#My other thoughts on this episode are best left private.

[magic-ace]

MePhoneX saved Cobs before he fell to his doom... perhaps the seemingly apathetic machine was never so unfeeling after all.

[mirai-e-jump]

Uchusen Vol.186 (Autumn 2024) Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger | Detail of Super Sentai ft. Main Cast Interviews (translation below)

Publication: October 1, 2024 (between episode 31-32)

Iuchi Haruhi x Hayama Yuki x Suzuki Miu Saito Ryu x Soma Satoru x Miyazawa Yu

"Filming will start to move into the endgame, so do you feel that your teamwork is now fully established?"

Iuchi: If we're talking about team work……to be honest, yesterday, including Hashiyasume-san, the seven of us went out to eat for the first time (laughs).

Suzuki: She'd been talking about "wanting to go" for awhile, and it just so happened that we all finished filming together, so when we invited her she said, "Definitely, let's go!" We all ate yakitori together and had alot of fun!

Soma: It was an exciting time.

Suzuki: It was fun, wasn't it? We saw new sides of each other.

Iuchi: We're often split up when we go out to eat, but this was the first time we were all together with Hashiyasume-san included.

Suzuki: Still, since there's always someone who can't make it, that might've also been the first time all six of us were together.

Hayama: That may be true. However, when we went out to eat, Hashiyasume-san said, "I know this is alittle late, but I don't know you guys very well," and so we introduced ourselves again. We started with basic info, such as our ages and the agencies we belong to (laughs).

Suzuki: When I came back to my seat after leaving for abit, Hashiyasume-san was saying things like, "Everyone's doing their best!," but what were you guys talking about?

Soma: I think it was about our auditions for Boonboomger. Hashiyasume-san asked us, "How'd you all get in?" and when we said, "We had to do countless auditions……" she was like "That must've been tough!"

Suzuki: Ah, I didn't know that.

"Was that the first time you spoke about private matters?"

Miyazawa: Outside of filming, yeah.

Suzuki: When we're filming, we don't have that much time to talk. That's why it's been alot of fun talking about so many different things!

"In the first place, when you're filming every day, you don't have much time for your private lives."

Hayama: Also, on the topic of food……in the curry shop run by the Hashiriyans, the four of them - Ishiro, Jou, Sakito and Byun Diesel, finish eating curry in one bite (episode 31), but those scenes were filmed with us eating normally and then being sped up in the broadcast. However, when filming, Miyazawa-kun was eating so slowly……Ryu and I kept acting as if we were scooping at curry that was already gone so that the timing for the end of the meal would match. It was already really late, and when I glanced over halfway through, his still hadn't decreased at all (laughs).

Miyazawa: Ideally, the four of us should've finished eating at the same time. That's why before filming, when everyone was nervous and said, "Will we be able to eat all of it?," I said stuff like, "Don't worry, in fact, if you're nervous, you won't be able to eat, so it's best not to tense up." However…….once we started and I looked up at Ryu in front of me, by the time I had eaten about a third of mine, he was already halfway done with his, and I thought to myself, "This ain't good"……

Suzuki: I'd be in a hurry (laughs).

Miyazawa: It's good because you guys are young, but once you get older, you won't be able to take it all in. I did my best to shovel it in my mouth in one go, but I just can't swallow it at all.

Hayama: When I had about three bites left, Ryu had already finished eating, but even though he was told, "Keep acting like you're eating," for some reason, he just waited patiently, which was also funny (laughs). Furthermore, when I saw Byundi in front of me, he couldn't eat because he was wearing a mask, so he had to continue to pretend to eat. More than that, Sakito, who was across from me, looked like he was in pain while eating, and it was really hard to hold back my laughter in that moment (laughs).

Miyazawa: I'm often teased because of my age. You guys oughta have alittle more respect for your elders! (laughs).

Hayama: We're always screwing with him (laughs).

Suzuki: It's proof that we're good friends, don't you think? (laughs).

"The story is also becoming more and more interesting."

Miyazawa: Recently, I think Genba's withdrawal (episode 27) is definitely worth watching. Satoru made the atmosphere serious, and I got the feeling that "we also had to do our best."

Suzuki: Normally, he really screws around (laughs), but when it comes to work, his face changes. I also think it's amazing that he always observes and studies the performance of Ono-san, his Suit Actor.

Iuchi: Is it just me, or does his acting seem to have gotten even more colorful recently?

Hayama: For some reason, I feel like Satoru-kun's expressions have changed recently.

"Does this mean that the role has become your own?"

Soma: No, no, I am honored though (laughs). Still, since the focus is on Genba due to his withdrawal, I feel that I have to work harder, and there are parts of his past that'll be revealed and foreshadowing resolved, so I have to make sure that I clearly convey them. I feel that this awareness is stronger than ever before.

"Is it also challenging to do the makeup when you change into his Bureki form?"

Soma: On its own, the makeup only takes about an hour, but I think the challenging part is for the makeup artist rather than myself (laughs). First I'm filmed as Genba, become Bureki after that, and then was filmed as Genba once more, so that was abit challenging. As for some behind the scenes stories……my skin is fairly tan, but when you combine that with the long white hair, it ends up giving me an unintended "gyaruo" look (laughs), so I use foundation to whiten my skin abit.

Saito: I think the contacts are also pretty challenging, no?

Soma: I wear colored contacts when I'm Bureki, but the pupils are vertical just like a cat's. However, when I blink, the pupils can't help but spin around and the angle becomes misaligned, so we have to reangle them every time.

Suzuki: Because of that, you try not to blink as much as possible during filming. Even though your eyes are drier than usual when you have contacts in, it's alot of trouble since you can't blink.

Soma: Still, there are some eye performances where you deliberately blink, right? That's why when we were filming in dry places, there were times when my contacts would fall out.

"Nevertheless, Genba's withdrawal was a shocking and abrupt development."

Soma: It was a huge development, I didn't expect that I'd be leaving.

Miyazawa: The scene where Genba walks away was good.

Hayama: It was good, wasn't it? It was abit dark on set that day of that shoot.

Soma: The mood was pretty rough.

Iuchi: On the way home too, everyone was silent.

Suzuki: Everyone was depressed……

Saito: Furthermore, the following week, Genba was removed from the opening. In addition, it starts from the end of the previous episode and leads into the opening, and Zawa-nii and I were saying, "This definitely isn't gonna be good for the people watching!"

Suzuki: You know about the picture of that girl who cried "Don't quit!" that was sent to Satorun on SNS, right?

Soma: I thought, "Yeah, I'm sorry"……but, well, it's my job.

Suzuki: To shatter her dreams even further?! (laughs).

Miyazawa: I wanted to tell her, "Just hold out alittle longer!"

Soma: Seeing photos like that still breaks my heart. Unlike in the past, we can now see direct reactions on SNS, but I have mixed feelings about this, as it's both gratifying and saddening (laughs).

"The untransformed action scenes seem to have increased, but what do you think about filming action?"

Hayama: I really don't have much confidence in myself. I'm just trying to get by with the power of editing.

Miyazawa: Episodes like the boxing one (episode 29) were really cool.

Hayama: That was through the power of editing (laughs).

Saito: Still, didn't BoonBlue's Suit Actor Yone-san (Yoneoka Takahiro) say, "I was very impressed with Yuki-kun's action skills"?

Suzuki: I guess you "leveled up" without even realizing it, huh?

Hayama: No, I've done nothing but work on my body. Around the beginning, I talked to Takahiro-kun about how I was, "Curious about the difference in our body shape before and after transforming." Takahiro seemed to also be concerned about that.

Suzuki: Yone-san's build is pretty amazing, isn't it? (laughs).

Hayama: I was really slender at the time, and we wanted to create a stronger link between us, so we decided on it with, "Alright, Takahiro-kun will lose weight and I'll get bulkier."

Suzuki: You were like, "Let's just meet in the middle" (laughs).

Hayama: Right, we decided to compromise with each other, so maybe that's why I started going to the gym. I was never the exercising type, but I feel like I have alot more stamina now.

Suzuki: Did Yone-san ever get thin?

Hayama: Takahiro-kun is actually fairly thin. The last time I saw him in his BoonBlue suit, it was wrinkled and had alittle extra room.

Suzuki: Eh, amazing!

Hayama: That really surprised me.

Miyazawa: Yuki was happy too.

Hayama: I was very happy (laughs).

"What other action scenes impressed you the most?"

Iuchi: While in his Bureki form, Satoru-kun did some wire action, and it was amazing.

Soma: I was able to do it because I had practiced in advance, but it was still more difficult than I had imagined. You have to balance in the air, so you've got to have a strong core.

Saito: When I looked at you after it was over, you had marks all over your body from the wire rubbing against you.

Soma: I didn't realize it while I was doing it.

Hayama: The action reminded me of the scene in the episode where Sakito first appears (episode 16), where he and Taiya fight in the parking garage. That was really cool, and Haruhi's athletic ability……I was surprised it wasn't terrible (laughs). Well, it's not that Haruhi's ability isn't good, it's just my own biased opinion.

Suzuki: Haruhi-kun's hobbies include reading and playing the guitar, so you can't help but get the impression that he's an indoor person. And yet, when he does action, he's actually very lively.

Miyazawa: Surprisingly, he likes exercising and action, and when we play futsal together, he has more fun than anyone else.

Iuchi: Personally, I'm really jealous that Genba takes on an alien form. That's why I've been appealing to the Directors and Producers with, "How about a development where Taiya also becomes an alien?" When I become an alien, I'd like to do some wire action, cause some explosions with napalm shooting out of my hands, and in the end, fall into some water and vanish.

Soma: In other words, you just want to do all the actions that only tokusatsu can offer, so it's basically just an "assortment of things you wanna do" (laughs).

Miyazawa: Seems like a happy meal of tokusatsu actions (laughs).

"What developments are you looking forward to in the future?"

Iuchi: What I'm most concerned about now is Sakito. When I watch, I feel that he still hasn't become a member of Boonboomger, or rather, he's become one of them, but his position is alittle different from the other members. He's always with Byundi, and they tend to act separately from us.

"You're not wrong, they give off the vibes that make them seem like a separate team."

Iuchi: Right. So, as the story progresses, and we all move toward our dream of the BBG, will Sakito move forward with us, or will he go off somewhere else?……

Miyazawa: It's true that Taiya and the others have big dreams, but Sakito's goals haven't been revealed in the main story yet. Previously he said, "My dream is to watch the fireworks with you guys."

Suzuki: That was an easily achievable goal (laughs). Still, that scene turned out cool.

Miyazawa: We may find out about it in the future, or maybe it just hasn't been made clear yet.

Suzuki: That being said, while each of them is depicted as growing, Taiya's still one step behind, and there's something mysterious about him. I'm pretty curious to see how he'll grow from here.

Miyazawa: Regarding Taiya, although his growth is depicted through things like his battles with Madrex, I get the impression that there's still alot that hasn't been revealed about him. Other than that, the only other story that focused on him was the episode of his first love (episode 24).

Suzuki: That's right.

"As we reach the climax, will this be discussed together along with the situation regarding Naito Raita-san?"

Iuchi: Yes, a disturbing topic will be brought up (laughs). Depending on how things unfold, I might cry for real.

Suzuki: We also don't know anything yet.

Hayama: Taiya and Naito-san are old acquaintances.

Iuchi: There may even be an episode where Taiya withdraws……?

Saito: Is that because all you want to do is use napalm and fall into water?

Iuchi: I've been caught (laughs).

Hayama: I also wonder how Tokoyari Eiichiro-san, the ISA Director, will interact with us in the future. He has a connection with Ishiro, but it hasn't been depicted in detail yet, so he's almost certainly going to be an enemy.

Suzuki: Well, that's how he's been portrayed (laughs).

Hayama: I'm really curious to see how he'll clash with us in the future.

Iuchi: I'm saying this as a viewer, but I'm also curious to see what'll happen to the Sanseaters. There are alot of fans of the Voice Actors, and while they're villains, they're characters that you just can't hate.

Hayama: In that sense, this job is a dream come true for an anime lover like me. Like, there's Morikubo Showtaro-san who plays Disrace……

Suzuki: In any case, the Voice Actors are just too extravagant.

Hayama: I had the chance to talk with Madrex's Kamiya-san the other day, and his natural voice was just like the soldier captain in that one anime. I thought, "I'm talking to my idol right now!," and my excitement was steadily cranking up (laughs).

"This is a benefit only Sentai can offer."

Suzuki: When I observe the Voice Actors recording, I can tell that the way they use their voices are completely different. It's not so much the volume of their voice, but the tone, like the way it resonates even if they don't speak loudly.

Hayama: When I observe Voice Actors recording, they're on such a different level, that I honestly wonder, "How do I even learn what to do?" (laughs).

Suzuki: Still, when I spoke with Bundorio's Matsumoto Rika-san, she told me, "We Voice Actors play the characters, but since everyone acts out the characters themselves and then provide their own voices after they transform, I think it's better if you do it in your natural voice for realism." That's definitely something I agree with.

"And now finally, please give a message to the fans."

Miyazawa: I think the story is gradually reaching its climax, but I wonder how everyone in Boonboomger will grow and develop from now on…..the same is true for Genba, but I'm sure we'll be able to see each person's own vision, including their relationship with Sakito and the Sanseaters, who tend to act alone, so I hope that you'll pay attention to this area and enjoy the story to the very end as it reaches the most interesting part.

Soma: Lately, I think each and every episode has been pretty intense, including what Genba's been doing since he left, but I wonder how the Boonboomgers will reunite from here. In the future, I think there'll be a boss to fight towards the end, and there's really alot left that's yet to be revealed. Even with that in mind, you'll still be able to enjoy it, and I think it's an interesting enough show that you could watch again from the beginning to check for the foreshadowing!

Hayama: Including the six of us, each character and their backgrounds are being depicted more and more intensely as of late. Especially now that Taiya and the others dreams of the BBG are being discussed in more detail, I'm also looking forward to seeing what'll happen. Then of course, there's Champion Boonboomger. I hope you'll enjoy the new evolution of the Boonboomgers.

Suzuki: Boonboomger is a group of professionals known by "-ers" and I think they're strong because it's a group of six people who each have their own strengths. However, with Genba's departure, I'm sure that it's not only us, but also the viewers who have been able to realize how significant it is when one person is missing. I hope you'll look forward to the drama of whether Genba will come back and what his friends will do.

Saito: The ultimate goal of Boonboomgers story is the BBG, but I think there are many more details to be explored, including Genba's story, so please look forward to that first. Also, please pay attention to the guest appearance of ToQger! This is the most recent appearance of a senior Sentai following Go-Onger, so I hope you'll look forward to future developments and seeing what kind of "spice" they'll add to Boonboomger.

Iuchi: When Genba left in episode 27, there was alot of reactions like, "He'll come back soon, right?," but even after a few weeks, he still hasn't come back. Including the appearance of Champion Boonboomger, I hope you'll pay attention to how everyone in Boonboomger grows by overcoming this predicament. Also, this was a personal request and something to look forward to, but although there was a story about Taiya's first love during his childhood, the very core of his past, such as "I can't sit still when I hear a scream," hasn't been explored yet. That's why I think It'd be good if we could delve deeper into Taiya's roots, along with his relationship with Naito-san. I'm really looking forward to it myself, and I hope that the fans will enjoy it too!

[liannelara-dracula]

Where they like to do it?

description: basically locations where the diaboys would have sex with their lover/gf.

note** Obviously the bed is a common spot so I won't mention it for all.

hi all, I thought this would be really fun to talk about. I came up with it a week ago in my bed, laying down out of pure boredom, and decided to work on it today. So just a gift to you all with me being busy consistently.

-Liannelara

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Prompt

Requests are open

Rules

Warning:

slight nsfw

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Sakamaki

Shu:

on the living room sofa

and if his brothers walk in its a plus for him

he's too lazy to move

Another common place is his room either on the bed or the floor.

music room

Mausoleum bc if he's there and you're there, he's too lazy to move

plus there are plenty of benches to sit on there and with the cold stone hitting your skin he can see your reaction.

(That one episode in season one of DL, we see Shu in a Mausoleum in which he is greeted by Yui. Since it's one of the places he goes to outside of the mansion, it's possible he'd have sex there if he happened to find himself there)

Reiji:

Normally his bed

but if you push him or its a full moon, its his lab

And if he gets really bold he'll leave the door slightly open

Just so if his brothers walk by they can hear and slightly witness his dearest underneath him.

