#and now it kinda bitterly funny? if that makes sense

[summerlycoris]

Why am I seeing this post now?

[pesterloglog]

Dave Strider, Dirk Strider

Act 6, page 7748-7756

DAVE: ok actually maybe i will get into it

DAVE: i dunno why my friends got to have adults around who cared about them

DAVE: they complained bitterly about stuff so i guess i convinced myself they were all in the same boat as me

DAVE: but thats not how it was

DAVE: their complaints were trumped up nonsense and i bought it cause... i dunno

DAVE: i didnt have any frame of reference

DAVE: but his dad and her mom no matter what they said it was so obvious they cared about them deeply

DAVE: even jades weird fuckin grandpa who died when she was young obviously would have done anything for her

DAVE: why did i get such a raw cut of the asshole deck

DAVE: and why did it take me so long to figure that out

DAVE: and like hes dead now so thats that

DAVE: so all thats left to do is look back and try to put the pieces together of my first 13 years

DAVE: and all i can think is what the fuck WAS that?!

DAVE: i dont come away with the impression i used to try convincing myself of, that he was like "mysterious" or "stern" or "aloof"

DAVE: the only feeling left is this insane impression that i was raised by somebody who fuckin HATED me

DAVE: and the whole act of even "raising a child" was some totally fucked up game to him

DAVE: like parenthood was one of the highest tiers of irony in his solemn bullshit bro-ninja code

DAVE: so he went through those motions and did whatever he thought was "funny" or "badass"

DAVE: but under that weird stylistic and totally sociopathic approach to parenting i cant even IMAGINE there was any emotion toward me other than some sort of loathing

DIRK: What...

DIRK: Did he do?

DAVE: i dont want to get out the laundry list

DAVE: but for reference laundry wasnt one of those things

DAVE: that was just one of the many little domestic things i just had to sort of FIGURE OUT

DAVE: sorta like i eventually had to learn what the REAL purpose of a refridgerator was from movies

DIRK: Wait.

DIRK: What??

DAVE: i dunno theres too much to even get into

DAVE: just

DAVE: i dont remember the atmosphere ever not being nerve wracking

DAVE: all havin to sneak around and...

DAVE: ugh my shitty childhood spider senses are tinglin just thinking about it

DAVE: it was "training" you know

DAVE: but you know what it really was it was some vicious shit that was bad and sucked and i hated it

DAVE: it didnt make me stronger

DAVE: it did the opposite

DAVE: it made me never want to fight

DAVE: it made me never want to see blood or be near danger or hear metal sounds

DAVE: it made me hate the idea of being a hero cause he was a hero and he ruined the idea of heroism

DAVE: i dont even want to be fighting this shitty version of jack but hey nobody else has secret welsh powers so i guess i have to

DIRK: ...

DAVE: what gets me is how long it took me to put all this together

DAVE: to stop seeing it as some kinda roughhousey and eccentric life i had but was otherwise normal

DAVE: it took years to deconstruct it all and put it back together to understand how fuckin mad i should be

DAVE: and in particular how stone cold deeply uncared for i was my whole life

DAVE: like... being merely "monitored" by a violent robot

DAVE: i only started getting it after spending a lot of time in person with a bunch of people who actually did care about me

DAVE: and i could start feeling like

DAVE: actually somewhat human for the first time

DAVE: instead of...

DAVE: some sort of runty afterthought to a household cabal of smutty puppets

DIRK: ... Puppets?

DAVE: the fuckin puppets!!!

DAVE: i know how it sounds but i am NOT joking and there is NO shred of doubt in my mind that he loved all those puppets more than me

DAVE: honestly it is very possible that he was just insane and thats that

DAVE: i guess it didnt help either that we lived with what we have come to understand may theoretically be the most evil doll to exist in any universe ever

DAVE: in fact its my tenuous understanding that he came down to earth with that thing and like actually grew up with it

DAVE: maybe...

DAVE: maybe spending 30 some years being unseparable from that hell puppet had some effect on him??

DAVE: maybe if it hadnt been casting a pall over our apartment 24/7 since he took me in...

DAVE: grinning...

DAVE: glaring...

DAVE: laughing in my sleep...

DAVE: maybe our lives wouldnt have been quite so...

DAVE: maybe we would have...

DAVE: ugh

DIRK: What?

DIRK: You ok there?

DAVE: .....

DAVE: .....

DAVE: yeah

DIRK: That doll.

DIRK: That was Cal, right?

DAVE: yeah

DIRK: Right.

DIRK: My version is "empty", apparently.

DIRK: Whatever that means.

DAVE: huh

DAVE: how do you know that

DIRK: A source.

DIRK: One supposedly knowledgeable in jujus.

DIRK: I never quite knew what that meant, though.

DAVE: well

DAVE: whatever his was

DAVE: "empty" is never how i would have described it

DIRK: Hmm.

DAVE: man

DAVE: i dunno if i figured something out here

DAVE: like um "explained" something or

DAVE: if im just driving myself crazy with this talk and nothing even needs explaining

DAVE: it doesnt change my past or how i feel about him

DAVE: he was still pretty much awful no matter what the reason

DAVE: and im sure thats the only feeling ill ever have about him

DAVE: so who cares why it was like that

DIRK: Yeah...

DIRK: That...

DIRK: All sounds really bad.

DIRK: I don't know what to say though.

DIRK: Maybe I shouldn't say anything.

DIRK: Since I just remind you so much of him, for, uh. Obvious reasons.

DIRK: I don't want to make you feel worse, or make it sound like I'm offering a defense.

DIRK: For him, or me.

DIRK: Because I don't have one.

DIRK: For either of us.

DAVE: come on man

DAVE: YOU didnt do anything

DAVE: this was just some douche bag with your exact dna, who happened to grow up to be my bro

DAVE: you had a completely different life full of like

DAVE: different choices and actions and stuff

DAVE: and even if you were gonna turn out like him youve barely cleared the half way mark on actually chronologically gettin there

DAVE: in some way ranting about all this is probably just uncool of me because...

DAVE: you arent him

DAVE: youre not resposible for any of this shit but im sorta implicitly tacking it on you anyway

DAVE: so

DAVE: sorry about that

DIRK: I'm not sure it's true though.

DIRK: At least, I don't feel that way.

DAVE: what way

DIRK: That I'm not him.

DIRK: The fact is, I am.

DIRK: It's something I've come to understand about myself.

DIRK: All splinters of me are basically me, no matter how much I want to resist that truth.

DIRK: Or pretend they aren't reflecting my own qualities back at me.

DIRK: I bear a certain responsibility for all of them.

DAVE: splinters...?

DIRK: Yeah.

DIRK: I guess the concept isn't that unique to me.

DIRK: We've all got other versions of ourselves running around here and there, throughout the various compartments of this messed up cosmos.

DAVE: right

DIRK: I just happen to be particularly connected to mine.

DIRK: I've felt...

DIRK: Haunted by them.

DIRK: And what that really means is, I'm perpetually haunted by my own bad qualities.

DIRK: So, when I hear about stuff I did in another reality,

DIRK: I'm not sure what my adult self might have ever tried to do to atone for that stuff, if anything...

DAVE: pretty much dick squat

DIRK: Yeah. But in any case,

DIRK: I'm sure I was completely in the wrong, and I'm sorry I messed up your life.

DAVE: ...

DAVE: thanks

DAVE: but

DAVE: it still feels a little odd accepting an apology from somebody who i just met and technically had nothing to do with my life

DAVE: even if you do feel guilty splinterways or whatever

DAVE: it is just a messed up situation

DAVE: and i guess i had to vent

DAVE: and there was never anyone i wanted to say all that to

DAVE: and the only thing that was gonna drag it out of me i guess was like a teen stand-in phantom of my dead bro

DAVE: just some perfectly innocent dude havin to take the brunt of this shit

DIRK: I'm not particularly innocent though.

DIRK: I've messed a lot of things up.

DIRK: With my friends.

DIRK: Honestly, that's why I wasn't that bent on sticking around, when I showed up.

DIRK: And pretty much jumped at the offer of flying here to get ready for some yet to be explained battle.

DIRK: Battles are easy. Just you, a sword, some bad guys... it's a lot simpler than having to answer for things you did.

DIRK: For the most part, I feel pretty bad about the role I played in my friends' lives.

DIRK: Especially Jake.

DAVE: what happened there

DIRK: I don't even know.

DIRK: An unmitigated disaster for which I'm entirely to blame.

DIRK: It's not any one thing. I think I was just a completely toxic element in his life from day one.

DIRK: I don't know what he's doing now.

DIRK: I wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to avoid me as much as possible.

DIRK: I'm sure that's for the best.

DIRK: I think I need to stay out of his business for a good while, so I don't risk poisoning another innocent kid's life.

DIRK: Like I did with you, apparently.

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: i mean

DAVE: maybe its a little different cause relations between peers is a whole other thing

DAVE: its tricky shit and youre both figuring stuff out on a relatively equal footing and youre both at the same point in your lives

DAVE: its not like when one person is older and supposed to be a lot more...

DAVE: never mind this is a fucked up thing to think about

DAVE: but the bottom line is yeah laying low while you sort out your stuff cant hurt

DIRK: Right.

DIRK: The thing with that, with my adult self's...

DIRK: Ways.

DIRK: The sad thing is,

DIRK: I can really see it.

DIRK: How someone like me can go unchecked in life, and turn out to become a much worse person than I already am.

DIRK: I guess I'm just relieved I still have some time to make sure that doesn't happen.

DAVE: you dont actually seem like a bad person to me though

DIRK: No?

DAVE: nah

DIRK: Why not?

DIRK: We did just meet, after all.

DAVE: because

DAVE: i dunno if truly bad people wrestle so much with whether theyre good or bad

DAVE: i think if i ever sensed my bro like

DAVE: struggled at all with what he was doing or who he was

DAVE: or showed any sort of doubt

DAVE: that might have changed everything

DAVE: but there was never a crack in it

DAVE: or the slightest hint of introspection behind the aggressive cooldude facade

DAVE: if there was i sure never noticed

DAVE: i mean personally

DAVE: i think about it all the time now

DAVE: what it actually means to be good or bad

DAVE: or if not something that starkly moral

DAVE: at least just trying to examine the difference between being decent and being a douche

DAVE: maybe its because of him i worry about that now

DAVE: but for me i think that internal struggle is kind of mild

DAVE: for him...

DAVE: or you i mean

DAVE: it sounds like some pretty dark shit

DAVE: like grappling with...

DAVE: becoming evil vs simply trying not to

DIRK: Yeah.

DIRK: That's not too far off.

DAVE: but the point is

DAVE: even just talkin to you a little bit

DAVE: its obvious youve been fighting with that

DAVE: which means that you care enough to put in some effort

DAVE: i think that counts for something

DIRK: Maybe.

DIRK: Not sure if I'm ready to accept a pat on the back for recognizing I have some problems, and worrying about whether they'll destroy me and fuck up the people I care about.

DIRK: That might be setting the bar kind of low.

DAVE: well when it comes to the subject of him

DAVE: the bars already pretty low dude

DIRK: The weird thing, honestly,

DIRK: Is that it's actually kind of refeshing to hear a sincerely leveled critique of all my negative qualities, coming from another person invested in a relationship with me, rather than from a fucked up iteration of myself as some bizarre "trollish" form of self abuse.

DIRK: The only thing I've ever been exposed to are either various forms of self loathing either from me or my auto-responder, or attitudes completely oblivious to my real issues, as expressed through my friends.

DIRK: My friends always seemed to cut me so much slack, or were just never aware of the kind of person I really was.

DIRK: Well, Jake probably is, by now at least.

DIRK: But he's also the sort of guy who's just as likely to blame himself for stuff I did, as he is to blame me.

DIRK: Jane and Roxy, though.

DIRK: Never seemed to see anything wrong with me.

DIRK: If anything, just the contrary.

DIRK: Roxy in particular had a certain... fixation.

DIRK: She meant well, but was so enamored of me, and seemingly everything I did.

DIRK: Which I think was the last thing I needed.

DIRK: To be idolized in some form by other people I respected.

DIRK: I had enough of that feeling coming from within, particularly when I was younger.

DIRK: And since then, I've been plagued by the insane ego of my youth in the form of an artificial intelligence I designed which essentially trapped that state of mind in a sort of horrid suspended animation.

DIRK: Until... recent developments, of course.

DAVE: so

DAVE: was that stuff true

DAVE: when you said you idolized the other version of me

DIRK: Yeah.

DAVE: and not just some bullshit like how i used to say the same thing about my bro when i didnt know any better

DIRK: It's definitely not like that.

DIRK: I never lived with him, or met him, so couldn't have anything like the contentious relationship you had with my older self.

DIRK: He was a historical figure from centuries ago.

DIRK: There was a lot to admire, and think about fondly.

DIRK: Especially since I was alone, and never had any direct contact with another person, or any concept of civilization.

DIRK: So even though I'm sure I romanticized what his life was like, and the early 21st century in general,

DIRK: It was nice to think about you.

DIRK: I passed a lot of time that way.

DAVE: you say there was a lot to admire

DAVE: like what

DIRK: Well...

DIRK: He was pretty famous.

DIRK: Made some successful movies.

DIRK: At least under a somewhat expansive definition of "success".

DIRK: And an even more expansive definition of "movie".

DIRK: His work accumulated a lot of subversive political influence, which got him in trouble later.

DIRK: He made like a million bullshit Statues of Liberty, scummed them up with jpeg artifacts, and littered them all over the planet.

DAVE: holy shit

DIRK: He was also a pretty badass swordsman, and an active member of the resistance movement.

DIRK: He slaughtered the clown presidents on the roof of the White House, and flew away on a shitty skateboard.

DIRK: Then it seems he gave the Batterwitch a pretty good run for her money.

DIRK: It wasn't enough, but at least he went down fighting.

DAVE: that

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: ima need to hear more details on this some time

DIRK: Sure.

DIRK: But as you can tell, clearly there was a lot to look up to.

DIRK: I thought about the examples you set constantly. The creative ideals, the advanced theories on irony and humor, the tales of courage and martial prowess.

DIRK: Really, I modeled everything about myself after you. Or at least everything good that I was trying to become.

DIRK: And I probably spent an embarrassing amount of time imagining what it would be like to live during his time, and to be able to have something resembling a sibling relationship, or be in some sort of master-apprentice situation.

DIRK: When I finally learned you existed, and started to understand who he really was in relation to me, that put a lot into context.

DIRK: I realized he was a version of you who got a chance to live up to his full potential.

DIRK: And when I understood there was a young version of you, in a situation sorta like mine, whose time on Earth got cut short when you were thrown into all this,

DIRK: I was at least happy to think there was some reality where you got the chance to do everything you wanted to do, be successful, and fight for all the right things.

DIRK: Even if ultimately it didn't lead to a great outcome for humanity, you had an opportunity to live a full life and show what you were made of.

DIRK: While I guess I had... the same opportunity on your world, somewhat less fortunately.

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: but then for all my bitching i guess i still never grasped your full reality

DAVE: just like you probably didnt grasp mine, but just reading into the mindset of a historical figure as best you could

DAVE: what if i wasnt as heroic as it seemed?

DAVE: what if adult me was kinda douchey too in a way you couldnt observe

DIRK: Perhaps.

DIRK: But beyond a certain point, I think accomplishments speak for themselves.

DIRK: I dunno if you can just completely shred every person who ever did great things because they had some flaws.

DIRK: All I can say is, it was important to me to see him the way I did.

DIRK: As a good person who inspired me, and set the standard for what I wanted to be.

DIRK: It kept me going.

DIRK: That said, I'm also glad there's this version of you who got to go through all the things you've been through.

DIRK: Like, yeah, you didn't get to be the cool celebrity who cuts down juggalos on badly defaced government property.

DIRK: And the idea of a "normal life" was rudely taken from you, and it's something you'll never get to experience.

DIRK: But this is so much more challenging, and uncertain.

DIRK: You get to apply all that potential you showed in one reality to something much bigger and more existentially critical.

DIRK: Whatever strength you showed in trying to save a dying planet, the fact is, I think we need that more here.

DIRK: And the trials inherent in being a part of something like this, I think they bring more out of you than a relatively pedestrian life on Earth would. Make you face more things about yourself. At least, that's been true for me.

DIRK: But it sounds like it's been true for you too.

DIRK: It sounds to me like the experiences you've had changed you a lot, for the better.

DIRK: You mentioned the experiences with him that were designed to make you stronger have actually made you weaker, but really, I doubt that's true.

DIRK: I bet you've become stronger than you realize, not because of anything he did, but because of what you've done, and the ways you've changed yourself through your own effort.

DIRK: I hope it doesn't come off as overly sentimental garbage, but it seems to me like you turned out to be a really good dude.

DIRK: Like, really, a better sort of dude I ever imagined talking to when I pictured meeting the legendary guy I idolized.

DIRK: I pictured him as probably being "too cool" to be the type of guy you are.

DIRK: But you know what, fuck being too cool for that.

DAVE: ...

DAVE: you

DAVE: ...

DAVE: ...

DAVE: ...

DAVE: you dont think im cool?

DIRK: Nah.

DIRK: I mean, in the right way, yes. I think you are.

DIRK: But, in the way that doesn't mean anything and doesn't matter,

DIRK: Not particularly.

DAVE: ...

DIRK: Anyway, that's...

DIRK: All my "stuff", with respect to your other self.

DIRK: Again, there's a lot more I could say about him.

DIRK: Maybe stuff you should know, or maybe it's all irrelevant to the path you're on now.

DIRK: Regardless, I'd be more than willing to answer any questions you have about him.

DIRK: Or, anything really.

DIRK: Feel free to ask me whatever, ok?

