#Spark has the worst rage issues

[thedevilsruby]

*The leaders meeting Giovanni*

Candela: My fire gives me courage to beat you!

Blanche: I will calculate your every move to beat you.

Spark: I WILL FUCKING DESTROY YOUR BLOODLINE, YOU FUCKING BITCH! AAAAAHHHH

[hana-no-seiiki]

Time for Yan! Dickie boi with cat villain reader

(go read my other cat villain blurbs/drabbles/headcannons if you haven’t!!) (i wonder if i should have a tag for this reader specifically at this point)

As your first Robin, Dick Grayson has a very special place in your heart.

The issue lies in the fact that the area he owned was far too small especially in comparison to his successors.

Whereas Tim was your best friend, Jason was and will be the only Robin you ever truly loved. In a way that’s unconditional, passionate and most of all relentless.

You thought you loved Dick but you realized soon enough that it was not sparks in your stomach moreso just the thrill and excitement of a ‘romance’ with the enemy.

Dick…

He never really recovered from your breakup. You were his first love. Sure, he dated other people afterwards but they were mostly in an attempt to move on or ease the pain of your abandonment.

Poor boy blamed himself for not being good enough for you. He didn’t know that you were falling for his brother while you were dating and so it was just all so sudden for him. One moment you two were planning to get married and have children, and in the next it was all gone.

Once he finally finds out that it was your fault, I definitely see him rekindling your relationship in the worst ways possible.

It starts out in secret. He recollects all of your little plans together for the future, finally giving into the domestic thoughts that have been so bitter to him ever since you left. He builds a nursery, he places photos of when the two of you were dating (previously torn apart in rage and sadness), and most of all he makes sure that everything is tailored so that when you’re finally back together you won’t ever want to leave.

He hated himself for thinking so, but he felt himself smiling — he was … glad that Jason died that day. And even if Jay was back, you

You start seeing him more often.

In fights, as civilians.

He was always a bit restless around you after the breakup but now he was back to being as confident and cocky as ever.

You were happy for him, but also much too preoccupied by what Jason was asking you to do (read drabble)

That made capturing you all the more easy.

“Here now, kitty kitty. Back home where you belong.”

[descendantofthesparrow]

Brutally honest thoughts on each character?

...*Each* character???? bruh thats so many, okay ill keep this short cuz im waiting for a haircut rn

well start with the vks cuz thats easy

Mal-started off strong and then just became...THE WORST, love hate relationship for her. shes my art block fix but also i hate her

Jay-i dont have strong opinions on him, he actually never stuck out to me other than 'obligatory jock dude of the friend group.' i wish i liked him more but im more attached to his fandom self over canon Jay

Evie-got boring after D1, i wish they let her keep her chemistry stuff, love her vibe but shes kinda boring to me. SHOULD'VE BEEN THE MC OVER MAL!!

Carlos- lots of lost potential with his tech stuff from the first book and movie. easily could've been an engineer or inventor but they just made him an animal lover and i got bored of that real quick.

Uma-my queen, my idol, can do no wrong i love her so much i WILL kill for her.

Harry-i love his dumbass so much YALL DONY EVEN KNOW I WANNA BITE HIM SO BAD

Gil-one of the few characters i felt actually...grew up? idk but hes one of the few characters were it actually feels like time passed for.

Dizzy-oooooooh honey, honey honey, sunshine baby, please, put the glue gun down.

Celia- they should've gone with her trailer persona. Her outfits are so bad and i wish she got better writing and designs, so much lost potential, also she should've been Jays pick.

Smee twins- why the fuck are they even here they had one line and no significance. also they should've had a Harry scene.

Aks

Ben-puppy boy, deserved to have doberman energy. got turned into a doormat by the writers and is unfairly hated.

Audrey-bitch queen, shes not a nice person and thats okay~ girlboss.

Chad- should've been the D3 villan they had that all set up in D2 with his weird ass attitude over Ben getting kidnapped on the isle.

Doug -....honestly gives me the ick, especially in D3, i HATE the long hair his actor had/has. gold is NOT his color and neither is pastel purple or green. he looked good in D1 but ICK for 2 and 3.

Jane- bby gurl, blue bird sweetheart. yeah she did some fucked up shit in D1 but she was an insecure 14 year old girl who got manipulated by Mal and other aks!!!

Lonnie- deserved so much better, shes Chinese why is she getting Japanese style stuff?!?! her plot in D2 didnt even do anything it just happened and no one cared and Jay just shoved his problems of girls playing roar onto her.

Beast- *inhale* i wanna kick his ass, and i could, lemme at him. how dare he force an entire kingdom on Ben at 16 when he didnt become king when he was 28(when he married Belle)

Belle- they took away her backbone, shes not Disney princess book worm and independent Belle. she just, lost the spark

FG- they turned her into a preschool teacher, GIVE ME MY OL COOKY FAIRY LADY BACK

Leah- *seething rage*

vk parents

Maleficent- fuckin love her, shes such a manipulative bitch and feels like a gone crazy version of a Maleficent made for kids. def not the mistress of all Evil but i love her nonetheless

EQ- shouldve been the head villain, SHE WAS THE FIRST DISNEY VILLAIN CMON! def not the same character from the animated movie but shes dramatic and sassy and i adore her.

Jafar- haha funny characature~ i wish he was more menacing like he had been. Jafar is not one of my fav villains so descendants jafar didnt exactly translate for me well.

Cruella- yeah they nailed her, no complaints about her. good design, good dialogue, good acting.

Hades- LEMME KICK HIS DEAD BEAT ASS, fucking 'daddy issues made you stronger' my butt. i hate his hair and honestly he doesnt fit the washed up punk design, he didnt deserve the speech at the end and didnt deserve to be forgiven by Mal.

Ursula- we only saw her tentacle and one line but she seemed spot on so yeah

Lady Tremaine- why the fuck was she nice in D3??? bitch is the EVIL stepmother.

Smee- spot on, i have words for his sons designs becuaee hes old not naturally white haired but hes chill, makes sense hed be a good parent, he never felt evil to me, just compliant

Facilier- such a vibe, his actor got him spot on, would've changed up his suit design but hes chill and i can see him being a family man(ignoring wicked world).

[facelessfinest]

Hey, Jigen...

Jigen is already standing in wait when the door swings open, but a guard doesn't come through. Instead, a limp form is tossed into the cell and hits the floor hard with a pained moan. Then the door slams shut again.

The split second of brightness destroyed Jigen's adjustment to the pitch black within the confines of his little domicile, so he cautiously approaches the area where the person is laying.

"You alright, kid?" He snaps gruffly, his voice a little deeper than it naturally is.

He inches closer, but quickly pulls back when his foot lands in a puddle that wasn't there before and nearly slips out from under him.

"The hell?" He grumbles, crouching and squinting down at the mysterious liquid.

His new cell mate shifts ever so slightly, and the whispered words they speak hit him at the same time as the smell of blood.

"Hey, Jigen..."

Without a word, Jigen leaps into action, feeling around until he's fully located Lupin, then taking him under the shoulders, and quickly dragging him to the back of cell, leaning him against the wall.

"You idiot." He hisses, but it's dripping with worry instead of venom.

Kneeling down and feeling Lupin's torso, he turns the attempted response into a yelp of agony as his hand presses into the stab wound on the thief's side. 

Emotions aren't typically an issue for Jigen, but he has to force down the boiling rage he's feeling in this moment to focus on searching for further injuries. 

"Talk." He murmurs, cringing apologetically as his fingers drag against another gash, drawing a tortured gasp from Lupin.

He can hear the thief swallow hard, each breath hissing between clenched teeth as he struggles to speak.

"Fujiko and Goemon?"

Jigen shakes his head, stripping the thief of his suit jacket and button up.

"I know they're alive, but that's it. No one's talked to me since they decided I didn't know where you were."

He can see significantly better now, but it's not a pretty sight.

Lupin's awfully banged up, bruises litter his face and torso, and there's three stab wounds oozing blood onto Jigen's admittedly shaky hands. They've been through stuff like this before, but it's more stressful without proper supplies or lighting, and most importantly when they still aren't safe from the party responsible. 

"What about y-you?" Lupin gasps.

Jigen says nothing, takes note of the positioning of the injuries first; one just beneath Lupin's ribs, the other just above his hip, and the last one, the worst one, strategically placed at his side, where there's little chance of having hit anything vital.

It's broader than the other two, gaping open in a way that tells Jigen that the attacker kept twisting the knife.

Gritting his teeth so hard he can almost taste sparks, Jigen takes Lupin's tattered shirt, and folds it up, pressing it against the three wounds. Lupin growls, unconsciously trying to pull away.

