#They’re like ‘I feel like that’s wrong but I don’t know enough about hobbits to dispute it’

[9ofspades]

No but there should be a rumor that hobbits had sharp teeth and a separate belief that hobbits had night vision and some of the dwarves, upon seeing hobbit teeth, would be like “well now I don’t know what to believe.” Some might even just never have noticed their teeth and have spent the entire time thinking the hobbits wanted to eat second breakfast with their EXTREMELY SHARP TEETH. In the Hobbit, they’d frequently have consulted Bilbo on what’s happening at night or in dark spaces, and Bilbo would be like “oh yes that’s all part of this whole thing where I turned invisible once and now I’m the New Gandalf” and never question it, so the misconception doesn’t get corrected. Later, people are always asking hobbits to open packages, the way you ask that of your friend who always has scissors/a knife on them. Hobbits think it’s because they have a reputation for always being prepared to open parcels of food and never find out it’s because everyone thinks they bite it open with their fangs.

[theserpentsadvocate]

On Names

So I try to post (work of some kind) on my days off + stats, and it's BC Day, but I didn't quite manage to crank out a chapter of Satisfaction in time (I did write 5K today, though - I cannot wait until I can quit my second job and write fanfic on the weekend), so here is a rant/meta I did about my pet peeves on names in fic, and how this applies to Veronica Mars specifically. (I started with a wide net, but the main focus ended up there because of course it did.)

Fanfiction peeve of the day –

Please, I am begging you, pay attention to names in canon! It’s so glaring when people get it wrong, but it’s so common and I don’t understand!

If two characters have any kind of important relationship in canon and we see them interact more than once or twice, we know what they call each other. Do not deviate from that to be cute, or to emphasize a character’s accent. (Cordelia’s nickname is Cordy. Doyle calls her Cordy. He also calls her Cordelia. He should not be calling her ‘Delia’ just because he’s Irish.) Do not randomly switch a character’s nickname to a different nickname for no reason, or so that their love interest is calling them something special! (Shortened nicknames are not a thing in Middle-earth unless you are a hobbit. Unless you feel qualified enough with Sindarin (usually) name construction to have someone give their friend or spouse an epessë like ‘Tinúviel’, that person should be using their full name. Yes, even if it’s three syllables. Spare me from this ‘Fara’ nonsense – Eowyn would call him ‘Faramir’. Yes, always.) Do not assign a character who doesn’t use nicknames a nickname they never use in canon just because you can’t imagine intimacy coexisting with a long name, or a standard one! (Hermione goes by Hermione. She takes pains to get Viktor Krum to say her full name, even if she tolerates a bit of mispronunciation. She is not ever called Mione.) If someone threw out a one-off joke nickname for someone, for the love of Dante, do not start using it as a regular form of address!

And for the love of god, pay attention to the context in which people use nicknames! I am running across this willy-nilly in the Veronica Mars fandom right now, so, for my sanity:

Veronica:

I am reading an otherwise mostly-good fanfic right now where Logan keeps calling Veronica ‘Ronica’ and it’s driving me up the wall. No one has ever called her ‘Ronica’ in the history of ever, and it’s not even a standard nickname for Veronica, so it’s even worse. (This is extra annoying to me because I happen to think ‘Ronica’ is an exceptionally stupid nickname (although it would actually be fine as a name in its own right), but YMMV.)

Veronica typically doesn’t use nicknames, she doesn’t introduce herself with nicknames, she’s comfortable with her full name. Her dad (nor her mom for that matter) never calls her anything but ‘Veronica’ (or ‘honey’). Her two long-term boyfriends only ever call her Veronica (with one exception that I will Get Into below). Cliff, Wallace, and especially Weevil have been known to call her ‘V’* on occasion, which is a sign that they have relatively close relationships to her that also have a strong element of casualness or flippancy (notably, during Season Four, when they are not close, Weevil only ever calls her ‘Veronica’). Lilly, who was exceptionally close to her, lengthens her name as a nickname/form of endearment, calling her ‘Veronica Mars’ pretty often.

Logan does call her ‘Ronnie’ in early Season One. This is extremely obviously him being an asshole; he’s addressing her by a diminutive she doesn’t use to emphasize that they’re no longer friends and because doing so is inherently demeaning (imagine if you have a Michael who goes by Michael (or even Mike) and you suddenly start calling him ‘Mikey’ – it’s rude and dismissive). No one ever calls her that except him and Dick, and once Logan and Veronica are back on good terms, no one calls her that except Dick, who is doing it to be irreverent and disrespectful. It is objectively incorrect for her friends and/or boyfriend to be calling her ‘Ronnie’ and utterly bizarre for the narration to be referring to her that way.

*I feel strongly that it should be ‘V’ and not ‘Vee’ because it’s not short for a name that starts with a ‘vee’ sound (e.g., if her name was Vianne or Vita I might feel differently), it’s the actual letter V that her name starts with, but I acknowledge that that’s subjective.

Also, Felix referred to her as ‘blondie’ one time, dismissively, to Weevil – ‘Blondie’ is not his nickname for her! Wallace, insomuch as he has a nickname for her, calls her ‘V’, although he sticks with ‘Veronica’ most of the time; ‘SupaFly’ was a one-off joke and he should not be calling her that on the regular any more than she should be calling him ‘Sodapop’* just because she made an Outsiders reference in the pilot.

*And on that note, it’s ‘Sodapop’ because that’s the name of a character from The Outsiders, not ‘soda pop’ like the drink.

Logan:

I am begging you, Weevil called Logan ‘Opie’ one time. It was a generic insult, not a nickname. Even in an AU where they’re somehow bros, it is not something he would be calling him on a regular basis! (Conversely, Logan should not be calling him ‘Paco’ for the same reason, and also because it’s racist so that’s even worse!)

Weevil:

Authority figures (Keith, various teachers, Cliff when representing him in court, etc.) typically call Weevil ‘Eli’; his friends, particularly the PCHers, call him ‘Weevil’ pretty much exclusively (except for Veronica), and his family seems to waver between the two with a preference for his actual name – his grandmother calls him both ‘Eli’ and ‘Weevil’ when she’s talking about him, but sadly we don’t get enough scenes with her to know what’s more common (the only time we hear her actually address him she calls him ‘m’ijo’), Chardo usually calls him ‘Weevil’ but switches to ‘Eli’ when he’s making an emotional appeal, Claudia appears to exclusively call him ‘Eli’. (Context makes it pretty clear that Jade calls him ‘Eli’ as well, which is unsurprising.) We never hear Ophelia call him anything, but he refers to himself as ‘Uncle Eli’ when talking to her.

Veronica only ever calls him Weevil when she’s talking to him, notably, although she does use his real name on occasion when she’s talking about him – to her criminology class, when representing herself as his PI in ‘Weevils Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down’, and to Jade (even correcting herself from ‘Weevil’) in Mr. Kiss And Tell. (Interestingly, she’s more likely to use his full name than just his legal first name – she calls him ‘Eli Navarro’ several times, but almost never uses just ‘Eli’. She’s also probably the only person to call him ‘Weevil Navarro’*, presumably because in that instance she’s talking to him.)

*although Cliff does call him ‘Eli ‘Weevil’ Navarro’ on one occasion, complete with audible quotation marks

The point is, Weevil does get called both, and there’s some leeway for things to change a bit as relationships change – it’s not necessarily out of character, for instance, for Veronica to start addressing him as ‘Eli’ if they’ve started dating, or if it’s a fic (particularly an AU) set around the time of the novels – but it shouldn’t come from nowhere, and it shouldn’t be arbitrary. Keith wouldn’t be addressing him as ‘Weevil’, and Felix and Hector wouldn’t be calling him ‘Eli’ (unless maybe he’s secretly dating one of them it’s Felix and they’re in private). [Writing that sentence made me low-key start shipping him with Hector – why do I do this to myself?]

What he should not be getting called is ‘Weevs’, which is right in the midpoint between ‘Ronnie’ and ‘Opie’. Yes, Logan called him that once or twice (keywords once or twice) – in the exact same context that he called Veronica ‘Ronnie’, which is to say, as a mocking diminutive. It should not be serving as a general nickname even when Weevil and Logan are antagonistic, and it should definitely never be something that Hector or Veronica calls him! (And yes, I have seen both.)

And since I’m already aggravated – while I’m on the subject ‘Eli’ is a name unto itself. There’s a subset of fandom that seems strangely convinced it’s short for ‘Elias’ or ‘Elijah’ and… no. It’s not.

[delicatenightfury]

Star of the Mountain: Chapter 13

Warnings: fluff, angst, canon-level violence, spoilers for the Hobbit films

Pairing: OC x Thorin Oakenshield

Beta'd By: @mistys-blerbz

Author's Note: please do not steal my work! I do not own the Hobbit or the characters, but I do own my OCs and the parts of the plot that are not part of the movies. I have worked very hard on this fic. Please be respectful and do not steal.

Please comment, reblog, and like!

Masterlist - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

Kili groaned as he saddled his pony. His muscles ached so much, he wasn’t quite sure how he would fare riding the ponies to Mirkwood.

“Are you all right there, Kili?” Oreliell asked as she passed, a small smile on her face.

“Oh yes, just fine,” he replied, putting on a confident facade and standing up straighter.

“Need any help?”

“Nope! I’ve got it perfectly handled, thank you.”

Oreliell smiled and walked away. As soon as her back was turned, Kili slumped his shoulders again. Gloin chuckled from behind him. 

“All right, brother?” Fili asked, approaching him with his own pony already saddled.

“I don’t understand how you’re not sore after yesterday.”

“I wasn’t the one knocked down four times.”

Kili shot a glare at his brother, who laughed. The two mounted their ponies, settling in as the company prepared to leave while Gandalf talked with Beorn a distance away. While they waited, they chose to observe what was happening around them. Or at least Kili was. Fili was making sure that he had all of his knives safely in their secured spots within his coat, shirt, and shoes. Several of the dwarves were helping each other mount the ponies. Bilbo still looked a bit ridiculous sitting on a pony.

Kili’s eyes eventually fell on his uncle after he called out to Gandalf. Thorin was talking to Dwalin and Balin, most likely discussing their travel plans. Not long after, Oreliell approached, her horse right alongside her. Kili watched the small group talk for several minutes before talking to his brother.

“What are your thoughts about Oreliell?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Fili said.

“What do you think of her?”

Fili looked at his brother in confusion before glancing over at the elf in question.

“I don’t know. I mean she’s a great warrior and she and her sister have been incredibly helpful since we met them. Not to mention she has been really friendly with the lot of us, despite some of the hesitation we showed at first. I don’t think I can say something negative about her.”

Kili nodded.

“And what about her relationship with Thorin?”

Fili stopped.

“What?”

“Oreliell and Thorin!” He motioned to the two of them. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how close they are.”

“They’ve been friends for several years, Kili. Of course they’re going to be close.”

“But when was the last time you saw uncle look at a woman, or anyone that way?”

“Kili-”

“Tell me I’m wrong. Actually look and tell me I’m wrong, Fili.”

Before they could turn their attention to the couple in question, Gandalf joined the company and mounted his horse. Everyone urged their ponies forward. Orcs were after them, so they needed to move quickly. 

The ride didn’t seem to take too long, which they were all thankful for. Gandalf slowed in the lead as they approached a large forest. It looked overgrown, yet also withered in places.

“The Elven Gate,” Gandalf said after dismounting and examining the forest entrance. “Here lies our path through Mirkwood.”

“No sign of the orcs,” Dwalin said. “We have luck on our side.”

The company dismounted and set to work on gathering their supplies from the ponies. 

“Set the ponies loose! Let them return to their master.”

“This forest feels sick,” Bilbo said. “As if a disease lies upon it. Is there no way around?”

“Not unless we go two hundred miles north,” Oreliell said, “or twice that distance south.”

A couple of the dwarves grumbled as they unloaded their ponies. Soon enough, the ponies were released. They seemed to know where to go as they turned around and ran back the way they had come.

“Not my horse!” Gandalf suddenly cried, returning to them. His shout caused everyone to turn toward him. “I need it.”

“You’re not leaving us,” Bilbo said.

“I would not do this unless I had to.”

Fili looked at his brother as it began to rain lightly.

“What good is a wizard if he keeps leaving?” he muttered.

They heard someone shuffle behind them. The princes looked over their shoulders. Vedis had a smile on her face, and raised an amused eyebrow at the two of them.

“I’ll be waiting for you at the overlook, before the slopes of Erebor,” Gandalf said, turning away from Bilbo and toward Thorin. “Keep the map and key safe. Do not enter that mountain without me. This is not the Greenwood of old. There is a stream in the woods that carries a dark enchantment. Do not touch the water. Cross only by the stone bridge. The very air of the forest is heavy with illusion. It will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray. You must stay on the path. Do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again.” He finally mounted his horse and rode away. “No matter what may come, stay on the path!”

Thorin made his way through the company, heading to the gate.

“Come on,” he said. “We must reach the mountain before the sun sets on Durin’s Day.”

“Let’s go,” Dwalin said, following after him. Kili nudged Fili’s arm and went in after Dwalin.

“This is our one chance to find the hidden door.”

The company filed after Thorin and proceeded to make their way into the forest. No one really spoke as they walked, too focused on keeping the path under their feet. The further they moved inward, the more twisted the trees seemed to become. Like Bilbo had said before, everything looked sickly.

However, Kili also seemed to notice that his mind was becoming slightly foggy. He shook his head, as if to clear it. He stumbled over a tree root and nearly fell face forward. He only barely managed to keep his balance when Oreliell grabbed the back of his coat.

“Easy,” she said.

He nodded to her, managing to gain a little clarity. Meanwhile, the others made comments about their own dizziness.

Kili looked up and noticed that the path seemed to come to a stop. But then he realized why.

“We found the bridge,” he said.

A few others pushed by him to see, quickly noticing their predicament. The bridge had collapsed.

“We could try and swim it,” Bofur suggested.

“Didn’t you not hear what Gandalf said?” Thorin said. “A dark magic lies upon this forest. The waters of this stream are enchanted.”

“Doesn’t look very enchanting to me.”

“We must find another way across.”

Kili noticed a collection of vines off to the side. He went over and grabbed the nearest one, testing its strength against his own.

“These vines look strong enough,” he said.

He went to start crossing, but was stopped by Thorin.

“Kili! We send the lightest first.”

Kili stepped away from the vines. A few things happened in that next moment. Most of the company turned to look at Bilbo. However, Kili noticed that Oreliell moved to step forward, only to be stopped by Thorin. Kili looked at them. They spoke in hushed voices so no one could hear, but they seemed to be arguing. Before Kili could truly comprehend what he was seeing, the two separated and went back to their previous positions. It all happened so fast that Kili wondered if he had imagined the whole thing. The forest couldn’t have been messing with his mind that much, could it?

