#and i know some people just do not give a single shit about the extended human cast

[unnamed-atlas]

Seeing people talk about the Knuckles show like 'it's cool and all but it's just not what fans wanted' Speak for yourself it's exactly what I wanted lmao

[dear-ao3]

Sorry i tried to scroll past but, i know nothing about f1 other than max verstappen is fast, my dad doesnt like lewis hamilton, fast car goes in a loop and sometimes expodes. Could you give me a crash course in f1 drama? Im very intrigued. Whats the tea as it were?

a terribly loaded question, but i will do my best. i’ve talked about some of the drama before like the red bull second seat and the chronicles of haas but allow me to briefly try my hand at explaining the nightmare that is the upcoming silly season

under the cut we go

silly season is when the drivers go through contract renewals, extensions and switches. usually it’s confined to the first half of the season (march-july) but it has been known to extend all the way to the last race of the season and they like to switch people around at random sometimes. driver contracts are complex, there’s a lot of money involved and basically You Are The Face Of The Team so if you have a shit season then you make the team look bad. but at the same time you could have a shit season because you have a shit car. it’s sticky stuff.

so. there are only twenty seats in formula 1. 10 teams. each team gets two drivers. (there’s also reserve drivers but we’re not going to get into that). who ends up with a contract is largely up to the teams, they can pull the contract out from under people they can also cut you mid season. they’ve done it before.

of the 20 drivers on the grid, 14 of them have contracts expiring at the end of the year. yes. 14. you see how this could get complicated.

so let’s meet the teams.

red bull racing. they came first this year (and last year) in the championship. like aggressively first. like they won the championship by over 350 points. they are definitely the team to beat. but if you end up with a seat at red bull, you do have to deal with max verstappen being your teammate and he won all but three of the races last year. he’s the golden boy. red bull are also notoriously silly when it comes to contracts and famously swap people mid season who aren’t performing.

mercedes. merc is home to 7 time world champion lewis hamilton and they have won the championship a great many times, though not since 2021. they are kind of in their flop arc and their car the last 2 years has been pretty garbage, but they have still made it work because they were able to come in second last year.

ferrari. god help the poor little meow meows with a ferrari contract. ferrari is a notoriously great team and they’re trying to get back to the top again but their strategy every single time has fallen short. to the point where their drivers are the ones doing the strategy in their cars while driving. they came in third last year and have been decently consistent at getting first in qualifying and then getting beat by max verstappen on race day.

mclaren. they’ve definitely worked their way up over recent years. they ended fourth last year and have had some championship wins before but not nearly as many as say merc and ferrari. their team ceo (owner? director?) is a little interesting and their car started out a pile of flaming hot garbage at the beginning of the year but they did manage to get their shit together.

aston martin. they are owned by canadian billionaire lawrence stroll, father of lance stroll (one of the drivers for the team). they’ve undergone several name changes over the recent years (force india, racing point, etc). they positively slayed at the start of the season and then one day they sucked. they finished fifth in the championship.

alpine. the frenchest french team. they’re (i think?) still partially owned by the french government. both of their drivers are french. (their drivers also hate eachother but we’ll get to that. just know they’re in the middle of a modern french civil war). they had the opportunity to have a good rookie driver (oscar piastri) this past year but in a thrilling twitter battle, he publically flamed the shit out of them and went to mclaren instead (and slayed). they're usually solidly middle of the pack. they ended sixth in the championship.

williams. williams has been one of the back of the grid teams for the last many years but they have finally started to get their shit together and don’t quite suck as much as they used to. all of the points this year were scored by only one driver though (except one but we’ll get there). they came in seventh.

alpha tauri. they are the sister team of red bull. so technically redbull owns both teams (meaning they can swap drivers between teams. they like doing this.) they’ve just kind of been There for awhile but they did slay towards the end of the season when one of their drivers led the race for several laps. basically tho, this team is the gateway to redbull. they came in eighth.

alpha romeo. recently renamed to stake f1 team (but sometimes they are going to be called kick sauber. this is a whole other drama post and i’m not getting into it). they’re also just kind of there. generally unproblematic. seems that really great drivers who get ixed out of a contract for a younger driver end up here or young drivers who are in their early years are here before they go to a better team. they ended ninth this year.

haas. oh haas. goofy team. they suck. point blank they suck. they keep loosing sponsors because they suck, they don’t win ever (one time they came first in qualifying last year). they cursed themselves in australia in 2018 by not tightening their tires and its been downhill ever since. they came 10th. their team principle got let go (fired?) who’s to say today.

so those are the teams. it is important to note that:

-there is a cost cap. each team is allowed to spend no more than 135m per year.

-not all cars are equal. some things are standard. they all undergo the same testing. but the cars are all very different. so you can be a good driver but stuck in a shitty car. which makes it impressive if you are doing well in a shitty car.

let’s meet our drivers!!!

starting with the guys who’s contract is not ending in 2024:

max verstappen. 3 time world champion. 26 years old. general beast on the track. he dominated the whole season. he’s currently racing for red bull and has a contract with them through 2028.

lewis hamilton. 7 time world champion. 39 years old. he drives for mercedes. he will not leave mercedes until he retires. he really really wants to win an 8th world championship and is willing to stick it out a few more years as long as merc still believes in him. his contract expires in 2025.

george russell. the other merc driver. 26 years old. hes aggressively british and says thinks like blimey unironically. walking meme. got his merc seat in 2022 right when they entered their flop arc by getting his tractor of a williams to finish second in qualifying in the middle of a rainstorm. his contract expires in 2025.

lando norris. mclaren driver. 24 years old. he has notably never won a race in his five years of formula one (mostly because right when his car finally was good enough max verstappen was 20 seconds ahead of anyone) but he is regarded as Very Good. he has only ever driven for mclaren. and even though there is another year left on his contract there is mass speculation that he will not renew his contract with mclaren after it expires and he may move up to one of the top teams (red bull, merc, ferrari) (tho i think he doesnt hate himself quite enough to go to ferrari). his contract expires in 2025.

oscar piastri. the other mclaren driver. 22 years old. this was his rookie season and he positively slayed. like people compared his rookie season to lewis hamiltons rookie season. he also had the positively funniest start to his rookie year because alpine announced that he would be driving for them (he had been their reserve driver and in the alpine academy) and he posted a tweet that basically said yeah thats false i never singed anything with you and im going to race with mclaren instead (he dodged a bullet) and then alpine tried and failed to sue him for $4m USD. he signed a contract extension with mclaren this year and his contract expires in 2026.

lance stroll. aston martin driver and son of the aston martin owner. hes doing ok, tho there was conspiracy that he wanted to quit and have a tennis career awhile ago. but basically since his dad owns the team it seems that hes guaranteed a seat for as long as he wants one.

so now. moving onto the good shit. the people who have contracts expiring in 2024. hold onto your hats people.

charles leclerc. (everyones favorite slutty little soup can). 26 years old. he is currently at ferrari and he has been since 2019. notably, he was given the longest contract in the history of ferrari after a stellar rookie season at sauber (renamed to alpha romeo, renamed to stake f1) where he got the tractor of a car consistently into the points. having the longest contract in the history of ferrari was a flex at the time, but now its likely how he will introduce himself at therapy sessions. ferrari have fucked this man left right and center up the ass with a plastic lunchroom spork. hes talented, he can drive, and he can drive well. but the strategy that ferrari has absolutely sucks. either something is wrong with the car (see him blowing out his gear box on the formation lap in monaco, his car completely crapping out and spinning into the barrier in brazil before the race even started) or they fuck up his pit stops or put him on the wrong tires and honestly its just frustrating. but will he leave??? likely not. you'd have to pry ferrari out of his cold dead hands and at this rate that might be where this is headed though there has been some minor speculation of him going to another team like merc or red bull, but merc doesnt have any open seats and red bull is a whole other dumpster fire of drama. ferrari are going to have to pay him a boatload of money to make him stay.

carlos sainz. the smooth operator. 29 years old. ferrari driver. previously carlos was at toro rosso (renamed to alpha tauri), renault (renamed to alpine), and mclaren before signing with ferrari. he has been at ferrari since 2021 and has voiced that he would like to stay with them for however long he can. there is speculation that lando might replace him at ferrari (but landos contract is not up until 2025) and there is also some speculation that alex albon might replace him. while charles is clearly the golden boy at ferrari, carlos is slightly slower but also definitely consistent. he was THE ONLY non red bull driver to win a race this past year, in Singapore after max verstappedn was knocked out of qualifying by alpha tauri reserve driver liam lawson (more on him later) and because he basically came up with his own strategy in the car while he was driving.

sergio perez. aka checo. red bull driver. 33 years old. and oh boy here's where we open the can of worms. checo was previously at racing point (renamed aston martin) and it was very near the end of the 2020 (?) season and he was out of a contract. he had a bonkers race where he was knocked to the back of the grid and then overtook everyone and somehow ended up winning (there is more to that story but just trust me) and christian horner, red bull team principle, mr ginger spice and definite disney villain called him and said congrats sir you have a seat at red bull! well. fast forward. hes been causing problems. problems as in crashing a lot, generally not doing great and pissing the crap out of red bull. it is basically guaranteed at this point that he will not be getting a contract extension. there was actually talk this year of him losing his seat mid season to one of the alpha tauri drivers, because remember, red bull owns both teams and they can switch them whenever they want to (and they have!) but ultimately this did not happen. even though checo has a seat at red bull until the end of 2024, its mass speculated that he is going to get switched with an alpha tauri driver, probably daniel ricciardo (more on him shortly) mid season because there is a speculated clause in daniels contract that says that if checo isn't performing well in the first few races daniel is getting his seat.

daniel ricciardo. 34 years old. alpha tauri driver. man oh man what a guy. outside of being the prankster of the paddock, he has one of the most batshit careers of anyone currently on the grid. he started out at red bull and was showing real talent and skill and was on track to win things (and was!) and was there until the end of 2018 when max verstappen (his teammate) started getting preferential treatment and also red bull started having a lot of problems with their engines (which were being outsourced from Renault (now alpine) and another team on the grid) and well very very long story short he made the surprise move of the century and decided to sign with Renault (which makes no sense they're the one with the engine problems) and was there for 2 years before moving again to mclaren where he was reportedly not treated very well and had a hard time driving the car so they mutually ended his contract with them early and he basically retired at the end of the 2022 season and became a red bull reserve driver. then halfway through the 2023 season alpha tauri ixed one of their drivers, nyck de vries, because he wasnt doing well and promoted daniel back up to a full time driver at alpha tauri (which we know is only a step down from red bull) but then he broke his hand in a crash in zanvort (?) and then he was replaced for a few races by formula 2 driver liam lawson (who we will also talk about) and then he came back to finish out the season in alpha tauri after he was cleared. daniel has admitted openly that he never should have left red bull and he was given bad advice to do so. hes towards the end of his career at this point and its well known that he Really Really wants to finish out his career at red bull again. he and max have already been teammates before and they do work well together and daniel is great driver (see his comeback in texas (or maybe it was brazil?) this year). so. Pretty Sure that daniels going to get either an extension at alpha tauri or go up to red bull. thats what we all want. get this man in a red bull we need him there biblically.

liam lawson. now technically liam is not actually a formula 1 driver. hes a formula 2 driver, but he was daniels replacement for five races and there has been some speculation and some confirmed news about him so hes getting included. when he was racing for f1 he was at alpha tauri. hes 21 and looks like he belongs in the movie grease. no one was expecting him to slay in formula 1 and he positively knocked everyones socks off. the scene: Singapore. which, if you'll recall, is the one race that a not red bull driver won. this was largely because liam lawson slayed the absolute game in qualifying. the qualifying part of racing determines what order the cars start in on the grid for the race and theres three parts, the first two parts the bottom 5 drivers each time get knocked out and then the top 10 complete for the last 10 spots. liam lawson knocked BOTH max verstappen and checo perez out of qualifying in the second round by going very slightly faster than them, effectively fucking up red bulls race and allowing carlos to win. and he also scored points in that race, which no one was expecting. now thats all fine and dandy, but here's the speculation: hemlut marko (im pretty sure) (who is somehow decently involved in the decision making at red bull though i couldn't tell you how) said that he thinks that liam lawson will be in an f1 seat no later than 2025. meaning that he will probably get offered a contract this year. and hes already raced for alpha tauri. red bull have sunk a good amount of money into him. they clearly want him. so if he gets offered an alpha tauri seat in 2025, that means theres a good chance danny rics is going to red bull. do you SEE how the plot here is THICKENED

yuki tsunoda. age 23. currently at alpha tauri. and fun fact, the only alpha tauri driver to race there the whole year. he had three separate team mates. he is slaying and hes often slept on. he has a bit of a temper and likes to shout on the radio and also hates working out (they had to force him to move to italy or something to work out, long story) but hes been kinda killing it. he led several laps in the abu dhabi race this year and hes decently consistent. people think theres possibility that he could get moved up to red bull on account of the fact that he is younger than daniel and clearly has more years in him,, but there is also possibility that he might not because red bull like to make stupid decisions. and if he doesnt get moved up to rebel, will he stay with alpha tauri? we don't know.

alex albon. age 27. currently a williams driver. alex albon is another one with a batshit career. he started out his rookie year in 2019 at alpha tauri then got moved up to red bull halfway through the year when red bull decided that pierre gasley wasnt doing a good enough job (more on him later) and stayed with red bull for a solid year and a half until he lost his seat in 2021 to checo. he has been with williams for the last two years and is basically carrying the team. like. williams as a team scored 28 points this year. and alex albon scored 27 of those 28 points. and as we know, williams is still kind of in their shit arc (though they are doing much better. they didnt score any points for a solid 2 (?) years. so this is an improvement.) and if you can get a shit car to perform you catch the eye of bigger teams. now, alex has already been a red bull driver. and he was on the cusp of podiuming two separate times when lewis hamilton ran into him. this (among a few other things) basically killed his chances at getting resigned at red bull because he wasnt ""performing"" and red bull are bitches who love to win. but some people think that red bull should give him another shot. like daniel, hes already been max's teammate and he can definitely drive. but theres also talk he might go to ferrari because ferrari think that he might compliment charles's driving style (or something). but going to ferrari at this point is kind of suicide. so.

