#and they especially resent when he is obviously going out of his way to be gentle with them or sweet to them. first of all because they hat

[termagax]

for all his misery and mopey nature i do think he likes and prefers being roadhog and wouldnt go back for anything. i think "feeling like mako" means feeling small and ashamed and weak in his mind and he hates it.

[rainydayathogwarts]

(Not so) Friendly competition - Regulus Black

summary: Sirius asks out Reggie's best friend, and he is so bothered by it that he has to finally tell her how he feels. wc: 2.1k+

When Regulus saw Sirius leaning against the wall with his signature flirty smile right outside your transfigurations class, he literally felt his blood boil. You were holding your books close to your chest, laughing at something the older Black brother said. Regulus  felt his jaw clench, a resenting glare on his face. He had sped walked all the way from his History of Magic class so he could walk with you down to potions, like he did every single week, only to find you with the one person he avoided at all cost.

Regulus didn’t understand why Sirius was speaking to you, and especially not why he was flirting with you. You were Regulus’s best friend, and everyone in this castle knew that, so why would Sirius deliberately cross paths with Regulus just to speak to you, when he could have any other girl in the castle? Regulus tried resting his face, though he found it to be a lot harder than expected. Instead, he puffed his chest out, confidently strolling over to where you stood with his brother. He intentionally avoided looking at Sirius while saying “Hey. You ready to go?” You smiled widely at Regulus’s presence, a relieved look on your face. You shifted your books to one arm, using your now free hand to slither down to Regulus’s hand, intertwining your fingers with his. You noted the way his face instantly softened, and you were sure Sirius did too. You turned to the older brother, smiling gently at him before letting Regulus drag you away from him.

Sirius watched your retreating form, sighing when Remus pushed himself off the wall behind him, commenting “Well that didn’t go too well, did it?” Sirius scoffed, turning to face his friends “She only pretended not to be interested because of Regulus. You can tell she wanted to smile.” Remus and James just stared back at Sirius unconvincingly. “Like, really smile.” He didn’t know when his affection for you started, but he never missed a shot at someone he liked. Even if you were his brother’s best friend, and perhaps crush. His brother, whose relationship with has deteriorated to almost nothing since he left the household. Behind him, Remus shot James a concerned look, before saying “Sirius, she held his hand!”

You were slightly concerned about Regulus, and his silence as he walked with you to class. You rubbed your thumb in circles on the soft skin of Regulus’s hand, hoping to slightly calm him down. Regulus was quiet all throughout your class, though you felt his eyes on you while you were taking notes down. His eyes bored into your side, as though trying to read your mind. He didn’t take the lead when you were brewing your potion together, which was unusual for him. He listened to you read out the instructions, and more than once asked you to repeat yourself due to his lack of attention. He just had so many questions. At the end of class, Regulus didn’t even realise class was over until you stood up, packing your things away, and putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. Regulus jumped up, scurrying to follow you out of the potions classroom, just a few minutes from the common room.

He followed you through the hallways and into the open portrait to the common room, sitting down next to you on the leather couch in front of the fireplace. Regulus felt your hesitation, mouth opening and closing before you finally asked “Everything okay?” Which triggered Regulus’s string of questions. “Why was Sirius talking to you? Was he flirting with you? No, why was he flirting with you? Did he want anything from you?” You put your hand over his, debating on whether you should tell him the truth or not.

Sirius was walking with Remus and James, debriefing the result of their most recent prank when he caught sight of you walking out of your lesson. He fixed his posture, calling out “Hey y/n!” You were obviously surprised by the call of your name from the boy, a look of confusion overtaking your features. You seriously considered ducking your head down and walking past the Black brother, but he already managed to strut over to you, leaning his side on the wall right in front of you. You blinked a couple of times, muttering “Black.” The boy had ran his eyes over your body, biting his bottom lip softly as he landed his gaze on your eyes. You had furrowed your eyebrows, glancing behind him towards Lupin and Potter, who were intently staring at your interaction. “Hey, you should hang out with us. We’d definitely appreciate someone with your beauty and presence. And, well, we’d be way better company than Regulus and your group of little Slytherin friends.”

Well, he definitely fumbled that one, he realised, by the way your eyebrows raised, face sporting an unimpressed look. “Because there’s nothing a girl appreciates more than someone insulting her friends.” Sirius raised his hands in surrender, adding “That came out wrong. Look, I think you're amazing. Would you go out with me?” You laughed in shock, eyes lighting up with amusement. You looked to your side, expecting a friend beside you so you could immediately make fun of the situation, but instead, you spotted Regulus on the other side of the room, glaring at the both of you. You looked back at Sirius and cocked your head to the side, a smile on your face. “No. I don’t think I will.” Sirius’s face fell, and he straightened up insecurely. “No?” You hummed, glancing to your side just in time for Regulus to pop up next to you. Oh thank goodness, you sighed.

“I don’t know why he was flirting with me.” You answered, and you saw Regulus’s jaw clench at your response. “I mean, well.” You inhaled sharply and smiled softly, trying not to overshare, but Regulus had already caught the fact that you were hiding something. “Well?” You pouted, lifting up Regulus’s hand and lacing your fingers through his. “Don’t get mad.” You pleaded, before adding “He asked me out.” You could see the redness travel up Regulus’s neck in anger. “I said no.” you whispered, hoping it would make him feel better. You cupped his jaw, watching closely as he placed a hand over yours on his face, shutting his eyes and inhaling deeply. Regulus moved his head away from your hand slightly, just so he had enough space to press a kiss on your palm. You felt your cheeks heat up, leaning closer to Regulus and brushing a hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry sweetheart, I didn’t mean to get angry. He just, he makes me mad. I don’t get why he’d ask you out. Even if he liked you!” He raised his voice, hands raised in confusion, before slumping back against the couch. “Even if he does like you, I don’t know why he would try to steal you from me when he can have anyone else.” You leaned forward, moving a strand of hair from Regulus’s face to press a kiss on his forehead. “He couldn’t steal me from you if he tried, Reg.” You reassured him, straightening up on the couch and opening a textbook in front of you.

Regulus observed you while you started up on your pre-reading for your next lesson, waiting until you were engrossed in the textbook, lifting up your wand to practice a spell, before he began his journey up to the Gryffindor common room. It wasn’t long until he finally reached the Fat Lady’s portrait, his fury allowing his legs to carry him at a faster pace than usual. But to be fair, nothing seemed usual about today. He waited in front of the portrait until a group of young boys finally walked up to the common room. “Hey!” Regulus snapped, catching the entire groups attention. “You,” He started, nodding at the boy at the front of the group. “Get me Sirius Black.” The poor boy frantically nodded, muttering the password to the common room before running through the big gap in the portrait.

It didn’t take long for Sirius to appear, a cocky smile on his face as he took in the view of his younger brother. “Regulus Black.” He greeted, opening his arms in welcome. Regulus trudged towards him, grabbing his older brother by the collar and pushing him back against the wall, seething “What the fuck is your problem?” Sirius threw his hands up in surrender, saying “Hey, calm down.” “Calm down!? You decide to ask out my best friend after not even speaking to me for five years, and you want me to calm down?”

“Mate, she literally laughed in my face when I asked her out, so yeah, I’d expect you to be calm.” Regulus loosened his grip on Sirius’s collar at the new information, but tightened it once more when he remembered why he was there. “That doesn’t fucking matter. You made the decision to walk out of my life, so stick with it. Stay away from my friends and stop fucking with my life.” Regulus spat, pushing Sirius into the wall as he let go of him, turning away from him and beginning his route to the common room.

When Regulus finally returned to the common room, he didn’t find you in your spot on the couch, and your things were gone. Regulus sighed, running his hands over his hair and making his way to his dorm. When he turned the knob to his dorm, pushing the door open, his eyes widened, finding you sat on his bed with your legs crossed. He says your name once, watching you watch him. “I heard something interesting.” You mumbled, standing up. Regulus’s eyes widened, and he immediately cursed whatever power allowed gossip at Hogwarts to travel faster than he could. “Did you?” He asked, his breath trembling. “Regulus, did you seriously wait for me to start studying to go yell at your brother? You know I would’ve loved to come with you.” Regulus laughed in nervous relief, dropping his head down to look at the floor. “Tell me what’s really wrong.” You whispered, taking both his hands in yours. Regulus took a step toward you, close enough to rest his forehead against yours, and he shyly mumbled “I like you.” You stepped away from Regulus, looking at him with an amused smile.

“Regulus, you think I don’t know that?” The boy’s cheeks flushed at the revelation, his face turning rosy. “I know you like me. I’m just more disappointed that you don’t know I like you too.” Regulus’s head shot up, his eyes wide. “For fuck’s sake, Reg. I thought you were upset for some other reason, not because you like me. That’s, that’s-” Regulus cut you off “So you’ve known I like you, and you like me back, and you haven’t done anything about it?” Your eyes softened, and you almost looked at him with pity. “I thought you knew too.” Regulus let go of both your hands, cupping your jaw, eyes slipping from your eyes to your lips. “Well since I know now.” He mumbled, and you trailed your hands up to his chest as he began to lean in. When your lips finally connected, you felt a surge of passion flow between you. Regulus slid his tongue into your mouth, and one of your hands fell from his chest so you could hook a finger in his belt hoop and pull him closer to you. Regulus’s lips separated from yours with a loud squelching sound, and you immediately burst into a fit of giggles that had Regulus blushing deeply, and mumbling “What?” Though he had a matching smile on his face, and was pulling you even closer to him by his grip on your waist. He pecked your smiling lips, and you chased his kiss, throwing your arms over his shoulders to pull him closer.

