#and you can actually see these tactics in action in the movie

[bemusedlybespectacled]

I do want to be clear that this is not “the CIA.” The CIA did not exist when this manual was written. Don’t give them credit they don’t deserve.

I will also point out that a lot of these suggestions are things done by people today that work very effectively. For example:

Report imaginary spies or danger to the Gestapo or police.

We do this all the time when there are tip lines for abortion seekers or undocumented immigrants or nefarious queer people. Note that simply spamming them with nonsense is not suggested: the point is to waste people’s time investigating false claims that appear plausible.

(g) In public treat axis nationals or quislings coldly.

(h) Stop all conversation when axis nationals or quislings enter a cafe.

(j) Boycott all movies, entertainments, concerts, newspapers which are in any way connected with the quisling authorities.

In other words, don’t act friendly with Nazis, don’t support Nazis, and don’t let them know your plans.

And I think this bit is quite applicable to our times, in a roundabout way:

The ordinary citizen very probably has no immediate personal motive for committing simple sabotage. Instead, he must be made to anticipate indirect personal gain, such as might come with enemy evacuation or destruction of the ruling government group. Gains should be stated as specifically as possible for the area addressed: simple sabotage will hasten the day when Commissioner X and his deputies Y and Z will be thrown out, when particularly obnoxious decrees and restrictions will be abolished, when food will arrive, and so on. Abstract verbalizations about personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, will not be convincing in most parts of the world. In many areas they will not even be comprehensible.

I’d argue that while Americans (and those in other proto-fascist regimes) do claim to understand things like personal liberty, 1) it's more effective to say how something will tangibly impact a person (tHe pRiCe oF eGgS) instead of something more abstract, and 2) a lot of those sorts of abstract concepts have been co-opted by the right itself and twisted to serve their own ends (ex: it's "freedom of speech" to spread Nazi rhetoric but suppress antiracism efforts).

Funny about that...

[undead-cypress]

Strohl and Hulkenberg are so funny to me as a duo. They're the exact same type of people - they NEED to pledge their life to a liege or they'll start ripping up your couch like an understimulated shepherd dog. However they go about it in polar opposite directions. (Early-game story spoilers ahead, mid-game gameplay spoilers) Hulkenberg had her life purpose taken away years back and comes to realize hyperfocusing probably isn't the optimal way to go about it, so she expands her horizons to do her duty better. Strohl had no will to live until joining the assassination plot, and then it fails so bad he resolves to hyperfocus so hard the classes he unlocks can only do one thing, critical slash damage really really well

Hulkenberg is the formal knightly one but she delights in mucking around and would rather fist fight people than think. But then she demolishes you in chess and teaches you tactics while Strohl, the familiar casual guy who's a lot more stategically minded is the one always sharpening a sword and implying if anything happened to you, seppuku may be on the table - Gallica this is so scary play encounter music - my courage has increased

It all clicked when I saw their third tier classes are paladin/dark knight and samurai. Ohhhh you guys are henchmen. You wanna be henchmen so bad. They're the exact same kinda guy but are completely baffled by everything the other guy does. They have everything in common and nothing in common. They both think they're the normal one of the group. They have completely different ideas about how to best do their jobs but they simply must beat the shit out of each other on the deck daily or else they might have to actually go to therapy. I need an early 2000s team up/roadtrip action movie with these two where Will is faking being kidnapped to draw out the bad guys but Gallica didn't tell Strohl and Hulkenberg because their bad acting would immediately give it away and they proceed to absolutely demolish the metaphorical furniture of the house of Euchronia looking for the world's most specialest lil' captain. Do you see my vision 🤌

[mxltifxnd0m]

boyfriend headcanons ⟡ s. winchester

pairings: sam winchester x reader, sam winchester x gn! reader

word count: 1.2K

warnings: no use of 'y/n', fluff, a smidge of angst in the beginning, some suggestive content, no smut, lowercase intended

a/n: i will make a dean version and probs a pt. 2 for sammy if I come up with some more headcanons! also did not expect this to be as long as it became lol

please enjoy and reblog and comment! i love hearing your thoughts.

𝘴𝘢𝘮 ����𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵

⟡ some fears before dating you

before you got into a relationship with sam, he was very hesitant about dating or liking anyone romantically (he knows that he doesn’t have the best track record with love) 

but when you came into his life, you broke down those barriers (without him realizing it), and he became more accepting of his feelings for you (even if it scared him shitless) 

you had to drill into his head that whatever happened to you would never be his fault bc you knew he’d drown in his guilt if you got hurt or worse. it took time for him to accept that something would happen to you that it wasn’t his fault 

okay, now onto the more happy stuff (sorry didn’t mean to start with the more heavy stuff, lol) 

⟡ the actual headcanons 

he’s the best partner ever!! 

sam has a big heart and holds a lot of love for you, and though he can be hesitant to say the words for fear of jinxing the relationship (he’s superstitious about it), he shows how much he loves you through his actions! 

he would have a mix of all of the love languages (obviously, everyone shows a mix of them), but his top three would definitely be quality time, acts of service, and physical touch 

⟡ physical touch 

i think that early seasons sam would be much more tactical with his touch and showing you physical affection 

would use any and every excuse in the handbook to touch you in some way. resting a hand on your shoulder, tucking a stray piece of hair behind your ear or forehead, etc. 

but post szn 5 and 12 sam, he would shy away from it at first, and you would totally understand and let him take the approach first, never initiating it until he feels like he can handle it 

but this goes hand in hand with PDA  in any szn, he’s not big on PDA he’s okay with hand-holding and pecks on the lips, temple, or cheeks but not overt displays of affection but behind closed doors, it's free reign for him  aside from the PDA 

he LOVES getting his hair played with  like without a shadow of a doubt, i know in my heart of hearts that sam winchester is a fiend for getting his hair played with 

is a cuddle bug  doesn’t matter if it’s sweltering hot; he loves to have you in his arms no matter what secretly loves when it gets cold, you seek him out for warmth (he’s like a space heater from how much he radiates heat) 

FOREHEAD AND NECK KISSES!! (and lots of them) LOVES kissing you  there will be times when sam wants to make out with you in the back of the Impala. either to piss off dean or because you get no privacy in the motel room, you’re sharing with his brother. 

is the best hugger ever. it’s almost criminal how his arms can wrap around you and engulf your body and instill a feeling of safety in you, like no one could hurt you while you were in sam’s arms.

⟡ acts of service

as i’ve stated above, sam doesn’t express his love through words, but he does show it through his actions 

he knows all of your fav movies, flowers, music, snacks, how you like your coffee/tea, etc 

he actively listens to you and keeps track of the things you mention (he has them written down or in a note on his phone) and just pulls this information out when he needs it

will do things if asked of him by you without question (but within reason, lmao) 

(this also translates into fun times in the bedroom, LMAO)

don't know if this counts as an act of service, but sam loves putting things on the top self on purpose (to see you struggle a bit bc he thinks your pout is so adorable), but so you can ask him to get something for you, and does so with a smile on his face 

⟡ quality time

would use any excuse to spend time with you 

doesn’t matter if he just came back from a hunt and is exhausted; he would sit down and listen to you talk about what you had just read or what movie you watched while he was on a hunt 

will actively plan dates with you on hunts if he has downtime, which would most of the time be in the car with Dean and asking him for help or input  "they'll like whatever you plan for them. now, for the love of god, please shut up!" (sam had been pestering dean most of the car ride home about where to take you on the first date and was fed up with his little brother)

having movie nights!

spending time in either his or your room reading or just basking in the presence of each other, content with sitting in silence, grounding him with your touch as you guys fall asleep in each other’s arms. 

late-night conversations in bed! more often than not, your pillow talk with sam would turn into very late-night conversations and sometimes even turning into early-morning chats.

⟡ protective

this is a given, but sam is so protective of you that it can be a problem at times

He doesn’t mean to be overbearing, but his mind is an overactive one and can be a little (a lot) protective of you 

I think if you were a hunter, he’d be such a worrywart because he knows what this life does to someone and kinda hates that you are one (even if this is how you guys met in the first place lol) 

but it’s the same if you’re not a hunter because he’d be paranoid that a monster would be out to get you if they knew you were even associated with him or his brother 

he’d take so many precautions: teaching you the basics of hunting (but making you promise that you won’t go out and hunt), teaching you self-defense, gifting you an anti-possession charm (or going with you if you want the tattoo), painting demon traps under your rugs, salting windows, and maybe even convincing you to move into the bunker with him 

⟡ some random ones 

wearing his clothes his chest warms and his heartbeats faster each time he sees you wear something of his he does go a little feral when he sees you wear nothing underneath his clothes unfiltered sassy sam before the two of you started to date, you would catch glimpses of sassy sam when he would banter with dean but when you started to dish out some of your quips in the conversation and being a smartass to him that's when the sassy man apocalypse hit him, and it snowballed into him out-sassing you sometimes when the two of you could get into a back-and-forth

teases you about your height  it doesn't matter if you're an inch shorter or a foot shorter than him; he can and will tease you about your height it brings him much amusement when you snap back with jokes of your own or when you blush when you don't have a snappy retort (yes, it means he has a size kink, but shhh, no one is supposed to know)

[cobaltperun]

Eternal Flame (3) - Scream

Jenna Ortega x Female Reader

Summary: For her it’s a passion, for you it’s an accident. And as she continues shining brighter and brighter with each role you are left mesmerized, drawn to her flame and cherishing every time she lets herself be vulnerable with you.

Spotify playlist

Masterlist / First Part / Previous part / Next part

Word count: 11.4k

-Scream! When the fire burns me, when it's hard to break free-

The second day of filming the hospital scene began, the most physically demanding scene of the movie, and while you went over the different fight choreographies you still weren’t set on what exactly you all wanted to accomplish. Since you’d be filming taking Jenna to the elevator and the entire aftermath of the emotional scene later Melissa and David, as well as Jenna and the stunt doubles for Ghostfaces were there as well.

“You sure you don’t need a stunt double for these?” David asked you as you took a stretched a bit to warm up. You could see some concern on Jenna and Melissa’s faces and you gave them both a quick grin.

You nodded, dropping down to stretch your legs. “These are fun for me, and we’ve got wires for more dangerous stunts,” everything else was basically a simulated fight scene. When you thought about it, Logan was a lot more demanding, you had to slide, and jump, and be agile, as well as act feral. This was controlled, trained, precise, pretty much safe.

“We can always find a double, or tone it down if you’re not sure about something,” Matt assured you, making you nod again.

“Appreciate it,” you grinned and high-fived the Ghostfaces. “Let’s do this,” you got in the position with one of the stuntmen, you couldn’t really figure out which one was which now that they were masked.

“Take 1, action!”

You pushed the Ghostface into the wall, quickly going in with faking a couple of punches meant to take advantage of Amber being caught off guard and having air knocked out of her lungs. Your character was supposed to be angry, seeking revenge for what was done to Tara, so your hits were supposed to be brutal. You caught the stunt double’s wrist as he faked trying to stab you and pushed his arm up, before grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him down. You lifted your knee, making it look like you just kneed him in the guts.

You had to give it to the stunt doubles, they sure knew how to do their job. He made it easy for you to fake lifting him up and slamming him onto the floor, while at the same time avoiding actually getting hurt. The second stunt double joined in, jumping in from the shadowy corner and lunging forward, as Richie was meant to save Amber from C/N and try to stab her. You whipped your head toward the man and gritted your teeth in frustration. You were down on one knee, the position wasn’t the best for it, but you jumped to your feet, skidding back and quickly regaining your footing as you bounced back to put some distance between the two of them and you.

“Cowards,” you spat. “Which one of you was it? The one who hurt Tara?” you demanded, furious as they both got up and wiped their knives, even if your character was yet to be cut. Ghostfaces were supposed to remain silent, going for the intimidation tactic. “No, it doesn’t matter, you’re both going to pay anyway,” damn, that line was corny, but you still delivered it with utmost seriousness.

They rushed you, and the scene turned into the coordinated chaos, with you, at one point, kneeing one Ghostface, making him bend forward, only to jump over him and kick the other one into the wall. Impressive that you could do it, but entirely unnecessary and dangerous.

More importantly it made your character look too strong, too untouchable by not just one, but two Ghostfaces.

“Cut!” Matt yelled once the scene was over and the three of you stopped and took a moment to catch your breaths.

“Are you both okay?” you asked, seeing as they did have to take some pain. Sure, each hit was faked, barely even touching the costumes, but being pushed against the wall or falling to the floor still could have hurt them.

Both of them nodded before all three of you went back to the directors and the rest of the cast.

“Maybe tone it down?” Tyler considered and you genuinely agreed.

As he and Matt went over the footage you went to your chair next to Jenna. “We probably should tone it down,” you said mostly to your co-stars and grinned when Jenna patted you on the shoulder.

“You were amazing,” she lightly squeezed your shoulder.

“Jenna here couldn’t take her eyes off you,” Melissa just had to tease the younger actress.

And Jenna? She predictably got shy and averted her eyes, instead choosing to focus on the bandages put around her hand due to Tara’s injury.

“It is a cool fight scene, a bit over the top, but cool,” you came to her rescue, though you really were completely sure that was why Jenna got so invested. She loved movies, she loved all of this, the filming, the choreographies, the process of creating each and every scene and you weren’t sure how many fight scenes like this one she got to watch being filmed before.

Matt and Tyler came over. “Okay, we’re toning it down, making it more grounded and less flashy,” Tyler explained and brought the fight coordinators along. So, you all ended up coming up with a subtler, more realistic fight. With your character ducking instead of jumping around, with light nudges to redirect the hits instead of over-the-top movement and a quick fight scene, instead of drawing it out. It would save time for more character building moments and plot, so that worked as well.

“One more thing, the part after Amber runs out of bullets and C/N breaks her mask, do you think we can pull off a big finale? Like C/N jumping and grabbing the neck, pulling both of them to the floor and slamming the mask against the floor to crack it?” Matt asked, mostly the stunt coordinator.

