#LOOK at how he dives for that troll

[the-soliloquies-of-sadists]

#341

This is a direct follow up to Story #223 and Story #232.

“Piece of shit!  It’s your lucky day.  You’re getting out of here.  You’ve been sold.  Lil’ Hog told me that I’m to transport you to the east coast.  I’m also to clean you up and tend to your sores.  Now, the chain your collar is coming off.  Coyote will use it on the next slave he’ll install later on today.  I am bigger and stronger than you, so don’t try to run.  Nod if you understand…

“Good.  Lean forward.  Damn this is one solid collar…. Hey, he gave me the right key this time…. Get up and let’s get out of this sewer of a bathroom.

“Bright out hunh?  Here, wash yourself up with that bucket of water.  I put some soap and a washcloth next to it.  There’s no hot water here, so it’s going to be a bit cold.  Scrub up good.  I don’t want you stinking up the cab of my semi.  Tonight, we’ll check into this motel, and you can have a hot shower….

“Are you… crying?...  Wait, you think that I am your savior, rescuing you from that disgusting mattress?  Oh faggot.  That’s too funny.  I’m just here to transport you from one hell to another.  We are going to spend a few nights at a motel in the middle of nowhere run by Big Hog. It’s a total dive.  Big Hog usually has the men to fill its six rooms.  They are waiting for us.  You have an evening of servicing whoever Big Hog plans on being there.  Don’t know what all he has planned other than your hair removal and castration.

“You can drop the shocked look.  And don’t even try to beg me not to take you there; I don’t care.  I really don’t.  You are fucking cargo to me.

“Your new owners want a hairless eunuch; they are going to get one.  That’s why we are spending a few days there.  Then I drop you off at the facility in South Carolina to be shipped off to God knows where.

“Everything is pretty much set.  Trust me, you won’t miss your balls.  It’s not like you were using them for anything….  Well other than a punching bag.  You are not going to father any kid.  So why leave them attached?  If anything, this should reinforce that you are not a man, that you are a cunt faggot slave used for the enjoyment of real men.

“Here’s the hose.  Rinse yourself off.  It’s cold….  When was the last time you cleaned out your cunt?...  A few hours ago?  Good.  Let’s go to my truck.  No, I don’t have a towel for you to dry off; the air is fine.  And you are not covering yourself up.  No one will think twice about coming into a closed down rest area.  Well except those in the know.

“You cleaned up well.  You no longer look like a troll living under a bridge.  Stop right here.  Get on your knees.  Out here in the open.  I have to take a hell of a piss.  Might as well start using my own personal toilet. 

“It’s big isn’t it?  This is what you are going to be serving the next week or so.  Fuck!  You sure know how to drink.  When I finish, get me hard.  I’m going to plow your cunt right here.  It’s too beautiful of a day to fuck in a closed cab. 

“Stand up, turn around, and put your hands behind your back….  These handcuffs will keep you from doing something stupid.  Now lean over.  Don’t worry, I got you.  These cuffs will act as a handle.  Oh man, are you ever stretched out.  Jesus!  My beercan is encountering no resistance.  No wonder why the guys are bringing me a special plug…. 

“Oh wait, do you hear that?  In the distance?  That sounds like a number of motorcycles.  Yeah, they will be in here in no time.  When they do, don’t fucking move.  I want them to see me plowing your cunt front and center.

“Oh man, I can feel a few fresh loads in you.  I will start the training you to build up these cunt muscles, to get them back to a place that offers some pleasure to the men using it.

“They are getting louder.  The sound of multiple motorcycles always gets my juices flowing.  Clamp down….  That’s all you have?  Fuck, we need to work on that.

“Here they come….  Look at that.  That looks like Coyote and Lieutenant Tom.  And Coyote has your replacement.  Look at that beast.  He’s not going to be here long.  Someone will buy him soon.  Oh! And here comes Lil Hog.

“Cunt keep staring at the concrete; don’t look up unless told to.  And don’t say a goddamned thing.  Here come’s Lil Hog….

“…Hey man I see Coyote has a beast of a slave going in….  Fuck.  Look at those arms.  Sheesh.  Can I get a piece of that before I and this cunt leave?  This fag’s cunt is so stretched out, it’s damned near worthless as a fuck.  Do you have the plug?  Good.  Good.  I’ll meet you in the toilet once I get this cunt plugged and installed in my cab.

“Cunt, get up and let’s go.  Take this butt plug.  In the next 50 feet, by the time we get to the semi, I want that plug in your cunt.  It should go in easy considering how stretched out you are.  That’s a very special plug; it comes all the way from Germany.  It has sensors around the base to monitor how tight you can squeeze. 

“Ok get up in the cab….  Lay in the bunk.  This chain is secured to the truck and now,… to your collar.  You ain’t going anywhere. 

“I love technology.  That plug is now synced to my iPad here.  Feel that vibration?  That’s telling you to squeeze.  You are to squeeze your cunt around the plug and keep squeezing as long as it vibrates.  If it vibrates very fast that means that you need to tighten up even more.

“When I get back, I will have a baseline score for your cunt muscle strength.  It will probably suck.  So I will most likely beat you for punishment, which will be after you clean off that beast’s ass slime from my dick.

“I’ll be back in a bit.  I’ll probably be last in the train.  And I don’t care if you want to beat off.  As long as you are squeezing the plug when instructed, that’s all I care.  Besides, this will be the last opportunity to pound your pud and drain your balls before they are sliced away.”

[selya711-twiste]

soooooooo,,, rollo, huh- after ur other oneshot im craving more rollo content from you badly. would you do a male reader x rollo sharing a blanket cuz its cold outside? maybe with reader being a bit of a blanket hog

keeping warm

Rollo Flamme x reader It sounds reasonable to sleep together and use each other's bodies as a heat source. However, you're also a bit of a menace.

I've been letting this request cook for too long when it's exactly what I need rn. what the eff! it's so cold! and it's going to get worse soon!! I hope you're enjoying your holidays tho anon. i wish we all have a rollo to troll cuddle with. once again y/n is a sweet little jerk as per my last fic. it's just the best y/n possible for rollo. happy rollodays and rollo year

You can't forget the look on his face when you brought up the idea of sleeping together. It takes a lot to get under Rollo's skin, but something about you makes him so jumpy. It was impossible to miss the twitch in the corner of his lips as he brought his handkerchief to his face. He questioned your motives, as he always does whenever you do anything. You reasoned that the winter temperature warrants it, and you two have already been so close as of late... Intimate, rather. it's a word that hasn't passed him by until you came around.

He seemed so reluctant to share a room with you, but you convinced him enough for him to say yes. He invited you to his room this evening and you made no protest as you assumed that it was where he was more comfortable sleeping. Rollo is still new to being so close to anyone that he might just be awake the whole night if he were in your place. You wouldn't want to add another ring to the dark circles under his eyes, would you?

Night finally falls, and you make your way to his dorm room. Noble Bell College at night was surely a sight. You clutch your pillow as your eyes trace the shadows on every candelabra you pass by until you finally arrive. "Rollo?" You knock on his door thrice.

You had a brief thought of just getting in without knocking, but you wouldn't want to risk whatever might happen with the man on the other side. You don't check if it's locked because Rollo would surely take note of you trying to get in from the sound of the knob rattling.

You don't get to knock one more time when Rollo finally answers. "Good evening," he greets you in his pajamas. You stare at him up and down because of how different he suddenly looked. He would look so cool and imposing in his council president uniform, but right now he appeared so relaxed to you.

Are those his collarbones?

"Won't you come in? What are you so surprised about? You're wearing the same clothes as I am," he sighs as he stands aside to give way to you. "Ah, so sorry."

You feel a little more overwhelmed as soon as you do step into his room. Everything about Rollo's space is so clean, as expected, but not only that... It's just so full of him. All of his belongings from his books to the pens neatly arranged on his desk, to the chairs where he sits, and the closet full of his clothes... And then his bed, right there. You're just so tempted to dive right into it, but your host is still standing behind you, wondering what could possibly be on your mind as you were looking all over the place.

You look down at the pillow that you brought with you, before looking at the ones on Rollo's bed. It must be the privilege of being the leader of the whole student body to afford a room twice as big as the standard dorm room, so it's reasonable that even his bed was a bit bigger. Well, in exchange, he has a whole lot more duties to attend to compared to the average student.

"It is best we go to sleep now as we have classes tomorrow," he says as he walks past you. Rollo makes a gesture toward your side of the bed which you follow obediently as he makes his way to the other. You place your pillow down and enter the covers while he puts out the light.

The mattress in his bed is standard, so it isn't different from yours back in your own room. What you become flustered about is how much stronger his scent was all over his sheets and pillows. Your heartbeat becomes even faster as you feel his weight on the space next to yours, the blankets shifting with Rollo taking the other side.

"Goodnight," he softly greets you and he closes his eyes.

Wait, is that it...?

This went very differently in your head. For starters, he didn't even bother engaging in a late-night conversation with you after you came into his room. You think that maybe you should have initiated it, but you also zoomed into lying down on his bed. You look at Rollo who is lying flat on his back with his hands on his chest looking all peaceful.

Is he already asleep?!

Even the gargoyle in the bell tower is softer compared to him, you think to yourself. "Rollo?" You mutter as to not startle him as you slowly come closer to his side. "Hm?" It was a low noise, but it was enough for you to know that he was actually still awake. It's only been a few seconds in so there's no way would drift off that fast.

"...Nothing, goodnight," you answer back and turn around. You feel a little bit let down. Cuddling would be really ideal in this weather, but you can't bring yourself to throw yourself onto him anymore.

Yes, Rollo has to be the one to go to you this time. That's why you start pulling the blankets away from him. You wonder what kind of face he's making as he gently pulls them back from you, only for you to reel in almost all of the covers away from his body. Otherwise, the warmth of the whole duvet on top of you and in your arms feels so comfortable as the snow continues to fall outside. If nothing happens next, you'd surely fall asleep right then and there.

"Do you mind?" He whispers right against your ear, causing you to jump slightly. "What is it, Rollo?" You respond coyly and embrace the duvet closer. "You know what it is," he answers back and tries to pull the sheets away from you again. It feels like a fun game of tug of war, and you hope he's not too mad about it. By now, he should become used to the way you flirt, which just seemed to be getting on his nerves as much as possible that he questions why you've ended up in his heart instead.

"Why, it sure must be cold on your side... There's only enough of this blanket on mine. Won't you sleep much closer to me, Rollo?"

"This is such a roundabout way of asking me to cuddle with you."

"So you've thought about it, then?" You turn around and find him right behind you, his eyes gazing into yours. His hair, which was usually neatly combed during the day, was now a little disheveled from his moving around. Rollo looked unsure, and even his hand that was slightly above you seemed like he was still choosing between holding you or grabbing the covers back. "I didn't want to intrude on your space," he sighs and wraps his hand around the duvet after all, hesitant to touch you.

You lean forward and rest your head on his chest. "I do that to you all the time." You do the work for your awkward boyfriend and pull the blanket away from his hand. You place the covers over both of you and eventually wrap your arms around him. "Can we sleep like this?"

Rollo is reluctant to return the gesture, but his arms don't have anywhere else to go but around your form. It wasn't that he disliked you, or else you never would've set foot in his room at all. To put it bluntly, you were overwhelming, but he knows in his heart how distant he was from everyone until you took the initiative to come running to him, straight into his arms like you are now.

"Of course."

Rollo feels a bit of shame about how livelier you were than him when it came to showing affection. In the end, you were still the one taking the reins whenever it came to you two being intimate with one another. Either way, he was in bliss just having you here with him now, and softens up.

The night goes on quietly as you focus on the gentle rise and fall of his chest next to the sound of his heartbeat. You feel Rollo's arms eventually relax and embrace you more fully. It now feels so much warmer and more genuine, you can't help but melt into him. It was just so rewarding to feel his hesitance slowly disappear as he holds you even closer to his body.

"Sleep tight," he whispers against the top of your head and it feels like a little kiss. You think about coming over every night from now on regardless of what season it was as you drift off to sleep. Surely he wouldn't mind.

[sophie-frm-mars]

Ben Shapiro enters his willy wonka era

Disclaimer: Ben Shapiro is a morally bankrupt shitheel who hates women and he doesn't deserve the oxygen of publicity, but this fucking thing has given me brainworms and I need to smoke them out.

Okay so 2023 is doing something AMAZING to the brains of celebrity reactionaries. First Jordan Peterson wore his "twitter suit" with a matching tie that has "little elon musk heads" on it, most aptly described by Sam Seder as JBP entering his "willy wonka era"

But this morning I wake up to see that everyone's favourite facts and logic boy Ben Shapiro has created this fucking monstrosity. This rube goldberg machine of political "science". This mousetrap-ass load of bullshit. I have to conclude that Shapiro is also entering his Wonka era.

So what the fuck is going on here?

