#My sister said this is serial killer behavior

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Get yourself a man who looks at you as lovingly as Slappy does to Nosferatu <3

[astrophileous]

Love Bugs (Pt. 05)

Pairing: Derek Morgan x Female Reader

Synopsis: You and Derek Morgan have an arrangement. At work, your relationship is strictly business. Under the sheets, it's all about pleasure. Nothing more, nothing less. Until, of course, your feelings start to get involved. Your situation is complicated enough without the unexpexted predicament that suddenly befalls upon you. But with a maniac serial killer on the loose, will you ever get the chance to make everything right?

Warning(s): psychopathic behaviors, kidnapping, captive situation, verbal and physical threats, threatening use of knife, curse words

Word Count: 2300-ish

Tag(s): @camilaheroine @crazyunsexycool @whateverrrrrrrrs @wifeyofeveryone @louderfortheback @marvelousgoldroses

Author's Note: HI I'M SORRY FOR THE DELAY, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT A CRAZY-FUCK-LOAD DAY I JUST HAD 😭 in summary: my sister had a breakdown, I almost succumbed to the hellhole of road rage, and someone in my life is possibly trying to get a divorce :) so yeah :) it was fcking crazy :)))) buuUUTT I managed to quickly revise and edit this (heavy emphasis on quickly in case there's any mistake found). as usual, you know the drill: LIKE+REBLOG+COMMENT pls pretty pls and thank you 🌹

Love Bugs Masterlist / Criminal Minds Masterlist

For a whole minute, the silence that conquered the entire bullpen would make a pin drop sound like an exploded grenade.

Everyone was scared to even breathe, let alone to say anything, to make any kinds of noise that would solidify the reality they were facing.

Not a single pair of eyes could jerk their gaze away from the screen as they watched the UnSub closing in on you. Pulling out a dagger and pressing it against your jaw before tilting your head just right so that you would look straight into the camera.

Derek flinched.

"Garcia," Hotch's voice was the first rip into the silence. When the tech analyst failed to answer his call, he tried again, "Garcia."

"Yes?" Penelope's eyes were watery. Her voice was wavering as she answered, "I-I'm sorry. Yes, sir?"

"I want you to start tracking down his location."

"I-I tried to do that, sir. Earlier. I couldn't... the signal, they kept being bounced around and I don't--

"Garcia." Hotch's voice was colder this time. "Try again."

Penelope immediately sprung into action, reaching for her laptop where the projector was connected.

"I'm sending units to her place," Hotch informed before making a quick call. As he waited for the line to connect, he turned to the others in the room. "Emily, (Y/L/N) said she was going to a hospital yesterday, try finding out which one she went to. Reid, JJ, start tracking her past movements, I want to know about every person she's had any contact with recently."

"How far back do you want us to go?" JJ asked.

"The day of the press conference," Hotch answered. "This must be why he's been lying low for a while. He's got his eyes on her since that day. If we can find out where she's been, we can find him."

Hotch pocketed his phone back after sending units to your home. The other three agents had all scurried away to fulfill Hotch's requests.

Derek, however, hadn't even moved an inch.

"Derek?" Hotch called out. When Derek didn't make a single gesture of acknowledgment, Hotch began to approach him. "Derek, do you--"

Hotch didn't manage to reach Derek's side before he was interrupted by the sound of the telephone ringing.

Penelope's eyes were frantic as they darted to the remaining people in the room. "I-Is that--"

"Garcia, get ready to trace the call," Hotch demanded. He moved swiftly to where the phone was located, glancing at Rossi who gave him a single nod of encouragement.

Taking a deep breath, Hotch put the phone on speaker. "FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit."

"Agent Aaron Hotchner?"

"This is he." Hotch waited for the other person to answer, but it never came. "Can I ask to whom am I speaking?"

"You know who I am, Agent."

"Do I?"

"Well, we have a very important mutual person in our lives. I know you. So you must also know who I am."

Hotch's eyes flickered towards Rossi, exchanging a conversation in the silent language which only those two could seem to understand.

"Are you talking about (Y/L/N)?"

"You know I do," the person answered. "You're watching right now, aren't you?"

"Yes, we are," Hotch confirmed. "We need to know if she's safe."

"Of course she's safe. I would never hurt her."

"Yes, I'm sure you wouldn't. But we still need confirmation, alright? It's just how this works," Hotch explained. "Please, can you pass the phone to Agent (Y/L/N)?"

A beat of silence passed. Hotch glanced back at the projector to make sure that the UnSub hadn't done anything untoward. Finally, after what felt like hours, he pressed the phone to your ear.

"Tell them you're okay, Darling," he commanded.

"H-Hotch?"

Derek stood straighter at the sound of your voice.

"(Y/L/N)." Your name almost sounded like a breath of relief out of Hotch's mouth. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Hotch."

Before you nor Hotch could say more, the UnSub tore the phone away and brought it back to himself.

"See? I told you she's fine."

Everyone's eyes were directed back to the screen, seeing your assailant unglue the dagger from your neck and walk straight towards the camera. Even in the darkness, his eyes were provoking. Arrogant. He never broke eye contact as he spoke his next words to the phone in his hand.

"I should thank you, Agent Hotchner."

"Thank me?"

"For giving me the opportunity to know such a beautiful creature in the first place."

The UnSub walked away from the camera, refocusing his attention back towards you. Your determined eyes never so much as faltered, even when he brought the tip of his blade on your skin, dragging it across your collarbones, neck, and back. Forceful enough for you to know not to cause any scene if you didn't want the blade to be plunged into your flesh, but sickeningly gentle as to prevent it from drawing blood.

"I know it was your idea to set up that press conference with Agent (Y/L/N) for me, Agent Hotchner. Wasn't it?"

Hotch gritted his teeth at the UnSub's taunt.

"So, really, I owe it all to you. If only you hadn't made that call--" the UnSub paused, touching your shoulder and leaning down until his lips brushed your temple, "--we would've never had the chance to be together like this."

Then, to everyone's horror, the UnSub's hand trailed away from your shoulder, down and down until it rested upon your belly.

"The theee of us," he sneered.

In that moment, Derek's entire world shifted under his feet.

Every cell in Derek's body went erratic once the true implications of the UnSub's words registered in his brain. His heart plunged into a void before restarting instantly into a sequence of thunders. Inch by inch, his body and soul were consumed by a fog filled with the worst snippet of dread and the darkest terror he had ever encountered in life.

"What is he talking about?" Derek questioned as soon as he had found his voice again. "Hotch?"

But the older man remained stoic in his place by the phone. On the other line, a booming laughter sounded.

"Oh? Did no one know about this?" the UnSub cooed. "Have you not told anyone about the good news yet, Darling?"

The clear panic in your face, along with the whimper that slipped past your lips, was the scissor to Derek's final resolve.

In big strides, he marched over to the phone, voice raw and splintered as he cried, "You sick son of a bitch."

The room stood still at the magnitude of fury laced within Derek's words.

Your voice was muffled when it came through the phone, but Derek heard every fiber of emotions in it all the same.

"Derek..."

"Derek?" Your captor tilted his head. "Ah. Agent Morgan?"

"You're a dead meat, do you hear me?"

"Morgan," Hotch warned sternly.

"So much rage," The UnSub suddenly mused. "I told you, Agent Morgan. There's no reason to worry here. I'm going to take care of them. They're in very good hands."

"Fucking bastard! You get your filthy hands off her," Derek fumed. "Get your fucking hands off my child."

Derek's admission was a butcher knife in the thick silence.

"My child?" the UnSub's voice broke through from the other end of the line. "Darling, what is he talking about?"

Your captor's question managed to lift some of the fog from Derek's head. Before he could begin to form any more words, Hotch pushed him to the side before pressing the mute button to block the noises inside the bullpen from filtering into the telephone line.

"Rossi, can you take over for a second?" Hotch asked before turning towards Derek, "Morgan, my office. Now."

Every one of Derek's movement was robotic as he followed Hotch away from the bullpen. As soon as the door to the office closed behind them, Hotch wasted no breath before stating his order, "I need you off the case, Morgan."

"Absolutely not."

"Morgan--"

"Hotch," Derek cut him off, eyes blazing with a ferosity matching that of a thunderstorm. "I'm not going to stand around and do nothing while she... while he still has her."

"The team and I will never let anything happen to her. To both of them," Hotch promised. "You need to trust us."

"I trusted you, too, last time, Hotch. Look where that got us."

He knew it wasn't fair. Derek realized it as soon as the last syllable had passed his lips. But Derek wasn't himself right at that moment, and Hotch understood it all too well.

Closing his eyes, Derek leaned back against the desk in Hotch's office. Exhaustion was the fruit of fright as it diverged in his bones. It raced along his bloodstream, reaching the deepest points of his entire being until there was no corner left for hope to fill.

"Would you have done it?" Derek asked eventually. "If any of us had told you to stand down when Foyet was holding Haley and Jack--if I told you to trust us--would you?"

"No," Hotch replied truthfully. "But this is different."

"How the fuck is this different?!"

"It's different because your personal feelings almost cost us (Y/N)'s life."

There was nothing Derek could say to counter Hotch's accusation.

Flashing scenes of the earlier phone conversation sped through Derek's mind. For a second there, right after the UnSub unknowingly declared your condition, Derek almost thought that he was on the brink of losing his complete sanity. All Derek remembered was red in his vision as he stalked towards the phone, shouting the first threats he could think of towards the UnSub, all the while failing to deduct how his rash behaviors could affect you later on.

The breath that Derek let out quivered in the air as he tried to stop thinking about what the UnSub might have planned to do to you in the wake of his action.

"She's pregnant, Hotch," Derek cried quietly. "He has them both. She's carrying my child and I... I didn't even know."

Derek didn't even realize he was crying until the burning ache inside his chest started to expand. The room around him was spinning. The only memory echoing in Derek's head was of the very last night the two of you had ever spent together--the night where he screwed up--and how you had kicked him straight to the curb because of his own idiocy.

"I fucked up, Hotch," Derek managed to croak out between his wretched sobs. "The last thing I said to her... God, what if I never get the chance to make it right again? What if the last memory I have of her is of the night I broke her fucking heart?"

Hotch didn't think he had ever seen Derek in such a state before. Gone was the capable and confident man that Hotch had the pleasure of knowing for the last few years. In his place was a broken shell of a man who looked like Derek, talked like Derek, but void of any semblance of life and spirit that Hotch always associated with the man.

The life and spirit that were gone in the absence of you in Derek's arms.

"Morgan, everything's going to be fine," Hotch tried again. "JJ and Reid are scouring everything to figure out her movements over the last couple of weeks. I've assigned Emily to find the hospital (Y/N) went to yesterday. We'll figure out who took her. End this for good."

Derek's gaze never strayed away off the ground. Hotch took a long breath before adding, "Morgan, we will find her--"

"How did you know she went to the hospital?"

The question came as a shock to either of them. Derek's eyes were more curious than incriminating, but the accusation behind them seemed to inflate with every second that passed by in Hotch's silence.

"You didn't seem surprised when the UnSub told us about her condition. Why?"

"Morgan--"

People liked to say that anger was the ultimate fuel for human beings.

And for Derek Morgan, anger was exactly the propulsion he needed to throw himself right off the edge, where the line between flaming vengeance and common sense had blurred together into one another.

It was the propulsion that, somehow, rationalized his instinct to surge forward and slammed Hotch back against the hard surface of the office wall.

The harsh impact knocked the air entirely out of Hotch's lungs, but the choked sound was stifled in Derek's ears by his own roaring wrath. Hotch almost didn't recognize the man beneath all of that hostility. The only thing left of Derek Morgan, in that moment, was his name.

"You knew?"

Each syllable not welded with rage in Derek's question was fused with betrayal instead.

"Morgan--"

"Answer me, goddammit!"

Hotch's resolve remained steadfast as he answered, "Yes."

That one simple word managed to drain every last bit of energy from Derek's body. He fell back a step, then twice, before the choking hold he had of Hotch was finally released.

"How long?"

"I only found out yesterday."

Derek pinched the bridge of his nose.

"She told you, but not me." He chuckled dryly. "Why the hell didn't you tell me, Hotch?!"

"I didn't know you were the father," Hotch said. "She never told me it was you."

Before his legs could give out, Derek sank on the chair in front of Hotch's desk. A million different thoughts were going haywire in the neurons of his brain. He wanted to scream. To flip the earth upside down and find the location where you were being held hostage. He just wanted the universe to stop messing with him and started giving him answers.

And then, five seconds later, the door to the office swung open.

Emily stood in the doorway, unassuming of the palpable tension lingering in the air. When she finally uttered her next words, Derek thought he could finally start to breathe again.

"We may have something," Emily announced to the room. "We think we know where (Y/N) is."

Derek flew out of the chair before anyone had the chance to say anything else.

He was coming to get you.

And this time, Derek had no intention of letting you go.

