#There is a reason we’ve never seen him lead a team

[watermelonsloth]

So I’m of the opinion that Naruto shouldn't have become Hokage at the end of the series. There are a lot of reasons (it’s unnecessary for his arc, he doesn’t understand what it means to be Hokage, etc.), but the one I think applies the most that people talk about the least is that Naruto isn't a leader.

Sasuke is a leader. He directed team seven when he was a part of it. He created and led team hebi. He was the driving force of the attack on the five kage summit. He led the fucking Hokage into battle during the war. He took charge of team seven against Madara and especially against Kaguya.

Sakura is a leader. She keeps the people around her (mostly Naruto) grounded. She led the on-field medical ninja during the Pain attack. She made the difficult decisions and led an attack on Sasuke during the five kage summit arc. She started the purging of white zetsus in medical camps. She became in charge of Konoha’s hospital and medical forces.

Naruto is their loose-cannon friend. He spends most of the series running off on his own. Yeah, people follow him (or follows his example), but he never really leads anyone. He doesn’t make plans, he doesn’t direct anyone, and he only asks for help when he absolutely has to. He doesn’t even really make decisions, he just kind of says “I’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it”.

Sasuke takes the position of leader whenever he works with others, even when he isn’t the designated leader. Sakura usually doesn’t fill a leadership role, but falls into that position when the situation calls for it. Naruto charges ahead of everyone around him and inspires people along the way (on accident, half of the time).

[fevers-and-emeto-oh-my]

The lack of media literacy continues to be so funny. Not touching my thoughts on Bobby (I have a lot, that would be an entire post in and of itself), if you don’t understand why Tommy was there or why he’s going to be a pallbearer/at the funeral, you’ve had your head in the sand.

First of all, narratively it WAS a good choice to have Tommy help with the antiviral. Chimney saved HIS life way back when they were all at the 118, and Tommy’s “I’m doing this for Chimney” confirms that he still remembers that and wants to return the sentiment however he can.

Second of all, Tommy was part of the ORIGINAL 118. Whether you like it or not, he was PART OF THE TEAM when Bobby became captain. He was part of Bobby’s first LA team and Bobby as captain allowed Tommy to change and be more true to himself (alongside Chimney and Hen). We know even from Tommy’s dialogue in s7/8 that he thinks highly of Bobby. Like it or not, Tommy DOES have a reason to be at the funeral, because BOBBY WAS HIS CAPTAIN TOO.

From the promo, it’s clear that the pallbearers are solely 118 members—Tommy was an OG 118 member. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to be a pallbearer alongside Hen, Chim, Buck, Eddie, and Ravi. If you personally think he SHOULDN’T be at the funeral/a pallbearer because he “has no reason to be there” or “he has no connection to Bobby” or “he doesn’t know Bobby” then you’re simply not watching canon. Tommy has known Bobby longer than Athena and just as long as Hen and Chimney. Saying he has no connection to or doesn’t know Bobby is simply straight up false.

Additionally, to get into the bucktommy of it briefly—if you’re going “why was he in the reaction sequence” “why did they waste time showing his face” then once again, your head is in the sand and you’re not watching canon. Since 8x06, bucktommy has been on more or less a romcom trope pathway, from Buck baking and obsessing over whether or not he should reach out to 8x11 where they sleep together (with their first hot and heavy scene EVER) and have a misunderstanding to drive them apart. Buck saying “thank you for doing this for me” and Tommy saying “I’m doing this for Chimney…and for you” was purposeful. Buck’s smile afterward was purposeful. The show is trying to make it clear that Tommy will unconditionally support and help Buck even when things are hard, AND the show is making it CLEAR that there are unresolved feelings, there’s unresolved tension, and they’re not done yet. If they were done, Tommy’s line would have ended with “I’m doing this for Chimney.”

Buck’s “EX-boyfriend” in response to Athena’s “you called your boyfriend?” is not the “bucktommy shut down” that people think it is. It’s a clear indication of where they are NOW, narratively continuing to plant the seed that where they are is about to change. They have been on this path to reconciliation since 8x11 at LEAST, with every choice leading toward a get-back-together. Buck’s exes have never been back on the show outside of the closure with Abby; the fact that Tommy is being brought back repeatedly for a continued dance around the tension is the EXACT will-they-won’t-they Oliver was talking about.

Also, they SHOWED Tommy’s reaction during Bobby’s death BECAUSE he’s narratively set up as being there FOR Buck. This is the first time we’ve SEEN Tommy in tears, giving us another glimpse at the layer beneath cool confident pilot. He’s in pain from the loss and in pain watching Buck go through the loss, all while not being able to go into the tunnel to help him (and ultimately, powerless to do anything to help at all considering he can’t resurrect Bobby.) Every established partner of the 118 was an important piece in saving them—Maddie doing research on CCHF, Karen as the delivery driver of the antiviral and as help in figuring out Moira’s plan, Athena stealing the SD card, delivering the antiviral, and being there for Bobby, and TOMMY as the diversion for the antiviral. Showing him in the reaction sequence puts him on the same level as the 118’s established chosen life partners and reaffirms the possibility that this is it, bucktommy are it for each other. We have NEVER seen one of Buck’s love interests get to see him THIS distraught, and I think that’s completely on purpose to be able to deliver on the fact that they can support each other through every facet of life, good or bad, easy or hard.

If Tommy had NO reason to be in these scenes or these episodes, he WOULD NOT BE IN THEM. Flat-out, point blank. He is THERE because there is a NARRATIVE REASON FOR HIS PRESENCE. If you think he’s there for no reason, you’re being blinded by bias.

(And no, he’s not there so he can be a “plot device” for buddie. He’s not there so Buck can push him aside for comfort from Eddie. He’s not there so he can tell Eddie that Eddie’s gay in the middle of a funeral (because THAT’s certainly the time and place…./s). He’s not there so he and Buck can get back together and Buck can go “actually I want my best friend instead.” If all you see is that he’s there for buddie, then when you are throwing tantrums about bucktommy endgame all you will have to blame is yourself, because canon TOLD YOU this was happening and you twisted or ignored it.)

[eightmakesonebraincell]

our leaves must fall before our flowers can bloom (teaser)

genre: poly hockey team!ateez x coach fem!reader, enemies/strangers to lovers, athlete!au, slow burn, fluff, angst

length: 1.0k (teaser) + approx. 38k (full fic)

c/w: sweaty ateez (warning well deserved), lots of hurt/comfort, one of the slowest slow burns to slow burn, remaining tags to be revealed with full fic

synopsis: you become the new coach of the elite men's ice hockey team, the red devils. but with both yourself and the team carrying burdens of the past, you all find it difficult to see eye to eye. as you lead them to the championships in the korean ice hockey league, you discover that teamwork and trust is not as straightforward as it seems.

a/n: when i started writing this i really thought it wouldn't exceed 25k but here we are :D full fic will be released in about a week and i am so ready

“she’s the new coach?” yunho frowns in confusion. “no offence, but we’re not a bunch of kids for her to practise being a soccer mum to.”

“she was the assistant coach for the grey eagles,” coach cho discloses.

“the grey eagles? the under-21 men’s championship team?” yeosang looks incredulous.

mingi sceptically comments, “the fact that we’ve never seen or heard of her before probably tells us enough.”

hongjoong’s lips purse sourly as he tries his hardest to analyse the situation with the professionalism of the team’s captain. but with the sudden change in coaches and the same critiquing doubts as mingi, hongjoong cannot help but feel his personal judgement webbing over his mind. over the team’s entire career as an elite ice hockey team thus far–five years, now well into their sixth–the red devils have only ever had two coaches. coach cho has been with them for the longest and whilst it took the team a while to eventually warm up to him, he has been with them for almost quadruple the amount of time it took to trust him.

the team’s alternate captain, seonghwa, speaks to you directly, “if you don’t mind me asking, why are you not playing as an athlete yourself? you’re clearly our age–nowhere near retiring.”

you knew from the very start that your age would make your credibility as a coach much lower, and your answer to seonghwa will not help your case either. “i stopped playing.”

“how come?”

the trigger of memories fills your nose with a sharp stinging smell. you blankly reveal, “i chose to stop playing.” you know exactly how it sounds like to somebody else, even more so to professional athletes. coach cho has also told you of the team’s hardheadedness and strong will when it comes to the passions of their career, so you are expecting the cold receptiveness that you are met with.

your response strikes the wrong chord within wooyoung. there was a point in his career not too long ago when the choice of continuing to play or not was at risk of becoming a forced decision. the way you answer so callously with those very words that had threatened to tear his world apart has his jaw grinding and eyes darkening, and he is not the only athlete in the arena who feels similarly.

“i would rather choose to die before i choose to stop playing. ice hockey is my entire life and without it, i am not living either,” hongjoong jabs and you cannot help but clench your fists because you know exactly what he means. still, you stay quiet as he continues, “sorry, but i can’t respect a ‘coach’ who chose to stop playing.”

at the captain’s words and subsequent move to leave for the changerooms, the rest of the team also gather their equipment and follow his steps. san’s feet falter in front of you, expression hesitant until he decides to voice, “our team needs a bit of time. it’s hard for us to warm up to…outsiders, and i know it might not mean much to say this but we have our reasons. don’t expect us to blindly trust you just because you’re a coach.”

the use of the word ‘outsider’ does not go unnoticed as you nod, “of course.”

san jogs off to rejoin the others and coach cho hums, “guess some things haven’t changed. they were just as prickly to me when i first became their coach.”

you raise an eyebrow, “prickly? to you?”

“yes, believe it or not,” he chuckles nostalgically. “we’ve come a long way because i’ve been their coach for years now. but it took me a while before i was able to break down their walls.”

you briefly mull over the information, then ask out of curiosity, “what would you have done if i didn’t sign the contract?”

“begged you to rethink your decision,” he jokes with a pleased chortle. “i would have to start looking for a different coach, i suppose. you were my only pick.”

“but why me, of all people? there are so many other experienced coaches that you can choose from.”

he looks at you, eyes glinting with intuition and confidence as he simply says, “you’re familiar with their playing style. they play just like you used to.” at your silent processing, coach cho probes, “why didn’t you tell them the real reason?”

you smile wistfully, “i didn't tell them because i’m not here to gain their pity.”

some of the boys’ voices grow louder as they emerge from the changerooms, changed into fresh clothes and their kit bags slung over their shoulders. you hear one of them ask, “captain, is she really going to be our new coach?”

they step out from the facility’s corridor and you accidentally make eye contact with hongjoong, yet neither of you look away. maintaining a steady gaze directly at you, he responds with a slight glower, “maybe, but she’s only the coach by title. i’m still the captain of the team, so let’s see who everyone listens to.”

as they exit the rink’s arena, you feel a fire of determination growing inside of you. you have won over your own demons and you have won the championships before–this is nothing in comparison. whether your next words are for coach cho or for yourself to hear, it does not matter.

“i may not play anymore but i was still once an athlete and no athlete has ever, in their career, wanted pity. i’m here to earn the team’s respect and i will win over them, especially their captain.”

you watch the swing of the glass door as it shuts behind the players, catching a brief glimpse of the trees lining the arena’s perimeter. it is the first day of autumn when you meet the red devils for the first time and outside, the leaves are beginning to change their colours.

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[puckinghischier]

so the clip of quinn asking the producer if his hair looks good, we’ve all seen it, right? cause i’m just thinking about it and how yeah it was probably a joke, but it’s sooooo insecure!quinn coded. like i’m sure he was nervous, and he really did want to look good for the camera. and it’s got me thinking about what it would be like to comfort insecure!quinn (i didn’t mean for this to be this long but i couldn’t stop once i started so here’s basically a three in one blurb 🫣)

it’s even things as simple as his pre-game outfits. he’s seen all the comments online about how he only wears the same few suits, so one day while you’re on the couch watching tv, he turns to you and asks if you’ll go shopping with him. of course you agree, but you ask him what’s got him so eager to expand his wardrobe.