“Not that flashy,” she moved to where that part of the scene was supposed to play out. “Jenna would be lying here, her wheelchair would be over here,” she pointed at each spot. “We don’t have the spot for Y/N to land without landing on Jenna or the wheelchair,” she turned to you. “Think you can crack the mask with a punch and make it look like a big ending of the fight?”

You thought it over for a few moments. “A haymaker will do the job,” you spoke confidently, but honestly, you weren’t entirely sure. You sure as hell could give it a try though.

Matt nodded. “We’ll use a mannequin for both the practice and the filming, give it a good punch Y/N,” he instructed, and you hopped to your feet as they got the mannequin ready. You went over the instructions one last time and got in the position on the floor, right after your character managed to push Richie off her back.

“Ready?” Matt asked and you nodded.

“Ready,” you ran forward, building up the momentum, and pulling your fist back. It might actually hurt to do this, it might actually leave a bruise, or a cut on your knuckles, but you were ready for that. You didn’t slow down, fully embracing the turmoil and adrenaline your character would be feeling and slammed a haymaker into the mask. A loud crack resounded through the hospital floor and you stumbled forward, your left foot skidding with a loud screech across the floor as you tried to stop yourself and continue with the scene, since you would need to immediately go to Jenna and pick her up. The mannequin fell onto the floor, bouncing once from the force of the impact, mask cracked, but not broken, and you grinned, satisfied with the results.

~X~

By the time you were done with the action scenes you were actually fairly tired, seeing as you had to go from simulating a fighting scene to carrying Jenna around, which wasn’t difficult, but your arms were starting to ache as you finally lowered her down in front of the hospital.

“Good job everyone! We’re wrapping up for today!” and you were, you and Jenna did lots of scenes today, as did Melissa and David. David even had his death scene so he would soon be leaving the set. You were going to miss him, he was always pleasant to hang out with, but that was the nature of this, actors would come and go according to how big their role was.

For example, the one actress that was going to join the cast for a very brief period, playing Susan, was none other than Emma Thompson. You raised an eyebrow when you read that, not really able to remember her ever doing a horror. Granted, Susan was about as removed from the horror elements as she could be in this movie. Regardless, you’d be lying if you said you weren’t looking forward to working with the British actress.

Jenna looked worried and you just realized you could feel the stinging sensation in your hand, you looked down and, frankly, you saw it coming, noticed there was a small bruise on your knuckle. “Hey, it’ll be fine, just need to ice it for a bit,” you winked, assuring her.

“Come on, I’ll help you,” you could hear the determination in her tone as she took your left hand and pulled you along, back to the hotel and her room.

~X~

Jenna trusted Matt and Tyler, trusted their vision for the movie, but she didn’t expect the fight scene, barely described in the script, to turn into what she saw earlier. She caught herself watching it closely, impressed by it all, it looked like a dangerous dance where one step out of line could have gotten someone hurt.

And you got hurt.

Not in the staged fight scene, but hitting the mannequin several times to get the desired outcome.

You were sitting in front of Jenna at her table, your knees touching as Jenna held an icepack on your knuckle. “You looked like you were having fun,” Jenna pointed out, choosing to look at your face instead of the bruise. While you were filming you had that serious, angry look in your eyes, flawlessly portraying the rage your character was meant to feel, but the moment the filming stopped you just snapped back to how you usually were, sweet, friendly, happy to be doing this, and it was clear you had fun filming today.

Even if Jenna was on the edge of her seat whenever you did a more demanding stunt. Even if she herself gave heart attacks to stunt coordinators. She understood why you loved doing it, she loved doing her stunts as well, but you sure could move. More importantly, she found herself drawn more and more to you, to the way you treated everyone, and the way you constantly made sure both of the stuntmen were fine after each take.

She watched you glancing to the side, lightly scratching your cheek. You were embarrassed, even a bit nervous. “It’s a safe release, I guess. Training, martial arts, action scenes,” you confessed something Jenna could have guessed, but seeing how nervous you were to say it made her appreciate it even more. Knowing you were comfortable enough to be open with her made her smile.

“Maybe try not to get bruises next time,” she teased, light-hearted, clearly joking, and you laughed, seeing the teasing for what it was, and accepting it completely.

“And miss out on you treating me? I’m not that dumb,” you teased right back, and Jenna rolled her eyes.

Even if the slight blush on her face annoyed her a lot more than she dared to admit. She put the icepack away and instead just placed her hand on top of your own. She looked at you, expecting you to either say something or pull your hand back, but you just grinned as she tried not to smile. “You’re just,” she huffed, smiling despite trying her best not to show how quickly all her defenses came down when it came to you.

“I’m just?” you asked, leaning in slightly as if she was about to tell you a secret.

“I’m not saying,” she shrugged, completely certain that she wouldn’t say it, wouldn’t give into your questioning.

You frowned, as if offended by her rejection and then just leaned back. Though you didn’t move your hand even the slightest bit. “Fine, I don’t want to know anyway,” the nonchalant tone of your voice actually annoyed her.

“Wha- oh come on, at least try harder,” she knew she was pouting like a child, playing a game with you, not taking this seriously, instead just having fun and acting more her age than she usually did.

You just grinned, that same cheeky grin she caught you having when you were having fun and for a moment, just for one moment, she slipped her fingers between yours, interlocking them for a brief moment before pulling away, ignoring how her heart hammered in her chest.

~X~

You could feel the frustration on set as all four of you left your positions once more. The two stuntmen once more wearing Ghostface costumes and you and Jenna, meant to wrap up the hospital scene with the emotional part of it all.

And you couldn’t get it right.

Either one of the Ghostface lines would get messed up, or someone would miss a cue. Then Jenna’s voice broke once, and you just couldn’t get into your character. So, you ended up taking a fifteen-minute break to hopefully get it right next time. You could see Jenna close to you, picking at the string of her hospital gown, clearly in her head, focusing entirely on the scene you were yet to get right while listening to music.

You let her, trusting her to get through whatever was blocking her on her own. And it wasn’t that there was one of you constantly failing, it just felt like there was always one thing missing, one moment to make everything else fit together and push the scene as high as it could possibly go.

You noticed your phone buzzing in your jacket hanging over your chair and pulled it out. You got a message and since you were on a break you figured you might as well read it now.

17:21 On-screen Dad: How are you doing?

You smiled and typed a quick reply, assuring Hugh you were fine and asking how he and his family were doing. More importantly, the message brought you back to filming Logan and you remembered watching Hugh act, going from broken, dying Logan back to himself in an instant. He looked the same physically, but the way he carried himself completely switched the feel of it. You learnt so much from him during those months, and you would use that now as well. You didn’t get the feel of ferocious anger from C/N, and the scene demanded it, but you were more than familiar with playing ferocious anger.

“Okay, break is over, let’s try again,” Tyler announced.

You caught Jenna glancing at you and you gave her a thumbs up and a grin, sure that this time you’d be closer to acting out the scene that would work.

You didn’t slip into C/N, you slipped into Laura, and then it just clicked as the scene began playing out.

“Fuck you,” Jenna gritted out when Ghostface was meant to taunt Tara that C/N didn’t protect her and you felt the prop knife touching the left side of your back, prompting you to gasp for breath but not scream. You widened your eyes, acting like you were in shock and pain.

The focus was on Jenna as she expertly delivered the pain, the despair Tara felt as Ghostface told her she would need to shoot your character.

When the gun was pointed at you and Jenna whimpered you followed the directors’ cue and gasped, and while the camera focused on Jenna you quickly tossed the shirt you had on aside in favor of the more damaged one. You all wanted to do this in one take, so this was the solution.

"I'll do anything else, whatever you ask, just please not this!" you were amazed at how hoarse Jenna could make her voice. Not to mention all the emotional range she was showing right now, and it was bringing more out of you as well. "Please, anything but this!"

The scene went on, uninterrupted, you felt like you had it, like this was the take you needed. "I don't know what you are screaming about, Tara. You got what you wanted right? You didn't kill Y/N," the words and the prop knife messing around Jenna’s bandaged hand were your signal.

Channeling Laura, as well as letting Jenna’s shouts pull something out of you worked. “Stop that!” you raged, akin to a wild wounded beast, so intense it almost frightened even you and nearly made Jenna herself break the character. It wasn’t meant to sound that raw, but the scene continued.

She recovered, as great as she was, acting like she was having an asthma attack, and you could see she researched it for days until she could get all the symptoms right.

“Tara!” and carried by the intensity of the previous scream you yelled, desperation clear in your voice. It was a harrowing cry, of someone fearing the loss of their loved one, of the only person they had in the world. "You won! I can't fight back! Just let her go!"

And then, when it came the time to top even that, to escalate it even further, to have Jenna show Tara’s dedication to your character despite the asthma, she delivered. Jenna pleaded, her voice sounding like she was choking, drowning, unable to draw breath, yet just as desperate as you were. For a moment you even believed she was having an asthma attack, that was how good she was. The scene felt easy after that as you skipped the action part of the scene and picked Jenna up, while faking that it was difficult and stepped back into the hospital room.

“Cut!” Tyler yelled and you dropped down onto the floor, emotionally drained from all the takes. Luckily you really did everything out of order, so the following part of the scene between you and Jenna was already filmed. It was over, you were done with what was likely the most difficult scene of the movie. “Great job! Jenna, Y/N, that was incredible. We’ll continue tomorrow, you both deserve to rest,” he said, before congratulating the rest of the crew present on the long day of work.

“Y/N?!” Jenna jumped to her feet the moment she noticed you were slumped on the floor, and you just gave her a thumbs up. You just had to take a moment to breathe, sure Logan was intense at times, but you were a kid, and it was a lot different filming the emotional scenes in Logan than it was here.

“I’m okay, that was just intense,” you gave her a slightly tired, but still reassuring smile and she relaxed, sitting back down on the bed, the exhaustion now present in her eyes as well. “And you’ve been doing intense scenes for years, damn, you’re amazing,” you thought about the scene she had in You, and from what you knew her upcoming movie was filled with scenes like that. Frankly, you admired her talent. You got up and sat down next to her, before falling back onto the bed.

“I’m anything but amazing,” she dared to say and you abruptly sat up, in fact you sat up so quickly she turned and looked at you, her eyes wide as you watched her intensely.

“You are, and I’ll keep saying that until I get it into your head,” you promised, the tips of your fingers touching hers.

Jenna opened her mouth and then closed it, before finally regaining her composure. “Thanks, Y/N,” she muttered. “You’ll sleep really well tonight, you’ll see. Scenes like this are draining,” she promised, and you nodded, trusting her entirely.

~X~

Jenna was right, you just barely managed to get ready for bed. Hell, you were surprised you didn’t fall asleep on your feet. Your phone buzzed as you crawled under the covers and you nearly ignored it, but for some reason you reluctantly took it and saw it was a message on Instagram from Jenna.

23:46 Jenna Ortega: Hey, are you asleep?

23:46 Y/N L/N: Barely hanging on

23:47 Jenna Ortega: Oh, sorry, sleep well, Y/N.

That woke you up and you pressed the call button. It rang a few times and then she picked up. “Please go to sleep,” she opened with that and despite still being a bit sleepy you chuckled.

“Tell me what’s up?” you asked, sitting up so you wouldn’t fall asleep in the middle of the call.

“I just wanted to wish you good night,” for an actress she sucked at lying, and you just grinned.

“Jen, tell me what’s really going on?” you asked as you got comfortable.

She remained silent for a bit, before sighing. “I, I think I’m suffering from insomnia, I can’t fall asleep and I wasn’t sure who else to call. I don’t want to worry my family, and I just, I don’t know, I,” she huffed, frustrated, and you just gave her time, letting her sort her thoughts out. “We filmed so many scenes together, and I know you are tired, but I just impulsively sent that message. I was hoping you were already asleep,” she told you.

You nodded, too late realizing she couldn’t see you. “Do you want to talk? Maybe you’ll have easier time falling asleep like that?” you suggested, not really sure what would help with insomnia. You’d have to search that up tomorrow.

“You don’t mind?” she asked, prompting you to reassure her and tell her you definitely didn’t mind. “Tell me a bit about yourself? Something I don’t know? Like how did you get into cooking and martial arts? Or the role you did before C/N?” so she was curious about those things.

“Hm, let’s see. I spent a lot of my time at my neighbor’s house, playing with the siblings living there. Their mother was a great cook and would always make us snacks, either pastries or cookies, or cake, I never saw some of those recipes in my life. Well, it was natural, they emigrated from the Balkans decades ago, when she was a child if I remember correctly,” you began the tale of your childhood. Those were happy times. You’d hang out with them, your parents spent time with their parents, and somewhere along the way Barbara came into the picture as well. It was just the four of you, making your own little friend group.

Jenna hummed, sounding a lot more interested than sleepy.

“I fell in love with the recipes, and she was willing to teach me. So, when I wasn’t playing with her children I’d learn how to cook from her, starting with easier things and gradually moving onto the various cakes and pastries. It was freeing, I needed to focus, I needed to be precise, to keep practicing so I could improve, and I guess I needed that at that age,” you were a bit of a hyperactive kid, never really latching on to something long enough to get really good at it, but you were drawn to cooking. It was fun, making something and being able to eat it, or share it.

“You got really good at it, I still haven’t seen you being lazy about it either,” Jenna pointed out, causing you to laugh.

“Oh, trust me, I had plenty of days where I went for low-effort meals,” and you did it kinda regularly. In fact, you were surprised it hasn’t happened since you came here to film Scream. No matter how tired you were if you chose to cook you didn’t settle for a quick meal.

“Yeah? Could it have something to do with your co-star that would never, ever, steal something off your plate?” Jenna laughed, and your silence only made her laugh harder.

“Never, yes, that co-star would never, ever do that,” you replied dryly and heard her slapping her pillow as she tried to muffle her laughter. You couldn’t help but crack a smile at that, even if it really wasn’t helping with her insomnia. Unless it was relaxing her, and that helped, in which case you were glad you could get her to laugh, but again, you had no idea how to deal with someone’s insomnia.

