#but everybody has been there so long they forgot they’re in a dream

[scottruemelshi]

Melshian Inception AU. How about that.

[physalian]

Segway Characters (Or when your protagonist knows jack about the story)

This is the protagonist of a sci-fi or fantasy world, generally a nobody who gets dragged in either by circumstance or by being the long-lost-something prophesied to save the realm. They know absolutely nothing about the plot, the other characters, the magic system, or the new world, the audience proxy that asks all the questions on the audience’s behalf.

I call them Segways (read; not segue) because they look dumb and you ride their ass through the narrative.

This is a very, very broad concept for a protagonist, everybody from a superhero origin story to Harry Potter, as opposed to a character like James Bond, an expert in their craft and a *seasoned protagonist*.

Segways usually aren’t a problem… until it becomes rather painfully obvious that they only exist to be the audience proxy to ask those questions, when another character could and should be the protagonist because they’re far more interesting, usually because the protagonist is way less cool and active in the plot than their constituents. Or, they’re a perfectly fine character, but the exposition dumping to them is sloppy and unrefined.

The difference between just a protagonist and a Segway is how smoothly they integrate into that story.

So.

—

Inception

I love this movie. It has inspired so much of my writing.

Ariadne is a poster child of Segway characters. Aside from the villain, Mal, she’s the only woman in the cast, and though Dom (DiCaprio) is the hero, Ariadne is his protege, the audience vector through which all the world mechanics and important backstory stuff is told. Every other character already knows how dream heists work and who Mal is, so explaining redundant information between experts would look weird—enter the Segway, Ariadne.

For what it’s worth, she’s not useless otherwise. She’s the new ‘architect,’ she builds the mazes the rest of the team runs through and is the innocent cinnamon roll dragged into problems that Dom created. Her name could not be a more heavy-handed symbol.

She’s active in the story and her perspective foils against Dom’s well enough, but Inception is a movie with layers and an infamous amount of necessary exposition to understand the story. Someone has to be there to ask all the questions the audience has. Ariadne unfortunately gets the lion’s share, instead of the script figuring out how to weave more of it into the interactions of the other characters. They spent so much time on the complex narrative it’s like they forgot about a layman audience and threw her in too late for a seamless integration.

—

Netflix’s The Old Guard is better than it should be, given its budget. I didn’t read the comic it was based on and have no idea if Nile’s character is the same in the original, but she’s another Segway with only one reason for existing in the plot otherwise: Andy’s got to pass the torch to someone.

Yes she comes to save them in the end and yes, her advantage in the story is being unknown to the villains, but she’s there, in this version of the story, so the other four heroes can info-dump to her about all manner of things from how immortality works to their backstories to the setup for the sequel the movie never got.

I just rewatched it recently and if the script just had two or three passes to tackle the exposition problem, it could have off-loaded some of the burden onto other characters, or better told it through action, and not just info-dumpy monologues. When the movie came out I remember a critic I like commenting that it could have been a more interesting story if it had been told from the sympathetic villain’s perspective (Not Dudley’s). As in, if he was on a mission with all his conspiracy-level research and dedication to track these people down, throwing out his own theories for them to then correct or something.

Like this, the story is just waiting for Nile to ask the right questions. Nothing is volunteered freely without Nile directly asking for it, because it runs into the same problem as Inception: Every other character already knows everything, and they wouldn’t exposit to each other.

—

A lot of isekai anime also do this. I’ve tried getting into older, tentpole shows like Sailor Moon and Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho and I don’t know what it is about anime pilot episodes, even modern ones but particularly the old ones, the exposition dumping is atrocious. To the point where it feels like they all know it and are like “listen just bear with us and we’ll get this done fast and sloppy and get to the good stuff later”.

I just can’t. I think I made it 15 minutes into Bleach before noping out of there years ago.

—

Obviously all these movies and shows have their fans, but if you’re a writer struggling with exposition or noticed this trend like me, here’s some suggestions to avoid the need to info-dump, assuming you do want to keep your Segway.

Try not to give all the exposition questions to one character, and don’t wait for that character to ask, out-of-character on behalf of the audience, what’s going on in the story. Instead, let it flow more naturally in conversation and let the more experienced characters brainstorm with each other, or let the protagonist uncover some of this information actively on their own through other means, for variety’s sake.

Figure out a reason why these questions are necessary to the story in this moment. Why is the hero asking now, as opposed to any other time? You can also let the hero draw their own conclusions and have the other characters correct their misassumptions, feeding that information in a more natural way.

Give the hero more to do in the story beyond being the exposition vehicle right from the start. I don’t care if they’re the chosen one and the plot just falls into their lap, why are they the chosen one?

Spread out the exposition to come only when it’s necessary. Front-loading it can tarnish the immersion and overwhelm the audience, especially if it’s complex, or if there’s a lot of it. You can pepper it all the way through the story if you want.

If you really want to front-load it, you can go to the extremes and slap in a prologue or meta-narrative dump that’s fun and entertaining from a third person omniscient perspective. First thing that comes to mind is the opening 2D scene from Kung Fu Panda that covers a lot of ground. Go ham.

None of these characters are bad, I just think with a few more rounds of revisions and forethought, they could have been integrated better into their stories.

[vertumnanaturalis]

A lot of people seemed to like my last one, so woe! More fic ideas be upon all ye again; compilation of au ideas I posted in LQ and haven't been edited to be easier to read edition!

(below the cut, because theres like 12 of them and its a big messy mess)

Nem?Tang fic where they wake up in some ancient convergent domain plant device with only hazy memories of how they got there but nothing solid enough to work off of, and also why is their hair so long, and where are their clothes, and where is the goddamn colony? Because oopsie daisy! it seems that somebody put them in the ancient alien magitech healing goo and forgot to take them out when they were done, and now two hundred years have passed and everybody else they know and love are long dead, and also apparently some giant ass fleet of earth guys tried to land while they were having a snooze but! oh! whoopsie! yet again! somebody sent them the wrong information about how to safely get through the wormhole and the majority of the fleet did not make it to the surface in one piece!!! and the some of the survivors may or may not have folk stories about people that may or may not be Nem and Tang’s loved ones doing either great or terrible things during those two hundred years they were sleeping through!!

mermaid au where Besk was a mermaid trapped in a research facility and Instance broke her out during her ecoterrorist days but Besk couldn’t go back to the ocean because (hand waves) so she stayed with Instance as a slightly-more-free test subject who could technically come and go as she pleases, and she did, and eventually came back from one of her outings with two whole goddamn babies, and despite their both their hopes both babies seem to be pretty much normal human babies except for the occasional weird non-human thing, like eating whole raw eggs or Tangent having an overnight sex change shortly after saying she’s a girl, and feeling like she’s the only mermaid left in the world eventually leads Besk to doing the same thing she always does, and now Instance is stuck with two ambiguously half-human grieving kindergartners, and now it’s the world’s words hybrid of Wolf Children and The Thirteenth Year (with a mild dose of human experimentation sprinkled on top)

modern day/modern-ish all humans on earth au fic where Sym is a pre-school teacher(or aid??) who just moved to a new town with his beloved edgelord of a boyfriend who never wants to talk about his past or childhood and Sym only knows bits and pieces that he’s mentioned over the past few years (but that’s fine he’s just got his secrets nothing new there), and at his new job with his new class there’s a young single parent of twins that also moved into town only a little bit after he did, and apparently they don’t have anybody in their life besides their kids, they don’t have any family and the kids dad isn’t in the picture, so he does the nice friendly thing and offers to lend a hand if they need help with anything, and one afternoon as he’s supposed to be leaving work after making sure that the kids are all picked up, he spots said single parent and said beloved edgelord talking/arguing about something, because apparently they used to know each other but haven’t seen each other in a long while, and his boyfriend doesn’t wanna hear what “actually super important and kinda immediately relevant” thing that his old friend wants to talk about, and before Sym can really stop them the two kids go running to greet their parent, and look we all know where this plot is heading fellas

(not sure if this one should follow Tang or Dys primarily but Imma go with Tang side for this) fic where there’s more people than canon but they’re still on Vertumna with little research on it & Sol has dream memories (maybe use part of the old idea about the Helio arriving as part of a mini fleet instead of a lone ship?), and Tang’s intelligence is lauded like in canon and she’s put into the best position to learn smarty smarts stuff, while Dys’ rebelliousness gets him no favors with the Man and gets himself marked as a troubled kid and moved away from his sister, with Tang being told that she can seek him out once she’s an adult if she still wants to but for now not to waste her time or energy on worrying about him and focus on her studies. She keeps hearing him being mentioned in passing as being part of some big secret alien-centric program to so she knows that he hasn’t gone awol, but she still doesn’t see him for the next 3 to 5 years even tho she still gets to see most of the other kids (bar Sol, who was also yoinked by the secret alien program). Fast forward to her being an adult enough adult who seems appropriately level headed for doing amoral sciences, so she’s invited to see the big important secret alien project, and “_so Tangent, you know how some of the xenofauna can pass information and feeling between individuals of different species through physical contact, and that there’s some functional technology leftover from the alien civilization that lived here beforehand? And that your brother spent a lot of time exploring ruins? And how sometimes science needs sacrifices? For the greater good and all that? :)?” and Tang gets to see her brother as one of the star subjects of the project’s attempt to recreate a messy version of the array (while not even understanding what it actually is)

like 3 different variants (Geranium, Flulu, and Hal+Tonin+Sol’s she group on a field trip” of “like 3 weeks after landing somebody falls into a mini wormhole and comes out 25 years into the future, except none of them went missing in the second timeline, and now they’re in the future having to deal with the way life actually turned out, and they don’t even know all of the stuff that their other selves do/did, because they may or may not be alive still in this other timeline”. (Actually what got me into working on all those future kid things because I wanted to know who’d be doing what when and with who)

au where Besk blacks out shortly before her suicide attempt and wakes up in a cave on Vertumna, having 0 idea where she is or how she got there, and stumbles around thinking she’s dead until one of the surveyors finds her, and upon getting back to the colony she finds out that she’s supposed to have been dead for the last 11 or so years, with her two five year olds now being sixteen (the same age as her when she left Earth & also how long she spent on the Strato), and she has to learn how to adapt to everything and being alive when she shouldn’t be while there are so many others who died and aren’t magically alive again, and also has to do all this while more or less locked under constant observation, because BOY nobody is going to casually leave her alone for like, so many reasons

fic that opens with Kom waking up in the medbay after the age 14 glow attack and Nem and their younger brothers and all his friends are so unbelievably glad he’s awake and ok, but he keeps learning about the not canon possible things that happened either during the attack or while he was healing (like his mom dying while helping the kids evacuate the creche or chief Rhett and Sol’s parents having died defending geoponics), and he’s just stuck with this unending feeling that he’s supposed to be dead right now, but he’s not, and I’m not sure where to go with the story past that

au where Kom wakes up five years before the Strato reaches the wormhole with the knowledge that he’s going to die ten years from now, and it more or less follows a dreamer Kom story except that he knows that his story only has one conclusion, and rather than trying to prevent his own death he spends that time trying to save and protect as many people in his life as he can (maybe prequel to above scenario?)

obligatory single “nice” modern au fic except that nice has to be in quotation marks because technically it’d be about Dys breaking into Sym’s house after committing a major felony and definitely in a big hurty thinking that it was abandoned, but like surprise! it’s not! and even tho Dys fully expects Sym to call the cops on him and wake up in jail he instead wakes up in Sym’s guest room and immediately assumes that he either died already, accidentally tripped into the fae realm, or Sym is some kinda polite hannibal ass serial killer, and it’d be just a whole bunch of Sym being genuinely kind and nice to Dys while Dys is just “y tho like literally what is wrong with you”, and it takes like 2 years and several more major felonies for them to get together. also this might’ve spawned off of the earlier pre school teacher one but it’s not 100% attached to it so that’s why it has it’s own bulletpoint

2.5 flavors of a Hunger Games AU, which are "special games where its announced that this year each district has to send two siblings/other close family members, and the twins get reaped in their district", "one of the younger boys gets reaped but Kom volunteers in their place", and "Tang watching as Dys gets reaped the first year he's applicable for it and she can't do anything about it, and then having to watch as Kom (in his last year of being applicable) volunteers in her brother's place and all of his siblings are now freaking out" which only came to me as I was sharing the first two.

also have this flawless related image

au where Sym sees videos of wild animals in urban areas being relocated to a better habitat on the data thing Sol gives him and he comes up with a fresh new idea; cut to his two favorite humans (age 13/14) waking up on a strange beach some few thousand kilometers away from the colony several weeks later with 0 idea how they got there (ark opening tune starts to play)

also whatever this is

anyways, that's definately not all of the random au ideas I've had and don't include some of the more developed ones I've actually made effort to work on/flesh out, but these were on hand and I wanted to share them too

[spideysbruh]

Piece Of You

they're not public yet!!!

~

Whenever Shawn isn't around, Alex and Brian get along just fine. They've known each other a pretty long time and so things were never awkward around the apartment when Shawn left. They’re always comfortable together and Shawn loved that. But lately, he's been feeling weird about it.

Like take today, Alex is sitting at the table, eating cereal while Shawn is making himself breakfast when Brian sits down next to Alex and scoots his chair closer to her and shows her a TikTok on his phone. That's not the whole problem, the other part is that when she was watching the TikTok, Brian rested his head on her shoulder, a big smile on his face. 

Shawn eyed him and watched as he sat back up, laughing with Alex. When did they get close like that? Whatever, he's just being paranoid. He hasn't been home in a while, he just forgot what the two are like together. But then Shawn once again sees how close Brian gets to her throughout the day, like him play fighting with her, or sharing drinks, or resting his head on her lap. It is too much, isn’t it??

Later that night after Alex falls asleep, Shawn quietly goes on his phone and clicks on Brians Instagram, scrolling through and trying to find pictures with Alex in them. He succeeds and clicks on the post he published for her Birthday, the pictures are nice. There's one just of her out on the balcony, the next one is an older picture, from when they first met it looks like. But the last one is what gets him.

He shouldn't even be mad, it's not like they're kissing or doing anything questionable, but he's still pissed. 

The photo is of Alex and Brian, but Brians arm is wrapped around her shoulders, his hand just above her left boob, and his other hand squishing her face as he's laughing. "What the fuck?" He whispered, scrolling down to see the caption. 'Happy birthday to one of the best people this world has to offer. Here's to 21, Al.' He looked back at the picture and Alex was smiling big, her eyes bright like they always are whenever she and Shawn are together.

Shawn looked through the comments and saw that Alex commented 'Thanks bestie 🥰 Love ya!' Shawn scoffed and clicked on her account, scrolling to find a picture of them on her account. It'll make him feel better. One of the most recent pictures all the way up top, she posted it yesterday. They’re in the car and Alex was grinning while Shawn had his peace sign up with a big smile on his face as well. The next slide was a video she took of them listening to the Tangled soundtrack. Shawn quickly lowered the volume down and smiled at the video, she was laughing as Shawn was singing 'I've Got A Dream' incredibly off-key. The video ended with Shawn saying something about some post on his feed and he remembered that someone else had posted something with her recently. He went to his following list and clicked on their mutual friends. 

Is this going too far? Who knows.

He went on Jons page and saw that there was only one picture with her, it was simple enough. No big deal. He went to Matts and saw a few as well, one of them, though, his arms were wrapped around her neck as she stood in front of him, smirking at the camera. The caption being 'Two tens at a party for sixes.' 

Shawn huffed and opened his notes, quickly typing a few lines. 

'It's so hard, but it's true.'

'Everybody wants a piece.'

~ 

The next morning when Alex wakes up, the bed is empty and the place is pretty quiet. She gets off the bed and walks to the bathroom, washing her face and brushing her teeth. When she gets out, Brian is on the counter eating some eggs, "Hey, Al." 

"Good morning Brian!" She smiles, standing by the counter next to him, "There still bacon?" She asked, turning around and grabbing a piece of bacon from the stove.

"Yup. Shawn's writing by the way." He said, setting his plate in the sink.

"Oh yeah? That's cool, have you heard any of it yet?"

Brian shook his head and jumped off the counter, ruffling her hair, "Just the piano notes so far, he went to get something apparently."

That wasn't entirely true, Shawn was in their parking garage deep diving Instagram and twitter, looking at videos and photos that people have posted of Alex, for inspiration. It's like everyone is in love with her. It looks like even people she's met once were infatuated with her. He sat in his car as he saw fan edits of her on twitter and there was one titled 'Celebrities being in love with Alex Gonzalez for three minutes straight' he clicked on it and watched everyone from Tom Holland to Dua Lipa eyeing her up and down and smiling really big at whatever she said. He was also in it a few times, but as he should. Even just random people who they've never met. Only he can act like that with her. He quickly types in his notes, ‘I get reckless. I’m obsessive.’ 

"Mmm alright, well, I have some time today, wanna watch something?" 

“Sure.” Brian shrugged, following her to the couch.

Alex sighed and put on some show they were in the middle of.

Shawn came back up to their apartment a bit later and saw Alex and Brian lounging on the couch, a show playing on the TV in front of them, Brian snacking while she sits with her Spider-Man . “Hey! I’m writing a song, baby.” He said as he walked over to Alex and kissed her lightly.

“Mm, I heard. How is it so far?”

“It’s uh, good so far. You know that everyone is in love with you right?” He said, making her snort.

"I think I could name a few people on Instagram that don't." She laughed and Brian chuckled.

"No no no! It's true! Look." He said and pulled out the video, letting her hold his phone. Brian scooted closer and watched as well, an amused smile on his face. Shawn eyed him suspiciously and Brian noticed.

"What?"

"I'm watching you." He said, Alex rolled her eyes and continued watching when Florence Pugh popped up.

"Guys shut up Florence Pugh is in love with me."

"Oh my god, I love Alex! But I am not in love with her. Ya feel?"

"Zendaya?!!" 

"Whatever you say, Brian. Just know…"

"Oh my god Daniel Kaluuya?!!!"

"She's like my sister, Shawn. That's just weird." 

"So fucking weird- LAKEITH STANFIELD?!!" 

"I'm telling you, baby, everyone-"

"Wants a slice of that ass." 

"Brian!" Shawn yelled, Alex laughed and shoved Brian away.

"What's wrong, my love? You jealous?" She grinned, getting up to kiss him. Shawn kissed back and pulled her closer.

"Oh god." Brian groaned, getting up to throw his trash out.

Alex ignored him and looked up at Shawn, "You jealous that Lakeith Stanfield likes me?" She smirked, and Shawn pouted, "You don't have to worry, baby. I only got eyes for you.” She finished and kissed his lips lightly.

“Yeah?” He mumbled, his lips brushing against hers, Alex nodded, “You’re mine?”

“As long as you’re mine.” She smirked and Shawn kissed her again.

“Lemme show you my song.” He grinned and pulled her to the piano.

“Nice! Can I hear too?” Brian chuckled, walking along with them.

“No.”  Shawn closed the door on him and Alex giggled and sat on the piano bench. “Kay, are you ready?” She nodded and watched as he pulled out his notes app, finding the right keys. 

~

About an hour later, with some help from Alex, (the song rasing her ego quite a lot) Shawn had part of his first verse and chorus done. He came out of the room with Alex right behind him and Brian looked bored out of his mind. “Fucking finally! I thought having two roomates would be nice, because if one of you is gone, there’s another one to hang out with, but then you guys started f-”

“Well, we’re here now, Bri. What do you wanna do?”

“Oh I dunno.”

Shawn snorted and kissed his girlfriends head before sitting on the couch next to Brian, “I’ll order some food. Don’t feel like cooking today.” Shawn said.

“Sounds good.” Alex replied, tossing Brian the remote.

“Al, you’re trending on twitter by the way.” He said and pat her leg before she sat down.

“Oh yeah? Why?” She wondered and pulled out her phone, Shawn cleared his throat and wrapped anarm around her.

“Probably cause you’re so gorgeous, babe. C’mon let’s pay attention to… Brian what'd you put on?"

"The Offi-" 

"Oh my fucking-"

"It's being taken off netflix this year!" Brian yelled, Alex laughed at the boys and opened twitter, immediately seeing people talking about her and Shawn and his newest Instagram post. "What the?" She whispered and went onto Instagram. 

(pictures here)

@shawnmendes Baby, i'm so into you, it hurts.

"SHAWN MENDES!"

*

[mcflymemes]

ENCHANTED (2007) PROMPTS

they’re only after one thing.

i don’t know. nobody will tell me.

have you any last words before i dispatch you?

you have got to be kidding me!

why are you staring at me?

is that a bad thing?

over my dead body.

oh my goodness. how do i look?

i knew it was you.

now you’re beside me, and look how far we’ve come.

i beg you. tell me where they are.

would you like me to call someone for you?

i don’t think they would hear you from here.

let me guess, you’re looking for a beautiful girl, too.

is that the only word you know? “no?”

when you keep saying no, it just makes me so... angry!

you feel you’d die without me here.

wow! you’ve got great reception here!

nobody has been very nice to me.

yeah, well, welcome to new york.

now if only i could find a place to rest my head for the night.

everybody has problems. everybody has bad times. do we sacrifice all the good times because of them?

you lying, murderous wretch!

don’t you think that’s a bit melodramatic?

i don’t know if i’ll make it through today, let alone a lifetime.

that’s what i’m trying to tell you. it’s complicated.

let’s just walk. can we walk?

please, don’t leave me.

you’re not singing.

before we leave, there’s one thing i would love to do.

i want to go on a date.

wasn’t that lovely?

you have no idea who you’re dealing with.

everybody stay on the bus.

i’ll tear you apart! do you hear me?

we sure had a lot of excitement tonight.

were you scared?

is this a habit of yours? falling off of stuff?

we shall be married in the morning!

how long have you been together?

you have such strange ideas about love.

forget about happily ever after, it doesn’t exist.

this is a very nice place.

i think you’re a hopeless romantic who’s discovered that romance is hopeless.

i hope you had wonderful dreams.

do you like yourself?

no wonder they’re angry.

i’m gonna ask them to marry me.

but dreams do come true.

i forgot who i was talking to.

i like talking to you.

how come people keep giving you free stuff?

he was on the bus this morning. he tried to kill me!

okay, you know what? you gotta go.

i’m surprised. you said you couldn’t dance.

i’m very sorry. i didn’t mean to pry.

get them outside! get rid of them!

[dailyaudiobiblechronological]

1/26/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Genesis 41 - 42

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Chronological, I'm China. Today is the 26th day of January, welcome. It is so great to be here with you today. I hope that you are having a great week, a great day, and if not, may the peace of the Lord rest upon you today. We are continuing on in the Book of Genesis, with chapters 41 to 42, continuing on with the Common English Bible for this week.

