#all the bug fans are gonna kill me for not being able to say anything interesting about this thing because i don't know what

[front-facing-pokemon]

[sparrowlucero]

i enjoy ur bird abode thoughts! I was a genuine enjoyer of the show when it was airing, I’m no die hard fan though and love to see ppls personal takes on the overall story/plot. Im curious if you also would agree or have any thoughts on the impacts The Mouse’s cancellation had on the shows ability to be more than it was? srry im not super eloquent with my words, but basically ur response to that ask got me wondering if part of the reason the show like genuinely wasnt all that ground breaking or unique in the end plot wise (other than the villain faces consequences in the end ig) as far as YA/Teen animation goes, was because of The Mouse’s inability to let the writers flesh out the show before gutting it? i have a negative bias toward The Mouse franchise and obviously dont know anything about how writing a show under the eyes of a franchise that big would work, its just smth that rattles around in my head and wanna know what u think!

Well to an extent, but I think it's much more the effect the studio had on how the owl house started out as rather than it not getting a full season at the end - It didn't escape my noticed that the show was initially announced as being a "horror comedy" when it doesn't really seem like either, especially by the second season, and yeah, the original pitch bible is obviously aiming for that much more than the show proper is as it goes along (and is honestly seems quite a bit more funny, weird, and dark, with an overarching plotline about a giant bug being used to religiously suppress people, eda able to cure her curse by killing luz, and one of the major characters being a teen boy awoken from a sleeping curse who ends up being a weird little bigot because he's from the 13th century, among other things)

(side note, i just noticed they actually specifically describe the thing i assumed the show was gonna be about here. huh.) but ultimately the bulk of the show that was actually made seems very influenced by a writing team that was genuinely interested in making a tropey YA fantasy story rather than just being mandated to. I mean even in what aired you can see the show sort of settle in ways that feel less like studio interference and more like, you know, art students creating their ideal fantasy show, like how King is clearly Eda's roommate who's funny because he looks like and sounds like a little dog despite being an adult man at the beginning but by the end they've made him her adopted sad backstory son who's explicitly a child. While I think a third season would have made the show as it existed better, because they clearly didn't get to finish the plot they wanted to (frankly to the point where some major aspects of the show are a bit confusing, I'm still not sure what a grimwalker is), I don't really fault the show for that but also don't think that hypothetical season (which pretty clearly would have been mostly about the magic school teens going to normal school) would suddenly flip around into something that I personally found interesting and subversive. Nor should it, really; again, it being Queernorm Harry Potter thing is clearly the intended appeal of the show, it's not really a flaw but just not a genre I'm personally interested in when compared to what I initially expected the show to be.

HOWEVER I will say they robbed little weird girls of their representation and that can't be forgiven

[loregoddess]

ayyy there was something tricky about Ochette's final boss, and it was that the final boss has a ton of health and an attack that reduces one party member to 1 hp (which the boss uses to power up and will use multiple times throughout the battle), so having healers is very helpful, bc despite Ochette being lv. 70 I was not able to "deal massive amounts of damage to get through the fight in like, 4-5 turns" my way through her final boss, although I had significantly less trouble this time than I did on my first playthrough when this was the first final boss I took on.

Anywho, thoughts on Temenos and Ochette's final chapters below...

I can add "timeline for when the Kal got wiped out" to the list of things that I just legit forgot from my first playthrough, like I simply did not remember seeing "Thirty years earlier...." at the start of Temenos's Ch4, which is such a weird timeframe (are you telling me Reiza was 7? and she has major guilt from a genocide she participated in when she was SEVEN??), but at least the "Temenos might have been a survivor of the Kal" theory makes so much more sense to me, bc I just thought we got a vague "decades ago" timeframe, not an actual set of years, bc in my head I was like "Well, Reiza's 37, so if this happened decades ago maybe it was two decades and she was 17 bc that would make sense for all the guilt she's carrying" no, no we actually got a timeline and she was apparently a whole whopping seven years old. Anyhow I'm gonna have to unshelve the Kal Temenos theory in my head and turn it over a bit more.

That all said the writing for Temenos's final chapter is...fine. So it's really not that his storyline bugs me so much as his Stormhail chapter specifically bugs the hell out of me (and also I don't like the "genocide survivor joins those who killed her people to seek revenge on them...somehow" as a plot point, like don't get me wrong I love the concept of Kaldena and think she should be in the story, but not as the main antagonist, but that's an entirely different rant).

I still wish we got some sort of timeline for when D'arqest came and turned whichever group of people living on Toto'haha into the beastlings. Like this guy apparently did something on every major landmass, and we don't know when or in which order. (whose name I hate typing by the way, why did the localization team decide to have it spelled like that?)

Also for as...clumsy as the whole "D'arqest turned people into beastlings by taking the evil from their hearts to call up the Shadow, so they can't be corrupted by the Shadow or at least are very resistant to it" is a worldbuilding point (believe me, I understand why this is criticized by fans), I don't think it's as simple as I've seen some analyses write it off as? Like, the Nameless Village is very much Right There, and there is very much something...deeply weird and concerning going on with the "heirs" in the village. Like, I dunno, I wish there was more about exactly what is going on with the "heir" situation in the Nameless Village, bc like what does it mean that the heir is a "vessel"? why does the heir, if they survive, end up with scars across their backs? who do people living there act as guides to outsiders even though those outsiders might end up summoning the Shadow (like what Kaldena was trying to do)? Ochette, Juvah, any of the members of Beasting Village, and also any of the members of Cohazeh's village never bring up the beastlings in the Nameless Village, and even Temenos doesn't have much to say about anything in the Nameless Village itself since he's so laser-focused on Kaldena. I just...have a lot of questions about the Nameless Village.

Ochette's final chapter still gets me like, that is one hell of a tragic battle, and even though I knew what was going to happen I still teared up a bit. (story-wise, not combat-wise, the battle itself was fine mechanically, but the story bits afterwards just get me).

From the perspective of trying to figure out how Vide's influence works and stuff though, it is interesting that one of Ochette's potential companions is able to be influence and corrupted by the Shadow (since we see the purple-y shadow stuff around the companion not chosen back when Ochette was 10, well before Petrichor and Harvey turned the creature into the Darkling), since mostly we only see Vide's influence in humans and monsters.

Juvah also calls Toto'haha's flame the "First Flame" which is a really interesting bit of lore, since we have the Kal who worship the "Azure Flame" and the Order of the Sacred Flame who worship the "Sacred Flame". Can't remember where it was in who's story, but I remember it being said that after their battle with Vide the gods were said to fall into a slumber (potentially literally becoming the various Flames), so it's interesting that we have a religion that seems to have been carried over from Orsterra, a new religion formed by the Kal people, and indications that the ancient beastlings or warden beasts also had some sort of understanding of their island's flame that is separate from the Order's interpretation of the Sacred Flame. I'll have to keep an eye out during Hikari and Agnea's crossed paths Ch2 to see if anything interesting is said in the cave of that region's flame.

ALSO THOUGH because the Scarlet Moon only happens every 400 years, this might actually help me if I ever sit down and sort through the in-game lore to set up a potential timeline bc like, the Scarlet Moon is basically an astrological occurrence (lunar eclipse? that makes it possible for Vide's power to seep through from "another world"); the fact that Toto'haha is a weak point that connects to Vide's "world" isn't really that surprising when we consider that the island is located sorta halfway between where Vide is fought in the endgame, and the isle containing the Gate of Finis. We also know the legendary creatures prevented the calamity of the last Scarlet Moon before dispersing over the world, and Tera shows up in the Kal's mural.

So it's possible the Scarlet Moon occurred, the legendary creatures dispersed, D'arqest began his conquest of the world fighting against Kal and Tera, fighting against the first leader of Ku and possibly the Lumine clan on the western continent, fighting...someone on the eastern continent (the kingdom of Fjall? someone else?) and causing the Pit to open up in the wall, and attempted to summon Vide or obtain Vide's power on Toto'haha, resulting in the beastlings (he might have done this before fighting Kal, since D'arqest had the power of the Shadow when he fought Kal, and actually might have been at Toto'haha first? maybe Kal and Kal's people managed to kill D'arqest and that's why he's buried in Gravell so close to where the Kal people lived). We know he also had to obtain Vide's power or blood somehow to make Claude into a vessel for Vide, so Toto'haha might play into that as well (maybe the beastlings found a way to seal the power of the Shadow that seeps through the Rifted Rock, and that has something to do with the "heir" tradition that I have so many questions about).

I'm pretty sure D'arqest had to happen after the first Scarlet Moon though, just bc of Tera being in the Kal mural, which would place D'arqest's activities sometime in the last 399 years before the game, which wouldn't be that far stretched (Lyblac was only active for like, less than 200 years in Orsterra which is hardly any time). It also makes me wonder if the gods' original battle with Vide didn't occur 400 years before D'arqest, since Vide has to be sealed in another world in order to try breaking through when the planetary alignment is just right during the Scarlet Moon, and a lunar eclipse would have been the height of Vide's potential power (the night side of the planet is in shadow and the moon is in the shadow of the planet, unable to reflect as much light) which might explain how 7 of the 8 gods ended up dead or as close to dead as a god can get. It would then place the timeframe for Vide getting sealed at roughly 800 years before the events of the game's story, which follows the 8 theme pretty nicely.

Which is all wild speculation on my part, but I can't see D'arqest being active more than 400 years before the story events. Also the legendary creatures disperse from Toto'haha, whose flame is protected by the warden beasts and the beastlings (who are, if not immune to the Shadow, at least very resistant to it and therefore ideal protectors), and one creature ends up in the area of each of the other three flames, as if they're protecting those flames as well--and there seems to be a group of people who come to worship/protect each of the three flames as well: the Order of the Sacred Flame, the Kal, and the Lumine clan (potentially, since the current Alpates says she has to "return to her people" and then she's found dead in Conning Creek, which is very near Hinoeuma's flame; one of Ori's journals mentions that Alpates and Rita both come from the Lumine clan, and it's possible Kura was related to that bloodline as well). This might explain why Arcanette has Petrichor hunt the three legendary beasts, to weaken the defenses around each flame? (it would make sense for Crackridge at least, since Tera seems to be connected to the Kal people, and Arcanette could have had Petrichor try to kill Tera before ordering the slaughter of the Kal people, since Tera would have been unable to defend them).

Anyhow this is all just unorganized rambling now, and I may be going absolutely nowhere with all this, but I wanted to get my thoughts written down bc I dunno if we'll ever get an official timeline to clear up at least a few things about Solistia's history.

[sneezydarliing]

HI. hypmic anon im back hello. Sorry in advance for the long ass scroll of text DHDHSB. I dont think you can even begin to understand how RABID your reply made me im giggling kicking my feet rn. Its canon TO ME!!!!! ALL OF IT!!! (well almost all of it bc i dont think ramuda would keep the gifts especially if they would get in his way bc hes a dick. And i love him for it. Fake ass bastard <3) no fr he "has to be in control" are you trying to kill me genuinely. Genuine question

scenarios are. Oh gosh okay i love. Control. I want to crush him like a bug i NEED to see him crack so i dont really care too much about the cause but GOSH having to power through a shitty (emotionally and physically) day WITH the added pressure of a whole ass fake persona on top of everything else. Soooo delicious to me. Anything with him just being surrounded by people especially FANS and having to keep up the /everything/ while just wanting to be anywhere else...... im SO sick of this guy i hate him

Also also okay listen dont judge me TOO much here but i. Am coming. From the anime adaptation i KNOWWW I KNOW thats like a cardinal sin or whatever but listen i dont know enough jp to go beyond like, the first few cd dramas and i DEFINITELY dont know enough to tackle the drb game (can we have a localization im actually on my knees begging) and i did catch up on a few of the cd dramas but i never got to dh and bat.... But the anime did just get to them. Dh seem very. They seem very. (<- a person who got into hypmic bc they saw art of sasara and thought they would like him)

ANYWAYS. That is to say i might not know them too well YET but I WILL STILL!! CONSUME ANY AND ALL HYPMIC CONTENT!!! So rest assured there is an audience (albeit small) and also im gonna shout out the anime adaptation omw out bc listen that shit is so fucking bad its so funny. Who greenlit them for a second season im crying

To finish this word dump off, i will offer up another little scenario for matenro which im gonna assume are the mtr in your tags (and sorry in advance if its a typo and you meant mtc and im just being dumb) specifically some domestic hifudo bc i still CANNOT believe they canonically live together like are you kidding me. Anyways im putting peak himbo hifumi out of commission bc of some virus that has been going around in his workplace. And doppo is fucking fighting for his life bc hifumi always does all the housework and cooking (CANONICALLY. im never getting over these two) and 'oh my god what does a sick person even need like are you joking ive never taken a sick day in my life and you expect me to take care of another person????' Ft jakurai on doppos speed dial trying to calm him down bc its really not that bad

HELLO AGAIN!!!!!!!! holding this so dear omg...

You are so right in all of it !!!! Admitidly I like DH bc they're very silly. Thr anime id so bad but i hold it so dear bc so is the game. Hypmic at its essence is just. Lovably terrible.I was lucky enough to be able to read a lot of the manga when slug still had it up so I do know a lot more more than the anime puts out !!! The anime is silly though love it

I really wish they'd come out with an arb eng but bcuz there's not many western fans my hopes aren't high 😔

ALSO I love that scenario so much... domestic hifudo is so dear to me I love them so much. Hifu being taken care of for once instead of bring the one that always takes care of others they make me emotional

[chil2de]

Your sharing a bed with the JJK men hc's were incredible 😩 special mentions for Megumi's bed head, Nanami being a secret cuddle bug, and Yuuta having to drink both iced coffees (that fucking sent me fjdndnfd I could picture it so clearly).

You're super talented so could I, er, possible get a NSFW version? 👀 💳💥💥💥💳💳💥💳💥

Thank you so much 🥺💕

hello anonie!!! thank you dear i’m so glad you liked them!! please the credit card emojis had me cackling LMFAOOOO you really made my whole day out here!!!(THE ICED COFFEE WAS MY FAVOURITE PART TOO)

well i managed to hit the max amount of characters allowed in a tumblr post with five characters alone so i’m going to have to split this up into several posts. it just kinda happened ig

characters in this post: itadori yuuji, gojo satoru, okkotsu yuuta, fushiguro toji (megumi was supposed to be here but i had to reserve him for next post😔)

this work is nsfw. if you’re new here, please read my disclaimer before proceeding. thank you and enjoy!

based off of this post

itadori

- itadori would prob be a ‘deer in the headlights’ if you woke him up in the middle of the night

- but after that? shit, he’s so nice to you. so kind and generous for his baby girl. whether he’s fucking you ‘cause he thinks you might be able to sleep after an orgasm or there’s just an incessant desire for him- doesn’t really matter all that much to itadori. he loves you either way :)

- gets horny so easily LMFAO

- would 100% dick you down if you asked him to and i like to think that he still keeps his really sweet personality during sex cause aaaa he would be so soft and reassuring

- hardcore dom yuuji sounds sexy as all hell but let’s be real… this man won’t kill a fly and apologises for stepping on ants. only exception being angry sex but overall reserving hard dom for sukuna :)

you pepper tiny kisses onto itadori’s face, treating him with the utmost care like handling fine china. his skin feels so soft against your lips, and he smells very faintly of milky soap. there’s some traces of brand cologne on his shirt, as well as his natural scent.

“yuuujiii-“ you coo, blowing air very gently. when he doesn’t stir, you run your fingertips through a bundle of his cotton candy tainted hair. it evokes a reaction from him, so you continue to press him.

“y-uuuu-ji!”

after a few moments, itadori lets out a soft whine before grumbling incoherent blabber. “i won’t eat the pineapple! kugisaki will scream at me!”

you giggle before prodding him again, when finally he relents and jolts awake, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted at how close your face is to his.

“‘s it morning yet?” he wrinkles his nose, stifling a yawn. you emit a hum in thought before wrapping your arms around his neck, pulling you into him. itadori squeaks in surprise when he feels you latch your lips onto his neck, suckling and carefully breaking the bonds underneath his sensitive skin. his moan comes out groggy, still laced with sleep.

“that drives me crazy, you know that, right?” itadori laughs, though his voice comes as a wobble.

“i know. and they look so good on you too, hm?” you giggle, caressing one hand from his neck and then down to the hem of his shirt. your fingertips flutter against his bare skin and he shivers physically and audibly. you smooth your palm flat along his chest, dragging your nails carefully against his muscles.

“kinda.. wanna.. go to.. sleep.. but i don’t.. wanna fall asleep…” itadori mumbles against his pillow. the fabric muffles most of it, but there’s a strain in his voice that leads you to believe he’s moaning lightly. guess after sukuna ripped his heart out, this area hasn’t been quite the same, huh?

“so? then go to sleep, yuuji. i’ll be fine-“ “-no way! i gotta take care of you”

“so why don’t you?”

“‘m going to! i was asleep just half a minute ago!”

“and besides-“

he shifts himself up into a sitting position, leaning his back against the headrest. itadori opens his arms, motioning for you to crawl on top of him. without any haste, you clamber over his built frame, ghosting just over the print of his hard dick.

“not that i mind but- we did, you know, in the morning already-“ “oh, shit, sorry- it’s totally fine if you don’t want t-“ “-just messing with you!”

itadori pulls your neck down and gifts you with the same treatment you were offering him earlier. his tongue is hot and wet against your skin and you can already feel the precipitation forming at the back of your knees. calloused yet tender hands smooth around your waist and he smooths his palms over your shoulder blades.

after itadori’s satisfied with the mark he left, you can’t help but groan a little into his mouth when his lips suddenly claim yours. he drinks you up, relying solely on your taste like he’s drowning and you’re the air he needs.

itadori takes his sweet time cherishing you, or rather it’s still his state of half slumber, but you can feel a dull ache prick your abdomen. you scratch up his shirt, motioning for him to take it off. you’re unsure what comes over you, but shit, you don’t want him- you need him.

“heyheyhey, ‘s okay. don’t worry, i got you.”

“i’ll take care of you.”

“just relax, okay? i got this.” he only coos with sweet reassurances, peppering small kisses and handling you with the utmost precision.

you whimper, balancing your palms flat against his abdomen for additional support as you sink down onto itadori’s cock. he lets out a hum of content, forehead bumping against yours as he allows you to adjust.

“you good?” he murmurs after a few moments, capturing a few strands of your hair in between his fingertips. you nod meekly and itadori hisses out a breathy exhale. he’s sure that if he goes rough as shit you might end up more broken than being able to sleep, so he screws his eyes shut and exhales to maintain his composure.

blazing hot lips scrape against your ear, and his voice comes out in a husky tone.

“tell me how you want it.”

by the lords of everything and all that is holy, itadori only chants the same phrase over and over in his mind. it’s a miracle that he’s able to think straight with all the blood rushing to his cock. he’s more than happy to take it slow, reward you with slow and long strokes while he showers you with high praises. but he can’t ignore the twitch that he experiences when he envisions that pretty lil fucked out face of yours, all messy and ruined for him.

you mutter that you have no preference, that you don’t care because anything he’ll do for you is perfect, and it only gives him a beaming smile at your words.

itadori grabs the scrunched up ball of his shirt that he was wearing before ripping the fabric into half with his bare teeth. you watch his eyebrows perk when he notices how fucking hot you just found that, evident with the way your walls fluttered around him.

“here, babe.”

you part your lips and he stuffs the fabric into your mouth, there’s a little bit of excess hanging out, but he reminds you that you look sexy as hell either way, on top of his dick like that with your hands on his chest, legs spread, face flushed and ready for him.

“don’t wanna be wakin’ anyone else up.”

yuuta

this man is about to end my whole career

yuuta wouldn’t bring it up on his own accord just because… respect.. and he doesn’t want to pressure you or make you uncomfortable into doing things you’re not ready to.

it’s kind of a gray area for him because he doesn’t relish the idea of bringing up sensitive and/or extremely awkward topics so he really said ‘i’ll leave it up to future me’s problem’

but holy shit. let me absolutely tell you.

the second you hint at it? anything of the sorts? 0 to 100. he is FREAKY you cannot tell me he’s innocent just LOOK at the man

can make you scream with ease. all that practice he’s been doing with handling katanas? he doesn’t need his dick to make you cum. will gladly lick up your leftover juices and remark with a smile on his face how ‘it tastes good, angel’

similarly to itadori, i think he would be sweet and patient when asking for your preferences, etc, but after that you’re gonna have to find something to bite onto

“and? what’d you tell her?” yuuta remarks from over his fanned out deck of three cards. his gaze flickers to you as he awaits a response before using his index and middle finger to lay down a +4 card.

“red, by the way.”

you huff and glare at your boyfriend, picking up four cards and attempting to hold them in such a way that they don’t all fall and rattle to the floor. truth be told? you’re seriously a sore fuckin’ loser. you don’t know how he does it, but you’ve never managed to win a game against yuuta.

“i told maki-san that it’s her problem, not mine. if she’s so pressed about people taking them, why does she keep noodles stored in the fridge? really, noodles in the fridge? they’re really spicy as well! made my nose run like hell.” you scoff in distaste, throwing down a random red card on the pile.

“you totally ate them didn’t you?” yuuta giggles, beaming you a wide smile.

“also.. told her that i didn’t see them instead but- yeah.”

“aren’t you worried she’ll find out? oh, and, uno.”

“she might just beat me up to be honest, and, uno, you say? not anymore, love.” you sneer, throwing down a +4 card.

“i want green.”

“i’d protect you.” yuuta states over his cards. you feel like cracking a joke and laughing, but there’s absolutely zero implication on his facial features to show that he’s joking. that, and his serious tone, of course.

you flip your cards down onto the table and yuuta squeaks, pointing towards them.

“uh- i can see your cards-“

“it’s okay, not like i was gonna win anyway.”

at this point, yuuta’s mind races a hundred miles an hour. he’s panicking, blood pressure raised, heart thumping and throat clogged. oh, shit, did he do something wrong? did he upset you? is it ‘cause he said he’d protect you with no regards to the fact that you’re perfectly capable of fending yourself off against maki? fuck, he’s such a god damn screw-up, can’t even take care of his girlfriend correct-

“hey.”

your fingertips slide around his neck, hands interlocking at the base of his head. your thighs balance on his lap and you straddle him, legs either side of his.

he can’t help but hitch his breath, holding it in as though one wrong move and you would dematerialise.

“what’re you thinking about in that head of yours?”

whether you’re referencing his mini panic attack just now, or if you’re referring to all the multiple times he’s battled just bending you over and railing the absolute shit out of you, there’s not much room for debate when you brush your clothed sex up against the print of his dick.

yuuta snakes his slender hands around your throat, holding it in place. you can feel the arousal pool and wash over you, and you’d be more than surprised if you hadn’t soaked through your clothes.

he lets out a breathy laugh, devastating your stomach with butterflies due to how attractive he sounds. yuuta’s soft lips brush the shell of your ear and his other hand moves to rest on your waist,

“why don’t i show you?”

before you can utter a tease something along the lines of “show me what? how you’re too scared to hit me in bed?” you’re already down, flipped over and bent over the table you and yuuta were using moments prior ago for uno. the cards have splattered all over the wooden floor and you only hiss in discomfort as the cool surface scratches against your delicate skin. your boyfriend towers over you, leaning down as his torso clicks into place against your back. even through his titanium white jacket, you can feel his calm and collected heartbeat. he rests his head on your shoulder, nudging his face into you.

“don’t scream, okay? or, try not to, at least-“

his warm fingertips ghost over the curve of your ass, where he pinches the skin there before delivering a loud slap. you squeak, back arching as you jolt from the action. he proceeds by grabbing the inside of your thighs, long middle finger hoisting around your underwear and pulling it to the side. he makes note of the red lingerie you’re wearing and gives you a small chuckle, peppering a kiss to the side of your face.

“-unless, of course-“

“-you’d prefer everyone hear me fuck you stupid.”

“safe word’s blue, angel. i love you and thank you.”

truth be told, you were never sure what to expect from yuuta. hell, you’d never really seen the man’s dick before, sure you caught glimpses in the morning whenever he’d wake up but it’s really not the same. nothing in the world can compare to the first time you felt his piping hot tip brush up against your slicked cunt. and it was embarrassing, actually, the way your pussy was seething for him already.

with a firm hold on your tailbone, yuuta utilises his lower body strength to ram his dick all the way inside. there’s a garbled and choked moan that hisses from you when you feel your walls wrap and deform around the girth of yuuta’s dick. you whine even more so when you can physically feel a thick vein that decorates his shaft.

“the mirror.” yuuta commands in a low tone, redirecting you to glance at the same mirror you’d always fantasised about him fucking you in front of.

his eyes are half lidded, riddled with concentration. it reminds you of that feral and focused gaze he gets during serious battles.

“don’t look at me. look here.”

you trail the outline of yuuta’s arm veins as a result of him rolling his uniform sleeves up; following his v line that points towards his dick. you can only gawk in awe when you realise you’ve taken him to the base of his shaft.

his gaze locks with yours for a split second and he snaps his hips out until just about his tip is visible inside your cunt.

and shit, if his pretty pink cock isn’t the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, especially with that attractive curve. you’re sure the gesture is just to wind you up, but you can’t help but swoon at him showcasing his pride to you.

“so- mmhf- pretty-“ you whine, words jumbled and breath caught when he slams his dick inside without any prior warning. you can only shriek in exclamation when his tip bruises your cervix, and you’re unsure whether you lament the sensation or not.

he only gives you a cheerful hum, reminding you of his usual cheery disposition. it’s not until then that you realise how much of a fucking beast he’s acting right now.

