#but I DO think by season's end there will be -- a moment.

[flowersbyphone]

(i was tagged in one of these????? this has only happened like one other time) thanks for the tag @invisible-airwaves !!

Favorite color: dark/deep ruby red (absolutely loved all the red motifs in Grace Under Pressure by Rush... is this off topic?)

Currently reading: the girldragongizzard series by theInmara, Pictures of an Exhibitionist by Keith Emerson, and Cosmic Clouds 3-D by David J. Eicher (some of these i haven't read in a while for no reason in particular, but i'm going to continue them... eventually) other than that, various fics

Last song listened to: Alien Shore by Rush (i'm listening to Counterparts for the first time right now i'm not kidding - im screaming im yelling)

Last movie: i'm trying to even remember... i think it was Groundhog's Day because my family has a tradition of watching it every Groundhog's Day - i wasn't really feeling it this year, but they really wanted me to join them (i still ended up enjoying it - still not a super big fan of the rom-com stuff, but that's just me)

Last Series: Star Trek: Voyager!! i'm watching it for the first time with my family (who has already seen it) and i love it so much - we're on i believe season 6 currently - they've been showing me all the Star Treks in order of release (which we started doing y e a r s ago, so this has been going on a while)

Sweet, savory or spicy: savory

Craving: nothing at the moment but when i try to think of things... salty or savory stuff sounds pretty good... stop i shouldn't be eating this late at night

Tea or coffee: tea! (i really like chamomile with honey - honestly i don't live around a ton of people who have tea as one of their main drinks so my experiences with tea are a bit limited - i thought i hated it at first, but it was just that i didn't know how to make tea)

currently working on: i'm doing a cross stitch of Kiryu's tattoo from the RGG/Yakuza/Like A Dragon video games - when i feel like it, learning/playing/sightreading music on piano or (at a much lower level) guitar (the music consists of anything i like - if i love it enough, i'm likely to try to play it) - i'm slowly/casually trying to understand Swedish better for music/band reasons (to maybe one day understand lyrics (plus a snippet of video) that i can't find translations for, and because they got me interested in it, plus it is fun to learn new things) - i have a colored pencil sketch of my ocs that i'm sporadically adding to (i don't draw that often, so this is the first time i've even drawn some of them LOL)

tagging (no pressure to do it): @cicadaofthelake @progfessor-dyke @mikeology @geddy-spageddy @primatechnosynthpop @wyndsong @childoftheriver @auroreamethyste @junecast-moonfast and anyone else who sees this - peace!

rules: tag nine people you want to get to know better

Tagged by @indrid-hot - thanks a bunch!

Favorite Color: A nice, warm, sunny orange - but also honestly most other colors of the rainbow and then some.

Currently Reading: The Tevinter Nights Dragon Age short story collection.

Last Song: L'appuntamento - Ornella Vanoni

Last Movie: Ah, gosh. HM. I haven't watched anything that's not a TV show in a while. I semi-voluntarily caught the last fifteen minutes of Scrooged over the winter holidays I guess?

Last Series: Last series I watched any part of is, as always, "Emergency!" because I will never not be stuck in 70's paramedic hell. If we're talking new-to-me shows, a friend's making me watch Grey's Anatomy (early seasons) once a week, probably because observing my growing despair about the characters' poor life choices is fun. I don't even normally watch medical shows, and yet here we are lol

Sweet, Savoury, Spicy: Savory if I had to pick

Craving: Some good spaghetti with olive oil and obscene amounts of lightly toasted garlic.

Tea/Coffee: Yes please, lol

Currently working on: OH BOY WHAT A QUESTION.

Spinning: Gotland on my spindles (4-ply, one single per spindle, for funsies - except I accidentally mixed up which bits of fiber go with which single on which spindle, so that'll be fun to sort out...), 7oz/200g of red Merino on the wheel (for a crochet hat, followed by 9.5 oz of red and black Merino for a woven scarf). But also 24.5oz/700g of grey Merino. And cotton on the supported spindle. And I've got some laceweight viscose on the mini turkish spindle that I should really work on...

Crocheting: Half a dozen things, including a lacy collar that needs buttons and blocking, a gigantic star-shaped wrap-around shawl, an incredibly boring granny square top for my little sister, and too many others to count.

Art: The Emergency! tarot as the eternal never-ending WIP; I also have some Dragon Age Veilguard related plans revolving around the Grand Necropolis and irl Catacomb Saints and I'd love to get some DA-style tarot cards done for all my player characters.

Writing: I still have a couple unfinished fanfics that need another chapter, as well as two deeply self-indulgent OC/Emergency! crossovers that friends are making me write, and I also have some Dragon Age stuff in the works - though if anyone will ever see that is another question entirely.

Music: Practicing various stuff for LARP; also slowly chipping away at Hozier's Work Song because my partner asked nicely.

With no pressure, I will tag: @geminyde, @caseyscraftycorner, @swords-n-spindles, @alpacazappa, @rosesonneptune, @rose-of-pollux, @zooarchaeologyatdinner, @kalikatze aaaaand I can't decide on a 9th person to tag so whoever wants to do this: You're It!

[ramp-it-up]

Boss

Summary: Your boss, Henry Cavill, is CEO of a company that changes lives. He is also a bit of a jerk. None of that stops you from being in love with him. And he with you.

Pairing: Ceo!Henry Cavill x reader au

A/N: I think Henry Cavill is a beautiful man, idc, idc. He is the faceclaim to my fantasies. Today. Big props to @nissaimmortal for tolerating my lust in her inbox and giving advice. Here it is. Read, react, alladat, please. :) I am fed through your interactions, so please like, comment and reblog. I live for that shit.

Warnings: 18+ Only, Minors DNI. Read at your own risk. Smut! Idiots in love, slow burn, mutual pining, age gap. Angst, a tinge of lonliness, no work/life balance, jerk Henry, slightly insecure, but smart reader. Jealous Henry, references to male masturbation, wild thoughts on both of your parts, references to oral sex (f receiving), whoo boy, the kiss. And the challenge.

I no longer have a taglist. Please follow @rampitupandread and turn on notifications to learn when I post! 😘

I Do NOT Consent to my work being reposted, translated or presented on any other blog or site other than by myself.

------

You never meant for this to happen.

You were just practicing self care in the season of love. 

The flowers weren’t for anyone but you, a way to remind yourself that you were worth it, even if no one else thought that. 

You knew the office would be flooded with bouquets today, desks overflowing with flowers, cards, and candies. It was the one happenstance of your first whirlwind month on the job that stuck with you.

You vowed that your desk wouldn’t be empty this year, and no one would look at you with pity while asking you what you were doing that night. 

So you sent flowers to yourself. 

They were nothing dramatic, just some pretty little pink peonies and roses with a card that you’d written to yourself.

But Henry, your boss, your gruff, frustrating, inspiring, six-foot-two, broad-shouldered, dark haired, storm-eyed asshole of a boss, apparently, didn’t see it that way. 

—--

You’d worked for Henry for a little over 14 months, and there had been a tension between you since your interview when he just sat there and stared at you as if you were some alien sent from a distant world. 

Despite that, he grilled you about your personal vision, told you he admired your qualifications and you were hired. 

What ensued was a year of hard, but gratifying work with a company that valued diversity and helping the planet. Henry Cavil was the CEO of that company, and as his assistant, you weren’t just a glorified secretary. 

You were right-hand to changing the world.

Henry seemed to care for nothing but work, and was professional to the point of extreme with you, even when you two worked late and long hours side by side.

Holidays were unimportant to him, weekends were just another day, and he didn’t seem to notice that you might feel differently.

You didn’t, but it would have been nice to have been asked.

It would have been nice if he noticed you as a human, if he asked about your family, what you liked to do in your free time....Whatever that was. 

And sometimes, you looked up to see him looking at you as if he were going to ask about one of those things, but in each instance, he just looked back down to what he was working on, continuing with the discussion at hand. 

You let it slide, because being by his side was all that you wanted. Even if he just tolerated you. 

Because you were in love with him. Since the moment before he offered you the job at the end of your interview. 

You could help millions of people around the world, but you couldn’t help yourself from falling in love with Henry, a man at least ten years your senior who was emotionally unavailable.

You were a sad case.

Your boss was your secret obsession, the man who’d starred in your most delicious fantasies for far too long. 

But Henry would never take a second look at you romantically. 

You were doll-sized next to him, you’re too nerdy, too curvy, and too headstrong to be the kind of compliant arm candy that you heard he went for. You were destined to pine for your boss with the superhero looks, destined to be the sidekick in the romance of his life.

—---

Henry had been in torment for 14 months 12 days, and 7 hours, the moment you walked into his office for your interview. And he’d been in love with you for 14 months, 12 days, 6 hours and 45 minutes.

But he vowed that you should never know how he felt while sentencing himself to the daily torture of working side by side with you every day.

He tried to put you out of his head, but his favorite thing was to send you ahead of him to meetings and to fall in behind you on the long walk to the boardroom, your sumptuous ass giving him lots of spank bank material. 

Every night he went home to shower, fuck his hand, and paint the tiled wall with copious amounts of spend as he thought of the way you looked that day and your adorable little quirks: 

The faint smiles you gave him when you thought he wasn’t looking. 

How you nibbled on that fucking sexy bottom lip when you were deep in thought and gazing at him, or hunched over your laptop and typing away. 

The way that you walked, those tempting curves of yours that made him ache to throw you over his shoulder and have his way with you.

Henry had ordered you the finest oak desk that he could find during your first week on the job. The glass one in the office was fine, but would be a bit flimsy in the off chance that he should throw you over it and eat you out until his jaw was sore and until your voice grew hoarse from screaming his name.

You’d been the fire in his blood for the entire time he’d known you, and he couldn’t help himself from being irretrievably under your spell.

But instead of telling you that, for the last 14 months, he'd settled for every minute that he could wring from you for work, because there could never be anything more than that.

—---

This evening, Henry had stopped in your office doorway with menus for dinner, when he saw the flowers and crossed his arms over his huge chest.

Your eyes slid down his form, noticing how the sleeves of his crisp white button down strained around his biceps, the vest he was wearing highlighted the thick inverted triangle of his body, and his dark slacks hugged his muscular thighs. 

It should be illegal for him to look that fucking good, especially at this hour in the evening, on this night of love. You looked up at him, at his dark eyebrows drawn together over those piercing blue eyes, looking at the bouquet like it personally insulted him. 

Then he looked at you.

There was heat in his gaze, something that made your toes curl in your heels, and for a moment you were frozen. Damn, he was hot, especially when he was perturbed. 

"Who sent them?"

His deep voice was low and calm, but there was a dangerous edge to his sexy ass British accent. Goosebumps raised on your skin.

You were caught between confusion and a being flustered from direct attention from him. He usually avoided eye contact and more than a few grunts at a time, so this was new.

Henry was always intimidating, but tonight, he was also extra attractive, with his tie loosened, his white dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his dark curls slightly messy as if he'd been running his hands through it.

Oh, and it didn’t help that his jaw was clenching and his blue eyes seemed to be burning.