Commentary

Wow what a story. I love reading this story. It also makes my heart sad. But I love reading this story because we see that there is the underdog and he's going to be okay. And so Joseph, or sorry, Pharaoh, has this dream and he's kind of talking about it. There must be a lot of commotion. Have you ever had a dream where you wake up and you're like, I gotta, I got to tell somebody about this is a dream was weird. Man, that dream was weird. Or if you have almost like a nightmare and you're like, I really got to process this out so that it can leave my head. It must have been really burning in Pharaoh because he's really trying to get a response and I don't know if they are just kind of like scratching their heads and saying we don't know, or if they're trying to give him interpretations. And he's like, that doesn't feel like it's true. And so then Pharaoh's cup barer is like, oh yeah, there was this guy down in the dungeon, he interpreted my dream and also this other guy's dream and they both happened. Forgot about him, was supposed to remember him, didn't won't you ask him. And so I love that Joseph, he's being told, or sorry, he's being asked to interpret the dream. And Pharaoh says, I've I've heard that you can give interpretations. And Joseph responds, actually, it's the Lord who gives the interpretation. It's the Lord, it's not me. And so Joseph says, actually what you have is just one complete dream. You just woke up in the middle of it. But it was one dream, one meeting. Here's what it is. And so Joseph starts, he gets put in this place of power, of leadership, because he has really proven to be a great man of character as we have read throughout his life over the past couple of days, but over his life. And so now he's 30 years old. 30 years old. That is crazy. He's a teenager when he is I mean, I'm assuming that he's like a young boy. So probably teenager years that he's sold into slavery. But I could be wrong on that. Maybe it was early 20s, I'm not sure. But so he is now in this place of of power because he heard correctly and he was a good steward of what the Lord gave him. And Joseph's brothers arrive in Egypt. Jacobs is like, what are you doing looking at each other? Go, go get some grain. Like, of course this is the right answer, go. And Joseph recognizes his brothers, and obviously everybody has aged. My best guess is that my best guess is it's been at least 16 years since he's seen them, maybe more. But the seven years of plentiful and now the seven years of famine well, I'm not sure what year of famine. I don't know if it's the first year or how many years, so I guess I don't know how long that you've seen them, but it's been a long time. And everybody's aged, everybody's grown up, but he remembers them. He sees them, which I'm I'm sure if you see ten men together, you're going to maybe be like, oh, I had 10 brothers. Oh, wait, you guys kind of look like those brothers. I don't know. Or maybe he just immediately recognized them, but anyways, he has a stark tone with them, and he kind of makes this deal with them. And you also have to remember that Benjamin is Joseph's full brother, and I don't know that he's seen him. And so I don't know what the significance is that he's like, I want to see Benjamin, but he's kind of holding them in captivity, and then he's being a little gracious, and then he's like, I'll hold one of you, and then the rest of you go back. And Jacob is, like, in distress. This guy is like, I can't catch a break. Like, what is happening? What is my life right now? Today's story is a good reminder for Joseph, because yesterday we talked about being alone in the dungeon and feeling forgotten, feeling, Man, I'm really counting on this to get me out of here. Don't forget me, remember me. And then it not happening for another two or three years before he's out. That's a long time. Two or three years is a long time of being in a dungeon with no progress being made. But rest assured, he's out. He's now in a completely, like, 180 degree turn of just very opposite, very different lifestyle, very different way of life. And so really forget not that God is a God of redemption. That when we are people who follow the Lord and steward what he has given us, and we wait upon Him, that all things work out for the good, for those who love Him and who serve Him. And I know we're not in Romans right now, but that is the truth. That truth follows us all the way from the beginning of Genesis one one to all the way down to when we read about it in Romans and then pass that as well. But we've seen that that is echoed and true here, even in today's story.

Prayer

So, Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you are a God who cares for his people and that the truth is that nobody is forgotten, nobody is abandoned by you. No one's out of your reach or out of your sight. And I thank you that you see us, you know us, you care for us, you love us and you have us in Your hand. I pray that we would be a people who grasp that even in those times where we're not hearing anything or we're not sensing anything or we're maybe feeling restless or confused, God, I thank you that Your truth would sustain us. Thank you that we can remember that you're sovereign, we can remember Your words even when we are not able to really grasp what's going on. I thank you that Your peace surpasses all understanding and that it sustains us. And thank God, I just thank you for who you are and it is in Your name we pray, amen.

Announcements

Dailyaudiobible.com is our website. That is the place of connection so we can see what's happening here in the community, how to get connected and stay connected. So be sure to check that out. If you have prayer requests and things that you have prayer for, you can call in. And people in the community listen to them, they pray over them, whether in their hearts or out loud or they will call in and pray over them. And it's just so sweet to know that people all around the world are hearing you and praying over you and for you and with you. And so yeah, if you want to partake in that and be a part of it, please do so. You can call in 800-583-2164. That is all for today. I'm China, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Community Prayer Line

Hi, this is Chassis from Kansas. I wanted to call with a heavy heart to ask for prayers for a very close family friend of mine that I have known since I was probably two or three years old. She unexpectedly lost her husband in an accident on Wednesday, January 18. He was only 24 years old and he was in a semi tractor trailer accident that took his life. They do have two little boys sorry at home and they need their prayers right now and all this community is an amazing team of prayer warriors. She just lost her mom almost a year and a half ago so this is still pretty fresh to her. And losing her mom and now losing her husband has shaken all of us, her family very much and we're just giving prayers and I know you guys are amazing prayer warriors in this community and also to anybody who's new. I just want to encourage you to stay with it, stay with this community because this community is so uplifting and so Godly and everybody truly does care about each other. Even if someone doesn't necessarily call in and pray for your prayer request on here. Know that people in this community all over the world are praying for you. This community is what helped me get through one of the hardest years of my life last year and I'm so thankful to God for each and every one of you. I love you all and God bless all of you.

Hello DABCers, my name is Neil. I live in the beautiful mountains of North Georgia. I am currently standing in the gap and prayed for my wife's salvation, for the salvation of my kids, and for the restoration of my marriage and my family. At the tender age of 13, my wife was the victim of a forced encounter at the hands of a cousin. When she told her father, he called her a whore and basically said it was her fault. When my wife was 18, she married what turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. She's had a very hard life. Most of her life. We've been together for eleven plus years. She had an okay relationship with her father, but never as close as a father daughter should be. In April of 2020, he passed away, which seems to have flipped a switch in my wife. Within a few months, she had left the marriage, left the family, and is living on the other side of the mountain, living a very sinful life. I am standing in the Gap to pray for her. If I don't stand to pray for her, who will? If I don't stand, pray in battle and fight for my family, my kids, my marriage, who will? So I covet and ask for the prayers of others to join me as I pray for my wife's salvation of my kids, and for my marriage and my family to be restored. I thank you all.

Hi, everyone. It's Christy in Kentucky. I pray that each of you are having a beautiful day today. Father, thank you for this day. Father, we are lifting up these your children to you Father, in prayer, and we thank you in advance for hearing and answering our prayers. Lord. Father, today we pray for Preston, whose dad, J has been diagnosed with cancer in his abdomen, in his liver and in these bones. Father, you are our God of miracles. And Lord, we are praying for a miracle for Jay, be with him, Father, as he goes through these surgeries, Father, and these treatments, and bless Preston and his family with peace. Lord, we also pray for Katie in Ontario, where she told us that a 15 year old boy was hit and killed by a car that was driven by another 15 year old boy. Lord Jesus. So many children. Father. Lord, we are asking you be with these families, Father, and comfort them in the way that only you can do. Lord, we also pray as Delena has put out a prayer for the three young women who were riding in a car. Lacey, the driver, has gone home to be with Jesus and her two other sisters sustained injuries. One is still in serious condition. Her name is Lila and the other one has come home and with minor injuries. Lord, these children, father, these families, father, lord, please, please, Lord, be with them. And we know that you are just pray that your presence will be known, Father, that you comfort them, lord, their children, lord, they're just children, lord, be with them. Walk with them as they walk through this time. We love you, Jesus. We love you so much. Thank you. Thank you for hearing and answering these prayers. Come in.

Dear DAB community. This is Mark from England. I want to bring your attention and ask for prayer for a dear friend, Miriam. She's the wife of a Christian minister and had just taken early retirement, and unfortunately, she's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. So we want to lift Miriam up before the Lord and ask for prayers and ask him to intervene and provide a miracle for Miriam. We look at this time at Philippians four, verses six and seven, where it says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request been made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and mind through Jesus Christ. So we say, Dear Lord and Savior, we bow as humble servants of the Lord, and we ask for prayer and supplication for Miriam. We ask that you heal her body. We ask for a miracle because doctors have given her very little time. So, Lord, we know that her and her husband have been servants of the Lord through the work that they've done for over close on 35 years. So, Lord, be with them. Be with them, whatever the outcome. Lord, this is our prayer. In the holy name, we ask that you deliver them, Lord amen.

[maggielindemanns]

🎶 last christmas, i gave you my heart… but the very next day, i forgot to check tumblr anons again 🎶

dyamond dearest, hello! ✨ i hope this week has been a little nicer to you than the last one was, and that you’ve found a little time for leisure amongst the busier bits. this season is always more go go go than ho ho ho, i find. i have so much shopping to do and so little time to entertain it, so know that i feel your pain & am cheering you on from the sidelines. 🥲🫶 i have been mulling over my answers to this week’s questions for the past few hours and i am still not 100% settled on what i’d ask each of the boys… but since you were lovely enough to ask for my responses, i shall do my very best to come up with ~ something ~! 🤍

1. asking for harry’s hand in platonic crime is a super smart way to go, for sure! kinda like asking a genie for more wishes… except with the promise of nights spent leisurely watching movies together and gossiping about everything and nothing 😌 as somebody who compares their entire life to incredibly niche lyrics, i think i’d ask both the boys “if your life was a movie, what three songs would make up the soundtrack to it so far?” and see how their answers compared. there’s something so charming about hearing artists gush about other artists, you know? it’s a reminder that they’re just as dorky as we are. harry’s music taste is so eclectic that i imagine his would be wild dhfgf!

2. i can totally understand why you’d find your home show a more soothing experience than msg – though i’m equally glad you got to live through a moment in spitstory (i groaned at that, too 😌🫶). i actually saw harry for the first (and eighth 🥲) time this summer! i was supposed to see him during his first solo tour but my circumstances got a bit messy and i couldn’t make it. so, this time around i had a bit of a silly spending spree and took myself on a tour of the uk, amsterdam and paris! i also found some of my smaller shows to be my favourites. wembley was immense, but dublin stands out as one of the most magical. i have a really distinct memory of blubbering to sott from the stalls and enjoying all of the lights. it was nice to experience it from further afield for a change, to see everybody dancing and the sun setting. seeing louis in may sounds like a dream come true! i look forward to checking in and seeing your reactions! he’s great live, you’ll have a BLAST. 🕺🎶

3. well, it seems we are very similar! 😌 i studied english literature at university, so reading is one of my greatest hobbies too. bunny has been on my tbr for yonks, though i’m yet to pick it up! did you enjoy it? i just picked up persephone station by stina leicht which was a shameless cover buy… but book riot’s review says “feminist and full of dynamic characters you’ll love” and there’s a badass looking android on the front of it, so i have high hopes! 📖 some other hobbies of mine include: writing poetry, reading copious amounts of fanfic, frequenting the cinema & starting but not finishing more projects than i can count dgdgff. ✨

i must admit that it has taken everything (e v e r y t h i n g) in me not to cheat the system and ask google for help answering your riddle dhdgf. 🥲 i am stumped and need the answer pronto! my initial thought was that it may be a play on words, but iiiiii am no closer to solving it! i’m going to kick myself, aren’t i?

this week’s questions are simply follow up ones from today’s chit chat, if you’d like to answer them! if not, feel free to just ramble to me about your day. there’s never any obligation for an answer as long and laborious as the asks i’ve been sending dhdgf. 🥲

1. if your life was a movie, what song/s would be on the soundtrack?

2. what was your favourite harry fit of love on tour ‘22?

3. is there a louis song that you’re particularly excited to hear live for the first time? (barring holding on to heartache, because i know that’s one of your favourites of all time 😌)

– until next time, your festive friend. 🎄🤍

HELLOOOOOO holiday bestie!!!

this week has definitely been so much nicer, leisure is another story but i am feeling much better than last time. also — i have to do some last minute gifts today after work so i am sooooo stressed about it but honestly it’s my own fault agsjdhsj. i’m cheering for you as well! always <3

literally thats the main goal of hanging out w harry, i just literally wanna be his best friend and that’s all :’) i just know they both would have the best answers and they’d be so fitting for each of them 🥹

EIGHT TIMESSSS SO JELLY but that sounds so amazing omg!!! i always wanted to go to a european show, and all those places sound so lovely! sott w all the lights I AM JEALOUSSSS that sounds like magic. i am so excited to see louis i just know it’ll be LIFE CHANGINGGG

bunny was interesting! it was …. complicated, but very interesting agsjdhsj i feel like that’s not selling it very well 😭. that book sounds bangin tho !! FELT THAT ABOUT STARTING SO MANY PROJECTS SGSJDHSJ I AM SUCH A MESS ABOUT IT. i havent read fanfic in EONS i need some good recs

the answer was — a ton! it is kinda a play on words, at least i think? hope you’re not kicking yourself agsjdhsjs

now to answer your questions!

1. I HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS SO MUCH. well kinda. since i was/am an avid lover of skam, i used to think about what songs would be on my skam season, and i’ll give 5 to narrow it down. have you found what you’re looking for? by ashton irwin, just like you by annika rose, buzzkill by baby queen, unlovable by delacey, and pretty lips by winehouse! hard to narrow it but hey sgskdhd i tried

2. OOOOOOO EXCELLENT QUESTION. also so very hard tbh, anything w the hiddies™️ out is a fave afsjdhdjs BUT. i will say mex city night 2, austin 10/3, and manchester night two, super honorable mentions to new york night 6 and 7 (seven was mine so it’s gotta get chosen!), toronto night one, and london night one. what are yourssss !!

3. CHICAGOOOOOO. it just gives me a vision of everyone having their lights up and singing along i hope there are fan projects or somethin bc i can just . i have a vision for it

hmmm i should ask you some questions, like an uno reverse kind of move.

1. what is a show/movie you wish you could experience for the first time again?

2. what is, in your opinion, one of the best albums of all time?

3. if you were an animal, what animal would you want to be?

until next time indeed! 🤍 missing you already

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Or Lose Me Forever

Fandom: Top Gun: Maverick Pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw/Natasha “Phoenix” Trace Rating: E Word Count: 2813

Summary: He swiftly flexes his fingers to get the tremble out of them. Natasha ejected from a plummeting F-18—it should be her who’s shaking.

The quarters are the same as they gave him as a student—not the exact same, but the same layout, the same room to sit in and sleep in and decorate as he pleases. Bradley’s gone with a messy draping of assorted Hawaiian shirts. Looks pretty goddamn terrible, so he’s hoping the Vice Admiral doesn’t throw a petty inspection their way. It wouldn’t be unusual, but it would be fucking cruel, since they’re apparently vying for assignment to an unwinnable mission.

No matter the state he keeps them in, these quarters are his. He expects visitors to knock.

Phoenix comes charging through the door without extending that courtesy and he’s standing there at the opposite end of the room: shocked, shirtless, sweaty, arms twitching from the punishing sets of curls he’s been doing with the 50lb dumbbell he drops on the floor when she walks in. It bounces and he jerks his foot out of the way.

“You’re out of observation?” he checks, dumbstruck.

He knew it was coming, but this is still the first time he’s seen her since the crash, since call sign “Phoenix” went from a green dot on a radar screen to a dark parachute in the sky. There’s a reason he’s been keeping himself busy with reps that burn his muscles like a lost bet. They were a distraction.

She raises her chin, tough.

“I’ve just gotta shake it off now,” she says.

“Is that what the doctor told you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Oh, ok, just checking,” Bradley says with a forced laugh. He puts his hands on his hips and blinks at the sweat dripping into his eyes. “I forgot there’s nothing else on the spectrum between totally fine and dead.”

“How long have we been friends?”

“Long enough that you don’t need to knock before walking into my room, I guess.”

“Right,” she agrees. “So trust me when I say I’m alright.”

“Completely alright? Ready to get back up there alright?”

Closing the door to his quarters, Phoenix admits, “My adrenaline’s still running a little high.”

He shifts, watching her, wondering. She has a fresh flight suit zipped to her throat. The only sign that she’s recently been discharged from the infirmary is that her hair’s pulled into a low ponytail instead of the usual bun. Phoenix isn’t a hothead—she’s methodical, efficient, careful but not cautious. Yeah, being in the air, running these training exercises Mav’s been pushing them through, it gets everybody’s heart pumping, but Bradley’s never witnessed an adrenaline-fueled Phoenix on the ground. It’s one thing to hear her voice rising in excitement (or panic—fuck, those blazing engines) over comms and another to be alone with her and not know where that energy’s about to go.

(Bradley has his hopes. They’ve been friends a long time. Long enough that he’s definitely had dreams about her walking into his room without knocking.)

But she probably just wants some flight time with him, to confer with him before putting in a request for the two of them to go up early, reacclimate her without the rest of the candidates listening in. She’ll only be asking him and not her WSO because she knows him better—no hard feelings, Bob. Maybe they’ll play some pool first. Ease into it.

In a confident tug, Phoenix unzips her flight suit to her navel, and she’s wearing a standard-issue white tee underneath, but he still says, “Whoa.”

She shrugs out of the sleeves to leave the top half of the suit hanging from her waist. If this isn’t what it very much looks like it is, he is fucked; his blood’s still racing through his veins from his interrupted workout and his sweatpants aren’t much to hide behind if it all decides to go to the same place.

“Natasha…” Bradley’s skin is clammy, but his mouth is very, very dry. He wets his lips with his tongue. His eyes move over her.

Phoenix walks up to him and, like the straightforward person she is, reaches around and slaps his ass. One ass-slap is enough to make the sweatpants situation a lost cause; he’s getting hard.

“Just what the doctor ordered,” he jokes, but his voice is choked.

“I was hoping it’d mean more to you than a way to say good game after beach football.”

“What does it mean to you?” Bradley challenges, head tipped back slightly as he looks down at her.

Her abruptly earnest gaze slides across his face.

“I almost died,” she says. Soft. Intense.

His palms are damp, but he holds her waist. Compared to him, she’s cool, clean. He’s met her fist hard with his after a gruelling victory, accidentally driven his elbow into her arm when he was banging out Jerry Lee Lewis on the piano and she took a seat next to him at her own risk, had the gritty sole of her boot bear down on his interlaced fingers when he hoisted her over a wall, but never put a gentle hand on one of her cotton t-shirts just to touch her. He swiftly flexes his fingers to get the tremble out of them. Natasha ejected from a plummeting F-18—it should be her who’s shaking.

“That’s why they call you ‘Phoenix,’ huh?”

“Rising from the ashes,” she agrees. He sees her sly smile. “Remind me why they call you ‘Rooster’? Is it just a coincidence that another word for rooster is co—”

Bradley brings his mouth down on hers hard. He bunches her t-shirt between his fingers and edges quickly and clumsily around the dumbbell at his feet, crowding into her as her head tilts back. His hips press forward to supply the word he didn’t let her get out. If adrenaline has a flavour, it tastes like Phoenix’s lips grabbing at his and catching between his teeth. He doesn’t want to breathe, doesn’t want to think—does not want Mav’s piloting advice in his head right now.

Her hands slip on his slick back and she tears out of the kiss to pant, “You stink,” but by the way she then immediately runs her nose and mouth up his neck, breathing his skin, he’d guess she kinda likes it. They’re all a bunch of hyper-sensitive freaks with honed instincts and lightning-fast reaction times, high on competition and each other’s arrogance. He’s never fucked another fighter pilot—it’s a perfect environment to stoke sexual tension and a disastrous environment in which to indulge it—but it’s Natasha and they might die in Coffin Corner at the end of this. If she weren’t as good as she is, she’d be dead already.

He's going nuts at the growing heat of her against him. Impatiently, Bradley pushes his hand up the back of her shirt and she helps him, peeling it up and over her head. He takes her in, then tries to take her up, bending his knees to grab the back of her thighs. But when he goes to lift her, his muscles feel on-fire and numb at the same time and he can’t.

With a burst of laughter, he admits, “My arms are wrecked.”

Phoenix laughs with him as he skims his hands back up to her hips.

“And people think you don’t test the limits.”

“Thank you for that backhanded compliment.”

“I said people,” she clarifies, “not me. But save your arms.” Eyes locked on his, she nods towards his unmade bed. The gesture has the conviction of an order.

Bradley chuckles.

“Are you inviting me into my own bed?”

“Uh huh.”

Her ego’s in her grin and dark, bright eyes, her certainty that he’ll execute every shot she calls. She’s right. He never asked to be protected by the authority she commands among their peers, but he doesn’t mind it. He can be rude, he can be the friendly jackass, the piano man jangling his fingers across the keys with his sunglasses on indoors. He can knock his tense shoulders roughly through a swarm of naval aviators or be everybody’s best friend in a bar full of strangers. He can make people wonder if he’s drunk when he’s sober, can stay just barely on the lovable side of belligerent and toss out smiles like party-favour hand grenades. If he gets into a fight, it’s because he craves it, not because he needs to; Phoenix is the first to throw herself between him and someone else. Bradley doesn’t want anyone between them now.

“You always did know how to walk into a room like you owned it,” he notes, then shoves his sweats down as he walks to the bed, stepping on the cuffs to get his feet free. Turning, he hurls himself backwards onto the unyielding mattress. He didn’t have anything on under the pants. He watches her check him out.

Phoenix takes her bra off first, then her boots, then the flight suit. Each pieces joins his cultivated ecosystem of slobbishness on the floor. She does it all with practiced, almost clinical meticulousness. Though she doesn’t do it like she’s putting on a show, he finds it torturously sexy anyway (he’s been gripping his cock since she pulled sharply at her knotted laces)—not just the skin she reveals, but the deliberateness of it. This is for you, she seems to be saying, staring him straight in the eye, and this is also for me. Can you imagine the guts it takes to survive a critical engine failure and seduce one of your best friends? You want me almost as bad as you want to be me.

He's sunk in disbelief as she joins him on the bed wearing nothing but underwear and the elastic in her hair. Propped on an elbow, he lets her come to him, and they kiss with honest tentativeness, exploring this new way to be friends, to become steeply, dangerously loyal. Birds of a feather. Actually, they have the only two avian call signs in their elite cohort—his nothing more than a jumped-up barnyard alarm clock, but hers something mystical in a way that appeals to every single person in the building: the seductive implication of immortality. Bradley knows coming that close to the grave will reenforce Phoenix’s call sign and raise her to legendary status. She’ll be a story—a warning and a lesson learned with awe. But he’s just glad she’s alive, and he likes her just like this, following him down as he slides his elbow out from under him to lie flat on his back. Holding his jaw, she straddles his lap. She nudges into his erection and he grunts at the pressure and the feel of damp cotton.