“right? i’ll put it to good use, i promise.”

gojo

- i know we’re all thinking the same thing here lmfao

- trying to sleep? good for you, now, open your legs for satoru.

- oh you can’t sleep? atta girl, down on your knees for satoru.

- bye i can literally imagine gojo saying some dumbass shit like “think you were trying to sleep but i couldn’t help but think how good my dick would look down your throat like that. sorry, love, you’re not sleeping tonight.”

you blink your eyes in turn with the cicadas chirping aside, stifling a yawn. everything around you down to the very last detail screams at you to sleep, but you just cannot. from the pitch black night that floods the room obscurely, to gojo’s even and quiet breathing beside you. you’ve tried it all. you’ve counted an excess amount of sheep, you’ve tensed and relaxed your body more than you can remember. hell, no matter how many times you’ve flipped the pillow you always seemed to feel less exhausted each time.

you can’t watch netflix, because you’ve binged all your favourite shows. it’s not that you’d wake gojo up because, who cares? by the time you finish scrolling through the endless lists it’ll be time to get up.

you ponder over the things you can do, continuing to subconsciously blink furiously. that is until gojo makes note of your stupid actions and starts giggling like a high schooler at his first sleepover.

“what the hell are you doing?” he snorts, cackling into the pillow like it’s the best joke he’s heard for quite some time.

“shut up, satoru. i’m trying to sleep you ass.” you tut at him, berating him for ruining your divine concentration.

gojo audibly shifts onto his stomach, his right arm crosses over the back of his head as he lazily rests his palm onto his scalp. the other arm preoccupies itself by landing it smack bang onto your chest, fingers wandering up to cup your breast.

“satoru, huh? that’s daddy for ya” he remarks, still giggling in a state of half asleep.

���uh-huh. goodnight.” you dismiss him and his nonsense.

“just go take a shower. always helps me whenever i can’t sleep.”

“hm? you’re giving me actual good advice and being a normal boyfriend? i think i might be asleep already, this is the best dream ever.” you remark sarcastically, prying gojo’s glued wrist off of your breast and sitting up. you could go for a shower, actually. you’re not sure why but it’s always so therapeutic to take one at night rather than the morning.

“huuuh? how could you say that? you’re so mean, (y/n)-chaan! i offered you my love and the world and this is how you repay m-“

“-goodnight satoru. i love you.”

“don’t think professing your love for me will change my mind! i’m still upset at you right now, young lady!” gojo shouts from over his pillow, exclaiming and irritating you in the way he knows how to best.

“yeah, yeah. okay.” you mumble softly to yourself, bearing a wide grin from ear to ear nonetheless.

when you move to crank the water on in the shower, you realise that you didn’t bring along a change of clothes. you momentarily pop back into the bedroom to ransack the drawer for anything that you can find.

“are you back to apologise for being so mean to me?” gojo whines and you can see the pout evident on him even when it’s pitch black.

“no, i’m just here for clothes, satoru.”

you hear him mumble something but it’s muffled by the sheets he’s underneath so you don’t heed any attention to it and resume in taking a shower to help keep your insomnia at bay.

with a ginger step and a small ‘oopf’, you heave yourself into the large shower that only a headass like gojo would bother buying. it’s reminiscent to what a hot tub looks like on the inside, with surrounding jets practically in a full 360 degrees. the things so steep that there’s a small step up in front of the shower outside the actual structure. it must have cost quite the fortune.

you reach in for the built in shelf to grab ahold of some of your toiletries as you allow the water to fall in a gentle sprinkle, almost like rain. there’s an audible squeeze reminiscent to trying to get the last ounces of ketchup as you apply some body gel to your hands, lathering it up.

despite standing, the warmth of the water leads your muscles to feel less tense. the only noteworthy downside is that the running water is tremendously loud. how on earth is gojo sleeping through all that racket?

slender fingertips ghost over your inner thighs. you can feel his wet and sturdy chest in place against your spine.

“surprised to see me?”

“you know i can’t let my baby talk shit like that.”

really? that’s his issue at hand here?

“so which is it?”

“acting like an intolerant brat because you’re tired or ‘cause you wanna get dicked down?”

gojo loops his arm underneath your leg, bending it up. you almost topple over in the process and you lay one hand flat against the tile.

“don’t answer that. sometimes it’s so obvious that you’re such a whore for my dick.”

“huh?! what the shit are you saying?” you snap at how correct he is.

gojo yanks your face back, digging his fingers into your cheeks as he forces you to face him. it almost sends your neck into two pieces, straining to look back at him.

“oh, really princess? just the other day you were begging me to fuck you”

“remember that? couldn’t wait so you rode me in the car? you know, baby, all you gotta do is ask.”

your legs tremble and psyche wobbles when he pries your mouth open with his thumb, promptly before spitting into it.

“don’t bother with the bullshit. i’ll play the games, not you.”

he drags his hard cock against the curve of your ass, slapping it against you.

“i don’t think i feel like fuckin’ you right now.” gojo sneers, humming sardonically. his lips quickly latch onto yours when you spin around to meet his gaze. like the fucker he is, gojo moans and whines into the kiss- lips ravaging you whole and tongue capturing your essence.

“baby girl, i was gonna let you top me. you know i don’t let anyone do that.”

his long middle finger prods against your cunt, forcing itself in with ease.

“damn, you’re soaked. you really wanted to milk me dry that bad?”

you hate him. hate him so fucking bad. he flashes you that attractive smile of his, azure eyes sparkling and snow white hair disturbed with water.

gojo pulls his finger out before sucking onto it in front of you, lapping all the excess arousal off.

“i’m not playing with you tonight.”

toji

- i literally don’t even need to say anything here

- just be sure to make a hospital check up appointment or something

- um-i uh- please remember to breathe after this one? maybe touch some grass? ALSO my first time writing for toji AAA i hope he’s okay

maybe if you don’t breathe? nah, that wouldn’t work. there’s still air acting around your limbs when you move so you’d be disturbing the barriers there. let’s see… maybe bit by bit? surely if you slowly inched his shirt up? then again, wouldn’t toji chew you out halfway through? maybe you should just give it to him straight up? just slip your hand under his shirt. come on. but he looks so peaceful, sleeping like that.. long eyelashes fluttered closed, lips relaxed and not scowling. his eyebrows are softly arched. he looks so soft, lips parted, chest rising and falling with every breath.

fuck it. just do it. cuddle him already.

you muster up all your courage in one fell swoop and you bend one leg over toji, resting it just above his groin. your right arm sprawls out over his chest and your hand rests against his toned arm. he’s already sleeping with one arm bent up with his hand supporting the back of his head, so you utilise the free real estate to nestle your head in the crook of where his shoulder and collarbone meet.

when he doesn’t move after a while, you deem your life to be safe and exhale with ease.

“you’re not asleep.” toji states in a groggy, husky tone. it’s supposed to be a question, but, coming from him it almost sounds like a challenge.

“yes?” you squeak out meekly.

“‘yes?’ you asleep or not?”

“i can’t sleep again.” you murmur against his shirt and he exhales a small sigh. the arm that you’re clinging onto moves to draw small circles on your thigh that rests on toji.

“when’d you notice?” you inquire, glancing down at his large wrists.

“like five minutes ago. nice try, kid.” toji snorts indifferently, chuckling at your behaviour.

when you don’t make an effort to respond, toji’s interest peaks and he lets out a small hum of intrigue when he follows your gaze.

he turns his head, brushing his lips up against your temples.

“see anything interesting down there?”

“as a matter of fact-“

you nestle yourself in between toji’s large and built thighs, digits curling around the waistband of his boxers. he only smirks at you through the dark, cock twitching through the fabric. you notice toji hover his hips up so that you can slide his boxers off for him and you happily oblige.

“-i do.” you chime, licking your lips.

it’s cute, though, if you thought toji was gonna let you handle him like that all by yourself.

as you kiss a trail up his thick shaft, toji yanks ahold fistfuls of your hair before grabbing your face off of his cock.

“who said you could suck my dick? that’s real cute.”

“thinking you actually have a place in my house.”

“i didn’t train you to be such a depraved slut. know your fucking place, because this isn’t it.”

“how many times do i gotta tell you? you don’t belong here. look around. do you see anything that shows a woman lives here? no? that’s because you’re nothing but a fuck doll for me.”

toji hisses out profanities at the gag you spew when he slams your tiny little mouth back down on his dick.

“lose the teeth you imbecile. unless you’re trying to tell me that you can’t suck my dick properly.”

incessant whines and garbled sentences are muffled by toji’s cock. whatever remnants you had of your vision are nothing but a blur as tears stream your cheeks, nose running and sniffles resurface in a repeating pattern over the slick sounds of slurping and gagging. your mouth stretches as far as it can go and the corners of your lips shriek in despair. you can feel the skin there stretch and pull beyond what’s considered normal.

even through all that, you manage to glance up at toji through your water logged lashes. you’ll be a good girl for him. you need to be.

“fuuuck. that’s a pretty sight.” he grumbles and a deep chuckle resonates through his chest. within a few moments, toji fumbles to reach for something.

you can only wince and screw your eyes at the suddenly blinding flash of a light in front of you. one can only assume he’s taken a photo of you in your humiliating state.

you can feel the fear settle into your veins when that telltale ping of a message being sent vibrates throughout the room. if you were to listen hard enough, you could hear a notification go off in the next room over.

your throat feels raw, jaw tense and locked open. it’s been a good twenty minutes of toji face fucking you to teach you a valid lesson. it’s all in the will of him wanting to drag this on, savouring every miniscule slurp, whimper or gasp. when his strokes start to feel sloppier than usual, you can’t help but feel relieved.

as you squirm about due to toji shooting hot ropes of his thick cum down your throat, the door softly clicks open.

“megumi. you’re just in time.”

“she’s way more obedient than your mom ever used to be.”

[babymetaldoll]

Danger Days - Chapter seven: "This mess we are in"

Word count: 12,7K

Summary: Matthew is worried after the incident Joey had with a fan. The drummer gets drunk celebrating Frank's birthday. In fact, everybody but Gerard is drunk, and they end up in a strip club. Joey makes a few bad decisions she regrets in the morning.

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, bad decisions. Cursing.

A/N: Missing Gubler? don't worry, he'll be very present in the next chapter. Meanwhile, read how these kids keep making a mess they are gonna regret pretty soon.

Also, all of this is fiction and the gif ain't mine. Love you!

Masterlist

Chapter one | Chapter two | Chapter three | Chapter four | Chapter five | Chapter six | Chapter seven | Chapter eight | Chapter nine | Chapter ten | Chapter eleven | Chapter twelve | Chapter thirteen | Chapter fourteen | Chapter fifteen | Chapter sixteen | Chapter seventeen | Chapter eighteen | Chapter nineteen | Chapter twenty | Chapter twenty one | Chapter twenty-two | Chapter twenty-three | Chapter twenty-four |

--

- "We are not going out!"- Ray was emphatic and looked like an angry father as he stood in front of Joey, who kept frowning, very upset.

- "But Ray!!"- the drummer whined- "It's gonna be Frank's birthday!! We have to party!!"

- "No!"

Toro was serious. He stood in the middle of Joey's room, arm-crossed on his chest. She was dressed and ready to go, pouting.

- "Joey, there is no way I'm letting you leave the hotel in this country ever again!"

- "The country has nothing to do with what happened!"- there was a knock on the door, and she walked over to answer- "You already posted against the attack, Gerard made a speech, nothing is gonna happen to me!"

- "Hello Bug!!"- Frank walked in with Mikey and Gerard- "I heard you were ready to party!"- Ray sighed and covered his face with both hands.

- "Finally! my people are here!!"- Joey shouted, excited.

- "Yeah!! We brought pizza, beer, and video games. Let's do this!!"- Frank said, and Joey knit her brows immediately.

- "You have to be kidding me!"

- "Nope! It's gonna be my fucking party, and we are doing the fuck I want to do"- Frank said, smiling.

- "Fuck..."- Joey sighed and sat on her bed- "I got all pretty for nothing."

- "Not true. You are gonna look as hot as fuck in all the pictures we are gonna post of this lovely evening"- Iero chuckled at his own words.

- "Don't you fucking dare posting anything!"

Ray started the preach the minute Joey's cell phone rang, and the girl locked herself in the bathroom to have some privacy.

- "Akumu, I miss you"- she whispered and sat in the bathtub and stared at her boyfriend's face on the cell phone screen.

- "How are you? What the fuck happened?"- and he looked honestly worried and upset.

- "What?"

- "What the fuck happened today?? Why didn't you tell me a fan smashed a bottle against your head?!"- the drummer sighed and closed her eyes

- "'Cos I didn't want you to get worried."

- "Well, too bad 'cos I found out on Twitter, and I am fucking worried!"- Joey sighed, staring at him, and pouted- "Don't give me that all innocent look 'cos I am mad! How couldn't you fucking tell me, Joey?! This is serious!"

- "I am ok, Akumu. Nothing bad happened."

- "This is all Frank's fault!!"- Matthew was honestly upset. He kept walking around the set, hitting walls. and making his best not to yell at his girlfriend- "I wanna break that fucker's face!"

- "Please don't say that. He was just trying to help,"- Joey whispered but didn't have another excuse for her friend.

- "Well, he is an asshole..."- Gubler looked at Joey on the screen and sighed- "What if something worse would have happened?"

- "But it didn't"

- "Joey, I mean it, what if something awful happened to you on tour and I am not there with you..."- he paused 'cos a knot in his throat didn't let him say another word.

- "Matthew... I am ok, I am going to be ok. It was just a psycho fan. There are bodyguards around us the whole time. I am not walking around alone. And most important of all, I am not going to hide just 'cos a few teenagers hate me for touring with this band."

- "Joey, please don't be the tough girl I know you are this time. This is serious."

She sighed and stared at Matthew. Sometimes Joey felt he was more sensitive than she was. He wasn't afraid to feel, and she was scared to feel weak.

Joey's cell beeped as she and her boyfriend kept staring at each other in silence, both of them feeling like shit for being apart.

- "What is it?"

- "Mom is calling... I bet she knows too."

- "Call me later?"

- "Ok..."

- "I love you, Yami. I don't want anything bad ever to happen to you."

- "I love you too, Akumu... I'll call you in a few minutes, ok?"

- "Are you ok?"- Gerard asked his brother as he watched him drink a can of beer in less than two minutes.

- "Yeah, why?"

- "'Cos you look sad? Weird? Depressed?"

- "No, I'm ok. Have you talked to Lynz?"

- "Yeah, earlier today"

- "How is she?"

- "Good, she has a lot of work, but that's good 'cos she is busy"- Gerard didn't get why his brother was asking so much about his wife- "Are you sure you..."

- "Yeah, dude! I'm ok! I'm fine"- Mikey looked around and frowned- "Where's Bug?"

- "In the bathroom talking with Gubler"- Frank said as he walked to the door, and James walked in with more booze- "Yeah! Party time! excellent"

Iero was excited. A big part of him wanted to be back home with his wife and kids, but after the shitty day they had had, he felt like he could use a chill party with his friends to ease his mind from the deep guilt he was feeling.

Frank felt like the shit, to be honest. Before and after the show, he locked in his room alone and basically cursed himself for being such an asshole. He stared at the picture he took with Joey for a long time and felt he had been too selfish. He got carried away by the moment and his urges to kiss her, and everything ended up being a fucking disaster. The worst part of the whole mess: he fucking loved the picture. He would frame it if he could.

- "Iceland!"- Iero sort of yelled and hugged Joey as soon as she walked out the bathroom, making her chuckle surprised.

- "Jersey! are you drunk already?"

- "No, I'm just happy to see you! Now let's get drunk!"- the girl smiled and nodded- "Everything ok?"

- "Yeah, I was just talking with Matthew and my mom, and then with Matthew again. They saw the whole deal on the internet and were pretty scared... and Gubler hates you now"- Frank fake smiled at that, praying Joey didn't notice- "I'm just kidding!"- she quickly added and hugged Frank for a second- "He is just worried sick about everything."

- "We are all worried, but nothing bad will happen to you again"- Iero smiled, and Joey nodded, walking away from him.

To be honest, Frank didn't give a shit if Matthew hated him. He wasn't a fan of the actor either at that point. He followed Joey with his eyes across the room until he found Gerard looking at him with a frown. Iero smiled and nodded. Gerard did the same.

It wasn't even midnight yet, and Mikey was drunk. Seriously drunk. He sat next to Joey on the floor and rested his head on her shoulder.

- "Are you ready to sleep?"- she whispered and moved her head on his.

- "Nope."

- "Are you gonna puke?"

- "Not yet."

- "I always forget you are the most functional intoxicated person I have ever met,"- and Mikey chuckled.

- "I love you, Bug,"- the girl smiled and sighed. It made her happy to know she had a friend on him.

- "Thank you, bróðir, I love you too. I'm glad I met you"- she made a pause and turned to him- "But if you puke on me, I'll kill you"- and Mikey burst out laughing.

- "Got it."

- "Joey, you are up!"- Frank said and handed her the joystick- "Dude, come on! You can't be that drunk just yet! I'm still halfway there!"

- "Then you should catch up!"- Mikey answered with barely opened eyes.

- "It's on bitch!"- Frank laughed and walked to grab another beer. Joey chuckled and walked closer to the tv, to bump into her opponent: Gerard.

- "Hey"- she smiled and sat next to him- "What are we playing now?"

- "Mario Kart."

- "Ok, ready to lose?"

- "I don't know, are you?"- Joey turned to him and found his eyes on her, making her heart skip a beat.

- "Eat dirty, Gerard Way"- she answered and pressed start.

Gerard was chuckling nonstop as Joey groaned, frustrated. He was winning, and she hated it. Although, she knew she was having a good time. The rest of the guys were talking and drinking, so no one really paid attention to them.

- "And suck it!!"- he shouted, winning another race.

- "No way, José! You are fucking cheating!"- Joey argued immediately- "I want revenge! I need revenge!!"

- "Fine by me"- the singer smiled and watched how the girl started another race.

- "Hey, Gerard"- she said after a few minutes of playing.

- "Yeah?"

- "This is the first time we do something together in days... actually, this is the first time you talk to me in days... is everything ok?"

- "Yeah, why?"

Gerard pretended to be surprised. He was thankful they had to be looking at the screen, 'cos it kept him from staring at her eyes and melt. Joey was thinking the very same thing.

- "After the day you found me crying, you basically ignored me."

- "I didn't! I've been tired, that's all."

- "Is that it?"

- "Yes, of course. "Liar liar pants on fire."

- "Good,"- Joey made a pause and just spit out- "I thought maybe you were mad or uncomfortable with me after that nap."

- "No! of course not!"

Gerard was blushing and his deepest desire at that moment was to run away from that conversation. He felt like he had to lie about every single thing he had to tell that woman.

- "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

- "You didn't"

- "And if..."- Gerard paused the game and turned to her. He even sighed as his eyes locked in hers.

- "Joey, it's not a problem. I really enjoyed our time together that night, it was very special to me"- and suddenly he realized he wasn't lying, and it was a mistake- "I mean, we didn't start with the right foot and the fact we were able to talk and have a moment together made me very happy 'cos... it meant we were... leaving all that bullshit behind."

Joey nodded and sighed. They kept staring at each other, and Gerard had to literally fight the instinct of leaning over to kiss her. Until it got weird.

- "Can you please unpause the game so I can fucking kick your lousy ass??"- she said, waking from the trance and making her best to look cool after all whole time staring at him.

- "Burn!!"- Mikey yelled and sat next to Joey at the end of the bed.

That party was wild. By two in the morning, everybody was trashed, and Frank was drunk as a skunk. He kept walking around the room, holding a beer, wearing the dragon onesie Joey had gotten him as a birthday present. Why? She didn't have a reason. She just wanted to see if he would wear it. And he loved it.

- "Bug!! My phone!!"- Mikey shouted and looked at the girl, who stood at the other side of the room, laughing with Ray and James.

- "No!"- she replied and frowned as Mikey stumbled over, wasted.

- "I need it!"

- "No, you don't!"

- "I have to call my mom"- he begged with closed eyes in a big pout.

- "No, you can't call you "mom" this drunk"- the girl said with air quotes- "I told you I was gonna stop you."

- "You also said you were gonna get drunk with me."

- "Dude, I am drunk! You are intoxicated. There is a bunch of booze in between, but I'm not sober, and that's the point."

- "Bug, that made no sense"- Ray said, laughing, also pretty drunk.

- "Shit!"- and she giggled.

- "Now, the phone!!"- Mikey demanded, again.

- "No! I'm not gonna give it to you!"- Joey argued and felt Mikey wrapping his arms around her, searching for the phone in her pockets- "Dude! I don't even have it with me!"

- "Where is it?"

- "Why is Mikey not allowed to use his phone?"- Frank asked with glassy drunken eyes.

- "'Cos he is wasted"- Joey simply explained as the youngest Way kept searching around for his phone- "You are not gonna find it bróðir!! gefast upp!! (give up!)."

- "Don't go all drunk and Icelandic at the same time!"- Frank argued and wrapped an arm around Joey's waist, laughing along with her.

- "þ�� ert sætur! (You are cute!)"- the girl chuckled and kissed Frank's cheek.

Gerard was burning in anger, sipping his diet coke at the other side of the room, staring at the scene, thinking of a way to stop it all. Being jealous of Frank hadn't happened before, and he didn't know how to deal with it 'cos he was his fucking best friend.

- "You are a lovely drunk. Now, what the fuck did you say?"

- "Happy birthday"- she lied and stuck out her tongue- "Mikey!!"- and she turned around and let Frankie go- "You are never gonna find it!"

- "But I wanna call her!!"- he shouted, starting to lose it.

- "Why?"

- "'Cos I love her"- he whispered and felt Joey hugging him.

- "Come on, bróðir. You shouldn't do this... you know what's gonna happen."

Mikey broke into tears, and everybody was lost 'cos none of them knew what had happened.

- "Mikey, are you ok?"- Gerard asked and walked to his brother, honestly worried

- "I'm getting a divorce"- he simply confessed- "And I didn't want you to know."

The whole bunch of friends stayed quiet. Joey hugged Mikey again and felt him sobbing on her shoulder.

- "Dude, I'm so sorry"- Ray walked over and rubbed on his friend's back, as pretty much everybody in the room walked to hug him.

- "And you are not calling her,"- Joey added, and the whole bunch agreed with her- "You and I made an agreement when we were sober, and I am going to respect it."

- "Bug is right, dude"- Ray sat down next to Mikey and wrapped an arm around his shoulder in support- "You are going to regret everything you say to her in the morning."

- "You know what we should do?"- Joey kind of yelled- "We have to go to the Red Light District! Right now! I am gonna buy you a lap dance, my dear brother!!"

The girl's eyes shone as soon as she delivered that line, and no one in the band said a thing until...

- "Fuck yeah!!"- Frank yelled- "It's my birthday, and we are doing this!!"

- "We are not leaving the hotel this drunk"- Ray quickly said, being a bummer.

- "Can you stop being a dad just for tonight?"- Joey asked and pinched his cheeks- "Please! I can buy you a lap dance too."

- "Can you give me a lapdance, Bug?"- Frank asked, and Gerard clenched his fist.

Way had been in silence the whole time, surprised by his brother's news and not getting what was going on with that drunk bunch of people.

- "I'm just asking 'cos you are offering a lot, and I could help you save some money"- Joey hit Frank's arm and didn't even answer. Instead, she looked at Ray again and pouted.

- "Please, dad! Let me get a stripper to my friend"- and Toro chuckled.

- "Fine, let's do this, just 'cos I don't wanna be a bummer."

- "But I don't want a stripper"- Mikey argued- "I just wanna call my wife and tell her I love her!"

- "Mikey, you are getting tits on your face. You are not calling that bitch! Come on!"- Joey grabbed his hand and forced him to stand up- "I know I got this hot for a reason tonight!"

James was the first one to avoid the plan and returned to his room. The same about their tour manager, though he gently got them a van to take them from and to the bar and tickets to get into the best strip club in the Red Light District.

Gerard was only coming along 'cos he was worried about his brother and Joey. And about the fact Frankie sat next to her in the van, wrapping an arm around her waist, again. She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder for a part of the trip, and Gerard couldn't do anything to stop it. He only knew he felt he had to rescue Joey from his friend. And make his best not to punch him in the process.

Gerard hadn't felt this jealous in years. Years. He didn't even remember if he had ever felt like that about his wife. Probably he had... but he couldn't recall it, 'cos this blind jealousy had taken over all his brain.

Joey was on fire that night. She was pretty drunk and mostly very worried about Mikey. He was her buddy and best friend in the band, and she wanted him to feel a little bit better. He had always been the nicest with her, aside from Ray. She wondered suddenly what nice thing she could do for Ray, but it was Mikey's moment that day.

They walked into the BonTon Stripclub Club Amsterdam, Joey singing Careless Whisper followed by the band. They were all pretty shy about going to a strip club. None of them would have ever thought about doing such a thing... well, not in a long while at least.

- "Come on, kids!"- she chuckled and thrust Mikey in.- "Let's get more booze and a lap dance for my buddy!"

- "Was she always this..."- but Gerard couldn't finish the sentence.

- "Fun? Drunk? Hot? Yeah, she has always been that"- Frank said, wasted, and followed the girl inside, grabbing her by the waist and walking to the bar.

But that time, Gerard didn't just stare. He quickly moved along and grabbed Joey's hand. Ray frowned and nodded. He totally got what was going on right away, and he knew how childish any dispute between Iero and Way could be. They were both like kids when they wanted the same thing, in this case, Joey's attention.