logan sergeant. age 23. the only american on the grid. the other williams driver. he just finished his rookie year. he scored a grand total of one single point this season, in texas, and it was because charles leclerc and lewis hamilton both got disqualified because the floor of their car had more wear (by literally less than millimeters) than it was allowed to, bumping him up from 12th to 10th. he has never done better than alex albon. he was also the very last driver to get a contract for 2024, with williams waiting until i think december of 2023 to announce his contract extension. clearly, hes on thin ice. but people have also said that he needs time to get used to formula 1 (other people have pointed out that oscar piastri slayed his rookie season this year and this statement about needing time is largely false). where logan ends up next year though will largely depend on how well the 2024 season goes for him.

fernando alonso. 42 years old. many people like to point out that oscar piastri is actually younger than fernando's racing career. he won tiktok creator of the year (somehow) and is also a 2 time world champion. he retired a few years ago, just to show back up again and slay. during the first half of the season when aston martin had a zoom zoom car he killed it, and then they had problems on top of problems and he didnt do well. except for that one race in brazil where he came in third, beating checo by literally .05 seconds. he hasn't really made any hints about retiring a second time and he is kind of carrying aston Martin right now (he scored 205 points this season, coming in 4th and tying in points with charles leclerc, lance stroll only scored 74 points this year.) and they did have their best year yet this year. (though they are relatively new).

pierre gasley. 27 years old. french. drives for alpine. the french team. previously he raced with toro rosso (now alpha tauri), then got promoted to a red bull driver in 2019, then halfway through the season they decided he wasnt doing a good enough job and he got demoted back down to alpha tauri. then he won a race with alpha tauri just to stick it to red bull. after the great oscar piastri contract twitter war, he was signed as alpines second driver, with Esteban ocon being the other driver (more on him soon). estie bestie and pierre (both french) were childhood friends and now hate each other for unknown reasons and basically feuded on the track for most of the season. french civil war at alpine. he scored 62 points in 2023 and came in 11th. not really sure where he will end up, it is possible that he will stick it out at alpine.

esteban ocon. 27 years old. also french. currently driving for alpine. another one with a silly bonkers career. he started out at force india and had a baller few seasons there but his teammate at the time was checo, and checo didnt really cooperate with him too much and caused some drama that cost estie bestie some places and some points. max verstappen also beat him up in the garage once. thats not really relevant but it did happen. anyway, after the owner of force india was arrested for .... i don't remember what maybe it was embezzlement or bankruptcy or something money related, the team was backed by lawrence stroll and became racing point. but all of that happened mid season and lawrence was basically like look ill back you guys for now but next year my son gets a seat (lance) so one of you two (checo and estie bestie) have to go. and ultimately they let estie bestie go even though he was more consistent because checo had more sponsors and they needed money. so he was out of formula 1 for a few years (but was a merc reserve driver) and then went to Renault, which then became alpine. he did come in 12th though overall this season, just behind pierre. so. will alpine keep both him and pierre and keep the civil war going? whos to say.

nico hulkenberg. 36 years old. haas driver. in his 200+ f1 races he has never been on the podium and he really really wants to be on the podium. unfortunately this will never happen in a haas because haas fucking sucks. and everyone knows it. he is getting towards the end of his career though. though! stake f1 will become the mario Andretti and audi team in 2026 (don't question it) and they have supposedly voiced interest in nico. so we will see if he hangs on that long to end up at audi. for now tough, hes definitely hating it at haas. though, haas are going to have a different team principle next year so maybe that will change things. i have a sneaky feeling through that haas will probably end up with another 2 rookie drivers because everyone else is smart enough to not race for them.

kevin magnussen. 31 years old. haas driver. hes another deeply interesting character. he has had one podium. in his rookie season. in his first race. and none since. kevin started at haas in 2017 and then left at then end of 2020 when he basically got kicked off because the team needed money and they wanted to bring in drivers with more sponsorships. these drivers were mick schumacher and nikita mazepin. so kevin basically was forced to retire after the 2020 season. this went decently well for haas. until russia invaded ukraine right before the start of the 2022 season and, well, nikita was Russian and it was never distinctly proven that his dads company (who was sponsoring the team) wasnt also funding the invasion. so nikita got fired and they were literally like 2 weeks out from the start of the season, down a driver. who are you gonna call? kevin magnussen! and hes been back ever since. but hes clearly getting annoyed with haas. there was one great clip from this year where his car caught on fire and he kind of just stared into to, clearly hoping it would burn for a long time. so the likelihood of him extending his contract is looking slim.

valtteri bottas. 34 years old. currently a driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo, kick sauber, whatever you wanna call it). previously, he was a mercedes driver and notoriously helped lewis hamilton win a great many championships, until he lost his seat to george russell in 2022. there was a rather awkward part of the 2021 season where valtteri knew that he was out of a merc seat the following year and kind of just chose violence. he slayed. then he went to alpha romeo, grew a mullet and made a calendar of his ass. quite the glow up if you ask me. hes also very interested in cycling. honestly though, i have my own personal speculation that hes going to retire at the end of this year.

zhou guanyu. 24 years old. driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo/kick sauber, etc etc). hes doing alright. he just finished his second season, in his first season he was majorly out qualified by valtteri but this past season he managed to out qualify him a good 6 times. which is decently good for the tractor of a car hes driving. its possible that he could get a contract extension, but like logan, its probably going to depend on how the 2024 season goes for him.

and thats all the drivers. theres also a few others i didnt talk about, like some other f2 drivers who want seats and mick schumacher, who is currently a merc reserve driver, all of which could be contenders for f1 seats. but one things for sure. this is going to be the silliest fucking silly season.

feel free to add on and peer review me

[gffa]

Do you know, do you have ANY IDEA, how much the Justice League must hate Batman's kids? They have some of the most sensitive artifacts and data locked up for good reason, people could get genuinely hurt if they were in the wrong hands, they have literal gods and aliens and tech geniuses designing their security systems. And Batman's fucking kids just-- His fucking kids are just breaking into the archives and reading all their fancy secret stuff BECAUSE THEY CAN. You know every single one of them did this, like Dick's the nicest one about it, he may not ask permission, he's a gremlin who just casually throws out, "Oh, yeah, I snuck into the archives when I was 12 because I wanted to see if I could and Batman was fine with it, but it's a good thing I did, because now I know how to defeat this alien invasion force, with records I took from the Hall!" They want to complain, but okay yes it is a good thing, they guess. Whenever Jason's feeling pissy about Bruce, he breaks in and leaves a giant mess behind, just so the entire League will give Batman shit about it, because he knows it's super annoying and it cheers him up to think of the headache Bruce gets from listening to Cyborg complain about him. Tim broke in and copied the entire thing on his second day as Robin because that's just what Tim does. If there's a secret Archive somewhere, he will find it and be weird about knowing everyone's secrets. He still has all of the records stashed away on an external drive somewhere. Babs didn't even look up from her game of Candy Crush while breaking into the Archives' records, just to see what kind of interesting stuff was in there, but couldn't even be bothered to do more than make a back-up copy of it, because nothing was of use to her. Damian only does it when he's bored because he doesn't care enough to otherwise, which almost kind of more insulting! (Cass and Steph are the only normal ones and that is only because they don't care enough to bother.) Basically, all of Batman's kids (and some of the extended family) are HORRIBLE LITTLE GREMLINS and the League is so, so tired of them all breaking into the Justice Archives whenever they feel like it because WE HAVE SECURITY FOR A REASON, BRUCE. (Not good enough security, apparently, he says and then just leaves.)

[wonryllis]

〽︎ RANDOMLY GIVING THEM A ROSE ON THE STREET.

꒰˵ˊᯅˋ˵꒱ 𝒏. enhypen mesmerized by a stranger fluff 784wc LIB?

𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘀𝗲𝘂𝗻𝗴 bambi would be just waiting for the others near a crossroad, looking around mindlessly when you come up and hand him a single rose without a word. he looks at you for a few seconds eyes switching from the rose to your face so unsure of what to do until you just shove it in his hand rush away. man would probably try to go after you, like you gave him a rose and now that he thinks about it he feels kinda giddy and he wants to know your name but it's too late he loses you in the crowd. hovers around the same street for days hoping to see you again.

𝗷𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗴 probably sitting in some corner searching up a few things on his phone when you approach him suddenly, waving a lone rose in his face. takes it without a complain cause this guy like the gentleman he is thinks you're asking him to hold it for you? but then you leave and he panics like eh? what was that? he's walks up after you and finds you handing out more roses like that to other people and man he feels a little jealous he wasn't the only one getting it but at the same time he sorta falls for you like how sweet and kind of you to hand out flowers to strangers.

𝗷𝗮𝗲𝘆𝘂𝗻 he's with the others lounging at an outdoor cafe when you walk up to the group extending a rose right under his nose, he's gets so red and embarrassed like oh my god someone's proposing to me in public? clears his throat, smiling sheepishly as he accepts it expecting you to say something you're good looking or would you like to go out on a date with me. but humbled real quick when you leave wordlessly though not without a smile. and that smile alone has jake thinking about you for days, wanting to see you again. revisits the cafe again and again for you.

𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗻 startled like anything but keeps his cool as he turns around to face you after you tap on his shoulder. his brows rise in a question, has this scary expression of what do you want but honestly dude is shit nervous to have a pretty girl approach him even more so when you randomly give him a rose, "a flower for you, have a good day," and he's gone he can't look you in the face he's so flustered. legit runs after you to ask for you name. grabbing your wrist softly to stop you but he's so shy instead of asking he ends up just thanking you in an awkward loser smile ><

𝘀𝘂𝗻𝘄𝗼𝗼 like the warm and friendly extrovert he is, he would smile kindly and go oh that's for me? thank you so much! you're so sweet! this man would be so thrilled to get a rose from you and he wouldn't hesitate to let you know just how much you made his day. will outright take the chance to flirt and get to know you under a minute. so sad when you leave but he's sure he'll find you again lol. and boy does he find you again two days later at some shop, hesitates a bit first but then gathers courage and approaches you,"would you like some flowers, pretty lady?" okayyyy

𝗷𝘂𝗻𝗴𝘄𝗼𝗻 this poor guy is so clumsy he bumps into you accidentally when you approach him with the rose making you drop the entire bunch you had in your other hand. immediately bends down to help you gather them, literally does not let you touch one at all and after he's got them all, hands it over like a bouquet. you giggle at how the tables turn and jungwon is so nervous his heart is racing on hot wheels. i helped a pretty girl, i handed flowers to a pretty girl, the pretty girl gave me back a rose. he fr gets so down bad in a split moment of interaction lmao.

𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗶 boy is in the middle of filming a self vlog of his vacay when you enter the screen from behind with flowers in your hands. moves to the side thinking you were asking him to excuse you. but then you hold up a rose to him and he's like okay? taking it in slow motion giving side eye to the camera like what's going on right now? doesn't really mind all that much though cause you're pretty and you have such cute vibes. regrets later for not asking for your name, hence edits in the scene into his vlog and asks his followers to help him find his dream girl.

taglist ( open. ) @kangseulgithegreat @s00buwu @luvyev @pockyyasii @nctislifue @ashtxrie

[bigblab-talktotalk1]

I feel a lot of people misunderstand Portia in why she ask about Colin's love

One thing I find really disheartening about reactions/opinions on this episode is the conceptual clap backs of "Did Debling love her?!?!"

🙄😮‍💨

Because that response makes me feel someone is missing something in the storytelling. As a response, it has never made sense to me, because.... he never had to!

'Lord Debling was a reasonable match." This guy has acted in every single way The Gentleman. This guy has money, this guy came to Lady Featherington like a respectable adult and asked for Penelope's hand, this guy will be absent, and so THIS guy also Won't Hurt Her! She laid this out in episode 4, To Portia he is an IDEAL catch.

Then comes this news of Bitch-boy Colin (painting from a Portia-esque perspective), that she read IN WHISTLEDOWN!! He does not hold water with her 🚫 This Season, all she has seen of this dude is that he is a flirt. "The most desired man of the season." Regardless of what she thinks Penelope's feelings likely are, she only sees that Colin is NOT serious about her. Freshly back from galavanting across the sea, she does see Colin as serious PERIOD. All the letters Pen wrote, All the teas at Bridgerton house....for years Portia has watched him NEVER WANTING HER! Yet somehow an engagement occurred some time between her daughter leaving a party and family breakfast the next morning... 🤨🧐 Chat shit right?? Her mind must be screaming: HELP ME UNDERSTAND! (In a snarky, passive aggressive way - because she's the one)

---

Portia has a right to feel awful disrespected that Colin "I'm a gentleman" Bridgerton didn't come to her first. Like they don't have beef!! 😳 He's been engaged to someone from the Featherington household before, yet... there was no wedding. But Pen (who she thinks of is having less attractions than Marina) somehow is different?

