#anyway i want them to be brunch buddies

[lonepower]

oh wow it really is just murderbot who's Like That huh

[songmingisthighs]

how ateez treats your child

group : ateez

pairing : ateez (individual) × single mom!reader

genre : fluff

wc : 3 k

warning : children. children are walking warning signs.

a/n : this cancelled my sleep so there's that </3

buy me coffee ?

hongjoong

The door of your apartment opened and in comes your son squealing happily for you, almost running inside until Hongjoong stopped him to take his shoes off first. As Hongjoong helped him, he was grinning widely at you who walked over to meet them halfway, "Hi mommy!" He called, finally able to rush to give you a huge hug once his shoes were completely off. "Hiya, bud! How was your day with Hongjoong?" Though you asked him, Hongjoong beat him to answering, "We had a great time! Little buddy here mastered the C, D, G, and A chord on the piano!" He boasted as he wrapped his arms around your waist, pecking your lips gently making your son gag before rushing to put his backpack in his room.

You both separated momentarily and you cupped your boyfriend's face, "Seriously Joongie, thank you so much for picking him up from school, I swear I would've done-" Hongjoong stopped your rambling by planting another soft peck on your lips with a chuckle, "Hey, I told you we had a great time. I finally found someone who wouldn't complain sitting in my studio for hours on end and you can't take that away from me," teased, poking fun at the times you complained about him needing a break from his work.

Just as you were about to shower him with more affection, your son returned to push Hongjoong away with all his might. "My turn to hug mommy!" He said after he managed to unlatch Hongjoong from you. Feeling challenged, Hongjoong pulled him away just as he was about to wrap all four of his limbs around you, "No way, I spent the day with you now I want time with my girlfriend." Hongjoong knew how jealous your son can be because he too is a jealous man. So as expected, your son screeched and began to try to get Hongjoong as far away from you as he could. But of course, Hongjoong retaliated, using your son's socks clad feet to carefully push him just enough so he'd slide away from you while you stood there both confused and amused at their shenanigans.

seonghwa

On Saturdays, you'd usually spend the morning catching up with your friends and knowing this, Seonghwa made sure to sleep over on Fridays as often as he could to help care for your daughter (which is crap because he's always at your place anyways). Unbeknownst to you, he and your daughter had bonded beyond your imagination. Not that you were surprised since Seonghwa had spent years taking care of a group filled with 5 year olds, your own 5 year old must've been easy to take care of.

When you came back from your brunch, you were surprised to find Seonghwa and your daughter by the dining table, your daughter standing on a chair and Seonghwa close to her side, looking absolutely serious. They had their arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed, and lips pursed as they stared at the 10 plates of cake in front of them. It was honestly an adorable sight because for some reason, you saw how they looked so similar.

"Am I interrupting something?" You chuckled as you approached them. Seonghwa welcomed you by wrapping an arm around your hip and kissing the side of your head as youe daughter answered, "Hwahwa and I are food testing again! Today's theme is bakery we can't pronounce!" She grinned widely before returning to glare at the cakes. "Aaaaaand why are you guys only staring at these cakes?" You asked with a raised eyebrow. Seonghwa sighed and shook his head, "We can't decide where to start so we're trying to rank them from the prettiest first before actually sampling them," Seonghwa explained. "And it's such a hard decision!" Your daughter groaned and dramatically leaned on Seonghwa for support. Reciprocating, your boyfriend also faked a cry, turning around to let you go in favour of hugging your daughter, "We are stuck in a dilemma!" "Well, whatever you guys decide to do, better do it fast before the ants tries the cakes first," you sighed before retreating to change, leaving your boyfriend and your daughter to go back to... whatever activity they were doing.

yunho

Babysitting was something Yunho didn't expect to do for his girlfriend. Then again, he didn't expect that he'd be dating a single mom. Luckily, you had the most precious daughter that just melt Yunho's whole being and he loves her so much that he didn't consider babysitting as babysitting anymore.

As he was washing the dishes after eating the food he got for him and your daughter, he heard the soft pitter patter of her tiny feet and then he felt soft tugs on his sweatpants. Without abandoning his task, Yunho looked down at the girl with a gentle smile, "Yes, peanut?" She giggled happily, liking the nickname a lot. "Can you teach me how to dance?" She asked, tilting her head to the side like the most adorable puppy ever. Yunho grinned widely because he had always wanted to impart some of his knowledge to someone and the most imparting he had done was turning his little brother to a gaming nerd. After wiping his hands with a rag, Yunho crouched down to the girl's level (as best he could because even when crouching down, the tiny girl only reached his chin), "Okay then, what dance do you wanna learn?"

Your daughter decided that she wanted to learn Bouncy which wasn't even in the list of dances Yunho offered her as he thought it would be too hard for her. But she was adamant, shaking her head so hard that her pigtails almost came loose. But to Yunho's pleasant surprise, the girl was amazing. She picked up the choreography smoothly in 3 tries. Sure, Yunho had to simplify certain parts but she got most of the choreography down. He couldn't help but takw a video of them dancing together and sending it to his groupmates, parents, and even you, captioning it 'look at me and my peanut ♡'.

yeosang

It was a casual day which was rare for both you and Yeosang. Since your life has been so hectic, you decided to stay in with your son who decided he wanted to use the time he had to finish his homework. Yeosang and he had been friendly with each other but they were not close (yet) as they haven't spent much time together nor have they found anything in common. But you were hopeful.

You and Yeosang were cuddled on the couch as the TV played a drama that you and he wanted to watch while your son sat on the floor with his homework spread open on the portable desk. "I'll be right back sweetie," you told Yeosang, patting him on the thigh before walking away to go to the bathroom. At first, Yeosang only paid attention to the tv but from the corner of his eyes, he could see your son looking around for you every so often, lips pouting and hand scratching his head which indicated that he was stuck on his homework. For some reason, Yeosang found it in him to be the first one to make the move, "Hey there buddy, what homework do you got there?" He asked, catching your son by surprise. For a moment, your son could only look back and forth between the homework and Yeosang, hesitating. Yeosang was about to tell him that he didn't have to share when your son grabbed his book and walked over to Yeosang on his knees and dropped the book on Yeosang's lap, "It's math but I don't know how to do this," he said sadly, gesturing to the opened page. Yeosang grinned widely and his chest puffed with pride, "Well, lucky for you, I'm a math wiz! Come on, let's solve this together."

When you came back, you saw Yeosang had situated himself next to your son on his portable desk, teaching him how to solve the equations that he was stuck on and he was conversing with the boy so well. He allowed the boy to try and solve the equation and gently letting him know where he was wrong. They were so immersed that they hadn't realized you returning to your seat as they took a break to play the multiplication game, evem teasing each other when the other took too long to answer.

san

San loved kids and it showed with how he actually volunteered on babysitting your son as you go on a business trip. At first you were worried because your son had never been away from you to be in a place that's not your home. But San convinced you that it was fine, he was fine with spending time with his best bud and if it wasn't for the great bond they had, you wouldn't have been able to leave your baby to tend to your responsibilities.

"Say bye to mommy!" San urged your son who was sitting on his lap wearing his beanie. "Bye mommy! I miss you!" Your son said as he waved his hands to the camera while San did the same, throwing lots of air kisses your way before hanging up. As soon as the call ended, your son went back to watching San played a game. "Is that uncle Yunho?" He asked, reaching forward to point at a character on the screen. San grinned widely and pat the boy on the head gently, "That's right, bud! You're starting to understand the game, don't you?" They spent another hour like that, San playing the game with Yunho, Yeosang, and Jongho as your son ask him questions and eventually even tried a round (to which he died within 30 seconds and San had to hug and reassure him that he'd teach him how to play better and in time, he might be great).

Without realizing, as it was his habit, San started singing random songs that popped into his head. The crisp sound of keyboard and mouse clicking paired with San's honey voice proved to induce sleep in your son as his eyes drooped low and his eyelids fluttered ever so gently before closing. It took a while for San to realize that your son had been quiet, only leaning on his sturdy chest. When he looked down, San almost squaled at just how adorable your son looked sleeping so comfortably; one of his eyes covered by the beanie that had shifted, his mouth agape, and his body completely relaxed comfortably in San's lap. Carefully, San took a selfie of him and your son, changing the picture to his homescreen before shutting the game and bringing the boy who wrapped his arms tightly around San's neck when San lifted him up to the bed so he could sleep soundly. Even then, your son refused to let go of San, holding onto two of San's fingers as he dozed off to dreamland where San soon followed.

mingi

Kids were something Mingi wanted in the future. He knew he wanted to have his own but he knew that he's going to have to learn and practice before actually having one. Which was a predicament considering he's dating someone with a 3 year old daughter. But she's just the most precious thing ever that Mingi pushed his insecurities away to dote on the princess.

Like now, Mingi found himself unable to peel away from your bed where your daughter was napping. He was mesmerized at how adorable she looked with her tiny tiny snores and absolute relaxed expression. "Mingi, baby, you're going to wake her up if you keep staring at her like that," you said, poking your boyfriend on his shoulder for him to simply wave you off, "No I won't, I promise. I'm just trying to understand how she's so absolutely adorable like a tiny tiny marshmallow," he squeaked in utter adoration. You couldn't help but smile and rolled your eyes at how whipped Mingi was for your daughter but you couldn't blame him. "Well, I'm going to go the convenience store because the little princess is going to want her yogurt when she wakes up and we're out. So you try your best to not eat this tiny tiny marshmallow," you teased him before leaving the room and the apartment.

After a while, Mingi felt a little thirsty so he carefully got off the bed and went to the kitchen. He was just taking his first gulp when he heard soft whimpers and sobs coming from your room. Immediately, he put the glass down and rushed to the little girl who was sitting up on the bed, sniffling because she thought she was left alone. When she heard Mingi came in, she immediately reached both hands towards him, asking to be picked up. "Minnie," she whimpered with trembling bottom lip. Without thinking, Mingi scooped the girl up in his arms and started calming her down while she clung on him for dear life. "Don't worry princess, Minnie's here, Minnie's got you," he repeated, smiling to himself when he heard the girl calming down as she nuzzled her face on his shoulder, finally content.

wooyoung

Initially you hesitated dating Wooyoung because you have a daughter. A 4 year old daughter who is your whole life and the very reason you hesitated being in a relationship. But when you found Wooyoung who absolutely adored your daughter, you knew you made the right choice taking the leap.

Usually, the men you date would make you leave your daughter at your friend's or with a babysitter or even with your parents by guilt-tripping or bluntly stating that they didn't feel comfortable with your kid. Not Wooyoung though, not at all. He's the type to want to take your daughter on your dates, even going as far as planning the date around your daughter. You couldn't forget her face when Wooyoung took her to the fox cafe, seeing them both running around the place and somehow blending in with the animals. That day, Wooyoung came home with 137 nee pictures and videos of your daughter going nuts over the animals. Since then, they were insepparable.

"Hi, I'm here to pick up my daughter," you smiled at the receptionist of the daycare who stared at you in confusion. "I-I'm sorry, but someone already came in for your daughter," she said, causing your eyes to bulge out in panic, "What? Who? Why would you let a stranger take my child?" Your voice was getting louder which scared the poor receptionist. "I-I'm sorry ma'am it-it's just that, your daughter called him papa so I-" "Papa? Who-" just as you were about to continue, your eyes saw a very familiar figure holding your daughter in his arms, happily talking. Wooyoung's eyes met yours and he momentarily paused, realizing that he got caught "kidnapping" your daughter. Just as you were about to call for him, Wooyoung grinned widely and pointed at you which caused your daughter to turn in his arms and beamed. "Now, say bye bye to mama!" He teased but your daughter did as she was told anyways, waving at you happily saying bye bye before Wooyoung whisked her away without any care, casually walking out of the daycare as if you weren't frozen in your spot, looking at them leaving just like that.

jongho

Jongho knew what he got himself into when he agreed to date you, knowing full well that you have a son. He didn't really care about whether or not you have a child but he grew very fond of the boy rather quickly. How can he not? The boy seemed to take a liking to Jongho to the point that he idolized the man. Especially Jongho's strength.

The three of you went out for a picnic because it was such a beautiful day and your son remembered Jongho saying that he should be out when the sun is out. As he was helping you take food out, he noticed the boy was doing the same, even taking glances at how Jongho was doing things. It was absolutely adorable. Suddenly, Jongho stood up and reached for a bag to produce a soccer ball. "Hey, bud," he spun and tossed the ball in his hands and you could see your son getting so hyped up, super excited, "Wanna learn how to play soccer?" Jongho asked. Seeing as your son basically had sparkles in his eyes, you could only roll your eyes playfully and shoo them off to play so you could FINALLY set the food up in peace..

They chose a spot not too far, somewhere you can still keep an eye on your son but still relax in the shady area with your book. Jongho and your son were having a blast being active together. The boy was thrilled to have been given personal coaching from the guy he admired most and Jongho was experiencing the joy of mentoring a child who looked up to him as much. "There you go, buddy! That's it!" Jongho cheered when your son managed to kick the ball with a running start. Unfortunately, once the ball was kicked, he tripped and fell on the grass. Just as you were about to rush to him, you saw Jongho rushing at the boy who had tears brimming in his eyes and a quivering bottom lip, frozen on the ground not knowing what to do. Without hesitation, Jongho pulled the boy up and hugged him tightly in his strong arms, "I'm so proud of you, buddy! That was such a good kick!" Jongho was hoping that by reminding him of his achievement, your son wouldn't focus much on his fall which thankfully happened. When your son pulled away from Jongho's hug, he was giggling while wiping the tears away with his arm, nodding shyly. "Do you think you can do that again after we eat something?" Jongho asked as he adjusted the boy before swooping down to grab the ball on the ground and walking towards where you were. You've never seen your son so excited talking about anything to anyone and frankly, you couldn't be more glad that it was Jongho who made him so.

network :

@cultofdionysusnet @sandsofire @kflixnet

taglist :

@kodzukein @phenomenalgirl9 @skzatzloveismonsterous @memorymonster @thesolarplanetarysystem @dreamlesswonder86 @maddiebabyxoxo @imababywolf @do-you-actually-care @marievllr-abg @ilsedingsx @wasteitonserendipity @bbymatz @noonaishere @honeyhwaaa @ateezourstars @yoonjunshi @yoongiigolden @camillelafaye @charreddonuts @kpopnightingale @starryunho @atinct @mirror-juliet @hyuckilstan @jayb17 @kpoplover718 @haatohwa @x-bluee @erinaimeexx @blackb3ll @mingiholic @angelicyeo @vampcharxter @meowmeowminnie @marvelous-llama @kawennote09 @hongjoong-lovebot @stopeatread @spooo00oky @jwnghyuns @cutie-wooyo @asjkdk @shinotani @aestheticsluut

@chloepurpy

[lemotmo]

Okay it has a bit more of their lunacy but more importantly it looks like we also got one of the reasons why some people are jumping ship, and it makes sense. Also we should all totally start saying that is who these people really are, haha. They would die.

Q. What does it feel like to ship a couple of playground bullies? You must be so proud.

Q. Wow Oliver's true colors are so disappointing. What an utter lap dog he is to Ryan. Hope they enjoy one another because no one will want anything to do with either one of them when Lou comes out and says how awful they are to him.

Q. I just feel so bad for Lou. He tried so hard to fit in with them and be friends and they went out of their way to exclude him and make fun of those of us who genuinely love and appreciate him. They can have each other. I'm all for the show giving Tommy a different love interest. He deserves better than Oliver/Buck.

Q. So I was a B/T shipper because it was the canon ship. But I was there for Buck and those psychos wanted us to start going around and bashing Oliver and spamming Twitter and Instagram with how awful he is. Yeah they can keep their crazy. I'll go back to happily waiting for Buddie. What a brunch of losers.

Q. Current canon ship or not, I'm out. I don't play about Oliver/Buck. I was happy to ship the current canon but I draw the line at openly hating on Oliver. They're crazy.

Q. You come for my boy and the other boy I have loved for 6 years and I'm out. I shipped it because it was the current canon. You want to try and force me to turn on Oliver and Ryan you're sadly mistaken. You freaks can have each other. What a complete waste of my time.

