#I would like a little more solid info than just ''well I know an employee at tumblr and....'' before I really believe anything

[venacoeurva]

If I'm gonna be completely real I am not signing up for another shitload of social media alternatives, probably like 1/2 of which die out super fast again or are astroturfed, if Tumblr goes down in the near future I'm meandering back to Twitter because I still have so many mutuals there who also moved over there from prior Tumblr exoduses and maybe cohost or pillowfort if they actually pick back up and keep momentum

[roo-bastmoon]

The Long Game

First, let's acknowledge some major mismanagement by BigHit. Then, let's talk about what I think *might possibly* be their long game.

These are just guesses I have right now--I'm not stating facts and my opinions are subject to change as new info becomes available. But come with me for a few minutes...

In early 2022, Jimin's mail was "omitted" four times by BigHit employees, which lead to late insurance premium payments, which led to an on-paper "seizure" of his apartment. The press sat on that news for three months until the day his With You OST dropped and the scandal overshadowed his release. Jimin went to ground, avoided all social media for months. At this time, Jimin's personal information was leaked on the internet, and that was the last time we saw Jikook hang out alone that we know of.

Now in 2023, since Jimin's album FACE dropped, we already know about the sabotaged sales and streams by Hanteo, Billboard, YouTube, and Spotify. There was the issue with his in-ears not working properly during an encore. On top of all that drama, BigHit didn't get all the physicals shipped in time, they didn't playlist his songs for several days, they never sent his songs to radio (that we can see), they made one tweet to acknowledge Jimin's #1 on Hot100 but nothing else--not even a cake like the other solo albums got, they didn't let him film more than two music videos when they did that for their new groups, the press releases about their stocks going up after Hot100 also credited their new groups, and Jimin only had 9 days of uninterrupted promo between other members' works.

Now I am not a conspiracy theorist. I well understand that the military enlistment compressed schedules, and that each member had say in their creative works and promotions. I'm not a manti. But none of the above is a good look. Add up all those fumbles together, and you could make a solid case for mismanagement.

And now today, we see PD Bang on the cover of Billboard (which, OF COURSE, mentioned Blackpink in the same breath).

JUST LOOK AT THE WAY THE STORY IS BEING SHAPED FOR AMERICAN READERS. You see what's happening here? You think SM is gonna get a cover story for their side of the corporate shakedown?

And then there's this little gem:

"If your question is about the possibility of creating an artist like BTS again, the answer is no. However, if you were to ask whether there would be a K-pop artist from HYBE that tops the Billboard Hot 100 chart, my answer would be yes. [Jimin became the first BTS member to achieve this as a solo act on April 3 when his single “Like Crazy” debuted at No. 1.] The experience of managing BTS and operating different labels gave us access to powerful networks, infrastructures and experiences. With these, HYBE can repeat its remarkable results with the help of talented artists.

Okay so before everyone starts rioting online, take a moment, pause, reflect, think about what all might be going on here, behind the scenes, in this very political world of the music business.

Do I think Bang PD screwed Jimin over to score points with Billboard? No, I do not. But neither do I think Jimin's solo effort is anyone's priority but Jimin's.

"HYBE is primarily focusing on leveraging its accumulated expertise in managing and producing acts that consist of multiple members, rather than solo artists or mixed-gender groups in K-pop."

I think no one ever expected Jimin to make it to #1 on Hot100 and industry insiders felt pretty sure the West wouldn't let him stay in the top 10 the next week. Why? Well, partially racism. But mostly it's bad for their bottom line.

If your entire business model is that people pay for radio play and that gets them on your private chart and the private chart leads to more advertisers and awards... and then someone comes along and DOESN'T pay to play and gets to the top of your chart? Nobody needs you. So you HAVE to sabotage them. You absolutely have to change your rules. (I'm just sitting here waiting for Jimin to release his other songs so that Billboard can change their rules to say you can't be on Hot100 if your name starts with J- and ends with -imin.)

Now, it might have been satisfying for us as fans to see BigHit come out swinging and put Billboard on blast for his sake and ours. But they have ZERO. LEGAL. RECOURSE.

Billboard is privately owned and they can make whatever rules they want. They are part of a larger media company that has connections to every media outlet; no one is gonna publish an exposé any time soon, I promise you. We got exactly ONE English-speaking website to write about it and that was it. Everyone in the industry knows what is going on, and no one has the power to do anything much about it.

So what does that mean for the future?

Well... Bang PD just recently paid a HUGE mark up of $26 million to buy Trevor Noah's home out in LA.

And now he's on the cover of Billboard. WHY? Neither of these things will result in any immediate payout for him.

It's a long game.

And frankly, a very old and honored way of doing business. It's how they went up against the big three and it's how they are gonna go up against the West, I feel it in my gut.

Bang PD is getting a home on US soil. He will be paying US taxes. He's making in-roads by being nice with Billboard folks. He's making contacts; he's already had phone calls with Pharrell and Bieber and Grande and Laroi. Some of those are already shaping into collabs. We already know Hybe has set up shop in the US with Scooter at the helm.

Meanwhile, BigHit is adjusting in real time to the new rules around the charts (culling is happening to Yoongi too, so they changed up the check-out process of the BTS US Store). Suddenly there's plenty of focus on promoting via TikTok and other viral social media. They are dipping their toe into AI. They are discussing their own in-house ticketing option. This company is looking toward the future and hedging its bets.

Do I know with any certainty what's up their sleeve?

Absolutely not.

Do I trust any corporation very much?

Nope.

Do I have faith in BTS?

Probably more than anything else in my life, at this point.

So while I have no insider info, I just feel like the company is making very intentional and methodic footholds into the West. They are not complaining or screaming or suing or threatening anyone. They are not badmouthing competitors or whining about unfair deals. They are laying ground on complicated, political in-roads, one step at a time.

The Expo is in 2030. I'd wager by that time, BTS will have conquered the West and have some radio play.

And I think the company believes that in order to do that, they have to make their new groups profitable while BTS serves. They have to survive for the next two years.

When BTS is back, and their dues have been paid, I think they will be unstoppable. I hope they get to work on solo projects AND group projects. I think they will take over every corner of the world, if managed properly.

They just need to do it in a way that also assuages the Western music industry. The American Powers That Be have a chokehold on music and they will demand their pound of flesh somehow.

I strongly suspect BTS will never pay to play. But they will build relationships and find a way to become so interwoven in the cultural fabric that to deny them a place in Western spaces is to be left behind. And they will do it politely, and gently, and come out smelling like a rose.

So before you go off on social media and scream the walls down about neglect (and there WAS some, in my opinion) and abuse (we don't really know that), just take a moment to consider--if they had no legal recourse against Billboard, how can they beat them at their own game?

The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them a friend.

I'm just guessing here, but I think if fans stay loyal, BTS just might have the last laugh, here. I think they got radio scared as hell.

It sucks that Jimin didn't get fair treatment at this time. He is my bias and I feel it like a knife to my own heart. But he DID make history with his #1 and they can never take it away.

So I say give it time. All the people sniggering at him and BTS right now are going to sing a different tune in the future.

My best guess is that this is a long game, and it will require sacrifices that are totally unfair, but in the end... well, as long as BTS has ARMY, they cannot be denied.

Apobangpo.

[fuckyeahashes]

Ok I haven’t made a theory post in a LONG time but this seriously needs to be made because a lot of people are getting upset about the info the daycare attendant and genuinely thinking he hates his job and hates kids ect. This theory also builds off of really solid theories mattpat has brought forth about who the player character is.

More under the cut!

Ok so mattpat has theorized the player character is Cassie’s dad, and there’s a lot of evidence to support it. Watch his videos playing Help Wanted 2 to see why. Also, plenty of animatronics acknowledge the character as seemingly knowing and identifying the character as this as well, along with characters with dubious sentience like the new Carnie animatronic. This means that sun is interacting with the player character (an adult) and knows it. we literally have evidence from Ruin (Cassie’s first hand experience) that the daycare attendant is a fantastic caretaker. As well as the Daycare Attendant interacting with an actual child, Gregory in Security Breach. Sun clearly loves kids! So why did he treat the player character so poorly?

First of all, the game is marketed as showing you different jobs that fazbear employees do. There are three exceptions, arts and crafts with Sun, DJ Music Man’s Party Pass, Carnie game, and the log ride, but the rest are very clearly jobs the employees have to do, which make these stand out.

I think all 4 of these are jobs as well.

I think the last three are all the same kind of job, actually. I think they are playtesting! Two of those jobs have distinct problems with them, and we KNOW for certain the Log Ride is shut down, and we actually get the see the ride go off on “unapproved routes” as Foxy puts it. The DJ game features a Party Pass we did not know was offered, with the overhead stating that the the DJ’s reaction to disappointment still being workshopped. I think the DJ Party Pass and Log Ride games are being playtested to get them ready for public use again.

The Carnie game features an animatronic we’ve NEVER seen before, in an outside area. The pizzaplex is an inside area, and Fazbear inc is more than happy to repurpose animatronics at any moment with plenty to choose from, so what gives?

We know from the last Help Wanted that the pizzaplex hosts a fall event every year that is outside, and last year we didn’t see this animatronic there. Meaning this is a BRAND NEW animatronic for a BRAND NEW carnival game. Also, Fall Fest won’t start til the DLC comes out for Help Wanted 2. Meaning that it would be completely normal for them to be playtesting this future carnival game and it’s animatronic to get it ready for Fallfest!

And that leaves Sun’s Arts and Crafts. We know how he speaks with employees due to him “giving instructions” on how to fix the carousel, he does NOT seem to like them. He shreds and shits on your art when you give it to him, when he has kid’s art hung up in his room, and kids do NOT draw well or or are they famous for following instructions. When you do arts and crafts with Sun, it is also SUSPICIOUSLY dark, too dark for it to be open hours for the daycare, AND he says the lights will go off soon. Moon doesn’t do his security rounds until after hours, and moon doesn’t come out in the daycare hours anymore. So what gives?

I think that doing Arts and Crafts with Sun once the pizzaplex closes is literally just another job. We know from how he behaved when he saw Gregory that he goes a little whacko without someone to watch (he literally hovered over Gregory and basically begged him to play a game with him.) Without someone to occupy his mind with and do something with he probably starts eating the wallpaper. I mean he is SUCH a high energy animatronic. I don’t think it’s much of a jump to say they have to hire someone after hours to keep him from going insane.

With his aforementioned distaste of Fazbear employees and needing someone to occupy his attention, his behavior starts to make perfect sense.

“But he calls the player character a kid!” He’s a daycare attendant, I bet he calls everyone a kid. It might have been derogatory too, he only does that when he is mad at you. Weird place to call out someone for being a child if you mean it in a nice way.

“But he puts the player character in time out!” I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me with a straight face that Sun wouldn’t try to put an adult in time out. He would. He definitely would. We all know this.

In conclusion—- there might not be a Daycare Attendant Handler in the day, but there DEFINITELY is one at night, and may god help that person

[st-louis]

a list of hockey podcasts

i spend... a lot of time reading about, listening to, and learning about hockey and i thought maybe you guys might be interested in the podcasts i follow. i don’t always listen to every episode of every show, but they’re things i have in my subscriptions and listen to frequently.

i’m going to end up having to put this under a cut because it’s getting really long.

general podcasts

the hockey pdocast - without a doubt my favorite general hockey podcast. dimitri filipovic is a stats guy who writes for eprinkside, and his analytic cast definitely shines through in the way he handles the topics. i like the variety of deep dives he does and i always feel like i come away from listening with better understanding of the topic because he doesn’t just talk stats, but gives you context for why those numbers might be the way they are, so if you’re trying to become more familiar with advanced stats this a great one to listen to. also his voice is just so soothing. absolutely my favorite car show.

the athletic hockey show - it’s frequent, long, and informative, but there are different hosts depending on the day and i definitely enjoy listening to some of them more than others (i like ian and hailey a lot, i enjoy the seans, craig and pierre know what they’re talking about but hoo boy i do not enjoy their episodes so much).

staff & graph - they are definitely leafs homers and some of their takes really annoy me especially because they purport to be analysis based and then like... will come out with something that’s not really an analysis so much as it’s, you’re a leafs fan and that’s your opinion, but for the most part i do enjoy it. doerrie is a former front office employee of the devils and she has a lot of very interesting inside knowledge and knowledge based on actually working closely with hockey teams. she still has connections so if you’re interested in ‘sources,’ she usually has good info and stories. again, usually come away feeling like i learned something.

soul on ice - kwame damon mason (film director and hockey fan), akil thomas (kings prospect), elijah roberts (formerly of the niagra ice dogs, currently playing college hockey) hang out and talk hockey and interview guests. they’re all really likeable dudes and have a lot of interviews with players of color and other interesting topics (taya currie!). a solid listen from both a fan and player perspective, for example it was cool to hear akil talking about his experiences during the covid season.

the cross-check nhl show - decent general hockey talk show. andrew berkshire is a habs writer and mary clarke is a general hockey writer but a flyers fan (a show made for me, haha). they’re likeable and have good opinions on social justice related issues within hockey. they cover major stories around the league, discuss their personal teams, and also do a little pop culture segment at the end that i usually skip.

hockey central - unfortunately this is like the epitome of a hockey man podcast (as in, it is literally all hockey men). they come from a variety of backgrounds, including players and coaches, and generally the actual hockey talk is good, even if they get on my nerves sometimes. if you want to know what the average player/former player is thinking this is a pretty good one. and they update a lot.

31 thoughts - jeff marek (also of the hockey central pod) and elliotte friedman talk hockey. if you’re looking for “insider” info this is one of those you’re gonna want to listen to. a bit wishy washy when it comes to stuff like the hawks scandals.

behind the gear - this is an interesting one, because they interview a lot of “lesser known” personalities but it’s always a pretty solid interview. again, i don’t listen to every interview but if there’s a guest that looks interesting, i’ll mark it for later. they have a bunch of interviews with nick and ryan suzuki so that was a personal interest of mine, haha.

puck soup - i almost never listen to this one because it’s too long (like episodes upwards of 100 minutes) and i really don’t like wyshynski as a person. but i do appreciate sean mcindoe. usually only tune in if there’s a topic i’m interested in.

6 degrees with mike mckenna - mike mckenna (former journeyman goalie and flyers goalie of the Eight Goalie Year and former vgk broadcast)’s interview / general hockey show. he’s very personable and a good interviewer.

the press zone - a show mostly focused on prospects, whether that’s in major juniors, the ahl, european leagues, etc. it’s a deeper dive into an area that a lot of the other shows don’t necessarily get to, so i appreciate it.

the hockey think tank - another ‘smaller’ podcast with some interesting and unexpected interviews. again, don’t listen to it all the time but it’s worth a shot if they have a topic you like.

the full 60 - craig custance’s solo show. another “insider.”

missin curfew - i usually only listen to this one if they have a guest i’m interested in because this is also a very bad example of hockey men hanging out and talking and you want to strangle them mostly. it’s two other dudes and kevin hayes’ older brother so you can pretty much expect exactly what you are getting from them.

the broadscast - wish there were more female hockey podcast hosts, but this one is a good one. i like the variety of guests that they have on. i don’t listen to it every episode but will tune in if there’s a topic i like.

flyers-related podcasts

broad street radio - i have such a hate/hate relationship with this one. it’s like the flyers podcast but i hate most of the hosts. i listen mostly for charlie o’connor, who is the only one who can reign in their terrible opinions.

flyers daily - daily news about the flyers, game recaps, and interviews with players. usually short and no-frills episodes, which i appreciate. myrtetus also plays goalie in beer league so he has a player’s perspective, at least, from that level.

flyers talk - nbc’s podcast with jordan hall, taryn hatcher, and joe fordyce. pretty basic talk show from a beat reporter, a former broadcast, and a guy named joe. again fairly no frills, do not always agree with them, but decent enough information.

everything but hockey - andrea helfrich, the most beautiful woman in the world’s, podcast. she does interviews with a lot of people who work with the team in some capacity (for example, nyree, the nutritionist) are associated with the team (she is great with interviewing wives and girlfriends), and the players themselves. she is super charming and good at talking to people so the episodes are usually fun to listen to.

snow the goalie - two flyers beat reporters i dislike but who nevertheless sometimes have The Info.

locked-on flyers - i haven’t actually listened to this much yet but i like locked-on habs a lot and i’m gonna have to give it a chance.

nasty knuckles - this is a podcast i absolutely suffer through. settlemyre is so fucking annoying and maybe the worst interviewer i’ve ever heard. however, if you are interested in the flyers, he has the goods. riley cote is also here. i have to get back to actually transcribing these again because really you don’t want to listen to them.

habs-related podcasts

le support athlétique - arpon and marc antoine from the athletic talk the habs. alternating episodes in french and english, which is frustrating when they are talking in french about something i want to listen to, but i think it’s cool that they provide for the entirety of the fanbase. they are fascinating to listen to, and obviously good friends. i enjoy their insights about the players and coaches.

eyes on the prize - one of my favorites. good hosts, great variety of topics, including interviews with european prospects that you don’t always hear from. it’s also an sbnation podcast but i like it so much better than i like bsh.

habs-statician - statistically-based habs analysis from a fan in toronto. dylan is a really thoughtful podcaster, and i appreciate listening to him very much. 

locked-on canadiens - another daily listen. laura and scott continue the theme of the habs podcasts i enjoy which is mostly that they are really reasonable about their view of the team. they criticize when players aren’t doing well, but not in a mean way, and they praise the players who are doing well. i like the daily analysis and breakdown of the news mixed in with sillier segments like who would play the habs in a movie.

habs tonight - former hab and flyer dale weise and a rotating cast of co-hosts discuss habs related topics. i was skeptical at first because i thought it might be gossipy, but it’s actually not that bad. the hockey talk from a former player is all like “wow, that makes so much sense” when you hear it (the episode where weise talks about joël bouchard, in the first negative thing i’d ever heard about him, is one that i am specifically thinking of here). he’s also good at interviewing his former teammates, you can tell they are at ease with him.

history in the making - national treasure marc dumont interviews habs prospects and other people associated with the team. he is so funny and charming and knowledgeable about hockey, it is always worth a listen.

habby hour - i don’t really enjoy these hosts but i will listen if they’re interviewing someone i’m interested in.

other teams-related podcasts that i listen to

steve dangle - i will admit i mostly started listening to this one as schadenfreude, but for the most part i enjoy it. i don’t really like the co-hosts but i do enjoy how absolutely fed up he is with the leafs. :) but on a more serious note, they do some good work, i was very impressed with their recent episode interviewing rick westhead about his work on the chicago coverups.

[unknowconcreteflower-art-blog-me]

Re-contextualizing Angel Dust: Charlie was not ready for this...

And for the sake of warning Hazbin Hotel is an adult cartoon containing heavy dark subject matter (such as rape and drug abuse, that maybe trigger to views so please tread carefully. Warning out of the way on with the post! I also just wanna get this out there older post my analysis of Val and Angel people kept commenting “what Angel Dust isn’t in love with Valentino” and my rebuttal was “no no that’s a past Angel Dust a younger one who didn’t reach that level of abuse just yet” while their argument was “no it’s the current Angel Dust” which can’t be the case. To prove my point I would like to refer back to the comics and the music video and looking at it with the context of the show. And please read my previous post if you want more explanation on Addict. 

I just want to start off with explaining his relations to Cherri, needless to say Cherri is someone who Angel sees as a true friend and confines in her. And she is there for him as he is for her even willing to fight for her knowing well that he will get in trouble for it. Though one has to wonder why is there such this deep love and care for each other. Looking back to Addict, where we have Cherri singing her “Yeah you fell in love and you fell deeper in this pit...” and several times we have an unknown character pop up during her part of the song. With the little snip bits of info we get from the sequence we can tell that Cherri is in the line of work because of someone who’s over her head. And what they have over is an emotional hold over her if we want to lean in on what the lyrics it might in a romantic sense be we still don’t know who it is tho. So what makes this so important to Angel Dust.

This is because she herself is in the similar situation as Angel as in the both of us are trapped in the holes we dug ourselves into. Giving Angel someone who can understand the stuff he’s going through. Cherri knows why he’s acting out because he’s just trying to hide how hurt he really is cause” hey so does she”. And knows she doesn’t have to say anything but just be there; and takes him out on a night out with her when he’s down. That’s why Cherri is so important to him she’s someone he know that’s not going to look down on him or patronize him on his actions. And his number 1# go to person; which is why he probably reveal to her that he wants to get clean because hey that’s what binds them together... This connects why he broke streak and his stopped his sobriety. 

During the opening scene of the show we have Valentino texting Angel to do work right after the extermination. Which I also have to point out that Val showing a lack of care for Angel safety after the extermination. He clearly wants his money and is making Angel put himself out there for work. And what does he do after he’s done with the job; he falls back on drugs. Now this is important to note... remember during the News broadcast Charlie confirmed that Angel was clean for 2 weeks before all of this happened! He was doing so well what could have possibly made him break his streak-Valentino. 

People were theorizing Val gave drugs to his employees meaning Val isn’t only his pimp but supplier as well! Giving the reason why Angel stayed with Val for so long; when I did my analysis of the music video Addict I said Val maybe the first one to find Angel when he first came to hell. Manipulating Angel in a weakened state to view him as a sort of savior and made him forget his sorrows and how did this happen you may ask... “drugs” using sweet words to mask his hidden agenda. So Val basically trained hims like a dog on a leash in a sense of “you’ll get a love & affection with a treat” which translates to “if you do this job for me I’ll give you all the love you were denied when you were alive as along with the drugs you’ve been craving”. I will argue that Val made Angel even more dependent on drugs; because he made it his number one coping method he’s the enabler. After Angel was assaulted and raped by Valentino probably made it even worse for him because Val’s his boss, he goes to work he has to see him... triggering him to fall back on to drugs. That’s why Angel needs his drugs and needs to numb himself, so him breaking his streak clean after taking a job from Val wasn’t coincidence back then. 

“he’a been behaved, clean and out of trouble for 2 weeks now” until Val got to him...

This makes Val even more dangerous to Angel’s road to recovery than we could have ever imagined. No only that but it makes it difficult to tell someone about it as well Angel is afraid of him and has to stay in contact with him since he’s his employer. This would be good time to bring up my rebuttal for my case of Addict: I get. I identified that the Angel Dust in the beginning of the music video is a younger one that still has some love for before figured out he was using him and he stood up to Val (pre-trauma). And the Angel Dust at the end credits of the music video and the one in the comic is the current Angel Dust and show (post-trauma). When you look at the interactions with Val (via comic vs music video) they are clearly different hence the two different Angel Dusts!