Jenna’s been eating most of her meals with you, and while you always made a plate for her, she’d sometimes just go and trade something from her plate for the very same thing on your plate before you even started eating.

“Okay, okay, what about martial arts?” she asked as she calmed down.

“It was fun, and I was active as a child. It was pretty much the only thing that consistently kept me interested, well somewhat. I could never focus on just one, so I ended up going with mixed martial arts, you know, jack of all trades master of none type of deal. Feel like that kinda fits me,” you had to train and prepare for Logan, and then you just continued, and it was probably one of the better decisions you made. With time you became good enough to work at a local gym in Denver, so, maybe master of none wasn’t exactly right, but it took a lot of time to get to that point.

“You know how they continue that saying. Though oftentimes better than master of one. You look like you really know what you’re doing,” Jenna, as she usually did, found any excuse to compliment people around her, you included. That’s just how she was, wanting to brighten people’s days, make them feel good, while still being completely honest about her compliments.

“Thanks, Jen,” you could tell she was slowly getting sleepy and considered just talking about nothing in particular until she fell asleep, but she had other ideas.

“What about your previous role?” she asked and you hummed.

You feared saying you were in Logan would stir her awake and prolong the conversation instead of helping her fall asleep. “So, I was thirteen, and frankly, I didn’t have that many lines,” not a single lie there, you didn’t speak for over ninety minutes, instead only screaming and glaring. “But it was the most fun I probably ever had and I’m still in touch with Hugh and Patrick, Hugh especially,” hell, you were talking with Hugh on your phone just an hour earlier. 

“That sounds-“ Jenna tried to reply, but instead she yawned and you didn’t push her to try again. Eventually, you caught the sound of Jenna’s breathing evening out.

“Sweet dreams, Jen,” you smiled and closed your eyes, letting the long-awaited sleep overtake your exhausted body. 

~X~

The sound of the alarm going off woke her up and Jenna blinked, slightly dazed and confused. How many days has it been since she slept all the way to her alarm? And she actually fell asleep around midnight, so almost full eight hours of sleep. It was no wonder she felt refreshed and well-rested.

She turned the alarm off and stretched with a smile on her face, she would mostly be filming with Melissa today, so it was going to be fun to tackle that side of Tara’s character as well. She had several emotional scenes with Melissa, and one of the bigger ones was scheduled for today, the one where Sam tells Tara the truth. She was looking forward to working with Melissa more, as the older actress absolutely took on the older sister role in real life as well and Jenna honestly felt like this was one of the better filming experiences she had.

The whole cast just clicked, and the already made group chat was already filled with messages, from funny behind the scenes bits to memes and videos from different social media. Jenna had to admit she didn’t go through every message, mostly missing out on the social media shares, but she definitely saved a bunch of behind the scenes photos.

Just as she thought that she noticed a notification from late hours of the last night, it was a couple of photos from the past few days of shooting. Melissa took a few photos, David walking around with the fake blood all over him and chatting with the stuntmen that just ‘killed’ him, you stretching and getting ready for your action scene, as well as a video of herself on the floor holding back a laugh when you stumbled a bit too far after punching the mannequin, and she wouldn’t have found it funny if you didn’t get super annoyed. It was the best take yet and you, in your own words, stumbled like a fucking newbie so far you were surprised you were still in the shot. It was a glorious speech of dramatically letting out the frustration over a perfect punch being wasted on an awful ending, only spurred on by Jenna desperately trying to stifle her laugh.

She smiled at that memory, now realizing that, while the initial complaint was genuine, the rest of it was so ridiculous the only explanation that could have worked was that you simply wanted to make her laugh. And she was thankful for it. The video didn’t capture the failed take, or the initial sentence, but it did have most of the speech, as well as Jenna’s reaction, so she went and sent the video to her mom.

~X~

Melissa was absolutely sure you could have been a cook with how good the small bite sized snacks you made were. Mikey and Jasmin brought two bowls of and a plate of different flavored and shaped snacks, some that were pastries, some that were balls made up of different ingredients, some that were held together by toothpicks. And each and every one she tried was tasty. Pretty much everyone was there as Jack and Mason once again took on the role of getting setting up everything so they could watch a movie.

The only people missing were you, still in the kitchen, wrapping up serving the sweet snacks, and Jenna, who was still in her room on the call with her family. Melissa glanced toward the door, hoping to see the younger actress walking through the door. “Jenna misses her family, doesn’t she?” Melissa asked Courtney who was sitting next to her.

“This is the first time she’s filming this far from home, right?” they pretty much all knew it. Sure, Jenna was fiercely independent, but independence had nothing to do with missing your loved ones, and she was missing them. Melissa kind of hoped Jenna would use the weekend off to go and see them, but things didn’t work out in the end.

“I’m sure it is,” she answered, about 90% sure of her answer. “I think I should go and see if she wants to join us,” she got up when Courtney nodded.

“Melissa we’re about to start!” Jack called after her.

“Just getting Jenna, wait for ten minutes,” she requested and smiled when he gave her a thumbs up. When she walked out into the hall she saw you coming from the kitchen, carrying two plates filled with wonderful, sweet snacks.

“What’s up?” you asked, tilting your head.

“Oh, just figured I could try and get Jenna to come and join us,” you got serious the moment she replied, and Melissa found herself taking more and more notice of how you reacted to Jenna. “I’ve got this, you go and sit, you’ve done more than enough,” she patted you on the back and made her way toward Jenna’s room. For whatever reason you didn’t put up a fight and actually did as you were told, whether because you trusted Melissa to take care of it, or because you didn’t want to be too obvious, or for some other reason, she didn’t know, but you let it be.

 She knocked on Jenna’s door and waited for a bit for Jenna to open them. “Hey, I thought you guys were watching a movie?” Jenna said, clearly puzzled when she opened the door.

Melissa shrugged. “It’s not the same without you, are you still talking to your parents?”

Jenna shook her head, but there was definitely a tiny blush on her face.

“Come on, Y/N made a bunch of snacks, and I think we’re watching the original Scream tonight,” Melissa offered her hand to Jenna and smiled when Jenna nodded.

“Can’t miss that,” Jenna figured and so the two of them went back to the break room.

When they joined everyone, they saw Jack was ready to play the movie and so they quickly went to their usual seats. Melissa went back to sit down next to Courtney and Jenna went to the sofa a bit further back where you were sitting. She took her slippers off and sat down, leaning slightly against you as you took a blanket that was next to you and gave it to Jenna.

And the strangest thing about it? It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Well, not her going to get Jenna, but the rest. Jenna sitting right next to you, with your arms touching while you made sure she was warm and comfortable. You didn’t know each other before the chemistry test, that much Melissa knew, but she still raised an eyebrow. Were the two of you closer than she guessed? Like, together? Or considering a relationship at the very least? A need to be protective over Jenna overcame her, you were a good person, kind, pleasant, but you still only knew each other for less than three weeks and she was worried if you were rushing.

Either way, when she saw Jenna grinning at something you whispered in her ear, Melissa figured she might be worried over nothing. Jenna looked happy, and besides, she had no proof something was going on between you. She did glance back a few times, though, as subtly as she could. She couldn’t hear you, but she saw Jenna leaning her head down on your shoulder and quickly pulling away, as if caught by surprise by her own action.

She could read an apology from Jenna’s lips, but you just gave her a quick one-armed hug and reassured her it was fine. Probably not together then.

~X~

One of the most ironic things about acting was just how easy it was for Jenna to remove herself from the scene. She wasn’t Jenna Ortega, she was Tara Carpenter, and Tara had no issues with sleeping in C/N’s arms, so she, as Tara, spent hours with you lying next to her and she had no issues with it. But the moment she wasn’t acting she ended up being embarrassed over accidentally leaning her head on your shoulder.

You didn’t mind. Of course you didn’t, you just made sure she was comfortable once more. You and Jenna were in the kitchen at the moment, preparing a quick snack. Jenna was cutting various fruits into small cubes for the fruit salad while you were whipping the cream.

“I think this’ll do,” she said, proud of the large bowl of fruit she got ready just as you turned the hand-held mixer off.

You nodded, glancing at the fruit with unconcealed approval. “It’s perfect, thanks for helping me out,” you grinned at her and Jenna just rolled her eyes, brushing the compliment off. Of course she was going to help you, you were friends. Very good friends at this point, and Jenna wasn’t afraid to admit she cared about you, a lot. So, no, you didn’t need to thank her, she was actually glad to spend time with you like this.

She accidentally pushed a knife off the table and without thinking you tried to catch it. Her eyes widened and she reached out, grabbing your hand before you got the chance to even touch the knife with the tips of your fingers, keeping it away from the falling knife and letting it drop onto the tiles. “Are you okay?” she asked and was genuinely surprised by the shocked expression on her face.

A falling knife has no handle. Jenna knew that, and she knew you must have known that as well, but something must have distracted you to make you try and catch it. “Shit, that was dumb,” you shook your head in disbelief. “Thanks for stopping me, Jen,” you smiled at her, and she didn’t move; neither did you, instead you just stood like that, with her hand holding your own. “Just reflex,” she nodded when you said that, frankly surprised she was quick enough to stop you.

“It’s okay, nothing happened,” she tried to ignore her anxiety that you could have been cut, gotten hurt. She ignored her fear and just tried to ground herself in the moment by repeating that nothing happened in her head.

“Still, thanks,” you squeezed her hand lightly and then let go so you could pick up the knife and Jenna tried her best to get the image of your hand bleeding, of the worst case scenario, out of her head before it consumed her. Your eyes met for a moment and she could have sworn she saw concern in your eyes. “Hey, stay with me in the moment, okay?” you reached up, rubbing her shoulder and pulling her a bit closer. “Everything is okay, neither of us got hurt,” your words did little to make her get out of her head, but they helped enough, and she nodded, trying her best to focus on the actual outcome instead of what could have been.

~X~

Jenna couldn’t remember the last time she was carried as much as she was while filming Scream. Here she was, being lifted out of a car by you for yet another scene. She got carried during the hospital action scene, then as the trio was leaving the hospital, then now, and she would be carried once more before the movie ends. She had to admit it was a bit awkward to act while being carried, and she actually felt sorry for you every time they had to repeat a take where you were carrying her.

“Better hope she’s not the straw to break your back,” Emma chimed in exactly when you went to lift Jenna up for the fourth time that day and you just broke, bursting into laughter with your arms still under Jenna’s knees and back.

“Respectfully, can you not make me laugh for ten minutes?” you cried out, reigning the laughter in and shaking your head in disbelief.

Jenna just patted you on the back. “There, there,” at least all the takes were ruined right at the start. It wasn’t some kind of blockade like during the emotional part of the hospital scene, it was more the absurdity of seeing Emma Thompson doing horror that just made it difficult to get it together. And it wasn’t just you, or Mellisa, or Jenna, or hell, even Emma herself, half the takes were ruined by Matt and Tyler not being entirely sure how big of a role Emma would have.

Eventually, you managed to get the two of the three scenes Emma would be in done, all that was left were the two scenes no one was sure were going to make it into the movie. Both were between you and Emma, first being the conversation about your character’s education, and the second being going after Sam.

Matt and Tyler gave all of you a bit of a break before you and Emma would act out your last scenes together. You all sat together on the chairs and Jenna wasn’t sure how to start a conversation; she wanted to, but Emma had only been on the set for a couple of days, and it wasn’t long enough for her to be comfortable with starting a more meaningful conversation. Emma was nice, and funny, and it was easy to act with her, but Jenna just wasn’t as extroverted as she used to be as a kid.

“Say, Mrs. Thompson,” you insisted on not calling her by her first name, no matter how many times the woman told you you could just call her Emma. ‘I don’t know her, and I won’t get the chance to know her,’ you explained to Jenna over the phone last night. “Do you have any advice for us?” you asked so casually, without a hint of worry or fear of rejection, or stepping out of line really, but it was just a front and Jenna knew it.

By now she got to know you well enough to notice the little details, like the way you slightly gripped your chair, or how you averted your eyes away from Emma near the end of the question, struggling to maintain eye contact when you were nervous, or the slightest tremble in your voice. She knew it all by now, and she was impressed that you could push it aside enough to ask what you wanted, regardless of who you were asking.

Emma seemed to give it a long thought. “You’re all already talented, good actresses, so as cliché as it is all I can tell you is that you’ll never make everyone happy, and that no matter what you say or do someone will always dislike you, so don’t waste your time worrying about that as well,” it was an advice of a woman that already reached a certain age where she was old enough not to give a damn about pleasing everyone, and despite agreeing with the idea Jenna found it difficult to follow that advice.

She was too much of a people pleaser.

Once the break was over Jenna stayed behind, though her scenes for the day were done. If anyone asked she wanted to watch Emma Thompson acting, and that was a huge part of it, another part was, well, she wanted to walk back to the hotel with you.

So, she watched from behind the camera as you rushed down the stairs to look for the key, only for Emma to turn the lights on.

“You’re here, good,” you frantically looked around the living room, checking if the car keys were anywhere to be seen. “I need to borrow your car, Sam, she-“ you finally noticed the key next to the TV remote.

"C/N," Emma's voice alone in that one word was enough to sell the entire scene. You could hear it all, the exhaustion, the longing, the motherly love, as well as grief. It was all there. And it made you freeze and look at her like a deer in the headlights. "Do you have to-" Emma's breath hitched and she paused in the middle of the sentence, as if finishing it would make the circumstances even more dire.

"I need to go," you whispered, watching her and Jenna found it hard to believe you actually only did one movie as a child. You could match the emotion, your voice, your posture, conveying an unspoken apology and a promise to come back.

The experience and the immense talent Emma had shone through as she let her lip quiver just enough for it to be noticeable if someone paid closer attention to her, but not going over the top with it. The sigh she let out was filled with resignation, acceptance of the situation, and she looked you in the eyes, a silent plea remaining unspoken. “Tara needs to have her bandages changed in the morning, keep that in mind,” and Emma delivered her final line flawlessly.

You nodded, ending the scene and taking the car keys. There wasn’t going to be a hug, or a goodbye. “Cut!” and there was the scene, first take, and it was done.

