#but it’s so hard ti figure out how much of that is just trauma and depression and anxiety and all that messy shit

[yaminerua]

at this point idk what it is specifically but I don’t think there’s a single neurotypical person living in this house and the state it’s in shows that

if you walked into this place you’d immediately stage an intervention bc clearly none of us are able to get started on what needs fucking done let alone maintain it to an acceptable level jfc

[8housevenus]

8th house synastry!

hii, in this blog i'm going to talk about what your partner's planets mean in your 8th house. i'm going to focus this one on a more relationship-wise dynamic so there will be talks of sexual chemistry, kinks, and things of that nature. and of course, a lot more goes into these types of things apart from what i go over!! hope u enjoy <3

partner's sun in your 8th house - when your partner's sun is in your 8th house, you can find the sun person to be extremely off-putting and intense due to the fact that they will be very eager to figure you out. you appear mysterious to the sun person, and they will not make it unknown that they think they are the one to "repair you." there can be stubbornness in this relationship as your sun person will try to unveil your secrets and experiences you don't want to talk about. as the house person you can resent this and find it to be invasive. however, you have a deep appreciate towards the sun person due to their caring nature and abilities to handle your wounds. sex-life with this person can also be super intense, both of your vulnerabilities allow sex to be much deeper and memorable. this placement can be good for a long-term relationship as long as the house person can feel a sense of privacy. usually there is an instant sexual attraction between the two of you, especially by your sun person. it's magnetic and hard to resist.

partner's moon in your 8th house - house person will find plenty of comfort with the moon person. moon person will not be prone to criticizing your or weaponizing your feelings, they will make significant efforts to understand you and work around any dark areas. you both have very health boundaries surrounding each other's emotions, there's plenty of privacy and security between the two. moon person fulfils your emotional needs more than anybody else does. this can be very prevalent in the bedroom too; comfort is key for the both of you sexually. moon person will usually do more foreplay and deep-talk, they also will be more submissive and favorable to what the house person wants to do. usually, this moon person will be able to read you like an open book. moon person will flutter the house person with chest kisses and vice versa.

partner's mercury in your 8th house - mercury person loves to get behind the surface level discussions with the house person. they like to know you beyond the simple things. house person gives an outlet to the mercury person to express their feelings, stories, traumas, that they usually feel guilty or ashamed to share with anyone else. mercury person admires your strong tolerance towards them. they can be highly persuasive and often times appear manipulating. depending on how it is aspected. usually in the bedroom between the two, mercury person loves dirty talk, kissing, oral, and cuddling up. sex can sometimes be finished more quickly than you're used to, and be careful that the person you are dealing with isn't just using you or sees it as a "friends with benefits" situation. these people are very open to new sexual experiences and can be jumpy.

partner's venus in your 8th house - this one is so good i love love love it. venus person will find themselves in a position where they want to support your lifestyle. some of them might even go out of their way to fund you and spoil you. to them the house person is like their sugar baby. aside from money, this person finds so much beauty in the things you are usually ashamed about. they are able to glamorize the darkness that you might exude to them. as the house person, you grow to have intense ties as the venus person will have immense loyalty towards you and have a "life or death" attitude with you. sometimes this relationship feels surreal because of how hard it clicks. sex-wise, venus person will be able to create a new experience for you everytime. almost feels soul-merging. they will love to neck grab, hold you by your waist, or might even involve toys/costumes, super fantasy-like things. this person will transform your views on sex drastically. venus person can feel very possessive over you and sometimes even forget the bad things you do during the relationship simply because their love feels overpowering.

partner's mars in your 8th house - strong adrenaline rush from the mars person to the house person. sometimes it feels like you have such strong chemistry before you know each other that well. mars is so drawn to the house person that they might do impulsive things just for your attention. this person can match your darkness very well and they have no problem with doing something about settling your issues for you. they don't shy away when you open up, and often times will be protective over you in situations of life or death. in terms of sex, it will feel super intense and the mars person makes sure to go all out for you. they can be unpredictable, and you might often time underestimate what they can do, but they aren't heavy into wasting time. they love hair pulling, face grabs, or penetrations. you both find sex to be a good outlet for pent up feelings, and it definitely is a strong way to show the care between the two.

partner's jupiter in your 8th house - jupiter person will try to point out a lot of the positives through things that have hurted you in the past. they aren't heavy into dwelling on past experiences too much and have more of an optimistic view on life. these people will teach you how to deal with things progressing forward with them, like religiously or spiritually they will open your eyes. these people can also bring an immense influx of money to you and use it to go on vacations and plenty of trips to discover new things and places. you often find that going out with this person is almost healing for you. their energy feels like a breath of fresh air and distracts you from your neglective past. sexually, this person will love butt/thigh grabbing, person might also have bigger behinds or shlongs. feels rejuvenating while you are together. they make you glow in a certain way that other do not. house person finds jupiter person to be very wise and knowledgeable across the board.

partner's saturn in your 8th house - saturn can be tricky but not uncomfortable here. you might feel like this person helps you get your shit together sometimes and see things for the way they are. they will help you understand that building walls is important. between the two of you, this can be a long-lasting relationship and saturn person will be deeply committed. sometimes you might feel that saturn doesn't always understand your emotional state, oftentimes you feel that you cannot always express this to them. they can seem cold, but they are also very experienced in similar things you have dealt with. they offer good perspective and can offer you a stable life in terms of money. sexually, this person might not be too experimental, and worry a lot about if it lives up to your standards. they're more quiet and house person often helps them overcome saturn's shyness to sex. saturn however, will like touching all over your skin, infatuated by your smile, and loves gripping to your ribs. can create a heavily devoted partner.

partner's uranus in your 8th house - uranus person will love to challenege you and make you rewire many stigmas, norms, and traditional values. they love to also connect with your deep-rooted desires, as both of you might have many things in common. this dynamic can be unpredictable sometimes, house person will always see dramatic highs and lows from the uranus person. as the house person, you might like the uranus person covering topics which you find abnormal, however very interesting. sexually, uranus person will have a lot of irregular kinks and desires. usually these people will have prominent veins, have a foot fetish, or might want to indulge in a 3-party act, do it in public, etc. with them they want to break many rules with sex. sometimes this can trigger the house person with their boundaries they have, privacy is also important for the house person, and uranus challenges that.

partner's neptune in your 8th house - neptune person understands the sensitive nature of your volatile state. in a house that gets very dark, neptune matches it but tints it a little differently. you notice that the neptune person almost always has "the answers," but you have to get it out of them almost. as much as a mystery you are, they are also going to be mysterious. they will never overstep and say too much unless you ask from them to. but you notice they bring an old soul energy to you, and they will bring life changing ideas to the table. they will keep you in tune. they love you through your scars as to them it appears as strength. both of you might sense you are equally damaged, but can heal and prosper together. sexually, neptune person can give you a surreal experience. and usually the neptune person knows exactly what to do to please you, as they have a way of reading you through. they will be gentle with you in bed and only step it up if that is what the house person wants. neptune person might have some type of feet kink, or provide a gentle aftercare. interesngly enough, they will always have some fixation on some part of your body. it can seem weird but you find it very cute that they are drawn to it.

thank u for making it this far, i really hope you enjoyed reading some of these. if you feel like this was accurate or inaccurate let me know i would love to hear ur standpoint and do let me know of any other ones you would like me to do. <3

[tealvenetianmask]

I want to think a little about Blitz's self-perception with regard to his lack of education/sophistication. In my opinion, HB gives us a very accurate portrayal of what it feels like to navigate relationships when you're a person with a long history of feeling like you're never good enough ("I can always do better").

Let's start with his friendship with Moxxie, though like a lot of my posts, it will find its way back to stolitz.

Moxxie doesn't necessarily have more formal education than Blitz. I mean . . . he likely had the economic resources growing up, but I don't think Crimson seems like the kind of parent to prioritize education. Besides an education in violence. I assume that both Blitz and Moxxie had some basic education as kids, but the difference is that Moxxie likes "high culture(ish)" things like musicals and bow ties, enjoys knowing details about history, and probably reads for fun. He's also the kind of ". . . um actually . . ." friend who can make even a secure person feel a little stupid. Not that Blitz doesn't sometimes need to be called out, but Moxxie does seem to take some joy in correcting him.

And yes, Blitz bullies Moxx and calls his junk tiny and tells him to eat a salad, but like . . . it's pretty obvious that to some extent, Blitz is covering up for feeling inferior to Moxxie on some level.

We see how Blitz really feels about this in Truth Seekers.

Borrowed observation from excellent reaction youtuber Omn1media: When Blitz hallucinates Moxxie lecturing him, Moxxie goes really hard specifically on the insults to Blitz's intelligence. Moxxie's speech is also much more rambly/laced with figurative language than it is in their real (non-imagined) interactions.

We can see from Blitz's face in these scenes that these comments really get to him. Of course they do- he's making them up in his own nightmare.

"Foolish flights of fancy" is the rest of the caption there . . ."

He's very upset by the idea that he's really inferior to Moxxie- under all of the bravado, he's deeply insecure. It probably doesn't help that the truth gas made him admit that he didn't like the musical that Moxx recommended. Yes, I know that was a Cats joke, but also, Blitz bothered to lie, and he doesn't seem allergic to hurting Moxxie's feelings, so I think he wanted to pretend to "get" the "higher art" that Moxxie likes.

Okay so if Moxxie (with an essentially equivalent status and education) manages to unintentionally make Blitz feel stupid and uncultured, how does this translate when Blitz falls in love with Stolas, who IS objectively very high status and very well educated and DOES speak in "fancy rich people" language?

Oh. Right. The pedestal, the impossibility, and all of that.

I'm not saying that Hell's strict hierarchy doesn't have a lot to do with how Blitz perceives a real relationship between himself and Stolas as impossible- it absolutely does. And so does his history of failed relationships and heaping backpack of trauma. But also, the education/sophistication piece is there, and it's major.

I'm on the fence about whether Blitz actually sees himself as stupid or is just worried about being perceived that way by others. He obviously knows he's very good at the work he does, and that takes both a certain level of strategic thinking AND some very brilliant improvisation. I think he knows this. But he also knows he'll never . . . let's say, be the best read person in the room (if you want to know my thoughts on Blitz and literacy, click here- but short answer, I think he's quite literate but also dyslexic).

I think that like many real people who are kind of out of the box in this way (disrupted education and/or neurodivergence) he's simultaneously aware that he's very intelligent AND deeply insecure about being stupid or having others devalue his kind of intelligence.

[neversetyoufree]

Looking back, I wonder how much of Vanitas's choice in this scene is tied to the fact that he was given a choice in the first place.

So much of Vanitas's character is centered around the theme of self-determination (and the lack thereof). He is absolutely deprived of any control over his body and/or destiny at many of the key points in his life, and nowadays he's always desperately grasping at what few shards of self-determination he does have. This is why he freaks out when Roland talks about him being "under the vampires' power" in mémoire 15. It's why he's hung up on the idea of freedom as isolation from others' influence. It's why his main response to being triggered is to do something crazy and cause a scene; it puts him in control of the situation.

All that to say, when Luna destroys Moreau's lab and agrees to take Misha away, Vanitas must be desperate to feel some form of in-control, but I do not think he expects to be given any choice in what happens to him next. He's been conditioned not to expect that despite how much he wants it.

Vanitas certainly doesn't have much agency in how he lives his life as a child, as no kid gets to pick their parents or circumstances, and Vani has it especially rough with the death of his mother hanging over his head. Then his father dies protecting him, and he dies in a situation in which Vanitas is utterly powerless. Horror erupts into his life out of nowhere, and his dad throws himself in front of some fangs, and there's nothing Vanitas can do but watch it happen.

Next there's Vanitas's brief time training as a chasseur, which is one part of his history we know little about, so it's hard for me to say how free his choice was. He may have been pressured into joining, as we know the Chassuers aren't above pushy/manipulative recruitment of children (Astolfo), but I could also see his choice to hunt vampires made as a trauma response to the powerlessness of the vampire attack he survived. "I was powerless, so I'll claim the power to enact violence and make sure they can't hurt me or others again."

Then Vanitas is abducted by Doctor Moreau, which strips him of his agency just about as awfully as anything possibly could.

Vanitas the test subject has no bodily autonomy. He is poked and prodded and experimented on, because his body is an object of science to Moreau, not the vessel of a person with rights or self-determination. His only big active choices during his captivity are the choice to not run away for fear of somebody else suffering and the choice to volunteer in Mikhail's place. The only choices he can make are the choices to stay and throw himself even deeper into his own violation. Even his relationship with Misha is something that just kind of Happens to him. The kid is a force of nature that Moreau dumps on him without his say.

(This isn't Mikhail's fault, as Misha is just a child that wants affection, but having a needy, vulnerable little brother figure suddenly dropped on him in the midst of all that horror couldn't have made Vanitas feel less out of control).

Then Vanitas's torment by Moreau hits its climax, and Vanitas is told that not only has his body been violated by way of pain and torture—even his basic humanity has been and will be stripped from him. He now feels the disgust of having the blood of something he hates inside of him without his consent. And he's about to be killed, turned into a mindless husk of a "living key" instead of a person.

And that's when Luna shows up. This mysterious, incredibly powerful being appears and wreaks havoc on Moreau's lab like an avenging angel, and it agrees to Mikhail's request to take "us" along with it. Everything in Vanitas's life so far has taught him that he is powerless in the face of others' great power. Horrible shit just keeps happening to him forever, and this monstrous person sounds like they've just agreed to carry him off on Mikhail's request without a word of input from him. Of course he doesn't expect to be given a choice.

But he is.

Luna scoops up Mikhail, then they turn to Vanitas and ask if he would like to come along with them as well. After months or years of absolutely all of his autonomy and power being stripped away from him, the most powerful being Vanitas has ever encountered stops and gives him a choice about what he'd like to do next. They give him the option to go off on his own and decide his own fate rather than go along with them. And that's why Vanitas doesn't run away.

These are the images that flash through Vanitas's head right before he gets up and runs to Luna:

These moments are what inform Vanitas's choice. The memories of his father's death and Moreau's final experiment on him—his two most awful moments of abject helplessness.

When Vanitas runs to Luna and accepts their offer, these moments are what he's running from. He's fleeing from his inability to do anything or control his fate. He's running from a life of stolen agency. He's running toward the one adult who actually stopped and gave him a choice about what he'd like to do next.

Vanitas chooses Luna because they, despite having the power to kill or subdue him, give him the freedom to choose to accompany them in the first place. He's drawn to them not for protection, but as an escape to a life where he gets to keep making choices and grasp some agency.

Luna is the savior that gives Vanitas his freedom and autonomy back after it's stolen by Moreau. That's why it's so tragic that Vanitas carries their Mark in the present day. It's undeniable proof that, in their right mind or not, some version of Luna violated the fundamental trust and gift of autonomy that brought Vanitas into their family in the first place.

Luna's bite, both the physical violation and the transformation into inhumanity that it brings, is yet another way that Vanitas is stripped of all control of his body and fate.

[justporo]

Hiiii! Could you write some dom astarion headcanons? I can't get the idea out of my head now.

You asked - I shall deliver. This turned into a one-shot though. So, I hope you'll enjoy that as well.

I... I'm not even wasting much more time talking about it, let's just get to the fun!

Tav insists on provoking Astarion, but the vampire just won't be having it.

Pairing: Astarion / Fem!Tav (You) Warning: Explicit sexual content Wordcount: 2,4k

Lessons Learnt

Astarion and you had come to an agreement some time ago.

The two of you were in a happy, committed relationship – being sweet, loving, romantic, caring about each other deeply. Everything you could dream of. And let’s not forget about the less innocent aspects of you being together: Astarion knew every trick in the book, easily figuring out how to push your every button – and he enjoyed it. Being the one to make you squirm, to make you moan, cry his name in heedless pleasure.

And you were committed to help him work through his trauma and letting him explore what exactly it was he wanted for his life, being with you – and figuring out how to reclaim himself in terms of physical pleasure. Because as he had confirmed to you, he was eager to finally and completely embrace his own desires and pleasures.

So, he had proposed to you to let him be in charge, giving him a kind of control he didn’t have for the last two centuries.

You had been a bit surprised as you hadn’t considered that this might be what he would want from his regained freedom, but it made sense: for all the growth and healing he had already done, he still liked having power – and there was nothing inherently wrong with that. He liked being dominant, being the centre of attention, being the one people couldn’t rip their gaze off, being the one making people scurry to fulfil his desires.

He was not a prey animal – he was the predator.

So, of course you had agreed – quickly realising how much this arrangement played into your own hand as well: no one had ever treated you like this or given you such intense attention. And you’d come to enjoy yourself just as much as the vampire did.

But it still didn’t help you from being bent down over the kitchen table. One of Astarion’s hands pressing both of your wrists to your back while the other had your hair tied around it like a rope and pulled to make your head arch back – in a manner, that was just the right amount of painful to induce more pleasure.