Bilbo came forward and began to slowly cross the river. He stumbled every now and then. Several times, Kili thought he was going to fall in. Bilbo finally made it across, landing in a heap on the ground.

Thorin motioned for the company to start moving. He took the lead, following a path similar to Bilbo’s. Kili exchanged a brief look with his brother as the other dwarves started their journey across the river. He grabbed hold of a vine, testing its strength again before stepping onto another vine.

It was slow moving, but they made progress. Just a little bit further and they would reach the other side.

Suddenly, there was a splash. Kili looked down to see Bombur floating in the river, sound asleep.

“Bombur!” Bofur said. “Hang on, cousin!”

“Don’t!” Oreliell called.

The company looked back at her, finding her and Vedis still standing on the other side of the river.

“What are you two still doing over there?” Dori asked.

“Everyone finish crossing,” Oreliell said. “Vedis and I will pull Bombur out. Start making a stretcher though, he’s going to be asleep for a while still.”

Several dwarves seemed hesitant to keep moving, but eventually did with some nudging from the others. When they touched dry land again, they started assembling a stretcher using supplies Bilbo had grabbed. Kili watched as the sisters easily crossed through the vines.

They got to where Bombur was and lowered themselves close to the water. Each drew their sword and cut down several of the more sturdy vines around them. Kili watched in amazement as they worked together to guide Bombur toward the shore while still moving gently across the hanging vines. They took their time, making sure to keep their balance while keeping Bombur within reach. Vedis touched the shore first and grabbed hold of Bombur’s feet to keep him steady. Oreliell joined her and together, they pulled Bombur to shore.

“Is the stretcher ready?” Oreliell said. Nori and Ori brought it forward. “Help us get him on. We’ll have to carry him.”

Once Bombur was settled on the stretcher, they started moving again. They were slower this time than before thanks to the added weight. The company took turns carrying Bombur. Eventually, it was Fili, Kili, Dwalin, and Bofur’s turn.

The further they walked, the more disoriented Kili felt. His mind felt foggy and he had stumbled over his feet several times. The others seemed to be in a similar state. All except for Oreliell and Vedis. Kili wondered if it had to do with their elven heritage that they weren’t as affected as the rest of them.

It was Nori who ended up calling for a rest. The company came to a halt, mumbling to themselves as they swayed.

“Voices,” Bilbo suddenly said. “Can you hear them?”

“I hear nothing,” Thorin replied. “No wind. No birdsong. What hour is it?”

“I do not know,” Dwalin said from behind Kili. “I do not even know what day it is.”

“This is taking too long. Is there no end to this accursed forest?”

“None that I can see,” Gloin said. “Only trees and more trees.”

“We are making good time,” Oreliell spoke up. “The forest’s magic alters the mind’s perceptions.”

Thorin suddenly started pushing through the dwarves. 

“This way,” he said, starting down an unmarked path. 

“But Gandalf said-”

“Do as I say. Follow me!”

Slowly, the dwarves followed after him.

“Thorin, no-” Oreliell said, trying to stop them.

“Come on!”

“Thorin!” Her voice became more and more distant as Thorin led them deeper into the woods.

They weren’t sure how long they traveled before they realized that they had lost the path. They searched and searched for it, but it seemed to be long gone. Balin pointed out that it would be best to keep moving in the same direction they had been moving in.

“Look,” Ori suddenly said, bending down to pick something up.

“A tobacco pouch,” Dori said. “There’s dwarves in these woods.”

“Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less,” Bofur added. “This is exactly the same as mine.”

“That’s because it is yours,” Bilbo said. “You understand? We’re going round in circles. We are lost.”

“We’re not lost,” Thorin. replied. “We keep heading east.”

“But which way is east? We’ve lost the sun,” Oin whined.

“I thought you were the expert,” Dwalin grumbled.

“I’m not the one who lost the sun!”

The dwarves started shoving one another, arguing about who lost the path or the sun. Kili stumbled as Fili was pushed into him, but regained his footing enough to push back.

“Enough!” Thorin shouted. “Quiet! All of you! We’re being watched.”

Kili woke up to the sensation of falling. He could barely move his limbs, trapped in some kind of sticky sack. His memory came back to him in flashes. Giant spiders had descended upon them out of nowhere. They had injected them with something that knocked them out and wrapped them in webs. Kili wildly tore at the webs, breaking through and breathing in the stale forest air.

“Fili!” he called.

“Here, Kili!” his brother responded, a few feet away.

Fili had gotten himself free first and moved to help Kili up.

“Quickly!” Thorin shouted. They looked up and saw more spiders climbing down toward them. “Run!”

Everyone had their swords drawn as they ran. Any spider that came close was hacked at and killed swiftly. Despite their efforts, more spiders kept coming. 

“Ori, look out!”

A figure suddenly dropped from the trees, their blade impaling itself into the oncoming spider’s head. The company paused in shock. Vedis looked up at them, a smirk on her face.

“Are we done here?” They spun again, finding Oreliell standing behind them, blood on her clothes and sword. “Because there are more coming.”

Her words seemed to snap them out of their thoughts and they started running. Kili went to go after them, but was grabbed from behind by a spider. He tried to hack at the creature with his sword, but couldn’t get a good enough angle. 

“Help!” he cried. He could barely hear his brother shout his name.

The spider knocked him to the ground, causing him to drop his sword. It then started to drag him back through the leaves by his foot. Out of nowhere, an elf dropped down from the trees and started killing spiders, shooting the one attacking Kili with an arrow. Kili stumbled to his feet, noticing yet another spider coming toward him. Unable to find his sword in the moment, he called to the elf.

“Throw me a dagger! Quick!”

“If you think I’m giving you a weapon, dwarf, you’re mistaken.”

Kili’s head spun again to look at the elf, taken aback that it was a woman who had saved him. He shouldn’t have been that surprised, given how many times the company had been saved by Oreliell and Vedis, but it still caught him off guard. The elven woman spun suddenly and threw a dagger, hitting the spider in the head just before it reached Kili.

Durinu shirumund, Kili thought as the woman stood to her full height. (translation: /By Durin's beard\)

[violetlunette]

BNHA’s Failure of Story Build-up

Okay, so I struggled to figure out how to start this, so this took a while, but I’m here now. So! Let’s talk about “build-up” and how the Main story of BNHA failed to do that.

*BNHA Spoilers

*BNHA Critical

*Ranty opinions

*Long Post

So, what does build-up mean in the context of a story? Basically it’s the material needed for plot points and character development to pay off and impact the readers most effectively. The build-up is important to build tension and emotions otherwise, scenes fall flat and makes the readers confused rather than invested. Without build up, plot twists and emotional scenes don’t work as the writer failed to set things up.

For instance, In the Lord of the Rings, Boromir’s betrayal hits hard for many because the story did its job of setting up the event. We know that Boromir wants to save Gondor and his people and believes the ring will allow him to do so. Every time he mentions Gondor, we hear the desperation in his voice and his heartbreak. However, we also see him training Merry and Pippin and then playing with them. We see how he empathized with the hobbits' heartbreak when Gandalf died, demanding Aragon give them a chance to grieve. So when the betrayal came and he tried to steal the ring, it broke our hearts. And then there’s his death!

BNHA doesn’t have a lot of moments like that because it rarely does any build-up. It just introduced characters out of the blue, then acts like they were a big deal when they just were. it was more, hello, goodbye, oh, I’m dead now. And the publishers seem to realize this as they tend to send all the build up to side materials like Vigilantes and Team Up Missions, which is a huge writing failure that I’ll get to later.

Here, I will focus on three plot points and why they failed to hit the mark.

I did a poll—albeit, a poorly made one as I had no idea what I was doing--a while ago asking five questions;

1: Did you feel that Class 1-A had the second family vibe, particularly with Izuku?

2: What were you thinking when Izuku left UA?

3: How did you feel when Class 1-A came to bring Izuku back?

4: How did you feel about Midnight’s death? (And did you read only the main manga, or the sides as well?)

5: What were your thoughts about Kurogiri’s reveal?

The first three are connected as it’s focused on Class 1-A’s bond.

First off, I don’t think anyone was sad when Izuku left U.A. as the manga didn’t develop the school very well. We saw very few classes and didn’t get to know the teachers, or anything to connect us there, so when Izuku left we didn’t feel the devastation.

(I’d show a comparison of giving life to a school, but the only one I can think of is in HP, but I know the pain is still too painful for people for me to do that.)

But you know what, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the bond between class 1-a and the lack thereof.

The story tries to play up that everyone in class 1-A and their teachers have a special bond with one another, but it’s just not there. Why? Because despite being drawn together, we don’t see them interacting and connecting. Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice to one another, and there are some sweet moments, like Ochako being considerate of Tsuyu’s sensitivity to the cold. They get along, but showing characters just being nice to each other isn’t enough. We need to see them talk and connect.

Look at Hizashi and Aizawa’s relationship; they have less than 30 scenes where they actually interact with each other together in the entire manga, yet they have one of the strongest relationships in the entire series. (No, seriously; surprised me too, but it really is just around 30. Go back and see. Oh, and keep in mind I said INTERACTING, not just sitting together or being in the same area.) So, why do they work to the point where they are one of the most popular couples in fandom? Simple. It’s not quantity, it’s quality. In every scene they’re together Mic acts, and Aizawa responds. There’s a back and forth between them. Even when Mic ignores him, Aizawa is responding to that action. It’s simple, but it creates a bond.

Class 1-a doesn’t do that, at least not as much, and not with everybody. The majority of them especially don’t react to Izuku. There’s a comment or a line, but that’s it.

That being said Izuku does has a connection with half the class; his best friends, Tenya and Ochako, his rival Todoroki, his childhood bully and maybe friend Bakagou, and Yuga, who attempted to reach out to his dorm neighbor. Adding to that there are a few Izuku is friendly with such as Tsuyu, Mineta, Tomoyoki, and Eijiro, but that’s it. Izuku is never shown to even have a conversation with Toru, Rikido, Mezo, Mina, or anyone outside the ones above.

Izuku has a connection to a few characters but not his whole class. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way;

Now some of you may be wondering, why does this matter? Simple. The story says it matters.

When Izuku leaves UA, it’s supposed to be heartbreaking. The audience is supposed to feel sad when Izuku goes off on his own and leaves his class behind, but they didn’t. Instead, they were excited!

Everyone was happy that Izuku left school and was going “vigilante.” True, some felt bad that Izuku was leaving a few people behind (Inko, Tenya, Ochako, Shoto, and Bakgou) but overall, no one cared that Izuku was leaving his classmates.

When Izuku leaves UA and leaves letters explaining the truth, they didn’t feel sad. Most were wondering, “Wait, why is Izuku telling them about OFA?”

This is another moment that was played as a big deal, but it wasn’t. Aside from when Bakagou threw a fit about Izuku “lying to him” there was never any scene that showed that Izuku felt bad for keeping his secret from anyone. Plus, there was nothing to gain or lose from relieving the secret. For all the emotional weight there, Izuku might as well have revealed his favorite color, or that he slept with an All Might plushy.

Then later in the manga, when Class A came to bring Izuku back and theses are the results;

It varied, but only 3 out of 20 wanted Izuku back. The majority either didn’t care or was annoyed. This was supposed to be a big emotional moment where our hearts are breaking and yearning, “yes! Please take him home!” and yet, most of use were the opposite.

The manga plays all this as a big emotional battle, but except for a few people, no one felt the emotion. At least not the ones the manga wanted readers to feel. They didn’t want him to go back to U.A. They wanted to see more of Izuku’s solo adventures. And why? Because the manga neglected to build the relationships needed for that to pay off. (The relationships needed to especially be strong here, as it was battling against the concept of “vigilante Izuku.”)

Contrast this to when Izuku left All Might;

Izuku and All Might’s relationship is the most in-depth and developed relationship in the entire manga (FIGHT ME), and why? Because the story took time to develop it. We saw them interacting, we saw them learn and grow from each other, we saw them connect, and we saw how much they came to love each other as father and son. So when Izuku left to keep All Might safe, when we saw the bento box be rejected and fall, our hearts broke. And the angst part of us aside, most of the readers wanted All Might and Izuku to reunite and be together. We didn’t feel that way for Izuku and Class 1-A. If it was just Tenya, Ochako, Shoto, Bakagou, and maybe Aizawa, that would be a different story. Those relationships were built over the story (though they kinda drifted in recent chapters).

The next part where BNHA fails with its build-up is with Midnight’s death. When I asked about Midnight’s death, the results varied, but the gist was that people were more upset about how Midnight’s death was handled than her actual death.

Not one person out of twenty who only read the main manga was sad that Midnight died. Why? Because Midnight was just a side character you saw once in a while if you just read the main. To anyone who read just the main manga, what do you know about Midnight? Okay, we know she’s fully embraced her sexual liberty and that she dotes over youth, but what else? Did you know that outside of her hero persona she is a woman who dotes on cute things and adores children like puppies? Did you know that because of her costume in high school, a law was made stating that heroes had to cover a certain amount of skin? Did you know that she was one of Aizawa and Hizashi’s best friends? Did you know that she’s been raising a cat that Aizawa gave her to take care of? Did you know that she texts Aizawa daily with pictures of said cat and that those pictures are one of the few things to make him genuinely smile? Did you know that, despite popular belief, it was MIDNIGHT who got Aizawa into teaching at U.A.? No. If you read just the main manga and weren’t spoiled by Tumblr or fanfics, you didn’t even know any of that. Hell, you were probably just confused why Hizashi and Aizawa were so broken over her death. And why? Because all the information I mentioned was in a side series, along with a good portion of Midnight’s character. In BNHA vigilantes Midnight plays a huge role and interacts with several characters. It’s where we learn about her—and sadly, there’s little to no payoff. The payoff is in BNHA where her death fails to make an impact. We don’t see her making a connection with anybody in the main series, so when we see Mina and the others crying over her, the hit meant to be delivered isn’t there. The audience is meant to fill in the blanks as to why Mina was sad when we never saw her have any one-on-one time with Midnight. Obviously, Midnight is the first dead body of someone they know, but what else? Of all the people who died at the hospital raid, Midnight’s death should have affected people the most as she was the one around since the beginning and had a connection to the main characters. But it didn’t. Do you know who’s death did affect the audience more? Twice, one of the villains. People felt worse for Twice’s death than Midnight’s. Why? One; we saw it happen. Two; we got to know Twice as a person. Three; the drama was built up. We saw Twice opening up and reaching out to Hawks who we knew was a spy. We saw their friendship blossom, and when Hawks killed him, it was heart-wrenching. Plus, it’s an important story point as well as an important shift in Hawk’s character arc. Twice’s death had meaning—Midnight’s didn’t. Midnight died happened off-screen and again, everything that would connect readers to her was in side materials. Her death didn’t matter in the story. Midnight died just because someone the readers were familiar with needed to die. And, yes the argument could be made that her death was personal to the kids, but not really. Any teacher could have been killed and it would have had the same effect. The manga failed with the build-up, emotionally and for the story thus it failed Midnight’s death and failed her character.

