#because really. it's insane the amount of shit you can gloss over the first time. second watch is always more elative than the first

[daincrediblegg]

I really can't believe Mike did it to me again. I can't. God damnit. The first watch of Usher is good but the second? OH HOLY COW. And I didn't even feel like I was missing so much the first time. I did a decent job GUESSING some of the plot points long before they occurred. But now it's all like?? OH. OH THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT THIS STILL!!! this was connected to that. It all makes sense. Things that I didn't even realize didn't make sense to me the first time. Seriously. Flanagan Shows. The gift that keeps on giving.

[astaroth1357]

Demigod MC Series: Athena

So. I have to deal with the virgin goddesses… By mythos, there really shouldn't ever be children of Artemis, Hestia, or Athena (yes, Athena was a virgin goddess). PJ got past that by making it canon that Annabeth and her siblings were born from cracking open Athena's skull (yes, that's also more or less the canon explanation). They gloss over it real quick but I remember, Rick. I've always remembered and that mental image has haunted me for years...

I can't, in good conscience, ignore the history around Athena's worship (call it an academic restraint) but I REFUSE to do the skull thing. So, since I make the rules here, I'm going with magic adoption. They still get magic powers, they're just more human than demigod. Cool? Cool.

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus, Demeter, Athena

Lucifer

The human that popped out of the portal seemed to have enough sense not to attack everyone in the room for a change, but even Lucifer could tell that was more of a strategic choice than for lack of ability...

Their very existence was highly unusual… and quite worrisome. He wasn't even aware Athena could have "children" of her own, but apparently she had been taking in some particularly bright humans to raise and train like her own...

Unbeknownst to him, a surprising amount of human scholars, diplomats, and generals have her to thank for their trade… and that alone should speak to the level of intrigue at play here. 

Was this an accident or Athena's attempt to plant an Olympian spy in the Devildom too…? Either way, he didn't trust them from the get go…

Look, Lucifer isn’t stupid. Athena is a goddess of Wisdom and War and war happens on more than just the battlefield… 

Since they've shown up records have been going missing, official documents keep getting misplaced, and he swears that there's some kind of bug in the student council room...!

It's infuriating watching the MC suck up to Diavolo when he's almost certain that they're running their own agenda behind the scenes! And he can't prove any of it!! They cover their tracks too well!

Lucifer has one of those corkboards covered in newspapers and string in a secret wing of the Castle - 100% dedicated to just tracking the MC's activities…. The longer they're there, the more obsessed he becomes...

He swears between Simeon, Solomon, and MC he feels like a shepherd wondering why the sheep are growling… The Devildom has never been in more danger than it is right now... Send help.

Mammon

To be honest, he kind of thought that they were just going to be Satan 2.0 but that's not really true.

They're more than just a book sponge! Though they do read, like a lot. Let’s just say from one schemer to another… Game recognizes Game.

They come up with plans and ideas soooo fast, it’s insane! Honestly, there are times where he has a new money-making plot and he just brings it to the MC first to run it over. 

Nine times out of ten, not only do they sniff out any problems but they have a solution for him in a matter of minutes! His scheme game has been on point since they’ve shown up!!

They’re also even better tutoring than Satan is, so he’s even managed to get a couple A’s for the first time in his life! Lucifer actually told him he was proud (which he secretly recorded and now uses as a ringtone much to his brother’s regret...)

So yeah, he likes them... buuut that doesn’t keep him from thinking they act a little weird sometimes... 

Mammon: *points to a unused tower close to the RAD building* Over there is the Tower of Sorrow. We use it for storage.

MC: Ah. Interesting… *starts writing in a notebook, muttering* It may need a few minor tweaks but the location is defensible...

Mammon: *stops* Ya say somethin’?

MC: *looks back up* Nope! Say, you’ve been to the Castle a lot haven’t you? Do you know any good ways in?

Mammon: Uhm… Why do ya want to know that…? *starts looking around for Lucifer*

MC: In case of emergencies. I like being prepared. 🙂

Mammon: Look, I don’t know what Lucifer might’a told ya…

MC: I’ll pay you a thousand Grimm for it.

Mammon: Well shit, ya want those maps with or without color?

... Yeeeah, that’s pretty weird… But it’s probably fine. I mean, as long as they keep giving him money, who’s he to complain? 🤷‍♀️

Leviathan

Also thought that they’d be a lot more like Satan but was pleasantly surprised that they were into more than books.

What else did they like exactly? Military strategy!!

It’s been a looong time since he’s been able to talk to someone who’s actually interested in all the battles he’s fought, both in the Celestial Realm and the Devildom, and their curiosity is kind of flattering...! Not a lot of people take his strategic prowess all that seriously anymore...

Plus, they are the BEST partner to have any turn-based strategy game. Hands down. He once got stuck on a level of D-COM for weeks until the MC walked in and mopped the floor with the AI!! They have a serious head for probability and tactics.

The House once made the mistake of letting these two be on the same team during a Hell Game and they absolutely demolished the competition. Mammon didn’t even get a single shot off before half his team was lost to a rigged paint grenade… It took a whole day to clean up… 

However, Levi’s also noticed some odd things about the human… He likes that they’re interested in his past but maybe they’re a little… too interested?

Levi: -and that’s how we defeated the Four Horsemen before they escaped from Purgatory. 

MC: Wow, Levi that’s seriously impressive!! *furiously scribbling on a notebook*

Levi: Well t-thanks… 😅 But, uhm... are you writing that down…?

MC: Hm? Oh no, just doodling. *they lift up the notebook to show a bunch of cute little sketches on the page… and not the magic-based invisible ink all over them…*

Levi: Oh you draw too? Can you do fanart???

MC: Eh, sometimes. But say Levi, can you tell me about your naval ranks again? I’m still really curious… *gets the pen ready again with a smile*

Satan

Oh, it's been a long game of cat-and-mouse between these two… and unfortunately, it’s been pretty addicting too.

He honestly had every intention of tricking the human into making a huge mess do he could bother Lucifer, but at every turn they proved just a hair too clever for him...

He once gave them a cursed book to “lend” to Lucifer, but they saw through it the moment they touched it and lifted the spell before handing it over.

He rigged a podium to spray glitter during one of Lucifer's speeches but the MC disconnected the trigger mic before he even got on stage. It was pretty dang frustrating...

At one point he got so desperate that, just as a test, he tried to trap them in the House's Music Room. Fortunately for them, it only took a few minutes to work out an escape. They even passed by him in the hallway with a wink!

It's confounding! It's infuriating!! 

...and it's so damn sexy... He should be furious but he’s just in awe!!

Add on that they know their art, literature, and multiple different crafts thanks to the tutelage of their adopted mother and that’s it. He’s finished. This boy is in love.

Truthfully though, a part of him is 90% sure that they’re also gathering state secrets… Like, they’re watching Barbs and Diavolo far too close for comfort - but he just can't bring himself to care. 🤷‍♀️

The MC could walk into his room one day and say, "Hey, do you want to help overthrow the monarchy with me?" and he dreads it because deep down he knows that he wouldn’t say no…

Take some notes, kids. Some bad influences get you to drink or do drugs. Others pull you into a centuries long conspiracy to destabilize and topple rival realms from within… But he has fallen for their brain hard. Devil help them all…

Asmodeus 

They’re pretty clever, he’ll give them that, but uh… Are they a little off to anybody else?

Asmo is a charmer by birthright so he has a bit of nose for when someone’s just a liiittttle too nice… Not much of a nose mind you, because he can be thrown off by compliments himself, but enough to think that the MC might be a little too… “kind” for their own good...

First off, who wants to spend that much time with Levi?? They don’t even seem that interested in anime! They just keeping asking him for old war stories…

Then all the sucking up they do to Diavolo and Barbatos? Look, he gets it. Diavolo is a delicious piece of man-hunk and his butler could give him a lesson or two in sweet-talk (and he has), but they seem to be just a little too… nosy.

Of course, Asmo’s suspicions disappear pretty quickly after they start to spoil him with spa nights and beauty secrets they picked up from “casual research” into the subject.

And you know, get a little Demonus in Asmo and start massaging his back? Oh, sweetie he’ll sing like a bird!! … with gossip. Singing with gossip.

Asmo: So I’ve heard that Lucifer has been spending more time at RAD than usual… His whole club is talking about it, they think he’s meeting with some witch!

MC: Hm, is that so? *works on a knot near his shoulder blades* What do you think?

Asmo: Ooh~! Right there, MC! *purrs and lays his head on his arms* Well come on, this is Lucifer we’re talking about! I’m sure he’s just working.

Asmo: Hmm... though come to think of it, I think I heard him asking Barbatos for the spare keys to the Tower of Sorrow…

MC: Oh really? Huh. *works out the knot and gets up* I just remembered that I left some papers with Satan... I’ll be right back.

Asmo: You’re going already??

MC: *waves him off quickly* I’ll be right back, Asmo. *hurries out the door to do totally on-the-up-and-up things… surely*

Beelzebub 

Honestly he doesn't like this one… But not for the reasons you'd expect.

He agrees with everyone else that they seem a little shady, but Solomon and Simeon are too so it's not like that's anything new... 🤷‍♀️

No, no. He dislikes them because they're the person who FINALLY figured out how to keep him from eating all the food in the kitchen!!

Turns out that the trick was to put a teleportation charm on the fridge door that would send all the food away if it’s opened after a certain time of night… 

And where does it go? The Purgatory Hall fridge. And where does the Purgatory Hall food go…? The HoL fridge…

It doesn’t sound so bad until you remember that it means half of their fridge is now Solomon’s leftovers…. 🤢

After they put the same kind of spell on the pantry, it was all over… He couldn't get midnight snacks from the House anymore… Everything was contaminated by Solomon…

The MC is a nice enough person, he doesn’t have a lot of complaints about them, but he wants them to leave. Now. This is inexcusable… He’s so hungry… and he doesn’t want to die by “goulash” or whatever Solomon calls his latest culinary catastrophe… He’s still too young for death… 😓

Belphegor 

In a way, he absolutely could not have asked for a better person to help him get out of that attic.

… In another way, he got one of the worst possible people to try and kill... Like. They saw through his scheme sooo fast…

How was he supposed to know that the human had training in body language and sniffing out lies???

Getting the door open was a piece of cake for them. They knew enough magic to undo the seals and just rummaged around Lucifer's stuff long enough to find the key to the door. He could not have found a more competent individual for a break out, really.

It’s just… well he didn’t expect to go from locked in a room like a prisoner to tied up in enchanted rope, still like a prisoner but now mobile. 😑 

They even used his own hug ruse against him! They caught his wrists when they got close and tied him up before he could shake them off...

Admittedly, it wasn't exactly the best look for them either - what with walking Belphegor downstairs to the others like a one-man-prison-caravan but they're as silver-tongued as they are sly so they talked their way out of it beautifully… 

And like hell was he going to trust them after that!! And not even Beel liked them so something had to be up...

Well, you want a detective? Look no farther than Belphie (no seriously, it’s in the canon). He can put things together pretty fast when he puts his mind to it and watching the MC for a while gave him enough proof to work off of...

He always knew that, humans were bad news and the MC just proved it to him all over again. They are bad news, bad bad news and they’re going to-!

Overthrow… Diavolo…? Is that what he is getting from them…? Huh…

Wait a second, MC. You might just have him interested… 😏

[transsexualhamlet]

predictions for yuumori s2 (as a manga reader)

No matter what happens, this is probably gonna end up aging badly, but i’m hyperfixating and I’ve decided to make it everyone else’s problem so I’m going to predict where they’re gonna go with s2 of moriarty the patriot (keep in mind i’m writing this as of episode 2) and what I think would be the ideal scenario, in the likely situation that this is the last season.

So we can tell a lot about what they’re going to cut/include from the opening and ending, and the first two episodes. 

Observations/Conclusions:

-moneypenny and most likely von herder are gone, already evidenced by the first 2 episodes, which is :( but understandable bc there’s only so much space and they’re definitely cutting the arcs where they would be important

-so that means no moran backstory because duh, there’s a point in the backstory and i see value in it, moran slaps when he’s not being an ass lmao, but again, time constraints

-no matter what I can’t see them keeping in the like, child hunting thing 2 electric boogaloo, even tho it did further Fred’s and Louis’ characters, since they’ve previously cut out stuff considering them and. You know. That’s how it be.

-You can see they’re including jack the ripper arc (considering, jack is in the opening) and I have faith that they can downsize the arc without butchering it if they do it right. This is good that they’re keeping it in, considering it’s one of the... main arcs not involving milverton that advances the plot.

-Major thing we can tell is that, yeah, Milverton is nowhere to be seen. It seems like this would fuck things up bad since he’s like, the only kind of “main villain” we get here. But honestly? I agree with that. Fuck Milverton. He has no character or motivation and is like my one and only bone to pick with the manga. He’s just there to suck ass and create plot convenience?? I don’t like him and he never needed to be there if he wasn’t at least going to do something interesting. I support the anime cutting him.

-That DOES fuck over their ability to do the white knight arc, since, well, milverton is the cause of all of that. And this is the one thing I really don’t know what they’re going to do with that to connect jack the ripper directly to the final problem. I can’t predict that, but I do think there are ways it can be done that won’t be Awful.

-So considering that, Mary’s arc is definitely axed, which doesn’t bother me that much since by that point i so impatient for gay people and really didn’t care about watson’s fiance even tho she is a lovely lady. For anime effect, she does not need an arc, though I could see them having her show up a few times so watson doesn’t seem too gay either lmao.

-They’re definitely shooting to end with the final problem, considering without it there’s no big culminating event between moriarty and sherlock, which is obviously the big sell. And well. It’s. Um. The final problem. 

The season says it’s slated to be 13 episodes, since s1 didn’t have enough time for 12. I honestly think they can manage it all, if they play their cards right. 

Outlook:

This whole potential situation does sound familiar, I’ll point out that I just arrived here after the shit show of the promised neverland’s second season. But I don’t think it will get bad like tpn did. Because in Moriarty, they could afford to cut things because there are many stand alone and disposable arcs, whereas tpn really shouldn’t have, since they pretty much all contributed later to Major Main Character Plot Things. And the important points of the arcs that they’ll probably cut can actually be written into existing ones without looking like plot convenience, in my vision of it.

Honestly, I’m pretty optimistic for moriarty, it works better for this kind of adaption than in a lot of other manga that end up getting these most likely two season adaptions. I’d love to get those arcs for the servant’s and other character’s developments of course, but trying to stick that in when there’s really only time to focus on the main characters would suck up time better spent on really getting deep into the main storyline. Even if there are less characters, in a situation like this a streamlined and nuanced story will look elegant, whereas shoving as much content as possible into a few short episodes makes everyone cringe.

The situation does end up looking like the promised neverland, but it has a chance to be significantly less fucked considering,,, well,,, tpn is an insanely low bar, and they will hopefully not make the promised neverland’s same mistakes of Shove Seventeen Plotlines Into One Episode After Realizing Belatedly They Actually Needed Those Parts.

Obviously I don’t know what will happen, and this will be outdated by sunday lmao, but my projection looks something like this for 13 episodes to conclude the show.

Predictions:

(Episodes 1+2: A Scandal in the British Empire)

Episode 3: I’m very anxious for 3 considering this will probably make or break my opinion on the anime. Ideally, this episode would wrap up the scandal arc and go over the whole James Bond thing, it could be pretty baller and fit well into an episode. But though there’s plenty of Irene in the opening, there’s no sight of Bond, so considering anime as a whole is fucking transphobic, they might try to change it, twist around bond’s words or just, gloss over it altogether. If they cut it, they might have time to squeeze in another arc but I don’t think they honestly need to? With what they seem to be keeping in, they’ll have ample time to get to everything, and it would be shorter anyway considering the smaller amount of servants. 

Here, we do definitely need to cover Sherlock’s “receiving the name of the lord of crime and deciding to burn it and find it out himself because he’s extra”, no matter the status of irene/bond’s gender. If they do that right and possibly change a few things so it’s more important, this could play into them moving forward his whole discovery of their secrets.

Episodes 4-7: These will most likely cover jack the ripper arc. There’s a lot to go over here, and I’m confident they can cut it down, because tbh Moriarty is pretty long winded for a manga and cutting things is good to an extent. This covers most of the major expansions on William’s ideas and plans, and definitely has the holes to stuff in more of the points made in the arcs that will be cut out. Though I have my reservations, they could plausibly take most points in white knight and integrate them into here.

Episodes 8-10: These are the ones that are going to take the most work and probably be the most changed. They should finish up the ripper arc in 7, give or take a few episodes, and then here, If Sherlock has a little more figured out from episode 3, he can look deeper. I think it’s honestly a good idea for the one to discover the Incriminating Records to be him, as it again gives them more connection. There needs to be some other reason Moriarty’s secrets are in danger of getting leaked to the paper, but I’m sure they can put something together with scotland yard or something, or even like, Mycroft. I see that. But if that happens, then we can spend an episode or so on the merchant of london, aka little liam commits girlboss, which can be woven into the idea of everything Coming Out.

Episodes 11-13: Final problem. I see this going mostly unchanged, up until 55. Truth is they’ll probably end up cutting something but hmm. I don’t know. They should keep the fred stuff in, since they’ll cut his other development. They should keep the squad asking sherlock for help, since they cut the other parts that highlight the crime squad’s care for him. But I think they could montage most of the William Goes French Revolution On You Hoes, even the part where the kids come in front of one of them, if you see what’s going on right. But everything can proceed as in the manga pretty smoothly, I think, it all makes sense if they put it together in 7-10. You know, you got somehow, the worst case happens, and boom, scandal, final problem enacted. Killing spree. William reveals he’s been emo this whole time but it’s too late now. Everyone scrambling to catch up with his damn plans. Gay boy knocking on 221B with a fucking love letter. Shit gets found out. And then... well, yuh.

Disclaimer I still don’t know everything about this, bc I cannot find a translation of 54, only the raw with no context, and I know there’s content after 55 but I can’t find that either. But I’m sure as hell an english major and can understand where things are probably going. I don’t know what’s involved at that point, and if there’s some plan detailed to save him or something. That’s the main thing I don’t know, and if there is one detailed of course that kind of changes everything, but for now I’m going on the assumption that 54 is “sherlock runs to the bridge and yells at liam to stop being a dramatic whore while london burns around them and the murder squad watches anxiously with mysterious intent, until it is chapter 55″. (IF Y’ALL HAVE THE ENGLISH PLEASE HMU) They better not TOUCH anything in 55 or so help me god.

But as to after 55, things are going to be different. Besties, I’m an optimist, but there’s no way they’ll make a season after this. It does appear that they’ve mostly wrapped up, and they’ve gotten through what Big Revals they plan on doing. The shit hinted from the beginning has happened, and there probably won’t be enough to create another, unless the author plans on fucking shit up again, which I don’t approve of. There are a few things still left unsaid, like, Liam’s real name and everything, but if it’s supposed to be important, things that small can 100 percent be written into this.

And as something that’s intending to finish up a story, depending on what manga canon really is (BESTIE I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS) they might change it. There’s two options, a bittersweet/hopeful and a tragic one, but either one will end up open ended, because of my extensive knowledge of 2 season animes with significantly longer mangas. (done badly: tokyo ghoul and tpn, done well: owari no seraph and mob psycho) Either we have it like well, oh damn, everything was destined to be Sad but well you’re with him now you’re probably dead, but you know there’s something hinted at and you don’t know for sure so that’s the catch. So you get a vague and bittersweet but possibly hopeful ending. OR something that takes,,, whatever ends up happening in the manga or whatever the plan is and turning it into an epilogue infodump.

I can see either going well depending on how they handle the messages of the story. But yeah, as far as to my extent of the understanding of the show, that’s how it’ll probably go, and what my opinion of how it should is.

To What Extent Will The Gay:

You know, this is my ideal scenario within these time limits, but you know they could always go The Wrong Direction if the anime team took a look at some of the later chapters and went “holy shit this is a bit too gay” and try to axe some of the sherliam content, which I wouldn’t put past any corporation.

In the case that they do, I see lot of good shit going. They’re clearly trying to do the final problem, so they obviously can’t cut out 55, which is good :). But though 55 is clearly, uh, really fucking homosexual, the most romantic shit goes down in 53, as far as I can tell? (keeping in mind i still haven’t found 54′s english version, if anyone would like to direct me to a translation, that would be LOVELY.) I unfortunately can see them cutting Liam’s letter almost entirely, and that kind of scares me.

You know, even if i’d hate and slander them for it, cutting out james bond would be something i would understand. But messing with sherliam would fuck them over, not just cause that would be awful, but like, because it’s like... kind of the main point.

So I’m not really too worried about them messing with it, mostly because the content itself is holding them at gunpoint, sherliam holds the whole plot structure in place, especially if you’re shooting for final problem. And even in the manga they never, like, actually say they’re in love with each other even tho historically gay lovers would probably call each other “friends” lmao so it’s not like they have to greenlight gay sex or anything lmao it’s just Very Romantic (No Homo)

And apart from that, yuumori has actually been pretty decent to the gays so far?? Damn shawty, they certainly haven’t toned down the gay yet and it’s clearly their main source of fans, and what they’ve decided to emphasize in both openings and a significant portion of the s2 ending. We’re all here for it, and they’re catering to it, so I can at least give you that.

[spaceorphan18]

Marvel Movie Nights: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

You know, based on its reputation, and the fact that I really disliked the original film because it was a bad CW version of the origina Raimi film, I was ready to just hate this film.  And... I didn’t? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not great, it’s totally got a Spider-Man 3 thing going with just too much going on.  But, if I’m being honest, I kind of had fun with it? More so than the so incredibly tedious first film.  

The plot is so convoluted and twisted into itself that it’s hard to talk about it as a whole.  It’s trying to balance about six different things while attempting to set up an entire universe on its own.  And, because of that, it kind of collapses in on itself like dying star.  So, I’m gonna take this one chunk at a time... 

First we have... Peter’s dead parents.  Honestly, this is one of the elements that feels a little too much. A lot of it is contrived, especially in how his parents are tied to the spider experiments that made Peter Spider-Man in the first place.  It feels like dumb movie logic, and this is the part, for me, that felt the most emotionally hollow (which is saying a lot because there’s a lot of cheap emotional beats in this film).  I didn’t care, and this movie would have worked fine without any of it in it.  

I’m gonna mention Aunt May next, because she has so little to do.  Sally Field is great -- but there’s this weird subplot of her trying to be a nurse? She spends most of her time yelling or crying or yelling and crying, but it all amounts to about five minutes of screen time.  I get what they were doing with it -- having read enough Spider-Man comics to realize that Aunt May has been somewhat of a one-note character for most of her existence -- but she feels so obligatory here that why even bother? 

Alright, so let’s talk about Andrew Garfield again.  Believe it or not -- I liked him so much better in this film! His Peter is still very lacking, and he makes some bizarre acting choices (as well as the fact that Peter’s basically a weirdo stalker in this film) but his Spider-Man is way less of a dick, and a lot more fun.   That is... when he has someone to actually interact with, which brings me to... 

Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy.  I didn’t get the chemistry thing from the first film, because the way the relationship plays out makes no sense.  Well, it mostly makes no sense here, too, but there’s some really clear chemistry here -- and it’s so nice for Peter to actually have a grounded friend here, that this whole thing is actually the most enjoyable part of the film --- even if Peter is stalking her through half of it.  

So, maybe I need a whole other post to talk about her death, but I’m kind of fascinated by this -- because it is one of comics most shocking moments.  Seriously.  It’s what ended the Silver Age of Comics and what pushed it to the Bronze Age, where comics were taken more seriously, and began to handle more realistic story lines.  I think her death works here! It’s not set up very well -- I like a little more thematic in my superhero films -- but the actual scene is pretty good.  I do have to laugh, a little, at the fact that Spider-Man clearly murders his own girlfriend, but because they have to end the movie, they kind of gloss over that with movie time montage.  Anyway... 

Villains! This story definitely has them.  So -- there’s a ton of set up for the Sinister Six -- Black Cat is prowling around.  BJ Novak was supposed to be someone.  And of course Doc Ock’s hands are floating in some kind of liquid.  And... Paul Giamatti in a giant Rhino suit, that’s kind of hilarious.  Again, it’s too much.  They’re trying so hard to set up, like, ten sequels that it kind of kills this one.  It’s like Iron Man 2 but on steroids.  There are also some evil lawyer types, too, which, whatever... 

So, first big bad is Electro played by Jamie Foxx.  He’s such a flat and ill-defined character.  What are his powers? He’s like an electric Magneto.  And so socially awkward that he has no personality and the basic emotional intelligence of a two year old.  But that’s fine -- because the rest of the plot is only using him for his powers.  It just feels... obligatory? 

Meanwhile, there’s Harry Osborn coming in as the Green Goblin, and let me tell you, this shit is wild.  The actor plays Harry like some kind of drugged up Leo DiCaprio.  They awkwardly force a relationship with Peter after having zero set-up.  Seriously - Peter just shows up one day.  And then there’s the whole plot -- Harry is dying of some rare genetic disease that is literally making him the Green Goblin, and only Spider-Man’s blood can save him.  After being thrown out of Oscorp because evil lawyer, he breaks out Electro so they can stop Spider-Man.  And then at the end -- Harry is magically fine.  It’s wild.  And insane.  Hilariously entertaining, but insane. 

On the production side of things -- despite the fact that nothing about this film feels like it’s grounded in any kind of reality -- it’s not that bad.  The CGI holds up pretty well.  The action sequences are decent -- especially the third act, where I usually tap out, actually kept me pretty captivated.  The score is fine, but not my favorite.  And the film looks pretty clean and less dark than the original film.  

Final Thoughts: While I did enjoy it despite the major flaws, it does make me miss Tom Holland -- I know all the fanboys want Spider-Man to work alone, but I think he does best when he actually has friends.  :P 

Next-Up: X-Men Days of Future Past.  I have nothing snarky to add - this is actually a good film. 

[well-shit-im-a-morosexual-now]

Time to talk about Lillith :)

So her being MC's ancestor in the story was... A bad choice, in my opinion.

And I don't hate that she was the one who revived MC, quite the opposite, that was a fine move. I like to think that it was to show that MC had a connection to all the siblings, dead or alive, hate or love. It's just...

Why are they (technically) related? What was the purpose?

That could sound mean, but if some of your playbase could call incest and (possibly) have a leg to stand on, it's a bit... Much, let's say. But, either way, there is an alternative that I like. (And one I made up, but that's besides the point.)

I like the idea that Diavolo lied to the brothers to keep the peace. To me, it makes sense, because:

He needs to keep the peace between the three realms, and y'know, one of the humans dying kind of prevents that. So, why not lie to them to make sure this never happens again?

It would also get to a quick resolution for the brothers, since I'm pretty sure that Belph was about to kill MC... Again.

Sadly, I only have two reasons, but you're smart, you can probably expand upon this.

Anyway, this might be a bit sloppy, but I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say.

Your Anonymous Color Coder,

Lesson 42 Anon

(P.S. I have issues with Lesson 16, 17, and 18. I say this just in case I want to rant about it. :)

So initially I wasn't the biggest fan of them being related, though when they first started hinting at a connection between Lilith and MC I had a "OH GOD. OH DAMN. PLEASE DON'T BE LILITH'S REINCARNATION" moment so finding out MC was just a distant relative was a relief but not one I was necessarily happy with? Because of all the "Is this technically incest!?" feelings I had at the time.

But it did grow on me? I think all the human au's I had roaming free in my head helped me get over it? When writing or thinking up human Aus I try to make them as close to the Canon situation as possible so it'd be:

The brothers and Lilith all living in a foster home with only Lucifer and Satan being blood related, but they all see each other as a found family. MC would be a distant (and I mean distant enough it equals to the thousands of years that separate Canon MC and Lilith) cousin who they don't even find out is related to Lilith until much later (after Lilith either leaves and joins a more permanent family or....well dies I guess).

The way I see it, it'd be the same as a group of "we're so close we see each other as siblings" friends wanting to date the distant/estranged relative of one of the group members.

