#as in they would have spoken (obviously nothing really interesting or important considering she was like. 15 when he died)

[highevara]

still losing my mind over the realization that, not only would elethea and all the cousland children have known maric, they would have known him fairly well. as well as a subject can know a king. bryce and eleanor were close with him, maybe not to the extent that loghain was, but still.

[thestobingirlie]

THANK YOU. Robin and Nancy’s incompatibility aside, Robin and Steve’s soulmatism is one of the unshakable dynamics in the show and Robin Buckley would just never. I read fanfics for most ships, and the story you linked is the first r//nance story I’ve seen that doesn’t have a Steve with zero issues just giggling while his best friend in the universe gets with the person who canonically hurt him the most/he’s still in love with. R//nance usually goes hand in hand with having to ignore how significant Nancy and Steve are to each other, which reminds me of the…

The Vickie erasure. The fanon of bi Nancy while fandom totally ignores Vickie is not surprising considering there’s so much automatic hatred of canon. Robin calls Vickie the girl of her dreams! I also hoped for more Vickie in season 4, but Vickie as the embodiment of Robin’s peace at home is perfect. Rosie! That Vickie is too much of a side-character to ship with Robin is ridiculous when I’ve accidentally seen so many fics including Gareth. For real, who the fuck is Gareth.

Nancy still needing to learn how to process her emotions is why I think any Stancy endgame would be a denouement situation. The execution of the matchmaker trope was unnecessary. Three whole characters weighing in on that relationship? One of which was a stranger? Why.

maybe it’s just because i love stobin so much, but it is literally one of the best and strongest dynamics in the show, and i just can’t fathom needing characters to be in a romantic relationship so badly, that people just cast aside how important robin and steve are to each other.

and yeah, i avoid all r//nance fics, like even if they’re just a background ship. because i know that that background ship will be a throwaway line, and still manage to destroy stobin. like, you can’t just have causal r//nance in the background because by it’s very nature, it would tear the characters apart.

in canon, steve still has feelings for nancy. now you can decide if that’s just because he’s clinging to this ideal of life that he isn’t ready to let go of, or because he actually is in love with her, but to disregard their relationship entirely is dumb. like, in their first s4 scene together, nancy spots steve’s car and just instantly calms. like, whether they’re romantic or platonic, steve and nancy are really important to each other.

i honestly just cannot see nancy being queer at all, but i know that’s just my personal opinion. but the fact that people will totally erase vickie, and then get annoyed at the duffers for having minimal gay characters, or for not making r//nance canon. like, there is a bi women right there! stop ignoring her! and yeah, i think the excuse that vickie is just a side character is such bullshit, because she is spoken about a lot, we see her in multiple scenes. she’s more important than gareth, but somehow he pops up everywhere? and a lot of people who hate vickie will then ship buckingham (which i have nothing against!) but it’s like, how are you gonna pretend chrissy has more personality then vickie?

yeah, i hate matchmaking, but the duffers seem incapable of writing a romance without using it. honestly, the reason why i hated murray so much is because of that. like, some random middle aged man got two teens drunk and told them to fuck in his house, and i’m supposed to think that’s the height of romance?! ew. and yeah, i can see robin talking to steve about nancy, because they obviously talk about their loves lives to each other. and dustin is incapable of not inserting himself into steve’s life, but eddie? what does he know about the situation? it’s just so weird.

also, i actually find stancy interesting, at least, i’ve always enjoyed watching their scenes more than nancy and jonathan, but i just don’t think that nancy will be able to get enough development in time for her to end the show in a healthy relationship. though, i do kinda want stancy to be endgame just because i know how much steve antis will hate it. and i think that’s funny.

but honestly, when it comes to endgames i just don’t care. what ships the duffers decide to end on mean nothing to me. i will read whatever fanfics i want when the show ends, and who’s gonna stop me. “oh it’s not canon.” don’t care, didn’t ask.

[plus-size-reader]

One Date

Tommy Milner x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 2113 words

Warnings: none

Summary: Tommy asks that reader out but she refuses because she’s sure he’s pranking her

—————————————————————————————————

You knew he was lying.

He had to be lying.

In all your life, you never imagined Tommy Milner showing any interest in you at all, and you had known him almost that long. You went to school together, his older sister used to babysit you, and your dad even got all your eggs from his family's farm.

There was no way you couldn’t have known him.

You had lived in Mill Valley all your life, and that was just the sort of thing that came along with living in such a small town. Everyone knew everyone, and there was no getting away from that.

Knowing about Tommy though was hardly the problem.

Your current problem was that while you were minding your own business at your locker, Tommy approached you. It may not have seemed that strange at first but the context made it weird.

Tommy Milner never talked to you.

Aside from cruel jokes made at your expense by his friends on the football team or asking you to scoot over in the auditorium, you weren’t even sure that he knew your name.

...But here he was, all the same.

It didn’t make any sense to you, but you did your best to keep your uncertainty covered up with a slight nod in acknowledgment.

That was all you did, all you managed to do, before he blurted out what he’d been thinking about this whole time as if it was no big deal.

“Do you wanna go out with me?”

That was it.

Just like that, those words were hanging in the air all around you and frankly, you weren’t sure how to react. You considered pretending that you didn’t hear him, or moving to another city and changing your name.

Anything would be better than making a total fool out of yourself like you were bound to now.

You couldn’t win.

You wanted to assume that he wasn’t talking to you, because that would be easier but even that was complicated.

If you reacted like he didn’t say it and he meant it, he would feel bad but if you responded like he did say it and it wasn’t meant for you, that would be even more humiliating.

It had to be a joke.

So, the best thing you could do was try and play it cool.

In fact, it wasn’t until he repeated himself that you glanced away from the inside of your locker.

Part of you was sort of hoping he would just go away, and leave you be. However, it would seem that you wouldn’t be so lucky.

Clearly, he wasn’t going to go anywhere. You would have to do something, and the more you stood here, the more awkward it would be.

You immediately regretted looking at him, because it made it much too real.

He was serious about this whole thing.

“You’re talking to me?” you clarified, feeling sort of silly over it but you couldn’t help it. You had never really spoken to him in your life, and you weren’t sure where this was coming from.

You just couldn’t make this whole thing make any sense.

“Yeah, I am” Tommy allowed, acting like that would do anything to clear up the situation you were currently in. Those three words didn’t do anything to clear up this thing, or make you feel any better.

If anything, all it did was leave you that much more confused.

“You want to go out with me?” you repeated, still wishing that he wouldn’t have started this in the first place. This was exhausting, and you were sure that nothing good was going to come from this.

It just felt like a huge mistake, and you didn’t even understand what exactly was going on right now.

“Yeah, that’s kind of what that means” he sighed, really surprised you two were still talking about it. Usually when he asked out a girl, they didn’t waste any time in making sure to say yes.

This had never happened to him before.

Though, to be fair, this had never happened to you before either.

The guys in this town didn’t have any interest in you. You didn’t feel like you had anything to offer them, and honestly, even if they did want to go out with you, there was no chance you’d say yes.

You didn’t want a cheap fling with some high school boy that didn’t actually care about you. You knew what you deserved, and what you deserved was more than some cheap make out or even worse.

What if this really was nothing more than a joke to him?

What if everyone in school was in on this and if you agreed to the date, it would be a Carrie White situation? You couldn’t possibly handle the embarrassment that would cause.

You would never be able to set foot in this school again after something like that.

“I don’t think so” you decided, after far too many moments of silence between the two of you as Tommy waited desperately for you to say something.

This was all so foreign for him, a man who never heard the word no.

A man who couldn’t figure out what was going on right now. He’d had his eye on you for days now, trying to figure out what the best way would be to get you to go out with him.

...And now, you were just going to turn him down.

It was hardly where he saw this conversation going.

“What do you mean? You don’t want to go out with me?” he asked, not even bothering to pick his jaw up from the floor. Tommy was lost, another thing that didn’t seem to be new for him.

You didn’t know one another that well, and he’d just come out of nowhere with an offer you had no idea what to do with. This wasn’t someone you were comfortable with or had any sort of relationship with.

You and Tommy might as well have been strangers.

“It’s not very nice to play with people’s feelings as a joke” you grumbled, gathering everything you needed from your locker and slamming it aggressively as you tried to walk away.

This would just be better for you. Making a fool out of yourself because of blind optimism would surely blow up in your face and you weren’t looking to be humiliated today.

That could wait for another day.

Unfortunately though, once again, Tommy seemed to have another thing in mind.

When he asked you to go out with him, he did it because he wanted you to say yes. If he wanted anything other than that, he would have asked for that instead.

Obviously, you’d gotten the wrong idea.

“Wait, what do you mean?” he sputtered, doing his best to follow you down the hallway without looking like an absolute idiot. It was clear to you that he had no real clue what was going on, but you didn’t care.

You knew what kind of person he was.

A guy like Tommy Milner only went out with girls like Ruthy Steinberg, girls that were prim and perfect, and put together all the time. You weren’t like that, and frankly, you weren’t even sure that she was.

In any case, Tommy couldn’t handle the woman that you were.

You weren’t going to lie to him in order to make him feel better and you certainly weren’t going to let him string you along for some stupid joke so that his friends could get a good laugh.

You were better than that.

“I know what you’re doing, and it's cruel” you repeated, not bothering to stop as he followed you, keeping a pretty good time as quick as you were walking to get away from him.

You weren’t going to explain basic human decency to him, and you weren’t about to try and get him to see you as a real person, an equal to him. You knew that something like that would never work.

His world only went as far as him.

��All I did was ask you out” he sighed, not putting the pieces together as well as you wished he would.

Normally, you would have rolled your eyes and told him to go to hell but when you took a second to look at him again, you saw something else there on his face.

He really didn’t know.

Tommy didn’t see the clear issue something like this would cause in such a small, gossipy town.

In his mind, this really was just what it looked like.

He liked you and when he liked someone, the natural progression was to do something about it. It didn’t make sense to him that you were making such a big deal out of this because it wasn’t.

It was what people did.

“I know, but it's much more complicated than that and you know it” you countered, gesturing slightly with a nod of your head over to the end of the hallway where his friends were all gathered, gawking at the two of you.

You could only imagine what they would have to say once they found out about this.

Assuming that you’d been wrong about Tommy and he meant well, that didn’t mean that all those chuckleheads would. Some of those jerks had been tormenting you since middle school and this would be nothing more than fuel for them.

You would never hear the end of it, and neither would Tommy.

That was your point.

You could guarantee that he hadn’t thought about what kinds of consequences this would have in his very secluded social life. His people would never let you in like they had all of his other girls in the past.

Nothing was going to be the same if he actually did this.

Tommy followed your gaze to the football players, all hooting and hollering to themselves as they watched the two of you walk together.

“You’re worried about them?” he hummed, his focus once again falling on you and ignoring all of the other attention on you both. Unlike you, he was accustomed to their dumb shit and stupid antics.

Ignoring them was what he did best.

“Yeah, I am”

The words left your lips as little more than a whisper, something you were hoping he hadn’t heard at all, but you wouldn’t be so lucky.

Tommy had put too much into this to just let you go so easily.

“I think we could have fun, we could go to the drive-in or something?” he suggested, ignoring the obvious upset that you’d been in earlier. He was sure that if you gave him a shot, he could prove he wasn’t so bad.

He wasn’t giving up.

“I don’t get why this is so important to you” you groaned, finally halting your movements entirely so that he would stop following you.

He was going to make you explain this to him, no matter what you wanted.

“Because, I think you’re really cool and I figured we could get to know each other a little better” he explained, his answer much more mature and decent than what you’d been expecting.

There wasn’t anything blatantly sexual or degrading about his answer.

Maybe he was right.

The two of you didn’t run in the same social circles and you barely knew one another outside of basic school functions but perhaps there was something there that you just couldn’t see yet.

Tommy may actually surprise you.

All you had to do was let him try.

“One movie, if you hate it, I’ll leave you alone” he promised, changing his approach in hopes that would make you agree. A single night wouldn’t kill you and after that, if you really weren’t into it, he would give up.

All he wanted was a chance.

...and he had a point.

A single night at the drive in with Tommy Milner couldn’t possibly be the end of the world.

“One date, just one” you sighed, not missing the small sparkle in his eyes when he finally realized what you meant before you turned away completely. You may have regretted this at some point, but giving him a chance was the least you could do.

If you rejected him based on an idea, you were no better than all the guys around here that didn’t want anything to do with you because of who they thought you were.

It wasn’t going to kill you.

You just had to remember that, and if anything else came out of it, you would owe him an apology.

Until then, all you owed him was one date.

[cantalouupe]

curiosity

nsfw!!! kaeya x f!reader

prequel to this drabble

hand & finger kink, semi public sex except you don’t have sex with him he just makes you suck on his fingers

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The knights of Favonius weren’t a group of people you mingled with. While you had no quarrels with any of them and had even spoken to some before, they just weren’t people that you considered friends.

There was nothing you held against them, no vendetta you had. Your feelings of them were just neutral. Pleasant conversations are easy to have with the ones stationed around town, where they’re willing to help you with really anything you need.

That’s probably why you’ve never really had to interact much with them. You’ve never been in danger and so help from them wasn’t something you had to seek out.

The higher ups, though, were a different story. You’ve also not interacted with any of them, but heard of them incredibly often, seen the outrider around town.

But that was all.

You had understood they were busy with all their work and obviously didn’t expect them to come out just so they can talk to you, a random citizen - still, you were curious. With all the big talk of them they were bound to be quite an interesting few people.

Sara, who worked at The Good Hunter - a little restaurant near the center fountain in town that served amazing food - had told you about them. The interesting honorary knight that travels with a little fairy in search for his sister, the outrider that you’ve seen before, the librarian who apparently was incredibly intimidating when you don’t return books, and even Jean, the acting grand master. You’ve heard about all of them, your curiosity causing you ask around for stories.

The first time you met any of them was on a sunny day, not unlike any other. You were out on the trail, foraging mushrooms as per Sara’s request, when you ran into a suspicious looking group of hilichurls. The odd creatures were entranced by an odd looking sigil on the ground that glowed a faint purple.

You had chosen to mentally mark where you were and turn back to go to town and report it. Hilichurls close to town was already a safety hazard, but them acting the way they were felt off and made a pit of worry grow in your stomach.

The guards at the doors of the Knights of Favonios Headquarters had questioned what you needed when you ran up, and you explained the situation, requesting to speak to Jean if possible.

Guilt ate at you when you pushed despite them telling you she was busy with work already. “I really would like to speak to her directly,” you told them.

They were going to shut you down again, but from behind them the door opened and out came an infamous face.

Of the many people you’d been told about, the Cavalry Captain was among them. Kaeya was very popular in town, apparently appeared at the tavern on most nights to chat with the townspeople. There was a lot of mystery shrouding him and his backstory but despite that he was a favorite of many people.

He looked as he’s been described to you, with dark hair and tanned skin, one eye covered with a black eye patch. His bare eye, beautiful and piercing blue met yours and you looked away immediately, feeling as though you were seeing a myth in the flesh.

“Like I said,” your eyes, probably a little wide from seeing the captain, fell back to the two guards you’d been talking to. “I think it’s a good idea if I talked to Jean directly.”