“Talk to me, Rooster,” she coaxes, scraping her teeth over his chin, not quite biting.

He’s hard as fuck, leaking onto the glistening trails of sweat already on his abdomen, and Phoenix just rolls her hips gently forward again.

“More?” she asks. That’s perfect; keep it simple for him.

“Hell yes,” he says, and digs his fingers into her hips, dragging her forward and back across his cock, feeling the shudder in her thighs when he rubs her just right. She seizes his shoulder and pins it to the bed, not that he was planning to go anywhere. He stares at the pronounced tautness of her triceps and the soft valley they create. He wants to put his mouth there.

Bradley could swear she’s about to come, but this woman’s a fucking genius with timing, an ace at last-second restraint—always coming in with the smart move that pulls her out of a dive set to violate the hard deck, or a slow exhale while her hand stills on the controls to keep from taking a shot too soon. It turns him on so goddamn much to watch her deny herself in this moment with the expectation of greater pleasure in the next. He’s gonna give her that. Yes, he fucking will.

Phoenix climbs off of him to strip the underwear from her body. Naked, she tries to remount his hips, but he squeezes her thighs, refusing to let her stop there, urging her forward until she’s right where he wants her. And then he stares up at her with a cocky grin until she settles onto him of her own volition. Women can’t help but be curious about the mustache.

If they anticipate each other well in the air, they do it beautifully here. He thinks it’s fucking stunning how she rocks with him while he laps sloppily at her clit, tilting her hips in concert with the tilt of his jaw. It isn’t gentle—it’s power and thrust, just like a carrier launch—but they make it graceful. A big hunk of metal’s not supposed to fly; a guy who lost his parents young isn’t supposed to find new connections that are this strong. He plunges his tongue into her and his hips thump reflexively off the bed when she wedges her hand between his head and the pillow to press his mouth up harder. He can feel her clutching at his tongue and licks firmly into the tight passage. Now it’s no brains and all nerve as they hold each other with lowered eyelids and searing stares, waiting for the other person to flinch. Thankfully, she stops him from suffocating in the midst of flaunting the breath control he’s mastered to allow himself to pull massive Gs.

Phoenix’s hand smooths from the back of his head to the top and her fingers comb through his hair. He groans when she finds her grip and angles her ass up to scratch that sweet itch, grinding her clit all over his mustache. Strangled cries ring from her throat, higher and higher, and he doesn’t give a fuck about the confused mumble coming through the wall his quarters share with Coyote’s.

She gets off and there’s hardly a pause—her shutting her eyes, him gasping for breath, a slurred, desperate exchange about birth control where they talk over each other and end sentences they’ve barely begun and he finds out she’s on the pill and feels, first, relief because not buying condoms is the one way in which he showed up to this mission ill-equipped and, second, zero surprise, since Phoenix always has her shit together—before she’s stuffing his twitching cock into her while he yanks the elastic from her hair.

“Not so fast,” Bradley pants, because Phoenix bears down and she fucking goes after it, riding him in a quick, bouncing rhythm. She’s got his sweat on her thighs and he’s still backhanding her arousal off his lips.

“I’ve never underestimated you,” she replies. Which is a weird fucking thing to say (does he thank her?), but he can’t not react to the inherent dare. If he’s going to achieve what she expects him to, he better get to it.

His arms aren’t gonna like it, but this is no time to take the long, safe route to the destination.

Flipping them, he lunges forward with his hips, driving into her so he can hear the bed colliding with the wall and see her dark hair scattering across his pillow. Coyote’s protest is a distant howl, easily ignored. Bradley hikes Phoenix’s thighs up around his hips, one at a time, then drops low to hover close above her.

“Hey,” he says, jerking his chin like he’s just spotted her in a crowd despite their noses being an inch apart. He doesn’t know how to talk to her now, but he’s pretty happy feeling like a fucking idiot.

She flashes him a smile in return, then guides his hand to her boob and his ear to her lips. He can’t believe what he’s hearing—she compliments him. Soft and huffed and irresistible, she pays her brush with death forward by saying every nice thing Bradley’s never heard. She doesn’t think he’s timid, she thinks he’s a goddamn good pilot, one she admires, one she knows she can rely on, one she trusts. She tells him how much she loves it when he’s around. He’s a dork and an asshole and he has her favourite smile. Her hand slips down and he can feel her playing with her clit. He swallows and tries to keep his strokes even as she confesses in ragged breaths every carnal thought she’s had about his body since the football game on the beach.

“Thanks for not dying,” he blurts.

Phoenix grins, strands of unbound hair swept across her forehead. She’s arching her back to meet his pounding thrusts and he knows she’s almost there. Him—she came to him, restless and alive. Bradley kisses her, losing the pace, feeling so close to the edge that he doesn’t know how he’s not over it already.

“Crow for me, Rooster,” she says.

It sounds a lot like her name.

[mishasminions]

The Last Time I’ll Write a Long Post About Supernatural (15x18-15x20)

15 YEARS OF WATCHING THIS SHOW. 11 YEARS OF RUNNING A BLOG ABOUT IT. IT’S BEEN QUITE A RIDE.

[15x20 Speculation + evidence at the bottom]

First off, I just wanna come clean and say, after all these years, I still think they should’ve ended at Season 5.

If you’re going to come at me with “Then why’d you stick around to watch it if you didn’t like it?”, your question is immature, and the answer is simple: I just want to know what happens next (I also love the main characters and their actors too). You can watch a show and still think it’s shit.

Call me a clown, but despite all the disappointment and trust issues that this show has given me, I would still look forward to the day where it might just turn itself around and bring back the quality it once had, or realize the potential of each story it was trying to tell, or at the very least, do justice by my favorite ship.

Never happened.

They’ve had a few good episodes here and there. I can’t imagine the SPN Universe without The Man Who Would Be King, The French Mistake, and Scoobynatural. Seasons 6-10 were enjoyable at times. I blocked out most of 7 & 11-15. 

If you’ve been following this blog since its heydays in 2010-2014, you’d know I’d try my best to defend Destiel and this show’s decisions regarding it no matter what.

Because you know what, as a CONCEPT, this show is good. If you take a look at all the worlds its storylines have birthed in fanfiction/fanworks, you’d see how much Supernatural has wasted its own story arcs. The writing got shittier as each season progressed, and they’ve obviously given up in production as well because the quality in the execution has noticeably gone down too, but if you take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that this show still tries to make sense of itself.

[If you’re still following this post, please bear with me, I know this is long, but I just want you to understand how jaded and pessimistic I am with regards to this show, so maybe you can buy into whatever hopeful thing I’m about to say later on.]

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT DESTIEL

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would give us Castiel’s “I love you” speech. To the point where, if I weren’t so desperate for it, I would argue that it was completely out of character for him to word vomit the way he did (but I’m not gonna diss on that right now because I’ll take what I can get).

I’ve valued every meaningful and obscure exchange that Dean and Cas have had in the earlier seasons, and I was willing to accept their relationship as just that--undefined, without any clear boundaries as to what they really are. And I think that was beautiful on its own.

But now, they’ve chosen to define it.

After they’ve driven every possible wedge between Dean and Castiel in seasons 11-15, to try to explain away their feelings as something they offer to a collective.

Dean can’t mourn and pray for JUST Cas, he has to mourn and pray for EVERYBODY--even Crowley, even some chick he just met, because god forbid he cries about just the guy who has given up everything for him--that would be “too homo”.

They’ve even set Cas on a path to abrupt fatherhood just so he can care about something other than Dean. Make it seem as if Dean wasn’t his purpose through and through.

And after all these years of this stupid show trying to deny it, they choose to acknowledge it at the worst possible circumstance, at a time where they’ve been so far apart, that it seems so foreign for them to suddenly come together.

But here we are. And they’ve chosen to tell us.

Chosen to tell us that everything that Castiel has done leading up to his death, he has done it because he was IN LOVE WITH DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that the ONE THING THAT WOULD MAKE CAS HAPPY IS DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that BEING WITH DEAN WINCHESTER is something that CAS WANTS BUT KNOWS HE CAN’T HAVE.

And they’ve also chosen to tell us nothing about how Dean feels.

Sure, finding out your angel made a deal, the stipulations of said deal, his newfound happiness philosophy, his long-winded monologue of why he loves you and why you’re worthy of his love, and to top it all off he tells you that being in love with you is enough to make him happy while he subtly hints that he’s always wanted to be WITH you romantically, was a lot to process in the 5 minutes after you’ve just had an existential crisis.

It’s whatever, right? Let’s culminate 11 years worth of tension and feelings in 5 minutes. Let’s waste the entire episode with cringey expository dialogue, and irrelevant sequences. The whole season was a waste anyway.

You know what Supernatural? FUCK YOU FOR THAT. They deserved better. WE deserve better.

And I would love nothing more than to hurl every possible insult your way,

But for the last time, I’m going to HOPE that you’re finally going to try to make it better for the fans that stuck by you all these years.

No more baiting new viewers, no more placating casual viewers, no more excuses. 15 years. Bring it home for the people who have actually been around.

SO HERE’S HOW I THINK 15x20 IS GONNA GO

There’s two ways this series is gonna end. Horribly or Spectacularly.

First let’s all take into consideration what Andrew Dabb says about it:

So, let’s start with

ENDING HORRIBLY

In this scenario, Misha is telling the truth about his last day of filming being 15x18. His “camping trip” during the last few days of filming 15x20, was actually a camping trip. He doesn’t go to Vancouver to shoot.

Jensen wasn’t “being careful” during the zoom interviews that it was just him and Jared quarantining for the shoot, it really was just him and Jared (althought most of these were done pre 15x19) Supernatural isn’t smart enough to do misleading PR, and they’re once again oblivious to the potential of their own story.

Misha hasn’t posted a “Goodbye Castiel” tweet because he’s probably saving it for last episode or he forgot because it was overshadowed by the Destiel trend that night.

So what we get is:

Sam and Dean are on the road again, up against the monster of the week. Only their world no longer has actual Supernatural beings anymore, so the monsters they’re fighting are humans.

Humans end up killing the Winchesters (despite having gone up against literally every powerful being imaginable INCLUDING God himself). Dean and Sam end up in heaven and relive their greatest hits.

Meanwhile, Castiel rots in The Empty because he died after realizing that he was happy and gay. Jack doesn’t bother rescuing him—his surrogate dad, the guy who made this specific deal to spare him—even though it was so easy for him get Cas in and out of The Empty when he had a fraction of the power that he has now.

Dean never speaks of Castiel’s confession because despite all the hints of a profound bond in the earlier seasons, and the fact that Dean has never cared for anyone (who isn’t his actual brother) as immensely as he does Cas, Supernatural just can’t have its main macho character be “suddenly bisexual” because that would hurt the male ego or some shit.

His heaven would probably be living happily ever after with his family. “Family” meaning Mary and John Winchester--two of the shittiest parents ever (but they’re not going to include them in this episode like they were supposed to because of Covid) and Sam.

Sam also gets a dog. As usual.

I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to do this. After everything they’ve pulled, this would be right up their alley. I actually expect this ending.

Anyway, onto the next possible ending

ENDING SPECTACULARLY

In this scenario, Supernatural tries to stick the landing, and Jensen’s whole “It didn’t sit well with me at first, but then I took a step back after talking to Kripke, and realized that I had to view it from an audience perspective, I am now really excited about it” (DC Con 2019) anecdote about his thoughts on the final episodes, were actually about Dean potentially ending up with Cas. (Which would totally make sense because Jensen at first didn’t see Dean as anything but hetero, but as of late, he has been throwing in Destiel jokes of his own, so he seems to have warmed up to the idea)

Backed with Misha’s tidbit (DLConline 2020) that he and Jensen had conversations about Destiel, and that they wouldn’t have gone through with it if Jensen wasn’t onboard with it, but Jensen didn’t push back at all. (Why would they need to check with Jensen if it was just Cas going all in?)

Robert Berens (writer of 15x18) also wrote the script at the beginning of Season 15, but made Misha privy to the concept a year prior (Season 14), so they went into this season knowing about Destiel going canon.

This one’s a reach, but this scenario also supposes that Misha was lying about his whereabouts during the filming of the final episode, and him saying that 15x18 was his last episode is part of the diversion to avoid taking away from the weight of Castiel’s death.

And that Supernatural is actually self-aware of its own material (similar to how they have wrapped things up in the past—lots of expository dialogue, poor execution, but fulfills the story arc)

Since Season 15 is basically a Meta Season (Chuck/God as a writer, pretentiously calling out how he created the worlds, its characters, and basically invalidating the past 14 seasons), and 15x19 is supposedly the finale for Season 15, written by two of the worst Supernatural writers, Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming (Bob Singer’s wife), then we can assume that 15x19 is where the shitty writers kill themselves--as Chuck, of course.

So we get a badly written episode that produces a bad ending, or as Becky put it, “All action, and no Cas”

So we get the bad writers season ending at 15x19.

And 15x20 is where Sam and Dean write their own stories, and where the cast had a hand in pitching ideas for it.

Dabb has mentioned that 15x20 (Act Two) is a SERIES finale, where they try to resolve the characters’ journeys.

Because as everyone has acknowledged, Supernatural isn’t about the story, it’s about the characters.

So here’s what we can get out of it:

With no more Supernatural beings left to fight, Sam and Dean are in a stalemate. They’ve resigned themselves to fighting to the bitter end, but the “end” has passed, and they’re still standing.

So they try to figure out who they are now, and what they want out of the life they still have.

Sam still wants a normal apple pie life. Before Dean dragged him out of college to go hunting with him, he had a whole life planned out for him. Become a lawyer, settle down with a nice girl, and get a dog. He gave all that up because they had work to do, but now the work is finished, he can finally go back to wanting that for himself again.

Dean finally realizes his self-worth after Cas saves him again. His prayer to Cas in purgatory may have helped him come to terms with his anger, but the whole “you’ve done everything you did for love” speech finally put him in his place, and he learns not to hate himself anymore.

But of course, he cannot fully reconcile with himself if he doesn’t get Cas back, and tell him how he feels.

Because Dean actually wants something for himself this time. Something he knows he can finally have if he can just salvage it.

So maybe this time around, with the help of Jack (off-screen), Dean saves Cas. Grips him tight and raises him from perdition.

They bypass The Empty deal by turning Cas human, and he lives the rest of his days with Dean.

Dean and Cas know they deserve to be saved, and they know that they deserve to be happy.

(Wishful thinking, maybe they kiss a little)

Anyway...

I’m just saying, there’s NO WAY that they’d have Cas go through that whole rushed speech, if they weren’t going to do anything about it later on.

But again, after 10 years of disappointment, I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to pat themselves on the back and say, “Okay, we sort of gave them what they wanted. We’re good now”

If that’s the case, Supernatural, I’m sorry I wasted my time on you.

Here’s to hoping 🤡

[build-a-bastard]

Venom hc's

© build-a-bastard - all rights reserved. do not distribute, repost, copy, modify, or plagiarize my work. do not read my writing as asmr. all other queries - ask for permission

A/N: So some of these are a bit nsfw, if you're not 18+ do not interact with this, please. I really just wrote these on a whim then it got long 🤡 I do not have a beta reader, nor have I proofread this, or done any research beyond watching the film, so please either point out any errors in my asks or just ignore it 😌 I hope you enjoy, begins after the cut✌

Venom does not have a single fine motor skill or brain cell, so Eddie's apartment looks like it has been child proofed (locks on the knife drawer, that little like toilet clamp thingy, stuff is like blu tacked down)

Venom discovered snakes once while watching TV once, so when they're bored they'll come out of Eddie looking like a little snake and do snake things (drink with the flicky tongue, slither, weave themselves around things, which typically end up being Eddie's limbs)

Venom doesn't quite have enough goo to make a full body version of themselves without Eddie in them, so whenever they do, they're much closer to Eddie's size, they're much shorter and skinnier, but still an inch or two taller and broader than their host

Venom has begun to sleep, and when they remain out during sleep, they drool

Venom licks Eddie to get his attention when he's working, it's the only thing that gets a reaction

Venom has acted as Eddie's motorbike helmet, underwear and socks, separately, due to Eddie not doing washing and losing stuff

Eddie has picked a lock by asking Venom to make themselves very thin and pointy, Eddie already knew how to pick locks, but just forgot his kit

Venom adores using social media and their favourite is reddit, if Eddie isn't using either his phone or his laptop Venom will start using it

Venom gets drunk when Eddie gets drunk

Venom's chocolate addiction has led to Eddie being forced into a sex shop to purchase A) mini dick shaped chocolates B) chocolate body paint C) a dildo made out of solid chocolate (the cashier didn't say anything but did give strange looks to the tired man in mismatched lounge wear and sliders that looked like cod, who seemed to be muttering animatedly at nothing while he was searching the shop)

Venom has never heard of nutrition in their life and Eddie was almost admitted into hospital with scurvy because Venom kept complaining that vegetables tasted bad

Venom's favourite film is Alien and has re-enacted the alien-bursting-out-of-the-chest scene (minus the actual injury, they just concentrated a bunch of goo on Eddie's chest and "burst" out, with a little face on the end)

Venom's favourite radio station is the jazz station and will get moody if/when Eddie turns it onto the news

Eddie showered with swimming trunks on for the first couple of weeks while he was still not entirely comfortable with the concept of an alien symbiote seeing him naked

Eddie had 1 (one) orgasm in the first 6 months that he had venom, and it was a wet dream, he was so viscerally uncomfortable with the idea of jerking off in front of Venom and he wasn't really looking for a partner (out of concern for their wellbeing)

Venom discovered what porn was through twitter, one of Eddie's mutuals had retweeted a bunch of it (they claimed they'd been hacked but everybody suspected it was a case of 'wrong account'), some time later Venom asked Eddie about it, leading to Eddie's first voluntary orgasm in a long time

Eddie has a subscription to a hentai site because Venom enjoys the tentacle videos

Eddie has redecorated his bedroom 5 times now because Venom is indecisive about what their favourite colour is

(Only with Eddie's direct supervision) Venom rather likes baking

Venom loves the brand Lush, and loves their bath bombs specifically

Venom also loves baths and whenever Eddie has one (once a fortnight, at Venom's request) they spread out under the water like a network of blood vessels

Venom had described what Eddie's organs look like to him, and has replicated them in a little goo torso when he got more curious

Venom purrs like a cat when Eddie pets their head, they'll also curl up in a ball on his stomach, just like a cat

Venom absolutely melts when Eddie calls them a pet name (they still won't tolerate "parasite" though)

A/N: Might release more of these in future if I can actually think of any, I'm sure the new film will spark some inspiration (the trailer already has)

[daggryet]

could you transcribe tommy's doomsday vod? sorry for asking and no pressure of course, but i saw you were open to requests

Hello! Thank you for the request, it is done!

Today is L'Manberg's birthday and its first anniversary. but it's also the day I finished transcribing tommy's doomsday vod - so let's all be sad today :)

Underneath the cut is the entirety of Tommy's Doomsday VOD "Tommy's Dream SMP is Obliterated by Technoblade" (1.14.25).

Conversations may have been cut in half if they make jokes, but I've included every single lore-related line that I could hear (there was a lot of TNT and shouting over each other sorry)

(If anyone has their own requests, feel free to send them in)

Without further ado and I hope it's useful to you:

Tommy's Dream SMP Is Obliterated by Technoblade

00:47

TOMMY: So, there’s things I need to do. How long do we have now? 40 minutes. Oh, there we go. I’ve got something I need to do. I’ve got a couple of solo things that we’d needed to do for a long time. And I want to- ehm, we’ve got to speak to Tubbo because if we’re gonna do this war, morally, we can’t do it alone.

TOMMY messages TUBBO

TOMMY, whispering: vc

TOMMY: I know, they’re coming at 8pm, alright?

TUBBO messages TOMMY

TUBBO, whispering: okay

TOMMY: So what we’ve gotta do- you know what, chat? I fucked up, I did, I did over these past few weeks. I’ve been in exile, it’s been the worst weeks of my entire life, but I don’t wanna think about anything other… we’ve gotta say sorry.

TOMMY messages TUBBO

TOMMY, whispering: meet at our spot

TOMMY: And I know that’s not the most TommyInnit-y thing to do off the bat, but I haven’t been doing the most TommyInnit-y things to do.

TUBBO: I see you.

TOMMY: But I will do now.

TUBBO: Hello?

TOMMY: Hey.

TUBBO: Hey.

TOMMY: Hey, ehm, you wanna sit down on the eh-

TUBBO: I would quite like to sit down on the bench.

TOMMY: It’s been- you’re well dressed.

TUBBO: Thank you, you’re looking good yourself.

TOMMY: Eh, it’s been eh- listen. Listen - oh you’ve taken it off - I know it’s been a, mhm, I know it’s been quite some time… I’m sorry. I know, I know the exile- I know you had to exile me, like I’m sorry-

TUBBO: I’m sorry also. We could have tried other routes, it was a bit of an extreme turn.

TOMMY: I just don’t want everything that happens now to be built on - stay here - to be built on the past. You know, I don’t…

TUBBO: Yeah

TOMMY: Tubbo, I- I fucked it. I did. And there’s no- we all make mistakes, but it was me. I-I was the one who chose to side with the violent anarchist who wanted to destroy the thing I would sacrifice my discs for, and I, you know, put our shit behind that.

TUBBO: It’s okay though.

TOMMY: And I’m sorry. But-

TUBBO: Aw.

TOMMY: I’m sorry. I haven’t been… I haven’t been myself, but, ehm, we will tonight, alright? ‘Cause we’ve got shit to do, my friend.

TUBBO: Ehm, well, I mean, we have to rally everyone, don’t we? We have to go to what- where did we decide to set everything up? Over at Eret’s place? Get supplies.

TUBBO: We do!

TOMMY: Get supplies.

TOMMY: Get supplies.

TUBBO: I have no idea when they’re gonna get here, but-

TOMMY: There’s something I gotta do first. I mean, people don’t- I gotta, I gotta do it.

TUBBO: Okay…

TOMMY: I-I… okay. You go to the people and start rallying, I’ll join you, I’ll, you know, take lead once I’m there.

TUBBO: Okay, I’ll gotta get everything sorted.

TOMMY: We’ve gotta be- it’s gotta be me and you, Tubbo, it’s gotta be me and you versus Dream.

TOMMY: We’ve gotta leave everything we’ve done over the past weeks to the past, alright?

TUBBO: Yeah, of course.

TOMMY: Just like it always has been. And we’ve gotta do that tonight, because if we don’t tonight… I mean, you’ve heard what they’re saying. We’ll lose everything.

TUBBO: Yeah…

TOMMY: We’ll lose everything.

TUBBO: I mean, I don’t even know what would happen if L’Manberg were to get destroyed.

TOMMY: Okay, here’s what you do: you go rally them. I have something I have to do-

TUBBO: Okay.

TOMMY: And no one really knows what I have to do, but you rally them.

TUBBO: I will rally, I will rally!

