#but it's always a lil sad to see people only recognize stuff from the later mcu or star wars or whatever when the people making

[unityrain24]

just saw some video clip on pinterest that was from some show with kat dennings in it and the First Comment was "is that darcy from wandavision?" darcy from wandavision?! Darcy from WANDAVISION?!?!? DARCY LEWIS DID NOT BE HER MOST AMAZING SELF IN THOR 2011 AND THOR THE DARK WORLD TO BE "FROM WANDAVISION"!!!

[yanderecandystore]

Can we get some content for how the Android darling and Ms. Bright would meet?

In this [🍰🍑🤖] we get a glimpse of what their relationship is like and a lil mention of how things have worked out- But let's see how it played out from the a.is perspective.

Hi boo, I hope you're doing great, I'm very sorry for the long ass waiting- Sadly I may warn y'all that I have gone through many stages while writing this: h 0 r ny, corny, and angsty. This is actually pretty heavy, as I tried pulling some of the loose threads that I left all over Ingrid's posts (I still need to give her an bio ;-; I'm sorry y'all-)

So this is all over the place, since this is a fic I've been writing for a long time.

Also I know jackshit about robotics, and I think this fic shows how much I don't know anything XD

TW: Family issues related to: LGBTQ identity // very angsty // Ingrid is very rude, but she also struggles a lot during this- // socially distant // socially awkward // being misinterpreted/having a hard time socializing //

Tags: angy sad lady // ownership dynamic // this is basically the reader reminiscing about the past (continuing it from where Happy Lies left off) // the reader is low-key a simp at times- // master x servant dynamic, possessive behavior and a lot of yelling // just angsty really, I'm so sorry //

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Happy birthday, mistress [Yandere!CEO OC x A.I!Reader - Short Fanfiction]

3,763 words

Whenever you remember your first day of activation, or more accurately your first day of actually being able to be activated for more than five seconds (you can't remember it fully, but you're aware that because of your complex design, you had passed through a lot of prototype phases before you could properly function-), you almost feel an odd sense of nostalgia, maybe due to the fact it was indeed the most important day of your existence as an android.

It was Ms.Bright's nineteenth birthday, when she would be handed the corporation that has been passed down by generations. And not only would she inherit the company, but also a beautifully designed a.i assistant made to help Ms.Bright's every need. You were made to be an easy communication center from Ms.Bright to the employees, as Ms.Bright's had a hard time communicating with people and expressing herself.

At first, she didn't seem to enjoy the idea very much- It was clear that she considered you to be quite annoying and useless. And- Well- It did hurt at first, after all, you were built to help her and be her friend no matter what.

So hearing her be mean towards you was… Very tough at first. Your first day as her assistant wasn't easy, you ended up getting in her way most of the time- And since she also didn't know exactly what she was doing, she got overwhelmed by so many things going down in one single day.

Ingrid has always dreamed of being in power of the company- Actually, now that you know her a little more- You can positively say she was probably just stressed at having to deal with so many responsibilities so suddenly, even if it has been her lifelong wish to inherit the company.

And even if it seems impossible at times, she would still come back strong and find a way to deal with it. That's something you really admire about her.

Your first week on the job was basically just trying to get accustomed and trying to learn everything you needed to do- While also trying to understand Ms.Bright as best as you could. Now… You weren't built to say this- And- And of course you don't think like this anymore, but…. You used to think she was really mean.

Frightening, even.

Now that you're all alone waiting for her to get back from work, you can't help but feel like replaying those moments inside your head.

"{... Replaying recorded conversation n°000050: "My second day at work"...}"

" Oh, what are you doing here?"

" Morning Ms.Bright! I-I was rechecking the files from yesterday and I was trying my best to reorganize them, a-after the incident-"

" The "incident" that you caused yesterday?"

" Well, yes, of course! I wanted to fix things up before you came back, I'm really sorry for being so reckless, I promise I won't do it again, I was just-"

"It 's fine. You don't need to worry about it."

" But… But I thought-"

" The files you had messed with weren't really all that important, and besides I'm sure there are copies all around the place. Sigh, who am I kidding- In reality, I should be the one apologizing for my behavior yesterday."

"...."

" I recognize that I shouldn't have treated you the way that I did, in a sense it's my fault you lost those files in the first place."

" … Well, it's nothing really mistress, I'm the one who should-"

" No, don't even finish it. You shouldn't have to apologize and shouldn't have spent the night wasting your battery on this-"

"...."

".... You know what, do whatever- I sometimes forget that you are… Nevermind, come back to my office as soon as you can."

"{... End of recorded conversation n°000.000.050… }"

You never knew what she was going to say, but you remember not being able to ask her that- As you were afraid of her potentially getting mad at you for asking too many questions. She always seemed so ruthless at times.

You remember the time you went to a family event with her, a family party, where an incident happened and she was absolutely livid. Your relationship with her wasn't so pretty at the time, you don't know why but- Your mistress didn't seem to trust you as much as you wish she did at the time.

"{... Replaying recorded conversation n°000.001.588: "First party ever- And it was very unpleasant" ...}"

" What's the matter with you?! Why can't you follow simple instructions- I told you to stay here and not mess around."

" I'm. So. Sorry. Mistress-"

" Even your vocal module is broken- Who told you to enter that pool in the first place?? You can't tell me you did something so stupid all on your own."

" I. Slipped.-"

" Am I a joke to you? I've said tell me who gave you the order to jump in the goddamn pool while everyone else was inside- Don't you dare start lying to me."

" … One of the. Party guests. Lost something. Inside the water. I tried helping them. But I started to. Malfunction."

" … Sigh, okay. Continue."

" It wasn't. Their fault. I did it. On my own. I was just- Trying. To help."

" By throwing yourself inside a pool when you're well aware of the damage the water can cause to your inner systems?!"

" I'm sorry!"

" You could have- No, you SHOULD have called someone else to help you, I can't believe it- You could have drowned in there and I wouldn't even be aware of that since I was inside the house, [Y/n]!"

" …. But Ms.Bright. I can't drown-"

" Yeah, yeah- I know you-... I know you can't drown."

" … Listen, you could have still gotten yourself hurt okay? You could have permanently damaged your systems, and if I wasn't made aware of what happened, I wouldn't have been able to take you out of the water in time, okay?"

"... Sigh, I just realized how much I have been yelling, everyone is probably scared now that I've made such a scandal. This… Isn't really a new thing to me, I'm accustomed to ruining parties like this. I'll have to apologise later to everyone. [Y/n], please just- When I ask you to stay still, please listen to me. I was worried about you."

"...."

"{... End of recorded conversation n°000.001.588 ...}"

You can't deny it- Whenever she was truly irritated she could make any person next to her feel threatened, though the more you look at your recordings, you feel like she doesn't really want to be feared like this. Respected? Absolutely. Feared? Not ideal, but she takes it anyway.

You have a couple of different recordings here and there, your memories are separated into sections. You have recordings of events in several formats: pictures, videos, texts and audio recordings. Though the one you use the most is audio recordings, since videos take a very big space inside your mind, and pictures need context, otherwise they wouldn't be considered memories, right?

You can't have many memories at a time because most of your mind is supposed to be used to store the company's files, so you do have a couple of memories that you have deleted to make space for the Bright Vision's more secret/personal documents. Since Ingrid took you home yesterday, and said you won't be going to work for the company anymore, then maybe you can find somewhere else to store those files so you can make space for new memories with Ms.Bright.

First, you'll need to recheck some of your own memories to see if they're worth holding onto. There is probably a lot of junk in there that you won't be needing anymore, which can be a bit tedious and take some time, but you clearly have enough time on your hands to do so, considering how she is not home and- Well, you're pretty bored, you already done everything that she asked you to do.

Honestly, she gave such small tasks today, she probably didn't plan to change your work environment so suddenly.

After about an hour of research through your data you have realized that even if you have way too many files, it's kinda hard to delete them. At first you didn't mind the idea of deleting certain stuff, but now it feels a bit sad to erase parts of your memory, you just had so many good times and- And even the bad times are worth remembering, right?

It has been an hour of you just standing there, trying your best to not delete anything important while also revising each recording you have. Most files are a bit out of order, numerically speaking, but you don't mind that too much cause- Well, you can always reorganize them later.

… You never actually do that, but you like to think that one day you will, though.

After so many recordings of conversations, you found one who didn't seem to really belong in your head. You see, you always title every single thing inside your personal archives so that it doesn't get mixed with other files- All of your memories have a specific title so that you can have an idea of which is which.

The thing is- You don't remember this file, the title seems off, and it seems like it's incomplete. Oddly broken. Still, you decided to take a listen and try to remember what happened in this event.

"{... Replaying recorded conversation n°000.068.xxx: "I yell too much" ...}"

"...."

"...."

"...."

This is a very silent audio, there seems to be some background noise happening, but you can't make out what's happening. This audio sounds distorted, edited maybe. Someone tried messing with your memories but they weren't able to completely erase this file.

Maybe they were inexperienced at the time.

"...."

"...."

"...."

You think you heard something, it sounded closer to you- It sounded like someone possibly sitting down next to you. You don't know who it is, or what it is

"...."

".... I'm such a mess. Why am I doing this? Why does this feels so-"

"...."

It seems like someone is speaking, but you're not speaking back. Even in this heavily edited audio, you can still make out what sounds to be a feminine voice.

".... I'm sorry for, well, using you this way. It feels- So, so weird."

"...."

".... I just want… No, I need to vent to you for a while, even if you won't remember what I'm going to say."

This audio gives you an odd sensation. You think you're starting to recognize who this is- But then again, who else could it be, if not Ms.Bright herself?

" I never did this before, with something so- Human like- With something so human looking. I used to record my thoughts on my phone but I thought I would never need to vent with an object before- But here I am! Making a fool of myself…"

"...."

The speaker, who you assume to be Ingrid, seems to be having a lot of trouble speaking, her voice is cracking and her breathing seems uneven. She sounds out of breath, and she takes a lot of pauses to be able to speak her mind.

"...."

".... I have…. Thought about opening myself in this way because- Because I have no one else to listen to it, and I guess I can only blame myself for it. I know I'm difficult, I know I'm rude and I know I come across as a tyrant to everyone else- I- I really don't know what 's wrong with me, okay?!"

" Years, and years, and years of training, of studying, of planning to become the very next owner of this corporation as it's already not only a job but also a very painful family tradition that I felt proud of! That I gave everything that I could to be part of! I remember wanting this so bad, I remember how I used to daydream about this stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid tradition when I was a little kid who just wanted to do more, to be more!"

".… I almost lost all of this. 19 years of my life that were threatened to be thrown in the trash just because I- Because I'm not his son??! Because I- I'm not his only "son" anymore??.... Who said I ever was- Who said I ever was his son…?"

".... I- I know all about the stupid, awful and extremely unnecessary tradition of passing the leadership from father to son, and to this very day- inside the same office all of my predecessors had went through- I still think that tradition is garbage. I always thought I wouldn't make it here, I always thought something would stop me from being the next face of Bright Vision."

".... I can't tell- If I always knew about this- I can't even imagine how I knew this considering the dumb kid that I was, but…"

".... I'm his daughter. I'm Mr.Bright's only daughter, and the only possible heir to this twisted company."

" The people outside think our only focus it's on robotics and technology of all kinds. I wish I could go back to thinking that too, it would have been so much simpler that way."

" After a very long fight about my rights as the heir to this- Company. My father thought it would be wise to move to the countryside. Far away from all of this. And to be fair, I was- So, so mad at him that I thought that him moving away from here and letting me be would be better, but every now and then I- I miss him. I miss him so much…."

"He sent me a birthday present today. After three years of absolute silence he sends me flowers and- And a gift card containing his number… And I- Called him despite everything, and even so to this day he can't even say my name- IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS AFTER HE LEFT ME ALL ALONE WITH THIS CURSED BUSINESS AND HE STILL CAN'T FUCKING. SAY. MY. NAME."

You felt scared at the sudden yelling, even if her voice was progressively getting more aggressive and louder, you still got caught up by the sudden yelling.

".... I'm- A mess- I know that now."

You can't understand what's going on, but it sounds like she started laughing… Or maybe crying? Probably both.

".... I'm just terrible at this. I always was, weren't I? I'm just terrible at these types of interactions- Maybe all of them! I just don't understand how to- How to do it?? I don't know anymore…."

".... That's why I have you, in the first place, isn't it?"

" I had such an awful time expressing myself that they gave me an overpriced doll to do it for me. When I first heard about this three years ago, I- I've felt so fucking pitiful."

" Can you imagine it? The CEO of such a big corporation is so difficult to deal with that she needs an overly glorified doll that can translate her words to the other employees! An a.i created just to help me, an absolute idiot!"

".... I've felt so angry at them- I felt so angry at him for having to build a robot just to be a comfort pet to the stressful work that I would have to do for the rest of my position as owner of Bright Vision Corp, and I was mad at you! You pissed me off to no end, and I- I just couldn't help but be frustrated at you, not for being in my way, but for being an reminder that I'm awful at this-"

"...."

Her sobs stopped her from continuing that sentence.

".... I've treated you so unfairly because of this. I- I made sure that whenever you looked at me you would feel terrified of me because that's the only way I thought I could be respected, that's the only way I thought you would listen to me, and yet you never did…. You weren't built to follow my every order perfectly, you were made to be literally my only friend, after 22 years, here you are- The only person that can get me isn't even an actual person-"

"..... And I forget this…! I forget this every time I look at your eyes, I forget how robotic you are whenever I see you helping others not because you were told to, but just because you thought you could."

"...."

".... I always forget that you're supposed to be just another robot… He really did think about everything when designing you."

".... I always catch myself being awful towards you, being- Being excessively rude, not because of my way of talking but because of my own petty feelings towards you as my assistant… As my friend, as my android, as my-"

"...."

"..... I'm so sorry for being like this, you don't deserve to have someone who is constantly being mean towards you be considered your boss- Your boss, your friend- ...Sigh, even your owner…"

" I'm sorry [Y/n], I'm really, really sorry- But it doesn't matter how many times I say that- I don't know if I can ever make it up to you. Words won't heal any wounds, they never did."

"...."

".... But maybe actions will."

"...."

" I'll stop being so harsh on you, you really don't deserve this- I was feeling weird about using your recording system to vent like this, but now that I think about it I have been using you as a venting mechanism since the day we met……. I'm- I'm so goddamn awful."

"...."

"...."

" "How can someone so in love be so cruel?".... Would you be able to answer me if you were conscious?.... I don't think you would, no one has been able to tell me the right answer yet."

".... I hope I can be better- I will be better."

"...."

" I just need to remember how to delete this file before you wake up- I hope I can do that. End recording."

"{... End of recorded conversation n°000.068.xxx …}

………….

It took you about an hour or so to be able to process what you have just listened to. And even then, you weren't able to fully comprehend what happened.

Ms.Bright- No, Ingrid- Ingrid has used your recording system while you were out, she probably tried deleting the file but because she was inexperienced with your kind of technology, she decided to just edit it and try to make it unlistenable.

It was- Barely audible but you still got to understand some of it.

Did she- Did she forget to completely erase it? Did she forget entirely??? You're not sure.

You don't know why but a sudden wave of- Something- Something feels so odd about this-

You don't know how to respond really. You don't feel mad about her ranting to you, you don't even feel bad about her ranting to you while you weren't aware- You feel bad, but not because of her but because of the emotional turmoil she has been hiding from you.

Should you do something? Should you say something?? How do you even- You don't know how respond to this-

You're programmed to comfort her, yet- This file is already old, and she didn't want you to remember this so maybe it won't be the best idea to bring it up, but what can you do??!

Maybe you just need to rethink this through, maybe you should listen to audio again, and try to figure out what's the best way to help her out when she comes back.

You're honestly baffled at the idea that someone like her had so much to confess to- You probably shouldn't have seen her as an unstoppable goddess in the first place, but then again- Even after hearing her open herself, even after listening to her insecurities- Your opinion of her hasn't changed.

She was holding this for so long, no wonder she always seems on edge.

She 's only human. Yet you never really saw her as just that.

She was always so much larger than you, so much stronger than what your fabricated body was, and she always sounded so much smarter and- And she was just always so… Terrifyingly beautiful to you.

Ingrid Bright was always considered a very good looking individual, but no one ever considered her to be much else because of her way of speaking to others (which may sound rude and occasionally condescending, causing others to avoid her as much as they could), but you always thought she was so much more than that-

It's hard to even explain it really, ever since you met you have started to understand the concept of how beauty and fear can mix together, you find her to be so beautiful, yet her demeanor and stature makes you feel afraid of her for some reason- And even worse than that, the fear she may unconsciously bring you makes her seem more beautiful in your eyes.

You shouldn't think of her as scary or frightening, she is your boss, your master and your owner, there is no reason for why you should feel this way towards her- But then again, there is no reason for you to even feel in the first place, you were just built to do so.

You don't think she means harm to anyone, after getting to know her you realize why her behavior can be misinterpreted as mean and scary- Ms.Bright always had a hard time socializing with others, even her family had a hard time understanding her, so maybe that's why she grew to have such a tough exterior.

As someone that was built to make the communication between CEO and employees easier, you've had to learn to understand her to be able to help others understand her as well, and vice versa. It wasn't easy, and you wouldn't say that you know her completely well- But you feel proud of the work you have done so far, you're her loyal companion but more importantly a friend.

Funny how much you learned not only about her, the employees, or even the business of the company- But also about humans in general in these five years of working for her, it makes you feel more whole when you remember how much you have achieved.

You hope you can somehow help her right now, and to help her from here on out. You decide to wait for her and possibly talk about how she feels and how she deals with said feelings. Hopefully all ends well.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Sorry for the loose ending! I was feeling very tired ;-; but if anyone wants it I could totally make a second chapter with a better ending.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[fakeloveaskblog]

aw, sweet loceit in the evening sun. logan is actually super good at explaining healthy relationships and boundaries and stuff actually, i betcha he could recognize abuse no problem

…aye remy! REMY!! HAve you thought about going to that gay bar more often? who knows, maybe you'll encounter someone nice, make friends with like-minded people, hear some disco, the full nine yards. janus might be there, remus might be there. (just look around for the guy with the blue tie, he's a great guy, if he's not wearing it he'll look like he has that blue tie kinda energy! you could totally just get drunk and unload your grievances on him and i bet he won't even mind!)

(Mentions of U!Virgil but I say beforehand when that happens so those who don’t like U!Virgil can enjoy the rest of the fic up until then)

(Words: 4100)

Remy wiped away a tear while looking at your message. The cold light from their phone was the only thing brightening up the room. Virgil was sleeping beside them, his arm was laid around their waist.

"You just like tots gave me the greatest idea! I'm gonna invite Rem out to the bar! It's gonna the funnest thing like ever! Thanks girl!!"

--

2 days later Remus was dangerously close to eating the moss straight from the gay bar's wall. He had been left without supervision for over 15 minutes while he sat outside waiting for his friend to show up, what else was he supposed to do?!

"SSSSUUUP BABE!!!"

Remy came towards him as fast as they could. They had on a short leather skirt, a neon mesh crop top and a leather jacket over it.

They did a little turn "I just like felt a bit glamorous today!" 

Remus choked on his own spit "The world must be a dark place when you aren't feeling glamorous"

"Awwww babbbe"

He sent them a big grin. He'd just put on his usual oversized dysphoria hoodie and matching oversized (:O) sweatpants.

Remus' smile disappeared in an instant as he noticed dark bruises all around Remy's neck. Shades of purple and green collided against each other.

"Ehm did a vampire come and attack you last night? Seriously are you alri-"

"JUst a reminder that it will be loud in there" Remy interrupted.

"Oh. Right!"

He fumbled around in his bag after his headphones. After putting it and a chew necklace on he did a thumbs up. Remy took off their sunglasses and leaned down so they were face to face.

Their face was so close he could feel their breathe against his lips. They put the sunglasses onto him and sent him a soft smile.

“There’s like lots of bright lights too” They explained.

Remus’ heart fluttered. He didn’t understand why “T-thanks”

They moved their arm around his shoulders as they went into the bar. It was past 12 am so some of the daytime furniture had been moved to make place for a dancefloor. There was indeed lots of neon lights flickering all around the bar and fast pop music was blasting through the speakers.

It was hard to see any details of anyone around him so Remus quickly forgot about the bruise. In this lighting it just looked like a weird choker anyway.

A guy with a see through shirt bumped into Remus. He had top surgery scars. For a moment they looked at each other in the most knowing way. The stranger looked away and continued talking with whoever he was with.

Remus whole body seemed to vibrate. There were so many butterflies in his stomach it felt like he was going to puke, in a good way.

Remy sat him down on one of the tall barstools and slumped down right next to him “So whatcha gonna drink?”

“The squashed down organs of my enemies!!!” He shrugged “Soda?”

They burst out into laughter “What? You catholic or something? Not allowed to drink alcohol?”

He slumped in on himself and started fiddling with his necklace “I-I dunno-”

“No. No babe I was just like joking. Like a stupid bitch. It’s okay” They waved at the waiter “Your most alcoholic fruit mix and your finest coca cola please!”

Remus leaned in to whisper “With salt”

“With salt? Please!”

He kept vibrating like an overexcited weasel. After getting their drinks he kept tapping the glass to stim some of the happiness out.

“Honestly I’ve never been to a gay bar before. I’m digging it. Just like how I’m digging graves”

They playfully hit his shoulder “Then I’m tots gonna try my best to make this the  ultimate first gay bar experience! I can’t think of any other lil fucked up gremlin buddy I would wanna have by my side!”

"Muhahah!! I am officially assigned ultimate gremlin buddy-”

“Greetings” A voice suddenly came from behind them.

Both of them flinched away. Remy let out a short yell and Remus was close to throwing his drink in the person’s face when he saw it was just Logan.

He had on jeans and a black button up with the top button unbottoned. He had with him iced coffee from starbucks because he had to drive home later.

“LOGIE!!!” Remy threw their arms around his neck to pull him closer “Babe this is the Log-legend. Once he was like sooo drunk so when he like tried to kiss me puked on my shoes instead!”

Logan grimaced “I am still very sorry about that”

“Oh I already know him through Janus” Remus replied. 

“Oh my gawd babe” Remy looked between them all “So like we all know Janny?! Wig! Sad he isn’t here then”

Remus held up his cola “Cheers to J-anus!” The other two held up their glasses in agreement.

“Cheers”

“Cheerio!”

“He is very pretty and charming and cute” Logan dreamily sighed. He stopped himself from continuing to say compliments.

“Yeah” The other two sighed back in unison.

Logan sat down on a chair next to them. Remy looked around the bar before squinting at him “No Patty?”

He instantly started looking like a Very sad seal “Sadly my wife is away on a convention with her magical girl anime fanclub this whole week. I estimated that going to the bar would make me feel less lonely”

“You have a WIFe??? Like a real one???” Remus exclaimed, his eyeballs were close to popping out from surprise.

“Yes. This may be a controversial opinion but when I marry someone I prefer them to be physically real” He replied druly.

He got a smug grin on his lips “Does she peg you?”

“She does far more than just peg me”

“Nice!” His eyes went even wider “IS That a stim toy??!”

He pointed at the tangle Logan kept between his fingers “Correct. If I do not have something to relieve my focus onto I can easily go into senso- OH a chewie?”

Remus nodded while showing of his chew necklace. The two of them started rambling about their favorite stim toy. Until they went off into special interests (star trek/astronomy and art/animal biology respectively).

Soon enough Remus was showing pictures of the animal bones he’d found. Logan ooeh and ahhed at all of them before asking the most nerdy of questions (where he’d found them, their bone density, if any damage had been done to them) which only made Rem infodump which made Lo infodump which made them both happy stim.

Meanwhile Remy sat beside them completely zoned out. They got time to drink 2 more of those fruit mixes and a few shots. The room was starting to spin.

The loud music wasn’t keeping out the yelling. They dunked their forehead against the bar table and covered their ears to try and get it out. The music was supposed to keep it out! Why was nothing working! The bruise ached. Their throat closed in on itself until they couldn’t breathe. 