A. Once again this has all resulted from a mustache Instagram filter. I cannot make sense of you people at all. So I've decided that you are not actually Lou/Tommy fans. I think Lou got together with a couple of his friends and decided he wanted some attention. So he asked his friends to go online and pretend to be massive Tommy fans to see if he could force the show's hands. Only no one cared so you all double drowned and decided to try and prove that the audience actually prefers Tommy to Buck. But that has backfired spectacularly and now you and Lou are stuck because he can't come out and say he made all of you up for attention because that would be pathetically embarrassing. So instead you all just have to pretend to become more and more detached from reality. I hope he paid you all well for this because yikes. Don't try to convince me that you're not actually Lou and his friends. I've decided that makes sense in my head so it is now fact, and you're all bigots if you try and disagree with me (did I do that right, guys?).

Anyway, to the Oliver anons, that was always going to be the problem for the Lou diehards. The majority of you were going to be there for Buck. And the more obvious it became, especially with Oliver, that it isn't anything to really invest in most of you were always going to walk away. That's why they were so desperate to start a fandom war. Their only hope was to try and turn people against Oliver and Ryan. It was the dumbest of dumb strategies and watching it completely fall apart for them over an Instagram filter Oliver and Ryan were having fun with is absolutely fitting. They deserve their demise to be this utterly ridiculous.

I know I'm repeating myself over and over again, but still-- thank you so much Nonny for dropping this into my inbox.

A bit of a follow up to the previous ask and-- yeah, I just. No. I promised myself to not lose anymore brain cells to this lunacy. I can't anymore with these people.

But I am so thankful and happy to see that a lot of the more mainstream BT shippers who love the show, who were mostly in it for Buck and because they enjoyed the BT dynamic (Nothing wrong with that by the way. Ship and let ship!) have seen how this small subset of Tommy fans is behaving towards the cast. I know that some of the shippers weren't sure about the stories and rumours going around about Tommy stans being blocked and things like that. Today we have seen enough proof of that kind of behaviour to leave no doubt.

Anyway, on to better things I hope.

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

A few months back I was chatting with @bengiyo when the subject of queer cinema came up (unsurprising considering…ya know, the whole being BL buddies thing). As a semi-recent queerness realizer, and a Certified Baby Gay(™), Ben took it upon himself to share a post between himself and @shortpplfedup that inspired @the-conversation-pod and which also included a Completely Hypothetical Queer Cinema Syllabus Build Up to BL for Baby Gays. According to @bengiyo this started as a thought experiment. 

But, unfortunately or…fortunately? for him, I constantly crave queer media, and @waitmyturtles and her Old GMMTV Challenge have inspired me to try my hand at working my way through this syllabus. I cannot guarantee that I will finish all these films. I have no idea how long it would even take, but I wanted to at least try! 

I have been saying I would do this for months now, but I am inundated with BL content, and getting more every day, so I have been pushing it to the side. BUT! This evening a local movie theater played The Birdcage (1996) and I went and bought tickets and decided now was as good a time as any to get this started, I am hoping to take a page out of Turtle’s book and write notes/thoughts on the movies I end up watching. Forgive me the long winded introduction, but I figured some context would be nice if this ends up being a thing I stick with. So without further ado…

The Birdcage (1996) [Comedy]

Syllabus Unit 6: Gems

Summary: A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents. 

Characters:  Armand: Gay cabaret owner, played by Robin Williams  Arnold: Drag queen partner, played by Nathan Lane Val: Armand’s son, played by Dan Futterman Agador: Armand and Arnold's maid? friend? live in slutty pool boy? played by Hank Azaria Katharine: Val's biological mother, played by Christine Baranski

Overall Reflection

This is a film I had never seen before. Hell, I didn’t even know it existed until around the time Ben shared his syllabus, and someone reblogged a scene from it that ended up on my dashboard. This was an interesting film to experience in theaters, because while watching with an audience made the funny bits funnier, there were also moments that I absolutely did not read as funny that other people did, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. 

This film is set primarily in South Beach, Florida and partly in a drag club, which meant that the only thing I could think about whenever the drag club was on screen was Palace, the gay bar, drag brunch, queer club spot in Miami. On the other funny casual note, as a Floridian I feel seen by the moment where Katharine calls and says she’s going to be late, and it zooms out to show she is stuck at the bridge. Real. 

I feel like the majority of gay media I have consumed in my life very much centers around two very masculine characters. So it was really nice to watch a story that involved more femme characters, and that the femme characters were not left as the butt of the joke. Which I recognize might be ironic considering this is a comedy and therefore there are jokes abound. But, when you compare the femme character in something like Legally Blonde, to the femme characters here, they are allowed to be dramatic, and they are allowed to trip and fall, but the love that Armand has for Arnold is palpable, they squabble and they get annoyed at each other, and they hurt each other, but they are partners, and they love each other too, and it shows throughout the film. 

This sounds fucked up, I guess, but I love the undercurrent of pain that is threaded throughout the story. The way that Val starts off seeming like he is very content with the way he grew up, the parents that he had. The way that Val feels so so loved by his Dads, and he hurts them anyway. Because he is scared, because he loves Barbara and he knows that she is good, and that her parents aren’t, and that he has to hide his family. But in making them hide who they are, he is hurting them and at first you can see and feel the ways that Armand is trying to rebel against it. You can tell that initially he is angry, disappointed, upset, incredulous:

“Yes, I wear foundation. Yes, I live with a man. Yes, I'm a middle- aged fag. But I know who I am, Val. It took me twenty years to get here, and I'm not gonna let some idiot senator destroy that. Fuck the senator, I don't give a damn what he thinks.”

gifs by @hellboys

It is one of my favorite lines in the film. Because Val needs to be called out on exactly what he is asking his father to do for him. Because Armand's pain is visceral in this moment. But Armand loves his son and so eventually he relents. 

Arnold’s presence and importance in Val’s life are constantly disregarded and he is allowed to be upset, and Armand is allowed to constantly put his son’s engagement and wedding in jeopardy to prioritize his partner and his partner’s feelings, because Arnold is a part of this family, and to hide him away is unfair. 

I certainly had to grapple with some complicated emotions around the character of Val. I could understand where he was coming from, that he loves his fiancee and that their families have to meet, and that it is almost certainly physically safer for everyone if his parents are not visibly and obviously queer around the ultra conservative moralist senator. But the ways he ends up exhibiting casual disdain, anxiety, and judgment around the aspects of his parents’ home, his parents’ friends, his parents’ themselves makes me kinda hate him a little bit. It is hard for me not to see Val as entitled, not to consider him low-key dickish, because of how frequently he seems to get annoyed and disappointed that Armand and Arnold are not acting straight enough, that their house isn’t straight enough, that their family isn’t straight enough. But the film does not shy away from the mental toll it takes. 

Were there aspects of the film itself I didn’t like? Honestly, not really. There are some jokes and terminology that do not fully stand the test of time, so if I watch it with a modern lens I think I would give it a 9.5. If I watch it in the context of the time it was written, I would probably give it a 9.8. But watching it in theaters certainly altered the way I engaged in certain scenes. 

Mostly with the “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking dressed like this, I’m even more obvious” scene. 

gif by @rosalie-starfall

Because people in the theater were laughing during this moment. Which is not to say I am judging them, I’m not mad at them for finding the moments leading up to that scene funny. I can understand how Arnold constantly having to catch himself and change his body language could come off as funny. But there is a weight to that scene for me that made the laughter feel incongruous. It is, in my opinion, an incredibly impactful scene. And it was hard for me to fully embrace that moment the way I know I would have if I was alone, after I realized that not everyone reads that scene as a serious one. 

(Side Note: When I was looking for pictures of the movie poster, I found three different versions of it, and I chose the one above because it was the most intriguing to me in the way it presents Arnold. Because it is the only one of the posters that puts Arnold in a suit.)

The other moment, that I think I would have had a stronger response to if I was alone, was the moment near the end where Val takes off Arnold’s wig and introduces Arnold as his mother.

gif by @nicholasbritel

If I had watched this scene alone, I think there is a very high likelihood I would have gotten teary eyed during that moment. Because Val has spent so much time throughout this film trying to hide Arnold away. Wanting to send him off for the evening so they didn’t have to worry, trying to replace him with his biological mother, who he had never really met just for the sake of maintaining appearances. 

Arnold LOVES Val. It is glaringly obvious from the first moment they share a screen that to Arnold, that is his kid. And I cannot imagine what it must have felt like for Arnold to literally have his every move critiqued and criticized for acceptable levels of gayness by his son and his partner. To feel unwanted by his son and his partner. To feel replaced by his son and his partner. He deserves to see and hear his son choose him, to know that Val considers Arnold his parent. Especially when Val’s biological mother is standing right there. 

And as for the comedy aspect of this movie? I mean, it’s Robin WIlliams and Nathan Lane so it is obviously going to be a truly hilarious film all the way through.

gif by @argentinosaurus

Where does it fall in my By, For, About Queers Categorization? 

For and About 

Any piece of media that places queer characters at the center of it is something I would categorize as “About Queers” 

As far as I can tell, the writers and director are not queer. I consider films to be made By Queers when a queer person has a role in controlling how the story unfolds, usually this means a writer or director for me, actors too if they have any influence  over changing the story. (As an example, The Last of Us Episode 3 would be something that I would place in a By Queers category because Murray Bartlet who played Frank is gay and also was consulted to shape the way the characters were written and the story played out.) While Nathan Lane is gay, and I am sure a number of actors who play side characters are as well, I do not know how much influence they had over the film itself. Which is why I am currently excluding it from the By Queers categorization. 

And as for the For Queers aspect? That moment where Arnold appears in a suit and tie before the dinner party, where he appears so much more obviously gay when he’s in “masculine clothes” that is written for the people who understand. The undercurrent of pain I mentioned, that exists to be recognized by the people who understand. Also, I watched this at the movie theater and I saw what kind of crowd it drew lmfao. 

Favorite moment in the film? 

Well, I could go sappy with it and pick one of the scenes I referenced above, but I would be lying. My absolute, hands down, no contest favorite moment in this film was seeing Agador in this cropped tank top: 

gif by @thevelvetgoldmine

Now, I know that Ben told me that the Units could be done in any order, but I think I want to start from Unit 1 and work my way through from there, so stay tuned for a write-up about Pariah (2011) from Unit 1: Coming of Age Post Moonlight.

[averagetmntfan]

Portals gone wrong!

(“The 4 servants Au” & “time beats a dead man Au” ((collab w/ @mikey-rottmnt)) Crossover fic!)

1/???

tbadm universe, 11:38 am.

“Well, shit. We’re screwed.” Bendy slumped, watching koi pace back and fourth in the tent.

“I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT! I SWEAR I WROTE IT ON MY PHONE!!” Koi panicked, running his hand through his fluffy hair.

“well I mean, shouldn’t you know this kind of stuff? Since ur Mugs boyfri-“

“SHSHSH!!” He put a firm grip on bendys shoulders.

“Keep your voice down, dude!”

“Ok, ok! Jeez! js let go of me, please.”

Koi Immediately retracted his hands away. his face looked strained, as his body shook ever so slightly. He had no idea what to get his partner for his birthday. Which was today.

clearly, he wasn’t great at hiding it either. Because as soon as bendy got a look at him, he knew immediately.

“Look, if you’re so worried on what to get him. Why not ask cup?”

Bendy suggested

“HE’LL JUST LAUGH AT ME! OR GET MAD AT ME!!” Sweat was pouring down his face, making him look like he just got out of a pool.

“Okay, okay!! Fine!! just, chill. I’ll ask him for ya-“ He hopped of the cot, walking out of the tent. As koi watched in horror, he lays on his sleeping bag, getting lost in his thoughts.

As he stared as the ceiling of the tent. He saw an orange spark. Immediately, he blinked. And the spark was gone.

‘I must me imagining things.’

———————————————————————

T4S Universe, 11:38 am.

Mikey groans, laying flat on the couch. His whole head pounding with pain.

His mouth throbbed, his teeth hurt, and his tongue was sore. All because of those stupid braces.

he couldn’t even eat anything! That’s how bad his mouth hurt. He still didn’t understand why he needed braces in the first place. His teeth looked okay to him, anyway.

He wanted to just..scream and cry. But his eyes were dry, and his voice was weak. He had no idea how to even feel right now.

“you okay, Angie?” Leo asked, slowly leaning on his baby brother.

..riiiight, his brothers came home early to “comfort him”

“No, my mouth hurts like shit.”

He said, slumping even further in his sweater.

“Leo, ur not making it better.” Donnie commented, smirking ever so slightly at his phone.

Leo gave him an annoyed glare, before turning his attention back to Mikey.

they all go silent, js watching another Jupiter Jim movie. When suddenly..

“Mikey..W-Why’re you glowing?”

Raph jolts up, looking at his lightbulb of a brother.

The twins turn their attention to their little brother. Leo stares at Mikey in disbelief. Sure, it wasn’t an impossible event, but he never expected it from his own brother!!

Suddenly, a glowing orange spark awoken from the floor. Soon getting bigger, and bigger. And within seconds..

The portal had swallowed them whole.

_________________________________________

Tbadm universe, 12:30 pm.

ah yes, the sound of a peaceful brunch. The birds chirped, the sun shined. It was almost perfect!!! “GIVE IT BACK!!!”

“NO!! I FOUND IT FIRST!!!! I WANNA EXAMINE IT!!”

“YOU’RE GONNA HURT IT!!”

..almost, perfect. The chipmunks siblings were fighting again. Typical siblings, battling over what seemed to be a rare species of caterpillar? Interesting. But one thing was for sure…

This was giving vins a serious question about her life choices. Are her and cup doing the right thing? should they..not? What would everyone think? As if on que, a thump had hit the ground. Actually, it was Multiple thumps. Repeatedly!! Mugs was the first to react. Well, if u call screaming and jumping to Koi’s arms a reaction…

“ughhhh..” The strange creature groaned, starling nearly everyone.

“WHAT ARE THOSE?!?” Mugs yelped, holding onto koi tightly.

“Excuse you, teakettle!! We are turtles, clearly.” One of the other creatures said. As raph was getting himself up, he was shown down by a tall figure. Taller them him, that’s for sure. “Alright, buddy. Start explainin’, who you, and your little goons are.” Cup demanded, Looking dead serious. (As usual, I guess-)

“Look uh..sir? We don’t want any trouble-“

“YES WE DO!! FIGHT ME YOU COWARD!!” Mikey shouted, raising a fist in the air

The crew awkwardly stare at the littlest one. Bendy snickers ever so slightly. I think these 2 would get along just fine!!..if Boris let him get closer then 18 feet away.

“wait- soo, how’d you all get here?? No one rlly just..comes to the middle of the forest..” koi gently placed his love down, now resting a hand on his hip.

the brothers proceed to look at eachother, then all their eyes fall upon mikey.

“great question, why don’t we ask the damn lightbulb, eh mike?” Leo stood up, crossing his arms in disappointment and blame. Starring daggers at his lil bro.

“OH, SO ITS MY FAULT I MAGICALLY STARTED GLOWING?!” Mikey shouted, making this nearly more awkward for our beloved crew of cartoons. “Ok, how about we all just..calm down, okay?” Vinnie suggested, standing between the 2 turtles.

“whaaaaat is even happening right now??” Donnie whispered, moving ever so slightly to his older bro.

“honestly? I have no idea, don.” He whispered back. This one definitely in top 5 weirdest shit any Of them have ever been in. And ohoho boy, was it just gonna get weirder and weirder from here…

MASTERPOST NEXT

You have no idea how long this took to make..

I was gonna put drawings in here too, but I couldn’t draw one thing and then another, then…I ran out of motivation.

But maybe eventually, I’ll go back and add drawings :]

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 12 – OTHER MARVEL SHIPS

SAM/BUCKY

just won't do right by glittercake

Pairing: Sam/Bucky Rating: G Words: 7,521 Tags: Jealous Bucky, Idiots in Love, Oblivious Sam

Summary: Sam's eyebrows go up, impressed, and he reaches over to squeeze Torres' shoulder, "This is amazing, kid. Thanks, really." Bucky sits and watches in utter horror as the pink darkens on Torres' cheeks. Oh, he realizes. Oh. Fuck.

