#and he technically didn’t lose because he switched sides

[thereweredragonshere]

No because if I was Viggo I’d ALSO be fucking pissed off?? Like you’re this mastermind dragon hunter that is running possibly the largest operation in the entire of the archipelago that is family owned and ran with your older brother with hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of henchmen to do your dirty work and whenever people even MENTION your name they get scared and you’re this big strong powerful dude in his like mid forties but then a group of mother fucking barely adult stupid ass kids show up and successfully threaten your entire business model? Everything was fine yesterday but then this gaggle of incompetent fools show up with their stupid reptiles and suddenly you’re in a war??? AND the fucking malnourished stick insect of a leader they have has the AUDACITY to steal an ancient relic off of one of your predecessors ships??? AND THEN THEY BLOW UP YOUR ONLY MODE OF LONG FORM TRANSPORTATION??? AND THEN THEY RELEASE A BUNCH OF YOUR STOCK AND SINK THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF YOUR PROFITS BY SAVING THE DRAGONS YOU CAPTURED??? WHAT??? MOTHER FUCKER HAD EVERY SINGLE RIGHT TO START A WAR. HICCUP AND HIS STUPID ASS FRIENDS SHOWING UP AND JUST TANKING YOUR WHOLE ASS LIFE??? IMAGINE BEING A FUCKING KING PIN CRIMINAL EXPERT IN DRAGON TRADING AND YOU LOSE AN ENTIRE WAR TO A GLORIFIED WALKING EMBODIMENT OF AWKWARDNESS AND HIS 5 WEIRD LITTLE CREATURES HE TAKES AROUND WITH HIM. IMAGINE HAVING TO SIT THERE IN YOUR COOL ASS DRAGON HUNTER EVIL LAIRE AND PLAN HOW YOU WERE GONNA FIGHT OFF THE LITTLE RUNT OF BERK HEIR GUY THAT WON’T GIVE UP. IMAGINE?? FUCKING IMAGINE????

WHO WOULD NOT BE PISSED??? THAT MAN HAD A VERY EXTREMELY RATIONAL REACTION BECAUSE THAT WAS LITERALLY THE FOUNDATION OF HIS LIFE??? HIS ENTIRE CAREER GOT NOT JUST ENDED BUT FORCEFULLY FUCKING SLAMMED INTO A WALL OF CONCRETE AND CURB STOMPED BY A FUCKING STEAM ROLLER RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. I mean sure yeah he put up the biggest fight of the century and did his whole ‘I’m gonna mess with your head until you go insane and just fuck off and leave me alone you stupid little annoying boy get a life,’ thing BUT STILL HICCUP WON THAT WAR AND THE AGE OF 18. EIGHT GOD DAMN TEEN.

[lincolndjarin]

Pretty in Pink

main masterlist ✧ kinktober masterlist ✦

kinktober : day three - afab!reader x no-outbreak!joel miller

prompt : breeding [ 18+ mdni ]

word count : 1.5k

summary : you and joel have been trying for a baby for a while now, you're skeptical when you get advice from a friend but you're willing to try anything at this point.

warnings, etc. : fluffy, smut, praise, joel 'breeding kink' miller, p in v, unprotected sex, lingerie, creampie, pregnancy talk, this is just a quick little porny fluffy drabble lmao

a/n : yippee! happy 3rd day of oct!! def expect a lot of days switching around lmao, i'm just going w the flow lol

You stare at the bathroom mirror, you feel a little ridiculous but you know he’s had a hard week and at this point you’ll do anything to help him relax. So you put on the pink satin nightie your friend had convinced you he’d love. You put on a bit of makeup before opening the door a smidge.

“Close your eyes.” You sound like a child the way you whine. 

“You’re killin’ me darlin’.” 

“Please?”

“Okay, okay.” You can practically hear the way he holds his hands up in defeat. 

You’re learning the hard way that trying for a baby is a long and arduous task. With Sarah in highschool, and Ellie in elementary, you’ve agreed now is as good a time as any to try for one more. The only problem is you haven’t been feeling great about how long it’s taking. You’re easily discouraged despite how willing Joel seems to try as often and as hard as possible to knock you up. 

So when your friend who is currently six months along offered to give you some advice you were more than willing to sit down at a nearby mall and talk. You’d expected to hear the usual technical jargon. Track your cycle, avoid using lube, and reduce your caffeine intake. You’ve been doing all of that and more for months now with no luck but much to your surprise she had only one piece of advice. 

“Have fun with it.” 

It sounded absurd to you but she kept on explaining. Telling you that it was important that you were both comfortable and enjoying yourselves, it helped her to try new things. You tried to explain to her that Joel was old fashioned, he didn’t like new things. He liked you naked and in a bed, nothing fancy involved. 

Your friend of course didn’t seem convinced, dragging you to Victoria Secret, insisting that the sheer little pink thing you’d settled on was perfect. 

Except it doesn’t feel perfect. 

Because now you actually have to show him and you’re pretty sure he’s just going to have you take it off immediately and you’ll feel like an idiot and this will all be for nothing. 

You take a few steps out of the bathroom, he’s sitting on the bed, back against the headboards as move towards him. wringing your hands nervously. He looks like he always does. Handsome, and in his boxers and navy blue shirt. You’re beside him now and you’re just about to lose your nerve. 

“Nevermind this is stupid.” You blurt out as he opens his eyes. You give him an apologetic smile as he looks you up and down. You turn around, wanting to just change and forget any of this happened as he grabs you by your arm, pulling you onto the bed. 

“Not stupid, not stupid at all.” He stares at you, infatuated as he pulls you onto his lap. He takes a bit of the see through fabric in his hands, running it through his fingers. “S’pretty.”

“Really? You like it?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I thought you didn’t like this kind of thing.”

“What kind of thing? Pretty things? I like you, why wouldn't I like this.” Your face gets hot as he lifts the fabric, running a finger along the hem of the matching pink panties. 

“You really like it?” Your face is getting hotter by the second as he drags you forward by your hips so you can feel his hard on straining through his boxers. 

“Like it so much.” He rocks his hips up against you with a groan. “Such a- fuck, such a pretty color.” He hooks a finger onto the crotch of your panties, pulling them to the side as he ruts up against you, watching with hungry eyes as you soak the front of his underwear. He usually spends quite a bit of time warming you up but now he seems wildly impatient as he pulls his dick out over the band of his boxers along with his balls. “Want you to wear this more often, s’nice.” 

“Th-thanks.” You stammer out as he guides his cock into you as you sit up on your knees. 

“Sit down, sugar, take it all, I know you can do it.” Once he nudges the first couple of inches into you he brings his hands back to the sheer fabric. You do as he says, taking your time until you’re fully impaled on it, the two of you moaning in unison. 

“Oh, Joel.” You whisper, feeling the blunt head of his cock bump against your cervix. 

“Bet this would be even prettier stretched over a round belly.” He squeezes your hips, leveraging you down onto him as he thrusts up into you. You’ve never seen him so worked up as his hips jolt up into you, his breathing going unsteady. He’s never been one to talk during the deed, usually all you can get out of him is a few grunts and curses but now he seemingly can’t stop mumbling to himself as he marvels at the way the pick fabric clings to you in some places while flowing freely in others. “Can’t wait to have you bouncing on my cock when you’ve got your bump.” The sudden vulgarity from him shoots sparks through your veins as you slowly start moving, raising and dropping your hips, reveling in the feeling of him filling you completely as he bunches up the fabric a bit, pulling it out of the way so he can watch you take him. 

“Joel please-” You whine, your hands go to the headboard behind him to steady yourself. “Please touch me.” He enthusiastically obliges, one hand going to your clit while the other palms at your breast, rolling your nipple between his fingers over the thin fabric. He leans forward, pulling your breast out of the nightie, sucking the tender flesh. 

“These are gonna get bigger too.” He mumbles against your tit, your hips stutter as he sinks his teeth into the swollen nub. “Gonna be so round- and soft.” He sucks your nipple back into his mouth, his fingers picking up speed between your legs as you feel your stomach getting tight, your breath going ragged as you slam your hips down on him, pressing him deep against the spot inside of you that makes you see stars. “Come on- fuck, fucking take it.” He growls as he pops his mouth off of you, pulling you into a kiss as you chase the feeling inside of you, moaning against him until in one sharp motion you seat yourself on him completely, sending yourself over that edge. 

His lips move from your mouth to your chin, then cheeks, then forehead, he kisses you everywhere as you work yourself through your orgasm, everything going tense as that white hot fire ripples through your veins. 

When you come down from your high your legs feel like jelly and you honestly aren’t sure you’re gonna be able to keep going but thankfully he takes matters into his own hands, planting his feet on the mattress firmly behind you as he wraps his arms around your torso to keep you upright. He fucks up into you, his pace brutal and unrelenting as he buries his face in the crook of your neck. 

“Gonna fill up this pretty pussy, make you a mama.” He murmurs against the sensitive skin of your throat, his thrusts quickly becoming clumsy as he groans. He’s quick to follow you, his cock pulses and you can feel him spill against your walls, his demeanor softens with his prick as he rubs his nose against yours. “I love you s’much.” He mumbles, gently lifting you, helping you off his lap as you lay beside him. 

You take a moment, catching your breath as he leaves the room, returning quickly with a glass of water, handing it to you as he turns the lights off, crawling into the blankets with you as you lay your head on his chest. 

“Love you.” He says quietly, giving you a quick kiss that you know means good night as he settles in.

You sit in silence for a few minutes before sighing mostly to yourself. 

“What if this doesn’t work? Like ever?” You whisper into the darkness, curling yourself up closer to him.

You expect him to be asleep, or to brush you off, and to tell you that it will. Instead he just pulls you closer.

“Then we’ll keep trying. And if it doesn’t work then we’ll look into other options. I went through the adoption process once already, it should be easier the second time around.” He kisses your forehead and you feel him relax, you know he’ll be asleep in a few minutes. You’re just happy he’s willing to validate your worries. 

“Good night, love you.” You murmur, you really do mean it. 

He’s right. You’ll keep trying, and if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. There’s no way to know if you’re pregnant or not until then. (Although Joel isn’t all that surprised when you take a test two weeks later and are met with two blue lines.)

a/n : for the first time ever i actually like something i wrote lol

[kisskiss-slashslash]

Slashers accidentally killing their witchcraft s/o but a few minutes later they revived again and they find out that they are actually immortal?

Ty and have a great day <3

Here you go!

Warnings: Blood, Gore, Allusions to amputation

Slashers accidentally killing their s/o only to find out they’re immortal

Jason Voorhees

His machete slipped out of his hand, and time seems to slow down as it heads straight for you. There is nothing he can do, it all happens so fast, and before he even knows what is happening, you’re on the ground, the blade buried in your chest, down to its hilt.

His whole world is anguish. Memories of the night his mother died are flashing through his head. First her, now you. And this time, it was all his fault.

He sinks to his knees next to you without paying any attention to the escaping victim, and cradles you against his chest, hot tears dripping from under his mask onto your face.

You groan. “Hey… Jason? Love? Could you please pull the machete out? It’s really uncomfortable.”

He looks at you with wide eyes. You return his gaze sheepishly.

“I… I guess I should have told you that I kind of… can’t die.”

Wait what? He tilts his head at you.

“Yeah. You know. Practising witchcraft has its perks. Now please…. the machete?”

Needless to say he is torn between being angry and relieved. Could you not have told him that before he essentially relived his past trauma?

Vincent Sinclair

He mistakes you for a victim. He lost sight of the last survivor of the current group, but he can hear someone right next door.

He strikes before he can see who it is. And it happens to be you, now with his carving knives sticking out of your neck on both sides. When he realizes what happened, he reflexively pulls the knives out, and you are already on the ground, blood pouring out of the wounds.

He drops his weapons in horror and rushes to your side. You are losing too much blood, there is little he can do… But soon the wounds seem to close up again with no issue, and you sit up.

“Vincent, honey. Next time, please look before you slash. Okay? This would have gone horribly wrong if I weren’t immortal.”

You still look a bit ashen, but seem otherwise okay. You assure Vincent that while you may be a bit more tired and lethargic until your body managed to regenerate all that blood you lost, there won’t be any long-term damange.

Freddy Krueger

It’s a prank gone wrong. Freddy assumes that, as his s/o, of course you aren’t afraid of him, so he can feel free to play rough with you in the dreamworld. But love or not, appearantly there is a tiny sliver of you that is at least a little afraid of him and his powers. Which is unfortunately only something the two of you notice when your stomach gets sliced open while Freddy tries to tickle you.

“Ah shit… fuck… bitch… we’ve been together for so long, how the FUCK are you still afraid of me?!” He panicks and tries to stop the bleeding and you… you start laughing.

“Freddy, you can stop. I can’t die. The whole witchcraft thing, remember?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”

You double over and clutch your stomach, both from laughter and to keep your guts from falling out. It *is* pretty adorable how worried Freddy is for your safety. And in the end, even if he can technically hurt you, your immortality still means that you can play rough with each other.

Brahms Heelshire

Another one of his fits of rage, after which he finds you on the ground, bones broken and with blood pouring. He stares at your remains in horror.

“Hey…”

He kneels down next to you and shakes you.

“Hey, get up. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Please. Get up… don’t leave me…” He starts sobbing, uncontrollably switching between his child and adult voices in his distress, until he feels you gently pat his back.

“You’re grounded”, you say dryly. “Just because I’m immortal doesn’t mean I’m down to being your punching bag.”

“Yes. Yes of course. I’ll be good now, I promise”, he sobs, relieved that you are okay after all.

Bubba Sawyer

He accidentally touches the button that switches on his chainsaw while the two of you are fixing some malfunction. The saw buries itself in your torso, sawing through bone and soft muscle and organ alike. Your blood sprays through the room, and Bubba howls with terror while desperately fumbling to turn it off again.

He finally manages to, after a few seconds. But the damage is already done. His hands are cupping your face, running through your hair, knowing that after an injury like this, there is nothing he can do. He just whines softly, trying to somehow comfort you, if you can even still hear him.

“Geez”, you sigh, with some difficulty. The saw completely shredded one of your lungs, after all. “Good thing that it missed my spine; regenerating that would have been a pain.” You look up at him and are met with Bubba’s teary gaze.

“Bubsy”, you coo softly. “I’m fine. I don’t die that easily. Give me a week to recover and I’ll be good as new. So no tears, okay?” You raise your hand to wipe away the tears from under his eyes.

When Drayton later learns of this day’s events, he asks if you can also regenerate limbs, like, say, a leg. You will have to firmyl tell him that you are *not* going to end up being the family’s primary meat source.