"Excuse me?" you asked, keeping your voice as neutral as possible. 

You were tired, but there was a deadline to meet, despite the fact that this was a night for lovers. 

You two were the perfect pair to still be at work, because you were the furthest thing from romantics. You and Henry were workaholics, dedicated to your job, with no time for love.

Henry’s gaze flicked to the small card nestled between the flowers. 

You knew exactly what it said.

You are desirable. You are unforgettable. You deserve to be loved the way you love others.

A self-affirmation just for you. Something no one else was supposed to see.

But when Henry read it, he mistook the meaning.

"So who is he?"

His look was dark and his eyes were stormy, causing your stomach to drop.

"What?"

Henry’s fists clenched at his sides. 

"The person who sent these. The one who wrote you that." 

His voice dropped lower, like he was trying to hold back something. 

"Who. Is. He?"

You realized that he thought you had someone. And he sounded jealous. But that would be…

No. It was impossible. 

Your pulse became erratic with the thought

Henry was always particular: demanding, impatient, exacting. But he was also never unfair and never once let you fail. He always pushed you to be better and gave you glowing performance reviews, even when his actions conveyed that you were the most frustrating person on the planet to him.

You always assumed that he just tolerated you. That you annoyed him. But at the moment, he looked like a man barely holding himself together because he thought someone else had sent you flowers.

This was a development.

Before you could respond, Henry stepped closer to you. You tilted your head back to gaze up at him towering over you, broad and built like a damn brick wall. One that you wanted and needed to climb. 

"You didn’t answer me," he murmured, voice rough. Boy, those eyes could chill you to the bone.

"Why do you care?"

You were perturbed now, and it was clear in your response. 

Henry’s jaw ticked and something flashed in his eyes, there and gone too quickly for you to analyze.

“Careful, Little One.”

He’d never called you that, so you cocked your head with curiosity and watched as he sat on the edge of your desk, hiking his pants up on his legs, showcasing his massive thighs, and yes, the long, thick rod between them. 

Your eyebrows shot up and your eyes went wide, too surprised at his words and actions to pull the well-practiced mask over your features.

Henry caught you looking, but you didn’t catch the way his mouth hooked up in a half smile at your reaction. 

You licked your lips and watched as his hand moved slowly upward, until he was brushing his fingers over the petals of one of the roses. The act felt intimate, like he was imagining something else beneath his fingertips. 

Or maybe you were the one imagining.

“You deserve to be loved the way you love others," he repeated, more softly. 

He gazed at you, eyes blazing. 

"And you think this guy, whoever he is, can give you that?"

Your throat went dry. You should’ve just told him the truth. But you didn’t.

Because you knew he was jealous. And he was about to lose it. And you wanted to see what happened when he did. 

You chucked your chin up at him, a challenge.

"And what if he can?"

Henry knew he was pathetic because you were his employee, and he had no claim to you, no right to feel possessive at the thought of you with another man. 

But that didn’t stop him from wanting to track down the mutherfucker that sent you those flowers and beat him to a bloody pulp. And that didn't stop him from wanting to grab you and kiss you until you realized that you were fucking his. 

That you’d always been his, from the moment you first looked him in the eye.

The air between you crackled with energy as his entire body tensed as he stood up again, those massive hands curling into fists like he was restraining himself from something. His jaw flexed, his breath deepened, and he reached out for you, hand on your waist, drawing you in to press you against his very solid body. 

And then Henry’s mouth was on yours, hot and demanding and so fucking perfect that you couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but give in.

You grunted in surprise as his full lips pressed on yours and his delicious tongue slid inside your mouth. All of your senses came alive in a cacophony of sight, taste, smell, and sound. And of course, touch.

You let yourself melt into his kiss, reaching up and tugging at the soft curls rioting over his collar, and then he pulled back, panting. His hand came up to wipe the moisture from your lips with his thumb, which he then inserted into his mouth and kept eye contact with you as he suckled his digit.

You imagined those lips doing the same to various points on your body and you nearly swooned, especially when he pulled his thumb out with a plop and then released you. 

Henry stepped back, baring his teeth in a dangerous smile. 

Your mind was scrambled, but you knew one thing for certain: Henry was attracted to you. Just as much as you were attracted to him.

Who would have thunk?

Henry adjusted his cuffs, highlighting those distracting veins on the back of his hands. He nodded at the flowers, then at you, a dangerous smile on his lips.

"Hope he’s ready to compete," he murmured, leaving you stunned.

“Get your coat, we’re going out to dinner tonight.”

And then he walked back into his office, leaving you staring after him, heart slamming against your ribs, lips feeling swollen and bruised from the kiss.

You had no idea what those flowers just unleashed in him. 

But you were about to find out.

[jjscrybaby]

jj maybank x sweetheart!reader | hurt & comfort | (gun violence, anxious!reader, comforting!jj.)

this is based on season 1 episode 1 but i did get the idea to write it from @blueheron15 !! i’m gonna write more scenes from the show with this pairing i think but as always keep sending reqs!

i went back and changed some things to do with sarah and john b in the first thing i posted for sweetheart!reader because i want it all to make sense timeline wise so it wouldn’t add up for reader to meet jj through sarah!

︶︶︶ ⊹ ︶︶︶ ୨♡୧ ︶︶︶ ⊹ ︶︶︶

The entire day had felt like torture for you. The others had enjoyed themselves, a day of adventure and excitement which you hadn’t all felt for a while, you felt the opposite. All of it was too much, the gun, the money, the dead body showing up. It was too much, maybe that’s why you’d agreed to the kegger so easily. Getting drunk can do nothing but calm you down.

“Okay, baby?” JJ asked softly as you came and sat down on his lap halfway through the night.

“Mhm,” you hummed, sipping on your bitter beer; there weren’t any other options and you weren’t in a complaining mood.

“Yeah? Why you lookin’ at me all grumpy then, huh?” He teased, poking your cheek.

You pretended to bite his finger, causing him to let out a mock gasp which had you giggling in his arms. He smiled sweetly at you, pressing a kiss to your cheek. “Just an overwhelming day.”

“Yeah, but it was fun,” JJ replied.

“For you.”

“Maybe, but you had fun earlier when we were on the boat. And I know you liked bein’ pressed up against me on the ledge,” he teased, making your cheeks heat up at the memory.

“Shut it, Jayj. Didn’t have a choice, you forced me to come along,” you pouted.

He ran his finger over your lip, mocking you with the same expression. “C’mon, cheer up baby. Nothin’ else out of the ordinary is gonna happen, okay? We’re just havin’ a drink with our friends, and people we hate.” He pointed to the group of Kooks on the far end of the beach.

“Sarah’s nice,” you murmured, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Is she?” He’d never really heard you talk about her, all he knew was what Kiara had told him about her so he assumed that meant that you weren’t a fan of the blonde also.

“She hangs out with me at school sometimes. Kie doesn’t mind, I already checked,” you explained. JJ smiled softly at you, of course you’d made sure Kiara was okay with you talking to Sarah. You were just too sweet.

“She hangs with you at school?” JJ knew you weren’t a huge fan of school. A lot of the Kook’s used to take advantage of your kindness, and that lead to him having some serious conversations with them. No one bothers you anymore, but most also don’t make an effort to even get to know you.

You nodded your head, sipping your drink again. You weren’t feeling the buzz that you wanted. “We eat lunch together sometimes, or, like, we partner up for projects.”

“That’s nice, sweetheart,” he said, kissing your temple.

It was nice, and that was probably why later that night, when he’d had enough drinks to last a lifetime, he offered Sarah his spare drink. He meant no harm, he was just happy that someone at school was making you happy. It only took a minute for things to go wrong.

John B had saved JJ from a fight with Topper, something that’s happened more times than he could count, but Topper just had to have the last word. “Dirty Pogues!” It had sent John B reeling, turning around to shove him.

From there, it just spiralled. One moment Topper was winning, the next John B was, and soon enough the Kook had one of your best friend’s heads held under water.

“He’s drowning him!” Pope exclaimed.

JJ saw red. You watched as the blonde rushed over, and then the click of the gun safety echoed through your ears. That damn gun. It was held to Topper’s head, everyone seemed to freeze as they realised what was going on.

“Yeah, you know what that is. Your move, broski,” you could hear JJ threaten.

You were frozen. On one hand, you weren’t sure he had much other choice? If he hadn’t stepped in then there’s a high likelihood Topper wouldn’t have stopped until John B was dead. On the other hand, he was holding a gun to someone’s head; that spoke for itself.

The crowd dispersed, terrified of the mad man with the gun, leaving just your group of friends and Sarah and Kelce to deal with the aftermath.

“JJ! Put the gun down,” Sarah pleaded.

“Did you say somethin’, Princess?” JJ asked, not even turning to look at her.

“We’re good, we’re good,” Topper exclaimed, holding his hands up in surrender as he slowly started to stand up.

“Kie! Can you check your psycho friend, please?” You didn’t necessarily like Sarah calling JJ a psycho, but he was sort of acting like one. You’d be the same if it was Topper holding a gun to JJ’s head; you’d probably be worse.

“Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!” JJ yelled, holding the gun in the air as he shot it off twice.

That was what did it. The waterworks were set off and you started to panic. You weren’t scared of JJ, you were scared for him. He just fired a gun, he could go to jail! You couldn’t help but to start crying as the overwhelming situation took over.

“Are you crazy? You idiot!” Pope exclaimed as both him and Kiara shoved JJ. “Why would you do that?”

“It’s not worth it!” Kie added.

“I’m saying his life, okay?” JJ argued.

It took only a few seconds for him to look at you. He was expecting you to be angry, not crying.

“You’re gonna jeopardise everything!” Pope carried on, but JJ wasn’t listening to the lecture anymore.

“Hey, hey, baby.” JJ rushed to your side, cupping your face in his hands. “Are you hurt? What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

“You’re gonna get in trouble,” you whispered, afraid of Pope and Kiara’s reactions to what you were worried about.

JJ’s eyebrows furrowed, he grabbed your hand in his as Kie and Pope ran over to help John B. He dragged you — gently — down the beach and away from the still lingering party-goers. His hands found your waist, tugging you so you were chest to chest.

“You don’t gotta worry about me getting in trouble, okay?” He soothed, stroking your hair.

“I don’t want you to go to jail!” You argued, sobs still leaving your mouth just at the thought.

“Alright, alright.” He was trying his best to not let the amusement show on his face. He couldn’t help it, you were just so cute. “No one’s going to jail, okay? I promise. I’m fine. Now, do you want to stand here crying or do you want to go home?”

“With you?” You checked, wiping the tears from your face.

He smiled down at you, pressing a kiss to your cheek. “Yeah, sweetheart. With me.”

[hrtwayne]

Picture You | Leah Williamson

Pairing: Leah Williamson x Physiotherapist!Reader

Summary: Where Leah ends up kissing the team's physiotherapist.

Note: English is not my first language!

Warning: Mention of flirting and a possible kiss!