[classicanalyzer]

The Acolyte - Destiny Thoughts

"Destiny is not decided for you by an anonymous Force. You get to make a choice, Osha. If you want to pull the Thread, then pull it." Mother Aniseya

I love how the logo of the show matches the colors of a small part of the skies, especially when the Ascension was happening with the orange and light blue converging together. I do love how we get further humanization of this witch coven. However, I have a feeling we might have our view of them subverted since we see them from their POV.

Mae (her full name being Mae-Ho) was incredibly messed up as a child. With how Mae used the Force on the butterflies, as my friend said it best, those are serial killer signs (it also reminds me of Momin). I was incredibly surprised at how she thought killing her own sister would stop her from leaving. No wonder she became an Acolyte.

I like how Osha (her full name being Verosha) shows her desire to be more and explore the galaxy. It's hard for her and for anyone who is in her shoes to speak out for herself than others expect you to be. I also like the parallels to TPM Anakin which is even more apparent with no they were born with no father.

This leads to a major reveal of how Osha and Mae were conceived by the Force (or the Thread) by Mother Aniseya and Mother Koril. I hope we get to know more of the specifics behind this since the Force might not have liked this (in Legends, I believe Plagueis tried to manipulate the Midiclorians using the Force for immortality and the Force not liking being manipulated reacted back to this by creating Anakin) I do love this unique direction and exploration and I hope we get to learn more.

I really like Mother Aniseya. She was incredibly understanding towards Osha's well-being despite her preferring Osha to stay. It humanizes this group of witches despite the implications that the witches might've done something bad to warrant Jedi's caution. Since the Jedi did tolerate other Dark Side groups that weren't Sith, it makes one question what's up with this group in particular. I also like how her relationship with Mother Koril is shown. They both love each other but they clearly have different views on how to raise their children. It's also understandable of why the group doesn't want to give up their children given their trauma but they also have to respect that Osha wants to be more than a witch.

The HR Jedi are also portrayed well here. They're doing their best (understandably cautious towards the coven given the implied past of the group being not so great) and wanting to protect Force-sensitive children (the possession thing and what we know happened to Force-sensitive children). Sol continues to be one of the best Jedi of the HR Era and in general. His kindness and understanding of Osha stand out and show why Osha thinks so fondly of him. How he sympathizes with Osha about feeling scared just like her and comforts her that she isn't alone in this is great to see. You can feel the weight of his guilt when he had to tell her that none of her family survived.

The entire witch coven definitely didn't die in the fire (their bodies aren't charred). There's something much more going on and perhaps the Jedi are involved in it though I highly doubt they went out of their way to kill them if they did (I highly doubt Sol was a part of it if that's the case). Perhaps even the Sith or an Acolyte (the mysterious Dark Side user) was responsible for the explosion. However, I definitely think the fire was the first domino that led to the tragedy. Mae's irrational and disturbing behavior had inadvertently resulted in the loss of everything.

Episode 3 continues Acolyte's greatness and I hope Episode 4 continues this streak. Kogonada, a South Korean-born American, directed this episode and I can't for his work in Episode 7.

[seeyouslater]

Spoilers for Creep and Creep 2:

Note: I will be switching names for the killer when I start talking about the sscond movie, since that is how he's referred to by other characters.

First off, can I just say, I appreciate how weird and out there these movies are? The cinematography choices in both films work well for the stories they are telling and add to the atmosphere. By not being able to see both characters on screen at the same time, it leaves the audience to guess how the other half is reacting- when it is not audible.

Aaron's decisions throughout the first movie, while addressed later by Josef, baffle me to no belief. I understand (in some way) wanting to get closure and answers. The police are not assisting the capture of Josef and are not taking Aaron's concerns seriously. Due to this I can see where Aaron's mindspace might have been in that moment. He's scared, it's obvious that Josef can freely access his apartment without his knowledge, and Josef's claimed to be and have done several things that have been proven wrong. Aaron wants this to end and maybe a part of him wants to help Josef.

The two things I do not understand is 1. He does not bring a weapon with him. It can be reasoned he didn't want to escalate the situation by bringing one, but I still would have brought at least mace. 2. He turns his back on him! I do not care how harmless this man is, he has threatened you, and I would never turn my back on someone like that.

Remember when I said there were only two things I didn't understand?? Well, I've now realized that's not true. 3. Who is Angela? She answers the phone when Aaron answers and seems to know that Josef is unstable. I was reading some theories on Reddit and they all seem viable. From her being the actual Josef's sister (implying that real Josef can be perhaps as unpredicable as on screen Josef and real Josef's house is used as the next lure-murder scene after he himself gets killed), to her being on-screen Josef's wife/sister, to his accomplice. A third movie is in production, so I hope they explain this and it isn't just a continuity error.

Finally, we get to the second movie. Right out the gate, Sara is iconic and by far my favorite character from both films. She's just so openly accepting and willing to take people as they are, with all their eccentricities. Which is a hazard for what she does on YouTube but alas, I believe it is this quality that saves her.

Sara is able to get Aaron to see a different perspective on his work, life, and most importantly, purpose. Aaron no longer sees killing as his whole life's purpose and starts to remove himself from the narrative of prolific serial killer to prolific serial killer with a unique ending. This ending is what ultimately saves Sara. Instead of just being another one of his countless victims, Sara, by virtue of her being genuinely and honestly herself, has convinced him that she can create a better story than he ever could.

This ending sequence, however, is the one thing that bothers me as far as Sara's behavior goes. She is given the opportunity to run away, and she does not. She charges at Josef, and he's able to get the knife back. After this altercation, he stabs her and starts monologing. He talks about how he will now continue his work as a serial killer, switching from himself killing, to dying, to them both dying, to just her. It is evident that all the work Sara did to get him out of that cycle is gone now. Sara is able to hit him.om the back of a head with a shovel, but yet she doesn't make sure he's dead?? It seems from the framing of the last scene that she doesn't even call the cops?! I get not wanting to kill him (even though he tried to kill her but that aside), as that's never an easy thing to do. She one hundred percent should have called the cops on him though. Then he would be a wanted man and would not be able to come after her like he does. I do like to think that instead of Josef killing Sara, that either she becomes his accomplice or is able to get away/finally kill him, but I doubt that anything other than the first scenario will happen.

All in all, I thought these movies were funny more than anything, and that made it more enjoyabpe than anything. To be able to laugh at it and the absurdity of it all. That's exactly that's how I approach the Scream movies too and it makes it a more enjoyable watch.

[aviculor]

The people who run the yarr harr sites need to wake up and upload V/H/S/Beyond already. I'm going to have to watch something else in the meantime.

Creep. I know what happens in Creep. A guy takes a gig taping a video diary for someone who's allegedly terminally ill. And the client is a creep. A weirdo, if you will. You might be tempted to ask what the hell he is doing here. It may be evident that he does not belong here. So on and so forth. At the end, the two men part ways with the client being seemingly benign in spite of all his unsettling behavior. But when they meet again, our protagonist gets an axe in the head because the client actually was a serial killer toying with his prey this whole time. That's the long and short of it. But as I've said before, a film cannot be assessed by a plot summary alone. It is an experience. And the experience is in fact the meat of this movie.

At an hour and 17 minutes, it is indeed a little more svelte than some of the other films I've experienced. Not a bad thing, as it is a rather straightforward narrative. The film is from 2014, and you can see how it evolved out of the "cruel for cruelty's sake" and "invincible villain" flavor of the aughties that gave us Saw and The Poughkeepsie Tapes.

Oh yeah, Josef is getting naked as soon as Aaron agrees to the job. That is setting the tone just as well as Aaron spying the axe in the stump outside.

Knowing how it ends, it does rob a lot of the "what the fuck is going on here? Is this guy being sincere about Tubby Time and Peachfuzz the Wolf?" ambiguity from the events that are unfolding. But because I am watching all this knowing it's just Josef (and that's not even his real name) completely fucking with Aaron, it's like watching a car crash. Or a Greek tragedy. You know what I mean? And then it makes sense why Josef would "break script" to take the camera and record Aaron and ask him invasive questions. Because that footage was never being filmed to show a child whose father will die before he is born. Josef literally did just pick that idea up from the movie he mentioned. It also explains why his marital rape story gives a completely different origin for the "Peachfuzz" mask than what he said in act one.

So who exactly WAS Angela, anyway? What did she know? What was she doing? Why was she calling Josef? Why did she not have more urgency in telling Aaron to leave? Why did she not contact the police? IS Josef his real name since she called him that, or was Josef the name of his last victim the same way he calls himself Aaron in Creep 2? Was that why he ran away and dropped the pretense of having cancer and a pregnant wife after that point, because Angela was his last victim's sister and he thought that Aaron learned more than he actually did?

My recollection of events was accurate aside from the day ending with Aaron getting into a physical altercation with Josef and escaping, and Josef stalking Aaron. Which only begs the question of why Aaron agreed to meet Josef again. He should have contacted the police again when he got that final CD. He gave up on that way too easily and then he willingly went to a second location of Josef's choosing. Josef even pointed it out, Aaron should have been on guard enough to look behind himself even just once.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Tin & Tina (2023)

If you only ace one part of your movie, make it the ending. For the most part, I was enjoying Tin & Tina but it didn't seem like anything special. After the final act, my thoughts on it changed completely - for the better. Due to that period of uncertainty, I have to be slightly conservative with my rating, but this is a movie I’ll remember down the line.

Set during the early 1980s, in Spain, Lola (Milena Smit) and Adolfo (Jaime Lorente) have just said their marriage vows when they unexpectedly lose their unborn twins in a miscarriage. Hoping to make their family whole again, the couple adopt twins Tin (Carlos González Morollón) and Tina (Anastasia Russo) from a nearby religious convent. Lola soon becomes suspicious of the children, though Adolfo insists their odd behavior stems from innocence rather than malice.

When we meet the twins, they seem needlessly creepy. They’re either albino or extremely blonde, they���ve got weird haircuts and their smiles are too big. The children are extremely religious. They've never watched TV, they quote the Bible for fun, the idea of not saying grace before a meal mortifies them. It's offputting but you can understand where that behavior comes from since they were raised by nuns. They're introduced playing the organ with a skill far beyond their years (reminded me of “The Orphan”), which is another sure sign that these kids are baaad news. Despite their appearances and strange habbits, you can see why Lola wants to adopt them, however. As a child, she lost a leg. She was also a “weird” kid and she’s specifically looking to replace the twins she lost.

Soon after arriving to their new home, Tin and Tina's actions raises some serious red flags. Not necessarily the kind that exposes them as evil but they would make any sane parent go back to the orphanage and ask the sister in charge (sor Asunción, played by Teresa Rabal) if she ever noticed anything weird from them. Less patient parents would go to the police and tell them to investigate the orphanage. Whatever those nuns are teaching the rugrats, it’s going to make them all into serial killers. Even for loving parents who really want a family, even for the place and the time period, Lola & Adolfo are way, way too cool with what happens. No one watching would tolerate some of the horror movie behavior exhibited. It’s enough to make you want these people to fall victim to whatever terrors await them once the kids turn full-on evil. I mean when you can’t read ANY of the signs, you deserve it.

Although I still feel like sometimes, Lola – and to a certain extent Adolfo too – let things that no one else, not even a saint, would let slide and that is frustrating, the ending changes all of that. This movie is much smarter than it seems. You see the creepy kids, you witness the horror-movie behavior, you think you know exactly where the plot is headed. You dismiss the characters as too stupid to live and essentially give up. What you don't realize is that you’re the one who's made the mistake. There’s something you haven’t considered while evaluating this story and probably wouldn't have in a million years: the possibility that although this is a horror film, the children aren’t actually evil. What if they’re not the problem? What if it’s Lola and Adolfo?

There are indeed subtle details that hint at the couple not being idyllic. At the orphanage, Adolfo insists that they’re only for children free from deformities. His wife wears a prosthetic leg. She has since childhood. What does this statement say about him? We find out that Lola has a bitter relationship with God. Bitter enough to make her subconsciously hate children who love Him more than anything else? Maybe. Trust me. I know not knowing if a movie is better than "just ok" for nearly 2-hours is hard, particularly with several developments that make you think "Oh come on. How many more signs do you need?!" but it all comes together so well during the conclusion you'll feel foolish for having doubted the film.

There may also be a deeper meaning to some elements of the picture, since it's set during a tumultuous period of Spain's history that I'm not familiar with. I can't say for sure. What I do know is that Tin & Tina deserves your patience. I'm still not 100% sure the characters are not a little bit dumb but that conclusion is so solid I'm more than willing to forgive it. It's scary and makes you think in the most unexpected way. (Original Spanish with English subtitles, May 28, 2023)

[enbyleighlines]

Leigh plays Tellius prt 23

Ugh. Featured above is what I believe to be the most frustrating decision Radiant Dawn made. Astrid had so much potential! She's from a noble family, but left to become a knight so that she could escape an arranged marriage! (Likely inspired by seeing her elder sisters enter into unhappy marriages.) She's timid, but determined to become stronger. She starts out weak, but grows fast, due to her special skill. The fact that she becomes demoted to Makalov's devoted groupie is so disappointing.