Speaking of death, let’s move on to Kurogiri. Now, this one wasn’t a poll, however, they wrote in their answers and most people seemed to like the twist.

But here’s the thing; where’s the build-up in the main story? No really, think about it. We know that Aizawa and Hizashi lost a friend in the past, but there was nothing to hint that Kurogiri was their lost friend or even related. Hell, in the main manga we’re not even told what Oboro’s quirk was, so there was no way to hint that these two were the same person. Except maybe the hair.

But okay. Let’s say that the hair was enough build-up, plot-wise. What emotionally? How did the emotions hit?

Well, to anyone who just read the main manga the emotional turmoil came from Aizawa and Hizashi’s reactions, not the fact that Kurogiri was Oboro. Why? Because—and say it with me—the emotional buildup was in the side materials. And here, there’s no excuse for it, at all. The back story could have been put in Chapter 253 when Aizawa and Hizashi were driving to Tartarus. It would fit naturally as Oboro had hinted at and it makes sense that Aizawa would be thinking about his past with Cloud boy as they were going to see “him.” It wouldn’t have slowed the story because A) Aizawa is a well-loved character people want to know more about. B) IT’S AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY. It tells us about Aizawa’s character, showed us who Oboro is, and helps introduced what the nomus are. Again, no reason why it’s not in the main manga.

The only reason the reveal was so emotional was that we saw how it tore up Aizawa and Hizashi, to who the audience had a connection. That’s the only reason this worked. (That and anime fans know how to predict certain tropes. For instance, a girl is bathing and a guy wants to shower. What happens next? Every anime fan knows.)

There are other things that the manga failed to build up for the emotional impact as well such as Eri being important enough for Aizawa to think of in the middle of a fight when losing his leg, Eri restoring Mirio’s quirk and more. And let's not even get started on Edgeshot in the latest chapter where--no. No, I need more time. Too much stupidity, I just--gfhgfh.

In conclusion, if there are any writers please understand two things;

1: Anything that plays a major role in the story, plot or character-wise, needs to be properly built up.

2: If a reader has to go outside of the series they’re reading to understand important plot points or to get the emotional impact you desire, then you failed as a writer. A story automatically fails if you have to depend on supplementary details to get the whole story. Supplementary materials are supposed to add to a story, not fill in your plot holes, or make up for the leg work that was supposed to be in the main story.

Thank you for your time and especially thanks to those who took the poll.

[frodo-with-glasses]

Elrond and Bilbo, 3 and 15? I can't remember if you did this before because I have been sporadic on tumblr as of late 😅

I haven’t yet! In fact, I don’t think anyone has requested Elrond and Bilbo yet. Let’s go!

3. “A random headcanon I have of them”

Each of them both think they’ve unofficially adopted the other one.

I mean, we already know that they’re both prone to finding just about anyone with a pulse and dragging them into their family. Bilbo has Frodo, and Elrond took in Aragorn when he was young, and they both just have that VibeTM of “I have a large home and too much space to spare and I must SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE”.

Bilbo has “adopted” Elrond because the elf looks younger than him at this point, and he—at least to Bilbo—seems lonely and sad and burdened and doesn’t have his dad around anymore (what with the whole star business). Bilbo doesn’t have Frodo around either, and it’s left a hole in his life that he didn’t expect, and he’s brazen enough—or was it “stupid enough”??—to try dadding an ancient elf lord in his place.

Elrond, meanwhile, thinks he’s adopted Bilbo because the hobbit is living in his house, and he’s a smol little mortal who needs someone to guard and protect him for the rest of his short little life. Elrond looks at Bilbo and he sees “tiny sassy baby”, no matter how wrinkled and grey Bilbo gets.

Each of them might have confessed their own feelings—separately, on different occasions—to Glorfindel. And to Aragorn. And to Arwen. Actually, basically everyone in Rivendell is aware of the mutual adoption EXCEPT for Elrond and Bilbo themselves.

(Elrond might suspect, but he does not bring it up. He doesn’t want to make hasty assumptions in case he’s wrong, and even if he’s right, he wants Bilbo to have this.)

15. “If I would want to be friends with them”

Sure! Of course, according to my theory of friendship, Elrond would have to be the one who initiated friendship with me, not the other way around—I’m not gonna presume to be chums with a 6,000-year-old elf lord—but oh, I’m sure I could totally hit it off with Bilbo. Just an hour or two of listening to his stories about elves and dwarves and trolls and all of the sudden he’s dragging me off to look at maps and trinkets from faraway lands and oops now it looks like I’ve been adopted.

FRIENDSHIP ASK GAME!

[forever-rogue]

hi! if requests are open for bucky, i like the concept of him being unsure of himself with reader (not a superhero/avenger, maybe just a mutual friend) and pining after them compared to how easy it was to get dates in the 40s. thank you!

tfatws revived my love for bucky im not ashamed

A/N: tfatws has definitely done the same for me! no shame whatsoever!

Pairing: Bucky x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: none

MASTERLIST

»»————-　♡　————-««

You tore your gaze off of the television before you turned to look at Bucky. His blue eyed stare was trained on you, intense and unwavering. Sometimes it had managed to unnerve you, but you’d gotten used to it over the year you’d known him. He was more than just silent...he was calculating, but it never felt wrong. Waving your hand in front of his face you made a small sound to get his attention. 

“Bucky?” you whispered his name softly and that seemed to snap him back into attention as he opened and closed his mouth a few times. Even in the dim lighting of the room you could see that a warm flush of red had crept up in his cheeks, “everything alright?”

“Y-yeah,” he shook his head, more at himself than anything else, a self-annoyed look crossing his features, “spaced out for a minute. What were you saying?”

“I wasn’t saying anything,” you couldn’t help but laugh at him, watching his features soften when he realized you weren’t going to chastise him for zoning out, “I for one was watching the movie, which is more than I can say for you - you should love the Hobbit if you actually read the book when it first came out. And these movies are actually good. Pay attention, Bucky!”

You grabbed one of the pillows off of your couch and lobbed it at his head; but he was quicker, reflexes still sharp and honed after all this time. The corners of his mouth pulled into a smirk as he held the pillow before determining whether or not to throw it back at you. Immediately sensing what he was doing, you shook your head and jumped up, ducking behind the couch.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart, why are you hiding?” you could practically hear the smirk in his voice as you peeked up at him. The nickname rolled easily off his tongue as it caused a shudder to run down your spine. You knew it meant nothing, that it was just something he tended to call people; it was definitely just a thing. It was nothing particularly about you or targeted at you but you couldn’t help but pause. You knew that you wouldn’t have minded if he called you that intentionally. But that could never, ever happen. This was Bucky after all and you were just...you.

“I know your game, Barnes,” you grinned at him, deciding to let the nickname slide, “I’ll call it a truce and we can go to your favorite place to get some dinner. I’ll pay! I’m waving my proverbial white flag.”

“Now there’s an offer I can’t refuse,” he set the pillow back down on the couch as he stood up and raised his hands in surrender. Slowly you raised to your full height, but kept a wary eye on your best friend, “I keep my promises, you know that.”

“Fine,” you agreed as you grinned at him. Bucky’s breath hitched in his throat as he looked you over and he felt his knees go weak momentarily. He could stare at your smile for hours, “get your jacket and let’s go old man.”

He scoffed in jest as you grabbed your shoulders and jacket off the coat rock and motioned for him to follow, “I’m not that old-”

“106? Isn’t that old?” you raised an eyebrow, barely able to contain your giggles as he rolled his eyes dramatically, “just kidding, Bucky. You know I just love teasing you.”

“I am in my 30s,..technically, thank you very much,” he insisted as he slipped on his shoes and you handed him the leather jacket, “don’t push your luck, kid.”

“See,” you grabbed the keys and he opened the door, ushering you out with a hand on the small of your back, “I swear Bucky Barnes, you’ve been an old man since you were a kid. Now let’s go! There’s pancakes with my name on them waiting.”

»»————-　♡　————-««

Dinner with Bucky was easy...then again, everything with Bucky was easy. Every time you were with him, things just felt natural and normal, conversation and everything flowed freely. You’d met Bucky completely by chance, running into him, quite literally, on the street as you walked out of your favorite coffee shop and proceeded to spill coffee over both of you. He’d been apologetic, claiming it was his fault, but you’d been insistent that it was yours. One thing had led to another and soon enough you became inseparable friends. 

Much to his surprise, and delight, you’d never treated Bucky as anything but...Bucky. That’s how you’d met him and that’s all he was to you. Bucky. Of course, he was much more than a friend, at least in your mind, but you weren’t about to divulge that little piece of information. At least not yet. Maybe one day...or not. Probably not. No. You weren’t about to make a fool out of yourself and confess your feelings for a man that saw you as nothing but a friend.

Bucky, always alert and cunning, had noticed you’d become quiet throughout dinner as you both ate in silence. Normally he wouldn’t question it, but he knew your tells and could easily read you by this point and knew that something was up. 

“What?” he gently nudged your foot with his and you snapped back into attention as you looked at him, “you’re awfully deep in thought for someone that just wanted some pancakes.” 

“It’s nothing,” you insisted nervously, swallowing your bite down and clearing your throat, “just...tired?”

“Mhmm,” he wasn’t going to push you, know you’d come around eventually, “whatever you say, sweetheart.”

There it was again, and you felt a warmth flush over your face as you focused your attention on the syrupy mess on your plate. It was silent for a few more minutes before you noticed a few women sitting at the diner’s counter, giggling among themselves as they cast longing glances at Bucky. Something in your stomach twisted and your heart constricted. Of course they were looking at him, women often did. And you couldn’t blame them; Bucky was handsome in almost every way, and you yearned after him as well. But unlike most other people, you weren’t about to be so obvious about it. 

“Looks like you have a little fanclub,” you murmured softly under your breath as you lightly motioned towards them women. Bucky slyly followed your gaze and studied the newcomers and huffed in annoyance. He abhorred any sort of extra attention, especially when it came from people that only liked him because of his looks. Besides that, it often didn’t last terribly long; usually people realized who he was - used to be - and that scared them right off.

“They’ll leave soon enough,” he shrugged them off before turning his attention back to you, “besides, I-I’m not interested. It’s not like it used to be…”

“Back when?” you quickly snorted in amusement as he jokingly glared at you, “back in your day? I bet you had them all over you then too.”

“Well, it certainly was easier,” he admitted as he played with the straw in his almost empty milkshake, “nowadays people are harder to read. They all either want one thing, or they just stick around until they find someone else. It’s not worth it...and honestly, now one has caught my eye.”

“No one?” you asked as you pushed your last bite around the plate, letting the fluffy pancake soak up the syrup, “I find that hard to believe, even for you, Buck. Everyone has someone they’re interested in.”

“Huh,” he mused as drained the last of the milkshake, “well then, is there someone that has captured your interest?”

“I...no, not really,” you lied, hoping he wouldn’t pick up on the lie. Instead he immediately made a sound of small disbelief; you should haven’t even bothered to try and lie to him. He could see right through you, “there’s nobody.”

“I thought you said everyone has someone that they’re interested in?” oh yeah, he definitely wasn’t going to let this go at all. 

“Except me.”

“I find that doubtful.”

“What about you then, Bucky Barnes?” you decided to deflect by throwing the question right back at him, “has anyone captured your interest?”

Bucky paused for a moment, tongue darting out to wet his lips as he mulled over his next words carefully, “yes. There is someone.”

“O-oh,” you stammered as his gaze shifted back to you, blue eyes keenly studied your features, “you gonna tell me who it is?”

“Well,” he started slowly, tapping his fingers on the table as he leaned towards, "there is someone, but I don't know if she knows or thinks of me as more than a friend, but god, I hope she does. She's been my friend for a while now and I kind of want to ask her on a date, a proper date, but don't quite know how."

"Do you...do you think she could feel the same about you?" butterflies erupted in your stomach as you tried to calm the rapid beating of your heart. Surely he couldn't mean you. But then...why was a light flush of pink in his cheeks? Why was he watching you so intently?

"I don't know," he confessed with a light shrug as he sat back in the booth, an arm extended over the back, the picture of ease, "sometimes I think she might, but I don't want to think she does and mess anything up. I'd rather keep her as a friend than lose her."

"I guess you won't know unless you ask her…" you were positive that he could hear your heart beating rapidly, "you never know until you try. I have a feeling she won't turn you down if you ask...just a hunch…"

"Hmm…" a smile, dazzling and brilliant, grazed his features, "well then sweet-"

"Excuse me," one of the girls from the counter had approached your table and was leaning into Bucky, with her back to you. She was twirling her hair around her finger as she offered him her most dazzling smile. She was definitely beautiful and you really had nothing to base your annoyance off of, but she rubbed you the wrong way, "I was just wondering if you'd-"

"Hi, excuse me?" you couldn't help yourself as you gently tapped her arm. Bucky raised an eyebrow as she gave her a surprised look on her face, "I don't want to interrupt but he's mine. And if you don't mind...we're on a date."

"O-oh," her eyes widened as she looked between you and Bucky, who was currently sporting the most shit eating grin, "I didn't know. Sorry…"

She scurried back to her friends as you looked back down at your plate. Bucky cleared his throat as he leaned in, hardly believing what had happened. You could feel his curious blue eyes on you, searing and questioning.

"So she feels the same way or she's a good liar," he said softly as you chanced a glance, biting on your lip, "I'm yours, huh?"

"Shut up," you groaned, "it was to get her away from you, so you're welcome."

"Mhmm…" god that smile made you want to melt.

"Bucky!"

"Thank you," he bowed his head slightly, "what are you doing tomorrow night?"

"Nothing...why?"

"Can I take you on a date?" he asked as you looked at him in surprise, wide doe eyes meeting his, "a proper date?"

"I...yeah, Bucky. I'd like that a lot," you agreed softly, "see...I told you she won't turn you down."

"Guess you were right," he was causal, but inside his heart was fit to burst as he reached across the table and gently put his hand on top of yours, "I'm already hers, but she's my girl too."

Yeah. You could definitely get used to that.