I will be referring to the comics in this section so if you haven’t read them please do.  

When Angel is in the limo with Val he’s trying to make it very apparent that he’s upset that he’s not getting any attention from Val. Being very huffy and puffy not even looking at him as Val’ counting his money, forgetting that he’s right there. This is very important because Angel doesn’t hesitate to hide his emotions, this Angel is willing to show discontentment in front of Val being angry and annoyed at him which leads up to why he doesn’t kiss want him and outright rejects him. He shows he’s willing to fight back against Val’s mistreatment and neglect of him, becoming more aware of it. In my earlier post I deduced this scene is where Angel first time he’s disobeyed Val and finally gets the full picture he understands he doesn’t mean anything to Val and he’s using him. He’s no longer willing to put up with his mind games anymore and probably would have left Val that night... which is why he raped him to gain control over Angel. 

Music video vs. Comic scene

Now looking at the interactions Angel Dust has with Val are completely different he’s submissive to Valentino when we see his conversation in the limo. Not only that but it shows why Angel Dust went on that drug deal for Val; to show him he can do something else other than being a sex-worker. Angel wants out and this was his way of giving himself another option but Val shuts it down completely! Even before he entires, he’s holding his arm in fear and discomfort, even when he’s trying to plead his case he is terrified. He’s no longer willing to fight back because of what Val did to him. And Val reminds him constantly that he could do it again if he wanted to by reminding him of that night! He does this by grabs Angel face when he tries to explain himself, like he did when he forced Angel to kiss. Val forces him to smiles when he leaves the limo he wants him to never show any form of disagreement or disobedience like the last time because that’s what got him in trouble last. To add more salt in the wound he makes him Angel call him “Mister Valentino” reminding him he’s in control! The man is practical holding a gun over Angel saying “the same thing will happen, if you disobey me again...” AND THAT IS SADISTIC AS HELL! It making me hate Val even more and after he leaves the limo all he can do is let out his anger in silence as when he smokes similar to when we see him smoke at the end credits to Addict this Angel is our current Angel Dust. This is his way of expressing his sorrow in silence why he’s an addict.

So you maybe asking how does Cherri bomb come into play, well I don’t think after the initial incident with Val who does Angel confine to Cherri and destroy a bar together. You see the pattern; Angel has a break down, uses his drugs comes off of the high, he goes to Cherri and in turn go out, and have fun well her kind of destructive fun! And it has been confirmed that he learn all about weapons from Cherri so basically this is the reason why! He wasn’t breaking his clean streak “to do his girl buddy a solid”  he went because he wanted to be with the only person who could understand him at that time. And she just happened to be in a fight and he jumped in thinking  “oh my home girl’s in trouble I gotta help her out...” and that’s probably did out of instinct to protect Cherri. Charlie and Vaggie cut in... now things start to get a little dicey I’m not trying to attack them but they didn’t handle it this best way. They didn’t know anything, and before know Angels story a lot of people are upset with Angel’s action but now that we have context they’re (Charlie & Vaggie) in the wrong. 

These are the points of why Angel cannot confine to Charlie or Vaggie, I will also argue that they pushed Angel further from them. Angel is someone who’s very prideful and isn’t going to tell someone that he’s hurt. Unless they figure it out for themselves or feels safe with them (Cherri). Looking back Vaggie & Charlie made a huge “No-No...” and this scene is incredibly painful to watch. Let’s cut to Vaggie how does she address Angel by scolding him for his actions she goes right to the blame game, which is the last thing she should be doing if they really want to help Angel. They don’t even take the chance to ask him why he did it; unintentionally isolating him from help. 

What bother me is that Vaggie is quick to call Angel’s actions are a result of being “selfish” which is not the case now that we have context. And probably why Angel just kept trying to piss off Vaggie because he knows that his actions weren’t out of wanting be “selfish”... and makes it clear that he still wants to go clean. It probably actually really hurt him to when she said that  and I’d like to point out that people who struggle with addiction it’s not easy to stay clean and people can relapse. Basically what Vaggie did was shamed Angel for relapsing which is not okay and paints him as a bad guy immediately! To say he ruined the image of the hotel ... it made me furious at Vaggie putting all the blame on Angel. And we know that’s not the case even before the fight was broad casted the demons and sinners in Hell were already laughing at Charlie’s idea and let’s be honest it was reasonable. Because WE DON’T KNOW IF IT’S POSSIBLE YET so putting all the blame on Angel Dust was uncalled if anything it’s just the cherry on top. I’m not trying to attack Charlie but she really doesn’t know what she’s doing she doesn’t know how to send a soul into heaven. Is it irresponsible to broadcast a client before they are proven successful, not only that but it puts a lot of pressure on Angel to prove theory that we’re not sure is true yet.

And let’s be honest did Charlie really believe Vaggie’s word’s wouldn’t but hurtful they didn’t even take the time to ask him why he did it; immediately writing him off when clearly somethings going on now she’s painting the image that they don’t care about him, they just care about the hotel, and that they just wanted to use him as a poster boy! Hmm... now who has used Angel Dust in the past for their own personal agenda... oh yeah VALENTINO! Which is why he goes on saying “I made you look sad and pathetic...” he chooses those words not to just make Vaggie mad but that’s probably what he was really feeling on the inside. Angel really did want to apologize to Charlie but after what Vaggie said to him it probably made him feel like his apology meant nothing and leaves these actions carry on into Addict. This is where naivety is her biggest downfall she rushed into it thinking just keeping Angel clean is gonna redeem him she was so not ready to broad cast the hotel. She makes it sound easy but it so much harder than that!

THIS WAS A 100% CALLED FOR! AND SHE DOESN”T EVEN REALIZE IT!

This is why Angel flips off Charlie and doesn’t want to talk to her, he’s basically doing cause “Why should I tell you about my problems you don’t really care you just care about your hotel...” that’s why this is so important to highlight. They already gave him that impression, that they think little of him and that they aren’t going sympathize with him but scold him. And Charlie should have stopped Vaggie yelling when she had the chance. Vaggie sabotaged her chance to understand Angel Dust and help him. And did she really think her temperamental girlfriend was the one to help sympathize and redeem sinners.  If she really wants to help Angel Dust she needs to stop thinking it’s gonna be a cupcake walk, people have reasons why they fall to these bad habits; people have issues, relationships, traumas, that they need to navigate before they can heal. Which makes me believe that Charlie isn’t the one who’s going to get Angel Dust to open up to them about his trauma. Vaggie’s out of the question if not then who... 

HUSKER 

Yup our favorite flying poker kitty... I’ll do a separate post on that because it deserves it’s own explanation! (Side note I really do love Vaggie we don’t know her story so don’t hate her) Hope you guys enjoy the post~

[secondhoekage]

Ignore this long rant I’m high as shit but I... can’t take the hero commission oR HONESTLY THE HEROES THEMSELVES, seriously anymore

They’re BRAINLESS they all share one (1) brain cell and it belonged to Crust. THESE GUYS had MONTHS to strategize this attack and what did they do? They fucked it up. They want me to believe this was planned and not written on a chalk board the night before? Sent out to all heroes the next morning at 8am in a CHAIN EMAIL?

Unpopular opinion(?): they sent the worst possible, ill-suited heroes to each location for this PLF raid and I’m mad at them for it and I’m mad at Hori for making me be mad at it even tho he had to do it beCauSe oF pLot but I’m mad.

The MLA’s plans to take on The League of Villains? Spotless. Chef’s kiss. The detail. The one-on-one counters they planned out. Accounting for each enemy’s quirk. Yeah there were like 6 of them to account for but?? Heroes, yall had enough info and enough time to think of ways to go about this raid and I’m supposed to believe that you did, BUT DID YOU REALLY? MONTHS TO PLAN, and saw one electric Sir Crocodile rip-off and immediately threw Kaminari on his ass. Good move. Kinda. But the rest of the PLF? Heroes just gonna make shit up as they go I guess?? 

To make myself feel better here’s a long ass useless rant on what could’ve damn happened and which heroes should’ve gone where and to make this an epic ass rumble. ugh. Even just doing some of these things would’ve made this arc (imo) feel more... convincing and delicious

under the cut tho bc damn this is too long

In this essay I will—

Edgeshot??? EDGESHOT??    EDGESHOT?? i’M GOING TO GO OFF. 

I swear to shit Edgeshot could’ve soloed the hospital but they had him at the PLF mansion for Some Reason like... like they didn’t make him run up on the League’s bar instead of the Nomu factory bc they knew he would take care of shit immediately. Make it make sense. If he was at the hospital eye just—Nomu in the way?? Doctor running off? Say less. Electric slide all the way in there Shinya. DID NO ONE SEE HOW EASILY HE HANDLED KUROGIRI? Did everyone just forget this man can pull a K.O in .3 seconds flat? Heroes didn’t think it might be a good idea to have him there, ready to give Shigaraki the paper cut of his life the second he woke up (if he even did bc my mans likely could’ve prevented the ‘doctor getting away>high-end awaken>rush to get shiggy out of the tank>shiggy wakes up’ chain of events)? Didn’t think to send him instead of this guy X Less just sitting there with That Look on his face? 

I get they needed heroes like Edgeshot at the mansion to take out a handful of enemies in one go but COME ON NOW. There were more than enough long-range AOE heroes there. And even if you don’t wanna believe he could solo then STILL, EDGESHOT DUOING WITH MIRUKO, ANYBODY? If anyone was gonna keep up with her happy ass zooming into the lab it could’ve been him. We were robbed of an Edgeshot/Miruko teamup and I’m not okay. Could’ve had a sexy ass panel of the hospital-team hyping up Miruko and Edgeshot as they dashed to Ujiko’s lab, two fast as shit bad bitches, zooming through these Nomu, absolutely obliterating them at lightning speed, watching each other’s backs too, PROBABLY SAVING MIRUKO FROM BECOMING THE PRE-DEATH ORGAN DONOR THAT SHE IS NOW. I know it was hot watching Miruko take on these high-ends but I’d have rather Edgeshot share the spotlight if it meant Miruko was in one piece rn. Hori played her

Anyways the literal dumb bitch energy that went into not sending Edgeshot to the hospital is sending me. Could’ve at least let him just be on the team and on standby while Shigaraki was waking up. With those sharp as shit reflexes of his we’ve seen? Shigaraki would’ve been out like a fucking light the second Edgeshot saw him sit up. X-Less you had a nice thicc upper lip that lip was too shaded for you to die, but F in the chat bitch. Useless plot fodder I’m sorry X-Less. There isn’t a hero there right now (besides Aizawa but like... idk, plot is nerfing him) that could’ve incapacitated Shiggy so quickly and prevented the mess they’re in now like my guy Edgeshot could’ve. Feels like a cop out

In conclusion: Edgeshot sweety I’m sorry they did this. I’m sorry you were nerfed. I’m sorry they didn’t let you deliver Kamino Pizza to this hospital. I’m sorry they ignored you and now everyone’s gonna die bc they didn’t they respect your Ninpo rights

CEMENTOSS??? y’all sent him to fuck up the mansion FOR WHAT??? If I were the hero commission and thought :

“Dang we need to completely ass blast this huge PLF resort to make room for our heroes to run in... but it would also be good if we had someone to do that at the hospital too just in case things get tricky and we need to pave a quick way to Ujiko’s secret hideout... but I’m single-celled and can’t weigh my options logically so ok. Cementoss, to the mansion.”

...................... Ok but can I in interest you in PIXIE BOB? I get the mansion is huge but going by the shit we’ve seen her do?? I’m not about to underestimate ol’ girl. I know she could’ve fucked that place up if they let her, switched her out for Cementoss, who could’ve made THE EASIEST route for the hospital team to get into the secret lab, trapped Ujiko, also trapped a couple nomu/high-ends in cement while he was at it, rearranged some tunnels for optimal tactical movement, probably could’ve done a decent-fucking-job at slowing the onslaught of Decay too if it got to that point (AND IT MIGHT NOT HAVE BC THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS RANT IS TO INSIST THAT A BETTER SELECTION OF HEROES WOULDN’T HAVE RESULTED IN SHIGGY’S CURRENT THANOS SNAP ORdEAL)

I know Pixie’s mostly on rescue operations and that’s what she’s doing at the hospital/surrounding city but WHY?? EVEN IF THEY REALLY NEEDED CEMENTOSS AT THE MANSION—WHY NOT HAVE PIXIE BOB DOING SOMETHING IN THE ACTUAL HOSPITAL BATTLE? JUST A LITTLE? The hospital is built on uh.. oh yeah... EARTH? And considering in the Forest Training arc she was using her quirk from a remote location (to make that Earth golem, or whatever) she wouldn’t even HAVE to be IN Ujiko’s lab to be useful

Can y’all PLEASE put at least ONE of your terraforming heroes at the place where y’all REALLY need them?? And not after-the-fact like y’all just did with Pixie Bob? Because clearly she didn’t do shit this last chapter trying to stop Decay. I’m sorry girl. You may be dead. Terrible.

I would have legitimately sent Snipe to get Ujiko before I sent Miruko and that’s that on that. Where is he even? He was there during the briefing but he’s gone? MIA? Idk. No way Ujiko is getting away from those bullets. Target locked: Ujiko’s hand. Fire. High-end Nomu remote goes bye bye. Then another bullet in the leg. No need to worry about him escaping and waking up high-ends/Shiggy when he doesn’t have kneecaps. Problem solved. No way it would’ve taken that long to break Shiggy’s tank either with a few well-placed pew pews zigging around some Nomu (not that we really wanna break him outta his tank bc look what happened). Snipe’s 6/5 technique stat deserves better!!!!!

Gang Orca did not go off and give a bunch of kids brain damage during the License arc to be so thoroughly ignored here. He’s clearly about to get his shit rocked by some gauged-out ex-Hot Topic employee in the next few chapters and ugh you’re TOO GOOD FOR THAT ORCA. COULD’VE BEEN OF USE AT THE HOSPITAL. PARALYZING SONIC WAVES? WE’LL TAKE IT. Who knows if any of the high-end Nomu would’ve been affected by paralysis but the small fry? Probably. Shiggy’s little twink ass? I would bet on it. Not that it would really stop him from using Decay but still

At the risk of sounding like someone I know who endorses child labor (the hero commission) here me out: CAN I GET A UHHH JUZO HONENUKI??? AGAIN YEAH good that he was at the mansion to do some long-range AOE action but if y’all are gonna force kids to join in on this war anyways, put your strongest and most useful ones at the place you need them. Shit it would’ve been real nice if Honenuki was there to trap some Nomu—uncertain if it would work against the high-ends that show some pretty flexible quirks but who knows—and even at the risk of reaching, maybe in some universe where Shiggy and Honenuki face off, it would be interesting to see Decay against Softening, since Decay’s one big weakness is that it can only work on solid objects sooOooOo? Idk. Would’ve been a cool match up but I hate that the kids are fighting anyways so we’re gonna ignore this Juzo rant. Just know it would’ve been cool

And as for the mess that’s going to be this fucking mansion soon... .. We’re just gonna ignore a whole ass Geten, big destructive power, big fucking threat, and not gonna throw Endeavor’s ass in there? Makes sense. They’re leaving it to Shoto I guess. They said time for you to fucking shine kid. Get in there. I mean really trading Endeavor for Edgeshot would’ve been top tier strategy but...

I MEAN THEY?? Made up a whole ass plan to counter ONE greasy-looking PLF guy by throwing Kaminari in there, but they couldn’t make up a plan to counter Geten? Are they just?? Pulling names out of a hat to see who gets to fight who? Did they spin a bottle to see who it landed on? Did Mt. Lady pull the short stick? I swear on shit when Geten starts going feral soon I’m not gonna feel sorry about it. Unless heroes got a plan and someone’s gonna make a sexy ass top 10 anime entrances to counter his ice then I’m disappointed. We went ape shit over Kaminari countering one of the commanders but are we not gonna get anymore ‘I’m your perfect counter and I’m here to stop you’ moments? No? I’M PISSED. 

I would have also settled for my kween Nejire being there to blast away some ice because who tf else is gonna do it? But eh. 

Dabi will also be trouble depending on what he decides to do. He only has about 3 good ideas a month and he’s used them all up by now so he’s in dumb slut territory as we speak. But you’d think that a villain as widely recognized as Dabi with such a destructive quirk would urge the heroes to have some plan to take him on but?? So far I don’t really see anyone quick to take on the role. Not that it’d be that hard bc he’s dangerous but also dangerously dumb. Where is Inasa. Maybe he can just blast the flames back in Dabi’s face. I love him but at this point he deserves to have some of his rights taken away

Don’t even get me start on Gigantomachia. I get the heroes had little choice except to attack before Shiggy was full-power but just?? NOT having a plan in case by some little chance Gigantomachia DID wake up? You stupid bastards. You absolute fools. I guess there’s not much you CAN do but FUCK y’all just gonna let him SIT THERE? No counter measures? No ‘Let’s execute this incredibly thorough and thought-out plan we’ve spent months formulating to restrain Gigantomachia in case he does end up waking up, because better safe than sorry’? When he tramples like 50 students I bet that shit gonna hurt

I hate it all. I was really happy about seeing Shiggy go off 272 bc he’s a king but after rereading from like, 258 I feel... weird. Maybe this will be resolved with more chapters but. eh. Now that I’ve thought of this, I can’t go back. I miss the brain power that was behind the MLA fight

[fizzingwizard]

I could cry y’all. Episode 37 was SO GOOD. So good!! It truly felt like a Mimi episode, and it truly felt like Digimon Adventure, in multiple ways. It’s seriously fantastic!

I feel at once super duper relieved that this show is, really and truly, capable of this time of episode, and also super duper confused why, if it could do this, it hasn’t been doing it the whole time??

Anyway, we’ve now had four or five solid episodes in a row, so I’m letting myself feel hopeful again!

This episode is called “Mimi Wars,” but I feel it might be more aptly titled “Sailor Mimi”

In the name of employee rights, I will punish you!

More below!

Okay... so as I was watching this episode, I really got the feeling that they were parodying something again. Like last we had a Mimi episode - far far away in the distant past though it was - when they very obviously parodied Castle in the Sky. That’s twice now Mimi’s been compared with a girl with twin tails, Usagi’s pigtails and Sheeta’s braids xD

Although the poses Mimi uses aren’t exact replicas of Usagi’s, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I got the Usagi vibe from her personality even more, so maybe using the poses would have been considered copyright infringement and so they had to change them a little. Or, maybe Mimi is parodying someone else who also uses dramatic hand movements and talks a lot about justice in spite of being generally clueless...

See the resemblance? XD

But what I REALLY think is going on is, they’re spoofing the genre in general, while also taking it seriously. That’s important. It’s not just a joke here. This is the girl power episode, in a way, and in my opinion, it’s a better girl power episode than the fare I got used to growing up, which went more or less like this:

Guy: *does something with good intentions but inept*

Girl: Ugh! Men don’t respect women!

Guy: I’m sorry, what did I do wrong?

Girl: I won’t tell you because feminism! C’mon girlfriends, let’s assert our confidence as women by going on a girls night out shopping spree and making a bunch of random guys stare in awe at us for no clear reason!

Girls: Yes! This is third wave feminism!

... that was more or less the formula. It was... awkward. I’d like to blame on “those episodes were written by men who think all feminists are angry feminists,” but I think if I went and checked who the scriptwriters were, there’d be some women in there for sure.

What we got in THIS episode is something I’d actually want my daughter to see. First off you’ve got Mimi, who loves pink and pretty things and comes across as a real girly girl, not to mention a bit of a ditz. And the show’s straight up, “but just because you have flaws doesn’t mean you can’t grow into a great person. Also, being girly is not incompatible with being a boss.”

Mimi doesn’t need to be a man, nor does she need to be a hard ass, nor does she need to be especially kind and sweet to soften her orders. All she has to do, according to this episode, is care about her craft, care about quality, and care about worker conditions.

I mean... a show where the girl boss wasn’t a Russian spy in a former life?? A show where the girl boss isn’t a Stepford wife who got where she is by marrying rich and funding her perfume company that way? She’s... she’s Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. She gets to be flawed and girly and fun-loving and bossy and ditzy all at the same time. She loves diamonds - but diamonds are no longer a “girl’s best friend.” Rather, Mimi herself is the diamond in the rough!

This actually makes her a really good set with Sora. Sora continues to be both a tomboy and very sisterly. Mimi’s very girly but very bossy. Between the two of them, they can conquer the world. Of course, I don’t know that the show would take it any farther than they already have, but I’m just happy to see this development for Mimi at all. We had it to a degree in 99 Adventure, and Kizuna took it a bit further by making her an entrepreneur. Reboot Mimi is a remix of that for the 21st century.

*deeeeeeeeeep breath*

so... back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As awesome as Mimi is, she’s not the only one who’s great in this episode. The others get to let their real personalities shine, at least. We needed this episode sooooo bad like 20 episodes ago... le sigh.

Anyway, we start off having mad camp, for some reason (why aren’t they just staying on Komondomon?? whatev)

Food! They’re going to get food! They’re splitting up and making a plan in order to get food!!! I still miss the “food desperation” of 99 Adventure but hey, at least they’re acknowledging that they need to eat.

Sora advises Hikari and Takeru not to go too far on their quest and Tailmon swears like a knight of the round table to protect Hikari with her life.

Taichi: Oookay... note to self: don’t piss off little sister’s hotheaded partner...

Taichi adds that they’re also counting on Patamon, who is just thrilled to go off and play with Takeru.

Tailmon: *BIG SIGH*

Lol I really love that they’re bringing back the old Patamon/Tailmon dynamic where she’s all grown up serious and he’s got the priorities of a toddler most of the time... It’s Black Widow and Hawkeye bahahahaha

We even get to see them COLLECT FOOD what did I do to deserve this they are COLLECTING FOOD IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN I REPEAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN

Taichi even has to warn Agumon not to eat the food becaues they’re supposed to be gathering it to share ;___; omg... we actually get on screen proof that Agumon is a glutton??

Then Taichi tries to “help” by shaking the tree and the tree falls and they -

BAHAHAHAHAHA

humor!!! Poking fun at Taichi even!! Over food!! Because he has a klutz for a partner!!! And because he himself was overzealous!! ;_; I could die of Cute.

Sora absolutely shocks me this episode too. I expected she’d just watch Taichi and Agumon drift away with their folly while sighing and shrugging her shoulders or something.

NOPE

She jumps DIRECTLY UP and into the water without a moment’s hesitation, like they’re going to die without her - I don’t even know what her plan is here, she seems to want Piyomon to evolve and pull them out, but why does that mean Sora has to be in the water too?

