#and in my mind an exes to lovers plot happened and it was incredible so

[bellamysgriffin]

DANA’S 5K CELEBRATION: Zoey/Simon + Any Song from Folklore (for @rachel-bloom) (want one?)

[alexiavettel]

Fear is made of ice

there’s a thin layer of ice between love and hate

pairing: lance stroll x fem!reader (au) 

word count: 8.3k+

summary: Montreal is basically the hockey capital, but for you? An ice figure skater? That’s your city, not the hockey’s guys. That has been a thing for years and years, which is more important, cool and remarkable? Most of the time hockey is the people's favourite but not for you, who spend too many years of your childhood training to be the best. Let’s say that money was never a problem, your family is one of the richest in the country and you were fortunate to receive so much support from them. But there’s the thing, you grew up with the Stroll family, basically the same conditions, same picture-perfect family but you and Lance have never been eye to eye. A stupid rivalry that kept up to today’s days, an ice skater and a hockey player, what a cliché. But these were until your skiing accident, when everything seemed too real…

warnings: explicit language, frenemies to lovers, near-death experience, near-death description, no use of y/n, cheating ex, from Lukov with love reference, poor use of hockey slangs, Claire-Anne Stroll being a distant mother (pls i know she isn’t but it’s part of the plot), Montreal Canadiens is the best one here okay (leave them alone), childish rivalry (they love each other), bit of anger issues resulting in a panic attack, Chloe and Scotty (cause i'm a sucker for them and they deserve a warning of their own), you are Scotty’s sister in this imagine (but it’s not really important and here he's canadian), alcoholic beverages, driving after drinking (pls don’t do it).

January- 2021

There was a day at the end of last year when you had a huge fight with your (now) ex-boyfriend ‘cause you found out that he was cheating on you with his own cousin, and decided to go skiing by yourself to let some anger out and think about the situation more freely. And let’s say that too much alcohol and skiing isn’t such a good combination, which resulted in a terrible accident.

You still remember trying to dig out but your fingers wouldn’t move at all, the suffocating and hyperventilating, the snow feeling like concrete, you remember feeling panicked, but also incredibly helpless. What a humiliating way to die huh? There was absolutely nothing you could do. The last thing in your mind, before it all went black, was the excruciating pain in your ankle.

When you woke up in the hospital your brother Scott was by your side, sleeping, but at least you weren’t alone right? He told you that he got a call from the hospital and they told him that an unknown skier had found and saved you. He asked you what happened and well… your ex got a restraining order on your brother.

The hardest part to hear was that you broke your ankle… one month before the winter tournament, you would lose this opportunity but you can handle yourself, you can handle the pain and the hard trainings you’ll have to do after all this, the problem is: Lukov, your skating partner and your childhood best friend.

Lukov is going to be alone this season and even tho he says everything is fine, you know it isn’t. He doesn’t have a partner, so you promised him that you would find someone. But you could never find someone with the same connection as you guys have, but with the same experience… Yeah, there was someone. The problem is that the only girl that can be a good partner for your best friend, is your enemy’s sister.

Chloe is the kindest human you ever met and one of the best ice skaters too. But she’s glued to the hip with her not-so-kind brother, Lance. And there’s where your desire to help Lukov die a little bit, to convince one Stroll you have to convince the other. And that will be painful, but since you were the inconsequent one and got yourself hurt you kinda owe your dear partner that. 

•

“Oh my god, yes! I was dying to participate in this tournament but since they only accept pairs and y’know that after Elliott had gone back to Europe I haven’t got time to get a new partner. That would be actually perfect- like- I mean- I’m so sorry for your accident and I hope you get well soon” she simply blurted all out and smiled nervously in the end

“Yeah I got the cake you sent me and by the way thank you but I’m already good. And thank you so much for accepting the offer, I know that me and Lu always had this rivalry with you and Elliott in the competitions but you know how much I admire you”

“Don’t worry babes. But I’m going to be honest with you, even tho this is good for both of us I promised my brother that I would train with him since I didn’t plan on competing this season…” Oh great “I know you guys are not besties. Still, I need you two to give it a try, ‘cause I don’t want to disappoint either of you so I’m sure he’s going to understand me. But are you capable of it?”

“Pff for sure, I don’t like him but we can tolerate each other just for some training sessions…”

No, we can’t.

•

“Your posture is terrible, is actually impressive that you can skate with that awful balance” how is this man a hockey player?

“Ow shut-”

“About it girl, forgot to tell you how he is the “all muscles no brain” type” Chloe said smiling

“What muscles?”

“Hey I have much more than you” he flexed his arm clearly offended 

“That’s what you said last night” you said smirking at his angry expression

“So I’m gonna let you two alone, love you both and don’t kill each other!”

Was always like this, you and Lance bickering over everything, Chloe trying to stop you both (until she got tired and started ignoring) and your brother saying that you two should just admit the unsaid love.

After Chloe left the silence was weird. Had been quite some time since you two spoke last, it was probably a discussion but it was at Christmas two years ago. Your families have this tradition, one year Christmas is on yours and the other on Stroll’s, it’s almost cool if it wasn’t for the talks about hockey and figure skating.

“You know you don’t actually have to “help” me, right?” 

“I don’t want to but first: I’m not gonna disappoint your sister ‘cause she’s helping me so fucking much and second: you kinda need it, your posture is really terrifying I’m surprised you didn’t already hurt yourself”

“You still a bitch-”

“What do you thought would change that?”

“Since you were soo busy “out studying” last years’ Christmas”

“Did you missed me, pretty boy?” you said finally putting on your ice skates and giving him some pats on his hair

“Fuck you” he laughed

“I was actually out studying asshole, was in Germany preparing for the Winter Olympics”

“Do you really got to participate for Canada?” he asked while you were crossing through the ice rink

“Yeah, me and Lukov”

“Wow that’s incredible”

“Don’t be so surprised, Lance. I’m the best and Lu is the best, we obviously got it” you said pretending to be unbothered and attempting to do a single axel, but the landing was poor.

“Well, I’m sure you're not at your best right now…Are you even sure you can skate? You should be more careful”

“You are the one telling me this? Really? The boy who hurt himself karting and two days after is in a hockey game and being a total bender?” 

“At least I could compete- Ouch” he couldn't finish ‘cause you got his lumber and slapped him with it to shut him down.

“Fix your damn back, Quasimodo! And those ankles!” you started hitting in the right places until he fix it.

•

You had come to the rink quite early to have some time for yourself, your physio is giving you a hard time in this recovery. Even with your overworked muscles and stabbing pain, the only thing in your mind is dance. This is your coping method, always has been. Angry? Dance. Happy? Dance. Sad? Dance.

You were in the middle of a spiral when you almost had a heart attack after seeing Lance seated on the bench, watching you intensely. 

“Shit! You scared the shit out of me Stroll!” you recomposed yourself and started crossing to get to him 

“It’s not my fault you are too deaf to not hear me coming in, ring rat”

“Rink rat? Me? You are the one who used to expel the little kids when you wanted to train in public!”

“This was years ago!”

“Still”

An uncomfortable silence settled before he said calmly:

“Your problem was in your ankle but your knees aren’t straight enough when you do your spiral…”

“I know. Thanks for confirming I’m not crazy tho, I was on the verge of filming to see my form”

“If you need help I can do it y’know?” Did you hear that right?

“You can do a spiral?”

“No dumbass, I can help you with it!”

“Do you plan on breaking my leg while doing it? Why are you offering help?”

“Because you clearly need… And ‘cause you’re helping me with my posture…”

“Seems suspicious…”

“First: That’s what you said last night. Second: let’s make a deal! We can train together since I need to practise my attack and you need to come back being good”

“That’s your attempt to convince me?” You deadpanned 

“You know what I mean! And could you please go to my next game? I can help you with your routine since you don't have Lukov at the moment!”

“Why would I go to your game?”

“It’s a bet! Since your last discussion with Chris, they bet that you wouldn’t come back this year” Chris is funny but he’s the type of guy that thinks only about hockey and sex.

“And let me guess! You were the only one to bet on me, ‘cause you thought that you could convince me-”

“Yeah!”

“What would you win?”

“Beer, your favourite one by the way!” How does he know your favourite type of beer? Maybe from all the dinners? You don’t know.

“Okay then”

“For real?”

“Yeah, even if it hurts to admit I could use some help…”

•

“You gonna play as a goalie eh?”

“I swear to god that if you hit that fucking rubber in me I’m gonna kill you!”

“Calm down, sweetheart. Just got to practise some breakaways for tomorrow’s game” he giggled while helping you put the protections on

“You gonna pay all my food tomorrow if I hurt myself with this”

You did quite well actually, were able to stop some of it with your arms and legs, even if it got you a purple bruise near your shoulder. In the end, you both were too tired to talk while taking off your protections. 

“I have to be honest, I underestimated your little game”

“That’s what you said last night! But I knew you always had done that! I told Scott but he didn’t believed me!”

“Looks like an easy sport, what can I do? Why would I care about it?”

“Your dancing looks very much easy, little one”

“Let’s see that after tomorrow”

•

“You are trying to kill yourself? You dumb bitch!” you said while putting a cotton pad in his nose because this idiot got himself hurt fighting another player.

“He insulted me!” he whined

“And what are you? A kid? You’re so fucking immature, that could’ve cost your team the game!”

“Y’know… for someone that says about “not caring” about hockey you’ve got pretty heated in the grandstand”

“You make me want to break your nose” you whispered while picking up another pad.

“I’m pretty much sure I saw you screaming at the referee” he was looking up into your eyes with a smirk on his lips.

“He almost gave your mate a penalty for nothing. What did you expected me to do?”

“You are something else, you know that?” he did not contain his laugh this time and you just hummed.

“I want a juice” you thought out loud after the talk has quieted down and finished cleaning his nose with a wet tissue.

“Let’s get one then” he jumped and picked up your hand on the way walking to the convenience store.

You went completely silent, by his action but went with it.

“Orange or strawberry?” you chose and he paid.

“You didn’t had to pay for it-” you started saying, going back to your usual ice rink.

“I promised”

“That didn’t hurt”

“You have a purple spot” he contested you while opening the front door for you.

“That’s what you said last night! And it’s nothing compared to your nose”

“He got the worse, honey” he joked sitting in the grandstand near your stuff.

“You are something else, Stroll”

“Wanna play something?” he uttered suddenly.

“Like what?” you asked, sipping your juice, desiring for only a second that would be something stronger. 

“Truth or drink!”

“We have literally juices, Lance”

“So I’m gonna get us some beers, wait a second” What the actual fuck is happening was your thought while he was away.

“You want to ask me something boy?”

“No! I swear!”

“Hmm looks sus for me”

“Then you can go first”

“Why did you put so much faith in your team at the beginning if they were shit?”

“I felt it, I think. Why is Lukov your partner?”

“I felt it, I think” he gave you a death glare after you laughed at his question “He always had been there you know? We met on his first day here, the poor boy didn’t know how to properly speak in Russian let alone English or French so I helped with it-”

“Do you speak Russian?!” he was astonished

“No, but I helped him learn English and defended him from some dumb kids. When I think of me I think of Lukov. My childhood, adolescence, and every moment of my life he was there with me and for me. We always had this crazy connection and I am so fucking lucky to have found him…”

“When I was younger I thought you guys were a thing…” he silently gulped his beer

“WHAT-”

“I know! But don’t blame me you used to look like a couple, still do actually”

“It’s for the act! We need to have chemistry!”

“Still, every time you two are competing looks like you are about to kiss each other in the middle of everyone”

“Are you jealous, Stroll?” you lean over him smirking before laughing.

“Fuck you is your time!”

“‘M out of creativity, you go again”

“Okay… What were you actually doing in the last two years?”

“Germany I told you”

“If you not gonna actually tell me then drink-”

“I’m telling you! I was practising”

“But Lukov only had gone after you last year” You stop to think if you should actually tell him the truth 

“I was thinking about competing alone… But after two weeks I gave up!’

“Why did you thought that was a good idea?” He sipped his beer and you noticed yours had ended.

“Was afraid if I was keeping Lu in the sport against his will… We haven’t got first place in quite some time so I got paranoid. I always thought that he stayed because of me since I kind of depended on him and the other way around. But then we had a discussion and we understood each other. Now everything’s good!”

“Okay… It’s your turn”

"Have you always wanted to be a hockey player?"

"No... I’ve always wanted to try being a Formula 1 driver, I really love the sport"

"And you don't love hockey?..." 

"I learned to"

He passes you one of the bottles, ice cold and sweating, and as weird as it can sound the silence was painful but reassuring at the same time.

You opened your mouth then shut it again before saying "I hated skating at first... Thought it was boring, preferred volleyball in high school"

"Why did you stayed?"

"Why did you?"

"I asked it first" he smirks

"Even if skating is boring, dancing is amazing, I always loved it. It's art, it's a wonderful way to express yourself... And that's what I do. Oh and obviously if it wasn't my dad convincing me, I would be on a really different path right now"

"Pfft if it wasn't for my mother I would've never put my feet in an ice rink. But seeing her around at least for my games made it all the effort worthy, every time I see my dad smiling when I or Chloe win something it feels better than winning the prize actually"

"I think if it weren't for our families we would never even meet"

"And you would love that, right?"

"I don't think so, to be honest. Let's say that you changed a lot of things about me, things that I like now"

"Are you okay? Have you been cloned?" he touched your forehead to feel your temperature

"Don't be a dick now, for once please" you doe-eyed him

"Even saying please... I need to take you out drinking more times, huh?"

"Asshole-"

"That's it! That's my girl!" He laughs loudly.

“That’s what you said last night” You couldn’t contain yourself.

"But since you are being honest for once. You changed things in me too. I think I'm one of the best players in the world because of you..."

"Wow! Are you drunk already? Didn't think it would only take one beer to do that!" He gave you a playful punch in your arm.

"No, but honestly, you made me competitive. At the end of last season, like in the last game, the pressure was all up and I couldn't think straight but I saw you with Scott and Chloe in the audience and I clearly remember thinking how much you would roast me if I lose in the end"

“See I’m the best and I don’t even need to try” You laughed while he began to run after you threatening to pour his beer out in your hair.

•

“Nooo I’m hungover” he mourned when you pushed him inside.

“You were the one that made us drink yesterday plus you promised me” You started stretching.

“Okay, what do I do?”

“Well, since you barely can stand in a blade you’ll just gonna help giving me the impulse”

“Hey! I’ve watched your routines I can keep up with it” dear god

“Just do what I say, Stroll. Do you at least know the names?” the way he smiled gave you the answer.

“I know what an axel is. I’ve seen you doing it before”

You proceeded to explain to him the basic stuff, like the six main jumps (axel, salchow, toe loop, loop, flip and lutz) and your long program, which is the one you’re having more trouble with since the step sequence is harder.

“Oh my god are you okay?” he came running to you after you’ve done a perfect hydroblade 

“Yes? It’s part of the program Lance” This is going to be harder than you thought…

“Okay, so you don’t need help with the loop jump but need it with the triple salchow?”

“Yes, you’ll need to swirl my waist and support me with the landing eh?”

He tried to do what you said but it took a few times until he got right. He was so scared of dropping or even touching you that he forgot to help you land. On the 12th try probably, he almost got perfect. The rotation in the air, slightly less than 360 degrees was just on point.

“You did this on instinct, right?” you say after doing a spiral, that doesn’t hurt your ankle anymore.

“Yes?...” Lance said as he scratched the back of his neck.

“Then try to synchronise with me”

“What? No! Have you gone mad? It’s too dangerous!”

“I know what I am doing, just trust yourself. My type of dance is based on trust and connection. I trust you enough to know that you’ll not let me fall and you have to trust me that I’m not trying something crazy. That’s already a type of connection, so follow my lead”

You showed him your and Lukov's most basic program but that included a lot of sync so it would be good to practice. He almost knocked you two down the ice twice before he got in the way and let’s say he wouldn't be a bad figure skater.

When the fourth try ended, it was perfect. He followed your steps gracefully, your feet in complete sync, he gave you the perfect amount of impulse when needed and the warmth provided from your bodies proximity was incredible. It was different than with Lukov, obviously. Your teammate is one of the best skaters in the world alongside you but the way your bodies connected as they were made for each other was weird but not a bad weird… A good one.

“Lukov and Chloe’s first round is tomorrow,” you blurted all out when you noticed how close your faces are, noses almost touching and his eyes burning into yours “we can’t lose it!” you finally were able to pull away from his firm grip on your waist, as you feel your cheeks burning. 

“Uh, s-sure. They would kill us if we don’t go” he said, going to his stuff to drink something.

“You are great, y’know?! I mean, apart from looking constipated in the beginning like you have never touched a woman. You did an incredible job!” You stated in a low voice trying to regain your composure and got out of the rink with a hockey stop making him get ice in all his clothes.

“You look like you are about to fall anytime, what did you want me to do?” he says, taking away the ice while rolling his eyes.

“No, but for real. You did great. Your instinct is gonna take you really far…” you praise him while taking your skates off.

“You’re more flexible now, have you been practising outside of here?”

“Yeah, my coach is making me work harder than when I prepare for competitions”

“Don’t overwork yourself” he advises you before you coincidently almost trip over his bag “Careful there, girl” you hiss “Can I take a look at your ankle?”

“Sure” You sit down next to the bench where he is and Lance picks up your leg and starts to undress it near your foot.

“Your coach saw how swollen it is?” he started massaging delicately.

“F-Fuck” you hiss again “No, she hasn’t! It gets like this after a hard training session. It's okay, really. In less than two hours is going to be new” you tried to get your leg off his lap but he just scooted over even more.

“So you’re telling me your ankle gets this swollen every time you train?” His suspicious eyes got you right away, years of convivence and growing up together unfortunately get you to know each other better. Too much better, sometimes.

“No-“

“Don’t lie! You are overworking your ankle!” His eyes were always this piercing?

“Your words, not mine!- Ouch!” He squeezed one nerve harder making you wish for death.

“We are going to stop training if you keep up with that! You got me?” he was damn serious about it.

“What are you? My dad?” 

“Wrong answer” he squeezed that damn nerve again “You understand me?”

“Yeah, Lance. Can you let me go now?”

“Not this early, darling. We gotta wrap it up” he gave your leg a weak tap before getting up and getting an elastic bandage. “You need to be more careful, for real. It’s too fucking dangerous, you plan to be back at competing no? What if it gets worse?” you could notice the genuine concern in his eyes, it almost made you feel bad for not taking enough care of yourself.

“I didn’t mean to… I just want to be at my best again. I finally got a place in the Olympics and now what? I mess up my entire fucking life because of-”

“Why were you there? Why were you skiing alone on Thanksgiving?”

“Jeremy cheated on me. I came back early to make him a surprise and he was fucking his own cousin in my house, in my room, in my fucking bed” You could feel the tears threatening to fall “How disgusting this can be? Oh, and I found out later that he was trying to get in my dad’s company. He always tried to pull me away from the family’s business, just so he could get near my place?” your blood started to boil again.

“H-Hey-” he tried to get your attention but it was all in the rage, all the pain from being such an idiot.