Jigen scooches closer to him, putting an arm around Lupin's waist to keep him close, and holding the shirt tightly against the thief.

Blood is quickly dampening the fabric, but the bleeding looks to be slowing down at least.

"You've got to have something on you." Jigen huffs. "A pin, or something I can use to stitch these up."

Lupin frowns, his head lolling against Jigen's shoulder.

"Nothin'. They s-searched...every inch of me."

His whole body seizes with the effort of trying to laugh. He quickly stops trying.

And now he's just laying there, limp against Jigen and uncomfortably silent. 

Jigen swallows hard, biting back the urge to try and kick down the door, because for that, he'd have to get up, and leave Lupin bleeding alone.

"What did they want?" He growls.

Lupin looks up at him, searching his expression. Jigen refuses to meet his eyes.

"Whatever it was we were looking for, I can't remember." Lupin stops to cough, and Jigen wipes away the blood at the corner of his mouth. 

Giving a shuddering sigh, Lupin continues. "I wouldn't have told them even if I knew. 'S never worth it."

Sighing, he tried to move closer to Jigen, trembling all the while.

Jigen stopped him entirely, then carefully took him by the shoulders and lay him back, resting the man's head in his lap.

He refolded the shirt and pressed it neatly back to Lupin's side, his other hand gently running through Lupin's hair.

He looked down at his beloved thief with somber eyes. 

Perhaps Lupin might have joked about the intimacy of it all, but he was just..tired. So tired. 

His whole body ached, but it hurt less when Jigen's rough hands coddled him so gently. He closed his eyes, preening under the affection.

"I'm gonna fix this, Jigen." He whispered hoarsely. "And then all four of us are gonna go to a stupidly expensive hotel, stuff our faces like we'll never see food again, and just...sleep. All in one big bed, cuddling like puppies."

He had a stupid, pained grin on his face, and thankfully he couldn't see the equally goofy smile his partner wore.

"Sound good?" He wheezed.

"Throw in a pack of cigarettes and I'm in." Jigen chuckled.

Lupin nodded weakly, still smiling. 

"Biggest pack of cigarettes you've ever fuckin' seen, marksman.

"I'm looking forward to it, thief."

[zablife]

Hi, Lee!! I'm here because of curiosity 🔎.

In your reblog you said you thought about their (Aurora and Luca) zodiac signs! And I think it's really interesting because I never thought about it! What you can tell me (us) about it? If you want, of course!!

Tysm for the ask, Flor! I've spent too much time on this, but it was so much fun! For anyone curious, Aurora and Luca are from my series My Sun, My Moon and All My Stars.

Luca and Aurora's Zodiac Signs

Aurora's birthday is June 20 which makes her a Gemini/Cancer cusp (more on that in a bit). Gemini is an air sign represented by twins. While Aurora's enemies might see her as "two faced," always concealing a hidden agenda, she's actually quite versatile as she's able to see an issue from both sides at once. As an air sign, she's clever and curious as well as extremely communicative.

Being born on the cusp of Cancer makes it easy for her to express her emotions well and she knows what she wants. Always sensitive to the needs of others, she can also pinpoint what her opponent desires and negotiate to that end. She's a social butterfly who gets on with anyone and tends to forgive easily. However, it can also leave her vulnerable to the words and actions of those closest to her, creating horrible melancholy.

Luca's birthday is July 25 which makes him a Leo. Leo is a fire sign represented by the mighty lion. He is fearless in the face of danger and fiercely protective of those around him. Rarely acknowledging defeat, his ambition knows no limits. It's this determination that makes him successful. However, his pride often sabotages his happiness.

He has a dominating personality that often manifests itself in arrogant and egotistical behavior. He was born on the feast day of St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers and children-and known to protect. (In my AU it is his middle name for this reason.) When Luca was young his parents lived modestly so he pretended the celebration was for him. As he grew up, he internalized the belief that he too was a mighty protector of men.

Compatibility: While Geminis and Leos normally support each other's ambitions and spark one other's sense of flirtatiousness and fun, Aurora and Luca's personalities clash in the worst possible ways. In their case Aurora's air seems to feed Luca's fire a bit too much, causing a raging bonfire that flames out of control. Luca goes from protective to possessive and Aurora's nurturing morphs into enabling.

[mariacallous]

The war raging between Israel and Hamas is horrifying much of the world, but European left-wing leaders have an extra reason to wish for the bloodshed to come to an end as soon as possible: The conflict is proving a political hot potato that’s exacerbating internal rifts, jeopardizing already fragile alliances, and threatening to exact a heavy price in the next elections.

With the progressive electorate torn between shock at the slaughter of 1,400 people by Hamas militants inside Israel in early October—the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust—and outrage at the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, in countries like France, Britain, and Spain, left-wing parties find themselves mired in damaging rows over how to qualify Hamas’s actions and how forceful Israel is entitled to be in its military response.

The conflict “is highlighting the differences between the radical left and the social democrats,” said Luc Rouban, a political scientist from Sciences Po university in Paris. “It’s blowing up the left,” he said.

Nowhere are progressives as divided over the issue as in France. There, the far-left France Unbowed, which last year formed an uneasy coalition with more moderate (and much smaller) parties such as the Socialists and the Greens, infuriated its allies when it qualified Hamas’s attack as an “armed offensive,” talking about “war crimes” committed by the militants but refusing to describe the Islamist group as a terror organization. Then, as the death toll in Gaza continued to mount, France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon sparked more backlash by using what many saw as subtly antisemitic language—in a country that since the beginning of the conflict has experienced an explosion of antisemitic acts, with over a thousand offenses and hundreds of arrests. Mélenchon strongly rejected the accusations, but as a result of these rows the left-wing alliance has been put on hold, with few believing it can be revived.

Mélenchon is seeking to reinforce his image as the standard bearer for the oppressed, with an eye on France’s large, and often poor, Muslim population, Rouban said. But in reality, France Unbowed “is cornering itself into the periphery of the political field, [coming across as] a radicalized group that doesn’t hesitate to engage in all sorts of provocations,” he said. Polls suggest Mélenchon’s popularity is in free fall. “I don’t see how he can still hope to win a presidential election after this,” Rouban said.

France is hardly the only place where the left is in trouble. In Britain, Labour leader Keir Starmer ruffled feathers within his own party when he said that Israel had the right to withhold electricity and water from Gaza as part of its response to Hamas’s assault. One month into Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, Starmer is calling for temporary humanitarian pauses, but he’s still not backing a long-term cease-fire, arguing that it would “embolden” Hamas. Senior Labour figures have openly challenged Starmer over what they see as an excessively pro-Israel position, with dozens of Labour city councilors resigning over the issue.

Starmer’s stance partly has to do with the scars left by the antisemitism scandals that plagued Labour a few years ago. Starmer has long presented himself as an unequivocal friend of Israel and sought to underscore a difference between himself and his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, who was widely accused of not doing enough to tackle antisemitism in the party. Now, he needs to remain coherent with that image, said Richard Johnson, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London.

But with Muslims living in Britain being 14 times as numerous as Jews, Starmer’s defense of Israel also brings “a certain amount of electoral peril for Labour,” Johnson said. In recent weeks, Britain has seen some of the largest pro-Palestinian rallies in Europe, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets again on Saturday to demand an end to the bombardment of Gaza.

In Spain, meanwhile, socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had to leap into damage control after one of his ministers, the leader of the far-left Podemos party, Ione Belarra, said Israel’s military campaign amounted to “genocide”; its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, should be prosecuted for war crimes; and Spain should cut diplomatic ties with the country and impose economic sanctions. The remarks sparked a furious reaction by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, forcing the Spanish Foreign Ministry to clarify that Belarra does not express the government’s official views on foreign policy and that Spain recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself within the limits of international law.

The row came at a delicate moment for Sánchez, who is struggling to put together a coalition large enough to continue to govern following inconclusive elections in July. “I don’t think you can find any members of government in other EU countries who say what Podemos is saying about Israel,” said José Ignacio Torreblanca, the head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Madrid bureau. “It’s a very uncomfortable position for Sánchez,” he said.

And it’s not just Europe. U.S. President Joe Biden, who has expressed strong support for Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas, is also walking a tightrope, with liberal members of his own Democratic Party and Muslim Democratic voters demanding a cease-fire and polls showing his popularity among Arab Americans already dwindling. The administration’s stance has also stoked unease and sharp dissent from the diplomatic corps. In recent days, Biden started calling for brief humanitarian pauses in Israel’s military operation, but Netanyahu has so far resisted the pressure.