You know who extended the olive branch to the Featherington name to help saved them from drowning in the social ruin of the reveal of Marina's pregnancy? DAPHNE! He was mad at Marina sure, but you know who he showed he didn't care what happened to while he turned his back? You Penelope!! 🤷🏻‍♂️He could have helped soften the blow like Kate, Edwina, and Anthony tried to do after their failed wedding. But he didn't. And that's who Pen threw away an entire future to gamble on?? 🫨😣

---

And while Portia doesn't know it yet, the fault for them being in that super precarious social is the SAME EXACT fucking person who is standing in front of her like she don't smell her own shit!! (personal mad when sitting in Portia's perspective)

---

THAT 'S the guy Pen wants Portia to celebrate, who Pen believes is a better choice. Portia's looking for the better. "What more can you ask for?" she says an episode 4. The only thing Penelope seemed to believe held her back from commiting to Debling as her husband is this 'Love' nonsense. So if Colin is the Superior choice, he must be giving her what she thought was missing from a marriage, something she thought Debling couldn't provide!

"You have it?" - Portia.

Penelope says she's SURE he CARES about her. But 'care' wasn't the exceptional parameter? To be so certain that you just threw away a good 90% qualification-meeting gentleman, you must have heard this truth that gives you that 10% to match the fantasy were "LOVE"(which Big P don't believe in) is. Right? You thought, you know, but what did he say it??? Has he told you he's giving you what makes choosing him over Debling worth it? Are you getting what you gambled for?!

Portia looks DEFEATED because Pen is betting on fantasies and wishes, without even the vocalized proof of Colin's feelings!!!!!!

"Oh Penelope"= "Girl I feel bad for you", "you sweet summer child." She's repulsed that Pen was SO short-sighted.

I feel like while her reaction is extreme and harsh, it really isn't too difficult to imagine a semi-reasonable parent (with Portia's trauma) may be distraught hearing that their daughter chose to follow a career in ..... like the Arts, that she loves (Colin), when she already had a place at Yale law School (Debby). Without Colin's declaration it's like she mailed in her withdrawal letter and is packing to move into an artist collective commune -- without a lease! Not even guaranteed a spot, setting fire to your previous life plans! It is not right, and it is not okay to treat your children as if they need to live their life as you would. However, for someone who holds security above all Pen has thrown away her last chance at a good life. Pen has shattered a chance at bedrock that Portia knows Pen don't even understand how much she should value! Portia has shielded her from how it feels to watch the ground you've built your life on crumble from underneath her. The fear of having no husband, no son, and no money. Which I think adds to the anger in her tone.

Debling never NEEDED to love Penelope. Why he was a better, more secure match than Colin was everything BESIDES love. What makes Debling a valuable prospect has a very little overlap with what makes Colin Penelope's first choice. Therefore trying to grade them on the same standard..... it doesn't matter if Portia cares about love, it doesn't matter if Debling would EVER say he loves Penelope. So while it matters if Colin has told her that he loves her, he's the only one who has to.

---

I do not think she is right all the time, or even often. But one can likely tell from the above that I'm a Portia Featherington fan. I'm a fan of food in tummies and shoes on feet. Did she decide she needed big bucks to eat and dress the way she wanted.......👀🙄

---

As someone who looks at Colin as an insecure 23-year-old male... He is my baby. I defend all his big emotions. When he's having a temper-tantrum, I let him kick himself tired. I'm never villainizing him for basically anything he says or does because..... I know he's really a soft boy. And I know Pen doesn't mind. But that doesn't mean we can blame Portia (without having the audience view) for seeing him differently.

[bougiebutchbinch]

okay as soon as i start thinking about them and i start with something sure, yeah, it's kinky, but then i can't stop and it immediately gets so severe, so. from the bottom of my heart. you're welcome?

anyway so. the first thought was haha it would be so cool and sexy if logan would leisurely, teasingly finger wade while otherwise ignoring him.

there's this one particular cover ft logan and nightcrawler where nightcrawler has his back to the frame and i think he's naked, but the important part is that logan is sitting at a table all manspread and observing him with Masculine NeutralityTM while smoking a cigar with one hand. so he's like that. maybe watching tv or on a video call or some shit, just because you KNOW if he didn't have anything else to keep his eyes on he would NOT be able to stay not paying proper attention to wade. and he's really not doing much, just enough to keep wade stimulated, only barely curling his fingers inside but not thrusting, etc. but wade is a guy whose pleasure is SO hugely and directly connected to how he feels mentally (he was a little bit like that before, but after the cancer and the chronic pain and the not infrequent dismemberment and all that, it's been magnified exponentially; he can get off and get off good to lich-er-al-ly ANYTHING if it's erotic in his mind), so he's still got his eyes rolled back about it, whining and squirming and desperate and making a big sloppy sticky dripping mess of himself, and maaaayyybe he might even actually come just from that, just because logan is playing with him.

normal. normal things that normal people do.

but then, as i was thinking about this normal thing. i was smitten by a very merry poolverine abnormal thing.

that thing being. logan. well maybe this has been going on for. probably not hours because despite being functionally immortal they both have the patience level of a ten year old and/or a white man in a sports car. but for what constitutes a very long while For Them. with logan starting with just one finger and making wade wait for waaaaayyy longer than necessary before finally graciously giving him the second finger and so on, and he's even pressing inside soooo slowly, and honestly wade is on the verge of tears already even with only two fingers in because it's not really edging but god does it feel like it. anyway so logan gets up to four fingers doing it like that the whole way. and like he's not going for a full fist, not really, but he's got enough of his hand inexorably pressing up inside wade that his knuckles are just barely tucked in past the rim.

and like maybe another time he would absolutely go for the fist. but it's a little bit too much work to do and he'd have to start actually paying attention, even if only for positioning reasons or whatever he'd at least have to turn to face wade and end the whole charade of him having literally one single better thing to do than punch a few orgasms out of him. so it's just not fit for the set up, it's not what they're doing right now. but at the same time, wade makes logan even more wild and insatiable than he already naturally is, and he just cannot STAND to not keep giving him more and more and more and more and m

but logan. logan is not normal is he. he has some extra body parts in the hand area doesn't he. and as previously stated, wade can get off on anything. anything.

so. in exactly the same glacially slow way that he inserted each finger, logan starts sloooooooowly slowly extending his claws. one by one. smooth and steady, but by fucking millimeters. so slowly, in fact, that for a few seconds - breathless, tense, throbbing seconds, for logan, watching him out of the corner of his eye, waiting - wade doesn't even feel it yet. you know, until he does. 😇

I WOKE UP AND ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK OUT OF SHEER DELIGHT

this is so good it almost put me back to sleep.... permanantly

just - wowza. WOWZA. Yes. Logan watching his Sportsball in true Manly Bro fashion. Bringing his cigar to his lips with his other hand. Eyes never leaving the screen. Fingers buried knuckle-deep in Wade's gooey, clenching cunt. Leisurely slipping in, out, in. Curling to scrape over every point where Wade's tender. Tuning out Wade's babble as it heightens in pitch and desperation, because dammit, his hockey team are about to score, and he ain't letting Wade distract him.

But his fingers shake on his cigar, just a little, with the amount of sheer fucking strength it's taking to restrain the snarling animal in his chest.

And he listens to Wade's running commentary ("Oh, c'mon, Loagie, please, it's like Niagara down here... Come on in, the water's fine....") lose any hint of coherence

As he slowly

slowly

extends his claws...

Feeling the little pop as they pierce through inner membranes and muscle

Hearing Wade's breathy little oh, oh, ohhh, as he squirms and gushes his way through another peak, eyes rolled back, body clutching Logan's fingers like it never wants to let him go

Smelling the iron thread of blood mingling in with the overwhelming wet heat of Wade's slick

[edoro]

thinking about this post again, and what malewifesband points out in the reblogs about Mithrun's violence towards Thistle vs his violence towards the shadow governor

i hadn't made that comparison myself before, but it truly is such a striking difference, and because Thistle is my special little guy i've been mulling over it

i think it's interesting that Mithrun's behavior towards Thistle is not only violent and frightening but outright cruel in a way that he isn't even with Marcille

(which is not to say that he isn't violent, frightening, and shitty to her - the whole bit where he catches her out in a lie and then the canaries sit around shit-talking her mom and the fact that she's a half-elf is very bigoted and unpleasant!)

he scares the absolute shit out of Marcille, but his violence is very single-minded and directed. first, he's trying to get the books off her. then, he's trying to kill her.

with Thistle... it almost feels like Mithrun is toying with him. take a chunk out of his arm so he drops the book. take a chunk out of his thigh when he tries to run and grab it. chokeslam him to the ground and get on top of him and say The Cruelest Possible Shit to him after tormenting him physically like a cat with a bird.

now of course, we can justify. he didn't want to risk killing Thistle outright (although then we get into the questionable territory of "would being sent to the surface kill him anyway?" since he says the dungeon lord has their lifespan extended by the dungeon, and that teleporting Thistle to the surface would confirm if he is or isn't the dungeon lord), or he can't be so precise when he isn't able to touch someone and he's using his magic on them from a distance, especially with his lack of depth perception or whatever, you know

he hurts Thistle, who comes across like someone who's not used to experiencing a lot of physical pain, and then he tells him that the person he's dedicated himself to is dead, there's no point to continuing, and that the most cherished person in his life wished for his death

i do think that Mithrun, on some level, genuinely does want to prevent other people from suffering his fate, whether that means preventing them from becoming the dungeon lord in the first place or convincing them to give it up before they're devoured and left alive but empty. however, i also think (thanks to talking with @schniggles) that on a much deeper, more viscerally subconscious level, he wants to be eaten, and when those two desires come into conflict, the desire to die is stronger and results in what can at best be described as half-assery and at worst is outright self-sabotage

he tells Thistle there's no point to what he's doing and that it's time for him to free himself. charitably, one can imagine that he sees his words as the equivalent of a brisk slap to the face to snap Thistle out of his dungeon lord hysteria. but the thing about Mithrun is that it's not that he doesn't understand social conventions or other people's feelings, he just doesn't care

he didn't suddenly forget the concept of being nice or being cruel, or what it means to hurt someone's feelings. he just doesn't give a shit. it's not important to him. he lacks the desire to even make the effort for appearance's sake.

it's not like he doesn't know that telling the Melinis' elf slave that Delgal is dead, he never said what Thistle says he did and Thistle just misunderstood, and that Delgal wished for Thistle's death is going to fuck Thistle up. he doesn't care about how badly it hurts and he either hopes that the pain will make Thistle stop resisting or that hurting and tormenting Thistle this way will drive him to summon the demon. possibly (probably) both.

i don't really have much of a thesis statement here, just i guess an exploration of my thoughts... Mithrun is deeply cruel to Thistle and it's quite easy to imagine that part of this is because he knows Thistle has no status and no powerful friends, that he feels no need to even pretend to treat Thistle as a person... one could also easily imagine that it's because he's trying to provoke Thistle into summoning the demon, and one could ALSO easily imagine that there's an element of self-loathing to it, that in a sense he's punishing Thistle for his own past

[misguidedasgardian]

Wildcats (Part XXV)

XXV. When a good man goes to war

MASTERLIST

Summary: Daryl wants you to connect with the most important woman in his life, fully knowing how you feel about her, the problem is he picks the worst moment for it. 

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Zombie apocalypse AU, living dead, zombies, guts, blood, guns, kissing, longing, angst, fluff, kissing, touch starved reader & Daryl, THIS CHAPTER WILL PORTRAIT SIDE EFFECTS OF THE USE OF A “PLAN B” PILL such as dizziness, weakness, and others, INACCURATE mentions of handling explosives, might miss some important warnings, but you know what this is about

+18, MINORS DNI

Notes: I just got fired and I have been telling everyone that I'm still working so they leave me alone at home for the weekend, haha, so that’s why I’m writing so much. 

You shouldn’t have taken that damn pill today

You felt like shit, like you had been run over by a trash truck, as Rick told everyone in Alexandria about the urgent situation at hand. You didn’t know which was worse, the fact that there was a quarry filled with walkers, or his plan to deal with them

“We’ll lead them away…”, he finished his plan, and to your relief, there were some conflicted faces around. The silence extended for a few seconds, and that is when you needed to intervene. this was one of those “forums” you knew better than to go against Rick, but this was up for discussion, so you went for it.

“Rick we can’t release them into the world”, you said, he stopped all movement and looked back at you, frowning

“What?”, he asked

“We can’t let them walk out of there”, you said, “every single one of these fuckers is taking out the last people alive, we can’t release them so they could kill and eat more people!”, you said. A shaky blonde man with big blue eyes seemed supportive

“So what do you suggest we do?”, he asked

“There is machinery, we should find a way to destroy them, burn them, bury them…”, you muttered

“It’s too dangerous to come up close”, he said, “there is no ammo enough to wipe them all out, it's impossible”

“I bet Eugene knows how to build a bomb or something”, you said, the man nodded

“Yes Ma’am I do”, he said proudly

“That will bring thousands more”, said Daryl

“Then we eliminate the ramps, turn it into a huge pit, let them fall in, we bury them, leave it there for more, they will keep coming and falling, we are doing a great service”, you said

“To whom?”, asked Rick

“Humanity”, you said quickly, “if we release them out there they are going to keep killing humans! animals! destroying everything in their path!”, you said quickly, “its us VS them! you said it!”

“We have the RPG”, said Alexander, “several rockets, a couple of grenades”

“Its too much of a risk”, muttered Rick

“It is much greater of a risk releasing them!”, you said quickly. “We throw a bomb right at the center”, you said quickly, “they will turn towards it, relieving the pressure from the escaping points…”

“We don’t have enough rockets”

“We use a couple, then we burn them or something”, you said, “But we can try”

He did not seem pleased at all, and you were so drowsy you felt like you could pass out.

“We are not ready for an operation like that”, he said, “Alexandria is not ready for an operation of that magnitude”

“We are gonna need explosives, to eliminate the ramps and to diminished their numbers”, said Alexander, “i know how the military operated, i bet that if you give me a couple of days I would be able to find some”

There was an awkward silence

“She is right!”, said the shaky man, and you heard mumbles of approval

“We can try it your way”, said Rick, “but if it doesn’t work…”

“Then we lead them away”, you promised

You then looked at Deanna, who nodded

“You have a week to find explosives, or come up with a  similar solution, if you don’t, we follow Rick’s plan”, she sentenced, and you only nodded, you searched the eyes of Eugene, who had a weird, determined look on his face, then the shaky guy, and then Alexander who smirked. 