Reasons why I love it: Jealous Bucky is just the best. And I love Torres, so having him be the catalyst for some good old Sam-Bucky angsting is fantastic. Sarah is amazing in this too, I love all of their characterizations honestly. This fic is super sweet, and if you haven't already, I hope you check it out for yourself!

Subtlety Not Our Strong Point by copperbadge

Pairing: Sam/Bucky Rating: T Words: 2,944 Tags: Alternate Universe, Engagement, Brunch

Summary: Bucky is not good at proposing, but once he managed, he and Sam were going to let people find out organically. Unfortunately, Tony Stark has never done anything organically in his life.

Reasons why I love it: Whelp, say what you want, but you can't deny it – Bucky's way has its merits. I love this one, Sam and Bucky are so in love, and Tony crashing their plans without even meaning to is fucking hilarious. This fic is really sweet, and I hope you go and check it out for yourself!

show me if you want me (and i will be your friend) by notcaycepollard

Pairing: Sam/Bucky Rating: E Words: 3,027 Tags: Casual Sex, Friends With Benefits, Porn With Feelings

Summary: Bucky's gotta give it to the future for this: they've turned casual sex into a goddamn art. What is a friend with benefits, he types into Google, and spends the next two hours reading about the distinctions between booty calls and friends with benefits and fuck buddies. It’s extremely informative. He’s gonna put it to good use, like, pretty much immediately.

Reasons why I love it: Jesus Christ, this fic is so hot, holy shit. And just as the cherry on top, there are feelings all over it, good, mushy feelings, fuck yes. I love how Bucky ambushes Sam in the beginning and how Sam just goes with it. It's so fun and so sweet and oh my god, you need to read this if you haven't, it's so good!

three words that became hard to say by suzukiblu

Pairing: Sam/Bucky Rating: G Words: 1,924 Tags: Male Friendship, Fluff, Bucky Needs a Hug

Summary: “I wanna step out with Wilson,” Bucky says, audibly traumatized. Steve blinks again, and lowers the shield. “Uh,” he says. “Come again?”

Reasons why I love it: Their voices in this are so perfect, that old-timey forties Brooklyn drawl. I love Steve and Bucky's friendship here, and Steve's need to protect Bucky and keep him happy always is so heartwarming. Plus, Bucky's crush on Sam is the cutest thing ever. I love this fic to bits, and I bet you will too!

what i like about you baby (is how you annoy me daily) by notcaycepollard

Pairing: Sam/Bucky Rating: M Words: 8,951 Tags: Post-Civil War, Bickering, Roommates

Summary: “I’m not sharing my room,” Sam mutters, knowing as he says it that it sounds exactly like he’s a fucking ten year old facing a new sibling. Steve hastily makes what Sam thinks is supposed to be an understanding face. “Of course not,” he says soothingly. “He can bunk in with me, it’s not like we haven’t done it before. It's a twin room, anyway, there's already a spare bed.” Sam guesses a bigger house is out of the question. Whatever; the three of them have spent eight hours crammed in a Mini, it can’t be that bad. It’s not that bad. It’s worse.

Reasons why I love it: Sam and Bucky being asshole roommates while Steve despairs at them from the sidelines is something I never knew I needed. This fic is so fucking good, funny and heartfelt and adorable in turns, with fantastic dialogue and characterization. I love it so much, and I hope you go and read it for yourself, because it's amazing!

[shittyelfwriter]

ALRIGHTY here we are at weeks three and four for the santa clauses series! I did not rewatch a second time because genuinely, these melted my brain. anyway, lets get into it below the cut!

So apparently according to the tsc tag, episode 3 that I missed last week is a sort of filler episode? OH BROTHER REALLY

Normally I would not complain bc I miss old format, 20-23 episode series but because I know this Isn't That? DREAD. how are you going to plot well and good in 7-8eps if some are filler? that is just SO condensed, my guy

Counterpoint to people who were sad about it but: I thought the teen romance was annoying and I'm GLAD they ended it even JUST for a bit (it will come back to haunt again, trust. It’s a disney series ffs.) Whoever is writing this needs to ask a teen about how they talk nowadays. This is not it.

I also think we're driving the whole "Buddy is terrible at everything" punchline WAY past its breaking point. Which I would argue was last season entirely, but. At the very latest, last episode with how heavy on cringe it was. Yes, EVEN for kids/teens.

Again, they are not antagonizing Magnus Antas enough for me to hate him. waaaaay too funny to be a villain. I can't take him seriously and DON'T want to

The way that Noel keeps sideyeing the Betty cutout as if to say "do you see this shit?" during his brunch with the Clauses SENT me tbh. That's bernelle coded and I love it

I do not know why Disney gets OFF on the Clauses being absolutely inept parents but I wish they would stop

SHOUTOUT JUDY OMG JUDY'S ACTRESS THAT’S JUDY JUDY IS HERE YOU GUYS (SCREAMINGGGG)

LOVING the exterior shots of the workshop and Elfsburg. As someone who has POURED over all available screenshots from the movies of those I am LIVING for new angles (even though I do NOT think bernelle would live that close to the Workshop, but it doesn't seem like Betty and Noel can POOF like Bman and Elle can (and do))

I don't know why there are TWO instances of a "misspoken turn of phrase" in this episode but neither were funny and TWO OF THEM was REALLY bad

CHUBBY BUNNY DID NOT EXIST THAT LONG AGO. NOT IN MAGNUS ANTAS' TIME. THAT WAS AN INTERNET FAD LESS THAN TEN YEARS AGO. WHAT ARE WE DOING DUDE. WHAT ARE THESE WRITERS ON (it's not good, I don't want some)

Crossing guard callback? For what? (okay, shrug I GUESS dot meme)

Why does this specific franchise always have to make EB SO WEIRD. WHY. Nothing about this is funny it's just off-putting. Just like the previous EB flirting with Carol's MARRIED MOM in tsc3

This Carol and La Befana scene was actually very good. LOVE it when they actually just let the characters be HONEST with each other. Women supporting women core. Even if Carol's reason for being mad at her was really shallow and obviously stems form Carol's lack of identity as Mrs. Claus because they just cannot wrap that plot point from last season up.

THE LETTERS DEPARTMENT. It looks dope but HATE the explanation for it. Half assed as hell. WARNING! Rant incoming: like from what I know a LOT of postal services have little lore stories about how they get the letters to Santa. WHY COULDNT WE JUST SAY THERE ARE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN SANTA AND OTHER ADULT PEOPLE WHO KEEP THE SPIRIT ALIVE FOR OTHERS AS WELL? Why is this series so obsessed with making everything only powered by magic and never by others (yes, humans) who want to keep the spirit alive as well? It feels like magic is being used as an "explain it all away" crutch narratively. Even in season 1, the "solution" to mass consumerism wasn't for people to be kind to each other and do little things to keep the magical parts of Christmas alive, it was to show the world that magic was real. Season 2 so far, the answer to everything is also just magic. I'm hoping that maybe the B plot with Kris will touch on this. Because as it stands right now, it feels like the writers are talking out of both sides of their mouth. Commercial Christmas is bad, but Kris is a loser for having a Santa theme park. Like?? Homogenization of Christmas is the Big Bad at large, but also up at the Pole they are trying to find ways to do the same thing to be "current". CHRISTMAS IS MULTIFACTED. It is both secular and religious! That is OKAY, I don't even think "woke" people are arguing about that. Sheesh.

Can't believe I'm micro rambling IN my ramble post. New achievement unlocked omg

The way Magnus Antas picks up on modern slang so quickly practically puts Scott to shame. Good for him

AGAIN, the misturn of phrase jokes. DEAD. Not funny. STOP

If they are going to make Sandra so op that she can just Wanda Maximoff chaos magic "I just say something when I'm mad and it happens, anything I want with no negative impact on me" I will not find that swag. That is in fact Mary Sue territory, lads

Sandra's little outburst @ La Befana was giving magical nepo baby for a moment there. Oof. "Too bad I'm just naturally more skilled than you even though I'm new and you've been a witch forever" girl SHUT. UP. You are like a little baby. Also that is so mad disrespectful like no WONDER La Befana is wanting you to slow tf down. You fly off the handle WAY to easily and we ALL know you lose control when you do! Okay loose cannon! Werk!

Riley. Girl. "we never see each other" you were just up at the Pole?? Like. OFTEN?? This is so stupid of a breakup but they are teenagers so go off kids, be dysfunctional or what have you. Rah rah, as Jack would say

Episode four now, lord help us. God has cursed me for my (loving this one Christmas movie series) hubris and my work (watching it's hellish series spin off) is never finished

"Reversing a transformation is never a guarantee" what is this La Befana? the Sims? Sounds like transformation ray odds. Magic is not THAT unpredictable, even by in-universe logic

CURTIS-ITIS!??? CURTIS FUCKING EXPLODED??

ARE YOU SO FUCKING FR RN. SO BERNARD IS MARRIED TO A SENIOR CITIZEN AND CURTIS. FUCKIN VAPORIZED?? FROM STRESS? WHAT'S NEXT? Lemme guess, Judy joined the circus. Quintin is a crypto investor or works for Tesla. WHAT ARE WE D O I N G

Not Scott moving the scissors like he's afraid Buddy will shank him or others?? SIR

SANDMAN AHHHHHHHHHH HELLO SIR /POS :D

So they just con him? As though that's a long term solutio-- OH MY GOD NOT SCOTT USING SANDMAN'S SAND ON SANDMAN HIMSELF?? that's ILLEGALE?? According to tsc3 lore: "We legendaries can't use magic on each other?" I am so bewildered by the level of retcon occurring before my very eyes at BREAKNECK speed

Sandra doesn't need magic she needs THERAPY for her ANGER ISSUES bruh. Damn. She doesn't need a rage room (in someone's house too I might add? okayyyy) she needs to learn to process like a normal human being wtf

Scott being able to look like his normal self whenever he wants and they just didn't tell him? For like. 25 years? Like its clear that by the series standards, the elves think he's a total moron. But it pendulums hard and fast between "haha funny joke" and "damn they really think he ain't shit, huh"

Edie being a fashion diva is such a serve she's grown on me this season ngl

"I had to teach him how to do all the Legendaries jobs" Scott I know you're waffling, absolutely FUMBLING but what the FUCKKKKK is that excuse??? What's Cal going to do? Be EVERY Legendary? TERRIBLE AWFUL HATE IT UNINSPIRED. Not to mention, SOME OF THE OTHER LEGENDARIES MIGHT NOT TAKE THAT NEWS WELL. Some might even feel THREATENED

"The man I die for in my sleep every night" UM? Noel? You okay there bud? Holy heck

THE PURPLE JACKET IS SWAG AND SCOTT IS A HATER. HE CANNOT SEE THE VISION

Do you guys think according to this new lore Edie made Jack's suit? because me thinks PERHAPS

Magnus Antas is kind of popping off, damn. Like I think if the gnomes hadn’t given him MAJOR delusions of grandeur and an ego trip, he could have stayed totally a vibe. But stop giving the Santas snow powers and reconning Jack holy SHIT dude. First Scott now him? HATE IT

The way they made Scott and Cal look when "invisible" is Not a Good Look heck. Its like a bad picsart filter

These Scott visions. I get why, its through the Santa magic, right? But dang its corny

So Scott knows Magnus Antas is back now. Okay. They got away from him. Lost visual on Olga, have a bad feeling she somehow sneaked into the sleigh. Weird cliffhanger but EVERY episode has been like that so far

Final thoughts: I feel like they're definitely trying to make this season take itself less seriously, but I feel like the trade off is that the writers are taking too many liberties for diversions from source material and are therefore, losing the plot entirely and retconning movie lore at will and convenience. Tl;dr, it's messy. Concepts are fun until things just become so irreverent they fall apart or lean into entirely unfunny territory. Which is just a hallmark of T*m All*n brand humor, tee em, but you know.

It feels like this series is doing everything and nothing. It wants woke points, but immediately doubles back and makes fun of those same things. It wants us to feel empathy for these characters, and immediately makes them insufferable. I am so confused as to what the takeaway is supposed to be. It all feels so poorly executed--the series retcons itself constantly, not to mention the movies. I want it to be fun, and to take it at surface value, but if you know literally anything about the movies, that becomes a challenge to do. I'm just so confused dude.

I will be shocked if this gets a third season. Truly.

Also, I miss Betty too, Noel. Wish this whole season was about HER shenanigans, instead.

So. See you all next week then?

[leelee10898]

Hurricane: Only Human (11/?)

Pairing: Liam �� Jenna

Warnings/rating: Mature. 🍋. Mentions of alcoholism, stress, depression.

Word count: 3,390

A/N: I have decided to resurrect this series with a little nudge from @umccall71. You can catch up HERE. Also since this series is old, so are the tags. If you'd like to be added or removed, please let me know.

A few days had passed since the brunch at the Palace.  Liam sat reclined in his chair, staring at the phone in front of him. He wanted to call her, just to hear her voice would maybe set him at ease. Someone was going to lengths to set her up, but was it the same person who sent Tariq into her room that night? Or could it be someone else, a stuck-up court member who was determined to see her gone? 

Hana had been a close confidant to him since Jenna left. She had become a good friend and an ally, someone who had his back against the council members who insisted he take a bride, the country would have a queen and the land could have an heir.  He had to come to know Hana well or so he thought. Something in the conversation he watched between Jenna and her seemed off to him. 

His mind kept going back to it. He had watched that video time and time again, Drake's eyes had glazed over when Liam leaned up "Did you see that?" 

"See what?" Drake snorted, "We've been at this for hours Li. I've spent the whole day with Olivia,  do you know how exhausting that is?" 

"This. Right here." He pointed. The frame was of Jenna facing Drake and Olivia, her view was toward the back of the estate by the outdoor bar. She was speaking to the two of them,  so she would not be paying much attention to her surroundings. 

Drake sat up, squinting his tired eyes. "Looks like Hana handing something to the waiter, in passing." He answered. 

Liam examined the frame carefully. It wasn't very clear but she definitely placed something in that man's hand, and he intended to find out just what. 

He let out a frustrated sigh, shaking the thought from his head. He reached out and grabbed his phone,  swiping the phone on and pulling up a name. His finger hovered over the dial button before tossing it back onto his desk. Fuck it he muttered standing up grabbing both his keys and phone and exiting his office. 

Liam expertly maneuvered the sleek BMW around the bends and curves of the Cordonian Countryside. The drive to Lythkios would have taken hours, lucky for him where he was headed would take minutes.  He pulled into the estate grounds and walked up to the door, knocking firmly.  He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around,  it had been a while since he was there.  

"Liam? Hey buddy. What brings you here?" The door opened and Maxwell beamed on the other side. 

"Hello Maxwell, it is good to see you." Liam greeted him,  stepping inside. "I was wondering if I could see Jenna, Olivia has told me she is here." 

"Okie dokie, I will get her." Maxwell turned spinning on his heels. "Little blossom," he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Little blossom!" He shouted again. Liam cupped his ears laughing as Maxwell bound the steps. 

Olivia had some business to attend to out of town, she was very quiet and private about her personal affairs but, as Liam understood it was something to do with Jenna's scandal, and for that Liam was grateful. Bertrand was not a fan of Jenna, he was embarrassed by her actions and her not becoming queen hurt any help his estate could benefit from. Liam, being the caring soul that he was, stepped in and helped anyway.  Fydelia and the Palace we're known for their beautiful gardens and landscaping,  Ramsford was home to a beautiful vineyard. The Beaumont family had created a delicious wine they called the Royal Apple, Liam helped land a contract to supply several upscale restaurants in the country with their wine. 

"What is so damn important that you had to drag me out of my bed. I was watching Friends and it's the one where Ross is Rachel's lobster.  You never interrupt that episode." He heard Jenna scolding Maxwell. They turned the corner and there she was, dressed in her ratty old Nsync t-shirt and a pair of grey sweat pants, his grey sweat pants. 

