#but I like trope

[dsabian]

Geppetto turned up about six months ago. He named himself for his power of being able to manipulate people as though they’re puppets on strings. Only one at any given time, thankfully, but it’s enough to cause Dom a fair amount of trouble.

It didn’t take long for everyone involved to figure out that Dom’s ability to _step_ from one place to any other he can imagine is actually a pretty effective counter to most of Geppetto’s, or Pete as Dom’s coined him, plans. It’s incredibly hard to get him arrested, or held for any length of time if he is, but Dom can definitely disrupt the evil-doings as they happen.

Pete manipulates a bank manager to steal the contents of the building for him; Dom _steps_ to where the spoils have ended up and brings them back. A politician starts acting oddly due to Pete’s influence; Dom _steps_ them far away from said influence. A few minutes out of range is all it takes. And Dom himself can simply _step_ out of the way whenever Pete tries it on with him.

His best friend, however, is not so lucky.

“The fifth damn time!” Jill yells at them both.

“Jill-” Dom tries, but she cuts him off.

“No. No, Dominic, I’ve had enough.”

From the corner of his eye, Dom sees Pete mouth ‘Dominic’ with upraised eyebrows. It occurs to him that his nemesis perhaps didn’t know his full name until now.

Dom frets. All he wants is to _step_ Jill out of here, but Jill isn’t having it until she’s said her piece to Pete.

Pete, however, just looks bored as she continues.

“What the hell is your problem? What are you hoping to gain, you slimy little schmuck?”

That one gets a bit of a scowl out of the villain. “Gain? Oh, I don’t know. What is any villain hoping to gain when they kidnap the wonder-boy’s girlfriend?”

Stunned silence greets this question.

“Girlfriend?” Dom asks, then, “She’s not my girlfriend,” he states.

“No, of course not. You only spend every moment together. She cooks for you out of the goodness of her heart. You use your power to ferry her practically everywhere. Of course you’re only friends.”

“We are only friends though,” Dom tries again.

Jill, however, takes a different tack. “You’re jealous!” she accuses.

Dom gives her a ‘are you crazy’ look.

Pete does not. Pete crosses his arms and scowls. “Of course I bloody am!”

“Wait, what?” Dom switches the ‘are you crazy’ look from Jill to Pete.

“You want him for yourself,” Jill goes on, ignoring Dom.

“Obviously.” Pete says it like it’s madness to have considered anything else.

Dom is starting to think he’s the only sane person in the room, but he still hasn’t quite figured out what to say to all this. “I, what?”

“Well we’re not together,” Jill states.

Pete rolls his eyes, “Pff, as if. How could you hang around with that all the time and not want it?”

“I beg your pardon?” Dom’s got no idea if he should be offended or not.

“Firstly, not my type. Too many muscles.”

Dom definitely knows to be offended now and gives Jill a scandalised look. Oddly, to Dom’s thinking, Pete is giving Jill a scandalised look of his own.

“Secondly, he’s gay, and he’s not been out on a date in over three years.”

“JILL!!” She just did that. He can’t believe she just did that.

“Three years? Wait. What?” A slow, predatory, smile creeps over Pete’s face as he turns to Dom.

“Jill,” Dom growls, before turning to Pete. The smile he’s getting from the other man, coupled with Jill’s completely unnecessary outing of him has thrown him right off. “Now look here-” he starts, but he doesn’t get far.

“Oh I’m looking. I’ve been looking.”

Dom feels the temperature rise about ten degrees and knows he must be blushing. He tries, very hard, to look stern despite this. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Too bad. So, three years. I think we’ll start with dessert. Finniano’s on Turk street. They do a death by chocolate that absolutely lives up to its name. And then move on to dessert.” Pete’s smile turns absolutely lascivious and Dom’s breath hitches. He knows he looks somewhat like a stunned rabbit, but there’s nothing he can do about it.

“I can’t, you’re evil.” He wants to kick himself as soon as he hears himself say it, but it’s out there now.

Pete shrugs, “Easily fixed. You go out with me, I won’t be evil.”

Dom blinks. Repeatedly. “That’s… that’s…”

“Still a little bit evil? Yeah, alright, maybe. But I can’t be expected to change all my ways all at once. Especially not if one of those ways gets me you.” And Pete bloody well winks at him.

All in all, it’s confusing the hell out of Dom. He feels like there should be some moral umbrage or something on his part, but, if he’s honest, most of this conversation is bypassing his brain. Jill wasn’t exaggerating when she said his last date was three years ago.

“Tell you what, you don’t like it, you don’t like me, don’t go along with it. Refuse, teach me a pointless lesson and all that ridiculous moral hero gaff. Or, you can suck it up for the greater good. And then I can suck it up. Also for the greater good.”

Dom cringes. “Oh my god, can you stop doing that?”

“Which bit? The bit where I make you blush AND squirm simultaneously? Nope, sorry, not gonna happen.”

“The bit where you say the same words but with different meanings,” Dom gets out. Then he starts trying to will himself to stop blushing.