Benny has concocted from his powerful mind a formula for determining "governmental legitimacy" which is just such a beautiful artefact of who Ben Shapiro, as opposed to his colleagues, truly is. Clearly the dream of the Intellectual Dark Web never went away, and while others realise that their role within the fetid reanimated corpse of modern conservatism is to troll and clown their way through towards their political vision, Shapiro thinks he's doing real serious business here.

So we're going to use maths to acertain a quality that is by definition subjective. Legitimacy is going to be nil if you consider a government ideologically abhorrent, and if you're a party zealot who believes with total burning passion in the project of the current administration, legitimacy is going to be absolute. That's just fantastic. I love maths. I did my maths A Level two years early. I can't wait to dive in here and learn some maths with Mr. Ben Ass P-word

So the factors in the equation: he uses social solidarity (S), the responsiveness of the government to citizens (R), the "avoidability" of the government (A) which isn't as silly as it sounds to begin with, the efficacy of the government or its ability to implement (I) what it means to do, and all of that is divided by the violation of people's rights (V), the strictness of the laws or regulations (R') and lastly the force used to maintain those laws, or as Shapiro has it the aggressiveness (A').

I'm gonna work backwards through these factors because I think we'll have more fun that way, but I wanna say first that although Shapiro's purpose in producing this abomination is in trying to make it look like you can scientifically determine the legitimacy of a government in a numerical figure, sometimes equations in science are produced not to use exact units or even perform the calculation in them but to get us to agree on the factors that are involved in constituting something like "governmental legitimacy". I wanna say secondly that only a conservative hyperfreak of Ben's calibur could think "governmental legitimacy" is really the Big Political Question of our current moment. Thirdly I'll just say that if you were going to try to make this calculation, the fact that no part of this equation measures how closely the ideology of the government matches the desires of the population (I know, how would you even) or how legally the government's mandate was obtained (again, a nightmare) is just, basically pretty funny.

Okay

Aggressiveness (A') is a reasonably quantifiable factor. We could measure the police budgets per capita that are put towards militarisation, the number of incidents of police brutality supposing we could get non-state reporting on that, the number of police, perhaps a weighted scale of different policing tactics. However, there's already a problem observable in the real world: policing is not uniform. Police brutality, more militaristic policing, more extreme tactics and even vitally where the police are deployed is highly racialised, differentiated by class strata, and as is readily apparent in the imperial core right now, even partisan as police are far more likely to consider leftist protest or disruption to be a serious threat than its right wing counterparts.

Regulations (R') seems theoretically quantifiable, and there are others who have tried to quantify how strict and authoritarian the policy environment created by a government is. We're gonna keep coming back to this same problem though: legitimacy is subjective and if an entire population were absolutely A-OK with being surveilled, jailed, brutalised, taxed, banned, prohibited, spanked and spit on by the state, and they'd voted the government in with a landslide majority to try and do it to em as nasty as possible, many would argue that would be a legitimate government.

Violation (V) of people's rights is again theoretically quantifiable, but which rights, and whose? because Ben Shapiro believes that abortion is murder, and believes that someone's rights are being violated whenever an abortion is performed. Not only that but he has also argued in several places that the pregnant person is being let down by society when they get an abortion because they deserve instead to have support to have and raise the baby, or be able to put the baby up for adoption confident in the quality of life that the child will receive. If you think abortion is murder, the "violation of rights" alone will make the denominator of this fraction absolutely enormous and, unsurprisingly, make the legitimacy of any government that allows abortion to be practiced very very low. Would you look at that, it's like legitimacy is subjective or something waow

Implementation (I) of the things that the government intends to do is actually pretty quantifiable but we need a coefficient attached to implementation here, right? One that can swing positive or negative, that tells us how well the government aligns with the will of the people, because a very effective government that does the opposite of what the people want is more illegitimate than an ineffective government that intends to do what the people want. Maybe that's in Shapiro's definition to begin with, an implementation of what the people want.

Avoidability (A) is actually a very fun and interesting metric for citizen consent. Can people leave if they don't like what the government is doing. I don't actually disagree with the idea of this factor relating to legitimacy at all, and I think it's a fairly decent point, although I'd prefer to see it factor in the possibility of living outside of government jurisdiction within the territory of the state, as well as weighing up the ability to engage partially with state jurisdiction, which would be a much more robust way of understanding "avoidability". Shapiro just defines it like "if people don't like the government they should move", and what can I say but

In all seriousness that opens up a whole second world of "avoidability" right? Like what resources do people have, how mobile are they, can they bring their belongings, resources, family with them if they decide to exercise this right to exit? We can't simply measure the number of emigrants from a country to see how many people "didn't consent" to the government there, because there are all sorts of reasons you wouldn't want to simply move country if you didn't agree with the legitimacy of the government. I'm a trans woman living in Britain and I have to constantly assess and reassess the balance between how much government policy could ruin my life and the enormous weight, cost, effort, alienation, distress and time lost if I had to move country.

Responsiveness(R) is pretty funny to me, because like... responding to what? If I write my local MP to ask for gay space communism and they throw my letter in the bin, they aren't at all responsive to my needs, but like, should they be? Or rather, should they be expected to be? Moreover if they reply and explain that Rishi Sunak isn't amenable to sucking and fucking aboard the starship enterprise, or reply and lie to me and say that it's totally gonna happen if I just vote Labour at the next election, is that responsiveness? If I'm on a waiting list for healthcare, and I write an official complaint to the government body responsible, and they write back telling me I'm not going to get treatment any sooner but they're working on it, is that responsiveness? Okay, supposing responsiveness is quantified in a scale of how quickly and effectively a government directly implements what the citizens ask it to do, we again arrive at the questions of "which" and "who". If our government has a massive majority support and most people are really happy with what they're doing, then the vast majority of complaints and expressed desires from the population will come from the political minority. If the government responds to those requests and implements the will of the political minority, they'll probably become immediately hysterically unpopular, but check this out: then the political majority who previously supported them will start to complain, and then, being a hyper-responsive government, they'll implement very effectively what they've been asked to do, and then the original complaints will return, which they'll respond to, and on and on and on. So the most responsive government imaginable is actually a government that basically everyone would consider illegitimate because they'd appear to be spineless and fickle. This is such a metric I'm actually laughing out loud writing this

Social solidarity (S) is so fascinating. So fascinating. Shapiro explains that a measure of lack of social solidarity is that people will vote for their candidate essentially just to offend their neighbour. I'm not gonna even really engage with this argument pretty much constructed to pander to "Biden stole the election" conspiracy theorists, but rather I wanna talk about how interesting it is that a far-right pundit, religious fanatic and some-time conservative pseudo-libertarian like Ben would use "solidarity" as a positive factor in constructing his model of legitimacy. Again, if we imagine extremes of this, it doesn't work in his calculation at all. A population with extreme social solidarity may well support an authoritarian regime that is constantly refining the vile machinery of necropolitics, or it may be that the population has solidarity because they have raised group consciousness in response to their oppression by the government, so two easy conceptions of social solidarity instantly give opposite outcomes in terms of governmental legitimacy.

What's really interesting to me is how this social solidarity metric fits into the way that people like Ben construct racist propaganda about China. The underpinning myth of China in American conservative propaganda is as a place where the population is in total agreement about the legitimacy and mandate of the ruling party (although in reality this is obviously far from true) and that basis of "mob rule" allows the CCP to persecute political minorities without repercussions. If the picture that American conservatives paint of China were true, the CCP would be an extremely legitimate government at least on this one metric. What Ben has accidentally stumbled upon with his social solidarity metric is a conception of authentic democracy which is, far beyond his ability to assess and analyse, the perfect opposite of his entire political project. If people get together to discuss their problems, to raise group consciousness, to debate and discuss and agree on how they would like the world they live in to function, and then form a government based on their social solidarity, or form no government based on their solidarity and live through direct democracy for that matter, then Ben is saying, that would be a very legitimate political project. Workers of the world unite, says comrade Shapiro

[cupid-tune]

Hello, I really want your opinion about the rejection of Beforius, and how he influenced society. We learned from Openbound that the high-bloods take care of the low-bloods. And many have the theory that the Highbloods basically cull other trolls when they have a disability, or a mutation that makes them unable to live on their own, and take on the responsibility of caring for them. Pretty good idea if it didn't have a lot of downsides. What do you think, could Kankri be "rejected" on the beforius, what influenced his character in the future:? or he also initially concealed his blood color, and only during the session he stopped concealing it:? If you think about it, then Rufio is also a kind of mutant, but when he grew up, for some reason he hid in the forest, away from settlements, like cities, as if afraid of someone:?

Apologies in advance for the disturbance :ззззз

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY THIS QUESTION MADE ME

I've been thinking about this just recently!! I enjoy looking for content that tries to fill the gaps in between the experience of Beforus, whether it be dialogue or fan stuff. It upsets me that we weren't given too much insight into things, but the fun part is making do with what we have. This post is mainly focusing on mutants on Beforus, but I think this could apply to lowbloods and trolls with disabilities just as much.

Long post ahead!

A lot of what I could gather about the culling on Beforus was from Kankri's dialogue, which peaked my interest the most reading through it. In any other instance, I would take his remarks in the intended humorous manner, but if we really want to dive into this, taking what he says more seriously is a big help.

Kankri describes the problems of Beforus as more underlying and insidious, which makes perfect sense with everything else we have. Feferi was the ruler on Beforus, and as such, was likely a kind ruler with a much more peaceful system in place. The problem is, utopia can't really be achieved, no matter how hard you try. What we're seeing is a flawed system, with trolls who, despite their peaceful way of life, still behave similarly to that on Alternia. You're going to have bad people with bad intentions, and they will most certainly take advantage of the system in place because it's so easy to do.

The theory that highbloods will cull lowbloods and mutants the same amount that it happens on Alternia sounds about right, even if their version of culling is near opposite. Mutants are pitied in such a society, and will be treated like fragile beings who are in need of help. Beforus and Alternia are both bad on opposite sides of the spectrum. One cares too much, the other cares too little. I think a good comparison for this would be the foster care system and how much corruption lies within it. Though, I'd rather not dive into serious real life matters like that while trying to talk about fictional trolls, so it's just good to keep in mind for future reference. Highbloods can take in mutants to care for them, and that seems to be about the extent of context we get. We could go different ways about this and guess whether or not their treatment of these mutants is monitored, or they are left to their own accord and simply trusted.

Coddling seems to be a big deal for Kankri, as one of the only times we see him flaring up in defense is when Porrim shows him coddling-like affection. This could be taken as pale or motherly, but either way, it's upsetting for him. Again, this is probably written to be lighthearted and entertaining, but seeing as this is the only time we see Kankri aggressive, I consider it a trigger of his. Touching, in general, I think is another trigger of Kankri's, which might also come from his culled upbringing.

Kankri pulls away from Porrim a lot, seeing as he directly insults the sweater she gave him but continues to wear it regardless. There is sentiment there, but Kankri shows conflicted behavior. Another alternative could just be that Porrim forces him to wear the sweater, since...Yeah, that pant line. It's understandable. When it comes to Kankri and his relationship with his blood color, the sweater could represent his pride and will to show off his blood now that he's no longer on Beforus. Kankri might've hid his color back then, or was encouraged to wear more neutral colors by his culler like Karkat does.

Further into the coddling nature, Kankri rejects any kind of form of endearment, since his view of it is that it feels belittling and condescending. I think this idea comes from the fact that he experienced similar treatment from whoever was taking care of him on Beforus, which he had grown to dislike either back then or came to realize during the game. He's even willing to take insults if it means not using "wiggler nicknames," which further shows just how much he dislikes this treatment.

Analysis out of the way, the theories of culling on Beforus can go many different directions. Kankri was culled on Beforus, yes. He didn't hide away like Karkat, he wasn't able to in his circumstances. As such, he was raised by a troll, a highblood most likely, who treated him as though he were a prized possession. Kankri could've been pampered and spoiled, which may explain his entitled behavior, but this kind of treatment comes with a lot of downsides. His culler may have been too protective of him, not letting him socialize normally like other trolls and keeping him isolated, or instilling this idea that he needed to be watched over, that he wasn't capable of living a life on his own because of his mutation. This could've been a common practice for many cullers, manipulation and conditioning in order to keep their culled troll under control. Of course, this is a darker way of looking at things, but realistically, this is a very likely reality for many mutants on Beforus. Like I said before, the nature of trolls are a constant, and that means bad people willing to take advantage of a bad system. The only reason I'm willing to take this route is because of how defensive Kankri gets about being treated like a wiggler, and why he strives to know more than others and stand above them. His upbringing shaped who he is now, and one could think that when those kids finally entered the session, Kankri was a free troll.

With Rufioh, he probably had a much easier time escaping the culling system. His wings sprouted later, so he wasn't immediately culled upon birth. He made a life out in the forest with other lowbloods, which allowed him to live relatively peacefully, at least outside of society. Things could've been a lot different for Rufioh had he undergone the same treatment Kankri did, but we can only guess how he would react under those circumstances. Rebelling sounds about right, but who knows how far he could've gotten with that?

