#I'm not as salty as I sound but I do hate when my plans change and I did so enjoy having the house to myself lol

[inhurtandincomfort]

I was looking forward to a nice evening alone to write but that's not happening anymore rip me

[cosmicbucky]

oh hello there!! 💫

he's the cutest ever and this vibe goes perfectly with the new road trip/beach fic idea i was thinking of writing

please tell me you can picture it:

road tripping with boyfriend!bucky, windows down, badly singing along to the playlist you both made and laughing hysterically when either of you gets the words wrong (which happens a lot)

wanting to change off driving with him so he can rest but "the whole point of this is to relax, doll. so just relax, i'll get us there safe and sound"

stopping off at lookouts (where he'd rather take pictures of you instead of the view because you are the view) and of course random touristy roadside food shacks and restaurants where everything is way overpriced but it's necessary for the whole experience

picking out tacky souvenirs for each other that you both pretend are awful but actually secretly love

finally getting to the cottage you two rented out and him not being able to wipe the gigantic grin from his face as he watched you explore, because "this couldn't be any more perfect, buck! thank you for bringing me here" and "i think anywhere would be perfect as long as i'm with you, doll"

you not having a chance to fester with your insecurities because he's immediately kissing every inch of your skin when he notices how uncomfortable you seem in your bathing suit, and suddenly you don't hate how it looks quite as much anymore because "never in my entire life have i seen something as perfect as you" and you were out of the suit almost as soon as you were in it so he could prove his point before you even left the bedroom

spending the days down on the beach, packing little picnics and having lunch in the sand, him incessantly making sure you drink enough water and have enough sunscreen on because it's his job to take care of you and that's never going to change; even when on vacation

sprinting along the beach barefoot, running away from him because you knew he'd toss you in the water if he caught you - and he always did. strong arms around your waist, his chest warm against your back, a false sense of security for a few moments before being engulfed by the cold waves, bucky following immediately after, taking you in his arms again as he laughed and kissed the salty water from your face

hunting down seashells, him diving for the ones you couldn't reach because "look how beautiful they are!" but "they aren't nearly as beautiful as you, sweetheart"

watching the sunset while dancing to the sound of the waves, staying in each others arms long after the sun had set because you never wanted the moment to end

staying out on the back deck of the cottage long into the night, watching the stars and talking about nothing and everything. "i love you more than there are stars in the sky" "you're my moon, you know? just a pretty, beautiful thing always lighting up the darkest parts of me"

snuggled up on his lap while having a fire under the stars, surrounded by birds and crickets and distant waves. sun kissed skin warm against each other as you stole kisses and touches from the other well into the night. and if it got a little heated no one was around to see (or hear)

eating fresh fruit and failing to fight the urge to kiss the juice off each others face (which always ended up with you making love on the nearest flat surface you could reach) and you may have broken a lamp or dish or table or two in the process

frozen cocktails, playing tourist in town, dancing in the living room, heart shaped sunglasses, night swimming, skinny dipping, local markets, getting up early to watch the sunrise, catching shows from local bands, picking wildflowers, going whale watching, anything and everything you wanted to do

and let's not forget him having a custom made ring tucked away in a crevice of his suitcase, planning on asking you to spend forever with him while out under the stars, the moonlight making you so impossibly beautiful to him he nearly forgets how to breathe

okay i didn't plan on running away with this but here we are! thank you for the motivation! 💖

[beevean]

Ranking Hazbin Hotel songs (ep. 1-4)

Just elaborating on my opinions on the music so far. To be honest, I'm not too keen on the forced quota of two songs per episode, but what salvages it is that the compositions and voices are high quality. The best songs do also a great job in the characterization department, and they've been stuck in my head for a while now lol.

8) Hell is Forever

ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I don't like Charlie's singing. Not because she's a bad singer, I don't like how she's treated as a joke, and I don't like her cheap Disney parody style. This is even worse because by plot reasons she has to sing super fast about concepts we already know about. It's unpleasant to the ear.

And Adam. ugh. I hate Adam. His verse is actually not that bad! I like how he introduces another obstacle to Charlie's plan: the man has (by his own admission, which is a bit lazy) a black and white view of the situation, and he refuses to accept any redeemed soul in Heaven. And the rock style is good too. Just. I hate him. I hate his fratboy personality. I hate his voice until he finally takes it seriously. He ruins a perfectly nice solo. Gah.

7) Happy Day in Hell

Again. I don't like how Charlie is treated as a joke even by the narrative. I also am confused as to how we're meant to see Charlie singing as something silly she does in-universe, when then everyone else sings and they're taken seriously. Anyway, this is a generic "yep everything will be just fine" song, because get it she's in Hell, and get it things will not be fine! My Little Pony had a similar joke ages ago, and it was mercifully shorter.

At least it sounds good, because Charlie has a nice voice, and I like the jazzier finale.

6) It Starts With Sorry

Forgettable. I have nothing to say about it.

5) Whatever it Takes

A nice ballad shared between one of the protagonists and a character that has been just introduced. I am intrigued by the parallels between Vaggie and Carmilla, but that's about it. I don't think this scene needed to be put into song, which emphasizes how the quota of two songs per episode was unnecessary. Carmilla's VA is also better with a bombastic voice than with a slow ballad. (nothing to say about Vaggie, she sounds lovely)

4) Respectless

While it shares the previous song's problem of being kind of unnecessary, this one is at least boppy and interesting. I like how the style changes to reflect the singers' personalities, from Carmilla's more proper Latin instrumentation to Velvette's modern pop. Some of Velvette's lyrics are just terrible ("bae"? in 2024? 😭), but she picks up in the second half where she shows her true intelligence. Also both of them have nice voices.

3) Stayed Gone

A delightful, jazzy, and most importantly salty duet between Vox and Alastor! Not only it's very fun to sing, it does a great job at presenting the characters: Vox is a fast smooth-talker, but his anti-Alastor propaganda comes off as desperate, and he crumbles quickly under Alastor's timeless charm who doesn't even try that hard to paint Vox as an insecure clout-chaser. The bookend is also done well, with Vox attempting to sound menacing, but Alastor straight up sounding like a predator stalking their prey. The song establishes their rivarly in an entertaining way and only gives us the breadcrumbs to explain to us what happened between them, keeping the intrigue.

(also I can't get enough of Alastor saying "and now he's pissy, that's the tea :D" just to mock Vox' obsession with modernity. he's so sassy lol)

2) Loser, Baby

Alternative title: media literacy test :P

While I think I prefer Stayed Gone musically, this is just a wholesome scene... as much as it doesn't look like at first lol. It pulls all the weight to show Husk's inner depths: he's old enough, wise enough, and empathetic enough to know that the Charlie approach (being endlessly optimistic and kind) doesn't work on someone like Angel, who 5 minutes prior was willing to get himself rape drugged in a self-harming act. So he hits him with a double whammy of brutal honesty ("yes, you're a loser, you suck, your situation is terrible") and simple support ("but you're not the only one, I suck too, I like you the way you are and you can at least be miserable with me").

And this is important for Angel, who has a very skewed view of himself after all the abuse he went through. When he says that he's a loser and a dummy, and jokes about not having more holes to deflower, he's casting away the bravado that he uses to hide his pain. It's the first step to accept himself as he is, knowing that at least someone out there can appreciate him for who he is, and not just what he can give. It's beautiful.

Also Keith David <3 the contrast between his low smooth voice and Blake Roman's higher pitch <3 (and once again, "you're a power bottom at rock bottom" cracks me up)

1) Poison

Oh this has been my obsession ever since I found it. It's so good. The layers. The rhythm. The voice. I love it so much! 💖

I've always liked Addict for the contrast between the poppy music and the miserable lyrics, but its spiritual successor goes above and beyond. What a perfect inlook into Angel's broken spirit. He blames himself for the hell he's stuck in, and doesn't expect to break free soon. He's aware that Valentino only feeds him poison (lies? beatings? fake love?), but Angel is addicted to it and can't get away from him, so he willingly poisons himself and convinces himself that it's what he wants after all - it was his choice, after all. He likes it, right? He gets wasted like there's no tomorrow because he has no reason to live another day. It's terrible! And yet the song is so catchy and fun to sing, and it has probably the most interesting rhymes so far. It's the only song I genuinely wish it was longer.

And the visuals only help <3 I can't get enough of Angel dancing, either chained to Valentino and smiling even as he's thrown on the floow, or alone, pretending to be sexy and confident but then cowering at Valentino's sight. Abuse romanticism my entire ass, it's a more nuanced look on the dynamics of abuse than many other works I've seen.

And Angel's broken voice at the end destroys my heart :) Blake Roman, guys.

[genshin-obsessed]

u are opened your request! yeey! can I get xiao x reader hc or anything, when xiao feels regret-and mad-because he is ignoring the reader since he meet traveler/lumine & now the reader never appear in front of him again, instead she/them spend their time with other character (the reader whose know lumine have liking xiao be like "oh, i'm bothering your time with her? kay then, i know u two like each other, this weak mortal will dissappear as your wish, hope u will happy with her, tehee~) but can you make the ending with fluff? it's true that I wanna see suffering xiao, but my heart can't let that cat boy have the sad ending! #pleasehelpmyweirdheart #gaaah

sorry if what I say doesn't make sense at all.

I sincerely really love your work

- 🕊️

I hope you liked this! Not gonna lie this concept makes me wanna write something similar for more of the characters.

Venti Version

Diluc Version

Length: 919

Something New

You had met Xiao by accident. You were walking to Wangshu inn and you had gotten attacked by some slimes. Xiao had saved you and, at first, he was pretty rude.

But after that first meeting, he found himself missing you. He was surprised, he’d only seen you once, heard you speak once, and now he longed to do it again.

So he found you again. He found you and made up some stupid excuse to always be nearby. He had no idea what all of that entailed. He fell in love and he didn’t hate it. He cherished you and everything about you. Your background didn’t matter, nothing but your love for him did.

Everything was great.

So when did it change? When did Xiao start becoming so busy for you? Usually, he would go find you if you’d been apart for too long. Now… now he would just cancel plans to spend time with her.

Lumine. The Hero of Mondstat. Who didn’t know her? How many times had Xiao cancelled plans with you only to spend time with her?

It hurt. It hurt so much but at the same time, it made sense. Of course he’d want someone of his caliber. Someone who could fight, someone who was great… like him. You couldn’t even protect yourself from some slimes.

So after Xiao ditched your two year anniversary to spend with Lumine, you decided to end it. It was clear Xiao wanted Lumine more and you wouldn’t stand in the way. They were clearly meant for each other. So, you decided to talk to him. To end it properly, but of course, when you got to Wangshu Inn… he was with Lumine… laughing.

That’s when it must’ve really sunk in. The tears started flowing without stopping. You had to steal some paper and wrote Xiao a note, saying you understood that he loved Lumine more and that you were fine with ending the relationship. She was clearly the better option.

After that, you left. You cried as you decided you'd leave Liyue with your friend, Beidou. She insisted on a new start, one that might help these awful memories. You agreed and had everything packed and all you needed to do was meet her at the docks.

The walk there was painful. Your legs felt like lead and all you could think of was Xiao coming to stop you. Every turn, every look back, every sound… you hoped it was him. But it wasn’t.

You finally made it to Liyue harbor and down to the docks, where you saw Beidou waiting for you. She frowned, knowing the only thing you wanted was for Xiao to stop you. But it clearly hadn’t happened and from the look on your face, you two didn’t even get to talk.

“Are you ready?” You only managed a nod as she helped you onto the boat.

***

“Hey, what’s that?” Lumine asked, pointing to the letter under the rock. Xiao moved forward and picked it up and looked at the front. His name was neatly written in the corner and he immediately recognized your handwriting.

Xiao’s golden eyes moved across the paper, widening in horror with every word he read. Slowly the words started to blur and became harder to read. It took him a moment to realize he was crying.

A weak mortal like me will never get in your way. I’ll disappear from your life completely, Xiao.

Where did you go? Where were you? The note only mentioned that you were leaving but where could you have gone?

“I… I have to go.” Xiao said before disappearing, without waiting for Lumine to respond.

***

You stared out into the open sea, tears still sliding down your cheeks. You knew this pain would last a while… but how long? Xiao was incredible. He was an amazing man, one that changed your life in so many ways. One that you couldn’t ever forget.

You had to forget. You could hold onto the memories, all those happy memories, but you had to let go of Xiao.

Just that thought caused a sob to escape your lips. You lowered your head as sobs wracked your body, feeling the salty breeze cool your arms and cheeks. Cold… you were cold.

It only lasted a moment though, before you felt warmth envelope you. A very familiar scent surrounded you, making you look up and head at the sea. No…

Slowly you turned your head and saw the one man you almost didn’t want to.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… forgive me.” He said, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you closer. “I’m so sorry… please don’t leave me.”

“Y-you love L-Lumine. It’s f-fine.”

“No. No I’m not. Lumine… isn’t you. I want you and only you.”

“It’s our-”

“2 year anniversary. I’m sorry. I’ll do anything to make it up to you. Just don’t leave me.”

“I already told Beidou I’d go with her.”

“Then I’ll stay here with you. As long as you want to be here.”

“I… I don’t…”

“I love you so much, (f/n). So please… don’t leave me.” Your tears didn’t stop, but you leaned into Xiao’s arms. He held you tightly, swearing over and over again he’d make it up to you. He swore no matter what, he would never make you feel like this again.

“I love you too…” you whispered as your lips met. You loved Xiao more than anything and you were willing to trust him one more time.

[milquetoast-on-acid]

Chain reaction: Andy brings Sharon Christmas with the help of Ricky!

These Christmas credits are so adorable! Look at that little Santa

You got to appreciate the fact that they set up this little Santa gingham style dance thing. In order to distract everybody else from one of the Santa's robbing the bank! It is quite brilliant.

I love how the mood changes. As soon as the Santa gives the note to the teller. The music stops. There's this weird creepy noise and the Santa hat falls down on Mike's name.

This poor cop! My kids are going to hate me. I killed Santa Claus.

The fact that buzz showed up at their crime scene with one of those ugly Christmas sweaters! Is always hilarious.

I love the fact that both Ricky and Emily are so interested in seeing that dead Santa. Who the hell wants to see a dead person!?

I love how Provenza is like. What the hell are you doing here!? And Sharon is: I have been calling you. And then prevents his response. He just kind of stumbles over his words. I love it. She left him speechless!

Andy is just over here leering at Sharon!

A flash mob. That's what that thing is called! I completely forgot. Do they even have those things anymore? Now? I'm starting to sound like Provenza.

I love the look that Andy and Julio share when they learn that prevents us not coming to the party, but it's going to Laguna Beach with "a friend."

Did we know at the time that it was going to be? Patrice?

Just the fact that Provenza and Patrice are already taking vacations together at Christmas. Meanwhile, Sharon and Andy are still not acknowledging that they are dating.

Can I love the fact that the background music is Christmas songs! Have they ever done this on major crimes or the closer? I feel like they might have.

I remember when those big ass chunky necklaces were all the rage! Now I have no idea what the hell supposed to be trendy right now.

Provenza his face! You want to get out of there so bad they can go on vacation with Patrice. But of course we know this is major crimes and any plans that you make never ever happen the way that you want them to. No one ever goes on vacation. No one goes anywhere and does anything but solves crimes.

I really like Amy's hair like that. Usually they go for her very tight ponytail. But I've got her hair up and back and it is similar to her ponytail but it has a little bit of femininity to it. With the slight bit of curls in the back.