»»————-　♡　————-««

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[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 302: As the Todoroki Turns

Previously on BnHA: 

Today on BnHA: We have a very fun chapter in which (1) Shouto grows up lonely on account of his parents being worried that his siblings will literally try to kill him, (2) Natsu and Fuyu grow up neglected on account of not being special and/or self-destructive enough to attract attention, (3) we get to revisit all of that exciting spousal abuse from chapter 39, and (4) Touya burns to death right on cue, pretty much exactly like we expected it to happen. Thankfully since this is a shounen manga, Horikoshi finds some hope in all this misery as the Todoroki family rallies together, with Shouto getting his long-overdue credit for being a perfect sweet angel who put up with all of this shit for sixteen years and somehow came out of it strong and kind and empathetic and determined. Anyway, so that flashback was a barrel of laughs. But now that it’s over, we can put all of that angst behind us, and move on to... well I guess, probably, more angst. Look, we’re short on variety at the moment. Bear with it.

ouch. we knew this was coming, but still

A+ parenting move there. “ho boy, our eldest just tried to murder our youngest, now what? hmm how about we isolate our youngest from all human contact”

though in their defense, we probably shouldn’t have expected this rabidly strength-obsessed fire man and his wife who was groomed since childhood to obey her family’s whims to have any idea of how to raise stable, well-adjusted offspring

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS

this is a perfect example of Enji’s tragically self-revolving viewpoint right here. just because being a hero is your entire world doesn’t mean you can just excuse yourself from anything outside of that and act like it’s out of your control. “alas, all I care about is hero stuff and my son can’t be a hero, we are doomed to inhabit two different worlds” no you jackass, it’s called having more than one hobby?? figuring out how to spend some time with your son that doesn’t involve training?? the same exact thing you were telling him to do last week, while ignoring that you’ve never done that yourself in your life??

that said, yet again we have that complexity though because it’s obvious that Enji at least on some level is aware of his own flaws, even though he seems unwilling or unable to confront them. honestly, from what we’ve seen so far, Enji’s obsession with surpassing All Might might be more accurately called an addiction. he literally can’t let go of it even though he’s fully aware of how it’s slowly destroying his life. and so in the same way that a lifelong smoker or alcoholic might tell their child to stay away from cigarettes and booze, Enji tells Touya not to follow down the same path as him, even though he himself doesn’t know how to leave that path. so yes, it’s hypocritical as fuck, but there’s also an element of helplessness there as well because Enji literally doesn’t know how not to be like this

though all the same he sure could stand to put in more than just a token effort. but it is what it is, and we already know how much he’ll come to regret it

and meanwhile Baby Shouto has frozen his sleep bubble with his quirk lmao. so I guess his quirk did come in early. that’s a recipe for chaos right there

once again Shouto is ruining every single dramatic panel in this flashback

this was so dark and intense... and then I spotted the lil bubs in the corner. Horikoshi please control yourself

“some hero you are, running away” and then all of a sudden, “FIVE YEARS LATER” lol what. OKAY THEN

(ETA: love the confirmation that eight-year-old Natsu comes from the Iida school of puberty and is basically a fully grown man, and meanwhile Touya comes from the hobbit school of puberty and has been perpetually eight for the past five years.)

“HEY BIG BRO WANNA COME RECREATE AN ICONIC FLASHBACK SCENE WITH US. WE’VE GOT THE SOCCER BALL RIGHT HERE, BUT HURRY UP OR WE’LL BE TOO LATE FOR SHOUTO TO WALK ON BY AND STOP TO LOOK”

lol and that’s literally the next three panels. but Horikoshi did add this extra bit after Endeavor starts to drag Shouto away

seriously Enji what the hell did you expect was going to happen here. “Touya went nuts and tried to kill his little brother out of jealousy, so let’s make it clearer than ever that Shouto is the important child and all the other children are just rejects. this will definitely not make the problem 100x worse, and will surely lead to Touya giving up and living a happy life, having been emotionally abandoned by the person he admired more than anyone.” good for you pal you figured it all out. no need for that plan b, “we all just go to therapy”

anyway so he’s telling Shouto he can’t play because he needs more endurance training. and meanwhile Touya’s patented Todoroki Drama Genes are going through puberty as well

definitely the face of a happy, emotionally stable child who’s not still plotting to murder his younger brother in his sleep

“WELL ACTUALLY MAKESTE” lol I stand corrected??

apparently during the five year interim Touya actually stopped blaming Shouto and realized Enji was the one at fault. good for him! a bit inconsistent, given what we know happens later, but I assume we’ll get to that in good time

anyway. “yeah man I agree that dad sucks, but it’s the middle of the night and I’m only eight and you’ve been monologuing for the past two hours bro”

LMAO

the manga is making my jokes for me, only better. fine then

looks like someone’s still miffed about that disagreement he had with his baby sister back when she was like four

“Fuyu doesn’t get properly riled up like I want her to so ranting to her is annoying.” okay but having been in Fuyu’s shoes, it really is just a different way of coping, and I can guarantee she’s not as fine with the whole situation as Touya might think. but making your peace with something is often a decision that’s made for emotional self-preservation reasons. and I sure as hell don’t fault her for trying to shut out a situation that she had no control over, and trying to make the best of it, and scrape together as normal a childhood as she could manage

and now in Touya’s defense as well, that is of course easier said than done, and I’m sure if there was a “push this button and instantly get over all of the trauma in your life” switch readily available for Touya then he would have pushed it too. unfortunately it’s not always that simple

so now Rei is pleading with Touya not to go train up on his little emo hill again, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed since he was eight

I don’t think he gives two figs about being a hero; he just wants his father to look at him again with pride. fucking hell, stop doing this to me you damn Todorokis

guh, they keep telling him the same thing over and over again

even if we hadn’t already known he was gonna go melt his jawbone off soon, I wouldn’t have expected a line like that to go over well

yep. fuck

that Todoroki puberty angst, though. nothing else quite like it

“you have a part in this too, Mom” ooooooh man

okay but look, he’s not entirely wrong. like, I’m not saying any of this is Rei’s fault at all! she’s in an impossible situation where she’s afraid to stand up to Enji (who by this point has shown that he’s willing to physically attack her if things get too heated, which is terrifying), and doesn’t really have anywhere to turn for support. her parents aren’t helping much if at all, and Japan in general is just a terrible country to be in when you’re in a domestic abuse situation. everyone’s expected to put on a brave face and deal with their problems all on their own in private. Rei is basically completely isolated at this point, and she doesn’t know what else to do, and so she’s just trying to keep the situation as stable as possible for the kids

but on the other hand, “for the kids” is also where that argument starts to break down a bit, because at this point Shouto is also being physically abused by his father, and the other kids are continuing to be neglected (emotionally if not physically), as they have been for years. so the situation really isn’t stable at all for them. and as a kid, what you end up learning in that type of situation is that you can’t rely on either parent. not the abusive one, certainly, but also not the other one who can’t protect you from any of it. even if they love you and they’re trying, they’re just as helpless as you. Rei is struggling to deal with all of this with one hand tied behind her back, and I get it, and I’m not blaming her at all. but all the same, particularly given that she’s (understandably) putting almost all her focus on Shouto, the end result is that the other kids have basically been left to fend for themselves

so yeah! a shitty situation all around. and one of those cases where it’s not really anyone’s fault (aside from Enji’s), but I can understand the resentment Touya is feeling all the same. and I’m so glad Horikoshi is acknowledging this, because it’s something I probably would have been too uncomfortable to bring up otherwise. as it is it’s still an incredibly heavy subject, and one that I probably have too many personal feelings about

anyway, so once again the whole “we’ll try talking to him and then just shrug our shoulders when it doesn’t work” parenting strategy doesn’t really pan out for the Todoroki fam

sob this boy is Anakin Skywalkering before our very eyes. all that’s missing is AFO to come and start whispering in his ear. any minute now...

“anyway so then he got taller and his fire changed from red to blue”

guess we’re getting pretty close then huh. this is the part of the flashback that I really don’t want to see, but also unfortunately the part that I’m most curious about :/

oh for fuck’s --

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IGNORING HIM FOR FIVE YEARS DIDN’T ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM” sob. back to the drawing board I guess

I thought he got taller, why is he still only like a third of Enji’s height here

oh fuck me these are armor-piercing feels. this is the heavy artillery right here

ENJI I’M BEGGING YOU PLEASE STOP AND THINK FOR ONE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE BEFORE DOING SOMETHING YOU’LL REGRET FOR THE REST OF ALL TIME. your child just told you that he still thinks beating All Might is the only thing you care about, and that he believes his existence is a mistake unless he finds some way of doing that for you. please stop for a moment to contemplate that and choose your next words with care and grace and oh who the hell am I kidding

-- OR WE COULD JUST BLAME REI

go on and blame everyone but yourself then!! that’s a great solution!! jesus christ man I know this is Endeavor at his literal worst but still this is fucking hard to watch

POOR BABY SHOUTO IS YELLING AT HIS DAD NOT TO HIT HIS MOMMY THIS LITTLE BRAVE BOY NEEDS SO MANY HUGS OH MY GOD

AND MEANWHILE THE OTHERS ARE HUDDLED IN THE NEXT ROOM TRYING NOT TO CRY AH FUCK

(ETA: Fuyu covering Natsu’s ears cuts RIGHT TO THE CORE OF ME. Horikoshi if you’re really not gonna get these kids some therapy then at least consider giving your readers some. what is this.)

you know it’s bad when you’re starting to think the part where the kid burns to death might actually be a less traumatic thing to cut to right now

holy shit, actual Rei thoughts

“I was the one who ultimately made that choice” well there we go, wonder if that’ll put that whole argument to bed at last. I doubt it, but you never know. actually who am I kidding it’s not gonna settle jack shit lol

oh thank god, they decided it was getting too intense and cut away back to the present to narrate this next (final?) part

get ready to cue up that Alicia Keys. THIS BOY IS ON FIREEEEEEE

yeah I think that’s one thing we can mostly all agree on. neither of them had any clue what the fuck they were doing pretty much at any point. though I will say that the hypocrisy of him being all “WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HIM” followed by him IMMEDIATELY DOING THE EXACT SAME THING is a bit rich

(ETA: and he still has this problem, doesn’t he? he froze up when Ending snatched Natsuo, and again when Dabi was attacking Shouto. he’s so afraid of doing the wrong thing that he ends up not doing anything, which of course is exactly what led to Touya’s death. damn Enji I guess you’ve still got some additional character development to unlock.)

and of course neither of them could possibly have known how badly it was going to turn out. like, the consequences here were WAY disproportionate even for the shittiest of parenting. no one expects “I didn’t know how to talk to my son” to snowball into “my son burned to death and then somehow came back as a villain and murdered thirty people”

ohhhhhhhh fuck me

LITERALLY INCINERATED THE ENTIRE HILLSIDE. fuck. and I am so not ready for the scene of Enji finding the remains of his jawbone afterwards. at least we were spared anything super-graphic (for now at least)

I feel like the timeline here is off, btw?? wasn’t Touya’s death supposed to happen after Rei got hospitalized? this might be the first actual retcon of the entire flashback. although I think it makes more sense this way tbh

I do appreciate that ten years later Enji is finally reflecting on the fact that if he’d just given up his stupid obsession he could have stopped his family from crumbling apart. that probably sounds sarcastic as fuck, but it’s not. there are countless jerks out there who would have still managed to find a way to blame literally everyone and everything under the sun except for themselves. at least he finally figured out how to take responsibility, even if it came too late to stop his son from dying and being radicalized into a villain terrorist organization

and speaking of, it seems to me we’re missing a third and final part to this little tale of woe, and one which only Touya himself will be able to shed any light on. so we’ll see how that goes

oh man seeing the other kids blaming themselves even though none of it was their fault hits hard af. Rei wasn’t kidding when she said they’d been bearing that burden of guilt far longer than Enji

SHOUTO I SWEAR TO GOD IF THE NEXT PANEL IS YOU APOLOGIZING FOR BEING BORN, I WILL... WELL I’LL BE VERY SAD, I GUESS. SO DON’T DO IT

oh good he’s just being quiet. good. it absolutely is not your fault lil bean. it’s not theirs either, but feeling guilty about things that aren’t your fault is a time-honored shounen tradition

goddammit I braced myself for the angsty Shouto panel a page too early. gotta do it all over again now lol. okay here goes

;_;

well well well would you look at that

imagine that. talking things out with your child before they make a rash decision. looks like the Todorokis’ parenting skills are finally leveling up

OH MY GOD

holy shit. this is the most quintessential moment of father/son Todoroki bonding in the entire series. for me it even tops the “nice scar” scene lol. Enji sobbing at the fact that he still has a chance to set things right. and Shouto offering his hand in what is actually the most mature and selfless gesture I’ve ever seen, and being all “we’ll stop him together” to his dad who he hates, but also doesn’t really entirely hate anymore. and all of that is incredibly moving... BUT ALSO HE STILL REFUSES TO MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH HIM AND HE WOULD LIKE HIM TO STOP BEING SO FUCKING DRAMATIC ALREADY IF YOU DON’T MIND. “WHEN YOU’RE DONE CRYING...” fkjldsk

OH MY FUCKING LORD

(ETA: wouldn’t be a Todoroki drama fest if there wasn’t somebody listening in on the whole thing in secret just around the corner lmao.)

“you think we should have waited somewhere else?” “yeah, probably.” “are you feeling a lot of secondhand embarrassment too?” “god, you have no idea.” STFU HAWKS IT’S NOT EMBARASSING TO BE MOVED TO TEARS BY YOUR FAMILY ALL COMING TOGETHER IN YOUR DARKEST HOUR TO GIVE YOU HOPE THAT YOU PROBABLY DON’T DESERVE BUT ARE NONETHELESS INDESCRIBABLY GRATEFUL FOR

and anyway you chose these guys as your found family, bucko. too late to back out now. next time go get yourself adopted by the Iidas then

AND MEANWHILE NO WORD ON THE WHOLE “HOW DID A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SURVIVE A FIRE THAT COVERED HIS BODY WITH HORRIFIC SCARS AND MELTED HIS JAW OFF, AND HOW DID HE SOMEHOW THEN MANAGE TO GO INTO HIDING FOR TEN WHOLE YEARS, AND WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INTERIM TO CHANGE HIS GOAL FROM ‘SURPASS ALL MIGHT TO IMPRESS MY DAD’ TO ‘KILL ALL HEROES TO MAKE MY DAD SUFFER’.” as if we don’t know the answer to that. but still, would it kill Horikoshi to just confirm AFO’s involvement in all of this already. at this point it’s basically just a formality

so here’s hoping next week we’ll either get that, or more Hawks action, or (DARE I EVEN SUGGEST, I’M AFRAID TO JINX IT) finally cut back to Bakugou and Deku and All Might omg. either way I’m hyped

[therealvinelle]

in the “everyone is in love with Bella” scenario, what about the wolves? Wouldn’t it be really fucked up for Sam to fall in love with her? Would it make the wolves try to redefine imprinting? how would Leah react to the whole situation?

Anon is referring to this post. For the record, I didn't get into them in the post because the plot would veer so far off-course in Twilight that Edward never leaves and Victoria never becomes a threat to Bella, meaning Bella and Jake don't get close and she doesn't need their protection.

But, let's do this.

First encounter

Bella arrives in Forks, and Billy and Jacob are there to hand over the pickup.

Boom.

They fall in love.

Jacob, having never had a real crush before nevermind something so powerful as falling in love, is overwhelmed by these new feelings. He blushes and flushes and stutters, and fails to say anything reasonable or even intelligble to Bella. Too mortified to function, he decides to hide in La Push until the embarrassment fades. Which very well could be never.