You met with said people, Rick of course was there, and several others.

Alexander placed a man over the table on the porch. 

“I want this points checked”, he said signaling habited points on the map, “I was called in when the crisis fully broke out”, he said, “they send troops on surrounding areas of the capital, and, of course, many of them didn’t return, so, they may have left some things behind, that’s why, I need four groups, of three or four people on each, to disperse and search, I want a long range shooter, a short range fighter, and a scavenger on each”, he said, “that is for safety”, he said, “as there are three of us who have military training, maybe four”, he said looking at you who nodded, “those being Me, Espinoza, Ford and (Y/L/N), I want us dispersed in the groups too”

Rick looked supportive so far, agreeing with everything Alex was saying.

It was odd, you felt a weird sense of pride, bringing him in was your idea, so you still felt responsible for him, and the fact he was adapting well and being a good ass asset, made you somewhat proud.

“Eugene”, he called then, “you told me you could make home-made explosives, how real is that promise?”

“For a few explosions of a magnitude that will not jeopardize the general constitution of said quarry or our safety, but be bigger than one that could cause a single house fire, I do need some materials that will not be found here but I have certainty that can be found out there…”, he said, Alexander looked at him like trying to comprehend his words, then nodded

“Alright, I want you in Ford’s team”, he said, he then looked at Abraham who nodded, “Abraham you help him get what he needs”

“Damn right”, he asserted

“The rest of us, we look for explosives, grenades, or rockets”, he said. “Espinoza, you know your explosives”,

“Yeah”, she said with a small smile

“Well, flash course to Abraham and (y/n), so they know how to manipulate what they find”

“It’ll take me a couple of hours with this thickheads”, she mocked, you and Abraham chuckled

“I’ll give you the entire afternoon”, he promised, “make the teams”, he demanded 

As people dispersed to do as Alexander commanded you separated from the rest as Rosita, Abraham and Alex did, and Daryl approached you

“I was thinkin’ that since you are the military part, and somewhat the scavenger, maybe Carol and I can go with ya”, he said with a soft smile, “the three of us”, oh gods. You thought, while with your tongue caressing the still healing wound inside your mouth. 

“You sure?”, you asked him, concerned, but you guessed, then with any bonding time with Carol, having Daryl there was a relief. You smiled then, had flashbacks of your mission in Atlanta with these two, you had not enjoyed it, BUT… many things had changed since then, specially your relationship with your loving archer. And the hope in his eyes could perfectly made you do whatever he wanted, “Let’s do it”, you said with a soft smile. Would you be able to get a fourth person in?

You could not get the fourth person.

Alex led a group, with Rick, the new guy Smith, and Michonne

Abraham, Eugene, Sasha, and Tara

Rosita, Glenn, Maggie, and that guy Gary. 

And then there was you, Daryl and Carol. 

Laura wanted to participate too, but she was helping out in the infirmary with Beth and Denise, and medics needed to stay protected at all costs. She knew all about pharmaceuticals thanks to her father, that is what she told you. You liked her, she was badass, and somewhat nice, despite it all. 

“You contradicted me big time today”, Rick said, but he did not looked recriminatory at all

“Normally I wouldn’t have done it, but…”

“I’m glad you did”, he said, “let’s give this a shot, let’s hope we don’t blow ourselves up in the process”

“I have faith”, you answered

“We need to include your approach on this”, he muttered, “your approach on walkers”

“After”, you promised 

“After”, he said, nodding. you felt a bit dizzy, and he seemed to notice, “Are you alright?”, he asked softly, you nodded 

“Yeah, yeah, just a bit tired”, you assured, you wanted to curl up on a couch with a blanket, preferably with Daryl’s arm wrapped around you.

You played dumb at Carol’s attempt to make you all lunch, instead sneaking out to the third house that had been gifted to the team, where Alex resided, a smaller house, where he shared quarters with Rosita, Abraham and Eugene

He was kind enough to gift you a cup of your favorite pork ramen

You ate ramen with the military team while you shared war stories, well, as Rosita did receive training from Abraham and their former team, she had not served, nor did you. You had received really wild, almost savage training by Mayor. But Abraham and Alex had some stories that made you laugh out loud.

“And then we just had to wait for the camel to shit the keys”, and you all broke in a laugh.

“I have heard this story a thousand times and it still makes me laugh”, said Rosita, “but… let’s talk explosives”

“Great”, you muttered. And Rosita started to give you an explosives class 101

“...If it's a bit broken, misshapen, or even the paper around it looks funny… don’t touch it, don’t move, don’t look at it”, she said severely

“And this is what a crate of dynamite usually looks like”, Alex told you, showing you a picture, “like the wooden ones from the cartoons”

“Oh I loved ACME products”, you laughed

“But I don’t want any of you to risk it unnecessarily, if it is compromised, or you are not sure, do not manipulate it”, Alex commanded, “sometimes they don’t need fire to be detonated”, he warned, “so you call in Rosita with the radio, or me, or two of the group goes back to find her or me, alright?”, he said, you all nodded, “when in doubt, do not manipulate, and if you happen to find an untouched box, carry it with care”.

There was more, more details and things to remember.

“We go tomorrow”, said Alex, “you are all sure about your teams?”

“Yeah”, you all three said

“Good”, he nodded.

You exited the house when you came face to face with Smith, and Gary

“Military, uh? you are full of surprises”, he teased

“I did not serve”, you said, “I was trained when the shitshow started by a military man in Atlanta, that’s it”, you said simply. “very… informal training”, you assured him

“I think you are selling yourself short”, he said, “but you also look like shit”, he said, “you sure you are fine?”, you frowned

“I’m good”, you assured him. Him and Gary gave you the creeps, so you were quick to keep moving. 

“I’m not questioning you boss”, muttered Gary, making Negan frown, “but I do sometimes wonder… what your plan is”, Negan looked down the street where you were walking away from them. He had to admit, he had never done this before. 

They had eyes in Alexandria for a while now, all this lucky, fancy people, in this beautiful community, ready for the taking, they weren’t like him and his people, they weren’t farmers like Hilltop, they didn’t grow shit like the Kingdom, this… were the luckiest sons of bitches he had ever met.

Until Rick and his posse came around.

Now the tides were changing, now these people were becoming, quickly, more ferocious, now… they could become a problem.

So he decided to pull this little trick on them, to see what these people were made of, the original Alexandrians mixed with this savage band of survivors, this strange creature, like an eagle with two heads looking in opposite directions.

These people, the newcomers… were different… they had been on the road, they were almost wild, feral, they weren’t like the rest of the communities.

Negan could feel himself tight in the pants with the mere thought of what this people were capable of, and the brutal crash that was going to be produced when they met his people

People were a resource, oh and he planned on using it properly, to the best of their abilities.

They were a goldmine, militars, leaders, soldiers, they’ve got it all, a family, brains, braun… Looks too, even a couple of farmers and medics. And then there was you, an strange creature for sure, he was still trying to guess the nature of your relationship with Rick, he knew you were not related, he also knew he didn’t want to get into your panties or you his, you were with the archer, the wildest of these people, his future soldier.

What was your role in all of this? Rick listened to you, as he saw it today. 

He needed to play it right, or everything he had built could be put in jeopardy.

But now? Oh, he had the perfect opening, he knew his people had cleaned the surroundings, you were not going to find anything, so that gave him the opportunity to actually “save you”, a good beginning.

He was the savior for a reason, right?

You went back to the house, and it was afternoon, the sun was shining, so you could sneak out of the day’s activities, you needed it, rather than deserved it.You loved your room, because at this special hour, the sun sneaked through the windows and hit it just right over your bed, warming it up for you.

You could activate “plant mode”, and do some photosynthesis in your bed. (You knew that wasn’t a process humans made but plans, but it was still funny to think about it). 

But Daryl found you, as you finally got to the perfect position on the bed when the sun hit you in your back, and you had positioned the pillows just right. 

“Hey”, he greeted gently, “ya feeling good?”, you only hummed

“Just a bit drowsy, that’s all”, you mumbled

“Is it that damn pill?”, you barely nodded, half your face in full contact with the pillow, “Ya need anything?”, you shook your head, “I’m gonna go, with Carol, to prepare for tomorrow”, you nodded again, you loved being wrapped up in Daryl’s embrace, but this felt just too good. 

When the time to eat something came upon you, you were straight up roadkill.

You sat on the table and barely listened to anything that was being said, but not really, you felt like you were underwater, but you survived it. You charged the walkies for tomorrow, and then you escaped to find sleep again. 

Daryl followed you up, actually.

“Brought our pajamas”, he said gently

“Do you mind if we only sleep tonight?”, you asked him, he only caressed your face, and kissed you softly. And you slept together, cuddling. no funny business. 

So the very next day you were waiting by the gate. You were determined to make this right, this was important to Daryl, so this was important to you. Alexander had given you a pair of military boots that was the most comfortable thing you had ever tried, and you were wearing comfortable but thick clothes, nothing restraining, you had your loaded Pentagon gun with your silencer in your holster and your trusted ax in your other side, with two knives in your boots.

You gathered, the fifteen of you, four cars.

“Alright, everybody knows where to go”, said Alexander, “everybody got their missions”, he said then, “If you find dynamite, communicate through the walkies”, he said, “if you are not sure, don’t manipulate without me or Rosita”, you all nodded, “let’s come back at sundown”, and everybody splits. 

You met with Daryl and Carol.

But the thing is, you had this unique and toxic ability to match the temper of people around you, and the second you saw Carol’s butt face she was wearing for the day, your temper immediately got sour. And Daryl seemed like he was the one that was going to be handling two misshapen explosives for the rest of the day.

“Are you gonna go on your bike?”, you asked Daryl, he nodded, “I will take the truck, so we can carry what we find”, you said

“I’ll go with you”, Carol said gingerly to Daryl, who looked at you, alarmed, you barely nodded with a smile, preferring to have a long nice lone ride in the truck

“You know where we are going, right?”, you asked him, he nodded, “lead the way”, you got in the truck and lit it up, you were the second group to leave Alexandria after Rick’s. Who left in the HUMVEE that Alexander had not let you drive yet.

You stole his CD though, and you were blasting that Scorpion’s song all the way up. While Daryl drove his bike in front of you with Carol attached to his back

You were not jealous, you were not threatened, you were fine. 

It took you about an hour to reach your destination, you left the truck in a more secluded spot, as Daryl pulled up on his bike. 

Carol was smiling, but it was quickly shut down when she saw you coming out of that truck. You wanted to say you tried, but her attitude wouldn’t have let you.

Carol opened the back door of the truck to grab her weapon. You made sure to have a “pleasant” look on your face, and she was not giving you an opening. This was going to be harder than you believed. 

“We should split up”, said Carol, grabbing onto her gun, Daryl immediately looked at you, because he knew you did not like it.

“Yeah”, you accepted, he opened his mouth on protest, “if you see walkers, do not engage, or do, you know your abilities and risks”, you liked to lead, you had proven yourself to be a decent leader, but this time, you just… wanted to get this over with.

“The whole point of this…”, he started, but when he saw your faces, he shook his head and sighed, “I’ll take the bike, check the perimeter”, Daryl mumbled, “you go to that small town”

“Yeah”, you said, and started walking, they shared words, you didn’t listen, but kept walking. You heard Daryl’s motorcycle going away until the sound disappeared and that left Carol and you.

“The point of this whole thing was for us to bond”, she said, and you didn't know her enough to determine if she was being sarcastic or not. 

“This point of this is to look for explosives to eliminate a potential full destruction level threat to our community”, you corrected, “making this a bonding exercise is proving to be a colossal mistake”, you kept going, “besides you were the one that proposed for us to split up”

“Daryl told me you were a great leader”, she said, oh, she was testing you, she wanted you to fight her, to make you all stay together. Shame on you, did she want to clean her hands out of this madness? pinning its failure on you?

“A good leader is only a good leader if they have willing people to follow”, you said then, as you were walking in the main street. Whatever game it was, you were not playing, this was a mission.

“Daryl is my best friend”, she said, you only stopped to look back at her, “so that means we are supposed to be… friendly”, she said. What were you? fifteen?

“Says the one that put a sharpened chicken bone in my food”, you said back, she frowned, your anger was quickly overpowering your fear of her, and the thing is, you were fight, not flight, you learn that the hard way. “Look I know you two created that kind of bond that is stronger than blood, and I respect that, and I will keep doing that…”

“I don’t know what he sees in you”, she interrupted, ouch

“... you are right, let’s just be cordial”, you invited, “I will not get in your way, you will not get in on mine, Daryl loves us both, and that’s what’s important to me, we don’t have to be friends, we just need to keep clear of each other's relationship with him”, you were offering her an out, a peace agreement, you didn’t know what she looked like she was angrier than before.

“He loves you, uh?”, she said in a whisper

“That's what he said”, you said gently, “and I love him”, you assured her, she came close to you, you didn't back down, and she leaned in

“If you hurt him in any way, shape or form I will slit your throat”, she whispered into your ear, “and then I will stab you in the base of your skull”, she said. You looked back at her, normally you would be fearful, but again, you were fight, so you just looked at her.

“If I do hurt him, I might even let you”, you only said back. You then separated from her slowly, “You are part of this family, and that makes you my family too, if you injure yourself, I’ll aid you, if you need anything, I’ll help you, if I see you being attacked by a walker or even an enemy I will eliminate that threat for you, but I don’t really see us exchanging recipes”, you admitted, she looked at you, squinting, and then she nodded, “I’ll take the right side of the street”, you said. Walking away from her. 