You hadn’t meant to alert Kaeya as he was leaving the Knights Headquarters but he seemed to hear, voicing out an “is everything okay?” as he approached the three of you.

“I’m not trying to be any trouble,” you tell him once the situation was explained.

He watched you shrink slightly under his gaze, pretty eyes staring up at him - and shook his head. “It’s understandable to want to report something like that immediately. I can take you to her.”

Obviously he had some sort of authority over the guarding knights because they had nothing to say about that, stepping back to their spots on either side of the stone stairs leading to the building.

You mentally let out a breath and nodded up at the blue haired male, thanking him quietly and apologizing again for making a fuss.

“Come on now,” he smiled down at you, calming your nerves a bit. “Stop apologizing for trying to keep Mondstadt safe. If anything we should be apologizing to you for not catching it before you did.”

The short walk inside the Knights Headquarters was quiet, and you took the few silent moments as a chance to get a better look at Kaeya. It was weird seeing him in front of you after only hearing about him for so long.

His clothes were much different from the other knights, from the fur on the shoulder to the color of the clothing. A small blue glowing charm hung from the side of his hip - that’s right, he had a vision.

When he opened the door to Jean’s office, you caught sight of his fingers that peaked out of dark gloves. Fingerless gloves?

“Are you going to come inside?”

Oh no, you weren’t standing here gawking at his hands, were you? You blinked at him like a deer in headlights and you wanted to melt into the floor at the amusement written on his face.

You ducked your head in embarrassment, slipping passed him silently.

Your shame was short lived, however, when you stepped into the room and saw Jean. Now you knew for a fact awe was visible on your face. It’s not every day that you get to see the grand acting master herself.

She was kind and genuinely concerned about you after you ran through the scene you saw for a third time in that day. The abyss order have been causing some trouble for the knights and they had been trying to track down more about them and their plans. What you saw didn’t give away much but Jean reiterated that it was an important bit of information and she thanked you for coming to her for it.

You preened at that, glad you could be of help to her.

Before you left, she thanked you again and assured you that you didn’t need to worry, the knights would take care of it.

And that was the end of it. Nothing else regarding that situation happened and life returned to normal.

The next time you ran into one of them it was at The Good Hunter. You were chatting with Sara while waiting for your food to finish cooking when a very familiar pair on hands came to lean against the counter you ordered at, with a very familiar voice accompanying them.

“I’ve been wondering about you,” Kaeya muses.

Wondering about you? You had to take a moment to process that, forcing out a small “Why?” to which he didn’t respond.

“Eat with me,” he responds instead, smiling at you and he is nice and a knight so who are you to decline.

So, you two eat together. He’s just as charming as people have mentioned, voice smooth and easy to listen to. By your wonder, he tells you in more detail about the Knights of Favonius, and you soak up his words like a sponge.

He is able to describe specific stories that you didn’t otherwise know about, along with other people that you hadn’t heard much about.

You find it fascinating and ask more specific questions - about visions. He answers every inquiry thats thrown at him, about his own cryo power and that of others in Mondstadt.

“Does the fingerless gloves have something to do with your element?” You ask him, and he laughs lightly at you.

“You like them, huh?”

Does he remember your lingering gaze on his hands at your last meeting? God, that’s mortifying. You hadn’t meant it to be a weird question.

When you gape at him, sputtering and trying to grasp a suitable response, he reaches out and taps a finger on the underside of your chin. “Cute,” he murmurs, before taking his leave, claiming he has work he should go attend to.

You stare at him while he leaves, reeling from his actions.

Things move more quickly after that.

You don’t know who really started it, but Kaeya’s hands become somewhat of a teasing point. It wasn’t a serious attraction at first but now his hands are the first thing your gaze catches on.

In turn, he’ll tease you for it, brushing the back of his knuckles against you or tapping a fingertip on you like he did that first time.

It boiled over one day in the Knights Library, you alongside him, curiously looking at all the different titles that were offered. Kaeya reaches out to grab a book and your eyes zero in on his hands.

Bare hands.

He wasn’t wearing those gloves today, skin fully on display and that shouldn’t be as important as it is but there you are, staring at them.

“You’re not-“

He has to know. Theres no way he accidentally forgot to wear them on a day he would be with you. Another tease, definitely.

“My gloves? Didn’t think you’d notice something like that.” Oh, he knows.

Cocky as ever, he taps his finger into your bottom lip - as he has before - and your mouth parts in response. An invitation.

The taste of clean skin bursts on your tastebuds, two of his fingers sliding inside.

“Ah, I knew it,” he murmurs, moving so you were situated in the corner of the wall and bookshelf, his body shadowing yours to shield you from any possible onlookers.

Your knees buckle from under you when he presses down onto your tongue, a whimper sounding from your throat.

“Look at you,” he coos, head leaning in so his lips brush against your ear. “How was I supposed to hold myself back when you want this so bad?”

Your hands find purchase on his biceps, gripping them to ground yourself while he rubs the pads of his fingers against your tongue. Saliva pools and threatens to spill over your lip, and Kaeya knows it, fingers moving so that it drips down out of your mouth and onto your chin.

“You know,” he starts again, fingers sinking deeper into your mouth as his other spare hand wraps loosely around your waist. “If you’re so good like this I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when I fuck you.”

Another noise leaves you, fingers digging into his arms. Your head knocks back into the wall right behind you and your eyes flutter.

You feel lucky that you cant speak because you know you wouldn’t be able to trust yourself to not beg him to fuck you right here in the library.

It feels filthy, the drool on your chin and his breath against the side of your face while he tells you these things. You felt hot and if your eyes were opened your pupils would be blown out.

“You’ll have to come see me some time, so I can really take you apart with my fingers.”

[astrababyy]

Rereading the KOTLC series Pt. 2

Same message as before: Rereading the KOTLC series, starting with the first book. Most of this is just me joking around but some of it is me actually complaining. How you’ll be able to tell the difference is your problem, not mine. Also, I am a staunch Forbidden Cities stan and Lost Cities anti. This will, in fact, reflect in how I reread this series.

She woke up in a cold sweat and decided sleep was overrated.

Sophie’s inner thoughts can be so entertaining something lmao. Would’ve been interesting to see how different it’d be if it was in first person POV.

But the color brought out the gold flecks in her eyes,

Of course, Sophie has gold flecks in her eyes because there’s nothing interesting with warm, solid-colored brown eyes. They have to have gold flecks. It is, obviously, very important since so many authors have their brown-eyed characters have gold flecks.

“Missed me bad, huh?” he whispered, flashing a cocky smile.

Man, I wish Sophie wasn’t so shy so she could put him in his place lol. I love Fitz, but he can be real cocky sometimes. Entertaining as it is, it’s also a little cringy.

Elf or not, she had a life here, with classes she could fail and parents who could ground her.

This line alone literally contradicts everything with Sophie’s later reactions.

I get that the opportunity to be with people like her was a big deal for Sophie, but the lack of real fight she put when they told her she needed to up and leave her entire life and family behind was genuinely absurd. 

Adding in the way she kind of deferred to the Council so easily, trusted these random strangers, and everything in between, it just felt so weird to me. I get that she’s been through a lot, but she barely even put up a fight.

“How am I supposed to trust you when you won’t even tell me anything?”

Isn’t that what you’re doing with the majority of people in your life later on in the series?

You can’t listen to someone’s thoughts anytime you want to know something. There are rules.”

No one who comes to the mind-boggling (/s) realization that no one’s gonna know unless you tell them cares, Fitz. Unfortunately, the people who have come to that realization haven’t told us so we don’t actually know who they are. 

Also, why would Sophie care about the rules at that moment? Why should she? Why should you? Especially considering your “assignment” also happens to be illegal –– probably much more than reading someone’s mind.

He grinned as his eyes locked with hers. “Your future.”

Oooh so ominous.

(When in reality, it’d just been a grumpy old man in a young-ish man’s body, a cheerful dude with a massive crush, and a shy-spoken little lady who looks like the elf version of the stereotypical princess that was judging her “future”. Not nearly as impressive or intense as Fitz likes to make it sound.)

She could feel her cheeks flush. “Oh. Uh. Yeah.”

Why does she blush about everything? Alden was just commenting on how unusual her eyes were compared to that of other elves. I get that she’s not the most tractable person out there, but this is getting a tad excessive, don’t ya think?

“Humans,” Alden muttered.

Elves, I retort.

“Kidnapping is a human crime.

Um not in this book, it seems.

Also, why would he even know that? Is it because of all the research he’d done while looking for Sophie? He’d known about the horrors of humanity, and he still sent Fitz out unsupervised to go gallivanting across the globe like he wasn’t at risk constantly? Is he stupid, or is he stupid?

but it was the kindness in Alden’s eyes that made her agree.

Really? Those eyes would only deter me. eYeS oF bRoKeN sEa GlAsS tf that’s so freaky. I’d be so weirded out.

Alden clamped the bracelet around Sophie’s right wrist, twisting until it fit snug.

Does she really have no reaction to that? Random stranger clamps a thick, ugly, and bulky bracelet around her wrist and she doesn’t care in the slightest? Man, I don’t care how pretty or kind his eyes are. If some random dude tries to clamp some ugly ass bracelet around my dominant wrist, he’s getting a punch to the nose.

“I got mine off early. My concentration is strong enough for three people––which is why we’re fine. Sophie’s not even the least bit faded, and you know it.”

Fitz seems to be a bit arrogant in his abilities. (I didn’t note that in my first time reading this book. I should do an analysis or something of the characters’ personalities since they always seem so difficult to tie down.) 

Being overshadowed by Sophie was probably a big blow to his ego. I hope he gets his time to shine in later books instead of constantly having his ability and power be dragged down to being the Moonlark’s Cognate. Must be annoying to deal with after spending so long in the spotlight and constant praise. I’m surprised it hasn’t been brought up more often.

“Isn’t that glowing fungus?”

Yes, Sophie, it is, but don’t tell the elves that. They don’t want to admit that they’re terrible at names.

The idea of going to an elvin academy made her head spin. Would she have to sneak away every day?

The fact that they didn’t even explain to her the true weight of setting down roots in the Lost Cities (ie. getting tested to see if she’ll attend Foxfire) pisses me off. They should’ve explained that to her first before making her get tested. It’s such a weird way to sort their priorities. I get that it’s for plot reasons, but there isn’t that much harm in letting Sophie settle before doing any of the other things they did with her. It just feels so unnecessary and, frankly, insensitive.

“He feels your upbringing and lack of proper education should disqualify you.

Isn’t that the entire point of school though, Bronte? To attend so that you can get the proper education you’re complaining about?

“So . . . you have gnomes as servants?”

More accurately, they have gnomes as glorified slaves, but yes, that’s what they are. Just because the elves are too pathetic to admit it doesn’t mean it’s not true. I still have no idea why that was included. It was not necessary, especially when the horror of it isn’t even resolved or acknowledged. It’s just there.

A second too late Sophie realized that she should’ve curtsied––not that she knew how.

It still baffles me how, nine books into this series, Sophie still hasn’t learnt how to curtsy. Has no one seriously taken half an hour of their day to teach her? I know it’s probably just something kept in to make her seem qUiRkY aNd ReLaTaBlE but still.

“How long do elves live?”

How is she just okay with that? She gets over it immediately. My thoughts would go straight to my family, the fact that they’re humans while I’m not, and panic over them eventually aging and dying while I remain eternally the same age. Kind of surprised this hasn’t ever been brought up, actually.

Kenric and Oralie’s jaws dropped.

I wonder if they laughed about this later, and how cringy they acted throughout the entire thing.

“Sounds like Alden’s golden boy isn’t as infallible as everyone thinks.”

Yeah, it must really suck to know that one of the only people that’s succeeded in reading your mind is the same girl that read an Ancient’s mind without training and barely trying. I mean, I’d be absolutely distraught, unable to move on from that. /s

He needed more? Seriously?

[Sophie just lifted the goblet after being asked to lift something as heavy as the pole from earlier and Alden suggested to try something small. Bronte’s not very impressed.]

I mean, I don’t like Bronte’s characterization in the first couple of books very much, but he’s got a point. It’s probably not very impressive to watch some random kid lift a goblet.

 She dropped one of the Councillors.

I know! And it was amazing!

“I vote against––and you will not convince me otherwise.”

I still don’t get why he did. Bronte’s intentions, goals, etc. were never very clear. It just seemed like he was being the villain for the sake of being the villain. There’s nothing wrong with that, but his character does a sudden 180 later on and it doesn’t make sense. His relationship with Sophie shouldn’t have changed so suddenly when we didn’t even know his original intentions.

That’s all I’m going to read for now! I’ll start again later. 

[evanescentjasmine]

I’m going to talk about a little pet peeve of mine with regard to portrayal of poc in fic, TMA specifically since that’s what I mostly read and write for. 

I suppose I should first start by saying that, of course, poc are not a monolith, and I’m certain there are other poc who have many different views on this issue. And also this post is in no way meant to demonise, shame, or otherwise discourage people from writing poc in fic if they’re doing something differently. This is just a thing I’ve been noodling on for a while and have had several interesting conversations with friends about, and now that I think I’ve figured out why I have this pet peeve, I figured I’d gather my thoughts into a post.

As a result of the fact we have no canonical racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds for our main TMA cast, we’ve ended up with many diverse headcanons, and it’s absolutely lovely to see. I’m all for more diversity and I’m always delighted to see people’s headcanons. 

However, what often happens is I’ll be reading a fic and plodding along in a character’s PoV and get mention of their skin colour. And nothing else. I find this, personally, extremely jarring. In a short one-shot it makes sense, because you’re usually touching on one scenario and then dipping out. Likewise if the fic is in a different setting, is cracky, or is told from someone else’s PoV, that’s all fine. But if I’m reading a serious long-fic close in the poc’s head and...nothing? That’s just bizarre to me.

Your heritage, culture, religion, and background, all of those affect how you view the world, and how the world views you in return. How people treat you, how you carry yourself, what you’re conscious of, all of that shifts. And the weird thing is that many writers are aware of this when it comes to characters being ace or trans or neurodivergent—and I’m genuinely pleased by that, don’t get me wrong. Nothing has made my ace self happier than the casual aceness in TMA fics that often resonates so well with my experience. But just as gender, orientation, and neurodivergence change how a character interacts with their world, so do race, ethnicity, and religion. 

As a child, I spent a couple of years in England while my mother was getting her degree. Though I started using Arabic less and less, my mother still spoke to me almost exclusively in Arabic at home. We still ate romy cheese and molokhia and the right kind of rice, though we missed out on other things. She managed to get an Egyptian channel on TV somehow, which means I still grew up with different cultural touchstones and make pop-culture references that I can’t share with my non-Arabic-speaking friends. She also became friends with just about every Egyptian in her university, so for those years I had a bevy of unrelated Uncles and Aunties from cities all over Egypt, banding together to go on outings or celebrate our holidays.

As an adult who sometimes travels abroad solo, and as a fair-skinned Arab who’s fluent in English, usually in a Western country the most I’ll get is puzzled people trying to parse my accent and convinced someone in my family came from somewhere. When they hear my name, though, that shifts. I get things like surprise, passive-aggressive digs at my home region, weird questions, insistence I don’t look Egyptian (which, what does that even mean?) or the ever-popular, ever-irritating: Oh, your English is so good!