Billy, meanwhile, is unable to cope. He just fell in love with Charlie's daughter. Charlie's 17-year-old daughter who used to make mud cakes with Billy's daughters.

This is bad.

This, to a good man like Billy, is unforgivably bad.

He goes from being Charlie's best friend to suddenly being very distant, not wanting to ever cross paths with Bella again.

But, you asked about the wolves, not just Jake and Billy, so let's take this scenario further.

Bella's friends, all of whom are hopelessly in love with her, drag her to La Push

Jessica, Lauren, Mike, Angela, Tyler, Eric, Ben, the whole gang, they're all going to La Push for the weekend.

And it just won't be the same without Bella. She's just so great, you know?

Everyone looks at each other and nods. Yeah, it's just not fun without Bella. Bella's great, someone should invite her.

They all invite her, one by one, all of them with wide, adoring eyes. "It would be so amazing if you came, Bella," Jessica says dreamily, twirling a lock of Bella's hair around her fingers. "Your hair is really pretty," she giggles.

Angela and Ben are each blushing too hard to really say anything to Bella, so they end up running away from her. Bella is left feeling like some kind of freak. She later receives two notes in class, one from each, begging her in cramped writing to come to La Push. Yeah, not helping her feel like less of a freak.

Mike, Eric, Tyler, and Lauren all corner her, each worse than the last.

By the end of the schoolday Bella doesn't know what's going to happen at La Push but she does know that she doesn't want to go.

She complains about this to the Cullens (remember, her and Edward became an item much earlier in this timeline), and they all fawn and coo over her and act like she just went through a warzone. If she wants to go to the beach, she could try Isle Esme Bella. Would she like that, an island vacation? Or an island?

Bella is pulled out of school for a romantic two-week totally-not-a-honeymoon.

La Push never happens.

But surely Bella and the wolves must meet at some point

Billy catches wind that Bella Swan is dating Edward Cullen. As in, the girl he has fallen so deeply in love with is now being preyed upon by a blood-sucking demon.

Billy's own sense of propriety or honor be damned, he has to save this girl's life.

He tries to speak to her, just as in canon, but just as in canon this goes poorly. Bella is a savvy 17-year-old who doesn't need no warning, and besides, the Cullens are all so sweet. They're like hobbits, really, obviously she's not in any danger. She tells Billy as much. Vampires are lovely, does he know they gave her an island?

(Billy did not know this, and yes, that's weird. Doesn't mean they're not evil, though.)

Billy gets nowhere with his would-be intervention.

Time to bring in the big guns.

Sam phases around this time, and imprints on Emily. Break-ups with Leah, maulings, and tragic lovestories all around are had.

It is around this time that Billy brings Sam up to speed on the Bella situation, although leaving out the part where he's hopelessly in love with the girl because that would not be received well. Could Sam go speak with her about this, see if maybe she will take his warning seriously? The situation is dire.

Sure, Sam can do that. No one wants a human girl to get eaten or turned, after all.

Sam goes to see Bella.

And promptly falls in love just as he did Emily.

Emily, who is currently in the hospital from Sam mauling her, which happened specifically because Sam had imprinted.

It's official, Sam thinks, he's the greatest scumbag there ever was.

The Emily and Leah situation was awful enough as it was, breaking all three of their hearts and causing irreparable damage both physically and mentally. Sam wronged them both colossaly, and he can never amend that.

But he imprinted. He wasn't just being a douchebag, actual magic made him do it.

Now, though...

Either Sam imprinted on multiple people, in which case his happy ending is now polygamy. And how would that be a happy ending for Emily and Bella?

Or, possibly even more terrifying yet, he didn't imprint on either woman.

Breaking up with Leah, mauling Emily, making Emily fall in love with him after that and ruining her relationship with her cousin, in short putting these women through hell, all of it- it was for nothing. Sam's just a horndog who sees supernatural intervention where there's really just hormones.

Why couldn't he just have imprinted on Leah?

Sam can't go on a sabbatical to figure this out, his tribe needs him. So he takes to living in the woods alone, where he is alone, to try and figure this out.

But it gets more painful yet, because he can't just disappear on Emily.

So, he tells her. He owes her that much. And it's not goodbye forever, either, just- goodbye until he can figure out how to be the man she deserves. A man anybody deserves, really, because right now Sam's not it.

Emily has no idea what to make of any of this, but she knows her heart is broken.

She has to see this woman all of this is about.

Naturally, she falls in love as well.

The plot thickens

The next time Sam drops by, Emily gives him the news. They're both in love with Bella now.

Sam no longer knows what to make of anything.

Is the universe trying to tell them to form a polycule?

Nothing like that has ever happened before, but not much is known about imprinting. There's a first time for everything..?

At this point they're both giving themselves headaches trying to figure this out. It's a mess.

More, Bella hasn't even met either of them. Sam and Emily can't just walk up to her and say "Hi, be our wife".

Or can they?

If Emily fell in love at first sight, maybe it'll work in reverse. Maybe Bella just has to look upon them, and she'll fall in love.

Sam is dubious, but at this point let's just do this. Let's just do this, see what happens.

They walk up to Charlie's to deliver some of Harry's fish fry. Bella opens the door.

"HIIIII" Emily says, trying to act normal.

Sam's not saying anything.

"Hi," Bella says back, nonplussed, and looks at the bag Emily is clutching with white-knuckled fists.

All three of them are silent.

Bella is starting to wonder if there's something with the town water supply. She is also wondering if these people are planning to say anything, or if they just really enjoy knocking on doors and saying hi to people. Is there something Bella should be doing?

Eventually she clears er throat and asks if there's anything she can do for them.

Sam and Emily glance at each other. Bella's not looking starstruck with love, but she's not acting normal either. Who stands in a doorway and stares at people for almost a minute before talking?

It's inconclusive.

Emily hands over the fish fry. "From Harry," she says, and introduces herself.

Bella nods, remembering Charlie's friend who all but ran out of the door when he saw her and hasn't been fishing with Charlie since. None of Charlie's friends have. Charlie is going nuts. Maybe she should try hooking him up with Carlisle, vampires are lovely, they'd get along so well.

Bella, noting Emily and Sam aren't saying anything else, says bye and moves to close the door.

"Wait!" Sam yells, at the same time as Emily rips a piece of paper from her pocket, and sticks it into Bella's hand.

Bella looks down on it. It's two phone numbers.

She looks back up at Sam and Emily, who by now feel quite certain that this girl hasn't fallen in love with them and that this is the most humiliating moment of both their lives.

Just in case, though...

"Call us," Emily says flirtatiously, winks, and runs away.

Sam follows.

Bella never calls them back, and they never speak of this again.

A few months later, Leah who’d been shopping in Forks happily tells Sam and Emily that she's fallen in love with a girl, she lives in Forks, she's amazing, her name is Bella Swan.

"I took one look at her, and I knew," Leah says dreamily.

[poppyseed799]

Okay fellow 3rd life fans I think it’s time I come clean. I have been silent about this the entire time, thinking about staying quiet cuz it seemed the whole fandom disagrees with what I’m about to say but I will stay silent no longer.

I don’t get why people say the Desert was “clearly the bad guys”.

Let’s get this out of the way: I mainly watched Scar’s POV along with Grian’s. I watched a fair amount of Martyn’s episodes as well, a couple from Scott and then random episodes from Skizz, Cleo, Impulse, Jimmy, and probably more. Definitely plot important ones I watched from more POVs than just my main guys Scar and Grian.

I just don’t get why, when people look at all of the different factions, they look at the Desert and go “yes they are clearly in the wrong and the only ones I can easily label as the villains in the overall story” what??? Don’t even get me started on “it’s interesting that the villains won in 3rd life” what??? I always viewed them as the more innocent ones, although the story is very morally grey so it doesn’t say TOO much lmao.

So let me explain why! Well, honestly, I’m more confused as to why y’all say they’re so obviously the villains, so I’m just explaining why I’m confused here lol.

So first of all let’s get the scamming and monopolies out of the way. I have less to say about the monopoly so let’s start with that. THEY NEVER HAD A MONOPOLY… if the idea of making a monopoly is bad enough for you guys, then might I remind y’all of the cow monopoly that was attempted? Everyone was looking for ways to make business… and a SAND monopoly was CLEARLY doomed to fail!! Not to bring Dream SMP into this but if y’all are gonna say OG L’Manberg was innocent because they didn’t succeed in the potion monopoly at all then let’s have that same energy for the Sand People!!!

Now for the scams. “Oooh poppy how are you gonna defend the scamming” BECAUSE IT WASN’T SCAMMING??? Scar made it clear what he wanted and what the person would receive in return. They were told they were going to receive a piece of paper and they agreed to it! Don’t listen to Grian “don’t listen to Scar it’s a scam the papers don’t mean anything” because he was LYING. Not purposely, but he was lying. Scar NEVER said “hey Grian let’s scam people with fRiEnDsHiP” instead he always told Grian that it WAS real and that he WOULD go through with all of the papers. And he did! There were a couple of mishaps but obviously it’s really difficult to control every situation. Plus Scar had a hard time remembering all of the friendship passes lmao. But he really did try, he really did value these trades, it wasn’t scamming just because Grian thought there was no way it was worth it.

The only Scar hater I stan is Skizzleman he had all right to be mad at Scar but that doesn’t mean Scar was the enemy of the whole story lol

Now onto something that I don’t know how to start explaining but is a very big reason why I’m confused about the fandom calling the Desert the bad guys. NOBODY IN THE SMP TOOK THEM SERIOUSLY. I saw SO many posts about how “Scar and Grian seem like fun guys in THEIR POV but in others POV they’re really scary!” Like no? I always thought it was the opposite. Like watching Scar’s POV I was like “ah man they have to kill people cuz red life this is so dramatic they are feared by the server…” BUT THEN I WATCH SOMEONE ELSE’S POV AND THEY LITERALLY SAY STUFF LIKE “lol we don’t have to worry about Scar” “dang all those people just exploded. Anyways Scar is the weakest red life and we have nothing to worry about when it comes to him it’s all the other red lifers that are a problem” “lol there goes those idiots trying to make a monopoly on sand so silly” and I’m like. Oh. The entire server treats them like silly cartoon villains that never achieve anything. And yes they say these things WHILE hunting the Desert People down like what. Basically the server treating the villainous things the Desert did as not very serious made me think the same, which is why I’m so confused that people think they’re the Big Bad Guys.

ANOTHER THING relating to how the server treats the Desert: alliances!! The Desert was very loyal. Scott and Jimmy trusted the Desert, which shocked many people on the server but were they wrong? No! The Desert trusted the Hobbits back fully as well. They were the only alliance they fully trusted, but they didn’t go behind their other allies’ backs just cuz they weren’t so sure about the alliance. Sure there were comments about Impulse, but that idea was fed to them by Impulse’s allies, they had no other information. And yet they STILL gave him stuff and didn’t flinch when alone with him above Dogwarts, because even with him being suspicious he was still their ally and they are loyal as heck!!! Sure there was Impulse’s demise but like. That was endgame, everyone was looking for a reason to kill someone, and the Desert was told that Impulse was sus af and his own allies didn’t trust him so it was an easy pick. Bdubs coulda said no. And yeah Scar betrayed Bdubs in the end but like. Once again, endgame, and also it was “kill the person who stuck with you since the beginning” or “kill the person who is only on your side cuz you gave him a clock a while ago and lied to you about liking watches”. What do you expect? Plus the ending showed how loyal Scar was to Grian, the guy who owed him his first life and stuck with him till the end. Beautiful.

ANYWAYS EVEN MEMBERS OF DOGWARTS WERE LIKE “I have a hard time killing Scar because he hasn’t really wronged me personally in any way, he’s fairly reliable as well” LIKE… bro they were ENEMIES. Scar also didn’t really want to hurt them!!! Also can I just say that the only reason Scar was as bad as he was was because he was the first person to go red? Red lifers are supposed to be like the villains, so I don’t disagree with people saying that at FIRST Scar was a villain cuz he was red (although wtf were some of these guys up to using excuses to kill people while green (not talking about Grian)) but he wasn’t even that bad while he was red. He was just the worst by default since he was red lol. Which was entirely not his fault, and he only wanted to kill Ren pretty much lol. So I guess Scar being the villain depends on if you consider Ren to be the main character of the entire server.

Which is another thing I don’t get… why people see Dogwarts as the good guys. There was a CLEAR corruption arc people. Dogwarts had loyalty, but it was very ride or die, as in “if you don’t ride with us you will die”. You watch these guys call everyone (not just the desert people) “filthy peasants” and not realize they are acting like villains??? Plus the ominous “red winter is coming” like what. Not saying they weren’t good at the start, nor that they were completely and totally bad, just that if you were to frame ANYONE in this MORALLY GREY SERVER as “The Bad Guys” why not the ones that made it their entire thing????? YES they were good at first, they had regrets and cared so much about their people (just not anyone else lololol). It’s a tragic story, and you’re gonna write it off like “no even when they started doing bad things to people who never hurt them it was justified” even when they regret those things towards the end or after death so clearly it was wrong??? Guys.

I don’t want to call anyone the Bad Guys in 3rd life tho. They all did bad things, they all had valid reasons, they all had people they cared about. I just don’t get why people pick the Desert when they try to pick villains. They weren’t totally innocent but I never saw them as THE villains. For me, even while watching Martyn, that was always Dogwarts, and even then I don’t consider them Total Villains because the server is so grey! I loved them I just think that if anyone is the bad guys maybe it’s the self-imposed king that threatens to take ALL of your lives if you don’t show complete and total loyalty to them and wave their banner above your house to show it. Even if that king started out innocent and only went red to protect his friends. Once again tho I don’t like picking Bad Guys for this server. It was a very good story without having a clear right or wrong.

Just wanted to confess that, don’t really feel like arguing about it cuz I see enough people calling the Desert the Villains just scrolling thru the main tag lmao.

