#and it’s got bibble

[ifyouknowmenoyoudontbitch]

So I watched Barbie.

Barbie (2023) was a movie that attempted to discuss the intricate and complex issues that come with womanhood.

The way they tried to do this was show the patriarchy through the lens of a matriarchy, misandry instead of misogyny

Except it didn’t.

Women in a patriarchy are oppressed by the society simply for existing, if we aren’t straight up paid less we’re taxed for simply being a woman, like having to take maternity leave, or having to buy feminine products for a body function we have zero control over.

Not to mention the societal oppression via beauty and emotional standards. Women need to be beautiful and they need to be emotionally mature to “balance” the immature men. Our lives revolve around the idea of serving men if not physically then emotionally.

In Barbie the Kens aren’t oppressed, they’re forgotten about. The Barbie’s could not give less of a shit about the Ken’s

This is an idealized world for some women. Women are in power and not made to feel like they need to apologize for taking up space, this is framed as a good thing, because it is. For the Barbies.

Meanwhile the Kens are forgotten, the movie doesn’t say or do anything about this fact.

The Kens as a collective don’t do anything until Beach Ken gets upset because Barbie keeps rejecting him.

We don’t see Ken’s feelings at all past a single line where he moodily mocks Barbie where he imagines Barbie finally saying yes to his advances and he gets to fantasize about rejecting her.

As far as a society goes this still isn’t the greatest, a whole section of the population is made to feel lesser

In a good movie we would see what happens with the Kens, maybe they’re all sleeping on the ground outside or in cars or whatever. Because then we’d understand the unfairness that the Kens feel in this world since this is supposed to be a reverse image of our world. Or at least it’s supposed to be a women oriented idealized version of our world, where men aren’t exactly oppressed but they don’t matter at all to women.

Anyway that doesnt happen but Barbie gets fucked up and has to go to the real world, Ken comes along because he’s such a desperate Manlet for Barbies attention

This is where the movie starts trying to have a message.

Barbie goes to the real world and starts getting objectified for the first time, this makes her feel bad however Ken feels great at the attention.

All the movie does with Barbies objectification is put it on a pedestal and point to it, it doesn’t say anything we just get this feeling of uncomfortableness at Barbie getting her ass slapped and cat called.

This isn’t inherently bad, putting something on a pedestal and pointing could be good, but this is a movie. It’s supposed to do something; say something, and it didn’t.

We move on from her objectification pretty quickly, it’s there and then it’s gone again never to be spoken of.

There’s One really good scene.

When Barbie is sitting on the bench she has yet to know the societal expectations of women, she’s still living in Barbieland.

So when she sees an old woman for the first time and calls her beautiful it’s a lovely poignant scene because she doesn’t know that women who are old are no longer desirable. Barbie never cared about being desired so she’s able to see this woman as she is and not as who she is “expected” to be. She’s Beautiful.

And then she goes to the school and we have the scene where Sasha calls Barbie out on “putting back feminism” because of beauty standards and what not. This is a great scene that should set up a conversation about the double standard Barbie sets for girls.

She’s Barbie, she can be a doctor, or an astronaut, or the President. But she’ll always be beautiful, she’ll always be skinny, she’ll always have perfect hair and makeup.

They did not talk about this at all.

It was framed as Sasha being a bitchy teen and we then move into Barbie meeting Mattel.

The entire Mattel plot line made so little sense, maybe it was a metaphor for something but idk so I’m just gonna move past it. All it did was give us two chase scenes back to back and introduce us better to Sasha’s mother who I don’t remember the name of.

So Barbie and Mom and Sasha go back to Barbieland cause…idk? It’s not made clear but they go back because society is so hard and when they get back to Barbieland and see that it’s now Like Society they’re devastated, as they should be, their “perfect” society is ruined.

So this is where the movie tries to talk about the patriarchy.

They don’t.

The patriarchy is the Kens being stereotypical men and the women being servants.

The movie does not discuss the implications of this, it doesn’t talk about why women needed to serve men throughout history.

Because historically women had to serve men because otherwise they’d be destitute, homeless, beaten, or killed.