“just…people keep saying i’m wearing the same thing all the time and it has me thinking i should probably go buy a couple more suits to wear for arrival pictures and stuff,” he shrugs, almost whispering, telling you it’s something he’s slightly embarrassed about.

you reach over and run your hand through his hair, playing with the messy curls. “q, who cares if you wear the same suit every game day? you’re wearing it to walk in the building and out of it,” you speak softly to him, noticing he’s not meeting your eye. “but, if you want to go pick up a few more, i’d love to go with you and help you pick them out,” you tug lightly on his hair to get him to look over at you, bringing your hand down to toy with the tip of his ear.

he gives you a bashful smile, mumbling out a small “thanks,” before looking away again.

you lean over, replacing your hand on his ear with your mouth. “plus, you know how much i love looking at you in a suit,” you let your lips drag over the warm skin. “almost as much as i love looking at you without one on.”

quinn shudders at the feeling of your hot breath on his ear, making him forget what he was even thinking about before the current conversation.

~

of course, quinn’s constantly worried about being a good captain for his team, too. he doesn’t think he’s played long enough to earn it yet, not understanding why they picked him over some of the vets on the team.

so when he comes home after a particularly rough practice or a brutal loss, you can feel the insecurity radiating off of his body. the game that eliminated them from the playoffs, though? god, you never want to relive it.

he laid in your arms for hours, switching between crying and getting angry at himself. he kept telling you it was his fault. he was the reason they didn’t make it. they should’ve chosen a different person to be captain, not him. he clearly didn’t know what he was doing, or they’d be celebrating tonight instead.

you know that most of this is caused by the questions he was asked after the game. one reporter in particular always asking the worst questions and getting under his skin. but you’re sure the group of drunk, upset fans outside of the rink who were yelling discouraging things to him only drove the knife deeper.

the way he talked about himself with so much disgust broke your heart in a way you never knew was possible. you knew he was always hardest on himself, but the fact he truly believes these things makes you worry you haven’t been doing your job correctly.

“quinn, i don’t ever want to hear you talk about yourself like that again, do you hear me?” you sat up, talking sternly but not harshly.

“well, it’s true. if they would’ve just picked someone else then-“

“stop!” you interrupted him, your sudden loudness causing him to pause, looking at you with wide eyes. “i’m sorry, i’m not trying to yell at you, but i’m not going to sit here and listen to you do this to yourself any longer,” you put just a few inches of distance between you and him on the large couch.

“you’re exactly who they wanted to lead this team or they wouldn’t have chosen you. you do have what it takes. hell, quinn, you got the team to the playoffs for the first time in 4 years. that has to count for something,” the tone of your voice is almost pleading, begging him to take what you’re saying to heart.

“your teammates love you. they look up to you. the fans love you. they were excited when you were named captain. i love you,” you take a moment, watching his face slowly change from distress to calm. “and i won’t sit here and listen to you say awful things about the man that i love. not for something that changes nothing about how i feel about you or your value as the captain of your team,” you finish, a knot forming in your throat because of how deeply you feel about the man sitting in front of you.

quinn just sits and looks at you, finally snapped out of his self destruct mode. “i…love you so much, you know that?” he tells you before pulling you into him and engulfing you in one of his ‘huggybear’ hugs.

“you’re right. i’m here because i deserve to be. and if you believe in me, who cares what anyone else thinks? i’ve got the best motivation right here in front of me,” he speaks into your neck, squeezing you tightly to his body, like he’s trying to press you into his skin, knowing he can always count on you to talk him out of his insecurities.

~

you get the rare moments, too, where quinn starts comparing himself to his brothers. you’d think as the oldest he’d know better, knowing that the two younger boys have always looked up to him, but once the media started trying to pit the three against each other, the seed of doubt crept its way into his thoughts.

it’s not even just about hockey, either. it’s the way jack is always so outgoing, the life of the party. and luke always seems so universally adored, his bashful charm winning him over with crowds.

quinn? quinn feels like he’s just…there. he can’t strike up a conversation as naturally as jack can. and his shyness seems to only drive people away, not draw people in, like luke’s.

and yeah, quinn knows you’re always there with him, keeping him company and being his buffer in all of the various social settings he finds himself in, but he can’t help but wish he was a little bit more like his brothers.

especially right now, when he’s sitting by the fire pit at the family lake house, a few of brother’s shared friends over for the weekend.

he’s sitting in a chair sipping on a beer, watching you partake in a heated game of beer pong with jack, luke, trevor, and cole. all day he’s felt a little…less than. watching you on the boat earlier dancing around to your favorite song with jack, not worrying about who might float by and see the two of you.

or when you were helping prep dinner, and trevor came up to you and struck up a conversation, talking a mile a minute while you kept up with and soaked up every word, adding to the conversation with just as much enthusiasm at the drop of a hat.

or right now, when cole is picking you up and swinging you around after you just won the drinking game, launching into your ‘secret’ handshake the two of you coined a few summers ago.

he wishes he could give you those things. the loud, crazy, fun atmosphere you seem to thrive in. he wishes he could be the guy to parade you around at all of the hockey banquets, introducing you to various people. he wants to dress up with you on halloween in the ridiculous couples costumes you always show him. to be the spontaneous boyfriend that goes diving off of the small cove cliffs on the lake like you love to do with jack.

but that’s just…not who he is. he likes to be quiet, observant, lowkey, private. he likes to listen to other people carry the conversation, and just chime in when he has something to add. he likes to drive the boat and watch everyone else splash around in the water, jumping in for a few minutes just to cool off before resuming his position on the driver’s seat. he hates going to the bar after games with his teammates, but agrees because he knows you like dressing up and going out.

he loves when the two of you spend time reading together on the couch, then order dinner in and watch a movie before bed. he likes the fact that the two of you can sit in silence, both comfortable enough to not feel the need to fill the space with empty conversation. he likes being able to come home to you after the loud environment of the game to the sweet whisper of your voice, because you know how he likes the soft tone after the arena full of screams and sirens.

but he can’t help but feel like he’s causing you to be less for him, seeing how much life you seem to have in times like these.

he’s broken out of his little pity party when you come running over to him. “quinny!! did you see that! we won! i won!” you fling your half-drunk self down onto his lap, beaming your beautiful smile to him.

“i did. looked like you were having fun,” he says with a smile, but his tone is flat.

he watches your smile fade slightly, cocking your head at him. “you okay?” you ask him, always able to tell when something’s not right in that mysterious brain of his.

“yeah, m’just tired. might head in early,” he tells you, drumming his fingers along the tanned skin of your leg, signaling he’s about to stand up.

“okay…well then i’ll go with you. just gotta tell the guys goodnight first,” you respond skeptically, removing yourself from his lap as he stands.

“no, no, don’t wanna ruin your fun. just come to bed when you’re done, yeah? don’t drink too much, sweetheart,” quinn shakes his head, placing a kiss on the top of your head before turning and walking away from you, leaving you confused.

you watch quinn walk up the stone steps, stopping in the dimly lit kitchen to hover over the sink for a few moments, staring out the window looking over the dark lake. you can tell by his body language something is bothering him, so you turn and walk over to tell the rest of the group that you’re heading to bed, ignoring their protests of ‘you’re no fun! quinn’s made you boring!’ with a playful show of your middle finger as you walk away, following quinn’s same path.

quinn’s so lost in thought he doesn’t hear the kitchen door open or the soft pad of your footsteps walking towards him, only breaking out of his trance when he feels your hands make their way around his torso and your body pressed against his back.

“whatcha thinking about?” you ask him, placing a small kiss to the middle of his back through his thin t-shirt.

“nothing,” he tells you, his tone not convincing you. “why aren’t you out there defending your title?” he turns around so he’s facing you, resting his own hands on your waist.

“because something has you locked in that pretty head of yours, and i intend to find out why my boyfriend is sad,” you tell him in that soft tone of voice he loves, not wasting any time getting to the bottom of his odd mood.

quinn’s cheeks involuntarily flush, always having loved when you call him pretty. but before you can admire him too much he closes his eyes and throws his head back, sighing, not wanting to talk about how pathetic he is.

“you’ll just think it’s silly and pointless,” he confesses, knowing you won’t concede until you pry it out of him.

“try me,” you tell him as he looks down at you, seeing the cocked eyebrow and look of determination on your face.

he’s silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to explain it to you without making you feel like you did something wrong, because he knows you’ll immediately start picking apart what you could’ve possibly done to make him feel like this. but it’s not you, it’s his problem.

you continue to look at him with love in your eyes, silently encouraging him.

“it’s just…” he starts then pauses again, bringing a hand up to toy with your low ponytail. “do you…ever…y’know, wish i was different? more like jack? or trevor?” he finally gets the words out, shock taking over your features.

he watches your eyes go from loving, to surprised, to sad.

“quinn, what? no. never,” you tell him, shaking your head so vigorously he’s worried you’ll make yourself dizzy.

he brings his hands up to stop the movement of your head, leaving his soft hands there, thumbs caressing your cheeks.

“it’s just…i see how you are around them. how…full of life you are,” he watches your mouth open and close, like you want to interrupt him but thought better of it. “and i can’t help but wonder if you’re missing out because of me,” he shrugs, removing his hands from your face to let them rest in half fists on your shoulders, a sad smile on his face.

reaching up to grab his hands and hold them in both of yours, you shake them a bit to get him to look at you.

“i’m not missing out on anything, do you hear me?” you tell him with such seriousness in your voice he’s almost worried you’re mad. “they’re a good time, yeah, but they’re not you, q.”

still not convinced, quinn let’s his doubt control his thoughts again. “i just know that they’re more your speed. they like to go out and party and have fun and i…don’t,” he can’t meet your eyes, not wanting to see the sadness settled there.

“with them you’re always talking and can be loud and spontaneous like i know you like to do. but with me it’s always whispers and quiet and hiding away in corners or at home. i don’t do silly dances with you in the boat without caring who might see or have a secret handshake when we win beer pong. i sit on the couch and read in silence. i sit in the corner and watch everyone else have fun when we go out because i don’t want videos of me all over the internet,” he continues, his tone growing more frustrated with each word spoken.

“i just don’t want you to wake up one day and realize you’ve wasted all this time with some boring guy who only wants to sit at home and only goes out when he has to or when you want to, not because he enjoys it,” he finishes, nearly shaking with vulnerability.

his words are a knife straight into your heart, not wanting to believe he really feels this way about himself.

“oh quinny,” you bring your hands up to cup his face, wiping at the moisture forming in his grey eyes.

he gives you a weak smile, turning his head to kiss your open palm, closing his eyes at the comfort your skin on his always brings him.

“i need you to know, that i love you, quinn hughes. i love you so much it hurts me sometimes. like, physically pains me. i look at you and i feel like my chest could literally bust open with how deeply i feel about you. and not just when things are good. all the time. every day. even when we’re fighting. even when you’re sad. even when you leave your socks stuffed in the creases of the couch,” you tell him, earning a small, wet laugh, because he knows how much you hate that poor habit of his.

“i love you when we’re sitting in silence on the couch because you just got home from a game and need a noise break. i love you when we’ve been reading for hours, the only sound between us the turning pages of our books. i love you when we’re sitting in the corner of the bar because you don’t want to be the center of attention when someone buys the team a round. i love you when you’re watching me be crazy and drunk on the boat because you want to make sure someone is sober and everyone is safe. i love you when you’re ‘boring’ because to me, you’re never boring,” you confess to him, feeling the small tear slip out of your left eye and down your cheek, matching quinn’s.

“you’re the person that i love with everything that i have in me. the one that brings me home whatever books i’ve been talking about wanting to read during our marathons on a random afternoon just because you were thinking about it. the person that sacrifices his alone time away from his team, and just hockey in general, to go to banquets and events because you know i enjoy those things sometimes. you’re the person that always watches my favorite silly shows with me, no matter how stupid they are. my personal chef, my human teddy bear, my best friend,” you whisper the last words, sniffling, noticing quinn’s eyes are now closed tightly.

“because even though i do enjoy being loud and rowdy sometimes, i enjoy being with you, more. i enjoy the quiet and the slowness of life with you. the time we get to spend together without distractions or expectations. so no, i don’t wish you were more like jack, or trevor, or luke, or cole, or whoever. because you’re like quinn, which is exactly who i want you to be,” your voice finally goes quiet, bringing your forehead to rest against his, hoping your words are enough to convince him that his insecurities are just that. they hold no weight and have no truth to them.

the two of you simply soak in each other’s presence, neither one daring break the intimacy of the words hanging in the air.

when quinn finally opens his eyes and leans his head back, he lets out a shaky breath.