Other times it's against his bookshelf

Or on his work desk/lab bench

Bathtub--he will casually walk in on you having a warm bath and from helping you clean to fingering you and then it goes further than that.

And then very rarely the shower.

dining room after all his brothers have left for the 'monthly dinner party' that they have and you are left to help clean up, he can't keep to himself because of your nice dress and appearance.

Laito:

anywhere...

Church, it was wrong😭

school--the locker room

Piano and piano bench and just the music room in the mansion itself.

By the fireplace

the school rooftop

Kanato:

his room usually on the bed with the millions of pillows he has to support his princess's body

out by a lake with moonlight (canon) so on the grass

outside of his room in the hall (wall sex)

And if his brothers see him, he absolutely loves it.

the balcony against the railing or on the wall (not in a way that you'd fall, he's too careful)

the rose garden

graveyard (mostly does this with a bride)

scheduled room in school

his doll room (with a bride only)

Ayato:

he's an almost anywhere kind of guy, but unlike Laito he has some limits.

the pool area in the mansion

school locker room and empty classroom

the gym matt

his closet

in one of the dungeon cells (with a bride only)

Subaru:

in a subaru, kill me

the rose garden up against the wall of the mansion.

his coffin

the shower

no bed, unless its yours

he's pretty private about this since he won't want his brothers to watch

but if he's certain no one is around he will do it somewhere at school

Kino:

his gaming room... where ever that may be...

this guy probably lives under a bridge

locker room

closet, anywhere sneaky tbh

really similar to Ayato because they have the same places it's not surprising if they have run into each other.

Mukami

Ruki:

the red room ;)

against the bookshelf

the school library

kitchen

in front of the mirror

bathroom counter/mirror

by the dresser in your bedroom, or behind the dividers used when you are changing into clothes.

limo, when none of his brothers are there or if you're leaving school early

your parent's house, if he was over and meeting them and felt needy with you around.

Yuma:

his garden

the shed!

up against a tree

grass fields

on a boat, if there is a lake nearby the mansion he has a small boat there and you can best bet you two have done it there a few times

especially when his brothers have been bothering him all day every time you two have tried to have some intimacy for the day

kitchen tiles

or by the window in his room, hardly ever on the bed--he's too adventurous.

bathtub/shower

he'd even do it on the staircase if it was possible

and if Kou walks in on it, it's a plus.

"Yeah, he can't do what I do." He'd boast.

Kou:

the floor of his room

the car/limo

Bed

school rooftop

if you're with him at work it's backstage or the dressing room

Azusa:

he's simple and he doesn't do it just anywhere

bed

sofa

bathtub

Tsukinami

Carla:

bed, because he believes it's the proper way to create children.

plus he's very traditional given how old he is, lol.

although he sometimes bends the rules

a secluded area at school like somewhere that is empty

a secret room in his castle

the bathtub/shower when he really can't wait.

behind the dividers used when you are changing into clothes.

Shin:

like his older brother, Shin usually does on the bed because he believes it's the most effective and proper way for you to conceive.

Even if it's not your main goal it's what he always reminds you about because he's old-fashioned.

but so are the rest of these mfs

the mirror, his mirror

up against a tree

the forest

by or in a lake

in the rain

your room (he likes it more than his) on the floor

supply closet at school (canon, he was going to do it there)

the bathtub, if he finds himself around and he's really needy.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

˗ˏˋ 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 ˎˊ˗ ©𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔~Present

[flowerandblood]

ONE YEAR OF FLOWER&BLOOD

✨🎉🌙✨🎉🌙✨🎉🌙✨🎉🌙✨🎉🌙✨🎉🌙

Exactly one year ago I posted my first chapter of the My Best Friend series. Nowadays I think it's something awful and I don't even try to edit it because I'd have to write everything from scratch, but I've left it for people who feel attached to the story. I remember getting about six likes and one comment on the first day and that huuuuge interest made me eager to create chapter 2 and then all the others.

I remember the excitement with which I waited and then replied to comments, not believing that people were actually waiting for the next chapter. At the time I was literally not following anyone, which was good because I wasn't comparing myself to anyone.

Eventually I felt I was ready to try writing other series and a few were successful enough that I decided to stay here permanently and create because it made me happy. Up to that point, everyone had been very kind to me and I started following more and more blogs, wanting to feel part of the fandom, to make friends with everyone. Now I know that was the biggest mistake I made.

Seeing things that didn't interest me, fanfic's whose way of writing couldn't draw me in, I felt frustrated, while at the same time fearing that if I stopped following someone, that person would see it as an affront. At the same time, The Impossible Choice, my biggest project until The Fall from the Heavens (which I'm currently editing and re-editing, while inserting on AO3), began to be written.

Just when I thought I had reached the pinnacle of my abilities (which wasn't true), I also started to clash with anonymous hate messages, probably the worst of which were those vilifying me and my husband, and those regarding my one-shot with Micheal Gavey. I know now that taking it personally and getting involved was my big mistake, and the fandom was shaken by drama that got out of hand.

I was a few steps away from deleting my blog at the time, but my husband talked me out of the idea (thankfully, as my stories aren't saved anywhere else − I'm only now moving them to AO3).

That's when I first realised that some people here I don't even like, and they probably don't like me. I wondered, why are we following each other then? Why are we pretending to have any courtesy? It was only later that I realised that to be considered someone's friend, you have to reblog their work and preferably agree with them even when they write hurtful things.

Since I've depleted my circle of those I follow to about 20 people, since I've blocked dozens of people and tags, there's been blissful silence (with the exceptions of when I write about behaviour in the fandom that I find toxic and someone accuses me of causing drama, but I'm used to it now). I've also never written happier than I do now.

Ideas come to me on their own, I don't feel uptight about what other big people will think of me, whether they reblog it, approve of it or not. I don't give a shit and life is beautiful! Although I can be emotionally unstable, I'm only 70 people short of crossing the next milestone of 3,000 followers, and that's BIG for me. It amuses me that I keep getting messages that someone is going to block me or stop following me, and you guys keep coming. It's gratifying.

I'm going to keep writing for you guys, and I'm sure during season two you'll also see my posts describing my impressions after the episodes in which I hope to involve my husband. I'll also keep you updated here on how I'm doing with my book I'm creating in my private life.

Apreciation

@ewanmitchellcrumbs

Ange. I know that sometimes I'm fucked up, but I want you to know that you've made this place so much more bearable for me that I can't imagine it without you. What I appreciate most about you is that you can talk and discuss, that you always try to understand the other side, that you are empathetic, warm and kind. I feel that, like friends in everyday life, we can also tell each other about things we disagree about, and there are not many people like that here.

On top of that, you are very talented and your stories are always a pleasure to read, even when they are short, you are able to build the plot and atmosphere perfectly, something I have always admired. Thank you for every kind word and understanding.

I still remember your first message to me via ask, referring to the fact that I didn't want to write a pairing with a mermaid because someone else was writing about it at the same time. My heart melted then, it was so nice!

@targaryenrealnessdarling

Liz, Queen of Angst! Your calmness and composure puts me in awe. You're disgustingly talented when it comes to writing and you have a super-sweet personality. When you started following me I began to squirm with delight, and when you started reblogging my stuff? My goodness!!!

@persephonerinyes

You've been engaging and reblogging my stories for as long as I can remember. Always involved, your thoughts make me smile. Thank you for being with me for so long!

@zenka96

You've been here with me since the dawn of time. You know that I love you. Your support from the very beginning really makes me feel like I have a friend here.

@huramuna

I am so proud of you! I remember your asks when I wrote Glass Cuts Deepest, your illustrations for me and your uncertainty about whether you should start writing yourself. I'm so happy for you and that you are so successful! You deserved it.

@black-dread & @aegonx

You are my favourite gif makers. Your work always leaves me in awe, you are amazing! I know how much work you put into it and somehow you make even the worst lit scenes look wonderful!

@summerposie; @0eessirk8; @melsunshine; @immyowndefender; @bellaisasleep; @kckt88; @thedamewithabook; @happinessinthebeing; @queenofshinigamis; @travelingmypassion; @mefools; @fan-goddess; @toodlesxcuddles; @ammo23; @troublesomesnitch; @mariahossain; @out-of-life; @apothe-roses; @heavenhatesme; @whitearemydarkestnight; @liv-cole; @blackswxnn; @echos-muses; @watercolorskyy; @at-a-rax-ia; @tssf-imagines; @snh96; @hiatuswhore; @exitpursuedbyavulcan; @darylandbethfanforever9; @the-dendrophile-bookdragon; @opheliaas-stuff @zaldritzosrose

Your comments and reblogs make me want to keep writing. You make me laugh, you comfort me and you support me. I know I'm definitely forgetting someone, but I want you to know that I love everyone who comments on my stories and there is nothing better for me than responding to your reactions and questions! I have known some of you for so many months that I truly consider you my good friends!

lottie-blue-star; aveatquevale-; aemondtargaryenwifey marvelescvpe; alphard-hydraes-blog; herejusttostan; li0nn3stuff; alexandrawho; vilmakamunen; angelinap09; theloveablestargirl; rose-blue-19; xxxkat3xxx; flosaureum; mandiiblanche; librawh0re; jasminecosmic99; ivvypg; rojocarnation; killmanduh; tokkiiidoll; wolfdressedinlace; angelofvivianne; nina2697; starwarsgirlsimmer1; katsucker; ipostwhtifeel; aemondsdelight; ilswemoon; tigrigri; pasta-rask; roselibrary; lystargs; gemini-mama; nikstrange; tempo-rary-fix; coffeeobsessedtrencher; gwuinivyre; dreamerbythewayx; diiickbrainn; mothmankit

And everyone else I missed and whose icons I would recognize from afar. I know that you have been with me for many months, often in silence or communicating anonymously. Your silent support and presence is something wonderful for me, knowing that you have been with me for so long and read all my posts!

Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!

[minimoxha]

Ready, Set, Love!

Starring: Satoru Gojo, Karma Akabane, Eren Yeager, Itadori Yuji, Izuku Mydoria, Y/n L/n.

Summary: Based in a society where marriage is now a hard ask to achieve. In which you, the reader are forced by your sister to join a game show in hopes to get married while you're in it to make money.

A/n: I KNOW THIS IS A CRAZY MIX BUT HEAR ME OUT. Abandoning prior lore these boys are (Not that traumatized) And they will be the options for you to marry. However, if you feel like anyone else should be in the show to replace some of the characters let me know.

There will be different games and different endings which means you all can vote on the dates and games and outcomes and kind of choose how the story goes, YAY! This was the prolouge so tune in next episode next week! :D

Enjoy,

“I understand what you’re saying Ms.L/n, truly.” My sister's principal started, giving me a look of pure pity as I just spilled my life to her like it was truly her problem that we couldn’t afford such a prestigious school. “However, we can’t keep her here. She is disruptive and abusive to our students and staff here. She has to leave.” Just fucking great, Jada. You had to be an argument brat all the damn time. 

“Do you know our other options?” I ask quietly. When Mrs.Langsy looked down at her computer, I made sure to send Jada a death stare. I was tired of switching schools because she couldn't keep herself together. And this time, I didn’t know how I was going to send her to school when the last option was a school for snotty rich kids that I definitely couldn’t afford the tuition for. “Public schools preferably?”

Mrs.Langsy sighed and finally stopped typing on her computer, giving me and Jada a sorry look. So, that was a no. 

“Jada has been banned from every public school in this part of the city. The other option would be to move or go to private school..” Mrs.Langsy whispered to me. I could feel my left eye twitching in anger She just had to do this now. “This is the brochure for the private school closest, Jularod, I send my own daughter there it is an amazing school.” I took the brochure and flipped though it before stopping and abruptly closing it when I saw the tuition price; 20 thousand a year? Was I paying for her college or was I paying for her to attend middle school?

“Thank you, Ms. Langsy. Have a good day.” I smiled to the principal even though I clearly have an attitude. I dragged jada out of the office before laying into her.

“How did you get suspended again? I thought we said no fighting?”

“She fucked around and found out! I don’t know what you want me to do.” Jada argued back as we walked to the car. “Just take me out of school, I’ll teach myself.” Jada was always stubborn, just like dad was. This however, was not the time to have an attitude. 

“Watch your mouth, Jada. You’ll learn when you're older than fighting wont just get you suspended but next time, It’ll get you in Jail.” I argue back. I sound like my mom. She would’ve been yelling at me for skipping class or something just as rebellious as Jada was doing years ago when I was her age. Years ago when she was alive. 

“Jada please, I work hard to make sure we have a roof and food. I just need you to behave for once. Can you do that?” My voice cracked at the end, I was trying my best to not cry while driving and crashing the car. If she had a better role model than me…maybe she would’ve been better behaved. 

Jada turned to me, worry coating her beautiful babydoll eyes. “I’ll do better, Y/n.” 

That was all I needed. 

Some type of Closure that she would be trying to end her nasty streak of fighting and being sneaky. I would do all that I could to trust that she would make the right decision. I just had to sit and trust her for once. 

“Let’s go out to dinner this time.”

“Yeah!”

                              —

Jada and I walked side by side, Ice cream in hand staying in sight of the huge tv located in the main part of (insert city in japan later).The broadcast of Ready, Set, Love, was starting to play; announcing all 100 contestants in a very slow, very painful manner. 

I had never been interested in shows like these, Reality tv mixed with dating and finding the true love of your life. Jada was though. 

In our house she had ran her allowance almost dry buying various merch from the many ads the boys had to advertise them

for them for the new season. My ears almost bled with how much she would tell me about these men she barely knew. And every night, without a doubt she’d be in one of their lives watching these men talk about their lives for no apparent reason. 

They were handsome, I couldn’t lie. But Couldn’t imagine being one of the girls to be on that show competing for a man. Had we really lost all decorum as women that we were so eager to be married that we’d do competitions for the chance to have one we wanted? 

“I hope you win.” Jada mumbled from beside me. I turned to her, confusion written all over my face.

“I didn’t enter, why would I win?”

“I entered you.” She confessed. My face was more confused than ever now.

It was nothing new that Jada was one of the sneakiest people I knew. If she wanted to hide something  and lie about something, she was going to do it. Gracefully, might I add. “Why would you do that? You know I don't like these stupid shows.” I ask her, finishing my ice cream with my mouth full of the dessert. “Its like a 0.1 chance that I’ll be picked out of 1 million girls.”

Jada turns to me, her face more serious than I had ever seen it. “I want to see you married, Y/n. I don’t want you to sit around and put your life to the side even when you deserve to live your life.” Tears filled her eyes as she took hold of my hand. Her palms were sweaty, she was nervous. 

My mouth opened so I could say something, something that would attempt to convince her that she was not a burden to me no matter what. I was cut off by the rather loud announcement of my full name coming from the direction of one of the screens that hung from the side of the building. As if on its own, my head flips back towards the tv seeing a horrible picture plastered on the screen, directly next to my name in big green letters. My mouth falls in shock. There  was absolutely no way I actually won. I didn’t even want to win but somehow out of millions of girls I was one of the starting 100? My head flips back to Jada who looked at me with a huge smile gaping her face.

“You won! You actually won” She shouts, voice like a kid in a candy store would be.

Yeah, I won. Holy shit.

[adventuringblind]

Drive With You Forever

Chapter Five: Cats, Cluelessness, and difficult communication

Max Verstappen x Reader x Charles Leclerc x Lando Norris

Chapter Summary: a brief interlude in the off-season before 2020, Sebastian adopts Charles, Max struggles to communicate his feelings, and the reader makes a new friend 👀

Warnings: mentions of SH, reader over does it again, seizure like episode, Lando is awkward, Charles is awkward, Max can't do feeling well yet, jos verstappen

Notes: ah yes, the gang is all here now. I have more action coming in the next part. Maybe also some fluffy stuff. I've been trying to get some blurbs done for what isn't shown in the long chapters because I've had to cut down on some things. I would love to give y'all some content of our duo, trio, or quartet doing something specific.

Previous <-

Masterlist

The end of the season means a bit of a break for the drivers. A chance to spend some time with their families. For her, it means spending time with Sebastian and Hanna in Germany.

The trio had wanted to officially introduce themselves. They knew, but the three barely got a chance to interact all together. It would be nice to catch up anyways.

They are all sat at the dining room table. Even the littles wanted to join in on the conversation. Mostly they spout of randomness as they listen but it’s still endearing to everyone.

The three are sat in a row. Charles far left, the female in the middle and Max on the right if her.

“So I’m curious, who gets the middle of the bed?” Seb laughs at his own question. Hanna playfully hits his shoulder. Charles and Max both look at her. She just rolls her eyes as they both start laughing.

