headcanon: Hiyoko was perfectly capable of tying her obi on her own. C'mon, she's not that childish. Occam's Razor would dictate that things went exactly as stated in the game's dialogue ... but what if Hiyoko just neglected showering altogether because she's depressed? You know, cuz she's in a goddamn killing game with a dozen-odd total strangers? Then the one person she likes and kinda trusts offers to join her in the shower and suddenly this obi thing goes from an excuse to an opportunity. When Mahiru dies, though, Hiyoko's shattered, and that comes out in her newfound inability to properly dress herself. This manifestation of her grief gets so bad that it ultimately kills her. What a tragedy: opening up to another person leaves her totally helpless against the person she dismissed as the weakest in the group. There's a fanfic in this ...

General Opinion over said character: No one needs to like Hiyoko for whatever reason. That said, the most common reason I've observed in the haters is that they wouldn't want to be friends with her in real life. In my opinion, that's an extremely boring way of looking at fictional characters - it's not like they'll ever like us back, right? Might as well enjoy Hiyoko for playing a highly important role in the SDR2 ecosystem: the mixer! It's boring if everyone's all nice and stuff. Besides, Hiyoko's no simple bully, nor is she a lost cause. Like any Danganronpa character, the girl has her own hidden depths that make her more compelling than the haters might expect. I'd elaborate ... but anyone interested should reach out to zombyne, or the many other cool people I've met who enjoy Hiyoko as a character.

[ryutarotakedown]

Haori for the ask!

[ask game link] MY GIRL MY GIRL MY GIRL MY GIRL MY GIRL THANK YOU FOR ASKING ME ABOUT HER!!!!!!!!

How I feel about this character: um. see above. she is my favorite dgs girl ever and i love her so much and she deserves the entire world and also to rest once in a while. she is incredibly brave to the point of recklessness and she is incredibly responsible to the point of self loathing and she feels emotions so much all the time and i think she might actually be the least deliberately-repressed character in dgs which doesn’t say that much but still! every day i think about her in awe

— seriously, sixteen years old and you’ve helped make an entirely new poison and diagnosed its symptoms on sight and acted accordingly and also went into a beach hut to yell at a confirmed murderer. didn’t even do it because she hated her, did it because she wanted her goddamn poison back. who is doing it like haori murasame

All the people I ship romantically with this character: susato!!!!! and gina but i haven’t thought about ginahao as much as i should tbh. i think haori would take a shine to her immediately but actually fall for her the moment she sees gina scream at someone for susato’s or haori’s sake

My non-romantic OTP for this character: all? of them? yuujin and wilson are both super fascinating dynamics to explore with haori! but the one that actually takes up my entire frontal cortex is her and jezaille.

— they are both women in the same field but jezaille is lauded because she’s british whereas haori surely is not — i mean, that’s not actually said in canon but auchi disparagingly refers to her as a “tomboy” and susato mentions how incredible it is that she has a job in an all male university, i refuse to believe she didn’t have a fucking Time of it. and that in itself inspires jealousy, right, and then haori finds out she killed her mentor and she still has to work with her for Months??? i’d go insane! it’s a miracle haori didn’t actually murder her! like. here is my only chance to bond with someone who understands the exact position i am in, and then it turns out she hates me for almost the same petty reasons as the men in the laboratory. and also killed a guy. haori is so fucking alone it drives me up a wall

— also i wrote a ficlet in dante’s ronin au once where jezaille calls her susato’s attack dog

— also also, we do not have any information on whether she knew asougi or not but i like to think she did. just like as that guy who’s always around susato with the sword and the cringefail aura. maybe they had conversations while waiting for susato to come out of her tutoring sessions! maybe they knew each other!! do you think susato told her that he was dead after getting back to japan, or do you think she only found out after mamemomi accused mikotoba of covering it up at the end of 2-1?

My unpopular opinion about this character: tragically i dont think theres enough haori content for me to actually have unpopular opinions on her. but she performs so incredibly well under stress. i think shes one of the rare people for whom stress actually helps to narrow down her focus.

— also one thing i always laser in on when writing her is her unfailing emotional honesty which is deeply funny considering 2-1 happens because she decided to find out about the poison on her own rather than telling anyone; the self loathing slash impostor syndrome slash fear of failure and rejection overrules that bit of her i guess :pensive: she is fully in panic mode for so much of 2-1

— oh yeah Yeah The Self Loathing thats also something ive never seen in any haori fics yet! she has a whole bit about wanting susato to throw her to the ground in the recess halfway through the trial and it’s kind of a joke but also Not yknow. “i completely betrayed your trust” like. god. theres a perfectionist streak there i think or at least signs of a not super great self esteem!

— hey haori would you say that the two things you hate the most (about yourself) are poisoning and betrayal. haha. okay thats not actual character analysis but i couldnt resist the reference

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i wish she came back in any form at all i wish susato mentioned her after 2-1 at all although i will say that 1) her being part of the defense in the end credits is like catnip to me and 2) it is my firm belief that susato deliberately avoids talking about her because she’s too afraid of her own feelings to even consider opening up to ryuu about her

— when will the haori murasame fancase of that trial at the end appear, by the way. i want them to get hosonaga a decently light sentence for theft and then he is immediately accused of murder right afterwards

— she also should have gotten to learn about wilson being awful. and also should have been the one to give susato jezaille’s case notes in 1-1 (i saw that hc in a susato roleswap au fic and i have completely integrated it into my belief system. as far as i am concerned she was that person. but a confirmation in 2-1 woulda been nice)

My OTP: [poking head out behind ao3 page and enough susahao fanart to drown a man] take a guess

My OT3: add gina in there baby!!! i dont have as solid ideas on the rest of the girlcule yet but gina is Necessary.

— i actually think haori would dislike both maria and nikolina upon first meeting, maria because of The Racism (she’d scream at her about believing in skull sizes) and nikolina because she does come off as pretty privileged and smug and aloof when you first meet her

— [insert five page rant about how we never see nikolina outside of her being afraid for her life and therefore have almost no idea what she was like in the troupe or among the crew but also she was probably afraid for her life while in the troupe as well so in a way we do have a pretty good idea of her behavior and also i think she uses aloofness as a shield]

— but Point Is they both remind her of jezaille too much for her to like them at first. but later! who knows?

[lovestuckyhatemarvel]

Fair warning: I’m watching this in bits and pieces because TWO HOURS AND TWENTY TWO MINUTES AND 24 SECONDS FOR A SEASON FINALE IS BONKERS STUPID.

Putting a read more because this episode is long and therefore this post is super long.

1.) Yuri just removed something from the helicopter, which is extremely rude and potentially stupid.

2.) I’ve decided I hate Yuri.

3.) the audio balancing of this show is garbage.

4.) Hey, did we need this Joyce and Hopper changing simultaneously scene???? Like at all??? It’s not very good filmmaking and this season finale is OVER TWO HOURS LONG.

5.) Also I know they think it’s funny to have Joyce be in a Hulk Hogan shirt during the scene, but I think it just is off.

6.) This flirting session would be better if this finale WAS NOT OVER TWO HOURS LONG. And the reason it’s happening is because Netflix is avoiding syndication.

7.) Robin knelt to boost Nancy lmao.

8.) I still stand by the ‘Make him pay’ moment mirroring Han and Luke’s interaction. Anyway, I want Steve and Eddie to smooch.

9.) Yeah I’m skipping the intro. Chop chop. We’ve got 2 hours left.

10.) Would have been fun for Kali and her group to show up for the finale.

11.) Mind Fight.

12.) Argyle was cryptic.

13.) Did we actually need a scene of Max, Lucas, and Erica searching for Vecna? We know what they’re doing and what their plan is. We don’t actually need to have our hands held this fucking much. Fourteen year olds don’t either. I promise high schoolers can follow context clues sometimes.

14.) Oh come the fuck on. A guy just HAPPENS to be walking his dog past the abandoned goddamn Creel house so that their location is compromised????????

15.) Oh, Hopper knows El is fighting a monster in Hawkins with Joyce’s kids.

16.) Oh my god, the particles are just in Russia just for this bullshit so they can fight it.

17.) are all surfer boy employees stoners????

18.) Metal concert ahoy. I’m taking a break.

19.) okay session number two. Eddie’s putting sweetheart on. Also I’m realizing that people who have someone bring Sweetheart back from the upside down are wicked overthinking things. He’s playing the upside down version.

20.) Steve crawled. backward as a baby and I can’t focus on that because Im’ realizing the LIGHTING AND THE AUDIO BALANCING ON THIS SHOW ARE GARBAGE.

21.) Steve suffered head trauma as a baby that could have killed him. Isn’t that funny?

22.) I love Nancy and Steve being friends but acting like Nancy and Steve did each other favors at the end of their relationship is stupid.

23.) Ugh, the confession. I DON’T WANT THEM TOGETHER. STEVE DOESN’T WANT THEM TOGETHER. HE SAID HE WASN’T INLOVE WITH HER LAST SEASON UNER TRUTH SERUM. I have a conspiracy theory that the Duffers saw people shipping Steve/Eddie and went, “Fuck, gotta try to force Stancy.” But also I don’t remember nor do I care to check when part 1 and part 2 of this simultaneously short and abysmally long season aired.

24.) why did Erica need to signal the group outside? Was it just to give a rando a chance to spot Erica?

25.) IDK how Hopper, Joyce, and Murray didn’t anticipate that maybe the demogorgon they helped get out might have killed a fuckload of people.

26.) “I was told the Peanut Butter Smuggler was once a great man.” HEY DUFFERS, DID FUCKING NONE OF YOU REALIZE THIS LINE IS GODDAMN STUPID? Like and I know it’s not supposed to be a joke! The framing is serious! The performance is serious! The music is damn near inspirational! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. And all this happened because you guys just had to advertise fucking JIF of all goddamn things. JIF Peanut Butter, something I don’t even think would be popular in the 80s in Russia in the fucking first place!!!!!!!!

27.) The very blue lighting of this scene fro Max and Lucas is bad.

28.) Can we talk about the Duffers’ love of having a straight couple promise each other a future Friday date only for the season finale to fuck with it? I Haven’t seen this episode, but I know it happens. That’s two seasons in a goddamn row, you dipshits.

29.) Vecna has been hiding out in the attic all goddamn season long. Why is he suddenly downstairs for the finale? Oh right, it’s to make the plan easier to screw with.

30.) My roommate asked me why I wasn’t watching this on 1.5 speed during my last viewing and I’m wondering the same.

31.) Mike in the sunglasses is being pretty cute.

32.) Of course Mike gets interrupted. Because Duffers haven’t met a cliche they didn’t wanna fuck.

33.) LMAO WHAT? Wait, that lego up the nose story was just to be like ‘YOU USED TO COME TO ME FOR HELP?’ How is Jonathan suddenly so shit at talking to Will???

34.) oh my god stop mentioning the lego up the nose. I cannot stand that this ‘you can come out to me’ speech has legos up the nose.

35.) Time to go into Max’s brain.

36.) Oh now they’re going into the attic.

37.) Of course Max’s plan isn’t working. The Duffers hate it when a plan comes together.