To be sure, the war between Israel and Hamas isn’t fracturing the left everywhere. In Germany, Die Linke, which belongs to the same group as France Unbowed in the European Parliament, unequivocally condemned “Hamas’s awful terror attacks,” largely aligning itself with both the center-left coalition in power and the conservative opposition in Berlin.

Even where rifts are running deep, they may be a lesser problem than they seem. In Britain, with the exception of more than a dozen Muslim-heavy constituencies, “the calculation of the Labour leader’s office is that this is not going to be a major issue in the next election,” Johnson said.

In Spain, Podemos has long sparred with Sánchez over foreign-policy issues, such as the supply of military aid to Ukraine, but so far it has been loath to trigger a government crisis over those disagreements. “They bark a lot, but I don’t think they bite,” Torreblanca said.

But the war isn’t only dividing the left; it’s also emboldening the right. Nationalist leaders across Europe are referring to Hamas’s brutality to back up their hard-line views on Islam and immigration at home, while playing up their opponents’ ambiguities and boosting their own credentials as government material.

Spanish far-right leader Santiago Abascal is keen to paint the image of a government besieged by leftist radicals, while at a rally for “Western values and Israel’s existence” held in Milan over the weekend, Matteo Salvini, the deputy of Italy’s post-fascist prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, lashed out at “confused” left-wingers who “defend the terrorists.” In France, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally has been quick to express support for Israel’s military campaign, using the crisis to further distance itself from its own antisemitic past—embodied by founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father, who famously claimed that the gas chambers were a “detail” of history.

While left-wing firebrand Mélenchon is trapped in his role of maverick, National Rally has taken another major step toward “normalization,” according to Rouban. “There used to be two populisms in France. Now there’s only one, and it’s on the left,” he said.

[wolfgabe]

I have been observing the whole mess down in Israel right now over the past few weeks and have been reluctant to share my thoughts here considering how my thoughts will likely get me branded as pro genocide by the internet hive mind, but I feel I need to get this off my chest now.

Do I acknowledge Bibi is a piece of garbage who played a large part in sparking this conflict and making things worse? Yes.

Do I recognize that Hamas is a terrorist group that is basically the reason why its practically impossible for there to be any true peace between Israel and Palestine? Also yes.

Calling out Hamas for the shit they have done does not make one pro genocide. It's frankly been infuriating seeing how people seem to gloss over the fact that Hamas has no issue with using their own civilians as literal meat shields or how they have been hording stockpiles of fuel and supplies in their underground tunnels. There are people who really want to leave but can't simply because Hamas won't allow it.

The problem is a lot of these people you see online screaming free Palestine probably never even heard of Gaza up until now nor would they be able to actually locate it on a map if they tried. It's basically East Palestine all over again with bad faith actors capitalizing on the conflict for easy clout or closet right wingers looking for a convenient excuse to bash Biden only it's 100x worse.

It's been quite depressing really how this conflict has ended up exposing a lot of people on the left as raging anti semites. People can scream how this will haunt Biden in 2024 all they want but frankly I would say this has probably done more damage to the left wing movement than Biden's reelection prospects. The hard truth is a majority of Americans think Biden is doing the right thing with Israel and see Hamas as the one most to blame. There is a reason why supporting Israel often falls within America's own interests especially considering they are our closest ally in the middle east. Tearing down posters of Jewish kidnapping victims doesn't make one pro Palestine. It's also quite telling how a lot of these anti-Israel protesters apparently get mad very quick when you point out that Hamas are in fact terrorists.

Those who demand a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza are not serious about actual peace in the middle east and/or are woefully ignorant of the reality of the situation. If you honestly expect Israel after suffering one of the worst terror attacks it has seen in decades to suddenly agree to a ceasefire with a Terrorist group that has openly called for the eradication of all Jews which they will likely violate just like they did with the last ceasefire that was brokered by Egypt, then I got a magic bridge to sell you. A ceasefire at this point is basically the equivalent of slapping a band aid on an open wound and the only one who really benefits from it is Hamas since it grants them time to rearm and regroup.

Just suddenly barging into a neighboring country and indiscriminately kidnapping, killing and beheading adults, children, and babies is not liberation. Mind you it was not just jews but also Arabs, Muslims, Ethiopians, African Guest Workers among others that were among the 1400 needlessly executed by Hamas on that day. I also will remind people there are innocent nationals including Americans that are being held hostage right now so no it's not just Jews that are suffering.

And I just would like to give a shout out to Biden here. I don't he is getting nearly enough credit for the fact that he might be the one person that is seriously preventing this conflict from spilling out into the rest of the Middle East. And this is on top of pushing for more humanitarian assistance to Gaza residents as well as pressuring Israel to hold off on a ground invasion and working to open humanitarian corridors. I find it ironic how people can scream Joe Biden is pro Genocide when he has probably been one of the most pro Palestine presidents seen in decades.

War sucks all around that's a fact and its even more frustrating in this day and age with places like Twitter having become certified disinformation cesspits. As the old saying goes truth is often the first casualty in war.

And perhaps a bit of advice if you are looking for reliable news sources right now on Israel and Palestine. I would probably avoid Twitter and TikTok like the plague.

[skylarstark4826]

After all has been said and done, there’s one thing that evades her still.

(That is a lie, actually — there are several many things that are beyond Shuri’s understanding, after all this time — but one stands out quite clearly from the rest.)

It’s the issue of his dead mother’s bracelet. Offered up at the time without conditions or hesitations, as if it were merely a gift between close friends. Critical, later, to accelerating her very defeat of him. 

It doesn't make sense. 

She’s played the moment back in her own head a million times: the warmth and quiet steadiness of his voice, rough hands surprisingly gentle as he’d tied the beads against her wrist.

It was not like him. To take such a large, unsubstantiated risk with a complete stranger.

The more she thinks about it, the more it frustrates her. It goes against everything else she knows about him. Has learned about him, since.

But tonight is not the right moment for it. So she frowns and pushes the thought away, for the time being. 

There is a time for everything, in her mind — a time for thinking and questioning, for mourning and praying. 

For now, however — there is simply too much else to be done.

So during her waking hours, she keeps her questions at bay. At night, however, everything she’s been pushing down re-emerges.

Namor, of course, appears in her dreams and nightmares both.

When she’s lucky, she remembers the worst of it: remembers his bitterness and rage, the way he'd taken her family and her home and destroyed it, without any mercy.

When she’s unlucky, however, she remembers the best of it: remembers the kindness he'd first treated her with, the way he'd shown her the beauty of his kingdom, the way he'd looked at her when he'd told her about his past. 

No matter which way her mind goes, it always ends the same way: she wakes up breathing hard and covered in sweat. Feeling the all-consuming currents of anger or despair or hope, exactly as she had felt them in those moments. 

(Memories of his eyes, his face, his form remain imprinted behind her eyelids, against her will.)

She needs to get him out of her system, clearly. She just doesn't know how. 

Beyond her, the bracelet sits on her nightstand, the delicate, iridescent thread glowing faintly in the darkness.

Eventually, she gives in. There’s never been an open question she could leave unresolved for too long. 

Besides, she tells herself, there is unfinished business left between them. That is all.

So Shuri presses her lips to the shell, and she waits for him to come to her. 

She meets him on the grassy plains, under a glittering canopy of stars. The very same place they’d first met.

He emerges from the water in his traditional ruling garb, looking every bit as terrible and beautiful as she’d remembered him to be.

(The wound on his ankle, she notices, is still healing.)

And for a moment, there’s just quiet between them. An unspoken acknowledgement, perhaps, of all that has passed. All, she thinks, that is yet to come.

Namor breaks the silence first.

“I was wondering when you might call on me,” he says. There’s no specific inflection to the words, their true meaning carefully guarded. An understandable move from his end, really. 

(No amount of penance or regret from her will change that, either.)

So she carries on, as best as she can.

“I want answers,” she says simply. “Can you give me that?”

“Promises are dangerous, princess,” he murmurs, and finally, finally, she swears she sees his dark eyes glint with a spark of something like recognition.

“I cannot promise you anything,” he continues. “But I will try.”

It had been easier, in her head, to form the words. Now, however, she finds she has to take a short, steadying breath before she meets his eyes and finally says it:

“Why did you give it to me? Your mother’s bracelet?”

Shuri doesn’t give him a chance to respond, not yet. She needs to lay it all out first.

“You could have given me anything else,” she continues, barrelling through the logic she’s reviewed countless times in her own mind. “Your hospitality was generous from the start. The dress alone would have been enough.”

She’s wearing said dress now, actually, the decision to do so a last-minute whim and strategy both. The garment is soft and beautiful beyond compare: encrusted in precious stones and elegant beading that clearly speak to the immense care and skill required for its construction.