A few days later, when Sirius was making his way to his Potions lesson, he turned the hallway to find your back pressed against the wall, passionately making out with his younger brother who has his hips pressed against yours, arms locking you between him and the wall. Your hands were cupping Regulus’s jaw, lips melding with his. Sirius abruptly stopped in his tracks, and he huffed silently, looking away with disgust when he caught a glimpse of your tongues moving against each other. Sirius put his head down, walking past you both, and it was only then that Regulus separated from you, a knowing smile on his face.

[notherpuppet]

I know they’re probably not going to go into this (which i understand, there’s only so much time in an episode and they’re telling a different story) but I think about Al’s background a LOT. Get ready if ur in the mood for a read.

To be a mixed Black person in America is a…bizarre experience. You come to realize that due to the coincidence of your genetic makeup, white folks may divulge information that they keep so closely guarded from the ears of “more obvious-looking” black folks. Im gonna bring it back to Alastor, but lemme give some personal context. I’m mixed with Filipino, so I’m pretty obviously not white, yet my ambiguous ethnic makeup in a predominantly white suburbia seemed to make white peers and people feel much more at ease in relaying their criticisms or prejudices of black people to me. I would hear someone feel comfy enough to spew vitriolic racist shit with me, then toe the line like a circus acrobat when around someone a few shades darker in skin tone and a few coils curlier in hair texture. It was constantly infuriating and holding my tongue was a practice to both investigate someone’s true nature and preserve my own safety. I did abandon that method of navigating life in America, and experienced the switch-up white folks made when I started ‘broadcasting’ my blackness. (E.G. beyonce pre vs. post Lemonade). The criticisms and prejudice confessions just came less often, til I saw them being caged up completely after white peers experienced backlash from me. After they realized “OH this bitch is a n*****!?”

Now this is from someone who is brown, but i also wanna talk about my white-passing cousin with a similar racial makeup as Al, who is from the south and oh BOY. (Let’s call him J for this post’s purposes). J’s navigation though simple daily life is such a constant contradictory experience, of which he is still working through in therapy. I think of one moment when he was manager at retail gig and his boss told him that whenever a Black customer enters, it’s policy to give them “exceptionally attentive customer service”. Essentially, “follow that n***** around”. This is just one modern incident of when J would hear the quiet part out loud, despite his Blackness, because his appearance was white enough to make white folks drop their guard. Eventually, my cousin and I took to the same direction where we used our advantage of disarming white folks against them when the time came. We would keep note and record of racism and unlock a sort of “this you?” when the opportunity to expose that person’s true nature came. It’s pretty vengeful thinking ngl, but it is really REALLY hard to resist exposing an asshole rather than attempting to teach an asshole to change their ways. Especially given that such an attempt is an ARDUOUS uphill battle. The experience of KNOWING the truth about what someone thinks of your people, and being opened to opportunities and information that you would not have access to if the chance of your genetics was only slightly different is bIZARRE, horrific, and fuel for constant inner turmoil. (It sucks y’all)

Now back to Alastor; to have been a mixed person in the Deep South in 1930s America—it’s not too difficult for me to imagine how traumatic and convoluted that experience must have been. Especially when legally and socially, things were so much more Black and White. And when you’re on the line in between that, when society does not prepare a place for your existence, it can be SO isolating. You may consider the absurdity of such an arbitrary method of determining class, status, and/or caste much earlier in life than peers, which only further isolates you. You hold a resentment of society now that you know exactly how the other side is operating to ensure your oppression.

And then I think of Al’s weird ass moral code. How he arrived in Hell and (according to Mimzy) began killing overlords with reckless abandon. This is someone who likely had to develop the cunning to navigate 1930s Deep South America as a mixed, murdering, psychopath without getting caught by authorities who are already gunning for you. And now he is in Hell where the rules of society have gone up in smoke and he can fully embrace his rage, resentment, and vengeance. A desire to burn down the powerful people of the world can be accommodated and ANY previous inhibitions can finally be released. The morality of rising above someone by cutting them down (instead of developing emotional/spiritual healing) has become the easier and satisfying option. Finally the opportunity to show the power-secure villains of the world how easily you can tear them down when nothing is holding you back any longer.

TLDR; The trauma of racism in America is pretty sufficient cannon fodder for a severe psychotic break, the development of socially debilitating behaviors and isolation, and a quest for profound vengeance. So maybe that can explain some of the enigma that is Alastor.

And this is just ONE facet of Al. I didn’t even get to bring up the isolation that comes with being an aroace nonbeliever in the 1930s Deep South. Like FUCK. I’m a mixed, aroace nonbeliever from a modern day conservative town and yall….what a weird experience for sure lol but anyway lemme get back to my life. Whole point of this was—-WHAT AN INTERESTING FUCKEN CHARACTER TO THINK ABOUT

[somewhereincairparavel]

Annabeth Chase and Jason Grace - two sides of the same coin, an analysis post.

after a long wait, I've finally posted my analysis on jason/annabeth being similar, and mirroring eachother as rivals/potential sibling figures more than percy/jason's 'bro rivalry', based on this post of mine which has crossed over a THOUSAND notes in the last week alone, and I've been getting so many reblogs and comments asking me to expand on my tags in that post and do a full analysis. so here it is. I've been procrastinating this for quite a while now for some reason but I'm glad I'm over my writer's block and I got to articulate my post well enough.

annabeth and jason have had very minor interactions throughout hoo, but the parallels and similarities in their character is jarringly noticeable, which is why I hoped for a jason/annabeth rivalry and not a percy/jason rivalry. they've both been raised at their respective camps since they were literal kids, they were well versed in their respective fields of knowledge, and were well respected/intimidated in their camps.

let's start off with the lost hero

when jason first meets annabeth, he says that her eyes were really intimidating and fierce, so right off the bat, we have jason who's pretty put off by annabeth because she very obviously looked angry, especially since she was frustrated about jason's arrival instead of percy, and looked like she could kill jason to get percy back.

-----------------------------------------------

this parallels to a lot when hazel kept going on about how difficult it was to warm up to jason because his eyes were always calculating and cold, and he gave off an untrustworthy vibe, that he'd sacrifice anyone for the sake of the mission.

both annabeth and jason have a certain similar ‘look’ in their eyes, which have nothing to do with the color. they both have the tendency to make people nervous simply with their eyes, because they always look like they're thinking of new things every few seconds. Ironically, jason first perceived annabeth, the way everyone else perceived him. scary and intimidating with an icy glare and hardened eyes.

They were both said to be ‘studying’ each other in distrust many times throughout. A part of why they didn't trust each other, was, in my opinion, because they embodied their least favorite shared personality trait of each other, secretiveness and guardedness. which is why annabeth got on so well with percy, and jason with leo/piper.

they didn't admire the closed off-ish vibe that they gave eachother. they both needed people who were open and carefree.annabeth said that jason looked like he knew too much information, but chose to keep it all a secret, very similar to her own guardedness from time to time, keeping it a secret and wanting to deal with it silently.

we also know that annabeth and jason are extremely knowledgeable in greek/roman mythology, they both love debates and were quite passionate about history. they were both assigned architecture projects by the gods themselves as a mark of honor and favour.

moving on to the next most important point, they reminded eachother of the people they missed, causing them to feel resentful.

jason, barely met his sister after they reunited. he was bitter when thalia said he had to go look for percy to help out annabeth with the search. he was aware that thalia and annabeth were childhood friends, getting closer to eachother than jason and thalia ever did. she found a home in luke and annabeth, not even a few months after baby jason was thought to be ‘dead’, that knowledge would've weighed a lot on jason. annabeth became the sibling to thalia grace that jason could never be.

while annabeth? the only thing annabeth thought of, after jason had a face off with his mother's remnant in boo, was the fact that jason, who looks eerily similar to luke, could've experienced the exact same fate as him. luke was jason if he had more wrath and held grudges, jason was luke if he had less anger and resentment. annabeth could connect the dots so easily, and that was truly the moment where she gained immense respect for him.

and, when jason told annabeth that his sister was thalia? she had a very odd sort of expression on her face.

annabeth also quotes that looking at jason made her feel bitter, because he reminded her of heras exchange, and the fact that she lost percy for months. whenever she looked at jason, she would only see her two childhood friends, a found family that was broken, and a love that was challenged.

whenever jason looked at annabeth, he would be reminded that thalia had a closer contact to her than she did jason, and had to accept that he would never know thalia as much as annabeth does.

annabeth and jason also appear very confident and sure of themselves, but have second thoughts all the time. they had to put on a fake facade, to live up to their expectations and lineage.

they were both also sort of people pleasers, annabeth couldn't really say no to anyone who asked her for help with things, like carrying the sky for luke especially, because not only where they giving her a chance to execute her knowledge and skill, the thought of helping someone made her genuinely happy. jason also loved seeing people happy, always wanting to say the right thing to satisfy someone, even if it meant he had to sacrifice his own struggles to help them.

fatal flaws:

annabeth’s fatal flaw, is hubris. when you are confident and sure that you can do something, and have a sense of excessive self pride.

and jason's fatal flaw is the temptation to deliberate. hesitation and second guessing, to put it in simpler words.both fatal flaws are so different, yet so similar, and they have both flaws, just in a different viewpoint.

as a child of athena, annabeth appears super confident and even conceding at times because of her wisdom, but at the same time, annabeth had to make sure she was one step ahead of everyone. she had to rethink everything and had to have a plan in her mind all the time, fearing that things wouldn't go smoothly.

she had to hesitate and second guess herself alot, despite her knowledge, like she did when she knew she had to look for the mark of athena. piper and percy had to boost up her confidence with affirmations, to let her know she's on the right path and to just follow her gut. annabeth feels obligated to have a temptation to deliberate, because, as a child of athena, she has to be all knowing and wise, and most definitely cannot fail her mother.

and jason? despite having a very low sense of self esteem and hesitation, he was so used to leading the people who were considered slightly inferior to him in camp jupiter, and basically getting treated like a celebrity for 12 years of his life in camp jupiter, that often, he thought what he did was right, he had his own perception of what a hero should be, and I quote