38.) I hate this blue lighting. It’s digital and it sucks.

39.) I still think a much more interesting storyline would be these kids forgiving themselves for human emotions, even ugly ones. Especially because this puritanical ‘thought crimes are real and bad’ schtick is stupid.

40.) lmao what is the point of going back to Will, Mike, and Jonathan just to show them react to what El is saying????

41.) These pizzeria shots could have been cut.

42.) Initiating Phase 3.

43.) Eddie’s fantastic performance.

44.) The song choice is great but I also still fucking hate that Jason got told how to find Erica, Max, and Lucas at all. Like, this is just fucking annoying.

45.) All these images are happening way too rapidly to be anything other than chaotic noise. Like, nothing has room to breathe.

46.) You two idiots, stop screaming about most metal ever. You’re hiding from things that are attracted by sound.

47.) oh no. Everything escaped. Whoever would have guessed that everything escaped in the Russian prison?

48.) Of course the guy died before he could answer who the shadow went into.

49.) Steve’s very good at hopping around shitty CGI vines.

50.) It’s super jarring going from a memory where there’s ALL THE LIGHTING to scenes where it’s all digitally dark and blue BACK TO BRIGHT MEMORIES.

51.) Balloons popping into blood? Someone’s seen IT.

52.) WE DID NOT NEED THIS MUCH BUILD UP TO EL AND MAX GETTING TO THE SAME DREAM. THIS EPISODE IS ALREADY TOO FUCKING LONG. TRIM SHIT. Have it be easier for El to get to Max in her mind BECAUSE THEY’RE ACTUALLY FRIENDS, YOU DUMB PIECES OF SHIT.

53.) I hate Jason Carver so fucking much. Like I hated BIlly and wasn’t sad when he died, but I didn’t actively want him to die, tbh. Just didn’t wanna save him. Jason, I wanna push through a wood chipper.

54.) Hopper is bait.

55.) “This time, it’s gonna be different.” God, I wish, but no, this show is still shit. Actually, wait, no, this show did get somehow SHOCKINGLY worse.

56.) Back to back. Eddie and Dustin. Bros bros bros.

57.) oh suddenly Eddie knows to be quiet.

58.) Vent. All the vents in this show are so huge. And also the bats got smaller because they needed to fit in. The bats from previous scenes didn’t look like they’d fit.

59.) EARTHQUAKE. Because we have time for this shit. JUST GET THIS TRIO TO VECNA. OH MY GOD. Oh wait, Robin’s against a a wall. Steve’s against a wall. RObin’s on the floor and now on a wall. Nothing is going right.

60.) Joyce seems actively stressed out by Hopper heading down a flickering corridor. I’m actively stressed out by how badly paced this all is.

61.) here here doggy doggy doggy. Brennan Lee Mulligan voice: I’m gonna kill that dog.

62.) Blocked one vent. Took the bats exactly 2 seconds to find another vent????? Somewhere?????? Impossible to see in this shitty digital lighting.

63.) Did not know that Eddie starts to climb before he realizes the door is about to burst. Ah, I can see him having a big damn hero realization before he cuts it. RACING AWAY ON A BIKE. Goodbye new lovable character that was doomed by the narrative because Duffers hate new people.

64.) hey why has El not actually gotten to Max yet? It’s been so fucking long.

65.) Vecna is boring.

66.) Oh, Max is pinned to the wall like Vecna was.

67.) God, Jason Carver is so fucking pathetic.

68.) “Normal’s just.a raging psychopath.” No, that’s not true either, Lucas. The duffers just are still really mad no one wanted to date them in high school. And no one wanted to date them in high school because they’re stupid sexist creeps with no real grasp on narrative structure.

69.) “But in the end” - Vecna. Me “IT DOESN’T EVEN MATTER, HUH?” I mean, that’s not the words he said, but he might as well have.

70.) oh hi El, nice of you to finally fucking join.

71.) goddamn it just let El be powerful enough to beat Vecna. Have this goddamn show end in season 4.

72.) more biking. Dustin’s about to fall from a ceiling. Yeah, that was a bone crunch sound effect.

73.) Eddie stopped running and I don’t know why. He could have just kept drawing them away.

74.) Hopper’s running from a demodog.

75.) Erica’s running to the house as Jason Carver tries to kill Lucas. HE HIT LUCAS WITH A GODDAMN VASE.

76.) I think I ship Mike/Will and El/Max/Lucas.

77.) Vecna is so raspy. Drink some tea, bud.

78.) IF YOU TOUCH HER AGAIN, I WILL KILL YOU AGAIN. Okay that loses its bite at the end.

79.) And immediately El is losing. LMAO DID WE NEED TO CUT TO MIKE GOING, ‘SHE’S FIGHTING HIM’??? LIKE YEAH, BITCH, WE KNOW. WE CAN FUCKING SEE IT.

80.) Should have rally given Eddie and Dustin some fire.

81.) why is Vecna so overpowered??? EL HAS KILLED A LOT OF PEOPLE TOO. THIS WHOLE POWER JUSTIFICATION THING IS SO STU PID.

82.) can Max get knocked out inside her own head?????

83.) El got sent into Vecna’s mind and dragged up. I literally hate this scene so much and have no respect for it.

84.) Max is being carried into Vecna’s mind. Glad we’re all here. Also yeah, somehow Max’s mind is knocked out?????????????

85.) It’d be fucking hilarious if ‘Papa is dead’ had stopped Vecna.

86.) And by hilarious, I mean it would make more sense than all this shit. “He is the monster, Henry, not you.” Babe that ship sailed after he murdered a ton of children.

87.) I STILL HAVE AN HOUR LEFT. Vecna is blaming EL for doing this??????????????????????? FUCK HENRY. THAT’S SO GODDAMN STUPID.

88.) there’s literally no reason for Henry to have survived getting struck by lightning a bunch in the upside down.

89.) ‘unspooled by mankind’. Both you and Thanos can take your bullshit and jump off a cliff. Neither of you understand shit about fuck.

90.) LMAO WHAT? HENRY MADE THE MIND FLAYER LOOK LIKE THAT BECAUSE HE’S INTO SPIDERS? GO FUCK Y OURSELVES. GO FUCK YOURSELVES. GO FUCK YOURSELVES.

91.) If Vecna is so powerful, it’s stupid that he would need El’s powers and kill 4 teens to get out.

92.) Montage of everyone getting their shit handed to them over Vecna’s annoying speech.

93.) Jason is fucking strangling Lucas. What the fuck?

94.) how is there still 52 minutes left and why did the vine that wrapped around El’s neck look particularly stupid? God, I’m taking a break.

95.) Okay it went back to showing me the vine going around El’s neck again so I need to note how bad it looks. Again.

96.) “Don’t be afraid.” THAT’S NEVER WORKED.

97.) Why HAND SO BIG? Like HOW DID BEING IN THE UPSIDE DOWN MAKE HIS HAND SO BIG? Oh also his head is smooth like an egg.

98.) I’m fine with being shown the pizza crew pulling El out of the bath. That makes sense to show.

99.) ????? Hey Will??? Since fucking when is Mike the goddamn heart?????

100.) Listen, as sweet as this Mike speech is, I kind of wish El had believed in herself without her boyfriend giving her a pep talk about believing in her.

101.) Lucas starts getting the upper hand in this fucking blue lit room just as El gets free.

102. Goofy fucking limb breaks.

103.) Henry flying back is hilarious.

104.) Joyce using the fucking stun thing was neat.

105.) Seriously, how did the Russians have so many goddamn creatures???????

106.) Things are turning around. Sort of. Thanks for burning the fucking monsters.

107.) why the fuck is there a sword in this Russian prison?????????????????????? LIKE WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT EVEN COME FROM?

108.) Can y’all stop making a meal out of killing Vecna and just fucking do it already?

109.) LMAO (epic synth arrangement of Running Up That Hill) Thanks subtitles for telling me that. For the record, it’s not as good as the original or most covers.

110.) Vecna burning again.

111.) So, Max is awake in Lucas’ arms and the teen trio is attacking Vecna. This should feel epic to watch them fight Vecna while Hopper sword fights a demogorgon but it’s….so boring. So stupid. And honestly super fucking unearned. I’m also, even with breaks, fucking exhausted of this show. Fucking end already.

112.) Hopper and Joyce are hugging as a helicopter arrives from Yuri, who I guess had a change of heart offscreen. The place all the interesting things happen.

113.) Eddie is dying because he was too good for this story. Actually, why the fuck is he dying???? This doesn’t actually make any fucking sense. Like I’m so baffled that I can’t actually be sad. Anyway, I feel less bad for not mentioning basically any of this shit in my fanfic.

114.) The duffers can bring him back. Especially since straight up, his dying makes no goddamn sense. He was injured, yeah. He was having a very bad time. BUT NOTHING HE WENT THROUGH LOOKED FUCKING FATAL BITCH GOT KILLED BY THE PLOT, NOT ANYTHING IN IT.

115.) Lucas tells Erica to get an ambulance.

116.) Hey why the fuck is Max doing so badly???? None of this makes any goddamn sense.

117.) This blue light is impeding my ability to care and that says a lot since I cry over butter commercials.

118.) The clock chiming to let the teens know Max died was interesting at least.

119.) JASON CARVER FULLY GOT CUT IN HALF. WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE HIM BE ALIVE????

120.) I am glad Jason Carver got cut in half.

121.) Can we talk about how there’s definitely been 4 gates open at one time before and it didn’t do shit? Why do these 4 suddenly matter?

122.) Damn, everyone’s commutes are gonna suck in the morning. Town got an x through it.

123.) Everyone waiting for El to wait up so she can be like, “Max beefed it because she read the script.”

124.) El touches Max and ??????????? Max reads the script again and okay finally I’m getting emotional and it’s over flashbacks to seasons that sucked less, Yeah, I ship El/Max/Lucas. Fight me.

125.) lmao fucking what? TWO DAYS LATER. God this show is so badly made.

126.) Droves of people leaving Hawkins as a pizza van arrives.

127.) 7.4 earthquake. Hold on, gotta google something. 7.4 is major but not the highest level. I don’t know why I think it’s so fucking funny that it doesn’t beat the highest on record. The highest is 9.5 in 1960 Chile, btw.

128.) ‘A natural disaster of near-unprecedented scale’. It’s literally not in the top 10 of actual history you dumb fucks. ALSO THERE ARE ONLY 22 DEAD. NO OFFENSE BUT THIS IS NOT UNPRECEDENTED. IT’S PRECEDENTED. THERE’S A SCALE. 22 IS SAD, BUT IT’S NOT, PARDON THE PUN, GROUNDBREAKING.

129.) Also the satanic cult shit is still so stupid. Satanic panic was fake. Even Criminal Minds knows that.

130.) WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO DESERVE SO MUCH SUFFERING? HOLY SHIT, WHAT REPORTER TALKS LIKE THAT?

131.) Reunion.

132.) ???? Why would El need to ask why Lucas is at the hospital?????? She literally knows what happened to Max????? WHO EDITED THIS EPISODE?????

133.) Max is in a hospital bed.

134.) “Her heart stopped for over a minute.” She probably could be fine.