Masterlist | Women's Football Masterlist

Leah, one of the most renowned defenders in English football, had just arrived at Arsenal's training center. After a relatively intense season with tougher training sessions, she began to feel a constant discomfort in her thigh. As usual, she decided to ignore the pain at first, believing it was just muscle fatigue. However, after a few more days of discomfort, it became unavoidable. Leah found herself heading to the physiotherapy room.

Y/n, a renowned physiotherapist known both nationally and internationally in the sports scene, was in the room finishing up with Alessia, who had complained of a slight ankle pain after stepping wrong during training.

"Lessi, don’t worry, your ankle isn’t swollen. Just apply a compress before bed and avoid straining it tomorrow," Y/n explained, applying gentle pressure to the area to relieve the tension.

Alessia nodded, trusting Y/n's advice, and soon left, leaving the physiotherapist alone in the room. Y/n began organizing her things, preparing to wrap up her workday.

It was at that moment that Leah appeared at the door, the pain in her thigh becoming harder to ignore. She had always found the way Y/n conducted her work intriguing. The physiotherapist was competent and extremely methodical, but also had a seriousness that intrigued Leah. Perhaps it was this combination of competence and coolness that made Leah throw out her cheap flirtations every chance she got.

"Good afternoon, doctor. Are you heading out already?" Leah asked, her tone slightly softer than usual.

Y/n, who was already facing away, organizing her work bag, took a deep breath before turning to face the player. Leah, with her usual relaxed posture, made Y/n feel something different—a mix of irritation and interest.

"Do you need something?" Y/n asked, her voice calm but with a hint of impatience.

"I’ve been feeling some discomfort in my thigh during training. I think you should take a look," Leah replied, a slight smile on her face.

"Alright, take a seat over there," Y/n said, pointing to the examination table while finishing organizing her materials.

Leah quickly obeyed, her heart beating a little faster than usual as she watched the physiotherapist approach. She lay down on the table, waiting for the evaluation to begin. Y/n, always focused, began lightly touching Leah’s thigh, trying to identify the source of the pain.

"Is this thigh pain something recurring?" Y/n asked, her analytical gaze fixed on the area as she applied gentle pressure.

Leah took a deep breath, feeling the cool, precise touch of the physiotherapist’s fingers on her warm skin. Her mind began to wander.

"It’s been a few days, but I thought it was just fatigue from training," Leah replied, trying not to get distracted by Y/n’s proximity.

Y/n’s touch was firm and professional, but something about the way her fingers moved over Leah’s skin made the defender’s body react in ways she didn’t expect. Each press, each calculated movement seemed to provoke more than just a physical response—something deeper was stirring within her.

"Does it hurt here?" Y/n asked, gently squeezing a specific part of Leah’s thigh.

"A little, but it’s bearable," Leah murmured, her eyes fixed on the physiotherapist’s, feeling a silent connection forming.

Y/n continued the examination, applying a cold gel to Leah’s thigh to reduce inflammation. She began massaging the area with precise movements while explaining the procedure.

"It seems to be due to muscle overload, probably from the accumulation of intense matches and training sessions. I’ll recommend a painkiller and cold compresses to reduce the pain, and, of course, some rest," Y/n said, but soon noticed that Leah was distracted, her eyes fixed on her.

You weren’t paying attention to what I said, were you?" Y/n asked, her voice carrying a mix of playfulness and seriousness.

Leah blinked, snapping back to reality, and smirked, not hiding her charm.

"I was listening, doctor, but... I can’t focus much when you’re this close," Leah replied, her tone bold.

Y/n shook her head, unable to hold back a small smile. She knew Leah had this provocative side, but she also knew there was something more behind that attitude.

"You need to be a bit more subtle when you look at me like that, you know?" Y/n said, maintaining her professional tone but with a glint in her eyes. "Even with your reputation for flirting with everyone, it doesn’t go unnoticed."

"So you noticed?" Leah replied, her smile widening. "And what are you going to do about it?"

Before Leah could process the response, Y/n took a step closer to the defender, her eyes now fixed on Leah’s lips. It was a sudden decision, perhaps driven by the tension that had been building between them over the past few weeks. And then, Y/n took the initiative, pulling Leah into an intense and unexpected kiss.

Leah, caught off guard, quickly responded, her hands moving to hold Y/n’s waist, pulling her closer. The kiss was hungry, filled with repressed desire. The world around them disappeared for a few moments.When Y/n finally pulled away, both were breathless. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to regain her composure.

"That shouldn’t have happened here," Y/n said, her voice slightly hoarse.Leah smiled, leaning forward.

"Well, if it can’t be here, we can continue outside," she suggested, a provocative glint in her eyes.

Y/n chuckled softly, shaking her head.

"We’ll see, Leah. Now go rest and follow my recommendations. And maybe... we’ll talk later... outside."

"So... outside?" Leah said, regaining her voice as she adjusted her posture, trying to appear calmer than she really was. Her eyes sparkled with subtle provocation.

Y/n, on the other hand, maintained the expression of someone still in control, though her slightly accelerated breathing betrayed her. She took a few steps back, gathering the remaining materials she would use to finish the session.

"Leah, this is work. I shouldn’t..." Y/n began, but the defender, with a mischievous smile, interrupted.

"I know. And I promise next time we’ll keep things in the right place," Leah said, winking. "But... I also know it’s not just work that makes you look at me like that."

Y/n sighed, finally allowing a small smile to escape. Leah was right, and although the moment wasn’t ideal, there was something undeniable between them—an attraction that had been building with every exchanged glance, every casual comment.

"Let’s focus on your recovery now," Y/n said, regaining her professional demeanor, but with a glint in her eyes that hinted this story was far from over. "And later... maybe we can talk about that 'outside.'"

Leah chuckled softly, lying back down as the physiotherapist applied the cold compress to her injured thigh. Even in that clinical environment, the tension between them lingered in the air, promising much more than just future consultations and treatments.

[rockabyedaisy]

Respectfully in saying this, it wasn't just because he SAID it, it was also the because the show in Season 1 made sure to SHOW Silco treating Jinx as a daughter. Arguably in all the way back to the end of Act 1.

When he let her scribbled things on his desk, when he was patient enough to talk to her about what happened at Progress Day, keeping Vi away from her, cradeling Jinx's burnt body at the bridge, carrying her all the way to Singed's office by himself, the kiss on her forehead. All these may not mean much in, but people are allowed to still interpret their relationship as parental because those moments speaks to us as parental love. A writer's interpretation can and even will be very different to the reader's, as encouraged to do so.

What Linke is saying here is that Silco didn't necessarily think of Jinx as a daughter. This implies this at some point he finally did when he first took her in but there is more to it from the times Jinx was working for him . He sees her as his soldier, as a confidante ("You're the only one I can trust with this Jinx"), a weapon to utilize against his enemies, even a trophy to show off on how he conquered against Vander's influence and leadership in Zaun.

Silco did see Jinx as his daughter, but with him being an unreliable narrator, he also saw her as more than that. Their relationship was messy, codependent, toxic. But so arwemany loving relationships in real life and in fiction as well. That's why it was easy to believe him saying that he did because it did not come out of nowhere. Besides, Linke wasn't the only write in Arcane so it's possible other writers would disagree with him.

Someone get Christian Linke off the mic please im begging

[natsredbra]

Okayyyy since season 3 is here and I'm just talking about Iris, so let's change it up a bit to...NATALIE😈😈😈 MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

God...she's sooo hot this season it's almost illegal :( I was thinking about running off with Natalie to go skinny dipping in the lake, just taking a break from queenly responsibilities to cool off for a few hours <3 I was also thinking about making out and fingering her in the water and she would be so whiny about it, just making the sweetest little noises as she lets herself be kissed and touched

Or eating against some random tree far from camp because she's been so stressed lately and you just want to please her.

Or even better😈😈 scissor with her in your little cabin at night while the other girls sleep, letting her ride your face too and simply use you to let off steam. Making this thought even better with the prospect that yes she had a relationship with Travis but they are no longer together, still she never felt so much pleasure with him and she really started to like you, so imagine poor Travis simply being awake in the cabin next door and ending up hearing everything, from the half-muffled moans of the two, to the wetness of their pussies and the little compliments sweet and passionate confessions😓 poor Travis, this boy is really sad... and kind of uncomfortable I think

I'm just a girl🤭♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡

-🌺

may i PLEASE ask for your hand in marriage?? 💍

Right as the two of you go to bed, you suggest the idea to her- it’s a nice way to let off some steam, and just be yourselves without everyone’s prying eyes on you.

She seemed ecstatic and extremely happy to go skinny dipping- it’s something you two hadn’t done in a while. I mean yeah, maybe you have been ‘just friends’ up until a couple months ago, but there was always insane tension, that you finally released now that you’re away from society.

But back to skinny dipping- you guys stumble down to the lake, hand in hand and giggling with a makeshift torch and a towel

Stripping in an overdramatic manner, you jump into the water, still close to each other……it’s all very wholesome and cute for maybe two minutes, before you start violently making out close to the shore, but still in the water.

You were on top of her, holding her thighs close as they wrapped around your waist while she sucked on you tongue and let out desperate little noises UGHH

Finally shifting a little to let your hand travel lower and lowerrr, until you reach her sopping hole and give it teasing little rubs

She may have control over everyone- but in this moment she was all yours. All yours to take and please as you wish. And oh, how you do.

Your fingers make soft strokes inside her, while your mouth maps out every inch of her face and neck, peppering them with soft kisses while you tell her what a good leader and good girl she is <33

And she just diessss! You know how to please her so well, something no one has done for her properly before…but unfortunately you’re a cocky little bitch and want to have more fun with her.

So you pull out, and fight the urge to moan when her pussy practically chases your fingers, and you assure her that it’ll be okay, and that she’ll get exactly what she wants and more soon enough<3

————————————————————————

Somehow, as you attempt to quietly get back to your hut (key word, attempt) you almost immediately found yourself pinned under her, with her pussy rutting against yours

She’s resting her head on your shoulder with your panties in her mouth, along with one of your legs draped over her hip as she fucks herself into you…honestly, she usually let you take charge, but you knew that this was more then horniness, she was letting alllllll her frustration out on you, and fuck you shouldn’t like the thought that much.

But still, with the fabric in her mouth her whimpers are only half muffled, and you can still hear them, as well as some incoherent praises and cussing

Yet she wasn’t very experienced with girls, and definitely wasn’t too sure how to top one, which also made her frustrated out of her mind…she was right on the brink but needed some kind of push, yet she didn’t know what or how.

You actually think she might start crying. Everyone’s always on her ass, Shauna is being a fucking nightmare, and now she can’t even cum! And that’s when a little idea popped in that pretty head of yours.

“Baby- you wanna sit on my face?” You drawled out, fully witnessing her expression change into one of want

She just nods slowly, straddling you and throwing forementioned panties across the shelter. You could feel her wetness on your tummy as she sat on you, subconsciously grinding her hips on your lower belly…you have to stick your tongue out to remind her of what you were doing.

She climbs up immediately, hovering over you- which you hated. You hated having to chase her with your tongue, so you grabbed her hips and pulled her down, pressing her entire body weight atop of your face.

She lets out a surprise gasp, but bites her lip to attempt and muffle any sounds…which becomes increasingly hard once your mouth starts exploding her folds.