At airports, with my Egyptian passport, it’s less benign. I am very commonly taken aside for extra security, all of which I expect and am prepared for, and which always confuses foreign friends who insisted beforehand that surely they wouldn’t pull me aside. Unspoken is the fact I, y’know, don’t look like what they imagine a terrorist would. But I’m Arab and that’s how it goes, despite my, er, more “Western” leaning presentation. 

This would be an entirely different story if I were hijabi, or had darker skin, or a more pronounced accent. I am aware I’m absolutely awash with privilege. Likewise, it would be different if I had a non-Arab name and passport. 

So it’s slightly baffling to me as to why a Jon who is Pakistani or Indian or Arab and/or Black British would go through life the exact same way a white British character would. 

Now, I understand that race and ethnicity can be very fraught, and that many writers don’t want to step on toes or get things wrong or feel it isn’t their place to explore these things, and certainly I don’t think it’s a person’s place to explore The Struggles of X Background unless they also share said background. I’m not saying a fic should portray racism and microaggressions either (and if they do, please take care and tag them appropriately), but that past experiences of them would affect a character. A fic doesn’t have to be about the Arab Experience With Racism (™) to mention that, say, an Arab Jon headed to the airport in S3 for his world tour would have been very conscious to be as put together as he could, given the circumstances, and have all his things in order. 

And there’s so much more to us besides. What stories did your character grow up with? What language was spoken at home? Do they also speak it? If not, how do they feel about that? What are their comfort foods? Their family traditions? The things they do without thinking? The obscure pop-culture opinions they can’t even begin to explain? (Ask me about the crossover between Egyptian political comedy and cosmic horror sometime…)

I’m not saying you’ll always get it right. Hell, I’m not saying I always get it right either. I’m sure someone can read one of my fics and be like, “nope, this isn’t true to me!” And that’s okay. The important thing, for me, is trying.

Because here’s the thing. 

I want you to imagine reading a fic where I, a born and raised Egyptian, wrote white characters in, say, a suburb in the US as though they shared my personal experiences. It’s a multi-generational household, people of the same gender greet with a kiss on each cheek, lunch is the main meal, adults only move out when they get married, every older person they meet is Auntie or Uncle, every bathroom has a bidet, there’s a backdrop of Muslim assumptions and views of morality, and the characters discuss their Eid plans because, well, everyone celebrates Eid, obviously.

Weird, right? 

So why is this normal the other way around? 

Have you ever stopped to wonder why white (and often, especially American) experiences are considered the default? The universal inoffensive base on which the rest is built? 

Yes, I understand that writers are trying to be inoffensive and respectful of other backgrounds. But actually, I find the usual method of having the only difference be their skin colour or features pretty reductive. We’re more than just a paint job or a sprinkle of flavour to add on top of the default. Many of us have fundamentally different life experiences and ignoring this contributes to that assumption of your experience being universal. 

Yes, fic is supposed to be for fun and maybe you don’t want to have to think about all this, and I get that completely. I have all the respect in the world for writers who tag their TMA fics as an American AU, or who don’t mention anyone’s races. I get it. But when you have characters without a canonical race and you give them one, you’re making a decision, and I want you to think about it. 

Yes, this is a lot of research, but the internet is full of people talking about themselves and their experiences. Read their articles, read their blogs, read their twitter threads, watch their videos, see what they have to say and use it as a jumping-off point. I’m really fond of the Writing With Color blog, so if you’re not sure where to start I’d recommend giving them a look. 

Because writers outside of the Anglosphere already do this research in order to write in most fandoms. Writers of colour already put themselves in your shoes to write white characters. And frankly, given the amount of care that many white writers put into researching Britishisms, I don’t see why this can’t extend to other cultural differences as well.

[bubbleteaimagines]

just like you

bucky barnes oneshot

bucky x you

cursing, fluff

he had watched you from afar and found himself falling deeper and deeper each day.

in his mind, you were the definition of perfection.

gorgeous skin that shined in the sun light. eyes that lit up whenever you talk about your passions. lips that were so plump and so full, a perfect shape to fit with his.

to bucky, you were the definition of beautiful but sadly you would never know that.

ever since he had met you, bucky kept his thoughts to himself and never voiced how he felt, for fear of rejection.

it was silly, but in bucky’s mind he thought that you’d never like him, considering he did have a metal arm and all.

not to mention the fact that he was literally the winter soldier, so bucky figured that you’d run the minute he expressed his interests.

because of this, bucky kept his distance and often passed his fascination off for hostility.

in the compound, he usually avoided you at all costs and only spoke to you when necessary.

this caused you to be frustrated. in your mind you didn’t see it was bucky trying to protect you. you saw it as if he just straight up didn’t like you, which made you wonder what you had done to piss off the soldier.

you had barely talked to him and when you did he always tried to escape, pressing himself into a corner and avoiding your eyes at all means.

it was a little disheartening, to say the least. especially since he had sparked you interest the moment you met him, and you even had a little crush on the soldier.

but what did it matter? he obviously didn’t like you.

and today, you were dreading having to go into the training room and spare with him.

being an avenger meant that you often had to work out and practice on training for missions. this meant a lot of gym time, and it make it a little more organized than it was steve usually did a little ‘schedule’ and paired people up to train at certain times.

today, it was supposed to be you and bucky at 4:00 sharp.

to say that you were nervous would be an understatement, but more than anything you were excited. maybe after you’d trained together bucky would finally warm up to you. maybe you’d finally find the courage to tell him how you felt.

what that thought in mind, you quickly made your way to the training room, buzzing a little.

however, it seemed to die down as you heard bucky and steve arguing inside the facility.

they were talking in ‘hushed’ voice but you could still hear them. coming to a stop, you strained your ears and listened to what they were saying.

“—and i know we’re supposed to but i just can’t, steve,” bucky’s voice came first and you furrowed your eyebrows.

what was he talking about?

“—that’s ridiculous. i don’t see why you don’t want to train with her, buck. she’s not that bad,” steve’s voice gave you your answer. he was talking about you.

“— don’t think i know what? but still. just put me with someone else. anyone else,” bucky’s words felt like a stab to your heart.

blinking, you leaned away from the door as hot tears and anger began to grow inside of you.

What the actual hell was his problem, you thought. what did you ever do to make him hate you so much?

after all, you had barely even spoken with the guy! he hardley knew you but here he was practically begging steve to train someone else, and quote ‘anyone else.’

you let out a noise of anger, and furiously wiped your tears.

crossing your arms, you waited till they were done and steve finally came out of the room.

when he saw you, he gave you a sad and empathetic smile.

“sorry you had to hear that,” he sighed, and your shook your head.

“no, no. it’s fine,” you let out a breath and tried to calm yourself down before you marched in there.

“don’t take what he said too personally,” steve advised. “i’m sure he has his reasons.”

you scoffed. yeah. you bet he did, and you were about to find them out.

marching away from steve, you entered the training room.

upon hearing the noise from your footsteps, bucky looked up and his heart sunk at the angry expression on your face.

“so i heard that you don’t wanna train with me,” a frown was on your lips as you wasted no time confronting him. you figured it was about time you found out why he was so hostile towards you.

bucky frowned. “i didn’t mean it like that,” was the first thing he could think of. you scoffed.

“really?” you knew it was bullshit. “is that why you were practically begging steve to switch partners? because you didn’t mean it like that?” you mocked him.

“y/n please—” bucky tried but you held your hand up.

“no. you’ve never one to talk so let me,” you cut him off. “what the hell is your problem with me barnes? why do you dislike me so much you can barely even look at me?”

looking back, you came realize that he had always been like that. ever since you met him, he had seemed to hold some strong dislike towards you and you were tired of it.

“y/n, believe me, it’s not like i don’t like you,” bucky tried to explain without giving himself away that much. “it’s just—”

“it’s just that whenever i’m in the room you suddenly can’t stand to be there. it’s just that whenever i try to talk you or even look at you, you shut me out and want nothing to do with me. right? it’s just like that?” you said.

bucky stayed quiet. you scoffed.

“yeah. that’s what i thought,” you said sourly. suddenly, your anger began to fade and disappointment began to flood in.

“and to think that i ever had a crush on you,” you laughed to yourself, no longer caring if he knew. he apparently already hated you.

bucky’s head snapped up.

“what?” he turned so fast you thought he would’ve gotten whiplash. “what did you just say?”

was bucky dreaming or did you just admit you had a crush on him?

you scoffed. “i said ‘and to think i ever had a crush on you.’ but it’s obvious you don’t feel the same so what does it matter anymore?”

on, it mattered. it definitely mattered to bucky, who began to smile so big he was afraid his face would split.

“what are you smiling about, barnes?” you rolled your eyes at him. “how on earth does that make you happy.”

“because, y/n, i like you too,” bucky blurted it out before he could stop himself.

you paused.

“what?” 

“i said ‘i like you too,’” bucky repeated and you shushed him.

“no, i heard you correctly,” you said, heart beginning to speed up, “but i— what?” 

you were dumbfounded and bucky chuckled as a new warmth began to flow through him.

you liked him back.

“when did that happen, barnes?” you questioned, mouth slightly agape.

bucky shrugged. “around the time that I first met you, i guess,” He confessed. “i honestly thought, think, that you were the most gorgeous person i had ever seen.”

“oh my god!” the reality of the situation hit you. bucky didn’t hate you. he liked you.

“why the hell have you never said anything?” you asked him, shocked. he shrugged again.

“i dunno,” bucky looked down and played with his metal fingers. “i guess i just, i was afraid of being rejected,” he said. “i wasn’t too sure if you’d be thrilled if someone like me had a crush on you.”

you stared at him in shock. “bucky!” a small laugh escaped your lips and you shook your head. “what do you mean someone like you? How could i not like you?” you questioned. “have you seen yourself?”

a faint blush rose up on his face and bucky’s lips twitched. “chicks usually don’t dig the metal arm and the whole winter soldier thing,” He said. “i was keeping my distance in case you were one of them.”

“well i’m not,” you told him, a small smile on your face as you lifted your yoga pant. “how can i be?”

bucky’s eyes nearly grew three sizes as he spotted metal where your leg should be. the shiny material gleamed back at him, reminding him so much of his own and he gaped.

“what? you have a metal leg?” he asked, shocked. you nodded.

“yeah. a nasty run-in with a some HYDRA agents a few years back and now i’m sporting this bad boy,” you grinned proudly as you flexed your leg.

“wow. i had no idea,” bucky said, and suddenly he felt silly. “i feel like, so stupid right now,” he sighed.

how could he ever thought you wouldn’t accept him when you were just like him?

you grinned. “It’s alright, bucky,” you said, reaching out to take his metal arm. “you didn’t know.”

“man, i almost screwed myself over with you, worrying about this,” bucky realized and you laughed.

“yeah, you almost did,” you admitted, “but the important thing is that now you know i’m just like you.”

“just like me,” bucky repeated. and then he grinned.

“since we’ve already established our feelings for each other, does this mean i get to take you out on a date now?” he rose an eyebrow and your heart fluttered as you heard those well awaited words.

“yes. a thousand times yes, barnes,” you grinned.

BONUS

“so does this mean you two will have bionic kids or … ?” tony asked, and ducked as you threw a shoe at him.

“screw off, stark!”

[twilights-800-cats]

Alrighty, I’ve finished Leopardstar’s Honor!

Here we go.

I think it was fine, leaning more towards bland. The saving grace for the story is Leopardstar herself - I think her characterization as a self-assured, somewhat selfish, overconfident cat is very spot on to her other depictions throughout the series. There are so many moments you want to pick her up and say “honey no”... maybe too many, honestly.

As far as criticisms go...

The Story As A Whole

One thing is obvious - the pacing is pretty bad. Not every super edition needs to start off from moment one of a character’s life and with the plot of this story as it stands, I don’t think this one had to. We could’ve easily skipped ahead to Leopard as a young ‘paw and had her relevant incident with Skyheart and the loss of her mother still deeply affect her.

As it is, we don’t spend enough time in any part of Leopardstar’s life to really get something meaningful out of it - relationships develop in leaps and bounds from chapter to chapter before being cut off unceremoniously or lost altogether. The book feels like a game of red light green light.

I think the exception to this is Leopardstar’s life as a warrior - we do spend a good deal of time there... but again, it suffers from the red light green light problem: conflicts stop and start on a whim and nothing’s really given room to breathe or last.

I think the story might’ve been better served to focus more on Leopard decision to form TigerClan. There’s more than enough content to justify the reason why and cutting a death or two might’ve given the TigerClan portions more chances to breathe and be more than just a horrible fearmongering mess. It feels like Leopardstar loses control too suddenly - nothing in this story feels like it’s allowed to be gradual.

One thing I did like, and I wish they had done more with, was Mudfur’s dream - almost every single super edition has a prophecy, and almost all of them suffer for it, but Mudfur’s dream was just that, a dream he had when he was a warrior, a hope that his daughter will rise up and become strong. Despite the uncertainty of that, the narrative still functionally treats the dream as if it were one of those prophecies. I think there was an opportunity there to perhaps lean into Leopardstar’s belief in this dream - especially if Mudfur tore it down later on in the book and used it to bolster Leopardstar’s confidence.

I also don’t think this book really did a lot to sell RiverClan - there’s no mention of the cats decorating their dens, like we’ve seen mentioned in other parts of the series. The distinction between river prey and land prey is something we’ve known since Crookedstar’s Promise. The story does do a bit to point out that RiverClan’s over-reliance on the river is a bad thing, but in the same sentences it destroys any sort of realism with how the river prey is described! Erins, do you have any idea how big salmon and carp are?! Do you understand how large a cat is?

RiverClan’s camp is also really poorly described, honestly. Nothing about it stood out to me, it didn’t feel like a place. Nowhere in RiverClan territory felt at all real because the names the cats gave them were given so little importance and we have no idea where anything is. There’s hardly any time spent describing RiverClan... ever. This is a massive, massive shame, since this is the first RiverClan content we’ve gotten in a very long time - and the first book of the next series is possibly also RiverClan-focused. It doesn’t inspire confidence.

The story is moving by the Redtail’s Debt retcon. No mention is made of Oakheart dying from a rockfall, and his death is treated as ThunderClan’s fault for the entire story - which would be fine if it were Leopard’s own delusion due to her hatred of ThunderClan, but that’s just not the case.

Obviously there are timeline inconsistencies as well, the largest one being ShadowClan warriors in the camp a chapter before it’s even mentioned that Leopardstar let them in. It was very strange to read. Events just seemed off from when they were meant to happen, but then again there’s not a whole lot of setting to anchor a reader in even what phase of the moon you’re in.

The Relationships

It’s safe to say the relationships in this book also suffer from the red light green light pacing. As soon as the reader - and Leopardstar - grow attached to a character... they’re killed. It reminded me of Bluestar’s Prophecy, like they were trying to evoke that same feeling of grief... but these characters have so little time to actually endear themselves to us, and there are so many of them, that it becomes fairly obvious that Leopardstar just isn’t meant to have friends!

Not only that but I honestly think the story missed a huge opportunity in the friendships that it chose to focus on.

