#but man. i am just one evil concoction of a guy. there are a lot of things about me that make me feel unlovable.

[moe-broey]

There's just like a lot of things about me that make me feel like I'm profoundly unlovable

[jellybeanium124]

Don’t hate yourself for liking someone’s works. Something to remember is that Neil Gaiman wrote his stories to target young, vulnerable people. He was writing his stories to attract fans, and interacted with the fans to entice and groom them. Some of his victims met at book signings. All were fans of his books.

The stories were written with your admiration in mind. It’s not your fault he wants to hold the admiration of people of your demographic.

First, I don't.

Second, I think you are making up a story here bro. I think once upon a time there was a teenager in england who worked in journalism but wanted to write books, and then he was the one-in-a-million lucky soul who wrote his books and they became wildly famous and successful. and then after he accrued power and fame he started exploiting it. I'm not saying people who abuse power don't tend to try and get themselves into positions of power, but "famous author" is a pretty difficult career path and one likely to fail.

with this narrative you've concocted, you've removed his humanity from him, as well as any sort of genuine love of storytelling or creation he definitely has. like he's just as human as the rest of us, and I simply do not believe that he is a monster who only cares about attracting 20-something women and does this by crafting beautiful stories for the page and screen.

there's a concept I've talked about before, the Fetishist. as someone with a widely hated fetish, I've thought a lot about how people think people with my fetish are not humans but Fetishists, monsters who look human but only care about fulfilling their fetish, and see all other people as Objects They Can Use or Nothing. you've turned gaiman into the Predator, which is the same thing just a bit broader. the Predator is a monster shaped like a human, but unlike a human who cares about a myriad of things and has a three-dimensional personality, the Predator only cares about Preying On [usually young women or children], and every human being is, to them, either a Target To Prey On or Nothing. neil gaiman is not the Predator because the Predator doesn't exist. I don't think he had a long term plan. I don't think 19yo neil gaiman was going "hehehehe I can't wait until I become world famous so I can use that to coerce women into sleeping with me!"

turning ng into something evil is easy. because then you don't have to think about the good he's done. then you don't have to think about how he's been a supporter of queer people since the 90s. then you don't have to think about how he's supported refugees or ukraine. you don't have to think about his works of tzedakah or tikkun olam, and you don't have to think about the beautiful art he's made (and while we're here, let's think before dehumanizing a jewish man, hm?). it also handily makes it so you never have to worry about your own behaviors. because you're a three-dimensional person! so of course you could never be the Predator. or the Abuser. or the Fetishist. or the Narcissist.

until I see proof debunking this, I am going to continue believing he made the art he wanted to see in the world out of a genuine wish to be an author, and not primarily to put himself in a position of power to abuse women. maybe he always had tendencies towards manipulation. maybe part of him always knew that if he became famous then there would undoubtedly be women falling over themselves for him. because we all know that. we all know that if we became famous there would be people who we could exploit for sex. that's not a secret. part of me would like to be famous. I wanna work in the film industry. I have silly dreams, of course. but I'm not pursuing this difficult line of work in order to someday abuse people, I'm pursuing it because of a genuine love of making movies. neil gaiman was a guy who wanted to become a writer, and then he did, and then he abused that position, repeatedly. we have three examples now. I wouldn't be surprised if more women started coming out about their experience, because three is absolutely a pattern, and because claire did the brave thing of being the second one to speak out (since scarlett and the other one whose pseudonym I can't remember atm came out at the same time). and now that there's been two exposés, two podcasts, three stories total, more are going to come. I'd be more surprised if they didn't. but that doesn't make neil gaiman the Predator. it makes him a man who did shitty things repeatedly.

[miserablekingsteve]

You’re my kinda lover; Part 1 Steve’s POV 1/1 Part 2 Eddie's POV 1/2

Rating: T Word count: 5k Also read on AO3

 “You’re telling me, you’ve never seen Eddie perform??” Robin squawked one day at Steve in Family Video. It was a slow Thursday afternoon in May, the wind howled at the door, which made the bell jingle ominously. 

 He flicked the magazine he was reading and sighed, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” 

 “How? You guys are friends? Aren’t you?” Robin pressed, leaning back against the counter and staring at him for an answer. 

 He gulped, sitting up straighter in his seat so he could hide his face in the pages of the glossy paper. Sure, he and Eddie were friends, but not that close. Like, they’d gotten high and hung out, but nothing more than superficial cigarette smoking and chatting. 

 “Look! Not all of us can become everyone’s closeted lesbian best friend. There’s tension, it’s… it’s a lot harder for us,” Steve explained dully, face still hidden from his best friend. 

 She scoffed at his answer, deep red painted nails pulled the magazine away from his face, “Look, he’s got a show coming up at the end of the month. I dare you to get close enough to have him invite you, because he’s…” She sighed dreamily and her gaze was far away, “Magical.” 

 “Slow your rocker there, Buckley. Sounds like you’re falling in love with him,” Steve chuckled, knowing that there was no way in hell that would ever happen. 

 “Yeah, well, you tell me after you see him,” Robin arched an eyebrow at him daringly. 

 “Fine, I take your damn dare, now would you drop it,” Steve agreed begrudgingly. 

 “Yes!” Robin yipped, fist pumping the air. 

 The rest of their shift went just as any regular Thursday would go after that. Some bashful dad brought in his screaming children, they rented Back to the Future and he left them a tip just for dealing with the loud noises. An old lady came and rented some black and white movie Steve didn’t recognise, but Robin was all over. It neared close, and the bell rang once more before they could lock up. Steve turned his head from the elastic he’d been twirling between his finger and the counter. 

 “Hiya, big boy,” Eddie Munson drawled, leaning over the counter with his hands joined and an enormous grin spread over his lips. 

 “Hmph,” Steve greeted, trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach from the casual return of the metalhead's trademark nickname for him. 

 “Eddie!” Robin called, joining them in a sliding halt from the back. 

 “What are we getting tonight?” Eddie asked, curiously searching the back to see if the girl had put a movie aside for them.

 “It’s a surprise,” She singsonged, which caused the curly haired man to roll his eyes. 

 “Well, Steve, are you joining us tonight?” Eddie asked, just as he always did on Thursday’s, it was Robin and Eddie’s movie night and he’d been avoiding going for reasons he’d rather not think about. 

 “Um,” He was going to decline but then remembered Robin’s dare from earlier, “Yes, I am.” 

 Eddie’s brows shot up into his bangs, those huge eyes searched Steve’s face for the punchline, which never came. 

 “Right-o, Steve,” Eddie clapped, rubbing his hands together as if he was concocting a plan, “Hope you like horror movies.” 

 “How do you know I picked a horror movie?” Robin asked, an incredulous look on her face. 

 Eddie just grinned before turning around to saunter out, “You always do, Buckley. If I was someone else, I’d think you were trying to snuggle up to me or something.” 

 “Can it, Munson,” Robin retorted, flipping the metalhead off. Steve just stared at them with his mouth agape, their friendship was—oh how had Robin put it last year? Something about Carinthian. Doesn’t matter. It was an enigma to Steve. 

 “What did you rent?” Steve asked, eyes still focused on Eddie’s van as the mad man whirled around in the parking lot manically. 

 “Evil Dead,” Robin produced the VHS from behind her back. Steve took in the cover, no recognition of it passed through his mind, not even maybe seeing it play at a drive thru when he was on a date. 

 “Cool, I’ve never seen it,” Steve supplied, even though he knew Robin already knew that. 

 She smiled at him before hopping over the counter to sweep the floors before they had to cash out and lock up. Steve rolled his eyes at her, his head shook with a laugh as he clicked the button on the yellowing till that closed it down for the night. 

 It took them under an hour to finish everything up and lock the door. The darkened building solemnly wished him and Robin a till next time. 

 Robin practically skipped over to Steve’s parked BMW, dust and other grime having collected on the sides of her from the day spent there. He hated leaving her parked there all day, preferring to park her on the street, but he was able to keep an eye on the car if she was parked in the lot. 

 “Come on!” Robin whined, wiggling the handle back and forth as she waited for Steve to unlock the doors. 

 “I’m coming. Jesus, hold your horses,” He muttered, keys dangling as he pushed the correct one into the lock. 

 “Alright! To the trailer park!” Robin whooped as she threw herself into his car, not even wiping her shoes before she got in. 

 “Are we really about to go to the same place that gnarly ass gate opened up, and Eddie almost died, to watch a horror movie?” Steve questioned, shivers ran up his spine as the memories of last year creeped into his mind. 

 “I mean. At least we don’t have to live there,” Robin joked hesitantly, her gaze drawn outside and she waved goodbye to the store as they pulled out onto the empty downtown street. 

 “I guess so,” Steve muttered, he pressed his foot on the gas and made the familiar path to Eddie’s home. 

X

 Steve parked in the overgrown visitor lot, rusted bikes and old toys tossed in the other spot. The sun had long since set by then and there was hardly any light in the neighborhood, besides the cast of light from people's windows who were making dinner in their homes. He tried not to stare inside of the homes, curiosity getting the best of him. It was interesting when he saw the vastly different ways people lived; cozy and close together, warm lights, dinners cooked with family, watching a movie together. 

 The feeling of kinship he’d never had at home. It made him jealous. He shook his head and pushed his hands deep into the pockets of his Levi’s. 

 Robin hopped up the creaking steps that led to Eddie’s front door. Steve stalled, standing a few steps behind his friend. He threw a glance toward Max’s trailer, a small light on in the living room, a soft smile glinted on his cheeks from just knowing that she was alive and okay. 

 “Well, well, well,” Eddie’s drawling voice interrupted the otherwise quiet park. Steve turned his head back to his destination and felt something catch in his throat. Eddie was leaning in the doorway; the man’s pale biceps exposed by the black muscle tee he was wearing, long black curls fell over his shoulders, glinting in the night showing he must’ve recently had a shower. 