135.) Why is El not admitting she did this?

136.) How is there 20 minutes left???? Why do we need to see Steve, Robin, and Dustin taking donations to the high school???? Do we need to watch them do volunteer work?

137.) Vickie is cute but because they’ve like, not at all interacted, I don’t actually care if her and Robin get together. Also they are kind of two samesies.

138.) Steve is such a proud best friend though.

139.) Dustin talking to Wayne and having to tell that sad old man that Eddie was killed by the Duffers for no good reason.

140.) Duffers, people did love him. This speech is just annoying because it was unnecessary.

141.) Jesus Christ, this episode is STILL GOING?????????????????

142.) The cabin needs more than the cleaning supplies that Nancy has. Also, Steve Harrington’s parents still like, don’t exist, so why doesn’t El just hide out with him?

143.) Hey, Jonathan, don’t be a dick to Steve.

144.) Will really does have spidey senses.

145.) HOOOOOOW ISSSSSS VECNA ALIVEEEEEEEEE?

146.) Black car approaches while El has emotions over a coke bottle that she played games with Max with. Stop using Coca Cola as emotional beats.

147.) Hopper and El reunion. What the fuck is Hopper wearing???????

148.) Matching father daughter hairdos.

149.) Joyce and El are so cute.

150.) Mike and Hopper were kind of cute.

151.) The amount I’ve seen the back of Will’s neck is weird.

152.) Sky darkening. Shit drifting from teh sky. Uh oh. Upside down is here.

153.) We get everyone’s reaction shots to it. THIS EPISODE IS TOO FUCKING LONG.

154.) I’m gonna buy the Duffers an intro to storytelling book or something. This is garbage.

155.) THe ash kills plants, I guess.

156.) If the Duffers have it so that this is actually a big loop and the upside down is actually Hawkins in the future, I’m gonna hunt them for sport.

Do I actually need to spell out I hated this season? It’s bad. The writing is bad, the characterization is weird, the plot is convoluted, the pacing is worse, the lighting is fucking atrocious, the CGI is hideous, and I DO NOT CARE ABOUT VECNA. VECNA IS SO BOOOOOOOOOOORING. Like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK OFF WITH THIS EVIL CHILD OBSESSED WITH SPIDERS SHIT. MAYBE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INTERESTING TO ME WHEN I WAS 8 BUT THERE’S NOTHING EVIL ABOUT SPIDERS. They’re important part of the ecosystem, but they also are a lesson, if you actually pay attention, IN EVERYTHING HAVING ITS PLACE. HENRY CREEL IS A SHIT EDGELORD WHO DOESN’T UNDERSTAND SPIDERS OR FUCKING ANYTHING ELSE.

That was a goddamn waste of time. Definitely not watching season 5.

[suguelya]

Bruh!! (10 hour-long rambling incoming)

I'll try to answer in order because there's a lot to go over but overall I agree with so much of what you said!!

Yuri's direction in eng truly is such a shame and I agree that, if this is the only version you've been exposed to and you either somehow did not see the m/m or chose to ignore it, then yeah I guess I can sorta understand why you'd think they're "just bros or rivals and nothing more". In english Yuri does sound like he could and would kill Flynn if needed, and despite the actual text making a point to underline how much they mean to each other, the vocal performance is half the heart of it.

I still find that Sam Riegel does a good job of imitating Mamo's softness and nuance, so to me his voice acting does not damage the perceived relationship as much. Troy though...the example I always point to is early game when Flynn tells Yuri to be careful in Capua Nor and Yuri replies "Stop treating me like a kid". If you go back and compare, the jp and eng versions tell vastly different stories with the same lines! In japanese Yuri sounds lightly amused and even playful which indicates fondness, habit and the knowledge that It's Not That Serious, yet in english he is just short of yelling?? It gives this line a very different undertone and makes it sound like Yuri is genuinely angry there. And this sort of misplaced anger/annoyance keeps happening throughout the whole game, it's infuriating.

It's the exact same as the example you pointed to later in-game when they're fighting in Nordopolica, because yes!!! Yuri IS hurt and choking on barely held-back tears because of Flynn's sudden shift in behavior!!! That's the whole point of the scene!! There's anger, yes, but also betrayal and the latter just does not transpire in english. If anything, he sounds like he IS ready to just kill Flynn right then and there, when in reality he's struggling with the realization that he might have to, after all. English Yuri already made up his mind, whereas Japanese Yuri is still fighting like a madman against the idea.

I truly could go on about the vocal performances forever lmao, I just find Tori and Mamo so goddamn good at their job. Their chemistry is unmistakable and it helps a ton that they're friends irl, too. The mobile games' voice lines really are a blessing, though I would just like to point out that Asteria's Claw arc did not involve Flynn at all, to my biggest dismay. That was entirely thanks to Rays collabing with them and giving us justice in their own app, but in the original Asteria arc it's actually Raven who follows Yuri and snaps him out of it. In a way it makes sense since it's a great opportunity for Raven to repay Yuri for what he did for him in Baction, but I still cannot stop thinking about how much more appropriate Flynn would've been. Alas, Asteria never liked Flynn much (sidelined him real quick after the first arc and then gave him a few non Yuri-related cameos in Estelle's arc later on). Rays, on the other hand...oh they're a fluri and ristelle treasure trove to be certain haha. I won't linger on it here since that would drive me into a tangent so long I would smash the character limit but basically Rays is everything we deserved and I love it so dearly for that.

As for the localization, it truly is the bane of my existence. I'm no expert in Japanese, not by a long shot, but I did graduate with a bachelor's degree in it so I pride myself in at least understanding a good enough chunck of it to be able to give an opinion. And like...as you said, some of it barely makes any sense. I know 2008 seems like ancient times by now but it's still "only" 16 years ago and yet none of it was even updated for the DE, not even a single look-over! Sometime since 2008 the trends shifted and suddenly it was the West that started focusing on LGBTQ rep more, but at that time I still think Japan did it better simply because when it did represent us, it most often chose subtlety over jokes. And as a queer person I'd still prefer being discreet and respected rather than front & center and the butt of the joke.

Vesperia really does feel like a queer game not just because of fluri and ristelle but because it is full with queerness at every corner. Cumore and Yeager are villainous stereotypes but they are outside of the heteronormative norm. Duke defies gender norms and his backstory with Elucifur may raise more than one eyebrow. There's a male NPC in one of the Capua harbors who pines for another guy (I think a "Gary"? Would have to check again). There's these two male NPCs you can see travelling the world together and meet in various town inns. There's Nobis whose sidequest needs you to deliver a "friendship book" to his "friend", after which the reward is a rainbow bookmark. There's this knight in Heliord who's desperately heads over heels in love with Flynn, like not even subtly his text keeps getting more explicit and hornier the more you talk to him throughout the game (he also recognizes Yuri as Flynn's "partner", so....like.....).

Fluri and ristelle are already plentiful, hell ristelle's baby sidequest and their prince & princess roleplay at the Nam Cobanda Isle theater still blow people's minds today, but the little background characters are what solidify this game as fully and unapologetically queer. There's so much non-heteronormativity in Vesperia that whenever the localization shoehorns it in, it clashes harshly with everything else. It just does not belong there, not in this form, not with this intent.

Now I agree with you that act 2 largely contributes to a romantic interpretation of Yuri and Estelle since, to so many, one cannot hug or save someone of the perceived opposite gender without being in love lmao. And to be fair, this arc's writer used a lot of romantic tropes in the Baction and Sword Stairs episodes...truly a wonder why he proceeded to co-write the most aggressively het Tales game to date (Arise) hmmm. I've never held Okuda in high regards, particularly since he wrote a mini afterstory with weird OOC stuff, but at the same time he also did write the Fluri childhood novels which completely destroyed me, so...yeah. Idk if you've played Arise yet but on top of it being an ass game it also truly feels like Okuda rewrote Yuri & Estelle but made it het and canon this time, as if he was rebooting them. It's all the same beats and tropes but made worse and undoubtedly het for the sake of being het. First game I ever nearly threw my controller at by the end.

I'm not saying the "thing" Estelle feels for Yuri is necessarily bad. It could even join the queer readings as a baby bi discovering herself - that's my own interpretation at least. Because as much of an undisputable lesbian rep Rita is, to me Estelle feels very much like a bisexual baby realizing there's more to romance than Guys. While I despise her character (won't get into that now but imo she's very poorly written past arc 1), I still like the idea of her having grown up with just 2 ideals of romance: the knight in shining armor and the mysterious rogue. The ultimate comphet.

So of course she'd fall for them once those idealized archetypes came into her life, because that's what she's been taught to feel in her many books. But as soon as she leaves the castle walls, she comes across several other types of people and sexualities, and comes to realize that huh, she may feel Some Type Of Way about women, too. Not just Rita, but Judith as well (gotta appreciate her obsession with Judy's breasts bc big same). By the end she's been slowly discovering more about herself and has yet a lot to learn, which is why Yuri is there to guide her. Notice that he's always somewhere in the background going "..." and giving them the knowing side eye whenever ristelle do Gay Stuff, even coins their ship name. His gaydar senses she's on the way to realizing what she truly wants, and so he understands that her "crush" on him is merely her latching onto the first guy in her life who not only respected her choices, but also saved her in many perilous situaions. It's literally the Bodyguard/Big Brother Crush (openly supported by the "Child of the full moon & Brave Vesperia" legend) and it happens a lot to young people who are inexperienced with romance but are dying to live it.

All that to say there's a reason why arc 2 in particular feels so weirdly pointed in one direction when the rest of the game is headed in another. It's not all bad, Karol's arc in the Blades is very dear to me and still made everybody in the audience (me included) cry at the anniversary party when they reenacted it, even 10 years later. But Vesperia's story being split in 3 and written by 3 different writers does show especially glaringly there, because its vibes have nothing to do with arc 1 or even arc 3.

On a very personal level, I've always considered Vesperia the queerest game in the Tales franchise, closely followed by Graces since I do agree that Richard and Asbel are definitely stupidly in love with each other (they gave each other a ring goddamnit). My friends and I joke that the execs realized how gay Vesperia was and decided to course-correct halfway through Graces' writing. Mission failed lol.

As a character I really do enjoy Cheria a lot, she's probably the best healer I've ever gotten to play with (Hubert suuuucks). Despite hitting a few of Estelle's beats like being kidnapped, she managed the situation so much better that she immediately became a better heroine in my eyes, only damaged by the heterosexuality she's been thrust in. Poor girl deserves better, and so did Pascal romance-wise (Hubert SUUUUUCKS). And then there's Zestiria, which, while very obviously gay, was a huge disappointment because I was sold a super queer game with super great queer rep, and was given a mess of a story with a mess of characters and really bland vanilla baby gays instead. They're legit dgmw, but nowhere near as powerful as, say, Rosali - they have the spice. Alisha is also one of my all-time favorite Tales heroine along with my beloved Natalia but that is another discussion entirely. Generally though it kills me whenever people hail Zesty as The Mostest Gayest Tales Game Eva when Vesperia is literally right there with all its queer spectrum ready to be seen, enjoyed and aknowledged!