"Liam." She gasped, crossing her arms across her chest. "What. What are you doing here?" 

Maxwell looked back and forth between the two. "Ahh, I gotta go um, dress Clarice." He quickly mumbled before running off. 

"Who the fuck is Clarice? No clue?" Jenna spoke to herself aloud,  shaking her head before turning her attention back to Liam. "So, what are you doing here?" 

"Well as I stated in my text, We need to talk. And since we haven't done so yet, here I am."  He motioned to himself. 

Jenna shrugged her shoulders in defeat and motioned for the stairs. She led him into her room and quickly closed the door.  

"You look great in my sweatpants," Liam smirked. 

"I'll give them back." Jenna's cheeks turned a bright shade of crimson. "Keep them, they look better on you." He sat down on the edge of the bed,  patting the side for her to sit. 

"Listen, Jenna, I know that you did not want me to know about the investigation. But I am glad you are letting me help. Drake told me about what happened the other night." Liam gave her a sad smile, taking her hand. "I want you to know that your safety means everything to me. I am so very glad you are doing this but, I have to ask. Before we were working on clearing your name so we could be together, is that?  Is that still true?" 

"Liam." Jenna sighed. "Seeing you with Madeline screwed me up, I became an Alcoholic and this is still something fresh. I don't know what I want.  Hell, I don't even know who I am." She stood up, beginning to pace the room. 

"I'm sorry. I am so very sorry I just, I didn't mean to upset you.  Of course, you're sobriety is very important to me. I am not trying to be selfish, I just. I love you, Jenna. I always will and I will wait for you. As long as I have to.  If at the end of all of this, you don't want to be with me, I will just have to deal with that. But, I'm going to be selfish right now because I want you, all of you. All your perfect imperfections." Liam closed the gap between them, stopping her from moving. 

"I know who you are," his voice a whisper.  "You're incredible, smart, funny, caring," his hand reached out tucking her hair behind her ear. "Beautiful, charming, sexy." His hand caressed her cheek, cupping it gently. His lips a breath away from hers "insatiable." He pressed his lips to hers, claiming them in a soft, cautious yet sensual kiss. Her lips began to move against his in response, and his tongue swept across hers, popping them open with a gasp. 

 Her mind kept getting in the way, it screamed no, but her body screamed yes! Jenna grasped his shoulders pulling him into her. She made short work of his shirt, letting her hands travel his perfectly sculpted chest. Liam lifted her shirt over her head. His fingers ghosted her bare chest as he slowly made short work of the rest of her clothing,  lifting her and carefully laying her down on the bed. His lips found hers as he hovered over her, Jenna's fingers tangled in his sandy locks she looked up at him,  her eyes pleading "Liam." She whispered, giving him a clear sign that she wanted him as much as he wanted him. 

The next morning Liam awoke to the faint buzzing of his phone on the bedside table. He carefully pawed around until he reached it, glancing one-eyed at the screen in front of him. He let out a heavy breath, slowly turning his attention to the sleeping form beside him. He didn't want to disturb her, she looked so peaceful. The past few weeks had been hard on her. He shook his head making a mental correction,  the past almost year had been hell. He slowly crept out of bed,  retrieving his discarded clothing. 

A far cry from the girl who came from New York for him. They had connected in ways Liam had never dared to dream and he fell, he fell so very hard.  Fate wasn't kind to them, someone went to great lengths to force them apart. His stomach was knotted at the thought that that person was still out there and how they could hurt her again if they knew anyone was digging. 

"So were you going to pull a me?" Liam turned at the sound of her voice to see her sitting up in bed. A smile tugged on his lips as he took in her wild hair and darkened lips, all signs of their night. "No, but I do have to get going soon." He smirked as he sat down on the bed, slipping on his shoes.  "I was going to see about getting us some coffee and food, I'd say we worked up quite the appetite." He flashed her a lopsided grin. 

"Yeah, about that." She chuckled nervously. 

"You don't have to say anything, Jenna. I know last night wasn't supposed to happen." He paused, pulling his shirt over his head "I know you're in a delicate state right now and I do not want to rush into anything that could hinder your progress but," he turned to face her, taking her hands in his. "I love you and I am willing to wait for you to be ready." Liam's phone began vibrating on the nightside table again, he picked it up letting out a frustrated sigh. "I'm so sorry to cut this short but, I do have to go." He leaned pressing his soft lips to hers and he stood to leave 

"And how do you know that I want this?" She called after. Liam abruptly stopped. His hand gripping the door handle.  "Because a love like ours just doesn't just go away." He answered, still facing the door. "We will talk soon," he said. Twisting the knob and leaving her room. As soon as the door clicked shut Jenna flung back into the bed letting out a frustrated sigh. What the hell did I get myself into? 

After a long shower, Jenna got herself dressed and sat on the Veranda with a book in hand. Maxwell had a meeting to attend in the capital and Olivia and Drake were following up on a lead they were particularly adamant about Jenna not knowing the details of. After reading the same line three times she frustratedly tossed the book onto the floor. Her mind was completely consumed with Liam and what had happened between them. She picked up her phone, finger hovering over Liam's name when a knock came at the door. She jumped up, heart hammering in her chest at who may be on the other side.

" what are you doing here?" her Jaw dropped as she opened the door.

"Why I believe we agreed to go shopping silly. Ready?" Hana stood there with a wide grin, motioning to the town car waiting behind her. 

"Oh. I don't know Hana." She nervously twirled her hair. "I'm not even dressed to go out in public." She hesitated. 

"That's ok. I can wait a few minutes for you to go change." Hana smiled back at her. Jenna was having a hard time coming up with an excuse when Olivia's voice rang out in her subconscious.  You need to get on her good side. Maybe she will spill some secrets. 

A smile bloomed on Jenna's face, "of course, Hana. I will be right back." She bound the stairs and rushed into her room.  Tossing on a pair of nice jeans and a blouse. She walked over to the dresser for her brush when the apple pendant caught her eye. She was nervous to be alone with Hana, she didn't trust her as far as she could throw her but, perhaps having a sentiment of Liam with her would help. She fastened the pin to the shirt and took off the meet back up with Hana. 

The two drove into the capital and went to several shops. The two made small talk, Hana mostly asking about Jenna's time away from court, Hana for the most part remained tight-lipped about anything Jenna could use as evidence she was sabotaging her. 

The ladies walked into their final shop of the day, Jenna hesitated at the door. "Why are we here?" Her eyes nervously darted around at the extravagant dresses that adorned the racks. 

"Why for the annual Lythkios fire and Ice ball of course. Didn't Olivia tell you?" Hana smirked, taking in Jenna's shocked demeanor. 

"N, no.. she failed to mention that." 

"Well it is in a couple of weeks," Hana grinned pulling Jenna into the store further.  "I must find something spectacular. I need your help. Besides, we have to find something Devine for you as well." 

The two browsed through racks upon racks, pulling multiple dresses. The sales associates set them up in two dressing rooms and the girls began trying on their finds. "So Jenna, have you had much time to speak to Liam? I know the two of you split on stressful terms." Hana called out. 

"Um, we have spoken a bit," Jenna responded, behind the curtain. 

"Well that's good. It's good you two can remain friends after, well, what happened between the two of you." 

"Mmhmm." Jenna mumbled as she fidgeted with the dresses zipper.

 Friends, huh. Pretty sure just friends don't have sex and say they love you she thought to herself. What am I thinking? Get ahold of yourself Jenna, of course you're just friends. 

Jenna let out an audible sigh, promptly clasping her hand over her mouth.  

"Are you ok, Jenna?" She heard Hana ask, this time she was right outside of her dressing room. 

"Oh. Um yeah. Just not sure about this dress thats all." She lied, sliding the curtain over and exiting the stahl.  

"Wow. I know Red is usually Olivia's color but, that dress is stunning on you." 

"Thanks." Jenna blushed, she looked at herself in the mirror, catching a small glimpse of her former self, she smiled remembering the last time she attended the Lythikos fire and Ice ball. She let her mind wander while Hana droned on..

She stood in her room at Lythkios, admiring herself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous. A strapless light blue satin dress that hugged every curve. The bust encrusted with rhinestones that sparkled against the lights, and the slit that hit right at the hip left little to the imagination, well it would leave very little to Liams anyway. 

"Knock knock." Maxwells voice rang out as the door cracked open. "Come in Max." She smirked as Maxwell gasped. She did a little twirl and let out a giggle. "Little blossom you look amazing."

"Thanks max. You've really out done yourself this time." 

"Yes, yes, perhaps Maxwell can become a stylist to help keep our beloved Ramsford afloat." Jennas smile faltered as he entered the room. " That is if you completely fail us as our sponsor " Bertrand snapped. 

"Must you always be so doom and gloom Bertrand?" She rolled her eyes. 

"Yeah Bertrand lighten up. Little blossom is going to kill it tonight. Just trust me." Maxwell winked at her as he defended himself. 

Jenna ignored the two as the bickered back and forth.  Before she knew it she was in the ballroom, she scanned the room until her eyes met his. Like a moth to a flame the two gravitated towards each other. Liam reached for her hand, his lips softly brushing her knuckles.  

"My lady, I must say you are absolutely breathtaking in that dress." 

"Why thank you, your highness. You look rather dashing yourself. But I must say it does look awfully coincidental that our attire seems to match." 

Liam gave her a smirk "Coincidence or a well thought out plan. I will leave that assumption up to you, Lady Jenna." 

"Liam, you didn't." She gasped, a small giggle escaping her. 

"I did." He smirked again, just as the music started up. "May I have this dance?" 

Jenna took his hand as he led her to the dance floor. He took her hand, his other resting on the small of her back. She could hear the gasps and murmurs of the crowd around her. "Everyone is starting liam." 

"Let them. Everyone is already talking about the two of us, they have it pegged that I will choose you to be my queen." 

"Is that so?" Jenna smirked. "Hoe scandalous of you, your highness. And what do you say about all of this gossip going around?" 

"I say they're on to something." His tone playful but she could see the seriousness in his eyes. "If I had my way I would tell everyone to go home. I'm not supposed to play favorites but, nobody compares. And maybe I dont care who knows anymore." 

"So I supposed Liam told you about his deadline then?" Hanas voice pulled her from her daydream.  

"His what?" 

"Why his deadline. He has until the end of the month to choose a queen or the council will be forced to take action." 

The color drained from Jennas face, she stumbled back until her legs gave out and she fell into the chair. "He. He what? How can this be happening?" 

"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Hana feigned concern. Jenna shook her head no. 

"You don't look so good Jenna. Perhaps we should head back to Ramsford." Hana patted her leg. Jenna nodded in agreement. 

Jenna quickly changed back into her clothes as Hana paid for her dress. The ride back to Ramsford was quiet. Jenna's mind going a mile a minute. 

Hana cleared her throat. "Jenna, I have to ask you something. I seen the way you reacted back there when you found out about Liams time limit. And well, I have to ask.  Do you still have feelings for him?" 

Jenna's eyes widened, words became hard to come by. "I. I. Why do you ask Hana? Is there something else I don't know?" 

"Well, I did not want to be the one to tell you this but," hana let out a sigh. "After you left Liam was in a bad place. The council had been hounding him to take a queen, and show the country that he was stable. Liam and I made a pact that if he did not find someone by then that we would marry and have a political marriage. For Cordonia of course." 

Jenna's eyes snapped shut, her stomach churned as the visions of Madline draped in Liams arm swirled in her head, morphing into hana and Liam. The country would want an heir, the thought of the two of them together pushed her right over the edge. 

"Stop the car." She shouted as the driver pulled over onto the side of the road. Jenna jumped out in just enough time, vomiting into the brush. She returned a few minutes later, Hana giving her an unreadable look. 

"Are you ok?" She asked. Jenna nodded her head. "I dont think lunch agreed with me." She lied.  They pulled up to Ramsford Jenna gave a quick goodbye and she rushed inside. She watched from the window as hana drove away she grabbed a set of Keys and quickly made her way to the one place she didnt want to be but needed to go. 

She had no trouble entering, it was as if they were expecting her. She walked through the front door, up the stairs and stood in front of the door. She knocked hard and when the door swung open her hand flew up and connected with a loud slap. 

Bastien stepped forward, Liam held up his hand. "Give us a minute Bastien." 

Bastien nodded as he stepped out of the door, closing it behind him. 

"Is it true?" Jenna questioned.

" I'm not sure what you're referring to my love. If you would just have a seat and." 

"Is it true Liam? Are you actually going to marry Hana?" 

@kingliam2019 @ao719 @emichelle @annabellewynter @twinkleallnight

@tessa-liam @riseandshinelittleblossom

@blackcatkita @katedrakeohd @tinkie1973 @ownworldresident @cordoniaqueensworld @lovingchoices14 @indiana-jr @txemrn @bascmve01 @queenwalton @sfb123 @umccall71

[genshin-hater]

What are your favorite Genshin Friendship-Ships?

i feel like this fandom focuses heavy on romantic shipping, but there are so many good canon and fanon friendships!!! there are so many fun buddies and besties in this game!! I’ll go first:

Fischl & Bennet

Bennet mentions that they hang out/know each other during his hangout event and i find the concept of them being buddies (but fischl REFUSING to go adventuring with him) to be so fun and silly. Absolutely insane goth girl going through her Middle School phase. Absolute disaster boy who still manages to be a ray of sunshine. very black cat with golden retriever who will NOT go away and fischl pretends not to care but she really values his company and the fact that he doesn’t treat her like a weirdo for being herself, and HE appreciates that she doesn’t mind that its always raining when he’s around. also they are both trans and take hrt together TEEHEE

Hu Tao & Xin Yan & Xiangling

PYRO GIRL GANG. MENACES TO SOCIETY. THEY GO SHOPPING AND GET BRUNCH TOGETHER A LOT. They are a problem Always, but rotate out who is being the biggest nuisance on the reg. Xiangling is typically the most well behaved, but any time food gets involved all bets are off. Very powerpuff girls, these three. When xiangling and xin yan come to visit hu tao at work, zhongli clocks out early

Beidou & Kazuha

okay i low key also ship them romantically but the idea of their friendship is SO GOOD. “Hey bestie, im wanted for crimes and terrorism rn, can i crash on your couch?” “yeah sure no prob dude” I LOVE THEM LOL. Everyone on the crew thinks they’re sleeping together because kazuha bunks with her, NOPE. they are up late painting each others nails. She is complaining about ninguang and how she doesn’t know if she’s Actually 💅🏾🏳️‍🌈 and kazuha is like wow! lesbians really are useless at romance! cuz beidou are u like. blind. They have fun, she keeps him around cuz he’s funny and has a good heart and quite frankly sometimes she needs a Vibe Check and no one will call you out like a best friend. He loves traveling with her, obvs. Even when offered a job by the shogunate he chose to stay on the ship and i refuse to believe ‘i would miss gossiping with Beidou :(‘ wasn’t part of that decision.

anyway those are my bestie head canons, please share yours if you have any!!

[bunbeeplays]

The Lemon Legacy: Generation 1, Chapter 84 - Baby-Sistem-ing Part 1

The Sistem family has officially made it to the Lemon save file for the wedding! Ophelia and Xander offered to watch the kids so Marcie and Joaquin could have a much deserved break.

Marcie: Thank you so much. The kids have been really excited to see you again!

Ophelia: We're excited to see them too! And you guys, of course! Thanks so much for coming. It must be a pain packing up four kids and taking them to a different save file

Marcie: We wouldn't miss the wedding for the world!

Ophelia: Where's Joaquin?

Marcie: He's getting our table at Taste of Tartosa. We figured if we got our brunch orders in early they'd be ready by dinner time.

Ophelia: I know the owner, she'll make it happen.

Valentin: Hi, Ms. Lemon!

Ophelia: Hey, Val! Good to see you, bud. You can just call me Ophelia. You been keeping out of trouble?

Valentin: Sort of.

Ophelia: Well that's sort of good to hear!

Xander is also thrilled to see the Sistem kids again, especially his little buddy.

