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hi! ok so i'm going to talk about one of my top-five favourite things, which is: dyeing stuff! this is going to be specifically about dyeing protein fibres (animal fibresâwool, alpaca, silk, etc) in a pretty low-key way in your kitchen.
to be clear up front: this is not the most scientific, most perfectly reproducible, or most Objectively Correct way to dye things. i get a lot of fibre that i like this way, though, and i think that other people can, too.
fibre i've dyed that i think is neat:
you can also dye yarn like this:
yes, i like blue a lot. i also really like variegation and heathering, which is why most of the fibre here has patches of whiteâit's an intentional choice that i've made. you can make different choices.
here is what you need to dye things:
fibre, vinegar, dye, a pot, heat, and some water.
that was so you don't get overwhelmed by the impending wall of text. here is what you need to dye things (it's the same stuff!), but with way more detail:
fibre or yarn. this is the big one, obviously. i tend to dye in 100-200 gram batches, because that's approximately what fits on my stovetop easily. if you're very nervous about felting or harming your fibre, you can use stuff that's been treated to be superwash, start with yarn (which is harder to felt than fibre is), or use a felt-resistant breed like dorset or suffolk. honestly, though, i learned with merino because that's what i had, and it was fine. again, though, this guide is only for protein fibres. it will not work for things like cotton. the only exception to this is nylon, which will take on some colour, but less than a protein fibre will.
a mordant. this is a fancy way of saying a thing that makes dye stick, and for what we're doing here, it's citric acid or vinegar. your grocery store definitely has at least one of them, though if you can choose, i prefer citric acid, because i love wet wool smell but i do not always love wet wool vinegar smell.
dye. i use acid dyes, and am personally deeply loyal to dharma acid dyes, but ashford and jacquard acid dyes work the same way. if you don't want to buy dye or don't have access to it, food colouring will often work, as well, though i haven't tried this with natural food colourings and have no idea how well they'll work.
a dedicated dye pot. ok, if you're doing food dyes, you don't need this. if you're not, it's definitely best practice, though i don't know how dangerous it is not to. any large metal pot will do, but my favourite option is hotel pans, which are those huge metal pan/tray things that hold food at buffets and the like. i have a full-size one that's 15cm deep, and a half-size one that's 4cm deep. they're great because they let you lay out the fibre you're working with so you can see most of it in a single layer.
dedicated dye utensils. as before, i don't know how much of a huge deal this is. i'll be honest and admit that for several years i had a single pair of tongs that got used for all tong-requiring events, including dyeing, and i'm still alive. i suggest that you have at least a big spoon, and a big spoon and tongs are even better.
something to mix the dye in. yeah, i use empty plastic sports drink or soda bottles for this. you can be fancy and get mason jars or little squirt bottles or whatever, and if you get super into dyeing you'll want to mix up dye stocks, but that's way outside the scope of what we're doing here. i like the powerade bottles that have a little squirty mouthpiece, because it's fun to squirt dye onto things.
personal protective equipment. i think this is the part of things that freaks people out. ideally, you wear plastic gloves and a mask (yeah, like your covid masks) when you're working with dye. realistically, i almost never remember to put on gloves and just accept that my hands are going to be blue sometimes. you should wear a mask, because dye is an irritant, but the world is an imperfect place and i have wicked bad adhd and sometimes i forget. this isn't advice. i'm just being honest. you should use some kind of safety stuff. you probably won't die if you don't.
you might also want some little random bits: an old toothbrush or paintbrush, a pipe cleaner, some toothpicks, etc. this is mostly if you like speckles, or if you want very small patches of colour.
so first: there are a million ways to dye things, and i'm not convinced that any of them are objectively correct. i do what i do and it works for me. some of the things i do are the opposite of what most guides suggest, but i do them because i like the effects they create.
ok, that's all the background stuff you need. let's dye some stuff!
the number one most important thing to remember when you're dyeing is this:
you can always add more colour. you cannot take it away.
that's in fancy writing and bold because every once in a while i forget this, and every single time i end up regretting it.
here is how to dye things:
put water, citric acid (or vinegar), and fibre into a pot. add dye and heat. let cool completely. rinse the fibre in cool water, then hang to dry.
like, sure, we're going to go into way more detail, but push come to shove, if you do that, you're going to end up with dyed fibre. there are a lot of tutorials telling you that you must soak your fibre first, or you must add your citric acid this way, or hold the water at exactly this temperature, and i'm here to tell you that while any of these things can give you different results, those results aren't necessarily better.
the only way that you can totally screw this up is by accidentally felting your fibre, so before i get into the way more detail part of things, i'm going to talk about that.
how not to felt your fibre
i feel like if you've read this far, you know how things felt: wool, heat, and agitation. you may also notice that at least two of these things are required for dyeing. this can be stressful! but you don't have to be afraid of it. there's only been one time that i felted something to the point that it was unusable, and that happened because i literally fell asleep for several hours while the pot was on the stove. you can avoid doing this by simply setting an alarmâthis is a good idea anyhow, because you'll want to check on your dye pot!
when you're dyeing, use the lowest heat that you can while still keeping the water at a simmer. if your stove, like mine, has one burner that's wildly unpredictable and sort of out of control, you may want to look for some sort of flame diffuser, also called a flame tamer or a simmer ring. i bought one on amazon for about fourteen dollars, and it's literally just a thick metal circle. it works fine.
you can also keep the heat low by using a pot with a thick bottom, though in my experience those are expensive, and if i had one i would be using it for soup, not wool.
avoid shocking your woolânever put room temperature wool into hot water, and never put hot wool into cold water. leave your wool in the dye bath until it's cooled completely, which for me usually means overnight.
finally, obviously you have to move the fibre around some. you'll need to peek under it in the pan, and when you're done, you have to rinse it and squish out the water. try to minimise handling, though. don't run water directly onto the fibre, don't get a wooden spoon and stir your dye pot around, don't wring the fibre dry when it's done.
you're probably never going to be perfect. i often find that i lose a gram or two of wool where fibres have grabbed onto each other, or where parts of the ends clumped up. it's not really felted, just sort of compacted, but it's not great to work with, and i'd rather lose a gram of fibre than fuss with the clumpy bits.
back to how to dye things
let's take it step by step, assuming a hundred grams of fibre.
put your pan on the stove and fill it halfway with water. add either a teaspoon of citric acid or a tablespoon of vinegar. this is going to help the dye strike, or stick to the fibre. the teaspoon/tablespoon is a guideline, but one that it's fine to exceed. adding more will help the dye strike faster, which can be useful if you're trying to create blocks of colour on your fibre. i usually err on the side of a little more than the guidelines, and just eyeball thisâif you feel like the dye isn't taking well, you can add more later.
add your fibre to the pan. this is the first place you have to think about what you want the finished fibre to look like! you can put it into the pan any way you want, but i suggest trying to keep it in a relatively even layer, regardless of what that layer looks like. here are some ways to get specific effects:
if you want a gradient from one end of the fibre to the other, use a rectangular pan and lay your fibre out so that the line of it is parallel to the short sides of the pan
if you want a short, repeating gradient, use a rectangular pan and lay your fibre out so that the line of it is parallel to the long sides of the pan
if you want something that starts with very close repeats that get further apart as you go down the fibre, make an approximate spiral
if you don't want A Pattern (i usually don't) just lay things out in a single layer, more or less
here comes the next exciting part! decide if you want to let your fibre soak or not. again, doing or not doing this gives you some different effects!
soaking your fibre will mean that dye takes more evenly. if you want consistent colours, you'll want to soak.
not soaking your fibre means that the dye takes less evenly. the fibre on top will have less acid available to it, spends less time in the dye bath, and also has to actually get wet before it will start to dye. i actually love doing this, and think it affords a lot of cool opportunities to play with and layer colours.
if you're soaking, leave the fibre there until it's submerged. if not, don't.
now you're going to add dye! decision time, again.
you can add dye when the water is cold, which will give you more even dye coverage, and in my experience gives the colours more time to mix together
you can add dye when when the water is hot, which will give you less even coverage, and tends to encourage the colours to stay more delineated
probably surprising no one, i tend to heat the water first unless i'm starting with a base colour or i'm doing a two-colour gradient.
time to mix up some dye
as i mentioned earlier, i'm assuming that you're using powered acid dyes for this. if you're not, this mixing up part is technically optionalâbut doing it gives you way more control about how and where you place your colours, so i'm going to assume that you'll do it.
i usually mix dye in some sort of empty drink bottle. regardless of what you're using, before you add dye to anything, put some water in the bottle, wipe off the lip, put the lid on tightly, and shake the bottle vigorously. if there is any leakage at all, do not use that bottle. find a better bottle. if your bottle cap doesn't seal well or if you have an empty condiment bottle that's just a little wonky or whatever, you will get dye all over the kitchen, and your landlord will be really really mad about it, and you will regret your life choices. (if you own your kitchen, you can do whatever you want, but this isn't about you and you know it.)
so you have a bottle that seals tightly! great job. dump out the water and carefully put some dye powder into the bottle. remember earlier how i said you should be wearing a mask? this is the part where you should be wearing a mask.
i know that people are reading this and going, ok, but how much dye do i put in?
my answer is put in the amount that feels right in your heart, and don't forget the number one rule of dyeing things, which is that you can always add more colour, but you cannot take it away.
this isn't a very scientific answer. most dyes have a guideline about how much to use, expressed as a percentage of the dry weight of the fibre, which is what you use to get the whole quantity of fibre dyed evenly. for dharma dyes, it's like 1.5-2%, i think ashford is 1%, and jacquard is more like 2-4%, depending on the colour.
here is the problems with doing that in your kitchen: first, using that much dye will get you an evenly dyed piece of fibre, whichâfor me, at leastâis basically the opposite of what i want. second, and more importantly, unless you have one of those teeny tiny scales used by jewelers and drug dealers, your kitchen scale will not weigh out such tiny quantities with any accuracy. third, if you do it like this, you really have to plan what you're doing ahead of time, because there's a point after which no more dye will bind! the fibre will be like enough thank u that's it i'm good and that'll be it, so you lose some of your ability to decide that actually, you want more green.
you can probably guess, at this point, that i don't weigh the dye. once you've done a couple batches of fibre with a given brand of dye, you'll start to get the vibes for how much you should use. if you really want a guideline, for a hundred grams of fibre, start with a quarter teaspoon of a given colour. you can add moreâeither more of this colour or a different oneâlater, as desired.
put your dye in the empty bottle, and then fill the bottle partway with hot water. the amount of water doesn't really matter here, nor does the specific temperature of the water. i usually fill about 3/4 of the way, because that way there's plenty of room for this next step, which is: wipe the lip of the bottle, recap it tightly, and then shake it up real good. the dye powder is going to dissolve into the water, and you now have a bottle of dye!
if you're going for a gradient, you might want to mix up your second colour so you can add them at (basically) the same time for more even mixing. if you're not, or if you only have one mixing bottle, you can do them one at a time.
oh my god we're finally putting dye on the fibre
are you ready? it's time!!
you have basically infinite options for how to do this, and many of them will give you different effects. here are some ideas:
pour the dye all at one side of the pan. and if you don't add anything else, your fibre will fade from the colour of the dye to the natural colour of the fibre
pour two colours, one at either side of the pan. depending on how much dye you use (and remember, you can always add more), this will give you either chunks of colour surrounded by white, or a two-colour gradient
add all the dye to unheated water and mix it gently, then let the fibre soak for a few minutes longer before turning on the heat. this will give you a fairly even colour
pour randomly all over, and you'll either end up with a tonal yarn or a heathered one, depending on how much dye you're using
add the dye to the water under the dry fibre, which will sink in and take up more dye on the bottom of the fibre than the top
if your heat wasn't on before, it should be now, and you're going to let the dye hang out in the hot but not boiling water for a while. how long? well, one of the cool things about dyeing with these dyes is that they exhaust, which means that when the dye has been sucked up by the fibre, the surrounding water will be clear. how long this takes will depend on the specific dye, how much of it you used, how much mordant you used, etc. i try to check every fifteen minutes.
reminder: if you started with room temperature water, the dye's not going to start taking until the water heats up, so don't check it after fifteen minutes and freak out that nothing has happened. it is fully normal for it to take up to an hour for the dye to exhaust. don't turn up the temperature, just give it time.
yay it worked!
at this point, you have a pot of hot water with some beautifully coloured fibre in it! but maybe it's not beautiful enough. maybe you want...more colours.
that's cool as hell and you should go for it. we mentioned two-colour gradients up there, but what if you want something else?
the answer, probably obviously, is adding more dye.
first, a caveat: while you can successfully make multicoloured gradients like this, it's more difficult than you think, and if it gets messed upâall the colours bleed into each other, sayâit turns into a muddy mess. my suggestion is to stick to two (or three at most!) colour gradients until you have a much better feel for what you're doing.
let's talk about ways you can add more colour. you have two options: big colour and little colour.
big colour is going to add a lot of colourâyou're going to mix up the dye and pour it just like you did before, but paying more attention to places that don't have dye yet. sometimes it's the middle of a gradient, or the white splotches from random pouring, or the half of the fibre that wasn't submerged when you started. or maybe you dyed the whole thing yellow, and now you want to add a blue gradient over top. whatever!
if you don't want to freehand pour, consider buying a couple large syringes, or a bottle with a squeezy top. these are also fun because you can easily get more colour between the laid-out fibre, or even under it.
in the pictures at the start of this post, the red-and-gold top and both yarns were dyed by adding big colour.
little colour isn't going to add big patches, but is going to add speckling, tonal depth, or smaller patches of colour. all of the blue-base fibres and the yellow-and-blue yarn were dyed like this.
if you're still reading this closely, you might have caught that i just said both yarns were dyed with big colour, and that the yellow-and-blue yarn was also dyed with little colour. these are both true! the base colours of the yarn were done to make big colour, but if you look at the full-size image, there are also a bunch of speckles. you can do whatever you want! no one can stop you!
here are some ways to add little colour:
mix up some dye, but use less water. add drops of the dye, either directly onto the fibre (more dramatic!) or in the water (tonal!)
use a toothpick to grab a little bit of dye powder and drop it into the dye bath (similar to the previous one, but a little less predictable)
put on a damn facemask. take a clean toothbrush, paintbrush, or pipecleaner, and just barely touch it to the dye powder. gently flick or tap the brush to add speckles of that colour
find a salt shaker that you're never going to use for anything but this. put citric acid, salt (to make it distribute better), and dye powder into it, and shake it up (with the holes covered, please cover the holes) to make sure they're evenly distributed. gently shake this over the fibre to add speckles, but more of them, and clustered together
put a little dye in a spray bottle and gently mist the exposed fibre, kinda glazing it with colour
another thing is that if you like a natural coloured yarn with dyed speckles, you can do any of these techniques without doing big colour first. the only thing to note when doing this is that you'll want to be very sure to spread out the fibre well, and maybe to consider dyeing one side, then very very carefully flipping it over and getting the other side.
ok, now what?
let's say that you've added all the colours that you want, and you've let your bath simmer long enough that the water is clear, or nearly clear. (if it's not, check troubleshooting, below.)
put the lid on your pan and walk away. if you don't have a lid, just walk away, but it's less dramatic.
the super frustrating part here is that the safest thing to do is wait until the water and fibre is fully cooled before you do anything else.
have i ignored this? yes
has it ever gone horribly wrong? not horribly wrong, but it's definitely caused me to lose an inch or two of roving on occasion
is it way more stressful if you don't wait? absolutely yes
honestly maybe just go to bed and deal with your fibre in the morning
so now let's say that it's morning and you slept long enough that your water and fibre are both room temperature, which often actually feels quite cool on your hands.
you have to drain your fibre. there are two ways to do this:
lift the fibre out of the water. this has the upside of not risking dumping your beautiful fibre into your sink, and not needing to maneuver a full pot of water, both of which are admirable. the downside is that wet fibre is fragile, and you'll want to be careful to support it.
dump the water out of the pan. this has the upside of minimising how much handling you're doing of the fibre, as well as (in my opinion) making rinsing easier. the downside is attempting to keep the fibre into the pot while you dump the water into the sink, and also needing to carry around a full pot of water.
secret third option: dump the fibre (and the water) into a strainer. upside: very easy, and you can keep the fibre in the strainer while you rinse, minimising both how much it needs to be handled and the weight on the fibre. downside: i never remember that this is an option until i'm already elbows-deep in acidulated water, discovering every tiny cuticle tear.
you're going to fill your dyepot with water again so that you can rinse the fibre. you want to minimise thermal shock, so keep the water temperature as close to the temperature of the fibre as you can, and don't run the water directly onto the fibre. i like to pull all the fibre to one side of the pan, and fill the pan on the other side.
side note: if you, smart person, remembered that you can use a colander, simply fill a pot with water, put the colander in the pot, and gently agitate the colander.
if you, person who is deeply relatable, did not remember you can use a colander and now have a pot with clean water and fibre, gently move your fibre in the water to encourage any excess dye and also citric acid to get out of there.
drain your fibre again, and this time, you're going to squeeze it dry. you're still trying to minimise agitation, so this isn't a 'wring it out' situation, it's a 'gently squish it between your hands and/or a hand and the side of the pot' situation.
hang your fibre to dry. remember what i was saying earlier about it being fragile? let me suggest, here, that you do not simply drape the entire length over a single hanger or something and hope for the best. if you literally have a single hanger, at least drape it back and forth a bit, but better if you can use more than one hanger, or a clothes drying rack, or that weird metal wine rack thing that came with your fridge that you've never used, or whatever.
important reminder: drip-drying things will make your floor wet! if you live somewhere very clear with no major roads or pollen nearby, you can probably dry things outside, but if you don't, you'll probably want to position the drying rack in a bath, shower, laundry area, or otherwise over something that will catch and/or absorb the water.
how long it takes for the fibre to dry is another unknowable variable. if it's warm and dry where you are, it might literally be overnight. if it's damp and cool, it can take days. the batch i posted a couple days ago literally took almost a full week to dry. spread it out as best you can, gently squeeze out the water you can, and otherwise you just have to wait.
you're done!
when it's dry, that's it, you're done! you might find that you need to pick off some little lint balls or a bit of compacted or slightly felted fibre from the tips, but other than that, you should be good to go.
like most fibre stuff, this is best maintained by handwashing in cool water. you may see a little bit of dye or colour loss the first time you wash it, which is pretty normal and nothing to worry about.
congratulations! you made it to the end of this incredibly long post, and if you followed along, you've just dyed some fibre!
troubleshooting
this isn't dyed enough! i want more colours!
add more dye! i'm not the boss of you.
this is true even after the fibre is all done and dryed. there's nothing that says you can't dye it againâyou can, and i have.
some fibre seems to require more dye than others. silk, for example, dyes beautifully with acid dyes, but also needs way more dye than i expect it to.
remember that if you're dyeing something that's a wool/cotton blend, for example, the cotton isn't going to dye. the only exception is nylon, which will kinda dye, but not as dramatically. this guide will not work for plant fibres.
this is too dyed! i want fewer colours!
please refer back to the number one most important thing about dyeing, whichâas you knowâis: you can always add more colour, but you cannot take it away.
pull out some more fibre and try again. this has a learning curve, just like any other fibre craft.
these colours don't look like i expected!
this can be about a lot of things.
colour guides, especially if you're looking at them online, aren't always very accurate.
colour guides tend to assume that you're dyeing a single colour at the suggested dye percentage of weight, and using less than that will give paler colours.
dyes, especially if you're mixing brands, can interact with each other and behave in ways you didn't expect.
dyes can also break, which is when they split into their component colour molecules. this happens commonly with blacks and browns, food colouring, and anything that dharma trading has marked as 'advanced'. some people find this very desirable and seek it out; some people are very frustrated by it.
the ph of your water can sometimes affect your dye. i've been lucky enough that i've only lived places with lead problems, not weird ph stuff, so i haven't investigated this closely, but if you're consistently not getting the results you expect, even going for a single, solid-colour dye, look at the ph.
my dye water's not clear!
if you used a quarter teaspoon of dye and a hundred grams of fibre, and it's been, say, 45 minutes of actually hot water and your water still isn't clear, you probably didn't use enough mordant, and you should add some more citric acid or vinegar to encourage the dye to get in there and do its thing.
if you used you used more like a teaspoon of dye, or if the citric acid doesn't change anything, you used too much dye for your fibre. you can either shrug and pour it down the drain, or you can add some more fibre and dye that, too.
my rinse water's not clear!
you probably used too much dye. it's okâjust keep rinsing it, gently, until it's more or less clear.
some colours just like to runâyou know how every once in a while you get a yarn and it just bleeds a little bit every time you wash it? sometimes it's just like that. i wouldn't worry about it too much.
my fibre has felty/clumpy bits!
a little bit of this is normal, especially at the ends of a fibre that felts easily (this means you, merino!)
pick off the bits that you don't likeâthis is generally fairly easy, and involves very minimal fibre loss. i don't bother doing it until i sit down to spin, and then just pull off bits as i come to them.
if there's a lot of felty/clumpy bits, more than you can reasonably pick out, you agitated the fibre too much. there's not much for this other than trying to card it out, which may or may not work.
sometimes this happens because your stove got weirdly aggressive and boiled your fibre. especially for wool that's prone to felting, the bubbling and jostling can be enough to encourage more clinginess than you'd like.
i want my dyeing to be reproducible!
this is kinda doable. it's a handmade thing, so it's always going to have some natural variance, but you can do it.
buy a jeweler's scale that measures in fractions of a gram.
start measuring your dye and acid, and take detailed notes about what you do.
follow those notes in the future, and you'll be probably 90% of the way there.
i want to dye with natural dyes!
i fully support this and have played around with it a little bit myself, but absolutely do not know enough about it to advise you.
the internet is very large and full of many people who are much smarter than i am, and i feel confident that at least one of them is desperate to tell you all about how to do natural dyeing.
i am, at this point, not that person.
i want to dye plant fibres!
i am begging you to find another guide, because this one will not work.
you didn't answer my question!
that's what my inbox is for
i have to reiterate that i'm just a person with real specific interests who started dyeing things because i couldn't find or afford the kinds of colourways that i wanted.
i am not a professional
i will do my best to answer questions, but sometimes the answer is 'just fuck around until you find out'
plant fiâ
shhhhh
the end
thank you for reading this incredibly long post! i might make another one in the near future, either so i can show pictures or because i took out an entire section about how to choose colours and pick a colour scheme and work with colours, and i kinda want to talk more about that, but this is no joke almost six thousand words long, so i thought, you know. maybe not tonight.
anyhow, i hope that this was useful to someone! thank you for letting me talk about one of my very favourite things.