“I was fucking mad! I was furious, Lance! I was such a fucking idiot! A little son of a bitch can cost me my career because I let him! I let him see all the versions of me, all my sides, my emotions, my scars, my traumas, everything! I let myself be vulnerable and he took advantage of it ‘cause I let him! And I am so fucking stupid to let my rage and pain take hold of me and I almost died for it!-” he hugged you.

You didn’t felt when he moved your leg from the way and got closer to you. You could feel his breath on your neck and his shirt getting wet from the warm tears that had escaped your eyes. The comfort is weird. You never expected comfort from Lance Stroll’s embrace. It feels like he understands you, maybe he is not that bad.

“I am here” he flattened your shirt while patting your hair gently “I always have- Always will…” he indeed was always there, even if in the wrong circumstances. You two stayed like that for much longer than you could count properly. 

It feels good, it feels right, it feels like home. But it shouldn’t. You try to remember all the reasons why you should hate him, all fights and discussions the multiple times he made you crazy, but nothing comes to mind.. Nothing, nothing but a pure childish rivalry. 

“Thank you, Lance…” You sniffed trying to hide your face from him, but he pulled it up with his finger in your chin.

“You don’t need to thank me. And you’re not the wrong one. You just thought you could trust someone you loved, that’s perfectly normal. He’s the motherfucker here. And honestly? He’s such a fucking idiot for losing you.” he cleans away your tears with his thumbs. 

“You don’t have to compliment me just ‘cause I’m crying”  you chuckled.

“I’m not complimenting you, just saying the truth. He is the biggest asshole I know, and such a dumb one for letting you go. Considering how picky you are with relationships, he was lucky you even gave him a chance.”

“I’m not picky” you pout.

“You literally rejected everyone who asked you to proms in school, and that includes basically all the football team” he deadpanned. 

“I used to want someone in particular who didn’t try his luck with me…” Stupid little you to think that he would ask you in high school like he would choose you when you two fought all the time, you thought to yourself while gathering your stuff and ready to go now.

“Who was it?” he asked, following with big curious-puppy eyes. 

“Good night, Lance. See you tomorrow! We meet there” You ignored him and started strolling to your car.

“I can pick you up at nine?!” he yells.

“Nope! See you there!” Okay, maybe you started running.

•

“Oh dear, you look terrible” Yes, that’s your best friend’s first words when he sees you after weeks without each other.

“I told you” Stroll whispered behind you, holding both of your coffees and fighting his laugh. 

“My god, what is my brother doing to you, honey?” Chloe arrived also looking concerned.

“I really hate you all” you flipped them off before hugging them.

“Really babes, what were you doing?” Lukov took you by your arm and dragged you to the rink’s background. “Interesting late night, huh?”

“Not the one you’re imagining, unfortunately. Spend all night thinking”

“Thinking about?…”

“So- Hm, the program we planned is still the same?”

“Don’t change the subject, lady!”

“Just answer” 

“Yes, it is. But I had to change a bit since Chloe had gone almost one year without competing. Not gonna be easy, but at least, we will be at the podium”

“That’s what matters”

“What about you and Stroll-”

“Chloe!” You ran to her when you saw her passing with Lance. 

“I’ll extract the truth from you or him!-”

“How are things going with Scotty, honey?” You started talking and planning her bachelor party. In the end, we plan to meet the next day to properly talk. While Lukov tried to “extract the truth” from Lance. 

•

Lukov and Chloe were the last pair to perform and got the best score. The program we planned it’s perfect, even with the adaptations still an amazing choreography. Was an… experience to watch your teammate from outside the rink, imagining it was you with him. A bit distracting tho with Lance holding your hand every time his sister takes her feet off the ground.

“Have you ever watched your sister competing?” you said when he took your hand for the 5th time probably.

“I-I had but- I was young. Never thought about the risks- Like, she could actually die if he let her fall!”

“You are talking like a kid, Lance” you mourned.

“Already told you today how much I love when you call me by my first name?” he smirked leaning closer “Prefer when I talk to you like an adult, darling?”

“So what do you think?” Chloe asked euphorically, hugging you and her brother.

“Impressive!” “Great!” you and Lance said in unison.

“Just great?” She pouts.

“Great is wonderful in her translation!” Lukov nudges you with his elbow.

“You’re really tough,” Lance added.

“That’s what you said last night” damn your mouth, you thought to yourself as you watched Chloe and Lukov getting extremely wide-eyed.

“Really good timing,” Stroll said, holding his laugh and blushing slightly.

“That’s why you looked so tired, huh?!” “Spend the night ‘thinking’, right?” Chloe and Lukov said smiling to both of you.

“Are you teaming up against me?!” You whine while drinking your umpteenth cup of coffee.

“Just wishing you the best, honey” Lance’s sister gives you two taps on your back.

“And a hockey player is good enough eh?” Lukov agrees with her.

“I really fucking hate you both. See you next round!” You declared before going to the parking lot.

“So… My next game, the season’s final is in three days, right after their second round” You heard quick steps following you but didn’t need to turn back to know who it was.

“On the same day?” You leaned against the car, waiting for his response.

“Yep. Can you still train with me, then?”

“That was always the plan, no?”

“But I can help you more with your stuff-“

“Lance, I’m not following. That’s the whole point of our deal, is there something you would like to change?”

“No, just want to chat a bit, to be honest”

“Wow, how cute. But I need to go, my physio is waiting for me” you said entering the car, about to close the door.

“Can I go with you?” He quickly asked.

“Ah- I mean- If you promise not to tell her about the ankle thing, you can”

“I promise! When and where?”

“I’m gonna tell her and I’ll send you the info” You finally could close the car’s door.

On the way home you thought about his proposal and you don’t know if it’s the right thing to do. Letting him see you more vulnerable than he has already seen, that would break down another wall between you two. Building an intimate one in the place.

•

“Hey-“

“Remember! Don’t talk about my ankle, don’t be too polite and most importantly, don’t talk about my dad!” You blurted out nervously.

“Can I ask you why all this? Do I really need to worry?” His face turns to the side like a confused puppy.

“One word about the ankle, I kill you. If you’re too polite she will just make fun of you, and if she does don’t talk back. If you talk about my dad, she kills you. Simple”

“Care to explain what happened with your dad?”

“Long story short they had a drunk fuck, turned into a fling and she fell for him and-“

“It wasn’t reciprocated, I assume” 

“You’re absolutely right, handsome! Now please don’t be an asshole and in case she asks you to help me, refuse.”

“Okay-“ You yanked his arm and went inside the building walking fast.

“Good morning sweetheart, how’re you feeling?” Monica said hugging you and ignoring the boy behind you.

“Lance, this is Monica and Mo this is Lance”

“Just call me Dr.” She said rudely, clearly testing him.

“Okay, Dr. It's a pleasure to meet the woman who is taking care of her,” he pointed at you and offered his hand.

“Yeah it’s a pleasure to finally meet the boy who’s helping her stubborn ass to train even more” She smiled ironically and shook his hand “But anyway I need to get some things before we start, you arrived early so wait up” and then she’s gone.

“She’s a bit moody, isn't she?” He asked while you attempt to remove your boot.

“Just a bit and she doesn’t know you…” Lance watching your clumsy way to take your shoes off he seats by your side, gets your leg in his lap as he had done some days ago and does it for you “You didn’t need to, I could’ve done it”

“Stop being fucking stubborn, if I want to help I will!”

“And she technically works for your dad too” You ignored his last comment and the heat in your cheeks as he also removed your sock. Too simple, too intimate.

“My dad isn’t a bad boss!”

“But he is an absent one. He bought her family company and put one of your distant cousins to be the CEO, let’s say she is just not your dad’s biggest fan” 

“You should have warned me that too-“

“It was way too funny to see you getting all riled up, not knowing how to act and shit” You giggle ignoring him leaning on your legs.

“Get your ass off my patient” Monica called him out loud while you laugh at his scared reaction.

“S-Sorry”

“Let’s get started!”

•

“Boy, can you be useful once?” Your physio asks loudly at an almost sleeping Lance.

“Y-Yeah, sure!”

“Push her lower back in the ground’s direction” you tensed under his gaze. You were with your dominant leg up, like a spiral position. 

“D-Don’t-“ you tried to say.

“Shut up girl, do you want to skate or not?” Even if it hurts to admit, Monica is right. 

His hands lay on your waist gently and go down to your lower back. He tried to push it down carefully but after a hard stare of your physio, he did as asked. You felt like your skin was burning, not from the pain of the stretch but from the man’s contact. His hands send shivers down your whole body, you felt like your heart was beating in your throat.

This isn’t intimate, you two have been much closer before but right now? It’s different. No one ever made you feel like that, maybe in different circumstances but not like this, no. 

Being in such a vulnerable position makes you feel sick, especially him seeing you like this. But after that drunk talk some days ago there’s not much to hide. He opened up to you and you cried in him. Call it quits.

“Hold her like that for a sec, ‘gonna get a rope” 

“What was the third rule, Lance?!” you grunt.

“What? I’m not listening you!” He pushes you down even more while you feel a stare on your back. 

“If you stop staring at my ass for a sec you would listen to me, jackass! I know it looks good but not now, man” you joke feeling his hold faltering “Would’ve hurt you to say no to her? She has worked alone with me for years. She can do it, you don’t need to help. I told you, but you never listen to me, do you?-”

“Okay, lovebirds, I’m back”

•

We didn’t talk much after the physiotherapy, both of us were too focused in our own heads. We went out to eat after, but the lunch was just as silent as the way there. After quite some hours Chloe called you asking what time would you arrive and you just got in your car and went to her house.

“Hi girl! You got us wine? You know I’m competing but I’m not gonna refuse a glass” She smirked and let you in.

“10 things I hate about you?” You suggested, sitting in the couch.

(yes that was a link to my Daniel Ricciardo one-shot, check out in my masterlist)

“Oh my God, yes!” She sits down beside you and puts the film on. “So, how was your day? Heard Lance had gone with to physio, everything’s right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t actually know why he insisted on going with me, but it was quite good ‘cause he helped my doctor so it was faster.”

“‘Noticed you two are not fighting too much anymore…”

“Yeah, I think we just like to tease each other, y’know?! We have some good talks sometimes, actually” you start fidgeting your fingers anxiously. 

“You guys have always been like this, you’re just noticing because you’re spending more time together” she smirks into her glass.

“And you and Lukov, how is it going? You two have great sync”

“He’s an amazing partner. I can see why you two always outdone me, you guys are incredible!” She answers you, getting some snacks.

“You’re awesome too, if you weren’t you wouldn't be with him honestly. You were the only one that came to mind when I needed to find another partner for him” you smile to yourself when she blushes to your compliment.

“How’s your skating? I know you have been practising more but how do you feel? Does it still hurts too much?” 

“A bit, yeah. But only when I overwork myself and at hardest jumps”

“It must be hard, sorry girl-” she burped as the wine quietly got the best of her, she had always been weak for drinks “Especially when all we do is overwork ourselves, isn’t it? And you and Lukov are best known for the quad throw salchow, you think you can come to that?” She caresses your arm affectionately.

“For sure, I’m working hard for it. Lance is even helping me train the hard jumps. Even with that bad posture of his, it’s actually helping a lot.”

“That’s s-soo good to hear, sweetie” She says finishing her second glass and you take the wine bottle clearly away from her.

“Well, it could be worse, you know?! I felt like I was dying…-”

“I m-mean you could have, if it wasn’t for Lance founding you that day. H-He was so in shock when he came back from the hospital where he let you, the poor b-boy couldn't even speak p-properly” the blonde confesses between quiet burps. 

“What are you talking about, Chloe?” You ask nervously. The movie, the wine, and the snacks are all long forgotten as you stop to think about the probabilities. It’s impossible, right?! What are the chances that he was the one that saved you? Why would he be there? How would he find you? Why didn’t he told you?

“S-Shit, I feel like I shouldn't have said that” she admits looking down at herself.

“It’s true? You swear?”

“Cross my heart, baby” she drunkenly says.

“I need to go, Chloe. Let’s get you to bed.” You sit up and start to organize the stuff, while she sits on the couch pouting because-

“You already going?” She pouts even harder.

“I need to” You really do need time for yourself right now. How are you going to look at him tomorrow?

“Did I did s-something wrong? No! Did I said something wrong?!”

“No, sweetheart, you didn’t. Now, come with me,” at the moment you set her in her bed she falls sleeps. You look for an aspirin and set on her bedside table, asking yourself how someone can get wasted so quickly.

•

You just got to sleep a few hours. You attempted to write him a few messages just to delete it before sending, rereading the last text he send. A simple “Tomorrow at 8 am, right? See you <3”, that makes your heart shudder with confusion. The way to the rink was weird. That’s exactly the word. All the questions that filled your head makes you a bit dizzy, you don’t even know if you will be able to practise today, since he’s gonna be soo near you.

“Good morning sweetheart!” he shouts from the bench excitedly.

“Why are you happy? It’s morning” you reply roughly.

“I watched a few programs on the internet yesterday and I’m feeling really inspired!” He got up twirling and following me from inside the ice.

“Good” you couldn’t contain yourself to not be short with him.

“Are you okay?” His worried expression got in your low point of view while you were lacing your skates.

“Yeah, yeah” ignoring is probably the best way to deal with it.

He was much more confident this session. The grip of his hands much more strong, the sync is good and his skating more balanced. But the connection you two found in the last practice seemed lost. It felt like he was searching for you while you were skimming away, every time he helped you in the jumps it felt like you didn’t want to be held, like his touch burned you. 

It was an unspoken tension. His eyes asking you what happened during each break, and you ignoring him. The silence was uncomfortable, but thinking about yesterday’s revelation during the whole practice made you decide to postpone the confrontation. He needs to be focused on the season’s end game. 

“Soo… you gonna tell me what happened? Did I do something wrong?” He seated beside you pouting.

“Sorry to mess up our session” you avoided through your teeth.

“Want to talk about it?” He puts an arm around your shoulder. It would feel comforting if you didn’t know he has been lying all this time.

“How would you feel if I didn’t tell you something really important about yourself?” You considered refusing his proposal but you couldn’t hold yourself.

“I don’t know… If it’s something really important to me I would be mad as fuck with you, but it depends” How can he act so clueless? Or Chloe was lying, which didn’t seem like it, or he’s just a liar. Both of them don’t have a reason to lie, but it’s just so confusing to you it hurts your brain.

“Huhum…”

“Want to tell me? You seem shaken. Does it have anything to do with Jeremy?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. And no, it was not him. It was just another asshole, but I gotta go” You got up, gathering your stuff and going home ignoring his thoughtful goodbye. 

The air in your car in the way back home was cold with confusion and loneliness. Tomorrow is the hockey training and the next day is his last game. Then you can finally press him to tell you the truth. When you arrived home you noticed almost a hundred texts from Chloe and Lukov, but decided to ignore both of them.

•

Lance Stroll POV

I spend more time in the rink practising to loose my mind from her attitude, forgot to eat and it’s past midnight when I get home. She was so distant, like all the progress we achieved in this meantime got lost. It’s confusing because even tho she says she’s fine she avoided the question when I asked if I did something wrong.

I can’t think of anything that I could’ve done recently. She seems disappointed and confused, it’s making me crazy. We’re not best friends but we’re not enemies either. I don’t know what to think and this might be a very anxious reaction but I need to see her. I feel like she is slipping through my fingers.

“What the hell are you doing in my house at 3 in the morning, Lance?!” She opened her front door with nothing but a large T-shirt and short shorts.

“I know I’ve hurt you somehow, but please, only for today try to understand me, I’m not asking for your forgiveness… well, kinda, but-”

“What are you doing here, Lance?” She opens the door more and asks me again huffing. 

“I don’t know what I have done to upset you or make you mad, but I am sorry” I enter her house without even noticing my leg moves “I’m really sorry, doesn’t matter why or what I’ve done I’m sorry. It’ll sound really crazy but I realised I miss you. And now this sound really weird! I don’t know what I’m saying anymore-”

I can’t finish the initial sentence that I don’t even know where it was going. I am interrupted by… lips? Her lips. Her lips pressing against mine in a gentle yet desperate way, pushing me harshly to the wall and making me whimper in a low tone, giving her the chance of sliding her tongue inside my mouth. When I finally have the opportunity to reciprocate the kiss she pushes away suddenly. 

“Shut. Up.” 

“That’s the first thing you say after kissing me?”

“I kissed you to shut you up. But you kissed me back.” She points at me cynically.

“That’s-”

“You saved me, didn’t you?! You took me out of the snow?!” The girl asked me with wide eyes. I don’t know which emotions her eyes are transmitting right now but maybe something between anger and something that I can’t put a finger on.

“W-What do you want me to say?” I absolutely don’t know how she knows that.

“The truth!” It had been quite a while since she last looked at me with that much annoyance. 

“It was me, I took you out of the snow” I lean into the wall tiredly.

“Why were you there?” She asked indignantly, walking to her couch.

“I was trying to clean my head-”

“The truth!”

“Someone I was expecting to be there didn’t show up… The ice rink was closed and thought about skiing” Two years without you showing up made me worried and jealous, that was the other truth.

“Why did you take me off?” She sits on her couch, looking at her feet.

“What- It’s not like I hate you, I’m not heartless!”

“Yeah, sure” She huffs not believing my words.

“I can’t lie, I know we’ve been hating each other all these years, but I don’t think I hate you anymore, ‘cause every single good memory I have, you’re there!” I feel a single tear streaming down my right cheek as I scream at her “I was in the snow that night 'cause I was jealous of Jeremy, that fucking bastard that never deserved you! I was worried that he hurt you because you know what happened when he started living with his ex! You always show up at family Christmas and then two years in a row?!”

“I-I-I don’t know what to s-say. You were there because of me?!”

“And thank god I was!” I sit next to her exasperated.

“I wanted to wait until your last game, after tomorrow… That was why I didn't told you before, I was scared!” She finally looks into my eyes and god, this is so fucking weird. It’s different from the anger she showed before. Her eyes are probably the most beautiful thing I ever saw, I could spend hours looking at her in complete silence. 

“I don’t know when it changed, to be honest. Probably when you started dating that asshole… Then I was too scared to tell you”

“Ownt you love me? I knew it, always did” The woman in front of me, the prettiest one and wittiest one too, mess with me even after all this situation.

“Fine, continue acting like you hate me” I sit back looking at her pretending I don’t care but if she really just makes fun of me I don’t know what I’m gonna do.

“Don’t you dare look at me that way! Not now, after every vile thing we’ve done to each other” She smiles scooting closer to my stretched arm.

“Why can’t we just let whatever this pointless rivalry is go?” I look down at her almost shining eyes.

“You lied-” She tried to reason with me but her eyes couldn’t lie.

“And… We should talk about what just happened…” I sneak my hand to her waist confidently. 

“I refuse to talk about how I just lost control and kissed you” She wraps her legs around my hip smiling an inch away from my mouth.

“That's what you said last night-” I couldn’t stop looking at her lips.

“Shut up, Lance!” She laughs before smacking her lips in mine. 

@honeyric3 hope you enjoy <3

[varietales]

Talk about your favorite ship! | Favorite character to rp?

mun meme // accepting

This turned into a massive ramble oops...

Favourite ship (i'm letting myself do 3 RP ones from across my blogs)!