Rufioh's behavior is very passive, and he seems pretty content with his life as a mutant. He treats it normally, while Kankri on the other hand hates terms like "mutant" and sees it as a more derogatory term than anything. This is just a Kankri thing, but this could very well be why it's a Kankri thing. I like to think the two have somewhat bonded over being mutants in the past, and Rufioh knows the extent of the culling system and its effects. It's a good thing he ran away while he could, whether it be intentional or not. Rufioh's relationship with his mutation is because he was able to grow up in a setting that didn't shame him for it, allowing him to be carefree and treated like any other troll. This is what Beforus should be, or what the ideal was meant to be.

Beforus culling can be just as bad as Alternia culling, in the way that the victims of it suffer the effects for the rest of their lives. Many culled trolls might even die early on, either because of natural causes in mutations or other health issues brought upon them from the culling treatment. Kankri was conditioned to believe that he shouldn't exist, but to be thankful that he was taken care of anyway. If the people of Beforus were under the impression that culling was an honorable responsibility to take up, caring for the life of another, the ones who were culled are less likely to get help in their situations. His distaste towards the caste system and its inequalities is justified, and that seems to be where a lot of his priorities lie, on educating others about that underlying hierarchy. He's pretty ignorant on other subjects like Porrim's arguments about gender roles on Beforus, and refuses to learn more about it. Which, is not a good thing of course, and is definitely on the list of things he needs to work on, but there are explanations. A lot of what I think are Kankri's personal triggers came from his upbringing, though we can only speculate. Stuff like this is why I enjoy digging into canon, speculation and theories are something I'm not able to indulge in often.

But in conclusion, damn.

[sandradoodles]

so sorry about your charger!! i have a marichat question for you - if chat were the one to ask marinette out, where would their first date be? and if mari made the first move, where would they go?

BUCKLE UP GIRL, you have opened the floodgates; I hope you've got a good chunk of time to read this because you're gonna need it, sorry.

Marichat CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR.

----

When Chat Noir asks Marinette out he is already ALL IN with his feelings and the evening reflects as much. He picks her up at the front door (she expected him to show up on the balcony and remains frozen awkwardly while he interacts with her parents.) Tom is suspicious of this boy who already broke his precious daughter's heart once before; Sabine reminds him that it took the two of them a few tries to figure out their feelings for each other too, remember?

He reluctantly admits that she has a point, and Marinette dives at the opportunity.

"Great! Be back later BYYYE" as she grabs Chat and hauls him out the door (he's just like :D because they're holding hands; this is already going so well!)

His enthusiasm quickly shifts the tone away from any residual awkwardness. The kid is absolutely hamming it up (sweeping bows, flowery promises of a night she will never forget! etc.) The more Marinette giggles at his ridiculousness the more over the top he gets.

The first date event that he has planned for them is a rickshaw ride, during which he does spend maybe too much time pointing out places where he and Ladybug have defeated akumatized villains. Marinette is at first torn between annoyance and amusement, but amusement wins out. She feigns ignorance and lets him tell his version of events, only occasionally trolling him with a pointed question when he deviates a little too far from how she remembers things herself. By the time the ride comes to an end, she's endeared by his attempts to impress her despite herself.

Next he leads her on a stroll through the Trocadéro Gardens, fortunately leaving the tales of his superhero exploits behind. They walk a while, flirt a bit, and then music begins to float through the air! Chat Noir has stopped and is looking at her for her reaction; he planned this part too.

"This is your favorite song, isn't it?"

It's her favorite song because it's the song she and Adrien danced to at Chloe's party so long ago, but she tries to put that out of her mind. Adrien isn't here; Adrien isn't the one who planned this whole evening for her; Adrien isn't the one trying to sweep her off her feet right now! No it's this silly, sweet cat boy, and he's... succeeding?

"It is my favorite song," she tells him, smiling. "How did you know that?"

"Oh! I, uh, asked around." (He doesn't tell her, but it's becoming one of his favorite songs as well.) He extends his hand with a flourish. "Shall we?"

"I'm super clumsy," she warns him, pre- embarrassed for herself.

"I have catlike grace for the both of us!" he assures her with a wink. She hesitantly takes his hand and he gives her a little twirl, catching her with a hand on her waist when she starts to wobble at the end. "Relax, just let me lead."

Why not? It's usually the other way around but she'll let him take the lead this time.

So they dance! And it's delightful. She doesn't have to think, doesn't have to plan the next move. All she has to do is trust him and he makes her feel completely weightless.

The music eventually ends, they both thank the musician, and Chat sweeps Marinette off to the final portion of this romantic evening: a Chat Noir specialty, the candle-lit rooftop. It's similar to the scene he set for Ladybug so long ago, but this time he planned it all with Marinette clearly in mind.

There's a blanket and picnic basket, and instead of roses he's gotten his paws on pink cherry blossom cuttings, which he offers to her in a bouquet. The warmth in her heart matches the warmth of her cheeks as she takes the bouquet.

"Thank you... These are my favorite."

"I know."

"You 'asked around'?" Her tone is teasing, but she honestly doesn't expect him to blush too.

"You use them a lot, in your designs."

"I didn't think you'd notice something like that."

He fixes his gaze on her and there's a level of seriousness in his expression that she's not used to seeing when she isn't wearing her Ladybug guise.

"I've been noticing a lot of things about you, Marinette."

Even after everything else, that's the moment when she finally starts to realize she might be in over her head.

----

When Marinette asks out Chat Noir she is sure of NOTHING, except that she must have been temporarily insane to ask, and he must have been as well to agree. She deals with the storm of second-guessing in her usual way, by staying up the entire night before and filling her crazy serial killer board with date notes.

The morning of: "Relax, Tikki. Sure I only got fourteen minutes of sleep but I'm totally prepared for anything now! Ha! I feel soooo much better than I did last night; this is going to be a BREEZE."

The plan: meet Chat Noir at a cafe for mid-morning drinks and snacks. Lowest possible pressure date setting.

She has the conversation topics pre-planned, nothing too serious in case he falls for her too fast (what a disaster THAT would be!) They have to keep everything super casual until she can figure out if this thing is viable or not. Gotta somehow prevent him from investing his entire heart just in case she screws up down the line and ends up breaking it again...

At the same time that she is guarding against him falling in love too fast, she's also preparing for him to lose interest in her immediately because pft, Marinette? When he's been in love with LADYBUG this whole time? What a downgrade. (Marinette, girl, why are you so insecure.)

"If we meet at this time and this place then it'll be easy for him to leave, you know, in case he gets bored or something." Tikki points out that Chat Noir has spent time with Marinette before and never gotten bored, but Marinette waves her off. "We spent all that time together as friends; a date is completely different."

Marinette shows up at the cafe looking like a sleep-deprived zombie but with an unreasonably inflated sense of confidence. Needless to say, it all goes sideways immediately. She has prepped herself for nine hundred scenarios but none of those scenarios involved the stuff that actually happens, like her tripping over her own feet and pouring hot tea directly over Chat's head, or Tikki getting hit with another food craving, or Chat popping out of his seat way too many times to run off and use the bathroom (Adrien was also a little nervous about this and wrote some last minute date notes of his own on his hand, but he has to keep transforming back and forth to read them. He does not understand why everything is going so badly! Plagg antagonizes him at every possible opportunity. At one point Adrien is in the bathroom stall yelling, "FINE, how do YOU think I should fix it, then?" To which Plagg replies "I dunno, kwamis don't have anything to do with this mushy love stuff." A murder very nearly occurs.)

After forty minutes they have spent maybe ten of them sitting across from each other and talking, and even that part was a nightmare because Marinette was too exhausted to keep her pre-planned conversation topics straight. She manages to corral Tikki without him noticing somehow and flees the scene, offering one of the terrible made-up excuses that she had painfully imagined Chat would be using on her.

She has a good cry into her pillow and then mercifully falls asleep. Wakes up hours later, it's dark outside, she's still miserable but also resigned. That's that, then. Perhaps she'll just yell at the sky briefly and then move on with her life--GAH WHY IS CHAT NOIR ON HER BALCONY.

He stammers through an explanation: he saw her sleeping through the window-- wait no not like he was WATCHING her sleep; that would be weird--and he decided to wait for her to wake up because he needs to talk to her about some things. The horror of their terrible date is still so fresh in her mind, Marinette absolutely dreads whatever this awkward conversation is going to be.

But then one by one he starts addressing her fears, like he found them written in a book somewhere. Not every single one, of course, because he doesn't know anything about the Ladybug side of things, but somehow he has Marinette pretty well figured out.

He hasn't forgotten about Buttercup, acknowledges the difficulty of moving on from first love, promises that he understands (and she knows he's not lying.) He tells her he knows how much it means to her for the important things to be perfect, and today didn't go, uh, perfectly... But that wasn't her fault! Normally his reflexes are so much better; any other day and he would've been able to prevent that tea incident, for one thing. And of course, they've been friends up to this point and risking that is scary; there are a lot of unknown factors, but--

"I really care about you, Marinette. So... can we try again?"

His sincerity makes her heart open up like a flower and she realizes, oh right, this is why I asked him out.

The second date goes significantly better.

----

The third option that you never asked for,  but is perhaps my personal favorite, is AMBIGUOUS DATE where neither of them asked the other out because neither of them realize it's a date until the evening is nearly over.

Jagged Stone is performing another concert. Gabriel decides that Adrien is not allowed to go at the last minute because Gabriel is a piece of trash. Adrien sneaks out anyway as Chat Noir because it's a good night for some REBELLION.

The ticket taker is not rock 'n' roll at all and refuses to let him in, because saving Paris five hundred(ish) times apparently counts for nothing. Seriously?? Well fine then, he'll just sneak in if he has to--

But he doesn't have to, because Marinette shows up behind him and offers him an extra ticket that she has for some reason. She's trying to smile but she seems down about something, which is a shame, because he can see that all her friends are here too ((all of them, do you really think so, Chat?)) and this should be a fun night! He instinctively begins trying to cheer her up, enthusing about how cool the concert will be. What's her favorite song on Jagged's new album? ~Purr-sonally~ he's a fan of track number 4, etc.

She's laughing by the time the concert begins, and they both have a totally rockin' good time. When it's over they split from the rest of the friend group for reasons that aren't entirely clear and he tells her he'll walk her home. They're both still super hyped and belting out their favorite songs together like obnoxious teenagers. They end up being scolded by a crabby adult, and then break down laughing as soon as the guy leaves.

"Some people just don't know how to have a good time," Chat declares, shaking his head pityingly.

"Yeah! Like that ticket guy earlier. He seriously wasn't going to let you in? I mean, you've saved Paris like FIVE HUNDRED TIMES, that should count for something."

They laugh it off and continue their walk, both failing to point out that they are taking an unnecessarily long route to the bakery. Their conversation is animated, all over the place, and effortless. While they are crossing the Seine, Marinette stops to lean against the railing, looks out over the water, and sighs happily.

"I almost didn't go tonight..." The breeze lifts her hair away from her face and Chat finds himself staring, totally unprepared for her to turn suddenly and meet his eyes. Which is exactly what she does. "But I'm really glad I changed my mind."

The city light falls on her face just so, and also she can't help but notice how tall and handsome he is, and they've had such a good time together tonight. He smiles, she smiles, BUTTERFLIES (the good kind) and then they share a chaste kiss that feels perfect in the moment but very confusing two seconds later because neither one of them is sure if they were the kisser or the kissee just now. Uh.

Marinette immediately goes full Marinette and starts babbling. "HAHA OKAY THEN, WHAT A NIGHT!! SO LATE I SHOULD HOME BE GETTING, GOODBYE SEE YOU TOMORROW!" Tries to run off but he catches her hand.

"Wait! See you... tomorrow?" the boy asks, wild with hope.

"Um..." What is happening?? Her face feels hot and her tongue answers for her. "Why not? If... if you want to."

She rushes home and spends the next six hours tossing and turning and analyzing her feelings; he goes home and spends the next six hours climbing the walls in absolute EUPHORIA.

[itttsstarry]

Okay, I’m tired of scrolling up multiple times a day for Anthony larusso content, so:

Drop your Anthony hc, discuss, drop multiple - no wrong answers, angst, fluff, crack literally if there isn’t Anthony content we will MAKE it okay, let’s do this.

I’ll start:

He skateboards, he just doesn’t take it with him anywhere, but he’s pretty good at it

He has STEM major mind, meaning that he thinks of things technically, so when Danny asked him to wax in circles he was like wtf do you wanna buff out the color? Why are you painting before sanding? Why are you sanding planks in circles without power washing?