 “Heya Harrington,” Eddie smirked, one of his canines peaked out from his mouth. Steve felt his stomach flutter with butterflies, he rested his hands on his hips and huffed out a laugh. 

 “What? Surprised I actually showed up?” Steve arched an eyebrow and flashed his flirt of the year grin at the metalhead. Usually that garnered a flush and bashful duck from the ladies, but not Eddie. Steve would have to try harder. 

 “Nope! Come on in you two,” Eddie clapped, swirling around and holding the door open for them. 

 Steve scuffed his shoes off on a worn welcome mat. Eddie was still wearing his white sneakers, so Steve assumed it was safe to keep his own on. Steve let his eyes wander around the living room of the Munson trailer; there was a shelf hanging next to the kitchen all sorts of mugs littered the multiple levels, the overhead light on the oven was on, and the whole place had an aroma tomato soup which was probably coming from the abandoned pot on the stove. 

 “Popcorn? Beer?” Eddie asked, voice higher than normal with what Steve assumed was excitement. 

 “I’ll have a beer,” He smiled, leaning against the kitchen’s island. He tried to catch Eddie’s gaze but was out of luck. The man was bouncing around the kitchen, humming to himself as he pulled out a pot. 

 “Sure, yeah! They’re in the fridge!” Eddie waved toward the fridge, distracted by whatever he was doing on the stove. 

 Robin, who had been quieter since they’d gotten inside the house, opened the fridge. She handed Steve a beer, grabbing two more for herself and their host. 

 “What’s he doing?” Robin hissed, handing the beers to Steve to open them. Shrugging as he pulled the bottle opener he had on his keychain. 

 “What’re you doing?” Steve asked, sidling up next to Eddie and peering over his basically bare shoulder. He saw that ever present grin slide onto Eddie’s face, eyes flickering around as he pulled out measuring spoons and a bottle of oil. 

 “Making popcorn?” Eddie’s brow arched, sticking his tongue out to the corner of his mouth in concentration as the oil drizzled out into the bowl of the spoon. 

 “In a pot?” He asked, leaning casually against the counter and watching curiously. Eddie nodded wordlessly, pouring a cup of kernels into the pot and topping it off with another tablespoon of oil. 

 “So!” Eddie put the lid to cover the heating kernels, “Whatcha rent, Buckley?” 

 “Evil Dead,” Robin declared, holding the VHS up from her spot on the old brown couch. Her converse clad feet were resting on a worn coffee table. Steve was in awe of the comfortability the girl had in Eddie’s house. Much more than his own, and they were best friends. He tried to will away the flare of jealousy that burned in his stomach.

 “Ahh ha, a classic,” Eddie jumped over the arm and crouched next to her, reaching out and swiping the cassette from her hands. 

 “You’ve seen it?” Steve asked, still standing in the kitchen where he’d been left. 

 “Of course, saw it when it came out in theaters at Starcourt,” Eddie muttered as his eyes perused the back blurb. Steve nodded silently and pushed off the counter to settle in an equally lived-in armchair, the stale smell of cigarettes wafted out from the fabric. 

 Steve opened his mouth to reply and say something about Scoops Ahoy, but was startled by the sudden sound of popping. 

 “Jumpy, huh?” Eddie chuckled, pushing himself up from the crouching position he was in. 

 Steve felt like an idiot as he gaped, struggling to find a response to the metalhead’s comment. Robin smirked at him from her comfortable spot, the girl having slumped further into the cushions. He raised a brow at her and took a long sip from his beer. When had he decided to flirt his way into getting an invitation to Eddie’s show? Steve doesn’t remember, and yet that was exactly what he was doing. 

 The aroma of fresh popcorn filled the space, there was clanging from the kitchen where Steve assumed Eddie was stirring in the butter. He peeked over the island and watched, Eddie flung his hair over his shoulder, Steve gulped as his eyes followed the line of muscle that formed when the curly haired man tightened his grip on a white plastic bowl. He felt his face heat from the blush that was blossoming over his cheeks, looking away quickly and focusing on thumbing at the label of his beer. The condensation made it a lot easier to mess with it, little bits of wadded up paper landing in his lap. 

 “So, we’ve got beer and popcorn,” Eddie announced, standing with the bowl in between his forearm and hip, “Anyone for a little herbal refreshment before we get this show on the road?” 

 “I’m in,” Steve responded, a bit too quickly in his mind. Robin and Eddie didn’t seem to think so, both grinning at him. 

 “Ahhh, if only younger me could see me now, smoking marijuana with King Steve and some band nerd,” Eddie chuckled, bending down to place the popcorn on the table. 

 Steve watched the metalhead rummage around in a small tin that was on the table, humming a noise of satisfaction when he pulled up a freshly rolled joint.  

 Robin groaned dramatically as she picked herself from the couch to follow Eddie out to the front stoop, Steve tight on her heels. 

 “We can’t smoke inside?” Steve asked, an observation he was wondering about because there were ashtrays in the house. 

 “Nah, Buckley hates it,” Eddie mumbled, lips holding the weed between them. The metalhead brought a lighter up to the twisted end and sparked the flame. Steve watched him take in a deep breath, chest rising and then heavily letting go of the thick smoke, he let out a cough and smiled at Robin before passing it off to her. 

 “Thanks,” She muttered, her leg tapped with anxiety and anticipation as she hit the joint. She coughed more than Eddie, but that was expected. 

 As Robin passed him the smoking stick Steve felt his own anxiety creeping up the back of his neck, he tried to keep his focus on the actual motions of taking a hit instead of whether or not he’d cough. He’d smoked weed before, but after the Russians, not in a very long time. 

 "Alright, pass it along, Harrington,” Eddie pressed impatiently, fingers held out and scissoring at the joint. 

 Steve didn’t answer, mind engrossed inhaling the smoke easily to further impress Eddie. When he was sure most of the smoke was out of his lungs, he passed it off to Eddie before he could start coughing, which would most likely result in dropping the fragile paper into the damp grass below his feet.

 Eddie thanked Steve, then he felt it, the burn rolling up his esophagus treacherously. He brought his elbow up to his mouth and hacked into it twice, eyes watering when it finally subsided. 

 “Dammit,” Robin cursed, producing a couple of bills from her pocket and handing them off to Eddie. Steve looked between them incredulously. 

 “What the hell did you even bet on? If I would smoke the damn thing or?” Steve chastised, that sick embarrassment rolled around his stomach along with the few sips of beer he’d had. 

 “What, no, we bet on whether you’d literally die from smoke inhalation or not,” Robin explained quickly, reaching a hand out to comfort him. 

 “Oh, well, isn’t that just like a given,” Steve felt his stomach settle, watching Robin as she took another hit and coughing more than she had before. 

 “Not necessarily,” Eddie piped up from where he’d quietly been holding in his last hit. Steve turned to look at the other man. He realized Eddie had bet that Steve wouldn’t cough very much, and butterflies erupted in his stomach. 

 “So, you bet I wouldn’t?” Steve drawled, leaning heavily onto one foot in a flirty stance. He could’ve sworn a blush bloomed on Eddie’s cheeks, but it was too dark outside for him to really tell. 

 “Yeah, man. I’ve sold to Tommy for the untouchable King Steve parties way back in the day,” Eddie answered truthfully. Steve’s heart fell at the mention of his old self, then he remembered all the late night walks they accidentally bumped into each other, sharing a joint then and he smiled, liking the idea that those hang outs were his and Eddie’s secret. 

 “Right,” Steve chuckled, anxiously rubbing at the back of his neck. Taking another hit and then passing it quickly to Eddie, their fingers knocked against each other and a spark shot up his arm. 

 The metalhead smiled at him in thanks and said nothing more, just taking the last few drags of the joint and squashing it below his foot. Steve followed behind Eddie and Robin back inside the warmth of the trailer, the April air cooling rapidly and the smell of petrichor hit his nose. 

 “Let's get this started!” Eddie clapped, reaching down and grabbing the VHS to slip into the tape player. 

 Robin settled into the couch on the right corner, Steve went to sit down but remembered his beer was left on the island counter. He turned to grab it and when he swiveled back around, Eddie had plopped himself right in between Robin; she poked at him and said something, which in turn made both of them throw their heads back and laugh. 

 Steve frowned, feeling left out. When he thought back on it, The two of them had invited him to this more than once, he’d just always had babysitting duties or he just was exhausted from work. 

 “Don’t be shy,” Eddie patted the spot next to him and threw his feet up onto the coffee table, his own beer in hand. 

 “Why would I,” Steve muttered as he bent down and finally settled into the couch cushions. It was damn comfortable, he wiggled himself a bit more and finally let go of a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in. 

 “Thanks for letting me come,” Steve whispered as the trailers started, Robin reached behind Eddie and stuck her finger in his ear. He swatted her away before clutching her hand to squeeze in thanks. She scrunched her nose, then jumped when a loud noise came from the TV. 

 “No problem, man,” Eddie said, eyes distracted by watching the scenes playing in front of him. 

 Steve smiled gratefully and he took a sip of his beer, waiting for the movie to begin. The wonky camera movements made his head spin, but he was intrigued, to say the least. Growing up, he had had no one around to watch horror movies with him and Tommy always was too chickenshit to go with him to see any. Then everything with the Upside Down happened, and he’d just thought they were pointless after that. 

 Eddie looked excited though the longer the movie progressed, bouncing when the 5 friends in the car arrived at the cabin they were staying at, which Steve rolled his eyes at only because he knew most if not all of them were going to be dead by the end of the movie. 

 Steve polished off his beer, and stood to grab another, “Round 2?” He asked, eyes on Robin and Eddie. 

 “Yes, please!” 

 “Why not,” 

 Eddie and Robin said at the same time, the two of them looked at each other and started laughing, talking over the movie and making fun of a character by name. He leaned over and grabbed the beers, cracking the caps off on the island before passing them to his friends. 