Lisanna x Sting with @aitheros. It lives in my head and heart rent free, I’m so soft for them. We have had so many good and precious interactions with them and plotted much more too! They are such a lovely pair and bring out the best in each other, I adore their softness and the way they can relax around each other so beautifully and understand each other. They’ve both been through a lot, and the plot we’ve done for them has added to that and I’m forever excited about the things we can do within the plot and outside of it too. They’re also AU gold honestly. And I can’t even think about Lisanna without Sting coming to mind now. I can’t express how much I adore them, and Mandy is an incredible writer (im forever in awe of the description and imagery and use of metaphors, absolutely stunning every time, not to mention the dialogue and everything else too) so I’m always feeling super lucky to get to write with her! Her Sting is just CHEFS KISS (its also his bday today and I remember this bc I love him so much, he is the sunshine in my life). So yes 10/10 I adore them.

Rogue x Mary with @killrate. We started writing these babes together way back in like 2016, so it has been A Long Journey and it’s been so good. Beautiful example of awkward friends to secret lovers. With Mary being an ex-cultist and criminal and all, and Rogue being a famous mage, we get this Delicious plot of them keeping their relationship secret. The Yearning and Drama and all that goodness. And we also have an angsty breakup era planned which is gonna kill me but I also love it. In their happy era, they are so beautiful, so cute and adoring and flirty and fun but deep too and the feelings are so real and get me every time. He just adores her so much and is the absolute softness for her. I’m weak, send help. Plus as well as being one of the coolest people ever, Fae has such wonderful writing, its always so fun, so well done and full of personality, and a delight to read!!!

Gray x Evergreen with @lucentaire. At first glance, one might think Huh that’s a weird pair, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. They have a lot in common in terms of hobbies/interests, the way they think and even act sometimes, and a lot more. I love these two (and Jana’s specific portrayal) for the way they have this beautiful…idk exactly, like understanding or acceptance of each other, that’s growing with each interaction. They’re really starting to Get each other and it brings a certain peace and its lovely. I love seeing them begin to open up to each other, and I love the hints of feelings creeping in, and I love the teasing that happens from time to time between them as well as from their friends, its just all So Good. When I think about them, I just get this really warm sense of peace and I love it. I also have to say Jana is an amazing writer, her words always flow so well, and she has this gift of sneaking in little references to other characters/muses or little anecdotes from a muse’s past or family that just really Add a little something and make her muses feel so real and rounded. An absolute inspiration every time. And anytime i'm writing anything about Evergreen in general, I have to actively stop myself from writing 'Rena' instead, she's just so deep in my brain.

Favourite character to RP!

I have so many muses and have written so many more in the past, so it’s tricky to pin down a favourite! They all have their differences, and my fave can change based on mood as well. That being said, the first one that came to mind was Lisia (Pokemon)! She was my most active (basically Only) muse for about 8 or 9 months (which is sadly impressive for me) back in 2018. I’m not sure if its nostalgia that I’m holding onto, but I had a lot of fun with her. The RPC was fun and active and I had some really cool things going (and then things went Bad). I put in a Lot of work with Lisia, writing heeeaps of hcs and so she’s a muse that I really adore. She’s just a gorgeous gal with a gorgeous heart. I haven’t been able to get her going again since then but I’ve been thinking about her lately and might give her blog a clean up. I say that every so often tho and never do it, plus I can never manage to get her active again. But anyway, outside of her, I think I would say Lisanna is one of my faves to write! Coincidentally (or not), Lisanna and Lisia are very similar personalities. I enjoy their bubbly, cute personalities, and the way they can become teasing menaces when they want to be, particularly when they get close to someone. They also have this great potential for depth and deep and meaningful convos and angst. They’ve been through a lot and are still So Kind and I think I just find that sort of character comforting. On the complete other hand, I also really get a kick out of writing Macbeth, and my other old fave that’s just come to mind is an og muse of mine, Siegrain, which again, was once upon a time a Most Active muse of mine that I somehow can never get going again. But I did love that sassy blue haired bastard...

I suppose I could have said which muse on This blog is a fave to rp, but i haven't really gotten things going for each muse yet so we'll have to wait and see!

[gra-sonas]

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Was the year time jump because of the pandemic? To sidestep making that too central to the plot, or was that always the plan?

JEANINE MASON: That was always our intention and it was just sort of a saving grace in that way. We also don't acknowledge the pandemic in real-time on our show. There are no masks and that was just so wonderful just to get work in that way and have that time where it was a little more normal. Also, that's just our show — we want you to come to us the way you always do, which is for nineties nostalgia, sexy Cowboys, brilliant scientists, you know? CHRIS HOLLIER: So we wanted to drop our characters in a year later, let them stew in their individual decisions that were made last season. We want everyone to root for our poster couple but we want to honor what happens in real life, which is sometimes you step away from that person, even if you are entwined with them in a very particular way. So we wanted it to be a real enough time and distance so that they could live a little life on their own.

With showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie departing at the end of season 2, has much changed? Or are you still working with ideas she had in place?'

HOLLIER: It's a little bit of both. There are things that Carina and I built that live all the way through and then once the story got up on its feet, discoveries were made with our new crop of people that we were like, "Oh, we're going to bend it this other way."

Jeanine, how is Liz doing in her new life in L.A. when we pick up this season?

MASON: Well, it's been a year and at this point, her life is actually pretty great. She just hasn't taken a second to acknowledge that. She's doing what she does best, which is just full head in her work and trying to figure out what she could use of her discoveries and her brilliance to save Maria. She has a great job, a really nice place, and an awesome partner at work who is a good time and a real match for her in terms of intellect and ambition. He begins to ask her to recognize that and to maybe give something a chance that she's been reluctant to because of how drawn she is to Roswell and to Max. It's a fun first episode. It's sexy. It's fun to find opportunities for her. She's our hero so she's got a lot on her shoulders and anytime where we can find levity for her is always a real treat for the writers and for me.

And no Crashdown waitress uniform must be nice?

MASON: Honestly, I miss it quite a lot right now. I have a note in my notes with Chris, I'm like, "I gotta tell him we gotta find him more opportunities for it."

Should Liz and Max shippers be worried about them finding their way back to one another after he destroyed her work and didn't follow her to L.A.? Should we resign ourselves to a season apart?

MASON: This season really is about these characters having themselves mirrored to each other. Max and Liz need some growing and ultimately they can't do anything but be orbiting each other. We found so many opportunities to have such a beautiful language around the cosmic element of their connection. They're asking, "Is this our decision, or are we just acting off of a decision that the cosmos made for us?" It was so fun to navigate that. I always have such a good time with Chris Hollier and with Nathan Dean, just finding the little tiny notches, a tiny bit of movement towards where they're going next. I really loved following them. It's my favorite Max and Liz season to date.

HOLLIER: It's not a season apart. I'll tease that they, in an unexpected way, end up in front of each other relatively soon. But it's really about when am I ready? And what does it mean to talk to my ex? When someone makes such a big influence in your life, when do you know it's over and when do you know you should fight again? We tried to give them real grown-up lives.

Steven Krueger (The Originals) also joined the cast as Heath this season. What can you tease about his character?

HOLLIER: He's just an awesome human being. I know him from The Originals and we were like, "If we're going to have to be stuck with people in the desert, who do we want?" You want to be stuck with a handsome and lovely and charming Steven Krueger. So really this was looking at, "Well, what did Liz want and what does it look like when you start to give Liz versions of what she wants?" Heath is somebody that is beyond being just a lovely person, he is smart and wants to advance science and that's appealing to Liz. It becomes, "What does it look like when the man that I hang around with all day is also into the same things that I am?" MASON: I love him. Heath is just such a fun, whip-smart, fantastic character. His humor was so fun. We've been having a good time with kicking the humor up really through season two and in season three, we just took it up another notch. There are some moments that are like, "Is this a drama or is it a sitcom?" Looking back on it, he was such a fun partner to spar with. They're both such intellectual characters and I love that there's a real meeting of the minds. It makes it competitive and sexy. I know a lot of fans are so excited because they know him from The Originals and he's going to be a great addition.

Technically, Mr. Jones is a new character too. Can you tell us anything at all about him?

HOLLIER: I'd say he's a new character — and a fully-fleshed interesting new character. Mr. Jones has an awesome beard. At some point, he might lose that beard. A lot of people are asking me, "Is Jones good or bad?" And what I would argue is that's a perspective based upon who you are in the conversation that you're having with him. He knows a lot about our heroes' story and he knows a lot about home. He'll be able to answer questions for them. This season our heroes will get to learn why they ended up here on earth. One of the things I think that people will love is that they're going to get to see that home planet this year. We asked ourselves a lot about this whole season, "What have we set up for the past two?" We look at these first three seasons almost like a trilogy so a lot of things are going to be paid off.

Has Nathan enjoyed pulling double duty this season? Or is he just exhausted?

MASON: He's exhausted, but he's such a champ. That really is the beginning of this mirroring thing that starts with Max and Jones with him actually getting to look at himself to a degree and those questions that come up. The self-analysis that it provokes in him is really the beginning of what is happening to all of our characters this year; everybody's being confronted with themselves. I loved that the Max/Jones of it was also a real sci-fi element.

Did he really grow that beard or was that not possible if he had to go between the two characters?

MASON: That was a prosthetic beard and our makeup team killed it. He was not accustomed to early mornings, which, of course, all of us babes are. It was a lot of extra time in the chair for him.

Can Jones dupe Liz into thinking he's actually Max since she doesn't know he exists?

MASON: You're totally on to something. It's a real and pressing threat. I mean, she's totally in the dark and he looks like her cosmic lover!

HOLLIER: What I will say is that, Liz — beyond her being number one on the call sheet — is integral to this story in a way that she and none of our characters are going to perceive when they start episode one. We're bringing [the characters] to a new crossroads moment in their lives and they're getting, through Jones, a mirror into their own lives to decide what they're going to become next.

How's Rosa (Amber Midthunder) doing this season?

MASON: By the end of season two, Rosa really makes the decision to start taking care of herself. She really becomes an incredible asset to the Scooby-Doo gang. It's something that Liz is in constant adjustment to. As much as she's the younger sister, she feels very protective of her sister and Liz has had to make adjustments in her trust and faith in Rosa. I loved it because it just felt like a real personal, authentic thing that sisters would go through, but also that Hispanic sisters would go through. I think we sometimes, culturally, have a tendency to baby our women — maybe that's the wrong word — but just to underestimate their physical ability and what they might take on, and sort of 'queen' our women in a way where we treat them tenderly. I hate that. I'm a tough bitch and so is Rosa. So Liz has to confront that and go, "I'm an idiot to underestimate you. You've done nothing but prove me wrong."

What about Maria and her visions?

HOLLIER: This year I think Maria has the most complete arc of any season, as she recognizes things about herself that cause more questions about who she is, who her family is, how she's linked to this story. We dive into it in the present-day and we dive deliciously back in time too.

In the exclusive clip above we see her have a vision of a funeral, can you tease anything about who potentially might be about to die?

HOLLIER: Maria is front and center in driving the first half of the mystery for us. She's burdened with trying to figure out whose death she is seeing. It takes a few episodes to unravel and we use it to ask, is this linked to our supernatural stories or real-world stories that are going on politically? Is it bad luck? Is it herself? There's a whole gambit at play. We joke that we solved a past murder, now we're going to try to stop one.

Can Malex (Michael and Alex) shippers have hope that this might finally be their time?

HOLLIER: What I would say is that I think that Malex fans are really going to dig this journey. We, as writers, put them at the same level of importance as Max and Liz. So we wanted to really honor the next step in what they may or may not be. How did they grow up and how did they have those hard conversations just like Liz and Max are going to have?

Is Isobel going to continue to date women this season?

HOLLIER: Isobel is going to go on a more personal journey. You got to love yourself before you can love someone else. We lean into those possibilities by the end of who she might love. It's not something that is dropped all season — it is something that you'll see. We play some romantic comedy stuff with her character this year and with Maria that I think fans are gonna dig. There's a lot going on in the world and wanted to pump some humor and hope into it.

Will see more of Liz fighting to challenge the perception of the Latinx community?

MASON: I think that just by nature of it being one of such few shows that are led by a Latin woman, it's always going to be, to an extent, a protest or an assertion of the space that I get to fill and that Liz Ortecho gets to fill on network TV. I was really excited to just have Chris as a collaborator. Over our hiatus, before the season started, I was doing a lot of reading. I chronicled the books that play into Liz every season on my Instagram. I was reading some Sonia Sotomayor. Her book is just incredible. I was texting him screenshots of pages of the book with things underlined. Ten episodes deep into season 3, he's like, "Remember that page you sent me?" He's a real dream collaborator. I loved him for that. A pressing struggle for people of color is going through the ranks in these big corporations and then sometimes coming to find out that those corporations are purporting to support marginalized groups but actually aren't following through. So how do you, as someone who's having your success, your dreams become reality, navigate supporting the company and giving so much of your intelligence and your work — that they often legally own, especially with science — to a company that isn't going to be for your people?

Roswell, New Mexico returns Monday at 8 p.m. on The CW.

[taestefully-in-luv]

wow

i really needed a few days to think about the whole story of Love Again... and process what happened.

it was so beautiful and i really enjoyed it to the teenie tiniest bit!!

I always got so excited when i saw your updates.

whenever you posted a new chapter i told my best friend ALL about it because i fell in love at first sight!!! ahhh

The way two ex lovers meet again and fall in love with each other all over again..is just so nice! :(

and i told my bestie ALL THE TIME how much i enjoy reading it, how much i love the characters, HOW FUNNY they are, how real your writing is.. and how MUCH i love the plot.

now that it's over... i have a bitterweet feeling... because i have to understand that there won't be any more chapters.

You have an incredible way of writing.. doesnt matter if its your original and unique way to bring the characters with their super fun, loveable and relatable personalities to life, or the way you bring emotions through your way of writing and just in general...the way you use your words is so satisfying.

You're a great Autor.

i usually don't write stuff about the fanfictions i've read but i felt the need to do it here... because you really deserve to know that there are people out here who love what you did/do.

Reading it made my days so much better!

Especially at times where i knew when you're gonna post again!! my whole week just got better because of your update. It didnt matter how bad my week was, i got so happy knowing i can read a new chapter soon :')

I don't think that i can EVER show anyone how much i love "love again"

now to the characters.. the first thing that comes to my mind is "wow".

i love everyone so much.

i loved how jeremy and naomi were bickering all the time, how hobi was y/n's biggest hater and support, how COOL dae was, how amazing namjoon was even tho he got his heart broken :(( ahhh BUT EMIKO AND JOONIE <3, how Taehyung was this super cutie patootie soulmate(he always made me laugh), how lucy evolved at the end, how jungkook was this really cool and fun (not real)girlfriend-stealer HAHAH

how jimin ...went through so much but..the way he was with y/n, how their bond was, the way he accepted that he needs help with his trauma and guilt and .. i could go on and on..ahh idk i could write so much about them.. and y/n.. man.. sometimes i don't like what "y/n's" are doing but you... you did her real good.

o k a y sometimes i wanted to punch her (cuz that's normal) but i also understood her so i was feeling bad for being mad...i just love them all so much..and i got so happy at the end... at the wedding...

i'm glad you can't see me crying rn because i'm shedding ugly tears.

it's crazy to say this after reading a ton of fanfictions but i think this turned into my all time favourite.

and i dont think that another one can top this.. Love Again will always have a special place in my heart.

thank you so much for giving us this beautiful story! <3

sorry for my grammar, i'm not a native speaker

:)

sorry it took me a hot minute to answer this one—it’s just every time i read it i legit had to take a moment to collect myself from stopping my entire body from melting

anyway

thank you thank you thank you 💘 i screenshotted this the moment you sent it in and sent it to my sister in law so we could sob together

i’m very happy you enjoyed Love Again and that my updates were something you could look forward to and also !!!!! i’m super wowed that you’d even tell your bff about it!

this story was so fun to write and every chapter i wrote felt satisfying in my own eyes, making every time i had to write feel super easy. your kind words talking about all the little details whether it’s plot related or about the characters just makes me feel so accomplished 😭 i can’t tell you guys enough but even if ONE person feels connected to my story and my words in any way then i feel like im doing something good and a worthy human being lol

so glad you liked the ending! and yeah, the characters were fun and made the story feel more full imo but of course y/n’s have to be annoying sometimes for some drama akdjdjsjsksks

thank you thank you for reading this series and supporting me from start to finish, it means everything and the fact you took the time to write me all of this is just <3

glad you couldn’t see me either because the first read through of this i def shed at least 4 tears lmao

also, don’t apologize for the grammar, you wrote super well :)

thanks again, i’ll cherish this ask forever 💗💘

[mammons-tax-returns]

HDJXKDKFF I KNOW I HAVE REQUESTS BUT I NEEDED THIS PLEASE FORGIVE ME THIS WAS SO TIME CONSUMING AND FOR WHAT>> TO SATISFY MY DYSPHORIA/fA<>>A???

synapsis ; Satan and MC often discuss the plot lines of their favorite books, but this time, it’s a little bittersweet

✖️MALE MC✖️ comfort, kinda sad, fluff?

MC could practically feel the past few sleepless nights tugging at his limbs. He yawned into his hand. “I probably shouldn’t have pulled an all nighter last night, huh?” He chuckled a little to make light of the situation.

Satan sighed helplessly, brushing some of his hair out of his eyes. “I told you this would happen. You’d better watch yourself before I force you to get proper hours of sleep.” His emerald eyes never left the pages of his most recent favorite novel series.  “Lucifer isn’t as worried for your grades considering you won’t be here for as long as us.”

“That’s true...  But even still, I wouldn’t want to disappoint Luci.” MC rubbed his eyes a bit before responding.

There was only a scoff in response from the blonde, along with mutters definitely slandering his older brother.

“But never mind that.  Wanna update me on your book?” MC grabbed his own book from the table to his side and took a seat on Satan’s bed.  He has learned from experience that Satan read books far beyond his comprehension level-- far beyond the comprehension level of some of the smartest demons as well.  But the plots are interesting enough that listening to Satan relay the insights to him has become a hobby. 

“Well....  Amanthy ends up saving the prince from the monster right in the nick of time, but get this;  the two of them don’t get married.”  MC finally gets to see Satan’s eyes when he looks up in mild excitement.  They’re blazing so brightly that it nearly burns him as he watches them.  This normally happened when Satan was allowed to rant about a book.

“Amanthy calls off the marriage because he didn’t think that the prince was strong enough to be with him on his journey.  I really recommend you reading this part at the very least.  Now that you know what’s actually happening in it, you can focus on how incredibly this author deepens the understanding of Amanthy and his intents.”

Amanthy...  Would you really end it all just like that?  MC found himself wondering.  It must have been the fact that MC projected him and Satan onto the two ex-love birds in the novel.  Amanthy was clearly a sophisticated book-loving mage similarly to Satan, and the prince was a simple man in a foreign world trying to figure everything out.  Just like MC being thrown into the Devildom.  Together, the two fought and travelled together.

As childish as it is, MC was hopeful that they would end up together in the end, just because of his crush on Satan.  And hearing the news about their wedding almost felt like a personal attack.

He can’t respond immediately.  “Oh.” He breathes, “That’s surprising...  I, uh.  Did not expect that.”  A small laugh.  How was he supposed to answer?