#dyeing#craftblr#fiber arts#fiber craft#fibre arts#fiber#fibre#dyeing wool#i'm sorry this is so long#it kinda got away from me#i just want to tell people about cool stuff!#and then talk about the cool stuff for an unreasonably long time#you know#like a normal person#anyhow this was fun#dyeing is super fun and you should try it#sorry to say that i am Not editing this#because i only edit things when people are paying me for them#but i did make my wife read it to make sure i got all the main stuff#so we should be good#still: sorry for any stylistic inconsistencies#smartest raccoon i know
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you know if you guys voted for stretch armstrong i probably would have shut up a lot sooner tonight
#so really this is all your fault /lh /j#i love thinking about h2o tho so im happy#VERY FUCKING TIRED THO WISH I COULD SLEEP#i think my brain is kicking into overdrive after being filled with cotton the past 3 days which. hey im glad ur back bud#CAN YOU SHUT UP NOW I NEED REST#i was just thinking because im probably not posting that essay i will summarize here (i saw#that privating it made it lose like 4 recently edited paragraphs and i don't want to type all that out again my memory isn't good enough)#it just boiled down to the pods basically making a self fulfilling prophecy by orphaning their sons and making them increasingly#desperate for connections to other people like them which is why i think erik behaves the way he does esp when ondina is around#like i am not excusing his actions in the slightest dont get me wrong here he really fucked up BUT#his last conversation with ondina before he goes to the chamber kind of sold that idea to me#how he scoffs at her saying rita says it's dangerous because she's 'old school' and of COURSE old school mermaids think all mermen are evil#and then starts adding on how he wants to do this for HER and get her home back for her by controlling it#like a bit of an add-on at the end to try and convince her#i think what he really wants is to be hailed as a hero. you know. validation and acceptance from the ppl who originally abandoned him#the OGs who made him feel like an outsider. the ppl who ripped everything away from him just bc of the way he was born (which is prob why#when he's trying to convince zac to help him he keeps bringing up their ancestors bc that's what unifies them)#i don't think he's an evil dude per se i think he thought stealing the trident stone from rita's grotto would be small peanuts in the past#once he finally got the pod to come home bc he genuinely (mistakenly) believed he COULD control the power of the chamber#i also think that's why the camera keeps focusing on his face when he's watching the others panic over#zac's sacrifice and i think he is feeling jealousy bc they are paying attention to him and not Erik#like that's not the face of someone who deeply regrets what they just did. my guy is just sitting there like 'that should be me rn'#i think that is why he also sounds so desperate to make things right with ondina afterwards. iirc he's just like 'wait no we can start ove#RIGHT?' and she's like 'uhhhh... no??????' (valid). my dude is lonely as fuck and he finally found a group of ppl like him and he messed up#big time just trying to get their attention and affection bc he couldn't just be normal abt it he had to go big or go home#like i kind of feel bad for him in a way#but i feel bad for everyone#i felt bad for denman the other day! that's how bad this is getting!!#i mean come on imagine making the scientific discovery of a LIFETIME only for all that shit to happen in a row#especially after you get your comeback. they just go right back to fucking you over again
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people are so weird about stopping for animals on the road. sorry but if you don't have the ability to see that the squirrel standing on the side of the completely straight 40kph road 10 houses ahead is going to bolt in front of you, you can't do that with children either & should not be driving. it is literally a skill issue.
#''so you're expecting me to predict the future??'' no i'm telling you to pay fucking attention to the road dumbass#i have yet to hit anyone or anything because i pay attention to what is on the road around me & i go the speed limit#i managed to stop my car when a deer jumped out in front of me in the middle of the night because of this apparently supernatural skill#sorry if you can't do this maybe you shouldn't be driving then#edit to say the dude i'm arguing with about this just said they have t.rex vision. they ''only hit things that aren't moving''#WRONG thing to say to me very specifically there bud. t.rex had AMAZING vision#also you don't even live here. you're in toronto. why are you here#plus admitting you hit things with your car does not help your case. i am not convinced you shouldn't have your licence taken away#funny how you can say ''i follow the speed limit & pay attention'' & people will get mad at that#to the point you actively have to tell them ''do you think i'm swerving into oncoming traffic? cuz i am not doing that''#also i guarantee their stance would change in less than a second when i remind them BABY CANADIAN GEESE ARE RAISED HERE#THEY WALK ON THE ROAD TO GET TO THE RIVER. DO YOU WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR BABY GEESE DYING#DO YOU WANT THE GEESE TO REMEMBER YOU AS THE GUY WHO DID THAT. CUZ I SURE AS FUCK DON'T#i live next to the river & an elementary school & there are a criminal lack of crosswalks#i am going the fucking speed limit & i don't care if that pisses you off or makes you late. you are the weirdo here#editing again to say i'm teaching this guy about dinosaur evolution now. character development
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is there anyway you can write a cute, fluffy little story for Walker Scobell?
YES OMG I HAVENT BEEN ACTIVE BC I HAVE MIDTERMS
warnings: fluff, reader plays annabeth (i love leah dont come for me), no use of y/n, reader and walker arenât dating but are obvi crushing
requests are open!!
You and Walker were filming a buzzfeed puppy interview, sitting in the middle of the floor.
Walker sat with his legs crisscrossed, smiling wide at the brown spotted dog that nuzzled his leg. âIs it on? Oh, hi, Iâm Walker Scobell, and I play Percy Jackson.â
âHi,â you introduced yourself, âI play Annabeth Chase,â you picked up the fluffy fured black one that was by your foot, âand your watching buzzfeed!â You put a thumbs up at the camera, earning a laugh from the boy beside you.
âWait I wanted to say it, Iâm literally the main characterââ
âBut Iâm the best character. Walker, you can say it at Vanity Fair.â He rolled his eyes at you, smiling slightly.
âOkay, moving on! umâŠwhatâs the question? What was your favorite scene to filmâŠumâŠoh thats a hard one. Iâm gonna sayâŠeither the fight with the Ares kids in capture the flag, or falling out of the arch. The harness thing was annoying to put on, but the other parts were fun.â Walker was only half paying attention, preoccupied by the dogs.
âI think the tunnel of love scene, or the one where Annabeth pushes Percy in the water, âcause I got to push Walker really hard.â You glanced at him, watching the smile curl onto his face.
âYeah. We did like 15 takes of that because she kept laughing.â Walker laughed, shaking his head. âActually, she laughed a lot. We had to retake lots of stuff âcause of her, especially the tunnel of love scene. The boat flipped and she wouldnât stop laughing.â He shifted closer to you, messing with the puppy youâre holding.
âOh! the next questionâŠwhatâs your opinion on each other? UmâŠwalker is the best blonde dude ever i think. like heâs literally my kid i swear, and he was honestly the best choice for percy. i think heâs the reason i even got to be annabeth, im really greatful for him. Aryan is super sweet and cool, heâs my best best friend, we do the stupidest things together, and I canât imagine a world we arenât honorary siblings.â You scratched behind a puppyâs ear, letting it lick you.
âWell I was just gonna say youâre awesome butâŠI guess I think we make a great team on-screen as well as off-screen. Sheâs a true friend. If it weren't for her, I don't know what I'd do, y'know? Sheâs like my very own real life Annabeth." He glanced up at you subtly, wanting to gauge your reaction, smiling in victory when he noticed the red tint to your cheeks.
âTheâŠthe next one says, how do you feel about fan support? is it overwhelming? Well, my answer is yes, sometimes. Especially with people who are really like into the book to the point where they hated the casting over looks.â You had started to speak a lot quieter as Walker drifted closer, trying to get the puppy off your lap.
âI donât think much of it.â Walker shurgs. âOnly really the edits that I see anyway, those are fun.â He smiles encouragingly at you , finally meeting your eyes.
ââŠYeah. The edits.â You smile at him, referring to the ship edits. Youâd talked about it in multiple interviews, and you had a favorites folder for them on Tiktok. You raised an eyebrow at Walker, who continued to move closer until his head was on your lap, giggling softly and starting pet his hair like you did the puppys fur.
âOkay, last questionâŠhave there been any memorable moments on set? UmâŠprobably when i first met her. I just got the feeling she was gonna be Annabeth, she gave me this âwhat is he doing?â Look, and it just clicked.â He stayed with his head on your lap, turning so his head is on your stomach when puppies come and attack him with licks.
âThey think youâre one of them!â You push him off a little so the puppies can get to him. âAnd my answerâŠumâŠI think when Walker gave me the piece of banana that was in my hair in the show. He kinda just tied it in and left my set trailer, and it stuck. So if you guys wondered what the weird blue fabric in Annabethâs hair was, it was not in fact a design choice, it was a Percy choice.â You turn so the camera can see the small braid in your hair with the bandanna piece at the end.
âAnd Percyâs got one too, if you look hard enough.â He lifts one of his feet, showing the vans he wore during filming, and the flimsy piece of bandanna tied through his top shoe hole. You shake your head, laughing at his insistence in staying with his head in your lap.
While you layed on his bed, you scrolled through your fyp, stopping when you see the familiar scene of you two in the buzzfeed room, with his head in your lap. Nodding your head to the song in the edit as you scrolled through the comments.
âIRL percabeth?â He questioned from beside you. You looked at him, not realizing he had started paying attention to you, jumping to get your phone from him.
âNo, Iâm commenting! And reposting!â He laughed, rolling away from you. You got off the bed behind him, giving up taking the phone and blinking when he simply commented ârealâ.
âWell, so much for âitâll blow overâ.â You rolled your eyes, knowing the dating allegations will only get worse after this. Walker smiled triumphantly, waiting for the responses to come in.
taglist: @persassyxo @diorlorenzo @ilovewalkerscobell @paytonthereader @platypusbearrr @kissatelier @riptidelor
#percy jackson#annabeth chase#x reader#walker scobell#grover underwood#percy jackson x reader#walker scobell x reader
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Edit: look I didn't do a good job explaining what these were for the first time so I've got a second edit at the bottom of the page that explains things better.
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I made my own pain and fatigue scale charts. Because I'm so adept at overcoming my symptoms the normal pain scale doesn't really work for me. I adjusted my numbers so that I could change the number into something I could tell a doctor when they inevitably ask me to rate my pain.
[Image Description: Pain Scale Chart with rainbow gradient background for each row, starting at red and ending at blue.
Row 1: Mine Drs Pain Scale Description
Row 2: 10 X I am not leaving my bedroom or bathroom, someone needs to bring me food and I need something to dull the pain or the pain will cause tears.
Row 3: 9 X I am not leaving my bedroom and bathroom for anything other than food.
Row 4: 8 10 Speaking is difficult. It is no longer practical to do activities outside of the bathroom or bedroom, but they can be done with assistance.
Row 5: 7 9 Necessary care activities are sacrificed. Academic activities and social activities can no longer be tolerated.
Row 6: 6 8 My pain is tiring. Paying attention is difficult. All activities require pacing and extra effort.
Row 7: 5 7 My pain is so distracting it is making me tired. It is hard to think. Necessary care activities are no longer all doable.
Row 8: 4 6 My pain is so distracting it is making me tired. It is harder to think. Necessary care activities are starting to be limited.
Row 9: 3 5 I can continue to do most activities
Row 10: 2 4 My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time
Row 11: 1 3 My pain bothers me, but I can ignore it most of the time.
Row 12: 0 2 I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it
Row 13: X 1 My pain is hardly noticeable
Row 14: X 0 I have no pain. END Image Description]
[Image Description:
Fatigue Scale Chart with rainbow gradient background for each row, starting at red and ending at blue.
Row 1: Mine Drs Fatigue Scale Description
Row 2: 10 X Can barely sit up, needs assistance to get out of bed. Holding conversations is impossible. Laying down for most of the day is necessary. It is difficult to eat. Focusing is strenuous.
Row 3: 9 X Able to walk and stand for short distances. Holding conversations is difficult. Laying down for most of the day is necessary. It is difficult to eat. Focusing is strenuous.
Row 4: 8 10 Able to walk and stand for short distances. Holding conversations is difficult. Sitting for long Periods of time is difficult. It is difficult to eat. Focusing is strenuous. Preparing a meal isnât possible.
Row 5: 7 9 Holding conversations is difficult. Sitting or standing for long Periods of time is difficult. It is difficult to eat. Focusing is strenuous.
Row 6: 6 8 Sitting or standing for long Periods of time is difficult. It is difficult to eat. Focusing is difficult. Preparing a meal is difficult.
Row 7: 5 7 Standing or walking for long periods is difficult. It is difficult to eat. Focusing is difficult.
Row 8: 4 6 Standing or walking for long periods is difficult. Focusing is difficult.
Row 9: 3 5 Cooking for longer than 15 minutes is extremely challenging.
Row 10: 2 4 Not everything can be done in the day. Activities are slowed down. Difficult mental challenges are sacrificed.
Row 11: 1 3 Tiredness makes it difficult to enjoy fun activities.
Row 12: 0 2 Things take more effort than usual, but everything is still doable.
Row 13: X 1 Slightly tired but still able to carry on as normal
Row 14: X 0 Not tired at all
END Image Description.]
Feel free to use them yourself if you like them!
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Edit p2:
So these charts I made them for showing people and using them to talk about my pain. The numbers are just sort of a reference point . The words are what's important. The fact that it is a relationship is what's significant.
I've got chronic pain and chronic fatigue. I'm never not in pain and I'm never not tired. These are based on the main pain and fatigue scales that I usually get shown at places that aren't specialized in treating pain or fatigue.
I use these when talking to my family, using the number that relates to the mine side. I use these with my non pain doctors who don't treat my pain or fatigue. I use the Drs number when talking to Drs. Anything that in those X spots is also 10. Drs don't like pain larger than 10 because they think you're faking it.
I made these after getting covid. It was about a year later and I still couldn't describe my pain in terms of the standard scale because I couldn't conceptualize pain properly because covid had completely broken my internal perception of pain intensity. Because I went from never having gone to 10/10 or ever being there for very long to about 2 weeks of what I could only describe as 13/10 pain. It was logarithmically higher than anything I my brain could process. And my brain didn't process it. I just sort of cried a lot, slowly.
If you are ever using a personalized pain scale or something you found online with a doctor you should show them what you're talking about. You need to make sure they understand you.
I posted this because I was having a hard time saying that while I was at a 3 in terms of abilities, I was in just as much pain as when I had been previously at a 5. I needed something that showed what I was talking about.
It feels very strange adding all these disclaimers so far after, but I've been thinking "it's too late" every time Ive realized someone might use it in a way that wouldn't help them. And then ignoring the problem for a while.
We've got 3k notes on this. People keep looking at it. The disclaimers are nessesary. I'm sorry they weren't there before.
I just remembered that I specifically made this because I needed to be able to point at a number and have my parents be able to know what that meant. They don't have training in the pain scale. They don't know what it means. But they do know what I mean now when I say I'm at a 6. They understand me.
The point is, this says that it's used for talking to doctors and it's really not. It's for my family mostly. And my PCP who keeps asking what pain I'm at and I just need to say a number that communicates the thing she wants to know (that's why the Drs thing is on there. That's the number she needs. She doesn't care. It's weird. She's weird.)
But it is mostly for my family. It's for describing how I'm doing.
Do not use this in emergencies!!! Do not use this with pain specialists without showing it to them!!!
#chronic illness#chronic pain#chronic condition#disability#chronic fatigue#cfs/me#chronically ill#spoonie#amps#disabled#actually chronically ill#actually disabled#stardust maple#pain scale#fatigue scale#chronic fatigue scale#chronic pain scale#long post
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More Than Friends
how to help the Palestinian people
pairing: best friend!ellie williams x fem!reader (set in the jackson era)
description: you and ellie have been friends for awhile. while at a party for tommyâs birthday, you try to catch the attention of your crushes. sadly, they are all over each other. in a childish effort to get them to pay attention, you two try to make them jealous. 'cause that always ends the way you think, right?
word count: 3.3k words
warnings: MINORS DNI! this is 18+, smut, wlw, f!receiving oral (reader), fingering, jealousy, semi-public sex, dirty talk, tons of nicknames, no mentions of reader's appearance. talks of sexuality, but it's vague. reader wants to fuck whoever, it doesn't matter lol. let me know if I missed anything!
author's note: I wrote this after watching one too many ellie edits on tik tok. it was written in two hours, so it's not my finest work but it scratched my little ellie itch. okay, much love xoxoxoxxo
âSo⊠you really like Dina, huh?â
Her face twists immediately at the question. She throws herself back in the wooden chair, cursing under her breath. Her arms cross over her chest, her t-shirt riding up a bit above her jeans.Â
You saw the way Ellie looked at Dina. She looks at her like she hung the moon. She was always fumbling over her words around her, nervous to say the wrong thing. When she did try to flirt, it came up awkward and strained. And you understood her predicament because you were the same way about Jesse.Â
You both were pining after two people in a committed relationship.
âIt doesnât matter anyway,â She mumbles, gesturing towards the center of the room where Dina and Jesse slow danced. He was leaning down to whisper something in her ear and it made your stomach flip. âShe would never go for me.â
You felt bad for Ellie. She was everything you wished you were yourself; beautiful and funny. You felt like you were the only one, besides the Millers, who got her dry humor. You two had met in class about two years ago, now. You were a newcomer to Jackson, arriving about two months prior with your mom. When you got seated next to Ellie, you could tell her give-no-fucks attitude would mesh well with your give-too-many-fucks attitude. Over the years, you two had really rubbed off one another. You two were inseparable.Â
âYouâre the whole package, Els,â You say before nudging her shoulder with your elbow. You two are moping at a table near the exit of the food hall. It was Tommyâs birthday celebration, so everyone in Jackson got together to plan a big bash for him. Ellie felt obligated to come and your mom was pretty close to Maria. More time spent with your best friend wasnât time wasted, so here you are.Â
âAt least she shows you the time of day,â You say under your breath.Â
Jesse had been pretty flippant with you. He could never remember your name, let alone that you two shared the same street in Jackson. You also once shared a table at the mess hall. He was so tall and strong. Your crush on him was more physical than it was emotional. He was funny, sure, but you mainly just wanted to get him alone.Â
âWhy are we doing this to ourselves?â She ponders, finally looking away from the canoodling couple across the room, âWe could do so much better!â
You know sheâs just trying to convince herself of something she doesnât really believe. The tone of her voice changes when sheâs lying.Â
âLike who? Slim pickinâs out here, Ellie. We have them and maybe 4 other undesirable people. Thereâs always the butcherâs son, he always had eyes for you.â
She grabs her cup from the table in front of you, âYeah, men are⊠not my type.â
You turn your body so your legs are nudging her thighs, âThen, you really donât have any choices.â
She nods her lips in a thin line. âI wish I could just.. Just go up there and talk to her. Ya know?â
âWhy canât you?â
âThe same reason you canât just go up and talk to Jesse.â
You roll your eyes, leaning forward on your knees. Your body is practically in her bubble, but she just sits back with her arm over the back of your chair.
You and Ellie had no real boundaries. You had no qualms about physical touch and Ellie never said anything or seemed to mind. You two have shared a horse countless times and even a bed. She never steered away from you.
âWell, Dina will talk to you if she sees other girls talking to you,â you state, reflecting on the last time everyone in Jackson got together. Some random girl came up to you two and as soon as Dina saw Ellie laughing with the other girl, she scrambled across the room to see what the fuss was about. You saw the same glint in her eyes that Ellie had.Â
For some reason, it made you kind of jealous.Â
You never tried to explore those knee-jerk emotions you had for Ellie. She was your best friend and you were positive she never felt romantic feelings towards you. Plus, you werenât sure of your feelings about your sexuality. You always told Ellie you just liked who you liked, not really putting any importance on what was between their legs. You werenât very experienced, but you had hooked up with both genders and liked it all equally.
âThat was a coincidence, bug.â
That stupid nickname that she called you. Born from the one time you practically attracted every infected in the area with your scream over a huge beetle. She could not let it go and ended up calling you bug, just to annoy you.Â
You finally look up at her freckled face, waiting for her to crack a smile. When you squint at her with contempt, she smirks.Â
âWhy donât we find another girl and test the theory?â
She glances around the populated party, âEveryone here is over the age of 40.â
You turn back to the crowd of people around you and see that sheâs right.Â
You mull it over, your brain working to find a way that you both could get their attention. You two could simply say fuck it and go watch a movie and forget this stupid encounter happened. Joel would probably chew Ellie out, but when doesnât he do that?Â
Your next idea is something dangerous but something you had thought about before. You had never brought up the idea to Ellie because you were afraid of her reaction.Â
âWhatâs your idea?â
She could read you like a book. You pursed your lips, wondering if you should even propose the idea to her.Â
âHow desperate are you?â
She laughs out loud, completely taken aback by the query. âJesus, what are you thinkinâ?â
You lick your lips, trying to make sure the idea comes out as a whisper.