~X~

A few days later you were once again filming way out of order, going all the way to the end of the movie, or well, near the end. Right now, you and Jenna were sitting in hair and makeup. Considering what the characters were going through makeup was mostly there to make both of you look more exhausted. Frankly, you were worried about the scene, the kiss scene, for more than one reason. Between being your first on-screen kiss to how comfortable Jenna would be. Sure, you’ve gotten pretty close, and you considered her a close friend already, but you weren’t sure if that made things easier or more difficult.

Especially since Jenna’s been mostly silent the entire morning, and not just with you, with everyone. You’ve caught her getting distracted and lost in her thought even during a conversation with Matt, and that was telling something. She was more worried than she was willing to let you see, and you could already see a lot. You couldn’t even start to imagine what was going through her head.

“Jen?” you called her, but she didn’t seem to hear you, instead biting her nail and staring at the book she brought along. She didn’t turn the page in an hour you’ve spent here. “Jen,” you said a bit louder.

Her eyes widened and she abruptly turned to you, clearly startled. “Sorry, I was just reading,” she really sucked at lying, and you raised an eyebrow and she looked down at the book, at the unturned page. And it was the prologue, so, yeah. That excuse really wasn’t holding up. “I was thinking,” she admitted as she looked away.

“About the kiss scene?” you didn’t beat around the bush and asked her directly, you figured she appreciated when someone was being direct with her.

Jenna paused, looking like she was caught red-handed and slowly nodded. “Mhm.”

So, it really was that. She was undoubtedly more worried about it than you were, and it didn’t matter what the reason was, all you cared about was that it was clear she wasn’t comfortable doing the scene. “Jenna-“ you began, ready to tell her what you intended to do, but she chose that exact moment to start talking.

“It’s ridiculous, you know? I mean, we filmed so many scenes in the same bed, and sure, nothing happened, but I don’t think anyone could look at those scenes and say Tara and C/N are just friends, and now I’m worried about a kiss,” she blurted it all out. “And you’re wonderful! It’s got nothing to do with you, and I think you’ll be a wonderful partner for the scene!” she blushed when she said that, crimson red, and buried her face in her hands as she groaned and you could only watch her, wide-eyed and taken aback. “I-I’m comfortable with you, I’m just worried and I don’t want you to get uncomfortable because I’m sure you haven’t kissed anyone on camera before, and maybe you’ll find it weird to kiss a girl,” ah, right, you never explicitly told her you were into girls, the topic of past relationships somehow never came up. “And it’s a job, but we got really close, so what if that makes it difficult for you? I black out, I don’t know what’s going on, I’m not worried about me, but this whole thing just- shit, I’m rambling, and I can’t shut up, and I’m surprised what I’m saying even makes sense at this point!”

“Jenna,” you reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. She raised her head up and looked at you. “First of all,” you pointed at yourself. “Into girls, so nothing weird there,” her mouth opened slightly in an adorable way as if she wasn’t sure whether to be surprised, relieved, or if she should have figured it out a lot sooner. “Second of all, don’t worry about me, tell me if you’re comfortable with doing this scene?” that was a lot more important to you. You were comfortable with the kiss scene, you cared about Jenna, you liked her a lot, and you absolutely didn’t mind kissing her.

She nodded slowly. “I’m comfortable with you, I promise,” even with as much confidence as she put behind her words you could still hear a bit of uncertainty in her tone, like there was something she couldn’t tell you.

You still figured you couldn’t push her too far, couldn’t risk making her self-conscious right before the scene. So, you accepted her answer. You raised your fist up toward her and grinned, choosing to instead offer her reassurance once more and then do everything in your power to make sure she really was comfortable. “If you feel uncomfortable at any moment, just tell me and I’ll get them to scrap it, say I don’t want to do it,” and you were completely serious.

Her eyes widened slightly as she looked you in the eyes. “You can’t do that, you’ll sound unprofessional,” she sounded more worried now, and it was not what you wanted to do. And she didn’t bump your fist, so you pulled it back, not noticing that she bit her lower lip a bit as you moved your fist away.

You shrugged. “I’d rather be unprofessional than have you feel uncomfortable,” there was no hesitation in your tone, no doubt, no wavering of your conviction. No matter what, you felt like your priority was to have your co-stars be comfortable, especially if Jenna was the co-star in question. And it wasn’t just because Hugh really set an example for you; you genuinely thought that was the right way to approach filming.

You watched as Jenna looked down, a hint of a blush appearing on her cheeks as she refused to meet your eyes, and you were left completely puzzled by her reaction. Somehow you felt like you actually made things worse for her, but before you could fix whatever you did hair stylist came in and you were left hoping Jenna would sort things out on her own.

~X~

You did make it worse.

No. That wasn’t fair.

You didn’t do anything unusual, you were just being you.

She recently became a bit self-conscious about kiss scenes in general, but she technically didn’t lie. Jenna was truly comfortable with you, felt a connection she couldn’t deny, so strong and fast she almost didn’t want the shooting to wrap as soon as it would. No, it wasn’t about being comfortable with you, it was about how she felt, about the feelings she was starting to have for you.

Jenna swallowed the lump in her throat, watching as the scene was being set up for the two of you. She never believed in love at first sight, that was ridiculous, at least to her. Love took time, took getting to know someone. She did believe in infatuation at first sight, and it hit her like a truck when she met you, and especially when the two of you hung out for the first time.

She pushed it aside, considering it as nothing more than physical attraction, or better yet simply taking notice of the fact that she found you attractive. And then she got to know you, and you spent so much time together, on set or during your time off.

When she first read the script, she figured she’d act the same way she did when it came to The Fallout and kissing Maddie, and that kiss scene demanded more from her than the one written in the script did. She would black out, kiss a friend, and that would be it. That was her original plan, but you just…

She wasn’t sure she could black out.

And it frightened her.

She leaned her head back against the wall, suppressing a groan. Could she just sweep this under the rug? Ignore the way her heart would beat faster whenever you would accidentally touch? Or how comfortable she felt around you? Or how she got so used to having late night talks with you, ending her day while listening to you, and then damn near starting the next day with you at breakfast?

She would have to, because this was a job, and as sweet as you were you didn’t exactly flirt with her. Or show interest beyond friendship, even if you were, as she found out a bit over an hour ago, into girls.

“Come on, just focus,” she whispered to herself and took several deep breaths. They would start soon, and she needed to get her shit together. The last thing she needed was to give away her growing feelings and end up making working with you difficult. Sure, you were comfortable with kissing her, your friend, but would you be comfortable kissing someone who had a rapidly developing crush on you?

If she, in any way, showed you how she felt, she was just going to end up making things weird between you and ruin a friendship that already meant a lot to her. And she couldn’t have that. She wanted to stay in touch, to hang out with you, to have you meet her family, and to meet your family as well. She wanted to go to your movie premieres with you, and preferably avoid going to her own because she hated watching herself on screen. She didn’t want to just see you in passing like she did with so many people she worked with over the years, she wanted to keep building this connection into something bigger, something consistent and constant, or as constant as your jobs allowed.

She didn’t want this to end, and the more scenes got filmed the closer the end got. She glanced at you as you walked over to your designated spots, and you caught her glance. Of course you did, you’ve been ridiculously attentive to her, to even the smallest signs, or movements. She could still feel the warm touch of your hand, she could still envision the look in your eyes, soft, gentle, as you looked at her, or hear the sound of your laugh and voice.

She wouldn’t risk any of that.

She was going to black out and do her job!

~X~

You glanced at Jenna every now and then. She was nervous, hell, anxious even, and you were getting more worried by the second. You could see the tension in the way she stood, the tremble of her fingers as she stood there, her hands crossed and fingers clutching at the soft fabric of her clothes. If it wasn’t for the bandage Tara was supposed to have you were sure Jenna would have been gripping her arm a lot tighter.

Whatever was going on you felt like you really had to step in, to figure out what the issue was and get rid of it. If it meant getting rid of the kiss scene, or hell, the relationship between C/N and Tara entirely, then so be it, as long as Jenna wasn’t this anxious over filming with you. You could feel your heart aching at the mere thought that the following scene could cause the younger actress so much turmoil.

You were just about to approach her, but you ran out of time, Matt and Tyler were ready.

“Okay, Jenna, Y/N, get in positions,” Tyler instructed, and you bit your tongue, resisting the urge to ask for another five minutes, but you feared that would only make things worse for Jenna.

~X~

Her heart was beating so loudly in her chest she barely listened to the instructions. Why couldn’t she black out? And worse of all she could see you were getting tense as well. She could see the way you clenched your jaw, struggling not to point out what you were clearly noticing. How much did you notice? Just her anxiety, or her feelings as well? Either way she could tell her own nervousness was affecting you as well.

That would probably cause this to take several takes. She would need to kiss you several times, and she wanted to kick herself for, deep down, feeling a bit excited over the idea. “Fuck,” she hissed, berating herself for letting her crush get the better of her. She needed to be a professional, to get in character.

But her character was madly in love with your own! So, technically speaking, she really got into her character. ‘Great job, Jenna, that’s exactly what you should have done,’ she thought bitterly.

“We can stop this,” you whispered, and since you were this close, merely a step from one another, only she heard you, but your words sounded louder than thunder to her.

She caused this. She was making a scene because she couldn’t separate job from personal feelings. And the worst thing about it? It was with you, the last person she wanted to make work difficult for.

So, Jenna forced a smile and nudged you slightly. The worry in your eyes remained, but there was that softness again. You were silently pleading with her to just focus on her own comfort, to say one word and she was sure you’d have her back and remove this scene.

‘Just black out already! Don’t be a burden!’ her mind truly was her harshest critic. “I’m fine,” she lied, thinking she could fake it until it became real. You nodded, even though she could see you weren’t buying it.

“Take 1, action!”

She slumped into your arms, like Tara was supposed to. She didn’t black out, she was aware of everything, of your arms holding her, of her own arms around you and she desperately tried to imagine that she was Tara, and you were C/N. She looked up into your eyes, like the script instructed, and saw the look in your eyes. Tender, filled with love and gentle, showing that Tara was the only one who could get C/N to act like that.

Jenna nearly pushed away from you right then and there. The look in your eyes overlapped with the way you would sometimes look at her off camera. Worst of all, Jenna found herself blurring the lines between what Tara was supposed to feel and what she was feeling. Too intense, it was too intense. Too fast. She couldn’t get her heartbeat under control and she was sure you were actually holding her up with how much the realization that she couldn’t do the one thing she always did while filming affected her.

She could not black out, even slightly.

No one stopped the scene and she resisted the urge to stop it herself. In the back of her head her overthinking brain figured this was actually selling the scene better. She felt self-conscious, uncertain, and that was close to what Tara was supposed to be feeling right now.

Her anxiety only increased as she remembered what she was supposed to be doing. Mere seconds separated her from the kiss. She was to take the lead, your character not wanting to push Tara into anything. Funny how you took that approach with her as well, outside of your characters, outside of the movie, outside of being co-stars, and she did something unprofessional. She wasn’t reaching up with her right hand and touching C/N, she was touching your cheek.

You leaned into her touch, parting your lips slightly. “Tara,” you whispered, soft, protective, your voice filled with relief and love, exactly what was needed from you as you gently wrapped your arms around her shoulders and upper back, avoiding the injuries Tara was meant to have. You were being professional, you were doing your job and here Jenna was, driven by her emotions.

She still continued, she hugged you, her right palm resting on the nape of your neck, tugging you lower as she placed her bandaged left hand on your back. The question in your eyes, the one last chance for her to tell you she wasn’t comfortable, to back away, to quit being unprofessional was presented to her, yet she, against the script, ran her fingers through your hair, gently scratching the back of your head and raising her head. She swallowed hard, completely aware that she wasn’t acting, that she was about to kiss you.

And that wasn’t the right thing to do.

Just as your lips were about to touch Jenna pulled away, gasping and taking a step back. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized, knowing full-well how this, all of this looked. The sudden rejection, the gasp, the way she pushed against you, and the way you froze. Everyone froze, Matt and Tyler, the camera crew, everyone, and she swore she could hear the pin drop. “I-“ what could she even say.

“What just happened?” Tyler asked, looking between you and Jenna, and she couldn’t blame him. “Y/N? Jenna? What’s wrong?” he sounded confused and concerned and Jenna looked at him, only now realizing he was looking at you for answers.

And her heart sank.

The way she reacted made it seem like you caused it. Like you did something before the shoot to make her uncomfortable. “I panicked, I just, I don’t know what happened,” she quickly said, but it all sounded less convincing than she was hoping for. “Y/N didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, hating how her emotions were getting all over the place and completely out of her control.

“Okay, what do you need? Five minutes?” he asked. Everything was set up with the intention of finishing the kiss scene and it needed to be done today, or the production would risk falling behind.

You had other ideas though. “We reschedule, call Mikey and we can finish the chase scene instead,” you said and Jenna snapped her head toward you. You didn’t look angry, at all, but she could see you were shaken by what just happened. By how Jenna stopped the scene.

“That’s a temporary solution. What if this happens again?” Tyler demanded, and Jenna knew his concerns were valid, even if he didn’t know what caused her reaction.

It would only get worse from this point onward. She reacted like that, she disrupted the chemistry between you, created a tension that couldn’t be fixed that easily. And she was certain it would be felt across the rest of the scenes you two had together. Not to mention she genuinely believed the kiss scene was now absolutely impossible.

“We’ll figure it out just give us a couple of days!” you snapped, for the first time since Jenna met you, you snapped.

Tyler raised his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine, we’ll leave it to the two of you. Jenna, you should go and rest, someone call Mikey to come here!” he instructed, wanting everything to be done as quickly as possible, since enough time was already lost on setting the scene for the failed kiss.

She fucked up.

“Jen,” you turned to her, worried and she just couldn’t take it.

Jenna shook her head, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “Sorry, I’m going back to the hotel,” she whispered and as quickly as the cast around her leg allowed, ran out. She just needed to quickly get the costume off and she would go back to the hotel. She closed the door behind her and leaned her back against it, and though it was muffled she heard you cursing.

