#also I’m not SUPER tied to anyone so whatever the outcome I’m fine

[vetuhoh]

I don’t think I can vote bc I’m in Canada so I’ll be watching on the sidelines eating popcorn 👀👀👀

[trashforhockeyguys]

Don’t Hold Me -13- Carter Hart

A/N: After a little break I’m back!! All previous parts are linked in my master list, as always! This is also super super fluffy. So enjoy that!!

You held tightly to Carter as you walked into the restaurant. You tried not to think too much about it, even if this wasn’t something you really wanted to do, you knew it had to be done. Ethan was only in town for a few days, and he needed to meet Carter. Carter was your….boyfriend. Which seemed strange to even think about. It all kind of snuck up on you, but here you were. 

“Just don’t feel bad if he harasses you about your stats,” You tried to tell him, “He kind of does that to everyone. Comes from years of playing, and growing up with guys that are in the league now.”

“Y/N, it’s fine. I can handle TK when he goes into protective bother mode, I think I can handle your actual brother.”

Your hands started sweating a little bit. You’d never been this nervous for your brother to meet anyone before, but that’s because you hadn’t felt this way about anyone else in a very very long time. It felt strange, the warmth spreading through your chest and the butterflies in your stomach. But these butterflies weren’t a warning, they were a way of telling you that this was a really good decision. Carter was a good thing, not someone to be afraid of. 

“You didn’t have to offer to take us to a place this nice either,” you said, trying to smooth down your dress again, “He would’ve been fine with fast food or something.”

Carter nudged you with his shoulder and smiled, “Hey, I wanna show your brother that I can treat you right. Besides, it’s about time I treated you to a nice dinner.”

“But the dress, and the reservations, and all of the-”

“Y/N, I get you aren’t used to this,” he said softly, “But this is what it means to be with someone who cares. You’ve eyed that dress every time we’ve passed that boutique. Just let me take care of you? Please, just this once?”

He wasn’t wrong. You’d been dreaming of getting the dress. It wasn’t anything over the top, simple and classic. The silk wasn’t like anything you currently owned, it felt so unlike you, yet like it was made for you at the same time. So to say that you’d been more than surprised when you found it on your bed after you got back from classes today with a note from Carter had been an understatement.

“Do you trust me?” He smiled, it’d become like a thing between you two, even if it had a much deeper meaning. 

“You know I do,” You replied softly.

He smiled and held onto you as the waiter led you to your table. Ethan wasn’t here yet, which you expected. You took a deep breath and sat down. You automatically started playing all the possible outcomes in your head. Maybe Ethan would hate Carter, maybe all of this was a big mistake. 

“Do you want some wine?”

Your shoulders sagged, finally letting go of some of the weight that was bearing down on you, “Yeah, wine would be good.”

He laughed and signaled the waiter over before telling him what he wanted. After the waiter was gone, Carter reached over and grabbed your hand, trying to calm you down as much as he could. Your heart seemed to jump as soon as he touched you. You weren’t used to the good feeling that came with being with someone. You only knew the tear, not the pure joy.

Not two minutes later, Ethan came strolling in. You held your breath as he shook Carter’s hand. This felt big...This was going outside of the little bubble you made in Philly. Carter meeting your brother made this all real. There really was no going back now, Carter was officially part of your life. 

“Hey you,” Ethan said, giving you a big hug.

“Hey.”

You held your breath as Carter held his hand out to Ethan. This felt too big. Ethan just smiled and did something that you didn’t expect, he hugged Carter. You went rigid for a moment, expecting something to backfire. You could tell that he said something to Carter, but you couldn’t tell what. But they were both smiling when the three of you sat down. 

“So, stats are looking pretty good so far Carter.”

“Seriously Ethan? We haven’t even gotten any food yet.”

Ethan cracked a big smile and both boys laughed, “I’m just joking. Don’t worry, sis.”

“You’re going to kill me, Ethan.”

“Would you rather me have brought Kora?”

You eyed him, hoping he’d drop that subject for a moment. Under the table, you felt Carter’s hand brush your’s. You smiled softly. Your body seemed to relax as soon as your hand was in his, like he knew you needed something to calm you. This all felt so big.

“I need to thank you,” Ethan said, looking at Carter, “For taking care of her. She doesn’t like to admit it, but she needs people.” 

Carter squeezed your hand. You felt your chest tighten just a little bit, but in a good way. Somehow a lot of your stress melted away in the last few days. You knew he was still out there, waiting, but you didn’t feel like you were being watched anymore. You felt a little safer, somehow. You were still scared to go anywhere alone, you knew he didn’t go anywhere near you as long as someone was with you. 

“How are classes?”

“You always ask that, and I always tell you that it’s fine.” You groaned, taking a sip of your wine, “I’m crushing everything.”

He smiled and tipped his glass to you before taking a long swig of his drink. The three of you settled into a sort of rhythm. The conversation flipped between you and Ethan back home, and hockey, and Carter’s life when he wasn’t tied to the Flyers. You felt comfortable and safe with them together. And they seemed to actually enjoy being there. You liked the idea of your brother and your boyfriend getting along. You weren’t sure what you would’ve done if they didn’t. 

Carter never let go of your hand. You knew he was doing that so you knew you had someone there. He’d squeeze it every now and again, a soft smile would tug on his lips. You were sure Ethan saw the gentle glaces between you and the young goalie, especially since you looked over at your older brother and saw him smiling just as softly. There was an understanding. 

Ethan could see how happy you were, and how safe you felt. He liked the way Carter seemed to be willing to do whatever he had to make sure you were okay. Ethan knew you weren’t one to depend on people, but he often felt horrible that he wasn’t closer Philly. He wanted to be there for you all the time, but stayed thankful for Travis and Nolan who were a phone call away from you. But Carter brought something different to the mix. 

“You seem happy,” Ethan said when Carter excused himself to use the bathroom. 

“I think I am E.”

“He brings out something different in you,” He almost laughed, “Haven’t seen it in a while.”

“You know, Travis said the same thing last week. I told him he was full of shit.”

He had to choke back a laugh. You almost felt normal again. Eating dinner with your boyfriend and your brother, joking about random things. By the end of the night you felt super relaxed and light. You’d forgotten about all the things you were afraid of, and for a moment you didn’t even care. 

You hugged Ethan goodbye and held onto Carter as the two of you walked throught the streets of Philly. You were comfortable with him, you felt like nothing wrong could happen as long as he was by your side. 

You didn’t have a reason to doubt that. He’d never given you a reason to doubt him. In fact, he worked hard to prove that he wouldn’t let you down. You could never thank him enough for everything he’d done already. He opened his apartment to you, and now you spent more time there than you did in your dorm. Mostly because you didn’t like being in your dorm room alone when Kora wasn’t there. But even still, he told you that you could bring Kora over anytime you wanted, even when he was on a road trip. Which turned into a sleepover or two while he was gone. 

“You’re very smiley,” He nudged you as the two of you turned the corner.

“I’m just happy,” You replied, tucking yourself into his side.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mmhm, my brother likes you,” You pointed out, “And you don’t hate him. So yeah, I’m happy.”

He let out a little laugh and kissed the top of your head. You hoped this feeling never went away. You didn’t understand what people were talking about when they said being in lobe felt like you were flying, but you understood now. 

You didn’t want this feeling to ever go away. You liked being in love with Carter. Because...well you were in love with him. You weren’t sure if you’d ever know what this felt like, but now that you knew you never wanted it to go away.

“You know, I-”

You stopped dead in your tracks. You could feel the blood drain from your face. He was there, not more than a couple of hundred yards in front of you. You tugged Carter’s arm back, so he’d turn back around. It only took him one little glance at your face to tell that something was wrong. 

“Y/N?”

“You need to get me out of here,” your throat felt like it was going to close up, “Please.” 

“Hey, what’s wrong? Y/N?”

“He’s here.”

Next thing you knew Carter was opening the car door for you. You weren’t even sure how you got back to the car. Your whole body was shaking. The free feeling you were enjoying all night was gone. You could lie to yourself all you wanted, but as long as he was in the city, you wouldn’t be safe. He knew where to find you, and he’d keep coming back time and time again.

Your mind was racing, trying to come up with some type of plan. You couldn’t keep living in fear like this, it wasn’t healthy. You were meant to be living large, that’s what the college years were for. But instead you felt trapped. You couldn’t go home, and there wasn’t a place in this city that felt safe to you, not when he knew were everything was.

Carter’s hand was on your leg, reminding you that you were safe. You knew he wouldn’t let anyone hurt you. But that didn’t mean that you weren’t afraid for him. Being involved with you wasn’t easy anymore. Anything could happen to Carter and it could all be your fault.

“C’mon, let’s get you inside,” His voice was soft and gentle. 

Everything with Carter just seemed warm and cozy, like a fire on a cold winter day. You were selfish in the way that you didn’t want to let that go. You never wanted to stop being able to experience it.

“How about a nice bath? I got those bath salt things you mentioned the other week. And those essential oils too. Would that help?”

You looked at him in a dazy kind of shocked way. You mentioned those things in passing just once. You told him they might help him wind down after a tough game or something, and that they always helped you. You were in awe of the man next to you. He had enough to think about with his own career, yet he was surprising you at every turn. Every chance he got, he was doing something to take care of you. Something that was completely unnecessary, yet he seemed to take pride in that.

When the two of you got into his apartment, he led you to the large master bath, which happened to have the very deep bathtub that you had the tendency to spend hours soaking in while he was on a road trip. 

Carter had you sit on the closed toilet while he started to run the water for the bath. You watched as he set up a diffuser for the oils you liked, which you didn’t even know that he knew you to do. You realized as you sat there, that you’d never not feel completely at ease with Carter. 

There was just something about him that made life easy for you. Despite everything that was happening, he made it easy. 

Once the tub was filled, and everything ready for you, Carter turned and gave you a small smile. You wanted to ask what you’d done to deserve him. You couldn’t understand how life decided to bring you two together in such a way as this. But you were more than grateful. 

“I’ll just be on the other side of the door if you need me, okay?”

You nodded, wishing there was some way you could ask him to stay. Only because you didn’t want to be alone. You wanted to spend as much time with him as you possibly could. Even though you were more than comfortable with him, you always seemed to have a ticking clock going in the back of your head, just waiting until school was over and the season ended. Who knows what would happen to the two of you once summer hit. You weren’t even sure where you were going, and how you’d manage to keep up with Carter.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Can you stay?” You said it before you could stop yourself, “Sorry….I didn’t mean to say that….I just didn’t want to be alone.”

He stood in the doorway for a second before glancing around the bathroom. His eyes seemed to land on a spot because a small smile tugged on the corner of his lips before he kicked off his shoes and tugged off his dress jacket and tie. He grabbed a spare fluffy towel and put it on the ground next to the end of the tub, where your head would be, and then sat down. From that spot, you knew his back would be to you. 

“I’ll stay right here. Unless you don’t want me to.”

“No...staying is good.”

He settled onto his spot on the floor and pulled out his phone, “Do you want music?”

You nodded and waited until he looked away to start taking your dress off. You slid into the warm water around the same time that soft gentle music started playing from Carter’s phone. You settled into the warm water, willing it to somehow melt everything away.

Despite the fact that you were naked, with Carter just inches away from you, there wasn’t a bit of sexual tension. It was almost like this was normal. You couldn’t understand how he managed to make you feel so at ease all of the time. No matter the situation, he was the calm in the storm. 

“Thank you.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw his hand reach back towards you. You reached over to grab it. The simple touch brought a strange sense of comfort to you. You weren’t sure how you’d allowed yourself to become so attached to him. You swore you wouldn't do this again, yet here you were. You always longed to be with him. No amount of time seemed to be long enough.

The warm water relaxed your muscles, you felt safe. Like nothing could get you inside these walls. You were safe and happy with him. Those two feelings seemed to be a constant. Which was something you were far from used to. You didn’t know what it was like...until now. You wished you could just bottle this moment and keep it forever. Keep the peace, and the happiness. 