“Are you three moving in together?” Hanna asks this time. Genuine curiosity, unlike her husband.

Charles almost chokes. He hadn’t thought about it.

He’s thankful he’s not the first to answer. “Are you saying you want me out?” It’s a playful question from the girl. She’s smiling like an idiot at the banter.

“Of course not. You’re welcome here forever.”

Max swallows his food then joins the conversation. “We were actually planning on moving some things to my apartment since we’re here.” Now Charles feels out of place. Was he not asked yet for a reason? They hadn’t been together long so it would make sense. “Charles lives in Monaco already so I figured his things would be easier to move.” Max explains.

Now he’s confused. Something Max can clearly see. They make eye contact for a moment and Charles is left a mess. “Unless you don’t want to anymore?”

Charles is shaking his head no at lightning speed. He definitely wants to. He’s tired of living alone and throwing himself pity parties over breaks. Plus, he learns he sleeps better when he's not alone.

~

Moving feels more sentimental to her this time. She had more stuff than when she was fifteen.

Sbeastion offered to let them fly private with him to help move her stuff to Monaco. She wanted to, but it was unnecessary. Most of her belongings that she needs fits into an extra suitcase.

Max and Charles both kept asking her if she had anything else. It was getting on her nerves a bit.

Hanna and Seb had done the same thing when she first came to Germay. Though she had less then. Hanna had taken her to get some new clothes because her t-shirts all had holes in them.

Flights were weird. The first class has two seats for each row, meaning that one of them got to sit somewhere else. They often played musical chairs on the plane because of this.

She'd always had an affinity for even numbers.

It was an interesting dynamic they had created. Charles and Max are barely a month apart, and she's just turned nineteen. They get to do things she can't yet. But she's gentle and knows exactly what they need and is far to gentle for what she's been through.

Charles felt that he was playing catch up with the other two. He was new to this and still new to them. He, however, was the best at communication between the three.

Max, having grown up in an interesting family setting, is aggressive and protective. His communication skills are lacking, but he would do anything to keep his significant others out of harms way.

Today was one of those days that Max was struggling communication wise. It had started after an intense phone call where the other two were attempting (and failing) at deciphering dutch.

She'd offered to sit next to him if he needed consoling, but he decided to sit further away from the two. Leaving them to figure out what happened.

This had brought the thoughts of even numbers. If they were flying with four of them, Max wouldn't be able to mope alone.

"Do you think it was Jos?" Charles asked. His eyes had been on the Dutch for most of the flight.

"I would assume so given that he was speaking Dutch, and he doesn't do that with many people."

Both sigh. Jos had been on Max's ass about moving up into a championship title. Che was ready to have some words, either him, next time they were together, and Charles was going to start making a point to celebrate every placement in a race.

It didn't take long to get to Max's apartment. It's not the most luxurious, but it's comfortable. He's planning to get something worthy of the three of them after he gets a title.

Max had successfully locked himself away in his bedroom. The other two left to figure out what he needs. Maybe it is just a time thing?

"Is he usually like this after a call with Jos?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "It depends on if he's praising or berating."

"Can we help him?" Charles is eyeing the closed door and her. His brain working out every way to get him to open up.

She smirks. There always one thing that cheered up Max.

~

Max was choking back tears. He felt weak. Like he was never going to he enough.

He felt bad for stomping off the way he did, but he didn't want his partners to see him like this.

He hears the soft rape of knuckles against the door. "Mon Amour? Can we please come in?"

He grunts, but the Monegasque takes it as approval.

Charles peeks his head in. His gentle steps are coming closer to Max. He doesn't look up. He just keeps his head buried in his pillow.

Charles doesn't say anything, which he appreciates. Just sits down on the edge and lets Max's body dip towards his. Then he's running his fingers through Max's hair.

It's not long before another set of footsteps are padding into the room. These ones softer then Charles, telling Max it's y/n.

She's successfully moved both Jimmy and Sassy into the room from their hiding spots and is holding his favorite movie. She sneaks in and closes the door behind her.

They spend the next couple of hours lying in bed with the cats and watching their movie.

Max feels himself calming down. They don't talk about anything. Aside from occasionally copying the lines from the movie they've watched far to many time.

It's after that he feels like he can say something. His mind finally grounded back to reality. "I'm sorry for shutting you both out. I was just... agitated, I guess."

The Monegasque has his fingers back in his hair in an instant. "It's okay, you needed space. Do you want to talk about it now?"

The youngest places sassy on his chest as a way to comfort him. Her hands intertwine with his.

"Just frustrated that my dad thinks I'm not trying. He started spouting that I'll never get anywhere at this rate."

"That a lie. Jos is obviously lacking brain cells." The youngest pipes. "I can throw him into a wall if you want?"

The idea actually makes him smile.

~

Charles was the next to move things in. Though it was mildly awkward explaining to his family why he was moving somewhere else.

Turns out he can't keep a secret. His family is accepting. Pascale welcomes both into her home. She takes a particular liking to the quiet girl who is still always between the two older boys.

His stuff takes up more of the apartment than hers. The contrast of red and blue is now showing everywhere.

"If Charles is red, Max is blue, and I'm always in the middle, does that make me purple?" She spouts while unpacking a box of ferrari shirts.

Max spits out the water he was drinking. Charles starts wheezing. And she is laughing at her own comment.

"Where did you come up with that, Chéri?"

"Just a thought I've been sitting on since we started dating."

"You're not wrong, though." Max is wiping his mouth clean from the water.

~

It's weird going places together. Not errands and things, but social gatherings. Charles has asked to keep things private for now. He's not fond of the questions people have about the nuances of their relationship.

They came and left separately. Usually, depending on who wanted to leave first, the other would wait about fifteen minutes.

A few months into the break, Lando Norris decides to call Max and invite him and his lover to a party. He does the same for Charles a minute after he hangs up with Max.

The three of you have to hold in your laughter as Charles tries to get through the phone call listening to the same details.

Despite what Lando said, this was not the type of party any of you are used to by now. At least not Charles and Max. She'd been to few and got overwhelmed by it all pretty quickly. Sometimes, she'd use it as an excuse to get the boys out of the apartment so she could have the cats to herself and play around with her powers.

Charles and Max both hate it when she does it alone. They've found her on the floor passed out on multiple occasions. She doesn't care, though. The visions and nightmares of her father were more reason to keep going.

Regardless, this party is small. Just a few drivers who had been in town or live in Monaco are here with their partners.

Kika and Pierre, George and Carmen, Alex and Lily, Carlos is here along with Daniel. Charles is seated in a solitary chair. The couches have been taken. Daniel and Lando on either side of him.

It feels nice and intimate in a way. She hadn't seen many drivers just get together to hang out like this.

Charles is ever the gentleman and offers her the chair, which she takes. Him and Max are now making themselves comfortable on the floor in front of her.

They're eating, drinking, laughing, and sharing stories from the past. It's nice and relaxing.

She taps Max's shoulder, alerting him that she's going for water and asking both boys if they need anything to which they reply no.

She spots Lando in his kitchen getting a drink. It's not an alcoholic one, just juice that looks like it could be alcohol.

She turns on his tap for water, and Lando jumps out of his skin. His eyes rapidly look between her and his cup.

"I like to mix my alcohol with juice...?" His voice sounds unsure. Does he think it's not okay to just have juice?

"Juice is a good choice, in my opinion. Alcohol is strong and feels funny sometimes."

Lando visibly relaxs. "Promise you won't tell anyone? They laugh at me sometimes when I do this."

"I promise."

~

Lando was around more after the party. He seemed comfortable around her and Max. He'd opened up about his anxiety to them and played far to many games with Max.

What they were not expecting was for Lando to show up at their apartment door at three o'clock in the morning. His breathing uneven body shaking like a leaf.

She knew what this was. She'd had plenty of panic attacks.

She guides him inside to the couch and is trying to asses the situation. Get his breathing to calm down so he doesn't hyperventilate.

It takes ten minutes until he's calm.

"Did something happen?"

"Just a nightmare, and I couldn't calm down after."

"Did you walk here?"

He nods his head yes. Exhaustion flooding his eyes.

"Is Max asleep?" He asks.

"Should be. He sleeps like a rock most of the time." They both giggle. Lando is now able to relax in a calm environment.

They are interrupted by two sets of footsteps. Charles and Max come barreling into the living room. Panic on their faces one minute and embarrassment the next. Lando staring at the with the utmost confusion.

The older boys are shirtless and in sweats. Max's arm protectively outstretched in front of Charles.

"...oops."

~

Lando is not stupid. He may be the youngest on the grid currently, but he's not stupid.

He saw how the three of them looked at each other. Charles definitely touched them both far more than what friends do.

Originally, he thought he was crazy for watching them. Yet he couldn't help but be intrigued. How they all interacted. How they just flowed together.

Now he sits on their couch. Max looks like he's guarding Charles and y/n. The Dutch has yet to sit down and is leaning against the wall. Charles is sitting across from him with the females head in this lap. His fingers running through her hair.

It's a terrible feeling. Like he's left out of whatever this is. Three of his best friends spend all their time together, and he's just here. Young and naïve Lando.

"Did you have a feeling this would happen, Mijn liefje?" Asks Max from his perch on the wall. She shakes her head no in response.

Lando had heard about her knack for predicting future outcomes. He'd heard rumors about magic and tarot cards, but she'd never said anything to him.

"Well, you're welcome to stay here in the extra bedroom, and I can't take you home in the morning."

"That sounds nice, thank you."

~

She woke up exhausted. She felt guilty for not having warned Max and Charles. Her mind to far gone that they were mad at her. She spent her night trying to get any glimpse of their future but didn't get anything useful.

She hid herself away in the master bathroom. The wet towel and the floor her new best friend.

She could smell breakfeast. Max is cooking for all of them. They learned quickly not to let Charles cook. Lest they all die.

She was in bed with them this morning. Only crawling out from their hold when she felt them stir.

Every question puts her further into the fog. Was she going to lose them? Are they upset with her? Is Lando okay with them? Would he tell people?

It's too much for her head.

She goes for another attempt. She knows she's overdoing it. The further she goes with less time in-between brings her closer to the edge of her body going numb.

Nausea creeps into her stomach, but she sees them. Further down the line. Happy and four.

Four? This could be shocking, and yet somehow, she already knew. Her mind just needs a but of confirmation that it's possible.

The nausea gets stronger. Her nose is bleeding heavily. She pushed it past the limit.

They won't mind, though.

~

Max is making breakfast and quietly humming to himself. Charles has his hands on his hips, the two of them swaying back and forth to the tune.

"Do you think I should go check on her?" Charles mumbles into his shoulder.

"She may want space after last night, she was taken off guard and might need to peocess." He explains, then turns his attention back to the pan.

"I'm worried, though. She was crying last night after Lando went to bed, and I don't think she slept."

Lando slides around the corner. His face lighting up at the smell of food. "Can I... can I have some?"

Max laughs at the Brit's excitment. "Of course. I made enough for all of us."

Lando sits himself on top on the counter. Watching the Dutch and Monegasque lean into each other. He takes notice that someone is missing. "Is y/n okay?"

Both boys sigh with heavy concern. "She had a rough night." Explains Charles. His body is fighting the urge to go get her. "I can't take it anymore, I'm going to check on her."

Charles leaves Max and Lando in the kitchen. His legs taking long strides back to the bedroom.

"So you guys all sleep together? Not like sexually- I guess - I mean at night to sleep."

Max smiles at the Brit. His curiosity was nothing he didn't expect. "Yeah, we pile into the same bed at night. All of us sleep better that way."

Lando hums. His palm rubs his face with anxiety. "Would you ever add a fourth?-'m asking for a friend..."

Max already knows. Somehow, someway, he already knows where this is going. "Depends. It took months of discussion before Charles joined us. But I'm sure if the right person came along, we'd be open to it." Max turns around to face Lando and shoots him a reassuring smile.

Lando's cheek tint pink, and Max knows exactly what he wants.

~

Charles leclerc is usually someone who panics. This time was no exception.

He'd seen plenty after his six months of being together with his partners. Particularly how the femal among them is prone to violent behaviors against herself. He's seen all of her powers now and how they affect her if she uses them too much. He's been there to help soothe her after night terrors while Max fetches her water.

He was glad she opened up to him about her past more. He knew the generally what had gone on but no details, nothing like what he knew now.

The prospect of her father coming back for her at some point is what drover her to the breaking point on most days.

Now, Charles is faced with a locked door and the sounds of thrashing from the other side. He'd tried picking the lock, something him and Max both learned to do after instances like this, but his hands are far too shaky to maneuver the pins.

So he does the only other logical thing and breaks the door down. Only enough that he can lean it somewhere and not let it fall on her, but it felt cool to kick it in.

Charles has seen a lot of things, but this is completely new. Her muscles are tensing at a rapid speed, and her eyes are rolled back into her head. Her breathing movements are unatrual.

"Max!"

It takes ten seconds, and he's there. His body and mind reacting to the situation. He's trying to hold her in his arms. Attempting to wake her up from whatever trance she's in.

Max hisses through his teeth when he touches her. Her skin in his searing his hands. Yet, he pushes through.

Charles feels helpless. "What can I do?"

"This has happened before. She must have forced a vision. She'll come out of it, we just need to make sure she dosen't die in the process."

The two boys are then lifting her body of the floor. Charles now carries her to the bed while Max runs around grabbing things. Mostly ice to cool her down. Charles rambles on to her about nothing and everything. Max said they should talk to her, giver her some to help bring her back.

Both of them forgot they left Lando in the kitchen. The Brit left to finish making breakfast in light of their emergency. Again, they are shocked to see his pale face watching the scene unfold before him.

"Can I help?" Is all he can manage.

"Do you want to trade places with me? I think the liquid benadryl might help."

Lando is taking over for Max tentatively. He takes the ice pack from the Dutch and places it on her forehead.

Lando can see the sweat and tears mixed with fresh blood. It's scary, and he's nervous. Why are they not taking her to a hospital?

Normally, she's the one calming him down. She always knows exactly what he needs to hear. He's not been in this position, and it scares him to see her like this.

He slides one hand down to her bicep. His fingers tap out the melody to her favorite song. A trick she used on him to bring him back to earth when he got in his head.

About halfway through, she's sucking in a breath, her body sitting straight upwards. Her eyes are no longer stuck to the inside of her head. She's still sweating like mad, and her body is twitching, but she's awake.

She's breathing heavily. Dry heaving and coughing into herself. Her hands are quick to find Charles and grasp at him, searching for the familiar comfort.

Lando watches her intently. Her sobs are painful. They sound broken, like whatever she's just been through was some sort of of torcher.

"Chéri, can I set you with Lando for a moment? I need to tell Max you're awake." Charles whispers gently. Lando takes note of how he's cradling her. His hands on the back of her head and under her legs to support her weight.

She barely nods her approval. Her body is slid close to Lando, who embraces her. Attempting to replicate what Charles was doing. He finds himself tapping the same melody on her knees.

"Was that you tapping? When I was asleep?" She chokes.

"Yeah, could you feel it."

She nods her head against his body. "You brought me back, thank you."

Lando lets his body relax into hers, knowing he at least did one thing right today.

~

Next ->

Tags: @styles-sunflower @purplephantomwolf @boiohboii @reblog-princess-blog @jjsprobablywrong @ipabloramos @jayda12 @faithm120601

(comment if you want to be added)

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

So, the Miraculous Ladybug TV Tropes page recently added this under the Broken Aesop section on the YMMV page:

Adrien/Cat Noir had many instances where he could have discovered the identity of Ladybug/Marinette, but always respected the private life of his beloved, despite knowing that learning it would bring them closer (The only time when he learned it accidentally, Adrien was punished with the apocalypse, no less, and a Retcon.) His attitude was presented as the right thing to do. In the meantime, Alya has been akumatized on the fact she wanted to know Ladybug/Marinette's secrets. Both times, she tried to violently force the issue with her powers and the second time was after she tried pressuring her into revealing them. But, as a reward for her pushy behavior, Alya has been entrusted with Ladybug's identity and the secrets of the Miracle Box. And Adrien's reward for respecting her privacy? He's still (and more and more) left in the dark, and will very likely be the last one to know.

Any thoughts?

I don't fully agree, but it's also not exactly wrong.

I love Alya, but I've never been a fan of the fact that she learned Marinette's secret identity, especially because the episode where it happens - Gang of Secrets - really failed to make the confession feel like a wise move. It's one of the many episodes with a wacky moral.