[“No, no,” Jason said. “I made my choice. You’re not to blame. You don’t owe me anything except to remember what I said. Remember what’s important.” “You’re important,” I said. “Your life!”Jason tilted his head. “I mean… sure. But if a hero isn’t ready to lose everything for a greater cause, is that person really a hero?”He weighted the word person subtly, as if to stress it could mean a human, a faun, a dryad, a griffin, a pandos… even a god”- Tower of Nero]

which was normal, since he had everyone basically following his lead without question as a kid. he's expanded on this in his conversation with piper in mark of athena, where he said he felt weird to suddenly be around people who were either equal/or superior to him in power, and not being in the ‘lead’ particularly.

jason had hubris, but certainly not in a way that you would call it an ego or excessive pride. he was hardwired and brainwashed into having his own perception of what is right and what is wrong, that he thought he was always making good enough decisions, at least from a roman child soldier’s standpoint. [Like when he was okay with not saving nico because it might sabotage their mission, he genuinely didn't think what he said was insensitive until hazel called him out, because he was brought up that way. he thought he was doing the right thing, by prioritising the mission and the duty, first. Like the dutiful roman he was made to be].

both annabeth and jason, have hubris and a temptation to deliberate.

annabeth and jason, also had an extremely difficult time breaking free from the thoughts that their godly parents were always right. It took on alot of disappointments for both of them to stand up to their parents (and not just godly ones, mind you)

they've both had disappointing absent mortal and godly parents with a hostile stepmother involved and monitored with each and every one of their moves. annabeth has had to deal with her stepmother playing the ‘bad cop’ with her father not even coming to her defence, just the way hera came butting into jason's life and giving him terrible memories, taking him away from thalia, with zeus not even caring.

speaking of which, they are both the only demigods who have harboured the most amount of resentment for hera. just the sight of hera pisses them both off, as it hera, stripped off so much time away from annabeth and percy, and memories from jason, which he never permanently got back.

this is sort of irrelevant but I'll add this anyway, in boo, athena also immediately liked jason for calling out zeus's unfairness to apollo, saying something like 'the boy is right' and she gave him an approving/appreciative look for his wisdom, which is pretty rare for athena to say or do to literally any demigod ever. this makes me wonder if she ever saw jason as someone who had some sort of athena legacy in him, which is why she was so pleasantly surprised with him. ugh we could've so gotten jason and annabeth as potential sibling figures bc of how many parallels they have, too bad that the percy/jason rivalry narrative was pushed too hard.

I hope I've drawn enough parallels with their characters, as a lot of you have been looking forward to this post for a while, hopefully this analysis hasnt been underwhelming for you all to read!

@thevoidcaller @karmaajr @onestorytorulethemall @newlyfoundwren @thesummerstorms

[vidduality]

SPOILERS for Episode 6 of the Avatar Live Action series

AKA why this episode makes me SO grateful for this adaptation (re: the Zuko flashbacks and the Agni Kai).

----

Wow.

I admit, I was really worried at the idea that Zuko might potentially fight back in the Agni Kai against his father in the live action. I expected to HATE it, and it's certainly a bold change, but it fits in SO WELL with why Zuko is the way that he is (and why he works so hard to push down his empathy whenever Aang tries to reason with him).

The Agni Kai - Zuko obviously did NOT want to fight his father. He still tried to apologize and beg for mercy, but in the end he was just too terrified of his father to disobey a direct order.

But when Ozai left him an opening to see what he'd do with it, Zuko couldn't bring himself to actually land a blow that might burn him. Making his lack of ruthlessness the weakness that Ozai ends up mutilating him for - even straight up telling Zuko that compassion is weakness and then demonstrating by holding his own child down and lighting him on fire - adds a layer of depth that only enhances the original scene (and in another stroke of genius, we see Ozai nearly in tears himself. He's convincing himself of this lesson as well as Zuko, which was likely passed down to him by his own father). Honestly, this to me is even more heartbreaking than Ozai burning him for refusing to stand and fight. Zuko did everything his father asked and he still failed, because his family has distorted what it means to be honorable and believes Zuko's capacity for mercy to be a shameful weakness unbecoming of an heir to the throne.

The 41st Division - And here come the waterworks. Assigning the very people Zuko was hurt so severely for trying to save to his ship as it's being cast out of the fire nation (presumably forever, with the Avatar not having been seen in 100 years) is SUCH a brilliant addition. His crew resents Zuko for being stuck on this impossible mission with this bratty, angry child. And Zuko is too ashamed of his "weakness" to explain why they were assigned to him.

I can totally see Zuko's hurt at their lack of respect making him even more angry (especially after everything he went through to save them from being sacrificed), and his seemingly irrational anger at them just continuing to make them resent him more in a neverending feedback loop of anger and disrespect that's been growing and festering for 3 years.

Which makes the scene at the end when Zuko's crew finally learns about how he saved their lives (as well as why he's obsessed with the avatar, why he's banished, what his scar means and why he's trying so very hard to rid himself of empathy, even if he can never quite manage it when it counts) so much more impactful. I SOBBED when the 41st Division stood at attention and showed him their utmost respect and loyalty, possibly for the first time since they've been on that ship. Zuko's soft "what's going on?" at finally being honored by his crew is just imprinted on my brain.

The seed of the idea that his compassion may NOT actually be what was shameful about his banishment afterall can finally begin to take root.

I just, damn, I love this episode so much.

[chilschuck]

Can i request for chilchuck react to reader who like to daydream and after he tell the reader he is married, the reader keep spacing out more often out of sadness and they also try to avoid interacting with him much so she can move on. But laios and the other think it's normal since she always avoid interacting with people ( the reader interact with chilchuck more after falling in love with him )

Do you think he will notice? (ಥ﹏ಥ) (ಡ‸ಡ)

`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ WAHHHH ANON this is such a good concept and made my heart hurt…… i ended up adding some comfort to it because if you’re like me, you need it after reading angst!! :”)))

— OF COURSE: chilchuck x gn!reader.

꒰ warnings: ꒱ sfw + hurt/comfort! might be a lil ooc, lol.

꒰ wc: ꒱ 941

✦ i hope this turned out okay!! i made it shorter than my other drabbles by accident but it felt good to end it where it did. i kind of changed the prompt a lil but only because i wanted to give you guys some love from chil still. (;;;w;;;) i’m honestly worried this turned out bad…. hhhhh. i’m so sorry if it’s not what you wanted. ;;; i still hope you enjoy!!! <333

He knew something was wrong.

It wasn’t difficult to see that you had started avoiding him. Even your gaze refused to meet his own for longer than it had to. Your constant spacing out and stares at the floor said all he needed to hear: you were upset.

It only seemed to get worse when you overheard his talk about reconciling with his wife, any hope you had shattering into a thousand pieces in front of you. From then on, you didn’t smile unless you felt you had to. The thick silence you left in your wake was suffocating, and Chilchuck wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

The other members in the party took it as if you were being your usual spacey self, and didn’t draw any attention to the issue. This only made Chilchuck feel worse; he definitely noticed the change.

You used to hang back with Chilchuck and talk with him constantly, sharing little tidbits about yourselves or chatting mindlessly. Things seemed to come easily when it came to you... Too bad he only realized this now.

The smiles you gave him, the eyes full of affection, the lingering touches… It stung that they were no longer a part of his everyday life. Instead, the sadness that ate at you only bled through to your face, into your actions, and into your silence. It was unfamiliar and unbearable at the same time… Especially with the way you’d closed up further.

Chilchuck wasn’t stupid; he knew you harbored some sort of feelings for him. He wasn’t sure if that made this hurt more than it would otherwise. You were obviously distancing yourself from him, further proving his point that inner party relationships were trouble. Yet, there wasn’t any anger or resentment in his chest towards you. If anything, this was a misunderstanding between the two of you.

Calling your name, he approached you almost apprehensively. The recoil you gave made that familiar sharp pain in his chest reappear. Blurting out an excuse, you made your presence scarce. And just like that, you left him alone again.

Of course he noticed. If anything, he hoped that it was all some sort of miscommunication. Sure, he wanted to reconnect with his estranged wife, but… That’s what they were: estranged childhood sweethearts that grew apart. Along with their love, their relationship changed. Things weren’t something he could fix, and his old flame knew that too. But he hoped more than anything they could sort through their differences and still be at least friends.

Of course you didn’t know. There was no way for you to know, or have known his true intentions. Like everything else he tried to bury deep down, you were fading from his life. Chilchuck couldn’t seem to let this one go, to let you go.

So he chased after you. For once in his life, he decided to not swallow these feelings down. He knew there was only so much he could bury, only so much he’d want to bury. You didn’t deserve that, and he needed you to give him those smiles again. To give him those gazes full of adoration and those tender but fleeting touches…

You didn’t pull your hand out of his immediately. Instead, when he called your name again this time, you turned. Chilchuck swallowed.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

Surely there was a better thing to ask at this moment, but your lip quivered nonetheless. A deep sigh leaving you, your gaze met with the floor again.

“…So it’d stop hurting.” Was all you replied, the weight of those words knocking the air out of him. He opened his mouth to speak, but you raised a hand to silence him.

“This is for the best... I hope you understand.” Your voice used to never sound so broken. It was soft in a way that he’d never heard before. You had truly given up on this, and he can’t say he blames you. He’d have given up on himself, too.

But he can’t let himself fall into that same cycle of self-pity. Not again, he assured himself, reaching up to grab a fist full of your top and pulling you down to meet his eyes. “Let me explain this to you. Please. I… I’m not going back to her because of the reason you think.” Chilchuck hadn’t heard himself this pleading in so long. He felt pitiful, and he suddenly remembered why he doesn’t like being vulnerable.

You couldn’t stop your head from nodding a yes to his request, that spark of hope trying to ignite once again in your chest. Trying to snuff it out, you waited patiently for him to continue.