She got more confident as it went on, riding your face as if it was a fucking pillow, telling you exactly what to do, saying how good she feels, doing her absolute best to hold herself up, and you love every second of it.

As she gets closer and closer, she throws her head back, still biting her lip- likely hard enough to draw blood. But she isn’t able to conceal one low moan when her orgasm crashes over her, it comes like a tidal wave, making her go limp and see fucking white.

You slap her cunt as she gets off you and lays beside you, looking utterly spent- if these people were gonna be irritating, they will hear her letting that irritation out.

Everyone can see just how happy and content the two of you were next morning, and they know why too. After all, they barely slept, you practically kept them up with you. But probably the hottest thing to happen was seeing Travis’ face, and seeing how distraught he was. Not only had he never made her feel that way, he probably didn’t even know it was possible, considering some of the things he heard last night would likely make Lucifer clutch his cross necklace. And maybe you should feel bad, for his dad, brother and whatnot…getting his girlfriend stolen right before his eyes, but it just turned you on more. Safe to say, this was now a habit the two of you made.

[thatbirdrestaurant]

A deeply unnecessary analysis of NaLu and Natsu's feelings

I'm as much of a sucker for insta-love NaLu as the next guy, but I do genuinely believe it took these two a while to fall in love. I can't deny that there was an immediate attraction, especially on Lucy's end, and I do think romantic feelings have been stewing between the two of them since as early as season one, but the realization took a really long time to hit.

We'll start off talking about Lucy, because I have the least to say about her. I've said before that I think Lucy didn't realize she had feelings for Natsu until she realized she was in love with him, which was after the events of the Eclipse Gate. I can pinpoint the exact moment she realized; the moment right after, when her and Natsu are standing in the rubble, and she just starts crying before running to hug him. I think that's the moment she realized that she loves him, and she has for a while.

I believe it took so long for Lucy to realize because she grew up in a very sheltered environment. Her only exposure to typical teenage experiences that didn't involve arranged marriages was teen magazines; she knew what it felt like to be superficially attracted to someone, when someone was objectively attractive, and she's had crushes before, but never really been in love.

We're moving onto Natsu now, because I have the most to say about him by a landslide. For immediate starters, I don't really recognize 100 Year Quest; even though I love all the GruVia development within it, I find it to be a very unnecessary spin-off that doesn't respect its characters, especially Natsu. It's done horrible things for his maturity as a whole, including all the development with Lucy.

Natsu loves Lucy, that's something I've believed for a very long time, and he shows it in his actions more than anything. He's protective of her, he loves spending time with her and he's upset when she isn't around, and he wants to move Heaven and Earth for her. He has since pretty much day one.

But he doesn't realize he has feelings for her until their fight with Kain, and he doesn't even realize he's in love with her until he watches her (future self) die.

That doesn't sound right, though, does it? How can someone watch a scene like Natsu putting the rainbow sakura on a boat, just so Lucy can see it bloom, and think he doesn't realize he likes her until much, much later?

Natsu was raised in an environment where you would cut off both arms and a leg for your friends and family. Fairy Tail is a guild that values familial relationships and friendships more than anything. I truly believe that, to Natsu, most of the things he did for Lucy before the fight with Kain, he did with what he thought were platonic intentions.

On top of that, I do headcanon Natsu to be on the aromantic spectrum. He doesn't feel romantic attraction as "easily" as other people do, and he very seldom actually recognizes it as such. He knows what it is - how could he not, when surrounded by it so often - but he's never really felt it himself. Maybe he had a bit of a childhood crush on Lisanna, but that's stretching it thin. She was his best friend, that's for certain.

Natsu thinks he and Lucy are as normal as friends as anyone else in the guild, until she has the chance to leave him behind for her own safety, and she absolutely refuses. I cannot watch that scene without feeling like I'm watching Natsu fall in love, realize his feelings at the very least.

Another NaLu trope I'm an absolute sucker for is that Natsu thinks, and has thought, him and Lucy have been dating for quite some time. Do I realistically believe so? No, I don't.

I think, to some capacity, Natsu knows that Lucy loves him, too, the same way that he loves her, and I think he believes that's a mutual understanding. To Natsu, they both know how they feel, that they're in love, but they're not in a rush to discuss it, to put a label on it.

He knows they act like a couple, that people who pass them on the street see a boyfriend with his girlfriend, and that's enough for him at the moment.

Natsu and Lucy's final conversation before the end of the series was a confession. Hiro Mashima can pry this belief from my cold dead hands. That was Natsu's way of confessing his love for Lucy, his way of expressing that he wants them to be together forever, but he's still Natsu, and he still thinks Lucy knows he loves her.

Lucy is a very shy person; she gets flustered just from Natsu standing too close, and Natsu is already content with the two of them just existing near one another. Would he like to hug and kiss Lucy? Of course he would, but he doesn't need it.

Where him and Lucy are is already more than enough for him, he just, unfortunately, doesn't realize that Lucy isn't on the same page. She would like to be, though she doesn't even realize it, but she doesn't quite have the courage for it.

While I do think Lucy is pining for Natsu, I don't think she's doing so painfully. She gets flustered when people insinuate her and Natsu are a couple, as anyone would, but she doesn't seem very torn up about correcting people. She loves him, yes, but she's completely fine with just being his friend. She's grateful enough to have him in her life.

They're in this weird limbo of 'not a couple, but not just friends' because while they're not oblivious to their own feelings, they're oblivious to the impression the other has about their relationship. Natsu thinks they're dating, but are taking things slow; Lucy thinks they're just friends, but would love to be more.

[adimouze]

Bestie, hard agree with your post: https://www.tumblr.com/adimouze/775187376322543616

I don’t have anything against Checo personally or whoever gets that Cadillac seat - but I think the frustrating thing is, there’s not the same “does Checo/Valterri/unnamed rookie DESERVE the Cadillac seat” narrative like there is with Daniel.

The thing that sticks in a lot of Daniel fans’ throats (including myself) is there seemed, last year, to be a particularly malicious campaign against Daniel to get him out of the VCARB seat, and out of the sport in general. No other driver on the grid had to justify their place, EXPECT Daniel.

And it’s doubly frustrating when you consider so many of the younger drivers on the grid (Charles, Lando, George, for example) that are hyped up as great drivers have STILL not reached the heights Daniel did in the first five-six years of his career. Charles has only just matched Daniel in race wins, after 8 years in an objectively better team/car.

Daniel and Yuki, even this last year were tied for the smallest qualifying gap on the grid with the Alpine boys, and while Yuki came out ahead in the H2H - Daniel’s best results topped Yuki’s best results all year. His race pace consistently beat his qualifying pace. Yet Checo, who had legit the WORST qualifying and H2H stats for the last two years is not questioned at all. Where were all the journalists asking Max in Abu Dhabi “do you think Checo deserves a seat?” No, that time of mean-spiritedness is only reserved for Daniel in Singapore apparently.

I know we sound like broken records, but it’s the unfairness that I can move past, and the narratives surrounding Daniel that has now made it impossible for him to come back to the sport, or be involved in a different capacity, even if he wanted to. For a star as big as Daniel, for all the moments he gave formula one, all the historic wins and incredible, exciting races, it shouldn’t have ended this way.

i agree with u so much i was gonna write a huge paragraph but then i just gave up because you worded it so much better. it was just cruel what happened to daniel. that's why it hurts so bad. he deserved to finish the season. it hurts, bestie. it still hurts so much.

[vi-is-badass]

Hey I don't know if you remember me. You probably interact with a lot of people on here, but you responded to my thoughts about the idea taht Vi's role in the finale was a subversion of the typical big damn heroes moment and linked this post, so I came over to read it and wanted to possibly start a conversation on this post because I think you voiced a lot of the things I've been thinking since the finale aired.

For one, I want to add a few thoughts to the idea that Vi doesn't have an arc in regards to Jinx because this is inherently my biggest issue with the finale and the final scene between the two sisters.

A big part of this issue is that I don't think the second season really backed up the claims that "Vi always chose Jinx to her own detriment" and that "Vi never would have let Jinx go".

Vi would always choose Jinx to her own detriment.

If this was after season 1 I would agree with this statement but season 2 constantly counters this idea because every time Vi chooses Jinx in season 2 it's framed as the right thing to do: Vi stops Caitlyn from taking the shot, everything in episode 5, Vi freeing Jinx from prison. They all lead to better outcomes and in the case of Vi freeing Jinx from prison, you can argue it's that decision that ultimately led to the world being saved. Not directly clearly but in an indirect way.

Vi simply doesn't choose Jinx to her own detriment in season 2.

2. Vi would never let Jinx go.

This one frustrates me the most because... the show literally has a whole section of the plot dedicated to Vi realizing her sister is her own person with her own life.

They have a whole scene in episode 5 that builds to Vi admitting that Jinx hasn't needed her in a long time. Vi understands by this point that Jinx is her own person and is capable of making her own decisions.

Plus, the scene in the prison cell is meant to be Vi realizing that she's been constantly living for other people and choosing happiness instead. She notably doesn't chase after Jinx and chooses to stay and accept Caitlyn's love instead. She is literally meant to be letting Jinx go in this scene. (This isn't my interpretation. This is literally what Amanda said in an interview)

Now I have a few issues with the framing of this scene because... what exactly was the choice here? Vi thinks she's alone. She thinks Jinx has betrayed her and won't return. What was her other option? Go back to her shitty apartment in the undercity and return to pitfighting? Curl up in the prison cell and give up? There simply isn't a choice between duty and personal happiness which Vi has always been torn between. Like you said, "Do these things really feel like part of her arc or just Vi reacting to circumstances?"

And it's these two big things being what the final decision hinges on that makes the fact that the sisters' final scene was written before they wrote the rest of season 2 incredibly obvious because, with the way they had Vi progress, this ending doesn't make sense for her (to me).

Based on how the second season played out I believe that Vi should have seen Jinx after her "death" to confirm to her and the audience that Jinx is in fact alive and been told by Jinx that she's going to leave Piltover. Vi is left with a choice: she can stay in Piltover and be with Caitlyn or leave with Jinx. In this moment she chooses to let Jinx go.

They both get the ending they need, Jinx is confirmed alive (something I think needed to happen considering her suicidal ideation), and Vi gets an actual moment of growth and completes her arc with her sister.

Vi's arc is about accepting and moving on from the past this would have provided a satisfying conclusion to that arc. She would have gotten an actual choice between the responsibility and happiness that was the intent behind the jail cell scene and fully completed that part of her arc.

Jinx completed her arc, but deserves a chance to live her life and I think having Jinx choose to live after trying to die all season would be more powerful than the tragedy the ambiguity brings to the story.

I kind of want to be positive for a moment because I feel like that sounded really negative and I don't want anyone to think I dislike Arcane. I like the final scene between the sisters when looking at it from the perspective of Jinx's arc.

I feel like the ending on its face is good for Jinx. She finally succeeds in protecting her family, her sister who she loves more than anything, and gets to willingly leave Piltover and the violence it wrought in her life behind to start a new chapter.