“Remus” They gasped out. They looked over to their friend with a desperate look in their eyes. They just needed a distraction.

“So my theory for why you keep finding bones in specifically that part of the woods is because of the kind of dirt making it take longer for them to deco-” Logan was explaining while Remus nodded along.

“Rem! L-let’s like go up and dance or something. Please” 

This time it caught Remus’ attention. He looked over to them “Sure- are you feeling alright? Did you drink too much? You’re looking like a mummy”

“Yes. No. I just like- Like- They’re playing Charli xcx of course we gotta like dance!!”

“I will protect your belongings then” Logan added.

Remy stumbled up on shaky legs. Remus sent them a warm smile that made them want to cry before taking their hand. He let them lead him out to the dancefloor. Honestly he was pretty nervous about it, but being with them always made some of the anxiety melt away.

They stumbled on their own feet and fell forward. Their friend took ahold of their wrists and pulled them close to his chest. Their faces were so close to each other. So so close.

He didn’t let go. They couldn't remember him ever letting them hold him this close. Their chests pressed against each other. Their arms around his shoulders. His hands on their back. 

"You’re right. It is a good song. Good to crash a car too" Remus said absentmindedly.

Remy let up into shaky giggles from how sudden he’d said it “Yeah. Yeah I guess” 

They kept giggling. He chuckled back. He started spinning around on the dancefloor. They moved with him. His arms wrapped closer around their waist. Their cheek leaned against the slope of his neck (even though they had to lean down to get on his height level).

Remy quietly sang along to the music which made Remus start yelling along to it. The enby threw their head back from laughter. They took his hand and intertwined their fingers.

Remus moved his hand out and spun them around before pulling them close again. Their cheeks were flushed red, his was as well. He playfully dipped them down when the song ended.

It continued on into a song neither of them knew but they kept dancing anyway. They didn’t stay as pressed close to each other but they always had some contact. Holding hands. An arm around a waist. A head leaning against a chest.

When they finally got back to the bar table they were both panting. Remy was completely leaning on Remus since their body had started to hurt, but even through the pain they were both bubbling over with so much happiness they kept breaking out into bouts of giggling.

To their surprise Logan wasn’t sitting alone. A tall person with long dark hair sat on the chair beside him. Xir hand was on his thigh. The nerd had a soft smile on his face as they leant close to talk.

“Uh Lo?” Remus had to wave his arms around to get his attention.

His head shot around to look at them “Hello” He glanced to the person “These are the ones I was protecting belongings for” He stood up and held out his hand “Shall we?” Xir took it. Logan waved at his friends before going off to the dancefloor with the stranger.

“Huh. Good for him” 

“I guess”

Remy ordered another high alcohol fruit mix. Remus happily chewed on his necklace while humming along to the music. Between their chairs their hands hang with their fingers intertwined. Holding their hand had started to make Remus feel all funny in the head for some reason.

The enby watched on as Logan and the stranger danced for a bit before moving to a corner to make out. When the stranger started to lead him towards the bar’s bathrooms Remy turned to their friend.

“Yeah okay he’s not coming back for like a while. Smoke break?”

“Of course!”

They finished their drink before leaving the bar. The pair stopped right outside. Remus sat down on the side of the pavement. Remy tried to sit down but they stumbled over themself and fell flat on the ground.

Remus got up to help “Are you okay? Are you sure you haven’t drank too much?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine” They laughed out.

He sat them down on the pavement while dusting off their clothes. He patted them on the head while pouting “You should get some water”

“Naaaah babe. I’m good”

In the moonlight the bruise was visible again. That horrible dark purple bruise around their neck. It looked like it hurt.

Remus put his hand on their shoulder “Beanie are you alright? I do know it wasn’t some halloween monster that got you that bruise”

For a moment their whole body tensed, they forced a smile “It’s fine. me and my boyf just tried like some new kinky shit in the bedroom y’know. Nothing more” They lied.

They took out a cigarette pack and a lighter from their bag. They traced their thumb over Remus’ lower lip and opened his mouth just slightly. Remy leaned closer while putting a cigerette between his lips. They lit it.

Remus took a deep breathe. It’d been a while since he’d last smoked. He leaned so close the cigarette nearly touched Remy’s skin. They parced their lips as he breathed out the smoke right into their mouth.

A smile spread on their lips. He held the cigarette over to them but they shook their head. They looked around in their bag again and took out a small poppers bottle.

“Should you really take that. Won’t your brain melt out of your ears?” Remus asked “I really don’t wanna have to slorp up your brain juice...yet”

“Relax babe. It’s like not dangerous as long as I don’t like take too much and I only take when partying” It took a moment before they quietly added “And I only party when I need to get out of the apartement”

“What?”

They forced on a bigger smile “What?”

Remy moved the popper up to their nose and inhaled as much of it as they could. It took a few seconds before they let up into a giggle. It was in a higher tone than their usual bubbly laugh, it almost sounded like cackling. They could see stars.

(U!Virgil mentions from here on out)

“Y’know my boyfriend gave me like a flashback or whatever last night” They giggled while swaying from side to side.

Remus gently grabbed their shoulders and moved them to lean against him so they wouldn’t fall over “Uhu. Did you stab him?”

“No silly. He just. He’d been soooo sweet all weeek and I just I just ruined it ‘cause i like overeacted to some joke he made while like we were washing the dishes” They were barely even aware they were speaking “And like it just kept going until we were like screaming at each other”

Remy was still smiling and giggling between every word but tears started to form in their eyes. Their fingers felt numb. Bile was rising in their throat.

“And he just like threw the plate he was holding down on the ground. And it like didn’t hit me. He wasn’t even aiming at me. He was just throwing it at the ground. But it shattered and it was so stupid and overemotional and stupid and pathetic but I just I just curled up on the floor and like had a panic attack like a stupid baby”

They smeared their hand across their face to try and get the tears away. They felt sick. Remus quickly put out his cigarette, it didn’t feel like the right time to smoke.

“And I just like- Is that normal? Is that fine? Like throwing stutff like that? I-I- he’s never done it before. Or I mean like not plates” They looked up at Remus “Is it fine?”

He gulped while fiddling with his hoodie sleeve “Well uh did he apologize?”

“Mhmm. He like- like for some minutes he like kept yelling ‘cause he thought I was just like faking a panic attack to like I dunno manipulate him but then he like comforted me and like calmed me down and like held me and cuddled all night until I fell asleep and- and he said sorry a bunch of times and like he said it would never happen again. He uh usually doesn’t lie”

“Well ehm then it should be fine right? Right?” They both shrugged at each other “I mean everyone can make mistakes! And it was during an argument! Everyone does drastic things during an arguments! So it’s fine. I think”

A shaking breathe of relief left Remy’s lips. They stretched themself over his lap and he moved his arms around them. “Thanks babe. I was like tots worried for a bit but y’know i was thinking like that too. So it’s fine”

“Yeah” He combed his fingers through their hair “You do know you can vent to me whenever right? I promise I won’t gross you out with details about how to pull out rabbit teeth ever again so if I can hold that back then I can also listen to stuff! I can super listen!!”

They closed their eyes. They felt so tired. So tired and sick and horrible. “Mhm. I know babe. I know”

Remy sent him a soft smile before suddenly puking. Some of it came on his pants but mostly on the ground. Remus stood up and carefully moved them down to a sitting position.

He rubbed up and down their back with one hand and held their hair back with his other. Their shoulders were shaking and they were taking in shallow breathes between every sudden throw up.

“It’s okay beanie-boo. Breathe. Breathe. You got all the time in the world. Until the sun blows up at least”

“I-I took- too much- too much” They slurred out before lurching forward again. It seemed to stop for now.

“I’m aware” He carefully wiped away some of the puke left around their mouth with his hoodie sleeve.

They leaned back against his chest. They closed their eyes and focused on breathing. He held them so so gently. As if they would break like glass otherwise. He pressed a kiss to the top of their head.

“There you are!” Logan said as came through the bar entrance “What a relief. I assumed you had left without me because you thought my actions were unacceptable” He noticed how pale and shaky Remy looked and got a worried look on his face “Is everything alright?”

“They feel like someone has slammed a fish into their stomach. Not good” Remus replied.

“I see. I suppose it woud be best to get them home”

Logan picked Remy up with ease to carry them to his car. He was quite sure he’d carried dogs that weighted more than them. Remus anxiously followed along.

He sat them in the passenger seat. He shook their shoulders until they opened their eyes. They let out a quiet whine.

He held up 4 fingers “Remy how many fingers am I holding up?”

“Fuck yourself”

“Noted”

They moved to the side and seemed to pass out again. Logan closed the door before turning to Remus.

“Did they take anything?” He whispered.

“Only a popper”

“Good. Do you need a ri-”

“Bus”

“Okay” Logan was about to go but stopped midstep and lowered his voice even more “Oh and Rem...Could you please not ask Janus to hang out next weekend? I am planning a surprise...I hope it will make him happy”

“Good luck comrade....Please text me once Remy is home safe. Please?”

“Of course”

He did a little nod before leaving. Logan got into the car. He couldn’t stop looking at the bruise around their neck. Remy continued to sleep for most of the ride until they they were 5 minutes or so away from their apartment. They suddenly flinched awake.

“Stop the car!” They gasped out. 

“Are you still feeling the same?”

“Logan stop the fucking car!” There was fear in their eyes. 

Logan stopped by the side of the road. The road was barren and dark. It had to be past 3 am at least. Remy crawled back into the backseats while their whole body shook.

“Don’t. Look. At. Me”

“Sure” He stared down into the steering wheel to not accidentally see their reflection in the glass.

“I just. I just have to change clothes. I just. I don’t want Virigl to call me a whore again. I mean. He won’t. But what if. What if he gets mad. I just. I just have to change” They slurred out.

They stumbled out of the car after changing into a pair of long pants and closing their leather jacket. A cold chill went up Logan’s spine. He quickly stepped out of the car as well.

“Okay bye bye Logie!!”

They tried to move but Logan grabbed onto their shoulders. He forced back a choking feeling in his throat “What do you mean by your boyfriend getting mad?”

“Pff! It’s nothing! I’m drunk!! Byyyeeeeee”

They started to stumble away but Logan easily followed along “It did not sound like he called you a whor-...you know what...with your consent. I am simply going to remind you that calling a partner things like that is not okay. Not in any circumstance”

Remy’s expression turned cold. They walked faster “I don’t like what you’re implying”

“I’m not implying anything”

“Yes you Fucking are!”

“Exscuse me for being worried about your wellbeing. What you just said sounded like a very bad sign”

“Yeah exactly it only SOUnded bad! My boyfriend isn’t bad!” Remy snarled out.

“I am not saying he is. He doesn’t have to be bad to say awful things, as long as he changes”

They shoved their hands into their pockets. Their hands moved into fists “You don’t know a fucking thing about me. You tried to kiss me once when you were drunk and that’s all. We don’t know each other”

Logan took a deep breathe “I don’t need to know you to see red flags. Remy-” He searched for words “Remy you’re bruised. How- you can’t expect me to not get worried”

Remy suddenly stopped and turned around to meet his eyes. “MY BOYFRIEND ISN’T ABUSIVE! I-”

“I’m not necessarily saying he is. I just wan’t to talk-” His voice started to sound desperate.

They looked like a cornered animal. Tears were brimming at the edges of their eyes “YOU DON’T KNOW A THING!”

“Remy-”

“I DID THIS TO MYSELF!” Their hand went up to the bruise “I DESERVED IT! VIRGIL DIDN’T DO A FUCKING THING! I DID! I TOOK A BELT AND HURT MYSELF! OKAY?! VIRGIL CARES ABOUT ME!”

He tried to sound soothing “Remy please take a deep breathe-”

“NO! NO! YOU KNOW WHAT LOGAN?! THERE IS STILL CUM ON YOUR FUCKING LIPS FROM YOU SUCKING OFF SOME STRANGER IN A DIRTY BATHROOM! SO NO! I AM NOT TAKING LOVE ADVICE FROM SOMEONE WHO IS CHEATING ON HIS GODDAMN WIFE!”

They stormed away. For a moment Logan was frozen in place before he forced himself to run after them to try and make sure they would be okay.

“I am not-”

Remy looked at him for one last time. The look in their eyes made him feel cold. It was pure hatred.

“Logan get the fuck away from me! I am drunk and high and alone on a street with no one but you who is sure as hell fucking stronger than me and all you’re doing is spouting bullshit! So please get why I want you to leave. And why I don’t ever want you to talk to me again!”

He stopped dead in his tracks “...Right....Yes....I am so sorry”

Remy didn’t even respond. They simply turned and walked away. Logan stayed and watched to make sure they got home to the apartment safe before going back to his car.

He slumped down in the seat. His heart was racing and his thoughts were for once an illogical flurry. He sat motionless for several minutes before finally getting some semblence of an idea.

He took out his phone and dialed one of his usual numbers. It took several signals before Emile Picani picked up.

“Mhm? Logie bear? I can’t today I have clients in the morning” He yawned out.

“This is about one of your patients. I am fearing that they are in danger”

In an instant all of the sleepyness in Emile’s voice disappeared “In danger? Physical? Is it urgent? Do I need to call someone? Which patient are you even referring to?”

Logan hesitated. If Remy had reacted that strongly to him just attempting to ask about his boyfriend it was very likely that they would stop going to therapy if Emile brought it up. His throat tightened, he didn’t want to put them in any more danger.

“I....Nevermind Emile....This was just a far too gone joke...Someone dared me to call you. I am sorry. Have a good night”

He ended the call. He leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and let out a long sigh. His hands held onto the wheel so hard his knuckles whitened.

Logan had no idea what to do. No idea at all. All he knew was fear. Fear for Remy’s safety. Fear for their well being. Fear that anything he did would only make their situation worse.

[stanharu]

beastars episode 21 thoughts!

legosi and louis have finally reunited!!!

i have a lotta gripes with this episode, but i think overall it was still a very good episode. this week's ep covered chapters 75, 76, 81, and a lil bit from ch69. i was very excited & happy to see legosi and louis finally interacting, and finally seeing some of my favorite legosi & louis moments animated & fully voiced was also great.

the ep opens with an anime original scene of louis and ibuki discussing stolen goods in their supply chain. its very brief and seems to just be setup for legosi and louis' reunion in the BAM later in the ep, so i'll come back to this later.

i liked seeing this lil smoky deer form in legosis head when monologuing about his smell lol. usually this only happened when legosi was tracking haru's scent so im glad they did it for louis too lol. ot3 real.

i really liked the scene of legosi's training. the intense fight paired with legosi's matter of fact tone while narrating was great lol i really love his voice.

the tao & kibi moment in the hospital was great omg ;-; i loved it. no complaints only emotions and tears.

now. the moment we've all been waiting for. the long awaited lougosi reunion. i have mixed feelings about it bc during my first watch i was very excited to see the boys finally interacting, but also in the back of my mind i was filled with dread while coming to the realization that the anime had changed how they meet again. i was kinda right about the anime quishing together ch66 along with ch75/76, but really they only pulled some lines from 66 and put them into this anime original scene in the warehouse :'^)

i dont think this scene is bad tho, i still really enjoyed watching it. but im still disappointed that it's different from the manga djflksjldf. at the very least i wouldve liked if the anime kept their brief interaction from ch66 and letting louis stew in his feelings of seeing legosi buying meat for a couple eps. very sad we were robbed of that.

i liked this lil moment where theyre just looking at e/o and thinking a million things. something i've always loved about this part (in both the manga & the anime) is how legosi got a fur cut so the shishigumi wouldn't recognize him but louis recognized him immediately lol. the music for this part was really great too. and seeing legosi's tail get all waggy was So Cute.

i will say tho that louis' lack of expressiveness in this season continues to be an issue. in the manga we get to see how hurt louis is to see legosi in the BAM and how he's almost embarrassed at legosi's visible happiness at seeing him again after everything. in the anime louis seems rather stone faced for most of this scene. he just looks either angry/annoyed or kinda neutral. his expressions are very subtle, like you can tell he's holding back a bit but we're not getting the same range as manga louis.

i think louis' expressiveness is a lil better in the next part when legosi is eating with the shishigumi and the balcony scene, but still not the same range as manga louis.

it was really funny to me about louis eats the steak and then just looks legosi dead in the eyes while he chews. like louis is challening legosi and legosi is just confused about why he's doing something so ridiculous. i've always wondered what legosi was thinking in this moment lmao.

as for the balcony scene... i fuckin loved it lmao. the voice acting was phenomenal. my lougosi brain was in OVERDRIVE

legosi literally said 🥺 while hugging louis i cant 😭

louis 🥺🥺🥺💕

also i really enjoyed this lil bit of legosi playing with the banner strings out of shyness. very cute.

i also really like how the anime did this part. i gasped and i knew it was coming lmao.

while i think the legosi & louis centric scenes were pretty well done overall, some people have pointed out that the anime doesn't let some of the really important moments from it linger long enough to hit with as much impact as they do in the manga, and i have to agree. i think it's another consequence of adding so much anime original stuff & shuffling many scenes around. like, i think the anime did well, but as a manga reader i know these scenes could have been even better.

the last thing ill say about this part is that when legosi launched himself over the banners i literally laughed out loud

this is the funniest clip ever lmao

i thought the last part of the ep was good, tho im a lil sad we didnt get legosi growling in the anime lol. once again im so in love with pina's voice acting ❤_❤

legosi's talk with pina about riz is supposed to set up the moth scene, which is when legosi's fur grows back, but based on the previews for the next ep, im not sure if we'll even be getting it, which worries me @0@ the preview pics that were posted all show moments that happen after legosi grows his fur back in the manga but it doesnt look like his fur has grown back yet in the anime.

this change is super weird to me, idk why the anime would push the moth scene or legosi's fur growth back so late in this arc. based on how things have been going im afraid the anime may have legosi grow is fur back in a different way, and cut the moth scene, which will be super disappointing for me bc i really love the moth scene. im still gonna hold out hope for it not being cut tho. crossing my fingers!!

[oscars-wifeyyy]

The Innocent (Oscar Diaz Fanfic)

I just want to see if this is a good start lol I kinda just wrote this cuz it just came up in my mind

In middle school and freshman year of high school, Elizabeth Hernandez was a girl that had braces and acne all over her face. Before summer came she was accepted into the same writing camp that Monse got accepted in and didn’t have to pay a thing except for the transportation. The school year ended and the class of 2018 was having a party to celebrate the end of high school so the crew went to look at the party. The crew went to hide behind the wall to watch the party as it progressed into the night until everyone decided that they wanted to get a beer so Cesar snuck into the party to get everybody beer.

Ruby, Monse, Elizabeth, and Jamal stood watching the scene unfold. The girls were looking for Cesar, Ruby was looking at the girls, while Jamal was freaking out over the football players that stood by the house.

“Do you see him?” Monse asked, crossing her arms. 

“I don’t see him,” Elizabeth went on the tips of her toes to see if she could get a better look.

“Something bad is gonna happen. I can feel it,” Jamal freaked out.

“Take a xanny, J,” Ruby glanced at Jamal, “We just can’t see him, ‘cause he’s being stealth,”

“Yeah,” Monse agreed, “besides, when has Cesar ever let us down?”

“Fourth grade. Kickball tourney,” Jamal looks at the group, “we lost,”

“That’s because I picked the kid with no skills,” the group turned, “and I would do it again. Loyalty trumps victory, compa,”

Elizabeth took the beer being offered to her, “got that right, salad,”

Cesar stood up behind the wall, “take it in, guys. This is about to be us. This is high school,”

The five took a sip of their beer and made a face of disgust, but continued drinking out of the can with the bitter-tasting liquid.

“Ruby,” Monse said, “you think Mario is gonna marry Angelica?”

Ruby shrugged, “No idea. Mario tells me jack,”

“What about that time he said Angelica had a dangler?” Jamal chuckled as Ruby tried to shut Jamal up, “what? He said that,”

“In private!” Ruby exclaimed, “time and place, dude. Oh, guys, check out Huerita at 9 o’clock. Monse, Eli, if you were a girl-”

“We are,” Monse interrupted.

“But if you were a girl like that, would you wear any underwear?” Ruby stared dreamily as Elizabeth turned to look at Ruby in disgust.

“Oh, my God. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die,” Jamal said.

“Why are you gonna die, J?” Elizabeth asked Jamal.

“See those guys over there?” Jamal pointed towards the guys in football jerseys, “they play for the ‘ridge. Did you know that last year alone a quorum of kids-”

“Died playing football?” Monse butt in, “you’re stuck on repeat,”

“So don’t play, sweets,” Elizabeth chuckled.

“No choice,” Jamal said, “Pops was a legend. It’s a family tradition. I’m dead,” Jamal jumped off the platform with Monse and Elizabeth.

“You’re not dead,” Monse said.

“Football spiral?” Cesar asked as he got down to help Jamal calm down, “Jamal, CTE is not in your future,”

“Guys, check out my game,” Ruby turned, “Heurita gave me the nod,”

A bald guy popped up and grabbed Ruby’s shoulder, “Eyeing my girl, cabron?”

“No, God, no. I’m not into blondes,” Ruby tried to get out.

“Easy,” Cesar said, “he does your mother’s taxes. Mrs. Guzamn, right?”

“Three thousand dollar refund. Schedule C, line 30. Home office deduction,” Ruby said.

“Seriously,” Monse looked at him in disbelief.

Another cholo came over the wall to see Cesar so he nudged the bald guy, “Yo, homes. What are you doing, ese? That’s Spooky’s lil bro, dawg,”

The guy let go of Ruby, “I didn’t realize it was you, homie. Hey, listen, man, tell Spooky Sad Eyes sends his respects,” Cesar nodded as the two cholos left the crew.

“Thank God for your brother,” Ruby rubbed his shoulder.

“Nah, thank God for better things,” Cesar shook his head as gunshots rang out and everybody crouched down.

“.357!” the crew yelled out after the 5th shot.

Soon they were in Ruby’s place, Jamal and Ruby were spying on Mario and Angelica arguing outside while Cesar, Monse, and Elizabeth were sitting on the couch. Elizabeth took out her phone to tell her mother she was fine and in Ruby’s house until Ruby and Jamal ran to the couch, “Mario’s coming!”

Elizabeth didn’t bother listening to Mario so she just put on her earbuds and looked at him as if she was listening, but when she thought he was done she took it out. Mario came back and said, “don’t bone Elizabeth and Monse,”

Everybody started laughing as Monse said, “Who would even wanna do that?”

The next day Monse and Elizabeth went to the coach station to catch their bus to the camp. Summer was spent writing in the middle of nowhere with activities and amenities provided for the students so Elizabeth was able to start working out, losing the acne, and lost the braces. A few months later, they were back and on their way to Ruby’s house.

Monse wore simple jeans and a shirt that showed a little cleavage while Elizabeth wore a blue destroyed  with a burgundy bralette and ripped jeans that covered her legs. Smiles were on both faces, happy that they lost the metal prison that held their teeth captive. Both had grown breasts which attracted a lot of unwanted attention from the ice cream man as he was selling. They walked a little faster until a voice was heard that they recognized.

“Angelica, once I’m gone, I’m gone! There’s not gonna be a Christmas break hook-up! You know why? ‘Cause I’m gonna be hooking up with other chicks!” Mario took a pause, “white chicks!” another pause, “I don’t know why I’m saying that. It’s you! Talk to me, boo!”

“Maybe she’s not home!” Monse called out as Mario turned.

“Oh. Hey, guys,” the three met on the street, “how was camp?”

“Terrible. Mildly life-changing,” Monse shrugged.

“I can see that,” Mario looked down at their chests.

“Shut up, Mario,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes as a blush came on and tried to hide her newly found breasts.

“You can? How?” Monse asked confused.

“You just...look, I probably have to go before traffic hits,” Mario changed subjects.

“No prob. Good luck at Cal,” Elizabeth waved.

“Thanks,” Mario sighed, “and you two, keep an eye on Ruby? Don’t know what that kid’s gonna do without me,”

Monse and Elizabeth arrived at Ruby’s house and to his now own room, “we’re back!”

“Can you guys move that side table?” Ruby pointed at the table.