It wasn’t about falling anymore. Not when you already fell. You couldn’t stop something that already happened. The truth was, you were in love with him. You loved Carter more than you could understand. It snuck up on you, and didn’t give you a chance to defend yourself. But this...this was welcomed. Because somehow, you knew he was worthy of your love.

Because, the truth was... you loved Carter.

[amerrierworld]

Babysitter (pt 9)

Thor (Ragnarok) - fanfiction

Pt 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 

Summary: A Loki interlude.

Characters: Hela, Loki

Word Count: 2,111

Warnings: Idk, swearing?

Loki was incredibly annoyed at the current situation. 

He’d woken up on a random, clunky spaceship with a pounding head and a bruised neck. He remembered the world going blank and being quite certain that he’d been dead until, frustratingly so, his lungs gasped for the most painful breath he’d ever taken. 

A janky pirate ship had snatched him from floating in space amongst the debris, stripped him of his armour -no doubt to sell or melt down into other knick knacks- and left him in the back amongst the cargo. They’d presumed he was dead, so when he had woken up, they had a bit of a shock. 

Not a word was comprehensible, Loki couldn't understand whatever gibberish language they spoke, so he ignored them and shuffled to their food supply. That got him a whack on his back from a whip and a kick to the back of the knees. 

Trying to take back his armour also earned him a few bruises. They didn’t seem very dangerous, but quite a nuisance. 

Amongst the cargo he found familiar debris that struck an icy chord inside Loki. There were piles of Asgardian clothing- ripped and filthy, but Asgardian nonetheless. Bags with very few belongings, and metal scraps of the ship they had been on. 

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the remainder of the ship of refugees was probably lost. When the pirates began to beat him again for rummaging through their stuff, a rusty old pipe amongst the stolen goods helped quiet them down immensely. 

With his kidnappers knocked out, Loki scarfed down what measly rations they had and set course for Earth at light speed -well, the closest speed they got to light speed which was more like a quick paced jog. 

He tied up the crew and tossed them in the back, and lounged in the cockpit as the ship traveled on autopilot, picking scraps of food from between his teeth. 

Communications on this ship were absolute garbage, he concluded. There was barely any signal and he couldn’t figure out where the closest planet was. So, he took a nap, ate some more food, and tried not to think too much about the harrowing experience of Thanos choking him to death.

Hours later, they entered a very familiar atmosphere. Loki let the ship crash-land, grabbed a bag of few supplies and hopped out just before they hit the ground. 

He marched on through the thicket of trees where they landed. Angry shouts that were no doubt curse words echoed from the smoking ship as he left them behind and tried to gather his bearings. 

An old cabin was the first building he saw. With a rusty dagger at the ready, he inspected the home around the back, looking for a vehicle he could take, something to get him moving faster than his legs, when suddenly a high pitched shriek nearly shattered his eardrums.

A young girl, no older than six, was staring at him with big brown eyes. Rain boots covered in mud, an aged stuffy in her hands. Loki put his finger to his lips, dreading that he was going to have to kill the girl before she gave him away or screamed bloody murder. 

“Daddy! There’s an Avenger in the yard!” she sped off towards a shed, where there was a light on inside. Loki’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. Whatever outcome he was expecting, this was by far the worst. 

“I’m not- fuck.”

He shoved the dagger away and out of sight and stomped towards the shed, fuming with annoyance. He was about to go off at the man for letting his daughter talk to random strangers and how he certainly was not an Avenger, but the man in question had a large saw in hand and about 200 pounds of muscle to carry, so he snapped his mouth shut. 

“Oh, hello there,” he said, his daughter bouncing about the workshop. “What brings one of you all the way out here?”

“And where exactly is out here?” Loki asked.

“Canada! What, you superheroes never been to Canada before? Always hanging around New York, eh? Are you taking a trip or something?”

“No. I, uh, crash-landed here.”

“From space?” the girl piped up, gawking.

“Yes, from space,” Loki said through gritted teeth. “Fighting angry aliens.”

“I told you, Daddy! He’s a hero!”

“I bet you’re trying to find your way to America, then? Lord knows why, there’s all kinds of weird things happening around town nowadays.”

“What do you mean?”

“Half the world’s gone! Poof! Just like that, some alien business I bet.”

“Are you going to save us from them?” his daughter asked again. Loki sighed.

“I’ll try my best. Now, can you please show me how to get to New York as fast as possible?”

The lumberjack’s husband took Loki and his daughter in his jeep and drove a merry long way to the nearest airport. On the way, the little girl asked him all sorts of questions about the Avengers, that he could only half-answer.

“Is it true Thor is super powerful?”

“Well. He's not that powerful. He just uses a hammer. Anyone with a hammer can use it as a weapon and suddenly be considered powerful.”

“I wish I had a super powerful hammer. Then my brothers would stop teasing me so much.”

“Hey,” her second father softly scolded.

“They’re mean!”

“Sibling feuds? I know the feeling,” Loki muttered.

“Do you have siblings, Mr. Avenger?”

“Sure do,” he smiled wryly. “Absolute bullies.”

“Me too!”

“Hey now, let our guest settle down a bit,” her dad said. “She gets a little excited around new people, so sorry.”

“It’s no problem.”

“The local airport’s just up here. It’ll take you to Detroit, and then you gotta get a connection flight to New York.”

“Thank you,” Loki said, genuinely.

“Why are you going to New York, Mr. Avenger?”

“To find my siblings,” Loki sighed. “At least, one of them should still be there.”

“But they’re mean to you?”

“Yeah,” Loki pondered as the car came to a stop. “But they’re family. I suppose.”

-

A few cunning lies and disguises later, Loki was suddenly landing in New York, amidst chaos. It had been a few days since he’d woken up, and apparently a few days since what they call the ‘Blip’. Humans clearly don’t like having their realities altered. 

Your home was abandoned. Alfred didn't even greet Loki at the door, and no amount of pulling and prying opened it for him. The lights were off, and he feared the worst.

It wasn’t until he was in the streets and overhead muttering about some crazy goth lady terrorizing a nearby street that Loki thought he had finally found something.  

He marched down the street until, to his surprise, he found Hela sitting hunched on the side walk, scowling and daring anyone to come close to her. She looked incredibly tired and disheveled, but her eyes were clear and angry, and recognized her idiot brother immediately. 

“What the hell brought you back here?” Hela snarled. 

“A toddler’s wisdom, if you’ll believe it,” Loki said, ignoring her glare as he sat down next to her. 

“You look like shit.”

“Thanks. So do you.”

Hela grumbled. 

“Have you eaten?”

“Since when did you become Mother? I don't need your help.”

“Really?” Loki picked up a filthy scoop from a pile of three ice cream tubs that were fully devoured. He dangled it from his fingertips for a moment, pulling a face. “I think you do.”

“You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Glad to see you too, sister.”

Silence. Hela really did look like shit, Loki noted. Her hair was mussed, and there were rips and broken pieces in her armour, reminiscent of the time they’d met. She had to be weak not to bother fixing it with her powers, or was just too preoccupied to even think to fix it. 

“Where’s Y/N?” Loki asked. 

“Beats me.”

“Did you kill her?”

Hela’s eyes snapped to his, a sudden fire in them. “How dare you say that?”

“Well, her home is abandoned and no one answered the door, and you’re here  cowering like a criminal. One makes conclusions.”

Something changed in her expression, and she turned her body to face him. “Abandoned?”

Loki frowned, “yes. Didn't you know?”

“No- I.. I’ve been here, the last time I saw her...” 

Hela jumped to her feet, nearly kicking Loki in the process. “That bastard, he took her, didn’t he? Him and his awful, forsaken pieces of shit he calls friends.”

“Who?”

“Our darling brother,” she spat. “He came in and- and threatened me, and then took her from me.”

She paced in front of him, green fire trailing behind her heels, hot with anger. She had expected you to come find her, take her back to your home, make her feel safe. But when you never came she had assumed you had abandoned her. Now, knowing Thor had taken you instead, filled her with rage.

“Where does your little posse hang out, hm? Some supposed secret lair? A great big castle in the sky?”

Loki blinked at her, at her sudden outbursts, at the scared glances from passerbys, and didn’t know what to say.

“Fine then, I’ll get her myself,” she growled, turning away from him. 

Loki nearly let her walk away, let her walk into whatever doom she was getting  herself into, but with a groan and a mad realization, he knew she was the only one he could rely on right now.

“Wait,” he said, reluctantly, hurrying after her and grabbing her arm. “You can’t just go running off. Tell me what happened.”

Hela spat at his feet. “I don’t need to tell you anything.”

“You care about her, don't you? Y/N? Why else would you want to ‘rescue’ her from our brother?”

“Be silent,” she hissed.

“No, no, I’m right, aren’t I? You care for her, but you messed up, and now you have no one on your side. That’s why you left, and that’s why Thor had to take her.”

Hela yanked her arm away before Loki could see her face, but he knew what she felt; remorse, and loss. 

“Tell me.”

And so, reluctantly, knowing she had no other choice, Hela sat him down, this time on an actual park bench rather than the ground. She told him what had happened, how her mistrust had turned to affection for you, and how Thanos had destroyed everything in the end, and how the Avengers had fought her out of fear.

“I know the feeling,” Loki agreed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, watching an elderly lady feed a bunch of pigeons as if nothing drastic had happened to the world the past few days. 

“And now I don't know where she is, and she probably hates me, but who am I to blame her for that?”

“If I know anything about Y/N, is that she cares about everyone, but it takes a lot more to win her love. She doesn’t hate you. She’s just afraid. I mean, you did after all break her window and run off into nowhere.”

Hela stayed quiet, made an annoyed sound in her throat, and looked away.

“I’m starving, how did you get all that ice-cream? Why not an actual meal? Or were you just eating your feelings?”

“Y/N doesn’t like it when I kill people, so it was either massacre the street or steal their dairy products,” Hela bristled. 

“Fair enough.”

“Now what, hm? You come out here, seemingly from the dead, chastise me for messing up, and now judge my diet? What do you really want, Loki?”

“Not sure, to be perfectly honest,” Loki said. “I thought I was dead, and then I wasn’t. Frankly, my priorities are shifting.”

“And what is your current priority?”

“Getting you back to Y/N so you stop moping around and fix this.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?”

Loki grinned, standing up. His armour shimmered and regained its full glamour; horned helmet and deep green cloak. 

“Taking notes from me, are we?” Hela grumbled. Loki glared at her.

“I was wearing this look long before you got here. Now, get up, we’re going to infiltrate the Avengers and give you your romantic happily-ever-after so you stop being such a pain in everyone’s neck.”

“You think we’ll just be able to get in? You really are as mad as Father was.”

“I’ve broken into quite a few places over the years, I’ll have you know. I’m the God of Mischief after all.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed?” Hela stood, her own armour strengthening again. 

“Shut it.”

A/N: Loki is not dead! I know he’s technically alive in an alternate universe or whatever.. but I wanted the Odin Trio to be together sooooo here we are. Let me know what you think!!

taglist: @midnight-lestrange​​ @cheerfullyvenomous​ @germansarechill​@gaylorrds @amii-nyc​ @waitingfortheendtocome​ @novakitten0901​@marvels-writings​ 

[yakumtsaki]

Ok hope you guys are sitting down, because apparently our greek house is now a towering ZIGGURAT of campus culture!!! I mean with members as illustrious as these, it was the only logical outcome:

Gen 3 has moved in, and everyone is thinking of resident King B Ti-Ning, but Ti-Ning is thinking about Frances ❤️ I might have been against this couple last gen because I wanted Ti-Ning for Jojo but honestly it feels like Ti + Fran were meant to be, they really are eternally into each other..

..as are Angel and Wulf, whose effortless happiness is seriously starting to piss me off when for all my toiling I can’t get Sophie and Shaj’s relationship points above a pathetic 10. 