For those who don't remember, the episode has most of Marinette's female friends worrying about her. They know that she's keeping secrets because, for some reason, Marinette didn't tell anyone about her breakup with Luka:

Rose: They were so cute together! Alya: Yeah, except they broke up. Juleka: He was like super sad when they did. Alya: But the real problem here is that Marinette never told us anything. If Luka hadn't told Juleka, who told Rose, who told Mylène, who then told Alix, who finally told me. Then I, her BF in the whole world would still be in the dark! Yesterday I was in the restroom and I heard her crying.

This is... really weird. Why didn't Marinette tell them? The episode never explains and I can't figure out her logic because they'd obviously learn the truth. There's no way that Juleka wouldn't know!

My best guess is that the writers wanted a conflict over secrets, but they didn't want to have Marinette's girl friends pick up on her Ladybug-based lies as that would invite a level of complexity that they really can't resolve. But that's a meta reason. As far as the actual text goes, there's nothing to explain this baffling choice.

What's even more weird is that making it about the Ladybug secrets would have worked if Alya was the only one worried because the episode ends with Alya learning the truth. Having the episode only be about Marinette and Alya would make a lot of sense. Instead, it's about the whole, rarely-seen girl group so we're stuck with the Luka conflict. Yay.

Either way, I'm not wild about the actions Alya and Co take. Their first choice is to call Marinette. When she doesn't pick up, they leave a very sweet message. If things ended there, then we'd be fine, but right after that, we get this:

Alya: Maybe we should go to her house. What do you think? Mylène: We'll give her an eternal friendship bracelet so she never forgets that friends can tell each other anything and that we'll always be there for her.

This isn't a terrible idea. Checking on a friend when you're worried about them is a reasonable thing. The problem is the way that check up goes down. The girls basically invade Marinette's room and start messing with her stuff like this is some fun little hangout session, almost discovering the miracle box in the process:

Marinette: What are you doing here? Alya: We're just checkin' in on you, girl. Rose: Aw, it looks just like a real house, look how the roof comes off to show the inside! Marinette:(frantically) No! No, don't touch that! Move away! (As Rose opens the roof, Marinette gets down, pushing past through her friends and Rose as she hides what is inside of the dollhouse, while Rose accidentally drops the roof, which cracks. The girls gasp in shock.) Rose:(kneels to pick up the cracks) Sorry, Marinette! Marinette:(angrily) Will you please leave my room?! Alya: Chill out Marinette, it's just a doll house. We'll totally help. Marinette: No you won't, please go! Alya: Okay Marinette, there's clearly something wrong and we're not leaving you like this till you tell us what it is.

The scene goes on like this until Marinette lashes out and tells them to get out even if it means ending her friendship with them, which is a response that I find totally justified. Marinette is quite obviously very distressed by her friends' presence and they are refusing to listen to her pleas to leave. They're also giving that refusal in a highly confrontational manner, which is the completely wrong tone for conveying concern. They do not come across as caring. They come across as demanding.

Marinette has every right to be upset by that. It's okay to not want people to invade your room, touch your stuff, and demand to know you're secrets. It's also okay to get upset when people keep ignoring your clearly stated and perfectly reasonable boundaries.

While I fully support wellness checks, this is not how you do them. It's like a variation on the scenes where people confront Gabriel in Adrien's name. They're all impressively terrible examples of how you handle a very complex situation. Worst possible way you could go about it. Children, do not try this at home!

Of course, Marinette's justified reaction leads to the girls getting akumatized, leading to a fight, leading to Ladybug saving the day, leading to everyone being friends again even though the girls never apologize for how they went about their wellness check. Rose's quick sorry for breaking Marinette's doll house is the only one we get in the entire episode. Then we get this:

Alya: You go ahead girls, I just have one last thing to say to Marinette. (closes the door to Marinette's room) You didn't tell us everything, did you? A journalist and a BFF can tell these things. I won't try to figure it out or force it out of you. (sits beside Marinette) If you can't tell me what's in your heart, it's your right. Marinette: Will we still be friends? Alya: Marinette. I'm your best friend, and I'll always be. That's why it kills me that I can't help you with whatever's making you feel so alone. (Alya sighs, and is about to leave Marinette's room when Marinette grabs her hand.) Marinette: Alya, wait! Stay. You're right, I am alone. (grows increasingly emotional) More than ever before. I can barely take it anymore! You know why I broke up with Luka? Not because I don't like him, he's amazing! It's 'cause there's something that I can't tell him. You know why I have to forget Adrien? For the exact same reason! You're right, I keep secrets, I lie all the time! I lie to my friends, to my parents, to everyone and the worst thing is, I can't do it any other way! Alya: There's always another way. Marinette: No, not this time. I have no choice. All this is bigger than us, Alya. Way too big. Alya: If it's too big, two of us can handle it better than one. Marinette: If I tell you, things will never be the same between us again. (shakes her head) It'll mess up everything, maybe even destroy it. Alya:(voice breaking) Marinette, I'm your very best friend. Marinette: And I… I'm Ladybug.

Maybe this is just me, but this doesn't feel like Alya respecting Marinette's boundaries. It's certainly not as bad as the earlier scene. In fact, I like a lot of this in a vacuum, but because of that earlier scene, this one feels uncomfortable. Once again, Alya is so sure that she knows what she's talking about even though she really doesn't.

In the first scene, Marinette was right that they all needed to get out so that she could protect the Kwamis and in this scene she was right that the Ladybug reveal wasn't the kind of thing where sharing was the clear right choice. This would all play so much better if Alya said her first few lines and then actually left, only to be called back by Marinette several hours later. Then we'd really feel like Marinette was making an informed choice instead of revealing her identity in a panic.

Another option would be to have Alya offer comfort without needing to know what is upsetting Marinette, maintaining the secret identities while also giving Marinette some much needed support. Saying she'll support Marinette no matter what and then getting up to leave just doesn't feel super supportive to me. It feels like Alya is (unintentionally) making Marinette panic by saying one thing while technically doing another.

Remember, Marinette just had a really stressful day where she almost lost all of her friends, making this an incredibly charged moment that ends with Alya leaving while clearly disappointed. Of course Marinette would try to salvage that! Her brain isn't focusing on Alya's genuine words. It just sees Alya leaving and panics. It doesn't help that this opening line would put a lot of people on edge:

You didn't tell us everything, did you? A journalist and a BFF can tell these things.

"I know you're still keeping secrets, but I respect that" is not the best way to start a conversation with someone who is clearly struggling.

Because of these issues, I don't feel like Marinette truly decided to make this serious choice. I feel like she blurted it out in the middle of a panic attack, so this scene never gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. This is especially true because we never get to truly see the fallout of Alya processing the reveal and comforting Marinette. The scene just ends and the next episode has them back to their usual dynamic, just with the bonus element of Alya knowing the whole Ladybug thing.

To be fair to Alya, a lot of this comes back to our oft-discussed issue of Miraculous trying to speed run major story lines in 20 minutes because it's a formula show so it can't let things play out properly. That doesn't change the fact that this feels rushed and unsatisfying. It's not the natural conclusion to an episode where Alya learns to respect Marinette's boundaries, but I don't think that's actually the lesson here. The lesson seems to be that Marinette should share her secrets with her friends to lessen her mental burden.

Once again, that's a lovely lesson in a vacuum, but a really weird one for the show that gave us Chat Blanc and Miracle Queen in the previous season and that will include Sentibubbler, Ephemeral, and Nino accidentally outing Alya to Gabriel in the exact same season. Season five will even see Luka leave the country because he knows the secret identities!

Writers, when it comes to secret identities, you really need to pick a lane. Are they good or bad? Is sharing them a No Good Very Bad Thing, an act of trust, or no big deal? The inconsistency around this topic is a major issue for the show as the Alya reveal really undermines everything going on with Ladynoir. While there's solid logic for Ladynoir not sharing, similar logic applies to Alya at this point because Gabriel literally knows her secret identity! Through no fault of her own, Alya is not a safe person and that makes it really hard to watch Alya get the reveal while Adrien stays in the dark. I can justify him not knowing. I can't justify Alya knowing.

I'll wrap this up by saying that I don't agree that Adrien has respected Ladybug's boundaries to the point where it feels like he should have been rewarded (narratively speaking, of course. This is a story after all). He may not be all that pushy about an identity reveal, but he's pretty freaking pushy about Ladynoir becoming a thing, so Ladybug not being ready to trust him does feel earned. Plus, as I said above, it's not like there's no logic behind them keeping their identities a secret. We know that they're dating on the civilian side, but as far as they know, they're total strangers.

If you look at it from that perspective and ask, "what are the benefits of a reveal," you'll find that they're not overwhelming, especially when compared to the risks that come with a mind-controlling super villain on the loose. I totally get why Marinette isn't telling him a thing, I'm just not really sure why she needed to tell Alya. The more logical route here is for Marinette to keep her secrets and look for support on the Ladybug side of things. Ideally that support should be Chat Noir or Su-Han, but it could be Alya, too. I still think that's a bad call since Alya's identity is in the villain's hands, but it would still make more sense than Marinette telling Alya all of her secrets. Another route would be for Alya to learn by accident. She walks in at the wrong time and, ooops, no taking that back. That's the only way I'd personally write Alya learning at this point in the story.

Sorry if this one was a bit of a ramble, the writing around the topic of secret identities is one of the elements I truly don't understand. I have no idea what the writers are doing here. It's not even a "you didn't think this through" thing like the sentimonster stuff. It's a "you spent all of last season telling us that identity reveals are bad and you're about to spend all of this season also telling us that, so why do we randomly get an identity reveal that's magically okay? Rena Furtive doesn't even do anything useful for the plot, why make her a thing?? Are you even trying to tell a coherent story???"

[reduxulousoctopus]

X-Men '97, Post-Episode 7, ~2500 words Morpherine established relationship, missing scene (unless the show actually does explore what happened during that fight, in which case boy is there egg on my face).

I follow established show canon by referring to Morph as he/him in diegetic works (fanfic and fan art) and they/them in non-diegetic works (my episode analyses and reblogs), because that's the stupidest option and, like Morph, I am also an enby with a terrible sense of humor.

Now come watch me struggle to write two whole lines of dialogue for one of my favorite characters in the series, Beast, because Me Too Stupid to Write Smart Talk Good.

--

“You wanna explain what the hell happened back there?”

Although he considers pretending he didn’t hear the question, Morph reluctantly glances across the center aisle of the Blackbird to see Logan glaring back at him with an expression as hard as the adamantium underneath it. Although it’s a look he’s seen plenty of times before as an innocent bystander, Morph has only been the target of that glare on a handful of occasions. Usually when he’s severely fucked something up. Or when Logan is completely out-of-his-mind, cuckoo-bananas worried about him.

Morph suspects that this time, it’s a little Column A, a little Column B.

A wiser person might realize they were in a hole and stop digging; Morph smirks and asks, “What, the Summers Family Reunion? Well, you see, when a man and the clone of his wife love each other very much…” Morph chuckles. “By the way, this might be a bit creepy to say as one of his honorary uncles, but Baby Nathan grew up to be a serious hottie—emphasis on serious.”

No laugh. Okay, maybe that wasn’t his best material, but not even a lip twitch? Logan must be pissed.

Morph sighs and slouches in his seat. God, he doesn’t want to talk about this right now. Or maybe ever. He can feel his throat literally closing up to stop the words from coming out.

When enough time has passed that what little patience Logan had left in the tap completely runs dry, he goes right for the jugular: “I thought you were dead. Again.”

Morph winces.

“I saw that… ‘Trask Sentinel’ blow your goddamn head off. Then, next thing I know, you’re up and walkin’ around like nothing happened.”

“Not that you’re complaining, right?” Morph asks with a weak attempt at a laugh. “You know what they say about gift horses. Although, you’d think the lesson from the Trojan War would be that you should look gift horses in the mouth.”

From the seat behind him, Morph hears: “Although it’s a common misconception, that phrase actually has nothing to do with the Trojan Horse. The proverbial ‘gift horse’ is a literal, living horse, and to look it in the mouth—”

“With all those books you read,” Logan grumbles, “I thought at least one of them would've taught you it's rude to eavesdrop.”

“It would be difficult not to overhear, given the two of you are speaking quite loudly in a confined space while surrounded by people,” Beast points out. “Have you considered that this perhaps isn’t the best venue for a private conversation?”

“He is a super-genius. We’d better listen to him,” Morph tells Logan. “We’ll talk later, okay big guy?”

The stubborn set of that heavy jaw says Logan knows damn well ‘later’ means ‘never,’ and he isn’t gonna let Morph weasel out of this that easy. “If you ever want me to let you off this plane, you’ll talk now.”

“Let me?” Morph scoffs. He transforms into Quicksilver, puts on his best smug speedster grin, and says, “Just try and stop me, slowpoke.”

To his shock, Logan actually flinches. It’s a subtle thing, Morph might not have even noticed if he didn’t know Logan so well. The cause eludes him, however—until Morph remembers that he looked like Maximoff when the Thrask Sentinel… when everything went dark and quiet for a few seconds.

Funny. There was a time when Morph, blinded by youthful naivety and hero-worship, would have insisted Wolverine wasn’t afraid of anything.

Returning to his default form, Morph mutters out an apology. He tries to imagine what it would be like to see Logan die, only for him to get up a few seconds later and act like nothing happened. With that healing factor of his, they’ve gotten damned close to that exact scenario more than a few times.

How much worse would it feel, if Logan had kept his quick-healing abilities secret and Morph had to find out the hard way?

Morph takes a breath, looks out the window at the black clouds rushing by, and starts from the beginning.

“You know how most of us don’t know we’re mutants until we hit puberty, and our powers manifest? Well… I didn’t have to wait that long. Problem is, since I was just a baby, I had no idea how to control my powers—no more than a normal baby is born knowing how to walk or talk.

He holds out his hands with his palms cupped together to form a shallow, makeshift bowl.

“When I was born, I looked like a wriggling lump of white clay, about yay-big. No arms or legs, no face, no ears, no eyes. Just a mouth that would appear somewhere on my body whenever I was hungry or wanted to cry.”

Whatever Logan was expecting to hear, from the look on his face, it clearly wasn’t that.

“But even at that tender age, someone clearly recognized my star potential. I was only two days old when I made my media debut: Severely Deformed MUTANT Born In Pittsburgh Hospital.” Morph shrugs. “Not the most positive review, I’ll admit, but you know what they say: all publicity is good publicity. After all, that’s how the professor found me.”

Logan’s frown returns, more confused than angry. “You told me you didn’t meet Xavier until you were thirteen—after your mom passed.”

“That’s when I moved to the Institute. Turns out we actually met quite a lot earlier than I remembered, which is pretty embarrassing. Ideally, you don’t want to meet your future high school principal, college instructor, mentor, and world famous civil rights leader while wearing a diaper. Even worse, I was wearing a diaper, too—and I told him, mister, one of us is going to have to go home and change his outfit and it sure isn’t going to be me.”

That gets him a smile and a huff of a laugh, which would be an encouraging sign if he didn’t know how the story ends.

“So Xavier talked to my parents, explained the whole ‘mutant thing.’ Dad wasn’t happy. Then again, I’m not sure he ever was. He would have been disappointed to have a girl—a sentient lump of polymorphic biomass was right out. Thankfully, Xavier was able to use his telepathy to coach me through my very first transformation. He showed me how to turn into a normal baby boy, who would eventually grow up to look like this.”

Morph transforms into his old default, the one he still uses whenever he wants to pass: pale (although not that pale) skin, brown eyes, brown hair, hooked nose, pointed chin, gaunt cheeks, arched brows. Not exactly Fabio, but it’s the face Logan used to know him by—the face he sometimes worries Logan might secretly still prefer.

“Then he put some psychic blocks in place to limit my powers to something a bit more… manageable. Don’t give me that look. It sounds shady, but the professor messing with my head was the only reason I got to have a normal, happy childhood with my parents. God only knows what would have happened otherwise—if I’d even be alive now.”

The worry and suspicion that appeared on Logan’s face at the mention of psychic tampering grudgingly fade away. “When did you find out?” he asks instead.

“A couple months after the professor… y’know,” Morph sighs. “I hacked his personal files. Since he wouldn’t be around anymore to help you recover your memories, I hoped that maybe I could find something small he overlooked, some clue that might give us an idea where to look next.”

Logan’s eyes widen and his mouth goes slightly slack. “Morph…”

“I didn’t find anything, before you get excited. Not about you, anyway. Sure found out a lot about myself, though—a lot more than I was bargaining for.”