“tell me not to get down on one knee and propose to you right now,” he tells you, a slight joking tone to his voice, earning a small chuckle from you.

“way to do a complete 180,” you joke back, once again tangling your hands in his hair.

he huffs out a small laugh, tilting his head back before brining it back up to look at you.

“thank you,” he breaths out. “i don’t know how i got so in my head, but all day i watched you have fun and i don’t know. i got lost for a bit.”

you lean forward to place a small peck on the tip of his nose, watching him scrunch it slightly in response.

“well, luckily for you, i’ll always be here to come in there and find you, bringing you back out here to me,” you tap your finger along his temple.

“luckiest in the world,” he beams down at you.

[dizzyduck44]

You can’t ctrl alt delete this

I am beyond angry at this point.

If it’s to be believed Red Bull are looking to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda for the Japanese GP in 2 weeks time, with VCARB allegedly looking to acquire Franco Colapinto from Alpine, leaving Liam without a drive in F1.

I’m sorry. Red Bull kindly get fucked!!!!

This is a problem of Red Bull’s own making and dates back about a decade and MULTIPLE wrong decisions.

Firstly in 2023 there should have been no Nyck De Vries, there should have been no fairytale set up for Daniel Ricciardo. De Vries wasn’t ready, period, and Daniel really needed a bit longer to build the hunger to come back. However Liam was more than ready and willing. The fact he wasn’t automatically given the 2023 Alpha Tauri seat still boggles my brain now. The man had been damn unlucky not to be an F2, a DTM and a Super Formula Champion. With the right guidance he held more potential than any other rookie since the 2019 trio of Alex, Lando and George.

It was chance (and bad luck for Danny Ric) that got him in the car in 2023. But his arrival in 2024 in the team was in a lot of ways justified.

I will freely admit that when he was given the Red Bull’s seat I was Team Yuki, but the more I read about the reasoning why, I understood it and accepted it. Seeing him in the F1 introductions video, he was so excited to get going.

And after two races Red Bull want to pull the plug!!!

To say he hasn’t been given a chance is a wild understatement. I bet he doesn’t even fully remember everyone’s name yet! His press pen interviews are heart breaking. If Red Bull aren’t happy at this point they can only blame themselves!

Yes we have long known the team is built around Max. The car is built to suit Max and the quest to get a second driver who can drive the damn thing has dominated the last 8 years of F1.

Trouble is that quest, chased Daniel, (who saw this coming), out the door. It forced them to bin off Alex in favour of Sergio, who gave it a damn good go, even won races in it.

When Checo started drowning last year, Carlos was right there. He was holding out for them and they didn’t bite.

But in a week where McLaren and Lando have highlighted the dangers of a driver wanting a car that suits his driving style alone, ultimately effecting the performance of the car, the irony is deafening.

Because the one driver who has said multiple times he likes his car set up the same as Max is Lando! His natural driving style is similar to Max’s. We’ve never seen it because the McLaren doesn’t support it!

And Lando was on Red Bull’s radar a decade ago! Helmut Marko met with a shy quiet Lando and because he didn’t know insanely complicated facts about his F3 car, he compared him to Max and decided he wouldn’t be worth their time.

By 2018 when they were running out of drivers, again Helmut (beginning to see he may have made an error) offered Lando a seat in F1 at Toro Rosso. McLaren were wise to it though and offered him a seat with them for 2019, which they had already extended by early 2020.

Since then both Lando and Red Bull have admitted they have talked quite a few times. By 2021 I think Christian had worked out what an epic eff up Helmut had caused the team at the first meeting with Lando. More importantly, Max likes him and they get on well, which would be great for marketing. Trouble is the sticking point for Lando has always been, I will not be a number 2 driver to Max. It’s equal opportunity till it’s mathematically impossible or what’s the point of me being here. Something, probably something buried in Max’s contract has meant Red Bull refuses to offer that term.

Which leads us to here. They have effectively retired Checo and Danny Ric, Alex is settled at Williams with Carlos, who they let walk away. Lando is preparing to fight for both championships with McLaren, McLaren and Ferrari have duos with championship winning potential and Liam is who Red Bull chose.

At this point stop looking for the quick fix. You can’t fix a decade of mistakes in two races by simply shuffling your drivers around. This is a problem Red Bull have created themselves. Liam deserves far far better, but the VERY LEAST he deserves is a fair chance.

And while we are at it, let’s start admitting some of those mistakes, because yes you have let the car and situation get to this state, but you’ve happily let Max take the blame for ALL of this. “Well Max can drive it”, “Max intimidates other drivers”. “Max finds a way to handle it”.

The funniest thing here is, if you know your F1 history there is a huge reason McLaren will not change their car to suit Lando. It’s because 15 years ago they did exactly that for Fernando Alonso. And guess what? No one else could drive the damn thing! It’s taken McLaren 7 years to unpick the DNA in that car that made them so damn uncompetitive. Because in a cost cap you can’t just start from scratch all over again.

So Red Bull, binning Liam for Yuki, after sacking Checo, ignoring Carlos, abandoning Daniel, disregarding Alex, ghosted Liam in ‘23 and underestimating Lando will not fix your problem. It will just make you look like bastards with zero plan of how you get yourself out this mess! And good luck explaining that to Ford!

[coco--rush]

Why Hunter doesn't have rot

Spoilers for Hunter / Survivor / Monk / Watcher

Just to clarify before even going into this I’ll be treating Downpour as it’s own separate universe thus not making it cannon to Vanilla. This is in no way to discredit Downpours story (I love it myself, I think it's a really powerful narrative) But considering it was not written by the Vanilla team I’d prefer looking at it as an AU for my Vanilla analysis ! This also leads me to treating Watcher more cannon than Downpour since it was written by the original team, but it will only be used to reinforce smaller points.

Now with that said despite Downpour popularizing the idea that Hunter has rot Vanilla in no way supports this. The reasoning is quite simple there's no mention of it whatsoever beyond pebbles making a remark of “We both have something... unfortunate growing in us.” which if you want to interpet as we have the same thing growing in us you could say he has the rot, but this is a sympathetic statement. Pebbles is simply (for once) empathizing with something for having a similar-ish experience that is some form of disease spreading in them respectively. But Hunter is a normal animal he is much more likely to have a normal disease like cancer / tumour. 

Where would have Hunter even gotten the rot from? By Downpour standards the rot does not survive outside of Pebbles. He also for all we know is not from anywhere near Moon / Pebbles having been sent by NSH / Pebbles not seeming to recognize him either. We’ve also never seen an example of rot taking over a creature anywhere in Vanilla, not even in Downpour (ignoring Hunter ofc) If the rot was powerful enough to infect animals already there is no reason most creatures around Pebbles should be as healthy as they are. We’ve only seen creatures be infected in the Watcher which also shows insight into what it would look like.

All rot Hunter depictions have the rot be his fur color / generally blend into his body seamlessly that we see in the Watcher would not be the case. The rot well, rots the animals it infects distorting their colours and malforming them. The inner cores glowing the colour of the rot since it is a foreign object consuming them rather than a part of that creature. Even in different regions the rot stays black with only the inner core of it changing colour. The single evidence I’ve seen of Vanilla Hunter having rot is his sleeping sprite which I’ll break down why I do not believe is rot with an anatomy breakdown.

Their body is one big banana shape with limbs attached on top of it.

Tho sometimes drawn as a ‘single toe’ we could safely say that is for simplifying the drawing process.

Why are these important?

Apologies for messy visuals. But what people interpret as a rot cyst on Hunter's back is in fact just his hind leg with some unfortunate perspective. What Hunter does when sleeping is curl their tail all the way below their chin while laying down flat on their stomach which is bound to contart their body in funny ways leaving their leg to really only do 1 of 2 things, be smushed under his tail (what Survivor and Monk does) or above his tail that he does in his prite. 

If that’s not enough we also never see hunter with any sort of cysts on his back any any other art of him. But we do see 1 other art of him have scars on his hind legs.

Considering his eye scar is depicted everywhere since it is a big part of his design (even really fainting on the last pick it’s more visible on the other ones tho) A less reliable but worth to mention thing too his eye scar is visible in every merch (again it’s his main design beyond being red) yet he has not even a scar on his back since it was uneseceary detail (one of the poster arts does have him with an x scar on his side tho without cysts as per usual) If he truly had rot I don’t see why such a huge detail would not be included in multiple sprites of him and even as a small detail on his merch (remeber they have all of spearmasters tail holes embodered / inv's sketchy eyes being kept they don't cheap out on details) So in short. We have no reason to believe normal rot we see in Vanilla can infect creatures like the sentient rot in Watcher. We also do not have real evidence of him visually having rot for the only depiction in my opinion is just confusing a sprite of his for something it is not (some of the what seems to be early art can be a little janky since they were still figuring out how to draw slugcats) We also know for a fact he is not from near Pebbles thus not having a real way of catching rot unless the sentient rot has spread in the world already.

Worthy mentions I couldn't fit neatly anywhere else: - I’m aware that in the last slide him is having his illnes disolved out of him but just before that he's simply seen swimming without anything affecting him and we do not see any growths on his back. which would've been a perfect placement to show it be removed from him. - his death sprite also doesn’t have any rot sprouting out from him which would be very important if he did have it. - This isn’t to say I don’t like the Hunter rot theory but to me it’s just a really popular fannon that got slightly out of hand to the point people think it’s fully cannon. - I also think the hunter rot theory is really cool to explain how he can have extra spears. I’ll admit I have no idea how he does that without having rot. Maybe his fur is just so thick it gets stuck in it /hj 

If anyone has counterpoints or supporting point I’m very interested to listen !

[81pastrys]

There’s No Legacy

Part 3 / 10

Summary— Her new teammate shows her around the MTC and she recognizes memorabilia while they bond

Warnings— mentions of mental health

A/N— Lando’s a sweetheart in this one

Series List

Divider @bernardsbendystraws

“We haven’t properly met, I’m Lando.” He said stopping somewhere random. He holds his hand out for her to shake. She looked at his hand, then panned back to his smiley face. She smiled back.

“A lot of people call me Ros.” She said, shaking his hand. She told him her name before she said the nickname and he catches it.

“Do you prefer Ros?” He asked.

“Ehh, I don’t mind it.” She said. “Papa usually calls me by name, but occasionally Ros, so I’m used to it.”

“But do you want me to call you that?” He laughed.

“You can call me Rosberg for the time being, maybe you’ll be promoted to calling me Ros.” She laughed jokingly. “No, you can call me Ros if you want.”

“Complicated aren’t you?” He laughed.

“I’m a Rosberg. We tend to complicate things a bit.”

“Well, I bet.” He laughed. “Oh! You’ll like this next area.” He said excited. “It has all of our legend driver helmets on it, and facts about them.” She gasped and ran to the wall, looking at the years.

“Opa!” She said, looking at her grandfather’s helmet. “My dad is gonna be excited to see this.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t more excited to be honest.”

“I’m excited to see it, but I’ve seen his entire collection.” She said. She’s smiling more than she has in long time. “This is amazing.”

“Next area, is where we keep older liveries and such.” He said walking away from her.

She stared at the wall, seeing Lewis’s helmet, Kimi’s, Senna’s, Coulthard’s. She’s amazed.

“You like this section a bit too much huh?” He asked.

“So many amazing drivers, to think I’m going to race on the same team is unbelievable.”

“I’ve been here years and still can’t wrap my head around it.” He said. “But come on there is more!”

“Okay, anything better than this?” She asked.

“Their cars maybe?” He asked.

“Ehhh I’ll take a look.” She grinned jokingly.

They walk to a balcony and the overview is almost every livery. He leads her to the stair case, where they’re up close to the cars.

“They have my cars, Sainz, then everyone you just awed over as well.” He said.

“Ahh, there’s Opa’s!” She said, pointing in the distance. “And Senna’s, and Prost’s.”

“You know your history huh?” He chuckled.

“Oh god, imagine me at Mercedes.” She scoffed. “You’d never get me to shut up.”

“Really?” He asked. “How do you know so much about McLaren then?”

“Well my grandpa was a McLaren driver, but papa was a Mercedes driver- therefore they talk and talk and talk.”