You were checking the third building, when you saw through a backside window… A highschool. You saw one of those big military trucks, and the remains of what one day could have been… a real battlefield near the gymnasium. 

So you went there. Arm in hand. 

You approached the military vechile first, it was fucked up, rest of walkers everywhere, it had crashed against a wall. You checked the inside, and there was nothing interesting. You heard growling, a walker, who had been a military man, came for you, you put it down nice and easy. With your ax, because… you then searched him for grenades, and you couldn’t find anything on him. 

“HEY! YOU!”, you looked up, and you saw two men right in the corner of the building you were just in. you stood up quickly, “STOP!”, one commanded, you didn’t want to sound judgemental, but they looked like they were up to no good.

You took two warning shots

So that left you with 2 less…

“That’s far enough gents!”, you said, pointing your gun at them, they were like 50 meters away from you, perfect range. But… they didn't take them as warning shots, they took out their big ass guns, “SHIT!”, you cursed and you dived behind the truck as a rain of fire fell on you. The truck was big enough so you could see underneath, you took pretty good shots, hitting one of them in the leg, but you missed the others

1, 2, 3… 4, 5 and 6

Count your shots… this isn’t a movie, said the voice of Mayor inside your head. 

9 to go then.

“Come out here”, they said, one whining about the shot on his leg, “we don’t wanna hurt you!”, yeah right. To your complete horror, you saw a truck pulling up, more guys coming in

“Hey! What the hell is going on?”, you jumped from your hiding spot now that they were distracted and you shot all you could while you took cover inside the big gym. But oh you shouldn’t have done that. You quickly realized that you didn't have any more bullets and that thing had only one viable exit was the one you just entered, as the other was completely obstructed by chairs, tables and other things. 

You looked around, only bleachers and then… on top of them, looking right at you like an owl on a branch up a tree was a guy

“Hey”, he called for you quietly. 

“Who the fuck are you?”, you asked, coming towards him ax in hand, he didn’t have any guns on him, he showed you his hands, so when you reached him, you stood still, you did not attack him. 

“I’m Jesus”, you looked at him weird, “I’m Paul, but my friends call me Jesus”, he corrected

“And who the fuck are them?”, you asked pointing to outside

“They call themselves Saviors”, he said, “I’m not with them”

“Do you have a camp?”, you asked, he nodded, “me too”

“Come out here darlin’ we know you are in there!”, you hear them cry out. “There’s no way out!”

“What are you doing here?”, he asked

“Scavenging”, you answered, “how ‘bout you?”

“Yeah, me too”

“Are they going to kill me?”, you asked Jesus looking out there.

“Did you kill any of them?”, you shook your head, “then you should be good”

“Fuck you Yeezus I don’t believe you!”, you whispered angrily 

“Come out here sugar, or we are going in!”, they mocked, you whined. Gods you shouldn’t have shot at them, your heart was beating so fast, you didn’t know what to do, but they were coming in, you couldn’t stop them, and they were going to find you both in here. You could see them out there through a darkened window. There were only two.

But when you properly saw the truck that had pulled over, you gasped

It was a white Toyota Tacoma with an Atlanta plate, actually, Georgia plate, it was… the truck YOUR TRUCK, THE EXTERMINATORS INC TRUCK. it still had the M2 mounted in the back. 

“I’m here with two more people, so if you encounter a rough guy on a motorcycle, his name is Daryl, please tell him what happened here…” you told him, “...please…”

“Don’t go out there!”, he said quickly. But you needed to find out what that was about 

“If I don’t they will come in here and find you too, there is no other way out!”, you said, “I’m out of bullets anyways”, he looked concerned, “If you find another group, ask for Rick, or Daryl, please, I’m (y/n)”, you said, “please tell them what happened”, you repeated.

“Where’s your camp?”, he asked quickly

“I can’t tell you that”, you answered, getting out of the platform you were in

“But wait!”, he said, but you didn't listen, you jumped out of there 

“Sorry gentlemen!”, Jesus saw you walk out with your hands in the air, “but you’ll have to understand..”, he laughed when he saw you punch one of them in the face and kick the other in the nuts and started sprinting down the street, losing you from sight. 

It was an open ground, so you had no choice but to run ahead, hoping to lose them back on the street, but a gunshot that rang by your ear made you stop on your tracks.

You had to be smart about this

“STOP RIGHT THERE!”, you stopped as there were two other guys, counting up to four, but they didn’t approach you, only the two you started the fight with. You turned around angrily. 

“What the fuck do you want from me?”, you asked him

“Hey! you fired first!”, they looked badass, but dangerous, but they sounded idiotic

“Warning shots! A girl can only be too careful”, you said simply

“Well, it doesn’t matter, you are in our territory”, you wanted to laugh 

“I’m sorry, but I’m not bothering anyone”, you said angrily, “who the fuck do you think you are?”

“You're scavenging on his grounds”, he said as the smartass he believed himself to be, you raised an eyebrow

“Oh I’m sorry, tell the mayor of whateverthisfuckingtownis that I’m very sorry, is the sheriff coming for me?”, you mocked 

“Let’s see if Negan finds it funny”, he said

“Who the fuck is Negan?”, you ask

“We are Negan”, you sighed. 

“Third person this ‘itch?, alright then”, you said, “(y/n) would like to be left alone”, you said mockingly 

“Listen you little bitch”, grunted one, “Are there more people with ya’?”, he asked, “Negan would like to know”, you just looked at this man dead in the eye 

“Is Negan in the room with us?”, you asked softly, they both frowned

“Where’s your camp?”, they asked

“I don’t have one”, you said quickly

“Where do you keep your shit then?”, asked the other, the dumber looking one

“In a cute house down P. Ennis street”, he lunged at you, grabbing you by the neck, he squeezed. The other grabbed his arm, you were on the tip of your toes trying to relieve the pressure. You looked for your ax and you realized you didn’t have it with you, shit you must have left it inside, with that guy. Shit! your ax! no!

“Where the fuck do you come from?”, he asked, squeezing. 

“I’m sure Negan is gonna want to talk to her”, he said surely to his pal, so he released you

“I’m not going anywhere with you wackos”, you said angrily, you saw, behind them and up a building, Carol was watching. 

“We’ll take a little trip”, said one

“No! fuck off!”, that is when the side of your head met the back of his gun.

And everything turned black.

PCN: DON'T GET ME WRONG I love Carol, I love her character, I just don't like her, like, if I knew her personally, I think i wouldn't like her at all, BUT her character is super cool and I love her relationship with Daryl

I had written that scene with the saviors for like CENTURIES, I think is the first thing I ever wrote for this and i'm so happy its finally "here"

@crazyunsexycool @capricxnt

[landhoe-norris]

"carlos did the bare minimum of what he was hired to do, nothing more nothing less"

i've seen this take a lot today, in many different forms, all of them hyping up charles while doing their utmost to trash talk carlos.

no one is denying that carlos was hired to score points and podiums. that's the name of the game. (almost) everyone on that grid is hired because the people in charge believe that they can bring their teams some kind of glory.

but what this race (and the other three races he's managed to partake in) highlights is more than just his ability to "do the bare minimum."

time and time again we have seen his ability to overtake and defend, that's not something anyone can argue. but some of y'all still try your hardest 'til you're blue in the face.

there seems to be a consensus for a lot of people, especially those who support his teammate, support the current world champion or support the driver who will take his seat next year, to talk down every single thing carlos does. when he does his own strategy, he's a bad team player, when he follows strategy, he is being favoured by the team. when he's the faster ferrari driver, it's only because there's a problem with charles' car, but when charles is faster, it's because he's better.

two things can be true at once, and those two things are: carlos and charles are both excellent drivers.

they both have their talents, but i'm here to talk about carlos' talents.

his race strategy is, very often, unmatched. there is a reason he's called a strategist, and it's because he is incredibly smart but also very insightful and can calculate what's best for himself while driving an f1 car at top speed. not everyone can do that, and that's fine. other drivers have other talents.

but it's so integral to realise that his contributions extend beyond the cockpit. his teamwork, communication with engineers, and feedback have contributed significantly to ferrari's car development and team strategy, enhancing ferrari's competitive edge. the fact that people at maranello didn't know what to do with him in his first year cause he was always around, looking, learning and contributing says a lot about him.

his resilience in high-pressure situations, his adaptability to changing race conditions, and his determination to maximise every opportunity on the track make it clear that reducing his contributions to merely doing the "bare minimum" doesn't do justice to his capabilities or achievements. the weirdest part of this for me is that people seem to resent him for knowing his worth. they dislike him because he knows his talent, and knows his strengths, and isn't afraid to stand up for himself.

for the past month or so people have been talking a lot of shit; from saying that bearman should get the seat for the rest of the season to calling his win after abdominal surgery a fluke, his podium in bahrain being ridiculed because his teammate had brake problems and therefore "he never would've been on the podium if charles' car hadn't failed him" and now people are saying his p3 in japan means nothing.

there have been severe accusations thrown at carlos and his father, and i would even go as far as call them libel. these people who have spread false information and made up ridiculous rumours are lucky they're nobodies either on here, reddit or twitter, otherwise they could be in a lot of shit.

i could genuinely go on forever about this, but i won't. just know that carlos sainz jr is an amazing driver who deserves to have a team that not only fully appreciates him, but also is able to give him what he deserves.

ferrari is not, and never has been, that team. and i hope that the fans of the team that he will end up with, will appreciate everything about him and not resent him for wanting to be the driver that he knows he can be ❤️

[howlingday]

The Hardest Thing to Say

Jaune: (Reading)

Cinder: (Climbing in through window) Well, hello there~.

Jaune: Ugh...

Cinder: So, I noticed you haven't been replied to a single meme I've sent you so I was wondering why you've been ignoring me.

Jaune: I thought me not saying "ha ha" was enough to get across that I didn't want to talk right now.

Cinder: Oh, come the fuck on, Arc, we're just going through a rough patch. Besides, you always want to hear from me~.

Jaune: (Sighs) Okay, Cinder. What do you want?

Cinder: I want to feel like I'm earning this partnership, so get your hands off that book and on my ass so you can SMACK it~!

Jaune: Wow. How poetic. I bet you really thought I'd be putty in your hands by now, huh?

Cinder: Er... Right, so... Okay, that was a shitty way for me to say it, but you usually like it when I dirty talk to you.

Jaune: (Scowls)

Cinder: (Groans) Come on! We don't words! We sex!

Jaune: This might be a surprise to you, Cinder, but I don't want "to sex." In fact, I don't even want to "words" with you! So would you please respect that?!

Cinder: Oh, don't be like that, Arc. (Leans, Pulls collar) Besides, you know you like to see this~.

Jaune: (Cringing) Seeing you is hard for me right now! I already feel bad about last night, and the fact that I'm getting an invite to this "Anti-Cinder" party as a "guest of honor" for being your most recent ex!

Cinder: ANTI-CINDER?! WHO THE FUCK IS BEHIND THIS?!

Jaune: It's just this immature get together. Honestly, it sounds like a load of baloney.

Cinder: Yes, yes, truly a real smorgasbord of processed meat! Let me see that!

Jaune: It was nice to get an invite, though. Maybe I should check it out.

Cinder: (Opens card)

Dearest Jaune Arc, You are cordially invited to join us as a guest of honor to celebrate having your fucking heart stomped to mush by Cinder Fall~! It is with great pride and honor that I extend this invitation, as the most recent ex, to the Ever After and indulge in our shared hatred of that stupid cunt! Eagerly awaiting the arrival of our "Guest of Honor,"

Neopolitan

Cinder: NEO?! Of course that fucking creep would...

Jaune: It's funny, though... Why would you have an entire party dedicated to hating you of all people?

Cinder: Because they're all bitter that I am simply too wild to tame~.

Jaune: You really think that's all it is?

Cinder: Of course! They're all jealous that I moved on and they didn't.

Jaune: Oh! That makes sense since YOU are the one who's breaking people's hearts!

Cinder: If by "bweaking pepoo's hots~" you mean I "end is shit before it becomes shit," then yes, and honestly, these people should be thanking me because everyone would be better off single.

Jaune: ...Heh. Yeah. You're right. Everyone would be better off single. So, why are you here, Cinder~?

Cinder: E- I- I am here because you still need to realize how good some angry revenge sex would feel right now!

Jaune: Oh, beat it, Cinder! ...NOW.

Cinder: Why?!

Jaune: Because I'm tired of this, Cinder! I don't like how you're talking to me!

Cinder: Oh, give me a fucking break, Arc! You know this has always been a fantasy of yours! You want me to be right on top of you so I can give you the best two hours of your life~!

Jaune: (Walks away) Stop it!

Cinder: You know I'm right! You love the idea of me being your little lapdog for you to show off so you can prove that there's good in everyone!

Jaune: I don't want you to be my lapdog! How many times do I have to fucking-?! When have I ever-?! (Exhales) You're just like Adam, you know that?! You know, the same guy who tried to kill me and YOU didn't even bother coming to help me yourself! Remember?!

Cinder: I am NOTHING like-! I-I didn't know he could-! Hey, I stopped him the first time!

Jaune: The first time?!

Cinder: ...Yes, when yo- Oh... Oh, shit, did I not-

Jaune: You KNEW someone was trying to kill me?

Cinder: ...I stopped him! And I didn't think you could actually get hurt!

Jaune: (Walks to the window, Leans on sill)

Cinder: You had aura! You have your semblance! If Mercury and I could kick his ass on our own, then you could definitely-

Jaune: Yeah, you're right! Because I'm the big huntsman hero and I shouldn't trust an evil person to stop an evil person, right?

Cinder: And there it is! About time!