Xander: There she is! How you doing, Velly Bean?

Velma bursts into giggles as Xander blows a quick raspberry on her tummy.

Violet: Hi, O'fia!

Ophelia: Hi, pretty girl!

Marcie: Her name is Ophelia, sweetie. Can you say O-feel-ee-uh?

Violet: O'fia!

Ophelia: I think that's as close as we're gonna get, Marcie.

It was cute, anyway.

Marcie: All right, Mr. Xander and Ms. Ophelia are in charge. You kids behave yourselves, okay?

Val: Why'd you look at me when you said that?

Marcie: Valentin.

Val: Fiiiiiine.

Tartosa doesn't exactly have a lot of fun stuff for children to do but there's a family park on the outskirts of town that they think all the kids will like.

Vince and Valentin split off and Violet tries to run after Val.

Ophelia: Violet, wait for a grown-up, please!

Xander: I've been hogging this one all morning. I can keep Violet out of trouble. Why don't you watch Velma?

Ophelia: I don't think she likes me. She cried the first time I held her.

Xander: She just needs to get to know you.

Xander places Velma in Ophelia's arms before she can further protest.

Xander: See, she's fine. Look how happy she is!

Ophelia knows what he's doing. She's been around Travis and Becca's son but she's never been alone with a baby. He wants her to see that she can handle it.

Val gravitates toward the spaceship jungle gym.

Violet: Can I play with Vally?

Xander: I think you're a bit too short to climb that, kiddo, but I'll play whatever you want.

Violet: We can play spaceship too! I'm the space princess and you be my space butler!

Xander: …Sure.

Ophelia: Alright, Miss Velma. Looks like it's just you and me.

Travis and Becca are always talking about Tummy Time. Maybe they can do that.

Ophelia doesn't exactly know how Tummy Time works but she does manage to get Velma on her tummy. It's a start!

Violet's having the time of her life being a space princess.

Violet: Go get me some moon rocks, space butler!

Xander: Right away, space princess!

Violet's imagination is certainly vivid! Too bad to everyone else, Xander just looks like a doofus.

Vince is kind of just doing his own thing in the background of Violet's space adventure. Love that for him. Independent king.

Violet: Oh no! Slime aliems are comin' to get us!

Xander: Permission to blast them to bits, space princess?

Violet: Yeah! Bye bye, aliems!

Meanwhile, Ophelia thinks Tummy Time is going well.

Ophelia: Look at you, big girl, lifting yourself up!

It WAS going well, until Velma flops down and starts crying.

Ophelia: Velma? What's wrong? Are you hurt? It's okay, please don't cry! Oh Watcher, I broke her!

Ophelia feels helpless as big, fat tears roll down Velma's cheeks. She never cries like this with Xander!

Valentin hears the commotion and takes pity on Ophelia.

Val: She cries when Mom or Dad does that with her too. She's fine, she just doesn't like it sometimes.

Velma does get over it and holds herself up again, smiling away as if she wasn't just wailing five seconds ago.

Ophelia: There we go! Thanks, Val.

Val: No problem. Babies are just dramatic. You get used to it.

It's kind of nice knowing more about something than a grown-up.

Violet eventually notices the toddler slide.

Violet: Slide! Slide!

Xander: Let's see, what should we do next?

Violet: Slide!

Xander: I can't think of anything.

Violet: Sliiiiiide!

Xander: Oh, slide? Good idea, you should've said something sooner.

Mr. Xander is so silly!

Violet goes up the steps without much help from Xander because she's a big girl, thank you very much. It's still fun having him catch her when she slides down!

Violet: Again!

Xander: Again? Alright, space princess.

Violet: I'm just a reg'lar princess now!

Xander: Noted.

If Xander thought being a space butler was fun, he should try being a space monster!

Val: Die, alien scum! Pew pew pew!

Ophelia takes her role as a space monster very seriously. Look at that face, it's killing me.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

The latest chapter fully has made me lose my brain. You were right the Job and Daisy buddy cop jamboree IS the best. And that conversation between Tim and Jon?? Man. So much going on and so much going on just beneath the surface. Love the way Tim guilty thinks back to what Elias said about everyone using Jon, and love the way that is kinda what he's doing. Also love the way he *knows* something awful has happened but he doesn't want to dig into it because he doesn't want to risk pulling someone aboard Danny and his already sinking lifeboat. He can't afford to care. SO fascinating.

Also unrelated but were there a way to anonymously send you fanart (to prevent the off chance of someone I know irl finding my blog lol) you would be swimming in fanart. Because hoo-boy. Anyways love the chapter!!

Ahh thank you for your kind words!

Legitimately i cannot put into words how much fun i find the daisy and jon buddy cop jamboree. they're both so insane and chaotic. I have so many Shenanigans in my head that the two of them have committed over the years of their partnership that will probably never make it into nhthcth on account of it not being relevant to the plot. they're just such a fun dynamic. jon won't stop buying daisy stuff for her home renovations on elias's personal credit card. she's like 10-15 years older than him and they do everything together. sometimes that's killing the eldritch manifestation of violence and sometimes that's bottomless mimosa brunch billed directly to peter lukas. daisy went from violently fucking hating this guy to spending almost every single day with him and going on multiple vacations with him and no one understands why. they're so funny to me. I want them to have a wwdits style tv crew following them around at all times.

See i LOVE tim as a character because he's a genuinely good guy but he's also not without his own limitations and he has been shown to have like, an ability to recognize and accept when he can't change something.

Tim's instinct is to help. Like, he went back for Jon and Martin and literally carried Jon through the Jane Prentiss attack. At the Unknowing, when they were planting explosives, he was trying to convince everyone to let him try to save the victims of the ritual that were still alive. He's really, genuinely good, and he wouldn't have been like those people in the Institute who turned a blind eye to Jon growing up because he was worried about his job.

But he also has limits. Like, season 3, his anger overrode basically everything else, and when Sasha disappeared after the Season 2 finale, he wasn't trying to find her. Martin was sitting there begging Daisy to bring her home safe, and Tim, who was shown to be closer with her than anyone, had already given into a grim acceptance that she was dead and there was nothing to be done.

It was the same thing with Helen--when Martin and Tim were wandering Michael's corridors, they saw Helen trapped inside. Martin kept insisting that they should have helped her, and Tim completely shut it down, because he had this very bitter understanding that they couldn't help her, so stop thinking about it and stop talking about it. He didn't fight it; he accepted it; he did not try because of it.

Tim's a good person, but he's distinct from some others in the cast by the fact that 1) he will look at the practical realities they're living in and (bitterly) accept them, and 2) he's got some things that will override and take priority when he makes decisions.

Danny is and always will be the number one override for him. Like, we get so little on them in canon, but what happened to Danny seems to haunt Tim right to the end. Tim upended his entire life trying to find the thing that killed his brother. When we get the Statement on what happened, we find out that Tim is still searching all these years later, even if he did get a bit comfortable and complacent over time. Like, he can cite offhand the last statement given regarding a circus. He's still pulling all the books on Circuses. He never let go of what happened to his brother, even though he accepted (for lack of a better term) what happened to Sasha before he knew what happened to her and before she was declared dead. Danny had been gone for years by the finale, but Tim went to his death so he could kill the thing that took him away.

So Tim in nhthcth is in this huge phase of major internal conflict right now, because every single one of his major pillars of decision-making are in conflict.

Danny's his ultimate override. He's the thing that makes Tim not give a shit about anything else--everything has to fall away to Danny making through this alive. Unlike Tim in canon, he actually has a chance to save Danny. Canon Tim was willing to die over his brother's fate--a Tim that has a chance to save his brother will go so much farther.

But he's still someone who is able to clock when something's completely and utterly fucked. And Tim is the best situated out of everyone in the cast save Jon to understand how dire these circumstances actually are.

Danny's in little brother baby jail. He's spending all day trying to wriggle information out of Mike because Tim's pitching a bitch fit every time he tries to leave the apartment, and Jon doesn't even want Tim there, let alone Danny. He's playing Uno with Mike and trying to subtly slide in "hahah hey for the sake of conversation do you happen know of any like. evil contract breaking powers." He's trapped in that John Mulaney bit of eating triscuits and asking someone if they had ever seen a ghost. Thoughts and prayers for Danny.

Martin and Sasha's priorities are different from Tim, and the information they're looking at is different. Sasha, especially--she's chasing the contract, not the circus, and she's in such a state of paranoia that she's trying to rely on information that comes from her, not anyone else. She's not been exploring the Statements or been learning about the supernatural world the way he has.

For the most part, this happened off camera, so to speak, but it's been discussed multiple times that Tim's been tearing through everything that he thinks can help him understand what's going on and how to stop the thing after his brother. He's going through the library, he's reading all the Statements he can. He's been trying to get practical experience via tagging along with Jon, which keeps getting stymied, so he goes back to the library and the Statements.

Which means he goes to the Archives every day and struggles against the dawning realization that what they're trying to do just does not happen. He reads the Statements, and people either die, or they are let go, or they become the monster themselves. Options one, two, and three. And the vast majority are people who die horrible fucking deaths--or, worse, don't get the mercy of death. He has been spending every day desperately trying to find a Statement of normal schmucks like him and his brother beating something determined to finish their meal and going back to their normal lives, and they just aren't there.

Tim in Season 2 and 3 most consistently displayed an understanding that the supernatural was not something they could beat. People just get eaten by monsters, and that's their lives now. Nhthcth Tim has been getting that same horrible, dawning certainty of "This is a fight I have no chances of winning" with the immediate follow up of "But it's Danny. I have to."

Which makes him painfully conscious of the fact that he cannot afford to be a good person right now.

Because the thing is? Danny should have died in the theatre, as far as he's aware, and Tim knows it. He should have never even made it home that night. You don't get out on your own--these things let you go. Even if he somehow made it out on his own, Breekon & Hope should have been able to drag him back easily. He should already be dead. Tim knows it with a devastating certainty.

And he also knows that the only reason why he isn't is because Jon has been paying the cost of keeping him alive.

Danny getting out of that theatre cost him his skin. Mike protecting him? Cost Jon a food source, and apparently is going to probably get him tossed off a building down the line. Getting Elias as a backstop ended with Jon having to start taking live statements again and letting assistants down. Hell, Jon has to fucking escort him to and from Mike's every single day, because Tim may just get picked up by Breekon & Hope if he doesn't.

Tim's painfully aware that Jon’s well-being and Danny’s have a negative correlation right now. He is so uncomfortably aware that he's borderline sacrificing Jon's wellbeing for his brother's, and he's accepted that basically using Jon is the only way he has of getting Danny through this alive. It goes against his nature, he's a good person who doesn't want to hurt someone else for his own benefit, but he'll keep doing it for Danny.

And he knows that's going to be a lot harder to do if he gets to know Jon.

Out of all of the assistants, Tim actually has some of the greatest suspicions of how deeply wrong things are. Like, Martin saw how bad Jon got as a kid, but Tim’s been exclusively privy to Elias’s manipulative bullshit in a way the other two haven’t. He never got fed the lie of Jon being Elias's spoiled and beloved ward. His first introduction to this mess was Jon saving their asses several times over, and it has been nonstop red flags since then. One of the first thing that Jon tells him is that he hates being called Jonathan, and it's all Elias calls him. Jon turned into a nervous, frantic mess at the idea of assistants, and Elias has been trying to force it for years. He was sarcastic in the face of clown death, but actively scared at the possibility of Elias coming down. Jon cannot be reminded that man exists without launching into insults so creative that Tim almost feels like he should write them down for reference.

Tim spends more time with Jon than anyone out of the cast. He’s walking to and from work with him every day, spending time with him at mikes and at the archives, and the way Jon behaves fucking terrifies him. Both in a “your life is a spooky nightmare” kind of way and in a “you act like the aftermath of a tragedy” kind of way. He knows somethings deeply fucking wrong with Jon.

And he’s also genuinely honest about liking Jon. He doesn't like him the way Danny does, per se. Jon simply enchants Danny. Danny wants this man in his life forever. He wants to be roommates with him. He wants to go on a roadtrip with him. He is the world's most interesting man to Danny and Danny has never wanted to be best friends with someone so badly in his life. He's hilarious, a good person, and every single thing that comes out of his mouth is the absolute fucking wildest thing he has ever heard in his life. They fucking booked it from a monster clown together through a nightmare eldritch theatre together, which is the start of an epic friendship if Danny has ever heard one.

Jon’s a big “if only” to tim. Jon’s funny and kind and they get on great. Tim thinks that if they had met and Jon had just been Danny’s friend that he dragged home with him, he’d love being this guys pseudo older brother or something. But he’s clocked the situation, he’s figured out that Jon’s world is not something you can stay just out of the sightline of. It’s cut all ties or be eaten. So Tim’s already read the writing on the wall, made the mental calculation, and realized at the end of this, if they get out, he’s going to have to look the guy who saved their asses at his own expense in the eye and tell him they’re abandoning him forever. Thanks for the rescue that was costly to you in unspeakable ways, please never contact us ever again.

Tim needs Danny out, alive, and everything he’s seen and read has led him to a not unreasonable understanding that that’s going to require using and abandoning Jon as an absolute best case scenario. That’s weighs unbearably heavy on his conscious when Jon’s someone he likes and is actively worried about. If he knew the truth? It would be impossible.

[beom1e]

love is (not) easy #14 — held you back

genre angst with fluffy undertones. warnings alcohol, details of kissing. author’s note i am so sorry for this one guys >_<

in beomgyu’s arms, you felt safe. he was so familiar — his scent and the feeling of his arms wrapped around you — something you could never get tired of. it just felt natural and normal, laying in your dorm’s bedroom with him.

‘y/n,’ he spoke up, looking down at your face. your gaze flittered up to meet his, making his heart beat crazily fast. of course, you could hear it loud and clear. ‘how did you meet soobin?’

‘well, he was yeonjun’s best friend,’ laughing softly, you went back to watching the gory scene displayed in front of you.

‘but i know you,’ he continued, ‘and i know you wouldn’t just hook up with one of yeonjun’s friends. there must be a longer story.’

‘right,’ sighing, you reached for the strings of the hoodie beomgyu was wearing and began to fiddle with them. ‘yeonjun left the night that we broke up. i encouraged him to go of course, he didn’t just run away from me. i decided to go over and get my things and there soobin was, because last year they were sharing a dorm.

‘i broke down in front of him and he tried to comfort me, very awkwardly might i add. then he offered to take me out for some coffee, even though it was really late at night. and then we ended up buying soju instead and got really drunk… the rest you don’t really need to know. he called me the next morning and wanted to get brunch together, and it just kept going on.’

‘so… not the most romantic beginning,’ beomgyu joked. you were zoning out by then, twisting the hoodie strings between your fingers and barely blinking. ‘then you and soobin lasted a whole eight months, huh?’

‘i guess,’ shrugging, you frowned. ‘i started to really like him two months in, when i realised how much better my day got after he texted or called or showed up at my dorm.’

‘you miss him,’ the sniffle you let out was enough to tell beomgyu he was right. he pulled you closer, letting you bury your face in his chest and sob into his hoodie. ‘there’s still time to fix this.’

‘but i can’t,’ your voice was shaky and broken. ‘because then i have to tell yeonjun, and then i have to tell my friends that i lied to them for over seven months. i just can’t be with him.’

‘then let’s forget about him,’ he suggested, making you lift your head and look into his eyes. tears pooled in your own eyes, streaks of the salty liquid staining your face. beomgyu hated to see you in pain, he wished he could fix it all for you. ‘we’ll never mention him again, and if we ever see him in the street we’ll act clueless.’

‘i like that idea,’ your best friend looked at you with so much love in his eyes. it was even more intense than the love you saw in yeonjun’s or soobin’s, and you felt so guilty that you didn’t feel the same way about him. ‘but you’ll lose your study buddy.’