DAVE: ...

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: i

DAVE: ill have to think

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

ooh can i ask what story the girl turning into the spider is from? it sounds sweet!

oh uh... it's sweet in the sense that, even though pretty much everything goes wrong, some things still go right?

Tavra (spider girl) is a very stoic, somewhat blunt and socially awkward, generally grim, only ever laughs bitterly but will gently stroke your cheek and remind you to keep moving forward main supporting character in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance YA books written by J.M. Lee. (mostly in the third one, tides of the dark crystal) (SPOILERS) She's... kinda like the older sister figure / adopted mom / eventual one half of fav OTP to the three point of view characters? Her whole thing is being ready to sacrifice herself and her happiness for the sake of saving people, enduring pain without flinching even while telling others to be careful, repeatedly almost dying and smiling about it....

....except that she really, really, REALLY wants to see her girlfriend again, too. Especially after kinda sorta dying and getting spider-ed.

Her uncharacteristic rashness and nervousness when showing herself to Onica- and Onica's zero hesitation to reach out to the small spider that sounds like Tavra- is the first clue these two are A Thing.

They've been a thing for a loooong while. A forbidden secret romance kinda thing.

Onica turns out to be outwardly the sun to Tavra's cloudy day, except she's actually still VERY angry at Mayrin (Tavra's mother) for being a jerk, and VERY bitter over how Mayrin treated Tavra over their relationship- and while Tavra tries making excuses for her mom the best she can come up with in the end is a damningly faint "that was a long time ago". Which. Well.

Anyway, up till now Tavra has always taken on the role the Experienced And Steady Advisor and Guardian to her new younger friends, but once she's back on Onica's ship (Onica is a single crew sailing ship captain able to dream of things happening far away have i mentioned that?) Tavra starts finally relaxing enough to show some of the stresses she's been under lately, even going off and 'mope' when her attempt at teaching one young friend how not to get killed with a sword goes badly.

(moping is described as Tavra "just being Tavra") (her kinda new little sister is the one saying this) (Tavra can be recognized in any form by her dower frown) (especially funny when Onica is constantly described as laughing and chuckling and wearing a mysterious smile)

So blah blah blah, Onica is a the good kind of terrifying and almost dies, Tavra saves her via the power of gay flashbacks with the help of their new number 1 shipper-

Then Onica's bestie, who is in huge awe of Tavra, tries to push a traumatized depressed disabled woman in the body of a spider into leading all their people in revolution bc she'd be ideal for it- and Onica very pointed says that you can't help others if you don't take time to help yourself before going off to presumably snuggle her sad spider gf.

The two are last seen in the books as Tavra's sorta adopted teen son Kylan-

(who turned her into a spider to save while committing murder despite generally being a pacific presumably bc of the trauma of watch his birth parents get snatched away by murders as a child)

-decides to look at some runes, and Tavra says she and Onica will stay with him.

So. Tavra never gets her old body back, and her mom is murdered, and part of her soul is drained and eaten, and her sisters probably think she's dead- but she also does not die. By the end of the story she is happy with the family she has found, and finally fulfilling her and Onica's promise to someday live their lives as one.

Oh did i mention there's a parallel between her and Onica's secret forbidden romance and the more tragic example that kicks of the whole story?

Did i mention Onica calls Tavra "my love"?

And Tavra was a swordswoman before becoming a spider?

I don't know if you wanted or needed all this info and I don't care, there will never be enough stuff about these two written but by gods i will take ever chance to scream about them

And that's how my arachnophobia was cured!!!

[carmen-fics-for-thee]

Series: A Date With Devineaux Part 1

The Deal - Grey x Tigress, Carmen x Chase

Summary: Grey knew about her feelings for a while. But if Tigress wanted to date him, she needed to be nice to Carmen. Easy peasy, right? (Genuinely think these two have good chemistry and want to explore the vibe they have. ...But will it work? Can a good boy tame an evil heart, or will disaster strike?)

...

She saw it when it was time to nab the stamp. That look in Carmen's eyes as she threatened the detective with her claws. Ooh, could this possibly be a crush...? Carmen didn't usually look so distressed when other innocent lives were at stake. Laughing, she'd decided to just steal the stamp in her own signature way. The way Carmen freaked out was just so... cute.

But the way Grey freaked out on her afterwards? Not so cute.

Months after he was de-brainwashed, she'd told him about how funny Carmen was.

"That girl is so kidding herself if she thinks that guy would ever fall for her!"

Grey glared at her.

"Dude, it's a crush. It doesn't have to make sense!"

Tigress chuckled.

"Still protecting Carmen? Come on. She stabbed us in the back. Why should we feel bad for her?"

He looked down and sighed.

"She was trying to do the right thing. She didn't know how ruthless they'd made us."

"Ughh! Why do you care so much anyway?"

Mm. A bad attitude. Grey knew how to fix that.

Reaching out, he held her hand. She didn't pull away.

"Tigress. She's like a sister to me. I saw someone who needed help and I helped her. Don't you have someone like that?"

She looked at him pitiably. There was a long silence.

"Oh."

Scoffing, she looked away bitterly. Hesitating for a moment, he took his hand and put it on her cheek, turning her face to look at him.

"Hey... It's okay. I can be there for you now."

She laughed. And she didn't know why. It was half-happy, half-insane.

"Grey, please. We all know how this is going to go. You'll be there for me now, but when Carmen comes along, all eyes will be on her. Only her..."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Hey, I promise to stay with you. You're the one I want, and even though I'm protective of her, I won't let that ruin us! I love you."

The words were out faster than he thought they would be. Tigress looked at him with a sad smile.

"I love you too."

They kissed, and no more words were said.

...

Tigress encountered Carmen while civillian shopping for clothes. Carmen was immediately suspicious, but she shrugged.

"Not everything I do has to be crime." She said nonchalantly. "Sometimes I want to get stuff legally; it's easier to relax."

"Then what are you doing here?! The mall that just got a showpiece of Britain's oldest crown jewels? Why not a different, smaller mall?"

Her eyebrow raised. It was tempting, yes...

She shrugged.

"I didn't even know that was here."

"Right."

"Honest! I didn't even know you'd be here. Nice getup, by the way. 2010 was a decade ago."

Carmen scoffed.

"Really? It's newer than whatever you're wearing."

Tigress laughed.

"Ooooo, looks like the Black Sheep can fight back~"

There was a ruckus down below. Extra security had been brought to the exhibit just in case V.I.L.E. tried anything. Among them was Chase Devineaux. Carmen gasped. If he was here, he could be harmed!

Also spotting him, Tigress looked smugly at her nails.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to scare you with another pickpocket."

Grey's voice in her head told her to be nice, but this was just too delicious to pass up!

Carmen scoffed.

"He doesn't even have anything valuable this time."

Pausing for a second, Tigress spoke what she felt was true.

"Only your heart."

"What?!"

Her eyes had widened in that same way as on the docks. Oh yes. Delightful.

"Don't worry. I won't tell him... In fact, I think you'd make a cute couple."

Carmen felt all the feelings inside her swirl around. She needed to sit down. She felt sick. Shaking her head, she looked away.

"I-I can't. He'd arrest me..."

Tigress tipped her head.

"What if he doesn't, though? Hm. Doesn't though. Kinda rhymes with Devineaux..."

Carmen thought for a while, her eyes still on the floor. Since she wasn't saying anything, Tigress decided to elaborate.

"...I know a guy. Real good disguises. Hey. Maybe we can dress you up for a date with him."

Looking up, there seemed to be a spark of hope in her eyes.

Smiling, Tigress patted Carmen on the back.

"Come on, I can take you to his shop."

She hesitated.

"W-why are you being so nice to me?"

Tigress shrugged.

"Grey's orders."

"Oh."

Carmen smiled.

"How is he, by the way?"

"Yeah, he's doing great! Really happy ever since we started going out!"

"Nice. Congrats."

She raised her hand slowly to shake Tigress'. Tigress was quick though, and shook her hand fast.

"Thanks. And you know, I think this could be a good thing for you. Haven't seen you all goo-goo eyed in a while." She joked. Carmen laughed.

It truly did seem like Tigress was trying to be kinder for Grey's benefit, and she appreciated that.

...

Back at headquarters, Tigress chuckled to herself. This was just perfect.

"Great plan, Walt!" She purred. "In the middle of the date, the disguise slips off, Inspector Devineaux realizes Carmen tricked him and arrests her, Carmen's heart shatters, and Grey is all ours!!"

"Are you sure that will work, ma'am?"

She snapped back.

"Of course I'm sure! Now, watch the magic happen."

Tigress' laughing voice echoed throughout the room, a sense of doom wafting in the air.

(End Part 1)

[bluejayblueskies]

helllooo i keep seeing your pfp and thinking that you are shen bluechair comic and thats kinda funny to meeee

also i really love seen unseen unsung! no pressure to say anything about it i just wanted to say i like it :3

thank you!!! it's actually really wonderful to hear that people do still enjoy that fic, even though it's been on hiatus for a long while now. part of me still wants to come back and finish it (and i actually revamped the outline for it back in 2021 and trimmed it down to 19 chapters), but i'm not entirely sure when that would be, so i may also just post the rest of the outline so that at least plot-wise, the fic is complete.

but! i actually do have a small chunk of chapter eleven that i've had written for ... god, ages now. it's too short to post as an isolated chapter (and it also leaves off right in the middle of a conversation), but i've dropped it below the readmore if you're interested! thank you so much for the lovely message 💕

April 25, 2018

When Tim was ten years old, he was obsessed with optical illusions. One of his classmates in primary school had shown him a book with pictures that looked like they were moving, with lines that looked bent but were straight, with images that resolved out of noise if you unfocused your eyes long enough. And Tim loved all of them. He was a bit too young to understand the scientific reasoning for why his brain interpreted the images on the page the way that it did, but the idea that something so similar to magic existed just at his fingertips entranced him for months. He would sit and stare at pages of images until a headache built behind his eyes, and he would show Danny dozens of Rorschach inkblots to see what he saw in them.

Thinking back on it, Tim thinks it was probably the idea of the existence of unreality within reality that had really struck him. The idea that what you see might be just an interpretation of the truth and that everything perceived by the eye is interpreted by the brain in such a way that it makes sense, whether or not that way is the truth. If our perception can be so easily altered by a few lines or a mismatched color, then how can we truly be sure that what we’re seeing is real at any given time? How can we know that we are perceiving the world as it is? Perhaps there’s an entire reality that we can’t see, or that we choose not to see, because it doesn’t make sense and so our brains choose to substitute in something else that does make sense.

Or maybe he’d just liked the pretty pictures.

Either way, that’s how Tim feels right now, sitting next to Danny and Sasha on his couch with reality and unreality, dead and alive flickering through his mind and turning his faint lingering headache into a fully-formed, dull ache. The thing is, though, optical illusions go away. You figure out the trick, you read the explanation written next to it on the page, and that’s it. No more illusion.

There’s no simple explanation for this, Tim thinks bitterly. No trick. Nothing that will take the illusion away, because there is no illusion—there’s Danny and Sasha and they’re dead, and that’s it.

That’s it.

“Huh,” Danny says, breaking the silence with a suddenness that sends Tim’s heart jumping into his throat. “Guess I was right when I said that the whole ‘you’re a ghost’ thing made sense. Didn’t realize there were two of us, though.” A small grin spreads across his face. “D’you think we should start a club or something? ‘Support Group for the Not-So-Recently Deceased.’”

It’s only because Tim’s tired, and because of the headache pounding away behind his eyes, that he says sharply, “This isn’t a fucking joke, Danny.”

The smile slips from Danny’s lips like a cheap mask, and he looks away. “I know. But what do you want from me, Tim? A nervous breakdown? You know I’ve never been one for dwelling on negative emotions.”

“Just—” Tim cuts off, takes a few moments to breathe, and continues, in a more controlled tone, “Just, for once, Danny, just a bit of seriousness. This isn’t something that goes away if you ignore it.”

Quietly, Danny says, “Okay.” Then, after a moment, he adds, “So, what do I do then? Should I move back in?”

Tim lets out a small, strangled laugh. “Move back in from where, Danny? Where do you live right now? Hell, where do you work? What do you eat? What do you do when I’m not around?”

Danny opens his mouth—probably to fire off an automatic protest—but he hesitates. There’s a long pause, and Tim can see the distance in Danny’s eyes, the way he’s searching and searching for answers that aren’t there, the way that his mouth slowly closes and his face slackens as he hits wall after wall after wall in a life that’s only half-formed. He looks at Tim, and for the briefest of moments, Tim can see in his eyes the Danny from his dreams and can feel the faintest taste of sickeningly sweet fear on the back of his tongue.

“Don’t,” Tim says quickly, too quickly; it snaps Danny out of whatever he’d been seeing, and when he blinks, his eyes are just eyes and the thread is still intact and the sugar-sweet fear is gone. Tim tightens his grip on the thread all the same and ignores the way it burns. “Don’t think about it. I… I can catch you, but if you think about it, then you’ll know, and believe me, you don’t want to.”

Danny’s voice comes out slightly cracked when he says, “Know what? Tim, I already know how I died. You told me how I died.” His mouth twitches, for a moment, into something darker, something close to terror. “From your dreams,” he says, barely more than a whisper.

“It’s not the same,” Tim says firmly, memories of Sasha slicing through him once more with sharp, serrated blades. “Believe me, it’s… it’s not.” “Okay,” Sasha says, cutting into the conversation and leaning forward on the couch with her elbows on her knees. “So what do we do now? We’re both dead, but at least for now, it doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere.”

[scramble-crossing]

your oc is so fucking cool! divorced to minaman i'm guessing? i LOVE the noise form, that'sso clever! the idea of having a tiny lizzer that he has to hide in a big illusion, that's such a clever + fun idea. also, gecko is a cute asf noise form. the fighting using sigils is SO cool btw, i've done a lot with the idea of sigils myself but the whole concept of tearing out pages to fight is awesome. i love her flaws a lot too btw, most people end up not having ocs with enough flaws

also based as fuck being a union leader. the R.E.A.P.E.R. acronym made me laugh out loud, but man, unions are so underrated. good for them!

i would read stuff about him. also her design is cute! i love the implication that they were strangled to death (?) or are those just tattoos/? i wish that the twewy designs had implication sof how they died somehwere on them

do you actually want a lore dump about my oc? i will gladly give it if you want it, just meant that i don't want to sit here going "and now i will infodump about a topic that isn't actually wanted" (no harm if you don't want to btw) otherwise i will send another ask with the oc info! not gonna lie i don't do much with my ocs but i basically turned several canonical characters into ocs with how much i expanded on them lol. but i do have an oc that i can tell you about :)! i just spend more time expanding on the canon characters LOL

Aw jeez ;-; you're too kind!!

Um. Yeah. Minaman divorce 😔 Long story short, they're childhood friends who had a difficult falling out at the end of high school and reunited in the Reaper's Game. Sho is just as vicious and self-centered as he is in canon, and Fable's swept along in his undertow, blaming himself for Sho's actions and feeling a sense of responsibility, as his oldest friend, to put a stop to him. Sho takes this "betrayal" bitterly. He doesn't understand why Fable can't trust him to make things right again, once he's Composer, and everything that's wrong, he can fix. He just needs her to stay out of his way. He will make her if he has to.

I totally agree with you that'd it be cool if twewy designs implied how some characters died! But actually, Fable received their neck scars after they died :)))

Anyways I'm really glad you like the Noise form and the sigil fighting!! The Noise form is kinda close to Megumi's but I'm attached to itty bitty lizard...everyone else got these cool big cat forms and even Higashizawa's sheep Noise form is intimidating, then you've got this little gecko thing that can fit in the palm of your hand. Made to be held gently. Like hotdog.

And yeah I don't think anyone in the Reaper's Game is a very uh. Functioning individual (except maybe Kariya idk) so it's fun to come up with a character's fatal flaws! Fable is a self-depricating doormat who blames themself for things far beyond their control and clings to strict rules of reason to make sense of an unreasonable world and it pairs really well (or really poorly depending on how you see it) with Mina's unpredictable, domineering personally, especially in NEO once they've grown a bit and Mina has to deal with someone who, even in their best of days, really enabled him and let him get away with anything finally put their foot down and tell him to stop being such an insufferable jackass. Wrangling Support Reapers for three years will do that to a person. They're a funny crowd.

Anyways (again) I would totally love to hear about your oc! I haven't seen too many twewy ocs before and I think it's a series that's ripe for making original characters, so I'm really curious to see the kinds of things that other people have come up with :]

[flamingo-writes]

Heyyyyyy, sooo I was thinking bout being Mike's older sister, and dating eddie secretly, but then, Ed has to mention his girlfriend( they still dont know who it is, just that he has one),but none of the hellfire boys believe him and then one night, in a make out sesh on his throne, the boys come in the room,( eddie "forgot"😉 it was DnD night) and Mike is just like, shooketh and it's really funny, sorry if it's too precise or detailed

I was away for the weekend and hardly had time to write. But, As soon as I saw this request I fell in love with it and started writing it right away. It took me some time to get done bcs adult life sucks, and this kinda turned out longer than expected 🤡 but that shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point. This also turned out fluffier than expected, I wanted this to be funny but it turned out to be more soft and fluffy… with some funny parts ofc.

Im also implying that the design of the Hellfire shirt was made by the reader.

Got To Be Real — e.m.

Eddie Munson x Wheeler!Reader

Title based off N.I.B. by Black Sabbath

Word count: 3.6K

Warnings: None that I can think of. Mentions of the reader having an active sex life, I guess?