I think her sisterly instincts just freaked out on seeing Taichi looking wet and confused and clinging to a tree trunk so she just did the first thing she could think of which was “Get to him!!”

Piyomon then fails to evolve, reason unclear, I suppose she’s hungry... they never do eat though so I’m not sure why she can evolve later xD (probably they eat off screen)

But I mean I just love that we got this bit with Sora. I call it freaking out but she doesn’t seem freaked out - she stays calm and seems decisive and takes action - all good things. It’s just hard to understand her thought process xD But it’s all good info about Sora. (again stuff we needed more of AGES ago)

Now I had thought this was all just a funny bit that was separate to the main story, but this is how Taichi and Sora end up washed up in the rocky area Mimi is. This does mean Koushirou, Takeru, and Hikari aren’t much in the rest of the episode, sadly. Not sure why but the reboot does seem to struggle with writing episodes for the whole group.

Like last week, I’m somewhat miffed that, in the end, the main group finds the stragglers instead of the other way around. It’s even worse this time because at least last episode Koushirou told them where he was and they had a reason to go there. This time they have no idea Mimi’s gonna be there and it’s all a big coincidence. On the other hand... I do think Mimi was born under a lucky star, so that explains it. :P

Taichi and Sora suddenly find them selves trapped Gulliver’s Travels style and they’re both immediately like, “Hmm... something about this situation seems very familiar...”

Taichi and Sora: Oh that’s RIGHT we totally forgot that the pink cowgirl we hand out with is also TOTALLY BATSHIT

D’awww. Our future overlord is just so adorable, I don’t even mind when she flogs us in the street

TBH, up till now they’ve woefully underestimated just how batshit she is. And it’s wonderful.

So Mimi has happened upon some poor, disenfranchised Digimon who are being forced to work for an evil boss who collects the beautiful gems that grow in this area. Like in 99 Adventure, Mimi will have none of this sort of crap. Her reasons, though, have evolved with the times:

omg... she voted for Bernie Sanders!

This is how Harry and Ron reacted when Hermione said she was starting a house-elf welfare organization called SPEW.

Though I joke - like I said before, even though Taichi and Sora are rather mind-boggled by Mimi’s mood swings and fits of passion, and there’s definitely humor there, Mimi herself is not a joke here. We are shown strongly that, however in the clouds her head might be, her heart is not only in the place, it’s also already internalized the fact that people don’t always get treated well in the real world and it’s up to those with power to ensure that are protected.

I mean. At this point, I’m going, “Sorry but ISN’T MIMI THE REAL LEADER IN THIS SHOW?!?!”

Of course she does have another, less lofty motivation... she really likes pretty stones.

Buhahahaha.

Mimi’s names are as creative as they are incredible, just like her. Taichi and Sora have trouble keying in with Mimi due to how changeable she is, but they never talk badly about her or reject her. They never try to wrest leadership from her either! Taichi might think Mimi’s names for the stones are over the top, but sort of sidesteps it and just goes along with her plan.

Reason #14567876867867 why I love Yagami Taichi: when someone else is the leader, he can be a follower. And he’ll be the BEST follower. Keep reading to see why.

The story of how Mimi befriended the enslaved rock Digimon here is pretty much how Goku became besties with Vegeta.

Men communicate their hearts through their fists! Or swords, depending on the anime. ANOTHER AWESOME SUBVERSIVE MOMENT FOR MIMI - she’s now even got cliche shonen hero tropes assigned to her!

Taichi and Sora, like I said, don’t try to change Mimi’s mind - they’re actually touched by her strong feelings about workers’ rights and her desire to help her new friends -

Taichi: Wait... what?

Sora: Well, she’s still a ten year old girl.

The rock Digimon show their allegiance to Princess CEO Mimi. They don’t even mind having their names and identities stripped away and being reduced to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet...

Taichi: I hate Excel.

Sora: I do too, but I’m more impressed that she remembers the numbers she gave us back in episode 6.

Taichi: Impressed? More like filled with a sense of impending doom

Only Taichi seems to understand Mimi’s unique power bahahaha.

But back to what I said earlier, about Mimi being the real leader: I don’t know if the show’s gonna keep doing anything with this at all, but I really like that they didn’t NOT do this in order to ensure Taichi’s the only leader. (I mean, Yamato’s so far not made much of a bid for leadership so he’s been pretty uncontested thus far. He also hasn’t had to do all that much leading given how often the group is separated... but I digress)

I love the idea that Taichi can step back and let someone else take the reins when they’re best suited. Which Mimi is, due to her easy ability to make friends and gain trust. Mimi had this ability in 99 as well and it was used in the final battle to muster the troops, so to speak. It ought to have been a bigger deal but wasn’t since she missed most of the final battle :/ But I loved that “social, able to make friends” wasn’t some stupid “Girls talk too much” trait, it was actually something that was useful. This is a great place to take that with the reboot.

At the same time, while Mimi and Taichi both have similar leadership traits, there are places they diverge that potentially make them leaders for different situations. Taichi’s pretty cool and strategic even in emergencies. He was more of a hothead in 99, but Mimi’s always been quick to anger. (And quick to cool down.) As we’ll see in this episode, that’s sort of where Taichi’s true ability lies: he’s serious, determined, strategic, and reliable as well as brave. But this is Mimi’s episode, and Taichi isn’t going to get to be the hero anymore than he (almost) was last week with Koushirou. Because more than one character can have positive leadership traits! Hallelujah.

Quick nip over to Komondomon and the others - Koushirou’s group is going to try to find them, but Komondomon falls asleep. Oh noes. I wish someone (Koushirou) would ask, out loud, “Gee, what are these strange symbols that appear when we communicate via digivice? Do they mean something? How were they assigned?” I really thought we’d get a hint what with all the conveniently colorful gemstones this episode, but still nope.

My girl looking like a BAMF!

Mimi explains her plan to her servants employees. She is surprisingly artistic!

Sora plays the role of bait to create a diversion while Greymon digs a tunnel to get to where the gems are stored. Mimi congratulates herself on a job well done.

Taichi: A job well done? Who d’you think has been doing the work here?

Greymon: That would be me.

Taichi: Right, right I was going to say you >.>;

So we do see bits of Mimi’s self-centered side as well - she’s not perfect, but who is? Taichi just lives with it. Mwehehehe.

... will be fired! LMAO

No. 72 is Taichi, btw. Mimi gave up calling people by their names for Lent.

Taichi: Lent’s not for over a month.

Mimi: It’s never too early for religious sacrifice.

Taichi: And you’re not Catholic.

Mimi: I celebrate Mardi Gras.

Taichi: yOU JUST LIKE THE COSTUMES AND KING CAKE

He’s miffed and he.... just lives with it. Again. xD

It’s hilarious. And adorable. I love both that 1) Mimi is an awesome boss while being, in fact, rather bossy, and that 2) in spite of being a boss type himself, Taichi not only listens to Mimi, but he totally indulges her like he’s her older brother or something x’D He wouldn’t be out of line for saying “I have a name you know!” On the other hand, I guess he knows her well enough to understand that she doesn’t mean anything by it, and... there’s no stopping her when she gets like this :P

Feel the wrath of Tachikawa Mimi!!!

So Mimi’s plan has worked so far, and she’s got everyone listening to her despite her questionable business practices, and then she... suddenly rushes off in another direction.

Taichi: That’s it, I am through being her personal assistant if she’s just going to change the plan on a whim!

Taichi: ... I don’t want to see her get hurt or be sad though...

Greymon understands Taichi’s heart ;___; and enables him to go after Mimi. I don’t really get why it’s wise to split up given that Taichi can’t fight big rock Digimon without his partner... x’D So I’m going to chalk this up to, Greymon understands that Taichi is, at his core, the team Dad. He’s got to be allowed to worry and check up on the kids, even when it’s not so advisable. Awwwwwwwww.

Indeed, Taichi doesn’t get to be the hero this ep, but small moments like this give us waaaay more character development than always being the hero!

Fortunately Mimi does have her own partner and she’s not afraid of the enemy’s rock hard abs. :P

They make it into the storage center for all the gems. IT’S SO COLORFUL. Ten year old men is squeeing just like Mimi.

Come on!! She’s holding yellow/orange topaz and purple amethyst! It could be the material for Taichi or Takeru’s and Koushirou’s crests! (I always liked fire opal for Taichi though xD)

Taichi’s been promomted!! To chief pack animal x’D Just because it’s a cool name doesn’t mean that’s what the job is, Meems.

Taichi’s just like, “I think I’m too young for that position.” Bahahaha.

He’s going to be carrying her books to school before long.

Then something big and hard hits Taichi in the head!! He freaking starts to cry, it hurts so bad!!

Taichi: Owww! Omg I think I got a concussion from that! Help someone call an ambulance!

He was hit in the head by a diamond, which Mimi loves. So she goes off on a monologue about how much she likes diamonds. She never asks him if he’s okay x’D

Taichi: Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, not that you asked or anything.

Mimi: Please, everyone knows your head is already harder than diamonds.

Taichi: ...

The pile of gems looks like Fruity Pebbles. Mmmmm

It turns out the mastermind of this whole operation is Gogmamon, who is the bastard child of Gogmagog I assume :P He eats the gemstones as well as Gotsumon for power. He then produces the diamonds?? I didn’t quite understand if he was spitting out the diamonds because he didn’t like them, or he was creating them inside him when eating and then spitting them out like... diamond turds...

...

they’re diamond turds aren’t they >__>

Mimi is not interested in big business bulldozing the mom and pop shops and small upstarts. And she hates sweatshops! She is pro-Fair Trade all the way! And she will yell it in your face!

Taichi: It’s the yelling part that I’m having trouble with.

Mimi: A good speech from the boss is what keeps up employee morale!

Taichi: Yeah, that’s less true when the boss is about to be gobbled up herself...

Golemon and Togemon try to fight Gogmamon and this results in Golemon falling to pieces.

Taichi: Are you okay?

Golemon: My HEAD was knocked off, but sure I’m doing JUST FINE -____- little brat

Taichi stands protectively in front of Golemon’s head. Lol. He’s thinking of strategies... perhaps regretting rushing after Mimi and leaving his own partner behind...

Mimi joins him and Gogmamon finds her a formidable opponent in the war of words. Gogmamon argues that all the rocks, all the Digimon, everything here belongs to him and him alone! And Mimi brilliantly counters with:

“Fuck that! They belong to ME!”

x’D He just like... under his breath... “she admits that’s how she thinks of us...” hahahaha... I laughed out loud...

It might not be 3D but this is an excellent evolution sequence xD I haven’t said so yet but the animation in this episode was good! Good for the show anyway. It was smoother than usual despite some mechanical-like mouth movements and more than that, it had character and expression!

okay important question everyone: Taichi = Kermit, Mimi = Miss Piggy... discuss??

So Gogmamon has a pretty cool-sounding attack, “Curse Reflection.” I have often complained that the villains we fight and get new evolutions with aren’t that scary, but Gogmamon not only seemed pretty formidable (if not the smart, I mean he does have rocks for a brain), he also had a good story build up. My one disappointment in this episode is that the ending is so fast and Gogmamon so easily dealt with. This would have been a good time to introduce Rosemon (like how last week would have been an appropriate time for HerculesKabuterimon). But in both cases, we’re definitely supposed to take away at least that these guys are almost there... Anyway yeah, I would have liked a tiny bit more meant to the resolution but.

So here’s ANOTHER cool thing! Taichi notices that Gogmamon rejects the diamonds, and realizes they’re the key to defeating him. But he doesn’t just tell that to Mimi. He asks her “Did you see that?” And guess what - she did!

So even though the show couldn’t resist telling us that yes, Taichi would have been able to handle this situation - it doesn’t even let him give Mimi a hint towards victory. She figures it out for herself! The most we can say he does is point out the diamond, but she understands the implication and is able to use it against Gogmamon through her own intellect.

TAICHI DOESN’T MANSPLAIN Y’ALL. HE’S NOT A MANSPLAINER. HALLELUJAH AND PAST THE PEAS!!

Mimi is very influenced by her hardworking, CEO grandpa, Tachikawa Genichiro, who’s taught her things about business and things about values, and it really reads as if she’s the one who will inherit the family business - like she’s the family investment. You know, the role that traditionally only falls to sons. That’s changed with the world, and apparently Tachikawa Genichiro-jiisan is totally on board with his granddaughter being more than just a pretty heiress!

... btw what are they making...

“You’re fired!” Mimi yells as Lillymon takes Gogmamon down x’D kill me I love it

Like last time (and it sure was a long time ago that we saw it ;_;), the aftereffects of Lillymon’s powers is plants start growing everywhere. This is such a cool effect, I don’t get why it’s not used more. Right now I feel like Mimi/Palmon are the best set in the show.

(I did think it was funny when Mimi gives the diamond to Lillymon to use against Gogmamon and Lillymon acts like Mimi’s making this huge sacrifice since she loves diamonds so much. But 1) it wasn’t the only one, and 2) they were spat out by Gogmamo! that’s gross! that’s got to cut into the value! hahah)

The others finally catch up and the day is saved. Golemon is an employee for life now. Awww.

AWWWWWW.

I gushed about all this before so I won’t repeat myself, but yeah, I’m so happy with this episode.

Lol Sora and Taichi have accepted their places in Mimi’s world, in the end. They might have numbers instead of names and their boss might change her mind about things every five seconds, but other than that it’s a pretty nice gig overall.

Again the art, so sweet. This reminded me of Miyako yelling to Mimi about how she wants to be like her when she grows up in 02 so I capped it.

And I absolutely love this little play on words since it’s in English! Wow!

SO CUTE. How did a Mimi episode kick every other episode out of the water? Scratch that, we always knew Mimi was fantastic. A shojo hero for the 21st century.

Well I said a ton and this is really long now so I’m gonna assume you all get my thoughts on this episode. 9.5/10, really awesome, totally unexpected but perfectly suted to Mimi. I’m so so happy this show seems to have figured things out and remebered that it’s supposed to be freaking Digimon Adventure, it seemed like it forgot for a while there. I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time on those more lackluster episodes, I want so many more stories like this one.

Next week looks like another winner:

OK, that concept is hilarious x’D I’m so sorry. But also, leave it to Yamato and Gabumon to get the tragedy episode.

The mood maker will be this guy! I’m totally psyched for Yamato and Jou. Taichi’s been important in the past two episodes even though they were centered on Koushirou and Mimi, so I wonder if/when he’ll be involved this time? Or maybe it really will be just Yamato and Jou - my dream combo?? I can’t wait either way.

DID NOT CHECK FOR TYPOS! See y’all next week.

[betasuppe]

Here's the info for the Obakei + Crime Fam AU I came up with earlier today [literally started today, so sorry if this seems a bit messy & such, but this is what I've got so far!]:

It starts with Kei, who comes from a rather well to do family, when her parents have arranged a marriage for her with a really wealthy man who practically owns half of the town!... even though she's never met before. The guy seems like a good fellow, but turns out to be a total creep. The first time they meet, he gets her alone in his house after separating her from Morgan - who's an employee of Kei's household, but the two practically see themselves as sisters! - & the monster tries to r*pe her. In her panic, Kei pulls a gun she had smuggled in on her person [which Morgan insisted Kei bring along with her just in case] & she kills him without a second thought. Knowing no one would believe her & she'd be punished cruelly for his murder, she tells Morgan about the ordeal & the two quickly run off into the night without looking back....

Days pass & it's only too obvious that Kei's basically useless in the real world & she struggles to get along with what little money she has. Even though Morgan has far more street smarts than her, they can only get so far with the small amount of resources they have together. They eventually wind up at a bank, where Kei begs for access to some money through her father's account [to no avail] when the place is suddenly held up by a terrible group of bandits. The monsters take the girl hostage, holding her at gunpoint to rob the place blind & use her to safely make their exit after their successful robbery. They tie her up & toss her on the back of a horse & are about to head off when Kei starts screaming that she needs Morgan, to the point that her ride-or-die pal willingly gives herself up to be taken hostage as well lmao when the bandits take off deep into the night.

Once they get to their hidden, but opulent decorated hideout somewhere in the middle of the desert, the bandits tie the girls up & play around with them in a not so friendly manner, cruelly suggesting just how to be rid of the girls. Kei manages to get the gag off of her face & she bargains for their lives, telling the criminals that they can ransom her back to her rich, stupid family for some big bucks. This catches the leader's attention & the Wraith finally steps in. He stares down silently at their prisoners, where Kei panics & tells them all how fabulously wealthy her father is & how much more worth alive she could be to the fiends. After letting her awkwardly ramble on for a bit, he announces that they have big plans thanks to the lucky hostage taking of this particular patsy.

So, the bandits keep them simply as prisoners for a while, but Kei & Morgan both somehow start bonding with a few particular members of the gang until they've won over everyone besides their stoic leader. But, eventually after being coerced by his gang & chatting with the girls on his own, the Wraith is intrigued enough that he has the two released & has them start training to be a part of their team of misfits, as Kei made it plainly clear that she too wants to get back at her family & show them she's not just a useless tool to marry off for her father's sake & all that!

So, Kei takes to the wild side of life real fast & becomes a natural leader & gunslinger among the chaotic group. She's there with the bandits through heists & robberies, even going so far to help plan out the ransom scheme they're going to enact againsy her own family. Thus, cue hectic rides through the desert in the dark of the night on horse back & crazy train robberies & full town shoot outs & all the classic western tropes that are just 😌👌

& all the while, Kei & the Wraith grow closer together, going from being his prisoner to basically becoming his right hand man.

In due time, they slowly learn more about each other, & find that they share similar disastrous pasts that led them out here in the middle of desert to live these chaotic criminal lives.

It turns out that the Wraith's sad tale started when he had once proposed to his hometowns darling & the love of his life. They had been best friends since childhood & so she eagerly agreed, but he was completely undesirable in her family's eyes as he was half native & the town frowned on his mixed heritage. So, instead, this girl's family decided to have her be quickly married off to someone else, to shake the Wraith from tearing down the good name of their elite family.

Regardless, the Wraith was able to find out when & where the wedding was yo take place & when he tried to stop the wedding proceedings, hired goons from the girl's family beat him up & tossed his sorry self in jail. By the time the Wraith came to, the girl was married to some wealthy idiot & long gone, set off on some train for her new life without him.

Fueled by rage, he broke out of jail & confronted the girl's father, where the two engaged in a stand off & the Wraith shot the horrible man down. With a price on his head & wanted posters hanging around the town for killing an official of the blasted little town, he ran off & started accumulating a group of followers by freeing prisoners from nearby jails & working with renegade natives who were hungry for revenge on these land developers & businesses who were eating up the natural landscape & sacred lands, as well.

Over time, the fearsome name of the Wraith passed from town to town, where the team of criminals slowly took on larger & larger crimes until they were the stuff of legends! They were slowly taking back towns one by one until they were nothing but ghost towns & the desert was allowed to reclaim the land stolen from them.

&... well... uh, sorry to say, but that's honestly all I have so far!! I started thinking up this whole thing this morning, so forgive me for any odd ideas or whatnot, I'm slowly going to smooth it out into a solid story!!

Bur, surely rhe bandits return to take revenge of Kei's family & some sort of drama surely unfolds, but I'm not sure what just yet... so sorry for the lack of satisfying ending,, but I'm working on it oops! I promise!!

Lemme know your thoughts & if you have any ideas, shoot them my way as I will gladly take on advice to draw this story to a perfect ending!!!

[peachyteabuck]

pull you out of here

summary: asgard needs a queen, thor wishes to defy his father, and you seem to be the solution to both

pairing: dark!thor odinson x reader

words: 4,971

trigger warnings: dark possessive thor, stalking, emotional manipulation, heavy dubcon, smut, slight breeding kink, heavy angst, cheating, unhealthy relationships 

ask box / masterlist / commission info / ko-fi

To say that Thor was mad would be an understatement. To say Frigga cared would be a complete lie.

“He’s trying to get me to marry, Mother,” he nearly screams. Nonetheless, the woman remains calm. “To cede some of my power to some woman!”

Frigga watches her son stomp around her chambers with a watchful eye, never moving from her seat across the room. She’s watched her son – her lovely, wonderful son – perform this long-winded act many times before; when Loki came into their lives, whenever Frigga had to force them to share. Thor, in classic eldest-sibling fashion, thoroughly disliked anyone impeding on what he thought to be his.

His toys, his room, his room, his power. All of it, everything he wished for, was his.

This included his throne, apparently, as is made obvious by his red-faced rambling.

“What, is he going to pluck some maiden from the streets of Asgard? Make her some puppet for during in my rule?” he’s stomping now, nearly spitting.

He stays like that – acting the same way he did when Loki stole a single potato from his plate when he was old enough to walk and talk and feel but young enough to not have a single muscle on his lanky body.

Just like usual, he eventually tires himself out, using his last bit of energy to bark in the general direction of a servant to get him some ale. He sits in the chair across from his mother, elbow resting on his knees.

Thor’s voice is quieter now, much more pensive. “Mother, what am I going to do?”

Frigga waits for the servant to bring the large drink and for Thor to gulp half of it down before responding. “What you father wants is for you to have a bride – it’s important to the people you rule over. What your father wants –“

“Is for me to give my power to some woman,” Thor scoffs into his drink. “I’m aware.”

Frigga rolls her eyes. “No, darling. What your father wants is to make sure the woman is to his tastes.”

Her son scoffs. “What does that mean?”

“It means, if you picked a woman from say,” the woman shrugs. “Midgard, then he wouldn’t be able to say no to her for fear of backlash from the Asgardians,” Thor smiles as she continues talking, now understanding. “They love their humans, you know.”

They laugh together, happy as their devised their plan: Thor would leave the next day for Midgard, spend some time there, woo some woman he knows will not impede too much into his duties as king.

So, when Thor saw you in that faded orange cardigan, the leggings that showed off your thick thighs, and a well-loved t-shirt that looked incredibly soft with your hair piled on top of your head and fuzzy socks on your feet and you yawning so adorably as you waited for your coffee to be finished, he knew he had to have you. Sure, maybe he was being shallow when he thought about being buried between your thick thighs or laying on your large breasts, and maybe he should’ve learned more about your personality before calling you his “dream girl.” But still, he knew you were the one and he needed to get you to fall in love with him ASAP.

There were a few problems with this mission:

First: he didn’t know your name, your job in the tower, or how to find you. He knew you as “the adorable one who likes coffee,” which doesn’t narrow it down, especially because they were in New York and more specifically Stark Tower, where everyone within city limits was running on two gallons of coffee, anxiety, and institutional access to research databases.