I mean, in comparison to her original betrothed, Makalov is a vast improvement. But that's more of a comment on Lekain than Makalov.

And here we have the most baffling decision Radiant Dawn has made. I don't hate it, I'm just... confused. Why did Devdan change his name? Why is he pretending to be a different person? Did he actually lose his memory or is this a bit? Or is it a poorly designed scheme to keep himself out of trouble?

I don't know. I do wish Devdan/Danved had more story importance. He seems like a cool character. I especially liked his base conversation with Ike in PoR. If only we could have had more of that.

Crimean Royal Knight Fifth Platoon Captain Kieran hath returned!!! I am so happy to see this absolute buffoon. He just reads as so fruity to me. I can't wait to pair him with Oscar again. Those two were monsters in my PoR playthrough. And with Oscar's avoid bonus, they were nearly untouchable, too.

Man, this map took me so long. I went into it thinking that it would be easy. After all, most of the enemy units are fairly weak. Surely my units won't have any issue staying alive.

Oh, how wrong I was. The amount of times Marcia got sniped by an crossbow, or Geoffrey got crit by a sniper... I didn't keep count, but trust me, it was a lot. And it didn't help that the enemy and ally turns took so long, so redoing this map was a trial of patience.

At long last, however, I managed to pull through.

This part of the game is so heartbreaking. The fact that Ludveck actually sent Elincia Lucia's hair... like, that's serial killer behavior right there. And while I do think Lucia looks better with short hair, I would have much preferred it if she didn't have it chopped off against her will by the world's most evil Southern gentleman. That's a massive violation of Lucia's bodily autonomy, meant to humiliate and degrade her, and I'm again sad we don't get to murder Ludveck for this.

I've always wondered what all the people gathered here think. Are they predominantly on Elincia's side, or Ludveck's? I hope it's the former. I know Elincia isn't enjoying much popularity from the nobles, but I hope she at least has a devoted following among the common folk.

And how I pray to remove your head from your body, Ludveck. God, he's so creepy. Why are all the male villains in RD so creepy? They all have such terrible incel energy.

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

I SAID THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

Gosh, this isn't my favorite cutscene in the game (that happens in part 3), but man this one is SO HYPE. My own complaint is that Soren is the only one who doesn't seem to have a voice actor assigned to him, aside from maybe Rhys. Even Gatrie does a little grunt at one point. But Soren is a main character! At least hire someone to do some quiet chanting in the old language. They did that for Micaiah in the first cutscene.

Oh, well. I'm too happy to complain any further. I'm just relieved to finally get the Greil Mercs back. Part 3 is probably my favorite part of the game, though part 4 is also a lot of fun. It has some of the best cutscenes in the game imo. I cannot wait to see Ranulf animated. His smooth voice and subtle little ear twitches... ah, I'm in love!

[princeescaluswords]

#35 🤔 for the ask the writer game

#35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

This is an excellent question. There is one thing, when writing villains that I feel an author must never forget, because to me it's the literal difference between a villain and an antagonist or even a morally-gray or morally complex character.

THEIR VICTIMS.

Conflict is the soul of stories, and in conflicts, characters are going to be hurt either emotionally or physically, sometimes by others, sometimes by themselves. Heroes can be forced into situations where they have to kill another person or they can be forced to choose between two equally unpleasant outcomes. Antagonists can have legitimate reasons to hurt others or even kill their enemies. A character with deep flaws can make decisions that hurt the people who care about them or are part of their lives. But villains have victims: individuals who are hurt as a means to an end, whatever that end might be, who would never be involved in the story without the villain expressing their will-to-power.

Let's look at some examples. Teen Wolf is my fandom, so I'll use the villains of that show.

If the lies that Peter Hale had told in Season 1 had not actually been lies, i.e. "I was out of my mind" and "Only the responsible ones," he would not have been a villain. Scott may have felt that he had to stop Peter's plan for revenge, but that would have made him an antagonist. But if Peter truly had bit Scott in a fit of moon madness and then said "Oh, shit, I involved a perfectly innocent boy in all this" and not mentally and physically violated him repeatedly, there would be a legitimate argument that he wasn't a villain. If he hadn't murdered the school janitor or savaged Lydia or tried to force Scott murder his friends, then there might be grounds for arguing that he was just an antagonist. But he did Bite Scott on purpose and he did murder people who had no knowledge or involvement in the Hale fire, and he did use Lydia in a degrading and sadistic manner. He's a villain.

This distinction is why I consider Derek Hale an antagonist in Season 1 and a villain in Season 2. In season 1, Derek manipulated and bullied Scott, but Scott was already involved. Derek was doing what he thought was necessary -- avenging his sister -- though I have to stress that he certainly wasn't "trying to help" Scott. The only lead he had was Scott McCall, and while his behavior was downright reprehensible, he didn't create the situation in which he found himself. This changes in Season 2 with Jackson, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd. He knew that Kate's death would bring repercussions, he knew that the Alpha Pack would be coming, he watched Gerard declare war, he had the means to avoid it, but he went and involved four teenagers anyway. Their deaths, and the deaths they caused, are an expression of his will to get what he wanted, when they wouldn't have been involved without it. Boyd might be lonely, Erica might be dealing with epilepsy, Isaac might be in foster care, and Jackson might be nursing a bruised ego, but they wouldn't have faced what they did without Derek's decision to manipulate them into getting the Bite. That is what makes him a villain.

What does that mean for other villains? Theo was manipulated and kidnapped by the Doctors. Monroe crossed the line out of ignorance. Meredith suffered from true mental illness. None of these stories are simple. It's not supposed to be simple, which is why the key always comes back to the victims: Carrie, Zach, Edgar and the people like them who never chose to get involved, who weren't the protagonists, but were hurt anyway.

That's why fandom vanishes the janitor from Night School (1x06) when trying to turn Peter into a morally-gray character rather than a serial killer. That's why fandom vanishes Jackson's claws to Allison's throat when they try to make Scott into the villain rather than Gerard in Master Plan (2x12). Fandom cannot deny that the victims are what make the villain.

When I want to make a villain in your writing, I ask myself which people are they hurting who would not have been part of the story without the will of the character I am identifying as the villain?

[the-homicidediaries]

Ed Kemper

Hello, everyone who takes the time to read this. <3

I hope everyone has had a good Mother's Day. I've had one of the best days. My children are so lovely, thoughtful, and caring. I couldn't be prouder of who they are becoming. BUT Enough about me.

Idk, I kinda figured I hadn't talked about a serial killer in.. toooooo long, so in honor of Mother's Day, I will be shedding some light on Mr. Edmund Kemper, The Co-Ed Killer. (I'm also totally waiting for my Sims game to redownload, so I had some time to kill, lol.) If you've never read one of my essays, well, sometimes they can get gross and I'm obviously not being very professional. I told Del it's like I'm just talking to one of the girlies, haha. So please keep that in mind; it may get graphic and I may say a curse word here and there. I am 32 after all.

When I think of Edmund Kemper, a few things come to mind. In no particular order: Number one, he's unbelievably intelligent; he's said to have an IQ of 145, only 15 points away from Albert Einstein. I know he's dangerous because he is a serial killer, but brilliant people are just as scary. The level of power they hold, the mind games; terrifying. And it's pretty rare for us to see serial killers who are so smart. Like just to name a few people off the top of my head.. Robert Pickton, Henry Lee Lucas, Ottis Toole, Arthur Shawcross, and Gary Ridgeway, not so bright to be honest. Another thing I think of is how MASSIVE Eddie Boy is. (SPOILER: Oh, I am speaking in present tense on purpose; he's still alive in a medical facility in California.) This man is 6'9", over 300 pounds. Is he the biggest serial killer? Let me google real quick. YES HE IS, HA! Just wait until you see the pictures I post of him next to the police officers when he was on trial. He's SCARY tall, and he was actually really good friends with said police officers, but he couldn't become a police officer like he wanted to beCAUSE he was so massive. (Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.) I also think, (imagine this in big, flashing red, neon lights), MOMMY ISSUES. It was pretty clear early on in Ed's life that his mother hated his stinkin' guts and favored his sister's instead, but we will get into alllllldat girrrrrrl.

Edmund Emil Kemper was born on December 18th, 1948 in Burbank, California, to E.E. and Clarnell Kemper. (Omg I just realized why she is so angry all the time. Clarnell? DISGUSTANG) Okay anyway, so, his parents divorced in 1957 when he was 9 and he was, of course, stuck with his angry, alcoholic mother. They ended up moving to Montana. She blamed Ed for everything bad that happened to her. (I think I've listened to some podcasts that said she was so angry because he looked so much like his father and that angered her. Don't quote me on that.) When Ed was ten, his mother forced him to live in the basement away from his sisters because she was always worried he would harm them in some way. (I always go back and forth with this. Was Ed a normal child until his mother put it in his head he was a problem and he might start hurting his sisters OR did she see something everyone else didn't? I don't know.) Regardless, it's said soon after that, Ed started exhibiting some weird behavior. Weird like, like serial killer level weird. Like dark. And evil. Like he would play this game with his sisters that he called "Gas Chamber" where he had them blindfold him, have him sit in a chair, and he would writhe and scream in agony until he "died". Like, idk sometimes my Barbie's parents or sister would die in an accidental car crash, but yeesh. He also admitted during this time he would have dreams about murdering his mother. (Ed LOVED to talk about himself, also pretty rare for serial killers, so there are lots and lots and lots and LOTS of videos of him being interviewed.) Also when he was ten, he buried one of the family cats.. alive. When he was thirteen, he stabbed the other with a knife. Clarnell noped the heck out of Eddie and sent him to live with his paternal grandparents in North Fork, California. (I do want to keep this essay mostly focused on the relationship between Ed and his mother, but when he was 15, he did brutally murder his grandparents "to see what it felt like." This led to him being sent to the California Youth Authority where, I am not kidding you, he was so charming and brilliant they let him do whatever he want and go wherever he wanted, so he spent a majority of his time learning the correct answers of the exams they were giving him until he was eventually released for being "cured" of his schizophrenia at 21. After fatally shooting both of his grandparents to death because he didn't like their rules. It's Ted Bundy vibes and it's awful. But yeah, sorry to quickly explain that without much detail. I highly recommend looking into it.) After he was released, it was reccommended he maybe not live with his terrible, alcoholic, abusive mother, but guess what Eddie Boy did? I'll give you two guesses. Yup. He freakin' MOVED BACK IN WITH CLARNELL. Clarnell was living in Santa Cruz, California, now (after her third failed marriage), and she had taken a job with the Univeristy of California. At this time, Ed had also accepted a job with the Department of Transportation after being rejected to become a state trooper due to his size, which I already told you, but the show must go on! Like he was CLOSE with these dudes. They nicknamed him Big Ed, one of them gave him a badge and handcuffs, the whole shebang. And his car! His car was a Ford Galaxie 500 and it highly resembled a police car. (I'll post a picture.) Like for all intents and purposes, he was basically a state trooper. His job with the Department of Transportation is critical in his serial killing career because that's how he lured the girls he murdered. He picked up hitchhikers and.. ya knoooow. Killed them. But even worse, he would murder girls from UC, but they trusted him because he had a sticker or something hanging in the window, I can't remember, that said he was connect to UC. (Like I said, I am not getting into these murders today, but they are bruuuutal. Ed is a special kind of effed up.)

Okay, so here is where I give the signal that it's going to be really bad, like really, really bad. So. I'm just saying, you don't have to read it! It's not too late to turn around and never look back. But, if you're a little messed up like me, hi. Let's get into it, yuh. (This is all awful, you can really tell how much he hated his mother.)

In April of 1973, Ed Kemper committed his last two murders. First was the murder of his mother, Clarnell Kemper. Before he murdered her, he went to her bedroom and she said, "I suppose you're going to want to sit up and talk now." He replied, "No, good night," and When she was asleep, he bashed her head in with a claw hammer and slit her throat with a penknife. He then decapitated her and proceeded to use his mother's decapitated head to perform oral sex. (I have learned that term is called 'irrumatio'. 'In the ancient Roman sexual vocabulary, irrumatio is strictly a form of oral rape (os impurum), in which a man forces his penis into someone else's mouth, inducing vomiting for sexual gratification.[2]' Gross.) After that, he set her head on top of a shelf and screamed at it for an hour. He also threw darts at it. He also cut out her tongue and larynx and shoved them down the garbage disposal, and the absolute symbolism of that is chilling. Like he could finally shut her up, except he couldn't. Like I said, he loved to talk about himself and give interviews, and when her vocal cords couldn't be broken down, he said, "That seemed appropriate, as much as she'd bitched and screamed and yelled at me over so many years." Afterwards, he hid his mother's body in the closet and Eddie Boy went to have himself a drink at a local bar. He ended up inviting his mother's bestie over and he murdered her too. :( Ed assumed he was going to be caught immediately and fled to Pueblo, California, where ultimately, he ended up telling on himself to his police buddies. They didn't even believe him, he had to prove he was The Co-Ed Killer. I think it's very important to realize that he turned himself in after his mother was murdered. Like she was connected to all of his other murders somehow. I think he said in an interview that after he killed his mother, his "original purpose was gone" and he couldn't emotionally handle it anymore. I personally think he lived out his most disgusting, most wanted fantasy and since it was over, he had no other reason to keep going. Fun facts to lighten the mood? Ed stays in the same facility as Manson did! And also Herbert Mullin. It's rumored that Mullin had a habit of singing that pissed Ed off, so he bribed him with peanuts to get him to stop, lol. He's a smart man. In his time in prison, he's been a model prisoner I reckon. I read he has scheduled other inmate's appointments with their psychatrists and he enjoys making ceramic cups. Ed has a very nice speaking voice, unfortunately, and also while he was in prison, he recorded over 5000 hours worth narrating a set of audiobooks which I have searched high and low for, but I can never find them. He's been very forthcoming with his crimes and has had several interviews. He's also been denied parole several times, and he's even waived his right to a hearing saying, "Society is not ready in any shape or form for me. I can't faullt them for that."