Indeed, these 2 would rather socialize with literally anyone but each other, and I don’t want to sound paranoid but I’m starting to feel they’re doing it on purpose. This is our 3rd semester and Sophie is friends/best friends with EVERYONE BUT SHAJAR. I think they have interacted a total of 4 times-

-wow sorry make that 5, things are really heating up! At this rate they’ll have their first kiss by generation 7. 

Yes, yes, excellent, play catch with Wulf and Angel, it’s imperative that you develop these relationships with the most obvious spares ever. I’m legit starting to reconsider my entire gameplay style, this laissez faire bs is clearly not working.

-Well *we* don’t have any such problems, do we Donnie? 🌸

-We sure don’t, my beautiful moonflower!

-And that’s why we’ll win! People want heirs who have their crap together! Huhu! 💗

Then we can clearly count out these two, who have been getting high non-stop since they stepped into the building. 

-Do you think there’s any way we can monetize this activity, babe?

-There must be, darling, I mean if people won’t pay to see us levitate then what the hell will they pay for?

I don’t know Wulf, but clearly paying for your tuition was money well-spent.

It’s really time to shape up around here, everyone’s grades other than brainchad Sophie’s are absolutely demoralizing. 

-Well if we must waste time skilling, I insist Ti-Ning and I do it on the same mirror! 

Frances there’s another mirror right down the hallway, like literally 5 steps from you-

-It’s too far away!! Why are you always sabotaging our relationship?

-Pay that buzzkill no mind, dear, she’s just bitter because she took Sophie out of the townie pool for nothing.

We don’t know that yet! They might still get together!

See, here they are, spending some quality time! I can hear wedding bells already. 

-Shajar, I must say, if you’re as good at politics as you are at bowling, you will make an excellent Buzzfeed unpaid content creator.

-How about I throw this ball at your head, see if my aim improves?

Ugh Sophie, why are you are so cool and life-ruining?? Just do me this favor and get with Shajar, I’ll literally give you ANYTHING you want.

-Bribery might have worked with whatever idiots you previously married into this shitshow, but it won’t work with me! This drum set is pretty fun though. 

You like the drum set??? I’ll get you 50 of them!!

-Wtf would I do with 50 drum sets?

I’m just demonstrating how committed I am to your happiness should you choose to join our legacy!

-Well demonstrate it somewhere else. 

Ok Sophie, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but you leave me no choice..

..it’s time for you to get fit so you check Shajar’s fitness turn on! She also has a fatness turn on but I felt making you fat would be out of character since as a townie you were always jogging. I honestly couldn’t believe you weren’t already fit when I brought you to college.

-It won’t work! You can’t force chemistry! 

Yea you absolutely can actually, so time to get ripped!

Speaking of chemistry, Mitch Indie passes by and hugely gets along with Shajar thanks to both of them being super into politics. If we’re gonna go with a dude that’s actually not a bad way to go, they have a lot in common, including a sim of their own gender they clearly belong with. 

Things with Mitch are going shockingly well, Shajar even LAUGHS at his joke, have we ever seen her laugh before?? But then, suddenly..

..MICKEY DOSSER shows up, and he checks both Shajar’s fatness turn on and cleanliness turn off! Well Mitch, valiant effort, but I guess if we’re going with a guy it’s gonna be Mickey, fml.

Shajar and Mickey are getting along pretty well, honestly I’m not opposed to this pairing although it is of course not ideal, but when the ideal match is being a giant pain in the ass I guess there’s not much one can do. 

-So what, I get fucking heatstroke from working out in the desert and Mickey Dosser gets laid??

Well I don’t know what to tell you Sophie, Shajar’s been obsessed with you for like 5 sim years now, at some point I’ll have to marry her off! 

-Marry her off then and see if I care! 

I will! 

-Fine!

Finer! 

-Finest!

Ok enough! I’m not making you work out anymore, do whatever you want. 

-Like I need your permission, Sophie Miguel always does whatever she wants! And if she suddenly wants to keep working out, she will!

YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY

[positivementalaxolotl]

Sand Boy 2.0 (Ripped Out)

Thanks to @gale-of-the-nomads for this fanfic idea and @papyreads for the support! Knowing you're interested is very motivating and uplifting! Also fuck you, Gale because I have other fanfics to be writing and you inspired me to procrastinate those. (Lol jk thanks dude for your permission!) Hope you enjoy! (Warning: Blood and descriptive injury and lots of angst)