Sigh. Vesperia is nowhere near perfect but it is so dear to my heart because it followed my own journey to queer self-discovery, and made me feel represented when I didn't even know I needed to be. And I will defend the japanese text, voice actors, creators and original intent with all my might because of that.

I am 100 percent with you on preferring the JP line in that cutscene if only because it does feel more powerful (and his voice is SO soft, which is something that frequently gets completely lost in the dub in general. Mamoru carries a much softer tone overall for Flynn, similar to how Yuri's playfulness and carefree vibe got lost in favor of the dub's aim for a more "cool adult guy").

That said, I was not even aware they left the whistle out!!! I haven't bothered with that sidequest because the outfit is readily available for free as DLC.

While I enjoy having Flynn present in the last battle, I wish they'd just had him look back up at the sky and say that right next to Yuri right before the very end of the cutscene (since imo that'd be the best placement for it). No reason not to stick that back in!!!

But removing the whistle is just an outright crime and I am owed a fee from the people who decided that for the devastation I've been inflicted with.

Big same 🤝

I used to be such a fan of the eng dub but tbh ever since I experienced the original japanese (back when we still called it the PS3 Version lol) I never looked back. The wording is so, so, SO much more layered and leaves little room to misinterpret subtleties and subtext. Like you, I've had many gripes about the localization because sometimes they just plain insert stuff that was never there in the first place - iirc Troy Baker admited that apparently they rushed the dub so hard, sometimes the voice actors themselves were asked to chip in for the translation...he said he loved that (I'll bet), but that might explain why so much of the OG english script was already full of weird phrasings and insertions...add to that the even more sloppy and lazy DE localization and you get only half of the richness of the original japanese.

Also yes Mamo and Tori *are* Flynn and Yuri more than anybody ever could be. Sam and Troy do a good enough job but I agree that Troy may have been directed to play Yuri closer to a traditional "cool bad boy", which is hilarious given how the original Yuri is a twist on that very trope. Unfortunately, Troy gave him this uncharacteristically cold/aggressive edge whenever he talks to Flynn that it makes it sound like he's always annoyed to see him, and it strips their relationship of so much of the softness and playfulness that Tori lends Yuri.

Anyway enough about me ranting because I could go on for about 10 more hours about this issue lmao. Honestly yeah they very well could've rearranged Flynn's cutscene to fit in there at the end, like hell if you can change the entire camera angles of whole scenes you can change that one background, no?? Knowing Tomizawa though that might have been more effort than he was willing to grant this remaster - won't be his last time.

Same for the wolf whistling!! They replaced it with a skit that is just as funny...

....but void of the insane flirting the original had. Idek why they went so far as to change it, it would've been less work to just leave it as it was 😭

[mercy-burning]

Affection

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader Summary: Spencer and Y/N decidedly hate each other. But when a near-death experience puts one of them in a coma, their mutual hatred might have to take a backseat— Or will it? Category: Angst / Happy Ending! + Humor and a lil bit of Fluff Content: Strong language, Reader is in a coma, mentions of injury, kissing Word Count: 2.6k

MASTERLIST

NOTE: This one’s for Pom’s ( @imagining-in-the-margins ) September Writing Challenge, Enemies To Lovers! I have another one coming up as well, but this idea wouldn’t get out of my head ever since I watched The Abyss with my dad and I had to get it out 😅 I hope you like it!!

———

I swear to fucking God, if this motherfucker really thinks he—

That was the last thing Y/N thought before she was knocked out cold.

With her line of work, it was natural to assume that she was thinking about the unsub, but unfortunately the criminal she and her team were tracking down was the farthest thing on her mind. Spencer would have chastised her for it— letting something else cloud her thoughts while she was in a dark alley, alone, and with a serial killer on the loose.

"You should be smarter than that!" she could hear him say in that high pitch he always carried when he was upset— especially with her. "If you don't get yourself killed one of these days, then it'll be the rest of us!"

Thinking about it made her blood boil.

"It's your fault," she wanted to tell him. "I had to blow off some steam because you were pissing me off!"

The only thing was... She couldn't tell him.

Well... She could.

He just couldn't hear her, because no one could.

It was like some stupid, cliché movie, where you found yourself standing over your dying body and having to choose whether to live or not. It seemed like the obvious choice, to fucking live, but... Y/N found herself wandering around her hospital room, yelling into the void and attempting to jump back into her own body.

Nothing was working.

And when Spencer showed up, his face red and his hair and clothes all messed up, she wanted to scream at him.

"Hey!"

Nothing. He was practically lifeless as he drifted to the chair next to her bed and sat down. It was nearly impossible to read from his expression and body language how he was feeling, and that alone was enough to make her angry again. (Not that the anger had really gone away since waking up next to her comatose body, of course.)

"Hey! Dumbass!"

Still nothing.

As Spencer just blankly stared down at Y/N's bed, she decided she'd had enough.

"SPENCER FUCKING REID, IF YOU DON'T HELP ME RIGHT NOW I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL HAUNT YOUR ASS UNTIL THE END OF ETERNITY, AND I'M GONNA LAY FAT, STINKIN' GHOST SHITS IN YOUR SHOES, DO YOU HEAR ME? AND—"

"I hate you."

It was a bold enough statement to stop Y/N in her tracks, no matter how quietly he'd mumbled it. She knew for sure that he didn't like her, after years of constant bickering and dirty glares and whatever else, but... The word 'hate' was like a knife that sliced through her joking rage and stopped the whole world around her.

If she wasn't already out of her own body, she just knew she would have felt her soul leave.

Spencer didn't hate anyone. Not that she was aware of, anyway. He found nearly everyone delightful, and vice versa... But for some reason, he hated Y/N.

She scoffed, crossing her arms. "Yeah, well... Feeling's mutual, I guess..."

"You're stupid, and reckless, and you don't think. And you're a goddamn nightmare to work with... You know what— You're a stone-cold bitch."

His words made her physically step backwards, and it felt like if she were a cartoon, there might have been steam coming out of her ears.

"Yeah, well jokes on you, you make it easy," she seethed. "Fuck you!"

"How... How dare you..." he continued, anger reddening his face.

Y/N watched as he balled his fists and leaned in a little closer to her body, his voice tight and strained. "How dare you walk into my life and boss me around and make it impossible to breathe... From the moment I met you, you've brought out this... this fire in me that I can't put out no matter how hard I try, and it's insufferable—You're insufferable, and I hate you, how dare—"

Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a shortness of breath. Spencer breathed in, loud and choked, and the next breath he let out was nothing short of a sob. His eyes squeezed shut, tears rolling down them and his hands clutched the bedsheets with a vigor and rage that Y/N had never seen from him, even in all the years she'd spent visibly getting on his last nerves.

"N—No," she choked out, feeling her throat tighten. "Don't... Don't turn into a sappy mess on me now, do you hear me, Reid? You hate me, don't... Don't..."

"I don't hate you," he whispered, wiping his eyes and reaching out to grab her lifeless hand. "I hate that you make me feel this way, but... I could never hate you..."

She wanted nothing more than to be able to squeeze his hand back, to tell him, not even necessarily with words but with a simple gesture, that she was right there and wasn't going to go anywhere.

She just... had to figure out how to make that true.

Still, Spencer kept going, a small laugh bubbling up through tears and phlegm. "But I will hate you if you die, because I just know you're gonna come back and haunt me for eternity... Probably... shit in my shoes or something."

Y/N barked a laugh that was true and pure... Happy, even.

The genius may have acted like he hated her, but it turns out he knew her pretty well, perhaps even fondly in one way or another.

To think— All those years she spent seeing him sneer at her, feeling his glare burn into her soul, the amount of times she caught him making faces or inappropriate gestures behind her back, all of it... And the whole time, he was probably doing it with a little flicker of fondness deep within the confines of his heart, which he swore to fill with nothing but hatred for her.

The thought made the little flicker in her own heart burn brighter.

As she wandered closer to her bed, beside Spencer and in front of her own body, she reached her hand out to see if she could touch his face, to give him something...

Even though she had no luck, something shifted when he spoke.

"Just... Come back to me, please? I know I'm not good at apologizing, but if it means I get you back... I swear that I will make up every horrible thing I've ever done or said to you. Just... Please don't leave me."

He laid his head down in his hands and tried not to cry again, every said horrible thing replaying on a loop in his brain like some kind of taunt. He wished more than anything for a chance to make it up to Y/N, and now he might not ever be able to.

"You think I'd leave this mortal earth without getting the chance to kick your ass?"

Everything was so fuzzy and light and brimming with these high emotions that Y/N almost didn't realize she was saying these words and Spencer was hearing them. She almost didn't feel the warmth of her bloodstream beneath layers of skin, the beat of her heart slowly coming back to life at the sounds and smells of the hospital room.

She almost didn't realize that Spencer was grabbing her now, his warm hands covering her cold ones and bringing them back to life as well.

"Screw you," he breathed with absolutely no malice to be detected in his voice.

They shared a smile so bright, no one would have been able to guess that they never got along.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Not only was she stuck at home doing nothing while on suspension (Yes, it turns out that storming off into an alley and not paying attention while on the job, just because a co-worker pissed you off, can get you suspended by Chief Strauss), but Y/N was also being visited by a daily rotation of her co-workers and friends and family, and her house was nearly covered in flower bouquets and baked goods.

It was a nightmare.

The sentiment was nice, sure, but if she had to move one more vase, she was going to start throwing them.

God, maybe Spencer was right, I am a stone-cold bitch...

Thinking of him also put a little damper on her mood.

He hadn't been to visit her once... And she figured that after their nice little moment at the hospital, he'd at least stop by with flowers or an "I'm glad you're not dead!" call, but there was nothing on his end. Not even a text message or a letter.

But for all she knew, their small moment of kindness could have been a figment of her concussed imagination.

Please, she thought, if I brought it up to him he'd probably just laugh in my face.

Rather than a laugh, Y/N heard the bright sound of her doorbell, which normally would have meant a fun unexpected visit or a date she was getting ready for, but by now it only meant another vase of flowers or a pie from a neighbor she still didn't remember the last name to.

Either way, she answered the door with as polite a smile as she could muster, and instead of finding a vaguely familiar neighbor or acquaintance, she found Spencer.

Though, to be fair, he was holding a bouquet of flowers.

"Well, this is a surprise," Y/N drawled, crossing her arms. "I don't even think you've ever been to my house."

She was surprised to see him nervous around her, rather than irritated. And she would have found it endearing had they not been practically mortal enemies from the moment they met... She was suspicious.

"O—Oh, yeah... I know, I just thought... I wanted to come see how you were doing... These are for you."

He held out the flowers, which were truthfully the pretties set she'd received, and it irked her. Because of course he of all people would be the one to tell which kinds of flowers she'd prefer.

"Thanks," she said, taking them from him and allowing him the space to come inside. "Watch out, it's a maze in here..."

While she looked for somewhere to put the flowers on display, she could feel Spencer looking around her space, probably profiling what he could behind a sea of flowers.

"Hm."

Y/N sighed. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just... I'm surprised this many people actually like you."