“I’ve had it with you today, you insolent little thing”, Astarion exclaimed angrily and pressed his hips into your behind. You were both fully clothed, but you could feel his massive erection rub against you while he pressed you down harder on the table, causing your boobs to squish against the hard wood and making you moan in desperation.

“Don’t act like you don’t know how you got put in this position, love”, Astarion whispered while he leaned over you now. He pulled your hair to make your head turn slightly sideways so he could easily reach one of your pointy ears and whisper in it. The posture giving you another jolt of delicious friction when his cock pressed harder against your butt clad in leather pants.

“You know exactly how you rile me up when you act like this! Arching your back to make me look at your sweet little tits straining against your shirt, putting your thumb in your mouth to lick something off it, making me wish it was one of my body parts you’d let your tongue work around. And finally, brushing past me while making sure your ass has ample opportunity to rub against my crotch”, he whispers into your ear as if it was merely a sweet nothing. His breath caressing your face and making your hairs stand on end… And the way he put it into words – you were already drenched and desperate for release.

But so was he – you could feel the evidence quite clearly.

But you couldn’t help but giggle despite your dire situation, raising an eyebrow at him, grinning and using what little room for movement you had to rub your butt against him once more, making him groan immediately.

Your triumph was only short-lived when you suddenly got hauled up from the table. “That’s it, you bratty little girl, now I’m going to make you pay”, Astarion hissed as he threw you over his shoulder and immediately made his way up to the bedroom. His grip on your legs was tight – not a allowing a smidge of resistance now. You gulped and hoped that you hadn’t pushed your luck too far.

“We are going to have a little talk now, my sweet, about your naughty behaviour. And if I’m nice I might even help you out of the mess you put yourself in”, the vampire declared through gritted teeth and quickly moved up the last steps to your joint bedroom.

He threw open the door, then put you down in the middle of the room. “Undress”, he simply hissed at you while he turned around again. You obliged, your heart racing in your chest and lust pulsating between your legs.

Astarion grabbed a single chair, put it down in the middle of the room and then sat on it, legs spread, leaned forward, one of his hands braced on his knee while the other arm hung languidly over his other thigh. And that’s how he kept watching you slowly undress, not saying a word, but his red eyes boring holes into you.

You didn’t dare to make a show out of it this time.

Astarion licked his lips while he watched you hungrily, his arousal still very much obvious. When you were done you stood there completely naked with the vampire intensely staring at your naked form – just his glances making you want to squirm. But he drew out the moment – unnecessarily long for your liking.

“Now, come here and sit, pet”, he finally said, releasing you from your limbo. You walked over to him while he didn’t change anything about his posture, still staring at you and devouring you with his ruby eyes. When you were directly in front of him, you weren’t entirely sure of where exactly you were meant to sit.

But Astarion made quick work of grabbing you by the thighs and firmly placing you on one of his knees and dragging you up along his thigh – making sure to tense his muscles so you would get even more friction while grinding against his thigh. You immediately moaned loudly and threw your head back at the sensation of your core rubbing against his body. You could feel his muscles, the texture of his leather pants, your own slickness turning it into a mess quickly. Your hands had immediately went on his shoulders in an attempt to steady yourself on him. And you could also feel his tension there, under your fingers. By no means were you alone in these feelings of desperate, carnal lust.

Astarion’s fingers firmly held on to your hips – so hard there were clear indents where he almost clawed at your skin to hold you down tightly.

“Don’t act coy now, Tav, go on – I’m giving you all the opportunity to writhe and rub yourself against me now”, Astarion said to you, his eyes still glowing angrily – but hunger and pleasure taking over more and more. The usage of your name suddenly turning you on more in this moment than any other pet name could have done.

You stared at him a moment longer, not exactly sure how the situation had derailed to him making you ride his thigh completely naked so quickly.

“Move!”, he snarled when you didn’t get to work. The word snapping of his tongue like a whiplash while he forcefully moved your hips to grind against his leg again, making you whimper.

You started slowly – sliding back and forth over his thigh while feeling how slippery his pant leg had gotten quickly. Your hands curled into the vampire’s shoulder muscles, earning you a single groan. But other than that, he simply kept holding onto you, enjoying the show.

“Harder!”, Astarion ordered harshly after some time and pressed you down harder with the firm grip of his hands on your hips. You gulped and obliged.

Really getting into it now: the feeling of friction and just the thought of what exactly was happening turning you feral while you gripped onto his shoulders. The vampire lifted one of his hands off your side and grabbed your chin, thumb stroking over your bottom lip. “Open up, love”, he cooed at you now to which you happily obliged. He put his thumb into your mouth and let you start to suck on it.

You really started to lose all shame as you kept grinding his leg, now moaning loudly with every move, your head rolling back and arching your back – desperately wishing for Astarion to also give some attention to your breasts that ached with arousal.

But that was exactly the wrong thing to do. His hand moved to your side again and Astarion’s grip on your hips tightened so much you weren’t able to get in even the slightest bit of movement.

“It’s not fun now, is it?”, the vampire angrily snarled at you while holding you immobile. You whimpered helplessly, overcome with lust and the desperate wish for release.

“I’m sorry”, you whispered breathlessly – your body helplessly shivering with unresolved tension.

“Promise you’ll be good and I might consider letting you have the release your craving”, Astarion whispered slowly, his eyes boring into you.

“I’ll be good, I promise”, you immediately answered, desperately wanting to please him so he might do the same for you.

“Good“, Astarion cooed and started to grin hungrily at you – in a way that made you immediately wonder if it was actually.

He lifted you up while he stood up from his seat. He walked over to your giant bed and almost threw you onto it.

As you moved to position yourself on the bed, you saw how the vampire undressed himself while looking at you. Pulling his shirt over his head, muscles tensing and softening with the movement. You hungrily licked your lips, immediately feeling the fire burning inside you again. You let your gaze wander deeper, seeing the outline of his arousal straining against his pants – and of course the slick patch you had left on his pant leg.

When he pulled his pants down and finally freed his hardness you audibly gasped – wanting him inside of you in a way that was nothing but carnal need. You’d never get used to knowing that you were the one making him this way.

Astarion prowled over to the bed, basking in your wordless admiration and eagerly staring back at your naked body – the swell of your tits and your hardened nipples, the tensed lines on your stomach, the sheen of wetness glistening between your legs.

He climbed on top of you, immediately immobilising you with his body weight. Your legs happily spread to welcome him and wrapped around his slender hips. His cock quickly found its way to your slick core and languidly created friction against it.

You moaned, your mouth falling open at the thought of how you’d finally get what you wanted.

Astarion licked his lips and grinned which bared his fangs to you. He slowly kept rolling his hips to let his hardness slide against your cunt. You let your hands start to wander over his shoulders and back.

“I know you just made a promise to me, my heart, of which I’m sure you’re eager to keep. But let’s make sure, why don’t we”, he purred and grabbed your one hand, then the other with his while using his other arm to hold himself up over you.

And with a swift movement he was holding both your wrists captive again and pushed them down on the mattress right over your head. His grip was strong, but you didn’t even want to rebel against him right now. You were mindlessly enjoying yourself being held captive by this vampire, once again realising and being grateful that he showed you time and time again how he not only embraced his own desires and pleasures, but also teaching you to embrace yours.

“I’ll be nice now and release you from your peril, my love, since I am such a gracious lover”, he promised you while looking at you through his lashes. He shifted his hips and with one swift movement filled you to the brim.

You couldn’t help yourself and cried out his name. He threw his head back and laughed seductively. “Hm yes, keep calling my name, love, make sure the whole Upper City knows who it is that makes you scream”, he whispered and started to fuck you.

The time for teasing and making each other wait was over now. He thrust into you while holding you captive, hitting deep inside of you. You writhed against him, desperately trying to get more friction while his movements grew more and more raggedly. So did his breaths as he kept staring at you losing yourself beneath him.

“Come for me, Tav”, he ordered breathlessly, and you didn’t need another word of encouragement. Just the sound of your name from his lips while his voice almost broke pushed you over the edge, your core clenching and pulsing around him hard – again and again.

You screamed his name once more while shaking with your orgasm and struggling against his hold while he followed closely behind, hoarsely groaning and still moving through your joint ecstasy.

When the fire had dwindled down to a pleasant glow and you were both just looking at each other with wide eyes and open mouths while breathing heavily, Astarion slid out of you and released you out of his grasp.

He rolled on his back and softly grabbed you to make you roll over too, so you were laying on his chest. The vampire immediately started rubbing circles on your back with one hand, while the other stroked your hair. “All good?”, he asked while cocking his head. You nodded and smiled at him in response but were just too exhausted to use your words. You wrapped your arms around him and tangled your legs with his to really snuggle up to him. Pleasant warmth filled the both of you while you kept just laying there.

“Now, have you learnt your lesson?”, Astarion asked after a while, just a tiny bit teasingly. “Hmm”, you replied “maybe I will need a refresher on that from time to time.”

Astarion laughed at that and embraced you even harder: “It would be my pleasure.”

Author's note: Hope you enjoyed, all you naughty little gremlins. Now, off I go, I have to do some very Astarion-unrelated stuff.

[amaranthineghost]

| RED IS FOR FERRARIS AND CHRISTMAS ( charles leclerc. ) |

ꕥ pairing: charles x reader

ꕥ summary: she decorates for the holidays with white and blue, but for him, it doesn't cut it.

ꕥ authors note: thank highschool french for some speaking knowledge (with some Google translate sprinkled in) also pretty short because i lack Christmas ideas and I wanted to get this out before i work ungodly hours this weekend but it's still cute so <3

"MON AMOUR, what is this white and blue bullshit?" the monégasque spoke from behind her. she turned to see a look of disbelief creased on his face. she scoffed as she strung the ribbons about the room.

shaking her head as she tied it off and stepped down from the ladder, she took a step back to admire her work, "figured you had enough red trauma in your life," she'd poke fun at charles, a smile gracing her face as he, undoubtedly, stared at her in admiration. but he'd prefer red.

"not funny, chérie." he deadpanned, though she could see the smirk that pulled at his lips, "red is better than whatever this shit is." he shook his head, hand on his side as he looked up at the decor.

she pouted, "but the white and blue looks good, besides it's too much work to redo it all."

"I'll help you."

she rolled her eyes, burning holes into his as she heavily sighed. she rolled her neck to look at the strung ribbon and ornaments she'd worked hard to decorate.

he admired the effort and dedication to her christmas spirit, and honestly, he was just poking fun. as long as she was happy, it didn't matter to him if they were blue or white, or even the most hideous of neons if that's what her heart desired. he just wanted to poke fun at his love for not using the color that dominated his life, in a good or bad way.

at the end of the day, he'd know that no matter how she decorated, it'd end up more beautiful than the previous year as he'd increase the budget at which how much she could spend because let's be honest, he knew she'd come home with more bags than what could fit in the apartment if he didn't limit her spending. she was like a little elf compared to the mountain of items she bought, excluding gifts.

he didn't care how much of his money she spent, he'd gladly push as much of it towards her as he could because he had more than he could ever spend, and if he knew one person that could, it was her.

his hands would find their way around her waist, sliding his face into the crevice of her neck and inhaling the addicting smell of her shampoo lingering in her hair, the faint perfume residing on her skin as well.

his lips would leave faint kisses along her neck, muttering against her skin, "c'est jolie, chérie, tu peux le laisser." (it's pretty, darling, you can leave it.)

her voice would go up an octave as his warm skin pressed hers, smiling widely at her work, "merci beaucoup, mais je pense que le rouge serait plus joli." (thank you very much, but I think red would be prettier)

"moi aussi." (me too.) he agreed with her, feeling the smirk of his lips against her skin, she rolled her eyes, but regardless, she'd pull out the red decor from the years prior. though she didn't mind him forcing his ferrari trauma on her, she did like the change up, but she knew that he'd secretly prefer red.

but she didn't know that he just liked whatever she did. anything she did was perfect to him and he loved every idea that her mind thought of. she was sacred and he would protect that.

he'd watch her vigorously tear down the blue, but left the white, which he didn't mind as it contrasted nicely against the dark red she'd chosen and the gold accents that complimented it.

she'd stand tired, half-lidded eyes as she turned around the room to admire her work when she'd hear the footsteps of her love from behind her. she heard glass clink on the end table of their living room as he caught her hand in his.

he twirled her around the room, the soft piano sounds of christmas music played throughout the apartment as they swayed to the sound.

"très belle," he'd coo, "juste comme toi." (very beautiful, just like you)

she'd blush, feeling the heat rush to her face, "et tu es très beau." (and you are very handsome) she replied shyly, a chuckle escaping his lips at her demeanor, even though she'd heard the words numerous times.

"merci, mon amour."

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Initial thoughts on that article - I’m excited! I mean the journalist needs to do a bit more homework (I’m looking at you sentence about Eddie kissing Kim!) and I’m always going to take anything Tim says in an article with a giant handful of salt, but by and large all he said is telling me that the arcs for all our characters seem to be interesting and varied.

This got so very long so it’s going below the cut - but if you only want to read the buddie stuff then start reading where I’ve changed the text colour (so you can find it easily - because I’m nice like that!) 🐝🐝🐝

I love that Tim described madney and henren as being a family unit outside of the firehouse and I’m really excited to see that built upon - I loved that we got more hen and Maddie interactions last season and I want more of it. So I’m looking forward to seeing that dynamic develop as part of the Mara arc.

Ortiz hs so much potential to be a truly great villain - with a more sustained arc - something the show hasn’t ever really done and I’d like them to. Ortiz v Hen as a half season or more plotline would be so good and exploring corruption in politics and how it corrupts other public systems and services would be such a great thing to explore (and Aisha would knock it out of the park)

I’m going to say here that season 8 is very much screaming season 3 redux at me - all of the things we know thus far all seem to parallel season 3 events, even down to the bee-nado - which is starting to sound more and more like a mirror of the tsunami - in that the tsunami wave itself was only a brief thing, but the aftermath was where the major incidents and action was for all the various characters and the set up of their arcs. And Tim saying the bees set up I’m super excited for that as a concept.

Since we first saw them filming on a plane I’ve been wondering if we were going to be seen if another 70’s disaster movie homage and it seems I was right - my money is on Airport 77 being the movie in question

And I’m really interested in who it’s going to showcase and what part of her history were exploring. I would really love to see them exploring the Jeffery arc and her trauma from that, but I’m not sure that’s what we’ll be getting (Jeffery being dead doesn’t negate this exploring that part of her story I just don’t think it’s where we’re going)

My feeling is it’s connected into Emmett in some way. It was ‘resolved’ in Athena begins and then never really spoken of again, so maybe we’ll be seeing Dennis Jenkins (the guy who shot Emmett) as one of the prisoners on the plane and Athena will have to confront her remaining trauma there and possibly the damage arresting DJ has had after all that time he passed.

On to Bobby - what can I say technical consultant bobby is going to be perfection. Bobby has had some heavy arcs over the past couple of seasons so it’s pretty obvious he’s got the comic relief arc for at least 8a. I’m really looking forward to seeing Bobby being done with Hollywood etc. And I’m really excited to see how they get him back to the 118 where he belongs.

Onto the bit I know most of you are reading this for!!

The Buck arc is screaming lawsuit redux at me and that ties in nicely to Bobbys arc. Instead of Buck being stopped from returning to the 118, this time it’s Bobby. Gerrard is the Chase Matthew’s of this situation and so I remain convinced of my assertion that buck (having learnt from the lawsuit arc) is going to initially fail against Gerrard before he figures out getting close to him and therefore being able to figure out his weaknesses is the best way to get rid of him and get Bobby back.

The Buck T*mmy section in the article of it all has me laughing so very hard I nearly fell off my chair.

Look, this ‘relationship’ is still fairly new and they are still in the ‘getting to know each other’ phase, so I wouldn’t be expecting Tim to start waxing lyrical about them as a couple, but saying this;

To describe the first queer relationship of one of your mains, whose entire storyline last season was his bi awakening, when it’s at the point when everything should still be new and exciting isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of said relationship.

It’s entirely possible to gush about a relationship - especially one that is essentially groundbreaking on your show - without giving any plot away or making it seem like they’re endgame.

More comfortable together is the only thing you could come up with to describe them as a couple? - what does that really mean? Comfortable is how you describe a pair of slippers or an old hoodie that’s all worn in and soft. If you’re using more comfortable as one descriptor in a longer sentence with other descriptors that shows the development of said relationship then that’s totally acceptable. But to use it as the only one (aside from saying they’re a couple), well that screams of a relationship that is a plot device.

And you know what else backs that up as a concept - Tim proceeds to use the rest of his answer to the question about Buck and T*mmy’s relationship to talk about Eddie and Eddie and Buck and their relationship. So what I’m getting is that Eddie is still at the centre of things within that relationship - just as he has been throughout the entirety of s7 - where Buck and Tommy managed to have a grand total of 3 scenes out of nearly 20 together where Eddie wasn’t either present or spoken about at length (and one of those was literally just a scene of them kissing!)