Second: after pestering every Avenger he could find, Thor found out that you had a boyfriend. A long-term one, too. About five years is what Steve begrudgingly told Thor after the God broke into his personal gym during his morning run on the treadmill (that day it was hailing, and Captain America will put up with a lot – but he refuses to get hit in the face with golf-ball sizes sphere of ice). A few minutes later, Barton (who admitted very quickly to listening through the vents) told Thor that rumor had it he was going to propose pretty soon – had picked the ring and restaurant out but hadn’t booked the reservation.

Third: very soon after learning that you were taken, Thor also learned that he would likely be spending a lot of time with you since where you worked and his favorite place ended up being the exact same. Tony’s personal lab (where he often worked with Bruce), was pretty much where you lived. Your official job description was akin to “personal librarian,” which meant keeping the lab orderly so Tony could on inventing things (or whatever else it is he does). Once, about a day before Pepper decided to hire someone, Tony spent four hours sorting screws.

Four. Entire. Hours.

You, with your degree in IT and concentration in database creation and management, were perfect for the job. He was even allowing you to use his lab for research – making you a pioneer in a field you didn’t realize existed until LexisNexis contacted you asking to moonlight as a consultant during their company-wide restructuring.

Some (mostly those who interviewed for the job and didn’t get it) called you a glorified assistant, a nanny whose only job was to clean up toys. Still, Tony spoke highly of you during parties and interviews and whenever anyone complimented his lab.

Given your dedication to your work, a few months in Tony offered you an apartment a few floors down. It was newly renovated, and since most Stark employees lived in Stark Industries-subsidized housing not located within HQ, you lived mostly secluded from everyone else.

To you, it was amazing. You never had to see anyone you didn’t intend to and you never had to brave the famously-bad New York winter weather just to go to bed. In all honesty, it was your dream life.

Thor, though, had to disagree. It made it impossible to “bump into you,” he never saw you when you weren’t working (you made it very clear you preferred to either a) work in silence or b) listen to music or an audiobook you picked). Even if he managed to catch a glimpse of you on your lunch break, you always seemed to be more interested in something else – a book, a conversation, whatever. Never, ever, did he seem to be able to catch you off guard.

About a week in, he realized this would be much harder than he originally thought.

Over the course of six months, Thor learned a few things:

First: you really like to read. He ends up asking Natasha (arguably the person you’re closest with) about every book you like in an attempt to have something to talk about.

Second (before he wanted to talk to you about the Poisonwood Bible but after he finally got Natasha to crack): You really don’t like your boyfriend, and your boyfriend doesn’t really seem to like you. When he asks why you two are still dating, Natasha just shrugs sadly.

“That’s a story for her to tell, not me, Odinson,” she said.

Third (the next morning, he sniffed around the kitchen to find anyone who would tell him anything about you): You were incredibly insecure about your body. He learned that from Steve. He learned from Sam that this was why you stayed with your emotionally distant romantic partner; because you thought you couldn’t find anyone better.

This, of course, was a lot of information to handle at once. So Thor did what a bunch of bubbly college students on YouTube called “mind-maps” so he could sort out his thoughts. What started as a fresh, clean, white sheet of graph paper ended up being a masterplan to win you over.

Step 1: Have a solid conversation with you

This happens much faster than expected. The next morning, to be exact. It’s sort of warming up, so you’re wearing a thin pullover and a pair of tight, light grey jeans. The pullover has some Midgardian logo on it, one Thor doesn’t recognize. When you turn around as you wait for the coffee machine, he asks you about it.

“What’s on your…” he gestures to said logo.

You smile bashfully, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. “It’s, uh, it’s just some concept art for a book I like. ”

Thor beams. He knows he’s got you. “What book?”

You shrug, grabbing the pot and pouring the steaming liquid into your peach pink travel mug. “It’s called Nothing, it’s by Janne Teller…

From there, you and him talk about what’s possibly the darkest book of all time. You explain to him the plot, the emotion it evokes from you. It truly is your favorite piece of literature; you really could talk about it for hours.

So, you do. Over your morning coffee, then a larger-than-usual breakfast, and then lunch. You make grilled cheese and tomato soup, biting every few sentences.

“God, my favorite line, like of the entire book is like,” you take a bite, chewing as you speak. “So Pierre is talking to these kids, and this one kid is Muslim, and gave up the prayer mat, or rather was made to give up his prayer mat. And Pierre is like ‘what price was your faith?’ And that line has like, continued to haunt me. It’s just,” you swallow. “What price do we pay to prove ourselves to others, you know?”

Thor listens intently as you speak, nodding and smiling as you go on. It’s amazing how much someone lights up when they talk about something they’re passionate about. It’s probably mid-afternoon when you finally realize that you’ve been talking for literal hours.

“Oh my god,” you gush, collecting the dishes and placing them in the sink. “I’m so sorry, I’ve been-”

Thor grabs your wrist, bunching at the sleeve. “No, please do not apologize. I have been meaning to talk to you for a long time.”

You blush, not meeting his eyes. “Why would someone like you want to talk to someone like me…”

That’s sort of when Thor’s suave facade cracks a little. You’re everything he’s ever wanted in a partner. Literally ever. And your inability to see that troubles him deeply.

“My dear, you’re so smart and quick and eloquent,” he tells you, never break eye contact. “Don’t even think I don’t want to be around you.”

You blush, not responding while scuttering off and mumbling something about having to go to a meeting for Stark.

Step 2: Get you to spend what Natasha and Wanda call “quality time” with him.

This one happens a little while later. Tony, in an effort to reward you, gave you some time off. The problem is that you hate taking off work, you always have. It’s impossible for you to feel good when you’re not being productive, and the idea of laying around for three days is unimaginable to you.

“Listen, you need some sun, you’ve been cooped up in here for weeks,” Tony tried to plead with you as he hanged upside down from the ceiling.

“C’mon, I’m not a house plant! What am I going to do anyway?” you cry out from your spot on the floor.

Just then, Natasha happened to walk through the door with a paperwork mishap. If there was a lightbulb above her head, it would’ve burned bright enough to blind them. Without doing anything that even resembles what she originally walked into the lab to do, Natasha bolts out at the speed of lightning.

“THOR!” she screams when she enters his apartment. “THOR, I HAVE SOME VERY GOOD NEWS!”

Promptly, he comes out in just a towel, glowing like some candle in a dark room. “Yes, Natasha?”

She takes a minute to wolf whistle before she beings. “The darling girl you’ve had your eye on has a few days off coming up...you should take her somewhere! Do something!”

Thor’s silent. He sort of didn’t think this would ever happen...now that he has the opportunity he’s a little floored. It’s like when you’ve been doodling hearts with your crush’s name in them and then they actually talk to you. “Oh...oh Gods...what do I do? How should I ask her…”

Natasha’s a little giddy with excitement at the prospect of Thor taking you out. You’ve been so good to them in so many different ways...she wants someone to do something nice to you for once. If that meant setting you up with the super-hot God of Thunder (and Fertility...wink wink), then so be it.

“Oh goodness, you can do anything!” she mentally runs through all of the endless possibilities. “She’ll want something quiet, quaint...coffee shop? No, that’s too boring. Some fair thing? No, that’s too crazy, loud. Maybe you could...oh my God that’s perfect!”

Thor, still in a towel but now dry, looks confused. Appreciative, but confused. “What, Natasha...what is it?”

Her grin stretches from ear to ear, teeth flashing and eyes bright. “You should help her organize the bookshelf in her room, she’s been talking about it for ages and she’s always talks about she’s never had the time or the energy and-”

“You think the best way for me to get to know the future mother of my children is to help her organize her...shelf of books?” Thor is now dressed. Natasha doesn’t question it.

“Uh...hells yeah! Listen, dude. If you really want to get to know her you need to get her in a situation, she’s comfortable with,” Natasha sees she has a text indicating she’s needed for some logistical work for the next mission and turns to leave. Right before the elevator, though, she turns to face Thor again. “But don’t mention the ‘mother of children thing’...it’s weird.”

Thor takes note as he prepares to ask you about the...date? Is it a date? That he’s planning on taking you on. Luckily, he doesn’t have to try too hard, because Wanda and Steve less than five minutes later to help him.

“Oh Thor-egous Odinson!” Wanda sing-songs as she enters into his living room. She practically bouncing off of the walls as she goes to sit down next to Thor on the large, plush couch.

“Hey Thor,” Steve mumbles quietly. He chooses a chair across from both of them, obviously extremely uncomfortable with the situation. He’s one of the few people who knows you really well, though, so the need for qualified individuals overpowers his personal feelings about manipulating you into going on a date with the God (Natasha refused to use that word when Steve brought it up, though. “I’m just encouraging her, Steven, calm down,” she tried to explain to him on the elevator up. “Don’t call me that,” is all Steve replied).

“So,” Wanda chirps. “Nat told us you wanted to help our favorite little book worm organize her bookshelves on her sequence of days off?”

Thor gives a small noise of affirmation, knowing very well that Wanda and Natasha understand you the best. If he had any choice of making his plan work, they would have to be a part of it – whether they knew it or not.

They spent hours talking about you – both of them providing deep analysis of your likes, dislikes, preferences. The things you love, hate.

It ended with lists sprawled on scraps of paper, things they told Thor he had to memorize if had “a sliver of hope” of having you like him.

With pockets stuffed full of these promises, he walked away with a small smirk and much better idea of how execute his plan, as has all led him into the next step:

Step 3: Make you like him much more than your current paramour.

This part appears to be the easiest, given your boyfriend is an aggressively mediocre man-child. You’ve got a picture of you and him on one of the bookshelf cubicles not overcome by thick books, next to a few small figurines of miscellaneous origin.

Thor asks about them as you both work to clear the bookshelf, throwing everything on the floor to be sorted later. Each one makes smile brightly for a few moments before sadness overtakes your eyes. One of them – a small fawn curled into a sleeping position on a small, circular bed of grass – seems to bring a special wave of melancholy to your face.

“Yeah, that was from when we met, a, uh, a study abroad program to a Canadian university. He and I had a mutual friend who made miniatures for fun – still does, actually – and we met through her. He bought me that for our first anniversary.”

Thor does his best to hide his wicked smile, but nevertheless is appreciative of your downcast eyes. “It sounds like he really loves you.”

You don’t disagree, just sigh. “So, can you help me sort these books by color type?”

Thor smiles wide as he can. “Of course.”

As he separates the books into four piles (warms, cools, white, and black), he goes over the state of his plan:

Step 4: Have you break up with your current paramour.

This step seems to be a significantly harder step, given your stubbornness surrounding being with him. It’s not as if Thor can grab you by the shoulders and say “he doesn’t love you! He’ll never love you! Just stop being in a relationship with him!”

He totally can’t do that, right? Right?

(After a few communiques with his mother they both decide, no, he can in fact not do that.)

So he settles for driving a wedge between the two of you that even he can fit in. Somehow, that seems just as good.

Step 5: Have you join him in Asgard.

This, too, feels much harder than sowing dislike between you and your…previous courtesan.

You’re smart, interesting, something Thor has yet to see in many possible wives. The problem is, your intelligence and fascinating nature are tied to your highly demanding job that you are, unfortunately, very attached to. Attempting to keep you for anything longer than your contractually obligated lunch break is tough enough, how could he convince you leave your job? Your home?

The floor-to-ceiling bookshelves – now organized by color – stare down at Thor almost mockingly. He wonders, as he hears the teapot screeching and two mugs being placed onto the counter, if his plan worked. You’re naïve, sure, but too naïve for him to mold? He’s been manipulating people since he was a golden child – him misreading you would be a blow to his ego, his very being.

But he cannot give up. Not when he’s only two steps into his plan.

As such, Thor spends the next few weeks following you around – doing everything he possible could to make your life easier. A mug too high? He would grab it before you could sigh about what shelf it was on. Dirty dishes? He’d fill the dishwasher, do the handwashing, and put all the clean dishes away after drying them. He did laundry and put it all away in its exact place.

Natasha made a comment Thor didn’t understand about 1960’s housewives, to which the god said nothing in return. He’d join you multiple times a week to do whatever you wanted – sometimes you’d watch a movie together, other times he’d help you shop online. Sometimes he’d help you cook food for the week, once he listened to you talk about new academic research you were interested in.

One special week he even held you as you cried about the man who was supposed to be the love of your life. That week, he wiped your tears and held you as you feel asleep, nuzzling into one of the many large hoodies he had acquired on his time on Midgard. That week, he thought he had cracked it – thought he had finally figured out how to get what wants.

Unfortunately for him, the truth was not kind to his endeavors. Not even a full day had passed before you were gushing over the man once more, sparkles in your eyes and hands clutching the latest “cute” thing he had texted you.

It was sickening, really, how easily you allowed yourself to be manipulated by him. Still, it gave Thor an ounce of hope. It this imbecile could get you crawling back to him, surely a god could do it too.

So he kept with the constant visits, with the bringing you lunch and coffee and eating take out on the floor of your bedroom and watching bad movies with you. It was menial, but it was working.

You began to trust him, began to get used to his presence.

For this reason (and maybe a few more you didn’t want to talk about), the knock on your door at dusk on a Wednesday was not exactly unexpected. For this reason, you answered the door in a loose crop top and soft, worn pajama shorts and ankle socks with smiling avocados on them.

You opened the door to him, excited to show him the duvet he had helped you pick out. It looked so much better in person, and you thought he’d like it.

He followed you, of course he did, into your bedroom. You were expecting that.

What you weren’t expecting was him to slam you into one of the few spots on the wall devoid of posters, trinkets, other miscellaneous crap that made the place feel a little more like a home.

You couldn’t see much over his broad shoulders, but somehow the top shelf of the very bookcase he had help you organize all that time ago.

Each title seemed to mock you as he began to speak.

“You’ve been holding out on me, little lamb,” he said with a sneer.

You tried to push at his muscular chest to no avail. “Thor, I don’t know what you’re t-“

He pushes you against the wall once more, ignoring your cries in pain. “Shut the fuck up, you know exactly what I mean.”

He rips the crop top off – revealing your simple black bralette. He moans as his large hands palm at your breasts, and you have to fight one yourself, too. It’s been so long since you’d had sex, let alone gone to first base; your lover (the one you had been with for over five years) hadn’t touched you like that since you’d decided to move into Stark Tower and your less-than-extensive sex toy collection had satisfied you in the very least.

Still, this was wrong. Very, very wrong.

“C’mon,” he growls, moving his hands south. “You know you want to…”

“I-” You try to push him away, only being able to think of how you were going to explain this to a man you thought one day you’d marry. You have to tell him, right? You have to tell him about what Thor tried. That’s the basis of good relationships, communication. “No, I don’t, Thor please-“

That’s when the last bit of him cracks, the soft edges to his voice sharpening and his jaw squaring.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he growls, ripping the shorts off next. “Do you understand all the shit I’ve put up with for you? All while your shithead boyfriend barely sent you a fucking text once a week to see if you were alright.”

“Thor, I-“

“No,” he shouts, making you flinch away from him. “Don’t excuse him! Don’t try and tell me he loves you like I do!”

That makes your eyes widen in fear, makes your hands shake where they’re pined at your side.

Thor softens everywhere except in his grip, keeping you pressed against him. “Oh, darling you don’t have to worry. I’m never gonna hurt you…”

A smile spreads across his face, then, leaning close to your ear. “Unless you want me to.”

He palms your clothed pussy, slipping two fingers inside of your dripping heat. It’s a delicious feeling and you fight back a moan, terrified to give him the satisfaction.

“C’mon darling,” Thor coos. “Let me hear you.”

He removes his fingers, then, smiling when you whine before stuffing his thick cock inside of you. It fits easily, given how wet you are, and for a moment – just a moment – you lose yourself to the pleasure.

“O-Oh,” you moan. “Oh, that feels so good.”

It all breaks down when Thor speaks once more, though. words flowing between him biting at your hot skin.

“That’s right, love,” his hands roam your body with fervor. “Let me make you feel good.”

It’s then that your mouth goes dry and a sense of dread washes over you.

“I-,” you try to find your verbal footing, wanting to find a path away from him. “I shouldn’t be doing this, I-“

You freeze when Thor uses one of his large hands to wrap around your throat, pinning you between him and the wall.

“Are you fucking serious?” he growls. “You’re really thinking about him right now?”

He nearly spits when he mentions your boyfriend, skin hot from fury.

“Think of all the things I’ve done for you!” he hisses into your ear. “How much easier I made your life. What has your boyfriend done for you?”

You don’t respond. In turn, he only fucks into you harder.

“That’s right. I know how little he loves you, and how little you love him,” you scream as he flips you around, using one hand to pins both your arms behind your back with your cheek pressed to the cool wall. “And yet you stay with him, why?”

You say nothing in return, though it’s not like you could. Each word dies in your throat when Thor thrusts into you once again. All that’s able to escape are choked sobs, broken pleas that sound more animal than human. Part of you wonders if Thor can hear you, another part wonders, if he could, would he care? If he truly understands what he’s doing, does it matter whether or not you want to push him away and cut away the skin he’s touched?

You can’t tell which is worse – dangerous naivety in combination with his strength, or determination blended with disregard.

Fiery tears burn as they stream down the already heated skin of your cheeks, but even that isn’t enough to distract from the feeling of Thor’s large hands all over you.

“C’mon little lamb,” he growls, voice sending bolts of electricity through you. “Cum for me.”

He swipes at your clit in smooth, tight circles, golden hot pleasure flooding your veins.

You reach your peak with a deep, chesty moan, nails digging into the skin of his back as you bucked your hips near violently.

“F-fuck,” Thor growls, continuing to thrust into you. “You feel so good around my cock, little lamb. You’ll have to excuse me, you’re going to make me cum much sooner than I would on an average night.”

Your eyes widen in fear, ready to plead for him to pull out.

Thor just lets out a small laugh, nipping at your skin. “Don’t worry, lamb, I won’t fill you with my seed.”

You let out a sigh of relief, but it doesn’t last for long.

“The last thing either of us need is for you to be bearing the mark of my child away from our people.”

You barely have time to react before Thor tucks his face into your neck as he finishes himself off, thick white ropes of cum painting your lower half.

You think it’s over, but of course it isn’t – that would be too fucking easy. He moves two of his rough fingers – still smelling distinctly of your sex – through his masterpiece before shoving them deep into your mouth, smiling. At first you gag, but as your blood begs for oxygen you accept your fate and clean the salty substance with your tongue.

“There you go,” he coos, beaming as he gazes down at you. “Such a good little lamb…I wonder if you can clean my cock like that?”

You can’t tell which you flinch harder at, the nickname or the thought of him sticking his dick past your lips and down your throat.

“Oh, don’t try to act like you don’t like it,” Thor says between light kisses he peppers across your neck. “Don’t you just love the idea of servicing me forever?”

You can feel him getting hard again against your thigh and you whimper, desperate to get away.

“Fuck don’t make that noise, little lamb, makes me want you more,” Thor groans. “Just imagine it – you and me on Asgard. I can rule and you can be my pretty little pet.”

Your eyes widen in fear, brain now fully comprehending what, exactly, Thor wants from you.

“Thor, please,” you beg. “Please, let’s be rational. I mean, Stark needs me! Right? You know how much Tony needs me!”

Thor just laughs, burrowing his nose into the nap of your neck. “Oh, my little lamb. We’ll figure it out – maybe you can train someone else to do your job. Or Tony can finally figure out how to be a man and figure that shit out himself,” he pulls back to kiss at your temple, whispering into your sweaty hair. “To be honest, I really don’t care. He’ll lose you soon enough, and how he handles that is neither of our problems.”

It’s then that you understand, that you really understood what was happening with Thor, what he wants from you.

In that moment, you understood that if your world was crashing down, and Thor would be there to pick up the pieces – whether you wanted to or not.

[chickensarentcheap]

Sanctuary - Chapter 7

Warnings: SMUT

Tagging: @innerpaperexpertcloud, @valkyrie-of-the-light, @c-a-v-a-l-r-y, @alievans007

Nik calls the moment they step through the front door; using his personal cell as opposed to the SAT, and when he announces who it is, he sees the look that immediately appears on his wife’s face. The annoyance that Nik has the nerve to call so after a mission when she’d already agreed to give him a minimum of two weeks off, and the worry that he may actually consider accepting an offer.  

“It’s probably nothing,” he assures her, placing a hand on the back of her neck and pulls her into a kiss.

He can taste the alcohol that lingers on her lips, feel the press of her body against his when she stands on her tip toes and leans into him. She’s normally not a drinker; not a single sip of booze had touched her lips since she’d gotten pregnant with the twins five years ago. She used to be able to keep up with him, now she’d reverted back to a light weight. The four glasses of wine she’d consumed causing her face to flush and both her body and brain to completely relax. And he’s tempted to say ‘fuck it’ and not even answer the call. Just rush through getting the kids to bed and take her into their bedroom and worshipping every inch of her.

“It’s never nothing with Nik,” she grumbles, and pulls his bottom lip between her teeth before departing, hustling the kids out of the front foyer and up the stairs.

“I’ve got some information,” Nik says, before he even has a chance to offer a greeting, and he steps out onto the back deck, sliding the glass door shut behind him.  

There’s a chill in the air; a steady wind coming from over the mountains and bringing significantly colder temperatures with it. And he pulls the hood of his sweater over his head and leans against the deck, elbows on the top railing.

“About this girl that Ovi’s seeing, yeah?”

“She checks out clean. Not even an outstanding parking ticket. Her employment is solid; runs her own day care and has had extensive police background checks done on her and passed every one. Her father is ex Air Force. A chief warrant officer that flew Blackhawks during Desert Storm. Extensive military service on his side. Including an uncle that was a POW in Vietnam and a cousin with who was awarded a Purple Heart in Iraq. Your kind of people, Tyler.”

“Let’s not go that far, Nik. Not many people are my kind of people.”  There’s a big difference between career military men and ex army turned mercenary.

“Things get a little shady on the mother’s side. She’s a nurse at Denver Memorial Hospital. ICU. Has been there for twenty-five years and doesn’t have a single blemish in her employee file. But there are some issues with siblings. Minor drug possession arrests, drunk driving charges, a couple of drunk and disorderlies, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement. Those last two came from a domestic abuse case in 2009. One of the uncles beat up his wife and held her at knifepoint when he came home and found her cheating on him.  He’s in Atlanta now and hasn’t had a run in with the authorities since.”

“So nothing much to worry about,” he concludes.

“Nothing that I think you should worry about. But I get it. Why you wanted me to do this. I wouldn’t want to be bringing strangers into my house and around my children either. Especially considering your history of making enemies.  But I don’t think this is anything to get worked up about. I don’t see any possible threats. I’d be telling you to keep her far away if I sensed even the smallest thing.”