Jaune: Oh, that's all you were really here for! (Pushes to face Cinder) Trying to play out this idea you have that I'm some beacon of light who's trying to force you to be a good guy, but I'm NOT! Why would I risk my career, my LIFE, to spend time with you, to help you?! You don't owe me those things, but you can't just ignore all of it!

Cinder: ...You know, Jaune, I spent the entire morning listening to love songs...

Jaune: (Cinder takes his hand)

Cinder: ...and that was still the SAPPIEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD!

Jaune: (Pulls hand away) ...Do you ever feel bad for the people you've hurt? Have you ever said sorry ONCE in your life?

Cinder: WHAT, YOU THINK I CAN'T FUCKING APOLOGIZE?! FOR WHAT?! YOU WANT ME TO SAY, "Oh, I'm sorry that I thought this whole time someone as wonderful as you could never love someone as awful as me and I allow my self-loathing to stop me from apologizing to anyone I've ever cared about!"

Jaune: ...Er- Yeah. That.

Cinder: ...

Jaune: ...

Cinder: ...WELL, FUCK YOU!

Jaune: (Leaves)

Cinder: I COULD SAY SORRY IF I WANTED TO! JUST YOU FUCKING WATCH! I SORRIED RUBY SO HARD, SHE CRIED! AND I CAN SORRY MORE PEOPLE EXCEPT YOU BECAUSE I DON'T OWE YOU DICK!

Cinder: (Huffs) Everyone... But you... (Leaves)

[shatterinseconds]

“It’s a simple three step beat; what aren’t you understanding about it, Mullet?” Lance asks, annoyance beginning to leak through his voice. He’s tried to cap his frustration as much as possible throughout the past hour. But this has become ridiculous. If anything, Keith has gotten worse at dancing than when they started the lesson. Brief pain sparks through Lance’s foot and he cracks. “And stepping on my toes isn’t one of them!”

“Some of us didn’t get three years of ballroom dance lessons,” Keith snaps, irritated. 

“Which is why I’m teaching you. But you’re not listening to a single thing I say! You can’t even get close to me.” Lance tries to tug Keith forward but he remains just as stubborn as always, aggravating and infuriating. 

What looms between them is a larger gap than needed, with Keith holding him at an arm’s length as if he’s a poisonous snake ready to bite. A balloon would fall straight through to the floor; Lance’s arms are almost entirely extended. He thought Keith would be a little more willing considering the stake of the mission. 

Keith clenches his jaw. “I’m trying.”

“For someone as coordinated as you on the battlefield, this shouldn’t be this difficult.” Lance scowls, taking a page out of Keith’s book.

“Me not knowing how to dance isn’t going to break the alliance.”

“Were you even listening to Allura?”

“Were you?” Keith bites back, too smirky for Lance’s taste. Yeah, he may have been fiddling with his comm device under the table, trying to play an old earth game Pidge had downloaded onto it. That’s beside the point.

So Lance ignores him. “The Zolxox see dance as a creation of trust and loyalty between two groups of people. If we miss a step, they won’t join the coalition.”

“But why’d it have to be us?” The Zolxox only needed a pair of dancers, not their whole team.  

Lance rolls his eyes. “Because I have three years of dance experience, duh.” But his annoyance quickly fades when Keith doesn’t snap back with their classic banter. In fact, he continues to stand there, his hands not exactly touching Lance anymore but hovering. Keith stares at him with such a blank expression that Lance allows a bit of the truth to spill. “And–And because I work best with you,” he mumbles, ducking his head to avoid any minute reaction from Keith. When he does flick his gaze up, Keith remains impassive. “But you gotta listen to me, Mullet. Why won’t you just follow what I say?”

That’s when Lance loses Keith entirely. He steps back from Lance, arms folded against his chest, not loose at all. Keith can’t seem to look at him anymore either. “It’s awkward… being close to you.”

“Oh.” Lance drops his empty hands, suddenly despondent. He didn’t know Keith felt that way about him. He thought they’d finally become friends, maybe inching toward something more. Maybe Lance should have chosen Allura for this mission like everyone thought he would. His shoulders begin to hunch forward.

“Shit, no, not in that way.” Keith groans as he cards a hand through his hair, frustrated at himself. Strands stick out in multiple directions, silly enough that Lance wants to punch through whatever new wall is between them and fix it for him. But Keith wouldn’t appreciate that. “I just meant, I know the way I feel about you isn’t how you feel about me and I don’t want to make it weird for you.”

“How do you know how I feel about you if you never once asked?”

Keith gives him a look. “Please. You flirt with everyone but me. Even I understand what that means.”

“That’s not—That’s—Oh my god—” Lance suddenly steps forward, waving his arms as he talks, too flustered to be rational. “With everyone else, it’s fun, meaningless, a way to lighten the mood.” His skin heats enough that he must be glowing from embarrassment. “But you—With you, it’s different. I try to spend time together and constantly try to get your atten—wait.” Eyes popping wide, Lance starts to point, jabbing his finger into Keith’s chest. “You just told me you liked me!” His brain finally internalizes what Keith had said, what Keith implied. It immediately derails his train of thought. “You like me!”

Keith startles before his entire expression pinches. He growls. “Uh uh, we’re focusing on you and your terrible flirting techniques.” He steps up to Lance and keeps stepping toward him until he is the only thing Lance can focus on. Those violet eyes bore into Lance, head tilted and brows drawn. “How was I supposed to know I was different?” he asks, low and steady. 

“Goddammit, Keith.” Lance surges forward and kisses Keith square on the mouth. His hands weave through Keith’s hair, musing it further, while Keith’s strong grip lands on his waist, fingers hooking into his belt loops. He pulls Lance in and tugs on his lower lip, his teeth scraping slightly but in a way that buzzes across Lance’s skin. When they part, Lance is breathless with swollen lips and eyes half-lidded. It’s a struggle to speak but he manages to mumble, “Does that clear things up?”

Keith nods. Blush stains his pale cheeks though he holds Lance’s stare, never wavering, and he even starts to smirk the longer they remain in silence. Like he knows that he affected Lance just as much as Lance affected him. 

He’s going to be the death of Lance one day; this man…

“G-Good,” Lance finally says, struggling to regain his composure, if he ever had some to begin with. “We’ll talk about this later. But right now, we dance.”

Kith groans, though less annoyed than before, and for the first time, effortlessly moves all the way into Lance’s space, smiling a small smile. They dance without any issues, except for maybe a few butterflies.

[sakuraharukaaa]

just a short, fluffy fanfic about my baby son that I wrote in like an hour ♥♥ too lazy to publish on ao3 for now, but maybe later

word count: 1197 words

It’s the smallest things in life. The little things that slowly creep into his daily life until they become a part of his routine. 

People are so adaptable, Haruka can’t help but think. It’s somewhat of a motto, though the connotation used to be negative in the past. He used to think of himself as someone durable who can withstand whatever life throws on him. He always believed that staying firm would keep him safe in the troubling currents of life. He didn’t realize that he, too, can change so much. 

It starts with Nirei, who shows him a pack of tea he got the day earlier. 

“It’s my favorite!” He says ever so enthusiastically. He insists on Haruka drinking it. 

But I don’t like tea that much. It stands on the tip of his tongue, yet he doesn’t say it. The taste is just okay. Barely passable, if he’d be honest, but for some reason he cannot refuse when Nirei shoves the almost-full box into his hands. 

He writes it off as something to put in his cabinet, a single box in an empty shelf – what a laughable idea. He can’t really drink it though, since he doesn’t own a kettle.

Suou is always too perceptive. Haruka finds it mildly annoying, especially when he sticks too close to Nirei. Something about an instinct to tell him off, to tell him that Haruka knew him first, and he shouldn’t be so chummy with Nirei. 

Whatever. 

That weasel approaches a couple of days later, talking about Nirei’s favorite tea, because of course he’d know about it. 

“It is quite good, I was surprised.” His smile is odd and sometimes uncomfortable, but Haruka learned to live with it. The hostility wasn’t targeted towards him, it’s just a general warning. “You should drink good tea in a good cup.” 

So he gives Haruka a weird mug with some calligraphy on it. It’s not legible, in no way it is, and Haruka still doesn’t own a kettle. 

He mentions the kettle debacle – off handedly, really – to Kotoha, and she immediately breaks into laughter. It’s a strange noise and he’s about to comment about it, when she suddenly stops. 

“Hold on, do I have an old one?” She speaks quietly, more to herself rather than to him. “It has to be an electric one.” And she leaves for the back storage room without saying a thing. 

Trust her to be a problem solver, of course. She emerges from the storage room with an old, gray kettle. 

“You have to be careful with the cord.” She says with a shy smile that doesn’t suit her. “If you pull too strongly on it, it will expose the wires.” And only then Haruka notices the tape around the end of the cord, a shoddy fix he assumes. 

Honestly? It’s better than nothing. 

So he takes the kettle. 

(Haruka doesn’t even like tea, he’s more of a coffee guy. 

He could make coffee with the kettle in his home, if he so desires, but it takes a long time until he realizes that. By then, he finds an appropriate excuse – he cannot make coffee as good as Kotoha’s with this old thing. 

Better stick to the tea.)

The next one is Umemiya, who somehow heard about the kettle incident. Probably got the information from Kotoha by torture (read: annoying her). He thinks it’s okay to turn it into a charity case, or so Haruka assumes because he never truly understands him. 

So he stops Haruka after a long, long day where nothing worked out, and his big, dumb smile is too blinding right now. 

“I hear you’re furnishing your room!” He’s far too energetic and Haruka grits his teeth. 

APARTMENT, not room, he almost says, and he doesn’t believe that a single box of tea and an ugly mug and an old kettle warrant the use of the word furnishing. It’s literally three items. 

“I thought I’d give you this!” At first Haruka doesn’t realize what this is, until he notices that the hand holding a pot is extended towards him. 

“No way.” He flat out refuses. He can’t believe he was called to the rooftop for this shit. Behind Umemiya, Hiragi is giving him a resigned sympathetic look. 

Umemiya has plenty of reasons why he should take the plant – of course he does! – and at some point Hiragi exasperatedly signs him to give up. 

His pride takes somewhat of a hit when he comes home with that plant that evening. 

(Sugishita gave him a watering can. 

That bastard actually gave him a watering can. 

He doesn’t say anything but he leaves it on Haruka’s desk alongside fucking four pages of how to take care of plants. 

Jesus Christ.)

It’s after a training session when he goes around the neighborhood with Kaji on a semi-patrol (more like an excuse to get candies because Kaji was running low and Haruka didn’t want to test his patience). Haruka doesn’t eat that stuff so he buys a drink at the vending machine next to the store. When he puts the change straight into his pocket, he catches Kaji’s slanted eyes judging him. 

“Really? That’s barbaric.” And Haruka has to summon all of his self restraint to stop himself from saying that Kaji is the barbaric one for making the nasty lump on the back of Haruka’s head. He doesn’t need another one to match the first. 

The next day, he receives a coin purse. A bit worn out at the seams, but it looks it was taken good care of. He is silent when Kaji hands him that, already knowing not to put up a fight. 

Haruka, unfortunately, doesn’t like coin purses or wallets, so he leaves it on the window sill, next to the plant. It doesn’t feel like it belongs inside the kitchen’s cabinets, so the window sill it is. 

Over the next weeks, it becomes worse. He gets a phone case from Kiryuu – a pink one with cherry blossoms to match his name, and he gets a huge water bottle from Tsugeura that was supposed to have some motivational quote on it, but Suou points out the English doesn’t make sense. When the other guys catch wind of that, they start giving him small things too. It is mostly stationary, but some of his classmates went to town on it. Someone gave him a small radio, which was neat and actually useful, but on the other hand, he got a fucking fork with a handle that was painted like a train. He did use it though, because no one was there to judge him for that when he was eating, and it certainly was more useful than the hot girl calendar he got. 

It’s all so odd when he’s home during the weekend, and he’s drinking tea from his ugly mug and eating with his train fork and staring at the plant on his window sill. It did grow nicely, that he has to admit, and somewhere along the way, it grew on him. 

That doesn’t mean he’s going to take on that offer for a second plant though. 

[cherri-balms]

♡﹕𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓, 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓! — PROLOGUE

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A/N﹕YAY I FINALLY FINISHED THE PROLOGUE FOR MY FIRST SERIES!

This is the first full fledged fanfic I have written in a long time, I hope anyone who finds this finds it enjoyable, I had a fun time writing this prologue chapter and I currently have around a 10-12 chapter vision for this series as it stands, but if this proves to be something you guys like I will be happy to extend the series! I do plan to create a tag list, if you would like to be added shoot me a DM and I will add you to the list! As always any replies will be made through our main acc @caravan-mad!

This prologue pretty much gives most if not all the information about the reader aside from important plot details. I wanted the reader's demon form and time period to be as ambiguous as possible and limit the use of Y/N, the reader in this story has allegories to butterflies.

Not all chapters will have warnings nor does this one, however the full fic will contain dark content and will be under the dead dove do not eat tag.

Some content will include but are not limited to: Unhealthy relationship dynamics, N.SFW, Unrequited love, Yandere themes, Dubcon, and pretty much any tag youd find listed in Hazbin Hotel tbh

𝐄 × 𝐌/𝐅 × 𝟐.𝟔𝐤 × 𝐎𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 × 𝐀𝐎𝟑

♡﹕Bored at work performing repetitive choreography and pleasing faceless demons, you find yourself reminiscing on life, death, and limbo.

♫ envy baby ~ ♫

“Lights clear? Sounds clear?” 

“We’ve been fucking over this Steven! We’ll know it’s clear when they finally stop tuning our shit-” 

“Anne chill, we still have six minutes till airing. Don’t waste all your energy on the roadie.” 

“That crowd doesn’t seem to be getting any quieter does it…” The little imp’s observations were now only being met by eyerolls and silent treatment by the two drummer girls as the completed instruments silenced in countdown. 