Even using the word comfortable again to describe Buck, Tommy and Eddie hanging out together (anticipating some sort of scene that echoes the karaoke bar scene - where we get petty jealous Eddie and I can’t wait!). Which means comfortable is a very intentional word choice - not one that bodes well for the longevity of the reltionship.

So what I’m getting from that. Is that ‘more comfortable together’ means boring and that Tim is using the relationship to create the same distance we saw between Buck and Eddie in season 3 during the lawsuit arc - the distance that ultimately brought them even closer together and led to Eddie changing his will.

Season 3 was when the show really established buddie as a thing - they lay the foundations in s2, but s3 was when they tested and then built the walls of that dynamic ready for the pieces to be put into place over seasons 4 & 5 so they could make buddie canon.

This BT relationship is literally being used to put Eddie in the same space he was in in s3 - isolated (thank you Ryan for that word choice!) because Buck is not available to him as much (or at all in the case of s3) so he spiralled out in his grief over Shannon’s death and joined a fight club.

All this to say that the chess pieces are being manoeuvred in a really positive direction on the buddie front and I expect to see 8a following a somewhat similar pattern as 3a did - big opening disaster which sets up the various arcs, which includes being shown buck and Eddie’s closeness initially, only to separate them off for a bit so Eddie can have his gay awakening (fight club minus the fight club) and Buck can do some more figuring out about what he actually wants of his own (lawsuit without the law suit) and then bring them back together in time for Christmas - which they will spend together with a newly returned Christopher (mirroring s3 Christmas perfectly) and the rest of the firefam.

Even the Eddie question backs up this as a theory;

I’m fully expecting to get Eddie having conversations with his parents - via call and FaceTime - but not with Chris because he still won’t talk to his dad. The choice to say everything has been stripped away from him except his job is also giving some echoes of s5 - juxtaposing when Eddie essentially had everything else except his job which lead to his breakdown. Tim is a master of deploying subterfuge whilst also using very intentional words - so this comment is making me excited. It’s (to me at least) saying that Eddie is secure in his job and there is not really going to be any drama on the job front. That in the past eddie connected his worth to whatever job he was doing (army, his three jobs in El Paso firefighter) so when the job was taken away he had no worth and that therefore meant he was a failure as a father and a husband - so he spiralled out. Now he has his job and he’s in a good place with that and knowing how his worth as a person isn’t tied into that job. Now instead he has nothing else - all the things he’d tied his worth onto away from his job are suddenly gone so he has to go back to the drawing board and this time look at himself and who he actually is and why he wants.

The choice of the word ‘hell’ is also a choice - ‘who the hell he is’ - season 7 laid the groundwork for edddies reckoning with the catholic faith (former nun Marisol, Eddie talking about being a lapsed catholic and catholic guilt and bobby giving Eddie the bible etc) and we know they’ve been filming in a church. Hell as a word choice is just backing that up and hinting at the idea that Eddie figuring out who he is and choosing living his life as his true self would damn him to hell in the eyes of his religion. So gay Eddie here we go!!

This was supposed to be a quick ‘ooh I’m excited everything is being perfectly set up’ post and then I did my usual thing and write a mammoth essay 🤣 so if you’ve read all of this - thank you and I love you and I hope you enjoyed it - can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

[findmeinthefallair]

The scenes towards the end of the finale were like an intersection of multiple characters experiencing the loss of father figures, in different shades:

Luz's relationship to her late father took on a different form, after King's own father passed on and his glyph magic was gone for good. Manny gifting her the Azura books before his death, and Papa Titan offering her glyph magic before he too passed on, helped Luz find her place in the world and defeat Belos.

Apparently this scene is what made Sarah Nicole-Robles bawl in the recording studio, right after she recorded the lines.

When these changes happen - when we experience the loss of a person, when our ties with them are wrangled into a new form, against our will - it can be devastatingly painful. Change and transformation make for fancy, dramatic scenes in fiction, and they always incur loss in some form, painful or not. It also made me so emotional when seeing how much 18-year-old Luz resembles Manny, and how her enrolment in the university is linked to both her biological father and Papa Titan.

King's experience of seeing the majesty of his father, however brief, left him in awe and exhilaration. He can rest in the beautiful knowledge that Papa Titan was watching over him the whole time too. The message that his dad left him, relayed by Luz, is something he'll hold dear forever.

Hunter will never be truly harmed by Belos ever again. But he can't discard the memories of Belos granting him attachment: even if the attachment ended up not being real in a sense. However, like what can be applied in real-life therapy, he can get guidance on how to rescript those memories.

Belos's lies about having good intentions don't change how it felt real to Hunter all those years ago. Hunter was a young child when receiving this 'love', and in a twisted way...the mission given to him by Belos kept him alive up till he could escape the Coven, because the mission gave his life meaning despite the circumstances being awfully terrible. A child cannot survive without attachment, and needs attachment even if the experience of attachment has been horrendous and scarring. And holy Titan don't get me started on how at age 16 (before the timeskip), he had yet to learn more grisly details about his predecessors - whom he might view as older brothers and fathers whom he never met - and the generational trauma in his Golden Guard family tree:

which would have definitely been explored before he could experience that amazing hard-won serenity and peace at age 20.

Even Philip's arc is inextricably tied to his manner of coping with how he murdered Caleb, who was the closest thing he had to a father, given how these two brothers were orphans. In the end, Philip meets his end while Luz gazes upon him the same way Caleb's ghost did. Philip won't be haunted by Caleb's ghost again, and he joins the person who was essentially his father figure in death. Till the very end, he was projecting onto another person because he didn't want to recognize the same traits in himself. He was the one responsible for his father figure's death.

But grief doesn't mean the relationships in question have ended altogether. It's kind of like what this post about the finale (link) says, and it even extends to the relationship between us fans and the show itself.

The cliché "5 Stages of Grief" is the most commonly mentioned grief model, but I follow the development and advocacy of a newer perspective on grief that challenges it. In fact, the 5 Stages was originally just intended for terminally ill patients, but it was taken out of proportion. I began a serious investigation into the newer models after I went through something that parallels Hunter losing Flapjack...eerily, it happened to me two weeks before TTT's release date. No wonder I feel so close to Hunter as a blorbo, I guess.

Unlike what the 5 Stages of Grief says, grief and linear time don't mix well. Without "stages" to follow, there isn't an expectation of some deadline or permanent end of a tunnel in the newer models. Such pressure wouldn't be honoring the sacredness of connections between us. Instead, less famous grief perspectives like the dual-process model and continuing bonds model, are a better fit to honor relationships that mattered, since they aren't given an expiry date.

I wonder how Luz would be feeling on the day she graduates from the Wild Magic University, and how King feels each time he unlocks his own new glyphs since he is the new Titan to supply the Isles with magic. And I wonder how Hunter felt when his coven sigil was replaced with the Flapjack tattoo, and how he feels when he sees the Gravesfield town seal and Wittebane statues.

There are ways in which they can get creative to integrate their grief (notice I didn't say "get rid of", "remove", "erase" or even "manage"...the pain is what is to be managed, not the grief itself) the best they can. In canon, we have examples such as the Hexsquad agreeing to get their Flapjack tattoos together. Luz letting go of the light glyph sheet here:

is also a fantastic representation of rituals like sending off a message in a bottle at a beach, tying a message to a balloon and letting it fly away (this happened in Reaching Out, didn't it?), or burning a message in a campfire to let it float up towards the sky in the form of embers.

It is a common recommendation to have exercises like letter-writing where the griever writes to the lost loved one. What many may not know is you can also do the reverse: you writing as your lost loved one, to yourself. Because the griever takes a piece of the lost loved one with them, that the griever has shaped within themselves. This is especially good if you need to extend forgiveness to yourself. An example from a book called Bearing the Unbearable:

The author felt responsible for the stillbirth of her child, but had a "happy accident" where she intuitively asked for forgiveness and then received it, by invoking the love that her child would have shown to her in a world where said child had remained alive.

I think Hunter in particular could benefit from something like this, writing to himself as the uncle whom he saw as genuine and nurturing, and gaining ownership of that part of him even though Belos was a liar and is now gone for good. It can help him move forward especially since he won't be spared from nightmares in which his loss is re-enacted. With this kind of rescripting, historical accuracy doesn't actually need to matter. After all, our own minds lie to us at times and mess with historical accuracy anyway, like Luz's thoughts telling her she was as bad as Belos, and how true that felt.

A physical loved one is lost to death, and it can feel just as painful - only in a different way - if people become estranged or separated without a literal death having occurred. But the connection to them isn't lost, it is only adapted. The bond continues. For better or worse.

I believe the pain in grieving is connected to each moment when we remember all over again that the one we loved isn't coming back.

It's like the needle of a gramophone getting stuck in the loop of an unpleasant-sounding record scratch noise. It's a bit like what C.S. Lewis says in his book A Grief Observed: "In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out." I can't find the other part but he later said something like, therefore if a friendship is lost, the part of you that only that friend could bring out, is also lost. Something in you is locked away forever, though new things can also be unlocked after the loss.

It wasn't shown onscreen but I wouldn't be surprised if it's regular for Luz to come across a meme and be freshly reminded of her dad's absence, because she can't show him that meme. King would be wishing that a new funny cat video he discovers is something his dad could also laugh at along with him. Hunter would be hoping that Flapjack, the previous Golden Guards and Caleb are watching as he brings back palismen.

Bereavement, and any grief that is significant enough to alter our personhood forever, are the forms of love that can never really grasp how time flows in a linear way. They can't be reasoned with, only experienced.

"...the howling at the center of grief is raw and real. It is love in its most wild form" - Megan Devine.

[papaleon]

I'm Still Full of the Love You Want

pairing: RE4R!Leon Kennedy x afab!Reader

wc: 2.4k

summary: Leon has come back from Spain and, on the advice of his therapist, he's learning to associate the bad memories with something good. That something happens to be you.

content: leon gets cuffed, p in v, oral (reader receiving), no protection (wrap it up guys), i just replayed resi4r and i can't get over leon being chained to the ceiling (inspo), leon is a good boy

18+ MDNI, this is literally just pwp

a/n: please be gentle, i haven't written fic in years, this post has a lot of my writing firsts including the perspective and the smut. it has been sorta proofread, all mistakes are my own. enjoy! <3

Leon let out a deep groan as you moved to straddle his unclothed thighs. The handcuffs you had just finished latching to the headboard clinked as he tested their strength. See, Leon had just returned from his mission in Spain. He was, of course, tight-lipped and bound by a very intimidating NDA to keep the details quiet. But, even though he wasn’t able to share the grisly details with you, you could read Leon like a book. He always wore his pain, anger, and anxiety in his eyes, as much as he’d hate to admit it. 

Right now though, his face only told of pleasure, and that was enough for you. You offered him a soft smile as you ground down onto the meat of his muscular thigh, pressing down just enough for him to feel your want. 

“C’mon baby, please.”

Leon’s work mandated therapist, Dr. Woolf, had recommended he work to associate the horrors and trauma he’d experienced with something positive. You were certain that Dr. Woolf did not intend those new associations to be with sex, in fact you had a few qualms with the whole thing but it was the only thing that seemed to help Leon. After years of witnessing the love of your life suffer with his own memories, day and night, you figured you’d do anything to help him. 

So here you both were, blue moonlight kissing warm candle light as it danced over both of your bodies. You had just finished stripping Leon down and cuffing him, wrists over his head, after a very lengthy discussion about limits and how this tied back to Spain. 

This wasn’t that bad, baby, I swear. You had stared at him as he spoke, looking for any hint of a lie. My gear was taken and we were chained to the ceiling. It could have been worse. He smirked at that. You had feigned indignation and lightly smacked his chest. This you could deal with. You knew he suffered much worse but you tried to leave your worries unspoken. 

He looked beautiful like this though, you thought as you ran your eyes over him. Leon Kennedy certainly had a reputation that preceded him. A rookie cop turned hardened agent, a bit of a sarcastic, stoic dickhead if you pissed him off, and a selfless protector. Someone you would want on your team but certainly never wanted to get on the bad side of. But you knew more. He had lived through so much strife and hardship, he was hidden behind years of trauma and survival instincts, but deep down he was a person who longed to be cared for and understood. You were more than happy to give that to him. 

“Darling, I need-“ Leon’s request stuck in his throat, hips kicking up, cock jumping as you ground down hard against his thigh. The pressure on your clit pulled a small sigh out of you. You started to pick up your pace, riding his thigh in earnest now. 

“What do you need, hmm?” You smiled wide at Leon, his hands flexing as he tried to move to touch you. He let out a frustrated groan. 

“Need to see you, s-since I can’t touch.” You dropped your eyes, scanning over Leon’s naked body, still covered in scars and healing bruises. Your gaze stopped at his cock, hard and lying up against his toned stomach. You could see how flushed the tip looked, slick pre-cum dripping, pooling where his cock met skin. Your mouth watered, you simply couldn’t help it. A very vocal part of you wanted to lean down, lap up his mess and take him into your mouth. Later, you promised yourself. 

You, of course, were still dressed. You wanted to give Leon a show. These ‘re-associations’ were to be as involved and lengthy as possible, Dr. Woolf had mentioned. Anything to give Leon’s mind more incentive to replace the bad with the good.

“You wanna see me?” You teased as you ran your hands along your body, fingers teasing under the hem of the t-shirt you were wearing - stolen from Leon’s drawer.

“Fuck, yeah please l-let me see you angel,” Leon nodded fervently, his words were starting to slur together slightly. You always liked seeing Leon lose his poise and control, your strong-willed boyfriend squirming and begging underneath you. It didn’t happen often but you relished in the moments Leon would let you in like that, let you take care of him, show you his trust. “…shit baby you look so good in my clothes.” 

“Okay baby, you’re such a good boy for asking.” You smirked as you swung your legs over to kneel next to Leon, needing to remove your lounge clothes. He whined and bucked his hips at the loss of contact, your own slick shiny and cooling on his thigh. Leon just stared at you hungrily. He’d been so patient for you, so good, so you teased the hem of the t-shirt before pulling it off in one quick movement, dropping it off the side of the bed onto the floor. 

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Leon’s eyes darted to your chest, taking in the sight. You blushed lightly. Leon always looked at you like he wanted to devour you whole, like you were the only other person in the entire world, like he loved and desired nothing more than you. Wanting to hide your blushing cheeks, you leaned down quickly to kiss him, chaste and soft given the current circumstances. The chains rattled again as he moved to reach for you. 

“You’re so good to me,” You whispered as you sat up to pull your sleep shorts and panties down and off. You shuddered as the cold air met your soaked cunt. Leon went slack jawed, his cock jumping slightly off his belly. 

“‘Course sweet thing,” his voice was gruff, filled with want as he stared at your dripping core. You discarded your shorts onto the floor next to your top before moving to straddle Leon’s hips this time. You firmly dropped down to drag your slick cunt against Leon’s cock, the tip bumping against your clit. Leon moaned low and deep, his look of shock immediately replaced by his eyes rolling back into his head. Your own breathing started getting ragged, you wanted nothing more than to slip him inside but you had to control yourself, you really wanted to do this right, to make this last. 

“C’mon baby, ride me,” Leon’s hips pushed up, attempting to slide in whenever you bucked your hips forward. You shuddered, slowly but surely losing the will to tease. It was especially hard when Leon was looking up at you like that, like he was about to cry. “W-wanna make you come.” 

“Yeah?” You groaned loudly, losing the rest of any willpower you had before reaching down to line up his thick cock with your dripping hole. You slammed your hips down hard, a sharp smack mingled with the loud moans of you both. It burned, the sudden stretch, but that didn’t matter when Leon filled you up perfectly, you just couldn’t help it, you craved that feeling. You could see a flash of frustration in his eyes as you slowly started fucking yourself on him. You could feel him shift beneath you, feet planted on the mattress so he could find his own pace. You leaned forward, back arched as your chest met his as you tucked your face into his neck. 

“Thank you,  thank you, thank you-“ Leon chanted softly, groaning as he thrust up into your tight, wet cunt. The sounds were obscene, you felt impossibly wet, Leon’s pre-cum mixing with your slick. 

You finally gained your wits enough to push back into his thrusts, angling your own hips just right so each thrust hit the right spot. You had heard Leon wince as your nails dug into his shoulders, but it barely registered as you barrelled toward your own orgasm, hanging onto Leon like a lifeline.  

“Gonna … gonna come baby, you’re gonna make me come,” you felt Leon’s cock throb inside you as his own thrusts grew erratic. “Unlock the cuffs f’me darling, wanna touch” he squeezed his eyes shut, and let out a sigh. You stilled your hips, leaning over to the nightstand to grab the small key. Leon took advantage of your position to lap and bite at your nipple. You leaned into the sensation.

“L-leon please,” you reached over to unlock one of the cuffs finally allowing Leon’s hands down. He remained limp, pliant under you. 

That is, until you unlocked the second cuff. 

He pushed himself up quickly, slipping out of you, rolling you both over until he was firmly planted between your thighs and had you pinned down by your wrists. You were about to whine from the emptiness when you felt him slide back into you, bottoming out in one quick motion. 