And so he did. Baring it all to you, he decided this would be another step towards being more open with himself. Maybe you’d see him as pathetic for this, but he tried to piece the words together as congruent as possible. The feelings he had for her distinguished with the years spent apart and even some of the time spent together. This whole time he’s been sure that he just wanted to right the wrongs he did, and move on. Hopefully with you, when all this was over.

Of course you said yes. You listened, and with every word that left him, the flame within you rekindled. You weren’t sure what to say for a moment, besides giving a light laugh in relief. Even Chilchuck exhaled a brisk chuckle, scratching the back of his head in nervous habit. He’s not sure he could ever get used to this whole “telling your true feelings” thing.

But for you, he’d try.

— dividers by @/cafekitsune!! <333

[anyydidi]

WRITING THIS POST BECAUSE I'M SO SICK OF PEOPLE MISCHARACTERIZING FORD!!!!!!!!!

Before we begin, everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you really think Ford wouldn't truly care, you do you.

That being said, I feel like people who claim that Ford wouldn't do a single thing to bring Stan back if their places were switched do not understand his character at all.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that he would open the portal. At least not right away. The one thing I agree with is that Ford wouldn't put the life of his brother above the whole planet like Stan did. He realizes the threat of the portal and Bill too much to do that.

But have people forgotten that Ford also loves his brother? Yeah, he was angry, bitter and resentful, but he wouldn't have just let Stan die in the multiverse. Especially since that would be entirely his fault he got stuck there in the first place.

For people thinking, "But Ford was too blinded by rage! He didn't care for Stan until after Weirdmaggedon!", have you seen the show? Have you read the journal? Through everything that happened, Ford kept a photo (tattered and worn, obviously taken out a lot) of him and his brother in his left, inner breast pocket which is the one closest to the heart. If that wasn't enough, for those who haven't read the journal, Ford kept reminiscing about and mentioning his brother before the portal incident. Even though those lines were often crossed out, it was obvious that at least unconsiously he had Stan in mind a lot. And at the end of the journal, it is written that he worked day and night, to the point of passing out, to bring Stan's memories (and essencially Stan himself) back. (Oh and have we forgotten about the absolutely shattered expression he had when he erased Stan's memories? You don't look like that for a person you don't deeply care about).

Still not enough to believe that Ford cared about Stan before Stan's sacrifice?

Let's talk about the fact that when Ford was at his lowest, that being paranoid, sleep deprived, tortured by Bill, drowned in guilt, and completely alone, he reached out to Stan? He says it himself, "I needed help, someone I could trust." After everything, he still trusted Stan to an extent and believed him to be his last hope. You don't give trust like that to people you truly hate.

Ford was self-absorbed and egocentric, but also hurt and betrayed. That feeling came from a misconception, but that doesn't make it any less valid. It is understandable that he acted towards Stan the way he did, with venom and bitterness. But we can be angry at people we love and still care for their well-being.

How I said earlier, I don't think Ford would really open the portal. He wouldn't risk the entire world for Stanley. But I do think he would do anything in his power to be able to bring Stan back safely. You cannot be telling me that he'd be able to live with the guilt and not do anything about it if he could. After all, in his head, it would be his fault. He got tricked by Bill, he built the portal, he made Stan come to him and showed him the portal and he wasn't able to let go of the journal and fought Stan for it. I'm convinced he'd still throw some blame at Stan for some of the fight to make himself feel better at first, but after some time he would just blame himself completely (the same way I think Stan did with the science fair incident). The guilt for all of that would eat him alive.

Let's not forget, Stanley worked for 30 years, basically half his life to bring Stanford home and I believe Ford would be willing to do the same. He would just go about it differently. He would either try to get rid of the threat of Bill and then be willing to upgrade the portal and turn it on again, or maybe try to find a completely different way to get Stan back from the multiverse, or in the end something entirely different, I'm not fully sure.

What I am sure of is that Ford wouldn't just let Stan be stranded in the multiverse without doing absolutely nothing. Maybe he wouldn't succeed, maybe Stan would actually have to find his own way back home because Stanford wouldn't be able to find a solution without risking their entire universe. But Ford would at least try, give it his all, because despite everything, he still loves his brother. Differently than Stan loves him, because Ford is a different person than Stan, but he still does.

So I beg you, people. Stop taking Ford's complex character from him. He can be a selfish, self-centered asshole, but he's not heartless.

[my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction]

Hey! I was hoping you could write something for Marc Spector/Fem! Reader (all 3 boys) where the reader unknowingly does something which upsets the boys, and they kinda pull away, but after the reader keeps asking them about it, they spill (Maybe Marc would feel bad about being upset yada yada yada).

Yooooo, my HEART! What are you trying to do to me? (affectionate)

Pull Away

Marc Spector x GN!Reader • Rating: PG pals •Masterlist• ao3• want to be tagged? | requestinfo• ko-fi •

Summary: Headcanons of when there's an unintentional upset with the Moon Boys.

A/N: I've changed this a little, sorry! I hope that's okay, it sort of went and did it's own thing.

There some talk of OCD. I have OCD, and only found out quite recently that people with autism and adhd are a little more likely to develop OCD than someone who doesn’t. (You’re also more likely to develop it if you have other mental illnesses, like depression/anxiety etc.) Obviously, this is just my own little headcanon but the layout of Steven’s flat does remind me of my OCD hoarder tendencies, while Marc’s minimalism makes me think of how when I was a very young adult I tried to ‘cure’ my ‘messiness’ by going so minimal it was like I had nothing. (Spoiler: it not only didn’t work but made me very sad.)

Warnings: Marc being sad and not so good with his feelings, swearing, a little bickering, OCD talk, over use of italics, typos, not beta read, railroad sentences, please let me know if I've missed a warning!

Word Count: 995

I feel like Marc doesn’t like expressing himself very much, especially when it’s a ‘negative’ emotion. 

Which means he’ll bottle it up and self internalise it.

This becomes a problem, because even if you do little things that you have no intention of upsetting him, he won’t tell you when you do them. Which means you’re gonna do them again. And he’ll get upset again. And it’ll just go around and around in a vicious circle. 

So much so that he’ll start getting a bit resentful that you’re still doing it, even though he knows logically there is no way for you to know that it’s upsetting him. 

So the internalsion and beating himself up will turn into him being very low, and quiet and giving you the silent treatment. 

Now, he’s not trying to give you the Silent Treatment ™ as a punishment, he just worries about his own reactions (terrified of ever raising his voice in anger to you, or having any kind of disagreement, let alone argument) so he thinks it’s best if he doesn’t talk, doesn’t interact with you. 

He tends to fade back and let Jake or Steven front most of the time. 

“Where’s Marc? Is he okay?” 

“He’s fine, Love.” “He’s well, Amor.” 

But neither of them really knows, they are just trying to comfort and reassure you because, in all honesty, they don’t know either. 

He’s giving them the silent treatment too. 

If you do something to upset Steven, unintentionally or not, he’s telling you. He’ll try not to let it bother him, try to not tell you, but all that lasts the grand total of 2.6 seconds. 

“Love, can you not do that, please? It’s just it upsets me, yeah?” He’ll fiddle with his hands a little if he thinks it’s a ‘silly’ thing. 

But’ll smile when you say of course. He’ll also talk about it in more detail, happy to explain why something bothers him, even if he’s not 100% sure. (He’ll start talking about his physical reactions, “it’s just when you touch that part of my back that way it feels all funny, like I want to be sick.”)

If it’s something that is more to do with an ‘unhealthy reaction’ that’s bothering him (OCD talk here) then he’s also open to discussing it when you prompt him. 

“Why don’t you want the cups here?” 

“Because they don’t go there?”

“Okay, is this a ‘they don’t go there because this is the best place for ‘or a ‘they go there in this way or something bad will happen?’”

“Erm… the second one.” 

“Okay.” Lots of hugs and reassurance. “Do you want to put them somewhere different to fight the OCD?”

“No. But let’s.” 

Jake is a little more likely to stew a little when he’s upset than Steven, but he normally will come and speak with you very quickly after taking a small breath. 

“Amor, please do not do that.” 

You know when something really bothers him because he speaks completely blankly. There’s no emotion and his eyes look empty, as if he’s glazed over. It’s part of his defence mechanism. 

When he’s like this you try to speak as calmly and softly as you can. You once turned a bit quickly when he spoke to look at him and his flinch nearly broke your heart. 

He knows you wouldn’t strike him, but he can’t fight the muscle memory. 

You offer physical contact by holding your arms out to your sides (not in front of you) so that he can initiate it if he wants. Which 99% of the time he does. 

He doesn’t like to speak about the reasons something is bothering him until later, after he’s calmed and his heart has stopped racing. Sometimes this takes a few minutes, other times hours or even days before he feels ready. 

He started to write whatever bothered him, summarising it in a sentence on a scrap piece of paper and pins it to the fridge to let you know he will talk to you about it and that he wants to. He just needs time. 

When Marc has been hiding for a while he starts to feel guilty about it more and more, which only makes him want to stay away from the front even more as well. 

Steven tells him off for sulking.  

Jake tries to reason with him.

In the end, Marc only fronts when he feels ready. 

Very rarely does he tell you what was wrong. Mainly because it doesn’t want to bother you with it. 

Sometimes if you do something he doesn’t like and Steven or Jake are close enough to the front they will be the ones to tell you. 

“Marc doesn’t like that.” 

Marc gets moody with his headmates for ‘speaking for him’.

“Not like you were gonna do it yourself mate, was it? No. You were gonna go and piss off and sulk.” 

“Steven,” Jake is ever the voice of reason, can feel how Marc bristles underneath their skin. “Marc needs time sometimes, you know that.” 

“Yeah, but he’s got to learn to communicate too. Can’t be bloody trying to get everyone to read his mind and then getting upset.” 