He doodles, mainly designs and rigs. Like either for characters in DnD or for cosplay weapons he wants to make

He makes cosplay weapons but doesn’t cosplay - he’s too shy and worries someone he knows will find out

He’s really smart, just never applies himself or gets too distracted with his own projects

He knows ALL the cheat codes and strats, like whatever game he’s playing he’ll get obsessed with it and play it in every possible way

He’s an AWESOME DM, he just is again really shy abt it and doesn’t want to get made fun of

He’s not super competitive, even when gaming, he likes to do rpg and all the sub missions and mainly grinds or just tries to get all the achievements. Yes he’s good when playing competitively, but that’s bc he’s probably grinded for like 100+ hours

He plays Stardew Valley, he has like 500+ hours on that shit

When he’s deep diving into a project (making cosplay weapons or drawing) he forgets to eat or sleep, he’s figured out a method to do that while gaming but as he got older he wanted to make more things and forgets to do basic human life needs— nobody stops him cuz his parents are dealing w karate war so is his sister [ps, that’s how his eating disorder could start *sideyes*]

He’s a Minecraft kid but just barley, he managed to dodge the Roblox phase but he still goes on there to generally be a troll

Nonbinary/Bisexual, he’s pretty sure, he’s still figuring it out but that feels right for now. Doesn’t generally advertise it but doesn’t hide it either

He likes hoodies, like anything with a hood, preferably oversized

Be internalizes, like a shit ton. When he feels bad, no one will beat him up as much as he beats up himself.

Overall chill, like he will usually let things roll off his back unless he’s frustrated or something messes up something he’s planned

He’s not surprised when people don’t like him, in fact he thinks that everyone doesn’t, like he is used to never being the first choice, and he used to not understand why so he subconsciously retreated and now it makes sense that he is no one’s first choice bc he never puts himself out there. His “friends” use him and let him take the fall cuz even they know that his parents won’t give a shit enough abt him to look into it.

He is surprised when people agree with him or get along with him. He’s surprised when they genuinely want to help him.

He’s also surprised when people want to talk abt his interests, I feel like his parents shut him down when he got too excited abt something or just stopped listening to him so now he cuts himself off and apologizes. No one usually cares enough to let him continue. He expects that but it’s still makes him a bit sad

[alittlebirb]

Some choice snapshots from the MCC 21 Orange Ocelots:

-The Demon Slayer skins!! They look so cute!

-Philza cracking up over Elaina and Shubble debating whether to use Sand Daddy or Sand Father

"Everyone has their own, I went by Sand Queen." -Shubble

-Philza making a keybind in order to maximize dog pets

"I've automated the love." -Phil

-The team having to leave Shubble behind as they run towards the light show because she can't let Wilbur beat her at dog petting!

"Even at this, Illumina's faster than me!" -Elaina

-Philza and Elaina screaming for the lasers to beam into their eyes

"SHOOT THE BEAMS INTO MY EYES, I WANT TO FEEL THE HYPE! BLIND ME!" -Phil

-Everyone cooing over how cute the decision dome bunnies are

-"The rabbits are a little unpredictable. A little wild." -Shubble

-The bunnies Definitely Did Not Die

"I heard the dying sound." -Shubble

"They were just so excited they screamed 'Yay!'" -Phil

"I don't know, the subtitle <Rabbit Dies> says differently." -Shubble

-Philza and Illu warning of the dangers of Grian on this SG map

"Even if you see him alone, take a full team against him." -Illumina

"If he has an axe, he's taken out two teams with them." -Phil

-The nervous energy spiking when the SG countdown just. stops.

-Elaina being so ready to fight other teams

"YEAH! LET'S TAKE THEM!"

-Elaina getting so hyped by the music and everyone agreeing it does indeed Vibe

-Philza and Illumina counting their kills, and Shubble replying "I hit one man." (as she should)

-"Cue oxygen intake." -Phil

*rapid huffing and puffing from everyone*

-Illumina having an internal crisis during the hub minigame

"Are we just bad dog finders? :("

-The decision dome transporting them literal seconds before Philza is able to pet the last dog

*Cue agonized groans*

-Phil getting stuck in a wall in HITW, escaping, and then diving off the corner of the platform anyway

-Phil then beefing with Noxite in the chat

-"Today's the good day! Good vibes! Good vibes!" -Elaina

-Elaina joking about Phil's bad knees, then getting stuck in the wall, and Phil immediately roasting her back

-Illumina finishing first in the second round (cracked) and feeling redeemed for the first round

"That makes up for it!"

-Phil conspiracy theorizing that the entire MCC is a set up for the Nox Crew to troll them

-Philza quietly talking to Cookie while petting her

"You got enough food, mate? Yeah? You eating well, mate?"

-Shubble talking about 5up in the decision dome like he's a troublesome pest

"5up's in there, get him out!"

-Elaina enthusing over the GR windows where you can see your friends

-"Oh, we know about aggressive waving." -Shubble

"Shelby and I spent 20 minutes yesterday just high five smacking each other and shifting." -Elaina

-Phil having found them 10 minutes in, Shubble making a prediction for which one would win, and Elaina winning while Shubble was "talking weak shit"

-Everyone baffled at Tommy's new political bit

"He's 18 now, this is his new bit. Finally he can vote, and this is just what he wants to do." -Shubble

-Shubble disagreeing that the chickens "aren't monsters, they're innocent gentlemen!"

"They're monsters. Kill them." -Phil

-Everyone encouraging each other to keep booping in Saw Mill

-Shubble saying "That's okay, it's only the first game!", "That's okay, it's only the second game!", "That's okay, it's only the third game!", and getting progressively more sarcastic as the tournament continues

-Sam racing Phil to get the last flowers, after he'd just gotten a bunch, and getting them just before Phil got there

-"You're such a good boy." -Phil through gritted teeth, petting the dog out of spite

-"Me and this game, we don't shake hands. It smacks me across the face. Rocket Spleef looks at me and goes, You are not worthy, and I get saaad." -Elaina

-Elaina saying Phil's brain is so massive, then rushing to reassure him she doesn't mean he has a large head-

-Phil going into Focused Mode during RSR

-Elaina and Shubble vibing together and humming the RSR soundtrack

-Ponk being a Menace to Elaina in RSR and Elaina calling them a "SON OF A MILK BAG"

-"I'm everything except the problem. I'm the solution!" -Elaina

-Illu winning a RSR round and saying, "Oh my god, streamer! (^ ^)"

-Elaina and Shubble cheering on Jojo and being so proud of her

-Phil calling SOT "pay to win, now"

-Phil Will Never Stop Talking about That One Time Techno Broke Build Mart

-Elaina looking through the decision dome items and finding the cute descriptions, and then finding one item which just says, Sometimes wilful ignorance can be the savior of your sanity.

"I need to know now."

-Shubble testing which swears she can type in chat

"I swore?? 😰 In MCC??? 😱" -Illumina

-"I just wanted to see if I could be a perfect angel this MCC, but I didn't. I already said fuck." -Shubble

-Everyone agreeing that if they don't win this MCC, they just go for the most swears as a consolation prize

-"This is my Sky Battle arc." -Illumina

(It wasn't.)

-Phil saying he just tapped out 'Fuck your mother' in morse code, Elaina believing him, and the betrayal two seconds later

"Phil would never lie to me!"

-"There's two types of people in this world: Illumina and me." -Elaina

-Shubble yelling gleefully in SB that SHE KILLED TWO MEN! TWO MEN! SHE KILLED TWO MEN!

-Purple are Orange's mortal enemies this MCC

-"Hmm, people wonder why I hate Sky Battle, what is it? Could it be that it's a TRASH *desk slam* GAME *desk slam* AND IT SUCKS! *desk slam* IT'S A BAD GAMEMODE! *desk slam*" -Illumina

-Elaina going into a Highly Specific analogy about rocks sinking as a kid, and Shubble chiming in that she used to take rocks in the middle of the street as a child and smash them open with a hammer!

-Illumina having practiced sneaking and Elaina calling him a sneaky little guy

-Phil warning to watch out for Tommy and Dream, and Shubble replying "I've killed them before!"

-Elaina employing psychological warfare against Blue and Jack Manifold in particular

-"Grian's scary, dude!" -Elaina

-The streamers debating which person should do the word puzzle in SOT based off how smart their chats are, and Shubble having zero faith in hers

-Illumina trying to bank before the game even starts

-Elaina being the Sand Father, stating they can call her Dad, but only Shubble gets special permission to call her Daddy

"If Shelby yells Daddy at me, I know what's going on." -Elaina

-Shubble just bullying the pillagers

"You're a nerd, AND you're weird."

-Elaina being the BEST Sand Father

-Phil and Elaina getting called 'Dad Squared'

-"I don't need dogs, I have a cat that bites me!" -Elaina

-Phil, Elaina, and Shubble bonding over #JustCatOwnerThings

-All the runners SCREAMING their heads off as Elaina just runs across the PKT floor from 5up for 30 seconds straight, all while Phil listens in silent terror

"That was so terrifying from my point of view because I couldn't see what was happening. I was just floating, listening to screams."

-Eret then coming into Elaina's chat to tell her he could hear the screams from across the house

-Elaina's lil character moving back and forth as she decides she's going to hunt this time!, wait maybe not, actually yes she wants to hunt! (minecraft body language my beloved)

-"THEY'RE SO SLIPPERY! THEY'RE LIKE LITTLE FISH!!" -Elaina her first time hunting

-Everyone shook by Sapnap just murdering right away in DB

-Elaina listing DB words (Dip! Dodge! Run!) and accidentally stumbling into saying 'dick'

-Phil comparing MCC to the Puppy Bowl

-Everyone merging together into one blocky blob during their team picture

-Phil and Shubble getting second and third in pupper petting stats

-"GUMI'S IN LOVE WITH MY WIFE!" -Phil

"I AM TOO, I JUST DIDN'T WANT TO BRING IT UP-" -Elaina

-Phil and Elaina getting prepared to fight in Terra Swoop Force for Kristin

-The team encouraging Illumina to ask for 20 gifted subs for his first MCC swear, which he then uses to say "FUCK SKY BATTLE" with his whole chest and soul

-"I think we need to accept the probability that Seapeakay does not know what a lobster is." -Elaina

(He does, and they apologize for doubting his lobster know how.)

-Phil getting so tilted while trying to get up to the balloon, to the point where he has to put on hype music in order to keep focused and reflexively smacks Ranboo off

-I am not exaggerating he spends 20 minutes straight mentally breaking from this

-Elaina telling them to look at her little chicken feet, and Illumina just replying "...cool feet. 👍"

-ELAINA READING 'IF PHIL DIES, WHO GETS HIS WIFE'??? 😭😭😭 AND SAYING "KRISTIN IF PHIL...YA KNOW...I'M A REALLY GOOD SHOULDER TO CRY ON"

-Phil finally gets there. He is staying there for the rest of the month. He has tasted true glory.

-Elaina threatening to shoot Phil off his perch with the rocket gun if he doesn't give her 69 gifted subs

"ELAINA WHAT IS YOUR HEART MADE OF" -Phil

-"POV, you are witness to Phillumina. You are being perceived." -Phil

-Everyone spends the entirety of the post-MCC period at the rocket spleef practice area getting steadily more unhinged I feel like I'm in a fever dream time isn't real

-"I'm just a cool little guy, and it's my birthday." -Elaina (for luck)

-Elaina finally getting onto the ladder while screaming "KRISTIN!!"

"BY THE POWER OF MY WIFE!" -Phil

-Elaina, Illumina, and Phil at long last getting on the ladder together and taking a screenie! And then...Shubble sending a stray rocket blast that sends them all scattering down like bowling pins. They're free. o7

-Everyone dies internally at that moment and the story ends in a poetic last stand. (Bonus, Scott was watching Shubble's stream for the last 20 minutes and enters the vc just to scream his disbelief.)

[cloveroctobers]

No cause I loved the drama queen reader and fez but how about drama queen reader with fez sort of like taming her lool like him stopping her from acting up and like handling her little tantrums💀

The Real Euphoric Suburbs

A/N: Sorry this sat in my drafts for forever but when you don’t have any energy to write you can’t force it either you know? This is not the usual from me, something light—nothing too serious. See you next time with most likely the last possible works I have left for euphoria.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Producer A: so tell us what’s going on y/n?

You’re seated with your arms crossed, brows slightly raised while biting down on the back of your bottom lip. You let out a sigh.

Y/N: fez. What else?

The scene switches to Fez slouched in a seat of his own, hands lightly clasped together as he looks at the producers underneath his eyelashes.

Fez: what we doin’ here? Y/N put y���all up to this or what? I gotta other shit to do than sit here and talk about whatever it is y’all want me to talk about.

Producer B: we just want to check on the both of your mental states after the events that occurred yesterday. It was a public dispute and we haven’t seen the both of you react that way towards each other. It’s not something we’re used to from you guys.

Fez lifts his shoulders.

Fez: couples fight. Whatchu mean?

Producer B: Yes we’re aware. It’s not the norm for you two is what we’re saying. Can you tell us what was going on that either led up to those events or what was going on in your head at that moment?

Fez: not y’all trying to make this out into something it isn’t.

Producer B: the way you grabbed y/n…

Fez sat up then, a furrow digging in between his brows now.