- "Hey... are you ok?"- Toro asked Mikey as he stood still, looking around in shock.

- "How did we end up here?"

- "Joey is gonna buy you a lap dance."

- "Right..."

- "Come on, buddy."

The band sat at the private VIP area, 'cos Ray (being the dad in every situation, even when drunk) thought it was better to catch the least attention as possible. Joey argued no one was going to pay attention to them in a strip club but gave up arguing when she got a champagne bottle in her hands and got to pick a girl for Mikey.

- "It's my birthday!"- Frank said and smiled in the sexiest way he could, considering how drunk he was.

- "Do you want a girl on your lap, too?"- Joey asked and grabbed another ten euros from her pocket- "Let me get a hot one!"

Frank chuckled, he didn't want one, but it was fun looking at the girl all hyperventilated.

- "Fuck! What if she makes out with a stripper? Shit! she totally should make out with a stripper! I wanna see her doing that!"- and now Frank couldn't get the idea from his head.

- "Ok, can we settle on being here for an hour and then going back to the hotel?"- Gerard tried to convince the bunch, but no one listened. Joey arrived with another girl, placed the money on her bra, and sat with the guys to enjoy the dance.

- "Mikey, Natasha was just telling me she thinks you are hot,"- Joey lied, 'cos the girl's name wasn't even Natasha, and she didn't speak English, but no one cared actually.

- "Really?"- "Natasha" kept dancing on Mikey's leg as he looked at her hypnotized. Joey chuckled, thinking at least for a while her friend wasn't going to think about the shitty wife who dumped him. She knew a stripper wasn't the solution to his problems, but it wasn't going to hurt under the circumstances.

Ray looked at Gerard and chuckled. For being the one who wanted to go home an hour ago, he seemed to be having a good time. Way sipped his diet coke and laughed as Joey and Mikey danced for them to a Loveage song. The girl kept putting bills on the edge of Mikey's pants as Frank spanked him.

- "Best birthday ever!"- he shouted- "Can we do this every year?"

- "You don't get to celebrate your birthday in Amsterdam every year, Jersey!"- Joey laughed and sat next to him to catch her breath- "Fuck, I'm tired"- she closed her eyes for a second, and the room started spinning- "Oh fuck! I'm wasted."

- "We should go back, then"- Gerard quickly said, staring at her with a worried gaze. It was apparent she had drunk way too much, and he still felt the urge to carry her in his arms and put her in a safe place, probably in his bed, to take care of her on his own.

- "Not until Mikey gets one last dance!"- Joey rang a bell, and Ray closed his eyes.

Honestly, Ray never thought Joey could be like that when she got drunk. Then again, you never really know anybody until you are locked with them on tour for weeks, not having many more people to talk with.

A stripper walked into the room, and Joey pointed at Mikey. But the woman walked to her instead and held her hand. Frank clapped like a maniac as Joey and the stripper started dancing together. Gerard wanted to stop the whole thing, and at the same time, he felt like staring at the show, hiding the boner in his pants. It was a hot scene. It was way too hot. He had material to jerk off for an entire month.

The stripper ran her hands over Joey's body as the girl chuckled nervously but actually enjoying her time. She knew it was harmless, and she was with her buddies... and Gerard. She was drunk, and for some weird reason, she wanted him to want her. She wanted him to think she was sexy.

- "I'm not gonna do anything about it, but if I fancy him, it's only fair that he fancies me as well"- she thought, drunk. And so, she slowly moved even closer to the stripper and smiled, staring into her eyes. The woman smiled back and slowly ran her tongue on her lips, landed her hands on Joey's waist, moving her closer to her and kissing her.

- "Holy shit!!"- Frank Iero yelled, jumping on his chair. Mikey widened his eyes, not believing what he was seeing, as Joey and the stripper kissed once more, with more passion, a little dirtier than the first, before giggling and splitting. Frank clapped. It was the only thing he could do with his hands in public at the moment. Ray did his best not to make eye contact with Joey, who blushed and sat down, looking at Gerard. She was a little embarrassed, a little aroused, and mostly wondering if Gerard Way wanted her at the moment. The answer was yes, but she had no idea how badly.

The stripper finished, and the whole gang stayed in silence. Joey chuckled again as Frank burst out laughing.

- "I thought the onesie was the perfect present, but that show was priceless. You, my friend, are the fucking best"- and Joey giggled.

- "Guys are so simple, a girl just gotta kiss a girl to get some attention"- she mumbled and yawned.

- "Bug, are you ok?"- Mikey asked and sat next to her- "Bug?"

- "I think she is falling asleep"- Gerard said and moved his brother away from her- "Let's take her back to the hotel."

- "Ok, I'm gonna pay"- Ray stood up, but Joey raised her arm and chuckled.

- "Dad, it's all covered."

- "What Bug?"- he leaned closer and moved the hair carefully from her face.

- "I owed you"- she smiled, and Ray sighed- "I told you I was gonna get you something with my first paycheck... I got you hoes!! Best drummer ever, right?"- the whole band nodded and smiled.

- "Best drummer ever, Iceland"- Frank stood up with her and kissed her temple- "Now let's get you to bed."

Gerard grabbed her jacket and made sure there was nothing else left when they left the room. They all walked to the door, doing their very best to look sober... of course, except for Gerard, who was, as always, the only one sober.

Raymond Toro carried Joey in his arms, bridal style, when they got off the van. Gerard was helping his brother Mikey walking, along with Frank, who was doing his best to look sober than he was.

- "Best fucking birthday ever!"- he chuckled in the elevator- "Thank you, guys."

- "We love you, Frankie"- Mikey whispered and tapped on his back- "Remember that when I throw up on you in a couple of minutes."

- "No one is going to throw up in the elevator. Come on, let's get Joey in bed,"- Ray argued immediately.

- "I'll puke in her bathroom"- Mikey nodded in agreement with his own words.

Gerard checked on her things until he found the key to her room, and everybody walked in. Mikey rushed into the bathroom and locked himself in there. Ray walked to the bed and carefully dropped Joey on it. Gerard took off her shoes and hesitated for a second if he should take anything else off. But he didn't.

- "Dude, we really trashed her room,"- Ray said and looked around. Frank was drinking a can of beer that was left on a table- "Really?"

- "I'm not even so..."- Frank didn't finish talking and gagged. He had to rush to the bathroom and fight for a place to puke.

- "This got wild"- Ray chuckled and started cleaning. He was wasted, but he still acted like the responsible one. Gerard didn't answer. He sat next to Joey and looked at her in silence.

- "Dude, stop that"- Ray argued right away.

- "What? I'm not doing anything"- Gerard tried to act cool, but it was too late.

- "I'm drunk, but I got it, you have a cr..."

- "Shh!"- Gee commanded his friend to stay quiet, and Toro chuckled.

- "So it's true."

- "I don't! I'm just worried about what happened today with the fan and how bad I acted when we met her... I just feel like I owe her being extra nice."

- "Sure, dude"- Ray laid on a couch and yawned- "Just remember I met you a million years ago, and you can't fool me that easily."

- "I am not fooling you, just... stop talking or even thinking about this."

- "Fine."

Ray yawned again and closed his eyes for a second. Gerard turned to Joey again to make sure she was asleep, suddenly he panicked, thinking she might have heard that conversation. But she didn't.

- "Ok, I feel better"- Mikey said, stumbling over the bed and lying next to Joey.

- "What the fuck are you doing?"- Gerard nearly yelled.

- "I'm crashing with Bug here 'cos I don't wanna sleep alone"- he kicked off his shoes and closed his eyes.

- "Dude, you can't sleep with her!"- Gerard wanted to do that, but he couldn't, so he wasn't going to let anyone sleep with her either.

- "Shut up, you are not mom"- Mikey argued, cuddled with Joey, and fell asleep a second later. Gerard was furious, staring at the scene. His little brother was spooning Joey, and he couldn't do anything about it.

- "Ray, help me take Mikey back to his room"- he said and turned to his friend: he was snoring on the couch- "You have to be fucking kidding me, Ray! Come one! Let's take Mikey to his room"- Gerard shook Toro's arm.

- "He's already asleep there. Let him rest"- he mumbled and took off his shoes.

- "Really? Are you doing this too?"- Ray didn't even answer- "Fucking shit!!"

Gerard was about to yell and force everybody out when he heard Frank retching in the bathroom. Way walked over and opened the door. Iero has kneeled next to the toilet, flushing.

- "Are you ok?"

- "Yeah! Best birthday ever"- Frank smiled and repeated- "We hadn't had this fun in a long time, everything has been so serious lately... it felt good to just... be stupid for a while"- Gerard knew Frank wasn't just talking about the band- "And that chick, man! She knows how to party"- Way smiled and nodded.

- "Come on, let's get you to your room"- Frank nodded, and both of them walked out of the bathroom.

- "And where's everybody?"

- "Crashing here apparently"- Frank looked at Ray on the couch and at Mikey on the bed.

- "Oh, man! I wanted to crash here!"

- "Well, you are not!"

- "Why not?"- Frank whined, almost pouting.

- "There is no room to crash here!"

- "There is room right there!"- Frank laughed and walked to Joey's bed, but Gerard grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

- "You are not getting there!"

- "Oh, come on! Mikey is there!"

- "Can you shut the fuck up?!"- Joey grunted, her eyes still closed- "If there's room somewhere in this bed, get in there, stay quiet and make sure Mikey won't puke on me."

She moved to a side and hugged her pillow.

Neither Gerard of Frank said a thing. They just kicked off their shoes and crawled into bed. That was the fucking moment the two of them had been waiting for. In a way, at least.

Mikey cursed as soon as he woke up. He felt someone had hit him in the head with a stone. He opened his eyes and stayed still in shock: Joey was sleeping next to him. And so he panicked immediately.

- "What the fuck did I do?! No! no! No! I didn't fuck my best friend! Please! Somebody tell me I didn't fuck my best friend!"

He looked down and noticed he was fully dressed and that his brother was sleeping next to him. He was drunk, but he would never fuck his own brother. So for a second or two, Mikey felt better.

That until he remembered why he had gotten so drunk and his chest ached. He was getting a divorce. His wife had confessed she had been cheating for months now. She said she didn't love him anymore. He felt like he wanted to die. Not in an emotional way, but physically and painfully.

Tears fell from his eyes, but he didn't want to cry in the middle of the room surrounded by his friends. So Mikey slowly stood up and looked for his shoes.

- "Thank you, Bug"- he whispered and looked at the girl snoring before leaving the room quietly.

Gerard opened his eyes and contained his breathing for a second. Joey was sleeping next to him. It took him a minute or two to gather all the pieces of the night before. He stared at her making his best not to move. His heart was racing. He knew none of what he felt was right. He loved his wife very much. He had to stay away from Joey. But at the same time, damn it! He wanted to kiss her.

- "I don't wanna think about this anymore. Just five more days and this leg of the tour will be over, and I won't see her for a month..."- he slowly moved his hand closer to her but didn't dare to touch her. She could wake up, and he would be busted.

Joey started waking up slowly but refused to open her eyes. Her head hurt, and her mouth was dry. Hangover hit her as soon as she stopped dreaming. What happened the night before? It was Frank's birthday, they got wasted in her room... Mikey was in terrible shape... she forced them to go to a strip...

- "Fuck!"- she wide opened her eyes and sat on the bed as soon as she remembered she had taken her friends to a strip club, paid for lap dances to pretty much everybody, and even made out with one of the strippers.

But it didn't get better when she opened her eyes, 'cos first thing she noticed was Gerard and Frank with her on the bed, jumping with her yell, waking up pretty scared.

- "Oh shit! What the fuck are you doing here?"- she wide opened her eyes in shock

- "What? Oh... hey, Bug"- Frank opened his eyes and smiled- "We crashed your room 'cos we were too drunk to move."

Iero simply answered and laid back, to keep on sleeping. Joey looked at him and Ray on the couch, waving and literally falling asleep again a second later.

- "Are you ok?"- Gerard whispered and made her chill immediately. Gerard Way was sleeping with her on her bed. What the fuck?

- "My head is killing me"- the girl laid back and turned to him- "Fjandinn! (Damn!)"- she covered her face with both hands and wished to be sucked by the earth as soon as the memories kept hitting her- "Did I..."

- "Yeah, you kissed a stripper..."- Gerard whispered and smiled. Joey's cheeks were burning as she kept her eyes closed and covered herself with a blanket

- "Fuck, I'm so sorry, I never get so drunk and stupid and... I just..."

- "Nah, it's ok"- he whispered, making sure neither Ray nor Frank would wake up- "I mean, it was a fun night..."- he added, in a hopeless attempt to make the girl feel a little better.

- "Yeah, it was... but shit, I feel I made a fool out of myself"

- "Don't worry... you didn't"- Gerard made a pause and stared at her in deep silence for a moment- "It was... very... "it was so fucking hot! the way kissed that girl, I got a hard-on for so long, I almost locked myself in the bathroom of the bar to jerk off like a manic" very nice of you to try to cheer Mikey up."

- "He was so sad... he has been so fucking sad for so long..."

- "So you knew the whole thing?"- Joey stayed still and looked into the hazel eyes next to her. She could lie... but what for? Mikey had told everybody everything already.

- "Yeah... we've... he trusted me with his problems, and I've been trying to cheer him up ever since"- she made a pause and watched how Gerard's face was calmed and sweet. It was hard to concentrate if he was there staring at her- "Ég elska augun þín (I love your eyes)."

- "What?"- Gerard whispered, confused.

- "I... "Stupid!! It's a good thing you are rambling in Icelandic and not in English!" nothing, I'm just cursing 'cos my head is killing me."

- "Do you want to sleep some more?"- she nodded and took a look at her wristwatch.

- "It's too early to be awake"- he nodded and looked at her smile, scared to ask what he was about to.

- "Do you want me to go?"- he murmured and fought the instinct of moving closer to her.

- "No..."- she whispered immediately, not even thinking- "You can stay."

They looked at each other for a few seconds felt like minutes, though. Until Joey moved slowly on the bed and grabbed a blanket

- "Are you cold?"- Gerard asked and moved the blanket closer to her

- "Thank you"- he covered her with it and automatically wrapped his arms around her protectively, snuggling with her.

- "Goodnight, Gerard."

- "Goodnight, Joey."

When Frank woke up, he had to take a minute to remember where he was and what had happened the night before. He heard Ray's snores from somewhere in the room with him and rolled in the bed to see Joey and Gerard sleeping next to him.

- "What the fuck happened?"

Iero nearly grunted, staring at the scene. He remembered Mikey drunk puking, Joey kissing a girl, and... that was it. But none of that actually mattered that much, considering how pissed he was staring at Joey in Gerard's arms. She looked cozy and calmed, and... she could look even better in his arms. Why was she in Gerard's anyway?

Frank stared at her for a few seconds and then started coughing. Fake cough, noisy cough. Stridently enough to wake everybody up in a minute.

- "Are you dying?"- Joey asked, opening her eyes and staring at him, honestly concerned

- "I hope so, 'cos I feel like dying"- she smiled at him still in Gerard's arms. He was the big spoon in the hug, so Joey never saw his face when he woke up with her in his arms. Only Frank noticed that glance in his eyes. But refused to think his friend had a crush on the girl he was crushed on. They were both married men. They couldn't even think of being crush on her. It was just some silly thing, nothing to worry about.

- "Happy birthday, Jersey"- she whispered and smiled at her friend.

- "Thank you Iceland, I had a lot of fun last night."

- "It's still your birthday"- the girl added- "We can still do fun shit."

- "Stop trying to make fun shit"- Ray argued and walked from the couch to the bed, laying at it, next to Joey and Frank- "You are too young, and we are all old men who need to rest and eat soup."

The girl chuckled at his words and raised her hand, reaching Ray's wavy hair.

- "Move closer, old man, let me pet you"- she argued, and Ray chuckled.

- "We are not old men"- Gerard whispered and refused to take his arms from around Joey's waist, even though Ray and Frank could see him, and everybody knew it was weird.

- "You are the only one who's not hungover, man"- Frank smiled, watching how Joey was now braiding Ray's hair- "And yet last night you were the one who kept repeating we had to go back to the hotel."

- "'Cos you were all too drunk, especially you"- he said and shook Joey's arm sweetly.

- "Sorry, Gerard. I won't get that drunk and irresponsible again."

- "So you won't kiss strippers anymore?"- Frank asked, and Ray burst out laughing. Joey quickly grabbed a pillow and covered her head with it, forcing Gerard to remove his arms from around her.

- "I am never drinking again!"- the girl sentenced and stood up a few minutes later- "Now if you gentlemen excuse me, I am going to take a long shower. Then, I hunt this whole hotel for coffee... dad, when do we leave?"

- "After lunch, my dear, promiscuous, and slightly lesbian daughter"- Ray joked, and Joey grunted, walking to the bathroom and locking the door behind her back.

- "Get out of my room!!"- she yelled before starting the shower. Frank and Gerard sighed as Ray pulled them out of bed.

- "Come on! You heard her! Let's go!"

Joey took the longest shower. Well, Gerard's was longer 'cos he was jerking off. Just as Frank... not in the same shower. But it's not the point. Joey stood under the hot water for a good fifteen minutes 'cos she actually felt bad. She had flirted with Frank and with Gerard. She didn't know if they had noticed it, but she had, in fact, been a flirt with the two of them while being seriously drunk.

Besides, she slept with Mikey, Gerard, and Frank on the same bed. That wasn't better either. They were her friends, but they just met a few weeks before. She couldn't just act like that! They were all married. And besides, they were technically her employers.

Everything about the night before was wrong except for the part where they cheered Mikey up. Mikey worried Joey the most, and he and Ray were the only ones she wanted to talk to that day.

After her shower, Joey got into her sports outfit and hit the gym. She wasn't into it for beauty, but because she had to keep and work on her upper body strength for drumming. Besides, working out kept her mind from rambling into random thoughts, like Gerard's arms around her body. Damn, that felt good, which made it something very, very bad.

Gerard knocked on Mikey's room and waited, looking down at his shoes until his little brother showed up. Neither of them said a thing. Mikey walked back to his bed, and Gerard closed the door behind his back.

- "If you are coming here with the whole "Why didn't you tell me?" speech, I'm not in the mood for giving you stupid explanations."

- "I just wanted to bring you coffee"- Gee whispered and handed Mikey a cup.

- "Thanks."

- "How's the hangover?"

- "It's lovely, I am dying"- Mikey chuckled and closed his eyes for a moment. The tv was on, though neither of them paid any attention to it. Gerard sat next to his brother on the bed, and they stared at the screen for a while.

- "Frank is dying too."

- "The little rat was on fire last night... shit, how's Bug?"- Mikey asked, honestly concerned- "I'm gonna text her, her head gotta hurt like shit, hangover and hit with a bottle..."

- "She was fine. She kicked us out of the room and got into the shower."

- "Did she remember the whole stripper thing?"- Mikey snorted at his own words as she texted Joey.

- "Yeah, she was pretty embarrassed."

- "Dude, your boner was epic!"- Gerard looked at his brother and frowned, disgusted and busted.

- "What the fuck, man?!"

- "You looked so fucking funny trying to be the cool one"- Mikey was now laughing. Making fun of his brother was always something that made him feel better- "And hiding your woody with a jacket, adorable!"

- "Fucker!"- Gerard smacked his brother's head, but Mikey kept laughing.

- "You were at a strip club with two girls making out. You weren't the only one!"

- "Stop!!"

- "It's awkward to think about it because we were all hard at the same time, which is pretty much like watching porn together, and that's disturbing!"

- "Stop it!"

- "Never!! I'm the annoying little brother you had a hard-on with last night!!"- Mikey was laughing, and Gerard was disgusted- "Shit! That didn't come out quite right."

- "You think??!"

Gerard smacked him again, and they stayed quiet for another while. Mikey sighed and looked at the tv for another while. It was some random local show he couldn't even understand. But it was better than thinking.

- "Thanks for the coffee"- he whispered, and Gerard nodded

- "Any time you want..."- the silence continued for a while until Mikey turned to his brother and tried to explain.

- "I didn't want to tell you 'cos I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't even want to think about it, 'cos it made it real, and I kept trying to pretend it was all in my head"- he made a pause and rearranged the words in his head- "I told Bug 'cos I didn't know her, she was there, I was drunk... I trusted her, and she was understanding with the whole "we are not analyzing this shit" deal. We just talked about random shit the whole time, and whenever I felt bad, I'd told her, and she would come up with something to do to ease my mind."

- "She is a good friend"

- "The best..."

- "I'm sorry I was jealous you were spending too much time with her"- Gerard was honest. However, he meant he didn't know his brother needed to hang out with her so badly, and he was just jealous Mikey had her attention the whole time.

- "Anyway... I still don't wanna talk about it."

- "That's cool."

- "So, let's pretend none of that happens or even exists."

- "Deal"- Gerard wrapped an arm around Mikey and rested his head on his shoulder- "Wanna go get something to eat?"

- "Not really"

- "Too bad I'm forcing you 'cos I don't wanna eat alone."

- "Fuck you."

- "I'm your annoying older brother. Deal with it."

Frank wiped off the tears as he stared at his daughters on the screen of his phone. They were so beautiful, sleeping in their little cribs. Jamia smiled and whispered happy birthday for the hundredth time to her husband.

- "I miss you so fucking much"- he said and sighed.

- "Just a few more days and you'll be changing diapers"- she answered with a big smile- "I'm happy you had a big celebration last night."

- "Yeah, it turned into a "let's cheer Mikey up" kind of thing pretty quickly, though."

- "I can't believe she cheated."

- "Me neither... I wanna kill her. He doesn't deserve this."

- "At least he has you there."

- "Yeah, Joey was so drunk she dragged us into a strip club and bought Mikey so many lap dances"- Jamia stayed still thinking what she had just heard- "Sorry, I mean, nothing happened."

- "Frank, calm down. I just never imagined she would be like that."

- "Neither did we... but she... Mikey had only told her about it, and I guess she was desperate to get him happy somehow."

- "That's nice"- and Jamia meant it- "What happened with her head?"

- "She is pretty hungover."

- "I mean, with the hit she got from that fan, Frank."

- "Sorry"- he smiled and watched his wife's face- "She is ok, she was very calmed, Ray was a dad."

- "Shocking!"

- "Yeah"- Frank chuckled- "Her boyfriend hates me, though."

- "Frank, what you did was so fucking stupid, and I feel you still don't get it! I should hate you for making that hot guy mad at you! Now we are never gonna be his friends... and I wanted to spend the holidays with him in California, where it's hot, and he can walk around without a shirt!"

- "Jamia Iero!!"- and she chuckled.

- "Sorry, I got carried away."

- "Yeah, you did."

- "Happy birthday, Frank."

- "Thank you."

- "You are the only hot guy I wanna see without a shirt"- he blushed and smiled.

- "'Cos I've got amazing tattoos?"

- "Yeah, that too."

Ray and Joey were having lunch together in the hotel. The two of them were eating, sunglasses on, and drinking coffee with their food. That's how bad it was.

- "Please stop me next time you see me with a drink."

- "Ditto"- he quickly answered ad smiled- "You seemed to be having a lot of fun, though."

- "I was."

- "I never imagined you were that wild when drunk"- and Joey laughed a little. Her head didn't let her make or listen to loud noises.

- "Well, I'm not wild... I just... sometimes..."- she made a pause and blushed. The truth was simple: he never really partied that much. She didn't have a lot of friends to party like that. Tucker was the only one, actually. And they never saw each other.

- "Is everything ok?"

- "Yeah, just don't tell Matthew about the stripper"- and Ray nodded, laughing.

- "Deal... the whole strip club thing or just the kiss?"

- "The whole deal, especially the kiss, I don't know if he is going to like that."

- "Why not? It was hot"- Joey raised an eyebrow and stared at her friend- "Sorry, it was..."

- "I mean, Matthew has this thing where he keeps trying to treat me like a little porcelain doll or a fragile princess. And that's so not me. If he knows what I did, I just feel that he will think less of me or something."

Ray looked at Joey and noticed how honest and vulnerable she was. For the first time since they met, Ray saw her winding down her shield.

- "Come on, Bug. It's not like you killed someone."

- "I know..."

- "You should tell him because it's a good party story, and he is gonna think it's awesome. Besides, Gubler looks like a nice guy who loves you very much,"- she nodded in silence and sipped her coffee.

- "He is the sweetest guy I've ever been with."

- "See?"

- "I just don't wanna disappoint him"- Toro landed a hand on her, and she smiled- "This is when you say, "If he hurts you, I'm gonna kill him" or something dad like"- he chuckled and nodded

- "You know that's how I feel"- he smiled and stayed in silence for a second- "And you are grounded for being such a party animal"- he added in a very paternal tone of voice.

- "But dad!! All the guys were drinking!"

- "I don't care what the other kids did! You are grounded, and tonight we are staying at the hotel watching horror movies"- she smiled and nodded.

- "Best plan ever, dad."

The ride to Paris was very quiet. Everybody was still tired from the night before, so they all basically just slept the whole trip. Now Joey was avoiding Gerard and also Frank. She decided to keep a safe and professional distance from the two of them. Joey still felt awkward about everything that had happened the night before.

- "I'll see you guys tomorrow"- the drummer smiled as they got the keys to their rooms. Gerard smiled and waved. She cut him the tiniest smile on earth and turned to the rest of the guys.

- "It's still my birthday Iceland, we should eat something and maybe go out and see the city, what do you say?"- he shook her arm with a huge grin- "Where is the party girl from last night?"