Pete raises an eyebrow. “You mean, dessert and..” then he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Dom blushes harder. He didn’t even know he could do that. At this rate the only blood in his body’s going to be in two places. His face and. Well.

“And the ‘suck it up’?” Pete asks.

Dom nods again.

Pete smirks again. “That last one? Not different meanings mate.”

Dom lets out a noise involuntarily. He’s not going to name the noise. He’s going to pretend it wasn’t him making it.

Jill reminds both men she’s still there by clearing her throat. “Well, as much as the BL lover in me would like to stay and see how this progresses, I have a business meeting in ten minutes. On the other side of town. Where I was kidnapped from. An hour ago.”

Dom squirms with guilt. Pete is completely unrepentant. He sniffs, “Well. I owe you, so I’ll let you go. Dominic,” he says it like dahm-uh-nik, like he’s savouring it. Dom shivers involuntarily. “Dominic, you can take her to her meeting, and I’ll see you at Finniano’s tomorrow night, 6pm.”

“What if I don’t come?” It’s a lie. The question is a lie because everyone in the room knows with absolute certainty that he’s going to be there. But he asks anyway. Has to ask.

“Well, if you don’t come…” Pete slinks over to him, closing the distance between them slowly, but surely. “If you don’t come to me, I guess I’ll have to do something to really get your attention. Something you can’t ignore. I don’t take rejection well, Dominic.”

Dom’s breath has hitched again. And his brain is still on the loading page. He feels like he should be worried about the effect Geppetto has on him, but with the other man this close, acting this possessive…

Jill’s voice nearly makes him _step_ all the way to the Sahara.

“Ugh. Right, yes, well done, male posturing accounted for, and I think we’ve thoroughly covered that Dom’s got a bit of a power kink going, but that meeting of mine is now in five minutes and counting, so Dom, you come here. Pete, you can crawl back under whatever slimy rock you came out from, and I hope to see you again never.”

Dom’s eyes are wide. He can’t even pick what he’s most stunned over anymore. He moves over to Jill almost on auto pilot, intending to _step_ the both of them to her meeting, but she holds up a finger to him, while still facing Pete.

“I will tell you this though, Gippetto,” and she says it like jip-pet-ho, like she’s trying to spit on every syllable, “villain or not, superpowered or not, you hurt him, I’m going to eviscerate you. Understood?”

“Expected,” Pete says back, with a little nod of the head.

Then Jill is signalling that they can go, and Dom concentrates on moving them both from here to there, and that’s that.

Jill is rescued and possibly never to be kidnapped again.

Pete is no longer a villain maybe. Or at least, only a little bit a villain so long as he gets his own way.

And Dom has his first date in three years and is trying really, really hard not to think about Jill’s comment on his possible kinks. He’s pretty sure he’s screwed. He’s not sure if it’s in the bad way or not.

The Hero is secretly gay. Unfortunately, the Villain doesn't know this and keeps kidnapping the Hero's best female friend, thinking that she's the love interest. Even more unfortunate, she's finally had enough.

[notherpuppet]

Three darling daughters #girldad

[c-tepx]

soooo to laios chilchuck is roughly the size of his dogs. huh. i am so normal about this.

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[valtsv]

are we still doing this because i have a late submission

[let-them-fight]

can we stop doing this trope

[evadingreallife]

(By trope-specific i mean for example all the slash fics hosting websites, or the nsfw-only ones, etc)

[cozylittleartblog]

not that we didn't already Know belos was full of shit, but it's even funnier knowing the titan was still alive the whole time and probably judging him

[i-like-to-look-at-your-back]

°˖✧ Hayakawa family unit ✧˖°

[charbroiledchicken]

reblog if you're a writer but would rather drink straight cyanide than show any of your family members your work

[lotus-pear]

charm stat at debonair ‼️‼️

[kudo-i-guess]

they're divorced. they weren't even married. this isn't romantic. they're definitely not platonic. they're cinematic parallels. they are fighting the narrative. they slowly built their relationship. they rely and trust each other. they were aggressively thrown into this. they want to bite each other's head off. they kill for each other. they live for each other. they should kiss. they would put each other in a blender. they're insane. they don't even realise. they're fully aware of it.

[lazylittledragon]

i said that gale and cyra have disaster romcom energy and now it's all i can think about

[tragedykery]

I ❤️ self-loathing characters, characters who struggle with monstrosity (either fearing or embracing it), characters who are so lonely, who have a gaping hole in their chest, who bottle up & repress their feelings, who claw their way up & have ambitions, who fall down & lose everything, who search for identity & purpose yet can’t see themselves outside of what others want from or expect of them, who are hurt & hurt others, who long & grieve, who lie & pretend. characters who are messy & flawed & human

[elainiisms]

y'all are always complaining about how gay rep has to be perfect and unproblematic like speak for yourself i personally love it when they try to murder each other

[keferon]

I. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. I’m okay I’m fine I’m okay I’m fine I’m oka

The fic I'm illustrating and losing my mind about 👉 Mistakes on mistakes until