Despite the nature of his observation, she found it comforting. That level of playful contempt was what she was used to, and it brought a sparkle to her eye as she turned to face him. "Ha... I'm not a complete bitch, you know."

"Sure."

Between the growing grin on his face and the smirk forming on her own, Spencer and Y/N found themselves falling back into a familiar rhythm. And yet, something about it was still... different.

So much so that Y/N felt honest-to-God butterflies in her stomach when he approached, hands retreating from his pockets and head tilting off to the side. His expression held that look he got when he was trying to figure someone out, usually an unsub. She hated to admit it to herself, but a little part of her always found that side of him extremely attractive.

And now that it was right in front of her?

She didn't know what to make of it.

"What?" she snapped, looking for an excuse to hide any and all attraction she was feeling.

Spencer stepped back a little, breaking away from whatever trance he'd just been in. "God, why do you always have to do that?"

"Do what?"

"You push away every single show of affection! Any time I'm trying to be nice, you just act like it's some big inconvenience to you!"

Y/N laughed. "Ha! That's what that was? Just now? When you insulted me, and then started stalking towards me with that look you get when you're interrogating an unsub? That's what you call affection?"

"That's not... That's not what that was!"

"Oh really? Then what was it?"

"It was part of the routine! Banter! Y—You know, that's our thing! We insult each other, and we act like we hate each other but we... We don't, really..."

The longer he went on, the faster her heart raced. This was the moment in the movie where he inevitably blurted out that he loved her, and in turn she would either kiss him or slap him, or slap him and then kiss him...

But Y/N was still feeling rather playful despite the swarm of butterflies in her stomach begging for some relief.

"Oh?" she prompted, taking a slow step closer to him. "We don't?"

Spencer seemed to get red immediately, and he avoided her eyes. "U—Uh... Well I... I thought... Maybe I read it all wrong, a—and I'm sorry if I did..."

She'd been getting closer meanwhile, and now they were practically toe-to-toe. He did his best to ignore her, taking a few steps back until she cornered him against the front door. And with the way he wasn't doing anything to get out of his predicament, she took that as his acceptance and took another leap.

"What..." she cooed, crawling her fingers up the front of his chest like a spider. "You like me? Hmm?"

When he finally looked down at her, she allowed herself to smile, albeit slowly and with calculation.

In a flash Spencer went from nervous to fed-up, weight seeming to visibly lift from his chest as he sank against the door. "You're messing with me..."

"It's so fun."

"You know what, screw you."

"Is that a promise?"

"Maybe it is. What are you gonna do ab—"

She didn't let him finish.

In an instant, Y/N lunged forward and pulled him down for a kiss.

Even though she thought he might have tried to take control of the situation, he ended up surprising her with a wanton moan as his hands clutched at her sides, holding on for dear life. Their bodies and tongues collided in a mess of years worth of pent-up tension, chaotic and wild and fiercely beautiful in a way that put even the greatest first kisses to shame.

And of course, Spencer had to go and ruin it.

He pushed her away and looked almost panicked. "W—Wait, are you even cleared to do this?"

Y/N rolled her eyes, reaching out for him again. "I'm fine."

"Y/N, you were in the hospital! I thought... I thought you were..."

She appreciated the sentiment, but with her entire body on fire from his touch, she decided she needed more of it. "Yeah, but I'm not... I'm very much alive, and you know what?"

He blinked back at her, watching carefully as she leaned in close to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"It's because of you. You make me feel... more alive than I've ever been."

"And... You're not messing with me this time?"

With a laugh,  Y/N shook her head and leaned up to brush her nose with his. "Nuh-uh... But if you'd like to, I'd love to mess with you in a more fun way. And maybe I'll even let you do it back..."

Spencer hummed, feeling himself gravitate towards her more with every passing second. "Deal."

He barely got the word out all the way before she was dragging him through the maze of flora and contained food and into her bedroom, where piece by piece, their hatred and fondness for one another combined to create the most exquisite of nights.

———

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[aimless-imagines-for-fun]

Heat Up

Pairing :: Rick Flag x short/petite fem!Reader

Warnings :: 18+ Content, NSFW/SMUT, Size Kink

Word Count :: 2,439

Summary :: Rick isn’t too happy Digger tries to tease you

A/N :: I was gonna make a fic about someone else, but then I saw The Suicide Squad trailor and goddamn Joel Kinnaman. I love that tall beautiful bastard. Also, I’m not super happy about the title, but it was all I could come up with, meh

As Amanda Waller’s assistant, you had to deal with a lot daily. It wasn’t just about making sure she got her black coffee right when she walked into the building and managing her scheduled meetings. You had to ensure everything, and one, was in order for her. If someone told you they were running late, you forced them to be on time. You carefully inspected each report and corrected them before turning them into Waller. You got her any top-secret document she needed and kept it hidden. Hell, you even helped her with Task Force X, going through the list of criminals and writing down a thorough analysis of each potential member’s abilities.

Despite working for a woman who was heartless and calculating, you were as timid as a mouse. You rarely spoke to others unless you needed to. After working for Waller for several years, you found it best not to make any personal relationships with the people you met. She warned you most didn’t last very long and very few could be trusted.

One person who had stuck around though and  Waller seemed to even trust Colonel Rick Flag. You two started working for her around the same time, and yet, you could barely hold a conversation with the man. 

When you first met him, you constantly felt overwhelmed whenever you were left alone with him. It didn’t help that he appeared rather intimidating, with a serious expression almost always on his face, and towered over you. He was 6’2’’, and even in your favorite pumps, which added a good three inches to your height, you were still, smaller than him in frame.

However, regardless of your inability to speak around him, he continuously tried to start conversations with you and be friendly towards you. His constant attempts helped you grow used to him, but your face always heated up and you grew ridged when he got too close when you were alone. You didn’t understand the feeling, nor did you didn’t hate the feeling. It confused you.

-

Rick was absolutely perplexed by your meek behavior, especially since he’d witness before how assertive you could get when it came to getting something done for your shared boss. 

So it was no wonder he worried about you whenever Waller brought you along to see the Task Force X members. They were psychotic criminals, and you were like a slab of meat to some of them. You almost always wore a skirt or dress with a pair of pumps or oxford flats. Rick would be lying if he said you didn’t look perfect every hour of the day. 

He used to wonder if you were actually as innocent as you acted outside of work. Then, he saw you run as fast as you possibly could when Harley tried to give you what she called ‘wholesome safe dating advice’.

Since then, Rick did his best to make sure you were at least arm’s length away from any psycho. He even went as far as stepping right in front of you when someone got too close. Somehow, standing either beside you or a bit in front of you had become a habit of his when he noticed you were uncomfortable. 

Like now.

-

Waller sent you and Rick to a hidden ARGUS base hidden in the woods. Rick was obviously there to lead the team. You were there to give them their mission and an extensive overview.

There was a row of chairs for each Task Force X member to sit in. You stood in front of them with a large screen behind you, displaying various diagrams and photos for the mission. Rick stood off to the side, just behind all the seated members.

You looked away from your presentation, the projector turning off and the lights on. “So, are there any questions?”

Harley’s hand shot up. “Did you want me to continue giving you dating advice now or would you prefer I write it all down and give it to you later?”

Your eyes squinted and your lips curved downward just a bit. “What- no. That has nothing to do with the missions and I don’t need your advice…” Your voice trailed off, at a loss on how to deal with Harley.

Rick took a step forward. “Harley, stop it,” He warned her.

The blonde rolled her eyes. “Fine, but only because I think someone has a major crush on you (Y/N) and I wanna see if he makes a move.”

You were silent for a moment, processing what she had said before your eyes widened upon realization. Surprised, you couldn’t stop yourself from confirming what you had heard. “What did you say?”

“Nothing!” She sang, springing up from her seat.

“Hold on, now I’m interested too,” Floyd chimed in. “Now just who do you think it is that has a crush on lil ol’ (Y/N). I mean, no offense,” He glanced at you before turning his head back to Harley, “but she’s too skittery.”

Digger hopped up from his seat, shaking his head. “Nah mate, that adds on to her appeal.”

He started walking towards you and instinctively you started to back away until your back was against the wall. As he was getting closer, Digger’s hand started to extend, reaching out for you.

“See, it makes it fun to try and catch her.”

You shut your eyes, ready to scream the second he dared touching you. Instead of feeling what you thought would be cold dirty fingers, you heard Digger begin to plead.

“Woah! I was only joking around! Let me go!”

Eyes now wide, you saw Rick hoisting the Aussie up in the air by the collar of his shirt. If looks could kill, Digger’s head would be gone. 

“What are the rules?” He asked in a cold tone.

“No escaping and no disobeying,” Digger said quickly.

“Oh! Also no annoying or vexing you!” Harley added.

Rick still held Digger up. “And?”

Confused, Digger looked at Floyd for help who nodded his head towards you. “And-and no touching or teasing (Y/N)?”

Rick released Digger, throwing him towards the door. “Everyone out. We leave at zero one hundred hours.”

All of the criminals walked out of the room. Rick followed to make sure the door was closed once they were out, and locked the door.

You stepped away from the wall, straightening out your black pencil skirt. “Thank you for earlier Colonel Flag.”

“Rick. We’re alone,” He corrected you.

Around others at work, you addressed each other professionally: Colonel Flag and Ms. (L/N). Alone, Rick had started trying to get you used to calling him his name to be more comfortable around him.

“Right, thank you, Rick.”

You were about to clean up and reorganize your notes when you noticed Rick still seemed upset. He had the same annoyed expression he had when the criminals were around and his arms were crossed over his chest.

You cocked your head to the side. “Is something wrong?”

“What were you going to do?” He started walking forward.

“Pardon?”

“What were you going to do if he touched you?”

Your brows furrowed. Why was he asking this?  “Most likely yell at him and push him away.”

“And then?”

“And then what?” Now, you were starting to get annoyed.

Rick stopped a foot away from you, eyes piercing down at you. “What if he didn’t stop?”

“He wouldn’t dare continue.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you’ll keep me safe.”

Quickly, you realized what you said and turned your head to avoid his gaze. With a blush creeping onto your cheeks, your heart started to beat faster when he took one step closer to you.

Rick gently grabbed your chin with his thumb and index, turning your head to face him. You looked up at him with your large (E/C) eyes and that odd tingling feeling started up.

“What if I’m not there to keep you safe?”

“You always are.”

Like a flip was switched, Rick suddenly knew why he constantly wanted to make sure you were always alright. You worked for a harsh realist like Waller, but still naively believed good always prevailed. He wanted to make sure you never lost the blissful joy most did when they faced the harsh reality of the world.

His head lowered towards yours until his lips were pressed softly against yours. It was a simple kiss at first. Rick was unsure of how far he could go until you gently returned the kiss. Your hands went up to his chest and he lowered to your waist to pull you closer.

Wrapped in his arms, the odd tingling feeling turned into a warm little flame. You wanted to stay held like this forever. 

When he pulled away, you lightly gripped his shirt and tugged. “Rick, I want more.”