“And yet,” she finishes, “you gave it to me. I want to know why.”

Had it been a part of some deeply cynical, manipulative plan to win her over, all along? She cannot believe that, somehow. He is a strategist, yes, but this move was simply too earnest for that to be true.

He looks at her, then, as if he can somehow hear the last unspoken thoughts that have crossed her mind.

“I did not plan that, no,” he starts, and the concession costs him something, she can tell. “It was as much a surprise to me as it was to you.”

“I’ve thought about it since then as well,” he continues. “Until then, I had no equal on land or sea. No one with whom I had ever felt compelled to tell my story.”

“You were different,” he admits, his dark gaze shifting to the tall reeds near them, swaying gently in the night breeze. “I knew, somehow, you were destined for me.”

“So I opened my home to you, Shuri. I did not make that decision lightly.”

His jaw tenses, handsome features screwed for a single moment with an emotion she cannot place. “And yet. You betrayed that trust anyways.”

Ah, yes. Where it had all started to go downhill. She remembers the moment all too well.

“I did not know what Nakia had planned,” she confesses, and she realizes, faintly, that this is probably the first time he’s hearing that. “And I tried to save that female guard, for she had shown me nothing but kindness.”

“I did not know that,” he says, and the sudden, pained look on his face tells her everything she needs to know about the guard’s eventual fate. “I did not know that you tried to save her.”

“I did,” she murmurs, and there’s an oh-too-familiar guilt of not being able to save someone that’s creeping back up her throat, one she has to swallow down quickly.

“But I could not have stayed, Namor. You would have used me as a bargaining chip.”

This is also true. Her mother had disclosed as much, on their way back to Wakanda.

“Perhaps,” he says. “Or perhaps you would have agreed, in the end.”

He is not wrong. Shuri understands, at last, the appeal of burning down the world. 

(She simply knows now that it would mean burning herself, as well.)

"Perhaps," she agrees. "In any case — I've come to return it to its rightful owner." The bracelet is still on her wrist, glinting beneath the moonlight, but she moves to take it off.

Namor finally looks back at her, then, a startling look of finality on his face. “No need, princess. The past is the past.”

“I meant the gift back then,” he continues. “And I mean it now, too. It is yours to keep.”

Shuri feels her cheeks warm at that. Finds she has to break away from his too-long gaze. 

There’s too much there she does not have time to parse through. Does not want to parse through.

(She can feel the flames flickering in her chest. Have her dreams and nightmares not been punishment enough?)

“Another question, then,” she continues. Desperate to push it all away.

He nods, and she feels a sudden lump in her throat, in spite of herself. In spite of how long it has been.

“Did you mean to kill her? The Queen Mother?” She has to blink away harrowing memories of that moment — of her mother’s lifeless body, floating facedown in the water. The pain is almost impossible to bear, if she lets herself remember it. 

His jaw is tight, and she knows, almost immediately, what his answer will be.

“I didn’t intend to, from the outset,” he confesses. “But I don’t regret it, either.”

“War is war, Shuri,” he finishes. “As you understand now.”

“After all,” he says simply, “do you regret what you did to me?”

“No,” she admits, and it’s the truth, even after all this time. “I knew what needed to be done. Or I thought I did.” 

(She had watched him burn in front of her eyes, after all, without a single moment of hesitation.)

Namor nods, and she knows that he understands her. In that strange, unspoken way that he always has.

“I have my own question for you as well, then," he says suddenly, and she sees a glimmer of curiosity under the cover of darkness. 

“Why did you spare me?”

Ah. Of course. It makes sense that he would still be thinking about that, after all this time. 

It's too complicated to tell him everything, of course. But she can tell him at least one part of it. 

“I remembered the man you were. The ruler who would do anything to protect his people.”

She had seen herself, in that moment, too. Seen what she might do, when pushed to the brink of desperation. And she'd known, in that moment, that that — pain, cruelty, fury — could not be the legacy she left behind. Could not become the legacy of the Black Panther. 

“I saw you, and I remembered who I was. Who I was meant to be. And I knew, then, that I could not let you die.”

His death would be an impossible loss for his people. A sin she could never fully repent for.

“There is no one else like the two of us, Namor,” she finishes simply. “There never will be.”

He had known she was destined for him, somehow. She knows now that he was likely destined for her, too. 

Namor meets her eyes, and once again, it’s like he knows. But perhaps this is their joint burden to bear — understanding each other in a way that will always be familiar, will always be an ache.

The night is quiet, still again. Shuri can feel somethingin the wind. Steels herself, silently, for whatever he might say, whatever is coming next.

“Will you humor me with one final question, princess?” and she nods, because, well, what choice does she have?

She’s been analyzing his face, the rough burr of his voice all night. So she knows she doesn't imagine the way he shifts closer at her assent, the way his mask falls and his gaze suddenly darkens.

“Why are you wearing that dress?” he rasps out, and in that moment, she finds that she’s frozen where she stands.

It is beyond her to play dress up simply for its own sake, to indulge in childish fantasies. Shuri bristles under the knowledge that he knows both of those things. 

So she elects for something else. One last test, of sorts.

“To show that we are friends,” she says simply, and well, nothing could be further from the truth.

He catches her lie immediately, of course. Lets out a small, harsh laugh at that.

“We are not friends, princess,” he says. “Perhaps we never can be.”

“But for what it’s worth,” he murmurs, “You’ll always be the woman who set me on fire.”

And she sees it, finally, that spark of something she’d been running from, in her dreams and waking hours alike. The missing piece that had continuously evaded her, all along.

There’s a naked look of want, of hunger, burning on his face. It’s a look that knocks the air out of her chest, makes her throat go dry. 

(Was this what she had lost, in her quest for vengeance? Or simply what remained?)

“It could have been different, you said,” she insists, remembering his words. It didn’t have to be like this.

Shuri draws closer still, and now there’s so little space between them that they’re practically sharing the same air. An impropriety, perhaps, but they’ve left all semblance of that behind a long time ago.

So she channels one last well of courage. To speak her mind, and ask for what she wants. What she needs.

“What could it have been?” she whispers.“Show me.”

His hand is on her cheek just as the words finish leaving her mouth, and then he’s pulling her close and kissing her like a man starving. 

And she’d been wrong in thinking, foolishly, that she’d never let herself burn again. No, his lips touch hers and just like that, she’s on fire. 

There’s nothing else but him, just him, as he pulls her into him and kisses her so deeply she thinks she might faint. She feels all of him in that moment — feels the liquid tension of his muscles as he wraps his other arm around her waist, the single-minded focus with which he kisses her, again and again and again. 

They finally break apart, breathing heavily. Her world feels like it’s been tilted on its axis.

A single choice is all it takes to make things different. It can always be different.

So she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him again. And that’s enough.

He kisses her back furiously, and it’s like the floodgates have burst open. 

Namor knows what he is to her, now. Is unafraid to take what he finally knows to be his. She feels his hands travel greedily down the length of her frame, tracing out her breasts, squeezing the small curves of her ass.

He picks her up in his arms, finally, as his hands go around her hips. Carries her half a dozen steps before he lays her down in the tall grass, the movement so surprisingly gentle it contradicts everything else that has happened so far. 

He turns his attention to the rest of her, now. Feverishly kisses her exposed collarbones, his hands roaming beneath her skirts and making her moan. She’s wet even without his ministrations, delicate underwear already soaked all the way through, but she can’t find it in herself to be truly embarrassed. Not when she’s wanted this for so long.

Namor slips the damned thing off before he finds her center, moving his fingers in a careful, practiced motion. Shuri gasps at the feeling of it, the movements still a surprise, but it’s perfect. She lets him wind her up and pull her apart, until the stars burst beneath her lids and he captures her mouth with his once more.

She’s still coming back down from her high, but finds it within her to turn her attentions back to him, somehow. She winds one hand into his dark hair, notes that it’s still damp from the lakewater. Curly, she thinks offhandedly, and it’s such a silly, unimportant observation to make, but she files it away for later reference anyways. His wet hair is curly.

She tugs at it, hard, and he groans above her. He breaks away then, only to run one thumb over her lower lip in what can only be described as reverence. 

“Do you even know what you do to me?” he whispers, and fuck, she’s never wanted him more.

“Show me,” she repeats breathlessly, and he smiles wickedly, right before he slots his hips directly over hers.

Shuri can feel his desire now, the hard press of him against her, and it doesn’t scare her like it perhaps should. All she knows right now is her own want. Nothing more.

So she moves to free him, one hand reaching down between them. 

“Are you sure?” he murmurs, voice pitched to a low tease. “You don’t want someone else, instead?”

The thought alone is ludicrous. Impossible, after the life she’s had.