“That’s when your default form changed,” Logan realizes.

“Yeah. It was kind of hard to think of this,” Morph replies, gesturing at the face of his human-passing form, “as my ‘real’ face after that. Not that my new look is any more real, of course.”

“Who else knows?”

“Other than our friends listening to this conversation right now?” Morph asks pointedly, causing an entire plane full of X-Men to each make their best attempt at looking busy. Nightcrawler’s method of peering thoughtfully at the radio controls with one hand on his chin is particularly masterful—Logan mentioned he used to perform in a circus, so it’s no wonder he’s got such a good instinct for stage-business. “I told Hank and Moira not long after I found out. Seemed like a bad idea to keep that information from my doctors. Especially when one of them is also my therapist.”

At receiving a glare from Logan, Beast develops a sudden and convenient fascination with the view through the Blackbird’s window.

“But you didn’t want anyone else to know.” Logan could accept that, even if he doesn’t like it. Nothing personal. A man’s business is man's business, after all—even for a not-quite-man like Morph.

Too bad it wouldn’t be the truth; no more ‘real’ than any face that Morph wears.

“I didn’t want you to know.”

Morph can handle Logan’s anger, no problem. That’s almost charming, after all these years. But it’s the flicker of hurt, just like that little flinch earlier, that really cuts him to the quick.

“Not because I don’t trust you, or want to keep things from you or anything, it’s just… I didn’t—I couldn’t—”

He sighs and looks away again. He transforms back into his new default: smooth white skin, mask-like face. Obviously inhuman.

Still a lot more human than he looked when he was born, though.

“So, yeah. That’s why I’ve apparently gained the ability to survive having my head blown off. It sure would have been handy to know that my organs were optional the last time a Sentinel put me down. Now, instead of being out of commission for two years I’ll never get back, I can just squish myself back together and keep on keepin’ on.”

Logan doesn’t respond, and slowly, the mutter of other conversations step in to fill the void. Morph stares at nothing, sick with nerves. It’s deeply unfair that he can still feel nauseous even though he doesn’t have a stomach anymore.

He would say it’s all in his head, but if he can survive without one, maybe he doesn’t have a brain, either.

Badum-tch.

Good line. Hopefully he’ll remember it after the existential horror wears off, in the brief window when things will be funny again before the heartbreak sinks in.

Because there’s dropping a bombshell on a relationship—then there’s dropping a fucking nuke.

Oh God. There isn’t going to be a window, is there?

“Morph. Look at me.”

Although he considers pretending he didn’t hear the command, Morph reluctantly glances across the center aisle of the Blackbird to see Logan looking back at him with an expression as soft as the heart he usually tries to hide.

“No matter what you look like, there’s one thing you’ve never been able to change,” Logan tells him. “That’s real enough for me.”

A wiser person might realize they were in a hole and stop digging; Morph can’t stop himself from opening his big stupid mouth. No wonder that was the one feature even Baby Morph knew to give himself. “There are more blocks Xavier left behind that I haven’t pushed through, yet. Maybe I’ll even figure out how to change my scent, someday.”

From the look on his face, Logan clearly hadn’t considered that possibility. Morph immediately wishes he could take it back, feeling like he’s just tarnished something sacred.

It’s always been strangely intimate, the way Logan can recognize him by scent alone. Even from the beginning, when Morph decided to pull a prank on the grumpy new recruit, only for Wolverine to sniff him out mere seconds into his planned routine—it was as if, like the Emperor’s New Clothes, he suddenly realized he had been naked the entire time.

Another, smarter shapeshifter might have avoided Logan after that; Morph couldn’t get enough.

One-sided pestering turned into an unlikely friendship, turned into friends-with-benefits, turned into… whatever they have now. That which dares not speak its name.

The thought of losing that connection, the idea that someday he may be able to change himself so thoroughly that even Logan won’t be able to recognize him anymore… It’s too awful. Cursed knowledge. Like learning about the solar cycle when he was a kid, and suddenly having the horrible realization: if even the sun is going to die someday, what makes him so sure Mom will get better?

Out of the corner of his eye, Morph sees Logan’s hand start to move, stop, then start again, reaching across the aisle towards him. For a insane, terrifying moment, he thinks Logan’s about to hold his hand, outing them in front of God, the other X-Men, and everybody—but of course, that enormous, rough mitt lands on his shoulder instead. Perfectly platonic, approved for all audiences by S&P.

Though they’re shooting through the air at supersonic speed, under the heavy weight of that hand, Morph feels rooted to stable ground. He closes his eyes and takes a few slow breaths he doesn’t actually need, with lungs he only has when he remembers to make himself some.

If there are any people left when the sun finally burns out in a few billion years, they’ll still be telling each other jokes as they go into that endless good night. Just think of the money we’ll save on sunscreen. Maybe, but you know the light-bulb companies are gonna take us to the cleaners. Ha ha, freeze frame, theme song, end credits.

Even as her body slowly wasted away under the combined onslaught of cancer and chemo, Mom always laughed at his jokes, no matter how many times she heard the one about the chicken who crossed the road. His most appreciative audience, to the very last curtain call.

The world is pretty fucking scary right now, and only getting scarier. Sinister. Genosha. Losing Gambit. Sentinels again, in all new and even more monstrous forms. Even worse: total war between humans and mutants looming over the horizon, shaking the ground with each step, getting closer and more inevitable every time someone mentions it, like a demon whose power grows every time you says its name.

But just because things are scary doesn’t mean the world's turning into a horror movie, and just because things are sad doesn’t make it a tragedy. Everyone gets to choose the genre of their life story—and Morph will always pick comedy.

He gives the hand on his shoulder a friendly pat, and uses the motion to disguise a slightly more-than-friendly squeeze. “I’m alright, just a little airsick. I think it’s making me maudlin.”

As he pulls his hand back, Logan frowns a little in confusion—he knows Morph is experienced enough in the air that he shouldn’t be getting nauseous over what are, for the Blackbird, barely above pleasure-cruise speeds.

“How unfair is that, by the way?” Morph asks. “I don’t even have a stomach right now.”

Logan chuckles. Nah, baby, don’t give it up for me that easy, Morph thinks, fighting a grin. You gotta make me work for it a little…

He needn’t have worried, though. When he does make it to the punchline, Logan laughs so hard that he snorts, the laugh-lines Morph has personally carved into that seemingly indestructible face creasing and growing deeper still. And as their friends who Definitely Weren’t Eavesdropping join in—even Rogue, so teary and congested that her laughs would sound like sobs if she wasn’t smiling—Morph knows all their attempts to hide their relationship have been for nothing, because there’s no way that all the love he feels for Logan in that moment isn’t writ large all over whichever face he's wearing right now.

That’s real enough for him.

[vellichorom]

I really like your headcanons for Cori and totally agree with them!

And if you don’t mind my asking, what did you dislike about the recent episodes of Chikn Nuggit? Because personally I dislike a lot of it too…the whole shift to lore has been kind of jarring for me and I also think things were resolved too easily.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH, THAT MAKES ME VERY HAPPY!

& OMG THANK YOU FOR ASKING because god i've been pissed. with one episode they made me hate that stupid yellow dog

HERE'S THE THING, RIGHT. i don't even mind the shift from slapstick shenanigans in youtube short format to something that illustrates a bit more lore. in FACT, i thought the way they were going about it was very interesting! having chikn realize his ultimate power & being due to a moment of vulnerability & having been manipulated some by bezel therein,

however,

this is all cheezborger's fault. for some fucking stupid reason

LET'S BACK UP A MINUTE. cheezborger got the girl! she's all excited about it & prioritizing her girlfriend above all, as i think we all do when we're excited; we make whatever we're excited our entire worldview for a bit, it happens!

chikn, at least from my perspective, sees this - sees that all of his friends are busy doing stuff without him or have their " significant other " where he does not - with cheezborger, his best most important friend, caught up in the moment, & he feels left out. he feels like a " third wheel " &- with all of his friends occupied with something or someone else, he's all alone & feels bad. i've been there a few times, i get it. in that moment of vulnerability does bezel take advantage & PUSH chikn to realize his power & potential, to control his friends or control the world & make things how he wants them to be.

suddenly the plot goes from " chikn suffering from third wheel grief " to " chikn coming to terms with the fact that he's a god & his powers have unintendedly warped his friends. we're taking all the nonsense seriously suddenly " okay. interesting. so chikn ascends to god form & starts fucking up the whole world because he believes that's what he's MEANT to do. the conclusion of his spiraling is realizing that he was meant to cause chaos & rip apart the world? ok. i think we jumped a bit far, how & when did he decide that

now we're leaning really hard into the ' i have to do this because it's my DESTINY ' trope. okay. did you come to this conclusion after deciding you don't need your friends? or realizing that you're the god of everything & therefore such menial things don't matter? did bezel coach you more than we see through the shorts? i don't remember there being an episode dedicated to chikn's sudden snap of character, thus we just never find out where that leap in logic came from.

so the world's ending but fwench fwy & iscream manage to trap chikn for 5 seconds. chee intervenes & tries to get through to him, despite all his bullshit ramblings of " go away i'm a god this is my destiny, " this WORKS. chee pulls him from his divine spiral & all's fine now.

except chikn, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE MIND YOU - NOT IN PRIVATE, blames cheezborger for it. he's like " you ditched me & that wasn't very nice, you need to make time for all your friends "

LIKE OH OKAY. BUZZFEED YOU JUST KILLED THE VIBE.

cheezborger's excitement for her new girlfriend might have been the tipping point & the technical catalyst of this all, but not at any fault of her own. she did not do this maliciously or purposefully & i hate the way chikn says she " ditched " him. no she did not you horrible mutt she politely declined your offers to hang out because she was busy with her girlfriend, & YES IT CAN BE UPSETTING WHEN YOUR FRIEND CAN'T HANG WITH YOU BECAUSE THEY GET CAUGHT UP IN SOMETHING THEY LIKE, BUT SHE DID NOT DITCH OR ABANDON YOU SHE JUST GOT BUSYYYY

it's circumstances. chee didn't do anything " wrong ", things just happened & chikn couldn't take being apart from his friend or not having what all his other friends had & downspiralled + got manipulated by bezel.

chee gets called out in PUBLIC for " ditching " chikn when she really didn't & this is turned into a big lesson about " managing all your friends " ( kiss my ass buzzfeed your usual social lessons aren't going to fly with this one ), in essence blaming chee for the apocalypse despite the initial start of the arc having gone unaddressed since the beginning.

OH & GET THIS, we blame chee for being excited but bezel, THE ONE PUSHING FOR TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD & ACTIVELY MANIPULATING CHIKN TO DO IT, gets a literal slap on the wrist chikn nor anybody else calls him out for being a gigantic prick, he's just like " i fowgive u let's be fwiends " & we leave it at that apparently. are you fucking for real. that straight up smells misogynistic & straight up shitty regardless. this COMING from the stupid little youtube shorts series all about validating everyone & equality & being kind to people too just feels a PARTICULAR kind of rancid.

& yeah whatever it's a rinkydink silly buzzfeed show where every character is named some woobified or joke rendition of a food product ( chikn nuggit, cheezborger, fwench fwy - so on ), BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY WERE DOING A VALUABLE SERVICE & DOING PRETTY GOOD FOR BEING A RINKYDINK SILLY YOUTUBE SHORTS SERIES !!!!! they had such good intentions & good lessons in mind...

& then this happens. it just puts SUCH a bad taste in my mouth now, you know? & it's honest to god so disappointing! & INFURIATING

that ending was a total BUST & relaying it back now, THE PLOT OF THAT ARC IS ALL OVER THE PLACE. it can't at all decide what the point of itself was & ended SO poorly. i'll forgive the pacing because this is a youtube shorts series MEANT to be done relatively quickly & chikn nuggit isn't necessarily a show you're going to expect a masterpiece of, right. it's endearingly imperfect

but god that ending. this entire arc. fuck it all man fuck that dog

oh wow i wrote down a lot but YEAH. VERY UPSETTING. hopefully this was an entertaining read or i just look insane to my friends

THANK YOU FOR ASKING! been LOOKING for an excuse to be upset on main

[bumblesimagines]

A not so brief summary on my thoughts on House of The Dragon S2:

This finale makes me want to go outside and reconnect with nature 'cause why the hell did they make us wait so long just for a bunch of filler episodes and what was basically a trailer for season 3?

Spoilers for the show AND book which includes the deaths of characters and the arcs they had in the book.

Right off the bat, I'm just going to say that this post, this post, and this post sum up some of my thoughts. It truly feels like Ryan Condal (as well as others in production) had someone else give him a rundown of what happened in the book and just went off on that alone. I admit, I like some changes made from the book specifically with Alicent being Rhaenyra's childhood friend but at some point it just diverged from an adaptation to a fanfiction.

I know people whine and complain that it's 'nOt GoNnA bE eXaCtLy LiKe ThE bOoK' but if that's the case, stop calling it an adaptation and start saying it's based off the book. Of course, people are going to be annoyed when changes are made when they step in with the expectation/hope it'll be like the first few seasons of GoT.

Season 1 was good but rushed and had far too many timeskips that skipped needed character development. We never got to see Rhaenyra shift away from 'I don't want children' to learning of her first pregnancy. We never got to see Alicent fully turn away from Rhaenyra and stew in her resentment over being stuck in a marriage she never wanted while watching Rhaenyra be free enough to have multiple sons with a man who wasn't her husband. Laena, Laenor, and Harwin had little impact because we saw so little of them. We never got to see if Rhaenyra loved Harwin or if she saw him as a fwb.

It was rushed but the characters felt alright.

And then in comes season 2 and we can see that they were too afraid of being called out to write proper female characters. I've said this before when answering an ask but HOTD only has two types of women: rebellious, headstrong, stubborn, warrior girls and sensitive, withdrawn, submissive, rule followers. This is Arya vs Sansa all over again. Women can be multiple things at once. Not every Team Black girl has to be a fighter, not every Team Green girl has to be quiet and faithful.

Why wasn't Rhaenyra angry about Luke's death? She left S1 looking enraged and started S2 off strong in her grief but then Luke was never mentioned by name ever again. I understand burying down the grief and anger to rule but we should've seen her continue to break down in private throughout the season. Her SON was MURDERED and you're telling me she's not going to continue grieving him when she didn't even do anything for half the season? All she did was run off leaving Jace and the Council scrambling to stay together or get consistently spoken over again and again and again. And now suddenly Ryan wants her to be this calculated meticulous cult leader? Rhaenyra's downfall is descending into paranoia and letting her emotions and worries get the best of her (WHICH NETTLES WAS A BIG PART OF). She loses and flees King's Landing because of it.

Why was Alicent's plot mostly revolving around Cole? Why did they choose to have her sleeping with him while B&C happened? In the book, Alicent is essentially taken hostage because B&C knew Helaena took her children to visit their grandmother and say goodnight. She watches her daughter be forced to choose between her two sons only for the son she chose to save be killed. Instead of feeling grief for her grandson's death, she feels guilty for... having slept with Cole. No real thoughts or feelings over her GRANDCHILD being MURDERED. Look, I love the Rhaenyra x Alicent ship but it was doomed from the start. Instead of trying to make it seem like there's a chance, complicate it more! The complexities is what makes the ship good! But no, let's have Alicent, mother of the king and a big part of what started the war, mope around and fuck this dude. Hello?? Are they also setting her up to poison Aegon at the end when she spent half of season 1 saying she needed to protect her children from Rhaenyra???

Why did Helaena mourn her son for an episode and then move on? Are ya'll seeing this pattern or am I crazy? Helaena is supposed to descend into madness over her grief and guilt. She can't look her remaining son in the face because she'd chosen him to die. She's so consumed by this that she ends up impaling herself in spikes after throwing herself from a window. Are they setting her up to be murdered? To do it just because? And what do you mean 'Helaena doesn't ride. She has no taste for it'? Helaena LOVED to ride. Her love for her dragon is the reason Dreamfyre breaks free from her chains in the Dragonpit when she senses Helaena has died. But of course, Helaena is a Team Green girl and only warrior girls ride dragons, right Ryan? And she's Team Green so obviously unlike in the books, the smallfolk despise her as much as the others? They took the devastating choice of B&C and gave it to Alicent in the last episode which makes the death of Helaena's son's absolutely meaningless and unneeded as well as her own death. And also? all of a sudden Helaena can now understand her prophecies and speak them clearly? So why didn't she tell anyone of B&C? Surely a mother would try to break away from fate to save her children?