So yeah, now I see the whole Lilith, MC, brothers thing as "Incest if I'm willing to reach so far my arm tears straight outta my socket" so yeah.

Though obviously it's completely valid if people are still uncomfortable with it.

ANXUSJWMNZRATQVX8 Belphie would have totally murdered MC if they didn't bring up the whole Lilith thing! And I'm so upset they all just get over it? Like damn I love Belphie no lie, but are we just gonna gloss over the fact that he was 110% okay with the genocide of the entire human race???????

I also have this headcanon that MC has chronic pain that flares up on and off after Belphie murdered them, cause remember how the ghost of the fortune teller,Gisella (?), on the train said you never forget the feeling of dying and MC had a pretty violent death so.....

I also HC that there are days, specially when the pain is bad, where they can't stand to be near Belphie and that while he was initially upset by this and was persistent about still being with them by around mid S2 or S3 he's learnt to identify those days and understand why MC can't even look at him then and he makes himself scarce and sleeps away the day in an out of the way dark, corner probably with Beel around for emotional support because honestly those days would hurt him as much as MC.

I like that in the Canon storyline that none of the brothers were 100% okay with Belphie right after Lesson 16 and how they went out of their way, more so than usual, to make sure MC wasn't alone with him? I maybe reading into that too much but I liked it..

And I mean generally MC's a very calm, collected, headstrong and stubborn character so as frustrating as it is I understand why they would want to help Belphie get along with the others again. "I died for this shit, so I might as well see it through" kinda mentality

I didn't initially like the two timelines cause it made me really sad imagining the one MC left behind and to ease that angst I always imagined since MC changed the past their original timeline -the future timeline- got erased with a new future unfolding. but someone on tumblr posted a headcanon with evidence on why they thought Barbatos joined the two timelines together so that they live with the extra day of memories and experiences that came from the original timeline AND I JUMPED THE HELL ON THAT BOAT & actually recently wrote something about it. Here have the link and some shameless self promotion cause I'm an attention whore:

Deadlines

"When Mammon meets his soulmate he's going to punch them in the face. It doesn't matter if he'll only find out who exactly his soulmate is when one of them is on their deathbed. He's still going to punch them."

Um anyway that's all my thoughts on 16, 17 & 18 (I think. There might be more that I can't remember at the moment tbh) and since I rambled to you about it you are now contractually obligated to rant to me about yours. Sorry, those are the rules🤷🏽

About the thing you said about Diavolo and his reasons I honestly have nothing else to add, I mean the reasons you gave make total sense and I'm okay with just what the canon gave too so

It wasn't sloppy at all! My rambles are always too long and all over the place!

Edit: I forgot! As to why they were related, yeah I don't think it was completely necessary but still I can see reasons behind it?

1. As a way to make MC other. A devilgram and a little line in S3 makes it seem like MC is neither angel, demon OR human. I HC that Lilith died right as she was changing from angel to demon making her one of a kind and that pure "Fallen Angel" magic came with her when she was reincarnated and then was passed down to MC.

2. How lilith's known as the mother of monsters in some myths and how MC is related to them... I just think it's neat. Plus MC has an insane amount of raw power - truly a monster in their own right

3. It's closure for the brothers. They never got to see Lililth as a human, never got to see her grow up, fall in love, start her own family. The last they saw her she was in pain and dying. They don't get to see if she was happy. MC's the closest proof they have to that. That she found love and had a family and was happy

4. It's closure for lilith. Just the fact that her spirit passed down from descendent to descendent along with her magic till she could see her brothers again just to see if they were happy and to tell them she had lived a long happy life. I don't know I'm really happy she was able to do that

5. The brothers find similarities between Lilith and MC but they're rare and 6 of the 7 brothers already liked MC before they found out about MC being her descendent. And even Belohie starts to like them as their own person. Just I always worry that they like MC just because of the connection between them and Lilith and that they see MC as a replacement but then U remember their Canon interactions and it feels like the brothers actually forget about that connection. MC is Lilith's legacy, they're living proof that you can be born in one world but find your true home in another, but they're not defined by Lilith. They're their own person. Even their magic is their own considering Lilith used the last of hers when she helped them in Lesson 15/16

[looking-for-another-world]

Not Alone

summary: Bucky spends Christmas alone at the compound. Or nah?

pairing: Bucky x reader

warnings: 18+, tiny bit of angst, mentions of family toxicity, cursing, explicit smut, dirty talk, like one allusion to reader being plus-sized, soft!bucky, really sappy - you have been warned

words: 6321

a/n: This is my entry for @honeyhan-123​‘s HOLIDAY SPIRIT WRITING CHALLENGE. I had the prompt “Finding the perfect Christmas tree / decorating it” and looking back, I might have slightly diverted from that oops. This was so much fun to do though. This is literally my first finished piece of writing in years, so be nice to me, ok? Right, tmi. Anyways, this has gotten way out of hand in terms of how many words I wanted to write. I might make 3 separate files of it when I’m in the mood to figure out links, but for now here’s the entire fic in one. Enjoy! Also, I hope your 2020 is going to be amazing ❤💫🥂🎆

Prologue

As soon as Bucky stepped into the kitchen of the Avengers compound, his super soldier senses made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Something’s wrong.

It was Dec 23, one day before Christmas Eve, and everyone except him had gone away for the holidays. Clint was visiting Laura and the kids, accompanied by Natasha (apparently, the boys had been nagging their mom for a solid 2 months whether Aunt Tasha would be staying with them), Wanda and Vision were traveling around Europe, Tony had taken Pepper to some little island in the Caribbean Sea, and Steve and Sam had booked a cozy, remote cabin in the woods to go skiing, hiking, getting drunk (well, Sam at least) and most importantly, getting away from being the Avengers for a few days.

Initially, Steve had Friday book the trip for three persons, but Bucky had refused. This was the first Christmas since many years that he was starting to remember who he was, really was, and although Steve was pretty much everything he considered home, he had preferred to spend Christmas where he actually came from.

In the end, Steve had reluctantly agreed, not wanting to push his best friend, but insisting that they at least spoke to one another on the phone every day. And so, Bucky had spent his day wandering the streets of Brooklyn for hours, fulfilling his best friend duty on his way home and telling Steve how much everything had changed and yet, strangely, still felt familiar. He could hear Steve smile through the phone; he felt the same. That’s when Sam had burst through the door of the hut, screeching “All I want for Christmas is you” next to Steve’s ear and ruining the moment. Steve had said his goodbye, leaving to stop Wilson from inhaling another bottle of Eggnog, and Bucky had wished him good luck with the bird brain. He returned to the compound, more mentally than physically exhausted, and headed straight to the kitchen, suddenly remembering that he hadn’t eaten something in hours. And there it was: A small puddle of water on top of the counter, as if someone had taken something out of the fridge and put it there for a moment. Only that there was no one to do that. He was supposed to be alone.

It couldn’t have been him: his soldier and assassin training had left him with an urge to leave everything neat and tidied; no traces. Silently, he made his way back into the hallway, calling the elevator and going two levels down, to the first level that was officially “Avengers territory”. Going back up, he searched every floor without coming across anything suspicious. And then, as the doors of the elevator opened to the 18th floor with a slight swoosh, he sensed it: There’s someone else on this level. He tensed up. His super soldier hearing going into overdrive, he snuck along the dimly-lit corridor until he heard them: sounds coming from the last room to the left, the entertainment room, stacked up with books, movies, consoles, a pool table, anything you could think of to pass your free time. He tried to hear more intently. The person on the other side of the door barely produced sounds; all he could make out was their shallow breathing. Someone with a normal hearing wouldn’t even have caught up on it.

Bucky conjured up a blueprint of the room: even if he could get through the door unnoticed, there was no place to hide. The whole design of the room practically screamed: “Look who’s coming!” His only advantage was the element of surprise. Trying to calm down his nerves, he took a few deep breaths and braced himself. Not wanting to have his arms in a position he could easily be taken hold of in, he stepped back, raised his right leg and kicked the door down, storming inside, met by a piercing scream and a loud splash as the bucket of ice cream you had been holding met the ground.

“(Y/N)?!”

“What the hell?!”

“Why are you here?”

“I fucking live here in case you haven’t noticed! Why are you kicking the goddamn door down like I’m some HYDRA agent trying to slit your throat?”

“Because-”, Bucky stops, guilt washing over him. Guilt and anger with himself. Even HYDRA wouldn’t be so dumb as to blow their cover like that, and they’d do a bit more than get the kitchen counter dirty if they wanted to make their presence known. “Because I thought you were one.” His voice is low now, almost a whisper, his eyes unable to meet yours, fingers fumbling with the hem of the coat he didn’t have time to take off. And seeing him like this, you understood: He thought someone had intruded.

You let out the breath you were holding. “I’m sorry, Buck. I wasn’t thinking. I should have let you know about my change of plans and that I’d be spending Christmas at the compound.”

His ears perked up at that. “You are? I thought you were going to visit your family.” You smiled sadly and now that his mind and body weren’t overtaken by adrenaline anymore, he took in your state for the first time. You looked pale, your eyes red-rimmed, like you had been crying. You were wrapped in the navy-blue blanket twice your size that Wanda had given you for your birthday. It went all the way down to your ankles where the legs of your sweatpants were peeping through, showing just a small stripe of skin before the fabric of a pair of green fuzzy socks covered your skin again. The ice cream you had dropped started melting on the ground, slowly dampening part of the expensive rug the pool table stood on, which you didn’t seem to notice. “What happened?”

You let out a mixture between a snort and an unconvincing laugh. “I talked to my mom on the way to the airport. She started complaining about how much I’ve been letting them down this year, bringing up things I didn’t even think were an issue anymore, and how she hoped I would pull myself together this time, for the sake of Christmas and our family. So, I figured I’d probably have a more fun time being alone in my room and sleeping for like 2 weeks than I’d have being with them.” The last part was meant to sound casually, but Bucky didn’t miss the twitch of your lips and how your eyes started to gloss over again. He wanted to say something to comfort you, but his mind didn’t know where to start and so he just kept staring at you wordlessly, which you took as a sign of annoyance.

“Don’t worry. I won’t bother you with that shitty Christmas music or candy or anything of that kind. I’m not gonna ruin your alone time. Just pretend I’m not here.”

He frowned at that, then, and as his tongue still seemed to be tied, he did the only thing he felt was appropriate: He put your arms around you and hugged you, hard, all-consuming. “I’m not worried you’re going to ruin my alone time. I like having you around. I’m sorry your family are like that, when they’re the ones letting you down.”

You’d liked to reply to that, thank him for his sweet words, but you were sure you’d start crying again the second you stopped biting down on your lip. So you reciprocated the hug as best as you could; after all you were lacking Bucky’s strength. Bucky squeezed you shortly and let go, and when your eyes locked again, you couldn’t help but mirror his warm smile. Jesus, this guy certainly made you feel things. No surprise you were crushing on him so hard.

“We’d better clean this up”, Bucky said gesturing to the now empty ice bucket head and your eyes widened as you noticed the mess you’d made. “Shit!”. Tony had spent an insane amount of money on that carpet, even for his proportions. He’d shoot you to the moon for that.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” Bucky jogged back to the elevator, returning a minute later with a wet cloth and a roll of kitchen towels which he handed to you. Getting to work, you suddenly became aware of how much closer than usually you two were. You could smell Bucky’s aftershave – something resembling cedarwood – watch the muscles in his arms flex as he tried to rid the fabric of its B&J make-over, study the stubble on his perfectly sculpted jaw, his hazelnut locks, his plump lips. Oh god, his lips. Just thinking about having those lips kiss every inch of your body got you worked up. Get a grip, for fuck’s sake!

“So you’re really planning on skipping Christmas? It’s your favorite holiday”, Bucky interrupted your thoughts, shooting you a glance to see you shrug your shoulders. “I don’t want to see my parents right now, and I can’t imagine celebrating Christmas on my own. So yeah, guess I’ll be taking a break from it this year.”

“You’re not on your own, though. You’re with me. We can celebrate.”

You felt a pleasantly warm sensation in your stomach which you tried to ignore, quirking an eyebrow at him instead. “You hate Christmas.”

“I don’t hate all of it, I hate what it’s become. I hate that most people care more about what useless shit is in their stockings or under the tree than about who they’re spending their time with. I hate how every shop starts putting up Christmas stuff before it’s even October. They don’t even call it “Christmas” anymore. I mean seriously, xmas? What’s that even supposed to mean?”

Despite yourself, a small giggle escaped you at how upset he could get about it all and realizing he had started ranting without wanting to, Bucky had to stifle a laugh as well. "Point I’m trying to make is ” he concluded “I wouldn’t mind spending Christmas with the right company.”

Oh, and that’s supposed to be me? Right company?“, you shot back. "Sure thing, doll. You’re like an expert on Christmas, I can’t go wrong with you. Also, I like having you around. ” He furrowed his eyebrows. “I’ve already said that, haven’t I?”

“Yeah, you have. But that’s okay, I like hearing it”, you laughed, your hand briefly touching his arm. You were becoming kind of needy, it appeared. Bucky didn’t seem to mind though, or at least he didn’t let it show.

Looking down, you noticed with an internal sigh of relief that the ice cream puddle had given way to the water and the kitchen towels. All that was left was a wet patch that would hopefully disappear overnight.

“Guess that’s as good as it gets”, you joked. “Thanks for helping me.”

“It’s the least I could do, after scaring the shit out of you.” He took the dirty towels from you. “Guess we’re Christmas buddies then” he grinned. It was surprising how excited he seemed to be all of a sudden, but you didn’t let yourself linger on that thought. “Well, as the official Christmas ambassador, I have to let you know that this place sucks. There’s not even decorations.”

That was true. The past weeks had been incredibly hectic, even more than in previous years, and since almost everyone would be gone over the holiday season anyway and Bucky had emphasized several times that having the tower turn into Santa’s village would most likely lift his dinner, rather than his spirits, Tony hadn’t bothered to put up decorations.

Bucky gave you an amused look. “I see you’re getting into it. Alright, what do we need?”

“You mean, like everything?”

“Yeah, like the ideal setting. Can’t be that difficult.”

You gave him a sceptical look. “Oh no, not at all. We just need the decorations, music, candy, ugly Christmas sweaters, stuff to bake cookies, a firepla-”

“Okay, okay, I take it back.” Bucky raised his hands in surrender. “This is too much. What’s the most important thing?”

“The tree”, you replied without thinking. “The tree is the most important, to me at least. When my dad used to tell me he’d be bringing the Christmas tree home tonight, I’d spend all day glued to the window of my room, waiting for his car to steer into the driveway. It’s the one thing we ever did as a family, all three of us, decorating the tree. Everything else would be pretty much Mum and me, since Dad would be out working. The tree is … it just wouldn’t feel like Christmas without it.”

Inadvertedly, your brain had walked down memory lane to pictures of baubles in gold and red and purple and every color of the rainbow, mingled with the scent of fir and your dad’s bass voice singing “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” to you while you were sitting on your lap, and suddenly another wave of sadness hit you and you had to fight back the tears that were starting to well up again. You swallowed thickly before looking back at Bucky and were met with an understanding look. He had noticed your struggle but chose not to bring it up again and you were grateful for that. Grateful for him.

There were a few beats of silence before the super soldier offered you a tentative smile and said: “So Christmas tree is your final answer?” Another giggle.

"That’s my final answer.”

Part 1

You woke up to a sky the color of granite. Gloomy light and heavy clouds. Your heart jumped a little in your chest at the prospect of another downfall of snow. What’s Christmas without snow, right? Too comfortable to get up right away, you snuggled back into your pillow and let your mind wander.

It was embarrassing, really, but thinking about spending the whole day with Bucky filled you with a mix of anticipation and nervousness you usually felt before first dates. Prior to your job interview last February, you had spent hours and hours hooked up on research about the people you might soon be working with – the fucking Avengers! -, but Bucky’s story, or at least what was known of it to the public, had fascinated and moved you the most. It was hard for you to wrap your head around how someone could endure the most appalling things you could possibly imagine, and that for decades. Someone like the ex-Winter Soldier could barely be human anymore, filled to the brink with hatred and disgust for the world and the people in it, that you were sure of. And then, when you got the job and got to know him – he was the exact opposite. Sure, he was careful and hard to read, especially at the beginning, but he was kind. He was funny. He was emphatic. He was a nerd. He was sweet. And when you moved in to the tower and the two of you spent more time together, your feelings towards him grew stronger, and you found yourself imagining waking up next to him, his lips on yours the first thing you taste in the morning. Cupping his cheek and watching his eyes crinkle when he flashes you his million-dollar smile. Stroking his hair while he reads his favorite passages out to you or rambles about how all the things he’s just discovering now are not quite as good as what they had back in the days, but some of them are not bad. Being pressed down by his weight as you get to explore all of his gorgeous body and find out what sounds he makes when he’s buried in you, filling you up, making you feel so good as you’re begging him not to stop because he’s hitting just the right spot and you never want to let go of him, so good, please Bucky, please don’t stop, oh God, I’m so close baby, fuck…

The loud buzzing of your phone jerked you out of your trance and made you sit up straight in your bed, your heartbeat thumping in your ears, cheeks heated, fingers you didn’t even remember putting there coated in your arousal. Breathing heavily, you stretched your neck to see who the caller was: Mum. Oh, hell no. In a sudden burst of resurging anger, you declined the call, threw your phone away from you and let yourself fall back against the headboard with an audible huff.

Finishing the job wasn’t going to happen after yesterday’s events started rolling in, so you forced yourself out of bed and into the shower, washing away the heat of your little daydream with water as cold as you could bear. Putting moisturizer on, you focused your thoughts on today. If Bucky still wanted to help setting up everything for Christmas, they should get started as soon as possible. An actual Christmas tree was a bit too much to ask obviously, but maybe they could find a fake one and some funny tree ornaments to go along with it? Sweaters shouldn’t be that much of a problem either, they practically threw them in your face around this time of the year. And the Christmas music could easily be taken care of by Spotify.

You started listing the essential ingredients for three or four kinds of Christmas cookies in your head when you left your room to get breakfast. Closing the fridge door, you tried to decide where and in which order to go to get everything you needed on time (or should you split up?) when you noticed the yellow, blue, pink and green dots on the cold metal surface, dancing around in a carefully studied rhythm like colorful fireflies. Frowning, you turned around.

The huge panorama windows were decorated with beautifully woven ice flowers up to almost half of their height and framed by several strings of Christmas lights, cheerfully blinking against the grey sky outside and bathing the living room area in a colorful hue. Now that you stepped closer, the living room looked different as well. The couches and armchairs were covered under thick and fluffy-looking plaids and pillows with different Christmas-themed motives; a very kind looking Santa Claus on one, a couple of reindeer holding cups of Eggnog and singing “Jingle Bells” on another and the slogan “Tis the season” in as much glitter as could be fitted on so small a space emblazoned on a third. There were decorations, too: a nutcracker next to the tv, an angel’s choir holding candles on one of the couch tables, a snowman, a sledge, a rocking horse, a squirrel in a scarf… You couldn’t even decide where to look first. Too preoccupied to take everything in, you didn’t notice Bucky’s presence until he cleared his throat. “Do you like it?” You turned around to meet him, dumbfounded and still trying to understand what was going on, even more so when you saw the sweater he was wearing: fir green and depicting a penguin wearing a Christmas hat. You let out an incredulous laugh. “Did- did you do all this?”

Bucky lowered his gaze briefly and gave you a sheepish smile. “Pretty much, yeah. I’d hoped you’d sleep in. Gave me enough time to set everything up.” Your mouth opened and closed, unable to find words. “I-“ “Wait!” he interrupted. “There’s more.” He outstretched a slightly shaking hand and seeing that you didn’t respond, hastily withdrew it. Finally though, your body and mind seemed to have rebooted, and you grabbed his hand with both of yours. It felt hot against yours, hot and slightly raw. Bucky shot a surprised look from your intertwined hands to your face and you could’ve sworn that his cheeks blushed slightly. Is this even real?

Squeezing your hands slightly, he walked past you and into the living room, pulling you with him. Around the corner, out of your line of sight, there was a slightly smaller lounging area with the best stereo sound system Tony could get his hands on and without tv, designed for the numerous occasions you fancied actually spending time with each other and being able to face each other when chatting or playing games instead of just staring at a huge screen in unison. Now though, the bean bags had been moved to the side and in the center of the room stood – a tree. Not just any tree, but a fir tree about 10 or 11 feet high, almost filling up the room with its size and emanating that unmistakable scent that always took you back to fond Christmas memories. Next to it, on the ground and on several of the bean bags Bucky had piled up a seemingly endless number of boxes containing Christmas baubles of all sorts, ranging from the traditional ones to typical Christmas motives, Disney characters, and even the most absurd things such as very small-sized fruits and vegetables.

You couldn’t remember when your heart had last felt so light and full. If Bucky’s hand hadn’t anchored you, you might have just floated up through the ceiling and into the sky. And why not? Who knew what else might be possible after all this had felt so much like a dream already? Giving yourself no time to think about overstepping boundaries and the like, you threw yourself into Bucky’s arms, feeling rather than noticing his strong arms instantly enveloping your frame. “Thank you.” Your voice was muffled because you had buried your face in the crook of his neck and because you were close to crying again. Sensing your state, Bucky started tracing soothing patterns on your lower back and mimicking his movements, your hands started stroking his broad shoulders. “My pleasure, doll.”

He held you like that for several moments, lightly swaying to and fro, taking deep breaths with you. And after a while, when you’d quieted down a bit, you noticed that not only your heart threatened to jump out of your chest; Bucky’s heart beat a lot faster as well, hammering against his ribcage so much that you could almost feel it against yours. You drew back a little so you could see his face and were met with a look you’d never seen on him before, a look that went straight to your groin. His hands tightened on your back, like he was afraid to let you go, and your nose lightly brushed his. And just as you were about to close your eyes… his phone rang.

The noise startled you so much that you jumped in his arms and Bucky let out an audible sigh. “That’ll be Steve. Be right back.” With that, he let go of you to grab his cell from the kitchen and you felt like someone had just emptied a bucket of ice water over you and snapped you back to reality. More than that, you did feel cold. Had your body grown used to the heat radiating off him so quickly? Also, and that was the most important: What the fuck did just happen?

Bucky returned about 10 minutes later and found you in almost the same spot where he’d left you, now sitting awkwardly on one of the empty bean bags, desperately trying to regain composure. His heart still fluttered from being so close to you, and as he wanted this day to be anything but awkward, he’d spent a good 7 of those 10 minutes away thinking about how to proceed. In a manner he hoped would come across as relaxed, he sauntered over to the closest bean bag and picked up one the boxes filled with baubles. “Soooo”, why was his voice so squeaky? “let’s get started, shall we?”

He couldn’t see your heart slightly sink in your chest because the magical moment had officially passed of course; he just had eyes for the warm smile you offered him in return. “Sure.” You got up to take hold of one the boxes as well when he remembered something. “Hang on.” You raised your head and could make out something slightly mischievous in his orbs. “I won’t be the only one wearing an ugly Christmas sweater.”

—

4 hours later, any sign of awkwardness or discomfort between the two of you had officially gone to the wind. As instructed, you’d put on the ugliest Christmas sweater you could find (an awful mix of pink and gold in the shape of a Christmas elf with actual bells that jingled whenever you moved), Bucky had put on some music and you’d gone about your business. At some point (probably after your fourth cup of cocoa with rum and Bucky’s third pint of Asgardian mead he’d snatched from Thor’s quarters), you decided to forego any sense of aesthetics and just put up as many ornaments as would fit on the tree. As a result, it now looked as if the slightest gust of wind would make it collapse on the spot, but you two were oddly proud of your work. Taking cocoa and mead with you, you decided to have a small break and moved over to the living room area.

There were a few beats of comfortable silence, Sinatra softly buzzing in the background. Then, out of the blue, Bucky asked you to tell him your favorite joke. You were too tipsy to question how he’d come up with that, so you pondered his request for a moment and then answered. “I hate Russian dolls. They’re so full of themselves.”

Bucky sat up on his spot of the couch and gave you an odd stare that made you wonder whether he’d understood you at all, and then burst out of laughter, almost spilling his drink in the process and making you laugh in return. You’d never really heard his laugh, just the occasional snort when he deemed something worthy of a reaction, but this was a sound made from the gods themselves and you could listen to it all day, every day, for the rest of your life.

Slowly, his fit came down to a low, melodious chuckle. “Honestly doll, sometimes I want to kiss you all over.” “Don’t hold back.”

The words had come out of your mouth before you could stop them. They didn’t remotely sound as teasing or nonchalant as you had meant them to. They sounded sincere, almost desperate. Because they were. And suddenly, as you watched Bucky’s expression falter, you felt remarkably sober again. Oh god.

Part 2

Carefully, Bucky stood up, moved over and sat down next to you. “Are you serious about this, (Y/N)?”

Heat crept up your skin, all the way from the swells of your breasts to your ears. You’d honestly never felt that put on the spot. Unable to answer, your gaze fixed the carpet, hoping that if you stared long enough, maybe it would do you a favor and swallow you whole. Bucky was now less than inch from you, close enough for you to smell his shampoo, his breath fanning the side of your face, making things only worse for you. Your heart sank deeper and deeper until you could feel it in your stomach, heavy like a rock. This day had been going so well. Why did you have to ruin it with your stupid inebriated brain? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And then you felt his flesh hand cup your face, softly turning your head to meet his eyes. Those beautiful, cerulean eyes. “Because I’d really, really like to kiss you.” Frowning, you shook your head, your synapses refusing to process that bit of information. You swallowed several times before you found your voice again. “Please don’t mess with me, Bucky”, you heard yourself whisper, at which Bucky violently shook his head. “I promise.” And then his lips were on yours and you kissed him back.

It started out innocently enough, slow, tentative kisses, allowing the other to back out in case they changed their mind. Only that he didn’t back out like you thought he would. And you didn’t back out like he thought you would. Realizing how effortlessly your mouths pressed against each other, how right his lips felt on yours, you gradually grew bolder. You turned slightly to mirror his position and your hands went up to his face, feeling the stubble on his chin and jaw before carding through the silky strands of his locks at the back of his neck. One hand in his hair, you let the other explore more of his body as you felt up his biceps, his back, his chest abs. A content hum escaped his throat which only spurred you on. One hand in his hair and one bunching up the fabric covering his chest, you pressed yourself closer to him. His grip on your face tightened as he opened his mouth and his tongue caressed your bottom lip. Greedily, you welcomed him in your mouth and let out a deep sigh as your tongues met for the first time and the two of you fought for dominance over the other.

Bucky’s hands wandered down your body to the hem of your shirt and his lips soon followed suit. You let out a whimper when he sucked at the sensitive skin of your pulse point, determined to mark you. You’d never really liked hickeys, but this was different. You wanted everyone to see, see what had happened between the two of you. While your hands tangled in his hair, his slowly made their way under the fabric of your sweater, exploring the soft skin of your hips, your waist, your belly, cool on your right side, burning on your left.

It was so much more than you’d ever dreamed of, almost too much to bear, and yet his touches only made you more impatient, more needy, more desperate to have him. “Bucky…” It was barely more than a sigh, but Bucky’s head shot up at the sound and his eyes met yours. “What’s it, sweetheart? Talk to me” You took a moment to take him in, tracing his glistening bottom lip with your thumb. “I need you.” Bucky pressed his forehead against yours. “I need you too, doll. So much. That’s why I’m so scared of messing up with you.” You took his face in your hands again and pressed a kiss to his forehead, his eyes closing at the sensation. “There’s no way in hell you can mess up with me, James. Don’t hold back. Take me.” Bucky let out a shuddering breath. “Please.”