I've also forgotten how much the dialogue in these Christmas episode is just a bunch of Christmas puns. Like Provenza son of a nutcracker!

I appreciate the fact that Andy is curious AF about who Provenza it is spending his Christmas with. Not only that, but he just goes out there and asks him. I don't know why Provenza is being so coy about it though. Quite literally. The only thing that I can think of is that he wants them to think that things between him and Patrice are casual. Either that or he just doesn't want anybody to talk. Which that's also very likely knowing him.

That is definitely not product placement there.

God I love Ricky!

The fact that they're putting the most perfectly baked cookies on the plates. As if they didn't go out and buy those at like Target or something.

The fact that Ricky is so smug about his dumb little joke! I do love those socks though! Those are red!

Can I also say I love the fact that they have these little details to even Ricky. His messy hair that he cuts himself. His shirts that are so wrinkled. He's kind of a hot mess. He's definitely the kid that takes after Jack more. But he's loving and kind where Jack is manipulative and an asshole.

I have seen this episode many times and I still to this day have no idea what Sharon is trying to mouth to Rusty.

I love Ricky's love of Christmas and sense of occasion and tradition just like his mother. Ricky really is the best of both his parents. He is definitely more his father in personality but he has a lot of Sharon and him as well.

I love the fact that Emily is salty that she has to stay with Jack.

So of course we learn that Jack is possibly drinking again. But Emily doesn't want to be digging through her dad's trash to figure it out.

I love the wreath on the door. The lights hanging up underneath the vials and the skeleton with the Santa hat on! Morales always does beautiful job with his decorations.

Amy holding up that old lady's gun. I love what she says. It's for ladies get it. It's pink.

This lady is absolutely nuts! I love how hammy she is!

So Provenza got two different rooms, one for him and one for Patrice. Why? I am so utterly confused? Why would you go out of town with someone that you're dating but it is perfectly chase and I have two rooms. Is there supposed to be like every romance on the show You're just going to deny it? How unoriginal is that. Provenza and patrice's romance does not need to be an exact copy of Sharon and Andy's.

Poor Buzz had to be the butt monkey in the middle!

And I think prevents a just released that dye pack and poor buzz's face.

I love Julio's little chuckle as he sees buzzes beautifully green face.

Oh I get it working. Emily are blocking Sharon's view of Rusty throwing that bag away.

I do appreciate the fact that you learn that Jack is indeed drinking and then there is this mad shuffle to throw it away without letting Sharon know while she's on the phone talking to the squad.

I can appreciate the fact that Emily and Ricky want to have the best Christmas with their mom. They don't want to ruin their mom's Christmas. But also Rusty is right and that it's going to come bite her back on the ass and it does.

I love Julio! He puts on his big smile for this kid and then as soon as he turns away you can tell that he does not want to hear this kid play.

Rusty: Where is Ricky? Emily: Oh he ran out somewhere. He said it was a surprise. So wasn't all the kids that conspired. It was Andy who called Ricky and they put this together.

The thing is Emily Is that you're an adult? So whether or not you can see Jack is up to you. Sharon did say earlier in the episode that she was Switzerland.

I do disagree. This isn't about trust. This is more like preserving Christmas making. Like keeping a happy facade I think.

What does Emily really think that because Jack isn't spending Christmas with them that making him want to drink again? I rather thought that was in response to the divorce. Because while they were separated for 25 years and for much of that time, he didn't want to seem like he was married. He did show up to the office when Sharon presented him with a divorce papers with his wedding ring on his finger. What certainly tells me that he's still thought of himself as married.

Can I love the fact that Provenza puts his jacket on as soon as Patrice walks into the room. And he finally reveals that he's going to Laguna with Patrice. I love the amusement of everybody else and how Sharon just pushes everybody out of the room so they can stop gawking at her. In what Sharon pushes Andy quite literally out of the room.

Also love the fact That Provenza hates when anybody sits on his desk or in his chair. But he puts Patrice there. I love it!

I also love how Patrice just looks behind her at all of the crime scene photos! 😆

That poor kid. His mom won't even let him eat cookies around Christmas time! That's when you eat all the bad shit! And he's a freaking kid. He's supposed to be eating junk every once in awhile.

Aw Julio! He just loves kids and he wants them so much. Don't worry Julio, you'll get Mark. Who I know will be a tear at first, but you two will be such a wonderful father and son story.

I love the look on Mike's face when he hears. Provenza is okay with canceling his weekend package with Patrice. Only Provenza it in love would be okay with that.

I love the fact that Andy brought Christmas to Sharon! Happy decorate the break room so they could at least have the Christmas party. You see it stuff like this that show that Sharon does like surprises.

Look how happy Andy is opening the door for Sharon surprise. Meanwhile I'm giving that big ass smile to Ricky. You did good boy. You did good!

I still can't believe that they actually cut out the scene where Andy gives Sharon a Christmas gift! All we see is the box that she holds later on.

Andy really does look like he was about to kiss her at least on the cheek. And then she gets some cold feet of course and then runs away, which is pretty typical of their relationship at this point.

And of course that ominous last scene where Rusty wants to tell Sharon what's going on with Jack. However, Emily and Ricky do not want to tell her and Rusty's. Just hoping that it won't come back and bite her on the ass. But of course we know that it will. And the worst absolute time possible is what it happens.

[imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl]

Love On-Set (Pt. 10 of 10)

Pairing: Dacre Montgomery X Reader

Word count: 1.2 K

Summary: You knew acting on Stranger Things season 3 would be a challenge, and you also knew, from the start, you'd have to work closely with Dacre Montgomery. But is wasn't a big deal for you, since this is your job and you're determined to act professionally. You had it all figured out, or so you thought, until the moment you were out face to face with Dacre. Then, this job became a lot harder than it was supposed to be, since you can't seem to focus whenever you're around Dacre. And you'll have to be around him a lot until the end of production.

<- Previous part (09)

{Dacre Montgomery Masterlist}

{Stranger Things Masterlist}

×

What Comes Next...

The last three months have been hectic, in between shooting the last scenes of season three, the premiere, and the interviews that always follow. The Internet is going insane because not only Billy, one of the villains from season 2 changed and got a love interest, but you and Dacre, outside of the cameras, are together. The fans absolutely love it. But after the events and all the talk shows and YouTube channels wanting you both for a meeting, you had to call it out eventually and head back home.

It's not that you don't like it, the attention and the fans all rooting for your relationship, but you also like the private life, the one you get to share with Dacre alone, as well as your friends and families. But not everything is broadcasted. This moment is an example of that.

Seated on the sand, you watch the sun rising, casting its light on LA, lighting up the blue sky, mixed with the ocean ahead of you. Both your cellphones were left at your place, and the beach is empty. This moment belongs to you alone. Well, to you and the paparazzi that took a few pictures of you some minutes ago, but he's gone now.

“What are your plans after season four?” Dacre asks, his deep, strong voice being carried by the fresh morning wind.

Billy and Amy survived, unlike Hopper and Heather. It was a pleasant surprise you only found the day before shooting the last scenes of the Battle of Starcourt. And of course, you're already down for the next season, and everything you know so far is that Billy and Amy left with the Byers, and are now in an established relationship. The rest will only come when you get the script, which will take several months. “Uhm... Season five if the characters make it that far.”

“Uhm... And after that?”

Giving Dacre a glance, you wonder where he's going with this. Season four is only due to next year, and the production won't start in at least five or six months. “I don't know. Some studios are calling me but I'm not interested in the roles they have. What about you?”

“I'm thinking of holding to Stranger Things only.” He shrugs his shoulders, leaning closer to place a quick kiss on your lips. “Then I want to make a pause. Settle down, focus on my personal life.”

“Sounds good.” Raising an eyebrow, you can't help but ask. “And am I on this personal life thing?”

“Only if you want to.”

Blushing, you bite your lip. “Only if I want to.” You repeat, the wind suddenly stronger, messing with your hair. “I think I do, Mr. Montgomery.”

“There's something else I've been meaning to ask you.” His voice gets serious, and he pulls away so he can stare into your eyes.

“What is it?”

“I was thinking about going to Australia.” Dacre starts, holding your hand in his. “My family still lives there and I want to formally introduce you to them, not only through video calls. And there's a lot of places I'd love to show you.”

Oh... That's something. “I'd absolutely love to go, Dacre. Just tell me when and for how long.”

“That's the thing...”

“What's the thing?”

“I was thinking about staying there... Until the shooting for the next season starts.” There's insecurity in his voice and you know why. Dacre was only renting this house in LA because of the show, but his home is in Australia. “But honestly, going back there, and staying literally half a world apart from you is too much.”

“Yeah, I'd hate it too...” Holding your hair so it'll stay away from your face, you look at the ocean. “But this is... Something. I mean, I could rent a place near yours and–”

“We literally shared the hotel room, and now I either spend the days here or you stay at my place, so I guess that would go on for a few weeks until you decide to just stay with me.” Dacre has this cocky tone and a smirk, so you playfully punch his arm.

“Oh, don't tease me!” A small fight, filled with giggles start, as you try to slap him. But Dacre easily holds your arms, and suddenly, he pushes you down until you're lying down on the sand with him hovering above you. “I'll go with you.” You burst out because the possibility of not going didn't even cross your mind. “But only if you give me that amazing massage in the back after the flight because I know it takes like 48 hours to get there.”

“If we're lucky we can find a 24 hours flight.” When the wind pushes some hair over your face, Dacre moves it away before leaning down to kiss you, slow and passionate. “But yes, I'll give you all the massages you want when we get there.”

“You should really be more careful with the things you promise, sweetheart.” You tease, pushing him off of you. “So. When do we leave?”

“What about next week? Enough time to buy the tickets, pack everything, and to enjoy LA a little longer.”

“Speaking about enjoying LA...” Smiling, you stand up, taking off your shoes. “I'll go for a swim.”

“Babe... You can't swim.” Dacre keeps the half-smile as you walk backwards, eyes on him as you move closer to the water.

“Yes. I really wish I had a strong boyfriend to help me out but apparently–” You stop talking when he stands up, walking fast until he reaches you, and in a swift motion, he lifts you up, parting your legs so they'll be around his waist.

“You were saying..?”

Wrapping your arms around his neck, you giggle when the waves start hitting your back, soaking your clothes. “I was saying I do have a strong boyfriend.”

“Interesting how you change your mind so quickly.” You feel when his feet stop reaching the bottom, and the two of you just stand there, floating, and despite knowing you could die here, you feel safe with Dacre.

“It's gonna be amazing, you know... Australia. The two of us.” You mumble, a hand caressing his cheek. “I am quite scared of the wild animals they have there, but I know you'll protect me.”

“I sure will. I did save you from a freaking Mind Flayer, didn't I?”

Giggling, you nod. “That you did.”

With the calming waves surrounding you, you kiss him, deep and sweet. It tastes salty from the water, but soon enough the taste of his lips overcome everything. And it also tastes like promises, spoken and unspoken. And you know that wherever you are, here or on the other side of the world, you will be fine, and happy, and safe. With Dacre, you don't have to be afraid of what you feel anymore, you can just let it out. You can trust him with your whole heart.

×

@baker151910 @shinydixon @dreamin-of-dacre @hanoi15 @lickmymelaninn @foccus @multific @uncookspaget @kellysimagines @peakascum @thisbreakableheaven @nope-thanks

[kpopmakesmequestionmylifechoices]

Kingdom Round 3, pt. 2: How to discourage idols and kill versatility in K-pop - a guide by "experts".

As in my last post I'll talk about my thoughts on the performances, but mostly I'll question the freaking ranking because wth those experts should really reveal themselves at this point (I'm salty). Anyways, let's get into it.

1. A small "disappointment" and two big surprises.

ATEEZ: Oh guys the beginning made me emotional because it reminded me hardcore of Block B Very Good hahaha. Generally I must say, ATEEZ rearrangements are always good. It just sounded very ATEEZ-ish, and that's cool. I personally prefer the original Rhythm Ta over the rearrangement tho. About the performance, I don't have any criticism I think. I personally found that rope scene a bit strange tho, and overall I just wasn't impressed by that stage. Possibly because nothing can top the Symphony Nr.9 for me hahaha.

BTOB: First of all, SKZ X BTOB interactions are peak comedy I loved this so much. Minhyuk fangirling on SKZ back door stage is me tho. And "Kingdom is 15+ right?" Oh man I love those dudes.

About the concept, totally loved it because it was super fun to watch. I was worried beforehand because I couldn't imagine anyone pulling off SKZ' powerful rap. They didn't tho. They did it their own way and I was surprised. The meaning change to a more uh...mature sorta concept was also quite interesting. The moment Eunkwang knocked and opened the door: chefkiss. Those lyrics? Rude but chefkiss. I in general really liked the rearrangement, but in the end it lost its power a bit. Maybe also because I have the original Back Door burned into my brain and the ending just rocks af. But honestly, my brain also was fried by THIS:

[*my edit/gif - I made a full gifset in that style now]

Stray Kids: I must say, I was a bit scared before because anyone having to do a BTOB cover must have absolutely stable vocals. This was the stage I was most concerned about when I heard about the song choices. Without a reason. Because SKZ absolutely killed it. Sure, I.N didn't hit that note as it was planned but let me tell you, it didn't affect my enjoyment of this stage at all. The stage setting? Fantastic. Changbin's rap sounded as if he's in utter pain and despair, Felix added to that with his hyper low tone part which was ABSOLUTELY cool. This was just great, full of feels, and I have NO criticism, bye.

Recap: When thinking about the past 6 performances, I feel that ATEEZ and iKON did the best job with making the others' song their own. In my eyes, SF9 and TBZ both stayed in their comfort zone with their song choices, while BTOB and SKZ took on the extreme challenge to pick songs that are basically the opposite of what they usually do. As I Iove versatility and surprises, SKZ and BTOB have a special place in my heart with those two stages.

Hence, my personal ranking looks as follows:

1. BTOB & SKZ (tied): For me those were the biggest surprises and caused the biggest enjoyment and entertainment for me. If I HAD TO choose a first place, I'd pick BTOB - because Back Door is one of my FAVOURITE songs of all time, and solely evaluating the songs, I heavily prefer Back Door over I'll be your man. Anyways, with that ranking, SKZ jumped from my personal lowest rank in the first round to my personal highest rank.

2. SF9: After seeing SF9's stage last week, I was sure that I'll have them as #1 in today's post. I loved everything about the performance (besides the weird gun dance sry), and I especially loved how they stepped up their game without making the perfomance too huge and too overwhelming. Nevertheless, due to the fact they stayed pretty close to their usual style, I'll rank them 2nd because I was more impressed by the others' style change.

3. iKON / ATEEZ: The performances were good, but to me personally they were absolutely not memorable. It's a matter of taste after all.

4. TBZ: I know, I again rank them last. And again, no I don't hate them. I simply neither am touched by their stages, nor do I understand their plots. So I once again rank them last. I don't find their performances bad tho, because as all groups, they're doing an amazing job. The stages are simply not my cup of tea.

2. Oh you prove that you're a versatile artist? That must be punished!

↑ That's how I imagine the experts' thoughts. Expert ranking was as follows: ATEEZ / TBZ / iKON / SF9 / BTOB / SKZ.

Okay I must say. Which freaking expert would place SKZ last??? I'm not biased in the slightest, if I'm biased then for SF9 and BTOB, but bruh. SKZ last? That's like, ridiculous. Considering the immense challenge SKZ had from switching from their usual style to freaking I'll be your man?