‘college is just a pastime anyways,’ a smile lit up his features. he brushed the hair out of your eyes before going back to playing with your hair. ‘i have other priorities.’

you couldn’t look away, it was impossible. now your heart was beating just as fast as beomgyu’s, breath caught in your throat and head spinning. so you leaned in, hand cupping your best friend’s face. his eyes fluttered closed when your lips met, so soft that it was barely even a kiss at all.

but then the hand he had in your hair tightened its grip, tilting your head into the kiss. your free hand gripped his hoodie as the kiss transitioned into something more passionate, tears still streaming down your cheeks. his lips and tongue tasted like strawberry ice cream and brown sugar, weirdly intoxicating.

beomgyu wasn’t stupid, despite the fact he always portrayed himself as the idiotic fun friend. he knew you were vulnerable and that your heart didn’t beat for him the way his did for you, but he couldn’t help himself. he wanted to stay glued to you, even if the kiss was a clash of ice cream and salty tears — ones that fell for another — he couldn’t stop himself. he needed to be close to you, hold onto you before you slipped away again. he’d seen you fall in and out of love with people who were never him, and this was his only chance to get an idea of how it would feel to be yours.

the two of you pulled away breathless, cheeks flushed and gazes locked. and then you wrapped your arms around him, sobs becoming muffled by his hoodie while your laptop softly played an episode you both could recite from memory.

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taglist @gyuville @siasmile @pr0dbeomgyu @eclisqc @tyunluvbot @taejinxkoya @90s-belladonna @naomi-from-paleontology @nycol-ie

[toplinetommy]

Now That I Need You - Pierre-Luc Dubois

a/n: thank you to @antoineroussel for organizing the summer fic exchange!! i had so much fun writing this and being a part of the writing community here as a whole. sooooo without further ado, @senditcolton here is your fic!!! i practically screamed when i got paired with you bc i was so excited to write for someone i genuinely consider a friend 🤍 hope you love it!

synopsis: yours and pierre’s friendship is one that’s always causing whispers to float around the room and eyes to be rolled whenever you both shut those comments down. what happens when the both of you have had enough of those comments? (title from where are u now by justin bieber)

words: 7k

“Aliyah, I am not going on a date with someone named Matt,” you groan, throwing your head into your hands.

“Why not? I haven’t even shown you a picture of him!” She exclaims in response.

“Because, all Matt’s are horrible,” you deadpan to your friend who rolls her eyes in response. “Seriously, have you ever met a Matt that wasn’t a dick? Or annoying? They truly live up to their stereotype and are unapologetic about it.”

Aliyah is quiet at that, tight-lipped as she tries to navigate how to get you on a date, with anyone at this point.

“You know how I feel about you guys setting me up on blind dates anyways, it’s getting old.”

You’re right, she realizes. As you’ve been going on a blind date a week at this rate, none of them turning into a second date or even into a friends with benefits situation. There’s an understanding on why she, and all of your other friends, want you to get into a relationship, but you’re more than fine with always being the fifth wheel and going home to an empty apartment. They don’t necessarily see that though - how you’re not even thinking about how you’re always the only one dateless at your bi-weekly brunches, or at Jets games, or how it’s always someone’s else’s boyfriend picking you up on your girls’ nights.

The conversation gets dropped as you continue your walk down the streets of busy downtown Winnipeg, the strong gusts of wind sending shivers up your arms. The sounds of rush hour traffic fill your ears as you make it to your destination a few blocks down. Everyone’s already there it seems, as the two of you make your way through the small crowd to where everyone is occupying two booths next to one another.

The crowd cheers at your arrival, an inside joke as to how you two seem to always be the last to arrive at anything. You catch Pierre’s eye first, your body instantly gravitating towards him as he makes barely enough room for you to squeeze on the edge of the cushioned seat. He wraps an arm around your shoulder, pulling you into his armpit and you squeal at his actions with a giggle.

He’s always been affectionate with you, as he keeps his arm thrown around you for the next little while as the two of you catch up. He tells you a story from their recent road trip and how he’s still trying to figure out who his permanent seat buddy is going to be. You update him on work and your grad school applications, to which he gives you a reassuring squeeze on your neck when you talk about the anxieties that come along with the process.

Drinks start to flow, ones you’re not entirely too sure who’s even ordering, but you drink them with a smile on your face. Time moves rather quickly, the crowd starting to thin around you while your large, bruly group of hockey players and mutual friends remains intact. You’ve moved spots in the booth, Pierre giving up his seat and opting to stand next to you instead.

Kyle has the majority of your attention, with him getting your opinions on what to do for his and Ally’s anniversary coming up later this month. He’s got your heart swelling and your eyes are shining in a way that shows how much you love hearing about your friends’ happy relationships. He’s in the middle of telling you about how he's deciding between getting her one of those love-lock bracelets or a new smart watch.

“I’m actually with my girl,” a very distinct and firm, French-Canadian accent says next to you, the sound waves of the words pulling your attention away from Kyle. Your eyebrows knit as your head turns towards Pierre, because you are very much not ‘his girl’, his hand falling to rest on your shoulder softly. The girl in front of him frowns, a wrinkle between her eyes as she pouts and turns around swiftly before disappearing into the crowd.

With that, Pierre shoots you a knowing look as you make room for him next to you for him to sit. His hand slides from where it was once on your shoulder down to your jean clad thigh, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“She could not catch a hint, sorry,” he apologizes, answering your question before you could even ask.

“That’s what friends are for,” you joke, resting your hand atop of his before intertwining your fingers with his, knowing that the small action will help keep his story straight for the remainder of the night. You focus back on Kyle once more, telling him to go with the bracelet and not the watch, noting that he can get that for Ally when her birthday comes up, Pierre listening in himself. The warmth in your stomach from where his hand is still intertwined with yours goes ignored, letting yourself believe that he hasn’t moved it due to the alcohol in his system.

As the minutes pass and more alcohol is consumed, you find yourself slowly beginning to slouch into Pierre’s side, using his much larger body as a sort of pillow. Your eyelids start to get heavy and your speech slows dramatically as it’s getting harder to focus on anything but how if you leave now, you’ll be in your bed in no longer than 15 minutes.

Pierre nudges your side, getting you to look up at him, but he’s not looking at you and instead lets the table now he’s going to take you home. You wordlessly follow him through the crowd of people and outside as he orders an Uber.

Pierre gets thrown into an intense back-to-back against Denver and Minnesota, the games getting tougher and closer as the playoff race gets tighter. It leads to you not seeing much of your friend, with him at the rink, training, getting to know his teammates and the city better, and resting. That causes you to go on a string of first dates with guys Aliyah and the rest of your friends have set you up with, all of them having the same outcome as they always do.

That’s what leads you to finally sit Aliyah down to tell her to cut out the first dates, but she and your other girlfriends have other ideas as they go on and on about the perfect guy at dinner. They don’t give you any details about the mystery guy but you do make sure to inform them of how your last blind date went.

“Andres just kept talking about his job and the ‘sick view’ he has from his office,” you mock. “Then he had the audacity to make the same comment about the view from his apartment! Even after I made it very clear I was not interested.”

They’re silent at that, feeling somewhat defeated that none of the guys have worked out for you yet.

“I know you guys have good intentions, trust me,” you start, trying to lighten the mood. “I just don’t see why it needs to be a big deal.”

Pierre rolls around a few days after his road trip, meeting up with you and your friends at brunch one Sunday morning. He smiles cheekily at you as he sits next to you, noting that this is one of those brunches where all the girls are accompanied by their boyfriends. You’re tucked into his side, a little cold from the wind breezing through the few open windows out to the patio. A few looks are thrown your way from some of the girls, one’s you’re all too familiar with and ones you ignore as you straighten your back.

The brunch turns boozy quickly, as you finish your third and fourth mimosa’s rather quickly, that twinkle in your eye Pierre’s all too familiar with starting to shine. The one that knows the alcohol is starting to get to you and reminding him that it’s his time to stop drinking to keep an eye on you.

Once brunch ends, the group decides to walk to the nearby park to enjoy the uncharacteristically warm weather for this time of year. With a small whine of your cold arms, Pierre is shrugging his thick, nylon bomber jacket and guiding your arms through the too-large arm holes for you.

You and Pierre end up separating yourself from the group, walking shoulder-to-shoulder along the pathways until a bench is spotted. You pull his muscular frame down next to you, your head falling to rest on his shoulder.

Your night was long and the early morning brunch coupled with alcohol is already making you tired even if it’s barely noon.

You thought the days of your friends setting you up were behind you, but now here you are, nervously tapping your fingers on the steering wheel of your car as you turn into the parking garage closest to your destination. You shoot off a text to your group chat, letting them know that you made it and that if you go missing it’s one hundred percent on them. That causes an influx in laughing face emojis alongside a few devil faces. You roll your eyes as you stuff your phone back into your purse, entering the casual french bistro.

Your feet stop moving underneath you as your breath hitches in your throat. There, in front of you a few tables down the aisle is your bruly, tattooed, best friend. He sits there, fingers twiddling atop the table as he moves his right hand to scratch at his jaw. He catches your eye then, his hand freezing, and a chuckle-like-scoff erupting from his chest.

Breathing a sigh of relief, your feet resume their path to the table, sliding into the chair next to him with an exasperated smile.

“Did you know about this?”

“I swear I didn’t,” he laughs, still utterly shocked that his friends set him up on a blind date that is quite literally not a blind date. It’s quiet for a brief moment after that, both of you unsure on the exact reason why your mutual friends pulled this stunt. The quiet air is a little awkward as you let out a small laugh, thinking back to how Aliyah gave you no information on her infamous ‘friend of a friend’.

“Aliyah and everyone has been so far up my ass about dating lately,” you start nervously with a roll of your eyes, your gaze slowly turning to your friend. Your eyes linger over his arms, the faded Saint Laurent shirt he loved so much showing off the time he’s put into the gym and the money he’s put into the artwork littering his arms. His beard is the most up-kept you think you’ve ever seen and you smile softly before continuing.

“I really didn’t know this was her intention. If I did I would’ve stopped her, I promise,” you start to ramble, the embarrassment of being set up with your best friend starting to come to the front of your mind.

Pierre stops you before you start spiraling, though, grabbing one of your flailing hands, “Hey, it’s not a big deal. Besides, it’s a nice surprise to see you and very relieving that I’m not sitting here making awkward small talk with a random girl.”

His words calm you, the waitress interrupting your negative thoughts as she asks for your drink orders. Your previous conversation ends with that, Pierre telling you about Georgia’s visit to the vet the other day. The two of you enjoy your meal over small talk and plenty of jokes, the thought of how this started out as a ‘date’ completely erased from your mind until Pierre clears his throat as he drops his fork onto his now empty plate.

“So, I had an idea.”

“Because, that’s always good.”

“Hear me out, your friends won’t stop asking you about your dating life, and the guys won’t stop chirping me about it either, and neither of us are even interested in dating, so we should just pretend we actually hit it off and that whatever they think is going on between us is true,” 

“Like, pretend we’re dating?” you ask, waiting to see if you were both thinking the same thing.

“Yeah, I don’t see any harm in it. We just start hanging around more at group functions and talking about all the cute, coupley things we do. I can even get you in with some of the girlfriends and you can actually come to games,”

“Yeah, because that all seems easy,” you think aloud, interrupting him. It very much seemed easier said than done to you, positive that there would be a slip up somewhere and a string of embarrassing and anxiety inducing conversations on why you even did it in the first place.

“We really don’t have to change our dynamic much,” Pierre shrugs, leaning back into his chair. “I mean, we’re already pretty close and we don’t have to fabricate some story of how we met. We’ll just tell them that their meddling actually worked.”

“You really thought all of this out, huh?” You ask. The wheels in your head start to spin as you think of finally not having your friends asking about your dating life every chance they get. You ponder the thought further, unsure of what this could potentially do to your friendship if anything bad were to happen.

“You don’t have to agree, obviously.”

And against better judgement and no more thought, you do.

You’re basically thrown into life after that night, work getting busy as it’s the time of year where everyone is buying and selling their houses. On top of that, you’ve thrown yourself into studying for your grad school prep exams, all the while still trying to narrow down schools to apply to.

You’re in the middle of creating a spreadsheet to help you with laying out the major information like tuition, the location, and test score requirements for schools when the shrill of your phone ringing startles you.

Low and behold it’s Pierre’s name scrolling across the top of your phone and you slide to answer it, putting it on speaker.

“Hey,” Pierre shouts into the phone, his voice still sounding smooth and sweet with the loudness of it. “You wanna come out to Nik’s?”

“I don’t know,” you sigh, running your tongue along your upper lip in thought. “I’m kind of in a groove looking at grad programs.”

“C’mon,” Pierre starts, and you can see his face through the phone with his tone, knowing that the corners of his lips are turning into a smirk. “You deserve a break and you have plenty of time to do that before you have to make a final decision.”

He’s right, grad applications aren’t due until the fall, but you just want to be more prepared than you were when you first started your bachelor’s all those years ago. He hears your breathing along with your fingers tapping along your keyboard.

“Come out to Nik’s, I’ll order you an Uber,” Pierre tries to convince you. “Besides it’s really just a few of the guy’s playing Fortnite and poker. Just your type of scene.”

It really is, you think, not one for always needing the glitz and glam of the party lifestyle that usually comes attached to a professional athlete's life. You agree to pop in, but only if he saves you a seat at the table. He promises he’ll keep the seat next to him warm and you’re hanging up and on your way not too much longer.

Nik’s apartment is nice, it’s only a few blocks down from Pierre’s building so you know the area well enough. It’s spacious and you can tell his girlfriend did all the decorating with the amount of plants on the balcony and on the tables in the living room. Pierre spots you before you spot him, putting his cards down and pouring you a drink. You take a seat next to him at the dining room table that’s doubling as the poker table. Deciding not to play right away, you sit and watch Pierre and the rest of the guys, trying your best to not give anything away when he gets dealt a good hand.

His chair scoots closer to you as the round goes on, his hand coming to rest on your thigh, causing you to look up at him. You’re a little confused by the display of affection before he’s leaning over to whisper in your ear,

“Gotta convince them we’re actually together now,” he whispers as his lips move along your ear, causing shivers to run down your spine. The lightbulb goes off in your head then, completely forgetting about the arrangement the two of you agreed on a few nights prior. He lays a kiss on your cheek when he pulls away, your cheeks heating up as you avoid the gaze from the guys around the table.

It’s then you reach to wrap your hand around the bicep closest to you, your hand skating down to hold his in your lap. The looks continue as the night goes on, and especially when you finally decide to join the game, both of you playing one handed as your hands stay intertwined.

It’s not until a few hours later that the whispers start. Pierre had taken a break for a few rounds, letting Adam take his spot at the table. He hadn’t left you, though, instead standing behind you, his figure towering over your sitting frame, his arms thrown around your shoulders as he cheered you on.

“Hey! No outside help,” Nik exclaims when Pierre’s leaned down to whisper in your ear one too many times, a giggle passing through your lips. Pierre rolls his eyes, ready to chirp him but a voice from behind you beats him to it.

“Luc, did you finally get the balls to ask your girl out?”

Both of your heads turn to the anonymous voice, seeing that Josh is the culprit. There’s not enough time for you to unpack those words, your eyebrows knitting at the true meaning.

“Yeah, I did, actually,” Pierre shouts back, his voice cutting through the room and his hands tightening on the meat of your shoulders. All eyes are on the two of you as cheers and chirps erupt around you. It’s then, you think, what the hell did you just get yourself into.

It’s not until a few days later that the news of your relationship is circulating your entire friend group along with the entire Jets roster. You don’t see any of them for a while, which you're thankful for, as you and Pierre fine-tune any details about your so-called relationship, knowing you’ll be thrown into the ringer once you’re with them.

It’s another one of those bi-weekly brunches where you guys make your so-called official outing as a couple, the two of you making a show to show up late, hand-in-hand to the restaurant. You’re surprised with the lack of chirps made at your expense, and even more surprised no one’s even batted an eye where Pierre’s pale hand is lightly resting on your thigh.

You feel defeated, really, unsure as to why when you’d show up as the only single one to these brunches, scenes were always made, but now that you have someone pressed against your side, it’s like they all think it’s the most normal thing in the world.

Everyone is waiting on their check when Shawn, Emma’s boyfriend, fires off the first question.