Why couldn’t she just black out?

~X~

It felt like everyone knew. It felt like every time someone looked at her she could see their confusion, their curiosity about the failed kiss scene. Maybe even some judgment? Toward either or both of you? Everyone knew, after all, Courtney, who had nothing to do with the scene came up to her and assured her it happened to everyone.

She truly made a mess of things.

So, she escaped into her room, trying her best not to think of the poorly hidden glances, or the occasional whispers, mainly among those that were there when it happened. She was yet to see you, and that made everything even worse. You just came back from the set and went to your own room.

Jenna didn’t dare to go and knock, she couldn’t. What could she tell you? ‘I’m sorry, I have a crush on you, and I couldn’t get into character?’ yeah, that would be a perfect, acceptable explanation.

Were you still angry at her? Were Matt and Tyler angry at her? It was the only reasonable answer. After all, why wouldn’t you be angry? You said you and Jenna would figure it out, yet you didn’t come to see her. You were just going to approach her and tell her to get it together and do her job, weren’t you? To forget about the friendship because of the scene she caused?

She needed to lie down, to try and fall asleep, and hope things would be better after sleeping. She got up and stumbled, unsteady. It felt like the whole room was spinning, like her heart was going to burst out of her chest as she leaned on her table, her trembling hands clenching around the edges of it. She knew what was happening, but she couldn't stop it, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't stand, but she found it hard to move.

"Jenna?" Melissa's voice and knocking only made her panic more. Melissa couldn't see her like this. No one could. After everything that happened this was the last thing she could allow. "I'm coming in!"

No! She tried to yell, to stop Melissa, but she couldn't speak, she couldn't stop it, she couldn't stop anything. She couldn’t black out and do her job, she couldn’t do a fucking kiss with someone she had a crush on. And now a co-star was about to see her like this, having a panic attack. Everyone will know then. Just like they found out about what she did. It’ll spread like wildfire and consume her entirely. They'll know about her anxiety. You'll know about it, about how little control she had. What will you think of her then, now that you were angry at her. Your friendship would end and it was all, entirely, her fault.

"Jenna!" she came in. She saw her. It was over. Jenna crumbled to her knees, just barely noticing when Melissa ran up to her. "What's wrong?! What happened?!" the frantic tone, the uncertain touch, Melissa didn't know what to do, and all it did was make things worse.

Jenna felt sick, nauseous. Too weak to get up, to stop this. "Do you need a doctor? Shit, what do I do?!" Melissa was panicking, but it was nothing compared to the disaster in Jenna’s head. Everything was going to crumble around her!

"No! No!" it was getting worse. This couldn't be happening, this had to end. It was all her fault for being like this.

"Okay, okay, just please calm down!" Melissa still pulled out her phone, typing something and sighing in relief and Jenna had no idea why, but she felt intense fear all of a sudden. "Just a bit more," just a bit more what? What did she do? And then her doors opened, and she pieced it all together when you rushed in.

"Y/N, I don't know what to do," Melissa leaned back, but none of it mattered. You were here, you knew now.

"Jen," you approached her slowly, calm, steady. "Can you take a deep breath for me?" you knelt down in front of her as Melissa pulled away and Jenna felt your hand, firm, on top of her own. She saw no panic in your eyes, she felt no judgment. There wasn’t any anger, just concern. She managed a slightly deeper breath, leaning closer to you. "That's it, good," you slowly pushed a strand of her hair back, wiping sweat off her forehead.

Why? Why were you having this much of an effect on her? Calming her down like this. It didn't matter, she just closed the distance between you and took a deep breath as you hugged her, letting her lean her head on your shoulder. "You're safe," you whispered, slowly wrapping her up in a hug, like earlier disaster never even happened and she grabbed onto the hem of your shirt hoping you would pull her closer to you.

Masterlist / First Part / Previous part / Next part

Taglist: @lilbitdepressed27 @freakshow2501 @osnapitzmel1 @belatrixdragon @ijustlovemaths

[charlunday]

You can't escape me that easily, coward!!

All the screenshots below are from @districtfourmermaid

[I'll be putting my responses in color for clarity]

#1: Firstly, your use of the word "romance" shows just how severely you misunderstood the relationships in the book. I recently delivered a presentation on "Love & Rebellion & Why People Hate The Hunger Games," in which I used a quote from Nina Jacobson. She says, "If you believe that people are fundamentally good—or capable of choosing to be good—then you’ll be more drawn to a model of governance that protects people’s rights, liberties, and independent thinking." In many of your posts, you reference Katniss being a badass woman who don't need no man. You take the rebellion at face value. I can guarantee you you'd eat up Plutarch's fire and fury propos. But you're a Gale kinnie, so that's understandable. However, if you read the book, you'd understand that the heart of any rebellion is love. Doesn't matter what kind, just love. Viewing the love triangle as a marketing tactic only flaunts your inability for complex thinking and your fiercely dated millennial feminism.

#2: This part is just.... an unbelievably shallow read. I have nothing else to say, so I will let Suzanne do the talking for me.

"No one has held me like this in such a long time. Since my father died and I stopped trusting my mother, no one else's arms have made me feel this safe." THG, chapter 22.

"This is the first kiss where I actually feel stirring inside my chest. Warm and curious. This is the first kiss that makes me want another." THG, chapter 22.

“If he dies, I’ll never go home, not really. I’ll spend the rest of my life in this arena trying to think my way out.” THG, chapter 25.

"Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me. I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go." THG, chapter 27.

#3: I love how in this paragraph you completely out how self-centered you are. Because you don't want children (which is fine, btw), you automatically feel entitled to Katniss' story and her ending. I've seen you refer to her love story as "comphet" before, which only enforces my belief that that word should be taken away from people who never passed 8th grade English. At the beginning of the series, Katniss says she's never having kids. This comes from living in a world that is unsafe, a world she would never want to subject a child to. Meanwhile, throughout the series, we see Katniss act as an incredibly nurturing figure. She cares for Prim, for Rue, for Posy, and shows sympathy even for Capitol children. In the epilogue, her ability to have children is representative of the safety she feels in this new world. She even dreams about this world in Catching Fire while directly referencing Peeta.

I understand I'm not going to change your mind. You blocked me. Your idea of feminism is Francis Lawrence's big boom boom action movie. Hell yes girl power. If you looked past your idea of "comphet" and "heteronormativity," you would see a book and a relationship that revolutionized hetero gender roles in the late 2000s YA scene. Unfortunately, you fail to see that because you are blinded by your need to project onto a character.

Anyway, have fun repeating 6th grade until you're 50. I hope you get more than 30 notes on a post one day. Actually, I don't.

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Something that I think is kind of interesting is what Rise did with the traditional Leo & Splinter dynamic, throughout the different iterations of TMNT Leo is usually the one to take after Splinter the most & the same is true in Rise as well.

Leo: Relax. We’ll do what we always do. Ninja in, ninja their faces, ninja out.

Splinter: Once the hounds sniff out the boys, I ninja them out!

It’s been shown that Leo can often have a similar style of both talking & thinking as Splinter has as in the movie Leo was also shown to say similar phrases to things that Splinter had said in the show, Leo’s original plan to save Raph being to ‘ninja in, ninja out’ is also similar to Splinter’s plan to save the Turtles in the episode End Game.

Leo: Sorry, I missed that. Can you repeat everything from... well, everything?

Grandpa Sho: Yoshi! You never listen to me

Splinter: What was that? I wasn’t listening

It has also been shown that Leo has some of the same avoidance tactics as Splinter as in the movie Leo expresses a similar actions when he is trying to avoid talking to Raph about being the leader of the team that a young human Splinter expressed when he was trying to avoid his destiny as a Hamato to spend his life protecting the world from the Shredder.

It is also possible that Splinter also might have trained primarily with a sword when he was younger as we see a sword in a young Splinter’s bedroom similar to how we sometimes see swords whenever we are shown Leo’s bedroom.

There have also been a few people who have pointed out that Splinter had a similar pose in the episode Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man when throwing Donnie as the future version of Leo did when throwing Casey Junior through the time gateway.

Future Leo: Casey, when you’re done saving the world, do me a favour. Grab a slice!

Splinter: Bring home the win boys

Members of the Rise team have also said that putting Leo in a Lou Jitsu outfit in the episode Many Unhappy Returns was also partly meant to be symbolic on how Leo is the Turtle most like a younger Splinter

However though Splinter & Leo share a lot of similarities unlike most iterations of TMNT where those similarities make Leo arguably the Turtle closest with Splinter, in Rise those similarities actually cause Leo & Splinter to clash with one another.

Leo: What do you even know about training anyway? You’re just a rat

Leo: Trust me

Splinter: I do not!

Leo: No! I’m not going back to whats-his-rat

Splinter: Oh why did I ever trust you to handle this? My other sons would’ve taken this seriously!

There are a few times in Rise where Leo & Splinter clash where Splinter seems to not like Leo’s attitude or Leo seems resentful of Splinter however even though the two clash there is still a lot of love between them both.

Leo: Dad was right, and we were so mean to him

Leo: Locked in a cage, failed in our mission, held for ransom by the Foot, and none of us gave him grandchildren! Somehow I think he wanted more

Leo is shown to regret whenever he lashes out at Splinter & seems kind of visibly upset at the prospect of disappointing him

Splinter: Where is Leo? And, uh, Future Boy?

While Splinter has shown concern over Leo’s safety & has literally fallen to his knees in grief at the prospect of loosing Leo.

Splinter & Leo both love each other in Rise but I think it is kind of interesting where Rise has taken what previously made Splinter & Leo so close in other iterations & instead caused them to clash instead

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

“red flowers”: fae, vargas camp 2, and glorious masquerade

THERE’S SOMETHING IN VARGAS CAMP 2 THAT MADE ME DO A DOUBLE TAKE 👁️ 👄 👁️

So in 2-2, the pixies of the forest are trying to put out the campfires. The boys then talk about how there was a miner's campfire a while back that caused a forest fire, which naturally spooked the local fairies. AND THEN VIL GOES AND DROPS THIS DOOZIE OF A LINE:

EXCUSE ME, VI L SIR??????? ?? ? ???? ? ? ?? ? ? ? Did you just say RED FLOWERS? Is that not similar to the CRIMSON FLOWERS/LOTUSES that ROLLO tried to use to establish a magicless Twisted Wonderland in Glorious Masquerade?!

ADDENDUM: I learned recently (very shortly after this post went live, actually!) that the “red flowers” may also be a reference to what the animals in the live action Jungle Book call fires. I’m not personally familiar with this film, so I’ll be running with the crimson lotus/Glorious Masquerade connection for the duration of this post!!

Looking at how the phrases are written in Japanese, they use the term 赤い花 ("akai no hana"/red flower) in Vargas Camp and 紅蓮の花 ("guren no hana"/crimson lotus flower) in Glorious Masquerade. Crimson is basically a specific kind of red, and lotus is just a certain type of flower. Even more damning is that fact that in 3-8 of Glorious Masquerade, Malleus EXPLICITLY describes the spreading crimson flowers as having "a brilliance like that of fire". You can see from images of the crimson lotus that they do, indeed, seem to glow like fire.

If you look at the real life timeline of these events releasing, it also coincidentally lines up!! Like, the original release of Vargas Camp 2 (for JP server) was in mid to late SEPTEMBER 2022. Then Glorious Masquerade would come out mid to late OCTOBER 2022. Vargas Camp 2 was literally the new story event that came out RIGHT BEFORE Glorious Masquerade... WAS THIS FORESHADOWING??????????????? And even more importantly than that... What does this mean for fae??????

One could call "red flowers" just a poetic way for the pixies to label something they don't understand. But what's confusing is that there are clearly also fire pixies living in the forest; we see several of them in Vargas Camp attacking the students. It's not as though the fairies are unfamiliar with fire itself, so why not just call the campfires 'fires'?? What if... (and stick with me here) the pixies named the campfires thus because it's potentially a reference to something far deadlier (than even the forest fire) that they experienced or heard of in their history? In the time period of ~400 years ago shown to us in book 7, we learn that human invaders drove fae out of their homes and began mining their land for resources. This, more specifically, impacts the Briar Country up north, who are fighting against humans that arm themselves with iron (something which appears to repulse the fae). These humans are also known to use deceptive tactics, such as distracting the messenger team of Lilia and co. while they launch an assault on Mallenoa's castle, where she and her unborn son are. So... what's to say they wouldn't resort to other underhanded means as well? Mean such as... utilizing a flower known to suck out the magic from living beings :))) like maybe the... crimson lotus, perhaps?

In Glorious Masquerade, we learn that the crimson lotus has been extinct for a long time now. They were destroyed by humans centuries ago because of how dangerous they were to mages. We don't have an exact number of years, but "centuries" is enough to land it in the rough ballpark of the human-fae war. Malleus himself, who is canonically 178 years old, didn't even recognize the flowers at first (as very few records of them exist in modern times); this could imply that the crimson flowers were around before he was born, which further supports that they were present during the war era.

What's more, if we look at Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (ie the second live action Maleficent movie), we see a VERY strong parallel to the crimson lotus flower. In the film, we are introduced to the Tomb Bloom, a flower that just so happens to also be red and glows a little like fire.

UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE, NO? 🤡

Tomb Blooms are said to grow on the graves of fairies, and, when mixed with iron, creates "red dust". This red dust is considered deadly to fairies upon contact--and in the film, a fairy-hating queen lures a bunch of fae into a wedding venue to eliminate them en masse with the stuff. The crimson lotus flowers of TWST, meanwhile, are deadly on their own, draining the magic out of any magical being they touch (and permanently depriving them of magic once all the magic has been taken out of someone). For fae, who rely on magic for basically everything (travel, cooking etc.), it would be a miserable existence symbolically synonymous with death.

(Side note: in hindsight, this somewhat explains why Malleus is part of the Glorious Masquerade SSR trio. If the crimson lotus flowers were, in actuality, inspired by the Tomb Blooms (something which was weaponized against Maleficent and her kind), then it just makes so much sense for the antagonist of the event, Rollo, to utilize similar plants against Malleus, who is twisted from the Mistress of Evil herself.)