Barbie does not comment on this, it just goes “this is bad” and moves on, again putting what we women already know and telling us in extremely simplistic terms.

People keep saying it’s a critique on what the patriarchy does to men, and I suppose in a very very very simple way it does. When the Kens are singing to their Barbies and the Barbies make them jealous by talking to other Kens at the same time.

Even though this isn’t really a critique on how the patriarchy makes men worse, it’s a vague critique on jealousy and relationships, it could’ve gone deeper into how the patriarchy sets a standard for men’s behavior, act like this, don’t show this emotion, look like this, but it doesn’t.

The Barbies are able to be de-programmed from the Kendom by getting tiktok ranted to by Sasha’s Mom about the double standard women go through

We weren’t shown this double standard we were told, over and over again

In an extremely anticlimactic scene the Barbies are able to take over Barbieland again, the Ken’s are right back to where they started and barely anything changed except now they like, sort of acknowledge the Ken’s deserve better than being ignored.

Once the “patriarchy” is disabled the Ken’s don’t show anger or resentment, they just miss their Barbie and want to be friends again.

Even Ken himself didn’t want to be a patriarchal leader, he just wanted Barbie to notice and acknowledge him. He makes a comical comment about “it was hard Barbie”

How Ken, how was it hard? Was it hard because the patriarchy makes men disillusioned with their emotions, making their mental health worse because they refuse to seek help due to perceived weakness?

The plot of the movie is about Barbie and her human counterpart being connected, but even after find out Barbie is connected to Sasha’s mom and not Sasha we never get any scenes about that connection

Why was Mom sad? Why was she having existential thoughts about death? Why was she worried about cellulite? We don’t get that

We don’t get any scenes with Barbie coming to terms with “being a woman” she just cries

The movie ends with her becoming human but she doesn’t do anything meaningful.

The issue is also that this is only a single niche womens experience. This doesn’t talk about PoC women, or queer women.

The issue with trying to make a movie about girl-womanhood is that not even women truly know what that means.

How do you explain womanhood? Does being a woman mean you get catcalled? Does it mean periods? Does it mean feeling unsafe to walk down the street?

Is being a woman just to live in fear?

I feel like that’s an awful definition of womanhood, but I don’t think womanhood can be defined by a single experience. Being a woman is just being a woman. What that means is up to you.

That’s the message Barbie should’ve given us but it didn’t. It played the safe card to appease Hollywood and it marketed the hell out of it to make bank.

To be so clear. I do not give a fuck if you liked this movie. Some people like stupid things cause it’s cute or campy or easy. That’s fine. Barbie is fine. But it’s not the ultra feminist movie of the century.

I think you do yourself a disservice as a woman to think that a movie needs to be about feminist to be feminist. A movie shouldn’t have to tell you it’s message, it should be able to show you. And Barbie didn’t show me anything I didn’t already know.

[trees-be-drawing]

So… I actually started drawing ISAT characters like… a year ago?? Thanks to Jello’s streams of the game, but didn’t finish them until now.

Mirabelle was the only one I finished that year, and Isabeau and Odile were halfway done and were only finalized now.

But the main reason I stopped was mostly because I wasn’t happy with the way I drew Siffrin and Bonnie so I stopped there.

This was the original sketch of them I did a year ago:

Theres also so many good moments from the game I want to draw, but I know the moment I do, it’s gonna turn into a goddamn comic strip that will take up the entire page. I also didn’t want to just redraw the expressions in the game (no matter how good they really are) cuz I actually want to capture the fun and angsty moments in the game, without spoiling too much of it.

So if anyone can put down some good moments I could draw from any act, please write them down!! Id love to try to draw them!