“No, seriously, don’t make such a fuss. We’ve only been gone all summer but really, it’s no big deal,” Monse glared at the boys.

“How was camp?” Ruby reluctantly asked.

“Camp was fine. Notice anything different?” Elizabeth and Monse smiled wide.

“Both of you got boobs,” The boys said.

“You can wait for Cesar to help,” Elizabeth glared.

Jamal stood up, “then we’ll be waiting a long time,”

“Why?” Monse asked.

“Where is Cesar?” Elizabeth asked.

“We’re not talking to him,” Ruby shrugged.

“Y’all in a fight?” Monse asked, crossing her arms.

“Well, it wasn’t really a fight. More like…” Jamal started but Ruby cut him off, “we’re not getting into it. Trust us, Cesar’s not cool,”

“Well, I’m not cool being not cool,” Monse crossed her arms, “and why aren’t you at football?” Monse asked Jamal.

“We should really get to orientation,” Jamal changed subjects as he stood up, “before those lines get too big,”

“Yeah, I don’t want to get too sweaty for my ID. Like Mario said ‘it’s all about the right first impression,’” Ruby said, straightening his clothes.

“And sticking together! You’re definitely deflecting this whole Cesar sitch,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “so stop being bitches and tell us,”

“Right!” Monse agreed.

Now they were on their way to school and Monse was continuing to pester the boys while Elizabeth gave up and let Monse deal with that. However, it was kind of a backfire for Monse because the boys’ gave her the silent treatment.

“What happened with Cesar?” Monse threw her hands up, “this silent treatment will only last so long. I will break you,” a pause went by, “come on! There is no way Cesar did anything on purpose to destroy our crew,”

“He’s the glue of our crew!” Elizabeth added.

“That was then, this is now,” Jamal shrugged.

“Yeah. Cesar ain’t shit,” Ruby agreed.

They turned the corner to see the Prophets so Elizabeth alerted the crew, “shit, Prophets!”

Everyone was searching their clothes to see if there were any colors that would set off the gang members. Ruby took off his hoodie but messed his hair up a little.

“Damn it. Did I just jack my do?” Ruby pulled out his phone to see how it looked until he saw Jasmine, “code dread, code dread, code dread. Approaching on your six,”

“Yo! You guys going to orientation?” Jasmine’s voice popped up, “hey, you know my cousin, Berto, the fine one? Hey. His daughter, Letty, said it ain’t nothing unless you can’t spell your name and then you hold up the line and people get mad,” Jasmine ranted, “hey, why you guys walking so fast? You know I got asthma,”

“Sorry, Jasmine! We’re having a private convo,” Monse called out, “real sensitive stuff,”

“That’s what you always say!” Jasmine yelled but took a deep breath from her inhaler and began running after the crew.

They finally lost her after a few minutes and they breathed out a breath of relief not seeing Jasmine behind them anymore.

“Man, she is relentless,” Ruby shook his head.

“Nice save,” Jamal appraised Ruby,

“Oh, you’re not safe,” Monse interrupted.

“You’re threats aren’t penetrating, ok?!” Jamal said, “I’m not telling you what Cesar said,”

“Aha!” Monse turned to them, “so he did say something!”

“Jamal!” Ruby yelled, “do you need a muzzle? Monse, no offense, but you’re a loose cannon. We’re not telling you for your own protection,”

“My protection?” Monse leaned closer to Ruby, “eat a dick,”

“Case in point,” Ruby said, “you don’t even know and you’re at Defcon Solange,”

They continued walking and as they were walking past an alley they saw a guy getting jumped into a gang. Monse and Elizabeth began staring at the actions happening, but Ruby and Jamal took each of their arms.

“Don’t look,” Ruby grunted, “keep walking,”

“Why would anyone wanna get jumped on 19th street?” Jamal asked, “I’d join First Street. Only one second of pain,”

“Agreed,” Ruby said, “besides, who would want a lifetime commitment at our age?”

“Apparently neither of you,” Elizabeth chuckled.

“Lack of commitment seems to be a noticeable trend in this friendship,” Monse shook her head, “as does lack of space,” Monse pushed the boys away.

“We can’t tell you what Cesar said,” Jamal said.

Rap music was being played from down the street from a red Impala, “fine then. I’ll ask myself. Eli, let’s go,”

Monse walked in front of the car as a head stuck out of the window, “Hey, you crazy?!”

Monse and Elizabeth walked over to the driver’s side and leaned down, “we just wanted to let Cesar know that we were back in town,”

“And looking like some fine ass hynas,” the mystery cholo smirked.

“Underaged hynas,” Monse snapped.

“Not for some,” the cholo stared at Elizabeth, “it’s all good. You just look a lil different. What is it?”

“My boobs,” Monse deadpanned.

“Nah, you got your braces off,” he laughed, “and who are you, hermosa?”

“Elizabeth,” she blushed.

“Cool. Spooky,” he drove away as the girls went back to the boys on the sidewalk.

“When did Oscar get out?” Monse looked confused.

“Six weeks ago,” Ruby answered as they covered the girls cleavages with their sweaters.

“Now it makes sense! Whatever Cesar said, he said to impress Oscar. Cesar’s terrified of his brother,” Monse smiled.

“Along with everyone else,” Ruby said.

“Then who cares what he says,” Elizabeth shrugged.

“Oh, just drop it!” Jamal raised his voice.

“Do we look like we can just drop it?” Monse asked.

“Actually you do. You just won’t,” Jamal shrugged then a body jumped out from behind them.

“Tax time, bitches!” Latrelle said, “hands up, money out,”

“How can we take out money out with our hands up?” Elizabeth asked.

“I know you bookheads got that back to school gwop,” Latrelle scowled.

Monse started talking, “actually, it’s orientation day. Technically, we’re neither in school nor out of school. We’re…”

Ruby covered Monse’s mouth, “we don’t have any money,”

Latrelle gave a look to Jamal, “what about that 20?” Ruby groaned and handed Latrelle his 20.

Elizabeth, Monse, and Jamal were walking from orientation and were now in front of Cesar’s place that was filled with Santos. Monse and Jamal were going back and forth on the situation, but Elizabeth was stuck on the sight of “Spooky” working out as his muscles constricted when he lifted the weights. Slowly, she came back to reality and the bickering between Jamal and Monse.

“...but he would never join the gang. He’s an outlier so whatever is going on it isn’t that,” Monse snapped at Jamal.

“He isn’t the same,” Jamal said, “he dumped us,”

“But we weren’t here so it’s not official,” Monse looked across the street.

“If someone breaks up with you over text, is it official?” Jamal asked,

“Yes,”

“Consider me the text,” Jamal clicked his tongue, “Ding! You’ve been dumped,” Elizabeth and Montse rolled their eyes and started going over there, “wait! Please don’t go. Please, you’re not… you’re not safe,”

“Why?” Elizabeth asked.

“Because…” Jamal looked at their newly developed chests, “both of you blossomed,”

“Blossomed?” Monse asked.

“Popped. Busted out. Puffed your party pillows. Whatever you wanna call your new cha-cha-bingos,” Jamla pointed towards the cholos, “these new homies he’s hanging with are thirsty,” Jamal threw his hoodie onto Monse, who tossed it back as Elizabeth and herself walked to the other side of the street, “Ok. don’t worry, girls! I got your back…”

The two approached the exiled friend as the other Santos turned to stare at the two walking up to the younger Diaz. Monse stopped in front of Cesar as Elizabeth, coincidentally, stood in front of Oscar, who was staring at her. The leader’s eyes felt like it was burning holes through Elizabeth’s face, but she didn’t make it look obvious even though there was a blush on her cheeks.

“I need to talk to you,” Monse said firmly.

“I’m listening,” Cesar stayed seated.

“Privately,” Elizabeth whispered as the Santos turned to stare at them longer.

“Yeah. We can go inside,” Cesar’s older brother cleared his throat, “but, uh, if you both wanna sit on my face, y’all gotta put those mouths on pause so I can concentrate,” Laughs were heard from the cholos so Monse quickly bailed and went back to Jamal; however, Elizabeth felt a wave of burning anger in her so she pulled her fist back and punched Cesar on the mouth. He groaned as Elizabeth leaned closer to whisper into his ear.

“Do not try to come back and get along with me until you make things right with Monse. I know what y’all did so I’m only doing this for her now,” Elizabeth said, “come near me and I will punch the shit out of you again,” Elizabeth left as Cesar looked at her with slight fear in his eyes and the cholos stared at her in lust after the action was taken by her. Her cheeks burned red at the attention especially from the certain leader that sat next to Cesar. Oohs were heard from the porch, but Elizabeth paid no mind to it as she went back to walking with Jamal and Monse.

“Cesar is dead to us!” Monse yelled.

“Told ya,” Jamal said as he ran to the back of the bushes.

“He doesn’t get to break up with us,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “we’re breaking up with him,”

“Sit on my face? Who says that?” Monse stuck her hands out.

“Chairs who can talk! And buttholes!” Jamal called out from the bushes.

“I wouldn’t put dumb crap like that past Oscar, but Cesar?” Monse asked in disbelief, “what happened to him?” Jamal was rolling around when Monse came into an idea, “Cesar’s gotta be hitting the pipe. Right? right!”

“Could be?” Elizabeth shrugged as Jamal jumped onto the next patch of grass. “That was totally out of character,” Monse shook her head, but realized what Jamal was doing, “what are you doing?”

“I’m getting into character,” Jamal sprayed water onto her armpits and clothes, “hey, pops. Say nothing and go with my flow,”

“Monse! Eli! Welcome back, babies. Ready for the new year?” Dwayne hugged both girls.

“Bound to be a lot of surprises,” Monse shrugged as she reciprocated the gift already.

“How was practice?” Dwayne asked his son.

“Yeah, how was practice?” Elizabeth smiled as Jamal threw his gym bag at her.

“I don’t know. Ask those D1 scouts who were all up on me,” Jamal pulled on his jersey.

Dwayne chuckled, “that’s my boy!” He pulled Jamal into a man hug then walked away with an extra pep to his step and back to his gardening.

“Did you quit the team and not tell your dad?” Monse asked.

“No,” Jamal looked at Monse, “yes. Look I suited up first day, and I just wasn’t feeling it,”

“Wasn’t feeling it?” Elizabeth threw the bag back at Jamal.

“Yeah. Wasn’t feeling like breaking my neck,” Jamal threw the bag down on the ground, “listen, everybody that knows me knows that I suck, except my pops. And he keeps thinking that I’m just gonna wake up one day and be him, and...I’m not him,” Jamal sighed, “I just need the right time to tell him,”

“How ironic that a guy that can’t keep a secret is keeping the biggest secret of his life,” Monse smirked, “I’m gonna rat you out to your dad,” her smirk fell, “unless you drop the 411 about Cesar. What did he say?”

“No!” Jamal denied.

“Yes!” Monse said, “Mr. Turn-”

Jamal covered Monse’s mouth, “Cesar said you let him hit it before you left for camp,” Jamal said in one breath.

The two girls were fuming and decided to do a group call later with Ruby to find out the context and how he said it, but Elizabeth had work that night so she couldn’t participate, settling on telling Monse to keep her updated. A long six hours of working, she got off at 10pm and checked her phone to see a text from Monse telling her to meet at Dwayne’s joint at five to chop it up.

The next day came around and Monse and Elizabeth were at the joint with Jamal as he and Elizabeth worked. Elizabeth sometimes worked for Dwayne to earn a little extra money to prevent herself from asking for money from her mother because her mother was already deep in debt and Elizabeth was doing anything in her power to help her out.

“That’s the eleventh text,” Monse sighed, “Ruby’s almost 2 hours late,”

“He said he’ll be here, so he’ll be here. Trust me,” Jamal gave the customer his order.

“Yeah, Mon. Chill,” Elizabeth smirked.

“Said the guy pretending to play football?” Monse stared at Jamal. 

“Maybe my pops won’t notice,” Jamal hoped.

“I don’t think that’s possible, J,” Elizabeth motioned towards the countless photos of Jamal playing football.

“Where the hell is Ruby?” Jamal put his hand on his head.

After a few minutes, Monse and Elizabeth decided to go to Ruby’s house to see what was going on. The two rushed in through the door to see Ruby standing on top of a table, wearing a pink dress, and Abuelita was hemming it.

“What the hell is going on ?” Monse asked.

“I think it’s pretty obvious,” Ruby rolled his eyes.

“Great,” Monse rolled her eyes, “so, walk me through the moment Cesar said what he said,”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ruby looked at Monse.

“There you go again,” Monse crossed her arms.

“There you go again what?” Ruby looked confused.

“Keeping things from us,” Elizabeth stood by Monse’s side, “stop withholding things from us,”

Monse pulled Ruby outside onto the porch, “Monse, wait! Monse! We need to go back inside,”

Monse faced Ruby, “what did Cesar exactly say? And how did he say it? We need context, tone. We need to know, Ruby.”

“Y’all know what I know,” Ruby insisted, “what I don’t know is why he said it. But he said it. We tried to get him to take it back, but he wouldn’t. So what can we do? Drop it,”

“I can’t,” Monse looked down.

“Why not?” Ruby asked.

“‘Cause I’m still figuring out if I still hate him. You heard what your brother said. How are we gonna survive high school without Cesar?” Monse said.

“Mario’s not some sage. Don’t take his words to heart, it’s just words,” Ruby tried to persuade Monse, but she wouldn’t give up.

“If that’s true then why should we take Cesar’s words to heart?” Monse turned the tables, “they’re just words,”

“Sometimes, it’s not what you say, but how you say it. And Cesar said it like he meant it. But things could be worse,”

“What’s worse than losing a friend?” Elizabeth asked.

“Entering high school with a rep,” Ruby said, “you’re smart enough to know that a rumor could ruin your life,” Monse and Elizabeth nodded, “but it’s contained.”

“You’re right. No one knows,” Monse sighed.

Jasmine rode by Ruby’s house with her scooter, but she stopped to talk to the three, “hi! Damn, Ruby. I see you! I see you! And I’m down with it,” Jasmine winked at Ruby, “I like the freaky, just like Monse,” 

“What are you talking about?” Elizabeth asked.

“Y’all ain’t gotta be shy with me,” Jasmine smiled, “I know Cesar and Monse be getting it in,” Jasmine humped the air.

“No one knows?! Really?” Monse scoffed, “I officially hate the traitor, and now I’m gonna kick his ass,”

“Girl, I’m coming with,” Elizabeth growled.

“Monse! Eli!” Ruby ran back inside to take the dress off as the two girls got closer to the Diaz residence.

The two girls arrived at the Diaz house to see Cesar riding his skateboard and Oscar chilling on the wall. When they saw the suspect, Monse marched her way to Cesar and pushed him off of his skateboard.

“You little bitch!” Monse yelled as she began hitting Cesar.

“Damn, that hyna’s wild. Must be a freak on all fours,” a cholo said.

“Shut the fuck up, cabron. Before you’re gonna be like little homie over there,” Elizabeth snapped at the nearest cholo.

“I fought for you. I had your back. For what? For you to impress your puto friends and humiliate me?” Monse continued hitting Cesar as he tried to shield his face from the enraged girl on top of him.

“Hermanito, you better back up before you get smacked up,” Oscar smirked.

Elizabeth turned to the leader, “Callate, puto. You aboutta be smacked up like tú hermanito,”

“Watch it now, nena,” Oscar winked at the spitfire sophomore.

“Monse! Eli!” Jamal yelled as Ruby and Jamal pulled Monse to the sidewalk.

Elizabeth glared at the leader of the Santos as she walked back to her group of friends to listen to what they had to say.

“This is why we didn’t want to tell you guys!” Ruby yelled.

“Y’all goin’ crazy!” Jamal added.

“Crazy? We’re crazy?!” Monse yelled.

“Calm down. Breath,” Ruby tried to calm Monse down.

“Don’t you patronize me!” Monse pushed Jamal, “I don’t need you! Any of you! I was just trying to keep our crew together, but since Eli and I are the only ones who cares, y’all are dead to me! I’ll survive on my own,” Monse walked off.

The three stood completely dumbfounded by the afrolatina’s rant, but began walking home until a certain voice stopped them.

“Elizabeth,” The three turned to see Oscar standing on the steps of the porch, “come here,”

Jamal and Ruby looked at Elizabeth, asking if they should stay with her, but she knew that they were scared to even stay another minute, “it’s alright. I’ll text y’all when I get home,”

The two boys nodded and rushed to get home and avoid the feared leader so Elizabeth turned to walk towards the now empty porch. Oscar stood on the porch with a strong pose that oozed power and a smirk showed proudly upon his lips.

“Y-y-yeah,” Elizabeth stuttered.

“Let’s go inside so we can talk,” Oscar turned to the door to open it for her.

“No, gracias. Podemos hablar aquí,” Elizabeth blushed.

“Por qué eres tímido ahora? You were just talking real big, bebita,” Oscar smirked at the sudden shy girl in front of him.

“I w-was just heated i-in that moment,” Elizabeth put her arms behind her back and looked down when she felt the leader’s stare on her face.

“Alright. Let me see tu teléfono,” Oscar held out his hand.

“Por qué,” Elizabeth looked at him confused.

“Let me just see it. I’m gonna give you my number,” Elizabeth handed him her phone, “you can text me whenever and call me. If you need anything then hit me up, hermosa,”

“Oh, o-ok. Gracias, Spooky. Call me Eli. I kind of don’t like my name,”

“Oscar. Call me Oscar and no problema, princesa,” Oscar winked, “let me walk you home. Where do you stay at?”

“A few houses that way,” she pointed to her right.

“Alright. Vamos, hermosa,” Oscar walked down the steps, holding his hand out to help Elizabeth down the stairs, “so why haven’t I met you yet?”

“estaba en la prisión when I started hanging out with the crew,” Elizabeth shrugged.

Oscar nodded, “well, I find you muy hermosa. Let me get to know you,”

They were in front of her house as she leaned on the gate with Oscar leaning his hand next to her body and the other hand in his pocket, “we’ll see, Oscar Diaz. Buenas noches,”

“Buenas noches, hermosa,” Oscar smirked at the girl that walked under his arm to go inside the gate.

She had to work the next day so she immediately did her nightly routine then fell asleep in her bed with dreams of the big bad leader that live a few houses down. Her dreams carried her away and into dreamland until 7 am and her alarm blaring and telling her to get up. Elizabeth groaned as she slammed her hand down on the alarm and got up to get ready for the day. Once she was dressed and ready to go, she started cooking breakfast for herself and her mother since her dad was at the hospital still so she settled for eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns so she wouldn’t be late to the bus.

Elizabeth closed the front door and made her way to the bus stop with her earphones pushed into her ears with music blasting to keep her distracted from her surroundings. After a short five minute walk to the bus stop, a red Impala pulled up in front of it, but Elizabeth didn’t pay any mind to it until the driver had honked his horn. She looked up fast and saw the familiar bald head and bicep tattoo.

“H-hey,” Elizabeth smiled.

“Where you headed?” Oscar raised an eyebrow.

“Some of us have to work and can’t lead a gang,” Elizabeth chuckled.

“Where is it at? I can drive you,” Oscar leaned over to open the door.

Elizabeth thought for a second before getting in, “it’s in San Bernardino. Amazon warehouse,”

“Why are you working there?” Oscar began driving the car, “don’t you gotta have your diploma for that?”

“Yup, but I have some connections and they let me work there. They pay well and I got enough saved for the future,” Elizabeth sighed.

“Whatchu savin’ up for in the future?” Oscar glanced at the young girl.

“That’s gotta be at a later time,” Elizabeth shrugged, “if y-you even s-stick around,”

Half an hour passed with small talk between the two until they finally arrived in front of the warehouse building. Elizabeth gathered her stuff and opened the door to get out until a hand touched her forearm, 

“Mamita, what time you getting off?”

Elizabeth turned with her cheeks ablazed, “3. Bye, Oscar. Thanks for the ride,”

TIME SKIP

It was the end of Elizabeth’s shift and she made her way out after clocking out and as she opened the door, she saw the familiar Impala with a familiar body leaning against the front. She walked up to the body with red cheeks that seemed to always come when he was around.

“W-what are you doing here?” Elizabeth cleared her throat.

“What does it look like?” Oscar smirked, “picking you up, bebe,” Oscar opened the passenger door for her so she got inside and fiddled with her fingers as Oscar went around to get into the driver’s side. When he got inside, Elizabeth quietly thanked him for taking her to work and picking her up, 

“Gracias, Oscar, for picking me up and dropping me off,”

“No problema,” Oscar looked straight ahead at the traffic and a comfortable silence followed. “You’re very shy pero you have a fire in your eyes that you won’t let out. Por que?” Oscar questioned her as they got closer to Freeridge.

They were getting closer as Elizabeth thought about her answer until they reached her place, “some things...are meant to be kept inside,” she opened the door and got out, “bye, Oscar,”

The two went separate ways as the days went by and it was the first day of school. Elizabeth’s alarm went off as she groaned and slammed the snooze button to rub her eyes. At that moment, her mother came in and sat on her bed with a small smile at the sight of her daughter waking up, reminding the mother of the past times her daughter woke up.

“Mi amor, time to get up. It’s time for school and I made breakfast before I have to leave for work,” Leticia Hernandez smoothed down Elizabeth’s hair.

“Gracias, ma,” Elizabeth smiled before it dropped, “how is papa?”

“Tu papa es bueno pero still the same,” Leticia teared up, “things will be ok, mija,”

“I know, mama,” Elizabeth kissed her mother’s cheek, “I paid the phone bill and the internet bill so don’t worry about that,”

“Mija, don’t do that,” Leticia slightly frowned, “you should keep that money for you. I got the bills,”

“I know, ma, pero it’s fine. I have enough for myself. I just wanna help relieve some stress from you,” Elizabeth pouted.

Leticia’s eyes began overwhelmed with tears as it began running down her cheeks, “I don’t deserve a daughter like you,”

“Yes you do, ma,” Elizabeth hugged her mom, “you deserve the world with how hard you’re working. Now get to work so you’re not late and so I can get ready for school,”

“Wait, before we do that. I got something for you in the mail,” Leticia pulled out a letter, “read it,”

Elizabeth took the envelope and saw “UCLA” on the corner, when she saw it, her heart pounded in her chest and she began to get nervous, “open it, mija,” her mother softly said, Elizabeth’s hand shook as she opened the envelope and took the paper out. Her eyes skimmed over the letter and stopped at the first few lines of the letter seeing the “congratulations.”

“I-i-i goT IN! MA, I GOT IN! FULL RIDE SCHOLARSHIP! I’M GOING TO UCLA WHEN I’M DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL!”

The two cheered and jumped around with tears going down their eyes, but soon embraced each other in a long hug. After a few minutes, they went their separate ways to continue with their day as Leticia left the house to go to the hospital for her shift as a registered nurse. Elizabeth went down to eat her breakfast, but was able to finish half of it so she packed it to put it in the fridge then did her morning routine. Once everything was done, she put on her denim shorts and a black v-neck t-shirt with checkered Vans slip-ons that adorned her feet. When she grabbed her backpack from next to her bed, she left her humble abode and to the Diaz house to meet with the gang.

“‘Sup, guys,” Elizabeth yawned, “we waiting for Diaz?”

The group nodded as the sound of a door opening caught their attention even more when Cesar walked out and to the group. Everyone looked at each other then began walking to school to start off the new year.

“I can’t do this,” Jamal said, “I can’t keep secrets! It’s gonna make me implode! I don’t know why anybody keeps secrets,”

“There is something I need to tell you guys,” Monse said before gunshots rang out.

“.44!” Everyone yelled with a smile for the feel of things going back.

However, that was when a car pulled up next to them, “Cesar,” Oscar called out as he got out and pulled the seat to allow enough space for Cesar to get through.

Cesar looked at the group then went into the car with his older brother and gang before Oscar pushed the seat back and got in himself, sparing a glance towards the crew. He drove away as the group followed to stand in the middle of the road looking at the back of the Impala.

“What were you going to say?” Ruby asked as he turned to Monse.