“So that’s where you get it from.” He laughed.

“Don’t make me go quiet again.” She warned. “I do that from time to time by the way.”

“Any reason why?” He asked.

“Well mostly because I feel anxiety or after a bad race.” She explained. “It’s not like I have anything to worry about I mean, papa is my biggest supporter. I could get 17th and he’d applaud me in a silent room.”

“Ahh, I get anxiety too.” He says. “I usually avoid eating on race days because of it, not that I’m not hungry but the nerves get the best of me.”

“Sounds about right to me.” She laughed a bit. “Opa tells me it’s a racing thing, but the severity of it is scary.”

“Very, you get used to it, I mean 5 years and I’m still like that.” He shrugged. “I’ll help you through your first year, count yourself lucky.”

“Oh I’m hoping on it.” She said. “I’m sure papa will be at most races too, I mean he likes doing commentary.”

“I’ve noticed.” He laughed.

They walk through the MTC and end up running into the other group. Her and Lando were laughing before walking up.

“You two seem to get along well.” Zak said.

“We’ve got quite a lot in common.” Lando said.

“Good, I can tell this year will be an amazing one with our lineup!” Andrea said.

“Well thank you for the tour, we should head out for now.” Nico said. “Thank you for today, it was nice.”

“Yes, thank you for the tour, and accepting me on the team.” She said, stuttering slightly.

Her and Nico leave and drive around for a bit. “How was it?”

“I loved it, did you see Opas helmet??” She asked excited. “Oh and his livery, it’s so beautiful in person.”

“We didn’t go to that part.” He said intrigued now she said it. “I’ll have to check it out.”

“I really like Lando, I think it’s going to be a good year.” She was smiling beyond belief.

They get back to the hotel and she has her own room. She called Ollie so quickly.

“Ros!” He said. “How was it??”

“I absolutely loved it!” She said. “I saw Opa’s helmet and livery, my teammate is amazing.”

“I’m so happy for you!” He said. “Haas is amazing, Esteban is iffy.”

“I could’ve told you that.” She laughed. “He’s an iffy racer too.”

“I wish we could hangout.” He said.

“I know, maybe when we’re back in Monaco before the race. That’s what next week?”

“We’ll be on the grid together!” He laughed.

“I know! We need to still be friends off track!”

Awww Lando’s so sweet

@il0vereadingstuff @angelluv16 @pandabiiissh @itznotsophia @kallanfiona @widow-cevans

[anthurak]

Takeaways from the Volume 9 Epilogue:

--

One thing I really like about Oscar’s ‘If there was anything I wish I could borrow from you…’ monologue is that it laid out/confirmed something I’ve always felt was a major aspect of Oscar’s dynamic with Ruby that I nonetheless feel a lot of the fandom has missed: That Oscar very much sees Ruby as a mentor and an example to follow, and how their dynamic is specifically a foil to what we saw between Ruby and Ozpin. That Ruby acts as a mentor and example to Oscar in the same way Ozpin was to Ruby, and that Ruby is a far BETTER mentor and example to Oscar than Ozpin ever was to her. Which, as an aside, is a dynamic I can’t help but feel a lot of people have been misinterpreting as ‘ship-teasing’ and is one of the main reasons I’ve simply never been able to see Oscar as any kind of viable love-interest to Ruby. Frankly the dynamic of ‘Ruby is the mentor and example to Oscar that Ozpin couldn’t be for her’ is simply so much more INTERESTING than any kind of romance could ever hope to be.

--

Even in animatic form, Winter basically going overdrive on the maiden powers was a sight to behold. And her own monologue had all the self-deprecation we were expecting. Our girl is clearly holding on by a thread and it’s going to be REAL interesting seeing how she reacts and adjusts to her sister not actually being dead. As in, I can imagine a situation where Winter tries to throw herself into a heroic sacrifice with the belief that Weiss would make a better Maiden than her.

Also, Winter’s monologue giving major focus to how Penny is super-super-dead-dead-and-definitely-not-coming-back-for-really-realsies, as she is talking to the sister who she ALSO believes is DEFINITELY also dead? Specifically with the words that Penny is gone, when Penny’s last words to her were that she’d be ‘part of you’?

Yeah, there is no way in hell we’ve seen the last of Penny XD

--

The CROWN. Like it was only a few shots, but as someone who read the CFVY Books (which you totally should if you haven’t, they’re great), holy shit I was NOT expecting them to pop up here.

I mean, in hindsight it makes perfect sense that they’d be involved in Volume 10. They’re basically Vacuo’s equivalent to Vale’s criminal element and the White Fang splinter faction as Salem’s co-opted insurgency group, with Jax and Gillian joining Roman, Adam and Jacques as the latest of Salem’s unwitting patsies. It’s definitely going to be real interesting seeing the crew deal with them. Like it’s really fun to imagine Team RWBY in particular being kind of exasperated at seeing Jax’s probably doing a whole ‘With Salem’s help I shall be King!’ shtick after everything they’ve seen with Roman, Adam and Jacques.

Oh and if you don’t know, Jax has a mind-control semblance, so him trying to use that on Yang could actually lead to a sneaky callback to the Justice League crossover, ie; Yang doing a ‘Yeah, I’m not doing THAT shit again.’ XD

--

Qrow’s whole vibe through this is fascinating. Like his section may have been the one we already saw, but after seeing the abject depression and growing despair of all the other characters, Qrow actually being OPTIMISTIC hit so much harder.

--

Raven showing up at the end is… interesting.

I’ll admit that ever since we saw that specific clip a few months back, I’ve been rather conflicts about Raven showing up to deliver RWBY+J to Vacuo, particularly after Ruby’s tree vision. Like for one it felt a bit random and unnecessary. The tree already deposited the Ever After team outside of Vacuo so they didn’t exactly need help getting there. Not to mention that it kind of clotheslines the story-thread set up by Ruby’s vision; that she now has a reason to track Raven down to get the ANSWERS to what happened to Summer. Finally, it’s just kind of… random? Like where did Raven even come from to get the team?

But now having seen the clip with its intended context, I’m definitely more on board with it. Particularly hearing from Kerry and Eddy that the original ending for the penultimate episode had RWBY+J going through the portal to arrive at their memorial stone, and met by a ‘Mysterious Figure’, ie; Raven. Here it feels like were getting more set up to get answers later as to what Raven was doing at the memorial.

And really, now that I’ve thought about it more, this method kind of puts the thread of Ruby going to Raven for answers even MORE into focus. Like the story reintroduces Raven in the present right after Ruby got a vision basically saying ‘hey, Raven is important’. And now going into Volume 10, we’re pretty much perfectly positioned for Ruby to pull Raven aside for those all-important ‘Why were you fucking my mom? What happened to my mom?’ questions.

--

Finally… yeah that ending hit me a LOT harder than I was expecting. Like that ending was HOPE in its purest form and it was honestly beautiful to see. Particularly right now with the future of the show seeming so uncertain. I’ve personally been optimistic about RWBY’s future (in a manner not unlike Qrow’s vibes I suppose lol), but damn the hopefulness of that ending hit especially hard, and was something I’ll admit I needed. And I imagine the rest of us could use as well.

We'll be getting Volume 10. And 11, and 12, and however many more it takes to finish this story. At this point, I have no doubt of that.

[usoinked]

I have a theory about this faction involving Jimmy but ion know if anyone tryna hear me…imma say it anyways😗…Jimmy might be the fourth man of this faction with Seth and Bron. How does this make sense? Okay let’s start with last year from Bad Blood…that was the only time we really seen Jimmy get that hug and recognization from Roman….only for it to diminish….also Jimmy showing up and helping Roman even though he along with Jey have been in situations countless times where Roman never came to there aid because he just wasn’t at work that day or off doing who knows what.

So let’s start off with the baseline right, Solo Jimmy and Jey were all traumatized during the bloodline. Solo was isolated and emotionally manipulated, Jey was physically, mentally, and emotionally abused just as well as Jimmy.

But their trauma took them on different paths! Solo becoming the tribal chief (being a mirror image to Roman), Jey overcoming the odds of being told he was worth nothing and becoming world heavyweight champ….but Jimmy…what about Jimmy…all that has come out of it was Big Jim. He was MVP of the Wargames match, has had multiple matches on Smackdown but only won like one or two (If I’m remembering correctly), but has not held any type of championship other than tag team gold while his younger twin has held IC and now world heavyweight (only one belt away from grandslam WHOO!) and Solo has at least held the North American championship from NXT, but for Jimmy nothing and right now he’s kind of in the background…not really seen. But even with the bloodline…we see Jimmy constantly be skipped over, for Jey and Solo. Jimmy was always the second option…or no option at all. What does that lead to….ABANDONMENT ISSUES ladies and gentlemen. Even as a heel, Roman picked Solo to be next in line instead of him, remember how he looked so happy only to be let down when Roman picked Solo. Levels to this.

But going forward and speaking of Wargames…remember who Jimmy talked to when trying to find a partner? Bron Breaker…Mind YOU this was the same person who took the title off Jey due to the New Bloodline trying to “help” Jey. But even still…THIS IS YOUR BROTHER’S OPP😭 anyway. Everyone’s mind immediately went to him talking to him about joining their team but not me…I always wondered what he was talking to him about, like what reason do you have to go to Bron?

But also notice while the Wargames team was forming together…Jimmy and Paul seemed to have…this sus interaction after his return. Paul winking at him and Jimmy nodding….when I first seen this I was like “what do y’all two have going on over there?” Mind you…we got a Jimmy heel run…but it wasn’t serious…and we KNOW Jimmy can be serious and that he’s not dumb at all. Constantly being picked over, abandoned, watching others around you be successful and get that recognition but all you get is a new name is…gonna get frustrating after a while. And to add onto that, no one takes Jimmy serious already and we see how even the fans skip over Jimmy….surely this can’t be done on purpose right?

But how would Jimmy of all people pull something like this off? We’ve seen Jimmy Jey Sami and Solo all have conversations with Seth. And Seth has even said Jimmy Jey and Sami are his friends. We seen what happened with Sami and Jey on Monday…but I have a feeling that Sami isn’t the only one that’s about to turn on Jey. Jimmy is going to turn too. Now will he go directly after Jey right now, I don’t think so. I think this turn could be more centered towards Roman for his constant abandonment to Jimmy and we see how the trauma has affected Jimmy in FULL FORCE. We know that Jimmy Uso has abandonment issues, Roman choosing Solo over him, his own twin choosing Sami over him, and Jimmy taking matters into his own hands to kick Jey in the face so he couldn’t leave him (he literally pushed him away out of fear he would get the title and leave him…again).

Soooo what does Jimmy do? He talks to Paul behind the scenes to come up with this plan possibly involving Seth and Bron in getting Roman to lose everything. Seth called Roman a tyrant (the tyrant he created mind you 🙄) so why would he pass up any opportunity to make Roman Reigns suffer? Plus in return it also helps put Jimmy in that light he hasn’t gotten, with Roman’s #1 OPP seeing what Roman doesn’t see in Jimmy. Not only was it easier because Punk was in the mix too, but Seth knew to take advantage of the one thing that both Punk and Roman had in common, Paul Heyman. (Paul being Punk’s best friend and Paul being Roman’s wiseman for 4 years). The last thing Roman lost that he did have, was his wiseman. Roman now has no one because the bloodline has disbanded and everyone has gone their separate ways. (Punk doesn’t really count 😭)

This is literally the humbling of Roman Reigns. I think what we could be seeing now is Jimmy’s side of things because the LAST person Roman would expect to be behind this is Jimmy. Someone who has always been loyal to him (except when he kicked him in the face but then went right back to him because he was afraid of being alone), but from Bad Blood to Wargames and a bit after (Tribal Combat on Netflix), Jimmy was there to defend Roman and be there when he needed him. We even seen in the tribal combat match, Solo VENTING his trauma to Roman as he’s hitting him. But with Jimmy, he’s never let out his frustration…like at all. While THAT is going on over there mind you (between Roman, Seth, Bron, Paul, and Punk), Jimmy is happily celebrating with Jey and Sami because the chips are falling into place. But with Jey about to be dealing with Sami soon and possibly Bron if he goes after Jey’s title, Jimmy can slip right into that faction. And I think IF HE IS the fourth member, he would reveal himself somewhere in between Sami and Bron’s feuds with Jey. Like the person you’re NOT paying attention to is the one you really should be watching out for. But this time it STILL wouldn’t be about hurting Jey, it would be about simply showing Roman that he really is nobody’s bitch. 😗

[cacoetheswriting]

celebrity skin. (part eight)

pairing: rockstar!eddie munson x popstar!fem!reader word count: 5.2k summary: a reconciliation in New York leads to a rediscovery of not-so-hidden feelings and answers to previously avoided questions — plus more.

content warnings: 18+, minors dni: suggestive & mature themes, adult language, post-breakup emotional hurt / comfort, use of pet names, mentions of alcohol consumption, mentions of blackmail, & kinda rough smut (unprotected p in v sex) — if i missed anything in this chapter, pls let me know!