[francesminos-tt]

I stumbled upon a post here saying Joff is Jacegan’s son, and I also know about a fic where Viserys is Lucemond’s love child, which make me think. A lot. How about a modern au where Joff is Jace and Cregan’s son, Aegon the younger is Rhaenyra and Daemon’s son where Viserys Jr is Luke and Aemond’s son. I am messing up some age gap here.

Please don’t take this too seriously. It’s just a quick crack post!

When Joffrey was born

Jace 20

Cregan 21

Luke 18

Aemond 23

Daeron 13

Jace gave birth to Joff when he was 20. It was totally unexpected, truly, he didn’t even realize he was pregnant until like 4 months in. He was still trying to figure out who he really wanted, Cregan or Sara. (It is Cregan. It is Cregan from the start. Even Sara knows it, if her speech at Jace and Cregan’s wedding is anything to go by.) Jace panicked all through his pregnancy, thinking himself a failure to be knocked up while still in college. He ceased that line of thought the moment he got little Joff in his arms. All is well after that. (Or maybe not, because Jace worked nonstop after Joff’s birth, trying to make up for all the missing school work and graduate in time. Cregan had to feed him real food. Humans can’t survive solely on energy drinks, obviously. One would expect someone smart as Jace, a leading debater at the school debate team, should know better. But alas. Fortunately Cregan was there to help, and he had no intention of ever leaving Jace’s side.)

Luke beats his big brother’s record by giving birth at 18. (19, Luke agues, his water broke when celebrating his 19th nameday, so technically he was 19 when Viserys Jr was born.) Unlike Jace, his pregnancy was a carefully constructed plan to baby trap Aemond. And it worked. Luke is very proud of himself. Aemond can play hard to get for all he likes, but Luke knows his scaring uncle has feelings for him. Or else who would stare at someone like Aemond does every time their extended family is forced to get together? When Luke learned Aemond would go to Citadel School of Business for a master’s degree next year, he knew he had to act quickly. He pulled some strings (black mailed Aegon, to be precise) to get Aemond’s schedule and successfully stumbled upon a drunk Aemond outside a shady bar. The rest is history. (Luke shared his pregnancy with his mother Rhaenyra, who was expecting her first child with her uncle Daemon. They made so many uncle fucking jokes that Jace had to flee the room out of sheer terror. Luke laughed until Aemond picked him up from the sofa to go get a scheduled ultrasound. Aegon the younger was born 3 months prior to Viserys Jr.)

Joffrey always feels like a big brother to Aegon the younger and Viserys Jr growing up, although he is only one year older than them. He takes after Jace, apparently, to care for the little ones, but he also inherited Cregan’s protectiveness toward his family. So when he sees Aegon and Viserys being bullied by some shitface, he rushes to their rescue. Joff took several punches, sure, but he also kicked one of the bullies on the balls. (Cregan is so proud. Jace, not so much at first, but after he learns Joff only gets in a fight to protect Aegon and Viserys, he gets Joff a Switch as reward.) Joff is at least a head shorter than the bullies, so he slowly loses his ground and is about to be shoved into a stinking pond when his knight in shining armor arrives. Daeron is on his way back from tennis training when he saves Joff from drowning in a stinking pond worse than the sewers. Joff spits out disgusting water and kicks Daeron on the shin. To his credit, Joff doesn’t need protection, he can fucking defend himself thank you very much. (Language! Jace shouts.) Years later, when Daeron nervously asks Joff to go on a date with him, Joff barely spares him a glance as he says yes. Daeron is more nervous than he goes to a Grand Slam Final. He can’t be blamed. He’s asking his great-nephew (Oh god that sounds wrong) 13 years his junior to go on a date with him.

Later at a family dinner

Cregan: Look I will allow you to date my son only if you get your tennis player buddies to sign the autograph- (Jace throwing him death glare) Never. I mean I will never let you defile my precious little Joffrey.

Daeron: Come to think of it, I am only 13 years older than Joff while uncle Daemon is like 16 years older than Rhaenyra. No offense, uncle Daemon.

Daemon (sipping wine, looking smug): None taken, kid.

Luke: I know I am not the best person to say this-

Aemond: You are not.

Luke: Shut up.

Aemond: Make me.

Rhaenyra (ignoring the gross sound of kissing in the background): Joff, dear, just remember to use protection. I have some condoms in my drawer that you may like. I believe they are coke flavor.

Jace: MUM!

Daeron: Thank you sister, but I don't think it will be necessary. I won’t even hold Joff’s hands until his 16th nameday.

Jace: YOU WANT TO HOLD MY SON’S HANDS???

Luke (finally breaks the kiss but still sits on Aemond’s lap): Now I feel like we are not the sickest couple in this family anymore.

Aemond: I can be sick.

Jace: THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION!!

Joff (stealing Daeron’s desert while frantically poking at his Switch. Damn that dragon is hard to defeat)

[kat-is-laem-oa]

Chapter 1: PanDEMONium

(Next Chapter)

Mornings always proved challenging, and the comfort of his bed only made the negative feelings about his situation stronger. No amount of sunshine could brighten his mood in recent years, nor could the fluff of his blanket as the light disappeared and his room darkened once more. No extreme or mixture within gave him a sense of comfort.

His oldest friend, Raphael, made it a point to include him despite their opposing heritage. The far-too-old Shadowhunter befriending the vampiric member of Hotel DuMort would be humorous to their kin. The two species couldn’t get along despite their similar situations—being hunted for their blood.

Raphael was unique, just like his people. Eljah wished he could share the same sentiment with his own people, but he’d felt their wrath before and it was a losing game. Although, technically, he was one of a kind. He didn’t have people or true kin because he was an abomination. And abominations don’t get the luxury of friends and family.

“I’m supposed to be hiding in the shadows, not you,” Raphael sighed as he walked into the room. Candles illuminated the room and the blackout curtains prevented the deadly sunlight from getting in.

“I might as well be just as allergic as you, Rafa.”

“Hardly. Up.” Raphael lifted the plush white blanket before grasping onto Eljah’s arm. With multiple complaints and some unkind words, the small boy was upright. His hair was always messy, conscious or unconscious, to the point it became a style. Random silver strips contrasted the shadowy brown overtaking his head. Over the previous months, his hair grew longer, making him feel more feminine than he could have while growing up. If the downworld thought Shadowhunters were bad now, they could rest easy with the image of the Clave’s earlier days.

“What is the nest up to today?” The two had known each other for a long time; long enough to not shy away at the sight of skin and boxers. Eljah crossed to his dresser while Raphael spoke, jumping with the change in temperature upon contact.

“Nothing you have to worry about, even though I know you will.” Raphael laughed at the little hops Eljah made while dressing himself.

“I can’t help it. You guys are stuck with me now, so I have no choice but to care.”

Eljah slid a pair of shorts that rested low against his hips and a t-shirt that drowned him. August was his least favorite month because it was inevitably the hottest one. Manhattan sucked in the humid weather and bubbled it until a rush of cold would pop it. You either stayed in your home or flocked to an indoor business—Eljah’s goal tonight—to beat the heat.

“That is true, my mistake,” Raphael poked fun, receiving a stare from the male opposite him, “but seriously, just enjoy your night and I’ll find something for you to do this week, hm?”

“You said that last week, Santiago.”

“Damn, we are going by last names now, Winterscaar?”

“Oh, bruto gross, no. My mistake,” Eljah repeated. The two shared hushed giggles, but eventually it went silent. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but Raphael’s aura became serious; Eljah hated to watch the swirls switch from bright yellow to mushy turquoise when he went into big-brother mode.

“There’s something out there that will make you happy. I know it. Maybe it’s here in the nest or on the other side of New York. Hell, another continent. I’ll help you find it.”

“How are you gonna find it if it’s on another continent? TSA will have to mark you as combustible material before you step foot on a plane.”

“Not funny.”

“It’s a bit funny, mano…” Raphael choked back a sigh, already used to the flammability jokes.

Raphael seemed to have more to say, but a knock sounded at the door. Raphael went to check it and Eljah activated the LED lights built into all the rooms. Eljah heard basic mumbles and words of confirmation before Raphael exited, saluting to his best friend.

Eljah knew what time it was already. Every day had a clockwork aspect to them, and he’d long since adjusted to the schedule of vampires. As his day started, most ended. It made slipping into night life easier and letting himself deal with emotions in his own way: drunk and/or high.

“You don’t look 22,” the bodyguard argued. Eljah had taken the time to walk his way to the club (and pre-game smoke). He didn’t fully feel the effects, but the immediate boost in confidence after every hit had him ready to make a bold move if needed. He wanted to cave his own head in every time someone accused him of being underage.

“That seems racially motivated.” He enjoyed watching people’s faces when he threw out that card. It was a common misconception amongst those who have never met shadowhunters that they were all pale-skinned white dudes with insane amounts of tattoos. Eljah himself was technically white, but it was the minority of his genetics. His father was Puerto Rican, and he’d grown up in San Juan before integrating into the Mexico City Institute. He found New York bland compared to the colorful buildings, streets, and culture of his hometown.

The man guarding the door was not white either. “Go back home, kid.”

“Este imbécil,” rolling his amber eyes. He placed his hands upon his eyelids, allowing the energy in his bones to circulate. Within milliseconds, the silvery cover slithered over his vision and the energy connected to the bodyguard’s light and powdery one. Eljah focused on forcing a command into the other man’s consciousness.

A voice echoed, “ah, ah, ah, no need,” a veil laid itself over his magic, “it’s not nice to compel random people.”

“Do you gain anything from that?”

“Just slight amusement,” the acicalao with short, spiked hair responded, “I know every warlock in Brooklyn, but I don’t know you. Why’s that?”

“New in town.”

“Are you now? Well, then, why don’t I introduce you to a little New York nightlife, hm?”

“The only thing I need introduced to is something strong.”

“That can be arranged. Come on in.”

˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　　 . ✦　　　 　˚　　　　 . ★⋆.

Too many hyperfixations, so much to do! I'm so tired of seeing no malec x reader, they'd totally be poly in another universe.

[kiwisandpearls]

Macaque x Teen! Reader

Summary: Just a bunch of (platonic) headcannons of Macaque and a (gender-neutral) teenage reader. Warnings: None I can think of other than spoilers for Lego Monkie Kid’s seasons 1-3. Not only that but this is the first fanfic (??) I’ve ever written on tumblr so don’t expect high quality stuff lol. Oh and one last thing Macaque might act a little out of character here.

THIS WAS NOT PROOFREAD.

How you and Macaque met

•It should be prefaced that you were friends with the main gang (Pigsy, Tang, Sandy, Mei, and Mk) before you met Macaque.

•Unfortunately, unlike them you didn’t have any sort of powers

•You first met Macaque during the episode also named “Macaque” in season 1. You managed to cling to Mk’s back while he (struggled to) climb up to where Macaque was

•The first time you saw him you were instantly suspicious of him.

•You didn’t know why…he just seemed untrustworthy to you.

•While Mk was training with Macaque you tried to warn him about your suspicions about Macaque, but he brushed you off, a little more nicer than how he acted towards Monkey King, but still brushed you off.

•He did apologize to you for ignoring your suspicions after the events of the episode tho.

•After the events of said episode, Macaque weirdly grew a bit of a liking to you.

•He liked the fact that you didn’t immediately trust the guy (monkey???) and were going to make that 101% clear to him.

•Sometimes after your school day, he’d just pop out of shadows

•Most of the time just to tease, obviously not too much, but just a tiny bit lol.

Season 2

•Remember in (correct me if I’m wrong) the Spider Queen special when the Lady Bone Demon possessed the girl as to have a body?

•Yeah well in this scenario, things go a little differently…

•The Lady Bone Demon still does possess the girl, but when she realizes how important you are to the main gang (including the Monkey King), and Macaque’s slowly growing affection to you, she realized how useful you could be to her fulfillment of destiny.

•So, using the girl’s body, she tricked you into thinking she a was an innocent girl asking for a favor

•And the moment you two were alone, she used that opportunity to switch from the girl’s body to your body

•Basically, not only did you become a vessel for the Lady Bone Demon, but you also technically became a hostage.

•After the Lady Bone Demon possessed you, the main gang and the Monkey King and Macaque did not get any contact with you. Every time Mei or Mk tried calling you it went straight to voice mail.

•They were a little worried but they just thought that maybe you were super busy with school, so they left you alone for a bit.

•It should be mentioned that you weren’t possessed until after Mk’s first encounter with the Lady Bone Demon. 

•Which obviously caused him to become very confused and scared as to why technically you were talking in the same way the Lady Bone Demon was. And how you suddenly got all these powers.

Season 3

•When Macaque first encountered you being possessed by the Lady Bone Demon, he was…scared.

•More scared he wanted to admit.

•Sure, you and your friends were still a bit of a thorn is his side, but you in particular were a thorn in his side he could tolerate and actually kinda liked.

•The Lady Bone Demon then struck a deal with Macaque.

•She told him that she wouldn’t kill him again and that she’d give you back to him safe and sound as long as he brought Mk and Monkey King to her

•Look, Macaque liked Mk, he thought he was a nice kid. But he did not want to lose you nor did he want to die again.

•Because you were the one who was the vessel for the Lady Bone Demon, that caused him to blame the main gang (mostly Monkey King) for letting this happen to you.

•He said stuff such as, “Had you kept a closer eye on them none of this would be happening” and “Why didn’t you guys check on them to make sure they were ok?”

•And while he obviously still blamed the main gang for what happened he also blamed himself a bit for the same reasons.

•This leads to end of Season 3, when the Lady Bone Demon is about to be defeated. In her last ditch effort to fulfill destiny, she stops possessing your body and essentially through it to the side.

•Fortunately, Macaque’s able to catch you in his arms before you hit the ground, and keeps you securely in his arms until he gently lays you down before the last battle.

•As you went ahead and gobbled up Pigsy’s noodles after the defeat of the Lady Bone Demon, Macaque wasn’t sitting too far away, keeping a close eye on you.

•To you, the possession of your body just felt like a nap, to Macaque it felt like an intense journey of keeping the Lady Bone Demon pleased all the while trying to figure out how he’d get you back.

•After the whole ordeal, you looked over to him and quietly thanked him for saving you, telling him that maybe you were wrong about him.

•To which he just gave a light chuckle, ruffled the hair on your head, and said, “No problem, kid.” before disappearing into the shadows.

•

OK LOL. I made this all in one night (or day maybe??? Idk depends on how you look at it I wrote this all at like 5 am.) again, this is my first fanfic on tumblr so please don’t act like it’s the best thing ever. Even then my 100 fanfic probably won’t be any better than this. Just writing these stuffs for fun, so don’t expect high quality stuff, ‘kay?