[anachronisticcrab]

Solangelo Headcanons

So I’ve got a lot of these cause I’m such a simp for Nico and Will (feel free to ask me about any other Headcanons on either character, cause I’ve got LOTS)

They’re both massive nerds, but neither of them really like the same kind of things

Like, Will is more of a Star Wars and Star Trek fan, he loves Harry Potter more than life itself, and reads medical textbooks and animal books for fun

But Nico is such a linguistics and mythology nerd, we all know he loves Pokémon and DND, and he’s really into classic literature and art

They both spend 90% of their dates geeking out over their interests, and even when they talk about something the other doesn’t understand, they’re super supportive and sweet cause they’re both cute geeks

As much as they aren’t interested in the same things for the most part, they do have a few interests in common (pirates, astronomy, Dreamworks and Disney animated movies, The Princess Bride, Lord of the Rings, music, marvel and DC)

They absolutely have movie marathon dates. It’s their favourite thing. Their favourite movie series’ are Pirates of the Caribbean, Night at the Museum, and The Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit

Nico loves watching Star Wars with Will because Will mumbled the lines along with the characters and does little lightsaber noises along with it and he’s so cute

Will likes watching movie adaptions of classic lit with Nico because he points out everything that’s different from the books, why the movies are bad, and insists on pausing it to go on rants about everything they got wrong. Will fucking loves it

They both have tattoos. Will’s got the sun over his chest, and a small semi colon on his left wrist next to a treble clef. Nico’s got a semicolon on his right wrist next to a bass clef

Will loves Halloween, and Nico could take it or leave it (he never did anything for it because he grew up in Italy), but Nico does couples costumes because Will looks at him with puppy dog eyes and Nico’s helpless

They’ve gone as Jed and Octavian from Night at the Museum; Buzz Lightyear and Woody; those two crazy pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean (the one with the wooden eye who dressed up in drag, and the short one who got upset over parlay); 1930’s mobsters; Adam and Barbara Maitland from Beetlejuice; Han Solo and Luke Skywalker

They actually talk to Mr. D, and that’s why they’re his favourite— they play poker with him, they talk to him, they treat him like anyone else and he lives them for it

Will loves every single one of Nico’s siblings (Rachel, Hazel, Reyna, Meg, Jason, Connor, Travis, Percy, Tyson, Estelle, Chiara, Piper, etc). They share ridiculous Nico stories and plan pranks on him— they all adore Will

Will’s siblings and friends lowkey love Nico more than Will. He brings them McDonalds, teases Will and makes Will blush, attempts archery to try to bond with them (he really tries, but he’s just really awful), he tells Will’s little siblings bedtime stories. Nico’s just really awkward, and he really tries, and they all love him. Of course, Cecil, Lou Ellen, Austin, and Kayla bug Nico a lot because he’s so awkward, but the truth is they really, really, really like him

Will is horrible at music. Like, truly horrible at anything to do with music. But he has an encyclopedic knowledge of music from over the last 200 years, and randomly quotes lyrics and talks about musical theory all day long

In contrast, Nico is amazing at playing piano and guitar, plus he enjoys playing the drums. He’s really musically talented, but knows nothing about the theory behind it or about the artists. Whenever Nico tries to learn a new song, Will nerds out over the musician/background of the song/cool lyrical devices that make it an amazing song. Nico frickin loves it

Nico loves cooking, while Will can’t cook for his life. Like someone get this boy some help, he almost burnt down his mom’s house while microwaving popcorn. They agreed that Nico would cook and Nico would clean

Nico can’t drive for shit. I mean, cars don’t exist in the city where he grew up (there’s not enough room for vehicles on the few roads in Venice), and even if there were, he’s Italian and gay (sorry about the stereotypes there, but I really can’t see Nico being a good driver). Will drives them everywhere or gets Jules-Albert to drive them, and hides Nico’s drivers license to ‘protect the public from his menace of a boyfriend’

You know how I mentioned the no vehicles in Venice thing? Yeah, no bikes are in the city either. Will taught Nico to ride a bike after the Giants War (before they started dating). Hazel took videos and pictures cause Nico was freaking out over it and yelling at Will not to let him die

Will finds animals on the street and adopts them. Nico begrudgingly helps Will to take care of the animals until they find good homes for them (mostly from people in New Rome)

Unfortunately, Will gets attached to them, and now they have 5 cats, 2 dogs, 3 snakes, 4 lizards, and a blue Jay

They’re both really grumpy in the morning. If you wake either of them up, they will probably bite your hand off

They like going on runs a lot? They’ll go on jogs once a day if possible, and they’ll chat or share earbuds while doing so

They go on dates on canoe lake a lot. They like to have races on the canoes, and to just float out away from everyone else (they totally don’t joke about being pirates or pretend to be pirates while on the lake, that’d be ridiculous and childish)

When Will’s been in the infirmary for too long, Nico walks in and throws a Kit Kat at his head, and then drags him out of the infirmary (sometimes by his ear, sometimes by his hand, depending on how long Will’s been in there for or how annoyed Nico is that day)

Nico’s teaching Will how to speak Venetian (he sucks at it, but Nico appreciates the effort)

Nico takes a long time to get used to PDA, and even after they’ve been dating for years, Nico’s really only comfortable with holding hands and hugs (plus cheek kisses or quick pecks) in public. Will’s fine with it, and he didn’t stop smiling for three days after Nico first pecked him on the cheek in public

International dates! Paris, Venice, Milan, Madrid, Banff, Athens, Cairo, Tokyo, Sydney, Ho Chi Minh, everywhere! They love travelling!

They have a lot of conversations where they tell the other how amazing they are (since they’re both pretty self-deprecating, and they think the world of the other, it ends up with them just going ‘shut up you’re beautiful, why do you put up with me’ for hours on end)

Dates on roofs! Nico and Will point out constellations at night and cloud watch during the day. They have picnics on the roof of the Big House, and the Hades and Apollo cabins all the time

They buy each other Funko Pop figures for birthdays, Christmas, and basically anytime they want to get each other a gift

[imagine-the-fanfics]

More Important Things in Life

Pairing: Kili x Reader

Fandom: The Hobbit/Tolkien

Inspiration/Request: A friend needed support, so I wrote this for them.

Warnings: I don’t think it needs any.

A/N: “gamzûna” means “he/she that is fierce", I think. Also, this is a weird timeline bug. Cause it’s like… Kili being plucked from Middle Earth and dropped into modern times with no consequence. Hahaha! Why though? No idea. It just happened. This came out more platonic than I intended. Whoops.

Tags: @elles-writing

You jumped a little when you heard a body flop onto your bed.

You turned around to see Kili laying there on his back, looking at you with a goofy grin on his face. It took a second for him to register that your expression was not a positive one and frowned, sitting up some and angling his body towards you. He braced himself against the bed as he looked at you.

“You’re stressed,” Kili observed, his eyes scanning your face. “What’s wrong, gamzûna?”

“Stressed,” you admitted, looking back at the piles of books and papers on your desk and feeling a punch to the gut as sweat started to bead at your neck.

“About?” Kili was sitting up fully now, feet on the floor as he watched you. You could feel his eyes on you and it made you shiver.

“School.” It was the truth, and a simple enough explanation.

“That’s not all it is though.” Kili’s concern was nearly palpable. He scooted to the edge of the bed and leaned forward. “Talk to me,” he said as he turned your spinning chair some to look at your face. “What’s wrong?”

“I already told you. I’m stressed about school.”

“Mind elaborating?” He asked with a slightly tilted head.

“My grades are… Not great right now, and I feel like I can’t keep my head above water with the workload. My parents are going to be pissed when they find out about my grades. It feels like all I ever do anymore is attend class or study.”

You sniffled, not realizing you were crying until he reached over and wiped your cheek with the back of his fingers. The leather felt odd against your cheek, but you just looked at him and sniffled again.

“I’m sure your parents will understand—”

You shook your head. “No, they won’t. They’re going to be so upset with me!”

“Hey,” Kili said softly, putting his hand on your shoulder. After a moment he grabbed your rolling chair and pulled you closer to him so your knees were touching. “You’re doing your best right?”

“My grades—”

“I didn’t ask about your grades.” His tone was so soft. “I asked if you’ve been doing your best.”

“I could work harder, probably.” It was hard to talk with the giant lump in your throat.

“No, I don’t think you could. You’re already running yourself ragged as it is.” Kili smiled just a little. “I’m proud of you for still trying. I know you probably have been wanting to give up for a while now, but you’re still trying. That’s something you should be proud of, too.”

“My grades—”

“Gamzûna,” Kili sighed, taking your hands in his and looking you in the eyes. “There are more important things in life than grades. Health and happiness. The sun will not stop rising and falling because you have a bad grade. The world will not flood because you have a bad grade.”

“I need good grades to be successful: to get into a good college and have a good job.”

“Depending on which college you want to go to, grades will not make or break your enrollment. Traditional college isn’t necessary for you to have a good job, either. Your high school grades won’t ruin your life,” Kili assured as he held your face in his hands. “It’s going to be okay, Y/n.”

“It doesn’t feel like it, though!”

“I know, but the sun will rise even after the darkest night. The sun will rise. This won’t last forever, gamzûna.” Kili gently pressed his lips to your forehead before resting his forehead on yours and closing his eyes. “It’s going to be alright. You will get through this.”

“I don’t know that I will,” you choked back a sob.

“I do, though. I believe in you,” he assured.

“I don’t, though.” You moved your head into his chest and started crying.

“That’s okay. I believe enough for the both of us.”

[soyeahitsmiddleearth]

Dimension Jumping Pt. 5

Comforting a grieving hobbit and time get everyone ready to go out!

Via the genius idea from katzrfsoa / Kat88

There's been mention of the reader not wanting to take the groups out, for fear of the public's reaction... so what about a cosplay convention? it would give the Reader the perfect excuse to allow them out, and they would wear their original clothes 

----

This morning has been uneventful for the most part.

Breakfast passed by without issue and now everyone is off doing their own things.

You looked outside and took a peek in the guest room, but you still can't find him.

Sam, Merry, and Pippin are playing a board game you showed them; Legolas is doing his meditation sleep thing; Boromir and Aragorn are discussing something; and Gimli is stacking bread on Legolas' leg to see how long it takes until he notices.

Frodo, however, is missing at the moment.

Right as you were considering telling the others of his disappearance, however, you heard some shuffling from your hall closet.

You open the door carefully and take peer inside, not wanting to startle the small hobbit, and at first you don't see him.

There's more shuffling and you hear a quiet sniff, followed by soft sobs, and you then realize he's hiding behind the shelf.

The door makes a soft clicking sound when you close it, and right away the quiet cries cease. You didn't want to alert him with the door, you wanted to do it yourself, but it's too late now, so you just go with it.

"Frodo?" You call in a gentle voice, staying by the door incase he wants you to go.

"Y-Yes?' He calls back, not moving from his spot.

His voice is thick with emotion, and the sadness in his tone makes your heart ache painfully. And when you walk closer and see him huddled up behind the shelf, your heart breaks a little for him.

He hastily rids his cheeks of any evidence of his sorrows, though the puffiness around his eyes and constant sniffles don't much help his cause, and looks at you with a false smile.

"Frodo, why are you crying?" You ask with furrowed eyebrows, kneeling down in front of him so you may look at him at eye level (mostly).

"It's nothing." He tells you quickly, looking away from your compassionate face with the same sad frown on his lips.

When you don't move to get up or leave, his gaze slides back over to you and he realizes that you're not going to leave unless he straight up tells you to go away. This makes him sigh, but truthfully, he doesn't want you to go away. Not really. For having company in a time of sorrow always mends suffering.

"I... did not have a proper time to mourn Gandalf. I've been so caught up in the oddity that is this place that I almost forgot my sorrows altogether, but then this morning is all... came rushing back." He explains with a surprisingly even voice.

While he speaks you cross your legs and listen along intently, your hands folded neatly in your lap. When he finishes, you reach forward and place your hand atop his with a gentle touch, "I didn't know him, but I can tell he was very dear to you. Honestly, I can't offer much advice, but I can tell you that keeping it all bottled up inside is not a good idea."

He looks at you with that sad face when you speak, and it prompts you to continue, "Also, I know everyone else can be pretty overwhelming or they just don't understand, and I want you to know that I'm always here to listen if you're feeling down, okay?"

Your words draw a small smile from the grieving hobbit and it elicits a similar grin from you.

"Thank you, Y/N. I... actually do feel a little better."

"I'm glad."

---

After your discussion with Frodo you rejoin everyone back out in the main room and let him recollect himself, going right onto your laptop to get some work done.

You're idly scrolling through a scholarly article you need to research when you see it.

An advertisement for some sort of comic book, cosplay, convention... thing in the area (no wonder you've been seeing so many oddly dressed people recently).

At first you almost scroll past it, but then you get hit with the brick of knowledge and a lightbulb goes off in your head.

"Yes!" You scream, successfully scaring everyone in the room and Penny who is sitting with you for once. "Ohh, my god. This is freaking perfect!" You exclaim, clicking on the link to get some more information.

Your eyes practically soak up everything on the information page, and, once you've skimmed through all of it, you look up with a bright smile on your face.

Literally all of them are looking at you like you've grown two heads, but you only clap your hands together a few times. "Guys, I just had a huge brain moment!"

The joke goes over their heads as per usual, but you don't let that deter you.

"Huge brain moment?" Pippin asks in confusion, looking at his cousin like he thinks he heard it wrong or something.

"Yes! I've figured out a way to take everyone out!"

That certainly gets their attention.

"You have?" Sam asks exuberantly, dropping his game piece so he can turn towards you and pay perfect attention.

"I have, yes," you start, continuing once you're 100% sure they're all paying attention, "So here's the thing, I knew that I could take out you tall boi's without issue besides having to find a hat for Legolas here, and I could explain that Gimli here has dwarfism," you pause at that and realize it may be offensive to him, but you continue once more, "but I also knew that there's no way I can explain away the hobbits, and then I found this gem."

You turn the computer so it faces all of them, but they only look more confused.

"There's a convention thing in town for the next week, and it's the perfect opportunity for me to bring everyone out! We just have to dress up the hobbits a bit and pretend that they're children."

At your explanation you receive multiple pleased smiles, and it serves to make you feel even better about your idea. "And you can all wear your normal clothes, too. And if someone asks who you are... I'll figure out a game or something you guys can use as an alias."

"Are you sure that will work?" Aragorn asks with furrowed eyebrows, sitting up from his spot in your arm chair.

"Um, like, maybe 98%." You confirm with a shrug, "It's better than 88% though."

He doesn't seem like he disagrees with you, so you look back at your laptop again and start to look for ideas to make them more believable as humans.

---

3 hours of research later, and you've successfully compiled a completely fool proof plan to smuggle this merry band of bizarre boys out of your house.

What you've decided is that you'll put some makeup over Legolas' pointy ears to make them look more fake since the concept of elves is not lost in this world. Boromir and Aragorn can go as themselves, and you'll put some makeup on the hobbits much like you will Legolas (they'll be children elves since there are no hobbits in your world) and tell everyone who asks how they look so good that you're a professional makeup artist.

Gimli, fortunately for you, was the easiest to come up with something for next to the other two humans of this group. You can just tell people he has dwarfism and that's why he chose to go as a dwarf character.

Everything is in order except for what you're going to do, though you suppose you should match their theme and be some sort of renaissance, maiden, lady, thing. You'll figure it out, though you do need to make sure it's convincing like theirs.

You decided to, instead of putting it off, go ahead and start working on finding a costume to match theirs.

A couple of searches later and you come across a really pretty dress that looks to fit their style, and when you show it to them they give you the thumbs up, so you order it with express shipping so it should arrive tomorrow.