âWhy donât we make them jealous? Just you and me?â
âHow though?â
You bite the inside of your cheek, âWell, Iâm a girl.â
You glance back at where Dina and Jesse were just dancing. They are both now facing you twoâs direction, Jesse engrossed in a conversation with Tommy. Dina is just sipping from her glass, not really staring anywhere specific.Â
You look back at Ellie whoâs also looking at her, but meets your eyes when your face gets closer to hers.Â
You would tell her how beautiful she was all the time and she just would roll her eyes and change the subject. You were physically attracted to her and there had been a couple of times you had thought about kissing her and wondered what her lips would feel like against yours.Â
But she was your best friend.Â
âWrap your arm over my back,â You are still positioned, your elbows on your knees, your knees facing her thighs, âAnd rub it.â
She furrows her eyebrows, but she submits and brings the arm that is slouched over the chair to your lower back. You nod, watching as her lids lower. Her hand creeps up and down your side, her fingers grazing your ribs, up to your side boob. âNow what, bug?â
âNow, slowly move your hand up my back,â She does it as youâre speaking and the movement makes the hairs on your arms stand up, âGrab the nape of my neck.â
âWhy are you making me do this?â
You lift up off your hands, bringing your face closer to hers. She doesnât budge, sitting still and only focused on you and your words.Â
âBecause,â Her hand grabs the back of your neck, before slowly bringing it forward to collar bone. The gentleness of her touch and the fact that itâs your Ellie, makes every sense heightened. You donât even realize how her touch is making you feel until you see her crack a smile.Â
âBecause why?â She whispers, her voice teasing.Â
âCause I want them to see you touch me.â
It comes out needy and desperate. Her eyes change when it slips from your lips, instead of being playful, sheâs looking at you like youâre her next meal. She leans forward, her face millimeters from yours.Â
You had never talked to Ellie like this but at this moment, you were completely transfixed on her. She was wearing a flannel over her shoulders covering her usual gray t-shirt. The sleeves were rolled up exposing the tattoo Cat did on her a year ago.Â
You always thought it was hot, the way it trailed up her arm from her delicate wrist.
Her jeans are ripped and her legs and man-spreaded like she was carrying something in her jeans.Â
And she smelled like pine. You loved it when you got the privilege to sleep next to her because her linens always smelled like her. You would love the idea of getting into bed with her right now.
âHow do you want me to touch you?â
You chew the inside of your lip, âAny way you want to.â
She chuckles before brushing her hand down your exposed arm, âIs this for the bit or do you want me to genuinely touch you?â
You notice her being sincere. You think back to all the times you joked about sleeping with Ellie, and while at the time you chalked them up to being jokes, deep down, maybe itâs actually what you wanted.Â
With the way sheâs looking at you now, you prayed on every star that she would continue pushing your buttons. That somehow she would forget Dina even exists and realize it was you all along.
âHey guys,â Her voice brings you out of your horny daze. It was the last voice you were expecting, and you can tell by the look on Ellieâs face, she is thinking the same thing.Â
âOh, hey Dina!â You quip up, not moving all the much to ensure she sees Ellieâs hand on your bicep.Â
âYou two busy?â The way she asks is almost too demanding. You glance back over at Ellie whose color is draining from her face.Â
You shake your head, finally sitting up. Ellieâs hand doesnât leave you though, instead, it just drops to your thigh. You try not to acknowledge it, as you notice Jesse coming up behind Dina. But now it feels so heavy against your legs, the weight of the situation finally hitting you.Â
It worked.Â
âWe are just talking,â Ellie manages, her voice cracking.Â
Jesse comes up behind Dina, wrapping his arms around her. Youâre suddenly grateful that Ellieâs hand is still on you, the jitters hitting your system subsiding by the physical feeling of her being so near.Â
âLooked like more than that,â Jesse jokes, his smile taking up a lot of his face, âYou good Ellie?â
âEllie was just telling me about the patrol she just went on with Jesse,â You explain quickly, making sure to look at Dina and not Jesse. âShe told me about the infected yâall ran into!â
âOh yeah, shit was crazy,â Jesse squeezes Dina tighter, âWe gotta get back out there again, Ellie. You were a beast at taking those suckers down.â
âU-uh yeah, absolutely.â
You grab her hand as a reassurance. The exchange gets awkward quickly, none of you knowing what else to say.Â
âWell, we should get goinâ,â Dina says tapping Jesseâs arms, âSee you two around?â
You two just nod. They walk away, not saying much of anything else. You stare at the wall, humiliated by the last 10 minutes of your life. You were unsure if you could even look Ellie in the eyes again.Â
Ellie huffs loudly, sitting further back in her chair. âWell, that failed.â
You start to agree until that little bit of Ellie thatâs rubbed off on you starts to come up your throat. The not-giving-much-of-a-fuck is creeping up on you.Â
âDid it? Because I think it went exactly how I wanted it to.â
You finally return your eyes to her bewildered expression. You pull her hand off your lap as you stand up, yanking her up after you.Â
âYou wanted it to go like that? What was the point?â
You pull her closer to you before raising your lips up to her ear. Her hair is tucked behind the crest of her ear, so it tickles your nose a bit before you speak.Â
She turned you on, so now you needed her to do something about it. Hereâs to not giving a fuck.Â
âThe point was to get you to finally touch me.â
The temperature in the room rises a million degrees. Ellieâs eyes light up at the statement and you know that was exactly what she wanted to hear before Dina came up to you.Â
You start to pull her towards the kitchen door, right near your table. You remember finding a hidden supply closet back there last Christmas party. Your skin was on fire as you dragged her through the appliances to the somewhat large closet. It was practically empty, void of anything anyone at the party may need, so it was safe. Plus it had a lock.Â
As soon as the door shuts behind her, Ellieâs on you. Her lips hit yours and it was exactly how you imagined it. She was quick and eager with her kisses, her tongue plunging into your mouth immediately. She was grabbing your hips, pushing you towards the wall where all the brooms and mops were. You try not to trip, giggling as you pull her face closer to you.Â
âSo this is what you wanted?â She pulls away from you for a breath, âUsing making Dina jealous as a ploy to get to finally kiss you?â
Your hands find the spot above the hem of her jeans, right under her t-shirt. Out of instinct, you start to unbutton her pants.Â
âActually, that wasnât the plan.â
Her eyes are trained on your lips, âIs that so?â
âNo, but you were playing the part way too well and I realized something.â
âWhat did you realize?â
The overhead light was so dim but you could still somehow see her cute freckles.Â
âThat I want you more than I want anyone else. I need you to touch me more often.â
She chuckles, her fingers still pressed into your hips, âWell, bug, Iâm touching you just like you asked.â
She drags kisses up your jaw and neck. You try not to fall apart over that alone. Ellie always talked about how inexperienced she was, but sheâs probably the most tentative kisser you have ever encountered.Â
âCan you touch me here?â
You press your hands to the zip of your jeans. She looks down at your body to where youâre touching and she clicks her tongue.Â
âAsk politely, baby, and Iâll do anything you want.â
The nickname change makes your heart stop.Â
âCan you, my sweet best friend, touch me and get me off? Please?â
She groans at the question, a sound you never thought sheâd make for you.Â
âOf course,â She grabs the belt loops of your pants before yanking them down your legs without resistance, âWhat are friends for?â
You know youâre soaked by the way she smiles up at you. She gets down on her knees, looking up at you, as her hands slowly start to spread your legs. You are standing against a wall, watching your best friendâs face creep close to your center.Â
Itâs the hottest thing youâve ever seen. She pulls at your panties, toying with the fabric before you take matters into your own hands and pull them down your legs.Â
She brings her lower lip between her teeth, âThis wet for me?â
You could slap the stupid smirk off her face, but before you can even say something snarky back, she slips her digits between your glistening slit. Your body practically buckles at the prodding, so you brace yourself against the shelf next to you.
Your normal reaction to feeling good is to close your legs together tightly, but Ellie has her left hand mounted to your inner thigh, keeping you open for her, while the other one is slowly creeping up to your weeping hole. Sheâs gentle when she puts one finger inside you.
Once your body reacts around her, she pulls her finger out to inspect how wet you are. After sheâs satisfied with her findings, she adds another which causes you to mewl at the sensation.Â
âEllie, please,â You beg, trying to get more friction. Sheâs not letting you do anything but watch.Â
âMmm,â She hums before moving her face closer to you, âLove to hear you moan my name, bug. You wanna be a good girl? Keep begging.â
You never took Ellie as someone who loves to hear her sexual partner beg, but it turns you on even more.Â
You watch her close in on your clit, her tongue finding the bud and flicking it a couple of times. The moans that come out of your mouth are so deprived. Her fingers slip so seamlessly in and out of you, that you try to remember a time you were so wet. Nothing comes to mind because all your brain is thinking is Ellie, Ellie, Ellie.Â
âPlease, please,â you plead, trying your best to egg her on so she goes faster. It works because she picks up the pace fucking you. Her mouth suddenly closes around your clit, and she sucks.Â
Your one hand is still gripping onto whatever is next to you, but your other hand has to rest somewhere. Her short brown locks are right there, so you grab on.Â
Her mouth leaves your clit, and instead, her tongue licks up and down your weeping hole. When you bring her closer in, her nose starts to stimulate your sensitive bud.Â
The sounds are so wet and depraved, youâre sure the bubbling in your stomach is about to come to a tipping point. You find yourself grinding forward, trying to get friction on your clit again. Her nose prods the spot over and over again as you grind down onto her face.Â
Ellie hums as she fucks you, trying her best to push your limit. You know youâre close and you are sure she can feel how tight your pussy is gripping onto her fingers. She knows youâre close so she kicks it up a notch and shakes her head between your folds. That motion alone sends a tidal wave within you crashing to the shore. You pull her hair so hard, you know it probably hurts but fuck, you needed her to feel how good she was making you feel.Â
The white-hot feeling starts to subside and you are panting like you just ran a mile. You finally release Ellieâs head, letting her come up for air. Her lips are saturated with your slick and it looks like sheâs drunk on you by the way her eyes are half shut. She pulls her two fingers out of your tight hole, making you whine at the emptiness.Â
She stands up, bringing her two fingers up to your lips.Â
âWanna see how good you taste?â
Sheâs so fucking dirty. It gets you so riled up.Â
You grab onto her wrist and bring the fingers up to your mouth. You suck them dry, giving into how absurd this is.Â
âYouâre a freak, too,â She beams at you, before bringing you into another feverish kiss. You were so mesmerized by her. She grabs onto your hips, pulling your naked bottom half to her still-clothed legs.Â
âWhy didnât we do this sooner?â You grumble, still recovering from the drilling you just had. Her hands travel up your sides, under your t-shirt. She is holding onto your ribcage, looking at your exposed tummy as the shirt rides up.Â
âI didnât think youâd go for me, especially when guys like Jesse are your type,â She explains, so enthralled by the way your body looks to her, âI donât know if I can let him have you, now.â
You smirk, your hands twisting around her shoulders, âOh, I see. Well, if he canât have me, then Dina canât have you.â
âWell, thank God they have each other, then.â
#ellie williams#ellie williams x reader#ellie williams tlou#ellie williams oneshot#ellie tlou#ellie x reader#ellie the last of us#ellie x fem reader#tlou2#the last of us 2#gracieheartspedro#tlou ellie#ellie williams x you#ellie williams smut
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Monsters: Mikey Sano x Reader x Izana Kurokawa
Chapter 2: Shots Fired
series summary: your grievous sin was Emma standing up for you to her brothers. and now youâre going to pay the heavy price for destroying their perfect family dynamic.
chapter summary: Izana Kurokawa demands your attention and he doesnât take no for an answer. Not even when his demands are outrageous.
cw: DARK CONTENT, MISOGYNY, NSFW, r*pe mention, religious guilt, depictions of PTSD and CPTSD, emotional incest, abandoment issues, violence, revenge porn, depression, filming without consent, drugging, implied domestic abuse, victim blaming, blackmailing, manipulation, gaslighting, mind break, psychological torture, use of firearms
r-18+ (not suitable for 17 and under)
wc: 11.6k
[masterlist] [chapter 1] [chapter 3] [taglist]
a/n: likes are nice, comments and reblogs with comments are superior, anons are also superior too and would make me update faster cause it means people like what i write. this chapter takes an entirely different turn from the old story, some scenes are similar but the context is different. i host polls after this so stay tuned. Edit 02/11/2024: this chapter's end has been edited and changed. I've indicated the edited point, so that you could skip other parts to read it. Thank you.
 YOU havenât been able to stay asleep for the past few days.
Itâs easy to fall asleep after a hard and stressful day at school and your part-time job. Your limbs ache from all the walking and lugging a bookbag far heavier than what you could handle -since all your e-textbooks were on your (now destroyed) laptop and phones were not allowed during lectures. And working from 5pm until 9pm at a restaurant, serving food to rude, overbearing customers only to be paid in pieces was another added stress in itself.
Not to mention, studying until the words are bleary and just looking at a book hurts your eyes.
But then, in all your dreams, everything youâve pushed to the back of your memory is at the forefront. Your dream starts typically, your normal school day, waking up, dressing in your cute little blue crop sweater and jean skirt with socks. You go to classes, and then you see Mikeyâs car waiting for Emma.
Things take a different turn. Heâs the one getting out of the car to meet you. Itâs like a siren call, him holding out his hand for you to take despite someone screaming for you to stop. You try to reject him, try to run away like the voice said but you end up getting trapped. This time, heâs not using his hands. Heâs fully sheathed inside you, robbing you of the thing you hold so dear while you kick, bite and claw at him until you wake up screaming, sweat soaked all over your sheets.
You consistently dream of being violently raped by Manjiro Sano.
The next few hours until sunrise were equally horrible. Youâre quietly sobbing into your pillows, praying to God to forgive you for letting Mikey touch you in the first place, assuming your reason for having such dreams was Godâs divine judgement for your grievous sin. Youâve lost count on how many Bible verses you stay up reading until your eyes are bleary and the sun comes up.
No matter how much you pray and how many times you recite psalms 127 before you sleep, you can never escape Mikey in the world of dreams. Heâs a virus that has invaded your thoughts, corrupting every dream you had and twisted them into nightmares.
You donât know how long you can hold on being this sleep deprived. Itâs been impairing your school life, trying to find a way to stay awake during classes only for you to fall asleep and miss the rest of it. Even when you got notes from the person next to you, reading them was always difficult because your eyes hurt so much.
Work was even more taxing and stressful, rush week adding more stress than you could ever imagine. You found yourself spacing out more than usual when you were supposed to be taking orders. You were unable to keep up with the fast paced environment, your body feeling like a ton of bricks with every moment you make. Your eyes were heavy lidded, tired from forcing them open throughout the day.
You were so, so tired-
âHello! Are you sleeping on me young lady?â A voice snapped at you.
Your eyes shot open and immediately you stood back straight. You must have been dozing off while taking the older ladyâs order -the very thing youâve been trying to avoid all day long. âNo, not at all Ms-â you started to explain. â-I was just ⊠what was your order aga-â
You flinched when the woman angrily slammed her fist on the table, shutting you up instantly! âSo you were sleeping on the job! What kind of establishment allows this?â She screamed, attracting the attention of customers around. âI need to speak to your manager. NOW!â
You instantly began to panic at the mention of your manager. If he heard any of this, he was definitely going to fire you. You cannot afford to lose this job right now, with all your school expenses and saving up money for next sessionâs tuition.
âNo mam!â you begged, keeping your voice even as you tried to reason with her. âTh-thereâs no need for that! Please! Let me take your order and Iâll-â you racked your brain for an excuse, knowing fully well your establishment does not offer free meals. â- Iâll pay for your meal! On me-â
âSo youâre trying to imply Iâm poor?â She interrupted you again, her tempo even higher than before. âYou disrespectful little wretch! How dare you? GET ME YOUR MANAGER RIGHT NOW!â
You started begging the older woman, trying to calm her down and de-escalate the situation, but each plea only fuelled her rage. By now, every customer, every employee and just anyone in that place watched you grovel and beg this woman to calm down, some people even videoing your altercation. Your body was trembling as she screeched in your ears, calling you all sorts of names while you relentlessly apologised to her.
âWhat is going on here?â
You winced at the sound of your managerâs voice emerging from the backrooms. You stood stiffly as he walked to your side, using his shoulder to nudge you out of the way. âIs there something wrong Ms.?â He asked the lady. âWhat happened?â
âThis little wretch!â She practically screeched at you, her finger wagging straight at your hung face. âShe was sleeping while I was ordering! And when I pointed it out to her calmly, she called me a hag!â
Your eyes snapped open. You can tolerate people yelling at you, but lying is out of the question. âI did not call you anything! Thatâs a lie-â
âYou be quiet!â Your manager yelled at you, silencing you. He turned to face the woman again, apologising profusely for your so called rude behaviour. âI promise you mam, she will be dealt with accordingly. Your order is in the house, please take that as a token of our humble apology and forgive us.â
You stood there in shock as the woman smirked satisfactorily at her now free meal. âWell, you better get rid of her!â She snarked, eyes scanning you up and down, plopping back down on her seat. âOr youâll lose me as a patron.â
âOf course mam.â He said sweetly before switching his countenance towards you into a more irritated one. âYou, come with me.â
You lowered your head once again in disappointment as you started following your manager towards the back rooms, your head lowered in shame as the eyes followed your every move to your damnation waiting for you in the managerâs office.
Your skin crawled as you felt his penetrating gaze on you, as if judging you. âYou know how many complaints I have received this week just from you, (name)? How many orders youâve messed up?â
You shook your head no in response, not trusting yourself to say anything reasonable at this point. He eyes you up and down again before scoffing at you rudely. âI only let you stay here because you said you were desperate for a job. But apparently, youâre not even bothered enough to keep it.â He spat out. âUnfortunately for you, this is the end of the road for you here. Change out of your uniform and leave.â
âBut s-â
âI said youâre FIRED. GET OUT.â
You sighed weakly, obeying your now ex-managerâs order and leaving the office. You ignored the eyes of everyone watching you exchange the too tight black jeans and green top uniform back to your white bohemian skirt and light blue top with your white jacket. Calmly, you packed your school bag and everything you owned with you and slung it over your shoulder, replacing the uniform back to the locker, dropping the key on top.
No one said goodbye to you as you left through the back door.
  IZANA knows it's creepy to be waiting for Emma just outside her college, but it's not like he has a choice when she keeps ignoring any method he uses to contact her.
Mindlessly, he fiddled with his lighter with his back on the wall of the English department building and an unlit cigarette between his lips. Purple eyes scanned the people leaving the building one by one, hoping to find a mop of golden hair amongst the students. His hopes rose with each blond he saw, only for him to deflate when he realised they weren't her.
A few minutes passed and still no sign of Emma. Deciding that he didnât want to stand around and gape, Izana lifted his lighter towards his cigarette, flicking the light twice and bringing the warm flame to his lips. Breathing in the familiar scent of nicotine, smoke filled his lungs as he tucked the lighter back in his pockets. His free hand took the cigarette from his lips and he exhaled, releasing plumes of smoke from his lips.
His smoking habit had gotten worse within the past week. Izana couldnât help it, reaching for a light anytime he saw his gifts in the dustbin. Emma hasnât been this angry at him before. Usually a new plushie was enough to wash his sins clean, no matter how grevious they were. Now, not even the most expensive shoes sheâs been eyeing for months could satiate her anger.
All because of you.
Izana knows his little sister like the back of his hand. Like how she loved sleeping with plushies because it comforted her whenever their mother brought her gambling friends into the house and they were loud. Or how he picked up a guitar to learn multiple barbie songs because their mother had destroyed Emmaâs CD that he bought with his money to punish her. He knew she liked warm tea during her periods and gentle back rubs to ease her pain. Heâs not the best person to be around, with how fucked over he was by life until Shinichiro gave him purpose but he loved his sister a lot and everything he did was to protect her. Life hardened him, made him so jaded that the only thin thread connecting him to his humanity was Emma and heâd do anything to protect his humanity.
Only to watch it slip through his fingers.
First it was Mikeyâs stupid friend, Ken Ryugi, who waltzed his way into Emmaâs life. Izana didnât like him one bit- didnât like how Emma would bite her lip, waiting for him to reply and cry herself to sleep when he didnât. Her heart was soft, fragile and that brute tore it apart by telling her he wasnât interested in a relationship yet.
The only reason Ken wasnât in an unmarked, shallow grave in the middle of nowhere was simply because Mikey was involved.
Now it is you, taking the space in her life that belonged to him and Mikey. Youâre pushing both of them out of the equation, threatening their position in their sisterâs life and everything they know.
Izana wonders how someone so insignificant was so important to Emma that she was willing to cut communications with her own brothers. It baffles him beyond understanding and at the same time enrages him that she could trust you so easily. That she was willing to turn against him in your name.
He took more puffs, skimming throughout the campus for any sight of her. It didnât matter how he felt about it, as Kisaki had convinced him to ask Emma and you to go shopping, just to get back into Emma's good graces again. Apparently doing a nice gesture publicly for you would convince their sister to give them another chance again.
Especially because Izana had been the biggest opposition to their friendship.