- "She stayed in Amsterdam, sorry"- she answered- "Go and have fun, I just need to do nothing for a night"- Joey grabbed her bags and walked to the elevator.

- "Everything ok with her?"- Gerard asked, watching her walk away. He felt her distance, and it bothered him. After waking up with her in his arms, he just wanted to keep her close.

- "Yeah, she is ok"- Ray nodded and grabbed his bag- "Wanna get room service and watch a movie? Halloween special?"- the whole gang stayed in silence- "Fine, I'll be eating and watching some Halloween classics alone."

Joey lied about not wanting to do anything or about being tired. She just didn't want to be with Gerard or Frank. Mostly Gerard. So she locked in her room and talked with Matthew for a long while instead.

- "I can't believe I'm not spending Halloween with you."

Joey pouted as she looked at Matthew, sitting on his couch, wearing the dorky Halloween sweater she had gotten for him, eating candies. She was wearing the dorky Halloween sweater he had gotten for her, eating candies as well.

- "Yami, when we are together, every night is Halloween"- he whispered and smiled.

- "That's the cutest thing ever!"- she blushed, and he giggled- "What are you doing tonight?"

- "The guys are gonna come to watch some terror classics with me."

- "I was going to do the same with Ray"- she smiled, and so did he.

- "So, did Mikey overcome his hungover?"

- "Yeah, he is a champ, we watched a few movies on the bus on our way over, and I'm guessing he is in his room right now."

- "And the rest of the guys?"

- "I think they were all pretty sick today... we kind of went real wild last night."

- "How wild?"- Gubler raised an eyebrow and looked at Joey. The girl sighed and bit his lips.

- "I might have gotten drunk."

- "And?"- Matthew wasn't enjoying the course of the conversation.

- "And I... decided to... cheer Mikey up."

- "How?"

- "I took him and the guys to a strip club and paid lap danced for everybody."

Joey just spit it. She had to say it. She wasn't going to be able to keep it from her boyfriend that much longer anyway.

- "If he is going to be mad at that... then maybe he is not as cool as I thought,"- she said to herself as she stared at his face, as a grin appeared on his lips.

- "What?! a strip club?! I can't believe it"- and Matthew Gray Gubler burst out laughing- "You are so amazing!!"

- "Do you really think so?"- Matthew was still laughing, and Joey was in shock.

- "Yes, Yami! That's pretty cool"- the sigh sighed, relieved, and kept her eyes on Gubler.

- "I also kissed a stripper... a little bit."

- "Wow!"- Matthew almost choke on the candy corn he was eating.

- "She kissed me actually, I didn't do anything or asked for anything.... she kissed me, and I laughed and... that's it..."- Joey closed her eyes and stayed very still.

- "You had a wild night without me, young girl!"- Matthew stared at the screen, trying his best to stay serious- "Is there any chance someone had footage of that moment?"

- "No"- Joey pouted and opened an eye to see how Matthew was taking her confession. He was still smiling- "You are not mad at me?"

- "'Cos you kissed a stripper? No, Joey. It's a bit upsetting I missed it, but I am not mad at you,"- she smiled and blushed.

- "I can kiss a stripper when I come home so you can watch"- Matthew laughed and grabbed his phone, kissing the screen.

- "I just want your kisses, Joey."

- "I'm a good kisser"- the girl joked, chuckling.

- "Yes, you are. That stripper is a fortunate woman"- there was a pause in the call. Matthew had to get something out of his system- "Can you please promise me you will not put yourself at risk again, please?"

- "With my wild party lifestyle? I swear I am not drinking again after last night!"- Joey chuckled, but Matthew Gray was serious.

- "I mean, with the fan and your head."

- "Akumu, you know I can take care of myself."

- "Yes, I do... but..."- and this was something that frustrated him the most- "I want to be there to protect you if you are in danger."

- "I am not in danger."

- "You are away, and I love you. If anything happens to you, I would never forgive myself for being so far."

- "Matthew Gray, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And if something bad happens to me, it would never be your fault, 'cos your work is not taking care of me like a little princess. Your job as my boyfriend is to love me and support me the way I love you and support you."

That frustrated Matthew, 'cos he loved her and he wanted to protect her. He knew life had been hard on her. He knew why she could be so rational and independent. He just wished she could ever let him take care of her the way he wanted to.

- "Promise you'll come home safe"- he whispered, and she nodded

- "That I can do, 'cos I have too many kisses to give you, Akumu."

Ray walked to his room and laid in bed, talked with his wife, and ordered dinner. He was still pretty tired from the night before.

- "Dad? Movies?"- he read the text and smiled

- "Thought you were tired"

- "You promised"

- "Come over."

- "Everything ok, Bug?"- he asked when the two of them sat on his bed and picked a classic movie for the night: Halloween, the 1978 original.

- "Yeah, why?"

- "I don't know. You look off."

- "I'm hungover dude, this is the best you are getting tonight"- he nodded and grabbed a bunch of the candies Joey had brought. She was loaded with sugar for the night. Tons of Halloween candies, her only way to be close to Matthew that night. That, and the sweater.

The two of them laid down and watched the movie in silence. Ray wrapped an arm around her, and Joey rested her head on his shoulder. Neither of them overanalyzed it. It just felt nice and friendly.

- "Dude, there is something I've been longing to ask you for a long while"- she said, not moving her eyes from the screen.

- "Shoot"

- "How do you keep your hair so good?"- Ray chuckled and messed with her hair- "No! Don't destroy the best I could do with my hair today!"- she giggled and grabbed her phone after feeling the hum of a text- "Mikey wants to hang out, can he come?"

- "Are you asking me for permission to bring a friend over?"- Ray asked and closed his eyes- "Shit, I am your dad."

- "Yes, embrace it"- Joey grinned and cuddled back with him- "And thank you for that, I don't let guys take care of me"

Her conversation earlier with Matthew was still spinning around her head. She let her boyfriend take care of her, but maybe Gubler couldn't see it... she had softened a lot being with him in the last six months. Perhaps it wasn't evident for everybody, but it was for her.

- "Wait! Are you sure you are indeed letting me taking care of you?"- Toro's eyes widened, surprised at that confession.

- "Yeah! Since I signed that contract"- Joey made a pause and made her best to explain- "I kept thinking about what we talked about earlier... you give the protector friend I never had vibe 'cos..." - Ray held her hand and rubbed it with his.

- "'Cos?"

- "'Cos I'm not really good with friends, I usually push people away."

- "You haven't done that with me."

- "I know. That's weird... you give a long-lost best friend feeling like Mikey gives me the older brother sensation."

- "You feel like a little sister- she smiled and stood up to answer the door- "But I don't think you push people away."

- "I do... that's what I've been told at least."

Mikey smiled at the other side of the door and raised his arm, showing a paper bag.

- "I've got candies."

- "Awesome! Come in."

- "You are not pushing me away, Bug!"- Ray finished the conversation and smiled- "Hey dude."

- "What are you talking about?"

- "Joey says she pushes people away"- Toro sum up as Joey laid back next to him, and they cuddled again.

- "You are doomed. You are not pushing me anywhere"- Mikey added, kicked off his shoes and laid next to her, holding her hand- "You are fucking stuck with a Mikey Way now."

Joey chuckled and sighed

- "Guess I'll have to learn how to deal with that."

Gerard was staring at the ceiling, mortified. He had talked with his wife already, he was definitely not hungry, and he just wanted to knock on Joey's door and ask her if everything was ok. She hasn't talked to him since that morning, and it honestly felt she was ignoring him. That wasn't normal. No one ignored him.

- "You are not going!"- he said to himself in his head as soon as he stood up from the bed- "No! No way!"- he grabbed the key to his room and put on his shoes- "Fucking stop!! Aren't you listening to me?!"- his brain kept yelling, but his body was still moving.

- "Hello! This is Gerard Way from room 1305, can you tell me which is Maria Sveinbjörndottir's room, please? Yes, she is part of my crew."

He waited in line for a second, and to his happiness, Joey had a room on his floor, just two doors down. It was heaven to Gerard. He took a deep breath and walked over. He planned to ask if there was something wrong, smile, and go back to his room. That was it. That was everything. He just wanted to make sure everything was ok. Nothing else.

He knocked and waited. Nothing. Again. He waited a little longer, 'cos maybe Joey was asleep. Or in the shower... or something. But nothing. Slightly worried and mostly scared she could be with Frank, Gerard texted Mikey, just in case he was with her, 'cos he knew they were closer.

- "At Ray's, 1002"- Mikey texted back and stared at the screen again.

- "Why is there always a sex scene in every horror movie ever?"- Joey asked and kept chewing fun-sized snickers, or like Mikey kept calling them: Frank-sized.

- "I guess it's the guide of who's dying next"- Ray answered and grabbed some candies, too- "If you think about it, half of the fun in horror movies is figuring out who will die."

- "You are right..."

- "And it also helps to set the mood when you are watching a horror movie with a date"- the girl turned to Mikey, and he smiled guiltily- "If she is scared and she hugs you, you win proximity, but when a couple is banging on the screen, you win the chance to start rubbing her and getting the idea of having sex into her head."

- "You are disgusting"- Joey quickly argued and heard a knock on the door- "Please tell me that's a pizza. I would kill for a pizza right now."

- "Damn it, Bug!"- Ray argued as Mikey stood up to get the door- "Now I want pizza too!"

- "Hey dude"- Gerard stared at his brother and took a peek inside the room- "What are you doing?"

- "Watching movies"- the youngest Way walked around and headed back to the bed. Gerard closed the door and followed him, only to feel his heart aching. Joey was cuddled with Ray. His arm was around her. Her head was on his shoulder. Gerard wanted to hit him.

- "Hey... I didn't know you were busy"- Way whispered and stared at the scene. Joey looked at him, and her eyes just lock into his. Gerard didn't stop looking at her either. He felt betrayed. Or worst, he felt maybe their time together wasn't really that special, 'cos she would cuddle with everybody in the band, 'cos they were her friends and she wasn't making a big deal out of it like he was.

- "We are watching horror movies, wanna join us?"- Ray asked and smiled. He immediately noticed what was going on in Gerard's head and realized he would have to talk with his friend. He felt he was too crushed on Joey for his own good.

- "No... I just wanted to..."- Gerard wouldn't stop staring at Joey in Ray's arms. It just hurt too much.

- "Come on"- she whispered and moved from Toro's side- "There is room for one more. Besides, Ray is failing in his poor attempt to make me feel secure."

- "Dude!!"- Ray argued and softly elbowed her.

- "Auch!! You hurt me!!"- Joey exaggerated and rolled in the bed. Gerard smiled, though he was still feeling pretty jealous.

- "I'm gonna get that pizza"- Ray picked up the phone and dialed. Joey tapped on the bed and invited Gerard.

- "We've got Halloween candies"- she said, smiling. The drummer wanted to keep a distance from him, but watching him was making it too hard. He sat next to her and looked at the bag.

- "We ate most of the Snickers, but there are still some m&m's and Life Savers"- she whispered and felt Mikey's arm coming from behind her trying to reach the candies.

- "Bug ate all the good ones"- he argued.

- "Bróðir þegiðu!! (brother, shut up!)"- the girl quickly answered and slapped Mikey's hand coming out of the bag.

- "How many of these have you ate?"- Gerard asked and frowned- "You seemed to be a little sugar-rushed."

- "Maybe... could be... but it's Halloween, Gerard, it's the day I am allowed to do this, you can't judge me, you can only join me."

Joey raised an eyebrow making her best to look sexy. She shouldn't have, but she meant it as a joke. Not really. She just wanted to lie to herself. Just like the night before in the strip club, she wanted him to want her. Gerard grabbed an m&m and opened it. Joey turned to the screen and laid back in the bed to watch the movie. The oldest Way did the same and sat next to Mikey, 'cos it was wiser to stay away from the girl he wanted to make out with.

- "Where's Frank?"- Joey asked after a while

- "Out with James and Worm"- Mikey answered- "Now shut up and let me watch the movie."

- "Sorry"- the girl chuckled and opened another Snicker's bar. She wanted to be away from Gerard. But his body was a magnet too intense to resist.

After Halloween, they watched Bran Stocker's Dracula. Ate pizza and had a relaxed evening. It was all good until Joey decided it was time to go to bed. She yawned and stood up. She had managed to stay between Ray and Mikey the whole time, successfully avoiding being close to Gerard. She was actually proud of herself.

- "Ok kids, I'm going to bed"- she announced and grabbed her shoes, standing up- "It's not time to make a change, just relax, take it easy"- she sang, and Mikey threw her a pillow

- "I hate that song."

- "Me too! But shit is right there everything time I say goodbye. I don't know why my brain makes that fucking connection every fucking single time"

- "I'm going to bed too"- Gerard said, and Ray raised an eyebrow- "It's late, and we have a busy day tomorrow, full of interviews."

- "Yeah, we have to meet at the lobby tomorrow at nine, ready to leave"- Ray announced- "We start with a radio show at ten-thirty."

- "Oh fuck!"- Mikey whined immediately, and Joey grinned.

- "And while you do that, I'll hit the gym and relax"- she said and stuck out her tongue to her friend.

- "Shut up! No one likes a showoff."

- "No one likes a bad loser"- she added and jumped.

- "Ok, Bug, you really need to calm down. You had too much sugar"- Ray laughed, staring at her.

- "Fuck, you are right, I'm not gonna sleep in a long while... maybe I can make a marathon of scary movies... The Exorcist was in the pay-per-view, I'll watch it all alone and fucking traumatize myself" - the girl jumped on her spot and chuckled.

- "Ok, come on, let's go"- Mikey grabbed her arm and started walking to the door- "Bye, Ray."

- "Bye kids"

- "Thanks for taking care of me, dad!"- Joey smiled at him and waved.

- "Anytime you want, kiddo."

Gerard, Mikey, and Joey walked into the elevator. The girl pressed the 13th button and Mikey the 12th.

- "Which one?"- he asked, looking at his older brother.

- "I'm in the 13th too"- he answered with a short smile and avoided looking at Joey, which was pretty good for her, 'cos her cheeks were burning red.

- "Fuck! Fuck! Just say goodnight and lock yourself in your room, just say goodnight, and that's it!"- the elevator's door opened, and the girl smiled at Mikey.

- "Good night, bróðir"

- "Good night, Bug. I'll text you tomorrow"- Gerard smiled at his brother and tapped on his back- "Good night, dude."

- "See you in the morning"- he walked to the hallway with Joey and heard the door closing behind them.

- "I'm going this way"- the girl whispered and hoped Gerard was going the other way

- "Me too"- they walked in silence for a few seconds, it felt awkward, and the two of them knew it- "Joey, listen, I wanted to talk to you about something"- he just said it.

- "This is my room"- she announced, hoping to manage to get away from him.

- "Do you mind if I come in for a second?"- his words surprised him. He didn't think when he asked that. Joey didn't really have a reason to say no. She didn't want to say no. And so she nodded and opened the door.

- "Come in."

Her body shook at the realization they were alone in her room. Completely alone, just the two of them. That had only happened once before, and this time, somehow, it felt dangerous.

- "What is it?"- Joey asked and walked around the room, taking off her shoes and making her best to avoid eye contact.

- "I just... had the feeling you were mad at me over something."

- "Why would you feel that?"- she asked, pretending to be surprised. She wasn't mad at him. She was mad at herself for being such a flirt.

- "'Cos you avoided me the whole day"- he simply answered.

- "That's not true. I've been hungover most of the day, sleeping on the bus."

That was a lie. She watched tv with Mikey the whole trip, though they slept most of the time.

- "It felt like you were mad at me"- he said and kept looking at her, knowing she was avoiding his eyes.

- "You got it all wrong"- she simply answered and smiled, opening her bag and looking for a pajama- "Why would I be mad at you?"

- "I don't know..."- Gerard stayed quiet and walked around the room- "I know we didn't start with the right foot, and sometimes I feel like I'm still walking on eggshells when it comes to you"- he simply confessed. Joey raised his eyes to meet him.

- "Sometimes I feel the same about you. Until we talked about it, I actually felt you were avoiding me after we fell asleep together."

Joey made a pause and regretted landing her eyes on his. There it was, the magnet pushing her closer to him. He stood in front of her, feeling the same.

- "Maybe we are overthinking everything"- he whispered, and Joey nodded

- "Maybe we are."

- "So... friends?"- he reached out his hands to her and bit his lips- "You don't wanna be her friend, you really want to fuck her brains off, and you know it, don't you, Gerard Way?"

- "Friends"- Joey shook his hands and smiled- "I don't know why I've got the feeling this shit will never work out well."

They kept shaking their hands in silence for a while, longer than it should have been. They just stared and smiled at each other, lost in thoughts.

- "So..."- Joey finally whispered- "How are the crowds here in France?"- she asked the most random question ever, just to talk about something.

- "They are wild. It's fun playing here."

- "Great"

- "Never been to France?"

- "Never been to Europe, except Iceland"- Gee smiled and kept looking at her, still standing right in front of each other. He was fighting the urge to touch her. But it was too dangerous. The attraction he felt for her might actually cause him not to be able to stop once he began.

- "Maybe we can push the schedule to show you around, at least the Eiffel Tower"- the girl smiled and nodded.

- "That would be awesome"- and silence again, staring at each other was probably the only thing they couldn't stop doing when together.

- "And... are you gonna watch The Exorcist?"

- "Yeah, I'm not sleepy. Ray was right, I am in a sugar rush... and the worst part is, I still have some candy left, and I'm considering the idea of finishing them today"- Gerard smiled and watched how Joey took another bag of candies from her backpack.

- "Girl! Where did you get so many sweets?!"

- "Gub and I made matching candy bags for Halloween,"- she answered with a big smile- "And Mikey got me some more. I might have an addiction problem."

- "I bet you do"- Gerard stared at her with a smile and asked without thinking of his words- "Would you like some company to watch the movie?"- the girl wide opened her eyes and took a deep breath- "Don't feel pushed or something like that"- Gerard quickly added when he noticed her reaction- "I just... I'm not sleepy, and the idea of eating more candies was pretty tempting"- she giggled nervously and nodded.

- "Sure, let's watch the movie together, but you better be braver than Ray. He kept jumping with every scene.2

Gerard smiled and agreed. The two of them knew it was a bad, terribly dangerous idea. But still, it was what the two of them wanted.

They sat on the bed staring at the screen in silence for a good twenty minutes. They ate candies, they watched the movie, they were behaving great. But Gerard knew it was all bullshit. He needed to move closer and wrap his arms around her. It was totally harmless, though. Just a hug, not kissing, no nothing. Just holding her close, like the other day at the bus, or just like the night before. That had felt too good. He needed more of that.

- "I'm gonna get under the covers"- the girl announced and shivered- "I'm fucking freezing."

- "Sure"- Gerard stood up and moved the blankets, watching her getting under them.

- "Are you cold?"- she asked, and he nodded- "You can come too"- and so he did.

- "I could come, that's a fact"- he mentally slapped himself for thinking that.

- "What the fuck is your problem?! You got him in your bed! Underneath the fucking blankets! Do you have any kind of idea of the signals you are sending him?"- Joey was freaking out as she felt Gerard's warm body next to her- "I just hope he doesn't think I wanna make out with him or whatever... I mean, no, why should he anyway? I can do this with Mikey or with Ray, and I would never worry they could come with that idea... well, that's 'cos they are my friends, and I don't wanna fuck them the way I wanna fuck Gerard. Oh shit, Joey, you are fucking sick. Did you know that?"

Joey covered her face and jumped when a possessed Linda Blair kept stabbing her vagina with a crucifix. Gerard chuckled and felt how she instinctively moved to him and looked for protection. She did it so normally; she didn't even think about it. That part of the movie had always made her jump.

- "Come on"- Gee wrapped an arm around her and fondled her arm sweetly- "It's just a movie."

- "I know, but that's too upsetting to be true"- she covered her eyes again and hid her face on Gerard's neck.

- "It's ok, sugar"- he whispered and landed a small soft peck on her head.

His heart stopped for a second. He called Joey a pet name and kissed her. He hadn't. He shouldn't. He needed to undo it. Joey stayed still and made what anyone under those circumstances would do: she ignored the kiss and the pet name, sat down, and kept watching the movie.

- "I hate pet names, I hate cute nicknames, and yet, that one was heart-melting. Gerard Way fucking called me sugar..."- Joey sighed and made her best to focus on the exorcism taking place on the screen. It was very hard, though, considering all she could think of was Gerard's arm around her.

The movie ended, and neither of them moved. Joey was hoping Gerard was asleep, so he would stay with her the whole night and cuddle. Gerard felt the same. Exactly the same. The girl slowly moved from his chest and looked at him. His perfect nose, his thin lips. It was too tempting to have him there.

He blinked a few times and cut her a short smile. She rubbed her eyes and sighed.

- "Thank you for watching the movie with me Gerard, it was worse than I remembered"- he kept the smile on his lips as he rubbed his hand against his arm, still hugging her.

- "I'm glad I could help."

- "Best friend ever"- she whispered to remind herself she had to keep that distance.

Gerard fake grinned and stared at her. She was so close, he could simply just lean in a little and kiss her. It was so simple. She was right there. She stayed still, her eyes locked in his. She was never going to be his friend, and she knew it. That was an impossible friendship, no matter how much she'd try.

- "I have to sleep"- she whispered, but neither of them moved.

- "Me too"- they just stared at each other in silence. Neither wanted to move, but both knew it had to happen.

- "Thank you for hanging out with me"- Joey added, and Gerard nodded

- "My pleasure"- and pleasure was in Gerard's mind the whole time.

The girl slowly sat down and yawned. Gerard looked at her and smiled, then put on his shoes and stood up.

- "See you tomorrow, Joey."

- "Bye, Gerard."

++

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[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Broken Mirror: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Word Count: ~1.3k

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill, and angst

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there is any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated.

Feedback is gold, and it’s the only currency I take

“What the hell was that? Why did he say that he knows what to do next? Is he gonna hurt my daughter?” Evan was the first to speak.

“He was grandstanding.”

“You don't know that. You--you can't possibly know that.”

“Mr. Davenport, I have learned more in the last five minutes than in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Oh, really? Well, I don't understand. Why is he focused on you right now?”

“Because we are interfering in his relationship with the girls,” you answered.

“He said he knows all about you.”

“He profiled us, Mr. Davenport.”

“Why would he do that?” Cheryl asked.

“To show us how smart he is.”

“Often times the best profilers are the unsubs themselves. They're the ones able to walk into an arcade full of children and pinpoint the boy or girl that can be led out quietly,” Spencer explained.

“But he made a mistake, because he gave us something he didn't expect,” you smirked, looking at the other agents in knowing.

“Which is?”

“He told us how to find him,” Gideon smiled.

Of course, right when the calls ended, Vincent shows up and pretends like he has Evan’s back. The glares coming off of you were very strong as he moved about the house as if he didn’t have Trish locked away somewhere nearby.

“You said you knew how to find him, that you were gonna save my daughter. Why don't you get out there and do something? What are you--Everybody's standing around here, looking--”

“Mr. Davenport--”

“Don't condescend to me. Don't patronize me,” he interrupted Gideon.

“Evan, Evan, Evan,” Vincent swooped in to save the day. “Everybody is doing the best that they can. Come on. Come on. Take a break, come on.”

“For the suspect to know that much about us he has to be one of us,” Derek said.

“I'm gonna have Garcia do a search of the New Haven FBI field office. The guy we're looking for knows this house and knows the family.”

“There's seven hundred agents in New Haven and another seventy in satellite offices. Davenport knows quite a few of them,” Spencer spit out.

“While we're narrowing the list, Cheryl can't stay here. If he's one of us, he has access and weapons, and you bet he's got a strategy.”

“So who can we trust?” Derek asked.

“No one. We need to get Cheryl to a safe house.”

“And limit the amount of agents she comes in contact with.”

“Don’t let it be Vincent,” you whispered to Hotch when Gideon moved about the room to select who would go with Cheryl to the safe house.

“Look,Y/N--”

“I don’t care if you believe in what I can do or not, but I know something is wrong with him. I don’t mean to disrespect you or anything like that, but all I’m asking is that you have a little faith. Can you do that? For me?” you asked, begging the older agent with your eyes.

Apparently it didn’t matter what you said because Vincent went with Cheryl, Derek, Elle, and a few others. Hotch tried to make the point that Elle and Derek would be there, but you didn't stay to listen. You were angry at the fact that despite what Derek said about you being part of the family, no one was treating you as such. Hotch said you were on the team, but he wasn’t making you feel like it at all which is what bothered you the most. The only thing you could do without jeopardizing your career was sit with Spencer and monitor what could be controlled. As soon as Elle and Derek arrived at the safe house, she called you since she thought of something important. Placing the phone between yours and Spencer’s ear, you let him listen in. It was better than putting her on speakerphone to let everyone know what you three were talking about.

“They did a bug sweep right when we arrived.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Yet, the unsub seems to know all about us. Hey, Reid, do you know what non-local interaction is?”

“What are you getting at?” he asked.

“How can he be holding Trish prisoner, and still know exactly what we're talking about?” she wondered.

“I know what you're saying. It seems like he knows what's going on here the moment that it happens.”

“It’s what I’ve been saying this entire fucking time,” you hissed quietly.

“There's gotta be a listening device.”

“They swept the room when we got here,” Spencer stated.

“Then they brought in their own equipment.”

“Gideon, come here,” you announced. Once the older agent approached, you voiced Elle’s opinion. He decided the best thing to do was to do a bug sweep on the new equipment, and low and behold, there was a bug placed inside their machine. Looking at Hotch, you didn’t say anything but the look in your eyes was enough.