I’ve spoken about her "romance” with Frogleap, but I’ll reiterate here: it’s weak, but not worthless. I wish there was more to it, more scenes of Leopard choosing the Clan over him, but it is what it is. I could’ve done without her constantly thinking of whether or not she should’ve been with him, though.

Whiteclaw was fine, and by extension I think Sunfish was fine, too, if only to serve the Whiteclaw sideplot, which I thought was well-done but needed perhaps more room to breathe; but Leopardstar has absolutely no relationship with cats like Stonefur or Mistyfoot, characters that she was reportedly extremely close to. When Stonefur is named deputy, there’s no weight behind it - he and Leopard had absolutely no connection. They barely say three lines to one another that aren’t relating to Clan business. Mistyfoot gets nothing until Leopardstar begs her to be deputy. It’s baffling!!

I also wanted more from Mudfur and Leopardstar’s relationship. He feels like he’s barely there, when he could’ve been a real presence in Leopard’s life, good or bad. I liked the angle of Leopard equating his doubts to her father considering her a failure - but it just doesn’t feel like it works. I thought something big would come from Crookedstar revealing that Mudfur didn’t want Leopard to be picked as deputy but... there’s no change in their relationship, at least not one that the pacing would allow us to see.

Tigerstar and Leopardstar is a contentious relationship to say the least but... I gotta say, I wanted more of it. I think this is the one story where Tiger feels like Tiger - manipulative and evil, but with very little of his moustache-twirling obviousness. It feels like he just disappears from the story entirely after he’s exiled from ThunderClan, only to pop back up again.

It’s probably awful to say, but... I kind of wanted a sour romantic relationship between Leopard and Tiger here. I do not trust the Erins to handle that with any ounce of grace, and I don’t seriously wish it upon the canon at all, but I thought that the possibility could’ve been interesting. The two did genuinely seem to have a connection, and even if they were romantic, I don’t think Leopard would’ve formed TigerClan just because she liked Tigerstar - the book had already established other reasons why she would think TigerClan a good solution.

I trust the Erins with relationships like I trust my dog with chocolate: I just don’t :P

--

I think that’s all my grievances so far. Kudos to anyone who read all this! I honestly feels like I’ve more negatives than positives to say about these books lately... Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy them; but the writing quality has become exhaustingly inconsistent.

I really wish they would slow down book production and give these stories more thought - the readers deserve it, as do the authors themselves.

[drawlfoy]

snake for a badger

masterlist requests are closed, but read this before you click away! message me/send an ask to be tagged :)

pairing: hufflepuff!reader x draco

request? nope this was something that i came up with myself but low key i had quite a few hufflepuff requests that i never attended to and i wanted to give the hufflepuffs some love (my longest fics have had either ravenclaw or gryffindor readers, so this is your moment y’all...if you’re a slytherin then i’ll have something coming up for you soon ;))

summary: 6th year hufflepuff y/n y/l/n doesn’t know if she be afraid of draco malfoy after her friends warn her about his potential status as a death eater...and the fact that he keeps showing up to save her isn’t helping. THIS IS A TEASER!!!! for a much longer oneshot that’s currently in progress!!

warnings: teen drinking, secondhand embarrassment, swearing

a/n: important note that THIS IS A TEASER. i honestly have no idea how the entire oneshot is going to look (even though i assume that this isn’t exactly a one shot if there’s this added onto it). i’m not even sure if this is going to be a scene--it’s just the very first thing i wrote for it, and i liked it. i feel like draco’s character in this is really tricky because i haven’t yet decided how “ooc” i want him to be. i just really liked this idea and i’ve always had the image of y/n saving draco in this particular movie scene. let me know your thoughts!

no music recs, this is just a teaser

tags tags tags @gruffle1 @missmulti @cleopatera @hahaboop @accio-rogers @geeksareunique @eltanin-malfoy @war-sword @cams-lynn @itsivyberry @ayo-cowbelly @nerd-domland @yesnerdsblog @shizarianathania @evanstanfanatic @strawberriesonsummer @hariosborn @night-ving @straightzoinked @imintoodeeptostop @naiomimoonshard @jejegu @ophelia-enthusiast @alwaysbeanunknownfan @nearly-memories @litty-dumb @callieclearwater @malfoy-wife15 @charlenasaxen @belladaises @fiantomartell

word count: 2.5k

Her shoes dug into the back of her heels as she tried to keep up with Ginny around the corner. 

“I don’t understand why you insist on wearing those...torture devices,” the red-haired witch said without adjusting her stride in the slightest. Y/N was tempted to just rip them off then and there and attend Slughorn’s party barefoot and carefree, but she knew better. It was in her best interest to try and get on the good side of the professors. Even though she had no intention of holding an office in the Ministry or becoming an Auror, she still wanted a good scroll of recommendation from her Potions professor. Especially considering his connections.

“Why don’t you just spell the back of them soft?” asked Ginny. “That’s what Parvati does. At least, I think that’s what she does. I don’t know how else she’s able to wear them with her uniform every day.”

“She doesn’t know the first thing about shoes.” Y/N winced the tip of her heel wobbled for a moment in between the cobblestones. “Once you spell a shoe soft, they’re never the same again. They’re ruined. At least, that’s what my mother has always told me--she swears by that balm stuff I keep on my nightstand.”

“Ah, Mrs. Y/L/N. I’m glad she’s not here to see me. I think she would demand that I pay with my life for my outfit today.”

Y/N managed a smile. “Hey. You know she likes you. I think so, at least.”

They rounded the corner, and this time Ginny was kind enough to steady Y/N as they made their way up the final flight of stairs. “I don’t know how you’re going to make it through the whole night, Y/N. I bet you wish you’d taken up Nott’s offer to be your date this time, huh? Now that you don’t have anyone to lean on if your feet get too tired?”

“There’s something called taking my shoes off if they hurt too much,” she responded. “And I could never regret that--I know he only did it because his mother told him to. Something about a favor for my mother after we saved her at a gala, I’m sure.”

“Also the fact that Millie would crucify you if she saw you with him.”

Y/N laughed. “That too. Imagine being a Hufflepuff who accidentally put a target on her back…”

“You’d be dead.”

“But very, very stylish. And if I died, my feet wouldn’t hurt anymore.”

Ginny tutted at her. “So morbid.”

The staircase had finally turned to their stop, and before the two girls had a chance to get off, Y/N heard a voice call out for her companion.

“Ginny! Hey, Ginny!”

“Harry!” 

She pulled Y/N up the last few steps and deposited her safely on the corridor platform before bounding off towards Harry and Luna at the opposite end of the hall. They must’ve come from a different direction. “I’ll catch up with you at the party, ok?”

Y/N just beamed at her friend as she closed the difference between her and Harry, pulling both him and Luna around the corner towards the music and sound of the party. If it was anyone else, she might’ve been offended, but she knew how much Harry meant to her. Even if Ginny didn’t know it yet. And Y/N would not, under any circumstance, slow her friend down because of her poor footwear choices.

She dusted her dress off before making her way further down the hall. It was slower going without the prospect of a steadying hand next to her, but it was getting easier. Maybe the balm she’d used on the leather really was softening with each step she took like it said on the box. 

Before she lifted the curtain to walk into the jovial evening, a flash of blond hair caught her eye. Platinum blond hair--the type that only belonged to one person she knew. 

“Malfoy?” 

His head snapped up from its previous spot on his knees that were folded up on the floor. The Slytherin was obscured by the darkness and the dividing wall that had been erected in the corridor, but Y/N was completely sure of what she was seeing.

She crept closer, inwardly cringing at the sound her heels made as they clacked across the stones. 

“Need anything, Y/L/N?” he drawled. Once she was close enough to see his face clearly, his expression made it clear that he was not in a good mood. Not like he ever was, though. 

“Why are you...er...just sitting here?” Fuck. She sounded so ditzy.

“Enjoying my Friday night.”

“Oh...ok.” Y/N swallowed. “You were invited to Slughorn’s party?” 

He shrugged. 

Her mouth felt dry. Obviously, he hadn’t been invited. Slughorn was notorious for wanting to keep a squeaky clean image, and entertaining the idea of inviting a Death Eater’s son was...out of question. And he never tried in his class anymore.

She dared another look down at him and nearly squeaked when she saw him staring directly back at her. Under normal circumstances, she would’ve at least told him goodbye or goodnight, but her words completely failed her. Instead, she just stared back, completely frozen. 

She couldn’t help it. Ever since last fall, she couldn’t act normal around him to save her life. Not after...that. 

A cat meowed in the distance, breaking whatever was paralyzing her. 

“I...I have to go. I think that’s Filch.” 

He said nothing--just tilted his head and raised an eyebrow like he was expecting something from her. She spun and walked as quickly as she could manage without breaking an ankle.

“What took you so long, Y/N?” Ginny asked the moment the curtain fell behind her, closing her back into the party. The tent that was magically set up was much more spacious than she was expecting, and the lime and peach coloring was surprisingly bright and cheery.

“I...uh…”

Her explanation was cut short by the sound of the entrance curtain being shoved aside with so much force that the nearest tables shook, the fine china clattering. 

Filch stood in front of them, holding a very peeved looking Draco Malfoy by the scruff of his neck. “Found this boy loitering around outside. I don’t imagine that he’s been invited to your party here.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Professor Snape appeared to her left, his robes billowing black behind him as he made his way towards the pair.

“Ok, ok, I admit it, I wasn’t--”

“Draco! Where have you been?” 

The words were out of her mouth before she even had the chance to think of the heavy, heavy regret that weighed down at her the moment they were spoken--not to mention the foreign feeling of the name “Draco” instead of Malfoy on her tongue. The tension in the room was tangible as Y/N took a few tentative steps forward. Snape whipped around to glare at her with a look that contained so much venom that it nearly stunned her.

“Miss Y/L/N? What’s going on?” Her sweet Potions professor materialized behind her. Y/N felt a twinge in her gut at what she was about to say--if she followed through, he probably wouldn’t ever give her the scroll of recommendation she wanted. “Did you invite him?”

Oh well. Here goes.

She drew in a shaky breath. “Yes. He’s my...uh...date tonight.”

Ginny spun around and sent her a death glare that said oh you are so telling me about this right now. 

Filch released his grip on Malfoy’s neck, shoving him forward into the crowd. Y/N met his eyes for a brief second, and the only emotion she could register was shock. And anger.

“Fine. Dumbledore will be hearing about this, though. And tell your date to stop breaking curfew in restricted areas.” 

With that, the curtain fell back and Filch was gone, leaving Y/N in the throes of her own despair. Malfoy was just a few feet away from her now, standing in all his gloomy glory. And she’d just told everyone that he was her date.

The music started up again, the strings echoing around the still room. A few couples hesitantly started dancing again, and the roar of conversation slowly picked back up to where it left off. Y/N and Malfoy were the only ones not doing something...coupley. 

“So,” said Malfoy. The sigh that followed was completely unreasonable. “I think you’re supposed to tell me to stop breaking curfew in restricted areas sometime soon.”

She gulped. “Yeah. That.”

He held out his hand, slow and gingerly like he was about to touch a hot stove. Y/N just gawked at it.

“We should probably dance. Or something. I don’t think you’re being a very believable date right now.” 

Y/N grabbed his hand and let him pull her into the mess of couples. It felt like her mind had taken a complete vacation. What had happened? How had this night ended up this way? “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she started.

“Yeah, well, me neither.” He was practiced and comfortable as he guided her through the steps of whatever waltz was playing. Y/N never paid much attention when she was young to the dance lessons that her parents painstakingly put her through--and it was clear from how much she needed to depend on him. Her shoes didn’t help, 

“Ginny is going to fucking kill me,” she said suddenly. 

“You think?” he said, his tone flat. “Why’d you say I was your date? Were you that desperate for someone?”

“I…” The words died on her tongue as she tried to get them out. Malfoy spun her as she clung to the silk lapel of his suit, hanging on for dear life as her heels teetered. “You know why.” 

If he had any strong thoughts on the matter, he didn’t let it show on his face. He simply let his gaze flicker down at her for a second before he dipped her. “You know, in my world we don’t really return favors. If I were you, I would stop trying to repay me. There’s no point.”

“There doesn’t need to be one. I just…”

“Just worry about yourself, okay? I don’t need you to be stirring up your own drama with fruitless attempts to pay me back. I’m perfectly capable on my own.”

“I’m not doubting how capable you are! I’m just being a fair person!”

“Nothing about any of this is fair,” he snipped. “It doesn’t matter what you do. You’re not going to set anything right. You should know better, anyways. You shouldn’t be trying to help me. I’m surprised Potter isn’t teaching you this.”

Y/N’s cheeks grew hot while the song slowly creaked to the end. “Malfoy--” 

“I’m going to get us drinks.” He dropped her hand and was gone before another word could leave her lips.

It took Ginny no more than a minute to have her friend cornered in a quiet spot of the tent, her eyes glittering. “When were you going to tell me that you were going to ask Malfoy to be your date?”

“I didn’t,” Y/N told her. She decided that she might as well be truthful. “I just felt bad for him. Snape seemed like he was in a bad mood, and I don’t want to put him through that. I don’t want to put anyone through that.”

“Ugh, you are such a Hufflepuff,” her friend groaned. “I can’t believe you. You’re kind to a fault sometimes, you know.”

“What’s the harm, Gin?” asked Y/N. “He can’t hurt me. He’s not all that bad. He’s just a prat sometimes.”

“Can’t hurt you--oh, dear.” Ginny let out a shaky breath and ran her fingers through her hair, messing up the pinned portions. Y/N resisted the urge to cringe at the sight. “Hasn’t Harry told you? You need to stay away from Malfoy. He’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” increduled Y/N. “No way. He’s all bark, no bite. The worst thing he’s going to do is tell me that Hufflepuffs are stupid or something.”

“Y/N.” The intensity of Ginny’s voice made her snap to attention. “You really don’t know, do you? I can’t tell you now. But I’m sure Harry will later. Just...promise me you won’t let him get you alone? Ok? And please don’t do any other favors for him. You’ll understand later.”

They both turned at the sound of a male clearing his throat. Malfoy stood, uncomfortable and broody, carrying two goblets. “Am I interrupting anything?”

“No, not at all!” said Ginny, weirdly cheery. She leaned in, feigning to kiss Y/N’s cheek goodbye, but instead she whispered, “Don’t drink that.” And then she was gone.

“Trouble in paradise with Weaselette?” he asked.  

She took the goblet and faked taking a sip. “Er, no. Why do you ask?”

“You look awfully pale, my dear.” 

“It’s just the draft,” she told him, but in truth she knew that her face was suddenly flaming red again. 

“Hm.” He, on the contrary, took a real, genuine sip out of his goblet. “Want to sit down somewhere? I’m thinking I probably going to want to get out of here soon.”

“To each their own,” responded Y/N. She was slowly becoming warier after Ginny’s speech. There’s no way he would...no...not after what he did for her. “I’m staying around until I get Slughorn to talk to me, personally. I want him to really like me.”

“That old bat? I’m sure he already likes you, if he’s inviting you here and all.”

“I don’t think he likes me, per se. I think he just likes who my family rubs elbows with.”

A rare smile stretched across Malfoy’s face, but it didn’t seem sweet. “Ah, I remember your family now. If I recall correctly, your mother used to come do fittings for my mother?”