I don't know man, I can't take this ranking seriously. I really wish we'd know what the criteria is...It's a mystery to me how this could happen. Those boys get punished for stepping out of their comfort zone and doing an amazing job? Literally same story with BTOB. Both groups completely stepped outta their comfort zone and that's what they got for it...Well done, experts, well done. This is how you destroy versatility in K-pop, but sure, go on.

Honestly at this point I hope stays and melodies work together to catapult both groups up in the ranking because this is just utter nonsense...

3. Ya all groups, why don't you support your exchange partners :')))))))

↑ This is me hysterically laughing and crying at the same time at the fact that they don't vote for each other. Groups' ranking was as follows: ATEEZ / SF9 / BTOB / iKON / SKZ / TBZ.

Honestly my only explanation for this result is that the groups don't vote for those people they see as their biggest opponents? It's weird man. I personally for example don't understand why the groups which exchange songs don't vote for each other? None of the performances was bad, and I think it's low-key a matter of respect to give the group you exchanged songs with one of your votes? Because after all they tried their best to present your song in a presentable way even tho it's not their own? Idk man. I don't like this weird feeling of "hostility". But might only be my own feeling idk hahahahaha.

Honestly I wish we'd get to see the groups' evaluation and reasoning behind their choices...

That was it from my side this week...As always, thanks for reading! As for next episode, I'm super excited to see proper interactions and them finally having fun...ouf and after all those years Minhyuk going back to vault jumping I'm hyped hahahah. And now I'll go rewatch SKZ and BTOB lol.

[omnivorousshipper]

I'm going to send yesterday's ask here, like you said. I'm going to do an Avatar The last Airbender request this time. If it's in your style, could you do a Sokka angst fic after the war where he's really depressed and blamimg himself for a lot of things because of some events that happen gradually, like Zuko and Katara getting hurt and he gets taken with one of the other Gaang members (it could be Toph, Zuko, Aang or Katara) and they both get tortured, but Sokka's turn comes when the other is out cold so they don't know. And because they don't know, he tries to hide it, and when they find out, they yell at him and stuff for worrying them. And could you make it so that his low spirit makes him need some mental healing as well. Wait, do you do angst? If this is too much, you can say then I can change the request. I may have gone overboard. Oh my god, I tend to go far with angst. Please, please tell me if this is much too long and too angsty. If this is too much, please tell me, so I can change it. Umm...have a nice day 😅

I absolutely love writing angst! You’ve definitely come to the right place, friend! I don’t usually write from Sokka’s POV but I love him dearly, just as much as I love the rest of the Gaang! Thanks for this request! And I hope you have a nice day too!

Warning: Brief descriptions of burns and torture

~~~

The courtyard was quiet as Sokka sat on one of the stone benches in the corner and stared at the pond with unfocused eyes. The afternoon sun was warm on his face and arms, and shown on the pond’s surface beautifully. Turtleducks were swimming in circles and playing to their hearts’ content as their mother sat from the pond’s edge. Following the slow circles of the animals, Sokka hunched over and felt the scrolls in his arms start to slip. Not caring, he kept his eyes on the pond.

           It had been several months since the war had ended, but somehow the world had gotten even crazier and simply loved to drag Sokka along for the ride.

           He had been staying in the Fire Nation for the last two months to help Zuko find people to add to his council. Everyone who had been on his father’s was either power hungry or plain sadistic. As Sokka and Zuko had found out the hard way.

           Shivering, the courtyard disappeared for a second as Sokka saw the small dungeon he had been stuck in. His arms chained above his head for hours on end, sweltering heat surrounding him as he heard lava bubble not too far away from him. But the worst part had been watching how much pain Zuko had been in.

           Zuko’s arms had been twisted behind his back and forced straight upwards to hang in the middle of the cavern they had been trapped in. Leather bags had been forced over his hands and feet to stop him from shooting out any fire while a leather muzzle had fixed over his face. Sokka had never seen Zuko breath fire, but he knew Iroh and Azula had the ability so it wasn’t surprising their captors were taking every precaution.

           Sokka had no idea he had been forced to be a hostage inside a literal volcano, but he would never forget the time he had been in there. Especially when their captor had arrived.

           The man was an old general that had been on the Fire Lord’s council ever since Azulon had been in charge. He had sneered when Zuko had come into the council room, telling everyone that they are dismissed and their advice never needed again. Sokka had assumed everyone would listen to the Fire Lord, but apparently he had been wrong.

           Instead, the old general had simply blackmailed one of the staff to put something in the tea they had been drinking while talking over potential people for the council. All Sokka had thought was Fire Nation tea tasted weird and ignored the slightly salty taste- they were on an island after all. Sokka wished he had known just how easy it would be to drug the Fire Lord. Maybe then he wouldn’t have let Zuko get captured and hurt.

           That was all he could think as he hung suspended in the air across from Zuko. It had been heart wrenching to watch the firebender struggle to get out of his bonds, but only to be left exhausted. He could even see the chains holding Zuko up turn red hot and burn him. He had immediately shouted for his friend to stop.

           They had simply hung there after that.

           Until the general showed up.

           Sokko hadn’t even remember his name back then. He had vaguely recognized the old guy, but didn’t know who he was. He just wasn’t important to Sokka at the moment. Now though, Sokka would never forget his name. General Shakao.

           The man had stepped into the cavern, a fierce sneer on his face as he ignored Sokka and stepped right up to Zuko.

           “Well, well. How the might have fallen.” The man sneered. “And here I thought Sozan’s line would never let themselves be captured. How pathetic.”

           Sokka growled and struggled in his bonds as Zuko tried to kick out at the man. Instead of moving away from the kick, Shakao grabbed Zuko’s ankle. Freezing, Sokka stared at the two.

           “I wonder just how much fire your father had to use to give you that scar.” Shakao wondered aloud. “Let’s test it, shall we?”

           “No!” Sokka screamed. “Leave him alone!”

           His words were completely ignored as Shakao’s face burst into flame and Zuko’s scream could be heard through the leather muzzle. Sokka struggled more and more as he watched, but to no success. He was stuck. He couldn’t do anything. He was so useless!

           Sokka could still smell burning flesh.

           The torture seemed to go on forever until Shakao had dropped Zuko’s leg. Tears were streaming down Zuko’s face and Sokka wished he could do anything to help him. Why couldn’t he get out of these chains? If only he had more training! He should have asked Suki or even Ty Lee about how to get out of chains. Why didn’t he think? He was supposed to be the guy with the plan!

           “So weak.” Shakao chuckled. “And you thought you’d be able to lead our nation? You’re just a weak child!”            Once again, Shakao’s hand burst into flame as he punched Zuko straight in the stomach. It only took a few moments for his robes to burn away around Shakao’s fist. Sokka couldn’t take his eyes off the bare skin that was quickly being burned.

           “Stop! Tui and La, let him go!” Sokka shouted. But no matter how much he screamed and begged the man, he didn’t stop burning Zuko. This went on until Sokka saw Zuko’s eyes roll into the back of his head, at least half of his body burned horribly from Shakao’s fire. Sokka had no idea how his friend had lasted that long, but he was glad to see he was no longer feeling pain while unconscious.

           “How disappointing. No Fire Lord should let themselves be harmed by fire. Disgraceful.”

           “Because Fire Lords aren’t fireproof!” Sokka snarled. He wasn’t sure he was happy Shakao finally turned away from Zuko and towards him. Lifting his head, Sokka met Shakao’s eyes and glared harshly. Anything to keep the man’s attention off Zuko.

           “And a Fire Lord bringing some water tribe peasant into the palace-!” Shakao snarled.

           Before Sokka knew what was happening, a firey punch impacted with his left hip.

           Flinching, Sokka could still feel the burned skin. It was constantly rubbing against his clothes along with all the other burns Shakao had left on him: down his thighs, back, and shoulders. Sokka had yet to look at them in the mirror, but he knew they were bad. Almost as if he didn’t have any skin left.

           Taking a deep breath, Sokka blinked and saw the young turtleducks had stopped swimming around and were cuddled up under their mother’s wing. When had he stopped paying attention?

           Sitting up, Sokka hissed in pain as his back stretched painfully and burned skin pulled tightly. He could feel tears running down his cheeks as he heard the scrolls he had been holding finally fell from his lax grasp.

           When he and Zuko had finally been found by the rest of the Gaang, Sokka had told them to help Zuko first. He hadn’t woken up even after Shakao had left them hanging there with their wounds. They had rushed back to the palace and Katara hadn’t left Zuko’s chambers, trying to heal him. Sokka hadn’t bothered her with his own burns; they would heal by themselves, Zuko’s looked far worse.

           That had been two days ago and Sokka had tried to distract himself from the pain by looking through any scroll he could get his hands on. This was his fault. He should have noticed the danger Shakao had shown to be. He should have told Zuko to have a royal taste tester as his main advisor.

           It was his fault Zuko had gotten hurt.

           Gasping for breath, Sokka scrubbed at his face viciously to get rid of the tears. He was a warrior! He should be embracing the pain and not allow it to control him!

           “Sokka?”

           Flinching hard, he looked up and saw Katara standing in front of him, concern deep in her eyes. He hated seeing his little sister so worried.

           “What’s up?” He tried to go for casual but knew he just sounded tired.

           “Are you alright? Toph said you were hurt too. Did you visit one of the other healers?” Katara asked gently and sat next to him on the bench.

           “Yeah. I wasn’t hurt that bad. Just my shoulders from hanging there for so long, you know.” Sokka shrugged slightly and cringed when even that small motion made his whole back flare up in agony. “But, how’s Zuko? Is he ok?”

           “Zuko’s doing better.” Katara sighed. “But he’s really worried about you, Sokka. He says Shakao hurt you.”

           “No, I’m fine.” Sokka sent her a smile.

           “Sokka…”

           Why did she look so blurry all of a sudden?

           Taking a shaky breath, Sokka felt his chest tighten and a sob broke through his lips. He realized that tears were running down his face again. He couldn’t stop them. Why? Why couldn’t he stop crying?

           Arms wrapped around him and one brushed against his back. Sokka wanted to scream, but instead, a small whimper came out.

           “What’s wrong?” Katara whispered as she withdrew her arm. Without waiting for an answer, she lifted his shirt and he could feel the air on his skin. A sharp gasp left her. “Oh, Sokka, I’m so sorry-!”

           “It’s nothing!” Sokka rushed to say, but it sounded more like begging. He was fine! They would be worried about Zuko, not him!

           “I’m so sorry.”

           When had Katara started crying? His baby sister should never cry, especially not over him. He shouldn’t have made her cry.

           He could feel her arms wrapping around him again, this time around his neck than back and he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her as well. Shoving his face in her shoulder, another sob left him and Sokka could feel himself unraveling.

~~~

I hope you enjoyed friend!

[thou-crusty-batch-of-nature]

The rise and fall of our love

part one | part two

playlist: broken by jake bugg

no.1 party anthem by arctic monkeys

pairing: james x reader, james x lily 

warnings: language, angst, fluff 

A/N: sooo im back with part two!!! thank you for the fantastic feedback and appreciation you gave me on the first part, and i hope this lives up to your expectations!!!! sending all the love xoxo

masterlist

(moodboard made by me)

"How is he?" 

"Y/N…" Remus began, putting down his quill. Your gaze never left the essay in front of him, refusing to see the pity that his stare held. Because that - that glint in his eyes, the way the right corner of his mouth lifted in a poor attempt of a smile - that was pity. 

You shook your head softly. How did it get here? 

"Am I not allowed to know? He won't speak to me or look at me. I almost feel guilty even though I know I haven't done anything wrong." 

"James is…"

"A fool." 

You knew he was trying not to smile. "Yes, that is the obvious answer. But he is still with Lily." 

Of course he is. What he said that day - or rather what he smelt - has been the talk of the school for weeks. People were staring at you in the halls, pointing behind your back - so much that you stopped hanging out anywhere else besides your dorm and the library. 

And James - he never bothered to say anything to you. It hurt more than you expected to, but you didn't let it show. I am fine, you said every time one of your friends asked. Then, you would smile kindly and change the subject. You would see them exchange worried glances - you pretended you didn't notice. Soon they stopped asking, and you stopped pretending. 

"Do they love each other?" Something in your pathetic heart broke at the quiver in your voice. Love.

Love. Never in your life have you heard a more overrated word. So much loss, so much damage made for love. Was it really worth it? The way your stomach dropped and the slight tremble of your lip, the ache that would just not go away - were these the cost of love? 

You lifted your head, meeting his gaze. He watched you in awe - as if he read the truth in your eyes. You felt the tears roll on your cheeks, hitting the parchments sprawled on your desk. You let them fall. He opened his mouth, then closed it. 

"I understand." you whispered. 

You got up, but Remus caught your hand. 

"Do you…?" 

You smiled softly. "Does it matter anymore?" 

He let go of your hand and you walked away. 

×××

"Hogsmeade, today?" Sirius asked as he plopped down next to you. He took a big bite of your sandwich - and noticing your icy glare, he put his hand over your shoulder and pressed a sloppy kiss on your cheek. You pushed him off you and wiped your face. 

"Bloody hell! You even kiss like a dog!" you retorted. 

"No, I don't." 

"No, he doesn't." Marlene smirked and you rolled your eyes. 

"Hogsmeade, you were saying?" 

"Yes - Remus and Lily are busy with their important top-secret prefect duties and James has quidditch practice, so it'll be just us. I guess you don't mind third-wheeling for a bit." 

"Can't wait!" you feigned excitement. 

×××

It was freezing, to say the least. You were glad you had two pairs of socks on, otherwise you might have had to postpone the trip and pay a visit to the hospital wing instead. 

"I don't sound like that!" Sirius whined, handing you and Marlene your butterbeer - you've decided to stop at The Three Broomsticks. 

"Of course you do, darling. And may I add that you look ravishing." you purred in your best impression of Sirius' voice. Then, you turned to Marlene and winked. "You are the most gorgeous person in here."

"Careful, that's not true." a voice caught your attention. No, no no no.

"Oi - Prongs, mate! Thought you had quidditch practice!" Sirius clapped him on the shoulder. 

"Got cancelled because of the snow. Hello." he nodded and smiled towards you and Marlene, then pulled a chair at the table. It was the first time he's talked to you in weeks. 

You didn't bother to answer. In fact, you didn't even look at him. The rest of your stay at the pub passed in a haze, with careless answers and quick nods. 

×××

Before you knew it, you were left on a bench with James, waiting for the others to "buy some quills from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop", as they were in big need of "quills" and "didn't have any left to write the Transfiguration essay we had due Wednesday". Oh, if only you had Transfiguration on Wednesdays! 

"So… how have you been?" James trailed off, rubbing his neck. Ah, so that's how he wanted to play this game.Too bad. 

"Why, James?" you ask, gazing at the shops in front of you. "Why did you ignore me? What happened that day?" 

He sighed. "I don't know. I- I made a mistake. You shouldn't have found out, not like that." 

"You have some guts, don't you?" you spat. 

"Excuse me?" You faced him. That face - the face you dreamt about, the one you kept telling yourself you hated - you missed that face, you missed him so much that you were glad you were sitting down, for you might as well have fallen to your knees. 

"Do you know how it is," you started, feeling the tears pooling in your eyes, "to feel so alone that you find yourself crying without a reason? Do you know how it feels to spend your nights wondering why you weren't enough - what you did to deserve this? Even if you did nothing wrong?"