“I feel the same.  It was not hinted at in the slightest...”  Satan held his chin between his thumb and index finger.  “But I understand Amanthy.  I mean, looking at it realistically...  The prince had his sword, and even with the little magic he had, surely he could have fought the beast instead of waiting for it to kill him...  Amanthy is a strong man, and I’m not sure how well he’d hold up being with someone like that.”

“Hmm.  Interesting...  This whole plot was just one turn after another.  You really have an eye for good books...  The beginning of that story was a bit slow.” MC tried to seem as invested as possible.  But it was proving to be much more difficult than it seemed.  Although he knew Satan can’t be held accountable for something like this...  Does he really think that Amanthy was in the right?

There was a knot forming in the very bottom of his stomach.  So then, would he do the same thing in that situation?  Would he really drop me if he had to save me like that?

“The story certainly did pick up speed...  Even I was impressed.  But it truly added to the character development!  Amanthy is a smart man for what he did, and he’s really selling it to me.  I wonder if that shopkeeper from the last chapter will reappear...”  He flipped several pages back as if to see if it was hinted at anywhere.  “She looked like a better fit for our bookworm protagonist...  Or maybe he’s better off on his own?”

MC’s mood just seemed to be going down a never ending decline.  The shopkeeper?  Who was literally everything that he wasn’t?

Satan continued before MC could comment, “The prince was always a bit of a dead weight, I can admit.  There were times that I found myself criticizing him for little things, but never fully disliked him...  Although there was much more to him than his exterior, I suppose.”

Okay, now this was a full blown call out post for MC.  The prince getting called a dead weight for the protagonist?  Suddenly, MC constantly having to be reminded by Satan to sleep seemed a little more daunting.

“So that’s how you look at it...” MC hummed and buried his face in his book, careful with his phrasing and hoping that the intuitive male in front of him couldn’t pick up on his hurt.

“Of course...  How would you see it?” Satan leaned a little closer.

This man will be the end of me, and he won’t even know it.

MC cleared his throat and shifted a little out of discomfort. “I mean...  I guess I sympathize with the prince a little.  He hasn’t really gotten the chance to protect himself...  A-And that’s the first time he’s been left with such a powerful beast, right?  Just a few weeks ago, he was in his castle watching the knights spar, and now he’s here defending himself alone.” Don’t seem suspicious, MC.  You got this.  You can do this at the very least, can’t you?  “Amanthy had a good connection with him.  I can’t believe he’d just overlook that because the prince needs help understandably.  I mean, isn’t that what a lover is for?  To love and support?”

Satan’s lips tugged into a simple smile.  “Ahh, so that’s how it is.  I’m surprised you can pay so much attention right now when you’ve barely slept.  You could barely keep your eyes open earlier.” He playfully ruffled MC’s hair.

His affectionate touch stung, and his words stabbed deep into MC’s core.  He knew no harm was meant, and yet he couldn’t help but feel horrible.  Why couldn’t he just listen to Satan’s nagging?

“But your opinion is just as strong as mine!” MC added quickly, hoping that Satan didn’t think he was disregarding him.  “Maybe calling off the wedding was the right choice in the end...  After all, the prince was kinda shady in the first few chapters right?  Maybe he’ll prove to be the bad guy.”

Satan seemed to think it over for a moment.  “ I suppose...  But the prince is a bit more respectful than that, don’t you think?”

And now he’s defending the prince?  Make up your mind already, MC silently thought.

“Y-Yeah, I guess so...” Am I as respectful as him, someone of literal royalty? MC breathed out slowly.  Even if I am, what difference does that make, Satan?

Some time passed after that, and MC couldn’t get passed a single page in his book.  His mind was a confusing jumble of thoughts.  Some of them hoped that Satan would react differently if proposed the same situation.  And some justified Amanthy’s decision in a sickening submission to his situation.  His ‘situation’ is an inevitable unrequited love for Satan.  And now he’s aware that Satan probably wouldn’t consider someone like him as a spouse even if given the chance.  Great.

“MC?  If you’re tired you should sleep.”

The (H/C) haired male jumped.  He looked up to see Satan way too close for comfort at the moment.  He felt himself flush.  “I’m not!  This story is too interesting for that.”

“You haven’t turned a single page.  And you looked a little scary.” Satan chuckled.  “Is it Lucifer?  Is that rat stressing you for your grades?”

“Well, no...  It’s just,” Phrase this properly, please. “I’m all hung up on that whole marriage situation.  If...  If you had to make that decision, would you call off the marriage too?”

Satan had a look of shock.  “Hmm...  I guess I hadn’t considered that.”  He thought for a second. “I don’t think I would.  I may have chosen Amanthy’s side, but I’m not him.”

Geez, that’s a big relief.

“But what about you?  Would you do the same?”

Okay, now that was unexpected.  MC blinked.  “I definitely wouldn’t have.  You heard my piece earlier.  I wouldn’t leave someone just because they were incapable of things like that.”

...  Was that too much information?

“Really...  Interesting.” Satan leaned back into the cushions on the seat.  “It’s almost spellbinding how similar you are to him, and yet you two have such different ideals.”

“Yeah...” MC answered subconsciously.  “And it really--...  Wait.  Come again?”

How similar I am to Amanthy?  No.  I must have heard wrong.  It just doesn’t make sense.  There’s no way that he would compare me to someone as great as-

“I must have never mentioned it, but I tend to project the people I know onto storybook characters.”  He seemed a little bashful, as he couldn’t quite make eye contact with MC.  “Amanthy is a very selfless mage that happens to have a habit of staying up for days on end to finish his studies.  He...  He reminds me of you.”  A small tinge of pink crawled onto his cheeks. “Sometimes, it also feels like you’re the protagonist of a great story, too.”

MC was flabbergasted.  This conversation is hitting him harder than the actual plot of the book being discussed.  “Th-Then, who do you see as the prince?”  This wasn’t adding up.  He couldn’t imagine who it could be if it wasn’t him.

“Me, of course.”  Satan responded without missing a single beat.  “I hate to admit it, but as the youngest brother, I tend to...  Blow things out of proportion.  And the others say it’s because I haven’t experienced the same things as them.  I don’t quite understand it...  But I guess I really don’t need to.”  He looked lost in his own mind as he explained.

He continued as MC struggled to put everything together. “The prince was told many of the same things I have heard.  But I think the reason I relate to him so largely is because I also feel little out of place, as many of his monologues describe my exact feelings so often.”

“Out of place..?  Why is that?” MC’s words left his mouth before he could consider them.  “Err, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine.”

“No, It’s nice to get things like this off of my chest occasionally.”  He paused briefly. “I guess I’m just not used to someone understanding me quite like you do.  Don’t get me wrong, It’s not bad at all.  It’s just a bit...  Odd to me.  Sometimes I wonder if I deserve it.”

“Satan...  Of course you do.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the time and indulged in the same things as you.” MC felt his heart throb.  Of course Satan would look into the story from a metaphorical stance rather than literal, like he did.  He was the one actually reading the pages, after all.  That’s just the type of person he is.  There’s no real beast in this story in his eyes.  The prince was just Satan stuck in his own thoughts.

“But...  Surely, this doesn’t mean that you thought I would have made the same choice as Amanthy, right?”

Satan hummed.  “You’ve got me unraveled under your fingertips, MC.  But you’d be mistaken...  I did.  But even if something like that ever happened, I don’t think I’d let you go quite as easily as the prince did.”  His smile had hints of mischief in it.  “You’re stuck with me.”

MC’s eyes widened a little.  There was so much information to take in at once.  “Well...  Rest assured, then?”

“Agreed.”  Satan nodded. “I’m just hoping you won’t get fed up with having to constantly calm me down before a wreck a building.”  He laughed, but it seemed sad, in a way.

Ahh...  So that’s just it.  Satan was insecure about something that I don’t mind helping him with a thousand times over.  MC found himself smiling.  Demons were much more similar to humans than he thought.

“That’s a bit cute, Satan.”

“What’re you on about?”

MC reached over and pat the top of his head in the way he knows he enjoys it.  “I wouldn’t let you go so easily, either.  I’m not Amanthy, and you’re not the prince.  You’re gonna have to try a little harder to get rid of me.”

Satan was frozen in the spot.  He suddenly understood what Levi’s shows would describe when they said, “time seemed to slow, and nothing else mattered other than him.”

“I don’t think I’d ever dream of it...”

For the first time ever, he felt as if he was receiving his very own happy ending in his own novel. 

[ofbloodandbullets]

So it’s recently come to my attention that not everyone in the world has actually watched The Old Guard (WHO KNEW?!) so I’m going to try and do some info dumps about the world, the general canon and Andy’s history, personality, powers etc.  This will ... probably get kinda lengthy. 

Also: MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR COMICS & MOVIE.

The first thing you need to know is that for the main part, the history and the world that TOG takes place in is the exact same one as the real history of the world.  It’s set in modern day, though the plot points stretch back to 7k+ years ago.  It’s also important to note that there is a lot of historical inaccuracies and some things in canon that conflict themselves so it’s best to just take it all with a grain of salt and just go with what works best for your particular preferences etc. 

The main difference between reality and TOG is that in TOG there are a very minute like .00000000002% of the population that are immortals.  Now, it’s important to note that these people can die but they resurrect pretty close to immediately after they die no matter the amount of damage done.  Now it can take some time to fully heal or reform, depending on how extensive the trauma (being blown to bits or burned etc. will take longer to fix but there’s no amount of damage that we know of that can actually keep them dead).  

There are times when, for reasons unknown to the characters in character (or to us as readers  of the comics / viewers of the movie etc) that the immortality just stops.  There’ll just be a time that they suffer injuries that just don’t heal, and they die.  There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to this, be it age, number of times they’ve died, whatever.  Now, I have my own entirely headcanon and personal preference based theory which you can find HERE but it’s totally just a random idea that I had that I liked to explain the loss of Andy’s immortality in the movie (that doesn’t happen in the comics) and lets me say that she regains her immortality post canon so that I can nudge things back in the direction of the comics for post movie plots and so on.

Andy is, as far as we know, and as far as she knows, the oldest (human) immortal, coming in at around 7,000 years old.  She was born into a tribe, the Scythia (hence what she’s generally called: Andromache the Scythian).  A nomadic warrior tribe that I headcanon to be a matriarchy, Andy was betrayed by the ‘queen mother’ when she was sixteen and killed in battle because the leader feared that Andy posed a danger to her continuing rule.  This person was practically a mother to Andy and it was a horrific betrayal.  What was almost as shocking to Andy was the fact that she got back up again after being literally stabbed in the back and killed.

In the vein of trying to thwart prophecies making them happen, Andy killed the matriarch and took her placce ruling the tribe, eventually becoming a God King to her people and ruling over them for hundreds of years until her loneliness absolutely overwhelmed her and one day she just vanished.

At some point after this, she began to dream of a woman, feeling a pull towards this stranger that she couldn’t begin to explain.  After dozens, maybe hundreds of years, she managed to track down the woman in question (Noriko in the comics, Quynh in the movie) and realized that they’d been dreaming of each other.  (In the comics she meets Lykon before Quynh/Noriko, whom she had also been dreaming of).  

Now, the connection between these immortals isn’t explained in canon, and for a long time, Andy, Lykon, Noriko (and eventually Joe, Nicky, Book) thought they were the only ones but there is a scene in the second set of comics that implies that there are other ‘packs’ of immortals.  I headcanon that it’s a ‘like calls to like’ / kind of Sense8 simpatico type thing - like minded souls drawn to each other, which is why Andy and the others didn’t know about the other immortals, but again, that’s just entirely my thoughts on the matter. 

Lykon is the first to succumb to the loss of immortality, a short couple hundreds years after he and Andy find each other.   He dies on a battlefield, one that he and Quynh/Noriko and Andy fought on like a hundred/thousand before, champions for the abused etc.  Skip forward a couple hundred years again and enter Joe & Nicky, a Knight and a Muslim warrior who kill each other on the battlefield only to both wake up and spend (an unspecified amount of time) hunting and killing each other before eventually Andy & Quynh/Noriko find them.  In time, Joe & Nicky realize that they love each other.   (Important to note that Quynh/Noriko and Andy were also lovers).  In the movie, when the first major surge of witch hunts began, Quynh/Noriko and Andy go to help the women that stood accused, only to be captured and accused of witchcraft themselves.  After being hung, drowned, burned at the stake and coming back to life every time, the witch hunters settled on locking Quynh into an iron coffin and dropping her into the ocean.  (In the comics, Noriko is lost at sea during a massive storm that had thrown their ship entirely off course with Andy having no clue where they actually were at the time.) 

Joe & Nicky arrive in time to rescue Andy, but Noriko is already gone and despite spending decades tracking down every person even remotely involved in the so called ‘investigation’ into the women’s inquisition and punishment, Andy wasn’t able to find anything about where Quynh could be. 

Cue angst & depression & guilt for ages after.

The trio still steps in over the following decades, trying to help prevent the worst of atrocities, but Andy quickly begins to spiral into an, at best apathetic, at worst, entirely distant and withdrawn mindset and steadily begins to lose hope that they’re actually making any difference at all.

Skip ahead a century or two and enter Book; a Russian conscript who had been forced into the fight after being convicted of forgery.  Hung for desertion, Book spend days dying over and over again as he hung there, unable to attempt an escape until the troops finally packed up and moved on.   He and Andy, Nicky and Joe meet up and Book kinda reluctantly joins their little group.  It’s revealed that Book dreams, still, of Noriko/Quynh and while he can’t tell where hse is, dreams of her still dying, drowning on the floor of the ocean over and over and over like she had been for the last hundred or two years.  

Book returns at some point to his mortal family which ended in disaster when his last remaining son was dying of cancer, cursing and screaming at Book for ‘choosing not to save him’ by making him immortal too, even though it’s something Book had no ability to transfer or make happen.  Between his nightmares, losing his son and a number of other factors, Book decides he wants to end it all but no matter what he tries, doesn’t die and stay dead.

Eventually he’s approached by a pharmaceutical company that has figured out what he is and wants to run tests on him to see if they can unlock his healing / immortality for other people.  Merrick’s company works in league with an ex CIA agent whose wife died of a horrific terminal disease who hopes that they can find a way to keep anyone else from dying if they don’t have to.    Initially it was just supposed to be him, but he’d set up a display to stream for proof of what he was / they were and the corp decided they wanted all of the immortals.   Book ends up betraying the team, and he and the others end up locked up and tested on / killed / experimented on etc.  

There’s another character introduced in the meantime, the first new immortals in centuries, an American soldier named Niles.  There’s a lot more that goes on here, but the main point is that in the movie, Andy stops healing from her wounds shortly after she tracks down Nile and is put into incredible amounts of danger when Merrick (the leader of the pharmaceutical company) captures Andy, Joe, Book, Nicky.  Book is devastated, Nicky and Joe are furious, Andy’s just tired.

Eventually, Andy and the others break free with Niles’ help, destroy the lab they were originally held in etc and set out to try and hunt down any other proof, lab results, anything that Merrick got his hands on during the tests.

The group meets and settles on a hundred year exile for Booker (which I think is one of the stupidest things - like, the man’s clearly desperate and depressed and lonely and mentally unstable so by all means let’s isolate him for a fully century) and at the end of the movie we see him stumbling home to his apartment six months later to find Quynh standing in his apartment, pouring and drinking a glass of water which is a whole power move considering how many millions of times she died by drowning.

In the comics, Quynh/Noriko was driven entirely mad and to the point of wanting vengeance against Andy for abandoning her and spends a while gaslighting Andy and torturing her physically and emotionally and what not until she manages to isolate Andy from the other immortals and scoops in to ‘rescue’ Andy.  IDK what they’re going to adapt this to in the second movie, 

Again, via the link posted above, my Andy slowly begins to regain her immortality (again, IDK what they’re going to do with the next movie).  

Uhhhh yeah.  So I .. think that’s the majority of what you need to know for canon info about Andy.  THIS is also an important PSA regarding my Andy’s history & her longest lasting relationship that has nothing to do with canon at all but that is part of Andy’s bg in every verse, even if it never comes into play.

[skarsgard-daydreams]

I really like the snippets of the SVMs that you post, but I can’t help but think about how by the end of the series Charlaine Harris just decided to destroy the character of Eric. I read those last few novels and just fumed with anger. Were you happy with how they turned out?

You are absolutely correct, anon. Was I happy with how they turned out? Absolutely not. I have a lot of bones to pick with Charlaine Harris about what she did to Eric Northman, but more importantly, I have a lot of bones to pick with Sookie.

Initially, I thought that the problem in the latter books was that Harris got lazy with everyone's characterization when she was contracted to write three more novels and started writing these characters in ways that were inconsistent. Certainly, there are a few instances where Eric is portrayed in a manner inconsistent with earlier books. (He loses a lot of his humor and charm and suddenly has a very different perspective on the possibility of turning Sookie, which I attribute to bad writing.) But as I went back in the series to compile these quotes, I noticed that the problems I had with Sookie's character in the latter books manifested much earlier. I have been trying so desperately to wrap my head around her behavior, and I have come to the following conclusions about Book Sookie, which are not necessarily applicable to TV Sookie...

(major spoilers and an unedited 4,000 word essay ahead)

Sookie's mind-reading abilities have stunted her ability to read and empathize with others without the use of her powers.

The magical bond that is formed when she and Eric exchange blood circumvents this while it is active, enabling Sookie to feel Eric’s emotions rolling off him at the time. She knows he is terrified when his maker arrives in book 10, and she is even able to identify precisely why he is frightened: he doesn’t want to be under someone else’s control. But after she severs their bond in book 11, her ability to read him fails her. She has spent her entire life reading people’s minds, which has served as a crutch. Rather than developing the intuitive ability to read a person’s body language and read between the lines of what they are saying that most of us learn, Sookie relies on her abilities, which don’t work on vampires. As a result, their motives are often mysteries to her. She notes how stony-faced they are, how carefully controlled they are in expression, but she misses a lot of cues that convey their repressed feelings. This is particularly bad for Eric, who, like many men, shields himself with anger when he is feeling hurt. His anger is not excessive or violent—in fact it is often very well controlled—but it masks the tender feelings that hide under the surface. It is telling that Sookie never acknowledges the incredible pain and betrayal that Eric must feel when she severs their blood bond, or when she ultimately refuses to save him from being taken away from her. The only time she feels sympathy toward him in that respect is in one line at the very end of the series where she considers how lonely he will be—and then she purposefully smothers that thought, refusing to dwell on it further.

Sookie's trauma from her formative relationship with Bill renders her suspicious of the motives of others and unable to trust her future partners.