Jinx feels like she is a literal curse in the lives of the people she loves. She accidentally killed Mylo, Claggor, and Silco and believes she's the reason Vander and Isha are dead. Yet all she's ever wanted to do was protect them. There's a reason she looks so glad when she's falling. She's happy that she protected her sister and can give her a chance at a future. (that legitimately makes me incredibly emotional)

This is genuinely beautiful in its intent and how it bookends Jinx's arc. Now the framing is again something I have an issue with because of reasons I've already stated above, but the moment when viewed through the lens that Jinx lived is impactful.

For two, I completely agree with the criticism that Warwick felt like barely a goon. The fact that Vi and Jinx's fight with Warwick held no sway over the outcome of the final battle is a genuine criticism. Vi and Jinx could both die in this battle or they could win and it wouldn't change the outcome of the conflict at all.

This is an issue when you have a final battle. This is the last time these characters will have a chance to effect the outcome of the story and the world and yet their conflict ultimately doesn't effect the outcome of said story. You could very literally remove Vi from this conflict and it wouldn't effect the outcome of the conflict or story at all. She's another soldier on the battlefield. One we care about, but not unique in her contributions at all. If she wasn't there the outcome still would have been the same and that's an issue from a writing standpoint, especially for a character that was framed as the protagonist in season 1.

This addition sounds pretty negative but that's because this is centered around the part of the story I felt the writers dropped the ball on the worst. I'm a lot more forgiving about pretty much every other part of the finale. I love Jinx and Ekko's roles in the finale. I genuinely like the resolution to Jayce and Viktor's conflict. And, while I had issues with the execution of Caitlyn and Mel's arcs in the season, I do like their role in the finale.

Whereas with Vi I felt like a lot was dropped with her in the final act even without her lack of impact on the final battle. There were so many threads and arcs that the show set up for her that were left feeling incomplete.

In season one and the first two acts of season 2 Vi is struggling to find her place between the cities of Piltover and Zaun. She doesn't quite fit into either one. In the first season she's alienated from Zaun because she's just gotten out of prison after 7 years and Zaun has changed without her so she doesn't recognize the city or its people. She struggles to find the community she once held dear in a Zaun morphed by the man that killed her family. In the second it's due to her choice to join the strike team. Even if it was with good intentions she still joined their oppressor and became a "traitor". And she doesn't fit into Piltover because of the prejudice held towards Zaunites even though her only real tether after getting out of prison is Caitlyn-- a piltovan.

Unless you want to believe that the answer is simply "by Cailtyn's side" that thread isn't resolved. At least not in a direct way.

She also doesn't know her place in the world. She was never allowed to be an adult and discover what she wants to do or what she wants to be. League lore dictates that it's eventually to be an enforcer, which I guess we can infer she became off-screen either between the meeting and the final battle or between the final battle and the epilogue, but the fact that it's not really addressed and doesn't happen onscreen makes it so I don't really count that.

They don't really allow Vi to move past her guilt and responsibility. She feels responsible for what she did to Powder as a child, she feels responsible for what happened to Mylo and Claggor and Vander at that warehouse, she feels responsible for what happened to Caitlyn and her mother. She feels immense guilt and responsibility due to her parentification as a child and what she perceives to be her failures as a big sister to Jinx. I am a little confused at to how the last act allowed Vi to move past any of this. Maybe I missed something the writer’s implied or something, but I didn’t see what moment or beat was meant to be Vi moving out from under the weight. I get that Jinx tells her that she isn’t Vi’s responsibility (absolving Vi in a sense of the responsibility she feels for her and what Jinx went on to do) but if that’s the conclusion (plus her getting together with Caitlyn) it felt half baked to me.

Why would Vi move past her guilt after all that? Wouldn't the way that Jinx "died" (Jinx isn't dead but Vi believes that Jinx is) just add more guilt onto her shoulders? Wouldn't she view this as another failure on her part? She "made the wrong choice" and Jinx had to sacrifice herself for her as a result. (I don't view it this way but Vi likely does unless she worked through it off-screen)

I know I already posed a solution to this problem earlier in this addition, but I wanted to reiterate that the lack of a choice on Vi's part is ultimately a problem for her character arc.

I've already talked about why having Vi have no impact on the finale doesn't work for me as a subversion of expectations in greater depth here, but my points boil down to 2 things: If it was meant to be a subversion you have to set up the expectation that Vi would be the big damn hero of the finale which the season didn't do because it was constantly pulling the rug out from under her so to speak. And the subversion would need to play a key role in wrapping up her character arc which it also doesn't do.

My issues with the way the show handled Vi in the 3rd act really bother me because *gestures at entire blog* I am very clearly a huge Vi fan. Her character arc in season 1 hit way too close to home and the impact the character had on me very literally changed the course of my life (that is a story for another day haha).

So even though I love the writing for her in the first 2 acts (seriously, I will go to bat for the writing for her in those acts, especially her writing in act 2, which I think is underrated for how well it actually explores her character in fandom discussions) I can't help but feel ultimately let down by her handling in season 2 because I don't think they stuck the landing.

I am interested to hear what you think about this. I genuinely would like to know if you're willing and able to answer. I think you are good at expressing your viewpoint and bringing up a lot of good points that I hadn't necessarily considered.

Vi got robbed by the finale

First, a few words on where I'm coming from. I really enjoyed Vi and felt for her in season 1. I'm a Cait/Vi enjoyer and was looking forward to their resolution. I do not have fundamental objections to Vi becoming an enforcer. I don't have a problem with Caitlyn and Vi having sex in the Jinx cell and I actually think it is one of the better scenes of her arc.

IMO she was great, tragic POV heroine and lead in season 1.

Her status changed in season 2, which is reflected in the screntime distribution (ie both Jinx and Caitlyn having more screentime). This does not have to be a bad thing. You can have good arcs and emotionally resonant stories even as a supporting character.

But the more and more I think about the finale and Act 3, the more I think Vi really got treated badly. And the core is really this:

I've joked that I thought about switching my ship allegiance to Mel/Cait after the finale. I'm not actually serious about it. But it got me to think.

And I came up with the following thesis:

1.) Vi is really, really unimportant and useless in the final fight 2.) That matters because they went with an an action finale

On to a long post discussing Vi's role in the finale and Vi's arcs in Act 1 and 2 and her lack of meaningful arc in Act 3.

Within the finale there's really a clear hierarchy of conflicts.

1.) Viktor is the biggest threat and the most emotionally emphasized climax. Jayce is the action and emotional hero of this threat, Ekko is the supporting cool action hero of this threat.

2.) Ambessa is the second most scary threat. She's not a universe threatening as Viktor, but she's still badass and interesting and she gets a cool and very lengthy action scene associated with her. Mel is the emotional core of this conflict. Cait gets the badass action part of this conflict. Mel and Cait also directly coordinate, increasing the badassery.

3.) Warwick by comparison is barely a goon. He feels like an afterthought. Not like a major threat. Vi and Jinx are "assigned" to him. Jinx is the hero of this already fairly unimportant conflict and I would argue she even gets the bigger emotional punch, even though Vi is clearly affected as well.

I find it striking how different Vi's role in the battle feels to Caitlyn. Caitlyn it feels gets two badass action sequences. First in the smoke, really getting to show of her sharp shooting:

While at the same time, Vi gets her shit kicked in by regular Noxian soldiers and is busy... trying to hold a door? Babysitting the shooting of a rocket?

I've been thinking about it. On paper, there isn't that much of a difference between Cait's sharp shooter sequence and Vi's sequence at the tower.

Both show several people dying around them (though Cait acts calm and professional about it while Vi reacts emotionally). Both have bit player characters stepping in to help execute what they are doing (Steb placing the bomb, Jhin tease guy shooting the rocket). Both have missions that kind of fail (Cait's bomb doesn't go off, the rocket shoots the empty egg thing).

But it still feels like Caitlyn just gets way more glory shots. While Vi gets pushed to the floor, gets rescued by Jinx and Ekko riding to her rescue.

Her big glory shot

In theory should be great. She is punching Warwick to rescue Jinx. But it's shot so far away and turns around so fast into Warwick choking her, we don't feel the impact of her punch at all, even though on paper it is Vi using her gauntlets in a really cool innovative way.

If I compare how the Cait/Ambessa fight goes, yes Cait also gets hurt and thrown to the ground.

But Cait's fight just feels way more badass and Cait like a fundamental part of that conflict. Cait and Mel fight like a well coordinated team while Vi, Jinx and Ekko feel a lot more erratic. Cait is the one who initiates the fight in the first place, Cait is the one who makes a badass sacrifice to open up an essential tactical weakness. Yes, Mel gets the last shot and the emotional payoff, but it still feels very much like Caitlyn's fight too.

Yes in theory, Vi and Jinx go back and forth with saving each other, but it's just much faster and erratic, and *busier*, it just never has the same impact to hit. (I would be very interested in seeing a numbers breakdown, how much screentime is spent on the various different fights but also who has longer scenes before the next cut is)

It just feels like this finale is filled with scene after scene after scene with Vi being shellshocked and helpless and not really being super effective enough to compensate for that. Neither her glory moments, not her emotional moments really get the time to breathe the way this moment does with slo-mo and a song.

Compare Vi hurtling herself at Warwick to save Jinx, versus Jinx hurtling herself at Warwick to save Vi.

Okay, so is this just a dick measuring contest over who gets to be the most badass?

No. It's not a crime for Vi not to be the most effective fighter in the finale. But let's take a step back.

Act 1: Vi is a supporting character, but she has a clear role

I have said before I feel a major difference to season 1 is that rather than Vi being the main driving character, the show switched. Cait is the main character of Act 1, Jinx of Act 2.

Vi has lost her spot as main character, but her role in the story is still very clear. She is there as Cait's partner, her heart, her conscience. She witnesses Cait's distress. She tries to reach out to her. When they have an action scene, they work together and coordinate.

Arcane has action roots. Characters express themselves through their action scenes. That's why it's important who gets what action scene.

Also, while Cait's grief and hate and decisions drive the events of Act 1, Vi has her own arc of having hardened towards Jinx (agreeing Cait should take the shot) and then having that challenged by the end and of course getting an emotionally charged poignant moment when Cait dumps her when Vi takes a stand for Isha (= Vi making a choice).

Act 2: Vi is a supporting character, but she has a clear emotional arc

IMO Jinx is the clear lead character of act 2. She has a clear arc with Isha, befriending Isha, rescuing Isha, losing Isha.

Jinx is also the driving force of the Warwick arc. She encounters Warwick first. She is the one Warwick recognizes first. She puts 2+2 together. She seeks out Vi. She initiates their trip to the mines. She gives Vi the important hint about correctly handling Warwick. Warwick jumps into action ("Don't touch my daughter") to save her. His "death" in this arc is linked to Jinx and Isha.

But Vi still has a nice and satisfying enough arc in Act 2 anyway. She starts at rock bottom and grieving, she gets roped in by Jinx, she is initially suspicious of Jinx, she starts to trust Jinx more, her reunion with Warwick is emotional, they all go and try to help him, Jinx and Vi think about their mother.