Fez: the fuck are you implying? We ain’t ever been on any type of abusive shit, ever. Period. Keep that shit on Maddy and Nate’s bitch ass tired segment and not us. I told y/n she needed to chill out at the mall with the spending, she didn’t take that shit lightly and it started an argument. She got in my face, told her to chill multiple times and she didn’t listen so…hell yeah I yanked her ass up.

Producer A: why do you think fez got so upset with you?

You flicked your hair back, resting your elbows on the chair.

Y/N: he keeps telling me to watch my finances— which I earn on my own, so all the twitter trolls that live up my ass about me only spending fez’s money here’s something for you

Two middle fingers are blurred out as you flash them at the camera.

Y/N: I know he’s telling me this to look out for me and everything since all that we do is under a microscope from not only you guys but the feds. No we’re not diving deeper on that, mind your business. I know that. What I do matters too since I’m affiliated with that man. My man. It just irked me in that moment that he wants to be on my ass about my money because of some shit he and ash are in.

Producer A: how is ash doing?

Y/N: he’s still a smart mouthed little shit. He’s tall now. But that’s our little shit. I write him letters since fez and him talk most of the time on the phone. I don’t want to interrupt that. We’re hoping that he’s out by seventeen or earlier if he’s on his best behavior…but it’s ash we’re talking about here.

Producer A: are you okay? Are you and fez doing okay after that? Was there a conversation?

You fanned your hands, crossing one leg over the other.

Y/N: that’s not our first ever scuffle. Just in public maybe. It’s just something fez does when he’s done listening to me throw my tantrums. So he’s throwing my ass next. Over his shoulder I go, silent treatment until we’re both ready to talk it out I usually fold first because if you’re my man why aren’t you communicating with me, or bomb make up sex. Right now? It’s still silent treatment but that’s my man and I’m not going anywhere. And he’s not either.

You beam at the camera.

Y/N: and you can run and tell him that too. And I’m also pregnant…boom…it’s a fur baby getting shipped over here from New Jersey.

Producer A: was that discussed?

Y/N: I have my own apartment. If he doesn’t want our child then I’ll go right back over there. I’ve been showing him for months what would be a perfect fit for us but my birthday came and went… and no fur baby. He and Nan will be just fine in that house without us if that’s the case.

Producer A: was this out of spite because of yesterday? Does fez even like dogs?

Y/N: no. This was always in the works whether he likes it or not. Fez isn’t really a pet person but he loves me so.

Producer A: so if he loves you then can you see why he would urge you to slow down on spending if there’s a lot of heat on him?

Y/N: I already came to terms with all of this this morning with my iced coffee date with rue and then she just had to bring the church mouse along who also seems too interested on my relationship with fez so…I had to leave.

Producer B: fez, are you aware y/n is pregnant…with your fur baby?

Fez cranes his neck outwards at the news and goes to pinch at his nose. It took him a few seconds to gather what this all means but he was sure his heart rate spiked at the mention of a real ass baby.

Fez: she did what, bro?

The producer hums, stepping forward to show the red headed man the picture of the cockapoo.

Producer B: yup, it’s a puppy coming your way in six days or so. How do you feel about them going behind your back to get what she wants?

Fez: i realized that’s what I signed up for when I wanted y/n to be my girl. That’s just the way it is. It’s frustrating as shit and I have to get on that ass sometimes but this is all petty stuff that don’t even matter much…I’m not cleaning it’s shit tho I’ll tell you that right now.

Y/N: you’re the daddy. Do your part!

You scream from behind the cameras as Fez shakes his head at you.

Fez: I didn’t ask for this. I’m already taking care of nan. I don’t need to deal with some animal too, ma.

You stepped into view gripping fez’s shoulders as you climbed up into his lap.

Y/n: just wait until you see it’s little face and hold them in your arms. I’m sure that’ll change.

Fez huffed.

Fez: that’s cap.

Nonetheless he wrapped his arms around your stomach.

Y/n kept her arms locked around his neck but continued sitting sideways and suddenly winked at the camera.

Y/N: see he already thinking about it y’all. Peep the hand placement!

The camera zooms in on fez’s hands resting softly against your torso while everyone can hear fez laugh.

Fez: you a whole trip. This doesn’t have anything to do with me agreeing with you up and deciding to buy a dog.

Y/n: correction, our fur child.

Fez: whatever. You still on punishment anyways and now I’m thinkin’ about extending it since you did this.

Y/N: wooow, really? I know jack Harlow would never treat me like this.

Fez gave you the side eye while you clasped your hands together, smirking.

Fez: i think I gave her whatchumacallit…whiplash yesterday because she’s really trying me right now—

Yawning you stretched your arms backwards cutting fez off before he starting tossing out more threats. It was entertaining for you to get underneath the Ginger’s skin and he knew it. The further you kept leaning the creak of the wooden chair got louder before the chair collapsed sending the both of you on the ground.

Fez held onto you tighter the seconds he realized what was happening but the moment the both of you fell to the floor, you let out a gasp before some laughter bubbled in your throat.

Fez: this is what we’re dealing with. I tried to warn you guys.

Shushing him you reached up to scratch fez’s beard for lifting your chin upward to connect your lips.

Y/N: kiss me jack.

He easily side swiped you in that moment before shoving you completely off his body and to the side. Laughing you rolled back over but Fez hopped up onto his feet while you attempted to latch onto his ankles.

Fez: we done here? I think she gave me a splinter on the back of my dome from that chair, can somebody check me?

He began removing the wires and the rest of the producers went to assist the both of you.

Y/N: yeah I hope this is the ending of filming for today since this wig? Needs to go. It’s too itchy.

Patting at your head you glance over at fez who’s already watching you while a medical examiner is checking his head. And people think you were dramatic? Tuh.

You had his attention and began swaying your hips before reaching out to him, getting into routine as you began to sing like you commonly did when fez did you wrong.

Y/N: Can't you see there's no other man above you? What a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you, Hold up, they don't love you like I love you

All fez could do was let out a long sigh in response before mumbling at the medical examiner behind him.

Fez: yo, think you can hook me up with something after man? I got another pain in my ass that I’m riding home with.

[hchollym]

I love your Harry Potter metas! Could you please analyze Marcus Flint's character from the books? I know it's not alot but I'm curious!

Aww, thank you so much! This took me forever to answer, so I'm sorry for that! 🤦‍♀️

You're right that there's not a whole lot about Marcus in the books to go on, but there's enough to get a basic understanding of him as a person/character.

Marcus Flint

The Basics:

Marcus was a tall and burly Slytherin, who was a Chaser and the Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, and he frequently cheated during the game. He also had to repeat his 7th year at Hogwarts because he failed his exams (though JKR apparently changed her mind and amended his age in later editions of Book 1, but that's boring, so I'm going with the original comment). He was likely a pure-blood since the Flint family was part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. It is possible that his family intermarried by then (so he could have been a half-blood), but I highly doubt it. Most of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families were still pure-bloods by the start of the books, and since Marcus was in Slytherin, it's even more likely that his family remained "untainted" because the stigma of being with a Muggle/Muggle-born was a powerful deterrent.

Book Evidence:

Marcus was large and imposing. Harry claimed that Marcus "looked as if he had some troll blood in him." We don't know exactly what he meant by that (or if he was just being rude, which is possible), but we can assume that it at least alluded to the fact that Marcus was a big guy. He was described as being "even larger than Wood" who was said to be "tall and burly" & in Book 3, it stated:

"And here come the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint. He's Made some changes in the lineup and seems to be going for size rather than skill --" More boos from the Slytherin crowd. Harry, however, thought Lee had a point. Malfoy was easily the smallest person On the Slytherin team; the rest of them were enormous.

Marcus was a good Quidditch player. It's doubtful that he would have been named Captain if he wasn't, but we also have evidence of this:

"the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes — Flint flying like an eagle up there"

&

"Flint in possession, Flint flying toward the Gryffindor goal posts, come on now, Wood, save --!" But Flint had scored; there was an eruption of cheers from the Slytherin end, and Lee swore so badly that Professor McGonagall tried to tug the magical megaphone away from him.

Marcus was very aggressive.

WHAM! A roar of rage echoed from the Gryffindors below — Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry’s broom spun off course, Harry holding on for dear life.

&

"Captains, shake hands!" said Madam Hooch. Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers.

&

Angelina was nearly thrown from her broom as Marcus Flint went smashing into her.

He was a decent leader. As Captain of the Quidditch team, he led the Slytherins to victory in several games, and he also showed an understanding that his teammates were his responsibility:

Harry knew at once that Malfoy had said something really bad because there was an instant uproar at his words. Flint had to dive in front of Malfoy to stop Fred and George jumping on him, Alicia shrieked, “How dare you!” and Ron plunged his hand into his robes, pulled out his wand, yelling, “You’ll pay for that one, Malfoy!” and pointed it furiously under Flint’s arm at Malfoys face.

I highly doubt that Marcus actually liked or cared about Draco, but he protected him because that was his duty as the Captain.

He had many typical Slytherin traits, including...

Questionable Morals - He accepted a bribe for Draco to be on the Quidditch team, dressed up like a dementor (with Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle) to throw Harry off during a Quidditch game, and pretended that one of his teammates was not able to play when it was storming (so that the weather wouldn't hurt their chances of winning).

Ambition and Determination - He was willing to do whatever it took to win Quidditch matches (see above), continued playing even when no one else was paying attention, and didn't stop even when he was injured.

Marcus Flint seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing.

&

A moment later, Fred Weasley chucked his Beater's club at the back of Flint's head. Flint's nose smashed into the handle of his broom and began to bleed.

&

“Slytherin in possession — Flint with the Quaffle — passes Spinnet — passes Bell — hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose-"

&

Harry turned the Firebolt sharply to watch Flint, still bleeding freely, fly forward to take the Slytherin penalty.

Arrogance and Smugness -

“Funny you should mention Draco’s father,” said Flint as the whole Slytherin team smiled still more broadly. “Let me show you the generous gift he’s made to the Slytherin team.” All seven of them held out their broomsticks. Seven highly polished, brand-new handles and seven sets of fine gold lettering spelling the words Nimbus Two Thousand and One gleamed under the Gryffindors’ noses in the early morning sun. “Very latest model. Only came out last month,” said Flint carelessly, flicking a speck of dust from the end of his own. “I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps” — he smiled nastily at Fred and George, who were both clutching Cleansweep Fives —“ sweeps the board with them.”

A Mean/Cruel Sense of Humor -

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he gave an almighty belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth onto his lap. The Slytherin team were paralyzed with laughter. Flint was doubled up, hanging onto his new broomstick for support.

Other Unknowns/Possibilities...

He may have been clever - Harry described him as having a "look of trollish cunning on his face" when he stole the Quidditch field from Gryffindor for practice with a note from Snape saying that they needed to train their new Seeker. However, there's no indication that this was Marcus' idea, and given how bad the plan to dress up as dementors was (which Marcus went along with), I'm not sure I would consider him very clever. However, he did have at least some social intelligence, because he knew that he could only get away with some things under certain circumstances. For example, in Book 1, he smashed into Harry and didn't even attempt to seem remorseful, whereas in Book 3, he smashed into Angelina and said ""Sorry!" said Flint as the crowd below booed. "Sorry, didn't see her!"" He knew that smashing into a female player required a level of (at least pretend) regret that smashing into a male player did not.

He may have been sexist - It says in Book 2 that "There were no girls on the Slytherin team, who stood shoulder to shoulder," but this may have been because Slytherin families were misogynistic in general and didn't consider Quidditch an appropriate hobby for their daughters. In that case, Marcus didn't have much of a choice for the team, but he still could have been sexist due to being raised in that type of environment.

He may have believed in pure-blood supremacy - We really don't know Marcus' thoughts on blood purity. We do know that he was in Slytherin, and he certainly didn't speak out against Draco when he called Hermione a Mudblood, so it's likely that he had some prejudices. However, he never made any direct comments about blood status, and the Flints were one of the only Slytherin families not mentioned to be loyal to Voldemort during the war, so it's possible that they were more indifferent than most (i.e. they looked down on Muggles and Muggle-borns, but they weren't extreme enough to want to fight a war over it).

He may not have been from a very powerful family - Continuing with the thought above, it is interesting how the Flints are not mentioned as working with Voldemort or being traitors to his cause. Given that they were part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, one would think that their allegiance would be important, but since it's never mentioned, it is possible that the Flints were one of the less powerful, less rich pure-blood families, and therefore, their loyalty wasn't really a big deal to either side.

My Inferences:

Marcus is an Aries (so he was born between March 21st and April 19th). Aries is a fire sign, and Flint is a stone used for lighting fires. Aries' archetype is The Warrior and it is ruled by Mars, and Marcus' name is derived from Mars, the Roman god of war. Aries tend to be passionate and bold, which we see from Marcus with Quidditch. Aries know what they want and aren't afraid to take it, which we see from Marcus in the way he disregards the rules and cheats. Aries can also be impatient, demanding, and stubborn, and they can have a bad temper (i.e. Marcus' aggression), especially when faced with incompetence (like when Draco lost the Quidditch match for Slytherin, and Marcus was seen “...yelling at Malfoy. Something about having the Snitch on top of his head and not noticing.”).