------------------------------

Another day, another akuma, another miraculous ladybug and another pound it. Hawkmoth had been very lacking in creativity. He'd been akumitizing so many of the same people, and giving them the same powers, not altering them or anything. I mean, yeah their powers are based off of the victims emotions and trauma, but Hawky could change the power and still fit in, not to mention you'd think there would be more people in Paris going through some real emotional shit that could really make a powerful akuma. Not that Marinette was complaining of coarse. It all made it so much easier to handle being a superhero and a high school student and a bakers assistant and a fashion designer. A nice nights sleep would be sure to help her out in her duties. It was crazy, really. She had gotten so used to everything, it was always Mr. Pigeon, Lady Wi-fi, Miracle Queen, Volpina, all of them. Though in reality there was one she forgot she hadn't seen in a while. She woke up to a panicked text from her parents. She had it so her phone would chime louder if her parents called her or texted her. She was super lucky she did. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have gotten info of an akuma. *Marinette, are you okay?* After that, her father seemed to spam her. *Please answer, Marinette!* And it went on and on until she assured him she was okay and asked why he was so scared all of a sudden. *We got a call that you had been kidnapped by Hawkmoth! With all of these akumitizations we had to be sure.* She looked to her purse and shook the chain that was looped around the edge of the foot of her bed. She assured him that she was safe and he should go back to sleep, and wished him goodnight before going onto the room to see if she could see anything. On the room, she looked around and saw a familiar mist. Glittery yellow and going into peoples homes. It could only be Sandboy! That poor kid had to have been watching scary movies again. It probably took so long after the first time because he was too scared to do it again, especially after finding himself in the middle of nowhere that very same night. "Tikki, we have an emergency!" She declared in a hushed enough tone that no one else could hear, but still got across the fiery determination she always felt when she was needed. "Tikki, Spots on!" ------------------------------ When she arrived to the fight, Chat was already there. He was trying to slow the boy down, but those wafts of sand moved on their own and avoided Chats baton on every hit. "M'Lady! Glad you could finally join me!" He called, smiling as he used that same metal stick to vault his way over to the spotted heroine. "Last time we beat him because of how dumb my nightmare you was. This time... I'm not entirely sure that we'll have that kind of luck. Nightmares change all the time after all." "And what's your nightmare, Chat?" The lady asked out of pure hope that they could use it to their advantage again. Totally not concern. He smirked, deciding it wasn't important to be serious in such a moment. "Well, not being able to call you my bugaboo, of coarse!" Giving his normal wink. His lady of coarse rolled her eyes. How could she not see that coming? "A nightmare? Then you're living in one, Chat." Despite her harsh-ish words, she didn't sound mad or upset or even slightly annoyed. Maybe a little bad, even. "The sand boy just checked in, now nightmares can begin!" The boy chimed, looking to the two superheroes. Though blue eyes noticed that the villains gaze wasn't directly at them, more like he was looking behind them. With a quick turn, she saw a mother and her baby in a stroller. The mom was shaking and covering her baby as she frantically tried to pull the baby and run, though Sand Boy shot a bullet of sand towards them. What could a lady do other than save a mother in need? She was brave, jumping in front of the line of fire, but she knew it would come at a cost. At first she was worried she wouldn't be able to call onto her lucky charm, but when she noticed her Yo-yo working fine, she seemed confused. "What? But it wasn't working last ti-" Her words cut off. With the simple sound and yet another familiar voice caused the girl to freeze. Luckily the mother was able to run, but Ladybug found herself unable to as she heard a little diddy sang. She could tell it was soft and farther away, yet it sounded like it was playing directly next to her ear at the exact same time. She shook, and she could tell Noir was staring. "A little kitty on a roof," the voice played, "All alone without his lady~" She slowly looked up to a nearby building to see those eyes. Disturbingly blue and icy gaze looking right back. "There you are, M'lady!" He called as he jumped down. "I have to admit, I've been fee-line lonely since you abandoned me in that other time line. You never came back to me and I was left all alone!" She backed away, shaking her head as tears threatened to prick out of her eyes. She needed to look strong! For Chat and Hawkmoth. "I-I'm not-" "Scared of me? Oh but M'lady I think you are. You're so scared that... You might fail me. Fail Paris- the world even. You know that if I find out your identity then you will have to go through the same thing... Over and over and over-" "Stop it!" That same voice interrupted itself, but it was far less cold. "M'lady, what's going on? I thought your worse fear was losing your-" And then before another word was spoke, before anyone could finish a single sentence, Sand Boy shot another pound of sand at the Chat, smirking. "Shit..." He called. He could already feel it. The bracelet on his wrist. His trust in Ladybug represented so clearly on his arm- if anything happened, he knew Ladybug would figure him out. But it was far too late anyways. "Chat!" His lady called from an entirely different direction than she was already visibly seen. Right behind him, in a state much like the Ladybug senti-monster was when he first came to her aide. A peacock flying away as she laid on the ground. "I... I don't feel too good... My Chat Noir-" Both the heroes now occupied, Sand Boy could easily use these nightmares to get those jewels for him. That in itself would be far worse than any nightmare they could even know. The real Ladybug was being backed up and taunted. "Oh Bugaboo, you know if you give me your miraculous we can fix everything! We can get rid of all the negativity in the world and make peace with everyone. We could be happy to together like we were before!" Finally, our spotted heroine was against a brick wall. Her heart was racing and her limbs were trembling. She couldn't fight him- it was her partner. Even if a nightmare, she felt so guilty- like she deserved any heart break that came to her, like she deserved to have harsh words thrown at her, like she deserved this torture of knowing she let everyone down. No, none of it happened. It was all fixed, but it just showed how capable she was of fucking up again. And as Chat Noir bent down to cradle his fake lady in his arms, his own nightmares, the real one felt the rough terrain of brick against her back move as she slide down, silently sobbing as she stared at the twisted grin her akumatized partner shared with her. "M-M'Lady?" Noir cried as fake bug reached up and caressed his cheek. He couldn't lose her- not again. So many times watching her disappear in front of his eyes, he couldn't do it again. And yet, as she faded away in a wisp of dust, still knowing what would happen, he reached down to that piece of metal at his wrist. But it was no longer there. In actuality it was never there to begin with. It was never meant for him, it was meant for Luka. Looking up, he watched Ladybug running to him, she looked panicked and lost. He quickly stood and reached to grab her, but his hand only met air as the limb of the woman slowly disappeared, fingertips to shoulder, then shoulder to chest, and spread through her body like blood pumps through veins. His heart ached as and dropped, every time his lady appeared and died...He felt himself get lost in what to do. He could only stand and watch as they all fell down, screaming to himself as he reached for his bracelet over and over again, knowing what the outcome would be but hoping it wouldn't. And yet through the haze of dust and tears, he saw her. One white clawed hand reaching down, followed by another for the sides of her head as they went in for the earrings. And suddenly, all the others didn't matter. She had been staring at him, whereas he knew her eyes were previously on the other. She saw him reach, she saw him panic and saw him scream the words he was so tired of using. After over twenty-five thousand times, it gets old. But he needed to focus. Right now, there was a bigger problem to solve. "Ladybug!" Noir called. Dashing to the others side, he used his metal baton to flick the white cat to the side, to remove him so he could pick up his lady, support her and help her stay balanced. "Are you alright? I'm so sorry for-" "Not now, Chat! Right now we need to get rid of this nightmare..." She spoke through quivering lips. As expected, the nightmare wasn't wasting time to come back up, strutting to them from the other side of the street. "Tsk tsk tsk, M'Lady. You're still fighting it? Still fighting me? Against the inevitability of your partner finding you out?" She gulped, pigtails bouncing with the force of her throat as it processed her saliva. Chat Noir didn't flinch, instead held himself in front of her, keeping her safe from him. "Whatever you mean by that, leave her alone." "Oh of coarse! You weren't there... Or shall I say it... Wasn't the place and time." He snickered, distracting them from a looming threat getting closer, step by step. A paw out, a small energy ball erupted into existence. "She's not afraid of a little kitty cat. She's afraid of love, and afraid of what it would do to the world as a hero. You see," He continued, not once looking over to give away anything sneaking up behind the two. "I found out who she is. And although she doesn't know how since she doesn't know who you are, she does know that if you find out her secret identity before the right time, you'll destroy the world, kill everyone, explode the moon and make the ocean drown everything. And she's scared, because she knows our love did it. It was all because she fell in love with you." She flinched, looking down at the ground. Because it was true. But... Now she knew something she hadn't before. "Chat Blanc," The heroine called, "Maybe I'm scared of him finding my identity out. Maybe I'm scared for my future, but I'm not longer scared of love. I know who you are now, and I think I know how you came into existence." She took a deep breath, stepping forward away from Noir, watching her steps carefully. Of coarse, she wasn't stupid. "You saved my life so many times, Chat. I never meant to upset you, and I never should have let you find me out, but now I know how to stop it. How to keep you from making my nightmare an irreversible reality." Turning around, the hero looked towards the black cat. She reached up and gently rubbed her friends cheeks with her thumbs. "Adrien. I should have known it was you all along. Brave and smart, funny when you want to be. That one time you solved an akuma attack speaking Chinese and fencing, even having the same allergies. I should have found out sooner." She pulled her face closer and closer to the others, who was nervous. Ladybug... She really was in love with him? She loved him now that she knew he was Chat. She didn't love him for him. "LB, Chat Noir is more 'me' than anyone named Adrien could be." She smiled, shaking her head. "I'm afraid of what my love will cause. Well... I was. But now I don't need to be. I'm in love with you Chat. I was just so scared of what our love would do, like when it destroyed the world in another time line. I wanted to tell you but I've been so terrified." There seemed to be a never ending train of water escaping her eyes as she went on. "Scared that I would hurt you. But now I know how to stop it, how to avoid it." This time, Adrien didn't stop her. He didn't tense or shake or pull away. He held her close, and pulled her closer, until finally their lips- -Didn't meet. Something happened. Something that he couldn't describe. One moment, Ladybug was there leaning up to kiss him, the next moment she was yanked away from him and on the floor as she appeared to transform back. She wasn't unconscious or dead, she was very much awake- though from the looks of her ears she probably wished she were. Her earrings were yanked from her ears and her cries were now pained and nearly screams as blood ran from them. And suddenly, his Ladybug became Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Eyes went wide, he had forgotten all about his own nightmare. Losing the love of his life and forgot that there was still another threat. And right next to his own evilized self was his own image of Ladybug. But now, she had holes where her earrings should have been, and she wore pink pants, a white shirt, black jacket, and no mask. She smirked just as eerily as her partner as they bumped fists, mocking their normal victory 'pound it.' "Of you scatterbrained cat, you really forgot about me? How could you..." She looked away, lost and upset. This version of her had died so many times, she seemed to have a hazy hole through her stomach, as if impaled. "I'm hurt... You never saved me. Not once in over twenty-five thousand times, months of work. All for nothing and proof that you aren't meant for me. We aren't made for each other, and that's what hurts the most." After that and seeing Marinettes sobbing form on the ground as she profusely apologized for not paying enough attention, he lost his normally cool temper. Using his baton he would swing and clash and smack every chance he had to get rid of these monsters. Several minutes of trying and attacking for naught, as he failed each time. He was losing breath, and Marinette needed medical attention. But before he could pick her up, she pushed him away. "My earring, Chat. Get them back- I-I can't use my miraculous ladybug- You have to do it. My ears- I can't put them on- I'll be better when you use them, please." She sobbed. The dark haired girl couldn't bare the pain as her ears rang, irrefutably getting more infected as time went on. Chat trusted her blindly, as he always had. He went over those damn nightmares and gave it his all- his lady needed him and he couldn't help but put everything he had into it. And finally his hard work paid off. He hadn't caught them, but the faded girl had tripped and thrown one of them by Chat. With only one earring, he couldn't transform, but... He did have an idea. It was a very sharp object. And his baton would again, save the day. Using said stick, he extending himself into the air, Sandboy had been caught off guard as Chat jumped towards the pillow and used said sharp object to tear the pillow. He had almost dropped the earring since the material was so tough, but he managed to get a big enough hole that his hands could tear though it the rest of the way, catching the little boy before he fell to the ground. Rushing over to where Marinette was- well the fake one, he found the missing earring and ran back to Marinette. "M'Lady? Can you hold this for me?" He said as he removed his ring and handed it to Mari. "I don't want to accidentally cause the end of the world by bringing them together, you know?" He laughed softly, hoping the happy sound might draw out a smile. And although she tried, her head hurt too bad to smile or laugh. "Silly Kitty, thank you." He smiled and put the earrings on, a small and familiar creature appearing. "Marine-tte..!?" The kwami started as a yelp, but ended in a question, as both the holders were very much unmasked and seeing each other. "A lot happened, okay?" Plagg started, having been able to tell what happened based on Marinettes state. And the fact that his miraculous was still on his wearer so he could see everything that happened. "Don't worry, bud. Just do what you have to." He grinned. He knew what would happen. Adrien stood, not really realizing what exactly would happen. He called on a lucky charm which gave him a paper and pencil. He was a little surprised, but Plagg seemed to know what to do. Taking it, he wrote a little note. The boy was bewildered, but nonetheless let the black creature scribble away. Once it was handed back, with the note torn out, it was tossed in the air, words were spoken and ladybugs appeared out of nowhere. But when faced with it, Adrien couldn't remember what happened. Why was Plagg holding a piece of paper? Why was he in Bug boy form and why was Marinette crying on the ground? "Oh my- what happened?" He panicked and watched as Plagg looked, noticed Marinette there, and handed Adrien the note. Bug Boy didn't have time to read it though, he just picked up the sobbing girl and carried her all the way to the hospital where they quickly took her in. They kept asking about what happened, why was she all beat up and had her ear lobes torn. He answered as truthfully as he could, but he didn't know a lot of answers. So he referred to the note, hoping it would enlighten him. "Dear Chat Noir, I had entrusted Marinette with the Ladybug Miraculous for an emergency on my end that was unavoidable. If I hadn't, it would have given away my identity. I was informed by another kwami I had brought with me that something was wrong and I saw everything that happened. Hawkmoth almost got her earrings but you saved them. She couldn't perform the Miraculous Ladybug with her ears in the shape they were in but you stepped up. I wrote all of this down and had it sent by the horse miraculous to let you know what happened, since I knew that everyone would forget with the power of the miraculous Ladybug. Thank you, Bug Boy again for saving the day. I'm sorry but I will be back soon. In the meantime, have Plagg send me back the earrings. He knows where I am since I rushed back just in time. Please remember to get the black cat miraculous back from Marinettes finger. You had given it to her to protect herself after her earrings were stolen. Love, Ladybug." The hero smiled. He was glad he could be of service. He let the nurses know what happened and took the ring back, then went off home and de-transformed. "Here, Plagg." He said and laid back against his bed. He felt a little... Shaken and he didn't know why. His heart was racing, he was tired and scared. Though he passed it off as being worried for his friend. When the kwami came back, Adrien told him about how he was feeling about what happened. He didn't know what happened, but it still seemed to have some kind of affect on him. And once Marinette woke up from the surgery that had to be performed on her ears, she knew that whatever happened had affected her too. Her ears were fixed but she was told not the wear the earrings for at least six weeks. Six whole weeks of not being allowed to save Paris, and it sucked so much. Luckily, the two kwamis were able to arrange something so the two could switch earrings secretly and not find out about each other, but it was so weird. And she still couldn't help but think about it. How she felt. The night they met in the catacombs under Paris, they were on either side of a turned edge so they couldn't see each other, and gave each other the miraculouses by sliding them across the floor in their boxes. Who knows how Plagg was able to convince Adrien that Ladybugs ears were fine but they needed to trade miraculouses. "Hey Chat?" The lady question. "Yes, M'Lady?" He answered. She felt so much less afraid of her feelings. How they would affect their mission. "I may be a bit late on this, but I just wanted you to know that I'm in love with you." It sounded so much better in her head, blunt sounded like a girl confessing her love to a boy that shared his oreos with her. "I mean-" "I understand." Chat said, putting the earrings on. "And I'm happy you feel the same. If I'm to be honest, I feel more myself as Chat Noir. Though, I guess for a while I'm going to have to be Bug Boy again, huh?" The two laughed. It lasted a few moments, and then it died down. "I'm still in love with you. You're not late, but... How would this whole thing work? We aren't allowed to find out our identities and we can't use our miraculouses for personal use." The sigh Lady Noir let out was dragged out. "I didn't think that far ahead." It was true though. "I guess we don't have any choice but to wait until Hawkmoth is defeated." And suddenly, the blond felt an impending doom fall over him. He knew that they would be fighting Hawkmoth for a long time, as Time tagger had taught them. He felt so hopeless. But he knew it was for the best. A least until he saw a black flutter stop in front of him.

[hrmphfft]

controversial opinion time I guess but

hey gang? hey, gang. gang, hey. blaming your fans for them not reblogging your content enough (and saying that they’re Directly Responsible For Tumblr Dying) is an extremely passive aggressive, mean thing to do, and also completely ignores so many other reasons as to why engagement has changed on this site and posts don't circulate like they used to.

for one thing, whenever I see these posts, I rarely see the ops acknowledge the HUGE HIT to tumblr's userbase following the 2018 policy change/implementation of tumblr's terrible content filtering algorithm. tumblr lost roughly 1/3 of its engagement (https://mashable.com/article/tumblr-lost-a-third-of-its-users-after-porn-ban/) and countless content creators with it. some of them migrated to twitter and other sites, some of them seem to have straight-up vanished into thin air, and countless others lost their biggest or main userbase with barely any time to shift gears to something else. that's a huge, website-shaking change! but so often in these 'reblogs vs. likes' posts I don't see anyone acknowledging that and it makes me really upset!

you can't talk about the ways tumblr has undoubtedly changed these last few years and NOT address the nsfw ban! it's completely unfair to your fanbases to shift the blame of the biggest displacement of users the site has ever experienced on...the users who had no say in the policy change and reacted accordingly when the site started softbanning everyone, and filtering all sorts of tags from the search function (including important sfw ones, lest we forget The Entire Furry Fandom on tumblr discovering that basic-ass tags like #furry and #anthro were being blocked when the ban rolled around), and making uploading anything vaguely beige-colored a dice roll. tumblr still hasn't recovered from that, and unfortunately probably never will, not without some hail mary of policy changes and overhauls.