Vi also goes from grieving Cait, to fixing her own life a little bit, to re-encountering Cait and teaming up with her again.

The big theme of Vi's arc is trust. She has to get over her fears and trust Jinx's advice on Warwick, just like she has to trust Caitlyn about letting Cait tie her up and play fake prisoner.

Act 3: Jinx has an arc about Vi, but Vi has no arc about Jinx

Jinx's in arc in Act 3 is about deciding to leave Vi. Everything in this arc is to prepare us for it.

Vi is not at all in the first episode. Even though the trigger of that episode was according to Amanda Overton what would happen if Vi had died in the original explosion, and the episode is absolutely respectful of Vi, with much grief and praise about it, in the end the portrayal isn't really about how life is impossible for these characters without Vi.

We get told what's going to happen to Jinx and get emotionally prepared for it, even though we don't know it. Sometimes leaping a step forward means leaving a few things behind. We get prepared for the idea that leaving things behind doesn't have to be a bad thing.

In the next episode, again we are getting prepared for what Jinx wants to do through her vision of Silco. She's going to heroically break the cycle of violence. Also, codes and commitments (like Vi's to Jinx) can be the bars we lock outselves in with. Identities (like the Jinx identity) are the cells we want to break out of.

Jinx then makes her decision. She's going to leave Vi. Vi never giving up on her is perceived to be something negative by her. She sets Vi free, telling her to stop caring about Jinx, telling her to be happy with Cait instead.

In the last episode, Ekko talks her out of killing herself. But Jinx still is determined to leave Vi. She says her goodbye to Vi. She assures Vi that it's not a problem because they will always be close anyway.

She then cuts the ties, lets go of Vi's hand and tumbles down with Warwick (and by most people's logic, fakes her own death and leaves the city).

Jinx has made a decision about Vi, which she executes. But Vi has no say in this decision. That's why she has no arc. She doesn't get to make a decision about her future really.

Even sneaking out to try and save Jinx we find out was prepared for by Caitlyn (and of course we find out that Caitlyn is the one who understands what Jinx did while Vi is still outside of this decision). And yes, she chooses to sleep with Caitlyn and she chooses to live with Caitlyn. But do these things really feel like part of her arc or just Vi reacting to circumstances?

IMO Vi wasn't ready to let Jinx go, that's why Jinx had to do it against Vi's will. That's why Vi doesn't make a real decision in Act 3.

Amanda said they wanted to explore who Vi would be if she didn't have anybody she had to protect and that is a valid and cool idea. But how much time with that did we really get?

And yes I genuinely think that if Vi had gotten a better action role within the finale it would have made a real difference in not making her feel so aimless.

Don't get me wrong. I get why they split it like that. The story required for Vi and Jinx to be paired up, so they can execute the conclusion of their sisters story. And unfortunately, compared to the other threats going on in the finale that story didn't really get the attention and gravitas and time and focus it deserved. (also Vi doesn't have a meaningful enough relationship with Ambessa for it to work for her to be in the Ambessa confrontation)

The problem is also that Vi doesn't really have much of a say in the conclusion of the sisters story. And her future is with Caitlyn.

So if they had found a way to sneak in some Vi and Caitlyn also doing action together or even just have Vi react to Caitlyn's duel or have Caitlyn react to Vi being under attack from Warwick, I think it would have felt more satisfying vis a vis the relationship they are going to have.

Alternatively. I love Ekko. I love that he got a badass fighting moment against Viktor. But in the moment where Jayce flies past Vi, for a moment I thought Vi would switch battlefields and Jayce and Vi would team up again, like they've done a couple of times already. If Vi's identity within the final battle was to be a big damn hero, that would also have imo left us more assured about what her identity is moving forward. Rather than the only thing we have is her being fairly weak in battle, being left out of information loops/not being smart enough to recognize them and being Cait's sweet live in girlfriend.

I don't hate Vi. I don't hate CaitVi. And I actually have some hope that maybe there is a chance that CaitVi as a pair will get to show off their stuff in some other form after all. But yeah, that's why imo season 2 and particularly Act 3 really did Vi a disservice.

(I'm not even suggesting things like Vi's decision to fight for Piltover and seeing so many Zaunites die being given gravitas or her reacting to Sevika being on the council, because I think the writers just have no interest in this topic at all)

[caprisunr]

I hold my stance on the fact that Maddie and Chim know about Buck's feelings for Eddie. You only have to rewatch 7x04 to realise how they know more than they let out. We all know how Maddie probably has a hunge about how Buck feels from the "Boy Crush" comment back in season two. Well, the comment goes hand in hand with Chimney's : "I am your basketball beard. I feel so bonded" Specially when we take into account how he didn't know about how Tommy and Buck would end up being a thing. The comment is directed at Eddie's persona in relation to Buck's actions. And in both situations Buck doesn't deny it.

Not to mention, Buck can't help but overshare, and he is so transparent with Maddie that he straight up confessed to want Eddie's attention this whole time. Only to misdirect his feelings later on in the episode because it just made sense that he harbored those feeling for Tommy the gay guy, than Eddie the 'straight guy' who also happens to be his best friend. —Tommy also was the one who showed up at his doorsteps and kissed Buck. So at that time it only made sense for him that 'Oh, yeah. Maybe I do like this guy.' If you guys are wondering what moment I'm referring to (Buck confessing to wanting Eddie's attention) this happens after Buck tragically sprains Eddie's anckle. He visits Maddie at dispatch to say the following: "I was pissed, you know. seeing him and Tommy become such good friends after only two weeks. I felt left out, and I guess I was trying to get his attention." Referring to Eddie's, in no moment of their conversation do they insinuate Tommy being the one that Buck has his attention set on.

"But you don't like basketball."

"I know. But now he's going with Tommy, and he's got it circled."

Buck goes out of his way to include himself back in Eddie's life in places where he wasn't before because he feels that Tommy is taking all that empty spaces he's left. All his actions are directed towards Eddie, which he is conscious of at the beggining that it is about Eddie. But at some point in the episode his feelings get mismatched and the lines blurr between the two guys who are very similar to the other. Buck becomes an unreliable narrator of his own emotions, which happens somewhere between Maddie's and his conversation at her house and spraining Eddie's ankle.

"Acdording to Christopher he's already been over three times. Eddie just met the guy like two weeks ago. Christopher thinks he's 'so cool'." I would like for everyone to notice the emotional distance between Tommy and Buck from his point of view, seeing in his monologue as he refers to Tommy as 'this guy' or 'he'. Doesn't bother to clarify who he's talking about, and the impersonal reference alludes to how little Buck actually thinks of the guy up to that point (his real thoughts slipping through). The only time he refers to Tommy by name is when he's mentioning Eddie's basketball game to show where his distress falls.

"My point is he's made an impression in a very short time." Buck is so afraid of being replaced by some guy who happens to do something cool, he doesn't even realise how hypocrital it is for him to say certain things such as this one. Considering, as we all know, how quickly acquaintance Eddie and Buck became and how quick Christopher took a liking on him. It got me thinking about how Buck must've felt like he had to work for it (introducing Carla) to be let in, and how easy Tommy's got it. And that's when the thought of how easy he is to remplace starts to kick in, where the feelings start getting misplaced.

"Get this. He said he agreed Revenge of the Sith is superior to Return of the Jedi. I mean maybe it's just me butt I don't think you lie to a child just to ingratiate yourself." Once again he shows how worried he is about being replaced, specially in Christopher's life. Buck speaks like a protective mother. And once again we've got the indirect despectiva speech; Tommy isn't just Tommy he is some guy who is trying to make himself look cool to be liked and take his place.

I have to mention again the " But now he's going with Tommy, and he's got it circled." Because not only does Buck say it once, but twice during : " Eddie on his fridge has a day calendar. Under take-out menu Thursday,"B-B-P-U-W Backlash Tommy. And it's circled". "

It's always been about Eddie and how Buck feels that Tommy is taking his place. And then later when Tommy kisses him after he says he was trying to get his attention because yeah that makes sense because he can't possibly like Eddie romantically and so intensely. That is his best friend, his straight best friend at that. So he throws it at the nearest guy who is going to actually reciprocate–most likely. Its easier to convince himself to like Tommy, than it is to like Eddie and potentially ruin his friendship. (Let's not forget how even him being with Tommy later on was about Eddie and how he would react to Buck liking men.)

Back to Chim, there's also the scene when with Maddie they were discussing children right at the beggining of their relationships. They ask each other if they're the only people without kids that they know. It takes a second until they think of Buck. Because Buck is so integrated into the Diaz family, that it's impossible to think of him without Christopher tailing behind also.

Maddie and Chim absolutely know, or at least suspect about it.

[slutforpringles]

I'm still reeling from Daniel Ricciardo's exit from Formula One at the end of last season. Do you think we'll see him back in the sport in another capacity? I don't know if Danny wants to come back. I was told at the moment he's pretty happy not to be around Formula One and I think it's a good thing. So at least he [can] digest what happened, and then maybe he finds the energy and the love for the sport again and comes back, because I think he would be a very good ambassador for the sport. I do not think he's coming back as a driver. I do not think that Danny wants to be a manager or something like that in a day-to-day job, he doesn't want that at all. So I hope he comes back as an ambassador or maybe on TV, because he's one of these guys which a lot of people know and which are happy to have around. He's so fun and such a huge personality and gave so much to the sport but his exit was very quiet, very low key. Do you think that's how he wanted it? I don't think it was his choice. I mean, you know, how it was done. I found [it] a little bit weird how it all happened. It happened quick and he just disappeared almost. I think, first of all, he didn't want to exit at all at that time and secondly, if there was an exit, it could have been done in a way which would help the sport but also Danny, because I think he got a little bit shocked of the exit, how it was done.

via: ABC Melbourne

[robbyykeene]

The worst part of S6 was Kreese. Every single thing about Kreese. Everything, but especially his totally rushed and totally undeserved redemption. It felt hollow, forced, and way too late. He has done nothing to deserve forgiveness, but he ends the show as Heroic Grandpa Saving His Son? What the fuck?

I loathed the entire scene on the yacht, loathed that Kreese only came there to defend his toxic obsession with Johnny (while killing innocent people on the yacht in the process), and loathed that he did not die in season 5. Total garbage.

My problem with the Kreesedemption isn’t that it happened, like I always expected it to and I don’t think this show really fully redeemed him or let him off the hook. But I guess how it happened it was I have more of a problem with. Like, Johnny has a beautifully acted and emotionally cathartic moment with Kreese about how much Kreese abandoning him hurt him and destroyed his self-worth. And like, aside from the fact I vehemently disagree it was Kreese’s leaving that ruined Johnny (it was Kreese’s inability to relinquish control over him imo), it felt a little ironic given how the show has framed Robby as a villain anytime he expressed the same sentiments to Johnny. And even aside from that, Kreese spends this whole part of the season going on a little apology tour after realizing his philosophy and radicalization directly led to Kwon’s death, and he literally dies thinking he is finally rooting out that evil from the world. And then…everyone immediately goes cuckoo bananas and starts adopting that very same philosophy. The show itself attempts to fully redeem that philosophy. And people can say what they want about Johnny “redefining” no mercy in that final scene, but he literally said “we do not train to be merciful here” after bullying a small child. It makes zero sense lol and it’s my ultimate problem with this season. In the end the only one who broke the cycle was Kreese, of all people. Like jfc lol

[lizardsfromspace]

There's rumors about Doctor Who getting cancelled & they are just that, rumors. There's no truth to them...