Bill is the first man she ever dated, fell in love with, or had sex with, and it is revealed to her through Eric’s intervention that their entire relationship was premised on a lie. This plot point is the same in the book as it is in the TV show. Once Sookie and Eric are together, there are numerous instances where she suspects his motives. She maintains the firm belief that Eric never does anything unless it would be beneficial to himself, which is probably true up to a point, but even after he has shown that he is deeply in love with her and that he has borne the personal cost of this love, she still doubts him. In fact, Sookie believes that the love they seemingly share is only the result of the magical blood bond between them, which renders it false. Eric repeatedly states that he does not care why he loves her, only that he does, but this is a problem that Sookie cannot get past. It results in her severing their bond without warning. Once the bond is severed, she insists that she does still love him “all on her own” but her love quickly begins to erode without the understanding that the bond created as they are besieged by numerous calamities. When the final obstacle to their love presents itself—a contract negotiated by Eric’s maker that would force him to marry the vampire Queen of Oklahoma against his will—Sookie is so blinded by her inability to trust him that she doubts every word he says about wanting to stay with her. He never expresses a desire to leave her for the queen, but remains stalwart in his insistence that he cannot escape the contract despite seeking every possible loophole. Yet Sookie believes he is attracted to the queen and the power that she possesses and attributes his insistence that he is trapped in the contract to a clever lie designed to dupe her. In the final days of their relationship, Eric reveals that he knows Sookie could save him with a magical object that grants her one wish, and repeatedly insists that she could stop him from being taken from her if she wanted to. He does not ask her to do it, nor does he mention the object explicitly, or ask where it is. His statements read like a man who is wounded by his lover’s unwillingness to save him, but one who perhaps has too much dignity to resort to begging her to intervene. Presumably he believes that he should not have to beg the woman who says she loves him to save him from “cushy slavery,” as Sookie calls it. Once Sookie realizes that Eric knows about her magical deus ex machina, she starts to wonder if he really just wants to take it from her, or use it for himself. She even entertains the possibility that maybe he orchestrated the entire dilemma in order to get his hands on it. When the thought enters her head, she admits that she never would have considered such a thing if it weren’t for Bill’s betrayal of her.

Sookie's affection for Eric is conditional upon his usefulness to her (including as a sexual object), and she never develops an appreciation or understanding for who he is as a person.

Perhaps this is the fatal flaw in their relationship from the very beginning. Sookie does not express an interest in Eric other than the fact that he is physically attractive until his numerous favors to her and the many instances where he has saved her life or protected her begin to add up. The blood bond between them is formed when he prevents a vampire who has authority over him from forcing blood on an unwilling Sookie, instead offering his own blood as a substitute. Their marriage was orchestrated by Eric when another vampire wanted to take Sookie away from her own against her will, and it allows Eric to serve as a barrier to any other vampire who would try to harm her. Once their romantic relationship is formed in earnest, it quickly becomes evident that it is lopsided. Eric praises Sookie for her beauty, but also for how brave she is and how hard she works and countless other virtues that are not physical in nature. In return, Sookie feels obligated to pay him a compliment, and all she can manage is that he has a nice body and is good in bed. She often deflects from serious conversations with him to have sex instead. Sookie clearly doesn’t believe Eric is a good person, expressing her own doubts about his moral code when he doesn’t display enough outward moral repugnance for her liking. When Eric tells her how his boss tortured and killed a human woman to punish a vampire, she asks him how the story made him feel. His answer—that it made him fearful it could happen to Sookie—is not good enough for her because he does not also express remorse for the woman in question. (It should be noted that he doesn’t revel in her pain either; he is merely concerned with applying the moral of the story to his own circumstances and the woman that he loves.) Sookie does not seem to acknowledge the good that other people attribute to Eric, such as when his new bartender tells her she requested to come work for him. Sookie cannot imagine why anyone would want to work for Eric, but the vampire explains that he is a good master to serve because he treats his people well, specifically pointing out that he doesn’t ask for sexual favors from his female subordinates like other sheriffs do. Sookie is not interested in his life, his business, or his world. When he attempts to explain the elaborate hierarchy of vampire politics to her in an effort to include her more in his affairs, she outwardly expresses so much disinterest that Eric takes offense. Their relationship treads water for a while, until Sookie is kidnapped and tortured by fairies and Eric is prevented from rescuing her. While she is being tortured, Sookie is certain that Eric will show up at any moment, but she doesn’t know that he has been forbidden from intervening by his boss. The other vampires bind Eric in silver chains to keep him from going to save her. He later tells her how anguished he was that he could feel her pain and do nothing to protect her, shedding tears as he talks about it, but she doesn’t want to hear it. That moment marks a turning point in their relationship. Sookie repeatedly affirms that she believes Eric is so big and strong and capable of handling anything, and any time he is not able to deliver on her expectations, she loses even more love for him.

Sookie's prejudice against vampires leads to her treating them as though they are not people.

Although Sookie does not express her prejudice explicitly as some characters do, she still exhibits a bias against vampires throughout the books and expresses a clear preference for humans or shapeshifters. She is disgusted, for example, by Eric’s suggestion that she should come work at Fangtasia, saying that she would hate to watch the fangbangers seek the attention of the undead among them. She believes that they do not feel emotions or possess empathy in any comparable measure to humans. (The thought that not all humans share the same depth of emotion or empathy does not seem to occur to her.) She also discounts their physical pain or suffering because they possess the ability to heal themselves. This happens numerous times when Eric is wounded, often while trying to protect her. In one case, Eric shoves himself in front of a car window and takes a bullet intended for her point blank. While he is injured, he fights off the werewolf who was trying to kill Sookie. Then he gets back in the car and drives her home with the bullet still lodged inside his chest. When they arrive back at her house, he asks her for blood, saying explicitly that he is in pain as his body pushes the bullet out of his chest. She tells him he’ll be fine and if he really needs it, he should stop at Merlotte’s and get some True Blood on his way home. Another time, Sookie comes upon Eric after he has been badly beaten and bound with silver. His arm is broken and his hands, she notes, look gruesome, because the silver was wrapped around them. As soon as she frees him, he springs into action and decapitates the vampire who had attacked him before said vampire can go for Sookie, who gets faint at the sight. (She is not injured.) Eric picks her up even though his arm is broken, and she takes the opportunity to internally romanticize the moment, imagining that she is Scarlet O’Hara. But a short while later, she asks Sam to drive her home without thinking about offering Eric a bottle of True Blood even though they’re right in front of the bar. The most egregious example of this phenomenon occurs when Eric’s vampire brother has massacred all of the staff at his home. Sookie arrives to find several vampires and humans slaughtered on the premises while Eric is desolate and in excruciating pain with his ribs ripped through his chest. He tells her that he needs her to push his ribs back into place and that Pam was there as well, and Sookie proceeds to chastise him for not springing into action to go after his brother. When tears form in his eyes, she grows impatient and questions why he hasn’t called someone to come clean up yet. It isn’t until midway through the conversation that she tells Jason to push Eric’s ribs in so he can heal, and it is only on accident that Jason happens to find Pam, who is thankfully not dead.

Sookie's system of morals is so rigid that, when she participates in violence, she suppresses her own personal responsibility and projects blame on the people around her in order to continue believing that she is a good person.

After the massacre referenced in the paragraph above, Eric and Sookie must fight his crazed brother and several fairies at her house, slaying his maker in the process. When they are victorious, Sookie is immediately revolted by the bloodshed. Eric, meanwhile, is flooded with relief that he is free of his maker, who subjected him to hundreds of years of rape and slavery when he was first turned into a vampire. Sookie knows this, and in fact can feel the emotions radiating from him, but she seems to despise Eric for feeling anything but repugnance in that moment. This appears to be her coping strategy any time she participates in violence—she negates her own culpability and creates moral distance between herself and Eric by judging his reaction to be grotesque. The same thing happens when they are able to kill the brutally cruel vampire regent who was actively trying to ruin Eric and was responsible for attempts on Sookie’s life and who refused permission for Pam to turn her human lover into a vampire before she died. Eric and Pam are joyous that they have won and that the regent cannot torment them any longer. Sookie, who helped plan the attack and in fact dealt part of the killing blow to the regent, is abruptly disgusted when Eric embraces her and kisses her. It does not occur to her that he might be relieved that she was unharmed in the battle and that the constant threat to them all has been eliminated. Instead, she assumes that he’s trying to have sex with her and tells him she’s not interested in a manner that clearly conveys her revulsion. Eric does not handle the conflict gracefully, and bites her harshly to drink from her after he tells her she’s being a hypocrite, which only gives her more reason to push her guilt away and project it onto him.

Sookie’s youth and inexperience serves as a barrier to navigating the turbulent waters of a real relationship.

Sookie had never been in a relationship before Bill, and she only has one other relationship between breaking up with Bill and getting together with Eric. While she enjoys the ‘honeymoon’ phase of her relationships, she flounders when it comes time to address communication issues or outside pressures. Neither Sookie nor Eric find it easy to establish an open channel of communication, but Sookie actively seeks to end serious conversations early or avoid them altogether, while being stunned that Eric initiates conversations about their relationship, something that she thinks all men avoid. At one point, she tells Eric that they need to talk and then starts discussing what she refers to as their “irreconcilable differences.” The conversation seems to be veering into breakup territory, and they’re deeply involved in it when someone knocks on her door. She immediately invites her unexpected guests in and is relieved by the excuse to terminate the conversation abruptly even though Eric is still trying to figure out what’s going on. At other times, she observes that she loves Eric, but she’s not feeling the same lust or excitement when she thinks about him anymore. Anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship knows that passions often wax and wane, and that it also takes work to sustain and strengthen a relationship over time. Sookie is unwilling to put in the work or even have an honest discussion about the things they need to work on. She talks about romance novels a lot, and it seems to me that she has an idealized concept of love where she believes that they should be effortless and that passions should always be as hot as they were at the beginning. There are also times when she behaves in an extremely childish manner in the midst of conflict. After she severs the magical bond between her and Eric, he comes to her house and her main concern is whether or not he’s mad, while he asks her if she still loves him. She stubbornly insists he has to answer her question first even though she’s the one who broke the bond. On another occasion, Eric’s king comes into town and he is required to be at the monarch’s beck and call. Sookie gets mad at him and tells him she doesn’t want to see him one day, then is even more irritated that he isn’t calling her the next. Soon after, Eric is dealing with an endless litany of personal disasters that he can’t control, and he is short with her. Sookie listens to him confide in her about his problems and then responds with sharp-edged, sarcastic contempt, telling him that she has information that might have helped him with his problems and she might have told him if he wasn’t neglecting her.

Sookie’s limited understand of cultures that are unlike her own leads to misguided assumptions and fatal misunderstandings.

As the books progress, Sookie’s knowledge about vampire culture and governance grows incrementally, but she never approaches their customs with the same open-mindedness that she uses when it comes to werewolves or shapeshifters and their customs. This proves to be a major problem in her relationship with Eric, where there are two unfamiliar cultures at play—the modern culture of vampires, and the ancient culture of Eric’s human life. Sookie often refers to Eric as her “big Viking,” but she never gleans any insight about the culture in which he was raised. She seems to believe that he does not have much respect for women and projects American pre-Women's liberation attitudes on him even though he does not express those beliefs. When he offers to have her come live with him, she assumes that he wants her to be a housewife who cooks and cleans for him. She takes offense, and Eric is confused by her response. As Sookie’s situation becomes more perilous and she is injured multiple times in attacks at Merlotte’s, Eric asks her repeatedly to come live with him and/or work at Fangtasia so that he can protect her. She rebuffs these proposals, believing that they are rooted in misogyny. Sookie is also disinterested in understanding vampire culture, tuning Eric out when he explains things to her and refusing to accept that their rules and customs are different from her own when they inconvenience her. In particular, she never seems to understand the feudal system of governance under which the vampires live. When Eric is obliged to obey his maker or wait on his king or queen, Sookie is consistently irritated that he is not paying enough attention to her. She either does not understand or will not accept that vampires are not free to do whatever they want. This becomes a huge problem in the latter three books after a king from another state annexes Louisiana and kills every sheriff except Eric, putting him in a precarious position. Backed into a corner, he must maneuver very carefully to protect himself and everyone who is loyal to him. At the same time, he learns that his maker entered into a contract to marry him to the vampire Queen of Oklahoma against his will. Sookie refuses to believe Eric when he tells her that there is no way out of the contract, repeatedly insisting that if he loved her enough, he would just refuse to honor it. She holds him to the standards of her own culture, remaining willfully ignorant of the horrible consequences that could befall them both if Eric were to disobey. When she learns she can intervene and save Eric from his fate, she refuses, adamant in her belief that he will find his own escape clause if he truly wants to. The end result of her refusal is that Eric is forced into 200 years of “cushy slavery,” as Sookie calls it, a fate that does not inspire any guilt or pity in her, presumably because she still sees herself as a jilted lover.

At the end of the day, Eric deserved a lot better than Sookie.

He also deserved a lot better from the author, and a lot of people were justifiably outraged with the ending that Charlaine Harris gave to him. Harris, by way of Sookie, repeatedly reminds the reader that the Queen of Oklahoma is a very attractive woman, and it seems that this is intended to excuse the fact that Eric would be contractually obligated to have sex with her whether he wanted to or not. Eric expresses no desire for the queen, constantly asserting his commitment to and love for Sookie. When he admits that he would be required to consummate the relationship with the queen, he seems discomforted and ashamed at the idea. (Harris specifically uses the word “abashed.”) It is revealed to Sookie that the queen conspired to put Eric in this predicament specifically because she knew he valued his independence too much to ever agree to it willingly. Sookie knows that Eric was forced to service his maker sexually against his will, and that what he hates above all else is to be subjugated. She also knows that he will not be a monarch if he marries the queen; he will be her consort, a position that carries with it no inherent power or authority unless the queen gives it to him, and he will not be able to ever succeed her. Even despite all of this, Sookie is completely unsympathetic toward Eric. The author never acknowledges that this ending for Eric essentially means that he will be raped. What astounds me is that I don’t think she would have made his choice for a female character, or if she did, she would not have framed it in the same way. Sookie’s casual dismissal of Eric being sold into “cushy slavery” implies that male rape is no big deal, which is incredibly harmful. It is astounding that she would subject the primary love interest of the entire series to such a fate, and it’s the final nail in the coffin for Sookie Stackhouse for me, at least in her book incarnation. If any of her other love interests had been put in similar circumstances, I can’t imagine what she would not do to try to save them. But because it was Eric—her big, strong Viking who she believes is incapable of feeling emotions or pain and must be invincible in order to be valued by her—Sookie thinks nothing of it. Nothing at all.

@grimeundglow @stevesharrlngtons @scxrsgxrd @grandpa-sweaters

[cybernaght]

Lost Tomb Reboot aka Reunion: The Sound of Providence Season 2

I swear I wasn’t actually planning to write this thing, instead just opting for random picture spams of the season, starting with every time this show got Zhu Yilong’s Wu Xie wet, because that was a trend I had not expected and kind of lived for.

All that will still happen eventually, but here’s also my five cents on the season, because it is very very important for you to know just how worthy of love it is. 

You see, Season 1 was silly and fun, and definitely, undeniably, enjoyable. 

Then Season 2 swooped in, and completely won my heart. I cannot even express how much I adored it. Everything about this show is extremely extra in the best possible way; it is likely to have been the most charmingly over the top thing I have ever seen.

(Vague spoilers for : specific monsters, narratively significant moments, fate of the certain characters, including the protagonist.)

Some of it comes from the pace, which speeds up dramatically early in the season, and only slows down marginally to allow characters some breathing room. It’s not just gripping because it makes you want to hit play on the next episode, it also keeps you engaged because you can’t wait to see how the next wild set of events may be resolved and then topped. At about episode ten I was questioning how they could possibly produce a sense of further escalation. At episode twenty, I was wondering if anything can top dramatic impact of whatever was occurring only two thirds of the way through the season. 

I need not have worried: every single incredible character moment, every mind-boggling turn of the plot, every single bizarre threat would be blown out of water by the next one. 

Partly, this seemingly has to do with the writers attempts to ground the material. I am not sure what the novel contained, but I can discern that it was something along the lines of ghosts, ghouls and various supernatural circumstance. But when you are told  “this is a curse”, your reaction is naturally to go, “ah okay, so curses are a thing, and this is one of them, gotcha”. When you are told, “this is a heavy metal poisoning combined with a neurotoxin affecting the victim’s central nervous system and making them violently hallucinate”, your reaction is to question whether this is how metals, toxins, poisons, or, indeed, central nervous systems work in any version of reality. 

The show does this a lot. From human shaped swarms of killer moths, to flying brain-penetrating eels, to probably my favourite monster of the moment: the murder clams.

Seriously, I cannot stress enough that this show has murder clams. They move with their clam mussels. They jump with their clam shells. They will murder you in cold blood. 

There are ancient “laser corridor” style set-ups, there are shapes made out of fog recording its memory, there are group hallucinations generated by the sound of thunder, there are Mission Impossible style full face masks. There is a character who walked off a gun wound and sarin gas poisoning in order to die in the arms of his lover who looks like his dead sister. And by “looks like” I mean, “played by the same actress”. 

There is a whole character of Doctor Churros, who saves our hero from imminent death by washing his lungs with oil. 

This, I suppose, ultimately, is how The Lost Tomb Reboot (Season 2 in particular) lures you in. It turns what I saw as the show’s fault in season 1 into its biggest strength by establishing the world in which nothing is too outlandish and everything is possible. It so thoroughly breaks your expectations barometer, you grow to willingly accept whatever is thrown at you. 

The most beautiful thing about all of it, is that the fun and games and moments of barely controlled hysteria do not lower the stakes whatsoever. Moreover, somehow this show makes me believe that it could just about do something as irrevocable as, perhaps, killing off the protagonist 

You know how you can watch, say, a super hero film, and then the “all is lost” moment happens, and you kind of have to struggle to care because you know that they will pull through. It’s curious to see how that happens, but you don’t doubt for even second that it will. Well, when that moment arrived here, I found myself between ugly sobbing, and going into speculation overdrive to try and figure out how the Reboot would deal with that. By then I have seen that show be an high octave action movie, a supernatural mystery, a horror thriller, a buddy comedy and a spy flick: it was not a massive stretch to imagine it turning into a revenge tragedy.

Wu Xie dying had been building up since episode one, so you had hours and hours and oh-so-many hours to brace for it, and when the tragedy does not strike, the relief is visceral. 

Despite all the moments of hilarity (whether intended or otherwise), despite the chaotic turns of the plot, despite how utterly off the charts this show is tonally, when it matters, the narrative is pulled together in a way which not only makes complete sense within the world of the series, but is meticulously set-up, satisfying resolved, and delivers lovely emotional impact. Considering that the moral of the story is a very common “live in the moment”, paired up with “greed is bad”, it was surprising how much resonance its delivery actually created. 

Ultimately, however, this show is about found family, and, more specifically, about Wu Xie’s ability to create this family for himself and for every single member of it. He starts as one of the trio, and ends as one of a large group of old allies, new friends, and people he has graced with so much kindness that they follow him until the bitter end. 

Lost Tomb Reboot ensures that you get to know them all, and it’s pretty damn hard to not love this misfit group of adventurers in its entirety. 

(The only thing I could say is that I wish the series spent more time making sure the viewer knows and likes Zhang Qiling, but it seemingly had little purpose for him apart form sweeping in as an avenging angel every now and then. I get that he is a well established character in the series, and that his whole thing is being deadly and enigmatic, but considering that you got to know the other two legs of the famous Triangle so well, it’s a shame that this one was reserved to mostly being Xiao Ge Ex Machina. It would have been nice to know what he was about apart from “really damn cool”.)