Aemond, Aegon, Cole, and even Daemon were given more complexities and plotlines than the main women, Alicent and Rhaenyra, were lmao. While the faces of the war were cast aside to be one stereotype or the other, we got to see the men be messy and chaotic and full of emotions. Aegon got to be angry and defensive over his son's death but not Rhaenyra. Cole got to be conflicted over his doings but Alicent was just meh about it. Daemon had so much unnecessary hallucinations lmao. Was it even character development if after every hallucination he still beat his chest and called himself king? He learned nothing but suddenly he sees a horribly CGI put together vision of GoT and he's fine putting away what he's been saying all season long? Come on now.

Jace, Baela, and Rhaena were massively underused. In the posts I linked, it explains my issue with Rhaena taking over Nettles. It's stupid and unneeded. We get to sympathize with Hugh and watch Daemon bang his mom but there's no need for the ONLY WOC IN THE BOOK to be seen? Not even his clear bias for Team Black will allow him to bring in Nettles and let Rhaena be one of the few Team Black girls who isn't a fighter and a Strong Female Lead? Okay.

Jace and Baela were. there. I guess. We could've cut back a lot more of Daemon to show Jace in the North winning over Cregan or even having him return mid-season. He did nothing but serve face and have a few lines of being annoyed. And, it was his idea for the dragonseeds, both highborn and lowborn. And Baela was just there to be his voice of reason. The rational girlfriend who pulls her boyfriend out of his head. She had one good scene where she wasn't just Daemon's daughter or Jace's love interest (they never even did or say anything remotely romantic. They feel like friends over two people in love) and then she just. existed to be there for Jace.

The dragons were great and I loved their designs. I loved that their dancing is based on the birds of prey death drop(?) and I clocked it instantly when I watched Rook's Nest. However, I really hope Aegon belives Sunfyre is dead because of a weakened bond and not that he's actually dead considering Sunfyre burns and eats Rhaenyra alive?? That's his whole thing??

I did not care for Tyland and the pirate chick. We had a full fledged BATTLE be offscreen but we had to see Tyland get tossed around in mud? Okay. Sure. Uh huh.

Like... what was this? It was like hours long filler episode. 'It's setting up for season three!! that's why it sucked!!' but we still had needed action and characters that were brushed over? We could've had the battle between the Blackwoods and the other idiots, we could've had Nettles taming Sheepstealer, we could've had the women feel like real people instead of being one dimensional characters, we COULD'VE HAD RHAENYS HAVE EMOTIONAL SCENES WITH HER BELOVED GRANDDAUGHTER(S) BEFORE FLYING OFF TO BATTLE.

Anyways, honestly, 4 or 5 out of 10 for this season. I was bored for most of it and it was massively underwhelming. I expected this season to end with the Gullet and Jace's death being the straw that finally broke the camals back in Rhaenyra which would've had her take King's Landing in a fit of rage and grief. I also expected Daeron to at least have some sort of appearance? He gets mentioned twice and we see Tessarion briefly but no sign of the missing TargTower son and no Maelor? Okay. Sure. Let's just call this House of The Dragon: The Poorly Written Fix It Fic Brought To Life Instead Of Being Left On AO3. No wonder GRRM isn't going to be involved anymore.

This doesn't read like an adaptation brought to life by a passionate fan. It reads like an adaptation created purely to reach Game of Thrones level of fame and popularity. GoT earned it's popularity in the first few seasons. HOTD is merely piggybacking off it's success and failing at being anything other than a boring high budget show that happens to have dragons.

[iblameashley]

More König stuff.

Y'all gave me another mental illness.

Headcanon W/ Civilian | Male | Gay | Mildly NSFW

Please don't roast my ass for my terrible attempt at Soaps accent. I'm Canadian and did my best, besties.

(König)

He prefers to date outside the military. He tried dating other guys within the special forces, but found it more stressful.

Everyone tends to be smaller than him, so he's leaned into his short-kings.

Loves chubbier guys.

Worried you wouldnt like him because of his facial scars. Or the bullet wounds in his arms, chest and abdomen. He was taken aback when you didnt even flinch when you first met in person.

Has a hard time verbalizing his thoughts to his partners, but will leave notes everywhere. Usually simple "I love you." or "I miss your smile." notes are left for you at the beginning.

Flexes his hands when nervous. It gives him something to focus us when he's having an anxiety attack.

Nothing calms him down faster than you putting your fingers at the base of his neck and gently caressing him.

When he does become more verbal with you - usually after several months - he will stutter and stammer when he talks. He gets so excited to tell you about his day, or how much he missed you, etc, that he cant get it out fast enough.

Giving? Receiving? Yes. He has no preference when it comes to sex. The first time he had sex with you, you were bent over a table, and it took the better part of an hour just to get him in. But he was fine to take his time, he wanted you to enjoy it as much as he did.

He is big, yes, but his cock isn't massive. He's thick, and a little over 8" uncut.

He is very much into after-care. He scooped you up in his arms after the first time and carried you to bed. He loved to give you kisses and ask you how you feel, if you're OK, what you liked, didn't like, and would like to try.

He loves to sleep with his head on your chest. He also loves how you play with his hair as he's laying there.

He does have nightmares. The first time it happened he was so embarrassed and tried to leave. You wouldn't let him. That's when you started playing with his hair to calm him down.

You tried for a while to get him to wear his Balaclava while he fucked you. He denied it every time, and said he wanted to keep that part of his life and you separate. You did manage to convince him to wear a face-mask you bought.

You cook him breakfast every-time he stays the night. He always stands behind you as you cook and wraps himself around you. "Smells great." He says. You aren't sure if he means the food, or you. Likely both.

He cleans up the kitchen after you eat. You've told him he doesn't have to, but he says he's used to it and doesn't mind.

When he has something important he wants to say or ask you, he'll pace around the room. You've had complaints from the down-stairs neighbour about stomping.

He loves to carry you. Will swoop you up in his arms randomly so he can stare into your eyes and give you a kiss. But only in private.

He has a hard time showing affection in public. It makes him anxious. But if you really want to hold hands, he will tough it out.

On particularly bad days he will go to the shower to cry. You know what he's doing, but give him that space. When he finally emerges, you always tell him you love him and give him a kiss.

He. Is. Such. A. Nerd. And he only shows that side to you. Star Trek? Star Wars? BSG? Yes. Hes watched every episode and movie and quotes them often. Also very much into old-school Gundam and model kits. Gaymer.

He once spent the whole day re-organizing your closet. It was amazing and you loved it. When you asked why, all he could say was "I just wanted to."

Need something cleaned, moved or tossed? He's your man. You barely have to get the words out and hes on it.

You only ever see him smile around you. In the few times he's interacted with other people, he always reverted to his resting-bitch-face. When he wasn't wearing the face mask. It helped his anxiety in public.

He never used to like bubble baths, but you changed his mind. He would come back from deployment tired, sweaty and sore. So you drew him a bath and washed him down. It became a habit, and something he looked forward to.

He had an unplanned coming out to his squad mates. You two were on a date around town when they happened to be passing by. When they asked who you were, you tried to come up with something on the spot, but König just blurted out "My boyfriend." In a matter-of-factly tone.

The one wearing a skeleton face mask looked at you and just gave an affirming nod. The one with the Mohawk looked like he was about to have a stroke. "Yae gay?" He asked. König nodded. "Ane yae ne'er told mae? I spenn months try'nae set yae up with women, ane yae said nottin?!" König shrugged.

You learned through his squad mates his favourite colour (Pale Blue), and foods (Mostly German, to no ones surprise) and that he actually had a bad sweet-tooth. You learned to bake for him.

When you had stuffed him (full of food!), you'd both flop down on the couch and binge-watch something. He'd lay down on your lap. Your hands would work their way up his shirt to caress his stomach.

[previousloversandmuses]

FREQUENCY: Episode 2 - A Soldier Boy Story

FREQUENCY:  A Soldier Boy Story

EPISODE 2: “Uncle Sam”

WORD COUNT: 4,056

PAIRING: Soldier Boy X Reader 

WARNINGS: (NSFW) Racial slurs, fatphobia, drugs, and mentions of suicide. Foul language, mentions of sex, or sexual innuendos. 

A/N: This story is dark, and covers mature themes. The main character, as well as other major characters, are offensive in nature, and may offend some people. Please peruse with caution, and remember that this is fiction. Reader discretion is advised. Please message me for any questions, comments, or concerns. 

Masterlist | Taglist

When John and I would fuck, only he would find it easy to sleep. See, we almost always did it at Vought tower. He had thought my apartment was gross and grimy.

He would snore away, his naked body pressed against mine, his strong arms holding my waist. I’d be up all night. The tower was loud, and I was much too nosy to not listen in on everything going on. Most people had left by the time that I was laying there awake, but the important ones stayed.

Security worked all night, keeping their tabs on literally everything going on in the world. If two Pakistanis were going at it premaritally at a goat farm in the middle of nowhere, Vought would be the first to know. 

It was always funny to me that the CIA always assumed they were one step ahead of Vought. That they had the upper hand, and that no matter what, the good guys would always win. Wrong. Vought knew absolutely everything the CIA was doing. They knew every hideout, every operation, every compound, every undercover. Vought, a private company, was the global leader for national security- but no one would ever know that. 

John would shift behind me, nuzzling his face into my neck, nibbling on my ear. 

“Go to sleep.” He’d say plainly, before drifting back into his own disturbing dream. 

Go to sleep, I’d think. Funny. Little did he know I was keeping my tabs on every compound mentioned in terms of Vought, and every event to go along with it. I knew every building the CIA operated. Every property. Every piece of land. Which is why I’m so confident now that I know exactly where Soldier Boy is.

In upstate New York, the CIA has a large base. It spans acres, but in the middle rests a midcentury, concrete bunker. Strong enough to withstand the blast of a nuclear bomb…getting warmer, I think. 

After the job I did for Butcher, I went straight home and started doing research. The CIA compound wasn’t visible on any map, but thankfully I was already aware of the coordinates. 

The next day I hopped in my shitty car, and drove upstate. I started spying once I saw the first signs of surveillance, which was about twenty miles away from the location. I staked out for about a week, driving closer each day, taking note of every camera, every security checkpoint. I wasn’t in my car after I got close enough, obviously. The closer I got the more inclined I was to walk on foot. 

I understand this may seem impossible, I mean, this is the CIA after all. No one is getting past them, right? Wrong. You need to remember, no one would ever see me coming, and they definitely wouldn't see me going. I can hear cameras before I see them, and it’s the same thing with all types of security. The CIA didn’t stand a chance anymore after I was created. Nothing was getting past me. I was born for this mission.

The morning of, I made sure to leave no trace of any research in my apartment. I threw out my computer at the edge of the city before I drove upstate. I prayed to all holy, although I’m not much of the religious type, that my shitty four-door would make it all the way up there without breaking down. As I stepped on the gas, I took a deep breath, shutting off my senses as best as I could until I was in trackable distance. I’d have to savor all five, I’d need them to be as strong as possible. I was going to get my revenge. 

This may sound conceited, but I do think I have created the best plan in the history of plans: See, unknown CIA compound number whatever, although large, and unknown to me internally, is quite easy to navigate if you think about it. Let’s think about the five senses here. Sight: I could look through the walls of the building until I feast my eyes upon the, I’m assuming, frozen solid body of Soldier Boy. But this can sometimes be all encompassing, and too much work. Sound: I could always hear him out. Scope out the slowest multiplying cells in the area, until it leads me to the supe popsicle. But again, too much work for what it’s worth. Also I needed to be focusing on nearby agents, cameras, and security. Touch?  No idea how that would work, no interest in finding out. Taste? Absolutely not. I don’t even want to know how that would work. But smell? Ahhh smell. That’ll lead me right to it. I can taste the frosted formaldehyde from here, a mile away. I’ll sniff out the frost bitten captain America better than any bloodhound. Smell. That is the way. 

I park my car off in a clearing, I think it may have been used as a campsite at one point. There isn’t a camera in sight. It's the dead of night. Leading up to the compound is a long, winding, wooded road. It's a forest boundary, which is nice because I won’t be getting any sort of sound pollution. 

I begin to walk parallel to the street through the woods, attaching the silencer to my gun. As I get a half-mile away, I start to take note of small CCTV’s attached to dry, dehydrated fir trees. I begin shooting down every camera I can hear, and as far as the eye can see. This is my collateral. I know once I break him out, CIA intel will be checking every camera to see where we went. They will never see us leave. They’ll never even see me coming. I got a few hundred yards between me and the next scanner. 

I reach into my backpack, pulling out scarf, and then wrap my head hijabi style. I’m already wearing a modest, all black outfit. Maybe something similar to a burka. I thought it would steer people away from my trail by posing as a stereotypical supe terrorist. Nothing scares Americans more than a muslim being in places they aren’t supposed to be.

I can see the building now, it's fortunately surrounded by trees, making my breaking and entering a little bit easier. I don’t even know how they can see anything on surveillance with all of this blockage, I think. Hell, the pine needles are getting in the way of my quality of sight. 

It's a tight squeeze through shrubbery, but I make it to one of the side doors. Again, I shoot out every camera around me before I even get close to the area. I stop and take a listen. From my spot now, the closest heartbeat I can hear  is deep within the compound, maybe at the front security desk. Most agents have gone home by this point. 

I’m assuming, if my hearing is correct, there is an obese man sitting at a control panel at the highest point of the building. Similar to that of a bird's nest. He’s asleep, snoring so loud I don’t know how he’s not choking himself. This is too good to be true, I think.

I make my way inside, there was a codebox on the outside of the building which are the easiest contraptions to get into. I smacked the side of it, feeling for the numbers.

 I aim for each camera before it can catch me, knocking it out in the center every time. 

I take a deep breath. Formaldehyde is all encompassing. I choke on the taste. He’s in the basement. 

I go ahead and make my way down multiple floors, once again, getting rid of every camera. This part of the compound is terrifying. Tons of steel and concrete feel suffocating when you’re this far underground. I almost trip over a janitorial cart in the darkness of the stifling halls. 

I come face to face with a large steel door. It’s got to be a few feet thick at least. To the right of it is a key pad. Looks pretty high tech, much different from the one on the outside of the building. This one must be new, I think. That’s a good sign. I mean, along with the fact that my eyes begin to water, my nose hairs singing off from the stench of chemicals. 

There is a card reader on the side of it for swipe entry. I pull up my finger, and gently tap it onto the corner. It echoes through it. I listen for the preset code. I can hear each four number etchings clear as day. 4459. 

The door opens with a flash of a green light and a click. I walk slowly down the hallway. It’s stark, cold. A metallic chamber with no windows. No place for a human being to live, I think. At least he’s not awake to see it. 

I round the corner, reaching another door. Fuck. I think to myself, another lock. The code box blinks at me, then speaks to me in a robotic voice. 

“Please enter access code.” 

I look down at the machine. Again, knocking on the side of it, like the one from before.

“Please enter access code-” I jump at the sound, but before it can finish I type in the numbers again. 4459. 

Clink! Green light illuminates from a bulb over my head. The door slides open. Idiots. 

There is what looks to be a control panel. It’s windowed, and looking down into a surgical-like dip in the floor. I walk over to the glass. There are buttons and levers riddled around a console. 

About fifteen feet below me I visualize him. Most of the lights are off inside of this area, but his body is lit up. He lays like a corpse inside a see-through cryogenic freezer. His heart is beating slowly, maybe less than five beats per minute. His blood barely circulating through his augmented veins. 

I take a deep breath, it’s now or never. From what I can tell, the security guard watching over the cameras is still fast asleep. Him, the man at the very front, and the other few scattered around near the archives, are all unaware of my presence in the building. 

I open the door to the right of the panel, and make my way down the rickety metal stairs that lead to his futuristic tomb. There he is, fast asleep… or frozen? I’m not sure of the right thing to say. I lean over, looking at his face through the glass. I place both of my gloved hands palm down, feeling my way around to getting him out of there. A latch, which, as I can tell, is connected to a code box. The CIA and their codes. They are just asking for me to break in. 

I squat down next to the machine and locate the lock. I do as I do again, knocking on the side of it, and waiting to hear the notches for the numbers. 1919. Really? I go ahead and select them, and watch as the glass casing begins to open up around him. It’s like a vampire coming out of a coffin. A waft of nitrous mist cascades around the room, revealing to me then, the body of a very, very, cold man. 