“I appreciate that Nik.”

She gets it. The lingering uneasiness that comes with the job. With the knowledge you’ve pissed off a lot of people who have every reason to want pay back. And while he knows the chance is always out there that someone could show up, he hasn’t really worried about it since their last stint in Dhaka. The move to Colorado bringing about a sense of peace that had been missing in his life for years. Ever since he’d made the epic mistake of leaving for Afghanistan when his son was dying.

“How are you?” she asks. “How’s the ribs?”

“Sore. But I’m fine. I’ve had worse.”

“A lot of things went wrong.”

“Seems to be a recurring theme, Nik. If things didn’t fuck up, I’d be worried.”

“There were too many mistakes. Too many mix ups. A lot is going to change. Things will run smoother next time.”

Next time.  Two years…or maybe even twelve months ago…those words would have been welcome to hear; it meant unbelievably good money coming in and a chance of feeding that constant crave for danger. That urge to live on the edge for a few days and then return to his normal life.  Now those words just fall flat. He feels nothing. Not even the thought of that kind of cash sparks even the smallest bit of excitement.

“No more mistakes,” she vows.

He chuckles. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Nik.”

She gives a soft laugh. “Are you okay, Tyler? You sound tired.”

“I am.”

‘Trouble sleeping?”

“What else is new? Knees been bugging the shit out of me. The shoulder’s fucked again. I have a lot on my mind. Personal things.”

“But things are okay?” she presses for more information. “You and Esme…”

“There’s no problems there. Things are great. Kids are great,” he sighs heavily and turns around to face the house; watching his wife through the thin curtains in the baby’s room as she stands at the side of his crib. He thinks of stranger from that day. First in the ice cream shop and then in the restaurant.  And how he’d noticed the way the man had watched her intently when she had taken Millie to get cleaned up.   “You have someone watching me, Nik?” he asks.  

“What do you mean?”

“Do you have a detail on me? Or my family? Is there something I need to worry about?”

“I would have told you if there was. What’s wrong?”

He tells her about the newcomer to town; a brief physical description followed by how he’d been watching Ovi and Millie together before Tyler had showed up with the boys. There’d been a short interaction: nothing more than a stranger talking about being on a business trip and missing his own family. He wouldn’t have thought any more about it had he’d not seen that same man at the restaurant hours later, and if he’d not noticed the way the stranger’s eyes had followed his wife and daughter on their walk to the bathroom.

Nik listens intently; never interrupting or asking questions. But he can hear the light tapping of laptop keys as she takes down everything he’s saying. She’s meticulous when it comes to gathering info. And he knew she’d go back later and analyze everything he’d said. Looking for clues. If there were any to be found.

“You said he had tattoos,” she speaks only after a period of silence between them. “Can you describe any of them to me?”

“Not really. I didn’t really focus on them. He had sleeves. Shoulder to wrist. Both arms. I’m not sure what they’re of. He said he was from Chicago but he didn’t have an accent. I don’t know if that matters or not. Don’t they usually have accents?”

“What about the baseball hat? Was there anything written on it?”

Sighing heavily, he briefly closes his eyes and runs a hand over his face, laying it across the bridge of his nose.  Thumb and forefinger pressing into his temples. “It was camo. The standard green. Had a mesh back on it. Not one of the fits to the head type. The kind with the snaps. Orange lettering across the front. The initials CRPC.”

More typing. Faster this time.

“What about a vehicle? When he left did you notice if he was driving? Walking?”

“I had my back to the door. I can ask the kid later when he gets home. I wasn’t paying attention to much after we talked. I had my kids with me.”

“Find me the exact address of where you were. I’ll see if they have security cameras. Are they any crosswalks or streetlights in the area?”

“Not for a couple of blocks. It’s pretty much just a long stretch of road. No marked crossings, lights, anything like that. “

“I’ll contact the store. And the other ones around it. Did he say where he was staying?”

“No. But there’s a couple of hotels and a handful of bed and breakfasts.  You don’t need to put that many resources into this. Nik. I’m probably just reading too much into it.”

“When do you ever read too much into things? That isn’t something you do, Tyler.”

“Maybe becoming a dad has made me soft,” he scoffs. “Or paranoid. Or both.”

“It’s made your instincts even sharper. I noticed that about you on this last job. Your instincts were always top notch, but they’ve gotten even better. If you feel something is off, it probably is. I’m coming to town in a couple of days.  We need to talk. In person.”

“About?”

“I have a business proposition for you.”

“I’m not taking another job right now, Nik. I already told you that. I need some time off with my family. Especially with my wife. She’s been the one holding everything together. Least I could do is stick around awhile. She needs me Nik. A lot more than you do.”

“I’m not trying to take you away from your family, Tyler. That’s the last thing I want. And this isn’t about a job. It’s about the job, but not about a job. I’ll look into this man and get back to you. I’ll see you in three days.”

“Nik, I don’t think...”

“Three days, Tyler,” she stresses, and disconnects the call.

***

He checks on the kids. Fixing blankets, fetching favourite stuffed animals and glasses of water, reading stories that he damn well knows have already been read but he finds it too hard to resist those little voices and pleading eyes.

“You’re the best tucker inner, daddy,” TJ had declared, blankets so tight around him that he couldn’t even move his legs or his arms.  “I wish you could do this every night.”

There was no guilt trip quite like a guilt trip being laid on you by a four-year-old.

In the end, the three oldest had all ended up curled up together in the bottom bunk in the twins’ room, listening to one last story before finally giving in to sleep. And he’d spent some time kneeling alongside of them watching them sleep, listening to their soft breathing, stroking their hair, pressing kisses to their forehead. So many things that he wanted to say but didn’t have the courage to say them. About how feared that he would fail them. That one day maybe he wouldn’t come home despite fighting like hell to get there.  Or if they found out the truth about his past when they were older, and they were disgusted and ashamed of him and wanted nothing to do with him.

That thought hurt the most. At least if he was dead, he wouldn’t have to live with the guilt that he’d royally fucked them up.

Next, he went to the baby’s room and held him until he fell asleep. That little body tucked into his chest, breath warm and sweet on the side of his neck, a tiny hand fisting a piece of his shirt. Swaying back and forth in the rocker by the window, eyes closed as he breathed in that fresh, powdery scent that clung to the baby’s sleeper.

He’d been taking those moments for granted; cuddling with his kids, playing with them, kissing them goodnight and hearing them tell him they love him. Letting the job take up way too much of his time both mentally and physically. When he’d been declared healthy enough to get back into the game, he’d thrown himself into it with far more intensity than he had planned to.  Feeling as if he had something to prove to not only the people who’d tried to destroy him, but himself as well. It became an obsession.  Addicted to chasing that next high; the one that came with destroying evil instead of drowning his self loathing with booze and painkillers.

He finds his wife in the tub; immersed in hot water and bubbles all the way to her chin, eyes closed, and head tilted back, a half empty bottle of beer in her hand.

“I take you out one night and you’re already turning into a drunk?” Tyler teases, as he closes the door and locks it behind him.  Just in case. You never know when curious little bodies might come bursting in.  

“I only had…two…or three…” her eyes narrow as she attempts to count on her fingers. “…or something like that.”

“Four,” he helps her out, and then crouches down alongside the bathtub, grimace when his knee cracks and a pain shoots right up to his hip.  “And one beer. You’re usually not like this. What’s gotten into you?”

“It’s what I want to get into me,” she retorts, and then giggles.

“You can have that without getting drunk.  Although this is kind of cute. Seeing you like this. It’s been a long time.”

Their second night during their first stint in Dhaka she’d gotten so drunk that he’d had to carry her up the three flights of stairs to their room. And tend to her while she threw up all night long. He figured it that didn’t scared him away, nothing would.  “Just don’t throw up on me. You know how I feel about puke.” Blood he could. Brain matter. Entrails. None of that got him. But if he so as much heard someone in the act of throwing up…

“What did Nik want?” she inquires. “Phone sex?”

“Let’s not start that okay?” his voice is gentle, hand dipping into the water to scoop up an abandoned washcloth. Sure, booze made her uninhibited, but it also made her extremely combative. Well, more so than usual. “That’s a long time ago.”

“You still fucked her though. More than once.”

“That’s a long time ago,” he repeats, refusing to let it get under his skin. “Way before you. It doesn’t matter. Just like all the guys before me don’t matter.”

“I don’t see the guys that came before you. You still see Nik. Are you still attracted to her?”

“We’re not going to fight,” he runs the soapy face cloth along her leg; the fabric and his fingertips slowly drifting from the top of her foot to the inside of her thigh, then sliding around the back. Smirking when he hits that sensitive spot behind her knee and her entire leg jerks. “So if you want to fight, just stop.”

“Are you?” she challenges. “Do you still think she’s attractive? Do you still want to fuck her some times?”

“No,” he’s being truthful; all connection he and Nik had had in that way had ended a long time ago. He no longer wanted her. In the same way he didn’t want any other woman. “Why would I want to? I have you. I only want you.”

“I bet she still wants to fuck you. I see the way she looks at you, you know. The way she bats her eyes at you and wears those low-cut blouses and her tight pants and…”

“I think you’ve had enough,” he plucks the bottle of beer from her hands, finishing it one gulp and then reaching over to place the empty on the counter. “And you know what…” he begins the soapy exploration of her other legs. Eyes never leaving hers, watching the way her breath hitches when he nears the knee, her body anticipating the sensation.  “…it doesn’t matter what she wants. Because I don’t want her. I want you. I married you. Not her. There’s no other woman I want in my bed.”

His hand travels higher; the cloth now discarded and his palm sliding along the inside of her thigh, their gazes never wavering.  And when his fingertips brush against her mound, she draws in a shaky breath; eyes darkening with lust, nipples hardening.  

“Only you,” he says, and when his fingers push past those swollen, slick lips and make contact with her clit, her eyes closed and her head tilts back. “You are so beautiful,” his voice is low as he praises her; full of lust and need and the strain it takes to hold back. His cock painfully hard in his jeans.  She’s stunning; all the lines and curves of her body, the smoothness of her throat, the way the water glistens on her milky skin. And he longs to get his hands on her…his mouth on her.

She gives a small cry when he pushes a finger inside of her, the fingers on one hand biting into the ledge of the tub, as the other disappears under the water to latch onto his wrist, keeping his hand firmly in place.

He adds a second finger, swallowing noisily as she grinds against his palm. Unable to keep his eyes off of her as she begins to grind against palm. Pressing her body down against it, forcing his fingers as deep as they can possibly go.  Letting her do all the work in an attempt to get herself off. It is always hot when he can sit back and watch her pleasure herself, but this was on another level all in itself. Allowing her to use him…or at least part of him…to give her what she needed.  And he fights the urge to unzip his pants, reach into his boxers and jerk himself off.

“You gonna come?” his voice is raspy now, overwhelmed by the sight of her, of how much ne needs her. Wants her. “Tell me when you’re going to come.”

He adjusts the angle of his hand, so his palm is flush against her pussy, enabling his thumb to come in direct contact with her clit.  She bites down hard on her bottom lip, body jerking and sending water splashing over the edge of the tub, onto him and the floor below.  And when he increases the pressure of his thumb against the painfully hard nub, she reaches for him, grabbing a hold of his shirt and yanking her towards him.

“Kiss me,” she demands, and then shoves her hand into his hair and aggressively pulls him down into her. Her orgasm hitting her hard and fast, his tongue and his mouth muffling the sound of her scream.

His fingers continuing to move inside of her as those inner muscles contract and twitch around them and her entire body shuddering violently. Resting his forehead against hers as he waits for her to come down from her thigh. Listening to her breathing settle and waiting for her body to full relax before removing his hand from between her legs.

“You’re welcome,” he grins, drying his hand off on the thigh of his jeans. “You okay?”

“Mmm…hmmm…” she manages, her eyes fluttering open, regarding him with a content smile.

He stands, grimacing at the discomfort in his knee and lower back, fetching her a towel from the back of the door and then offering her a hand.  Slender fingers curling around his own as she stands on shaky legs, her hands on his shoulders as he uses the towel to try her off.

“You’re too good to me,” she says.

“So we’re not going to fight? I was pretty sure you were trying to pick a fight.”

“No. No fights. But you can fuck me like we were fighting if you want.”

Smirking, he leans down to kiss her, a hand tangled in her damp hair.

“You can even do that thing with your tongue that I like,” she suggests. “I mean, only if you want to.”

When didn’t he want to?

 ***

 He does that ‘thing’  with his tongue she likes. Twice. Each orgasm powerful.  Her entire body arching off the bed, hands in his hair holding his face tight against her, his palm stifling the sounds that erupt from her.  Then he flips her onto her stomach, slides an arm around her waist and forces her up onto her knees. Taking her like that; one strong, powerful thrust filling her, one hand on her hip, the other on her shoulder.  Fucking her as if he hated her.  His movements hard and fast. Unrelenting. Punishing. Grabbing a hold of her hair and pushing her face down into the mattress. And even though it’s what she wants…what she had asked for…he’ll hate himself in the morning for it. When he sees the bruises that his hands have made on her hips and the pained way in which she walks.  It’s always surprised him: how a little thing can take so much. How she can enjoy it as much as she can. When he’s aggressive and mean and uses her solely for his pleasure.

Trust. It’s the trust she has in him. Knowing that he’d never intentionally hurt her. That it’s all just a game and never done with cruel intent. The humiliation and the pain stopping at sex. Never crossing that line in any other aspect of their life together.

He comes before she does. The agony of having to hold back in the bathroom finally releasing. Pressing into her and holding her there, a strangled groan emerging from deep inside his throat as hot, thick semen bathes her womb. Eyes closing and his head falling forward. Legs shaking, chest heaving, feeling as if he’ll never stop filling her.  

And when he finally recovers, he reaches between her and the bed to find her clit, rubbing at it while trailing the tip of his tongue the entire length of her spine. Over the curves of her ass. Biting at soft flesh of her hips. Fingers working her until the fourth orgasm of the takes hold; not as powerful as the first three, but enough to have her crying out in the mattress.

Afterwards, while resting on his good shoulder, he wraps an arm around her and pulls her towards him, her ass nestled into his front. Their hands joining and resting against her stomach, thumb repeatedly brushing against the top and side of her wrist. And he presses a kiss to the back of her head and buries his face in her hair; relaxing in the warmth of her body and that familiar yet still intoxicating smell.

“So what did Nik want?” she asks, and he can’t help but laugh.

“And you accuse me of having shitty pillow talk.”

“I’m not the one that always announces they’re hungry afterwards.”

“Now that you mention it, I am kinda hungry.”

She directs an elbow back into his gut and he chuckles into her hair.

“I can only imagine what she wanted,” she huffs.

“Can we not talk about this right now? Can we not just lie here and not talk about this? The last thing I want to talk about right after we fuck is the job.”

“You didn’t do it, did you?”

“Do what?”

“Take a job.”

He sighs.

“You promised you wouldn’t take something else for at least two weeks. You said…”

He tightens his hold on her. “I didn’t take a job. That isn’t why she called. Well it kind of is, but it’s not all at the same time.”

“You make no sense in your post orgasmic haze.”

“She was just telling me about the girl that Ovi is hooking up. That all the background stuff checked out. Except for some uncle with a penchant for beating up women. There’s nothing we need to worry about. She’s clean. He can do whatever the fuck he wants now.”

“I wonder if he’s doing her.”

“That’s another thing I do not want to talk about or think about right after we have sex. Like you said, he’s grown. He can do whatever and whoever he wants. As long as he’s not doing it under my roof, I don’t give a shit. He can go and get his rocks off at a cheap motel or in the backseat of a car for all I care. Just not where my kids live. Only rule. None of that shit here.”

“You really are going to be the father that doesn’t let his daughter date until she’s thirty.”

“If I had my way, she’d become a nun and never look at a guy.”

“Are you going to think the same when your sons are out getting laid by whoever and wherever?”

“If they knock someone up, I’m kicking their asses. And who cares right now. We have tons of times before we have to worry about shit like that. Go to sleep. You’re drunk. And rambling.”

She heaves a heavy sigh, wiggles her ass back against his crotch, rubs her cheek against her pillow.  “Is that all Nik wanted?” she asks after several minutes, and Tyler groans.

“Esme…please…just go to sleep…it’s late…I’m tired…I’m fucking aching. Just go to sleep.”

“You aren’t lying are you? About taking a job?”

“Woman, you’re killing me here. How are you still awake? I just fucked the shit out of you and normally you’d be passed out cold. No. I didn’t take a job. She didn’t offer one. She just said she’d been in town in three days and wanted to talk to me. In person.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. Can we talk about this tomorrow?”

She releases his hand and flops over onto her side to face him.

“Are you kidding me right now?” he groans.  “Esme…please…just go to sleep. We can talk about this shit tomorrow. It isn’t important. I don’t know what she wants. She just said she wants to talk. That’s it. Now please…” he presses a kiss to her forehead. “…before I smother you in your sleep. You’re  a chatty drunk and I love you, but it drives me fucking mental. Just close your eyes. Sleep. Please.”

“Fine,” she huffs, and tucks her head under his chin. “Tyler?”

“What?” he snaps. “What now?”

“I love you. Even if you are an insufferable pain in my ass sometimes.”

He smiles as he drops a kiss on the top of her head. “I love you too. Even when you are a raging bitch.”

“Me? Never.”

He snorts.

“You married me. You must be a glutton for punishment.”

“You give amazing head and fuck like a porn star. Why wouldn’t I lock that shit down?”

“So romantic,” she laughs. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you don’t have a soft side, baby. You are all fluff.”

“Close your eyes,” he implores. “Go to sleep. It’s late. The kids wake up early.”

She sighs once more, nuzzling her face into his throat. And he holds her, a hand stroking her hair, until her breathing slows and evens out and her body relaxes completely. Finding sleep quickly in the confines and the comfort of his arms.

[anistarrose]

Don’t Hang Up Yet, I’m Not Done (TAZ Balance AU)

Summary: Tres Horny Boys have the Red Robe’s phone number, continued. This time, Merle and Taako make some calls.

Warnings: Dissociation

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18979621/chapters/45066238

A sequel to this fic, which was in turn inspired by this art by @mspainttaz!

***

The next call Barry gets is in the late afternoon several weeks later, and once again, something tells him exactly who’s going to be on the other end of the line before he even moves to pick it up.

(Then again, it’s barely been an hour since he gave Merle that cryptic nod, so it’s not exactly difficult to guess the reason for the call.)

“You saved my kids,” Merle whispers, sounding dumbstruck even now. “Why?”

“I — I just — why wouldn’t I? I had the power to stop innocent people from getting hurt. Of course I saved them.”

“Well, that’s real altruistic of you,” Merle murmurs. Bit by bit, his normal enthusiasm creeps back into his voice as he continues: “Not sure how you’re supposed to reconcile that worldview with making the Relics, though. Too bad I can’t cast Zone of Truth over the stone, ha!”

“Yeah, it’s a real shame,” Barry replies. “Anyways, you need to teach your kids to be more careful. Odds are I won’t be around during the next… freak accident.”

“Yeah, their passive perception stinks,” Merle agrees with a sad laugh. “Or at least Mookie’s does, as much as I love the little fireball. Mavis is a bright little thing when she’s not busy looking after her brother — she reads at a college level, you know! Probably gonna make a hell of a wizard one day!”

“Give it to me like you would under Zone of Truth, Merle — did you call me just to brag about your kids?”

“Don’t tell my boss,” Merle answers in a hushed whisper. “I’ll get my employee phone plan revoked!”

Barry struggles to stifle a laugh. “Merle Hightower Highchurch, calling up the enemy to have a friendly chat? What would the Director think?”

Merle laughs too, the irony lost on him. “You know, you’re a much better conversationalist today than you were the first couple times we met. What’s up with that?”

“Uh… I dunno, social anxiety? How’s life on the moon treating you?”

“It’s got its perks. Apparently the gravity is low enough up there that my spinal cord decompressed, so now I’m a millimeter taller — and trust me, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we dwarves have to take what we can get!”

“I can imagine.” An idea occurs to Barry — it’s a long shot, but worth a try. “How about the gnomes — are there any gnomes up there? How are they doing with the gravity situation?”

“Well, Leon doesn’t ‘like’ me or ‘the crew I hang with’ so I don’t really talk to him. And Davenport, well…”

Barry very nearly short-circuits his Stone of Farspeech as sparks of magic course through his form and down his sleeves. “What about Davenport? How is he?”

There’s a pause on the other end of the line, and Barry gets a bad feeling that he came across as a little too invested in Davenport’s well-being.

His fears are confirmed when Merle asks: “What, do you know him?”

“Just heard the name in passing,” Barry lies. “Never met him, but most names from the Bureau that I hear in passing end up belonging to pretty important people. What’s his — what does he do for your operation up there?”

“You know, I’ve never really thought about it before, but — if we could make this our little ‘Truth Zone’ here, for just a second — I’m not really sure why Lucretia hired him in the first place. All he can say is his own name, and he always seems kinda anxious about one thing or another — again, I never know what, since he can’t really talk.”

Barry doesn’t know how to reply.

“Damn good at cards, though! You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a good game of yooker these days — or even chess, for that matter. You play either?”

“No.” Barry’s pretty sure that Merle and Davenport are the only people in the planar-verse who know how to play the game they’ve dubbed “yooker.” And he doesn’t even want to think about that chess remark.

“Darn. Well, I should probably get going — I can’t miss karaoke night with the boys. We’ve been trying all month to get Lucretia to join us, and she finally let it slip that she hasn’t got anything going on this evening!”

“Oh. Well, uh… don’t let me keep you from that, then. Nice talking to you.”

After he switches his stone off, Barry adds in a whisper: “Wish I could join you.”

***

“Sup, Little Red Riding Robe?”

“Don’t call me that,” the Red Robe groans. From the other end of the line, Taako hears the faint rustling of papers — his call must have interrupted something. He doesn’t feel too bad about it, though.

“What, would you rather be the Big Bad Wolf?” Taako asks. “I thought I was doing you a solid and painting you in a sympathetic light!”

“You know what, fine. Little Red Riding Robe it is,” the Red Robe replies. The hostility in his voice begins to dissipate as he goes on. “Tell me, Taako — is this just another prank call?”

Taako chuckles. “Oh, you wish. See, I stumbled across a piece of info that might just interest you…”

He pauses, waiting to see how the Red Robe reacts, but he’s met with silence.

“I’ve got your number, Riding Robe, idiomatically and literally. So this afternoon I took a quick vacay to the Stone of Farspeech service provider’s offices, cast a few Charm Person spells, and figured out just what name that number was registered to. Pretty clever, huh?”