& psa: images used in the header don’t depict readers physical attributes! these are also described vaguely in the story, only that she’s a little shorter than eddie.

celebrity skin. masterlist

One thing Eddie had been absolutely sure of: Stevie Nicks was right.

The trip to New York City was carried out solely on a whim. A gut feeling that the brunette rockstar could not quite shake. He had to see you, despite the possible consequences, and Eddie was smart enough to know there would be a lot. He acted like an ass and whether you would admit it or not, he knew he broke your heart.

Ever since his rise to fame, the Corroded Coffin frontman felt this bubble around him. A bubble created by his team, his band, his past, and his own disruptive behaviour — don’t do drugs was a warning he witnessed (and ignored) many times on posters too colourful for the subject matter, plastered on the walls of Hawkins High. Seemingly, the bubble protected Eddie from predators. Leeches that wanted to take advantage of his fame. Unfortunately, the bubble also shielded him from love.

Love. 

If the rockstar wasn’t so afraid of the feeling as a result of that bubble, perhaps he would have made different choices in all of his past relationships. Most importantly, perhaps Eddie would have made different choices in the one relationship that’s meant more to him than any other. If he wasn’t so afraid of love, and being in love, perhaps he would’ve fought to be with you a little harder.

And love is definitely how Eddie would describe what he felt towards you. Correction. Feels towards you to this very day. Maybe more, if that was possible considering he hasn’t seen you in months. 

So yes, Stevie Nicks was right. The concept of Silver Springs was right.

Seeing you again only affirmed that belief. Talking to you again, witnessing your smile for the first time in months… Well, Eddie never wanted to be apart from you for longer than he already had been. Unfortunately, that wasn’t up to him. Not for as long as your grandmother had her claw all up in your business and stuck her nose where it did not belong.

“So, what happens now?” The rockstar asks, only slightly afraid of the answer.

You hum under your breath, taking a moment to think, gathering your own thoughts. The sun is slowly rising in the distance, so the first response that comes to mind is that you should go home, and Eddie should go back to his hotel, Max’s place, or wherever the hell he’s been staying, before this place starts crawling with people. That would mean saying goodbye for lord knows how long and you were just starting to get comfortable with being around the rockstar again, although, not like that was insanely hard. Whatever. Simply, you didn’t want to say goodbye.

“We could go get breakfast,” you finally say.

Eddie smirks. “As much as like that idea, sweetheart, I didn’t really mean now in the full sense of the word.”

You laugh softly.

“Okay, hotshot.” Turning your head back to look at Eddie, you raise a brow. “What do you think should happen?”

The rockstar smacks his lips together before resting his elbow on one of his knees and bringing his thumb to his mouth. A nervous tick.

“Putting whatever reason I came here for aside, starting over seems like a bad idea since we’ve done that once before and it didn’t really end the way either of us hoped,” he says after a beat of silence, avoiding your gaze.

“Yeah,” you exhale, “Bad idea. Plus you said so yourself, you’re not the relationship type. Getting back together would be redundant.”

“Right,” Eddie agrees quietly, although he really doesn’t want to.

There’s another moment of silence. Nothing but the sound of morning birds chirping melodically and wind gust hitting the water ahead. In the quiet, there is solace. In the quiet, Eddie doesn't have to answer difficult questions or have conversations neither of you really wants to have. A blissful ignorance of what’s really happening here.

He still loves you. You most likely still love him.

It’s all just terrible timing for two people who are — in his mind, at least — made for eachother, but for one reason or the other, can’t be together. Not in this lifetime. Not with people controlling what they can or cannot do. Not with the whole world watching their every move. It hurt. Hurt that a life you both chose was also the life that’s actively destroying something good.

“We could try being friends?” Eddie offers eventually, looking at you then.

You smile. “Friends. I think I like that.”

-

Holly is the only person you’re fully comfortable talking to about all of this. She listens, actively nodding along as you spew your thoughts and feelings out loud, until the rambles become too hard to follow. Holly, ever the best friend that she’s always been, places her perfectly manicured hands on your shoulders and gives your body one shake to get you back on track when the story becomes a little too convoluted. And this one is all over the place.

There’s the run in at Saks, the meeting with Max, the plan, the date with Steve, all that leads to Eddie Munson banging on your front door until you let him inside. There’s the emotionally heightened conversation that doesn’t really amount to much. The dinner with your family that opened things up to questions from your nosh sisters and scrutiny from your Nana. Then there was Coney Island.

You pause.

It’s messy, for sure, and your feelings are all over the place as you recount each and every minor detail, which leads you to why you invited her over in the first place: what the fuck do you do about Eddie Munson?

Holly usually gives you advice. Parts of which you want to hear and take on board, parts of which you both know will be ignored. This time however, as you do your best to explain what’s been on your mind — and heart — since the rockstar arrived in New York, this time Holly doesn’t know what to say.

“I don’t know if I should forgive him.”

“Jeff says he’s been, like, super sullen all summer long. Locked in that house of his, or at the studio, working on shit he won’t let the band see.”

“That’s supposed to make it easier for me to do what, exactly? He’s secretive, that’s for sure. Hiding stuff from his band, from his sister, from me…”

You reach for the packet of smokes that Holly brought with her and light one, hand shaking ever so slightly.

“I got virtually nothing from him that night in my apartment. Slightly more under the Wonder Wheel, but still not enough to understand why he did what he did,” you exhale a puff of smoke, “Yet I can’t help but think that despite everything, especially ignoring the weeks I spent in bed because of him, we’re like meant for each other, you know?” 

Holly too lights a cigarette. She also doesn’t answer you.

“That’s kinda pathetic, no?”

“I think until you get the entire truth, it won’t matter whether you get back with him or just be his friend, or whatever, ‘cause you’re not going to be fully happy. Not really,” she explains, avoiding your question because there’s close to nothing worse than admitting to your friend that they’ve lost it completely.

“So I should confront him?”

“Jeff says Eddie doesn’t do well with confrontations.”

You groan. Head falling back on the cushioned sofa.

“Maybe I should just fuck him,” you think out loud, “Get all this frustration out and then just move on with my life.”

Holly laughs. “Just don’t let him finish,” she says, “Karma’s a bitch, and whatnot.”

-

New York City is your favourite place on Earth.

Despite your years of extensive travel to tour your various albums or attend different global award shows, New York, your home, has always been top of the list. Elegant, albeit slightly messy. Organised, although a little rowdy. It’s colourful, but dull. Full of people from every corner of the world, which only added to its pre-existing charm. You didn’t really think it was possible to fall in love with it even more until you’ve started to explore it all over again with none other than Eddie Munson — under a new guise of something called friendship.

The rockstar decided to extend his trip. Currently, there is no return date. Exploring New York became the only thing on his agenda. 

The two of you did your best to stay under the radar, away from prying eyes. Although, not like it was necessarily needed as Eddie’s idea of sight seeing involved bar hopping. Old-ish, rather shitty places that have definitely seen better days, but Eddie, he was like a kid in a candy store. With every beer poured and every bowl of peanuts shared, he lit up more and more.

“They remind me of home,” he finally explains, two days into your NYC adventure. “Of Hawkins.” 

You smile at him, but don’t say anything.

“What?” Eddie asks when he notices the look, mouth now full after taking another handful of the perhaps hundredth packet of peanuts the two of you have shared over the last few days.

“I don’t know,” you shrug, swirling the gold-ish liquid inside your beer bottle, “I guess it’s just nice that some small part of my home reminds you of your home.”

Eddie returns the fond expression. Friends is good, he thinks at that moment while catching another peanut with his mouth, not ideal, but good.

“There was this bar,” he says, leaning across the table so that he could be a little closer to you, “The Hideout. Our first venue, outside of Gareth’s garage, and the only place in my crappy hometown where I didn’t feel like an outsider.”

“Places like the Hideout, places like this.” Eddie swirls his finger in the air to show he means your current location, “They’ll always have a special place in my heart, I guess. They’re a part of me. Part of Corroded Coffin history.”

He stares at you for a minute. He’d never share this much with a friend, so perhaps this new concept you’ve both found yourselves in is not as good as the rockstar would like to think. “We could try being friends?” — Eddie’s second guessing his suggestion just as fast as he came up with it.

“We should see more of your home,” he finally states, “As much as I love them, I think we’ve seen all the dingy bars New York has to offer, so I’m open to suggestions.”

You bring the beer bottle to your lips and take a slow sip of the now semi-warm liquid, pondering his request. 

Where could you take Eddie that would represent your love for New York. The Statue of Liberty seems a little basic, as does Times Square — especially since you’ve both performed there in the past. Rockefeller Centre to see the street performers? The Met, even though both of you will most likely be invited next year to the exhibit. In reality, all of the touristy spots like Central Park, for example, would be a little too crowded for either of you to feel safe and remain unseen. 

Then your eyes glisten with an idea.

What’s more homey than a home itself: Cove City Sound Studios.

To any average person, it was just another recording studio found in New York. One of hundreds. To you however, it was heaven on earth. 

Located in Glen Cove, New York, Cove City Sound Studios had been home to many artists before you came along. A lot of albums were recorded here. A lot of number one hits — the list of which you were lucky to join more than once.

You always thought the ambiance of this place fueled your creativity. Often said the reason behind your resounding success was because you got the opportunity to record here. Of course Holly, Val, and especially your Nana, corrected you every time those words had left your lips. “You’re the reason behind your success,” your Nana would affirm, “Not some recording studio.”.

But you knew. Felt it deep within your bones. Cove City Sound Studios was magic.

“Damn,” Eddie mutters under his breath, fingers gently running across the various buttons as his doe-eyes dart across the posters on the wall — one of which features your 1985 album cover (a record once hidden under Eddie’s bed back in Hawkins). 

“Here I thought the place we recorded Honesty in was impressive,” he admits, “This though, this is another level.”

A smile circles your lips.

“Welcome to my home, Eddie Munson.”

The rockstar dips his head, sort of in a way of a little bow, and smiles so wide it makes your insides flutter. Friends, friends, friends. You repeat inside your mind, same thing Eddie is doing, although neither of you are aware. Friends hiding their true feelings.

“I’m honoured, sweetheart.” Eddie adds, placing a ring-clad hand on his heart.

“As you should be,” you tease and walk past him, pushing open a door into the vocal booth. 

The Corroded Coffin frontman follows you with zero to no hesitation. He watches as you slowly circle the small room before standing in front of a microphone, adjusting it to your height.

“I recorded every single one of my songs here apart from Honesty,” you reveal without looking at him. Focusing instead on tightening the metal rod in place. “Hundreds of records that will probably never see the light of day because my label doesn’t think they are good enough.”

Eddie snorts. “As if you could make something that wasn’t deemed good. We wrote shit together, remember? I know how good you are.”

Your lips twist into a timid smile and glance up at him from your lashes. “I appreciate that Eds, but unfortunately the industry doesn’t work that way and you, of all people, should understand.”

“Well, yeah, but doesn’t your grandmother have some sort of special power to get you whatever the fuck you want.”

It’s your turn to snort. “She may be resourceful, but she’s got no control over my management team. Even if she likes to think she does, the only real ability my Nana possesses is tell me what to wear and how to act.”

Eddie nods, taking note of this information. Knowledge he can use to free himself from deceit, blackmail.

Valuable insight into the evil woman that ruined his life since, as you’ve now so beautifully explained, she’s not nearly as formidable as she presented herself to be. A light at the end of the tunnel.