He has an oxygen mask on his face. I go ahead and take that off. The chemicals they have pumping into his veins via IV drip; I rip those off too. The machines tracking his vitals, I unattached, letting them drop to the floor. I can’t see much of anything else that would be keeping him asleep. Unfortunately though, I think I will have to wait for him to thaw out. 

I look around the room, checking my watch. I've been in the building for twenty minutes now. I look over at him, he's still not moving. His heart rate is still resting at an undetectable rate. I’ve got to get moving. I start pacing around the room, rubbing my chin with my hand. Think, think, think. I couldn’t bring any ammonia or any other sort of smelling salt because I’d be able to smell it through the container. Migraine waiting to happen. I could always slap him awake, but I’d risk breaking my hand from the sheer strength of his jaw. I could warm him up myself? Rub up on his arms until he begins to heat up. 

I look down at his arm, lifting up his wrist with my fore finger and thumb. He may be strong, but I’m sure he doesn’t weigh a ton? Ugh, who am I kidding? This man has got to be over two hundred pounds of pure muscle. THINK woman, think. 

Then, by the grace of all holy, I remember the janitorial cart I almost broke my neck on earlier. That’ll do it. I check back down at my watch, twenty-five minutes have passed now. It might not be too hard to drag him all of five minutes.

So, I do just that. Wrapping my arms under his, then securing around his torso, I begin to lift up. No, this will definitely be too hard. I drop him onto the floor, then clamp my hands around his wrists. I start pulling him across the room, then I remember; the stairs. Fuck. Making my way up I’m already drenched in sweat. It's one thing having to carry someone awake, but this supe was all dead weight. I’m praying he wakes up soon. 

It takes me ten more minutes on top of the five I had already expected to climb all the stairs back up to where I saw the janitorial cart. Before I go to put him in it, I listen in again. Everyone was still where they were before. The obese security guard is still in desperate need of a CPAP machine. I smile. This is all working out for me. With the little strength I have left I hoist him up into the cart, setting him on top of dirty mop heads and rags. 

I see it before I hear it. Red lights begin to flash around the building, then the sirens begin to wail. The security guard is definitely no longer asleep. I get a good grip of the cart handles and begin to push him down the hallway with unrelenting fervor. 

I can hear footsteps gaining on us as I reach the same exterior door that I came in through. I launch him out, and watch as the cart goes tumbling onto the forest floor. Great. Maybe that will wake him up. The guards are even closer now, a floor above me. Flood lights shine around on the outside. I push him back into the cart, and gun it through the forest with a speed that rivals Usain Bolt. 

Once I reach the clearing where I parked my car, about ten minutes later, I can just now make out the glimmer of flashlights in the distance. This was a huge forest. They had no idea where I could be. I go ahead and begin to load the bastard into the backseat. He mumbles a little, making me jump. I reach my hand down to his forehead. He was definitely warming up. I buckle him in with a seatbelt, and hop in the driver's seat. I accelerate out of the lot, watching as police cars race past me just a road over. This was going to be a long drive. 

It took him a four hour drive, plus forty-five minutes in the hotel room to finally wake up.

“…helewooh…” thump thump. “….ooonclee saaamm…”

As he came to, everything was blurry. It reminded him of when he used to mix codeine and benzos. 

Slowly, but surely, he begins to focus, making out the silhouette in front of him. A girl, young and lean. She sits across from him on a chair. She snaps and claps in his direction. Leaning in a bit closer, she slaps him in the face. Now that wakes him up. 

He jolts forward, easily breaking the pitiful restraints that have him tied to the chair. Now that he thinks about it, he’s sure he’s just broken the chair too. 

“Woah, WOAH,” she waves her arms in front of his face, trying to calm him down. “Easy there tiger, I wouldn’t want you blowing up this motel.”

He shakes his head, finally waking up enough to take in his surroundings. It’s a cheap, tacky motel room in god knows where. It reminds him of the one he stayed in when those pansies brought him home from Russia. Wait, those pansies-

“Where the fuck am I?” He looks around again, running over to the windows and peeking out the blinds. He turns around holding his finger up to the young girl in the room with him. “And who the fuck are you?”

She walks towards him slowly. He takes her in. She’s young, definitely young. Pretty, to say the least, but that’s the last thing he can think about right now. Her shorts and shirt are tiny and much too tight for a girl her age. Again, he thinks of the past. Has all modesty been thrown out the window? Not that he’s complaining, really. 

“Okay, first of all, I saved you, you should be worshiping the ground I walk on.”

“I don’t even know who you are little girl.” He recoils. “Wait,” He looks her up and down. “You’re not some unclaimed child of mine, are you?”

“Oh, Jesus Christ.” She says, rubbing her hands down her face.

He walks forward, getting into her face. “So ya don’t know me, and you expect me to believe you got me out just out of the kindness of your heart?” 

“Yes.” She says simply. 

He nods, going back over to the window, looking outside again. 

“Where are we?”

“Pennsylvania.” 

“They got any beaners here?”

“I’m sorry?” 

“Any beaners. I need to cross the border. Get out of here as soon as possible before these fuckin’ gay lovin’ commies try and throw me back into the ice again.”

“I’ll get you across the border, no problem. I don’t need any help either. Anywhere you want I’ll get you there.”

He glares at her, squinting. Looking her up and down. Hey, maybe she does look pretty good. He begins to walk around the room, searching for any hidden cameras, any microphones.

“You wearing a wire?”

“No one followed us down here.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

“No, I’m not wearing a wire.”

He gets back into her face. Towering over her. She shows no sign of fear. Naive, he thinks. She can feel his breath on her skin now. 

“What’s the catch?”

She smiles up at him, crumbling under his intense gaze. She feels for the back of the chair behind her then sits down. 

“Have a seat.”

“No thanks, been layin’ a lot recently. What’s the fuckin' catch, sweetheart?”

“Okay,” She sighs. “There is a catch, you're right.” 

He gets angry now. His chest visibly rising and falling. It begins to glow. Okay, now she’s getting nervous. 

“Hear me out please,” she begs, throwing her hands up in the air. “I’m trying to get revenge on Vought.”

“Get in line, little girl.”

“I’m a supe. Please, please hear me out.”

“Too late.”

Okay, she’s angry now. Looking around the room she sees her keychain. It has one of those pull-able self defense devices. She reaches over to grab it. 

“If you don’t calm down, if you don’t help me, I’m going to pull this tab, and it will notify every police department, every agent in a 300 mile radius.” She’s bluffing, of course. But he’d surely believe it. Hell, they have fuckin' lesbians plastered on billboards these days. Anything is possible. 

“You’re bluffing.” He says smiling. 

“Am I?” She asks, smiling back. 

He stares at her. He says nothing. She goes to pull the pin out of the device.

“Wait,” he says. “Look, I’m old, I’m tired, and I just want to go fuck off to Costa Rica, and live my life not frozen in ice. If you want revenge on Vought, honey, by all means go for it. Girl power and all that shit. But there are plenty of other supes out there willing to help.”

She sighs, looking up at him with heavy eyelids. He smiles down at her now. She’s much prettier when she’s not being fuckin' hysterical. 

“Your loss.” She says, shrugging, pulling the cap off of the safety device. It immediately begins to flash and scream. Sending her far away from it, gripping her ears in pain. Sending him flying to the floor trying to put the pin back in. 

“Why the fuck did you do that?” He yells, his hands shaking as he tries to find a way to silence the device. She doesn’t answer, just shoving herself into a corner with her hands over her ears. “Did you hear me, nutcase? How the fuck do you stop this thing!”

He throws it onto the ground now, beginning to stomp on it. He ends up with his foot halfway through the floor. All is quiet.

He looks over at her shoved into the corner. She slowly moves her hands from her ears. He’s angrier now, stomping over to her. 

“How long until these people find me?”

What? She thinks to herself. Oh yes, the bluff. 

“30 minutes. We might as well leave now, and keep driving until we get to the safe house.” Welp, there goes 50$ for the room rental. “And there’s more where that came from, so don’t do anything fuckin' crazy.”

“I won’t as long as you aren’t acting like a fuckin' lunatic.” 

“So then it’s a deal?”

“No deal.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I said, no deal. You can take me to this safe house and we can discuss further. That’s all I’m agreeing to. You take that, or I can just smash your head in along with the rest of your little devices.”

She rubs her chin. Walking over into the corner and picking up her duffle bag.

“Yeah, let’s hold out on the latter. Y’know, collateral land all that.”

“It really is that easy, you know? All it would take is just a snap of that spine and you’d be shut up for good.”

Her skin crawls at this. He is right. The collateral is shit. He has every right to bash her brains in and leave with no trace. What the hell can she do about it? 

Unless. 

“Look, Captain America, there is something else that could pique your interest.”

“Trust me, there isn’t much.” He looks around the room one last time before they go out the door. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any reefer?”

She closes the door just as they’ve opened it. She leans into him. This is cruel, she thinks. This is wrong. And hell, he’d have every right to kill her after they get the job done. And maybe that would be the best thing to do. Quick and easy. 

“Look, if you help me do this, I can show you to your children. To your family.” Yup, she’s rotting in hell. “I used to work for Vought. I know of their location.”

His gaze softens. Fuck, she thinks. 

“This is some sick fuckin' joke?”

“No,” She coos, placing a sweaty palm on his shoulder. He flinches. “No, of course not. And if you help me, you can take all of them down to Costa Rica with you.”

He looks at her with question, with curiosity. He doesn’t think he can trust this girl, but hell, she did just save his life.

A family? His family? People who are ready to welcome him with open arms. His own children who’d view him as a hero, as a good father. People he could make proud. Hopefully they wouldn’t be fuckin’ pussies like Homelander. What a waste, he thinks.

She bounces back and forth on her feet. He nods, not looking at her. 

“Tell me what you need in the car. And we’re stopping for alcohol and cigarettes.”

“Deal.” She says with a guilty smile, watching as he walks his way downstairs. 

Masterlist | Episode 3 | Taglist

Taglist:

@sl33pylilbunny @lanassmarty @sydneyyyya @1-800shootmeplease @muhahaha303

[kissorkill16]

A Fragile State: A Hello Neighbor Fanfic

By JJ

Summary: Nicky is having an episode, and who does he go to other than Mr. Murtaugh?

Mr. Murtaugh was just wrapping up his supplies and about to walk out of the classroom, but just as he opened the door, he jumped back when he saw a familiar boy wearing a potato sack over his head.

Nicholas.

Principal Abanate was standing right behind him, a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I don't know what happened, he just came to school like this. But luckily for you, he told me he'd come to you if he ever had a problem."

With that, she left and Nicky was just standing there, shaking and hugging his body.

The science teacher led the boy inside the classroom, and gently sat him down next to his desk.

"I'm so glad you decided to come to me, Nicholas.", said Mr. Murtaugh, "Now take off the mask and tell me what triggered you this time?"

But Nicky didn't answer, he just kept shaking and hugging himself, only letting out tiny pleas or whimpers.

"Please, Trinity. Let me out! Come back! Please let me out! Help me!"

The science teacher's eyes widened. So that new student, Trinity Bales, was the one who caused all of this?

She was the one who put him in such a fragile state?

He gently peeled the bag off of Nicky's head, greeted by his wide, bloodshot, straining brown eyes.

"Nicholas...", he started, "Did Ms. Bales trigger this episode?"

Nicky nodded. Then out of nowhere, he started crying. No, not crying, sobbing uncontrollably. Mr. Murtaugh slightly panicked, but he gently, awkwardly wrapped his arms around Nicky. When he felt the boy calm down, he pulled away and bent down to his level.

"Nicholas, tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave anything out."

Nicky tried to relax himself before speaking.

"Me and Trinity went back into Mr. Peterson's house, and I don't know what happened, it all happened so fast, but I just put the bag on my head and I kept saying Stay. Hide. Forever. Darkness., and then Trinity just threw me into the basement! She said she'd be right back for me, but she never came back! I had to find my own way out of there!"

Nicky started crying again, but he continued on.

"I didn't even want to go back into the house, but she made me go anyway! Oh God, I was so terrified. I was scared of what would happen, if I would die, and no one would care! I kept screaming and begging for her to let me out, but either she couldn't hear me, or she was ignoring me.", Nicky wiped the tears from his eyes, "She was probably ignoring me."

"Oh dear...", said Mr. Murtaugh. He was absolutely stunned when he heard this.

Nevermind the fact they went into Mr. Peterson's house again, but Trinity managed to trigger him and turn him into a shaking, sobbing mess!

He knew Trinity was a determined young lady, but he didn't think she'd lock away her own friends just to find out his boss's identity. Even he thought that was cruel, and he didn't even really care about these kids...

Well...maybe except for Nicky.

He hated to admit it, (because if he did, he was sure he'd die) but he'd started getting attached to the boy. With all of their previous sessions and having heart to heart talks, he was glad he'd volunteered to be his personal counselor. He even felt a little regret after trying to poison him.

And boy was he thankful that Nicky didn't drink the tea.

"Nicky, I'm glad you came to me about this.", said Mr. Murtaugh. "I'll be sure to have a private conversation with Ms. Bales later this week, but right now, I want to focus on you."

He stood up and tilted the boys head up to meet his gaze.

"This is what happens when you keep putting others before yourself. Sooner or later, they start taking advantage of you, treating you like their own personal punching bag and then they cast you aside when they don't need you anymore. Ms. Bales thinks this is some kind of game, and even worse, she couldn't even keep her promise. I think it's best that you don't associate with her anymore."

Nicky's eyes widened, "But she needs me."

"What she needs is to back off of this whole Crowface mystery before she gets herself killed.", said the science teacher. "Just don't talk to her anymore until I have a little meeting with her, alright?"

Nicky nodded.

"Good.", said Mr. Murtaugh. "Now why don't you take a little nap? You brought your pills with you, didn't you?"

Nicky nodded again and took out his pills from his pocket. He opened the tiny container and took out one pill.

Mr. Murtaugh took out a water bottle and gave it to Nicky, and the boy put the pill in his mouth and swallowed it with the water.

"You just take a short nap, and I'll call your parents after you wake up."

The boy nodded, slowly falling asleep. Once he was lying motionless on the chair, Mr. Murtaugh gently scooped him up and carried him to the teachers lounge.

He laid him down on the couch and sat down next to him, watching him peacefully sleep.

He knew he would probably die for getting attached to someone who was supposed to be the enemy, but it would be worth it, anything would be worth it for Nicky. For now, Mr. Murtaugh just wanted to enjoy this while it lasted.

[deceasedream69]

Maeve or...

Summary: Spencer is forced to choose between two girls in a very dangerous way.

Warnings: mentions of drugs, kidnapping and cursing.

A/n: I've seen this episode once, and I'm too lazy to watch it again, so I'm making everything up lol. And also, this one is LONG, so enjoy <3

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

Spencer's pov

- "Blake, can I talk to you?

She seemed very confused, but she was always helpful, that's why I didn't doubt a second to ask for her help.

- "sure", she said following me to a more private place. "tell me what's the problem, any problem choosing between a stranger you barely know and a cute fellow coworker who you're always staring at?"

- "no, what? no", I didn't stare at her, she just was my best friend, but I wasn't so sure about requesting her help about this. "I keep calling Maeve, but she won't answer"

- "Oh, Reid, you can't make a girl answer you phone calls"

- "rejection doesn't bother me", I stared at the floor and then looked at Blake again. "She had a stalker, and it's not like she stopped answering me over a fight or anything like that, she just... stopped. So I'm... worried"

- "do you have any evidence about her actually being in danger?"

I just shook my head. Maybe I should let y/n know about the situation too. She already knew about Maeve and I, didn't seem so excited when I told her, who wouldn't be worried when their bestfriend falls in love with a girl who has a stalker. 

- "If you don't have any evidence, we can't drag the team into this one"

I ran my hand through my hair, I didn't even know what to do at this point. I couldn't go to her house because I didn't have her address, and she wasn't answering the phone at all. 

- "hey, pretty boy. Have you seen y/n?"

I shook my head, I didn't noticed her absence throughout the day.

- "That's weird, I'll go ask García"

It was really weird, she'd text me if she was sick or there was any problem. I grabbed my phone annd called her, but also, no answer. 

I already lost my two bestfriends... one for now, and I didn't even noticed when. My mind started to drown in the thoughts of what could've happened to both, specially to Maeve, considering she had a stalker and y/n didn't. 

--

- "Meeting in five", Hotch said while he passed through our desks to the meeting office. I sighed, finished what I was doing in my computer and went to the office. 

Sitting down right in front of the screen, I grabbed my phone while the rest of the team arrived. 

*in the chat*

- hey, are you okay?