[straightbaittournament]

the option with the least votes will be eliminated. propaganda under the cut (and more always welcome!):

kit herondale and livvy blackthorn:

They were literally straight bait. So Kit, Livvy and Livvy’s twin brother Ty were a trio with their own side plots in TDA. And well. We literally meet Kit when Ty breaks into his house and puts a knife to his throat and Kit gets distracted by Ty’s eyes. Then later Kit and Livvy have a few moments and kiss once. Then Livvy dies. There are some necromancy shenanigans. Kit confesses his love to Ty then immediately flees the country. Like Kit/Ty was clearly endgame from the start but Livvy and Kit just made out once.

peggy carter and daniel sousa:

She’s the best secret agent, he’s a hot as hell disabled war vet They get together, but also don’t because apparently Steve Rogers is a homewrecker Peggy moved on after losing Steve, got together with the amazing Daniel Sousa, and then got broken up because the Russos didn’t want Steve to be seen as being gay for Bucky

nina zenik and matthias helvar:

[MAJOR SPOILER] If they were truly straight Matthias wouldn’t have died (submitted also stated that nina is canonically bi/pan)

buffy summers and spike:

Buffy's a vampire slayer and Spike's a vampire. Enemies to Lovers. Absolutely not intended by creators, creators treated it like a joke at first, then some of the writers/producers actively hated it even throughout their canon relationship, they don't technically get together in the end, also he dies (kind of. he's brought back in another show. and the comics. it's complicated). Very queercoded relationship despite being m/f - desire, euphoria, shame, slowburn, keeping it a secret, doesn't think anyone else will understand or accept them, wanting to change for the better.

ellie chu and paul munsky:

Classic set-up where they start off as strangers and become really close. He even has a crush on her! straightmod feels it's important to note that ellie is also canonically a lesbian, so there's a bait and switch element to this one

himmel and frieren:

https://official.lowee.us/manga/Sousou-no-Frieren/0030-015.png https://official.lowee.us/manga/Sousou-no-Frieren/0030-016.png https://official.lowee.us/manga/Sousou-no-Frieren/0030-017.png https://official.lowee.us/manga/Sousou-no-Frieren/0030-018.png https://64.media.tumblr.com/ccb9c16bab47d917d2e11dd22c9b88e7/828182d720d735af-ea/s500x750/210c55d7128139c2ce032383b34ad487df067514.jpg

jean-luc picard and beverly crusher:

They have a number of romantic moments throughout the TNG series from arguably the first but DEFINITELY the second episode. but they only get together (briefly before divorcing) in an alternate timeline episode which is also the season finale. Also they have a kid together in Picard but are still not allowed to be together She was married to his best friend and he was in love with her but wouldn’t say anything because he wouldn’t want to damage his bestie’s marriage and then his friend died and they met again years later and shared a lot of romantic and sexual tension for years. He openly admitted (under mind reading) that he had loved her since his bestie was alive but felt he couldn’t act on it. In an alternate future they got married. In the canon future they got together and broke up repeatedly because trauma makes relationships hard sometimes and they have a kid together who is named after the aforementioned bestie. An episode forcing them to share thoughts makes him openly admit that he loves her and has loved her for years even when she was married to his best friend.

tyler rake and nik khan:

They’re very close, have lots of chemistry, but have never been acknowledged in canon. At this point they are just work friends who save each others’ lives on the regular.

keiichi maebara and rena ryugu:

Fluffy harem romcom twists into yandere horror, but then twists again into a story of friendship triumphing over everything. Really holds for any pairing with Keiichi, but the rooftop battle in part 6 is just too good. A recent manga spinoff has them married to total randos, so their respective sons can have the same kind of relationship.

naoko takahashi and shouta oohara:

this “show” is a 2 episode hentai so I can understand if this doesn’t get in the brackets lol (I would not recommend watching this hentai for the sex scenes, I just remember reading about Oohara getting cucked for a girl and thinking that I had to see this) So, it starts off with Takahashi being in love with Oohara and they do have ghost sex in the first part of the episode 1 but what happens is that even though they have the opportunity to be together as ghosts, Takahashi pretty much IMMEDIATELY forgets about Oohara because she becomes completely infatuated with this ghost girl named Sakurako to the point where even when Oohara turns into a tiny penis in episode 2 but Takahashi doesn’t give a fuck

good luck everyone! now go vote!

[hellhound5925]

Cyare Verd *Beloved Warrior*

Chapter Fourteen

A week has gone by since I came to Coruscant and things are going really well. The squad accepts me as one of their own. I'm still waiting for the Jedi Counsel and the Chancelor to decide if they should offer me a place in the GAR where I can fight along side the 501st. However, Anakin assured me he would personally talk to them which hopefully works because they are being deployed tomorrow. All I got was something about a separatist controlled planet in the mid rim.

——————

I sat in the mess hall at the table alone staring at my tray. They’ll be leaving tomorrow morning and I’m stuck here. I should be out there helping them fight. I understand the hesitation to put a Mandalorian out in the field with GAR troops but COME ON…I’m only trying to help… I’m not even feeling hungry anymore honestly. I made sure I had gotten there before the squad because I really was not feeling like myself and it wasn’t fair to them. I can’t help but feel like I should be there to protect them…something in my epan (stomach) tells me I need to be there…or is it because Rex will be gone and I’ll be here? It’s not just about him… or is it?

I’m so deep in thought, playing with my food I didn’t hear someone approaching. “Everything alright over here?” He asks. Instinctively place my hand where my blaster is strapped to my beskar before looking over my shoulder. Cody raises his hands as if to surrender and calmly says “Udesii vod, Ni ceta (Easy sister, sorry). May I?”. I nod at the empty seat next to me. “You don’t look alright” he states. “I don’t want to sound like ik’aad (baby, child under 3), but I was actually hoping I would deploy with the 501st…I’m worried about them” I spill, not really meaning to. Cody laughs causing me to give him a look. “Ni ceta (sorry), but that’s funny coming from you. Not that long ago you were bragging about how well they were doing in the training you were doing with them. Not only that if I remember correctly you even told me they trained you in their strategies and you were impressed” he explains. I roll my eyes and roll my neck knowing he’s right “I know I just-“ he cuts me off “care about Rex”. I’m totally speechless because he’s caught me. Cody has been a great friend outside the 501st and he’s listen to be vent - good and bad - about them a few times. I can feel the heat creeping up my face - I never wanted to call it what it was but I knew he was right. Cody smiles and I swear if he holds that smile any longer it’ll stick “Oya! I knew it! Fox owes me”. “Pare sol! (Wait one- like wait a minute), You knew what?” I asked now panicking. “Maker, I never thought I’d see the day where the great Raven Skirata loses her ramikadyc (commando state of mind- confident, determined)” Cody laughs even more getting attention of the troopers at tables around us. “Dirycir gar jorad! (lower your voice)” I whisper yell at him.

He stops and becomes serious putting a hand on my armored shoulder “Haa’taylir (technically means see but we are going with look), Rex - and his men, are well trained. You’ve seen it yourself, what we go through on Kamino. Not to mention, you trained them well yourself by the sounds of it. They’ll be fine, they’re mando’ade (sons of Mandalore)”. His reassurance is not really working, I look down at my tray. He switches tactics, “I heard General Kenobi talking with General Skywalker about getting you an official position in the GAR. Trust in the Force something will work out”. I look over at Cody and giggle “Thanks Master Cody” I joke. He rolls his eyes and removes his hand. “Not for nothing….I think you’re a good match for Rex’ika (little [brother] Rex)” he starts to get up from the table. “Vor’e (thanks) Cody……Tell Fox ‘Nar’sheb’ for me will you?” I ask over my shoulder. Cody turns around and winks “There’s the Raven I know”. I shake my head and turn my attention to my food, appetite slowly coming back.

I take care of my tray and head towards my quarters. Rex just happens to be leaving his when I turn the corner to our hall. He smiles at me as he approaches “That was a good session this morning, the men have come a long way”. I fake a smile “yeah they really have”. His smile falters and he gives me a knowing look, “what is it?”. I can’t even meet his eyes - I’m feeling guilty for not being more supportive….I’m being selfish - “Ni ceta (sorry) I should be more supportive, I’m just worried about you guys that’s all….” Straightening up with the confidence - in typical Rex fashion - and says “The 501st has been trained to be the best and you have helped us to be better then the best”. His emphasis on the word ‘you’ has me feeling some kind of way. The emotion is not one I can even find the words for, my whole being is flooded - heart pounding in my ears, heat rising from my chest - as I search for some kind of answer. “I— uh—“ Maker I must look stupid. Rex gives me the million credit half smile. “— I don’t think I had much to do with it, you’re extraordinary men” I finally say, Osik….Di’kut- I mentally curse myself. Rex starts to speak but I cut him off, “I don’t want to keep you, I’m sure you’ve got a lot to do before deployment” I smile at him. “yeah…uh…right….Ret’ (see you)” he replies. I head back to my room now feeling all flustered.

I opt to change into my workout gear and head to the gym here at the barracks. What better way to clear my head. I enter, put in my ear buds, and get to work. After about an hour of being there my comm link on my watch goes off. Confused - I look seeing it’s a message from Anakin ‘Meet me at the temple ASAP’. I wonder what that’s all about? I decide going sweaty wasn’t worth it, so I sent him a message back saying I’d be about 45 minutes. Racing back to my quarters I almost - literally - run into Fives, Hardcase, Echo, and Jesse. “Oya! Where you off to in such a hurry?” Fives asks. “Gotta meet Anakin, We’ll catch up later” I holler continuing past them down the hall. I shower quickly, throw cloths on and head out to the street to grab a taxi.

Making to the temple in 45 minutes was tough but I made it. The guards stop me at the entrance “no visitors unless accompanied by a Jedi”. “It’s alright she’s with me” I hear Ahsoka behind them, they let me through. She comes bounding over and throws her arms around me. “Good to see you too” I laugh. Glancing in the direction she came from I notice Anakin, Obi-wan, and a little green old man. I walk over with Ahsoka in tow and respectfully bow “Generals” I say - only because I’m not sure who this other Jedi is. “Raven Skirata, you must be. Master Yoda, I am” he introduces himself. “What can I do for you?” I ask, still wondering why I’m here. Master Yoda looks to Anakin and Obi-wan, “Brought to my attention it has, that a position with the 501st, you want. Useful, the counsel has decided. Short on Jedi, are we”. Placing my right fist over my heart bowing my head, “I’m honored to serve with the brave men of the 501st”. “Go you must, with them tomorrow, you shall depart. Commander Raven to the 501st, are you now”. My eyes widen, “What about Anakin and Ahsoka? I don’t want to remove them”. “Anakin and Ahsoka will be leading a new batch of 501st. You’ll be taking over Captain Rex’s squad - Torrent squad.” Obi-wan chimes in. Anakin, gar mesh’la jetiise (you beautiful Jedi). I glance at Anakin who puffs out his chest and smiles at me cockily, like he can read my thought. “I am greatful to the Counsel. I won’t let you down, neither will the men” I say bowing my head. “Know this, we do” says Master Yoda before turning around and heading down the hall.

I can’t even wipe the smile off my face. “I thought you’d be happy to hear that…Commander…” Anakin says all smug. “This will be great fit, Commander Cody had many good things to say as well” Obi-wan says. “Take good care of Rex ole boy will ya?” Ahsoka asks. I salute them - considering they are now my superiors for real - “Sir, yes, sir”. “We should tell the squad. I’ll comm Rex, have them gather in one of the training rooms” Anakin says stepping off to the side. “Congratulations my dear, I must be off” nods Obi-wan. I reciprocate. “You’re the same rank as me now….Commander Raven” Ahsoka giggles. “It would seem so” I smile.

Masterlist

[hypexion]

Well Batwoman part 3 part 2 finally aired in the UK so now I have seen it all. Overall it was about okay but I can see why it wouldn’t get renewed.

Really the big picture thing is that the show felt like it never really worked out what it’s deal was, especially when they had to replace Kate Kane with Ryan Wilder, and even with Ryan being roughly 1000% more interesting the damage was already done. Then instead of continuing on the whole angle of Ryan as an outsider trying to deal with suddenly being launched into the Wayne CEO role, that instead served as a springboard for her to get tangled up in some family issues that are essentially parallel to Kate’s issues. Like the show even points it out when Marquis is trying to convince Alice that they should team up.

In terms of the medium picture season three structure, I think the first part, where the overall plot existed to drive the more standard villain-of-the-week episode plots works better than what was going on in the second part. One big issue is that the ordering of the big villains feels wrong, with the more dangerous and established Poison Ivy coming before Marquis Jet, who is fresh-faced and also just some guy. But you can’t really reverse the order, because the emotional stakes would end up being reversed. It’s an awkward situation, and I think the main issue is that the whole Jet plotline isn’t very well placed.

Jada Jet, as I mentioned in a previous post, primarily exists to Cause Problems On Purpose. Arguably, any problem the characters face in season three that can’t be traced back to Rene Montoya is produced directly by Jada. The driver for her to produce these problems is her apparent inability to have a conversation where she treats the other party as an equal instead of someone to be commanded. A questionable thing to try on your secret daughter, and an outright ridiculous thing to try on actual Batwoman. She only really stops after her decision to hide her connection to the Black Glove Society nearly gets her killed. And also nearly gets Gotham doused in acid, because half the reason Marquis can access the Batcave and the heroes can’t is because Jada torpedoed Ryan’s (technically fake but Jada didn’t know that) career. Yeah. (sure the Batcave should have better security and another access point but still.)

The Jet plotline also ends up revolving around The Magic Joybuzzer. This piece of Joker-tech can apparently rewire someone’s brain to make them switch between good and evil. Which is pretty magicy. But it’s also treated as a one-of-a-kind object that cannot possibly be replicated, even though it seems to be known exactly how it brain-blasts someone. Jada Jet’s dubious Black Glove solution to Marquis is to freeze him, not recreate the Joybuzzer. When it turns out the repaired Joybuzzer can only be used once, there’s no talk of replicating it so both Alice and Marquis can get a jolt of that electric healing. No, the only person who can possibly make or repair it is Kiki Roulette. Hell, the only character who even attempts to find a substitute is Alice, which happens in order to show how badly she’s falling apart, rather than being an actual attempt to solve the problem.

The other weird plot event is Poison Mary, wherein Mary gets plant powers, but is then immediately upstaged by the original Poison Ivy and loses the plant powers. There’s the seed (oh ho!) of an interesting idea here, but it quickly wilts. Ultimately it simply grows into the “oh no sweet Mary did a murder“ thing which really didn’t work for me. It was essentially self-defence as well, since the guy Mary killed pointed a gun at her. Also he approached a weirdly dress person in Gotham, at night, which is literally the dumbest thing you can do in that city. The improved relationship between Mary and Alice was definitely the best result of the subplot, especially with Alice choosing to take the fall, but overall I think there were better routes to this result.