Leon set a frantic pace from there, pushing your knees together and leaning over to press them to your chest, his eyes squeezed shut and eyebrows furrowed as you took him even deeper. You could feel the tip of his cock nudge against your cervix with every thrust, sending small sparks of pain through your abdomen, but it only made the fire in your belly grow hotter, made your skin tingle all over. 

“Ah, ah, ah, fuck, Leon!” You bit through gritted teeth, losing all the poise and confidence you had when you controlled the pace. Leon’s fingers intertwined with yours and you held on for dear life, unable to do 

“so fuh-fucking good for me baby, taking me so well,” Leon moaned. It took all the energy you had left to open your eyes just to see Leon lean closer, his soft hair falling over his brow and his jaw locked, willing every bit of his body not to let go yet, he wasn’t done with you. He leaned even closer to kiss you. “You were meant to take this cock right? Only you. Your pussy is so tight huh, angel? Fuck you were made for me weren’t you?” 

All you could do was nod dumbly, squeezing your eyes shut as the fire raged inside both of you. Leon was relentless, fucking into you hard and fast, like a man starved, every thrust hitting the perfect spot inside you. The pressure was building, and you couldn’t really hear what you were saying anymore, you were just babbling about how perfect your cock is, and fuck me, I love you. 

Leon’s pace started to falter, just as you felt your orgasm approaching, but that didn’t matter, as you felt him move to pull out. But you simply couldn’t have that. “No, no, no, no! Come in me Leon, baby, please!” You whined, squirming underneath him. “Wanna feel you, puh-lease, fuck!” 

Leon growled lowly, “You want my cum darling?” There was no more teasing as he lined his cock back up with your puffy, fucked out cunt. Yes, and please, fell out of your mouth like a chant even before he was finished the question. 

“Come in me please, Leon, ‘m close, so close.” And who was he to deny you a single thing? Leon grunted as he started up his brutal pace again, only managing several more thrusts before slamming into you, bottoming out, as he fucked his cum deep inside you. You clenched hard at the throbbing warmth, your soft, tight cunt milking every last drop out of Leon. 

“That’s right, good baby. Take it all. So good just f’me, hmm?” You moaned, nodding weakly, still trying to push your hips against his. The fire raged on in you, your cunt was begging for release. 

“Wanna come, make me come Leon, please, need it.” You whined, putting on the best pout you could manage. Leon chuckled lightly at the sight before pulling out and letting your legs down gently. You were about to complain when Leon leaned in to leave kisses all over the column of your throat, down to your breasts and over your soft stomach before he laid himself down between your legs. 

Your hands reached out to tangle in his hair as he started suckling little marks in the crease of your thigh, so close to where you needed him. 

“Duh-don’t tease,” you whispered, tugging lightly on his strands and bucking your hips up, hoping he’d take the hint. And so he did. You felt yourself melting into the mattress from the very first slow drag of his tongue. Leon seemed content fucking his cum even further into you with his tongue. You sighed and moaned and the fire in your belly burned bright again. You felt his fingers run their way up the inside of your thigh. He pushed two fingers inside, replacing his tongue, crooking them and fucking you, hard and fast. You felt the pressure building quickly, and your cunt squeezed down hard. 

“Gonna come Leon, you’re gonna make me co-“ Leon chose that very moment to latch his mouth over your poor, neglected clit and suck. You finally felt that heat snap as you came, gushing out all over Leon’s hand and face. He continued fucking you through it, the wet sounds positively obscene as your sensitive cunt twitched and dripped. Leon didn’t stop until you were twitching from overstimulation. You had to drag his face away by the iron grip you still had on his hair. He winced lightly as he moved up the bed to drape his body over you. “Sorry,” you whispered, easing up on his hair, followed by “Thank you.” 

“No, thank you!” Leon said as he nuzzled into your neck. You both just laid there, panting for a while, locked in a warm embrace. You dozed in and out of sleep, waking just enough to feel Leon starting to move his hips and feeling something warm and hard pressing up against your thigh.

“Really Leon?” You mumbled, amused. “Already?”

Leon just chuckled, pushing himself up to lean over you and line his hips up with you again, slowly sinking back into your wet, warm cunt. “Can you blame me?”

[melonba11s]

Ache (Strade and MC BTD Fic)

Warnings: Teeth, Tooth related Trauma, Mouth Harm, Unskilled Surgery, Torture, Canon Typical Violence.

It had started with a dull ache. A dull ache that disappeared for days at a time. A dull ache that was forgotten about when you were dealing with much more serious wounds. 

Then it became a constant ache. You chewed ice to numb it. Then the ice began to hurt. You resorted to Ibuprofen. Of course Strade noticed but he chalked it up to basement stuff, you jerking your head around too fast or snapping your jaw closed too hard. 

And then the 120 pill count bottle was half gone and when he had a headache he only stared at you in disbelief. 

You couldn’t help it, you said. It just hurt. Such a persistent ache that it prevented you from sleeping. 

He sat you down, took a flashlight and looked inside, tutting about how “if it hurt that bad you should have said something.” 

You didn’t want to tell him how badly it was bothering you. Because he would make it worse. And he did. 

A digit pressed down on the back of your mouth, on the gum. You shrieked in the sharp lance of pain. He did the same on the other side, both points on the bottom row of teeth.

“Liebling, you never got your wisdom teeth out?” he asked. No, you hadn’t. They hadn’t come in, you figured. Maybe you’d hoped you’d never have to get them out. 

But now you were faced with the ugly truth that… Yeah, they’d probably have to go. 

While sitting underneath the man who had kidnapped you, and collared you so that you could never leave. 

“Yep, those are gonna have to go.” Strade said aloud, he looked like he was thinking. 

You weren’t even going to suggest going to a dentist. A dentist was expensive. And going out? Without a collar? With all those opportunities to escape? 

No. You were stuck. And that made the ache so much worse. 

Strade bought you some orajel. A few tubes actually. It worked a lot better than ibuprofen. 

So much better you could forget about the problem for a bit, lull yourself into the idea that maybe they’d stop trying to come in and you’d be fine. You could eat just fine now and drink ice water again and sleep. 

And then Strade came up to you while you were folding towels and told you to come to the basement. You were no longer fine. 

You were on edge as you followed him, his hand gripping yours. You tried to ignore how the hold felt more… comforting and snug, rather than like a vice threatening to break your fingers. 

In the basement was his work bench, pulled out into the middle of the floor. 

“Lay down.” He patted it, giving you a grin. What would fighting do? Begging? 

You laid down, the polished wood underneath you was slightly cool. Two hands brushed your hair from your face, patted your cheeks, and Strade gave you another grin. 

“Comfortable?” he asked, a teasing edge to his voice. You weren’t. You nodded anyway. 

“Good!” he laughed. “Stay there.” A command, firmly given. 

You heard him rummaging around. You were beginning to wonder what kind of game this was. 

Then the next thing you felt was a thick rope wrapping around your torso. You stiffened. 

But of course he wouldn’t want you moving, yanking away from him. Trying to get off the workbench when it was clearly involved in what he had planned. 

You flexed your fingers as he tied your wrists down too, then your thighs. 

“Open up~” A familiar sing-song tone to his voice as he produced a ring gag. You complied, growing more confused by the second. 

Then you jolted as there was the loud rip of duct tape in your ear. Strade chuckled. 

“Sorry. Just can’t have you moving your head. It will make the work I gotta do even messier.” 

Work. This wasn’t fun. He never  called what he did down here work. Several strips were being pressed to your forehead, forcing you to stay looking up. You tried to lift your head. Nothing.

Alarm bells were going off in your head but you couldn’t question him because of the gag. All that came out was a whimper. A whimper that made Strade’s grin widen a bit. 

“I was waiting on a mouth prop but what would you know! Delivery delayed. And you’re almost out of that tooth cream.” 

You began trying to beg. Anything else. He didn’t pay much attention though. 

“Are you scared?” he asked. You couldn’t nod. “It’s okay. Think of how much better this would be than the other outcomes.” 

Other outcomes. Pockets of pus opening up in the mouth. Teeth decaying from the friction and falling out. Sepsis. 

You reluctantly calmed down just a little. And then Strade pulled out his knife. 

Not a scalpel. Not even a thin blade. His usual hunting knife. 

And you began to jerk against your bonds again, short panting shouts echoing in the basement. Strade cocked an eyebrow. 

“What? I’m most comfortable with this one!... You want me to be done fast, right?” An edge to his voice. He could make this longer if he wanted. He could make this worse if he wanted. 

“Don’t worry! I’ll be careful!” He patted your cheek again. 

You knew whatever orajel you had used however long ago was not going to help here. 

“Keep your tongue out of my way.” A warning before you watched the blade pass your lips. Every protest died, as you flattened your tongue down as best you could. 

And then. A hot gush of blood, it tasted of copper. A split second after the shock of the taste hit you, the pain did. 

And Strade sighed like a romantic as you screamed, as he dug his knife in deeper. You could feel it grinding against bone. 

“Aaahh, there’s that pretty voice.” you barely registered his words. You tried to jerk your head again but the tape wouldn’t give. You could only lay there and take it, screaming and crying. Your tears were soaking into your hair along with the sweat you had broken out in. 

“I think that’s it…” Strade mumbled, it seemed he was talking to himself now. You weren’t a great conversation partner right now. He produced a strip of gauze now and stuffed it into the side of your mouth. “Keep that there.” Then he moved onto the other side.

At some point you were too exhausted to scream as loud as you had, and could only sob, your nails digging into your palms as you clenched your hands. 

Pain seemingly fading into a loud buzz in your skull, Strade wavering in your vision before you clenched your eyes shut. 

“I think that’s enough!” He sounded satisfied. More gauze was being stuffed into the left side of your mouth. You slowly cracked your eyes open. Hope began to flutter in your stomach at the possibility of it all being over. 

Until he flashed a pair of  needle nose pliers. 

“I  think I can grab ‘em now!” You wanted to throw up. All you could taste was your own snot and blood in the back of your throat. Then a firm grip on your jaw brought you back. 

He was close. His eyes staring into yours. 

“Remember. This is better than the alternative.” You just wanted a break. 

A break that wouldn’t come. Because now those pliers were dancing around in your mouth. Brushing against broken and tattered flesh that made you flinch. Opening up and grabbing onto what they could. 

And then the pulling. The voice you had lost came back slowly. Strades knuckles were pale, his bicep was flexing. He was sweating, and grunting. 

You were screaming and begging, your tongue pushing against the pliers. 

Something slid. You felt tiny strings of flesh pulling taut and breaking. *ping. Ping. Ping.* Each one releasing. 

And then a pop. Another gush of blood filled your mouth and you began to choke on it as Strade jerked back. 

He stared at your tooth like it was a treasure, his eyes twinkling. 

He said something. You couldn’t hear him. You were sure he was talking normally, but to you it sounded like a whisper. You could only stare as he waved your tooth, something that had once been a part of you, in front of your eyes. 

Then the clink of it being dropped and hitting the concrete of the basement floor. 

You didn’t hear him. But you knew what he said. 

“Time for the other one!” As the process began again. The removal of gauze. The pliers this time seemed to play with the loose flesh in your mouth more than before. 

You willed this tooth to come out easier than the first. As if bone and sinew could prepare for Strade. 

The other side of your mouth was still bleeding, forcing you to swallow every minute to not choke on your own blood. 

It was almost over. 

The grip. The pull. The sharp pain it sent to the base of your skull. The pressure building until the roaring in your ears returned, ringing in your ear drums. 

Then the pop. And this time Strade didn’t show it off, he dropped it and the pliers instantly. 

It was over. It was done. He was untying you quickly, cursing under his breath. The rip of tape off your skin, taking with it several strands of hair, you couldn’t feel. The relief of knowing it was over had caused a clammy chill up your body. 

He was none too gentle as he dragged you off the workbench. Your knees hit the floor. It would definitely bruise. 

And then his cock was shoved in your face. He had to have had it out already. Judging from the gathering of pre at the tip, how it already looked a little wet, you had to believe he had been jerking off at some point while he was cutting into you. 

“Come on.” He urged you. Your eyes were wide, the gag still on as you stared. 

And all of the relief was gone. Because you remembered who this was. This was Strade. And of course he had gotten off on this. 

You could barely take a breath in before he was balls deep down your throat, gripping your hair, rutting against your chin like Ren did when he was in heat. 

His cock was getting coated in blood, and it seemed to make it that much better for him. Grunting in German under his breath. 

You don’t know how long he lasted. Maybe a few minutes. Maybe several. All you knew was that you were in pain. Feebly you wished you could at least bite him. 

And then he was cumming down your throat. Not just once. But twice. First stopping for a bit, his hips stuttering, then giving two more wet thrusts before cumming again. 

You had no choice but to swallow. Swallow like you did your own blood and snot and tears. You doubted anyone could mix up that toxic cocktail as well as Strade. 

As he pulled out you were aware that you were definitely a mess. Your blood surely was dripping down your chin in waves. Splattered down the front of your shirt. 

You lifted your shirt, you needed to clean yourself. All you did was smear your cheeks with it as Strade caught his breath. 

The dull ache was back. You doubted either ibuprofen or orajel would help this time. At least the maddening pressure was gone. 

“Here.” You looked up as a roll of gauze bumped into your forehead. Strade was holding it out to you, his cock still out and soft, his hands shaking. “Put that in. I can’t… Hands aren’t steady enough.” 

You took it and spent way too much time carefully rolling perfect little rectangles of the fabric before placing them in your mouth. You bit down. It hurt. 

But it felt better.

[tumblingxelian]

The Fraught Family Ties of the Rose-Xiao Long Household:

Sorry for the ramble, I wanted to share something born of a discussion I had with someone regarding the canonical relationship on the Rose-Xiao Long sisters & their father figures.

So, I often find Tai (& Qrow) propped up as good father figures who maybe just had some moments of weakness but either got better long before canon or during the show and who are super close with Ruby & Yang with very healthy relationships.

Given possibly my most popular post, (Yang & Ruby's childhood) I don't think this is a universal stance, certainly not these days, and I don't think its well supported in canon either.

This doesn't mean that love isn't there, but love and resentment can live in the same house and the Rose-Xiao Long household is far more complex than I think people give it credit for.

Now, some will probably highlight positive tones and references in the early volumes, but here's the thing. A child growing up around something can get used to a lot. Ruby & Yang are clearly very used to Qrow stumbling home utterly wasted, even carried by strangers and needing to take care of him. This is normal to them and neither show any resentment towards it until on their last nerve.

That is to say, Ruby and Yang are fine with Qrow's drinking and smile through it, riiiight up until they themselves are on the edge of snapping real hard over things such as in V6.

Neither of them express their trauma like say, Jaune does, who tends to be quite open with his resentment and prone to lashing out. The sisters smile through it, they may express frustration or anger at other things, but not their loved one's, which makes it easy to pretend everything is cool and normal.

Hell, keeping things light with humor is explicitly noted to be how Yang copes and Ruby is shown consistently beginning to show sadness before quickly bottling it up up. This is just how they handle negative emotions they cant comfortably express.

Thus, while Ruby expressing frustration at Yang giving Tai like advice in V1 doesn't indicate hostility, nor does her being all smiles around his presence in V3's opening indicate everything is super awesome.

After all, things are good at that moment, but let's take a look at the end of V3.

Tai is clearly worrying and trying to fuss over Ruby. But she is very neutral on the whole thing, mostly just trying to get intel on what the fuck happened from him and not being remotely upset when Qrow makes him leave. She show's a bit more vulnerability around Qrow, but is still very focused on the practical questions of what happened.

Its only when she's alone with Yang, that Ruby really becomes expressive with her emotions and more to the point, shows outright uncertainty in what to do. This leads her to being shocked when Yang is in no fit state t provide her with the guidance and support she clearly craves and expected.

Ruby also specifically addresses her letters to Yang and broadly speaking doesn't really seem to think about Tai all that much. Again I don't think she dislikes him, but given she openly acknowledges Yang as the one who raised her & Yang herself noted she had to keep the family together...

Well, I think that Ruby doesn't really perceive Tai as a parent, strictly speaking. In the sense that I don't believe she views Tai as someone to go to for comfort or advice or guidance.

He's her dad and she loves him, but he's less of an adult to her than Yang was. In that same vein Qrow is a Huntsmen, her mentor and uncle yes, but the former I think inform her behavior with him more than the latter.

Now, let's also compare Tai and Yang's relationship a little.

We know Tai taught her how to fight, but he doesn't show any real understanding of how her Semblance works or her fighting style given she has utilized plenty of blocks, dodges and clever strategies in the first three volumes. What's more him critiquing her for fighting that way and making it her fault when he taught her feels suspect to me.

(I would note it was Yang who realized Ruby needed CQC help before anyone else, so she clearly thought deeply on this stuff.)