Mixtape Masterlist

Mike unfolded the new shirt Eddie had thrown at them. Giving a new shirt to each and every one of the members of the Hellfire Club, making sure he handed the right size at everyone. Dustin chuckled next to Mike as Mike admired the details, the D20, a sword in fire, the logo, it all looked pretty badass, Mike thought.

“Oh shit, Eddie, these new shirts are amazing. Where did you get them?” Dustin asked as Mike wasted no time and put it on over the Star Wars shirt he was wearing.

“Oh, my girlfriend does screen printing” Eddie replied.

Dustin laughed again, this time differently, as Mike’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion and looked up, meeting Eddie’s dark eyes incredulously. Girlfriend?

“Whoa, whoa, your what now?”

“My girlfriend, Henderson” Eddie said in a sassy voice.

“Yeah right”

“You don’t believe me?” He asked, his voice growing more serious, as the look in his eyes changed quickly.

“I me-mean, I rarely see you talk to girls, you know, you intimidate most people…and screen printing is such an odd hobby…” Dustin said, justifying himself with a nervous giggle as he tried to reach at straws for whatever could help him from seeing Eddie’s wrath.

“My sister does screen printing” Mike said, looking at Dustin.

“Your sister is an art student…” Dustin blurted out “Besides, she’s living in Indianapolis, she’s not dating Eddie”

Eddie frowned, his look only growing more and more serious and colder, looking at Dustin, as if he wasn’t making any sense.

“I mean, yeah…She’s been acting odd ever since she started college, I think she might be dating someone, though…but every time I ask she refuses to tell me” Mike added, making Eddie chuckle and look away, rolling his eyes annoyed.

“She’s dating some dude from college…” Dustin stated as if it were obvious.

"Are you done chit chatting, kids?" Eddie interrupted bitterly.

"How’s your girlfriend called, then, Eddie…" Dustin asked with a defying look.

Eddie chuckled.

"That’s none of your goddamn business, Henderson" Eddie growled.

"Because she isn’t real" Dustin intervened.

Mike hit Dustin on the ribs with his elbow, as Dustin flinched and whined. Mike giving him a look with wide scared eyes, hoping that Dustin would het the message that he was pissing Eddie off. However, Dustin raised his eyebrows confused and shrugged, making Mike sigh and roll his eyes.

"Can I level with you?" Eddie's voice suddenly sounded calm "Assuming my girlfriend was imaginary, then why would I bother lying to you about where I got the shirts?" He asked.

"Good question," Dustin said, "But I still think it’s odd we’ve never seen you with a girl before, and you don’t tell us her what name is—"

"Henderson," Eddie cut him off with a serious low growl.

"Yes?"

"Give me back that shirt"

"Wha-what?" Dustin laughed uncomfortably "C’mon Ed…I-I’m kidding. This shirt is very cool, and your girlfriend is very talented. Tell her I said these are amazing…" Dustin mumbled nervously, as he clung to his shirt

"That's what I thought" Eddie said.

The last Friday of every month was Hellfire Club Friday. The last Friday of every month, they knew they couldn’t make any plans, as they were going to spend the entire afternoon playing D&D. However, you had forgotten that little detail.

Every time you returned to Hawkins, you usually spent the Friday nights and Sunday mornings with your family before driving back to Indianapolis. And the entirety of your Saturday with your boyfriend, Eddie. And you knew Eddie usually held campaigns on Fridays, but it was hard to track when exactly, and you knew he liked to take his time carefully planning everything, going over his notes from previous campaigns. You admired his dedication to his craft.

This, as well as his creativity, among many other things were what made you fall in love with him. Four years of high school, getting together every once in a while to play D&D, even though you two belonged to different social groups, you still got along pretty well. And slowly fell for each other over the course of your high school years, and started going out on dates in your last semester.

And while Eddie didn't get to graduate with you, that didn't stop him from asking you to be his girlfriend. And moving to Indianapolis for college did not stop you from saying yes.

And for two long years, you'd manage to keep your relationship afloat and going strong. While the both of you wished you could see each other daily as opposed to a few times a month, you made up for it by calling each other on a daily basis.

And during your last phone call, Eddie sounded particularly needy and whiny, begging you over and over again to go see him on Friday after school.

And saying no to him required a whole deal of effort. And yet, you couldn't bring yourself to say no to him. You left Indianapolis earlier than you usually did, to get to see your boyfriend for a while before your usual expected arrival at your parent's home.

Needy was an understatement. Eddie was sitting on his throne, with you straddling him. His lips attached to yours, devouring and swallowing every sweet noise that came out of your mouth. A slow yet passionate kiss, telling you exactly how much he'd missed you.

His hands roaming underneath your shirt, as you knew this make out session was going to end up with the both of you hot and bothered, as you wouldn't be able to do much in there without drawing suspicions. That, and you were running out of time. But boy, was it nostalgic. Your first kiss looked something like this. It had started as a shy kiss with the Dungeon Master after the last campaign of your high school and him confessing his feelings for you.

However, Eddie had deliberately missed the little detail that today was Hellfire Friday, and everyone else was on their way to the classroom where Eddie was taking his time teasing you. Touching your soft spots, tasting your needy moans, and making sure you knew how much he missed you and how much he needed you, although he knew he’d have to wait until tomorrow to finally claim you as his once again. Right now it wasn’t about making love to you, it was about getting to fool around, and proving his point to the newest members of the Club who didn’t believe him when he said he had a girlfriend.

"Wait, she's back already?" Dustin asked Mike curiously as they turned left on the hall, making their way to the Hellfire Club.

"Yeah she said she finished this term earlier because she aced everything and doesn't have to show to her finals…" Mike explained, telling him how your summer holidays had basically started earlier this semester.

"Whoa, she's so cool!" Dustin sighed.

"I know, night? Anyways, I asked her if she could pick me up after the campaign tonight since Nance will be busy, and I doubt my dad wants to miss on his game on the TV to pick me up…" Mike said.

"Could she give me a ride back to my place?" Dustin wondered.

"Yeah, of course. She loves you," Mike added.

As they stopped in front of the door, they pushed the door open, unaware of what they were both about to see. As the door creaked open, the heard a soft moan, and quickly exchanged uncomfortable stares before Dustin finished pushing the door open. The door made a louder creaking noise, and the horror that soon took over their faces could not be compared to anything they’d ever seen.

"Oh, oh! What the fuck?!" Dustin yelled, realizing there was a girl sitting on Eddie’s lap.

"Shit, Eddie, next time could you—" Mike whined, as shocked as Dustin, however, his voice was cut off, and he felt his jaw fall to the ground, as he put the pieces together, paralyzed, shocked.

"Shit, fuck" You growled in a low voice as you recognized your little brother’s voice and looked the opposite direction, knowing it was useless, but still clinging to the teeny tiny chance of managing to go unnoticed or at least unidentified.

"Sis?" Mike’s voice freezing your blood.

You sighed deeply and exchanged stares with Eddie, noticing a little mischievous grin on his face as you squinted, thinking he was behind all of this. You then turned to look at your little brother, and uncomfortably waved at him. Not muttering a single word.

"You're dating my sister?"

"Eddie's your boyfriend?!"

Both Mike and Dustin spat, shocked and incredulous as they replayed the conversation they had regarding Eddie’s girlfriend, and thought about the chances of it being you and wondering how obvious it was. Screen printing was an odd hobby to have, but you did…and Eddie’s girlfriend did too. Now that Mike did the math, it was obvious that Eddie and you were classmates, on his first run of the senior year, you’d been acting odd for the last two years, not really talking about your boyfriend but making it clear that you had one, Ed never really engaging with other girls aside of short simple interactions. You two had similar tastes in music, you’d taught Mike and his friends to play D&D…now that Mike thought about it, it was more possible than he’d thought.

“ Did you plan this?" You hissed, squinting at Eddie.

"Maybe" He said, as you rolled your eyes and got off his lap, fixing your shirt and your skirt.

"I can't believe this" Dustin said.

"So, all the… marks I saw on your neck, Eddie…" Mike murmured, making Eddie laugh.

"Ew, no, Mike stop!" Dustin begged as you rolled your eyes and felt your face heating up, and besting your head in your hands.

"Gentlemen," Eddie said in a calm voice as you looked up from your hands and turned your gaze to meet his. "I'd like to present to you my beautiful, talented, incredibly smart, and very real girlfriend..."

"Real? Oh, Ed—" You groaned and chuckled softly "Yeah, I should've imagine Mike was going to join your D&D club, and I should’ve imagined they were not going to believe you have a girlfriend…" You said looking at Eddie as he shrugged.

"How are you two—" Mike asked baffled.

"Eddie and l actually met in this same club, we became close friends, and I don't know, shortly before I graduated, something happened between us and we started dating" You explained.

"But you moved to Indianapolis for college!" Mike snapped.

"Aw, that's actually cute" Dustin said, noticing they way Eddie rested his head against your chest and you brought a hand to his hair, as he held you close to him.

"Yeah, so? I still come here at least twice a month to see you guys, and also to see Eddie" You replied, as Eddie’s hand grabbed you by the waist and pulled you closer to his throne, wrapping his arm around your hips as you stood in front of his seat and he gave Mike a cheeky grin.

"You have any idea how hard it's to keep a long distance relationship, Wheeler?" Eddie asked.

"It's pretty hard..." Dustin said. Thinking of Susie.

"Mike's girlfriend moved to California..." You said softly, letting Eddie know.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mike asked you.

"We'll talk about this later, Mike, I don't feel like doing this right now, in front of all of hellfire…" You said, as Dustin and Mike exchanged stares and then looked over their shoulders, noticing the little audience they’d gathered; the rest of the Hellfire Club, who knew Eddie wasn’t lying about having a girlfriend "And, Eddie," You said looking at Eddie "Give Mike a ride home after you guys are done" You said as he chuckled and looked at you.

"What?" Eddie asked with a puzzled chuckle.

"Be a good boyfriend and give my little brother a ride" You said caressing his cheek with your hand. "Would you do that for me?" You said pouting at Eddie.

"Oh this is your revenge, isn't it?" Eddie said quitting as you giggled.

"Yes" You replied and leaned forward kissing his forehead.

"Oh, shit, no! I was going to ask you if you could give me a ride back home!" Dustin whined, knowing Eddie would not give him a ride back home.

"Of course, Dustin. I can give you a ride!" You said looking at Dustin and smiling.

"Oh come on!" Eddie complained "Your evil, Wheeler" You looked at your boyfriend, raising an eyebrow, feigning a naive look.

"Am l?" You asked.

"You're so gonna pay" He murmured, giving your hips a slight squeeze.

"Me? You're the one who set up this! If anything, you owe me, Munson" You said with a grin.

After exchanging playful, yet defiant stares and a little bit of bickering, you left going to your parents house, leaving the guys to finally play Dungeons and Dragons. And, as the afternoon got wasted away, Eddie could easily go into his Dungeon Master persona, and guide and narrate the guys through their adventure, however, Mike had a harder time concentrating. A million questions flooded his mind and was eager to know the answers to them all. He knew asking Eddie mid game would only end in Eddie telling him to focus and to take the campaign seriously, and he knew better than to provoke Eddie, specially during a campaign.

And finally, when the time came to go back home, the awkward tension was palpable in Eddie’s van. Neither of them wanted to be in that situation. It was haunting and asphyxiating. But somehow, Mike felt this impending need to ask, and get at least one answer to at least one of the many questions that had been haunting him.

“So, uh…you’ve been dating my sister since she graduated?” Mike asked awkwardly, he noticed the way Eddie's hands gripped the steering wheel.

“Are we really going to have this conversation?” Eddie hissed.

“I mean, knowing my sister, I’m pretty sure this is why she asked you to bring me home”

Eddie sighed deeply, Mike's words circling his mind, and thinking about it.

“Well. Yeah, you’re right. This does sound like something she’d do…” Eddie said defeated, “And yes, we’ve been dating for two years now…”

“That’s a long time…”

“Yes it is,”

“And uh,” Mike said biting the inside of his cheek “Do you…love her?” Eddie snickered sarcastically.

“You think I’d be enduring along distance relationship if I didn’t?” He replied bitterly and gave Mike a quick glare.

“I’m just asking” Mike stiffened and shrugged.

“Yes, man. I love her,” Eddie added. “She’s…perfect. She’s smart, and talented. She likes the same music as me, she never judged me nor let my reputation get in the way of our friendship back when she was in high school…you know, she got along with the popular kids, and she was still friends with me, and god,” Eddie sighed “She plays D&D too. Seriously, the girl of my dreams…” His voice softened.

Mike wondered if he'd ever heard Eddie talk in such a sincere way. Sure, Eddie wasn't scared to speak his mind, but he'd never heard Eddie talk in such a soft voice. Even when he talked about things he liked, he kept his cheeky arrogant tone. Not this time. His voice softened, and sounded almost dreamy.

"Oh, I didn’t know that…" Mike whispered, not sure what to reply.

"If you’re worried that I might hurt her or whatever, don’t," Eddie said glancing quickly at Mike "She seriously means so much to me, I’d never do anything to hurt her" He said, that sincere soft voice remaining.

Mike nodded and looked back at the windshield, looking into the road as he still had several questions circling his mind.

"I know it's…none of my business but…can I ask why are you guys keeping your relationship a secret?" Mike asked, not sure how Eddie would react to his question.

"Because I asked her to," Eddie said with a flat voice, eyes glued to the road as he took a turn, getting close to Mike's place "I know your parents won’t be exactly accepting of their daughter dating someone like me, and I don’t want to put her in a difficult position…" Eddie explained.

Mike thought about it. And while, perhaps, their mom could warm up to Eddie, their dad would most likely disapprove. His father already told Mike on a daily basis to stop wasting his time with D&D. He also complained to you about the kind of music you listened to. If he were to meet Eddie, it would definitely start an argument with you.

"Her friends in Indianapolis know we're dating…" Eddie added, "So it’s not entirely a secret. I actually know her friends from college. When she can’t come here to Hawkins I drive to Indianapolis to see her…" Eddie explained.

"Oh, wow…Eddie that’s cool. I mean, that you go to her when she can’t come here…I’m sure it means a lot to her…"

"Yeah?" Eddie said parking outside your parents' house and looking at Mike. "Well, I'd do anything for her"

"Yeah, that's very cool of you…" Mike replied awkwardly "Well, thanks for the ride, Eddie…And, I think it’s cool that you’re dating my sister, I always saw my sister acting all cheesy and in love but she never talked about her boyfriend, she only said he was the best that has happened to her…" Eddie chuckled.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but don’t tell her. She’ll know I told you and will kick my ass" Mike whined, making Eddie laugh out loud.

"Oh, I’m so sorry Wheeler, but I cannot keep that promise in particular…" He teased looking at Mike.

"Oh man," Mike chuckled softly looking away.

"Off you go, kid. I guess I’ll wait for your sister to come back from driving Henderson home,"

"What if my parents see you?" Eddie chuckled looking at Mike’s stern face.

"They never do," Eddie’s arrogant tone came back "I’ve snuck into your sister’s room countless times before and no one has ever noticed"

"You what?" Mike snapped.

"See? Not even you’ve noticed" Eddie chuckled victorious.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys, seriously"

—

“I know you’re here, Ed. I saw your van parked in the corner…” You said walking into your room noticing the open window.

Normally you’d leave it unlocked, however, not open. At least not when you’d leave the house. And after returning from giving Dustin a ride and chatting with him about the whole Eddie situation, finding your window open and Mike already home, and a very familiar van parked in the corner a few houses away from yours…it was all too suspicious.

"Welcome home, princess" Eddie said emerging from your closet, as he dramatically opened your closet doors.

You met his dark eyes and smiled walking towards him as you wrapped your arms around his shoulders, and he hugged you back, lifting you up. You took a deep breath, feeling the familiar scent of his cologne and cigarette smoke. He did the same thing unconsciously, taking in the smell of your shampoo and his favorite perfume of yours.

"Did you enjoy the ride with Mike?" You asked him breaking the hug.

"We had some bonding time, yes…" He replied as you gave him an approving nod, "You seriously never told anyone" Eddie added, you met his stare and shrugged.

"You told me not to, and of course I was going to keep my promise to you" You said smiling softly at him.

Over the course of your friendship, Eddie learned you weren’t the best at keeping secrets. Or at least to your friends and family. Two years in a row you completely ruined the surprise and always told him what you’d gotten him for his birthday before you even had the chance to hand him his present. He was sure the secret would eventually slip and you’d tell at least Nancy. But not even Nancy knew.

"Your little brother told me you made it pretty clear you had a boyfriend but never talked about him…" Eddie said walking to your bed and sitting on it as you followed him, stopping in front of him, bumping your knees against his.

"Of course he told you…" You chuckled, looking into his dark brown eyes, almost black as you brushed his cheek with your hand.

"He also said that I’m the best that has happened to you?" Eddie asked as you rolled your eyes playfully and he noticed the way your cheeks lit up. "He said, and I quote ‘She never talked about her boyfriend, but she only said he was the best that has happened to her‘ or something along those lines…"

"I-I mean, you know that already, Ed. How many times do I have to tell you that I love you more than anything for you to realize you’re the best thing to happen to me?" You said cupping his face, as you stared at him tenderly. Eddie closed his eyes slowly, humming, as you noticed a subtle blush on his cheeks.

"Hm, I love you too, sweetheart. So, so much, it’s stupid" he said, as you leaned down and kissed him sweetly "As soon as I’m out of here, I’ll catch up with you in Indianapolis, and we can forget about everything else…it’ll be just you and me, babe"

"I can’t wait, Eddie" You whispered.

"Fuck, me neither. I am seriously madly in love with you" He said as he pulled you closer, making you straddle him.

"Good. As you should" You replied with a cheeky grin and kissed him again.