On the positive side, Marquis Jet is definitely the highlight of the Jet side of things, and he makes a fantastic Joker Tribute Act. My general opinion is that the Joker has become a very overplayed character, so it’s nice to see a slightly different take on the character. While the Ryan vs. Marquis stuff is something of a repeat of the Kate and Alice stuff, the way it’s essentially turned on its head manages to make it feel fresh. Plus I like that if you look at Marquis as the Joker with a dash of Lex Luthor, they didn’t drop the ball and act like the character isn’t primarily, you know, the Joker. And as always, I’m willing to extend some slack to the main villains of Batwoman because they always manage to nail the comic book theatrics, and this is, ultimately, a comic book television show.

Alice is also still around and still managing to be the most interesting character. You’d think her whole deal would have run thin by now, especially with all the characters with a major connection to her being gone, but there’s enough progression that she manages to stay interesting. Once she’s gotten all her revenge, what’s an evil lady to do with her life? I do think that if the show had continued, her exit was still the right move, since without the rest of the Kanes, Alice doesn’t really have much to anchor her to the rest of the plot. It also would stop her falling into being just a generic “chaos villain“, which she never really was - for all her unpredictability, Alice always had specific goals.

Once it gets there, the ending of Batwoman is good enough. Ryan finally catches a break, gets the girl, and saves the city. Hooray! Cut off the final scene with the zombies and you get a fairly standard but perfectly servicable “And The Adventure Continues“ sort of ending, which I think works well.

So yeah, Batwoman. I liked the characters more than I liked the plot, which is strange because the characters were generating the plot. And while I do see why it didn’t get renewed, it’s kind of a letdown because I think it was finally finding it’s groove. But it was fun while it lasted, and from now on if someone asks me who my favourite Batfamily is I can say it’s Ryan Wilder and they’ll look at me like I’m from Earth B.

[f1]

Tost opens up on how close AlphaTauri came to signing IndyCar star Herta

AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost believes signing American driver Colton Herta would have been an exciting prospect for his squad, but feels confident they can have a “successful” 2023 with new arrival Nyck de Vries and incumbent Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull had been exploring a potential deal with Herta to bring the IndyCar star into their stable as a replacement for Pierre Gasly, ahead of the Frenchman’s switch from AlphaTauri to Alpine being confirmed. READ MORE: FIA stands firm on Colton Herta F1 Super Licence Herta caught the eye by becoming IndyCar’s youngest-ever winner at the age of 18 in 2019, and has taken six more victories since, but he does not have the required 40 Super Licence points to make the step to F1. With three Grands Prix set to be held across the United States next season – in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas – the arrival of an American driver would represent further growth – with Alexander Rossi the last US racer to drive in F1 back in 2015. Herta has seven IndyCar victories to his name Discussing the recent driver market movements, Tost said: “Of course, there were some talks with Herta, but he doesn’t have a Super Licence. And when the FIA said that they will not provide him with a Super Licence, it was clear that he is not any more an option for AlphaTauri. “To have an American driver with this good name, I think, would have pushed us forward in the American market. We are an ambassador for [the] AlphaTauri [brand] and, therefore, this would have been a good possibility from the marketing side, but it didn’t work and then we looked for another option.” ANALYSIS: Why AlphaTauri recruited De Vries for 2023 – and how Max Verstappen helped him secure the seat As it transpired, AlphaTauri secured the services of former F2 champion De Vries after his impressive F1 race debut at the Italian Grand Prix – the Dutchman scoring points for Williams when stepping in for the unwell Alex Albon. With the team set to lose their most experienced driver in Gasly over the winter, Tost expressed optimism that De Vries – who has also made F1 practice outings with Mercedes and Aston Martin – and Tsunoda will step up to the mark and combine well as team mates. De Vries will join Tsunoda at AlphaTauri next season “The guidance of the team depends also on the performance of the car. If we have a good car, it’s easy for both drivers. If we have problems in the car, then I think that it will not be so easy to sort out everything, because Nyck hasn’t so much Formula 1 experience [and] Yuki is still in a learning process,” Tost commented. “I think that Yuki next year should be matured enough to give technical guidance. Nevertheless, I expect a lot from Nyck, because he has experience from the racing categories where he won races and championships. Therefore, once more, if the car works, I think that we will have a successful year.” via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[heliads]

Hi I hope you’re doing well! Can I request a Derek Hale imagine where the reader is Derek’s beta then after Boyd and Erica dies, and Isaac leaves, reader tells/assures him that they’ll never leave him even when he’s not an alpha anymore. Thank you!

yes yes yes

masterlist

Derek Hale is alone when you finally manage to find him. Technically, you’ve had a guess as to where he’s been for a while, but you haven’t really wanted to see this moment until now. Some tender spark of guilt wraps itself around your throat, tearing you down from the inside out. You may not be the ones who left, but you still feel bad about all of this.

It’s not that you’ve tired of Derek’s company, not like the rest. It’s just that, well, you don’t know how to make all of this better, and to you, that’s almost the same as making it worse. If you can’t turn Derek’s resolutely grim stare into something that almost could be happiness, then what is the point of you? You certainly can’t figure that out.

Maybe Derek can, though, because you can hear his heart rate pick up slightly the second you open the door to his apartment. The lights are all off, although the night is still sufficiently far away that an adequate amount of sunlight can brighten the place up. The sun is there, if you look for it, not quite hidden behind a bay of clouds. It reaches through the windows, running over floor panels and walls until you’re forced to see its brilliance.

Even then, this whole place still feels abandoned and alone. You can see, sure, but that doesn’t make it any less dark or gloomy. Derek is sitting on the ground at the far side of his living room, leaning against the wall as he stares out the floor to ceiling windows. You wonder what he’s looking for, if he thinks that with all his enhanced sight he’ll be able to witness his own wolves leaving the pack.

That’s why you’re here, after all, because you’ve heard that the last of them have finally left. Erica was the first to die, lucky girl, then Boyd, lonely no more. Those hurt more than anything; you could feel Derek’s grief carving at your skin like knives. That was supposed to be the end of the loneliness. The rest of Derek’s pack were supposed to close their gates, shoulder up for the coming storm and pretend that no one else mattered.

That’s what Derek has taught you, at any rate. He’s shown you what it’s like to be alone, how much one person matters when it means saving you from the relentless solitude. Derek expected Erica and Boyd to be the last ones to leave, even if his conscience warned him that Isaac would go as well. He’s not used to kindness, not after all of his years here. The same sentiment applies to almost everyone else.

Still, Isaac is gone now. He was on the fence for a while now, hanging around more and more often with Scott McCall’s pack as if he could switch teams like a star player. Derek didn’t mind it then; Isaac was still his beta, and could be called back to Derek’s side if the situation so required it. Knowing that members of your pack are in town is a lifesaver, a painkiller for the suffering. You can feel their heartbeats somewhere across the streets, you know that you are not alone.

Neither you nor Derek have that salvation now. Losing Allison took the last of Isaac’s heart from him, and he can’t stand to be in this same place without her. Derek may have given him a new purpose in giving him the bite, but Allison made it all worthwhile. At the end of the day, Allison Argent was the reason Isaac stood up and took a punch, and without her, who could he possibly be?

You were there to watch Isaac’s plane take off. Derek was too, although he didn’t show up with you. You’re fairly certain that he spoke to his beta before Isaac left. You don’t know the exact words spoken, but you can imagine that it was something along the lines of a final goodbye and one last offer for the younger boy to stay. Isaac isn’t used to getting help, even after all this time; he would have left without another word.

Derek, too, always an island, wouldn’t have spared the blond boy much of his sympathy, at least not to his face. After the plane took off, you could feel the surge of emotion building in Derek’s throat, the sheer pain of losing yet another member of his pack. Isaac might have been Derek’s favorite, he was kind in a way that Derek hadn’t managed to be in a long time. At the end of the day, Derek looked at Isaac and could barely see himself, and that’s what he liked the most.

Your favorite Hale is alone now, alone except you. You’ve wondered if you would leave at some point, too, if Derek would want a fresh start after everything. You like Beacon Hills too much to leave, though. Besides, you like Derek too much as well. The second you try to think about life without him, it’s as if your entire mind shuts down. No, you won’t be leaving Derek.

That isn’t to say that Derek won’t be leaving you, though. You can feel Derek’s walls rebuilding themselves even as they crumble to ash. He doesn’t like being alone, it reminds him of a certain fire, a certain pack destroyed. Every time he tries to make a life for himself, a pack to make him feel like he won’t be damned to constant loneliness, something comes around to stop it. Derek has always been a fighter, but you can’t help but wonder if this might be the one incident that finally takes the last of his spirit, and snuffs him out like a flame.

That’s why you’re here, in part, to see if Derek is any more than a broken shell. He won’t show this side of himself to anyone else, because appearances still are everything even if that runs contrary to anything he has ever told you, but it’s true.

You walk further into the apartment, seeing him at last. You’ve been hearing him for quite some time, the exhausted rattle of his breath, the melancholy beat of his heart, but at last he’s here before you. Derek raises his head to stare at you, green eyes so pale they almost seem clear.

“Are you leaving too?” He asks, voice somewhat cynical.

You shake your head, crossing the room until you stand only a few paces away. “No. I wanted to see if you were.”

Derek chuckles, and you realize that he has a glass bottle at his side, half full. Werewolves can’t get drunk, but you can’t blame Derek for trying again. Who hasn’t, when faced with a future like this?

“The Hales are too connected to Beacon Hills for me to leave. I couldn’t go anywhere else if I tried.”

Neither of you ask if he has tried before, you’re almost certain that he has. In a way, getting a new pack was Derek’s attempt at it, like keeping a new family around would convince him that he’s somewhere except this endless graveyard. In the end, it didn’t work. Nothing ever does. Time comes and goes, and the wolves always stay where they are. So much for that story about lone wolves always dying off; no one’s safe, not even those in packs.

You shake your head. “There are more types of leaving than just packing your bags.”

Derek lets out a slow breath, then gestures for you to take a seat next to him. You do so without hesitating, and stretch out on the floor next to him, staring out the windows. It’s a wonderful view, although you don’t think Derek’s noticed it for a while.

After a minute or two, Derek speaks again. “Why haven’t you left?”

Everyone else has, he means. In truth, you don’t really have a good explanation outside of what feels right to you, and this does. You tell him as much.

Derek tilts his head to the side, considering this as he continues to stare at the setting sun. The golden light cascades over him, drenching his hair in gold. It drips from him, this liquid brightness, highlighting nothing but how changed he is from the man you used to know. This is a ghost of somebody you once knew, scarcely more than a memory. Maybe Derek already has left, the last of his ambitions gone with Isaac on that plane.

“This feels right, then? All of our friends leaving without a thought for us?”

You can see Derek’s lips purse as he asks the questions, already regretting the coldness of his tone. If he thinks that a few sharp words are all it takes to convince you to go, though, he’s more wrong than he thinks.

“They did what feels right for them. What feels right for me is staying to protect this town. Enough happens here that I couldn’t leave in good conscience. Also, I happen to like the people who stayed. I’m not leaving them either.”

Derek glances at you at last, tearing his gaze away from the town unfurling before him. Is he looking for his future in the plain of your brow, the curve of your cheekbones? You don’t know if he sees what he wants, but it appears to be good enough for him, because he keeps looking, again and again until you think he must be able to see every facet of your soul.

“And what about me? An alpha without a pack. Why would you stay for me?” He asks. It’s not done out of pity, in some search for compliments, but out of genuine curiosity.

You have an answer, you always do. “You stayed for me a long time ago. You gave me the bite when I needed it most. That was a lifesaver, Derek, even if you didn’t realize it. I don’t care if you started this pack because you wanted the power, it was still everything to me. I’m not going to leave if I could return the favor.”

He nods slowly. “You already are everything to me.”

You laugh, the sound bittersweet. “What, because I’m the last one standing?”

Derek shakes his head once. “You always have been.”

You tilt your head back, then realize what he means. “Ah.” 

A quiet sigh.

This is it, then. This is why he’s been truly upset. Losing Erica, Boyd, and Isaac cut like a blade, that much is obvious. It’s hurt you, and you weren’t even their alpha. What Derek Hale has feared most, though? That’s what he thought he saw when you first walked into his apartment. He has faced hunters, death, impossible odds a thousand times, but the thing that scares him the most is the thought that you would leave him too.

All this, and you still smile back at him. “I’m not going anywhere, Derek. I promise.”

A corner of his mouth tugs up. “You know, you really shouldn’t make promises like that. It’s just tempting fate.”

You stand by your words. “Let fate do what it wishes. I don’t intend on breaking that promise.”

Derek cocks his head to the side. “And what if you do?”

You return his stare, as resolute as always. “Then I suppose you’ll have to come find me.”

Derek smiles at last. “I can do that.”

You don’t know how long it will take for the weight of Isaac’s departure to leave you, nor the grief of losing Erica and Boyd. You do know that Derek will be able to handle it, though, as will you. You’ll do it the way you always have, the way you’ve fought hunters and supernatural threats and everything else that threatens to ruin you: together.

teen wolf tag list: @thatfangirl42, @rogueanschel, @lovesanimals0000, @rafecameronswhore, @bellabadacadabra, @watchreadfangirlrepeat

[phantomrose96]

Buds After the Frost

This was supposed to be a short warm-up writing exercise yesterday and then it got... longer. Enjoy!!

...

The doors opened for Maddie Fenton with a pneumatic hiss. Pressurized nitrogen released, splitting open the vacuum seal on the door as its twin halves slid apart, slotting into the wall-mounted sleeves. The nitrogen misted out, cold and dry, air currents catching in swirls around Maddie Fenton’s lab coat. Her feet thocked against hollow metal, amplified by the coldness and the vastness of the containment room beyond.

She paused short of the specimen’s cell, mindful attention drawn to the panel of controls nested rightmost against the wall. The monitor read out stats, tracked metrics of the specimen’s heartrate and blood oxygenation and blood pressure. Dials beneath the screens offered her means of interaction, manipulating the cage’s environment without needing to tamper with it by hand. She ignored these, as she had been ignoring them the entire time, and paid mind only to the single switch which would seal shut the doors behind her.

She pressed it. Another pneumatic hiss followed, locking out the world behind her. Her breath curled, cold. She and the specimen were alone.

“No coffee this morning?” he asked.

Maddie sat down at the control panel, elbow leaning against the dashboard for support. She turned to the cage. “No. One of the interns broke the pot last night. New one should be delivered today.”

Phantom let out a huff of air. “You mean in this whole gigantic mega-hyper-futuristic government lab, there’s nothing that can stand in as a coffee pot?”

“I wouldn’t stay employed long if I tried using equipment to brew coffee.”