Bai Haotian remained my favourite character. She is cute, sweet, romantic, and, for the lack of a better word, “girly”. She is not shy about her crush on Wu Xie, and is prepared to do a lot of reckless, dangerous things for him. None of the above undermine her intelligence, cunningness and authority. Xiao Bai is a young woman in a position of power, and she absolutely knows how to handle herself; for every time she is a damsel in distress, she gets to be the rescuer. For every time she puts herself in needless danger, she learns to collect herself and plan ahead. For every time she is bossed around, she turns and takes charge. Her journey is not the centred around getting the guy, but around discovering her self-assertion; she finds her place within his team not by being a romantic interest, but through her personal strengths. 

My absolutely favourite moment for her came when an antagonist used her affection for Wu Xie to get an upper hand on her, and she gets restrained, knife to her throat. Xiao Bai swivels away, knocks the attacker out and goes to town kicking him, to a great astonishment of this team, as she states that liking someone does not make her weak. 

And it doesn’t. Being in love has nothing to do with weakness or strength. Being a young, and excitable, and a woman does not equate to weakness either.

I’m not saying that this show is a feminist manifesto, because it is definitely not that. Every other prominent female character suffers a pitiful fate in service of creating motivation for the men of the story. But it does spend a lot of time making sure you, the viewer, know its heroes well enough to mentally befriend them. And if this means giving the female lead complexity, I cannot possibly be mad at that. 

So, this was it. This was the Lost Tomb Reboot. It brought me a ridiculous amount of joy and I will miss it a lot. 

And yes, the picture spams will be 100% an excuse to rewatch at least some of it. 

PS. Said spams miiiiight be gif based if I figure out a way to colour correct the damn things. 

[damn-stark]

Other half

Abby Anderson x reader

Requested by anon “What about a scenario about helping Abby and going AWOL and leaving the wolves behind, but plot twist: s/o is Isaac's child”

Warning- swearing, fluff, includes scenes from game

———

Quietly you watch as people in base gather around in a circle to gossip about some random person's recent travel, the sun up bright and hot, warming the whole messed up place you got to live in. Not to say that earth was not a beautiful place, because it was, in its infected infested moment and all, but it’s just many times you wished that life had turned out different. Not so troublesome and annoying.

The only thing that you had going for you and kept you afloat were your friends from Salt Lake. They were somewhat new, (A few years) but they were what kept things entertaining in this boring old commuting you called home. Especially Abby. She was the center of it all. With her incredible and beautiful muscles, her quiet and strong personality. She was amazing in every aspect and your father Isaac also loved her—For other reasons entirely, but he did, just like you.

“So I go check the room and—”

The door finally opens, cutting off whatever the guard was rambling about, the action a sweet relief and a blessing altogether.

“Hi Manny, Abby.” You greet happily, pushing your body off the wall and beginning to walk by them, offering the guard a lazy wave. “It’s about time you guys got out, what did my dear old father need?”

Manny was quick to answer before Abby had the chance to even think of an answer. “Basically that he needed Abby for the attack on the Scar Island.”

You roll your eyes and sigh. “Of course. What else?” Your eyes shifted to your favorite blond next to you, noting her silence and contemplating look. An easy give away that something else was definitely bugging her. “Abby? There's something more, what is it?”

Said girl only briefly glanced your way before she shook your head and grabbed your hand, taking you and guiding Manny past the crowd and tents, until finally she came to a stop somewhere quieter and under some shadows that protected you from the sun.

“I asked him about Owen and he said he wouldn’t go looking for him, but if he came he’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Your eyebrow quirks and you shoot her and Manny a questioning look. “I knew that..and?”

“I’m going to get him.” She finally revealed, making you let out a silent ‘oh’ and a smile to creep onto your lips, her eyebrows furrowing and shooting you a pointed look. “What?”

You shrug, “I should’ve known my girlfriend wasn’t going to sit and do nothing. But I also know my father and I know he wouldn’t let you leave so close to an ambush.”

Manny stands close and nods, agreeing to your statement and adding a witty comment. “Oh look you do love her.”

You roll your head to the side and smirk. “Yep.” Again you look back to Abby and nod. “So what are we doing? Sneaking us out?”

“No.” Abby reveals, “sneaking me out. Your dad would skin me alive if I let you come unprotected.”

“I can protect myself and I have you.” You interject.

Abby shakes her head. “No you’re staying here with Manny. It’s faster if I go alone, I’ll be back by morning. You can help me sneak out.”

You exhale deeply and scoff. “Fine.” Even if you already made up your mind.

You weren’t going to tell her though. Not yet.

——

“What if Owen is somewhere else?” Manny asks, his eyes reflecting the beautiful orange and yellow sunset in the horizon ahead. A calming view if you weren’t leading your girlfriend to a dangerous mission.

“He’s there.”

Manny lightly hits your arm to gesture Abby and you to continue moving. “Let’s get off the roof before someone sees us.” Manny began to guide Abby and you off the rooftop expressing his concern for his friend’s travel. “Can I talk out of this.”

“No.” Abby answered. “We don’t know what happened. We gotta find him.”

You weren’t really sure why there was such a need to find Owen. Her ex. But she was persistent—now you weren’t jealous of what they used to be, because one there was trust in the relationship between Abby and you. And two, Owen was your friend as well. But if he wanted to come back, no matter what he did, he would’ve. But he didn’t.

“If he really killed Danny.” Manny added as he and you jumped off the roof and onto a green covered wooden path, Abby's quick remark heard behind you.

“Fuck, Danny.”

You smirk and nod, staying silent to listen to what Abby had to say to Manny. Her tone softened to express more. “I do appreciate you. The both of you, helping me sneak out like this.”

You look over your shoulder and smile, Abby's own smile mirroring yours for a moment, a big admiration for your lovely girlfriend growing as the sun illuminated her face in a very beautiful way. Making her blue eyes glow like the ocean. She seemed to notice your gaze and just smirked. Her attention turned to Manny as he continued speaking as he walked down the catwalk to get to the stairs

“How are you getting to the aquarium? The highway?”

You shake your head and answer for her. “She’d be pretty dumb to do that, theirs too many patrols, she’d be spotted for sure.”

“I’ll rough it. Aquariums due west of here. Keep following the sun, right?” Abby added as she followed you down the stairs.

“I’m coming with you.” Manny interjected.

“I’ve done this before.”

You stay silent through their argument, knowing that you had your own secret choice that would make Abby upset. Manny wouldn’t mind, but she definitely would. Which is why staying silent and just following into the abandoned apartment was better. Only reacting when Abby found a very ‘steamy’ letter inside one of the rooms, her grin excited and teasing all at the same time. “Whispering Spanish in my ear?”

“Hey! That’s private!”

“Oh my god! This is your place?” Abby chuckled.

You snort and grin, “how many sex dens do you have in this QZ?”

Manny walks off and pretends he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. “¿Que? Perdón. No hablo inglés.���

You chuckle and follow after him. “Don’t worry you’re not the only one who gets love letters. I give them to Abby too.”

Abby snorts. “You do? Where cause I haven’t seen them.”

You tap the side of your head and smirk. “Telepathically, duh. Here I’ll read out loud.” You clear your throat and begin. “To my love, your hair is like perfectly golden wheat in a field of….uh, wheat? Your eyes are as blue as the ocean and your muscles are as big as comets. Xoxo, your other half.”

Abby and Manny chuckle as you wipe your shoulder pridefully.

“Such a talented poet.” Manny teased.

You grin, “oh, I know.”

Manny continues guiding you down the broken down apartment until you’re all outside again.

“Hey. thanks.” Abby directed to Manny.

“For this?”

“Yeah...and other stuff Y’know? You’re a good friend.”

Manny smiles, “come on, Abs. You know I can’t handle all this emotion.” Finally you all make it to the gate, the view so far clear from any infected. As many made clear, anyway. “Looks clear. C’mon.” Manny crouch’s down to give Abby a boost over the fence, her feet hitting the ground with a loud thud before she took a moment to look back around and say her goodbyes to Manny and to you. A mischievous smirk on your lips once she turned around to leave.

You place a finger on top of your lips to tell Manny to be quiet and discreet. His eyebrow raising to question your choices but soon letting you win with a single glare, boosting you over like he did with Abby. Said girl's attention turned to you as she heard the commotion, her eyes widening before her eyebrows pinched together.

“What the hell are you doing?” Her eyes looked over your shoulder to see Manny already up on the catwalk, hurrying his pace until he disappeared inside the apartment once again. Leaving you to deal with Abby with a knowing and happy smile.

“Going with you. I decided a long time ago.”

Abby shook her head and walked towards you with the same pointed look. “What about your dad?”

You scoff, “I don’t care what my dad says, I’m not letting you leave alone. I’m your other half, remember?” You smile towards the end of your sentence, making Abby stay quiet until she loudly huffed out of her nose. “Fine. But you stay close.”

You grin and nod. “Promise.” You quickly interlace your hand with hers and hold back your laugh as another “romantic” sentence comes to mind. “Riding off into the sunset, like two lovers.”

Abby shakes her head and snorts. “Dork.”

“I know.”

[codename-adler]

Kevin Day and his Oblivious Literature Lover, pt. VI

This bit explores Kevin’s sexual identity and his relationship to Jean, so, you know, not all funs and games... But very cathartic to write. I love them.

>> Table of Contents, TW and other parts are here!

after Juliet’s confession, their little talk does not flow any easier, but despite the rocky start and their dirty secrets, they push through the stuff that matters

it’s like a dam burst open

though, some subjects remain silenced

no parents, no exy, no relationships, no entourage, no names…

it’s just them

Kevin stays well into the afternoon

he has no class on Tuesdays, except in the mornings and, well, for once, he chose to rearrange his priorities

it wasn’t even a difficult choice, it wasn’t even a question: he had to stay, simple as that

he even missed morning practice

morning practice

it scares him, he feels the restlessness running through his veins, he feels guilty, guilty, guilty… and so, so weak…

but that was easier than leaving Juliet in the state she was

that had never happened before

not even with Jean

he’s used to flight, not fight

as for Juliet, either she didn’t have class or she chose the same as Kevin

either way, both were unspokenly grateful

sometimes, Juliet would fall asleep 

sometimes she’d go non verbal and simply watch Kevin do his homework

one time he fell asleep

he woke up extremely tense, his jaw hurting from the clenching and his back protesting against his curled up position on the floor (really, an elite athlete should know better)

Juliet was looking at him strangely

“Can I ask for another truth?” she said quietly

he nodded calmly while his heart went racing

“Who’s Jean?”

ah

“You said his name in your sleep. A lot. Are you usually a sleeptalker? I know I sleepwalk sometimes, but I don’t think I’ve ever talked,” she added

Kevin took an awful long time to think

he was looking at Juliet without really seeing her

instead he was imagining Jean’s bruised and battered face

he started speaking without refocusing his gaze, staring in the distance behind Juliet

“Jean is… He’s the one who taught me French. He’s the one who made me discover philosophy, Sartre and Hell is other people and all. He’s the one who listened first. He is the man that knows my shames, my failures, my mistakes, my ugly side, the man who knew and still looked at me as a human being with worth. He’s the one who showed me how to reset a dislocated shoulder. He’s the one I used to talk to in the middle of the night, about future plans or crazy ideas or incredible historical discoveries. He was my crutch when I couldn’t stand on my own anymore. He’s the one who kept my spirits up when times were tough. He is the man who kept me alive without either of us realizing it until it was too late. He is the man that I took for granted, the man I left behind without a second thought when things got too bad. I could beg for forgiveness my whole life and it still wouldn’t be enough to do right by him. He is the only person that has ever left me speechless. He can make my mind go blank, he can make me lose my words, he can shut me up with just a word. He’s the only one I let, at least. Jean is… So much. Too much, sometimes.”

Kevin’s throat tightened as he spoke, fists clenching and unclenching, his stomach twisting into knots of guilt and shame

if he’d been able to cry, Kevin would have shed burning tears

but he couldn’t

it’s as if everything in his system had been ready to cry, only for his body to realize that his water tank was completely empty of tears

and if Juliet hadn’t been looking at him with such intensity and such intent, Kevin would’ve ran away to Jean’s bedside right this second

three entire languages couldn’t even begin to express everything that Jean was to Kevin

Jean was every single emotion Kevin had ever felt in his short yet brutal existence, wrapped in one person as complex as the mechanics of the world

Kevin thought back on that first night when he allowed himself to be close to Jean since his escape from Edgar Allen

he thought back on how, with a single touch, all their entangled feelings came rushing back to the surface

how Kevin had never wanted to let go ever again, but the dark and violent waves of emotions had made his instincts scream with the urge to run away

Kevin had forgotten Juliet was still a witness to his battle

“Jean was… is… you ex?” she asked, something like wariness in her eyes

and what

“What?” he even says aloud

“Jean was your partner? Before… whatever it is you overcame?” Juliet repeats

“No!?”

“Okay… I’m sorry, Kevin… I didn’t mean…” she apologizes

“Why would you say that?” Kevin harshly asks

“Why wouldn’t I? It seems you two shared a very special bond, that’s all I’m saying,” she replies

she couldn’t possibly know

she couldn’t know

how would she know?

only two people in this godforsaken existence knew about these secrets in the dark, one of them being barely conscious in a bed a few minutes away, and the other one being himself

it was impossible that Juliet knew about what had transpired between him and Jean

“Kevin?” Juliet’s voice finally reaching him

“I said ‘Sorry for assuming’, I shouldn’t have done that. We don’t have to talk about it anymore, I’m sorry.”

Kevin considered their exchange

“I think I want to talk about it. To you,” Kevin finally spoke

Juliet nodded slowly, ever so careful, a silent yet binding promise passing between them

and so Kevin told her everything

absolutely everything

everything that didn’t touch exy, Riko, the Ravens, but that still left plenty, enough to cover many pages of poetry

he told her about how it had started between them, how Jean’s resilience had intrigued Kevin and how it had made him discover that there was more to life than his adoptive-brother

how Kevin had wanted a part of that rebellion Jean carried in his heart, how he tutored Kevin in French to share that slow-burning flame

he told her how for the first time in his life, Kevin’s entire focus wasn’t on one thing, but on a person too

he told her how their midnight talks became as important to him as his duty was

he told her how he began fighting for something else without knowing what it was, or why

he told her how on these nights, as Jean was teaching him verb tenses in French, their heads had, inch by inch, made their way closer to the other’s, until their foreheads were touching and their whispers barely made a sound on their lips

he told her how one fateful night, as Jean was teaching him the future tenses, their faces hadn’t stopped moving once their foreheads touched

how that simple touch hadn’t been enough anymore

how Jean had been his first kiss, his every kisses for the longest time

how he had been Jean’s first kiss, too

he told her how they had been each other’s first for everything

how they had been each other’s everything for a long time

he also told her how his fear and his shame, and his ambition, had ruined what they had

how his and Jean’s “situation” made it so, so hard

how once he was 17 and was “promoted”, Kevin didn’t choose Jean back

how it was on-and-off between them even when he showed interest towards Thea, also his now ex

how he had “moved” when shit hit the fan, and how he didn’t bring Jean with him because he was too scared, too self-centered, too weak

he told her how nobody knew back then, how nobody knows even now, because he had denied everything to everyone, including himself

and he told her how Jean was back, now, and how the memories came flooding back in with that same sour, yet familiar taste of shame, guilt, and fear

Kevin talked and talked and talked…

and Juliet listened

and Kevin cried, or rather, tears escaped his saddened eyes without even realizing it

and Juliet cried, too

they both wiped away the mess with the sleeves of their sweaters

“I have nothing to say about guilt and shame, but… If you liked Jean, if you loved him… if you still do… that is so okay, Kevin. It’s just love. You find it where you can. There’s nothing wrong with that, or with you. That’s how I see it… how I- I see you. You’re still you, Kevin.”

“You don’t know me,” Kevin replied fast, without thinking

Juliet just raised her eyebrow in a really, Kevin? way

“Look at where we are… Look at me… This isn’t even my worst. And I don’t believe it’s yours either. But it’s not pretty. Give us a little credit here, Kev; we’re not strangers anymore. Please don’t be a stranger… “

“Okay, Jules”

---

Kevin left Jackie Hall after sundown, with his heart heavy and his mind racing, but his shoulders a little lighter than yesterday

nothing in his life had magically changed into a goddamn fairytale, yet it felt different

Jules had told him nobody could decide who he was, that was his decision and his alone

he held that power, and only he chose who could wield some of it

he could choose what to do with it, and that thing could be outside of exy

at least, it could be for someone, instead of something

someone like Jean

on his way back to the familiarity Abby’s, back to Jean, he began plotting

by the time he was back by the bedside of the person he’d held so close to his heart and his lips, once upon a time, Kevin had formed a plan to give Jean the happy ending he so deserved

he’d have to make a few calls to USC, to the Trojans, to Jeremy Knox, he’d have to be careful of what he revealed, he’d have to convince Jean to leave, he’d have to convince himself to let Jean go, too, but he believed it was worth it

and if once in a while, in his cautious planning of Jean’s second chance at life, Kevin absentmindedly thought of a certain face framed with frizzy hair when the words “happy ending” kept nagging him, well no one could take that away from him either

[roswellnmsource]

Jeanine Mason and Roswell, New Mexico showrunner preview season 3 of the extraterrestrial drama

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Was the year time jump because of the pandemic? To sidestep making that too central to the plot, or was that always the plan?

JEANINE MASON: That was always our intention and it was just sort of a saving grace in that way. We also don't acknowledge the pandemic in real-time on our show. There are no masks and that was just so wonderful just to get work in that way and have that time where it was a little more normal. Also, that's just our show — we want you to come to us the way you always do, which is for nineties nostalgia, sexy Cowboys, brilliant scientists, you know?

CHRIS HOLLIER: So we wanted to drop our characters in a year later, let them stew in their individual decisions that were made last season. We want everyone to root for our poster couple but we want to honor what happens in real life, which is sometimes you step away from that person, even if you are entwined with them in a very particular way. So we wanted it to be a real enough time and distance so that they could live a little life on their own.

With showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie departing at the end of season 2, has much changed? Or are you still working with ideas she had in place?'

HOLLIER: It's a little bit of both. There are things that Carina and I built that live all the way through and then once the story got up on its feet, discoveries were made with our new crop of people that we were like, "Oh, we're going to bend it this other way."

Jeanine, how is Liz doing in her new life in L.A. when we pick up this season?

MASON: Well, it's been a year and at this point, her life is actually pretty great. She just hasn't taken a second to acknowledge that. She's doing what she does best, which is just full head in her work and trying to figure out what she could use of her discoveries and her brilliance to save Maria. She has a great job, a really nice place, and an awesome partner at work who is a good time and a real match for her in terms of intellect and ambition. He begins to ask her to recognize that and to maybe give something a chance that she's been reluctant to because of how drawn she is to Roswell and to Max. It's a fun first episode. It's sexy. It's fun to find opportunities for her. She's our hero so she's got a lot on her shoulders and anytime where we can find levity for her is always a real treat for the writers and for me.

And no Crashdown waitress uniform must be nice?

MASON: Honestly, I miss it quite a lot right now. I have a note in my notes with Chris, I'm like, "I gotta tell him we gotta find him more opportunities for it."