[thekingofwinterblog]

Marcy Wu - The Beauty of Well Planned Pacing

One thing that struck me about Marcy and the way she managed to punch her way into becoming arguably the most popular of the Calamity Trio, is how the writers managed to make her such a compelling character despite her mainly being relegated to season 2, in large parts because they understood and utilized the fact she would be going away to their advantage.

Into season 2, we are introduced to Marcy, and showcased all her strengths and flaws, and she not only gets an amount of screentime Sasha(Who has been with us since the very beginning) never got, but becomes a de facto main character in season 2, much, much quicker than Sasha.

While Marcy would never have worked without having been well written, it's kinda overlooked just how much of a risk the crew took by essentially making her just as a big a MC as Anne for a huge part of the second season. If Marcy had not been a well received character, this move would have backfired in their face spectacularly.

But the creators took that risk because they 1. Had full faith in their storytelling abilities, and 2. Because they knew Marcy wasn't going to stick around for season 3, and as such, they knew they had to make her a likeable, charming and funny character NOW, as opposed to Sasha, who still had season 3 for her development.

And so we get to see pretty much her entire background and dynamic with Anne and Sasha, we get to see just how happy both of them make, her.

And as opposed to Sasha, Marcy immediately begins to bond with the Plantars, and even some of the Wartwood inhabitants such as Maddie.

The way the show is set up, it seems like Marcy is going to stick around as a regular member of the show.

But there is also the undercurrent that something is a bit off about Marcy, whether it being how she(Badly) tries to be the intermediary between Anne and Sasha having conflict(Essentially trying to pretend it doesn't exist), or the sense that she is deeply, bitterly tied to a sense that she has to be useful to other people to matter.

Much and more have been written about how Amphibia sets Marcy up for True Colors, but little has been written about the story structure before, during, and after it. Because the most important part of Marcy's story, isn't that her betrayal is pulled forth to destroy her relationship with Anne and Sasha.

It's that her story ends here.

She gets a sword through her chest and she fucking dies. Oh sure, she is resurrected by Andrias afterwards, but narratively speaking, Marcy really does fit all the criteria for having died here.

Her story comes to a screeching halt, the other characters have to face the aftermath, any chance she had of making up with her friends are dead and gone, and it is going to remain that way all the way up to the finale.

That is the tragic beauty of killing off a character. Because by doing so, you end their story, and in the best stories, their stories ends long, long before their "Intended" story is over with.

She is, for all intends and purposes, written out of the show.

And then, to truly hammer in that fact, we get Olivia and Yunan's little adventure into the basement.

The episode is set up as Marxy's big return, as her rescue and then returning to main character status. A literal resurrection of the status quo of season 2.

But that would completely ruin the entire point of her death scene, of the power of it, and more importantly, the narrative strength of her tale being forcibly cut short.

And so, rather than returning as a main character and protagonist, Marcy instead has her ressurected corpse violated and desecrated by serving as the meat puppet of the entity behind Andrias.

The second season took the time that it needed to set Marcy up as a beloved character. Then the finale killed her off. Then the third season, knowing fully well how much viewers wanted her to be resurrected, rescued and make up with Anne and Sasha in that order, instead uses the viewers attachment to Marcy to hammer home what a monster Andrias is, first by killing Marcy(His de facto adopted daughter), then by resurrecting her corpse because he actually was fond of the girl, only for him to make the choice not to try and deny the Core it's wishes, and freely gives Marcy up to it as a sacrifice, setting it, and by extension Marcy, up as the final enemy of this series.

It is one of the most chilling sequence of events in western animation, and it truly sells just how far Andrias has fallen in a way that just full blown conquest just does not, by hurting the viewer by deliberately, and cruelly denying them the thing they want most.

None of that would have worked even half as well, if Amphibia hadn't taken the time plan the story out, and made sure to give us the time to truly bond with and come to appreciate Marcy Wu, warts, flaws and all.

[demonslayedher]

Daki's Other Flower Motif?

This is going to be a little roundabout, grab an umbrella and come with me. I need to start by saying that my biggest grievance with Ufotable's adaptation of the Entertainment District Arc is that they gave it such a late autumn aesthetic. It was beautiful details, yes, yes, of course!! But those are details that should had been saved for the Swordsmith Village Arc, when matsutake mushrooms would still barely be in season, and Mitsuri was looking forward to those mushrooms so much that I will be heartbroken on her behalf if she doesn't make it to the village in time for them. But, in order to do that, they'd have to make Tanjiro skip out on his big nap. What a problem!

But also, I really, really liked that it made sense for the Entertainment District Arc to take place in the muggy rainy season. A big piece of evidence for this is in the background art of the manga, ajisai/hydrangea are in full bloom.

Taking place in the rainy season means: 1. These are some of the shortest nights of the year. Put all together without slowing anything down for Tanjiro to think, the actual events of the fight with Upper Moon Six were very fast-paced. It goes to show dramatically a fight with demons can change everything so suddenly. 2. I know it would be her name all year round, but it makes the "natsu" in "Koinatsu" more on-point (though there's is a difference between tsuyu/rainy season and natsu/summer). 3, my biggest reason: The boys in makeup and kimono would had been doubly miserable in muggy summer, and that's funny.

I'm reminded of this now that it is rainy season and mentally shaking my fist at Ufotable all over again. So with that fresh on the brain, earlier today I was drawing a pink ajisai for unrelated reasons and thought, doesn't this look familiar?

There are a lot of ways to draw ajisai, and the petals can be shaped in a variety of ways, so this perhaps doesn't immediately strike anyone as being an ajisai motif. Even staring at it now and wanting to find meaning in it I only find it vaguely ajisai-like, especially since they're associated more with four-point petals. That said, they can come in a variety of petal arrangements and shapes, but they are noted most for how their vibrant colors will change depending on the pH of the soil. While Daki is more associated with vibrant pink, there are touches of bold blue throughout her design as well.

I was sort of willing to toss this motif idea out because the shape is vague and because she's blatantly associated with plum blossoms, with Ume having been her previous name. She's not named in honor of the flowers (bitterly named instead for her mother's disease instead), though she was indeed associated with them, being nicknamed for white plum blossoms (Shiraume-chan) by the locals when she was child, and by the samurai giving her a red plum blossom hair piece. If we take the plum blossom motif at face value in Flower Language (Hanakotoba), it doesn't make reference to an awful disease, but is instead regarded for meanings like "elegance" and "sophistication," "patience" which are kinda... hmm. Well, if we stretch for it's "beguiling, bewitchingly beautiful," "a strict sort of beauty," and "faithful/loyal," that starts to fit her better.

But you know why I came back to the ajisai idea? Because Gyutaro only sees her given name as cruel and unfortunate. He describes his sister as "easily dyed."

Which, you know, is like the #1 attribute most people associate with ajisai, aside from the fact that you see them in the rainy season. In fact, it's due to their striking color changes that they have Hanakotoba like "fickle," "a cheater," "betrayal," like how she was a two-faced Oiran, and especially when an ajisai is blue, it can also stand for meanings like "arrogance" and "you're beautiful but heartless."

However, it can also have positive meanings, like pink ones can allude to an energetic girl, or when it's a sort of white-ish green it can symbolize "a strong, enduring love."

Thanks for coming to my TaD* Talk. *Tsuyu and Daki

[voiidlizrd]

hi i'm sorry but do you think we could get a part two of gojo, toji, and naoya cheating? where their ex so finds someone new and they have a family or smth

Of course! Thank you so much for the ask!

Warning: Unhealthy past relationships, mentions of stalking, Naoya.

JUJUTSU KAISEN CHARACTERS WHEN THEIR S/O GETS INTO ANOTHER RELATIONSHIP (PT. 2)

Totally doesn’t care! His ego isn’t hurt one bit knowing you moved on so easily!

Let’s be honest, he’s not doing alright in the slightest.

Not only is he saying “what makes them so special” about your new significant other, but he’s trying hard to get you back.

Gojo actually decided to go to where you were staying (whether it was your house or apartment or your new s/o’s) and waiting until you finally answered his loud knocking at the door.

When you did, you weren’t really surprised or shocked to see him. You just kinda leaned against the doorframe with an unamused look on your face.

Gojo definitely hated that expression.

“Been a while, right? I missed you.”

You didn’t answer him, you only hummed in responds.

“Look I just- I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I want to make it up to you. I want to be with you again. You are my one and only!”

Now that made you burst out laughing. You tried to hold it back, but it was just too funny and ironic! Gojo could only stand there stupid while you tried to catch your breath.

“Sorry, ‘one and only?’ That’s a good one.”

Ouch. Another shot to his already deflated ego.

“Look Satoru, it’s cute that you came all this way just to say you’re sorry, but there’s no way I’m getting back with you.” You chuckled again.

“I wish you the best of luck. I mean, you are the most powerful sorcerer out there so it won’t be so hard finding someone else, right?”

With that you just closed the door before he could say anything more. This wasn’t how much of his relationships ended up. They would crawl and beg to be taken back, tell him that they forgive him. Gojo didn’t realize how his “sorry” just slipped his tongue so easily, just like every other short relationship he’s had.

You found someone better than him, someone that made you more happier than he made you.

Gojo wasn’t all to happy about that, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Any attempt Gojo would throw at you would be crushed with a smile on your face.

Did you enjoy seeing him try his hardest to make it up to you? It was just a one time thing! Could you be anymore petty?

Gojo would always tell himself that when the swell of guilt in his chest would get too large. He tried to reason that he wasn’t at fault for any of this. But all his senses told him it was, deep down he knew.

You moved on while he couldn’t, and it was his own fault.

Good for you. He’s happy for you, totally.

Toji is a total liar, he isn’t happy. In fact, he’s more grumpy and angry than before now that you’re in a new and much better relationship.

But Toji remembers what you saw, what he did. He knew this would happen either way once you figured it out. He just didn’t expect your lack of care in the world for it.

He saw you with your new significant other, smiling lovingly at them. That was him before he decided to throw it all away. Toji almost laughed bitterly at the thought, he threw out most of everything in his life.

It was a depressing to remember the love you had given him, the attention and care. The time you put in to make him more softer around you.

That only made him angrier at himself for just wasting it away.

He doesn’t try to get you back, but he does watch you from afar. The envy in his eyes at your significant other could possibly kill them, hell he might just try.

Oh boy Naoya is throwing a fit over it. He’ll probably say very loudly to his servants or male colleagues that you’re a bitch and a whore for leaving him. He ended things with the mistress and blamed her for everything that happened.

He might even stalk you and pretty much blame you as well for the whole divorce. You weren’t being a good wife, that’s why he cheated. You clearly weren’t being a good housewife! It’s all about blaming you rather than accepting the small little voice in his head, that small little boy that wasn’t subjected to misogyny, the one that keeps telling him it was all his fault. That he was unfaithful.

He was being a bad husband. He wasn’t being the proper working husband for his wife. He never came home with a smile on his face, greeting his wife and asking if there’s any help she needs. After all, sometimes you were a bit clumsy. As a husband, he was suppose to provide for you, he was suppose to keep you happy.

He wasn’t suppose to hurt you.

On his many moments of stalking you, you finally confronted him one day on your many shopping runs.

“Look Naoya, I find your desperation real cute, but it’s getting annoying.”

God he hated your overall sincerity and new laid back attitude. He tried winning your heart again but your new significant other clearly had your heart, just like he had yours once.

He broke down one day in private. He wanted you, he needed you, he wanted you back. So. Badly. He even thought about begging on his knees for you to leave your lover for him, promising he would do you better and do you right. But his pride held him back. The weight of being a Zenin held him back.

He still has the photo of the day you two got married. He was so happy that day, the happiest man alive. You were smiling. That smile, it was much more happier and loving than the smile you gave him the day you left. He thought he could find another wife. Another submissive, doting, and loving wife. But none of them were you, none of them had that irritating stubbornness as you, no one made his heart skip a beat, not a single woman that came from other clans even compared to you.

He really screwed up.

Sorry if this isn’t as good as the other part! I’ve been going through some MAJOR writers block (reason for my late post). But thank you so much for the ask Anon! I really appreciate it!

[ultraintrovertedgryffindor]

Omg I have an angsty request that I’m sure is going to rip my heart out and light it on fire. It’s a super long and specific request so sorry if I get carried away:

Okay so reader had an unspoken thing in the glade with Gally but then he “died” so over the course of the events of scorch trials she got closer with newt and they start their own unspoken thing. But then in the death cure, newt (realizing he has the flare) starts encouraging her to reconcile with gally because he knows that he’s gonna die and gally will take care of her? But she’s confused on who she loves but kinda clings to what she has with newt because he needs her. And she’s just heart b r o k e n over newt dying but gally helps put her pieces back together in the safe haven and eventually they have their fluffy first time together?

Thanks!

*Fanfare* *Triumphant Music* I finally finished this one! Sorry it took a while, I really wanted this to be perfect. But I think I'm quite happy with how this one turned out! I hope you like it too, sweet Anon. Btw, I know you wanted smut, but I just didn't think it would fit with this one. Sorry, maybe on the next one!