“Um, yeah. I believe so.” Y/N attempted to smile back, but something in her felt...off. What didn’t she know about Malfoy? Was he actually capable of hurting her? Did he want to hurt her?

“I think I’ve overstayed my welcome,” Malfoy said after a few beats of silence. “Unless you’d like to join my thrilling pursuits with breaking curfew in restricted areas, I’d better be off.”

“Malfoy…” Y/N started. She had no idea what else to tell him. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said, sending her another one of those sly smiles that made her stomach turn. “Enjoy the rest of your night, alright?”

She made a sorry attempt to smile back. He kept looking down at her, so intently that it made her uncomfortable. He was thinking--about what, she couldn’t determine. But clearly it was something, and the gears were turning.

“May I suggest something?” His eyes glinted in the dim party lighting. Malfoy seemed to take her silence and wide-eyed stare as a yes, leaning in closer so quickly that she didn’t even have a chance to spring away.

“You’re supposed to swallow when you fake drinking something.”

He plucked the goblet out of her hand and took a sip, raising an eyebrow at her as if to say see? 

Even long after he was gone, she could still feel his hot breath on her neck and hear the way his whispered voice sounded in her ear. 

final a/n: hehe here i am 1 minute late!! probably later once i get all my links set up/copy paste all my tags but here it is! this is a TEASER! so remember that! i hope to get the real oneshot out sometime after i get wonders of ohio p 10 out. let me know if this is something you guys want to read/if you like this version of draco. i rlly want to write a flirtier draco because i think we could all use that right now

[margarethelstone-2]

if I loved you less (i might talk about it more)

requested by one and only @nerdypanda3126. thanks so much!

Read on AO3!

"Taichi... You still like me, don't you?"

The young man in question raised his eyes from the book he'd been trying to read for the past quarter, and fixed them on Chihaya, confused. It wasn't just the question that surprised him, even though its content sure would have been enough to puzzle a better prepared soul.

The fact that Chihaya had barely spoken at all for most of their time together today was the main reason why he felt startled by her words now.

She really had been quiet for most of the day, even though they were spending it at his place, determined, as she herself had claimed, not to get in the way of his studies. Taichi had tried to make her realise that it wasn't what he wanted at all, that the very reason he'd invited her over was to get a break from all the reading and just relax a little. He'd explained over and over again that he needed her to be a distraction; tried – unsuccessfully – to get it into her head that she was actually doing him a favour. He knew how much of a workaholic he could be and so he specifically planned the visit as a means to enforce the necessary break he might not have taken otherwise.

He had told her all of that. And yet, she'd remained quiet.

All the way until now, that is.

And just what on earth was she going on about?

"What's with that question? You know the answer to that," he replied casually, almost dismissively, before going back to the textbook in his hand. He really had no idea what had gotten into her all of the sudden, but then again, he didn't care to delve on the subject. He knew she'd tell him anyway.

"I was just wondering," she answered, a trace of hurt ringing in her voice; Taichi needed to hold back the smile that sprang on his lips at the sight of her pout. "Is it so bad if I do?"

Taichi hummed in thought.

"Is that why you've been so quiet all day?" he asked right after. "You've been just busy considering my possible affection for you?"

"Stop with the mockery. I'm thinking of it seriously."

"Oh? And what conclusions did you come to?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I'd come to any."

He had no choice but to close the book and put it away after a statement he'd just heard. Not that he minded. Throwing it on the floor rather carelessly, he sat up straight in his corner of the couch and, resting his chin on his palm, he fixed his gaze on the girl seated by his desk on the other side of the room.

She really was being impossible today.

Well, he supposed that wasn't anything new. He'd known Chihaya long and well enough to not be fazed by the swings in her mood or the inane schemes she so often came up with. He had learnt to expect the unexpected, every day, every hour of his otherwise boring life, because that was obviously the only way to keep up with her. The one thing he had to keep doing if he still wanted to be a part of her life.

Because that was how Ayase Chihaya was.

Chihaya. His best friend. His fiercest karuta rival. The girl he'd been in love with since fourth grade of primary school and the girl who'd rejected him straightforwardly at the very beginning of their third year in Mizusawa High. The girl whom he'd thought he could never win over, on whom he'd given up again and again, fooling himself he could move on and blight the love he'd had for her since he'd been a ten year old squirt.

He sighed and shook his head, remembering her question from a moment before.

She knew damn well he was still head over heels for her.

She was his girlfriend, for sanity's sake.

"I can't believe you actually have asked, you know," he picked up with the same fake weariness he'd shown before, if only to cover his growing amusement. Seeing her very real anxiety made him assume a more solemn expression, as he asked, "Seriously, what brought this on? Are you mad about something?"

"I'm not mad," she disagreed instantly, and with good emphasis.

"Are you unhappy then? Did I do something to make you feel like that?"

Again, she denied. Now she just looked sad. "That's not it."

Wrong. She was flustered.

"Then what is it?" Taichi asked, as gently and warmly as he could. Not for the first time, he felt grateful for all the hard training his patience had received. It was obvious that Chihaya needed that from him now. "It's not like I could get over you like this, you of all people should be aware of that. You're the most important person in my life. The best companion I could think of. You know I get lonely and grumpy when I can't see you, and you know I still get absurdly jealous, even though I hate being so. And so I can't help but think there's something else I'm not doing right."

Taichi stopped there, waiting for her to, if not answer his question, then to contradict him in one way or another, at least. After all, he really was at a loss.

He thought he'd been doing a fairly good job as a boyfriend, when all was said and done. He'd already shared Chihaya's most important interest and it wasn't difficult to at least understand the new ones she'd found. He made sure to be there for her when she needed him, and tried his best to give her space when she needed that more. True, he'd had some trouble coming for help on his part, but even that was a thing of a past rather than present – certainly not something that could shock Chihaya into thinking like this.

He would think that the all-day-long date he'd come up with and seen through in celebration of their first anniversary as a couple last week was a good show of how much he still cared.

He wasn't perfect. Neither was she. But never in his life would he have thought that he'd failed to get his feelings across.

"Chihaya," he prompted once more, his voice audibly quieter. "Please tell me what it is. I can't fix it if I don't know what's broken."

She looked up from the floor she'd been glaring at for a while and met his gaze, a shadow of unease still clouding her big brown eyes. She opened her mouth to answer; she closed it instantly and looked away again, abashed. There was a hint of pink on her cheeks, and it only grew darker as the time passed, though whether it was because of embarrassment or something more alarming, Taichi couldn't tell yet.

"Chihaya–"

"It's because you never say it."

He supposed his eyes opened wider than ever, what's with the utter astonishment he felt growing inside him immediately. For a few moments, he could do nothing but stare, the craziness of the situation overwhelming enough to successfully prevent him from forming a sensible thought, and much less coming up with any kind of solution. One look at Chihaya was enough to sober him up, however.

She was distressed. She was insecure.

No matter how stupid he thought the reason to be, he could hardly allow the situation to last.

With a groan that was bound to startle her, he bent over and buried his face in his hands.

Only one thing he could do now.

"Come here," he said, his face still hidden behind one hand as he tore the other one away and beckoned her towards him. "No excuses. You'll talk later. Now just come here, please."

She did, albeit tentatively, as if afraid of the reaction he might show her. With his patience starting to run thin at last, Taichi didn't wait for her to cover the whole distance, instead reaching out and grabbing her by the wrist, only to pull her down on the couch right next to him.

And then he pulled her even closer, locking her in a bone-crushing hug.

"I'm gonna do something to you," he mumbled into her hair, his voice a mixture of laughter and complaint. "You cruel, cruel, woman. Have you no heart? Here I am, mind reeling as I try to figure out what the hell I did wrong again and you say it's because I don't say I like you enough. As if you didn't already know you've got a firmer hold of my heart than I ever did. Tell me, am I really this bad at showing you that I care that you doubt it?"

It was Chihaya's turn to growl at him, though it surely – and fortunately – didn't stop her from burying her face even deeper into his chest and digging her fingers into the shirt on his back. Again, Taichi laughed at the display, but didn't loosen his grip one bit.

That silly, unbelievable, most beloved girl.

"This and that are different things," she muttered finally in response against his buttons, her stubborn indignation probably being the only reason why he could discern the words at all. "There are different kinds of love languages. We even talked about it, you know."

"Yes. And as far as I remember, we've already established that neither of us cared for this one. So your argument doesn't work."

Well, this was a lie, or at least, it wasn’t fully true. After all, he could never get tired of hearing her say those words, to him and him only. But he didn't need it that much, not when he already knew of so many other ways in which Chihaya expressed her love towards him. He'd always assumed it was the same for her, too.

Funnily enough, he still didn't think he was mistaken.

"I've had feelings for you for the past fourteen years, you dummy, I wouldn't change my mind just because you decided to return them," he threw in only half-jokingly, as if to make sure he got his point across before moving onto the next part. "So? Care to tell me what's the source of it all?"

He felt her tense against him for a split second, only to relax in the next moment with a long, weary sigh. He waited for her to make herself comfortable in his arms, shifting ever so slightly to make it easier for them both. And then he heard her speak.

"I met up with Kana-chan the other day," she admitted weakly. "Her and Desktomu. And I guess... They're always so sweet with one another, now more than ever. I suppose... It made me feel a little jealous. But most of all, it just made me think."

"And you decided that I'd fallen out of love with you, because I don't talk like Komano does?"

"I didn't decide anything, I told you already. I just wondered if maybe I was doing something wrong to deserve that treatment. Sorry for being so terribly scared of losing you again because of my own foolishness."

Words caught in his throat as Taichi tried to protest against this new development. That last addition Chihaya had made – and more importantly, the wounded, truly uncertain voice with which she'd spoken – would have been enough to melt his heart even if he had actually been angry with her. Right now, he had to hold back from grabbing her by the chin and kissing her senseless until all the idiotic ideas evaporated from her overworked mind.

The things she did to him without as much as trying.

You evil little imp.

"They're newly-weds. You can't use them for reference," he managed to stutter out at least, conveniently ignoring the hoarseness of his own voice and the emotion that hovered behind it. "Not to mention, those two are the opposite of us when it comes to talking about feelings openly. There's a reason they got together six years before we did. Just because something works for them doesn't mean it's the best course for us to take as well."

He smiled again and planted a kiss at the top of her hair, before adding, "I still can't believe you really doubted me, though."

She huffed and pulled away, although she still didn't move from her place on the couch. They were still close; close enough for Taichi to see the light reflecting in her eyes and the blush that hadn't left her cheeks, and to reach out and comb her tangled hair with his fingers. Another gesture so full of love, even though it was but a fraction of all that she made him feel.

"Well, since I never understood what had made you fall in love with me in the first place, it's only natural that I'd have this kind of doubts."

He chuckled and she smiled on her part, her obstinacy giving it to the desire to just be with him. It was another thing Taichi was able to read in her eyes – and, knowing the feeling well enough from his own experience, he had no trouble deciphering it.

Delayed, the first part of her sentence entered his brain.

What made me fall for you, I wonder?

He didn't know. It had been so long since he’d realised his feelings after all, and longer still since those feelings had been born. Even all those years earlier, he probably wouldn’t have been able to point out the reasons clearly, never mind finding the one spark that had started it – trying to do so now seemed downright impossible.

There were so many reasons, after all.

Maybe it was because she had never considered herself a possible love interest for anyone, first when she was too engrossed in karuta and later, when she thought she didn't deserve to be one. Maybe it was her hot-headedness and her drive, and how different she'd always been from him, and yet never failed to tell him how much she'd admired and envied those qualities of his that she lacked.

Maybe it was the fact that she'd always been with him, so close and so dear and yet so impossible to grasp.

Maybe it was because she'd loved him long before either of them dared believe that was the case.

Maybe...

"Maybe," he said out loud, though in fact not loud at all, his lips moving against her forehead as he leaned in to put a kiss there, too. "Maybe, if I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

Edging away, Taichi saw tears gathering in her eyes. He wiped them away with his thumb, his hand cupping the side of her jaw fittingly.

And then he kissed her properly.

Just like he had wanted to ever since he'd first seen her that day.

[dreadpoetssociety]

I’m Many Things

TW: Mention of sexual harassment

Note: I’ve never really posted these before, so please be lax if it’s bad lol. I don’t see a lot of sibling fics (understandably lol) but I feel weird writing like romantic relationshipy reader insert fics with characters that are significantly older than me. Anywayyy, here goes. This is going to be short for now. 

Note pt 2: Idk if this really is any good. Looking at it now it seems a little off or I can’t really tell if I got Spencer right, but I tried!! It’s kinda rushed, I’ll admit. Also hopefully I used a gif right lol. This is kinda cringey and I promise I’m better than this fic, but I just really wanted to break the ice and start posting them, so enjoy!! (if you have any prompts/ideas please send me some ! I wanna write some more :))

()()()()()()

Summary: Your brother, Spencer Reid, has to have a meeting with your principal.

Spencer Reid x Sister!reader 

(or should I say reider hahahah I’ll shut up.)

By now, Spencer was pretty familiar with the hallways of your high school, given how many times he’d been called in for meetings with various different staff members, or even from the parent-teacher conferences alone. Thankfully, the office was at the front entrance of the building, blocked off from the rest of the hallway with floor to ceiling windows, with one door. 

Reid had been informed in a very interesting phone call with the principal himself of what you had done. He was used to the petty things from you, talking back to teachers, skipping a class, vandalizing something, but the one thing you had never done, at least until now, was get into a physical altercation with another student during school. Let alone punch the principal’s son. Even so, despite the disappointment, Spencer still sensed that something was wrong in the sense that he understood you wouldn’t just do something like that out of nowhere. 

He was greeted by the women at the desk as he walked in.

“Hello, Dr. Reid. Nice to see you again.” she smiled.

“You too, if only it were under different circumstances.” Reid replied with a polite smile.

“She’s in front of the office, as usual.” the woman gestured to Reid’s right. The office had many rooms in it on its own, its own hallway and all that. Spencer walked behind the front desk and turned, seeing you sitting in a plastic chair near the end of the hall.

You turned when you heard footsteps coming down the hall.

“I know how this looks, but I promise it’s not like that.” you began explaining.

“You say that every time Y/N. This is the third time this semester I’ve had to leave work because you’ve gotten into some kind of trouble.” Spencer replied, obviously disappointed.

“This is different! Mr. Beck is being so stupid just because it’s his own son. You don’t understand, that kid is awful.” you said.

“Y/N did he hit you?” Spencer asked.

“Well, I mean, no but-” 

“That’s exactly what I mean. I understand that you’ve had it rough, but really Y/N getting violent?” Typically, Spencer would always hear you out. He was understanding, and genuinely listened, but the team was just about to leave on a case that was already stressful, and now it’s being delayed, “Y/N there’s a serial killer out west killing people every few hours, peoples’ lives are on the line and this is where I am.”

He’d never spoken to you that way. It was really unlike him, and he never put the job before you most of the time, and this hit you where it hurts.

It was then that you both were called into the principal’s private office.

“Dr. Reid, I apologize for pulling you from your busy schedule.” the man known as Mr. Beck greeted as he stood up and offered his hand, which Spencer shook.