“Are you sure, because it might be sweet now, but if we keep going-”

Without letting him finish, you pressed another kiss against his lips. Again, you two sweetly kissed for a few minutes. Then, you felt one of his hands lower down to the round of your ass. A small gasp escaped you upon being lifted, your legs wrapped around him for support. Your skirt bunched up revealing your thighs as a result.

Rick pulled away from your lips, begging to trail down kisses to your neck.

You knew what you two were doing, more importantly, where, was inappropriate. Though with your mind clouded, you didn’t care. You only wanted to make sure you two wouldn’t be disrupted.

“The-the door,” Your murmured,

“Already taken care of,” He said, lips pressed against your neck.

Rick started walking slowly, carrying you over to the row of chairs. Before he took a seat, he put you back down on your feet.

Suddenly, the world spun and you were now seated on his lap, back pressed firmly against his chest. His arms hugged you close to him while he continued to kiss your neck.

Due to your skirt bunched up, you could feel his denim jeans below you. With heat growing in you, without thinking, you started to move your hips in his lap.

A small chuckle left him. One of his arms released its hold on you to start trailing up and down the side of your thigh. “Is this why you’re always so tense when we’re alone?” His hand moved to your inner thigh, coming closer to your core.

Your hands shot up to cover your blushing face. Was this why? You never quite understood why before, but it was starting to make sense now.

Rick’s other hand pulled your hands down. When he wrapped his arm around you again, he made sure to keep your arms down as well so you couldn’t hide your face.

“Come on now, don’t be shy. It’s just us.”

“Mmm!”

You bit your lip feeling him begin to rub your clit through your damp panties. You started to squirm a bit, a clear bulge forming and pressing up against you. He pushed the fabric to the side, inserting only one finger. You moaned softly, your legs spreading open and welcoming him. 

Rick pushed in his one finger as deep as he could before pulling it completely out and sticking it back in. This time, his finger curved in you and you felt your cunt tighten. When it did, he stuck a second finger in you. His fingers pumped at a consistent pace, and you kept your moans at a low volume. 

You could feel his hardened erection through his jeans pressing firmly against you now. With his fingers still pumping, you started moving your hips along to feel his covered length.

Rick let out a quiet curse, the tightness of his jeans too much. He let go of his hold on you to unbuckle his pants and release his cock.

“I tried to get you ready, but,” He pulled his fingers out completely, both hands now gripping your hips and lifting you up, “this might still hurt a bit.”

He started lowering you down on him and your eyes widened once he had gotten just the head of his dick in. The further he pushed in, the more pain you felt, your eyes growing glossy as a result. He lowered you until you were seated on him again and he was fully filling you up.

You could feel your pussy aching and tightening around him, never being filled up this much before.

“Christ you have a tight little cunt,” Rick gritted out.

Honestly, he surprised himself you managed to take all of him in, but he knew you were in pain. He wanted to give you time to adjust to his length, even if your clenching walls were driving him mad. Though, you could tell by his tight grip on your hips, staying still was driving him mad.

To distract yourself from the pain, you turned your head back to look up at him and pulled him down for another kiss. This time, his tongue slipped into your mouth, exploring the wet space.

During the kiss, you finally started bouncing up and down in his lap. He helped guide you, keeping you at a steady pace. 

With your tight pussy squeezing around him, Rick couldn’t keep the pace you had set. He started thrusting his pelvis up and moved you down on him faster. Eventually, you were no longer in any control while he fucked you. Then, he pulled you out completely and rammed back into you, slamming you down.

“Rick!” You screamed, a sensitive spot now hit.

He did it again and again, your screams growing louder each time he hit your sweet spot. 

Each of your breaths was growing heavier, and his fast pace was now ragged. He hit you once more and your head fell back against his chest, a loud moan leaving your lips. Your cunt clenching and finally releasing around him.

With just a few more thrusts, Rick’s hips bucked into you and he held you still for one moment so he could cum inside you. You felt his cock pulse with each hot spurt in you, causing a shiver. 

After, he moved you only a few more times slowly for you each to ride out your climaxes. Once done, he pulled you off of him and stood up.

Rick wrapped an arm around your shoulder, holding you close to him as you each steadied your breathing.

“So, I take it you’ll start acting normal now when we’re alone?” He asked you.

“I’ll probably heat up thinking about this.”

“I’m fine with that too.”

[grumpycakes]

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE VOTE, DAY 4 ROUND 15

oooo a pissy lady said for the 15 and goddamn final time Kevin McCarthy, okay MAAM

Biggs - PRESENT OOOOHHHHH NOOOOOO

Bishop - McCarthy

Boebert - PRESENT

Brecheen - McCarthy

lolll burchette was again videoed and boring and McCarthy

Cloud - McCarthy

Clyde - McCarthy

Crane - PRESENT OH FUCKING NOOOOOOOOOO AND HE IMMEDIATELY GOES TO LEAVE THE CHAMBERS OH SHITTT. He looks DEFEATED

weird applause for a crawford???

unholy trio is sitting together and not killing each other

Donalds - McCarthy THANK YOU AGAIN FOR VOTING WHEN CALLED

aw little kid can be heard in the chambers somewhere

Gaetz - Present

Gimenez always catches me cause i'm going for english and am like H???? and then go OHHHH SPANISH g

Good - PRESENTTTT NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOoo booo

Gosar - McCarthy

LOL awww she wiped her mouth and got a sip of water when Al Green did his statement againnnnn. poor clerck

Harris - McCarthy

eeeughghghg McCarthy looks way too please and is joking w a young aid

loser Lawler just gave the long form where he's like ON BEHALF OF THE STATE OF NEWYORK for McCarthy and got claps -glares-

Luna - McCarthy

awwwww a guy on the Dems had his kids stand up and shout Jeffries w him

and Ming did the long way to be sassy

Miller - McCarthy

BEARD GUY, MCHENRY AND I'M ASSUMING DONALDS ARE IN A HUDDLE????? OUT THEM CSPAN

Norman - McCarthy

Ogles - McCarthy shouting the best seat in the house????

Perry - McCarthy

Rosendale - diD NOT VOTE WHEN CALLED

Roy - McCarthy

Self - McCarthy

Spartz - IS BACK TO FUCKING PRESENT, oh shit no wait she was like no wait McCArthy???? She was marked for McCarthy

-DEEPEST OF SIGHS- well, McCarthy got what he wanted, I hope his soul, his sanity, and wathever other things he promised to these fuckers WAS WORTH IT (secretly i don't)

IDK what I wanted, it was gonna be bad no matter what. I'm surprised McCarthy let people drag him this far to just get the fucking speaker seat. Like I'm sorry but if he's thinking this looks good it DOESN'T and I think he's a weak, selfish, and foolhardy man.

This might be the first vote where no one has to be called again. but I mean it's past midnight so they better be present and trying to leave.

Oh Waters is the faublous lady that got yelled at yesterday!!!

He needs 214 and he's got 215, EUGH Stefanik/Fuchsia just hugged McCarthy GROSS

eeeuurgghh sad.

I MEAN it's good cause then GOVT officials and general workers get PAID and govt doesn't get FROZEN

but what a LOSER that had to sell his soul to become speaker

the applause just wont stop

I would assume they have to tally votes LOLLL THE CLERK WAS LIKE I HAVE ONE JOB AND I"M GONNA DO IT AND CALLED OUT THE LAST NAME AS VOTING FOR MCCARTHY. BLESS HER

oh there is one who didn't vote on the Dem side for jeffries rofl

ROSENDALE VOTED PRESENT, GOT LIKE A TINY SMATTERING OF CLAPS, GOOD, DON'T PRAISE HIM

They're tallying but they havent said they are to the chambers? uggghghgh McCarthy got a hug and a small applause broke out about it >:/

who is this young dipshit and why is he brown nosing to McCarthyyy

The Republicans are gonna be so annoying when they announce he won uggghhhhhh

hahaha McCarthy just had to take a selfie w MTG

can we decide 15 is cursed??? I guess it is since it was more than one

428 voted?? oh the presents ah, 216 for McCarthy, 212 Jeffries, 6 Present COWARDS lol

get ready for 2 years of shit being pulled by the fucking republicans and the senate being like NOPE. YAY govt """""At Work"""""

Inssuferable cheering here we go oh GOOOOOOOD and a USA chant to just be really white about it all

He has to be "escorted" to the chair??? That's a large party??? and we're not done?? are like 50 people gonna walk him up???

Jeffries APPEARED to leave the chambers along w a random number of ppl who look like their leaving as called???? OH COOL WE'RE DONE.

OH NO PELOSI DOES HAVE TO HAND THE GAVEL OVER TO HIM. EVEN AFTER HE'S SAID HE WILL HAVE TO TRY AND NOT HIT HER W IT WHEN HE GETS IT, IN THE PAST. WHAT AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE.

THEEEEEEEE chair isn't in the chambers??? They're all "escorting him??? I'm So Confused. well no one else has moved from their seat

HILARIOUS that Perry was on the list when he HADN'T VOTED FOR MCCARTHY RELIGIOUSLY

UGH I GUESS A CEREMONY IS NEXT. I'll cut this part off here idk about the ceremony, it's gonna be grandstanding and jerking himself off so idk what the point is

So as the house gets warmed up to go let me give a few updates I found out!

Voting Present LOWERS the number necessary to win, so it SHOULD be 219 with the full house but because Spartz votes Present it's 218

ARGUABLY if more Republicans vote Present but the 20 stick to their guns, the Democrats COULD win with 212 but Republicans don't want that

Buck who left for a non emergency medical procedure yesterday may not be back

We're starting up with only 275 reps present cause it's more than half but YIKES. Though I would assume more are showing up

a Californian Republican just got up to nominate McCarthy just to see how fast he loses. He's saying it's NOT ABOUT McCARTHY. FRIENDO YEAH IT IS. Lolll he's talking about serving the country with "Pure and Selfless intent~" and like idfk if any human can do taht.

ughghg the Republicans also keep bringing up fentinol overdoses and immigration and how it's going UnChEcKeD while we vote.

oh interesting, he thanked the national police (happily everyone got up and clapped for them) to pretend like Republicans care AT ALL about them.

... Sir why we talking about China, I don't think this is gonna move anybody you wanna move???

Jesus, he's trying to scare ppl into voting together cause the world is in DANGERRRR but like, THESE ARE THE PPL THAT REFUSED TO WEAR A MASK CAUSE IT MADE THEM UNCOMFY while people DIED. So loll ur talking for nothing sir. Hahahaha he's like, I agree w you shits but I WOrk w OtHeRsss and that's how you gotta WoRk!!! lolll

Oh here we go, telling the Dems they're on the EDGE of a VERY IMPORTANT VICTORY. Loll sure you lil dipshit. OH OH RUDE he just said, looking to the Dems I realize i haven't met many of you cause you're not here, voting by proxy. WOW, rumbles in the crowd and then the Clerk had to bang the gavel and be like HEY, UR SUPPOSED TO DIRECT COMMENTS TO THE BENCH.

Ur useless dude, this is too long of a speech. And stupidly blaming all of it on the Dems

South Carolina Rep is up for the Democrats

Awww he thanked the Clerk who's been running this circus and all the Dems rose and the Clerk smiled and mouthed thank you.