OKAY, now knowing all of that, here's what I propose as a possible timeline of events if we consider all of what I just said: ~400 years ago, crimson lotuses were plentiful. When the human-fae conflict escalated, the human side decided to play dirty to eliminate those pesky fae--because even the great Draconias would be susceptible to the magic-leeching properties of the flower. However, they discovered, upon repeated experimentation, that the flower could also harm their own mages, so they had to reformulate. Maybe this was when they learned that they could combine iron with the powdered lotus (increased surface area, and therefore also increased potency) to create something even more deadly to fae (like in Maleficent 2). Alternatively, this could contribute for the reasoning for the iron armor they wear in battle; iron repulses fae, but it could also protect them from the crimson lotus flowers due to how much of the skin it covers. For example, the Dawn Knight is said to wear a helmet that completely cover the face, and many Silver Owl NPCs do the same. There is little skin visible, unlike the armor of the Briar Country fae. But anyway, the point is that, some way or another, the humans abused the crimson lotus during this time. Once the war concluded (or in the period of reconstruction that followed), fae and humans came to an agreement to destroy all the lotuses as a part of their peace treaty/negotiations, agreeing that it was mutually beneficial to all magical creatures and mages. Humans were mainly responsible for this extinction, as there was a larger population of them that were magicless and could therefore handle the flowers without consequences. Because of the war engulfing an entire continent, fae in other parts of Twisted Wonderland would have heard about the events, fae migrated out of Briar Country to get away from the conflict, OR the conflict itself was a Twisted Wonderland-wide issue, not just contained within Briar Country. Any one of these could explain why eventually pixies on Sage's Island, in the Silent Woods (where the boys went camping), would know of the calamity caused by the crimson lotuses of the past. When they come across wild campfires, the pixies may be frightened by them due to their resemblance to the crimson lotuses and the trauma associated with war because it's human outsiders that are invading their home and propagating these 'fires'... the same situation as the human-fae war. There was the literal manmade forest fire that was far more recent, yes--but again, this doesn't fully explain why the pixies, who should be familiar with fire, would call it a "red flower" instead of just 'fire'. The association with "red flowers" being dangerous may be a result of what they recall from the war--that crimson flower which sapped away their strength and robbed them of their magic. Then, in modern day, we have Rollo somehow stumbling across seeds and breeding crimson lotuses of his own in secret for his own nefarious purposes. History (mayhaps???) repeating itself??????? ?? ? ????? ??? ??

DKJNsfhbvoqef32ygtr69r137fbofasib IDK, MAYBE I'M JUST TALKING OUT OF MY ASS AND EXTRAPOLATING TOO MUCH FROM LITTLE DETAILS 🤡 I just think it's kind of a fun theory, even if the whole timeline ends up being thrown out the window in the next main story update... Don't mind me, I'm still on my "Rollo will come save us all in a cruel and ironic twist of fate" copium--

[slasher-dasher]

Hi hi!

Are you able to write headcanons for Bo Sinclair, Billy Lenz, Billy Loomis, Pyramid Head, with a fail girl or a Girlfailure s/o? Or something like that?

In the movies/games they’re in, the protagonist is usually innocent, resourceful, and morally good. So how would they be with a person who has committed some terrible action (killing a person close to them by accident or selfish reason), is kind of a loser, pathetic-ish, etc. They’re good with weapons, and survive literally anything though. They try to compensate for what they did often, and feels like helping them or doing what the slashers say does that.

Very grateful of their love, and the type to say “I would die for you!” Instead of “I love you” like a normal person. I was thinking of James Sunderland and Michael Afton, and my mind came to this, haha.

Slashers w/a Girlfailure S/O

︶꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦︶

Bo Sinclair:

Bo has led a bunch of people to their waxy deaths, and he was intent on doing the same to you

How you were able to avoid literally every trap set around town baffled him to the point where he took matters into his own hands

He was even more surprised to see that you had done the same to one of the statues that had gotten a little courageous and tried to escape with you

"Darlin' you are so goddamn pathetic" "You mean it? 🥺" You've been his ever since. Bo rarely lets you out of his sight because he likes to watch you fumble with all the tasks/chores he gives you

He does put your knowledge of weapons to good use when the victims escape. He sends you "on the hunt", as he likes to call it, and often stays back to watch you work

Billy Lenz:

You're the first to figure out that he's up in the attic purely by wandering up there to grab stuff out of storage (he immediately tackled you). You surprised him by actually being able to fight him off!

Sometimes he likes to call just to see what he can get you to ramble about (or confess); he was very caught off guard when you started using his own tactics on him and promptly hung up the first time. You didn't hear from him for a few hours--

Billy is almost always on your heels; there have been many close-calls with the other members in the house and his hiding places get more creative every day

The difference between you two is that Billy is very reactive when he feels his guilt, where you internalize it; Billy kills to defend/on impulse and you kill to protect/by choice.

I think it's very clear that you and Billy harbor a similar guilt- Killing does distress and upset him and although it's subtle, he sees the same in you too. He appreciates when you try to help him, and he tries to help you too! But neither of you end up feeling any relief

Billy Loomis:

He picks on you often, sometimes to get a reaction (affectionate) and sometimes to be an asshole (derogatory)

Billy likes to toy with your guilt by making you help him with his calls, specifically by being on-scene and waiting to strike. He would never admit it, but he was a little jealous that you were better at chases than he was

"But Billy you told me to cha-" "I didn't tell you to almost get killed!! You might be good with a knife but I won't help you if you get caught."

Loves to admire you after a chase. He knows the look in your eyes because it's the same one in his, patches up any scrapes or stabs while calling you an idiot for almost getting caught, admires and even compliments your strategy, it's when he's the most honest.

Billy doesn't expect you to atone for anything. Just follow his plan and don't get caught. He's making you into a perfect partner in crime~

Pyramid Head:

Silent Hill is known to have visitors who are looking for a way to compensate for their sins, so he's not surprised when you come looking for the same thing

What Silent Hill is not known for is having visitors who can fight back. Most try to grab a pipe to defend themselves but you, you were either very lucky or very resourceful.

Every time he thought you were done for he'd be pleasantly surprised with the improvised weapon you grabbed appeared seemingly out of thin air in front of you

He liked to watch you fight off a group of monsters before intervening, it wasn't much fun when you got overwhelmed

Often carries you back to safety. Many of the monsters and residents learn that Pyramid Head is not far when you are nearby so they eventually learn to steer clear of you

(James Sunderland is v girlfail-core so I absolutely get it)

[anhed-nia]

R.O.T.O.R. -- AGAIN!

Even ripoffs can be beautiful.

I am writing about R.O.T.O.R., neither for the first time nor the last, because something new strikes me about this startling movie every time I see it. Its amazing premise, which amply rips off THE TERMINATOR and JUDGE DREDD (but not ROBOCOP, oddly, which began shooting after R.O.T.OR., also in Dallas) provides fertile ground for all sorts of useful interpretation. This time I was most struck by the fact that R.O.T.O.R. is all about jobs and going to work.

The story concerns "police scientist" Captain Coldyron (cold-iron) who has invented the Robotic Officer Tactical Operations Research/Reserve, a T-800 type of android made out of a "self-teaching alloy" that can kick anybody's ass. Coldyron resigns in a huff when his boss conspires with local politicians to rush the lawbot to market, and the project races forward dysfunctionally until R.O.T.O.R. inevitably busts lose and starts killing people for minor mischief. Coldyron hooks up with the robot's coauthor Dr. Steel (female bodybuilder Jayne Smith who is like something out of Crying Freeman, which I mean as the highest compliment) to hunt their creation down and destroy it.

Coldyron is played by Richard Gesswein, who was also created in a lab.

That might sound pretty action-packed, but in execution R.O.T.O.R. is heavily focused on the drudgery of daily life. Enormous amounts of time are spent walking through parking lots, traversing the atria of hotels, finding parking, being seated in restaurants, and most of all, spending hours and hours at work, making countless phone calls. You have never seen so many people on the phone in a movie in your entire life. There's work phones, home phones, payphones, and even CB radios. At times it feels as if you may never see more than one person on the same set again. On the phones, people say things to each other that have already been said earlier in the movie if not earlier in the same scene, if not earlier in the same monologue. In the scene where Coldyron learns that R.O.T.O.R. has gone rogue, he delivers this incredible screed during one of THREE calls that he makes in a row:

"Its last program was prime directive... Prime directive to our ROTOR unit is judge and execute. It stops felons, judges the crime, and executes sentence. Justice served, COD. You call the Senator and you tell him ROTOR walked through a busload of nuns to get to a jaywalker, with malice towards no one. It won't stop. It wasn't ready. Its brain functions are incomplete. It can't think twice, can't reason, can't change its prime directive. It's like a chainsaw set on frappe..."

It begins to feel as if he will never stop reiterating whatever he (and others) just said, and this is not the only such example.

Most of these calls, like all of the activity in the movie, are focused on jobs. Coldyron calls his girlfriend first thing in the morning to tell her that he is getting ready for work, and to ask her if she is also getting ready to go to work at her own job. He promises that "if you're a good girl and go to work" then he will grill steaks at her house later. When he goes out to buy charcoal for the reward steaks he stumbles upon two creeps robbing the store and trying to take a hostage--a woman who stops the crime with several karate kicks, to whom he says "Hey lady, you want a job?" Meanwhile at the police robot lab, a scientist slaves away while complaining about the impossible new R.O.T.O.R. deadline as the comic relief security bot whines, sighs, and says "One of these days I'm gonna quit this job!" (Later on he actually does) Once R.O.T.O.R. has escaped we meet the Linda Hamilton of this movie (Margaret Trigg), who is having a vicious fight in the car with her fiance because she wants to get a job; the fiance wants to forgo the "barbaric ritual" of the wedding and just be automatically married to a woman who will not embarrass him by getting a job. Finally he concedes, "Elope with me tonight and I'll help you get a job after the honeymoon," but it's too late for all that because he's speeding and about to get killed by R.O.T.O.R.

For extra job-related realism there is workplace harassment in the form of a guy who tries to fuck his colleague by describing ancient execution methods and who calls her a white supremacist for turning him down (he says he's Native American, she says he's not, I don't know the right answer because this is the actor's only credit--and actually he's uncredited for the role, though he is acknowledged for composing the movie's primitive synth soundtrack which I kind of enjoy). It's also worth mentioning that the comedy droid is a real robot with a job, according to iMDB (sadly there is not a wealth of info on this movie):

"Willard the Robot is played by APD2, a robot purchased in 1986 by the police department of the Town of Addison, a northern suburb of Dallas, for $17,750 (approximately $41,000 in 2018 dollars). APD2/Willard performed public relations duties and was tapped to lead the Christmas parade in Addison that year. His contributions to actual law enforcement and his subsequent whereabouts are unknown. "As quoted from 'theoldrobots' website; 'Officer Willi from 1985 - This 21st Century Robotics robot was operated by remote control, showed videos about public safety, and was used in teaching important safety topics such as stranger awareness, traffic safety, and much more..'"

Coldyron is actually a very good prototype of the modern tech mogul who has way too much time on his hands and whose existence is mainly composed of heroic fantasies about himself, whether he is molding the future face of law enforcement, or dicking around on his enormous ranch where he lamely practices his lasso technique on tree stumps before blowing them up with dynamite. At the office he demands "hydrogenated wheat germ and dessicated liver" which boosts his handball game, and I thought, jesus christ I think I've worked for this guy. Coldyron is *I think* the hero of this movie but I'm never sure how much you're really supposed to like him; when his girlfriend sends him out for charcoal so he can cook her reward steaks, he goes to a mini mart and just starts looking for trouble, harassing minorities and flashing his gun. It's like, this is the reason there are loitering laws, but naturally they don't apply when you're a rich cop.

Someone please make these stickers!

The best way to understand R.O.T.O.R. is through the knowledge that director and co-writer Cullen Blaine worked on a variety of popular cartoon shows during what they call "the dark age of animation". First of all, there are scenes in this movie whose aesthetic, humor, and internal logic only begin to make sense if you imagine them taking place in an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--and actually much if not all of the dialog was dubbed by a whole other cast due to problems with getting the stars back for ADR, creating a whole other layer of literal cartoonishness. But the period in which Cullen Blaine created R.O.T.O.R. and designed many children's shows was dominated by what's called "limited animation" which I almost don't even have to describe. It's all in the name, the goal was to do things as cheaply as possible while turning out dozens of episodes per season. Part of the problem was, as with all things, Ronald Reagan, whose deregulation activities defanged measures to make sure children's programming was not just a steady stream of hard sell marketing. Under Reagan, the requirement for some portion of programs to be educational became so easy to meet and manipulate that animation studios were compelled to crank out zillions of Trojan horse toy ads with glib moral declarations tacked on. (I think I understand this correctly, I'm sure @bogleech has better material on the subject) Animators are a historically abused lot with a sad history of failed strikes, and I'm just extrapolating here, but I bet it's reasonable to guess that R.O.T.O.R. reflects the filmmaker's experiences in the grueling cartoon mines. The brutal sacrifice of quality to speed, the hostile work environments, and the endless, redundant calls and meetings, all smack of a script by someone who has had a very bad job.

"We've all got plenty of time to figure out what this means to each one of us," Coldyron sagely concludes at the end of his misadventure. Obviously I am still working on what it means to me, since this is the fourth or fifth time I've seen this movie and (at least?) the second time I'm writing about it. I will say that while the film I have just described sounds intolerably boring--I mean, a whole movie about rat race drudgery with the fewest and least convincing action sequences ever--but believe me, it is not boring. R.O.T.O.R. is constantly surprising and fascinating, with weirdly vivid imagery and pages and pages of the strangest dialog you will hear anywhere. Just watch the movie and let it shock you. You'll have plenty of time to figure out what it means to you later.