I've seen some pretty ageist shit regarding content engagement as well that tries to paint younger users as just Not Getting how tumblr functions vs. other social media sites like instagram and twitter, and on top of that just showcasing a really uncomfortable disconnect/animosity towards new users whose only crime is being younger than op and also more experienced with other social media platforms, it also is just. it's really unkind? it's super rude? how can you call your followers too clueless to know how reblogging works and then expect them to support your content via reblogging and not feel like you're insulting them until they give you the result you want?

moreover, lots of young/new tumblr users get the gist of tumblr's controls and get it very quickly! technology literacy is becoming more and more a part of everyday life for everyone, and if you really think that a teenager can't understand that reblogging puts a thing on their follower's dashboards, one of the main functionalities of the site (and also very similar to twitter, one of tumblr's main competitors), I really don't know what to say. sometimes people just straight-up don't want to reblog stuff to their blogs, and that's okay.

there's also a tendency to ignore the ways that blogging on tumblr has changed as its userbase has became more well-versed in its functions and, frankly, a portion of the userbase has grown up on this site. when I first started blogging on here, I was 17, I didn't use tags, I commented unrelated (and frankly sometimes really regrettably rude) replies directly onto artist's posts, and I basically just reblogged whatever I vaguely liked, and a lot of things I didn't totally get but thought Looked Cool/Funny so I reblogged anyways.

and that's fine, that's pretty par for the course of being young on the internet and doing whatever you want and having a good time (barring the rudeness, being respectful to people is the ideal), but as time went on my interests changed, my time spent online changed (I went from highschool to college to a full-time job that limits my time on social media), and I began engaging with tumblr's content differently. I made sideblogs for interests and content themes I didn't want on my main blog, I started liking stuff and then going back through my likes to reblog posts later, and generally speaking my number of posts a day dropped and I stopped being able to catch up on my dashboard every single day. and I'm sure my experience isn't unique for some other people on here.

a lot of the tumblr users I've known for a while just don't have the same level of intensity in fandoms like we did years back, not because of any malice or selfish, content-hogging intent, but because our priorities have changed. I definitely miss a lot of things about years past on tumblr when fandoms were booming and new Big Name Creators were cropping up all the time, and to be fair that's still happening on parts of the site if you know where to look! it's just different now. time has passed. people have changed!

that isn't to be defeatist and say that we can't show up for content we enjoy and reblog it, but instead that people can feel differently about stuff they used to adore, and be more particular about one thing or another they reblog, and straight-up miss stuff that they would have really liked but just didn't catch up on for a myriad of reasons. and that's also okay. engagement on tumblr is really, really tied up in personal preferences, and sometimes it feels like it does that more than most other social media sites. this is kind of the wild west of internet presences and everyone operates differently on here as a result.

and probably the most touchy point of all: no one is obligated to give you validation on the internet. no one. not even if they've read all of your fanfics you've worked really fucking hard on for forever and a day, or your comics that you've spent months, years, a lifetime researching and creating, or your beautifully, painstakingly timed and masked fan videos. they can absolutely consume any of these, and more, and they're still not obligated to reblog your work or promote you. it's not fair, yes, and it's completely understandable and super relatable to want recognition for the work you've done and the ways you've brightened other people's lives, but online most of your fans are still total strangers to you, and trying to control the behavior of total strangers because you’re owed their acknowledgement isn’t a healthy mindset to have.

and you can say that any fan of yours stops being a fan after they drop you for you lashing out at them for not unquestioningly giving you space on their blogs like you're owed, but being upset at being accused of bad behavior for what amounts to not wanting to reblog something this time around and changing your opinions based off of that is also a very understandable thing to do.

and that isn't because of any sort of innate cruelty, or pointed attack towards you. it's just because there is always a disconnect between the creator and the creation, and some people will never bridge that gap and engage with you more, or build a parasocial relationship with you, or seek out ways to support you. and plenty of others will do the exact opposite! it's a total dice roll because you're dealing with a lot more people than you realize scrolling past your content, and every person is different, and some of them don't fully understand how reblogs help a creator, and some of them do but just don't want that content on their feed, and none of them are inherently bad people for that.

I'm not saying creators have to be perfectly kind and civil and praise their fans all the time, but when you engage with your followers like it's a battle where you have to keep devising new ways to get them to share your content, it just comes across as super disingenuous, and people cop to that very fast. 

it also, frankly, can make longtime fans who reblog your work regularly feel like their interest doesn't matter, and wasn't good enough, and that then it really is their fault that other people (other STRANGERS ON THE INTERNET) don't engage with your content the way you wanted them to. you don't owe them perfection, but that doesn't mean it isn't still an unkind thing to do.

so like. what can we do about this?

asking users to reblog your work is totally fine and can help! calls to action work more than nothing at all. it's possible to be respectful when asking people to reblog your work without also guilt-tripping them with "likes < reblogs" banners and passive aggressive tags/comments. generally speaking guilt is a really shitty motivational tool, and tends to breed more resentment than actual outcomes people want. like this post for example! I wouldn't have sat down and typed this all out if I didn't resent the hell out of being told I'm, personally, the reason tumblr is demonstrably not an ideal website for building a fanbase anymore. if I had that much power over this website I would have given the whole thing to the xkit team years ago and reveled in a functional website instead.

changing the way you post content might help! every site has its ideal posting days, times, and reasons for why some are ideal for one site and not another. doing a little research (https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/) will yield some potentially helpful tips and tricks that might result in a post reaching more people. utilizing tumblr's search function is also important, and understanding the limits of the tag function (ie. only the first 5 tags of a post are used for tag searches) can help change one's habits to something a little more effective. this is why I tend to leave my tag babbling until after the main fandom/category tags on my posts, so that tumblr's jankass search has a better shot, haha

broadening your online presence can definitely help! this is by far the most terrifying option since it involves branching out onto other social media platforms, some of which really don't lend themselves to whatever fandom/content one produces, so like the other two above it's only a suggestion.

I keep coming back to twitter and instagram, but that's mainly because they're the two other powerhouses of social media right now, though admittedly they only really cater towards visual media (and mainly imagery, not longer video pieces), and they have their own weird quirks to learn and jank to deal with. but given how precarious tumblr's status has become in some ways, trying to build a presence on multiple sites means that you reach more people across the internet, and also means that if tumblr does yet another website-shattering policy change, your eggs aren't all in one basket.

of course these options aren't foolproof, and won't work for everyone in some cases or not at all for others, but my main point in all this is this: tumblr has irrevocably changed, its userbase has changed, and we are limited in the ways we can directly influence it, but there are still options. I'm by far not a social media expert, but then again none of the posts I've seen so far were made by social media experts either, so I honestly don't feel too bad for throwing my hat into the ring while we're all thrashing about in confusion

y'all aren't wrong that things have changed, but I'm begging you to have some compassion and to try not to turn the relationship between creators and consumers of content into a battleground, especially when a lot of the influences on these changes are things entirely outside of any of our's direct control.

also because it makes y'all sound exactly like this:

[elijahrosefanclub]

Just imagine Elijah proposing to Isaiah at midnigh (at new years)

tHE LONG-AWAITED RESPONSE TO THIS PROMPT (which i love and think is super cute): it got a little long so i’m putting in a cut but here it is on ao3!

my new year’s resolution is you (2k words)

New Year’s Eve is probably Eli’s favorite day of the year, in all honesty, and there’s a very simple reason why. For at least six hours, every year, usually around midnight, he is pretty much guaranteed no bullshit. Everyone is busy partying and drinking, and while that might cause problems for the LAPD, it is so out of Eli’s jurisdiction. And that means that New Year’s Eve is the one night a year when Eli is not awake to see the clock tick over from 11:59 to 12:00. In fact, it’s the one night a year when he always gets over six hours of sleep.

It’s fucking fantastic.

There’s a yearly Vindicators party, and his routine is that he goes when it’s early, when the party is just starting and all the snacks are still well stocked, and he has precisely one glass of champagne and then leaves and is generally in bed by ten PM.

Once he and Isaiah had moved in together, she’d changed her own routine a bit— for the last couple of years, she’s always been home by midnight. At one point, he had asked why, and she’d responded that this way, she gets to start the new year with him even if they’re both sleeping. Actually, especially if they’re both sleeping, because hopefully that’ll be a sign of how the new year is going to go.

(It’s a running half-joke between them, how little they each sleep. Isaiah always gets caught up in one thing or another, and Eli finds it hard to step away from Mission Control even when he’s personally vetted the entire night shift and found them competent. Half-joke because they know it’ll catch up to them eventually, but that day hasn’t arrived yet and it might not arrive until retirement. So for now, they’re fine.)

It’s been eight minutes since Isaiah texted that she was on her way back. Normally, Eli wouldn’t have seen the text— it’s about eleven-forty, and usually he charges his phone at night in the kitchen to avoid sitting in bed watching security feeds of Mission Control on his phone. (There’s a landline in the bedroom in case someone actually needs to contact him at night and by some miracle he’s not already at work.) But tonight, he is ready and waiting. Isaiah should be back by eleven-fifty, and then he only has ten minutes to kill until midnight.

He wants it to be obvious that he’s still awake, because Isaiah’s years as a super mean that her fight-or-flight response is very well developed and tends toward ‘fight’. So surprises are bad. To that end, he’s made sure that the lights are on and there’s some music playing. 

He is ready.

Unfortunately, now it’s 11:43, and he has a lot of time in which to do nothing. And he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little nervous— well, not nervous, per se. More like, he’s anticipatory. And also nervous because unknowns, no matter how probable a certain outcome is, always make him nervous.

Sometimes Eli wonders why he decided to go into managing superheroes instead of, like, accounting.

Regardless, he is here now, and he’d rather be here than in the financial department of some faceless corporation, so here he’ll stay.

But he’s going to make some hot chocolate. 

There is a right way, a wrong way, and a desperate way to make hot chocolate. The right way is on the stove with actual chocolate and milk. The wrong way is with chocolate syrup. The desperate way is with cocoa powder or a hot chocolate mix. Eli doesn’t disapprove of the desperate way, not really, but he avoids it when he can. That’s why it’s called the desperate way.

That’s also why he’s melting chocolate discs in a double boiler at 11:48 PM. Eli likes hot chocolate because he doesn’t like sweetened coffee or tea, but he needs something to fill the void of 'dessert beverages’, and over the years hot chocolate has become his go-to drink when he doesn’t need caffeine and herbal tea just isn’t cutting it.

Besides, it would be presumptuous to open a bottle of champagne now. And it would go flat.

He’s just started pouring in the milk when he hears a key in the lock and the front door swings open. It’s 11:51. And it takes everything in Eli to not immediately stop what he’s doing and freeze like he’s just been caught red-handed stealing. 

Okay, so he’s a little more nervous than he thought he was. Whatever. He can deal.

He keeps pouring the milk, focusing intensely on the stove, and looks up once he hears Isaiah’s footsteps stop in the doorway to the kitchen. “How was the party?”

She’s leaning on the doorframe, her green scarf still around her neck, smiling in the sort of way that makes Eli think (correctly, because he’s spent a lot of time seeing how her face changes) that she doesn’t know she’s doing it. “It was good. I was worried that Elliot might feel awkward since he hasn’t been with us for very long, but I think he’s found his niche on the team. Also, he can seriously hold his liquor.”

“There is pretty much nothing that would surprise me less,” Eli says drily. “Nothing blew up?”

Isaiah laughs and steps away from the doorframe. “No, we save that for when you’re around.” She approaches the stove and puts her chin on Eli’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around his waist. “So what are you doing up so late? Ooh, hot chocolate." 

"Well, I haven’t been awake for midnight on New Year’s Eve since before we met. I figured it would be nice to actually stay up with you. And the hot chocolate is… it’s honestly just because.”

“Hmm.” She’s silent for a few moments, and then she says, “Are you distracting yourself so you don’t obsess about whether anything’s happening in LA that might need the Vindicators?”

“That’s entirely possible?” Which it is, technically. Even if Eli has never been less focused on the Vindicators than he is at the present moment. He can let Isaiah think that’s why he’s making hot chocolate at almost midnight.

She shifts a little bit and he feels a kiss on his jaw. “I understand that. But if anything happens, Tanis will probably know before you do.”

“What? Why?”

“Her phone isn’t fifteen feet away from her and she has the same news alerts set up that you do.”

That’s fair. 

The chocolate and milk look pretty evenly mixed at this point, so Eli turns off the stove. “How long until midnight?”

“It’s 11:56.”

Okay. Four minutes to kill. He can do this.

He turns around to grab mugs from the cabinet, but Isaiah’s already pulling two down from the top shelf, and some neuron fires in Eli’s brain to remind him that the ring is still tucked behind his ties in the bedroom and he has four minutes and he somehow has to get it and bring it back here without Isaiah noticing.