Marcus is the youngest child/baby of the family. He has a lot of qualities that youngest children have, such as being manipulative (dressing up like a dementor & stealing the Quidditch field from Gryffindor), outgoing (he certainly isn't shy), attention-seeking (goading Gryffindor & bragging about their new brooms), self-centered, and uncomplicated (he's not an overly complex character). He could be an only child, but he lacks some of their traits, such as being antisocial and sensitive. I have the headcanon that Marcus has two older brothers, but that's not based on any canon evidence.

Marcus has a learning disability. The fact that Marcus failed his exams and had to repeat his 7th (and final) year indicates that there was probably more going on than just laziness. I personally like this idea, because we don't see any learning disabilities in Hogwarts, which is quite unrealistic.

This was fun, so thanks for the ask! 😊

[marvus-xoloto]

I was looking at the background art for volume 11 again bc like. The room is the eyes to the soul and all that. Haha definitely not back on my hyperfixed game.

Anyway, I'm overanalyzing mallek's background art benath the cut.

GOD I always forget how much of a slob he is. Mallek self shippers are so strong. From left to right:

The SEVERAL husk towers, now being either discarded or repurposed. So Mallek does buy / reroute new tech pretty frequently. Note how his couch is falling apart: he does not care for the finer things regarding comfort, only his hobby.

WAIT LMAO NOTE WHAT APPEARS TO BE TISSUES ON THE COUCH?? AND SOCKS ALL OVER??? Either the man is crying in this room or.... 😳😳😳

On that note why are there socks on his floating shelves. Mallek doesn't do laundry confirmed: the hoodie he gives you must be musky as hell.

Not only does he hoverboard, he LONGBOARDS. Very cool B)

Swim trunks on the floor implies Mallek knows how to swim, and he likely swims in the sewer thing beneath his hive.

His workspace and shelves are actually reasonably tidy?? Wait a second....

Amogus......

Some sort of grubs on the floor in the pile of trash by his coon- likely game grubs or food, I'm guessing, since they're white. OR?? Mallek terrible father confirmed?? /j

I'm sorry but I would not get in that musty ass crusty slime coon. So much bacteria that the coon itself is growing legs so it can clean itself.

His limo! It's important to note that this limo background gets reused in Marvus's route, but Mallek's came first.

Note the camera above the TV and gamer controller (which is so hilarious: a joystick and one button. It's 100% a minecraft controller then). Could this imply that Mallek is a streamer?? He's always come across as rather private to me (side note: steaming in his coparatively tidy limo really hits my funny bone). Comprimise: Mallek is a streamer with one of those AI sprites instead of his face, ykwim?? Idk what they're called.

Mallek either canonically drinks alcohol, or the drinks just come with the limo.

He's drinking that same juice that Xefros does. For the life of me, I can't remember what it is/does, but iirc isn't it supposed to be good for psychic ability? Mallek is implied not to be psychic, however. Maybe it's just troll monster. Idr....

LMFAO i noted this when I deep dived into Marvus's limo, but I love the chair by the mini fridge having TWO seatbelts and what appears to be a booster seat?? Manlet Marvus move over, it's Manlet Malleks turn lmao.

SHAG RUG!!! So disgusting, you know that thing has dirt and crumbs in it.

More slobbery -_-'

So desperate for clean silverware that he pulled the whole drawer out. My man you are RICH just hire a cleaning service. Please.

He does not have a kitchen table. It's kind of implied he either sits in one of those (rocking??? lmfao) chairs or eats while sitting on the floor (on the random yellow mat).

I noted this detail a few years ago, but it's my favorite: Mallek keeps houseplants (possibly implied to be recently watered?).

Mallek keeps fruit in his hive, but it looks like he doesn't actually eat it. I wonder if it's wax fruit.

I'm sorry but looking at this image, I can not imagine Mallek actually cooks. He eats cereal and gets delivery and he's gotten grub sauce EVERYWHERE. There is no stove in his kitchen. Hell, no microwave either.

WHOSE LUSUSES ARE THOSE?? Kinda cute ngl. Does this imply ceruleans can also have semi aquaric and/or water loving lususes?

Speaking of parallels: so it's not just purplebloods who litter.

Other bluebloods come down here, I wonder if they're friends with mallek?? Also note the cerulean sign being tagged in indigo. Inchresting...

The graffiti reads "suck my nook" and the yellow caution sign reads "do not block." In case you were curious.

I like the idea that mallek comes down here when he can't sleep: you can see that light gets filtered, so I wonder if he could be safe from the sun down here? Irradation nonwithstanding...

That's all! I am insane, so I enjoy deep diving into stuff like this.

[megan0013]

42? Braiding the others hair, for the writing prompt, Stricklake. Please? (I can't stop thinking about if Barbara braided Strickler's hair in troll form, it's definitely long enough).

42. braiding the other’s hair

There’s a squirming infant in both of Walter’s arms and another in the bassinette being rocked by his clawed foot when Barbara, rumpled with soap suds drying in her hair, rounds the corner into the living room after having put little Eunice down for the night. The sight isn’t a new one - oh no, not by a long shot - but seeing her partner caring so carefully for their charges never fails to bring a smile to the doctor’s face, and she takes what is a very rare quiet moment to listen to him as he hums a soft, comforting tune to the babies.

Only to have him stop a second later when an errant lock of hair flops down into his eyes. 

Barbara giggles at his attempts to blow it back in place, but finally takes mercy on the changeling when a frustrated whine escapes through his lips. “You look like you could use a little help,” she says, pushing off the edge of the archway to cross over to him.

“Mmm, yes. Please.” Walter sighs as her nimble fingers dive into his long hair and begin separating it into sections. “You have no idea how many times it’s done that. I think it might be time for a cut.”

“No,” Barbara shakes her head, “I don’t think so. It looks good like this. Roguish.”

He chuckles and lets his eyes fall shut as she begins expertly braiding his hair. “Roguish, huh? And that has nothing to do with the horns sticking out of the top of my head?”

“I guess there’s that, too.” Her fingertips crimp the bottom of the plait, keeping it in place until she can secure it with the hair tie she retrieves from her wrist. “But, seriously. I like it this way.”

“Maybe just a trim then,” Walter concedes as Barbara loops the tie around the braid and then signals she’s done with a gentle tug. He leans his head back automatically, smiling as her palms slip upward to cradle his cool cheeks. “Thank you, my dear.”

“You’re very welcome,” she says and presses a gentle, affectionate kiss to his forehead before turning her attention to a set of curious blue eyes staring up at her from Walter’s lap. “Now, whose turn is it for a bath?”

[nancydrewwouldnever]

Chris definitely burned some bridges with some of his hardcore fans...I highly doubt people actualy would care he dated someone as long as it was REAL and not some stupid roleplay to act out for his midlife crisis and having a girl who is clearly using him while trying to make the fans look insane for pointing out someone who from the get go was trolling along with her friends and now that people have done deep dives on her know who she truly is (or about 80% of who she is and its not good) theyre not going to be ok with this false narrative or a year long relationship while being called "creepy" "insane" "stalkerish" all while funding YOUR THEIR LIVES! No sir not my coins! Mister humility needs to learn that himself theres people literally living paycheck to paycheck and he is ok letting people shit on his fans for calling out his mistakes and this womans??? Like not on my dime and if he thinks were so insane he can figure out how insanely attract more money because from the looks of it his next few projects are riddled with stupid storylines bad acting and cheesy over the top effects. Lifetime or Hallmark may be his next stop and he will be right where he belongs if he doesnt get it the heck together.

Preach it.

Seriously, though, TGM will probably be the last time I ever see a movie Chris is in at a theater. That's both sad and makes me wish it had been a better movie.

[spunkpunx]

I Don’t Share - Kai Anderson

Plot: Reader is the only person who Kai Anderson ever really listened to.

Word count: 1899

Warnings: SMUT, Manipulative reader, Smoking, Blood, Aggressive Sex, Mocking, It’s AHS Cult so it’s gonna be dark, Misogyny

I walked down the steps, into the basement. The place he dwelled. The dark web was a strange place, full of internet trolls, but something about Kai Anderson was different. Something in his words garnered attention, and now, it was time to find out.

“Hello?” I called out confidently. At this point in my life, nothing scared me, not even death, but my survival was important. After all, what could I achieve from beyond the grave? To be without fear is to be dangerous.

“Who are you?” a voice called out from the sofa. The man sat there was not the man I expected to see, and I was pleasantly surprised.

“Kai Anderson?” I queried, and he nodded. I had expected someone much less attractive, but Kai’s dark eyes, handsome face and fit body were all things that played into my hands. His eyes bore into me as I walked into the room and sat opposite him. he wore sweatpants, and his shoulder length hair was dyed blue.

“Answer my question, bitch,” he snapped at me, but I just looked at him disapprovingly, taking a cigarette from my pocket and lighting it. He glared at my lack of response, but I made sure to take my time before I replied.

“When a dog bites it’s master, they take it into the yard and put a bullet in its head,” I calmly spoke, resisting a smile at the taken aback expression on his face. The surprise soon turned into rage, and he stood up and grabbed me by the collar of my t-shirt, making me jump.

“I don’t even know you! No bitch will be the master of me!” Kai yelled, and I met his eyes with a level gaze. I gave him a look, a look of indifference, and he released me from his grasp. He stood above me.

“Sit down Kai, I’m not speaking to you until you sit.”

“Fuck off.”

I met his eye with a steely glare, and reluctantly, he took a seat the other side of the coffee table.

“Now, I’m (y/n) (l/n), and I came to see you because I need you,” I began to explain. Kai raised an eyebrow. “There’s something about you Kai, that shocks people, that commands attention, but you’re wasting it away sat sweating in this shitty basement.”

He leant foreword in his seat, starting to listen more attentively. It was almost too easy.

“Now I have a proposal, because I need you to realise your potential,” I continued, and he was captivated.

•

The cult had been running for just over a month. Of course, no one had identified it as what it was yet, but it was coming together as intended. When I first met Kai, I wanted to rile him up and let him lose to wreak havoc on the world, to scare people into action, but after speaking to him, I realised an intelligence more than I had initially thought. It was a waste not to push him forward into something on a national level. Of course, he had been harder to break than I first thought, but eventually I had had him wrapped around my finger using the only weapon women had against men, the weapon that sat between my legs.

Within the ring I took the position of Kai’s right hand and lover, his assistant, and it was widely assumed that I was abused and too love struck by our “Divine Ruler” to realise. As much as they admired him, they feared him. In reality, I was in control. Everything Kai had become was because of me.

I knew I had control at the first “pinky ritual”. As soon as our fingers made contact he dived into the first questions, but by that point I’d already won. He was angry, emotional, irrational. I’d got under his skin. It didn’t take long for me to turn the questioning round onto him, and soon he was spilling his guts to me. Everything about his parents, his brother and sister, every fear, hate, love and regret in his life he gave to me. We had sex and with that he’d given me all of his power.

Despite the impression that the rest of the cult held, Kai was ready to lick the shit off of my shoe if I asked. Of course, that didn’t mean I had absolute control. His ideas were his own, I just gave him a push in the right direction. After the killing of Bob Thompson and his gimp, I had pulled Kai’s mask off and kissed him, hard, to show my appreciation. He pulled our bodies closer together and when he brushed his finger across my lip I could taste the blood on it. From that point on, there was no better sight for me than a bloodied Kai Anderson.

•

“I don’t share Kai,” I stated, coldly, as he walked down into the basement. I had been sat on the sofa, waiting for him to return.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me,” I spat. “You’ve been upstairs fucking Mrs. Lavender,” I pointed out, referring to Meadow.

“There’s a reason,” he defended himself simply. “She needed to think I loved her so she’ll be willing to die for me. It’s exactly what you asked.”

“I don’t think you understand,” I replied slowly, opening my legs to reveal no underwear on beneath my skirt, and I noticed Kai’s next words catch in his throat. “You belong to me. To this.” I gestured my womanhood. He knelt in front of me on the floor, tracing his hands along my thighs, temptation in his eyes.

“No, I don’t,” Kai spat. I snapped my thighs shut and he pulled his hands away sharply. “I am the Divine Ruler,” he announced, standing to lean over me, taking my throat in his hand and squeezing slightly. I looked him back in his dark eyes coolly, daring him to do what he was threatening to do. Kai didn’t have the strength in him to kill me.

“I made you what you are.” I felt his grip tighten. “You’re nothing without me,” I croaked, my voice hoarse as he cut off my breath. His grip tightened more, and for a moment I almost considered he might go through with it. I saw a tear run down his face and then he let go. He dropped his head, tears running down his face, and I opened my arms to him. He dropped down to the sofa, next to me, falling into my embrace. He buried his head into my shoulder and sobbed, while I stroked his hair, shushing him.