Lights crew above, sounds crew from behind, and effects team surround. The way every single backstage member of your cast would run and scurry around you to get their various tasks done always made you think of little mice, rats even, so worked up making sure everything was in perfect position before those curtains had a chance to stop separating you, from them.

It was cute enough to make you laugh as though you were still a highschool girl.

“Broadcasting live in 60 seconds!” Dark blue scene lighting begins to fade your entire surrounding to a pitch black, and among doing so freezes your little mice into statues all around. Only the tiniest crack in the fabric ahead illuminated the space with a sharp vertical line down the curves of the figure that stands as the adorning center piece of this particular attraction. Roaring bass brings about a quake to the stage beneath your feet, queuing time for you to give your puppies a treat.

“Awwwe~ Did we leave you waiting long?” The volume of pure passionate devotion always rang to your ears louder than any electrical speaker could achieve. 

The wave of the new future adorned in electrical inventions was something you’ve always been prepared to face; why even in the faint blur of the overworld it was all the grown ups could ever yap enough of! No, that wasn’t where that bitter taste came from.

In the full truth of things, you just never knew you’d stick around long enough to bear full witness to its infection of mankind.

Oh come on. Who are we kidding right now?

“Hi. I wanna people save, all right? ”

You’ve never been more liberated.

“You’re in m-my way!!”

Your eyes have but a second to adjust to the flood of bright neon before life hits play once again. The choreography you, and and the other 4 devils fanned out beside you have programmed into your bodies for the past months flow across the stage with ease. among the camera men you can make out the mass of waving pen lights stirred ablaze after the long anticipation, oh how you love they always use the color dearest to your heart…

“The tightrope falls, broken by others”

Once you felt the rushing high of the stage the first time around tolerance for it subsided immediately after. You’ve seen the looks on those poor saps down in the front row, each one hyper fixated on every movement you make wishing they could be you, or be up here with you.

And of course, you all flash them bright smiles, longing gazes and praise them with verses of purity more fitting for the angelic souls looming up above. Customer service is the utmost desired, as they say!

“What a lady, she’s gonna jump

towards the light and shatter humiliatingly”

Actually, can you even remember when your first performance was? How old were you even? All of this came from a cheap shot of gaining a few quick pennies back in the day. Landing yourself a handsome and rich husband with the filth you wore on your back was the first childhood dream you found dead on arrival, but what you were cursed in status you were blessed with the cuteness that made kittens hiss in envy. To say you had “the voice of a goddess” would mayhaps be a bit too presumptuous, but who were you to refute the compliment when it came your way?

Well, maybe trying to parse through finding the day your career debuted or took off was a fool's errand, but the moment it ended certainly still remains as a burned film stuck to your mind. You stopped caring about the “Oh woes me~ what did I do to deserve this~” a long time ago. Still, the punishment you received in death far exceeded what you ever did to earn in your eyes, more so than your sentencing of eternal damnation.

“High and without care I’m lonely, lonely”

Right on que, as always every time you reach exactly 32 seconds into your first song the intrusive memory flashes the same images of the past over your current reality it almost feels as if you were stuck suffering that fate again each time.

You wish there was more to say on the matter of your demise, but there’s only a brief two second window between staring down some heckling loud mouth making a scene in the crowd and a bomb beneath the stage going off before your soul is falling down under the earth’s crust as a blazing comet onto the asphalt below.

And two days before your 21st birthday too are you serious?! UN-Fucking believable!

“From their idle words, the clown becomes a prisoner”

The only thing you wanted to do was scream in the immense burning agony you were suffering until the whole world knew the kind of pain you were in, but each time you cried not even a croak could get past your scorched throat

Even after the blazes subsided and your charred cocoon was all that was left behind, the inferno decided your vocal chords were going to be its payment.

…. That was it?

This was your payout…

And after all that work…

“It’s the same love as always, no way I’d have regrets”

Surreal didn’t even begin to describe what became of the following weeks, months, you haven’t a clue. The construct of night and day seemed to mean jack in the bizzare wonderland of maddness holding you, only so much telling what shade of putrid red in the sky was darker than the same shade of fucking red from two hours ago! What a productive way to spend your newfound endless time!

Every aspect of this place made you absolutely sick, enough so to have you still praying you just were drugged and having the worst trip of your fucking life, but the horror in maddness is the consistency that lies between the lines. You’re certain that damned illuminated “WELCOME TO HELL!” sign and the stranger you befriended in the mirror was that line that made you finally cave.

“Hey, it's a amazing.”

Honestly, you couldn’t say what specifically led you into the epiphany you had, all of a sudden one day you heard a sudden snapping sound in your conscience, and like that everything made sense to you. Why your life was snuffed before you could emerge from your cocoon, why your makers deemed this your new home, and why that bomb taking your life just wasn’t enough to deem your afterlife a hell.

There was a certain liberation that came with hell that you were never going to get being the glowing little diamond you were in human society, through terrorism, cannibalism and bloodshed one thing would remain a constant throughout devil society. No one would ever give a damn about anything.

Hell became your fucking playground by the time your first extermination came around, and keeping on the move while broke as shit was a cakewalk this time around, but your first encounter with an overlord after catching your foot in the grave in the casino humbled your inflating ego. Chaos for society did not necessarily mean chaos without hierarchy, and going without a voice to call your own put you at an extreme disadvantage.

“LA-LA-LA!”

The crescendo of the opener is right around the corner, for the leading front and center of your group your vocals and choreography had primarily remained reserved for backup. The primary color of lights among the crowd made the obvious clear with who the majority of these demons were here to see, your manager was aware of this more than anyone else.

Your fans tended to be aware of this for a majority of your shows, your parts in particular tended to stand out even as mere background vocals.

“I’m ready for this this lover baby! 

My garden of love is in danger from a drawing hand. 

Truly, this this lover’s crazy! 

In the garden of harm, the bud of a human is a lie-ai-a!”

Sinners rejoice once the solo everyone was edging towards drops with the bass of the loudspeakers and the flares of the strobes above. The pitches your vocals were now capable of hitting and the frequency you were able to synthesize between notes wasn’t just inhuman, it was impossible for any singer whose notes carried on oxygen.

Your manager always made it a note in the writing room or when creating your setlists that overfeeding wolves with delicious treats would dull the taste over time, your solo singles often did well enough to prove this didn’t need to always be the case, but whenever it came to the business decisions you always put your full trust in him. Where you are standing right now is more than enough proof in your eyes that he knew exactly where and when to move his pawns, and in doing so he turned you into a valiant queen.

“Ah! I love you and even things about you I probably shouldn’t love 

I love you too much, on a count of one and two 

Lie-lie loving you, such words 

and doing such things, you’re in m-my way!”

Survival was of the least of your concerns after so much time had passed, but survival was all you could find yourself able to do in your forced retirement. Where you yearn for character in sound you were able to temporarily find when turning to radio, but living vicariously only quenches so much before greed starts cozying up within.

Plausible excuses for your laziness were wearing thinner by the day, even the last sane smolder of human morality trying to keep itself sparked wanted nothing more than to argue you weren’t supposed to be living to the fullest in hell, but the mute silence in your throat was beginning to phase your memory of the voice your inner conscience called its own too, and you'd sooner go mad trying than wither away again a fucking waste.

“Here comes the love maniac who never misses,

Stack up all the whining,

Fall in a high-fi love lie-ai-a!”

Overlords were still beings that had you nauseous upon first glance, your first meeting of one of these overlords had you vowing to never end up in the claws of one again, should you find yourself in a deal you can’t unbind yourself out of. Pride stuck thick to the roof of your mouth and there was nothing more you wanted to do than stick to your morals and prove use on your own, but reality had pelted you with stones throughout your entire afterlife.

You were going to need to write out a loan before you’d find yourself with any ounce of power to call your own, not like you didn’t have options for whom to choose! Even so, you needed to keep a steady head and an even sharper nose. In your ponderance you'd come to realize there was only really one option for you to go to this whole time. Maybe that gambling kitty taught you a valuable lesson on staking bets in the long run.

“Copy their acting and keep the truth hidden

Stacking three and lonely, lonely 

You’re surely a clown, a prisoner”

A bet on the future was what you were going to stake it all on.

“Copy their acting and keep the truth hidden

Stacking three and lonely, lonely 

You’re surely a clown, a prisoner”

Everything about how the world operated changed so rapidly from the days walking in the sunlight to your eternal party in the redlight, the wave of the future had finally hit with the promise for a solution to everyones problems. There couldn’t have been any better timing, if technology was going to be the way of the future, who's to say you couldn’t prove what was achievable? Like that, you had your sales pitch. The hardest part on your end was complete.

“Hey, it's a amazing.

LA-LA-LA!”

“So you were a singer in life and lost your voice in death, and just what the fuck made you think I was the man to go to for this?” Those were the magic words you were waiting for, with his composure shaken it wasn’t long before he was the one asking the questions and allowing the ball to move into your court. Your fingers dance on the illuminated tablet laying on the table once again before you flip it over toward his direction.

~Have your inventions not made it to that level of advancement yet?

Hook, line, and sinker. You had a hunch a passive aggressive challenge toward the ego would be what ultimately won you over with any overlord you chose, but the speed in which he stood from his desk and held out his hand, it felt almost too easy.

“If it’s a new voice you wish to invest in, consider your stocks opened, Monarch!” Finally…

“I’m ready for this this lover baby! 

My garden of love is in danger from a drawing hand.”

“Now for what you have to offer me,” You don’t care. “I hope you weren’t planning on extorting me out of a generous gift and then making the big bucks with it, hm?” These overlords just love to hear themselves go on.

“Truly, this this lover’s crazy! 

In the garden of harm, the bud of a human is a lie-ai-a!”

“I suppose I could just issue a royalty for your voice, after all you wouldn’t be making a sound without my tech. Lucky for you, I’ve been having fleeting thoughts of entering the music industry. So why not invest in each other instead~”

“Ah I love you and even things about you I probably shouldn’t love 

I love you too much, on a count of one and two”

Being owned by an overlord in the end wasn’t so bad, or maybe this is the fated “stockholm syndrome” everyone seems to be crying about these days. Either way, the biggest price you had to pay in the end was just having someone else do all the “business” part in show business.

Naive maybe, but rosey eyed you weren't. For all that he’s done you still fail to see how your end of the deal has in any way repaid what’s given, which can only lead to one thing down the line. You were going to have to give him your everything.

… Yet, how could you find yourself ungrateful to someone who fulfilled your afterlife dream and still continued to provide for you?

“Lie-lie loving you, such words and even such things, they’re in m-my way!”

The audience went absolutely ballistic at the final group pose signifying the end of your opening set, some of the really hardcore fans in the front row you swore passed out the second eye contact was made.

Yet when you turn your chin upward to the VIP section after performing your tricks so well, all you’re met with is a turned back and a schmoozed up producer instead of a tasty bone.

“Thank each and every one of you for coming to see us tonight!!” No, you only wanted him to come out to see you.

Only you.

Hey, Vox?

Can you just turn your stupid flat head this way?

[kithj]

the more people complain about genderlocked characters i feel like the more stubborn i get about it...

i just feel like. there's a fine line between wanting to see yourself reflected in the art you engage with (everybody wants this to some extent) versus just straight up refusing to engage with any kind of art that you can't personally relate to.

and sure you can argue it's not that deep when we're just talking about romance games i guess but usually this extends beyond just IF romance games, i see it on bookstagram or in mainstream video gaming circles, too... and particularly in IF & gaming it tends to lead to this very entitled attitude where if the thing doesn't appeal exactly to what you personally want, then it's Bad and Wrong.

i definitely understand in some instances, as a butch lesbian there is like... no game even off the top of my head that i can think of that actually has someone that looks like me in it (except for the stuff i've personally written. lol) and i do really like the gender-selection mechanic for this reason. most of the time it's the only way we get sapphic ROs. but to me that's just a band-aid and not a real solution, especially when a lot of authors tend to lean on bioessentialist ideas to depict the gender-selectable variants, and most of the time don't even seem to be aware that they're doing it.

i would much prefer actual female characters, or actual trans characters, over gender-selectable characters. because the other thing we see is that a lot of the time the male variation is the most popular, and is seen as the "default." this is through no fault of the author, really, it's just how the cookie crumbles, i guess.... i don't really know what the solution is but i do really wish people would be more mindful about... well. all of it. authors and readers alike. and maybe broaden your horizons and read something that's different for you, or write something challenging outside of your comfort zone. i get that a lot of these games are pure wish fulfillment, and that's fine, we're not all going to like or want the same things. but when most games don't include people like me, i'm forced to pick from a much smaller pool of fish than everyone else, and i don't agree with that. both in that i wish there were more options for me, obviously, but also that i shouldn't only limit myself to games that "represent" me and am still willing to reach for something different and still give it a chance. both things can be true.

now when a game is intentionally excluding entire groups of people, of course that needs to be called into question. because then it's just bigotry, and we all know bigotry is bad, yes? a game that... let's say. only allows white mcs. is going to attract a particular kind of audience. we know this we can acknowledge this. but i do also kinda think it's a waste of time to try and appeal to authors like this... i'm not against offering feedback but at the end of the day these authors excluded these people for a reason and they have no interest in us. don't bother. there are other authors out there that are writing women and trans people and poc that you can read instead of trying to get a misogynist or a racist or a transphobe to write about people they clearly don't give a shit about.

and i really feel like that encapsulates why i both like and dislike the gender-selectable mechanic... again it's just a temporary band-aid. it lets me play a sapphic mc for a little while. but the larger problem still remains which is that there are no depictions of butch lesbians (or lesbians in general) in most of these games, and there are not a lot of authors out there willing to even try. there are a lot of instances where i feel the gender-selection mechanic is just... a cop out. there's no thought or effort put into it.