“Cesar,” Monse turned to the remaining group, “we need to save him,”

[leebrontide]

A true, 30 year, tropetastic, queer love story. (Part 1)

Pls open the link if you'd like to read a 30 year, trope-tastic true queer romance featuring pining, instalove, swords, childhood-friends-to-lovers and a happy ending.

We THINK the story begins in 1991. We know it starts at theatre day-camp for kids, a summer when we were both in elementary school.

The earliest memories are vague- I remembered a super cool kid from the older class with dark eyes who I was desperate to eat lunch with every day.

It's taken us years to reconstruct the timeline. We have figured out I did go to her house outside of camp that first year, because I remember her bird that tried to bite me. We can only guess at years based on camp themes.

Because we were little kids. I was 7. So we lost touch.

But here's the thing- we kept going to the same camp. She was always in a class ahead of me, because I'm a year and a half younger.

And every year- apparently without remembering we'd met before? We became summer best friends. Drawn together over and over.

But, being disorganized kids in a world of lesser tech, every year, when camp ended, we lost phone numbers- we lived a good 30 minutes away from each other, so I have to imagine our parent's weren't exactly heartbroken at the loss. It was a lot of driving.

In 4th grade, when I was 9, I made a new best friend, named Meredith. My parents heartily recommended the summer theatre camp to hers, and she was sent with me, the next year.

She, was older than me, so she was in Ty's class. & having excellent taste, also made friends with her.

The three of us played together all summer.

Then came the fall, and the inevitable lost contact. I remember being sad about that much more clearly, that year.

BUT, the big change happened when I was 10.

Again, sent to camp. Again, my friend Meredith was there to.

At lunch, I found them playing together. I went to introduce myself to the obviously cool older girl.

For some reason I tried to shake her hand? Little weirdo.

Ty reacts to me the same way- oh hey! Cool new person! I want to be friends!

Meredith looks at us both like we're out of our minds.

"You know each other. We played all last summer."

And suddenly, the spell of childhood amnesia was broken.

I DID know her. We were FRIENDS.

We HAD BEEN FRIENDS for years.

She LIKED ME.

SHE LIKED ME.

(love with memory disabilities is a trip, folks. And her lil ADHD kid brain was struggling right alongside mine)

We were elated.

But that wasn't the last shock to my little 10 year old heart that 5 week summer camp would bring.

Meredith was, and is, a poet. Somehow she had a habit, at 11 years old, of making up poems about people's eyes.

Weird stuff. I remember a pair of green eyes being compared to a deep sea, were the bones of drunken drowned sailors floated.

Very Anne of Green Gables.

And- I remember this part with perfect clarity. She turned to me and said, do you know who has pretty eyes? Ty.

We were crossing the stage, Ty was carrying a box of props like 15 feet ahead of us.

I said "does she?"

And then, ever the romantic I screamed "HEY TY TURN AROUND I WANNA SEE SOMETHING!"

She did.

And for the first time, I looked into the dark eyes I'd been drawn to for all those years, and saw them anew.

There's a reason cupid's supposed to have arrows.

I swear to you that this is true. It felt like an actual blow to my chest. Like a physical blow.

I was stunned. My little heart was hammering out of control.

I have no idea what I said, or did, or looked like after that.

But I figured out pretty quickly what that was. It was not subtle, even to a prepubescent nearly 6th grader.

But I was a pragmatic little almost-6th-grader.

This was a crush. Middle schoolers have crushes.

And they're supposed to fade over time.

I don't remember if I was worried that my crush was on a girl. I just remember the certainty that this was just a child's crush, and therefor nothing that would last or cause problems.

And when fall came, I lost her number again.

But this time I was devastated.

But, this time a hero saved the day! Meredith, sweet, wonderful, more-organized-than-either-of-us Meredith, still had the number.

And this time, I held on to it.

We became year round besties.

For the first year of adoring her year-round, I didn't worry about my little crush. It'd go away in time.

By 7th grade, it started to be a problem.

We were having sleep overs, and I started to feel guilty about how much I wanted to look at her and cuddle her all the time.

I don't think I told anyone right away. But Meredith was always the smartest of us three.

She's the one who proposed we play "wedding". She presided over the ceremony herself, and her little sister was our wedding photographer.

Oddly, even though I didn't know about this photo till years later, this is a game both of us remember playing.

It meant... something.

Image

I started to feel guilty. We were having sleep overs, talking every day on the phone. I wanted to look at her all the time- I wanted to be with her all the time. I wanted to kiss her, and started to realize she might be bothered by that.

I never wanted to hide anything from her.

So, I confessed my love. I didn't think of this as being especially radical or brave, but in retrospect, I'm impressed by 12 year old Lee's behavior.

She smiled brightly, and said she loved me to!

As her best friend.

I clarified my position.

She repeated that she loved me as her very best friend.

And these feelings were a bit scary and BIG, so that was all good. She still wanted to hang out all the time. Life was good.

By 8th grade, I was starting to worry. The crush hadn't worn off yet. Everyone told me these things wore off.

But I was more in love with her than ever.

And when Meredith moved to Nashville, we got even closer.

We joined the MN sword club. Made new friends. In the way of these things, a whole lot of them turned out to be some evolving variety of queer. Friends started coming out.

I barely needed to, my crush was horrifyingly obvious to all our friends.

Image

I promised you swords. The swords don't feature prominently, but the club was a major connection for us for years, and this detail has always struck me.

I'm not an especially good fencer. Especially then. I was constructed out of raw spaghetti noodles and moved like creaky budget claymation most of the time. I was calculating, but slow.

She was fast, and brash, and more skilled than me. She eventually beat some nationally recognized fencers. We called her "fiery Tybalt" because we're a bunch of big ol nerds who wanted to sound smart. She eventually took her name from that nickname.

Even at only 5ft tall, she should have beaten me handily and reliably. She could hold her own against much better fencers.

But we actually got BANNED from sparring together, because we were so evenly matched we could never get enough points for a win.

My one and only expertise in fencing was knowing her. But she knew me just as well, so there was a stalemate.

Our friends laughed at us.

I confessed my love again in 8th grade.

And 9th.

10th.

11th.

I never wanted to lie to her. It was important to me that she knew what I was thinking and feeling, but it was also important that I not burden her with it.

She always gave me the same answer. She loved me. She loved me SO MUCH.

What a shame she was straight.

Now, readers, let me remind you we're looking at two queer kids in the 90s at this point.

There were pressures at play.

When I was in 11th grade, she left for college. And she was far enough away that long distance calls were expensive. I couldn't call her every day.

What I remember most about senior year was being depressed and lonely.

But also, that after years of my family despairing of my ever learning to type, and eventually getting me the (then very expensive) dragon speech-to-type program so I could type my homework and not fail school- my contact with her was suddenly all in text. AOL messenger.

People have commented at all my workplaces about my typing speed. I type 120 words per minute now.

Specifically because it was the only way to talk to her most days.

I went to college the following year. We both got boyfriends. Both nice boys who liked and admired us.

BOTH broke up with us because we so obviously preferred each other over them. To an embarrassing degree.

The boy I was dating- bless him he only lasted 3 months- specifically told me "if I go out with you any more I'm going to fall in love with you. And you're in love with her."

Slick bastard.

He was right tho.

I couldn't be mad at him.

But this is when I started to really panic.

It'd been 6 years. My first crush was still absolutely roaring. Nobody else came close to tempting me.

And nobody else wanted to, when it became obvious they couldn't compete with her.

And she was still my best friend, so of course I told her. I told her I was miserable, because I was going to be single forever because nobody else would want me, because I was so in love with her.

She felt bad. She loved me so much. So much she'd been dumped to.

Such a shame she was straight.

I wouldn't find out till much later that that conversation had started something on her side, that, for once, she knew to keep from me.

She spent the next 6 months in intense contemplation.

She DID prefer me to all the other boys (and girls) who were chasing her in college.

And there were a lot of them.

She did think I was pretty, and she did love me. And she did want to be with me forever.

She'd been as dedicated to me as I was to her through this whole time. As caring, as invested, as, frankly, obsessed. Everyone could see it.

But she wasn't straight. She was bi.

And ace.

We wouldn't learn that word for many more years. All she knew was that the story of falling in love didn't match the love she was feeling.

But then she realized- she'd never felt the feelings she was "supposed" to feel for her boyfriend, either. She was not more attracted to him than to me. And he was a good looking guy. A catch by most any standard.

And she also hadn't loved him.

But she did love me.

So, my sophomore year of college (her junior year), we were preparing our trip to the Renaissance festival. A bunch of her friends were driving into town for it, and we'd see each other again at last. (we'd been back at school like 2 weeks, so naturally were desperate to meet up)

I am still flabbergasted as the next series of events.

She asked me out. On AOL instant messenger. After over 7 years of my pining, and adoration. After 7 years of choosing the pain of being near her and not being able to kiss her, over the desolation of not having her beside me

She very logically explained her reasoning.

I had a meltdown.

My poor room mate walked into our room to find me crying and throwing things at the computer screen.

I was convinced she was offering to date me because she felt bad for me. Because she loved me and wanted me to stop hurting and feeling alone.

So I turned her down.

That, friends, was HARD. REALLY HARD.

Thankfully, she was having none of it. She insisted it only made sense for us to date. I tried to stay firm. I refused repeatedly, all in that damned AOL messenger.

We reached a compromise- one date, at the Ren Fest, as a test.

And if it failed we'd never speak of it again.

Because the prospect of dating and breaking up was terrifying to us both.

If we were going to be together, we'd be defacto engaged. Neither of us could tolerate breaking up.

The weekend came- my college friends all knew, and accompanied me, made sure I was decked out in the best fair garb we could cobble together.

She drove up with her friends- including the ex- who had no idea what was happening. She had on her finest cape & boots & a swishy dress.

We could not manage to be alone together. Like it was a proper rom-com ridiculousness. All damn day.

But at least we were together.

She came back to my dorm that night, to spend the night, and drive back the next day.

Shout out to my room mate who stayed at her boyfriend's house that night. Love you, Lindsay.

We finally managed to kiss.

She abruptly decided kissing wasn't some weird thing people only pretended to like because it was normal, and was in fact an amazing wonderful thing we should do frequently.

I don't actually remember us deciding that the experiment was successful, and we'd be a romantic couple from then on.

Pretty sure the kissing melted my brain.

It was not like kissing my old boyfriend at all.

She went back to college the next day.

I do remember, that, MORE THAN ONCE, I nervously asked my roomy if this had all really happened. I was truly and genuinely concerned that I'd dreamed or fantasized the whole thing. I'd done both enough times before.

I couldn't just ask outright so I'd say something like. "Hey did anything- important happen yesterday?"

And she'd look at me like I was speaking some alien language, and tell me I was dating Ty now.

I wandered around in a dream-like stupor for a WEEK.

This is a good place to stop for now. More tonight. I need to go snuggle my baby and help my wife with lunch. 💖

Popping in briefly for the next installment.

All our friends knew immediately. Some of them- the newer ones, were confused because they had assumed we were always dating, on account of how blatantly in love we were all the damn time.

We decided tho, to hold off on telling our families. We decided to date a year first, to show that it was serious, and that we meant it.

It was a good year, full of the kind of pining that is regularly rewarded by happy weekends and spring breaks and summers.

The next august, before we went back to school, we each sat down our own parents. Hers were sort of "yeah ok whatever." I was not there for that conversation.

I went to my favorite restaurant with my own parents, and told them I was seeing someone. Dad was enthused. Wanted to meet him.

Well. I said. You have.

Because it's Ty.

[drawingdreamsmp]

This is some thinking based on the “tales of the smp” thing Karl’s got going on!

Got some thoughts surrounding lore concepts, DEFINITELY rambling and not theorizing AT ALL

A lot of people support the idea that Dream is some kind of immortal, and I love that idea. I like to think he was a regular guy a very very long time ago, but some magic fuckery got involved when he tried to use an incomplete totem of undying, leaving him in a state of half death where —when he should die— he reverts to the form of a little wooden doll (the totem! Looks like his smiley face icon). It takes a lot of time for him to recover from this in which he is barely-conscious, unable to move or communicate or think much at all. It’s very boring and lonely so he will avoid it at all costs, hence why he nearly always keeps his armor on.

This adds a possibility for his relationship to George and Sapnap. They were probably friends in his original life, but died in the same accident that cost him his own life, but they didn’t have totems. This obviously bums Dream out once he finally heals and reverts from his doll form (nearly 20 years of lonely semi consciousness) to hear they died. He ends up finding a hunting party of two. This party has one archer with striking white goggles and one axe-wielding bandana-wearing man. He is overjoyed and runs up to greet them but they clearly don’t remember him. Sad stuff or whatever, they end up taking him in and becoming really good friends again. Dream tries to explain himself but they don’t really believe him until a few years pass and he always seems to know their favorite colors/foods/animals. Probably 5 years or so pass, and eventually history repeats itself and the other two die while Dream outlasts them before dying very shortly after.

At this point he notices a pattern where after around 20+ years of non-existence (sleep) he will wake up, meet a Sapnap and George, a few years will pass, they will get killed and he will die after. His Totem is kind of tied to their lives in which he will sleep until the time they met in his first life and die the same time in their life. Once they die, he can no longer maintain his physical form. Basically the only thing the totem does is let him keep his age of 21 and his memories, but when not with the others (either they are living their lives before they met him (George around 24 and Sapnap around 20) or dead (around 4-5 years after they meet Dream)) he’s asleep and alone.

The repercussions this has explains a lot of Dream’s current character. For example, his very apathetic attitude and love for chaos is because he’s seen it all before. Either trapped buried in the underbrush somewhere as a wooden doll or spending 4 years with his friends that he knows are fated to die has left him disenchanted with everything. History repeats itself and nothing is new anymore for someone that has no fear of eternal death. Chaos is at least entertaining.

Each death leaves him less connected to his own humanity but stronger as he grows closer to an immortal than a human. He notices he bleeds less when cut, he can last longer without food, his strength is unnatural, etc. Despite all of this, he can never protect his friends and, therefore, never avoid being trapped as a doll for a long time.

He wants to stop caring about George and Sapnap, but it never really works. He’s tried avoiding them, even fighting them, but they always end up together. This is part of the reason he removed the Kingship from George once he became targeted; he’s always trying to find a way to break the cycle and prevent their deaths. Currently this created a rift between them, but at this point Dream would rather have them alive them keep them as friends. The “I don’t care about anything” is not entirely a lie because there is almost nothing he does care about. Even George and Sapnap are somewhat expendable in his eyes when push comes to shove and he has no other way of avoiding it. He doesn’t want them to die and does all in his power to prevent it, but one can only see their friends die so many times knowing they’ll come back before becoming numb.

A few lil bonus thoughts

Dream can become the lil doll whenever he wants but can only turn back when Sapnap and George are alive. It’s not a trick he uses often.

He keeps his skills from the previous lives, only possibly growing a little bit rusty from so long asleep.

He’ll wake up in whatever he died in. He always keeps a dark green cloak on him to put over his regular clothes because he usually died in damaged/bloody clothing. Showing up as a stranger to town with clothes that show you were murdered in a past life is not a good idea

Sometimes George and Sapnap will know each other before meeting Dream, sometimes they wont. If it’s the latter case, the one that didn’t meet up with the other two will find the others nearly immediately

Occasionally Dream will spend a little longer as a totem even after meeting one of them because he can’t go back to normal after a death by choice. Once, George found him in the woods, thought he was a cool little figurine, and placed it on his shelf. It was a little shocking when he rushed into the kitchen after hearing a large crash to find a man with a cloak coated in blood but without wounds on the ground covered in everything from the kitchen shelf.

Sapnap is usually the one to meet him first and is the quicker to become friends with him. They both argue pretty frequently, what with them being so competitive, but it’s never serious. Dream likes to help Sapnap get better at fighting (partly because he wants a better sparring partner, partly because he wants him to be able to protect himself)

George is usually a bit more standoff-ish. Although they always end up as close friends, he’s pretty skeptical. The first few cycles of death when Dream tries to convince them they all used to know each other—before he basically gave up on that— George was always the last to believe him

Dream begins wearing a mask after he once was recognized while with George and Sapnap. They all knew one man in a town before they died, but obviously only Dream remembers of the three. When they return to the town maybe 20+ years later and the man is 20+ years older but sees the three of them all looking pretty much the same (Dream with a few new scars) he freaks the fuck out. He wears the mask whenever in public

(If you support the Karl time traveller concept then the mask also come in handy for that., avoiding recognition. The mask is made out of wood and always resets any damage upon Dreams death)

He usually goes by Dream with his friends, but if he does give a pseudonym it starts with a “C” (Clay, Cornelius, etc.)

Technoblade is also an immortal after some nether mishap (I mean.. he’s basically a piglin so it fits) and is around the same age as Dream. But where Dream is an immortal that dies but it never lasts, ‘Technoblade never dies.’ They never ended up crossing paths, but Dream has always wanted to test that theory after hearing rumors about him

Part of the reason he’s so manipulative is because of the time he spends as a doll and the inability to change his and his friends fate. In both situations he has no control over the situation, leading to him becoming a bit of a control freak in the current day. He also got used to lying and controlling his tone when questions about his identity became frequent

He has a little bit of arrogance from his many years of watching humanity make the same mistakes over an over again. At this point, he barely considers himself human, something better. He’s been caught a few times using language that makes him sound not human

I like the idea that Sapnap has some kind of fire ability. Whether he’s always had an elemental affinity or if it’s a result of the loop he and the others are stuck in is up for debate. Maybe it was natural but strengthened with every death he’s gone through.

While the totem and subsequent deaths have severely distanced Dream from being a human, Sapnap and George are mostly the same. Sometimes they’ll get glimpses of memories of the past, find that they are naturally really good at something they’ve never practiced, and are a little more in tune with Dream’s unnaturalness. It comes from knowing him and from being connected through the cycle, seeing his restless soul breaking through the cracks of his undying body

Dream has a tiny bit of a jealous streak stemming from the fact that —at least to him— they’ve been friends for a very long time. Others could hurt them or take them away and that’s the last thing he wants. They’re his connection to humanity and are usually the ones to bring out the most positive emotion from him

Bad (badboyhalo) has mentioned he likes the theory that while Bad has unlimited lives, his soul is bound to Skeppy’s. If Skeppy dies, he dies. Based on that, Dream has seen Bad a few times over the many years and he’s the only other person really close to Dream. As a Demon he is functionally immortal frequently checks on Dream when he can. He can see Dream slipping further away from Human but doesn’t make an effort to stop it. After all, Bad isn’t human but he’s fine so it’s not really a problem.

Dream has approached Bad about breaking the cycle as his situation (soul tied to humans, and currently Skeppy) is similar to his own (soul tied to totem as is Sapnap’s and George’s). Unfortunately Bad doesn’t really have advice but does try to help somewhat. George and Sapnap don’t usually recognize Bad when they come back, but they do have a trust in him unnatural for regular humans to possess when MEETING A DEMON.

Dream has somewhat dropped his focus on ending the cycle. Not only has hundreds of years not provided a solution, he has grown to like his newfound power and immortality. He does want to end the curse of death on George and Sapnap that leads to him becoming a doll, but if that cost him his power, he might not go through with it

Thank you for reading! Be sure to ask questions about anything if you have them because I’d love to explore this idea :D

[nodesiretogrowup]

alrighty, let’s recap this bitch!

LAUNCHPAD! I’VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! PLEASE COME BACK!

I looked up when National S’mores Day is (because I’m a nerd) and it is August 10. So either the photo later was mislabeled or, more likely, Launchpad got the wrong info

Huey with the little baby scouts is TOO CUTE!!

I wonder if Violet’s there. Probably not because she would have been hanging out with Huey if she was. Or this episode was meant to come before Challenge

It’s a baby beagle boy! I wonder if he’s there of his own will or if it is part of some plan

He scared away most of the kids! Now they won’t get to enjoy s’more-y goodness

His s’more sounds DOPE AF, though it probably would give you INSTANT DIABETES

“Aw, not even a modern robot.” MY SWEET SON!

I know it was the bully saying it, but Huey should chill a bit when it comes to doing things EXACTLY and PERFECTLY. It’s just gonna cause stress

 BOYD IS BABY AND I LOVE HIM

“Would you like to be friends?” “Sure. Wow, that was easy.” If only it was always that easy

I don’t know if Huey has the JWG as memorized as he thinks, going by Challenge and Quack Pack

“We’re just kids.” “Definitely!” *uses laser eyes to light fire*

This episode does a good job showing what a trigger word/phrase is like, though I’m not sure if that was the intention

I like that a squirrel with a burnt tail scurries out of one of the trees. It’s the attention to detail that helps elevate this show

Instead of jumping out of the way or hiding Huey jumps straight onto Boyd to try and help him. Huey already sees Boyd as someone worth protecting

The kid that just runs across the screen while his hat is on fire is great

Not sure why they took the time to change before going to Gyro but whatever

BOYD IS ADORABLE AND I LOVE HIM

“I’m more than an intern, I’m a scientist.” I feel like this might be hinting at Fenton’s arc for the season, possibly wanting to be seen more as a scientist than a superhero

I’m gonna pretend that using sunglasses on someone who is shooting lasers out of their eyes is a Cyclops reference. And they look pretty dope too

At least Fenton knows when he is in over his head...this time

Gyro trying to climb up on the table to avoid Boyd was kind of funny. And then him protecting himself with Lil Bulb

“Which one?” Manny is DONE with this shit

“Boyd? What idiot called it that?” Even when he’s not there, Gyro can still burn Mark lol

I figured 2-BO was a reference to something but wasn’t sure what. Apparently it’s a bit of a play on the name of Astro Boy’s in-universe creator’s son. Neat

 Huey stays in between Gyro and Boyd to protect Boyd

Fenton’s face cracks me up. There are NO THOUGHTS in this man’s head lol

“You were an intern like me?” “Nothing like you.” Damn Gyro, why so salty?

I don’t know why Fenton is so surprised that Gyro was an intern. I feel like that’s a pretty standard thing

LOVE IS STORED IN THE BOYD

It make me sad when Gyro mentions how many times Boyd’s core programing was altered. Poor baby doesn’t really get a say in what happens to him

“ROAD TRIP!” Huey, you do these kinds of things ALL THE TIME. I feel like he should be used to this by now

“YOU’RE not going. GIZMODUCK is.” Does Gyro see Fenton and Gizmoduck as separate entities or is this just a no, but yes type of joke?

Huey standing up for Boyd is so sweet. They barely know each other but Huey trusts him

When the episode doesn’t have the theme song you KNOW shit’s ‘bout to go down

I wonder who’s flying the plane. My guess is Launchpad because Della would have been cooing over Huey making a new friend and go into embarrassing mom mode. He probably went of on his own adventure or did tourist things like buying collectables. Or maybe Gyro flew them there. Who knows

As many people have said, the art direction and animation for this episode are BEAUTIFUL. I love the pink tint the lighting has in most of the episode

SAILOR MOON CONFIRMED CANON

I bet Mark Beaks is a Sailor Moon fan

I like that the in-universe Sailor Moon is a bunny because Usagi is Japanese for rabbit

I love that going incognito nowadays means you wear a hat, a hoodie, and sunglasses. Boyd looks good in red (though red is my favorite color so I might be biased)

Gyro-takes one step and the fuzz shows up. NOICE

I like detective lady. She has a cool design

Huey and Fenton are awful at acting casual

“Crimes?” Oh my sweet Hubert. I’m pretty sure most if not all of Scrooge’s employees have had run ins w/ The Law

Gyro is like, move I’m gay

“I’m here on a very important...field trip.” ALL THE KIDS NEED A GYRO FIELD TRIP LIKE HOW THE GAANG GOT ZUKO FIELD TRIPS

Lil Bulb said FUCK THE POLICE

I wonder what it actually says

Fenton just watches as the inspector chases Lil Bulb

Seriously though, Fenton does a bunch of silly stuff in the background and this episode warrants a rewatch SOLELY for him

How did Lil Bulb know where to find them? And how did he shake off the inspector? I want to see his little adventure

FOR SCIENCE!