 “Y’know, you guys can talk during the movie, I don’t care,” Steve announced as he sat back down. Eddie’s gaze was stuck on his face and he tried not to stare right back; those dark brown eyes burrowing into the side of his face and a surprised grin snuck onto those flush pink lips. 

 Steve took in a quiet, deep breath before he settled back into his seat. Eddie’s thigh pressed right against his own and his bare arm was looped over the back of the couch playing with a loose thread. He was acutely aware of the metalhead’s proximity; it made his heart stutter and his mouth dried up. The last time he’d had this feeling was, Jesus, maybe Nancy? But the way Eddie was sitting was so different, he was used to being in the other man’s position. 

 He was high. That’s the only explanation he had for what he did next, he leaned back and whispered a comment into Eddie’s ear. He relished when he saw the pink tinge on the tips of them. Ha, one point to himself. The sweet blush stayed there and other than the slight discoloration, the metalhead seemed fine, smiling at Steve and huffing out a laugh, nudging him with his knee. 

 “Totally, man,” Eddie muttered. Robin eyed the two of them curiously and leaned over to get closer on the couch. 

 “You guys can’t keep secrets from me, what the hell,” She hissed while a character on screen was creeping through the woods. 

 “I just said her pants looked uncomfortable,” Steve rolled his eyes at his best friend, shifting as he got squished more and more into the couch arm, “Can you guys scoot a bit, I’m getting crammed up against the arm.”

 “Eddie doesn’t have cooties, Steve,” Robin sighed, but she shuffled over so the metalhead could take up more space on her side. 

 Steve relished in his new found space and wiggled around to finally settle in, even though they were about 30 minutes into the movie. His cheeks were warm, head foggy, and he felt comfortable. He doesn’t remember the last time he felt this at peace in a group setting, but it was nice. His muscles continued to relax and he let his head loll backward right onto Eddie’s forearm, which still was cradling the back of the couch. A pattering in his chest kicked off and ran as he waited for the man to pull away, but he never did, so Steve relaxed again. 

 As the movie kicked off, Steve could feel his eyes closing and his head bobbing, then his eyes fell shut and he was asleep. Nothing in his dreams except the quiet dark. He doesn’t know how long he’d drifted off for, but he was awakened by the gentle caress of someone’s thumb on his hip, it was soft and barely there but he’d been drawn enough to it to be pulled out of his nap. The movie, surprisingly, was still going, and the thumb, well the thumb, belonged to none other than Eddie Munson, who’d wrapped an arm around him and held him up in his sleep. 

 “You missed the best part,” Eddie mumbled, voice low and rumbled deep out of his chest. 

 “Mhm, what was that?” Steve yawned, throwing his arms up in a stretch, letting his body shift closer into the metalhead’s side. 

 “Guess we’ll just have to watch it again, Big Boy,” Eddie mumbled. Steve’s stomach fluttered with excitement, point what 4 or 5 to Munson.

 Steve hummed his response and curled in closer to Eddie, the weed still fuzzing his mind and making the new onset of flirting with a man much easier. He heard a choked off snore from Eddie’s other side, coming from Robin who was sound asleep, mouth open and puffing out heavy breaths. 

 “She’s been out long before you, I think,” Eddie explained, eyes still trained on the TV screen. The movie seemed almost over from the look of it. 

 “Makes sense, I can never make her sit through movies when she comes over, especially if substances are involved,” Steve chuckled, a spear of fire burning up his side from where Eddie’s thumb started mindlessly moving again. He wasn’t even sure if the man was aware he was doing it. 

 “Well, yeah, you seem to only pick the boringest romcoms,” Eddie joked, head turning in his direction ever so slightly for the first time since Steve had woken up in this position. 

 Their faces were so close his nose almost touched Eddie’s, he wondered what would happen if he leaned forward and kissed the man, that thought was quickly squashed when he realized that Eddie was making fun of his taste in movies. He squinted his eyes at Robin's sleeping form in a mock of betrayal, “There is nothing wrong with a simple, boring movie, Munson.” 

 Eddie bared his teeth in a smile and shook his head, “That’s what you think.” 

 Steve only shook his head in response, turning his attention away from Eddie’s lips, which were getting too close for the situation they were in. And by situation, he meant watching a horror movie with some dude he saved the world with, his best friend and never having acted on an attraction beyond the opposite sex. 

 The credits rolled and Steve stayed still, waiting for Eddie to get up and move first. It took until a particularly loud part of the score came on for his host to jump up and turn it off, leaving Steve cold in his corner of the couch. 

 “Okay, I’m going to leave sleeping beauty there. Yep, she somehow already found the blanket,” Eddie whispered, an eyebrow raised in amusement at the sleeping girl. 

 Steve stood up and stretched out his arms, reveling in the feeling of Eddie’s eyes on the bare stretch of stomach that most definitely was revealed from under his shirt. He may have done that on purpose. 

 “You can sleep in my bed, I’ll hit the floor,” Eddie said as he led Steve back to his room. He stared at pictures of Wayne and Eddie that hung along the corridor. 

 “Dude, we were just cuddling on your couch, I really don’t mind sharing,” Steve laughed, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck awkwardly. 

 Eddie turned to look out of the corner of his eyes at him, then smiled and nodded, “Okay, Harrington. Just wanted to gauge the situation here.” 

 “What do you mean?” Steve hissed as they passed Wayne’s room. Eddie shrugged and opened his door to a dimly lit room filled with posters and that smelled exactly like Eddie. 

 “Welcome, to my mind,” Eddie bowed dramatically for Steve to enter. 

 Cassettes littered the floor around a boombox, there were a few Vinyls on a shelf next to a dresser that had clothes coming out of the drawers like the vines from the Upside Down, the fabrics of more shirts and pants also covered the floor. Eddie’s bed was new, however. 

 “Ah yes, compliments from the government,” The metalhead explained when he saw Steve staring at the bed, the last time he’d seen it uncovered it had stains all over it and the coloring was off from the original white it had been. 

 “I’d offer you a toothbrush if I had one but you’re shit outta luck, dude,” Eddie said, shucking off his pants to reveal grey boxers underneath. He averted his eyes from the expanse of pale legs that had been exposed. 

 “It’s all good, man,” He said before pulling on the thick leather of his belt so he could crawl into the comfort of a bed. 

 Eddie jumped onto the bed, muscle tee still covering his chest, he pushed open the window a crack and let the wind whisper notes into the quiet room, “It gets really stuffy in here, I hope you don’t mind.”

 “Not at all,” Steve pulled the covers up and slipped under the heavy material, casting a look over at the lamp on the bedside table, “Should I?”

 The metalhead wordlessly nodded as he got comfortable on his side, slipping the multitudes of rings off his fingers and placing them along the windowsill. Steve reached an arm out and felt around for the switch, turning it off and enveloping them into darkness.  

 “Night, Steve,” Eddie said through a yawn. 

 “Goodnight, Eddie,” He mumbled, moving onto his side so he faced Eddie’s body, the man positioned on his back with an arm thrown over his head. 

 It took him a few minutes of listening to the sound of their breathing slowing down till it evened out, his eyes fell closed, and he fell into a deep sleep. For the first time in months Steve slept uninterrupted by horrible nightmares, feeling only the comfort of a body next to him and what may have been arms wrapped around his torso. 

X

 When he woke the next morning, there was a grip on his hip, pressing into the scar tissue over his t-shirt he’d slept in. The thing that had pulled him out of his slumber was the stupid problem he had any time he was in bed with anyone, even Robin, he cast his foggy gaze downward to the tent in his underwear and cursed. 

 Eddie moved behind him, mumbling something in his sleep and then moving into his back closer. Steve’s cheeks flushed when he felt the man’s face press tightly against his spine. He’d never been in such close proximity to someone he liked but couldn’t have, he always could have, but not with Eddie.

 Steve squeezed his eyes shut, imagining all sorts of terrible scenarios from his time in the Upside Down, willing his issue down. It worked, pictures of the Demogorgon screeching in his face cooling him down, then Eddie had to make it so much worse. 

 The metalhead shifted even closer, encircling Steve’s waist and bringing their bodies flush together; Knees hit the back of his own, a cool nose pressed to the bare stretch of skin of his neck. Shit, he was going to have to exit the bed before it was a real problem. He brought his hands down to where Eddie’s were connected low on his stomach and gently pried them apart, and somehow in his sleep, the man took that as the go ahead to hold his hand. Steve blushed furiously as he lay there in shock, eyes wide and mouth agape. He was holding hands with Eddie Munson in the man’s twin sized bed. And his heart was damn near singing. 

 Biting his lip, he tried again, he slipped one of his legs out of the bed and tried to reach the floor and his body slipped further off the bed, this caused Eddie to move in closer, almost like he was chasing Steve. 

 “Where ya going?” A low gravelly voice tumbled from Eddie, Steve froze, their hands were still tangled together and he was half off the mattress, he probably looked like an idiot. 

 “Steve!!” A high pitched yell came from the living room, Robin had woken up and there was an urgency in her tone, “I’m going to be late, shit!” 

 “I’ve gotta drive Robin to work, sorry,” Steve explained, a pang of guilt pounded out of his heart. 

 “M’kay,” Eddie said sleepily, releasing Steve from his grip, “You coming back or you got--”

 Steve stood up and quickly found his pants on the floor, pushing his legs in and doing them up securely. His problem surprisingly vanished the moment he heard his best friend calling for him, “I’ve got some errands to run, but we should hang out again soon.” 

 “Mm, yeah,” For the first time that morning, Eddie’s dark eyes opened, the sun illuminating every brown strand, they were beautiful, “I’ve got a show in a couple of weeks, you should come?”

 Steve couldn’t help the feeling of gratification that soared through his veins, grinning toward the closed door, “Yeah, I’ll come. See ya, Eddie.”

 The metalhead sleepily covered his eyes with a forearm and waved blindly at him, Steve’s face was flushed and he felt satisfied as hell. With that, he stepped out of the room and made his way over to Robin quickly. 