Should Liz and Max shippers be worried about them finding their way back to one another after he destroyed her work and didn't follow her to L.A.? Should we resign ourselves to a season apart?

MASON: This season really is about these characters having themselves mirrored to each other. Max and Liz need some growing and ultimately they can't do anything but be orbiting each other. We found so many opportunities to have such a beautiful language around the cosmic element of their connection. They're asking, "Is this our decision, or are we just acting off of a decision that the cosmos made for us?" It was so fun to navigate that. I always have such a good time with Chris Hollier and with Nathan Dean, just finding the little tiny notches, a tiny bit of movement towards where they're going next. I really loved following them. It's my favorite Max and Liz season to date.

HOLLIER: It's not a season apart. I'll tease that they, in an unexpected way, end up in front of each other relatively soon. But it's really about when am I ready? And what does it mean to talk to my ex? When someone makes such a big influence in your life, when do you know it's over and when do you know you should fight again? We tried to give them real grown-up lives.

Steven Krueger (The Originals) also joined the cast as Heath this season. What can you tease about his character?

HOLLIER: He's just an awesome human being. I know him from The Originals and we were like, "If we're going to have to be stuck with people in the desert, who do we want?" You want to be stuck with a handsome and lovely and charming Steven Krueger. So really this was looking at, "Well, what did Liz want and what does it look like when you start to give Liz versions of what she wants?" Heath is somebody that is beyond being just a lovely person, he is smart and wants to advance science and that's appealing to Liz. It becomes, "What does it look like when the man that I hang around with all day is also into the same things that I am?"

MASON: I love him. Heath is just such a fun, whip-smart, fantastic character. His humor was so fun. We've been having a good time with kicking the humor up really through season two and in season three, we just took it up another notch. There are some moments that are like, "Is this a drama or is it a sitcom?" Looking back on it, he was such a fun partner to spar with. They're both such intellectual characters and I love that there's a real meeting of the minds. It makes it competitive and sexy. I know a lot of fans are so excited because they know him from The Originals and he's going to be a great addition.

Technically, Mr. Jones is a new character too. Can you tell us anything at all about him?

HOLLIER: I'd say he's a new character — and a fully-fleshed interesting new character. Mr. Jones has an awesome beard. At some point, he might lose that beard. A lot of people are asking me, "Is Jones good or bad?" And what I would argue is that's a perspective based upon who you are in the conversation that you're having with him. He knows a lot about our heroes' story and he knows a lot about home. He'll be able to answer questions for them. This season our heroes will get to learn why they ended up here on earth. One of the things I think that people will love is that they're going to get to see that home planet this year. We asked ourselves a lot about this whole season, "What have we set up for the past two?" We look at these first three seasons almost like a trilogy so a lot of things are going to be paid off.

Has Nathan enjoyed pulling double duty this season? Or is he just exhausted?

MASON: He's exhausted, but he's such a champ. That really is the beginning of this mirroring thing that starts with Max and Jones with him actually getting to look at himself to a degree and those questions that come up. The self-analysis that it provokes in him is really the beginning of what is happening to all of our characters this year; everybody's being confronted with themselves. I loved that the Max/Jones of it was also a real sci-fi element.

Did he really grow that beard or was that not possible if he had to go between the two characters?

MASON: That was a prosthetic beard and our makeup team killed it. He was not accustomed to early mornings, which, of course, all of us babes are. It was a lot of extra time in the chair for him.

Can Jones dupe Liz into thinking he's actually Max since she doesn't know he exists?

MASON: You're totally on to something. It's a real and pressing threat. I mean, she's totally in the dark and he looks like her cosmic lover!

HOLLIER: What I will say is that, Liz — beyond her being number one on the call sheet — is integral to this story in a way that she and none of our characters are going to perceive when they start episode one. We're bringing [the characters] to a new crossroads moment in their lives and they're getting, through Jones, a mirror into their own lives to decide what they're going to become next.

How's Rosa (Amber Midthunder) doing this season?

MASON: By the end of season two, Rosa really makes the decision to start taking care of herself. She really becomes an incredible asset to the Scooby-Doo gang. It's something that Liz is in constant adjustment to. As much as she's the younger sister, she feels very protective of her sister and Liz has had to make adjustments in her trust and faith in Rosa. I loved it because it just felt like a real personal, authentic thing that sisters would go through, but also that Hispanic sisters would go through. I think we sometimes, culturally, have a tendency to baby our women — maybe that's the wrong word — but just to underestimate their physical ability and what they might take on, and sort of 'queen' our women in a way where we treat them tenderly. I hate that. I'm a tough bitch and so is Rosa. So Liz has to confront that and go, "I'm an idiot to underestimate you. You've done nothing but prove me wrong."

What about Maria and her visions?

HOLLIER: This year I think Maria has the most complete arc of any season, as she recognizes things about herself that cause more questions about who she is, who her family is, how she's linked to this story. We dive into it in the present-day and we dive deliciously back in time too.

In the exclusive clip above we see her have a vision of a funeral, can you tease anything about who potentially might be about to die?

HOLLIER: Maria is front and center in driving the first half of the mystery for us. She's burdened with trying to figure out whose death she is seeing. It takes a few episodes to unravel and we use it to ask, is this linked to our supernatural stories or real-world stories that are going on politically? Is it bad luck? Is it herself? There's a whole gambit at play. We joke that we solved a past murder, now we're going to try to stop one.

Can Malex (Michael and Alex) shippers have hope that this might finally be their time?

HOLLIER: What I would say is that I think that Malex fans are really going to dig this journey. We, as writers, put them at the same level of importance as Max and Liz. So we wanted to really honor the next step in what they may or may not be. How did they grow up and how did they have those hard conversations just like Liz and Max are going to have?

Is Isobel going to continue to date women this season?

HOLLIER: Isobel is going to go on a more personal journey. You got to love yourself before you can love someone else. We lean into those possibilities by the end of who she might love. It's not something that is dropped all season — it is something that you'll see. We play some romantic comedy stuff with her character this year and with Maria that I think fans are gonna dig. There's a lot going on in the world and wanted to pump some humor and hope into it.

Will see more of Liz fighting to challenge the perception of the Latinx community?

MASON: I think that just by nature of it being one of such few shows that are led by a Latin woman, it's always going to be, to an extent, a protest or an assertion of the space that I get to fill and that Liz Ortecho gets to fill on network TV. I was really excited to just have Chris as a collaborator. Over our hiatus, before the season started, I was doing a lot of reading. I chronicled the books that play into Liz every season on my Instagram. I was reading some Sonia Sotomayor. Her book is just incredible. I was texting him screenshots of pages of the book with things underlined. Ten episodes deep into season 3, he's like, "Remember that page you sent me?" He's a real dream collaborator. I loved him for that. A pressing struggle for people of color is going through the ranks in these big corporations and then sometimes coming to find out that those corporations are purporting to support marginalized groups but actually aren't following through. So how do you, as someone who's having your success, your dreams become reality, navigate supporting the company and giving so much of your intelligence and your work — that they often legally own, especially with science — to a company that isn't going to be for your people?

[twiistedgalaxies]

Cuck for One Uses Tinder

"All for One, infamous boogeyman of the underworld, felt his non-existent eye twitch as one of his minions slid a stack of forums onto his desk. They were divorce papers. In a matter of moments, said minion became a red smear on the office wall. He had broken out of Tartarus for this nonsense? Seriously??"

A/N:  I'm sorry, I don't have any excuse for this. I woke up in the middle of the night with the plot idea for this fic and thus this monstrosity was born. Bone Apple Teeth.

        All for One, infamous boogeyman of the underworld, felt his non-existent eye twitch as one of his minions slid a stack of forums onto his desk. They were divorce papers. In a matter of moments, said minion became a red smear on the office wall. He had broken out of Tartarus for this nonsense? Seriously?? Made even worse was the fact that, with the aid of search, he found that All Might, kami damn him, and his now ex-wife were constantly spending time together. He had half a mind to head to the apartment complex that he owned and paid for and reclaim what was his.

        “Sensei?” A familiar, raspy voice spoke up behind him and he felt the onset of a stress induced headache. The brat was meant to be his successor and potential replacement body. Unfortunately, those damn heroes had broken into the hospital before he could be fully developed, and All for One had to fish the young man out of a decayed crater the size of several city blocks before he could be thrown in Tartarus in a cell next to him. He wanted eventual retirement, and has had his plans foiled at every turn.

        “Yes Shigaraki?” he replied, standing up from his chair.

        “What happened? I underwent the operation one minute and the next thing I knew-”

        “Ah, that. You were awakened several months before you were meant to. That’s why I called this doctor here to-” He glanced at the red stain, realizing that the man in question had been eviscerated in his divorce-papers induced rage, “-No matter, I’ll do it myself, come.”

        All for One led Shigaraki down a series of winding hallways and stairs into a room filled with large test tubes and the few Noumu that remained after the raid on Dr. Garaki’s hospital. He stood before one that was open, not yet filled with the preservation fluid that left the Noumu in suspended animation. “Everything should be calibrated properly, if you’ll just step inside, the process will resume.”

        Shigaraki scowled, “I’m not doing this for you,” he clarified, scratching the back of his neck, “This dream is my own, this is just the means to an end.”

        If All for One had eyes, he would have rolled them with disdain, instead he said, “Sure, just step into the machine Tomura, or would you like to remain in your half-finished state?”  

        The young man let out a huff and begrudgingly complied. All for One injected him with enough anaesthetic to subdue a horse and closed the convex glass door. He fiddled with the controls for a moment - he hated being, for all intents and purposes, blind - and soon the tube was filling with preservation fluid as Shigaraki’s upgrades resumed. It was only then, in the greenish glow of the underground laboratory, that All for One realized with some dread that he had months of unfilled time on his hands.

-@~*^*~@-

        All for One’s first course of action was to break into the bedroom of a young girl on the UA campus. He had, through his various underground contacts, heard of the Overhaul incident. How a man so incompetent had managed to go so far in his plans baffled him. Truly, the state of the hero industry has fallen since his prime. It was not the man’s fanaticism nor his sadism that fascinated him, but rather the child he’d had in his possession that was now under UA’s care. Her quirk, Rewind, was rather interesting with infinite and overpowered applications. He’d be tempted to take it for himself permanently had she not emotionally latched herself to a certain, green haired teen that proved time and time again to be a thorn in his side. It was simple enough to slip through UA’s security in the dead of night, to disable all nearby cameras with a mere flick of his hand. It was a wonder what a technopathy quirk could accomplish. 

        She was asleep, small face peaceful. He could feel contentment radiating from her. Likely having a good dream, he mused. Gently, All for One placed one of his large hands on her forehead. He borrowed her quirk, and felt his body rewind several years, before his fateful battle with All Might. He couldn’t help the satisfied smile that crept across his face as he opened his eyes for the first time in nearly a decade. Quickly, he returned Rewind to her and used a warp quirk (the same one he used in Kamino) to leave the premises. There was no need to alert the heroes to his restored state. Yet.

        At least he’d be able to show up to his divorce hearing in person, though it would take every ounce of willpower he had to not level the courthouse.

-@~*^*~@-

        All for One was lounging on his couch in his makeshift home and using his phone in an attempt to understand The Youth (which to him, was anyone who wasn’t in a nursing home). On a whim, he installed Tinder, it had been decades since he really got into the dating world. His lover has been villainy, generally being an asshole, and terrorizing aspiring heroes. Having to wait for his plans to unfold was making him restless. Anyways, he was planning to get into politics now that he had his face back, as a way to enact social change without having to deal with a slew of moronic underlings. It didn’t hurt to build the foundations for his retirement, and having at least some people in his life could make him more relatable to the public and help his long term goals. He was planning to use his ex-wife and estranged son for this, but the divorce threw that plan out the window. People don’t tend to trust those who spring into existence seemingly from nowhere. (To be honest, he was just lonely, not that he’d admit it to anyone, especially not himself.)

        Where was he? Ah yes, Tinder. As it stood right now, he was swiping through the incredibly vain and shallow app, no one had truly caught his eye. No one that is, until his gaze (and didn’t that feel good to say?) landed on a disheveled man with long dark hair, stubble, and dark undereye circles that stood out against his pale skin. Aizawa Shota, 31. Eraserhead. He was tempted to swipe left on impulse when he paused. Getting close to heroes could be convenient to his political goals. There was no better or more ironic way to take out the hero commission than from within after all, plus it would give him information his underground contacts lacked. Yes, this would do nicely. (And if he found the man’s sleep deprivation and dry sense of humor charming as they spoke through text that night, well, that was just a side benefit.)

        They had decided to meet at a nearby cat café that evening, and All for One showed up in his best suit. It was a dark, wine red and chosen to match his eyes. Belatedly he realized he was overdressed when Aizawa showed up in a simple t-shirt and dark jeans. Whoops.

        He extended his hand for the other to shake, “Hisashi Kamiya, a pleasure to meet you.” It was absolutely not a pleasure to meet the erasure hero, but Aizawa didn’t need to know that. He couldn’t help but quirk his lips at his own last name. He had chosen it after the divorce, Shigaraki most certainly wasn’t going to fly, especially since his protégé had gained some degree of infamy.

        Aizawa nodded, eyes narrowing, as he shook his head, “Aizawa Shota.”

        The cat café was a small, square building lined with blue wooden panels. The windows glowed with a warm orange light, and the smell of java floated through the air. The interior was just as quaint, Hisashi noted as he opened the door for the other, among the table and chairs were various cat towers and potted plants. Despite its humble appearance, the café was rather busy this evening, stuffed to the brim with overworked college students and romantic hopefuls. They ordered their drinks (Aizawa ordered a black coffee and Hisashi ordered an espresso with extra foam) and made their way to a small round table in the back corner. 

        “I just want you to know that I’m married and don’t want to pursue any sort of relationship,” Aizawa began, petting a small orange tabby that somehow already made its way onto his lap.

        Hisashi balked at that, but quickly composed himself, “So why are you on Tinder? I assume you don’t take random strangers on dates for the joy of it.”

        “I’m here because my students are villain catnip, and I want to make sure they don’t get maimed while they're out and about. Especially that one,” Aizawa gestured to a table across the room from them, “Problem child seems to attract the League of Villains everywhere he goes.”

        Hisashi followed Aizawa’s gaze to the table in question and felt himself pale when he saw a familiar mop of curly green hair, his son. He swallowed, trying to ignore the fact that his estranged kid was sitting only fifty feet away. “I can understand that, but why a cat café?” he asked.

        Aizawa shrugged, “They’re on a date, plus I like cats.”

        He had to do a double take, Izuku was with a boy that had dual toned hair. A date? Seriously? He hardly approved of his son doing such a thing at his young age. Part of him wanted to walk over and drag the teen from his table and out of the café. Instead of making his internal screams external, he smiled saccharinely, “It’s rather thoughtful of you to take time out of your busy schedule for your students, I’m sure it must be hard to juggle hero work and teaching.” And rather creepy. Who pestered and surveilled teenagers in their free time? Other than Hisashi of course, but he was the exception.

        Before Aizawa could give him a response, their drinks were set in front of them. The foam on Hisashi’s espresso had been poured in the shape of a smiling cat. He had the sudden, inexplicable urge to launch it at his date and run. Instead, he took a sip, grimacing slightly. Too much sweetener. They sat in an awkward silence, Aizawa didn’t seem like one to make conversation. Somehow the man had attracted more cats to his side.

        “So you said you were married?” Hisashi asked, probing for information.

        “Mhm, my husband’s name is Hizashi. He’s kind, if a bit much sometimes.” That was an understatement, Present Mic was one of the most obnoxious heroes in the public eye, right after All Might in Hisashi’s books. More awkward silence, and then:

        “So Hisashi, what is it exactly that you do for a living?”

        He blinked, “Oh, I’m a quirk analyst,” a lie, though quirk analysis was a pivotal part of his job, it had to be with his quirk, “I’ve just always found them interesting. It’s like how inventors feel about electronics, I just can’t help but want to pull them apart and see how they work.” Hisashi’s grin turned almost predatory at that, and Aizawa tensed. “The first quirk I ever analyzed was a neon quirk, the holder’s sweat glowed in the dark, they were like a walking, talking glow stick.”

        Hisashi rambled about quirks for a while (this was the first he’d spoken so much in a long time and the words seemed to gush out of him, like he had to pay some sort of deficit), and Aizawa eventually cut him off, amusement dancing in his dark eyes, “You know, you remind me of one of my students, he’s just as obsessed with quirks as you are.”

        He visibly perked up at that, “Really? It’s rare to find someone who shares my interest, most find it creepy.”

        The underground hero nodded, then glanced at the clock, “I should probably get going, my students have already left and I’m expected at the police precinct soon.”

        Hisashi nodded, reaching to take a sip of his espresso but finding it already drained, “This was fun, even if it didn’t go anywhere,” perhaps this night could be salvaged and still give him some sort of in, “Would you like to catch a drink again some time?”

        “No.”

-@~*^*~@-

        His next date was considerably more disastrous than the first. He had matched with a young woman named Iwata Setsuko. His date in question had admittedly plain features, was a single mother with three children, and looked chronically stressed. She had taken time off from her crammed schedule to have dinner with him at a small Italian restaurant. The restaurant was small, quiet, and made to resemble a courtyard in an Italian villa. At the moment, she sat across from him in the cramped restaurant, honey eyes nervously peering at him from a veil of straight mousy brown hair. Iwata worked as a nurse practitioner in a nearby hospital, and seemed impressed by his extensive medical knowledge. She presumed him to be a doctor of some sort, and while inaccurate he could become one easily with a few forged documents if this proved fruitful.

        Throughout the meal, she hardly spoke, leaving him to fill the silence with spun tales and falsehoods. He was telling her a particularly interesting anecdote about South Korea when she abruptly cut him off, “You’ve been lying to me all night.” Fuck.

        Hisashi tried to laugh it off, “Now what reason would I have to lie to you?”

        “My quirk allows me to read the vital signs of anyone close to me, I don’t know why you’d lie but I can tell you’re full of it.”

        His eyes widened, “That’s a rather interesting quirk you have, it’s certainly perfect for your field-”

        “Oh shove it, I know you’re deflecting,” She dismissed, a fire lit in her eyes that was previously absent.

        He felt something flutter in his chest, he liked a woman with spark, it’s why he’d married Inko after all, and he couldn’t help but think of all the possibilities and applications her quirk had, and how helpful it could be for his goals. So caught up in his fantasies of world domination, was he, that he ignored whatever was coming out of her mouth. It probably was as helpful as white noise, as most mundane people’s words were, “You’re one of the only ones whose ever seen right through me,” he said with a widening grin.

        “What?” She replied, confused.

        “You know, with you at my side, we could have everything you can dream of! Think of the possibilities as the world crumbles at our feet-!”

        He was cut off by Iwata, who was shoving breadsticks into her purse, “Look, it’s been fun but I have to go, my kids are waiting for me at home.”

        “Think about my offer, you have my number!” he shouted to her as she rushed out the door, he glanced down at her plate, “She didn’t even finish her meal either.”

        Iwata never got back to him, and All for One, dark lord of the criminal underground, was ghosted.

-@~*^*~@-

        After another series of failed dates, Hisashi was slumped over a bar as Kurogiri, the noumu he had broken out of Tartarus for this sole purpose, awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. “Uh there, there?” he said.