It starts a bit of a heated discussion that you can’t hear. 

But you do notice how Marc tenses up.

“Hey,” you nudge your arm into his softly and smile when he looks up at you. “I won’t do it again, okay?” 

He smiled weakly and nods, taking your hand in his and playing with your fingers. “I’ll try to tell you what’s going on more…”

“It’s okay,” you pause, “You know what? How about when I do something that’s upsetting you don’t have to speak, or explain if you don’t want to, but just let me know by signing? That way I won’t do it again.” 

Marc nods and you teach him the sign language for stop in your language. 

It works well for you both.

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[annabelle--cane]

placing my hands out placatingly, asking everyone to please be cool and not reignite og!elias burnt out gifted kid discourse. okay? okay. I think this is setting up some more sam and gwen parallels. from mag 193, we know that elias bouchard (original flavor) was told from a young age that he was smart but lazy, he was squandering his advantages, and he was wrong to envy other children because they were meaningless and he was better. he seemed to internalize this to some extent, because by the time he was in his early twenties he had no friends and no family and no real life, just the certainty that he was destined to deserve better.

I think it is reasonable to assume that gwen received similar messaging during her childhood, as she seems to be treating the OIAR the same way elias treated artefact storage (as a stepping stone job to a bigger career waiting for her up the ladder), and she takes a lot of offence when she feels disrespected. from magp 03, we know she's reticent to tell her friends that she's still working this same job, especially because the friend's party she was going to was to celebrate making partner at a law firm.

from this episode, we know that sam was declared "gifted" as a child and his parents rigorously enrolled him in every program they could find, and it started going down hill when the magnus institute rejected him (did they reject him outright or was he there for a bit and then kicked out? what he said to celia doesn't quite fit his earlier statements, but moving on). he has a lot of pent up and fixated feelings about not being chosen by them, he didn't get into oxford, he just missed the highest grades, and he's reticent to tell his parents that he's working this job, especially because he used to be at a law firm.

we know the bouchards are a wealthy and influential family, and as sam speaks with a south asian accent I think it's safe to assume that his family immigrated. of course, there's a massive amount of variation in the socioeconomic statuses of south asian immigrant families in the UK, and I don't know enough about how british gifted kids programs work to know if sam having been in a bunch of them would imply anything about his parents' disposable income, but nonetheless I still think their different backgrounds potentially say a lot about how they handle these feelings of not meeting the high standards that were expected of / promised to them. gwen is fighting to be on the same level of social status and power as her peers, and sam probably felt like he was he had opportunities for upward mobility in this brand new place but kept failing them. it's causing both of them to be very active characters, they are the two people pushing the story forward the most by far, but the ways in which they are active diverge greatly.

gwen, until recently, had felt like she was unfairly stagnating, like she was "not most people" and was cut out for better, and being constantly barred from climbing the ladder made her both resentful of lena and extremely paranoid / insecure about her own worth. now that she's starting to crack it into the "real work," it's obviously taking a great toll on her, but she doesn't want to back out, she wants to prove herself and take what's rightfully hers and not show herself to be unfit for real power. her actions appear to be guided by an ethos that her life hasn't been wasted yet, she still has time to make good, she just needs to ignore that weakness masquerading as a conscience, please god don't let her fail.

sam feels like he's made mistake after mistake after mistake and led himself to his own desperate state where he only just managed to avoid destitution because his ex was kind enough to hook him up with an emergency job that is actively destroying his physical and emotional health, and he has pinned all this frustration on trying to figure out what the magnus institute was all about and why it didn't choose him. like gwen, great things were expected of him, but unlike her he doesn't seem to still be striving for them, that dried up when he had a breakdown at his last job. now he just wants to figure it out and make sense of it, as if solving the mystery will let him fix it and undo all that time and un-waste his promised potential. his actions seem to be guided by an ethos that, even though he's already screwed everything right up, solving the ghosts that haunt his life will some how lessen their burden and maybe, just maybe, give him closure on the Flaw That Doomed Him and allow him to move past it without dragging it still forward.

[damelancelot-darling]

Gotham Inception Fic

Aka: a Gothamite writes fanfiction about the Batfam and the Wayne family like step-families.

All inspired by @jasontoddiefor's post here:

Obviously fans are going to wildly mischaracterize everyone, especially the BatFam so I'm seperating each person's character traits into their civilain ID and their persona. Some of these are grossly incorrect in any kind of canon or fanon but this is from the perspective of a Gothamite.

Dick (Richy):

Everyone gave up on using Dick as his name because it kept getting flagged everytime so they decided on Richy. He confirmed in an interview that he prefers Dick because English wasn't his parent's first language and when they gave him a white name, they didn't know what dick meant until they had already been using it too long.

Way stereotyped. Both as Romani and as a former circus performer.

Goofy, smiley, more of a puppy than anything.

Doting on his family.

Nightwing ():

Human thristtrap.

Oversexualized and flirty af.

Gets very angry easily (stemming from his early Robin days)

Overprotective (of family, of his partner, of Y/N, etc.)

Cool in a way that teenagers think is cool.

Richi taught him acrobatics.

Jason:

Dead lol

Still legally dead and out of the view of the public.

Everyone writes angst about his death.

Made out to be this sweet little uwu baby.

They do guess correctly that if he was brought back, he'd be pissed he was "replaced".

Red Hood (Liam):

Woobified

His "real" name came from him quoting Shakespeare in public and so got called William which turned into Liam because Will was not a cool enough name for him.

Daddy issues af

A lot less violent that in reality.

Brucie has guilty resentment about him coming back but not Jason.

Only shows up to work with Batman on cases that involve his terf.

Hates Brucie with a burning passion and doesn't explain why.

Tim:

More uptight. Kinda like Damian's fanon calling everyone "peasants" thing but less outspoken.

Secretly thinks he should be the only son of Wayne but when Wayne Enterprises was given to him, it quelled most of the jealously.

Kind of the "bad guy" and/or the pessimist in most fanfics.

Basically a semi-spoiled rich kid who inherited his daddy's company.

It's debated whether he's actually a compitant boss or if he's more like Brucie was and everyone else does his work for him.

A small group of fans insist that he's stereotped into being the bad guy and he isn't actually that bad in real life. (Most of these are the Batfam trying to raise Tim's spirits.)

Red Robin (Rhett Robbie):

Yes his name is a reference to his vigilantie name.

Nerd

I can't really think of more for him rn

Damian:

More shy than snobby.

Overwhelmed with suddenly having a large family.

Covers up his negative feelings with either anger or coldness.

Doesn't speak much.

More affectionate than irl.

Snow White (ie: someone found out about the zoo he keeps at the manor and everyone thinks it's cute.

Robin (Taj):

I will murder you with a smile.

Has to be kept on a BatLeash (patent pending) at all times so he doesn't kill all of the criminals.

Complete Middle Eastern/ninja stereotype

They do get his desire to be the only BatKid because he's "actually" Batman's son.

According to the internet (which is exactly where a fan writer would go for name inspiration) Malik means crown in Arabic.

Bruce (Brucie):

Still very much a himbo.

Mischaracterized as "the wife" when shipped with Batman

Some people insist that Damian got his animal adoption problem from Brucie's child adoption problem.

All of his one night stands after parties are fake b/c he'd never cheat on Batman.

A little too dependant on hard liqour when left alone because Jason is dead/he's worried about Batman dying on patrol/etc.

Secretly depressed.

Would 100% kill a villain if they were after his kids (batkids included) and he had an opportunity.

Was taught in-depth selfdefense before Batman even considered a first date.

Batman (???):

I can't think of a good name for Batman. If you can think of something better, please add it.

His Batman persona sticks around even when the cowl is off.

Usually a redhead with green eyes because they suspect he's BatGirl's bio dad.

"Do the butts match?"

Loves his kids and Brucie's kids but is emotionally consipated and doesn't show it well.

Has a tragic backstory.

Childhood friends with Brucie.

He doesn't use guns because they're a huge trigger for Brucie.

I am absolutely not the authority of this kind of AU. If anyone has Corrections or additions they want to add please do. If there's enough additions and Corrections on this post, I will eventually I will make another post with everything added and corrected. 

Yes I know I need to add Duke, Cass, Stephanie, Barbara, Alfred, maybe Clark Kent, etc. I will make a sequel post with them in it or I will just include them when I make the masterpost.

[beelinx]

Hi, how are you? I've a request for Percy Jackson, I just don't know if I want a headcanon or a oneshot, so I'll leave it to whatever you prefer, well, I've been thinking about something where the reader is Athena's daughter, so the reader is kind of a toy for Athena to use, and the reader has a terrible relationship with her father, like, really horrible. And she's having a bad day and all she wants is to hug Percy to know that she's loved, but maybe Percy is busy with something of his own, training or helping a friend of his and the reader doesn't want to be a bother, and she also doesn't know how to ask Percy for affection, so she just stays in Percy's company, following him around like a lost puppy, and eventually Percy realizes that something is wrong, then they hug and kiss and have lots of affection and cuteness.