âBut Mikey was a little shit about them too.â he grumbles underneath his breath, cigarette in hand. âWhy do I have to be the one to apologise? And why did Mikey get an out while Iâm doing all the heavy lift-â
His thoughts were cut short the second he caught sight of a familiar blonde hair bouncing in the wind and stood up straight, tossing the cigarette to the floor and crushing it underneath his black shoes, before rushing to catch up to his little sister.
Izana pushed through the throng of people, violently shoving anyone that got in his way until he finally fell in step with her, slowing down to match her pace. Without wasting time, his hand curled around the girlâs wrist, stopping her in her tracks instantly and earning a shocked gasp escaped her lips.
âGet off me - Izana?â
Her free hand was fast to hit him, but her head was faster in turning around, only to recognize it was just Izana. Her hand stopped inches away from the smirking maleâs face, the tension leaving her body and relief taking its place. It doesnât last long, though as irritation suddenly crawls on her face, instantly displeased at his actions. âWhat the hell? Iâve told you to stop doing that.â she hissed at him.
A mischievous grin made its way to his face at Emmaâs irritation. She always had a pout whenever she was angry at him and it made look even more adorable.
âWere you scared?â He teased, pulling Emma closer to him until she was practically smushed at his side, despite the glare she gave him in response. âYou know no one would dare touch you.â
âGet off me. Your breath stinks like nicotine, I thought you said you quit smoking that shit.â
Ignoring Emmaâs last question, he decided to change the topic. âYour lapdog isn't here with you?â he asked. Usually, you would be hovering behind her like a damn pest, so you not being around her was rather strange.Â
Emma is quick to shove him off lightly, putting some distance between the two of them, clearly still mad at him. "(Name)'s not feeling well, so she didn't come to class today. I'm on my way to get her medicine."
Oh, that's a surprise.
But with you out of the way, Izana could finally have Emma all to himself for today and hang out with his beloved sister. Maybe even make up for the party thing without apologising to you. Without you here, itâs likely Emma isnât as mad at the whole situation and is playing it up to make you feel like you have someone on your side.
He knows youâre not going to protest if Emma says sheâs in talking terms with her brothers again. Itâs a win-win situation and he doesnât have to grovel or ask for forgiveness for some joke that went wrong.
"So that means we can hang out?"
"Excuse me?"
"You don't have to keep pretending you're still mad at me now that she isn't here." He spews the 'she' with so much venom it could kill, before switching up with a sick grin, his hand stretched out. "We can go to Vivienne Westwood and get that Saturn necklace you like, what do you say?"
His words hung in the air as Emma trailed her pointed glare from his hand, back to his cheerful visage. She crossed her arms in response slowly, her yellow eyes burning holes into his face as her lips curled into a sick sneer.
âAre you insane?â
âWhat?â
âDonât âwhat?â me Izana! I just told you (name)'s ill and you're asking me to go with you to shop at Vivienne westwood? Are you nuts?â
Emmaâs voice was loud enough to garner wandering eyes of other by-standers, watching the event go down. Izana kept his composure, despite his bubbling irritation beneath the surface of his skin, with a smile -albeit stiffer than before. âSheâs just being emotionalâ Izana whispered to himself, still trying to be rational. âJust take it easy with herâ
âOh come on, should I care about her-"
"You should be begging her to forgive you for what you did to her that night!"
"You can't still be mad at me for that shit that happened two weeks ago. And besides, it's not my fault she couldn't take a jokeâ his words were smooth, buttery, flowing out of his lips like it was the truth, digging his own grave. âI didnât know your friend was that sensitive-â
âAre you listening to the bullshit coming from your mouth?â Emma roared, her voice echoing throughout the entirety of the department, her face red with fury. Izana had never seen his own beloved sister ever look at him with such disgust in her eyes, her teeth gnashing against each other and hands at her side, clenching against each other. âIs that what you think a joke sounds like?â
âCalm the fuck dow-â
âNo wonder youâre fucking single, youâre such a piece of shit to anyone that isnât Shinichiro!â Emma screamed, interrupting Izana once again, her temper fiery enough to burn a hole on the ground she stood with how heated she was. âHow does anyone even stand you for so long? Youâre unbearable!â
âExcuse m-â
He doesnât like where the conversation is going, with how furious Emma was right now. He tried to raise a comforting hand to Emmaâs shoulder to ease her tension but she was quick to smack it away from her hard, stinging his fingers a little.
âYouâre so unpleasant, how do you even have any friends? How do they tolerate you? To think (name) wanted me to forgive you! Thank god you arenât my fucking brother, I canât imagine being anything like you!â
The words left her mouth before she could stop herself.
It was as if the world froze over for Izana. He stood there, wide eyed, his heart beating loudly in his chest as all the voices around him faded into the background. His hand extended weakly at his side, mouth drying up as a lump formed in his throat.Â
âI-I-i" she starts to stutter. Itâs obvious that she can recognize what she had just said as he blankly stared at her. "I didn't mean i-â
He doesnât let her finish, turning on his heel and walking away as fast as possible. People were quick to clear out of his way, not wanting to be his target of aggression. Emma followed behind, instantly, shouting his name at the top of her lungs followed with strings of apologies.
âIzana, wait please-â she screamed from the crowd of people, tears streaming from her yellow eyes. He continued to ignore her as he hopped on his bike, sliding in the key and revving up the engine before she could reach him.
Izana zoomed away, turning Emmaâs cries into background noise, her words repeating in his head.
âI didnât mean it! IâM SORRY-â
YOU don't know which was worse, the feeling of helplessness that came with the reality of your life crashing before your very eyes or the splitting headache you've developed after crying in your room for a week straight. Laying on your bed all day, huddled up in a blanket and sobbing uncontrollably was unhealthy, but it was all you found the strength to do these days.Â
In all your years of being alive, you've never felt this pathetic. Not when you would be pushed outside in the pouring rain if you made a mistake in making dinner, or had been beaten with a belt in front of Yuzhua and Hakkai because you failed your catechism test. You could protect yourself from your brothers when they got violent. You could run and hide when your dad was really angry and wanted to take it out on you.
Unfortunately, no one told you what to do when your life is falling apart.
Ever since that day, you couldn't find the strength to go to class or do anything for that matter. It was like your entire energy was sucked out of you, leaving your body an empty husk with nothing left to give.Â
You only have yourself to blame.
You drag the blankets closer to your body, sniffling a bit. The worst part of all of this is that after this month, if you donât find a job that pays you quickly, you are going to be broke. Itâs times like this that makes you regret leaving your family. You know itâs wishful thinking, but you wonder if you would be forgiven assuming you return home in tears and repentant of your sin of disobedience like the prodigal son in the bible. Life is too hard to live in the outside world without the help and guidance of a parent. You miss your old life, with your own bed and guaranteed food, as long as you did as you were told. You miss how sometimes your parents took you and your siblings to eat out after church.
You miss your mother. You want to go back to her. Life is hard, and dealing with being jobless with nowhere to turn to is harder. You could ask Emma, but sheâs already taking care of you and there was no way you would bother your friend about your money problems.
"Hey babes, I got the medicine for you."
Emma's soft voice rouses you out of your self-pity session. The wood creaks underneath her heels as she walks to your bed and takes a seat besides you, the mattress dipping underneath her weight. The scent of her Vivienne Westwood wafting through your nostrils fills you with a sense of warmth, familiarity and at the same time, dread.
You feel guilty. Perhaps it's because you don't know how to tell Emma what exactly is wrong with you. It's easier to give her the half-truth that you caught a stomach bug than say everything. If you even as much as hinted that Manjiro had something to do with the real reason you were a sobbing mess on your bed, you're sure she would overreact and fight with her brothers again.
But still, not telling her meant you were keeping secrets from her. Something you both promised not to ever do as you two became best-friends.
âItâs for her own good.â you try to justify it. âItâs better I keep my mouth shut.â
Pushing that thought at the back of your mind, you roll over to her direction, pulling down your blanket just a little bit to see her properly. Your heart drops at the sadness etched onto Emmaâs face, a forlorn look in her eyes. You hated seeing her down, yet all youâve been doing for the past few months since you came into her life was causing her pain. You know how it feels to lose family, no matter how bad they were to you and Emma is no different.
âHeyâ
Your voice is hoarse from your constant crying, but Emma doesnât mention it as she reaches a hand to caress your face. âYou look better than yesterday. You up to eat?â
You nodded briefly, realising how hungry you were. Youâve barely had an appetite to eat anything, so your rations had been smaller and compact until you regained it back bit by bit, thanks to Emmaâs constant care. Pushing yourself up, you sit up and yawn, quickly covering your mouth the moment a bad stench emanates from it. Emmaâs face quickly grows sour as well, probably smelling it too.
âYou havenât showered.â
âUhhh-â
You knew there was no excuse for that one as Emma put the food and medicine away before yanking you off the bed while talking about how gross you were for not showering throughout today. âYouâre a girl (name), donât do this to yourself, câmon-â
âBut-â you start to whine, trying to defend yourself. âI was tired-â
âNope!â she retorted, pushing you towards the bathroom. âNo excuses! I swear youâre acting like Mikey when heâs in one of his moods-â
The room falls silent at her words, the cheerful aura dropping the second Emma realises what sheâs said, a wave of guilt washing over her face as she lets go of your hands.
âFuck- Iâm sorry (name)...â
Your heart aches at how heartbroken she sounds right now and shatters even further at the fact that everything, every problem they were experiencing right now was all your fault. You saw it deep in Mikeyâs eyes how much pain and suffering your presence in their family had caused, and how his anger reflected that action towards you. Youâve been so entrenched in your own problems that you forgot the mess you made in their family.
âEmma, you miss them donât you?â
âItâs not too late.â You mutter to yourself, your heart in your throat as you steel your resolve. You couldnât let her make that mistake you made by leaving your family aside. You donât want Emma to be like you.
â(Name), please donât-â
âYou canât keep ignoring them forever.â You cut her short, speaking directly to her now. âYou canât keep ignoring Draken either too. Youâre miserable.â
âIâm fin-â
âEmma no.â You snap at her, finally having enough of her stubbornness as anger swells up in you. âI see how sad you look everytime you look at your pictures with your big brothers and Draken. Do you think that itâs healthy to keep ignoring them like this?â
âYou were the one they hurt, you shouldnât feel bad for them-â
âIt doesnât matter! I donât matter!â You yell desperately, now pulling away from her grasp in an attempt to put your foot down. âThey are the ones who matter a lot. Those are you family members! People who love you and have protected you for years! Just talk it out with them! They miss you for godâs sake!â
âWhat the hell do you mean you donât matter?â Emma roars back at you, suddenly enraged by your outburst. You nearly stumble back at how angry she sounded, fear creeping into your skin as your verbal claws retract. âYou matter to me! You mean the world to me as any of them do! Youâre my best friend and I love you and if they donât understand that then there is nothing to make up for!â
By the time she was done yelling, her breathing was heavy and her eyes so intense you couldnât even stare at her. Your eyes quickly flickered to your feet instead; scared of seeing the disappointment on her face and terrified of her anger. You didnât like it when Emma yelled, it reminded you of your mother getting angry at you, something you hated doing to her.
Eventually, she took a deep breath and took a step closer to you, her hand intertwined with yours. âCome on, Iâll help you shower.â
You silently follow behind her, eyes downcast and shoulders slumped.
  PERHAPS Izana should be angry at Emma.
It would be justified after the words she said from her mouth, but he canât because he knows the truth. Emma was just angry as well and she didnât mean any of the words she had said to hurt him. She said them because of you, however and he realises that every fight theyâve had is over your presence in her life.
Which meant that the true culprit was you.
People may believe in love at first sight, but from the first day Izana set his eyes on you, he could only feel hatred towards you. You were just there, sitting awkwardly while Emma tried to involve you in their conversation and it irked him.
At first, Izana thought it was the fact that the both of you were clashing personalities that made him feel that way, but then you keep getting in his way and ruining things for him. He hates everything about you - the way you picked your finger when you were nervous. Your bright smile you gave to only Emma and how easy it was for her to like you. Just your mere presence in general was enough to set him off because of how simple it was for you to be close to Emma while you barely knew her. It felt like he was losing his only sister to a stranger, and now the Emma who stands in front of him is a mere mockery of his real sister.
And thatâs the frustrating part. He canât do anything to hurt you. Heâs smart enough to know that if he does, Emma would never forgive him.
â... Kurokawa, are you here with us?â
Izana snaps back to reality as Kisaki taps the table three times to get his attention. âI might have spaced out.â He thinks to himself before facing the entirety of the table; Tetta Kisaki, the rather shrewd and ruthless dealer sitting, his equally irritating lap dog Shuji Hanma and the little shit that he called his younger brother, Mikey.
Speaking of Mikey, ever since that day he made that phone call and revealed his brand new plan of accepting you into their friend group, heâs been very quiet. Even throughout todayâs meeting, he hasnât said a word, aside from mentioning that Draken was going to be absent and asking where Kakucho was before the meeting began.
And knowing his brother, a quiet Mikey is a suspicious Mikey.
Now that Izana thinks about it, heâs noticed that Mikey, who was on his side initially had suddenly switched to trying to apologise to you. Which was weird, considering how egocentric Mikey could be on the topic of apologising. Izana has his suspicions, but then again Mikey is unpredictable due to his rather dark impulses, so he couldnât really say anything yet, until Kakucho came back from his task.
Izana cleared his throat and faced Kisaki again, deciding to be as honest as possible. After all, itâs their fault that heâs in this mess, might as well remind them. âJust thinking about how Emma practically called me a bastard and Iâm supposed to be okay with it.â He said nonchalantly and the air in the room shifted into an uncomfortable silence for the upteenth time this week ever since that unfortunate day. It isnât surprising to anyone as to why though, Izanaâs complicated relationship with the Sanoâs is a sore topic that no one ever dared to bring up.
From Kisakiâs tight lipped expression, Izana is sure that the younger male is picking his words carefully in his head. Even Hanma who would have laughed or said something to intentionally piss off Izana remains silent. Eventually, Kisaki lets out a resigned sigh. âThe audit would be done another time.â He states in a cool tone, putting his laptop aside before facing the two brothers. âItâs obvious weâre not gonna do anything useful until you resolve this issue with Emma and her friend.â
âReally?â The white haired male mocks, causing Kisaki to shift in his place, an irritated frown creasing his face. âwould you like to hear my pla-â
âWeâre not going to kill a civilian and draw attention to ourselves, Izana. Iâve already told you what to do.â Kisaki snapped back, his yellow eyes darting from Izana to Mikey, before narrowing in irritation. âBoth of you. Just apologise to (name), itâs not that hard. You donât even have to mean it, the girl wonât even know the difference-â
âAh yes, cause that went well the last time.â
âAnd whose fault is that? I clearly told you to say âIâm sorryâ and all you did was make things worse!â
âIâm just brutally honest.â Izana spits back. âAnd you canât blame me because I tried, compared to Mikey who sits on his damn ass and has done nothing-â
âI wasnât the one who called her a cheap hooker!â Mikey interjects defensively, sitting upright after staying quiet from the start of this meeting, finally saying something.
âOh, so you can speak.â Izana retorts back, his voice cold. Mikey is so good at shifting blame onto others for actions he has a hand in, especially when he knows it would reflect badly on him. Unfortunately, Izana has been in this game longer than his little brother. âI thought you had gone mute with the way you donât want to talk about the issue beyond pushing me to apologise to her.â
âYou donât make it any easier with how you talk to people.â Mikey hisses back, his tempo rising with each word, but Izana can hear the slight shake in his voice, almost as if heâs hiding something. âHow am I supposed to do anything if you keep saying shit like youâre glad (name)âs gone?â
(Name)?
The entire room falls silent at Mikeyâs sudden outburst, or rather what Mikey had just said. No one says a word as they all stare at Mikey in shock, eye wide and mouth hanging open like heâd grown two heads. Thereâs a glimmer of confusion in the dark eyed male before the realisation of his mistake washes over him, his facial expression changing into a mixture of guilt and pure terror.
As if heâs been caught doing something he shouldnât have.
Itâs unmistaken. Izana knows his brother is hiding something and it has to do with you. âYouâve never,â he starts slowly, never taking his eyes off Mikey, gauging his facial expression. âcalled her by her name. You only call girls who you had something to do with by their name.â
âI-â
âYou fucked her, didnât you.â itâs a statement, not a question. Mikey grows pale and it's more of a sure answer than anything else at all.
âI didnât do anything bad⊠sheâs still a virgin-â
âWhat.â Kisaki, interjecting as well, cuts him off, his voice cold. âDid. You. Do?â
Mikey is silent. Itâs brief and doesnât last long as he finally seals his fate with a quiet voice. âItâs not my fucking fault, she wore a short skirt and she was asking for it-â
At the side, Kisaki crumples back onto the dining table seat, his head in his hands muttering a quiet âOh fuck, I should have stayed with Osanai.â as he shakes in disbelief. Hanma just sits there, clearly perturbed, not knowing how to react but at the same time, not really interested.
âGlad to know Iâm not the only screw up.â Izana scoffs as well. Despite how cheery his voice sounded, the furious look on his face says a different story altogether. âSince apparently youâre just as stupid as I am.â
Mikey runs a hand through his golden locs, frustration evident on his features. No one has ever seen him look so frantic, like a little kid who broke something and is trying to hide it. âI didnât do anything wrong. Sure she said no at first but I knew she wanted it when she relaxed in my touch-â
âThatâs not what Emmaâs gonna think, you idiot!â Izana barks at him angrily, his temper finally off the rails. âYou practically threw away your entire plan before it even started! All for what? Mediocre pussy you could get from some other girl? And you know how Shin is about this shit. If Emma finds out and tells him, weâre screwed!â
Thereâs a mixture of emotions swirling in Izana right now. The urge to punch Mikey was strong, for daring to not only lie to his face, but also making him look like a fool to cover his ass.
Then again, he knows itâs really not Mikeyâs fault but yours. You must have done something to make Mikey hurt you because he knows his little brother doesnât hurt girls. You have this effect of turning people into worse versions of themselves, making them disgusting, evil and hateful.
You turned Emma against them and now you made Mikeyâs dark impulses come out.
Itâs you thatâs the problem.
âSo what anyone find out? They wonât believe herâ Mikey snarls back, irritated. âShe canât blame me, I told her to fucking leave but she didnât listen! She was practically begging me to fuck her-â
âENOUGH!â
Kisakiâs voice is loud enough to silence the two brothers, ending their argument instantly as they breathe heavily from their prior screaming match. Izana slumps back on his seat as Kisaki sits up straight, eyes narrowed. Mikey does the same as Izana, his jaw tightly clenched as he crosses his arms on his chest, feet crossed. The younger male clears his throat, and starts to rationalise the situation.
âItâs obvious that weâre going to switch gears since this happened. We all have a curated reputation that we need to protect so that people donât nose into our business.â He turns to Mikey who is still glaring hard at Izana. âYour brother has a point, you fucked up our plan by not telling anyone what you did-â
âYou judging me too, Kisaki?â
âCan you stop being defensive for once Mikey and just listen!â Kisaki scolds, just about done with everyone making things more difficult for him. âI donât care what you did to her, whatever affection or lust you have for her is a you problem. I just want this situation to be in our favour.â
The statement makes Izana scoff in dismal fashion, but he decides to ask out of curiosity regardless. âAnd how do you intend to turn this situation around? Cause right now she has leverage over us and any careless move can put us in a tougher spot than we can handle.â
Kisaki turns his attention fully towards Izana again, a knowing look on his face as he asks. âIs Kakucho done searching Mikeyâs car?â
âHow did he know?â Izana blinks, but then catches Hanma smirking and doesnât bother to ask his impending questions. Kisaki always had a nasty and suspicious habit of continuously tailing him specifically, and usually it doesnât go over Izanaâs radar when it happens, apart from this instance. Which meant someone was being a rat in his group.
Heâll deal with that later.
Mikey raised a brow in confusion as well, opening his mouth to protest the invasion of his privacy when Izanaâs phone suddenly rings. He picks it up, attempting to step out to answer it when Kisaki raises his hand to stop him.
âAnswer it here.â Kisaki said, ignoring the way Izana looks at him like he has two heads. âand put it on speaker.â
He had no reason to comply, but he wanted to see where Kisaki was going with whatever plan he had. With a wry smile, Izana put the phone down on the table and slid the answer button, putting it on a loudspeaker.
âDid you find anything Kakucho?â
Ever loyal, Kakucho clears his throat and starts to speak, his voice sounding strained over the phone, as if heâs struggling with something. âYes boss.â He answers, a twinge of nervousness coating his tone. âThereâs a dash cam on the mirror and a spy cam underneath the compartment facing the passengerâs seatâŠâ
Mikey grumbles under his breath something about fucking Kakucho up if anything ends up spoilt or missing in his car but Kisaki holds his hand up to his lips and shushes him. Izana continues once heâs sure his brother is done complaining. âAnd did you confirm the anonymous tip that we got?â
He can hear Kakucho shift uncomfortably, the silence on the other side of the phone drawn out until he finally says. âBoss, itâs too ⊠I donât think we should use this against her.â He tries to reason. âI think weâre going too far-â
âPerfect.â Kisaki chimes in, now looking at Izana with a satisfied smile. Kakucho is about to ask why Kisaki was there but Izana cuts him off instead. âBring it back. Iâll explain once you come to the house.â
âOkay boss.â
The phone line dies and Kisaki, fairly confident in his plan, looks at Izana once again. âIâm sure you know where Iâm going, right?â
Izana may think Kisaki is a pathetic brat who just happened to be smart, but right now, itâs like the both of them are connected and in tune with their thoughts. The tanned male stretches his lips into a smile, one full of malice and at the same time, glee, his eyes light with mirth when he realises what Kisaki was thinking.