 “Sorry, let's go,” Steve apologized, shooing his friend out of the trailer. One of her brows was raised suspiciously, but he mouthed later at her. 

 Once in his car Robin pulled down the mirror and licked at her fingers so she could clean up the mascara that had formed small black smudges under her eyes, “I heard you got the invite?”

 “Ha, yeah, dude was half asleep, but I’ll take it,” Steve cursed the blush that creeped up his neck as he remembered all the events that just happened, “Still won your dare though.” 

 “Yes, yes you did, Steve,” Robin laughed, eyeing him in a way that made him feel like there was something he missed along the way. She leaned over and turned up the radio, Freddie Mercury’s crooning vocals drifted out of the speakers and he smiled. 

 When he pulled into the parking lot of Family Video, the song ‘Foolin’ Around’ was just coming to a close, Robin hopped out and rushed out a goodbye. He watched her fumble with the keys as she struggled to get the right one out to unlock the door. He chuckled and shook his head at her, pulling out of the lot and starting toward his home. 

‘ Now you say you're leaving me I just can't believe it's true’

 The lyrics of the next song on his tape started, and he ducked his head bashfully as the ghostly feeling of Eddie’s arms wrapped around his waist. It had been so… nice, just to be held. And the man had been so soft, not just in the morning but even the night before while they watched the movie. 

‘I wanna little bit of feeling Little bit of sunshine to my life,’

 The song picked up the pace and Steve hummed along, drumming along to the beat on his steering wheel. A huge smile burst onto his face, it almost hurt, and he didn’t care. The sun was shining high and bright, early morning birds chirped loudly, almost singing along with the song. He rolled down his window to let the wind blow through his sleep mussed hair, happily he opened his mouth and sang along loudly; 

‘Just step right into my heart Come a little closer Don't tell me that it's over Make a brand new start,’

 Steve avoided the thought of what probably could never be, for that moment, he wanted to cherish the giddy feeling he had bubbling up inside of him. He totally could be Eddie’s kind of lover, if only the man would let him. 

X

Eddie’s POV part 1

[ink-flavored]

💘💙 💞

thank you!!

💘 List 3 traits you admire in one of your OCs (preferably ones that you’d like to emulate in your own life).

Okay, I know Pride is a demon and a murderer and literally sided with Lucifer and makes people hate each other for fun, but he DOES have good qualities. Sometimes.

In the process of his development, Pride has ended up having a lot of traits I wish I had. The very sin he's named for is where a lot of it comes from, funnily enough. He doesn't give a fuck about laws or conventions, breaking rules out of spite and not caring what other people think. He is whatever the exact opposite of a perfectionist is, doing the bare minimum and going "I'm the best and I deserve a medal" -- which isn't always a good thing, but man I wish I had the capacity to do that a lot more often. And even though a lot of the time he is defending himself from things that are not attacks, Pride fights back when he's feels like he's been wronged, unabashedly and without guilt-- I am slowly learning to do this but whew!

💙 Which of your OCs would be your best friend (if they were to exist in real life)? Which would be your worst enemy?

I want to be best friends with Hayden because he has 5 baby dragons and that sounds like my dream life. I would absolutely pet-sit those babies, literally whenever. Plus, he's a nice guy, he's cheerful in spite of adversity, and is generally fun to be around.

I don't know if I'd say "worst enemy" but Park does not want to talk about anything other than baseball and I really. really. do not like sports. Sorry dude.

💞 List 3 tropes that you feature in your WIPs and explain why they’re important to you as a person.

Opposites Attract/Unlikely Friends

I only noticed this one recently, but I really enjoy writing characters that, by all rights, should not like each other, but are actually in love and/or best friends. I just think this trope is fun to write tbh! Concocting two people who shouldn't get along and then having to analyze their characters enough to find something they connect on, and build their relationship out from that one thing, and they change each other's perspective on thew way... it is so so enriching for me. I love it.

2. Redemption/People Can Change

This one is really important to me, and it's always done on purpose. I believe that people can change for the better (or worse, but usually I'm writing it "for better"), no matter how many bad things they've done. Sure, it doesn't erase the harm they might have caused, but anyone can realize their behavior is hurting people and stop doing it. And they can be a good person. I think it's really important to tell those stories, especially in such a polarizing time and the rise of internet "if you've done anything bad ever in your life we are allowed to drag you through the mud for it" culture.

3. Monster/"Evil" Creature Getting Soft Unconditional Love

Being told over and over that you are wrong, monstrous, ugly, disgusting, etc. until you start believing it, then one day someone comes along and goes No, Actually, I Love All Of You, No Exceptions? Gets me every time.

BONUS TROPE: Oblivious Mutual Pining

I write this a lot and it is because I think it's funny. And also because there are a lot of times in life that we (proverbial "we") assume that the people in our lives couldn't possibly like and/or love us the same way we do, so we corral our feelings so we don't come across as "too much" or desperate for attention, or whathaveyou. But like... the world would be a much happier, brighter place, full of a lot more love and a lot less misunderstanding if people were simply honest with each other. And seeing the two idiots get together and love each other honestly is, I think, a genuine reflection of that.

We can laugh at "haha the idiots love each other but can't tell even when it's so obvious" but there's a reason it resonates with so many people. It's yearning for something we wish we were brave enough to do.

[send me an "up close and personal" ask]

[the-purity-pen]

One Temptation

Pairing: Benny Miller x Will Miller x Santiago Garcia x Frankie Morales x Fem!Reader

gif is not my own. credit to the creator [ if you know who made this, please tell me so i can credit them, thanks! ]

Rating: EXPLICIT (18+ ONLY!) Warnings: Sex Pollen, Group sex, Double Penetration, Unprotected PIV (please be safe irl), cum eating, fingering, oral (f & m receiving), Anal, Shower sex, let me know if i missed anything! Word Count: 5,818 Notes: This has been in the works for MONTHS at this point and I finally feel okay releasing it to the hellsite. It’s filthy, it’s probably not perfectly canon but I love these boys and this was such an adventure to write. Please let me know what you think!

You were nervous as hell to walk into the conference room. The first day on any job is nerve wracking but even after a few weeks, you found yourself feeling like the outsider still. It wasn’t anyone’s direct fault, per say. Just a feeling you had from being the new one on the team.

The team you had been assigned to was a tight knit one. The four of them having been through all kinds of combat and missions together. Their previous team leader had gone off the rails and was forced to retire early. 

Your debriefing hadn't gone into a lot of details but the remaining men on the team seemed friendly enough. Benny and Will Miller, the brothers were such polar opposites that their interactions were always entertaining. And Frankie Morales seemed like a pretty sensible one, a lovable man with a mean streak when needed. 

And then there was Santiago Garcia. The man was generally more observant but when he spoke, he attracted the attention of an entire room. His personality was electric in a way. The way his scruff would sound as his hand ran over his jaw, deep in thought at whatever mission was being described as one that the team would be taking.

A new drug lord was suspected in Miami, carting drugs from Colombia and Bolivia. The trail had led to many dead ends but there was one loose end that your new team would be able to solve. A nightclub had been staked out and found to be smuggling drugs through some warehouse-like door in the basement. There wasn’t enough to get full intel and they needed a team to infiltrate and go undercover to gain more information.

Part of the plan was to have you, of course, dress up and play flirty with some of the bouncers and bodyguards of the club. You were extremely nervous and it apparently showed through because as much you knew these guys were good, you couldn’t help but feel like trusting them with an assignment like this was a big ask.

When the assigning officer heard your concerns, he offered up a serotonin-inducing serum. It was new on the market but was studied to have helped with team building. At least that’s what he told you. After having a short conversation with the team, you agree to all take the serum.

After taking the sticky sweet green drink, you were informed that it could take a full 24 hours for the full effect to take place. "Why don't we throw a party?" Benny chimed in with the boyish grin plastered on his face.

You stifled a laugh and shook your head. "I'm not exactly the party type," you admitted as your eyes scanned from Benny to Santi who spoke up next.

"What about just a night of beers and cheesy movies?" he offered to which all heads started nodding. "My place. Tomorrow night. Eight o clock," he added after the consensus was made.

***********

Walking up to Santiago's door had your heart thundering so loud in your ears, you were sure you wouldn't be able to hear him when he greeted you. Your hands twisted around the case of beers, hoping you had picked the right kind. You knew how these military types were picky about their booze.

"Hey! You made it!" Santi exclaimed as he opened the door and let you walk in. Your eyes took in the small apartment and noticed that you were the first to arrive.

"Am I early?" You turned around to face him as he closed the door. He shook his head with a chuckle as he moved closer to take the case of beer from you and move it to the fridge.

"Nah, they're just always late. Good choice by the way," he mentioned as he held up the case and nodded to it just before placing it in the fridge. Your arms weakly rubbed at each other, crossed over your chest.

When Santi turned back towards you, he chuckled. "You can take your jacket off, you know. I mean if you plan on staying," he cracked which made you smile. After your jacket slipped off and was placed on the back of a nearby chair, Santi held an open beer out to you.

"Thanks," you told him softly before there were more knocks on the door. The other three piled in, Will followed by Benny with Frankie bringing up the rear. Benny was already slurring and jolly, Will was just shaking his head at his brother as he greeted you. Frankie came up, adjusting the ball cap that he always seemed to wear and said hello.

***********

"Truth or Dare!" Benny cried out when a suggestion pool had started of what they should play.

Handfuls of beers had been consumed by this point and you were starting to feel more comfortable. It was also becoming apparent as you watched each of them how attractive they really were in this laid back setting.

The entire group groaned but Benny pushed forward on the couch so his elbows were on his knees. Santi had actually been oddly quiet, chewing on his lower lip as he was watching you interact.

"Alright Pope. You first," Benny held up a hand loosely gesturing at the man sitting across from him. Santi rolled his eyes and shook his head but grinned at the same time.

Will tapped Benny on the shoulder and whispered some idea into his brother's head that apparently made Benny very excited. "Ooh! Ooh! Okay okay," Benny adjusted his shoulders, shooting you a quick glance before looking back to Santi.