It was like a switch had been flicked. Bucky leapt forward and buried you under his weight, making you sink into the soft cushions. Kissing you even more passionately than before, he positioned himself between your legs. The bulge in his pants now clearly noticeable, he started grinding down on you and the friction made you pool with lust. You let out an audible groan that made Bucky’s cock twitch. Steadying himself with his metal hand, he clumsily lifted your shirt up your body with his right hand so the fabric bunched up over your breasts. Eager to assist, you arched your back to unclasp your bra and pulled it up as well. Bucky’s hand immediately reached out to palm the newly exposed skin while his tongue darted out to massage your already swollen buds. He went from left to right and right to left, making you stick your chest out as much as you could, before suddenly taking one nipple into his mouth and sucking greedily on it. You cried out in pleasure and his dark eyes went to scan your face, lip drawn in between your teeth, eyes pressed shut, your breathing getting heavier by the minute. Too mesmerized by the sight of you, he didn’t notice your hand that wasn’t tangled in his hair move from his back to the front of his pants until you massaged his erection through the fabric, running your palm up and down his impressive bulge. He let go of your breast to take a deep breath and used his right hand to feverishly rub your clothed pussy, causing you to yelp in surprise. Your hand gripped his wrist, urging him to slow down. “Don’t want to finish off like that. Need you inside me.”

Bucky’s answer was an appreciative growl. He stood up, freeing himself first from the sweater that was becoming increasingly hot and then from his jeans and boxers. His size was impressive, the tip swollen and glistening with pre cum and you couldn’t help but rub your thighs together in anticipation.

“Uh-uh. Let me take care of that sweetheart.” His voice was now a husky whisper that sent shivers down your spine. Agonizingly slow, he unbuttoned your pants and pulled them off you, groaning when he got a glimpse of your drenched panties. Sitting back on his haunches, he pushed your knees apart and ran his palms up the inside of your thighs, then softly ghosted over the purple cotton, before hooking his thumbs under the waistband. “Show me your pretty pussy, (Y/N).” In one swift motion, the piece of clothing was gone, and Bucky let out a low hiss at the sight of your wet folds. “Fuck, doll. You’re ven more beautiful than I imagined.” You were at a complete loss for words, but Bucky didn’t give you time to respond anyway. He took a hold of his erection and coated in in your juices, your overstimulated body jumping at the sensation, before locking eyes with you and carefully sliding his tip inside you. You both let out a needy whimper when he filled you up, going deeper and deeper, your pussy obediently swallowing him, until he bottomed out.

Bucky was still on his haunches, giving you time to adjust to him, intertwining his fingers with yours. “You okay?” You nodded. “You can move.” Bucky started thrusting in and out of you, accelerating his pace when it became obvious that you were in as much pleasure as he. Soon, he was mercilessly fucking you into the couch, snapping his hips forward and pulling out until just the tip remained inside you, and then repeating his actions, over and over and over again. When he used his metal hand to draw circles on your clit, you were a whimpering mess beneath him, uttering incoherent curses and multiple variations of his name. You felt the familiar sensation build up in your gut and squeezed his hand to hold off, but he wasn’t having it, only increasing his efforts. With a muffled scream, you came all over his dick, your whole body shaking from the intensity of it. The sight of you coming undone combined with your cunt convulsing around his dick pushed Bucky over the edge as well and his thrusts became sloppier as he painted your walls with his seed and then collapsed on top of you, both of you panting and bathed in sweat.

—

Your second time together was slow and gentle, taking all the time you now knew you had, making sure to leave no inch of your lover’s body unattended to. The third time was rough again, Bucky fucking you against the shower tiles, cold water pouring down on you because you’d accidentally changed the setting when Bucky had lifted you and neither of you had noticed. The times that followed took place in various places of the Tower; the pool table where Bucky had found you the day before, the kitchen island, Sam’s bed (which seemed to give him a particular kind of satisfaction), in several of Tony’s cars, at one of the panorama windows, your front against the shining outline of the city (and the fake ice crystals) while Bucky took you from behind, all the while whispering sinful things to you that drove you insane, how often he’d sat in his room fucking his fist to your image, your plump lips that were just made for his cock, your curves that made your entire body jiggle when he drove into you, that beautiful ass of yours, imagining your sweet voice begging him to make you feel good. After all, it appeared he’d thought about you as often as you had about him.

—

You woke up to a rose-tainted sky and soft kisses peppered across the back of your neck, your shoulders and along your spine. You giggled into your pillow. Bucky’s strands brushing your bare skin gave you a tickling sensation. “You’re up early.” Bucky hummed into the crook of your neck, making your skin vibrate. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about before heading out for my run.” You turned around to face him, his hair tousled, eyes still glossed over from sleep. Nobody should be allowed to look that gorgeous. “What is it?”

“Steve and Wilson will be back from their trip in a few hours and they will pester me about my crush on you and whether I’ve finally done something about it.” He rolled his eyes and your smile grew wider. “What are you going to tell them?” Bucky reached for your hand and gently squeezed it. “I’d like to tell them that I asked you out on a date and that you agreed, but that wouldn’t be entirely true, would it?” You quirked an eyebrow. “So you’re asking me for permission to lie to your best friend?” Bucky laughed at that, that kind of laugh that made his eyes crinkle. “Y/N, would you like to go out on a date with me?”

You tilted your head to the side. “Depends. Does that mean we’re gonna have to sleep in separate beds again?” Bucky raised your hand to his mouth and softly kissed your knuckles, then he stretched his head and planted a kiss on your forehead. “No way. What do you say?”

“Yes.”

[initiumseries]

CAOS Part 3 - review

Uh, okay, so I think by now, we all know this show is terrible. Netflix gives showrunners a lot of creative freedom, and I think, for better writers, you could get some really interesting content, but they just seem to keep giving these assholes who wrote the travesty called Riverdale, so many opportunities to make more shitty television, and I feel like they really deserve to be limited in their ability to create/write if not stopped completely and thrown into a well with Julie Plec.  Anyway, I’ll try to break this down as best as I can into different piles of shit and this will contain spoilers:

Characters

Prudence and Ambrose

So, to be really honest, I watch this show exclusively for Prudence and Ambrose. Because, well, look at them: 

I wish they had more chemistry because they are super hot together, and I still ship it. A young Black couple? On TV? In this sea of shitty interracial relationships? I’ll take it. Anyway, of course, the progression of their relationship is ridiculous and frustrating. Ambrose decides at the last minute, not to kill Father Blackwood because he has a weird time egg thing that they don’t really understand, also he has the twins under some weird mind control for no clear reason, so they stay their hands. It doesn’t make sense, but it becomes clear, Father Blackwood has an insane amount of plot armour and ultimately would have to serve as a vessel for Satan. Father Blackwood uses the manipulated mind of the other weird sister to sic her on the coven, and she ends up killing Dorkus, whom Prudence finds. She then blames Ambrose for not allowing her to kill FB, and they break up. Now...this would kinda make sense, if not for the fact that they trapped one of the pagan witches and forced her to change everyone back, but no one bothered to do anything about the mentally ill witch who you all strapped up for a reason? Lol ok. Seems like an oversight on your part Prudence, but...okay. Clearly manufactured breakups are exhausting, especially since [young] Black couples with no serious relationship dysfunction are now an endangered species. It’s also frustrating because we barely got to see them....*be* together, especially after they returned home. 

Nick & Sabrina

So, I know from the beginning, we were supposed to believe that Nick and Sabrina had that kind of, Bad Guy, seduces the girl Good Girl, luring her into the dark side, hot, intense, passionate relationship. But their lack of chemistry and really shitty acting just made them really dry (which I get into here). I don’t believe them, and I definitely don’t believe that Sabrina would, once again, break a shit ton of rules to get Nick back. I just don’t buy that they had that kind of an intense, desperately in love, kind relationship, because they do not look all that comfortable around each other, much less in love. 

I personally find Sabrina utterly unlikeable as a main character, largely because who IS she? She has no personality, she just does whatever the plot needs her to do in the moment, and the actress makes Sabrina appear smug and unremorseful while she fucks up everyone’s lives. There is a lot of exposition of everyone telling us she’s this power hungry, manipulative character, but we never see that. She just does stuff and everyone is all “Sabrina how could you?!” and there are never, ever any consequences. I would have liked to see her push so hard to get Nick back and the struggle being, sure she wants him back, but mostly she’s doing it because she can. But that’s not what happens. 

So Nick ends up in this weird drug addiction, alcohol, sex demon spiral because he has parts of Satan still in him and it all just falls so flat and lame, because this show is SO bad at pacing, and these actors suck, so nothing is believable. The idea of him scrubbing his club foot, having nightmares, suffering PTSD, is fine, the execution was trash. Nick sees Caliban and Sabrina have one interaction and he’s like WELL, GUESS I GOTTA CHEAT. And just ends up in some S&M situation with sex demons and heavily self medicating, but none of this has any weight, and we don’t really see him...spiralling. He just immediately resorts to these things and it has no real impact on anyone or even him really, and that’s it. 

Harvey and Roz

Uh, they’re probably the most confusing match here, because there is no lead up to their relationship, there’s not suggestion, there’s no pacing. Just BOOM, we’re into each other now. BOOM, Roz is the only sexually active person in her friend group (lol of course the Black girl is sexually active. Gotta maintain white innocence at all costs), so she’s just ready to jump Harvey’s bones any second now. So of course, the show punishes her by having the pagans turn her to stone. And as if that’s not bad enough...

Which I talk about here and here, because honestly I’m just sick of this show’s antiblackness.  Theo & that other guy

So I was watching this unfold like, yeeaahh, they’re gonna make the trans guy get with the enemy aren’t they? And yes, they did. Cool, they didn’t kill him off, but I’m still perplexed at how Theo isn’t even a little upset that this guy was basically sent to infiltrate his friend group and sat by while his people harmed Theo’s friends, and also...used him? Like...we just...are gonna...gloss over that because he changed his mind? Lol ok. Sure.

Mambo Marie and suddenly Zelda?

I...I mean her name is Mambo Marie. I love the idea of Black witches finding Black spirituality and magicks through Vodun and a Hatian Priestess. But they quickly undo that, by ensuring that Mambo Marie only teaches Prudence in the presence of these white witches. And we see her...doing...an African drum circle (eye roll), only to be interrupted by the High Priestess of White Feminism, Zelda Spellman. It quickly devolves into thinly veiled racism where Zelda doesn’t trust Marie because she’s Catholic (says the woman who worships Satan, has an anti Pope and prays to Lilith with the same prayer for Mary mother of Jesus? LOL. Not even unpacking the fact that Vodun is an African spirituality having 0 roots in catholicism WHITE WRITERS). Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Marie and Zelda are a thing for no reason? After the way Zelda treated her? Why did Marie even stay? This isn’t her problem. This is a white witch problem. Okay. That’s too much to unpack. 

Plot

So, my biggest problem with almost all Netflix English programming is that they are so obsessed with aesthetics, and don’t pay enough attention to actual character chemistry, plot, story flow, details, pacing etc. Like...things that actually make stories interesting to watch. So they slap all these people together and throw them into aesthetically pleasing backgrounds, shake it up with so much exposition that nothing actually happens, and are like BEHOLD A STORY. And CAOS is *especially* guilty for this.

First of all those musical breaks were annoying as fuck. Musicals serve 2 story functions: advancing the plot or telling a story. These musical numbers did neither and were honestly ridiculously gratuitous, highly annoying and totally pointless.

What time of year is this? Why are we having pep rallies and how the fuck and when did Sabrina and Roz join the cheeleading squad, and why?

for the aesthetics and not for any real plot reason. It just seems stupid because now I don’t know how much time has passed between Nick going to hell and this, because you’re all handling it like it’s been a few weeks and is still relatively fresh, but suddenly, Theo, Harvey and Roz are in a garage band? You’re a cheerleader? For what? Since when? Why? These choices introduce more questions than they answer and serve no narrative purpose. So much wasted time on shit that doesn’t matter. 

Sabrina is supposed to be fighting Caliban (who is literally the only person she has chemistry with on this show and they killed him bc ofc they did), for her seat on the throne, and yet the trials only seem to come up when it’s convenient, and also seem to be directly related to her dealings with her coven, which is also convenient.  I’m so confused about Satan. His powers come from being a celestial being, and so, because his coven mistreats him he’s like...lol okay, well fuck you guys and goes through all these convoluted small motions to greatly inconvenience them and withdraws his powers? This is so petty and pathetic. Also, what’s the point? He could just wipe them out and start over, instead of skulking around inside FB then suddenly decides to track down Lilith. Again, convoluted. This plot is all over the place. Why does Satan need Sabrina to be Queen of Hell in the first place? He seems perfectly healthy. Why can’t he just rule it? Like...that makes no sense. What is he gonna do? Retire? WHAT is going ON?

How did Sabrina come back in time to herself stuck in stone? Is that trip to Pontius Pilate (lol) supposed to have created a loophole for her to save herself and everyone? This is giving me hardcore Twilight Breaking Dawn vibes, where, the show finally, FINALLY gets interesting, there’s real stakes, shit is actually happening instead of everyone talking about things happening (Hilda ending up killing her fiance was literally the only time I felt something watching this show because it was genuinely sad, and well acted, and Hilda coming through with that doll at the end was pretty disturbing, I’ll give them that), and ofc, Sabrina goes back in time and undoes it all. Lol. Okay. God forbid there be real consequences to anything on this show.

Final thoughts

Once again, the white feminism runs high on this show. They treat this Black Vodun Priestess Marie, like garbage, allude to her “foreign” magic, but Marie is sitting here like “we’re not men, we’re women, let’s work together.” This is why I hate white writers writing for Black characters. Black characters should have Black motivations, and a Black Vodun Priestess, should know that white women and Black women do not have aligned motivations just because they share a gender. Once they started with the bullshit right from her arrival, she should have handed Prudence her card and peaced tf out. Instead she tolerates the isolation, ostracization and thinly veiled racism...and decides to stay, and help. WHY? Marie has gained nothing by sticking around helping these ungrateful ass witches. I honestly would have preferred Prudence asking her to stay to learn more about Vodun, and them building a mentor/mentee type of relationship, especially since Prudence was the one who invited her and stepped to Zelda to defend her. I want(ed) to see that relationship go somewhere. The deliberate denial of healthy Black female friendships on tv is frustrating.

 These witches finally finding their power in their ancestors and I donno, some female creator or whatever, reminds me of white women “finding” wicca and praying to “Gaia”, (reminds me of BTVS s4 when Willow joins the wicca group) which is basically what happened but lol okay whatever. I guess they aren’t satanic witches anymore. Lol, I love how Harvey and Roz and Theo are teenagers, human teenagers, who have lead largely normal teenage lives up until this point, but see their loved ones tortured, deformed or murdered in hell, with basically no residual issues, and are all like, YES, let’s roll up on these adults with shotguns and swords and kill the FUCK outta these people!! That absolutely sounds normal! Like...what? Lol. God this is just so bad.

Also, I’m so confused by this aesthetic choice for Sabrina as Queen of Hell. Like what the fuck. Why is she dressed like a Victorian era queen, with shoulder and a broken rib bodice? What?!

This show is truly awful, this season made no more sense than the last two and now that Prudence and Ambrose aren’t together, I might be done watching. 

-20/10

[hellas-himself]

More Than Enough

Remember that self indulgent crack ship holiday fic I was writing about Cassian and Feyre? And how I couldn’t seem to mix the past with the present? 

It’s a fic now. Still in the same AU just like... the year before. Leading up to the cheesy ass nonsense it is now. Originally it was going to be angsty at first but I think we have enough of that in our real life. If you haven’t read the crackship holidays featuring these two dumbasses, start here or on AO3.

Also. I promise all my other fics are not being abandoned. 

I’ve had a playlist to listen to when writing them but it is so incredibly inappropriate if you understand spanish. and i haven’t made it onto spotify yet. But this song reminded me of them and that’s where the title comes from. Which is funny because Alina is who i put beside Toni Mafud as Rhys and Feyre whenever fan casts come up. ANYWAY. 

Let’s follow Feyre as she thirsts after her best friend. 

.

.

.

I blame it on the music.

Cassian lost his shirt about half an hour ago and is doing pull ups. The garage door is open, letting in the cold winter air. My fingers are cold but I don’t like wearing gloves when sketching. I had been working on hands and eyes but once he tossed his shirt… It’s not like I’ve never seen Cassian without a shirt on before. Between him and his brothers, they seem to always find an excuse to not wear one. But the difference is I don’t find myself daydreaming about what it would be like to run my fingers down their backs.

It’s definitely the music.

Even if I didn’t understand the words, the beat itself is way too sensual to not be about anything else but sex. But the lyrics and Cassian’s sweaty, half naked body mixed with the fact that I haven’t had sex in months is probably the worst mix. I am not supposed to be imagining sleeping with my best friend.

I clear my throat, startling Valo who was falling asleep at my feet.

“Sorry, baby, I need a drink.”

I set my sketch book and pencil down on the crate beside my chair.

“Would you get me a drink, bunny?” Cas breathes out and my face flushes all the more. I didn’t need another detail to this stupid daydream.

“Yeah,” I squeak and head into the house. I already know his post workout drink recipe by heart. I drink ice cold water while the blender is going.

Cassian is suspended in the air, holding his entire body parallel to the floor with his hands. Goddamn him. He drops his head back so that he’s looking at me upside down and he smiles.

“I love you,” he says and I roll my eyes.

“I’ll love you more if you don’t bust your ass.”

He chuckles and just to drive the nail in the coffin that is my desire to be the reason he’s making noises like that, he slowly lowers his body and resumes his pull ups. I set his cup on the table where he has his tools and go back to sit down.

Cassian drops down and walks over to his mat to do his cool down stretches. A new song comes on and the words are so filthy that I find myself staring at him. His tattoos. My ex-boyfriend had always believed I was into Cassian- and I wasn’t. But I wasn’t blind and I’ve been at his house almost every single day since Thanksgiving- he is always without a shirt.

It’s just the music.

“Plan on drawing me?” Cassian asks and I blink. I look away from his tattooed chest and to his face. He is smirking. Shit.

“Uh. Yeah. What better way to do anatomy studies than with a living reference?”

“Anatomy, huh?”

He flashes me a grin before he walks over to the table for his drink.

“Hey, what do you want for dinner?”

His question distracts me from looking at his ass.

“Uh, whatever you want… I’m not really craving anything.” Except you. I sigh and cover my face with my hands and lean over. I need a cold shower.

“Hey… You alright?” he asks softly.

I nod and slowly sit upright.

“I’m just… I’m fine. I promise.”

He doesn’t believe me but he walks over to grab his speaker.

“I love this song,” he says and starts to sing along to it as he gratefully goes back into the house.  

Cassian meets me in the living room now dressed in a white tee and grey sweatpants. He lifts both my legs up so that he can sit down. This is normal. I always use his lap to rest my legs.

“I ordered Greek, I hope you don’t mind.”

“I told you, I’m not craving anything except-”

Fuck my entire life. Cassian raises a brow and I toss him the remote.

“Why don’t we finish your show so then we can watch my movie?”

This pacifies him and thankfully, his stupid show is so violent and bloody that all thoughts of fucking my best friend fade from my mind.

*

Our annual Christmas party is tonight and I’ve found an outfit. It is the kind of outfit Tamlin would have told me not to wear. It’s blood red and insanely inappropriate for winter with its spaghetti straps and super low neckline. Mor says it’s the perfect thing to wear after a break up and just the thought of all the pictures we’ll take with me and Cassian together makes me believe it.

I hang the dress up in the closet of Cassian’s bedroom. The heels are set beside his dress shoes and I can’t help but think about his reaction. Of dancing with him all night and coming back here and-

“Bunny!” 

“I’m in the closet!”

I hear him chuckle. 

“Shut up,” I call out and walk into the bedroom to find him pulling off his shirt. I feel my face go hot.

“I’m going to shower… do you want me to use the other bathroom?” 

“What? No, this is your house,” I say far more casually than I feel. “Besides, we’ve got time, we can share.” 

I want to punch myself in the face. Cassian starts to grin. 

“The shower might be a little too small for the both of us but I’m sure we could find a way to-”

Cassian laughs when I smack his arm. 

“Not exactly where I like being spanked but I’ll take it.”

“Oh my god, Cassian.”

He laughs and disappears into the bathroom. I force myself to leave the room when I hear the water.  

*

Cassian walks into the kitchen in nothing but a towel, his hair wet, water dripping down his chest. He walks over and takes the sandwich from my hands.

“Fuck, we’re out of beer,” he mutters as he opens the fridge. I grab the second sandwich I made, expecting him to steal from my plate and force my gaze up. On his stupidly gorgeous face.

“I can go get some,” I say but he shakes his head and walks over to take my cup of iced tea.

“Are you cool with us taking a cab tonight?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess.” 

Cassian drinks from my cup and sets it down before pinching my cheek. 

“It’ll just be you and me,” he says softly. “So don’t worry about it.”

I blush at this and Cassian kisses my forehead. 

“I’m gonna go get dressed. Thanks for the snack,” he says with a wink and walks away.

*

I keep my makeup rather muted; lip gloss and the usual winged liner. Nude eyeshadow. Cassian picked out the highlight and I have to admit, he chose well. My hair isn’t going to get any better, so I leave it in loose waves rather than the curls I’d wanted. I’ll leave that to Mor. I feel nervous, this is the first time since the breakup that I’m going out with all of our friends but Cassian will be there, and that’s enough to ease my nerves. Almost.  

“Our ride is here,” Cas says as he walks into his bedroom. He stops and just stares. I approach him and hold out my ID card and debit card, needing to ignore the way his attention has me feeling.

“I don’t have pockets.”

“What?” He blinks and looks down at my hand. He laughs and pulls his wallet out. “You only need your ID.”

“Maybe so,” I say and reach out to smooth down the collar of his shirt while he puts my cards away. I remember my lip gloss and put it in his back pocket, giving him a wink.

Cassian holds my hand when we go outside, helping me down the steps and the driveway. It’s a regular occurrence, but I blush when he opens the door for me. And when he slides an arm around my shoulders when he sits down beside me. We take a bunch of pictures and call Cassian’s parents to check on Val- as if we hadn’t seen him an hour ago. 

When we get to the club, Cassian holds my hand as we walk inside. Cassian and the boys are all friends with the owner, so we get to skip the line.

“Where are we going?” I ask as Cassian leads us up to the VIP lounge.

“Meeting up with Rhys.”

“What’s he doing up here?”

Cassian chuckles. “You know Rhys never passes a chance to be extra as fuck.”

I can’t argue with that.

Upstairs, Cassian helps me out of my coat. His fingers brush my skin and my mind takes a swan dive into the gutter.

“What do you say to a few drinks before we go downstairs?” he asks as he takes my hand. The bouncer outside the lounge acknowledges us with a nod.

“Yeah, I could use it.”

Cassian flashes me a grin and then opens the door.

“SURPRISE!” Everyone shouts and I find all of our friends standing under a Happy Birthday banner.

I am at a loss for words and Cassian laughs, bringing me further into the room. I’d completely forgotten about my birthday, I hadn’t cared enough to even think that anyone else would. But Elain is here with Az. So is Rhys and Lucien, Amren, Varian. Viv and Kallias, too. I’m separated from Cassian as I’m hugged and kissed by everyone. I realize Tarquin and Cresseida are here as well. Rhys is the one who breaks open the first bottle and we all stand around the little table to take shots.

“There is a cake,” Elain says as she hands me another shot. “But that’s later.”

“Later?”

She winks at me and shouts for Azriel.

“That’s my favorite song!” she exclaims and her husband happily ditches his brothers to go out and dance with his wife.

Lucien and Rhys pull me in for another hug as the others begin to trail down to the dance floor.

“You look good enough to eat,” Lucien mumbles and I laugh.

“Don’t tell me you’re already drunk, Luce.”

“We may have pregamed at the house,” Rhys admits. “But we took an uber! It’s okay.”

I roll my eyes.

“You both suck. I’m going to go find me two other cute boys to dance with. Boys who would have invited me to pregame with them and no amount of flirting is going to fix that.”

They begin to whine and I laugh, holding onto Rhysand’s forearms as they keep me caged between them.

“Alright! You win!” I say with a laugh and look over to find Cassian looking my way. He smiles.

I want to ask him to dance but Mor pulls him away before I can open my mouth.

We drink and dance and drink and dance and drink some more. I feel light headed and everything makes me laugh. But I haven’t danced with Cassian yet and that’s enough to dampen the mood. I push my way through the crowd until I find Cassian at the bar. I take the empty barstool beside him and sit down. I order myself a margarita before turning to face him.

“And where have you been all night?” I ask and Cassian smirks.

“Enjoying the night,” he says and takes a sip of his drink.

“Without me?”

I don’t understand the look in his eyes as he takes a sip of his drink. He sets the glass down and leans forward. I didn’t really understand just how short this dress was until he lays his hand on my thigh. If I turn my chair completely, if he moves his hand just an inch more…

“Yes,” he says and kisses me cheek. “But I think I’m about to enjoy it more now.”

“Why?” I manage to say. Cassian’s hand brushes my thigh as he sits upright.

“I’m about to go dance with my best friend.”

“Are you now?”

My drink is set before me and I grab it, chugging it down as Cassian slides off his chair. He turns mine so that I’m facing him completely and puts his hands on my hips.

“If she says yes, of course.”

I finish the last of my drink and set down the glass.

“When have I ever said no to you?”

Cassian grins.

I have danced with Cassian many times. At parties, at the beach, at clubs and bars and festivals. At his parents’ house. I should be used to the feeling of his body against mine, of his hands on me while we dance but not like this. I want nothing more than to take him back up to the lounge and push him down on the sofa or go find an empty bathroom stall.

But I don’t.

Birthday cake and alcohol isn’t the best mix, but I haven’t felt this alive in months. My face hurts from laughing, from smiling. My vision is spotty from all the pictures we’ve taken but I don’t care. Everything is right in the world.

“My feet hurt,” I complain and sit on Cassian’s lap.

“Want me to rub your feet?”

I shake my head and lean into him.

“No. Not until I’m showered.”

He laughs. “Okay.”

I sigh when he wraps his arms around me. He is so warm and smells so good, I want to stay this way forever.

“I think the birthday girl is done for the night,” Rhys says teasingly and I realize I was dozing off. I look up to see Rhys standing there with a stupid smirk on his face.

“Fuck you,” I say and curl up in Cassian’s arms. I feel his hand holding my dress down from showing everyone else my ass.

“Tempting,” Rhys says and then shoves his hands in his pockets. “But I think I’ll pass.”

I don’t think much of the look Rhys gives Cassian in favor of playing with his hair. I take way too much satisfaction in the knowledge that not everyone gets to do this, and that he enjoys it. Cassian seems to win whatever silent staring contest he and Rhys were having and Rhys rolls his eyes and goes after his boyfriend.

“You’re making me sleepy, bunny.”

“Good thing we’re going home together then,” I say before my mind catches up. But Cassian only chuckles and hugs me a little closer.

*

Cassian and I are a laughing mess as we stumble into the house. I lean on him to step out of my heels and he laughs as I shrug off my coat and toss it at him. We’re both trying to catch our breath, and I swat his hand away when he tries to tickle me again.

“I’m taking a shower,” I breathe out and walk off but he stops me.

“Wait,” he says and I turn to find him smiling.

“What?”

“Happy birthday,” he says softly and pulls me in for a hug. “I promise I’ll make you breakfast in the morning.”

“Hm… you really know the way to a girl’s heart, Cas.”

He pinches my side and I yelp.

“Go shower,” he says and kisses the top of my head.

“I won’t be long.”

My shower is clumsy and not at all relaxing. My feet hurt. So I put lotion on my body and grab the bottle of perfume that is on the dresser, except it’s not perfume but cologne. I shrug and put on Cassian’s Nirvana tee shirt and double check I actually have underwear on before I go looking for him.

“Cas?” The house is dark save for the light coming from his room. “My feet fucking hurt.”

He says something but I don’t understand it. His room is open and I step inside, finding him lying on his bed. He’s got basketball shorts on and his hair is loose.

“Bunny!” he says as if he hadn’t seen me all day. “I almost busted my ass in the shower.”

“Me, too.” I say with a laugh. “Maybe we should’ve showered together. It would’ve been safer that way.”

“I like the way you think, Archeron.”

He holds his hand out to me and when I’m close enough, he pulls me into bed with him. “You smell good.”

I snort. “I smell like you.”

“Exactly.”

I swat his arm but he ignores it, putting his arms around me.