i dont think every single author needs to start genderlocking or anything (that would be stupid) i just wish it was something both authors and readers would spend more time thinking about, rather than just automatically defaulting to gender-selection. people approaching Blood Choke and then complaining that it's all genderlocked but... the story is About being a lesbian. it would not exist in any other way. and the beautiful thing is that you can still read it even if you're not a lesbian! in fact i wish more people would. again, reach for something different and you might find that you actually like it. you might even connect with it in a way that surprises you. meanwhile The Northern Passage has a lot of options for the mc both in the character creator and when it comes to romance options. i have a gender-selectable character there, and a lot of people enjoy that, and i do too. and i also chose to lock Clementine originally because i knew i wanted there to be a nonbinary RO that could not be ignored (and then the other two followed shortly after once i started writing).

there's Nuance. there are lots of reasons to genderlock and there are lots of reasons why someone might not. there are games out there that let me play with an all female cast that i hate, other games with a mixed, genderlocked cast that i love. there are authors out there that do handle their gender-selectable characters well, some of my favorite games utilize it! and there are genderlocked games that are all just skinny white cis people that make me recoil. there are downsides to both. this is not an either-or situation. it's just something to think about, both when creating a character as an author and when engaging with a work as a reader.👍

[kairiscorner]

mgee this anon request was overwhelming at first bc I WANT THIS SHIT TO BE AMAZING OKKKK i hope it's any good <:')

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too <:D)

you will never know just how much love and relief you give peter. even if you two were technically strangers, not knowing a single thing about him, save from the fact that you knew he was spider man, that he was always saving you from grave perils--and that he liked you a whole lot.

whenever you were coming home from work, you always saw him above a rooftop near by or standing by a rogue alleyway. you could say he always waited for you, and you'd be right. he was a sweet man, very caring, and very protective over those he loves, you being a prime example of just how far he'd go to ensure the safety of his loved ones, even at a distance to protect them all the while. but whatever he did for you... he only ever did for you.

you wished you knew the man behind that mask, what beautiful, thoughtful eyes might be hidden underneath that dark fabric; what a sweet smile lay beneath that mask that obscured who he really was.

you loved him, you knew it; even if all you could see at face value wasn't even a face, but a mask to protect his identity, your heart beat for him and him alone. you respected his wishes to keep himself at a distance from you, but he'd always show you, in the smallest ways, that he loved you more than anyone he had ever loved before.

when night fell and you'd be on your way to grab dinner, he'd meet with you, even in his spider man attire. he didn't care if there were stares from other people at how covered up he appeared, how... intimidating the attire seemed in the dark; if they even knew he was spider man or not, he didn't care. all that mattered was that he could see you again, hear your voice, your laugh, see your smile, get lost in your glistening eyes that shine whenever you angle your head up just right to look him in the eyes--those eyes he wished he could show you without fearing you would... be scared of him.

he asked you once, "do you mind hanging out with me?" in a genuinely concerned voice, almost as if he were grasping at straws when it came to your comfort around him, if he ever came off as intimidating or scary, or... disgusting to you.

you chuckled. "why'd you ever worry about that? of course i don't mind." you replied as your lips curved into a smile. he couldn't believe it, such simple words, such a brief answer--but it pierced his heart as though an arrow was shot through the vessel. he was surprised, how could you mean that? how could you possibly be okay with this dynamic you two had?

he knew you, but he wasn't anything more than a stranger to you... you didn't know his real name, you didn't know the color of his eyes, the style of his hair, the way his lips curved into a smile, stretched out into a frown, how his eyes shut a little when he'd chuckle, how the pink and red of his cheeks mixed to form a blush that'd extend up to his ears... you were hidden from that side of him, that intimacy he wished, he yearned, to give you one day.

as you two sat down that evening to have some dinner at a local diner you frequented, he extended his hand to gently grasp yours. he has held you multiple times in the past, be it saving you from another big bad villain, or just casually holding you because you needed him, but he had never held your hand before; he believed it was a little too intimate.

it wasn't that he hated intimacy, he longed for it; but he was ashamed, ashamed of himself and his insecurities. he wanted to hold you without worrying about you never being able to hold him when he's not clad in this suit that hid everything about him from the world--from you.

you noticed his hand moving closer to yours, and without hesitation, you gently held his hand back, wrapping your fingers around the back of his gloved hand. he shivered a little at the touch, he has never experienced closeness like this, dreamed of it, yes, but this is the first time in a long while that the universe had answered his dreams.

a warmth filled his cheeks, extending all the way up to the tips of his ears, making them tingle. he looked at you, lucky this mask could hide how red and pink he looked; because goodness, the effect you had on him was maddening. "your hands, um... they're very warm." he complimented them quite awkwardly as he looked away out of embarrassment.

you smiled. "thank you." you muttered as you ran your fingers over the back of his hand. "this hand's dealt some major blows, fought a lot of evil people, and yet... i can feel the gentle touch coming from it. it's so comfy." you whispered as you looked at him, who was still looking away from you out of embarrassment.

"you're... much nicer than everyone believes you to be. i just really wish i could convince the world spider man's not a vigilante, he's... he's just human. and all humans are capable of love." you went on as he slowly came back to looking at you.

"and humans are, you know... we can't function without some form of love, some form of connection. i hope you're loved enough, and even if you feel like you need more sometimes..." you trailed off as you placed a hand underneath his jawline, moving his head slightly for him to face your blushing face, a shy hue forming on your cheeks as you grinned at him.

"i'll be right here waiting for you, like you're always waiting for me." you tell him in a whisper, meaning every word, every syllable of it.

peter's eyes widen from underneath the mask, his lenses follow suit as they show you the extent of his surprise at your words. "oh, why, thank you." he mumbles out as he looks into your eyes, which are looking up into the lenses that sheath his eyes.

he suddenly feels... brave. he feels like tonight, anything can happen; anything can happen, and so... he chooses to see this through. he chooses for this to happen.

"i'm sorry it took me so long to show you this side of me." he began as he took your hand in his own and gently brought them up to the end of his mask. you widened your eyes at the contact, taken aback by how warm he felt.

"i was... so scared you wouldn't like what you'd see." he continued as he led your hand across his cheek, you felt scarred tissue underneath, bumps and lines of scars and scabs, wounds that healed but never disappeared.

"and i'm still scared. still so, so very scared." he said with a light chuckle as he let go of your hand, slowly. he sighed. "i want you to be the first one to know who's underneath this mask." he whispered as he leaned into your touch. "because... i love you." he said simply as he looked at you again. "i wouldn't blame you if you'd be scared, i sometimes scare myself when i look at myself in the mirror. but if you... if you want to stay with me, regardless of what i look like, i--" and before he could even continue, you swiftly took the mask off him.

he was talking mid-sentence when you took the mask off him, he had a crooked smile on his face; and adorning him were a myriad of slashes and scars, some were old, others were new and on top of the old ones.

his eyes were big, they started off gray and became brown at the bottom. they were beautiful, alluring, and they looked only at you. his lips, despite being ran over by scars and cuts, had a charming smile that had sadness yet relief and joy mixed into it. he was a flurry of happiness yet fright, he was tough, it seemed--but deep down, incredibly vulnerable.

"oh..." you uttered involuntarily as you held his mask in your hand. his black, originally slicked back hair, was tousled and messy underneath it. he ran a hand through his hair, and realized, you saw him. you saw him.

"you're..." you began, he tried to hide his face from you again by covering it with his hand, but you cupped his face in your own hands. "you're perfect." you finished. "of course i'd want to stay with you, no matter what your face looks like. it's just a face, if anything, your heart is all i want. your face was just the cherry on top, dear. even if you're scarred... i'd kiss you like this every day if you'd let me." you said, and before he could ask what you meant, you leaned in closer to his face and kissed over his scars; the old and healed ones, even the new and healing ones, you were determined to prove every scar of his was lovable, was worthy of being loved.

"i... oh..." he said as he let you kiss him, his ears tingling as he blushed again. you giggled. "so your ears go red when you blush? you're right, you should've let me love this beautiful man earlier." you told him as he chuckled and leaned in to kiss your lips, closing the distance between you two.

"how did i get so lucky?" he simply asked as he pulled away and leaned his forehead against yours, his eyes staring into yours. "well... maybe i was meant for you." you replied. "and i like the sound of that." he said as he leaned in again to kiss you, envelop you in his love. dinner was soon forgotten as you two exchanged kisses in that long night, him relishing how beautiful you were, and you relishing how beautiful he was, even with scars.

he wears them as badges of honor, as a sign that he'd take every hit, every blow dealt to him and not be scared of what he looks like, because you, the sole person to really know him inside out and not reject him... you see him for who really was at heart. the universe finally granted peter parker his dream, and he'd gladly live that dream with you forever.

a/n: I HOPE I DID YOU REQUEST JUSTICE, ANON, I LOVED MAKING THIS SM AND I HOPE YOU LOVE IT, TOO <: ))

tags !! @thecoolerdor @miguelswifey04 @fictarian @zalayni @pixqlsin

[dear-ao3]

could you explain the mclaren reputation era please I missed it

ok well i don't really understand it entirely so bear with me here as i fumble through this.

essentially yesterday mclaren archived (deleted?) every single one of their instagram posts (and there were Thousands) except for this kind of twist trap esque video of lando, oscar and their car with the tagline "whatever it takes" like the imagine dragons song, or perhaps a 15 year old boy posting selfies of himself in the gym.

this of course is exactly what taylor swift did however many years ago right before she dropped her reputation album, archived every single one of her instagram posts except for these three videos of a snake slithering around and i don't remember what the words were associated with it but it was foreshadowing her reputation album. this was the album that she released directly after she got a whole lot of shit for her 1989 tour, took basically 2 years off and came back with some s tier bangers about how basically she didnt really care what the media thought of her, but she was reinventing herself (remember the "im sorry, the old taylor can't come to the phone right now, why? oh! cause she's dead!" meme" but essentially, it was her comeback after awhile away.

mclaren, as we know, has not won a championship since 2008 with sir lewis hamilton. their driver line up, lando norris and oscar piastri, is the youngest pairing of drivers on the grid (lando is 24, oscar is 22) and while the 2023 season for them started off absolutely terribly (their car fucking sucked) they were able to do some major upgrades throughout the season and turned it around by the silverstone race (just under halfway through the year). from silverstone on (13 races total) mclaren finished in the top 3 nine times (with both oscar and lando on the podium at the qatar and japan races) and were consistently in the points. oscar also won the sprint race in qatar. and lando had i think 17 overtakes at the mexico race, starting 19 and ending 5th. which is kind of incredible. in a season of absolute red bull domination (lets remember that a red bull driver won ever race except for the singapore race, which carlos won with the help of lando) they were consistently challenging them and there was one time in texas (i think?) where lando almost was able to overtake max.

so yes, red bull is definitely the favored team at the moment and is coming off of quite possibly the best season they've ever had. however. mclaren have some distinct advantages going into the 2024 season:

they do not have to worry about silly season. as we know, 14 drivers have contracts ending at the end of 2024 which means the absolute mad rush to resign and offer contracts across basically every team. redbull is basically guaranteed to not resign checo and might even swap him for daniel ricciardo halfway through the season whereas lands contract with mclaren ends in 2025 and oscars ends in 2026. mclaren can spend all of their time worrying about the car and the drivers rather than who they are signing.

oscar piastri. oscar just finished his rookie season (and previously won the f2 and f3 championships and won rookie of the year this year). in terms of rookie years he had an outstanding one. people compared him to lewis hamilton's rookie year. as a refresher, lewis hamiltons rookie year was in 2007 (also at mclaren) and he won his first championship in 2008. oscar is the first rookie since lewis hamilton to get multiple podiums and win something in his rookie year. expectations are running high here.

lando norris's expiring contract. as we know lando has one more confirmed year with mclaren. cel of mclaren zak brown has announced that they want to extend landos contract with mclaren, but, hes starting to get really really good, which means that a top team like red bull or mercedes might also try to get him as a driver. this is the year for mclaren to prove to lando that they can give him what he wants (which is to win a race. in his 5 years of formula 1 he hasn't won anything. and once he starts winning then hes going to want to win a championship. but. there is max verstappen to contend with). so their absolute balls to the wall tactic could work pretty well for them here. pre season testing doesnt start for over another month and they are already clearly locked in to the 2024 season.

lando and oscar actually get along. sure, formula 1 is an individual sport, but there is the drivers championship (for the individual driver) and the constructors championship (for the team with the most points). so they do have to work together. drivers not working together in the past has led to some ... undesirable results for teams (the great brocedes civil war of nico rosberg and lewis hamilton that ultimately resulted in nico retiring after he won his first championship, whatever the hell was going with max and daniel for part of the 2018 season, the french civil war at alpine between pierre gasley and esteban ocon) they are also both very consistent drivers. neither are incredibly crash prone and seem quite willing to work together on the track to optimize results.

yes they do also have disadvantages. lando has never won a race, they only have one pole position between them (lando in russia in 2021) and they're not a red bull. clearly they're the underdog in the situation. but they did finish fourth in the constructors championship in 2023 ("best of the rest") (and after basically getting next to no points for the first several races on account of the fact that their car was shit) behind ferrari, mercedes, and red bull. they're coming for the top 3 and honestly it could be their season to lose.

if ferrari doesnt change their strategy approach then they could be out of a shot at top 3. also ferrari have to deal with the nightmare of resigning both of their drivers (or finding new ones). merc and red bull will both be giving it their all (lewis hamilton really really wants to win his 8th world championship before he retires and max is well. max.) but if mclaren has a competitive car from the start of the season and doesnt have to play catch up for the first several races, then they could easily finish in the top 3.

also they released their livery today? which really confuses me (is that different than the car unveiling? what is going on someone mansplain it to me please)