“It’s no problem, sir, it’s not your fault.” Spencer then saw the other boy sitting in the chair on the far side of the room with a very swollen eye that would definitely be very purple later, a day or two to be more specific he thought. For teens, it takes about that long for the hemoglobin to change the red color to a more blue or purple he explained to himself in his own head, because that’s just how his mind automatically works. Either way, it was worse than he thought it’d be.

“Now, we’ve already talked about the issue over the phone, and as far as consequences go, we’ve been very lenient with Y/N for so long.” Mr. Beck began, “If I’m being completely honest, after what happened today, expulsion is being very highly considered.” 

“You’re going to expel me? You didn’t even listen to my side of the story, I’ve been sitting on that goddamn chair this entire time! You’re just taking your son’s word over mine you biased a-” 

“Y/N!” Spencer interrupted, “Mr. Beck, I understand completely why you’re upset and I’m appreciative of you patience, but expulsion seems a bit extreme. I promise I’ll talk to her and she’ll get the consequences she deserves and this won’t happen again. Suspension I can understand.” 

Great. you thought, Serial killer and now he has to save me from expulsion. Way to go again, disappointment.

“What? You didn’t even hear what happened! Your son was-” 

“Y/N that is quite enough!” Mr. Beck nearly yelled, “We’ve given you so many chances and today, my son tells me that you’ve been making fun of him and violently hurt him without reason! It is unacceptable!”

You genuinely laughed at that point, “I’m sorry what? Your son told you that I made fun of HIM? Have you ever looked at your precious son’s phone?” 

“Y/N shut up. You know what you’ve done.” Mr. Beck’s son snapped. Spencer found the phrasing quite odd. His demeanor was off putting, and he didn’t seem nervous at all. Granted, he could be in shock. Spencer recognized him, though, from pictures you’d shown him when complaining about pretty much every student in school, “You know you came up to me randomly. You know you harass me literally all of the time, and for what?”

Spencer noticed that this kid didn’t look anyone in the eye when he spoke, but slightly behind them.

“Mr. Beck, did Y/N ever say why she hit your son?”

“What does it matter what she says? She cannot be trusted and this behavior is not new. My son would not lie about this.” Mr. Beck sounded offended. 

“As a staff member, though, you shouldn’t let your biases get in the way.”

“She still physically harmed another student. Regardless of why, she must face consequences.” 

“Mr. Beck, it is only respectful to at least hear what she has to say.” Spencer argued. The young boy in the far seat’s face changed. He was nervous now. Mr. Beck sighed, and nodded towards you.

“Mr. Beck, this my come as a surprise to you, but I was NOT harassing your son. He was harassing another girl between classes. She had sent nudes to him, and then I don’t know if they had a falling out or something, but she was trying to like, I don’t know, break up with him I guess and he was following her around and pushed her up against a locker and tried to like, kiss her even though she said no. So I punched him, and then he threatened to send those pictures of her to everyone.” you stated, “Mr. Beck honestly, I’m many things, but a bully isn’t one of them. And no offense, but the last person I’m interested in even looking at is freaking Kyle Beck of all people.” you ranted. Spencer realized then that you were being genuine. You were a good liar to the naked eye, but always gave off the basic tells that Spencer could pick up on when you weren’t being truthful.

It was then that Spencer’s disappointment actually changed to pride. Although he didn’t condone the violence, he understood that you were a loner of sorts, and appreciated that you’d stand up for someone like that.

“Dad, she’s so full of crap! I would never do that, you know me!” he yelled. Reid noticed the small tremor in his voice, and quick change of behavior. 

“Y/N, I know I raised my son differently.” 

“Check his phone.” you said. 

“I know what he does.” Mr. Beck snapped.

“Sir, I believe she’s telling the truth. I say this as unbiased as I can, but I can tell when she’s lying. I am a profiler, you know.” Reid backed you up. He didn’t usually pull out the profiler card, but reading the room, now seemed like a good time. Mr. Beck was taken back for a moment before sighing, and his son’s face completely drained of color when asked to unlock the device.

It wasn’t long after that that the truth came to the surface. Your sentence went from expulsion to a month’s worth of detention.

Walking to the car, Spencer said, “You know Y/N, I don’t condone the violence, and don’t exactly agree with the way you handled that, but I am proud of you for sticking up for that girl.”

“Yeah.” you replied. He noticed that you didn’t seem happy, but more so upset.

“Y/N, what’s bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

“I’m profiler, Y/N. You know I don’t believe that.” he said. You sighed.

“I don’t mean to disappoint you all the time,” you started as Reid’s heart sank, “I know you should be out there saving people rather than staying here and dealing with me. I’m not worth the time. I don’t know why I’m this way, I’m really sorry.”

“Y/N...” Spencer realized his mistake, “I was just stressed when I said that. You’re not a disappointment and shouldn’t apologize for just being who you are. Don’t undermine your importance, either. You mean more to me than the job.”

You smiled, “So does this mean I can come with you and look at crime scenes?”

“Absolutely not.” Reid chuckled.

“Aw, but it would be so cool! I’ll be good I promise!”

“Y/N, crime scenes aren’t cool, and you would cause trouble before we even got there.” he said, jokingly, “I bet you would even try to fly the jet.”

“Oh my god, I never even thought about doing that. That’s such a good idea.”

“And that’s why you’re not allowed to come.” Reid smiled, as they both got in the car and drove towards home. Spencer appreciated the ten minute ride while he could, knowing he would be leaving soon after. 

[theonceandfutureking6481]

BBC's Merlin Season 1 Episode 6: A Remedy to Cure All Ills Analysis

Spoilers for the show

This episode is interestingly about Gaius, it is his arc we see here, not Merlin's or Arthur's and so this is a very interesting episode to watch because it is a vision of the world of Uther, and a vision of Gaius' own flaws. It is a world Merlin and Arthur will one day change and redeem, but as of yet this is a story more about the past then the present.

Gaius

This is something I believe I will come back to later, I'm pretty sure there's another episode later on that also addresses this idea and that is Gaius' deeply flawed nature. We as an audience love Gaius, he's a good character and Merlin loves him like a father, so we can't really help but love him too. But Gaius is flawed in perhaps one of the most dangerous ways, he is not cruel or even a bad person in any real way, but he is a coward. He is the person who in the face of injustice stands by and does nothing. His flaw is in some ways the most understandable, at least for me, its hard to be brave and to oppose power is not easy. Gaius has been a coward and has been complicit in the pain and deaths of so many in his silence, although arguably there wasn't really anything he could of done to stop it. This is revealed most of all in an exchange he has with Kilgharrah (though the 'blind eye' is also mentioned with Edwin).

Gaius: I will not choose between them (Uther and Merlin)

Kilgharrah: Then turn a blind eye. That is, after all, your talent

This is one of the first times we've seen Kilgharrah openly express emotion aside from telling Merlin about his destiny, its perhaps the first hint that he is more personally invested than he lets on. And its in an interactions with Gaius, and you can hear the disdain in his voice. This dragon has been a mouthpiece for destiny, for everything that's going to happen, he's a mouthpiece for the future and in this you realise that he and Gaius have a past, that there is more darkness in the past then we've previously understood. In this you realise that Gaius has failed to be the person he should've been, he's been a coward, and he has betrayed an entire people in his silence.

Gaius elects to turn a blind eye again by leaving, in some ways he's choosing Merlin but in leaving he's making it so he's not really making that choice, he's leaving whatever will happen in other hands. And Gwen says one of the most powerful lines in the show when he tells her that he has no choice.

"In life we always have a choice sometimes its easier to think that you don't."

Cause we do, Gwen's right. It's dangerous and easy to think that you don't have any choice but one, and everyone in this show makes that mistake at some point. Uther probably thinks that he has no choice but to persecute magic users because they're are evil. Everyone seeking revenge on Uther thinks they have no choice but to do so, and in doing no choice but to let collateral damage happen. Because if you accept that there is a choice then you accept responsibility for your actions, you accept that you are responsible for any damage you cause. You may still make the choice, but you are accepting that it is a choice you choose and the results are one's you have chosen to be acceptable. But I also love Gwen's response when Gaius tells her that he is choosing to leave, its a non-choice and also in Gwen's view its the wrong choice, but she doesn't judge him at all for it. She just says "then I'll miss you." She doesn't expect him to be brave, and she continues to care about him even as he doesn't do the right thing.

There is another note here that will be of more relevance later on. Gaius is and has been a coward, but Merlin is his redemption. Merlin is the redemption for everything Gaius has done (or hasn't done) that has helped facilitate Uther's regime. Obviously in sheltering Merlin, Gaius is already rebelling in a more meaningful way then he has in years but later in the show he will make choices to support Merlin and his destiny that will redeem him, and like so much of the show it is for the love of Merlin that he makes them, emphasising the importance of love once again.

Edwin

In many ways this is an uncomfortable episode for someone who is both not a kid and has already watched the whole show. Out of every villain in the show, Edwin is in some ways set up as the least villainous. He takes no collateral damage, he risks Morgana's life yes but ultimately he gets Gaius fired and tries to kill Uther. He doesn't even try to kill Gaius until the end, his revenge is so proportional, so seemingly justified, he hates Gaius but he doesn't try to kill him. Ultimately the show (in this episode at least) doesn't really address that complexity, they have some last minute making Edwin more evil ( he tells Merlin that they could be all-powerful together, the trying to kill Gaius and Merlin (though that was an under danger from them situation), and his parents having practiced dark magic). This ultimately succeeds, and we can go away happy in the knowledge that good triumphed over evil. This works this early in the show, this early on and we are not really sure how to feel about magic, how to feel about the great purge, how to feel about Uther, so we can accept the shows presentations of Merlin protecting Uther with little questions.

Ultimately I'm not opposed to Merlin protecting Uther, but that's largely due to how the show questions it later, because the show does address it. It does address whether or not Uther should be protected when honestly most of those seeking revenge are at least justified in the killing Uther part of their revenge.

But this has not been addressed yet, so we're left with a villain who ultimately did not seem that evil being killed and then Uther being saved.

This is also paired with this episode being perhaps the first one to truly address the horror of the great purge. Edwin's backstory is chilling, the scars on his face are there because he tried to run into the fire to save his parents when they were being burnt at the stake by Uther. There's also this sense of a barely spoken history between all the older characters, Geoffrey and Gaius don't want to remember that time, Kilgharrah reminds Gaius of how he turns a blind eye, and even in Uther and Gaius right at the end.

Uther: Do you remember them, his parents?

Gaius: I remember them all, sire

This happens, even after everything that has happened in the episode, so the episode itself doesn't even entirely erase the confusion regarding Edwin, and we don't really know who was really right. It's also an interesting moment for Uther, a moment where we see his resolve about magic slightly shift, and there is a hint of unacknowledged guilt there.

The fact that immediately after this Uther apologises to Gaius really cements this, Uther rarely admits he's wrong and he only does so when his own sense of his rightness has been questioned. He doesn't admit he was wrong with magic (and he never will), but that feeling perhaps prompts him to be able to admit he was wrong to Gaius.

Why Gaius serves Uther

Now this is a question that's hard to answer, because ultimately Gaius does serve Uther loyally for much of the show, rarely opposing him and it goes somewhat beyond just not being able to do anything else because Uther's the king, and Gaius both can't do anything but also just isn't a very brave person (though that is certainly part of it). We do find out later that Gaius ultimately doesn't think Uther's a bad king, he believes that Uther on the whole is fair to most of his people (except magic users), he's not great but he's better than a lot would be. And you see the hint of that in:

Gaius: You have always done what you believed to be right

Gaius perhaps sees in Uther a king who isn't purely driven by selfishness, a king who does genuinely seek to act in the interests of the people, and I guess that's probably better than most kings.

I also think there's a warning in that, a warning about doing purely what you believe to be right. And by that I mean acting purely in accordance with your own feelings without reference to the possibility of being wrong. Doing what you feel to be right is not always the right choice, and its something Merlin does often consider, not only because consequences are often far beyond what one person can consider, but because you may be wrong. Every person is blinded by their own experiences, Uther's blinded by his anger and hate and he mistakes that for righteousness.

Also, ultimately I might note, Gaius is physician. Most of the time serving Uther does not ask too much of him, he saves lives, he helps people, he doesn't usually have to participate in the bad. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that he still does occasionally, and he is reasonably loyal.

I enjoyed this episode, but its never been one of my favourites and it's hard to go away from this one entirely satisfied that all right ends have been achieved. The show chooses not to fully address the moral complexity at the heart of it yet, and that's fine this is after all a children's show and we are still so early in it but that does mean that in setting up complexity and not going through with it there is a level of dissatisfaction, as we struggle really to know if right really won here.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I love that we as a fandom have declared the clem comic an noncanon lmao. i'm curious tho, do you believe clem will get a new love interest? do you think it will be amos or someone else?

Yeah, gotta love seeing a fandom come together to agree on something.... even though that something isn't exactly invoking happy feelings, y'know? Like yeah, the comic sucks and at this point I doubt the trilogy will be much better unless Tillie suddenly starts to understand Clementine and makes some impossibly massive improvements..... but it's nice to see all of us mostly getting along?

As for the whole love interest thing, I'm like 98% sure that Clementine's going to get a new girlfriend in the comics. That's my prediction.

During the dumb xpo thing, Tillie talked about how she's excited to explore Clementine as a queer character in the apocalypse and considering Tillie's other works, I will bet literal cash that Clementine gets a new girlfriend. I don't think Amos will be the love interest, and if he does end up being that for Clem or if Clem gets a boyfriend, then I will genuinely be shocked.

.....Y'know what, I need to get this off my chest and this seems relevant enough-

I was talking with my roommate about this the other night actually. I told her all about my predictions for Clem getting a new girlfriend and how annoying this whole comic is, but also how annoying people are being to Tillie over this and like.... everything is a mess.

My roommate, who knows that literally everything is wrong in the 12 page comic and who I told about the xpo where Tillie talked about Clem being queer is important, asked me how I would feel if she ended up getting Clementine's canon bisexuality wrong, and what if she decides to make Clementine a lesbian?

And like...... I actually stopped what I was working on because this wave of dread crashed through me at the thought of that, and I could actually imagine it happening because she already got everything else wrong and if she hasn't actually played the games and is pulling this shit out of her ass.... I can't even describe to you the feeling I felt...

I want to believe that Tillie would at least know and respect the fact that Clementine is a canon bisexual. From what I've gathered, Tillie herself is wlw and I don't believe she would erase a bisexual character. She knows that Clementine is a queer character. Clementine's bisexual.

Like obviously, if I'm right and Clementine gets a girlfriend, she'll still be bisexual. Nothing will ever change that.

But I'm going to tell all of you this right now because just thinking about it upsets me.... if for whatever reason, if Tillie Walden actually erases Clementine's bisexuality and makes her a lesbian in the graphic novel trilogy while "exploring what it means to be queer in the apocalypse," I'm done.

I will have nothing left for Tillie. I will no longer support anything she does. I won't condone harassment towards her because that makes you just as shitty, but I will absolutely call that bullshit out and then never support her again. I will never talk about the comic again because how dare you think you can get away with that and still expect me to waste brain cells on your comic? Hell, I will probably be so fucking livid that I'll drive my ass all the way to barnes and noble just to return the books I bought of hers.