Hmm.

He carefully pours the hot chocolate from the pot into the mugs (no matter how careful he is about it, it’s still probably the scariest thing he does regularly, including walking into the super training facility without checking to see if anyone is practicing projectile warfare), sets the pot back down on the stove and covers it, hands one mug to Isaiah, and says, “I’ll be right back, I’m going to grab a sweater.”

Problem solved. Also, the extra layer of the sweater means that it’ll be harder for Isaiah to tell immediately if he has anything in his pockets.

On his way out of the kitchen, he checks his phone where it’s charging on the counter. 11:58. Okay. Cutting it a little close, but he can do this. 

Eli tries very hard not to visibly speedwalk out of the kitchen, but once he’s safely in the hallway, he jogs as quietly as he can into the bedroom, grabs the first sweater he sees, tosses it over his arm, pulls out the ring and stuffs it in his pocket, and then heads back down the hallway to the kitchen while putting the sweater on.

When he returns, Isaiah is studiously covering her hot chocolate with marshmallows, and she says, “We’ve got like thirty seconds until midnight. Ready?”

“So ready.” In more ways than one.

He grabs his hot chocolate and sets it down next to hers, and like he thought, she’s got a clock pulled up on her phone counting down the seconds until midnight. Twenty seconds. 

Wow. Fucking years, and now all he’s got is twenty seconds. The anticipation honestly might kill him. (But that would be an incredibly stupid way to die, and above all things, Eli abhors dying in stupid ways.)

Fifteen.

He has to time this right if he wants to do it at exactly midnight. This is something Eli has known all along, but now his brain is positively yelling it. Did he mention he should have gone into accounting or something boring like that? 

Whatever. Still worth being here, now, even if, as he has definitely mentioned, he is fucking nervous as fuck.

Ten. Countdown time.

Nine. Okay, single digits. Getting closer.

Eight. Eli casually takes the most minute sip of his hot chocolate just for something to do with his hands.

Seven. He puts the mug back down on the counter.

Six. Shitshitshitshit.

Five. It’ll only take him about a second to kneel, but he definitely needs to get the ring out of his pocket first.

Four. Which he does, carefully holding it to his side out of Isaiah’s sight. He can’t quite work out how to open the box one-handed, but that’s okay, he’ll figure it out— 

Three. No more time to think about it.

Two. He turns a bit so his knee won’t slam into the cabinet underneath the counter.

One. He kneels.

It’s such a simple motion— just kneeling. When it comes down to it, there’s not a lot to be stressed about. He does this to tie his shoes. But the thing that makes it different, that makes it something that’s important, is the ring box in his hand that opened so easily that he can hardly remember doing it, can hardly remember anything about the past few minutes except that they all seemed to go by so fast compared to the eternity of thoughts passing through his brain in what must only be a second, because then the clock ticks down to Zero and Isaiah turns and sees empty space where he was standing next to her, and then looks down, and—

He can see the moment of comprehension on her face, the instant her mouth drops open the tiniest bit and her eyes begin to shine and he hasn’t even said anything before she’s dropped to the floor too and she’s saying “Yes, yes,” over and over and is it really the new year? Because it feels like time has stopped right now, like his heart is waiting in breathless anticipation for the next chance it has to beat, and it still feels like a daze, not like a dream because he is too viscerally here. The little details are popping out at him like they never have before— Isaiah still hasn’t taken her scarf off and the end trails on the floor, but she doesn’t care, because that’s an old scarf that has been through the years with her, and he can feel every single point where the velvet of the ring box makes contact with his hand, and when he takes the ring— gold, slim, beautiful without being ostentatious— out of the box and hands it to her so she can put it on, he feels the cold relief of the metal, how it warms up almost instantly when he touches it, and he can hardly believe this is happening but at the same time it feels like it was fated to happen, like it couldn’t not happen. 

But instead of saying all that, because he’s not sure he could make it make sense out loud even if he wanted it to, he says, “I love you so much,” and then he says, “Happy New Year.”

[cwdcshows]

Supergirl - S5 E13 - It's a Super Life

I kind of forgot Mixy was already on Supergirl.  I was ambivalent with the actor choice when he showed up at the end of the last episode, but given the alternative, I'm okay with it. All this hand-wringing about altering history, but they're currently living in a radically altered timeline right now as a result of Crisis.  There are facts about their own lives and histories that they still completely surprised to learn; so would this one thing really be that big of a deal?  I mean, it probably will be, because the writers are fucking morons, but it shouldn't be; especially if, presumably, Mixy offers some type of escape clause should things not pan out to Kara's liking, which she should definitely insist upon. It goes to show how little I actually care or pay attention, even as I review these shows - did Lena fess up to Kara that she remembered Pre-Crisis?  Because if not, why is Kara even worried about it, if she's still operating under the assumption that everything is good between them Post-Crisis?

So when they go into Kara's past is she interacting with Pre-Crisis Lena or Post-Crisis Lena?  Because technically the only past that still exists is the Post-Crisis timeline, which should mean it'd be the Post-Crisis Lena, but since Lex made a deal for the Pre-Crisis version of Lena to exist once Crisis was over, where does the one end and the other begin?  A Post-Crisis Lena's experiences and perspective on the world should, arguably, be different from Pre-Crisis; for starters given the fact that in the Post-Crisis world, Lex was never brought down or considered a criminal or a murderer and Lena never had to rebrand the family company.  She obviously still has mommy-issues, and some other things in common, like ostensibly her relationship with Andrea and the way that played out, but there would be other differences.

"So much exposition." Okay, I like this version of Mixy. I know the actor probably didn't write that line and has nothing to do with it other than the delivery, but still, it was a good line taking the piss out of how much exposition there is in any of these shows. I mean, if they've found the sweat spot where Kara can reveal herself to Lena without Lena going over the dark side, even if there are ramifications like Lena, Mon-El or Sam dying; shouldn't that be kind of a minor point to fine tune?  If you're going to fuck with history, you might as well give it the full shaft and do it right.  That's what Oliver did. Well obviously this happy-go lucky timeline is going to get fucked up somehow.   Why would their public relationship change so radically in this altered timeline?  The only thing that's different is that Lena knows her secret; either way she'd have worked alongside Kara just the same as she did before, maybe siding with Kara a little more often, but this is over the top.  Any ideological differences in opinion that they might have had in the past wouldn't have necessarily evaporated just because Lena knew Kara was Supergirl; and why would they go out of their way to make a public brand about this partnership. Also, isn't that exactly what the Post-Crisis DEO & Luthor-Corp dynamic is supposed to be; Lena and Supergirl (and Lex) working together?  How is this not the reality they live in then? Wait, so Lockwood still ended up working with the same people as he did in the original timeline, but why?  That was all orchestrated by Lex.  So what, Lex still brings on Lockwood, only this time he does to kidnap his sister?  For what purpose?  He's not even in jail in the Post-Crisis timeline; and is there even a Reign, much less a Red-Daughter in this other other timeline? I'll admit, the episode wasn't terrible up to this point, but there's some logical inconsistencies with how they're trying to make the best possible outcome a bad one; it's just too forced. Wait, what?  Why is Winn suspicious of Lex in this alternate-alternate reality?  When Winn came back from the future he had no idea that Lex was supposed to be a bad guy, meaning he had all the Post-Crisis memories until J'Onn mind whammied him.  Or in this Lena-Kara team-up timeline did Kara and Lena uncover Lex's crimes and bring him down after all?  This has become a bigger clusterfuck than Crisis.... Also, Winn's appearance in this episode makes sense being the 100th (I think), but it seems a little undermined by the fact that he was just in the last two episodes and they made a big deal about him leaving in the last one. Seriously, it's not the person knowing someone's secret identity that makes them the target; it's telling the fucking world that they know such a powerful secret.  No one knows Winn knows Kara's identity, so how often was he targeted specifically for his association with Supergirl?  Sure, you might say, "well he's Winn, the average person doesn't know who the fuck he is," but that's part of the point.  He's walking around with one of the biggest secrets and they just don't fucking draw attention to it and no one asks, "hey, do you know Supergirl or what secret identity is?"  If they put a picture of Winn of the front page of the Daily Planet that he's Supergirl's best friend and keeper of her secrets, that alone would make him a very public figure with ties to Supergirl that could be exploited. Surely the world was aware of at least some of the things Lena helped Supergirl with in the original timeline, did anyone assume she knew her secret identity?  For that matter, why do they assume she has one? So in this happy, shinny timeline they said that Lena made Supergirl's new suit - so she happened to make a new suit that was identical to the one Brainy made for her in another timeline?? I honestly had already seen spoiler pictures of Kara revealing her secret identity at a press release.  I kind of wondered if they would be so bold as to actually go that route for real, but kind of figured they'd find a way to walk that back or not play it for keeps; and the second I knew what this episode was going to be about it was clear that this was how they were going to incorporate it without actually owning the outcome moving forward. You gotta love the fact that they're doing this big, "It's a Wonderful Life" style retrospective 100th episode celebration, bringing back past actors, but because they clearly couldn't get Calista Flockhart for the episode, for whatever reason, they just throw up her image and declare her dead. Not only that, but with the likes of Supergirl and Superman (not to mention the Flash, Green Arrow, et al, who now reside on this Earth), how does Agent Liberty manage to go after all of Kara's friends and family and there are no survivors?  Fuck you. Why would Mixy suddenly get pulled into this new-new-new-new timeline? Especially since it was just a preview and he wasn't pulled into any of the others? Seriously?  Kara doesn't befriend Lena, so she goes full on Dark Warrior Duck?   And here again, this is all Pre-Crisis shit; there is no L-Corp Post-Crisis and Lena didn't take over the company, she runs it alongside Lex. And would Nia still become Dreamer in this reality?  Hell, would Brainiac even be here?  There's a lot of shit that wouldn't have happened in the aftermath of Lena going to war with Lex.  How does Lena control Reign and what about the other World Killers?   You know, it wasn't until Jimmy's sister pulled out the Guardian shield that I a) remembered that Jimmy passed the mantle on to her (I think) and b) realized that, apart from footage from past episodes he hasn't made any kind of cameo; which you'd think if they were going to bring some of these others back, they'd have brought him back too.  Especially since he was there when it all started. "Where were you when my brother blew my helicopter out of the sky?" Kind of a legitimate question.  I mean, yeah, this is supposed to be the timeline where Kara and Lena never became friends, but just because they're not friends doesn't mean Kara wouldn't save her if she were able. So if Lena is using 5th dimension energy to power her drones, preventing Mixy from using his powers; and she's only doing this in National City, why don't Kara pick-up Mixy and fly them straight out of town and as far as way as necessary so that his powers work again?  Surely there's limits to where Lena's tap on the 5th dimension would affect his powers, right; even if they have to go halfway around the planet? Kara should be dead, right?  After that many direct blasts with Kryptonite energy?

[lostinyourears]

Super Viernes Arena Mexico Report 7/14/2017

Vangellys vs Pierroth, Hair vs Hair match

Who’s who?

Vangellys is the strange looking guy with white hair and bizarre contacts in. He is wearing a full black with white accent shirt and pants. 

While Pierroth starts in a white suit which he ditches after the first fall for black trunks. He also has long black hair to contrast with Vangellys short white hair. 

Vangellys seemed like he was going to work with Los Ingobernables, but ended up getting kicked away by them so he has instead targeted their leader Pierroth in hopes of humiliating Ingobernables for not letting him join them.

How’s the match?

This is a match that I don’t think lots of people were expecting to be great and it lived up to that expectation. It was a 2/3 falls match that basically had one move for each fall that decided it. While it wasn’t awful, it was a little boring and tame. The spots they did were fine, but it just didn’t feel like wrestling as much as a spotfest with 3 spots. Which isn’t a very exciting spotfest, more like a spot gathering. 