And that is the disgusting, unfortunately true, murder of Clarnell Kemper by her own son, Edmund Kemper.

Happy Mother's Day! <3

My sources: Wikipedia, of course. And also: https://www.biography.com/crime/edmund-kemper

Pictured below are: Ed Kemper as a child. Ed Kemper and Clarnell Kemper. Ed Kemper's victims. Some photos to how he towers over people. Ed Kemper then and now.

Thank you for reading, I love ya!

[ahaura]

i have SO many questions that the movie didnt exactly answer about legacy vs. nature vs. nurture like

i dont think just because she's billy's daughter that means she will turn out like him. sometimes children turn out like their parents sometimes the cycle continues, sometimes it doesn't. i know she kills the ghostfaces at the end but like... there's a morality/humanity component that wasnt with sidney because sidney's mother was murdered by her boyfriend and then after killing her boyfriend and his friend she had to kill like 12 other ghostfaces to survive. now im NOT going to armchair psychology my way around anything but while sam obviously killed in defense of herself, her sister, and others theres the question of "is she going to turn out like her father". like she said "it felt right" after explaining how she killed richie but there was no further elaboration or details which leaves this all up in the air. the thing with same is that up until a certain point and developmentally speaking sam was [considered] normal, there are no indications she exhibited any behavior that would be cause for concern until AFTER she found out billy was her father. that doesnt mean there weren't any but scream v was very specific in saying "sam's dad left" (which happened after both sam found out who her biological father was AND when her father found out that sam was not only not his child like his wife claimed) "and she started getting in trouble with the cops" (which, to be frank, i dont fucking blame her??? like she's a teenager, and being a teen is already hell, but on top of that she 1) found out her dad wasnt her biological dad 2) blames herself for her and tara's dad for walking out on them and 3) IS AFRAID SHE WILL TURN OUT LIKE BILLY SO SHE RUNS AWAY TO MODESTO! like she didnt develop a fascination or obsession with her father or serial killers or become one herself and well obviously its a movie so it is suggested the "dont fuck with the daughter of a serial killer" MAY lend to her survival but all things considered... she did NOT turn out like billy! and the fact that she killed to survive doesn't make her like billy either! but the question is... does "it felt right" mean she DID? and in this movie she's obviously hardened from previous events, she literally says "richie was a limp dick little fuck who cried when i slit his throat" which may be typical grizzled protagonist bravado but because of her parentage her worth, or humanity, or her place on the good vs. evil scale (what's that quote that was like 'once again reminding me of my place on the menu' or w/e) and like IN REAL LIFE this would not be indicative of "the poison dripping through" (to use succ lines) but because its a movie the audience is left to believe... IS IT???? and my conclusion is... well does it MATTER? if theres going to be another scream movie with sam i would want them to PROPERLY explore that avenue of "is she or isnt she" like sam is NOT just the sum of her parts or her father's daughter like she's still human after all that (what's that quote that's like 'evil is almost always human and boring' or w/e) like... sam makes the CHOICE of not being like her father and i am not of the belief that she is anything like him and even IF she has a natural inclination or affinity for murder for whatever reason then, like... idk, i still dont think that means shes like billy unless she literally devolves into a full-blown serial killer. is this anything????

[bilbobagginsomebabez]

lindsay graham once said “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”

Is Ted Cruz really “Lucifer in the flesh,” as House Speaker John Boehner declared earlier this week, or is he merely — as 38 percent voters in Florida are willing to believe — a serial killer? Based on the way his 8-year-old daughter, Caroline, recoils from his touch, we could easily be convinced of either possibility.

At a rally in South Bend, Indiana, Thursday, young Caroline was happy to dance with her sister Catherine, but scampered away in horror when her father attempted to scoop her up in a hug. Such behavior has become a recurring theme on the trail: At a February campaign stop in Iowa, Caroline flicked her dad away when he tried to come in for a kiss, screeching, “Ow, ow, ow!”

It’s hard to blame Caroline. If your father subjected you to this woman’s singing voice, or divulged embarrassing secrets to the world, like the fact that your first sentence was “I like butter,” you’d probably despise him too. The fact that he’s Ted Cruz — a person who almost no one in the world likes — is secondary.

As Cruz’s former college roommate, Craig Mazin, once put it, “One thing Ted Cruz is really good at: uniting people who otherwise disagree about everything else in a total hatred of Ted Cruz.”

To wit, a treasury of people who really, really hate Ted Cruz:

George W. Bush: “I just don’t like the guy.”

Bob Dole: “I don’t know how he’s going to deal with Congress. Nobody likes him.”

John Boehner: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

Peter King: “I hate Ted Cruz, and I think I’ll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination.”

Donald Trump: “He’s a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him.”

Marco Rubio: “Ted has had a tough week because what’s happening now is people are learning more about him.”

Rand Paul: “He is pretty much done for and stifled, and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem.”

Chris Christie: “For him to somehow be implying that certain values are more appropriate, more American, depending upon what region of the country you’re from, is to me just asinine.”

Carly Fiorina (aka, Cruz’s hypothetical running mate, as of this week): “Ted Cruz is just like any other politician. … He says whatever he needs to say to get elected, and then he’s going to do as he pleases.”

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer: “Everybody who knows him in the Senate hates him. And I think hate is not an exaggeration.”

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter: “Cruz is a sleazy, Rovian liar.”

Former Republican staffer John Feehery: “Cruz is an army of one, alienating anybody who is in his path. He advocates losing strategies purely to further his own career at the expense of the party.”

Princeton classmate Mikaela Beardsley: “There are not that many people in my life who I can think of who I didn’t actually have extensive interactions with who bring up such bad feelings.”

Another Princeton dormmate: “He was just sort of an odious figure lurking around.”

had a dream the other day that america decided to bring back the poena cullei (death penalty where you sew someone up in a sack with a bunch of animals and then throw the sack into a river) but only for us senators and so every senate meeting just devolved into people shouting "THE SACK! THE SACK!" whenever ted cruz talked

[witchcraftandburialdirt]

I saw that you mentioned that Haru has other timelines, what are some details of the relationships he has with other characters in these timelines?!

── 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 ──

Yeah! Haruko is an older OC of mine that I made in college, and he was originally part of a JJBA roleplay for part 4. Some time passed and he morphed into something without any affiliations, and throughout a lot, and I mean alot, of roleplays with my best friend @magicshadowkitten - he ended up being a part of her universe. Thankfully he isn't too involved in the main plot line so I don't have to worry about too much crazy shit happening to him; but he does meet and know plenty of her characters. And since I know she's going to read this ( hi!! mwah ) I'll go over a few of the more meaningful ones and how Haru feels about the people he interacts with, not in too much detail though because these muses have been interacting for ... 8 years.

MIN-JIN YOON ── Fuck if Haru doesn't hate this dude. In some of my threads with Haru it's referenced that he survived a murder attempt in his past; well this is who done did it. Min-Jin was introduced to Haruko's little sister, Hinata, and the two of them started dating when he transferred from South Korea for school. Granted they didn't date because Min was in love with her, he's a serial killer who turned the women he dated into statues that he'd present as art. Haruko had a bad feeling about him from the beginning, and Min decided that he could take care of both of them. Long story short he cut Haru's hands off to keep as a prize and tried to kill him - but he didn't, and ended up leaving the country before anything could really be done about him. Thankfully they were able to reattach Haru's hands and they retain much of the same function as before, he's had to adjust his tattooing technique obviously. But yeah no words cannot describe the amount of hate and fear Haru holds for this person, he still has nightmares.

ROY G. BIV ── Another person he really does not like; and he doesn't even know the full extent of the abuse this dude inflicted on his adopted children. Point is, he hurt alot of the people Haru is very close to and he actually thinks he's disgusting; he'd key his car if Haru could afford the possible legal fees. Haruko already has pretty deep dadyd issues so they bleed into this hatred too, and refuses to really give him the time of day. They've only really briefly met, for good reason; the people who he loves do NOT let them interact, it just isn't a good idea for anyone involved. He's an asshole, Haru hates him, and he isn't afraid to talk about how much of a fucker he thinks Roy is. Literally wishes nothing but bad upon him actually.

ROSEMARY MURATA ── She is his childhood best friend and neighbor, she went to the same elementary school as him, grew up down the street, and has known Haruko and Hinata since they were very small. She's always been a bit of a firecracker which mixes well with Haruko's own wild behavior, but she's very protective of him and his sister. She's still in his hometown and he visits often, usually taking the train to visit his mother for a few days, he always makes sure to call Rosemary beforehand so she can get off and they can catch up. She was present when Bonnie was adopted, and is a sister to Haruko. She is part of the ideal blunt rotation, and is invited to every event she can make. She's always been extremely encouraging of Haru, and was by his side during the entire Min-Jin incident, because she also smelled some fuckery a foot. These two are the kind of people you don't want to piss off; especially not hurting Hina.

JASPER BIV ── I actually have drawn him; I'll put it under this paragraph! But That being said, Jasper and Haru met under less than ideal circumstances; Haruko being drunk at a bar and Jasper being the bartender who ended up taking care of him and making sure he was ok. They ended up meeting more, eventually becoming friends and going to the same gym together. Granted Jasper is a bit ... well, he isn't all he seems to be. TDLR; Jasper is 1/3 of a broken God trying to make it within the world and live a standard, relaxed existence ( it was not relaxed, he's got a very cool backstory but I wouldn't want to accidentally butcher it so I won't go into detail here, but he's a cool af character ). He keeps this a secret from Haru, even once they start dating, but eventually he breaks and can't keep it up anymore and tells him. Yeah to say Haru laughed at him was an understatement, but he comes around eventually and he wonders how all of this weird stuff constantly happens within his life. They live in the city together in their little high rise apartment ( Jasper's old asf and has money ok he was ready for this life ), and have a pretty normal existence despite everything. We actually joked that if her writing ever became like a dating game, that the player would meet Haru once or twice in town before seeing him leaving his apartment. Obviously part of the ideal blunt rotation, these two really give off like ... well meaning bro dudes vibes. Guys being dudes.

LIAM J. ALLEN ── You know how there are those people in life who are just pure and good and who you want to protect? Yeah, that's how Haru feels about Liam. The man is Jasper's boss and owner of the restaurant he works at, and Haruko has pretty much become part of that family too. Liam is a really good, well meaning man who takes care of Jasper and is so fond of Haru that he'll change Jas' schedule around so they can have time together. Haru is always welcome in the restaurant and he stays after hours since he knows everyone in that place. Liam is 100% part of Haru's ideal blunt rotation, and he's invited to every public outing, barbecue, party, etc ; and Haru would happily be his wingman ( asked or not ). These two have a pretty close brotherly friendship, and may honestly be the only person Haru would let date his sister without throwing a fit over it. He trusts him and knows he's a good man, and he's very grateful that he's part of his life. He can babysit Bonnie.

AIRI BIV ── Oh he likes her. She's Jasper's sister, from another broken God, and has a pretty resentful, bitter personality when you get on her bad side; and Haru fucking loves it in a "Oh, she sounds absolutely demented, let's tell her everything" way. He loves how brutal and icy she is, and he really respects her for it - and he likes getting to hang out with her when she comes around. She also helps at Liam's restaurant, so he sees her pretty often, and she's invited to pretty much every event that they have, its easy to make fun of Jasper with his sister - she knows all of his embarrassing stories and given they are both extremely old, they never run out of shit to laugh at Jasper for. He trusts her with babysitting Bonnie, and absolutely love love loves talking shit about Roy with her since they're both bitchy bitter people.

[emepe]

— Pairing: Eren x Reader, friends to lovers

— General info: series, 18+, modern AU, serial killer AU, smut, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort

— Summary: Fate is a tricky thing. Certain situations can’t be avoided as much as certain people’s lives can’t be kept from intertwining. With a serial killer on the loose, and unexpected relationships blooming, how will the universe intervene?