It might just be Taako’s imagination, but it feels like the silence grows a little more tense.

“Now tell me, who’s this Sildar Hallwinter guy?” he asks. “Is that an alias, or did you just mug a dude and take his phone?”

The Red Robe chuckles. “Huh. That’s some genuinely impressive sleuthing — then again, I should’ve expected as much from you, Taako.”

“Well, uh, to tell you the truth… it was technically Angus’s idea — you ever hear about him? The boy detective? Little snoop was going through my dresser and found the paper I jotted down your number on, and dragged me into this quest to track down your true identity.”

“And does he think this case has been cracked wide open by this new info?”

“No. He’s pretty sure Hallwinter isn’t your real name — and don’t tell him I said this, but I trust him on that one-hundred percent. He’s pretty good with this stuff.”

“What did you really call me about if you’re so sure, then?”

What if she’s just gone?

“Well, I —”

Who?

“I…”

I can’t remember her face, Taako!

Whose face?!

Please, Taako, just kill me!

“Taako? Taako, are you with me?”

He doesn’t feel like he’s with anyone. Even lying on his bed, beneath a pile of heavy blankets he doesn’t remember arranging, he still can’t stop shivering. He’s so cold, and so, so alone.

He clutches the Umbra Staff close to his chest, close to his heart. It’s the only warm thing he can feel.

“Please, Taako, can you say something?” the disembodied voice continues. It sounds like it’s trying very hard to stay calm, and mostly succeeding. “Tell me what’s happening? I have Merle and Magnus’s numbers — I can call them if you need someone to come help —”

It also sounds very familiar, but trying to place it makes Taako feel like he’s teetering over the edge of a void, about to lose his balance and plunge into darkness.

“W-who is this?”

“It’s me, Taako, it’s… it’s the Red Robe.”

Taako’s eyes finally land on the Stone of Farspeech at the corner of his bed, and hesitantly extends a hand towards it. It’s not quite as warm as the Umbra Staff — but it’s certainly not cold, either. He pulls it closer, wrapping his fingers around it.

The Red Robe lets out a short, sad chuckle, which the speaker garbles a little bit. “There are some who call me Little Red Riding Robe. Or Sildar Hallwinter.”

“Sh-shit.” Their earlier conversation returns to Taako quickly, as he tries to sit up in bed. His teeth are still chattering slightly when he tries to speak. “I — I dunno what just happened. I just b-blacked out —”

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay. It’s not your fault.” There’s a pause. “Hey, do you think you can you tell me a little more about Angus? He seems like a bright kid —”

“He is. B-been picking up magic real fast too. He’s a nosy little shit who never stops asking questions to all two dozen of his adoptive moon parents and I’m so glad Lucretia hired him.”

“He was right about Sildar Hallwinter being an alias, you know. Did he say what tipped him off?”

“He’s got contacts in the police force planetside like you wouldn’t believe. There was hardly anything in any of their files about Sildar, so we talked to Johann and he told us that name never got fed to the Voidfish. From there, Angus just figured that no real person would have that little info about them floating around.”

“Huh. That makes sense. Did Merle and Magnus come along for this adventure, or was it just the two of you?”

“Nah, Magnus was hanging with Carey and Merle was napping. I could hear him snoring from a room away.”

“What about the Director? I’m assuming you didn’t mention this to her?”

“Oh, hell no. She’d throw us straight in the brig if she ever learned how long we’ve had your number without telling her.”

“Yeah, I figured. I trust Merle and Magnus are doing well?”

“Yeah, they’re… well, actually… okay, look. I probably shouldn’t be telling you of all people about this, but something’s been off about Magnus lately. I thought I was imagining it at first, but now I’m pretty sure he’s trying to avoid the Director — which is actually kinda hard these days, since she’s been overseeing our training more and more. And he’s been really awkward around Johann, too. I’ve never seen him like this, and… I’m kinda worried.”

The Red Robe goes silent for a moment. “Well… what happened in Refuge must have been hard on him. I’m sure he’ll feel better soon.”

“Yeah, yeah. He’s pretty tough…” Part of Taako feels guilty for revealing so much to the Red Robe, but part of him doesn’t want to hang up. Magnus and Merle are already fast asleep — what if he blacks out again, and no one’s on the phone to talk him out of it?

Then again… is that what the Red Robe is aiming for? To gain Taako’s trust, and act so supportive that Taako can’t help but reveal sensitive information during a late-night, emotionally vulnerable ramble?

No, Barry wouldn’t do that. If he wants information, it’s just because he’s worried about you.

“Well, this has been a great chat, Riding Robe,” Taako says with an exaggerated yawn. “But I’ve got to get to bed. You never know if tomorrow will end up being a long day of saving the world.”

“You do that,” the Red Robe tells him. “And remember, you can always call me back if you need to.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. G’night.”

***

Magnus’s body is gone, and it’s Barry’s fault.

(Strictly speaking, it’s the fault of the Animus Bell. It taunts him even now, tucked safely away in the possession of the Reclaimers, calling to him and promising to ensure his family survives when the Hunger comes. To bring Lup back from whatever worse-than-undeath fate she met. But Barry recognizes enough of his own voice in his Relic to know that it’s lying.)

Barry made the bell, he put it out into a world that was not his own, and both that world and his family paid dearly.

I’m going to find a way to get your body back, Magnus. I promise.

“I think we deserve some answers from you,” Magnus slowly declares, still holding his detached mannequin arm in his remaining hand. Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem angry — just tired.

Oh Magnus, you don’t know the half of it, Barry thinks. He doesn’t say anything, but he nods to Magnus and then holds out his hand, creating an illusory Stone of Farspeech in his skeletal palm.

And one by one, without exchanging any words between each other, the three Reclaimers hand their stones over — first Magnus, slowly and solemnly; then Merle, with a guilty look on his face; and finally Taako, hesitant as he begins to raise his hand but resolute by the time he plucks the stone from his ear.

Barry flicks his hand, and the devices shatter.

“I’ll buy you new ones soon,” he promises. “But let’s get you those answers first.”

[thewitchsstudy]

An Old Opinion Research Essay

Made this last school year. It’s about MLMs (Multi-level Marketing) and why I think they should be illegal

Thousands of dollars. You don’t make thousands, you pay thousands. You don’t sell thousands, you recruit thousands. You don’t get paid to work, you pay to work. Welcome to MLMs, the most unethical world of business where everything is a scam. It deserves to be banned, gone from the reach of the people who run them. For the safety of the workers. 

MLMs- Multi-level Marketing- companies pop up a lot in the modern day. Have you ever gotten a Facebook message from somebody, likely with an eye bleeding amount of emojis, claiming to know you from somewhere pitching a product? That’s an MLM worker, no doubt. While most see them as annoying at worst, these companies that these workers come from have been proven, as from testimony by former workers, the FTC, and multiple state lawsuits, to have destroyed finances, careers, friendships, and lives while breaking the law. Many have been accused of or been charged with illegal activity- operating a pyramid scheme. 

Any amount of research will bring up how horrible some companies can get. Being repulsed at the practices is one thing, but how do we prevent them from harming workers? I argue a full ban on the practice. With already tight regulations and monitoring by the FTC, MLMs are in hot water. Still, illegal pyramid schemes manage to bypass the law and operate until it’s too late (hello Advocare, like your lawsuit?). The best way to deal with MLMs is simply banning the practice.

Bans may not be the best, but they can be necessary. Prepare to feel a mix of shame, disguise, anger, and bitter hopelessness for humanity.

Corporate can be a dictator. Many people, including former workers, heavily argue the point that many MLMs are morally and legally wrong. They have no base pay and hide under a “make as much as you want” claim. In reality, workers buy products from the company to sell to consumers, and when they don’t sell, often due to the terrible quality and horrible company reputation, they are essentially being paid under minimum wage with negative wage counts! Financial reports show that, during a year in an MLM, the majority percent of employees lost money, some broke even with joining packages and product costs (which cost thousands of dollars), and less than 5% made money, and less than 1% reached or exceeded the annual national minimum wage ($15,080)

In addition, workers who quit MLMs are often shamed by supervisors and friends still in the company. They get harassed online through texts and Facebook for breaking free. Friendships are broken in split seconds. Lives are left fragments of what they once were. Families fight and argue and refuse to communicate with each other due to associating with these companies. A video by Vice News, which is highly recommended to watch, tells the stories of women who have left MLMs and the shame that was placed on them. In addition to their terrible financial situation, it documents how much shame was put on these women who are left friendless, leaving friends for the company and leaving the company with fake “friends”. MLM workers are encouraged to sell to family and friends, and one worker has stated that “every conversation turned into a sales pitch”. Any human would leave a friend who did that.

On the other hand, people argue that MLM products are legit and that they are perfectly legal and not pyramid schemes. They say that, without legal action, MLMs are fine to operate. They argue that a pyramid scheme is a solid definition that requires many boxes to be checked, and that MLMs don’t check enough. They may call them “Anti-pyramids”, which is a funnel and shows more on the top than the bottom and the money still goes to the one guy on the bottom and that’s still a horrible business model for a dozen reasons, but that’s beyond the point. These could have good backing to them. When the research is done, however, even on social media, these people are often corporate workers who run these MLMs and bank millions or other workers (who many call “Huns”) who are in denial about their workplace being a scam (they may also be arguing this case even if they understand the truth).

It is also important to understand that the other side will defend their word with flamethrower and shield, even if the flamethrower is a knockoff that doesn’t even work and the shield is a sad excuse for a thing made of atoms. Workers post pictures online of their new “expensive” things they bought with money from their “job”. Many have debunked these as fakes, including noted images of clearly empty bags that were supposedly filled with stuff (classic fake-rich tactic right there). This is easily found, since if the poster refuses to show a top view or take the items out, you don’t trust that anything is in the bag. Many in the Anti-MLM community  realize and share their findings on how the evidence and claims made by these people are next to nothing in value. It makes them incredibly petty and decays their point. Like rotting flesh.

Most of that evidence is little slaps to MLMs. The big problems come when states start suing them. Oh, yeah, MLMs from Advocare to Young Living to LulaRoe have been sued for years. States, ranging from Idaho to California, have accused these companies of operating illegal pyramid schemes. Warehouses have sued LulaRoe over not receiving payment for storage. LulaRoe has been sued over cross-state taxation (taxing buyers in states with no tax who purchase from workers in states with tax). Federal government agencies have reprimanded MLMs as well, most noticeably in a case against Young Living where a man died in a distillery due to severe safety code violations, such as lack of training and not providing respirators in the high-chemical environment. Note, these are only some well-known companies and their well-known lawsuits. 

Deception is rampant in MLMs, and consumers are being lied to almost constantly. Young Living used to claim a Seed to Seal standard and having 100% pure essential oils. Not only was it revealed that they source from multiple farms, which makes the Seed to Seal claim highly unlikely, independent lab tests show birch and jasmine oils produced by the company were, in fact, synthetic. Worse, one study done by the State of California showed higher than acceptable levels of a chemical known for producing cyanide inside the body in Young Living’s oils. This was not mentioned anywhere by Young Living- not on the bottle, not online, not anywhere, which is an offense in California. They were, like previously, sued over this serious health and safety matter since they sold their products in the state. 

It should be obvious that Young Living’s products are not the most trustworthy, regardless of your opinion on essential oils. That could be applied to all MLM products. LulaRoe leggings are notorious for ripping, even in the first wear. Herbalife’s powders and mixes, especially their soup reportedly, have been called by people such as John Oliver as tasting “like wood shavings” (this was a continued joke in his televised segment on Multi-level Marketing, another good watch for more info). When looking at prices, such as LulaRoe leggings costing $30+ bucks for a quality $10 Walmart leggings with better, non eye-bleeding designs far surpass, the word “scam” pops up in New York City lights.

John Oliver in his segment also went into detail on how, while distributors lose thousands on MLMs they work for, their founders and CEOs can afford meetings that I can only describe as an 80s metal concert if everybody there was on some serious drugs. Some things that occur range from overly enthusiastic live announcers, CEOs coming out as “Welcome to the Jungle” plays, and screaming at the grave of a man named Joe Nobody, dated 1952- about how much he could’ve done with his life if he had just joined his MLM. Are laughing out loud at the thought of all this? It’s real, and you can find the Joe Nobody clip and more in the John Oliver episode online. It’s on-the-floor-laughing levels of ridiculous. One can only imagine being at any MLM meeting, host, worker, or random guy, in person is an accurate simulation of an acid trip for all parties involved. 

How does this add up to a pyramid scheme? With the previously stated knowledge in mind,  look at the employees. Those Facebook messages from before? Those can be recruitment messages. These often target mothers, those of color, and those of specific religions depending on the MLM. For example, LulaRoe often has single or unemployed mothers as distributors. On its website, the FTC notes that promises of extravagant lifestyles, wealth, and “high-pressure tactics” during recruiting are prominent red flags for any business. Guess who milks these until the cow runs red? MLM recruiters. While I don’t trust Reddit for factual info often, there are credible accounts of this practice on such subreddits as r/AntiMLM and r/LuLaNo. 

The big problem is that MLMs may pay their employees for recruitment. The FTC says that “Your recruits, the people they recruit, and so on, become your sales network, or ‘downline’. If the MLM is not a pyramid scheme, it will pay you based on your sales to retail customers, without having to recruit new distributors”. The way it often works when a Pyramid Scheme is in place is that those higher up in the pyramid get a percent of commission from those they have recruited, those recruit’s recruits, and so on. Pyramid schemes require active participation for this often only check, which requires more money for products that will never sell and, as the saying goes, “get left in a garage.” The FTC notices this is a practice utilized by pyramid schemes. A former LulaRoe (funny how LulaRoe pops up so much) worker high up on the corporate ladder on the previously mentioned Vice News clip claims to have been receiving these commissions, with checks from the company proving it. MLMs have systems of ranks, which are often named after anything from crystals to management positions, and guess what those more than not focus on? How many people you recruited. Higher up you are, the higher percent of commission, the more money you get. 

That, fellow readers, are the bones of pyramid schemes. You don’t grow a business with a stable customer base and happy employees, you make more people fall into it and destroy their lives. Former work testimonies say that supervisors actively encourage recruiting over selling.  It’s a cycle of new and quitting members.

It should be obvious. Horrible quality, product not worth the price, constant lying to consumers, lawsuits galore, and the foundation of a pyramid scheme and its culture are what make MLMs scams, unethical and borderline illegal. We, as consumers and workers, should call for a ban on this business model to protect sales and underclass workers from a practice that harbors illegal schemes. If a company wishes to grow, it should in an ethical way that isn’t a pyramid scheme coverup! The FTC says that pyramid schemes “can look remarkably like legitimate MLM business opportunities” and so taking part in any MLM is a risky venture to the highest degree. Even legit MLMs have the same issues as pyramid schemes, since the lack of buying due to terrible reputation causes equal wage and financial issues as stated earlier. MLM and pyramid scheme operators milk money from their employees. As Bo Burham’s song “Repeat Stuff” says, they’ll “stop beating this dead horse when it stops spitting out money.” We need to stop them from beating the dead horse of MLMs so they can’t collect the money it spits out at them. And the best way to get rid of a dead horse is to bury it. 

Bury the horse, they cannot get the money. Will you grab a shovel and start burying it, or will you watch as people continue to beat it? 

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 165

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 17 - “Love Story of a Pure-Hearted Maiden” Date watched: 12 December 2019 Original air date: 27 May 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/md9kwKC Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Remember the Prism Love Checker, the Takoyaki Handy, or the Charm Pencil Case from the last three seasons? Yeah, it’s that time again! Time to loosely base an entire episode around a toy that doesn’t fit the theme of the series.

The Plot

Natts House is sold out of everything, and for some reason there’s an implication that Rin should be doing something about this, but instead she’s crafting a bead bracelet, ignoring her surroundings, and generally acting strangely. Nozomi recalls that only other time she’s seen her friend this way was when she had a crush.....

Later, the girls pay her a visit at her mom’s shop, and see her giddily selling flowers to a handsome young man, and blushing. They confront her and she doesn’t admit to having a crush on this guy, but doesn’t deny it either. Since she agreed to deliver a flower to him, they urge her to make the delivery now while they mind the shop, and dress nicely to do it.

Nuts gives her a blue bead bracelet to match the red one she’s wearing (again, toys) and she sets off. However, the girls are curious to see her shoot her shot, and after some debate Karen justifies it by saying she’s just looking out for the students, so they follow her in secret. Rin arrives at his residence but hesitates, unsure what to say. Meanwhile, Girinma watches ominously from a tree....

As she’s just about to knock on the door, he opens the porch door and sees her. She gives him the flower and is just about to confess her feelings when a lady comes over and he introduces her as his girlfriend, for whom he buys the flowers. Rin goes from crushing to crushed, but manages to hide her feelings long enough to give them both the bracelets and wish them well before running off and breaking down. She sits on a bench and reflects on how she met him, as a patron of her shop, and starts to cry. Girinma shows up, taunting her dream for being pointless, and he prepares to attack her. The other girls catch up, declare Rin’s feelings to be precious, and they all transform. Girinma turns a nearby water fountain (the large, decorative kind, not the ones you drink from) into a Kowaina, which tosses the girls around. Even Aqua, who is supposed to be able to manipulate water.

Despite being overpowered and heartbroken, Rouge declares that she still wants to look forward to good things in life, and refuses to give up. The Kowaina suddenly weakens and it turns out Coco and Nuts have cut off the water supply to the fountain. Lemonade, Mint, and Aqua handle Girinma while Rouge and Dream take out the Kowaina, and the day is won.

As they all walk home, Nozomi, Urara, Komachi, and Karen suggest activities to cheer Rin up, but she knocks them each down in turn because they’re impractical or not to her tastes. Then she realizes that with all of them there, including Nuts and Coco, nobody is watching the shop, so they have to get back there as soon as possible, and the episode ends with a still frame.

The Analysis

First off, if I haven’t established this by now, I’m a sap for romance episodes. Always have been. So seeing Rin crush on someone warms my heart, even if I know it’s not going to end well for her. Also, she’s really cute when she’s like this. I mean, she’s always cute, but more cute. Actively cute.

I have to give props to her actress, Takeuchi Junko, for this. She sounds a bit more high-pitched and aloof than normal. Also there’s a sequence where she’s roleplaying in the mirror as herself and the guy, switching between personas and voices and it’s hilarious and a good show of skill.

I can’t really say her taste in men is great, this guy’s only notable feature seems to be “he comes to her shop, is personable, and is moderately attractive” but since she’s modeled after Nagisa, the bar isn’t exactly high. And of course, young love is rarely rational. It’s less about who she likes as much as the fact that she likes someone, and the writers’ ability to craft an episode around that. As far as episodes of this show goes, this one isn’t very good, especially coming off the fantastic Komachi focus episode, but it’s still fun overall. In this series, even the bad episodes are still pretty solid. They spend just the right amount of time showing Rin as lovestruck, doing silly things, and then getting heartbroken, before they move into the battle.

Now, the elephant in the room here is the Pop’n Beads Maker. It will appear again, and I know it appeared in HUGtto under a different name. This is a toy that was released in the Precure 5 toyline with branding from the characters, but it doesn’t have any plot relevancy. We’ve seen this before, but the previous items they were plugging were a bit smaller than this.

In stores now! Wait, I’m 12 years late.

Based on translated Amazon reviews it seems it was well-liked. I don’t have much to say about this. It threads beads onto a string for you so you don’t have to do it by hand. I read mixed reviews of how good it was at doing this. It may feature the least into the story of any of these gimmick items. For reference, the Prism Love Checker was used by Nagisa to see how compatible she was with Fuji-P.... or would have been if she hadn’t chickened out. The Handy was shown to be useful at Akane’s takoyaki cart, and Honoka used it to control a slideshow as well. The pencil cases in Splash Star were used to share messages about how Saki and Mai cared about each other and were sorry for upsetting one another. The bead maker is shown once, as Rin makes a bracelet, we see Nuts hold one more bracelet, and then it’s never seen or heard about again in this episode. Very weird. It’s preferable to forcing their whole relationship to center around the bead maker, but then it comes across as a less effective toy plug. I feel like there’s a middle ground for effectively marketing your product and integrating it into the plot in a non-hamfisted way, but I don’t want to waste time coming up with one.

I would like to point out that, despite being portrayed as sporty and tomboyish, they always take care to show that Rin also has feminine interests as well. She’s happy making flower arrangements, and here she is fawning over a boy. Her friends make note of this, and I’m not bringing it up to say it’s unusual for her. I like that she’s able to express all aspects of her personality mostly freely (she feels a little embarrassed about the crush, as people are wont to do).

I really like how they showcase Rin and Nozomi’s old friendship. We know they’re second generation friends who have known each other since they were very young, and we know they always look out for each other, but I love is how they show it in this episode. Nozomi recalls Rin’s previous crush that got her acting all giddy, and wants to support her wholeheartedly. When she gets her heart broken, Nozomi gives her some space, but when Girinma mocks her, she jumps on the offensive and declares how important Rin’s feelings are. When it’s time to strike the final blow, she works in tandem with Rin and says “Don’t make a maiden angry! You wouldn’t like us when we’re angry!” She has no time for anyone who upsets her friends, especially Rin, and that’s admirable.

Komachi, Urara, and Karen don’t have a whole lot going on this episode. It’s not about them. They’re mostly moral support, and encouraging poor decisions. All of them know they should leave Rin alone to go talk to this guy herself, but they’re also curious to see how she does. Karen is initially the voice of reason, saying they should give her her privacy, and Nuts backs her up. However, when Nozomi insists, she comes around and says as student council president, it’s her responsibility to look out for the students, and comes along. This is a pattern of behavior with her, she acts reasonable at first but then she makes poor decisions. I kinda like that about her, it shows that she’s not the unflappable student council president they all think she is, she’s just good at logic-ing her way into situations. And then when they’re all coming up with ways they can cheer her on, using their unique skills, Komachi suggests that she could write lines for Rin and Urara says she’ll be her stunt double!

she is unique.

They’re a bunch of dorks and I love them.

Also over on the villain side, Girinma isn’t doing so hot. Bunbee handed him his termination papers and threatened to fire him if he didn’t improve his performance, so he’s especially cynical of Rin’s misadventures when he spots her, but it doesn’t really relate to his attack. It doesn’t seem to amount to much of anything, except to show that Bunbee is at the end of his rope with his employees, which will come into play in a few more episodes.