“My feet hurt,” I complain, hoping he’ll make good on his promise.

“Just stay here,” he says simply.

My heart stops and starts too fast.

“Like… sleep here?” I ask too quietly.

“Mhm.” He goes quiet for a moment and then groans. “I forgot to turn the light off.”

“I can do it,” I say.

“No… Stay here.”

He goes quiet once more, and I let myself relax. We haven’t shared a bed since we were kids, playing video games until Adela would force us to go to bed. I smile at the thought and rest my head against his chest.

“Goodnight, Cas,” I say quietly, my eyes getting heavy.

“Goodnight, bunny,” he says and lets me go to stretch. Then he wraps his arms around me again and moves us so that we’re on our sides. He presses a kiss to my forehead and I close my eyes, letting the warmth of him lull me to sleep.

.

.

.

@mythicaitt @bookloveaffair @nalgenewhore @candid-confetti 

[snarkwriteswrasslin]

FFT: candy hearts taste like chalk; mjf

Notes:

This one was sent to my main by @vonschweetz​ and I had to go there with it. Because what better than to make MJF a secret admirer.. Anyway, I thought I’d post it on here, so it has it’s own post. So, here it is.

Summary:

Girl and guy argue but there’s a mutual crush thing happening here. Guy decides to romance the shit out of girl as a secret admirer. Maybe this opens girls eyes to the fact that there’s more than just a burberry scarf wearing ass and fluff ensues. Kinda.

Pairing:

MJF x OFC, Jessa

Warnings:

fluff and shenanigans. valentines day shenanigans. anti-valentine ofc. 

“ Valentines is the corniest holiday, by far.” Jessa said it as she passed beneath a red garland of dangling hearts and arrows. She paused to swat at it, scowling upward at the ceiling as she laughed. From beside her, Penelope Ford spoke up. “Says the girl who probably couldn’t get a date tonight if she stood on a corner bare ass naked.”

“ That, coming from the woman with Kip Sabian. Did I ask for the opinion of an actual dumpster fire? Didn’t think so.” Jessa quipped as she jumped up, fingertips snagging the garland, giving it a firm tug downward. The garland came down, bringing with it a loose dusting of vibrant fire-engine red glitter and Jessa swatted at her neckline where some happened to settle, giving the tops of her breasts a generous dusting of sparkle that she didn’t want or need.

 “I’ll say it again. At least I have someone to spend Valentines with. You will never know that luxury.”

“And thank God above for that because I think I’d rather gouge my own eyeballs out than spend any amount of time with Kip Sabian for any reason. I prefer men who don’t spend more time in the bathroom than I do, thanks!” Jessa mimicked a sweet tone with Penelope as she walked away backwards, her middle finger up and the sweetest smirk she could manage on her face. It was the walking backwards that caused her to collide back first straight into the chest of a very amused MJF.

Jessa whirled around, about to apologize, but when she set sights on MJF towering over her, she bit her lip, grumbling quietly. “Well tonight is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Are you gonna move?”

“Ya know, a ‘hey Maxwell’, would be nice. Also please move. And maybe throw in ‘you’re so hot, Maxwell, while we’re at it?” MJF stared her down, his arms folded over his chest as he watched her facial expression change three different times. He loved irritating her, her face got all flushed and sometimes he managed to do such a good job that she actually stammered and wound up growling and flipping him off instead.

Deeper down though, he really wished that it was easier just to talk to her. Because he couldn’t get her out of his head. It drove him insane. Their confrontations always left him more than a little bothered. Not in a bad way, either.

He kept telling himself he had to do something, he had to learn to shove whatever it was that he felt way down deep because they’d never realistically work, he was one way and she was his polar opposite, but this stubborn part of him kept insisting they would. They had to. He wanted her and when he wanted something, he stopped at nothing to make it happen.

“Not as long as I have a pulse, Maxwell.” Jessa deadpanned, even though as she said it, she found herself getting lost in endless pools of milk chocolate brown and hating herself for being a girl who went gaga over a guy with deep and soulful eyes.

Which unfortunately, Maxwell Jacob Friedmann did have, despite him having absolutely no actual depth in personality to her own personal knowledge. … doesn’t stop me from being attracted to him like one end of a magnet to the other either, she thought to herself, frowning a little at the thought. They’d literally never work out.

She went to step past him and his hand shot out, gently gripping her wrist to raise her hand. His eyes settled on the glittery red garlands she’d been racing to the nearest garbage bin with and he eyed her, a perplexed facial expression that made her giggle and shrug under his intent gaze. He nodded to the garland finally and cleared his throat. “What’s the matter? Someone a little jealous at all the happy couples around her?”

Jessa’s brows rose and she laughed, snorting a little as she did. It was cute. MJF had to give it that much. He stepped a little closer, his free hand lingering at her hip ever-so-slightly as he continued to stare, his eyes breaking from her eyes to wander down and settle on a plump set of cherry-colored lips. Briefly, he toyed with the idea of just going for it and kissing her right then and there, but he reigned in the urge to do so. “Are you gonna answer me, beautiful?”

Jessa’s stomach fluttered.

…. It’s gotta be gas station nachos, there is absolutely no way I feel anything other than irritation for this gigantic douche…

Even as she had the thought, she KNEW deep down that was totally false.

“They were hanging too low in the door. It was annoying?” - fuck, why did that come out like I was asking his permission to move something that was in my way? Jessa finally answered and as she wondered why she’d done it, MJF was prying the garland from her hands carefully, his gaze not breaking from her own a single second as he smirked. “Are you sure that’s the only reason, princess? I mean you’ve been skulking around here all week moody. I think you’re lonely.” he clucked his tongue and shook his head. He honestly didn’t get her. He’d never seen anyone so repressed before and it bothered him because he knew that with her level of repression, sooner or later, an explosion was incoming. And she had nobody she was particularly close to that she could actually sit down and confide in. It had to be lonely.

… just admit it, you wanna be the one she does that with… the thought crept it’s way in, only to be shoved right back out because MJF wasn’t ready to deal with the fact that of all the women he could have fallen for, it was the one who hated pretty much everyone.

“I don’t get lonely, okay! I don’t..” her voice dropped just the slightest when she realized that she’d practically shouted the first part and people were watching them, “I don’t need anybody. This is just a stupid fuckin holiday that people use as an excuse to bribe people into thinking they like them when any of the other 364 days of the year, they couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck.”

The outburst was more telling than she realized and it gave MJF an idea, of sorts. A way in. At this point, he was grasping at straws where she was concerned, because every idea Allie bounced off of him just didn’t seem to work. It’d either be too much or not enough. But this one, this idea he was getting… It was simple and perfect.

“Maybe they do. They just can’t say it because you won’t hear it.” MJF mused, biting his lip as he gazed down at her. He halfway hoped that by now she’d pick up on the way he treated her worlds differently than he treated the others, but she hadn’t. If anything, it only seemed to make her edgier and alienate her more.

Jessa blinked and shook her head. For just a second there, it seemed like he was trying to hint at something. And the thought was a mixture of concerning and comforting. She found herself wondering again why MJF seemed to treat her with kid gloves sometimes, not willing to get as down and dirty when they had their war of words like she was.

“Whatever, Maxwell. Either way, this garland? Headed for the garbage.” she worked at prying it from his hand. Their hands wound up touching a time or two and she sucked in a breath at the warmth and the roughness of his hands. Certainly not the hands of a rich pretty boy, she found herself thinking and naturally, her mind chose to take that a step further, definitely a feeling I’d like to feel all over my body.. And she was shaking her head as if to shake that thought right out of it.

“Hey, whoa! Maybe just give that to me. I can find somewhere else to put it.” MJF took the garland back quickly, holding it out of the petite hellion’s reach though she leaped for it a few times. She pouted and bit her lip as she stared up at him, stepping away as soon as she realized just how close she’d been standing to him.

That designer cologne he wore was haunting her now, she’d probably smell it all night and catch her mouth-watering. She tucked some hair back behind her ear and swallowed hard, nodding to the garland. “Fine, whatever. I..I don’t have time to deal with you right now.” Jessa whirled away, so flustered that she started to head down the wrong end of the hallway. She swore and backtracked, walking past him as quickly as possible and definitely not meeting his gaze as she did so.

She fell into the makeup chair dramatically and let out a long groan as she closed her eyes. From the seat next to her, Allie giggled and spoke up. “Dramatic entrance. I’m going to assume that you’ve already had a run-in with Maxwell tonight?” she asked as she slicked cherry colored gloss on her lips, puckering up at her reflection in the mirror.

Jessa grumbled and dug around in the makeup kit sitting in front of her, casting aside product after product. “Why do I even bother with this crap? I’m here to fight, not look pretty. If I’d wanted to do that I’d have gone the America’s Next Top Model route.” she slammed the lid of the case shut and Allie stood, gracefully stepping over to the chair Jessa sat in, taking hands full of Jessa’s soft dark brown locks into her hands. “You could’ve done it, ya know?” Allie mused almost nonchalant. Jessa eyed her warily.

Allie found herself praying to God that MJF hurried up with whatever he was up to because she could only keep Jessa occupied for a limited time; Jessa wasn’t known for patience. Or sitting still. Or making conversation for extended periods.

The girl was living, breathing chaos.

She honestly still couldn’t figure out what got MJF all stirred up over her and if he hadn’t given her the impassioned speech he had last night when he enlisted her help for tonight and his attempt at romancing Jessa, she never would’ve agreed to it because she’d seen quite a few less fortunate girls meet with heartbreak at the hands of the man.

She was massaging Jessa’s scalp and she gave a soft laugh when she heard Jessa sigh and saw the woman’s eyes flutter open and closed. “Scalp massage. They really do help your hair. Especially for those with manes like you’ve got yourself here. How do you deal with your hair being so thick?”

Jessa shrugged. “I don’t like change. It’s easier to just throw it up than to cut it off and miss it.” As Allie’s fingers moved haphazardly over her scalp, she found herself going back to the way it felt when she and MJF accidentally touched a few times. And the look in his eyes when he said what Jessa felt had to be a hint at something.

“Well, it’s gorgeous. Maybe if we just moved a little out of your eyes so it’s not always getting in the way of your view…” Allie eyed the way she’d grabbed Jessa’s hair in the mirror and she grabbed for a few pins the same shade as Jessa’s hair and she slid them into the area she’d been holding, stepping back. “Ooh. I like it.”

Jessa eyed it and then Allie. She gave a little smile and shrugged. “Yeah, why not. Listen,” she gestured at the makeup kit in disgust, “Apparently, I have to wear this shit. So.. Whatever you wanna do, I guess?”

Allie clapped her hands together, giving a laugh similar to the ones she gave during promos and she opened the kit, setting to work. Jessa just sat there letting her because if she had to admit it, she could do her own makeup just fine, she was just far too lazy to be bothered. So, every week, she pulled this trick with the other women.

Her favorite time arguably was whenever Riho or Nyla happened to be present. On occasion, it was enjoyable whenever Kris was around and felt like doing it, because she always had creative ideas.

As Allie was getting ready to pop some false lashes on Jessa, her cell phone lit up. She went ahead and put on the lashes and Jessa sat blinking, giving a soft laugh. “Fancy! I don’t entirely hate these. Thanks.”

Allie nodded and smirked at the other woman. “I’m heading down to change. Maybe we can walk down together?”

“Why not?” Jessa shrugged mildly as she slipped out of the chair, falling into step beside Allie. As soon as they got into the locker room, Jessa hurried over to her locker, pulling it open.

The box of conversation hearts sat there and she glanced around, brows raised and a confused look on her face. “At least it’s not the kind that taste like actual chalk.” she took out the box, opening it and pouring some in her hand. She’d been just about to eat them but she stopped when she realized that they all said the same thing.

“I Want You. Okay then, stranger with candy.” Jessa muttered as she poured the candies in her hand into her mouth. Allie laughed from beside her just as Jessa noticed the single dark red rose leaned against the inside, with a card and she reached for them. “What?” Jessa eyed Allie who simply shrugged and went back to dressing for her match.

Jessa tore into the envelope, eyes darting over the card. “ Roses are red, that much is true. But violets, they’re purple and definitely not blue. Enjoy the mystery and by the end of tonight; I’ll reveal myself to you.” she muttered the words, giving a quiet snort. “Not too shabby, I��ll say that. Whoever did this probably got the wrong locker.” Jessa’s fingers wound through her hair and she flipped over the red envelope, a brow raised at her name scrawled across the front. “Okay, so it’s for me. Oh god, I know what this is!” Jessa gave a soft laugh, peeking behind the lockers that separated the front of the room from the showers and toilet stalls in back. “Okay, you guys can come out now.”

Allie raised a brow and started to ask what exactly Jessa thought was going on, but she didn’t have to because Jessa turned to Allie and shrugged. “This is a joke. I mean.. It’s gotta be, right?” as her brows knit together in total confusion. She tossed another handful of the candy hearts into her mouth. Allie bent down, picking up the torn book page from the floor as she held it out to Jessa. “I think this was in that when you opened it.”

Jessa eyed the torn book page. It was ripped from a book of poems. She remembered reading it in an airport earlier in the week. Her fingertip caught in the ends of her hair, twisting and tugging at a strand or two as she read the POEM out loud, shuffling her feet and fidgeting the entire time. “Okay, that was…”

“Sexy? Sweet? Intense?” Allie questioned, trying not to laugh. Maybe Maxwell’s idea wasn’t doomed to fail like she’d told him it would. Then again, she honestly thought Jessa hated the guy to begin with, so it did beg to question…

“That’s one way to put it. Phew.” Jessa fanned her face with the card and took a few deep breaths. “Well? Aren’t you gonna share?”

“Okay, alright.” Jessa took a deep breath and cleared her throat, starting to read from the torn book page.

Come here and take off your clothes & with them, every single worry you have ever carried. My fingertips on your back will be the very last thing you will feel before sleeping & the sound of my smile the alarm clock to your morning ears.

Come here and take off your clothes & with them, every single yesterday that has snuck atop your shoulders & declared them home.  My whispers will be the soundtrack to your secret dreams and my hand, the anchor to the life which you will open your eyes to.

Come here and take off your clothes. - Tyler Knott Gregson

“Oh wow. Damn. Hey, the hearts. What’d they say again?” Allie asked, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. She had a feeling that she was starting to catch on to what Maxwell was up to and if she was right, it was… Definitely not something she’d have ever associated with the guy.

She’d never have assumed that beneath the cocky and almost overbearing exterior an actual romantic resided within.

Jessa grabbed the box and poured out a handful. The lone pink candy heart caught her eye and she raised a brow, reading it. “Nice tits.” she couldn’t help but giggle and look down as she joked aloud, “Bitch where, huh?”

Allie cleared her throat and Jessa held out one of the blue hearts in her hand. “Be Mine.”

“Oh wow. The poem is connected to the hearts, I think. And maybe nice tits was the person’s way of teasing?” Allie bit her lip as she looked over at Jessa. Jessa was obviously still reeling from the effects of the poem on the torn book page and Allie had the feeling that if this round of Maxwell’s little ‘game’ was this intense, by the end of the night, Jessa was going to be an actual mess.

It amused her.

Jessa turned over the paper and she dug around, eventually resorting to using a lipliner pencil she had in her messenger bag to scrawl on the front of the paper that’d been left with the candies and the card and rose.

“There’s one problem with this, stranger with candy. Well, two. One, my mom always told me not to take candy from strangers. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t follow directions? And the main problem. I can’t be yours if I don’t know who you are? But this is entertaining. It certainly got my attention. - Jessa”

Allie watched Jessa scrawling the note onto the front of the paper and stick it back into her locker and as soon as that was done, Jessa turned to Allie and shrugged. “Now we’ll see if it was a fluke or not I guess? I’m betting it is.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not, actually. Why’s it so hard to believe a man might be interested in you, Jessa?” Allie’s head tilted as she asked the question and Jessa shrugged. “Guess I’m just not used to it? I mean I’m not exactly people-friendly for the most part.” Jessa used air quotes to accentuate the phrase used and she smoothed her hands down the front of her favorite worn out skinny jeans, stretching. She was suddenly excited and full of energy.

But also, she was smart enough not to set the bar too high. And as soon as the thought of who she hoped it might be sending the candies and that poem crept in, she was choking on bottled water she’d just grabbed from the vending machine in the hallway.

Almost as if the guy had a radar and knew when she was even thinking about him, there he was, tapping her on the back and eyeing her with a raised brow while trying not to chuckle.

“Twice in a night.” Jessa choked out, catching her breath at last and continuing, “What the hell did I do to the man upstairs?” with hints of a teasing smirk. When their bodies brushed, she swallowed hard and attempted to step away a little. He wasn’t having to invade her personal space bubble tonight, apparently, she was doing good enough at it on her own.

MJF chuckled quietly. He’d gotten Allie’s text with a video clip of Jessa’s reaction so he knew good and well that right now, she was flustered and it embarrassed and infuriated her because she wasn’t used to it.

“Again, Jessa.. A ‘Hi, Maxwell. You look especially hot now that you just finished beating Diamond Dallas Page’s old ass’ would be great. Or even ‘Gee, thanks for keeping me from choking to death on a Voss.” MJF commented, staring her down intently. He hoped to God that Butcher and Blade hurried back from the little trip he’d sent them on because the rest of his surprise for Jessa kind of depended on it.

Tonight was the night. He had to do something to make himself known to her. He wanted her to see the side of him that he didn’t bother showing anyone else.

He grumbled when Guevara wandered over, stopping in front of Jessa again. “Hey baby girl.”

“Fuck off, child.” Jessa grumbled, glaring at the other guy. At least Maxwell has a right to be so goddamn cocky, Jessa mused to herself as she gazed almost boredly at Sammy, this guy has not a single one and yet… He thinks he’s god’s gift…

For a split second as Sammy was fucking her with his eyes again, the thought crossed her mind that he could well be the one behind everything she’d just found in her locker and that thought had her laughing so hard she was doubled over in an instant. The laughter served a dual purpose when Sammy eyed her as if she were losing her entire mind and made a hasty retreat. MJF cleared his throat.

“Think you might share what’s so funny?” Maxwell eyed her with a brow raised.

“I just.. No, if THAT bag of dicks is sending me secret Valentines stuff.. There’s no way it’s him. He’s got all the depth of a kiddie pool.” Jessa gulped as soon as their bodies bumped together lightly.

There went that magnetic pull to MJF that she’d yet to figure out and couldn’t seem to ignore. Rather than step away this time, she found herself kind of.. Gazing up at his lips intently. She wasn’t a tiny girl, but he towered over her easily. She found herself toying with how easy he’d be able to pick her up and toss her into bed. Or hold her against a wall. She coughed again, nearly choking on her own saliva this time and Maxwell chuckled. “You seem distracted. Did this mystery guy really get you that riled up, Jessa? Does this mean that contrary to what you said earlier, you actually might just be a little lonely?”

His hand wandered down, lightly squeezing her hip and the feel of his rough hands against her skin was enough to have her thighs clenching just slightly. She’d die before admitting it, but everything about Maxwell Jacob Friedmann got to her. Whether it be sexually or in irritation.

“Or maybe this guy just really KNOWS what I really want. Unlike others who constantly just run their mouths and don’t bother trying to back their words up with actions.” Jessa countered, her hand lowering as she teasingly slid a fingertip right across his lower abdomen, smirking up at him almost teasingly when her eyes met his and she caught him swallowing hard and trying to catch his breath.

Let him be as flustered as he leaves me all the goddamn time, Jessa thought to herself as she called out to Allie, “Wanna go to that 7-11? I feel the need for a Slurpee.”  and Allie agreed to it quickly. It worked out almost perfectly because this gave MJF time to get round two of his little ‘game of seduction’ set up for Jessa to find when she returned.

“Hey, since you’re goin’, bring me back something.” he called out, half teasing. Just because he knew her well enough to know it’d be met with her middle finger and a smirk.

As soon as the two women were safely out of the arena, he whipped out his cell phone and called Butcher and Blade. “Where the actual fuck are you two right now, huh? I wanna get this done. So I can get to the best part… The part where I FINALLY get all this off my chest.”

“We’re incoming. It took a while to find a place that still had the exact flowers and the other things you wanted to get her, man.”

–

Skid Row was blasting so loud that Allie almost couldn’t hear herself think. Jessa clearly couldn’t drive, she was zigging and zagging in and out of traffic as if she were a wheelman on their way to a bank robbery or something. It was a stark contrast to Maxwell’s staunch position on 5 miles over was risky enough. Allie was really starting to see what exactly might have drawn her friend to Jessa in the first place.

Jessa was loud and wild and breathing chaos. Maxwell was calm and over-thinking to a fault almost. People were constantly telling the guy that he needed to loosen up; including Jessa on several of her more playful occasions. The car came to a sharp stop in the parking lot of the 7-11 and Jessa was jumping out, waiting on the sidewalk on Allie. Allie needed to collect herself and she almost wanted to kiss the ground she stood on just because she’d made it to the little gas station in one piece. Jessa giggled. “You act like you’ve never ridden in a fast car. C’mon.”

She was scrambling through the door, grabbing an arm full of junk and a Cosmopolitan with “The Best Sex of Your Life: Ten tricks You should Be Trying in 2020” in bold red across the cover. Allie grabbed herself bottled water and let her eyes dart around warily, nudging Jessa and nodding to the junk food in her arms.

“Is all that necessary?” Allie questioned, twisting a strand of blonde around her fingertips as her eyes darted around the little gas station before settling back on Jessa.

“No, but I WANT it.”  Jessa shrugged and Allie gave a laugh at the response. She’d finally found it.

The common thread between the two. When they wanted something, there was zero hesitation. This whole thing was either going to go exactly as Maxwell seemed to think it would or Jessa was going to explode. Either way, it was something Allie was definitely amused by.

“What are you doing now?”

“Getting the gigantic bag of dicks something. He’s a meathead. A protein bar, maybe? No, no..” Jessa knit her brow as she scoured the shelves, trying to find something to take back to Maxwell, even though she honestly couldn’t care less.

Or so she kept telling herself.

Allie smirked and stopped Jessa mid bend. “Oh my god. You.. You actually LIKE him… Don’t you?” she was taunting gently and Jessa bit her lip, blowing strands of hair out of her eyes as she muttered in an annoyed tone, “Let’s just say I wouldn’t throw him outta bed and leave it alone, alright? Okay, got meathead his protein bar thing and bottled water and some of those stupid Rocher chocolates. I’m all done.”

“Good god, woman. You realize all this… glorified junk.. Is going straight to your ass, right?”

“God I can only hope. I’m tired of having a non-existent ass.” Jessa quipped, hurrying to the register as soon as she’d gotten her cherry-flavored Slurpee. After paying for everything, they got back into the car. Allie crossed herself and buckled in and Jessa snickered. “My driving is not that bad.”

“Woman, my entire life story played like a movie in front of my eyes the entire time.”

Jessa gave a soft laugh and poked out her tongue, fixing her eyes on the road as she pulled out of the parking lot and merged with traffic.

Allie knew how much Maxwell was worrying about his chances at pulling his whole master plan off for the night. And since he was kind of a friend, she felt like she should give the guy a little hope.

← Okay so. Here’s the thing.

← Your girl cannot drive, first of all.

← Second, she kind of admitted something huge to me.. About you.

← Do not make me regret helping you because she’s honestly kind of growing on me…

They were pulling to a stop in the parking lot of the arena and Jessa was digging around, grabbing her issue of Cosmo, her cherry-flavored Slurpee and the share size bag of sour skittles she’d bought herself. She eyed the stuff she’d gotten MJF and sighed, grumbling. “I HATE having a weak spot for that frickin meatball.”

“Why does liking someone annoy you so much?”

“I dunno.. Never really thought about it.” Jessa shrugged as she grabbed the bag with the stuff she’d gotten him inside and got out of the car, shutting the door with her hip. She’d just stepped through the door and into the backstage area when she spotted MJF. She walked up and tapped his shoulder with the protein bar and once he’d turned around, she deposited the candy and protein bar as well as the bottled water into his hands and skipped away without a word.

MJF was left standing there watching her skip away, untwisting the cap on his bottled water as he smirked to himself.

A softer smirk.

–

Jessa stood in front of her locker, eyeing it almost as if she was torn between opening it or just walking away. Finally, with a little swearing, she pulled it open and reached inside. Her hand closed around something thin and upon pulling it out she realized it was a white rose. She passed it under her nose, giving a little smile before tucking it behind her ear and she reached into her locker again.

The note she’d scribbled out to whoever was behind this was sitting there, this time with their own response beneath.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that you and directions don’t exactly go hand in hand. It’s one of the things I love about you though. As far as your second concern, all will be revealed after the show is over.  Until then, just enjoy this.

The box of conversation hearts was back again and this time the color was orange. Jessa raised a brow, opening the box and taking one out as she took a sip of her Slurpee. “U&Me and Nice Ass, huh? Okay, you have me curious now. This is.. A giant puzzle.” Jessa eyed the note and tried to think.

She’d never seen the writing on it before. It was neat and smaller. Her hand raised to her hair and she raked her fingers through it, shuffling her feet against the locker room floor. “Hmm.”

Nyla spoke up from behind her. “White roses mean new beginnings.”

Jessa turned and bit her lip, eyeing the rose. New beginnings? She’d honestly just thought whoever was going to all this trouble was just giving her flowers. “Any chance you know what a deep red one means?”

Nyla mulled it over and then asked the other woman with a smile, “Any reason why you want to know?”

“Because earlier tonight, I got this. And now, I’ve got more. And I get the feeling that everything means something, and it’s driving me insane. It’s like the answer is literally right in front of my face?” Jessa gathered what she got earlier in the night and what she’d just gotten, holding it out to Nyla, who read over everything and snickered quietly at the two hearts she had left from earlier and the ones she’d just gotten.

“Girl, somebody is trying to tell you something alright. This” Nyla waved the note that Jessa’s admirer responded on at her, “The writing looks familiar.”

“Oh?”

“But it CANNOT be him.”

Jessa was holding her breath and waiting patiently for an answer but all Nyla would do was smirk and hand her the note back. “It’s called a surprise, Jessa.”

“Damn it! No fair!” Jessa stomped her feet and pouted, but Nyla shrugged. Oh, she could’ve easily told Jessa that the writing on the note might possibly be the handwriting of one Maxwell Jacob Friedmann, but she wasn’t about to ruin the potential for amusement later in the night.

And she was lowkey impressed by the symbolism in the little puzzles. If Jessa really thought about it, the answer was right there in front of her nose, just like she thought.

Jessa turned her attention back to her locker, wondering if there would be another page torn from a book. She reached back in and smirked as she felt her fingertips brush against paper. Her eyes darted over the torn page eagerly and she crossed her legs, going fidgety at the words on the page.

I want to wet your lips

Tantalize your tongue

Elevate your heart rate

And make your veins hum

Burn like the fire inside of you

As you swallow me down

Drink me

Drink deeply my love

Intoxicate yourself with my presence

Imbibe my essence

I want to make you so very dizzy

Stumble footed

Room spinningly dizzy

Drunk on love.

- John Mark Green

She finished reading it and sat it down on the tabletop, taking several deep breaths. “Okay, wow. You sir.. Are a grade A tease and a half.”  

She wandered out of the locker room intent on walking it off, Slurpee and Skittles in hand, roaming down the hallway as she tried to puzzle everything out. Her mind was a thousand miles away and this is how she wound up colliding with MJF for a second time. He steadied her and she gazed up at him, taking a long sip of her Slurpee.

“Do you ever watch where you’re going, Jessa? I could’ve knocked you over.” Maxwell eyed her in concern because he’d literally been barreling down the hallway, too damned angry at DDP to even stop for a second to consider anyone else in his path.

Jessa continued to drink her Slurpee and shrugged it off. He was being weird tonight. No weirder than usual, Jessa thought to herself as she tossed her Slurpee into the garbage nearby. She almost asked him if he recognized the writing on the note, but she decided against it.

Why give him one more reason to be an ass?