“Agent Shyer called you by your first name,” Gideon said to Evan. “You know him that well? He works out of the New York field office.”

“I know his father. We've met socially on occasion.”

“Has he been here before?”

“A few times. Why?”

“He’s the one that has Trish and you handed Cheryl over on a silver platter,” you announced.

“Y/N, can I speak with you for a moment?” Hotch asked, bringing you to the side.

“Look--”

“I don’t appreciate how you’ve been acting lately. I know you’re new to this, but we work together as a team.”

“I get it, Hotch. I’m new and I can do things you’ve never seen before. I truly don’t mean disrespect, but I’ve been living with this… thing… my whole life. Never once has it let me down. I’d like to think that my teammates have my back when I tell them who our unsub is. You want to punish me for being a little frustrated, fine, but please consider what I have to say next time so we can avoid all of this.”

“We’ll talk more about this when we get back to the office,” he said with a stern tone, leaving your side to go help save Trish and Cheryl since Derek wasn’t answering his phone.

Once Cheryl was found unharmed, Vincent gave the location of Trish which wasn’t far from Evan’s house, just like you said. When Hotch saw Vincent in cuffs and both young girls fine, he apologized for not listening to you, and you apologized for not handling things better. There was no need for a conversation once Hotch promised he would work on believing you when you tell him things.

The family of three were reunited, and you stood by Spencer and Gideon’s side to watch their happiness. Trish was taken away on a stretcher, and Cheryl and Evan went with her in the ambulance.

“Hey, how did Elle get Shyre to give us Trish's location?” Spencer asked.

“I imagine she found some creative way to persuade him.”

“What do you think--”

“You know, you just don't need to ask so many questions. Let's just enjoy the moment,” Gideon interrupted, making his exit.

“I have a question for you,” you said, turning to face him. “What did our date mean? I mean, I don’t want to be one of those girls who demands a relationship or whatever, but I just wanted to know if it’s something you want to do again? Maybe we can do something you want to do. I can’t imagine sitting through four hours of horror movies with me sleeping on your shoulder would be considered a fun time.”

“I actually do have something in mind. Do you know Russian?”

“No, but I’d be willing to learn for you. Photographic memory so I can’t forget it,” you told the truth, knowing what he wanted to do was to watch a film in Russian. You didn’t know a lick of Russian, but if it would make him happy then you would do it.

“There is a showing of my favorite movie this weekend. Do you want to go with me?”

“It’s a date,” you grinned.

"When love is in excess, it brings a man no honor, nor worthiness." - Euripides

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[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

A Long Way From The Playground | Charlie Gillespie

Requested by @faithie-brock-gillespie01​: Can you make one where me and Charlie go out to hang out around the town and I get pinned to the wall by man who hasn’t left me alone all day (like he attacks me when Charlie just goes to the bathroom or something) and then all of a sudden Charlie comes back and saves me by pulling the guy off. They get into a small fight and he ends up growling “mine” and pointing at the guy as I pull him back and out of the place. After I pull him out and get him home. When home I patch him up (because he has a few cuts on his face) and he ends up confessing (after I ask why he did it) that he hates to see me get hurt so he saved me. We end up confessing to loving one another.*My name: y/nMy nicknames: sweetheart, sweetie, love, Princess, queen, angel, nugget (Or whatever you can think of. )*charlies nicknames: Char, King, Baby Boy, My Prince, My Prince Charming, My Love, Babe, Sweetheart, baby, love bug, sweetie, sweetheart,  my prince, baby, baby boy, sweet cakes, babe, sweetie, or even Troy (like I use it as a funny thing to mess with him, because he’s kinda like my Troy), real life Luke (because it’s again a funny thing in the relationship or like because he acts like a real life one hence the real life part), (Or whatever you can think of. )

Pairing: Charlie Gillespie x Reader

Warnings: angst, sexual harassment, fight,

Words: 3,426

You’ve been friends with Charlie for ages. The first day at Kindergarten, a mean girl had pushed you off the swing during recess, and when Charlie saw this, he came up to help you. He pushed the girl off the swing she stole from you and then rushed to your side to help you up. He accompanied you to the school nurse and even stayed after the wound on your knee had been taken care of. The nurse had given both of you a lollipop and allowed you to wait in her office until recess was over. Ever since that day, you and Charlie had been inseparable. You went through life together, supporting each other’s decisions and helping out whenever the other was in trouble.  It was really hard on you when Charlie went to LA to pursue his acting career, but you supported him nonetheless. This was his dream, and as a best friend, it was your duty to let him go and pursue that dream, even if that meant leaving you in Dieppe all by yourself. Your relationship never really suffered from the distance between the two of you. There were consistent FaceTime calls and constant texts, it’s almost as though he’s not even gone. The only thing that might cause disturbance is your feelings for him. You were eighteen when you first realized that you’d much rather kiss Charlie than hug him, when his otherwise platonic touches were felt everywhere. Everywhere. But, of course, you decided not to say anything because it might just ruin what you have, and what you have is really special. In 2019, Charlie asks you to come along with him to Vancouver where he’s going to be shooting Julie and The Phantoms, a Kenny Ortega project. You, being a big fan of the director and Charlie, decide to come along. You deserve a little break, and you’ve missed Charlie too much to pass up this opportunity. “Bubbaaaaa!” you shriek as you run up to him in the grand hallway of Vancouver International Airport, leaving your luggage somewhere along the way. He’s holding out his arms, ready to catch you as you jump up and into his arms, wrapping your legs around his waist, clutching onto him like a koala bear. Passengers leaving or arriving give you weird looks, annoyed at the disturbance in their day, but you don’t care. It’s been months since you’d last seen this man, and you’re way too excited to  be in his arms again. “Hey Nugget,” he mumbles in your hair, inhaling the fresh scent of  peonies, his most favorite. “Gosh, I missed ya.” He loosens his arms a little to put you back on your feet, but you don’t want to let go yet. A chuckle vibrates through his chest and travels all the way through yours. “I missed you too, Bubba,” you say back and then let go of him. You just needed a few more seconds in his arms. After grabbing your luggage where you left it, he takes you to the apartment he’s sharing with one of his cast mates, Owen, who’s sitting on the sofa as you arrive. The tall blonde man gets up and makes his way over to you with a wide smile on his face. “Hi!” he greets, opening his arms to give you a welcome hug. “I’m Owen.” “I’m Y/N, nice to meet you,” you say back when the two of you pull away. “I’m gonna show Y/N to their room and then we can maybe get some lunch together?” Charlie suggests to the both of you. After exchanging a glance, you and Owen nod agreeingly. Charlie then excitedly grabs your hand and leads you towards one of the rooms. “This is my room, but you can sleep here and I’ll sleep on the couch,” he explains softly. Your head snaps up at this, wondering if he’s serious about his suggestion of sleeping on the couch. He’s looking at you expectantly. He is serious about sleeping on the couch. “Dude… We used to sleep in the same bed during our sleepovers in Dieppe all the time. Just sleep in this bed with me, alright?” You almost sound angry at the audacity of him suggesting doing otherwise.  “Right, yeah! Of course,” he utters, his eyes lighting up, “I just-- didn’t want to force you to sleep in the same bed in case things… changed…” You let out an airy laugh, shaking your head in disbelief whilst throwing your luggage onto the bed with a dull thud. “Nothing could ever change things between us, Char,” you mutter, but in your mind know at least one reason that could change between you. You hear him chuckle as you grab an entirely new outfit from your suitcase, wanting to change out of your disgusting airplane clothes. “Can I take a quick shower before we go to lunch?” you ask, and he simply nods his head and guides you out of the bedroom and to the shared bathroom. While you shower, you think of all the possible ways this week could go. You want to tell Charlie how you truly feel. You can’t just be friends with him anymore. It’s been three years since you figured it out. You’ve spent three years trying not to scream whenever his fingers left a burning trail on your skin or when his glances made you tingle everywhere. But now you’re done trying to pretend nothing’s going on. You’re done pretending not kissing him isn’t killing you. Though the multiple possible scenarios make for a bad movie, you’re willing to at least try and see what he’s going to say or do. This could go either way. Little do you know Charlie’s having the exact same thoughts, only he’s saying them out loud to Owen, one room over. “You gotta tell them, man. There’s no way you’re gonna be able to hold out much longer,” says Owen to his distressed friend, “This is making you crazy.” Charlie doesn’t disagree. It is making him crazy. Maybe this week might give him some clarity as to what to do about this entire situation. Once you’re ready, the three of you head out into Vancouver to grab some lunch. While Charlie and Owen bicker about which restaurant would be best to take you to, you give yourself the opportunity to look around, rewarding your eyes with the beauty that is West End Vancouver. The difference between Dieppe and Vancouver is fascinating, to say the least. It’s funny to you because wherever you go or turn in Dieppe, there’s a natural flair to the streets, while everything in Vancouver is made of brick. Or at least this street is. “What about sushi, Y/N?” Owen asks you, making you snap out of your thoughts. “Ooh! I love me some sushi!” you reply, your mouth already salivating at the thought alone. “Told ya, Char,” he says to Charlie, “Who’s really their best friend, huh?” Charlie playfully punches the blondie in the shoulder, inducing a laugh from him. “All right, kids, where’s this sushi place? I am hella hungry!” you exclaim, interrupting their banter. They both point to a building on your right. You’re now looking at a townhouse, all brown bricks and teal framework around the windows and balconies at the top, whilst the ground floor has a black finish and black canopy with the sushi bar’s logo on it in big, white lettering. Before you can say anything else, the two have pulled you inside already, finding a spot near the back. Charlie slides into the booth next to you while Owen takes the opposite side. The waiter’s quick on his feet and brings you a menu and asks what you want to drink straight away. All three of you order some sodas, and then the waiter leaves you to choose. While you’re scanning the menu for something you like, you can feel a pair of eyes burning your skin. You look up for a moment, locking eyes with a guy that doesn’t look that much older than you. Awkwardly, you shoot him a smile before turning back to the menu. You look up again every now and then because you want to check if he’s still looking, and every time, he is. By the third time, he shoots you this disgusting smirk that sends physical shivers down your spine, shaking your entire body from head to toe. “You okay?” Charlie asks, feeling you shiver. “Yeah, just got the chills,” you reply, not wanting to make this a dramatic thing. It’s just a man staring at you creepily. Nothing you haven’t experienced yet. That’s what you get for wearing such extravagant clothes. “I’m ready to order, what about you guys?” you change the subject quickly, more for yourself than anyone else. You need to focus on other things so as to not feel too uncomfortable.  The three of you order your food, and you start to ask the boys some questions about their new project together, and you even ask Owen about his show Knight Squad. You did watch that with your younger siblings when it ran on Nickelodeon. All of it helps keep you occupied and not at all thinking about the creepy man that’s still there. “I gotta go in for a fitting, but I’ll see you guys at the apartment later, okay?” Owen says after lunch, scooting out of the booth. “Can you cover my part of the bill, Char? I’ll pay you back later.” The boy next to you simply nods his head. “Kay, thanks. See you later, Y/N,” he offers you a wave before leaving the joint and leaving you and Charlie by yourself. “Can we go?” you ask when you notice Creepy Guy again. “Yeah, sure,” Charlie replies and scoots out of the booth. “Are you okay? You’ve been fidgety ever since we got here…” Of course he’d notice your change of demeanor. The Creepy Guy’s eyes on you at all times has made you quite nervous. “Oh, no, yeah… I’m fine,” you try to smile as convincingly as possible. “I gotta go to the toilet real quick, I’ll be right back, okay?” You slowly nod your head, unsure if it’s such a good plan to leave you by yourself with Creepy Guy just a few feet away.  At first, you can keep your nerves at bay by pulling your jacket on and tugging at your shirt to make sure nothing’s on show. Then, you decide to take your phone out and aimlessly scroll through social media. It’s not like you’re actually picking things up from the things people posted since you’re trying to listen if there are any feet approaching. Your ears betray you today as there’s a tap on your shoulder. Hoping and praying it’s Charlie, you slowly turn around, only to find Creepy Guy in front of you with that disturbing smirk on his face. Chills run down your spine again as your thumb blindly finds its way to your contacts in your phone. You know Charlie’s name is at the very top of your recent calls, ready to be pressed in case of emergencies. “Hello, Gorgeous,” Creepy Guy says, “Noticed your two boy toys left you all by yourself, thought you could use some company.” He’s shuffling closer and closer, his breath hot and foul on your lips as you’re backing  away until you feel the wall behind you. You’re frantically looking around for someone to notice and help you. A waitress behind the counter has a phone pressed to her ear, and you’re praying she’s calling the police.  “What’s wrong, Angel Face? Are you n--” he’s cut off and pulled away from you all of a sudden. You have to blink your eyes a couple of times before you could properly see again. The whole situation made you black out for a couple of seconds. But now, your eyes land on Charlie, punching Creepy Guy in the face and getting hit a few times in return. For a moment, you’re frozen to the floor. Firstly because seeing Charlie fuming and punching a guy is kind of hot, and secondly because you’ve got no clue what to do. “Charlie,” you finally manage to bring out and place a hand on his shoulder. He turns his head at you, dark and angry eyes softening at the sight of your scared expression. “Let’s go,” you whisper, and grab his hand. “Hey, are you okay?” the waitress asks when you pass her, “I just called the cops, they’re gonna be here soon.” You glance at Charlie, his face all beaten up and bloody from the impact of Creepy Guy’s fist. “They’re gonna want you to make a statement.” “Fine,” you sigh. You wished you could forget about this whole thing quickly, but the girl just wants to help. “Could I get your first aid kit to take care of him first though?” You point at your best friend’s face, and the girl nods her head. “You can do it in here,” she says, beckoning you to follow. She hands you the small box and then leaves the two of you alone as though she knows you need some privacy. You sit Charlie down on the chair and perch yourself on the table next to it whilst going through the first aid kit. It’s silent for a while as you’re cleaning up the cuts on his forehead and cheeks. “Why’d you do that, Charlie?” you mutter, frustrated that his hot-headedness got him into this mess. He hisses as the disinfecting product you’re dabbing on his wounds starts stinging. “I hate seeing you get hurt, Nugget. Seeing that man practically groping you sickened me to my stomach. It hurt me as much as it hurt you, Y/N,” he exhales sharply and grabs your wrist to stop you from undeliberately hurting him some more. “Babe, I need to clean out these wounds,” you grumble, trying to wriggle your hand loose. “I’m fine, Y/N. They’ll heal,” he tells you, though you know those wounds are hurting. “No, Char. They’ll infect if I don’t clean them out properly,” you cup his face on one side, softly rubbing your thumb against his cheek. “You’re gonna have to grin and bear it, baby. Let me take care of you, okay?” His eyes soften as does the grip on your wrist. You continue cleaning up the wounds in silence, only Charlie’s soft hissing filling up your ears. “There you go,” you whisper when you’re finally done, “You’re as good as new.” Charlie offers you a thankful smile, which you return quickly before getting off the table to throw the used gauze into the bin in the corner of the room. When you turn around to return to the table, Charlie’s right behind you, making you jump out of your skin as you didn’t expect him to be this close. “Jeez, Bubba, I didn’t hear you sneak up,” you say in a hushed voice while clutching your heart. He’s staring down at you, his twinkling eyes flicking from yours to your lips and back. “What?” you ask softly. Your brain is going a mile a minute and your heart is pounding out of your chest. Besides hugging him, it’s been a while since you’ve been this close to him. You’d almost forgotten what that did to you. “I just--” he visibly swallows a lump, and then a smile plays at his lips, “Remember that first day we met? When Jade pushed you off that swing?” Though you’re confused as to why he’d bring that up, you can’t help but smile. “I still have a scar on my knee from that fall,” you reply, remembering the day clearly. “I thought you were super sweet to stand up for me. I even found it a little funny when you pushed Jade off the swing in return.” A chuckle escapes from him. “Yeah, Miss Edwards didn’t find it quite as funny,” Charlie adds. “But I knew from that day on that you were gonna be special to me, Y/N. Gossipping at the nurse’s office about who we liked and didn’t like, our mutual love for coca cola lollipops and The Rugrats.... I just knew I never wanted to be friends with anyone else in my life.” Your lips turn up into a tender smile at his sweet words. “But things have changed, haven’t they?” Your smile disappears at this. Where is this going?  “I’ve been trying to find the right words to say this, but I could never come up with anything that could even come close to how I’m feeling…” he lets out a shaky breath, his eyes scanning your face for any sign of help. “Charlie… What are you getting at?” you ask, the fear taking over your voice with a quiver. “I might totally ruin our friendship with this, but I have to tell you because it’s driving me crazy…” Your eyebrows furrow, worry growing within you. “Charlie, stop babbling and just tell me what you wanna say! This is kinda nerve-wracking!” you raise your voice a little as a nervous chuckle breaks up the words ever so slightly. “Y/N,” he scoffs, “I’ve been in love with you since we were eighteen, and no, I didn’t get that from a One Direction song, though I’m pretty sure that one would’ve been accurate to sing to you right now. So, I’m just gonna quote that…” Your breath hitches in your throat at his confession. The thing you’ve been so afraid of for years is something that’s been bothering him too. At the exact same time. “Long before we both thought the same thing,” he continues, still in his normal speaking voice until the musician in him comes up. “To be loved or to be in love. And all I can do is say that these arms are made for holding you, oh. I wanna love like you made me feel… When we were eighteen…” He stops singing and looks at you for any sign of reciprocation. You’re frozen to the floor in absolute shock. This is what you’ve been dreaming about for so long and now that it’s finally here, you’re not even saying anything. “Y/N? I-- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. I should’ve just kept these feelings to myself. I totally ruined everything now, didn’t I? I--let’s just forget about this whole thing, yeah? Just wake up tomorrow as if nothing ever happened. It’s okay, I--” You finally spring into action. But instead of saying anything, you simply grab him by his shirt and pull him into you, pressing your lips to his in a passionate kiss. He’s startled at first, but quickly melts into your lips and lets his hands find their way to your face. “I’ve been waiting for three years, scared you didn’t feel the same…” you whisper as you pull back, finally having found the words. “We’re both so stupid, Bubba.” He chuckles softly before kissing you again. “We literally could’ve been doing this for three whole years!” you exclaim, shaking your head in disbelief. “Yes, Princess, I know. Now, shut up and kiss me, we’ve got three years of this to catch up on.” A smile tugs at your lips as he removes the remaining space between your lips again. You’re a little too caught up into the kiss, you don’t even notice the knock on the door. “Guys, the--” you break apart, wide eyes staring at the door where the waitress stands with a sheepish smile. “Sorry… The cops are here,” she throws her thumb backwards. “Ugh, right…” you groan, but Charlie takes your hand and leads you out into the sushi bar again. During your statement, he stays with you at all times, holding your hand and watching you closely with a sad smile on his face. He hates the fact you have to go through all of that again as if you didn’t go through enough already. “That’s all we need from you, miss Y/L/N,” the officer says after a while. “You’ll hear from us soon. You can go home now. As for you, mister Gillespie, I’d do something about that anger of yours.” Charlie curtly nods his head before taking you out of the restaurant. The two of you head back home, and once there, you immediately head into the bedroom. There’s a lot of catching up to do from those three lost years. Your friendship has come a long way from the playground.

Taglist: @hannahhistorian92​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @thequirkybookaholic​ @bookdealer5​ @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ @hemmingsness​ @iainttakingshitfromnobody​ @ifilwtmfc​ @angryknightstatesmantrash​ @kiss-themoongoodbye​ @rudysbay​ @thedarkqueenofavalon​​ @caitsymichelle13​​ @calamitykaty​ @wiselight​ @parkeret​​ @lukeys-giggle​ @gingerxarmy​ @lovesanimals​ @lolychu​ @perfectlywrongformend3s​ @luckylouiebug​ @camiladelrio98​ @myfriendscallmebeans​ @kcd15​

[carlosfreckles]

Wow wow I’m really glad you’re writing loyalty lost again and no worries about not having a timeline, totally understandable. I’ve got like two things to say and then I promise I’ll be out of your hair

So, is loyalty lost going to be a total dark fic ?cause Loyalty lost kind of walks the fine line between “Not too harmful” and “Potentially very toxic” and I was wondering if it was gonna stay like that cause I tend to stray away from non-con and heavy dark stuff. I’ll probably still read it either way, the way you write is literal gold, but I’m just asking in preparation.

And secondly; I bring you a prompt sort of. I’m pretty bad at this but consider, Harry watching Carlos invent his gadgets and being all focused and serious and Harry is just completely and utterly enthralled, like being the picture boy of the heart eyes emoji. And vice verse with Carlos watching Harry sword fight. Just consider, I’m very into soft Harlos but I can never find good fics of it 😔 anyways this was very long, sorry in advance, but I hope you’re having a good day and I’ll take my ass out now :)

1. I honestly think I’m gonna try to stay as firmly on that line as possible. I’m totally the opposite where I love dark stuff (not necessarily non-con but it takes a lot to ick me so I give anything a chance as long as it makes for an interesting story) but the feeling I tried to portray in loyalty lost is where yes this starting from a pretty toxic place but perhaps it has the potential to be more? or does it?? Who knows (not me because as you know I’m barely writing the sequel lol) but to be safe as a warning I would say that perhaps the farthest it would go for this fic is dubious consent. I’m also not a fan of putting dark things in just for shock value so if anything super dark does come up hopefully it’s not out of the blue and of course I’ll add any necessary warnings beforehand. Sorry for long winded answer, I just want to leave you thoroughly prepared.

2. That is such a cute idea, you can read a little drabble under the cut !

Carlos might have been able to feel the pirate’s eyes on his back while he worked if his attention was not already entirely being consumed by the gadget he was currently putting together. Surprisingly, Harry loved watching the younger work on his inventions ever since he had arrived with the new wave of VKs in Auradon. Before they had started dating, it was difficult for the younger to feel relaxed in the pirate’s presence and he often drove him away so he could finally work in peace. As he became accustomed to Harry’s presence, enjoying it even, he eventually became relaxed enough to let his guard down completely. It turned the son of Hook into an absolute love struck ball of mush whenever he got to watch his boyfriend fall into his work. Harry felt like he was watching magic happen as nimble fingers connected wires and fixed screws into place in ways he knew that he would never able to replicate or even understand himself. The looks Carlos made also simultaneously made the pirate want to cuddle and ravage him at the same time. Such soft sentiments would have disgusted Harry not long ago. However, just as surprising as it was the first time Carlos truly let himself become lost enough in his work to become startled by Harry when he spoke, showing the kind trust that got you killed on the Isle, Harry learned to nurture instead of crush the soft feelings the little genius invoked within him.

---

When they first started dating many onlookers believed that the relationship was almost entirely one sided on Hook’s part. They thought the pirate had just worn De Vil down until he gave into his demands because Harry had made his affections for the younger obvious since he stepped foot in Auradon. Carlos, however, made it clear he was annoyed by the pirate but continued to tolerate him in ways that only his closest friends understood what that really meant to their romantically inept companion. It wasn’t until Harry was finally convinced to join the fencing team that several people got to see a side of Carlos De Vil they had never seen before.

Carlos enjoyed fencing and was decent enough at it but what he really loved was watching his boyfriend in action. He loved the way the pirate moved freely and recklessly, striking his opponents with a controlled aggression he had only acquired thanks to Auradon. It meant so much to him to see Harry let himself go not because he had to fight for his life, but because he truly enjoyed honing and crafting his sword skills. Of course, it had taken a few practice sessions for Harry to adjust to a fencing sword over a pirate sword but his skills translated well once the new blade felt familiar within his grip. Anyone that had ever watched a session of fencing practice never doubted the relationship between the two was entirely mutual. The soft and dopey look Carlos wore every time Harry had a duel was enough to convince anyone and even if it wasn’t the passionate and very public make out sessions afterwards were.

P.S. Please come bug me any time , I don’t get a lot of asks and I do really love interacting in this way with the few followers that I have :)

[absolutelyinvinciblebritishgent]

What if the Sound Trio survived and became Leaf ninjas?

Headcanons under the cut (bitch, it’s a lot of headcanons)

~ Chunin Exam Finals/Invasion~

Dosu was shown to be suspicious of Orochimaru because of the whole Sasuke/curse mark thing and seemed like he wasn’t wanting to be a part of Orochimaru’s shit anymore so he’s the one who realizes something is up

Rather than face Gaara he somehow finds out about sand’s allegiance with sound (overhearing Baki and Kabuto on the way to Gaara, eavesdropping on Orochimaru [because, again, sus], etc...) and that’s what pushes him to defect from sound (also how he manages to live)

Dosu, Zaku, and Kin aren’t necessarily close, but in the anime Dosu did sort of say he was gonna get revenge on behalf of Zaku for what happened to his arms so there is a sense of something there (whether it be friendship, camaraderie, or just wanting to stick together to survive... idk) and Dosu tells his teammates what’s up and convinces them that they gotta GTFO

Zaku is a little more difficult to convince because why would Orochimaru do that to him? He saved Zaku from being a street rat, he gave Zaku power

Dosu ain’t having it and is like “if you wish to stay behind then that is your decision, in the end it is better for us to not have to carry any dead weight” (obviously referring to Zaku’s inability to do anything because of his arms)

Dosu then proceeds to tell Zaku how he no longer serves a purpose without his arms and he was nice enough to still want to take Zaku with him, Orochimaru would not be so kind

Zaku is upset because he knows Dosu has a point and they all leave

They (read: Dosu) decide that their best chance of survival is staying in Konoha because, the minute they leave, the sound village/Orochimaru will be gunning for their asses and also they’d be missing-nin, so others would try to kill them too

But what can they do to assure they don’t get imprisoned or killed due to having worked under Orochimaru? Rat out the sound village and give all the information they know/found out about the invasion and sand’s involvement

Third Hokage is a cool dude and also was Orochimaru’s teacher so he knows the kind of power this bitch can have over people which is why he agrees to let the sound trio stay and have them watched by Anbu

Dosu does not participate in the chunin exam finals because witness protection, or something

The invasion still happens because Orochimaru ain’t stupid. His “pawns” are nowhere to be found so it’s likely they’re betraying him, so obviously he makes changes to the plan

Dosu, Kin, and Zaku do not participate in fighting off the invasion because, uh, super strict house arrest orders???