To wrap it up, it’s a filler episode with the intention of plugging a toy they couldn’t advertise any other way. No Pinkies are gathered, but we see a little insight into Rin’s softer side, and some machinations behind the scenes. It’s not a bad episode, but if I had to recommend ones to skip for time, this would be one of them. I do understand the importance of fleshing out your cast so the audience cares about them and appreciates the bond between characters, which is what this does, but ultimately it’s not especially relevant. I would rate it a 7 on a scale of 10.

Next time, Masuko Mika interviews Karen at home, and we see spring uniforms! Look foward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 Kettei!

[evien-stark]

✧I Need You✧ Chapter 64

And so it went. Tony very quickly learned the importance of not arguing with you about bedtime. While you would have liked to take solace in that, he decided to be stupid in other ways. Because going to bed with you but then getting up roughly an hour or two later to go back downstairs to the lab to work wasn’t really doing either of you any favors. It didn’t help you sleep. It didn’t put your mind at ease. And who even knew how much sleep he was barely surviving on at this point. 

You woke up alone in the middle of most nights, and if not in the middle then in the very early mornings. Sleep seemed to be escaping the both of you, even if one of you was trying harder than the other. You kept promising to yourself that you weren’t going to get frustrated with him, and certainly not angry, but… some days were harder than others. 

June dragged on into July the same. Empty nights and restless days. More often than not you weren’t sure you were a real person anymore. You certainly didn’t feel like it. And nothing seemed to want to convince you otherwise. Certainly not Tony, who spent more time in the lab now than he did doing almost anything else. Every time you ventured down to drag him to a bed he would not stay in he seemed to be working on yet another different suit. You’d stopped keeping track around number fifteen- mostly because he’d started being a wiseass about it. 

“This one is called Heartbreaker.” 

“How apt.” 

Not frustrated. Not frustrated. Not frustrated. Yet you were letting little passive aggressive notes slip between the two of you. That was no way to do things. No way to act. But every other time you turned around it was something different. 

Cassanova. Tiger. Hot Rod. 

Gamma, which was an absolutely ugly green and slate color. He really was truly losing his mind, you thought, when you’d seen that one. And what were they all for, anyway? Certainly not for personal use. What would he need with so many? Sure, when you’d asked, he’d started rambling off how different the specifications were for all of them. That they all had one solid purpose that made them different- 

But even that served to show you how crazed he was getting. What were they for? What were they for? You kept asking yourself, but found yourself too afraid to ask him. Because you knew the answer. You just didn’t know how to handle it. Worse yet, how to help him handle it. That was far beyond you. You could love Tony Stark with all your heart, all your ability, but that would never heal the pain and trauma he’d been through. 

And that was the toughest thing of all to live with.

Another bombing slipped by the two of you, and the only reason you knew that was because Tony had it on one of the wide monitors as you’d come downstairs one night. And he’d been too tired to even realize he’d let himself get caught doing the thing you and Rhodey (hell, even the President) had asked him not to do. It was only when you very pointedly, and tiredly, stood there for too long a time just staring at that screen full of info he wasn’t supposed to have or see that he finally took notice of his own faux pas and turned it off. 

Too much time was slipping by. But how to even start shopping for therapists? Did ones even exist for this sort of thing? Rhodey had said he’d help you find someone- JARVIS, had, too. But… the idea was too daunting. Too huge and horrible to even begin to tackle. Not even just for yourself, but for him. And the thought of even if you did find someone, he’d just kick and drag his feet and wear you out and down until you gave up anyway…

Was this really a way to live life? Was this what life was supposed to be? Was this what all superheros felt like? Bruce seemed to be doing alright. And Steve, too. But you and Tony? 

Drowning. Endlessly it felt like. 

As August crept in you let yourself get pulled. You didn’t want to go back, but you couldn’t stay here, either. Stuck between two worlds that you were falling apart in. You stood in the doorway of the lab for far too long. He was working on another suit. Something even uglier. Orange and red and yellow and… 

“I have to go back to New York.” 

He didn’t even look up. “Why? Pep can’t handle it over there? Or did Banner blow something up?” 

A sigh built up in your lungs without your permission and you had to do your best to keep it from escaping too dramatically. “I sent you an email about it. We have a PR press campaign on the 10th. You didn’t forget, did you?” 

How could he forget something he didn’t even know? 

“Of course not. So, what, you need me to just do a fly-by? I can do that.” 

“I need you to be there with me. Take questions. Show off some of the clean energy we worked so hard to get off the ground.” Right before aliens attacked and the two of you had fled. What a great start to that story. 

“So I’ll be there.” 

He was barely listening to you. Just saying whatever it took to make you stop. That was what it felt like, anyway. “I’m going to a proof of concept meeting at the office, and then I’m taking the jet.” Because you just couldn’t… while he was busy building hundreds of them, the thought of getting back in your own suit made you nauseous. Something else to bury and not think about. 

He still had yet to look up once. “Who’s proofing what concept?” 

“It’s a presentation. No tech to even demo. You signed off on the papers. Beck, I think. You remember?” No. There was no way that he did. 

“Sure.” 

Not frustrated. Not frustrated. Not frustrated. And not angry. But you were. And in the middle of both those feelings you were also incredibly hurt. It was like the two of you had gone back to merely co-existing. Like you were his personal assistant, running a company he no longer cared about. Because he was too busy being Iron Man. 

Losing himself. Losing him. That’s what you were doing. 

The door slipped shut as you walked all the way into the lab, taking him by the shoulders and pulling him enough to get his wheeled- stool moving with his weight still atop it. You dragged him into the center of the room, taking him away from those terrible suits he was becoming more a part of every day, and waited. You waited for a long time as he looked up at you and you looked down at him. 

And finally he spoke first. “...there something you wanna talk about, honey?” 

“I need you to be here with me, Tony.” 

He gave a cautious look around the room before looking at you again, arching a brow. “I’m literally sitting right in front of you. Where else would I be?” 

“You’re not here. You haven’t been here in a long time. I don’t know where you are. But it’s not here with me.” Trying. Trying your hardest to impart these feelings without accusatory tone. Without malice. Without bitterness. You were sad. You were terribly sad about how things were. Everything else came second. 

“Look, I…” His glance dropped and you feared you might have unjustly infected him with your feelings, which wouldn’t help. You needed him to start being honest with himself, that couldn’t come if he just felt what you were feeling. His hands smoothed up the back of your thighs. For a moment you foolishly hoped he was going to be real with you. That the two of you would finally get to the bottom of things. Start healing. But, instead, he looked up again with a half grin. “When I slip into a different plane of existence, I think you’ll be the first to know about it.” 

That was that. He was going to continue to ignore everything. Might as well. So were you. 

Reaching up, you cupped the sides of his face in your hands, and didn’t know whether to feel relief or even more heartbreak as his hands moved to grasp at your wrists. Holding you there. Melting into that one simple touch. “I love you.” Reminding him. Just in case. 

“I love you, too.” 

Easing in, you laid a long, lingering kiss to his forehead. Staying there for probably too long a time. “Don’t leave me waiting in New York. I can’t do it without you.” 

“I’ll be there. I promise.” 

The two of you looked at each other. Probably staring right through. Then you had to force yourself to leave. In the car, you kept the visor rolled up, hoping Happy wouldn’t report back that you’d cried the whole way to the office. 

                                                  -------------

It was a blessing that it took you less time to clean up in the restroom than you thought it might. Being late for a proof meeting wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it was rude. Giving your hard working employees the idea that you didn’t care about them, or the kinds of things they were developing, was the last thing you really wanted to do. Especially because their other boss hadn’t even been on the property in months. 

Your secretary helpfully slipped you a file as you walked in, and you took a moment to say hello to some of the board members who had come down (probably because they were bored and had nothing better to do ((also probably hoping Tony would show up)) ), and the tech department before shaking the hand of the man who had brought you all there for at least thirty minutes that day. 

Quentin Beck, his profile read. He’d been working with Stark Industries for a little while now. And while you’d told Tony he’d okay’ed the patent requests for the Stark Tech, it was actually your name on the bottom line. When had that happened? You couldn’t even remember. His had probably been signed with several others in the same day, same week, same month… 

He was radiating nervousness, but curiously also a bit of aggressive arrogance that had yet to actually show itself. You hoped for his sake it wouldn’t, but you knew better. 

“What have you got to show us, Mr. Beck?” Deciding not to wait too much longer. The sooner this was over with, the sooner you could grab your things and head to a city that would only exacerbate your condition. Hooray. 

“I want to thank everyone for coming. I know you’re all very busy. So I’ll get right to it.” 

Getting right to it actually consisted of a computer failure that ate up ten minutes of his window as he had to reboot and restart powerpoint. His transitions were cheesy, his thoughts were kind of all over the place… the tech stuff was just a touch over your head. For something like this you really would have preferred Tony be in the room to confirm or deny all the things coming out of this guy’s mouth. 

He was pursuing some sort of brain image scanning… pattern reconciliation or… something or other. Your lack of sleep was definitely not helping you right now. But science and tech mumbo-jumbo aside, you got the actual crux of what he wanted this tech to do. And that’s where it got dicey. 

The plan being to implement tech that could replicate someone’s worst thoughts, or maybe not even their own thoughts. Maybe just whatever you wanted them to think- ah, but of course once he saw your disapproving look, he tried to save face by saying it had other practical uses… 

Once he was finished the room fell silent and all heads turned to you. How to put it delicately… “Well this is all very impressive, Mr. Beck, and it’s clear you’re working hard on this, I’m not sure this is a technology Stark Industries should be utilizing in its current form.” With the current man behind the curtain. Beck seemed a little too antsy. A little too eager to use it to do… well… “It seems very weaponizable-” 

“But that’s the thing. It isn’t a weapon! Can’t you see the application? No physical harm is done.” 

“Physcological torture is still torture.” You felt you might have been an authority on this. As you lived pretty much every day that way, now. “Stark Industries hasn’t been in the business of selling any kind of weapons for quite some time.” 

He was getting angry. Angry because clearly you didn’t see or understand his vision. And because you were shutting him down. “Right, that’s why you and Mr. Stark fly around in metal suits with laser beams, right?” 

A few fools failed to read the room right, chuckling once or twice before being elbowed by their much smarter companions. You kept your stare very much dead-eyed. “What are you implying, Mr. Beck?” 

“Nothing- I just… I think we’re getting off to the wrong start, here. Look. There’s a lot of practical applications for this. Won’t you at least have Mr. Stark look over it before passing on it?” 

Because Tony would know better. Tony would know better than you. That’s what he was saying. Utter nonsense that that theory was. Tony would back you. And, knowing this… “Sure. Of course. I’ll pass it along to him and we’ll let you know.” 

Beck brightened at this. “Thank you! Thank you. You won’t regret this.” 

Yet you had a feeling you definitely would. 

                                                 -------------

Dvahli was about your only saving grace as you boarded the jet with her in tow. She was becoming quite the seasoned traveler for such a little thing. All the better, because you really needed a companion to get through the mess that had become your life. Your other life partner was just too absent. 

A thought you chose not to dwell on too hard as you descended back down into New York City. You lied to yourself that the nighttime lights were just too bright for your poor eyes, you were tired after all, and you just weren’t that interested in looking at the city. So after drawing every shade shut in your private cabin, you sat back down and really focused hard on brushing Dvahli’s coat out. Couldn’t have her looking like a slob as you touched down. Everything to do with that and nothing at all to do with all the noises buzzing around angrily in your head. 

The flash of camera bulbs only exacerbated your feelings further. Happy was quick and efficient in swatting the press away and getting you into the private car. He’d become really good at that, in fact, something you knew you should thank him for. A thought you spent too long thinking about until you found you’d pulled up to the Tower. 

And one you wished you’d hung on to as you stood there, stock still, staring up at it. The repairs had been finished. No longer Stark Tower, now just the A standing atop your building proud and just. Something that you had hoped had become a beacon of hope for the city. And yet…

As you continued to look at it all you felt creeping up was an insurmountable horror. 

Happy startled you, with a hand on your shoulder, and you put your hand up to him. Then realized. Then apologized. For the hundredth time. He pretended to look the other way on it. So did you. Not saying a word except a minor apology. And then up you went. 

While you wanted nothing more than to bypass the actual offices and go right to bed, Pepper had let you know there were some exceedingly important documents on your desk that needed signing. So as you stepped onto the floor and several people vied for your attention, you put your hand up to them, too. More authoritative. Less out of control. As you should be. “I’m just grabbing something from my office and going upstairs. Consider me not here.” 

Enough of a statement to shut out most of the voices. Save Pepper’s. “Your six o’clock is in your office.” 

And then you wondered how far gone you were that you had an appointment you couldn’t remember. “I’m sorry?” Asked as your hand had just turned the knob on the door. 

The man sitting in your office stood with all the unenthused flare he could muster. Which quickly turned into ire. “It’s about time. I’ve been here for fifteen minutes waiting for you. Not surprising, considering.” 

You tried desperately to think if you’d ever seen this man before. He had a very distinctive face, one you were sure you would remember, and yet… “I’m sorry, Mr…?” 

“Doctor. And, two for two aren’t we? Let’s consider for a minute you hadn’t scheduled a consultation, which I’m doing you a favor by even being here by the way- but we’ve been running in the same circles for years. I’ve been at the last ten Family Firefighter Galas.” 

Your nerves were chafed. And this man pretending he was the leading presence in the world was not doing you any favors. “The Firefighter Fund has only been running for six years.” As dry as you could make it. “And I didn’t schedule an appointment with you.” 

“Consultation. It’s fine. I’ll make this brief. I’m only here on behalf of some of my colleagues, anyway. Everyone’s scared to say no to the Starks. Not me. I wouldn’t be wasting my very precious time here if I didn’t have a point to make. Every hospital is in the city is extremely busy thanks to Stark Industries’ usual business.” 

Stepping further into your office, letting the door finally swing shut, you approached him, shoulders squared. “And you’re implying?” 

He grinned. “Mr. Stark might be able to change the name of the game, but we’re all still servicing the people the same way, aren’t we?” 

“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, but The Avengers stopped an attack on New York.” 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” 

You squared up. “Feel free to get off my property any time you’d like, Mr…?” Doing it again. Because it upset him. 

Easy to see as his eyes narrowed in a brief twitch before he hung his head, shaking it, scoffing. “Doctor. I won’t tell you again. Strange. By the way. You would know that, since you called me.” 

“Trust me. I didn’t. So there’s the door. Goodbye.” Brushing by him as you moved to go to your desk. 

“Let me at least give you my diagnosis. I’m wasting time to be here. And I wasn’t even charging.” 

You sat down, opening the folder you’d come to get. The papers in there were inconsequential, really. But now you attended to them like they were the most important thing in the world. “Knock yourself out, Dr. -...Strange? Really? Are you serious?” Looking up at him again with only the judgiest of faces. 

“How childish of you.” Sneering at you as he came close to the desk, laying a hand on it. “Like I said, time is money, and I’m wasting millions being here. So let me say this, stop calling looking for someone to take Stark’s surgery. Nobody will. That’s coming from the top down.” 

You had to hold very still. Very. Very still. 

Surgery? Tony was looking for surgery? You couldn’t think of anyone else who would’ve made that call. But why wouldn’t he tell you? Was he sick again? Was he- 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Keeping your voice level, holding it all in. You were getting better at that. 

“Playing dumb really suits you. Sleeping with the highest bidder might make you the boss here, but you’re not in charge of anyone else. You can’t bully your way into my world. Even if a surgery like that was 100% risk free, which it’s not, and even if we had the technology required, after all the damage he’s done some people consider it just retribution.” 

“So which is it, then? Too much of a risk or we’re playing saints at the hospitals? I thought you were supposed to help people in need? Didn’t you take an oath or something?” 

His grin showed itself again as he barked out a laugh. “Rich coming from somebody like you. And him. Why do you think nobody can do it? Stark’s been clean for years now, yet I haven’t seen a single medical patent hit my hospital floor.” 

“We have hundreds. Just because they aren’t run by you doesn’t mean they’re not happening. And which one is it- you can’t? Or you won’t?” 

“Does it matter? Both, if it makes you feel better. I wouldn’t touch Stark’s surgery with a ten foot pole. My record is worth more than his life. And worth more any notoriety it would bring. Which is obvious, isn’t it? Why do you think nobody’s called you?” 

Holding steady yet again with a deep breath, you stood slowly, perching your palms on the desk and leaning in to him. “So it’s not that you can’t, it’s that you won’t. Thanks for clearing that up. Doctor with a record more precious than life. What a headline. Can’t save people because you’re too scared to-” 

“Don’t attempt to talk down to me. You don’t know anything about me.” 

“I know everything about you, Mr. Strange. I’ve met thousands of men like you. We call them cowards.” The pleasure you felt backing him up away from your desk as you rounded it was brief. None of this felt good. “Get off my property. And, for good measure, why don’t you stay fifty feet away from all Stark property for the foreseeable future?” 

He made a face at you. “You can’t be serious. What, did I hurt your feelings?” 

“Get out. Before I call security, and let me assure you, there are dozens of reporters waiting for a good story on the sidewalk. Don’t make me give them one. Your precious record might not live through it.” 

He tried to stare you down but you stayed firm, unblinking, unmoving. Until finally he did, much as it clearly pained him to be pushed around. He probably wasn’t very used to it. His mistake, for coming here. No matter who had called him. With an extra huffy scoff he turned on his heel and tromped his way out of your office, out through the reception floor, and into the elevator. You waited maybe two minutes to make sure he was out of earshot  before you hung your head out your door- 

“If anyone else makes any personal unsolicited appointments on my behalf like that again, I’ll fire this whole floor. Do I make myself clear?” And while there were scared murmurs of agreement, you eyed Pepper, who looked half as scared as the rest of them. Silently, you asked her, you? 

And silently with a look she told you, I would never. 

When you shut your door again, you asked, “JARVIS who made an appointment with Mr. Strange?” 

“I believe he said he was a doctor, ma’am.” 

“I really couldn’t give a fuck less what he thinks he is. Who made it?” JARVIS had access to everything. He would know. And if he didn’t know right now, he would find out. And then you could make this right. Because nobody had business scheduling an appointment- a consultation- a whatever for surgery on Tony’s behalf. You’d wring their neck. 

“I have a file for you, on your computer.” Apparently done running his calculations. 

Already you knew you weren’t going to like what you saw. And it was a good thing you were sitting down, because what played on screen shred your last ounce of strength. Tony. In the lab. Working on one of those stupid suits. An electrical misfire. Tony falling to the floor, silent. Shrill sounds of machinery going off. DUM-E obscuring the camera. The sound of Tony gasping in relief. 

The clock moved forward in a cut of the surveillance. Tony had a drink in his hand. And, with the way he was swaying, as he still worked- on a different suit, you noted- he had had more than that one half empty bottle sitting at his desk. When had he started drinking again? 

Drinking like that? A monster the two of you had never tackled. Foolish you. As much of a coward as Mr. Strange. Never addressing it. Just pretending he’d gotten better. Because that’s how alcoholism worked, right? It just went away? 

“That can’t happen again, JAR… VIS. JAR head.” Laughing to himself as he slumped down onto his stool, sloppily refilling his drink. 

“What should you suggest we do, sir?” 

“Find me … someone. Someone good. The best. I think we can look into it- I’d do it myself but… not really my forte- I think… machine parts are easier than… I mean I probably could-”

“I would not recommend attempting to perform heart surgery on yourself, sir. Regardless of your estimation of your abilities.” 

“Probably right. Well. So… go ahead then.” 

“Sir, you’re violating the Drunk Me protocol. You know I can’t.” 

He waved his drink around in the air. “You can- what was the… peaches and cream right? That’s it, right? See? I’m not that drunk. Do what I’m askin’ you. Please. It’s important. We’ll just look. We don’t have to … we don’t have to… uh… commit.” 

“...yes, sir.” 

“She can’t know about this.” 

“Why not, sir?” 

“Because.” Tony’s voice in the office spooked you nearly half to death. You jumped right up out of your chair, looking at him as his voice blended with the one in the video. “She has enough to worry about.” 

“Tony- jesus fucking christ- don’t scare me like that!” Trying to catch your breath. 

He came in from the doorway, head half hung, hands in his pockets. “Spying, are we?” 

“I thought someone else had brought that asshole here. I was going to fire them out of a cannon into the sun. But now that I know it’s you, maybe I’ll just throw you into the Arctic Circle.” 

His smile was tired. “Huh. Bad news then, I take it? That’s fine. I was too drunk to be serious about that, anyway.” 

 “What happened in the lab?” 

 He shrugged. “Nothing. Got shocked, muscles locked up. Heat from the electricity melted a wire and the housing unit got loose. JARVIS would know that. So I don’t know why he’s going around acting like it’s a big deal.”

JARVIS cut between the both of you, “You said the password, sir.” 

“Oh please. I probably had a BAC of .30 that night. You knew better.” He stopped when you were just in front of him, on your feet again somehow- you didn’t even know how. You felt very near the verge of passing out. “So. What’s the verdict? Sufficiently worried?” 

“Wouldn’t you love to be right about that?” Sitting on the edge of the desk for your benefit, you drew him in between your legs, taking hold of his face as he came close. 

“I love to be right about everything. You know me.” His nose brushed yours, eyes closed. 

“I used to.” The threat of tears nearly overwhelmed you, saying this, but you bit them back. Pulling him in all the way, you wrapped your arms around him, and took solace in him holding you back. Tight. “These days I think we’re both a little out of sorts.”

“Yeah… war will do that to you.” He couldn’t let that statement hang, quick to keep speaking. “That’s what Rhodey keeps saying to me, anyway. He check up on you as much as he does me? It’s starting to get annoying.” 

He was offering you an out. A joke about Rhodey being a pest. So easy to feed into. Instead, you pretended you were strong enough to ask the next thing out of your mouth. “What are all the suits for, Tony?” 

He squeezed you so hard then you could barely breathe. “Protection.” 

“Protection from what? One isn’t enough anymore?” 

“No. Not with- ...not- ...I… I saw something- something up there. We’re not alone anymore.” 

Your smile against his chest was bitter. “You’re starting to sound like Fury.” 

“Maybe he was on to something. But unlike him, I’m not looking to nuke the whole of outer space. Just the uh… just the one time is enough, I think. And that wasn’t my fault. Really.” Rambling just a little. 

Easing back you looked up at him again and let your eyes close as he took your face in his hands next. Staying strong was a losing battle. “And the surgery?” 

“Who cares? Guy said no, right? What was his name even? I never thought to ask JARVIS.” 

An angry sort of breathless laugh escaped you. “He said a whole lot of stuff, nothing worth listening to. And a name that’s just as unimportant.” If you never had to see that man again it would be too soon. Looking up at him, the two of you fell into a less than amicable silence. Not knowing what to say next. How could you fix this? Fix him? Fix yourself? Any of it? Impossible. Too impossible. So you became every bit that coward you already knew you were. “Can we go to bed?” 