He's talking about learning lessons and working to be a better govt but flowery-er. Ah okay he's bringing up Jan 6. Resiliency. USA was made for liberty, justice, and freedom. Pointing out that it's the first time in over 100 years that they can't figure out who to vote for. The goodness of the american people is at stake??? Jeffries is a good dude i guess lol.

Oh lord almighty Gaetz is up and saying HE TAKES EXCEPTION TO THE CALIFORNIA REPS STATEMENTSSS. LOLL oh shit and he's saying that McCarthy is only speaker if he GETS THE VOTES and he DON'T HAVE THE VOTES. And he's saying it's vanity making McCarthy keep going. LOLL AND I THINK THE DEMS CLAPPED FOR THAT. hahaha ppl are yelling at him and order had to be called. HAHAH Gaetz just called him LaBron James but that would mean that McCarthy was a WINNER AT SOME POINT.

Oh dude don't fucking bring up PURITY you lily white fuck. Damn he's just calling out his own party. He's saying their intentions when trying to negotiate w him weren't PUUUREEE. Again humans, nothings gonna be pure my dude.

Mr SQUINTS IS BACK!!!

Bottom line, they don't trust McCarthy, saying it's for the ppl

WOAH WAIT HE JUST NOMINATED JIM JORDAN AGAIN, NO

Boebert is up to nominate Hern. She keeps pointing out that he was unanimously voted as chairman for something and that he's gonna be united. Blahblahblah inflation, republican talking points. Oh yay quickly ended

OH SHIT AND WE'RE VOTING ROUND 12!!!

[dreamwritesimagines]

Twisted 23 - Surrender [Spencer Reid x Reader]

A.N.: Thank you so much for your wonderful support my loves! Here’s the next chapter, I hope you will like it as well, and please let me know what you think of it! ❤❤ Ily, kisses! ❤❤❤

Series Masterlist

Warnings: Murder, serial killers, violence, manipulation, mentions of sex, drinking, smoking.

Word Count: 4400

Summary: Secrets can’t stay hidden forever.

The possibility of you sitting with a killer who had sworn to destroy you was scary for sure, but thinking that the said killer could be much closer to you than you had thought was enough to make your blood freeze in your veins.

It was as if you were going through the same thing that had happened with your dad ages ago, but with a small difference;

Your dad had never tried to hurt you, but this time the killer was coming after you.

Spencer stood beside you as you exhaled the smoke of your cigarette into the air, your hands still shaky but you forced yourself to focus on the police and the FBI escorting people out of the building while he kept his gaze on you.

“You might be wrong though?” you managed to ask, looking up at him, “Right? Maybe it’s not—maybe it’s not someone as close to me?”

Spencer heaved a sigh, “We need more evidence, but you need to keep that in mind that it is possible. I mean— it makes more sense than it being just a stranger, don’t you agree?”

“I don’t agree that I’ve had the misfortune to be close with two serial killers throughout my life, no,” you murmured through frozen lips, “Maybe it’s me. Maybe I was doomed to survive one serial killer to be killed by another.”

“I will never let that happen.”

You took another drag of your cigarette, “I have a feeling the killer might end up not asking for your permission, professor,” you stated and turned your head when you heard the sound of heels coming closer. Mina ran a hand over her face, clearing her throat.

“I sent Kenz away from here,” Mina said and it didn’t escape your notice how she was deliberately avoiding giving any details, just in case. “We’ll regroup at mom’s place, you, me and mom.”

“Just us?”

Mina clicked her tongue, “All things considered,” she murmured, “So I’m not going to beat around the bush; we both agree that it’s not Kenzie right?”

You nodded, “Clearly,” you said and pulled your brows together, “Wait, we’re sure it’s not Kenzie but we still suspect each other?”

“I don’t know, do we?” Mina asked back and you shifted your weight, looking down at the cigarette in your hand.

“Mina, I don’t—”

“Listen, it’s not the place for this conversation,” she interrupted you, “Mom’s place, half an hour.”

“That might not be the best idea,” Spencer said, looking between you two and Mina scoffed.

“It’s not our first rodeo with a serial killer among us, Dr. Reid,” she said, “I already gave a list of my alibis to your colleagues, so did my mother. There’s nothing to keep us here.” She nodded at you, “Don’t be late, we have a lot to talk about.”

With that, she walked away from you two and grabbed her keys from the valet while you stubbed your cigarette.

“So did you check everyone’s alibis?”

“Yeah, at least the people close to you,” Spencer said, “They all look solid.”

You raised your brows, “But?”

Spencer clenched his jaw, “I need to go over all the files, all the recordings with your father—”

“I don’t think it’s my father who’s behind this. Not this time, and not at the cabin. He wouldn’t dare.”

He frowned, “Why do you keep saying that?”

“Well think about what happened the last time I-“ you snapped your fingers, “Right. You weren’t there.”

“What happened? Luke just said you walked away because your father got on your nerve.”

“That’s one way to put it,” you muttered and motioned at the valet to give him your ticket so that he could bring your car, “Listen, I gotta go. Mom is probably at home and Mina is going there and I can’t….I need to talk to them.”

“It might be dangerous.”

“Spencer, it’s my family we’re talking about,” you insisted, “I can’t— if I start suspecting them too, I have nothing left to hold on to.”

He opened his mouth to disagree but you saw Luke coming closer to both of you.

“Hey, Rossi says we need to get back to the office. Emily and Tara are already there,” he told Spencer and turned to you, “We need to stop meeting like this, trust fund baby.”

“Dude, you guys are the ones who show up and scream murder everywhere I go.”

Luke chuckled, holding up his hands and mocking surrender while valet pulled over in front of you.

“Here you go ma’am.”

“Thank you,” you offered him a small smile before you looked up at Spencer. “I’ll see you later I guess.”

“Call me when you get there, we’re also sending a car to your mother’s place and your place just to be sure.”

You nodded, heaving a sigh and Spencer squeezed your arm as if to assure you before pressing a kiss on top of your head.

“Be careful.”

“Hey I was trained by a serial killer, how many people can say that?” you tried to joke as you walked to your car, “I’ll be fine.”

You got into your car and valet closed it, then you started the car and drove off.

                                                 ***

The living room was completely silent in your mother’s house. In fact, the whole house was silent, the only noise was the constant ticking of the huge clock on the wall while all three of you sat still, waiting for someone else to talk. Your mother drummed her fingernails on the table, something she would reprimand you for doing if it were another time, Mina bit inside her cheek, her gaze fixed on the wall and you downed the whiskey in your glass, then filled it again.

“Okay,” Mina said and sat up straighter and looked between you, “I just want to say, if it was someone in this room this whole time, we can- I can fix this.”

“Jesus Christ, Mina!”

“You can’t possibly suspect-“

“We’ll say it was dad’s influence, we’ll call it trauma after-“

“Do you hear what you’re saying?”

“I’m just saying, if it is one of us, it’s dad’s fault.”

“It’s not one of us!” you insisted but then you turned your head when you heard the doorbell ring. The sound of heels came closer and Mina threw her head back as soon as Kenzie walked inside.

“Kenz, I told you to-“

“Yeah, spare me the bullshit, I came as soon as I made sure Lily was alright and safe,” she waved a hand in the air and you closed your eyes for a moment.

“Kenzie, you really shouldn’t be here.”

“Why? So that all of you can dramatically blame each other? I know how you guys get, there’s not an ounce of logic between the three of you.”

Your mom heaved a sigh and got the whiskey bottle from you, “What did Spencer say again?”

“That it was possible it was someone at our table. It’d make more sense than it being a stranger.”

“So either one of us, or Lincoln, or Nolan.”

Your mom gasped, “Nolan had nothing to do with that!”

“Just saying, it wouldn’t be the first time some man you loved didn’t turn out to be the man he pretends to be-“

“Mina, low blow,” you cleared your throat and your mother narrowed her eyes.

“I know it’s not him.”

“Then it has to be Lincoln.”

You let out a small laugh, “Dude, don’t you remember what he was like when we were children? He cried when he saw me scrape my knees and his mom had to take him away.”

“People change.”

“I’m pretty sure I’d know if one of my best friends were a serial killer, Mina.”

“He came late to the auction.”

“So did all of you!” you insisted, “You don’t see me blaming you- by that logic where were you?”

“Are you kidding me? My meeting took longer than I expected, go check my security camera footage. Where were you?”

“Mina!”

“I was literally talking to Spencer while it was happening!”

“Are you two seriously blaming each other?” Kenzie gawked at you and Mina shrugged her shoulders before turning to your mother.

“How about you mom?”

“What is this, an Agatha Christie novel?” your mother asked, exasperated, “Ask the driver, it took us more than an hour to get there because of the accident.”

“It could be anyone in that auction hall, yes, including someone in this room but they checked our alibis. Spencer said it was a possibility, not that it was certain,” you managed to say, “They still need more evidence and I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to start blaming the only people in my life that I actually trust.”

A silence fell upon you and Kenzie sat down beside you, then filled herself a drink as well.

“The moment we start blaming each other, we’re lost,” she said, looking Mina in the eye, “Your dad almost tore this family apart once, don’t let this copycat do the same. It’s not one of us and you know it.”

“No one is blaming you Kenz,” you rasped out and Mina ran a hand over her face.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, “Jesus, I’m— it’s just that… It fucks with my head.”

“You get used to it,” you sipped your drink and turned to your mother, “For what it’s worth, I really don’t think it’s Nolan either. I mean what are the chances of getting married to a serial killer twi—“ you stopped talking as soon as Kenzie kicked you under the table and Mina gasped, shooting you a look as you covered your mouth. Your mother stared at you, her jaw dropping and you cleared your throat, trying your hardest to come up with something.

“I mean—“ you stammered, “I’m drunk and I just saw Spencer being all hot and whispering in my ear after there was a murder so my feelings are all over the place, I don’t know what I—“

“Now that she fucked up first, I can say it.” Mina said, “Nolan will ask you to marry him.”

“I was un-fucking it!” You hissed and Mina scoffed.

“You haven’t un-fucked a thing in your goddamn life.”

“I can’t believe this is how I’m finding out about this,” your mother breathed out, still staring at you two and you let out a whine, burying your face into your hands.

“I’m sorry!” your voice came out muffled and Kenzie let out a giggle, patting your arm as you raised your head again, “I- well- my dad was a serial killer!”

“What is that, your out of jail card?” Mina asked, “The same guy was also my dad but you don’t see me giving out secrets and spoiling surprises.”

“When did he say that to you?” Your mother asked, sitting up straight, “Y/N, you’re telling me everything right now!”

“I saw my ex looking hot tonight and someone got murdered while I was flirting with him, I’m allowed to mess up once or twice!”

“That’s a strange way of describing your whole life.”

“Shut up Mina or I swear—“

“Y/N!”

“He asked for my blessing and I said yes,” you murmured, “So did Mina and Kenzie. But I think we all threatened him first, right?”

“Nope, you’re the creepy one in this group.”

“Yeah I think it was just you.”

“Fine! Okay, I threatened him first,” you admitted as your mother stared at you, “In my defense, I was also pretty drunk back then because of my break up with the love of my life, in case anyone at this table forgot—“

“I wish. Maybe I could try to forget it if you stopped talking about it for five fucking minutes though.”