"Do you know how it's like to watch the person you love drift away from you? To watch that person become a stranger? Do you know how it felt to know that you wouldn't even look at me?" You were now shouting. "Tell me, James! Look me in the eyes and tell me!" 

Silence. You watched him trying to find an answer and you silently begged him to say something. 

"Do you love me?" he whispered incredulously. Not that. 

"Would it change anything if I said I do?" 

"I don't know."

"Do you still love her?" You couldn't say her name. 

"I don't know." He let his head fall in his hands. For the first time in weeks, you laughed. You laughed until your vision went blurry, until you felt the salty taste of your tears. 

"You know nothing, James Potter." you sneered, then got up. 

You made your way back to the castle alone. 

×××

"Guys guys I have the most amazing idea." Sirius came rushing in the Great Hall, managing to trip and almost fall. He quickly regained his composure and continued running as if nothing had happened. 

"That's new." Remus said while reading the prophet. 

It's been weeks since that night in Hogsmeade, weeks in which you've avoided James at all costs, despite his numerous attempts at conversation. 

"I'll choose to ignore that." Sirius glared at his friend, then continued. "Don't you all want to go for a dip?" 

"I think I speak for all of us when I say that I do not intend to die in the freezing lake on a lovely day of winter." You scowl, munching on your pastries. You loved pastries. (mood) 

Sirius smirked. "I'm glad you are all so joyous so early in the morning, but for your knowledge, I wasn't talking about the lake. My dear, smartass friends, I was thinking of crashing the Prefects bathroom!" 

That got your attention. You looked at Remus full of hope and he shrugged. 

"And how exactly are we going to do that? "

"Well, this is where our prefect friends come in handy."

"Lily would never help you do this." James cuts in. 

"That's why I wasn't planning on inviting her." Much to your surprise James didn't object. "You forgot about our other prefect friend - and I'm looking at you, Moony." 

You all looked at Remus who seemed a tad bit uncomfortable. "I guess - alright? But if anyone catches us, it's your fault." he pointed his finger at Sirius. 

"I solemnly swear." He put his hand over his heart, then winked. 

×××

"Looks like your plan to ignore James isn't gonna last." Marlene said while stuffing all the towels she could find in her bag. 

"I'm aware of that." You really were. You've mentally prepared yourself to spend the night in the same room with him for the past week. "Ready? The boys are waiting." 

"Yeah, let's go." You were to go to the bathroom in groups of three using the cloak, then spend the night there. 

"Alright," Sirius' head popped from under the cloak "we'll go together - Remus, James and Peter are already there. Come on." he whispered. 

You got to the bathroom in no time and you could feel the butterflies in your stomach. You felt pathetic - you were all going to hang out as friends. 

Marlene's hand squeezed yours - everything will be alright. It was your thing; back in the day, you used to do this every time the other would be anxious about something. You looked at her and smiled, squeezing back twice - I know. 

You entered and your mouth flew open.  You've never seen a more luxurious bathroom before. The "bathtub" was easily the size of a medium sized pool. Greek caryatids held the archways, and the stained glass windows reflected their patterns on the marble floor tiles. 

"I suddenly feel bad for not working harder to be a prefect - if I had known this would be my bathroom, I would've gladly learnt the entire History of Magic coursebook by heart" Marlene said, with a small pout on her face and her arms crossed. 

"Same here." Your gaze followed the sculptures on the ceiling and slowly fell on him. He looked angelic - the way the coloured moonlight caressed his face, the faint blush on his cheeks - made him part of the setting. 

There was no point in lying to yourself. You liked him, despite everything he's done, everything he's said, you continued to like him. All those comforting lies you've said were trying to cover the inevitable truth, the truth which had been well hidden somewhere deep inside your soul. Until now. 

You stripped out of your clothes, fully aware of his impertinent stare. You stepped into the pool, sighing in pleasure at the warmth of the water. 

"Wanna play anything?" you asked no one in particular. 

"Oh, we should play shoulder wars!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly.

"I think I'm gonna skip this!" Peter announced from his chair. 

You looked at James, then turned to Remus. You rose your eyebrows inquisitively, and he smiled kindly. 

"I guess imma skip this one as well." James said, slightly disappointed. 

"Come on, Marls, we gotta kick some ass."

And so did the games begin. 

×××

You were trying, and failing miserably to keep your balance on Remus' shoulders. 

"Haha- losers!" Marlene laughed. It was your sixth time losing.

"Y/N, I think I'll give up now, before this becomes too humiliating." Remus said while getting out of the water and pulling out his book. 

"No Remus, you can't give up now! I know we can do this!" you saw him sit comfortably in an armchair, and something clicked into your mind. "You ditch me to read? And sabotaged me? Remus John Lupin, I'm disappointed."

"Take Prongs instead, he's far more competitive than I am." he smiled innocently. So this was his plan. 

You turned to James, and he got up excitedly. You got on his shoulders, and his hands tentatively touched your legs. You saw Marlene and Sirius smirking and you glared at them. 

×××

The score was close. It was the match point. Marlene was desperately trying to push you when you came up with the winning idea. You splashed some water into her face, obstructing her vision. Then, you tickled her and she fell. 

"And that's how it's done!" you shout, raising your fist. Marlene's head appeared from under the water, clearly mad. 

"That was not fair!" 

"There's no such thing as fair!" Marlene smirked, as if she was saying oh, really? and pushed James with such brute strength that he fell, taking you with him. 

He caught you before your head could hit the bottom. He lifted you up bridal style and you put your left hand around his neck and moved the other one from your nose to his shoulder. You stayed in his arms, not wanting to let go. You were gazing into each other's eyes, breathing heavily, when it hit you. 

You loved him. 

And he was still with Lily. 

You pulled away from his embrace, breaking the stare. "It's not right - Lily…" you mutter, getting out of the water. 

The others seemed all deeply interested in Remus' book. You could even hear Sirius asking questions about the plot. You turned away; James was still in the pool, in the same place, trying to make out the meaning of what happened. 

It wasn't fair. 

Life wasn't fair. 

<3

stay tuned for the next part and lmk what you think❤️

taglist: @futurewriter2000, @puppycat714, @booksbeforebois, @slytherinquill, @screennamealreadyused, @fific7, @with1love1anu @slytherinwriter618 @angelinathebook @mischiefsemimanaged @remibarnes22 @hxfflxpxffs @approved-by-dentists @hss20052313 @pregnant-piggy @marauderswhisperer @lumoscharlie

[rainebowkitty]

Happy Birthday Riddle! <3

IT'S FINALLY TIME! I've been hyped about this for awhile ngl, but let's just get right into a small summary of the piece.

Riddle celebrates his first birthday with friends (for plot convenience, I'm also making this when he first tries a tart. Also, I originally had Che'nya insert cat puns whenever he spoke, but ehhhhhhh I don't think they really fit the piece, soooo yeah. They weren't good either, they were just changing 'you' to 'mew' and such, but whatevs).

“Take a bite now, would you?” 

“Che’nya, no need to rush him.”

Riddle stared at the slice of strawberry tart with a hesitance no kid should a dessert on their birthday. It was a gift, after all. He should be just as grateful for this sweet treat as he was the new stack of books his mother gifted him that he had neatly worked into the countless other organized scriptures on his bookshelf earlier that day. 

“Che’nya’s right,” Riddle nodded slowly as he picked up his silverware. “I… suppose I’m nervous is all.”

“It’s not like your mom can sense when you’re misbehaving,” the cat boy continued, causing Riddle to freeze mid-cut. Was he really that easy to read? 

Of course he was. He was just a boy, yet he had developed years of trust in his mother’s words already. The only flicker of doubt he had in her was the contradictory things his friends would say and do, but it was enough to keep him from arrogantly strutting about as if the name ‘Rosehearts’ were that of a prince. 

For now, anyway. 

“If you don’t want to do this, Riddle-”

“No, I-I didn’t say that, I…” the redhead trailed off as he gritted his teeth in a fit of determination. He jammed his fork into the piece of tart with the grace of an awkward goose, causing a not-so-subtle clang of plate and silver before lifting the utensil up and turning it towards his mouth. He opened then closed his lips around the fork as an overwhelming sweetness danced on his tongue. 

To anyone else, the strawberries covering the top of the tart would’ve more than balanced out the sugary cream just beneath them, but this was a new flavor for Riddle. His taste buds didn’t know how to process the dessert in the slightest, yet it was still so good that he quickly brought the knife back down to the plate to cut off another bite-sized portion. He plopped the new piece into his mouth before he’d finished chewing the last one. This frenzy persisted until there were only crumbs remaining.

“See, I told you he’d like it,” Che’nya elbowed Trey with a wry smile coloring his already flashy features. Trey just smiled as if he knew too, but he was too gentle to force Riddle into anything whether he trusted his intuition or not. 

Trey almost regretted his inability to give Riddle much of a proper push upon seeing how drastically the boy would change whenever the trio happened upon something he hadn’t experienced before and enjoyed. There was always this light in his eyes that wasn’t there before. It’d never last long, especially when early in their friendship, Riddle would sniffle and sob as he mumbled strings of apologies to his mother, careful not to exclude how much of a disgrace he was for breaking the rules. 

~

“I-I n-never should’ve d-done th-this,” Riddle wiped a salty tear from his cheek only for three more to take its place in a neat and orderly line. It was incredible how even Riddle’s tears seemed to follow some sort of pre-planned procedure. 

“But you had fun, no?” The curious cat boy tilted his head as he asked. He was never great with this sappy side of Riddle. He knew he was there simply to convince the impressionable redhead to do things he normally wouldn’t with that buzzard of a mother present, but at least Che’nya had enough sense to be serious when these episodes of Riddle’s occurred. 

“I g-guess,” Riddle hiccupped. “B-but wh-what if w-we’re caught? M-mama will h-hate me and I-I’ll d-deserve it.” 

“That’s not true,” Trey put a hand on the blubbering boy’s shoulder, the redhead jolting a little but not having it in him to push Trey’s hand away. “At least you learned something new, right? Croquet was a pastime of one of the Great Seven.”

“R-really?” Riddle’s lip quivered. He’d heard tales of the Great Seven before and the school they represented. Entry requirements were a mystery, but even his accomplished eyes glazed with innocence dreamed of entry to a school with so many dazzling founders.

“The Queen of Hearts,” Trey nodded before wiping Riddle’s tear stained cheek with his sleeve gently. “In fact, games like this were part of the rules she upheld.”

“A-a Queen built entirely on f-fun,” Riddle wiped his other eye slowly as if the concept were impossible to him. “So sh-she wouldn’t get m-mad at me, even if I’m a-awful at the game?” 

“She wouldn’t,” Trey smiled as he picked up the mallet cast aside in Riddle’s short outburst. “So how about we give it another go?” 

“A-alright. If you’re sure.” 

~

“Thank you both,” Riddle looked up to his friends happily, that light so rarely seen in his eyes lingering there, even as underlying guilt rested in the sheets of silver.

On their way back, the sun only seemed to illuminate them more before the group reached the window in which Riddle always climbed from to join Trey and Che’nya on their daily escapades. The metallic gleam of grey irises dulled at the sight of his room. He climbed into it with a wave and a weak smile to his friends, two boys that represented the freedom he could never fully grasp returning Riddle’s gesture before turning around and walking away back to their happy homes, the redhead watching them was sure.

“I had fun,” he whispers to their backs as they disappeared in the streets.

~

Bonus: 

“I certainly hope you did, because it won’t be happening again,” came a stern voice from the corner of the room. Riddle whipped his head around to the sound with a sharp gasp.

“M-mama? Mama, please, I-I can explain!” 

“Oh, I think you’ve explained quite enough. The cream attached to your bottom lip certainly does tell me exactly what you’ve been up to.”

Riddle could only blink before wiping the remnants of the tart away distractedly, the shirt unluckily enough a darker color that made the white icing stand out harshly on his sleeve.

“I’m sorry,” was all he could squeak out as he pursed his lips so they wouldn’t quiver and so he wouldn’t cry. But it wasn’t enough for her. It never would be, and neither would he.

~

Bonus bonus: aka some doodles of mine :3

Aaaaaaand that's it. Until next year everyone! (Jk I can't pry myself away from making Riddle content. I already have ideas for general hcs of next year's bday for the lil' tyrant, but that's none of my business 👀)

[shadowthrone-ammanas]

I finished Nyakuza Metro and thought of this request! In the middle of Empress stealing all of Hat Kids time pieces, she goes to Subcon to unwind because she's upset about the whole thing and Snatcher sees upset Hat Kid and is just: Excuse me Kid, I'm the only one around here who's allowed to make you upset what's going on? So she tells him and now Snatcher has to go meet this Empress and let her know that bullying Hat Kid is His job. (It's not that He CARES About her! Nooo!! That's Ridiculous!)

First off, isn’t the ending of Naykuza Metro the single most disappointing ending since Mass Effect 3? I am so salty about it, I wanted to fight the Empress, it looked like we were going but nope we get a stupid cop out instead (and if that pun was intentional on Gears For Breakfast’s side then it’s not funny >:( ). Second, thank you for the request!

Good Kitty

Something was up. Hat Kid was in Subcon Forest but she wasn’t bothering Snatcher or seemingly even looking for him so she could. Instead she was just meandering down the path, her head hung low, hands in her pockets and idly kicking a stick along. She looked upset about something. What though? Well only one way to find out.

Snatcher teleported to pop up in front of her. “Boo!” he shouted loud enough to make her jump a little.

She gave him a disapproving look as he laughed at her fright as mild as it was. “Hello to you too Snatcher,” she said, her tone borderline annoyed. That wasn’t like her. Whatever was bothering had to be pretty serious.

“Hey kiddo,” he said grinning down at her. “What brings you to my forest?” He’d long since given up trying to tell her that their business was concluded, it only ever seemed to make her want to stick around more often and longer.

Hat Kid shrugged, kicking at the stick on the ground again. “It’s just a nice place to walk around and stuff.”

“Uh… ‘nice’? It’s a haunted forest full of dead things. What part of that is nice?”

“The haunted part.” Now she did smile up at him, only a little though. “It’s also the only place I can walk around aimlessly where there aren’t a lot people.” Implying she probably wanted to be alone, giving Snatcher a perfect opportunity to just leave her to it but…

“And why would you want that?” He was curious. What could’ve possibly brought her down. “Don’t you normally make a habit of annoying as many people as you possibly can?”

“Yeah but uh… I’m just really frustrated right now. And I hate it.” She stomped a stick, breaking it in half with a snap. “The stupid pecking Empress is sending her stupid pecking peck-neck goons to take my Time Pieces every time I find one in the Metro. And I can’t do anything about it because she’s got like I don’t even know how many goons, certainly more than I can take on by myself. If it was just her, I would beat the living shit out of her and make her regret ever crossing me. But I can’t and it’s not fair.” Her eyes were filling with tears of frustration now.

Snatcher grimaced. “Whoa kid, calm down there. No need to start crying or any of that.”

“Sorry.” She sniffled. “I just… really hate it and don’t know what to do. But I have to do something because I need my Time Pieces.”

“Well… good luck with that.”

“You’re not even going to offer to help me?”

“Nope, the fact that you thought I might is honestly offensive. I don’t care about your stupid problems and I certainly didn’t ask you to spill them to me. So yeah, good luck with that kiddo.” With that he teleported away.