“So, you guys’ finally got together, huh?”

Emma scolds her boyfriend the second the words leave his mouth.

“Yeah, just took a little push from our friend’s is all,” you smile sweetly, eyes floating from Pierre’s over to Aliyah where she’s sat a few seats over.

“Are you bringing him to Sophie’s wedding then?”

Sophie was the only other girl in your internship program two summers ago, something that inevitably made you thicker than thieves throughout the program. But she had been on her way back to school in the States when the summer had ended, and your friendship became one where you would intermittently checked up on the other throughout the year.

Even with Sophie being from Memphis, her wedding was still going to be in Winnipeg due to complicated family circumstances and a Canadian fiancé. You’d been so busy with everything going on that you completely forgot she would be back in Winnipeg at the end of the month for her wedding.

Come to think of it, the RSVP is still sitting untouched on your side table in your living room, the part about a plus-one being left blank.

“He might have a game, I haven’t thought-'' you start, your brian getting fuzzy as you try to come up with an excuse.

“When is it?” Pierre interrupts, pulling his phone out to pull up his calendar to cross reference the date Shawn tells him. “I might be able to go depending on if we make the playoffs.”

He seems to be reassuring you more than really answering the question for anyone else at the table. It’s a little overwhelming thinking that you’re still going to be in this relationship of sorts with him in a month. You hadn’t really thought of the future of this whole plan, just happy to finally get your friends off your back for the time being.

As you and Pierre hop into his Audi to head back to his apartment, you're more quiet than usual, letting Pierre take aux and listening to him mumble the lyrics.

“You doing okay?” Pierre asks, eyes flicking over to your frame in the passenger seat.

You hum out a yes, picking up your phone from your lap to avoid any type of emotional conversation with your best friend. Pierre pulls into his parking garage soon after, parking in his usual spot. He takes his time putting the car in park and pretends to clean a smudge on the LED screen as he waits for you to open up.

“I don’t think I thought through what this set up really entailed,” you huff out, moving your body around to cross your legs underneath you. “In my head we were just going to like, hold hands in front of our friends and say we go on dates and hang out all the time, and now everyone’s like are you bringing him to Sophie’s wedding and when you finally got the balls to ask me out. 

With your agreement, you finally check the plus-one box on Sophie’s wedding invite and send it back to her. The wedding’s still not for another month, so you have plenty of time to wrap your head around the situation you’ve found yourself in. You’re not even positive Pierre will be able to tag along with the way their possible playoff schedule is still a mystery to everyone.

The Jets sit four points out of a playoff spot, that last spot a close battle between them and Nashville. The battle between those two teams is even more intense as they’re scheduled to play each other as their second to last game of the regular season. It’s a home game that you’ve been invited to, your name on a seat in the Better Halves box, a seat that’s becoming all too comfortable as you sit in those seats for their season ending home-stand.

His name is draped across your back, as you cheer from your seat. It’s a tough game, and the boys just really aren’t playing the game they need to be playing in order to beat another team that finds themselves in the same position. In the end, they take a loss, one that puts the fans decked out in white in their seats as their playoff dreams seemingly come to an end.

It’s slow making your way down to the locker room to see Pierre and the other guys. When you see him, his tie is simply draped around his neck rather than tied properly, and his hands keep running through his hair and over his face as he makes his way over to you.

His arms instantly wrap around your, yours sliding around his waist to hold him closely. With only having been friends for the better part of a year, this is uncharted territory for you. He holds you there for a few moments, the chatters of affirmations and sounds of little kids go quiet around you.

His large hands splayed across your back warm you, his fingers trailing over the delicate stitching of his number and name on your back. When he pulls away, words remain unspoken between you as he lips press to the crown of your forehead. His lips stay there for a while, both of your eyes closing as you relish in the feeling of his lips on you.

Your hands intertwine as you make your way to the parking garage, and for the entirety of that walk you forget you’re even doing it for show. Rather, your thumb brushes against the back of his hand in a comforting manner, because that’s simply what he needs. Over the duration of your friendship, you quickly learned that physical touch was the best way to comfort him in these moments.

The ride to what you assume is his place is somber and quiet, one where your hands stay intertwined over the gearshift as he changes gears driving through the city. It’s kind of funny you think, the way your hand is in the way of his driving ability. You find yourself watching him as he drives, the colorful street lights illuminating his pale skin. His beard’s gotten long, the red coming out in full force as the hair there starts to curl tightly. You’d never admit to him, but he always looked the best when he grew his beard out. You wonder if the season’s impending end coupled with the official start of summer is around the corner, if he’s planning on shaving it when he gets ready to head back to Montreal.

Montreal.

Suddenly, your eyes are trailing over every detail of his face as you remember that fateful bit of information. He’s in Winnipeg now, but soon enough he’ll be catching a flight or making the cross-country road trip back to his parents and sister and all of his childhood friends. It’s almost like Pierre senses your mood change, squeezing your hand tightly in his as he pulls onto his street.

The corners of your lips slightly upturn at the small action, the way he puts his own emotions in this moment behind yours to make sure you’re feeling the best you can.

The walk up to his apartment is still quiet, until his front door is being pushed open and the sounds of his dog's feet scrambling across the hardwood floors fills your ears and puts a smile on your faces. He’s quick to sit on the couch, where the dogs follow and smother him in kisses. He’s got that wide grin that reaches up to his eyes on his face, one you love to see as you watch him, stuck in your place a few feet away as you admire him.

“Sorry about tonight,” you whisper when he stands back up.

“Don’t be,” he shrugs, moving past you without a second thought. You catch his wrist with your hand at that. Your friendship with him is bigger than just not talking things through, no matter how big or small.

You can see his body deflate as he turns around to look at you, already knowing that he’s better than just shrugging his feelings off like they’re nothing.

“You know you played amazingly, and so did the team. Sometimes things don’t go your way,” you say, hoping to ease his mind that you know is racing with every minor mistake he’s made the past few games.

“I know,” he hums. “It’s just always hard, ya know? My season will end in a few days but other people get to keep playing. It’s getting old.”

“You’re still young, Luc, and you’re on a crazy talented team. The time will come.”

He nods his head in understanding at that, knowing there isn’t music to say over a lost hockey game. He’s never truly missed the playoffs as a professional player, so the early start to the summer for him is abnormal.

You’re about to ask what you can do to keep his mind off the game, but it’s like he reads your mind as he wordlessly drags you to his bedroom. He throws a t-shirt and a pair of shorts at you, pushing you towards his bathroom to change. You giggle at his actions, and return to see him in bed, TV remote in hand.

“You wanna binge Better Call Saul?” he asks, the show already queued up on the screen mounted on the wall.

“Of course,” you respond, jumping in bed next to him. It’s not a new thing to watch tv in his room, since whenever you first started being friends, he didn’t have a couch in his living room. You lay there next to him, watching the show in silence. His frame is starting to slouch as time passes, his head falling on your shoulder as he lets out a big, exaggerated yawn.

He falls asleep on your chest not too long after, and you don’t have the heart to move him in order to get up and head home, so soon enough you’re falling asleep under him.

The next morning is the first time you wake up in his bed. It’s a quiet morning as he didn’t have an early morning skate, rather the team had a video meeting followed by conditioning later on in the day. Breakfast is shared and giggles are heard throughout as you play with the dogs before finally heading out to your own errands for the day.

A few days later he’s calling you up, his last game of the season having been played the night prior.

“So I guess you still need a date to that wedding in a few weeks, huh?”

And it completely slipped your mind that you even RSVP’d to your friend's wedding with a plus one. You groan in response, telling him the details of the day before letting him know you’ll send a picture of the dress you’re going to wear when you find one.

Your friendship with Pierre leading up to the reading is steady, and your “relationship” with him plateaued as the excitement of you two being together started to die down. As you’re shopping for a dress the weekend before the wedding, your mind wanders to what it’ll be like once the wedding is over. Will the two of you continue this relationship throughout the summer? You tell yourself you can’t, knowing that a relationship through an offseason is a big deal.

You’re spiraling in the dressing room as you try on dress after dress, none of them seeming to do the job. Every dress you come across seems to have one tiny detail that throws you off until your eyes land on a rust colored, satin wrap dress with a delicate floral pattern along it.

The dress almost makes you forget about all the ifs and the unknown of your arrangement with Pierre. You snap a pic of the material, sending it to Pierre to let him coordinate his suit with your dress. As you go to pay, a Venmo notification comes through from the man himself, a text following telling you the dress is on him.

It makes your heart race and your skin get warm, the action being one that’s out of the normal for the two of you.

The wedding rolls around relatively fast as you work busily through the week and Pierre having exit interviews.

It feels like you’ve finally settled down when the weekend starts as you drive out to the ranch the wedding is being held at. It’s lost of music and funny stories and arguing over the aux until you arrive, Pierre generously taking your overnight bag up to the room you’ve been assigned to.

You should’ve thought things through more, you think to yourself as the door is swung open and there’s only one bed in the room and it’s not even a king or a queen - it’s a double. Pierre seems to not notice or at least he chooses not to complain, as he plops himself down onto the fluffy comforter.

“Must be nice not having to not worry about getting ready,” you laugh, grabbing your makeup bag from your duffel. Getting ready flies by with the sound of Tik Toks coming from Pierre’s phone, him showing you the funnier ones every now and then. He ends up sitting on the toilet the entire time you’re getting ready in the bathroom under the guise that it’s easier to bug you when he’s in the same room as you.

His voice gets stuck in his throat when you emerge from the bathroom in your dress, his hands pausing as he’s button up his shirt. There’s more than enough compliments thrown your way before he’s asking for help with his tie.

“I know you know how to tie a tie,” you scold, even though you give in and start tying the knot around his neck.

“Oh, but you do it so much better,” he smirks.

You roll your eyes at that, tightening the knot until it’s resting comfortably at his neck and leave a playful slap on his chest. You slip your feet into your heels, Pierre watching from the doorway as you finish with your last few accessories. He opens the door for you, placing a kiss on your forehead as you walk past him.

The ceremony is beautiful as Sophie walks down the aisle and as her and Tanner share their vows with the guests. They’re beautiful in the way that you can see and feel the undying love they have for one another as inside jokes are shared and laughs are had before they finally kiss for the first time as husband and wife.

The night is a blur for the most part with the focus being on the newly married couple and their happy family. It’s almost like you’re there with all your friends until Pierre’s begging you to dance for what feels like the fiftieth time.

“Just one dance, please,” Pierre asks, stressing the words as he pulls you up to your feet and out on the dancefloor. The song playing is slow, and everyone out on the dancefloor is paired off. Your eyes float around the room until they land on the icy-blue pair in front of you.

The noise drowns out around you, which is something you’ve started to notice is always happening when your eyes catch his. Time slows down as you continue to sway to the music. Your head falls onto his chest, your ear pressed to his chest where his heart thumps in a calming manner.

Next thing you know, the music is transitioning from a slow, acoustic beat, to a faster paced rock song you remember hearing when you were in high school. His hands are still wrapped around you tightly, not letting you move too far away from him as he continues to sway the two of you.

You smile against the farbis of his shirt, content with the warmth is giving you and the support he’s giving your tired body.

“Thanks for coming,” you break the silence, looking up at him, your chin resting on his chest. One of his hands slides from your back up to cup your jaw, his thumb running over the apples of your cheek. One of your hands goes to hold his, your feet stopping underneath you.

“You had an eyelash,” he whispers, his breath hitting your forehead. “Make a wish.”

He holds his finger out in front of you, letting you blow the lone eyelash off. Your eyes close as you do so, and when you open them, the first place your eyes land are on Pierre’s lips a few inches in front of you.

Next thing you know, his eyes are closing and his neck is tilting downwards as his lips land on yours in a soft, sensual manner. Your lips move along his briefly before you’re being interrupted but the clanking of silverware and cheering around you, a sign that the newly wedded couple is kissing somewhere in the crowd.

You avoid his gaze when you pull away, telling yourself the emotions in the air are what spurred his actions before making some excuse about how you need to find Aliyah. He calls out your name but it falls on deaf ears as he watches you find your friend not even a few seconds later.

He makes small talk with the few people he does now at the reception, a few people coming up and asking him who he’s here with since he’s one the unfamiliar faces. Sophie ends up introducing herself to him when he’s getting a refill, telling him about how happy she is to see that her friend is in a happy relationship.

You keep your distance from him for most of the night, using the excuse that you haven’t seen some of these people in months. When Pierre sees some guy in khakis getting a little too close to you, that’s when he decides enough is enough. 

Suddenly his arm is thrown around your shoulders and a kiss is placed on your cheek.

“Thanks for keeping my girl company,” Pierre says, eyes focused on you rather than the guy he couldn’t care less about.

“That was rude,” You chide, causing a dry chuckle to pass through your date’s lips.

“You running away from me back there was rude.”

His comment effectively shuts you up, your gaze avoiding his and finding the confetti on the ground rather interesting.

“C’mon, let’s forget it happened and move on,” he suggests, giving your shoulder a squeeze. “We'll spend the rest of the night as a couple and then we’ll figure out everything else tomorrow.”

It’s a good offer, you think, one you’ll be able to take and ignore all the feelings you’ve been feeling deep down in your stomach whenever you’re around Pierre or anytime someone mentioned him as your boyfriend.

The night passes after that, not much time spent as the crowd dwindles and the happy couple makes their grand exit. With that exit comes a conversation you tell yourself needs to happen as you and Pierre walk back to your room.

“Thanks for coming,” you thank as you make it back to your room. “I really appreciate you going along with all of this for so long.”

“Hey, it was my idea, besides, it’s been fun.”

His adjective of choice is heavy and loaded with a lot of different question marks, because really, what does fun mean? Your mind’s racing on how to start this inevitable conversation. You’re stuck taking your heels off as Pierre’s already out of his shirt and working on his belt. The grey tattoos decorating his skin distract you, the taught muscles of his pecs and abdomen sending a warmth through your body.

You lick your lips, your throat going dry and your head going empty.

“I don’t know how to say this so, fuck it,” you throw caution into the wind, startling Pierre with your assertiveness.

“Why did you bring up the idea of fake dating?”

“To get our friends’ off our backs?” He asks, blinking away his confusion. “Isn’t that why you agreed to it?”

“That’s not the point,” you ignore his question. “That blind date was just our friends’ being assholes so why did you want to jump into a fake relationship with me with no plans on how to go about it or for how long we would do it for.”

Pierre’s quiet at that, unsure of how to respond with opening up his heart and knocking down those walls he’s built up over the course of the last few months.

“Why were you always going on so many unsuccessful dates?” Pierre asks, turning the questions on to you.

“Because I liked you!” You admit out of pure frustration, the shril of your voice cutting through the room. “And everytime I think about the fakeness of this I freak out so I just let it go-,”

“Is it still fake?”

“What?”

“Is this all fake for you? The feelings?” Pierre steps closer to you, his hands slowly grabbing yours. “They’re not for me, and they haven’t been for a while.”

Your face is that of pure shock, your mouth opening and closing as you try to find the words you know you’re thinking of.

“It was dumb to suggest the fake dating thing but I kinda thought maybe it would give you an idea of how I felt but I guess I didn’t think it all through.”

“Not really,” you laugh. “I just blamed everything on you trying to make it look more real!”

A fit of giggles is shared between the two of you as his hands encircle your waist.

“Well, I clearly didn’t think it through,” he laughs leaning in closer, his nose bumping against yours.

“You can blame all the hits to head on that one on one condition,” you tease. Pierre hums in response, his hands cupping your cheeks as he tilts your head upwards.

“Kiss me and tell me that I have you for real this time,”

“Baby, you’ve always had me.”

And maybe all those comments your friends would make about the two you “finally getting together” started to make sense.