TOMMY: I’ll speak to you, eh-

TOMMY: You start a plan, and then I’ll come and help, alright?

TUBBO: Speak to you soon.

TOMMY: Speak to you soon.

5:30

TOMMY: Okay, everybody. That was the right thing to do.

TOMMY does a waterbucket MLG.

TOMMY: We’ve still got it.

TOMMY: There’s something I need to do, that I didn’t really speak to you all about. We’ve got quite a while now to go. Now, listen to me, chat- Quackity’s leaving, Fundy’s leaving, what are you on about? No, no, no! We focus now, alright? There’s too many words shouted at me, shit in my head, streaks that I’ve lost, but we’ve got to- there is not enough time to read everyone’s- Fundy’s, what, what? Alright, I’m not reading the chat now. Here’s what I’ve got to do. Okay, okay, you know, we’ll walk.

TOMMY: Does anyone remember, eh, last night? I know I messed up, but there was one thing that really stuck. ‘Cause you know Sssa- you know, Sapnap, ‘cause I was watching this old video in my recommended about how all of these wars started, alright? And all of it started with me and Sapnap. And you know, you know, yesterday I realised - we need him on our side, man. ‘Cause it started with him and me, me and him. And a while age, a few months ago now, pre-exile, we had a fight. And it ended with me- I don’t know if anyone remembers, but it ended with me letting go of his pet fish, Beckerson. But I’ve been thinking about it, we can’t afford- we can’t afford to not have Sapnap. ‘Cause it started with us, and you know what? It’s gonna end with us. So we’ve gotta- and it can’t end with him betraying me again, so we’ve got to get him on our side. And I let his fish loose a longass time ago.

TOMMY: I’m not sure if it’s- is that it? Do you think it’ll be here still? What type of fish was it? “Mars”, Mars, Beckerson, Mars- I don’t, it doesn’t mean anything to me.

8:32

TOMMY: Is it around here? Guys, what type of fish was it? Is it- I mean, it might just not be here.

9:09

TOMMY: If it is still here, that’d be a miracle, but… everyone, if we can do this now, then- tropical? That means nothing to me. Oh is that- what the fuck!

TOMMY finds MARS swimming by the shore.

TOMMY: Oh, wow, wow, wow, holy shit, holy shit! Okay, go, go, go, go, go! Oh my- okay, wow, wow, wow, we found it, we found it- what the fuck! Did it not despawn? Okay, you know what, no, no, no. What the fuck? Okay, we can’t MLG with that waterbucket anymore. How?! Does it not despawn? Okay, where is Sapnap? What we’ve gotta do is we find Sapnap and get him on our side ‘cause it started with us; we’re ending with us!

TOMMY messages SAPNAP

TOMMY, whispering: Hey

TOMMY, whispering: vc?

TOMMY: Hey Sapnap

SAPNAP messages TOMMY

SAPNAP: Hey

TOMMY: No, wait, this is too serious of an occasion, I can’t play the Able Sisters. Where are you, Sapnap?

SAPNAP: Eh, at the community house you blew up.

TOMMY: Oh. Forgot about that

SAPNAP: Yeah

TOMMY: I’m-

TOMMY: Hey, hey, I’m really- I didn’t blow it up, sorry, people just- you know what, I’ll just be like a trooper. I won’t keep saying I didn’t blow it up, I’ll just- listen to me.

SAPNAP: Hello

TOMMY: I know, ehm, I know you said you didn’t wanna team with us last night, Sapnap.

SAPNAP: Well, I’m just- I don’t know, I just don’t know who to help or if I should help anyone.

TOMMY: Listen, I know, I know, but I- what I want you to know, Sapnap, is that I know we’ve had quarrels. But there was this video in my recommended the other day, and it was detailing the entirety of the very first war on this server. And I realised all of it, all of it, started with me and you. And I know you killed Henry, and I know we had wars, and you fucked up so many times - but so did I. And here’s the thing, man, it doesn’t matter about the past, and it doesn’t matter about the future; it matters about right now. And right now, there is a plethora of supervillains literally going to destroy everything we’ve worked for. And I know, I know you have no reason to come back, but I know it started with us. And it started with us because I helped you, Sapnap. And I don’t stop, because I know I’ve fucked up, but I won’t stop, alright? And you don’t have to side with us, but, Sapnap, do you remember a while ago we had a little war, a little fight?

SAPNAP: I do remember.

TOMMY: Sapnap.

TOMMY: And it ended with you throwing away- what was it?

SAPNAP: Yeah?

TOMMY: I’m so sorry that you did that, and that I made you do that because it wasn’t right of me. And I shouldn’t- I shouldn’t take out any of the fucked up shit that’s happened to me out on other people, and I’m sorry.

SAPNAP: Alright.

TOMMY: But Sapnap- I got Mars back. And yeah, it’s the same Mars from where I- turns out they don’t despawn if they have a nametag on them!

SAPNAP: It’s Mars!

TOMMY: Turns out they don’t despawn if they have a nametag on them! I didn’t know that! But, but, Sapnap, please help us, please. Because it started with me and you, and it doesn’t have to end with me and you. And if we don’t do anything right now; tonight will be the end of L’Manberg. So, please, help us. We need you.

SAPNAP: Alright, Tommy, let’s do this.

TOMMY: Really?

SAPNAP: Yeah, let’s eh- let’s just kill them all! What, it’s just two people, right?

TOMMY: It’s just two people, right!

SAPNAP: It’s just two people, we can kill them!

TOMMY: They’ll be here in 30 minutes. Okay.

SAPNAP: We can kill them.

TOMMY: Okay, let’s go get basic stuff. Let’s- let me get on my armour now, it’s war time. Let’s get in a call.

SAPNAP: I’m putting Mars somewhere safe, I’m putting Mars somewhere safe.

13:45

TOMMY: Hello?

JACK MANIFOLD: Hello

PONK: Hello

TOMMY: Hello, where’s Tubbo?

JACK MANIFOLD: He went to speak to-to-to Big Q.

TOMMY: Okay, I’ll go speak to him. Hey everyone, hope you’re all well-

JACK MANIFOLD: Actually, I’m-

TECHNOBLADE: Hey idiots! Where you at? I’m in your house, stealing your stuff!

TOMMY: I know where his house is.

TOMMY: What?

TECHNOBLADE: I’m outside L’Manberg, boys, where you at!

TOMMY: There’s 25 more minutes, no you’re not!

TECHNOBLADE: Bro, you think I’m going to wait? You think I’m going to sit- you know what, Tommy? You know what, there is 24 minutes, I’m not there right now, I’m not - there’s no need to check. There’s no need to go to your base.

TOMMY: What the fuck-?

TECHNOBLADE: There’s 24 minutes left.

TOMMY: That’s a very strange and ominous thing to say.

TECHNOBLADE: You know what, you guys take your time, take your time.

TOMMY: What the fuck is this obsidian grid?

TECHNOBLADE: Take your time

TOMMY: Technoblade, wait, no, stop it now. Where are you?

TECHNOBLADE: I’m in L’Manberg.

PHILZA: Where do you think?

TOMMY: Philza Minecraft. You’re not-

TECHNOBLADE: That was also his laugh right there, isn’t it great?

TECHNOBLADE: Uh, that was my Philza Minecraft impression, isn’t it great?

TOMMY shoots a spectral arrow at an invisible person wearing netherite armour.

TOMMY: Is that you?

PHILZA: That’s me, that’s me.

TECHNOBLADE: Phil! You are the least stealthy person on this planet!

TOMMY: What the fuck? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no! Time out! We have 30 more minutes, we have 30 more minutes until you got here!

TECHNOBLADE: You got nothing, Tommy!

TOMMY: What do you mean we’ve got- wait, where’s Tubbo?

TECHNOBLADE: You have nothing! Where is your army?

TOMMY: Where is my- you- what the fuck!

TECHNOBLADE: My army is right here!

TOMMY: You said 30 minutes, you said you’d be here in 30 minutes!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh no! Did we lie? Oh no!

TOMMY: What the fuck?

PHILZA: You think we’re gonna be fair? You think we’re gonna be fair? This is war, Tommy.

TECHNOBLADE: Oh no, I wasn’t honourable about the 1v30 that’s gonna happen, I’m sorry.

TOMMY: Where’s Tubbo?

TOMMY: Eret, Eret, do you have a waterbucket? Can I borrow that, please? Why is it just me and you-?

TOMMY messages TUBBO

TOMMY, messaging: TUBBO

Tommy, messaging: GET FUCKING HERE

TECHNOBLADE: There’s two guys here.

TECHNOBLADE: Is this your army? Man, I overprepared for this.

ERET: Where is everyone else?

TUBBO: Tommy, what’s wrong?

TOMMY: Tubbo, you stupid son of a bitch, get to L’Manberg!

TUBBO: The prepares are all like gone, they were sabotaged.

TUBBO: What, what, what, what?

TOMMY: What do you mean ‘sabotaged’? What does that mean?

TUBBO: There was literally nothing there, Tommy! There was just a crater.

TOMMY: Oh. Dream?

TUBBO: Tommy, what are you doing?

TOMMY falls to his death to escape possibly DREAM’s TNT.

JACK MANIFOLD: That was a really uneventful war

TOMMY: Don’t worry, I’m running back, I’m running back.

ERET: There’s so many dogs!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, I’m stupid, I have a flint and steel.

ERET: Tommy, I got some of your stuff.

TOMMY: Eret, can you just take all my stuff?

TOMMY: Yeah, just keep it there.

TECHNOBLADE: I can’t see anything, there’s too many dogs!

PHILZA: Get out of the way!

TECHNOBLADE: I can’t burn any of the stuff. This sucks!

ERET: Why is there so many dogs?

TECHNOBLADE: Why do you think?

QUACKITY: What the hell is going on? What is this?

TOMMY: Guys, I took a tumble.

QUACKITY: What are you doing? This isn’t a goddamn zoo, Technoblade!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, you messed up, you messed up!

QUACKITY: Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ.

ERET: Tommy, where are you?

TOMMY: I’m just running, I gotta set my spawn.

TECHNOBLADE: You messed up!

TUBBO: Oh my god, oh my god, what the hell

TOMMY: Tubbo?

TECHNOBLADE: You messed up, Tubbo! Let loose the dogs of war!

TOMMY: What does that mean?!

ERET: There’s too many dogs!

TOMMY: Tubbo, fight him!

TUBBO: I am!

QUACKITY: Oh Jesus, fuck, why?

QUACKITY: What the hell! What are you doing?

TECHNOBLADE: Get out of here! Get out of here, Ponk!

TOMMY: Tubbo, stay alive!

TUBBO: I’m doing fine!

TOMMY: Eret, Eret, meet me on the bridge there. Meet me on the way.

TECHNOBLADE: You idiot!

QUACKITY: What the hell are you doing?

TECHNOBLADE: Sapnap really thought he was slick. He was like ‘Oh I’m about to jump Technoblade and nothing bad is going to happen’.

QUACKITY: You realise we’re gonna kill all these dogs as soon as you go, right, Techno?

TOMMY: Eret, Eret, I’m on the path there.

TECHNOBLADE: I’ve already killed three of you guys!

ERET: I’m in the tunnel

TECHNOBLADE: Oh yeah, hit me with that axe, Punz! Hit me with that axe!

TOMMY messages Eret

TOMMY, whispering: IM HERE

PUNZ: I’m running, I’m running. I don’t wanna die!

TECHNOBLADE: Wait, did I actually get back my trident?

TOMMY messages Eret

TOMMY, whispering: AT CHESS

QUACKITY: What are you doing?

PUFFY: Why are there so many?

SAPNAP: Why is there so many dogs?

TOMMY messages Eret

TOMMY, whispering: STUFF PLS

TOMMY, whispering: STUFF PLS

TOMMY, whispering: STUFF PLS

TECHNOBLADE: Dogs!

QUACKITY: This has gotta be illegal in some countries!

TECHNOBLADE: I just killed like 50 of my dogs by accident!

PUFFY: That is definitely illegal

TECHNOBLADE: Not the sweeping edge!

QUACKITY: There’s no way this is all legal

TECHNOBLADE: Get ‘em dogs! Get ‘em!

ERET is giving TOMMY his stuff back.

SAPNAP: Holy crap!

TOMMY: Oh no.

JACK MANIFOLD: Technoblade, people won’t be happy about this.

TECHNOBLADE: You guys aren’t allowed to kill these dogs, no killing pets! No killing pets in L’Manberg!

TOMMY: You got any blocks, any blocks?

ERET: Yeah, there you go.

TOMMY: You got a shield and water bucket, please?

SAPNAP: Punz, Punz, Punz, focus on the dogs.

PUNZ: No, kill Techno, kill Techno.

ERET: Eh, no, I don’t have a spare bucket. That’s all I have

TOMMY: Okay.

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, welcome back!

PONK: No!

TECHNOBLADE: This is actually not great.

SAPNAP: Alright.

PHILZA: *Laughing*

TOMMY: Alright, regroup, regroup. Where is everyone? Where is everyone?

PUFFY: In L’Manberg!

JACK MANIFOLD: Yeah, we’re all- we’re all in L’Manberg.

TOMMY: Holy- okay, okay! On the top of here, on the top of here-

TECHNOBLADE: Whatever you’re doing!

TOMMY:- Do you have a shield, goddamnit? Oh my god!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh yeah, a shield is gonna protect you from the wolves!

TOMMY: Do you have a shield?! Ranboo! Why are you standing still?

JACK MANIFOLD: Stop killing those animals, Sapnap.

RANBOO: What’s going on?

TOMMY: Can I have a shield, please?!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh god, I didn’t think about Sapnap!

RANBOO: What’s going on?

TECHNOBLADE: No one kills animals like Sapnap!

TOMMY: Tubbo, where are you?

TECHNOBLADE: That’s his whole thing!

QUACKITY: That’s true!

TECHNOBLADE: Get out of here, Jack Manifold! Dogs, attack!

SAPNAP: I’m killing so many dogs!

JACK MANIFOLD: Oh!

SAPNAP: Jack!

RANBOO: It wasn’t supposed to start yet.

TECHNOBLADE: Dogs, attack! Everyone’s just cutting down my dogs! What is this?

ERET: Oh my god!

TOMMY: Everyone, focus! Where’s Tubbo?

TUBBO: I’m here!

TOMMY: Why are you so quiet? There’s a traitor in our goddamn midst!

TUBBO: What do you mean?

TOMMY: What do you mean? There’s Technoblade!

QUACKITY: There’s a shitton of dogs in fucking L’Manberg!

TUBBO: Yeah, there’s-

QUACKITY: Oh! What the hell?!

PHILZA: Yeah, don’t worry about it.

TECHNOBLADE: Hbomb! Hbomb get over here! Eret!

ERET: Huh?

20:22

TOMMY: Techno. Techno, stop! Where are you?

TECHNOBLADE: You know what? I’m feeling merciful. If you guys all back off and let me blow up this country, you can live!

QUACKITY: You’re gonna rig these dogs with bombs, how exactly are you gonna do that with dogs?

TOMMY: Holy shit, how are there so many?! Oh my god!

TECHNOBLADE: So many of my dogs have died.

SAPNAP: Alright, they’re almost all dead!

QUACKITY: You literally just said you killed like 50 of your dogs!

TOMMY: Techno.

QUACKITY: What are you doing?

TECHNOBLADE: It was like 20 of my dogs, to be fair.

TOMMY: How many dogs do you have?

QUACKITY: How many did you bring?

PUFFY: Too many!

ERET: Not enough.

SAPNAP: Oh he’s eating a Notch apple, he’s eating a Notch apple!

TOMMY: Techno.

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, I’ve got a few of those!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, 17 minutes. Take your time, Ranboo! No need to rush.

TOMMY: Okay, okay. Tubbo, where are you?

21:09

NIKI: Will?

TUBBO: I’m literally right next to you!

TOMMY: Tubbo, Tubbo, I see you! I see you, I see you!

TECHNOBLADE: The signal!

TOMMY: What’s the signal?

SAPNAP: Guys, Technoblade is right here!

JACK MANIFOLD: The signal?

TOMMY: Where?

A wither spawns.

TOMMY: Eret, Eret- holy shit! Okay! Get down, get down!

TECHNOBLADE: Why did I pearl into it?

QUACKITY: Okay, okay- oh no, no, no.

RANBOO: Not again, not again.

QUACKITY: This is not good.

TUBBO: Not the bees!

TOMMY: Holy shit, holy shit!

QUACKITY: Okay, okay, I don’t even have shit.

TUBBO: Not the bees!

QUACKITY: Okay, alright.

FUNDY: Why did you spawn one on the bees?

SAPNAP: Why did you spawn on the bees?

TOMMY: Not there.

EVERYONE: The bees!

22:02

There’s three withers now.

TOMMY: Holy shit!

JACK MANIFOLD: No!

TOMMY: Okay, Ranboo, Ranboo, stick with me.

RANBOO: Yeah, yeah.

TOMMY: Okay, we’re gonna fight as a group; everyone round up! At the bee house! At the bee house! Tubbo, take charge! There’s one at the bee house; get it! Get the one at the bee house!

PUFFY: It’s got me!

TOMMY: There’s four of them! Ah! Five!

ERET: There’s so many withers.

TECHNOBLADE: Why are they shooting me?

TOMMY: Everyone! Eret. Everyone - kill them! Please.

TECHNOBLADE: What are you doing here?

QUACKITY: I’m feeling from the country!

TOMMY: Oh my god. Technoblade! L’Manberg!

QUACKITY: Oh no, oh no, no, no.

TOMMY crawls atop of the camarvan, looking around at the destruction the withers are bringing to the country.

TOMMY: L’Manberg!

TECHNOBLADE: I should’ve kept more invis potions. That would’ve been a good idea. Mind your business, mind your business.

PONK: My cat died!

TOMMY: L’Manberg!

RANBOO: Jack, run.

JACK MANIFOLD: I’m trying, I’m really trying!

TOMMY: Punz!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh TommyInnit!

TOMMY: I’m running!

SAPNAP: NO!

TOMMY: Holy shit.

TECHNOBLADE: Okay, what wither is attacking me?

TOMMY: Gotta get iron.

TECHNOBLADE: What is this? What is this? This not the plan.

23:16

TOMMY: Chat, we gotta get iron! We gotta get a bucket, then we can go up, then we can go up.

TOMMY: Okay, Technoblade, listen.

RANBOO: Oh, Jack’s got two on him, that’s not good.

PONK: Bro, I found a wither rose.

TECHNOBLADE: I need to get my stuff back.

TOMMY: Oh, okay.

TECHNOBLADE: I need invis potions.

JACK MANIFOLD: Oh, there’s one here!

HBOMB: Niki, I gave you some stuff.

NIKI: Aha

RANBOO: Oh my god, there’s an entire army down there.

QUACKITY: Niki, can I speak to you, can I speak to you?

RANBOO: There’s an entire army around

NIKI: Sure.

TECHNOBLADE: Looking for invis potions!

RANBOO: I gotta get out of here.

TOMMY: You know what? We’ll speak to Techno. Tubbo, Tubbo, everyone - please! L’Manberg! Just group up, we can’t fight this solo.

TUBBO: I’m already grouped up.

TOMMY: Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming.

TECHNOBLADE: There’s nothing in here, I should have gotten more invis.

TOMMY: Okay, get in the- Tubbo! Get in the caravan! Get in the caravan!

TOMMY: Alright, listen to me- oh hello. Tubbo, where are you?

TUBBO: Getting in the caravan!

TOMMY: Get in the caravan now!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh yeah, the caravan. That’ll save you.

TUBBO: Okay!

TOMMY: Okay, listen to me, listen to me- arh! Okay, listen to me, listen to me- oh no. I know this looks bad.

TECHNOBLADE: Oh there’s one after me! Oh, the cruel irony!

TOMMY: Here’s what we do! We go for the withers alright, we fight one wither at a time, we fight them as a group. Please! We don’t have enough time! Get out, go, go! Holy shit!

RANBOO: There’s nine! There’s nine withers!

SAPNAP: Oh my god!

TECHNOBLADE: I need more invis! This was not according to the plan!

TOMMY: L’Manberg!

TOMMY: We’ve gotta get out.

TECHNOBLADE: Do you have invis potions?

RANBOO: There’s one, there’s one.

TOMMY: L’Manberg.

TUBBO: This is…

TOMMY: He’s minding you.

TECHNOBLADE: Don’t mind me! Don’t mind me!

TECHNOBLADE: Don’t mind me! The particles!

TUBBO: Oh my god.

TECHNOBLADE: Smokescreen technique! Smokescreen technique!

TOMMY: Holy shit! Jack Manifold, get in the tunnel! Okay, okay, speak to me - speak to me! Oh my god!

TECHNOBLADE: Phil! Phil, meet me in your house!

SAPNAP: Kill the withers! Kill the withers!

TECHNOBLADE: Meet me in your house, Phil!

RANBOO: This is not good.

TOMMY: I can’t- okay, we gotta kill them one at a time, one at a time, Jack. Wait for it to come down, one at a time.

25:49

TECHNOBLADE: What the heck is “Do Not Read”?

TOMMY: L’Manberg!

JACK MANIFOLD: Oh shit, oh shit!

TOMMY: Oh if only I had “How to Sex 2” on me right now. Keep him there, Jack! Take ‘em down one at a time!

RANBOO: You guys-

TOMMY: Jack, please.

SAPNAP: Eret, Eret, can I borrow- Eret-

TOMMY: Have we got any of them?

TUBBO: This is…

TECHNOBLADE: Ranboo, you’re alright, I’ll give you time to get away. Ranboo, get out of here, Ranboo! I don’t have anything against you. You can get out of here, just flee the battle, no one will know!

PHILZA: No one will know.

TECHNOBLADE: Except that wither, except that wither!

TOMMY: Holy shit!

TECHNOBLADE: It’s okay, you just gotta get away from that wither, it’s fine!

TECHNOBLADE: What am I doing here?

TOMMY: Oh! Everything is going!

TOMMY: Tubbo, please. Tubbo, stick with me!

TUBBO: I am still here with you.

TOMMY: Okay, let’s- everyone, listen to me if you can hear me! Take them down one at a time! Look how low they’re getting! Use the Axe of Peace unironically!

TECHNOBLADE: Let’s go!

TOMMY: Come on, one at a time, one at a time! Please!

TECHNOBLADE: Ten more minutes, Phil! Ten more minutes!

ERET: Big Q!

QUACKITY: What do you want from me? I don’t even have anything!

PONK: Take this!

TECHNOBLADE: Check this out.

PONK: Fuck you!

QUACKITY: Yes, let’s go, Ponk!

PONK: Oh, he dropped it! No!

TOMMY pearls a bit higher up in silence, trying to get some kind of high ground.

QUACKITY: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I dropped it. I don’t even have a sword, Ponk!

PUFFY: No!

PONK: Take this!

QUACKITY: Do you have my bow?