"Have you ever thought about-" 

"I didn't even choose which one asshole!" Santi replied with a loud laugh. Seeing his smile that wide was uncommon and you felt a small knot form in your chest at it but you stifled a snort in response.

Frankie and Will also broke out into laughter as Benny conceded. "Alright alright fine. Choose, motherfucker," he narrowed his eyes at Santi before cracking a grin himself.

"Truth cuz I'm too old and lazy to do any stupid stunts you could come up," Santi chided at his brother in arms before taking a long swig of his beer, one of the bottles of the kind that you had brought.

Benny rubbed his hands together like he was concocting some evil plan. "Alright then back to what I was asking before you so -rudely- interrupted. Have you," he paused to glance over at you, his gaze unashamedly running over your body, making you curl into yourself a bit more on the big armchair you were seated in. "Ever thought about fucking her?" He nodded his head in your direction when his gaze came back to Santi.

Your heart was back to racing in your chest as you turned your attention to Santi. Without missing a beat, Santi answered. "Abso-fucking-lutely."

You were ninety percent sure that you stopped breathing. Your eyes blinked only out of automation as your mouth became a small o shape. Your entire body felt like it was heating up in the few moments that passed.

Santi then looked at you and your entire body felt ablaze again. "Uh, what? What did I just say?" Santi seemed to have come-to from a small spell he was under. Your gaze was so focused on his face you didn't see the way the other three shifted in their seats or the way that Frankie palmed himself lightly to adjust his growing erection at the thought.

"Y-you…" Words were hard to come by and your face felt like fire and your heartbeat whooshed into your ears. Your chest heaved lightly at the sudden panting you seemed to be doing.

"Well fuck me!" Benny cried out as he laughed nervously. Will punched his brother in the arm and that's when your eyes shifted to the rest of the guys, noticing that their gazes were locked on you. It was as if you held some sort of magical answer to a question you didn't have any clue of.

Your mouth opened and closed a few times before you cleared your throat and took a nervous sip of your beer. There was only a drop. You huffed nervously. "Oh, look, I need another beer," you quickly and quietly said before pushing up out of the chair and practically running over to the kitchen.

You could hear their low murmurs, chattering amongst themselves as you rinsed the empty bottle in the sink. Your hands were a shaking mess as thoughts swirled in your mind. You squeezed your eyes shut for a second before bending to grab another beer from the fridge.

A presence against your backside made you gasp. Hands came to your hips as you slowly stood up, swallowing the large lump that had formed in your throat. You tried to clear it as you closed the fridge but the presence behind you kept their grip on your hips.

Your nose finally picked up the scent of the cologne. Santi. He leaned forward, pressing his chest to your back as one finger came up to trace a line down your neck. Instinctively your head rolled to the other side to open for his soft touch.

Your breathing was ragged and you immediately mewled when his lips took over for his hand against your neck. "I want you hermosa," his voice grumbled against your skin and you immediately felt weak. Your hands tried to focus on the beer bottle but you were slipping into euphoria.

"Santi," you heard Benny's voice come from across the kitchen. Both you and Santi turned to see all three of them moving closer. "We all want her," Benny admitted and you saw the way his tongue peeked out between his lips to wet then as his eyes seared into you.

"Guys." Your voice was weak and shaky. "I- I can't do this. It's-" your words were cut off by Santi's lips attaching to your neck again and the bottle you held was slammed down onto the counter as you gripped the edge to steady yourself.

One of his hands worked around to the front of your blouse and tugged at the buttons. You could feel the weight of him pressing against your ass and your entire body buzzed with lust. That familiar heat was starting to grow in the pit of your stomach and you knew the booze was partially to blame.

But only partially.

When your eyes fluttered open as Santi slowed his assault on your neck, you saw Benny standing so much closer. "Seriously," he said, his hand coming up to let a finger trace along your collarbone. "We want you," he told you in an uncharacteristically quiet voice before leaning in to capture your lips.

You moaned quietly against his lips, having not been kissed in far too long. You finally pushed against him and he pulled away from the kiss. "Seriously," you sloppily repeated back his words as you scooted to the side out of Santi's grasp.

A piece of paper was on the island counter that caught your attention. The red lettering at the bottom looked familiar. Your curiosity piqued and you moved closer to pick up the paper to read it.

Known side effects include but are not limited to: sudden panting, decreased morality judgement, increased appetite, increased sexual desire and libido…

You blinked as Santi rounded the corner of the counter to you. "Fuck," you muttered quietly to yourself as you noticed his movements and came around the other side to only be greeted by Frankie, who's tanned skin on his cheeks was flushing slightly.

"Did anyone read this?!" You asked, panicked and looked at all of them one by one.

"What is it?" Benny asked, not fully caring what it was.

You moved closer to Frankie to hold it up. His eyes tried hard to focus on the words as he took the paper from you. "It's the fucking side effects to the serum, man," Frankie spoke aloud as he too paused at the one about sexual desire. "Shit," he muttered as a hand came down to his crotch to adjust himself.

"Well what are they?" Benny asked impatiently as he eyed you walking across the floor to the living room. Santi moved over to Frankie to take the paper and read it over. Will was watching you along with his brother as your hips swayed as you paced the living room floor.

"Fuckin' increased sexual desire? What the shit is that? Why would they give this to us?!" Santi yelled but realized that all eyes were on you as you breathed heavily. Your arms were crossed over your chest and one hand was at your lips, tugging at them, trying everything in your power to keep yourself distracted from looking over at your team.

“Hey,” Santi called your name with furrowed brows. “You alright?” he questioned as he moved closer. Your mind was reeling but your body was convulsing with need, with want. It felt like a fire had been lit from deep within your belly and no amount of pacing or trying to think straight was going to smother it.

Santi’s hand on your shoulder made you jump, too wrapped up in your own body and thoughts to notice how close he had gotten. He was standing directly in front of you and your eyes were darting around his features. Your nose flaring with each pant of a breath you tried to take. His own eyes were trying to take in every movement of your face to see what was going on but he was far too distracted by the parting of your lips.

“Santi.” His name came out as a breathless whimper as you looked at him. Within a moment his hand was on the back of your head and his lips were pressing hungrily into yours.

You heard movement in the kitchen and into the living room but Santi’s lips had moved to your neck and all thoughts were gone. The burn in your body was glowing brighter, threatening to combust when he bit down on the conjunction of your neck and shoulder.

Suddenly another pair of hands were groping at the globes of your ass through your jeans. A groan in your ear that wasn’t Santi had your eyes fluttering. One of your hands was holding the back of Santi’s head, scratching his scalp lightly. Your other hand dipped behind your back and down, groping at what you found to be a very hard cock in someone’s jeans.

Benny’s groan came clear into your ears. “God, you’re so hot,” he muttered which made you release a small shuddering breath. Benny pressed against your back, his hands roaming over your body wherever Santi’s wasn’t.

Your body was already feeling on fire, like every touch was electric. The way Benny’s lips moved over the shell of your ear as Santi worked your clothes off. You were turned into Benny’s arms. He chuckled as he looked down at your wrecked face. “You look absolutely amazing,” he cooed softly, something you didn’t know he was capable of.

Your head turned as Benny kissed along your neck and you saw Will standing with his pants pulled down to his knees and cock in hand. You swallowed thickly as Santi kissed up your thighs and over your mound, his fingers tracing lines up your legs.

“Fuck I need to taste you,” Santi mumured as he pushed your hips a bit wider. You groaned and leaned back against Benny who held you up and slid his hands up under your shirt to grope at your breasts. You turned to see Will still stroking himself quietly at the sight before him. Watching you become totally undone was intoxicating.

Another pair of hands were on your body, taking over groping your breasts as Benny pulled your shirt up over your head. You could barely register that you were completely nude in front of your team as Santi’s tongue ran over your folds, groaning at the taste. When his lips wrapped around your bundle of nerves, the third pair of hands were gently caressing and rolling your nipples.

A blinding hot streak ran through your body, straight down to your toes. The way Santi licked into you causing your thighs to tremble. You managed to look down just in time to see Frankie’s head kissing at the swell of your breast.

The more their hands were on you, the faster their movements became, the needier they seemed. The burning ache in your body only seemed to grow as Benny gently guided you backward until you fell onto his lap. At some point he had released his erection. Santi crawled to try to reattach his lips to your core but Benny was quicker and slipped himself into your soaking folds with barely any hesitation.

You cried out as Benny filled you and started to thrust up into you, his hips snapping against your ass. Santi groaned. “Benny you fuckin’ cabron,” Santi muttered and Benny just chuckled in your ear as he nibbled on it. 

“Babygirl, what feels better, Santi’s mouth or my cock? Hm?” Benny asked as his eyes bore into Santi who glared at him but palmed his own length anyways. Frankie moved closer and tried to kiss the other side of your face.

Your mouth was flopping like a fish and you couldn’t create enough saliva to speak. Instead you whined as Santi kissed at the inside of your knee, his hand more furious on his cock now. Will was standing close by, just watching everything but focusing on how wrecked your face was as his brother pounded into you.

Frankie was gentle but groaning against your skin as he tried to capture your mouth into a heated kiss. You kissed him wantonly, your moans filling his mouth and he greedily swallowed every sound. “Hermosa, please take my cock,” Frankie moaned into your mouth and without opening your eyes you nodded.

Benny continued to thrust up into you in haste as Frankie climbed over the arm of the couch and stood so that he could line his cock up. He ran it along your bottom lip, soaking him in your saliva and waiting for you to open before thrusting into you tentatively. You swallowed around him and he groaned at the sensation of your warmth around him.

Benny kept at you, thrusting harder and faster until you were crying out around Frankie’s cock. Frankie and Benny released their loads into you at the same time and you were close to your own but Benny softened and you lost the peak that was building.