Over 5.2k words, so strap in for a long one y'all

Possible Trigger Warning: Self Harm

~~~~~~~~~~

During your time in the Glade, you were practically attached at the hip with Gally.

He was your best friend, your first go to whenever you had any issues, and you were the same to him.

After his supposed death, you felt a void in your soul. You took on a nihilistic attitude, nothing in life making sense anymore. You didn't care about what happened to you or around you, you wished you had died with Gally, the idea of it being welcomed with open arms.

The thought of dying brought no anxiety, no dread. Even the thought of dying painfully didn't scare you, you wanted it. Everyday you thought about that spear going through Gally's chest, wanting to feel what he must've felt. You wanted to feel the same pain and fear, you wanted to feel like you were dying too.

No rational side of you could explain why you felt this way. Perhaps, if you felt the same pain he felt, maybe it would give some sort of closure. Maybe it would make you feel like you were still close to him, even in death.

It wasn't too long before you decided to act on those feelings. You had been only a knife to your chest, right where your heart was, hyping yourself up to push the blade into your skin.

You didn't want to kill yourself, no. You wanted your death to be natural, not forced. You'd suffer your own existence until your time eventually came like it did for everyone else. But Newt didn't know this when he happened upon you that night, just a couple centimeters of a blade shredding its way into your skin.

Newt panicked, immediately stopping your from hurting yourself, his heart racing at the thought of being too late. But thankfully, he wasn't.

You tried to seem somewhat normal, but the laughter bubbling from your chest couldn't be withheld, making Newt fear that you had lost your mind. He wasn't too far off...

He knew how much Gally's death impacted you, he knew you were in pain every second of every day, but he never thought you'd go so far as hurting yourself. He just silently patched you up, fearing anything he would say from a good place would only upset you further.

Eventually, you explained why you had done what you did. It obviously didn't sit right with Newt. He wasn't particularly close with Gally back in the Glade, but he knew well enough that he wouldn't want you to be living with this mindset.

After a while in the Scorch, you stuck by Newt the most and you started to get better. You felt so empty after Gally's death, leaving a hole in your heart. Newt helped lead you out of that void, trying his best to fit that empty space. But you knew nobody could replace Gally, not even Newt. You knew that space could never be filled, but just seeing Newt try to be that person for you, it was too endearing not to pull at what heartstrings you had left.

Then the complications happened, so much time spent believing that Gally was dead came crashing down as he stood in front of you all, very much not dead.

You thought it had to be a dream, could he really be here?

It was strange. You thought you'd run to him, leap into his arms and kiss all over his face, but you didn't. You stood next to your friends awkwardly as he took off his gas mask. To think you'd be more outwardly happy that someone you cared about was still alive. But you couldn't help the guilt that you felt when Gally said that they left him to die. Sure, it might've not been specifically directed to you, but you felt the sharp sting of his words resonate through you. It almost felt like a strong invisible force hit your funny bone, the volt of uncomfortable aching pain spreading throughout your entire body and leaving you in a breathless agony.

For Gally, he was overjoyed to see you alive and well. He so badly wanted to go to you, feel you in his arms again. But he knew he couldn't, how could he after how he treated everyone back in the Glade?

He didn't remember a lot, but he knew he killed Chuck. The blurry memories of that day, he saw it every night in his dreams. He remembered the sound of the gunshot, the sudden pain in his chest and not being able to breathe. He saw Chuck laying beside him, his expressionless eyes trained on the ceiling, unmoving. His chest wasn't rising and falling like it should've been, blood seeping through his layers of clothing. The most purest soul Gally ever met was dead, and it was his fault.

Gally couldn't even bring himself to look in your direction, he was too disgusted with himself.

Thomas punching Gally wasn't a big shock, he knew he deserved it. But Newt quickly came to his rescue, stopping Thomas from acting out irrationally. But a part of Gally didn't want the Greenie to be stopped. Being punched wasn't something he enjoyed, but Gally would willingly endure whatever punishment that would be inflicted and he'd accept that he deserved it. But nothing he could do or say would bring Chuck back...

When Gally did finally force himself to look at you, he wish he hadn't. You looked indifferent, which never happened with you. He instantly thought that you hated him as much as Thomas did, but then again, he deserved it.

It was really tough for Gally to keep a conversation with everyone while he took them to see Lawrence, especially when he noticed how close you stuck by Newt. But, he supposed it was only natural to find another person to be close to when you've lost someone else, he still couldn't help the feeling of jealousy that bubbled up in his chest. He hated how good you and Newt looked together, you seemed...happy.

At the moment, you weren't even close to happy; you were confused, and angry.

It sounded terrible, but a part of you was angry that Gally was actually still alive. You had to go through the mourning process, and you hadn't even finished it and now all of a sudden, he was alive all this time. It put your emotions on haywire, the most you felt was confusion, and if someone would've told you what you were experiencing was some sort of a twisted dream, you would believe them. But your feet were too sore and sunburn too irritating for this all to be a dream.

You sensed Newt's eyes trained on you, you knew he was probably worried, but you couldn't decide what for. Was he worried that you'd go back to Gally? Was he worried you'd replace him now that he was still alive? Knowing Newt, he probably just wanted to talk to you, but even then, you would have no idea what to say. What do people feel or say in situations like this? You were certain not everyone has to go through the loss of a loved one just to find out that they weren't gone, right?

It was late, and you were exhausted, as was everyone else; but you stayed awake, attempting to sleep only causing you to toss and turn, and eventually giving up. But someone else was awake, you were shocked to see that it was Newt. "What're doing awake?" He asked, taking a seat next to you.

"Could ask you the same thing." You replied, only getting a look from Newt in response. "Couldn't sleep." You sighed, caving in to his concerned expression.

"I know it's not my place," Newt started, wringing his hands together nervously, "but, you haven't said a word to Gally." You knew he was going to bring that up, you had that feeling as soon as he saw you were still awake. "I know it was a shock, to all of us. But I thought it'd effect you the most, to be quite honest. You two were pretty close..."

You shrugged weakly, shaking your head. "I don't know what to tell you. Was I supposed to react a certain way? Was I supposed to drop to my knees and burst into tears or something?"

Newt grimaced. "No...of course you're not supposed to act a certain way. It's just a bit strange to me that you haven't tried to speak to him at all."

"I don't even know what I'd say to him." You chuckled bitterly.

"I know you and Gally had something, something special. That sort of thing doesn't just go away. You were absolutely gutted after what happened, this is a chance to reconnect. You care about him, a lot."

"Hey, that doesn't change the way I feel about you. I care about you a lot too."

Newt smiled weakly. "I know, but I really think you should go and talk to him."

You could tell he was being sincere, but you couldn't understand why. You two had grown close over the past several months, so why would he want you to reconnect with someone you used to be even closer with? You weren't really given the time to think over it more before Newt was quickly encouraging you to speak with Gally, telling you where his room was, somehow knowing this conversation would happen and finding out beforehand.

Just a few moments later, you found yourself outside of Gally's door, fist extended out to hover over the worn wood, but you couldn't bring yourself to knock. Thinking back to how hard you tried to avoid Gally when he came back, what if he thought you hated him? What if he didn't want to talk to you?

But before you could chicken out, you forced yourself to knock on Gally's door without thinking, soon hearing the thud of footsteps nearing. With bated breath, you waited for the door to open, anxiety gripping your mind so intensely that it almost triggered your fight or flight response. But Gally's almost hopeful and shocked expression when he saw you waiting relaxed you a little bit. "...hi." Gally voiced, the nervous and confused tone to his voice not going unnoticed by you.

"Hi." You replied, your voice probably just as shaky and nervous as his.

"Uh, come in." He said quickly, moving out of the doorframe, his hands slightly shaking when he motioned you to enter his room.

Your heart was beating out of your chest, so fast and hard that you were worried Gally would be able to hear it. Your hands were shaking, as well as your legs as you walked into his room, it was a miracle you didn't collapse right then and there. You tried not to jump as you heard the click of his door closing, you tried to take deep calming breaths before Gally turned to face you, the two of you almost on complete opposite sides of the room just standing awkwardly.

You stared at Gally, your gaze running up and down his body but ultimately stopping to stare at his chest. Tears quickly came to your eyes as you saw how healthy he looked, like a spear wasn't embedded in his chest months ago. You couldn't stop the flow of whimpers that came from your throat, putting your hands up to cover your face in embarrassment. You felt your face start to burn as you felt Gally's arms wrap around you as soon as you started to cry, but his warmth comforting you only caused you to let out more tears.

You never thought you'd be in his arms again.

Gally stood there silently, holding you and just trying to soothe you as best he could. In the back of his mind, he was astonished that you even let him come near you, you had avoided him altogether up until this moment. But the whimpers he heard coming from you, seeing the tears spilling from your eyes, he instinctively went to hug you. He also couldn't ignore the guilt he felt, thinking that you were crying because of him. He hated it. But you hugged him back tightly, burying your face in his chest and trying to stifle your sobs.

"You're here..." You cried softly, "you're really here..."

Gally's lip trembled, tears of his own brimming his eyes at how much pain you must've been in thinking he was dead all this time, your voice giving away your feelings. He exhaled shakily, "I am here." He placed a kiss to the top of your head. "I'm here."

For a few minutes, you and Gally just held each other silently. You both needed this, understanding how badly you missed one another. Soon, you were able to calm yourself, but you still didn't pull away. Gally only pulled away slightly so he could see your face, frowning when he saw your eyes were puffy and tearstained. "I'm so sorry, Y/n."

You furrowed your brows, shaking your head. "What happened wasn't your fault, Gally." You said genuinely. No matter how much pain and anger you felt about what happened to Chuck, you never once blamed him. You knew W.C.K.D. killed him, and every other Glader who died. But Gally's frown told you everything you needed to know; he still blamed himself.

"I should've gone with you." He whispered, resting his forehead against yours. "How can you even stand the sight of me?"

"Because I know you never would've killed anyone if you weren't stung, especially Chuck."

Hearing Chuck's name out loud made tears brim Gally's eyes once more, tightening his fists in anger at himself. "Chuck deserved so much better...he wasn't supposed to die..." He cried, causing you to pull him back into your embrace, rubbing his back while trying to not to cry again.

"None of us deserved to get experimented on."

Eventually, you lead Gally to sit next to you on his bed, holding his hand. It felt so right to be sitting there with Gally, you missed him so much that you despised ever feeling even the slightest bit of anger when you first saw that Gally was alive. But one emotion did not go away, you still felt confused.

While sitting there with Gally, you couldn't help but think about Newt. He was so adamant about you reconciling with Gally, was he hoping that something would happen between you two? You truly cared a lot about Newt, and you knew he felt the same way, so you couldn't understand why he was acting this way.

You sighed softly when you started to feel sleepy, standing up slowly. "I should probably head back."

Gally quickly stood up with you. "Uh, you could stay here if you want?" He stammered, causing you to smile a little.

"That's okay. I already had a sleeping bag set up for me downstairs, so..."

Gally tried to hide his disappointed frown, choosing to walk up to you until you two were face to face. Maybe it was too soon, but ever since he saw you, Gally had the strongest urge to place his lips on yours. He missed your soft lips that he only had the privilege of feeling a few times back in the Glade before everything happened. He gently grabbed hold of your jaw, tilting your face up and leaning forward slowly.

You wanted him, you wanted him so bad. But before his lips could connect, Newt's face popped up in your mind and you couldn't, you forced yourself to turn away.

You tried not to look at Gally's face, knowing that he'd probably look like a kicked puppy. You couldn't, it would be too painful. "It's Newt." Gally frowned, taking a step back.

Your eyes widened, finally taking a glance over to him to indeed see that his expression was one of disappointment and sadness. "I never said-"

"You didn't have to." Gally interrupted. "I see the way you look at him...it's how you used to look at me." You stayed silent, a feeling of guilt washing over you. "I don't blame you, Y/n, for finding someone else. I'd never expect you to grieve over me forever, that's too selfish."

Hearing this, you had a terrifying thought that you needed to voice out loud. "Did you ever find someone else?" You asked nervously, afraid of his answer.

"No..." He smiled weakly, "No one that could ever compare to you."

You hated that you felt relieved, you were the one who seemed to be selfish. But, you couldn't just drop what you had with Newt now that Gally's still alive. You couldn't say anything else, what could you say to that?

"You should get some sleep." Gally said, opening his door and motioning you to get out.

"Gally..." You whispered.

"Please. Just...we have a busy day tomorrow."

You sighed. You couldn't argue with him.

Newt watched you walk back downstairs, getting into your sleeping bag with a very prominent frown. Doesn't seem like it went well, he thought. He felt relieved and frustrated at the same time. Newt really cared for you, he could even go as far as saying he loved you, but he needed you and Gally to get back together, or become friends again at least.

It wasn't too long ago that Newt found out he had the Flare. He saw the black and purple veins slowly travelling up his arm, and the pain, the pain was the worst part. You had already gotten close to him, so he was heartbroken to know that you'd just lose another person you cared for. After Gally, he knew you wouldn't be able to handle another loss. So when Gally showed up out of the blue, it was like a miracle, Newt's prayers had been answered.

Newt felt jealousy, of course, he wanted to stay with you. He didn't want Gally to take you from him, but what use would he be when he was dead or a Crank? He tried not to be angry with you, it wasn't your fault how you were feeling, but he needed to know you'd be okay when he was gone.

Newt did try talking to you about it, but you always changed the subject or simply didn't answer him. Before you all knew it, it was time to start planning Minho's rescue mission. Thomas didn't want to use Teresa, and hearing that only made Newt's anger bubble to the surface.

It wasn't like Newt to lash out like that, he was always so calm and relaxed. Maybe the stress finally got to him, maybe it was something else...

You immediately followed after Newt when he stormed out after yelling at Thomas, not knowing that Gally's sad eyes were following you. You couldn't think of anything else, you just had to know that Newt was okay.

You found Newt on the roof, sitting on the ledge. "Newt?" You asked, concerned. "Are you okay...?" You stepped closer captiously, finally taking a seat next to him.

Newt only smiled bitterly. "No...no, not really."

You sighed, looking out to the horizon, trying to find the right words to say. "We all thought Teresa was our friend...it's okay to be angry."

Newt shook his head. "It's not that."

You furrowed your brows. "Then, why did you lash out at Thomas?"

Newt bit his lip to keep it from trembling. He never wanted you to find out this way. He didn't even want you to know. But after that scene he made, he knew there was no point in hiding it anymore.

Tears came to your eyes as Newt lifted up his jacket sleeve, revealing his discolored arm. You knew what it was immediately, seeing it on every Crank you came across. "No..." You whispered. "No."

"I know I probably shouldn't have kept it from you, but I was scared. I still am."

"We'll fix it!" You quickly said, it sounding more like a plead. "We'll find another cure!"

Newt only gave you a weak smile. "I don't think that's a possibility right now, love. Besides, Minho needs us."

"No, you're not allowed to give up like that, Newt. We'll find something to help you. If Brenda was cured, so can you. Teresa might-"

"Please, Y/n." Newt voiced sharply. "Please...just stop. I don't need false hope."

Before you could say anything else, you heard the roof access door open, Thomas walking up to the two of you. "Y/n, can I, uh, talk to Newt? Alone?"

You looked to Newt, who nodded, signaling for you to leave. You stood up, speed walking inside and down the stairs. The tears kept falling, blurring your vision, and you had no idea what to do. Newt was dying, and there was nothing that you could do about it, and it didn't seem like he was too eager to try and find a cure. You hoped Thomas could talk some sense into him. But in that moment, your feet subconsciously took you to Gally's little apartment. You stood in front of the door in tears, wishing that you didn't feel the urge to find comfort in him when Newt was sick. But, you knocked on the door, quickly placing yourself in Gally's arms as soon as he was in front of you.

Gally didn't know what was wrong, he barely got a good look at your face before you threw yourself at him. But the way you were shaking and whimpering, he knew you were crying, and he didn't have the heart to pull away from you. He walked backwards and shut his door, leading you to sit down on his bed with him. He just held you as you cried, leaning his head down on top of yours until you calmed down. He finally spoke when your cries were just quiet sniffles. "What happened?"

You exhaled a shaky breath, lifting your head to look at Gally. "Newt has the Flare..."

"W-What...?" Had Gally heard that right? Could his mind be playing tricks on him? He just assumed everyone that was in the Glade was immune, that's why they were there, right? But you repeated what you had said, confirming what Gally thought he heard. "I...I'm so sorry..." That's all Gally could say. He wasn't very well spoken in these types of situations, all he could do was bring you back into another hug.

You finally understood why Newt was pushing you to get close to Gally again; he wanted you to be close to someone when he died.

Yet another situation that had you confused. You knew you loved Gally, you always had, he was your best friend. But now you had Newt, he helped you through everything while in the Scorch, helped you try to overcome your grieve and probably saved your life multiple times. How could you possibly make a decision like this?

You and Gally never put a label on what you had in the Glade, and nobody asked either, not even Alby. You both just knew that you cared for one another, that you'd do anything for the other. But as time went on, you felt guilty knowing what you'd ultimately choose. It was always going to be a lose lose for you.

Newt needed you, and you couldn't leave him when he needed you the most.

Gally, deep down, knew what your decision was going to be. You had a big heart. You never would leave anyone behind, even if they were infected. Back in the Glade, Gally wouldn't have hesitated in sacrificing the few to save the many, but you were never like that. You cared about everyone, especially the people who were closest to you. You never were going to give up on Newt, you couldn't now. You would spend as much time with him as possible, what little time he might've had left. And you did, until he took his final breath.

You felt like you were a glass vase that had been shattered, and every time you tried to pick up the pieces, the glass would just cut deeper and deeper into your skin. It felt like life didn't want you to be put back together. Nothing felt real. Everything that happened in the Last City felt like a fever dream. You hoped that one day you'd wake up and you'd be back in the Glade, everyone was still alive. Maybe if you could go back in time, maybe you could save everyone, maybe you could've convinced Gally to listen to Thomas, maybe you could've held off Newt a bit longer in time for Brenda to give him the cure.

A lot of maybe's, a lot of hopes and prayers, never answered.

Now in the Safe Haven, you felt anything but safe.

You didn't talk to anyone for awhile, not even Gally. You had nothing to say, and you were afraid of breaking down in front of everyone. So, you isolated yourself. And then a couple weeks later, you finally felt everything bubble to the surface.

Sitting down somewhere along the coastline, not too close to the water, but close enough that you could feel the salty breeze of the waves hit you gently as the evening cooled when the sun started to go set.

You tucked yourself up into a ball, your knees as close as you could get them to your chest and your arms wrapped tightly around them. And, you cried. And cried. And cried. And cried. The ugly kind of crying. Your tears weren't coming out one eye at a time in a perfectly straight line down your face like in the movies, you weren't making quiet sniffles or whimpers, you were full on sobbing. Tears came out of your eyes so fast that you could barely make out the sun on the horizon, your shirt sleeves were most definitely covered in snot and whatever salty tears it had the chance to catch. Your throat felt like it was being torn apart by how intense your sobs were. The sobs sounded more like you were having a coughing fit, one of those phlegmy hacking coughs that made you feel like you were going to vomit.

You knew you most likely weren't far enough away from the camp to quiet your weeping, and you knew you were just embarrassing yourself, arranging for yourself to be completely humiliated the next morning when you had to face everybody. But in the moment, you couldn't care less. You loss someone so important to you, it felt like losing Gally all over again. But you knew this time, it was final. No surprise resurrections this time. You felt completely, and utterly, alone.

But you never were.

You felt so dissociated and detached from yourself, the wails of grief too much for your body to handle. You couldn't feel anything around you, not the warmth of the sand, not the slight chill breeze, not even Gally's arms wrapped around you tightly. You didn't realize until you passed out from exhaustion, waking up the next morning in a bed that wasn't yours, and a hut that wasn't yours.

Your vision was still a little bit blurry, all the tears from the night previous crusting to the creases around your eyes, making it a bit of a challenge opening them all the way. But, your other sense were intact enough to tell you that bacon and eggs were next to you on a bedside table. You hadn't eaten the day before, so it was mostly a primal reaction to quickly take the plate and gobble up the food.

You still had to rely on context clues to figure out where you were in the camp. As much as your eyes irritated you, they could now finally work once you were wide awake. You probably should've known immediately who's hut it was, but seeing that familiar grey knitted hoodie settled ungracefully over the backrest of a chair, you knew it was Gally's.

You blushed quickly after that realization. How did he know where you were, and how much did he see? The thought of him seeing you in such a state made you cringe. But what was more horrifying was that Gally was right outside the room, waiting for you to wake up. "Hey..." He voiced, his eyebrows knitted in concern, eyes full of sadness.

You had to look away, the heat rushing to your face making you feel like you were going to pass out again. "Hi." You croaked, your vocal cords still sore and raw.

Gally shifted his weight nervously, taking a step closer to you. "I'm sorry, for bringing you here...I was afraid you were going to hurt yourself." You snapped you gaze back to him in confusion, him quickly blushing, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, Newt told me about what you did to yourself after...after the Maze."

You self-consciously rubbed the spot on your chest where a big scar still remained. "I wasn't trying to...you know, kill myself or anything."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you." He said softly, taking a seat on the bed next to you.

You sighed, crossing your arms. "I just...I didn't know what I was thinking."

Gally gently grabbed ahold of your hand, making you uncross your arms, letting his warm hand take yours. "I'm so sorry, Y/n. Newt should be here with the rest of us. He was a good person."

You nodded as tears came to your eyes again, burning enough to make you whimper, and you leaned your head against Gally's shoulder. "I miss him so much." You cried.

Eventually, you and Gally became close again. He was always there for you. Whenever you had nightmares, whenever you were lonely, whenever you needed anything, Gally would always be there. You started to feel your relationship had almost gotten back to the point where it was in the Glade, it had been almost a year, but you still felt it was too early to be moving on. A part of you didn't want to move on, but you knew that's not what Newt wanted either.

You didn't read the note Newt wrote to you when Thomas first gave it to you. The grief was still too near, and you didn't know if you could handle it. But a couple months after your breakdown, you finally read it. Newt loved you, he had always loved you. And he wanted you to be happy, he didn't want you to be sad that he was gone, even though he knew it would be impossible. But he knew you would be okay, he knew Gally would protect you no matter what. Reading his note was part of the reason you knew it would be okay to be with Gally, it just took you some time.

One day, you and Gally were taking a break from working, just sitting near the forest tree line, and you did it; you kissed him, and you couldn't stop, you didn't want to stop. And you didn't, and neither did Gally.

After that, it was almost impossible to spend any time away from each other.

You never thought you'd smile again, but Gally always found a way. He made you so happy, and it made you cry one night when you finally realized that you were happy, and you knew somewhere out there, it made Newt happy.