Dramatic? Yeah, but y'know what? I've never really touched on this outside of a few "Clem being bisexual is important representation and we love it" but her being bisexual means so much to me. It truly does, I mean.... after the dumb "btw Javi is bi, we just wrote him straight and threw in a line of flirty dialogue with jesus so we can have our cake and eat it, too-- the straight homophobes will still buy our game and the lgbt+ community will love us, win win," I cannot explain the joy I felt when Clementine was written as a bisexual woman and that she was given two love interests that meant so much to the players.

Like.... I dunno, I never got any real bi rep in games or books or movies, especially bi girls, when I was a teen trying to figure shit out. In jr high and high school, I could never find stories that has bi women as a lead because I was too afraid to look anything up. I didn't wanna be caught reading/watching things that were lgbt+ because I had a shitty boyfriend at the time and our friend group were heavily religious and judgmental. My best friend [who I haven't spoken to for years now] was one of those people who claimed to support lgbt+ people.... but also once told me that she thought lesbians were okay but gay men were lowkey gross and probably only into other dudes because girls wouldn't date them. Oh, and I'll never forget the time she told me that bi people don't actually exist because you either like one or the other.

That's a great thing to here from the best friend you've know since you were an infant after you've realized that you aren't only attracted to boys.

But now I'm out of that environment and I haven't talked to anyone from high school since I graduated, and I've felt more free to intake all the things I wish I could've before...

I just.... Clementine is important to me for a lot of reasons. I've played these games forever, I've gotten to watch her grow for years, and she's just so well-written and amazing in tfs, and the fact that the writers wanted to write her as a bisexual woman means so much, I just.... even though it's not canon, I can't help but take this disaster of a comic personally. Just from those 12 pages, everything about Clementine is destroyed and it sucks. It hurts..... but I'm still not holding anything against Tillie herself. Her comic is bad, but that doesn't mean she's bad..... however, erasing Clem's bisexuality would be the last straw for me.

.....This turned into a rant. Sorry about that. You asked a simple question and I dumped my life story on you but I dunno, I needed to get that off my chest because it's been bothering the back of my mind.

I do wanna add once more that I don't think Tillie's actually going to do that... she should know that both Louis and Violet are canon love interests, plus Clementine canonically had a crush on Gabe in ANF. I think if she's going to get anything right, it'll be the fact that Clem is bi.... I'm just expressing a major fear I have and what it would do to me, and others, if it happened..... y'know?

[haikyuuwaifu]

It’s You

Pt. 5

Genre: Angst

Warnings: Swearing, Mentions of Cheating, Attempted Manipulation

Y/N sighed as she made her way into her office, a pile of paperwork stacked high in her hands. Moving over to her desk, she grinned at the sight of her best friend sprawled lazily across her couch. “Get lonely sho?” she asked, setting the stack down and taking a seat. He merely waved an arm, pulling the blanket around himself. “Wake me when you’re finished, I want to try that new Chinese place you’ve been telling me about.” he whispered, shutting his eyes and letting sleep take over.

Two hours later found Y/N scrolling through her phone. She had taken a break from her work and found her phone full of messages from her boyfriend and his best friend. Opening the messages she couldn’t stop the peals of laughter that left her lips at the ridiculous photo’s Shinsou had taken of Katsuki and vice versa. A knock on her door brought Y/N’s attention away from the text and at the interruption her eyes widened marginally. Standing in the doors of her office was Izuku Midoriya, someone she’s barely spoken to since the night of his proposal.

Izuku himself had no idea what he was doing standing outside her office. He had simply heard that Katsuki was out of town, and subconsciously, his feet dragged him there. “Hey!” He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “Can we talk?” Y/N nodded, motioning for him to sit in the empty seat in front of her desk. “I don’t have a lot of time, so don’t make it to long yeah.” Y/N mumbled, answering a few texts and setting her phone down.

“What did you want to talk about?” she asked, eyes sliding over to the couch. From where she was sitting it looked like a lump of blankets, so Izuku was probably unware that someone was actually laying on there. Shoto himself had just woken up, and decided he’d stay still in case the green hero decided to do anything odd to Y/N. “I uh, I really miss you.” Izuku started, folding his hands in his lap. “I feel like, I hardly ever see you.” Y/N snorted, tapping her fingers against her desk. “Of course not. Being the number one hero is a lot of work you know. I can’t just drop everything.” “I know that.” Deku answered, unsure how to say what he really wanted. “I just, I see you and Kachan in the news all the time; so obviously you have some time?” he questioned, eyes raising to meet Y/N’s. “I would hope so, he’s my boyfriend after all. It helps that our work crosses since we’re in the #1 and #2 spot.” 

Izuku nodded along, only half listening. “Isn’t it...kind of dangerous for the two top heroes to have such a public relationship?” he asked, eyes trained on the photo of Y/N and Katsuki sitting on her desk. They were in bathing suits so he assumed they must have been at the beach that day. “Whether it is or not isn’t any of your business Izuku, now tell me what you’re really doing here.” Y/N demanded, her voice a low whisper. “I don’t know, honestly...my feet dragged me here. And I just...can’t understand what someone like you is doing with someone like Kachan.” Izuku grumbled, unfolding his hands. “You’ve never once told me you were interested in him and I’m your best friend. When did you stop caring about me? about us?” he questioned, clenching and unclenching his fists. “Kachan is selfish. He’s always been selfish and all he cares about is being number one. Who’s to say that he’s really with you because he loves you.” Izuku questioned, continuing on his tirade completely unware of the look of disgust on your face. 

“He slept with Uraraka you know. While we were away, he slept with her. He’s made his way through a slew of heroes and you’re stupid enough to date him?” Izuku questioned out loud. “I thought you were better than that and I just don’t understand what you see in h-” “That’s quite enough.” Shoto snarled, tossing the blankets to the floor. “What the hell are you doing here?” Izuku hissed, standing up to his full height. “The fuck do you mean? I’m waiting for my best friend to finish her work day. Funny how you thought if she were alone you could say all that bullshit.” Shoto answered, shoving the taller man. As Deku moved to grab Todoroki Y/N screamed, effectively shutting both men up. “This fighting isn’t necessary, I’ll tell you what you’re so dying to hear.” Y/N snarled, seperating the two heroes.

Turning toward Izuku, she smiled menacingly. “You know why I choose to be with Katsuki, Midoriya?” Y/N questioned, tilting her head. When he shook his head no, she smiled even wider. “He’s nothing like you. That’s why.” she answered, moving to sit back in her seat. “You stopped being anything of importance, the day you told me you loved me, only to come back here and fall back into Uraraka’s arms like what we had...like I, didn’t matter in the slightest.” Y/N grumbled, placing her hands on her desk. “I stopped caring about us, the day we got back to Japan, for you to tell reporters we were just friends. Like I wasn’t walking around with your cum inside me.” “I stopped caring about you, the day you decided you were going to propose to Uraraka and leave me stranded and alone.” Y/N answered, her eyes never leaving the pictures on her monitor. 

“For most of our lives, I’ve given you every piece of me I’ve had to give. I’ve watched you throw everything I’ve given you away. I was only ever important when you needed something or when Uraraka didn’t want you.” Y/N answered truthfully, eyes never leaving the picture of her and Katsuki. A huge grin on both their faces. “Katsuki is selfish, but he doesn’t care about the number one spot. He cares about me. He would burn this city to the fucking ground if I asked.” Y/N mused, smiling softly at the sweet words he whispered the night before he left for his out of country press tour. “You’re so sweet and innocent looking that no one could believe you were as vile and vicious as you really are.” Y/N hissed, finally meeting Izuku’s eyes. “I don’t care who Katsuki was with before us, they don’t matter considering I’m the one with his attention now. I don’t care about how you feel concerning my relationship, because it’s my relationship.” She hissed, emphasizing the word “my” with a slam of her fist against her desk. “What you and that simpering bitch do is irrelevant to me Midoriya. You can’t have it all, and I refuse to play second fiddle anymore. Now, since you’ve gotten your answers; get the hell out of my fucking agency before I have you escorted out.”Y/N snarled, pointing to the exit behind him. “Don’t bother coming here again without an appointment.” she called, watching as he stumbled his way out of her office. Shoto snickered, as he waved his phone in his hand. “Let’s go get take out and beer. I’m sure Shinsou and Katsuki would love to be made aware of this whole interaction.” Y/N could only shake her head and agree shoving her paperwork into her desk drawer and following her friend out.

Part 4|Part 6

@dabilove27 @victory-is-here @iamagalaxy @that-chick212 @amberalisa @its-the-aerieljeane @chefakari @simpparty @oppositesunchild  @marajillana @letmebreathepls @nightlygiggless @black-rose-29 @prettyinblack231 @kentarosbaby

[dahniwitchoflight]

Homesquared Chapter 14 part b

Alright time for more reactions to Homesqaured- oh jeezus

the last one of these I did was from october last year, hoo boy alright brain time to get back on the time train things are happening fast

we last left off with me thinking they just fucking hilled Harry but I remembered the wrong house so Harrys fine, John not so much

Yeah, John sad but ooh Karkat shows up!

They seem to have a mutual conversation about lost youth and stuff, really makes these characters feel oold

“JOHN: jeez, i'm sorry karkat.

JOHN: i had no idea how much time had passed.

JOHN: i must have gotten a bit distracted by my house being blown up.“

Oh man, John thats a whole ass MOOD

lol at sburb allocated blow job

yeah Karkats right tho, John does kind of need a kick in the pants to see how he might have been useful here, but Johns still stuck in this rut of not seeing anything around him as Real real, so hes blind to all of the consequences of inaction

John its called derealization and depersonalization, you can get help for that yknow

But I mean, cant really blame him, hes being smothered by the fires of Doom all around him

Its interesting to see that Karkat, a Blood player, is more comfortable navigating through things that constrain them and tie them down, since constraint is something Blood and Doom have in common, Chains and Barriers and Laws and etc

Whereas John the Breath player, just gets bogged down, hes totally out of his element

so it ends up being like John: “Id like to cling to some funny moments of my youth pls and try to lighten the situation up a bit because I cant do anything when so heavy”

versus Karkat being like: “BUCKLE UP FUCK TITS THIS SHIT IS YOUR LIFE NOW GETS USED TO WADING KNEE DEEP IN THE SHIT LIKE THE REST OF US GROWN ASS ADULTS”

John: ):

Hmm, both Vriskas have been captured, but Annie basically rescued herself, knowing Vriska Prime she probably has a plan or an idea about that, see well see how that goes

“KARKAT: JANE'S PLAN FOR THIS CONFLICT HAS THUS FAR CONSISTED ALMOST ENTIRELY OF KIDNAPPING VARIOUS HIGH PROFILE CHILDREN.

KARKAT: IT'S BIZARRE.

KARKAT: AS THOUGH WE ARE FIGHTING A WAR OF ATTRITION, WHERE THE MAIN RESOURCE BEING UTILIZED IS THE OFFSPRING OF THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE ON THE PLANET.KARKAT: IF IT WASN'T ONE OF THE CORE TENETS OF HER FASCISTIC PHILOSOPHY, I'D BE TEMPTED TO SAY THAT CURBING REPRODUCTION MIGHT HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA, IF ONLY TO PREVENT THIS KIND OF FUCKSHIT NONSENSE FROM HAPPENING.

Oh. Well I guess that was Dirk’s “plans” for Jane all along. Obviously he was using Jane as a vehicle to gather “players” for his eventually next session, interesting

But who has Jane kidnapped in total thus far?

Does Tavros count? he was certainly trapped with her for some amount of his life, but I dont know if that counts as a kidnapping, John certainly tried to kidnap HIM though from the epilogues

Annie certainly counts as being kidnapped

Vrissy has JUST been captured so that counts, and Harry so far is still fine

Which bodes so well for Harry’s future Im sure

Yeah, Vriska should have been able to not outwit any capture attempts, but my guess is either Vrissy got capture and Vriska dove in, OR, Vriska’s doing an inside job so to speak and got caught on purpose, dragging Vrissy along as well

I guess we’ll see when we see their “prison”

Anyway John, don’t get so down on yourself, you’re just ignorant to everythiong around you! thats why nothing makes sense and you can’t connect to anything, easy fix! Just try to learn more and care more about stuff lol

Man does this feel like a strong metaphor between people who are into/care about politics and people who feel like they can’t get into it though

Crossing that hurdle from one side to the other is rough

“KARKAT: BUT NOTICING THE PROBLEM AND MAKING MEANINGFUL PROGRESS TOWARDS SOLVING IT ARE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.”

yup

man, this is all feeling startlingly relevant to the current times, I should have read this sooner

“ KARKAT: PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME YOU JUST HAD ANOTHER EMOTION THAT WE NEED TO DROP EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO DISSECT. “

hah, oh wow, Karkat when you phrase it like that, it’s almost as if you’ve become self aware of your tendencies to Moirail people out of their problems

Not really that out of character for a Blood player to end up being the Therapy Friend though lol

Just don’t burn yourself out on that though

JOHN: karkat, we still haven't spoken about *you*!

KARKAT: ABOUT ME?

JOHN: yes.

KARKAT: ABOUT *ME*?

JOHN: about you.

KARKAT: WHAT THE FUCK ABOUT ME.

JOHN: well...

JOHN: you know, how you feel!

KARKAT: HOW I FEEL.

I know Karkat has probably matured past misunderstandings like this now given he’s really come into a great understanding of his Blood aspect, but by golly do I wish Karkat would misunderstand this as John’s attempts to be Moirail-reciprocal sdkjfhwlijebr

What a perfect way to continue their relationship, on top of more misconstrued romance quadrants XD

Spades is old Hat, Diamonds are in now babey

Oh

this started out funny, but Karkat’s emotional rant just ended up being depressing not funny ):

I have to say though, it is REALLY interesting to see John’s depression manifesting in a very breathy sort of way

Karkat in these panels was more closer together, connected, but as John gets more and more depressed over the course of Karkat’s rant when he realizes Karkat doesn’t know dave died, the panels get seperated by lines of blue, and slowly drift off away from John and from eachother

but thats basically been hows its been manifesting all along

the more John feels Disconnected and Seperate from the reality he finds himself in, the more he finds his will untethered, the more depressed and unable to act he gets

and right now its so much so that even a fuller fledged Blood player is having trouble grounding him back down

I don’t know, I always viewed the depression metaphor as a dark watery void to sink into and feels heavy and encapsulating (but probably thats just my Light-y interpretation of it)

so its interesting to see the depression metaphor as this floating disconnection instead, so much that it leans towards derelaization/depersonalistion/dissociation as well

I wonder if John will start dealing with bouts of actual full blown dissociation as this gets worse?

I mean, Breath aspect has given the literal ability to ghost around wherever he pleases in all other ways, why not literally and physcologically as well?

So John seems to be fully overembracing his aspect here, to a very unhealthy degree here, which I see you asking “aha Dahni, but hes doesn’t have overblown self esteem here, quite the opposite, is this not an inverted state instead? or something else because hes acting like hes inverting to Breath?”

and I say not so! reader, for overembracing is the idea that through your aspect, your will is overwriting the wills of others, and in someone like Vriska, this manifests in a very selfish and over self esteemed way

but is not John’s will overwriting Karkat’s here? Through Breath? And isnt John also being a little selfish here? Considering how he feels about things, more important than how anyone else feels? How Karkat feels?