Mistico, Caristico and Dragon Lee vs Mephisto, Luciferno and Ephesto 

Who’s who?

Mistico and Caristico have nearly identical looks as Caristico was the original Mistico back in the mid 2000′s. The way to tell them apart most times when they are teaming is that Caristico has red detailing around the eyes. Meanwhile their 3rd Dragon Lee is younger brother to current Mistico and is wearing a white mask with white briefs instead of the pants the rest of the field is wearing.

Meanwhile Los Hijos del Infierno consists of the leader Mephisto with the yellow mask, Ephesto with the horned mask and their 3rd in a red mask Luciferino who was also nice enough to wear a shift with his name on it. 

How’s the match?

Really great! If for whatever reason you read these, but don’t watch the matches I would rate this and the next match as MUST WATCH. They are both fantastic and the peak of lucha libre action, you could nitpick with one or two mess ups in both, but I think the action was hot and so was the crowd. Which really made both contests feel epic. 

Los Hijos del Infierno continue to make a case for why they should be the trio to usurp the CMLL Trios Champions Sky Team(Volador Jr., Mistico and Valiente). They worked great as a unit here and with Mistico/Caristico we were seeing double. It’s a really fun trios match and really make some of the other recently high card trios matches look poor in comparison. 

Último Guerrero vs Volador Jr. in the 2017 Universal Championship Tournament Finals

Who’s who?

Volador Jr. is in the blue briefs and kneepads, he also has the distinction of being the longest reigning current singles champion in CMLL.  NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship for 1277 days the longest reigning champion in that belts short 7 year history. 

While Ultimo Guerrero is a few years older and wearing long b lack pants with blue accents. Ultimo is no pushover he himself being the 2nd longest reigning “Promoted” singles title holder with 684 days as champion. 

How’s the match?

Great! As I said above I’d really consider it must watch. This is one of the most important singles matches of the year and it showed by how much time it got and how much both men pulled out. I particularly loved Ultimo Guerrero using the fucking Rainmaker!!! I love it when wrestling companies aren’t afraid to basically reference other companies.

Like I said last week on this wrap up... I’m not exactly excited to see Ultimo in this spot because it made the outcome seem obvious. Ultimo has already won CMLL’s Universal Championship twice which no one else has done. Had he been tied for that accolade a 3rd win might make sense, but since that’s not the case it seemed obvious Volador Jr. was going to get the win here. 

Which he did and it lead to... people throwing money, a sign of respect in Mexico. I initally thought they were just throwing random bits of paper before being corrected on Reddit. Boy, I feel dumb. 

Makes sense as the two put on a clinic to win that prestigious CMLL Universal belt. Ultimo and Volador Jr. had a post match show of respect, which was nice. Even though I think Ultimo might have been a bad choice for storytelling reason it’s hard to argue against him being in that spot when he has a potentially 5 star performance with Volador Jr. 

Perhaps a Dragon Lee or Negro Casas could have that good a performance with Volador Jr., but Ultimo Guerrero showed why he is one of the most beloved luchadors in CMLL. ‘The last of his kind’ showed how good of a match he could have and Volador Jr. did as well and got the most important singles tournament win under his belt to prove it. Really a fantastic 20 minute bout, between two of the best workers in the business... a must watch for anyone who wants to be on the up and up of current CMLL.

Highlights :

Super Friday Arena Mexico Highlights 2/14/2017

[jarpadandjensenaremyheroes]

The Little Princess: Chapter 6

A/n-Full disclosure, I was in a mood when I wrote this, so there’s lots more swearing in the next two parts than what I normally write. I got impatient. I didn’t know that was even possible to do with your own work! I couldn’t continue with the story line any more where it was at, so I decided to skip around a little bit. Things should stabilize after this. I hope. Sorry for the cliffhanger (but not really) Chapter 7 is already written though, and if I’m able to get chapter 8 done today, I will post chapter 7 tonight!

Word count: 2,572

Warnings: BABY FEELS, lots of swearing, ANGST, I think that’s it? Let me know if I missed anything!

Chapter summary: 9 months after Dean watches reader in the park, some discoveries come to light for Sam and Dean.

Characters: Reader, OFC Mary, OFC Topri, OMC James, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Castiel

Need to catch up? HERE is the Masterlist!

Chapter 6

9 months later, Y/N’s POV

“Come on, you can do it Mary! Come see mama!”

You, James, and Tori were all three sitting on your living room floor, watching Mary’s chubby little legs try to take steps. You all had tears in your eyes, and where as giddy as teenagers getting their first kiss.

“James please tell me you’re taking a video!” Tori’s voice was a little wobbly with emotion.

“Of course! I wanna remember our little Mary’s first steps forever and ever!”

You couldn’t do anything except grin at the thought of having these wonderful people in your life who loved Mary as much as you did. And she loved them. Just then, your daughter took 7 steps towards you and promptly fell into your lap with a fit of giggles. Tori frantically waved her hands around as she squealed, and James just grinned like a mad man. All three of you had tears of joy and pride rolling down your cheeks. You couldn’t help the tears. It was such a special moment, and although you were so damn proud of your little girl, you were also feeling guilty. Dean should be here for these moments…

“James, could you please send me the video? I’d love to have it for my own.”

“Already done, my dear,” he said with a wink.

One day, I’ll have all these moments to share with him. Maybe one day we can share them with more children.

You couldn’t let go of the hope you had. It was stupid, because hoping for this outcome in an impossible situation wouldn’t do any good. But the hope was all you had left…

Dean’s POV

Nine whole months, and I hadn’t figured out anything. No birth certificate for the kid, no records of any hospital stays for Y/N; she was really covering her tracks, and really didn’t want anyone knowing about the little girl.

Everyone I tried to call in favors with couldn’t get anywhere near her. The warding and protection on the house was too strong. The smart ass had even warded against reapers! Not even Tessa could help. Although she came back to me looking like the cat who ate the canary. Just a simple, “Sorry Deano, I can’t help you. The warding is too powerful.” And then poof; she was gone.

I had managed to keep Sam in the dark about it all. As far as he knew, Y/N had just disappeared. He still worried about her from time to time, bringing her up at dinner or over drinks at a bar. I just told him that Cas checks on her for us, and lets me know that she’s okay and alive. He didn’t need to know the other details, and what information I did give him, seemed to be satisfying enough.

Sam snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Dean!”

“What dude?”

“Are you okay man? You’ve been pretty out of it lately. What’s going on?”

“Nothin’ Sammy. Just restless I guess. We’ve been sitting on our hands for two weeks now; I wanna get out there and gank somethin’.”

“Well if you had been paying attention, you would have heard me tell you that I found us a case. Looks like a couple demons.”

“Awesome! Let’s go! Where’s this at?”

“Orlando, Florida.”

I choked on my coffee. Maybe I could pop in on her. She did always say if we were near Orlando… “Alright, let’s go then,” I said as I dropped some cash on the table for the waitress. Suddenly I didn’t care about getting her in bed. I just wanted to get to Orlando and kill this demon or demons, and go see the love of my life. Maybe I can convince her to come home…

16 hours later, we had made it to Orlando. I hadn’t slept a wink, but I didn’t feel tired at all. I just wanted to go to her. I wanted to fix all this as soon as possible. Not until it’s safe, Dean. Not until the threat is gone. With that one simple thought, all I could think of was killing the damn things so I could go to her. Now.

“Dean come on man, I know you want to kill something, but I’m exhausted. You didn’t want to stop on the way here, and I need to sleep. YOU need to sleep. Otherwise we’re gonna end up dead and a great big help to nobody. Alright? So please, just sleep.”

Sam doesn’t know anything. He doesn’t know that I won’t be able to sleep until this thing is done. That I won’t be able to sleep without seeing her first. Maybe I’ll take Sammy along this time too. Cas said he can’t even go in the yard, so we won’t be taking him. But Sam deserves to know that she is okay.

As I laid there in bed, I couldn’t help but think of her. Her gorgeous y/c/e eyes, and long y/c/h hair that curled softly against her face and back, and the way her smile lit up a room. The way her laugh could bring joy to even a deaf man, and the way she loved so fiercely. I know she loved me; at least at some point. I don’t know what I did to screw that up, but I’m going to fix it. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her back.

I continued my walk down memory lane with Y/N, and soon I had relaxed enough to fall asleep. And for the first time in a very long time, I didn’t have any nightmares. I slept through the night with no interruptions.

I woke up in the morning with a start, surprised to see the sun filtering in through the yellowed curtains of the motel window. “Sam? Why the hell did you let me sleep so long?”

“Dude. I tried to wake you, but it was like trying to wake sleeping beauty. Only in this little fairy tale, it’s the sleeping ogre.”

“Ugh. Whatever. I’m getting breakfast, and then we’re heading out. We got us some demons to find.”

Y/N’s POV

“Okay, you know where all her stuff is, and her food is in the pantry and fridge. I labeled it all, so there’s no confusion and searching while she screams. She loves her food, ya know.” Just like her daddy. “You have my number, so call if you have any questions whatsoever. I’ll keep my phone on me at all ti-“

“Y/N!” James cut you off; the sudden noise in the usually quite calm environment made you jump. “We’re gonna be just fine. I’ve taken care of her dozens of times now. Just because you’re spending the whole night away doesn’t mean anything. Mary will be just fine. I promise you. And you’re only going to be 30 minutes away. Go, have fun please. You deserve it.”

You smiled softly, knowing James was right. You had checked all the warding and protection on the house at least half a dozen times before James had shown up. Everything was still in place. You even sent a prayer to Cas letting him know you would be away from Mary for the night, and that if anything should happen, he was to zap you to her immediately, no questions asked. He sent you back a message in your head somehow.

You have my word, Y/N. I told you I would always keep watch over both of you, and I intend to keep doing just that. She will be safe.

You’d have to ask him one day how he does that. And why he had never done it before when you and the boys prayed to him.

With one last look at your daughter and James, you turned to leave the house. In your purse, you had packed one of your tiny handguns. But this time, you loaded it with Devil’s trap bullets; a nifty trick Sammy taught you.

You and Tori had this night planned out for months so you couldn’t cancel on her now. The papers and news crews all claimed a crazed killer, possibly serial killer, but you knew better. Each of the 3 victims so far had their throats slit with ‘an extremely sharp and rare’ blade. And there are 2 others missing. Everyone who reported or worked at the crime scenes claimed it smelled like rotten eggs. Demons. You didn’t want to cancel on Tori, and she didn’t see the danger of going into town. You tried to convince her that you two could just stay closer to home and it would be just as much fun, but she wasn’t having any of it. So, off to Orlando you went. You almost called Bobby to see if he could dispatch someone down here to take care of the problem, but you didn’t want to bug anyone. Someone would be along shortly to take care of it.

There was another reason you were nervous though. While hunting with the brothers, you had become almost as notorious as they had. Except to the monsters, you were “The Winchester’s and their little Whore.” Not exactly how you wanted to be known, but whatever. You killed them all in the end anyways. Demons were especially bad though. Over the years, there had been some that smoked out of their meatsuits and got away. They knew your face, your name, and if they ever found you again, they would kill you. Or worse, they would hurt Mary…

You tried not to think these thoughts though. You wanted to at least try to have a good time with your best friend. The odds of running into a demon were super slim anyways. Orlando was big enough, you’d be fine. You didn’t think you would run into anyone you knew, but apparently fate had other plans. You saw them before they saw you luckily; and managed to grab Tori and steer her away from the situation.

“Tori, someone I know from my past is here at this bar, and I really don’t want to be in there. Can we please go somewhere else? I promise I will make it up to you, I just…I-I can’t be in there…”

Tori wore a look of bewilderment on her face. “Y/N, are you serious?” All you could do was nod your head. You really didn’t want to see Sam and Dean.

“Okay okay. Clearly you’re freaked out by this person, so I won’t push the topic right now. But in the morning, when we’re sober, you are going to tell me about whoever it is. Got it?” You nodded your head again in response. “You’re just lucky I had bar hopping planned woman,” she added with a devious smirk.