Except also, they point out that Disney+ hasn't signed on for a third season. They agreed to produce twenty-six episodes, allegedly, so two seasons, two Christmas specials, and supposedly that order includes the Sea Devil spinoff. And like, the odds of Disney+ signing on for another series are close to nil. They didn't pump all that money into the show for middling ratings after all, and they can cleanly drop it after that (heck, the whole order's been filmed already). That factor does make the situation seems more dire than the usual rumors - and after all, the ratings are close to what they were under Chibnall, and Doctor Who would've been cancelled then if it weren't for RTD/Tennant returning - at least, Chibnall believed it was cancelled while he was writing "Power of the Doctor", hence why it's a secret series finale

(there are also people claiming the studio where it's shot being used for other productions is a sign the show is dead, but the studio is large enough to accommodate multiple shows at once afaik - and as I said, both the next series of Doctor Who & the spinoff have been filmed)

But if they drop out that doesn't mean Doctor Who is dead. The BBC could keep producing it...with a lower budget & without Ncuti Gatwa money. Or they could go with a new streaming platform as a co-producer, but they'd likely push for a fresh slate

At this point, I kind of assume they would more formally end New Who & actually do a soft reboot like they did with Nine. New cast, new writers, limited references to the past. Probably the only way to make people see it as a new series, and not a hastily rebranded fourteenth season.

It is just odd, though. I watched Doctor Who starting from Nine (my first episode was "Dalek") and 'til today, and that's effectively the same as someone having watched from Hartnell to Davison. That distance, the idea that there were people who watched the whole classic series start to finish, always seemed unbelievable to me. TV changed so much during that time: from black and white to color, heck, to a world where Doctor Who's serial format was an isolated curiosity. But I had the experience of watching from "An Unearthly Child" to "The Five Doctors" without even realizing it'd been that long.

I don't think Doctor Who is cancelled forever. I don't think Gatwa/RTD Who will get a third season, and maybe it will be cancelled for the moment, who knows, but

The thing about Ncuti Gatwa era Who's ratings being "bad" is that they aren't bad, it's just that they're not very different from Jodie's average ratings. And five-six million a episode is actually pretty decent in a country with a population as small as the UK's (unless it's seen as drastically bad to be #12 that week, idk how UK TV ratings are perceived). It's not that they've fallen drastically, they've just failed to grow.

Which, no matter how much they pushed that this was "series 1!" and a fresh new start (to the point of declaring it an entirely new series, Doctor Who [2023 -]), was going to happen. Because there isn't a large contingent of people out there just waiting to give Doctor Who a shot. There was in 2005, when a whole generation had never seen it, and many people had vague fond memories of it but hadn't thought of it in years, and when there were many countries where it had never been anything more than a niche curiosity or straight-up hadn't ever come out, but the un-Who-evangelized ranks are p. small in 2024. No one saw it as series 1 of a new reboot, everyone processed it as what it was, series 14 of a show that's been on for twenty years

(Also, holy shit, New Who is twenty years old this year. For reference Classic Who ran twenty-six years)

They wanted to attract old viewers back, and they did come back for the Tennant specials, but I think they were banking on casual viewers being just as excited for RTD's return and. Casual viewers don't know who the writer is or really care, though, so it didn't have the same cachet. They probably expected it to grow a bit instead of just not falling off but the whole "suddenly it's putting up 2005 numbers" scenario wasn't going to happen. Anyway it's that thing I said and not whatever internet shouty men are saying

I have no idea what Disney+ expected. For Doctor Who to be the new Star Wars? Unclear. Thanks for making Doctor Who ultra high budget for two seasons I guess

[lchufflepuffcorn]

Nesting head canon

Requested here by the 🥰anon!

Note : I've changed computer and now I don't know how this thing works. I'm so sorry if anything happens, I'll try to correct any mistake as soon as possible! Keep in mind that English is not my first language, so be kind if you want to correct me (or else😶‍🌫️).

Masterlist

Dragon!Hybrid masterlist

Warning : Minor DNI. Spicy content ahead, consider yourselves warned. Aemond : Mention of penetration (reader receiving) Laenor : Mention of penetration (Character receiving). Fingering (Baela Recieving). Dry-humping (Jacaerys doing it). Sub-ish Laenor cuz I can. No official gender references for the reader.

Aemond: 

Nesting™ for Aemond is not something that will change his way of acting toward you, not to the outsiders eyes, anyway. He’s pretty minimalistic in his approach. He’ll spend more time with you, touching your shoulders or the small of your back more often. Fleeting touches of his fingers brushing yours as you walk before wrapping your arms to his. If he even thinks that he saw you shiver from the cold, he will give you his jacket/cape/scarf/etc menacingly. He’s clingier, in the way that before, he could manage to have you roam all of the King’s Landing castle with only people at his booth giving him notes on your whereabouts. When he’s nesting, he has to have you next to him, or if he really cannot be with you, with Helaena. He doesn’t trust anyone else with you but his sister, his sister’s guards (because she’s the princess, and then the queen) and himself. 

He will rearrange the chambers and keep it cleaner than it already is during that period of time. The cushions would be comfortable, soft, the linens clean and fresh at all times. The room (especially the bedchamber) would smell of your favourite scent, the bed itself would have draps covering it from unwanted eyes, but shear enough so that the room outside would be visible if any kind of lights are lit. Aemond would also make sure that you are fed enough, going as far as to have snacks readily prepared for you next to the bed. 

I also see Aemond being softer with you when he’s nesting. 

Kisses shared as he moved inside of you, hands caressing your face, you chest, hips then legs, as if Aemond doesn’t know where to place his hands the most. The candlelights make his eyes shine with more adoration that you’ve seen from him than he’s had for weeks now. His hair, stuck in a braid you’ve treaded falling over his shoulder swinging with each wave made by the movements of your bodies intermingled together. His patch still ornating his face, he shivers and sighs when your lips leave his and trail all over his face. His hips still when you reach the dark patch over his maimed eye. 

“Qelos…” He breathes his pleas softly, one of his hands reaching for your face, putting a bit of distance between the two of you to examine your face. 

“I want to see you.” Your voice nearly makes him whine (weak, Vhagar growls at the voice in his mind). Aemond’s breath hitches when you make the two of you roll over to sit on his lap. He can feel himself piercing deeper into the warmth of your body, and the prince let his face fall in the crook of your neck, a soft moan of your name escaping him. 

Using his moment of inattention, you slip the patch covering his eye off of his head, leaving it on the pillow behind him. You kiss his scar, the corner of his eye, words of praise mingling with sighes of pleasure. Aemond could never imagine a more perfect being as you. 

Baela:

To Baela, nesting is the way to confirm and end a courtship. She knows that it will come back multiple times in her life and that it’s also used to achieve the catch of future hatchling within her. She could become pregnant outside of nesting season, but it’s easier when she is then when she’s not. And it’s a big deal to her. Everything needs to be perfect, she has to show you how good she would be to your hatchlings. Hence, she’ll pull all the stops. 

Baela would learn to crochet if you shivered, she’d hunt for a fur to add to your collection. Banquets would only serve food you like, your room would be cleaned and redecorated to fit the latest interest you’ve shone toward anything really. You would only find the softest material on the bed, and she would have upped the security of it with guards posting at the door and down the hall. She probably will also have hidden dagguers in many places, just in case. She's not clingy in public, but she cannot take her hands off of you in private, and she gets scary angry when someone interrupts your private session. 

You could never had been prepared to the dichotomy of Baela’s character as you were busying your fingers inside of her, pumping softly, kissing her shoulders as she writhed under you, moaning praises to you wantonly, and the snarl that echoed throught your bed chambers, freezing you in your position when her father (whom you hadn’t heard knock, if he had done so) entered your space. 

He didn’t seem bothered by the lack of cloathing he found you in, nor did he seem impressed by his eldest daughte’s fury. He spoke in valeryan, which you couldn’t understand, and promptly covered baela and yourself with the furs scattered on the bed. Baela spat something back to her father, dragon wings popping into existence, shielding you from further sight. Daemon rolled his eyes, added something that made your lover huff before he left, giving you a proud(?) look. 

“What was that about?” You asked once the door of the room was closed once more. Baela only sighed, plopping down on the soft pillows, her leathery wings sprawled on each side of her. 

“Father had been searching for us, the servants didn’t want to bother entering our room, they had an invitation to a banquet to announce. He thought he would be best if he told the news instead.” You nodded at her explanation. 

“And was it? Best, I mean.” 

Baela’s gaze fell on you, her eyes roaming over your naked body for a second before she shook her head. 

“Don’t worry your pretty head over it, my brave Rider. Dragons have respect for other dragons, and their mates.”

She rose from her lying position, trapping your face with her hands and kissing you, not letting you wonder about the meaning of her words much longer before starting your previous activities once more. 

Jace:

To Jace, nesting is all about your comfort. He becomes much more overbearing and worried about your wellbeing, even in moments that aren’t warranting it. If you didn’t spend much time apart to begin with, say goodbye to your alone time altogether at this point. 

He doesn’t let anyone else touch you, even your help, he’ll wash you. Hell, he’d spoon-feed if you’d let him (you’re not). And if he could justify it, you wouldn’t leave the bedchambers at all. There is no reason why Luke and/or Rhaena would need your attention more than he does!  

Jace’s nest would be one of the more chaotic ones, however. Sure, it’s made out of the nicest materials he could find, and all of your favourite things surrounding it, but it’s not in your bed, rather in the room that contains all of your clothes, behind the bed, where it’s more protected. It’s on the ground (but he’s made a soft surface so that it’s comfortable, he’s not an animal!!) and he freaks out everytime a servant tries to go inside the small space during his nesting period. 

“I still don’t understand why the bed is not acceptable.” You were muttering, neck thrown back as he placed a multitude of kisses on the skin of your neck, careful not to leave any (visible) marks there. A grumble left his chest, his dragon’s tail swapping the air around you 

“Safe.” He (or maybe it was Vermax) muttered against the skin of your neck, not even bothering to look up at you. You hummed, letting your hands tangle with his hair, eliciting a purr from him. 

“I know it’s safe, but from what? There’s about a thousand knights sworn to your mother present on the castle’s ground alone.” You teased. 

Unpleased by your words, Jace nipped at your shoulder, purring at the small sound of pleasure that made past your lips. He pressed his clothed body against yours, letting you feel his hardness as he rubbed himself on one of your legs. “Jewels need to be protected.” He breathed softly, teeth playing with the lobe of your ear. You hummed, contracting your leg to tease him. 

“Of course, darling.” It was no use to try and have him make sense right now.  