[prythianpages]

LOLLLL bibble playing pranks on cassian, teaming up with azs shadows

Bibble with Cas:

Bibble with Az’s shadows:

Just imagine Az’s shadows twirling with Bibble here

[dorizard-art]

Elina ✨✨

[rosasappho]

putting on clown makeup and pretending to be part of the circus…. this one is for you joey ☝️

[symerr]

this is definitely not caleb vatore he is my original character do not steal ty

[lolly-dolli]

Politically I am a hedonist and that means I think we should all work together to make the world better for everyone so we can all enjoy good food and quality bedsheets and arts and crafts and safe homes together

[swiftbell]

tag game tagged by @protectoroffaeries

rules: shuffle your 'on repeat' playlist and post the first ten tracks, then tag ten people

1. Give and Take - Poor Man's Poison

2. Follow You - Bring Me The Horizon

3. Zoltraak - Evan Call

4. Thnks fr th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy

5. Arsonist's Lullabye - Hozier

6. GODS - NewJeans

7. Tough Love (The Villain's Lair) - PattyCake

8. DiE4u - Bring Me The Horizon

9. No Mercy (feat BlackGryph0n & LittleJayneyCake) - The Living Tombstone

10. You're Mine - Carpenter Brut

tagging: @ghibllionaire, @indigoire, @dizzygradespells, @sverigesradiop3, @chloe-elizabeth-price, @doorstoplord, @ronqueballe, @glonnvalleydruid, @lilythepurple, @winking-owl

[17-todate]

🧼 links finally up!

Latest updates will be up in a few

🫧

[iwasforceedagainstmywill]

[fawnnlvr]

red velvet hair | criminal minds

summary: in which the bau is never fully prepared for the disturbing stories of one of their assistant agents who never fails to leave them absolutely speechless.

pairing: criminal minds x catvalentine!reader

word count: 1.5k

warning: this is so stupid. mentions of blood and mental illness because cat valentine. ♥︎ this is truly the stupidest thing i have ever written and willingly posted. im sorry in advance to whoever has the misfortune of coming across this.

masterlist

author's note: this is honestly for doodoos and giggles. i just like the idea of having a ditzy reader like cat valentines absolutely traumatize the already traumatize. also, i know i should be posting about my hot!diva!reader but a girl can get distracted :( also i just love victorious and i might do her helping out spencer with his addiction because cat was addicted to bibble.

The BAU wasn't really sure how you got hired as a apart of the behavioral analysis unit since they were not sure how you passed the psychological evaluation or written tests. You were what the FBI considered a special exception, just like Spencer Reid since you were extrodinary in passing the phsyical tests and using unique ways to solve problems. You also were very charming towards your instructors and Strauss. It weren't even the little things that led them to question how your mind worked, it was the things you'd say and do outright that you considered to be normal; today was one of those days that Hotch made another mental note to get you drug tested later on.

You and Penelope gathered around Spencer's desk to see the photo that Penelope had printed out. You leaned on Spencer's chair while Penelope leaned on top of the desk as you all stared in shock.

"It's remarkable. Something like this makes you questioned everything you thought you knew." Spencer stated, shaking his head at Emily's photo as you nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it's like the monolith in 2001." The computer tech commented, a teasing tone in her voice as she eyed Emily who sat not too far away.

"So there was actually a time when something like this was socially acceptable?"

Penelope sighed at Spencer's inquiry, "You and [Name] are young. 80s left a lot of people confused. This is erm... especially sad."

"Alright. Very funny guys. Very funny." Emily finally spoke out in a dry tone, snatching the paper out of Penelope's hand. "What'd you do to it?"

"Do?" Garcia hid a laugh.

"You obviously altered it in photoshop or something — that hair." Emily scoffed, as she showed the photo towards them, not believing it was ever her.

"Oh— no pussycat, that is— that's all you. Garfield High, class of '89."

Emily peered down back at the photo, a new frown appearing in her face, "You really didn't change anything?"

"I hacked it as is. You're really trying to tell me you don't remember rocking that look."

"Perhaps your lack of recognition stems from a dissociative fugue suffered from an adolescence. Say it a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert." Spencer joked which caused penelope to giggle but you were very confused.

"Who?"

"You don't know Sioxsie and the — nevermind" Emily cut herself off, sighing. It was already terrible that she graduated in the 80s and she did not need to be reminded of her age yet again.

"Well whoever they are, they must be pretty cool. I think you looked really cool in your yearbook photo, Emily." you said with such sincere and genuiness that the receiver of the compliment's heart warm.