“There’s no one else,” she murmurs, warm and breathless and aching. “No one else for me but you.”

He growls into her mouth at that. Lets her release him before he kisses her roughly, teeth nipping at her lower lip. 

When he breaks away once more he strips her of the last of her clothing. She’s completely naked, she realizes, but so is he. Her equal, in every way.

“Call me by my given name.” His hard cock rubs against her folds, teases at her entrance in the kind of slow, painful torture she’s never had to experience before. And likely never wants to experience again, really.

If he doesn’t press into her right now, she thinks, she might actually have to kill him.

“K’uk’ulkan,” she whispers, “please, take me.” Keep me. 

He doesn’t hesitate, after that. Sinks into her with a low groan, pulling a sharp gasp from her lips. 

“Shuri,” he murmurs against her mouth like a hymn, like a prayer. “Shuri.”

And there’s nothing left in her mind at all, nothing except the feeling of him inside her, the white-hot burn of want it stokes within.

She has no weapons in this fight. No claws except her own.

So she takes her nails and sinks them into his back. And that, too, is enough.

He is not gentle with her. He knows he does not need to be.

No, when he moves, he moves decisively. Squeezes her hips and thrusts into her hard, showing her no mercy.

She can feel the raw power behind his movements as he fucks her, and there’s nothing else like it. It’s all she can do to keep up, to match his pace, her hips moving against his, her lithe frame winding around him. 

Shuri locks her legs around him, squeezes hard. A dirty trick, but one she’s rewarded for immediately, as he captures her mouth with his, kisses her until she moans beneath him. He breaks away briefly and shifts his firm grip, changes the angle of his thrusts so he hits just the right spot.

This is meant to be a sacred, quiet place, and all she can think of is this. The sounds of their bodies coming together, every last moan and whimper and sigh he draws from her lips. The unmistakable smell of sweat, of sex entering the cool night air.

It’s all too much. It cannot possibly ever be enough, she thinks.

They race together towards the end, as furiously as they’d started: her nails in his back, his hot breath on her cheek. She fights off the inevitable anyways, battling the pleasure building inside her with the need to make it last just a little bit longer.

“Princess,” he groans out at last,“Please.”

He doesn’t have to tell her to yield. For once in her life, she simply does. 

The sound of his voice tips her over the edge. Shuri lets the pleasure wash over her, submerge her entirely, like tides against the ocean shore.

He comes after she does, and she’s convinced there’s no more beautiful sight. Than seeing the man before her — powerful, dangerous, beautiful — surrender to her, as well.

And for a moment, there is just that. The two of them together, his forehead against hers, their breath intermingling.

The past is the past — immovable, unchangeable. The future remains unknowable, out of sight. 

She cannot predict what other challenges will come her way. She will not waste her time attempting to try.

But it’s a brave new world, and it’s full of change. 

He can change for the better, and she can change, too. 

And besides, she thinks as he leans down to press his lips to hers once more, one can never know what they’ll find. 

[a-champion-of-stars]

(This piece contains the following: mentions/implication of corpse(s), implied Pokémon death, mentions of blood, and implied murder)

(Any other warnings will be added later when/of applicable)

[Winding woods, Kalos]

[Sometime earlier?]

The wet crunch of the snow faded behind her as the ground turned to the grassy floor and winding dirt paths of forest ahead. Flowers were growing on nearly every piece of available space that wasn’t trees or dirt, a staple of the Kalos region as a whole. Made the place seem bright, a welcome feeling considering she was in the process of trying to clear her head. Not that she was being particularly successful in that regard, despite the recent attempts to remain civil, the back of her mind was still slowly dissolving into a flurry of arguments. As per usual.

At least the walk was helping. With a soft sigh she closed her eyes, her mind drifting immediately to the forest’s of her home. The bitter aching…no the longing that pulled her instantly towards the familiar memories overtook her, drowning out the slowly growing noise in the back of her mind.

More memories began to flood her thoughts. Her old friends, the way they’d always be pushing each other forward through the shared journey, the hopeful talks they’d all have before the beginning, wondering what the future would hold for them all. The rush of excitement and freedom that encompassed the early parts of their adventure.

A piece of her that still longed for those feelings has resurfaced over the past weeks while in Kalos, doing the gym challenge especially had brought back the rush she used to feel all those years ago when things were still alright.

It hadn’t stayed that way for long. How could it have, when it turned out this way? No. It had gone downhill, and rather quickly at that, something she had tried to convince herself wasn’t actually going to turn into such an issue at the time.

The first time she had seen a legendary was a terrifying experience. Not only because the mere presence of the thing was overwhelming, but because of what it meant overall, for everything. That had arguably been the turning point, where there was no going back anymore.

Just the stone itself had held the same overwhelming presence as the other legendary had, but that hadn’t been the part that weighed her down. Instead it was the expectations that came with it. The human expectations. It had been too much, yet she’d had barely a choice in the matter.

The expectations and weight of the stone had been something she had purposefully rid herself of at the final moment. The resulting spark of determination to do things her own way had been enough to push her through what was, at the time, one of the scariest confrontations of her life. But the memory of what should’ve been the worst part of that day paled in comparison to what had gone down afterwards.

Her recollection was fuzzy, but the parts that she did remember pushed through mind like a needle through fabric.

Boiling rage, the mangled remains, the way she wasn’t even sure how the next part had ended up happening.

The overwhelming stench of blood. The shaking of her entire body, while nearly her entire forearm covered in blood. Her fingertips slipping apart as she stood shaking and the clattering of the bloodstained object to the ground. The realization of what she had done. The way she didn’t have time to think about it.

Despite it. It happened despite it. ‘Chosen hero’ is how she’d been addressed at first by them but the title had never fit, not ever.

She had been, despite everything, chosen three times. Sought out even, and for what reason she had no idea.

‘Chosen’

What a thing to call herself.

[ekoilemartinwrite]

Journal January 28, 2023

I feel angry. I feel frustrated. I partially feel wrathful, and very hurt. It's-told that I that they didn't want to date me because of their own issues. This is not the first time I've been told that by someone I wanted to date!

This one at least is more aware of their own issues. Different issues this time, sorta.

It's so strange, that I have literally been through an abusive relationship. I have been the abused girlfriend, I had the abuser boyfriend. I'm at least fairly certain he was a narcissist.

This time, this is someone I want to date. This is someone I want to marry, and someone who wants to marry me. We both agree on that. – I am trying so hard to love as Christ loved the church as Christ loves the church. And I am learning that that means – I do not bow to every whim, I do not avoid her rage, or hurt anger, or her lashing out. That's my own abuse and my own trauma. To placate and make calm. To just go for the ride.

She is so brilliant, and I am so inarticulate. She is so willing to work with me, and I realize that makes it sounds so strangely capitulatory. I don't think she fully recognizes all of her issues, or at least not all the extent of it. I see behind her mask and she sees behind mine. We both like what we see. We are both occasionally deeply frustrated, she occasionally says she wants to murder me mostly playfully I think. I don't think she would actually do it, she has problems killing a spider or a bug in the house.

I don't think she fully realizes how long it sometimes takes me and my mind to process an idea and emotion and to fully articulate something. And in order to have a conversation, there has to be a back and forth. And it is much more difficult for me to process things when I am stationary. And it is much more difficult for her to be articulate when we are moving. She thinks in words, my mind doesn't. Words are, for me, translation. It's partially why I'm very precise with my wording. Because I don't think in words, words are for into my mind, the way I understand and process things. Words are, for her, her native language.

Uncle Iro’s bubble tea mochi. She had not gotten her paycheck yet, I had money. She wanted to get it up, and I didn't. We were at one of the local malls, after getting dinner. I've been having difficulty with food, and her current approach to food sets me off, especially when I don't have premade food to fall back on. The way I handled not wanting to get the mochi, was to bring up her dog who she has decided she wants to save up money in order to help our dog get surgery. Saving money partially requires not spending it. That was a bit of mood emotional manipulation on my part, which was not okay. Said I could have just said I don't want to spend the money on that. Which I did eventually say, but that was after the emotional manipulation. This sparked a calm rational argument, I'm not even sure precisely about what. We broached several different topics. It eventually ended, partially in us intentionally trying to list each other's flaws. The worst thing she good list about me was that I am hot unhygienic – she felt that my list was mostly kind things about her. Which technically it was.

She has been profoundly hurt, and has a lot of anger. And I don't think she knows how to, or has hardly any tools, to process that. In some ways it would be easier if she were stupid. Because then she could just blame the immediate people who hurt her. But she understands that it wasn't done maliciously. Fallible humans who made the best decisions they could with the resources they had at the time is what she sees. I don't think you really understands or appreciates how brilliant, or instinctively compassionate, she is.