~~~~~~~~~~

Cries in Español

[fire-emblem-drabbles]

Pairing: Yandere! Rohan x reader

Prompt: “You don’t even know how lucky you are. I protect you and provide for you. Don’t act so ungrateful.”

Description: For someone who used their stand to keep you trapped in their house and claimed to love you, Rohan sure didn’t seem like it. He hardly even batted an eye when you acted out around him-- until now, that is.

Content Warnings: Imprisonment, yandere inappropriate use of a stand, typical Rohan being his bull shit self, ask to tag

Rating: sfw

Word Count: 1499

Notes: As much as I have mixed feelings for Rohan (he’s a little bitch but I still like him, I guess) this is such a perfect prompt from him I couldn’t refuse.I was also really struggling with this one until I got about halfway though it. I feel kinda... meh about it but hey, it’s a fanfic.

Edited: Minor grammar and spelling fixes! Also spaced out a bit more for hopefully an easier read. Hope you guys enjoy! Oh, content warning and banner were added as well

You hated how empty this place felt. It wasn’t a home, it was a prison-- no matter how welcoming and beautiful it seemed. You had spent the last couple months (what you thought were months-- it was getting hard to keep track) here, unable to leave due to the effects of Heaven’s Door.

It was funny really, how Rohan was willing to use his stand to keep you here against your will but not to change your feelings about him. As much as you wanted to leave you couldn’t--all you could do was vent you frustrations at him.

You were free to wander as you pleased, and Rohan even welcomed you into his study freely. You were inspiring to him, as he said. And a welcome break from his work.

You couldn’t even begin to understand him; what he saw in you, why he kept you here, why he didn’t just… make things as he wanted them to be. He made no sense to you. Even as he tried to show off to you, prove to you he was the only one for you, that he was the Rohan Kishibe… you would not be convinced.

Usually, he took your defiance in stride; even for someone like Rohan, he knew this was an extreme change. One that would take getting use too. He had faith, that you would come to terms with things. You had always been such an adaptable person. Eventually, you would get use to this.

Eventually…

Little did he know, had he not used Heaven’s Door to keep you here, to stop you from using your own stand against him, you would be long gone. You were desperate for freedom. Little did you know how desperate he was to keep you.

“Rohan…” Your voice was soft as you entered his study. He was busy at work per usual. He knew you were here--he would stop working only if he deemed the conversation important enough.

“Why, after all this time, am I still here?” What you really wanted to say was ‘you know I’ll never love you’ but the fear of angering him kept you back.

“You’re here because I want you to be. It’s that simple.” He didn’t even turn to face you when he spoke. Typical.

You moved forward, past his desk to look out the large window, to the sweet, sunny town before you. You would do anything to be out in the summer sun again…

“You know I don’t want to be here though.” Emotion trembled in your voice. “Before all this, I actually kind of liked you. Funny isn’t it? I thought you were so cool..” You laughed bitterly.

You could hear him put down his pen. At least now you had his undivided attention. “I thought-- I don’t know what I thought. That maybe there could have been something between us?” You sighed, shaking your head and unwilling to let the tears that peaked at your eyes to fall.

“Little did I know this would happen.” You turned to his shocked face. It wasn’t often he was speechless, that you got to see something other than his smug face.

“Knowing this, you even have the power to make me forget this all even happened. To start over. But I know you won’t. You're too selfish for that, aren’t you Rohan?” He was taken aback by your words but only a moment.

He was always prepared for your outbursts, even ones like these.

“Selfish?” He laughed softly, shaking his head. “Is that what you think of me _____?”

“What else could you be, for keeping me here against my will?” You countered, sniffling.

This wasn’t going to end well.

It never did.

It always ended with you crying.

“You don’t even know how lucky you are.” His scoff was audible, the groan of his chair unmistakable as he stood, approaching you. “I protect you, provide for you…”

He took heavy steps until he was next to you, staring down the very same summer dream as you. “and yet you have the guile to act so ungrateful.” He had looked your way as he spoke the venomous words, yet you refused to meet his gaze.

“Ungrateful?” You repeated.

You saw your own reflection on the window. Tired, depressed--so close to giving up.

“Maybe I am. What are you going to do about it Rohan?” Now you dared to meet his gaze, see the barely kept burning rage hidden behind green eyes. “Are you going to open me up again? Make it so I’m happy to be here? Happy to be with you?” You challenged.

Honestly, you might have preferred it that way--maybe then you wouldn’t be so miserable here. Then again, you would be aware it was a ruse, as would Rohan.

The two of you might even be more miserable than you are now.

“Why do you make things so difficult?” Rohan grabbed you by the shoulders, surprising you.

In all you time here he hadn’t really… touched you. Had he not explicitly stated why he brought you here, you wouldn’t have even thought he cared for you.

Despite your surprise, his words and his touch were… gentle. You knew he wasn’t trying to scare you; after all, he had read everything about you, more than once. He knew you better than he did himself.

“I’ve tried every approach with you and yet you still can’t accept that your fate is to be by my side. Why?”

You hated how… hurt he looked. Like somehow you had betrayed him by being angry, that some how it was you in the wrong for wanting more than this.

You hated how you didn’t stop him from touching you because god, when was the last time another person touched you?

“I can’t give up.” When had your own words become so soft? “If I give up, then that means you win. That you really were right--that this is the best for me. And I can’t believe that.”

You tried to even out your breathing to keep from crying in front of him. You were already acting too vulnerable in front of him, something he would be sure to take advantage of.

“I-I want more from life than this!”

You didn’t even protest when Rohan pulls you into a hug. You were too upset, had gone too long without comfort from another. Maybe, Rohan had planned for this all along.

You wouldn’t put it above him.

“Shh… calm down.” His words were soft, if not a little hesitant.

It was obvious he had never comforted someone before. He probably knew his words weren’t helping and just held you, rigid in his arms until you broke down, crying openly and hugging him back. You clung to him, even as he pulled back softly and brushed the tears from your cheeks.

“You’ve been fighting for a while, it’s no wonder your so tired.” He laughed softly but you didn’t even have the energy to be mad about it. “You put up a good fight _____ but you knew this would happen as much as I did.”

You hated how he was right.

“Why did i-it have to be like this though?” You took a deep breath, sniffled, and tried to even your breathing. You still stuttered as you spoke. “W-why did you have to do this to me? Wasn’t there an easier way t-to get what you wanted?”

One that wouldn’t have hurt you so much? That wouldn’t have ended up with you broken the way you feel you are now?

“This was the only way I could ensure you would end up mine. Only I can make you feel like this, _____.” Rohan cradled you gently, placing a soft kiss to the crown of your head.

It was with those words you realized something. Not only had Rohan made it so you couldn’t leave his house, his side--when he used Heaven’s Door on you, he had made it so you could love no one but him.

“I hate you. I hate you so much.” How you wanted the words to be true.

What a twisted game Rohan had pulled you into.

“I know.” He pulled you tighter against him. You let him.

“I’ll never say it aloud.” You threatened.

You doubt it mattered to him. Knowing that he would be the only one to ever hold your emotions-- all you happiness, sadness, your love and your hate-- that was all for Rohan now.

“You won’t have to.” He was right, again.

You knew it.

He was already content in the knowledge that you wouldn’t be able to love anyone but him. There was no winning with him from the start. You were his now whether you wanted it, or not.

So, for the time being, you let yourself have a break, and indulge in the comfort of another person.

When the next day came, you might even let yourself do it again.

[tastyykpop]

𝑆𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

•pairings: enemy, barista and student!jaemin x student and barista!reader

♡𝑠𝑚𝑢𝑡♡

<next>

•warnings: dom!jaemin, brat!reader, brat taming, crying kink, hair pulling, choking, small praising, small size kink, degradation (slut, whore), dumbification (sexual and non sexual use) nanas kinda mean :( but gets a lil nicer :), jaemin refers to himself as nana a lot mostly when they do the dirty, bulging kink, pet names (princess, baby, baby girl, little girl, pretty girl), unprotected sex (please be safe), slight face slapping (he slaps her once), rough sex clearly, some sexual tension, I hope i got everything

You were fuming!

The boy in front of you not even batting an eyelash, just laughing at the mess dripping down your face.

You smelt like an iced americano.

People around you held their hands to their mouths in shock and others tried to hold back their laughter. Some even pointed at you or gave sympathetic looks.

It wasnt like people were surprised anymore. Jaemin always had something up his sleeve for you. But he never went as far as pouring his coffee on you.

"Aw poor baby. Do you need a napkin?" He faked sympathy with a pout and his friends began laughing. You just got up and walk by them, making sure to bump into jaemins shoulder on your way through.

It was almost everyday that Jaemin would do something so uncalled for. It was like he was made to push your buttons. Even as you're walking out of the college building, you can still hear the boy laughing at you. Or maybe it was the other students. Either way, you wanted to kill him.

As you trudged towards your car, a sense of relief washed over you. A great happiness that only comes when you finished your classes and could go home. Only this happiness stayed for a good 2 hours until you have to go to your part time job at the cafe with your favorite person of course. But its not like you can quit. You need the money so you can live and get the education you need, no matter how hard it is being with him.

It was then when you sat in your car and the squishing in the seat made your face curl into a scowl, only made you think of ways to get away with murder. It was gross really. The seats were sticky, plus your hair and clothes were sticking to you like lip gloss. A shower would be perfect right about now.

"Hi y- oh..." Your roommate, jimin, stared at your messy state. Giving you a good up and down before shrugging his shoulders, "jaemin?"

You sighed, walking over to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water, "Who else? Its always him."

Jimin gave you a small smile and came closer as if ready to hug you but didn't because he didn't want to get sticky. "You know, maybe you should quit that job."

"No."

He groaned and snatched the water that you were about to sip, "Why? You'd only see jaemin in school. And you wouldnt have to stick with his bickering in work." He huffed, shaking his head, "Girls are so difficult sometimes."

You tried leaping up to grab the bottle from jimin, but all he did was hold it above his head. You stomped on his foot in return. Jimin huddled over and you snatched the bottle, smirking with victory as you put it to your lips.

"You fucking snake." Jimin hissed in pain.

A laugh fell from your lips as you walked by him, completely ignoring his words and his pain, "Im gonna take a shower."

Once you got to your room, the first thing you did was grab your work clothes, a towel, and underwear and got ready for the warm shower.

After you switched on the water and let it heat up, you stepped in and immediately felt at peace as the water cascaded over your body, cleaning off the almost dried coffee. Your hair felt lighter, like a feather and your fingers could now slip through the strands easily without an issue. The scent of your body wash overpowered the coffee smell and you felt much better. Water, soap, and coffee were beginning to fill the drain as you finished washing up. You rolled your eyes at the sight of the murky water. What a bastard.

For once you were actually happy to wear your work clothes after what had happened earlier. The clothes actually felt comfortable and jimin was becoming more and more confused as to why you were hugging yourself with a huge smile on the couch.

"No one should be that happy after a shower." He started flipping through channels on the t.v.

"Dont tell me how to feel, I dont smell like jaemins coffee anymore." You gushed overdramtically. Jimin could only role his eyes.

"Please...you act like he's a demon of some sort."

You squinted your eyes at jimin and flared your nostrils, "he is. Hes a nasty, dumb, annoying, self centered-"

"Okay okay I get it! You hate jaemin! The funny thing is you can never get his name out of your mouth." Everything stopped and your head snapped in jimins directions.

"What are you saying?" A frown found itself on your face, jimin leaned closer.

"Im saying that maybe you might like him."

You shrieked in disgust, blocking your ears with your hands. Jimin laughed at your reaction. Almost falling off the couch in the process. "Ew! Gross! Why would you even think that!"

"Like I said, you can never get his name out of your mouth. I think its pretty obvious you like him." He was still giggling at you except your face was anything but happy, more grossed out at how he thought you could like such a person

"I can't stand you. I'm leaving for work." You stood up and jimin did nothing to stop you from going. Even though you still had about 15 minutes until you normally leave. "Ill be back at 9." The door slammed behind you, leaving jimin alone with another laughing fit.

You got in the car and drove off to your work, still trying to come up with a reason as to why jimin is saying all this. Sure maybe you talk about jaemin a little lot but that doesn't mean you like him. Its very much the opposite and jimin should know that. It only frustrates you the more you think about it. Liking someone like jaemin? Please. That would be your nightmare.

As you pulled up to the cafe, there were only a few other cars parked. Few were from other workers but the majority were most like customers or people just trying to get a free parking space. Lucky for you, there were many open spaces, unlike when you come later and they're filled. Maybe leaving earlier wasnt such a bad idea. It saved you the 3 minute walk.

"Y/n! You're just on time!" One of your coworkers, irene, called out as you stepped inside the shop. "We need help back here!" You had no time to even begin to say your shift hasn't started yet when irene took you by the hand and dragged you to where the coffee was being made. "We have a bunch of online orders coming in so can you please help us with the coffee and food?" She tossed you a brown apron for you to put on and you nodded, trying to get your brain to speed up with everything in the world.

It was so quiet when you walked in that you never even realized that the back was busy. Coffee cups were filled and put into trays for orders, food was being heated or baked. It was a chaotic place right now and all you could do was help. So as fast as you could, you began with the first order on the screen. A large mocha with extra extra sugar, whipped cream, and chocolate curls. Easy enough you thought as you reached for a cup but a hand beat you to it.

Your eyes looked up at the person in front of you and just when you thought everything was going fine, it wasn't, "What are you doing here so early?" You asked bitterly.

"I always come in early. What are you doing here so early?" Jaemin asked whilst holding a death grip on the cup.

"Just felt like coming early." You muttered, watching as jaemin turned away with a scoff, quickly cutting the conversation short. "Bastard."

Jaemin was busy making what you were originally going to do, so you looked for another order to get ready. It was just two cake pops and a small strawberry banana smoothie. Something you've been craving recently from the lack of sweetness and fruit in your day to day life.

The cake pops and smoothie were quick to make and were soon sent off to the customer. You happily beamed and wished them good day once they left.

After then there was a familiar face with a friend right next to him, he was quite handsome you must say. He was indeed so handsome that he just looked unreal. "Hey jimin. Whose this?" You nodded towards the bright black haired man.

"This is taemin! He wanted some coffee so I brought him- hey stop staring at him!" Jimin snapped you out of your trance and taemin chuckled.

"Its okay shes cute." He eye smiled, showing off his perfectly white teeth. He's definitely not real.

Jimin tsk'd, "Until you get to know her."

"Yeah yeah... whatever." You smiled at him, completely oblivious to what he just said.

They both ordered and took a seat next to the window. You were still staring at taemin with your head in your hand until someone tapped your shoulder, "Who are they?" Jaemins voice rang in your ears, making you stand up straight.

"Thats my roommate, jimin, and his friend taemin." You glanced back at the boys, mainly at taemin and just stared like he was your first crush.

"Quit staring your gonna scare him away." Jaemin said earning himself a chuckle from you.

You stuck your tongue out, "He called me cute."

The boy smirked from ear to ear and leaned in close to your face, "He was lying." You grumbled and pushed him away from you, getting annoyed by his presence very quickly.

"Jaemin and y/n, get back to work we have orders to do!" Irene called out. Both of you quickly returning to your stations and getting things ready.

"Look at him. Hes basically waiting for me to come over to him." Seulgi, another person in this school you dispise, said as she looked at jaemin in the back of the room. She wasn't very quiet either considering you were only a few seats away from him. So it only meant that jaemin could hear her, but chose to ignore it. Typical boy.

"Honestly. He looks so good today too." Sana, her best friend, commented.

"Oh and did you hear what he was planning on doing today to y/n? Apparently he's gonna-"

"Class get back in your seats, we have much to discuss." The professor stood in the front of the class. Everyone shifted and moved to their appropriate places and waited for the teacher to begin. Unlike you, who was wondering what seulgi was going to say next. If its something worse than coffee being poured on your head, you may just have to bury yourself six feet under after this.

As you were taking notes something flung towards your head and hit you on the side, looking over was jaemin with a smirk was he held his fingers in a sling shot shape. A rubber band was laying on your lap. Then another one. One even hit your cheek creating a small smack sound as you winced in pain. Oh you desperately wanted to get out of this seat and punch the boy in the face.

"Excuse me sir!" You called out, raising your head. The whole class looked at you and your cheeks began to heat up. "May i go to the restroom?" The professor nodded and you headed out. Not until you stopped in your tracks from a loud smack to your butt, causing the whole class to turn around again.

Jaemin was enjoying this, the way you stared at him with wide eyes and open mouth, made him just want to do it again. He never thought this reaction from you would be so entertaining and he tried his best not show it, with only a small smirk covering his face.

You rushed out of the room, faster than ever and leaned against the nearest surface you could find. Not only were you questioning reality, but also why jaemin just did that.

"That little bitch." You said to yourself as you paced back and forth in the hallway, staring at the ground.

"Excuse me?" Jaemin voice rang in your ears as you looked up with a angry red face. Steam was even coming out of your ears and nose. "Did you just call nana a bitch?" He put his hands to his chest and pouted, "Little girl you need to learn some manners." Jaemin tilted his head to the side and began walking forward.

"Shut up." You had nothing else to say as you grit your teeth, looking at the ground.