-

 The Metro was bustling and busy with life. What little plant life there was, was all heavily manicured to match an aesthetic. Obnoxious neon lights were everywhere. And the place smelled horrible; a mix of trash, unwashed bodies, cats, trains, and the various food carts scattered about the place. Snatcher hated it.

He was half tempted to pop out his Hat Kid disguise – complete with dweller mask to hide his ghostly features – and raze the whole place to the ground. But that would take too much time and effort to be worth it. Besides he wasn’t into expanding his territory, he just wanted to keep and protect what he had. Taking over more would both make that harder and be pointless. So, grateful the mask would also hide his sour expression so he didn’t have to control it, he started wondering around to listen to conversations.

The more he walked the more he hated both the Metro and the very sensation of walking, especially on concrete. How did people stand this? It made him want to pull his hair out. He was never coming back here once he’d finished his business. Mercifully, the Empress was a pretty popular talking point amongst the cats wondering about the place and they all had a tendency to gossip just a bit too loud - possibly due to hearing loss from being around and in the trains making all that horrible noise all the time – so it wasn’t too terribly long before Snatcher knew where and how to find the Empress. Which was all he needed.

Once back in the central area, finding the jewelry shop didn’t take long. Hanging around outside were what was obviously members of the Empress’ gang. Most likely there were more hidden around the place too. Not even Hat Kid could take on that many opponents. Snatcher could, he could take down everyone in this Metro if he really wanted to – as long as no one had a way to make him vulnerable anyway. But if things went according to plan though all he’d have to deal with was the Empress herself.

Inside, the Empress was standing at the counter. She looked up as Snatcher strode in. “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon,” she said, fooled by the disguise and mask. “But that’s fine. I just got word of another one of those hourglasses in Pink Paw Station. Go find it for me.”

“Hmm… I don’t think I will,” Snatcher said, using Hat Kid’s voice but changing it a little so that it would sound just wrong enough to give most sane people chills. “Instead I think I’ll…” Grinning wide under the mask, he lifted a hand to snap his fingers.

The door slammed shut hard enough to rattle the whole store. Next, he made the lights flare bright before bursting, shattering glass everywhere. He timed their bursting with pulling the Empress into his pocket dimension, surrounding them both in a void of dark purple. And to top it all off, he teleported to float behind her and took off his mask. He kept the Hat Kid form though, he needed it.

When she inevitably turned to face him, already rattled she hissed and back pedaled, her fur puffing up the rest of the way. He’d morphed his face so he had bunch of misshapen eyes, covering the entire top half of his face. Only two of which actually worked, the rest were for show.

Still using Hat Kid’s voice and altering it to sound wrong, he giggled. There were few things creepier than a little girl’s laugh especially when it wasn’t quite right. To add a little bit extra, he made it sound like it was coming from all around the Empress, making her glance around in fear.

“What are you?” she asked with an angry hiss as she turned her eyes back to glare at him. Her claws were out now too, they looked sharp.

“It doesn’t matter what I am, what matters is you.” He pointed at her. “You’ve been awful mean to a friend of mine and I don’t like that.” It grated to call Hat Kid a friend but for this little act of his, he didn’t have much choice. “I’m sure you’re smart enough to know who I’m talking about.”

The Empress hissed and lunged to claw him. It did nothing though so Snatcher just giggled again.

“Oh, silly kitty, that won’t hurt me. There’s nothing you can do that can hurt me. I don’t think there’s even anything on this planet that can.” Hat Kid was an alien so he was going to pretend to be one too. He needed to make sure no one ever connected this whole thing back to him. “So save yourself the effort and don’t try. Just do as I say and maybe you’ll get out of this alive.”

The Empress still looked angry but her fear was evident in the way her fur was still puffed up on its end, her tail curled. “What do you want?” she forced out through clenched teeth.

“I want you to give my friend back her Time Pieces, don’t interfere with her collecting any more, and once you’re done with that don’t ever talk to or have anything to do with her again.” To minimize the chances of her spilling the beans on this conversation. “I of course don’t expect you to do this just because I told you to so how about a little motivation?” He teleported to hover behind her shoulder again.

Before she could fully turn around, he pulled out her soul to hold in the palm of his hand. She froze solid for half a second before clawing at him again, more with desperation than anger this time. He ignored it.

“If you’re a good kitty and do as your told, I’ll consider giving you your soul back. If not, I know a guy who likes to eat souls who I’m sure wouldn’t mind being gifted one.” As he spoke, he bounced her soul up and down in his hand as if playing with a ball. “So is that enough to convince you?” He would’ve preferred a proper contract but other than snatching souls, contracts were what he was most well known for. And Hat Kid would certainly know it was him if he used a contract. This way even if she did find out about this, there should be some doubt about who was responsible. Her even suspecting it was him would be awful because then she’d think it was because he was her ‘BFF’ and that he cared for her or something when it truth it was because if he failed to make Hat Kid miserable no one else was allowed to either. That was his job and he was going to find a way to do it properly one day no matter how much she wanted to insisted they were BFFs and she loved spending time with him.

The silence stretched as the Empress glared at him, defeated but not yet wanting to admit it. But finally… “Fine,” she said. “I’ll give the brat back her hour glasses and then leave her alone.”

“You’ll order your goons to do so as well?” Snatcher wasn’t going to give her any loopholes. “As well as anyone else you might pay to deal with people you don’t like?”

She growled but… “Yes.”

“Very good. Now, after my friend has all her Time Pieces back, including the ones not yet found, I shall give you your soul back. If you break your end of the deal, I will not hesitate to give you soul to a certain soul eating ghost.” Meaning he’d eat it. “If you try to break it after you have your soul back, I will make your end a painful one and feed you soul to the Snatcher just because I can. Deal?”

“Deal.” Oh, no hesitation this time either, the Empress was a brave one as well as smart.

“I will see you later then. Remember to be a good kitty for your own sake. Buh-bye.” Snatcher lifted a hand to wriggle his fingers in a wave before transporting himself elsewhere, leaving her back in her jewelry shop.

For this drabble event.

[mioriia]

三 | Chapter 3 | Arc 0.3

The Wandering Maiden | Chapter 3

❝𝕎𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕀 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕫𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥... 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕀 𝕛𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕓𝕖 𝕟𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕝 𝕥𝕠 𝕗𝕚𝕥 𝕚𝕟?❞

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•

It's been a week since I was hospitalized, my wounds were slowly healing thanks to Urokodaki-san's special ointment. I could barely walk on my own, I thought I lost the ability to walk at first.

Ever since that night, I found out that the girl's name is Makomo while the boy with peachy pink hair is Sabito and they were all adopted by Urokodaki-san.

They were kids who lost their families to a man-eating monster; a demon. That's how much I learn about them, they didn't show it but the looks of their eyes when they told me this... Is just heartbreaking.

I want to comfort them but I can't.

No matter what you do, you must not let a human found out your real identity unless you want to be killed by them.

The voice...

For some reasons, he still continues to communicate through my mind and he never once reveals himself for all I know. He warned me about the possibility of being slayed by the hands of the demon slayer if I'm not careful.

According to him, I can't be killed by those weapons that demon slayers use known as nichirin swords or the changing color swords and it's the same thing with the sun and wisteria flowers.

Kishino's weaknesses are holy weapons and of course holy water, if we were attacked by another demon then our wounds will heal slower than how humans recovered so the chance of you getting killed is higher than you think, idiot.

❝Oh, shut up already...❞ I growls

❝Hmm, did you say something?❞

❝I-It's nothing, Urokodaki-san! I was just spacing out is all... Ahaha...❞

My palms feel sweaty for some reasons, is this what they call the feeling of being nervous?

Luckily, Urokodaki-san didn't pay attention much, nodding silently as his focus went back on the trio who were standing above a large wooden log floating above the water of the river, keeping balance them from falling over.

There were rocks being throw toward them as a part of the training to avoid multiple directions if there was no ground or in a situation where you are in an unbalanced area.

❝Giyuu, watch out for-❞

A loud splash was heard as the little ravenette's clothes was soaking wet with some of his now wet hair blocking his line of sight and instead of standing, he was sitting up in the river as little fishes were swimming around him.

❝The rocks...❞ Sabito whispers, sighing.

Makomo giggles, jumping down from the log as she turn around to face her peachy pink haired comrade who held a questioning expression at her sudden action.

❝What are you planning this time, Makomo-❞

A splash was heard as the next moment heea know that he felt a wet sensation on his face and the way Makomo was laughing at him...

Something snap inside Sabito as he lower himself onto the water, he was looking down as he start mumbling to her.

❝We were supposed to be training...❞

His hands were in the water the whole time as he cupped some of the salty water by using both of his hands.

What is he going to do now...?

❝But if you want to have the hard way then I has no choice to...❞

Cue the familiar sound of the water being splashes and now all of them were soaking wet from head to toes as Makomo start splashing around, sending hundred of water drops towards the boy as a revenge.

❝Water fight!❞

Their laughter were fill of so much joy as they have found themselves in a water battle between them and somehow even the shy Giyuu end up joining their little war.

❝I'm not going to lose to you, Makomo!❞

❝Same goes to you too, Sabito!❞

❝H-Hey I'm still here, you guys!❞

All of the sudden, my heart starts to ache at the sight of them playing around without a care in the world...I should be happy for them right but why?

Why does my heart ache so much...?

What is this feeling?

Why do I feel so weird when I saw them looking so happy...?

...Is this what they call loneliness?

.•° ✿ °•.

❝Hey, stop that! You're making my clothes soaking wet here!❞

❝Come on, Reina! You're going to loose it up for once!❞

A feminine voice chuckles softly as I frown slightly at her but nonetheless, a small smile tug at the corners of my lips.

❝Chie-nee, come and join us!❞

❝I'll pass❞

❝Ehh?!❞

❝Pfft... Ahahaha!❞

The three of us start laughing for no reasons but it was a pleasure moment for us...

°•. ✿ .•°

Blinking my eyes, stunned by the scene flashing before me. Was that one of my lost memories?

... Is this what my past life was like before I lost my memories?

Is that why I can't remember how those girls' faces look like?

They don't have the aura of a demon from what my past self saw them...

Could it be they're humans??

Were they... my friends in the past?

The thought of having human friends made my heart sang in delight, I feel like smiling for no reasons or whatsoever.

This little spark of hope...

I want to stay like this forever, it's a nice feeling like I was being hugged by a big bear.

❛This feeling... It's feels so warm...❜

You mustn't remember your past.

The words of reminder from the voice echoed throughout my happy moment.

❛Oh yeah... He told me that I can't❜

I start feeling down when I remember his warning of the possibilities of danger will come to me if I gain my memories again...

Gripping onto my blue yukata tightly, biting my lower lip. I was so frustrated at my current situation that I end up blocking the world around me, why is this so unfair?

Gods must hate me more than with other demons to put me through this...

What did I do to deserve this...?

My eyes feel like it was on fire, a burning sensation that it's making me want to cry...

❝Hey, Reina! Come and join my team!!❞

I finally snapped of my thoughts when a hand grasping onto my smaller one, looking up to find Makomo's smiling face. I was lost for words when she start dragging me down into the river with her leading the way.

❝You look pretty lonely over there so I thought you should join us too!❞ Makomo cheerfully said in her usual dreamy way.

.•° ✿ °•.

❝M-Miko-chii! W-Wait up!❞

I was being dragged as she lead me towards somewhere that I wasn't familiar with...

She turn towards me with a smile on her lips.

❝You look pretty lonely over there on your own, you know? I thought you should join us to buy some pork buns!❞

❝P-Pork buns...?❞

❝Yes, pork buns! Come on! Everyone is waiting for us at the entrance!❞

❝W-Wait a minute...! Kimiko!!❞

°•. ✿ .•°

❝Reina? Why are you... crying?❞

The expression on Makomo's face was the looks of concern and when I touch my cheek, I realize I was indeed crying when a wet sensation was falling across my face.

Shooking my head, I wipe the tears away as I smile at her.

❝It's nothing... I just remember something... good for once❞

❝Oh? That's good to hear then!❞

❝Yeah, the first time we ask for your name... You said you didn't remember it at first but then you remember it the next day❞

❝H-Hey! Are you saying that I'm getting old?!❞

❝Maybe❞

❝Sabito!❞

❝Hey! What was so uncall for!❞

❝What you get!❞

❝Take this, Giyuu!❞

❝W-Why am I getting involved with this?!❞

❝Attack the enemies, of course❞

Maybe I don't need to pretend to fit in afterall.

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•

A/N:

Have a cute moment of the water users trio's friendship + the amnesia girl! 😂❤ Thanks for supporting my story, everyone!

[devaigh]

The Winner

Chapter 3

Much ❤❤ to my wonderful beta @sassenachbydesign for all her help, and for talking things through with me. This story would not be possible without her.

“There's my girl.”  Claire smiled wide as her daughter descended the last few steps. “I was starting to wonder where you had gone”

“Oh, no where. I was just... showing some of the guests to their rooms.” Brianna motioned absently behind her.

“I see. It seems like almost everyone has arrived, yes?”

“I think so.”

Claire linked arms with her daughter, leading them outside towards the wide terrace. “Well since the guest are mostly settled, I thought you could help me with something.”

Brianna raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly would that be?”

“I have a surprise for Roger. I assumed you would like to help me with it.” Claire grinned. “I have it hidden away for now. I happened to come across something that he would find interesting. But it looks like I will have to show you later.” She inclined her head. “I think someone is looking for you.”

Brianna followed her gaze, her own blue eyes lighting up when she saw  Roger. Her mother was right, as soon as Roger caught her eye, he hurried over, greeting Brianna with a soft kiss.

“Hello again, Dr. Randall.”

“Roger, please I've told you to call me Claire”

Roger blushed. “Aye, I'm sorry Claire.”

“Forgiven.” Claire smiled looking between her daughter and future son-in-law. “How about I leave you two, and I'll see you both this evening at dinner? You should both take some time for yourselves before things get too crazy around here. Just don't be late.”

“We won't Mama.” Brianna leaned over giving her mother a kiss on the cheek. “We'll see you later.”

“Aye, tonight.” Roger grinned, pulling Brianna close to his side. She fit neatly under his arm. “Right now, if you'll excuse us, I would verra much like to have Bree to myself a bit.”

“I suppose it's alright.” Claire teased. “Just behave both of you. We have a lot of guests, so make sure you're both back in time. We don't want to keep them waiting.”

Claire waved them off as she turned to go back to the beach house. She took a deep breath, enjoying the warm, salty air. It had been awhile since she had had a proper vacation.

For the last several years, it seemed as if she hardly left the hospital at all. Now she had two glorious weeks on a private beach in the south of France.

Claire fully intended on enjoying herself, even if she did have a wedding to see through.

A sudden movement from one of the balconies caught her eye. Twisting, she held one hand up, trying to see; the early afternoon sun was in her eyes. She could only make out what appeared to be a huge, hulking shadow, as it crossed her face. Blinking the sun from her eyes, she turned back towards the wide breezy porch and disappeared once more inside.

**********

Jamie stood frozen on the balcony of his room, his eyes locked on the point where Claire had just vanished. He could feel the rough, weathered wood of the railing give slightly under his hand as his fingers wrapped tightly around it.

Seeing her, moving so gracefully around the the edges of the beach with her lovely nest of curls floating around her face, simply stole his breath.

She looked just as lovely as the last time he saw her, when he kissed her goodbye. Jamie could feel the bitter sting of tears pricking at his eyes. With a huff, he shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

Did he truly had any claim on her after all these years?