[chilope]

i have a really good buddy, i was a bridesmaid in her wedding, i found out recently that her brother doesnt like me. he was in charge of planning her bachelorette party and everyone who was going was invited to a group chat to help plan and give input. he asked us for ideas so me and some of the other exceptionally anxious people in the group started coming up with ideas for things that we thought would be fun, which he discarded out of hand because he found them too lame (totally fair - we were suggesting things like a big brunch or a costume party, things that we were comfortable with and that we knew she would like, but that didnt involve things like alcohol or crowds) (the bachelor party ended up being like that, an escape room followed by a game night at a fancy hotel). he ended up settling on what he viewed as a compromise - dinner at a nice restaurant and then visiting a drag club. our other anxious friend and i had a terrible time. the restaurant was crowded and loud and we couldnt afford anything on the menu (we ended up splitting an appetizer) and the club was literally just a club on a friday night and all that entails. it was pretty miserable, and both of us hit a point pretty early on where we couldnt easily hide how miserable we were. and that like. really annoyed my friends brother, who felt like hed bent over backwards to accommodate us and then still had to deal with us being unhappy. and theres a part of me thats like.... should i just not have gone? like if they wanted to do a traditional bachelorette thing why did they invite two people with major sensory issues and ptsd. i feel like, during the whole planning process we were trying our hardest to explain the situation and offer alternatives and everything and all of it was disregarded and then in the end we were still the assholes for not having a good time. its difficult for me to even wrap my head around how a drag club is a compromise, like if thats the low-key option what would they have preferred?? but like. fuck idk. i feel like an asshole because i understand that what everyone wanted was for us to just like. be fine for a night. like just. dont have a panic attack or dissociate from the noise and lights and drinking. not going would have been rude and entitled ("if we arent doing what *i* want then im not going!") but going meant that everyone had a worse time because they had to deal with us.

anyway i dont like when people hate me and i dont like being inconvenient and i dont like realizing too late that i screwed something up really badly

[separatist-apologist]

Hello gorgeous gorgeous girl, just wanted to come on and say I’m sorry you are getting hate and that some anons are such dicks.

I hope you know how much joy you bring to so many people. I literally wake up every morning excited to see whatever fics or memes you’ve posted (probably means I need to get a life but this is where I’m at right now).

You are such a talented writer and I hope the majority of the messages you get are positive! No need to respond to this, just wanted to send a little positivity your way <3

It's okay! Every time someone sends me hate, I go into the Star Wars tags and aggressively reblog everything I think is sexy. I personally love the thought of someone refreshing my page, hoping for that attention no one else in their life will give them and instead finding 12 gifsets of Anakin Skywalker crying into his morning caf.

I think its a choice to be intensely negative and like, whatever do you. I'm not gonna be preaching toxic positivity but this is where i go to escape the horrors of the world and I am just not interested in fighting. Yell at a wall. I'm here to be hot and do crime (if writing about big dick is a crime anyway).

The overwhelming amount of responses I get are positive. I think I am so incredibly fortunate that people like what I write enough to come and tell me personally. I wish you all would come off anon so I could french kiss you on the mouth/tell you how much I love you. It means so much to me that anything I've ever said in a fictional medium resonated. It makes me feel like the world is a good place and personally, makes me feel less alone. Like we're all buddies having brunch together

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 300: Days of Our Todorokis

Previously on BnHA: Hawks was all “hey Jeanist, wanna go on a road trip with me to my mom’s house?” Jeanist was all “you know it,” and so they hopped into Jeanist’s jercedes and took off. Hawks took a nap and had a flashback to his Dickensian childhood living in a abject poverty with his jerk mom and jerk dad, thinking heroes were make-believe until one day Endeavor arrested his dad and Baby Hawks was all “OH SHIT.” And then he saved a bunch of people, and the HPSC was all “what do we have here,” and blah blah blah, you know the rest. Back in the present, Hawks was all “well my life is currently in shambles, but on the plus side there’s no one bossing me around anymore so that’s pretty cool,” and then decided he was going to talk to Endeavor. Fandom was all “I can’t believe Hawks would side with his childhood hero over the man who burned his wings off and posted a video calling him a violent murderer who took after his abusive dad,” so that was fun and stuff. I can’t wait to see what piping fresh takes this new chapter will bring.

Today on BnHA: Our old friend Carbonation Carl tries to loot a Starbucks and gets his ass kicked by a senior citizen. Society is all “YEAH, WE’RE REALLY STARTING TO GET SICK OF THIS SHIT.” Old Man Samurai is all “this room won’t stop me because I can’t read it” and abruptly decides to retire, which, fun fact, is literally THE LEAST HELPFUL THING ANYONE HAS EVER DONE. Anyway so then a bunch of other punkasses follow suit, and while I won’t say that I’m actually starting to root for Stain to kill some peeps, just for the record I’m not not saying that either. Back in the hospital, Endeavor cries some tears because his life sucks, and then is confronted by his entire family, LED BY QUEEN REI, FIRST OF HER NAME, BACK IN BUSINESS AND LARGE AND IN CHARGE. Rei is all “fuck feeling sorry for yourself, we have a rogue Murder Son on the loose” and I swear to god I have never felt so alive.

so here we go! and just for the record, even though the last two chapters have been phenomenal, I don’t necessarily have any sky-high expectations for chapter 300, mostly because chapters 100 and 200 consisted of Mei Boobs, and Toadette and her horrific quirk lmao. so go ahead Horikoshi, what are you gonna pull out of your hat for this one

oh, back to this stuff again. sob

I guess there was only so much time we could spend having hospital antics and exploring Hawks’s past before we got back to dealing with the whole “the world has gone to absolute shit” issue huh, lol

omg

what’s with these bizarrely cute Noumus. why do I want to pet them

so the narrative text is going on about how people have been super paranoid about the Noumu ever since the USJ incident a year ago. so yeah, I guess the fact that there are now a bunch of them confirmed to be running around is really freaking people out even on top of everything else

wtf is happening here

what did this poor lil glass ever do to anyone. r.i.p.

OH MY FUCKING GOD

SODA SAM IS BACK ON THE LAM

tsk tsk tsk. my man has graduated from snatching purses to raiding cafes. going after that big money. this man has no business sense whatsoever lmao

OH BUT WATCH IT NOW!!

OH SNAP THE PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING BACK. WHATCHA GONNA DO NOW SAM

THIS MAN IS 172 YEARS OLD AND HE’S NOT HERE TO PLAY GAMES!!

WTF IS HE LIGHTING THIS THING ON FIRE OR SOME SHIT. GETTEM GRANDPA YEAHHHH HE’S CHARGING AT EM YEAHHHHHH

lmao so that was fun. and now we’re cutting to Wash!! omg. look at him

he’s so dedicated. too bad you don’t have a car like Best Jeanist. probably takes a while when you’re just running everywhere

you see?? you were too slow!!

NOOOO, GRANDPA. he defeated Pepsi Pete, but lost his life in the process. this is too tragic

anyway so the good news is that the cafe has been saved! but the bad news is, there really isn’t much of a cafe left. huh. I guess that’s one of the reasons why people are supposed to get a license to use their quirks like this

oh snap and now everyone is coming outside, and they’re none too happy to see poor old Wash over here

seriously Wash, get a bicycle or something. also the way this guy is gesturing so dramatically with his hand in this sort of “YOU SEE!! YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!” manner is sending me

OH MY GOD

HE SPEAKS. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. IT MEANS JEANS PUNS ARE YESTERDAY’S NEWS, FOLKS!! MAKE WAY FOR THE LAUNDRY PUNS. CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH THIS ALL... UNFOLD

“the heroes had dwindled away” okay real talk you guys, it is literally only a matter of time before they press-gang the children into picking up their slack. I still don’t know how to feel about that, but it is happening one way or the other regardless. Child Soldiers 2 Electric Boogaloo. wonder if we’ll see a rise in vigilante action as well

OHO WHAT’S THIS? THIS IS A CHAPTER OF GRANDPAS HUH

-- no fucking way

WOW. WOW. WOWWWWWW

wow. so he didn’t do a fucking thing while the rest of the top ten were being turned into red mist in the previous arc, and now that it’s all over and they need his help more than ever, he decides... THAT IT’S TIME TO RETIRE. holy shit. “fuck you” doesn’t even begin to cover it my guy. you stand there and soak up those boos you coward

ohhhhhhh shiiiiit you guys. oh shit

the “I am not here” breaks my fucking heart for real though y’all. oh man. everything he worked for is gone just like that

(ETA: okay so a couple of the takes I’ve seen on this make it seem like All Might is somehow the bad guy here?? “this is what happens when society puts a bunch of glorified cops on a pedestal”, “finally the cracks in hero society are showing”, etc. etc. so, just a friendly reminder that this isn’t happening because of too much trust and a lack of critical thinking; this is happening because the villains killed all the heroes and broke a bunch of murderers out of jail. it’s happening because an organized league of terrorists succeeded in terrorizing, and so society is now understandably awash in fear and panic. like, it’s just wild to me that AFO is RIGHT FUCKING THERE, and yet week after week fandom still has their “IT’S ALL THE HEROES’ FAULT” signs still up on their lawns. BUT WHATEVER, MOVING ON.)

also though, so exactly how much time is passing here now? I wanted to go straight back to the hospital and see what happens with Deku and the Todorokis. please don’t tell me we’re jumping ahead sob. my aaaaangst

OH SHIT

STAIN. LISTEN UP BUDDY. I KNOW WE’VE HAD OUR DIFFERENCES, AND I STILL DESPISE YOU FOR CRIPPLING TENSEI AND TRYING TO KILL MY BEST BOY TENYA. BUT AS IT HAPPENS, THERE ARE ONE OR TWO OTHER HEROES OUT THERE NOW WHO I WOULDN’T MIND YOU PAYING A VISIT I’M JUST SAYING

LOL BUT IT ACTUALLY ISN’T THIS MAN, FFFFFF

sob. yeah I was talking about Old Man Samurai actually but YEAH. HEY THERE ENJI

also is this entire hospital actually run by characters from Super Mario Bros though. first Yoshi and now this guy, come the fuck on that is not a coincidence

lmao they stuck him in another one of these cavernous creepy hospital rooms

wtf is it with Horikoshi and these giant fucking rooms lately. Kacchan’s in chapter 298, then Tomie’s colossal house furnished with like one table and a TV, and now this. and the weirdest thing about it though is that “huge space with nothing to fill it up” is like the exact opposite of what you’ll usually find in Japanese homes lol

so now Enji is just sitting there thinking things like “my head is fuzzy” and “I’m alive” lmao okay. not quite all there yet, huh. I’ll give you a minute

I’m so fucking curious as to who his first visitor is going to be omg. either way it’s going to be interesting af, and either way fandom is probably going to feel some way about it but OH WELL

okay now his thoughts are getting more coherent! and he’s remembering Touya, and feeling regret for freezing up and forcing Shouto to deal with everything instead

!!! OH HERE GOES BRACE YOURSELVES Y’ALL IT’S ABOUT TO GET SPICY

NO TOUYA PLEASE DON’T CRY HONEY NO PLEASE

ohhhhhhh man

okay, I mean I didn’t expect you to, but so instead then you’re just going to do... what? lie there and wallow in regret and self-pity for the rest of your life? son you know that’s not how we deal with our problems here in Shounen

though also, I totally do get it though. honestly, thinking on it, I probably would have been disappointed with any other response. but so this is where the rest of his family (including his adopted son) come into play now though, because like it or not they’re all in this thing together. and so friends, I am once again asking you WHO IS GOING TO BE THE ONE TO VISIT ENJI FIRST

AHHHHHHH

KRANCH!!!! OMG AND THE OTHERS ARE SO TINY NEXT TO HIM THAT I ALMOST DIDN’T SEE THEM AT FIRST. IT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE TWENTY MILES AWAY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS REGULATION HOCKEY RINK OF A ROOM

holy shit I’m so excited lkjlklhlglkasdsjldfk

SDKFJLSKHLKJL

the way she has him by his collar lmaoooo. “lol nah you’re not going anywhere pal.” damn straight, siblings have to be ride or die in situations like this. banding together for survival. strength in numbers

OH MY STARS I’M JUST WARNING YOU NOW THAT I’M ABOUT TO DISSECT EVERY LAST REMAINING PANEL OF THIS CHAPTER PROBABLY YOU GUYS. WE COULD BE HERE A WHILE

love how Fuyu has absolutely no idea how to segue into THE SINGLE MOST AWKWARD CONVERSATION SHE’S EVER HAD, so she just GOES FOR IT in pure small talk mode like they’re meeting up for brunch somewhere

I KNOW IT’S A SMALL THING, BUT I APPRECIATE THAT THE FIRST THING ENJI ASKS IS WHETHER THEY’RE OKAY

lastly while I can’t wait for more of this delicious Natsu angst, I also just have to say that Enji has as much reason to cry right now as anyone on the planet. you can’t deny that being confronted by your not-dead-but-you-thought-he-was-dead son who’s all “SURPRISE DAD I GREW UP TO BE A MASS MURDERER AND I HATE YOU AND EVERYTHING IS ALL YOUR FAULT AND NOW I’M GONNA MAIM YOUR OTHER KID” with a side order of “EVERYONE HATES YOU AND SOCIETY IS CRUMBLING AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE GOOD EVER AGAIN” is enough to bum pretty much anyone out. there’s a Pagliacci the Clown joke here somewhere. BUT DOCTOR, I AM THE NUMBER ONE HERO

oh man lol he is seriously falling apart

damn. like you guys, I’m sorry, go ahead and cancel me, but I do feel compassion for the man. it’s therapeutic for me to see an abuser actually feel remorse and be truly sorry and want to change and want to make it up to his family. and it’s also compelling as fuck to read a narrative about a family that’s trying to grapple with that, because let me tell you straight up, as someone who’s done a version of that song and dance -- it is exhausting. it is a piping hot mess. it’s a gigantic mishmosh of extremely volatile emotions that all somehow all contradict one another. love, hurt, hope, anger, betrayal, resentment, attachment, longing. it’s something you can both be desperate for and also want nothing at all to do with. and attempting to portray all of that and write about it is a monumental task, and one which Horikoshi has done so, so delicately thus far, and damn but I appreciate it. anyway, so I’m here and I’m ready for my latest helping of Todoroki Fam Feels you guys

GASP

oh man. OHMANOHMANOHMAN. CAN IT REALLY BE. IS THIS THE REDEMPTION ARC OF CHAPTERS 100 AND 200???

LMAO SHE’S ALL “WE ALL FEEL BAD YOU JACKASS STOP CRYING ABOUT IT”

LAY INTO HIM REI!! SORRY ENJI YOUR PITY PARTY HAS BEEN CANCELLED IN FAVOR OF A “SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT” PARTY COURTESY OF QUEEN ELSA OVER HERE. THE PEOPLE TOOK A VOTE AND WE WANT LESS WHINING AND MORE ACTION

oh my god look at this lady folks

NOTE THE HAIR BLOWING IN THE NONEXISTENT WIND. NOW WE KNOW WHERE SHOUTO GOT THIS POWER FROM

(ETA: btw guys, seeing Rei handle this crisis like an absolute champ despite everything she’s been through is everything, though. I’m reminded of Hawks’s line last week about people sometimes unexpectedly finding liberation when they’re backed into a corner. like things may be shit but goddammit her kiddos need her.)

THE CHAPTER IS ALREADY ENDING SOB, IT’S ONLY A 17-PAGER THIS WEEK, BUT GODDAMN WHAT A WAY TO CLOSE

oh my god. oh my god oh my god. AND FUCK YOU HORIKOSHI FOR CUTTING IT OFF THERE sob. it’s like each week the wait for the next chapter becomes more painful. the Todofam is about to get real, and on top of that Hawks is gonna crash the party at some point down the line, and on top of that we’re still waiting for Kacchan to have his own heartfelt discussion about What The Fuck Are We Supposed To Do Next with his best friend who’s currently in a coma. all I want to do with my life is read about these three things, and all I can do is simply wait as they are portioned out in agonizing, addicting little installments every week

anyway! tune in next time as we answer the question of whether or not fandom will finally run its train of logic all the way through to its natural conclusion and somehow manage to cancel Noted Abuse Apologist Todoroki Fucking Rei. don’t act like it can’t happen. you all know nothing is sacred lol. anyways but I’m ready for anything lol, bring it