Jaemin didnt like that and grabbed the back of your neck to make you look at him, "What? Did your stupid head stop thinking? Your normally so chatty for nana what happened?"

"Jaemin i-" you cut yourself off as you felt jaemin grip the back of your neck tighter causing you to moan in pain.

"Stupid girl." Jaemin whispered, forcefully pushing you away. It was not strong enough to make you fall but at least stumble.

You glowered, earning yourself a chuckle from him. "What will it take for you to leave me alone!?"

"Bring this to table 15 please! Thanks!" Irene smiled as she handed you a small cup of iced coffee and you took it, taking it to its designated place. What you didn't except was to see taemin again, gleaming up at you.

"Hi y/n." He smiled and you tried to remain calm.

God how is someone so beautiful?

"Hey, I didnt except you to come back." You returned the warm smile and started to play with the apron around your waist.

Taemin giggled, "I actually quite like this place, its cozy." He began to take a sip from the straw, eyes still trained on you. If only you weren't so awkward with him, you wouldve found something to say other than staring at him and indulging in the beauty before you. But lucky for you someone behind the counter called for you, quickly averting your attention back to work.

The next order was a shake, so you grabbed the correct ingredients and began using the blendor, when someone came next to you, doing the same thing "You seem like your having fun flirting around." The unwanted conversation with jaemin began, "makes nana kind of jealous."

"Hm funny." You ignored him and continued blending the ice cream.

Jaemin casually rolled his eyes and glanced down at your nonchalant face before returning back to the blender, "you know you really do piss me off."

You sneered and snickered to yourself, "what are you gonna do about it?"

"I was thinking of fucking you dumb or until you know your place but maybe thats a bit too rewarding."

The cup was removed and set aside from the blender with your hands placed on your hips, "Im sorry what?"

"Did I stutter?" Jaemin raised an eyebrow and also put the cup down. You went silent, not knowing whether or not to just laugh it off or quickly run away. "And I'm still waiting on my apology."

"One, I am not going to apologize to your bitchy ass. Two, even if I did let you, you could never 'fuck me dumb', it just wouldn't happen. Now stop trying to get in my pants."

Jaemin opened then closed his mouth about to say something, but didn't and just put on a sweet smile, "Go take these to table 7 for nana." He said like he was testing yoj.

"Why? You made them."

"Nana told you to do something little girl, now do it." Jaemins sweet smile was still plastered on his face yet it intimidated you enough to do as he said.

Taemin was long gone when you walked out and you were kind of sad as you weren't able to say goodbye before he left. You placed the shake down on the table and was ready to walk away when you heard your name being called.

"Y/n? You work here?" Seulgis voice spoke as you turned around. Both her and sana were looking at you with shit eating grins.

"Doesn't jaemin also work here seulgi?" Sana asked the girl in front of her and seulgi looked as if she got the brightest idea.

"Oh yeah! Y/n can you get jaemin over here? Pretty please?" She asked sweetly yet with a hint of sourness and you listened, not feeling like ignoring her at the moment.

You told jaemin that seulgi and sana were out front looking for him and he nonchalantly went out without question. Leaving you to do some of the work alone, which you didn't mind considering its jaemin, the annoying bastard who won't leave you alone, but he does help you whenever you need it. And right now, it was a bit busy, and you needed it.

After doing 4 more online orders and sending them off through the driveway, jaemin finally came back with a scowl on his face looking ready to beat someone up. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" He raised his voice only loud enough for you to hear. But you were quite confused on what was happening.

"What are you talking about?" You asked, tilting your head to the side like a puppy.

Jaemin groaned, "I knew you were fucking dumb but come on y/n! Why is seulgi covered in the shake i gave you?"

You paused for a moment, unable to answer that. Is he assuming you spilt her shake on her? Why would you even do that in the first place. Yeah you don't like her, but you're not going to stoop to her or his level. "I dont know."

He slammed his hand on the wall near your head, startling you a bit, "You dont know huh?" You shook your head slowly. "Seulgi and sana both said you purposefully spilt the shake on seulgi. Now answer me honestly. Is that true?" You shook your head again, feeling really small and helpless under his strong gaze.

"I-i didnt spill t-the skake." You muttered quietly.

He inhaled sharply, "Then who did huh? Or maybe you don't know because you're so dumb."

"S-stop..." you frowned, looking down at floor, but jaemin had other plans and made you look up at him. A single tear slide down your cheek and you swear you saw a small grin appear on his face.

"Tell nana what happened." His voice became softer as he swiped away the stray tear on your face.

You huffed, still afraid that he'd do something to you although you knew he wouldnt purposely cause you pain. "W-well she asked me to go get you, which I did, a-and her shake was perfectly fine when I left."

"Are you saying she purposely spilt the shake on herself to make me angry at you?"

"Y-yes."

"Ill believe my little girl for now, but if I find out you are lying, you will be in big trouble got that?" Jaemin lifted his hand off the wall and proceeded to walk back out of the room. Leaving you shocked at his words and still frightened by an angry jaemin.

You went to the cash register once jaemin left to get ready to count the bills until you heard jaemin and seulgi arguing. Lucky for them, no one but you and him were working right now. Irene went home earlier and the normal crew always leave around 6:30, leaving just you and jaemin.

"It was only a prank nana. No need to get so worked up. And besides you didn't even prank her today, be glad I did for you." Seulgi said smiling at the boy in front of her.

Jaemin physically cringed when he heard his nickname roll off her tongue, "you didn't have to do that."

You stood there watching, astonished how jaemin was standing up for you. Hes supposed to hate you. Jaemin didn't even bother going with the girls when they offered him a ride, instead he stayed with you and even helped close. Something he normally doesn't do because he leaves before you and gives you all the hard things to do.

"Hurry up and finish." Jaemin spoke. A little bit of anger still laced in his voice.

"Whats your rush?"

He sighed, "I wanna go home. Plus I can't stand this place right now. I'm pissed."

You finished wiping down that last table and walked over to him, "Just go home then."

"Not without you."

You gave him a dirty look, "im not going home with you."

Jaemin leaned down, his face only inches from yours and whispered, "Remember what I said earlier hm? I wanna fuck you dumb." He then grabbed your waist bringing you closer to him, if that was possible, "Can I do that pretty girl? Can nana fuck you so hard you won't even remember anything but my cock?" You were so lost in your mind that everything became a blur. Jaemins words sounded so sweet but were so lewd. And you were so close to kissing him until he put his finger on your lips, "But you have to wait." You frowned and were only getting more angry by the second. You went from not wanting anything to do with jaemin to just about ready to beg him to kiss you. Was it that easy for him to get in your head? Or were you so sex deprived that now jaemin seemed somewhat interesting?

You laid on jaemins bed getting bored with the constant teasing. He never did anything but that. Jaemin would get close to your lips and back away as you chased him. Hed chuckle and coo at you for being so desperate. But that wasn't the point of all the teasing. He really just wanted you to beg him to kiss you. No words will come out of his mouth telling you to beg, he just excepted it to happen sooner or later. But youre too stubborn to do so, so you grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss him, catching him by surprise.

Jaemins hands gripped your wrists and pulled them off his face, pinning them to the bed, "You didnt even ask to kiss me." Jaemin pulled away, raising his eyebrow high, "Dont you think thats a bit mean."

"So was teasing me, but I let you continue." You huffed, trying to free your wrists from his death grip but it was no use.

"You dont have a say on whether i continue or not. I'm in charge here and you take what I give you, understand?" You rolled your eyes. It was your intention to make jaemin angry. You wanted to push his buttons.

What you didnt know was that not answering jaemin correctly would earn you a slap to the face. And jaemin was not even fazed by it.

"Dont roll your eyes and answer nana." Jaemin smiled. "Can you say 'yes nana'?"

"Y-yes nana."

"Good girl." Jaemin muttered and began slowly kissing your jawline down to your neck, sucking here and there creating shades of purple and red marks. Oh how he loved the marks he was leaving.

You so desperately wanted to grip onto jaemins hair and pull it but he never budged his hands, only tightening his grasps. As he continued attacking your neck, you began to lift your hips up to get some sort friction. Jaemin noticed and shifted so that his thigh was in between your legs and rubbing against your clothed core. A spew of quiet moans left your lips but you wanted more. Jaemin was going to soft and slow for your liking.

"I thought you were going to fuck me dumb?" You said and jaemin lifted his head to give you a quick kiss on the lips.

"Patience baby. You aren't ready yet." He let go of your wrists and took your shirt off. The cold air made you shiver and jaemin chuckled. "I wanna make you cum at least 2 times before I fuck you."

"Then stop talking and do it." You replied, pushing your hips up to rub against his thigh, but they were pushed back down on the bed.

"Didnt I say to take what I give you?" Your head slowly moved up and down and jaemin smiled, "so why arent you happy with what nana gives you?"

"I want more..." you sighed as he started to slide your pants and panties off, discarding them somewhere in the room. His mouth slowly started kissing your inner thighs and you could feel your heat dripping with anticipation. You whined for more but only got a slap to the thigh telling you to be quiet. Needless to say you didn't listen and continued to try to get him closer to where you needed him most but pulling his hair.

Jaemin groaned grabbing your wrist again and pushed it away roughly. His patience was wearing out. You were more stubborn than he thought, but that doesn't mean he can't still break you. "Next time you do that, I'll flip you over and beat your ass till its purple." Your breath hitched and as much as you were tempted, you wanted to be able to sit for a few days so you stayed put and kept your hands to yourself.

But the desperation was getting to you and you wanted relief which jaemin wasnt giving you until you felt his two fingers circling around your clit. "P-please jaemin." You moaned as he flicked your clit with his middle finger. Then soon enough he stuck two fingers inside you. Your pussy automatically clenching around his digits as he moved at a steady in and out pace.

It felt so good. His fingers felt so good. They made your body twist in pleasure as more moans left your mouth. Jaemin was watching your face closely as it contorted with pleasure. He loved seeing your eyebrows bunched together, so focused on the way his fingers worked inside you.

"My pretty slut. Taking nanas fingers so well." He gushed, still watching your face. Jaemin could feel himself get even more painfully hard but he didn't want to fuck you just yet. He meant it when he said he wanted you to cum 2 times. So he picked up the speed with his fingers, your hands landing on his forearm that was resting on near your hip. "Are you gonna cum for nana princess?"

You frantically nodded your head as a wave of pleasure washed over you. You could feel your cum leak out of you as jaemin leaned down and began eating away at your cunt.

"J-jaemin! So...go-good!" Your head flew back as his tongue sucked on your clit and a loud moan filled the room.

Jaemin smirked against your heat, "I haven't even fucked you yet and your already sounding like a dumb whore. Its so easy to break you princess."

"N-no its j-ju-...." you whimpered as your brain wasnt even trying to help you function right. His tongue was extraordinary. "Mmmm."

"Aw my dumb little princess is so cute." He muttered diving back into lapping at your soaked cunt. It was almost as if on cue and without warning, you were cumming again. Jaemins hasty tongue took it all. Groaning at the taste of you in his mouth.

He sat up over you, grabbing your neck, pulling you into a deep kiss. You tasted yourself on his tongue. Deepening the kiss by grabbing the back of his hair, jaemin couldnt help but moan a bit as his cock brushed against your thigh. He felt big. Bigger than the few guys you've been with and you were ecstatic.

You tugged on jaemins pants and shirt as a way to tell him to take them off and he did after getting off of you and sitting on the edge of the bed. His abs were more defined than you thought and when his cock sprung free, your mouth started watering. Jaemins smirk only grew watching you stare. He was starting to get cocky

"What? You wanna suck my cock?" Jaemin asked sweetly.

"Yes please." You reached over to try and touch him but he didn't allow you. And smacked your hand away. It was a way for him to tease you and you hated it.

"So kind for nana now. Ealier you were so cock hungry that you decided to be a brat. Did nana finally break you?" Jaemin whispered as he moved a piece of hair out of your face, looking at you with fill admiration.

"No you didn't break me. But I wanna suck you off." You whined as jaemin picked you up and sat you just above his cock, the tip teasing at your entrance.

"Too bad. Now I want you to sit." Jaemin said looking into your eyes. You obeyed with a little hesitation. His cock was surely going to hurt you so you took it slowly and started lowering your hips. "Fuck...thats a good girl." Jaemin praised, watching his cock dissappear between your legs and your tummy get full with his cock. "My baby's so tiny you can see my cock in your belly." He said, pushing down on the area where he was imprinted in you.

Slowly you started moving, lifting your hips up and down. You were wet enough that he could easily slide in and out with no problem.

Jaemins head fell back as he sighed with relief, grunting as you picked up the pace, "So tight for nana." He whispered and you moaned back loudly. His cock stretched every inch of you to the point where it felt like you'd split.

"More more more." You whined against jaemins neck, gripping his shoulders tightly. Carefully jaemin flipped you both over so he was on top and continued pounding into your destroyed cunt. He kept a hand around your neck squeezing it every so often as a choked out moan left your throat.

His cock was so deep and fast that you couldn't think straight. You kept blabbering about his cock. Only thing on your mind was how nice he felt inside you. Jaemin bit his lip as he smirked at you, grabbing your hair and bringing your face close to his, "Now will you admit that I fucked you dumb and say your nanas dumb slut?"

"Y-yes, I'm na-nanas dumb sl-slut." You cried, tears falling down your face from how good he felt inside and if you thought jaemin couldn't go any faster, he did. His thrusts were hard and rough, sure enough to hurt your thighs tomorrow as he pounded relentlessly. "So close." Your voice came out choked as your eyes rolled to the back of your head. You held on to jaemins hand that was on your neck as he helped you with your orgasm.

Jaemin wasnt far behind you with his and groaned loudly, "fuck, where do you want it princess?"

"I-inside." You moaned as the feeling of hot cum was shot inside you. Jaemins hips kept moving him through his orgasm until he slowly came to a stop. Both of you panted loudly, there were even a few tears falling down your cheek here and there.

Jaemin slowly pulled out, making sure not to hurt you, and he laid beside you. "You did so well." He kissed your forehead. "Cmon ill carry you to bathroom so we can take a bath." He said picking up your worn out naked figure with so much care. Making you forget he was your enemy.

[mwolf0epsilon]

What oc do you want a drop on us? Which one will destroy my heartstrings next?

How about Redacted? I've hinted at a few things about his past, so I might as well finally talk about the faceless K9 Trooper that kinda creeps out the rest of the Guardsmen.

Redacted's past is shrouded in mystery. Such is the life of a reconditioned clone that's ended up with the Coruscant Guard. However while most have either no recollection of who they were in their previous life, or end up remembering enough that they can reclaim their identity, Redacted has always sort of been stuck in the middle.

He's had memories resurface in dreams, but they've always been far too vague for him to honestly recall who he was.

And, at this point, he's given up and just carried on living his life as he is now. Redacted, the brother who talks a little funny and who's face is the stuff of legends (mostly because he rarely takes off his helmet and when he does no one is ever around to actually see his face).

Continue reading... ---

His original name was Schrödinger and he was an ARF Trooper belonging to Tango Company. He was present during the Second Battle of Geonosis and was on board of the Republic Medical Frigate when the Brain Worm infection began to spread.

In fact, he was the clone that Ahsoka and Bariss witnessed being forcefully infected.

Like the rest of his Infantry, ARF Trooper Schrödinger helped hunt down Ahsoka and Bariss prior to the former turning off climate control on board of the ship. Unlike the rest of his brothers however, he was just terribly unlucky.

When the temperature began to drop, the brain worm controlling him began to panic and tried to burrow further into his brain for warmth. This resulted in him not only ending up brain-damaged to the point where his speech was affected, but also caused him to have debilitating migraines and seizures.

The whole experience was entirely traumatic, leaving behind a sort of bitter resentment towards Ahsoka (and by tandem the 501st) and also a terrible fear of freezing to death.

These issues weren't enough to get him reconditioned immediately. For a while, Schrödinger prevailed, but as the war carried on his condition wore him out. Things took a turn for the worst after the battle of Lola Sayu, where his last surviving batchmate was killed. Already bitterly resentful of the 501st due to his dislike of Ahsoka, and now infuriated that the 212th hadn't looked after his brother, Schrödinger snapped under emotional duress and attacked both commander Cody and captain Rex outside of 79s.

He was swiftly apprehended by the Coruscant Guard and sent off to Kamino for evaluation, where he was subsequently reconditioned and reassigned to the Guard as a K9 Trooper.

Now a somewhat clean slate, Redacted is much more friendly than he used to be when he was Schrödinger. He holds no grudges to ill will towards anyone, although he does feels apprehensively disturbed when around 501st or 212th troopers, as well as sudden flashes of anger when he sees either Cody or Rex. Feelings which both frighten and confuse him.

To him it just doesn't make sense that he feels so strongly against them... He's a friendly guy! Some would say he's a little too friendly even. And maybe a little unnerving to be around, but mostly he just finds it difficult to be alone due to feeling like his head sounds "a little too empty" (an echo of his past experience connected to a hivemind). This made him a prime candidate to become one of many K9 troopers, although his particular choice of service beast was decidedly not standard for the Guard.

Ironically the only thing setting him apart from everyone else in his unit, is the fact that he has a Strill instead of a massiff.

[heyyyharry]

Double Date

(a blurb from the Flatmate series)

…in which “I don’t want whoever I end up dating to feel second to you.”

Word count: 2.4k

This is inspired by the song ’gold rush’ from Taylor’s new album ‘evermore’. This song reminds me so much of the flatmate babiesssss.

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Harry didn’t believe in his own ears.

His flatmate?

Going on a date?

No way.