“Use one of the big ectoplasm beakers. Ectoplasm washes out with soap and water. Just suds it up and throw it in the coffee maker. I’m an expert about these things.”

“It’s more about protocol.”

Phantom waved her off. “’Protocol.’ Bureaucracy is standing between you and a delicious cup of ectoplasmic coffee, Dr. Fenton.”

Maddie looked forward now, taking him in. He’d hovered to the front of the cell, translucent reinforced glass separating him from the rest of the lab. Green eyes shined above a cheeky smile, a dusting of loose white hairs falling over his eyes, the rest of his bangs swept slightly to the side. His tailed flickered, his aura pulsed, his vital readings blipped out steady, normal, healthy.

“Phantom?”

“Yeah?”

Maddie paused.

“Why are you still here?”

The ghost boy let out a small guffaw. He motioned his arms around him, hands waving. “I dunno. Maybe the big ghost-proof box I’m in has something to do with it?”

“The shield is down, Phantom,” Maddie answered quietly. She set her eyes to Phantom, investigating. “…I put it down last night. It’s down now. You knew this.”

Phantom took just a moment too long to react, eyebrows arching up. “Oh, huh! Nope I didn’t notice. I mean it’s not like I’m constantly throwing myself at the barrier to electrocute myself so no I just didn’t try getting past it last night so I didn’t notice.”

“Phantom,” Maddie said again, voice measured, words stern. “You saw me crank down the dial that controls the shield.”

“Well I don’t know what all those buttons and dials do.”

“Yes you do. You’ve been observing me since day 1. You knew.”

Phantom kicked back in the air, floating a fraction back and higher. “Well maybe I thought it was a trap, I dunno. Or maybe I just like to get in your head, you know? What unpredictable thing will Phantom do next! Gotta write another 200 equations about ghost theory to figure that one out, Dr. Fenton.”

“Phantom.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you not want to leave?”

“Oh I wanna leave.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“We’re having a conversation. That’d be rude.”

“Will you leave as soon as I exit the room?”

“Who knows?”

“Phantom.”

“Yeah?”

Maddie stood. She left her chair and the control panel behind. She walked up to the specimen cage instead. It was cubic, a skeleton of metal bar ribbings with a metal mesh that plastered the glass sides like a membrane. The top anchored to the ceiling, the bottom—raised by about a foot—anchored to a pedestal on the floor. Maddie stared through the mesh into Phantom’s eyes.

“Is there anyone who realizes you’re missing?” she asked.

Phantom chewed on the question. “Nah. Well um, trick question, actually. Probably not. Assuming I do this right, then no one has even realized I’m gone.”

“Do what ‘right’?”

“You know that thing about Clockwork I explained?”

“You said he’s the ghost that controls time and reality.”

“Yeah. SUPER powerful.”

“And you said you …were from one of those other realities.”

Phantom nodded. “Maybe I touched some things in Clockwork’s lair I wasn’t actually allowed to touch. Jury’s still out on whether I’m in trouble for that or not. I’ve been a little too ‘stuck in this reality’ to know if Clockwork is pissed. But yeah, I got um, bopped into your reality instead of mine. So technically my reality is lacking me right now, and yeah there’s people there who’d know I’m missing.”

Phantom flipped upside-down, as though laying on his back. He rested his palms beneath his head, elbows out, suspended in an invisible hammock, head tilted far back so that he still stared at Maddie. “Especially since it’s been, what, a month that I’ve been gone?”

“2 weeks.”

“What? No way. I’ve been here absolutely forever it has to have been at least a month.”

“This is day 14 of your observation, Phantom.”

Phantom blew a strand of hair out of his face. “Anyway. Two weeks is still long enough to have a search party out on my butt. But whether or not that’s happened is up to – it’s kind of a Schrodinger thing. Because here’s my strategy. Assuming Clockwork hasn’t banned me from reality-hopping forever, I can just get him to send me back to my own reality at the precise moment in time I vanished. And then bam, no one ever knows I was gone. And it makes no difference whether I do that today, or next week, or next month. So assuming you eventually let me go, then I’m all set there.”

“You say that almost like you don’t care when it happens.”

“I dunno, more like I’m just not losing sleep over it. It’s not like I have a say in the matter. You do. I don’t.”

“Is the time you spend here just meaningless, to you?”

“I wouldn’t say meaningless. I’m still aging goddammit.”

“You’re a ghost.”

“I’m complex.” Phantom flipped right-side-up again. “If I start growing facial hair, send me back. I’m gonna have some awkward questions to answer if I show up again with a ghost beard suddenly.”

“…And what if I never send you back?” Maddie asked, careful with her words. “How does your plan work if you stay here forever? If I destroy you first?”

“Um. …It doesn’t, I guess.” Phantom set a hand to his chin, thinking. “Yeah um, please don’t do that. I don’t wanna worry my whole family like that.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“What part?”

“That you have a family.”

“I mean. I think that came up in Interrogation Session #3. Consult your notes.”

“I just have a hard time believing you.”

“Because I’m a ghost?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a complex ghost.”

“I know. You keep saying that.”

“It’s true.”

Silence filtered in between them.

“…What is your family like, Phantom?”

Phantom stiffened a fraction, his eyes finding Maddie’s and shifting away. “Oh, you know, family.”

“Do they exist here too?”

“Huh?”

“You’re from another reality, at least you’re claiming you are.”

“I gotta be. The me from this reality died 6 months ago, didn’t he?”

“The you from most realities is dead, Phantom. You’re a ghost.”

“A complex ghost.”

“The you from this reality was destroyed 6 months ago.”

“Which you validated with your own sciencey equipment, right? You said so! So you know I’m not lying. Unless you think I recombobulated myself from being a protoplasmic smear on the sidewalk.” Phantom caught himself, registering the flinch in Maddie’s body. He deflated a bit, eyes averted. “S-sorry. Inconsiderate phrasing.”

“Why?” Maddie asked, tone flat, blunt.

Phantom’s eyes shifted back. “Um. Just. You know. That accident was. There were um, you know—”

“Human causalities.”

Phantom squirmed. “We don’t have to talk about that, you know? No one wants to talk about that. Okay as a ghost I guess ‘talking about how I died’ is sort of a bit more normal, but this is weird yeah, ‘talking about how an alternate-me died permanently’? That’s morbid. No one wants to talk about that.”

“Okay then. You can go back to answering my previous question.”

“Um. I forget.”

“Does your family exist in this reality?”

“Um, well who really knows, you know? I had like a grand total of 20 minutes of freedom in this reality before you captured me, so, don’t ask me like I’m any kind of expert about your reality. What’s it matter?”

“I want to know if there’s anyone in this reality who’s mourning you.”

Phantom’s face schismed with surprise. His front dropped, and the first look of genuine emotion sank into his glowing eyes. “Woah… That’s um, weirdly nice, of you, I guess. Why do you… want to know?”

Maddie said nothing.

“I. Um. I think the answer is no? So don’t um. Worry about that. If you were worried? Which is weird. I’m the enemy, aren’t I? Evil spooky ghost to be studied?”

“I’m not so sure what you are…” Maddie answered. “I heard you got destroyed trying to save them.”

“The um… the human casualties?”

“Yes.”

“I said we don’t have to talk about that.”

“Phantom.”

“What?”

“Do you know who they were?”

“The… casualties?”

“Yes.”

“Come on we’re on a different topic now.”

“Do you know who they were?”

“I don’t—how’m I supposed to know? I don’t know how I died here, you know? You think I’ve got some kind of like… parallel-universe death vision?”

“So you don’t know?”

“N-no.”

“I have a different question, then.”

“Okay, good, because I haven’t been liking these previous ones.”

“Are you staying just to keep me company?”

Phantom faltered. He looked left, then right, hand scratching at his chin. “I’m staying because I’m in a ghost-proof box.”

“It’s not ghost-proof anymore. The shields are down.”

“I feel like you’re circling around some accusation I’m not smart enough to follow. This feels like entrapment.”

“Then I’ll be more direct.”

“Oh no there is an accusation.”

“I think you do know how you were destroyed in this universe, Phantom.” Maddie took a step forward, and she let her left hand touch the glass, eyes focused on her fingers. “I think you know what happened at the Nasty Burger.”

“That’s—um—the human food… consumption… location… that the local human adolescents meet at, yes?”

Maddie looked up, and she locked Phantom with her stare. He squirmed, and he relented.

“I um…” he continued. “I—yeah—yeah, okay? I know about the Nasty Burger accident. It was supposed to happen to me too in my reality but I—Clockwork—stopped it from happening in my reality.” Phantom glanced left, right, as if staring beyond the confines of his cage. “When I first got knocked into this reality, I went to go find the Fenton portal so I could try to refind Clockwork and fix this and… Well it wasn’t there. And I tried to find some people I know and… I checked out the library in case the Fentons just lived somewhere else and. I um. I found the articles.” His eyes focused on hers again. “They all say you were the only survivor, yeah…?”

“I was sick, that day. It was just a cold. My husband Jack went without me.”

“I’m sorry…”

“It took my daughter and my son too.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“And it destroyed you.”

Phantom opened his mouth, but no words followed.

Maddie looked up.

“You knew this. You’ve known this ever since I captured you.” Maddie let her hand slide away from the glass. “Did you let me capture you?”

“Why would I let you capture me?”

“Because you feel sorry for me.”

Phantom’s eyes flickered about, unwilling to meet hers. “…Nah. Nah. I don’t—come on ‘sorry’? I’m a ghost you know? Bane of humanity! We’re enemies. You were just too skilled a hunter and you captured me.”

“And yet you won’t leave.”

Phantom lapsed silent.

“I um… I wasn’t happy to read about—to know the, the thing at the Nasty Burger happened here, okay? That’s something that I kinda didn’t want to believe existed in any reality anymore, but I guess… And if you were still alive. I was… maybe just kind of happy to see you? That you were okay. And still hunting. That was kind of, like a small relief.” Phantom glanced away, back again. “I wasn’t evil, you know. In my reality or this one. I care about what happened to the Fentons…”

“You let me capture you. …And you did it because you thought it would be a nice thing for you to do for me.”

“I Just—I thought maybe, um… I mean when you phrase it like that. I mean what else could cheer up renowned ghost hunter Maddie Fenton quite like a ghost subject to study? Me, especially? The ghost boy or public enemy #1 or whatever. I’m fun, aren’t I?”

Silently, Maddie pushed away from Phantom’s cage. She moved to the control panel, stiff movements and numb fingers. She entered the release code into the console, and unslung the key from her neck to twist into the override, and she threw down each successive lever in the row of four lining the top of the mechanisms.

The scrape of glass sliding away sounded behind her. All four walls of Phantom’s enclosure dropped away, metal mesh sliding away piece-meal. Phantom stared at her, blinking, floating in place.

“You’re free to go, Phantom.”

“I—uh—well hang on, I don’t think the Guys In White would be too happy about that. You can’t just let me—”

“Go, Phantom.”

“They could like, fire you.”

“I don’t care about this job.”

“I—come on, you still wanna study me, don’t you? Chat with me? If you feel bad maybe just get me a couch and some video games for my cage then I’ll be—”

“Phantom.”

“What?”

“Go home to your family.”

The half-hearted smile dropped from Phantom’s face.

“Come on. You can’t just evict me on such short notice. I’m not ready for Clockwork to kick my ass so soon.”

“Go home.”

“I’m not in any rush! I like talking to you. Don’t you—don’t you like talking to me too? In like a scientific way?���

Maddie lowered herself into the chair by the control panel. She leaned forward, arms pooled in her lap, eyes to the floor. “You have a family to get back to, Phantom.”

“It’s—there’s time travel shenanigans! Like I said they don’t even know I’m gone.”

“Every single day, Phantom,” Maddie looked up, eyes stern, “…I wish every single day that my own family would just come back home. I won’t do the same to you. I won’t do the same to your family.”

Phantom said nothing. A somber acceptance sunk into his eyes.

“They’re… alive, you know. In my dimension.”

Maddie dropped her head, and she blinked away the wetness in her eyes.

“I actually… in my dimension I’m kind of closer to the Fentons than I think the, the Phantom in this dimension was. It’s… complex.”

Maddie said nothing. Silence built between them.

“Jazz is um… Jazz is applying for colleges, y-you know. She got in early-acceptance to Yale but um, we all—they all—visited Columbia last month and I think that’s what she wants the most. I can see Jazz in New York City. I think she’d rock it.”

Maddie blinked again. Tears plicked into her lap.

“…Should I stop?”

“Jack… Tell me about Jack.”

“Oh. Yeah he um… big and goofy as ever. He’s got some kind of eight-armed-octogun he’s working on. I know because I was his target practice, involuntarily by the way. He keeps trying to merge “Fenton” and “octopus” together with mixed results. We—Mo-addie—you… are still trying to talk him out of ‘Fentoctopus’.”

Maddie’s ribcage shuddered, a repressed sob, a repressed laugh.

“And Danny?”

“Danny… um… Danny is...” Phantom’s shoulders fell a little bit. He looked away, and then back at Maddie. “He loves you. I know that.”

Maddie blinked, and blinked again, and her eyes wouldn’t clear.

“And are they happy?”

“They’re happy.”

“Am I happy…?”

“You’re…” Phantom’s tail bounced. “You’re happy, I think. I like to think so. I think you’re very happy. You have a great family.”

Maddie nodded.

“Now go.”

“But I still—”

Maddie reached forward, and she grabbed the ecto-gun propped against the control panel. She lifted it into her shoulder, and flicked the safety, and the charge built along the rising whine.

“Go.”

Phantom balked. He blinked. He kicked away from his wall-less cage. “Not forever. I’ll be back. You won’t be alone here forever.”

He was gone.

And Maddie was alone again.

…

Clockwork surveyed the boy in front of him whose head was bowed nearly to the floor, white bangs trailing along cobblestone, hands clasped, apologies repeated, begging case made.

Clockwork ran a hand along his beard, which unfurled, drew back, undid itself with the shifting of his form to a simple child.

“So let’s see. You have the audacity to break my rules andbeg me to meddle on your behalf in the time stream, all in the same breath? Apologies don’t usually come with additional requests for favors.”

“I know,” Danny’s head dipped lower. “You can punish me however you want for touching the restricted timelines but you have to help it, or let me help this one timeline. Please, please just send me back to the Nasty Burger incident so I can save it.”

“It’s already been saved.”

Danny faltered. He looked up.

“You died at the Nasty Burger incident that night,” Clockwork elaborated, form shifting older. “There is no you to ruin that future. That timeline is safe. It’s a very lucky timeline.”

Danny blinked. “N-no. No that’s not what I mean. Save it like you saved my timeline.”

“That did happen. You’re describing your own timeline.”