“I’m sorry,” he almost whimpered. I pushed him down of the sofa, back on his knees in front of me, opening my legs. He sighed in appreciation, his eyes darkening with lust. As he reached his hand towards my leg I smacked it away.

“No, you have to beg,” I instructed. He looked up to meet my eye. There’s nothing more dangerous than a humiliated man, he had once said, but here he was, willing to get down on his knees in front of me and beg for my attention.

“Please, forgive me, (y/n). Let me touch you,” he pleaded pathetically. I leant forward and took his jaw in my hand, guiding his lips up to meet my own. He desperately leaned into the kiss, sitting up on his knees to pull us closer. His hand ran along my thigh and brushed across my heat, and when I didn’t pull away he rubbed the rough pad of his thumb against my clit before pushing a finger inside of me. I let myself moan against his kiss. He added another finger and curled them inside of me, swallowing my noises up with his lips. I pulled away from the kiss, panting.

“I want you to show me how much you hate me Kai,” I told him, and he removed his fingers from me, confused. I continued, pulling my shirt over my head leaving me in my bra. “Oh, I know you do. The way I make you feel confused, the way I treat you. I let you know how much of a piece of shit you are and you let me tell you that. What kind of man are you? You hate the way I make your prick harder than anyone else could,” I tease, reaching to grab his erect cock through his trousers. I pull my knees back, showing my full pussy out in front of him and that’s all he takes to snap. He stands up and pushes me down on the couch, kneeling himself between my knees before pulling his shirt over his head. It’s hard not to admire his muscular body. It’s no wonder he could get people to believe he was their god, he looked exactly like one. He unzipped his jeans and pulled them down, freeing his cock from his boxers and stroking it while looking at me.

“You’re right,” he told me harshly, grabbing my jaw and resting his thumb in my mouth so I kept it open. “I do fucking hate you.” With that he leant forward towards me and spat directly into my mouth. His harsh words were making me drip with lust. Without any warning he plunged his cock into my warmth, grunting and dropping his hands to my grip onto my waist and the flesh of my stomach. He pounded into me relentlessly, letting out small moans of pleasure. I panted, and when he hit a spot inside of me I let out a breathy moan. I felt a sting across my face, realising that he’d slapped me. He moved a hand to my thigh, pressing it back toward my chest. He growled as he hit my cervix, his hands heavy and his grip tight. Kai grabbed my throat and leant over my body to give the most bruising kiss, and as he pushed my legs back, his cock hit even deeper in me. I even whimpered as he mercilessly pounded into me, harder and harder. His kiss travelled, down my neck, and I felt him take the skin between his teeth, leaving bite marks. I took his head in my hands, fingers tangled in his hair, and I connected our mouths once more, tongues and teeth colliding. He let out another desperate moan. Even when he hated me I still controlled him. The room was filled with the sound of wet kisses and skin slapping. I felt the pleasure build and reached down to rub myself, reaching a shuddering climax and clenching around Kai. He let out a groan and swore, pounding into me faster, his thrusts sloppy. He pulled my bra down and grabbed onto my tits, desperately panting and he brought himself closer to finish. I could do nothing but moan and tremble as his thrusting overstimulated me. His breathy moans brought me to finish a second time, a wave of pleasure hitting me and making me shake again. Kai groaned, pushing himself balls deep inside me and spilling hot cum. He collapsed down on top of me and I let him rest his head on my chest, wrapping my legs around his waist and kissing the top of his head.

“I do think I could love you, Kai,” I murmured against his hair, and I had no reason to say it, but I truly meant it.

[shepherd-of-the-stars]

Secrets Only the Stars Know

Gift to @orbitinghetalia for the Rusame gift exchange 2022! Prompts were Pottertalia, fluff, and secret relationship with a preference for Nyo!Ame and Russia as supportive loving partners.

Would like to note that I don't know ANYTHING about Harry Potter and had to recruit a few friends for help. But I have been told that Hogwarts is located in Scotland?? So for the sake of "I don't want to deep dive how they ended up at Hogwarts," they will be immigrants or something. Or like second gen. Anyways, enjoy

Word count: 2446

Summary: Before the two part ways for Christmas break, Ivan gives Amelia a little gift

Rating: T for one curse word lmao

Link to ao3 in notes

It smelled like Ivan. 

That was the only thing that Amelia could think about as she made her way through the darkness with his hand at her back—guiding her. She took a deep breath, breathing in the scents of the green and silver scarf tied around her eyes. There was the scent of leather, cinnamon, and… she laughed.

“Ivan, your scarf smells like wormwood” —her lips turned at the corner— “I wonder why that is.” Amelia didn’t need to see to be able to view the shame in Ivan’s eyes. She could sense it. 

“I’ve already admitted that you were right. Is that not enough, my princess?” His teasing earned him a firm stomp on the foot, but because Amelia couldn’t see, it saved him the little punishment. 

“I think not! I failed that assignment because of you. You almost ruined my grade! And my hair.” She gave a soft huff as she remembered how Ivan’s mistake had turned explosive and nearly set her on fire. The classroom—on the other hand—did not have that mercy. Even with the professor’s quick magic, their failed Draught of Living Death had left char marks on the walls of the potion room bad enough that they had to stay after class to clean it up. 

“Have you forgotten that I saved you?” 

“I wouldn’t have been in a situation that needed saving if you would have simply listened to me, you stubborn snake.” 

“Loud-mouth lion,” Ivan muttered under his breath. But Amelia had heard it. 

She retaliated with a backhanded smack in the chest, and Amelia smiled as she heard him give out a satisfying grunt of pain. “I heard that.” 

Ivan let out a breath as he rubbed at his sore stomach. Then he said in a strained voice, “are you forgetting that I am your eyes? That I can just leave you here?” 

“And are you forgetting” —Amelia turned to him with that mischievous grin again— “that I can simply… take it off?” She giggled as she lifted the scarf from her eyes, but she was only able to catch the smallest glimpse of grass and leaves in the moonlight before Ivan quickly pulled the fabric back down and batted her hands away. 

“Stop it. You’ll ruin the surprise!” There was almost a pout in his tone and Amelia couldn’t help but giggle some more. 

“Alright alright, I won’t look.” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned her body against his. “Just promise not to lead me into a lagoon or something.” 

Ivan let out an amused grunt before he brushed her bangs from her forehead and lay a chaste kiss on her temple. “Of course,” he whispered in that gentle voice of his. “I promise.”

Amelia felt herself growing flustered. Years of dating did nothing to dull the effects of Ivan’s voice. And to think that years ago, she thought that his voice could be compared to that of a troll’s. 

What started out as a fierce rivalry had taken a turn in the opposite direction after a brutal quidditch match. Amelia had accidentally slammed her club into his chest as she was aiming for the quaffle, and as a result, Ivan had nearly cracked his skull open as he plummeted to the ground. Gryffindor won without Ivan to defend the Slytherins, but Amelia couldn’t celebrate when she knew it was an unfair victory. Before she knew it, she was at his bedside with roses and an apple pie, and it was all downhill from there. 

They had fallen for each other so quickly, but because they were in rival houses, the two lovebirds snuck around like criminals just to see one another. It was why Ivan had chosen to take her through the woods in the middle of the night to give Amelia her Christmas gift. And it was possibly why Ivan had found the need to blindfold her. But Amelia had a feeling that Ivan had done that just to spite her. 

“Are we there yet? It’s been ages,” she grumbled. Amelia was much too impatient for surprises, and as much as she trusted Ivan, being blindfolded and taken through the woods in the dead of night was beyond unnerving no matter who it was guiding her. 

Ivan reached out to take her hand into his then gave her a comforting squeeze. “Count to ten, then we’ll be there.” 

So she did, because she trusted him. 

She counted to ten, and when she reached ten, they stopped, and Ivan’s arms left her. It turned cold without him by her side, but Amelia could feel that he was still there. 

“Go ahead,” he urged. 

Then slowly, Amelia lifted the scarf from her eyes. She blinked rapidly to get used to the light again, then her eyes landed on the soft smile of her boyfriend standing in front of a sparkling lake. His hair was almost silver under the moonlight and she couldn’t help but admire how handsome he looked with that gentle smile of his. Her eyes then followed his hand motions down to a large rectangular box, wrapped in brown paper, then she pouted. 

“This is my present?” 

Ivan froze and glanced to the side, confused. “Well… yes. You have to unwrap it.” 

Amelia breathed in a deep breath as she closed her eyes, and when they opened, she looked at Ivan with flat lips. “You really do have warts for brains, don’t you?”

Ivan glanced off to the side once more like he was missing some part of a joke and the answer was hidden somewhere in the trees. “I… You haven’t even opened it and you don’t like your gift? I assure you, if you would just open it—”

“Ivan, that isn’t the point! It is wrapped.” She took a step closer with her hands on her hips. Her laughter was becoming harder and harder to contain, but she restrained herself just so she could see Ivan’s flustered and bewildered reaction. 

Ivan looked again at the wrapped box on the ground, silently urging it to give him a hint what his girlfriend was talking about. But the large box remained silent and stared back at him mockingly. “Did you” —he furrowed his brows, gesturing awkwardly at the gift laying in the grass— “did you not want me to wrap it? I don’t—” He trailed off, his voice rising a pitch above his normal voice as his confusion mounted. “Is it the wrong color?” 

“It’s wrapped so I can’t see it!” Two little giggles escaped as she held up Ivan’s scarf that had been covering her eyes. 

It was almost as if she could see the gears in his head slowly turning. Then at last, Ivan parted his lips and let out a very, very intelligent, “ah.” 

Her laughter exploded from her chest with such force that it startled the owls in the trees, but Ivan remained silent as his face turned a dark shade of red. The gift had been wrapped. Even without the blindfold, she still would not have been able to see her gift. He had wasted all that time and effort leading her through the academy and the woods just to take her to a box she still couldn’t see. Ah, perhaps he did have warts for brains. But seeing that infectious smile spread across her face and watching her bend over in laughter made it all worth it. 

“Alright alright, ha ha, laugh it all out.” His voice was drenched in amused sarcasm as he pulled her into his arms and held her tight as if to squeeze every last laugh out of her. “Yes yes, I have the wit of a toad, it is all very funny, ha ha.” 

He lay a kiss on the top of Amelia’s head, then at last, her laughter simmered down. “God, I love you,” she giggled as she wrapped Ivan’s scarf back around his neck. Then, using the scarf as leverage, she pulled him down and stood on her toes to kiss him. 

“Even if my skull is empty, you will still love me?” He smiled as he brushed her hair out of her face with the gentlest touch. 

“Even if you’re the stupidest man on the earth, I will still love you. Unless” —she looked down at the gift with one raised brow—”you got me a stupid gift.” 

“I assure you, when you see what I got for you, you will be singing your praises.”

“That confident, are you?” 

“Oh I am very confident.” 

“Then we shall see.” She popped up to give him another quick peck on the lips before squatting down to inspect the wrapped box. 

It really was large. Almost six feet in length and a foot tall and wide. Almost like—

“You didn’t,” she gasped as she turned to look at him. Ivan simply smiled and looked away. 

It had taken only seconds before she was tearing at the paper like a rabid animal until she got to the wooden box hidden underneath. And when she ripped open the lid of the box, she let out a shriek of excitement so loud that it could have been heard back at the school. “The Firebolt Supreme!” 

Ivan barely had the time to react before Amelia tackled him to the ground and smothered him with kisses. 

“Oh I love you, I love you, I love you! God, I love you!” She let out another ear-piercing scream as she hugged Ivan so tight that he let out a breathless choke. He had to pat her several times on the back for her to finally let him go, and for him to see his girlfriend’s tear-stained face. 

“He wouldn’t let me buy it,” she blubbered, wiping away her snot and tears with her scarf. “That bastard shopkeeper said it doesn’t belong in the hands of a mudblood. I almost strangled him, I—” She grit her teeth at the memory of that wretched old man and reached out to strangle his invisible neck. 

“Well, lucky for you your boyfriend is a pureblood.” Ivan stretched out on the grass under Amelia and folded his hands behind his head. “I would like to see him try and deny me business. My father will have his entire shop burnt down.” 

“Oh you’re so cute when you’re evil,” she cooed. 

“Is it evil, or is it deserved?” 

“Deserved.” Amelia mirrored Ivan’s smirk. “I’m going to hover in front of his shop just to spite him. If he wants to take it back, well, he’s going to have to catch me first.” 

Hopping off Ivan’s lap, she plucked the broomstick out of the box and tested out its weight in her hands. For something with such power and speed, it felt light as air in her grasp. The dark handle was smooth, and the silver bipod glinted in the moonlight. It was simply perfect and she felt her eyes welling up once more at its beauty. 

For once, she found herself to be speechless. Amelia always knew what to say, but she was silent as she mounted the handle and hovered above the ground on it. It held her so steadily and it was almost as if she could feel the magic pulsing through the wood. 