“Perhaps that’s why I can’t bring myself to listen to it,” you say, breaking Eddie away from his thoughts.

“What?”

“Perhaps that’s why I can’t bring myself to listen to Honesty. Because I didn’t record it here.” Nothing to do with the fact that it’s soiled by the memory of the last morning we saw each other, you think, clearly lying to yourself, and him.

Eddie swallows his breath. A twinge of guilt rushes through him. Actually, more than a twinge. A gush, like a waterfall out of control. He’s sure of it now. The two of you could never be just friends. Not until you knew the whole truth about why he did what he did and now that he knew your grandmother had a weakness in her armour, perhaps offering you the truth is something he could do sooner rather than later.

“Then maybe we should change that,” Eddie offers and proceeds to quickly shuffle out of the room, leaving you alone for a second.

You watch through the glass separating the two spaces as he scans the buttons, hands on his hips, tip of his tongue out to indicate he’s thinking. He looks cute and you fail to conceal a smile, so you opt to hang your head and stare at your shoes because you can’t afford to think he’s any sort of desirable. Just friends.

After taking a moment to familiarise himself with a new system, Eddie finds what he’s looking for and switches it on, before hurrying back to stand next to you.

“Ready?”

“Ready,” you affirm while putting a pair of headphones on.

For the next four minutes and twenty-two seconds, you get lost in the chocolate of Eddie’s eyes as you once again sing the song he wrote about you.

“Honestly, you got me fallin’ to my knees

It’s like ecstasy, this feelin’ inside of me

Let’s call it honesty”

Cove City Sound Studios creates magic. You’ve always believed it and now it’s only been affirmed because the way your voice melts with his — no band, no distractions — is nothing short of perfection. 

“You’re a devil in disguise

No, that’s what I want you to be

‘Cause in reality, hon’, you’re a hypnotic dream

An angel for sure

To a non-believer like me

Oh honesty, what have you done to me, honestly”

That’s why the song was a hit in the first place. Now you understand why your management team pushed you to do this collaboration in the first place. Magic. And as Eddie draws the last syllable without breaking eye contact, you’re transported back to the night you met. The night that inspired this song. 

The night that started all of this.

His mind wanders to the same moment, same place, same spot. Friendship is a word that no longer makes sense, but the rockstar doesn’t want to ruin anything (again), so he drops the headphones and exits the booth without saying anything.

You follow him with your gaze. A feeling of longing spreads through you faster than you know what to do with it. It’s unfortunately accompanied by fear because you’re not stupid, far from it. Eddie’s hurt you twice before. Going back in only to get burned a third time would be a grave mistake and you know better than to go down that road again. ‘Cause you do know better, right?

Then this morning’s conversation with Holly enters your mind. Your best friend was right. You could never be happy around him if you didn’t know the truth.

“Eddie, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you think if you didn’t end things when you did, we’d still be together? Or do you think we were doomed regardless?”

He takes a moment to answer. Avoiding looking up through the glass to meet your curious gaze, anxious for an answer.

“I already told you.” His deep voice eventually booms through the speakers. “I’m not the relationship type.”

“Bullshit,” you’re quick to state. It comes out harsher than intended.

“Sweetheart—” He’s shaking his head, still without looking at you.

“No, don’t you fucking dare,” you interrupt, suddenly feeling deflated by this whole situation, defeated in the fight against your feelings towards him. “Like I said before, you don’t get to sweetheart me and give me some bullshit vague answer.”

Eddie’s eyes are now closed. He’s hoping if he shows how he wants no part of this conversation — not right now, not before he gets to speak to your management and then offers you up the truth — that you will let it go. Like you did that night in Coney Island and those last few days too. You seemingly let it go and everything was okay. Fucking friends.

“I gave in too quickly. Into your presence. I missed you so much that when you showed up at my door, it didn’t matter how angry or heartbroken I was. All that mattered was seeing you again and being around you again. But I should’ve stood my ground.”

You’re now standing right in front of the glass window. Arms hanging by your side, nails digging into your palms to pump the adrenaline that’s fueling this fight.

“No matter how many times you tell me that you’re not the relationship type, I won’t believe you. I refuse to believe you because that guy I met in an empty kitchen of a Hidden Hills mansion was looking for something more than a random hook up. He may not have said it, but he proved it with his actions,” you continue your reasonings, “He craved something meaningful. I saw it in the way he smiled every time his eyes met mine, and sensed it in the way he held me close.”

Then you exhale.

“That guy, although hiding behind a mask of an arrogant  dickhead, he wanted to be loved and Jesus Christ did I—”

Eddie’s gaze snaps to you then, widening.

“But if I got it all wrong,” you continue after a few seconds, “If I misunderstood that guy and what he really wanted, then all I need is for him to be straight with me,” you conclude, “No bullshit excuses, Eddie. If you simply didn’t like me, if you simply didn’t care, just say that and we can both carry on with our lives as if nothing ever happened.”

The door slams. Eddie stands in front of you in a flash, brown eyes holding onto yours with force. He’s agitated. He runs a hand down his face before reaching for your shoulders, then dropping his arms back by his side just as fast.

“I cared, of course I cared!” He exhales to compose himself before continuing, “I still care.” It’s barely a whisper.

“Then why?”

“I-I… Well, I just…”

His mind is racing to find the right answer. The truth is what you’re after, unfortunately that’s the one thing he can’t give you yet. Not if he wants to continue witnessing your success. Because, at the end of the day, his own fame and fortune is no longer important. He could care less if it burned to the ground. Your fame however, your fortune, that’s not something Eddie’s willing to gamble. So again, until he can speak to your management, get ahead of your grandmother’s scheming, the truth will remain sealed.

At least some part of it.

“There was this girl. Back home.” Eddie begins, voice shaky, “Before you, she was the only girl that ever saw me for who I really was.”

“Chrissy Cunningham,” you say her name.

Eddie nods.

“Yeah, Chrissy,” he repeats the name. It tastes a little foreign on his tongue after all this time. “Seemingly the classic cheerleader type, you know? Blonde, preppy, always fucking smiling. But Chrissy, she uh… she was far from just a cheerleader. Like me, she was a little misunderstood and that’s what initially brought us together.”

“What happened to her?” You ask. “You keep saying ‘was’. Chrissy was, as if she’s no longer—”

“Look, sweetheart,” Eddie interrupts, “I-I don’t really talk about her. I don’t like to. Too many bad memories.”

“Right,” you murmur, nodding slowly.

“Long story short, I cared for her and it didn’t end well, so when my care for you started to surpass that feeling… I just got scared.”

“Then why not tell me about her in the first place?” You query, “We could’ve talked it out. Pumped the brakes on whatever our relationship was starting to become.”

Eddie doesn’t mean to, but he scoffs. “And then what, huh? Just tip-toe around how we’re actually feeling until that builds resentment? Then it just ends anyway, but it hurts a lot more, no?”

He’s running a hand through his wild locks. Frustrated wouldn’t be the right word. Annoyed feels borderline the same. Angry, yes, but not at you. Angry at the world for introducing such a perfect character into his otherwise shitty life because he’d be better off without you. No. You’d be better off without him? Also no. Jesus Christ, he’s fucking confused.

“That’s what you asked. If I didn’t end things, would we still be together. The truth is, sweetheart, I don’t know because I attract bad shit and people get hurt and… And I need you to be happy, with or without me.”

Silence falls upon the two of you. It’s heavy with the half-truths that were just revealed. Heavy with the underlying tones that are telling you Eddie still cares, and telling him that so do you — more than either of you were willing to admit back then, and even less now.

And there’s definitely feelings there. They bubbled up the second you laid your eyes on him again and as your few days together passed without a major blowout, they only grew stronger — something you explained to Holly, who said that Eddie was so unlike you, it only made sense to feel something towards him. Love him, even.

Perhaps the hurt was worth it.

“Oh, fuck.”

“What?” Eddie’s brows string together as you momentarily glance at your feet before settling your gaze back on the rockstar.

“Guess we were never supposed to do this right.”

“What?” Eddie asks again.

“You said that to me. Back in LA after that picture of us was leaked to the press, remember?”

“Vaguely,” he answers.

“What if you were right?” You ask, tone a little quieter than seconds prior.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but I’m not sure I’m following.”

Decided on your next move, in what you want to happen, you take a step towards the Corroded Coffin frontman so that the tips of your heels are touching his loosely tied Converse. You then place a hand on his chest, albeit hesitantly, and Eddie inhales a sharp breath (loud enough for you to hear).

“What if all of this, everything that happened between us, is because we were never meant to do this right in the first place, Eds?” 

A timid smile circles your lips as the question you asked settles in the air. Loaded full of uncertainty for the future and everything that time ahead holds for the two of you. Your Nana would say that a person of your stature shouldn’t give into uncertainty, something that in Eddie’s case was often repeated by Marianne. Everything is always meticulously planned. No room for error because uncertainty leads to mistakes and those are a nightmare for your respective PR teams. Unfortunately for those teams, uncertainty is what drew you to each other in the first place.

That, and insane fucking attraction.

“I did come here because I regret my decision,” he says while you say, “I miss you.” Both come out at the same time. Mumbled, jumbled together. It registers though.

Without giving it a second thought, Eddie dips his head lower while his hands reach for your face, ring-clad fingers now holding your cheeks. In that same breath, his lips crash against yours in a yearning kiss — one that is fuelled by months of pent up tension and a desire you both shared since your first meeting back in August of ‘92.

It's a dance of fire. One that is burning bigger and brighter with every second his mouth is attached to yours. Dangerous, would be a good word to describe this moment, but the line has been crossed yet again and since there’s definitely no going back now, your fingers tangle themselves in his brown locks as you push your body closer. Eddie also gets braver. He bites down on your bottom lip and when you gasp ever so softly, the rockstar slides his tongue in with ease.

You feel elated. This is exactly what you’ve been missing and by the way Eddie’s tongue twirls within your mouth, hands squishing your face, afraid to let go, you know it’s what he’s been missing too.

It’s destructive, for sure. But the hurt is worth it. You know that now. You feel it. Every single fibre of your being grows more and more alive as Eddie presses into you further, as he caresses your skin with so much tenderness. And you’re beyond cloud nine. Beyond touching heaven. It’s destructive, but it’s bliss.

“If we keep kissing like this,” he whispers against your lips, forehead pressing against yours, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to contain myself.”

“Who says you have to?”

Eddie groans against your jawline before continuing to trail soft pecks along your skin until he reaches your ear, biting it gently.

“We should probably talk about what this means,” he says, but you just shake your head. “‘Cause friends don’t kiss like that, sweetheart.”

“I don’t care about that now, Eds.” You affirm, sure of what you want. Sure that you don’t ever want to forget him or move on. He is a part of you, forever. “I just want you.”

And with that your lips finds his again.

The kiss is feverish, messy. You’re tugging at each other’s clothes, desperately trying to get them out of the way as fast as possible. In an attempt to be even closer, propelled by an indescribable urge, Eddie shifts your positions so that his back is the one to the room, you’re by the wall, and mere seconds later, your back is pressed firmly against his chest.

His strong hands send shivers through your body as they make their way down until they reach your panties, skirt long disregarded, a garment on the floor. He no longer hesitates about what this means, ripping the material down before his feet are kicking your legs apart. Ring-clad fingers slide along the curve of your ass, kneading the flesh, desperate to feel you. All of you. And as one hand works to unzip his pants, the other works its way to your wet entrance, feeling along your slit.

“Please, please…” The excitement causes you to grow warm and moist in his hand.

He can’t contain himself. Removing his hand in a rapid manner, he pushes his cock inside of your starved pussy. You close your eyes at the contact and Eddie begins to fuck you, hard. Rhythm picks up rapidly and you’re clenching around him in a matter of minutes, lower muscles seizing at the contact they’ve long forgotten, but were now more than pleasantly reminded of. 

“God,” he groans, “I fucking missed you.”

The moan that escapes your lips is nothing short of pornographic. It’s a direct response to his words, as well as his actions. He’s pounding into you relentlessly. There’s no time for pleasantries or any sort of softness. This is all about fulfilling a need-based desire and you’re more than willing to comply, high on his voice when he praises “Fuck, baby”, and “You’re doing so good for me, pretty girl.”