— Chapter summary: A Halloween party where tensions rise and finally snap, and an unlucky encounter with the power to cancel out the happiness that comes out of it.

— Content warnings: slightly nsfw, drunken kissing, alcohol consumption, yandere behavior, misogyny, mention of murder.

— Notes: Hello, everybody! Welcome to chapter 4 (aka my favorite chapter in the series) <3 You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to post this one. Fun fact: the romantic scenes here were the first thing I planned for this story (added a serial killer and boom, Tunnel Vision was born). Happy reading!

Links: Read on AO3 | Chapter guide | Masterlist

can you feel my heart?

“I don't think this costume is original enough to place,” you mutter, smoothing out the skirt of your babydoll dress and shifting in your seat.

It's too cold to go out in minimal clothing, but you agreed to wear the dress for the sake of making the girls happy. Besides, you're supposed to match with Mikasa, who's sporting a red version of your dress so you can go as an angel and devil duo. It was her idea, so it saved you the hassle of coming up with your own costume while also filling you with reassurance from being well-liked.

“Well, we're not going for the costume contest. We're going to support Jean… and for drinks, of course,” Sasha prompts. 

“I still can't believe Jean is in a band. How did I not know this?”

“He's just filling in for the bassist tonight, but he's really good,” she explains. “He used to play in college.”

The Bobby pins in Sasha’s mouth mess with every other one of her words. You're sitting on the edge of Mikasa's bed as Sasha sits on her knees behind you, fixing your hair, while Mikasa is seated in front of you, doing your makeup.

It's not the most practical process, given that Sasha keeps moving your head around to do her job, earning annoyed looks from Mikasa as she struggles to finish applying your eyeshadow.

“Sasha, I love you to death, sweetie, but you're delaying my masterpiece,” Mikasa grumbles.

“Sorry,” Sasha sings. “I'm done now.” She climbs down from the bed and goes up front to admire her work.

“Ugh, you're so pretty,” she gushes, hands clasped together. You're not sure what Sasha is supposed to be. When she got to Mikasa's apartment, she said her costume was in her bag. For now, she's dressed in a black turtleneck top, black leggings, and red Converse. She squeals one last time before sitting down at Mikasa's vanity to fix her own makeup. 

“It feels a little weird,” you admit. “I'm, like, hyper-aware of how different I look.”

You like dressing up, looking sleek and polished. But the combination of the glitter sprinkled in your hair, the feathery halo headband on your head, and spaghetti straps step too far out of your usual fashion choices. It all leaves you feeling a bit vulnerable. 

Mikasa smiles.

“Don't sweat it. You look amazing.” 

The way she says it, so warmly and confidently, is comforting enough to pull a smile from you. You've never had a sister, but if you did, you imagined someone like Mikasa would be perfect.

“I know for sure one guy won't keep his eyes off of you tonight.”

Her words throw you off guard. Your lips fall open, ready to ask questions, or throw an excuse, or change the subject. But nothing comes to you, so you end up just staring at her in shock as you feel yourself build up a sweat.

She giggles as she makes the last finishing touches on your face.

The doorbell rings.

“Sash, get the door, please?” she asks as she walks to her vanity and starts rummaging through her makeup drawer in search of the perfect shade of lipstick to tie the look together.

“On it.” Sasha promptly stands, gives herself one last look in the mirror, and walks out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Eagerly, she unlocks the front door and swings it open, only to instantly drop her smile for confusion when she takes in all four men lined before her.

“What are you supposed to be? A bunch of beat-up accountants?”

“Hey,” Armin whines.

Jean, Armin, Connie, and Eren are all wearing suits stained with fake blood. Minus the bass case slung on Jean's shoulder, which likely isn't part of his costume, there aren't many more hints to go off of.

Jean scoffs as he hooks his thumbs around his suspenders.

“Um… Reservoir Dogs? Hello?” 

“I've never heard of it,” she deadpans. She turns on her heel and goes to the sofa where she left her bag earlier, leaving the door wide open for everyone to follow inside.

“You cannot be serious, Sasha. It's Quentin Tarantino!”

“Ew, the foot fetishist?” Her face contorts in disgust.

Eren throws his head back in laughter. 

Jean throws his hands up in the air. 

“Oh, that you know.”

Sasha shrugs, not caring one bit about Jean's frustration.

“Connie, help me get this thing on,” she says, smoothing out her costume on the sofa. It's a hot dog.

The rest of the guys watch amusedly as the pair struggle to get Sasha into her costume. When her head finally pokes through, strands from her ponytail have come loose and she's gasping for air.

“Oh, man. They should add a zipper to these things,” she huffs.

Armin leans closer, his eye catching a flicker of silver movement on the side of the costume. His fingers hold onto the zipper as he looks up at Sasha with pursed lips.

Jean scoffs incredulously. 

“It has a zipper, you big dummy. I swear–”

He and Sasha lose themselves in a wave of bickering. That is until Eren clears his throat. He's been looking for signs of more people around the apartment, glancing at the kitchen or through the open crack of the bathroom door.

“Where's… everyone else?” he asks nobody in particular.

Jean abandons his play fight with Sasha to smirk at Eren. 

“Excited to see your girlfriend, Jaeger?”

Eren freezes, instantly taken aback by Jean's accusation. Everyone else exchanges shocked glances with each other, before ultimately landing their focus on Eren to gauge his reaction.

But he doesn't even move. All he does is look at the floor, cheeks red, and lips curled inwards as he struggles for a comeback.

Sasha’s the first to move. Her palm lands with a reprimanding force against Jean's head, who whines in protest.

“Oh, come on! We've all seen the way he looks at her.” He turns to Eren. “Why don't you just ask her out?”

Armin's quick to intervene.

“Jean, I don't think it's our place to say anything. I'm sure if Eren wants to, he will. It's none of our business.”

“I'm just saying… we all know you like her, you've got our support, Jaeger.”

Eren rolls his tongue against his cheek. When he finally speaks, his voice is practically a ghost of itself.

“We're just friends.” 

“And you're okay with that?”

Jean's question burns at Eren's cheeks. But before anything else can be said or done in his defense, Mikasa's bedroom door cracks open and the raven-haired girl's head pops out. Sasha instinctively shoots a warning glare at everyone to be quiet.

“Sorry for the wait, everybody.” Mikasa grins as she opens the door wider and steps out into the living room. “We're ready now.”

Eren waits with bated breath for you to come out. It seems like an eternity between the moment Mikasa moves aside and when you finally reveal yourself in a flowy white dress and a halo bouncing above your head. 

A soft ‘woah’ escapes him as he feels the usual flutter in his stomach he's been doing so good to ignore. 

Jean whistles in approval and all the other guys proceed to shower you with compliments. Your gaze bounces from face to face, flustered from all the attention, ultimately meeting with Eren, who keeps his distance from across the room.

It's been a couple of weeks since you last saw each other. It's been the same number of days since you realized why that flutter in your stomach came to be. It's no surprise to you when it happens now, along with a warm pressure in your chest when his lips curve into a shy smile. For a moment, it's just you and him.

The magic cuts off and scatters over the floor in imaginary golden dust when Connie announces the arrival of your ride to the bar. 

Everyone starts making their way out the door.

A heavy hand lands on Eren’s shoulder. Jean's voice murmurs the words ‘good luck’ in his ear before walking away.

Eren stands in place, watching as you close the distance between you with just a few steps.

“Hey.”

It might be Eren's imagination, warping his surroundings to further feed into the concept behind your costume, but he truly can't deny how breathtaking and radiant you look. It's like a vision from dreams he'll forever be too embarrassed to confess to. He can barely cough up a strangled ‘hi’ back.

You walk side by side until you reach the car. The entire time, Eren's careful not to brush against you, scared it might trigger his nerves and he won't be able to hide it. But once you're in the car, it's hard to avoid any physical contact, given that three of you are squished together in the back with Jean's bass. 

The entire ride is clouded with hyper-awareness of every accidental touch between you and Eren, hushed apologies for bumping knees, and trying to remain unfazed by each other's warmth as you draw closer to your destination — you're much better at it than he is.

The scent of your perfume is heavenly, the soft, mellow notes intoxicating Eren to the sweetest high. 

By the time you get to the bar, there's already a small crowd of people waiting for their turn to be let inside. In one swift glance, you make out several witch hats, vampire fangs, kitten ears, fairy wings, and much more.

A large banner that takes up the width of the entrance announces their Halloween weekend event in bursts of purple and silver tones.

Thanks to a laminated pass Jean digs from his pocket, the whole group gets to skip the line and are ushered inside right away. A staff member calls Jean aside to lead him to a greenroom in the back where the other band members are.

“I'll see you guys in a bit,” Jean calls over his shoulder, offering a salute before getting lost in the shadows.

“Let's find a booth before more people come in,” Mikasa suggests.

As you all follow her lead to an open spot, your eyes roam around, taking in the details of the place. It's a fairly large venue, the booths lined in an L shape against the left wall, and several round tables spread out before them until the open floor for crowds to gather in front of the stage. To the right, a dimly lit bar occupies nearly the whole length of the wall, with shelves upon shelves of liquor and glasses. Looking up, you have a view of the balcony contained by silver railings decorated in decorative skulls and purple tinsel, where more tables and booths line the four walls and large lamps hang from the high ceiling.

You shrug your jacket off your shoulders as you settle into the booth Mikasa chooses. It's center to the stage with a perfect view of every corner of the venue's bottom floor. Mikasa slides in at your right, Eren to your left, and Armin at the end.

“I'm gonna get us some drinks,” Connie offers, as he leans with his phone to scan the code for the menu taped to the table. 

“Gin and tonic, for me,” Armin says, not bothering to scroll further down the menu.

“Ooh,” Mikasa zooms in on an item on her screen.

“Long Island?” Connie grins, spotting the same name on his phone.

“Yup,” she replies.

“A cosmo for me, please,” you say, setting down your phone on the table. 

Connie shoots finger guns at you and clicks his tongue.

“You got it. Gin and tonic, Long Island, Cosmo…” He points to each of you as he recites your orders. “Eren? Vodka cranberry?”

Eren nods shyly.

“Yeah.” 

Connie recites your orders one last time before heading off to the bar, Sasha trails behind him to help carry the drinks back.

“What time is Jean supposed to come out again?” you ask.

“He's in the second band. I think around ten-ish?” Armin replies as he confirms the time on the flyer Jean sent into the group chat. 

“God, he's gonna be insufferable when he gets back,” Eren groans. Armin nods along, and Mikasa simply laughs.

“What do you mean?” you ask.

“He's always so cocky after playing,” Eren explains. “When we were in college he had a ton of girls fawning all over him just because he was in a band, and it gave him an even bigger head.”

“Well, to be fair, he never acted like a jerk,” Armin argues. “He just liked the attention.”

“That's because he thought it'd make Mikasa jealous,” Eren scoffs.

Your head is whirling in every direction as you receive every new piece of information.

“I mean, it worked,” Mikasa counters with a shrug. 

Your eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Not once did it ever seem to you that anything was going on between Mikasa and Jean.

“You're dating Jean?” you express with shock laced through your tone.

She laughs.

“Someone has to take one for the team,” she jokes. “I kid, it's been great.”

Before you can ask how long they've been together, her phone starts buzzing on the table.

“Speak of the devil,” she grins, eyes skimming the text on her phone before she slides out of the booth. “I'll be back in a bit.” 

With a cheeky wink tossed over her shoulder, she's off. 

“I can't believe I never noticed Jean and Mikasa are together,” you say as you watch her scurry off into the backroom.

“They're pretty lowkey,” Eren replies with a shrug. “But I don't blame her. I'd be embarrassed if I were dating Jean, too,”

You laugh. 

“Come on, don't be mean,” Armin says, nudging his friend with his shoulder. He then turns to you with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “He acts like he hates him, but he actually helped Jean out when he asked Mikasa to be his girlfriend.”

“All I did was blow up balloons and buy flowers,” Eren huffs, embarrassed that his affection for Jean is out in the open.

“A little help, please,” a strained voice calls from a few feet away. 

It's Sasha. She's slowly walking toward the booth with her hands contorted at odd angles to balance four drinks in her hold. You all stand to relieve her from one drink each.

As soon as you settle into the booth again, Connie makes his way back, balancing a wooden bowl on top of everything.

“I got us some peanuts,” he grins, carefully setting everything down on the table. You all pass around each other's drink and take your first sips.

“Where's Mika?” Sasha asks, popping a peanut into her mouth. 

“Making out with Jean, I bet,” Connie jests.

“You're not wrong,” Armin sings.

You're interrupted by a brief sound of feedback screeching through the speakers, followed by a tap on the microphone at the center of the stage. The first band introduces themselves and begins to play. Every song gradually builds up the energy of the crowd which starts to gather to dance and sway to the music. It's loud enough to keep everyone nodding their head along to the beat but low enough to still have a conversation where one doesn't need to yell to be heard.