It's a lovely flowy medieval dress *just look up flowy medieval dress and go to images, there are some good examples there*, and you feel excited just looking at it. Of course, there's no guarantee that it'll be the best quality, but it's got great reviews and you certainly paid a hefty sum for it.

After that's done with you head to your bathroom to see what makeup you've got, and you find that you don't really have any theatrical/special effects makeup. You're going to need skin colored wax makeup, powders, and contour stuff.

You're no makeup artist, obviously, but luckily for you, your goal is to make them look less realistic, so it should be easy enough.

It's surprisingly easy to figure out what you need to make them as convincing as possible, and pretty soon you've got a nice little list going on that outlines each thing you need.

Since you don't want to delay anymore, you head out of your bathroom and grab your bag while putting on your shoes, "Legolas, I'm leaving now if you wanna come with." You suggest since he stated his desire to join you in the one of the last chapters (:o).

When you call his name he looks over at you quickly, smiling a bit at your offer, "Yes, but you said I need a hat."

"Oh yeah! I have one, just gimme a sec." You tell him, walking over to a drawer.

When you open said drawer, you find a grey beanie with ease and toss it over to him, "Here ya go. Make sure it covers your ears... and uh, tuck your hair up into it too if you don't mind."

He does as you say with ease and, surprisingly, he looks just as good with shorter hair as he does longer hair.

It sticks kinda awkwardly at first, so you waltz on over and gesture for him to crouch down so you don't have to reach up.

Once again he does as you request and leans down so you may fix it.

You adjust it a bit to make sure it won't fall first, and then you smooth it back a bit so it'll also look stylish. And once you're done you take a step back and smile at him brightly.

"All done! Let's go!"

---

He seemed rather fascinated in the way your car works first and foremost, but once you got him to look out his window instead of watching you, his excitement quickly turned into awe.

When you both get to the ULTA store he follows you without hesitation and asks some hushed questions about things he sees, like the light up signs, other passing cars, stoplights, and some other things.

You, of course, answer each question happily and lead him inside, holding the door open for him while he enters and looks around the brightly lit up makeup store.

Right away you head towards the general direction of the nose and scar wax (it's multi purpose, don't judge me), forgetting to make sure that Legolas follows you.

When it does occur to you, however, that the blond elf didn't come after you, you panic.

You turn in a circle and only stop when you see him standing with some ladies who practically have hearts in their eyes.

Unconsciously you breathe a sigh of relief and head over with the wax in your little basket, immediately reaching up to wrap your arm around his, "I got the first thing on my list, come on."

The girls stop their giggles and flirting as soon as you show up and look genuinely surprised.

You give them a smile and nod in acknowledgement, not wanting to make them feel bad over something so silly before turning with your arm still around his own and walking him over to look at some contour stuff and other things.

They make some snide comments when you turn your back about you being a 'clingy girlfriend' and 'not pretty enough to be with a model like that', but you only ignore it and relish in the fact that you didn't make them feel bad over something as silly as a cute guy in a makeup store.

"Why are those women talking about you like that?" He asks in a whisper, leaning down so only you will hear his question.

You look up at him with a bit or surprise since you didn't expect him to pick up on that, before you smile, "They're attracted to you, and they think that I was being selfish with taking you away from their advances."

"Selfish? Advances?" He looks confused, but you only smile and turn back to the display case.

"Don't worry your pretty little head over it, Leggy my boy."

"Leggy?" He asks slowly, looking at you in confusion.

"Leggy." You confirm with a nod with a distracted hum.

It isn't much later that you have everything you need, and so you go to the checkout and buy everything.

"Going to the convention?" The girl at the counter asks with a smile.

You smile back and nod your head, glancing up at Legolas before looking back at her, "That obvious?"

"No of course not, just the items in your basket always fly off the shelves around convention time." She replies with a giggle, ringing up all your items.

"Well, that's fair." You muse, putting your card into the reader to pay for it.

Once everything is in order she hands you your receipt and adds, "Maybe I'll see you there."

"Maybe!" You chirp back happily, liking the nice conversation going on here.

"You and your boyfriend have a good day now!"

You elect to ignore that.

---

On the way home you pretend to not notice the black car following yours and make small talk with the elf, answering some more of his questions and speaking idly on different things.

"There are so many odd, interesting things here..." He comments after a while, glancing out the back window. "Are you aware that, that car has been following us for the past 10 minutes?"

You nod and hum as an answer, "Mmhm, it's just Brian. He's probably trying to figure out who you are."

The blond knits his eyebrows together and glances back to look at the car again, "Should I do something about it?"

"The only thing you can do is ignore it. He went from lowercase 's' stalker to uppercase 's' since you guys arrived, and it'll only get worse if you intervene." You mumble, trying not to look in the rearview mirror at him. "It's fine."

"You don't seem to think it's fine." He challenges in the same even tone, turning in his seat towards you.

Instead of answering his question you look at him while you stop at a light and grumble, "I told you to put your seatbelt on."

"It's uncomfortable."

"I don't care."

"I will be fine."

"Not if we get into a crash, you won't."

The two of you stare each other down before he slowly reaches up and buckles his belt, never breaking eye-contact.

"Good boy." You coo in a way-too sweet voice.

"Anyways, I know we said as much before, but you needn't worry about that man while we're here." He continues despite your obvious subject change.

"I know." Your reply is softer and less defensive this time, for you really do appreciate it, "Thank you."

He looks surprised at your sudden gratitude, and his expression shows as much "For what?"

"For being you. For looking out for me. All of you."

This time he smiles and says no more.

---

When you both get back to your house you immediately put everything in your bathroom and get onto your laptop to view some techniques on theatrical and movie makeup, Pippin and Merry on either side of you while they view through the pictures and videos with you.

"That one looks interesting." Merry pipes up suddenly, pointing at a person to wolf makeup transformation.

"Yep, and way past anything I can do."

This pattern of going through pictures and viewing clips goes on for a little while until they two hobbits depart to have lunch, meanwhile you continue on so that tomorrow will be a success.

You're both excited and nervous at the same time, wanting to see how it'll all turn out but also dreading it incase something goes wrong.

You know the most important thing is to have a positive mindset about it, but it's kinda hard sometimes during your more anxious moments.

Also, there's the issue of Brian possibly following all of you...

Nah, that'll be a problem to think on for tomorrow.

"What time will we leave tomorrow?" Aragorn asks from his usual spot on the rocking chair, Penny still nestled in his lap as per usual.

"Around the morning. I bought the tickets already so we won't have to stand in line for too long... Hopefully."

"Thank you for working so hard so that we may see more of your world." He comments suddenly, stroking his hand down her fluffy back.

You tilt your head to the side and smile a bit, "You don't have to thank me."

"No, I do. You have seen to our every need and we no doubt pose to be a huge burden. Thank you, really."

His words make you flush slightly, and you look away shyly.

You've grown to care about all of them, so of course you would do anything to keep them comfortable at this point. More than anything you're just glad they see how much you're trying to make things easy on them. It feels nice being recognized for your efforts.

Plus, the added protection from Brian is pretty sweet.

"Anything for you guys."

[inthememetime]

This seems really cool

Line: “If you could disregard their words as easily as you disregard my own, we need not be having this discussion.”

Fandom: The Hobbit

Emoji: 🤬

Pairing: I'm not sure if you're into writing x reader fics, so feel free to completely ignore this part if you aren't and write with whatever characters you see fit, but maybe a kili x reader?

Thank you for the ask!

Pairing: KílixReader, implied Bagginshield (it's literally 1 sentence though)

Summary: Gender & ethnicity neutral human reader (hereafter referred to as You or Y/N) and Kíli are very much in love. Before retaking Erebor, no one batted an eye at Kíli, a hunter and jeweler, marrying the human bastard child of a prostitute. Now that he's in line for a throne, however, Dain, his daughters, and several of his other cousins have been harassing you to get you to leave. The arrival of his mother, who you haven't met yet, instigates an argument that might end your relationship.

Rating: PG or PG-13.

"Please tell me you're joking, (YN)." Kíli's eyes are oddly hard; they're red rimmed, and you feel awful for making him cry, but they're cold now. Angry. You'd known he was a hunter, but you'd never felt quite so hunted.

"I'm not. We've talked about this before, and me leaving- it's just the best way." You've made this argument before. It's been no secret that Kíli's family wants him to marry a dwarrow or dwarrowdam of high rank, and a human born of a prostitute and no father is neither.

"The best way for what?"

You huff and toss a rolled up tunic at him. "Do we have to go over this again? Can't we just-"

His gaze still hasn't moved or softened. "Humor me." And that isn't a request from the dwarf who caught your attention by making you laugh, but an order from a prince.

You sit down and manage to tear your face from his. If you look at him now, your leaving will be pushed back just another day. And another. And eventually you'll grow old, he will not, and you fear it. You fear a life filled with wondering if this will be the last time you argue. If this will be the last time he tries to get you to stay.

The entire time the two of you have been together, about half his family has been supportive while the other half- who firmly believed that species shouldn't mix- have done nothing but harass you and make you miserable. And now his mother will finally be coming with the last caravan from the Blue Mountains. You've met enough mothers you know she'll hate you too.

"There are expectations of you, as a prince. You have to marry someone who can give you full blooded heirs, someone who can rule beside you if the worst happens. And I-"

You feel your throat constricting, and you force your next words through a throat that feels as if it's filled with cold porridge. "I just want you to be happy. And I can't give that to you. Even if I could, I've got what- 60, 70 years left if I'm lucky? When I die, you won't even be middle-aged for your people, but you'll be alone."

He gives a heavy sigh. "If you could disregard their words as easily as you disregard my own, we need not be having this discussion."

"I don't disregard any of them." You return.

"We only love once, we dwarrow. It's how we're built. So I have two options, really. Look at me."

You don't want to, but Kíli tugs on your shoulder gently, and you've never really been able to refuse him anything.

"Here are my options. My first, and the one you seem to enjoy the most for some strange reason, is to say my goodbye, watch you leave, lose the 60 or 70 years we might have, and probably start hating my family for driving you away. There won't be any children in this scenario, pure blooded or not. No marriage. Just being alone."

You open your mouth to object, but he taps your lips just once with a finger in warning. "No, you've said your piece a hundred times. I'm saying mine now, and you'll listen."

He moves his hand away when you nod. "Now here's option two- actually, there's three now that I think of it. Option two is we get married. They don't have to like it. We're both adults in our respective species, so by dwarrow law, they can like it or leave us alone. The very worst thing they can do is say I'm not fit to rule; my brother's already courting a 'dam, so I wouldn't anyway. No great loss there. We enjoy our time together, anyway."

"And option three is me leaving the mountain with you. I'm no great shakes at smithing, but if we go to a big enough city, I'm very good at jewelry. We go, hide from my family until you die, and then I decide whether to come back or not."

You feel sick, somehow, with the third one. Pulling your dwarf away from his family and his mountains feels somehow very wrong.

"I don't know, I-"

"Think about it." He says, more gently this time. "I've already told my family those options too." You look at him in shock. "Yes, yes, I did, don't look so surprised. Fí is fine with it- said he voted for option two and mum jumped down his throat about how it wasn't a joking matter."

"And- and the rest?" You ask, not daring to hope for anything.

"Uncle Thorin recommended a few cities that were nicer to dwarrow than most- I'm pretty sure he's making a list. He also said that he's the king, not my cousins, and if he needs to make it an order for Dain and his daughters to leave me be, he will." He shook his head. "Amad, apparently, has asked for a list of the kin involved, and Balin's trying to make sure she doesn't get it to avoid a 'diplomatic incident.'"

Despite your tears, his frankly terrible imitation of Balin's dry tones make you laugh a little.

"So think about it. And know that if Amad has anything to do with it, my cousins will be banished, dead, or both. After all, my uncle married a hobbit, who's to say I can't marry a human?"

[oddsnendsfanfics]

The (Mis)Adventures of Kal and Moose - New Year, New Tricks

Genre: Fan Fiction

Pairing: Henry Cavill/Reader

Warnings: Fluffy NYE In

Rating: G

Length: Drabble

Disclaimer: a strict work of fiction, I own nothing except the original characters and the plot line. In no way am I affiliated to any of it.  

A/N: Happy 2021! Shall we start this year off with some Kal and Moose? 

Henry Cavill Master List

“Henry,” You call glancing around his kitchen, “where did you put the mushrooms and broccoli?”

“I left it on the table, beside the noodles.” Calling back, he flipped through the television channels trying to find something to watch.

“Are you sure?” Picking up containers of open Chinese food, your brow furrows. Beside the noddles is a container of wontons,  stir fry, and egg rolls. No mushrooms and broccoli. “I don't see it,” You pout when he walks into the kitchen to prove you wrong.

“It's right...” Henry paused about to point at the take away container. “I swear, I left it right there.”

Beside you, nails click on the floor, Moose is dancing excitedly eyeing the table of food. His blue eyes sparkling with that all too familiar doggy pride.

“Moose,” You glance down at the dog, stretching he wags his tail and boofs. “You know that is my favourite,” You chide the dog, shaking your head in jest at your furry companion.

Under the table, the tell tale sounds of Kal snacking reach Henry's ears. Rolling his eyes, he sighs. He should have known better than to leave that much food unattended. These two dogs were worse than putting small children together.

“I don't think this was Moose's doing.” Leaning over to look under the table at Kal. With the evidence on his face and paws, the black and white Akita rests with the container under his nose. Licking out the remainder, he looks up at his human. “Kal!”

“Oh Bear,” You groan, trying to hide a laugh at the big dog.

Quite satisfied with his meal and himself, Kal shuffles around slowly crawling out from his hiding spot. Pausing a  moment to lick Moose's face, he burps and continues on to the living room with his friend in tow. The two were somehow always on a roll, especially when together. Grumbling about how Kal has had no manner as of late, Henry sits his plate beside yours.

“Here,” Henry began to put his portion on your plate, “have mine.”

“You don't have to share.” You laugh at the situation, leave it to your dogs to eat three quarters of a large vegetable dish. “It's fine, really.”

“I don't mind.” Henry shrugs. “I ordered it for you, I'd be kind of a dick if I didn't let you have any.”

“I'm not arguing this, am I?”

“You can try, but it will be useless. Consider that your warning.” Chuckling, Henry fills the empty spot on his plate with more noodles.

“Thanks,” You accept the offer, grabbing the bottle of beer that you'd sat down earlier and followed Henry to the living room.

“You Mister,” Henry tutted at Kal, “need to learn some manners. Since when have I ever allowed stealing from the table?”

“It was probably done with Moose's encouragement.” You laugh rolling your eyes when Moose attempted to join you on the couch, when he heard his name. “Down, please.” You gesture to the floor. Like a good boy, Moose sinks to his haunches on the floor, intently watching your fork.

“I didn't know what else to watch, is this okay?” Henry gestures to the screen. You were more than happy to watch The Hobbit, it was a solid go to, when you were unsure of what else to watch.