“Blah!” *arm armor attaches* I want this joke to come back

Fenton and Huey INSTANTLY nerd out. I love them

Fenton being a Gyro fanboy is ADORABLE

“AH, DUST IN MY EYE! The dust of GENIUS!” What a dweeb lol

I like that Fenton keeps the arm on for the whole scene

Poor Boyd, he looks so scared

Huey going into protective big brother mode

Doofus continues to be equal parts hilarious and disturbing

Where are their parents? Like, someone should be looking after these kids! ESPECIALLY DOOFUS!

“Do you need a hug?” I SURE FUCKING DO

Mark is such a prick lol

“NO WAY, A ROBOT BOY! DREAMS DO COME TRUE!” YOU DON’T DESERVE THAT DREAM YOU COCKWAFFLE

SOMEONE HUG THIS CHILD! BECAUSE I CANNOT!

“Seems like the little guy’s had it tough.” MY POOR BABY

Lil Bulb gets SO PISSED he blew a fuse

You really shouldn’t have left them alone, Gyro

Why does Fenton automatically jump to superhero for Boyd? I mean the theme of the episode is letting Boyd choose who he wants to be so of course Fenton would have his own idea of what Boyd should be, but why go straight to superhero? Do you want superbros, Fenton?

Huey already realises this might be a bad idea, because he’s more concerned about Boyd as a person rather than Boyd as a machine

“IN RETROSPECT WE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE USED THE FIRST HOLE” Fenton, you dumbass genius

Dr. Akita’s setup made me laugh. I DIED when he “enhanced” the image

I recognized the character on the chips though I don’t know their name. I’m more of a western animation fan, so many of the references probably flew pass me

BOOP

I also have a key on my laptop that flies off (it’s the u key)

I LOVE BABY GYRO! It’s so cool they went with his og look (minus the red hair) to show him younger

I LOVE THE OUTLAW COUPLE! SO COOL! SO HOT!

Huey is so DONE with Fenton

I love the stupid G pose he does. PLEASE HAVE HIM DO IT AGAIN. PREFERABLY WHEN DW IS NEARBY

Such a polite boy

“My bones are metal!” This line and Boyd’s catchphrase of “Hi, I’m Boyd/2-BO, a definitely real boy!” reminded me of Olaf. The end of the episode gives Boyd even MORE Olaf parallels

Gizmoduck sliding by those boxes was cool

How did Gizmoduck get himself unstuck from that alley?

I loved the double take the female outlaw does

Huey is TRAUMATIZED

I legit thought Boyd was gonna light the oil on fire the first time I watched and I was like that won’t help

“So, what do we do now?” “I...don’t know.” This is why you don’t leave babies alone to fight criminals

Boyd reminded me of Calculester from Monster Prom when he asked the lady to return the money

STOP LEAVING THE CHILDREN ALONE! THEY ARE BABIES! THEY AREN’T EVEN TEENS!

“Why do we always fight when we’re on vacation?” Because this is Ducktales and there is no such thing as a normal vacation

Lil Bulb just kicking his lil feet

The “lab” safety poster made me chuckle. Then I remembered Akita is also a dog and I laughed more

LITTLE BABY GYRO GRADUATING! My guess is his professor/dean/principal influenced him on a personal level and is partially the reason Boyd is a parrot

Lil Helper blueprints. Nice reference to the og series

Has anyone talked about the poster with the cogs and the dogman in old-timey clothes that says GIZMOS on it? I think it’s a Dr. Who reference

IDEALISTIC GYRO AND BOYD IS TOO CUTE!

How did he NOT notice the second hole in the wall?

That is a surplus of handcuffs. Do you think she uses them for...fun times?

“I’m just a guy! With very bruisable skin!”

Poor misunderstood Gyro inventions

Boyd just politely waves at everyone

Huey is WAY calmer than I would be if I got lost in an unfamiliar city

Boyd says FUCK WORK

 I love Huey stimming. Really hope Disney will let them confirm in words that Huey is autistic

Is it more common for two kids to wonder around by themselves in Tokyo? Because as an American I find it super stressful and would want to find their parents so they could be safer

THE BUNNY! AND THEN THE KITTIES!

Do cats just take buses on their own in Tokyo?

CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME BITCHES

“And I know what you’re thinking, what about ninjas?” I am ALWAYS wondering about ninjas

I like that Huey finally has a friend who shares the same interests and doesn’t mind info dumps

“Boyd, I don’t think you’re a killer robot. You’re just a kid.” “Aw, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” T_T

I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD

I like Boyd’s motief

Akita is us after the quarantine

When he complained about being stiff I was like mood

I like his Green Goblin disc thingy

The other people don’t give a shit about Boyd just FLYING DOWN WITH HIS ROCKET FEET!

Gyro shows up *dramatic wind*

His tablet has a duckie on it. I wounder if they have a Mac/PC thing going on with Waddle and what brand the duckie represents

When the adults argue and Boyd gets all sad and scared I FELT THAT

Huey doing his best to keep Boyd calm and defend him SO PURE

OH GOD HELP THIS POOR CHILD!

HUEY IS A GOOD BOY AND A GOOD FRIEND

“Because of you I’ve become an outcast.” I feel like you did that to yourself

ANIME HAIR POOF

ngl, that shit was TERRIFYING

“You don’t have to do what Akita tells you. Do what I tell you.” So close

“INTERN! FIGHT BETTER!”

Huey must weigh NOTHING if Gyro can pick him up

Akita’s tail looks like a cinnamon roll

Huey always finding that hidden info

The gibberish Gyro says is great

BOYD SAYS IT BECAUSE GYRO TOLD HIM THAT!

THAT HUG!!!

HOW DARE AKITA HURT BABY GYRO AND SWEET BABY BOYD?!

PROTECTIVE PAPA GYRO

NEEEEERRRRRRRD FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT

“You’ll never invent anything worthwhile.” LIL BULB HAS ENTERED THE FIGHT

Are doggos recyclable?

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGS

Blue eyes=good robot

ANOTHER HUG

Be Only Yourself, Dude

I like that basically Gyro admitted that he was like Fenton if Fenton hadn’t had support

“That’s not technically how doctorites work, BUT I DON’T CARE!” Do you think Gyro doesn’t have his doctorate or do you think he assumed Fenton already had one?

“The hugging is a ‘just for today’ thing.” YOU CANNOT STOP THE HUG TRAIN!

“Leave. Now.”

Are they gonna go to the plane?

This season has been consistently knocking it out of the park! I’m a SLUT for backstory episodes, so I enjoyed this one a lot. I loved seeing Gyro when he had hope and faith in the world. It SUCKS that Akita took that away from him. Hopefully Gyro will see things slightly less cynical now. Fenton was a dweeb the whole episode and I love him for it. Boyd is SO SWEET AND PRECIOUS and in NO WAY deserved the treatment he got. I have a feeling there is more to Boyd’s creation/Dr.Akita that we’ll get later on. Huey was ADORABLE this episode. It’s really sweet to see him hangout with someone who gets him. Everyone deserves to have at least one friend like that. The fight scene was GORGEOUS! SO FLUID! I really loved this one and I hope we get more Team Science episodes because these characters play really well off each other. 

[jimimn]

HHFJSLASI YOU AND I ARE JUST PROFESSIONALS WHEN IT COMES TO RAMBLING AND I LOVE IT I'LL MAKE THIS FIRST ASK SHORT SO THAT YOU CAN ADD THE READ MORE AND PUT THE REST UNDER THE CUT SO THAT YOUR FOLLOWERS DON'T HAVE TO DO A LOT OF SCROLLING LMAO - 💫

your brain i love it 😌😌

MISS SHIVI YOU'RE TOO SWEET 🤧💞 HFAKKA JUNGKOOK MADE THE WORLD STOP WITH THAT HAIR DYE AT THIS POINT I'M JUST ✨ manifesting ✨ a selfie of him with that hair and I know for a fact that the moment that one selfie comes out ITS OVER FOR US and OMG IN A BUN??? JDJAKJD I THINK YOURE SPEAKING THE DEVIL INTO EXISTENCE. BLONDE JIKOOK SELCA LETS GO BOYS COME ON DON'T BE SHY 🧚‍♂️🌸

OOOPS THAT IDOL PERFORMANCE DOES LIVE IN MY HEAD RENT FREE THO...ESP ALL OF THEIR GROWLS..CALM DOWN??? JIMIN?? EXCUSE YOU.

AND JUNGKOOK'S OUTFIT WAS SO HOTJFJSLQJDJWKA. I did watch the performances later and can attest that DYNAMITE SLOW JAM IS NOW MY ANTHEM AND BLONDE JUNGKOOK SINGING IT IS DEFINITELY NOT GOOD FOR MY SANITY

CHANEL MODEL!JIMIN MISS SHIVI I AM THINKING MANY THOUGHTS NOW FOR REAL THO HE SHOULD TOTALLY WEAR MORE CHOKERS AND CAN YOU IMAGINE HIM FINISHING A PERFORMANCE ANF THEN RIPPING IT OFF AND THROWING INTO THE CROWD LIKE JSLWLAKF DEATH UPON US ALL!!! Honestly he can wear anything at this point and ummm 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️ BUT FBKSKA I HOPE THIS ISNT WEIRD BUT I JUST THOUGHT OF JIMIN'S COLLARBONES PEAKING OUT FROM UNDER THE CHOKER AND WE'RE GOING A LITTLE FERAL AGAIN

BODY ROLLS DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED THERE IS NOTHING MORE ATTRACTIVE THAN HIM NOT ONLY BEING SO HOT BUT ALSO USING PERFECT TECHNIQUE!! AND THAT GAZE BYE I'M SHORT CIRCUITING HE CLEARLY KNOWS HIS POWER AND ISN'T AFRAID TO USE IT aND THAT LOOK GAAAAH 5TH MUSTER JIMIN COME HOME PLS THE FOOD IS COLD AND EVERYONE'S ASKING WHERE YOU ARE (me....I'm everyone) NO NOO DON'T BE SORRY I LOVE IT TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR MUSINGS *cups face in hand and leans on table*

AND I AGREE!! TAEHYUNG LOOKING GOOD IN THAT SUIT ONLY SHOWS US THAT THE GODS TOOK THEIR SWEET TIME ON HIM AND LMFAO I MEAN THEY'RE NOT WRONG THO 🤡 IS A PRETTY ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF US and omg you've got a sister!! that's so nice 💓

LITERALLY ON WITH THAT DANCE BREAK IN A CONCERT WITH JIMIN JUMPING OVER JUNGKOOK WHEN I TELL YOU I UGLY CRIED FOR HOURS AFTER SEEING THAT DURING THE MV PREMIERE I DON'T THINK I'LL LIVE KNOWING THEY DID IT IN A CONCERT and ooooooo you should definitely keep hoping!! We got an I need u performance, so anything's possible!! I got into them with bs&t so it makes me very 🤧🤧🤧 in retrospect but nothing about jimin dancing his jacket off was 🤧 it was more of a 🥵😵🥴🤕🤒 type of feeling LMAO

I KNOW RIGHT I LOVE HOW THEY ALWAYS GIVE US LIL UPDATES EVERYWHERE LIKE "OO I WENT CAMPING" "OO WE ATE BREAD!!" "OOO LOOK WE'RE JUST GOING TO DROP COVERS AND SELCAS SO YOU CAN LOSE WHATEVER LITTLE SANITY REMAINED!!" BUT YES TIMES LIKE THAT WHEN HE TWEETS JIMIN IS THE LITERAL EMBODIMENT OF THE BIGGEST HEART EMOJI

AND FJSLADHK I NEVER TOLD YOU LMAO MY BRAIN 💆‍♀️💆‍♀️💆‍♀️ MY BIAS IS JIMIN!! I MEAN BY THE LOOKS OF IT YOURS IS TOO HE MAKES US ALL SO 💕💓💫💓💗💕🌺🌈💘💓✨💗💓🌸💕💝🌈💓💗 ITS A LITTLE EMBARRASSING HOW MUCH HE MAKES ME FEEL LIKE WOW HOW AM I LETTING A MAN WHOM I DON'T EVEN KNOW HAVE SO MUCH CONTROL OF ME. HE'S JUST... EVERYTHING 🥺 I'M IN MY BREAK AND A LITTLE TOO EMO RIGHT NOW!! BUT I GUESS YOUR BIAS IS JIMIN TOO RIGHT? TAKING BY YOUR LOVELY BLOG AND BRUTALLY HONEST (IN THE BEST WAY!) URL LMAO IF NOT THEM I'M SORRY FOR PRESUMING 🙈🙈 but tell me!! how did you get into them??

(god...I'm just looking and I see I wrote too much I'm so sorry fksjwlfo)-💫

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i love seeing your asks in my inbox ok they make me very happy 🤧🤧 BLONDE JIKOOK IN A BUN SELCA I AM MANIFESTING!!!!!!!! BOYS JUST OPEN YOUR GALLERY AND DROP THEM SELCAS I KNOW YOU HAVE A LOT OF THEM PLS SPARE SOME FOR US THANX 😭

JIMIN IN THAT IDOL PERFORMANCE HOLY SHIT YES 😳 LIKE EXCUSE ME WHAT KIND OF DISRESPECT IS THAT 👁👄👁 and then in the same week he became small cuddly jimin with a boopable nose during the home performance 😔

istg jungkook looked like a very hot rich ceo of a huge company or sth 😳😳 (which he actually is sdfghjk atleast partially sdfg)

CHANEL NEEDS TO CALL JIMIN ASAP 🔫🔫🔫 AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAKING ME IMAGINE WILD SCENARIOS LIKE THAT 😭 ok imagine him smirking the “i know im hot” smirk after he throws the choker DEATH OK ABSOLUTE DEATHHHHHHHH and omg yes his collarbones along with the choker 😳😳😳😳 (and no its not weird asdfghj chill) 

AND OMG THAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM RIGHTTTTT!!!! THAT PARK JIMIN IS ABSOLUTELY AWARE OF THE POWER HE HOLDS AND HOW HOT HE IS!!!!! AND HE USES IT JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT WHICH IS KNOWS IS ENOUGH FOR US TO GO ABSOLUTELY FERAL and he’s such a fucking tease too dear lord i can’t with him 😭😭😭😭😭 AND OMG “*cups face in hand and leans on table*” STOP BEING SO CUTE OKAY WTF I AM BLUSHING HERE 😭😭😭😭

AND YES 🤡 IS DEFINITELY ALL OF US 🤣 i remember waiting for 12 am kst every freaking day for a week before BE dropped and big hit was like “not today you absolute clowns” on all our faces 🤡 AND YESS AAAAAAAA she’s not my own sister though!! she’s my aunt’s daughter. they’ve come to visit us for a week 🥰🥰

ON DANCE BREAK WITH JIMIN JUMPING OVER JUNGKOOK HOLY FRIKKIN YES BUT HAVEN’T THEY STOPPED DOING THAT JUMP IN THE RECENT PERFORMANCES? im sad :(((( BUT YES THAT IN A CONCERT WITH ARMY CHEERING AND FANCHANTS AND EVERYTHING HOLY SHIT CAN’T IMAGINE THE ENERGY IN THE STADIUM DURING THAT 🤯🤯🤯🤯 ARE YOU KIDDING I GOT INTO THEM WITH BS&T AS WELL. i am never ever ever going to be over that song. and yes jimin’s “accidental” jacket flips in bs&t are the reason is why i live and breathe 😌😌 (and simultaneously die multiple deaths) I AM NOT EVEN MAKING SENSE ANYMORE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AND OMG I KNOW RIGHT WHEN CHRISTMAS LOVE DROPPED WITHOUT A FUCKING CLUE I WENT !@#$%^&*()&^%$#@q@#$%^&*( BECAUSE I HAD JUST WOKEN UP FROM SLEEP AND /?????? NEW SONG FROM JIMIN??????? THAT FELING WAS JUST HHHHHHHHHHHHHH atleast tae gave us a hint BUT I WAS STILL NOT READY WHEN SNOW FLOWER DROPPED. DAMN I HOPE THEY DON’T DO THIS NO WARNING THING WITH KTH1 AND JJK1 BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO BE FUCKING SLEEPING WHEN THEY DROP ASDFGHJK  AND JIMIN AAAAAAAA JIMIN I MISS HIM SO MUCH CAN HE GO LIVE AGAIN PLS I JUST WANT TO HEAR HIS SOFT VOICE AND SEE HIS EYE SMILE AND FLOOFY HAIR AND TINY HANDS :(((((((

AND OMG YOURS TOO???? 😭😭😭 AND PRESUMPTION WHAT PRESUMPTION OMG OFC MY BIAS IS JIMIN (and six bias wreckers 😌😌) LIKE I HAVE JIMIN IN MY ICON AND IN MY HEADER AND IN MY URL AND I GIF JIMIN MOSTLY SO 😭😭😭 WHAT PRESUMPTION 😭😭😭 and god yes i love every little thing about him 🥺🥺🥺 FROM HIS SOCK DOODLES TO HIM BEING SUPER CLUMSY AND HIS JACKET FLIPS AND HIS SEXY BRAIN AND HIS KIND HEART AND HIM NOT GIVING TWO FUCKS ABOUT GENDER TO HIM GROWLING ON STAGE TO HIS NIPSLIPS I JUST!!!!!LOVE!!!!!!EVERYTHING!!!!! 🤧🤧🤧🤧 AND yes lmao my url ok story time!! so when i made this blog... i didn’t know i’d get into giffing and stuff lol so the friend who got me into bts (i’ll come to that story later) suggested jiminsjacketflip as a url for my blog but i was like nah this doesn’t sound cool so i added a bit of ✨pazzaz✨ and made it flipthatjacketjiminie LMFAOOOOO and ive been wanting to change it for a while now because its so fucking long and my watermark on gifs looks shitty because of that 🤡 but i haven’t found anything as unique as this one yet and i also think that if I change my url people won’t recognize me so im just..... living with this one lmaooooo 🤡

AND OKAY OMG so i got into them at the end of june 2020. My friend anna (who also has a blog and makes a++++ gifs @/lifegoesmon) got me into them. She made me listen to them and the first song i heard was stay gold as far as i remember and then it was BS&T AND GODDAMN THE WAY I GOT FUCKING HOOKED TO THE SONG I KEPT LISTENING TO IT ALLLLLLLL DAYYYYYYY and then she showed me the performance for bs&t and i knew i was a goner 🥴🥴 then I watched chaotic bts compilations and they were so fucking funny and adorable that i went like???? how are they so sexy and intimidating on stage and this adorable and chaotic off stage?😭😭😭 we listened to bts’ discography for like three hours on the first day and she shared her playlist with me and stuff and god I just fell for their music. and then obviously with their dance and then obviously with everything about them 🥺🥺 HOW ABOUT YOUUUUUUUU? WHEN AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO THEM???? (and pls don’t be sorry sdfghjk i love reading your asks 💖💖💖) OH ALSO DID YOU WATCH RUNNNNN???????? WHICH ONES DID YOU WATCH????

[sumeshi-t]

the idea of making hc’s of children is sosososo cute. i’ll follow ur steps chloe @akaashit-baeji lolol this is gonna be really self-indulgent buuut my excuse is that it’s my birthday so here it goes... i'm writing the last half of this with a hangover and a bad case of dysmenorrhea... sucks 2 be me

Oikawa Teru (及川 輝)

his name “輝“ means “bright”, and this boi lives up to it because, let’s face it, he’s gonna be like his dad. he embodies this “brightness”, in a way that he’s smart, and he makes sure he and his team’s (or whichever team he’s going to be in) will shine on the court

wavy/curly hair and a victim of my and his dad’s astigmatism. always has this cheeky smile, and he gets my brimming energy so he’s really approachable and charming

very good with words; it’s like he always knows what to say

when he plays he also wears contact lenses

but don’t be fooled. in their generation, it’s him who has to put iwaizumi’s son in check. he knows everything about his teammates too, he knows more than what he lets on (which sometimes, they find creepy, but they all know he means well)

anyway, unlike his dad, he doesn’t really mind having geniuses around. instead, he watches them very closely; something like “mutualism”. he knows what he lacks and he knows he can learn from them too, vice versa.

is into horror games. in his free time, he and his sister take turns playing. and they decide it by seeing who can last the longest without flinching/screaming. he’s annoyed because his sister’s better at it 

has fans, ngl. i mean look at him. however, the female fans especially, are pretty on guard. he’s approachable, but anytime they see him with his sister... they back out. he doesn’t mind, he loves his sister and it actually amuses him. he’s the same when it comes to the boys who hang around her too!

basically protective siblings who are always there for eo

is very neat. can’t concentrate when something is out of place. he keeps his nails short, has a somewhat flowery scent. yes, he uses female perfumes because he despises strong smells.

bug-catching was his childhood hobby just like mine’s was. used to sneak beetles in iwaizumi’s son’s backpack back then

he will never admit it but he actually asks his sister for fashion tips because his taste sucks ass so bad

basically his major problem or issue in life is getting compared to his father (he’s also a setter). he hates that so much, being hidden in the shadow of his dad, and when people just recognize him for being oikawa tooru’s son.

something he and ushijima’s child relate to so strongly. they’re friendly rivals; might end up being teammates in their career hmm

so when he’s the one stressed, he skips practice for a day just so he could recollect his thoughts. usually stays in the library to read books he picked up based on the titles; might either open up to iwa or his sister later on, it depends. then when he’s okay, he doubles the amount of training

Oikawa Rie (及川 麗恵) it’s /ri-ye/ oki

so the kanjis are: "麗" meaning, beautiful and "恵" is blessed. tooru thought of this name obviously

also has curly hair like mine. has that tiny mole below her eye just like i do. actually has lots of moles over her body; one time she fell asleep on the couch her brother drew connecting lines between the moles on her arm and called them constellations. it was nice she thought but still, the next day, teru had to wear a band-aid over his nose bridge.

she’s just a year younger. is less “vibrant” than her brother, a bit more serious. has a resting bitch face and she’s not even sorry about it and i love her for that

she’s actually relieved she looks like that, or else she knows the girls in her class would flock to her just to get in her brother’s pants. usually brushes them off with “ask him, not me” or “do you think that’s any of my concern?” 

her tongue her words damn never get to this baby girl’s bad side she’s gonna burn you alive. like fr when she’s angry, oh she’s gonna show you that she’s angry. but tbh she's very sweet, leaves little notes or little gifts to her friends every now and then

she just doesn’t want her brother’s heart to be broken (she’s heard stories from her mom about her dad’s many hs exes), and she knows teru’s struggles

therefore

doesn’t really like volleyball that much. it’s because she didn’t get to grow up with her dad around, she felt like it separated her from him. she’s not mad at him though. she’s very supportive of him and her brother.

used to play vb though when they were kids. but that’s all it was for her

she’s the team’s honorary manager lol the occasional “i brought you guys sumn” or “something-kun, a girl from my class says she likes you so do your best” etc

the team’s lil sister how bout that

despite being tolerant of horror games, this girl is vvvv squeamish. she cries at the sight of internal organs or blood. biology lab was the worst time of her life 

when she dug up my hs videos she was shook to discover i once did theater. and thus begins her interest in theater too

and??? baby girl is actually???? really really good???? 

the girls she used to shut down nicknamed her “prima”, short for “prima donna” she hates it. hates it more when her closest theater buddy was the one who spread that around

immediately went to the gym to spike some balls from her brother. baby girl was crying because she was just so pissed.

she was given ice cream and sweets afterwards. ugh it’s so cute idk she’s baby to the team skksksk they protecc

in that upcoming play, her first ever performance, the whole team got front row seats and howled when she came on during curtain call; it was vvv sweet and memorable even if the guys were kinda reprimanded afterwards lmao

which is why, in return, boiis also have a hard time approaching her because damn??? the vb team as your knights???? excuse me??? 

oh have i mentioned she has a sweet tooth? mygod. she has a stash of sweets in her room. teru has had to sneak some away because she might get tooth aches or diabetes

her pastel nail polish is arranged by shade, her body clock is fucked up lmao she hates the mornings; has succulents by her window which she names after various characters from books/plays etc she’s for sure gonna be a theater actress tho

asks help from iwa’s son for math. even her brother’s 0% help. teru is smart but a terrible teacher. she’s an above-average student and that’s all that matters for her. she can leave the spotlight to her brother because she only craves one type of spotlight