Finally a plan he could follow along with.
âAlright, Iâm all ears.â
THE walk back to your dorm was quiet.
By the time you managed to catch a bus after spending the entire day looking for a job and getting back to campus, it was already late in the night. Save for only the street lamps that were beginning to dim, everywhere else was darker than usual.
You had read that there was going to be a lunar eclipse tonight between the hours of 10pm - 00am. The time boldly written on the busâ digital clock before you got down was 10:45pm, so you already assumed it was the cause of the unnatural darkness tonight.
A long time ago before the world weighed you down, things like this would have made you excited. You loved watching the stars when you were young, trying to check on the papers your father bought to see if there was any space news available. You remember borrowing your immediate elder brotherâs binoculars as a makeshift telescope, trying to piece out the stars in the sky or see if you would catch a glimpse of the comet that was said to pass through that week.
Unfortunately, you were young and foolish. Wanting to impress your father, you told him all about your book of constellations that you drew up, detailing the first star that appeared every evening, down to your crazy childish theories about aliens and space.
âCan you show me the book?â your father asked calmly. You should have known it was dangerous for your father to be this calm, but you were too blinded by excitement to think and you gave him the book, a bright smile on your face.
Your smile fell as his large hands ripped your book into shreds, before telling you: âWomen donât dream.â
Maybe that was the day you realised the love you craved from your father will never be given to you. You were so young and impressionable, all you wanted was for him to be proud of you, like he was with his sons. Now, you canât even look at the stars, the memory leaves a bitter taste in your mouth and you try to shake it off as you continue on the path.
You wondered what grievous sin youâve committed to be so down on your luck like this. Today had been one disappointment to another
You passed by Emmaâs dorm building, a sigh escaping your lips. She told you that Draken wanted to take her out for dinner tonight, which shocked you because friends with benefits - according to what Emma herself told you- donât go on dates or do lovey dovey stuff with each other, to avoid complicated feelings from budding.
Then again, their relationship is based on the fact that they both have feelings for each other, but Draken was not interested in a relationship.
It was already complicated before it began but at least she's taking your advice and talking to them again.
Your eyes darted up to her window, hoping her lights were on. Whenever she was alone, Emma hated sleeping in the dark. She said it reminded her of the times her mother would lock her and Izana in a dark room whenever she brought her customers in. Anytime she was in a darkened room, she told you she could still hear the sound of her mother moaning and a man grunting. Izana would try his best to distract her, playing games or even stealing an earphone and plugging it to his own so that she would listen to music instead of what was going on.
A frown graced your lips when you saw two bodies from the curtain, one tall figure you recognize as Draken and Emmaâs smaller dainty figure perched on him, kissing. You quickly averted your eyes and walked faster, ignoring the unfamiliar pang in your chest. Maybe youâre jealous because you needed your friendâs comfort right now and she wasnât available. You felt greedy for this, after spending a week with her, you should let her be free.
âShe has her own life to live. And I have mineâ you muttered to yourself as you trudged along the path, slowly dragging your feet. âI have to stop being so dependent on her.â
Eventually, your thoughts drift back to your reoccurring dream. Losing your job made you realise that if you didnât do anything about it, your tiredness would eventually catch up to you and ruin everything else youâve worked for. With an important test scheduled for tomorrow, you knew you could not afford to take another loss this week. You had to power through your sleep tonight, even if it traumatised you.
âMaybe I should pretend that I like it. Pretend itâs okay and enjoy it so that I wonât have to wake up.â You shook your head, cursing as you drew closer to your own dorm building. âOh God, how far Iâve fallen. Look at me trying to enjoy a disgraceful act-â
You paused in your tracks at the sound of a leaf crushing. You quickly turned around, trying to ascertain who could be lurking there behind the bushes. Your palms started sweating, your nerves firing at the thought of being watched.
Silence.
You decided to continue walking, assuming that maybe you were hearing things and there wasnât anything at all. Nighttime always had a way of making you nervous, especially with all the horrible stories you heard about innocent women being attacked around these times. Besides, looking around for whatever may be lurking was a dumb idea.
You should just get out of here.
Eventually, you make it to your dorm house in record time, a sigh of relief escaping your lips. âMaybe Iâm being paranoid. But at least Iâm safe now.â You think to yourself as you push the door open, closing it behind you.
Weary from the dayâs stress, your body starts to give up on you but you push through, trying your best to just make it to your room. Youâre sure you would just collapse on your bed the second you got there and forget about anything else.
But as you reach for the handle, a feeling of dread washes over you, the same one you felt when you were outside. âI really need to let this go. Thereâs no harm waiting for me. Itâs just my room.â You mutter to yourself. Your overthinking has cost you a lot, from your job to your academics and right now, you really need it to stop. Pushing whatever feeling was keeping you away, you walked into the darkened room.
You finally make it to your room, about to rummage your bag for the keys when you notice the door was unlocked. âOh? Ami must have come back rather early, since I barely see her until 2am.â
(From here is edited)
The first thing that greeted you was the stench of some kind of smoke -weed, the kind that Ami liked to use whenever she was in the room. You always hated the smell and you recall telling her to leave the windows open whenever she wanted to smoke. Coughing, you quickly covered your nose and mouth with one hand and reached to turn on the light with another. âAmi, how many times have I told you to open the window whenever you smoke? You know I donât like the smell-â
Your blood turns to ice the moment light floods the room, your mouth dry as you stare at the man perched on your reading chair, a leg crossed over the other, the weed blunt hanging between his tanned hands. His lips are stretched into a sick grin, showing all his teeth, purple eyes shining with an odd mirth as he glances at you up and down.
Izana Kurokawa.
âRunâ
You donât need to be told twice, quickly discarding your bag and running towards the direction of the door, only to hit someone hard, standing tall in your way. You look up fearfully to see mismatched eyes, a scar running down his face and flinch backwards in reflex. Itâs as if he gazes at you with pity, but quickly switches to a blank stare as he stands between you and the door.
You know him from hanging around Emma a lot in the Tenjiku frat house, Kakucho. Heâs always around Izana and only loyal to him for some reason that you donât know. He doesnât listen to anyone else, not even Mikey. You realise that he might have been the one that was following you when you were walking home.
Begging him to let you pass would be futile.
âDonât worry, Iâm just here to have a little chat with you. Iâm not going to hurt you.â His tone is calm, but it doesnât bring you any comfort. If Mikey could hurt you without any remorse, then thereâs nothing stopping Izana from doing worse to you. âAnd as much as your backside is as interesting as your face, I prefer talking to someone who is looking at me.â
âI donât want to talk to you.â The words fly out from your mouth before you even think of a more appropriate response but it doesnât seem to give him any form of reaction other than a dry laugh.
He scoffed. âI donât care. Turn around.â
Reluctantly you slowly turn to face him again, your body trembling as your fear filled eyes lock with his. Your heart drops to your stomach when you hear heavy footsteps walk out of the door, shutting it behind you, locks turning and trapping you with Izana.
âOh God oh God oh God.â
Your fear doesnât go unnoticed by the white haired man, and he only chuckles at how stiff you were. Between the two brothers, you know Izana thrives in fear, using it to his advantage and itâs not unfounded. Notwithstanding his backing from Black dragons, Izana had taken Tenjiku from a down and out frat house, to a den of crime that holds power, trickling right into the administration of the university. Even his men know better than to ever get themselves in his bad books, because no one can ever escape him, no matter how much you try to run.
It was only a matter of time until he would make you pay for causing him problems, but you didnât think heâd come by himself. You felt stupid for thinking he wouldnât care about you or heâd forget how angry he was at you and leave you alone, especially with Emma still not on speaking terms with them.
He motions with his bunt for you to come closer to him and you comply, taking careful steps until youâre standing right in front of him. He eyes you again with a tepid frown. âWhen you meet a king, you donât stand before him, you kneel.â
Kneel. You want to assume heâs not serious but you know better than to question him and go down on your knees, focusing your gaze firmly on your lap. Itâs humiliating the way he has you at his mercy, without even moving an inch but itâs better to be compliant than to aggravate him even further by being disobedient.
Youâve learned the hard way what could happen if you resist.
From the corner of your eyes, you watch as Izana puts out his weed blunt on your reading table leaving a sorching mark on the table, before reaching behind his waistband. Your mouth grows dry the second you see the gun, your heart pounding against your chest as he presses the barrel to your head.
âOh god.â You gasp as he presses it further against your head, until youâre sure it would leave an indent. âHeâs going to kill me. Heâs going to kill meâŠâ
âThatâs odd,â He murmurs. âUsually, other people would be begging for their lives when met with a gun to their head, but youâre quiet. If not for the way your hands are trembling, Iâd think you werenât scared.â
This time, with a gun pointed at your head, youâre careful with your words. âY-you said you wonât hurt me.â Your voice shakes with fear but you continue. You know men like Izana, he reminds you of your older brother who ruled the house apart from your father, with fear and control. Sometimes, when you were able to stroke his ego, heâd go easy on you. Maybe that would work on Izana too. âThat you want to talk.â
âAnd what if I changed my mind? Pulled the trigger? Thatâll make my life easier, yeah? I wonât have to fight for my sisterâs love and affection with you.âÂ
Your breath hitches in your throat when you hear the safety go off and watch as his finger curls around the trigger. âOh God, heâs going to kill me. Heâll shoot me dead. I-i have to say something- I donât want to die-â
âI-i trust you not to do it.â You reply, your lips trembling as you struggle not to think of your head scattered into pieces on the floor if he chooses to kill you. âYouïżœïżœïżœre a man of your words.â
Thereâs another complete silence that engulfs the entire room, until you hear a click that makes you flinch for a split second, waiting for the bullet that would end it all. Instead, itâs him putting the safety back on, and chuckling at your reaction.
âYou trust me? How foolish.â He laughs, tracing the gun from your head down to underneath your chin and forcing you to look up at him. Youâve only read about people with empty eyes in stories, but seeing it in person was so terrifying. âIs that why you ended up with Mikey in his car?â
All the blood rushes from your head to the tip of your toes. âH-how do you kn-â
âI have eyes and ears in this school, (name).â Youâre sure itâs the first time youâve heard him call you by your name and despite being in a life or death situation, you couldnât control the shiver that ran through your spine. âYou wanted him to touch you, right?â
âT-that is not what happened!â You suddenly cried out, trying to explain your own side of the story. Of all the people who know your dirty and shameful secret, Izana is the worst pick, just your luck. âIt was a mistake! I tried to tell him I didnât want it but I couldnât-â
âAh ah -â Izana cuts you off, tilting your chin higher with the gun. âDonât lie to me. You must have planned the entire thing to make Mikey look badâ
âNo! I wasnât trying to do anything, I just wanted to talk-â
âReally? Cause Mikey told me an entirely different story-â
âNo, no I- didnât⊠-â
âYou were dangling yourself like a piece of meat for him to fuck and heâs a man, you know. He has urges and it's hard to resist temptation.â
âThatâs not true-â your lips start to tremble at his words, tears forming at the corner of your eyes. You didnât want to be assaulted, you just wanted to talk to him about the Emma issue and you wanted to apologise. âThatâs not true-â
âOh but it is.â He said firmly, now leaning in closer to your face until thereâs barely any inches between the two of you. âAnd now Mikey feels like a piece of shit because he couldnât stop himself.â
âNo-â your voice is small, trying to defend yourself but even you are beginning to doubt your own credibility with how he keeps twisting the narrative around until you begin to actually believe him.
âNo! Donât let him make you think youâre in the wrong! You know what happened!â
âHe even told you to leave but you refused to. You were baiting him to just do something to you so that you can tell everyone how bad Mikey is and make yourself get more sympathy points. Am I wrong?â
âNo! I would never do that to Mikey!â You donât realise your tempo had suddenly gotten high or that tears had started to drip down your face, but Izana did. He doesnât point it out, staying quiet as you start to shout at him. âI would never bait him into hurting me! I just wanted to make up with him because I felt that I overreacted at the party I swear! And then he touched me in the car -â
âAnd you never reported him to the school authorities? Why? Did you want to blackmail him for money-â
âBecause I love him!â
The words flew out of your mouth before you could even stop yourself from saying them.
Your heart drops as a mischievious glint appears in Izanaâs eyes. His smile drops slightly, still maintaining the gun on your chin. âYou love him?â He says slowly, testing out the words on his lips. âLove? Mikey?â He looks so deep in thought, like the concept sounds so foreign to him that he almost canât believe it. His gaze falls back to you again, a quiet scoff emanating from his lips. âYou really have no shame, do you?â
Unable to maintain eye contact with him, you break away from his gaze, biting down on your lips to prevent yourself from falling apart. When you donât respond, Izana takes your silence as an opportunity to keep talking. âIf you love him so much, then whatâs wrong with what you both did in the car that day? It was what you wanted, wasn't it?â
âNot like thatâŠâ
âBut you claim to love him.â Izana is calm and cool, while youâre stuttering on your words, making you look like youâre the one who is wrong. Like what youâre saying doesnât make any sense to begin with and heâs the one saying something of reason. âAnd yet, you didnât even notice he wasnât himself that day. Or did you take advantage of his fragile state of mind?â
âI would NEVER-â
âYou would, because you get to be the so-called victim and he gets to be the villain in your own story. Do you really know the implication of your actions?â
âThatâs not right.â You donât even realize how quiet youâve gotten, your voice full of uncertainity. âI didnât ⊠itâs notâŠâ
âShut up.â He cuts you off again with a firm tone, tapping the gun on your chin gently to enunciate his point. âThe reason why I havenât put a bullet through your head as much as I want to is because I love Emma. I love Emma so much Iâd kill for her and Iâd resist the urge to kill for her. Thatâs how Sanoâs love. Thatâs true love. That's something you'll never ever experience.â
You stay silent, trying to understand what exactly Izana was calling love. He leaned closer, making you feel even smaller. âIf Emma finds out, sheâll think Mikey intentionally hurt you and she will hate him. But I guess thatâs what you want, isnât it?â
âNever. I donât want her to hate himâ your inner voice telling you itâs not your fault, is nothing more than a whisper, the feeling of guilt and shame overtaking you until youâre almost suffocating. âI just want them to be happyâŠâ
âThen you know exactly what youâre meant to do, right?â
Of course you know what to do. Ever since you were child, itâs been drilled into your head. Whenever your brothers hit you a bit too hard or your father went overboard with his belt and you ended up in the hospital, your mother would take you aside to issue a warning that still rings in your head. That had terrible consequences if you refused to follow through with it.
You nod weakly. It really doesnât matter what is right and wrong when it comes to the Sanoâs, but what they want. Izana taps the gun on your chin again, shaking his head. âI need a verbal answer.â
âI wonât tell anybody what happened. Especially not Emma.â
Satisfied, he withdrew his gun from your chin and your face falls onto his lap, unable to support your head any longer. You feel a hand reaching down to pet your head, like you were a dog who had just been tamed by her new owner. The strength to push him off or stand up had left you, feeling drained as the weight of guilt settle down on your shoulders, heavily. You know you shouldnât believe anything Izana says, but then again he does have a point. Maybe you should have been more receptive of Mikeyâs touch or at least be polite about declining him instead of shoving him off and hurting his pride.
You feel so utterly powerless. Despite being wronged, you know thereâs nothing you can really do to save yourself. You donât think you can bear the traumatic experience of being an outlier again.
Mikey. You donât want to hurt him. You donât want anyone thinking heâs a bad person over a singular action.
'Maybe itâs not as bad as I think, I did enjoy it mid-way, so it should count as something. Right?'
You feel sick just trying to think about it.
âYou know, if youâre this obedient, we can get along just fine.â He hums, breaking the silence as he pets your head gently. You hate yourself right now. How easy it is to do whatever it is that youâre told because disobedience is not an option. âIâm sure you wouldnât want to know what Iâll do to you if you break your promise.â
âNoâ your voice is quiet. You feel tired, sick maybe, you donât know. Maybe itâs the weed he smoked earlier affecting your judgement and reasoning. Or itâs the lack of sleep that has made it difficult for you to think straight or stand up. Either way, you donât care. âI donât.â
âGood girl.â
Bonus:
You know heâs mocking you, but you accept it, like you do with every circumstance thrown at you.
  IZANA looks down at your sleeping figure with a curious gaze.
For a moment, he almost pities you. Despite the faint glow of the room lighting, he can see the dark circles underneath your eyes and how stressed you look. For someone who is actively working to pay her fees while sustaining herself with no one caring for her, it must be hard being abandoned by society.
He can see why Emma picked you to be her friend, she always had a trait of picking up stray animals who had no one because she wanted something to protect. Itâs no different with you, the way sheâs so fiercely loyal to you and why she wanted you to be accepted by their family. No wonder she was hurt when you were vehemently rejected by them.
If he had a conscience, heâd feel bad for you. You love Mikey, of all people, someone who only saw you as a nuisance and to push the blame of his actions onto. All those times Mikey was cruel to you must have hurt the most because you truly cared about what he thinks about you.
Heâs careful when he lifts your head from his lap, not wanting to wake you up. He puts your head on the chair and turns to leave, already overstaying his welcome. Heâs done the thing he was supposed to, ensuring you stayed quiet about Mikeyâs actions and thereâs no need for him to be here any longer.
As he walked to the door, his mind goes back to you. In a way, you and him were similar. All alone, unwanted, with nobody in the world to care about you, cold, uncaring parents who didnât think twice in terms of abandoning you both. The only difference between you and him is that he grew a backbone and you havenât. Youâre like a kicked dog who continues to stay on the ground to get kicked, in hopes the person kicking you stops eventually.
As long as you stay on the ground, people like him will keep kicking you.
He knocks loudly on the door and the locks turn. Kakucho opens it for him, peering inside with a worried gaze, his eyes settling on your body slumped over a chair.
âDid you hit -â
âI didnât touch her.â Izana snaps at the taller male, stepping out of the room properly. âSheâs fine, physically at least. Emotionally sheâs a mess. But thatâs Mikeyâs problem to fix.â
âHuh?â
It wouldnât hurt to tell Kakucho your little secret. âApparently (name)âs in love with my dear brother Mikey so sheâs keeping quiet what he did to her.â a cruel smile stretches across his face. âHow pathetic.â
Kakucho frowns at Izanaâs statement, but as usual he doesnât say anything in response. Instead, his eye darts back to your form again, taking a good look at you, his eyes softening. Ever the gentleman.
âShe shouldnât really stay like that Izana, sheâll get a stiff neck-â
âKakucho.â
That was enough to end the conversation.
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Its hard to describe the complex emotions I'm having today, its a mixture of bittersweet sadness, feirce proudness, and everything deeper that comes from having put yourself and your emotions into a show for so many years. I'mm do the thank you thing below - but words dont really do it justice.
THANK YOU to my core Team, you know who you all are, for giving me trust, room to grow, patience and guidance when I made mistakes. All of the support you have given me I will pay forward, because it was only with your trust in me that I could leave this show as strong and confidant as I am. Within that core team there is a very smol team of 4 Special people. Andy Coyle, Chantal Ling, Johnny and Kathleen Mckinnon. I will never forget our nights in the editing room in season 1, grabbing some drinks and pizza as we go through the roughcuts. There were ups and downs but I'm glad to have gone through the chaos with ya'll <3 THANK YOU. To every single person who has touched this project, from the very first pitch to the very last file conform. Our crew has been world wide, and while I dont know everyone, I see and appreciate the work and heart you have put into your time with us. I dont care if you were on the show for a day or a decade, you're a part of it, and I dont take that for granted. THANK YOU to the team at Atomic Cartoons for your work in season 1, and the team at Lighthouse Studios for the animation team who came on season 1 and 3. You all rose to an immense challenge. The Hilda animation team is more then just Mercury, and i'm proud to have worked with you. There are people on the show who look back on it fondly, but counter to that there are people who were not supported how they should have been. I want those people to know that I will take these experiences and push to be better always, your experiences are as valid. THANK YOU to the fans! I see your hype and art and theorys and stories. I hope you will enjoy the wild ride of this last season, but I also hope you all ignore 'canon' and just create to your hearts content. The world lives on, there are still secrets and folklore and mystery - they are now yours to build <3 I could write more, I could write NOVELS, but I think people who know me know how I feel so I will refrain from rambling. Take a breath, and try not to sob at everyone writing beautiful things about what the show meant to them. ( spoiler alert, im going to fail )
Thank you all for being a part of this adventure - Where shall we go next ?
#hilda the series#hilda#twig#IM NOT CRYING YOUR CRYING#I MAY CONTIUNE TO CRY ALL DAY WHO KNOWS#i HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THIS LAST SEASON#you'd think i'd be emotionally prepared considering we've already done 2 endings but NOPE
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On the election:
Thoughts? Sure. Lots of them:
--I have said from the beginning that this is a turnout election. Get me 2016 levels of turnout and Trump could well win. Get me 2020 levels of turnout and Harris would probably win. 2024's turnout is much closer to 2016 than 2020, so the electorate was whiter, more male, and older in 2024 than 2020. The people Harris needed to vote, didn't. Thus Trump won all or most of the swing states, and won the popular vote -- the first Republican to do so since 2004. (This is why I was a not a poll watcher: percentages in a poll do not translate directly into actual voting; in a turnout election actual voting is what matters.)
--I used to ask my classes, "will we have a Black president or a female president first? (Yes, I acknowledged the obvious "Black female" hole in that question.) The Black question was answered in 2008; we now have a further answer in that a candidate of the nature of Donald Trump has beaten two immensely qualified female candidates, one white and one woman of color -- both in low turnout elections. Apparently, America really, really, doesn't want a female president.