"You think I looked cool?"

"Yeah! We could've maybe had been friends had we gone to school together. But, what happened to the coolness now?" you tilted your head. You asked the question without any hint of malicious intent, and full of genuine curiosity. You like when people dressed goth or alternative. You never were one for status quos and your entire high school was filled with people of that nature.

Spencer and Penelope stifled a laugh as Emily stared out into space, questioning where her life went wrong to have such a backhanded compliment by a girl who used to skip the number three when counting. They learned that habit was fixed during your FBI academy days.

"What are we talking about?" Morgan had joined the group, a cup of coffee in his hand. "Woah! Prentiss, that's you? Oh my that is, something!"

"What is going on?" Rossi followed behind Morgan, the same suprise is evident on his face. "Oh! That is a... lovely photo."

"You know what, what did you guys look like in high school because I am positive we all went through a phase." Emily asked, defensiveness clear in her tone.

"Well fear not because I had time this morning for another hacking of a fellow agent, Miss [Surname], and let's just say that I have never felt more jealous of a life lived than yours my dear."

"Oooo I haven't seen this picture in a while!" you squealed, excited to see how you were at one of the happiest times in your life. Penelope brought out the photo and everybody gathered around, curious as to what era of you they would see.

They always knew that you were a sort of special type of person but they had only met you in this era of your life. The you they know and love is somebody who is undeniably herself and a sweetheart who gives everybody her love unconditionally.

They never would've expected for Penelope to pull up a photo of an alternative fairy-like girl. You looked into the camera with the smile of a model in the perfect position that caught you from all the good angles. Your head perfectly tilted just a teensy bit down, your smile not quite reaching your eyes but offering a sense of lightheartedness and mischief, and your eyes captured this sort of fun youthfulness. You also wore a hot pink off the shoulder shirt with cybersigilism prints and many metal necklaces. But what caught the other agent's eyes the most was your red hair.

"Did you get your photo professionally taken?" Spencer inquired, his mouth still slightly agape.

"You barely aged! What year did you graduate?" Rossi asked, although he wasn't quite sure he wanted to hear the answer at his old age.

"Hollywood Arts, class of 2002." It had been six years since then but still at 24 years old, you barely changed in terms of style from your high school self.

"You went to an arts school?" Emily asked and you enthusiastically nodded.

"Who would've guessed I would've joined the FBI?" you laughed, reflecting on how much life had changed since then, "One time, I performed in a play as this spy who used bananas as a gun and now I get to use a real one. How crazy is that?"

"More concerning than crazy." Spencer muttered under his breath.

"What's with the red hair?" Morgan was still fixated on your dyed hair which sort of did make sense from how much you already express yourself through your clothing and personality like Penelope had.

"I had red hair for I think six years, but my hair wasn't exactly the healthiest so now it's natural, but i loved it so much." you shared with them.

"Why did you choose red?" Penelope questioned and you laughed because to you, the background behind the decision was one you could look back and find humor in.

At that moment, Hotch and JJ quickly made their way towards the bullpen area to inform the rest of the new case that had landed onto them that needed their utmost attention.

"That's actually a really fun story. In my freshmen year—" Hotch and JJ knew better than to interupt your while you are sharing a story because it could either truly be a fun story, or a disturbing one that they would later bookmark to discuss with you later. "I snuck out of my house to hang with my friends and when I tried sneaking back inside— my brother thought i was an intruder—"

The entire group could imagine where this story was going because any mention of your older brother never involved anything good nor legal, but none of them could have expected the full story. Except Doctor Reid, who quickly tied together the red hair connection to the scared brother.

"And so he took a vase and smashed it over my head. I was like knocked down for a few seconds but when I pulled myself up, I looked in the mirror and the blood had stained my hair since I had blonde highlights and I thought— wow, I look amazing with it! So later that week, I dyed it red. I also just really love red velvet cupcakes."

You innocently looked at the reactions of your fellow agents and none of them could speak. Emily opened then closed her mouth. Spencer couldn't even muster up any words for the first time in forever as you left his mouth slightly agape once again. He had predicted the story's route but even as he did, he is never prepared for you to actually say it. Sometimes he sort of hopes he is wrong, but on the off chance that he is, the story is always weirder or more disturbing than he imagined.