When you feel his hands grip your hips, you moan his name. Loud, pathetic. Undone. The rockstar begins to bounce you against him. Your knees weaken and you fall back onto him, head now resting on his shoulder, losing yourself completely in the moment and the pure ecstasy that you’re feeling. The pleasure is almost too much for you.

“Eddie, I’m so close,” you whisper, looking up at him through your lashes. 

The Corroded Coffin frontman captures your mouth with his. Short, but far from sweet is the kiss. Hungry and devilish. He bites your bottom lip as he pulls away, drawing just a prick of blood.

“Let go for me, baby.” 

When you do, obeying his request, your whole body shivers harshly in his embrace. Eddie keeps going, only his pace has slowed. He’s whispering sweet-nothings into your ear, continuously praising you for being his good girl, and you promise yourself that no matter what happens next, you’re going to be that forever. 

The high soon ends and Eddie pushes you forward gently. You then feel the rockstar’s cock leave you, warm cum spurting over your ass without warning. You’re delighting in the feeling of his juices on your skin. He delights in it too, trailing his fingers over your rear until you turn around to face him.

There’s a smile on your face. Devious, yet benevolent.

Yes, Eddie thinks, Stevie Nicks was definitely right. ‘You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.’ Not like he’d ever want to anyway.

thank you for reading! really appreciate the endless & continuous support!

celebrity skin. masterlist

& tagging some cool ppl that expressed interest: @eviethetheatrefreak , @thirddeadlysin , @haylaansmi , @nope-thanks , @tlclick73 , @vintagehellfire , @ashlynnkennedy , @avalon-wolf , @sidthedollface2 , @astheni-a , @bebe07011 , @aysheashea , @papillonoirsworld , @vol2eddie, @spideyanakin-interacts , @rogers-sweatbands , @mimsie95 , @mmunson86 , @eddiesguitarskills , @ohmeg - (if your user is crossed out, it means the tag isn’t working. pls check you’ve enabled tagging in your settings)

[dat-lil-shark]

I think we should talk more about the bond between TFP Miko and Bulkhead, because if you think about it, even though Miko, though never as helpful as Jack and Rafael for most of the show, could have been the best thing that ever happened to Bulkhead.

Before meeting her, Bulkhead was simply the muscle of the team, that was all. Ratchet and others had made a great point that Bulkhead could be the least intelligent of them all, and later in the show, when Bulkhead became wounded, we can see just how devastated he was that he couldn’t be the muscle anymore, as though he died completely and was merely a ghost now. This clearly shows that, to Bulkhead, his only useful quality is his muscle. There was nothing more to his own sense of identity. Just strong, and stupid. Furthermore, before the humans came, Bulkhead was the biggest troublemaker on the team. We’ve all seen how he’s been destroying everything he touched, and maybe, in his own eyes, his strength was the only reason why the team even kept him.

But when he’s with Miko, it’s different. To Miko, he’s a superstar, he’s the greatest of them all. He is strong, magnificent, a superhero, everything that Bulkhead probably had only ever dreamed to be. And he didn’t even need to do anything. He could just be himself, and Miko would already love him.

Not only that, Miko is also so reckless sometimes that she made Bulkhead reasonable and considerate in comparison, and Bulkhead actually sometimes became the one to have to do the guiding. Not only would this be refreshing for Bulkhead to finally be able to try out the leadership and guidance role himself, he got to also got to see, with his own eyes, how team still loved Miko despite all her mistakes and how she barely contributed anything directly. Thus, this could really reassured himself that, the team also genuinely loved him too, despite all his mistakes. Even if he didn’t have the strength he did strength.

Furthermore, Miko also paralleled Wheeljack, in more levels than one. But unlike Wheeljack, Miko would never judge Bulkhead in any life decisions he makes. And while Miko does sometimes judge and criticize him, it’s almost always only for the little things, that she only did because she was immature, and she would get over quick enough. And in no way will she ever leave him for it like Wheeljack did. I also headcanon that Miko, in a way, portrayed how Bulkhead wished Wheeljack would be.

And I think, though they ended up separating, Miko’s presence still left a long lasting influence on Bulkhead. Primarily because we see how, in the Predakons Rising epilogue, Bulkhead was seen instructing the Vehicons to rebuild some buildings. That scene really hit me with surprise because this showed how Optimus, and Bulkhead himself, had began to trust Bulkhead with leadership works. I mean we remembered from episode one that Bulkhead said Optimus never left him in command, right? Well now Optimus was. And I think this could be either because Optimus remembered how Bulkhead was able to lead Miko sometimes, the most troublesome soul ever, and Bulkhead himself probably also learned from those experience and had confidence in himself doing things he had never done before.

And that’s why he loved Miko so much, even if Miko was, for a while, just a troublemaker. And, I think, Bulkhead actually wouldn’t bond so well with her if she wasn’t as much of a troublemaker.

also I just got diagnosed with autism.

[acidiccherry]

no but why does milchick know what happened in that tent??

I have no freakin’ clue too! But we have some facts that can help us speculate:

Milchick and Ms Huang weren’t there during the night, Milkshake said goodnight and never appeared till the morning after, even though Irv shouted his name into the forest a dozen times, so it seems like MDR is left unsupervised, but can you leave THEM out of all severed employees unsupervised?? Hell no, you can’t do that! So Milchick has to be at least in some proximity to them to prevent any flying fuck they can cause, but also he’s a human and has to sleep;

Irv got far off into the forest screaming “Mr Michick!!” and for some reason we could hear him in Helly’s tent and the evident sound of Mark climaxing was apparently heard by Irving;

Mark climaxed. Just wanted to point that out.

So my best guesses are the following (for the fun I’ll rank the probability of each one based solely on my flair):

The whole fuckery with Mark and Irving hearing each other, a tv playing with no visible power source, Milkshake had no footsteps behind him when he appeared in the morning (didn’t dig into that myself, just saw the screenshots on the subreddit and was like whoa) leads me to think that it could be a simulation indeed and they’re all in the same room with VR goggles on. And that way Milchick could easily see on the computer screen what was happening. I don’t like this theory personally, I’m more inclined to the idea of them really going outside, so my rank is 3/10;

Mr Seth Milchick is a heavy sleeper or his own tent was somewhere else where we couldn’t see and his tent could be far away from where Irv went and thus he couldn’t hear him. As we’ve seen, the lovemaking scene was going on for QUITE SOME TIME, and Irv fell asleep waaay before that ended lol, so Milchick could get up and out to take a leak and in that moment hear what was happening in Helly’s tent. This one is pretty innocuous so my rank is 7/10;

Let’s not forget that Dylan, of all people, was right next to the guys and them having a sleeping bag party could bother him enough not to fall asleep, they were loud lolol. So he could snitch on them and report it to Milchick, but again he’s very devoted to the team so it’s very improbable. I guess the only way he could do this is if he didn’t fully realised the consequences of his words, but that is also not really probable, so I’ll rank it 0,5/10

So yeah, there’s that! I’ll roll with the second one but we’ll see. Oh, and I forgot that there’s a chance that there are cameras inside the tents. Who knows.

[voidaspects]

A rambling defense of Makuta Spiriah('s design)!

Here’s a very long winded post about a bionicle side character that I suddenly have a lot to say about

I had no strong opinions of this like an hour ago and I suddenly have a massive rant to go on!

Okay, so, Makuta Spiriah, the 2008 bionicle combo model, is regarded as one of the ugliest combo models made for the series, from what I can see. It’s hard to deny that his model is pretty ugly and unremarkable, when you first see it. The colours clash, the construction is weird, and there’s a weird extra not-matoran guy included randomly? I won’t lie, I didn’t have a very good opinion of him either.

However

As of now, this past hour, I have built this figure, and felt compelled to make a defense of his design, because we’ve been far too harsh.

So, makuta spiriah is a pretty obscure character in the wider bionicle storyline, and would probably have just been a footnote in the story, were it not for the “Federation of Fear” story serial, in which he was a prominent member of the team. I probably wouldn’t have had an interest in building him, were it not for me wanting to collect every member. With all of the component sets for spiriah collected, my team is now completed (pic at the end). And I was immediately struck by how much better he looked in person? Like, don’t get me wrong, he’s still weird and janky, and his colour scheme is somewhat hard to adjust to, and all of the things you’d expect on initial glance (botar this is not) but I fully expected him to be ugly as hell, and instead he’s a pretty competent and cohesive model?

I think there’s a few reasons for this, but the biggest one in my opinion is actually the reason I felt the need to make this post, because it’s one of the main things I see people talking about with this model:

I am completely, intensely certain that the other model on his back is intended to be part of his construction, and it seems to just be accepted as a given that it isn’t for some reason?

So, the reason I feel so intensely about this is that pretty much every time this model is mentioned, without fail, there’s sort of a fun fact about how “Spiriah is canon, but the matoran-esque thing on him is non-canon”

This doesn’t seem to have a direct source, so much as it’s a conclusion drawn due to how this second model is perceived. Specifically, the conclusion is drawn from: “there appears to be a weird, slapped together matoran character on his back, to showcase the matoran fusion function from 2008” + “No such character exists in the story” = “this part of the model isn’t canon”

And see, this logic treats the interpretation that this is a separate character as a given. Like… it doesn’t seem to be questioned. And with this mindset, yeah, when you put the models beside each other as individual things, they both look awful:

You’re left with what seemingly appears to be a weirdly shaped antroz and some extra dude made from scraps. But in all honesty, I think this is just accepted as a fact due to spiriah already being accepted as an ugly model. I instead want to propose this as my first piece of evidence that this is not how this is intended to be seen. But my evidence doesn’t stop there.

For instance, another thing worth mentioning is the fact that there is not a single official depiction of the spiriah model that shows the two seperated, from what I can see. They are never once shown on their own in any capacity.

The one single exception to this is this part of the instructions, which tell you to construct the entirety of this second model as it’s own thing, before inserting it onto spiriah. However, this leads us to an additional point, being that this step is in the middle of spiriah’s construction, before you’ve even attached his arms. If this was intended to be a seperate model, why would it be attached during his body construction?

My final piece of evidence I want to propose, relates to the notion of this second model being “an extra little thing you make from the scraps.” I think this idea is popular because of just how barebones it looks on it’s own. Like a weird afterthought. People rationalize this idea with the explanation that this was just to show the matoran fusion function that was being heavily advertised in 2008. They just wanted to insert the-matoran-on-his-back function and threw this extra thing together, right?

Except, having built this figure now… I don’t think you guys realize just how many extra pieces are left. Like, no, this wasn’t a bottom of the barrel little extra thing. They had three mask option and kept the head bare. There was so much to work with.

(Also, fun fact, the matoran-thing has asymmetrical weapon pieces, but both of the chosen weapons have a second version available that wasn’t used, meaning it was a conscious choice for some reason. I don’t have a point to make with that, I just think it’s kinda weird and worth mentioning lmao)

Anyway, my point is, I strongly believe there is NOT some weird non canon extra guy with spiriah. Spiriah is, instead, a model that integrated a full matoran build into it’s construction as an actual design element. It uses the motif of the matoran fusion function, but the matoran instead fills out his figure, bulking him up to look more cohesive and complex.

Now, whether this is intended to be just an abstract way to construct his design, or he’s actually intended to look like he has a person melded into him or something, overtly, I’ll leave up to you. The makuta are weird and mutated enough that it honestly could very well be the latter, though it’d be an awfully weird thing to go unmentioned. But who knows, maybe some poor matoran got shadow-absorbed nidihki and krehka style. Or something. Your call!

Anyway, I’ll finish off this weirdly specific rant by just saying that I think this really changed the way I look at some of these models. I think the vast amount of criticism I’ve seen of Spiriah is reflective of the fact that on a glance, he looks super unappealing, to the point that no one really wants to build him, and therefore people maintain these opinions without ever seeing him in person? Not to sound like I know better or anything, I would never have built him if it weren’t for my love of the Federation of Fear story, and up until this moment I firmly believed Spiriah was one of the worst models of the line. Jarringly coloured, weirdly proportioned. I’d have no reason to believe otherwise, had I not done this.