“I’m fine.” Jessa finally answered, her gaze shifting from his eyes down to his mouth. She quickly tore her eyes off his mouth and tried to find literally anything else to focus on. He chuckled quietly and asked, “Are you sure? You seem a little dazed. Not to mention, you actually bought me something back earlier.”

“Maybe I can be nice on occasion?” Jessa tried to downplay it, but she found herself pinned in by his hypnotic gaze and staring right back at him, praying like hell he didn’t read too much into it.  MJF’s gaze darted down to her tee-shirt and he raised a brow.

“The Lost Boys. Is that some kind of band?”

He used that teasing tone. Jessa gaped at him a second or two and then gave a soft laugh. “Please tell me you did not just ask that.”

“What?”

“If The Lost Boys, the best freakin’ vampire epic of all time… is a band.”

“I mean, given the stuff you classify as music, Jessa.” he shrugged, a smirk tugging the corners of his mouth upward as he found himself stepping closer. She had some hair hanging right into her left eye. Before he could stop himself, he was reaching out and brushing it out to tuck it behind her ear. She eyed him warily and shook her head.

No, she thought to herself, there is no way it’s him leaving me the candies, roses and poems. It can’t be, it just can’t. That man doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body.

But something kept insisting that at very least, she was completely wrong about him.

“It’s a movie, Maxwell. A freakin amazing movie.” Jessa finally managed to answer, barely hiding a laugh. “It’s right up there with The Breakfast Club. Or I think so, at least.”

MJF grinned a little, leaning in closer. “I know that one. And it is a decent movie. Despite glaring plot holes.”

“How dare you!” Jessa pretended to be offended, rolling her eyes. “I guess it’s too low class for a man of your tastes. It’s probably over your head anyway. There are no plot holes, Maxwell, how dare you.”

“It’s true.” he shrugged mildly and Jessa threw her hand in his face, being sassy all over again.

“I refuse to continue this conversation. I’m going to hair and makeup. Maybe I can bother some of the girls. Maybe Penelope will be in there again and I can make her fuck up her makeup. That’d make tonight even better for me.”

He smiled to himself, shaking his head. He realized what she’d said at the end and curiosity took over, prompting him to call out after her, “What’s made it good so far? I mean you started it off cranky like usual. Now suddenly, you’re being a little tease and laughing..”

“Oh, nothing.” Jessa drawled, holding his gaze for a few seconds. “Just finding out that maybe there are decent people in the world?”

Before he could get anything else out of her, she was gone, vanishing into hair and makeup. He took a deep breath and eyed the time on his Geneva watch. It was time to go for it. The last part to this whole elaborate plan. Somehow knowing that she was happy at least made the potential for this to go totally awry completely worth it for him.

He’d die before admitting it, but tonight’s surprises were not something he’d do for just anyone. He’d already wrapped up far more time in her than he’d ever done for any of his past relationships. That alone said something.

Knowing what he’d done at least gave her a smile had him smiling too.

And torn between total anxiety and the smug feeling of proving there was so much more to him than met the eye for her when he finally did reveal himself.

He set off to get everything set up one last time.

Allie spotted him and waved him over, holding open the locker room door. “You have to hurry. You almost got caught last time, she literally came rushing right back in almost five minutes after you left. Just.. get this done, Maxwell.”

“Okay, alright. Calm down.”

He went straight for Tessa’s locker, opening it. After he put the pale violet colored rose into the locker along with the box of candy hearts and the book page, he picked up the little note they’d been ‘passing’ for the better part of the night, his eyes brightening when he turned it over and read her response to his previous one.

“You’re probably the only one who loves that about me. After the show, huh? I’ve gotta say… This is probably the most excited I’ve been in a long time. And I don’t even like Valentines Day. I’m getting the feeling that all of these things you’re leaving me all have a meaning. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I will. So, we’ll just see if you can keep your secrets, sir. We’ll see. - Jessa”

–

The show was getting closer and closer to an end for the night. Jessa found herself getting more and more excited with each minute that passed. It took all her limited restraint to keep from rushing back down the hall and into the locker room just to see if her mystery admirer had left anything else. She’d asked around as subtly as possible about the note and the handwriting on it, and nobody would tell her anything.

Jake Hager almost doubled over laughing and wouldn’t say anything beyond telling Jessa to keep an open mind when whoever it was revealed themselves. She was starting to think that everybody in the back was in on this somehow. She sat on top of a trunk in the hallway when she saw Allie going into the locker room after looking up the hall and down as if she were waiting on someone.

“Weird.” Jessa shrugged it off, scrolling through her Spotify library, choosing a song to listen to as she tried to work out what everything meant.

Nyla told her the red rose meant deep love and the white one meant new beginnings. The poems seemed to tie into the messages on the candy hearts she’d been left. Jessa rubbed her temples, her nose wrinkling as she went over a list of possible people, trying to rule out every single one of them.

She hopped off of the top of the trunk she’d been sitting on and started down the hallway. If there wasn’t anything in her locker this time she’d know it was probably a collective hazing thing. She was almost halfway convinced that was what this had to be, but then why hadn’t anyone else who’d just signed with the roster gotten similar?

Pacing in front of her locker must have been driving Britt crazy because Britt finally cleared her throat. “Something wrong, Jess?”

“Just thinking.”

“About?”

“Nothing.” Jessa was quick to say it and after a deep breath and telling herself just how ridiculous she was being, she opened the door to her locker one last time.

She reached inside and pulled out a violet-colored rose and another box of candy hearts. The torn book page fluttered to the floor and so did the note they’d been leaving back and forth all night.  Jessa bent quickly to retrieve them off the floor and as soon as she had, she read the note first.

I’m glad I have you excited. And that I finally have your attention. It’s been nice seeing you smile. You’re cute, okay? Especially when you smile and giggle and do things that tease me more than you realize. Gotta confess.. I’m really nervous and that’s something that just doesn’t happen. I’ll be waiting outside right after the show ends. Look for the guy in the brown jacket, if you don’t figure out who I am. Personally? I’m pretty damn confident you won’t.

Jessa laughed softly and shook her head, sitting down the paper in favor of the torn book page.

Fist full of hair

Desire

Mouth full of silence

Pleasure

Tongue curling and coaxing

Intoxicating

Hips thrusting

Abandonment

Nails digging

Rapacious

Throats instinctively swallowing

Indulgence

Eyes full of desire meet

Rapture

- The Dark Muse

“Fuck.” the k lingered sharply as she re-read the poem and felt her body starting to burn up all over. She fanned herself and swallowed hard, eyes darting around. She’d seen Allie in the locker room earlier, so naturally, she wandered over.

“Hey, when you were in here a  few minutes ago, did you see anybody around my locker?”

Allie gave her a blank look and swallowed hard. She was beyond tempted to tell Jessa exactly who was behind it all, but she decided against it and shook her head no instead. Jessa smoothed her hands over her jeans and took a deep breath. “Damn it. This is driving me insane.”

She took the box of candies and opened them, biting back a quiet whimper as she read the sayings on the hearts inside. “All mine.” she poured the box out as she muttered the words written on the first heart she pulled out. Right away, her sights fell on the purple one and she picked it up, reading it. “All night. Fuck.” Jessa fanned herself and took a few shaky breaths. If she thought the poem he’d left the second time had her a soaking wet mess before, that was nothing compared to the latest poem and the hearts.

She wandered over to Nyla and tapped her shoulder. “What’s a purple rose mean?”

Nyla stopped and mulled it over, smiling. “True love.. Or love at first sight. Or that’s what my grandma always told me. Was that rose purple this time? Girl…”

“It was and he’s waiting outside, holy shit.” Jessa fanned herself, bouncing up and down for a few seconds because she was suddenly that excited.

And anxious. So very anxious. Because the thought hit her then… what if it was someone she wasn’t interested in?

Or alternately, what if it was someone she was extremely interested in?

Like say, Maxwell Jacob Friedmann?

She laughed it off. There was no way it was him. He merely liked to push her buttons and get her riled up because that was just his way. Surely there wasn’t some deep hidden meaning?

But, she found herself thinking, new beginnings, which the white rose symbolizes, only really fits him. Because him and I got off to a really, really rocky start.

As she gathered her things and prepared herself to walk out into the parking garage, she felt her hands shake ever so slightly. Her stomach was fluttering and she almost couldn’t breathe.

Maxwell found himself watching the doors leading out into the parking garage intently, his eyes on his Geneva watch when they weren’t on the doors. Had she figured out it was him and was now refusing to come out for whatever reason? He started to pace a little, glaring at one of the other guys when they mentioned him being stood up. And somehow, during the distraction of that, he missed her slipping out into the parking garage, brown eyes darting around as if she was looking for someone.

The second Jessa saw a man in a brown ankle-length jacket, she knew exactly who it was. He didn’t have to turn around for her to know that it was MJF and just the thought had her heart pounding so loudly it almost blocked all other sound. Before she realized what she was doing, she was running to catch up to the man because he’d started to walk away, obviously giving up.

She caught up to him just before he reached his Range Rover and she grabbed his wrist gently, putting a stop to his walk. Before he could really even process what was happening, she was climbing him like a literal tree, her legs cinching his hips tight and making him stagger back slightly until he got himself steady. He growled into her mouth as her tits pressed into his chest and the eleven roses in his hand fell to the pavement as both hands gripped both sides of her ass, grinding her against him. He could feel her fingertips tugging at his hair and she smirked into the kiss.

“Ya know, you had me going half the night. But then it hit me a few minutes ago. Out of all the people on the roster, you’re the only one that even slightly made sense. I told you I’d figure it out.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t that maybe you were hoping it was me?” he couldn’t resist the remark and when she lightly swatted at his chest, he chuckled. “I mean.. I figured out you had a thing for me before you even really did?”

“I did not!”

“Are we seriously going to spend tonight arguing about this, woman? Just admit that on some level, I was right.” he nipped at her lower lip hungrily, fingertips digging deeper into her ass as he turned to the Range Rover and sat her on the hood, stepping between her legs. He bent down, retrieving the flowers and he held them up to her. “These are for you.”

Jessa slipped her legs around him again, pulling him closer as she leaned in, taking the flowers and passing them under her nose before putting them aside in order to pull him into an even deeper kiss while pouting.

“What’s wrong, princess?” MJF asked as soon as he felt her starting to pout.

“And now I feel like shit because all I got you was the chocolate balls and the protein bar and water.” Jessa deepened the kiss, threading her fingers along his scalp, making him laugh. “I got you. That’s what I wanted in the first place. To finally find a way to kind of show ya how I really feel.” he shrugged and she eyed him, biting her lip. “I never realized you were a romantic softie.”

“And that’s going to stay our secret, yeah?” he muttered against her lips breathlessly before breaking the kiss to ask the question, “So.. Where do you want to go?”

“Back to the hotel.” Jessa purred against his mouth, rubbing herself against him as best as she could.

[vfdbaudelairefile13]

Chapter Thirty-Five:

The One With the Attempted Rescue

Violet Snicket shook in pure unbridled hatred as the echoes of Count Olaf’s maniacal laughter slowly but surely vanished from the village’s town hall. She turned to hector and Klaus, her face unrecognizable. “ Let’s go,” she hissed stomping her feet as she stormed out. Klaus and Hector looked at one another nervously as they followed Violet out of Town Hall. She was silent as she walked passed the Fowl Fountain.

“Violet,” Klaus called out nervously as he helped the frail Hector walk.

“ Shut up,” she hissed, not even turning around to look at her younger brother. She ripped her ribbon out of her hair again, began to fiercely tie it back up as she walked.

Klaus was taken back by his sister’s tone. “Violet...are you okay?”

She turned around quickly. Her face was soaked with hot, angry tears. Her eyes were dark but glossed over. “ I said...shut up. I’m thinking,” she hissed. Klaus slowly nodded as Violet began to walk again barely paying him and Hector any mind.

No, not again. She thought to herself. Olaf wasn’t going to take anyone else from her. She repeated in her head. She felt sick to her stomach. Not only did Olaf take her girlfriend and her close friend back at Prufrock, but he also attempted to take her brother from her and was successful when he switched plans last-minute, taking her baby sister from her. She shook angrily as she then thought about how he had taken away her previous guardian, by not only being secretly in cahoots with one of them but he made the other think that she and Klaus were too troublesome to take care of. She growled as she then thought about her father. She knew deep down she didn’t have any proof to tie Olaf to the death of her father. Although, what she did have was something. A wheezy voice...similar to Olaf. The VFD tattoo...which Olaf also possessed. Also, the detailed fact that Olaf had recognized her father that same night and when he did recognize her father he was not happy. All of this was circumstantial and coincidental but Violet had her suspicions that her theory was correct. So for the time being, Violet was going to assume that he also took her father from her. Which was the worst thing he could have done to her. She was determined to not allow him to take anyone else from her and that included her Uncle Jacques. She was going to rescue him, her sister, her close friend, and her girlfriend. It may be too late to save her father but she refuses to let Olaf take anyone else from her. She was going to show him that he was messing with the wrong Snicket. She just had to think of a way to break Jacques out of jail. She sighed angrily. Snickets take care of their own. Her mind reminded her. But unfortunately for her, it wasn’t her voice telling her that or even her uncle’s voice. It was her father’s voice. A voice that struck her to her core. Remember Violet, Snickets take care of their own. She could hear him say. She never truly understood why he always repeated that to her. It was always only ever them. Did he know this day would come? She asked herself. Did he know one day he wouldn’t be here with me?

It is a sad thing, pondering the intentions of the people you miss the most, who are unfortunately never coming back to you. With all the VFD stuff and the Olaf bullshit, Violet felt that she never truly knew her father. There were so many doors he left closed tight, some even locked and Violet had to find a way to open them all. She wished he wasn't so secretive. If he would’ve just told her about VFD, about his mistakes, about himself maybe she’d be more prepared to save everybody. She sighed as she opened up her locket glancing at the two photos that now preoccupied the space. She looked to the photo of her mother. What would you do? She wondered. Her father always told her that her mother was a badass who kicked ass. She needed to be that right now. But how? She was a fourteen-year-old girl, who was in way over her head. The amount of weight that she currently carried on her shoulders was enough to make her give up. To surrender to Olaf and Esme but then she glanced at the newest photo in her locket and knew deep down that she couldn’t surrender to them. She had to keep fighting. It was what her mother would do. It was what her father would do. It was what she had to do. She made a promise. Not only to her dead parents but to her alive siblings and most importantly, to herself. She planned to finish the job that her father set out to do. She refused to let his death be for nothing. He was to die young, it wouldn’t be for nothing.

With the addition to saving Jacques, her head was spinning. As she finally reached Hector’s house, she pulled her ribbon roughly out of her hair again and began tying it up as she walked to the handyman’s barn.

“Good idea,” Hector said as he began to walk faster to catch up to Violet. He turned to Klaus. “Thank you for helping me home,”

He quickly unlocked the barn. “Now we can leave,” he said as he rushed towards his hot air mobile home.

Violet and Klaus both looked at him in shock.

“What?” Klaus asked.

“We have to go,” he said. The children could tell he was in a panic. “Count Olaf only broke one rule and he is going to be burned at the stake. Imagine what they’d do to me if they discovered this barn,” he exclaimed gesturing to everything that was in the barn.

Violet stood quietly, but she looked clearly annoyed.

Klaus sighed. “That’s not Count Olaf.” He explained as calmly as he could. “The real Olaf is disguised as Detective Dumbass. He’s working with your chief of police, who’s really Esme Squalor, and they’ve framed the man who was trying to rescue Sunny and the Quagmires which is Jacques Snicket, Violet’s uncle,” he explained. “You have to believe us,” Klaus pleaded. “No one else would,”

“Of course, I believe you. That’s why we have to get out of town,”

“No,” Violet muttered in a tone that worried Klaus.

“Things are scary and complicated, though,” Hector explained.

“Things are always scary and complicated,” Klaus argued.

“Either way, children, we have to go,” Hector explained nervously.

Klaus simply shook his head defiantly as Violet looked ready to murder Hector for even suggesting that.

“You’re going to let an innocent man be burnt at the stake?!” Violet shrieked at Hector. Causing both him and Klaus to jump.

“Look, no one likes the idea of an innocent man being burnt alive...well hardly anyone,” Hector argued. “But if we don’t escape now, we could be next!” he warned.

“NO!” Violet yelled. “ We will NOT leave him to die!” She yelled. “He’s my uncle! My father…” she sobbed. “My father...my father gave his life to save my siblings..” she reasoned. “ I will NOT abandon his! We are staying here and saving Jacques!”

Violet was now full-blown crying. She wiped her tears harshly from her face. “My father risked everything for Klaus and Sunny,” she reiterated. “He came out of hiding….he...he...he...rejoined VFD...to save two children that he didn’t even know!” she screeched. Her tears were falling. Klaus stood there awkwardly. He frowned unsure of whether Violet blamed him and Sunny for the loss of her father or if she was explaining her motivations to Hector. Either way, he felt like shit. “He did that because he knew they would have meant the world to me if I knew they existed. He did that because he was a kind, decent, noble man. I will not fail him now!”

She pulled the ribbon in her hair tighter until she winced. “He’s not... that fucker isn’t taking anyone else from me ever again! ” she screamed, punching the side of the hot air mobile home. “ I won’t let him!”

“Violet…” Klaus replied. “You...okay?”

“Do I look okay, Klaus?” she snapped. She pointed to her tear stricken face. “Is this the face of someone who is okay?”

Klaus shook his head slowly. As Violet began pacing around Hector’s barn angrily. “Who here knows how to break a man out of prison?” she asked.

Klaus shifted where he stood. Slightly terrified of his older sister. “I mean...you realize who you’re asking, right?”

“Ugh!” she sighed. “You’re so fucking useless!” She yells slamming her fist on the mobile home’s engine not caring that her act of aggression backfired and caused her a bit of pain.

Klaus frowned. “Hey…I’m not useless…” he replied meekly, but as he said it, he shut his mouth. Compared to you...I am useless. He thought to himself. “Well...maybe you’re right,” he muttered meekly at a volume where she couldn’t hear him or if she did, she didn’t respond to him.

She continued to pace around, now counting her fingertips. She was too preoccupied trying to save her uncle and making her father proud that she didn’t realize how hurtful her words were to Klaus. Klaus sat down in a small chair glancing over Isadora’s couplets again. His sister’s words echoing through his mind, bringing his biggest insecurity to the forefront of his mind. He felt useless. Even if she didn’t mean it, he believed it. He always felt useless even before he had met his powerhouse of an older sister but the addition of her to their side of this insane battle has highlighted how useless he felt. He was a terrible older sibling, he was unable to protect Sunny. Violet may have failed on that front as well, but she was able to save him and that counts for something. He felt like he was a terrible younger sibling, something he was slowly getting used to. He constantly excluded Violet, but it was never on purpose it was a force of habit. He was raised for a vast majority of his life as an only child, so he was used to not having any siblings and then slowly Sunny showed up and then Violet. He sighed as he watched her still pacing, kicking random objects in anger. He wondered what did he bring to this team? When he truly thought about it, he couldn’t answer it. Sunny had her teeth and her wits. She has used both on countless occasions to save him. That’s why she was in this situation in the first place. She bit Olaf’s hand to get him to let go of him. She saved him but he failed to help her. Then there was Violet, who was not only smart, especially when it comes to mechanics and inventing, but she was most definitely a force to not be reckoned with. She was resilient, like their mother. She was a badass. She was tough. He felt all he ever did was fuck up or retreat in fear. As he watched Violet pace back and forth desperately, he wondered if he and Sunny would have ever survived without her or her father. He looked at Violet and all he could think about was that he wished that he could be her. He wanted to be just like her. But he felt deep down that was just an impossible dream that was better left ignored and forgotten. So when Violet called him useless, he took it to heart because to him, she just validated his biggest insecurity.

Hector sighed breaking the silence. “Look,” he said slowly backing away from Violet. “Maybe we should work on the self-sustaining hot air mobile home,” he suggested timidly.

Violet turned to him with fury in her eyes. “No, we are breaking my uncle out of jail!”

“And saving the Quagmires and Sunny,” Klaus added meekly.

“Yes, yes. Trust me, I’m still going to do that,” she reassured. “I’m gonna save... I’ve got to save everyone, ” she said out loud more so to herself than to anybody else.

Klaus frowned. “Stand down, big soldier,” he replied using nearly the same phrase that Violet said to him back at Prufrock when he begged her not to get involved. He remembered that day vividly. He stormed out of the lunchroom to cry, as per usual. She followed him like a good big sister. Even on day one, she was a better older sibling than you were. He told himself. When Violet had seen all the weight on Klaus’ shoulders, she looked to him and told him ‘stand down, little soldier. Big sister is here.’ He scoffed. Angry with himself. He was angry because he remembered how bitter he was towards Sunny when she was first born. He was angry with himself because he was unable to convince Violet, Duncan, and Isadora to stay out of his troubles. He didn’t know if getting them to listen to him would have ended out better for him and Sunny. But as he glanced at Violet. He knew that if he had been able to convince her and the Quagmires to bud out. It would have been better for them. Duncan and Isadora would be safe at Prufrock, only having to deal with mundane teachers, horrible violin recitals, and a schoolyard bully instead of dealing with a murderous kidnapper with no sense of humanity left. And Violet, if he had succeeded in getting her to listen to him, she wouldn’t be having a midlife crisis at the ripe age of fourteen and she wouldn’t be a target for a man who had sinister and wicked intentions for her that stem passed what he has planned for Sunny and himself. Now he could see the world was on her shoulders and he didn’t think that was fair. He knew what that felt like. But Violet said it perfectly herself. He was useless. What could he truly do to help her? If anyone was going to save Duncan, Isadora, Sunny, and Jacques. It would be Violet, not himself.

Violet gave Klaus a small smile. She knew exactly what he was referencing. But she couldn’t stand down.

“Look, no offense to your uncle. I am sure he is a good man,” Hector began. “But...we really should leave...the Council of Elders will burn us at the stake if they caught us in this barn.”

Violet stomped her feet angrily. “ I don’t give a fuck! Pour some kerosene on me and let me burn!” She screamed. “ I’d rather feel that than let my father down!” she screeched.

“Vi…” Klaus said worryingly.

She glared at him with a face that he had never seen before. “ Snickets take care of their own!” she yelled loudly. “I’m not leaving my uncle. Or our sister or the Quagmires.”

“I know…” Klaus stated trying his best to calm Violet down.

“ He’s not taking anyone else from me! ” she screamed before finally falling on her butt, defeated. “He...he’s not...he can’t...I won’t let him,” she whimpered as she sat defeated on the floor of the barn. Klaus cautiously walked closer to her.

“Vi...you’re stressing yourself out,” he watched as his sister began crying once more. Placing her head into her lap as she began to hiccup in between cries. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She slowly looked up at him, he offered her a smile.

“I don’t care,” she said finally, wiping tears from her eyes. “I have to...I have to save everyone,” she explained.

Klaus sighed. Deep down he knew it was true but agreeing with her wasn’t going to help her stress. “But Vi...if you’re busy saving everyone...who saves you?” he asked.

She tilted her head in confusion as she shrugged her shoulders. “The hero doesn’t need saving in this scene,” she said finally. Klaus simply frowned. “Besides, I’ll save myself.”

Klaus’ frown intensified when she said it. But she didn’t notice, she went back to tying up her hair. Calmly this time. Klaus wasn’t surprised by her answer. He knew she wasn’t going to tell him that he would save her. Because you’re useless. Sunny would be able to save Violet long before you ever could. He told himself.

Violet began to slowly smile as an idea came to her, finally. “I think I’ve got it,” she said.

“Well, if your plan involves murdering the real Olaf, I’m down,” Klaus said smiling.

“We’ll deal with him later,” Violet noted as she stood up walking towards Hector’s invention.

Hector smiled. “I am glad you have come to your senses,”

“We’re not leaving,’ violet reiterated. “Not yet, at least. Once we save Sunny, the Quagmires, and my uncle...we’ll need an escape plan. Besides, even if I did want to leave right now, which I don’t. We couldn’t. You said you didn’t finish testing the engine. What if your engine conductivity is low?” Violet asked.

“She has a point,” Klaus pointed out, following his sister to the mobile home’s engine. “Low engine conductivity is a leading cause in aircraft failure.”

“It has been making sputtery noises,” Hector admitted.

“See? You don’t want to be in the air with a faulty engine,”

“That wouldn’t be safe,”

“Or self-sustaining,” Violet added.

“Neither would being burned at the stake. But what choice do we have?” Hector asked.

Klaus watched as Violet knelt in front of the engine, studying it. She untied her hair and began to tie it up again. “You could let my sister fix it,”

Violet looked to Hector. “If you wait until we’re ready,” she said hesitantly.

“You’d do that for me?” Hector asked.

“If you’d do that for us,” Violet replied.

“And what if you can’t fix it?” Hector asked skeptically.\

Klaus laughed. “This is Violet Snicket that we are talking about,” Klaus replied, glancing from Hector to Violet, who smiled up at him. “She can always fix it.”

“Thanks, bro,” Violet replied.

“No problem, sis,” Klaus replied.

Violet sighed as she began to work on Hector’s engine. Both Klaus and Hector watched the fourteen-year-old mechanical genius. “Here’s your problem,” she explained pointing at wires. “You need solid 12-gauge wires. These are stranded 14.” she looked to Hector. “I need wire cutters, banana plugs, and a small oiling can,”

He quickly grabbed the supplies that she needed. As she waited, Klaus could hear her muttering. ‘Snickets take care of their own’. Once Hector handed her the supplies she went to work fixing the engine. After a few minutes, she sighed again.

“I need your biggest wrench,”

Hector handed her his biggest wrench and watched as she hit the engine as hard as she could with it. The sputtering sound turned to the sound that a healthy engine makes. Hector, Violet, and Klaus all smiled. Hector excitedly cheered and patted Violet on the shoulder. But the siblings didn’t cheer. To them, the prospect of leaving this vile village and Olaf’s clutches permanently sounded amazing. But they weren’t sure if this is how they wanted to do it. Violet and Klaus looked at one another both thinking about the promises they had made. They looked at Hector, who was the only citizen in this vile village that seemed to genuinely care about the two siblings as a real guardian should. They then looked at Hector’s invention remembering how they felt when they watched the VFD crows fly in superlative circles and how they both had wished that they, too, could escape from all their worries. But the two siblings felt that flying away from all their troubles and living forever up in the sky, may not be the best option nor did it seem like a proper way to live one’s life. Sunny was just a toddler. The Quagmires were only thirteen. Klaus, himself was just a twelve-year-old boy and even Violet, who was the eldest out of all five orphans, was fourteen which was not that old. The children had many things they hoped to accomplish on the ground and they weren’t sure that they could simply abandon all those hopes so early in their lives. So as they watched Hector giddily cheer on Violet’s mechanical skills they felt as though they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“First things first,” Violet said finally. “We need to save Jacques,”

“And get Sunny and the Quagmires out of that bastard’s clutches,” Klaus added.

The siblings turned to Hector. “I need full access to your inventing materials,” Violet said smiling.

“I’m going to need your blueprints of the uptown jail,” Klaus added.

Hector felt as though he was going to faint but he slowly nodded, walking to find his blueprints of the uptown jail.

Violet looked to Klaus. “We’re going to break a man out of a jail,” Violet said smirking. Violet tied her hair up once more with her ribbon to keep it out of her eyes as Klaus polished his glasses.

_______________________________________________________

Olaf growled as he fetched a pitcher of water and tray of bread. Esme walked in behind him, her face looking a bit on edge. “Why can’t we treat these prisoners like those orphans?” he asked her. “Do I truly have to feed them?”

“Honestly, forget the Snickets and the Baudelaires and the Quagmires,” Esme said smiling. “We don’t need to feed Snicket and his companion. He’s going to die soon anyway,” she said nervously.

Olaf smiled at the mere thought of yet another Snicket dying. “Maybe we should get it over with now,” he said putting down the pitcher and tray. “How should we do it though?” He tried to walk out of the small office but Esme blocked the exit.