But beyond that, we see Yang is heavily isolated, both from how the camera work frames her. But also because she us housed in a guest room and that Tai, while obviously unhappy about what happened overall seems far more focused on Ruby in terms of trying to provide some care. What's more, when she's clearly distressed he walks away and leaves her to stew.

Yang's shown still doing lots of work around the house, despite everything and his efforts to 'help' her are all about getting her back into the fight over worrying for her safety like he did Ruby.

This is a big thing for me, Tai was clearly deeply upset when Qrow wanted to speak to Ruby alone and terrified when she left.

Meanwhile when it comes to 'helping' Yang its all about getting back into the action and going after Ruby. He doesn't seem to mind the idea of sending her into danger.

Then there' show he hypocritically dismisses her trauma and depression while at the same time diminishing her maturity despite him having left her to raise Ruby and keep the family together.

He also makes his help for her conditional on her no longer "Moping" while its her teachers who barely know Yang that provide actually useful guidance on healing.

When alone he also frames 'caring for her' IE letting her live in the house and take care of herself, like its this heavy burden that is keeping him from Ruby.

This is despite the fact he ultimately does not go after Ruby.

You can claim its a budget thing the show we have is the show we have. Thus, he sends her off to parent Ruby instead of himself. Also Tai outright compares Yang to Raven despite them being radically different and honestly Ruby being a lot closer to even the positive traits he ascribed to Raven.

Thus I think there's an element of projection that leads to Ruby being preferences between the two but also Tai having come in too late to really be seen as the parent he wants to be perceived as.

Now, let's look at Qrow.

Both sisters are clearly used to him staggering or being carried home drunk and needing to take care of him, meaning they have been doing this since childhood.

This would have a hugely negative impact on their mental wellbeing and impact how they perceive him.

Beyond that, I am unsure how close he even is to Yang outside the superficial. Some of that may indeed be down to time, but there have been periods where they could have shown a deep bond and its not manifested.

When Yang is framed, her team, two of whom have only know her for a few months and have plenty of trauma that would make them rightly suspicious choose to believe her and sympathize with her.

Qrow meanwhile says she is either lying or crazy and does not express much in the way of real empathy or trust.

Rather than showing an interest in maybe trying to resolve the issue or help her through decides that maybe directing her to Raven might help. He obviously cares, but generally never shows much of the same concern or affection for Yang that he does for Ruby.

Granted even then Qrow requires caretaking from both his nieces.

What's more he often tethers Ruby to Summer. So while his mentorship of her does let her be a little more vulnerable with him than Tai its still an unbalanced relationship.

However outside of that, Qrow's generally fairly good with Ruby and her influence on him seemed to be the primary thing that stopped him drinking. He also shows a great deal of faith in her in general, though how much of that is projection likely varies.

But he mentored Ruby so its natural they are maybe a little closer.

Still, I think Ruby & Yang held Qrow in higher regard, at least as a Huntsmen than their father, there's a lot of baggage to the relationship at a minimum.

I also think Ruby & Yang's lack of communication seen in later volumes is sort of reflective of the families unhealthy dynamics evolving between them.

Yang being forced to raise a sister two years younger than her is already a heavy burden on both of them. Yang from having to step up and fill the roll of an adult as a child & Ruby because no matter how hard Yang tried it as never gonna be perfect but she couldn't exactly complain about it either.

So both just sort of smiled through the pain as they grew and came out fairly functional and happy if carrying a lot of baggage beneath the surface. This is why both respond to grief and trauma in a similar manner, pushing the issues down until they explode or collapse. It was how they got by.

They were also extremely close, for all that Yang talked of Ruby maybe trying to branch out onto other teams, she instantly tried to seek her out in the Emerald Forest, saved her a spot in the auditorium and generally tried to assist and advice her along with expressing great pride in her.

Ruby bore with with a mixed degree of playfulness and teen like annoyance, while still wanting to cling to Yang. She was also very comfortable early on with expressing her concerns around Yang, such as with Blake being so stressed and not knowing what to do about it & seemingly had total faith in Yang's ability to resolve things.

As previously outlined, when Ruby was seeking comfort and guidance after the Fall of Beacon she went to Yang and was shocked when Yang couldn't provide her what she needed and quickly began separating herself, clearly deeply impacted.

Yang remained the center of her homeward focus after that fact and when Yang returned she was able to express vulnerability with her.

Briefly.

However, Yang soon showed that her recovery was not as complete as she wanted to project and again Ruby was at a loss for what to do with a Yang who is upset.

Keep in mind she's entirely capable of comforting a drunk, hung over or otherwise very upset Qrow, but the prospect of comforting Yang leaves her shuffling nervously outside the door while Weiss helps her.

Ruby's perception of Yang seemed to have put her on something of a pedestal in the way a lot of children do their parents where its hard to start seeing them as a person.

& When Ruby did start seeing Yang as a person, her complexes regarding leadership caused her to see Yang as someone who needed protection.

This caused her to freeze Yang out of her issues, we see this with her rejecting Yang's efforts to comfort her in V8, responding instead with sullen silences or sharp emotional jabs to try and make Yang go away.

Yet at the same time, she didn't entirely try to keep the façade up, perhaps in part because she couldn't.

I also think there's a part of her that sort... Expected Yang to know what to do and to say for her even though Ruby has changed as a person and is no longer communicating clearly like she used to.

Which then causes her to resent Yang for not being able to say the right things and provide the right assistance like she did when they were kids. Even though Yang doesn't know how Ruby feels their relationship has changed and can't know with Ruby actively avoiding acting in a manner that would elicit her concern.

Basically, this is an extremely messy family.

It has four actual adults, the most competent of whom martyred herself. One of whom left because she couldn't handle it and two of whom failed when put to the test.

This left the role of grown up in the room to Yang who had to keep the family together and raise her sister. While Ruby had to basically become the least troubled child possible to make this easier on them all.

Raven cutting herself out of their lives and her ties to Yang, while Summer being a beloved martyr seems to have also rippled down to their kids.

With Yang almost being like the black sheep of the family. She's the one they expect to do something immoral or "crazy' and generally expected to take care of herself and Ruby without any kind of acknowledgement or significant assistance.

Meanwhile Ruby is regarded as a sort of proto Summer, this beacon of purity, which leaves Tai over protective but ultimately inactive leaving the task of helping her to Yang. With Qrow expecting the world from her which just applies more pressure.

I do think everyone of them love each other, but I also think there's also a lot of resentment, frustration and projection going on here, with many utter failures of parenting. These ultimately caused the families relationships to never developed into what they should be and are instead leaving them in an odd sort of limbo; with a lot left unsaid and unhealthy.

[foxglovepng]

TWST Overblot theory

CW: Spoilers book 6-7, this post is really long btw, Spoilers spoilers SPOILERS Spoilers for Malleus's age, grim boss theory.

So while I was going through book 6 (This was like when it came out) Idia made an observation and he theorized someone could be inciting these overblots. I looked over it as to what he said after made sense but I watched a theory from Rose Ember in which she discussed a time loop theory. I wanted to throw in my own two cents about an overblot theory I had been thinking about.

(As of making this post it is May of 2024 I am not up to date on any JP chapters, Crowley's card, or Heartslabyul manga book 4-Octavinelle. All of my sources I will be putting as I am taking direct game quotes)

I also would love it if at least some of you guys read this post and reblog I would love to hear y'all's opinions on this. I never seen people really look into it and I want to maybe bounce ideas off of some people on what's really going on.

Just remember all of this is just a theory...A GAME THEORY (RIP Matpat we love you king)

(Book 6 ch51) Idia was talking about how absurd it is that 5 (5 overblots up to this point) Coincidentally happened in 6 months "Overblots can happen when the caster overuses magic and builds up too much blot while experiencing intense negative motions" "It's a cascading effect that stretches back years." "And the thing that triggers emotional outbursts is the hardest to quantify our innermost feelings, or 'heart', so to speak a persons heart is the one thing we can't control no matter how hard we try." Idia's exact words. Now going with that statement and saying all of the overblots are just merely a "Coincidence" let's examine and analyze the overblots and why they happened.

Riddle

(HIS SAILOR MOON OF AN OVERBLOT TRANSFORMATION IS SO COOL IN THE MANGA.) Riddle's overblot obviously happened because his authority was being challenged as the housewarden from Ace going in a duel against him to everyone else getting fed up with his rules to defying him. Not to mention with the deep severe ties with his mother and her rules he well overblots.

Leona

His overblot happened because of his failed plan to basically kill off Malleus (He really pulled a long live the king here) from my understanding he gave up and the Savanaclaw students were like 'tf why?' he turned into an angry kitty and the feelings of being the second born prince and all that trauma raised up especially when Lilia went off on him (I fully blame Lilia for this). And he overblots.

Azul

His overblot happened from when Leona used his UM on Azul's contracts and blipped them away basically. When this happened he went back to that time when he was being bullied and was no longer powerful like he is now.

Jamil

Jamil's happened because well Azul thought it was cute to live stream his whole plan to the world exposing the fact that Jamil was essentially going to betray Kalim and well his deep-rooted years of being merely a 'servant' came up and he overblotted.

Vil

He overblotted because he basically lost to neige and was attempting to kill him (Almost killed Rook and the others). He accepted he had lost to him and will always lose to him and just snapped.

Malleus

He overblotted because of the announcement Lilia was leaving and retiring to Red Lagoon (Okay just leave your kids...ig?). I also want to say Yuu's announcement added to it because well Malleus is a lonely dragon who just wants friends and someone who is basically his father announced he's leaving and his friend outside of Diasmonia is leaving too.

Idia isn't in this list for a reason will get on with that later.

When it comes to all of these overblots in a certain sense none of them make sense as to HOW they happened. Coincidentally how is it that 7 students overblot in a school year especially with how rare they apparently are supposed to be. With them being 16-18 (Leona being 20 and Malleus being 178) You'd figure the eldest third years know the most to be careful. Plus if the staff is doing their job correctly all the students know to be careful right?

If it happened like once in a year that's understandable but 7 coincidentally? Leona had 4 years to overblot why all of a sudden??

I also want to point out something whenever blot would get built as far as I'm concerned they wouldn't even be using magic (Just having a negative emotion) and blot would built. Going by all the patterns from the overblots they get pissy it builds up they use their UM BOOM overblot. I think someone is personally targeting people to build up negative emotions purposefully and then they use a lot of magic which causes it. Having a UM like this could be entirely possible because look at the facts.

Book 2. It makes sense Ruggie would overblot rather than Leona. He just drank a potion that enhances his UM he was mad struggling he just GOT betrayed by Leona makes sense for him to overblot right? Not to mention during the Camp vargas events Overblotting was such a huge concern with just via their magic so why would the staff risk putting MANY students at risk of an overblot if they knew it wouldn't happen.

I also want to add Idia has a curse which has him burn blot and he was the first in hsi family to break that and overblot. However in order for him to thrive he needs to build it it's most likely being in Tartarus he built too much than he could burn off. (In Ch 6-51 it is also stated curses, and sealed phantoms getting lose can cause overblots as well meaning negative emotions and building power aren't the only causes to an overblot) There is a possibility from being around too many phantoms he built too much, but even then his family curse could have been burning blot during his overblot so Idia was probably never meant to overblot by any normal means (However if his curse wasn't burning off blot foul play could be involved)

Going by these facts the theory in question is a possible UM that affects negative emotions to be built up more and possibly a mood change. OR there is a pause on how blot is released causing it to build up.

(Has it ever been stated on how normal humans release blot if it's been built up...?)

ANOTHER THING. JP SPOILERS BTWWWW.

I cannot confirm my sources with this one so please take this with a grain of salt. I came across a post (I CANT FUCKING FIND IT) in which it translated if Malleus's ob doesn't end he will basically become the no. 1 enemy to society (Basically pulling an Eren jaeger). He's very powerful so you'd assume he's very mindful about overblotting especially if he's going to become the no.1 enemy of humanity.

I have some theories on who could be doing this.

1. Crowley

CROWLEY? Him and my other suspect are battling for first place but let me state my reasoning.

For the exception of Book 3, 4, 5? and 6? he was not present during the overblots and was basically useless. However he was present for book 1, 2, and 7. I put a question mark near 5 and 6 even though he was not present he was still in the general area. Via he was brought to Styx and he was DEFINITELY there at the VDC since it was a school event. book 3 and 4 he was for sure not present for.

We quite literally know nothing about him not to mention he's kind of a jerk face and will do anything to save his ass. For Jamil's and Azul's overblot this goes into hand that he could have activated his UM beforehand on them and the overblot started.

Not to mention during book 5 the headmaster of RSA was like "Bro I sense heavy magic presence" and Crowley was like "Naw you mad tweakin homie."

Two thing

He's Fae.

He has to be as old as Lilia or younger. But he definitely has at least 300 years of existence in his age.

HES A LITERAL HEADMASTER FOR A MAGIC SCHOOL

Meaning he DEFINITELY can sense magic so for him to blatantly ignore the blot sense with Vil either he was protecting his ass from losing his job or he is hiding something. Especially since it was an overblot If Malleus's magic was that good Crowley would have either sensed Vil's overblot or Malleus's Magic.

(If I'm correct an anonymous tip was sent in to Styx to check out NRC the anon in question was possibly RSA headmaster as it makes sense)

2. Ortho

Stay with me here

Ortho is from Styx and obviously Styx investigates overblots what if styx itself is causing overblots so they can study them and they are using Ortho.

Since Idia was theorizing about the Obs there is a possibility that he is not in the plan and it's Ortho plus his family and styx staff that's all in the plan.

(They could have gone too far with Malleus's)

It's merely a theory and I have no evidence to back this up

3. Grim

Quoting Idia's exact words ahem..

"He is seriously mediocre in every single way." "The preliminary report of him being a dire beast with high cost of blot density checks out, though." "He's a magical fusion of a direbeast, and some kind of animal." "He's as lackluster with magic as he looks...and his blot density COULD be phenomenally high."

Ahem okay.

So as we know Grim is a fusion with what could be a Direbeast and possibly a cat. Going back to exhibit A in which Idia said loose phantoms could cause an overblot he could be affecting the blot levels around him Yuu being the only one not affected since Yuu isn't from said world.

Some Cons tho

Using this logic Ace would overblot as well same as Deuce hence why I think he is the least likeliest but it does make sense as eventually Grim does interact with the overblot squad.

4. Yuu

STAY WITH ME STAY WITH ME OKAY

Yuu comes from different world and are trying to actively escape using their new plan MICKEY. However it doesn't exactly explain how Yuu got there since well 1 they are from a different world how would a horse basically cross the multiverse (Unless the Magic mirror is scheming against Crowley and needs Yuu's help that's a different conversation) we know jack shit about Yuu. HOWEVER Yuu could be subconsciously activating overblots since they are prom a foreign world (I'm basically thinking of that one mickey game with the ink brushes EPIC MICKEY) except Yuu causes them.

Cons tho.

As per the manga every Yuu is different every chapter and this would highly contradict (Also how tf are there multiple Yuu's?) not to mention Ace and Deuce would also OB.

[virtualcarrot]

Ok, I need to get this off my chest because it's a double standard in terms of character analysis that has been bugging me.

The general zeitgeist in the Naruto fandom (afaik) is:

Obito was a misunderstood and wounded tragic figure who caused mass destruction out of understandable trauma

Hiruzen was a despicable neglectful ruler who let Konoha's orphans fend for themselves and ordered the gratuitous slaughter of a whole clan

One caused the definitive death of hundreds of thousands of people in the search of an ideal

The other caused an unspecified but lesser amount of deaths in hope of a greater good

Both are definitely questionable.

Hiruzen is a former teen soldier burnt out by war, which made him weak-willed and unwilling to take moral stances out of fear of the risks incurred. His compromising lead to Hyuga Hizashi's sacrifice, and there were probably better ways of dealing with the coup the Uchiha were planning than killing them all (but make no mistake there definitely was a coup, the Uchiha massacre wasn't undertaken for the lolz). He's also left Danzo and Orochimaru running around doing their nonsense, which, really my dude? Really? Come on.

So yeah, not your garden variety nice old grandpa after all.

For his part, Obito was a child in great pain groomed by a completely unhinged demigod of a man into an adult of great resentment. Between the Kyubi attack, the Uchiha massacre, the Akatsuki's actions and the Ninja War, he caused numerous deaths and destruction. And I mean numerous. The death toll of the shinobi war is something I really don't see discussed enough, which is probably why it gets so easily swept aside in the face of his own personal tragedy.

And it baffles me, the hostility with which people will talk about Hiruzen in their very serious metas and his place in the Uchiha massacre like it's some form of hate-prompted slaughter he orchestrated and not a (bloody and questionable) reaction to an opposing political force trying to take over Konoha. While comparatively being so apologetic of Obito's actions who very much participated to that same massacre.

It's a strange thing, to criticize the shinobi system and yet refuse to acknowledge that this very system has a hold on everyone, not just singled out faves.

I don't particularly like Hiruzen. As a fanfic writer, he has his place and uses to me because of his own ties to the characters I'm interested in writing about. But he's not likeable to me.