PONK: I don’t know!

RANBOO: Where are they?

QUACKITY: Do you have my bow? Ponk, you picked up my things!

PONK: I don’t have your bow, no.

TOMMY: Alright, where are you- Sapnap! Sapnap, listen to me! This isn’t the end.

QUACKITY: Jesus Christ!

TOMMY: Sapnap!

PHILZA: Have fun with that!

RANBOO: Where are they?

QUACKITY: Fuck, it looks ugly!

RANBOO: There is an entire wither on me!

ERET: Kill the withers!

QUACKITY: Oh no.

TECHNOBLADE: He might have seen through my disguise.

TOMMY: Technoblade, where are you? Ranboo, kill it!

RANBOO: I’m trying, I’m trying!

TECHNOBLADE: I’m actually back at my base. I spawned the withers and dipped.

ERET: No! Get them away from here

TECHNOBLADE: The invis is working!

TOMMY: Okay, go down- everyone, everyone!

RANBOO: No, no, no.

QUACKITY: Get him, so I can take his things.

TOMMY: Who is this? Who is that?

TUBBO: Oh, it’s Puffy.

TOMMY: Why would you take invis?

PUFFY: I didn’t take anything!

TOMMY: Okay, everyone; focus. Okay, here’s what we do! Listen to me if you can hear me! I repeat: focus the withers first, then fight Techno!

RANBOO: Come on. Come on!

TECHNOBLADE: Splash them with invis! They won’t know who’s who!

TUBBO: He’s come from the tunnel where I died! He’s not on our side, he’s gappling!

TECHNOBLADE: Tubbo has a totem of undying, guys!

QUACKITY: I have no clothes, but I-

TUBBO: No! Ranboo kill that!

QUACKITY: Who is that?

TOMMY: L’Manberg!

QUACKITY: I need you to hold me, Sapnap!

TOMMY: L’Manberg, Big Q!

TECHNOBLADE: Yeah, yeah, he’s got a shield.

TOMMY: L’Manberg, holy shit!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, wait.

TOMMY: Big Q! Oh, he’s pissed now!

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, here it is.

QUACKITY: Let’s go, Tommy! Now we can get these withers! Let’s fucking go!

TECHNOBLADE: TNT! YEAH!

TOMMY: Can we?

TOMMY: What?

SAPNAP: TNT’s raining from the sky!

TOMMY: L’Manberg!

TOMMY: What the fuck?

TECHNOBLADE: YES!

TOMMY: Where? Holy shit! Holy shit!

SAPNAP: Quackity!

QUACKITY: Sapnap, am I gonna die? Am I gonna die? What the fuck?

SAPNAP: You’re not gonna die, you’re not gonna die.

QUACKITY: What the fuck is going on, what the fuck is going on?

RANBOO: Oh god, oh god. Just run!

TUBBO: What is-

HBOMB: How much TNT is that?

RANBOO: Tubbo.

TECHNOBLADE: Tubbo is gone! Minecraft rage!

TOMMY: Tubbo? Tubbo!

QUACKITY: What is going on?

TUBBO: What?

TOMMY: Tubbo, turn around.

QUACKITY: What is going on?

TECHNOBLADE: Yes!

RANBOO: It’s all gone.

QUACKITY: What is going- what-

TOMMY: How did we not-

SAPNAP: Who is this?

PONK: Stay back! No, no, no, don’t come over here!

QUACKITY: What is going on? Holy shit.

TOMMY: Philza Minecraft?

TECHNOBLADE: How much longer do we need to stall, Phil?

PHILZA: I think we’ve done enough damage, for the stall.

TOMMY: Oh no. Tubbo, they’re gonna land on us next! Tubbo! Tubbo! Tubbo, look at me! Look at me, Tubbo!

TECHNOBLADE: Look at what you’re president of, Tubbo!

30:31

TOMMY: Techno. Technoblade, look at me! Do not shoot. Do not shoot.

TECHNOBLADE: Tommy. You had your chance, Tommy!

TOMMY: Technoblade, listen to me! For once in your life! You didn’t have to- you didn’t have to do this. You could have compromised! The thing about the the discs, Technoblade, is that they were for me! We could have had a government, you could have let us live with this!

TECHNOBLADE: I don’t care about the discs, Tommy! I was upfront with you from the start! The government has to go!

TOMMY: You didn’t compromise! Technoblade, you are selfish!

TECHNOBLADE: Selfish? You used me from the start, Tommy! You’re wearing my helmet!

TOMMY: Technoblade, you said we betrayed you! You said we betrayed you! You said that we were the ones who betrayed you!

TECHNOBLADE: You betrayed me like 12 times!

TOMMY: Technoblade, look at me. Look at me right now. You said you hated governments, you said that we were the ones that betrayed you; but you’re the one who killed Tubbo when JSchlatt told you to! You’re the one who betrayed us! Out of all of this, Technoblade,

TECHNOBLADE: I was peer pressured! You betrayed me!

TOMMY: Listen to me!

TECHNOBLADE: You used me! You’ve never thought of me as a friend, Tommy, you’ve just used me from the start.

TOMMY: I have, Techno.

TECHNOBLADE: You just saw me as The Blade, that’s all I was to you. The Blade! A weapon! Well, guess what… I’m choosing what I’m fighting for now.

TECHNOBLADE fires rockets at TOMMY. Just before the second rocket hits, TUBBO jumps in front of him to protect him.

TECHNOBLADE: And I’m going to destroy the government, Tommy! You’ll all die! It’s gone! We’re chunk erroring this!

TOMMY: Techno. Techno. Techno. Look at me, look at me. Please. Don’t fight, Tubbo.

TECHNOBLADE: Is that really the fight- who keeps shooting me?

TOMMY: Techno, look at me! You’re the one who did this! The people- you were my friend, you were my friend! You were The Blade, you were our-

TECHNOBLADE: Tommy.

TECHNOBLADE: Who’s over there? Sapnap, we’re having a moment! Get out of here!

TOMMY: Listen to me! I thought friendship- Techno, for once in your life, listen to me! You were my friend!

TECHNOBLADE: I listened to you for weeks!

TOMMY: Just listen to me!

TECHNOBLADE: I helped you! And you went back to Tubbo, the guy that exiled you! He chose his country over you.

TOMMY: Techno, people are above the government! We- it doesn’t matter if we want a government-

32:57

TECHNOBLADE: I am a person!

TOMMY: You are, Technoblade! And so are we! You- the reason the discs were important is because they were stolen from me. Nothing was taken from you!

TECHNOBLADE: The discs aren’t people!

TOMMY: Nothing was taken from you here! You’re selfish! You destroy what people love for your own self gain. You’re selfish!

TECHNOBLADE: All of these problems are because of your government. Your government has caused all these issues! I believe in freedom, Tommy!

TOMMY: You don’t believe in- when you were peer pressured, that’s not freedom! That was you following what the government- that was the president telling you to-

TECHNOBLADE: Tommy, that was like four months ago!

TOMMY: It was, and you killed Tubbo! Don’t forget about the past right now! Tubbo, back up for me here! He killed you!

TUBBO: Yeah...

TECHNOBLADE: He’s president, he’s president! Get him out of here! He’s wearing your helmet!

TOMMY: And you killed him.

TECHNOBLADE: Yeah, ‘cause he’s the president!

TOMMY: But even when he wasn’t the president, you killed him as well.

TECHNOBLADE: Yeah, that’s true.

TOMMY: You’re as bad as the government, Technoblade. In fact, you know what, you’re worse.

TECHNOBLADE: I was stood there alone against a whole government, and you and Wilbur just sat there on the sidelines and watched. Did you step in? Did you step in? Were you guys the ones who stepped and said “Don’t worry, Technoblade, we know you’re in a high pressure situation, but we’ll fight the world for you, Technoblade!” No, you guys watched! You know what I did? Yesterday? When you were surrounded by like 30 people and the whole world was against you? I walked in, I was willing to fight all of them for you, Tommy. I would have been there.

TOMMY: Techno-

TECHNOBLADE: That is the difference between us.

TOMMY: We spent hours together, man.

TECHNOBLADE: Don’t speak to me of loyalty!

TOMMY: No, you were my friend, and you betrayed us!

TECHNOBLADE: You never thought of me as a friend!

TOMMY: And the thing about this government is that- it didn’t interfere with you!

TECHNOBLADE: Yes, it did!

TOMMY: You have your own freedom, just let people love what they love, man! You’re selfish, Techno.

TOMMY: The discs interfered with us, they were stolen by Dream! Why would you side with the maniac-?

TECHNOBLADE: They hunted me down! The whole butcher army! And they executed me! I tried being peaceful, Tommy, but the government made it clear-

TECHNOBLADE: I used to think like that, Tommy. You know what they did to me?

TOMMY: You didn’t have to do this.

TECHNOBLADE: I did! The government-

TOMMY: They executed you because you blew up the entire- you spawned withers just like you’ve done again! All you did is repeat history, but worse. You’re selfish.

TECHNOBLADE: You guys brought this upon yourselves. I was prepared to live peacefully in my cottage and be chill, and just farm-

TOMMY: Techno, you can’t live in a cottage after you blow up the government. That’s not how it works. Actions have consequences.

TECHNOBLADE: Actions do have consequences, Tommy. And these are the consequences! It’s over! I’m killing Quackity! He’s got actual armor.

QUACKITY: No, no, no. Why?

TECHNOBLADE: Get back here! Get back here!

35:34

TOMMY: Tubbo

TECHNOBLADE: Get back here! He’s got my armor

QUACKITY: No, I stole this, this is mine!

TECHNOBLADE: Get back here!

QUACKITY: Technoblade, Technoblade, we attacked you- goddamnit! We attacked you at your cottage because you did exactly this! You did this, you exploded L’Manberg!

TECHNOBLADE: I was willing to be peaceful!

TECHNOBLADE: I changed!

QUACKITY: It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, you were part of the hitlist. Technoblade, you were meant to suffer the consequences for what you did. That’s what happened.

TOMMY: Everything.

TECHNOBLADE: This is the consequences for hunting me down!

TECHNOBLADE: Taken my punishment and left? You would have literally killed me! What do you mean left?

QUACKITY: That’s true, that’s very true!

TOMMY: Technoblade!

QUACKITY: Technoblade, listen, you had to. You had to. And it was for L’Manberg, and it was for the country.

TECHNOBLADE: Oh, I hate this, what is this-

TOMMY: You’ve become the tyrant.

TECHNOBLADE: The tyrant? Bruh, bruh.

TOMMY: You’ve become the tyrant.

TECHNOBLADE: I am one man, the world will be better. The world will be better without the government! Airstrike!

ERET: Oh my god.

TECHNOBLADE: Airstrike! It wouldn’t be a final boss if I didn’t have stages”

ERET: Woah!

PHILZA: Yeah! Yeah! Go!

TUBBO: I don’t…

TOMMY: Tubbo?

TECHNOBLADE: Why is the wither following me in the sky? It’s ruining my moment.

TUBBO: Yeah.

TOMMY: Tubbo?

TECHNOBLADE: Oh my god.

37:24

TOMMY: Tubbo! It’s gone!

TUBBO: Seems like history really is doomed to repeat itself.

TOMMY: The caravan… the caravan! The camarvan!

TUBBO: Oh man.

QUACKITY: Fellas, there’s still L’Mantree.

TOMMY: There’s still, there’s still the tree.

QUACKITY: The L’Mantree’s still alive.

TUBBO: The L’Mantree.

QUACKITY: Come on. Just-

TOMMY: As long as the tree’s alive. Yeah, yeah, get to the tree.

TUBBO: I’m going to the tree.

QUACKITY: Head to the tree. Where’s-

TOMMY: Wilbur! That was my last memory of Wilbur! Of the real Wilbur.

QUACKITY: Where’s the fucking tree?

TOMMY: The tree’s in the box.

QUACKITY: Where’s the goddamn-

TUBBO: The tree-yeah.

QUACKITY: Okay, where is it, where is it?

TOMMY: The tree-

TUBBO: Eh the tree is supposed to be here. Right here.

QUACKITY: Tommy. Tubbo.

TUBBO: The tree is meant to be here where I’m standing.

QUACKITY: It’s gone.

TUBBO: The tree is gone.

TOMMY: No. No, it’s not. No, it’s not!

QUACKITY: The tree is gone!

TOMMY: Wait-

TUBBO: It’s gone.

TOMMY rejoins the other VC.

PHIL: Where do you think-?

TOMMY: Where’s the tree?

PONK: No, please!

TOMMY: Where’s the tree?

PONK: Please!

TECHNOBLADE: Every time I see you, you have less armor.

PONK: No!

TECHNOBLADE: Guess who’s gently gliding towards you, Ponk!

TOMMY: Tubbo.

TOMMY: Technoblade, where’s- where’s the L’Mantree?

TECHNOBLADE: Bro, I don’t know what- I’m gonna be real with you, I don’t know what the L’Mantree is. No one ever told me about it.

TOMMY: Does any-

TECHNOBLADE: Dream said something about blowing up the L’Mantree, so - mhm.

FUNDY: It’s gone! It’s gone!

QUACKITY: It’s fucking gone!

TECHNOBLADE: I hate trees!

QUACKITY: It’s out, that’s it.

FUNDY: It’s all gone! Everything! Everything is gone!

ERET: The downfall.

TECHNOBLADE: This wither is so annoying- wait, I can just kill this wither. This wither sucks. Yeah! I have dogs! My dogs!

39:21

TOMMY: VC 2, Tubbo and Big Q.

TUBBO: Mhm.

QUACKITY: It’s gone.

TOMMY: Is it- Tubbo, Tubbo, take half of these. Is it really all-?

QUACKITY: Tommy. There’s no use, it’s gone. It’s gone.

TOMMY: No, it’s not- no, no, no, no.

TOMMY: This is the way I travelled with Wilbur. Walk from here on out, Tubbo. This is… it can’t be. It can’t be.

QUACKITY: L’Manberg no longer exists.

TOMMY: Tubbo. L’Manberg… it’s gone.

TUBBO: Yeah, this is definitely beyond the point of repair.

TOMMY: L’Manberg is...Tubbo….Tubbo.

TUBBO: Mhm… I am speechless.

TOMMY: Let’s just make a new bed out of this, just in case.

TUBBO: Good idea. Wait, actually, Tommy, there’s a bed just over here. I made a bed.

TOMMY: Oh, okay.

TUBBO: - before. I think, anyway.

TOMMY: I got three wool.

TUBBO: Yeah, that bed is almost definitely gone.

TOMMY: Let’s just grab some…

TUBBO: Yeah, it’s definitely…

TOMMY: Why did Wilbur… Tubbo, Tubbo, set your spawn.

TUBBO: I can’t actually run anymore. That’s fine.

TOMMY: Hey.

TUBBO: Hey.

TUBBO: Yeah, this is… this was planned.

TOMMY: It’s for real.

GHOSTBUR messages EVERYONE

GHOSTBUR, messaging: hey guys am i interrupting ? :)

TUBBO: Yeah…

TOMMY messages GHOSTBUR

TOMMY, messaging: Not nwo ghostbur

JACK MANIFOLD messages GHOSTBUR

JACK MANIFOLD, messaging: i lost everything again

TUBBO: I just, I just, I just don’t know.

TOMMY: Tubbo.

TUBBO: Yeah. There’s-

TOMMY: Tubbo, look at me.

TUBBO: There’s nothing left to say.

TOMMY: Look at me!

43:45

TOMMY: You bastard.

DREAM: Tommy. Look, in all destruction there’s a new beginning.

TOMMY: You did this! To all of us, not just to me, but to everyone here.

DREAM: Beautiful. You know, the unfinished symphony, right?

TOMMY: Yeah… why?

DREAM: The server will be at peace now.

TOMMY: Why, Dream? Couldn’t you just, couldn’t you just have burned the discs? Couldn’t you just have done it… to me? Why did you have to…

DREAM: This is much more fun.

TOMMY: You’re a monster.

DREAM: Okay. Well, I think I’m gonna go far from here. For a little while, just to avoid the wave of frustration that I’m sure you’ll have.

TOMMY: This is too far, you’ve crossed- you know you’re a monster. You’ve crossed the line. This is everyone-

DREAM: Tommy, I’m not done with you, okay? Yeah, our story’s not over, L’Manberg’s story is over, but, you know, our story’s not over. I have your discs, I’m sure I’ll see you soon, but-

TOMMY: You’re right. Listen to me, our story’s not over-

DREAM: You’re right.

TOMMY: -but it will be. You know what, Dream? It will be soon.

DREAM: I don’t think our story will ever be over, Tommy.

TOMMY: Oh, I think it will be.

DREAM: I think that you’re just too fun. I don’t think it’ll be over. But I’ll see you soon. This was a good time.

46:26

TOMMY: Where’s Ghostbur?

GHOSTBUR: Hi guys! Ehm, I- what’s going on around here?

TOMMY: Turn these off, Big Q, turn these off.

QUACKITY: Jesus Christ, you scared me.

GHOSTBUR: I just- I came to see my sewer. I was having a little walk, and I came to my sewer, and it’s just a big hole. What’s happened- is- we- hey, you guys are all walking along the big obsidian thing!

QUACKITY: We’re… oh my god.

TOMMY: Ghostbur… it’s over.

GHOSTBUR: What’s over? I just started my stream.

QUACKITY: He keeps going- break em, break em, break em, he keeps going- oh my god.

TOMMY: Ghostbur, it’s over.

GHOSTBUR: No, don’t talk like that-

GHOSTBUR: You mean L’Manberg?

TOMMY: Tubbo!

GHOSTBUR: It’s been like this before! This is-

TUBBO: It has not been like this before.

GHOSTBUR: It has!

TOMMY: Wilbur, Wilbur. We lost.

GHOSTBUR: I didn’t even know we were fighting.

TUBBO: Mhm.

QUACKITY: We were. Your L’Manberg is gone.

TOMMY: Our L’Manberg.

QUACKITY: Yeah, our L’Manberg.

TOMMY: Just turn these off.

QUACKITY: Yeah.

GHOSTBUR: Wait, this was Philza? Phil was looking after friend. Wait…

TUBBO: No, there’s no way that friend survived.

TOMMY: Tubbo, where are you?

TUBBO: Over here.

TOMMY: Listen to me. L’Manberg… we lost, Tubbo. But-

QUACKITY: Oh fuck.

TOMMY: But this is- but remember this. Please, Tubbo.

TUBBO: Mhm.

TOMMY: Do you wanna know why all of- we’ve gotta end it, Tubbo.

GHOSTBUR: End?

TUBBO: How do you suggest we do that?

GHOSTBUR: Friend…

TOMMY: We’re gonna do the last thing there is to do. We have to, now. Before we lose everything.

TOMMY hits his desk hard twice.

GHOSTBUR: Where’s friend?

TOMMY: We’ve got to.

GHOSTBUR: Phil?

TUBBO: What are you hitting?

TOMMY: Phil.

TUBBO: Yeah, Phil.

GHOSTBUR: I gave friend to Phil to look after, and Dream, Dream found me friend. And Technoblade, he was- we were- he said we were friends.

TOMMY: Technoblade… here’s the thing, Wilbur.

GHOSTBUR: See, people wouldn’t lie about that, would they?

TOMMY: Wilbur, the problem with Technoblade-

GHOSTBUR: Why is it- why is still-? That was my blue, that was my blue!

TOMMY: The problem with Technoblade, Wilbur, is that he was our friend all along. And here’s the thing that you gotta understand; we were never his friend. And so to him, this was all just an act of politics, it was all just an act of clout and a social ladder. But to us, and I think this has always been - and you won’t remember, Tubbo you will, Big Q, this has just been a friendship. But to Technoblade, this was a ladder, and Technoblade’s climbed to the tippity top. Do you wanna know the only way you can go? On a ladder?

GHOSTBUR: I didn’t think you were gonna say that one.

GHOSTBUR: Side to side?

TOMMY, laughing: I’m so sorry, Ghostbur.

TUBBO: You can go up.

TOMMY: No, no, once you reach the top of the ladder, Tubbo, you can only go down.

GHOSTBUR: Side to side.

TOMMY: You could go side to side, but really there would be no point.

TUBBO: The top of the ladder-

TOMMY: The ladder’s incredibly thin, social ladders are actually very thin. It’s quite renown. I’ve read books.

GHOSTBUR: You could go side to side, but then you would also fall off the ladder.

TOMMY: You would fall off the ladder, and then you’d split your neck.

GHOSTBUR: Maybe you split your neck, and you might bleed and die.

QUACKITY: That’s true. That’s what ladders do.

GHOSTBUR: It’s Fundy, and Technoblade.

TOMMY: Fundy, don’t- listen, you know what? We’re not L’Manberg anymore, but we’re still together, and I need you to listen… although-

QUACKITY: Fellas.

GHOSTBUR: Where’s friend?

TUBBO: I suppose.

GHOSTBUR: Where’s friend?

QUACKITY: Just to pay our vice.

TOMMY: One last time.

QUACKITY: Alright.

GHOSTBUR: It’s like Hamilton.

TOMMY: Just like Hamilton.

TUBBO: Just like Hamilton.

QUACKITY: I don’t know what Hamilton is, but yeah, just like Hamilton. Alright, fellas.

TOMMY: Ghostbur?

GHOSTBUR: Yeah?

QUACKITY: Sing with me.

TOMMY: You know the anthem better than anyone else.

L’Manberg Anthem

I heard there was a special place

Where men could go and emancipate

The brutality

And tyranny

Of their rulers

Well, this place is real

You needn’t fret

With Wilbur, Tommy, Tubbo, Fuck Eret

A very big and not blown up L’Manburg

My L’Manburg

My L’Manburg

My L’Manburg

My L’Manburg

For freedom and for liberty

Our nation sought to build on these

A victory for all under our freedom

Well the darkness came and then it went

We built a home and watched it sink

And from the rubble

Emerged my great

L’Manburg

My L’manburg

My L’manburg

My L’manburg

My L’manburg

With bloodied hands

And weakened knees

Our peoplе rose like

The phoеnix

Our empty fields and canals ‘round

L’Mantree

With sweat and tears we armed our ranks

We laid foundations in our land

And from every lips for

Here up to forever

We sing L’Manburg

We sing L’Manburg

We sing L’Manburg

We sing L’Manburg

54:44

GHOSTBUR: The L’Mantree’s gone.

TOMMY: It’s all gone.

TUBBO: Yes, it is.

QUACKITY: Yes, it is. My L’Manberg-

TOMMY: Our L’Manberg.

QUACKITY: Our L’Manberg, that’s right.

GHOSTBUR: I’ve been reading- I was reading the history books, Quackity.

QUACKITY: Yeah.

GHOSTBUR: And do you think if Alivebur and you hadn’t gone head to head, this wouldn’t have happened?