“Or…” she interjected. “And I’m just spitballing here...we can...relax. You’ve been working so hard. Let’s let Hooky kill Snicket,”

Olaf frowned. “But I wanted to do it,”

“As I said, you’ve been working hard,” Esme reiterated. “Let’s just sit down and chit chat about our next move,”

“Our next move?”

“Well, you know how Beatrice stole my sugar bowl,” she explained.

He rolled his eyes at the mere mention of her sugar bowl. “Yes, I know. You never shut up about it, dear,”

Usually, Esme would have replied bitterly to that but she merely smiled through her glare. “About that,” she said. “I got Snicket’s associate to tell me it’s location,”

Olaf looked at her confused. “How the fuck did you do that?”

“Oh, I’m very persuasive,”

“But how…”

“I have my ways in making prisoners talk,”

“But…” he said still utterly confused. “How did you make her talk? You couldn’t have tortured her I would’ve heard her screams.”

“Oh, I did,’ she said. “But that’s not the point...the point is,”

“Well, if you got to torment her. I should be able to torture Snicket,” he protested.

“Forget Snicket,” Esme replied. “Let’s forget the orphans, too,”

“What?”

“I’m already rich! The sugar bowl is more valuable than their fucking money or diamonds,”

“Sapphires. Not diamonds,” he corrected. “Shiny, shiny sapphires.”

“See, sapphires are out. Orphans are out. But do you know what’s in?”

“Let me guess,” Olaf replied rolling his eyes. “Sugah bowels,” he replied mocking her.

“You are so...funny,” she replied through gritted teeth.

He glared at her. “Something’s up,” he said, glaring at her. “You’re being too nice….and you’re nervous,”

“No, I’m not. I just want to get my damn sugar bowl,”

“And we will, once we have all five orphans in our clutches and Jacques Snicket is dead,”

“Or….and again remember, orphans and sapphires are out,” Esme explained. “We can leave the kids trapped inside the fountain, leave Jacques stuck in his cell. They’ll die of hunger eventually,” she said nervously. “Let’s just go get my sugar bowl,”

He continued to glare at her. “You’re hiding something,” he said. “Did you already kill Jacques?”

“No,” she replied. “I just don’t care about the Snickets anymore.”

“We will get your sugar bowl after we’re done,” he said as he glanced towards her hip “Wait a second,” he said as she froze. “Where are the keys to the cells?” he asked.

She glanced down at her hip, faking a look of utter surprise. “I must have lost them,” she lied.

His face grew dark and cold as he glared at her. “You...better not have,” he began as he pushed passed her. He dropped to the ground and looked upside down at the open, empty cells. He scurried back to his feet, glaring at Esme. “ You dumb bitch!” he yelled. “ What have you done!?”

“Before you get too mad, remember I now know the location of the sugar bowl,” she said.

He growled loudly. “ You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! I’m so close to winning!” he yelled storming out of the small office leaving Esme by herself.

_______________________________________________________

Olivia and Jacques rushed out of the uptown jail quickly. Olivia pulling a confused Jacques along. “Do I want to know how you convinced Esme to give you the keys?” he asked.

She turned to him shyly. ‘Probably not,” she admitted.

Jacques’ face fell. “What did you do?” he asked.

“Well, I really wanted to save the kids and us so I gave Esme exactly what she wanted,” Olivia explained nervously.

“Oh no,” Jacques replied. “Please tell me you didn’t,”

Olivia sighed. “I told her the exact location of the sugar bowl,” she admitted meekly. She glanced at Jacques, she could tell he was trying his best to stay calm. “Sorry, it was the only thing I could think of,” she explained. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Jacques sighed. “You did the right thing. But now you need to get to that sugar bowl before she does,”

“What?” Olivia asked confused.

“You need to call Jacquelyn, get her to get you in touch with our top field agent. She knows where it’s hidden and she knows exactly what do to with it. It’s a woman that I trust and admire very much,” Jacques explained. “Just...don’t mention me,”

“Why?”

“Just...do not mention me to her. Jacquelyn is well aware,” Jacques explained. He handed her the keys to the Snicket taxi. “Take my taxi,’

“What about you?” Olivia asked.

“Someone needs to protect these children,” he said. “Take care of the sugar bowl. We’ll meet back up as soon as we can,”

Olivia frowned as Jacques sighed. “Promise me you’ll rescue the children.”

“I promise,”

“You’ll take care of yourself, too?”

“Of course. After I save my niece and the other kids,” Jacques explained. “I saw an abandoned fire truck. I’ll rescue the kids and hot wire that and we’ll meet up soon.”

Olivia nodded as she began to walk off. She turned around nearly forgetting something super important. “Jacques?”

“Yes, Olivia?”

“When I had negotiated the sugar bowl’s location. Our freedom wasn’t the only thing I asked for,” she explained as he looked at her confused. “They’re in the fountain,” she said as she pointed to Fowl Fountain before running off.

Jacques’ eyes widened with shock as he smiled. “Good work, volunteer!” he called out to her as he raced to the fountain. He quickly ran all around the fountain looking for some sort of button. Something that would get the fountain to open. He studied the fountain looking at every inch of it trying to wrack his brain about how anyone would be able to get three children inside it. It looked so small from the outside. He glanced towards the top of the fountain. Peering at the eyes of the fountain.

Quickly, not paying any attention to his surroundings, his heart was beating so hard, it felt like it was beating out of his chest. He hopped onto the edge of the fountain, pressing his fingers into the eyes of the giant crow statue. Nothing happened. “Come on,” he muttered to himself. Feeling the crow’s face for some handle. He placed his hand inside the crow’s beak, feeling around for a handle. Instead, he found a small button. He pressed it and jumped down from the edge of the fountain. He watched as the fountain’s torso opened. His heart shattered.

Duncan Quagmire, not even looking at who had opened the fountain, stepped in front of his sister and Sunny Baudelaire, who still wore the muzzle around her face.  Duncan had his back to Jacques. “ Stay away from them!” he yelled. Acting as a human shield for his sister and Sunny, preferring to look at them rather than Olaf.

Jacques was speechless. He stared at the three dirty, wet, and bruised children. Isadora had her eyes closed but Sunny hid behind Duncan’s leg, glanced at Jacques. Looking at him confused. Jacques noticed the toddler staring at him. He gave her a small smile. She looked so much like Bertrand. He thought to himself. Sunny tried to get the older orphans' attention but the muzzle around her mouth wouldn’t allow her to communicate properly. She desperately pulled on to Duncan’s pant leg.

“It’s okay, Sunny. I won’t let him hurt you,” Duncan said placing a hand on her head.

Sunny mumbled something but Duncan and Isadora didn’t understand her. Sunny continued to look at Jacques curiously. She didn’t understand why he looked like he tried to disguise himself as Olaf but she didn’t care. He wasn’t Olaf, or Esme, or any of his troupe. She Knew that strangers were a dangerous thing and they should not be trusted but he looked kind...he looked helpful and most of all, he slightly looked like Violet’s father, who was a stranger who had helped her and Klaus. Realizing that Duncan wasn’t going to turn around and Isadora wasn’t going to open up her eyes, and the strange man wasn’t saying anything, she pushed passed Duncan causing him to turn around. “Sunny no!” he yelled as he turned around to face Jacques.

Sunny ran up to the man as he knelt down to pick her up. Isadora opened her eyes to see what Duncan was yelling about. “Who….who are you?” she asked meekly.

“Don’t hurt her,” Duncan pleaded.

Jacques carefully removed the muzzle that was around Sunny’s mouth throwing it to the ground. Sunny smiled and hugged him. “Thank you,” she said, her voice weak from not being able to speak for so long.

Duncan and Isadora looked at one another and then at the man before them. He looked up at them. “Duncan and Isadora Quagmire,” he said. “It’s nice to make your acquaintance,”

Duncan looked skeptically at Jacques as he stayed in front of his sister. Not entirely comfortable with a random male stranger knowing his sister’s name. “How do you know our names?”

“Oh, pardon me for scaring you. Where are my manners?” he said smiling. “My name is Jacques Snicket.”

Isadora’s eyes widened with happiness as Duncan felt his heart beating faster. “Snicket?” he repeated as Jacques nodded.

“As in...Violet Snicket?” Isadora asked meekly.

Jacques nodded. Sunny looked at the man who held her. “Snicket lad?” she asked.

“He was my brother,” Jacques explained. “I’m your sister’s uncle,”

“Does that mean?” Duncan asked

“I’ve come to rescue you,” Jacques explained.

“You mean…” Isadora began.

Jacques nodded as he shifted Sunny in his arms to help the Quagmires down from the fountain. “ Yes, you’re safe now, ” he said.

[fanfics4all]

The Northside Serpent: Part 16

Request: Yes / No

Request are open but ONLY if they’re Halloween<3 Have a nice day/night

Sweet Pea x Keller!Reader

Word count: 2654

Warnings: I think just cursing

Y/N: Your Name

Y/N/N: Your Nickname

Summary: You’re Kevin Keller’s little sister when you’re mom left to go to war and your dad started cheating (I’m making it so he’s been cheating since season 1) You started rebelling; dying your hair, getting a nose piercing, tattoo, and hanging out on the southside.

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK!

If you want to be on the tag list for anything (My series fics, specific character fics, or just all of them) All you have to do is send me an ask and I will add you!

1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Masterlist

(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

I was on the back of Sweet Pea’s bike, but this time it felt foreign. The was the first time he’s talked to me in weeks, or even looked at me. We were now on the southside and coming close to Sunnyside Trailer Park. I was worried what was going to happen once we go there because Sweet Pea and I still weren’t together but they way he wrapped me in his arms…

We got to their home and the bikes came to a halt. Fangs got off his and Sweet Pea hopped off after then looked at me. I just stared at them and they just looked back at me confused.

“Quinny? You okay?” Fangs asked and I blinked but nodded.

“Um…yeah…” I said and got off Sweet’s bike.

“So that was real?” Sweet Pea asked as we walked into his place.

“Yeah, dude that was fucked.” Fangs said sitting down. Sweet Pea plopped down on the other couch and again they looked at me confused.

“Seriously are you okay?” Fangs asked and I stole a glance at Sweet Pea. Fangs noticed and nodded.

“Right…” He said and then coughed awkwardly. Sweet Pea grabbed my hand and pulled me to sit next to him.

“I thought the Black hood was dead.” He said looked back at Fangs.

“They said he was, maybe it’s some sick fuck trying to be him.” Fangs said. Everything that happened at the play just hit me. Midge was dead… Murdered… I felt tears fall down my face and I let out a whimper. Sweet Pea wrapped his arms around me again and kissed my head. If I wasn’t so upset about my friend being murdered I would have pushed him away, but I leaned into him.

“It’s okay…” He said quietly. I glanced at Fangs and he just gave me a sorrowful smile.

“I think I’m gonna head home. I’ll see you guys later.” He said and then left. Sweet Pea held me to him until I stopped crying. I pulled away and looked up at him. He wiped my face and pushed some hair behind my ear.

“You’re safe.” He said and all I could do was stare at him, those eyes I missed so much.

“Why do you care?” I asked and he looked at me confused.

“You broke up with me and wouldn’t even look at me.” I said with a sniffle.

“I don’t want you to lose your family because of me.” He said with a sigh.

“I’m not losing my family because of you, I told you it’s because of my dad’s stupid decision to cheat on my mom.” I said shaking my head and looking away from him.

“I know but I’m still part of the problem, besides they’re right. You do deserve better. You deserve someone that can give you the world…” He said and I looked at him confused.

“What are you talking about? I don’t want the world, I want you.” I said grabbing his hand and he looked up at me.

“People talk Y/N. And they’re right, you’re a Northsider that could never have the life I’m sure you want with someone like me…” He said and I could see tears glossing over his eyes.

“Sweet Pea…” I said and placed my hand on his face.

“I love you. I don’t give a shit what anyone else says, I want you. I will always want you. I was proud to be with you, you are the most wonderful, badass guy in the world. You are the one and only guy in the world that I could ever want.” I said and he looked at me but couldn’t hide the smile that was on his face.

“I love you.” He said and I leaned up, placing my lips on his. He pushed me down on the couch. He deepened the kiss but I pulled back.

“I-I can’t…” I said thinking about Midge…

“Right… I’m sorry.” He said pulling back and sitting down again. I said and shook my head.

“No, it wasn’t you. Midge is dead…” I said as my eyes started watering again.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He said pulling me to him again.

“I’m also sorry for hurting you the way I did…” He said and I looked up at him.

“I’ll make it up to you.” He said and I just pecked his lips.

“Can we just go back to the way things were? Pretend we never broke up?” I asked and he nodded with a small chuckle.

“Of course babe.” He said kissing my head.

“Can I stay here tonight?” I asked and he nodded.

“Anytime.” He said then picked me up taking me to his room. He dropped me on the bed and went to look in his closet. He pulled out one of his shirts and tossed it at me. I got undressed and put it on and he smiled at me.

“I wish I could see that more often.” He said wrapping his arms around my waist and kissed my neck.

“Maybe one day.” I said with a small smile. I yawned and he kissed my cheek.

“Let’s go to sleep.” He said and I nodded. We crawled into bed and fell asleep in almost no time.

The next few days were hard on Riverdale. Everyone was dealing with Midge’s death, some better than others. My father had interrogated everyone that was part of the play, including me and my brother. It was finally time for the funeral and I was to dress in a black Vixens uniform and stand behind Cheryl as she sang for Midge.

“When you walk through a storm hold your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark at the end of the storm there’s a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark… You’ll never walk alone...” Cheryl sang and we all raised our black pom-poms.

“I also feel it is my duty to say that, like the Furies of Ancient Greece, who ceaselessly pursue blood atonement when a crime’s been committed, the Vixens and I vow that we will not rest until those responsible for the murder or our sister is rightly punished.” She said and looked at my father… After that we all went back to be with everyone else. I was standing next to Sweet Pea and he pulled me into him. We listened to other people speak, then it was over. Sweet Pea, Fangs, Toni, and I were walking to leave when we saw my dad walking up to Cheryl and Mrs. Klump.

“Mrs. Klump? I just want you to know that the Sheriff’s department is working around the clock-” He was cut off by Mrs. Klump smacking him.

“Oh my god…” I said looked at them in shock.

“You’re supposed to be protecting our children! And you should be ashamed of yourself!” Mrs. Klump said and walked off.

“Your days of failing this town over and over again are numbered...Sheriff” Cheryl said and stared at them in shock.

“Great girlfriend you got there Topaz.” Fangs said and Toni smacked him.

“As much as I’m mad at my dad, he’s doing his best…” I said and Sweet Pea wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

“I’m sure everything will be find…” Sweets said and I sighed.

“Come on, let’s go to the Wyrm and try to forget about everything.” Toni said and we all nodded. The four of us went to the Wyrm, the boy were playing pool and Toni and I were at the bar.

“As much as I love Cheryl, my dad really is trying his best. He doesn’t want a killer loose, he’s worried that me or Kevin will be next…” I said with a sigh.

“Hey, I’ll admit you’re dad isn’t my favorite person in the world, but Cheryl may be going a little crazy…” She said placing a hand on my shoulder.

“And Sweet Pea would never let anything happen to you.” She said with a smile and looked over at the boys.

“None of us would.” She added and I smiled. Sweets and Fangs looked over at us then smiled.

“I’m glad you two are back together, He was a wreck without you.” Toni said with a smirk.

“Really?” I asked looking back at her.

“Yeah, the amount of time Fangs, Jughead, and I would annoying him just apologize to you was insane.” She said and I smiled.

We spent a few hours at the Wyrm until I needed to go home. Sweet Pea drove me home and my brother was standing outside. He gave me a disappointed look and shook his head. I sighed and he went back inside. I turned around and Sweet Pea looked at me sadly.

“Maybe I shouldn’t give you rides home anymore…” He said but I shook my head.

“No, Sweet Pea, I love you and nothing my family say or do will make me change the way I feel about you.” I said and he smiled at me.

“I don’t want to-”

“You won’t.” I said cutting him off. He sighed and I placed my lips on his.

“Goodnight, I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” I said and he nodded.

“Goodnight babe.” He said and gave me peck. He drove off and I went inside to see Kevin waiting for me.

“You’re back together?” He asked me.

“Yes Kevin, I told you I love him.” I said rolling my eyes.

“I know but-”

“But nothing! I’m happy with him, can’t that be enough for you and dad!?” I shouted. Kevin stared at me shocked and I just went up to my room.

The next day we had school, it was very weird to be here after what happened but everyone seemed to be adjusting. I was at cheer practice with Cheryl when my brother stormed in.

“Cheryl, what the hell are you doing?” He asked and Cheryl got up.

“Kevin. No doubt you’ve read my think-piece in ‘The Register’.” She said and I stood up looking at the two confused.

“Yeah, I did, and I demand a retraction! You’re smearing my father!” He shouted.

“Wait what?” I asked and Kevin handed me the paper. I skimmed over it and looked at Cheryl shocked.

“What the hell Cheryl? Our dad is doing his best!” I asked annoyed and she scoffed.

“Your father’s been incompetent since the beginning of time. And now that more bodies are dropping, he needs to step down. Lady Justice will be served, my Vixens and I will see to it.” She said and I scoffed.

“Then I don’t want to be a Vixen anymore!” I said shoving the paper into her chest.

“Y/N/N, you’re mad at your dad, you should agree with me!” She said and I rolled my eyes.

“I may be pissed at him but no way in hell will I be apart of your little revenge schema!” I said and grabbed my brothers arm. I pulled him out of the gym and he stopped me when we were in the hall.

“What?” I asked and he just smiled.

“At least we know you don’t hate dad.” He said and I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t hate him, I’m just pissed he’s ruining our family.” I said and Kevin pulled me into a hug but I pushed him away.

“Don’t even. Not until you and dad can get over your whole hating the Southside shit.” I said and he sighed. I looked behind my brother and saw Sweet Pea walking with Fangs and Toni.

“I’ll see you at home later.” I said and then walked over to them.

“Hey babe, I thought you had practice?” Sweet Pea asked.

“I’m not a Vixen anymore.” I said shrugging. The three of them stared at me with wide eyes.

“What? You love being a Vixen!” Toni said shocked.

“Cheryl attacked my dad in the paper and I told her I wasn’t gonna be part of her revenge schema.” I said and Toni looked at me.

“I’ll talk to her.” She said then walked off.

“Well, since you’re not in practice anymore…” Fangs said and I looked at him.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Wanna hang out with us? We were gonna go to Pea’s place and watch some movies.” He said and I nodded.

“Sounds great!” I smiled.

“Yeah, as long as you don’t mind being the third wheel.” Sweets said to Fangs.

“I’m pretty sure you’ll be the third wheel.” Fangs said and picked me up. He tossed me over his shoulder and started running out of the school.

“Hey!” Sweet Pea shouted and ran after us. I giggled and Fangs put me on the back of his bike.

“See you there!” He called and drove off while we were laughing. We got there and Sweet Pea wasn’t too long after. He ran up to us and grabbed me.

“Don’t you even try to steal my girl! We both know there’s no competition.” He said carrying me inside. Fangs and I couldn’t stop laughing. Sweet Pea sat me on my lap and held me close.

“You know I love you baby.” I said and kissed his nose. He grumbled but couldn’t help but smile. The three of us watch some movies and had a little bit of a popcorn fight. I was having a great time until my brother called me.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Come outside, we need to get home.” He said and I looked out Sweet Pea’s window confused. Kevin was outside in the car waiting for me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Y/N it’s late, let’s just go home.” He said and I sighed.

“Fine.” I said and hung up. I got up and the two boys looked at me confused.

“Sorry boys, I gotta go home.” I said grabbing my bag.

“Awww come on.” They both said.

“Sorry, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” I said and gave Sweet Pea a kiss. Fangs cleared his throat and I looked at him confused. He pouted and I shook my head. I walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“What did I tell you! She’s so into me more than you!” Fangs said and I giggled.

“Oh shut it!” Sweets said and he opened the door for me. I laughed and gave him another kiss.

“I love you.” I said and he smirked at Fangs.

“Ii love you too babe.” He said and then I left with Kevin. When we got home the lights were out and we looked at each other confused.

“Dad?” Kevin called and checked his office. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in with him. Our dad was sitting in the dark drinking.

“Are you okay?” I asked and he shook his head.

“Deputy Mayor has demanded that I step down as Sheriff. Turn in my badge. If Fred Anders get elected Mayor, then I live to fight another day. And if Hermione Lodge wins, well, then, I’m out on my ass.” He said taking another drink.

“We’ll campaign for Mr. Andrews 24/7. But you can’t desert your post in the middle of a crisis.” Kevin said.

“Kids, if I resign, they’ll likely bring in somebody from the outside. Someone who could hopefully catch the Black Hood.” He said and I walked over and kneeled down.

“You can catch the Black Hood. You’re good at your job, don’t listen to anything Cheryl says!” I said and he shook his head.

“I can’t catch him…” He said with a sigh and then looked at Kevin.

“Take you sister to her room.” My dad said and my brother sighed. He came over and told me follow him. He took me to my room and sat me down.

“What’s gonna happen?” I asked worried.

“We’ll be okay, don’t worry.” He said and hugged me.

“We’re be okay…” He repeated.

Tag list: @54fangirl @southsidehufflepuff @xrosesareredx @cvvlxx @skeletalwolfcat @demigodofthesun @depressed-octopods-art @nalayrene @yourfavouritefuckup @staygoldsquatchling02 @sataninsatin @im-socialy-awkward-no-joke @dark-night-sky-99 @aframeofbones @jojokoko0717 @nixdunbarhale @wanderlust-and-poetry @theyouthfulmoon @seasiren96 @nixdunbarhale2 @misskarynie @emo-godess-loves-you @serpent-stan @a--smallgirlinabigworld @ohlookmybed @everheart12 @sailorsolar12 @screamxqueenx94 @les-bio-lie @tashy-bear @xrosesareredx @herokyolachan @ashwarren32 @hollie-blogs @schisbro87 @lover-of-books-and-teas @nerdygaloresposts @alex--awesome--22 @teenwolfbitches2 @blueandgoldaus @southsidefandoms @emo-godess-loves-you @hiya-imthatgirl @answer-the-sirens @mindsetjupiter @averysinclaire @mittelerde1999 @sweetest-peas @rousewriter @jjkingston @k-is-cray@staygoldsquatchling02 @wanderlust-and-poetry @hiighdeex3 @blueberry-lipgloss @ayeitsjaz @nadiagazecka @mysticrebelwerewolf @tht1wrdo @thegirlallthebadguyswant @widowsgirl

[harrv]

I saw this on my other fandom so I hope you don't mind. Make a list of your top 20 favorite fics. Then, tag 20 people (or as many as you like) ❤️

ooooh okay! i never made a long ass ficrec before so here we go *cracks knuckles* 

[not in particular order!] [all are harry/louis]

~ also, i tag anyone who wants to do a fic rec! just say i tag u :)

1. Unbelievers by isthatyoularry / 136k

It’s Louis’ senior year, and he’s dead set on doing it right. However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.

Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

2. Young & Beautiful by Velvetoscar / 227k

Louis, to his horror, attends an elitist university in which the name Zayn Malik means something, Niall Horan doesn’t stop talking, there are pianos everywhere, and Harry Styles, only son of a drug-addled, clinically insane ex-rocker, has a perfect smile and empty eyes.

3. Gods & Monsters by Velvetoscar / 201k

The instructions were simple: seduce and destroy Harry Styles. Not once did they discuss the option of Louis actually falling in love. So, naturally, that’s exactly what he did.

4. all we can do is keep breathing by @avocadolouie / 149k+ (as of june 7)

“Harry, I-I’m so sorry…” Louis stutters out, trying to keep his voice level and even, to portray a depiction of strength, but with the way Harry is looking at him, staring at him like he has a personal passage way straight to Louis’ soul, it’s so hard, nearly impossible.

That simple opening phrase, that short introductory acknowledgement that is often rushed out so easily, painlessly, at a safe distance. Giving a doctor the ability to portray empathy without true emotion, without feeling the full brunt and sheer force of the underlying pain itself.

But Louis feels it, he feels the crushing agony laced behind the phrase, he feels the weight of the painful words slipping from his lips, the cause and effect that the three-word expression holds. The distantly empty “I’m so sorry” that doctors throw out in self-preservation, isn’t at all empty for him. Louis recognizes it, he understands it, he feels it.

a fated story of two broken and battered boys who barely survived the unimaginable and how the love of one little brave girl defies all the odds and somehow puts them back together.

[more under the cut]

5. Empty Gold by rainbow_kings / 148k

AU where Louis Tomlinson attends the vigorous, demanding performing arts school: Guildhall in hopes to complete his theatre degree. He is a scholarship student, always having to work twice as hard to prove his worth which has caused him to feel resentment and anger towards his subordinate position.

Harry Styles is the wealthy, naturally gifted actor who effortlessly snatches all the main roles within the class. The complete contrast to everything Louis is.Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles have had bad blood and despised each other for the two years they attended Guildhall together, making each task a competition between each other.

In the final year, when Guildhall produces and performs an original play, Louis is heartbroken to learn the lead role has been been received to Harry and he’s the second role. He’s mostly terrified, however, when he realises he has to date Harry in the play as their characters. They come together through awkward stage kisses that transforms to hate sex, heated arguments, rehearsal times after lectures and baking carrot cake together.

6. Crave by @dimpled-halo​ / 89k

All eyes are on Louis Tomlinson to bring new talent to save Hanover Records from the mess the previous executive left behind. His newest artist, Harry Styles, is charismatic and everything Louis needs to revive the label. It’s up to Louis and his team to make Harry the star he was born to be. When Harry and Louis come face to face, it isn’t the first time they’ve met, and their worlds are about to be turned upside down.

7. Needing You More and More, Let’s Give Love A Try by supernope / 33k

When Harry gets pregnant after a one night stand, Louis helps him get everything together, from buying pregnancy clothes to taking him on a babymoon. Somewhere along the way, they realize that their feelings for each other are more than platonic. 

8. The Night Sky is Changing Overhead by @domestic-harry / 124k

“Um, sorry, but I believe that’s actually mine,”

Harry said a bit awkwardly, pointing at the cup. The man huffed, slightly narrowing his blue eyes, “Nope, large Americano, dash of cream.” He held the coffee up closer to Harry and honestly, Harry knew exactly what was in the cup because it was his coffee.

“Right,” Harry slowly drawled out as if he was talking to a toddler, “Which would make that mine.”“

Look, I really don’t have time for this, I’m running late. And this,” he said before he took a sip from the cup, “Is mine.”

Harry’s jaw dropped and he held his hands out, failing them slightly, “Wha-you can’t just drink it!”

“Well I did, so, do you still want it or can I be on my way?” The man challenged.Harry shook his head disbelievingly, “Take it, but for the record, it says Harry on it.”

The man turned the cup around and a sharp laugh came out of his mouth, “Well, shit.” He looked at Harry, a smile stretched across his face as crinkles formed next to his eyes. “Thanks, Harry.”

9. the wonderlands by stylinsoncity / 150k

Harry’s daughter, Andy, is signed to Louis’ girl band. Her path to success is marked by competition, chaos, and for Harry, a love affair.

10. If I Was Stronger by haloeverlasting / 50k

Harry lets out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. She feels tingly, and hot, and absolutely terrified, but the next time she looks in the mirror, she sees someone she knows intimately. She sees that girl with bright green eyes, and unruly hair, and parted lips, and she loses her breath a moment, because while she knows that girl inside and out, she hasn’t been honest with herself until… well, now.

“I might be gay.”

A Girl Direction AU where Louis holds universes inside her, and Harry just wants to hold her.

11. Now In A Minute by @avocadolouie / 150k

13 feels like yesterday for many people, but for Louis it actually was.More than anything in the world, Louis Tomlinson dreams of growing up. Simply skipping over all of the awkward, embarrassing years of teenage existence and getting on with life. Real life.

So when thirteen-year-old Louis wakes up in the body of his thirty-year-old self, he expected everything in his adult life to be picture perfect. And maybe it is. He has it all…or so it seems.

Except his favorite person and lifelong best mate, Harry Styles, is totally missing from the equation and Louis doesn’t understand why. He has a lot of catching up to do and as adult life turns out to be more than what he bargained for, Louis can’t help wondering why a life that seemed so perfect, feels so empty.