        Clearly, this online dating thing was not working, “I don’t even know why I try!” All for One proclaimed dejectedly, “Clearly the public cannot handle their awe of me.”

        If Kurogiri had a face beyond a pair of glowing yellow eyes, he would have winced, “Right, well, sir, if it’s my place to give you advice I’d like to do so.”

        Hisashi gestured vaguely with his hands, indicating that the sentient black mist should continue.

        “Why don’t you go back to what you had before, you were married were you not?” Kurogiri suggested, “Surely it can’t be that hard.”

        The supervillain lifted his head from the table, looking as if Kurogiri had just handed him the world, “You know what, you’re right, why don’t I re-enter their lives? They’re mine after all.” All for One stood up, a little drunk, “Kurogiri, if you had a mouth, I could kiss you.”

        “Please don’t, sir.”

        A few hours later, at some ungodly time in the night, Hisashi was standing outside of the Midoriya apartment, boom box perched on his shoulder, blasting romance music like he was in a shitty 90s romcom. He was oblivious to the lights that began to turn on in windows up and down the street. Using a quirk to artificially project his voice, he shouted, “Inko baby, take me back, I’ll be better I promise!”

        Soon he saw an uncharacteristically glaring, plump face in the window. Inko popped it open, slipper in hand, “Hisashi, I swear to god, if you don’t leave right now I’m calling the police, do you know what time it is?!”

        “Time doesn’t matter in the face of love,” he replied, “Inko I-” Hisashi was cut off as a slipper hit him square in the face.

A/N:  I hope this at least got you all to laugh, feel free to leave a comment! Happy holidays everyone, I should have the next chapter of Genesis posted on Monday.

AO3

[degenerate-perturbation]

Viv Reviews: The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Being as I am contractually obliged to read all Loki-the-mythological-being fanfiction, I dive bombed this book like a seagull espying a stray french fry on the boardwalk. I had never heard of it before I saw it on the shelf at the bookstore, but reading the summary and the first page, I bought it immediately, started it within a few days, and finished it over the course of approximately four baths. Usually the lag time between me becoming aware of a book and actually reading it is anywhere between a year and a decade, so this is pretty incredible performance.

And this one was actually good! Really good! Or it could have been, if it didn’t absolutely cheese it in the second half of the story.

The first half is extremely solid, if somewhat conventional. It follows the myths, centering on Angrboda and Loki’s relationship. I had a pre-existing attachment to Loki and enjoyed all of this greatly. Was it stunning literature? No. Was it a really solid, satisfying fanfiction? Yes. And I will give the first half of the book solid marks on that front.

I’ll be honest. I read this book for Loki. But I really enjoyed Angrboda as a protagonist here. She minds her own business. She doesn’t hold grudges. She doesn’t want revenge for the trauma and wrongs visited upon her. She doesn’t cling to pride. Overall it paints the picture of an admirable person, who never strays into the saccharine or unbelievable. I like her. Even though I am a Loki apologist through and through, when they part on bad terms, I was fully on her side.

I also really like this Loki. In this book his key flaw is identified not as dishonesty or disloyalty, but as an excessive desire to be accepted. Loki is willing to do anything to continue to be accepted by the Aesir, or rather tolerated by them.  He is ready to suffer any humiliation, any degradation, any pain, any loss, all to keep his tenuous, heavily-conditional place among them. For all us faggots and retards and adjacent undesirables in the audience, this is a familiar emotion. I clapped my hands in delight to watch it all play out; Loki the weird kid who eats dirt trying desperately to keep the cool kids laughing so he can imagine that they are laughing with him, not at him, even if it means betraying his own family.

There is another interesting element to this story and that is the hint of Angrboda/Skadi as the endgame relationship. It’s built up nicely; Skadi and Angrboda are good friends, jealous of one another’s husbands and not talking about it, all the while we the audience know that Angrboda and Loki’s marriage is doomed to explode. When Angrboda is nearly killed and all she loves taken from her, Skadi is the one who is there for her. Aha! I think. So this is why Skadi hated Loki so much, and why Angrboda left Loki to his fate! Hohoho, I can’t wait to see this play out.

And then it just fucking doesn’t.

At the midpoint of the book, the tension drains away, there is no structure to speak of, and Stuff Kind Of Just Happens.

Having healed from the attempt on her life, Angrboda decides to set off on a journey to rediscover her magical abilities. She gives Skadi the standard “I have to do this alone” line, and...Skadi just goes, okay, bye then, and lets her go. And then she just isn’t in the story for a long time.

At this point Angrboda’s goal is to find her daughter, because she knows her sons are fated to die during Ragnarok. Angrboda is unable to die; she always comes back. This is one of the first things established about her and the audience is reminded of it when she fails to die when she is killed, at the midpoint. Aha! one might think. Angrboda will be so desperate to see her daughter that she will repeatedly try to die, and be unable to! Only once she has exhausted every option and given up on despair, only then is she able to access her magic and travel to the underworld without dying! Only by choosing to live can she truly heal and progress in her goals!

But that is not what happens. What actually happens is that Angrboda putzes around for a few years Finding Herself and making friends with local wildlife.  She relearns her magic because Freyja--a character who has hardly been mentioned in the story up until this point--teaches her. Because Girl Power, or something. When she finally does reach Hel, it doesn’t feel like an exciting emotional climax, it’s just kind of another thing that happens. Poor structure!

Here is another example of poor structure: the eventual Angrboda/Skadi relationship.

After they randomly part ways just at the juncture where serious relationship development would reasonably be happening, they next speak to each other after Ragnarok has started. Skadi comes to visit Angrboda. She tells her about the binding of Loki, but leaves out her role in it. Later, she guiltily admits that she was the one who added the snake, because she wanted to make Loki suffer for hurting Angrboda. This makes Angrboda realize that Skadi loves her, and they become lovers. Several months later, Angrboda decides, for no particular reason, that she should free Loki.

Look. I’m not any kind of screenwriting genius. But there is an obvious way that this should have played out according to every law of dramatic tension. Here it is:

Skadi goes to see Angrboda at the start of Ragnarok, and, driven by the impending apocalyptic events, confesses her feelings. They become lovers. Skadi hides her role in the binding of Loki for the duration of their relationship. Angrboda spends months or even years lost in the haze of complacent gay love and resignation to fate. Then, much later, Skadi tells her the truth. This horrifies Angrboda, and is the catalyst which makes her decide to free Loki. The realization that she still cares for her good-for-nothing ex-husband spurs some character development.

But Angrboda and Skadi can’t have any drama or emotional conflict or tension in their relationship. Because Girl Power.

And when she gets there, and witnesses her ex-husband, the father of her children, horrifically tortured and maimed as a direct result of the actions of her current lover, what does Angrboda do? She takes a moment to have a little pow-wow with Sigyn and let her know that there are no hard feelings and we women have to support each other you know. Because Girl Power.

The rest of the story is an incoherent soup of Stuff Just Happening. It has that fanfiction vibe of just trying to get through all the canon plot points while the characters we’re actually focusing on have nothing to do with them. There is one cool part where Angrboda realizes that Hel has a weak heart--so she cuts out her own and gives it to her, and this allows Hel to survive Ragnarok. Loki was the one who returned Angrboda’s heart to her at the start of the story, so this is quite sweet and fitting. But it happens offscreen, and then we are subjected to Hel & Baldur’s romantic banter which is gratingly exactly the same as Angrboda & Loki’s romantic banter.

There is a skeleton of a good story here. But that’s really the best I can say for it. I’m not really sure what happened here--other reviewers have suggested a lack of imagination on Gornichec’s part, and maybe that explains some of it, but I suspect the Girl Power themes also have to do with it. So many scenes and plot points seem only to exist to affirm the theme of Women Supporting Women. I vaguely get the impression that Gornichec is shying away from centering the Angrboda and Loki relationship, too, Because Girl Power. Only this doesn’t work, because it is quite clearly the central relationship, and acting like it’s not just makes for poor storytelling.

I’ve said before that a mark of a good story is one whose prose, plot, characters, and world all uniformly and point in the same direction, creating a coherent Theme. Here it’s more like the Theme was dropped into the middle of the plot by a dumptruck and left there, getting in the way of the actual story and messing up the structure. And structure is seriously important! The book I read immediately after this one was The Rise of Kyoshi by F. C. Yee, another published f/f fanfiction novel, and I won’t be reviewing that one, because it was damn good - in large part due to its tight, coherent structure.

The Witch’s Heart could’ve been it, but ultimately turned out a disappointing fanfiction. Compare Miller’s Circe - but Circe was a better book by far.

[mikcyla]

/ * ( 𝐑𝐘𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐘, 𝟐𝟑, 𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄, 𝐒𝐇𝐄 / 𝐇𝐄𝐑  ) 𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐀 𝐎'𝐃𝐀𝐘 has finished their interview process and is officially a cast member of the bali life ! let’s give a huge round of applause because this is their 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 season with us . in their interview they stated they hope to be known as 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 and are from 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒 , 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐀 . they chose to stay at 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐀 in room 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 . let’s hope they see it out till the end !

ayo heyo ! i’m sam and this is the loml mikayla ! i’m gonna keep this short & sweet cause if i don’t . . we’re gonna be here forever . i do have discord , sam thee devil#6592 ( how fitting ) & we can discuss my love for drama , cry over plots too oKAY BYE ! enjoy the show :~)

those who personally know mikayla o’day say that she’s always been this way .  .  you don’t know ? haven’t you seen the show ? well , according to her wikipedia page :

from a relatively young age , mikayla’s parents knew their daughter was practically destined for greatness . they weren’t sure why or how this goal would be achieved, but they did know that it was bound to happen . this meant enrolling their daughter in singing lessons , afterschool , tutoring , ballet , girl scouts , art , any form of academic enrichment : all coming together to provide the femme with all the necessary skills and ambition to succeed in ultimately anything . so she did . of course , not everything was glitter and rainbows since mikayla quickly learned how vicious the human race could be . often , she found herself as the butt of very harsh jokes , centered around her strong opinions and early succession in school .

the backlash was ultimately too much for her to handle so quickly , especially at a young age , experiencing a mid - life crisis a quarter too early . an opinionated scholar slowly transitioned into a shy , closeted wreck , who relied on skating by and diming her light in order to survive the treacherous jungle that was high school . her once bustling schedule was practically school and back home , as far as she was concerned , losing every bit of motivation to do anything else . . before college that is . new atmosphere and actual level - headed people seemed to spark some semblance of life back into her . being around people with ambitions and crystal clear visions of their futures forced o’day to follow suit , eventually falling in love with previously devoted activities . it wasn’t all strictly books however , it was college after all ! days were spent studying and prepping for tests . . nights usually resulted in drinking , mostly forgetting about all of it the next day . what she does remember involved a dare : apply to be on the bali life . no way they could want her .

flash forward through the green screen meetings and countless camera tests , she’s in , marked official by the casting photoshoot . everything seemed to be going s  m  o  o  t  h  l  y as far as she was concerned , having experienced the normal situations that one would . love triangles , gossip , petty house drama . in all honesty , mikayla was convinced the reunion would only briefly mention her . . until the biggest bombshell of the season dropped . all is fair within these challenges , marking up her most important loss as simply that , a bad day . . until it was revealed that two of the closest people to her teamed up in order to take her down . who knew there was actually power in numbers . following the show’s release , reliving the horror only fueled the fire to come back even stronger . the need to cater to the audience no longer lingered in the back of her mind since , come on , no one is ever truly liked in these things . to say she’s ready would serve as a complete understatement , but one thing she’s fully aware of is the need to be one hundred percent herself .

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 :

𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 : their friendship wasn’t generally expected to take place considering the clear , crystal cut differences between them . . but mikayla can’t help but run to them in order to level herself out . definitely one of the reasons why she’s sane , or as sane as one could possibly be in that house . basically her comfort person . ( could totally be platonic )

𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 ( 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐞 ) : having stayed in the house before , one would think mikayla would have a slight advantage . the furthest from the truth . but her skills are easily matched by the other . . which excites her as much as it taunts her . will occasionally find herself doing anything in her power to distract them , whether it be flirting or low blows .

𝐟𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 : there’s power in numbers , that’s no secret , which is why mikayla and this person have established this relationship . if you wanna call it that . they’re very hot and cold with one another , seeking each other at their lowest or in order to get some advantage over another . it’s sick , but makes for amazing reality television . 

𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 : after last season , mikayla’s focus is primarily held in redeeming herself from mistakes made prior . however , it would be dumb to exclude herself from having options , especially when the thought of being back was incredibly daunting . cue them sneaking off , glances across the room , cuddles . anything to survive that house . 

+  also  wanted  :  [  best friends , exes , lovers to enemies , acquaintances , platonic  friendships , friends with benefits , slow-burn relationship , forbidden love , secret relationship . ]  

[wienerbarnes]

happy fic writer appreciation day!

there are so many talented and amazing writers on here! I'm going to try to get as many of favs on this list as possible along w my fav works by them, and I encourage everyone to tag their fav authors under this! love all y'all <3

THESE ARE IN NO SPECIFIC ORDER!!! literally just going down my likes and following list lmao

ALSO! I tag everything I've read with “fics” so feel free to search that on my blog for some recs too!

ANOTHER ALSO! I only read bucky fics! so that's what these are lol w a mix of oc’s and unnamed readers

@moteldwelling​ - ok honestly??? some of the BEST smut I've ever read. I think the first work of theirs I read was “let me show you” and y'all... just do yourself a favor and read thru their master list bc it is SMUT PERFECTION

@ballyhoobarnes​ - LIBRARIAN BUCKY YALL THATS ALL I GOTTA SAY! I'm such a sucker for these pairings that show so many moments between librarian boy Bucky and reader like there's cute stuff and insecure stuff and smut stuff and UGH I love it sm

@trillian-anders​ - ok the ENTIRE master list is PHENOMENAL but my fav has got to be “amor de mi vida”. like being cuban American it was so awesome to read ME not to mention 40s!Bucky ??? say less. 

@all1e23​ - if y'all have not read “astrophile”... u r MISSING OUT! you've got firefighter bucky AND dad bucky? PLUS the cutest daughter and the more heartwarming and slow burn story? amazing I love it

@nacho-bucky​ - NGL IM STILL WORKING THRU THIS MASTERLIST but I recently finished “the cupcake guy” and AH literally the most descriptive writing and I actually FEEL what buckys feeling... plus he bakes and there's cupcakes cmon

@goddamndameron​ - ok miss hannie doesn't write much bucky anymore BUT IF U LIKE STAR WARS STUFF CHECK HER OUT bc she's literally so talented and I love her sm

@wonderlandmind4​ - I think “delicate stages” was one of the first stories I read when I got into bucky like a year and half two years ago whatever and dude. TO THIS DAY I reread it every once in a while bc its SO AMAZING. gonna warn u it will TEAR YOUR HEART APART. ESPECIALLY THE SEQUEL. but still well worth it bc its AMAZING.

@wkemeup​ - ok THE SMUT is *chef’s kiss* and I'm honestly torn between all of their series’ bc they all literally PULL YOUR ASS IN and like YOURE THERE and ugh. def another one I go back and reread often nuff said

@asadmarveltrashbag​ - another one whose smut is UN FUCKING REAL like p much all of the head cannons... fucked me ALL THE WAY up

@heli0s-writes​ - ok I can't NOT talk about the “cdr” series. literally the funniest thing you'll read ever. it got humor, its got personality, its got soft moments, its got smut, its THE BEST THING EVER. I miss them but the puns live in my mind rent free for the rest of time

@ugh-supersoldiers​ - “under oath” has gotta be one of the BEST fics I've read. like it one of those stories where you assume it'll be an interesting and good plot and it literally BLOWS YOU AWAY. like the writing is so good, so descriptive, and makes you feel ALL the things ok

@wiensrsoldier​ - another smut GOD like ALL the kinks and their “tiny and beefy series” THE BEST THING I COULDVE HOPED TO EVER READ ON THIS APP (I'm a slut for size kinks - clearly.)

@shreddedparchment​ - one of the very first blogs I followed and some of the very first fics I read. the ashes to ashes universe? actually INCREDIBLE like “you're my mission” is yet another fic I reread constantly bc its SO GOOD like the story is AMAZING and so well written w all the feelings and emotions and action and ugh. actual perfection

@sgtjbuccky​ - the most AMAZING SERIES’ like “death do us part” was one of the coolest fics I've ever read the plot is so GOOD and unique and just ugh. the whole master list is fire

@redgillan​ - the ENTIRE masterlist is worth reading but “under pastel skies” owns a part of my heart bc being an artist myself I love the idea of living vicariously thru the reader and living out my dreams of living w Bucky ok I love it

@cametobuyplums​ - makes me wish I was French and also buckys sugar baby bc “artistic license” is the BEST smut story ever like it will make u horn-nee not to mention the actual PLOT lol. also most beautifully organized master list ever ?? ily fizz

@writingcroissant​ - my fav has gotta be “paper walls” bc I am the BIGGEST SUCKER for tropes like these where like he doesn't *know* his neighbor but they're able to bond and form a relationship regardless and UGH I love this story sm they are AMAZING

@tropicalcap​ - ok torn between “midnight hour” and “black lines” (also - forming this list has made me painfully aware how much smut I read LMAO) but actually I LOVE the way they write and, cmon who doesn't love bucky smut especially when it involves tacos or tattoos

@indyluckycharlie​ - still v new but I'm currently reading “tinman” and UGH it so unique I've never read a plot like this and the FEELS are amazing this story is so COOL and I have a feeling it'll be another one of my multiple reread stories lol

@samingtonwilson​ - if you like friends to lovers wait until you read “apartment 8c” bc its literally friends to lovers to exes and back to friends and roommates to possible lovers again LMAO but actually this story is so fun and I LOVE stories like this that play w common tropes and make them cool and super amazing I love

@suz-123​ - “crazy, beautiful” has both smut and veterinary!bucky like what more could someone want. I literally CAN NOT WAIT to see where this story goes its so cool and interesting and I'm OBSESSED with the readers personality and her and Bucky’s lil bonding moments ugh

@justreadingfics​ - “its a deal” has the biggest stamp of chef’s kiss literally ever its got the juiciest smut and super suave bucky and a crazy ex and the just the overall PLOT is fantastic I'm obsessed

@tinyglamdramaqueen (omg idk why I can't tag) - ok so they recently finished “alls fair in love and war” and DUDE. my jaw dropped p much every chapter like I'm begging you this is unlike any sugar baby fic ever its so AMAZING and I'm so excited to see what happens for the future of the reader and just. so so so good

holey moley. I love fics. and bucky. appreciate ur fav writers y'all.

also going to shamelessly include myself on this list bc I'm proud of the works I've written even if I'm not the most into it as some other talented writers on here

@wienerbarnes​ ME ok idk if other writers do this but do y'all ever re read your own works bc they're so good bc that's me w “cheek to cheek” like my ACTUAL favs I've never loved writing for a pair more and they be living in my head rent free ok I always be thinking of those rainbow underwear sets and mis matched socks 

PLS!!! I ENOURAGE YALL TO TAG YOUR FAV WRITERS!!! REC ME SOMETHING!!! SHOW YOUR FAVS SOME LOVEEEEEE <3