John is too dissociated to understand that this reality is Real and has Consequences he needs to care about, and Karkat is trying to fight against that, trying to instill his belief that no, this shit is real and it Matters Why Don’t You Care, trying to ground him, trying to give him that dose of Blood he needs

but John’s overembracing Breath is just, blowing that all away, its becoming too strong

Roxy in the epilogues dealt with this as well, when John was really in the shits with it and started to believe Roxy’s whole personality was somehow fake and his own construction, because he convinced himself Roxy would never choose to do the things she did, but Roxy was able to snap him out of it and make him understand and respect it was her own choices that led down his path, not the idea that John’s choices are somehow overriding everyones

But man, John sure is riding that Breath train way too hard, and he keeps snapping back into it as well

Further and Further

[moon-stars01]

Riches Or Ruins

S.Coups x Reader

Author:igotstarlight

Summary: Half a year for any relationship is tough, let alone if yours is a secret. A controversey arises between you and Seungcheol, how will your relationship play out?

Pairing:Seungcheol(Svt) x Reader

Gene:Angst,fluff,Little maturity

-Riches Or Ruins-

You paced around your apartment waiting to hear the reassuring jingle of keys unlocking the front door, time seeming to stand still. You’ve been waiting for over an hour for Seungcheol to arrive at your home since you last hung up on him. He kept sending messages, mostly sweet and worried texts, but you could tell he was getting angrier. You went to check the time once again when you heard the doorknob turn. You spun to face an upset Seungcheol, and it took all your power to contain your emotions.

“Why didn’t you answer my messages? I was worried something had happened to you!” He half shouted, realizing this is not the subject the both of you should be discussing at the moment. “Please don’t ignore me if I’m asking where you are. I get nervous, you know this.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think about it,” you answered coldly. You crossed your arms across your chest not knowing where to begin. So you started with food, “There’s dinner on the table. It’s probably cold by now, but I’m sure you know how to use a microwave.”

Seungcheol’s mouth fell open, unused to the tone in your voice. Defeatedly running his fingers through his hair and dropping his bag to the floor, he went towards the kitchen. You stood in the living room, the sounds of dishes clinking together pushing you closer to anger. Knowing that blowing up was just going to make you and the situation worse, you went to your office and started to work on choreography ideas for an upcoming comeback. The time seemed to pass slowly, as it usually did with work, but a glance at the clock told you an hour had passed.

A heavy sigh escaping your chest, you rose to face Seungcheol.

You found him sitting on the couch, face contorted in sadness and frustration, and writing in his journal he kept. Hearing your footsteps he looked up to you, his face filling with hope.

“Y/n, can we talk ab-“

“We’re going to be arguing Seungcheol. Talking is long overdue,” you cut him off, the anger in your voice surprising yourself. You and Seungcheol had been dating for half a year now, and it was going strong until this moment. Your friends reminded you that half a year was the point in relationships where they either broke or prospered. You were fearing for your relationship now. The other guys of Seventeen didn’t seem to think there were any issues or things to make you nervous or worry, but what actions took place at the release party last night told you otherwise.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” you ask, voice cold as ice.

“What? What are you even talking about? Of course I don’t think you’re stupid,” he pleaded, face contorted in confusion. He stood up quickly to get closer to you even though you shied away. “Can you please explain to me what is happening? I’m lost and getting seriously frustrated.”

“How was your release party last night? So much fun you didn’t even want to come home to me?” You knew you sounded clingy and possessive, but you also knew that he went home with someone other than you. He cringed at your accusation, but let you calm down for a minute.

“Y/n, I was a little drunk and the staff wanted me at the dorm with the others. It was a comeback album release party, not out clubbing all over Seoul. I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I didn’t do anything wrong. I went to the party, drank a bit too much, mingled, and went to the dorm with the rest of the guys,” He sighed heavily, trying to contain his emotions. “What did you hear?”

“I heard about Eun Ha, Seungcheol,” you stated. You saw recognition and, what seemed to be regret, flash across his expression. “I know you guys dated before you debuted, but I heard you went back to her hotel with her. I saw photos of you two getting very close. I only know what I heard and what pictures show me, obviously, but the guys haven’t even spoken to me much today. They’re usually raving about the parties or events I don’t go to. Just tell me the truth, Cheol,” your voice cracked in desperation for answers. Your heart felt like it would burst from your chest in anticipation of figuring out where your relationship was going.

He stepped away from you slightly, seeming to register everything you just told him. The only thing you could hear through the silence is the crashing sound of your heart beating in your chest as you waited. After processing what you’ve said, he just looked more frustrated- that gave you hope.

“Well, Eun Ha was at the party last night. She and I did talk for awhile and it was loud, and I’m sure someone snapped a picture of me talking into her ears once or twice. That isn’t a fair accusation, y/n. You know that I have to have that type of close vicinity at those parties; I do it to everyone.,” he stated, totally ignoring to address going back to her hotel room. You tried to focus on what he said rather on what he didn’t say, even if you were anxious.

“Okay, I understand that. That makes sense,” you sighed, feeling some of the weight lift from your heart. Maybe you both would be okay after all. Though you still wanted to know why people honed in on the two to begin with, the photos you saw were sent to you by a caring Seokmin and Seungkwan.

“Well, why weren’t there ever photos taken of us that close and posted online as a rumor of you dating?” you heart sped up again. You did see the article on a popular kpop insider website you followed for other group updates.

“We never acted flirty, babe. Our relationship is literally a secret from everyone except for the other Seventeen members. We were always so conscious about not seeming obvious or giving anyone at the company a hint that we’re an item. So whenever we talked like that at the parties, there was never any flirty body language from either of us. She was definitely flirting with me while we talked, but it was one sided. I swear to you on everything that’s important to me, sweetheart,” he had moved towards you and grabbed your hands while explaining the situation. He was being sincere and honest about that, you saw it in his brown eyes. He kissed you on the forehead and looked back into your eyes. “I promise nothing happened between Eun Ha and I.”

“Did you go back to her room with her?” you asked the blatantly ignored portion of the argument.

“What?” he was taken aback by your question, considering he just told you what happened at the party itself.

“Did you or did you not go to Eun Ha’s room last night after the party?” you choked out nervously, dropping his hands.

“Y/n, she was really drunk… I was worried she wouldn’t make it safely to her room-“

“So, you were in your ex-girlfriends hotel room, both of you drunk, and you want me to believe that nothing happened? Seungcheol, you were in love with her for the longest time, the only reason you broke up is cause of your training and debut. I watched that breakup destroy you, I helped you through that breakup. I can’t believe you think-“ he cut you off angrily.

“I walked her back to her room, she asked me in, I said yes. I gave her water and medicine, told her to go to sleep. We kissed, yes. We kissed a few times. Nothing else happened,” he quickly turned himself in. Your chest felt as if someone had punched the air out of you. You backed away from him, and turned to go to your room.

“You can see yourself out, thank you,” you said quietly. You didn’t want him to see you cry. Didn’t want him to know how badly he ruined all the trust you had built. How much it hurt to know that you worked so hard to hide your relationship from everyone, just to be caught wondering if there were other times this had happened. How many times you were left hanging, and alone, plans ruined because he was either way too busy or too tired. Were those lies too?

“Y/n! Please, can we talk about this. Please… She kissed me!”

“I’m sure she did, and I’m sure as hell you kissed her back too, or did your tongue just happen to fall into her throat?” you spat at him. You were livid now. You spun to face him. “I’m sure she initiated it, she had no idea you were in a relationship. No one could know! But any other kisses after the initial one are on you, Seungcheol! Drunk is not an excuse. Lonely is not an excuse when you fucking had me waiting at home for you! Did you stay with her?” you didn’t care what you sounded like, you wanted answers.

“No, I went to the dorm with the guys. You can call any of them and ask. Call whoever you had babysit me and tell them they aren’t getting paid cause they let me make one fucking mistake in 6 months. I didn’t kiss her back, my tongue was never in her throat. She was really drunk and kept throwing herself at me. I was afraid upsetting her or making her angry would turn her attitude around and make her violent or too upset to even function. There were three quick kisses. She did it once, I said don’t do that. The second I said, ‘Seriously, stop. I’m not interested.’ The third? Well, I said, ‘I’m in a loving relationship right now, and you’re not going to ruin this for me too.’ I left water on the nightstand and left the room and immediately went to Jeonghan. Call him or text him if you want proof,” Seungcheol’s anger faded. He just looked like a sad, beaten-down puppy. “I’ll head out now, I’m sorry I hurt you. That this situation happened. Just know I didn’t cheat on you, please believe that. I don’t give you the attention you deserve to begin with, how could I ever think of doing that to you?” With a final sigh, he grabbed his backpack and left the apartment.

You hoped he didn’t think you were over, that he knew you just needed time to process this all. You needed to call Jeonghan, you needed to calm down.

You grabbed your phone and dialed a reliable friend, Jeonghan. He picked up, thankfully, on the second ring.

“I was expecting a phone call this morning… Hey Y/n,” he said softly.

“Jeonghan, what happened last night? What did Seungcheol go to you about?” you asked quietly, trying not to cry until you knew exactly how to feel.

“Nothing happened, y/n. That’s the weird thing- Seungcheol was just being a nice guy, as he would for anyone, and she thought it was something different. She was really drunk, Y/n. Understand Eun Ha was viciously flirting with Seungcheol, probably for the paparazzi attention, and then when he offered to safely escort her to her room, she must have thought they were going to be something again. You know how he is in a relationship, how he treats his girlfriends, she wanted him back. No one knows about your relationship; Seungcheol was trying to tell her he wasn’t interested, she didn’t care until he told her he was in a relationship. When he came to me after the situation happened, he was in a complete panic,Y/n. He was hyperventilating, near tears, he never wants to hurt you. And remember, he didn’t hurt you, she just didn’t respect him. She’s the issue, not Seungcheol’s loyalty. He didn’t lie to me last night about the incident, I can promise you that,” Jeonghan relayed the information to you. He knew Seungcheol just as well as you did, and if he also could tell Cheol wasn’t lying than you really had nothing to fear.

“Jeonghan, he left my apartment. What if he thinks we’re actually over? What if he won’t let me come back after I blew up at him? He told me he knows he doesn’t always give me what I truly deserve, how he doesn’t always have time to spend with me as a couple rather than a work associate. That sometimes, I’m neglected in that aspect. What if he decides that he doesn’t want this due to that?” You confide in Jeonghan. You really loved that you had the other boys to support you and be there for you. You knew Seokmin and Seungkwan’s intentions with the photos weren’t aggressive or angsty, they were out of worry for you. To warn you what the media was most likely going to post. You had left out that they had defended Seungcheol when they sent the pictures, saying it was Eun Ha’s behavior that was flirty. You had a family here, people you could always rely on no matter what. And you silently thanked whatever heaven’s above for having the in your life.

“Really? You think Cheol automatically thinks it’s over?” Jeonghan asked sarcastically.

“No, but what if it ruins anything?”

“It’s not going to. The second you tell him to come over, he will be there in a second. The second you make up, he will hug you and say how sorry he is. He’s in love with you, Y/n. I know he’s never said it to you before, but we’ve asked him. He’s not walking away that easy, he’s just giving you space. Call him back, he’s probably hanging out in the area waiting to hear from you,” Jeonghan reassured you.

“Thank you Jeonghan, I love you. I’m so happy I have all you boys. I will see you at work tomorrow, be on time this time! Wake up two hours early!” You heard Jeonghan’s rounded laugh through the receiver and then said goodbyes and hung up. You went to your living room’s big window and just stared out of it. It was starting to get cooler; winter was on it’s way. Your heart was happy that maybe your relationship wasn’t doomed, you just had to apologize to Seungcheol. You stole a glance at the kitchen, noting how he had cleaned up everything and put it back where it all belonged, respecting your obsessive-compulsive ways. You dialed his cell phone number, hesitating to press call. Hesitating to find out if this was the end for your relationship.

“Yes, sweetheart?” Seungcheol said softly when he answered.

“Please, come home, Cheol,” your voice broke, tears were threatening to spill from your eyes.

“Open the door, y/n,” he softly instructed. You went to your front door, ear still to your phone as you opened it to a relieved Seungcheol. “Baby,” he whispered softly as you hung up the phone and wrapped your arms around his neck, making you go on your tippy toes.

“I’m so sorry for jumping to conclusions; for yelling. I’m so sorry,” you cried softly. He ran his fingers through your hair, softly consoling you with sweet nothings. He picked you up so you could wrap your legs around his waist and you could hug him more tightly.

“Don’t apologize. I understand what the situation looked like, I don’t blame you for feeling the way you did or for getting upset. I do regret and I’m really fucking sorry for hurting you by saying her and I kissed when it was a one sided thing. I was really angry and upset that you were so upset and not letting me speak. I didn’t anticipate you to assume the worst in me, and it hurt. I tried to get back at you, and it was fucked up. I’m so sorry, I will be better from now on. I will be better for you,” seungkwan confessed. Leaving light kisses on your lips and face as he spoke.

“I’m sorry I assumed the worst, I was hurt and panicked. I love you, Seungcheol. I’ll be better for you, too. I do trust you, I hope you know that. It was just, I was worried that we’ve been together for half a year already, and my friend this is the mark of either a relationship’s end or where it will prosper from. I had that in my head too, and it was a lot of factors. I’m sorry,” You kissed him softly. He returned the kiss with a little more vigor and emphasis.

“As long as you really don’t want to leave me, then I think we’re going to ‘Live long and Prosper’!”

“…Did you just use Star Trek to make up with me?” I asked incredulously.

“Maybe. Did it work?” to answer him, you kissed him roughly.

“Yep, it did. Will you stay with me Cheol?” You smile softly at him in your sincere question. In response to your question, he playfully squeezed your ass since his hands were already there to support your weight.

“Of course I will. You know it is our anniversary tomorrow… Wanna go celebrate early?” He winked at you, kissing you again. You lightly pulled at the hair that was tangled in your fingers.

“For the mature one in this relationship, you sure are dirty,” you smiled, your tone of voice getting flirty. “I guess we can celebrate before we even spend the day together or dinner,” you smile coyly, tugging his shirt to indicate to go to the bedroom.

“Oh, babe, don’t think we aren’t celebrating more than once. There will be a few more celebrations after dinner, too. Maybe even one during?” his voice husky at the suggestion, he still managed to laugh at your shocked expression. He closed your bedroom door behind him and laid you down on the bed, falling on top of you.

“I like multiple celebrations,” you laughed and kissed him.

“I love you,” he kissed you again, deepening it. He stopped his flirty demeanor, sitting up. His face turned serious,” Actually, I’m in love with you. And you need to know that, and know that everything I do, I do for us. For you. I’m not leaving our giving up on us that easy.”

“ I was wondering when you’d say that to me,” you jested lightly. “Choi Seungcheol, I’m in love with you too. I was a mess thinking this might be it for us, but I’m confident in us that we have a long future together,” you kissed him lightly, and started to tease at his mouth. “Now, can I have my first celebration of the night with you?”

He gave you a wicked smile, “You mean the first two celebrations, I’m greedy today.”

You both tumbled into the sheets, bodies becoming one in love.