You whined and Santi slapped Benny’s thigh. “Let me at her,” he said while standing up. Benny gently lifted you off of him and you whined at the loss of contact. You let go of Frankie’s cock with your mouth after you had cleaned him of all of his cum. He leaned down and gave you a soft kiss, licking into your mouth slowly and groaning at the taste of himself before he was helping you lie down on the couch. Frankie moved himself off the couch as Santi moved to hover over you and plunged his cock right into you.

Your back arched off the couch as you reached up and grabbed at Santi’s shoulders. “Fuck!” you cried out as Santi fucked into you with reckless abandon. You were soaked between your arousal and Benny’s cum and it made Santi twitch hard as he fucked you mercilessly into the couch. The girth of him stretched you differently than Benny had and you mewled and moaned at the sensations, letting Santi’s name fall from your lips like a chant.

“Please! I need to cum!” you screamed as a burning heat grew in the pit of your stomach and threatened to overtake your entire body. Your begging encouraged Santi as the other three looked on. Benny was already hard and leaking again and when your eyes met his, his hand stroked so hard he came all over the floor with a loud moan. Santi leaned over and bit at your collarbone, causing you to cry out as you clenched down around him, hard.

Your entire body was writhing and pulsating as you came harder than you had in a long time around Santi. That put him over the edge and with a few more solid, hard thrusts into you, he stilled and pushed further into you to spill into you. Within moments you felt the dripping between your thighs and you moaned quietly.

Santi leaned down to capture your moan and his lips slid against yours as he thrusted carefully into you, the burn in his body already growing again. “Pope c’mon man,” Frankie said quietly as he moved to pull Santi off of you. “Gotta give someone else a turn,” Frankie patted Santi’s shoulder firmly as you tried to catch your breath. Santi leaned down for another soft kiss before pulling slowly out of you.

Your body jolted at the sudden loss and both men stopped to stare. “Fuck,” Frankie muttered, causing both Benny and Will to move around to see their view. The cum was dripping steadily from your still fluttering cunt and every pair of eyes was mesmerized by the sight.

“Baby you are making a mess,” Santi said, wanting to lean in and clean you up but you put your hand out as a gesture for all of them to give you a minute. Your breath finally calmed down enough for you to be able to respond.

“I…. did…. nothing,” you panted and chuckled but the laugh made the cum dribble out of you even more and you moaned quietly at the sensation of two of your teammates cum dripping from you. Will’s nose twitched as his hand continued to slowly work his cock. The burn inside him was growing but he was a patient man. Always had been.

You lifted your head to look at them and gave a weak smile. They all looked at you with lust-blown eyes but Santi and Frankie were the ones to give you a smile back. “You okay?” Santi asked, his hand gently grazing your ankle in a caressing motion.

You nodded and looked at him. “Yeah. I think. For now,” you chuckled but soon felt your body heat up again. It was a dull ache but you tried to sit up to quelch it. Santi and Frankie both reached out for your arms to help you sit up. “I think maybe I should go shower,” you mentioned and they both nodded before standing up. Their cocks were at eye level for a moment and you felt your mouth water and wanting them both in your mouth at the same time.

They helped you up and your legs definitely felt like jello. You nearly crumbled and Santi and Frankie looked at each other with worry then looked at you as they tried to hold you up. “I got her,” a stoic low voice came from beside you as Will moved closer. He leaned over and wrapped his arms around your waist and lifted you up with ease.

You giggled quietly but having his warm body pressed against your was making the fire within you grow again. You tucked your head into his neck and breathed in his scent. You couldn’t help the way your lips pouted and you kissed gently along the skin of his neck. He groaned low in his throat.

“Sweetheart, please,” his voice pleaded before he was in the hall and pressing your back up against the wall slowly. His hands grabbed at you to hold you better as his hips pressed into you.

“Will, please,” you whimpered when his teeth found the side of your neck and sank in. You felt the way he growled against your skin and the fire was spreading wildly through your veins again.

Will grunted as he pulled himself back just enough to stroke as his cock and line himself up. With a slow and steady push, he impaled you and filled you. The girth of him stretched you but the slight sting of pain gave way to even more pleasure as he started to thrust.

Each thrust earned him a soft moan from your lips and he couldn’t help but kiss you. His hands were pawing at your chest, twisting your nipples and he watched as your face contorted in pleasure and you cried out against him. “Fuck! Please! Harder!” you begged and didn’t care who heard you. Besides, it was high time it was Will’s turn. The man was the quiet type, strong and sturdy but with his lack of talking in many of the group settings, you weren’t sure of his opinion of you.

But as he pistoned in and out of him, faster and harder with each snap of his hips up into you, you were pretty sure you knew where he stood in his opinion on you. “Fuck, so tight,” he muttered against your lips as he kissed you bruisingly. A clash of teeth and tongues and lips. It was messy and needy but you wanted more.

Will grabbed at your back, his large hands splayed over your now hot skin as he pulled you away from the wall. He stood in the middle of the hall, his shoulders pulled back as his hands snuck down to try holding you under your legs. You held him around the neck until he had a good hold of you again and it was then that he rocked your world even harder.

He fucked up into you with a relentless pace, hitting that spot within you with ease, his cock moving along the shared juices of yours, his brother’s and Santi’s. But all he could focus on was how wrecked your face looked. Your jaw was slack, seemingly permanently so, your eyes rolling back as your head lolled back in pleasure.

Wanton cries were ripped from your chest as he grunted and held you up. Suddenly you felt a second pair of hands come to your ass and massage the flesh. A scratchy beard appeared at your back as sloppy kisses were given to the skin there. “Que linda,” Santi’s voice came in a growl as he watched you get fucked by Will.

“Santi,” you said breathlessly and Will fucked you harder to get your focus back on him. He captured your lips in a heavy kiss, one that forced your mouth into an “o” shape around his tongue as he greedily licked into you.

Santi was busy watching Will’s cock pump in and out of you, his hands still massaging at your ass. His thumb rimmed the hole of tight muscle, moving with each movement that Will was forcing on your body and you moaned a bit louder. Santi looked up at you. “Do you want to be filled, querida?” he asked and he waited until you nodded.

When you did, you mewled as his thumb pressed against the tight hole, slipping one knuckle in. You cried out even at the small intrusion, the way even just that little motion filled you even more. “More!” you cried out and you heard both men curse under their breaths.

Will fucked you relentlessly still as Santi pulled his thumb out, to which you whined in protest, just so he could spit all over his hand. He used his free hand to try to spread your ass cheeks a bit. “Will, man, stop for a second,” Santi commanded and Will obeyed, holding you down onto his cock.

Santi moved one finger into you and you couldn’t help the pained groan that came from you. “Good?” Santi checked in and when you nodded and bit your lip, he started moving his finger within you. He looked over your shoulder at Will and nodded and Will resumed moving.

You choked out a sound as your entire lower body started to clench up. “Oh, she’s close,” Santi praised, his smirk so evident just in the tone of his voice. He leaned down and bit at the soft flesh of your ass at the same that Will leaned into to bite at your collarbone. The dual biting did you in.

You cried out as they fucked you through your orgasm, both sets of muscles clenching down around them. Your lower stomach fluttered and your chest heaved as your mouth lay open in a pant, your eyes screwed shut. Will was close behind and fucked you through your high until he reached his own. When he pushed up into you, stilled with a groan, Santi stopped moving too.

You finally caught your breath and felt yourself come back to reality. Your body was spent, completely but also completely sated. Will carefully pulled you off of his softening cock and the moment your feet hit the ground, all you could feel was all of their cum slipping down your thighs.

Santi moved with you both and released his hand from you and saw you dripping. “Fuck, you’re a mess,” he muttered in a groan. You nodded, your arms still wrapped around Will’s shoulders. Will grunted and wrapped his arms around your waist, bringing you to your tiptoes so he could walk you back towards the bathroom.

Once in the room, Will and Santi worked together to strip you down, one moving and the other acting as your balancing stabilizer. Your eyes were heavy and your body felt like it was made of jello as you attempted coherent thoughts. You were naked, in a room with two men who you found extremely attractive. One of whom was leading you into the shower that had at some point been turned on.

“You got it?” Will asked softly as his hand lingered on your lower back as you held yourself up with your arm against the shower wall. You nodded slowly, your head feeling heavy. You let the warmth of the water just cascade over your back and tried to let it soothe you.

You tried to let your mind relax but there was a burning ache that felt it was far off in the distance. You could hear Santi and Will talking quietly but the roar of your heart in your ears combined with the water rushing over you made them also seem far away.

As you slowly started to wash up, your soapy hand brushing over your very sensitive clit, you yelped as a bright flame lit within you. “Fuck!”

Will and Santi immediately rushed up and opened the curtain to see you rubbing at your clit furiously. “What is it?! Are you okay?!” Santi asked in a hurried, worried tone.

“I need - fuck! - I need,” you whined as you squeezed your breast with your other soapy hand and felt your nipple immediately stiffen. Will was first to step into the shower behind you. His large hands came over your breasts as he held you against him.

“What do you need? Tell me. We’re here,” he spoke lowly in your ear, nibbling at the flesh as Santi pulled the curtain a bit on the opposite side to watch. 

“I need to cum!” you screamed as one of Will’s hands came down behind you and his thick fingers ran through your folds. The fire within you was burning brighter by the second and it was almost painful.

“How do you want to cum? On my fingers or my cock?” Will asked and Santi chewed his lip as he watched you writhe against Will.

“Your face. I need your tongue on me. Now!” With your command, Will turned you and dropped to his knees without hesitation. Santi reached out and put his arm up behind your back so you wouldn’t fall.

Will shoved his face against your cunt, licked a broad stripe through your folds before his mouth closed over your clit. You whined out and Santi quickly slipped himself into the shower behind you. His hands wrapped around your breasts and tweaked your nipples. Your head fell back against his shoulder as the warm water cascaded over your chest and stomach.