I don't really like Obito either, but I'll also admit part of that dislike would be more neutral if he wasn't key player in my most hated arc of Naruto, and if fandom was more normal about him, so that's on me.

I just think it's kind of a shame to make one character some sort of scapegoat, and another a tragic antihero failed by the system, and deny the connections between them all, and the fact they were all, ultimately, failed by that system. We lose nuance there, which is sad because nuance is where analysis flourishes.

(And also this is how you get people calling the Uchiha massacre a genocide and my dudes I am trying very hard not to fandom wank, but you guys are terrible for my blood pressure)

[princess-of-the-corner]

Glad you liked the submission, as I have more on the Aware of Abuse AU!

I think it would be really interesting to reflect on how this situation would be kind of a drawn out grapple for Marinette. This is in no way salt and I think if it was written she'd both warrant having hear grievances hear, but also could definitely come off as a bit antagonistic, or at least wary.

(Exactly how hostile she defaulted to with Chloe tended to oscillate episode to episode so ya know how it be)

Marinette would have the easiest time getting close with Kagami. She has no history like with Chloe & no baggage, IE friendship with Chloe, like Adrien. Tomoe is not someone Marinette admires and its much easier to see abuse in the physicals side. While she'd struggle to see it more in the verbal or negligence side; or otherwise be able to rationalize the negative behaviors such as over protectiveness.

Meanwhile Adrien would be tied a lot closer to Chloe going into school as she'd be being less overtly antagonistic or vain. Plus, they'd have a much stronger "We need each other to keep from falling back into old patterns and to survive" mentality.

Plus Adrien would be a bit more overtly snarky and less respectful to authority or stuff like Gabriel's fashion shows. He still is very nice and super wants to be liked by everyone all the time, but it'd be a lot easier for her to see the negatives in his behavior.

Chloe meanwhile would probably rankle and outright frustrate her the most. Not just because she'd still be hard to get along with in general, or because she still is not against ignoring rules or disrespecting authority figures. But because...

No clue what your religious views may or may not be, but have you heard those talks of "Catholic guilt" and the idea of needing to suffer, do penance, ETC before one can be redeemed?

Marinette wouldn't strictly think or want that, but there would be a part of her that would sort of... Well resent that Chloe is seemingly just choosing to change and not even necessarily enough.

That is to say, Chloe might still rudely reject Sabrina's cookies out of hand but then instantly walk it back and have some.

But more in that she's suffered no defeat, she's not been taken from her previous luxurious circumstances, she hasn't seemingly lost anything and even more she'd not even be overtly contrite.

That is to say, Chloe wouldn't be doing stuff akin to the Lady Luck AU (Nothing against it, great fic!) where she'd frequently reflect on how much of a 'fuck up' she was. Or or say stuff like, "I know I was a bitch but I am trying to be better". Or feel guilt in the "I can't even be mad they assume the worst of me cos I probably would have done X."

She's just choosing to be different and on some level its deeply unsatisfying and even frustrating.

(Where is the arc, the climax, the catharsis!?)

Especially if some people roll with it or let her get away with it when she starts falling into old habits.

Marinette doesn't want Chloe to suffer or beg forgiveness or hate herself she doesn't. She just doesn't understand why now? Why at all? Why because of her friend? Why because of how she was treated and not how she treated others?

Why couldn't she care enough about hurting Marinette to change!?

That I think would be the lynch-pin and one that is, from Marinette's perspective, as well as others in and out of universe entirely sympathetic, she was hurt after all.

But in that same vain Chloe's an abused child lashing out due to trauma and taught such terrible lessons she sometimes couldn't process that she wasn't doing 'right'.

Marinette's been hurt, and that would need to be properly addressed. But it wouldn't need to happen in a self recriminating manner necessarily.

Not that I don't love those, self hating characters rife with issues are fun to explore. It is just that I think it'd be interesting to explore both, changing as a person, and a "Bad" victim getting help before they actually even start processing over much how others might warrant reoperations.

Does that make sense?

The story "restorative Justice" sort of dips into this from a different middle ground angle and most stuff by Generalluxun often have elements of it too.

Oh yeah no it's.

Marinette doesn't understand why Chloé is Like That™ in the first place, so she can't fathom her wanting to change.

From Mari's perspective, Chloé's life is pretty perfect. She's beautiful, she's rich. She can do whatever she wants whenever she wants and always gets her way through money or influence. She's always bragging about how she's so much better than everyone. Clearly her parents must adore her because they spoil her with gifts and never tell her 'no'. Any 'hardships' are just minor inconveniences that Chloé brought upon herself by being mean.

So why would Chloé choose to change? If it's not broke, don't fix it. Chloé's life is Perfect™, why would she do something to make it different?

It's not that she wants Chloé to suffer, or thinks that she /should/ suffer. She just doesn't understand why someone with a Perfect Life™ would change without going through some kind of suffering that forces introspection.

[whereianonymouslypostfics]

Growing Pains Part 1

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x reader

Word count: ~9.9k

Summary: Little Nat is almost 13 and school’s a bitch. Retired mob boss turned stay-at-home mom Wanda has to figure out how to deal with bullies at her daughter’s school. 

A/N: Credit to @rianncreates for this fic idea. Enjoy 😘

Warnings: Fluff, teen angst, injury, reference to previous injury/trauma, bullies, and mentions medicinal drug use

"Mama, I’m going to be late!” 

Natalya is running out of her room with only one shoe on as she hurries to finish getting ready for school. She has to stop for a second to pull on her other shoe, and she nearly gets pushed down the stairs by one of her dogs. Rogue is 14 years old and moving slowly these days, but he still tries to follow her everywhere she goes. This leads to her almost flying down the stairs as he bumps into her when she stops suddenly. She bites her lip to stop herself from cursing in surprise. 

The last time she’d done it in front of her parents, they’d been horrified and she’d been forced to rat out her uncle for saying that particular curse word in front of her. She’d had to text her Uncle Pietro and apologize for the rant she knew he was about to face from her redheaded mom. 

“I’m ready, milaya. I’m waiting for you.” 

Nat sighs in defeat because of course her mom is ready on time. She is only ever late if she has to drive with her brother. She jumps down the last few stairs and lands with a loud thud that surprises Fletcher who’d been sleeping in the living room. She doesn’t have to turn to her mom to see the disapproving look, but it’s unfortunately still there after she’s tied her shoes and heads over toward the older Maximoff. 

“You know I don’t like it when you do that, Natalya. Your mom’s a bad influence on you. “

Wanda watches as her daughter just smiles widely before seeing that she’s holding her lunch and her face lights up. She realizes what Nat’s forgotten only a second before she spins around and runs back upstairs. 

“My backpack! I’ll be back!” 

Wanda rolls her eyes as she watches her daughter run back upstairs to retrieve her bag. Rogue thinks about following her back up, but he decides against it and comes to stand next to her. She smiles down at him and scratches him behind the ears as she waits for her daughter to return. 

Natalya is almost 13 and although she looks more like her, it’s obvious to anyone who meets her that her personality is far closer to yours than hers. It’s funny and a little confusing at times but Wanda wouldn’t want it any other way. Her daughter is always full of energy and she worked hard in school despite not liking it very much. Not that Wanda expected her to at this age. Middle school was rough and before she became involved with the mob, this was where most of her traumatic memories came from. 

Like you when you were younger, Natalya could go a mile a minute and had a seemingly endless amount of energy to burn at the end of each day. She was an odd combination of overly focused when it came to school work, but a little spacy about everything else. She could study quickly and efficiently, but she sometimes struggled with everyday tasks like making sure everything she needed was in her bag for school. As well as remembering to grab her bag for school. 

Given her daughter’s high energy and desire to always be moving, you had suggested that she try out for sports. Wanda had needed to be persuaded to agree because she was worried about Nat getting hurt. She wasn’t the most graceful kid, and you definitely weren’t taking responsibility for that. Sure, she tripped weekly on the dogs and sometimes missed a step on the stairs, but it wasn’t anything serious. Also, you were convinced that getting her into sports would improve her coordination. 

So far, you’d been proven wrong. 

“Do you have everything you need for practice?” 

Wanda realizes she should have asked this earlier, but luckily Nat just nods as she returns with her backpack and reaches out to pet her dog before taking her lunch box. She leaves most of her things at the dug out because she forgets to bring them home, and that’s worked out so far. She smiles and grabs her mom’s arm to lead them to the car with a sigh. 

Another thing that both you and Wanda love about your daughter is the fact that she’s not a typical almost-teenager. While Natalya’s friends and classmates are beginning to develop a begrudging tolerance toward their parents, she just seems to continue to treat them nicely. She always has been very affectionate and open with them, and you both sincerely hope that continues into her later teen years. 

Wanda turns down the road toward her daughter’s school and she holds back her sigh at the sight of the long line of cars waiting to drop their kids off. It’s an everyday occurrence and if she weren’t so paranoid about a bunch of kids near her house, or Natalya walking down the mountain a bit to another neighborhood she’d let her daughter ride the bus. You’d told her it would be good for her. You joked that it helped build character when you had to sit with a bunch of people you may or may not like. The bus was where you’d had your first fight, but you’d only told Wanda that, not Natalya. 

“Can I ask you something?”

Wanda’s brought back to the present by Natalya’s voice, and she turns to see her daughter glancing out the window with a frown. She briefly wonders if she missed something, but she doesn’t waste too much time thinking about it before she smiles. 

“Of course.” 

Natalya hesitates as she tries to talk herself into the question she’d originally wanted to ask her mom. She loved both of her moms a lot, and equally, but sometimes it was easier to talk to one over the other. Depending on the circumstance, would go to one parent or the other, and although she knew they both would find out eventually, she just felt more comfortable that way. She felt less pressure than she would if she tried to talk to both parents. 

Natalya went to Wanda for potentially embarrassing questions like when girls in her grade started to talk about periods, or boys. Wanda found having these conversations with her daughter bittersweet yet rewarding in a way that she hadn’t expected. You were certainly willing to talk to Nat about these things too, but Wanda did a better job of it. 

Nat usually went to you for animal-related questions or when she had difficulty getting something done. You both shared a painfully short attention span at times, and you’ve taught Nat plenty of ways to combat this over the years. 

She honestly would have asked either of you this question, but you were out of town until tomorrow for a work thing and this had been weighing on Nat for a while. 

“Were you or mom popular in school?” 

This isn’t exactly what she’d wanted to ask, but she chickened out last minute. She knew that between her two moms, Wanda was the one who tended to cross the line into being overprotective. She never said anything outright, but Nat would see her get a look in her eye that scared her a little, and made you intervene, if you noticed it. 

Wanda’s trying to figure out why her daughter would ask her this as she finally pulls into the school’s parking lot. She still has a ways until she’s close enough to drop Natalya off, but she decides that this might be a good thing for once. She senses that this conversation might be going somewhere important, so she answers truthfully with a shrug. 

“Not really, no. We liked to keep to ourselves or our small group of friends.” 

People were exhausting. Wanda didn’t say this part but both you and Wanda believed this at times. She’s sure Natalya does as well because she’s definitely an introvert like her mothers. She might actually enjoy getting out more than them, but she was just as tired when it was all over and she’d crash sometimes before she even made it to her bed. 

Natalya thinks about this with a pout that she doesn’t realize is on her lips. She has a few good friends that she hangs out with sometimes, but she likes her alone time outside of school. She uses it to recharge with drawing or spending time with her parents or dogs. Fletcher doesn’t really like anyone but her redheaded mom. 

“And that worked for you two? You never got…lonely?” 

Bullied is what Nat was going to say, but just watching how her mom shot her a curious look made her panic. She didn’t want to tell her mom for the first time that she was being picked on at school while she was driving a car. She didn’t want to tell her at all, but things weren’t getting better, and she didn’t know what to do. You both had told her the importance of standing up for herself, but never resorting to violence. You’d stressed this part for some reason, but Natalya got the idea. She only defended herself when girls in her class threw insults at her, and she let them shove her into lockers as they walked by her without retaliation. She was getting sick of it though and she needed someone’s help to figure out what to do to make them go away. 

Wanda pulls up to the drop off lane and frowns at the idea of this conversation ending. She feels like Natalya’s not saying everything on her mind, but unfortunately, she’s running out of time to figure it out. She slows the car before reaching out for her daughter. Natalya turns when she feels a hand on her shoulder, and she sees her mom smiling kindly at her. 

“Not really no. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be popular, but it honestly seemed exhausting. I was happy just being a bit of a loner. Your mom too.” 

Natalya smiles at the fact that she knows this is true. Sometimes when they all spend time together in the living room, they watch tv or a movie together. Other times they’ll all be doing different things, and are just content to have someone nearby. 

She smiles as her mom pulls up to the school, and she knows she has to get out now. She feels a little better knowing that her parents coped well in school despite being a loner like her. She can do that too. She just needs to figure out how to get her bullies off of her back. 

“Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you after practice!” 

Wanda smiles as the brunette leans over to hug her just long enough for her to kiss her hair. She nearly flies out the door and only a couple of steps away from the car Wanda’s lowering her window to call after her. 

“Natalya, you forgot your bag!” 

You sigh heavily as you lay sprawled out on the bed in your hotel room with your dog curled into your side. You’re exhausted from all of the networking and chit-chat that this CE trip involved. You had met more people in the last two days than you have in maybe 5 years, and it’s making you want to curl up and sleep for the next 24 hours. You’re just grateful that you have Boone with you because otherwise you’d be tired, lonely and overwhelmed by the number of extroverts you’ve met. 

You run your fingers through your dog’s fluffy coat, and you smile widely when he turns around to lick you. You look at his cute face that’s turned whiter in the past couple of years. He’s nearly 16 now and despite slowing down he’s still your trustworthy companion. He still follows you wherever you go, or at least he tries to, and you’d considered leaving him because he was mostly just going to sit around the hotel, but the day after you’d decided you found that he’d ripped up one of your shirts. You took that as a sign that he didn’t want to be left behind and you rebooked a room at a dog-friendly hotel that day. 

“Are you having fun bud? Are you excited to go home tomorrow?” 

Boone’s tail starts to thump against the bed and you laugh before sliding down toward him so you can kiss his furry head. You sigh as you lean against him gently before closing your eyes and trying to relax. You’ve had a good time, and you’ve learned a lot here, but you are very eager to go home. You miss your wife, daughter, and other fur children, and you’re excited that you’ll be coming home the night of a family dinner. You’ll get to see everyone and catch up on how they’re all doing. 

You’re thinking of what food you’re going to be eating tomorrow when your phone rings from where you left it on your pillow. You spin around careful not to hit Boone as you grab it before turning back so you’re on your stomach again. You smile widely when you see who’s calling you. 

“Hey, Wands, one second. I’m just walking my mistress out.” 

Wanda rolls her eyes with a dramatic sigh as she grabs a basket at the front of the grocery store. She’d needed to pick up a couple more things for dinner tomorrow, and after dropping off Natalya she’d wanted to talk to you. She hears shuffling on the other end of the line and despite calling bullshit on her wife’s statement she decides to check in on her. 

“Don’t even, Y/n, but turn on your camera so I can see your ridiculous face.” 

You laugh at this before turning on the camera and tilting your phone so you can fit both you and Boone into the shot. Wanda smiles at the sight of you and your dog, and she brushes her hair out of the way as she fixes her earpiece. You realize immediately that your wife is at the store and you have to hold back the urge to ask her to get you some chocolate. 

“Hi there, beautiful. How are you?” 

Wanda smiles at your cheesy greeting that despite knowing it’s sincere makes her cringe a little. The two of you have been married for almost 18 years, and there have been many ups and downs that led you to this point. When she was 18, she never would have thought that this would be her life. She would have assumed she’d be stuck with the mob until she died, but instead she’s married with a beautiful daughter and a big family that was finally on the right side of the law. 

When she’d left her job almost 14 years ago, she’d wondered if she would ever be free from the stress and danger associated with it. She’d gambled a lot and quite literally made a deal with the devil to get not just her, but all of her friends out. She didn’t want them stuck there because not only would they still be in danger, but having any association with them would put her at risk and make her exit just a formality. She never would have guessed that Strucker would hold up his end of the deal, but she was grateful. He should be too honestly, he had gotten her entire criminal empire, and all it cost him was ensuring their protection. 

Wanda’s eternally grateful for how things have turned out, and she’s looking forward to having everyone over tomorrow. Even her brother. 

“I just need to pick up a few things for dinner tomorrow and thought I’d check in with you. How are things there?” 

You sit up so you’re more comfortable before you look around the room with a shrug. You’re glad that tomorrow is just a brief closing event so you can make your flight mid-day and be home in time for dinner. Despite still being filthy rich, Wanda had given up some of the perks that came with her job. Such as the private jet she’d once flown you to Miami with. As far as you were concerned this was okay because you were still able to fly with Boone sitting at your feet on his own bed in first class for this trip. You would have never let him fly in cargo because not only is it too hot or cold down there, but the noise and the separation anxiety would have been too much for both of you. 