The peanut bowl is refilled and a second round of drinks is soon brought to the table, courtesy of Connie's credit card.

He and Sasha are the first to stray from the group to check out the band up close, just moments before Mikasa finds her way back. 

She's got a giddy air about her, and the artificial red of her lips is replaced by a more natural one.

When she asks for the missing pair, the three of you that remain nod toward the crowd, where you can easily spot Sasha’s hot dog costume bopping around to the music.

Mikasa laughs at the scene in between long sips of her Long Island. The two of you engage in a mushy conversation about her timeline with Jean. By the time she's halfway through her second Long Island, she's a giggling and blushing mess.

“I was right, you know?” she smiles as she affectionately strokes your head.

“About what?” You can't help but feel amused by her behavior, her enthusiasm is contagious. It pulls upwards at the corners of your lips. 

“Eren hasn't stopped looking at you.” 

Though tipsy, she's still grounded enough to speak lowly and close to your ear — you're grateful for her consideration. Otherwise, it would make the situation a lot more embarrassing. 

You don't have the guts to look back to verify for yourself, but Eren's track record makes it believable. Even so, you've glanced at Eren a couple of times during the night, only to find his gaze already set on you. He hasn't shied away as much tonight — a likely effect on his courage from the drinks he's had, or maybe because his instincts are dulled by the liquor. He still blushes like crazy, though. It's driving the butterflies in your stomach mad. Mikasa's notice only makes everything more real. It's a reminder that the world surrounding you and Eren doesn't disappear each time your eyes meet. 

“I'm gonna try to get a good spot before Jean comes out,” she says in a slightly louder voice. She stands from the booth and holds a hand out to Armin, gesturing for him to come with her. 

Quizzically, Armin allows himself to be pulled from his seat by her but then looks back with a mischievous grin spread across his face when Mikasa speaks something in his ear.

They both leave, and it's just you and Eren alone at the booth. You haven't been drinking much, just enough to feel a soft buzz in your muscles. But the sudden tension builds up a fever in your system. 

You glance back at Eren. He's laying back into the cushioned seat, legs spread, tie loosened, and eyes zeroed in on the glass nursed in his large, veiny hands. When his emerald irises look up at you through his lashes, his lips slowly part as if he's about to say something — or to suck in a breath — and finally press together in a lopsided smile.

Mirroring his expression, you scoot closer to him to close the distance that's been growing without intention as you lost yourselves in separate conversations throughout the night. 

“You know, you look good in a suit,” you say, allowing your back to fall into the cushioned seat. You lean your head back, angling it so that you have a good view of his face.

“Yeah? You think?” He mirrors your actions and allows his head to rest next to yours. It's a safe distance, yet your perfume still circles around him, getting him a different kind of drunk. Albeit, you can say the same thing about his cologne. 

“It's a big change from your usual t-shirt and jeans get-up.” 

“But still the good kind, right?” 

Your eyes wander over the glassiness hovering over his eyes, to the messy strands of hair that poke about on his head from combing through it with his hands so much, to his plump lips glossed over with saliva from his last sip of watered-down cranberry vodka to the two unmade buttons on his bloodstained shirt. 

“Absolutely,” you murmur, lips curved softly.

He bites back a smile, eyes darting to the side to seem nonchalant. Your gaze flits to the movement, taking in the way his teeth dig into the plumpness of his bottom lip. 

“So was the whole angel thing your idea?” he asks, hand motioning in your direction.

“It was Mikasa,” you murmur. “She got the first pick so I was pretty much cornered.” 

Pursing his lips, he nods.

“I don't think it suits me, though. I feel out of place.”

“Ah, because you're the devil incarnate?” He quirks a teasing eyebrow, causing a laugh to sputter from your lips. “I'm surprised this thing isn't burning a hole into your head.” He flicks the feathered halo, causing it to bobble. 

“Does it make me look silly?”

He fakes a long moment of contemplation. 

“No,” he finalizes. His voice grows lower, gentler. “It makes you look cute.” 

You cringe.

“Ah… so without it I look…”

He laughs. 

“Come on, you know that’s not what I meant!” 

He runs a hand through his face. You're not sure if it's the alcohol or you that has him blushing profusely. 

“You’re still pretty without it. I’m just having an easier time talking to you when you’re wearing… this.” 

The irony of his nervous hand gestures and the cracks in his voice isn’t lost on you. Your eyes twinkle with amusement as he straightens his posture but continues to stumble over his words. 

“Not that it’s hard to talk to you. You’re not scary or anything! I mean, you can be a little intimidating but that’s only at the beginning! You just—”

He heavily sighs as he falls back into his seat again.

“You look cute right now, that's all. But you're always pretty.” 

He pinches the bridge of his nose in an attempt to calm his nerves.

“I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I just… I still get nervous around you,” he softly laughs. 

His admission can only be attributed to how foreign everything feels in his hazy state. It’s as if he can’t stop himself from spouting whatever comes to mind — no premeditation, no reason. He’s fully aware of what’s going on, but it’s easier to hide behind too many highballs as an excuse. This moment is what makes him finally understand what people mean when they refer to liquid courage. 

“I know.”

Your words knock the air out of his lungs. He already knows you know. How can you not if he’s been so blatantly obvious in his perception of you from the start? Still, it’s different when you openly acknowledge it. It breaks the barrier of politely feigned ignorance and makes everything much more real. And yet he held this microscopic hope this whole time that his date proposal is nothing but ancient history and his behavior toward you could’ve passed as ordinary shyness. 

Guilt starts pooling in his stomach. That feeling of rejection starts bubbling in his chest without warning. He doesn’t even register the affectionate way you gaze at him, glossy lips shaped into a gentle smile, as your eyebrows upturn in sympathy. 

“I’m sorry.” 

He keeps his head low, afraid he might’ve just set himself up for failure yet again. But you shake your head.

“Don’t apologize,” you murmur. “It’s cute.”

The world falls silent. It’s either that or the first band of the night is done playing and the following act has yet to come on stage — Eren can’t tell the difference. He turns to you, all too used by now to face you with reddened cheeks and wide eyes. 

There’s a soft smile playing on your lips as you stare down at your lap, where your fidgeting hands rest. He averts his gaze, facing forward to spare his mind a moment to clear itself of any silly assumptions. His lips curl inwards — a habit for when he’s unsure of what to say. But when he looks back at you seconds later, you’re already looking at him — glossy lips parted and that glassiness to your eyes that makes his heart flutter.

Eren knows better than to think your gaze flickers to his lips. There’s no other explanation than it being a trick of his mind, right? And yet his tongue darts out instinctively, coating his lips with saliva, as his breaths grow shallow.

In one swift motion, your fingers wrap around his loosened tie to pull him closer as you lean forward to meet him halfway. There’s a brief pause just a hair away from your mouths colliding — a moment for him to process that this is truly happening and for you to wind up more courage — where your breaths swirl together before they’re absorbed by the other. Your lips meld perfectly into each other in one warm, cranberry-flavored kiss. You kiss once, twice, three times, and then once more. Each sweet contact brings you closer together, makes your heads grow dizzier and your chests to be relieved from their previous tension. 

Eren’s hands grip the edge of his seat, nails digging into the leather as if to keep himself tethered to this dimension. Each time your lips slot into his intoxicates him several times more than any liquor can. For weeks he’s wondered what it would be like to kiss you, and now that it’s happening, he’s scared for the moment to ever stop, afraid that no matter how hard he tries to convince himself, it’ll lose its quality to be real, and he’ll be left to wonder if it truly happened.

You’re the first to pull back, slowly and carefully, like you fear he might fall apart if you move too fast — and he just might. 

As you catch your breath, faces still inches away from each other, the world slowly comes back. The music crescendos along with the collective buzz of scattered conversations and clinking glasses. Your eyes flutter open, slowly taking in the shiny emerald gaze and dilated pupils that look down at you, mesmerized.

An energetic voice calls your name from a few feet away. To Eren’s dismay, your hand loses its grip on his tie, falling to your lap as you tear your gaze from him to watch Sasha clumsily make her way to the booth. 

“Come on, Jean’s band is starting!”

She pulls you from your seat, urging you to follow her. Flustered, you slide out of the booth and allow her to drag you away, but not before looking back at a still dumbfounded Eren and saying “I’ll be right back.”

Eren watches you leave, the disappointment gradually settling into the deepest parts of him. He brings a hand to his lips to gently trace the place where you marked him with the pads of his fingers. He can still feel the plush of your lips against his. If he closes his eyes, he can conjure the moment again and replay it in his mind. The scent of your perfume lingers and it suddenly doesn’t seem like such a wild idea that he can deeply miss someone who’s only wandered a few feet from him.

“Okay, I had to get out of there. The girls are getting rowdy.”

Armin’s voice pulls Eren from his daze. He laughs as he slides into the booth next to his best friend. 

“What’s wrong?” he asks, making note of Eren’s flustered state.

Eren turns his gaze to the cluster of empty glasses on the table. 

“We kissed,” he murmurs, a red tint pooling his cheeks.

Armin’s face goes through a myriad of emotions. His features contort from confusion to realization, to shock, and excitement. 

“Are you serious?” he yells enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear at the news. “Dude, that’s fucking awesome!” 

He gleefully drums his palms on Eren’s back, slipping in a few teasing punches to his arm.

“I fucking knew it, I frickin’ called it. I’m literally Cupid!”

Eren finally laughs, raising a hand to comb nervously through his hair.

“So what happens next?” Armin asks, shuffling to find a cozy angle to hound his friend.

Eren shakes his head, still hesitant to accept his new reality. It’s starting to look foreign to him and he’d hate to think the kiss was just a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing.

“I don’t know. What do I do, Armin?”

The panic on his face causes Armin to soften with sympathy.

“What do you wanna do?” he murmurs.

A soft laugh pushes past Eren’s lips.

“I wanna kiss her again.”

Armin scrunches his nose, but he can’t help but grin at Eren’s bashful confession and his adorable demeanor.

“Well, she’s right over there.”

He juts his chin in the direction of the crowd in front of the stage. 

Eren presses a fist to his mouth. His cheeks are still burning and his heart has yet to fully calm down from the erratic rhythm your sudden kiss provoked.

“I think I still need a minute to recover,” he murmurs.

You didn’t make it back to the booth as soon as Eren and you hoped. When you did, there was usually another person or two coming back to catch their breath, leaving you no privacy to talk about what needed to be talked about. Eren had a turn to be dragged away to watch Jean’s performance. After everyone was back at the booth, you volunteered to get Mikasa, Sasha, and Connie — the drunkest of your group — water to rehydrate. The entire time it seemed to Eren like his luck had run out for a second chance to be alone. 

You make your way to the bar, navigating between people sober and drunk just the same. A few minutes go by before you’re finally at the front of the line. 

“Three waters, please,” you say, holding up the same amount of fingers to the bartender. 

He promptly slides three bottles over the bar, a flirty grin on his face.

“Here you go, angel.”

When you don’t give him a reaction outside of politely nodding and thanking him while offering your card to pay, he kills off his coy demeanor. You start to make your way back to the booth, going over the exchange in your head and feeling awkward about it. You’re sure bartenders can act a bit friendly with patrons —  it’s part of the experience — but you’re not big on acting overly friendly with strangers. 

A tall, muscular figure bumps into you, causing your body to stumble back and your hands to lose their hold on the bottles. You glance up, ready to apologize before you can even collect your things, but you’re met with a pair of concerned eyes. 

“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” 

He crouches down to retrieve the dropped bottles for you. When he stands again, he smiles at you warmly. 

“I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. Again, I apologize.”

His polite manner seems sincere — certainly not like the kind other men have shown you.

For a moment, it seems like he hopes to hold a conversation with you. From the booth claimed by your group, a pair of stern emerald eyes watches the scene carefully, the owner ready to intervene against the man with his back to him. But the stranger’s chances of holding you up any longer are interrupted by a pretty girl calling his name — a name you don’t bother to register — from a few feet away as she stumbles her way to him. You catch a falter in his demeanor that goes as quickly as it arrives — though much too fast for you to get a hint of the emotion behind it. 

Before you can be witness to any foreign business, you murmur your own apology and thank him for his help before turning on your heel and continuing to where your friends are. 

“Sash, you don’t need two rides. I already told you, you and Connie live in the same apartment.” 

Armin pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. For the past ten minutes, he’s been trying to convince a still lightly buzzed Sasha that it doesn’t make sense for her and Connie to take separate rides. In her haze, she argued that it was completely reasonable for her to book a ride for herself and then book a second one for Connie once she made it to their apartment.

“Jean, you think you can go with them and make sure they get home safely?” 

Armin puts on his best pleading look for him. Jean clicks his tongue in aversion.

“No can do. I gotta take care of my girl.” He nods over to the bench outside of the bar where Mikasa is curled up in a way that should be uncomfortable but makes her look rather peaceful as she dozes off in fragments. 