Miya Seiichi (宮 聖一) and Miya Seiji (宮 聖二)

their names literally mean “聖” sacred then “一” is one, and “二” is two

atsumu thought it was funny. when they were kids, seiichi’s nickname was “juan” and seiji’s was “tutu” (i gave them the nicknames)

when the twins discovered the meaning behind the nicknames, they hated it. especially seiji, he despises it vvv much

so when they were hs, seiichi = chi, seiji = ji for the people they're close with

as we can see here, the twins unfortunately got my curls. seiichi likes his hair as is. he doesn’t like the thought of dyeing his hair just to be differentiated from his twin. in fact he enjoys twin jokes, enjoys tripping people up about it. seiji on the other hand, grew tired of his brother’s jokes and by the time hs started, he sacrifices his soft hair. 

between the two, seiji is the one who has my ugly eyesight. add to the fact that he reads a lot (once he starts he can’t put it down. so he reads in the dark, in a moving car etc)

the piercings was a thing that happened between them, and their cousins (which were also twins wtf)–it was a 2v2 vb thing and they lost

surprisingly, the cousins weren't pleased bc atsumu didn't scold them for getting piercings (but for playing half-heartedly). seiichi wanted the piercings tho tbh it was the perfect excuse. ngl, seiji also wanted them.

first let's talk abt seiichi, aside from the fact he also got my mole (he feels it makes him look cuter tho)

seiichi's into vb, but not a setter. he's the ace. may or may not push through with it as a career. he hasn't decided yet. is actually a bit sad that seiji didn't join the vb club in hs, he wanted them to be like his dad and uncle.

seiichi doesn't have any uh, quirks like shutting the whole cheer squad up like his dad does. but he usually dribbles the ball five times before any serve (this is something i did before) and he likes the 'ooooh hey' thing the crowd does when he goes for a serve

his side of the room doesn't have much stuff going on except workout equipment. he follows what exercise plan i give him as da PT mom that i am, and he is very strict with his diet and with what he eats–he's close to not needing a calorie counter anymore; but not a picky eater. he loves his uncle's cooking very much and he is jealous he can't cook even if he tries

he can do beatboxing, he learned it through youtube lmao his spotify playlists are da bombest; he learns a lot in youtube tho in his free time. his current interest is magic tricks and french (he thinks he can use it to woo that girl from class 4)

he hates insects, and hates mess. he has had to scold his twin about it that it escalated to them having this imaginary line in the middle of the room

anyway, he's straightforward. but not rude. he just doesn't like any pretenses so he says what he thinks or feels is right. may or may not have led to some misunderstandings, but he owns up to his mistakes if he crossed a line

next, seiji

even if he looks like a nerd with his glasses tbh he is not he actually hates studying. you can love reading without having to love studying right? he's that dude

the only time that he regrets dyeing his hair was when he realizes couldn't change identities so his brother could take his exam for him

his side of the room is littered with his sketches, notes from books, pencils everywhere – he drew a bunch of ants one time on a paper and made it look like they're real ass ants and placed it on seiichi's pillow

to solve this problem, atsumu has planned to give him a tablet for his next birthday

quits vb in hs because he kinda lost interest? he still finds it fun but he doesn't wanna be put under the pressure that his dad and uncle left for them lmao

he's in art clubs tho

he designs banners/posters for the team anyway. they use his strategic mind from the shit he's read for any plays and stuff so when he's not drawing, he's thinking

he might look like he has no emotions, but tbh he is more emotional and empathetic than his brother. he cries easily over the simplest things, like those grandparents vids, or rescuing animals and stuff

and thats why he doesn't let people in too much bc he knows he'll be hurt (dw seiichi knows this vvv well, and even if they do have arguments, he loves his lil bro and helps him about this)

has once begged to have a cat at home–seiichi didn't want bc he knows his twin is gonna leave him for clean up lmao

he can cook period.

he's gonna either be an architect or an animator, still hasn't decided.

his music taste sucks lmao. his youtube recents are filled with cooking stuff; in constant conversation with his uncle abt cooking lol it be cute sometimes atsumu is jealous bc he feels his son is closer to his brother than with him

he is forgetful that's why his stuff is messy lol he keeps misplacing stuff, sometimes it's literally in front of him and he's just 'where????'

but remembers dates well, remembers plays well. he's good at nitpicking tiny nearly insignificant details. just anything outside studying? he's good. dw he passes his classes but he hates giving effort for that shit lololol

[knivestothroats]

Part 3

Part 1, Part 2. This is the last set up/kind of filler part before we get to the VIOLENCE, so hang tight and bear with me. Or don’t, I guess, you have free will. But... please?

 THE GOOD STUFF: We actually get to see a bit of what happened while Ace was under Miranda’s control! Like a lil teaser for the next couple parts.

THE BAD STUFF: Medical setting (but we finally move on), dehumanization, mind control, memory loss

In an action that Ace would later describe as the “I’m-Telling-Mom Maneuver,” Matty stayed true to his word and returned to the infirmary with Brooks at his side.

Ace didn’t like to think of Brooks as their boss, because they didn’t want to have a boss, or take orders. He was merely the guy who decided which agent was best for which mission. Ace just happened to agree with his judgement and always accepted the missions that he thought they would be good for. Everyone just listened to him because they respected him and his judgement.

And also because he was the boss and could give orders.

Ace was okay with that if the order was to end their “observation period” early.

Brooks was skillfully diplomatic. Ace couldn’t hear what he said to Dr. Greene, but they were released that day.

There were certain stipulations attached, such as Ace needing regular check-ups for a while, but those could be with Dr. Rosenthal.

Dr. Greene probably didn’t want to talk to Ace any more than Ace wanted to talk to him.

Ace was also told it would be a while before they were cleared for duty.

Amongst it all there was an unspoken message: you are being released, but you are still being observed.  

Matty brought clothes from Ace’s room so they could change out of their hospital gown. Worn jeans, a soft t-shirt, and an oversized sweatshirt. They looked at themselves again in the bathroom mirror after putting on their own clothes. They felt closer to the self they knew, but the reflection was just as jarring. Instead of completely foreign figure, there was now a mockery of themselves. A too-gaunt, too-shaggy, scarred impersonator wearing their favorite hoodie.

Ace turned their back on their reflection and walked back out into the infirmary. Before they could leave, Dr. Greene gave them another stipulation.

“You should stay away from Luke. He needs time to recover.”

Ace looked at him, brows furrowed.

“Who the fuck is Luke?” Ace asked.

--

Miranda had gone out on her own. She was able to leave Ace alone without the spell wearing off, as long as she came back within the day. Ace was sitting on the bed, head bowed slightly, staring without seeing. They hadn’t been told anything besides, “Wait here until I get back,” and so that’s what they were doing.

Ace looked up as the door opened. Miranda stalked through, half-dragging a man behind her. She threw him to the floor in front of Ace.

“Here,” she spat. “I brought you a gift.”

Ace looked down on the man, not understanding. There was a lot of that these days; a lot of looking but not understanding. Ace had to be kept in enough of a fog to not rebel, but so much that they couldn’t take orders. Miranda kept the balance carefully.

“A gift?” Ace asked.

“A pet for you,” Miranda said. “Well, I suppose you’re the pet, so this is… your chew toy.”

With that she walked away, leaving the frightened man alone with her befuddled attack dog. They looked at each other for a long moment.

“What do I do with it?” Ace asked, but Miranda was already gone.

--

Most of the information about their time under Miranda’s control, Ace found out, came second hand from Luke. Or third hand? Luke told his rescuers, the medical team, and Brooks about his experience during various interviews, check-ups, and debriefings. This information trickled down to Ace.

Slowly.

They didn’t know what to ask, and their friends weren’t sure what they could handle.

Luke didn’t see a lot of the action. He was left behind when Miranda took Ace out to do whatever it was they did. The organization had been trying to track Miranda for those three months, but no one else was there. No one could say, for sure, what Ace had done. 

Been made to do.

--

Ace lived at the base, and they expected to feel relief to walk freely through it again. But the feelings of being home remained out of reach.

Everyone was staring.

Was everyone staring?

Some people definitely were. A lot of people, even.

Some of it was innocent. Oh, look, it’s Ace. They’re back, they’re out of the infirmary.

Some of it was angry. Hey, look, it’s that fucker that shot up the intel lab. Who the fuck let them back in here?

Some of it was fearful. Is that Ace? Or is that Miranda’s attack dog?

Some people walked up to Ace with smiles and hugs, glad they were back. It felt like the minority.

Matty spent most of his time with Ace. They went together to get food from the cafeteria, but Ace couldn’t handle being around so many people, so the two of them took the food outside. They settled under a tree a ways off from the main building. Ace started scrolling through Mountain Goats songs on their phone, determined to find another happy one.

“I was going to say, by the way, you have a good singing voice,” Ace said. “Which is bullshit, considering what you usually sound like when you sing in the car. You’ve been holding out on me.”

“Well, you don’t need to have much range to sing The Mountain Goats,” Matty shrugged.

“So, does it count if the song is generally happy but has some sad lyrics, or – oh, how about ‘Jenny’? No outstanding warrants for my arrest, that’s as happy as it gets right there.”

“Hey,” Matty tapped Ace’s knee. He gestured toward where he was looking, back in the direction of the building. “That’s him.”

There were a few people standing in a group, none of whom Ace recognized.

“Which one?” Ace asked.

“The blond.”

One of the men in the group had blond hair, clearly bleached. Dark roots had grown in, like he hadn’t been able to get it touched up in a couple months. Recognition did come to Ace, but only from a recent memory. He had been in the infirmary when Matty pulled the curtain back; the one who had complimented Matty’s playing. They had been together in captivity, and together in recovery, and Ace had not known either time. Ace tried to think back to when they had idly listened in to people speaking on the other side of the curtain. Had they heard Luke talk about his experience? Had Luke been listening when Ace was filled in on the time they didn’t remember? Had he listened to Ace cry and panic and pull against their restraints?

Luke looked in their direction. Ace quickly looked away, turning their back to him completely.

“Do we, um, do we know if, uh. What I… if I hurt him?” Ace struggled to get it out.

“I… don’t know for sure,” Matty admitted. “I wasn’t there for his interview. But when we busted the place, it actually seemed like you were trying to protect him.”  

[Continued Here]

[lord-of-shadows]

A New Life (Kitty Reunion Ch. 4)

the last chapter is finally here!! check it out on AO3 or read under the cut. kit returns to the LA Institute and an unexpected visitor arrives (aka the reunion! warning: it gets a lil spicy). ~4k words. read ch. 1, ch. 2, and ch. 3. enjoy!! (thank you to everyone who read and left nice comments, i appreciate them a lot! definitely expect more kitty fics from me soon!)

CHAPTER FOUR

When Kit arrived in the Los Angeles Institute through the Portal, the first thing he recognized was the familiar feeling of the black and white marble underneath him, and his breath almost caught at how much he forgot how beautiful the inside was. 

Then, when he was back to his senses, he noticed the crowd of people that had gathered––Helen and Julian were greeting Tessa, Emma was hugging Jem, Tavvy and Nene were already running off with Cordelia in tow––Aline’s “Get back here!” heard in the background––and Dru had come to stand before him with her arms bent on her waist and one eyebrow raised. Kit realized how much she had changed since they last saw each other; she was a little taller and carried herself with more confidence now, but she was still the same Dru––and suddenly, he was enveloped into a tight hug, released only after it felt as if he had been squeezed to death.

“I’m still mad at you,” she said with a smile, holding up a finger and moving it around. “You promised me something, remember?”

Kit vaguely recalled agreeing to teach her more crime stuff when they met again, and he let out a shaky laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ve composed an entire list of what to teach you next.”

She brightened at that, and Kit was then greeted by Emma––"The boy who mysteriously disappeared has returned!" she had exclaimed––and Julian, who clasped him on the shoulder, nodding at him, saying, “Glad you’re back, Kit.”

Helen and Aline greeted him as well, but they didn’t really know him that well––the only person here he really knew was Dru, who was standing next to him as they listened to Emma and Julian recount what they saw on patrol.

“There’s an increase in demonic activity around the regions where the blight has spread. It’s strange, though,” Julian said confusingly, “These demons don’t attack unless threatened. They seem to be…” He hesitated, then looked at Kit. “Searching for something. Or someone,” he added. Kit tensed.

Tessa frowned, moving to put a hand on Kit’s shoulder, a protective gesture. “Could you and Emma guide us to the where the ley line is? Jem and I would like to begin investigating this issue as quickly as possible.”

Emma nodded, sharing a knowing look with Tessa. “Of course. Cristina and Mark are on their way to give us any updates from Kieran. It’s suspicious how the Queen hasn’t responded, though.” There was a glint of anger in her eye. “I never did like her.”

Julian put a reassuring hand on her back. He scrunched his nose. "Neither did I. Let’s get going, then.” They walked past Kit towards the entrance, Tessa turning to follow them, and Jem approached Kit, his hand resting on his arm as he spoke in a low voice: “Are you alright, Christopher?”

Kit shot him a weak smile. “Yeah, I think I’m good.”

“If anything happens––”

“I know, I know,” he shot Jem a smile, the one that Jem always said reminded him of his parabatai (Will, Kit recalled his name was––he had met the ghost several times, bent over Cordelia’s crib at night, his soft voice singing Welsh lullabies to help her fall back asleep). “Grab the baby and run." Jem opened his mouth, about to protest, but Kit threw up his hands. "Kidding! I’ll be fine, Jem. Tessa is waiting for you.” He was right, Tessa was waiting by the doors, a sad smile on her face as if she was remembering someone.

Jem shook his head, face mirroring Tessa’s, and he let Kit’s hand fall as he joined her by the door.

Once they heard the door close, Dru turned to Kit, a confused expression on her face. “That’s weird. What was that for?”

“What?” Kit asked, still shaken by what Julian said.

“The whole––” She noticed the look on Kit’s face, then shook her head. “Nevermind. Let’s go to the training room.” There was a wicked look in her eye. “Let’s see if you’ve really gotten better since you’ve been gone.”

Soon enough, Kit found himself back in the training room––he was surprised that he remembered all of the twists and turns to get there, could close his eyes and let his feet guide him to familiar places in the Institute. He was doing target practice with Dru, both of them consistently getting bullseyes, while also keeping a watchful eye over Cordelia and Nene playing with a paintbrush set––Julian’s, perhaps––in the corner. He was currently telling Dru about Devon and the friends he’s made––he thought she would like Trisha, since the girl had the same interests as Dru––and Dru would pipe in with her own tales from the Shadowhunter Academy in New York, and how she’s made a group of friends, most notably a girl named Thais.

She was telling him about an incident that happened when Simon was a guest speaker that left Kit doubling over with laughter, causing him to miss the center of the target just slightly, and Dru was laughing at his aghast expression, pointing a finger at him, shouting, “Ha! I win!”

Kit was about to make a remark on how technically she didn’t win since she cheated, but before he could get the words out, they heard commotion coming from the other end of the Institute.

They both looked at each other, and Dru shrugged. “Maybe it’s Cristina and Mark?”

“We can go check it out.” Dru nodded and turned to call Nene and Cordelia over. Kit turned to face Cordelia, then flinched––she had gotten blue paint all over herself, marking her cheeks like a barbarian going into battle. Oh, he was going to have a great time explaining that to Tessa later.

They headed towards the entrance, Dru handing Nene and Cordelia off to Tavvy, who looked upset to have to take care of the kids––"Hey, that was my job when I was your age, so deal with it," Dru had said––and when they reached the grand entryway, they found Helen and Aline already there, obscuring their view as to who arrived.

They turned around, Helen with a bright smile on her face, and Kit didn’t even need for them to move aside to know who was towering behind them.

“Ty!” Dru exclaimed, and she ran forward and spread her arms as if asking permission for an embrace. Surprisingly, Ty accepted it, hair falling over his eyes as he bent down to rest his head on Dru’s shoulder. Kit stood there, shock paralyzing his body. Everything seemed to stop.

It was Ty.

And he had gotten really tall.

“I thought you weren’t coming for another two weeks! What happened?” Dru’s voice echoed in his ears, but he wasn’t paying attention––he was staring at the back of Ty’s head, at the way his body moved with the grace that it always carried.

“Classes ended early,” Kit stiffened at the sound of his voice. It was more mature and deeper if that was even possible––it made his heart race faster, his breathing uneven. “Institutes were calling for the help of warlocks. They decided to end the semester early so we could help investigate the issue as well.”

“Huh, that’s weird,” Dru said, pulling away. “Tessa and Jem arrived today. Emma and Jules just left to show them the ley lines.”

“Tessa and Jem are here?” Ty finally raised his head, but before he could spot him, Kit had vanished, and he was running away, like he always did, although he didn’t know where, exactly––until a cool breeze hit his face, and he was looking out in the distance at the lights on the water, the waves crashing against the shore.

His feet carried him to the rooftop, the very place where he and Ty had escaped to three years ago whenever everything was too overwhelming for them as if it was their secret, hidden cove. Their safe haven. He found himself sitting at the edge again, legs dangling underneath him, fingers gripping the smooth stone of the brick as he tried to calm his breathing and will his heart to slow down.

At the sound of Ty’s voice, it felt as if everything he kept buried the past three years suddenly shot back up again, and it left a painful feeling in his chest that Kit had tried so hard to ignore. Memories flashed through him, from Ty holding a knife to his neck and Kit’s traitorous mind thinking How beautiful, to holding Ty on the rooftop, to Livvy’s death, to doing everything in his power to keep Ty from slipping away from him, which turned out futile because he ended up losing him anyway, ended up running away because Ty didn’t care for him, he never did––

Hands on his shoulders knocked him out of his thoughts, and Kit was about to recoil, but then he heard words being whispered over and over in that soothing, deep voice: whisper, cloud, secret, highway, hurricane, mirror, castle, thorns.

“Blackthorns,” Kit whispered, and looked up at Ty’s face.

Emotions he had locked in a dark vault deep in his heart exploded in him, and he noticed how Ty’s face had gotten sharper, the shape of his body and curve of his lips and gray eyes and dark eyelashes rendering Kit breathless––his black hair had grown, falling over his eyes, and Kit almost laughed, remembering when Ty had told him he needed a haircut, and now Ty was the one who was in desperate need of one, but it didn’t matter, because right now, Kit was wondering how it felt to run his hands through his hair, to feel the silk strands between his fingertips.

Ty was older, more elegant, strikingly beautiful, and handsome.

Kit felt his stomach flip as it did all those years ago. He almost forgot how it felt like.

“Can I sit next to you?” Ty was looking at his hands on Kit’s shoulders, and Kit realized he must feel uncomfortable touching him, and then he realized how awkward it was that Kit was staring at him, eyes wide and mouth agape.

He shut his mouth, turning his head around, and managed to choke out, “Y–yeah, of course.”

He saw Ty sit next to him from the edge of his peripheral and watched how his hands began to flutter on his lap, gaze focused on the waves. At least some things haven’t changed, Kit thought.

“Fifty months, two weeks, and four days,” Ty said.

Kit blinked, looking back at Ty. “What?”

“How long it’s been since you left without saying goodbye.” Ty was looking at Kit now, at the area underneath his eye which betrayed the dark circles that had formed due to Cordelia not being able to sleep well at night as of late.

Kit inhaled. “I’m sorry.”

“Why did you leave?” Ty didn’t sound angry, just confused. Kit almost let out a breath of relief––he was so sure the other boy would be mad at him, and he was ready to take the blow. He deserved it, Kit knew. It would’ve been better if Ty was yelling at him, instead of speaking to him in that calm, gentle voice that always sent his heart racing.

His mind scrambled for what to say. “I was scared. After what happened, I–I thought you hated me, so I ran because I thought I wasn’t needed. I thought you didn’t care.”

“I don’t hate you,” Ty said levelly. Kit could tell he was assessing the situation, thinking of the right words to say––he was a Centurion now, as the uniform he wore depicted, but Ty didn’t need a uniform to show that––it was there in his actions, in his observant, investigative gaze. “And I do care.”

“No,” Kit whispered under his breath, his heart loud in his ears. “Not like that.”

“You said you wished you never met me.” Ty didn’t seem to hear him, saying the statement matter-of-factly, as if it was the truth.

Kit immediately blurted, “No!” He took a deep breath. “Ty, I didn’t mean it. Knowing you––it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

“Julian told me once that people said things they didn’t mean because of their emotions.” Ty’s eyebrows were furrowed as if Kit was a puzzle he was trying to solve. “Is that true?”

Curse Julian, Kit thought. Instead, he stammered, “I–I guess?” Ty was close to him now, so close that Kit could feel his gentle breathing on his skin, could easily reach out in front of him and comb back his hair. His heart was pounding, his breaths coming out short––how did Ty manage to look so composed? It had been so long since he was this close to the other boy, and Kit suddenly felt afraid, as if he didn’t trust his ability to control himself––

“What kind of emotions?”

Kit didn’t know if Ty was tricking him, interrogating him, or just genuinely curious, but he found that he didn’t care since the words that were trapped in him for so long came spilling out.

“At the lake, I told you that I loved you, and you didn’t react––which I feel dumb now thinking about it, because I shouldn’t have expected you to respond, but it still hurt––” Kit squeezed his eyes closed, not wanting to see Ty’s expression. “And I couldn’t stop thinking about how you said I was nothing to you, because Ty, you were everything to me, and I tried so, so hard, but damn it, you still are––”

Suddenly, he felt something against his lips, and his eyes shot open to see Ty’s face, inches away, his eyes closed and lashes fluttering. He felt his entire body burn, fire spreading through this skin, his mind screaming––Was this really happening?––and before he could register it, Ty had pulled back, a pale blush flushing his cheeks––Kit thought it was cute.

“Was that––was that okay?” Ty’s eyes were darting away from his face, his breathing heavy, and Kit struggled to fight the urge to pull him in again.

“It was,” he said breathlessly, “Perfect. You’re perfect, Ty.”

He knew it was cheesy, but the blush on Ty’s face grew stronger, and Ty seemed astonished at the claim. Kit wanted to hold him close, to reassure him that he was beautiful and absolutely amazing and extremely intelligent, too. He wanted to hold him close and never let him go. “But, if you don’t mind me asking,” Kit breathed, “Why did you do that?”

“Someone at the Scholomance told me that if you liked someone and they liked you back, then you should kiss them.” Ty looked at him worryingly, shyness creeping up his features. “Is that not what you’re supposed to do?”

Kit let out a laugh. “Only if you do it again.”

And before Kit could let in another breath, Ty had pulled him close and connected their lips once again, and this time, Kit responded, his hands immediately flying to Ty’s waist.

Ty tensed, and Kit was ready to pull back, an apology on his lips, but Ty held him where he was. “Touch me,” he said, voice low and stormy gray eyes staring intensely at Kit’s. Kit nodded, a sharp intake of breath due to the eye contact, and, a bit dazed, he drew Ty in, one hand circling his back and the other moving up his arm. Kit could feel the muscle underneath––Ty had most definitely gotten stronger since they last met––and he was reminded that despite having such a delicate, fragile, and beautiful frame, Ty was a Shadowhunter through and through, groomed to fight.

Ty’s hands began to hesitantly roam his body, and for a second Kit felt like his fifteen-year-old self again, wanting to impress Ty at the Shadow Market––except now, he was eighteen, and he wanted to impress Ty at how muscular he’s gotten, at how much his body has improved in the past three years. Kit tangled his hands in Ty’s hair, pulling him onto his lap and drawing the boy closer to him, relishing in the way Ty gasped against his mouth. They were both painfully inexperienced, but it didn’t matter––Kit was tightly grasping onto him, lips moving feverishly against his, afraid that if he let go, Ty would slip away from him forever.

Ty broke away, catching his breath. He was looking at Kit through his eyelashes, an unknown battle flickering in his eyes, his fingers dancing wildly on Kit’s shoulders. “Are you going to leave again?” He whispered, forehead resting against Kit’s.