Third Hokage dies and this FREAKS the trio out because a) oh shit Orochimaru actually did it and b) we’re only allowed to be here because of him, so what’s going to happen to us

Council is deciding what to do with them and has them staying hidden/as they were, but what’s more important to them is finding Tsunade and having her take over as Hokage so the trio are just anxiously chilling

Tsunade is Hokage now and she decides to let them stay because they turned their backs on Orochimaru and also she trusts Sarutobi’s judgment on letting them stay initially, but they are still going to be watched by Anbu to be sure

Naruto and co. find out about the trio and they are PISSED because “not only did you try to kill Sasuke, not only are you from the village that attacked us, not only did you work for Orochimaru but you did nothing to defend Konoha during the invasion. If you want to be a part of this village then you should have helped”

Tsunade tells these bitches to simmer down. They were under Anbu house arrest. She’s Hokage and they need to respect her decision. Also Zaku, let’s fix your arms.

~Sasuke Retrieval Arc~

Everyone is immediately on the trio’s ass because “we knew you couldn’t be trusted”

Tsunade has to tell everyone to stfu again

The trio want to go (to prove themselves) and feel they can be of assistance but Tsunade is like Catherine of Aragon because she says there’s no no no no NO WAY. It’s already a dangerous mission, it might be more so for them because Orochimaru is probably after their heads for betraying him and knows all of their skills

Everything about the arc is the same until the point where Shikamaru, Kiba, and Lee need help. Instead of the Sand Siblings being the ones to arrive it’s the sound trio

Zaku saves Kiba... mainly because I imagine them being friends once the trio are accepted and I just want this to be the beginning of their friendship. How he saves him idk because I’m not creative when it comes to fights

Kin saves Shikamaru. Again idk how. Zaku’s slicing sounds waves make more sense here because they work similar to Temari’s fan but I want it to be Kin because kunoichi vs. kunoichi, genjutsu vs. genjutsu, and also the idea of Kin saving the guy who beat her in such an embarrassing way does something to me, but also is a sort of redemption? I just want this battle to show off how skilled Kin can be because she was very underutilized and kinda weak in the original story and I love her so much, she deserves to do cool shit. So let her outsmart Tayuya and, in a way, she is outsmarting Shikamaru because he had no more plans to fall back on

Dosu saves Lee. Again, idk how and, again, I think Zaku’s slicing sound waves would be better here because they can keep Kimimaro (a close range fighter) at bay but I guess seeing Dosu and Kimimaro throwing hands would be cool. And then you have that redemption moment with Lee because Dosu kicked his ass in the forest of death and now he’s saving Lee!

After the mission, despite its failure, the trio are accepted as leaf shinobi and are introduced to their new sensei: cue Anko crashing through the window with a big sign introducing herself again

Similarly to the moment when Naruto spoke out and Anko threw a kunai at him, Zaku gives a snide comment and Anko is immediately at his throat, and then she’s like “JK! But don’t say that again you little shit!”

Anko was chosen to lead the trio due to her past with Orochimaru and because of that she can better understand them

~Other Headcanons~

It took the Konoha 12 a while to accept the trio. The first ones to accept them were Kiba, Lee, and Shikamaru (duh) but also Choji and even Naruto. Choji became cool with them when he found out Shikamaru was cool with them because he trusts Shikamaru’s judgment, and despite originally trying to kill his teammate, Naruto accepts them because they came out and helped so that means they’re a-okay in his book. Neji was slightly taken aback but also accepted them pretty quickly. Basically, the retrieval team was like “yeah okay” and vouch for them.

The ones who took the longest to come around were Ino and Sakura because did y’all just forget what happened at the forest of death???

As I said, I imagine Kiba and Zaku being friends. Mainly because I feel they have similar personalities in the sense that they’re both pretty cocky, boisterous, and talk shit. I imagine them kinda being like rivals in the sense of they’re always trying to one up each other

Zaku is still not fond of Shino because of the whole bugs in arms thing so whenever Shino is around Zaku is just like “I hate your teammate” to Kiba

Kin/Shikamaru could potentially replace the Temari/Shikamaru relationship. Both Kin and Temari are very similar in the sense of being an ex-villain, being viewed as scarier/more intense compared to the Konoha girls, being older by a couple years, and they both lost (well, Temari technically won but we all know she lost) to Shikamaru. Because of this the Kin/Shikamaru relationship wouldn’t be all that different to how the Temari/Shikamaru relationship is shown

That being said I love the sand siblings and don’t want them gone and because of how similar I feel Kin and Temari are they become really good friends and Kin enjoys when Temari visits. They both make Shikamaru’s life hell though. Double Trouble™️

Also I said potentially because I like exploring the idea of Kin/Zaku or Kin/Dosu (:

Dosu and Shino actually get along really well (much to the dismay of Zaku). They’re the type of people where they can sit in silence with each other and it’s just chill. And when they have to work together they kinda have flawless teamwork and don’t even need to speak to know what the other plans on doing

Kin and Sakura actually get along now? They’re not best friends by any means but they can be civil and respect each other

Team Kurenai and Team Sand are the teams that the trio get along with the best/most easily tho

Kin cut her hair to her lower back. Cue everyone cracking jokes about Neji and Kin looking the same from behind. Kin stops tying her hair after that

The trio have really well trained ears because back in Otogakure they had to learn to pick up on the subtlest of sounds in order to spy on enemies and communicate at such a low volume that to any normal ear sounds like silence but to them the message is loud and clear

Because of this they’re all amazing singers (Dosu is the best tho because he has the best trained ear. Seriously, being able to tell what someone is writing based on the sounds of their pencil? Skills.) and everyone likes hearing them sing.

That being said, despite being from the land of sound they didn’t actually know any songs because the sound village doesn’t really do music. It was forbidden because no one is allowed joy in the land of sound. Jk. But it did have to do with depriving people of normalcy because Orochimaru was creating an army of followers

This little singing/music tidbit was discovered by Naruto and he took it upon himself to show the trio music. It wasn’t all good music, but it’s music!

Also, despite being the best singer, Dosu doesn’t really do it. Dude doesn’t even hum. He’ll only sing if Kin and Zaku start pestering or if Anko wants him to

The first (and only) time Kin and Zaku saw Dosu cry was shortly after they became leaf shinobi. Anko and Tsunade were telling the team how brave it was for them to leave Orochimaru and sound behind, and Anko especially complimented Dosu on taking him and his team out of that situation. Kin and Zaku had been trying to hold back tears and keep up their tough image but the minute they saw Dosu crying, not trying to wipe away his tears or hide them or anything they lost it

No one talks about their little crying session. It’s a secret

Despite getting his arms fixed by Tsunade, Zaku still has problems with them, especially his right one (I think that’s the one that got blown off) and needs to get them treated consistently. Partly due to the fact they he didn’t give himself all the time to heal after Tsunade fixed him because he went to help the retrieval team and, mainly, because of Orochimaru’s experiments. Like, essentially Zaku’s air tube surgery was actually kind of botched and, for lack of a better term, experimental, and is fucking with the nerves and muscles and chakra in his arms and kinda eating away at them. And the crazy damage he took from getting his arms blown off only fucked everything up more

Eventually Zaku gets a better version of his air tube in his left arm and has to completely replace the right arm with a cool prosthetic that lets him do stronger/cooler jutsus

Kin has combined singing with her genjutsu and has created a sort of mind control jutsu... I may or may not have gotten this idea while listening to Come Little Children and remembering that Sarah Sanderson would control kids with song

The trio think Sasuke is a fUCKING DUMBASS for willingly going with Orochimaru. Like, bitch we had to leave that no good asshole for the betterment of our lives and you just waltz out of Konoha and straight into his arms?! What is you doing Uchiha?!

[wickedyan]

It says your requests are open. Could I please request a yandere Light Yagami x shy virgin female reader? NSFW, non-con. I love the older more evil Light/Kira. Like how he is after the time skip. I’d like him possessive, demanding, controlling. like the reader is a weak shy and innocent little thing that he wants to control and make his. She is pro-Kira too so that is how he found her similar to Mikami maybe she was seen sticking up for Kira on tv or something? Is that okay? ,xD

Devoted

Character: Light Yagami, Deathnote

Warnings: Yandere, nsfw, asphyxiation, dubcon, pain/burns, slight breeding kink, blowjobs, cum eating,,,,, u h this shit is nasty.

A/N: I couldn't make this noncon, because honestly, I can’t see Light needing to force himself on anyone. I mean, his whole thing is that he’s hot, smart, athletic, successful and a master manipulator etc etc. So even if the person was uncertain, he would be able to coerce them with ease.

But thank u so much for letting me write this nasty fic. I hope you don't mind the kinks I added fjgkrfk

-

You were a supporter of Kira. A fan, a follower, a lover. When you had first heard of Kira, however, you had been conflicted.

On one hand, Kira’s morals were strong, only killing those who had wronged the world. But you knew that in the eyes of the law, Kira was evil.

But when Kira did it, when he finally freed you from your abusive ex-partner, had judged him as unworthy of the new world and saved you from a life of torment and misery, you knew you would do anything to show your saviour your love and support. He had saved you. He cared about you, cared for those who had done no wrong. He was your protector, and only he could bring you salvation. So, it was decided. You had to do something, anything, to get God’s attention and thank him.

You had been an author, and with your new life, you knew what you had to do.

Utilizing your writing experience, you crafted a bible, one that you and other Kira supporters could follow and read to show your support and love for your God. For Kira, your saviour.

He must have seen you on the television, using your platform as a popular author to persuade the public. In an interview promoting the book, you received word from Kiyomi Takada, Kira’s spokesperson, that the Holy Book you had created was approved by God himself. He had praised you. God had noticed you and had authorised usage of the thing you had created for him.

You couldn’t be happier.

But in fact, you could.

His name… Light Yagami. This man, he had asked to meet you, to speak to him and the Japanese Police about Kira for their investigation. It was surprising, you knew you should decline, but there was something so interesting about this Light… you found yourself alone in a hotel room with him.

“Miss y/n… thank you for meeting me on such short notice, you must be so busy with the success of your recent book, I appreciate your presence.” You nodded in reply, ensuring him it was quite alright. He had yet to look you in the eye ever since the two of you sat down, in opposing seats.

“But I must ask, why does the Japanese Police wish to speak with me? I am a supporter of Kira, but I can’t say that I’ve ever had contact with him, nor do I know anything about him…”

Light paused, like he was tossing an idea around in his head before he replied. “If it’s appropriate, I’d like to know the reason why you are so devoted… to Kira.”

You answered him, explaining how Kira was the reason you were even still alive. Light apologised, seeming slightly uncomfortable for bringing up a sore subject. But he made no attempt to convince you that it was merely coincidence, or to tarnish your image of Kira.

“He saved me, Mr. Yagami… and I wrote this bible to show Kira that I am someone he can rely on, that I will support him even if the Japanese police won’t. I hope… that I can someday thank him for his work to create the new world… I want to show him my appreciation.”

A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth, eyes sultry and you could feel the heat blooming to your face. “Well then, Miss y/n, it seems your lucky day has arrived. The truth is… I am Kira, and you, my dear follower, are someone special.”

Your eyes widened, and you could feel your hands shaking as you brought your gaze up. He stood, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his suit jacket.

“The Kira investigation is stuck at a standstill at this point in time… So, the police must follow any lead, no matter how small. But that is only a front, the real reason I am here is to commend you for your outstanding work… you truly understand what Kira’s idea of justice is, and have created guidelines that clearly outline how one much express their devotion. I am thoroughly impressed.”

Elation. Euphoria. How else could you describe your emotions other than pure and utter euphoria? But there was a small seed of doubt… You stood as well, backing up as he moved to the bedside.

“Before you ask me to prove myself as Kira, I’ll show you and squash any doubts.”

Light switched on the television, turning up the volume and watching you as you slowly turned to check the tv. You watched as Light checked his watch, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips as he clicked his fingers, “Now.”

Two… no three of the supposed Kira spokespeople shouted, eyes bugged and faces red, clutching at their chests before collapsing.

“Now, does that diminish your doubts, hm?”

You turned back to face him; a grin plastered on your face as you stared. “God… I-… I don’t know what to say…”

Light strode towards, pushing you back into your seat and caged you in with his arms. “Then don’t speak.”

His lips pressed to yours, harsh and demanding. He moved his lips against your own, groaning at the feeling. He tilted his head, deepening the kiss as one of his hands crept up your neck and slid into your hair.

“You deserve a reward for being such a good girl…”

Kira was kissing you. God was kissing you and fuck was he a good kisser. You almost felt jealously bubble to the surface before you popped those thoughts… But you couldn’t just keep sitting there frozen when you were hot, everything was so hot and Light- no, Kira was hot and fuck….

Slowly, with shaking hands, you cupped his face and began to kiss back. He tasted of mint and a hint of coffee, his lips wet against yours and you could barely concentrate, he was addicting. He growled into your mouth, tongue sliding into your mouth and invading all of your senses.

You couldn’t help but whine when he pulled at your hair, keeping your head in place as he pulled away. A string of saliva connected your mouths and he made a lewd show of sucking it into his mouth. He looked like a feral wolf. His hair was ragged and unkempt, falling low over his eyes. His eyes… glowing red with carnal desire.

Wet kisses down your neck until he found that sweet little spot that had you clutching onto his shoulders and biting your lip to hold in your moans. You squirmed as his teeth sunk into your flesh without remorse, no doubt leaving purple splotches in places you just knew wouldn’t be easy to cover. It sent heat straight to your pussy, knowing that God himself was claiming you.

“Uh uh, you’re gonna moan for me, baby. No holding in those gorgeous noises, hm?”

You shook your head, cheeks flushed and panting.

“No? Aw, baby… that’s just not what I wanted to hear.” He mumbled into your throat, before biting down with enough force that blood pooled at the teeth-shaped dents in your skin.

You screamed, tears pooling in your eyes and nails digging into the man’s broad shoulders.

“That’s better, wasn’t so hard now was it?”

You couldn’t answer, not when his hands were ripping your blouse open and you were watching the buttons bounce away. You couldn’t help but squeal and cover your chest.

“Now answer me.”

His hands ghosted down your frame and moving to tug at your skirt. You lifted your hips and he pulled your panties off with your skirt. He pocketed the panties before beginning to unbuckle his belt. But before he could finish undoing his pants, you were pushing him back, falling to your knees before him.

“Thank you… I don’t know what I- ah! …did. Please… oh please…to deserve this...” You spoke between broken moans. He snickered.

“Oh?” He looked over you with curious eyes.

Making quick work of his zipper, you pulled down his boxers and freed his half-hard cock from its confines. “Oh fuck…”

It was long with little girth, matching his lanky frame. But you knew that you would struggle enough with how fucking long it was, it was probably a blessing it wasn’t that thick. Hands tangled in your hair while you began to kiss down the length of it, feeling it twitch in your soft hands. Precum dribbled out the slit, salty on your tongue. He gripped your hair harder, silently hurrying you.

You took the head into your hot mouth, tongue circling it and tucking your teeth away. He growled at you to stop teasing him as he used his grip on your hair to choke you on his cock. You sucked hard and hollowed your cheeks, pushing your face into his pelvis, nose tickling the hair at the base. You continued even when your eyes filled with tears, skin burning scarlet and lungs screaming for air. You would die sucking your Gods dick if it was his wish. Anything for the God of the new world.

He pulled you off his cock, groaning as his dick weighed down on your tongue, heaving hot puffs of air onto it as you caught your breath. Light’s hips bucked into your face and he held you in place. He loved the way you looked, fighting your basic human instincts to survive just to please you. You were devoted, he would give you that.

“Oh fuck… look at you. Willing to suffocate on my cock… what a fucking slut.”

Erratically fucking your throat, no rhyme or rhythm. Chasing his high. Gagging on his cock only spurred him on more. Drool covered your chin, your juices leaking onto the floor from your sopping pussy. Doe eyes locked on his feral grin.

He fucked your mouth, pushing deeper and deeper into you as endless praise left his lips. “Yes… take this cock, y/n… fuuuck…...” he was losing composure quickly.

A hand slipped down past your hips but was kicked away promptly. “Nuh-uh, you’re gonna cum on this cock.”

“…But first, take my seed.”

His hips stuttered as thick strings of cum hit the back of your throat, swallowing around him until it hurt, wailing around his length.

“Fucking swallow your God’s cum.”

When he pulled out, he admired the white fluid staining your tongue. And then you swallowed, savouring the salty taste.

Strong hands pushed your shoulders, back thumping against the carpet and his hands were between your legs once more. Two long fingers thrust inside, knuckle by knuckle until they curled upwards and began stroking the soft spongey flesh of that spot. The palm of his hand rubbed against your clit. You moaned, loud and long and it had him thrusting his fingers in and out faster.

So close. Just a bit more. “Please….. please oh please Kira- hnngnhhh please…”

Just before you could reach euphoria, he removed his fingers, scooping up your juices to spread across his cock that had sprung back to life.

He rubbed the tip across your slit, dipping in the hole and giving you a taste of what could be, but then he was pulling away and grinding gently again. It circled your clit, never quite touching it. He thrust so that it caught on your fluttering entrance and slid upwards, pulled back and repeated the action. He did this until his cock throbbed against your cunt and you were racking sobs through your shaking chest, begging oh please, can you fuck your aching cunt oh please sir-

You screamed, your arms flailed wildly, desperately grappling for something to hold onto as he split you open on his dick, his guttural groan resounding throughout the empty room. Leaving no time for you to adjust as he pulled out part-way, slowly and teasing before bucking back into you with a force that had your tits bouncing and your skin burning against the carpet.

Lights hands slide down your legs, holding onto your ankles and hauling them up over his shoulders and bending you in fucking half, reaching so much deeper inside your drenched cunt. Your hands held onto his shoulders for dear life as he fucked a symphony in your pussy that you’re sure even Beethoven would be proud of.

You’re so close, the pleasure in your core building as your whole body heats up. You’re so close… Light smacks away your hand as you reach for your clit, using his own fingers to tease it until that pleasure reaches its crescendo. Your walls squeeze his cock in a vice grip as you release over his cock. Distantly, you hear someone screaming, and you realise it’s you.

He’s laughing, driving his cock into you at an erratic pace as he chases his own high.

When he finishes, its while his hand is on your throat and his length buried deep into your still-spasming cunt.

 You hear a door close. You sit up. A blanket was placed over you and you were alone. The sweat and cum had been cleaned up by a damp washcloth, presumably by Light… no… Kira.

Kira.

A note had been left on the bed, you winced as you stood to go over and read it. You had a bad case of carpet burn.

‘I will be in touch very soon, my dearest follower.’

You would await his call. Anything for your God.

[mashiraostail]

IT'S SPOOKY SEASON! How would Aizawa, Vlad King, Midnight and Present Mic feel about a small Seamstress S/O who LOVES Halloween, like the MOMENT August moves to September and the weather starts getting cooler they bring out the pumpkin spice candles, big comfy sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween decor, bonus points if they bake pumpkin treats :3

HALLOWEEN TIME!! Halloween oreos Halloween oreos Halloween oreos Halloween oreos Halloween oreos >:3 

Aizawa: He’s pretty indifferent to seasonal stuff, his wardrobe is usually ever unchanging and his favorite foods are mostly year-round things, though all the black cat decorations are enjoyable and he likes seeing his kids get excited about the season so he’s no scrooge about it.  He’s more than happy to let you decorate your living space if you share it, and if you don’t he’ll even let you decorate his too, he’ll probably even ask you to come with him to get things for his students to decorate as well.  He’s probably a disastrous baker but he’ll linger around you if you’re baking, especially if you ask him to keep you company while you do.  Put him to work on the easy stuff, melting butter, chopping nuts, oiling pans etc.. measuring isn’t really his forte. Despite your initial disbelief, he’d do a couple costume is you asked him incredibly nicely (you’ll probably owe him a favor...or five) despite how he may act though he probably enjoys it. Not a huge fan of sweet drinks himself but he’ll surprise you with them if he has the extra time, out on patrol, if he knows you’re working late, etc.. if you work together you can expect one on your desk once or twice a week, exactly how you like it even if you don’t remember ever telling him your order.  Scary movies don’t bother him so feel free to drag him into a marathon of them, he’ll lay back on the couch and watch with you when you’ve got the downtime. Be wary though, if you get scared he’s probably gonna make fun of you just a little. His favorite thing about the season is for sure the smells, nutmegs, gingers, pumpkin etc...he likes the sharp scent of fall and the neutral colors are also pretty enjoyable for him. But on top of that, he just likes seeing other people be excited about it, even if he acts like a stick in the mud sometimes but you know just like everyone else he’s pretty soft where it matters. He always gives himself away by coming to you and talking about how Mina scares Denki every morning without fail for the ‘spirit of the season’ or the running list of what to dress Bakugou up as for the holiday (top contender is currently: q-tip). get a sexy cat costume Sekijiro: Come on his hero name is a vampire joke  He probably likes it much more than he lets on, and like Aizawa, he loves watching his kids get excited about it. He probably lets them pick a costume for him every year (it’s usually some type of vampire) He’d be overjoyed to decorate with you, and will definitely leave up the decorations until it’s time to change for the winter season.  He loves seeing all the foliage change color too, go on a few walks with him before it gets too cold (even after, he’ll just wrap an arm around you, but he’ll say he feels bad keeping you outside in the cold).  I feel like he really loves fall seasonal drinks and stuff, maybe not the signature pumpkin spice but something akin to it may be slightly less sweet. But he’ll try anything you offer him and pretend to like it even if he doesn’t for the sake of not killing your excitement.  He always makes a mental note of the things you like to surprise you every so often. He likes baking with you even if he’s not always great at it, but he’s a pro at kneading dough, for obvious reasons, he’s also good for hand-mixing, and eating batter (”You’re setting such a bad example for your students! Stop you’ll get sick!” “They can’t even see me!”) Also totally down for a couples costume, he’ll think it’s funny and cute of you to want to match with him so he’ll definitely do it, and if his students don’t already know about you and suggest one he’ll even let them know he’s got to be able to match with someone this year.  Super loves scary movies, classic monster stuff Dracula, The Blob, anything Junji Ito, he doesn't mind newer stuff but sometimes its a hair too gorey/sexual to be tasteful for him. They don’t scare him, for the most part, there’s just one very specific thing that bothers him (It’s Teke Teke, even just mentioning it is enough to send a shiver up his spine, seriously don’t even joke about it he’ll cry and be mad at you for at least two days or until you give him a heartfelt apology without laughing because it’s “seriously not funny babe come on”) If you have made the mistake of making a Teke Teke joke at him in the past and he discovers even a single thing you are afraid of he will hold it over your head, don’t think he’s not that petty. But he’ll only do it as payback. If you're nice about Teke Teke he will promise to protect you from whatever awful movie monster scares you. If you aren’t well then you’ll just have to face Tomie yourself, unfortunately, “sorry babe but it’s about time to shape up, looks like it’s just you and Tomie now, alright well, goodnight” *clicks off lamp* (of course, he will cave in mere minutes and promise to protect you especially if you actually look scared and his joke didn’t calm you down at all) Don’t worry no evil movie monsters will get to you with Vlad around. get a sexy vampire costume 

Nemuri: Loves Halloween, please fall is this woman’s bread and butter, the fashion is impeccable it smells great and Halloween costumes are so much fun. She’ll 1000% try to rope you into some overtly sexy costume for her own enjoyment even if that sort of thing isn’t your speed, she’s gonna beg, just for one night. Loves decorating probably has the 12-foot skeleton from home depot. Her and Hizashi probably scare the crap out of their students at least once a year, some insane grand scheme that Aizawa and Vlad both know in and out but won't bother tell tell their students if they are unlucky enough to be the targets of it. If you work at UA with her and even think about ratting her out she’ll sniff it out from a mile away and then you’ll be at the top of the duo’s hit list.  Put simply...there is no option but a couple's costume. You will be matching if its the last thing she does.  Loves the seasonal drinks, pumpkin spice is her jam, whenever you pick one up get her one too she’ll thank you generously, and she’ll always have one for you too.  She’s pretty good at baking but not nearly patient enough for it, she’ll distract you halfway through and by the end of the night, all you’ll have is a half made batter, a preheated oven, and some hickeys.  Serial candle lighter and buyer. It’s an addiction, honestly, the smell of nutmeg may be so overpowering that you have to blow one out. At least the mood lighting is nice.  Also loves scary movies and will watch as many as you want, she may jump during them but they’re quick to leave her mind after so if you’re a scaredy-cat she’ll tease you but in the end she’s got a few pretty good methods for distracting you. She loves the season herself but she loves watching you get excited about it, seeing you hobble in the door with arms full of decorations and baking goods just brings her so much joy. The first time you break out a classic fall sweater she’ll compliment you for hours and steal it to wear the next day. get a sexy devil costume

Hizashi: Also loves the season and Halloween, hates all the spiders though, eugh. Not so bad if they’re all fake which normally they are. Aizawa is on his shit list for leaving a huge fake one on his desk chair one day, he tied a string to it and when Hizashi pulled his chair out started tugging the string, seriously he screamed so loud Nemuri thought someone was being abducted.  Though he’s usually good at getting people back on those sorts of things, but Aizawa is notoriously hard to scare so it’s just been festering for years.  As mentioned for Nemuri, they definitely pair up and come up with some huge scheme to scare like at least 10 kids at once, ideally a whole class. It takes weeks of planning, usually happens somewhere around the middle of the month, anyone who has had the misfortune of being part of the target group before always gets tense around that time of year as they are very effective (Tamaki and Mirio have been scared three years in a row, Mirio handles it very well but Tamaki does not come to school for two days after). He loves to bake, he’s probably decent at it too but he makes a huge mess, and he gets distracted too easily if you kiss him or touch him at all you will (similar to with Nemuri) just be left with a half-finished recipe and slightly sore thighs. It’s not his fault. it is Couple costume or Halloween simply does not happen. That's the law! The cheesier and sillier the better, please.  He can either love pumpkin spice or hate it depending on the cafe, but he’s addicted to surprising you with little fall treats so expect plenty.  Big apple cider guy though.  He’ll watch a horror movie with you sure. he’s not afraid of most, but the really good ones will get him, slashers don’t bother him, ghosts are fine, home invasions are nothing, but demons? Eugh. Also bugs of course. An over the top gore makes him squirm. If it’s one of those maybe invite Eraser to deal with his quirk because of the screaming. Your neighbors will think you’re trying to murder the poor man, though you’re probably no better. He likes getting scared with you though so don’t worry about it, and like Nemuri he usually forgets about it afterward.  if he finds it to be a slow, boring movie expect to get sidetracked, especially if you’re jumpy, he’ll put an arm around you and pull out all the classic cheesy moves and lines until he can coax you over. Loves carving pumpkins, seriously loves it so much probably dedicates a class period to it. Will carve a matching set with you if you ask (in his eyes it’s something akin to a marriage proposal so be mindful when you do ask). get a sexy maid costume

[gins-potter]

IMAGINE THERE'S A FIRE EMOJI HERE I'M OLD AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO PUT THEM IN DESKTOP. unpopular opinions on either Flora or Nabu. (or, to pander, unpopular opinions about the One Chicago franchise as a whole - I only know of it through you so like. might as well see what constitutes as unpopular.)