JJ and Penelope just locked eyes and couldn't move. Hotch blinked at you with the same stare of, 'We will call the counselor again'. Rossi learned to stop getting suprise and just offered you an encouraging smile and thankfully, he broke the silence.

"Red velvet cupcakes do look scrumptious. The red hair suited you."

You had an innocent laugh, "Right? When me and my friends performed a food song to little kids, I even dressed as a red velvet cupcakes. I had this whipped cream hat and everything."

"Um, I think Hotch and JJ have a case." Spencer stated and everybody did their best to snap out of their daze and direct their attention towards what should be more important.

"[Surname], can you please get the preparations ready for the trip." Hotch stated. You were the assistant of the group and part of your job involved getting traveling arrangements ready and helping JJ communicate with people.

"On it, sir!" You walked away without a care in the world as the rest of the agents made their way to the briefing room.

"Hotch." Morgan stated his superior's name with loud concern.

"I know Morgan."

[reubyanne]

no thought just batman humming the axolotl song to sleepy damian, and the whole batkids come curled around him.

bruce is a good singer, yes. the event when diana turned into a pig that made him have to sing on the stage to turn diana back is the proof.

now, damian, his youngest child, his love and joy, currently curled up on his chest, feeling sleepy but can't sleep yet. Bruce remembers this one song/lulaby that he accidentally hear on tiktok that barry play to make clark rest and it works. clark is sleeping peacefully while his injuries recovered.

"... there's an axolotl on a pink, stairs. is an axolotl supposed to be, there? if you asked an axolotl, if they'll be back tomorrow, a penguin waddles in and then the axolotl's gone.."

he gently pat damian's back, he can feel his son's steady heartbeat. he's falling asleep. bruce put down his tablet, leaning to the backrest. closing his eyes as he takes a rest.

"... there's an axolotl on a lawn, chair. is an axolotl supposed to be, there? if you asked an axolotl, if they'll be back tomorrow, a penguin waddles in and then the axolotl's gone.."

dick, tired from being Nightwing, come to bruce and damian, he's leaning to bruce, reminiscing his robin years. "don't mind me."

"... there's an axolotl on the front, door. is that what the welcome sign is there, for? if you ask an axolotl, if they'll be back tomorrow, a penguin waddles in and then they both sing you a song.."

Jason coming home, seeing dick and damian all rested around bruce that singing a lulaby, Jason chose to sit on the floor, rest his head to right bruce's thigh. Tim came after, he brought his laptop, looking tired as ever, seeing his siblings all curled up around the father, tim can't resist but to join them. he took the left side of bruce's thigh as he hugs the rest of bruce's leg.

cassandra comes in, seeing all the boys all getting around bruce, she took bruce's other side as he got damian to his chest. she rested her head to bruce's shoulder.

".. ribble robble, axolotl. bibble bobble penguin waddle. I'll see you.." bruce's yawning. "tomorrow.."

alfred smiled, seeing his son along with the grandkids, sleeping on the family couch. he took a pic and decided to get it printed tomorrow.

"have a nice rest, masters.." he said as he turned off the light and closed the door.

[mikachondria]

The Bats favourite barbie movies:

Dick - The Barbie Fairytopia series, entirely based on vibes. Forced each of his siblings to a marathon at least once. He's the biggest Bibble fan. One time his siblings gifted him a Bibble shower curtain and bathmat for his birthday as a joke but he uses both, because 1) he unironically loves it and 2) his siblings always get really exiting when they visit him and see, he hasn't changed them.

Jason - Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, I will not elaborate. He's also a Princess and the Popstar hater because “They tried to rip off their own movie but somehow lost all the good parts in the process. Like yeah, give us two very privileged white girls in slightly different situations and compare it to the criticism of the social class differences in a monarchy.”

Yes, he gets defensive over it.