She's also a bit of an emotional bulldozer. And I need to learn how to not be plowed over. I don't want to continue to be a battered wife. And she hasn't done that to me, she's actively tried not to do that. But I feel that, in the last several weeks, or maybe month and a half or so, I've maybe been shutting down. And I don't know why. I thought maybe, it's the intensity of the emotions that I feel for her. I know I love her. I know, at this moment, she is still on semi equal footing with my priorities between her and God. I don't think she really understands that for a long time she was a higher priority for me than God. That she had a bigger place than God in my life. And I've been working with God to fix that. She is an idol to me. And God deserves better than that.

God deserves better than that in my life. I deserve better than that in my life. Ashley, also, deserves better than that. We both see each other, and maybe I make her work more than she should to read me. As I don't talk as much as I use to. I don't think she fully understands how much I need space to fully articulate things. Or at least how much I need movement in order to process things. During this conversation I was playing with my hands, and she got stressed out and distracted by me moving my thumbs in a weird way that would normally give her, in her hands pain.

I told her she has a shopping addiction, which I thought she had articulated to me but I was wrong. That is not a thing that she said. I do not think that I was correct about that, not precisely. I was thinking it, but it is not a thing that she said. I interpreted that she had one based on certain actions of how she wants to save money, because it is a complete – planning for lack of control by allowing someone else complete control, does not speak well.

I keep coming back to feeling like a battered wife. I remember Ajay, and going out to get him cigarettes and beer. I remember him waiting in my apartment, coming back from getting those things and thinking “if we dated, this would be an abusive relationship." I still consider doing it. We wound up not dating, because he was not honest with me about something which he had said. Thank you God! And he would've been too. He would've utterly taken advantage of me. In multiple ways. Jay was not an abuser, he had been on the receiving end of that too often. But he did want to not date me, specifically because of his own issues, and wanting to spare me: he made the comparison like Spider-Man choosing not to date Mary Jane in order to keep her safe. I loathe that argument. Then there is my most recent ex-boyfriend, who I am very certain was a narcissist, who is not actually interested in dating me and only wanted the sex. Which he was horrifically bad at. He also made all of my addictions much worse.

I realize that both my roommate and J talked a lot. I have been much more quiet of the past month or more, I think because I feel as though I have not enough room to think in my own head, to process what I want to say if anything. Multiple times she's told me to stop moving because it's distracting to her, and I am currently realizing I need to move in order to have my mind processed things. That makes me feel like I'm being shut down.

[world-of-wales]

Hey Ash! I hope your exams are going well!

I’m curious about where you stand on the spectrum of “this will soon blow over” to “monarchy ending crisis”? Many fans seem to be at the latter end of the spectrum. I agree that there were some mistakes made, and it looks really bad to outsiders right now (just considering the random tweets that pop up on my tl with 50k + likes believing some of the worst theories), but it just feels like such an overboiling pot in a quiet kitchen situation, the fact that it all came to a head over a photograph??

I think the worst thing that will come of it is that so many neutrals will take certain things to be “fact”, some of the WORST include that W has a mistress, he has fathered her children, he is a raging alcoholic, and (shudders) he is a domestic abuser, and Catherine attempted suicide. How are people with a huge reach even allowed to state these things with no evidence or consequences?? But then, what can WC even do? Any statement won’t be believed, and suing as we know will lead to a never-ending spiral of litigation and questions over what they don’t sue against. Maybe legal papers is the answer (to some of the bigger sources, like Stephen Colbert for one). It still wouldn’t be well received at this point.

I don’t quite think it’s a no-return catastrophe yet, but a lot depends on what happens when Catherine returns. That’s huge pressure on her, especially after her ongoing health issues! Honestly the craziness gets too much for me sometimes😅

Hi, they are going well thanks for asking. The one in afternoon tmrw is actually my last one for this exam session. The rest are in April & then in May. Out uni is weird like that, they take exams in stages.

I honestly think, and this is my honest opinion, people blow things out of proportion a lot, just as the people on the internet who are spreading all these theories. Sometimes, the Royal fandom also takes things on the extreme. It's not monarchy ending, if it was so easy to change the whole political system of a country, then the monarchy would have gone with diana but it didn't.

And people on social media sparking ridiculous notions and conspiracies isn't going to be able to being that political system down because like I said we might consider royal-watching as our hobby but in reality the monarchy is intertwined with UK as Sovereign State. And that doesn't go away just because people, most of them from outside of that country, are crying wolf online.

What I don't think they realise is that, at the core of it, the monarchy is the integral part of the UK's structure. That's the head of state, same as a president. And nobody can just change it on a whim. In fact, this is one of my issues with the Republican movement in the UK at times. A lot of them want to remove the monarchy. That I get, but where's the tangible alternative? And a proper plan to execute it. It's not child's play. It's a whole institution around which a political system - a state system is built.

I never found Stephen colbert funny, and tbh I didn't even know who he was when I was young because our parents were placed mostly in countries in Asia and like man's not a popculture figure here. Kimmel, Fallon people know, but not him. It's got to do with him and seth meyers both catering to the american political spheres, and honestly, that's not what most of the population are interested in here. I found out about him when I got into American politics and elections. Anyway, I don't know what he said exactly, but I saw on one of the other blogs what he was insinuating. And yk what? FUCK HIM. Not just for spewing tabloid bullshit & lies about people. For dragging and bullying a woman going through a fucking health crisis for tv, for dragging another woman who's a private citizen and defaming her, for making it possible that 6 children who are all at an age where they can access internet will be able to read lies about their parents and disgusting things being said about them, don't even get me started on all the other ways they'll might have to deal with these allegations. Truly and utterly repulsed by this whole segment, which was done for fun. And yk what? Legal letters are the least of things he deserves.

Yk, I have been saying this, but they could have posted a picture. They could have done a video. They could have done an engagement. But whatever they did? The people online would have said or done something to find some sort of discrepancy. The regular sane people I know or have been following online have only said that this whole thing is a joke, and the way people are blowing it out of proportion is just plain bullying with a nice sprinkling of misogyny added in. I was actually talking about this with my dad on call last night, and he and i both landed on the same thing, that it's just simple economics. The whole problem with the photo for the press is that they didn't get to click it. Hence, they don't get rights, so there's no cash for them. Another thing media doesn't have things to report rn, they could easily cover other royals and not wade into conspiracy theories but they know what sells. And people online are just plain fucking crazy, these people will always say something or have some conspiracy theory. I mean flat earthers, the lizard people thing, the ones about Obama etc are just some of the properly wild, idiotic, and completely untrue things people actually believe are true.

An average voter/citizen in the UK with a real life outside of the twitter bubble doesn't give a fuck about it all. Heck most people including royalists don't even pay attention to royals as much as royal fandom thinks they do irl. I'll speak from personal experience, I end up chatting more about the royals with my mum's side of the fam than my dad's, and the latter are actually uk citizens. The royals exist for them, and thats it. They literally couldn't care less about this online drama, and they dont. Do they pay attention to the imp events like the jubilee or the coronation or the Christmas addresses? Yes, but not what the gossip people are up to online. So it's a complete non-issue. Also, most of this is just the twitter echo chamber which has 368 million users out of a 7.8 almost 7.9 billion population. Most of whom I.e. 77.75 are from the USA. Even the stats don't support the idea that we aren't gonna have a monarchy coz of this. A constitutional monarchy which is a state system might I add, coming down in the UK because a bunch of idiots from Murica online is quite literally not in the cards rn.

I don't want Catherine to come back if she isn't 100 percent well and I have seen people say she should just do the parade on st. Patrick's etc etc just to put the conspiracy theories to rest. And I don't in any way agree with it. A woman taking time for her health being expected to come out as a show pony for deranged idiots is not what I believe is right. Which I'll never believe is right. She's not just taking time for her health, she's had a major surgery one which probably doesn't even let her walk comfortably because everytime she tries to, her muscles contract and expand leading to pain and discomfort on the wound/stitches. Even smaller abdominal surgeries are literal bitches to get over let alone one with a long recovery period like this.

All this hoopla will die down as soon as she comes out. Why because most people spreading these rumors want them to be true, e.g. the Sussex squad and a lot more people who like 'drama' as they say themselves. And the rest of them are chronically online people who most likely don't have any life irl at all. And if institutions like Harvard and oxford are to be believed the most likely candidates for having distress, depression and other problems because of all of their personality being about the internet and their inability to connect with people irl. And the press will be all going gaga over her the day she steps out because they finally get their top cash source back. That woman has been used by the press for clicks and cash for the past 20 years and if they want to cry about it rn then they can, they arent the victims. They never were. Even a lot of british press members have been like you have all lost the plot if you believe all the conspiracy and what you're doing is not journalism at all, just plain fucking bullying. Watch all these papers and journalists calling her out rn change their tone post easter, just less than 3 weeks and watch it happen.