“Babe!”

“And my serial killer father—“

“Having daddy issues isn’t an excuse to be a snitch, bitch.”

“Mina, stop insulting your sister for a moment,” your mother told her and turned to you, “What did he tell you?”

“That he has been in love with you for… I don’t know, centuries because he’s like a five hundred years old vampire.”

“He feeds on money though, not blood.” Mina pointed out, “I actually can see him as an evil lord somewhere, now that you mentioned.”

“Getting information from this family is a nightmare,” your mother heaved a sigh, “And?”

“And nothing. Make sure to get your nails done when he takes you on a dinner now that we all gave him our blessing but I’m so not planning your wedding, my client list is full.”

“Nobody buys that excuse Y/N,” Kenzie reminded helpfully and your mother shook her head.

“Oh but I can’t possibly—“ she heaved a sigh, “I can’t marry him yet.”

Instantly, all three of you turned to him with the same surprised expression on your faces.

“…Were you gonna hit it and quit it mom?”

Your mother pinched the bridge of her nose “Mina, what is wrong with you tonight?”

“I have no idea. Is this what being traumatized is?”

“Yeah welcome to the club, I’ve been here for a while,” you waved your hands in the air, “Mom, I thought you loved Nolan. Don’t you?”

“No, I’m completely in love with him!” your mother said quickly, “He’s the best man I’ve ever known or been with.”

“Meh, let’s not pretend the bar is—“ Mina started but stopped talking when Kenzie elbowed her, “Sorry. I’m just going to keep drinking over here to keep my mouth busy.”

“But?”

“Sweetie, I can’t get married when…” your mother gestured at you, “When you haven’t found a partner yet!”

You made a face, “Why did we teleport into Jane Austen times all of a sudden?”

“No, you know what people would say.”

“Since when does that stop you?” you asked her, “Come on, who the fuck cares what anyone thinks? They can all go to hell.”

“Y/N, I appreciate the thought but-“

“Mom,” you said, “I might just end up alone, okay? You can’t spend the rest of your life waiting for me to get married or find a partner or something just because of some stupid unwritten rule. Fuck those people, let them talk.”

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to have an actual wedding either.”

“Who’s coming up with these rules?” Mina exclaimed, “Mom, do whatever you want. This family threw appropriate out of the window long ago.”

Kenzie nodded fervently, “People will always find something to criticize, you can’t let that get to you. If you love him, go for it.”

“But wait for him to propose first, I have a feeling it’ll be the biggest ring I’ve ever seen,” you clinked your glass with hers and wiggled your brows, “Can I please be the one to tell dad though? I want to record the look of devastation on his face. I’ll make it my wallpaper.”

                                                  ***

The next day, you tried your hardest to focus on work. Even if Spencer’s words kept echoing in your ears, you couldn’t help but think that he had to be wrong.

Maybe he was. Maybe it was someone else in the hall, other than your family or Nolan or Lincoln. It was impossible for you to suspect anyone in your family, and Nolan and Lincoln had had more than enough time to be alone with you and hurt you, but neither of them had given you any sign of being dangerous.

Besides, you were sure that after spending so much time with your father, you’d be able to tell if it was someone around you.

Or at least you hoped so.

You took a sip of your rosé and bit inside your cheek, staring at your dinner table in the middle of the living room which now looked like something pulled out of a horror movie. You heaved a sigh, holding your hand over the various types of knives, the memory flashing in your head.

“Alright Petal,” your father tugged you by the hand so that you could get closer to the coffee table full of knives, “Let’s see if you studied like I told you, hm?”

“I have!” you gave him a bright smile before you bit at the stick candy and he raised his brows.

“Honey, don’t bite at candy, you’ll ruin your teeth.”

“No I won’t,” you said stubbornly, still holding the candy tight, “I’ll brush my teeth afterwards.”

He heaved a sigh and grabbed a blade off the table, then held it up.

“What is this?”

“A trench knife,” you said, looking at the handle that looked more like brass knuckles your father had shown you before, “You can hold it over your fingers so it’s better for…for…”

“Close combat.”

You nodded, still chewing on the candy and your father put it back, then showed you another.

“This?”

“Push dagger!”

“How do we use push dagger?”

“When you hold it in your palm, the blade is between your fingers.”

“So that…?”

“So that the prey can’t see it until it’s too late.”

He nodded, “You really did pay attention, Petal,” he commented and you giggled, rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet and turned the candy in your mouth as he held up another blade.

“This?”

“Butterfly knife!” you said and motioned at him, “I want that one.”

“Because it’s called a butterfly?”

“Daddy I love butterflies!”

He smiled, then grabbed another from the table, “Do you know what it is?”

“Another butterfly knife?”

“No honey, this is called a trainer, see?” he showed you, “I want you to practice with this first. It has no knife, so you won’t be cutting yourself until I say you can switch to an actual one.”

You clicked your tongue, twirling the butterfly knife between your fingers, the motion almost automatic. You had become so good at it when you were a child that you didn’t even need to think about how to flip the knife after all these years, your hands already remembered it.

“Trench knife, push dagger,” you counted slowly as the thunder lit up the dark sky outside, “Good for close combat, good for stealth….Stiletto, good for deeper wounds. Bowie is good for—“ you were cut off when you heard someone banging their fist on the door. You could feel your heartbeat getting faster and you flipped the butterfly knife in your hand, approaching the door but as soon as you looked through the peephole, your stomach made a happy flip.

“Spencer?” you muttered and opened the door, “What’re you—”

“Are you insane?” he cut you off, glaring daggers at you and you pulled your brows together.

“Huh?” you asked as he walked past you into the apartment and you closed the door before following him. He ran a hand through his curls, clearly the rain outside had made his hair even messier and he turned around to say something, but then got distracted.

“Why are you holding a butterfly knife?” he asked and you flipped it again before throwing it on the table and he frowned at the sight on the table.

“What the hell is this?”

“Uh, butterfly knife, trench knife,” you pointed with your finger as you counted them, “That’s a stiletto knife, that’s a switch blade, right next to it is a push dagger and the one over there is called—“

“I know what they are, why am I looking at them?”

You arched a brow, “Take a guess.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“What?” you let out a bitter laugh, “I’m done taking it lying down, okay? Last night was the last straw, if that copycat wants to come after me, I say let them. The man who they’re looking up to was the same man who trained me for my whole childhood, I like these odds.”

“Yeah?” he scoffed, his eyes narrowed in anger, “Is that why you threatened one of the most dangerous serial killers of our time?”

You tilted your head, “My father?”

He threw his hands in the air, frustration getting the best of him,

“Yes, your father!”

“So you basically ran all the way here to yell at me because I threatened my father?” you asked as you walked past him, then grabbed your wine glass and leaned back to the table, “Don’t worry professor, it’s a family thing. We’re impulsive. He’ll be fine, unfortunately.”

He ran a hand over his face, “What were you thinking?”

“To be honest with you, I kind of wasn’t thinking,” you pointed out before you took a sip of your wine, “How is he these days, by the way?”

“I’m glad you find this entertaining,” he said through his teeth, “Because I can assure you, this is not funny.”

“Oh come on, it’s a little funny.”

He took a deep breath as if he was trying to control himself, “You think threatening a serial killer with murder is funny?”

“I mean have you seen the look on his face? I don’t know if the video got that but—“

“Why did you break up with me?”

Well, Spencer had a way of taking you by surprise, that was for sure. You lowered the glass and blinked a couple of times, trying to pull yourself together.

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me. Why did you break up with me if you were going to threaten a damn serial killer because he implied he might come after me?”

“I hope you know that normal exes don’t have these kind of conversations,” you tried to joke but he only raised his brows.

“Y/N.”

“Spencer,” you heaved a sigh “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think I do,” he said, his voice almost too low, “You just don’t want me to know what I’m talking about.”

“Listen, I know how it might look like but I can assure you I’d do it for any—“

“Garcia was with me while I was watching those tapes.”

Your eyes snapped up to his as your breath got caught in your throat. You swallowed thickly, painfully aware of how he was probably seeing all your tells but even that thought didn’t stop you from drumming your fingernails on the fragile glass you were holding, pursing your lips for a moment before you cleared your throat.

“What—um—what did she say?”

“You mean before or after she said you broke up with me to protect me even if I’m an FBI agent already working on this case?”

God damn it Garcia.

The thunder boomed outside again and you frantically tried to find the right words, but it felt impossible to do so. He took a step closer to you while you stared at him, completely frozen and you closed your eyes for a moment.

“Spencer…” you muttered as you opened your eyes again, “Whatever training they gave you, trust me, they didn’t train you for my father.”

“Is that why you said all that stuff back then?” he asked slowly, “When we broke up?”

“It doesn’t matter—“

“Yes it does.”

A sad smile pulled at your lips as you put your wine glass down, and shrugged your shoulders.

“I thought—um, I thought it I hurt you that badly, you’d never want to see me again,” you admitted, “So if you were away from me, you’d be safe. Away from my father, away from the copycat, away from all of this. Working on this case is not the same as being caught in this fucked up web, you know that.”

“You didn’t think you should’ve at least asked my opinion on this?”

“You would’ve said no.”

“Of course I would’ve said no!”

“Exactly!” you threw up your hands, “You might not care about your survival in this situation, but I do, okay? I love you too much to let you get hurt because of me—” as soon as your brain acknowledged what had just slipped from your lips, you stopped talking, your breathing getting faster while panic seemed to flood your system. He stared at you, a soft light appearing in his eyes and you shook your head at yourself.

“Fucking great,” you muttered, “Yeah, um you— I’m— it doesn’t matter. Do whatever you want to do with that information.”

You took a step to walk past him but he had already grabbed your arm and pulled you back. Before you could even ask him what he was doing, his lips found yours, letting that warmth shoot through your stomach into your whole system. The feeling was so sudden but so mind numbing that you thought Spencer was right before, this was definitely like a drug, an addiction. His fingers caressed over your neck while your body pressed against his like some sort of a magnet and a soft whine escaped from you as he pulled back slightly.

“Don’t run away,” he whispered against your lips “Not this time.”

You felt the tears rushing to your eyes. “Spencer-“

“I love you.”

“You shouldn’t,” you murmured before he stole another kiss from you.

“I love you,” he repeated, his hazel eyes locked in yours, “And I’m done pretending like I don’t.”

It was a bad idea. You knew it was a bad idea, you knew it would put him in danger, but none of that seemed to matter to you after hearing that he loved you. For some reason, you were convinced that you two would find a way, that everything would be alright as long as you loved each other, naïve as it was.

The happiness burst through you, wrapping you in a soft and warm haze as you reached back with one hand to sweep everything off the table, sending all the knives to the floor with a loud noise before you jumped to sit on the table. A small chuckle left his lips when you tugged at his jacket and he tilted his head.

“What, you don’t have a bed?” he taunted you and you grinned.

“The bed can wait,” you murmured as he dragged his fingertips up your bare legs to pull you closer to him, drawing a giggle from your lips before he kissed you again.

Chapter 24