--Dobbs didn't matter, at least not as predicted. Women didn't "vote Harris" despite all claims they would do so, at least not at the predicted rates.
--Demography is not destiny. The Latino vote has moved toward Trump in three successive elections. I'd guess this is *because* of his anti-immigrant stances, not despite them: pulling up the ladder after you "make it" is an old part of American political life.
--[edit/added]: it's a global "throw the bums out" cycle. People are pissed for lots of reasons, and fairly or not, the "in power" people are feeling the pain. Such is the nature of political timing.
--The urban/rural split is a hell of a thing in American politics, and it's only going to get more intense over time as rural areas continue to empty but still get two Senators forever and ever and ever.
--There are a LOT of people who don't think of politics in either ideological or governance terms. They're not interested in whether a candidate means what he says or is capable of achieving the ends being promised. Rather, politics for these people is *entertainment.* What matters is the show. The "right" people need to be publicly valorized; the "wrong" people need to be attacked, humiliated, and hounded out of the public square. It's bread and circuses. As long as the entertainment continues they'll put up with the regime whatever it is doing to them in the background.
--Donald Trump remains the greatest politician in American history at dominating the news cycle, and thus feeding the entertainment machine. Every crazy, cruel, cantankerous thing he says gets re-amplified over and over again, driving everything else out of the political ecosystem. It's evil. But it's genius.
--I have long said that Donald Trump will never pay a meaningful price for his crimes, his corruption, and his cruelty. He will die in a golden bed surrounded by a harem of women and teams of acolytes singing his praises. It's not fair. But it's almost certainly true.
--A brief note on tariffs: when America relied on tariffs, the government was much smaller than it is now (meaning it needed less money to operate), and US economy activity was mostly concentrated in the US (meaning that it was hard for other countries to put retaliatory tariffs on US products). Neither of these things are true today. So, good luck with that.
I'm sure there's more. But that's a start.
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the curls are curling: lando norris x black social media influencer fem! reader
summary: the secret behind why his curls have been consistently looking perfect is revealed.
authors note: i am still very new to formula one so please don't jump me if there is some slight inaccuracies. i did my best to look things up if i wasn't sure about them. this fic isn't based off of any grand prix in particular either. also, this is a work of fiction meaning it's not REAL so please remember that as well! constructive feedback is heavily encouraged and very appreciated đ«¶đœ
heat pooled through the open windows of the house as you ran around to try and get yourself ready for the long day ahead. you woke up an hour ago to give yourself two hours to get ready because today was a race weekend. usually, you only needed about an hour to get you and your boyfriend out the door but today you'd gotten up earlier to film a vlog.
the whole social media influencer thing was still fairly new for you, only having started to consistently vlog and post a few months ago. before you'd started dating lando you were posting here and there about your day to day as a university student and intern for a large company in the city. every so often one of your videos got a couple hundred thousand views but you didn't really mind that your other content only got a few likes...that was just how tiktok's algorithm worked.
once you graduated from university and your internship ended you didn't have much to vlog about until you decided to film a race weekend and post it. what you didn't expect was the video to get millions of views and likes overnight. a massive influx of fans followed but you didn't really pay too much mind to the number, this was just something you liked to do and people also liked to watch. with time you ended up opening a youtube channel where you posted longer vlogs and other videos, and tiktok became a place where you posted 1-3 minute clips of your longer videos. one thing you never really did was center your entire vlog around your boyfriend. sure, lando was the entire reason you ended up at races but you were also your own person...that and lando was oddly camera shy when it came to your vlogs so he often wanted you to edit him out if he happened to end up in the frame.
which is how you ended up in your bedroom with your tripod pointed the camera directly at you. you smiled widely, hoping that it masked the fact that you were nearly half asleep, "good morning everyone! it's race day and i'm gonna be taking you along with me. everyone's been asking for a longer race day vlog so i'm here to give you all what you want. first lets get into the fit- these pajamas were sent to me from Brooks Avenue, if you like them you can use the code Y/N for a little discount on your purchase!" you backed up to show off your pink and green pajamas that would have definitely cost an arm an a leg if they hadn't come in a PR package. the matching pink and green satin bonnet on your head slowly slipped down your forehead leaving you to push it back up with an annoyed huff. you explained to the camera once more, "okay and first i'm gonna brush my teeth then do my skincare routine...he's in the shower right now so the lens might get fogged up, sorry in advance." you knocked on the bathroom door to let your boyfriend know you were coming in before pulling your skincare products out of your travel bag. quickly you brushed your teeth with until you felt like you'd gotten rid of every trace of morning breath.
just as you finished your skincare routine, the shower turned off and you slipped out of the bathroom. while lando finished in the bathroom you sat back down at the vanity and situated the camera back in front of you. slowly you slipped the bonnet from your head and untied the silk scarf under it, letting the large twists in your hair fall against your shoulders. to the camera you explained, "it's gonna be really hot today so i'm just gonna pull the twists back with a ribbon and call it a day i think." you pulled a jar of edge control and a brush from your bag and began styling your baby hairs, effortlessly into swirls and swoops. a laugh fell past your lips as you admitted, "honestly the only reason i still do this is so my forehead looks slightly less...megamind-esque in pictures." when you finished you tied another scarf messily around your hairline and began gathering your twists into a ponytail to secure it with a holder and ribbon.
the bathroom door opened and lando walked back into your room, fully dressed but his button down left wide open exposing his bare torso. in his hands he held a blow dryer and two bottles, one leave in conditioner and a gel you'd bought for him a few weeks ago. you finished tying the bow around your ponytail then took the two bottles from him and plugged the blow dryer into the wall. a hand gently pulled on your hand and you looked up to see sleepy smile grace his lips, "good morning, beautiful." you drew closer to him, wrapping your arms around his neck and letting him pull you in by the waist. his head nuzzled into your shoulder as your hand found the back of his head, stroking his hair softly with your fingers you murmured, "hi baby." you could feel the shy smile he wore against your shoulder until you pulled away from him. you pulled a robe from the back of the door and told him, "put this on." he knew most of the reason was so he didn't stain his shirt with hair products but another part of it had to be the fact that his shirt was wide open.
lando sat in front of the camera and you laughed at how awkward he looked compared to normal. you prompted, "baby, say hi to everyone. they ask for you all the time." he stiffly waved a hand in front of the camera and you sighed, "i don't know why you act so funny around my camera but everyone else it's fine." he mumbled a soft, "because it's you..." but only the mic on the camera caught it. he sat on the bench in front of you and slightly leaned back into your body before letting his eyes flutter shut.
meanwhile you showed the leave in conditioner to the camera, "this is the kinky curly knot today leave in-" despite his eyes being shut lando let out a small laugh and you asked, "what?" he mumbled cheekily, "kinky." you let out a exasperated sigh, "oh god you're like a child...anyways i was saying, i put a little of this in his hair but not too much just a tiny amount to add moisture." squeezing the leave in conditioner into your palm then applying it to his hair you hummed along to a sza song that ran through your head. the gentle work of your fingers running along his scalp nearly lulled lando back to sleep. you worked through his hair with a practiced ease, adding product and coaxing the curls atop his head to take perfect shape. not wanting to disturb his peace, you silently showed the matching brand's curling custard and then applied that lightly to his hair. once you'd finished you turned on the blow dryer, accidentally jump scaring your boyfriend under you. a soft melodic laugh fell past your lips and one hand fell to his shoulder before you leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek, "my bad babe." the camera didn't miss the way he leaned into your touch, pushing his cheek closer to you with his shoulders dropping further in relaxation.
not even half an hour later you were done and the light brown curls on his head were perfectly defined. you wiped your hands on the hand towel you'd slung over your shoulder earlier and laughed when you realized your boyfriend literally fell asleep. you gently cupped under his chin and pressed another kiss to his cheek. just above a whisper you mumbled, "all done, bubs. " he opened his eyes and smiled while you mused, âmy pretty boy.â his cheeks flushed slightly, âthank youâ and you brushed a few curls into place before looking at his reflection, "of course." he stood up and pulled you out of the frame to gave you a quick kiss before going downstairs where you'd meet him when you finished getting dressed.
the white and navy blue floral sundress you wore was both nice and simple enough to wear for today. simple gold jewelry and a pair of white sandals finished off your look and you grabbed the camera to show your reflection in the full length mirror on the wall, "all dressed so i'm gonna go meet lando downstairs and i'll see you all a little bit later!" you stopped recording and went downstairs to find your boyfriend sitting and ready to go, his cheeks burning pink when he laid eyes on you. a subtle fluttering erupted in your stomach at the familiar gaze, the one that made you feel like the only girl in the world.
*extra*
you scrolled through your social media accounts, something you never really did if you didn't have to. the first thing that came to your attention was the flood of pictures and comments that were about your boyfriend's hair. for the past few races you'd been doing his hair and more and more fans were noticing it looked better than normal. honestly, you found it amusing that people were bringing it up and so much at that, so you decided to add to the conversation just a bit:
fans reactions to recent vlog upload:
#formula one#formula 1#f1 x black!reader#f1 x reader#f1 fanfic#f1 imagine#f1 fic#lando norris#lando norris x reader#lando norris x y/n#lando norris x you#lando norris fluff#lando norris angst#lando norris imagine#lando norris fic#lando norris smau#formula 1 fanfic#formula 1 fic#f1 fanfiction
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Part 7: In All My Victories
Masterlist - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11
Somebody said you got a new friend (But does she love you better than I can?)
(In which a writer in an EST timezone uses the PST timezone to announce that technically she's still meeting the deadline)
Pairing: Paige Bueckers X Azzi Fudd
Themes: Angst, Fluff, Jealousy
Words: 6.5K
TW: Swearing, Toxic Relationships
A/N: Hello my lovelies! Listen it's past midnight here but it's only around 9 pm in California which is where most of this fic is set so TECHNICALLY I am still meeting my deadline. This chapter is kind of a filler (and I guess that's why I don't love it) because it was gonna be about ~3K longer with another scene but it was either a longer chapter or a Monday chapter and I feel like y'all would prefer a Monday chapter. I have not edited this yet because I simply just don't have the energy to so pretty please point out my errors as you read so I can use them when I edit some time tomorrow. There's probably other stuff I need to say but I'm feeling oddly delirious right now so I'll just end with the usual. Let me know what you liked, what you disliked and what you'd like to see next. Have a lovely rest of your week my loves <3
March 2033
Paige wakes up to a stream of sunlight tapping at her eyelids and someoneâs soft breath tickling against her nose. She can feel a tiny hand pressed against her chest -right above her heart- and the weight of another personâs fingers intertwined against her own. The room is silent with the exception of the clock ticking on the wall and the perfectly harmonized breathing of the other people in the room. Stephie and Azzi. And Paige is scared to open her eyes, scared to move even an inch, scared that if she does either of those things, her dreamlike reality will prove to be nothing but a hopeless mirage.Â
It had taken Paige a moment last night to really register what was happening around her. Dazedly, she had followed Azzi up the stairs into the guest room. Sheâd watched, albeit unhelpfully, as Azzi had searched out extra pillows, setting up the queen-sized bed so it could fit three people instead of itâs regular duo. It hadnât sunk in even as Paige had slowly gotten herself ready for bed, finding herself in one of Azziâs old oversized t-shirts suddenly overwhelmed with how much sheâd missed falling asleep embraced in the scent of the younger womanâs favorite lavender and eucalyptus deodorant. Even as sheâd made her way back from the bathroom and found Stephie beaming at her from where she was curled into Azziâs side on bed, Paige still felt like she was simply just watching everything from a facetime call, like she had been while back in Dallas. It wasnât until Stephieâs bedtime story was finished and the lights were turned off, when Azziâs hand finally captured hers underneath the comforter and squeezed gently, that it finally clicked for Paige.Â
Azzi had asked her to stay over.
Azzi had promised she wouldnât run away.Â
And as Paige finally lets eyes flutter open, blinking to adjust to the light, she breathes out a sigh of relief at the sight of a promise kept.Â
Propping herself onto her elbow, she lets herself take in the view of the two people still sound asleep next to her. Paige isnât a morning person by any means -rarely is she the first person to wake up- but she thinks if this was what she could open her eyes to every time, getting up could become her favorite part of the day.Â
Itâs uncanny how similar Azzi and Stephie are while sleeping. The little girlâs grip on Paigeâs shirt is almost as strong as the tight hold her mother has on Paigeâs hand. Itâs like theyâre trying to reel Paige into their world and keep her there forever, like even if she let go, they wouldnât let her. Thereâs an air of contentedness on Azziâs face as she snuggles closer to her daughter and Stephie has a soft smile at being cocooned in the protection of her motherâs arms. And Paigeâs whole body aches a little bit because this bed theyâre on is definitely not made for three people, but itâs nothing in comparison to the way her heart feels like it might burst from this feeling of and maybe this is how i become whole again.Â
She presses a kiss against Stephieâs forehead and rubs her thumb against the back of Azziâs hand before carefully detaching herself from the duo and slipping out of bed. The whole house is still clearly asleep as Paige lethargically brushes and then begins to make her way down the stairs. Her eyes gloss over the pictures placed across the stairwell until they fixate on one that has her in it. Itâs an image taken after one of many water fights theyâd had at the Fudd household during a hot summer day. Life had been so simple back then when it was water and not bullets that they shot at each other.Â
Five drenched children are beaming at the camera. Jon and JosĂ© are posed in some ridiculous stance, their water guns pointed at the camera. Paige, par for the course, is flexing, a far too cocky smirk dancing on her lips because sheâd probably won the game (even if nobody else agreed). And then thereâs Drew and Azzi. Thereâs a familiar pang in Paigeâs chest as she brushes her fingers over her little brotherâs exuberant smile. Heâs latched onto the brunetteâs back, a blue water balloon in his hand, as Azzi uses one hand on his hip to keep Drew in place and uses her other one to hold a pink water balloon of her own. The Fudds -Azzi- had been as big of a constant in Drewâs life as they had been in Paigeâs and she wonders now, as she thinks back to her little brotherâs irritation with her joining the Valkyries, if heâd ever forgive her and Azzi for taking that away from him.Â
âOh hey good morning,â Tallulah says as Paige lets herself into the kitchen, blanching slightly at the sight of the other woman.Â
âGood morning,â Paige greets, pouring herself a glass of water as she takes a seat at the island, âguessing youâre making pancakes?â
Tallulah nods with a grin, âStephieâs orders you know.â
âAh of course,â Paige laughs, âcanât defy the queen.â
She watches as Tallulah prances around the hardwood floor, grabbing bowls and ingredients, like itâs her kitchen and Paige canât help the twinge of envy that blooms in her bloodstream. It used to be her. She used to know the Fuddâs kitchen -the whole house- like the back of her hand because really, like Katie always said, it was her home too. But she doesnât quite know this place, couldnât tell you where to find the sugar or where the utensils were kept and that stings more than sheâd expected. It spirals Paige into the thought that she wouldnât know any of those things at Azziâs own house either. And suddenly sheâs struck by the reminder that two people whoâd once promised to build a world together, had spent the last couple of years, building two separate ones instead.Â
âHey,â Tallulah breaks Paige out of her trance, âyou good.â
Paige musters up a smile, âyeah- yeah of course. Just- just thinking a lotta things I guess.â
âTheyâve all missed you, you know,â Tallulah says softly, âthey try not to do it too much around Azzi but itâs always âoh Paige wouldâve loved thisâ or âdid you catch that bucket Paige made last nightâ. And whenever the Wings were playing here, it was a no-brainer that they would go.â
âYeah?â tears prickle against the blondeâs waterline.Â
âYeah,â Tallulah confirms, âTim lowkey lost his mind before you got here last night. Poor man was running all over the place making sure things were good. Katie thought it was pretty hilarious.â
Paige lets out a watery laugh, âthat sounds like them-â
âMiss Buecks,â a tiny voice interrupts her before she can say anything and Paige whirls around to see a teary-eyed Stephie looking at her from the last step of the staircase, her bottom lip trembling and panic courses into Paigeâs bloodstream
âStephie,â she practically trips over herself as she rushes to fold the little girl into her arms, âsweetheart whatâs wrong?â
Stephie nestles herself into the blondeâs neck, mumbling something incoherent as she holds Paige impossibly tight.Â
âStephie,â Paige whispers frantically, concern dripping from her voice, âtell Miss Buecks whatâs wrong please. I canât fix it if you donât tell me sweetheart.â
âThought you left,â Stephie confesses finally, keeping her head burrowed against Paigeâs shoulder, âyou werenât next to me when I woke up. Got scared.â
âOh honey,â Paige whispers, as she gently coaxes the little girlâs head out from the crook of her neck so she can cup her face, âIâm right here. I wouldnât leave without saying goodbye.â
Stephieâs quiet for a second, hiccoughing to herself as she searches for something on Paigeâs face before she holds out a pinky, âpromise youâll never leave?âÂ
Paige hesitates, the words sitting heavy on the tip of her tongue. Itâs not that she doesnât want to but Paige has learned first-hand about the fragility of the future, about how true the clichĂ© about time changing in the blink of an eye can be. Because the truth is that itâs not just Azzi whoâs scared. Paige is terrified. Sheâd drowned in this ocean once before and as she tries to swim in it again, she canât quite find it in herself to shed her life-jacket by making an oath that she canât guarantee to protect from the dangerous tides of circumstance.
And so she hopes itâs enough for Stephie as she caresses the little girlâs cheeks and says, âI promise Iâll try to stay.â
âOkay,â Stephie says softly and Paige lets out a sigh of relief, âI trust you Miss Buecks.â
Paige smiles, giving the little girl a kiss on the cheek before hoisting her up onto her lap, âdid you wake your Mama up?â
âNo. Sheâs still snoring,â Stephie giggles.Â
Paige laughs, tucking that little tidbit away to tease Azzi with later, âhow about you and I go get your Mama her favorite coffee?â
âOh thatâs nice,â Tallulah chirps from where sheâs still standing in the kitchen, âgo get coffee of course. Why would anyone stay here and help me?â
âGo ask uncle JosĂ©,â Stephie shoots the younger woman an unamused look, âisnât that what husbands are for?â
Paige stifles a grin as Tallulah narrows her eyes, waving her whisk menacingly at Stephie, âheâs not my husband yet and you watch it missy or maybe I wonât let you be a flower girl at the wedding.â
âYour wedding would be boring without me,â Stephie scoffs, âbesides Aunty Tully, weâll get you a drink too. Uncle JosĂ© always says you drink vod-ka, too much of it app-ently, but I donât know what that is,â she turns to Paige whoâs gone bright red in attempt to stop herself from keeling over with laughter, âcan we get vod-ka for Aunty Tully?â
Paige tries her best to compose herself, âmaybe weâll just get her a latte and save the vodka for later huh Tulls?â
Tallulah glares at her, flipping her off when Stephieâs gaze shifts towards the door, âjust go get the coffee Bueckers.â
***
Not that she didnât know it before, but Paige quickly realizes just how similar Stephie is to her mother while theyâre standing in front of the bakery portion of the coffeeshop and itâs been ten minutes and Stephie still hasnât decided which sweet treat sheâd like.Â
 âStephie sweetheart,â Paige says, only slightly impatient, âhow about the double fudge brownie?â
âThat sounds good,â Stephie says excitedly and then her eyes dart towards the cinnamon bun in the corner, âor maybe the ninnamon bun- no wait- Aunty Tullyâs gonna put ninnamon in the pancakes so maybe something else. Ooooh maybe a cookie but which one?â
Paige groans to herself as Stephie busies herself looking at the assortment of freshly baked cookies. The old woman over the counter, wearing a name tag saying Ruthie, shares a commiserating smile with her.Â
âMy daughter was like that too at that age. Couldnât make a decision to save her life,â Ruthie says, a fond look in her eyes while talking about her child.Â
Paige smiles, âdid she ever grow out of it?â
âWell considering we went out to dinner last night and she couldnât pick between the pepperoni and the sausage, I donât think they really grow out of it,â Ruthie winks and Paige canât help but think about Azzi and the way sheâd struggled to pick out what to wear to bed last night, staring helplessly between two shirts that practically looked the same.Â
âOh I know that look,â Ruthie says, eyes twinkling at the hopeless smile on Paigeâs face, as she tilts her head towards Stephie, âyouâre thinking about her mother huh?â
âThat obvious?â Paige blushes.Â
Ruthie shrugs, âwhat is love if it canât be seen by everyone?â
Love. The word seeps into Paigeâs veins, traveling up her bloodstreams until it claws its way into her heart, settling against her ribcage like a rock so that when she breathes, itâs all she can feel. Itâs too soon, she knows, and it defeats the purpose of going slow except- itâs not soon at all. Because this isnât a new feeling, itâs a far too familiar old one that sheâd buried as deep within her as possible but is now yearning to get out. It had never gone away, simply lingered in the back of her mind just waiting for this moment. And if sheâs honest with herself, Paige doesnât know if she should fight against it or let herself ride the waves of the before that are desperate to crash against the shore of now.Â
âMiss Buecks,â Stephie whines, âcome help me choose.â
Shooting Ruthie an apologetic look and ignoring the pit in her stomach at the elder womanâs words, Paige walks over and bends down to the little girlâs height, âhow about a chocolate chip cookie?â
âBoooooring,â Stephie crinkles her nose.Â
âPeanut butter?â
âIâm âlergic to nuts Miss Buecks,â Stephie says matter-of-factly and Paige pencils that important fact into her mindâs ever growing list of all about Stephie.