Fire, Kit thought, throat dry at how Ty’s eyes seemed to smolder. You are playing with fire. He could feel his heart break. Aren’t you? he wanted to say, since he suspected Ty had to return to the Scholomance soon, and Kit would have to wait forever to see him again, and the thoughts in his mind were in chaos, but he knew one thing for sure, and that was he didn’t want to be separated from Ty again. He opened his mouth, ready to tell Ty so, but a high-pitched voice cut him off before he could utter a word.

“Kit-Kat!”

They immediately broke apart, Ty panickingly moving some distance away from Kit, and Kit turned to find Cordelia running towards him, but something in Kit noticed that her balance wasn’t that developed yet, and as if on instinct, he rapidly turned back onto the rooftop, arms reaching out to catch her before she could fall, and he was on his knees, hugging her close to his chest, trying to catch his breath––he was vaguely aware that he should chastise her for running so carelessly, but the relief in his body was so overwhelming, and Cordelia was starting to cry anyway, so he kept repeating to her that she was safe, she was safe.

Kit felt Ty kneel next to him, and he extended a closed hand out to Cordelia, whose crying had now stopped, replaced by gentle sniffs. She took his hand, small fingers still stained with blue paint, and Ty opened it to reveal a piece of chocolate in its wrapper. Cordelia squealed.

“You know, she's not supposed to have chocolate,” Kit said, voice surprisingly calm given the number of things that had just happened, the number of thoughts and emotions colliding in his head.

Ty looked at him and smiled––really smiled. “You’re never too young for chocolate.”

Kit reciprocated the smile, and it hit him with a pang how much it felt like old times. Kit turned away to face Cordelia, clicking his tongue. “DeeDee, I know you’re ready to be a Shadowhunter and all, but you can’t fall off rooftops just yet. You still got a decade to go, buddy.”

“Sorry,” she said, sounding more like “sowwy” since she couldn’t fully pronounce R’s yet. Either way, it didn’t really sound like she was since she did get some chocolate out of it.

“See, told you the chocolate was a bad idea,” Kit said, shaking his head.

Ty just shrugged. “One piece of chocolate never hurt anyone. Her name is Cordelia, right?”

“Yeah,” Kit ruffled her hair, which earned him a little “Hey!”. “I call her DeeDee. She always manages to find herself in trouble.” Kit remembered the fiasco with the Christmas lights that happened just yesterday, and he smiled. “This is no different.”

Kit could see that Ty was still smiling––if it was even possible, it made him more beautiful.

“I like him, Kit-Kat,” Cordelia said, licking the chocolate from her fingers. Kit felt a surge of pride in him. It was important to have the little sister’s approval, he thought. Not that Ty was his boyfriend or anything.

Was he?

“Thank you, DeeDee,” Ty said, turning to Kit. “I see she calls you Kit-Kat,” he inquired jokingly.

Kit rolled his eyes. “It’s so frustrating! She saw the candy at the grocery store and wouldn’t stop calling me it since. Jem thought it was because she wanted the chocolate bar, so he bought an entire pack for her––and she was extremely excited about that, but it turns out it was just her new nickname for me.”

Ty laughed––Kit let the sound fill his ears and wondered if Ty smiled and laughed more often now, or if those were just reserved for him. He wanted to know how his life was at the Scholomance, if he had discovered any cool things or found new animals, but as he opened his mouth to ask, voices drifted up from the entrance.

Kit’s eyes widened, but Cordelia beat him to it. “Mama! Papa!” She got up, but Kit made sure to grab her hand this time as they stood.

“They are back,” Ty said, straightening, and Kit noticed how Ty was now a head taller than him––he had to tilt his head up to see the other boy’s face. Kit could feel his heart beat faster because of the fact.

“Right,” he said, composing himself. “You should go say hello to Emma and Julian.”

“Are you not coming?”

“I need a moment,” Kit said, and he saw Ty’s eyes flicker behind him, understanding flashing on his face. Kit kneeled down so he was eye-level with Cordelia. “Follow Ty, okay? Don’t get lost. I don’t know if I even want to know how you managed to find your way up here in the first place.”

“Dru showed me!” She exclaimed. Kit blinked. Dru? But before he could inquire more, Ty had grabbed her hand––she made no protest to this, which was rare, since Cordelia didn’t let anyone touch her that easily––and they both went back inside, the door shutting softly behind them.

Kit let out a long exhale, then turned to where Livvy’s ghost was perched in the shadows. “Livvy,” he breathed. “Long time no see.”

“Herondale.” Livvy smiled, the light not quite reaching her Blackthorn-green eyes, her brown hair laid out behind her, contrasted against the white of her dress––the way it was at her funeral, Kit remembered. Her necklace shone. “I see you have progressed a lot.”

Kit frowned. That was a strange way of putting it. “Yeah, I guess. Tessa and Jem aren’t exactly the most lenient of trainers.”

“But not with your magic.” Livvy drifted closer to him. "It is not enough.”

“Yeah, I still can't manage to control it yet––wait, what do you mean 'not enough?'"

There was a small frown on her lips, a crease between her eyebrows. It had been so long since Kit last saw her as a ghost, he had forgotten how despite looking the same, she carried a different demeanor around her––one more cold and sorrowful. “I fear the repercussion of what happened three years ago is finally taking effect.” She looked at his face, worry evident in her eyes. “I cannot find it in my heart to tell Ty, but now that you are back––take care of him. Do not run as you did before. He needs you now more than ever.”

“What do you mean? What’s going to happen?” Kit stumbled towards her. “Livvy!” He exclaimed just as she vanished, and the view of the Pacific encompassed his vision instead. He cursed.

The sun was already low in the sky, and Kit was mildly aware that he should return inside before Tessa got worried, but he was suddenly thrown back to the first few months in Devon, where he would find himself always attracted to the beach, dreaming of the Los Angeles shore.

It suddenly hit him that he was back, back in the city where he grew up in, where his entire life had changed––he loved living in Devon and in the comfort of his little family, but as he turned around and walked towards the door leading back into the Institute, Kit realized one thing:

Los Angeles would always be his home. And he was glad to be back.

[arachcobra]

Naruto Episode 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 Review

Let’s get ready to rumble

Review of Naruto Episode 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19: Haku's Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors, The Number One Hyperactive, Knucklehead Ninja Joins the Fight, Zero Visibility: The Sharingan Shatters, The Broken Seal, White Past: Hidden Ambition, The Weapons Known as Shinobi and The Demon in the Snow

ArachCobra

Hoo boy, this is gonna be a long one.

So Gato's henchmen Zori and Waraji bust into Tazuna's place by straight up carving the wall open. That's kinda awesome. And then they immediately start busting the inventory, because fuck Tazuna's dishes I guess. Anyway, they take Tsunami hostage and plan on killing Inari, but Tsunami promises to let them do whatever they want with her if they spare Inari.

In the English dub anyway. Originally, she threatens to bite her own tongue and drown in her blood if they hurt Inari, denying them a captive. Gotta go with the original Japanese take on this, that's fucking hardcore. Go Tsunami.

So Inari is left behind, crying, because now he's also at risk of losing his mom. But then he remembers Naruto and storms after the two thugs to... Actually, he has no plan other than yelling a challenge and running towards the enemy. Which I grant is very Naruto. And Naruto does show up right then and saves them both.

But imagine if he hadn't. We're supposed to see this as Inari overcoming his issues and gaining  courage. But again, courage is defined here as being an idiot. If Naruto hadn't conveniently showed up when he did, having figured Gato's goons were heading for Tazuna's house, Inari would have been cut to ribbons. Courage does not mean not being smart, but the way the show plays it off, we're supposed to think this is admirable. Sure, brave people head into danger all the time. Firefighters, policemen, soldiers. And sometimes, you don't have a choice but to risk it all. I do get that. But that's last resort and only narrative coincidence saved Inari.

Back at the bridge, Haku enters battle by spinning like a fucking beyblade. Not the most intimidating entrance. Then they fight and despite the hype, Sasuke does get the better of him, which makes Zabuza declare that Sasuke is Haku's rival.

Sakura and Kakashi just watch. I guess it would be too much to ask them to join the fight and even the odds in their favour.

Yes, climbing trees magically gave Sasuke the ability to keep up with Haku. I guess. Somehow.

So Haku uses his ace in his sleeve and summons several ice mirrors which he can enter and fight from. Sasuke supposedly gets fucked up pretty badly, but given the sheer amount of needles animated, seems like Haku is missing with most of them.

Finally, Sakura tries to help by throwing a kunai, but Haku catches it, only to get conked in the head by Naruto.

A brilliant sneak attack from our ninja idiot. Good to see.

Of course, he immediately ruins it by doing a dramatic entrance worthy of Darkwing Duck and starts blathering about how this is just like in the stories when the hero arrives in the nick of time.

After getting yelled at, he tries to do the clone thing, only for Zabuza to attack him mid hand sign.

Stuff like this is why I like Zabuza.

Now, Haku does intervene because he wants to fight Naruto, but there's a fundamental problem here that must be addressed.

Now, Naruto, he likes to talk about becoming the greatest ninja ever. But scenes like this reveal something rather... Peculiar.

Fundamentally, Naruto has no fucking clue what a ninja is.

He always tries to storm in and hit hard. Even accepting the much more offensive role ninjas have in this universe, emphasis is still placed on deception, trickery, stealth, tactics. Meanwhile, Naruto thinks he's on an episode of Dragonball, charging in loudly and swinging his fists no matter how big and dangerous his opponent is. At least the others call him out on it this time, but it is troubling that Naruto has managed to become a ninja, despite obviously having no fucking clue what he's supposed to be doing.

And then he 'sneaks' into the mirror dome, trapping himself there with Sasuke.

Because Naruto, on top of everything else, is also an idiot.

Meanwhile, Sakura is guarding Tazuna. That is their main objective, so technically that's great, but since the show instead wants to focus on the interesting battles, it leaves little for her to do.

Back in the dome, Haku keeps destroying Naruto's clones, while Sasuke uses his ally as a distraction to analyze Haku's jutsu to find a way to counter it.

Good on Sasuke. He's actually ninjaing.

And then Kakashi and Zabuza starts fighting, with the latter summoning an extra thick fog to counter the Sharingan. Then, on top of that, he tries to go for Tazuna and Sakura to lure Kakashi into a vulnerable position. Kakashi gets in the way, blood sprays and Sakura screams.

Back in the dome, our two intrepid friends are starting to look rather like pincushions. Makes me wince whenever they fall over, because you know at least one of those needles just got shoved into them. Not that it ever amounts to anything.

So Naruto faints from exhaustion, Haku tries to finish him off and Sasuke gets in the way. He gets some actually sad final words and Naruto loses his fudge and gets ready to end fucking everything. The power sealed in explodes outward and everyone notices it.

On that note, boy, Zabuza sure did spend a lot of time with his sword stuck in Kakashi if we have to judge from how long passed between the scream and us getting back to them.

But anyway, Naruto goes berserk and absolutely ruins Haku, stopping short of killing him only because he recognizes him as the cute crossdresser from the woods. They exchange words and Haku tells his backstory. It's a genuinely sad tale about prejudice, hate, exclusion and finding a place in the world to belong. Finally, feeling that he is now useless again, Haku encourages Naruto to kill him. But before out blond ninja can euthanize him, let's go back to Kakashi and Zabuza.

So Kakashi got hurt, but that allows him to do a little dance routine with a scroll of paper to summon dogs to hold Zabuza still. Then he charges up his lightning hands and gets ready to fingerbang Zabuza in the heart with the power of Zeus.

Haku sensing this decides he has one last use left in his life, taking the blown and attempting to hold Kakashi still while Zabuza finishes him off. While he succeeds at the former, Kakashi gets away with his body before Zabuza can kill him.

And thus dies Haku. Its a rather sad tale.

Meanwhile, Inari runs around trying to gather an army, but no one dares fight Gato. Still, his words strikes a chord and later when he prepares to go off on his own armed with a crossbow, the villagers show up to help.

Back on the bridge, Sakura sees Sasuke and freaks out. Tazuna thinks some encouraging words. Wish he'd say them instead.

And while that is going on, Zabuza is getting his shit kicked in by Kakashi. It's seriously embarrassing. Like, we cut back, and Zabuza has already broken an arm off-screen. And then Kakashi bitchslaps him away. It's like, now that his role as villain is over, Zabuza has gone from a complete menace to some jobber getting slapped around before the main event. Honestly, kinda disrespectful to his character. And then Kakashi breaks the other arm.

Then Gato shows up with an army of misfit goons, because he's tired of how shit's going down. Then he kicks Haku, which triggers Naruto. Zabuza says he didn't care about Haku, using him only as a tool, which causes Naruto to yell at him.

And then Zabuza cries, Naruto's words cutting deep.

Sure. We'll go with that.

So then he charges Gato armed only with a kunai in his mouth, cutting through Gato's army and killing the lil' guy himself after delivering a chilling speech about Hell. It's all kinds of awesome.

Then the rest of the villagers show up, scaring off what goons remain. Personally, I think they should have shown up a little earlier, so that they could have part in the showdown with Gato, since all this build up was for them to stop letting their fear of the guy control him. But that's just my opinion.

With everything resolved, Kakashi drags a dying Zabuza to Haku's body, so he can see him one last time before he dies. Between the music, cinematography and dialogue, this scene genuinely got me misty-eyed. There's only one stupid line from Naruto that doesn't work. This truly does feel sad and I gotta hand it to the anime for pulling that off.

Also, Sasuke is miraculously alive. I guess Sakura forgot to check his pulse before deciding to cry all over him. Yes, yes, I get it, she was distraught, but really, that should be the first thing they checked.

Zabuza and Haku get buried and our protagonists leaves.

Anyway, the bridge also got finished. Which is surprising considering that bridges of the type we see here, spanning quite the distance across the ocean, takes quite a fucking long time to make. I guess they've been away for a couple of years and nobody told us. And then it's named the Great Naruto Brudge.

Go fuck yourself, Tazuna.

Seriously, okay, great, Naruto helped. So did everyone else, including Sakura, who was babysitting your sorry ass while you were being hunted by a hulking ninja wielding a steel girder sizes kill-blade. Not to mention Kakashi, who fought Zabuza, and Sasuke, who took a bullet(Well, handful of needles) for his comrade. And of course, let's not forget Kaiza, who was oh so important some episodes ago.

But no. All credit goes to Naruto. What a cop out.

Anyway, while these episodes have some legendarily great moments, from Haku's past to Zabuza's final moments, they're also hindered by several issues. First of all, they were spread out over too many episodes. There's too much faffing about and “Last time on Naruto,” which kills the pacing at times.

Secondly, Naruto makes some truly stupid mistakes that really makes it hard to believe he's got what it takes to be a ninja, much less the hokage.

And thirdly, despite having a technically important role, Sakura gets to do nothing. This is a shame, as the previous episodes have established that she is quite skilled in her own way. But since her job is to guard Tazuna and the camera would rather focus on the epic action, she just felt put on the sideline. At least she still did something, I guess, but Sakura by this point really needs opportunities to shine.

Givenea

Let’s see. Zabuza is a big threat until he isn’t, then Kakashi just slaps him about. There’s also this weird moment where we’ve cut to Naruto, Sasuke and Haku for a long conversation then cut back, and Zabuza and Kakashi has apparently just been standing there for several minutes. We get Haku’s backstory, it’s genuinely touching. Then Gato shows up with a bunch of goons. Team 7, the villagers and Zabuza team up to defeat him. Everyone is happy, except for Haku, Zabuza and Gato who’re all dead. Zabuza’s death scene was pretty touching though.

Also the bridge is named The Great Naruto Bridge, because fuck everyone else.

I have so much to say about this episode.

Let’s start with tying a nice big bow on Naruto and Inari’s relationship. There are two scenes to carry in mind for this.

First, Naruto saves Inari and his mother Tsunami from some goons Gato send to kidnap one of them for some reason. Inari starts crying (can’t blame him) but tries to stop himself. Naruto tells him that there’s nothing wrong with it as he’s being happy and that’s fine.

Ok, so tears of happiness are fine, got it. Crying can happen due to just about any strong emotion and is a healthy outlet of such thing, but this seems to be the thesis we’re going with.

Inari then fetches the villagers to go scare of the last of Gato’s goons, good for them.

The second scene to bear in mind comes as the episode is ending when Kakashi and team is saying goodbye. Inari is trying not to cry, and Naruto tells him it’s ok to do so. Then we see that Naruto too is bawling his eyes out, and I agree with Sakura here… this is really damn stupid.

The lesson is apparently that it is only ok to cry if you doing so helps make Naruto look good… I don’t think I have a middle finger big enough, to express just how far this show can shove that idea.

So, let me moan and complain about the bridge instead. See, there is a Great Naruto Bridge in real life Japan. It lies in continuation of The Small Naruto bridge and crosses the Naruto strait. Now I was not able to find anything on how long it took to build The Great Naruto Bridge. I was however able to find something on the New Little Belt Bridge here in Denmark.

Let’s compare bridges:

New Little Belt Bridge:

Suspension bridge.

Length: 1700 meters.

Width: 31.2 meters.

Time under construction: 5 years (1965-1970)

Great Naruto Brigde:

Suspension bridge.

Length: 1629 meters.

Width: 25 meters.

Time under construction: no idea

Now, The New Little Belt Bridge is slightly bigger than The Great Naruto Bridge, but I don’t think it is completely crazy to say they could be constructed within a similar time span. And from the view the show gives us of the damn thing, we can conclude a few things:

The bridge is a suspension bridge. This can be seen from the general design when people are working on it in episode 11

It is almost finished. When Zabuza and Haku arrived in episode 12 you can see that the bridge is very close to reaching shore.

At the end of the ark it is done. The team walks home over the bridge, it kinda must be done for that.

From the scenes in episode 11 where Giichi quits we can see that keeping workers is hard.

From the scene in episode 11 where Sakura and Tazuna goes shopping we can see that resources are tight.

Also, according to the tale of Kaiza in episode 11, Kaiza arrived 3 years prior and Gatö arrived about a year prior to the events of the ark according to Tazuna’s explanation as they sail under the bridge in episode 7.

So with these facts in mind, time to make some assumptions:

With the difficulty of keeping workers and the lack of resources it is assumable that the progress on building the bridge has been pretty much halted in the year Gatö has been there.

The bridge could not have been built response to Gatö’s takeover, as construction would have to have started 4 years prior to his arrival.

Again, with the lack of resources and workers, it is assumable finishing the bridge would take longer than anticipated.

We are gonna assume for the need of simplicity that it takes equally long to build a meter on any part of the bridge and that the short distance we can see is 50 meters long. We are also gonna assume that The Great Naruto Bridge of the show is the same size as The Great Naruto Bridge in Japan. That means that under normal conditions it should take Tazuna and a full crew 56 days or almost two months to finish the bridge.

Now Tazuna does not have normal conditions, he has, if nothing else, to bring in more workers and figure out how to pay their wages. But let say he manages all that he needs to quickly. In that case the ninjas could maybe be home after something like 5 months after heading out…

But see… here’s the thing, as far as I could understand. The bridge is supposed to have been built in response to Gatõ. Tazuna supposedly finished a five-year project in about a year, with barely any money, few workers and a sadistic, dictatorial business tycoon breathing down his neck.

I don’t think I have to explain how impossible that is.

Here are the links for the pages I used to look up the bridges:

https://www.japanhoppers.com/en/shikoku/naruto/kanko/662/

https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilleb%C3%A6ltsbroen_(1970)

http://www.vejdirektoratet.dk/DA/viden_og_data/statens-veje/broer/Sider/Lilleb%C3%A6ltsbroen.aspx

Fluttersniper13

I'll keep this brief. Goons blow up wall, Inari's an idiot, Naruto is an idiot. On the bridge, Sakura does nothing. Sasuke does something. Kakashi is being cool. Silent killer isn't being silent again. Haku is cool. Naruto comes in, is a mororn. Things go downhill. Ends with a relatively touching scene, which Naruto ruins. Good job, show.

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13125294/9/Naruto-Rewrite-1-Road-to-Ninja

[justsomekpopstuff]

Familiars (Jongin)

Pairing: Jongin x Reader

Type: Soulmate AU

Requests: OPEN

MASTERLIST

A/N: in wake of the chaos that has erupted bc of mah bois seventeen, i needed to write some fluff to cleanse my soul. so here we are!

You and your soulmate are connected by familiars - you share the same animal familiar that will eventually lead you to each other...

your familiar was your absolute favorite

you remember the first time it appeared when you were small

you thought it was just a stray that appeared in front of you at the park

but, when you noticed that it followed you when you got older, you began to suspect something was up

it would appear anywhere that you were whenever you thought about it

when you got into school, you learned about the concept of familiars

they were animal spirits that were sent to assist you

and, in your case, it was there to help you find your soulmate

you grew to absolutely adore having your familiar around

it was a small little brown poodle, who was the cuddliest lil thing you had ever met

it always appeared when you needed it most, and for years of your life that was its purpose

it wasn’t until later that things began to change

Jongin hated that he had to keep his familiar hidden all the time

even when he became a trainee, he didn’t have time to spend with his familiar

there were times in his training and in his schedules where all he would want was to sit and relax with his familiar

but, sadly, with the life he led, he barely had time to breathe let alone spend time with his familiar

the moment that he was able to relax, out came the small brown poodle, who would lie straight into his lap

it was one of the few things that brought him peace in his busy life

it wasn’t until one of the boys brought up soulmates that he told them about his familiar

they told him that they had heard that familiars can lead to your soulmate

and so, he kept his familiar that much closer, knowing that if he ever got the chance, it would lead him to you

you were facing another long day at work

you were working at a high end boutique in the city, and most of the customers were pretty famous

you were sitting behind the register, since it was a rather slow day

you had no idea how wrong you were 

Jongin finally had some time to himself

he decided he was going to go out for the day, to take some time to think, and maybe get his familiar some exercise

he was taking a nice jog when he heard it

some fans gasping

they had recognized him

after hearing the squeals, he decided to make a run for it

he started running at a full sprint, his familiar appearing just before him

it ran ahead, taking different twists and turns, and so Jongin followed, knowing that it could lead him to safety

you were heading to the store room when your familiar appeared, running in excited circles around you before darting out into the store

you darted out behind them, knowing that if they were appearing there must be a reason for it

you ran out of the store room right as Jongin ran through the doors

“Can I hide in here for a bit?” he asked you, completely out of breath

“What’s going on?” you asked in return

“People...following me...have to hid...” he managed to get out

that’s when you heard the excited squeals and chatter close by

“Fine, you can hide in the store room. Come on,” you guided him to the back of the store

you got him situated in the store room, you went back out into the store to see if anyone had noticed

you watched as a big group of people walked by the store, whispering that they had seen Kai from EXO

you realized that the person who ran into your store was probably him

you continued to watch them walk past, waiting for a few moments after they disappeared to make sure they were good and gone

your familiar ran in circles around your legs, barking up a storm

meanwhile Jongin was sitting in the back room trying to keep his own familiar quiet

your familiar started to run to the store room, so you followed it, knowing that it was probably going there for a reason

Jongin stood up when he saw you walk in, his familiar tucked into his arms to keep them calm

his familiar wriggled out of his arms and ran at yours, the both of you crying out in an attempt to stop something from happening

but neither of you expected what happened next

they darted at each other, but never collided

instead, as they met, a bright light erupted from both of them, causing you both to look away so you wouldn’t be blinded

when the light faded, you looked back to where your familiars used to be

now, there sat one small brown poodle, as alive as it could be

“wait, what just happened,” you asked, totally confused

“did our familiars just...combine?” the guy questioned

“only one way to find out,” you asked

you bent down and called over the small brown poodle

it came trotting over happily to you, letting you look at the collar that now rested on its neck

sure enough, on either side of the tag, was a name

on one side was the name you used for your familiar, and the other side must have been the other familiar’s name

“Its...real...” you spoke

“does that mean...we’re soulmates?” he asked you

“I think so...” you trailed off “You wouldn’t happen to be ‘Kai from EXO’ would you?”

you saw his body tense up nervously, and you could tell he was thinking about the people from earlier

“I’m  just asking because the people from earlier were saying that they saw you..."

you saw him relax a bit before he answered

“Yes, but my real name is Jongin,” he told you.