Omfg I just realised how long this turned out, I'm so sorry.

I'll just end it by saying that I completely get you when you say the drama and the noise gets to you because I have the same problem too. I just shut off everything and just come on here to post if I want, but mostly just to talk shit about stuff bothering me with a few very kind people I have been very fortunate to find here. If it gets too much and you just want to chat, about anything really, the ask box is always open and so are the private messages if you don't feel comfortable talking about it in front of everyone 💗💗

[silentexplorer18]

Endearing: A Five Hargreeves Short

Summary: You and Five Hargreaves are two twenty-something-year-olds working for the Commission. It’s dirty work; people are prone to accidents. One such accident leads to something blossoming between you.

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Reader

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 700+

Note: So, I'm not really sure what it is, but I wrote it in a haze in the middle of the night and decided to go with it!

Read on AO3 ▪ Masterlist

You’re sitting in a bed and breakfast—something much nicer than the shitty motels you’re both accustomed to in later decades. But the fifties are different; something the Commission is willing to splurge on.

It’s still not great, by any means. You and Five still share a room. You still sit across from one another on disgustingly patterned furniture—whatever the ugly stepsister of paisley is. And, worst of all, you still can’t hide your discomfort from Five. Not when he’s watching you this closely, like you’re a bug he’s waiting to dissect.

“You’re injured.” It’s more an observation than a question, and you’re not sure if you’re supposed to answer, but you do anyway.

“Yes.”

Because Five is far too astute to be lied to, especially after he’s gotten the hint that something’s wrong. It’s always been like that, ever since your partnership had started: kept under a microscopic gaze. Yet, he’s never made you uncomfortable. He’s never pushed too far; though, his scathing remarks occasionally left something to be desired.

From his expression, you can tell he’s running through the events of the night, mentally searching for the flaw or anomaly that sparked the issue. He won’t find it; he wasn’t there to see the altercation. A part of you is glad about that; Five’s worry-turned-rage can be unpredictable and… harsh at times. It would have made the entire mission more difficult.

Now, though, the two of you get a brief reprieve. A little time to heal, a little time to seethe.

He would’ve spent the whole weekend drinking coffee and Irish whiskey if he hadn’t known. He would’ve brought you back a donut…

Your train of thought is disrupted as he blinks across the room, appearing beside you with a look that is far too searching for the proximity. He’ll catch your surprise, your bashfulness, you just know it.

“Were you going to tell me?” It isn’t quite accusatory, but something about the way he says it makes you feel like there isn’t a correct answer.

You purse your lips. “No.”

His expression is an ice-cream twist of hurt and offense, sprinkled with a hard candy coating of anger and insecurity. Somehow, though, his voice remains fairly level. “Why?”

You sigh, looking away as though leaping through the window would be a viable option. Maybe… No. Definitely not. Your only choice is to explain. The sound of your voice barely overpowers your thundering heart. “You were gonna go get coffee and donuts. I was gonna read my book. Relax. I didn’t want to spend the whole weekend fighting about it…” You can’t bear to look at him, the embarrassment has you melting from the inside out.

There are several long, drawn out moments of silence in which you slowly inch toward death-by-mortification, but then Five speaks. “Would donuts… help you feel better?”

It’s soft, hesitant, as though it’s the wrong thing for him to say, but it isn’t. It’s perfect and wonderful, and in that moment, you realize Five has never seen you injured before.

Your gaze jumps back to him. He swallows, the apples of his cheeks painting sunset pink. Yet, his gaze is still searching your expression, looking for any minute detail that would betray your thoughts.

This is concern, your mind supplies wondrously. Concern for you.

Something dizzying fogs your mind, and something honey-smooth and sickly sweet curls around your heart. It’s then that you realize he’s hovering an inch shy of touching you, as though he’s afraid he’ll poke the wrong spot and set you off like a bear trap.

Endearing.

Five Hargreaves has been many things in the time that you’ve known him. Endearing has only shown up in short bursts, but it appears to stay as he does indeed go get you donuts while you bathe. It stays when he turns the radio down and helps you into bed. It stays when he leans against the headboard and reads your book aloud to you. It stays all night, when you’re feeling too jumpy to sleep, and he rests his cheek against your head and whispers stories about his family to you.

It stays all weekend.

It stays when he requests a rest period extension for the both of you.

It stays until you’re healed. Until the aches and pains have subsided. Until Five feels like he can touch you again without risking you shattering or bursting into flame.

It stays when the cold front blows through, rattling the windows and coating everything in a thick sheet of freezing rain. When he spoons you “for warmth” instead of blinking you to the Bahamas.

It stays until you kiss him, and he kisses you back. And then endearing just becomes Five.

Masterlist

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hi!! This blog is a life saver, I love it so much, thank you for all the hard work you do!! I was wondering if you knew of any fics that tackled Derek’s issues with consent? like him and Stiles navigating a new relationship etc?? Any help would be amazing!!

Yeah!

Baby, Even On Our Worst Nights (I'm Into You) by Kareh

(1/1 I 1,326 I Teen)

‘Are you sure?’ Derek mumbles, ‘That this is – that you want this? Forever? Me?’ What? Stiles hadn’t been expecting that. In the six years they’d been together, every anniversary of the Hale fire had gone differently. There’d been tears, full blown rages, stony silence, acting like it’d never happened, breakdowns... But it'd never been like this.

In which Derek and Stiles have been together for six years and they're engaged but Derek is insecure and he doesn't understand why Stiles is with him and Stiles is like dude wtf have you seen ur ass i mean damn

That's Just How The Game Is Played by sottovoce81

(1/1 I 2,432 I Not Rated)

Then some lady at the store gives him that look. Like Kate. Her eyes are interested, and her grin is predatory, and Derek just knows she wants him. So he thinks to himself if he initiates it maybe it won’t leave him feeling so wrong. So he does. He lifts an eyebrow and pretends to want to look at her. She smiles and he thinks of predators in the wild, baring their teeth at prey.

He’s never understood why people can take one look at someone and want to have sex. But then, maybe it’s just something that’s broken in him. So he pretends to understand. Better to pretend than admit something’s wrong...right?

Derek’s Holiday Blues by sterekismyotp24

(1/1 I 5,271 I Explicit)

Derek is depressed at Christmas, blaming himself for the Hale fire and stuck in his own head, until Stiles finds him and gets him out of the peak of his depression on Christmas Day.

With Delayed Expression by Idday

(1/1 I 10,397 I Mature)

"I have… well… she said that she thinks that I maybe have… PTSD?”

The line goes so dead that Derek almost thinks Stiles hung up on him. He waits eight very quiet seconds, and says softly, “Stiles?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Stiles says, breath whooshing back over the phone line.

“I have PTSD,” Derek says more firmly. It’s the first time he’s said it out loud, not as a question. It hasn’t really seemed real, until now. He’d spent the whole of his last session arguing that Tamara was wrong about him, and saying it out loud is like admitting it’s true. “Post-traumatic stress dis—”

“I know what it means,” Stiles interrupts, “I just didn’t think I’d heard right. Oh my God.”

walk me down your broken line by geordielover

(1/1 I 18,411 I Explicit)

The kissing. That’s important, very important. Not that the homicidal lycanthrope dragging him through dirt and fallen leaves isn’t important, but the kiss that follows? The path to this monumental push of lips on lips began even before this ill-fated venture to the Hale house.

The douchebag manhandling him through the forest, hand clamped tight around Stiles’s throat to keep him from screaming, is just a bonus.

The Unicorn In Me by Emela 

(1/1 I 18,570 I Explicit)

Derek touches a Unicorn and it doesn't try to kill him, despite the fact he is no longer a virgin. When Peter tells the pack about Kate, Stiles makes it his mission to give Derek the kind of relationship he deserves.

Soul Sparked by sapphireginger

(15/? I 40,449 I Mature)

Everyone is born with a mate. The only clue that each person gets is a soul mark that makes its first appearance on their tenth birthday. The mark interacts with each person because they are a piece of the person, they will one day bond with. Derek has always longed for his mate after seeing his mama and papa so happy together and hearing the story of how they met. When he gets his soul mark it's the happiest day of his life. Then comes a day when the mark no longer brings him happiness and hope as it once did. Instead, he's reminded of the so-called loves that didn't work and he no longer wants to be reminded. So, when he turns eighteen, he takes a friend up on the offer to rid him of the mark which is legal once a person reaches that age. Derek had no way of knowing what effects his mate would endure because it was supposed to be painless.