“I mean do it to THAT one.”

“You are misunderstanding timelines.”

Danny lapsed silent. Worry bled into his eyes, and Clockwork sighed.

“There is no undoing timelines, Danny. There is only forking them by meddling in the stream. All futures and pasts you witness exist, and do exist, and continue to exist,” Clockwork paused, “with the exception of realities I needed to cull, to prevent utter catastrophe.” His gaze fixed on Danny. “The futures that your evil self destroyed, I did have to cull. And culling a reality is not to be done lightly.”

Clockwork motioned with his staff. “There were a handful of surviving realities that I was able to save. That room you meddled in without my permission—they contain the realities off the main track where, for one reason or another, something else succeeded at destroying your future self. …Your own deaths, in fact. In every one of those realities, Danny, you are dead.”

“I don’t…” Danny shook his head. “So then just tell me how to save that one I was in, okay?”

“Oh, that’s easy.”

“How?”

“You don’t.”

Danny said nothing. Clockwork shifted young.

“You can let it live on in that room, or you could ask me to cull it, Danny. You could ask me to cull every reality in that room, so that the main branch, the one you’re from, is the only reality in existence. So you never have to worry about any existence where your family is unhappy. And it will be that way until you, or I, or someone else, meddles with the timestreams again, and more splits occur.”

Still, Danny said nothing. Clockwork continued.

“Sometimes, a mass culling of realities is healthy for the tree of time, like pruning a plant down to its stalk to survive an unforgiving winter, or a terrible disease. But I did that, just recently, to save all of time from the blight of your future self. It would feel cruel to snip off the first buds that have come after the frost.”

Danny lowered himself to the floor.

“Okay…”

“Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay. Just. I have a different question then.” He looked up, a young devastation wet in his eyes. “Can I still go back and visit that reality, sometimes?”

“No. I cannot give you permission to do that.”

“Please!”

Clockwork spun his staff. A portal swirled into being in the space between him and Danny. Washes of color formed patterns, shapes, objects, images. Like a mirror, it reflected Clockwork’s lair beyond its shimmering surface.

“This is a portal back into your own reality. It is set to the location and the time that you vanished. Go there, and leave through the Fenton portal, and nothing will be amiss.”

“No. No no I won’t. Clockwork you have to let me—”

“I am doing you a favor, Danny, getting you home after you caused more trouble. Do not make further demands of me.” Clockwork curled forward, old, sallow skin sagging, and he turned his back to Danny.

“You have to give me permission—”

“I am the only one who has permission to meddle in realities, Danny. This is an absolute.” Clockwork glanced over his shoulder. “And because this is an absolute, I have no reason to have a lock on the room housing those budding other realities.”

Danny blinked.

“I wonder if anyone might break my rules anyway. I wonder if anyone might be nosy, and enter that room anyway, and water the plants in that greenhouse without my permission.” Clockwork stared forward again.

“Clockwork…”

“Luckily I am the master of all time. I would be able to see this coming. And maybe plan for it. If ever such a person would come into my lair, and meddle in my timelines, and try to spread a bit of his own kindness to the realities he couldn’t quite save, I would be fully prepared to stop him.” Clockwork spoke into the green abyss beyond him. “Unless, maybe, I were to accidentally have my back turned.”

Silence trailed after Clockwork’s words. He kept his back to Danny, staring into the abyss of swirling green ether beyond.

“…Thank you,” Danny answered, quietly. “I’ll be back.”

“I imagine you will. Those realities may get lonely without you.”

When Clockwork glanced back over his shoulder, both Danny and the portal were gone.

[crazycookiecrumbles]

Double Secret Extravaganza

A/N: PRE Shang-Chi reveal into Shang-Chi, so it’ll switch from Shaun to Shang-Chi in the middle of it.

Also, I’m behind on work but procrastinating, hahahaha such is life.

Pairings: Shang-Chi x Avenger!Reader (not a Stark)

Warnings: The usual for me, lots of swears, fighting

Summary:  Your boyfriend said he had personal business to take care of, which worked out well for you because you wanted to do some things for yourself as well. Unfortunately, you didn’t think his personal business would mix in with your fight life.

Shaun was off dealing with some personal issues, something you understood completely. He gave you a quick kiss and said that he needed to run to help his sister, and you were fine with this. You completely understood this. As an Avenger, one of which was on a break after the whole world was fucked by a walking, talking purple thumb, you understood the importance of making time to help family.

Hell, you even offered to go along and help him, but Shaun told you he’d feel so much better if you stayed home, and that Katy was going to help him, and you would see him soon. Given that you had your own issues to deal with, this worked out in your favor.

Granted, he didn’t really know that your issues involved a fight club.

Look, it was a great way to make some extra money. You were (F/N) (L/N), Avenger, and you had been through a lot of shit. You weren’t even sure if you wanted to ditch all this superhero stuff and try to lead a normal life! Plus, with global security no longer privatized and Tony Stark now dead, your options weren’t as great and plentiful as they used to be, which brought you here, The Golden Daggers club.

Well, technically, it brought you out to your usual meeting spot first, where you would wait for a portal to open from Wong, and you would climb on through and get started.

Your match that night was against Emile Blonsky, otherwise known as Abomination (Bruce would not be happy to hear about this) and Wong, in a triple threat match that was going to make the three of you enough money to sit pretty for as long as you wanted, if you wanted to. 

For fights like this, rather than wear your usual gear, you retired it and opted to wear an old all-black stealth uniform. On top of that, you were pulling your punches. Plus, well, you had already been warned once by the owner that you’ve been hitting a little too hard and nearly killed just a few too many, so you were sort of on watch this time around. With your powers of cryokinesis, you were making a show of this, creating a miniature blizzard just to the daze the two men as you attacked them, then hiding in the snow as they fought one another.

Abomination knocked himself out, of course, and you and Wong danced around each other, fighting until you reached a stalemate and both of you were using your powers against one another.

“Holy shit. Dude, is that (Y/N)?” You swore you heard Katy shouting over the crowd.

A shocked, booming voice that was screaming your name startled you, and you whipped your head to the side to see Shaun after he had yelled your name, staring at you in what you assumed was a look of betrayal, confusion, and fear. It was probably all of them. You couldn’t really think straight at the moment. A feeling hit the pit of your stomach that was worse than those nightmares of going to school naked and everyone pointing and laughing at you.

And that’s how Wong knocked you on your ass and won the fight. As you were dragged out of the cage, Wong muttered behind you that he always told you to not lose focus in your fights, and here you were doing exactly that and losing in a total upset.

In the locker room, you sat on the floor with your back against the wall, nursing your own iced-over palm against your cheek as you listened to Wong scold both you and Abomination before leaving with him. Katy spotted you, along with Shaun, and Katy was the first one to run over and stand over you.

“Dude, you’re an Avenger! That’s sick! I can’t believe all this time you were a superhero and you didn’t tell us! Oh my god. I bet you make bank in here,” Katy gushed. “You should teach me that weird hand thing you did, you know, before you lost.”

You took a deep breath and looked at her before glancing at Shaun and back at Katy, “What the hell are you two doing here? I thought he had to save his sister?”

“Yeah, she’s somewhere around here apparently. Now he’s going to fight. Oh, and that’s not even his name! Can you believe that?”

“Huh?”

“Ladies, Bus Boy here has got to get ready for his fight! Driver girl, my guys will be happy to escort you to the bar and get you settled in to watch the fight,” He told Katy as she rushed out of the locker room, yelling for you to meet her for a drink.

You stood up and quickly walked over to Shaun as Jon Jon told him to take his shirt off, “You’re fighting? What the hell are you doing here, Shaun? I thought you were supposed to be helping your sister, not making more viral videos.”

“Me?!” He scoffed as he peeled off his clothes, “You know, you’ve got a lot of nerve (Y/N). What the hell are you doing here? Oh, wait. Don’t answer. You’re a freaking Avenger!” He laughed in disbelief and shook his head, “All this time I’ve been seeing an Avenger and you just, you just lied to me! What else are you lying about? Is that even your name?”

“Yes, okay! It is my name, and, yes, fine, I am an Avenger. Or a retired Avenger? I don’t know, the details on that are kind of iffy. But Shaun, you’re -- what the hell? Why are you here fighting?”

“Supposed to find my sister.” He repeated through gritted teeth

“In a fight club?” You scoffed, “Why would she be in a fight club? Don’t tell me she’s also some bad ass fighter or something.”

“I don’t know, (Y/N)!” He shouted, “You know, one minute I’m on the bus playing Candy Crush, and the next minute I’m fighting off my father’s assassins who are after my pendant, and now I’m here to help my sister and I find you here fighting a giant monster and a wizard!”

“Sorcerer,” You corrected him quietly.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” 

“Hey, I’m not the only one with secrets here!” You shouted as Jon Jon dragged him away, “Wait! Jon Jon we weren’t done -- god damn it! Wait, Shaun isn’t even your name? You can fight? What the hell is going on!”

Annoyed, you went and joined Katy by the bar, slamming yourself down on a chair next to her and glaring up at your boyfriend, who was also less than amused as he stared down at you, still in disbelief over who you were and your massive secret.

“So what even is his name?” You muttered under your breath.

“Shang-Chi. Can you believe that?” Katy asked as the fight started. “He went from Shang-Chi to Shaun. It’s unreal.”

After you watched Shang-Chi get his ass kicked by what you learned to be his sister, you quickly went to Xialing’s office to meet the both of them. You leaned against the wall with your arms crossed over your chest, meeting your boyfriend’s glare as he nursed his wounds and glared at you, all the while Katy was trying to hide the money she won at his expense.

“There’s a lot of tension here,” Xialing said, looking between you and her brother. “You know each other.”

“They’re dating,” Katy blurted out. “And totally just discovered the other one has super badass fighting secrets. I think they’re pissed.”

“It’s not important right now,” Shang-Chi huffed. 

You remained quiet and chose to osberve. You listened to Shang-Chi and his sister go back and forth before learning that the club was being raided. Xialing and Jon Jon disappeared to safety, leaving you with Katy and your boyfriend.

“Okay, we’ve got to go,” Shang-Chi said quickly as he broke the window and stepped out on to the ledge. “Come on!”

“I’ll stay here,” You said quickly. “I can give you guys some time.”

Shang-Chi stiffened as he realized how dangerous it could be, his father’s assassins fighting you, and how they would stop at nothing to take you out if it meant they got to the siblings.

“Don’t. Just get out here, come with us.”

“You need time,” You waved your hands, icicles forming in each. “I can give it. Go!”

“Wait, wait!” He shouted, making you look over your shoulder at him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying to you. Please, please be careful. Come back to me.”

You smiled softly in his direction and nodded, “I’m sorry too. Don’t worry, I’m stronger than you think.”

“I’m beginning to see that.”

As much fighting as you did, there were just too many men who would avoid your warpath and go in search of Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing directly. The fighting only came to an end when Wenwu, who was heading to meet his son, spotted you fighting his men. He watched for a moment, interest in the woman his son was seeing was little as he observed you before sending five rings into your gut and knocking you clean out of the window.

You would free fall for quite some time before you were able to compose yourself and use your powers to fly back up just before hitting the ground. You shot through the broken windows and had a crash-landing next to Shang-Chi and his father, who looked down at you in disgust while Shang-Chi quickly knelt down and helped you up.

“Are you—“

“Captain Bangles over there is a cheap shot,” you muttered.

“That’s my father.”

“…Your father’s a cheap shot,” You muttered as you leaned on him and cradled your stomach. “Why do I feel like I just barged in on something bad?”

“You could say that,” he cleared his throat, “I am so sorry, (Y/N). I didn’t want you mixed in this.”

You exhaled slowly and squeezed his hand, “I mean, this isn’t how I had planned on meeting the family, but I’ll take it.”

And that was how you found yourself in the middle of your boyfriend’s origin story into his superhero-ness. Things were put into perspective rather quickly, and when you had a moment alone, both of you ended up apologizing profusely for lying about your pasts, and both of you found it easy to understand the other, given the secrets you were hiding.

And through this entire ordeal, you stood beside Shang-Chi’s side, no matter how much his father glared at you, or uttered that you were beneath him and not worthy of the man he had raised. You were going to stay by his side and make sure he, and those he loved, were as safe and sound as possible, as long as you could help it.

[testudoaubrei-blog]

Well, it’s not quite a master’s thesis, but this is (the first of) a series of posts on why Catra and Adora are the best love story in the history of kids TV animation and maybe the greatest love story in the history of TV. This may in some ways be faint praise - romance on TV is generally not very good compared with books or movies. Often it’s just some will they/won’t they sexual tension that is defused by getting characters together and re-heightened by breaking them up. TV is full of nearly shark jumping pointless dramas like Sam and Diane (Cheers, holy fuck am I dating myself, though that was technically before my time), Ross and Rachel (Friends, which was no Cheers) etc, but also some less annoying couples like Ben and Leslie (Parks and Rec) or Amy and Jake (Bk99) who are mostly just kind of cute and fun. Other shows, like the X-Files, teased viewers for years with unresolved sexual tension. In kids shows most romances are, appropriate for their target viewers, mild, sweet relationships based more on self-conscious flirting and blushing than on complex and conflicted feelings or deep passions - which is pretty realistic when the characters are young teens or even mid-teens. Some of these relationships are really well done - Finn and Flame Princess, Dipper and Pacifica (yeah I ship them), the early stages of Katara and Aang (before the showrunners imbued this childhood crush with cosmic significance), Steven and Connie, etc. Catra and Adora, though, are different. Their love story is not a side plot or a sub plot, it’s the heart of the show. It isn’t a childhood crush, it’s a very messy and passionate relationship between two young adults. She-Ra is an emotionally complex lesbian romance just as much as it is a thrilling action/adventure show. Everything about their relationship is baked into the show’s plot, its themes, hell even its musical score. The dramatic tension between Catra and Adora is not the result of stretching out a flirtation for ratings, but a coherent dramatic arc that runs through the entire show. As Noelle said, he made Catradora so central that execs couldn’t take it out without ruining the show. And the show is better for it. In this series of posts I’m going to try to show why, as well as showing why She-Ra is such a fantastic love story.

First off, let’s talk about how Catra and Adora’s character arcs are foils for each other, and how they come together and apart through the series. This is actually a post that I’ve been working on for a while but I keep summarizing the show rather than cutting to the chase, so I’m not going to recite many plot points so much as sketch out what’s going on with the dramatic structure at the time. But also, let’s talk about what each character’s arc is saying, and how they are commenting on each other. Spoiler alert: Catra’s arc is a subversion and critique of stories of empowerment through ruthless self-assertion and revenge, while Adora’s arc is a subversion and critique of chosen one narratives and stories of self-denial and self-transcendence.