DROPS GO TO EMOJIPEDIA IT LETS YOU COPY AND PASTE EMOJIS!! IT'S HOW THE FELLOW OLDIES DO IT... I THINK.

But seriously, the way I was like "I don't have any unpopular opinions about these two" and the next second had come up with several is just hilarious to me. I'll try and limit myself.

Flora:

She would never be a vegetarian/vegan. I'm sorry for those who headcanon that but it doesn't make sense to me personally. She literally is the fairy of plants (fuck that nature title) why would she choose a diet that includes eating more plants? If anything she would eat a really balanced diet of meat and vegies because she believes in the circle of life and all that jazz.

Her title of Fairy of Nature is kinda bullshit and she should have stuck with being Fairy of Plants (yes I know she had a couple spells early on that included animals/bugs but mostly her magic was about plants and that's the way it should have stayed).

I personally don't subscribe to the very popular fan headcanon of Chubby!Flora. Chubby!Flora is amazing and totally valid, but I imagine her more toned and muscular because of all the gardening and other outdoor activities she'd be into like hiking.

Nabu:

This is more a fandom one in relation to Nabu, but fandom has a tendency to forgive (and totally forget) Nabu's earlier faults (like lying about who he really was and lowkey stalking Layla) which would be fine if other characters *cough* Sky *cough* didn't get absolutely crucified by the fandom for those same things.

(Fandom don't kill me for this one) If a specialist *had* to die in s4 and I had the chance to change who it was, I probably wouldn't (sorry!!). Nabu's lovely, but as a character he doesn't interest me that much (in canon!! fanon nabu is a different story), he's a little too perfect, and he was also just the last one in so first one out I guess.

Also gonna do the One Chicago ones because why not and also I love that you know about it through me now.

Chicago Fire:

(This one might not be unpopular so much on Tumblr but it definitely would be unpopular in the Twitter fandom) But Dawsey's toxic cycle of Dawson not listening/respecting Casey's opinion and Casey not communicating the best wasn't something that popped up in s5 or 6 but was there right from the beginning of their relationship. Even in s2 when Dawson asked Casey's opinion about her becoming a firefighter she didn't listen to his (very reasonable) advice/opinion, and he was never able to be totally honest with her about his head injury.

Chicago Med:

Sorry fandom but sometimes y'all are waaaaaaay too hard on Ethan. People will (rightfully) point out how terrible and borderline unethical most of the others doctors are a lot of the time but then will call Ethan a hardass and an asshole when he follows the rules and expects everyone else to do the same.

Chicago PD:

Ooooof kinda pains me to say it but the PD cases are pretty boring and too complex a lot of the time. If it wasn't for the characters and the personal arcs I don't know if I'd stick with the show. The episodes were balanced a lot better in the s1-3 era when they still had patrol and comedic storylines.

Send me a 🔥 and a topic and I’ll give you my unpopular opinion

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness Chapter 41

Back to Jaune we go.

If you experience positive psychotic symptoms don't ever use marijuana.

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

"You think this will help?" I held the marijuana cigarette out in front of me and picked at a bug in my ear.

Greens for sure weren't likely to help with the paranoid thoughts, a goddess had her fingers in my mind, for real, or the suicidal thoughts, besides. But it just might take the edge off the bugs or the shadows.

Neo took it back from me and lit it. She took a long pull as though to say, 'see, safe.'

I took it back and inhaled the smoke in my lungs, it was still burning from where she lit it, and I took a drag. Almost immediately the bugs in my face eased. They weren't gone per se. They were muted. I could still feel them crawling around behind my eyes and in the tips of my extremities.

I coughed.

"Oh shit." I exhaled. "That's good." I chomped on the cigar and Neo beamed. "I'm going to need a box of these, just to keep it at bay." I'd brought up some of my hallucinations and Neo had picked this up for me.

She was looking up at me expectantly.

"Thank you, Neo."

She grinned up at me even though I was sitting on the bed and she was standing. We were in a different dingy motel than the one in which we'd tortured Nickel.

The greens were good. I inhaled them and leaned back on the bed. If Neo wanted to kill me this would be the best time to do it. Instead she plopped up on the bed beside me. "Well, I'm hooked." A shadow jumped out at me from the corner of my eye and I just didn't care. I was so relaxed.

I factory reset the Don's scroll. It wasn't quite as good as the military grade one I'd had before, but as far as civilian ones went it was top of the line.

"I need to go to this Merlot's lab. Cinder's boss, Salem, has some way of controlling me. All my psychotic symptoms started then. Or… well, maybe not. I need to learn about it if I want to fight it. You're welcome to come with. Cinder probably won't be there, but it's on the road to her for me. I have to go."

I brushed my new diamond studs. I'd gone all in on my new identity, Cloud, Cloud Strife. My hair was done up spikey, and I had a half cape around my waist. I still had Pyrrha's cape around my bicep on one arm but on the other I had a single long sleeve, on my pauldron side. The dark blues and blacks of my new clothes contrasted with the bronze of my armor nicely. My half cape billowed around my legs when I walked and my blonde hair shifted in any breeze. I still had a pair of long gloves on beneath my gauntlets. They ran elbow length.

I'd gotten my sword repaired, too. The warp wasn't bad to take out and I was only without the blade for a couple of hours yesterday. I'd just waited outside the smithy while they worked. What was I supposed to do and where was I going to go without my sword? Nowhere fast. And I wasn't Ruby to repair it myself. I might have been able to buff it out with a whetstone, but why take the risk when my pockets were overflowing with cash?

My weapons would still give me away, so would my face, but I'd done what I could in terms of disguising myself. Unless my friends saw me face to face or weapon to weapon they wouldn't be able to find me.

Neo made a stabbing gesture with her right hand.

"There will be people to kill and torture. At least one person. Probably. If not there will always be more in Atlas."

She made a show of considering it, one finger on her cheek. I knew how lonely she was, though. Plus I was sure she liked taking orders. It was weird but then not really. She liked having a boss. And just so long as she had people to maim, she was happy. I think she was happier working with me than she had been in a long time.

What? A girl's gotta heist.

It was a coin flip where Cinder was heading next, Atlas or Vacuo. So I'd flipped for it. It came up Atlas. I'd start digging around there in Solitas after I was done with the Merlot thing. Depending, of course, on what I learned from his lab. It was closer anyways. And it maintained my future availability of options by being closest to Vacuo over here and Vale. It was closest to all three of the other kingdoms, really, depending on how you looked at it. And the closed borders meant little to me if I had Neo with me.

I roached the joint and stared at the slightly spinning ceiling. The softly rotating fan was a pleasure to watch as I laid back. I rubbed at my chest, moving my hand in light circles over the deep scars there.

I missed Ruby and her soft touch in those moments.

Neo nodded at length. A single small gesture I felt through the bed. I sat up and held out a hand for her to shake on it. She did, a wide glittering grin on her face. Her eyes swapped colors at that.

She was wearing new clothes, too. She had a cape with some collar straps and her collar was done around inside out near her breasts. The fancy shirt ended at her midriff before a pair of nice white pants. She wore a pair of much shorter heels than before beneath that. She had a set of long white gloves on as well, much like myself.

"We'll take a train to the South to this city, Shumi." I pointed out on a map with my scroll, "From there we'll ride on horseback to Merlot's laboratory, here near a place called Wutai. A few weeks max. Then we'll be back on the hunt for Cinder. Who'll probably go to Atlas. She has unfinished business with Ironwood anyway."

She nodded along acceptingly. She pointed at where I'd thrown out the cigarette.

"Yep. We'll need a ration of those. They really help. I don't suppose you know where to find more?"

She gave me a coy nod. Hiding a smile behind her hands.

"Fantastic."

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She did indeed know where to find more.

A beefy guard waited outside a small house on the outskirts of Mistral. He was wider than me at the shoulders and had a few inches on me. At a glance I didn't feel the low hum of aura coming off of him though. He could be just withdrawn, at any rate.

Neapolitan and I walked up together. He gave us both a once over and we stood in silence. Then some other folks walked out of the house and he motioned to let us in. Controlling how many people were inside at any given time. Smart.

He held up a hand. "Your weapons," He had a slight accent. Atlesian, not unlike Weiss's but deeper and richer. "Leave them out here."

I pulled my harness off my back. Staring him straight in the eye the whole time. I didn't need Limit to kill him. I put them on a rack behind the gentleman and he stepped aside of the entrance.

Neo was let inside without any hassle, giving me a superior smirk as she twisted her umbrella in the rain. "Sure, rub it in."

She did. And even if she didn't, being without Crocea Mors made me uncomfortable. I was glad she was armed, if nothing else. Somebody to watch my back in a run down place like this was nice. And I always had Limit, just a short charge away.

We walked in on a place lined with jars and labels on them. Inside were greens of all sorts of names. Lemon Drop Haze. Blueberry Blitz. Lilac Diesel. They were all arranged on neat little rows on high shelves.

"Well I've got to hand it to you Neo…"

I was whistled at by a lanky dude in a ‘t’ shirt.

I was coming from a place of ignorance and I couldn't exactly ask Neo how the place worked.

"You been in here before?"

"No sir." I answered with a smile. "How much am I allowed to buy." Not what sizes did they come in, not anything else. What was the maximum amount of drugs I was allowed to leave with? They must have a limit to prevent resale. A closely monitored tight ship like this.

"Two ounces." That didn't seem like much. "And you gotta pay in cash, that is if no one told you."

"Not a problem. What would the-uh…" I gestured at him.

"Budtender," the Budtender said.

"Right. What would the Budtender recommend."

"For what? You wanna get high or you wanna relax?"

"Something to relax me," I told him.

"You want an indica, then. A bit mellower and a bit richer in the CBD."

He picked across the shelves. Staying away from things that had names like 'blitz,' or 'shard,' or 'rush.' He strayed towards the mellower sounding ones and distinctly avoided one which had 'panic' in its name.

"Lemon drop haze." He put his hand on one. "And...sunshine sherbet." He put his hand on another jar.

"Sounds good. An ounce of both, please."

He named a steep price. A couple hundred Lien. I whistled lowly. But the stuff Neo had given me was already wearing thin. The bugs were starting to come back and I needed relief. I could hear a low whispering too. That needed to stop. Fast, if possible.

I paid him in the cash requested without too much hesitation. The only other place I'd see real relief would be antipsychotic drugs. I didn't have the time to get a psychiatrist and as a huntsman I'd be forcibly relieved of my gear for potentially months.

PTSD was common amongst hunters and they couldn't have crazy ones running around. There were procedures in place for this that I was specifically trying to avoid. I just didn't have the time to get set up with something like that.

"You gonna need pipe-ware?" He asked.

I looked down at Neo. She rolled her pink and brown eyes and nodded. I could feel her aura against mine. Something cool with undercurrents underneath. An edge of something cruel.

"Yeah I'll need a pipe."

"They never just stop at one," he said with a smirk. Like he was sharing a closely held secret with me.

"One'll be good for now," I instead insisted.

"It'll be thirty extra for a pipe and if you want a grinder that'll be even more."

It sounded like a good idea so I took him up on it.

I paid him anyways, knowing he was gouging me. It didn't matter a whole lot to me at the moment anyways. He handed over two tins, a pipe and a grinder.

"Come back soon." He called at my shoulder. I stuffed the tins and paraphernalia into my pockets.

I took my weapon back from the man outside and gave it a once over. My serrated combat-camping knife, sword and shield all looked fine, just as I left them.

"Let's get out of this fucking town." I told Neo. "I'm done with this city."

I freshly ground up some greens while we were walking and put it in my new pipe. I took a long drag, like it was the first breath of fresh air I'd gotten in months.

She skipped to keep up with me. Making it look natural.

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"You assume there's nothing I can do to you, child. No torment I can bring upon you. You are mistaken."

I was hit with the sensation of making up but I couldn't turn my head. I rose from the train-car seat.

-then I was abruptly back in the train-car seat alone for all the world with the sensation of waking up again.

She hit me with that sensation. That feeling of waking up five more times and over what felt like subjective hours. My face crawled with bugs and I wanted to scream. I felt like I was falling for hours and hours.

-I jerked awake. There was Neo across from me in the train-car. I took a moment to get my bearings. It had been torturous. The sensation of waking up over and over again.

I breathed hard and Neo looked over at me, something like concern etched in her face.

"She's getting better at it," I said. "She's getting better at tormenting me. Cinder's boss."

I looked out the train-car window and watched the scenery pass us by. I watched a couple a few aisle's down. The man jumped and slapped his body like- well like he'd seen a bug on him. I was all too familiar with the sensation. The feeling of insects crawling across my skin and things jumping out at me from the corner of the eye. I recognized it.

I looked across from me and saw Neo's eyes narrowed in concentration. Her smile was wide in sheer delight.

"Neo," I whispered. "Neo!"

She looked at me and the man stopped his jumping-jacks. Her focus wanted on whatever illusion she had crafted. Pink and brown shifted in her hair as she changed focus.

"For gods' sake you're like a child. I'll get you people to torture for real. Knock it off."

She gave me a brooding look but nodded.

"Play some games on your scroll. For goodness sake. Don't torture just to torture. Do it with purpose."

She made a faux-angry face at me.

"Yeah I'm mad. Stop it. When we find Merlot you get to do all the torturing, sound fair? Even though he's my dad or whatever."

She gave me an odd look at that.

"I think… I think I was born in a tank. There are images of water. Muffled people talking. I think I was born pretty much full grown with whatever they had done to me already done to me."

"I don't know what they did to me. I don't know what I am. But when we find Merlot you get to be first in line for hurting him."

"They said he does experiments on Grimm, that might mean… it might mean that I'm part Grimm. That means I'm a monster. And you get to go first against the guy who did that to me. Sound even? We square?"

She didn't nod or give me any gesture. She just sat in her typical silence.

"Look… whatever. Just stop fucking with people who don't deserve it. If you're going to work for me then you only get to torment the people I say so. We clear?"

She still made no gesture.

"I said 'are we clear?'"

She gave me one firm nod. Her eyes were wary in part. Like she was anxious of making a deal she didn't want to keep. Like I was some fae of myth contracting her into bondage.

"Good. I promise it won't be all bad. And when we get to Atlas we'll have to make a name for ourselves. Make people scared of us. It's just an intermission on the torture and heists. They're not over."

Maybe I was a little antsy too. I wanted another pull of greens. The bugs were starting to become a bit of menace. And I couldn't exactly take a hit while in the slightly crowded train.

And Hell, I was bored, too.

"Plus there might be bandits out here. You can do whatever you want to them, I don't give a fuck."

"Heard there was a big tribe of bandits too. The Branwens you heard of them? Well I especially don't care what happens to them. Go nuts."

"With my luck I'm sure something will come up anyways. You'll get your kicks. Have I steered you wrong yet? That's what I thought. And I let you kill the Don even though I kinda wanted to. He threatened some disgusting stuff on my friends. I really wanted to snap his neck. Instead I let you cut him. That was grand, wasn't it?"

"So when I say you'll get your kicks in you better believe me. We just have to be patient for a bit. Play things smart and close to the chest."

"Otherwise Salem will get us," I exhaled. "Cinder and Salem both will get the two of us with impunity."

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-WG

[gregorygrim]

Dragon Prince Hot Takes

!!! Full Spoiler For “The Dragon Prince” Seasons 1-3!!!

So I finally got around to watching The Dragon Prince. Timely, I know, but better late than never i guess. I’m not completely caught up yet as I only got as far as S3E7 “Hearts of Cinder” in this first sitting. Considering I haven’t binged any series in almost two years, I think that’s pretty respectable. This means I won’t discuss the last few episodes here, except for a couple of things I was unfortunately spoiled for already, hence full spoilers.

These are basically my first thoughts and opinions after the binge and a good night’s sleep. It’s gonna be a lot so if you don’t care or don’t want spoilers…

TL;DR: 7½/10. Generally enjoyable, there are some aspects I’m not exactly fan of, but no dealbreakers

Firstly to everyone who told me that this was the new ATLA: you all need to rewatch Avatar stat! Like seriously. There are definitely parallels and given the cast and crew I think that’s what they were going for too (which is why I think it’s fair to compare the two), but still, no.

Secondly I love most of the worldbuilding and love that the series at least tries to give it to us in a bit of a non-linear fashion, even if it is kind of clumsy at times. I know some people are put off by expository dialogue and flashbacks, but I’m an epic fantasy nerd, I need that sweet, sweet lore to live as much as you mortals need food.

I like that there was clearly an effort made to integrate the worldbuilding in more subtle ways. For example you may initially find it kind of weird that all these different human ethnicities are existing perfectly integrated in what looks like a medieval society, until you remember from the opening monologue that the Human Kingdoms are the result of a massive diaspora following the human exodus from Xadia, so obviously people got all mixed up everywhere. It’s representation with an excellent in-world reason and that just brings me joy.

I also love the magic system(s) even though we haven’t really gone into that just yet. it really feels like there was a genuine effort made to create underlying mechanics for the magic rather than just making each spell a vaguely elemental themed ability. I really hope we’ll dive deeper into that in coming seasons.

I also like the little nods to other works of fantasy: Ezran’s ability to talk with animals is a reference to Tolkien’s world where some royal bloodlines had the ability to speak with animals, specifically birds; Primal Magic and its spells being cast with Ancient Draconic runes and words might be reminiscent of the Ancient Language from the Inheritance Cycle etc.

Thirdly the main cast is great. Callum, Ezran and Rayla are all interesting and relatable characters in their own right and as a group. I’m not going into each of them individually here, but while I think the series as a whole falls short of ATLA, as protagonist parties go I dare say this one is nearly on nearly on par with the gAang.¹

And yes, I love Bait, which I really did not expect following the first few episodes. I love his weird pug-toad-chameleon design, I love that he works like a flashbang whenever somebody says a quote from Scarface (I wish they hadn’t dropped that later on) and I love how done he is with everything and everyone at all times. I’ve only had him for 25 episodes, but if anything happened to him I would kill all of my followers and then myself.

On top of that, and speaking as someone who god knows is really not into shipping, I love Rayla and Callum’s relationship. It’s believable, it’s refreshing and it brings out the best in both characters without changing basically anything about them. Just two good friends who fell in love. A++, maybe even S tier.

Unfortunately though I can’t sing the same kind of praises about the villains. None of them are terrible (as in terribly written, most of them are pretty awful people), but with one exception they just don’t stand up to the protagonists in quality.

I could simply not take Viren seriously. Even now that is probably the single most powerful magic user in the world, he just has such strong Karen energy, every time he finishes a speech I am overcome with the urge to say “Sir, this is a Wendy’s” and it does not help the mood. I’m not even sure why. It might’ve been the voice because the guy who did Viren (Jason Simpson) also does a lot of kinda slimy characters in various anime dubs, it might be that over-the-top walking stick, idk.

What I’m saying is that as a primary antagonist he simply did not work for me. Which is doubly a shame because this kind of tarnishes the real “Big Bad” of this story by proxy. Aaravos, even as an invisible ghost, with his voice coming out of a caterpillar and next to no info on his backstory, has more style and gravity than all the human antagonists combined. It helps that he is by far the best designed character and Erik Dellums has the voice of a young god, but I’d argue even without that unfair advantage he has the potential to be a top tier villain. While he is stuck as Viren’s “little bug-pal” though he is just being dragged down.

(I’m aware that as of the final episode the caterpillar familiar is undergoing metamorphosis, probably to create a new body for Aaravos’ spirit to inhabit outside of the magic mirror, so I’m definitely hyped for more of him in the coming seasons.)

As for Soren and Claudia, I’ve got mixed feelings. This was one more aspect of the show that a lot of people compared to Avatar and while I see the parallels to Zuko & Azula, they are still very different, at least where Claudia is concerned. I’d also just like to mention that a lot of people told me that they thought the direction in which their storylines went were really surprising and I can’t disagree more. I predicted that Soren would defect to the protagonists on episode 5 right after Viren told him to kill the princes and I knew Claudia was going to stick with her father from episode 12 onward. My point is, it didn’t feel like some kind of plot twist, the way some people made it out to be, and which I don’t think was the intent.

I definitely got the sense that Soren was at least a Zuko-type character, though still not a Zuko clone, and as with Zuko I was consistently able to empathise and sympathise with him and his predicaments. I also appreciated that his dilemma is the result of his convictions and not him being kind of dense, which would’ve been all to easy and probably would’ve ruined his character for me. As it stands he is extremely milktoast, but perfectly functional for his purpose in the story and I can definitely see him evolving further and getting more interesting as we go on.

Claudia is where it gets complicated. Again, I can see the Azula parallels. But unlike that character, who is her father’s animal 110%, Claudia doesn’t strike me as a victim of Viren’s manipulation the way Soren undoubtably is. The way she talks about and uses Dark Magic, how she talks down to Soren and how even Viren finds it difficult to communicate with her, tells me as an audience member that she is an independent person. Which tells me that the cruelty and enthusiasm for causing harm she regularly displays is her own will. And that was before she straight up leads Callum on to manipulate him.

On the other hand I can absolutely relate to her devotion to her family, her big sister role (even though she is younger than Soren) and the way both the separation of her parents before the story and Soren’s injury in episode 16 must’ve affected her because of this. I know that, if my brother had become paralysed from the neck down and I knew a way to heal him, I would not have hesitated to kill that fawn either. Then again her relationship with her father is very different from parental relationships I am familiar with, so I can’t really say I see why she is so devoted to him, other than she promised her mother to stay with him years ago? ¯\(o_Ō)/¯

So basically Claudia falls into an emotional grey space for me. I can’t really tell how to feel about her either way and I’ll just have to see where she goes from here, which, while fine, isn’t necessarily great for an end of season cliffhanger imo.

Seeing as I’ve already talked about some of the show’s shortcomings, I think it’s time to dive into some of the what I would consider flaws.

Firstly this show needed at least 12 episode seasons. I have never made a secret out of my dislike for the modern short seasons and while I recognise that in the current climate in the industry giving everything full 25 episode seasons isn’t really doable, the pacing of this show, especially for the first season is just outright bad at times. It works as of the second season, but the first season alternately feels like it’s either rushing through or crawling along the whole way through.

The believability of Rayla’s and the princes’ relationship really suffers from this the most. It comes a bit out of nowhere on the boat ride and is then taken for granted way to quickly. Like Callum, seriously, this girl tried to kill you and your brother not even a day ago and you are currently cut off from all allies you have ever had until now. A little skepticism isn’t misplaced here. I also wold’ve liked if we’d just gotten a bit more of a sense of movement with the characters. I get that this is not the kind of show where we can just make an entire episode about the characters travelling and camping, intercut with plots centred around a more expansive supporting cast, but still I really would’ve preferred if Xadia didn’t feel quite so around the corner.

Another issue is with setup and payoff, which I think is partially a consequence of the pacing as well. A lot of smaller plot points are set up within the same episode as the payoff just wreak havoc on the narrative structure. A good example is the episode where they ride down the river in a boat and Bait tires to go into the water, but is saved by Ezran, who then explains the story behind Glowtoads and how they are pefect bait for large water predators. Then Bait falls into the water and is attacked by a massive water monster. This happens within five minutes of one episode and never comes up again. To me that looks like sign of rushed editing, which is probably not entirely the crew’s fault, given that they are on a schedule from Netflix, but it’s still a point of critique.