She slowly circled around him, once, twice, three times, and Ivan turned to watch her until his head grew dizzy. Then with an exhilarated squeal, she shot into the air and blasted across the clear lake with such force that it split the water at the surface. 

It was perfect. 

Flawless! 

She shouted into the night sky until her voice grew sore, then as she was finally beginning to settle her heartbeat, a flash of blue whizzed past her. 

It was Ivan on his Starsweeper, and while that broomstick was possibly the most stunning one to look at on the market, it just wasn’t fast enough for her liking. 

“Having fun?” He flew closer to her until their knees bumped together, and close enough for him to sneak in another kiss. 

“Yes, I’m having a great deal of fun” —she whispered the words against his lips before jabbing her finger against his forehead and gently pushing him away—”without you.” Then with a mighty kick, she shoved Ivan’s broomstick several feet away from her, making Ivan scramble to catch his balance again as he spiraled towards the water. Amelia knew that the Slytherin’s best keeper would be able to handle a little kick, yet she still watched him just in case her boyfriend needed a bit of saving. 

Several feet below her, Ivan steadied his broomstick and looked up at her with amused vengeance, and Amelia stared right back with fluttering eyelashes and an innocent grin. “Sorry darling, I lost my balance.” Her voice was pitched like the one she used when asking professors for an extension on an assignment, and there wasn’t even an ounce of regret in her tone.

“Of course,” he said smoothly. Little by little, he flew closer to her, but knowing his game, Amelia backed away. “Now, what kind of partner would I be if I didn’t… help you.” 

He lunged towards her then, reaching out to grab her broomstick and knock her out of balance like she did him, but with a quick little turn, Amelia slipped out of his grasp—the sleeve of her black robe just barely grazing Ivan’s fingertips. 

“Dear oh dear,” she said in that posh, mocking voice she faked when she was being dramatic, “oh it is so hard to control, this little thing. I am dreadfully sorry.” But she wasn’t, and Ivan knew it. 

He tried again to reach her, but there was a reason the Firebolt Supreme was the best on the market. Amelia dodged him time and time again, each time being only slightly out of his grasp to tease him. And before they knew it, the two were chasing each other across the lake with uncontainable laughter. The air that whipped around them painted their cheeks pink and their ears red, but neither of them cared. 

It wasn’t until they grew sore from riding did they reluctantly end their little game. They walked back instead of flying because it gave them more time to be together—more time for Amelia to hold his hand, and for Ivan to steal kisses. When they reached the school, they shared one last kiss before parting ways. And when morning came, they would act as rivals again. But in each little jab and quip, there would be just a bit of magic between them that only they would know about. 

Their secret little love. 

[captainunderkrupp]

touching you is better than looking in your eyes

a new minublaze fic with a headcanon that suddenly just STRUCK me a few nights ago!!! 1.2k words, some suggestive lines, but mostly talk about dealing with disability

"May I... touch you?" 

Minuet smiled at how nervous and polite Blaze was, now that they were alone together. There was no show, no one to impress, it was just them. It helped Minuet to relax as well, as a fellow chronic show off. 

"Yes, of course," she murmured, nodding. Blaze nervously smiled, and gently reached out. 

It was awkward, especially at first. He gasped as he put his hands on her cheeks and began traveling downward. "You're so small..." 

Minuet chuckled, placing one of her own hands on the back of one of his, making him jump and blush. "Heh, yes, quite different feeling the size difference rather than seeing it..." She had a blush of her own, especially as one large purple hand dipped around her thigh and squeezed before looping back upward. It hesitated at her choker for a moment, feeling at the lace and satin, before cupping her other cheek again. He rubbed each cheek with her thumb, surprisingly gentle, even gentler when her face pinched and she made a small sound of discomfort at the feeling of her glitter being rubbed at. He gasped when his fingers found her beauty mark. 

"You've got a mole!" he said, and Minuet would have felt offended if anyone else said that, but he just sounded awed, a bit of a smile on his face. 

She giggled a bit in confusion, though. "Of course I have a mole, it's my beauty mark, one of the most obvious parts of my face...?" She paused. 

Blaze still had his sunglasses on. She reached out, and he just barely flinched when she touched his face in turn. She lifted the glasses, only having to gather up three or four pairs to see his eyes. He was looking directly at her, sure, but... his gaze almost seemed to be looking through her. 

She tilted her body to one side. His hands were still on her face and stayed there, and his gaze followed, with barely a hint of hesitation. She pulled his hands down to her shoulders and tilted to the other side, and he still followed... but didn't quite land on her face. She was dumbfounded, and didn't want to believe her theory, but... she finally held up a hand. "How many fingers am I holding up, Blaze?" 

Blaze grimaced. "Uh..." He wasn’t looking at her hand. He was still looking at her face. Mostly.

He suddenly grabbed at her hand but she was quicker, moving it away with a gasp of shock. 

"Blaze, are you blind??"

Blaze gulped. "Uhhhhh..." 

Minuet tilted her head again, squinting. He kept vocalizing, but his eyes didn’t seem to quite follow her properly. If she made any noise, they'd land on her very exactly, but only then. And even so, she only knew that because she was one of the few people who regularly saw him without his MANY glasses. Which... she'd tried them on before. They were very dark... the way he layered them, she was practically blind when she tried to imitate that. 

If he was actually blind, he wouldn't care, would he? 

Blaze finally gasped as he ran out of air, and sighed. "Ok. Fine. Yes. I'm blind." 

Minuet frowned, gently putting a small hand on his cheek. He placed his own over hers, practically engulfing it as he leaned into it. "Blaze... why didn't you say anything?" she asked, gently. 

"...pretty much everyone back home knows already... I figured people would notice pretty quickly here. But... then they didn’t. And… even though rock trolls are pretty great about not being bothered by disability, and supporting it... you still get strange reactions, y’know? Even if I can't see a look I can feel it... so it was neat, not having people ask if I needed help down stairs, or telling me when they're ready for a stage dive, or offering too much visual description for something..." 

"...those sound like... good accommodations, but like they would get a tad annoying after a while." 

"Exactly," Blaze breathed emphatically, suddenly gripping her hand and grinning with excitement. Then he gentled, releasing her hand. "I sometimes need those things. But other times, even if people are casual, they make it harder. So I just... end up trying to find control, and..." 

"...seem annoying in the process..." Minuet murmured. 

"Yup." 

Minuet nodded. "...oh gosh, your air guitar must feel extra real because you can feel it and don't have to imagine a visual as well!" 

Blaze chuckled. "Since they're from my imagination, they're the clearest thing I can "see". To be honest, I was shocked and... way too excited when I realized I could "see" your guitar nearly as well as mine."

Minuet smiled gently, and then blinked as she realized... Blaze couldn't see it. "I'm... I'm very glad I was able to connect with you over air guitar then, Blaze." 

He grinned. "I'm still SUPER impressed that you managed to fight your own vision and actually get it. Not many people can, especially adults... Val mostly gets it cuz we grew up together, and she still can't always play the instruments she sees." 

Minuet nodded, making sure Blaze felt it. “I’m glad you had her…”

Blaze snorted. “Pfft, we still act like siblings. We HATE each other even if we’d probably murder a troll for each other if need be.” Then his look softened. “But you’re right, as always… I am grateful for her.” He looked a bit nervous, and then leaned in, gently pressing his forehead to hers. “...and for you…”

Minuet blushed, giggling as she suddenly felt all hot and nervous. Blaze almost felt like a different person in private, so much more polite and kind… 

Her giggling cut short as she realized he may be compensating, trying to fit the stereotype that he had been forced into, of the inattentive asshole who didn’t bother to look where he was going and cared more about his performance than the trolls around him. 

Classical trolls didn’t normally do this, but… she hugged him. 

He gagged, and she was sure she was clinging too tight, but then he adjusted and held her back. His voice sounded strained, somehow, when he spoke. “Thank you, Minnie,” he choked out, and Minuet couldn’t tell if he was holding back laughter or tears. “Thank you.” 

Minuet nodded into his shoulder. “Just let me know if I get too overbearing, Blaze,” she insisted, “or I won’t be able to forgive myself.”

Blaze finally laughed, a very wet laugh. She felt him let go of her with one arm and wipe a tear away. “Of course. Gotta be honest to a fault. You know me.” 

Minuet snorted. “Except when you lie to cover your reputation…”

“That was one time, with Rose and Romper…” 

“Twice, with the tattoo… did they know you were blind, by the way?”

“Oh, yeah, totally, I’m sure that’s the only reason they didn’t comment on my hairy sandwich…”

They talked like that for a while into the night, continuing to cuddle and explore each other with his new information in mind… and Minuet with an ever predictable determination to learn exactly how to politely accommodate her boyfriend.

~

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!! I am planning a rewatch of the show to see if there's any specific place where this headcanon could be DISproved, but for now it's basically an AU :) I think it would be super appropriate considering... well, everything about them. especially minuet's own self esteem issues and blaze's imagination being so powerful he can effect the real world...

EDIT: ao3 posting!!

[kingstylesdaily]

Eternals Writer Blames Harry Styles’ Marvel Character For Infinity War

Exclusive: Eternals writers Matthew 'Kaz' Firpo & Ryan Firpo say that Harry Styles' Eros is to blame for Thanos' actions in Avengers: Infinity War.

Warning: this article does contain spoilers (most of which we already know) but if you still wanna be surprised, don’t read ahead!

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

Harry Styles' Eros/Starfox is to blame for Thanos' (Josh Brolin) misguided actions in Avengers: Infinity War, Eternals writers say. Marvel Studios' latest film directed by Chloé Zhao introduced a whole new superhero team to the MCU. But, it also debuted a couple of more characters who are not members of the main Eternals lineup such as Kit Harington's Dane Whitman, as well as Styles' Eros.

As per the comics, Dane will eventually become Black Knight in the MCU despite appearing as a non-powered human in Eternals. Meanwhile, things are a little bit different for Eros. Introduced in Eternals' post-credits scene as Thena (Angelina Jolie), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), and Druig (Barry Keoghan) attempt to find their other missing teammates, Starfox was introduced by Pip the Troll (voiced by Patton Oswalt). Not much is known about the character thus far, but Marvel Studios is sticking to his print origins as the younger brother of Thanos. While the MCU has yet to learn what their dynamic was like, the writers for Eternals are convinced that Eros has something to do with how the Mad Titan turned out to be.

In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Matthew 'Kaz' Firpo & Ryan Firpo were asked if there was any intention of bringing in Thanos' dad, A'lars, who was first mentioned in Avengers: Infinity War, in Eternals. The pair acknowledged the Mad Titan's fascinating origins story having ties to both Eternals and Deviants. In the end, Kaz went further by saying that having a perfect brother who's able to make everyone adore him in Eros may have scarred Thanos. Inadvertently, this was why he was hell-bent on making an impact through the snap. Read the writers' quotes below:

Kaz Firpo: We were actually, like, powerfully familiar with the crazy Thanos origin story, which I'm pretty sure is full-blown Greek myth where he, like, killed his own mother I wanna say... It's been a little bit since I read those arcs, we did a deep-dive into Thanos...

Ryan Firpo: She rejected him.

Kaz Firpo: Yeah, he was born from an Eternal and raised as a Deviant, and he's sort of caught in between the two, so there is a lot of... again, that early connective tissue.

But I think, for the sake of this movie as a film, we really just decided to tell this story, and maybe when we get out into the cosmos you might... I mean, we're literally meeting Thanos' actual brother at the end of the film, and I think there's room for Eros - well, Harry [Styles] - to have a conversation about that.

I think that Starfox is a lot responsible for why Thanos is the way he is, to have that... all jokes aside, to have this perfect brother who can make anyone fall in love with him? It does something to you. So I hope we get to see a little bit more of that in Number 2.

For those unfamiliar with Starfox from the comics, Thanos' brother didn't have the Deviant gene that gave the Mad Titan his purple skin. Instead, Eros looks like a normal Eternal — even a good-looking one. He has all the basic Eternals powers, but his signature skill is that he's able to psionically stimulate the pleasure centers of someone's brain. Essentially, Starfox can control someone's emotions, primarily making them like him. Given Thanos' issues with his image, hence the moniker Mad Titan, it's possible that he was psychologically scarred by the inevitable comparisons to his brother. Because of this, he became obsessed with his life-long crusade to supposedly save the universe via the snap in Avengers: Infinity War. In hindsight, this makes Thanos a more empathetic villain. Not that the decimation is suddenly justifiable, but this offers a better insight as to what the purple villain's real motivation was.

With Thanos now dead in the Sacred Timeline, it's curious if Marvel Studios ever plans on showing him with Eros through flashbacks or other forms of creative storytelling. It's safe to assume that Starfox has a long future in the MCU as one of the newest characters to be introduced in the franchise via Eternals. This gives them plenty of time to explore his origins and relationship with his big brother, and perhaps even confirm or deny if he has anything to do with the snap in Avengers: Infinity War.

source: screenrant.com