“It’s been fun, but I’m sick of people, Wands. I want to come home and see you and Little Nat.” 

You sigh dramatically as you flop back onto the pillow and look up at your wife who’s glancing between you and the items she’s looking for. You wonder what she’s grabbing, but as if she can read your thoughts, she flips the camera so you can see where she’s walking in the busy grocery store. 

“We miss you too, detka, but tomorrow’s not too far away.” 

You smile in agreement as you stand up and stretch while holding your phone above your head. You cringe slightly at the uncomfortable pull on your tense stomach, but you take a deep breath and shake your head to focus back on your wife. 

“I’ll be back in time to help cook, and I’ll make my famous cheesecake.” 

Wanda smiles at the idea of this and she reroutes toward the dairy aisle at your subtle reminder about your plans. She’d forgotten to get the ingredients for that and she knows that both you and Natalya would be upset if she forgot. It was your daughter’s favorite dessert and you tried to make it every so often and, on her birthday, so you both could eat too much of it and suffer from a sugar high. 

“That sounds great. Steve and Bucky will bring the booze and Kit with them.” 

Kit is the 7-year-old rescue dog that the duo had living at their house. You’d met him as soon as Bucky had brought him home and you fell in love. He was adorable albeit very nervous, but you were used to anxious dogs given your experience at work and he’d warmed up to you, Steve and Bucky quickly. He hadn’t been as quick to warm up to your dogs, and the trio had actually just growled at each other for several minutes before you called it and decided to try the meet-and-greet later. Your dogs were older, but they were still very protective of their family and their territory. They hadn’t liked a new dog coming onto their turf even if he was with a familiar face. 

Over the past couple of years, Kit had warmed up to the idea of having older brothers, and your dogs had deemed the younger dog an acceptable addition to the family. He often came to visit during biweekly dinners with Yelena’s younger Akita, Fanny II. 

“As long as they all get along and your brother knows he’s being locked in the basement if he gets too drunk.” 

Pietro’s certainly calmed down in the past decade, but he still sometimes over indulged when the family was all together. You used to tolerate it better, but now that Natalya was old enough to pick up on certain habits and be influenced by her family’s behaviors, you and Wanda had warned him off from getting drunk in front of your daughter. They believed their daughter was smart enough to not follow in Pietro’s footsteps, but the second he suggested sharing alcohol or anything else with her, you were allowed to toss him in the basement. 

Wanda’s finishing up grabbing the last ingredient you’ll need for cheesecake when someone accidentally bumps into her. The store is crowded and she’d been a little preoccupied so she doesn’t think much of it. She hears someone mutter an apology before she heads to the produce section. 

“Believe it or not, I think he learned from his last trip down there. He’s getting too old for that behavior anyway. I doubt he can bounce back like he used to.” 

You sit back down with a quiet groan before you think about the truth in Wanda’s statement. Once the group passed their mid-30s, their ability to drink like they did in their twenties quickly dissipated, even for Yelena and Nat who had been able to drink any of them under the table on any occasion. Pietro was the one who suffered from it the worst because he didn’t catch on very quickly, or rather he tried to resist by over indulging more regularly which ended in many nights of blacking out. Wanda had actually sat him down and talked to him about his behavior on their 40th birthday. She didn’t want him to get stuck in this bad habit when he was really just drinking for fun and something to do. He wasn’t an addict and she didn’t want him acting like one. Especially around Natalya. She wanted her brother to be a role model for her daughter, and she swore that if he got her into drinking before she was 25, she’d make him regret it. 

Now that they were both in their mid-40s, they rarely drank more than a glass of wine, beer or half of a cocktail at night. Wanda drank even less because she only really drank socially or if she was stressed, but those days were mostly behind her. She was more of a stress eater or tv-show binger these days, and you still couldn’t hold your liquor. She’s also made you stop smoking for fun except on very rare occasions like your birthday or vacation. Now, you only did it for your chronic pain if your medication wasn’t enough to control a flare up. 

“Whatever I say to that can be taken the wrong way, so I’m going to just say that Pietro better behave.” 

Wanda laughs at your response before she turns the camera back around so you can see her for what she says next. She’d put more thought into it, and she is a little worried about how Natalya is doing at school. She has near perfect grades and all of her teachers love her, but her questions this morning concerned her a bit. She’d always wanted her daughter to be happy and do well in school. She didn’t need straight A’s, she just wanted her to try her hardest, and she saw everyday how much time she spent working. Even if she didn’t do well on something, Wanda wouldn’t get mad. 

She wonders if maybe she should have pushed for Natalya to hang out with her friends more when she was younger. She was always worried about kids coming over to the house because with kids came their parents, and when they saw how large and isolated their house was it usually led to questions she didn’t want to answer. It was difficult to believe that a veterinarian’s salary alone could pay for the house and the large property that it sat on. 

For this reason, most play dates happened at other friends’ houses, and those were pretty few and far between. She’s asked Natalya about it sometimes and she’d given her an answer that she struggled to come to terms with. 

“So Natalya asked me something on the way to school today that I wanted to run by you."

Immediately, you catch onto the change in your wife’s tone, and you’re sitting up straighter as you give her your full attention. 

“What did she ask?” 

Wanda summarizes the conversation she had not too long ago with Natalya as she finishes shopping. She makes it to the check-out counter before she finishes, and she greets the cashier while waiting for your response. She knows that you are a little worried about how self-isolating Natalya is, but given that your daughter doesn’t seem to mind and is still able to get along well with the friends she does have, you hadn’t been overly concerned. Hearing that she might be hinting at being lonely makes you frown and consider your options. 

You know Wanda doesn’t like people over at the house, and you’re honestly a little anxious about it as well. You just can’t help but think about the many, many guns that are still locked up in the basement and have been for over a decade. You and Wanda had talked about moving them at some point, but you always got side-tracked or never really came to a decision about it. You knew that the rest of your family still had guns in their houses, and you wouldn’t be surprised to know that they had them stashed around the house like you did before Natalya came along. Maybe you could give them all to your brother-in-law. 

Other than the many weapons that were safely locked away, the house was huge and very secure. In the past, you’d used the two guard dogs you have at home as excuses to not have kids over, but really you just feared that someone would be too curious and look into the house and as a result find out about Wanda’s past. 

She’s been a law-abiding citizen for nearly 15 years, and she’d cut ties with the mob completely. You’d only learned about what really happened when Natalya was 3, and the fact that Wanda had just handed it over to someone else was baffling to you. Her life’s work and she traded it all away for a comparatively boring domestic life. At the time you’d wondered if your wife ever regretted it, but so far she hadn’t given you any indication that she did. She loved being there for Natalya, and she loved not having to stress about her house getting shot up. No one had approached her or even mentioned her previous life for years, and Wanda liked it that way. She liked to focus on the present and appreciate the life she had always dreamt of having. 

Wanda’s back at the car and you still haven’t responded. She looks at her phone to make sure she’s still on with you before she frowns slightly at the sight of the ceiling. You’d disappeared and Wanda doesn’t hear anything other than Boone licking his paws as she starts her car. 

“Y/n, you still there?” 

You take a deep breath before you’re nodding despite the fact that your wife can’t see you. Sitting up carefully you cringe before you grab the phone again to see that Wanda’s in her car. You open your mouth to apologize, but your wife knows all too well what’s going on. 

“Yeah, sorry. I think maybe we start simple. Ask if she wants to have some friends over or to go out next weekend. Go from there.”

Wanda nods in agreement but her attention’s shifted to you and she frowns as she shoots you a questioning look. 

“Is it bothering you again?” 

You sigh in defeat, but you can’t help but smile at the fact that you still seem to think that you can hide something from your wife after all of these years. You’d think that your many failed attempts would be enough to get you to stop trying. You nod before claiming that it’s fine and it’s no worse than usual which luckily is true. 

“Just the usual amount. I’m about due for my meds again is all.” 

Just shy of 16 years ago, you’d been injured in a man’s poorly executed scheme to steal your wife. Despite healing and being able to take comfort in the fact that those involved were dead, you still weren’t free from the consequences of that day. A couple of years after healing completely, you’d started to experience a tingling sensation around the scar and throughout your abdomen where you’d been shot. It was only every month or so that it would almost tickle oddly for a few minutes before ceasing. Eventually it became more of a pins and needles type feeling that came more frequently and persisted for longer periods of time. It didn’t become debilitating until a few years ago. One day you’d been playing with Natalya and the dogs in the backyard, and an electric shock-like sensation shot through your side and sent you to your knees. 

Nat had been so worried she’d started crying, and that alerted your wife and her brother who had been visiting at the time that something was off. Wanda had taken you to the hospital immediately where you’d just been told that this is something that can happen down the road. It had been news to you because dogs and cats couldn’t complain about previous trauma affecting them years down the line. You’d been put on a pain medication and an antidepressant. You hadn’t liked the idea of being on drugs like this, but you also didn’t want to experience this type of pain again, or scare your family. 

Now that you’re on your medications regularly, you only had a few episodes of pain that made you reach for medical marijuana. You did your best to stay healthy and exercise regularly so you can improve your chances of decreasing these episodes. They mostly happened at night, right after you go to sleep or right before waking up, and you’ve learned that you just have to get up and smoke. You won’t be able to go back to sleep without it, and you hate to wake up your wife with your tossing and turning. 

“Take your meds, detka, and then have fun at the rest of this conference because I’m not letting you go to another any time soon.” 

You’re grateful for the distraction from your tingly skin at Wanda’s joke. At least you think it’s a joke. Since you’d become the managing vet at your practice you’ve been working longer hours. You split your time so you’re no longer working just with clients and seeing appointments. About 25% of your time is working on management stuff, and as much as you don’t like it, you’re making a lot more money. Not that you need any. 

Wanda may have left her old job behind, but most of the money she’d made, she’d kept and moved it around enough so it wouldn’t raise suspicions at any bank. You didn’t understand it, but since the rest of your friends had done the same, you’d just let them handle it. You know you have more money than you’ll need, and Natalya should be able to have everything she needs and then some. You don’t want her to grow up spoiled, but you also don’t want her to feel like she can’t ask for something. 

“Will do, Wands. I promise to spend all weekend with you and Nat. I’ve missed you both.” 

Wanda is driving home when you say this, but she steals a glance at you as she comes to a stop at a light. She’s missed you too and as much as she hopes you had fun and learned a lot on your trip, she hates it when you leave. She’s spent every night with you for years, and having to go to an empty bed at the end of the day was no fun. Sometimes she lets Rogue sleep on your side on a large blanket just so she doesn’t feel so alone. She’ll be glad to have you back.

“We’ve missed you too. I’m going to let you go rest before lunch is over, and I’ll let you know what Nat says tonight, okay?” 

It’s 12:40 here and you realize you only have half an hour before you have to go back downstairs. For now, you stand up so you can find your meds before you try to sleep for the rest of lunch. Boone will have to go out before you leave, but you’ll worry about that later. You smile at your wife before offering her a little wave. 

“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.” 

“Love you too. And you Boone!” 

When Wanda arrives home a little later, she puts her purse and the groceries down on the counter with a sigh before she wanders up to the bedroom. She greets Rogue and her old, lazy cat along the way before she heads into the bathroom with a sigh. She walks over to the small safe that was hidden in the vanity and opens it quickly. Both you and Wanda agreed that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep a gun nearby just in case. You hadn’t experienced any issues and hadn’t needed it at all, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Since the safe was already nearby, you decided to put your marijuana from the medical dispensary in here. You didn’t want it just sitting out for anyone to find, and you kept it in the safe for whenever you needed it. 

Wanda frowns slightly when she picks up the jar and sees that it’s not as full as when she last checked. She makes a note to call in a refill soon as she puts the jar back and shuts the safe. She has a few things she needs to get done today, including cleaning all of the dog hair that’s managed to evade the Roomba. She stops short of leaving the bedroom when she sees one of the pictures that sits on the dresser. 

It's one she hides behind the other two because she was embarrassed by it when her brother had first taken it. They had all been at the beach when Natalya was 5-years-old, and you and Wanda had spent the day chasing after your overenthusiastic and hyperactive daughter. She’d wanted to do everything at once and she was not willing to slow down at all. You’d joked about putting her on a leash, but after Little Nat had tuckered out mid-swim you and Wanda had collapsed too. You’d fallen asleep under the tent with your daughter between you and Wanda and you woke up an hour later to the sound of someone calling your name. You’d seen Pietro with his phone and after stealing it and finding the cute pictures, you’d sent one of them to yourself so you could frame it. You had given it to Wanda for Mother’s Day and despite hating how she looked in it, she loved seeing how peacefully you and Natalya slept. 

Wanda frowns as she leaves the room and thinks back to Natalya’s questions this morning. She wasn’t sure if she was just reading too deeply into things because she’s been guilty of that before, but she hopes that her daughter knows she can come to her if she needs help.

Natalya was leaving her least favorite class when her phone vibrated from her jacket pocket. She figures she knows who it is, and she decides to wait until she washes her hands and heats up her lunch to text back. 

She only has a single class with her friends, but most days she has lunch with them in their science class, the library or outside if it wasn’t too hot. Natalya leans against the counter as her food spins in the microwave and reads the text from her friend Taylor. Usually she hates group texts, but her friends know this and don’t expect her to text back unless it’s an emergency. She has her read setting on and she puts her phone back in her pocket without responding. 

We’re outside on the hill. Blame Luke.

Luke was the only guy in her friend group, and she’d actually met him first a couple of years ago in science class. They’d been paired for a project and despite hating the assignment, they’d gotten along well and Luke had introduced her to his other friends, Taylor and Alyssa. Nat had been and still was pretty sure that he liked them both, but she never felt comfortable asking, and it didn’t really matter in the end. She didn’t feel like a third or fourth wheel with them, and they always made her feel included when they sensed her spacing out. She hadn’t hung out with them outside of school for a while and she was considering asking them to do something soon as she walks through the cafeteria toward the doors that lead to the hill. 

“Whoops.” 

Nat hears the sarcastic voice before someone bumps into her and makes her food splash out of the Tupperware and onto her hand. She hisses in pain and nearly drops it as she tries to set it down quickly and wipe off her hand. She turns to look over her shoulder at the group of girls laughing at her as they continue on as if nothing happened. Nat scowls at them before she covers her food ad runs to the bathroom to wash off her spilled lunch. 

She’s not sure how she’d managed to catch the attention of this particular group of mean girls, but it had started a few months ago. Stacy was the ringleader and honestly the dumbest person Natalya had ever met. She attempted to overcompensate for her stupidity by wearing too much makeup and putting other girls down whenever possible. Her two closest friends Jocelyn and Lisa had jumped on the bandwagon with her, but they luckily didn’t harass her if they were alone. They mostly just kept up appearances around Stacy, and Nat almost felt bad for them. 

Natalya had thought about complaining to someone, but the blonde’s mother was the president of the PTA and her dad was probably one of the richest people in town. He was the CEO of some hot shot company that Stacy knew nothing about, but she didn’t care. Having rich parents and being as dense as a brick didn’t give her permission to be a jerk. 

“Hey! There you are.” 

“You know, I wonder why your moms got you a phone just to have you neglect it.” 

Natalya rolls her eyes as she drops her bag onto the grass next to her friends. She sighs as she carefully sits down and crosses her legs with a small smile. She looks to the trio that are already laid out comfortably and eating and she decides to address Luke’s comment first. 

“I don’t neglect it. I read Taylor’s text, didn’t I?” 

In all honesty, Natalya was surprised that her parents had gotten her a phone. She was notorious for losing things and after leaving her first one outside and not finding it again until it had rained two days later, her parents had bought her a waterproof case for it. She mostly texted her family, like her aunts or uncles, and these three, but her parents insisted she keep it on her at all times when she wasn’t home. They wanted to be able to reach her wherever she was, and there may or may not be a tracker in it because old habits die hard. 

Taylor’s the first one to sit up as the smell of Natalya’s lunch reaches her. She recognizes it immediately and she’s once again jealous of how the brunette gets a home-cooked meal more often than not. The one time she’d stayed at Nat’s house for a sleepover, her redheaded mom had cooked for them, and it was honestly the best meal she’d ever had. 

“Why do you always have such good lunches! You’re so lucky.” 

The other brunette creeps toward Nat to potentially get a bite when she notices something that steals her attention. 

“Wait, what happened? Did you burn your hand?” 

The back of Natalya’s right hand is red and looks painful. Nat shrugs her off but lets her grab it to inspect it more closely. Alyssa slides away from where she’d been sitting next to Luke to get a look and she cringes at the sight. The blonde wants to follow in her mom’s footsteps and become a doctor, so Natalya indulges her and lets her friend fuss over her for a minute. 

“Ow, did you trip or something?” 

It’s a fair question because they are well aware that she’s a klutz, but this time she just shakes her head before muttering something under her breath. She looks around to make sure the trio aren’t nearby before she explains what happened. Luke and Alyssa frown while Taylor looks like she wants to fight someone. Between the four of them, Taylor is the least afraid of confrontation, and she’d definitely been to detention more times than anyone else in their group. She would go find the trio and shove all of their heads in a toilet, but Nat didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. 