[freemansgirl]

killer

pairing: amber freeman x fem reader

summary: reader is held at gunpoint once amber finds out that reader knows her big secret. (inspired by nate pulling the gun on maddy scene in euphoria because that is A CLASSICCC angst scene and one of my favorites in media)

warnings: gun, dark!toxic!amber, amber is being manipulative, amber not being a good girlfriend, emotional abuse, physical abuse, amber pulling a gun on reader, reader is crying, traumatized reader

it’s not like you wanted this to happen, same can say for amber. you didn’t mean to trip over the ghostface box that had her costume and knife in it, it was accidentally sticking out of the bed. you never seen the box before and opened it out of curiosity. this was all a big mistake, amber tried to keep it a secret from you as much as possible. at some point, this was going to happen… some secrets cant stay hidden forever.

“amber, have you lost your mind?! what the fuck is this, how can you keep this a secret from me?!”

“you weren’t supposed to find this, (your name).”

the two of you began to get into a heated argument, you felt the need to run away because you know you can’t DATE a serial killer, it’s morally wrong to do that. your friends, family, and everyone around you would hate you if they knew the truth. as you begin to try to run to get to the doorframe in amber’s room to escape, you felt a very familiar pale-skinned hand grab your wrist, yanking you, causing you to fall back a little. “not so fast.”

once you turn around and want to open your mouth to protest amber to let you go and leave you alone, you see something black and shiny is pulled out of her back pocket… it’s a gun. you can feel a chilling spine crawl all over your body, your hairs on your body are standing up while you look at her with widened, scared eyes. “i love you, i love you, i love you.” you say rapidly, as you try to calm her down and pray that will help her put the gun away so she doesn’t kill you. you hear a small yet sinister chuckle escape her mouth as she looks at you with an evil smile. she knows you’re saying this out of fear to escape the moment, not because you actually love her, she’s not stupid. mindy tells her about all of the time about manipulation tactics from the victims side in abusive relationships in movies, plus amber has seen way too many horror movies to see how this plays out in abusive relationships or how people beg for mercy when a serial killer is about to end their lives.

she puts the gun to hip of your body and she seems to lead you to her bed, as you start to frantically look at her, unable to read her blank expression. “you’re…. scaring me… put the gun down…” you say, biting your lip to prevent your lips from trembling for a bit. she still had a blank expression, her eyes never blinked and looked deeply into your soul. you hated when she would sometimes do this in an argument, when she would purposely show no emotion so you couldn’t understand her or predict her next move. your girlfriend tilted her head to the side and smirked…, “good, that’s the point.” is all that comes out of her mouth. the gun is still adjusted to your hip, her hand is sitting on your thigh as she gently sighs looking into your watering eyes.

“now, you know i… love you right, baby? you know i know you a lot better than everyone else around you, just like you know me better than anyone else around me.” she whispers, as she rubs your thighs lovingly, you can feel your whole body tense as it begins to shake. she begins to look down at the locket necklace she has on her neck, she opens it and stares at the happy picture of you two… moments before disaster… she starts to sigh again. you start to stare at her, once again, before you shake your head agreeing with her. “now… let’s see if your words match your actions.” she says, as she leans above you and presses the barrel of the gun towards your head, the muzzle pressing more into your forehead skin. “stop, stop, amber…. please stop, i won’t tell anyone, i won’t go to the police… just let me go and we can talk about this!” you yell to her as you start panicking as you move backwards due to intense force that was on your head, as you feel your back pressing into the bedsheets. the words don’t do anything to her, as her figure is officially above you now with the gun still against your forehead.

“shut up!” she got loud and angry for a second before her facial expression returned to normal, “just… quiet down, princess. i don’t want anyone hearing us, (your name), do i make myself clear?” she spoke, sternly with a serious look in her eyes as you nodded. she didnt like the fact that you got loud, worried about the fact if anyone in the neighborhood can hear you from the window. speaking of the window, she got up and closed the blinds so no one could see the scene. she walks back over to you, hovering above you like she was before with the gun pressed against your forehead again.

“hm….” she hums softly, looking at your saddened and shaking figure, you start whimpering, more and more as tears spill out of your eyes. “back to what you said earlier about talking things out, i like this way of talking more, straight to the point and simple.” she says, as her other hand caresses your face softly. you flinch from her touch and look away to the side, this causes her to get mad and grab your face roughly. “you say you won’t go to the police, right? you say you love me, right, despite me being a killer? swear on it.” she says in a scary and upset tone, as she is breathing heavily on you.

you start to get quiet and as she starts talking to you, too scared to answer. “answer me!” your girlfriend grabs you by your shoulders with her left hand, keeping the gun on your forehead with the right hand. your body was so shaken up from fear and trauma, causing you to sniffle and hold back your tears. all you did was stare at the girl you love, trying to open your mouth but all that came out was choked sobs. this was another one of amber’s tests… she truly needed to see if you loved her, she wanted to know was what you had was real with her. first, she asked you would you still love her even if she was the killer one time you guys hung out…. you did say yes because you know how her humor is and didn’t take her seriously… but now you’re stuck in this… disaster. “yes, i won’t tell anyone, please! i love you too much to do that to you, baby, i won’t tell anyone, please just believe me!” you scream back at her, freaking out and you just wait for her to put the gun down.

she stares at you, still feeling unsatisfied with your performance, she nudges the gun into your forehead. “fucking swear on it!” the raven haired girl yelled, her voice was laced with fury and her eyes got larger. when you stared into her eyes, you weren’t dealing with amber freeman, you were dealing with ghostface. this is not the girl you ended up in love with, the same girl you smile, kiss, hold hands, laugh, cuddle, have sex with, have movie marathons with. this is not the same girl that cuddled and protected you through all of the ghostface murders just for her to be the one responsible for it. this is a whole other person.

“i swear! i swear!” you yelled at her. this is finally what was able to satisfy her, she finally smiles now that she got what it is that she wanted. you can feel the weight on the bed shift as she gets off you, giving you a bit of space. she walks to you, she begins to rub your shoulder as she gives you quick reassurance. you start to flinch from her touch, your body is curled up in a ball. “hey, sweetheart, it was just a joke. there’s no bullets in the gun, see?” amber says, holding the gun up to show you the inside of the barrel. that makes the situation even ten times worse than it already was. she sees all of this as some bullshit joke, she didn’t even care about the drama and harm she caused to you.

honestly, amber didn’t WANT TO DO THIS… she needed to do this just to make sure there was trust and loyalty between you two. “i’m sorry, baby, i thought you would know better enough to know that i’d NEVER hurt you… i’d never kill you. i love you too much to do such sick, twisted things.” she says, as she begins to grab the black box off of the ground. you couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth, she claimed that she would never hurt you, but she did. she begins to start getting ready as she slips on the infamous ghostface black robe. “if you loved me, you’d never do this. if you loved me, you wouldn’t put me through this!” you shout at her from across the bed, holding your knees against your chest.

but that’s the issue… the fact that she did this to you… that makes her a killer. this is her true nature. she could feel herself getting frustrated as she lets out a laugh while looking over at your cuddled position. “and if you loved me, i wouldn’t have to do this if you wouldn’t tried to leave. anyways, i have places to be and things to do.” she walks over to you about to place a gentle kiss on your cheek but you flinch away from her again and seethed your teeth. “don’t touch me!”

the reaction that you gave amber caused a smile to tug at her lips. she sighs, not wanting to deal with your attitude because she had better yet important things to do. she’ll have to just deal with you later. as she begins to just turn her back on you, amber grabs her mask and shoves her knife inside of her pocket. she starts to walk away as she leaves to go to her car, leaving you stranded and crying all alone on the bedroom while she plans for her next kill.

don’t worry, this is only the beginning….

[snowglobe-system]

Systems, be kind to your “problematic” alters. No, I don’t mean don’t give them consequences for their actions, and no, I don’t mean just let them wreak havoc on your life. But I do mean try to work with them instead of against them.

We have one of these problematic alters. Her name is Nyx. She holds a lot of the trauma and holds a lot of mental illness symptoms and addiction problems. She embodies some of the worst parts of our abusers. Nyx has intense emotions that she can’t always control, she can be manipulative, nasty, mean, she takes front and suddenly we’ve been on a bender for four days and she’s been a total bitch to everyone who loves us and who we love. She self-harms, she’s the reason for a lot of our near misses with suicide. When we say she can be problematic, we MEAN IT.

We’ve spent years fighting with her, trying to keep her in headspace, treating her coldly. She always breaks out of containment. She’s weirdly good at it. But recently we’ve started thinking that Nyx’s propensity for breaking out is, in part, our brain trying to tell us something. Because after years of fighting against her, we decided to try something new. We saw her being angry and bitchy about a particular guy our partner was talking to, and instead of condemning her and locking her up, we asked her why.

Nyx didn’t know the answer at first, so we waited with her until she figured it out. She then explained that she feels like expressing her needs makes her a bad person (which is almost definitely an internalized message from our abuser), but circumstances around this particular guy were making her feel really insecure, and in the absence of being able to talk about what her actual feelings are, she tried to get rid of the threat by being overall angry and negative about him. In essence? Nyx feels like she can’t express needs because she feels like she should be able to meet them independently. So, the needs go unmet, and she ends up resorting to underhanded tactics to meet them, which doesn’t always work because people can’t read her mind, and then it builds up into a much bigger problem than it was originally.

And you know what? That’s something we can work with.

In one of our first acts of real system cooperation, we coaxed her into talking to our partner about how she felt, and she did, and she even wound up apologizing for her behaviour, on her own, without any of us making her. 

We decided that instead of locking her back up, we’d give her the grace of letting her have a little freedom, and asked her not to go on a bender or self sabotage relationships. And you know what she did with front the next day?

She put on a cute outfit, put temporary pink hair dye in our hair, had a drink and a smoke at dinner with our parents and brother, and went to see the Barbie movie with our mom and nana. Not exactly the unhinged behaviour we’ve come to expect from her. The most unhinged thing she did was the hair dye, and honestly? The colour is temporary and it looks good on us. She showed off the outfit to anyone who would give her the time of day, and it was honestly adorable. She was so happy and excited to feel like a cute girl! It’s a very different side of her, but one that’s been here the whole time.

And all it took was offering her some understanding, teamwork and trust. She hasn’t gotten better overnight. She still has a lot of problems. There is still work to be done with her. But you know what did happen overnight? She’s agreed to work with us at all.

So yeah. Be kind to your problematic alters, because that’s the first step of cooperation.

[stupidphototricks]

The thing about The Truth is that it's actually a great action movie. I mean of course it is:

"Do you know what they called a sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm?" said Mr. Pin, as the two walked away. "No?" said Mr. Tulip. "They call it le sausage-in-le-bun." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

But my very favorite scene, the one that reaches out and grabs me, is when Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip are threatening William in the newsroom, and the realization hits that Goodmountain can secretly communicate with William through typesetting:

Goodmountain's hand moved again, flicking letter after letter from its nest. Armed? coff 4 yes -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

which is brilliant, so there's a silently-planned insurrection with an unexpected denouement that all plays out as if it was filmed in Technicolor with surround sound, teach me your ways, Sir Terry.

And we're only a little over halfway through the book here. There's still time for characters to make light conversation as everything falls apart around them:

"And there's another magazine that would sell, too," said Sacharissa. Behind her, a piece of the press collapsed. "Hello? Hello? I know my mouth is opening and shutting," said Goodmountain. "Is any sound getting out?" "Cats," said Sacharissa. "Lots of people like cats. Pictures of cats. Stories about cats. I've been thinking about it. It could be called... Completely Cats." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

and for Chekhov's Paper Spike to fulfill its purpose, and for Sacharissa to try out some nonstandard negotiation tactics:

"Let us use your 'ing' presses or I'll 'ing' shoot your 'ing' head 'ing' off!" she screamed. "I think that's how you're supposed to say it, isn't it?" -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

and for Otto to save the day again:

Otto Chriek dropped to the floor, hands raised like talons. "Good evening!" he said to a shocked bailiff. He looked at his hand. "Oh, vot am I thinking of!" He bunched his fists, and danced from foot to foot. "Put zem up in the traditional Ankh-Morpork pugilism!" -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

and for William to get A Talking To from Law Enforcement:

"Fred, send someone to take Mr. de Worde down to the cells, will you?" he yelled. "I'm calling it protective custody for now," he added, turning back to William." "Protecting me from whom?" "Well, I personally have an overwhelming urge to give you a ding alongside the ear," said Vimes. "But I suspect there are others out there without my self-control." -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

and for a poignant moment when it's all over:

"I mean, I didn't try to do anything. I thought: This is a Story, and I have to tell it." "Yep," said Sacharissa, still bowed over her writing. "We've been press-ganged." "But it's not--" "Look at it like this," said Sacharissa, starting a fresh page. "Some people are heroes. And some people jot down notes." "Yes, but that's not very--" Sacharissa glanced up, and flashed him a smile. "Sometimes they're the same person," she said. -- Terry Pratchett, The Truth

which, I mean. You see it, right?

Sir Terry Pratchett.

Our hero.

Who thought of Stories, and had to tell them.

[maleyanderecafe]

Opinions on Yandere cheaters?

I saw a discussion on reddit about this trope, and I immidiatly went straight to your blog lolol. I dont know if you already have this question answered or if you ban this type of question but I am a bit curious! What specific scenerios would make a yan cheat? If they were somewhat redeemable, what actions would they do to be redeemable?

Straight to my blog? i'm honored, haha. I wouldn't ban a question like that because I generally am pretty open about how yandere can be like and it's always very cool when you think about what kind of things that yanderes can expand into that might be unconventional.

I can see why people don't really like the concept of yandere cheaters. One of the biggest appeals of yanderes is their undying loyalty and persistence, so having a yandere do something completely opposite to that basically turns people off from them. The joke is always, I can accept murder, confinement, amputation and obsession but I draw the line at cheating in the yandere community. Some people will not accept a character as a yandere if they cheat.

However, I personally do think there are some ways that yanderes can cheat and still become a yandere.