I just think that’s neat, and I also think it’s neat that I suddenly had so much to say immediately after building him. I still don’t think he’s anything special, granted. He could absolutely be improved. But as he is? He’s still pretty dang cool! Cooler than I think any of us have given him credit for! And I think that makes me appreciate him more!

So shout out to the biggest failure in bionicle history. At least someone thinks something about you is a success!

(Lariska model created by Gerou100 (unofficial fanon contest winning model) (it’s canon in my heart))

[morganski-19]

I have something to say about the scene where Eddie was talking to Weston’s dad.

There’s already the thought out there that Eddie asking if Weston’s dad was really that upset about him being a cheerleader is hinting at his coming out arc. Which, I agree with. When looking at male cheerleaders throughout media, it’s never looked at in that much of a positive light. They are demeaned for doing a “girl’s sport” and “not being man enough for the football team” (which is stupid but just the way it goes). And, it can often be used as ammo for “being too feminine”, which would equal being gay in those people’s minds.

So when looking at it in that light, Eddie’s basically asking Weston’s dad if he would dislike his son for being gay.

I think we’re supposed to look at this to see how Eddie is as a father. There is nothing Chris could ever do to make Eddie dislike him. Even when he travels halfway across the country just because he’s mad at Eddie. That still doesn’t make Eddie love Chris any less.

And while I think that’s important, there’s another aspect to this.

Eddie went to Weston’s dad because he grew up with a dad that would have hated him if he was a cheerleader. He grew up with a dad that made him the “man of the house” at a young age. He grew up with a dad that taught him what a man was supposed to be, and made sure he knew straying from that would lead to disappointment.

So, in that moment, Eddie was preventing the narrative from repeating. He was showing a father with a fixed mindset that there was so much more than stereotypical gender roles. That his son was strong in his own way, stronger than a soldier.

I think this scene is powerful for so many reasons, but I think that is my main takeaway. It shows how much Eddie is able to break away from those gender roles for his son, but not so much for himself. We’ve seen throughout the show, especially in his flashbacks in Eddie Begins, that he believes that he needs to be the provider. That he needs to be this strong support. The football player instead of the cheerleader.

However, in raising Chris solely in his own, he has made an effort to be better than his father. That’s changed him. It’s made him see the ways his father failed in a new light, and started to make him push past that mindset.

In the next episodes, the storyline for Eddie is going to focus on his journey navigating himself without someone to provide for. With Chris still gone, it strips him of that lasting thread his father sewed into him. He will be able to explore himself separated from the image he was given, and find who he is.

That way, when Chris comes back, and their back to being the family they deserve, Eddie can embrace who he is, and not what his father wanted him to be.

[bookoftheironfist]

And thus, the calm, serene illusion of safety crafted so deftly in the opening of this episode is SHATTERED by Danny’s discovery that Colleen’s beloved home is, in fact, a Hand compound. And the clues were there, for anyone alert enough to see them (my favorite is the fact that most of the people at the compound (including Colleen), while dressed in normal clothes and workout gear, are wearing the same shade of maroon worn by the more traditionally-dressed Hand ninja seen in the Daredevil show).

Though much of this is an MCU invention, there is a small basis in the comics for Colleen’s association with the Hand. During the “Shadowland” event, 616 Colleen learned that her mother, who died when she was a baby, had been a member of the Hand and led a small, elite sub-group known as the Nail. At the urging of Matt Murdock (who was leading the Hand at the time), Colleen briefly resurrected the Nail as a crime-fighting team.

I mentioned in an earlier analysis post the importance of Colleen’s private conversation with Bakuto in his office in this episode. The creative team of this show never, at any point, wants the viewer to think that Colleen might be a villain, and in fact, this show does tremendous work throughout to humanize and complicate the Hand. We are no longer getting the nameless, faceless ranks of disposable ninja that we frequently see in the comics, and which were unquestioningly adapted as-is into the Daredevil show. Instead, we are seeing people: Colleen’s students, looking for a brighter future. Colleen herself, who sees this group as her family, who credits Bakuto with saving her life. These are normal, good, kind people, with names and lives and interiority. And Colleen loves them; we’ve seen the depth of her love in this episode, in her joy at introducing Danny to this place that is so special to her. And so we are primed to go into this scene and experience the maximum amount of pain, because we see exactly what both sides are seeing, while also knowing the precise point of disconnect. 

For Danny, this is a nightmare convergence of everything that has been built up up to this point in his character arc. He has just learned that the Hand are real, and now he needs to take them down to properly fulfill his duty as the Iron Fist. He has grown to suspect that the Hand may have been involved in his parents’ deaths; he has to take them down in order to finally have that closure. And he has been betrayed AGAIN!!!, by the one person in his life who he thought for sure this time he could trust. Danny’s entire world, his one path forward, is currently rooted in the idea of destroying the Hand, and in the idea that the Hand are evil. This revelation that Colleen is Hand rips his whole world out from under him, and he is ANGRY—at himself for falling for it, at Colleen for lying, and at the destruction of these stories he has been telling himself about the Hand—stories that are keeping him sane right now. He refuses to listen to reason. He refuses to believe that everyone in K’un-Lun was wrong about this. He can’t believe it. He can’t afford to. 

For Colleen, she KNEW this was going to happen, dammit! But Bakuto had offered her hope—and she trusts Bakuto unwaveringly at this point—that Danny might be okay with this, that he would understand. And the fact that Danny would INSTANTLY turn on her like this, disregard their relationship, their trust, and prioritize K’un-Lun’s stories of the Hand above everything she is trying to tell him, is BRUTAL. He refuses to believe that her family might possibly not actually be evil. And now, because of this, because of so many things outside of her control, she has lost him.

It’s an incredibly painful scene. 10/10. 

[dreaming-of-the-reality]

Everything below, is my opinion, and my opinion only! I’m not looking to argue or debate with anyone, these are just my true thoughts after watching episode 3 of House of the Dragon.

I’m experiencing some disappointment about this show, and am wondering if anyone feels the same. If you don’t? That’s fine, keep it to yourself or make a post expressing your opinions separately.

Something about House of the Dragon just doesn’t sit right with me. I feel the series is dropping off.

When you look back to Game of Thrones, and think about how much content they were able to perfectly portray within 1 season, how many houses and characters they set up in such a short amount of time, how many stories they told all at once so seamlessly… and then compare it to House of the Dragon. There’s just no comparison.

Game of Thrones was just an absolute master piece. Amazing pace, great character building throughout each season, the plot twists, the battles, the tension, the actors’ ability to make the audience love them or hate them.

I’m just not seeing that with House of the Dragon. It doesn’t quite feel the same. This is, of course, no fault of the actors, I think they are doing a great job with what they have.

I just feel the show is going in a very underwhelming direction, that honestly makes me like not even excited for each episode anymore. I have waited like 2 years for this season since adoring the first one… only to get bored and underwhelmed after the third episode?

Through season 1, I could kind of connect to the members on Team Green, specifically Aemond, Heleana, and Alicent. But for some reason it just feels like every time a new episode comes out, it’s like a different character.

One minute I love Alicent, the next minute I’m confused, then I’m back to sort of liking her, and then back to “what is going on?”. One minute she’s sobbing over the death of her grandson and the trauma her daughter has experienced, and then she’s like sitting with her arms neatly folded in a council room agreeing to use it as a political game.

Then she’s begging for peace and trying her best to seek forgiveness in Rhaenyra personally, sending her letters, delivering old chapters from books but then she’s back to “there can never be peace, and I’m not even going to try and understand your point”.

In season 1 we see Alicent charge at Rhaenyra with a knife seeking revenge for her son, hugging Aemond afterwards and sitting by his side as he’s being patched up, literally in tears… season 2 we see her blank faced and not even bothering to console Aegon…

Aemond was really going somewhere. From the focus on him being bullied, to claiming a dragon, losing an eye, and then slowly seeing the shift of him becoming a great swordsman, there’s great character development there. He seemed cunning, cocky, and very proud. Especially in that episode 8 scene when him and Daemon were staring each other down, you could already feel the tension brewing. It was exciting. All we’ve seen this season is him cradled in a brothel talking about his mommy issues and how daemon is scared of him…twice.

Once would’ve sufficed to be honest. Meanwhile we see Daemon marching into Harrenhal alone, sword raised, armour on, looking strong and ready for battle. How is their battle going to be satisfying to watch or even exciting, if upon the lead up to it, we see one man charging into battles bravely, and the other spending his time in the brothel sleeping mumbling about how daemon is shaking in his boots to face the mighty Aemond? I know there’s more to come, but we haven’t seen Aemond pick up a weapon once and we are coming up to episode 4 already. Think about Season 1 Episode 10 “give me your eye! Or I will take it bastard!” Aemond, and then think about episode 3 Aemond. They are literally two different characters. They have kept 0 consistency from season 1 to season 2 apart from the fact he’s missing an eye. Also how is he the one to have mommy issues? He was literally Alicents favourite? Am I missing something?

The way they structured this show is atrocious. They spent 10 episodes following Rhaenyra’s journey in season 1, her relationship with Alicent, her relationship building with Daemon over each episode, and then leading up to their marriage, Rhaenyra and Ser Criston, Rhaenyras relationship with Jace and Luke… we barely saw anything from the greens. Then we jump into season 2 which is now heavily based off of the greens… and yet they’ve skipped all the character development that daemon and Rhaenyra got in season 1… they are now trying to rush it, and doing a terrible job.

Let also not forget to add how HOTD just keeps randomly introducing characters and then hiding them away or killing them off in the snap of a finger 3 seconds later?

Jaehaerys was seen once in season 1 and barely, only to then be killed episode 1 of season 2. It was very underwhelming as we weren’t really attached to his character. They tried to centre the first episode around Aegon and Jaehaerys relationship, but it was too rushed I feel. If they had started setting it up in season 1, with like a small scene of Aegon reading a book to the twins, or playing with one of them, it might’ve been more powerful, but it feels like something the writers came up with at the last second “hmm how can we make this episode better when the audience don’t even know the twins yet? Ah! Let’s have Aegon smile at him twice in a small council meeting for like 3 seconds and then kill him off”. I think the impactful part of that murder scene was Heleana and the sounds. Not the character itself. That’s just me.

Let’s also mention how the council spent more time debating whether or not they should have a funeral for Jaehaerys, than the actual funeral scene. It just randomly cuts off half way through? We watched Aemma and her son’s funeral, being burned. We watched Laenas funeral, and we see… what? A half assed scene of a funeral?

Blood and Cheese were introduced half way through episode 1, had like a few minutes of them walking through a castle, finding Heleana, blankly telling her “we want to kill your son so which one is it” - I mean come on… blood was supposed to be this brutish monster and yet was less intimidating than the baker who told Arya to piss off in season 1 GOT. Then cheese staring into Heleana eyes, looking like he was about to say “let’s just leave, and go home”. They then killed them off, not even showing their deaths, just blood being hit once and cheese already hung.

The Blackwoods and Brackens… I would’ve honestly enjoyed episode 3 more, if they had centred the episode around their feud. At this point, I’d watch a whole season of just those two houses fighting over a pile of rocks and grass.

Cregan? Has anyone seen Cregan? Sara Snow? Need I say more?

Daeron!? They don’t mention him once in season 1, and realised “oh shit, he might actually be important so let’s just throw him into some dialogue twice” - then they’ll introduce him next season and everyone will just be like “whose that now? Is he another Targaryen bastard? Wait…. Alicents son?”. They should’ve showed him as a kid being sent off in season 1 like myrcella in GOT.

Joffrey, Aegon III and Viserys II. Just ship them off, what we get like 2 seconds of Rhaenyra passing them a toy? These two are literally the futures of this whole show… and… nothing. I feel nothing for any of them.

The Dance may have been about the downfall of House Targaryen, but it was a war that involved basically every house in the whole of Westeros… if your going to make a show about the same 10 characters and randomly introduce side characters who you kill off in the same scene, why bother?

In conclusion. This series has more loose and greyed ends than every thread being woven in that tapestry during the opening credits.

Severely underwhelming, not even interesting to watch anymore, unnecessary scenes delaying the real battles and exciting parts. Random characters being introduced EVERY episode, with no context as to who they are unless you’ve read the books.

It’s funny, they aren’t following the books at all, but are introducing characters as if everyone has read them and expects the audience to know who they are.