It unfortunately also manifests in the occasional line of horribly forced dialogue, often for things we can literally see happening on screen. Again, this is mostly the case in the earlier episodes, but it never completely goes away.

Finally, and this is where i get into serious issues that made me want to write this, we gotta talk about representation in this show.

First: disabled representation, meaning Amaya. Why is Amaya deaf? Because it’s good to have disabled representation.

Why is Amaya deaf and a high-ranking military officer? Because they didn’t think it through.

I know this may be a contentious opinion, but it is my belief that the purpose of representation, particularly of disabilities characters may suffer from, in fiction is to, y’know, represent people as they are in life. That includes especially the struggles they face and have to overcome, sometimes their whole life. This is not just me talking out of my ass either. A couple years ago I discussed this with several people that are disabled, specifically blind or otherwise severely visually impaired, in a different context obviously, and the general consensus was that it’s better to have representation that shows their life and their abilities as they are, rather than how they might wish they could be.

A mute or deaf person cannot be a medieval fantasy army general, no matter how good they might be in melee combat or who’s sister they are, because at the end of the day, they’re not able to give commands while they are holding a sword and shield. That such a massive logical oversight, especially in comparison to the extremely well done example of representation I mentioned above, and has so little impact on the plot that it leads me to believe, this aspect of Amaya’s character was tacked on in the last minute without being given any thought for the sole reason of the story having a disabled person in it. All this does is necessitate the existence of two otherwise entirely unnecessary characters, Gren and Kazi, both of which achieve nothing, aside from sometimes being literal set dressing.

That is where representation ends and tokenism begins.

And unfortunately this generally lacklustre attitude also extends to the LGBT+ representation on the show.

As of S3E7 “Hearts of Cinder” we have had two onscreen gay couples on the show (onscreen in the sense that both partners were onscreen and they were somehow confirmed to be in a relationship on the show). One of these, the queens of Duren, literally die in the same flashback they are introduced in, which incidentally also features them invading a foreign nation to poach a rare animal and subsequently starting the conflict at the series’ core. Not a great look.

Aside from serving as a tragic backstory for their daughter, the most impact they had on my viewing experience was that they made wonder how the fuck royal succession works in Duren. (People who know me are rolling their eyes right now because I’m bringing anarchism into this Dragon Prince review, but I’m telling you, this why fantasy monarchies aren’t compatible with LGBT+ politics in the same setting. Dynastic governments are inherently bigoted, you can’t have it both ways.)

The other couple are Runaan and Ethari, Rayla’s caretakers, although if I’m being honest you wouldn’t be able tell based on Runaan’s treatment of Rayla in the first episode. By the time we actually meet Ethari and find out about their relationship with Rayla, Runaan is suffering “a fate worse than death” (direct quote from the show) trapped in a gold coin.

I mean come on. That’s about as “technically not ‘bury your gays’” as it gets.

I think I need to reiterate here that my point is not that this show or its creators are somehow malicious. As i stated in the TL;DR: I don’t think this is a dealbreaker for liking this show. But it does demonstrate that they are prone to slipping to some potentially harmful tropes and this needs to be criticised and pointed out to them.

In conclusion, I really love this show. It’s not ATLA, it never will be, nothing else will ever be ATLA no matter how badly (and terribly) Netflix tries. But it does and should not have to be.

What it has to do though is improve. A lot of the building blocks are already there, such as Aaravos or Claudia’s development, Callum’s father, the origin of Ezran’s ability, the purpose of the “Key of Aaravos”, the true fate of King Harrow (we all know his soul is in the bird, right?) etc. Some things like the treatment of Amaya’s disability unfortunately won’t be fixable as far as I can tell, but if they at least manage to fix the gay representation I can make my peace with that.

¹ I know I said I wouldn’t go into each of the characters individually, but a) you should never trust a stranger on the internet and b) I really want to talk a bit about Callum. Specifically the “mystery” of why the hell he is connected to the Sky Primal. I write “mystery” because I think it’s fairly obvious from whence this talent came: there is only one humanoid species we know of with innate access to the Sky Arcanum and one of Callum’s parent’s is unidentified, presumed dead. 2+2=4. Callum’s father was a Skywing Elf. That’s why he recognised Nyx’s boomerang weapon. He remembered one like it either from his very early childhood (remember that he has photographic memory) or Sarai kept one and he found it at some point.

On top of that the name “Callum” or at least the pronunciation is clearly derived from Latin “caelum” meaning “sky” or “weather” and I already mentioned that Ancient Draconic is just bad Latin. It’s not very subtle. Unless they pull a complete 180 concerning the lore about Primal Magic he’s definitely going to be a half-elf, which would also just so happen to make him the perfect mediator between the Human Kingdoms and Xadia. Hmm, it’s almost as if they are planning ahead.

My question: How the fuck did that happen? Or rather: how did that fuck happen? I don’t think even Harrow knew or he probably would’ve a) paid more attention when Sarai advised against poaching the Magma Titan, because obviously she’s gotten around Xadia more than him, if y’know what i’m sayin’ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) or at least b) put it in his final letter to Callum. Unfortunately we know basically nothing about Sarai except that she was a soldier alongside Amaya and already had Callum before marrying Harrow. So does Amaya know? This is probably the most interesting plot thread in the whole story and as far as my friends told me it’s not going to be touched on anymore in the last two episodes than it already has thus far, which is basically not at all.

[a-crash-in-time-collection]

Chapter 9: Trouble with Platinum 101

Platinum just barely managed to catch the black and red cat as it was flung back to him. He held him close, eyes swirling as the rain continued to pour from the lights above. If it wasn't for the large lighting bolt, he would have been able to think of something. He seized as he heard footsteps, looking up at the purple haired teen. They offered him a smile, handing over a yellow candy like item, which he took greatly.

Before he had the chance to say anything in return, the world faded to black. For a few minutes, it was just that, He couldn't move, couldn't talk. He could hardly think. Then suddenly, orange words appeared in front of his vision, although it did not spook him. "Ending Artificial Simulation" it read, before switching to "Exiting Sleep Mode". Platinum's vision was tainted orange as he opened his eyes, all the necessary data finding its place.

He let out a small smile, as he reached for the back of his head. With a small pull, the charger came out, and he placed it to the side. He shut the back of his head, before pushing himself out of his new charging area faintly. He wanted to just charge in his room, but it was still risky to be in there all alone. Still, he wasn't going to let anything as small as that bugged him as he raced out of the orbital station walls.

It was sunny outside, him having to hold a hand to his head as his vision adjusted. As soon as his eyes adjusted though, his goal was in sight. He raced over to where the tent was, ready for the fun to be had that day. Sure, there wasn't much to do around the station right now, but they were always one step ahead of boredumb. He got to where the opening was, and after a few seconds, opened it to say hello to Hat Girl.

Only to find she wasn't there. "Huh?" The topbot said, a bit confused. She was normally up at this time, but he figured she would still be in her tent. He glanced around to see if he could spot her among the other toppats, but found nothing. The only clue he had was his father, who could be seen talking to Herb. With nothing else he could do, he walked over to the two, although Herb left after a nod.

"Dad?" Platinum asked, getting the attention of the toppat clan leader. "Have you seen Hat Girl around? I went to greet her at her tent, and she wasn't there. I don't know where else she could be."

"Oh. She isn't here right now." Reginald said, looking over. Platinum's face turn to a mix of shock and confusion, as he tried to think of how to ask what he needed to ask. Hat Girl was just gone? And Dad wasn't freaking out. "She wanted to check how that movie you and her were in was going. So she and Righty went to go see earlier. They should be back soon, however." Reginald gave his son a small smile.

"They could have at least asked me if I wanted to come!" Platinum said, sighing as he crossed his arms. "I know I shouldn't be hanging with her all the time, but it's my program purpose to be with her. And things have been getting boring around here without her..."

"Well, you could always help remove some things from storage until she gets back." Reginald offered the topbot. He instantly shook his head at the offer, that was work, how was that supposed to help him? All he would likely end up doing was complaining the whole time, and he wasn't shy to admit that fact. Reginald shook his head with a sigh. "Well, the only other thing I can suggest is go hang out with the other teens."

Platinum huffed, but soon sighed. "Fine..." He walked away from his father, to where most of the other teens were. It wasn't that he didn't like the other teens, because that wasn't true. He liked a lot of them! He just never spent time one on one with them. Most of the time they interacted, was because his sister wanted to talk with them. Besides, Hat Girl was all he needed to have fun after all. Why waste time that could be spent with her, or time that could be used to steal a tank.

He decided to not get involved with the conversation they were all having, although he did listen in as too have something to think on. Most of them did share a similar mindset with him, things were starting to get boring. There were only so many days that the wonder of being on another planet alone could last. Some wanted to train, others wanted to play some games. But they all had something they wanted-

"Platinum?" The topbot nearly jumped as he looked over at the source of the voice. A familiar figure with purple hair glanced at him, the black hat with a small purple, white, black, and yellow flag. Some small bits of glitter on the flag shining in the sunlight. "Are you ok? Aren't you normally here with your sister? Where is she anyway?" They asked, scanning around in confusion.

"Oh, she's somewhere else today, Van." Platinum said, giving the teen a smile. They had joined the clan a few months before that pink haired man broke into the airship. A runaway from home, from the few details he was able to get through conversation. Van was the main exception when it came to Platinum interacting with others on a regular basis. "Dad says her and Pops will be back soon, although knowing our luck it's gonna be a few hours."

"Oh, well, I'm sure they'll be ok." Van said, a small smile on their features. "I'm uhh, sorry about that Rotom comment I made to you the other day. I was just in a bit of a silly mood, and you gave me the perfect chance to say something."

"Hey, in your defense, I shouldn't have recited that one moive's pick up line."

Van snorted. Before laughing, Platinum followed suit a second later. The other teens would glance over confused, but most just shrugged it off and went back to what they were talking about before. Eventually, Van stopped their laughter, wiping a tear from their eye. "Still, I could have handled it better. I knew you were just messing around, after all." Van said, glancing back at the topbot with a faint smile.

"Yeah... I'm a topbot so there was no way it could have been serious." Platinum stated, shurrging. Yet each time he looked at Van, there was always a small, strange feeling inside of him. It was worse when he first laid eyes on them, but thankfully it calmed down... he sighed and glanced to the side. "I hate being without Hat Girl. Yes, I can go times without being near her, but those times I-"

"Had something better to do other then just stand around?" Van finished.

"Exactly!" Platinum said, throwing his hands in the air to show his point. Van rolled those pretty blue eyes of theirs, letting out a small chuckle. Platinum sighed as he kicked at the ground, his metal feet ruining the harmony of the grass. "If only I had something better to do. Something fun, something troubling..." His eyes gain a fainter glow, as if an idea had entered them. "Something with spray paint."

"Platinum, I don't think now would be the best time to spray paint the place." Van stated, although there was some confusion in their voice. "Honsently, I'm surprise your parents haven't ban spray paint from the clan yet because of you."

"No, not spray paint stuff here!" Platinum said, before grabbing Fan's hand, failing to notice the blush that appeared. "Van, you are my Hattie for the day. Let's go!" Platinum raced off through the woods, dragging the teen behind him. It was mostly silent, and they very rarely made a turn. Eventually, they came across the sea, where a few boats had now been parked alongside the old boat they first used.

"Huh? I thought there was just one boat." Van said. They paused when Platinum hopped into one, jestering from Van to follow him. "What are you planning? Your Dads are going to kill us." They stated, although reluctantly went over to the boat. They didn't know their way back, after all.

"Oh, they don't have to know this part. We'll just tell them we got lost in the woods." Platinum said, pulling them into the boat. "As for the new boats, well, Dad and Pops agreed that it would take too long to go grab lots of supplies from one place and bring it back to the old one. So Pops went a few nights ago and stole a few of these boats from mafia town." He shrugged. "Said they weren't using them anyway."

"Oh." Van said, before slowly looking for a place to sit. They didn't know what happened to them that day in that town, but if RHM had a hit list, it seems the mafia's boss would be near the top. "You aren't planning on taking us there, are you?" They looked up at Platinum, his grin answered for him. "I... guess I don't have a choice in this matter?"

"Maybe next time." Platinum said, shrugging as he started the boat's engine, it zipping off into the distiance. Van just sighed, adjusting their hat as they glanced out at the boat. If they knew they were going to be dragged somewhere today, they would have brought a good book to read along the way. It was nice to just see the water though, although once some splashed in their face. "Whoops, sorry. Must have set the speed too fast."

"Knowing you? Yeah." Van said, shrugging as they wiped the water off their face. Platinum chuckled guiltily, as Van adjusted their seat. It shouldn't take too long, but it would be good to relax while they still could.

Eventually, the caws of seagulls alert the two of their dictation, as Platinum went to slow down the engine. "Best we park at a beach. Should be a breeze to get it out of the sand if we go too far." Platinum said. Van let out a grone and ducked to the floor, bringing their hat over there head faintly to help shield it from any harm. There was a faint shake, but for the most part everything seemed fine.

Van slowly got up, peaking their eyes over the edge of the boat. "You actually managed to park it?" They asked, the surprise in their voice fully on display. It wasn't even that far into the sand, it would take a good push later but nothing bad. "I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting that. We all know how bad you are when it comes to driving tanks."

"Hey, if Dad and Pops let me drive a tank a bit more often, I wouldn't have crashed into that one wall." Platinum said, rolling his eyes as he glanced around. He hoped out of the boat, giving a hand to Van as he helped them out. Van looked around, a bit imitated but also in a bit of awe at everything. "Besides, it's not my fault they make those things so hard to control in the first place."

"Maybe because they're meant to be handled by experts?" A voice called, making Van jump slightly. Platinum turned his head to where a cave was, a bit surprised to see Mustache Girl there. "I don't know much about those things, but I know not to mess with them... anyone should." She said, crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry, but when you make a machine that is built for chaos, shiney, and a good place to get away from a zombie apocalypse, the chaos making robot is going to like it." Platinum said, rolling his eyes. He was tired of people not understanding him. Besides, it's not like he could be hurt, with his metal flesh and all. "It's partially in my coding at this point. You could argue tanks are imprinted in almost every important way of life!"

"...Yeah, sure you can." Mu said, rolling her eyes faintly. She had been woken up by the crash, and was much too tired to be dealing with this. "Hey, who's that guy- err... person behind you? Don't tell me you two have another sibling." She sighed.

"Oh, no. As cool as that would be, Pops said two was his maximum." Platinum chuckled slightly, as he awkwardly glanced at Van behind his back. Van gained a slight blush and glanced to the side, as if a bit embarrassed to be hiding from someone like a child. Platinum coughed faintly, before looking back at Mu. "Anyway. Mu, this is Van. They're a good friend of mine and Hat Girl's. They're a bit shy though."

"Platy." Van whispered, before coughing and glancing at Mu. They had recalled seeing her the night that cat brought over the food, but never really got the chance to speak to her. Not that they wanted too. They slowly came out from behind the topbot's back. "Uh, h-hello there. I'm Van, although I guess you al-already knew that."

"Yeah." She said, sighing slightly. Why did it seem like she was destined to run into the Toppats every so often. It would be better to just avoid them all, mainly to avoid her. Hat Girl didn't seem to hold anything against her, and seemed to enjoy her company? It made no sense in her mind. Speaking of which. "Where is Hat Girl? Shouldn't you be with her, Platinum?" Mu asked, raising a brow.

"Oh, she went to check on how our movie was doing, without me." He said, mumbling the last part. Really, he would've had enough battery. How hard was it to remove the charger from his head, wake him up, and have him tag along. "Dad said she was likely to return 'soon', but adults almost always end up being wrong when they use the word soon. It's almost like everything for them is meant to take forever."

"Yeah, it's always a bit of a nightmare." Van added quietly, glancing to the side. All those hours they must have spent waiting to get home to do school work while at a store felt like years looking back. They shook their head, there wasn't any use in thinking about the pass anymore, as they glanced at Mu. "S-So, uh, what are you doing up this early?" They asked. If they were going to be here, might as well be part of the conversion.

"I'm... just doing my rounds earlier than normal." Mu answered. It was a lie, but sounded much better then. 'You just woke me up from my nap in my cave which is my only home'. "I should be asking you something similar? What are you even doing here? There's no business reason, after all."

"Oh, well, things were boring at the crashed orbital station, partly because it was, well, crashed." Platinum said, shrugging as he glanced at the hero of mafia town. He didn't really know any better way to put it. "So we're going to cause some trouble here!"

"Is trouble alone your only personality? If it is, why not cause it somewhere else?" Mu asked, giving a glare that wipe that dumb grin off Platinum's face. There were already too many thieves in Mafia town, most of the place had them! She didn't need to deal with two more today. Or ever, if she was exact. "Why not have gone to that ghost's woods. I'm sure he would have loved you there, with all your trouble."

"She does have a bit of a point." Van said to the topbot, although they didn't think it mattered to him.

"Oh, don't worry, we meant trouble for the mafia! The other people here already have too much to deal with." Those were words most would assume a toppat would never say. Despite being a criminal clan, the toppats tried to have some morals about what they did. And not stealing from those already having a hard time was a personal rule lots of the clan followed. "Hat Girl mection before how you spray painted a hot air balloon before."

"Well, yeah... that was a small phase of mine." She said, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. She paused, wondering briefly if Hat Girl had liked the artwork, but shook her head as soon as it entered her mind. Why did it matter if she saw it? "I wanted to annoy some mafia so I took some spray paint from them and repainted one of their best balloons. It was always a reminder to not mess with me."

"So, you know where the spray paint is then?" Platinum asked, a small facepalm came from Van.

Mustache Girl sighed, there wasn't any way to get out of this bot messing everything up, was there? "It's around a corner of a building that way, somewhere."

"Thanks!" And just like that, the topbot raced off. "Van wait here!"

"Platinum, I..." Van said as they watched the Topbot raced off, before glancing at Mu.

"Well... this is awkward." Mu said, glancing to the side. After about a minute of waiting, it was clear the topbot wouldn't be back soon enough.

Van let out a shaky sigh. They couldn't just stand here like this. It looked bad on them, maybe? Besides, Mu looked like she could be friendly. They slowly walked over to her, rubbing the back of their head. "S-So, uh, how are things with the mafia?" They gave her a faint smile.

Mu sighed. "Same old, unfortunately." She crossed her arms and glanced down at the sand. She felt a small fist forming. "I was so sure I would have gotten them all out by now yet they're still here!"

"I'm sure that's annoying... but don't you have cops here?" As soon as the words left their mouth, they those were the wrong choice of words. The slight glare they got confirmed that.

"If we did, they clearly didn't do their job!" She said, voice almost a shout. Van flinched slightly from it, which Mu took note of and glanced to the side. She didn't mean to scare them, not really. She just hated it when people brought up the past of this place. "Although, they wouldn't have been able to handle all these bad guys at once anyway. It was almost like they came to take this humble little place over..."

"I'm sorry to hear about that.." Van spoke up, shaking gone from their voice. They hated hearing stories like this, always had. "This place looks so lovely as well... but hey, at least I heard something about the leader of theirs being in bad condition. I bet you must be happy about that." They said, chuckling.

"I mean, it was fun to stuff his remains in a jar." Mu said, chuckling faintly as Van facepalmed at the words. That sounded far worse then what happened to Right Hand Man, and she was just talking about it like it was a fun memory? They didn't want to be rude, but there was something wrong in this girl's head. "But at last, that wasn't enough to have his soul leave this realm." She sighed. "They've gotten around the jar situation now."

"Hello everyone, I am back!" Platinum said dramatically as he hopped over. His jacket was bloated, full of all the spray paint cans he couldn't fit in his arm. "I was thinking we spray the place with neon colors next to monotone colors. That really bugs the sight after all!" He said, grining.

"That.. is actually not that bad of an idea. But we can only do it on Mafia buildings!" Mu said quickly, getting a chuckle from the topbot. Van walked back over to Platinum, taking one of the spray paint cans from the hood. They turned it to the ocean, letting a small bit out to check if it was working. "You know, the one mafia has an observatory to watch for aliens, maybe you could spray paint that."

"Why not join us?" Platinum asked, looking at her. "It is your idea after all. Besides, we'll need someone to fight any mafia that tries to stop us!"

"Stop us?" Van asked, nervously.

"I mean, I suppose I can't allow Hattie's brother to get hurt." Mu said, sighing and nodding.

"Let's go then!" Platinum said, beginning to race to the observatory. Mu didn't tell him where it was, but he did recall a blue tower he tried to climb when he and Hat Girl had headed to the HQ of the mafia, so he logically concluded that was it. A rare moment of him actually using logic, if you will. He would giggle as Van did their best to keep up, Mu taking some time behind them both. Somehow, no mafias noticed them.

Eventually, they got to the Observatory. As Platinum dumped all his spray cans onto the ground, Van took a breath and sat down for a moment. "I always thought I was decently fast, but I guess I'm wrong. Either that, or the lack of losing energy makes you faster." Van guessed.

"Hehe, sorry about that Van." Platinum said, rubbing the back of his head. Hat Girl was almost always able to keep up with his energy, he forgot it wasn't just adults who weren't like that. He glanced at the spray paints, starting to organize them into two piles: bright and neon, and everything else. "If we ignore color theory, that means dark brown covered by bright green and yellow will sting the eyes, right."

"To be fair, you always ignore color theory." Van said, chuckling as Platinum shrugged. He glanced over at Mu, tossing her a can. Van soon got up, going over and garbing one of the cans. "Well, the sooner we get started, the sooner we can get home, I suppose." They said, spraying the walls.

"Alright..." Mu said, garbing a mask out from a pocket and placing it on. She didn't remember if using spray paint without one was ok or not, but decided not to take the risk. She briefly wondered if she should ask Van if they wanted one, but then her mind began to wonder something else. She tried to shake it from her mind but... "Platinum... How is Hattie anyway? Nothing bad has been happening with her lately, right?"

"Huh?" Platinum said, glancing at her with a confused look. He processed her words as he switched from the dark color he was using to a brighter color. Van glanced away as soon as he started spraying, which was a good sign. Well, for when the mafia saw it at least. "Oh, yeah! She's been fine. Nothing she couldn't handle has happened or anything." He said.

"Oh... good then, I suppose." Mu said. She seemed to start spraying the building faster, to the point where Platinum had to stop and admire the speed. "I'm mean, it's not like a care to much or anything."

"Really? Because it seems like you care a lot." Van stated, tilting their head as they looked at her.

"Yeah, well, I guess when your former partner turned rebel shows up out of the blue years later, you get curious." Mu said, glancing to the side faintly. "Especially when they just want to be friends again. I nearly killed her! It... doesn't make any sense."

"Ehh, Hat Girl is like that." Platinum said, shurgging. "She always been very forgiving of people, at least from what I've seen. The only one not on her forgiven list we know of is that pink haired man." He sighed as he glanced to the side. "That was a rough time for both of us. Pops had to be turned half metal to survive, and Dad was locked away from us."

"I'm... sorry to hear that." Mu said, glancing over faintly. She glanced down at the ground, as if debating something. "She's so lucky that she found a good place to stay... a family to take care of her and love her." She chuckled. "I'm honestly surprised I haven't met her boyfriend yet."

"Oh, she doesn't have one yet." Van said.

"Wait, really?" Mu asked, glancing over surprised. "I mean, your Dads are like the leaders of your clan, right? You think boys would be doing everything they can to get with her... Cuz it would basically be like high school, right?"

"I mean, I'm not sure how high schools work here, but it seems to be the same in that regard." Van said before sighing. "Those years were a freaking nightmare. I envy the other teens sometime."

"Really, isn't high school just like a musical, just minus the music." Platinum asked.

"Didn't you have to run into the bathroom once while your family was watching one of those movies, and they heard you going 'Why does Troy look so cute?'" Van asked, raising a brow. Platinum took a step back, and covered his face.

"H-Hey, that was a malfunction! I'm a robot, I can't feel stuff like that!" He defended himself, and looked in Mu's direction. "Long story short, we think she's more into girls than guys, but don't know for sure."

"Girls... huh.. good for her then.." Mu said, glancing down at the ground. She slowly picked up another spraycan, before glancing over with a shrug. Platinum noticed the faintest hint of pink behind the mask, but shrugged it off. "Well. Let's get back to this then. Quickly too, I want to get to my routes soon."

"Alright Mu, alright." Platinum said, chuckling as Van went back up behind him.

For the next hour or so, the three covered the Observatory with the spray paint, although near the end Platinum ended up having to do his best to finish the mess. Dull grays and browns going against the bright pinks and oranges. It was a masterpiece, if only you could properly look at it. When all was said and done, Platinum and the other two raced away from the scene of the crime. The Mafia Goons would glance at them confused, but they didn't say anything in return.

"Oh, I wish I had a camera to take a picture of that!" Platinum said, chuckling as he began to push the boat back into the water faintly. "Hat Girl would have loved to see it! Speaking of which... I should be getting home before Dad realizes I went away."

"Yeah, good idea." Van said, climbing in once it was in the water. "I don't want you to get grounded after all."

Platinum rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I can come up with something to get me out of it." He chuckled, hopping into the boat, Van grabbing the sides to stay balanced as it shaked. Platinum went to the engine, but glanced at Mu. "See you again sometime?"

"I'm sure we will either way." Mu said. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as if annoyed, but underneath the mask she still had, a small smile was there.

"Alright then, see you!" Platinum shouted, as he started the engine, the boat speeding off in a second. Mu just shook her head, and went back to her cave to rest a bit more. She'll never understand that bot.