One way is to use it as a manipulation tactic. Even if the two are actually married or otherwise together, I can see a yandere cheating with someone else as a way to get them to react a certain way or to pay attention to them more. An example off the top of my head is from the machine translated mobile game Yandere Boyfriend Leo, where while Leo is in love with the main character, ends up dating her friend Grace as a way to get her jealous and eventually to give her so much stress that she loses her memory. I feel like a yandere can do this as a way to get their lover to do something, whether again, it is something relating to them getting attention, or simply a plan to get them to be confined for instance. The main thing is generally that the yandere is basically using them and has no interest in actually being together with them, since they only have eyes for their love. You can also see this in the Lifetime movie, Hush Little Baby, where the yandere, Owen, sleeps with another girl despite being in love with the main character Lauren as a way to make it seem like her husband is cheating and sew chaos in the family. Yes, it's a pretty awful way to get with their love interest, but I think people forget that yanderes are kind of supposed to be awful people a lot of times, and you liking them or disliking them doesn't always disqualify them from being a yandere.

Another way is basically their perception of love and sex and how that's handled. For a lot of people, having sex with another person while in a relationship is considered cheating, but it can differ from person to person. For instance, Kirishima from Raise wa tanin ga ii is kind of an example of this because while he does exhibit a lot of yandere actions like obsessiveness, tracking Yoshino on his phone, stalking her etc, he does spend a lot of beginning simply just sleeping with other women, despite the fact that he confesses his love towards her. This is one of the things that put a lot of people off of him because while the two of them are not dating or engaged, we generally don't see yanderes as someone who will sleep with others when they have someone that they're obsessed with. Still, we do see that Kirishima views sex and love pretty differently, as he mostly uses it for pleasure and doesn't have any romantic interest with any of the other girls he sleeps with, even talking to them about how much he loves and adores Yoshino after sleeping with them. I'm not the best analysist on this topic since I am kind of behind on the manga, but this reddit post does a pretty good job of explaining it.

Similar to above, sometimes the situation or time they are in forces them to be with someone else instead of the person they love. This is more of "this is for the sake of someone I love or care about " and less of the fact that they want to have more than one person by their side. One example of this is Dekiai Yakuza ni wa Amayakasarenai!, a manga about a body guard who is obsessed with the person that he's protecting. Despite this, we do see in the manga that he does sleep with another woman, though we also see that he does so reluctantly. This can be considered "cheating" in a sense like I stated before, but considering he's likely doing this for the sake of the person he loves, and doesn't enjoy it at all in the slightest. There is also The Little Princess and Her Monster Prince, specifically in the backstory of their reincarnation with Liontel and Phillip. Phillip was originally engaged to another girl named Ser but used her power so that he could be the emperor. He ends up not only causing Ser's husband to die, but also cages her and keep her locked up for the sake of protecting her. To maintain the idea that she's dead and to keep his status, he does actually marry another woman and had a child with her, but ultimately does so out of obligation as the king, as well as the fact that he very clearly doesn't love her. In these cases, the yandere is more or less forced into consequences where they don't really have control over what they want, and thus have to either sleep with or be married to someone else despite having someone that they love. This is another way I feel like a yandere can technically cheat without actually losing their status as a yandere. In a similar vein, if the yandere believes they can never be with their lover, they might try to get with others, but only has their lover at heart. Kylar for instance from DOL is considered a yandere, but based on the players actions, can sleep around and even date other players. This doesn't necessarily disqualify Kylar as a yandere, but rather the circumstances of the game (aka, not allowing murder) don't allow him to go all out, probably to make sure the player themselves is not locked in a choice when it comes to this kind of game.

I think that certain developments that lead to a yandere becoming a yandere can also be something that's explored. The easiest one of course is that they originally were cheating with other people but slowly develops feelings and obsessions for one person and gives up on his life of being a player, or even just using it more as a way to try to forget, or even maintain status, but their heart is always with the person that they love. There is also the fact that the yandere can be the one that the lover is cheating on with, like in Casual Flowers, if for some reason they can't get rid of their spouse or lover, sometimes that's the only way they can experience being with the other person. If they were possibly a redeemed yandere, where they go from yandere back to another person, they might end up with someone else entirely.

Personally, I think that it would be really funny if the yandere lost the person they loved and then forcibly projected them onto another person. Then they realized that their original love was actually alive. That would be both really funny and a hilarious situation with the yandere. If they're really delusional, they might not even recognize their original love or they could just abandon the other person that they loved instead.

It also depends on what you consider cheating. Are threesomes considered cheating? Is it cheating if their love is split into a bunch of different people and the person has to gather them all? Is it cheating if the yandere is immortal and keeps losing his memory so he keeps falling in love with different people? Is having a reverse harem considered cheating?

I'm sure there are other ways to have a yandere cheater in the story, but I can't really think of them. I'm not sure if you would consider this cheating since in most of these scenarios, the yandere and the lover aren't actually dating, so they still can be more fluid with their actions. Still, I think its a very fun thing to consider when writing yanderes.

[hyperpotamianarch]

Well, I can hardly believe I chose this to be my fourth original post, but meh, who cares. Anyway, random note about Howell Jenkins!

Firstly, I'm talking about book Howl, which is why I spelled it Howell - this is his original name, he changed it in Ingary to sound more impressive. He's actually from Wales, which honestly means little to me as someone who never set foot in Britain, but I think I get the general gist of it.

Many things can be said of Howl. He's not really a noble and gentle, if slightly narcissistic, person as you might think after watching the movie. He's mostly a selfish coward, likes to woo ladies but seemingly afraid of commitment, is very bad with money, and... Umm... Yeah, there are other posts that do a better job than I am in characterizing Howl. That's not what I'm here to talk about. Suffice it to say that he's somehow likable in spite of all these flaws.

What I am here to talk about, however, is two common misconceptions about Howl that are somewhat related to the flaws listed above: one is that Howl is running away from student debt and didn't finish his doctorate, and the other is that he invented the titular Moving Castle to evade taxes. While those actions are indeed in character for Howl, they are both contradicted by the book itself (to a degree).

To start with the first one: Howell only talks about his thesis once in the book - when explaining to miss Angorian, an English teacher, why he has a magic spell. Book readers likely know who I'm talking about, and for non book readers, I'm afraid I'll leave the rest of the context to your imagination. Either way, Howell tells miss Angorian that she may have heard that he wrote his doctoral thesis on charms and spells. Notice, "wrote". As in past tense.

To be fair, that doesn't necessarily mean he finished his doctorate. As a matter of fact, it could be a rumor he started in order to explain away why he had spell books. It certainly won't be the first rumor Howl started for his own convenience. But if it tells us anything about him having a doctorate, it tells us he finished it. I don't know much about student loans in UK during the 80's, so that isn't a point I can say anything about, but I am given to understand it was less of a problem.

So, did Howl run away from his doctorate to the magical land if Ingary? No, he didn't. He actually kind of fulfilled every nerd's dream of both doing what he likes most and using it to write his doctoral thesis, killing two birds with one stone. To be honest, what I still don't get is why he kept contact with his old world. I mean, Suliman seems to have cut ties - we never hear of him going back. But Howl, even if we didn't see him use the black door as much at first, seems to keep some contact with his sister and her family, keep a car etc. He might only visit rarely, but he still does.

Anyway, for the second misconception I decided to bring in the big guns: a direct book quote about why the moving castle. Not all quotes on the topic, though, because I'm lazy. Anyway, look here:

This is in chapter four of HMC. It's revealed later in the book that the "someone very powerful" is actually the Witch of the Waste. So, the Moving Castle is there to show everyone what a Horrible and Powerful Wizard Howl is. Also, to avoid attention from the Witch of the Waste.

Sophie herself, in the next paragraph, questions the usefulness of such a tactic. I think it might actually be an explanation of why Howl decided the Castle had to be moving - maybe it's harder to magically detect that way, I don't know. Either way, it's not to avoid taxes - especially considering the fact Howl has an address in Kingsbury, the capital of Ingary, and that this address is known to the local authorities.

I would also like to prematurely dispell an almost plausible headcanon: Sophie's hat-sewing causes so much of the plot, after all. So you might be tempted, when reading that she told a hat that someone should set Howl and the Witch up together, to think that she's responsible for that as well. However, considering the quote presented above, it appears that Howl and the Witch dated before Howl created the Moving Castle, which was the inciting incident for Sophie hearing about him. Thus, Sophie is not guilty whatsoever of getting Howl and the Witch together - just of being oddly on point.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

[igncrxntripley]

So I have a bunch of storm coming in. I don't know if you are comfortable can I have a female who has a fear of thunder and Rhea Ripley "comforting" female!reader by making reader focusing on Rhea?

headcanons: thunderstorms

a/n: making this into headcanons bc i haven't done any for rhea yet, also i hope this is what you were looking for!!

mentions: SFW, fear of thunderstorms, mentions of thunder/rain/wind, use of rhea's real name, reader’s gender isn’t specific

taglist: @ripleyswhore @babybatlover @thesithdiaries @auburnwrites @neptune-lover @i-have-issues-lol @ares-athena @bunnysmyname

demi wasn't scared of much - she threw herself through tables and hit people for a living, she didn't have time to be scared of something like a thunderstorm; but she knows when her partner is scared of something and she immediately is going to jump into action to make things better.

with the changing seasons and temperamental weather, thunderstorms were getting to be a more common ocurrence and were your actual nightmare. they were so loud and scary, and sometimes it felt like no matter what you did nothing eased the fear of the storms.

your girlfriend, demi, took quick notice of this the first time a storm rolled through during your relationship. she spent the majority of the time calming you down and didn't even think twice about getting you to focus on her instead of what was going on outside.

"baby, look! i made a blanket fort! i have all the snacks and a movie, and our chargers in case the power goes out, and i even grabbed those headphones in case you need them again!'

there's no doubt you and demi are spending the entire storm in that exact fort; she only used the best and thickest blankets in the entire house so it covered up the sound a little better, and the two of you would be huddled under another blanket for an extra sense of security.

i'd be a fool if i didn't specify that the two best guard dogs in the world, barry and luna, are protecting the fort through the storm to make sure both you and demi were safe.

with each crack of thunder, your body jumping and a quiet whimper leaving your lips, demi's arms would tighten around your body and she'd whisper the sweetest things she could manage; "shh, i'm here. we're safe right here in the house, yeah?"

you had to give demi credit, as she was trying her hardest to make sure you were feeling safe and comfortable. but she had no clue how deep this fear of thunder really went, and she knew she needed to start getting more creative.

the next time the thunder rolled, demi could see the tears building up in your eyes. it didn't help that the power was flickering and the wind was picking up outside. but she was determined to make sure you were okay throughout the rest of this storm, and she decided that she needed to go back to basics.

demi would turn you in her arms so you faced her, only able to look into her stunning eyes as she tightened the blanket around your bodies. what she said next took you by surprise, but it most definitely made you focus on anything other than the storm outside.

"you ever have that one thing as a kid you thought you were really good at but in reality you were just a kid and your parents wanted to keep your confidence up and made you think you were good at it?" she'd ask with a smile, taking amusement in the somewhat shocked look on your face.

demi wasn't done there; "in year 7 there was a talent show at school and i was convinced that i needed to showcase my insane hoola-hooping abilities." demi would smirk, her fingers drawing patterns on your back as she held you close.

she'd continue to go on about these silly stories, holding you close the entire time and smiling every time you giggled at her. demi's tactics work so well that you don't even notice the storm wrapping up outside and the only remnants being some light rain and wind.

the terror on your face was replaced by shock when you looked at demi, and she would giggle at you as if she'd accomplished the biggest thing possible. "i told you we'd get through the storm."

needless to say, every thunderstorm after this was not nearly as scary as they used to be - that is, as long as demi was home.

[the-one-true-nobody]

I've been acquainted with Grand Admiral Thrawn ever since I picked up Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire from the school library around ninth grade or so. He was such an interesting villain to me at the time, and that impression hasn't lessened with age. Being the key antagonist in one of the old Star Wars expanded universe's first big storylines, he's also kind of a major figure of the whole darn beyond-the-movies canon, in the same way that Darth Revan is. And he kind of filled a void that the Original Trilogy left gaping wide, in the sense that—apart from the fleeting presence of Tarkin in A New Hope, the Imperial military never really had any threatening and competent military leaders at the face of things... just Darth Vader and the Emperor.

I was thrilled to see Thrawn make his live action debut in Ahsoka, and though my first visual impression of the guy was a little underwhelming. The Rebels incarnation in particularly very much had that "a strong body feeds a strong mind" kind of character and a physique to match, along with a Sherlock Holmes hawkishness to his facial features. But as soon as he opened his mouth and I realized how on-point the performance here was coming off the back of his appearances in Rebels, I was sold.

It seems some people really are very skin-deep in what they find "imposing," though, because there are a lot of complaints about how "lame" he looks, because he's "fat," or whatever. It's true, you can see it if you look at his uniform: he's got a bit of a gut going on underneath his just-slightly-frayed-and-aging Grand Admiral dress whites.

I say: "So what?"

The appearance is still solid; discrepancies can be explained by, for example, Thrawn undergoing an extended recovery period from some unspecified injury he sustained when the purrgils warped him and Ezra through hyperspace into another galaxy. If you recall, Thrawn was actually in quite the predicament when that happened:

It might well even be that he hasn't been able to maintain a strong and healthy body in the way he used to, for example. Maybe he had to go through painstaking self-directed physical therapy to even get as far as he has.

More importantly, his performance is absolutely on-point. He has the same presence he did in Rebels, minus the exaggerated CGI-cartoon facial expressions that everyone had in that show. He moves, acts, and speaks in a way that I would absolutely imagine of him in the Thrawn Trilogy novels. And he hasn't really even had time to build tactical momentum yet. It's everything I could have wanted from a Thrawn portrayal.

So yeah, I say "So what?" So what if he's a bit "fat." He's Thrawn. The king has returned to Dark Side Minas Tirith, and it is glorious.

Sidebar: Ezra Bridger's live action return was also glorious, but I don't need to tell y'all that, do I?