When the show starts, Adora and Catra are shown as rivals and friends - their first scene starts the recurring motif of them reaching out for each other as one of them dangles above an abyss, as well as establishing their flirtatious banter and easy camaraderie. We quickly learn that these two young women plan to conquer the world together. These scenes and later flashbacks show Catra and Adora as deeply enmeshed in each others lives, to the point where neither of them (but especially Catra) have clear identities outside of one another. There is so much genuine love on both sides before Adora leaves, but also resentment, envy and fear, especially on Catra’s side, as well as a protectiveness on Adora’s side that deprives Catra of her autonomy. They are both being abused by Shadow Weaver - Catra physically  and emotionally, Adora emotionally. It wouldn’t be too much to say that Shadow Weaver holds Catra hostage to control Adora (this is why critiques that Adora abandoned Catra to be abused are actually kind of messed up, since they accept Shadow Weaver’s premise that Adora is responsible for what Shadow Weaver does to Catra). In addition, Catra and Adora actually see the world incredibly differently. Adora already sees the world in terms of right, wrong and her destiny to right wrongs - this is why it’s important for her  to accept the Horde’s obvious lies - she couldn’t keep living if she didn’t. Catra, on the other hand, sees the world solely in terms of survival and personal loyalty - everything for her is about preserving herself and the person she cares about - Adora.

Then, when Adora finds the sword, she leaves because it’s the right thing to do. Catra doesn’t even have a concept of ‘the right thing to do’ being something she should care about, or perhaps, something she can care about as an irredeemably evil, awful fuck-up. So at Thaymor neither one understands where the other is coming from, and Catra and Adora begin to part. This is the first turning point in their relationship. Adora chooses duty over what she desires, Catra chooses to protect herself (such as she sees it) and nurse her sense of betrayal and abandonment.

Their relationship until Promise is a kind of weird Frenemy thing that is fascinating to watch and sold me on the show. Neither one wants to fully admit to themselves that the other is now their enemy, neither one has given up on changing the other’s mind. Each is furious at the other, and desperate to see her again at the same time. There’s a lot of heartache and just as much sexual tension, especially at Princess Prom. Both of them come alive when they fight each other (more about that in a later post). But they’re already growing apart - Adora embracing her destiny as She-Ra, Catra rising in the ranks for the Horde. Adora now has the purpose she always wanted, plus other friends and a sense of being chosen to do something great, while Catra now has power - the means to protect herself from people like Shadow Weaver as well as the vindication she had always been denied, and even the opportunity to beat Shadow Weaver at her own game.

The next turning point is Promise. Holy fuck, this episode. It’s an episode that is even more heartbreaking after you’ve watched the show because you know just how much worse things are going to get, and yet, it’s a necessary part of both of their character arcs. Even through season 1 Catra and Adora had remained very much enmeshed in each others lives in an increasingly fucked up way as they grew apart but refused to turn away from each other. Even though they aren’t -exactly- a romantic couple (Adora doesn’t recognize and acknowledge her feelings until the last episode of Season 5), Season 1 of She-Ra is one of the worst breakups I have seen on TV. As I said in a couple of previous posts, this is the kind of shit that the Mountain Goats write songs about. Everything that was poisoning their love for each other even before episode 1 bubbles to the surface and combines with them fighting on opposite sides of the war to make a truly fucked up situation. In the end, it’s Catra that makes the choice to turn away from Adora. This isn’t a -good- decision. It’s spiteful, and destructive, and based on an outright deluded understanding of their relationship (inspired by Light Hope’s manipulations and her own issues), but it’s in some ways a necessary decision. Catra has been so wrapped up in Adora for so long that she isn’t going to be able to figure out who -she- is without cutting Adora out of her life. And the same is true of Adora.

But each of them do this in about the worst way possible. Catra embraces destruction, ambition, manipulation and outright cruelty, turning the tactics of her abusers against them and against everyone around her. She first triumphs over Shadow Weaver and manipulates Entrapta into trying to corrupt Etheria itself. Meanwhile Adora ‘lets go’ and commits herself to the self-denying mantle of She-Ra. Over the next several seasons, their respective paths will nearly lead both Catra and Adora to their deaths (in the Season 4 finale).

For the next season (counting season 2 and 3 as one) Catra and Adora are still closely linked, but as enemies. Still, there’s more than enough flirtation between them (that ‘Hey Catra’ in the first episode of Season 2 is something else), and especially on Adora’s side we see her hold back with Catra, and often take responsibility for the harm Catra inflicts, just like she had when they were kids. Yet they still drift apart - after facing off every other episode in Season 1, they spend less and less time on screen together through season 2 and 3. Catra continues her ascent to power and descent into villainy while Adora becomes more of a stressed out mess as she takes the fate of the world and the wellbeing of everyone she cares about on her admittedly broad shoulders. Catra’s one moment of vulnerability is rewarded by Shadow Weaver’s betrayal and her exile, then Catra triumphs in ruthless badass fashion through sheer desperation and aggression. In the Crimson Wastes, we see Catra at her most independent, and she almost seems happy. But once Adora shows up and Catra hears about Shadow Weaver, she’s sucked back into the worst of her resentments, and she makes very clear that being happy is less important to her than making sure Adora is miserable.

This changes everything. Catra completely breaks with reality and tries to kill Adora, herself and the world rather than lose to Adora and Shadow Weaver (I do think it’s important to remember that she does that after Shadow Weaver nearly kills her). Catra betrays everyone around her when she exiles Entrapta, threatens Scopria and lies to Hordak. Then she flips the switch. When Adora tries to fix things, Catra fights to her own death to make sure that the world disintegrates with her. For her part, Adora fights first to understand what is wrong with the world and then to fix it. Finally she tells Catra that destroying the world is her choice and she has to live with it, decks her, and then sees her off with a death glare once the portal is closed. With this, Adora writes Catra off even if, as she says later, she never never hated her. By doing that, Adora casts off the guilt that had dogged her and takes responsibility for her own life rather than someone else’s - this is actually a huge step for her, and one that will become more important in Season 4.

Season 4 is in many ways the nadir of their relationship. They only see each other once during the entire season, in Fluterrina, when Adora tries to blast Catra, much to the latter’s shock. There’s a sense in that scene that Catra is trying to have the same flirtatious enmity she used to have with Adora, and Adora is having none of it. Catra almost seems hurt by this, which is an early hint at how isolated Catra is beginning to feel. Catra spends the rest of the season at her highest and lowest. On the one hand she spends most of 12 episodes winning by every standard she has ever claimed to care about, besting Hordak himself in single combat and making herself co-ruler of the Horde and coming within a day’s march of ending the Rebellion. In many ways it is the ultimate empowerment fantasy - the abused young woman has defeated her abusers, showed up everyone who doubted her and forced everyone to respect her. But I think it’s striking that the show starts with her and Adora dreaming of conquering the world together and in Season 4 Catra nearly succeeds in conquering it alone, almost like she was trying to live out her old shared fantasy while proving she didn’t need her former best friend. 

At the same time, Catra is clearly miserable. She’s always been unhappy, but in Season 4 we see her completely isolated and lying to herself and everyone who will listen in a desperate attempt to justify her actions. Turning the tactics of Hordak and Shadow Weaver against them to gain power and then against Scorpia and Entrapta to maintain it haven’t vindicated Catra, they’ve made her more and more alone as Entrapta is exiled and Scorpia drifts away. Meanwhile Catra reaches out to Double Trouble, and her interactions with them reek of a kind of desperate desire to have someone in her life (the feeling of their interaction is of an unhealthy casual relationship where one partner becomes emotionally invested and the other takes advantage of that while denying the other the closeness they desire). As people leave her, one after the other, it becomes clearer and clearer that Catra doesn’t want power at all - she wants connection, friendship, love, and power is a very poor replacement. As I said in my long Catra rant, Season 4 is both her ‘Walter White as a Catgirl’ season and the beginning of her redemption. Everything comes to head when Sparkles destroys everything Catra has tried to achieve, Double Trouble delivers those harsh truths and Horde Prime shows up and makes it all irrelevant, just highlighting how futile all her struggles and sacrifices and crimes have been.

Meanwhile Adora spends Season 4 becoming her own her and her own woman. After telling off Catra, she grows more and more disillusioned with Light Hope and critical of Glimmer (though the latter has more than a shade of her old habit of taking responsibility for others - Adora’s development is not linear). She’s gained the courage and confidence to strike out her own path, not just follow a destiny. At the season’s end she once again breaks with her best friend to do what is right, and discards the destiny that she was being prepared for. But in this case she isn’t chasing one packaged destiny for another, instead she’s making her own choice and literally shattering the thing that she thought gave her life purpose. It’s badass, and heartbreaking, and along with decking Catra and jumping after Catra into the abyss (see below) it’s the perfect Adora moment.

In many ways Season 5 starts with Catra and Adora farther apart than they have ever been. They aren’t even enemies anymore, they’re completely out of each other’s lives. And both Catra and Adora are lost at the beginning of Season 5 - Catra is useless and alone on Prime’s ship, completely defeated despite ostensibly being on the winning side, and she goes through the motions of her normal plotting without any particular conviction and none of her normal flair. Meanwhile Adora is even more miserable and self-destructive than usual, throwing herself at Horde Bots and working herself until she drops of exhaustion. In a very real way they both stay lost until they have a chance to help the other. Catra takes responsibility for what she’s done and what she can do, saves Glimmer (at least partly for Adora’s sake), apologizes to Adora, and sacrifices herself. Adora only seems to come alive when she decides to turn around, face Prime, and save the cat. And when she does, Catra and Adora’s arcs, which had separated so completely in season 4, come crashing back together to end the series.

Adora during Save the Cat is such a contrast with the uncertain, hesitant and self-destructive wreck we’ve seen so far in Season 5. This is possibly her craziest plan in 3 years of mostly cazy plans, but she never wavers or questions herself. Even when Chipped Catra appears and we see Adora’s heart break while we watch, Adora doesn’t back down or relent. She keeps at it even as the tears stream down her face. She fights better trying to save Catra without She-Ra’s powers than she fought at the Battle of Bright Moon with them. Catra’s just about as desperate - we see her cry and plead, and now is probably as good a time to any to point out how amazing a job both VAs did throughout the show, but especially in this episode, and how good a job the board artists did. 

Seeing each other for the first time in a year, and only the second time since Catra blew everything up, Catra and Adora are probably the rawest and least restrained we’ve ever seen them. There’s barely any banter, no bravado, and no pretense that they are anything other than two women who desperately need each other (Prime doesn’t help with ‘You broke my heart’.) Then Catra is flung to her death, Adora jumps after her, breaks both her legs in the fall (we see her crawl to Catra, as though she couldn’t walk) and becomes the real She-Ra. It’s such a triumphant and deeply queer moment seeing a woman transformed into a warrior goddess to protect the woman she loves, and it’s the reason that, as dark as it is, Save the Cat is my Comfort Food episode.

Let’s not sleep on Taking Control, though. This episode is like a microcosm of what this show does best, especially the A plot with Catra and Adora. Catra’s reversion to lashing out at everyone and her refusal to be open to Adora shows just how much of a struggle this whole ‘being good and trying to connect to people’ thing is. Catra’s outburst gives Adora a chance to stand up for herself and refuse to be Catra’s punching bag, while also not trying to control her. Adora’s ultimatum gives Catra a chance to reach out to Adora (quite literally), and allow herself to be vulnerable. In this episode, we see just how far Catra and Adora have come since the messed up stew of their relationship in Season 1. Adora lets Catra be responsible for her own actions; Catra lets herself be vulnerable to Adora and takes responsibility for her actions. They’re both better people and better friends and better partners than they were, and the show has shown this in a strikingly nuanced and realistic way. 

The important thing to note in the next few episodes of Season 5 isn’t just how much closer Catra and Adora get to each other and how much they flirt (So much. So much, y’all) but just how -happy- they are. We see both of them transformed in the other’s presence. Basically, since they’ve parted, both Catra and Adora have been defined in no small part by how miserable they often are. They have both had their triumphs and their lighter moments, but there’s been a sense of melancholy dogging both Catra and Adora since episode 1. And now that they’re together again, that lifts, somewhat. Catra’s verbal barbs have lost their venom, and she can openly show how much she cares for Adora and even Bow and Glimmer. She’s still herself - snarky, cynical, somewhat devious - but she’s not engaged in a self-destructive zero-sum struggle with everyone around her. Meanwhile Adora has spent 4 seasons being a neurotic and sometimes nearly joyless mess who takes responsibility for everything and often doesn’t let herself enjoy anything other than the odd BFS group hug (exceptions include trying to uh...impress Huntara and reveling with the butterfly ladies of Elberron in Flutterina).  Around Catra, though, she’s a cocky, swaggering jock who gives as good as she gets. It’s a side of Adora we’ve only seen hints of before, and one that’s so much more confident and joyful even as the world is ending around her. Apart, Catra had tried to protect and vindicate herself with power and conquest, while Adora had tried to forget herself in duty and sacrifice. Together, they can be themselves again. This dynamic is crucial to the show’s portrayal of Catra and Adora’s romance because it doesn’t just show how much they love each other, but how they’re -good- for each other now that they’ve grown as people, and that they are so much better than they were when they were apart.

Until Shadow Weaver shows up. Their old abuser reintroduces tensions but even then things are different than they were. Now Catra isn’t just resentful of how Shadow Weaver prefers Adora - she’s  protective of Adora, which is clearest in Failsafe when she calls Shadow Weaver out for being willing to sacrifice Adora. And while Adora takes the Failsafe, it isn’t to follow her destiny or because she has a death wish - it’s because she loves her friends, and she is the only one who has any hope of doing this and living (though Catra’s suggestion that Shadow Weaver take it is a good one). And finally, when Catra leaves Adora, it isn’t because she hates Adora, nor, despite what she says, is it because she really thinks that Adora chose Shadow Weaver. At least, not exactly. It’s because Catra loves Adora, and can admit that to herself, and can’t stay around and watch the woman she loves sacrifice herself rather than choosing Catra. Before Catra leaves, she asks Adora ‘What do you want?” It’s a question that echoes Shadow Weaver’s speech in Episode 1: ‘isn’t this what you always wanted since you could want anything?’ As much as Adora has grown as a person, and defined herself and stood up for what she thinks is right, she still has never answered that question - it’s never been ‘what do I want’ but ‘what do I have to do?’ and that’s how Adora answers Catra’s question. This is Adora’s last gasp as a self-transcending hero, letting go of what she wants (not that she ever dared articulate what that was) in order to do what must be done. And it nearly kills her and dooms the universe, because Adora can’t be the hero that she needs to be by being anyone less than herself.