When Rome's in Ruins (We are the Lions) by Kedreeva

(14/14 I 209,089 I Explicit)

Humankind has turned arena battles between supernatural creatures into its largest form of entertainment. Stiles Stilinski is a well-known warden who comes to arena-fighter Derek Hale to make him an offer.

As Ordered by KattsEyeDemon, seekeronthepath

(117/? I 608.801 I Explicit)

During the year in which they turn eighteen, all American citizens are tested to find where they fall on the Dom-sub scale and are assigned to a Dom - either to mentor them as they learn how to be a Dom themselves, or to look after them and make sure their needs as a submissive are met. When Stiles tests as a sub, he’s assigned to Derek Hale, and the two of them gradually learn to rely on and love each other.

[thescarsilivewith-if]

I have a confession to make and that confession is that I am so excited for this game that I'm essentially rattling the bars of this cage! Especially for when Naja finds mc! And thinking about the many ways mc could react like, yes. Reach for them, obvs but what about the angst?? Flinching back from them, afraid to get hurt? Essentially going "Oh, cool cool, we can add hallucinations to my issues now bc Naja wouldn't be here, why would they be?" Ignoring them bc mc has become so broken and numb to it all that not even seeing Naja sparks joy anymore, what's it matter of they're here? Or, worse, the anger or blame or rage they could toss at Naja?? So many possibilities, so little time to consider which one would hurt the worst!

- signed, yet another naja simp (the nation grows)

Oh, another Naja simp... please get comfortable, we have all the fluff and angst you desire.

Yours are all very good scenarios, MCs could react in very different ways and I'm curious to see what all of you will go for...

[edgarsabandonedrocketship]

I haven’t really had a chance yet to reflect on my thoughts after watching 6x02 (I did post a speculation that managed to get a few things right, lol), but I’ve been stewing over an observation I don’t believe I’ve seen discussed much elsewhere (if I missed anything, please direct me to it since I love reading others’ takes). I put my thoughts below the cut because (as usual) they’re kind of long.

(As always, I recognize that the writers are who they are and are almost assuredly not thinking about anything this deeply. I just enjoy speculating and analyzing things)

To me, the “haunted” apartment feels like it could potentially be read as a metaphor for Jughead’s mind/heart. He’s allowed Tabitha into this space, but it doesn’t really seem like she has full access, or that she even spends a lot of time there or feels completely at home. There were a few moments that led me to this conclusion.

Early on in the episode, when Tabitha confronts Jughead about withholding the fact that their new abode was the site of a murder-suicide, she asks why he didn't tell her “the truth.”

Jughead’s responds, “Because when you saw (the apartment), you fell in love with it.”

To me, it seems like he’s concealing aspects of himself from Tabitha, or that she’s not willing to look too closely because she’s fears what she might find. Or maybe (most likely), it’s a bit of both.

A similar theme is evident in the (slightly earlier) discovery of the secret nook/closet inside the apartment. Someone had effectively papered over it long ago, hiding it from sight. Inside, Tabitha and Jughead see many Scotch bottles cluttering the surfaces (”Isn’t that what you used to drink?” Tabitha asks). But now, instead of liquor, they each contain model ships. The bottles themselves are dusty, but the ships themselves are perfectly preserved. Much has already been said about the symbolism here (not exactly subtle there, Riverdale), so I’ll move on (although Tabitha referring to them repeatedly as Jughead’s “boats” was an interesting word choice).

The newly uncovered nook seems to “awaken” something in both Jughead and Tabitha. For Jughead, it manifests in the first real creative spark he’s had after years of battling writer’s block. It’s almost like the closet is a vault where he keeps his innermost self locked up or walled off. He’s now able to access and write down his thoughts and ideas while he’s in this space (I personally don’t believe this is due to the influence of ���Sam the Ghost,” although it could perhaps be related to an entirely different type of “ghost” haunting our hero).

For Tabitha, however, the nook’s discovery causes her to spiral further into seething resentment, jealousy, and rage. This is later largely blamed on the “ghosts,” although any supposed “ghost” interference seemed very minimal to me, especially when compared to what Toni and Betty were dealing with in another storyline. Eventually, this all comes to a head in the now infamous and disquieting typewriter scene. That incident, in turn, leads to one of the saddest first “I love you’s” I’ve personally watched, with two dead-eyed people kneeling defeatedly on a debris-littered floor in lighting I wouldn’t exactly describe as auspicious. Again, much has already been said about this, so there’s no need to elaborate further.

But, for me, the worst moment actually comes after these scenes. Instead of talking through (or even giving name to) the very real and legitimate issues that triggered the meltdown (and there were many), Jughead and Tabitha apparently decide it’d be better to simply wall off the nook again. They do this despite believing the supposed “ghosts” vacated the apartment after the “I love you” exchange. They don’t clear out the remaining bottles and other items left inside, they just hide the evidence from their sight. But it’s all still there with them, lurking behind the walls. (However, the typewriter remains on the outside and is taped together and somehow functional in the next episode)

As they’re blocking off valuable square footage in their apartment, the pair has a depressing conversation in which Jughead remarks that love might just be “a series of tests.” While this notion isn’t entirely off-base, I’m not sure I’d consider “surviving” their first fight in the manner we were shown and told as worthy of passing any “test.” 

Jughead then proceeds to say that he knows it’s “kind of bleak, but...” 

Tabitha finishes his sentence with “...Kind of sweet.”

To me, that sentiment about sums up their relationship. They both deserve better (everyone deserves better than this).

[animatedarchives]

YOUR INSECURITIES BASED ON THE HQ CHARACTERS YOU LIKE

— 𝐀𝐎𝐁𝐀 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐒𝐀𝐈

author’s note: hello everyone!! here’s my insecurities post for the seijoh boys :) nekoma is next ^^ let me know if you related to these!! enjoy!

other schools: the call out series masterlist

𝐎𝐈𝐊𝐀𝐖𝐀

you’re extremely insecure. there’s always that one person you compare yourself to, and no matter how hard you try, they’ll always be better than you. you’re probably a blatant perfectionist with very high expectations of yourself. you force yourself to meet them, because you’ll hate yourself if you don’t. this means that you end up burning out a lot. you’re never fully satisfied with your performance and you always find faults with yourself. you are your worst critic and your own biggest enemy.

𝐈𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐙𝐔𝐌𝐈

you know you’re competent and you know you can succeed. so when you don’t, the doubts consume you and all you can think of is how much of a failure you are. if you were so good, why couldn’t you do it? if you say you can succeed, why the hell don’t your actions prove it? in the end it’s all about the results, and clearly, yours don’t show anything. maybe you weren’t as good as you thought you were. or maybe, you just weren’t any good to begin with.

𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐊𝐈

you are the least popular person in your friend group. compared to them, you think you are the least attractive, the least talented, and the one everyone else can do fine without. you try to make yourself stand out with humour, but you know you’ll never be as wanted as the rest. you hang out with them, but you don’t really feel like you belong. you hate that others are naturally wanted while you have to actually put in effort to be. you wish life wasn’t so unfair.

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐒𝐔𝐍

you hate vulnerability. you don’t tell anyone about your problems, and you always deal with it on your own. you act nonchalent in front of others, saying it’s nothing when they ask you what’s wrong. but when you’re alone, you feel everything, and it’s always so raw and so painful. you hate the feeling of hurting, so you distract yourself and pretend your problems don’t exist. you’re always running away, because you’d rather live in ignorant bliss.

𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐈

you have trust issues because someone has broken your trust before. you are a pessimist, skeptical, and you don’t believe that people can change. you hold grudges against those who did you wrong and you want to erase them from your memory. but sometimes, you still think about how they betrayed you, how they walked out on you and made you feel like nothing. you hate that they’ll forever leave a mark on your life. because of them, you’ll never be the same again.

𝐊𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐈

sometimes, you wonder if people hate you. they’re always telling you ways you can be better, telling you who you can be. you act like you don’t care, but deep down, you know that you do. you see people whispering, and you can’t help but wonder if they’re gossiping about you. you hate society’s standards and you suffocate under them, but you still want people to like you. you just wish you could be accepted for who you are. you just want to be free.

𝐊𝐘𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐈

you cannot control your anger. you tend to lash out when you’re mad and say things that you don’t really mean. as a result, many people avoid you and you’re left all alone. you want to control yourself, but in the heat of the moment you’re blinded by rage and lose all sense of rationality. but no one realises it’s because you harbour a lot of hurt, and one spark ignites the whole fire. you wish people could understand. you wish they wanted to be around you.

© written and published by animatedarchives 2020. please do not steal or repost. thank you.