Thank youuu🤍

a/n: hii tysm for the request ! 🫶 it was lovely and i hope i did it justice <3 warnings: fem!reader though it’s not stated very much. angst w/ a happy ending !! 1.4k words

the grounds of camp-half blood usually served as comfort to many half-bloods. it was a safe haven, a place away from monsters and somewhere to socialize with fellow demigods.

today, though, it felt everything but a safe haven for you.

well, you guess it was kinda nice to have time away from your father. it wasn’t uncommon by any means for demigods to have rocky relationships with their mortal parents. after all, they were mortal. it was incredibly difficult for them to truly comprehend anything their children are going through. 

or, sometimes they simply resented their child for how they came to be. because it’s not like the other parent is very present in their lives, so they’re basically a single parent.

your father, it seemed, resented you for that and everything else. all the opportunities you allegedly took away the very day your mother, athena, dropped you off at his door.

every day you spent at his home you seemed to get along worse. it was impossible to have a normal conversation without it ending up as an argument. an argument in which he simply refused to ever hear your side in, always believing himself to be so much smarter and superior. after all, that is why athena chose him.

no matter, you don’t need to give him any thought while you were at camp. here, you had a much bigger problem. a problem in the shape of your mother, the goddess of wisdom, athena.

it seemed that whenever she found an excuse, she would send you out on a quest. whether that is a really important and dangerous one, or a quest that felt as silly as buying groceries, it didn’t matter. because, truth is, you were basically a toy to her, always doing whatever she wanted.

it made you feel horrible, feeling like just a puppet in the grand game of the gods.

but you always had someone to brighten your day – your boyfriend, percy.

whenever you had one of your bad days, he always made sure to kiss you and hug you tightly, reminding you of how important you were to him and how much you mattered. he was always there, comforting you and making you laugh. percy felt like the light in the dark and twisted world of the gods.

today, your mother had given you another likely worthless task or quest for her, so all your previous feelings had once again emerged as strongly as ever.

so, naturally, today all you wanted was to be comforted by him.

however… percy seemed to be pretty occupied currently. with his training and how many campers constantly seeked his aid in training of their own, obviously wanting advice from the percy jackson — interrupting him now felt wrong. you’d feel horrible disturbing him now when he was so busy, especially since he was clearly enjoying himself.

instead, you opted for the next best thing: simply hanging around him.

percy’s company always had a way of cheering you up, even if he wasn’t fully acknowledging you. small comments like “that was fun, right?” and “did you hear what that guy said?” were around the few things he directed at you.

that’s fine, though. it was nice he was at least thinking of you.

still… you really wanted him to hug you. 

the longer you spent following around like a lost puppy, the more desperate you felt. you felt so alone, so helpless. but he was busy. and it wasn’t his duty to always be around to help and comfort you. yet it seemed that’s what you always asked of him. his company, his hugs, his warmth.

“babe,” percy’s voice broke you out of your thoughts. you snapped your head towards him and blinked away the tears pooling in your eyes. you hadn’t even noticed you were crying. “are you okay?”

“um, yeah,” you replied, your voice hoarse. “i was just…” you trailed off, not able to find the words for whatever excuse your mind started fabricating.

percy scrunched his eyebrows, worry clearly etched into his features. he turned around and bid goodbye to whatever camper he was helping train now – someone from the ares cabin, you thought you remembered when he first walked up.

immediately after the very grateful camper left, percy returned his full focus back on you. your eyes were trained to the ground, feeling slightly embarrassed now.

suddenly, you felt his strong arms wrap around you. your eyes widened for a second, slightly surprised at the random (but very needed) affection – but then you closed your eyes and hugged him back, welcoming the feeling. the warmth of his hugs was exactly what you were looking for and waiting for this whole day, and suddenly you felt those very same tears you banished less than a minute ago return to your eyes.

you sobbed on his shoulder for what felt like ages. he didn’t say anything; neither of you did. percy silently held you while you cried your heart out. only sign of movement from him was when he ran his fingers through your hair, a silent way of comfort you greatly appreciated. no campers were around to interrupt you. percy and that ares kid were the only people at the training grounds today – a fact you were incredibly grateful for now.

after what was either five minutes or a full hour, you slowly pulled away.

“i’m sorry,” you finally said. luckily, your voice didn’t break, but it was close to. “i shouldn’t have interrupted you. you were busy and i-”

“no.” he cut you off. “i’m never too busy for you.”

“but i interrupted you while you were helping some camper out,” you sniffled.

“i know,” he said, “and i don’t care.”

“percy-”

“you need to tell me when you’re feeling down, okay? i want to be here for you, and i would never ever be upset with you for telling me, even if you think you’re disturbing me,” he assured you.

you were able to squeak out a small “okay” before he tenderly grabbed the sides of your face and slowly brought your lips to his. percy’s kisses always had a way of making your heart feel like it was going to explode, no matter how many times you’ve kissed. he always put all his love in them, towards you.

you only broke away once you were lacking air; your foreheads stayed pressed against one another. your eyes remained closed, it helped you focus and calm down. once you opened them, you found percy was already staring at you. he sighed and gave you a quick peck on your lips before fully separating.

percy placed one hand on each of your shoulders, “i’ll go with you.”

“what?”

“whatever your mom wants you to do, i’ll help,” he said, looking already set on the idea. “or you could tell her you don’t want to, that you’re not a toy for her to mess with. whatever it is you want to do, i’ll be with you. ‘kay?”

you smiled softly at his words, tears already threatening to come back once again. his support made you feel stronger, and while you knew standing up to your mother was not going to be easy, you knew you’d have to do it eventually. you’re glad you wouldn’t have to do it alone, though. you’d never have to face any challenge alone, because he’ll always be there for you – even if all you need is just a quick hug.

your arms wrapped around his neck, bringing him in for another hug. “thank you.”

he laughed softly, hugging you back so tightly it almost felt like you were suffocating, “let’s go get some rest first, though. you look like you need a relaxing nap.”

you raised your eyebrows. “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“that i wanna cuddle?” he snickered, “or maybe that you need cuddles.”

you pulled away from the hug and rolled your eyes at him. “you,” you pointed a finger at his chest, “cannot be serious for one second, can you?”

“yes i can!”

“no, you really can’t,” you chuckled softly, “whatever, i like you just the way you are.”

it was his turn now to raise his eyebrows at you. “what’s that supposed to mean?” he said, imitating your tone for earlier.

“it means you’re a dunce.”

“hey!”

“kidding!” you laughed heartily.

he waited a bit for you to calm down from your laughing fit. then, he said, “race back to my cabin?”

you turned your gaze towards him, eyes already determined. well, it seemed he knew you well enough to know your competitive spirit loves a good race.

“you’re on, percy jackson.”

[prince-liest]

was recently talking to a friend about qi rong which then lead to me going on a reread of my favorite qi rong fic EVER, and now I’m in my feels about him, his relationship with his family, and his relationship with xie lian and guzi.

I just love qi rong a lot. to be clear, he’s a horrible little gremlin and that is a lot of WHY I love him - but I also think that fundamentally qi rong is a character who is super traumatized but does not receive sympathy for that trauma because he is not traumatized in a “palatable” way which is a trend that starts when he is young and just never ends, canonically, at any point in his life

right from the bat: the first 5 years of his life, he's being physically and emotionally abused, he's cast out to live in a shed, his mom is forgotten by her family. by the time she finally escapes his abusive father and goes back to the palace, her elopement with him has been swept under the rug and most people don't actually know what happened - and are then weirded out by her and qi rong, causing all the children and even most adults around qi rong to basically refuse to interact with him. so he's abused and hated, then isolated to the point where nobody talks to him, nobody plays with him. the one time he thinks he succeeded at attempting to make some friends, it turns out that they tricked him into writing a death wish for himself and his mother on his lantern.

and all the while, he's watching xie lian and the adulation he receives, not understanding why xie lian gets those things and he does not. everyone always says he looks like xie lian. he’s even called xiao jing, like he’s a mirror of the crown prince. what’s the difference?

and then xie lian himself is the only person aside from his own mother to be genuinely kind to qi rong. qi rong is desperately lonely, envious and fixated on the cousin that nobody will stop comparing him to, and then said cousin is the only person to reach out to him with kindness. of course he wants to attach himself to xie lian and emulate him.

unfortunately for both of them, then his mother dies - not just randomly, but specifically in defense of xie lian’s mother, and having extracted a promise for xie lian’s parents to care for qi rong. however, things don’t actually change at that point. sure, they take him in and buy him whatever he wants, but as far as love and care are concerned, xie lian is really the only potential source of those things left for qi rong. xie lian is also a teenager with a lot of pressure on his shoulders and a lack of understanding of difficult situations. of course he doesn’t know how to raise his traumatized, misbehaving cousin! and nobody else bothers to. it’s deeply unfair for xie lian to be used as the singular tool to discipline and direct qi rong, and that directly contributes to their extremely soured relationship.

now that qi rong’s mother is dead, there is nobody left around that actually wants him or is willing to put effort into properly raising him. when a kid turns out as wild as qi rong - that's not just random happenstance, that happens because they weren't parented right (or at all). he acts out in increasingly insane ways for the attention everyone hates to give him - anyone's, but especially xie lian's, which sucks for xie lian because it should have been his parents providing qi rong with an authority figure and source of love, not xie lian's teenage self. and people respond by waving him off, giving him whatever he wants just to make him go away, and ignoring him, because he has a deeply off-putting personality.

and it causes everyone around qi rong to resent him in this vicious cycle that escalates his behavior because he doesn't know what else to do - until eventually even xie lian, the one person that he really looked up to, hates him too.

obviously qi rong is an awful person by the point we reach in canon, but I also think that if he had received regular hugs as a child and maybe some actual parenting from someone who didn’t beat him, instead of just being given a bunch of money and being told to fuck off

specifically because he was weird and traumatized and unlikeable

things would have turned out very different for him. because he very clearly tries - that’s one thing that’s very clear in the flashbacks and even continues to modern canon: qi rong really tries to get love and attention, and when that doesn’t work, he just escalates to “any attention, bad attention, attention that proves I’m worth something, proves wrong all the people saying the supposedly-amazing cousin that took away my only source of kindness when he started hating me, is so much better than me”. he starts out an awkward, off-putting kid and ends up the night-touring green lantern. of course he holds enough resentment to end up a calamity. his cannibalism shtick doesn’t even read as genuine to me, it just seems like he picked out “what’s the worst, most attention-grabbing thing I can possibly be to pre-emptively justify everyone’s disgust in me” and landed on that.