“Yeah, honey.” He followed your lead. “Let’s go lie down.” 

Sleep wouldn’t solve any of your problems. But at least you had him for one night. No lab to escape to- ...at least not one to build suits in, anyway. And when you woke up the next morning, seeing him still lying aside you made you feel like maybe this wasn’t unsalvageable. 

Maybe the two of you could be fixed. 

You just didn’t know how. 

[floriswrite]

14) Bodyguard AU  51) Accidentally Married

“I do not need another bodyguard.” Even sighed. 

“At least meet him. I believe you will change your mind.” Ansem insisted. 

“Yes, father.” Even relented. 

Ansem smiled at him, always kind. He turned towards the door. “Lauriam you may come in.” 

The man who entered took Even’s breath away. Ansem knew him well. His dusted pink hair fell in light layers around his head and was adorned with a white dahlia. His slender but strong frame had on a white button up along with a black vest which had tails. Even’s mind was quickly headed down a perverse path with the way his black dress pants hugged his body. 

“Lauriam this is Even.” Ansem spoke as he walked over to him. “I trust you to keep him safe.” 

“Always.” Lauriam nodded. His voice gentle and firm. It sealed the deal for Even. 

“Good.” Ansem nodded. “Have you changed your mind, Even?” 

“Yes.” Even swallowed. 

“Good.” Ansem looked to the blond. “We have some paperwork to finish. I will have Even meet you in the kitchen.” 

“Understood.” Lauriam inclined his head and left. 

“He’s already signed his parts.” Ansem spoke as he walked back over to his desk. “If you want that man at your side for the rest of your life you need only sign.” 

Even did not hesitate. 

~~~~~

“I made tea.” Lauriam stated when Even entered the kitchen. 

“That’s very thoughtful of you.” Even responded and sat down at a round table. 

“It’s the least I can do. I will be living here, after all.” Lauriam smiled and walked over to him. “Ansem spoke very highly of you. I hope we will get along well.” 

Even swallowed. It was hard to think when Lauriam was close. He radiated a slight floral scent. He was beautiful. “I am sure we will.” 

“Good.” Lauriam retreated with that. 

They fell into a lull while Lauriam waited for the tea to steep and Even stared at him. He had some inches on the man but had no doubt Lauriam was much stronger. 

The thought of the man lifting him had his mouth dry. He should not be having such thoughts for an employee. 

He moved with a grace that spoke of good breeding and a solid upbringing. Even was helpless to his thoughts. “Do tell me if I put in enough sugar.” Lauriam settled the tea down before Even. 

Even curled his hands around it and brought it to his lips, blowing on it before taking a sip. Perfect. “How did you?” 

“Ansem proved me with info on your dietary preferences.” Lauriam replied and sat down beside him, sipping on his own tea. 

“That seems unfair.” 

“How so?” 

“I don’t know anything about you…” Even frowned into his tea. How long had Ansem been planning this? 

“We have all the time in the world.” Lauriam replied. “Though tonight I have dinner with my family. I will be back afterwards.” 

“Okay.” 

~~~~~~

Lauriam returned around 7:30. His hair sported an orange spiked clip and his vest had been replaced with a sports coat. 

Even typically ate late. On account that he constantly got immersed in his work and lost track of time. Tonight was no different. 

Lauriam found Even eating a grilled cheese sandwich and idly dipping it in tomato soup. It was more homey than he had expected. He knew the blond was a fan of cheese. “I will officially be moving in, in three days.” he started.

Even looked up at him. “Do you need help?” 

Lauriam shook his head. “My family will take care of it all. They are pleased with your decision.” 

Even rubbed the back of his neck and laughed a touch awkwardly. “Who would say no?” 

Lauriam hummed. “May I join you?” 

“Of course, go ahead.” Even smiled at him, a touch too many teeth. 

Lauriam settled down beside him. “Thank you.” 

Even did his best to not make a mess of his face before him. He was not a messy eater per say, he had been groomed for public events, but he enjoyed his private time as well. 

Lauriam watched him in silence.

Even might have found it odd if not for the fact that Aeleus often did the same. 

Even showed Lauriam the library after that. A private sanctum. 

Lauriam’s eyes lit up and Even would trade all his fame for a photo of that look. For it to never leave. 

Even watched as Lauriam walked slowly around the room. His fingers touched spines with a gentleness he did not know the man had. His heart skipped a beat and he reasoned this is what he had read about in books. 

They stayed there until Lauriam started to doze. 

Lauriam followed Even to his room and Even did not question that because his safety was his job. 

Even must have imagined the expectant look in Lauriam’s eye. “Good night, Lauriam.”

“Good night, Even.”

The last thing he saw was Lauriam’s right hand clutching his left. 

2 weeks ago    +4 notes    reblog

#marvex #floriswrite #au 51

  He found Lauriam the next morning in the kitchen. He was sipping tea and writing in a journal. “Good morning.” Even smiled at him.

“Good morning.” Lauriam’s reply was brisk.

Even tried to not show how it startled him. Not that Lauriam looked up. “Have you had breakfast?”

“I considered it,” Lauriam frowned to himself and set his pencil down “But chose to wait for you.”

“That’s very sweet of you.” Even couldn’t help but smile big. Especially when Lauriam looked to him. “I usually have oatmeal or toast. Outside of baking I’m not great in the kitchen.”

“You bake?” His brows pressed. The report should have included that.

“It is a science. Mostly cookies.” Even laughed a little. “Ansem probably assumes they’re store bought or the staff made them. I’ve never thought on it.”

“That makes sense.” Lauriam whispered. “Would you like pancakes?”

“Are you offering to make me pancakes?” Even’s smile softened.

“If you would like.”

“Who would say no to pancakes?”

That made Lauriam smile. “Chocolate chips?”

“You know the way to a man’s heart.” Even laughed.

Lauriam pressed his chair back and got to work.

It took some time but soon Lauriam was setting warm chocolate chip pancakes before him.

Ansem entered the kitchen while Even was drowning his sacrifices.

“Good morning.” Ansem’s voice was as kindly as ever.

Lauriam paused to turn and look at the man. His expression flickered to something sad before he fixed it back to the expected happiness. “I am making pancakes.”

“I see that.” Ansem walked over to Even.

Even smiled up at him. Melted chocolate on the corner of his mouth. “They’re very good.”

“I do not doubt that.” Ansem smiled. “I won’t impose. Remember you have a French lesson at eleven.”

“It is your kitchen.” Lauriam stated. “I am-”

“Nonsense.” Ansem tsked. “I ate earlier. I only wanted to check on you two.”

“We’re doing well.” Lauriam turned back to the stove and flipped his pancake.

“Lauriam is amazing.” Even grinned.

“I’m glad you think so.” Ansem nodded and left them.

~~~~~

Even noticed it then. The rose gold band upon Lauriam’s left hand. He knew nothing about him. “Are you married?” He knew Ansem must be paying him greatly.

Lauriam paused in his cutting to stare at Even. His brows pressed before they relaxed and he stared at his plate. “We did just meet. That’s fair.”

Even opened and closed his mouth. Was that to private to talk about? Or was he supposed to already know?

He let it go.

Even focused on not focusing on Lauriam eating. His lips were a pale pink. He had no doubt in his mind they would feel nice.

Lauriam barely looked at him. If Even needed time he would give it to him.

~~~

“Do you not like me?” It was a week into Lauriam walking him to his room. That expectant look had not vanished. Even was positive it existed.

“I-” Even swallowed, “I have fallen rather hard for you. But it is inappropriate.”

Lauriam frowned at him before he sighed. “You are correct; we have only known one another for a week. Can I at least have a kiss?”

Even swallowed and nodded. He could do that. He’d drunkly kissed most people that lived with them at some point or another. What was a little sobriety?

Lauriam pressed up on his toes to place a peck on his lips. “Good night, Even.”

Even’s lips tingled. He wanted more. “Good night, Lauriam.”

~~~

“I do not believe he likes me.” Lauriam whispered.

“Give him time. Even’s interpersonal skills are a touch lacking but I’m positive he’s smitten with you.”

“He’s holding back.” Lauriam whispered, right hand clutching his left. “I do not mean to be perverse, but it is wearing me down being turned away.”

Ansem frowned and stood. “Dear child,” he looped his arms lightly around him. “Give him time. I chose you for a reason.

Lauriam leaned against him. "I know. But would you talk to him? I… I might throw this at him one of these days.”

“I will.”

~~~~~

“You need to consummate your relationship with him.”

Milk came out of Even’s nose. “What?!”

“He came to me worried you do not like him.”

“I-we-he’s- you want me to?” Even whispered.

“He is here for you. Do not hold back.”

“Okay.” Even swallowed.

~~~~

Lauriam stood before his door. Expectant.

Even swallowed and took his right hand and tugged him inside. His mouth was dry.

Lauriam smiled up at him and looped his arms around his neck, pressing kiss after kiss to his lips. “You’re ready?”

Even gave a small nod. “Thank you for waiting.”

~~~~

Even’s attention was drawn to the band on his hand. He smoothed a hand over Lauriam’s chest and down his arm. “Even now?”

“Especially now.” Lauriam smiled up at him. “Do you want to look at it? Ansem insists-”

“Ansem gave it to you?”

Lauriam nodded.

Even stared at him. His stomach churned a little. “Are you and him-?”

Lauriam stared at him. “I am only here for you.”

“Okay.” Even breathed. “I’ll look at it.”

Lauriam carefully removed it and handed it over.

Even turned it in his fingers. And paused. “This is inscribed with my name.”

“Correct.” Lauriam smiled. “Ansem has one for you but was unsure on your public opinion. So, I’ve been good and not pushed you.”

“Public opinion?” He handed it back over.

Lauriam nodded and slipped it back on. Right hand squeezing his left. “Of us.”

“I still-”

“Do you truly not know?” Lauriam pushed himself up with his elbows.

“I- no?”

“This is a bad idea then.” Lauriam’s smile was fragile and he slipped away from him. “You need to talk to Ansem.” He grabbed his shirt from the floor and slipped his shoes back on. “This was to mean something very different to me. I thought we were finally on the same page.”

Even watched him. His mouth useless. “Lauriam.”

“No.” Lauriam whispered and paused in his doorway. “You will make Ansem explain. I- I will cry at this rate.” He left with that.

~~~~

“What is Lauriam to me?” Even walked into Ansem’s office with those words.

Ansem looked up. “I thought you would figure it out on your own. Lauriam is rather brokenhearted over matters.” He opened a drawer in his desk and set a black box atop it. “Read your contract with him.” He pulled it out and set it beside the box. “You jumped to conclusions and did not read it.”

Even stepped over. He had only paid mind to where he needed to sign. Lauriam could own his soul and he would be none the wiser.

But there it was. In large dark font. Marriage Contract.

“He’s my husband?” Even whispered and picked up the box. “You told him not to say anything.”

“He took our conversation about your possible need for secrecy as he did.” Ansem replied. “I was well aware you would not take a wife so took matters into my own hands.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I tried to. You made assumptions.”

Even sighed and opened the box. His band was silver and he turned it over in his fingers. Lauriam. “I have so much to apologize for.”

“He did last five weeks.”

“He did.”

~~~

“Even, this-”

“Please.” Even’s voice dripped with a desperation that ripped all complaints from Laurium.

Lauriam relaxed against the wall and trailed his fingers through Even’s hair. “Okay. But I want a date.”

“Done.” Even breathed and nuzzled his thigh. “I’m sorry I was so dense. That I made you suffer. Let me make it up to you.”

“I suppose a quicky in a supply closet is a start.”

~~~~

Even watched Lauriam carefully move around the kitchen. He had settled in a bit more.

“Would you like to make cookies?”

Lauriam paused in placing carrots in a soup pot to look at him. “You will eat lunch first.”

Even pouted a little. “Yes, yes.”

~~~~~

Even clutched the band in hand and went on the search for Lauriam. He was not in the kitchen or library. He did not respond to his door.

He found the man outside with a woman he did not recognize.

“You could run away.”

Lauriam looked away. “I need Ansem. Strelitzia needs him.”

“From what you’ve told me I think he’d understand. She opened her eyes today. She wasn’t coherent but the doctors are hopeful.”

“Thank you for being there for her.” Lauriam stared at her before stepping closer and wrapping his arms around her. “It should be me.”

“You’ll see her soon.”

Laurium was using him for money. Even swallowed and clutched the ring in his hand tight. What had he expected?

~~~~~

“Tell me about Strelitzia.” Even’s voice was firm.

Lauriam flinched. “Where did-”

“Lauriam.”

“She’s my sister,” Lauriam responded “She’s reacting badly to a heart transplant. Her’s was failing. We- we almost lost her.” Lauriam curled a hand before his chest. “Ansem did everything right but her body is still trying to reject it. We’re afraid to put her back under. I-” he swallowed “I’m afraid.”

Even stared at him. Ansem was one of the best heart surgeons in the world. He did not operate as often these days because of his age. “Do you trust me?”

“I want to.” Lauriam whispered.

“I’ll read her files.” Even nodded. “Figure out a solution. We probably will have to operate again. Her body may settle on its own but more likely we will have to change it.”

“Okay.” Lauriam took a heavy breath. “Okay.”

[hollowedsammy]

Hello, hello, everyone! My name is Susie, I am 21-soon-to-be-22, I live in the EST timezone, and this is the first of my two characters, Sam! If you’d like to plot, like this or IM me! This contains his basic info, backstory, info about what he’s currently up to, some misc. information, a small playlist, tropes that apply to him, and wanted connections. Yeah... I went a little hard.

☾  ↪  cillian murphy, male, forty, he/him.  ／  ❛  have you heard from samuel marx lately ？ yeah, the forty year old mechanic / drug dealer. pretty sure they’ve been here twenty years, and from what i’ve heard, sam can be kind of cynical  &  self-serving, but i caught them on a good day once, and they were pretty funny & clever. i’m probably overthinking it, but given all the crazy shit around here, i hope they’re okay. maybe they’re watching their favorite scary movie, i heard it’s child’s play.

trigger warnings: homophobia, parental/domestic abuse, self-harm, depression

BASIC INFORMATION

Full name: Samuel Joseph Marx

Nickname(s): Sam (everyone), Sammy (his mother, close friends, or significant others only)

Age: 40

Gender: male

Sexual orientation: bisexual

Birthday: January 12, 1956

Zodiac: Capricorn

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Personality type: ISFJ

Family: Joseph Marx (father, deceased), Serafine Marx (mother, deceased)

Criminal record: shoplifting (3 counts), underage drinking (2 counts), auto theft (1 count), fraud (2 counts), possession with the intent to distribute (2 counts)

TROPES

Beware the Quiet Ones

Cornered Rattlesnake

The Cynic

Deadpan Snarker

Don’t You Dare Pity Me!

Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas

I Just Want to be Loved

I Need a Freaking Drink

Lower-Class Lout

Not Good With People

Perpetual Frowner

The Runaway

Smarter Than You Look

The Snark Knight

Sour Outside, Sad Inside

When He Smiles

FIVE-SONG PLAYLIST

“The Mute” by Radical Face

“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant

“Run Boy Run” by Woodkid

“The Kids Aren’t Alright” by Fall Out Boy

“Emperor’s New Clothes” by Panic! at the Disco

BACKGROUND

Sam was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had a small family -- just him, and his parents. His father was a police officer, and his mother was a housewife.

Sam never got along with his father. Never. He can’t remember a single time that he didn’t entirely despise the man.

Joseph Marx was a corrupt cop, as well as an abusive husband and father. The Marx household was frequently filled with the sounds of slamming doors, screamed profanity, and glass breaking. While he frequently took his anger out on his wife, Sam quickly became Joseph’s favorite target.

Sam was also a favored target of other kids. An incident during which two older boys held him under the water instilled an unshakable case of hydrophobia in him, and he was often beat up when teachers weren’t around. Many said he brought it on himself -- what did he expect, when he was so obviously queer, dressed in such ratty clothes, acted so strangely?

Unsurprisingly, he developed delinquent behavior early on, and was frequently in trouble for cheating on tests, stealing other students’ possessions, skipping class, smoking, drinking, and stealing cars for joyrides.

Bullied at school and abused at home, Sam had few friends, and spent as much time as possible out of the house. He’d wander the swamps and streets alone, only occasionally having a companion with him.

Finally, when he was sixteen, Sam hit a breaking point. A terrible fight with his father led to Sam being thrown into the kitchen window. The glass shattered, cutting into Sam’s skin. His mother tried to help him get cleaned up, but Sam had had enough. That very night, he packed a small bag and snuck out the back door. He stole a truck from one of his neighbors, and hit the road, never to return to Baton Rouge.

Lacking any sort of plan, Sam wandered from town to town, making money via odd jobs, shoplifting, pickpocketing, purse-snatching, and selling dime bags of weed. He had his fair share of scrapes with the law -- even spending six months in a correctional facility when he was eighteen -- but always managed to worm his way out any long-term consequences. 

While in jail, Sam finally wrote to his mother -- now that he was eighteen, he couldn’t be forced to return to his family’s home, so he could assure her that he was alive. While he kept in contact with his mother from then on, Sam never spoke to his father again, and refused to ever return to Baton Rouge, even after his father was shot and killed in the line of duty.

ARRIVAL IN HOLLOWAY

Sam got to Holloway at the age of twenty. He only intended to stay for a couple weeks, long enough to make enough money to make a cross-country trip. The girl he was dating at the time went to school in Maine, and he wanted to go visit her.

When the first Hollow Man murder happened, a couple weeks after Sam’s arrival, he was nervous. When it became evident that there was a serial killer in Holloway, he started thinking maybe he should just say “fuck the money” and skip town altogether. However, before he could, the police were asking to talk to him.

It had been discovered that a couple of the deceased had bought drugs off of Sam a few times. While they hadn’t thought much about Sam at first, this caused the cops to look closer at him. Upon further digging, the investigators found that Sam was a drifter who had dropped out of school and run away from home, had a history of behavior issues, an ever-growing rap sheet, a brief stint in jail to his name, a skittish and antisocial air about him, and an obvious hatred of cops.

Yeah. It did not look good.

Sam was interrogated many times. His story never changed. He did sell weed to two of the deceased. No, he didn’t hurt them. He never even interacted with them beyond the sales. He was asleep at the time of the murders. No, no one can confirm that, he was alone. No, he doesn’t have a hotel room, he’s been sleeping in his truck.

Despite a lack of solid evidence or a motive, Sam was still a prime suspect for the first few murders, and he was told not to leave town. Knowing it’d look much worse if he ran, Sam decided to get a job -- partially because he was stuck in Halloway for the foreseeable future, and partially because he knew he might have to hire a lawyer soon. He eventually persuaded the local auto shop to hire him as a mechanic. (Accused of murder or not, Sam is damn good with cars.)

No official charges were ever brought, and eventually, another murder took place while Sam had a clear alibi, having been drinking in a local bar in full view of at least a dozen people all night. He got busted for having a fake ID, but at least he wasn’t an official murder suspect anymore.

Key word being official. Some suspected that Sam had an accomplice, and that the whole thing was a set-up to clear his name. Despite rumors, whispers, stares, and even a few people accusing him of the crime to his face, he always maintained that he never hurt anybody.

After being cleared, Sam intended to get out of town as soon as he could. But then, the girlfriend in Maine he’d been planning to go see dumped him... via postcard. It was the cherry on top of what had been a shitty few weeks.

Sam decided to stay for a little while until he figured out where to go next. He was rather enjoying having a steady paycheck for once, and it wasn’t like he had a plan. “A little while” eventually turned to twenty years.

NOWADAYS

Sam has now lived in a half-double in town for many, many years. It’s small, but he makes it work.

While most have probably abandoned the idea that Sam killed anybody, he’s still not exactly Mr. Popular in town. He’s known to be a sarcastic, self-centered dick, who has no respect for authority. (Some things never change.)

He still works at the auto shop. The original owner’s son runs it now, but Sam is the longest-standing employee, as well as the best mechanic.

Sam still hates cops. If he could refuse service to them, he would.

He’s still selling weed on the side (his boss looks the other way -- so long as Sam doesn’t get busted while at work, he doesn’t really care), and can be bribed into purchasing alcohol for underage students. However, he refuses to get mixed up in anything harder than that.

He mostly keeps to himself, and isn’t known to be particularly violent. If someone else attacks him, he’ll defend himself, but he rarely throws the first punch.

He’s been in an even more melancholy mood than normal lately, because his mother died last month.

He honestly thought the Hollow Man business was behind him. But now that a new victim has been found, he can feel people looking at him sideways again.

And, no matter how much he says he doesn’t care what other people think... he doesn’t like it at all.

MISC.

Sam’s sexuality is not public knowledge. He’s not ashamed of it, but he also wants to avoid harassment, so he’s only ever openly dated women. The only people who know are men he’s been with in the past, and maybe, maybe a very close friend.

Despite his dislike of people, Sam is quite fond of animals, and even adopted a stray cat he found a couple years ago. He’s named him Hecate, and he is quite possibly the ugliest cat in existence -- he has one eye, crooked fangs, and scratches everything that isn’t Sam.

Sam suffers clinical depression, but is in denial about how serious it actually is. It’s driven him to make some pretty damaging decisions, and he’s had a habit of burning himself with cigarettes since high school. The scars are all over his shoulders, arms, and stomach. 

Sam was -- and still is -- a frequent target of classism. Due to his lack of education and working-class background, many assume the worst in him, and many underestimate his intelligence. While he uses it to his advantage, he is irked by it.

It surprises people to learn that Sam is actually very well-read, and a talented actor. In another life, he could’ve joined a Shakespeare company. In this one, he reads passages aloud to himself when he’s alone.

Sam claims to hate... well, everyone, but he holds a special contempt for bullies and abusers. One of the only times Sam’s been known to instigate a fight is when he got sick of listening to a drunk guy catcall a woman walking by, and just decked him.

Sam still hates water, and refuses to go swimming -- on the rare occasions he has to go near the water, he won’t put his head under.

Sam has a pitch-black sense of humor. The Hollow Man murders are one of the few things he won’t joke about.

SUGGESTED CONNECTIONS

Someone who still believes Sam was or is the Hollow Man.

Related to the above, some of the younger characters have probably been told by their parents to stay away from Sam. Whether or not they listened is up to you.

Friend with benefits.

Exes.

Someone who has become aware of Sam’s depression and is trying to help him -- whether he likes it or not.

Unrequited crush (from either party).

And anything else you can think of!