But why would she lie about that? And he knew she hadn’t made that shit up, because the guy existed, and Harry had spoken to him and seen Y/N have a conversation with him several times before. However, never would Harry have thought that the two of them would go on a date. He couldn’t even imagine them holding hands. It was just bizarre. Also, Y/N never went out, and she hated people. Did she know that ‘dating’ required being around a person all the time? It would never work.

“You’re going on a date?” Harry asked as he followed her into the kitchen.

“No,” she answered flatly.

“Okay, then can I come with?”

“No!” cried Y/N as she shoved him aside to get to the fridge.

Harry huffed like an angry child as he leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. “If he’s just a friend, why can’t I come with you?”

“Because it’d be weird! You don’t know my friend.”

“Not true. I had two classes with him last semester.”

“Oh yeah? What’s his name?”

Harry’s mouth froze as he opened it and realised he didn’t know the answer. Y/N shut the fridge door and started drinking her milk slowly with an eyebrow raised, waiting for the answer that he didn’t have.

“Okay, fine,” he sighed. “Who the fuck cares what his name is? It’s shady that you don’t want me to hang out with him.”

“He didn’t invite you.”

“But he wouldn’t mind if you did because we’re all friends, aren’t we?”

Y/N rolled her eyes. She didn’t comment and just brushed right past him. Harry knew it was her way of ending the conversation, so he hurriedly followed her out of the kitchen. She flopped down onto the couch and he came to sit beside her. She grabbed the remote to turn the telly on. He snatched it away, forcing her to stay in the conversation. He wasn’t going to let this end so easily. His need to win all the time was his most toxic trait, according to Layla. But oh well, nobody’s perfect. He had to have at least one flaw.

“Are you ashamed of me?”

“No.” Y/N scrunched up her face and reached for the remote. Harry immediately sat on it. “Hey!”

He ignored her reaction. “Then why don’t you want me to go with you and your ‘friend’ to this concert?”

“It’s not a concert. It’s an acoustic night at a cafe.”

“I still wanna go.”

“You’re annoying.” Y/N aggressively hugged a pillow to her chest and turned away from him.

Harry felt guilty. He might have said too much. If he was aware of him being annoying, it must be worse for her. And he never wished to upset her. He just didn’t want her to go on this ‘not really a date’ date.

“What if I bring someone?” he asked, breaking the silence.

Y/N glared at him. “Like...a girl?”

“Or Niall.” He shrugged. “Depends.”

He expected her to be jealous or at least showed that she was jealous. To his disappointment, she gave a nonchalant shrug and said, “Okay.”

“Okay I can go if I bring someone?”

“Sure, then you’ll have someone else to annoy.”

Harry chuckled as he looked at her while she looked somewhere else. “You could be so mean sometimes.”

She rolled her eyes and gave a smirk. “Thank you.”

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AJ. That was Y/N’s date’s name.

Why would anyone want to name their child AJ? It was like his parents didn’t even try. Harry hated to be an arsehole. Well, not really. But yeah, he fucking hated this dude.

“I can’t believe you dragged me into this,” Layla mumbled and shot Harry a glare as they followed AJ and Y/N to their table.

“It’d be embarrassing if I’d gone with Niall,” Harry whispered to Layla as they took their seats facing the other two, who were too caught up in their conversation to pay attention to all this shady whispering.

“Just pick another one from your long list of hoes,” Layla said.

“Well, I don’t want to make anyone think I’m taking them on a date.” He flashed her a smile. “So I picked you.”

Layla rolled her eyes and picked up the menu. “Wait. They don’t have anything with alcohol?” she asked aloud.

“Try this vanilla drink. So you wouldn’t be so fucking bitter all the time.”

Layla smacked Harry on the arm for his comment. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw Y/N holding back a laugh by biting her lip. If only she knew how cute she looked tonight wearing that babydoll dress and her hair up in a ponytail. He wanted to tell her, but it’d be weird, wouldn’t it? They never complimented each other. And knowing how anxious he’d get, he’d probably say some dumb shit like comparing her to a ghost or something.

“The drinks aren’t the best,” AJ said after the waiter had left with their orders. “But the music is great. My favourite band is playing tonight.”

“Oh, what’s the band’s name?” Y/N asked.

“The Muse.”

“Never heard of them,” Harry said nonchalantly and received a glare from Y/N. He gave her a subtle shrug.

“Well, they’re a small band. But they’re great,” AJ said, smiling.

Layla tapped Harry on the shoulder and leaned in to whisper to him, “He’s handsome and respectful. You don’t stand a chance.”

“You don’t think I’m handsome and respectful?” he asked her, raising an eyebrow.

Layla scoffed. “Handsome, yes. But you’re a hoe.”

Harry was so used to Layla’s sense of humour, he didn’t find these comments offensive at all, just funny, and kinda true. He was far from a saint. “Is that coming from a certified hoe?” he jokingly asked.

Layla smirked and pushed his face away. “Shut the fuck up.”

Harry let out a laugh, shaking his head. When he looked up, he caught Y/N staring. She turned away as quickly as she could but was unable to hide her blushing. Had she been checking him out? He wasn’t complaining. It was flattering, to say the least. With her date sitting right there.

“Stop.”

He flinched and turned back to Layla. “What?”

“Stop looking at AJ like he murdered your cat. You’re being embarrassing right now.”

“We’re not actually on a date, Layla.”

“I know.” Layla sighed. “That’s why I’m tolerating you.”

Their drinks were served just in time the opening act - a lady singing Taylor Swift songs - ended, and the main act arrived. Four men stepped on the stage and started setting up their instruments. The main singer introduced themselves as The Muse, and the first song they were going to sing had some weird symbolistic name that Harry forgot as soon as he’d heard it. He was too busy watching Y/N. AJ whispered something into her ear, making her giggle and Harry’s blood boil.

He was most familiar with that laugh. He’d made her laugh like that all the time. Well, yes, it was kinda weird to be gatekeeping someone’s laugh. But the fact that Y/N found this boring bloke funny made Harry’s skin crawl.

Suddenly, Harry caught Layla’s warning stare, so he swallowed his jealousy and took a sip of his coffee, which had already got cold.

The Muse sang two or three songs in a row and interacted with the audience in between little breaks. Meanwhile, AJ entertained Harry, Y/N, and Layla with his boring stories about his academic achievements. Also, he kept bragging about him being able to cook. We get it, Ratatouille, Harry thought. Go open a restaurant in Paris or something!

What Harry found more annoying than this guy having all the qualities a woman would look for in her future husband, was the fact that Y/N was completely infatuated. If she was just being nice, she should win an Oscar for Best Actress.

“Question,” Layla whispered to Harry when AJ and Y/N were lost in their own world again. “Will I be your plus one to their wedding?”

“Shut up,” he scoffed.

Layla shrugged. “I hear wedding bells ringing. Don’t you?”

Fuck bells. Fuck weddings. Fuck AJ. Fuck Layla. Harry wanted to say fuck Y/N, too. But he had a crush on her so he couldn’t hate her. Fuck this whole place. Fuck everyone except for his Y/N.

“Would any of you like to come on stage and perform with us?” asked the lead singer of The Muse.

“Ooooh, this is my favourite part!” AJ said, his green eyes twinkling.

Fuck this dude, Harry thought bitterly, for being handsome.

“You’re gonna sing?” Y/N asked AJ.

“Nah, I suck at singing,” AJ said. “I play the drums, though.”

“I bet you do,” Harry muttered, but it seemed like everyone had heard him. He responded to Y/N’s questioning look with an awkward grin.

“What about you, Harry?” Layla suggested, obviously wanting to start some shit as always. “Would you like to sing?”

“Harry can’t sing,” Y/N said quickly.

Harry blinked at her in surprise. “Hey, I can sing. It’s just I don’t want to.”

“Oh, it’d be fun.”

“No, thank you, AJ,” Harry said between gritted teeth.

AJ looked quite offended. Fortunately, Layla came for the rescue. “I’ll do it,” she shouted with her hand raised. Everyone broke into applause as she got up and made her way to the stage.

“Can she sing?” Y/N asked Harry.

He sighed and lifted his shoulders in a half-shrug. “We could only hope.”

Layla strutted up the steps and waved at Harry, Y/N, and AJ. Suddenly, her heel was caught by a wire, and she tripped, falling headfirst into the lead singer. She knocked them both right off the stage against one of the tables and had the drinks spilt all over them.

Harry was frozen in shock until Layla’s cries snapped him out of it and sent him to his feet as he rushed up to help her.

“You got drunk on vanilla?” Harry asked while trying his best not to laugh at Layla being covered in strawberry smoothies.

“Shut the fuck up!” she cried. “I wanna go home!”

“Is she okay?” Y/N asked.

“No, bitch. Do I look okay to you?!”

“I’ll take her home,” Harry said, helping Layla up and receiving angry looks from the other band members, who were checking up on their friend. The lead singer didn’t break any bones. Thank God. Sighing, Harry turned back to Y/N and AJ. “You two...stay. Carry on with your date. Don’t worry about us.”

Y/N opened her mouth to speak, but AJ didn’t let her. “No, we can’t just stay when Layla’s hurt,” he said, eyeing Layla up and down in concern. “You live in the dorm, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So do I. I’ll take you home.” To Y/N, AJ said, “I’m sorry, Y/N. Next time?”

Y/N pressed her lips into a smile. “Sure. Drive safe, all right?”

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.

“He seems nice,” Harry said as he walked home with Y/N. She’d been so quiet since they’d left the cafe, he was afraid she was mad at him or something.

She gave a nod. To his surprise, she said, “I’m sorry about Layla.”

He gave a dismissive wave. “She’ll be fine. That was probably karma for pushing Liam off the stairs.”

Y/N looked horrified. “On purpose?”

Harry shrugged. “We don’t know. Possibly. I mean, it’s Layla.”

They both laughed together and suddenly went quiet.

“I’m kind of mad at you, though,” Y/N said after another moment.

“Why?” Harry chuckled.

“You shouldn’t have asked to come with us.”

“You said I could if I brought someone.”

“Yes, I didn’t think you’d bring Layla,” she said and rolled her eyes. “Are you two like...hooking up?”

“Ew no, she’s like a sister to me. An awful one.” He laughed and nudged her with his shoulder. “Why? Are you jealous?”

She glared at him. “No. But you two are both attractive. It’s weird that you don’t find each other attractive.”

“You think I’m attractive?” Harry smirked, loving how quickly her face turned red.

“I mean, conventionally attractive.” She cleared her throat, refusing to look at him as they spoke. “Your hair’s always so nice. It falls into place like...dominoes…”

“Dominoes?” Harry chuckled. “Aww, someone’s flustered. Just say you have a crush on me.”

“No,” Y/N said timidly, as if she was unsure. “But...you should stop teasing me like this.”

“Why? It’s fun. I like teasing you.”

“People would think I have a crush on you for real.”

Harry maintained his nonchalant expression, but the butterflies in his stomach were going crazy. “You don’t?” he asked with mock surprise. “And what’s wrong with people thinking you have a crush on me? Everyone has a crush on me.”

That was meant to be a joke. Harry didn’t expect a serious answer from Y/N.

“I don’t want whoever I end up dating to feel like they’re second to you. Because sometimes I–” Her mouth clamped shut. She squeezed the strap of her handbag and walked a bit further away from him.

Harry found it amusing. “You what?”

“No.”

“Y/N, you can’t just say something and never finish it.”

Y/N gave him a glance, biting her lip. “Sometimes I feel like...I care about you too much. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“Why’s caring about me makes you uncomfortable?” He smiled, unable to hold it anymore.

She said nothing and only walked faster to get ahead of him. Harry sped up and fell into steps beside her again as he cleared his throat into his fist. “Just so you know,” he said slowly. “I care about you a lot, too. Don’t worry.”

She didn’t look at him, but he could see her cheeks turning red. He loved it. Her shyness when she was around him made his heart swell. Maybe that was why he enjoyed teasing her. He wanted proof that he could make her feel something, no matter how insignificant it was.

“Okay,” was all she said.

It made him laugh. “You’re being mean.”

“Only to you,” she replied.

“Good,” he said, hoping she’d heard him.

[gallifreyan-heart]

The Husbands of River Song

Okay, this is gonna be a long one, kids. I know it’s the unpopular opinion, but I have issues with River - that’s a post for another day though. 😅

So, now that I’ve finally recovered from Face the Raven - Hell Bent (I mean, recovered as I’m likely ever gonna be), I decided to finally watch this and boy do I have thoughts. I even made gifs. lol. 

TL;DR - basically, the whole “in love with River” thing is more kindness than anything and even with the block, he still remembers Clara. 

To start though - really, this whole neuro-block thing makes no f***ing sense at all. Like, he doesn’t wonder why there’s graffiti all over the box with the girl from the diner on it?! He sees a message on the chalkboard, but doesn’t react or think ‘hey, that’s weird, someone’s been in here’? So he can remember some of what they did, but not her? 🤦‍♀️ Convoluted much? Ugh. Anyway...

1) The TARDIS was trying to ‘cheer him up’ from a melancholy he couldn’t have understood, right? Obviously it also knew Clara and everything between them, having been there for most of it. The TARDIS’ memories weren’t erased, so that’s a real sad start right off the top. Geez.

2) River - the supposed genius, ‘great love’ of the Doctor, his ‘wife’ of all people, couldn’t figure out it was him? Really? Or as he said, “Seriously?” Even after he flat out said it like 5 times?!  Look, Clara MF Oswald would have figured out it was him, I guarantee. Just sayin.

3)  DOCTOR: “Stop holding my hand, people don't do that to me.” Ok, ouch,  right in the “things he’s forgotten” feels, I see how this is gonna go. 

4) Here, however, I think he absolutely was still having bits of memories about Clara (even if he didn’t realize it/couldn’t see her?). The first one that struck me was in the restaurant. I whipped up this GIF - just look at his face here:

He is so uneasy. You can see he’s thinking it’s familiar somehow, but he can’t place it, so it’s upsetting him. Even River asks why he’s frowning. He blames it on concern for the deadlock seal, but I don’t think so... ’cause, well, hello:

5) “I don't like lying down people.” It struck me as such an odd comment. This one may be a stretch, but all I could think was...

6) I’m big into body language cues, especially with people who can’t seem to use their words to say how they feel *cough* 12 *cough*. When Flemming is asking River about the Doctor, he’s watching her. BUT when he says “ You're the woman he loves” - he immediately glares at him & looks away, swallowing hard. 

Aversion of the eyes relates to uncomfortable feelings & embarrassment. The hard swallow indicates high stress & embarrassment as well. If the statement were true, there would be no reason for him to feel ashamed. He feels bad. 🤷‍♀️

7) Speaking of body language... her reaction when she finally realizes it’s him:

Looks *super* thrilled, doesn’t she? WTF. To add insult to injury, the first thing she says is that he needs to dye his hair. Are they serious with this? I realize it was supposed to be funny, but I didn’t think it was, she looked 100% dismayed.

8) River asks how he managed to get a new face and he simply replies “ A thing happened.” So...does he not remember what or how? That the only reason he is even still alive is because of a ‘thing’ that is 5″2′, with big brown eyes who loved him so much, that she literally begged the Time Lords to save him? 😒

9) As the towers play music, River notices him looking very sad and even asks if he’s crying. People assume it’s because he knows it’s their last night, BUT I disagree and posit that it was making him think of Clara for several reasons: 

Of course he averts the question, but moments later he says... EVERY CHRISTMAS IS LAST CHRISTMAS! Literally. Quoting. Her. 

River says she expects him to save her somehow and he flat out tells her I will torture myself for 4.5 billion years and burn this whole fucking universe to the ground to try and save you no. Adding, rather bitterly, that he can’t always save the day and there's no such thing as happy ever after. Hmmm...

The Doctor, about the towers, “when you least expect it, but always when you need it the most  (ahem) -pause for him to get INCREDIBLY choked up- there is a song.”  Literally the last thing Clara would ever say to him:

           You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.

10)  RIVER: You can't expect a monolith to love you back.

       DOCTOR: No, you can't.

       I mean... that seemed pretty clear to me, especially with her reaction.

11) Supposedly a night on Darillium is 24 years, but does that necessarily equate to earth years? This was about the most out of character thing. I’m sorry, but when have you EVER known the Doctor to be able to stand being in one place for a long time (not including 3 because he was exiled without a working TARDIS, so that was unwillingly). Not to mention leaving Earth unprotected for a quarter century??? 

12) Having the hotel built, making her a sonic and staying with her are all touted as grand gestures that validate his love for her. I've never gotten that vibe with them though. Whenever I see the Doctor interact with River - I feel like it’s watching that one friend that falls all over themselves about a guy who’s really not interested. But he’s nice about it, not wanting to hurt her feelings - because he can see how much she idolizes him and he *does* care for her in his own way. But is River Song his ‘true love’? Absolutely not. Sorry. 

13) No Kiss?! You finally have an “age appropriate” (insert eyeroll) woman, they’re in this big romantic setting, on supposedly their last night, on Christmas and nothing? I feel like that kinda speaks volumes on its own.

As an aside, I’d also like to point out in 7x13 when River begged him not to go into his own timestream. He had no idea if he’d make it out alive, which if he didn’t, would have ended their story. Instead, he sweetly kissed her goodbye and yeeted himself right in there with no hesitation - all to save Clara. 

Oh, did I mention the 4.5 BILLION YEARS OF TORTURE? Ok, just checking. 

Airing only a couple weeks after “Hell Bent” felt like kind of a slap in the face in a way, if that makes sense? Just seemed to me more like fanservice for the Yowzah crowd & Moffat wanting to wrap up her storyline before leaving the show. 

This is all just my opinions, and how I see it. It’s okay if we disagree.  ✌💙