Armin purses his lips, hands on his hips. 

“You know what? I give up, I’ll take them,” Armin huffs as he swipes Sasha’s phone from her hands and waits to be matched to a ride. He turns to you. “Oh, but we were supposed to ride together.”

You dismiss his offer with a wave of your hand. 

“I’m really not that tipsy. I can ride alone.” 

“You sure?” Armin’s eyebrows upturn in worry.

Eren raises his hand, a meek look on his face.

“I can make sure she gets home okay.”

“Don’t you live in opposite directions?” Jean smirks, as he hoists Mikasa up by her waist to prepare for their ride’s arrival.

Armin shoots him a warning glare over his shoulder. 

Jean clicks his tongue and theatrically smacks his forehead.

“Ah, no you don’t, silly me. I’m so out of it tonight.”

Ignoring Jean’s poor acting, you turn to Eren.

“You don’t have to. It’s fine,” you assure him.

“I want to,” he murmurs gently.

Chewing on your bottom lip, you nod. 

He whips out his phone to find a ride and minutes later, you all head your separate ways.

The ride to your apartment building is quiet, save for the low music playing on the radio. Eren can’t keep himself from stealing glances at your side profile from the corner of his eye, and you can feel the burn in your cheeks as you stare out the window.

“Did you have a good time?” he asks, finally fed up with the silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but he’s been fighting for a chance to talk to you since the kiss and this is a very brief opportunity, perhaps not to address what happened, but maybe just to get a feel for where you stand after the fact.

But you don’t seem up for a lengthy conversation, as you barely look back at him when you nod and reply with a solemn “I did”. 

He shrinks into his seat, chewing on his bottom lip as he tries to find a different tactic to get you to look at him. But again, his luck seems to have run out, as you hit every green light on the way to your apartment. Sooner than he would’ve liked, the car comes to a halt in front of the brick building.

In a desperate attempt to collect a couple more minutes with you, he climbs out of the car with you. 

“I’ll walk you up,” he says. You just nod and turn to lead the way. 

There’s a hint of tension as you ride the elevator to the third floor. There’s something awkwardly polite about the strict distance you maintain until the elevator dings and you step into the hallway.

The silence between you has never felt so dreadful to Eren now that there’s something he so badly wants to talk about. But how does one bring up a surprise kiss if not right after it happened? By now it seems too embarrassing to suggest for conversation, even if it did happen less than two hours ago. The moment has passed, and if you don’t seem willing to talk, maybe it’s because you’re hoping to leave it in the past. 

You stop in front of your apartment door, number 307, and fish around your purse for your keys. Eren steps back in preparation to bid you goodbye as soon as the lock clicks open. 

“I’ll see you a—”

“Do you want some tea?” 

The question tumbles so quickly from your lips that he almost doesn’t comprehend it.

He blinks at you in surprise. A flutter stirs in his stomach at the idea of entering your apartment — your personal space. He doesn’t even think Armin has been inside before. It’s exciting. There’s a look in your eyes he’s never seen before. They shine differently now — with hope.

He runs a nervous hand through his hair and clears his throat, nodding fervently.

“Yeah, tea… tea sounds incredible right now.”

You release a breath of relief and push open the door, welcoming him to your corner of the world.

A flick of a switch bathes the area in bright, warm light. Eren soaks up every detail of your home, not wanting to miss a single thing. There’s a bookshelf overflowing with hardcovers and paperbacks, a collection too big for its modest size that you’ve opted for stacking anything that couldn’t fit on the floor beside it. A handmade blanket in warm colors is thrown over the loveseat fixed in front of the TV. Everything is colored in joyful pastel hues with a few more vibrant splashes from vases with flowers and some ceramic figurines scattered along the windowsill and the furniture — a stark contrast to your mostly neutral wardrobe. It’s all neatly put together save for a single forgotten book left at a careless angle on the coffee table — likely to be your current read — and a faint cinnamon scent wafts in the air, the probable work of a candle or an infuser somewhere. There are three more doors he assumes lead to your bedroom, the bathroom, and perhaps a storage closet.  

You toss your purse, headband, and coat onto the sofa and make your way across the open space to the kitchen, turning back to ask him to follow with an inviting look.

You move in silence to fill a pink tea kettle with water and set it on the stove. Your hands rummage through your pantry to find a pair of teabags to set aside while you wait for the kettle to whistle. 

“Your place is really nice,” Eren murmurs as he takes a seat at the breakfast bar. “It’s very… colorful.”

The corners of your lips tug into an awkward smile.

“Does it not suit me?”

He chuckles softly, bringing a fist up to cover his amusement.

“No, it does,” he says, looking around once more. “It’s a nice surprise, to be honest.”

Your lips curl inwards as you nod. 

An easy silence blankets the room until the kettle signals the water’s ready. 

Eren stands to help you. 

“Where do you keep your mugs?”

You point to the cupboard next to his head as you grab a tea towel to wrap around the kettle.

He sets two mugs on the counter next to the stove — a yellow one for you, a blue one for him — and starts wandering around in search of something.

“You want sugar, right?” he asks, going through his memory of the time you met at the coffee shop. 

He spots a set of green ceramic containers on the counter and starts reaching for them until your voice interrupts him. 

“Actually, I'll have it with honey. It’s over there.”

You point him to the pantry where you took the tea bags from.  

A proud grin takes over his face as he strides over.

“I see I've spread the honey gospel.” 

You smile.

“Not really,” you murmur. “I use honey all the time. That day we met at the coffee shop was just an exception.”

He pouts.

“Why the sudden change back then?” he asks.

You shrug as you transport the mugs to the bar and fetch a honey wand from a drawer.

“Some stupid reason. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Eren’s brow furrows in confusion, but he doesn’t press any further. You take a seat next to each other and take turns with the honey wand before your first careful sip of tea. 

A fuzzy feeling swells in his chest when Eren looks over at you. The domesticity of the situation has him biting back a smile. He loses himself in your image for a moment. the way your hands nurse the mug as you blow at your tea, and the sheen left on your lips after you take a sip. Maybe this — being welcomed into your home and sitting beside each other while you share tea — is all he needs to gain some clarity on where your head is at. 

He takes another sip and sets his mug down, the heat threatening his pain tolerance in his hands.

“So, you live alone?” he asks.

You nod. 

“Yeah, I’m kind of a lone wolf.” You pause and start smiling. “I might be growing out of it, though.”

“What do you mean?”

A few seconds tick by as you ponder for an answer.

“I’ve never had this many friends before. I just keep to myself, usually, and that's worked great my whole life. But now I’m really happy to have met everybody.” You smile. “I’m having a lot of fun being surrounded by more people now. I can feel myself becoming a different person.”

He mirrors your expression as he returns his gaze to his tea. Your words tug at his heartstrings. Frankly, he couldn’t be any happier to hear those words come out of your mouth.

“I also told a guy I wasn’t into dating, but now I’m hoping he didn’t take it to heart.”

Your words echo in Eren’s head as he turns to look at you with hopeful eyes.

“Me?”

The question has him feeling stupid, but he has to know you aren’t talking about someone else, that it can only be him. 

Your timid gaze has his chest pounding furiously against his ribs. It’s not until you nod that he finally releases the breath that was caught in his throat.

“I thought that— You said you didn’t see me that way.”

Your expression softens.

“You kind of grew on me,” you murmur, looking down at the remaining tea in your mug as your cheeks warm with shyness.

Eren watches you in awe as you bite down on your bottom lip, too focused on the yellow mug to even notice his shaking hands and burning cheeks.  

The following seconds pass by in slow motion. Eren’s warm hands wrap around your face, demanding your attention as he closes the gap between you. Like you at the bar, he spares a split second for you to realize what’s happening before slotting his lips against yours. You sigh into his mouth as an instant fever courses through your body. 

His strong hands pull you closer in his desperate need to devour you. It’s all much more real now. Now he knows how you feel, and you’ve known how he’s felt about you this entire time so all that’s left to do is act on it. 

One of his hands drops its firm caress on your face to pull you from your seat by the waist and settle you on his lap. He presses you into his chest, relishing in the soft moans you pour into his mouth. 

It’s a moment that he’s sure will be etched in his memory for the rest of his days.

Your heart thumps erratically, threatening to break free from its cage. Your breathing has grown shallow and eyebrows upturned in desperation as you cling onto his shirt. His cologne travels to your nose, enveloping you in a comforting embrace as the hand he has pressed against the small of your back pushes you closer to him with every wanton kiss.

You pull back abruptly, breathless, chest heaving, and eyebrows knit together as you swallow thickly.

“You okay?” Eren asks, equally short of breath.

You nod. 

“I just— I keep forgetting to breathe… and it feels like my heart is about to burst out of my chest.”

You look down at him with distress painted across your features.

“I'm sorry.”

For the second time since Eren met you, you look so small and fragile even if your compromising position has him tilting his face up to look at you. 

“You're joking, right?” he murmurs.

With a tremor still consuming his bones, he peels your right hand from his shirt and slides it down his chest, resting it right above his heart. He gives your hand a gentle squeeze, watching you closely to see if you understand his message and the effect you have on him — he’s right there with you. 

The erratic beat of his heart thumps against your palm. You stare at your linked hands, completely mesmerized by how perfectly your hand fits in his and how ardently his heart beats for you. 

A soft laugh travels past your lips as you find relief in Eren’s matching anxiety. 

Without removing your hand from where he’s pressed it, you bury your face into the crook of his neck.

You stay there for as long as it takes for your breathing to steady and your heartbeats to sync to a peaceful rhythm.

“I got scared when you barely talked to me on the way here.” 

The vibrations of his voice are a comforting sensation; if you could snuggle further into his chest, you would.  

“I thought you were regretting what happened at the bar.”

Your breath tickles his neck when you laugh.

“I just didn’t want to talk in front of our driver.”

It’s his turn to laugh and if you could capture the sound in a bottle to cherish forever, you would.

“I have a question.”

You hum in encouragement, feeling yourself grow sleepy in his embrace. 

“If I ask you out on a date right now, will you say yes this time?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to check my planner; now that I'm open to dating I’ll be pretty busy.”

You can’t tell from your angle, but you can hear the amused grin in his voice when he talks again.

“Ah, right, of course. I wouldn’t want to make a fool of myself all over again,” he jokes, rolling his eyes.

Neither of you makes a move to separate from each other. His thumb makes soft strokes against the back of your hand.

“I really like you,” he murmurs.

“I know,” you murmur back. “I really like you, too.”

“Did I tell you how pretty you look dressed like an angel?”

You straighten your posture but remain on his lap.

“Not once the entire night. I'm actually kind of disappointed,” you joke.

He stifles a laugh.

“The things you do to me, I swear,” he whispers as you lean forward, brushing your noses together. “I couldn’t stop looking at you. I felt like I was losing my mind.”

He leans closer, nipping at your bottom lip teasingly before pressing a chaste kiss on the corner of your mouth.

Your phone buzzes from inside your bag on the sofa.

“You think it’s an emergency?” he whispers against your lips.

“Not likely,” you whisper back before returning his kiss.

You’re fully prepared to ignore whoever is on the other end, but the buzzing refuses to cease, so you ultimately stand to answer the call, though with much reluctance.

“Hey, Armin.”

Eren brings a fist to his mouth, mentally cursing at his best friend for interrupting such a tender moment.

“Yeah, I made it home safe… Eren? Oh, um…”

You turn to Eren for a sign of what to say. You’ve never been in this situation before, so you’re unsure of what to do. 

Eren mouths a response you struggle to understand.

“He’s… he’s still here.”

Eren’s jaw drops. You shrug innocently.

“Yeah… he’s on his way out though. We just had tea… Oh god, Armin.”

Eren watches your flustered demeanor closely, trying to make sense of the buzzing that reaches his ears from your phone — he deciphers nothing.

“Well, you can come over next time… okay… bye.”

You hang up.

“What did he say?”

“Nothing. Just something about never getting to see my apartment,” you mutter with a shake of your head.

He laughs as he makes his way over to you.

“He’s definitely gonna hound me later for this,” he groans, rubbing his hands down his face. 

He rolls his shoulders back as he catches a glimpse of the time from the clock on your wall. “Oh, man, I really should be heading out, though.”

“I’ll walk you to the elevator,” you offer, already leading the way to the door.

The two of you walk side by side, now close enough for your shoulders to occasionally brush against each other. You exchange secretive glances along the way, biting down on smiles as you recall the events of the night.

When Eren steps into the elevator, you wave him goodbye. A second before the doors close, his hand shoots out to keep them open.

Your eyebrows rise in question.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow, then? Or, I guess, later.”

He watches your lips part and eyes wander in confusion.

“For what?”

“Our first date,” he grins. “Or is it too soon?”

A pleasant warmth tingles in your stomach as you try your best to contain your smile, but the excitement in your eyes shimmers brightly for him.

“No,” you say. “Tomorrow’s perfect.”

His lips curl inwards to keep himself from grinning harder. He nods.