But it’s losing Catra that inspires Adora to tell off Shadow Weaver for good (not that she’d ever really warmed to her after season 1). And it’s love for Adora that inspires Catra to stand up to Shadow Weaver and demand that she do the right thing. In both cases, Catra and Adora aren’t just standing up to their abuser, but holding her to account for the harm she’s caused, and it’s the love that they have for each other that inspires them to do this. In Catra’s case in particular her refusal to let Shadow Weaver weasel out of finding Adora is a much greater triumph over Shadow Weaver than beating her up and breaking her mask in Season 1 - it’s proof not so much to Shadow Weaver but to Catra herself that Catra really is better than this and that she deserves better than this. It’s not turning her abuser’s tactics against her, but truly holding her to a moral standard and demanding that she do the right thing.

And then there’s Catra and Adora together at the heart. Catra has already come back for Adora and stayed to the end, choosing to die with her even if she can’t share a life together (not out of some death wish, but because Adora needs her). And Adora, who’s been avoiding answering the question for three fucking years, finally let’s herself want Catra when Catra finally confesses her love (breaking the last of her self-protective shields) and asks Adora to stay -for her-. And by admitting what she wants, Adora can truly be at peace with herself and be the hero she needs to be, lesbianism saves the universe, The End.

So anyway, that’s how Catra and Adora’s stories are woven together and how they compliment and comment on each other. Narrativiely, Adora and Catra start together, come apart, find something of themselves, and truly find themselves and each other when they are reunited. Thematically, they are critiquing seemingly opposing narrative tropes - empowerment narratives and narratives of self sacrifice. But by showing the flaws in both types of story and showing how neither self-seeking empowerment nor self-negating self sacrifice can actually make us happy, She-Ra asks and answers more profound questions than most prestige dramas for adults do. I’ll get into how the show sells the idea that the power of love can bring us happiness (and save the world) in a future post. But next up, I’m going to celebrate just how much Catra and Adora’s relationship revels in ambiguity, complexity and contradiction and so tells a grown up love story in a kid’s show.

[citrinesparkles]

welcome home.

jason todd x gender neutral reader. 2,086 words. notes: requested by an incredibly flattering anon as part of my hundred followers celebration! thank you again for the feedback, and for enabling me :) also was subconsciously influenced by this piece. warnings: arguing, discussion of danger, reader gets accidentally threatened, patching up wounds, lots more swearing than my usual (but it's all mild language). angst and comfort, i think. super dialogue heavy. this is so long and a little (lot) messy just. prepare yourself

"man," a robotic voice echoed dangerously through the dark living room, sending chills through you. "did you pick the wrong apartment."

luckily, the voice was familiar. "um, the one i live in?"

he choked out your name, startled, and you flicked on the light switch to find him frozen in place with a gun in his hand.

"right." you said tensely, glancing at it- which made him jerk his hand down, shoving the gun into its holster as though it burned him- and looking back up at the eyes of his helmet. "so, uh, i'll turn a light on next time."

"you shouldn't be home yet," he said stiffly.

"i texted you like, three hours ago to let you know i'd be home a day early."

he swore quietly. "my phone's in the river."

"how did it- you know what, at least that explains the radio silence. you didn't think to have someone else- anyone else- let me know?"

"uh." he paused, tensing almost imperceptibly for a moment. "no. i was, uh, i was busy. i'm sorry."

"busy, huh?" something felt very wrong, and not just the fact that he had nearly shot you. "okay, i'll bite, busy with what?"

"nothing important."

the sinking feeling in your stomach intensified and your eyes narrowed dangerously. "important enough that you forgot to tell me you weren't dead in an alley somewhere, when you knew i'd be texting to check in anyway. leaving me worrying in a hotel room in another city."

"nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to worry about." you were really getting sick of the sound of his modulator, but he continued before you could say anything. "go back to what you were doing, babe."

"yeah... uh, no." you stepped forwards and he flinched back defensively, making you freeze. "seriously, what is up with you tonight?"

"noth-"

"jason, i promise if you say nothing one more time, i'm going to lose my mind."

he shifted his foot back slightly, and you took a deep breath.

"okay," you conceded, raising your hands up in surrender and moving backwards yourself. "respecting your space now. that wasn't my best decis-"

your voice cut out when something under his jacket caught your eye.

something red.

"holy crap, jason, what the hell?"

he winced quietly. "you weren't supposed to be home yet, okay?"

"take that stupid helmet off already, would you?" you snapped, already moving to get the first aid kit.

"i would've gone somewhere else if i'd known, okay?" his voice, now clear and crisp without the filter, followed you down the hall.

"that does not make this better!"

"can you please not yell at me right now?"

you dashed back into the room, shooting a vicious glare at him. "jacket."

he slid it off gingerly, dropping it on the couch next to his helmet.

"can you get the armor, or do i need to help?"

even despite the domino mask he was wearing, you could tell he was rolling his eyes. "if i couldn't do it on my own, why would i have come here if i didn't think you'd be home?"

"hm," you took the piece he handed you and carefully set it on the couch, "maybe because you're a stubborn jackass?"

he grunted, sliding his undershirt off and passing it to you. "i don't wanna stain the couch with that."

"your priorities suck."

"it's the nicest piece of furniture we own!"

"it's still a couch!"

"it was expensive!"

"oh for crying out loud-" you threw your hands up again, this time in frustration. "fine! fine. i'll go put this in the tub and get a soak going. you-" you shoved the kit towards him pointedly- "start washing that off."

"how come you're calling the shots?" he snapped back petulantly.

"because my torso's in one piece."

"i have way more experience with this, i should be making the decisions here."

"oh, of course, my apologies!" your voice was absolutely dripping in sarcasm. "what, pray tell, would you have us do?"

he scowled at you for a moment before reaching for the first aid kit and flicking the lid open. "whatever."

you turned on your heel, stomping into the bathroom.

the shirt got thrown into the tub and the tap got tossed all the way on, and as the water crashed into the gray fabric, you took the opportunity to squeeze your eyes shut and breathe deeply.

you opened your eyes a minute later, finding the water dyed a rusty almost-red from blood.

his blood.

you turned off the tap- gently pushed the handle, this time, the fire in your chest now largely extinguished- and made your way back to the living room to find him running a rag over the space below his ribs.

"may i?" you asked softly, stopping a few feet away and holding a hand out to him.

his jaw clenched and relaxed three times in quick succession, but he finally sighed and dropped his shoulders before holding the rag out. "yeah, c'mere."

you worked in silence, being as gentle as possible. jerking your hand back and mumbling apologies when he hissed.

"s'okay, comes with the territory."

you pressed the alcohol-soaked towel back against him, and he sighed.

"that was stupid, huh."

a small laugh escaped you. "it so was."

"can we..."

"try that again?"

"yeah."

you pulled back, standing up straight to meet his eyes. "only if i can take the dumb mask off of you."

"i thought you liked the mask," he teased, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

"jason."

he chuckled, wincing again when it jostled his wounds. "ouch. uh, yeah, mask. g'head."

you gently pulled it from his face, setting it neatly on his other gear before running your thumbs across the line of adhesive it left on his cheekbones. "hi there."

"hey." he leaned into your touch, vibrant eyes fluttering halfway shut. "so uh, welcome home."

"thanks. could've done without the gun, though."

a choking sound tore from his throat, his eyes flying back open. "holy shit, baby, i almost-" he jerked back from you, no regard for his side. "you almost- shit, shit, are you- i'm so sorry, i didn't-"

"okay, woah, hey-"

"i could have killed you."

it was a whisper, horrified and harsh, and while it was technically true, his tone teetered on the edge of a dark space you had seen before and really didn't want him falling back into.

"yeah."

you desperately searched for the right thing to say, rejecting variations of "but hey, you didn't actually", "maybe you should be more careful about waving a gun at people", and one particularly unhelpful "no shit, sherlock".

finally, you settled on a quiet, calm "but i'm still right here, okay?"

his hand flew up to cover his mouth, doing absolutely nothing to hide the near panic written on his features. "i could have killed you."

"okay, so, in the future, we'll... we'll uh, we'll come up with some kind of system for letting you know when i'm home, or something."

"oh, like a phone?" he asked harshly. "the one i was stupid and sloppy enough to dunk in the harbor?"

"that wasn't- i'm guessing that you had a lot on your plate." you waved the cold, bloody towel in your hand at his wounds. it made him curl in on himself slightly, stepping backwards again until his back hit the arm of the couch.

"no excuses. i could have killed you."

"i-"

"no, i almost shot without saying anything!" he exclaimed, brow furrowed and eyes stormy. "i thought someone had broken in, and i got so- i don't even know, damn territorial or some stupid shit- that i almost put a bullet between your eyes. i could have-"

"jason!"

he screwed his eyes shut and dropped his head, roughly tugging his fingers through his hair. "i almost-"

"but you didn't. okay?" every fiber of your being wanted to hold him, to tug him into you and put his hand against your ribs and show him you were okay and breathing, heart still pumping, but he looked enough like a cornered animal that you half expected him to bite you if you tried. "c'mon, jaybird. a life like yours, can you really afford almosts?"

"life like mine, i can't afford to let anyone close to me. apparently, if the goons and thugs don't kill you, i will."

"that's not-"

"what if i hadn't said something?" he snapped venomously. "what if i'd lost more blood and was loopy from it? what if i'd come home with a concussion- again- and didn't think past 'point and shoot'?"

"jason," you finally interjected. "you think i haven't thought about that?"

his eyes, grim and vicious and so full of emotion that you thought you could drown in them, dropped to the floor.

"because it's not a secret that your life is risky. you're risky. i know that. but you're worth every ounce of danger, okay? i'm choosing this, choosing you, knowing full well what i'm getting into, because you're worth all of it."

"i'm not worth any of it."

"that's not your call to make."

"it-"

"you think i need you to make my choices for me?"

"no, of course not."

"you think im stuck here?"

"do you feel like you are?"

"absolutely not." you inched forward again. "i'm here because i want to be."

"...i just... i don't..."

"don't want me to get hurt?"

he finally looked back up at you, eyes watery and jaw tense. "or worse."

"i know, baby. i know," you sighed. "but that's part of life, right? and if the hurt's inevitable, i want the rest of my time to be as nice as possible, and you make my life better. make me better."

"by putting you in danger?"

"it's gotham, handsome, i'm gonna be in danger either way. at least with you, i know i have someone looking out for me. right?"

"always," he said immediately.

"okay then." you took the last step between the two of you slowly, watching for any resistance. meeting none, you brushed your knuckles against his. "i can't think of anywhere i'd feel safer."

"you know that's crazy, right?"

you hummed quietly. "nah."

"i'm being serious."

"me too."

he studied your face silently. you smiled softly at him.

finally, a sigh escaped him and he scooted his hand forward, wrapping his index finger around your own and squeezing gently. "you're sure you want this? i can set you up with a place downtown for a bit. you'd never have to see me again, never have to worry about... all of this."

"i've never been more sure of anything." you said it firmly, confidently, letting the words hang in the air for a few moments before popping one eyebrow up playfully. "why, need to make room for a side piece?"

a startled choking sound escaped him. "excuse me?"

"i mean, when you were talking about being busy, it felt kinda suspicious."

"what is wrong with you?" he asked, exasperation and laughter coating his voice.

"listen, you were being evasive!" his head fell forwards, resting on your shoulder as he laughed.

"i didn't want you to know i was bleeding all over the place!"

"why, didn't want me to worry?"

"exactly!"

you reached your free hand up, gently resting it on the back of his head and playing with his hair. "then maybe, just maybe, you should have gotten someone to tell me your phone went for a swim."

"fair enough."

you stood quietly for a long time, running your fingers through his hair and enjoying the feeling of his breath against your collar.

"i..." he muttered, pulling back to look in your eyes. "i don't think- um. i don't think i'm..." he groaned, gaze darting to the ceiling. "i love you. but the minute you have enough of- of all of this-"

"i won't."

"but if you do, i'll... i'll understand, okay?"

you squeezed his finger gently. "okay." you inhaled deeply, dropping the bloody towel you were still clutching and slid your hand forward to hold his completely. "can we get a bandage on that and go to bed, now?"

"....yes please."

---

"wait!" you yelled, throwing the first aid kit haphazardly onto the bathroom counter and racing after him into the bedroom, where he whirled around with wide eyes. "i love you too! i never said it back- i love you too."

"don't yell like that- i thought something was wrong!"

"me not saying it back is urgently wrong, jason!"

[pawthorn]

I love the way that Dorian is bad at outright lying, but pretty great at manipulation. I think he holds onto his perception of truth lightly enough that, most of the time, he can adjust, spin, and misdirect without outright lying.

Like, that moment Dorian told Lolth he'd give her Poska, and Aabria asked Robbie if that was true. It took him a minute, and I think that's because he honestly didn't know. I'm not sure Dorian always has a firm grasp of plain simple truth, beyond what he can evade and talk around, especially in regards to his own feelings and decisions.

The whole Crown situation is a good example, because it’s one time his dishonesty became a bit more obvious, especially to the audience.

When Dariax gives him the Crown, and Orym and Fy’ra object, Dorian starts off with a solid excuse for wanting to carry it. "It was my decision to keep it. And you supported me. We can't have Dariax bear the load the entire time." But then, this comes off as incriminating, and he realizes that it isn't playing, so he switches to "It was our decision. We make decisions together. We're a group." “This was my decision/ this was a group decision” are contradictory, but they’re also both versions of the truth. And Dorian chooses the version that suits him best at the moment. The follow-up of “the five of us are a group” is also technically true, in the sense that Fy’ra wasn’t there, wasn’t part of the group for that decision. But more importantly, it serves to silence her for the rest of the discussion, which is exactly what Dorian wanted.

When it's clear that he's losing ground, and Orym isn't budging, Dorian pivots and acquiesces. At that point, he really pushes the idea that he was simply trying to be helpful and not acting out of self-interest in any way. “Fine. I care about you more than this,” which, again, is true, but also very much being weaponized.

Dorian drives home the final stinger, shifting blame for the Crown's presence entirely to Orym, but without actually verbally blaming him: “You know what we could do right now, we could put it in the box and send it back, but we can't, can we?” He doesn’t say that Orym was the one to send the note to Gilmore, but he doesn’t need to. The implication is there.

I think Opal and Dariax are fully on Dorian’s side throughout this; During the confrontation, Opal says, "Am I missing something, Orym?" And later, Dariax checks to make sure Dorian is alright and takes up a "defensive" position at his back for the night. And some of that is down to Dorian's verbal gymnastics-- he makes it seem as though Orym is bullying him for no good reason.

It’s all so good, such a fun tight-rope walk between truth and deception. Even my new favorite, "Don't worry, I would do... anything for my friends," fits into this in that, it's true, yes. But it's also not the whole story...

So excited for tonight!