I noticed you didn't come to work but you also didn't tell me anything about not coming.

I just want to make sure you're okay.

*off the chat*

I turned my phone off and put it in my pocket. I have a bad feeling about y/n not coming to work without a word. 

- "Ok, so, today we don't have a pretty case", García started the metting, her eyes and nose were red so that couldn't be a good sign. "yesterday, around 10 pm someone broke into the house of the agent y/n y/l/n. It's clear because the apartment was a mess"

- "she put up a fight", Derek said worried. 

- "is there any trace of blood?", Rossi asked. 

- "no, thankfully not"

- "that's good, any cameras around her building?", JJ opened her file. 

- "they were covered, whoever took y/n is a pro but I know we're going to find her", García covered her mouth. Y/n and García were inseparable, always going out together and messing around with each other. It was normal she was so worried for her, and so was I.

- "this happened almost 10 hours ago, we need to act quickly, we don't have much time", Hotch stood up and left. 

Our job was know to connect every bit of evidence we had to make everything make sense in order to catch the Unsub. 

We were sitting around the table, a few boards filled with evidence in front of us. 

- "there was a fight but no blood, not even from the attacker?", Rossi started.

- "maybe she was trying to just get away from him, not actually hurt him", Emily replied.

I couldn't even think of something to say, it's like my mind was empty. 

- "any thoughts, Reid?"

I checked the file in front of me and then the board.

- "The attacker didn't take anything valueble like money, jewelry or stuff like that"

- "he wanted her", Blake manteined eye contact with me, which send shivers down my spine. I cleared my thoat and continued. 

- "But this wasn't an attack against the whole team, just her. There are no messages, no trying to get to us from any personal things or memories, he just wanted her..."

I was wrong, and I noticed that after I finished my statement. Checking at the scene pictures, right on her nightstand was an earring, and just one. The problem is, that earring didn't belong to y/n, I gave those earrings as a gift... to Maeve. 

They were porpusedly placed there, the whole apartment was trash but the nightstand was neat, with only that earring on it. 

I gulped and continued to look for any more evidence like that one. Doubting in my head if I should tell the team about Maeve. 

- "did you notice anything strange?", JJ asked me. 

- "um.. not really, just... If you look at the whole apartment, it's a mess, right, but look at the nightstand beside her bed"

- "there's an earring"

- "yeah, but it's just one, maybe she was taking them off when the Unsub attacked"

- "no, she wasn't, those earrings don't belong to her"

The whole team was looking at me, now there was no turning back, I had to explain what was on my mind. 

- "how do you know that?", Derek furrowed his eyebrows. 

- "Maeve Donovan"

The whole team looked even more confused, even García who insisted on being on call the whole time to not miss anything from the investigation was probably confused on the other side of the line. 

- "she... she is a friend of mine, and I know I said it looked like the Insub's intentios wasn't to link y/n's kidnapping with us, but that earring that's on her nightstand it's not hers, I gave them to Maeve Donovan as a present on her birthday"

- "tell us everything we need to know", Hotch appeared at the door. 

- 

After I explained everything the team was determined to interrogate every bit of information about the stalker they could. 

- "I already told you, I don't know. Maeve and I just to hang out in our own houses to avoid the stalker's presence"

- "anything unusual you noticed when the doors were open. Anyone who looked like he was staring at you, someone who appeared to always be there?"

I shook my head, I tried to remember everything I could, but I never really noticed that. 

- "Sir", García entered the room. "You need to see this"

There was an address sent to García from an unknown e-mail.

- "how do we know if this is related with y/n and..."

- "Maeve"

- "I wasn't sure either, but after I closed the address there was this link so I clicked on it and... you need to see"

García clicked on the link again. There was a person in a black hoodie with a black mask. The person was covering the entire frame with their face. But after a few seconds the moved and right behind the we could see y/n and Maeve tied to chairs, one next to the other. 

- "no, please, just let us go"

- "what a stupid ass request" Y/n looked right at the camera. "you're recording? get my best angle, please", she said throwing her head back. 

- "how can you be so calmed?!"

- "we're going to either die or be saved, he's not going to let us go just because you cry about it. Take it like a champ"

The person then re appeared on the video holding a sign that read: "hope I can give her the full experience". Then they dropped that one, showing another one that read: "you have 1 hour to arrive at the address". 

The Unsub proceeded to walk back, near the girls. Holding a needle in their hand. 

- "what's that, darling?", y/n asked worried. 

The first and only time the Unsub spoke during the whole video. 

- "dialudid".

I opened my eyes even more, in fear. The Unsub was a girl, it was obvious from her voice and the fact that y/n called her "darling". But also, dialudid, how did she know  about that? 

- "what if it's a trap?"

- "We can't take any chances of not going and that it being too late", Hotch left the room. 

We all got ready with our guns and vests. 

- 

We entered quietly, holding our guns on our hands, ready for anything bad. Inside there was another door, which had a note on it. 

"only doctor reid, no guns"

- "you can't go there all alone, kid, specially unarmed"

- "if we don't follow the rules, they might die", Emily told Derek. We all turned to look at Hotch. 

- "Go in, if you're not out in 4 minutes, we're coming in"

I nodded and entered the room after giving my gun to Hotch. The door closing itself behind me. 

- "it's nice meeting you again, Doctor Spencer Reid", the girl in the hoodie started. 

- "Again? I don't know you"

Offended, she took her hoodie off, revealing her face, and as I said, I didn't know her. 

I shook my head. Which upset her. 

- "You don't remember me?! I was your top student. Always trying to shine so precious little professor Reid would notice me. My classmates called me crazy when I told them that we were going to get married, in a beautiful beach, just us because our families wouldn't approve"

- "you're doing this because me, as a teacher, wasn't interested in you, a student? that's not something I can do..."

- "you were supposed to break the rules for me! you would break them for her", she said pointing her knife at y/n. She seemed so out of it, probably still under the influence of the dialudid. "or her", she said pointing at Maeve. 

- "how would I break the rules for Maeve?"

- "she was one of your students! you didn't even notice?"

I actually didn't. I knew her face looked familiar, but she didn't really attend my class. 

- "now you can't make any excuses, Doctor"

Everytime she called me doctor something cold ran through my spine. 

- "So, here are the rules. IF you really love them, which one do you love the most?"

- "what?"

- "your student, who you say you can't date, or your coworker who you can't date either but would make an exception for, I know you would!"

- "Kill me instead"

- "what?"

- "if you actually want to kill someone, kill me"

- "I'm not killing you, you're too pretty to die. Look, it's either her with a slash through her neck or..." She walked towards y/n, pointing at a button that she could press with her foot. "I give her a massive dose of dialudid, a mortal one... choose wisely, Doctor Reid"

- "I'm not going to choose. I care about them both, so I'm not playing your little game"

-"I can kill both in a matter of seconds, Doctor, then you'll have nobody, just me. You know what, that sounds better"

- "NO!"

With her foot she pressed the button on the floor. Putting her knife on Maeve's throat, a gunshot behind me. 

The Unsub fell to the ground, the knife away from her hand now, Maeve safe. 

- "No! y/n", I take the needle of her arm before the whole dose will get to her. "hey, look at me, hey, y/n?"

I could notice her difficulty to breath and even stay sitted. I untied her while calling for help. 

- "what happened?"

- "she received a big dose of drugs"

- "the paramedics are coming up"

 I was relieved knowing the paramedics were already in the builing and that I got to stop the needle from giving her a big dose. I held her in my arms while we waited. 

- "be happy with her", Maeve said before leaving. I was completely confused, she was the one who needed more help now, that's why-

- "sir, we need you to give us access to help her?"

- "sure". I placed her head softly on the floor, the paramedics quickly surrounding her. 

-

A/n: Should I make a part 2?

[studyinglavender]

sorry! but i am never going to be okay with the covert unless it is reformed significantly. maybe it doesn’t fit the ‘technical definition’ of a cult but it is nonetheless a harmful creed. the person being baptized in 3x01 was a child no older than 16. if you are being asked to follow the way or leave, sure- you’re given agency. but if it’s the only community you know? you’re staying. for din, especially pre-grogu, it wasn’t a choice. if he took off his helmet and became an apostate, he would lose the only family he has ever known. do you not see how fucked up that is?

it’s unfair to compare it to a religion which requires full covering at all times, because even those religions allow you to be unclothed in private, among your family members, and in emergency scenarios such as a life-threatening head injury. there is no inaccessible repentance process if you do not abide by those rules. whereas the creed requires the helmet to remain on at all times (in s1, din said it could not be removed in front of a living creature, but that exception wasn’t specified in the armorer’s questioning in bobf or in the baptism from 3x01). bathing in the living waters isn’t like going to confessional or praying. it is something that was considered impossible by the members of the covert. redemption for apostates was not a reality until din proved them wrong.

the covert also reminds me too much of mormonism to ever feel comfortable defending it. i felt sick watching the first episodes of s3 when din kept talking about how he was an apostate who needed to be redeemed. a fucking apostate. for taking off his helmet to save the life of his child. for letting his child see his face. for that, they were prepared to exile him from the covert, knowing full well it is the only community he has ever known. you know what’s so scary about leaving the mormon church? if you’ve grown up in it, most of the time your social network is comprised only of other church members. you’re encouraged to avoid making friends with people who may lead you astray—because they drink coffee or alcohol, smoke, swear (i’m not kidding). you remain in this small bubble, and after you are baptized at age 8 (which is the age they decide you have agency and are capable of sinning), you second-guess every choice you make. i cried because i could never remember to say my prayers or read my scriptures and i knew i needed to repent for my sins. and when i started questioning my beliefs, i was so terrified of facing the truth because i thought my mom would no longer want me in her life. i distanced myself from many friends to avoid their judgement. i knew if i left, there was no going back. i would be inserting a wedge between me and the other people of my faith with whom i had grown.

for much of his life, din has known only the covert. he was brought up as a foundling and he knew only of the creed. he was taught that the mandalorian armor belonged only to those who followed the creed and rejected the idea that there could be a mandalorian who may not hold the same beliefs. we know he was a very lonely person before grogu. the covert was the only family he ever had. how is it a choice, then? “you may leave at any time you wish,” but if he takes off his helmet, he is an apostate and he must find a new home, a new family, a new belief system. he would have no one. what kind of a choice is that? in what world would he ever want to take off his helmet?

so yeah, the covert is not just a religious sect hiding from persecution. they are, at best, a high-demand religion, where allowing your child to see your face is an unfathomable act that necessitates redemption. if din djarin remains part of the covert as it stands, that’s extremely disappointing.

[redcruxsworld]

A Little Rude of You, Don't you think so?

An alternate story of the last episode, "Heedious Heart", if Flug worked for P.E.A.C.E instead of being a villain.

Within the many rooms and corners of the P.E.A.C.E headquarters, in the heart of it layed the doctor's personal laboratory. A laboratory shrouded in mystery and awe. None of the scientists or staff members even got to go in there. The only outside person was ever given a green card to enter that place was the boss himself, General Falcion. People never understand the recluse nature of the akward yet enigmatic Dr. Kennings Flugslys. A man is so full of ideas, creativity, and mystery. Heck, no one even knows where his hometown is. All they know is that he's a respected and great doctor who has the people's best interests in mind. They couldn't have been more wrong with their assumptions. Kennings never really care for people. He only ever cared about his creations, at least in his thoughts, that is what Dr. Flug likes to think this way in order to bury his emotional turmoils. He may have been a man of great intelligence, but he never quite understood the concept of "Love". It's something that confused him for the longest time. Well, not because he doesn't understand how it works but more why people desperately need it or chase it down. That was the part he never understood, 'Why chase down something that can shatter your heart?'.

'Maybe it's because I have only ever tasted the bitterness of love in my life', the doctor thinks to himself as he writes down his formula on a notepad. He looks at the pictures he has hanged on his wall. He sighs as he knows that it is only just him and his achievements famed to satisfy his scientific ego. He then looks at the stacks of boxes that have accumulated over the years. He wonders if their were really any importance in keeping these things around. He gets up from his seat and pulls one of the boxes out carefully so as not to damage the others. He opens it and feels nostalgia wash over him. It was his memories when he was still in the Black Hat Institute. Picture of his class batch and his old scientific works. However, something caught his eye, a picture covered by dust. He blows the dust and frowns. Out of all the people the picture could have had. It was her, his eyes rolled in annoyance. It was his first love and last, Cecilia Amanda Kelly, now known as the heroine Miss Heed. 'How embarrassing....' he said to himself as a wash of memories came back to him. The sweet and bitter taste of love that he once felt for Cecilia came back once more to bite him. He remembers becoming friends with her, visiting her room and trying to comfort her in her times of need, thinking that maybe one day she'll notice his love for her...... Only for that hope to be crushed by her awful betrayal. Stealing his thesis just to please another man? Really, he didn't mind the thesis being stolen, considering he can create another one, but..... her using his creation for another person? It was like his world fell into ruins as he realised that she was just using him. Her betrayal really left a bad taste in his mouth when it comes to the topic of love. That's the day he decided to lock out any type of romantic affection he receives or feels. At first, it was hard, but over time, he got used to suppressing his emotions. He mastered how to control his emotions and his ability to give love.

That's why it wasn't really that hard for him to refuse Miss Heed's invitations to hang out. However, it was getting more frequent and more annoying. He would get handwritten letters, private messages, and gifts from her. It annoyed him to no end, and everything she ever gave him was thrown out to his incinerator bot. "Incinerator bot, come here." He called as the machine came to him, and he dropped the picture into the hot flames of the robot. It's not like he needed that thing any way he said in his mind. Flug then decides that it's time for his once in a while appearance to the outside world. He took a bath and changed his work clothes to a more casual yet presentable one. He then walked out of his laboratory's tungsten doors with a sling bag. He hummed as he walked down to the headquarters long corridors and out into the city. Unlucky for him, a familiar irritating voice called out to him, "Fluggy!~ there you are. I have been waiting for you for a long time!" The pink hair woman said waving as she ran to his direction. He urked when she immediately lached on to his arm, "Oh Fluggy~, you don't know how much I missed you! How have you been, hmm?~" She said as she looked at his face. Looks like he has to play along with her little game now, "Oh, I have been good, Heed. How about you?" Flug said with a fake smile and thinks to himself, 'All that work to avoid her, just for her to ambush me..... I should have stayed in the lab for another week.' She giggled and drags him off to her usual place to by her favorite strawberry drink, "The usual for me please~ What about you, Fluggy?~" She asked him as he looked at the menu of drinks, "I'll have the Coffee Tofee and cut the sugar please." He said as the barista nodded, and they both sat down on their chosen table. She looks out the window and then looks at Flug, "So.... Fluggy, can I ask you something?" He internally rolled his eyes. Of course, she wanted something out of their encounter. He smiled and tilted his head, "Oh, and what would that be?" He asked back. She then blushes and fidgets, "Um.... could you do me a favour about my new perfume?" His anger rose from the depths of hell. 'Her' perfume? Yeah, right, she talks like she didn't stole his unfinished thesis and claimed it was hers? 'Real fucking funny, Cecilia.' The voice in his head echoed, "And what would be the problem about your new perfume? Suize Moi, was it?" He asked, maintaining his his smile as their drinks were placed down. She nodded, "Yes! I think there is a problem with the formula.... I want it to last longer, but I don't know how to." She replied. He chuckled. 'Of course, it doesn't last for long. It's unfinished when you took it!' But he couldn't just say that, so instead he said, 'I will guess that you want me to help? Am I correct?" He said as he took a sip of his drink, "Yes! Please, I wanna make this a very special perfume. This will help me gain some more attention..... and maybe even Goldheart's attention." Ah, yes, that hero. Goldheart, the man that she betrayed their friendship for. Flug has met the man once or twice before, mostly in P.E.A.C.E's headquarters, but he never really acknowledged his presence since he was more focused on his work.

He doesn't blame her for falling for Goldheart. However, the man is good-looking by standards. He is very charmastic in his speeches..... but he can tell that man is very insincere with his words. He's a liar like him. After all, someone who lies knows who is lying. "I see. Then I'll help you. Maybe by next week's Tuesday, I'll come by and check out your perfume formula." He said laughing as he has already concocted a devious plan to get back at her without her noticing. If he can create it, he can also destroy it. After all, it only takes a few alterations to destroy that unfinished work of his. Heed happily smiles as both parted ways, while Flug has a very maniacal smile on his face as he continues on his way. Looks like Tuesday is going to be a very interesting day for sure.~

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Hopefully, I'll continue this soon.

-Red~

Part 2 here