On the floor at your feet, Kal and Moose laid with hopes of dropped food or plates being sat down, unattended and ripe for their taking. An end of an egg roll was passed down, Moose being the lucky recipient, while Kal looked betrayed by his own human. How dare Henry give the other dog the tidbit. Moose may be his best friend, but it didn't mean Kal had to like or agree to sharing Chinese take away with him.

Crunching on the crispy treat, Moose smacked his lips in a loud fashion. Making Kal watch the act for a long as possible. Slouching and whimpering, Kal laid his head on your thigh glancing at your nearly empty plate. Conveniently forgetting about his mushroom and broccoli dish.

“Here ya go, bear.” You smile and slide him a fried wonton. Happily crunching his own treat, Kal licked his lips and whimpered again. You swear you could see him pouting, when you told him it was all gone.

Engrossed in the movie, Henry sat with his feet kicked up on the small coffee table – his mother would smack him if she saw that – enjoying the quiet New Year's Eve in. When he'd called you on Boxing Day asking if you wanted to spend New Year's Eve together, you happily agreed. Even if it was a quiet night in of four, including the two dogs.  There was no pressure. Showing up in your favourite comfy wear was expected and welcomed, as Henry had also been in his. No crowds, but still enough food and beer to feed a small one.

“Nearly midnight.” Henry checked his watch, looking over at you.

“So it is.” You nod and smile. Stifling a yawn, “If I make it.”  

“I could make some coffee.” Henry shifted around. Preparing to stand if you said Yes.

“No, it's fine. If I doze, wake me?”

“If I am still awake, sure.” He laughed softly. Kal standing and stretching, coming to his human for a pat. “We should probably let these guys out, just in case we do fall asleep.”

“Good idea.” You pause the movie, stretching slowly and standing. Calling to Moose, you follow Henry to the back door. Allowing the dogs to bound out into the small garden for a break. “Once we hit midnight, are you going to walk me home? I need that dark haired man to cross the threshold first,” You chuckle at the superstition.

“It only works if it's well after midnight.” Henry furrowed his brow, snickering. “I'd have to do it in the morning, or there is no luck.”

“So, you're going to let me walk home alone?” You tease, knowing that Henry would never.

“No, I was thinking that you and Moose could stay here. Why rush home? Hot date waiting?” He teased, calling the dogs back in.

“No,” You shake your head, feeling like a teenager defending a teasing over a non-existent crush. Grabbing another beer, you follow the dogs into the living room. Flopping down on the couch, you scoot over for Henry to sit.

“Ah,” Henry continued to tease. “Then we are in for the night? Unless you suggest we run out into the street, at midnight, finding the first person we can and planting a big one on them. You know, since you believe in superstitions.”

“I don't understand the whole kiss thing.” Rolling your eyes, you snuggle down onto the couch beside Henry.

“Are you saying that you don't like PDA?” His laugh is deep.

“I'm saying that I don't understand why people kiss strangers at midnight.” You stretch your leg, scratching Moose with your foot. “You're usually my midnight kiss, aren't ya.”

“Kal is mine.” Henry's laugh booms.

“I've had Kal kisses, they're pretty hard to beat.” Giggles taking over. More than once Kal has attacked your face in a frenzy of slobbery dog kisses.

Because you've never kissed me.

Henry wanted to kick himself, never had he thought about saying such a thing to you. Oh god. You would slap him silly and never come back, if you heard that thought. What kind of person said that to their best friend Clearing his throat, Henry shifted in his spot on the couch, “He does have some charming moves.”

“Like someone else I know,” You lean forward, Henry scooting a little closer. Perhaps this wasn't an entire bust. His heart skipped with anticipation. “Moose, Kal.” You call beckoning the dogs onto the couch. “Yes, you two are such charming gentlemen.” cooing over the dogs, who have invaded the couch you laugh when Moose decides to snuggle in and begin licking Henry's face.

“Moose,” Henry groaned pretending to push the dog away, his laughter giving him away. “C'mon mate.” He gently wrestled the dog from his sneak attack.

“Moose, down.” You giggle, ruffling the fur around Kal's neck. “You can't kiss him yet, it's not even midnight.”

Quirking his brow, Henry sighed as Moose finally gave in. Snuggling up to Henry's side instead. “I thought you didn't believe in midnight kisses.”

“I don't believe in kissing strangers, but Moose isn't a stranger.” You shrug, biting you lip to hide the smirk. “And technically, neither are you and I.”

[lesbiansforboromir]

What's ur take on th amazon prime middle earth show atm? Thoughts, feelings about the new rumours/news?

I was going a little spare about it in my discord server, let me try and tie all these thoughts down for you. Also to be CLEAR... I'm going to pretend that these 'leaks' are things I believe will happen rather than published by TOR ie, dubious at best. Here's a link to the article anon's talking about.

So, first off, the tolkien estate is apparently happy with the production... I have to file this under what will become quite a well populated reaction box 'that sounds good but it makes me nervous also'. I'm very glad Priscilla likes it though, that's still good to know.

Next, Amazon has SOME Silm and unfinished tales rights... This probably worries the silm fandom far more than it worries me, but in terms of the production itself it seems very positive to me. I mean god... how else would they have... made the show... Like they'd have had to rename kings and straight up ignore plot points without it. AND YET I am actually still surprised. I suppose I shouldn't be, there's quite a lot of moving and shaking since Christopher died and I was always pretty sure he was the one keeping it all under lock and key. And considering the Nature of Middle Earth book is coming out now too with rumoured withheld letters and such, it seems the remaining holders are more lenient with the property rights.

There's a hilarious section where the article is like 'hm it might be that the show will span multiple sections of time' and I'm like well... it'll be a fuckin narrow as hell show if it doesn't... I dont think a single narrative ends in less than 100 years. The part about the dwarves, elves and humans having their own separate production units is interesting but I dont think I know enough about how tv making works to know what that says about the show. But what TOR suggests in the article, an anthology of POV's, would be pretty cool and was more in line with what I originally wanted it to look like. Did this make me a LEETLE excited? Maybe, but I can't acknowledge that yet.

The fake production team shooting fake shots is just funny, like you're using the money this way? Please... it wont be so bad if we see leaked images of shooting I promise I swear.

Lenny Henry as a harfoot is like... LIKE... this is definitely very excellent. I'm a little concerned that all the actors of colour will be relegated to just the hobbits, but I'm actually just a little too excited about seeing wandering hobbits and ALSO HAHA! Now @penny-anna has to watch the show >:3

Tom Budge... who WAS celebrimbor... Like.. I have been umming and arring over this, I go from 'god no' to '.. eh? maybe I see your point?' but in general I still feel like there were more dramatic and enigmatic choices that could have been made for casting such a character. However celebrimbor should have a moustache I think, so, maybe. Still not psyched about this vision of Celebrimbor as far as casting goes.

this is just straight up terrifying. Although it's still funny to me how the entire tolkien mega community saw JRRT say 'actually I was wrong the first time, orcs aren't elves they're corrupted early humans' and they all replied with the [I respect the council has made a decision nick fury.meme] But no seriously... what the fuck, go back to the sex having.

It's absolutely gruelling to me that the major elf debate we're at is 'can elves have short hair', like ok... I do want elves with short hair but that is not the major elf portrayal issue I want discussed here boys. When I say 'can elves be not-white' I want you to say 'yes, here they are'. Still, I do want to see elves with short hair.

And finally absolutely DELIGHTED to know I wont have to suffer Annatar in season 1. I get respite before the angbang bloggers descend on the tags.

IN GENERAL (still pretending I believe all these leaks, which I don't) This is all... encouraging... some of it's worrying and I'm jumpy about it but I would.. I would like an anthology... with a raft of perspectives, timelines and plots... this is what I was wanting when they talked about 'rivalling game of thrones' so... now we gotta wait for mid-2022 I guess... God I think Alecto the Ninth is coming out then too, I'm so beset.

[angstysebfan]

Laser-Like Focus - Chapter 1

Pairing:  Bucky x reader

Summary: You met Bucky while working with the Avengers. You fell in love and got married. One thing you had in common was to kill all members of HYDRA. Bucky for his known reasons, and you because they killed your parents in front of you when you were a little girl. Soon your focus on HYDRA pulled you and Bucky apart. He decided to leave the Avengers and after a long separation, sent you divorce papers. He comes back to get the signed papers, as he is about to get married again. But everything with you and Buck is an adventure.

Flashback

You were sound asleep in your room, with your dog, Toby, snuggled against you. You are awoken by the sound of screeching brakes outside of your home. Suddenly your mother walks in, “Y/N, come on baby, we have to go,” she says in a panic before scooping you up in her arms.

As she makes it to the top of the stairs, your dad is running up, “They’re here! We have to go through the back way. Give me, Y/N, and you take the lead,” your dad whispers to your mom. Your mom passes you to your dad and you wrap your arms around his neck tight. Your dad put his finger to his lips to tell you to remain quiet.

The three of you quickly and quietly sneak down the back staircase, that only your family knew about. It brought you to the section of the basement that was hidden. Through the basement the three of you ran through the underground tunnel. You tried your best to remain calm and held on to your dad tightly.

Your dad was a scientist for S.H.I.E.L.D, and he knew HYDRA was looking for him so he can replicate the serum used on Captain America during WWII. He always had this plan of escape, just in case, but always hoped he never needed to use it. 

As you three made it to the end of the tunnel, your mother climbs out of the tunnel and grabs you from your dad. She races you behind some bushes and tells you to stay there. As your dad climbs out of the tunnel, he rushes over to where he has a car hidden and starts it. You mother grabbed some bags from the shed that was near the car and placed them in the trunk. 

As your mom went to retrieve you, they were surrounded by vehicles and men with armor and guns. Your mother looked to where she knew you were and signaled you to stay out of site. “Dr. Y/L/N, nice to see you,” a tall man with a Russian accent says. “I wish I could say the same,” you dad responds. “Where is the formula doctor? You don’t want your wife to get injured, do you? Or what about your daughter?” he asks.

“I don’t have it. It’s already with S.H.I.E.L.D,” you dad replies. The man shakes his head, “I see your wife here, where is that cute little girl of yours? Hmm?” he asks taking out a pistol. “She is staying with family,” you mom replies. The man tuts, “Shame, would have been more fun to kill all of you together,” he says before he shoots your mom in the head, followed quickly by your dad.

You wake up with a start, sitting up, drenched with sweat, and you heart racing. You look over to the other side of the bed and see that it is still empty. Another nightmare. They have been constant since that day in December. If they aren’t about the day your parents were murdered, it’s about the day the love of your life sent you divorce papers. 

You get up and quickly change into gym clothes, knowing sleeping is out of the picture at this point. You quickly run downstairs and grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator and head down the gym. You tape your hands, knowing the only way to get out your frustrations was the punching bag. 

You start of slow, so that you don’t injure yourself, but as you start to feel the cathartic relief, you punch harder and faster. You think about the day your parents were murdered and how it changed you forever. You were rescued a few days later by S.H.I.E.L.D and put into foster care, as you had no other family. When you were old enough, you went back to S.H.I.E.L.D. and started training with them, quickly becoming a damn good agent. 

Along the way you became good friends with Natasha, and when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, she made sure you were taken care of. After the events of the Avengers Civil War, all was forgiven between Tony and Steve, and the Avengers were back together, with a new member, Bucky Barnes. Natasha reached out to you, knowing you were still an agent with another agency in Europe, and asked if you wanted to be a member of the team as well. 

You jumped on the next flight and met the team at the compound. It took you little time to become a hardworking member of the team, a member of the family, and mostly, a friend to Bucky. You both became close very quickly, understanding the meaning of losing everything. You both also suffered from nightmares, and made sure to help each other out. It didn’t take long for the friendship to form into a loving relationship, then marriage.

Bucky was the love of your life. He was the bright spot in your life of darkness, and he felt the same about you. You both loved each other with such passion, the thought of anything going wrong was unthinkable. You both also had a passion to make HYDRA pay for what they did. Bucky wanted them to know the pain they caused him, and you wanted sweet revenge on your parents lives. 

At first the need to beat and kill HYDRA brought you both closer, however as time went on, your thirst for HYDRA blood grew stronger and Bucky was looking for other things. Bucky wanted to settle down, start a family, and live a happy life. He realized to him that was beating HYDRA, but you wanted HYDRA to pay the ultimate price, and you wouldn’t stop until it was done. 

Your relationship with Bucky, though strong at first, started to fall apart. You did your best to fix everything, along with Bucky, but at the end of the day he wanted to stop fighting and live a life, and you didn’t. You couldn’t. Not until every last HYDRA member was dead. It broke Bucky’s heart the day he asked for a separation. He thought maybe separating would show you what you were missing. 

Bucky left the Avengers at the same time of the separation. He moved back down into Brooklyn, and he hoped and prayed for you to show up saying he was enough, and that he never saw you in the newspaper because you got hurt, or worse died. You both would talk weekly, hoping to come to an arrangement that would work, but alas nothing seemed to get your focus off of HYDRA. 

This past December you got a package in the mail from an attorney’s office. When you opened it you saw they were divorce papers that were already signed by Bucky. Your heart broke into a million pieces, and you didn’t know what to do. The team tried to get you to talk to Bucky, but you knew at this point you drove him away completely. You shoved the papers in your desk drawer to look at another day.

Since that day you have had frequent nightmares about the death of your parents, or getting those papers again, but in the dream Bucky gave them to you with no emotion. You would wake up the same way and in return, would come down the punching bag to relieve the stress. 

When the sun finally came up, you were dead tired, but still punching the bag. Steve and Nat walked into the gym. “Another nightmare?” Nat called out to you. You refused to look at them and just nodded, continuing to punch the bag. You felt someone walk up behind you and finally turned to look. Steve had a look of sympathy mixed with guilt. 

“Y/N, um... I hate to ask you this, especially since you are already having a bad day, but do you have the papers signed?” he asks. You look up at him, knowing Bucky reached out. You nodded, “Yea, uh. They are in my dresser,” you respond quietly. Steve nodded, “Ok, um... Bucky is stopping by today, to uh... to pick them up,” he says. 

Your eyes snap up to him. This will be the first time you will see Bucky in months, and the first time you will speak to him since he sent the papers. “Well he can come and get them from me himself,” you say. Steve knew you were going to play hardball and nodded before walking away. You untaped your fingers and headed out of the gym to shower.

Your soon to be ex-husband, who you are still madly in love with is coming to get the divorce papers. You had to make sure you looked amazing so you could show him what he is missing. You put a smile on your face and you removed the wedding band you still wore on your left ring finger. This was your chance to get him back.

--

Chapter 2

Well here is the start of something new. I am going based off of the relationship from the movie Twister, so if you haven’t seen it, don’t worry you will see what I mean. Enjoy! Feedback is appreciated!

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