Tim - Barbie in the Nutcracker. One time when he was little, his parents couldn't come home on Christmas eve (I'm a Janet and Jack Drake slightly neglectful but still loving parents believer, they didn't forget him, their flight was just cancelled) so he searched up Christmas movies to watch alone. When his parents got home the next day they found him asleep on the sofa and the end credit scene frozen on the TV. They take him to see the real ballet a week later and after that, Barbie and the Nutcracker becomes a comfort movie for him. He thinks it's objectively not the best Barbie movie but the nostalgia just hits him every time he watches it. (When Cass got a role in the nutcracker ballet, he was so excited. She played a rat and loved the role)

Cass - Most people would probably think it would be a ballet related movie like Nutcracker, 12 Dancing Princesses or Swan Lake but it's actually Barbie as the Island Princess. She deeply relates to Ro growing up in isolation, struggling to adjust to society and speaking a language no one else understands, though Ro's story is much more lighthearted than her own. When Ro gets reunited with her mother, Cass cries every time because it reminds her of her own adoption and finally finding her place.

Duke - Barbie and the Diamond castle, again purely the vibes. He's convinced that Alexa and Liana are gay for each other and sees the guys as inconvenient plot devices (“They rode away from the princes on a literal rainbow bridge!”).

Also sometimes uses his powers to ride away on a rainbow bridge himself, just because he thinks it's funny. This is inspired by this post from @jello-jelly-coconut

Steph - Barbie in a Mermaid Tale. Partly vibes, partly because when she was younger, she sometimes wished to have a second life, a second home too just like Merliah, with a father who loved her and her mom instead of being absent/in jail.

She knows the lyrics and dance moves to Queen of the Waves by heart.

She also loves picking the illogical things in the movie apart (“The mermaids breathe underwater so they have to have gills, but they can also breath air, that means they are some mammal-fish hybrids which would make Merliah a hybrid of a hybrid”) but defends it with her life as soon as someone else criticises it because how dare they disrespect her favourite Barbie movie?

Damian - Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus. At first he refuses to watch any Barbie movies with his siblings at all, but agrees after weeks of them asking. He wants to watch something with a dragon but Barbie and Rapunzel is not available on any streaming platform at that time and they have to buy/borrow a physical copy so he settles for the next best thing, a pegasus. He has low expectations.

Then he sees Annika trying to adopt a polar bear cub in the first few minutes of the movie and immediately likes her.

He's hooked till the end and has to admit that he liked the movie.

He still refuses to watch other Barbie movies though, this time with the reason that they wouldn't be as good as Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus anyways so it would be a waste of time.

Barbara - Technically not a movie, but Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse. She always has a tab with the youtube playlist open and will watch episodes when patrol gets boring. One time she forgot to mute herself and got teased by the other batkids but then she started streaming the episodes for them on their phones during stakeouts and they shut up because they got invested. Bruce is not aware of this.

Barbara's favourite character is the closet.

Bruce - He's doesn't have a favourite Barbie movie (it's Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses)

Unfortunately I don't know enough about Kate, Luke, etc to assign them a movie but feel free to add to the list

[sunny44]

Co-parenting (Part 3)

Pairing: Carlos Sainz x ex!reader

Warnings: medical center, cuts…

Summary: Co-parenting is never easy but y/n never thought it would be so hard.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Max and I haven't been able to go on that date yet. The first time, he had to cancel because he had to go to Milton Keynes for a meeting, and the second time, I had to cancel because Maeve and I got sick and I didn't want to go and risk getting him sick too.

But after several weeks we finally managed to schedule a day, and it would be today. Maeve is going to spend the whole weekend with Carlos, which would be great because even if he hadn't, I would keep my promise to introduce them only if it was someone I knew would stay in my life longer.

But he was late, and I was getting nervous because I had asked Carlos to pick her up at seven because Max would come to pick me up at seven-thirty. And besides not wanting Carlos to see him, obviously, I didn't want Maeve to see him either.

I heard knocks on the door and ran there to see Carlos.

"I know, I know, I'm late and I'm sorry. I had to wait for the plumber to fix a pipe that was flooding my apartment and he was late, and then I got stuck in traffic, and..."

"It's okay, just hurry up." I shouted for Maeve to come quickly and handed him the backpacks.