QUACKITY: It would have happened, Wilbur. It would have happened, one way or another; this result was inevitable. You see, when I ran for president I saw a one-party system that wasn’t democratic at all, and one way or another; all of this would have happened. What’s important to keep in mind is that all of that is behind us, and all we need to look forward to is the future. If you think about it, Tommy, now all you have in your sights is Dream

TOMMY: You’re right, Big Q, you’re right, but I think-

QUACKITY: He cannot threaten our country anymore because he’s destroyed it. Very unfortunately, but it’s gone.

TOMMY: The thing that upsets me the most is that all this time, Technoblade told me I was betraying him, and you know what; I did. But he was our friend, we spent hours with him, building, taking people hostage, and just-

GHOSTBUR: Every book is gone.

TOMMY: He betrayed us, and he-

GHOSTBUR: I need to go and talk to Phil.

TOMMY: Okay. We were never really his friend, were we?

TECHNOBLADE shoots TUBBO and kills him using [Rocket Launcher].

TOMMY: He’s a monster.

QUACKITY: Yeah.

TOMMY: And he- but he-

QUACKITY: Tommy. Trust nobody. Trust nobody, Tommy, okay?

TOMMY: The thing is-

QUACKITY: Except for Tubbo. Trust nobody.

TOMMY: Yeah.

QUACKITY: Okay.

TOMMY: You’re right. He- people- the discs aren’t people. The discs were stolen from me, Big Q. They were mine, and they were stolen.

JACK MANIFOLD messages TECHNOBLADE

JACK MANIFOLD, messaging: you’ve made an enemy of me technoblade

JACK MANIFOLD, messaging: live in fear

TECHNOBLADE, messaging: i still have tnt

TECHNOBLADE, messaging: your house is right there

TOMMY: L’Manberg isn’t anyone’s, L’Manberg was its own; and me chasing the discs for which I put so much- I fucked up so bad, but they were mine. L’Manberg was ours, L’Manberg was people’s. It was ours. The problem with Techno is that he will never compromise. He will never ever let anyone else have what they want because unless it aligns with exactly what he wants; then we’ve betrayed him. It’s all gone, it’s all gone.

QUACKITY: Let this be a lesson, Tommy. Let it be a lesson, and just finish it off. Finish it off, Tommy.

TOMMY: We can’t let him win.

TOMMY: What do you mean?

QUACKITY: Yeah, let him win, Tommy. And we’re not gonna let him win. No matter how much it takes, how much fighting, guess what?

TOMMY: What I feared losing the most, I can still get back. You’re right.

TOMMY: What?

QUACKITY: Maybe use your discs as leverage, Tommy, but remember; you’re going after a man for what he’s done. Okay? You’re not going after a man for what he took from you, but for what he’s done. You said it yourself; it’s our L’Manberg. Use the discs as an excuse, Tommy, but-

TOMMY: He can’t pay for this.

QUACKITY: But go after Dream for means of justice, not the discs, okay?

TOMMY: You’re right. It’s just- he’s selfish, Big Q! Technoblade, he didn’t- he could have just, he didn’t have- my shit was stolen from me! He could have just let us do our government and let him not have government, he could have just- it’s just, he’s a selfish, selfish bastard.

QUACKITY: That’s true.

TOMMY: But… that’s behind us now. And, although Technoblade… might have been terrible-

GHOSTBUR: I take it back, Tommy. Tommy, I take it back.

TOMMY: Dream was the worst. What do you take back, Wilbur?

GHOSTBUR: I’m feeling- I’m burning in the rain right now, and I just… Tommy, I want you to bring me back to life.

TOMMY: What?

TOMMY is struck by lightning.

1:01:00

GHOSTBUR: Tommy

GHOSTBUR: Okay, I need to come see you.

TOMMY: Yeah?

TOMMY: I don’t know what Fundy’s deal was tonight. You know what, you’re right, Big Q. From now on, trust no one.

GHOSTBUR: I’m here. Have some blue, calm yourself, calm yourself.

TOMMY: Oh I need calm.

GHOSTBUR: Please, calm yourselves, calm yourselves.

TUBBO: Thank god Jack Manifold’s here, Jesus, what would we do without him?

JACK MANIFOLD: I just want to help out, guys.

TOMMY: What will we do without him and his silence?

QUACKITY: Does anyone have food?

GHOSTBUR: Tommy, I know- I know, I know how I said that I didn’t wanna be brought back to life because that would mean me, as Ghostbur, would stop existing. But I want you to bring me back to life.

TOMMY: Hey Wilbur

TOMMY: Really?

GHOSTBUR: And I know who can do it.

TOMMY: Well, you know what, Wilbur? Here’s what we do. Here’s what we do now, because there is- there are some last things, there is something we can do. ‘Cause we lost today. We lost L’Manberg, but we did not lose what we stand for. And although you won’t remember this-

TOMMY: Who?

GHOSTBUR: I lost friend.

TOMMY: Tubbo. I don’t know when, but soon - Dream said he’s gonna far away, away. This is what we do; the next few nights or however long we can over the next week or two, we prepare everything. Everything we’ve got because, Tubbo, this war - L’Manberg was forged - every war on this server, the conflicts that Dream started, was started with me and you. And you know what, Tubbo? It’s gonna end with me and you.

TUBBO: Okay.

TOMMY: And it has been for a long time,

GHOSTBUR: Can I have some blue?

TOMMY: I’ve only got six left.

GHOSTBUR: Just one, I just need one. Thank you.

TOMMY: But we’re gonna take him out. You hear me? Come with me, everyone.

1:04:46

TOMMY: Oh my god, shut up. Look.

GHOSTBUR: Goodbye friend.

GHOSTBUR: What?

TOMMY: Be careful, guys, there’s holes in the bridge.

GHOSTBUR: Together we as friends can take on any foe on the bridge.

QUACKITY: Yeah, I guess.

GHOSTBUR falls.

QUACKITY: Oh well, he’s-

1:05:29

TOMMY: Tubbo, this is the disc I listened to in exile. Where are you, Wilbur?

GHOSTBUR: I’m coming

TOMMY: Ah. Sorry.

TOMMY: Why are you coming?

GHOSTBUR: Here I come. Are you at your jukebox spot?

TOMMY: Yeah, I am.

GHOSTBUR: Okay. Hi!

TOMMY: Hi. Sit down.

GHOSTBUR: My skin is really hurting in this rain- oh! It’s not raining here

TOMMY: That is so weird- oh, when did that- I haven’t been here for so long.

1:06:39

TOMMY: Guys, is George asleep right now?

TUBBO: Yeah, yeah

QUACKITY: He fucking is! Argh! - Sorry. It brought me flashbacks, I’m sorry.

TOMMY: It doesn’t end here.

TOMMY plays the disc “chirp”.

GHOSTBUR: Chirp.

TUBBO: I like this version.

JACK MANIFOLD: I like this one.

TOMMY: Wow.

1:08:28

TOMMY: Everyone. Take your blue, Wilbur. I’ll ehm-

GHOSTBUR: I’ll leave.

TOMMY: I’ll see you ehm- we gotta fucking prepare.

TOMMY: I’ll see you all soon, okay? Tubbo?

TUBBO: Okay.

QUACKITY: Tommy.

TOMMY: Big Q. Yeah?

GHOSTBUR: Hello!

QUACKITY: Remember just one thing.

GHOSTBUR: Tommy! Do you remember the first time- oh, sorry, Quackity.

QUACKITY: Yeah. Tommy, you’re going after Dream and Dream has a lot of people on his side, so trust nobody, okay? That’s all I’m gonna tell you.

TOMMY: Yeah. What was that, Wilbur?

GHOSTBUR: Do you remember the first thing that I ever said to you, Tommy?

TOMMY: What?

GHOSTBUR: I came up to you, you were right here, and I came up to you and went “Hello, I’m Ghostbur!”.

TOMMY: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

GHOSTBUR: Hey! Goodbye, I’m Ghostbur!

TOMMY: Goodbye, Ghostbur.

GHOSTBUR: Bye, bye!

TOMMY: Goodbye everyone.

1:10:26

TOMMY: But listen to me, we’re going to get back the discs. And then I’m gonna fucking kill Dream.

[chibiwritesstuff]

Hey! I'm the one that asked for the Lilia and Malleus ask. I love what you wrote so much man! (My poor heart died 😂) I am a big sucker for happy endings tho. So when you get the time can I ask for a happy ending ?

Ha, my laptop thought they won against me but I came out victorious (even though I took literal months to publish this.) In my defense, all the versions I’ve written for this didn't suit my tastes (not that this is any good either.) Hope this makes justice for such a long wait. Here’s the sequel/good ending for the angst fic.

Now, let’s enter this twisted wonderland~

Walking past the now dying garden that used to flourish in Ramshackle dorm, he sighed as he reminisces about the times you two stroll and spends time together. It's been years since you’ve left NRC, He and Lilia are about to graduate tomorrow, Silver will be a fourth-year student and the new vice-dorm leader while Sebek will be in his third year and the dorm leader much to the said fae’s surprise. He chuckled at the memory of how honored and tearful the young fae is upon being selected as its prefect.

“I have so much to tell you, (y/n).” He whispered at the wind.

“Hey, Tsunotarou!” The familiar voice of the tanuki cat being called that long-forgotten name.

“Hey, Tsunotarou! Are we going on a walk again tonight?” You smiled at him, your hand extended as an invitation.

“Grimm, wasn’t it?” He crouched down to pet the said creature.

“Hey! I’m not a pet!” The flames on his ears flared, responding to his emotions. “What are you doing here, anyway? The roses are all dead.”

A wave of sadness flashed in his eyes as another memory resurfaced. Returning his gaze towards the dead flowerbed, he let the memory linger.

“Thanks for the seeds, Tsunotarou!” You excitedly began digging and planting said seeds. “To commemorate our friendship, these roses will be our friendship roses!”

“Yes, they are…” His hand ceased from moving before sitting down the ground. “It’s all gone…”

“By the way, I never managed to get the courage to ask you but why did (y/n) went back home crying that time?”

“I was but a foolish man…” The young heir steered his gaze towards the night sky before closing his eyes. “Had I just enjoyed the present than worry about the future, perhaps they would still be here and smile brightly like they always had.”

“I’m sure if you say sorry, they’ll forgive you.” Grimm responded nonchalantly. “They said saying sorry is the first step to forgiveness… or something like that.”

He chuckled and stood up heading towards his dorm. “If things were only that easy…”

That night, he slept and dreamt about you two walking in the bed of roses you’ve grown at Ramshackle. Loving every single moment that you two get to spend subconsciously knowing that once he wakes up, he’ll return to the harsh reality of you not being by his side.

“Tsunotaro, I think I have fallen for you.” You quietly said warmth spreading across your cheeks. “Will you let me stay by your side till the last breath I take?”

This is all but a dream… so I can keep dreaming, right?

“Yes, only if you’ll let me do the same.”

“Really?!” Joy showed throughout your being which made him smile back. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow! Happy graduation!”

He woke up gasping for air. That dream sounded too good to be true and yet… he can’t help but be hopeful. Putting on a happy face, he got dressed on what Lilia laid out for him and this time, everybody remembered to tell him the time of the celebration. He can’t help but laugh just thinking what your reaction would have been about the changes of the students' behavior towards him after he tried to socialize better. Heading towards the stage getting his diploma as odd as it is, he acted formally as he mingled with the rest of the dorm leaders until a voice echoed throughout the area.

“Tsunotarou!” Receiving a hug from the back as the voice caught him off guard, he turned still not believing what he’s seeing. “Congrats on graduating!”

“(y/n)?” His voice faltered, overwhelmed with so many emotions. “How? Why? I –”

“Uh-oh… Lilia! Your king here is having an information overload!” You called which made the said fae laugh out loud.

“How are you here?” He finally managed to ask. “The mirror –”

“Ah, that would be my doing…” Idia whispered but managed to catch everyone’s attention. “It was an accident! I was messing around to make a teleporter so I can just teleport to the store than having to leave the dorm but it ended up making people travel through dreams then I managed to talk to (y/n). Then we both decided we might as well try to make travel here and back to their world possible.”

“Looks like you did meet me once upon a dream, yeah?” You grinned at the joke about his ancestor’s song.

He merely hugged you, savoring each second of being around your arms. “I don’t have anything ready but if you’ll give me a second chance…”

He lets go and kneeled on one knee before looking up to you once more. “Will you be my spouse till the day you draw your last breath?”

Time is but a blink of an eye for fae and before he knew it, the Star Sending is happening once again. He was happy when Silver and Sebek were chosen to be Star Gazers albeit the mentioned students aren’t. He strummed his electric guitar with no particular music in mind as he lets his mind wander until his gaze dropped on a familiar mug.

“Happy Birthday, Lilia!” You grinned as you handed him a mug that said “No. 1 Gamer Dad” on it. “Hope you like it!”

His lips curled into a faint smile as he remembered that day. It's been a year since you left and yet it felt like it was just yesterday. Letting go of the instrument, he walked towards the mug and lifted it intending to fill it with tomato juice.

“How have you been, little one?” He spoke towards the image of you in his head. “I hope life is treating you better in your world.”

Without me in it… he sighed as sadness filled his chest. If I could change the past, or at least be given another chance… will you give your love to me once more?

“Old m –” Silver cleared his throat before entering. “I mean, Lilia. I’m here to take your wish.”

He took a deep breath before putting a huge smile to face his son. “Ah, yes of course! You know my wish. I wish for both –”

“Stop.”

This surprised the old fae as his son never raised his voice on him. “We both know that that’s not your true wish.”

“Silver, do humor me and just let me finish my wish.” He pouted, swirling the tomato juice in the mug before drinking it.

“Father, we all know how much you love them.” The young knight sighed before taking a seat on a nearby chair. “You always gush about them whenever we eat or do anything.”

“Oh Silver, I appreciate the concern but sometimes you got to let go.” A forlorn smile graced his lips.

“And sometimes you have to be selfish!” Both of them looked surprised at his outburst yet Silver regained his composure and continued. “You love them, right?! Then why not be with them? You took me in out of love, right?”

“There’s a big difference here, Silver.” Lilia rubbed his temple as stress starts to build up.

“What’s the difference? We’re both humans with a short lifespan so you can't use that as an excuse!” His silver eyes narrowing as he gazed upon his father before widening. “You’re afraid, aren’t you?”

He let out a defeated chuckle before nodding. “You’ve grown so much, Silver. I’m so proud of you, you know?”

“Why? You could have been happily living with them.”

“Because I’m afraid to witness her death if we ever do start a family together.” At last, the older fae began letting his tears fall in front of his son. “I don’t think I’ll be able to survive seeing her pass while I still live on. I want it to last for all eternity but to remove her mortality is too inhumane.”

“I-I’m sorry…” Silver lowered his head, having a little understanding of what he meant. “I didn’t mean to –”

“So, for my wish this Star Sending…” After a pathetic attempt to control his tears, he gulped and continued. “I want to be given another chance to be with them… and this time, I’ll bear the pain of losing them when the time comes.”

A shine of light filled the wishing star confirmed his wish inside the item. Silver walked towards him and let the man cry his heart out in his arms. He both felt sad and honored that Lilia is willing to cry in front of him. He truly hopes that his father’s wish is granted. Bringing out the wishing star, he proclaimed his wish.

“I wish (y/n) can return in twisted wonderland once more.”

“Silver, you didn’t have to waste your wish for this…”

“I don’t mind having a parent like them.” He smiled before heading towards the door with both wishing stars at hand. “They’re a much better cook than you anyway.”

“Hey!”

The day of Star Sending has arrived and everybody is once again by the huge tree behind NRC. It went well without a hitch and Lilia’s phone filled with recordings of Sebek and Silver dancing in perfect sync towards the taiko being played by Jack of Savanaclaw. As all students began returning to their dorms, the bat fae decided to stay a little longer and was given privacy by the rest of the Diasomnia students.

“Catch me, Lilia!” A voice screamed from above.

Turning his attention to the voice’s origin. His eyes widened before extending his arms ready to catch the person. A huge smile on his face as you landed safely into his arms. You let out a sigh of relief as you steadied yourself in his hold.

“Do not question why I was up in the air.” You huffed, glaring at the sky. “Safe landing my ass! I was dropped off 50ft up in the air!”

“My oh my, did you fall in love with me all over again?” He teased as he covertly wiped his tears.

“I saw that and maybe but I would still prefer a much safer landing.” You huffed before smiling at him. “What happened to the ‘I wish for world peace between all creatures’ wish, huh?”

“How did you know?”

“My coworker and I were trying to make a portal to get me back here because I forgot some stuff here to grab and funnily enough those wishing stars became our fuel source to open that portal.” You pulled out your phone and confirmed your arrival with a whole long spiel on how the landing would have killed you if you weren’t caught by Lilia. “But by your wish I assume there’s no need for me to get packing away from here?”

“Yes, if you’ll give me another chance.” He held out his hand, a makeshift flower ring on his palm. “Will you give me the honor of being your significant other?”

[ackerfics]

the parent trap — levi ackerman (ii)

part one | part three

— levi ackerman x female reader (modern au | the parent trap au)

—warnings: fluff (dad! levi) and an original character that was annoying to write

— summary: altair came home, only to find a thorn wedged in his little family.

— word count: 5.5k

— authors note’s: i finally have a sort of banner hhhhsdjwhd i figured that i should make one for every character that i’ll be writing in this blog so that i won’t run out of gifs. this is long overdue but i was writing this while having breaks from our backlogs the past week. happy reading !!

Levi Ackerman never liked waiting but when it comes to the only living memory he has of you, he was willing to stay under the harsh glare of the Sun’s rays.

He was only standing among the other people waiting for their family members and friends for about thirty minutes and he was already cursing California’s weather. He needed some rain once in a while. As he looked down on the asphalt, the white plane he was anticipating finally landed, the steps rolled down and various people started trickling out. Though his face remained stoic, Levi still craned his neck to get a glimpse of his boy (curse the people standing in front of him, making him realize he’s smaller compared to them), hair the same cut as him and a bright grin that matched the bright California Sun. Eight weeks was a long time and the sight of Altair Ackerman adjusting the duffel bag over his shoulder was making his heart melt.

Was his little boy growing so fast? Because Levi swore there was a new air surrounding his son, the older man watching Altair looking at him all star-struck. 

With a small smile, Levi spread his arms wide and called out, “Come here, brat." He was already anticipating the barreling boy heading straight for him. With a grunt, Levi wrapped his son in a tight hug, lifting him from the ground and planting a kiss on his forehead. Weird, the little boy of eleven always whined about his kisses, saying that he was already nearing his puberty and that he didn’t need them anymore. Levi brushed the thought from his mind, thinking that Altair probably received the kiss because of homesickness, and placed his son on the ground. 

A few seconds passed by and the young Ackerman only stared up at his father like he carried a thousand Suns on his shoulders. Tears were slowly building up in his eyes, wrapping his arms around Levi’s waist and nuzzling his head against his father’s toned stomach. Levi smiled gently, placing one of his hands on Altair’s hair, ruffling it until they’re tousled. “You miss me that much, Al? Well, I kind of agree. Sending you off to the other side of the country was my biggest regret this summer.” When Altair looked up, Levi couldn’t help but smile. “Let’s go home, yeah?”

“So, Dad, how’s everybody at home?” Altair asked, staying close at his father’s side while the black-haired man wrapped his arm around the little boy’s shoulders. “How are Petra and Uncle Eyebrows doing?”

Levi had to hold back his small scoff of laughter. “Petra is fine, she’s doing a number on the house because you’re finally home. Eyebrows will be visiting tomorrow but there’s a package from him waiting for you in your room as we speak.” He pushed the button of his car keys, unlocking their Jeep Wrangler and walking away for a moment to place his son’s bag in the backseat. “In short, they’re great and they can’t wait to see you.” He glanced at his little boy, who was standing patiently, and instantly thought that the summer camp mellowed out his brazen personality. Nodding his head towards the car, the two of them immediately set off to their part of town. “A lot has been happening around here during the eight weeks you were away. So don’t be surprised at what you’ll find at the house when we go back home.”

“A lot has happened to me, too, Dad,” Altair stated, his eyes focused on the cityscape passing by. He turned to his father with a half-smile. “I feel like I changed to be a more rational person.”

“Wow, summer camp was a good thing for you, huh?” Levi answered, silver eyes on the road ahead. “To think you said that. You must be getting old. Please don’t, I much preferred you to be my little boy for as long as it will take. What got you thinking this way when you’re at camp?”

The little boy shrugged. “Nothing, it’s just, seeing you for the first time,” he saw how Levi glanced at him so he quickly picked up, “in a long while made me realize a few things, Dad.”

“Wow, you sound so grown-up. It’s almost like you’re a new person.”

Altair froze for a moment before laughing. “By the way, Dad, you look taller to me earlier, too.”

“You didn’t have to go there, brat.” A comfortable silence enveloped the father and son until, “Oh, I forgot to mention, there’s some Oreos in the dash. You’re probably hungry after the flight.”

The raven-haired boy didn’t think twice in opening the compartment in front of him, gleefully clutching the pack of Oreos his father bought for him. After thanking Levi, Altair stuffed his face with the decadent biscuits that the former couldn’t prevent his small laughs from coming out. His son was a tough cookie but when it comes to his favorite treats, he instantly turns into a gushing, excited kid his age. 

It reminded him of you actually. 

As the tall buildings turned into lush green sceneries, his mind drifted to the memories he always clung to at random times. This time was one of those random moments when his mind was filled with thoughts of you. The divorce hit him like a thick wall but he couldn’t deny that he agreed to it because he knew you were happier with that. Who knows? You could be married to another person in your home country and Levi didn’t have a clue, mainly because he had to put up this façade that he doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore. He felt guilty seconds after telling Petra to take down any framed pictures of you around the house because he couldn’t fathom looking at your beautiful face again. But as they entered the emerald sea of tea trees, Levi played the memory of when you first met. It was by chance, really — he just happened to be at the same place at the same time with you during college. He remembered how you effortlessly carried yourself without a care, how you listened to your friend blabber about certain topics.

For some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes away from you.

It was safe to say that Levi felt an arrow passing by his chest and suddenly, all he could think about is you.

“The plantation is absolutely breathtaking, Dad.”

Altair’s voice interrupted his thoughts, his eyes glancing at the little boy who was in a trance while staring into the tea trees. He slightly furrowed his eyebrows at the use of vocabulary. While watching his son grow up, he never once heard him exclaim his awe of things that way. There are exceptions, of course, but not that much. It almost sounded like how you would always describe Levi’s eyes, sending the gray-eyed man’s heart thumping in his chest at the mere thought of it. He tried calming down his fast heartbeat but to no avail as he kept picturing you with the softest eyes, feather-like hands, and voice suited for a lullaby that were always the subjects of his dreams at night. Those dreams were mainly the reason why he chose not to sleep, spending the early morning hours in the kitchen while indulging in his son’s favorite combination, which is disgusting but tastes so well together. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself and responded a hum to what his son said.