âSalted caramel crunch?âÂ
âThat sounds good,â Stephie nods, âyeah Iâll get that,â she says as she turns to Ruthie, âcould I get a salted car-mel crunch cookie please?â but Paige doesnât miss the wistful look she sends towards the rest of the cookies.Â
âStephie?â
âYes?â
âDo you want me to get you one of each?â
And sheâs absolutely going to get a disapproving glare from Azzi when she shows back up at the Fuddâs with almost a dozen cookies in hand but itâs worth it for the way Stephie immediately latches onto her thigh, a dazzling smile lighting up her whole face.Â
âYouâre best-est-est-est Miss Buecks,â Stephie squeals, staring up at Paige with delight.Â
âI know,â Paige smirks, âand you better protect me from your Mama when we get back.â
Stephie nods very seriously, âof course Miss Buecks. Iâll protect you with my life.â
Paige ruffles the younger girl's hair before turning to Ruthie whoâs grinning at her, âone of every flavor of cookie you have please. Except anything that has nuts.â
âComing right up,â Ruthie winks at Paige, âyour daughter has you wrapped around her little finger huh?â
And maybe Paige should at least attempt to correct the misconception but as Stephie clings to her just a little bit tighter, she canât find it in herself to say anything but, âyeah, yeah she does.â
***
âNext time you kidnap my daughter, can you at least send me a text?â Azzi says, a grin on her lips as she opens the door to let Paige and Stephie enter back into the Fudd household.Â
âGood morning Mama,â Stephie says happily, launching herself into her motherâs arms and placing a sloppy kiss against her cheek.Â
âMorning sunshine,â Azzi laughs, âyou seem giddy this morning.â
âMiss Buecks bought me six-teen cookies and she let me eat two of them while we were dri-â Stephie pauses mid ramble, eyes widening as she dramatically slaps a hand over her mouth.Â
Paige groans as a glare overtakes Azziâs previously smiling features, âSteph what happened to protecting me?â
âIt was an aksy-dent Miss Buecks Iâm sorry,â Stephie whimpers, hurriedly cupping her motherâs face, âplease donât be angry at Miss Buecks, Mama. It was my idea.â
Azzi rolls her eyes, âI bet it was. But if you already had two cookies, you must be full? I guess that means no pancakes for you-â
âMiss Buecks forced me to eat the cookies,â Stephie cuts her off and Paige gasps at the betrayal, ânot full at all Mama because you canât get full unless you like what you eat and I didnât like those cookies at all. So I neeeeeeed pancakes.â
âTraitor,â Paige hisses at the little girl who shrugs sheepishly.Â
Stephie shoots her an apologetic smile as Azzi hides a grin against her daughterâs hair, âIâm sorry Miss Buecks but I really, really want pancakes. Iâll die if I donât get pancakes.â
âOkay drama queen,â Azzi chides fondly as she puts Stephie back on the ground, âgo get your pancakes,â and then she rounds onto Paige with a patented glare.Â
âI got you an iced vanilla latte with extra whipped cream,â Paige says before the younger woman can say anything, practically shoving the cold drink into her hand.Â
âSixteen cookies? Paige seriously?â Azzi asks, eyebrows raised as she sips at her coffee.Â
âYou didnât see her Az,â Paige defends, âshe looked so sad when she couldnât decide.â
âJust because she looks sad doesnât mean you buy her every single cookie to make her happy,â Azzi shakes her head exasperatedly.Â
âIâd buy her the whole shop if thatâs what would make her happy,â Paige says, sincerity weaved throughout every word of the sentence.Â
âYou would, wouldnât you?â Azzi says softly, a hint of awe in her voice, âyouâre kind of a sap Paige Bueckers.â
âOnly for you and your daughter Azzi Fudd,â Paige whispers, leaning her head against the younger womanâs temple, âonly for the two of you.â
They stand there like that, barely touching beyond their foreheads, yet basking in a certain kind of intimacy that theyâve only ever found with each other. The thing is, Paigeâs senses are always heightened, every part of her always alert of whatâs going around her. Except when sheâs with Azzi. When sheâs with Azzi she can let the noise fade to the background and let everything else become a blur and simply just be with Azzi. When sheâs with Azzi, she doesnât have to worry; doesnât have to have her sword out ready for battle because she knows the younger girl will always be her shield. When sheâs with Azzi, Paige is safe.Â
Theyâre shaken from their reverie by a cough in the background and Paige reluctantly looks over her shoulder to see Jana regarding them with an amused look.Â
âGuess I missed a couple of chapters?âÂ
âShut up,â Paige grinds out, annoyed as Azzi moves out of her space, âwhat are you doing here so early El-Alfy?â
âIâm here for breakfast because Iâm basically an honorary Fudd,â Jana throws her head back before yelling, âRIGHT KATIE?â
âRight Jana,â comes the muffled confirmation from the kitchen as Jana smirks at Paige.Â
âThe better question Bueckers,â the Egyptian prods with a smirk, âis what are you doing here so early?â
âI slept ov-â Paige bites her tongue but itâs too late as Janaâs grin gets wider and next to her, Azzi lets her head drop into her hands.Â
âYou slept over? In which room?â Jana asks innocently.Â
And of course Stephie chooses exactly that moment to catch wind of the conversation, yelling from the kitchen, âshe slept with me and Mama, Aunty J.â
âThank you for telling me Stephie,â Janaâs eyes twinkle with mirth as she pulls out her phone, âoh Iâm about to make some money- hey!â
Azzi snatches the phone out of her younger teammateâs hand, a sweet smile playing on her lips as she starts walking towards the kitchen, âno phones at breakfast thank you!â
âThatâs not fair,â Jana whines sauntering after the GSV shooting guard, Paige snickering as she follows the two of them into the kitchen.Â
âLifeâs not fair. Deal with it,â Azzi glares before slipping Janaâs phone into her own pocket, âyou can have it back before you leave.â
âYâall are so mean,â Jana sulks, pouting harder when she reaches out to grab a pancake and immediately has her hand whacked by Tim.
âThat oneâs for Paige,â the older man warns sternly and Paige sticks her tongue out at her teammate as she grabs the pancake onto her place.Â
âWHAT?â Jana guffaws, âwhatâs so special about it?â
Tim shrugs, âabsolutely nothing. Just thought it would be funny to see you annoyed.â
âYâall are the worst adoptive family a player could have you know that?â Jana scolds, pressing her fists to her cheeks like sheâs barely older than Stephie, âand to think I was gonna invite the two of you,â she glares at Paige and Azzi, âto a party.â
âParty? Can I come?â Stephie asks excitedly.Â
âUnfortunately this oneâs just for adults kiddo. And itâs not really a party,â Jana explains, âme and Joyce thought it would be nice to do a little team-bonding, especially for you P. Drinks at the bar next weekend?â
âSounds good,â Paige confirms, âweâll be there!â
âOh itâs âweâ now is it?â Jana teases, âyou guys gonna come together?â
âNo,â Azzi says at the same time as a profound âyesâ leaves Paigeâs mouth. The two of them stare at each other with questioning looks and Paige feels a heavy pit settling in her stomach. Rationally, she knows Azziâs probably right. No part of going slow includes going to a party with their teammates together, especially not when theyâre trying to keep whatever it is theyâre doing on the down low. But thereâs something about being a secret again, that raises a bitter taste of what killed us then could kill us now in her mouth.Â
âAwkward,â Jon whistles slowly, only to be met with a simultaneous slap on the back of his head from both his mother and Tallulah.Â
âI mean- I would have to drop Stephie off here- or umm- at Colleen's so like- logically- practically- uh- it um- it wouldnât make sense for us to go together,â Azzi says and Paige has to refrain herself from calling it a bullshit explanation.Â
Instead she gives the younger girl a tight-lipped nod, âright yeah-wouldnât make sense for us to go together. Obviously,â gritting her teeth and desperate to change the topic, she turns to Jana, âwill the whole team be there?â
âA couple of them arenât currently in the Bay but yeah most of them,â Jana shrugs.Â
âOh,â Stephie claps excitedly, âwill Aunty ChĂ©rie be there? Is she back yet?â
Paige narrows her eyes as both Jana and Azzi exchange looks, âwhoâs Aunty ChĂ©rie?â
âAunty ChĂ©rieâs the best,â Stephie gushes, âsheâs really nice and pretty and she calls me âmon chĂ©rieâ,â the little girl does her best attempt at a vaguely french accent and realization starts to claw at Paigeâs mind, âso I call her Aunty ChĂ©rie. Sheâs Mamaâs best friend on the team.â
Paige tries and fails not to grimace at the sentence; the idea of anyone else being Azziâs best friend feels like nails being screwed into her skin.Â
âIâm your Mamaâs best friend on the team,â Jana butts in, trying to rescue Azzi from the hole her daughterâs about to dig her into, glancing worriedly between the two former huskies who are doing their best not to look at each other.Â
âIf you say so Aunty J,â Stephie concedes, âbut you didnât answer my question. Is Aunty ChĂ©rie back?â
âYeah she- um ClĂ©mence I mean- is coming back for a little bit next week so um-â Jana swallows, clearly not having thought the uncomfortableness of the situation through, âyeah sheâll uh- sheâll probably be there.â
Stephie lets out a whoop of excitement and Paige feels it burn a hole in her stomach. She knows she has no right to be upset at the idea of Stephie being as enamored by another one of Azziâs teammates but something about it makes her feel queasy inside. Because ClĂ©mence Martens isnât just a teammate. Paige doesnât know the exact history there; sheâd never had the right to ask about it but sheâs seen the way ClĂ©mence looks at Azzi and she knows she doesnât like it one bit.
âI thought ClĂ©mence was being traded to Atlanta?â Paige keeps her voice low as she leans into Jana. Sheâs not sure if Stephie knows the news yet and despite the jealousy thatâs blooming in every crevice of her body, she doesnât want to hurt the little girl by accidentally announcing it to her, âwhyâs she coming?â
Jana sighs, âJoyce invited her cause she was gonna be in town. You know they donât know about-â the taller woman gestures between Paige and Azzi, â-all of this so. Itâs just for one night Paige.â
âRight,â Paige nods, eyes locking with Azziâs across the table as the younger woman fidgets with the âSâ necklace around her neck and shoots Paige a timid attempt at a reassuring smile, âjust one night.â
***
August 2028
USA 68 Â Â Â Â France 64
The entire arena is abuzz for the final 20 seconds of a grueling semi-final match between the storied USA Womenâs Basketball team trying to keep their dynasty alive and a vindictive French team eager to avenge their last heartbreaking Olympic loss. France has possession of the ball, shot clock turned off, and Paige has been tasked with guarding ClĂ©mence Martens. The woman in front of her, a bench player for the Golden State Valkyries, had never seemed like much of a threat to Paige when theyâd met during the W season, but seemed to have become a whole other beast when representing her nation. ClĂ©mence is currently leading the French team in assists and is only behind Gabby William in points. Paige keeps herself glued to the woman as she tries to get herself free for the inbound.Â
The inbounder realizes after a couple of seconds that the French coachâs advice to get ClĂ©mence the ball wouldnât be possible and instead the ball ends up in the hands of Iliana Rupert instead. As gameplay resumes, Paige does exactly as sheâs supposed to and she can tell that sheâs getting under the French womanâs skin as ClĂ©mence curses to herself in her native language. Paige bites back a smirk, secretly pleased at having riled her competitor up. The ball continues to pass around the French players, time ticking away, but the USAâs defense doesnât allow a good shot until Gabby throws up a miraculous jumper with a second left on the shot clock.Â
And of course, in a way thatâs perhaps too reminiscent of how France had lost in 2024, it goes in.Â
But itâs not enough and Paige feels blood rush to her ears as the entire arena, decked out in red white and blue, roars with triumph, celebrating the world's greatest team returning back to the finals stage. Thereâs still one more game but this win is special. Theyâd been down by 11 points at the half and Paige could almost picture the headlines ready to write themselves about the streaks that could be broken if they lost. But she was no stranger to the pressure that came from playing for a team with a deep history and it had been her and Stewie, partially motivated by their former college head coach frowning at them from the sidelines, that had spear-headed a 23-3 run at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. The USA womenâs team hadnât looked back since and now they were one more step away being golden again.Â
âYou did it,â Olivia screams, running into Paigeâs arms as friends and family start to gather on the court, âIâm so proud of you!â
âThanks Olivia-â Paige is about to say more when the familiar back of someoneâs head catches her attention and, like they always seem to when sheâs around, all the words die on the tip of her tongue.Â
Azzi.Â
Paige couldâve sworn sheâd seen the woman in the crowd at some point but sheâd chalked it up to a trick of the light manipulating her eyes into seeing what her heart desperately wanted. But as she watches the woman sheâd once imagined celebrating all of her victories with, slowly brush away the tears of someone elseâs loss, Paige canât help but wish that it had been a trick of the light after all. She feels suffocated and she canât tell if itâs from how tight Oliviaâs holding her or if itâs because ClĂ©mence is burying her head into the space between Azziâs neck and shoulder, a space that Paige used to mark as hers. And then Azzi looks above ClĂ©menceâs shoulder. Dark brown eyes shimmer with unshed tears as they lock onto watery sky blue ones. Theyâre standing in other peopleâs arms and they really should look away but how can they when looking into each otherâs eyes feels a little bit like finally coming up for air. And Paige realizes that what sheâs really being suffocated by is the regret of youâre supposed to be holding me and iâm supposed to be holding you; it was meant to be us.Â
Azzi lets go of ClĂ©mence first, soothingly rubbing the francophoneâs back as she makes her way over to congratulate the USA team, starting with Cam and Aliyah. Paige pulls away from Olivia, oblivious to the way annoyance flits across her wifeâs features as she catches sight of Azzi. No one but the blonde notices how hesitant Azziâs steps are, how she carefully pauses a little longer than necessary with everyone else until she finally reaches Paige, managing to give her a small but sincere smile. Olivia wraps a possessive hand around Paigeâs bicep and the blonde fights the urge to shake it off when she notices Azziâs eyes flickering to it for a brief second before coming back up to her face.Â
âCongratulations Paige,â the formality in Azziâs voice feels like acid pelting against Paigeâs skin, âyou were really good tonight.â
âThank you,â Paige smiles politely, âit was pretty stressful there for a second but Iâm glad we got the dub. But it um-â she hesitates, unsure if she should say the next part, âit wouldâve been nice if you were out there with me- with us I mean. We couldâve used your shooting.â
âMaybe next time,â Azzi gives her a half-grin.Â
âOh I donât know about that,â Olivia says airily, sharp nails digging a little too roughly into Paigeâs skin as her grip tightens further, âthereâs plenty of talent up and coming in the next 4 years.â
This is a side of Olivia that Paige is only just beginning to unveil, the side of Olivia that makes snide bitchy comments with a saccharine voice. And Paige really should let it go at this moment, make a mental note to speak with her wife about it later instead of jumping in. But she can see the insecurities brimming in Azziâs eyes and the words tumble out before Paige can stop them.Â
âYeah but no one better than Azzi.â
Olivia stiffens, âright unless sheâs injured or pregnant or something. Youâre prone to those right?â
âOlivia,â Paige hisses.Â
âI didnât mean it offensively,â Olivia feigns innocence and a bitter mix of irritation and anger coils itself around Paigeâs ribcage, âjust something to think about.â
Azziâs quiet for a second before a sugary smile, laced with poison, inches itself onto her face, âIâve only been pregnant once and I havenât been injured since college which I would expect someone in sports media to know but,â the brunetteâs eyes flash dangerously, âI suppose thatâs something someone with national media credentials would know, not just a mere local beat writer for Dallasâs fifth most read newspaper,â Azzi turns to Paige, sarcasm morphing into something far more genuine, âcongratulations again. Iâm really happy for you Paige.â
***
The Reynolds-Bueckers hotel room is a pathetic hot mess that night. Oliviaâs livid at Paige and Paige is livid at the stupid #ClĂ©zzi tag on tiktok. Sheâs no stranger to fan edits and sheâs definitely no stranger to ship edits and so when the first tiktok appears on her for you page, she knows better than to click on it. She knows better but she does it anyway. And suddenly she finds herself sucked into montage after montage of so-called moments between ClĂ©mence and Azzi that fans had noticed and documented. The clips are bad enough themselves but itâs the captions, bold declarations of look at the way she looks at her; no one can love azzi the way clĂ©mence loves her, that really piss her off. ClĂ©mence might look at Azzi like sheâs made of stars but Paige knows that she looks at Azzi like she is the moon, Paigeâs moon. As Oliviaâs anger bounces off the walls, her rant about disrespect starts to mesh with the audio of the edits that continue to play on the blondeâs phone and Paige wonders if this her God-designed personal hell.Â
âAre you even fucking listening to me Paige?â Olivia yells, forcing Paige to look up at her wife.Â
âWhat do you want me to say Olivia?â Paige asks tiredly.Â
âWhat do I want you to say? Well nothing now Paige. She said all of that shit to me and you were silent then so Iâm not expecting you to say anything of meaning now either.â
âYouâre the one who poked her first-â
âJesus fucking christ,â Olivia laughs maniacally, âyouâre really gonna do this?â
âIâm not doing anything,â Paige protests.Â
âYouâre defending her,â Olivia yells, âyouâre my wife and youâre defending her. Youâre defending your ex. Can you seriously not see whatâs wrong with this picture.â
âOlivia,â Paige sighs, eyes gazing down at her phone where another fuckass ClĂ©zzi edit has started to play and she rapidly scrolls past it, âitâs been a long day and I just wanna go to bed. I have practice tomorrow and the gold medal game-â
âRight fucking basketball. Again,â Olivia rolls her eyes.Â
âWhat-â
âItâs fine,â Olivia pinches the bridge of her nose, the fight draining from her voice, âyouâre right go to bed. Iâm not- Iâm not feeling great so Iâll sleep out here tonight. Wouldnât- wouldnât want you to get sick before the gold medal game.â
âOlivia,â Paige says half-heartedly, taking a timid step towards the woman in front of her.
âItâs fine,â Olivia says, âjust- just go to bed Paige.â
Paige knows that the last thing she should do is actually listen to her wife. And she knows that if it was Azzi -she hates herself for even thinking this way- she wouldnât walk away. If it was Azzi, Paige wouldâve pulled her into her arms, held her there and made her talk because they both hated going to bed angry. But well if it was Azzi, this whole situation wouldnât exist in the first place.Â
And so she ends up in bed alone, still scrolling through random tiktoks in an effort to not have to deal with all the voices in her head, until suddenly she stumbles on a video captioned and at the end of the day sheâll still always be looking at her. Itâs a video taken today. Paige is holding Olivia and Azziâs holding ClĂ©mence but theyâre staring at each other. And Paige thinks that whoever wrote the caption, had probably gotten it right. At the end of day, sheâll always look for Azzi. She just doesnât know if sheâll find her ever again.Â
***
USA 102 Â Â Â Â Australia 73Â
Paige can already taste the feeling of a gold medal around her neck as she takes a seat, the crowd roaring with applause as Coach Lawson empties her bench. Thereâs only fifteen seconds left in the game and her knees are bouncing in anticipation, ready to celebrate a moment sheâs been dreaming of for god knows how long. Paige scans the crowd, not even pretending to look for anyone but Azzi and she canât help the smile that erupts on her face when she spots the brunette with her fingers crossed, a brilliant grin directed in Paigeâs direction as she mouths iâm so proud of you.Â
Olivia isnât here, claiming she was too sick to come tonight. Paige thinks she probably should be more upset about that. She thinks the whole thing is probably a ruse that Olivia had concocted to get Paige to beg her to come, to get Paige to show her that she wanted her wife there. The other woman's face had fallen when Paige hadnât really reacted to the announcement, simply pressed her lips to her forehead and mumbled a feeble hope you feel better before leaving. Paige thinks this is probably the first sign they're falling apart. She thinks she should probably care about that a little bit more too.Â
But the first thing her eyes had landed on once sheâd entered the court, was Azziâs face in the lower bowl and everything else had ceased to exist. Her first petty thought had been a ha! fuck you to the damned ClĂ©zzi shippers who claimed Azzi wouldnât show up today, too busy consoling ClĂ©mence. They didn't know Azzi was all-american. Her second thought, the one that felt like a warm blanket being wrapped around her soul, was that of course Azziâs here. Because Azzi had been there every time Paige achieved a milestone and even if they were barely a shadow of what they used to be, it's only right that Azzi is still here.Â
Australia doesnât even bother taking a shot, bowing out gracefully and the buzzer rings.Â
The entire arena bursts into confetti and music as the USA Womenâs Basketball Team clinches yet another Olympic Gold Medal.Â
Paige doesnât know who sheâs hugging, lost in a sea of red uniforms as she feels herself floating through her teammates. They end up in a huddle, screaming and she can barely make out whoâs saying what but it doesnât matter. The chaos has never felt so fucking cathartic.
As everyone else disperses to find their families, Paigeâs eyes land where they always seem to: on Azzi. And maybe she shouldnât do it, maybe she should think again but fuck it Paige Bueckers is an olympic gold medalist and sheâs going to share this moment with the first person sheâd ever won a medal for this country with. Her legs move of their own accord, walking and then running and she breathes out a sigh of relief when she realizes that Azziâs moving towards her too.Â
âYou did it. Oh my god Paige you did it,â Azzi squeals as they crash into each other in the middle of the court, her arms instinctively going around Paigeâs neck as the blonds wraps her hands around Azziâs waist, âIâm so fucking proud of you. I knew you could do it Paige.â
âIâm so glad youâre here,â Paige breathes out, âI just- it wouldnât be the same winning without you.â
Azziâs eyes soften, âI came for you. I donât know if Iâm allowed to say that but- Iâm here for you.â
âGood don't want you to be here for anybody else,â Paige tightens her hold on the younger womanâs waist, âweâre gonna do it together next time okay. You and me, weâre gonna be golden together.â
And they both know that theyâre saying words they shouldnât say. That when they break apart from this moment, theyâll have to walk away. But for now, being in each otherâs arms is the only thing that feels right, that feels golden.