What he could even say to her?

No, he reminded himself. He was here for one reason only. To see his newly found daughter wed. It was the least he could do for the lass. He would stay, for Brianna, and then take his leave.

It was probably what was best for everyone.

***************

“This place is beautiful LJ. How did you ladies ever decide to stay here?”

Clare laughed, “Well honestly, I've always loved this part of France. I used to come here with my Uncle when I was a little girl.  We would always stay in villas like these for a few weeks each summer. It was one tradition we always kept.” she shrugged. “I myself haven't actually been here in years. When Brianna suggested it, I guess I just went along.”

“So Bree made the suggestion.”

“She did. I don't quite know where she got the idea, but I have to say, I think it was a great change.”

“You deserve a vacation LJ. You work too hard.” Joe said, his eyes serious. “You never take time for yourself. I know Bree is your whole world outside the hospital, but she's grown now. She's about to be married. You should start thinking about you again. Maybe find you a man...”

“Joe..” Claire slumped in her chair. “Please, I have no reason to think of anything like that.” She rolled her eyes. “I haven't been with anyone since Frank, and that's the last thing I want to consider!”

It was true.

Claire's relationship with the older Professor was one that still left her sore. A quick whirlwind of a romance that still left a bitter taste in her mouth. She knew that her hasty marriage had only been the painful product of her shattered heart and discovery of her pregnancy. Yet she still had agreed. Had it not been for Brianna... Well, Claire still wasn't sure what she would have done.  Moving to Boston had been her way of putting her past behind her. It was a way to start over, and discover what she truly wanted.

That's how she had met Joe.

Three years after moving across the pond, Claire had started medical school. It had long been a dream, something she had wanted for as long as she could remember.  At first, it had been somewhat easy with Frank around, despite his annoyance at her studies. Frank had wanted Claire to remain at home, which had caused a lot of their fights.  

When they had finally split, Claire  felt only a sense of relief.

She could finally pursue what she wanted, and while her daughter went to school, Claire would be in classes as well, usually until it was time to pick Bree up. Then, once she would drop her off with the sitter, Claire would work nights as a nurse at the local hospital.

It was a long, exhausting few years. When she met Joe, she had found a friend she could rely on. When sitters were difficult to find, Joe's wife Gail would take Brianna, sleeping from Claire's arms, refusing to take any sort of payment as Claire was ushered to class or work. Between the two, Claire had kept herself and her daughter fed, and safe. She had no idea how she had made it through school without them.

By the time she had graduated, Brianna was almost in the double digits. Then her routine was mostly worked around her daughter. As a single parent, Claire was forced to work odd hours, until Brianna was old enough to stay home alone.

“I'm doing just fine, on my own Joe.”  Claire said, brushing away her thoughts.

“I never said you weren't LJ. I only said you need to do something for you. You have a lot to offer anyone.”  Joe stood then, patting Claire on the shoulder. “I hate to run, but I need to go see where Gail went.”

“Of course. You both should get some rest. It's a long way from Boston.”

“See you at dinner?”

Claire smiled. “Absolutely. Thanks Joe.”

“My pleasure LJ.”

**************

Claire stood on the edge of the terrace, her long dress billowing around her. Her eyes were closed,  her face tipped up to catch the fading sunlight. She could taste the salt in the air around her, feel the weight as it tangled in her curls. A deep rich aroma floated towards her from somewhere along the beach, it reminded her of dinner.

Soon she thought, soon she would turn back inside and change for the large dinner planned for all the wedding guests.

Despite the exitement surrounding the festivities, Claire found herself longing for more of the quiet moments. She looked forward to when the wedding was over, everyone was gone, and she could spend a few days to herself before she went back to her life.

Claire yanked off the wide straw hat she wore, seeking the warmth of the fading light. Her shoulders had gone slightly pink since she arrived, but she found she didn't care. Her normally creamy skin had started to freckle just so. She rubbed her arm lightly, amused how the lightest touch of her fingers left a brief imprint. She would need to remember her sunscreen.

“Careful there. I'd no like to see ye burned.”

Claire froze. The sound of the voice behind her thrumming through her. Her eyes shot open, wide and alarmed. As if in slow motion, she turned, her brow eyes automaticity looking up, locking her gaze on the man she never thought she'd see again.

“It's nice to see ye, Sassenach.”

[sorikkung]

You did an intro to got7 a while ago could you maybe do one for A.C.E.??? They seem like a good group but I'm clueless atm so it would be v helpful!!!

lololol i did an intro to mark from got7 but not got7 as a whole, but yes ofc i will i love my talented bois and i love rambling about them heRE WE G O

an introduction to a.c.e, for dummies (jk ily choice is a great fandom pls join us)

also this is gonna get rlly long so im gonna put it under a cut

A.C.E is a 5-member boygroup under beat interactive!! which is a p small company atm so my boys dont exactly have the high quality living and practice areas and food that they deserve :(( THEYLL GET THERE THO IM SURE OF IT THEYRE LEGENDS

here’s their youtube channel with aaaaall sorts of goodies

i started stanning a.c.e predebut, bc they had a lot of content for a group that hadn’t debuted yet, and it was enough to snatch my attention real quick so you should check that shit out, they did a shitton of AMAZING covers and to get their name out there more, street buskings its a lot but i swear its worth your time theyre so talented!!

also they have matching tracksuits what more could you ask for tbh (as you can see from that vid, they’re literally so fucking extra)

a few of my favs are

this rlly long busking video w girl group songs and just a bit of everything tbh,

THIS amazing remix/cover of kard’s don’t recall by the rap line + this one cute girl,

only THE most iconic playing w fire cover, band version, (I WILL NEVER STOP SCREAMING ABOUT THAT VIDEO HONESTLY I COULD MAKE A POST ON THAT COVER ALONE ISTG) 

their flashlight cover that is enough to make a grown man cry omfuckigngOD it makes me feel things hjskskkh

that ONE TAKE dance cover they did of 3 of taeyangs songs, all focusing on a different member of the dance line

im gonna stop here before i link every damn cover they made

okay so now that thats covered (bad-um-tss) time for…DEBUT

THIs beauty right here is their debut song cactus, which has this really deep meaning to it. bc they came from a small company so they have to work extra hard to even be able to debut let alone be successful and they’re like a cactus bc cacti grow in the desert where there’s very little water but they still manage to stand strong even through the hardest of weather an environment conditions and eventually sprout beautiful flowers,, buuuuuut its also a meme for obvious reasons.

tbh debut era choice culture was just listening to cactus on repeat for days bc it was their only song at the time skjslaas not much has changed tbh LMAO but yes theyre a very edm loving group so their DANCE SKILLS ARE ON POINT SERIOUSLY IVE SEEN FEW GROUPS AS AMAZING AT DANCING AS ACE WOWOW

oh yeah did i mention that their fandom name is choice and that choice are literally the softest fandom my multifandom ass has e v e r been in?? theres literally no cringy or toxic side of the fandom its just so soft and welcoming and pure and everyone is so nice and sweet and friendly and just??? wow i love choice a lot hjkskjsshkhk choice are also SUPER talented too stan talent stan choice

speaking of cringe ace is that group that just like skipped the entire “rlly cringy boygroup debut phase” completely like no weird debut haircuts or outfits or weird lyrics about girls, well actually thats all kinda objective but like they made those outfits work ok and im a cactus isnt that weird of a lyric if you know the deep meaning behind it

aS yOu CaN sEe, cactus era was the era of the tHIGHS and the hot pants. it was literally so iconic it blew up and with great reason too, have you seen those thighs?? AND THEY KNOW IT TOO they even mentioned they chose the hot pants as their style concept and took better care of their legs than their faces. true kings. heres a video of a.c.e talking about the whole hot pants thing and just their legs in general its some quality shit. and heres a video where they decide to show off just how great their thighs are bc they like to kill choices like that, this video is important and iconic bc its where the wowson ship began and also when they declared who the king of thighs were amongst the kings of thighs. definitely a necessary watch for new choice imo. donghun lowkey grinds on the floor at 4:04, you’ve been warned. honestly that video just gets progressively gayer lmao i love it

also for us international choice they made an ENGLISH cover of cactus CAN YOU BELIEVE IT I LOVE THEM SM they didnt have to but they did and oml stan a group who stans you back this hard their english aint that great but theyre trying and i appreciate it so much theyre so amazing look

five months later they dropped their second single, callin’, and b o y was this a stressful comeback, beat had us FOOLEd,, i genuinely thought it was gonna be a flowerboy soft concept yknow with like some sweet lowkey ballad or soft pop song, but nOOooOOOooo, MORE HARDSTYLE EDM not that im complaining callin is a bop but i was TRICKED

LOOK AT THIS SHIT ITS ALL AESTHETIC AND THE CLIP OF THE SONG WAS ALL SOFT I WAS REALLY EXPECTING SMTH SOFT im sorry im still salty that beat tricked me but ITS FINE bc callin is a HELLA BOP like i honestly didnt expect them to top cactus so quickly bc like cactus was hella but they DID and its amazing and heres the link be blessed (warning, these gifs above make it look like a soft vid but there are LOTS of flashing colours and lights and its really intense on the eyes if youre not comfortable with that dont watch, just listen)

they also supplied multiple dance pracs you can find on their channel for callin bc ace feeds us well, although callin had a reaaaally short promotion period bc right after they got thrown onto survival shows for more publicity, but hey, its working!! choice is growing bigger every day and im so proud

donghun, wow and jason all went on yg’s show mixnine, and jun and chan went on the idol rebooting show, the unit. both teams are doing EXTREMELY well on their respective shows!! but ill talk more about that in their individual member profiles bc they havent been put on the same team for anything yet rip

edit: mixnine finished and donghun and jason made the cut for the final group, sehyoon didn’t :(( so dongson will be promoting with the mixnine group for a lil bit!! also chan made it to the unit debut group but jun didnt. im hoping for a sehyjun subunit pls

that was long af but now im gonna dive into the members individually!! so its probs gonna get twice as long sorrynotsorry i warned you

Jun (Park Junhee)

jun is the so-called fiery leader of ace (also lead dancer and lead vocal) but is honestly just a giant dork and a sweetheart. hes the type of guy who you scream at for being dumb and call him an idiot but thats your weird way of expressing your undying love for him?? ask literally any jun stan, they’ll say they hate him. hate him for being so PERFECT like a fucking DISNEY PRINCE he’s the designated prince of the group you know theres always that one member and hes just so LOVEABLE and stupid and skjdakhkjs he fuckign dropped his cake on his birthday when do your faves ever. dad of the group, probably lost the maknaes in the shopping mall about 3 times already. talks a lot, hates aegyo, his members might be planning on sacrificing him to satan? he does on idol class with chan every…i think its wednesday and fans vote who gets punishments n stuff and jun loses every damn time i think hes losing his faith in choice lmao. #saveleaderjun

he’s kinda married to donghun, they’re the parents of ace but donghun might try murder him in his sleep idk man, but now hes on the unit with chan and theyre all cute and you can literally ship everyone with everyone in this group

he has HELLA charisma on stage tho oh my gOd also he has one of the most unique singing voices ive ever heard so its really easy to single out, his face also is the first i learned to tell apart?? he has rlly high cheekbones and a wide but thin smile.

this is actually an ot5 video not just jun but jun’s reaction was by far the most iconic so i have to put it in his section, get you a fave who can FLY lmaooo

it would be CRIMINAL if i didnt solo out jun’s ringa linga cover, thE MOST ICONIC JUN COVER EVER HJFKDSJKFDSJK if i ever stop talking about this assume im dead bc IVE NEVER GOTTEN OVER IT jun in a leather jacket looking all rude and staring at the camera like that im WEAK, SO WEAK, AAAAAAAAHHHH

[ahem] MOVING ON

Donghun (Lee Donghun)

donghun, sometimes romanised as donghoon and often referred to by choice as hun or hoon, is the oldest member of the group and another total sweetheart, honestly ace is just a group of sweethearts, he cares for his members so damn much and is super soft?? but ALSO A s Av Age he’s on mixnine with sehyoon and jason and he SHOT DOWN YG, once again I C O N I C, yg was at a loss for words, heres more receipts of him being savage, i love my sassy boyfriend. BUT HES ALSO A SWEET NOODLE HJKSHJKS oH and did you know that before he joined a.c.e he had no experience in dancing whatsoever and in a year and a half, he caught up with the other four members that have been dancing since they were kids?? I STAN TALENT YALL you’d literally never be able to guess that bc all of them are like on an equal dance level its insane

also he used to have braces during cactus era and it was the softest shit

[cOUGHS] so like did someone say disrespect,,, bc he can do that too,,,,, aAAAAAAAH the duality of this man istg

he’s the main vocalist and has vO C AL S OF AN A N GEL, he has so much soul and emotion in his voice, and has adlibs for days oh my god, he also has the MOST BEAUTIFUL FALSETTO i’ve ever heard, fight me, actually come at me. his voice works REALLY well with chan so they pair him up with him for quite a handful of covers like the all of me one i linked (one of my favs omfg it makes me emo) cause like, his soulful voice plus chan’s higher, sweet voice just sounds so great together i love our main vocals wow.

sPEAKING OF WOW,

Wow (Kim Sehyoon)

his stage name is wow, but its hard to take seriously so the fandom just calls him sehyoon lmfao. it used to be seyoon but when he went on mixnine, he revealed sehyoon was the official romanization so here we are lmao. even if your bias isn’t sehyoon…it’s sehyoon. he’s just that guy ya feel me?? anyways sehyoon is a relatively quiet and reserved guy, but his members really pull out the dork in him, i love it so much?? he doesn’t talk much but when he does all of a.c.e directs their full attention to him to listen, its really sweet, hes pretty awkward with people but you can tell he just feels so safe and comfortable with ace it honestly warms my heart. he’s the main rapper and main dancer, but!! our multitalented man is also a vocalist. yes, you heard, me, the main rapper can sing, and really well at that. (if you scroll up back to the flashlight and dont recall covers, you can see more of his voice.)

gets the least lines, but not by much. although hearing his singing voice in their actual songs has happened like with 2 lines?? so idk man im just waiting for their ballad song that theyre apparently doing for their third song, god im so ready. i love his voice a lot, damn.

he’s also like reeeeeeeeeally gay for jason…the entire fandom ships it and they even ship it themselves. wowson, the otp of ace, they honestly just cant keep their hands off eachother??? i know a friend who struggled to tell apart jun and jason so she just looked at who sehyoon was standing next to and instantly knew it was jason. THEYRE SO CLINGY. i love my squishy boyfriends. 

OHHH BOY…i really could’ve used an even more disrespectful gif than this but that would ruin the surprise of watching it in the actual video!! as you can see, sehyoon is the K I N G of disrespect on stage, that shy lil fluffle bean you see offstage?? GONE. DISAPPEARED. VANISHED. this is why his stage name is wow, sehyoon disappears and you just go wow. choice has dubbed him king of bodyrolls with great reason, he makes every concept into a sexy concept, he just has that intimidatingly sexy aura to him, its incredible. 

now…are you ready….i bet youre not…who am i kidding NOBODY was ready for this shit. on mixnine, sehyoon was picked as leader for one of their stages (i think he was leader for ringa linga too??) and got to choreograph the routine. if you think its already rude 10 seconds in, its all over for you bitches when the lighting goes yellow. i feel the need to repeat, our boy CHOREOGRAPHED THIS. IT WAS ALL HIS IDEA. EVERY. SINGLE. PART. this is the same kid who everyone on the show knew as the shy, quiet, handsome boy. but then. 

but then he did this.