"Why the rush and why are you all dressed up?"

At that moment, Max parked, and I panicked. He got out of the car and was smiling until he saw Carlos and stopped smiling.

"Why is he here?" I didn't know what to say. "Are you going out with him? Is that why you wanted me to leave quickly? So that I wouldn't see you going out with Verstappen?"

"It's not because of that."

"Then why?" I didn't say anything. "Answer my fucking question."

"I didn't want Maeve to see, okay? Because I stick to our agreements, she doesn't need to know that I'm going out with someone, and neither do you."

"But why him?"

"Because he invited me and I wanted to." He laughed. "Look, I don't have to give you any explanations. Focus on taking care of our daughter and I’ll deal with my live life ok?" At that moment, she appeared.

"Sorry, I couldn't find Mr. Bibbles." She said, hugging her stuffed rabbit. "Can we go Daddy?"

"Yes baby." He picked her up, and they went to the front, and luckily Max had returned to his car when Carlos passed with Maeve in his arms.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know he would be here."

"It's okay, he was supposed to arrive earlier but got delayed. Neither you nor he were supposed to see each other.”

“You didn’t want him to know that you were going out with me?”

“Carlos and I have an agreement about relationships and I didn’t want him nor Maeve to know about it right now.”

"What kind of agreement?"

“We don't introduce anyone to Maeve without the other being aware, and not with a short amount of time in the relationship, you know? We don't want to put someone in her life just for that person to leave without explanation."

"I understand."

"Our separation was amicable but also difficult; she was small and doesn't remember, but she doesn't quite understand why her friends at school have parents together and she's the only one who doesn't."

"It's okay, you don't need to explain to me." He says kindly. "I can imagine how difficult it is to raise a child, and I also understand what it's like to be the child of divorced parents; I know you're doing the best you can for her."

"Thank you."

"Well, shall we go to our date? They say the third time's the charm." I laughed and went inside to grab my purse and my phone, locked the house and went to his car.

...

The date was great; he made me laugh a lot, and I hadn't had that much fun in a long time.

I felt light, and I felt like I could be myself without being defined only as Carlos's ex or as a mother; I could be myself again.

"Just a minute." My phone started ringing, and I saw it was Carlos. "Hello?"

"I'm sorry; I took my eyes off her for 1 minute, and..." I immediately got up.

"What happened?"

"Maeve and I are at the hospital."

"Which hospital?" I grabbed my purse and started walking towards the exit, and Max came along.

…

“What happened?"

"She was on the couch with me watching a movie and she asked me for a juice box when I went to get it, she started jumping on the couch and when I heard a loud noise, I went back, and she had fallen and hit her head on the table." He spoke quickly. "I'm really sorry; I..."

"It's okay."

"It's not; she cut her head and had to get stitches. I'm a terrible father."

"Carlos, stop." He looked at me. "These things happen; kids jump on things, they fall, and they get hurt, so stop blaming yourself."

"I was just so scared, and..." I hugged him.

"It's okay, everything will be fine." He hugged me back and relaxed. "What did the doctor say?"

"That it wasn't anything serious and that I did the right thing by bringing her as soon as possible; it could have been worse if she had fallen asleep after hitting her head."

"Okay, let's go in." He went in, and I turned to Max. "I'm sorry for ruining our night."

"You didn't ruin anything; our night was perfect."

"Except when I switched back to mom mode."

"Your daughter got hurt, and you did what any worried mother would do."

"Thank you for bringing me here too."

"You're welcome." He smiled. "I would love to go out again. If you want, of course."

"I would love to. I'll send you a message, and we'll make plans."

"Perfect." He said goodbye, and I went into the room.

"Mommy." I went to her and kissed her forehead.

"Hi, sweetheart, how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts and I'm very sleepy." She gave a little smile and blinked her eyes very slowly.

"It's okay, you can sleep again." I pulled the blanket up to cover her more, and she closed her eyes and was soon asleep, and I sat next to him on the couch there.

"How was your date?"

"We don't need to talk about that."

"I know, it was just a question."