“You sound like you haven’t seen the plantation in forever,” Levi joked, missing how Altair once again froze, the latter’s eye twitching as he squirmed in his seat.

“Uhm, I think it’s because I’m so used to tall trees the past eight weeks, Dad.” Altair laughed lightheartedly, dismissively waving his hand. “But,” he prolonged the word, “if there’s something at camp that stresses me out, I’ll just picture our plantation in my mind. It sort of gives me peace for a couple of minutes until a brat comes up to me, challenging my position as the fencing champion for one week.”

“A fencing challenge?”

“Yeah, Dad, he was pretty awesome,” Altair shrugged.

“So you made a friend?”

The little boy turned to the dark-haired man with an expression of disbelief. “Your tone sounds like you don’t believe me. Have you no faith in your son, Dad?”

Levi scoffed a laugh. “I don’t mean it like that. I’m genuinely curious about this brat you’re talking about and how he challenged you for the title of fencing champion in the summer camp. I don’t know,” he shrugged, one hand raised in the air, “does he even treat you well? Or was he scared because of how you look at people? You got that from me apparently. I just don’t want my brat being shunned by others, okay? I was actually worried the whole time you’re away. Worried for the people there, that is. Because they’re missing out on this amazing boy.”

The older Ackerman’s rambles made Altair chuckle. There was always something when his dad took off in the worried state — it made his heart warm and he couldn’t help but answer the main question posed by Levi. Altair hummed under his breath, eyes set on the roof of the car, phrasing his answer so that it wouldn’t reveal too much. Stuffing an Oreo in his mouth, he muttered. “Actually, he was courteous, Dad.”

The dark-haired man glanced at his son, shaking his head at how the crumbs clung to the side of Altair’s mouth. Taking one of his hands from the steering wheel when he saw they were the only ones driving under the canopy of trees, Levi reached out and quickly cleaned his son’s face free of Oreo crumbs. Going back to focusing on the road, he slightly smiled, voicing out his question, “'Courteous’?” Levi turned to his son, who was conspicuously grimacing and hiding it by eating another Oreo. “What, all of a sudden you’re so proper?” The man’s gray eyes flickered to his son’s fingers. Taking the boy’s hand, he examined them for a moment before going back to the road. “You’re still biting your nails, huh?”

Altair perked up, his voice becoming pitchy, covering it with a cough. “Dad, you noticed!”

“What do you mean by ‘noticed’? You’ve been biting them since you could chew. The number of times we had to tell you to stop is ingrained in my brain so why would I only notice that now?”

The onyx-haired boy turned his body so that he would be directly facing Levi. Blinking, he escaped his dad’s question with a, “But I’ve decided to stop it, Dad. I finally realized how horrid it is as a habit, Dad.”

“There you go again. ‘Courteous’, ‘horrid’. I’m pretty sure I didn’t send you to finishing school.” Levi smiled. “And why do you keep saying ‘Dad’ in every sentence? Not that I don’t like it but I just noticed it since your plane landed.”

Altair chuckled lowly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was doing it, Dad.” When Levi made a full laugh, the little boy grinned. “So sorry, Dad.” The two shared a few laughs before Altair cleared his throat. “Do you know why I kept saying ‘Dad’? You want the truth?”

“’Cause you missed your old man so much?”

A sad smile painted the gray-eyed boy’s lips, making sure that Levi didn’t turn his head to catch his melancholic mood. He chose to look out the window to avoid tearing up while staring at his father’s side profile. “Exactly. It’s because my whole life,” he cursed at the slip-up, “I mean, you know, for the past eight weeks, I was never able to say the word ‘Dad’ at all. Not even once. If you ask me, a father is an irreplaceable person in a kid’s life. The friend who challenged me to a fencing competition had no father to take care of them, to see them take their first steps or hear their first words. It got me thinking that there are probably kids my age who didn’t see their fathers even once, let alone call someone ‘Dad’. I mean, there’s this whole day dedicated to celebrating all the fathers in the world. I couldn’t imagine a life without you, Dad. I couldn’t imagine not saying ‘Hi, Dad!’ or ‘How’s the tea shop, Dad?’. Something will always be missing if I didn’t have you.”

Levi’s heart melted, his insides turning into a gushing mess at the words of his son. He couldn’t even imagine his life without his little him, following around like a lost duckling when he was a toddler learning how to walk. He couldn’t imagine his days without his boy reaching his chubby arms just for him to lift his cuddly body in his arms. He couldn’t imagine his nights without reading a bedtime story to a drowsy Altair, eyes looking at him as if every story is worth listening to. The first part of Altair’s little monologue reminded him of the other bundle of joy that the nurse gave him when you gave birth all those years ago. He swore that day that he will shower equal love and affection on his two brats but it turns out, it wasn’t meant to be. The other half of Altair was far into the sea with you and there was a time that he wanted to visit, however, the strength never came into him. But for now, he was thankful that Altair got home safe and sound, no scratches and face lighting up with precious emotions.

“Holy shit.”

Levi laughed at the curse. “Now you’re sounding like your old self.”

Altair’s eyes widened at the arch welcoming the car to the estate. Your name was in bold letters, vines of vibrantly colored flowers making the entrance even more magical. The little boy glanced at Levi and he could see how the older man’s eyes turned soft at the name, his shoulders drooping slightly as if he finally entered into an ethereal place. Facing forward, Altair had a conclusion. Levi Ackerman, his father, is still very much in love with you, his mother. His insides were buzzing with excitement and he couldn’t wait to phone someone from across the sea at his discovery. The plan was coming together and he didn’t even start a thing.

The house was more than what was described to the gray-eyed boy. Every wall was covered with groomed vines, splashes of color can be seen because of the flowers growing between the greens. It looked like a manor in those romance movies he watched a few years back. A balcony above the main doorway overlooked the driveway and front yard. The air was so clean that the little boy rolled down the windows and took a deep breath, the therapeutic yet faint smell of tea wafting through the perimeter of the house. Without another word, Altair stepped out of the car once Levi parked it at the side of the front yard. His eyes were full of stars as he looked up at the two-story building in front of him, the maroon of the bricks and the green of the vines calming his pounding heartbeat in the best way possible. A bark from the balcony made him crane his head, the fur of a golden retriever catching his eye. 

He was finally here — he was home.

“Oh, my God, he’s home!”

A shout came from the inside of the house, shocking Altair from eyeing the canine on the balcony. He could faintly hear Levi snickering behind him as the older man took out his bag from the backseat of the car. A woman of short strawberry blonde hair was running towards him, under the arched front door, and then engulfing him in a warm hug with her thin yet firm arms. This must be Petra, his nanny and head maid of the household. He reciprocated the embrace, nuzzling his head on the woman’s neck. She smelled of spice and a hint of orange and Altair found himself craving some juice in an instant. Pulling away from the woman, he found out how pretty she is. Freckles dotted her cheeks, eyelashes framing warm brown irises, and a smile that can blind him at any second.

“Look at you!” Petra tried measuring Altair’s height with a hand, exclaiming, “Oh, you grew! We miss you so much!” Patting the boy’s shoulders with her hands, she leveled her stare with Altair. “Don’t you dare let your old man talk you out of going back to camp, okay? You need adventure every once in a while.”

“Okay.”

“You hungry?”

Altair shrugged with a smile.

“I made cornbread, chili, and I squeezed some orange for some juice, too.” Petra noticed how Altair kept staring at her with a sad smile, piquing her interest. “Hey, bud, why are you so quiet? Is something wrong?”

“I think he needs to take a shit from all the traveling,” Levi interjected, the orange duffel bag on his shoulder and one of his hands inside a pocket of his jeans. 

“No!” Altair yelled, cheeks aflame with heat, and eyes flittering between the two laughing adults. “I don’t feel like taking a shit … it’s just, I,” he paused, inhaling tea-scented air, “I just miss home so much and I’m happy to finally be here.” 

With Petra’s arm wrapped around Altair’s shoulders, the two followed Levi into the house. The strawberry blonde woman kept glancing at the little boy at her side, sensing something amiss from how he acted. There was something not clicking for Petra and it flared, even more, when Levi’s dog, Captain, came running from the second floor to give Altair a welcoming. Only it wasn’t that warm and cuddly welcome the boy received from the two adults, it was full of barks and growls from the golden retriever directed towards Altair. Pushing the doubts from her mind, Petra had to intervene since Captain showed no sign of stopping and Altair was stuck on the wall.

“What is wrong with you, you goofball,” Petra scolded the dog, gently putting her hands on the canine’s head and ruffling his fur. “This is Altair.”

“I think it’s because I smell like camp,” Altair murmured, stepping away from the dog with small steps until he found himself in the living room. Behind him, Petra was telling the dog that it seems like he doesn’t recognize one of his owners and Altair took everything inside him not to flinch at the remark. However, the interior design of the living room caught his eye and the worries building up inside his mind vanished in an instant. There was a huge fireplace in front of an arranged long couch and armchairs. Paintings were placed immaculately around the room, matching with the color palette of browns and beiges. Overall, it looked like a manor and Altair was in awe that he spoke in a British accent, forgetting his crafted persona. “Wow, this is better than the pictures.”

“Kiddo, what do you want to do first?” Petra called out as she entered the living room. She straightened one throw pillow on the long couch before turning to the little boy who schooled his features into a blank one. “Do you want to eat and then unpack, or we could unpack and eat? Or we could eat while we unpack.”

“You mean I can eat in my room?”

Petra furrowed her brows, crossing her arms across her chest. “Well, yeah, that’s a definite possibility.”

“Al,” Levi shouted from the kitchen, hands occupied with a bowl of chili and a spoon. “When you’re done, come on down. I want you to meet someone.” Levi glanced at Petra, who was pursing her lips, knowing who this person Altair’s going to be introduced to. The gray-eyed man narrowed his eyes slightly as if telling his friend to not tell the boy before him. “The chili’s good, Petra, thank you.” He then turned around to get some more chili for the guest, brushing off how Petra rolled her eyes.

“Okay, Dad!” Altair yelled.

“Okay, Al,” Levi replied, a smile can be heard in his voice.

The little boy’s eye followed his father until he went out the patio with two bowls of chili. Everything blanked out when he saw Levi placing one of the bowls in front of a woman dressed in a tight-fitting dress. Altair couldn’t see the face of the woman but he could tell she was way younger than his dad. Levi kept standing at the other side of the table, with the woman leaning forward, probably trying to impress his father.

“Hello, handsome,” the woman said in a sultry voice.

“Hello,” Levi replied in a flat voice, hands gripping his bowl of chili.

“So did you tell him?”

“I was getting to that but he was tired and he needs to unpack. It won’t hurt to be patient since you’re only a guest here.”

The woman scoffed. “And chili? Really, Levi?”

“Mr. Ackerman.”

“Ooh, kinky.”

“Tch.”

Altair leaned towards Petra’s side, dropping his voice in a whisper. “Tell me what?”

“We’ll talk about this in your room, Al,” Petra whispered right back, steering the boy to the stairs but not before glancing back at the two people on the patio. She hoped Levi will take care of this situation before it gets worse. “Even though your father told me with a glare to never tell you this first, I might have to because we don’t want you snapping at that woman. It���s best to keep a clear mind when around her.”

Altair dropped his duffel bag on the floor when they finally entered the safety of his room. There was a wrapped parcel with a card saying, ‘welcome home’, and Altair concluded that this was Erwin’s gift. Petra and he sat on the floor, the woman opening the bag and taking out the topmost items. She handed the camera to a distressed Altair, pursing her lips at how the boy’s thoughts can be seen in his eyes. While she was taking out some of his clothes, Altair stood up and went to his window overlooking the wide backyard. The little boy’s eyebrows met again in a glare that mirrored his father’s too much as he looked down from his window, distaste, and confusion evident on his scowl. Petra sighed, knowing that if Altair wasn’t told what the truth is, he will be in one of his moods where not even a plate of chili and a pack of Oreos can quell his snappy attitude.

“Trust your dad, kiddo,” the strawberry blonde tried for a casual tone.

“Who’s that?”

“That woman is Cynthia Maryland from San Francisco,” Petra answered, patting her lap from imaginary dust, and crossed the room to stand beside the boy. “She was this publicist, or so she claims, and tried to strike a deal with your dad regarding the ongoing popularity of your tea shop and its branches. That is why I told you to watch what you say to her, just a snap of her fingers and she will paint the tea shop and your family in a bad light. But it seems like she’s selling something other than tea.” The two of them watched the Cynthia woman try to wrap her arm around Levi’s, the latter snatching his limb at the speed of light and walked ahead, ignoring the whines of the young woman as he relayed the ideas that revolved around her work. The message that Levi wasn’t interested in her didn’t reach the brunette woman, following him with eyes filled with faux adoration that made the two grimace. “Ugh, disgusting. She’s taking the word desperate to another whole level.”

Altair narrowed his eyes. “I think the word desperate has her picture on the internet. Why is she so adamant?”

“Of course, it is. Look at it this way; your father is this grumpy, middle-aged, short man and that woman is a young, pretty thing begging for his time of the day. Who in their right mind would try to suck up to him these days? I mean, not that I was describing Levi as this unattractive man but I saw her in the city bank last time I was out for groceries, and let me tell you, that woman is a snake trying to check your dad’s worth. Al, do you think there’s really something going on between them?”

“So she wants him for his money?”

Petra nodded, ruffling the boy’s hair affectionately. “That’s about right, kiddo.”

“Does he like her?”

“You have to hear from your dad about that.”

And that was what Altair wanted to know, giving Petra a quick wave and running downstairs to where the woman had his father in her clutches after changing into some swimming shorts and a shirt. There was no way that this was happening. His father who didn’t bat an eyelash on any woman the past eleven years was giving this stranger attention. Everything in the plan will be in shambles if this goes on. The poor boy’s mind was a mess and it became worse when he stepped out into the pool, the sight of his father standing beside the lounging chair with the young woman lying on it like she owned the house. His father’s back was to him so he couldn’t discern what expression he had as he stared down at the woman flaunting her figure for all the plants in the poolside to see. The woman was talking about something until Altair caught her eye, the little boy controlling himself from flinching.

“There’s the little man of the hour!” Cynthia gleefully announced, waving her hand high in the air.

Levi turned around and his hardened gaze became soft at his panting son. Glancing at the woman on the chair with unreadable eyes, he murmured, “I’ll be back with the new brew. You can keep my son company while he swims.” He tenderly ruffled Altair’s hair as he passed by the boy, giving him a rare, breathtaking smile. “Behave, Al.”

The woman grumbled along the lines of not introducing her to Altair but she quickly changed her face into a kind one as she faced the boy. Upon seeing the blank expression on the gray-eyed boy, Cynthia tried to liven up the atmosphere. “Hey, sweetie,” her eye twitched when Altair visibly scrunched his nose in disgust, “my name is Cynthia Maryland and I’m a special friend of your father’s.” She sat up in the lounge chair, straightening her posture to make an impression on the kid. With an award-winning smile, Cynthia continued, “I can’t believe I’m finally meeting the famous Altair Ackerman that everyone has been talking about. I actually looked forward to this all summer!”

“Really? Well, here I am.”

Cynthia cleared her throat at the still icy look Altair was giving her. “You’re so adorable. The way your father talked about you, I was expecting a sweet little toddler but here you are, already nearing adolescence. The way he talked about how you’re the most special person in his life right now, it’s so heartwarming and probably the reason why I like him.” Altair rose an eyebrow at this. “Enough about me, the spotlight is on you, young man.”

“I’m nearing twelve.” Altair tilted his head. “How old are you?”

Cynthia giggled. “Twenty-four.”

A fake gasp rang through the air. “Only thirteen years older than me. You’re practically my older sister. You know, I never had a sibling. Must be nice to be recognized by Dad and be well-acquainted with the rest of the family members before you get adopted. It’s a good thing Dad’s the one adopting you. He takes great care of our dog so I’m sure he’ll take care of you like he takes care of Captain, too.”

“Excuse me?”

A ringing phone broke the conversation, the noise coming from Cynthia’s glittery purse. The brunette suppressed a groan of annoyance, schooling her features in a close-lipped smile while taking out her phone. Altair didn’t think twice turning around and sitting at the edge of the pool. His eyes never strayed from the blue waters, ears perked up to eavesdrop from the pesky woman. If a stranger saw him at the moment, one would think he was thinking of murdering the pool but he never strayed his gaze from the water, his low laugh of disbelief ringing through the vicinity at the woman’s words. It seems like she was telling someone off and that she was taking care of things perfectly in the Ackerman estate.

“I’m sorry to inform you but Levi will be out of the country at the date of your visit. I’ll call you later, bye.” Cynthia sat up on the chair, placing both of her elbows on top of her knees, and leaning forward to regard the little boy who swiveled his head too quickly when he heard his father going out of the country. “So, Al, how was camp? Was it fabulous?”

 “Dad is flying out of the country? For what?”

Cynthia laughed, glancing at her phone. “Oh, no. I just had to tell a little white lie to get him out of something. You know, Al, I have never heard a man talk about his son the way that Levi talks about you. You two are incredibly close but seeing the two of you together, well, it’s like he has a little him.”

“Well, we’re closer than close.” Altair stood up from the side of the pool and took his shirt off, leaving him in his swimming trunks. Glancing at the woman, who was faking a smile, he responded with a fake one as well. “We’re all each other has like always.” He made a cannonball in the pool, splashing water everywhere. There was a shriek of surprise from Cynthia, screaming about her designer dress and make-up, to which Altair didn’t hold back his smirk. Emerging to the surface, he shook his head before planting an innocent smile on his face. “Sorry. Did you get wet, Cecilia?”

“It’s Cynthia!”

“Oh, my bad, Cindy.”

Cynthia groaned in aggravation, her kind façade dropping. “And it just splashed on my clothes. Don’t worry about it, Al.” She tried making herself presentable again with a strained smile. Her hand raked through her curled brown locks, ruffling them for a little volume and flipping them over her shoulder. She walked towards the side of the pool, her heels clanking against the stoneworks. It was Altair’s least favorite sound now, along with her horrendous giggles that were too high and pitchy. He’d rather prefer your soft laughs that seem to sound like fairies but that thought was interrupted when Cynthia crouched in front of Altair, her smile hiding something sinister behind those bloody red lips. “Hey, guess what. I know your dad has been lonely—“

“He’s not lonely,” Altair cut off with a blank face.

“I know he’s not lonely,” Cynthia rolled her eyes. “But your mother has been out of the picture the moment you were born. It appeared to me that she couldn’t handle the responsibility of taking care of an infant so she left.” 

Lies.

“Levi told me one time while we were riding about out how lonely he was without someone to lay in bed or to make love with.” 

Disgusting.

“So I expressed my feelings for him because the more time we spent together, the more time I fell in love with a man like your father. He was everything.” 

Do you mean, he has the money?

“I was genuinely surprised when he told me he felt the same way and before you knew it, we were dating. He told me while on a date last week that he wishes for you, Al, to have a mother’s love and affection, and with it, he proposed to me.” 

Bloody woman, she’s ruining the plan!

“I would like to be a great mother to you, Altair Ackerman. I would shower you with all the love your mother couldn’t give you because she’s too selfish.”

A static noise rang around Altair, his eyes murderous on the smug woman by the pool.

“I have the new brew—Al, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Levi slid his sharp eyes on Cynthia. “What did you tell my son?

Her grin was like the devil. “Nothing, Levi, just the truth.”

Altair only looked down with gritted teeth and teary eyes, murmuring along the lines of, “Mum is not selfish. She’s every good thing here.”

That night, Altair locked himself in the bathroom, his phone in hand. Dialing a very familiar number, he waited for the other person to pick up with half-lidded eyes. When his voice answered the phone, Altair immediately dropped his American accent. “It’s me. We have a major problem here. A pest made herself known. What’s your situation over there?”

[blockgamepirate]

Okay this is something I've been thinking about for a while and I saw some posts about Tommy hate etc. so I felt like giving my take on it:

I think a lot of the frustrating stuff about Dream SMP's narrative is tied to the fact that some people just have massive viewer counts so the story ends up orbiting around them.

And I don't even think this is anyone's fault, really, it's just an annoying fact.

It leads to plots not being taken seriously unless Tommy or Techno are involved in them. So when smaller streamers want their plots to be relevant they probably feel like they HAVE to include Tommy and/or Techno.

But that just reinforces the sense that everything is about Tommy and Techno. And maybe Dream, although since he doesn't stream his pull is more limited.

This is obviously not Tommy's fault, he's probably just trying to help people out by introducing his viewers to the plots that other streamers have going on and playing along. Like to me it seemed pretty obvious that he was playing his character extra obnoxious for Jack and Niki's benefit, because it makes it easier for their characters to hate him and complain about him. And somehow he even managed to drop some massive dramatic irony bombs with a perfectly straight face, like "who do I trust not to kill me?" *looks at Ranboo and Jack's names on the tab list* "Jack Manifold!" That was beautiful.

But Tommy gets the brunt of the anger because he's playing the Annoying Little Brother Character that people love to hate. (I mean that as a character archetype, not as judgement, to be clear. One of his character traits just IS to annoy people for laughs. That just tends to mean that sometimes it also annoys the audience. Annoying characters are tough to play.) Techno's character is the cool badass who makes funny quips so he gets away with a lot more.

(Although I did actually see a whole bunch of people mad about Techno not treating the Egg seriously enough so I wouldn't say he's immune either. The difference is that people weren't upset that he was involved at all, just HOW he was involved.)

I think another factor is that Tommy has been framed as the main character for a looong while, and it's easy for people to start resenting main characters, especially if they're not their favourite and the plots seem to still end up centering them. And I don't think being the main character was even Tommy's idea? I think that was mostly Wilbur because he was doing this to give Tommy something to do on the server and to get to do something cool with Tommy. They probably couldn't ever have predicted it would get this big or continue this long. It was originally just them being Hamilton nerds and having fun.

Meanwhile Techno just doesn't stream enough so when he finally shows up people are just too glad he's even around to get annoyed lol. Except in that if he's involved then all the plots end up getting halted while everybody waits for him get around to it.

Also I guess with Techno people have an easier excuse to involve him because he's one of the strongest if not THE strongest person on the server so of course everybody wants to recruit him for help. That's why everybody tends to at least consider it even if it doesn't go anywhere. With Tommy, involving him ends up being a bit more awkward because technically he's just a guy who just happens to have gone through a lot and been involved in a lot. If it has something to do with Tommy's history on the server, or maybe even his people skills, it makes sense, but if not: you get stuff like the Egg having a special grudge against him, specifically, For Some Reason? Idk, I'm sorry, I've kinda missed a lot of the Egg Arc streams so maybe it makes more sense in context but it just seems really arbitrary to me.

It's just that a lot of it ends up sounding like stock main character plot devices where the main character is Special for Reasons.

Idk, maybe there would have been a smoother way to write him in but I don't have any kind of perfect solution to any of this. I don't think there really is one it's just one of those annoying side-effects of fame. Hermitcraft tends to get this too with Grian, to a lesser extent.