(see also: I think it’s hysterical that he has very strong opinions and abilities as pertains to gourmet cooking, and then just uses them to lure in victims so that he can have his meal of Raw Unseasoned Human Flesh. you can’t tell me he’s doing it for anything other than the bit at this point.)

and that’s also why I think his weirdly wholesome relationship with guzi also makes a lot of sense. qi rong is a shockingly decent father to him (eventually), probably in part because he overidentifies with guzi also being abused by his father, but also, because guzi is literally just a kid and therefore is not someone that yet has the capacity to have all these preconceptions about qi rong, nor for qi rong to read into his words and be insulted, because. that's just a kid. there’s nothing to read into.

I think his treatment of guzi (eventually) shows that he's capable of being at least kind of decent (or at least functional), he's just never been in a circumstance where his trauma and relationships let it happen. his material life was always supplied for, but his emotional and familial environment in xianle was invariably toxic for him.

anyway, I think qi rong needs a shower and a hug, in that order, and then to be forced to learn to interact with people who don't immediately assume the worst of him. thanks for coming to my TED talk, I know it was long as hell.

[shinra33459]

I feel terrible for Spider

I get that a lot of people don't like Spider as a character, but when looking through his backstory, his childhood has been straight up fucking awful. And what better way to showcase this than to do one of my favorite things: playing psychoanalyst. Miles Socorro was born on Pandora in 2154, likely a few months before the Battle for the Tree of Souls. Growing up, he resented his father, and his mother, Paz, was killed in the final battle who he feels the closest kind of connection too, even though he never got to know her. Back in Hell's Gate when he was growing up, he wasn't close to his foster parents, Nash McCosker and Mary, and really only returned to them to eat, sleep, or when the Sullys didn't want him around. He grew up his entire life immersed in Na'vi culture, so much so that he feels like he's more Na'vi than he is human, even going so far as to paint blue stripes on his skin, style his hair in Na'vi dreadlocks, and wear a Na'vi loincloth to feel more like one of them. He's fluent in their language, knows the customs of the Omatikaya, learned to live as they do, hunt as they do, and survive as they do. In a way, he's a mirror image of Jake with the key difference being that Spider doesn't have an avatar to put his consciousness into. All the while, Neytiri treats him like shit his entire childhood, berating him, keeping him away from family gatherings, and even trying to forbid him from seeing Kiri when he was growing up. Jake stands up for him from time to time and is somewhat accepting as Jake knows exactly what Spider is going through, but even then, Jake literally refers to Spider as a stray cat. Not as the person Lo'ak and Kiri are the closest to and view as a sibling but likening him to a stray animal. Neytiri has valid trauma, but that does not excuse her actions. Her actions border on actual emotional and psychological abuse, and then when slashing him with her knife and then holding him at knifepoint and threatening to kill him as leverage, it crosses the line into physical abuse. Her pain gives her no right to treat a literal child the way she has. A child is not responsible for the sins of the father, and he didn't ask to be born human, hell, he didn't even ask to be born, period.

Now, it's obvious that he looked up to Jake and Neytiri in some way before everything, maybe not parental, be he obviously had a deep respect for them. They were the parents of the people he saw as siblings, and it's obvious that even back then, he was looking for any sort of parental affection. From when he was an infant to when he is 16, he never had anything really resembling that in a way that truly mattered, which is likely another reason why he hung out with the Sully family as much as he did, and likely hoping for anything resembling that. So, when Quaritch comes back, and says that he cares, even if Quaritch was just doing it to manipulate Spider, is it any wonder he started forming a bond with the man, especially over the months he was in captivity? He's been cut out of any parental affection for really his entire life, and here comes a Na'vi clone of his biological father who appears to be offering that to him. Combine that with the possibility of some form of Stockholm Syndrome, is it any wonder why he saved Quaritch as well? And then by the time Spider is fully adopted into the Sully family, he's 16 years old, two years away from being a full-grown man. The damage is already done. If he were a real person, he would be psychologically scarred beyond belief, and it wouldn't be surprising that a person like Spider would end up with behavioral issues, difficulties forming healthy relationships, boundary issues, self-esteem issues, and potentially substance abuse issues among a laundry list of others. This poor kid deserved and still deserves way better than what he's gotten, and it's likely that his treatment over the years, not having any kind of a stable childhood, growing up without a stable family, and so many more, likely damaged him for the rest of his life. I genuinely hope that he can find some kind of peace in the upcoming movies, because thus far, his entire life has been one gigantic trainwreck.

[solarmorrigan]

Hi! Could you possibly do 'You don't have to stay.' With Steddie from the angst writing prompt, please? Thank you in advance 😊

Hi! My apologies again for taking two weeks to get to this, but thank you for sending it! This one was fun to write :D

[No warnings; happier ending this time, I promise]

Angsty-ish Prompt List

-

Eddie feels like an idiot.

He just – he got so wrapped up in everything. In the way Steve has been keeping him company every evening, in the way they have dinner together and play cards together and watch movies together and fucking fall asleep together (Eddie and Wayne’s new place is bigger than their old one, but it’s not like the government sprung for a house with a goddamn guest room or anything). He just forgot that Steve isn’t really meant to be part of his life.

No, Eddie just has Steve on loan.

He is abruptly reminded of this fact one afternoon when he hits Family Video with the intent to pester Steve (and maybe even rent a movie) and instead stumbles right into the tail end of a conversation.

Maryellen Someone-or-Other from the year below Eddie (he’s never really seen the point in remembering names unless they’re a friend or a foe; he figures his brainspace has better uses than the names of people who don’t give a shit about him one way or the other) is leaning over the counter, making eyes at Steve. She’s practically batting her eyelashes and resting her weight in a way that puts the low-scooped neckline of her shirt prominently on display.

“Are you sure?” Maryellen is asking, bottom lip pouting out in a way that is, in Eddie’s opinion, far too obvious.

“Afraid so,” Steve replies with one of his softer smiles, like he might actually be sorry. “I already have plans tonight.”

And – plans? What plans? Eddie thought Steve would be coming over to his house tonight, like pretty much every night.

But then Steve’s eyes flick up from Maryellen and catch Eddie standing stupidly in front of the doors, and his smile widens a little, becomes something happier, sillier, and – oh. Eddie’s house is the plan. Right.

“Well,” Maryellen sighs, high and put-upon, pulling Steve’s attention back to her, “maybe next time.”

“Uh, yeah.” Steve nods. “Yeah, maybe.”

Maryellen glances Steve up and down one more time—and, seriously, obvious much?—before she straightens up and sashays past Eddie and out of the store. She doesn’t even seem to have a video with her. Had she come in just to ask Steve out?

And Steve had turned her down?

It’s not like Eddie is interested in what she’s selling, but he has eyes – Maryellen Whatserface isn’t the sort of date you just turn down. Not when she’s flirting and flashing her cleavage at you over the counter of your workplace. And she especially isn’t the type of date Steve Harrington turns down, certainly not to spend an evening sitting around in Eddie’s room doing a whole lot of nothing.

Of course, that’s not how Eddie sees it – not really. They’re not doing nothing if they’re talking, if they’re sharing stories or thoughts or even just dumb jokes. Not if they’re sitting quietly together because sometimes you can only be that type of quiet with someone who gets you. Not if Eddie is strumming random notes on his guitar and Steve is humming along, almost absently, like he doesn’t even notice he’s doing it.

It isn’t nothing to Eddie, but to Steve – well, now that Eddie thinks about it, Steve is probably just putting his life on hold so he can be a good friend to Eddie in the aftermath of all the Upside Down fuckery.

Which is very kind of him, obviously (which is apparently just the sort of person Steve actually is; sure, he complains a whole hell of a lot, but Eddie doubts if there’s a single damn thing Steve won’t do if he thinks he can help someone really in trouble), but Eddie doesn’t need him to do that. He doesn’t need any kind of pity friendship. He doesn’t need Steve to put all his shit on hold just to take care of him, only to end up resenting him because he can’t go anywhere or do anything because he’s too busy being the goddamn babysitter.

Eddie doesn’t need that.

“Hey.” Steve is the one leaning the counter now (and he doesn’t exactly have Maryellen’s assets, but damn if the position doesn’t make his shirt stretch appealingly over his chest, anyway) and making eyes at Eddie, except they’re sort of confused-and-concerned eyes, which makes sense, since Eddie still hasn’t moved out of the damn doorway. “You okay?”

“Just fine,” Eddie says, snapping back into motion. “I’m here to pick a movie for tonight.”

“Y’know, I work at the video store,” Steve says, arching one heavy brow. “I’m here right now, even. You could just let me pick something to bring home.”

Eddie almost twitches at the casual slip of the tongue – home. Like Steve doesn’t have other places to be, a better house to actually go home to.

“I could,” Eddie drawls, “but I have it on good authority—my own, in fact—that your taste in films is not to be trusted.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “Just because you can’t appreciate Sly or a good underdog story–”

“Two hours of dudes punching each other, Steve.”

“That’s not all the movie was, and you know it!”

“Two hours!”

And just like that, they fall into their usual banter, but somewhere in the back of his mind, Eddie can’t quite let go of what he’s been reminded of.

It follows him back home (to his home) with the movie in his hand (a decidedly non-sports-related movie) and dogs his thoughts and winds him up, and by the time Steve has gotten off work and is leaving his shoes politely by the door, Eddie is – well, he’s a little on edge.

A bit twitchy.

Maybe more than a bit.

Maybe he might be watching Steve, looking for signs that he doesn’t want to be there, that he has better places to be, that Steve regrets turning down Maryellen (if that even was her name? Now that Eddie thinks about it, it might have been Marie. Hard to say).

Maybe he watches Steve carefully as they make dinner, and as they eat, and as Steve heckles his movie choice just for the hell of it, and maybe he jumps on it a little too hard when, as the evening gets later, Steve glances at the clock and sighs.

“You know, you don’t have to stay,” Eddie says, shooting for perfectly casual.