Your hips moved against Will’s face as his mouth attached to your clit, his tongue licking and flicking as if you were a hard candy. His hands remained on your hips and he used just his tongue to work you up and within a minute there was a gush coming from you and spilling all over his face.

Santi peeked over your shoulder. “Holy shit baby. You just soaked him and not from the shower water,” Santi told you and turned to kiss your cheek. He was oddly proud and smirked against your wet skin as he whispered more praises into your ear, letting your body come back.

Will stood up and let his face get wet from the shower before he held onto your hips and kissed your chest softly, letting the water run down his face. He stood up and wiped the water off with one hand before looking at your blissed out face. “Are you back?” he asked and when you nodded slowly, both men looked at each other and chuckled. “Are you good? Like do you need more or-?”

You shook your head with a blissed out smile on your face. “I think it’s gone,” you told him and you felt Santi kiss along your cheek and down to your neck. “Though if you keep doing that Santi, I might not ever want you to stop,” you laughed weakly and moved your head to the side to allow him more room.

“Who says I want to stop querida?” he mumbled against your skin and you hummed contentedly. Will took the opportunity to actually wash your body with soft, gentle touches. He washed his own face then looked at you and Santi together and felt a new kind of pull in his chest.

“We could do this again… right?” Will asked softly and both you and Santi opened your eyes and straightened up to look at him. You chewed your lower lip and your head turned to look between the two men as the shower continuously rained down on all of you.

When you didn’t speak, mostly from not being able to find the words, Santi spoke instead. “Yeah man. I mean, if she’s down for it, then I’m down for it. I like you Will, you know that. And you,” he turned to lean in to kiss your cheek again. “I don’t think I could get enough of you now that I’ve had you,” he told you and nuzzled into your neck as his arms wrapped around you again. Will stepped forward and wrapped his arms around both your and Santi’s shoulders together and the three of you sat like that until the water ran cold.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 315: I Didn’t Expect This to Blow Up

Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “guess which plot that you thought was dead is actually not dead and is making a comeback!” and we were all “EVIL HPSC??” and he was all “girl you know it,” and that’s the story of how we got a sexy Lady Nagant flashback with lots of guns and murder. Flashback!Lady was all “gotta murder peeps to preserve the people’s trust,” but then a little while later she was like “actually wait that makes no sense,” and so she shot her evil boss and they sent her to jail. Back in the present, Deku was all “okay fair, the hero system might in fact be a little fucked up, but hear me out... have you considered not helping AFO take over the world so he can murder like a bazillion more innocent people??” The chapter ended with the not-all-there Overhaul finally revealing himself to Deku, and I honestly have no idea where this is gonna go.

Today on BnHA: In what is unfortunately the single worst plan ever concocted by anyone in BnHA, Nagant is all “I’m going to try and get this Deku kid to panic and freeze up by putting someone in mortal danger.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t panic and freeze up at the sight of someone in mortal danger].” Nagant is all “omg no way.” Deku, who is now all of a sudden being so OP that even I have to acknowledge that it’s OP lol, is all “[smashes Nagant’s gun arm to bits]”, which sucks but is also really cool, and which also apparently makes Nagant decide that she actually likes this kid after all. Deku is all “NAGANT I REALLY LIKE YOU AND THINK YOU’RE GREAT SO PLEASE JOIN UP WITH ME AND STOP BEING EVIL.” Nagant is all “aw shucks (✿ •͈ᴗ•͈) well okay then” and everyone is all “( ･◡･) ✰ ( ˆᴗˆ ) ( ᵘ ᵕ ᵘ ⁎)” and then Nagant FUCKING EXPLODES LIKE AN EGG IN THE MICROWAVE AND FALLS TO HER DEATH!!!! except not really because Hawks saves her??? In conclusion, (a) THE FUCK, and (b) AFO TURN ON YOUR LOCATION I JUST WANT TO TALK.

so I have to tell you guys something, which is that barely ten minutes after I made that “please don’t send me spoilers” post the other day, someone replied to the comments in a stunning fit of “tell me that you’re twelve without actually telling me you’re twelve” energy and posted what seemed to be the copy-pasted spoiler summary from reddit or twitter or whatever lol. so here is my good news/bad news rundown of all that

good news: I have very well-conditioned ABORT!! reflexes and have trained myself to immediately look away from the screen (usually in dramatic fashion) as soon as I realize that whatever I’m reading is a spoiler

bad news: unfortunately as I was subsequently deleting said comments, I accidentally read the very last one

good news??: said spoiler was so unbelievably, absurdly over-the-top that I’m almost positive this person was just trolling. like, there’s just no way lmao

bad news: but in the unlikely event that it is true I will absolutely lose my shit I swear to god

(ETA: “NAGANT DIES.” that was the spoiler I read lol. like, literally all I read from the person’s comments was “My Hero Academia Chapter 315 Title: “Beautiful Words.” Chapter starts with...” and then I noped out of there, and then of all the comments to read as I was deleting, it had to be that one lol. I seriously was just like “SURE, JAN.” all “just how gullible do you think I am” sob. but I was wrong. a troll, but an honest troll they remain.

but anyways like I’m pretty sure Nagant isn’t even actually dead lol, so in the end this whole little adventure doesn’t even have a point to it, but for me it was a journey!)

anyway, so there are apparently two versions of the chapter today?? no idea what the difference is, but I’m going to go with the Bean version, because it’s the one at the top and I don’t feel like making decisions today

huh, so Overhaul is actually more coherent than Horikoshi was letting on

look at him having a whole back and forth conversation with her. side note, how is he still this jacked when he’s been sitting in a cell doing absolutely nothing for the past six months

anyway so he says he’ll go with her on one condition. I wonder what that condition could possibly be. do you think it could be the thing he literally hasn’t shut up about ever since he reappeared lol

yep! and damn -- maybe this guy will surprise me after all

still would be nice if you also felt a bit sorry for the little girl you tortured and traumatized, but this is something at least. maybe Deku will yell at him for that other stuff lol

(ETA: also can’t help but wonder if he wants to make amends because he put him in a coma, or because his plan was a failure and ended up destroying the family. just hoping you’ve finally had that “hurting other people is bad” epiphany dude.)

anyways so now Nagant’s arm is transforming again, and this particular transformation happens to be the only truly unsexy thing that Nagant has done thus far so I’m just gonna skip right on ahead lol

aaaaand we’re back to the delirious ranting

buddy. just. read the fucking room, guy

wow she really is aiming at Overhaul, then. those theories were spot-on

damn she’s really out here all “it really fucks with kids’ heads when you kill people right in front of them and make them blame themselves” like yo

I’m picturing her saying all this in a very loud stage-whispery tone while making very significant eye contact with Deku lol

uh oh but wait

um. okay. who’s gonna tell her. Nagant I might have some bad news for you about the kid you’re trying to capture here. specifically about the way he tends to do the opposite of what you’re thinking that he’s about to do

holy shit

so it’s basically just “tap x repeatedly to charge up your attack” lol

and okay, so that’s cool and all, but is anyone else wincing at the thought of what that must be like on his knees. oh to be young

anyway, but so to the surprise of basically no one, Deku did not, in fact, freeze. I am very sorry, Nagant. he’s just like this

LMAO

someone wanna tell me how getting yoloed in the fucking ribs by this fucking slingshot kid moving at literal sniper bullet speed is in any way even remotely better than getting hit by the bullet itself lol

(ETA: this is 10x funnier now that we know the bullet wasn’t even gonna hit him lmao.)

anyway so now Nagant is having an extended “!?!?!?” reaction about how Deku just moved with no hesitation, and I’m starting to get an inkling of fear that the rest of this fight isn’t going to go very well for her and maybe that’s what all the “hoo boy” is about

oh my god Deku are you about to Gomu Gomu no Rocket yourself at her you insane little man

now Three is popping up again and he’s all “I see you’ve learned your lesson and are now only using three quirks at once instead of five” like with all this effusive praise about how great and badass Deku is and sob, okay, yeah. this chapter is basically one of those machines that shoots tennis balls at people, except instead of tennis balls it shoots hot piping discourse

OH MY GOD

YOOOOOOOOOO but also, NOOOOOOOOOOO

lol oh my god it’s literally two opposing reactions at once wtf. do I love this or hate this. like just for once can Horikoshi actually let a badass lady character win their fucking fight without getting their arm ripped off, BUT ALSO fucking look at that absurdly cool “SMASH” onomatopoeia though. it looks like it’s about to float right off the page holy shit that’s some seriously good art

anyway so is this really the end?? do I need to break out my ಠ_ಠ faces

lmao okay yeah I can definitely see how this would piss a lot of people off

he basically one-shotted her and she’s all “damn this kid is so amazing that I’m about to do a complete 180 turn on all of my previous angst” lmao. Horikoshi is really shounening it up today

on the plus side though, maybe this means there’s still a chance for her to join up with him after all? unless that spoiler was true lmao, then all hell is gonna break loose

YESSSSSSS

OH MY GOD AND HE SAYS THE BULLET WOULDN’T HAVE DONE MORE THAN GRAZE OVERHAUL ANYWAY, wow, I’m actually more relieved by that than I would have expected. I mean I would have forgiven her either way, but it means that there was still more hero in her than she was letting on

YES!!! FUCKING YES, THANK YOU

lol but I mean, it’s also like, “oh so today they get to have brain cells”, thank you so much lol. sometimes it’s really hard to tell which times we’re supposed to question these character decisions that seem dumb, and which times we’re just supposed to full on embrace them and switch off our critical thinking

but okay, so in this case it really was Nagant going easy on him on purpose, and not just her fucking up for no good reason even though she used to do this for a living and was the best in the game. and I know in this case it’s probably just Horikoshi giving us some consolation headpats to soften the blow of her losing so abruptly, but you know what, shit. I’ll take it

also you guys the light is coming back into Deku’s eyes again for just a moment here and I’m having feels about it?? the way it still comes back when he’s reaching out to save someone, and following his own hero path instead of the much darker and lonelier Christopher Nolan path that’s been laid out for him instead that he never wanted?? it’s both reassuring and also very sad