Oh yeah, I forgot: there's also just the fandom itself being obnoxious, and that tends to translate to people also hating the character and/or the creator. Happens with both Tommy and Techno (and I'm sure Dream too). This is another problem Grian also has btw.

[riacte]

I’m going to put some thoughts about MCCP Pink Parrots under the cut (not all are positive, so if you don’t want me to be a party pooper please don’t read)

I know people (*cough* Twitter) have issues with this team because they’re all Cis Het White Males and one made a “lesbiophobic joke” five years ago or something. I agree that it’s probably better to “split the clout” to uplift other creators, especially with three (3) Clout People in the same team (unlike the infamous Pink8 which only had Two Clout People), but I understand why Scott made this decision.

This team feels almost specifically made to hype people up, and the combination will attract people to watch and donate, thus raising more money. While representation is good, I think money raised to practically help people > representation this time. Because this is a charity Pride stream, not just a Pride stream. Raising money is the focus here. Famous cishet white male allies can raise a lot of money. Money can help people. These are all facts whether you like it or not. And if you want to see more LGBTQA+ creators in MCC, support them. If you don’t like a certain creator, don’t watch their team. The end.

Don’t know too much about the other three, but I think Grian is good at hosting charity streams. I’ve watched his Love Tropics stream with Iskall (2019?), the first SOS Africa stream with Ren (2020), the MCC 9 stream (2020), and the second SOS Africa stream with Ren, Bdubs, and Scar (2021). Throughout the streams, Grian is consistently respectful and humble. He urges his viewers to donate by patiently talking about the cause in simple terms (since he knows a lot of kids watch him) but without being patronising. Grian also loves putting numbers into things people can measure (eg. How many hot meals can this sum of money buy, if everyone watching right now donated $1 we can reach our goal). Grian also knows his privilege and mentions he’s just a well off guy playing video games in a comfortable place. When Ren thanked him for supporting his fellow South Africans, Grian replied with “we’re all human”. So I believe Grian will spend a lot of his MCCP stream urging viewers to donate, reading out donations, appreciating donations, etc etc. Grian knows his influence and knows how to use it for good. Someone on Twitter mentioned Grian seemed like the type of person to skip this MCC to give more slots for other creators, and I agreed, but then Grian probably thought he could use his influence for good (considering he had MAJOR success for all his past charity streams).

So all in all, I do think this team can raise a lot of money for a good cause. I am okay with this team. But personally I still have some slight issues that probably don’t matter much, but I need to get them out because it’s been eating me alive. All of these so-called “issues” have to do with fanbases, not CCs. Just because I don’t like part of a CCs’ fanbase doesn’t mean I don’t like the CC.

1. This team will probably intensify the “Grian Is The Only Hermit” phenomenon.

A lot of famous CCs only seem to know Grian out of everybody in Hermitcraft (despite False being in every MCC since debut except the non canon ones). They are somewhat akin to the “Grian Only Hermitcraft Watchers”/ “Grumbo YouTube Stan Army”. There’s nothing wrong with knowing Grian only, or only watching Grian, but most of the times the gigantic population of “Grian Only Stans” will neglect Literally Every Other Hermit (except maybe Mumbo). Even when Grian teams with hermits. Hermitcraft fans are mostly used to this bullshit, and they just nicely try to introduce Grian Only Stans to other hermits (which works most of the time).

So to Techno and Wilbur’s fans (I assume Jimmy’s fans are quite familiar with Grian), they’ll go “omg Grian!! Builder!!! Hermitcrafter!!”. This will introduce a bunch of people to Grian/ Hermitcraft (which is great!) but it has a good chance of evolving into the good ole “Grian is the only hermit that matters” thing. Simply because of popularity.

I actually wanted False-Grian-Techno-Wilbur, because Techno and Wilbur actually know False. Techno of course acknowledged her in Dodgebolt, and False and Wilbur have a surprisingly long history of trolling/ annoying each other (from MCC5-9). Wilbur notably trolled Yellow8 and Blue9 by covering up the letters on their uniforms (both hermit teams WITHOUT GRIAN), and when Grian ignored Wilbur around MCC7 Battle Box, Wilbur chose to annoy False instead. False in return seems to notice Wilbur a tiny bit more than general MCC participants (another one she notices is Fundy), such as being amused/annoyed when he overtakes her in Ace Race and gleefully cheering when Wilbur falls.

False is probably the hermit/ hermit adjacent sans Mr Golden Boi Grian with the most “connections” to SBI, Techno and Wilbur know her (Techno forgot about her in MCC 11 but whatever), and she can deal with the three clout people. Which brings me to the next point.

2. Jimmy Solidarity my beloved…

Naturally, Jimmy has already been neglected because he’s the only one who doesn’t have a lot of “clout”. This is different from the last megaclout team Pink8, because Michael and Burren could “lack clout” together. This time, Jimmy doesn’t have anyone with a similar popularity with him. Red10 made me a little more concerned (viewers have pointed out he seems a little bit neglected by the rest of his teammates, especially during DB when they were shittalking Jimmy’s friends).

CCs wise, they will probably/ hopefully be nice and kind (I say hopefully because I cannot trust anyone from DSMP other than HBomb), everyone will get along, no one will be excluded, everyone is happy.

The toxic fans will probably be rabid towards Jimmy (by extension Grian) if they make even a slight mistake, which is why I’m worried about putting a small/medium sized creator with the BIG BIG creators. But, eh. Toxic people will be toxic no matter what. This isn’t an issue exclusive to Pink Parrots.

3. Clashing attitudes?

Hermits and their friends advocate arrow split. Techno does not. What will happen if this team gets to Dodgebolt? Previously, Grian has always been on “arrow split” teams and greatly enjoyed them. Scott has taken care to put people with similar attitudes together. Now what? I have hope that they’re all mature and can compromise, but eh. Grian is strongly against arrow funnelling and calls it not-gentlemanly. I feel Techno will probably let Grian have a few shots since this is a for fun MCC, but what if they get teamed again for some competitive MCC? They’ll probably work it out, but what might their fanbases think?

To conclude, big fanbases = big benefits + big problems. This is not exclusive to Pink Parrots. In fact, I think this is probably the best mix of builders and clout people for this scenario (I personally do not want to see False-Puffy or Ren-Dream). Techno and Wilbur’s fanbases are already the nicer part of the DSMP fanbase.

The most important part is raising money of course, and the silly “issues” I mentioned above don’t mean anything in comparison. Why care about online matters when the money can help people in the real world?

That being sad, I was just a tiny bit salty and I had to get this out. Nonetheless I’m happy about this team, will definitely be interesting (selfishly hope they don’t win because Twitter will be mad a team of cishets won). Anyways, if you’ve read up to here, thank you for reading my ramblings.

[jadedxrealityw]

-When We Are Alone- Draco malfoy x Female Reader

☼-🐍-☼

    Request: Hi! Before anything, I just want to say your writing has been living rent free in my mind, like I'd literally just be washing the dishes and I'll smile like an idiot because I remember that one imagine hehe.

Can I request an imagine where Draco and Y/n are in a relationship, but they started off as friends in their friend group along with Pansy, Theo and Blaise. They like to keep it private but everybody knows they're together. But the thing is, reader is the one who isn't used to affection that's why she asked Draco to just act like normal friends when others are around which even reluctantly, he accepts.So when they're all alone, that's when they get lovey-dovey and the reader gets all blushy.

Anddddd this is optional--- if you want to make it angst. Sometimes Draco feels as if he's not important enough for her because she's so good at not showing her affections when with others so he tries to avoid her. Reader thought it was just normal because they're not always sweet and romantic. But one day, someone who kept flirting with her was trying to persuade her into a relationship and kept saying Draco and her didn't seem real at all but while they were talking they didn't know Draco was eavesdropping. He didn't want to meddle in yet because he's so curious to know what she thinks too BUT THEN THE READER LIKE CONFESSED ALL HER LOVE FOR DRACO TO THE GUY, SAYING THINGS LIKE YOU MAY NOT SEE ME ALWAYS CLINGING AROUND HIM BUT HE'S LIKE MY WHOLE WORLD or something hehe so like really fluffy after. Anyway, dear. It's alright if you reject this though hehe but thank you in advance and thank you for writing amazing stories. Ily 💖

    Kody: Not me googling when is it okay to say i love you. What am i? A ROBOT!

   House: Slytherin

   Possible Triggers/Warnings: cursing, cormac mclaggen, insecure Draco, blaise and theo being cute as hell. 

   ☼-🐍-☼

   Six months ago

   as you sat on the sofa of the common room you felt a cold chill run through you. Even in the dungeons it was still cold. To be fair, you were only wearing a black tank top and a pair of mens boxers. There comfy, don’t judge. You had been waiting for your friends to wake up in the common room.

   the first two to come out were Blaise and Theo, holding hands, Theo was rubbing his eyes “Morning Y/n” Blaise smiles and you wave to him. Blaise sits on the loveseat and pulls Theo into in his lap who just lays his head on his chest and closes his eyes.

   you smile slightly at them. They were so cute together. You wonder what it was like being in a relationship. In all 17 years of your life you had never once been with somebody romantically. No one seemed to like you in that way. You longed for somebody to love and cherish you. What a childish dream now.

   “Sup bitches” and there was Pansy, she was wearing what looked liked Ginny’s Quidditch sweater. “Hey Pans” you say as she sits down on the floor in front of the sofa “Is Theo sleeping again?” Pansy says quite loudly, causing Blaise to hush her “Yes he is. So tone it down” he spoke

   Pansy held her hands up in surrender, choking back a laugh “Okay sorry. Anyway, Where’s Draco? He’s usually up first. Think he overslept?” she says, leaning back against the sofa you sat on. “Think? I know he overslept. I snuck into his room to get an extra pillow for Theo and he was still awake”

   Blaise laughs lightly, making Pansy’s eyes go wide “What time was it?” she asked. “three am in the morning” he replies. You look over at him and tilt your head “Did you ask why?” you ask. Blaise tenses up a bit before answering “Um- He just told me to shove off. You know Draco. He’s cranky when tired.”

   you nod slowly. Seemed like Draco enough. “Oh okay. I’m going to check up on him. Can one of you guys bring breakfast here?” you ask, climbing off the couch and stepping onto the cold floor. Pansy raises her hand and gives you a thumbs up “I’ll do it!- Oh shit sorry” she says and lowers her voice instantly.

   Blaise shoots her a glare as Theo stirs in his arms. You chuckle before walking out the common room and into the boys hall, leaving the three Slytherins alone. As Pansy watches you leave she turns to Blaise “’He told me to shove off’? Really? That’s the best you could up with?” 

   Blaise rolls his eyes as he waves his hand around “What was i supposed to say? Yeah Draco was up all night because he can’t stop thinking about you. Oh also everytime he sleeps he has dreams about you, cause that was the best option Pans” he huffs. Pansy groans before walking out the common room.

   back to you

   as you walked your mind wandered to Draco himself. You hoped he had been taking care of himself. He was your best friend and you wanted the best for him or maybe you told yourself that to convince yourself that you didn’t have a crush on him. You had been friends with Draco since you came to Hogwarts.

   feelings never really developed until last year and it’s like you finally saw him. The little things he did like grab your hand randomly or always fixing your hair became less platonic for you. A weird feeling would invade your stomach and your face would feel hot.

   it was strange because you had never felt this way about anyone. Especially Draco. You decided to not tell him in fear that he would reject you and it would break up your friend group. You liked him, but you loved your friends and you weren’t about to let some feelings ruin your  friendships.

   soon enough you were at Draco’s door. Please be wearing a shirt. Please be wearing a shirt. You knock twice and are surprised as the door pushes open. Had Blaise forgot to close it when he left Draco’s room the room the previous night? You slowly push the door open to see Draco laying in bed.

   as you walk in you close the door, being careful with your steps. You tip toe over to his bed, the wooden floor creaking under your feet every couple seconds. You didn’t want to be loud and wake him up in a rude manner. Finally reaching him, you place your hand on his shoulder and gently shake it.

   “Draco, it’s time to get up. We have breakfast out in the common room and-” Draco grabs your hand and pulls you into the bed. You fall on your back as Draco holds your arm above you head, hovering over you. Your face heated up like all the times before, feeling small under his gaze.

   as his grey eyes scanned over you he sighs deeply “What’re doing in here?” he asked, weirdly casual. “P- Pansy’s getting breakfast and i wanted to make sure you ate. Why did you throw me on your bed?” you fired back with a question of your own. “I was having a dream. Thought i was till in it when i woke up” he says, oddly casual again.

   you make an ‘O’ shape with your mouth and nod “Okay. What happened to cause this?” you gesture to the situation by tugging your hand in his firm grip. He seemed to tense at your question before his head dropped in what seemed like shame “I’m sorry for this” he spoke.

   okay, now you were extra confused. “Sorry for what-” then it happened. His cold lips crashed down onto yours in a swift motion leaving you frozen in shock. Oh Merlin. What do you do?! You like him right? and this means he might like you, right? So kiss him you fool!

   your mind finally stopped debating and you leaned into the kiss, trying to kiss him back. It was way more easy then you imagined. After a couple seconds more you both pulled away from the kiss. Both panting to get air into your lungs. After that makeout session you both talked, for hours. 

   Draco admitted his feelings for you and you did the same. Turns out you were wrong, it didn’t ruin your guys friendship in the slightest. Blaise, Theo, and Pansy thought it was adorable and were really happy for you both. It was a relief really that everything turned out well. You were Draco Malfoy’s girlfriend.

    ☼-🐍-☼

   Present

   the day was slowly coming to an end as you and your friends ate dinner. You feel Draco’s hand on yours under the table and smile lightly. At least no one could see. You didn’t care much for public displays of affection. You didn’t even know how to act like a couple in public, really.

   you expressed these feelings with Draco and he agreed, not wanting you to be uncomfortable. So behind closed doors you two were the cutest you could be. “Well, i’m done. How ‘bout you Y/n” Draco turns his head to face you as you place the silver fork on the wooden table. “Yeah i’m finished”

   Draco gets up from his seat and holds out his hand for you to help you get up. You take his hand and he helps you out of your seat. You let go as you both begin to walk out the dining hall. “They both know that they left us right?” Pansy asked, watching the couple walk away.

   Theo chuckles as he takes a bite of a muffin he was eating “I think it’s cute that Draco just wants her all to himself” he coos, leaning his head on Blaises shoulder. Blaise nods in agreement with his boyfriend “I wonder what Y/n’s like behind closed doors considering she barely acts like his girlfriend”

   Theo wacks Blaise shoulder with a offended look “Hey! How she deals with her emotions is no ones business but her’s. Bad Blaise. No kisses” he pouts. Blaise just blinked mindlessly before grinning “Okay, fine. No kisses” he says, watching as Theo’s pout turned into a frown “No, wait. I want kisses”

    ☼-🐍-☼

   after walking out both you and Draco went into his dorm where you were now cuddling on his bed. “Hm. Your so warm” Draco hums as he digs his head into the crook of your neck. Your face heats up and you let out an embarrassed whine “Draco” you could practically feel his smirk.

   “darling don’t say my name that way” he speaks in a strained tone as he wraps his arm around your waist, pulling you close to him. Butterflies erupted in your stomach at his voice. Draco was an immense tease. You couldn’t help but smile though. “I’m sorry” you push out your bottom lip in a pout.

   Draco removes his head from your neck to look at your face, smirk still on his face. “Don’t pout. I like the way you smile when we are alone.” he spoke, his hand reaching up to grace over your cheek and push a strand of hair away from your face. You crack a small smile and so does he “There it is”

   he leans in a pecks your lips gently “So beautiful” and he continues to whisper praises to you as he kisses each part of your face. Not even stopping once you began to laugh from the ticklish feeling. “Draco! stop!” you say through fits of laughter. You hear him chuckle evilly, which wasn’t good at all.

   after a couple minutes he stops “Tired?” he asked, hovering over you with a loving smile on his face. You nod slowly, your face a deep shade of pink. he leans down and presses a kiss to your forehead “Want to sleep in my room tonight?” he asked, since you never had before.

   “I don’t mind” you spoke in a whisper. He smiled brightly as he lifts off his wand and with a wave the lights turn off. He shuffles around to grab the top of his black silk blanket and place it over the both of your bodies. You turn to lay on your side, facing the wall. A position you found comfortable.

   Draco lays behind her, also on his side. His chest was pressed against your back while his arm was wrapped around you. He presses one final kiss to your temple before closing his eyes, whispering a goodnight. It was the first time the both of you slept in the same bed and you liked it. 

    ☼-🐍-☼

   Two Weeks Later

   as much as Draco cared for you, his demons sometimes got the best of him. The nagging thought in the back of his head telling him he was nothing to you just became louder and louder. It didn’t help that you were perfect at not showing your feelings for him in public. 

   we all have our days where we let our demons control our thoughts and this was one of them for Draco. He woke up in a depressed and angered state and decided that seeing you today was just to much for him. So he planned to ignore you all day and hide away in his dorm after.

   for you it was just a normal day. Being romantic with Draco in public was just something that never happened, so when he purposely ignored you, you saw nothing strange about it. You did begin to question the almost dirty looks he gave you or when you went up to him to ask him something and he just walked away.

   in the middle of the day you were in potions class. What was strange was that when you walked in Draco wasn’t in his seat, which was next to you. Instead he was sitting next to Blaise, which also meant that you were going to have to partner up with Cormac Mclaggen. Ew. 

   once Snape gave you your assignment you collected the ingredients and made your way back to your desk. “Hi i’m Cormac by the way” the Gryffindor boy spoke. You look at him and smile politely “Y/n” you said before placing the moonstone into a mortar and pestle to ground it up.

   he looks at the various ingredients and smiles shyly “I wasn’t listening to Snape. What are we making again?” of course. “A draught of peace potion. Can you put in the syrup of hellebore for me?” you ask and he nos quickly before picking it up. He pours a few drops as instructed and begins to stir it.

   After the moonstone is crushed you pour it into the cauldron and he stirs that up as well “Wow, your like really good at potions” he spoke and you nod once “It’s just easy for me i guess” you shrug your shoulders. “Wow, smart and beautiful. Your quite a catch Y/n” he smirks lightly, which rubs you the wrong way

   you just give him a half smile before continuing to ground up porcupine quills and a unicorn horn. In the end. You got the best potion and were rewarded a small vile of a draught of peace. You were happy you passed, but were not please when Cormac wrapped his arm around you, but you pushed it off.

    ☼-🐍-☼

   after class you were walking outside to make your way to Hagrid’s hut to help care for buckbeak when you hear somebody shouting your name “Y/n!” you turn around and watch as Cormac runs up to you “Yes?” you say, stopping in your tracks. “I wanted you to have this” he says and reaches into his robe.

   Draco was walking outside to catch his breath. Seeing Cormac drool over you and you doing nothing about it was eating up outside and he needed some fresh air before he blew up and beat the living shit out of Cormac. That’s when he heard you and the Gryffindor and decided to listen in and watch behind a pillar. 

   Cormac pulls out the draught of peace and hands it to you. You smile kindly and take it from his hands “Thank you” he smiles back “So i was wondering. Would you like to go out with me sometimes?” he asked. Well shit. You sigh deeply and shake your head “I’m sorry, but i already have a boyfriend Cormac”

   his face drops “Who?” he asked in a slightly irritated voice, which catches you off guard. “Um Draco Malfoy?” you said, taking a step back. He clicks his tongue as a bitter laugh comes from his mouth “Draco Malfoy? You two may act like best friends, but not lovers”

   you took slight offense to that, but it was true. You didn’t like pda because you didn’t have the slightest clue on how to be a public couple. But screw this guy. “Excuse me? What i do with Draco in public is none of your concern Cormac” you go to storm off when he grabs your arm, forcing you back.

   “If your lying to play hard to get it worked. Why would Malfoy ever go out with someone who doesn’t even pay attention to him during the day” his smirk very prominent and very gross. You rip your arm away from him, causing him to stumble a bit.

   “You have no right to say that to me! Just because i am not hanging off of him every second of every day does not me i don’t cherish him! He’s everything to me and i don’t deserve him at all! and i just realized that he may leave me today or tomorrow or in a hour! and i can’t believe it took me this long to realize that i’m so hopelessly in love with him. Nonetheless, fuck you, you fucking pervert!”

   your words were laced with venom, leaving the Gryffindor shocked. You pulled your wand out and hold his against his neck “Never, ever touch me or i’ll end you. Understand me?” you whisper, your face close to his. His eyes widen in fear before nodding quickly. “Then go!” you shout.

   he falls back and you watch as he struggles to get up before running away. That’s why Draco had been ignoring you, because he doesn’t think you love him. Tears flowed down your face, sobs wracking throughout your body. You were going to lose him and it was all your fault. 

   you drop your wand to wipe your face from the overflowing of warm tears. As you go to drop to your knees so you could cry on the floor, arms wrap around your waist and in fear of it being Cormac you open your eyes to see Draco, crying? “Draco?” you choke out.

   he cracks a smile and nods “Yeah” he says and reaches up to wipe a tear running down your cheek. Your eyes widen in realization “You heard all of that didn’t you. Draco i’m so sorry-” he hushes you and pulls you into a hug “Don’t. I let my insecurities get the best of me. Hearing you say you love me was enough to bring me back to reality and that i’m going to murder Mclaggen”

   you laugh quietly and sniffle “I do love you and i want you to know that i’m going to show you more public affection from now on” you nod sternly. He pulls away from the hug, shaking his head “Love, you don’t have to do that” he says. You wave you head, shaking your head.

   “I want everyone to know that i’m yours and you are mine, because if a girl ever did that to you. I’d kill her” this time Draco laughs, a grin forming on his face “I think i’m a bad influence. You’re starting to sound like me” you smile and reach up to grab his face “I love you Draco” you speak.

   you lean your forehead against his watching his smile grow wider “I love you too Y/n. To the moon and back and i’ll never forget it again” he presses a kiss to your lips, one that you return quickly. It was passionate and slightly sloppy due to the emotions running high between both of you. 

   you reach behind his neck to tug at the platinum blond locks, a groan slipping past his lips. Draco pulls away, panting heavily “Holy shit you need to kiss me like that more often” he smiled widely. You chuckle and lean in to kiss him again, but he stops you “What?” you say, but he pecks your lips quickly. “I love you and we can continue this later in my dorm preferably, but i have Gryffindor to 'talk to’”

   your eyes widen as he lets go of you and pulls out his wand. He begins to walk back into the school. You lean down and collect your wand before running to catch up with him “Draco! You can not kill Cormac!” you shout and he smirks. “I’m just going to talk to him Y/n” he spoke.

   “With your wand!?”

    ☼-🐍-☼

   Kody: Cormac slander is the only slander i know. I hope you enjoyed this one, cause it was long. Anyways, peace!