Or the 13 going on 30 au that should have been done years ago.

12. Fake It Till You Make It by @avocadolouie / 136k

In a twisted turn of events, Louis finds himself posing as the brother of his fiancé, Harry, for an annual company retreat.

Did he sign up for this? No.

Is he doing it anyway? Yes.

Can they actually pull this off? Probably not.

13. precious little thing by mercutionotromeo / 21k

Niall grins deviously and hits “make call”, putting his phone on speaker. They lean in close to peer down at the screen, heads knocking lightly together. Dull rings reverberate quietly around the room and mix with the monotonous buzz of the lights. It rings for a while - maybe six or seven times - then the other line picks up.

There’s a slow, steady inhale, and a low voice purrs, “Hi, sexy.”

Jesus - this guy has barely said two words, and both of them have made Harry’s cock twitch in his jeans. That’s not even getting to what those words are, and why he’s saying them, and how Harry’s stomach is dropping into his shoes at the mere thought of him saying… other words. Words like “cock”, and “please”, and “come”.

Also known as: a university AU featuring phone sex operator Louis, copious amounts of sweet, soft kink discovery, and Louis being Harry’s Daddy.

14. Say You’ll Remember by whisperdlullaby / 93k

au. louis and harry are best mates that are only half aware that they’re also soulmates. alternatively, louis goes to university and harry travels the world, and they always manage to find their way back to each other.

takes place over nine years, in which they love and hurt, make mistakes and learn, and above all, grow.

15. Grenadine Sunshine by @horsegirlharry / 18k

Harry’s only sixteen, it shows right now, and Louis wants…he wants so many things. He wants to taste the faint, sugary ghost of lip gloss, he wants to cup Harry’s face between his palms and swipe the shimmery wet shadows from beneath his eyes. He wants to show him everything he knows, even though he doesn’t know anything about this, about kissing boys or flirting with them or doing their makeup or even showing them it’s okay to want to wear makeup in the first place. Still, Louis just wants, wants and wants and wants. It’s what Harry does to him.

16. California Sold by isthatyoularry / 123k

Notoriously closeted boyband member Harry Styles is famous on a global scale, meanwhile Louis, as his best friend, is back home in Manchester, living the typical life of a 24 year old. When Harry needs Louis with him in LA, a publicity stunt gone wrong changes their friendship forever.

A fake-relationship AU between two lifelong best friends.

17. Do Not Go Gentle by afirethatcannotdie / 70k

“This is all a game to you, isn’t it? Well, it’s not for me. This is a real life or death situation,” Louis says, spitting the words at him. “And I just don’t think you’re cut out for it.”

For a moment, they stare at each other in complete silence. Harry can feel his blood thrumming between his ears, can see Louis glaring at him, feels red-hot anger. And then all he feels, oppressively and desperately, is lust.

Suddenly Louis is surging up to him to press his lips against Harry’s. Harry walks the two of them backwards, pressing Louis back against the door. Louis oomphs in surprise and brings his hands under Harry’s scrub top, scratching at his lower back.

“Lock — oh — lock the… fucking door,” Louis mutters.

When Harry Styles starts his first day as a surgical intern, he expects a lot of things: to treat patients, to observe a surgery, to feel a bit overwhelmed. What he definitely doesn’t expect, however, is that the handsome guy he kicked out of his bed this morning is also an intern.A Grey’s Anatomy AU where tensions are high, Harry and Louis are hooking up in secret, and no one has time for love. Or do they?

18. Finding Lou by stylinsoncity / 60k

Louis is the nomadic stranger who wanders into Harry’s bookstore. Harry is the skeptic who falls for him.

19. Coax the Cold by MediaWhore  / 86k

England, 1897.

English Professor Louis Tomlinson’s passion for the occult has been a source of mockery and derision for most of his life. When he hears whispers of a travelling freak show newly established in London claiming the existence of a monstrous sea hybrid, half-man, half-fish, Louis sees it as his ticket to credibility amongst his peers. The summer he spends undercover working on the show, however, gives him much more than that. 

20. Here In The Afterglow by @fondleeds

“If you hadn’t noticed, I don’t have many friends,” Louis whispers, the blossom of insecurity in his stomach unfurling and clawing its way into his throat.

Harry is silent for a long time, and then he speaks; a soft, slow uncurl that makes Louis’ stomach shake. “I’ll be your friend.”

-1970’s AU. In a tiny town in Idaho, Louis’ life is changed forever by the arrival of a curious stranger. 

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Ready Player One review

People who say “The book is always better than the movie!” tend to be foolish people who view literature as an inherently flawless medium incapable of doing wrong. To say that, you need to ignore literature that is objectively better than the source material to the point even the authors prefer it, such as Fight Club, Jaws, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or films that greatly improved the work they’re adapting by trimming the fat, such as V for Vendetta and (oh boy I’m probably gonna get shit for this) The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Today’s film is one such film in the latter category, directed by a man behind one of the films mentioned in the former category, a film no one except me thought would be as good as it is: Ready Player One.

The book is easily one of the most contentious novels I’ve ever seen, a truly “love it or hate it” affair. I liked the novel; I read it when I was going through a really rough time back in 2012 or so, and a lot of its themes resonated with me. It’s a cheesy, charming book that unfortunately has a few really cringey bits of writing in it and unfortunately due to its medium spends a lot of time explaining references you wouldn’t see otherwise. I’d put the book on the same level as Eragon; it’s cheesy and has some dumb writing here and there, but overall it’s enjoyable. But even I realized a film could help trim a lot of the fat of this novel and polish it into something grand, and when I heard Spielberg was at the helm I slept a lot easier, figuring that would be the case.

And it was. This movie is a lot better than the book in most regards. But let’s look at the plot first:

In the year 2045, in a world where things seem bleak and joyless, people turn to the virtual reality world of the OASIS, where they can be anyone or anything they want. Its creator, a man named Halliday, created a contest for all the people of the OASIS to take part in after he died, in which the goal was to find the ultimate Easter Egg. Whoever found the three keys and then the Easter Egg would become rich, powerful, and most importantly they would own the OASIS. Wade Watts, known in the OASIS as Parzival, is an average guy who eventually stumbles across the answer of how to get the first key. But he’s not the only person gunning after the prize; the corporation IOI and its douchey head honcho Nolan Sorrento are after total control so they can spam ads and basically make the place a microtransaction nightmare. Can Wade, with the help of his best pal Aech, his love interest Art3mis, and his buddies Daito and Sho manage to stop IOI or is this end of line for the users?

WARNING: THERE’S GONNA BE SPOILERS BELOW.

So I’m gonna go over some of the things I didn’t like in the adaptation first, which honestly mostly amount to nitpicks. The diminished importance of Rush is a bit sad, though it’s kind of understandable since all of the challenges were streamlined and simplified for the movie. That doesn’t suck as much to me as the complete cutting of the Ladyhawke segment, as this book is what introduced me to that movie and I was hoping to see some reference to it. Changing up Aech the way they did kind of diminishes the impact of her reveal, and speaking of which, a lot of characters and backstory are glossed over or ignored, most egregiously Ogden Morrow. The book went into a bit more detail into Morrow, co-creator of the OASIS, and Halliday’s relationship, but in the film Morrow is seemingly shunted aside for much of the film. I don’t think any of this really ruins the film per se, but it certainly makes it a different beast from the book.

Now, time to sing the praises of this film: the visuals are stunning. The OASIS is a major focus of the movie, as it should be, and we get to see so many creative visuals and ideas take place, as well as insane amounts of crossover characters. You’d need to freeze frame every single crowd shot to catch them all; just watching it as I did I saw Duke Nukem, Jason Voorhees, the Battletoads, Hello Kitty, Harley Quinn, the Joker, Batman, and more among the crowds. It’s a lot like Wreck-It Ralph in that regard. Frankly, I kind of wish the entire film was just in the OASIS, because all of it is just so fascinating and fun and visually appealing… special props need to go to the extended trip into The Shining, which was recreated with eerie accuracy up until the parts where things go off the rails. I think this movie may be Spielberg’s greatest achievement visually speaking.

The parts of the film that take place in the real world aren’t nearly as good, but I don’t think they were necessarily bad either. They definitely had their good moments, and they certainly helped progress the plot forward as well as being important to the film’s overall message of “Don’t ignore reality in favor of escapism, because reality is where what’s most important really is.” And a good message that is, especially in today’s day and age. Still, some of the acting in the real world can be wonky, mostly whenever Wade is having romantic moments with Samantha AKA Art3mis. They do get better as the film progresses, but their romance arc in this movie is easily a weak point with how rushed and awkward it is. Guess Ernest Cline’s co-writing credit is really shining through there.

Our main characters themselves are all fairly well done, in OASIS and outside of it, though again, Wade and Samantha’s relationship in reality is a bit awkwardly written, and it’s not much better in the OASIS though there’s some more cool visuals to help you stomach things, but overall those two are enjoyable protagonists. Aech is still as cool as ever, though I am a bit disappointed they changed her character so much it made the impact of learning she’s a black lesbian (the latter fact is there but glossed over) a lot less impactful, as instead of her avatar being a white dude, it’s a hulking cyborg ogre. Still, I can’t deny Aech is still as cool as ever. Daito and Sho are also cool and have their roles expanded a bit from the book. Better yet, Daito does not get killed, so no awkward seppuku references that will make you cringe!

The villains are pretty cool too. First up is the OASIS insider I-R0k, played by T.J. Miller in his first act of penance for The Emoji Movie. It’s so fucking funny seeing this hulking, menacing death lord with skulls and shit all over him talk in the most nerdy voice imaginable. Still, he manages to shockingly be a menacing and capable threat, unlike his lame book counterpart. Then w e have the new villainess, F’Nale Zandor, a new character created for the film who serves as big bad Nolan Sorrento’s right-hand woman, acting out his evil schemes in the real world. She’s pretty cool and badass, and plays her role well enough; she’s sort of like a low-tier Bond henchman. Then we have Nolan himself, and while he is a stereotypical 80s corporate villain – a fact that even he lampshades – it’s hard not to appreciate a villain whose online avatar looks like Senator Armstrong and who calls forth Mechagodzilla as his ride in the final battle.

Speaking of the final battle, it is absolutely epic, but there has been a bit of contention due to the inclusion of the Iron Giant, and how it somehow goes against the non-violent themes of his titular movie. Well, you can rest easy in knowing that it’s just a giant mecha being piloted by Aech, and mostly what it’s doing is protecting everyone else from Mechagodzilla. The Iron Giant vs. Mechagodzilla is the greatest matchup I never knew I wanted.

Spielberg managed to do exactly what I expected him to do: he distilled everything that was good about the book, filtered out what didn’t work, and made a fun movie out of it. I can’t really justify totally calling this a style over substance film like I could with Batman v Superman or Miss Peregrine’s, because there actually is enough substance here to be serviceable and it has a very good message about the dangers of escapism and how allowing corporations to take away the neutrality of things is bad, but it’s definitely a movie you’re gonna wanna see for all the visuals more than anything. It’s a lot like Doctor Strange in that regard.

This is a great movie. Yes, great. If you love some really fucking cool visuals and can handle tons of cheese, this is the film for you. Honestly, it’s weird, but I’d really recommend this to everyone who disliked the book; you may find in a lot of ways that this is the book done RIGHT. As for people who love the book, this may be very much a love or hate affair; me, I loved it. I honestly can’t wait to watch it again and see what other secrets and cameos I pick up on, and just to bask in the glorious visuals of the OASIS. Leave it to Spielberg to polish something like Ernest Cline’s writing and produce a diamond, or at least a gemstone of significant value. It’s not a perfect film at all, but it IS a fun, enjoyable, and exciting one… kinda like a lot of the 80s films that inspired it.

[bluegreenspierfelds-blog]

“That’s right motherfuckers...I’m Gay”

Simon Spier/Bram Greenfeld, Leah Burke/Garrett Laughlin (mentioned), Abby Suso/ Nick Eisner (mentioned)

2.4k words 

In which Simon comes out on his terms...Bram isn’t so lucky

Simon is walking though his own personal hell, Creekwood High School. Granted, high school is supposed to suck. Simon didn’t hate school for the early mornings, nagging teachers or the stupid amount of homework he was assigned.

Nope.

He hated high school because his classmates, hormonal, overly sexually active classmates. Simon didn’t make it through a school day without seeing at least one straight couple sucking face or showing any form PDA. This particular morning, Simon was greeted by his two friends pressed up his locker making out...like making out...like almost making a baby….making out…Ew

How can they breathe?

Wow I hope they’re alright after this

KISSING MARATHON..WHO WILL WIN?

Simon got out of his realizing they didn’t feel his presence. He was staring at them for so long...he thought people would start staring at him. He sees the headline on Creeksecrets now.

SIMON SPIER: RESIDENT GAY GUY STARES AT HIS BEST FRIENDS KISSING EACH OTHER

IS HE ACTUALLY STRAIGHT? OR JUST FUCKING WEIRD??

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

“YO”

They broke apart like lighting struck in between them. Nick instantly reached for his binder he lazily threw on the floor. He immediately used to cover his boner...Ew...why did he even check to see if he had one….

Simon wasn’t expecting them to break apart so quickly. He prepared a few jokes in his head in case they ignored him. Damn his friends ruin E V E R Y T H I N G. They mumbled their sorrys and hellos, as Simon dug in his locker.  Abby casually tried to fix her hair, reapply her lip gloss and checked reflection on her phone screen. Simon kept the if you make a baby on my locker, you gotta name them after me comment to himself but another sly comment slipped out.  

“They don’t call me walking birth control for nothing..” Simon scoffed and opened in his locker.

“No one calls you that…” Nick said, completely confused by the joke.

“No, but they should” Simon said closing his locker.

He waved goodbye to them, to start his trek to English.

I wonder how many straight people I’ll see boning today.

Being the only (openly) gay kid at Creekwood wasn’t too bad. They were accepting, as accepting a small town in Georgia could be. He no longer had to endure awkward conversations asking him when he was getting a girlfriend.

He wasn’t sure if more pressure was coming from his peers or his parents. They have been dropped hints for some time. Simon pretended to ignore their efforts….well he ignored them until he couldn’t. He snapped one day, he was sitting at dinner with his family and it slipped out.

His dad made a stupid heterosexual joke over dinner, instead of fake laugh and nodding along. He just said it.

“I’m gay”

His dad choked on the jasmine rice his sister Nora made. He cleared his throat, drank some water and dinner continued. Well dinner continued AFTER an insanely awkward conversation.

A few awkward conversations later...he was out to everyone he knew. His friends did a decent job of spreading the word. Every time a girl would approach the lunch table to ask out Simon, someone at their lunch would say “He’s gay”  

It was kind of inside joke with his lunch table. The first few times Simon said it rather awkwardly “yeah I’m gay sorry” . After a while Leah took over, her deadpan scared a few girls, they would turn to Simon to confirm and he would nod. Everyone has their own version of delivering the news to these oblivious girls.

Abby took the nice girl route, she called the random girls sweetie and honey and breaking the news gently.

Garrett used his class clown persona to mess with these girls. “Excuse me, are you dude?” followed by “then Spier isn’t interested”

Nick went the borderline-asshole route, “Do you have a concussion? Simon has been out for like EVER”

Even Shy Bram Greenfeld got in on the joke, “uh you do know he’s gay right?”

Simon wasn’t sure why it was so funny, maybe because Bram rarely spoke or just how nicely he told that girl that Simon was not straight. The lunch retired the inside joke because Bram just fucking nailed it.

Besides, being completely and utterly repulsed by the constant PDA, Simon is jealous of them. He wants to see his boyfriend after class and press him up against locker and make out until the warning bell interrupted them. Simon would settle for a boyfriend that would hold his hand around school. He would settle for a boyfriend.

Simon decided that being of jealous of the straight couples wasn’t going to get him a boyfriend. He resorted to (badly) flirting with guys who didn’t have a girlfriends. Only three boys in his junior class were single.

Bram Greenfeld

Cal Price

Martin Addison (yeah...hell no...Not even it someone paid him)

He started with Cal they were in drama club together. Come on he HAD to be gay, he was in drama club and he had blond highlights. Simon awkwardly approached him after rehearsals one day.

“I was gonna hit up Waffle House tonight, you want in?” Simon managed to not stumble on any of his words.

“That sounds awesome...but not tonight man Taylor asked me to run lines with his at her house” He finished off his sentence with a wink.

Ew ew ew ewwwwww

He just totally asked a straight guy on a date.

Ughhhhhh

Simon cringed, “It’s cool man, have fun. Taylor is a nice girl” Should he wink back? He didn’t…

Bram Greenfeld…..Ughhhh he’s cuteeee

Simon almost crossed him off the list. He played soccer, in Simon’s mind all athletes were straight and went on dates with cheerleaders.

Either Bram is really subtle with his PDA or he’s gay……

How was he supposed to ask this dude out if they haven’t spoken to each other without their mutual friends around.

FUCK

It’s all about timing….Simon didn’t know if it was flu season or the fact that Creekwood had a mini mono outbreak.  He found himself alone with Bram at their lunch table.

“Oh hey, no mono for soccer star Bram”

“Nah” he replied simply….damn Simon is really gonna have to egg him on to get some dirt on his kid.

“Not kissing anyone? What I thought all the soccer guys were required to have girlfriends.” Simon is now teasing him….not integrating him..I mean his tone was joking right?...Does it sound his integrating him?

Bram laughs. “ No no….A girlfriend does not come with the uniform…”

“I mean I really don’t want a girlfriend” shrugging...oh man he’s so cute.

“So what you gay or something?” Yes, Simon did just blantily asked that boy if he was gay...way to be subtle Spier…

Simon realized he waited quite a while to apologize to this poor kid. He was too busy mentally kicking himself.

Okay more than a minute has passed, and there was no sputtering denials, no strong exclamations about how straight he is. Just silence….and mega blushing.

“OH MY GOD” Simon said a little to loud. Bram sunk lower in his seat. He looked around the cafeteria, like someone was going to bust him for being gay.

He looked down to collect his thoughts and have a possible heart to heart with Bram. Everyone deserves a gay is okay talk. Simon went to look into those insanely pretty brown eyes and he wasn’t there.

Bram speed walking out of cafeteria, dumping his lunch in the bin...looking back at Simon. His eyes pleading him not chase after him. He didn’t of course...he tortured that boy enough.  

The next time he saw Bram was at Garrett’s party….well get together. It was a “we got over mono” party.

And by we… they mean Leah, Garrett, Nick and Abby….

This get together started with Garrett wanted to throw a massive party that the whole school was invited to celebrate his brush with death, surviving mono. Leah instantly vetoed the idea, suggested a regular hangout session with alcohol.

Simon was forced to go because it was a “friends thing” not a “couples thing”. And Bram was going so he wouldn’t be the 5th wheel. Whatever I’ll go for the booze.

Simon had to remind himself that he was going for the booze, not that he hasn’t seen Bram in few days. Stupid Winter Break.

A game of Never Have I Ever started, the gang filled their red solo cups with the rest of the wine, supplied unknowingly by Garrett’s mom.

“Never have I ever got shit-faced on wine” Abby stated very seriously.

Garrett chugged his wine then slurred “I RESENT THAT SUSO” Leah jokingly held him back.

“WINE IS DOPE” Garrett said stumbling to find the next bottle.

“Wow Leah, you’re dating a Wine Mom, how does it feel?” Abby said in between laughs.

“Greenfeld you’re up” Garrett egged him on…”give us something good”

“Never have I ever had mono...I don't fucking kno-”

“THATS COLD GREENFELD, THAT’S COLD” Nick grabbing his chest pretending to hurt.

Followed by a chorus of boos, Simon and Bram looked as all their friends drank. They locked eyes with knowing looking. Bram cracked a smile.

“BOOOOOO WHO INVITED THE VIRGIN”

“YOU DID GARRETT”

“Oh right...but seriously B you need to get laid man, you into anybody….a girl? A boy? At this point I don’t give a shit...you just need to laid to chill the fuck out”

Garrett drunken stupor was followed by silence. Nick broke the silence  “OKAY WHO’S NEXT?”

“I’LL GO! NEVER HAVE I EVER SUCKED A DICK”

Simon gripped his cup tighter, his lifeline, the only thing keeping him afloat. He wanted to drink nonchalantly to ease the tension but then it would imply that he has sucked someone’s dick...which he hasn’t...and lying about that would only lead to more questions. Simon looked over at Bram he looked just as uncomfortable as Simon.

“GARRETTTT STOP.”

“Okay okay okay...but you did drink babe?…” Leah and Abby rolled their eyes and cheers their cups, taking a small sip.

“Spier, I thought you were gay….no D yet...you should help him out with Br-”

Garrett was physically being pulled out of the room by Leah.

The damage has been done, Bram was looking down at his shoes. It made Simon’s heart sink, he wanted to go over to him and cheer him up. He didn’t know exactly how he would cheer up Bram they hardly knew each other.

They continued without Garrett...Nick, Leah and Abby went again.

“Oh shit sorry Si we skipped you..go ahead buddy”

“Never have I ever been outed by my drunk best friend” Simon contained his laughter, it was his attempt to lighten the mood. Bram smiled at him, a little twinkle in his eyes.  

Bram chugged his drink very dramatically, and proceed to laugh and giggle.

Instead of waiting for the prying questions he said, “That’s right motherfuckers...I’m gay”

Nick, Abby, and Leah’s jaw’s were on the floor.

Simon was laughing his ass off...Mentally cheering on Bram.

Go Greenfeld go Greenfeld

The wine ran out a little after Bram’s coming out...they toasted to “Bram’s gay ass”

Leah and Garrett went up to his room, Leah practically dragging him, being a little less than loving and caring because of the stuff he said to Simon and Bram. Leah was protective of her friends, Garrett wouldn’t hear the end of this for a while.

Abby and Nick went up to the guest room. Nick and Abby were the happy, semi-flirty drunks...giggling and booping each others noses while they struggled up the stairs.

“You kids stay safe! Use protection! Love you!” Simon called up to them, starting his own giggle fit, Bram joined him.

“You sound like my mom,” Bram said in between giggles.

“How so?” Simon looked at him curiously.  

“When I came out to my mom, she gave me the whole ‘use protection’ speech, that put all other sex talks to shame” Bram said blushing furiously.

“Anyways she convinced I was fucking the whole soccer team...actually I think she still thinks I am”

“OH! Other time I told her I was staying Garrett’s house to study, she gave me CONDOMS and lube...after insisting Garrett was in fact VERY straight...she still made me bring them”

Simon knew this story was personal and quite embarrassing, he wasn’t sure if Bram was actually drunk bambling or just using faking it to tell Simon but himself without judgement.  

After exchanging embarrassing and silly stories, they decided that sleep with the best option.

Bram and Simon were left in the living room with pull-out couch and busted recliner. Simon volunteered to sleep on the recliner...before he knew it was broken and did not actually recline.

“There’s room for two you know…” Bram said inviting Simon to join him. Patting the empty spot next him. Before Simon knew it, he was crawling into bed with Bram. A half-naked Bram Greenfeld.

Whew don’t think about that...Yeah I don’t think that you and Bram are half-naked laying on a futon. Geez, why did boys have to sleep half-naked, why just boxers? And if you were shy (like me) you wore tee shirt and boxers. If you were as confident as Bram Greenfeld, you wore boxers and nothing more….OKAY ENOUGH THINKING ABOUT WHAT BRAM IS WEARING OR HIS LACK OF CLOTHING.

Simon noticed Bram was staring at him, yeah he probably because he looked like psycho having argument with himself.

Simon looked into his eyes, and damn he just about died right there. Cause of death: drowning in Bram Greenfeld’s eyes...like chocolate pools, he wanted to drowned, he wanted to devour….He wanted Bram to be his. Be mine...Simon wasn’t sure but those eyes looked like he was inviting him in, come for a swim, make me yours.  

Simon broke the silence, “Can I kiss you?” Simon whispered...he’s not even sure Bram heard him.

“Absolutely not” Bram whispered with a smile on his face. A pure, genuine smile. Jesus Bram is one cruel motherfucker...he doesn’t look sorry about reject him...

Simon was going to turn to face the other way, he thought he could cry right there. A arm grabbed for him, stopping him from turning all the way around.  Bram stopped him. “I was kidding” Bram gently grabbed his cheek and kissed him. He was kissing him, like he fucking meant it.

“Good night, Simon”

Simon didn’t sleep good that night, a little worried about what would happen in morning. He thought about Bram being his boyfriend, Bram kissing him. That’s the only thing on his mind, Bram Greenfeld will be on his mind for quite while.

[imtheperfectvoid]

So I’ve been REALLY fixated on Danganronpa the last few weeks (replayed the last two games and recently finished DRV3 as well) and I realized I have many many thoughts about certain characters and their respective arcs/stories/behaviors/etc. and bc I enjoy shouting my thoughts into The Void That Is The Internet I’m just gonna mash em into one post and send it out to sea. Spoilers for DR1, SDR2, and DRV3 under the cut (and sorry, it gets looooooong)

DR1:

My biggest thought I’ve had is that, over time, I’ve slowly begun to realize that I just... don’t like Kyoko as much as I thought I did. Like, when I first played the game back a couple years ago, I thought she was pretty alright. Not a favorite, but perfectly fine. However, after replaying recently, I kinda realized she just... rubs me the wrong way? I guess? Like, I understand why she is the way she is, but she just constantly comes across as being so abrasive and distant and mildly unwelcoming. Byakuya is the same way, though - hell, he’s even more abrasive and unwelcoming - but I enjoy his character more. I couldn’t figure out why until it hit me about nearish the last chapter; it’s because Kyoko switched gears and started opening up to Makoto in a way that just didn’t feel natural or earned, y’know? Byakuya was an absolute shitheel, through and through, but his character shift (as small and hardly noticeable as it was) still made sense because he came to realize that him neglecting the feelings and thought processes of others can really bite him in the ass (a la Sakura’s trial) and he starts to cooperate a bit more with everyone. Kyoko, on the other hand, just kinda... decided to open up to Makoto a bit too fast for not really any clear, distinctive reason. Maybe I glossed over it? Maybe I just didn’t read deep enough into her lines or take enough interest in her Free Time events? I don’t know. All I know is this: Kyoko’s character development in terms of her connection with Makoto and the others felt too forced and disingenuous overall, like it lacked sincerity.

I enjoy Hagakure. Like, people seem to generally find him irritatingly dumb, which I get, but honestly? Sometimes his shit is just so wild that I can’t help but enjoy it.

Same with why I like Byakuya so much. He’s a dick, but he’s pretty entertaining to watch and listen to, especially when he’s thrown off guard. That shit’s the best.

I have no idea why but... I also would’ve liked to learn more about Ishimaru? He just seemed fascinating to me, especially in his Free Time events when you learn about his family and his history of harassment and whatnot

Junko being the mastermind was really unexpected and I enjoyed that twist a lot. I did not see it coming when I first played, and the small clues they left throughout the game pointing to her were very clever!

This first game will forever be iconic in many ways, but it is sadly my least favorite of the trilogy only because they just kept getting better

SDR2

*slams fists on table* I! WANT! MORE! GUNDAM! TANAKA! (I am fully aware that he was given quite a decent amount of development, both throughout the story as well as in Free Time events, but god, I don’t know what it is but I just fucking love this guy)

People seem surprisingly divided on Kazuichi??? Which is understandable but I liked him plenty. Sure, his thing with Sonia was a bit... much... but aside from that, he’s pretty enjoyable and funny. Like Hagakure, but less dumb, I suppose.