Laenor:

With Laenor it changed after the fiasco of his first nesting with you. But he always was very present and protective with you, making sure you were comfortable and had everything you would need at any point in reach. When he’s younger, he would muddle the courting rituals and the nesting instincts. 

Laenor was quite proud of this year’s nesting. He’d rearrange your shared bedroom so that the pile of comfortable and plushie material that usually served as a nest was in the corner, with  good sight on the door and an easy acces to the hidden door. He’d even had you scent (unknowingly) his favourite dress shirt. And now, he had you pounding into him, dripping sweat and puffing warm air into his neck and he purred incessantly. 

You’d willingly meet him inside of the nest, without asking questions and without having him coaxing you inside of it either. It was the first time it happened. You were becoming quite knowledgeable in dragonkin tendancies as time passed. A far cry from the child you were, unsure and hesitant about every action you did. 

“Ah… How come it’s with me you spent that time?” You asked, breath coming out short, his back arching as he felt your appendage hit his prostate repeatedly, a string of moans cutting his answering short. 

“You want to know now?” Laenor’s not sure if he should be insulted or preening at your curiosity. 

Your hands placed on his hips, you made him meet your mouvement sharply, and another pathetic endaring sound made it out of his lips. “Maybe not.” You chuckled, capturing his lips again with your own. 

Rhaena:

As her nesting instinct developed later in lifeshe might have been surprised by it. She is also pretty minimalistic with it, not understanding why she would do it anywhere else but in the bed (Jace does NOT give good advice.) She’s very conscious of your confort, and loves having your scents intermingle with eachother inside the nest. So be prepared to find clothes under the covers of your bed during this time period. 

I don’t think she’ll be very assertive or protective of you, per se, more so of the nest itself. It’s also not a reflex she has to protect it from the three little ones she’s taking care of for her aunt. Aegon III, Viserys and Joffrey have free passes when it comes to your nest, as she sees them as her own. 

“Rhaena.” 

Your grumbled echoed in the darkened bedroom of the essos manor you were currently invited to occupy,trying to wake the limp form cuddled at your back with an arm thrown haphazardly in her direction. The back of your hand hit something once, twice… three times before a groan answered your call. “What?” 

She nuzzled into your neck, both of you naked from your previous night, and with eyes groggily looking at the sad juvenile face pouting at you from outside the warm barrier of the bed, you tugged the covers closer to you. 

“There’s a child here.” 

Rhaena’s quick to raise her head from her pillow, looking over you to the white-haired little boy with fat tears threatening to fall from his eyes. She curse underher breath, exiting your bed and searching the ground for something -anything- to cover herself with. Rummaging throught the mess of linens you offert her a long shirt, unsure if it’s hers or yours, and uncaring at this point. You let her deal with Aegon, searching yourself for something that would make you more presentable before lying back down in your bed. 

It’s a good while after that Rhaena comes back in the bed, followed by the child, who settles between the two of you, content. She smile apologetically and you shrug. They might not be yours by blood, but they act like your children, so what if they spent time cuddling with you to find comfort? 

Taglist: @lady-dragon-rider or @lady-dragon-rider-2 (I don't know which one now..)

[variousqueerthings]

ohohohooooooo we just had s4ep3 👀👀👀👀👀

feel like ive gotta copy-paste some of the thoughts had onto here, rather than rewrite them, but suffice to say for the moment, big big character growth for one ray kowalski

the trajectory from early s3 to now as something that at first was very inward-facing (he's aware that his life isn't what he wants it to be, but he isn't at a point where he can pinpoint why and so he's at that stage of jerkily sharing and then withholding emotions, looking at himself and not taking in how others may feel (stella, fraser), and thinking more about how he feels bad, without knowing yet how to challenge that) to end s3pt1 (commitment to change) to these three episodes:

baseball: growing confidence in himself, less insecurity easy money: putting fraser's story first (on a meta level as well, s3pt1 very much pulled fraser back for a bit, and now he's slowly coming back into focus again at the point when ray is starting to take more action) ladies man: looking at his past and taking responsibility for those actions and how they affected someone else and the idea that it's never too late until it's too late (and he made it just in time!) (also like. none of that was his fault. but you get how he feels like it was his fault. and i think it's more that he probably felt like something was wrong about it all for years and it took him all this time to dare face her and ascertain for the first time that she Didn't kill her husband, so it's less that first mistake, and more the subsequent avoidance of trying to rectify it maybe.... things to think about. i am gonna go ahead and hc that beth and ray remain friends btw)

and throughout, he's been less and less ray vecchio. i believe mentioned off-hand in the first of these, but otherwise, he's stepping more and more into his own shoes/his own skin -- and a lot of it also (maybe?) related to those anger issues he has. because ep3 really started us off with that "hey, remember how ray has some really bad anger issues. let's see if he can make a conscious choice to work through those" which is what he did and ended with "guilt, sadness, shame, regret"... much much harder to feel, but he allowed himself to feel them, at last (and cry)

which is also interesting, because fraser is trying to facilitate that/support him and he's LETTING him now, it's more honest, more Real, unlike the false start back in early s3pt1 (especially episode 4 when ray was tryna work through his stella feelings in.... less than optimal ways... stellar ways.....)... which means im holding out for fraser to fall to pieces a little bit at some point as well, because he is Brittle!!!

if i think of this season as a mirror-ish to one another, albeit sort of shifted, because baseball was a bit of an outlier (bdth/easy money being about fraser losing something pivotal and needing to carry on, eclipse/ladies man dealing with events in ray's past that he feels shame about/hasn't been honest with himself about/needs recontextualisation in the present), potentially around episode seeeeven to mirror bounty hunter? throwing it out there as a maybe maybe, i could be overreading this mirror thing (we'll see)

but point is we're really seeing ray having floundered and struggled to identify his emotions and how to act, rather than react to the world and he's pushing against that! and he's feeling his feelings

(something... SOMEone........ who shall not be named.................... could do with? maybe?) (oh but see fraser's very well-adjusted, because he doesn't ever get angry or sad or lonely ever ever, he's Happy-go-lucky just doin' his job 😔😔😔) (fraser acknowledgement that he imagined killing his "father's killers"/gerrard and me like "i know bby, i saw you point a gun at him and throw a knife next to his head, but it's still 👀👀👀👀 to hear you say it out loud.... but also you're STILL doing it for ray's benefit and not your own, i think!")

[vocallywritten]

Okay so I rewatched The Joining of Hands last night entirely so I could watch that argument in the street scene because it is so pivotal in Polin's relationship. Like I'm pretty sure this is the moment that ultimately reassures Colin that he should go through with the wedding. Not that there was any world where he wouldn't have gone through with it, of course. But he's been stewing all this time in his hurt feelings and the betrayal. This is the moment where Colin and Penelope are finally, completely themselves, and they both know it. They are, at last, on equal footing in their relationship.

Season 3 is all about seeing the people we love as flawed individuals and loving them anyway.

For the past 2 seasons, Penelope saw Colin through rose colored glasses, and he only fell from the pedestal she put him on at the end of season 2. Then in part 2 of season 3, Colin is the one who has put Penelope on a pedestal. He has put her so far above himself, in fact, that he is constantly worried that she will realize he isn't worth it, and call off their engagement.

Love has given him an idealized view of who he thinks Penelope is, so when he finds out she's Whistledown, he's crushed. The woman he had planned a future with, the girl he had known since childhood, he cannot reconcile these parts of Penelope with Lady Whistledown. Now he knows Penelope is a liar, and that she's capable of devastating cruelty. He doesn't know her reasons yet, he just knows that there is a whole other side to the woman he loves that he never knew, and its a side he has gone on record to anyone who will listen that he despises.

Before Colin found out about the Whistledown of it all, despite his anxiety that Pen may change her mind, he was thrilled to be marrying her. And after, for all his sulking and talk of entrapment, he was never going to abandon her. Which tells us that his love for her runs deeper than that romanticized ideal he had of Pen before he found out the truth. But he still has all of this hurt to work through before he can forgive her. And of course he does! He sometimes has a tendency to catastrophize at the best of times and now he has so much reason to doubt. Does Penelope actually love him? He wasn't even sure before, but now he knows that she's lied to him about other things. Is it really so much of a stretch to think she might have been lying about this? Especially about the one thing he already finds least believable: that someone could love him without him earning it first. He's also kind of mourning the person he thought Penelope was and the future he imagined with that person.

So you take all of this and you add in Penelope, who is struggling with her own identity and secrets and really, finally coming into her own. The Penelope of last season might have given up Whistledown without a second thought if it meant she could have Colin. The Penelope now has a much healthier relationship with her love for him. She's already been through the breaking of the rose colored glasses. She's settled and comfortable with her love for him now, it's grown from a childhood infatuation into a mature, fully realized love.

The conflict for Penelope is not if she loves Colin enough, but rather, if she can love herself enough to be herself and to give the people around her the chance to love all of her. For so long she hid part of herself away, and made herself as small and inoffensive as possible, but only showing the world the parts of herself she thought people would accept was ultimately very damaging to her and it wasn't even really something she could do. That's what Whistledown was born from. All of the things Penelope kept inside, too afraid to express.

So we have two people who love each other, who are experiencing parallel journeys to loving each other as flawed human beings. And they run into each other the night before their wedding.

This is, as I said, a pivotal moment in their relationship. Without it, I think the wedding may have gone a lot differently.

This is the first time we see them communicate without anything between them, no secrets, no one else around to pretend for, this is just them. Penelope, finally finding her own direction and embracing all parts of herself, is able to, as she says, hold her own. She is being completely honest with him and I think he picks up on that. She apologizes for the damage she has caused, seems genuinely contrite and answers all of his questions directly (also I didn't notice until last night but when Colin brings up "Miss Thompson" (at least he didn't call her Marina lol) the camera is on Colin but you can hear Penelope scoff and it's hilarious and pretty cute).

Colin has been kind of a mess up until this confrontation, emotionally speaking. He's hurt and he feels he doesn't know who Penelope really is anymore or where they stand as a couple. So when he's getting all of this honesty from her I think it kind of throws him, because he's directly confronted with a Penelope who is not quite the girl he thought he fell in love with, but also much more like her than he expected to find. He's confronted with her full self and he still loved her. He always knew he did, but here is the evidence staring him in the face.

And then she tells him that she loves him. Screams it in his face. And he's completely disarmed because she's been so honest and he just gave up one of his most deeply held insecurities to her and she told him she loves him.

I think this is the first time he really believes her when she says it. Before she said it when she was still lyong about Whistledown and he was insecure about her feeling. Before, she said it to defend herself and he wasn't ready to hear it. But when she says it then, you can see on his face how deeply her words effect him. He believes her.

This is why I think their wedding is able to be the sweet moment it is, the eye of the storm. After this conversation, they still have a lot of things they need to resolve, but they walked into that church knowing that they loved each other. That she loved him was the reassurance Colin really needed to marry her with a happy heart that day. I think his conversation with Anthony and Kate really drives that home. And all Penelope needed was reassurance that he still wanted to marry her and she was all in. That little exchange of nods brings tears to my eyes every time I see it and I do think we have that little confrontation outside the modiste to thank.