Jason (Kim Byeongkwan)

jason is his stage name that he chose for himself but his real name is byeongkwan, its another case of an idol having a stage name and nobody calling them by it?? i mean most new choice call him jason and i personally switch between the two but most choice seem to call him byeongkwan or bk if theyre extra lazy lmao. memers call him byonk sometimes.

jason is the weird child of the group and we all love him…he’s the second lil ball of sunshine and part ½ of the maknae line. he’s often found clinging to sehyoon or literally any of the members bc he’s an affectionate son who loves cuddles okay?? p r o t e c t   h i m.

he’s also the lead everything. yeah thats really not fair but jason is op ok?? singing, rapping, dancing, visual, like sehyoon he’s the full package, i can hardly call them the rap line they’re just the op line t b h. triple threats.

on their official twt jason likes to confirm wowson a lot, its p great lololol he’s the biggest wowson shipper of all time. want more wowson? i gotchu, here’s one of my absolute fav moments. (ft. junchan/chun)

he has some HELLA CHARISMA on stage like boy can u pls chill. they also love doing his eye makeup with that red makeup and it looks rlly good bc bk has such pretty eagle eyes and its his Look™ and that along with his onstage persona is a DEADLY COMBINATION HDSJKSKSLKJS 

i’m just gonna keep this short; even if your bias isnt byeongkwan, your bias is byeongkwan. he has that affect on everybody. number one bias wrecker out of the fandom t b h apart from sehyoon (he cant be my bias wrecker if he is my bias so im safe :^J)

Chan (Kang Yuchan)

INTRODUCING OUR CHANSHINE, MAIN VOCAL OF ACE, CUTIE MAKNAE CHAN!!!! he always introduces himself as a.c.e’s main vocal cutie maknae chan, its his iconic line and it suits him so well like LOOK AT HIM ISNT HE JUST A FUCKING RAY OF SUNSHINE WHAT A PURE CHILD I MUST PROTECC he’s literally the happy virus y’all AND ACE KNOWS IT TOO heres this one time where donghun even said that looking at chan cheers him up. certified sunshines only, everyone. also watch that whole video its long but its worth your time.

anyways our boy is a main vocal and as mentioned in donghun’s part they harmonize!!! so!! well!! i mean tbh all of ace can harmonize with eachother its the most beautfiul thing but these two are main vocal for a reason okay. if you didn’t already watch it in donghun’s part listen to THIS and have your ears be blessed i cry everytime oh my god skdfhd ALSO THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT ITS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE VIDEOS ON THE INTERNET i want to cry i lvoe chans voice so much i love chan i love kang yuchan og hmylhdg sodf i was gonna say i swear im sehyoon biased but im not istg ace is bias wrecking me 24/7 its been the hardest group to pick a bias in ever im not kidding i cant even

also known as kang RUDE, chan was all innocent sunshine and daisies until out of the blue he decided to give the disrespect king sehyoon a run for his fucking money. NOBODY FUCKING SAW IT COMING WE ALL THOUGHT HE WAS SO PURE AND THEN HE SUDDENLY STARTED FLASHING HIS ABS EVERYWHERE AND GRINDING ON THE FLOOR AND DOING THAT AND WE JUST CANT HANDLE IT i dont know a kang yuchan please save me oh my lord

okay this already has an ungodly amount of links and honestly i could go on, but this should be a good enough kickstart for you!!

stan talent stan a.c.e everyone. welcome to the choice family. its literally the softest and sweetest fandom out there. we welcome you with open arms and lots of cacti!!!

[flinnybillymoonexplosion]

I'm still salty about what they did to Billy's character in season 4... "he betrayed his brothers because ANGER" GAH WHY

2nd message:

vincisomething ha dicho:  I mean how can you take the ship's mother and then be like "he's angry now and doesn't care about anyone anymore" ?? ??? He still sided with Flint for the sake of his brothers, but I guess nvm??        

Hi there!

I know how you feel. It’s been almost a year since the show ended and I still can’t get over Billy Bones’ fate in season 4 nor understand the hate he gets in the fandom.

This morning I was talking with my bf about this message you sent me and how I haven’t been very active in the BS fandom lately. Every post of BS  in my dash is about Silverflint or Flinthamilton (which is great for the people who like their relationships or who are in love with those characters, but it’s not my case) and I got bored of having them in my dash. When I see a post about Billy I am skeptical, I mean, I am like Billy (as honorable as they come) so if I see that someone has said something bad about him, or are rude to him, I simply avoid them, I don’t like to have verbal fights (after all everyone has their right to give their opinions) so I just act like a ghost and let them be. It wasn’t until I saw the post  “how to fight a BS character”, or something like that, where they  suggest to push Billy again to the sea, when I had enough. I had enough of people joking about him, enough of people being rude to him and enough of people not understanding him, that’s why I made the comic post. I needed to show my support for  Billy, and I needed to let people know that he’s not the villain of the story. My bf has told me that if it wasn’t for all the character interpretation or explanations I gave to him about Billy during the 4th season, he would had seen him as the villain of the story too and not as the victim he is. He also understands his motivations and everything that he’s been through the show, and he doesn’t get why people can’t see it too. We both believe that Billy deserved better.

During the last season, and even though I was (and still I am) a  Billy and Flint shipper, I only wanted one thing: Flint and Billy to have a proper conversation about their situation and truest intentions. I didn’t care about Blint or Flint anymore, I just wanted someone to thank Billy for everything he had achived and I wished there was someone who could listen and respect Billy the way he deserved. But then again none did, not in the show and even less in the fandom (well there were some people who were defending Billy too, but then again we were very few).

In my opinion, as I told in the comments of my last post, I think the writers screw Billy up for the sake of Silver and Flint’s relationship. I don’t know if it’s bad wrtiting or not, I am not going that way. But I think that the writers wanted to make Silver the hero and free Flint and they needed  a close or familiar villain to do so, and there enters Billy.

On the contrary to Silver’s character, Billy is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, he's unlucky. He gets to know things too early or too late, or never at all. His thoughts and actions are misunderstood by his context. Even though he’s pure at heart and believes in the good side of people and cares for his crew, his dark side, his traumas, had made him very paranoid and straightfoward when there's something that he doesn't see as right or that is going on without his consent. I am the first to say that Billy is a cinammon roll and that he's just a puppy, but the truth is that Billy is a man who has gone through so much trauma and physichal pain that he can act too bitter and cold hearted when the tension explodes. The fact that we've never seen him that way before season 4 doesn't mean he's not a dark character. The reason why he hadn't explode earlier in the show is because he hadn't had the time to happen. I mean, he has been left for dead in season 1-2 after he discovered Miranda's letter. Then he disappears and we never get to know if Flint pushed him or not from the ship, he doesn't even care about it. He comes back changed.

He always does. @kelofthesea explains it very well in this post (please take a look at it and then continue):

Then again, when he comes back from his second time being tortured by the English Navy, he still sides by Flint, by his crew. He wants to protect all of them, even the Captain. What he wants in season 3, and Silver also does, is to get Flint aside of the power, they don't like what James "suicidal mode" Flint is making to the crew after Miranda's death. He believes that Silver, for the sake of the crew, wants the same as he, that's why he creates the legend of Long John Silver. He stays in Nassau for the sake of the resistence. Vane dies, but it wasn't Billy's fault. Vane wanted to die and he tells Billy not to rescue him. Vane valued and respected Billy as a pirate like no one did, and he knew Billy would understand his will. So we can't blame Billy for Vane's death, that's for sure.

When season 4 starts,  Flint and Silver are already friends, and Billy doesn't have a clue about it. Flint has told his story with Thomas to Silver (and Billy is still clueless, and it's funny becauise Thomas is the reason why Flint fights for) and, as we end up seeing at the end of the show, he has shared some fighting strategies with Silver too (while Billy was maintaining the plan in Nassau). In those scenes Flint asks Silver about his past. Silver tells him that it's not important, maybe because the trauma doesn't allow him to speak about it. But Flint realises about one important thing when Silver tells him that he was born in Whitechapel: "I remember when you first told me, it sounded like an invention. About one story that bled into others I’d heard told elsewhere to the crew. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I suppose I assumed that if you ever became somebody worth knowing, I’d learn the truth of it eventually. Only in this moment, I’m realizing that never happened. And what is of some concern to me is that despite how invested we each are in the future of the other you just told me that story again". Flint wants to know the truth about Silver, his truest backstory, he has entrusted his. He knows that one story was just a ticket for Silver to survive in the crew, Flint might thought that after the traumas Silver has gone through in the Walrus (loosing his leg, witnessing Muldon's death...) and most importantly his frienship with him, Silver would have told him a more intimate and truer backstory. But he doesn't. Why? because he's a liar. He's always been. I am not sayig that Silver's relationship with Flint is fake. Just saying that I've never trusted Silver cause he uses the stories (his or anyones) for his own benefits, and even if the trauma of his past doesn't let him talk, we never ever get to know were he comes from (or any kind of anger caused by that trauma).

Billy case is similiar but different. He never gets to talk about his past, we learn about his childhood when Flint tells Abigail about it. Flint knows the truth, knows how the life of Billy changed when he was just a kid. He witnessed how Billy changed again when he killed his first man and he realised he couldn't go back home to his parents because he became a murder. Trauma changes people, and Billy has change from trauma to trauma. We have witness it. He doesn't talk about what they did to him, or complains about it, he acts as if nothing had changed in him. But the truth is everything has change, and then he gives that powerfull speech to Dufresne about the tortures effetcs. He's showing his backstory without showing us what really he went through.

In season 4 Billy goes from one misunderstanding to another. First one when Flint's ship is attacked and Silver falls to the sea. Flint inmidietly blames Billy. But then again it wasn't Billy's fault. He gave the alarm and sent Featherstone to tell them. Then we learn that Max was behind it all the time, was she ever condemned by it? No. When they are at Miranda's house, Billy is having enough of mainsplaining from Flint and he faces him telling him that Flint is not the one in command in Nassau. Billy is the responsible of the resistance and he has fight and bleed along the men, not him. And he's right. He's also fucked up because of the disappearance of Silver, cause he was his friend too, so he continues to act according to the plan, get Flint out of the war. But he doesn't count with Madi, so now he has Madi as Flint's ally so there's not much he can do to continue with his plan other disobeying Flint's commands.

What happened in Underhill was Billy's fault, ok. But he was done with the situation of having everyone against him, having Flint telling him what to do. As I understand it wasn't a racist attack to the slaves. Billy knows what it feels like to be treaten like a slave. He was kidnapped when he was a teen, so he knows how this people must feel, being parted from their family, just like him. In my opinion he wanted in one hand to continue with the plan, not hearing Flint's advice (though this time Flint was right) and in the other hand he wanted to rebeal to Flint, just to show him that he wasn't under his control anymore. I understand his acts and I support him, why not?

When he gets the crew killed (I can't remember very well the plot cause I'm still unable to rewatch season 4, so tell me if I am wrong please) in the first episodes of the season, everyone started to hate him, cancelling him and stuff like that. And I was like, why are they condemning Billy now and not other charaters who did similar things before? Didn't Flint killed Gates because he was revealing againts him after Billy's death? Didn't Flint killed two crew members when they all were going through a rough time in the ship when they were adrift? Didn't Silver planned to steal and played Flint with the Urca's gold (and someone who was working in his plan got killed in the way)? Didn't Anne Bony killed Longan and then Charlott (a pure and inocent gilr who created Jack's flag image) in the burdel? Why is it so difficult to forgive Billy? He was the leader of the resistence and did what he had to do, they were collateral damage, and he is responsible of that, yeah, but he is not the only one who has taken bad decisions in the show, but it seems like he's the only one who people can't forgive, and that's something that I can't understand.

Then, when Flint is in the fort and they are about to "give" Eleanor the treasure, Billy stands and tries to get Flint alive and the treasure back, but what he doesn't know is that Silver is playing him, bringing him to a rat trap. And it's funny cause that's what at the end Silver ends up doing: setting Flint free (letting him become James McGraw again). At least that's my opinion. Billy didn't want to kill Flint, he wanted to restrain him, cancel him. But then again, I guess Billy's next moves made him untrusted again when he goes to Rogers and claims to be Long John Silver himself.

But what did people expect Billy to do when he has been tortured for the third time in his life by his crew and his friend? How would you feel if you had a plan with your best friend (or co-worker friend) and you both wanted to get your crazy boss out of your way, but then you realized that during the time you were bussy creating and maintaining the plan they both become close friends and then they blame you for everything, never revealing you the truth? How do you think Billy would feel in that situation, being tortured for the third time (I repeat)? That moment was what made him change compleatly and made him go to Rogers. I was glad when he went to him and told him the whole truth. He is Long John Silver, he has being fighting and scaring Nassau with the resistance. He was the one behind that legend, and nobody thanked him anything the whole time. He screwed up creating that persona, yes, but it was necesary for the resistance. So yeah! I was glad about it, and at one point I thought that maybe Billy was planning to play Rogers for the sake of a plot twist, where we could find that Billy was good all along... but it didn't happend. What we got was, once again, an ally who was going to use and abuse Billy and who was not going to listen or respect him. So yeah, it's sad, very sad.

At the end, when he fights with Flint, I truly don't know what to say... it's painful for me to remember it, and even harder to get a conclusion. The only thing I know is that Billy is one of the greates characters I've seen. Too dark, and to too pure. When he gets up in the beach and realises that he's left alone in the island we can clearly see all the shit he has gone through.

For me it feels like both Billy and Silver are like the most hard working kid in class and the cheater one. When the hard working (who's backstory seems kind of dark) gets good marks and compleats every homework or task the teacher asks it's always fine. Everybody kind of envies and admires him cause he's never ever gave any problem before and they know what to expect from him. The cheater copies, tells jokes, is charismatic but everything he does is always wrong (we don't know for sure his backstory but we know it must be kind of bad). He sometimes blames others or makes up stories to get away with punishmients, he's unexpected. But what happens when the hardworking starts to rebeal and the cheater makes one right thing (hen the hardworker has had enough of dealing with his traumas, and the cheater who has suffered too, redeems himself or another)? That they all punish the hardworker for his behaviour, not expecting it from him, and prize the cheater for the only good thing he has done, that was also unexpected! That's not fair. They both need to be treated in a more equal way. Yeah, the good guy made a mistake, but pay close attention to that mistake and find the truth behind it, help him to get it from his chest. And yeah the cheater is great too, we can encourage him to be that way, but not forgeting all the things he has done before.

I don't know what kind of metaphore I came up with, but what I want to say is that I understad Billy and his actions, in fact I understand every BS characters decisions and acts too and I also support them. I think that what I really mean is that Billy has gone from being the mom of the Walrus to the reek of the Walrus because they wanted to prize Silver. I mean, I think that Silver is a very complicated and interesting character and I love his arch, but I still believe that he's a liar and I still can't believe the ending of the show, cause it's a story told by himself, and we all know that stories could be true or not, so I mantain my instincts. And about Billy, who knows, maybe he didn't end up that way... and season 4 never happend! ;)

Thank you so much for the ask. It's been a long while since I wrote something about Billy and his character arch in season 4! As I told before I haven't rewatched the 4th season, so maybe I am wrong in somethings, forgive me for that in advance an let me know if so. I don't know if I answered your question, but it all came to me as I was writing it (I spent the whole afternoon in this). Thank you again!