“You know I haven’t had any form of alcohol since I got pregnant. Are you trying to kill me? I mean, I’m probably gonna have 1 beer and fall over babe!”

Her grin grew at that. “I forgot to tell you…we have one rule for the night. No wine or beer.”

“Well, I’m drinking soda! I have no intentions of killing my liver in one night.”

“Yeah…there’s no soda or water either unless you drink it alongside the alcohol. That’s rule number two.”

“Holy shit Tori. You’re actually going to kill me tonight. You want my little Mary that badly?” you teased her.

“Oh shit! You caught me! Whatever will I do for a genius plan now, Mr. Roadrunner?”

“Well you’re not taking my daughter!” You feigned shock as you started running away.

With that you both burst out laughing, accidentally drawing the attention of some people in the streets. And since you were actually enjoying yourself, you didn’t notice the man who had come rushing out of the bar behind you. And he had heard the whole conversation.

Dean’s POV

“Sammy! Where you goin’? We just got here!”

“I just…I thought I saw someone. I’ll be right back. I promise.”

Sam practically ran out of the bar. “What the hell has gotten into him?” Maybe he saw another Jess look alike. Poor kid. I continued nursing my whiskey, still thinking of Y/N. I was jerked out of my thoughts as Sam came back in. He had a look on his face that was a mixture of confusion and shock. That can’t be good…

“Dude…I just saw Y/N.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Uh…yeah…I was uhh-I was gonna surprise you with a visit to her once we finished the case. But she lives about 30 minutes away, so I figured we could go see her once the case was all wrapped up. She’s out now, so she doesn’t want us coming around unless we’re trouble free.”

“You…Dean how…You knew she was here??? And you didn’t think to tell me?!” His voice was laced with anger.

“Yeah Sam. She didn’t want anyone to know where she is. She’s out, and she wants it to stay that way. She doesn’t want trouble showing up on her doorstep all the time, and for a very good reas-”

“Yeah, like the fact that she has a kid? Named Mary, I might add.”

I sputtered on my drink after slamming it down on the bar top. “The kid’s name is Mary?” I couldn’t manage anything above a whisper; partially because of the whiskey in my lungs, but mostly because of the feeling of being punched in the gut.

“Yeah Dean, the kid’s name is Mary. Just like mom.”

“Why the hell would she name her daughter Mary?” I said, almost to myself. That awful gut feeling was back. “CAS get your feathered ass down here right now or so help me-”

“What is it you need so urgently Dean, I am busy watching over someone else.”

“Does that someone happen to be named Mary?”

“I…Dean it’s…complicated…”

“Oh yeah, it’s so complicated Cas. Who is Mary’s father?”

“I cannot divulge that information Dean.”

“God dammit Cas tell me right the fuck now!”

“Dean I-” Cas sighed. “You should go talk to Y/N. She is at a bar called Cheers. It’s just up the street. Be cautious though, her friend does not know who you are or the life that Y/N had with you both. For what it’s worth, she is hurting very badly in this situation. She misses you both very much…”

“Sam, I need to talk to Y/N. Alone, please.”

“Of course Dean. I’ll go wait by Baby. Call me if you need me, or if you go anywhere. Alright?”

“Yeah whatever. See you soon.”

I took off down the street at a furious pace, hoping that my speed will help diminish the rage in my body. I made it to the bar in less than 5 minutes, and spotted her almost immediately. As I strode towards her, I heard her laugh. God damn that laugh. I want to be so mad at her right now, but I feel my anger melting away the closer I get. This woman does things to me.

Her friend was facing my direction and must have seen me coming. The smile slowly faded from her face as she said something to Y/N quickly; but I was quicker. I grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face me as she let out a little squeak of surprise. Her friend stood there with a shocked look on her face.

“Hey dollface. We need to talk right now.”

@petrovadixon

@quackerstheduck663057

[justanotherdumpingground]

Chapter Reviews: March 26-30, 2019

High School Story Class Act Chapter 7:

Man, I'm feeling worried for Ajay. I know that him taking out his anger is unacceptable, but at least he apologized to Skye. Their stories need to have good progress and satisfying conclusions that answer how they overcome their respective turbulent home lives.

Still miffed that the Clint and Graham side romance amounts to nothing of particular substance. As I've said before, it would've been better if Graham's so creepy obsessed that it makes Clint uncomfortable that he tells Natalie that this is how Rory feels like whenever they're around.

The ending of this chapter made me dislike the twin for taking the election too personally. I was like "your campaign for more sports is redundant because it's already the most supported program at school". This isn't even a joke that sports gets a lot of attention at schools. This is evident in the first trilogy. Book 1 focuses on getting ready for the Homecoming game, especially because Brian's rotten behavior and transfer to Hearst left Berry desperate to search a suitable quarterback. Book 2 has Ashley Faris diverting all funding from cheer and band to the basketball team after she appointed her brother as coach. I even saw some people calling Rory out for taking offense at the MC should they support the twin, who is family no matter how annoying they can be. I guess this means the election is dumber than I thought.

Across the Void Chapter 15:

Honestly, this chapter is much better than the previous ones. I get to learn about the lore of the setting for free, especially on The Void, the origin of the Vanguard-Jura conflict, and astradust creating various races in the story. About time the story goes somewhere, though it should've been shown earlier on. Regarding the Void, it seems that they're a bunch of nihilists who want to plunge the galaxy to oblivion while playing the Vanguard and Jura like sniveling fools.

One thing that captures my attention is the possible connection to Endless Summer and maybe even Hero. Barlow mentioned a planet that got destroyed millennia ago that lights blue flames and has pieces entering its wormhole creating various races. What if it reached Earth and played a role in La Huerta's formation? What if some of them entered through the wormhole in Northbridge and created the superhumans in Hero. I hope this will get addressed in Book 2 of Hero.

On another note, why do they make Barlow a love interest? MC already has five, one of them is shared with Eos. Honestly, the story's writers are wasting time, resources, and effort enticing us with more love interests than necessary, excessive amounts of time with Eos and Pax, and catering to insufferable passengers while not focusing on the Vanguard-Jura conflict enough.

Didn't buy the biodroid, though it remains a low priority choice to get for me someday. I also didn't pick the premium option to check the library with Zekei, but after I watched on YouTube that it's about the MC torn away from the people they love almost every time, I actually felt ambivalent because the love interests aren't developed enough, though Kepler comes close.

I'm starting to think Pax's loyalty is put to the test and allow us to determine whether she'll stay loyal to the Jura or sever ties. Either way, I don't care because I find her annoying.

Desire & Decorum Chapter 14:

Duke Richards's journal is just another proof of how deranged he is, which is getting redundant. At least I have proof that he has been manipulating Dominique, which is another step up I need. Might as well replay this book and get the other pieces of evidence to see the full outcome.

Oh, Hamid. I really want to spend time with you, but my diamonds for other books go first. Don't worry. I'll spend diamonds on you so you and my MC can live happily ever after.

*sigh* The sight of the MC's mom's ring thrown into the fire better be the last straw because I've had enough of Duke Richards being continually despicable, as if I don't know that already. A part of me wants him to have some sort of depth that makes him well-developed while still irredeemable. That would've made him memorable and interesting instead of just someone I should hate. Here's hoping the wedding day gets disrupted and the tables turned against him.

America's Most Eligible Chapter 11:

I'm so relieved Eden and Kiana are alive, even though they're injured and had to drop out of the show. Their safety matters first and foremost. To think that something life-threatening like this to occur in a fun show is proof of mismanagement. I still don't know whether it's an accident or someone rigged the go-kart, but either way, it's carelessness on Carson's part.

This chapter is surprisingly calming, and it helps that neither Ivy nor Vince are around to stir trouble. It's just me, Adam, Derek, Mackenzie, and Jen relaxing. My MC had a fine date with Adam and even had a steamy moment with him even though they have maximum relationship points. Anyway, can't wait to see what Iceland has in store for AME.

Passport to Romance Chapter 3:

I'm starting to like Sumire for giving her own spin of the Louvre tour even after the MC missed the one Yvette booked. It was a fun take, and I enjoy watching her incorporate her love and knowledge of art together.

So, I picked the premium option to find the Mona Lisa painting and flirted with the security guard. That was a really dumb move on everyone's part, including the MC's. I think taking a picture of Mona Lisa should've been pushed to a later chapter and have everyone involved to ask when it will be ready for display again. Might as well throw Elliot under the bus for suggesting that we trespass in the first place.

Wow! All the love interests look stunning in their formal outfits! It's making me hard to determine who my MC will pursue, even though his vlog is named Sexcapades (don't judge).

I'm starting to dislike Yvette for talking trash about the love interests, even though she warmed up to me earlier this chapter for approving of a fresh tour of the Louvre. I get that she wants her magazine to improve, but I also think a balance between work and friends is needed. During the dinner, I threw Elliot and Marisa under the bus and defended Ahmed and Sumire from her. I actually think Marisa's okay, however.

Open Heart Chapter 7:

I cringed when that kissass with Percy Mendoza's model tried to smooch Aurora into paying for her lunch. Talking about the downsides of popularity. I think her aunt rigged the list in her favor while handing out the "most interesting" cases. In other words, Harper Emery could be up to no good.

Okay, telling Bryce to flirt with Ines and Zaid is pretty fun to watch. It's like he thinks he has a suave way to get around people, and acts like he succeeds. Anyway, glad that he succeeded in buying the MC time to follow Ethan.

For Remy, I told him the truth about his condition that will deprive him from his ability to move his limbs. I'm willing to risk a patient's short-term anger over withholding important information on his condition. Not to mention the latter is unethical. It was touching to see him accept his condition and resolve to live his life to the fullest.

So Patient X is Naveen Banerji? No wonder he resigned. And Ethan telling the MC to not tell this to anyone else just comes across as suspicious. Were they trying to preserve Edenbrook's reputation while one of their top doctors was dying of an illness?

The Elementalists Chapter 3:

I'm worried for Atlas and their search for the girl Dean Goeffe was watching over. It makes me wonder whether they'll resort to extreme measures to take down Kane or something. I grabbed the letter, and it seems that Dean Goeffe served as the girl's caretaker in secret. I think she knows who she is instead of merely stumbling upon her.

I didn't get the enlargement spell when I first played this chapter, so I saved up diamonds and restarted the book just so I could get it. I hope it will come in handy, even when the MC and Atlas's magick goes on and off, probably because of a disturbance in the force or something.

For once, Beckett's presence is kept to a minimum. A welcoming thing, actually. As for the ward Kane sent to the MC, I'm starting to admire him for being as interesting as Redfield. He might be the kind of person whose sense of right and wrong is different from other people's. I'd love to know more about him. Here's hoping he's a genuinely complex character.

Ride or Die Chapter 11:

Well, Logan manipulating the MC in the first place only to fall for her doesn't change my stance on him. I continue to reject him for the mess he caused. Regarding Mona, who apparently didn't know about Logan's actions before, her comment on suggesting to kidnap the MC put me off. That makes her come across as cold-blooded in some ways that it makes me less secure.

Why am I at Riya's house? She pushed MC into pursuing Logan in the first place, then complained that she's feeling lonely as a result. At least she gave the MC a place to stay for now, and Jason told the MC that her dad misses her.

Anyone thinks Toby could be a Brotherhood agent? I mean, good for him that he didn't participate in Colt's foolish plan, but how did he reach Riya's house? Did he have some sort of tracker? Or did he search the area one by one? Whatever that is, Colt's package could be a super dangerous bomb capable of super destructive damage. It's really rash of him.

Regarding the Brotherhood, I think it being the greater evil is never expanded on. Even though the narrative mentions it as worse the MPC, it just comes across as bland and forgettable. It doesn't help that the only Brotherhood member MC encounters is a baseball hat guy Teppei met.