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As a Jewish advocate for Palestinian rights, let me tell you something. Iâm fucking hurting right now.
I hate Hamas because they have made the plight of Palestinians so much worse with their actions in that now even fewer people will be willing to acknowledge their 70 years of suffering.
I hate that they will be used as an excuse to demonize all Palestinians, and the US is already upping their already astronomical military funding for Israel.
I hate that theyâve committed unforgivable violence in the name of a cause that is just.
I hate the Israeli government and the IDF for creating the conditions for this tragedy and countless others stretching back to the Nakba.
I hate how they have perverted my culture into a settler-colonial ideology and perpetrated on the Palestinians the very kinds of pogroms my own family fled Europe to escape.
I hate that so many Jews in Israel and throughout the diaspora face ostracism from their communities and families for speaking out against the atrocities Israel has been committing against Palestinians.
I especially hate how many of my fellow Jews have bought into an ideology that can handwave the bulldozing of homes and schools, the imprisonment of children, the bombing of residential homes, the displacement, the massacres. Virtually all things we have suffered as Jews at points in our history.
My heart aches for the innocent people murdered across the board - no matter who the bombs came from. Even though part of me thinks settlers arenât innocent, what can you really do if you just happened to be born there? And even if you moved to Israel, do you really deserve to die? No.
But neither do all the children in the Gaza Strip currently being bombed in a revenge attack that, with the denial of food, water, and medical aid, violates the Geneva convention.
But to everyone who is posting now about Israel and these âunprecedented tragediesâ - yes, these are tragedies, and my heart is so heavy with them. But they are not unprecedented. Where were you when the same things were happening to Palestinians for decades upon decades? Thereâs a monumental amount of video evidence of atrocities against Palestinians, but somehow people have managed to miss all of that. If youâre only paying attention to the suffering of certain people, ask yourself why.
If youâre only now posting about âof course Palestinians should be freeâ in posts primarily about mourning the killing of Israelis, where were your voices before now? Those of us trying to organize and fight for Palestinian human rights could have used you.
If more people had spoken out against our governmentâs support of what Amnesty International and countless other human rights organizations have called an apartheid regime, who knows what could have been possible.
Edit: Since this is getting a little traction, I wanted to leave these links here. Both are very reputable organizations that are providing humanitarian aid:
#personal#Israel#Palestine#free Palestine#Gaza#Gaza under attack#human rights#fuck hamas#free gaza#israeli apartheid#war crimes
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Thank you Dean and Cas, you can go back to superhell now or whatever.
OK. Now that I have your full and undivided attention.
What the &#!* is happening in Pennsylvania?!?
Hi. You can call me Jay or Victor (I go by both interchangeably). Who the heck am I? I'm just a guy who happens to be privy to a few of the finer details about some of the things going on regarding the election here in Pennsylvania due to my proximity to someone who is involved in the electoral process.
Skip to the "keep reading" if you don't care about the how or why I'm making this post and just want the details about what's going on.
You may have recently seen a post going around talking about how somebody has paid for many many many mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania to be challenged and therefore slowing the ability for those ballots to be counted or putting them at risk of being discarded entirely.
Note - the version of the post linked there is the EDITED version that includes my initial responses (thank you to OP @/feralcringeman for editing my addition onto the post!!!! and also a massive thank you for making the post in the first place!!!!! I'm glad more word is getting out about this situation!!!!)
I am not trying to undermine this individual's post by any means. However, thanks to the way Tumblr works, I am concerned about the fact that most people are only seeing the initial unedited version of the post and are not looking into the reblogs to see my responses.
THESE RESPONSES ARE IMPORTANT.
I'm not just saying that to be self-important or whatever - I'm saying that because it is extremely important that people understand exactly what is going on so that, if and when they take action, they take the correct action and don't start throwing accusations that will ultimately end with them not being taken seriously.
To make sure this updated information gets out to a broader audience, I am making my own post with everything you need to know included. Find out everything you need to know that I am able to tell you under the cut.
Here are the key things you need to know:
The emails in the original post are legitimate. Mail-in ballots are in fact being challenged in Pennsylvania, and there will be court hearings regarding the legitimacy of these ballots
These challenges are not being made by Donald Trump himself - they are being made by avid supporters of his.
These challenges ARE LEGAL by Pennsylvania law, and the law does require a payment to be made per ballot being challenged by the challenger
There was recent news about fraudulent voter registrations being received in Lancaster County. These have absolutely no connection to the individuals responsible for challenging the mail-in ballots
In Pennsylvania, there is a law stating that any Pennsylvania citizen may come to their county's director of elections and claim that certain mail-in ballot applications may be fraudulent. When they do so, they must pay cash out of pocket per ballot application challenged. This money will go toward whatever the county needs to put it toward (usually paying off debt). The amount required to be paid per challenge is $10.
A group of avid Trump supporters worked together to make use of this law in 14 counties:
In my county specifically, I am aware of an individual who paid over $7,000 in cash to challenge ballots - that is between 700-800 challenges in my county alone.
Across these 14 counties, the number of ballots being challenged is over 4,300. That is over $43,000 paid in cash out of pocket by Trump supporters in Pennsylvania specifically with the intent of attempting to, at worst, nullify perfectly valid mail-in ballot applications and void valid votes, or at best, slow down the vote counting process by forcing the counties to conduct court hearings regarding the legitimacy of these ballots.
The good news is, many of these counties are not taking these challenges seriously whatsoever. In some cases, the judges are literally just throwing out the challenges. In other cases, the ones who made the challenges are withdrawing their challenges because it's clear that their challenges won't be taken seriously. That said, some counties may take them more seriously and hold more intense trials. In some cases, the challengers may appeal the more swiftly made court decisions and force yet another court case, slowing things down even more.
What does this all mean?
Trump didn't cheat (at least not in this specific case). Technically his supporters that made these challenges didn't either. These challenges are 100% legal under Pennsylvania law. They're ridiculous, but they are legal.
So does this mean you shouldn't raise your voices about it? That you shouldn't contact the White House and include this situation in your note about how there was foul play in this election? Absolutely not. You should include this situation, but do not frame it as cheating, because it isn't. Frame it as just another way that this election has not been run entirely fairly, because while it is legal, it means that there are perfectly valid votes that are still waiting to be counted while extremely tight races are already being called.
~~~
With all that out of the way, what was that thing I said about fraudulent voter registrations in Lancaster?
This is a completely separate issue, as I've mentioned, and it's already been discovered that the vast majority of registrations flagged as potentially fraudulent have been verified as legitimate. What is important to note is that these were voter registrations, NOT ballots.
News of this situation has gone national, so of course Trump picked up on it (and visited Lancaster not once but twice after the entire issue came to a head). But Trump is Trump, so what did he say? He said that these were fraudulent ballots, fraudulent votes. That is not true.
The issue was voter registrations, potentially being conducted by paid political canvassers that were being given quotas on how many registrations they needed to get in order to be paid. Whether that bit is true or not is still being investigated - if it is true, it's very much illegal.
As I said, the good news is that the vast majority of the over 2000 flagged registrations have been verified as legitimate, and the number that actually does seem to be fraudulent so far is hovering below 20% of the number of registrations initially flagged.
Again, this issue is completely separate. You may see it being lumped together with the current issue of ballots being challenged, but these fraudulent registrations are linked to an entirely different situation and have nothing to do with Trump or his supporters.
~~~
So! That's the tea on what's happening here in PA. It's not as bad as it initially might sound - not to say it isn't bad, it's just not as bad. Feel free to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer with the information I have/the information I'm allowed to give.
And also, on a slightly lighter note, I think we should all collectively laugh at the idiots who paid a grand total of $43,000+ in cash for literally no good reason considering most of these challenges are just being or going to be thrown out. Lmao. I hope our counties' treasuries are enjoying those donations.
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Regardless of whether anyone actually reads this, I need to show appreciation for the writing, blocking, and editing of the last scene of 3x03, âForces of Nature.â
Recently, I noticed that the LW line âthis author is captivatedâ was very specifically placed over a shot of Colin and I knew it was intentionally done to convey the double meaning of the narration being about her and him.
Since then, Iâve realized that the same thing is happening throughout that entire LW narration. And it is fucking BRILLIANT.
So, first of all, this is the transcript of the narration:
âThis author believes that all of manâs greatest inventions are nothing more than a distraction from what is most natural to us. Our instincts. The innate animal impulse that is inside even the most sophisticated of us. For when all is said and done, our nature will always win out. It seems Lord Deblingâs instinct has led this man of nature to the most surprising pick of the season in Miss Penelope Featherington. Suffice it to say, this author is captivated. For in the battle between man and nature, it is quite clear that the battle is in fact between man and himself.â
Now Iâm going to break it down with captioned stills so that you can see which words line up with which frames and Iâll explain what I believe it all means.
âThis authorâ - When itâs first said, itâs on Pen. The second time itâs on Colin. I think there are several meanings here. Firstly, sheâs Whistledown and sheâs published. He will be, assuming he publishes his travel journals or whatever. Secondly, I think it highlights how they will be united, in the Whistledown storyline along with everything else. Thereâs a third meaning, but Iâm going to get back to it later, once we get to the second use of âthis author.â
This is the Innovations Ball, so on the surface, LW is speaking about man-made technology versus the natural world. But with the introduction of âman,â the shot immediately cuts to Colin, so the second layer of the narration is about him. All of Colinâs invented personality traits are a cover, hiding his true self- his sensitivity and his feelings for Pen. Obviously, this echoes what she wrote about him in 3x01, but itâs different. The context is the same, but this time, sheâs not speaking directly about him, and really, she may very well not be thinking about him at all in writing it. After all, she still doesnât know about his feelings for her. But we know. And the feeling of what sheâs saying this time is less jarring; more, fittingly, natural. Because heâs starting to confront all of it as well.
In this shot, Colin has been walking across the room to get to Pen. There were people on his right, obstructing his view of her, but as LW says ânatural,â Colin passes those people and, though we cannot yet see Pen, we can tell from Colinâs face that he finally clearly can. She is what is most natural to him.
He comes up to her and says that he has a question for her. The narration starts again. But on this shot, itâs only the one word, âour.â Aside from this just being romantic, I think it highlights that the narration is about both of them. But I also think that itâs not just about them. It feels to me as if, metaphorically, itâs written by both of them. Hence, my emphasis on the importance of âthis author.â
We cut to our first close-up of Colin in this particular intimate sequence of close-ups. And weâre really in his perspective now, as heâs struggling to manage his feelings.
Again, he had been masking, trying to be like the other âsophisticatedâ gentlemen.
But a shift is occurring within him.
And this where I really hope there is at least one other person out there paying attention because all of the elements are coming together to tell us something incredible here. We have our beloved Julie Andrews delivering the line with a profound heaviness. We have Kris Bowersâ âCall Me Simonâ coming to a close, sounding like a clock striking midnight. And we have the decisive sentiment of the words themselves. I'm convinced that the words âdoneâ and âwin outâ being said on Pen speak to the finality of Colinâs feelings. If there was uncertainty before, it is gone now and there is no turning back. He is in love with Pen.
But before Colin can say anything else, Debling steps in and takes Pen away to dance.
Side note: Amazingly, I can back up my theory with this shot and another one of my theories:
I had said, when the trailer came out, that when true red shows up behind Colin, that indicates his love for Pen. This is the first time we see that happen.
But anyway, back to WhistledownâŠ
Debling is the literal âman of nature,â while Colin is the metaphoric âman of nature.â Both have picked Pen.
Weâve finally come to the second âthis authorâ and hereâs the third thing I wanted to say about it: Possibly my favorite thing about this sequence, is that it acts as a vehicle for the representation of the Polin role reversal. From one end of the Whistledown narration to the other, Pen and Colin literally and metaphorically switch places, seamlessly. They exchange their physical places in the room. Sheâs the wallflower, then heâs the wallflower. Sheâs the author, then heâs the author. In a metaphorical sense, theyâre both writing this Whistledown piece. This whole sequence serves to show us how Colin and Pen have really been equal this whole time. Theyâre just star-crossed. Itâs like what Luke has been saying in interviews, Colin and Pen keep missing each other. They have brief moments where they eclipse each other and then they slip right past until the next time they orbit around to each other again.
Ok, hereâs the final stretch, and it is a fucking fascinating maneuver:
The battle isnât between Colin and Debling. In fact, Debling doesnât signify at all here. Iâd say there are actually three other battles being referenced: Colin and himself, Pen and herself, and Colin and Pen. The first âmanâ of that sentence is said on Colin, while ânatureâ is said on Pen. So in the battle between Colin and Pen- for there is a battle, as Cressida will mention in 3x04 when she says âEros and Psyche, battling it outâ, and also there will be more blatant battling in part 2- the real battles Colin and Pen are facing are the ones within themselves.
Of course Iâve already written about Colinâs battle with himself.
The reference to Penâs battle with herself is particularly interesting to me. At first, I didnât see it and I didnât understand why that bit of the narration was spoken over the Pen and Debling dance instead of over Colin. Then I realized that the second âmanâ of that sentence is said directly on top of this shot where, again, itâs not about Debling; itâs her face weâre seeing. Then, Debling spins her and the âhimselfâ is on Pen too. And I know Iâm right about this because the shot was in the trailer and I watched it so many times. And I noticed that Sam Phillips is very specifically looking away from the camera in this moment. I figured it was because we had to know that the moment was about her. And I was right.
Penâs journey is her reconciliation with herself. Colin and Pen really have the same inner battles. They both need to drop their masks. Thatâs why the mirror scene is going to be so important- itâs about exposing and embracing the bare parts of both of them. They are already equal and united. They just need to see it.
Ok thatâs it. Iâm done. I got it out. And I literally canât add any more images to this post. To anyone who will have read this fuckin novel I just wrote, thanks for sticking around. These ballroom sequences are particularly difficult for the cast and crew to do, and there is obviously so much complexity in this one, so I feel like it should all be acknowledged. Someone has to acknowledge it, and if that has to be me, I will gladly continue using up my Friday afternoons to do so.
To the cast and crew, to the captain of the season 3 ship, Jess Brownell, to the director, Andrew Ahn, and writer, Eli Wilson Pelton, to everyoneâs favorite choreographer/movement director, Jack Murphy, to Luke, Nic, and Julie fuckin Andrews, I see you and I love you. Please keep doing what youâre doing. Itâs all worth it. â„ïž
#my obsession with this show and specifically this episode is unlike anything iâve ever experienced before#forces of nature#innovations ball#hawkins ball#polin#lady whistledown#bridgerton#bridgerton season 3#netflix#andrew ahn#jack murphy#jess brownell#eli wilson pelton#obsessive bridgerton things#bridgerton analysis
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Hcs of some Hoyoverse characters!!
ft!! Heizou, Sunday, Scaramouche/Wanderer, Furina, Sampo, Xiao, & Pela
Genre: fluff/crack!! No warnings that I can think of besides of being mildly ooc and some being shorter than others. Could be read as platonic. Modern Au Gn! Reader.
Heizou ->
Has thousands and thousands of screenshots, pictures, and videos saved on his phone. Refuses to delete them because âyou never know, they might come in use later.â Once in a VERY LONG while does his habit actually pay off. Heâs paying for the cloud subscription service 1000% If he doesnât his phone is borderline useless. If you go through it youâll wonder how he finds jack sh*t in that phone, thereâs no organization on/in that thing. That being said he doesnât need to put things in separate albums because he had absolutely no issues with finding what he needs. (heâs literally me)
Sunday ->
Sunday likes to tend to his multiple gardens back where he lives. Thereâs two green houses back at his home. One is his and one belongs to his dear sister. If you want one too, heâll gladly make some plans for yours next. When him or Robin canât tend to the flowers, he has a gardener come tend to them in the meantime. While all of them brings joy to him he has a special soft spot for (white) calla lilies and spider mums.
Scaramouche/Wanderer ->
The definition of an annoying menace. Heâll put sticky notes with (sometimes with writing) on your back without you knowing. He used to do this to Childe too, only when it was Childe it would be way meaner. One fool read the âkick meâ note on his back and actually did it. Poor idiot guy learned a lesson that day. The worst heâs put on your back was a note with a stupid face on it. And if someone makes fun of you for it, heâll give them a black eye! Heâs the only one allowed to be an ass to you. :)
Furina ->
Does catwalk struts in her mirror when no one is home. She gets wayyyyy too into it. Sheâll start on one side of the house and when she gets to her mirror sheâll strike a pose. One time you walked into her standing in front of the mirror doing pose 28. She couldnât look into your eyes for a week afterwards. If you ask her to give her a lil show, sheâll do it but donât laugh cause she might cry. lol. (sheâs so me coded)
Sampo ->
He plays those driving games with the steering wheel and all. Sampo started streaming it too to make some hot cash$$ This man is DEDICATED to the act he preforms while streaming this game. If he gets into an accident in the game he makes it look like it happened irl too. Heâs given himself whiplash from how fast and hard he slammed himself in his chair. think this.
Xiao->
BIG CONCERT FAN!!! Hates the crowds so much though (T ^ T) Heâs so not a people person. Always manages to get great seats for you guys. Heâs willing to see any performer if itâs for you, even if itâs not someone he likes. I personally see him as liking every genre of music, so thereâs a fat chance heâll still like the music being played. Xiao would put you on his shoulders if you ask him too. But I canât guarantee youâll be able to see any better this way because of how short he is.
Pela ->
Pela makes a crap ton of edits and fanfics. Any where between thirst edits and angst edits of anime characters. Sheâs got over 50k followers just waiting for her to drop the newest robin or satosugu edit. Sheâs also got of followers on the platform she posts her fanfics on. Sheâs big on x readers AND ship fics. That girl puts in work making sure both her edits and fics are absolutely perfect.
If you enjoyed likes/reblogs/replies are appreciated!!
fisshbones © 2024 do not repost or translate
#mouse posts#mouse writes#furina x reader#sampo x reader#sunday x reader#xiao x reader#heizou x reader#scaramouche x reader#wanderer x reader#pela x reader#pela hsr#wanderer genshin#scaramouche genshin impact#shikanoin heizou#sampo hsr#sampo koski#furina genshin#xiao genshin impact#sunday hsr#hsr sunday x reader#genshin fluff#hsr fluff#xiao fluff#sunday fluff#scaramouche fluff#genshin smut#hsr smut#gn reader#furina fluff#heizou fluff
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TC's Practical Writing Tips
Like I said before, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I can teach anyone how to write â that's a level of hubris even I'm not capable of âbut in honor of my rapidly approaching ~quarter century of writing original fiction anniversary~, I did figure I would share the tips that I live by when it comes to the act of writing.
So without further ado:
Write it now, fix it later
2. It is always permissible â and usually enjoyable â to write the stupidest possible version
3. "Inspiration" is great for poets, but poison for people who write prose
3.1: if you want to write often, you need to write often, and then you will find that you don't need to be "inspired" because you will have made a habit of it and it will come naturally 3.2: even one sentence a day is still one sentence a day. And even one sentence a week is still one sentence a week. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop 3.3: believing in the concept that you need to be inspired to write will trap you into believing in the concept of writer's block 3.4: if you are having difficulty getting out words that satisfy you, lower your standards and keep writing (see point one)
4. A few months down the line you will not remember which words came easily and which words did not
5. It is always permissible to set a project aside for now, or forever, if you need a break
6. Read widely and often, both in your favorite genres and outside of them
6.1: pay special attention to both things that you love and things that you hate - study them, engage with them, learn what makes yourself tick and your writing can only get stronger
7. Never write for the lowest common denominator, via wise words I once heard: "if you open the window and make love to the world, your story will get pneumonia", have an audience in mind and the people who like what you write will find it
8. Never write for the bad faith critic, those people will always exist and you will need to deal with them at some point if you put your writing in the world, but they don't matter and you cannot live in fear of them
9. It's fine and normal to want engagement and praise, however you must find a way to make the act of writing joyful in and of itself â make the praise the cherry on top, not the entire sunday
9.1: writing is hard work, and it's a lot of work, if you lose the ability to enjoy the journey and are proceeding only for external rewards from others, you will gradually write less and less if the ratio of work to rewards is unsatisfying
10. For anything other than final copy editing, always write a new draft into a new document, or else the words you have already written will trap you from being able to make large, sweeping changes
10.1: any change you make will invariably snowball, and you must give space for that snowball to roll
11. If someone tells you that something doesn't work for them, believe them, because people know what they like. But if people try to tell you what to do to fix it, take that with an entire serving of salt because you are the author, not them
12. It is always morally correct to look at a critique that you received, even if you asked for opinions via beta reading, and decide that it's bullshit and doesn't apply to you
13. "write what you know" means "write what you're interested in"
14. "Show don't tell" applies to screenwriting, not novels. This is the thing that drives me the most insane every time I see it. Novels are words on a page, not images on a screen. They require a lot of telling. Not all telling, but a lot of telling. Become comfortable with that.
15. It is always, ALWAYS acceptable to use "said", do not listen to the lies of others
16. Have fun, do it out of love and you will never go astray
17. Become comfortable with who you are. Your work is always going to be yours and it is always going to sound like you wrote it, and this is a good thing! No one else is ever going to write exactly like you, and you should be proud of that
17.1: the concept of "originality" is vastly overrated, every culture has some version of Cinderella and we still love it. Your writing is yours because you wrote it, and it will always be unique because of that
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