Honestly??? I wish the blackened in chapter 4 had been Sonia- please hear me out on this one. By no means do I dislike Sonia - she’s great, I love her! - HOWEVER, I think this could’ve led to a lot more interesting development for everyone. Imagine the insanity of realizing Nekomaru, a giant, strong, agile, keen robot who couldn’t even be killed by a bazooka to the chest being killed by Sonia goddamn Nevermind. That would be a mindfuck and a half (granted, they’d have to do some serious explaining on how she’d have done it. I don’t doubt she’d take on the Final Dead Room, though - she seems plenty capable of challenging that tbh). Not only that, giving her the same motive Gundam had is just as fitting and sad enough to boot - she’s the Ultimate Princess, of course she’d want to motivate everyone and use her influence to keep their morale up in such a seemingly hopeless situation, right? Hearing her post-vote explanation for why she did it would be heartbreaking. And possibly my biggest reason for wanting Sonia to be the blackened? Imagine Gundam and Souda after her execution. Now wouldn’t that just be a moment of despair? Gundam, likely, would be very steely and unflinching on the outside, probably saying something about how “the Dark Queen no doubt knew this was her moment to take flight from this world and prevent you mortals from abandoning the lives you’ve been so fortuitously bestowed” or whatever, but god, I genuinely feel like he’d be torn up about it inside (I should add: I’m not a sondam shipper, by any means - I don’t ship Gundam with anyone - I just like the idea that Gundam is so unaccustomed to kind gestures and compliments that he just gets nervous about them coming from literally anyone (like with Hajime in Free Time events)). And Souda???? He would either try to play it tough or he would be a fucking wreck. And as much as I like Souda, I’d love to see how he carries through the rest of the game after Sonia’s execution.

Komaeda is vastly overrated. Like, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy his character - I think he’s complex and interesting and his batshit insanity is goddamn hilarious at points, but he’s waaaaay too overhyped. Bouncing off this thought, I also feel like his character went through a lot of ups and downs in terms of enjoyability. Like, first trial? Very enjoyable - we learn he’s fuckin cuckoo for Hope Puffs and it’s great but also awful but also great. Fifth trial? We see how far he’s truly willing to go to fuck with others and bring despair so that hope can shine through, and it’s fascinating. There are other times, though, where he’s just... annoying. Not really adding anything new and just babbling about hope and despair and saying the same tired shit again and again. But what makes him a neat character is that he’s at least fun to hate. Granted, not all the time, but most of the time, yeah, it’s fun to hate this guy. Getting frustrated at how he holds back information crucial to a case or how he turns his nose up at those he thinks are below him - it’s done in a way that I at least don’t get annoyed by hating him, and I have a good time doing so.

Y’know who’s not fun to hate, though? Saionji. I fuckin hate Saionji. I honestly do. Nothing fun about hating her. Nothing fun about her at all.

I am fascinated by Twogami/Imposter’s story and character as a whole. I would love to know even more about them.

Junko being brought back again was a bit... much, yeah, I’ll agree - I as a bit disappointed that they just made her the Big Bad again, but honestly? The whole Izuru Kamukura twist made up for it. Same goes for the simulation twist; yeah, had it just been “it was all a game!! nothing really happened!! your friends are fine and monokuma ain’t real lmao”, that would’ve been real shitty, BUT by making them all Remnants of Despair, leaving the dead people most likely dead (though it’s implied that they can actually wake up, it’s just unlikely), and making Hajime technically the mastermind behind this killing game, it became a really good twist ending.

This game had some bomb-ass music, especially with the 8-bit mixes and stuff. V v good

FUCK (IMPROVED) HANGMAN’S GAMBIT. “””IMPROVED””” MY ASS. YOU RUINED A PERFECTLY GOOD GAME MECHANIC IS WHAT YOU DID. LOOK AT IT - IT’S GOT UNFAIR PLAYABILITY

This game used to be my favorite of the installments, but then... but then...

DRV3

Yup. This game’s my favorite. It’s got the best overall cast (but I’ll give SDR2 credit for having my favorite character of the whole series - my sweet boy Gundam), best music, best debate game mechanics, AND best post-game content.

GONTA GOKUHARA IS A BIG FRIEND WHOMST I LOVE VERY MUCH

A lot of people seem to be divided on how the protag switch from Kaede to Shuichi was either good or bad. Personally? I liked it. Yeah, it would’ve been really cool to have a female protag for a change, but Kaede felt too... complete, I guess? She felt like a very self-realized, confident character. While yeah, that would also be cool to see, having a very confident, strong character as the protag from the get-go, I like seeing a protag go through something like this starting out weak or unrealized and coming out on top with more of a complete character than they started with. I love Kaede, and I love Shuichi. I thought the protag switch was acceptable.

People also seem to be divided on how they feel about Ouma. And by “divided” I mean a lot of people love him a lot and some people hate him a lot. I really liked Ouma’s character a lot. I don’t like Ouma as a person - God, Christ, I do not like Ouma as a person - but his character was absolutely fascinating to me. Having a character being the total embodiment of a lie was so interesting, especially in a situation where truths and lies can gravely affect the outcome of a vote. And much like Komaeda, he was enjoyable to hate, but to an even greater extent. So many moments with Ouma were fucking hysterical. He’s got some of the best lines (”Stop making such dumbass comments and keep your smelly breath in your dirty mouth” still cracks me up with the delivery he gives for it. Also any time he yells and his voice does the screechy thing is fuckin great) and his sprites are a goddamn trip (his creepy smile sprite that just keeps getting creepier over time???). There’s a lot I can say about Ouma but I’ll just keep it at that. I don’t love him by any means, but I greatly enjoy watching him throughout the game.

People are also very divided on the ending. I loved it. I love when shit gets so meta that it blows me outta the water. And it’s really easy to fuck up a metagame ending like that, but I don’t think DRV3 did (well, I’m a bit let down by the post-credits bit - kinda would’ve preferred for it to just cut off where it did before the credits - but even that wasn’t enough to really detract me) I even liked the twist of the mastermind (even though I definitely had my suspicions solely bc Tsumugi was just too boring, and Danganronpa wouldn’t make such a nothing character for no reason, even if being plain and boring was literally her character trait, y’know what I mean?)

I’m gonna be real upfront about this - I really liked Korekiyo at first and am subsequently really disappointed with how they chose to develop his character. Granted, the whole “I’ve killed nearly 100 women in order to appease my dead sister whom I was supposedly in an incestuous relationship with and is also a tulpa in my own mind who speaks through me sometimes” was definitely something that threw me for a loop and a half and was a surprising twist, but “surprising” doesn’t equate to “good”, not in this case. See, I loved the mysterious and creepy vibes Korekiyo gave off - doing his Free Time events, I saw how intelligent and composed and fascinating he was to interact with. His views on humanity, his views on a lot of things, were just so interesting. I wanted to see more into him, see what more he had to offer, and I thought we’d get something like that in chapter 3 when we unlocked his research lab, and I was really looking forward to it. When they threw that twist out there, I was... really let down. Making him something that was just so objectively vile and inhumane seemed unfair and not as interesting as it could’ve been. I was expecting him to be more Gundam-like (looks like they’d kill you but is actually pretty nice and likely would not kill you) or maybe even slightly Komaeda-like (his obsession with the beauty of humanity drives him to say and do some weird shit, which ended up being kind of true, but not to the extent I was expecting) Kiyo’s development felt too over-the-top, too, in that sense; like, it wasn’t enough that he’d killed nearly 100 women - he also had to have a tulpa who was his sister that encouraged him to do these things, and he also had to be in an incestuous relationship with said sister when she was still living. That’s just... a lot. Like, waaay too much. Had they thrown that out, kept his weird shtick about how “humanity is beautiful, even when ugly” and all his other overall strangeness, I think he could’ve had a far more compelling backstory and character arc. Honestly, maybe get rid of the serial killer bit, get rid of the incest, and he becomes more interesting while still being a character who eventually kills someone for the wrong reasons (i.e. maybe to see “the beauty of a life leaving its physical body” or something, not for his own survival or escape). Hell, maybe even keep the tulpa to give a twist on his story that focuses on how he’s unhealthily coped with his sister’s death. Maybe his sister tells him to do these things but he doesn’t listen to her and tries to avoid causing harm to others and block her out. Or maybe she’s more rational. Or maybe it’s not a tulpa and Korekiyo knows she’s not really with him but he pretends to help himself cope. Any of these would’ve been interesting to delve into (albeit assuming they’re done properly, as well). I didn’t anticipate to linger on this for so long but goddammit, I really wanted a cool character out of Korekiyo and was cheated out of it and it really disappointed me.

(also some people like korekiyo way too much and it frightens me)

(same with ouma like guys c’mon)

But on the bright side, I do love me some good “seesaw” memes

I’m also amazed at how there wasn’t a single character in this game that I didn’t enjoy to some degree. DR1 had Kyoko, Hifumi, and Celeste whom I never ended up feeling very strongly for one way or the other (though Celeste freaking tf out in the 3rd trial is always enjoyable to watch), SDR2 had Saionji and also had Mahiru and Akane who were kinda “meh” for me. But DRV3? Yeah, Angie got pretty annoying in chapter 3, and yeah, I can see in what ways people would get annoyed by Tenko or Himiko or Ouma or Miu or... most of them, really, but everyone in this cast was interesting and enjoyable for extended periods of time. Some, all the way through the game! (Looking at you, Gonta, Miu, and K1-B0)

THE DEBATE SCRUM SONG IS A FUCKIN BANGER

AND THE DEBATE SCRUM IN GENERAL IS AWESOME

Thank God they fixed Hangman’s Gambit

A lot of the music in this one was really really good!! I have the soundtrack CD in my car and I very much enjoy it and will probably blast it during my drive back to campus on Monday

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

[vrenaewrites]

CRAVE by Tracy Wolff thoughts: Chapter 0 - 21

Full video here.

In which a mortal girls goes to her uncle’s boarding school after the death of her parents, and finds it full of creatures.

CH 0 for some reason: if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space

“Try my hardest not to freak the eff out” - if you’re gonna use expletives, use them

Immediate info dump of “if you’d told me two months ago i was gonna be in fairbanks alaska to get a puddle jumper to denali, the highest mountain point in north america” 

CH 1: landing is just throwing yourself to the ground and hoping you don’t miss

I thought these quotes were weird self help quotes but then i realized they were probably the chapter titles

The fog is referred to as “civil twilight” - this weirded me out because civil blood and twilight, idk if this is a real thing? Will look it up if i remember: it is the brightest of the 3 twilight phases and it is ABUNDANTLY clear that she added the civil part to not make it straight up twilight because this book is unwitting twilight satire

He tells her it’s a short runway “because it’s hard to keep a long one clear of snow or ice for any amount of time” HE’S IN THE MIDDLE OF LANDING A PLANE ATM BRO WE DON’T NEED ALL OF THAT INFO ATM

Grace is kind of funny if not a little cheesy

“Textbook landing” - maybe if that textbook is a horror novel he’s reading upside down and backwards - i don’t know if by listening to this i’m missing the line breaks and short sentences that would make this funny, so if i am lemme know but if she didn’t break this up it’s clunky

Her uncle is headmaster of the boarding school she’s being sent to

“Despite being a year younger than my own 17 years” - did you not read this out loud? Did no one hear how redundant that was?

“According to wikipedia, heeley - hailey? - has only one major road” she’s mentioned google and wikipedia at this point and idk if i’m the only one who finds that type of thing annoying af

“In weather that’s 20 degrees below freezing, if the app on my phone can be believed” THIS IS SO ANNOYING

“The insulated helmet will keep you warm as well as protect your head if we crash” yes macy we know what helmets are and also insulation, again the redundancy

CH 2: Just because you live in a tower doesn’t make you a prince

“Is that kadmere academy?” i shout - not, is that it? They’re on a snowmobile, with helmets on, and macy understood her...and she understood macy saying they’d be there in five minutes

She couldn’t google the academy

“I half expected quasimodo to be waiting for us when we got there”

It may be a castle but at least there’s no moat or dragon

Macy has short rainbow-colored hair

She’s wikipedia’d and googled her life away but didn’t expect to not be able to breathe since she’s coming from sea level and is now up in the mountains - i’m from florida and even i know what altitude sickness is

She sees a flash of red in the window “i don’t know who it is or why they even matter” ...what does that mean?

But she doesn’t see them when she looks back and she’s disappointed, which she acknowledges makes no sense…

“I should be bowing and scraping right about now”

It’s a castle with an xbox and giant flat screen, and they have wifi AND cell service up in the desolate mountains. I went to cossayuna - 476 feet above sea level, 7 miles from a town - and NONE of us had cell service the entire time

She picks up a chess piece and it’s a carved vampire, then a dragon

Then she comes face to face with the most intimidating guy i’ve ever seen, not just because he’s hot, there’s something different and powerful though i don’t have a clue what it is”

Face too intense to be beautiful, skyscraper cheekbones????, red lips, stone-cutting jaw, bottomless obsidian eyes, obscene lashes

Trapped by his stare, hypnotized by the sheer magnetism rolling off him in waves

“Annoyance flashes through me”

He’s blocking her view of anything else - did he step between her and the chess board?? Confusion, but because of this she has to look at his long lean body

“Double-wide shoulders” gross

“Nothing to do but admit that this boy is sexy AF - a little wicked, a lot wild, and all dangerous”

“Seriously, when exactly did i become the heroine of some YA romance? The new girl swooning over the hottest, most unattainable boy in school?”

CH 3: vampire queens aren’t the only ones with a nasty bite

He quotes hamlet to her, and she corrects him for fucks sake

“I warned your uncle you wouldn’t be safe here, but he obviously doesn’t like you much”

“Welcome to alaska?” “more like welcome to hell, now get the fuck out”

“Ignoring the pterodactyls flying around in my stomach” - this is a great line if it didn’t take you completely out of the action, which it does

This whole exchange about big bad monsters is soooooo fucking cliche

And he’s talking about the chess pieces the whole time????? Am confusion.

She’s so horny for this insane man screaming at her and cornering her

She says she’s lost everything that matters and he changes, his agony visible behind “layers and layers of defenses he’s erected”

It’s calling to her own agony

They're soooo connected and staring at each other

He pulls on one of her curls and it makes her super horny

“Five minutes ago he was being a total douche to me”

Pushing him is like pushing a wall of granite

He’s got a scar down half his face that she didn’t notice until now????

“A fallen angel with a bad boy vibe for miles”

She’s touching his scar…

“I don’t understand you”

AND SHE QUOTES HIM QUOTING HAMLET IN RESPONSE

CH 4: shining armor is so last century

“Mr. tall dark and surly” would be more snarky and cute if she didn’t just have an ~earth-shattering moment of connection~ with him over their agony or w/e

Some weird instinct i don’t understand tells me not to mention that guy - the amount of times this girl has acknowledged something she doesn’t understand is so redundant and weird.

She keeps referring to the guy she spent half the last chapter basically falling in insta-love with as “tall dark and surly” as if that didn’t happen, as if he was just a dick and then he left without all the insta-love shit

Uncle finn and flint is a student...couldn’t pick any other name?

“A smile in his eyes that’s as different from the other guy’s iciness as the stars just outside the windows are from the endless midnight blue of the sky” and i’ve fallen asleep while she was spinning this long unending heavy-handed metaphor

His eyes blaze with sympathy

He offers to give her a piggyback up the stairs…

“You’re so little i won’t even notice” not lyk other girls guyz

Four guys open the door and they’re all sexy AF, tall dark and surly is among them ofc

“I couldn’t help but wonder why the icy guy made me hot and the one lending me his warmth left me cold” WE GET IT WE FUCKING GET IT WE DIDN’T NEED YOU TO SPELL OUT THE ALLUSION

“I want a name to go with his insane body and even more insane face”

CH 5: things hot pink and harry styles have in common

Macy is a cinnamon roll i love her

His name is JAXON VEGA...JAXON. G2G

Macy was so nice to her that she finally starts crying because macy is the BEST

Grace puts on a harry styles t-shirt and macy is dancing around to watermelon sugar when she comes back. This book already feels dated and it came out last month

CH 6: no i don’t really want to build a snowman

She wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about jaxon and almost has a panic attack

I hope in the actual book there is a tw for panic attacks because when i see / read about the symptoms of one or a description of one it triggers one for me

She goes exploring the castle in the dark to avoid the attack

Some guys come in wearing like concert tees and ripped jeans and she wonders if they’re ghosts, like how hogwarts has ghosts

I could swear he was sniffing me which was totally bizarre and not ghostlike behavior at all - this was cringe except i was listening to it at like 2x speed so when you hear it fast it’s actually funny

The guys corner her

They say something like “show us what you can do” and they seem to smell something about her…? They’re werewolves maybe??

CH 7: Something really freaking wicked this way comes

Hate these titles sfm

“With my thin california blood, i won’t last in the snow”

Jaxon saved her ofc and makes the guys apologize

“The moon is doing its thing” they’re totally werewolves

She thanks him and he’s like “i just made you a pawn in a game” and she’s like dude what but he’s staring at her and it’s making her hot and bothered

He wipes blood of her bottom lip and sucks it off and she finds it SUPER sexy

“This isn’t like your old high school”

He whispers in her ear “you have no idea what i know” and i’m like..okay dis kinda hot or whatever

She wonders when she’ll see him again and why it matters so much to her - bitch because he makes you horny!!!! Just say that!!!!!!

CH 8: Live and let die

It’s at this point that i stopped for the first round, and i had to ask: why the FUCK didn’t macy or the headmaster tell grace that this was a school for - obviously - vampires and werewolves? Is macy one? Is it genetic? Grace is a mortal according to the back of the book.

Grace tells macy what happened minus jax

She mentions to macy the boys didn’t have cold weather gear on and macy’s like hmmm weird idk anything about that

And they’re going to a party tonight and grace is like i don’t wear makeup i only own makeup and lip gloss and i’m like...did i accidentally re-download AFTER because here we go with the NLOG syndrome

The party is a welcome party for grace - and it’s actually a high tea??? Tf?

“I’d die without netflix”

“Have you seen this show legacies? It’s about a bunch of supernatural creatures that go to a boarding school! Isn’t that silly??!”

And then macy says, “who can resist a hot vampire?”

Guys….are we SURE this isn’t satire?

“I can’t help remembering what those guys said about the moon doing its thing when i see the werewolf on the show…”

CH 9: Even hell has its factions

Omg her dress is showing off too much of her big boobs, maybe the jeans she originally wanted to wear will be better

Macy calls her beautiful and then we get a full “with my curly hair and freckles and this color eyes i’m so not beautiful, i’m wallpaper next to macy”

“We could be fashionably absent” lol

The beads on the door don’t shock grace but they shock everyone because she is NOT LIKE OTHER GIIIIIIIIRLS

This castle is goth chic baybeeeeee the light fixtures are downturned thorny black roses where can i cop these

“The pterodactyls in my stomach are now butterflies”

She says FML. did a 50 year old woman write this. Edit: i looked, i cannot find how old this author is

Velvet wallpaper, wall sconces shaped like dragons, LET ME IN

“Self-imposed isolation” lol little did she know what a phrase in the lexicon this would become in 2020

Cliques include muscular people near the windows, soft flowery delicate people in the back of the room which are macy’s friends, super-tall literally hot people in the middle, and the black-or-white money people that seem to be more formal

She says “basketball anyone??” re the tall people lol

I am going to guess: werewolves, witches, dragons??, and vampires

Macy keeps having coughing fits?

Hot redhead - simone, hot dark girl - lily, hot asian girl - gwen

“Simone’s just bitter all the guys are looking at you”

Grace loves dr. pepper so i fuck with her

Macy’s boyfriend is cam and his friend is james, who looks at her like she is food?

“I’m just not that interesting”

CH 10: turns out, the devil wears gucci

Would i have probably picked this title as well? Yes. did it make me cringe nonetheless? Fer shure.

“Do i need some jerk trying to make me his afternoon snack?” huh???? As far as you know these are normal boys...make it make sense

Jaxon makes his ENTRAAAANCE BABY

Dressed all in gucci black - she can tell from across the goddamn room

“Jaxon is anything but regular, anything but ordinary, even here among the blatantly extraordinary”

Icy blank stare soooooo much

She calls his voice low wicked and wild

She can’t stop thinking about “running my tongue over the perfect bow of his upper lip, dragging is lower lip between my teeth”

Idk where these thoughts are coming from!!!! Baby you 17 c’mon now

I try to think of anything else, snow!

She takes a drink and it goes down the wrong pipe lmaoooo

“At least if i find a bathroom i can die in peace” lol

But he touches her and she stops choking and she’s like “he couldn’t have stopped that, i know, but…”

He stares at her as he bites the strawberry and she takes it as a threat

CH 11: in the library, no one can hear you scream

“His moods change more quickly than my bffs instafeed” I -

Oh so NOW she’ll say “the fuck you in his eyes” but she was saying freaking and eff before...did her publisher tell her only x amount of fucks per book?

She goes into the library and her body is like RUN, but she ignores it…

There are beautiful gargoyles and ornate shelves and...stickers fucking everywhere?

The gargoyle is pointing to an secret room that says students needs permission, but she hears chanting and decides to check it out since it might be one of the native languages spoken in alaskaaaaaaaaaa

“Especially because some of them only have less than 4,000 speakers left in the world” okay gracie-pedia tf?

CH 12: it’s all fun and games until someone loses their life

She meets a girl named Leah - who was the one chanting

Okay but i do fuck with the horror movie quote pillows…

Damn leah’s boyfriend died…

“Tea from homemade leaves” again...read this out loud before you put it in a published novel...do you mean loose leaves? Do you mean homegrown leaves?

Is she gonna poison her????

“What do you guys have to lie about that’s so important?” “Everything”

CH 13: just bite me

“Lol jk”

“Finish your drink” BITCH IT’S POISON

Macy and leah are being soooo weird about what could have happened to grace on her own

Apparently leah is super popular and secretive so it’s weird she took to grace so fast - is this a NLOG sitch or a “come into my web little fly” sitch?

She pukes because of “altitude sickness” aka poisoning i bet

CH 14: knock knock knocking on death’s door

This theme of bastardization of guns and roses songs is really....something.

Grace takes a mental health day because she’s still feeling weird

Flint comes to check on her and invite her to a snowball fight…?

If your character’s name is grace, i feel like you can’t use gracefully as an adjective, the same way you wouldn’t say Rue said something ruefully.

Flint kisses her cheek and i’m already waiting for this Great Value Edward/Jacob triangle

But he makes her feel ~nothing~ compared to jaxon

CH 15: so hell actually can freeze over

Macy likes flint, uh-oh

But the different groups don’t mix

“What is this, mean girls alaska edition?” - stfu

Omg her uncle checks on her and he reminds her of her dad and :(

We get sooooooo much detail about how to dress to go out into the wilderness...here is one thing i was able to find out: tracy wolff lives in texas. So i feel like she did ALL this research and then was like y’all gonna LEARN ABOUT THIS I SPENT TOO MUCH TIME!

As a girl who has never ever seen snow, i felt this fascination

She finds a gnarled up weird tree guarding a trail

“A weird sense that i should turn around - like the feeling in the library - came over me but i knew i was just being silly”

The lack of survival instinct henny

She comes across a gazebo where leah and jaxon are sitting

CH 16: sometimes keeping your enemies close is the only thing that prevents hypothermia

That’s not a chapter title, it’s an entire sentence…

Ooh they’re having an angry, intimate convo

And leah slaps him!!

“They’re looking at me like they’re the predators and i’m the prey they can’t wait to sink their teeth into” we get it, first of all. Second of all, what is with the long-winded metaphors

“Every time i catch sight of him i feel something tug at me i can’t identify, something i have no ability to explain” it’s horniness.

Then she just leaves but he catches up to her

With his sexy af hair blowing

“Trying to run away from all the thing he makes me feel when really i just want to grab on to him and hold on tight” - so what is the truth?! You keep acting like you don’t know what the feeling is but clearly, YOU DO.

“Everyone answers to me, eventually.” - we found the line used in the adverts guys!

Oh my god, what an asshat. Asshole, i would have laughed. Asshat is stupid.

It’s annoying af

Doing my best dory impression: just keep walking

“Making friends with a dr - a guy like flint” CALLED IT, he’s a dragon

Leah’s boyfriend was jaxon’s brother

Neither leah nor jaxon was wearing a jacket. BOOM

CH 17: it’s discretion, not diamonds, that’s a girl’s best friend

Not only cringe but grammatically incorrect…she coulda just said “discretion is a girl’s best friend” and we woulda got the reference….

Grace mentions jaxon in front of macy and she’s supes weird and grace is FINALLY like wtf is the secret you’re hiding from me

“She looks at me like i’m a few snowflakes short of a snowball” SOMEONE. READ THIS OUT LOUD. WHERE IS HER EDITOR I JUST WANNA TALK.

The order?! “Just a nickname for the popular boys” bullSHIT

Macy FREAKS OUT when she realizes grace has been alone with jaxon

She says he was interesting and “macy looks at me like i said i wanted to bodysurf the alaskan tundra”

Macy “We’re talking about jaxon right? Arrogance of a rock star?”

She didn’t mention “the scar that turns him from to pretty sexy af, and scary af”

“He’s not the one who tried to kill me” “you’ve only been here a few days, give it time” get her MACY!

HE WAS LISTENING!!!!

CH 18: how many hot guys does it take to win a snowball fight?

Ooh jaxon mad that grace is going to flint’s snowball fight

“His breath is so warm and soft that i can feel it everywhere, even deep inside” okay you horny bitch!!!!! Was this cringe or did i like it or both?

“The orange and dark water scent of him” ...what? Dark water is a cologne? Or does she literally mean like the dark water of the ocean? What in confusion

Her throat is always tight and dry around him, all the time, every day

Flint pops up and he is wearing a dragon beanie…

The rest of the order shows up and “For the first time the phrase got your back makes sense” to grace...are you kidding me? You never understood a very simple common phrase til now? Sure jan

SEXUAL TRIANGLE TENSIOOOOOOOOON

But she only has eyes for Jaxon...they both reach to touch each other.

“Grace” it’s barely a whisper but i feel it all the way inside myself BITCH

“Something tells me this boy and his world famous disappearing act is going to be the death of me”

CH 19: we came, we fought, i froze

Civil twilight AGAIN.

“I didn’t think screwed up and obnoxious was your type” me-OW

The snowball fight happens

Sounds like fun, the designer faction isn’t there

“Did she just do parkour against that tree?” re: Macy so close to being funny. I did exhale through my nose. Then “did you just parkour that tree?” i DID laugh

Flint climbs the tree with grace over his shoulder ‘like spider man’ and all i can think is “you better hold on tight spider monkey”

The wind is so strong it knocks her out of the tree…

CH 20: there’s never a parachute around when you need one

Flint catches her in mid-air...this man… #teamflint2020

“You’re heavier than you look” dead

He has shame in his eyes? Why?

Because JAXON IS THERE AND HE IS MAD!

And flint is SUPER MAD!!!!!!!

Jaxon puts himself between grace and flint so grace can’t touch flint

“Can i just say i’m feeling a lot like alice in wonderland here? Things get curiouser and curiouser.” stfu

I was laughing because she was like “so much for fitting in, now i might as well be painted biohazard orange” but then she said fml. Stfu

Jaxon picks her up

CH 21: I like standing on my own two feet, but getting swept off them feels surprisingly good, too

If it takes up more than one line of a google docs page IT’S NOT A FUCKING CHAPTER TITLE!!!!!

Ooh and his arms feel really good around her, REALLY good

Now he smells like orange and snow and it’s making her crazy

Macy looks at them like she’s getting punk’d

“Grace.” “what?” “shut up.” i’m dead

“I sprained my ankle, i’m not dying of consumption” “yeah well, the night is young” this made me lol despite it being more of macy’s voice than jaxon’s

Jaxon is blaming grace for falling? “You don’t see macy falling out of her tree” is he negging her rn?

She’s called him super-sexy twice in a paragraph

Macy goes to get ice bc she’s scared of Jaxon and grace says, “Et tu, brute?” lmaooo

“I can do it myself” “maybe i wanna do it for you” and macy squeaks LMAO

His scar makes his smile a crooked little smirk...who else had a crooked smirk...the vampire this is 1000% based on, maybe?

“I find myself relaxing despite myself” guys. Reading is power. Read your work out loud so you can hear when you use the same word twice in a sentence, like this.

“My whole body lights up like the aurora borealis i’m still dying to see”

They almost kiss but don’t bc macy comes back

~~~