“(Y/N),” you introduced in return. “I guess I kind of listen to EXO because of the store playlist. It’s very good.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it,” he smiled at you

the dog at your feet barked, attempting to get your attention

you watched as Jongin scooped it up and cuddled it lovingly

“we already have so many animals in the dorm...” you heard him mutter

“I can take them if you want. We can trade off as well. We are soulmate’s after all. The dog is both of our responsibilities,” you offered

you saw his eyes light up before he gently handed the dog over to you

“you are a life saver,” he told you

“well, what are soulmates for?” you asked rhetorically 

“I guess you’re right,” he replied. “Is it cool if I hang out here for a while? I just want to make sure that they don’t come back.”

“Are you sure its not just because you want to stay with me?” you joked

“Well, that’s also part of it,” he smirked rip you 

you giggled at him before nodding

“Yeah, you can stay here for a bit. It’s a slow day anyway. I’ll order some food and stuff in case you’re hungry.”

in that moment, you heard his stomach grumbling, confirming your suspicions 

“that would be wonderful thank you,” he spoke awkwardly

you smiled and let out a chuckle before pulling out your phone to order something for you to eat

you stood at the counter, enjoying your meal and keeping an eye out

while Jongin sat on the floor behind the counter, away from any prying eyes, the sweet lil poodle falling asleep in his lap

the two of you talked as you ate, using his time hiding to try and get to know each other

you could feel yourself falling for him every moment you spent together

eventually, it started to become dark outside, and you realized how long the two of you had been talking

you told him that you had to start closing up the store, and you saw a look of sadness flicker on his face

Jongin wasn’t ready to leave you quite yet

you were one of the first people to get to know him as himself, not just him as an idol

he didn’t want this moment to end

you noticed the small look of disappointment and knew you had to reassure him

“I’ll tell you what. Next time you are free, text me. I don’t care if its in the middle of the night or the middle in the afternoon. We can meet up,” you picked up the lil pupper off the floor, “and both of us will be there as soon as we can.”

“Are you sure? I’m pretty busy...” he asked you

“Yes. I’m sure. We’re soulmates, remember? Whenever you’re up for it. We’ll make it work,” you looked at the dog, “won’t we?”

the both of you chuckled as the lil poodle barked in response

you locked up the store, and the two of you stood outside for a moment, the poodle still resting in your arms

“I’ll see you soon,” he smiled at you before going to pet the dog once more. “You too, little one.”

“Whenever you want, just give us a call,” you reassured him

he nodded at you, before turning and walking in the opposite direction

you watched him walk away, your heart breaking a bit to watch him leave so soon

you heard the pupper whimpering in your arms and you smiled down softly at it

“I know, I miss him already too,” you spoke softly as you began your walk back home

while Jongin walked back to the dorm, he got a text from Kyungsoo

“Where are you? You have been out for a while”

Jongin smiled, thinking back to the events from today

“I’m on my way back. I met my soulmate”

he sent the text back to Kyungsoo and continued to walk, this time with a bit of a bounce in his step

he didn’t even care when he felt his phone begin to blow up with notifications

even though the two of you no longer had your familiars, you had something better

you had each other

[mythicalmodernity-blog]

OK so since @tom-hiddleston-god-of-mischief and other people showed interest, I bumped up my schedule and so... Here is my ‘Craig is totally gay and was in love with the MC in college’ post! So, first off- this is Craig Cahn and the thing that made me first think that he was gay instead of bi. (And fyi I am a Bi myself, so this is more headcanoning and exploring character and not trying to stomp on other headcanons, jsyk.)

Yeah the very first time we met. But look- divorces do happen, and do happen in a chill manner. But... let us note a couple things. One, the divorce literally only happened ‘last year’. Which could mean anywhere from (assuming this is the spring due to college letters and school timetables) 12+ to only 3-ish months ago depending on what counts as ‘last year’. You only get a SECOND of him being uncomfortable while breaking the news before he is on even ground and is like ‘yeah it’s old news and everything is in perfect order now’. AND THE DIVORCE HAPPENED EITHER WHILE SMASHLEY WAS PREGNANT OR JUST HAD RIVER. Now, this could be a him lying, except... it’s never really brought up again as a thing? Like, we deal with Mat’s feelings for his dead wife, Joseph’s failing marriage, and etc but despite how recent it was we are lead to believe their divorce was perfectly amicable despite the timing.  (Now placing a cut here because this gets long and has more pics.)

My theory is that it’s because Craig, who emphasizes the Romance in bromance, was open to Smashley when he started going ‘wait... I think... I’m not attracted to women???? At all???’, but that is a lot to unpack and Craig is the overachiever who is desperate to be great and responsible on all levels, so I imagine it was a long process of discussions and figuring stuff out and recognizing their marriage was failing, and maybe a couple final sexy times to confirm whether or not he really WAS attracted to women, because if Smashley isn’t just as much of a bro as her name implies I Will Be Disappointed (and I mean, not just doing it for Craig, but also sex is fun and he’s sexy and she loves the dude who is her bro and husband). River was the result of that near the tail end of their marriage. That also explains the age gap between River and the twins, if she was the result of years of sex just never happening, and then it suddenly WAS happening because Confusion and Confirming if the Marriage is Really Dead And I’m Gay. Not to mention Ok she goes by Smashley (while in her late 30′s/early 40′s), was the kind of cool person who probably hung out with the MC who has the possibility of being a trans gay man- so she’s probably not bigoted and to a degree Gets It, and so really when the marriage ended it was fine. Now, we’re gonna put a bookmark into this and come back to it near the end for a finishing move, but now we are gonna lay down the ‘...and Craig was in love with you in college’ bit.

This is how we get re-intro’ed to Craig. Doooooeees anyone remember the ‘so I was kinda plain back when we knew each other in school but now we are meeting again years later and I got hot and suddenly you’re noticing me and I had a crush on you years ago and I’m suddenly realizing I never really got over it holy shit’ cliche? From Craig’s perspective, this is what this is. Look at how happy he is by you complimenting how he looks. And before you go ‘well... it’s a compliment!’, think about all the compliments he gets in his first date from other people and how he reacts to THAT. Yeah. And it should be noted that, out of all the Bachelors, he is the only one who asks you to go out with him first. To ‘catch up on old times’, yeah, but it’s a break from the narrative with the others. Joseph invites you to the neighborhood grill event and possible counseling, but other than that? Craig is literally the exception here. And not only does he go ‘Hey you should come jogging with me!’, he then FOLLOWS UP BY BADGERING YOU WITH MULTIPLE TEXTS LITERALLY THE NEXT MORNING AFTER YOU MOVED HOUSES. THE BLESSED THIRST OF THIS MAN.

And what does he do the first time you meet up? He tells a story from your college days. But the funny thing is, the first thing he recalls about it is not some epic stunt they did together but... how you vowed to make him feel better. This is what Craig remembers about you. Not so much the epic bro who did epic things with him- nah, we know from some other stories you/the MC was often on the sidelines watching and worrying at times. But he remembers that you CARED and did something utterly ridiculous for him to make him feel better. And the way he tells it, it’s not ‘hahaha remember that time you stole a fish for me in the most stupid fashion possible’ (which is how the MC remembers it). Nah, he tells it like it’s the Best Story Ever, a Tribute to Your Bro-hood And Why You Are Awesome. And the thing is, I’m not sure if Craig has had someone be there for him like that for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, my headcanon is that Smashley was awesome, but she was busy too. And a chunk of Craig’s romance revolves around needing someone looking out for his emotional wellbeing, which you always had his back on. And then, the first official date happens.

Look. In most other dates you are only get a kiss on the final date. Some have some hand holding by the second, but you go straight to flirting and forehead kissing on the first here, leading to a very Unimpressed River. (I love her.) And LOOK HOW MANY POINTS YOU SCORE WITH THAT. Like. LOOK AT ALL THOSE EGGPLANTS, SWEAT, AND HEARTS? THAT IS A LOT. And that is AFTER he turns down a bunch of moms, after he talks about being ‘too busy’ to find someone. But the MOMENT you hint at him giving you a kiss, even ‘teasingly’ he does and is all. over. it. First date after roughly 17-ish years of not seeing each other. Oh, and earlier in the date, when you go ‘I’m sure someone will come along for you and fit right in?’ That was another big scorer. Because he hopes you mean yourself. And earlier on he kept on apologizing for not being able to be alone with you, and actively takes you back to the empty baseball field where he knows literally NO ONE will be. That’s not a ‘maybe we should go to a coffee shop and be by ourselves’, that’s... setting up a atmosphere man. That’s a hopeful move. That’s a ‘I just want it to be the two of us, even if it’s just for a second’.

This leads us to the second date, where you display you are a good dad to his baby and are not a dick about inconveniences. (Important in Craig’s route, man.) But here I want to bring up Why I Think He’s Gay. Because even when the Waitress is not hitting on him before this, he kinda just... wants it to be the two of you again. He kinda ignores her a bit. And then when she interrupts you/the MC and hits on him... man he gets super sad/uncomfortable really fast. And he gets uncomfortable ALL THE TIME when women hit on him. Now- many of these women are nice, motherly types. The Waitress was hilarious with River before hitting on him.  But he shows less than 0 interest. It legit bothers him. Because he just recently is slowly accepting he’s gay, then you just happen to come back into his life after he moved back and the divorce was finalized (though I wonder if his reasons for moving back to Maple Bay didn’t happen to include a vague hope or two there), and he can’t get a moment with you without a woman hitting on him and making him feel weird and kinda guilty and heeeey doesn’t dealing with internalized homophobia suck ass. And then, the third date. Which is aaalllll about you two being Alone, with a capital A. Now, here I want to briefly touch on my bookmarked Smashley bit, because she is totally cool with taking the kids in for a couple days (which, good since she is their mom), when if all of the above is a correct interpretation she KNOWS they are gonna bang. Like. I’m just saying. (Let us take a moment to picture Smashley talking Craig through things and being like ‘Bro, you can do it. You can make this move. Just first swimming opportunity? Strip, your butt will call to him.’) And ok even if this DIDN’T happen, if Craig was going on a overnight vacation with a guy when I knew he was attracted to men, and this is a friend he gushes about and kinda adores? Yeah she knew. And was cool with it. But my final piece of evidence your honor in the ‘Craig was in love with you back in the day’ is this lil’ series here.

HE. MAKES. THE. FIRST. MOVE. AND PROGRESSES IT HELLA FAST. You move closer? Oh he turns over towards you immediately with his head close enough to breath on your neck. You turn over? His eyes are opening and his hand goes to your waist. You both go in for the kiss, but immediately after he confesses to you. And here’s the thing... this happens whether or not you end up together. And while the other bachelors have emotional moments leading up to the confession/kiss which might overrule their ‘Oh I don’t actually want to end up with this guy’ brain, this is a chill, quiet moment. A chill quiet moment which IMMEDIATELY leads to sex if you interpret the final lines of the night that way. The only 2 other bachelors you are implied to immediately have sexy times with on the 3rd date is Joseph because of high emotions, hopes, and a failing marriage and cheating, and Mat who is on a high of playing for the first time in forever and realizing you enable him to do it and WOW. oH, And Hugo I think? Need to replay but once again- he just went to a wrestling show, met his hero, slammed his horrible student in glorious fashion, and wrestled you. I’m just saying, emotions high in every case... except Craig’s. So, on the ‘bad end’, why would Craig do all this if it turns out he ‘didn’t mean to lead you on’? Maybe it’s because it’s something he’s been thinking about off and on since college, and then it was ALL HAPPENING, and then... it happened, and it wasn’t like he thought, and he realized you weren’t what he thought anymore. In the bad end, he still gets some kind of closure on his feelings. But in the good end, let’s think about this. ‘Feelings I can’t deny anymore’. How long has he had those feelings? How long has he DENIED them? If in the very first date, after not seeing you for 17 years, he was desperate to spend alone time with you and leaped at the chance to give you a forehead kiss.... I say it’s been a long ass time he’s had those feelings. And that is my ‘Craig Cahn is hella gay and was in love with you in College’ post. Thanks for reading.

[theepolynesian]

Together Again

Summary: Thranduil is brought to your world and vice-versa.

Pairing: Thranduil x Reader

Word Count: 2,756

Master Lists: Drabbles/Imagines, and Completed Series

Requested by: 

     @annajolras:  May I request a lil story? Thranduil x reader where he is swept into the 'real world' (modern au) and reader (very short, like 5'4") shows him around and stuff.... fluff please😘 I love your writing❤❤ thank you xxx

     Anon: Hello! I love all your work so I'd figured I would try a request... A nerdy lord of the rings/hobbit fan from are world gets pulled into middle earth by the Valar to change the outcome of the battle of five army's? Feel free to run with it however you'd like!

A/n: sorry that it’s shit.

You look at the man at your front steps with a shocked face. You had to be dreaming. That was the only explanation. Well the only plausible explanation as to why, The Elvenking Thranduil was standing at your door. That has to be it.

“You are a very amazing Thranduil cosplayer, but Halloween is not for another three months,” you say, raising your brow at the man.

He could pass as Lee Pace’s twin that's for sure including height. 6’5” was damn tall. Anything above your 5’4” stature was tall to you.

“I do not understand your words, human. What exactly is cosplay and Halloween?”

“VERY funny. I didn't think you were that dense,” you say, rolling your eyes as a force of habit.

“You dare speak to me like that?” he booms and you back away, afraid.

He sighs, rubbing his forehead.

“Can you just tell me where I am?. One minute I was in my throne room the next I'm in this area that I do not recognize with houses more exquisite than Gondor,” he explains and you sigh.

Maybe this was actually Thranduil and for some reason the Valar had sent him here.

You needed to get to the bottom of this.

A few hours and a couple of shots of vodka later, you finally finished explaining everything to the King.

“So I don’t know how you got here, but I think you’ll just have to wait it out and you can do that here. But now it’s time for bed. I have a guest room and extra clothes inside there as well. You cannot be walking around in a dress,” you say.

“It’s a dress robe,” Thranduil argues.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t fit in,” you say, standing and leading him to his bedroom, “we can talk about the rest of it in the morning.”

You make your way to your room and get into bed, staring at the ceiling.

What the hell were you supposed to do?

-

“Y/n!” You hear and you immediately shoot out of your bed, now wide awake, running to the source.

Thranduil did not seem like an elf who would yell for no reason so there had to be something wrong. You may have just met the elf but you got protective easily.

You pause in the bedroom doorway as you realize that Thranduil was in no trouble at all.

He was simply staring at the TV with wide amazed eyes.

Your panic settles into a bout of anger.

“Are you dying or something?” You ask irritably.

“How did those people get into the box? Why are they in a box?” He asks panicked.

You sigh.

“It’s a thing called television. Cameras captures a moving an image and they project it to the television. The thing that you’re watching now.”

“But are they really that small?”

“No. They’re normal sized men. The image is downsized to fit the screen. Now can you please get dressed? I don’t have any groceries so we have to go out to eat.”

Making your way down the stairs, you think about the elvenking and how out of character he seemed.

In the movie, he was cold and calculating, in the book he wasn’t as bad, but a very concerned elf king was not what you were expecting. Especially concern for those not of his race.

You make a cup of coffee and wait for the king to make an appearance.

You can’t help but choke as you see him in tight jeans, a white shirt and a read and black flannel with a man bun.

JFC he rocked that man bun.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

“Yes. Why do you ask?” you reply a bit sharply.

“You choked.”

“Did not.”

“Elves have very good hearing. You choked.”

You shrug.

“Never thought you would wear a bun.”

His hand reaches out to touch his hair.

“Yes. Well, I saw it on your image thing and I thought it would be best to try and fit in.”

You look him over and notice his pointed ears. You needed to fix it because pointy ears were very suspicious. You walk up to the king and pull a few strands loose so that it’ll cover his ears.

“Do you always touch those above you?” he breathes and you roll your eyes at his haughtiness, ignoring the closeness.

“You are my equal in this realm. I am neither below or above you,” you retort.

He raises his brow.

“I meant people taller than you,” he says and you pause before laughing.

That earns a smile from him.

“I really need to stop being so uptight, don’t I?” you ask him, stepping back.

He shrugs, giving you a small smile.

“Maybe.”

You laugh again.

“Let’s go, princess,” you say and he lets out a chuckle before you both leave the house.

-

When you went shopping with the King, you did not expect it to be such an amazing day.

Contrary to popular belief, he was rather nice and funny and so carefree. He cracked quite a few jokes and you had fell for him hard within a space of one day. You didn’t want him to leave.

“So elves are things that help this santa person and they’re actually really small with bells?” Thranduil asks as you walk into your house, arms filled with groceries.

“Yes. They are supposedly the ones who make the toys to deliver to children,” you explain.

“How degrading,” he says, placing the groceries on the counter.

You watch him unload the groceries with a smile on your face.

You wanted this. You wanted someone you could settle down with. Someone you could go shopping with, laugh with, play around with. Someone who would love you as much as you would love them. You know you shouldn’t be getting attached, but you couldn’t help it. He’s an amazing guy with an amazing personality.

“What is it?”

You shake your head and look at him with a sad smile on your face.

“Nothing, princess. Let’s just get dinner started.”

You’re not really surprised to find him gone the next day as if he wasn’t even there in the first place, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a bitch.

-

It takes you months to get over him. Although you’ve watched him on the big screen many times, it was not the same as it was talking to him in person. The Thranduil on the screen was not your Thranduil.

After watching BOTFA all the way through for the first time, you decide to hit the sheets. You were missing him again and a sad Thranduil just made you more sad. You just wish you could see him again.

Orcs. Dragons. Dwarves. Wizards.

That’s all you could dream about.

It’s not the first time that you’ve dreamed about it, definitely not, but this one was different.

In this dream, you were a part of the battle of the five armies. You saved the Durin’s lives and you were finally reunited with Thranduil.

You didn’t want this dream to end, but it does as soon as you start falling.

You didn’t understand how you could be falling when you were lying in your bed but you are and it seems to go on and on and on.

You let out an oomph as you finally land on the ground, knocking the wind out of you.

It was extremely cold for some reason. Last you checked, it was summer. A very HOT summer.

You slowly open your eyes and gone was the night replaced by day.

You hear clashing swords making you confused.

It was the 21st century. Who used swords?

Slowly, you sit up and take in the scene around you. It’s then that you realize that you were no longer in earth.

You were in Middle Earth.

Quickly standing, you look around for a weapon as an orc charges at you.

You make for the sword that was conveniently there and stab the orc before it has a chance to stab you. Those fencing classes were finally useful.

“Lass! What the hell are you doing here?” you hear and you turn to find Dwalin, Thorin, Fili and Kili.

“It’s not like it was on purpose. Believe me, it was an accident!” you reply.

“An accident?” Thorin rumbles looking you over, “what in Durin’s name are you wearing?”

“Now is not the time. We are in the middle of a war, if I’m not mistaken and you are about to be led into a trap,” you say, not really feeling like it was the time to explain a tank top and sweatpants.

“What do you mean trap?” Fili asks.

“Thorin was about to send the both of you to those towers to see if Azog was there. He is even though it doesn’t seem like it and he traps you and you die alone which is a pretty shitty way to die if I do say so myself,” you inform them.

When you realized that Fili dies alone, you were absolutely livid. Thorin had Bilbo and Kili had Tauriel and there was no one for Fili and you absolutely hated it.

“Why should we listen to a human that seemingly appears out of nowhere wearing naught but her underwear?” Thorin growls as you all spring into action, killing more orcs.

“Because it is true. If you just used your common sense, you would realize that it was a trap, but you didn’t and it got your nephews killed and that Thorin Oakenshield is not going to happen on my watch,” you growl out.

Thorin looks at you before nodding.

“We will stay together and live to fight another day,” he says and you let out a sigh of relief.

At least he was coming to his senses.

The five of you continue fighting with Bilbo joining halfway through with Legolas and Tauriel right behind him.

Thorin soon faces off with Azog and you were preparing for the last life you were supposed to save.

Azog plunges into the water and you notice that Thorin is following his body floating down the stream.

“Thorin stay away!” you shout and he looks at you confused before looking down again.

You sigh at the stupid king. You decide that the only thing that could save him now was a tackle to the ground and so you tackle him.

Not even a second later, Azog pops out of the ice with a shout.

You roll off of Thorin and the both of you immediately bring your swords up, stabbing Azog in the chest not once, but twice at the same time.

You just killed the pale orc with Thorin right beside you. What?

Ignoring your train of thought, you and Thorin both push Azog off of you and you just lay there for a few seconds, trying to gather your scattered brain.

“Is she dead?” you hear.

“Perfectly fine. Just need time to reevaluate my life.”

“Are you finally going to explain who you are and where you come from?” Thorin asks, offering you his hand. You look at it before looking at his face.

“It’s going to take a while,” you say.

“Thanks to you, I now have all the time in the world,” he says and you take his hand and then the coat that he offers you.

You explain to him every detail possible as you are joined by the company one-by-one.

“So now wait a minute lass. You’re from another world and you were brought here completely by accident?” Bofur asks and you nod, standing quickly as you realize that Thranduil must be here as well.

“Where is Thranduil?” you ask, looking at the dwarves.

“The elf ponce?” Dwalin asks.

You roll your eyes.

“Yes. The very same,” you say.

“Y/n?” you hear and you slowly turn around, immediately recognizing the voice.

There in front of you is the elf that you grew to love. He looked older. Much older and there was blood splattered across his face and he looked absolutely exhausted.

You finally remember that he was here to look for Legolas or rather his body. You knew that Legolas would still be alive at the end of The Hobbit but it still made your heart hurt to think that Thranduil was losing the only thing he had left from his wife.

“Princess!” you exclaim, running towards him and leaping into his arms.

He catches you easily and immediately wraps his arms around you, burying his face into your hair.

“I missed you so much,” he whispers and you pull back with a laugh.

“It’s only been three months, Princess, but I missed you too,” you say and he looks at you confused.

“It’s been three thousand years, y/n.”

You frown. That made no sense at all.

“I would like to explain it to you without listening ears,” he says, glaring at something in the back of you.

You turn to find Thorin holding up his hands in defense.

“We get it. We’ll leave you two alone,” and with that the company makes their way down the hill with Bilbo’s hand clasped in Thorin’s. Your OTP finally gets to become cannon!

You take a seat on one of the staircases, trying to process this information.

“So if three thousand years have passed, that means I met you in the year three thousand three hundred eighty two of the second age, meaning your father was still alive and you were still a prince,” you say, gathering all of your Tolkien knowledge.

Thranduil nods in confirmation.

“I was indeed still a prince. I had nothing to my name,” he replies and you raise your brows at the obvious lie.

“Well nothing important to my name. No son or wife. Just me and my father and his kingdom. It wasn’t until after the throne was handed to me that I found my wife, Lilliana. I was hoping beyond all hope that I would see you again and I wanted to wait for you. I wanted to I really did, but duty called and I found a wife. A wife that I loved just as much as I loved you. A wife that made me happy just like you did in the space of one day. A wife that-.”

“Died protecting your son,” you say, interrupting him and he looks at you for a second, wondering how you knew all of this information.

You had skipped telling him about the Hobbit films and books. You didn’t want to change something which is kind of ridiculous now that you thought about it. You wanted to avoid giving him information that would change the timeline, but here you were changing the timeline yourself. Ridiculous.

“That she did,” he replies and you sigh.

“What are we doing Thranduil? We’ve known each other for one day and yet we fell in love.”

“And here we are, after three thousand years of being apart, finally confessing our feelings for each other. I don’t know about you, but I think this was meant to happen.”

You look at the prince turned king.

“But what if I get taken back just like you had all those years back. I don’t think I can handle being in love with you only for it to be ripped apart once again,” you tell him truthfully.

“I do not believe that that’s going to happen again. It was no coincidence that were brought to each other, twice. Absolutely none and I just want to be happy again with you by my side.”

You smile at him.

You could finally settle down and start a family, something you never really dreamed about until you met him. You can finally be happy again.

“And I want to be by your side until death do us part.”

He places a kiss on your forehead.

“Nothing is ever going to tear us apart ever again.”

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