Steve, who had been partway through rubbing tiredly at his eyes (probably about time to get those contacts out; he always forgets, and Eddie is always reminding him), pauses and pulls his hand away from his face to look blearily at Eddie. “What?”

“Just, if you have other places to be, y’know?” Eddie shrugs. “You don’t have to stay.”

Steve blinks. “What other places would I be right now?”

Eddie shrugs. He’s very casual about this and not worked up at all, as evidenced by all the easy shrugging he’s doing. “Oh, I don’t know. With Maryellen, maybe? She seemed pretty interested in taking you out tonight.”

A confused sort of look is working its way onto Steve’s face, like he has no idea what the hell Eddie is talking about, like he hadn’t just turned down a date earlier today. “Do you mean Madeline?” Shit, right, that was it. “Why would I want to be with her? Dude, what the hell are you even talking about?”

“I don’t know, Steve!” Eddie snaps, tossing his arms up in hopes that it’ll get some of his nervous energy out. “I just know that you’ve been here babysitting me almost every night for weeks–”

“I’m not babysitting, what are you–”

“And I figure that maybe there’s other shit you’d rather be doing! Places to be, things to do, people to fuck, whatever.”

And– Oops.

Eddie hadn’t quite meant to let all that out. And now Steve looks offended.

“What the hell is your problem tonight?” Steve asks, sitting up from where he’d been slouching on Eddie’s bed. “Did I do something to make you think I don’t wanna be here, or what?”

“I – well – do you want to be here?” Eddie splutters. “You’re a popular guy, and you’re turning down dates to sit around in my room all night? Doesn’t check out, man!”

Unnervingly, Steve doesn’t immediately snap back. He just stares at Eddie for a long moment.

“So, what? You think I’d rather be at some high school party? Drunk off my ass? Making out with some girl who doesn’t know me or give a shit about me?” Steve finally asks, voice low and heavy. “What the hell have I done since you’ve actually gotten to know me that made you think I still want all that shit?”

Eddie opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. He doesn’t exactly have a specific defense.

Steve scoffs. “Did you ever think that I just want to spend time with you? That I like being here, that I like you? But fine, whatever.” He slides off the bed and stands up. “You want me to fuck off so badly, I’ll go.”

And with that, he stalks out of Eddie’s room.

Eddie is so busy reeling with the “I like you” of it all that it isn’t until he hears Steve shuffling with his shoes by the door that he manages to snap into action.

“Steve!” he calls down the hall, running full tilt for the entryway, because he doesn’t know much, but he knows he needs to stop Steve before he leaves, before some kind of irreparable damage is done.

Steve doesn’t pause, reaching for the door and pulling it open, and what Eddie means to do is step past him, put a hand on the door, keep Steve there just a little longer so they can talk.

What actually happens is that Eddie’s momentum carries him flying right past Steve, into the door, yanking the knob from Steve’s hand and slamming the whole thing shut.

“Eddie, what the fuck!” Steve exclaims, (rightfully) startled.

“I don’t actually want you to fuck off, okay?” Eddie insists, because he is a god of eloquence when under unexpected pressure. “I want… I really want the opposite of that, actually.”

Steve shoots him a disbelieving look. “So you were being a dick because you want me to stay,” he says flatly.

“Nooot exactly,” Eddie draws the words out, reaching up and twisting his fingers in his hair while he tries to think. “I was being a dick because I want you to stay but I was afraid you wouldn’t want to.”

Steve continues to stare at him. “Eddie, that makes no goddamn sense.”

“I didn’t say it did! I think we know each other well enough for you to know by now that I am barely in charge of my brain, Steve!” Eddie huffs. “I just – I don’t get why you would want to hang around here when you probably have better options.”

“No, see, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense,” Steve says, his voice going a little softer. “You thinking I wouldn’t want to stay, or that there’s anywhere better for me to be. I don’t want to be anywhere else, or with anyone else. I just… want to be here with you.”

“You…” Eddie looks over at Steve, really looks, and catches the anxiety sitting in his expression, and the hopeful spark in his wide eyes, and realizes that he’s absolutely had the wrong end of the stick. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Steve says with a shrug that’s just about as casual as Eddie has been all night.

“Well then.” Eddie reaches up and slides the deadbolt back into place before giving the door a little pat; its services will no longer be required. Then, before he can think better of it, he reaches out and takes Steve’s hand, threading their fingers together and giving him a little tug back towards the hall. “Come on.”

“And where are you taking me, exactly?” Steve asks, amused and something a bit like relieved.

Eddie continues pulling him down the hall, heading for his room, and tosses a grin over his shoulder. “I am taking you exactly to where we both want to be.”

And if the way Steve crowds him over the threshold and into his bedroom is to be trusted, they are perfectly on the same page.

[cheemscakecat]

I think I solved the “That six-fingered nerd hasn’t been himself in 30 years” line.

People have been wondering for years if Shifty had somehow met Stan during the 30 year gap, or what else that line could possibly mean. But if he could have left the bunker, I doubt he would still be living down there. I think there’s a different explanation.

By that point in the episode, Dipper had already said they were looking for the author, that he had gone missing.

Hear me out: Shifty’s in denial about Ford’s disappearance.

Stanford was so preoccupied with Bill’s betrayal and trying to block him out that he didn’t have time to go back to the bunker. He had been planning to go back after the portal was finished, but obviously the threat of possession and Bill invading the dimension kept him away. Fiddleford certainly wouldn’t come back, even if he had his memories intact.

And then Ford got pushed into the portal.

Shifty wouldn’t be privy to this information, especially if he was trapped in the bunker. Even if there was something wrong with the cryogenic chamber and he unthawed a few months after the initial freeze, he wouldn’t have known.

I think he spent those decades in the bunker trying to dig a way out, but being blocked by the metal lining. That’s why he was still down there by the time Dipper and crew investigated.

It must have felt like the slightly nicer scientist, the one that at least found him entertaining, had abandoned him. Either he meant so little to Ford that he forgot all about the bunker [a possibility if they were only keeping him to be frozen], or Stanford intentionally left him to starve should he ever unthaw.

So imagine someone telling you that the scientist has been missing all this time. For 30 years you’ve been resenting this person for how he treated you and threw you away in a glorified tomb, but now that’s being challenged.

Blaming the scientists for everything was easy to process:

The only time he saw the sun was when he hatched, then Ford put him in a cage underground. With no intention of ever letting him see the sun again, or any live animals.

The only food was canned, and it wasn’t even designed for pets. They just fed him baked beans.

They wouldn’t trust him to look at their faces. Fiddleford hated him and wanted to freeze him. Ford only seemed to like him because he was a “pet”.

It was easy for Shifty to tell himself that these neglectful men left him to die in a metal box underground. That they hated him all along, or saw him as an animal and forgot they left him in the ice chamber.

But Ford’s disappearance called that into question. He knew Ford was the author of the journals, from begging to get to read them. The nicer of the two scientists. The one that was at least hesitant to freeze him in a tube for all eternity, just for being a shapeshifter. The one that was interested in his powers, instead of repulsed.

It would be painful to admit the possibility that Stanford planned to come back. That he might have died 30 years ago, and that was the real reason why Shifty was left alone in the bunker. The possibility that Ford died was a heavy one already. Shifty never saw his parents. This scientist was the first face he saw when he hatched, for better or for worse, Ford was the closest thing to a parent Shifty had.

“That six-fingered nerd hasn’t been himself for 30 years!”

He couldn’t have died, he just… He changed. That’s why he never came back, he just stopped acting like himself!

[thesweetnessofspring]

Do you subscribe to the theory that Katniss had a crush on Peeta before the games (but she wasn’t aware of it obviously) or do you think that she only kept track of him through the years because he saved her from starvation and was thankful?

I really love all your opinions, you really do make me see things from a different perspective sometimes and are also very sweet . Thank you so much 😊

Girl I subscribe to "Katniss was crushing on Peeta from the dandelion scene moving forward." I mean

Our eyes met for only a second, then he turned his head away. I dropped my gaze, embarrassed, and that's when I saw it. The first dandelion of the year. A bell went off in my head. I thought of the hourse spent in the woods with my father and I knew how we were going to survive. To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me that I was not doomed. And more than once, I have turned in the school hallway and caught his eyes trained on me, only to quickly flit away. Maybe if I had thanked him at some point, I'd be feeling less conflicted now. I thought about it a couple of times, but the opportunity never seemed to present itself.

So first, our how-do-I-do-feelings Katniss is saying she's "embarrassed" about making eye contact with the cute boy who just saved her life. Do you know what a crush is? Embarrassing. Like omg it is the WORST thing especially when your crush is the most amazing person. Other people have shown Katniss kindness, even kindness that is nearly impossible to repay, like when Madge gave her the mockingjay pin and Finnick restarted Peeta's heart, but she doesn't feel embarrassed by it. Flustered and confused, yes, as well as resentful at times, but not embarrassed. So why is she embarrassed after catching Peeta's eye? Because she has her first crush right after being traumatized and thrust into a parentified role so she can't be a normal kid about it. And Katniss thought about thanking Peeta but didn't because the "opportunity never seemed to present itself" just sounds like a teenager avoiding talking to their crush. "Oh no, sorry, I didn't talk to him because things weren't lined up exactly perfectly for that to happen" is exactly what having a crush as a teenager is for us introverted people.

And I mean, come on. She associates hope and her very survival to Peeta?? At this point we've moved past first crushes into soulmate territory. She "can't shake the connection." This girl is a survivor, she hates vulnerability because it seems to be a weakness, and if it were just a crush she would talk herself out of it within a day. She logics her way out of finding Finnick attractive and running off with Gale into the woods. But Peeta is lodged in there before they even know each other. They have that red string of fate tied around their fingers and they cannot escape it.

Also thank you so much, I'm glad you like my little Everlark analyses! I really love talking about them, the best fictional couple ever created (I say with my whole chest and absolutely no exaggeration).