"Let's just focus on her well-being and forget about today." He agreed, and we fell into silence.

And that's how we spent the night at the hospital until we could leave the next morning.

Bonus scene!

“What a wonderful night”

Tag list: @ietss @lightdragonrayne @asplarklysoul @xoscar03 @smdrl @shobaes @evans-dejong @cocoxoxo69 @ggaslyp1 @bingewatche @loaves4me @justdreamersdream @alinacecee

Guys, the names with a line on top is because I couldn’t tag

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Ssspace Ssstory

JK Rowling: hello children Poe: oh Joanne! Poe: I'm Poe: I Poe: I really did not expect to see you again Rowling: oh really edgar? and why wasss that? Poe: because of that whole Olympics business

Poe: you know with imane khelif Poe: all that stuff you did Poe: we just kinda thought Poe: you know we all thought Poe: and I don't just mean me i mean Barker: we all thought your lawyer told you to fuckin zip it

Rowling: well well well clive Rowling: assss you should all know by now Rowling: JK Rowling heedssss the wordsss of no goblin lawyer!

Rowling: I ssslither to the beat of my own pungi! Rowling: I'm my own dark lord! Rowling: and nobody'ssss ssssweetheart! Rowling: I'M JK FUCKIN' ROWLING!!!! Poe: so then Poe: why are you here Joanne? Rowling: i'm here becaussse i have a new ssstory

Barker: a new story? Barker: is it more terf shit? Rowling: it's in ssspace! Barker: the terfs are in space now? Rowling: i didn't sssay it was about terf ssshit Barker: you also aren't denying it Rowling: Rowling: sssss

Barker: oh a space story huh? Rowling: i call it Rowling: Commander Bibbles Blobkin and the Goofy Galactic Goobygloob Barker: Poe: Koontz: Lovecraft: King: King: well, I love it!!

Barker: i'd like to ask Ursula her opinion Rowling: we don't need to get her opinion Barker: hey Ursula what do you think of this? Rowling: we really don't need to asssk her Rowling: we already know how she feels Ursula Le Guin: it stinks Rowling: yeah well sssee what i mean?

Rowling: my firssst idea wasss Chrisstmas Pigss in Ssspace

King: what inspired you to do a space story, joanne? Rowling: well, i wassss watching ssstar trek the other day King: great show, great show Rowling: i didn't care much for it Rowling: it had the ssstink of diane duane Rowling: [flicking tongue] i can tassste her!

Rowling: but what i DID like Rowling: wasss how the crew of the ssstarship enterprissse jussst poopsss whereever they want to and then they jussst beam it out into ssspace Poe: King: Lovecraft: Koontz: Barker:

Poe: i don't think that's actually how they do it, joanne Rowling: WELL Rowling: why wouldn't they??? Rowling: i mean, they have the technology!

Rowling: you are all legally obligated to love my new ssstory! Rowling: it'sss a jolly ssspace adventure! Rowling: but maybe that'sssss too ssssophissssticated for you lot here at the midnight ssssociety Rowling: maybe i would find a more receptive audience Rowling: at SSSSPACE COVEN!

Barker: so she went over to Space Coven? Barker: yeah that's gonna be weird Barker: i don't know how her terf shit will go over with them Poe: yes, sci fi writers are generally very progressive on that issue Barker: no i mean cuz they're all chasers Poe:

Barker: what? you're acting like you all didn't know this Barker: everyone knows sci fi writers are all chasers Poe: clive you're just saying things now King: yeah c'mon, surely not ALL of them King: i mean, what about Robert Heinlein? Barker: you're seriously asking?

Poe: clive do you know something or are you just making stuff up now? Barker: i'm just saying he's got a vibe Barker: tell me he doesn't

[punkitt-is-here]

hi my name is bibble, a couple days ago i was at antony's house and i was like haha who drew this horse on your friend whiteboard? it looks like someone i've been following for ages? do you know who punkitt is? and he was like yeah punkitt drew that and i felt like i got slapped with a fish LOL. the furry fandom is so small it's awesome. hiiii

LMFAOOOOOOO HIIIII antony rocks love that dude