“My fan club accidentally spilled it on me as they fought over my autograph.” 

Taylor looks around next and she scowls as she shakes her head in annoyance. Her friend was a little too passive aggressive for her own good, and things were only getting worse with the trio. She shouldn’t have to deal with this every day. 

“They’re jerks, Nat, you should tell them off.”

Nat had tried to once, but it just ended up in her getting shoved to the ground by all three of them. She’d just watched them laugh as she brushed the dirt off of her clothes and tried to convince herself that they’d get bored. She didn’t want to get in trouble by resorting to violence, but sometimes she daydreamed about punching their sneers right off their faces. 

“I don’t want to get in trouble. Also, my mom will probably lose her shit if she finds out.” 

None of them needed clarification because despite having only met Nat’s parents a few times, it was obvious to them which mom was more of a worrywart. While you were silently concerned and seemed more chill on the surface, Wanda wasn’t as good at hiding her anxieties and often verbalized her concerns. It was a no brainer that she’d be furious if she found out that her daughter was getting bullied. 

“She would, but this can’t keep going on.” 

“Maybe we should beat them up after practice today.” 

Nat shakes her head quickly before she decides to change the subject because she’s getting a little self-conscious. She’ll deal with Stacy and her minions at some point, but for now she’s going to keep ignoring them. 

“No, no. Let’s not. I was going to ask if you wanted to come over soon though? We could have another sleepover?”

Natalya realized that her distraction had worked as soon as her friends start to plan what they’ll do when they come over. They loved walking around the woods with the dogs and hanging out in the den eating too much junk food. The last time she’d had them over, they’d had a movie marathon of kind of scary movies that her parents had approved. They had still freaked her out a little bit, but she hadn’t told them that. She wanted her mom to let her watch her favorite horror movie when she turned 13, but her redheaded mom still wasn’t on board. 

“We can have another mac and cheese fest. Your aunt seemed to like that.” 

The last time that they’d come over, you and Wanda had been busy so Yelena had come over to supervise. Despite their daughter being mature for her age, they knew she needed to be watched closely. Teens could too easily get in trouble if not held accountable, and they wouldn’t be good parents if no one was around to supervise them. When you two had come home to find the kitchen was a mess with 10 empty boxes of mac and cheese on the counters, you realized that maybe Yelena needed supervision as well. 

“Or we could cook with your mom again.” 

Nat can’t help but laugh at this as she rolls her eyes at the fact that she’s fairly certain her friend has a crush on her mom. It’s only a little horrifying, but she tries not to dwell on it most times. This is not one of those times though and she can’t help but find her friend’s blush amusing. 

“I think you like more than just my mom’s cooking, Taylor.” 

The brunette in question just coughs awkwardly before she just wordlessly grabs her fork so she can take a bite of Nat’s lunch. She decides that she’ll ask her moms about spending the night at Nat’s. They would probably say yes because it would give them a night with one less kid at home. Her brother was usually at a friend’s house and her sister liked to stay holed up in her room on the weekends. 

“No comment.” 

Wanda sighs heavily as she gets off the exercise bike that she’s been spacing out on for the past 40 minutes. She steps over Rogue carefully before she checks the time to make sure she’s still on schedule. She doesn’t have to pick up Natalya until 6:30 and dinner is ready to be put in the oven as soon as they get home. She decides to spend the next couple of hours finishing up her workout before relaxing outside for a while. She had a book she wanted to finish reading, but when she hears her phone beep nearby her this thought leaves her mind. 

Practice cancelled. Coach is sick. Gonna study with w/ T &A

Wanda frowns before she starts to type out a response. She wouldn’t mind getting to skip the rest of her workout, but if Nat wants to spend time with her friends, she’s not going to protest. 

Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up?

Natalya and her friends are already settled in the library when her mom texts her back. They had been on their way to practice when they’d gotten a text from their coach to cancel practice for the day. Apparently, she’d had to go home for the day because she’d gotten food poisoning from whatever takeout she ate for lunch. Natalya is a little bummed because she’d been hoping to run around and burn some of the extra energy she had. Instead she’s going to work on her math homework so she doesn’t have to do it later tonight. She loved having nothing to do but relax when she went home. Relax and eat. 

Taylor and Alyssa were also on the softball team and didn’t have a ride until 6:30 either, so they’d all decided to hang out and study. The library was open for the kids who stayed after school until at least 6, and then afterwards people typically went to the hill to wait for their parents to pick them up. 

“I don’t get the second question. Do you?” 

Nat hears her phone vibrate when Alyssa asks this and she takes a few seconds to tell her mom that she’s fine waiting here before answering. They get most of their homework done because Luke’s not with them to be a distraction. He barely did his homework on time, and he was the type who could only focus on work if he was alone in his room with music blaring. He got too tempted to talk or people watch if he was anywhere else. 

“The library’s about to close. Do you want to keep studying outside?” 

Instead of studying, they end up chatting until their parents arrive to pick them up. They’d walked to the softball field where they were usually picked up and Nat stretched out of the sidewalk as she sighed heavily. She turns to look at her friends that just smile before Taylor reaches out to grab the phone that’s fallen from Nat’s pocket. 

“Let us know what your moms say about next weekend, okay?”

Natalya nods as she sits up at the sound of a car pulling up. It’s Taylor’s dentist mom and she and Alyssa both stand up to head out. As always though, Alyssa turns and speaks up for the trio as the passenger side window rolls down. 

“Do you want us to wait with you until your mom gets here?” 

Nat shakes her head but she stands up to hug her friends before going to greet Taylor’s mom. She smiles at the blonde before opening the back door so her friends can get in. 

“Hi Doc, how are you?” 

She’s always liked the blonde despite not enjoying her visits to the dentist. She was funny in a dry sort of way that reminded her of her moms, and she was laid back like her aunts. Nat always felt like she was someone she could go to if she had a problem but couldn’t tell any of her family. 

“Hi Nat, good to see you! Are you sure you don’t want us to wait with you?” 

Wanda’s pulling into the parking lot where she sees Natalya standing next to an unfamiliar car. She’s smiling as she chats with them and Wanda has to stop herself from freaking out. She knows her daughter’s smart and that she knows better than to talk to strangers, so she assumes this is one of her friend’s parents. This is confirmed when she drives by them and sees three familiar faces inside. 

“Hi Mama! See I said she would be here any minute.” 

Wanda gets out of her car and smiles as her daughter runs up to her and wraps her arms around her waist in a hug. She moves a little so she can wave at the woman she recognizes as one of Taylor’s moms. She shoots her a polite smile before they’re on their way home for the weekend. 

“Hi Kayley, thanks for watching this one for me.” 

After bidding them goodbye, Wanda can hear Kayley asking her daughter something that makes her laugh. She leads Natalya to her car, making sure that there’s nothing left on the sidewalk as she opens the door for her. 

“Why don’t you hug me like that, Taylor?” 

“Mom!” 

Natalya’s stomach growls as she gets into the car, and it’s so loud that her mom can hear it as she’s opening her door again. Wanda’s amazed by how much her daughter can put away and still be so small. She’s a lot like you, and you joke about her inheriting your hollow leg now that you’re older and can’t eat nearly as much without it showing. Natalya is young and energetic, and she’d eat 5 meals a day if she had the time. Instead, she eats breakfast and lunch and then comes home so hungry she eats two or three helping at dinner. Wanda’s already getting buckled and starting the car again to get them home when she hears confirmation that her daughter’s hungry. 

“Let’s get home so we can start dinner, shall we?” 

Natalya smiles before practically bouncing in her seat at the idea of getting to eat. She’d had most of her lunch, but some had spilled and she hadn’t gotten her usual snacks at practice, so she was famished. She’s already brainstorming possible dishes her mom’s made when the older Maximoff speaks up with a curious look. 

“Did you finish your lunch?” 

Wanda asks this because 99% of the time the answer is yes. Very occasionally Natalya will be busy during lunch and be too distracted to eat. She’d come home once or twice with most of her lunch still packed away and Wanda would have to remind her about the importance of eating throughout the day. You’d always add to this by telling her that food was really the only way you ever got through a school day. 

Natalya tells her about how she’d eaten all of her food as well as some of her friends’. She owed them some on Monday, but for now she was more concerned about dinner. She was about to ask what her mom had made when she hears a gasp that makes her frown in confusion. 

“What happened to your hand??” 

Natalya curses herself for not covering up her burn or even bothering to go to the nurse for that matter. She realizes her mom will be upset with her, and that she won’t get any dinner until she’s treated and wrapped her hand. It stung a little and hurt to touch, but she’d forgotten about it during her afternoon classes and then the nurse had already gone home. She decides to tell the truth because she’d learned very early on that she took after you when it came to her ability to lie. 

She wrings her hands nervously before she covers up her burn with a frown. 

“I spilled my lunch on it and forgot to go to the nurse.” 

Wanda frowns in response because damnit sometimes her daughter is too much like her. She never used to take care of herself and her friends or brother had to convince her to go to medical to get checked out after any sort of injury. It wasn’t until you came along that she started to do a little better because well you’d threatened her with a bad time, or took care of her yourself which was both unpleasant and slightly humiliating. 

When Wanda sighs Nat has to hold back her urge to shrink down in her seat in shame. She hates to upset her parents, and she knows that that they don’t like it when she doesn’t take care of herself. Like that one time she sprained her ankle during a game, but didn’t tell anyone until she was having difficulty running. She’d been lucky enough to have both parents present for the game, and they’d both chastised her before having Alyssa’s mom take a look at her. 

“You need to take better care of yourself, milaya. I’ll look at it when we get home, okay?” 

Nat just nods before she stares out the window for the next few minutes. She feels chastised and that familiar pressure in her chest makes her want to fix it immediately. Nat looks back to her mom when she speaks up a few minutes away from home. 

“How was the rest of your day?” 

Natalya’s first thought goes to Stacy at lunch and she frowns before shrugging as she starts to play with the hem of her shirt. She rambles nervously about the rest of her day and how it was fairly uneventful. She finished all of her homework and hopefully her coach’s food poisoning would be over by Monday. 

Wanda smiles as they arrive home to see that Rogue is sitting in the driveway waiting for them. She’d been nervous about letting the dogs outside while they weren’t home, but you’d set up an invisible barrier and Rogue was the only one who really left the decks upstairs. He mostly just lingered around the house or very occasionally walked to Nat and Yelena’s down the road. He was only let out during the day and you’d put tracking collars on them so they wouldn’t get lost.  

Seeing him stand up and wag his tail excitedly as she opened the garage made her feel even more love for her precious dog. Natalya waited impatiently for her to pull into the garage and park before she jumped out of the car and greeted her dog.

“Hi Rogue. How was your day bud?” 

The shepherd pants happily as his ears and neck are scratched. He shakes himself out sending hair flying and Nat cringes slightly at how it’s now covering her hand, specifically her burn. She tries to shake out her hand but she’s unsuccessful and unfortunately her mom doesn’t miss it. She grabs her daughter’s backpack before calling her to come inside. 

“Natalya, I’ll get dinner started then we’ll look at your hand.”

About 10 minutes later, Natalya’s sitting at the dining room table with her mom and an assortment of first aid supplies. Wanda had given the brunette a Tylenol before setting up everything she needed to clean and dress her wound. Wanda’s frowning as she takes her daughter’s hand and tilts it slightly to get a better look of the burn. 

“This looks like it hurts. Hopefully covering it will help it heal faster.” 

Wanda works in silence and Nat tries to distract herself from the stinging as her hand is cleaned meticulously before it’s slathered in ointment. Eventually Nat starts to get bothered by it so she speaks up to keep her mind off of it. 

“I know, Mom will be back tomorrow, so it doesn’t have to be this weekend, but would it be okay to have my friends over soon for a sleepover?” 

Wanda smiles immediately at the idea of this and she secretly wonders how Natalya just happened to ask this today after the conversation she’d had with you earlier. Either way, she’d be glad to host Natalya’s friends, they were both very polite and treated her daughter well. She couldn’t really ask for more than that. 

“Of course. We’d be happy to have Taylor and Alyssa over.” 

This makes Nat frown slightly as she realizes she needed to be more specific. The last time she’d had a sleepover they’d invited Luke as well. Her parents hadn’t known about it until he arrived and Yelena had called to tell them. Wanda had been freaked out and you’d wondered if Nat had been intentionally vague when mentioning her friends. This had led to a slightly uncomfortable conversation about the nature of Natalya’s relationships with all of her friends, and she’d certainly learned something new. When asked if Nat liked Luke, she’d simply shaken her head and told her that she was the only one without feelings. 

“I think he likes Taylor or Alyssa. Or both. I think they like him too. It’s kind of confusing” 

Wanda certainly was a little confused by this and she’d paid extra close attention to how they all acted together when they were at her house. She couldn’t tell from watching them because they all got along so well and no one really was extra clingy in a way that would suggest deeper feelings. 

Still, Wanda doesn’t mind having Luke over, but until she’s told otherwise, she’s going to still insist that he sleeps in a different room. 

“Luke too?” 

Wanda nods as she starts to wrap Natalya’s hand first with gauze and then with the compressive wrap. 

“Yes, but the same rules apply.” 

Natalya just nods at this because last time Luke had slept in one of the guest rooms with Boone sitting at the door. The dogs didn’t mind visitors and since meeting the trio they even come up to greet them like they would for anyone else they knew. Luke liked the dogs the best, but Wanda remembers seeing both girls cuddling with a shepherd on the couch during one of their movie marathons. 

“Okay, Mama. Thank you.”

Masterlist

[magewolf-the-artist]

Yeah so I decided to update Susan's ref sheet because oh my god it's so fucking ugly-

But yeah, I'm much more satisfied with this one because I've developed my style for drawing these fuckers a lot better and the pose radiates more personality.

Old ref: https://www.tumblr.com/magewolf-the-artist/743345425139040256/on-this-episode-of-walten-files-brainrot-heyyyyyy?source=share

Here's her bio with a couple add-ons:

Apparently she's British (Her accent is still a mystery to me but I've seen a couple people say this so ehhhh). So my headcanon is that her family immigrated to the US when she was four, so while she does have an accent, she doesn't really say any slang. Occasionally she might call someone a twit (affectionate) or a twat (derogatory), but that's about it.

At some point during her fun little maze adventure, the neck cables that held up the animatronic head snapped due to the constant pressure of Susan's broken ass neck forcing her head to loll to the side. While at the facility she found that she can use metal ties to hold the cables upright. She has to tighten them constantly though or else her vision will be forced into portrait mode

Ashley fixed the cable while she, Kevin, and Hilary were there and Susan is forever grateful to her

She probably accidently breaks it again through something stupid like bumping her head against the door frame or something and boy oh boy was she PISSED

On that topic, she tries her best to upkeep her and everyone else's bodies but there's only so much she can do with limited tools and slightly worse motor skills (imagine doing a task that requires very precise movements through winter gloves and you'll pretty much get the idea)

She refuses to repair Bon though and tells him to figure it out himself.

She's become way more snappy, short tempered, and easily frustrated after her death. Trauma, baby!

Susan kinda acts as a shoulder to vent to whenever anyone needs to talk. She can’t really offer much in response or comfort since A, she’s the type to push things away and compartmentalize, and B… well, she can’t exactly promise everything’s gonna be okay, now can she? Still, sometimes it’s nice to just talk

Some days though she just kinda… shuts down emotionally. Just kinda lays on the floor and can’t find any motivation to get up or do anything. Thinking about everything and nothing at the same time, staring blankly into space

Charles usually stays with her during these episodes and depending on the day, he either just sits with her quietly or rambles about random shit like he did when they were alive

Her sleep schedule was super fucked up when they all came to the facility because she was used to being up and around at night. It's gotten better but she still sometimes wakes up buttfuck early and has come to appreciate the serenity of the nights (RETCONNED)

Probably the most casual about her death, as opposed to Rosemary's crying and Charles desperately trying to change the subject

She walks with a very distinctive shuffle, something she picked up from her fun little maze adventure because the weird shuffle walk helped lessen the pain she put herself through and conserved energy. It used to be a lot more pronounced but it's faded slightly overtime

Usually hangs out with Charles

Is constantly exasperated by Charles' antics

To pass the time she either plays card games with Charles or organizes the tools in the maintenance closet

She tried to talk to Rosemary when they were first brought to the K-9 facility but only got silence in return. She's kinda just given up now and mostly leaves her alone

Is the most familiar with Bon's abilities and didn't even bother trying to escape the facility because she knew it was futile

Helps coach everyone but Rocket on how to move

When helping Ashley figure out to move she probably made an off-handed comment like, "if you think that's hard, imagine having to learn how to do this while being alive" and only realized Ashley had no context for that when she gave her a very confused and worried look

Hates Bon's guts and is usually annoyed/angry with him

She also hates Felix's guts, but everyone does so it's not anything special.