[sage-nebula]

I have to say I'm learning a lot about my self from loving Keith. I've learned that I would be the type of parent to yell at anyone who hurt my son, including the other children. I'm so salty at team Voltron right now, and I will continue to be until i see them apologize. I kinda hope Keith and Lotor get along though.

Fam, you have no idea how salty I am at Team Voltron right now. I’m pretty much Done™ with every single one of them at this point.

Let’s make one thing clear right off the bat: It’s clear that Keith, however much he is expressive and is pretty blunt and honest with what he says, has difficulties connecting with others and communicating with them therefore. I’ve talked before about how Keith seems to have C-PTSD, and how this is more than likely the root cause of difficulties he personally has communicating and connecting with his teammates (and regulating his emotions), given that difficulties forming and keeping interpersonal relationships is one of the symptoms of C-PTSD (as is difficulty with emotional regulation, which doesn’t help things either). If he does have C-PTSD as a result of past abuse / neglect (which as I talk about in that post, has been implied by Steven Yeun at the very least), then it would also explain things such as his tendency to be extremely independent, his tendency to close himself off, et cetera. It would especially explain if he doesn’t realize that he’s doing these things in the moment, and that it really only occurs to him if he takes the time to reflect upon it later. (At which point he’s completely overwhelmed and overcome by this trauma that he has no tools to deal with, i.e., his vlog.)

All of that said, I have difficulty blaming Keith for his “part” in this, because while it is true that he isn’t great at communicating or working with others, the reason he isn’t great is because he has a metric ton of childhood / adolescent trauma that he is dealing with and, as far as we know, has never received help with. There is so much of Keith’s backstory that we don’t know, and part of me wonders if we’ll ever even find out (something tells me Dreamworks won’t allow Joaquim and Lauren to show child abuse on screen, but we’ll see), but at the very least, the Galaxy Garrison doesn’t really seem to be the type of place to have therapists on staff (and since they’re a U.S. based military organization, and mental health care is not something we do for our vets … yeah, I highly doubt they do), and we know that there aren’t any therapists at the Castle. I mention in the linked post above that Shiro seems to have helped Keith at least with the emotional regulation part of it by teaching him the “patience yields focus” mantra, and either Lauren or Joaquim have mentioned before that, on top of being an older brother figure for Keith, Shiro was Keith’s “grounding pillar,” which also lends to the idea that he has done his best to help Keith recover and heal from his trauma, despite not being a therapist himself. (But he was a teacher, a commanding officer, and a mentor to Keith at the very least, on top of probably being found family, so he was still able to help some.) But despite Shiro helping some, that doesn’t change the fact that—again, as far as we know—Keith never received any sort of professional help in recovering from his trauma. This is trauma that spanned adolescence, through his formative years; this is trauma that shaped who Keith is as a person, and how he views the world, and while it is possible to learn techniques that can help one overcome the barriers that C-PTSD hardwires into their brain (speaking from experience), if Keith—an eighteen-year-old boy—has never been taught those techniques, I find it really goddamn difficult to blame him for the difficulties he has communicating and forming relationships with others, especially when it is blatantly obvious that he is trying very hard with what he has, that he’s doing his fucking best, and the others aren’t even trying to meet him halfway.

Because that’s the thing: they aren’t, or at least, most of them aren’t. Shiro did in the first two seasons, and presumably the time that they spent together pre-canon. We see Shiro reach out to Keith with genuine care and support multiple times in the first two seasons, just as Keith reaches out to Shiro. (We also have some choice words from Keith to hint at their relationship prior to canon: “If it wasn’t for you, my life would have been a lot different.” […] “Shiro was the only one who never gave up on me …”) Allura was also the only one who was able to reach Keith when he was grieving Shiro at the start of S3; she was the only one to offer him true support and encouragement for being the new pilot of the Black Lion at multiple points in S3 (and was the only one, iirc, to not berate or drag him in 3x03); and she was also the one who tried to reach out to him at the start of S4, both when she told him that they needed him, and when she questioned—sounding aghast—if the reason why he was pulling away from them was because he didn’t feel fit to be a leader. Both S1/S2!Shiro and Allura have, at the very least, seemingly tried to reach out to him.

But as for the rest? Lance is the absolute worst; I’ve talked about it in other posts before and so I won’t go on and on about it now, but Lance has hated Keith from before day one based purely on an image of Keith he had built up in his head as an arrogant, cocky rival. He has never tried to actually understand or get to know Keith, instead preferring to view him as an obstacle standing between Lance and his desires (which are to be the best, and to be acknowledge by Shiro). The only time this even starts to change is in S3, when Shiro is gone (and Shireplica hasn’t really settled in yet); only then does Lance start to wash away his image of Keith as an obstacle and rival, and start to truly treat him as a comrade and potential friend. However, thanks to Shireplica coming back (and everyone believing that Shireplica = Shiro), that seems to have been completely rewound (again) in S4. Once again, Keith is someone Lance grouses and complains at, someone he doesn’t want to get to know or support. Everything Keith does is automatically wrong, in Lance’s eyes. In fact, there’s a Parks and Recreation quote that works perfectly as an incorrect Voltron: Legendary Defender quote. Here we are:

LANCE: “I wasn’t listening, but I strongly disagree with Keith.”

Building on that, it’s fair to say that Lance’s insistence on viewing Keith as an antagonistic obstacle, someone unlikable and unworthy of getting to know, also strongly influenced Pidge’s and Hunk’s perceptions of him from the get-go. In fact, we know for a fact that this is the case with Hunk, because Tyler Labine said so in an interview following S2:

“I think before I kinda took the side of Lance where I was like you’re … you’re kinda a hotshot, hothead, whatever, you know, and Lance doesn’t like him so I don’t like him, right?Not don’t like him, we get along because we have to, but you know he’s not our favourite person.”

Hunk straight up disliked Keith from the outset because Lance disliked him, and it wasn’t until 2x09 that Hunk’s opinion changed (and even then, he rationalized it by saying that it was Galra!Keith that he liked, rather than just Keith, according to Tyler). While we don’t (as far as I know) have a similar quote on Pidge, it’s worth it to note that Pidge and Keith have never really been shown bonding on-screen, but instead, Pidge was one of the most vocal in S3 and S4 when it came to berating and yelling at Keith, responding very harshly to his leadership when they first fought Lotor at the end of 3x02 (“We need an actual plan!” she screams, when this is Keith’s first official attempt at leadership, they were ambushed, and she doesn’t have a plan either), and never letting up throughout the rest of the episodes, either. On top of this, there have been numerous hints throughout all of the seasons that Pidge has a crush on Lance. Therefore, I think it’s very possible that Pidge—who we know thanks to her, “Wait, who’s Keith?!” remarks in 1x01 never met Keith before the first episode—has taken the approach of, “Lance doesn’t like Keith, but I like Lance, and Lance must have a good reason for not liking Keith, so I’m going to view everything Keith does through a lens of ‘why doesn’t Lance agree with this’.” It’s not the most mature approach to take, but Pidge is a fifteen-year-old girl with a crush on a boy. Even teenage prodigies can be a bit childish and illogical at times.

So right from the get-go, Lance didn’t like Keith because he had built up an image of Keith in his head as being some terrible obstacle that he had to overcome, and Hunk and Pidge never gave Keith a fair shake either because Lance didn’t like him. Considering the fact that Steven Yeun has said that Keith is the only one whose “difficult family history” has affected the way that he is, we can reasonably assume that none of them have the same C-PTSD-induced problems with emotional regulation and forming interpersonal relationships that Keith does. In fact, we know they don’t, or else they’d have the same difficulties connecting with others that he does, and they very obviously don’t. So instead of having their brains wired in a way that makes it actually difficult for them to reach out to and connect with others as a result of prolonged trauma throughout childhood and adolescence, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk are refusing to make attempts to bridge the gap and connect with Keith because they simply don’t want to.

Then we have the others. As established, Shiro did make these attempts in the first two seasons. However, in S3 and S4, “Shiro” doesn’t. He’s dismissive of Keith, uses emotionally abusive language (“I’m sorry I had to step in back there”), and even when he seems like he’s going to support him, he takes it back almost immediately (e.g. “Yes, you can [be a leader]” … “You’ll get there someday” — like, which is it? Make up your damn mind). Rather than trying to talk to Keith about why he’s spending more time with the Blade of Marmora in S4, he instead just scolds him for it like he’s a disobedient child, because Keith’s feelings and motivations don’t matter to him (anymore). Keith’s results are all that matter to him. And yes, this is a stark contrast from how Shiro used to treat him previously, because in 2x08 Shiro asked Keith why he yelled at everyone back at the Castle. (“What happened back there?”) He cared about Keith’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations then. Now, he doesn’t. He says he’ll support Keith, but he doesn’t exactly care to listen to Keith’s reasons. Half the time he won’t even spare him the courtesy of looking at him. This is why I find it so immensely difficult to believe that this is the real Shiro, and why I say “Shiro would never treat Keith like this,” because it is a direct contrast to how Shiro used to treat him. And if Dreamworks comes out and says that this is the real Shiro, and that this is supposedly IC? First of all, that’s nonsense, but second of all, I’m livid, because of all the people in that Castle, Shiro is the only one who (presumably) knows Keith’s history, and therefore should know how to talk to Keith, how to reach him, and why it’s important to do so. Hell, even Shireplica supposedly has Shiro’s memories, so he should know as well. The fact that he knows and apparently doesn’t care is a huge problem to me, and a huge impediment to me liking him, but regardless, I’d rather it be Shireplica than Shiro. I’d rather not believe that the real Shiro cares more about results than reasons, that the real Shiro cares more about piloting the Black Lion than he does whether or not Keith feels like he’s part of the team. Either way, the “Shiro” in S3 and S4 clearly doesn’t want to try to reach Keith, either. He makes absolutely no attempt to truly reach out to him, at all. Because trust me, if he did? If he did genuinely try to listen to Keith instead of shutting him down time and again? Keith would have responded. In fact, Keith tried multiple times to talk to “Shiro” and was rebuffed every time. The problem wasn’t Keith in this particular relationship. The problem was “Shiro”.

As for Allura and Coran, well, I can’t remember ever seeing Keith and Coran so much as have a conversation, much less bond. Allura did try, as mentioned above. Even in that fake af goodbye scene (more on that in a second), she questioned if the reason why he pulled away was because he felt he wasn’t worthy of being the leader. She wanted to hear what he was thinking and feeling. She tried to reach out to him, she clearly did care (as also demonstrated in 4x01 when she saw him in the crowd and her face just falls with sadness and worry) … but because their relationship has been on such a slow burn, Allura still doesn’t know him very well yet either. This is particularly true since they went through such a rough patch in S2, when Allura’s prejudices made her act coldly toward him for a while after she found out about his heritage. (Though before anyone starts hating on Allura, remember that she learned and grew from that, so don’t hate on her, thanks.) Thus, though she does try to reach out to him in S4, she can’t do so from a standpoint of a strong and familiar bond. She’s not someone that Keith has really opened up to yet. He does answer her question genuinely, but it’s too late, and she recognizes that.

And yeah, that goodbye scene was fake as hell. Pidge says that they’re going to miss him, but since when? Again, we’ve never seen Keith and Pidge bond, and Pidge was one of the most vocal team members when it came to shredding him for his leadership decisions. Lance says, “Who am I going to make fun of?” as if that would ever be a reason to get anyone to stay, and as if Lance himself didn’t make it pretty clear near the end of S3 that the only reason why he’d choose to spend any time talking to Keith alone is because Keith was the leader, not because they were friends. “Shiro” says that they’re always there for him, and Keith does accept this with a smile, but considering the fact that “Shiro” has been shutting him down and refusing to listen to him ever since his “return”, I find that hard to believe (especially since Keith himself feels that he’s not needed, and didn’t remember any of them when he was about to sacrifice himself in 4x06). And while I can’t say anything about what Hunk and Allura said (and Coran didn’t say anything), I can point out that not a single goddamn one of them missed him AT ALL in the episodes that followed. Setting aside how they were all very willing to let him go off on a mission that could last for weeks or more without a fight, we didn’t get one single instance of them thinking about or mentioning Keith in the episodes that followed. Pidge didn’t mention him at all to Matt when she was showing him around the Castle (when a, “Oh … and this was Keith’s room” downcast moment would have put more truth behind her “we’re really going to miss you” statement from the goodbye). Allura seemed genuinely disgruntled about having to play Keith in the stupid show, and Coran said “just be really moody” as if that summed up Keith’s entire personality. None of them said anything to him (and he didn’t have any dialogue either) when they were talking to Kolivan and Keith in 4x05. Like, say what you will about the four episodes that Shiro wasn’t present in S3, but he was constantly being brought up, the team was constantly talking about how they missed him. By contrast, not a single damn member of Team Voltron gave a fucking fuck that Keith was gone. Allura, Coran, “Shiro”, Pidge, Lance, Hunk—none of them missed him at all. And yeah, all things considered, that really pisses me off.

Because again: I can understand why Keith has difficulties communicating and connecting with the rest of the team, but he also tries regardless. In 1x01 he says “it’s been an honor flying with you boys” despite barely knowing any of them outside of Shiro. In 1x05 (I think—might have been 1x04) he was genuinely upset when Lance walked back their “bonding moment” because he thought they were really going to make progress as teammates and potential friends. He genuinely and warmly welcomes Pidge back to the team, he tries to protect Allura from the Arusian’s “strongest warrior”, he laughs with Hunk at the party, he encourages Hunk in the Weblum (despite Hunk making microaggressions against his galran heritage for the entire episode), he seems genuinely disappointed when Lance says that he has only come to talk to Keith because Keith is the leader now in S3, and so on and so forth. Yes, Keith has difficulties connecting and communicating as a result of prolonged trauma in his formative years that have shaped how he has grown as a person, and yes, as far as we know he has never been taught how to deal with this. However, he’s still trying, he’s still doing his best, he makes legitimate efforts to connect with Team Voltron.

But they do not give him that same courtesy. Lance refuses to like him right from the start, and Hunk and Pidge follow his lead. Allura tries to balance friendship with being the princess / commander, and her relationship with Keith hits a brief rough patch when she learns of his heritage (that she then tries to work through). Coran and Keith are never in the same room alone together from what I recall, and while Shiro did try in S1 and S2, when he “returns” in S3, that effort is completely gone. He no longer wants to listen to what Keith has to say until Keith says he is leaving, and only then does he decide not to argue it (whereas all of Keith’s attempts at leadership were met with disagreement and shut downs, hmmm …). 

So yeah, I’m pissed as all hell at Team Voltron. To be quite honest, they don’t fucking deserve Keith at this point. Especially considering the farcical nonsense in 4x04, he’s too good for them, and I hope he stays with the Blade of Marmora for a while. At least Kolivan shows him some basic respect and consideration. And I, too, hope that Keith and Lotor end up getting along. The last thing I want is for Lotor to join the coalition since the coalition seems to have Shireplica in the commander’s seat, but I do think it’d be neat as all hell to see him join the Blade of Marmora, and to have Keith be one of the Marmorites testing him. That would finally give us our Keith vs. Lotor swordfight, too.

We’ll have to see what happens, but yeah. At this point, I think Team Voltron owes Keith six apologies. They sure as hell better line the fuck up.

(don’t reblog this, please. I do NOT want Discourse™, at all, thanks.)