“I’ll pick you up for lunch, then? Two o’clock.”

You smile and nod. He smiles back.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Eren.”

October 27, 2024

There’s nothing I hate more than loose women. They’re the worst. Always throwing themselves onto men and desperately groveling for attention. That’s why I had to kill this one. Disgusting little whore wouldn’t quit following me around the bar the whole night. 

But the good news is, I met a girl tonight. An angel. She was a vision from my purest dreams dressed in white with a halo on her head, smiling and laughing with her sloppy drunken friends. But she’s different from them, I can tell. If she could just smile at me the same way she smiled at him, maybe then I’ll be satisfied. If I could just have her smile at me every day, I’d be so happy. I'll do anything to have that look of adoration directed at me.

I wasn’t even looking to fall in love tonight and yet there she was. It has to be fate.

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taglist: @erenjaegerwifee @youatemylollipop

[michaelcosio]

The Suspected Golden State Killer Witnessed Two Men Rape His Sister. It May Have Fueled His Rampage. "Maybe that was the start of Joe going wacko," said a nephew of Joseph DeAngelo, the man suspected of being the prolific killer.

Stephanie K. Baer BuzzFeed News Reporter

Updated on May 14, 2018 at 1:35 pm Posted on May 11, 2018 at 4:31 pm

Decades before he killed at least 12 people and sexually assaulted 51 others in a prolific crime spree that terrorized the state of California, the suspected Golden State Killer watched two men rape his younger sister on an Air Force base in Germany, family members said.

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who was identified last month as the serial rapist and killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s, was playing with his sister Constance in an abandoned warehouse on the base when two airmen walked in and raped her in front of him, Jesse Ryland, one of Constance's sons, told BuzzFeed News this week.

DeAngelo was about 9 or 10 at the time. His sister was 7 years old.

"That's pretty crazy for a kid to see his sister be violated," said Ryland, 35, who learned about the incident from his mother just before she died from cancer last year. "Maybe that was the start of Joe going wacko."

The incident may have sparked a fantasy with rape for DeAngelo, a former police officer and mechanic who served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, according to an expert who has examined serial killers' backgrounds for the FBI.

Ann Wolbert Burgess, a psychiatric nursing professor at Boston College who studied the personalities of 36 convicted serial killers in the late 1970s and early 1980s with FBI agents in the Behavioral Science Unit, said serial criminals commonly develop a preoccupation with their crime at an early age.

It's possible that DeAngelo, who now faces a total of 12 counts of murder in Santa Barbara, Orange, Ventura, and Sacramento counties, became preoccupied with rape after his sister's sexual assault, Burgess told BuzzFeed News.

"Of course that would be significant and could have set the nucleus of the fantasy," she said. "What probably happened was that it was something that he kept on his mind."

DeAngelo was arrested at his home in Citrus Heights, a Sacramento suburb, on April 24 after investigators linked DNA from the decades-old crime scenes to DeAngelo using an online genealogical database. He has not yet entered a plea and is scheduled to return to court in Sacramento on Monday.

It was not immediately clear if his sister's sexual assault would factor into DeAngelo's criminal trial. A representative from the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office told BuzzFeed News they were reaching out to family to discuss the incident but declined to comment further.

Representatives from district attorney's offices in Santa Barbara and Orange counties declined to comment for this story. The Ventura District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.

Paul Holes, a retired cold case investigator for the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office who spent 24 years chasing the Golden State Killer, said he wonders whether witnessing his sister's rape was a traumatic or stimulating event for DeAngelo.

"As more is found out about him and his childhood, we’ll get a better sense on how witnessing something like that would have contributed to him developing into the guy he was," Holes told BuzzFeed News.

His sister's rape was just one notable incident in what was a tough childhood for DeAngelo, his nephew said.

DeAngelo and his three siblings grew up in an abusive household where his father physically assaulted his mother, Kathleen, said Ryland. She also abused at least one of the children.

"She would hit my mom all the time," Ryland said, adding that his mother would at times wear two pairs of pants to lessen the blow. "I'm pretty positive they were all abused like that."

Joseph DeAngelo Sr. served in the US Air Force and the family moved frequently because of his job. Ryland said that after one violent incident on a base in Germany, military police warned Joe Sr. he would be kicked out if he touched his wife again.

A spokesperson for the National Personnel Records Center, which manages military records for veterans who served in the 20th century, said files for Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr. were not available because another government agency had seized them.

Ryland said when his uncle and his mother told their parents about what had happened in the military base warehouse, they were instructed to never discuss it.

Burgess said that might have been confusing for DeAngelo, and the conflict between his parents also could have affected his psychological state.

Studies have shown that it's common for serial predators to have grown up in abusive environments, Holes said, but there are a lot of people who are exposed to that kind of trauma and don't become violent criminals.

"It's one of those mysteries," Holes added.

The Golden State Killer would often get angry with his victims and was probably "channeling part of his childhood psychology" into his crimes, the investigator said.

Constance's ex-husband, Kenneth Ryland Sr., told BuzzFeed News she never mentioned that she was raped as a child in their 26 years of marriage. He only heard about the incident recently from their son Jesse.

"I'm just trying to get my mind wrapped around it," Kenneth Ryland Sr. said.

The 71-year-old Placerville man married Constance in 1964 after she and DeAngelo's parents divorced. Their mom moved the family to the Sacramento area sometime in the early 1960s, he said.

Joseph DeAngelo Sr. ended up in South Korea, where he retired and had another set of kids, who were given the same names as his first three children: Rebecca, Joseph Jr., and Constance, according to Jesse Ryland and Kenneth Ryland Sr.

After serving in the Navy, Joseph DeAngelo Jr. was a police officer for the Exeter Police Department from 1973 to 1976 and then for the Auburn Police Department, where he worked from 1976 to 1979 until he was fired for shoplifting a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a drugstore.

Kenneth Ryland Sr. said that when he asked DeAngelo why he stole those things, DeAngelo responded, "Because I could."

"Something like that, and I thought that was really weird," Kenneth Ryland Sr. said.

Meanwhile, authorities say DeAngelo was breaking into houses, raping women, and ransacking their homes.

The last crime linked to the Golden State Killer was in 1986, when an 18-year-old woman was raped and killed in Orange County, but authorities have said they don't know if he stopped his attacks.

Growing up, Jesse Ryland said he never suspected his uncle was violent. DeAngelo was nice and seemed like a normal guy, he said. But when Ryland heard his uncle had been identified as the Golden State Killer, it suddenly made a lot of sense.

"Joe was young and saw my mom get raped," he said. "It instantly clicked in my head."

Ryland said although his mother and DeAngelo were close, he didn't see his uncle often when he was growing up and hasn't seen him in about 10 years.

"I almost wish I could go and see him and ask Joe about it if he remembers," Ryland said, though he admitted, "It’s probably not a good time for that."

CORRECTION

May 14, 2018 at 1:35 PM

After this story was published, Kenneth Ryland Sr. said his daughter had not told him that her mother, Constance, had been raped. He said he was made aware of the incident by his son Jesse.

[pastorfutureletthembe]

A crime thriller? Eeeh? Did we watch the same show?

What do you mean? Link Click is and always has been a BL...

Boys being roommates and sharing bunk beds? Running a business together to pay Cheng Xiaoshi's loans? Adopting a cat and playing house together (Qiao Ling's words, not mine)? Lady and the Tramp, noodles version? Hello?

And can we talk about the plot twist regarding Lu Guang's evil exes?? They actually made PV's for each of them like character introductions in videogames 😂

Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi are in a situationship for at least 5years and Cheng Xiaoshi is completely clueless and insensitive about it! He knows no personal space for one thing: he's always all over him, even in public, while seemingly wanting nothing more than a casual relationship. (They keep doing this stupid high five instead of kissing, which is ridiculous man: they're basically married).

Meanwhile, he published intimate pictures of his roommate on social media, without his consent if I may add, and then got so jealous reading the thirty comments it attracted that he actually created a second account with his sister's phone to get Lu Guang's attention??? Who does that?

And Lu Guang?

So desperately in love with his best friend, it's embarrassing at this point. I don't know if he's either a Yandere or a Tsundere because he can be rather intense sometimes. I mean-

Remember this episode when he just got out of the hospital? Ran across the city, half naked at that, and stole a fucking boat out of nowhere just so he could keep Cheng Xiaoshi from getting on a cruise with this shady girl? On top of that, he decided it would be easier to just take his friend's spot and disappear with her for a whole weekend instead of explaining his hysterical behavior. When he could have, oh, I don't know, admit to his feelings? 👀 The fact the girl was actually a boy is just the most hilarious reveal, and the cherry on top. He's so obvious about it that everyone knows he is losing his mind over this boy since day one! Everyone but said boy. And when asked how he came to be so smitten, he says "he's genuine?" What does that even mean? 🤣🙏 Oh my dear cinnamon roll, it's okay to admit you fell for his good looks. No judging.

Lu Guang also knows the sound of his breathing when he sleeps. Is his middle name Edward Cullen? Overprotective as fuck, too. As if Cheng Xiaoshi could die just eating grapes. Come on, he's not gonna get in a serial killer's car or get assaulted in a dark alley if you stop looking at him for five seconds, dude. Bleeding all over the couch and pretending to be dead isn't the way to teach your naive boyfriend about safety. Or to make him realize he's in love with you, for instance.

I'm still convinced Lu Guang only did that to get back at him for almost touching his sister's friend's boobs. Well, I'll be cranky too if my boyfriend was openly interested in women... To be fair, he is insulting Cheng Xiaoshi everyday, so it is sending mixed signals. This scene when the poor guy thought his best friend actually died and all the good memories of him were literally Lu Guang telling him how much of an idiot he is- it's lowkey funny, come on, you know I'm right.

Anyway, I don't know about any demonic possession, domestic violence or human trafficking, but that's definitely the most entertaining will they won't they show I've ever watched.

(I sure hope people will understand I'm joking and this is all very sarcastic but hilariously accurate)

When I first got into Link Click, I didn't really know it was a crime thriller. Like yeah, there's crime and deaths and blood and kidnapping and SA and theft and human trafficking but like, surely this is just a happy little show!

And then Lu Guang got stabbed, Emma committed suicide/got killed, blonde dude got possessed and choked, Chen Bin fell off a roof, Officer Chen got boinked it the head, and then it took me the episode where they fought baldy dude and I realized: Oh shoot this is horror?

[mangodestroyer]

Weird little fun fact about me: I used to wonder why people hated so many behaviors that were considered "creepy." I'm not talking about very obvious ones like ominous threats or stalking. I'm talking about if a new SO is being over the top with compliments and affection and declaring their love for you too soon. Stuff like that. Crazy enough, I even laughed it off when my ex said they wanted to be buried with something I was planning on making them. I thought that was just their quirky way of expressing love.

Yeah, that's right. I thought the things people found creepy were just different ways of expressing yourself. Maybe I had some empathy for these people as a neurodivergent individual because I knew what it was like to be seen as weird or creepy when you're just being yourself. Looking back, I realize now that I was being more authentic and appropriate (one reason I thought my SO became more cold and distant was because I wasn't being loving enough, like they were). In fact, a part of me questioned the way things were going. It didn't feel like this was how love was supposed to work. I thought love was supposed to be more quiet and subtle. Not an act of indulgence.

Now when I think of people being way too much about their "love," I get creeped out just like anyone else. And whenever I think about the comment where they said they wanted to be buried with that gift... ugh! It makes me cringe! It sounds like something a serial killer would say!

Trust me, it may seem like you have the best SO anyone could ask for when they seem so obsessed with everything about you and make a huge deal out of it. But they'll stop doing that one day the moment you show a real emotional need, or actually become seriously committed. Then you'll slowly become a great annoyance to them and one day, you may realize that they now hate all the things they loved about you. And they'll try to control and change you. Maybe they'll even start to resent the good things about you because they can't be the same way. That's why they were so obsessed with you. They wanted to BE you. And then they realized they can't be you, so they try to make you feel just as bad as they do.

Now isn't that just possessive and creepy? Something that makes it even more creepy is the realization that they would sometimes mimic the things I was doing. I used to dye my hair more often (but I haven't in nearly two years, so my hair is mostly it's natural auburn color at this point), and they used to never dye their hair. Then they started dyeing their hair. And then, looking back, it felt like they were negging my tendency to dye my hair because the job they got ended up costing them $200 and they thought it was shit. And they never stopped talking about it. And you know what's funny about that? I somehow know how to get a good dye job way cheaper than that. Oh, and towards the end of our relationship, God forbid I adopt another interest they don't like because then they wouldn't know how to participate in it (and they literally don't have to). They also expected me to cling to them like a pimple, even if there was no reason for me to be there. And they expected me to like everything they liked.

I would have thought you were a bitch if you shamed the earlier signs in this relationship. I thought my sister was being too judgmental when she said she sees problems with this relationship. Now, I see no problem with shaming these behaviors. It really is childish and creepy.