YESSSSSSSSSSS

DO IT LADY OMG PLEASE?? PLEASE COME BE HIS NEW IRRESPONSIBLE ADULT SUPERVISION YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO

AHHHHHHH SHE’S GONNA DO IT AHHHH

p.s. I am now absolutely scared shitless that that spoiler was actually true sob. swear to god, I will throw this manga into a fucking volcano. but we’re almost at the end of the chapter and this seems just WAY TOO GOOD to be true fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck f

UCK

NOPE NAH SEND IT BACK, NOPE, NUH UH, DIDN’T ORDER THIS. “GULLIBLE” OKAY FUCK YOU?? “COUNTERMEASURES” NOPE, DON’T NEED ‘EM, WE’RE ALL FINE HERE. WE’RE ACTUALLY GOOD SO YOU CAN JUST GO, OKAY. PLEASE

fuck, lol, I don’t wanna do it. I don’t wanna scroll down what have I ever done to deserve this oh my god

WHAT THE HONEY-ROASTED FUCK

WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT FUCKING VOLCANO IN ICELAND THAT I KEEP SEEING ALL THESE PICTURES OF. WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT. LET’S GO

ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW

can someone please give AFO a really good, sharpish kick in the balls. just really let him have it. I’m so tired, what the fuck

-- ARE YOU KIDDING ME LOL WHAT

bro. I was literally going through my Excel folders to find the spreadsheet about female characters in BnHA that I made back when Midnight died. was gearing myself up for a wholeass rant. and honestly I might just let all of that continue simmering on low to keep it warm just in case lol, because to tell you the truth I have absolutely no idea what’s happening right now

my girl straight up does not have a face. she used to have a face. people usually need those, idk. like, even if she’s alive, her gorgeous eyebrows are definitely not making it out of this and I’m gonna throw a funeral just for them

how the fuck did AFO just blow her up?? how did he know what was going on?? and if he had a quirk that could explode people at will, why is this the first we’re hearing of it?? you’d think that might have come in handy at Kamino or Jakku, like what

(ETA: present!me, who’s had more than three hours of sleep and can now actually remember facts about the series, would like to remind past!me that AFO gave Nagant a quirk, and so this is probably just more Vestige shenanigans now on his part. that’s also probably why Air Walk suddenly stopped working out of nowhere. still doesn’t explain why he doesn’t go around blowing people up more often though but maybe he thinks it’s gauche.)

Hawks just straight up out of nowhere. just Mirioed his way straight into the chapter just in time to be too late sob. here I was looking forward to seeing your face when Deku showed up with his new best friend. can’t believe Horikoshi deprived us of that moment

on the plus side, WELCOME BACK, HAWKS’S FEATHERS. I have no doubt that in this chapter of Deku being an almighty threequirk-mastering god, and Nagant losing anticlimactically only to be immediately blown up because girl characters in BnHA can only be cool for one fight and one fight only, there are still some people who are focusing solely on the “how dare Hawks get his wings back when he is a MURDERER this is an outrage what about CONSEQUENCES” discourse, and to hell with all the other discourses lmao

anyway, so yeah. wow. and now it’s just occurring to me that maybe the real reason why Overhaul is there is so he can get a head start on that amend-making by actually doing a good thing for once in his life, and using his quirk to heal Nagant. assuming he can still do that

and so now Horikoshi has got me out here actually rooting for Overhaul. you know what, on that note I think I’m just gonna go ahead and call it a day sob

[toomanyfandoms02]

Shameless // Fred Weasley

Summary - The gang challenges Fred and the Reader to fluster eachother after each being called shameless.

Word Count - 1.7k

I'm not gonna lie this was hot LMAOO

Fred and I were often compared to eachother. These were usually the words we were called

Outgoing

Spontaneous

Idiots

Humorous

Shameless

Pranksters

Delinquents

These were said by a mixture of people, but most knew us as best friends. I marched the halls with the twins every day, but everyone knew I was a just a little closer to Fred. There was just some connection there. A connection lots of people took out of context.

Sure, we flirted, but I flirt with a lot of people. Theres another word we were called, flirts! Though this had a good majority of my friends convinced that we were in love. It was at the point where people openly talked about it in front of us.

*"Nice ass Weasley!" I shouted as I entered the Great Hall. This drew a few eyes towards me, snickering. Fred turned around and looked to me, gesturing to his bum.*

*"Oh this old thing? Nothing compared to yours." I licked my finger and made a sizzle sound. Everyone was right, we really had no shame.*

And that's what my friends were on about at the moment. A big group of us were sitting in the Gryffindor common room. This included Harry, Hermione, Ron, the twins, Seamus, Dean, Angelina, and Ginny.

"You two flirt all the time without getting all ruffled. How do you do it?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know, it's just how we are I guess." I shrugged to Fred as I answered. He nodded in agreement.

"Matter of fact, I don't think I've ever seen either of you flustered." Dean butted in.

"I say we change that." George said with a simple nod. Fred looked at him with furrowed brows. "I say we challenge them!" It was clear that not one person in the room knew what George was on about, so he continued. "Alright see, I give them 3 days to see who can fluster who first. One of us has to see it though, to know it happened. Can the unflusterables fluster one another you think?" Georges arms were crossed at his chest cockily.

"I think that's a brilliant idea." Hermione agreed.

"That's easy, I'll totally win. I have no shame, no embarrassment." Fred announced with glee.

"We will see about that." I smiled at him with one eyebrow raised.

*Oh its on.*

After barely an hour of thinking about this whole challenge alone in my dorm, I realized that I walked myself right into failure. It wasnt that I though Fred could win, it was that I *knew* I would lose. In the way that I had never really charmed any boy. I didn't have anything up my sleeve. I was really just going to have to wing it.

That being said, Fred was quite the charmer. It was hilarious watching 1st years see him for the first time and swoon over him. Pulling girls in with simple winks and little waves across the room.

But now it was dinner time, so I see this as round one to this weird challenge George has concocted.

I made sure to make my way into the Great Hall nearly unnoticed, walking in with a sea of other students. I immediately spotted Fred and made a beeline towards him. Some of the group spotted me but said nothing, letting me go with my improvised plan.

I stood right behind Fred, reaching my hand into his hair and running my fingers though it. He turned his head slightly to see me.

"Hello love." He smiled at me sweetly. I continued, wrapping my arms around his neck lightly and leaning down so my chin was rested on his shoulder.

"You're hair is so soft." He turned his face to mine, our noses almost bumping.

"Thanks sweet cheeks." He put a small kis on my nose which made me smile, sitting next to him after.

"Nothing? Really? No blushy cheeks, or stuttered speech?" Angelina was flabbergasted clearly, her hands gesturing wildly in the air as she spoke.

"I honestly don't know if it's possible." George shrugged. "I just thought it would be interesting if it was."

"Oh I've got plans don't worry, this sexy ass will be blushing to the moon and back when I'm done with her." Fred looked down to me, smirking. He gave a challenging face.

"I know your deepest darkest secrets Weasley. Don't test me." I raised my eyebrow cockily as the whole group just stared puzzled.

"I wish I could talk to Cho like that." Harry huffed, earning a laugh from most of the group. (Aside from Ginny, who I was quick to tap her hand under the table at the comment. She had told me weeks ago how agonizing she felt.)

Later that night a good portion of the gang was hanging out in the common room again. I had just walked through the entryway and saw Fred sitting on the couch. As soon as we made eye contact he patted his lap. All heads whipped my way. I walked over and sat right on his lap, making myself comfortable. He grabbed my face lightly and put a small kiss on my jaw.

"Where were you love, we missed you." The few first years that had joined whatever conversation was going on looked as if they were going to be sick.

"Just went on a walk handsome." Everyone shook their heads with disappointed looks.

"Nothing, seriously?" Hermione laughed in disbelief. The youngins asked about the situation and it was explained to them. They all giggled about it for a while as we watched. Soon Fred was leaned very close to my ear.

"You should just give up now beautiful, you know you're going to lose." He whispered ever so lightly in my ear. I pushed his face away from mine so his ear was towards me.

"Really cute of you to think so." I whispered back. That was the last we spoke that night seeing as it was 10 pm.

I woke up the next morning hearing giggles from Hermione and Angelina. I sat up slowly, rubbing my eyes. They got very quite as they saw me waking up.

"What are you two up to?" They looked down at the books they had in their hands, ignoring me. Just then I heard our shared bathroom open, seeing Fred come out wearing only a towel hanging low on his waist. I looked him up and down with a smile. "Not bad Weasley. Working out lately?"

I would never admit it outloud, but this one almost got me. He's only in a damn towel. I mean come on, everyone found Fred attractive.

Right?

"Yeah. Maybe you can try this whole thing in my dorm later? Maybe surprise me?" He winked and left the room quickly.

"Hey! Get your arse back here, that's my towel!" The girls followed us close behind, peaking out of the door to watch us in the hallway between the rest of the dorms.

"Oh you want it back? Her you go love." He pulled it right off his body and handed it to me. I knew if I closed my eyes, or covered them, they would count it as a loss for me. So I just maintained eye contact with him and yanked it from his hands. "Nervous?" He squinted at me. Man was the boy lucky there was not one else in these halls at 6 am.

"Never." I replied with a smile and turned away, walking back into the dorm. "Nice try ladies!" I dropped the towel in our hamper and they fell back onto Hermiones bed with a loud groan.

Later that day Hermione, Fred, George, me, Dean and Seamus had free time in Care of Magical Creatures.

"He was literally naked in front of her and she didn't even blink." Mione deadpanned.

"Maybe it's because shes seen it before." Fred elbowed my side.

"You wish." I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe I do." He stared daggers into my eyes.

"At this point I feel like even if you guys made out nothing would happen." George shrugged. This gave everyone a collective evil smile.

"Oh are we doing that now?" I asked as nonchalant as possible. Even with my heart racing a mile a second. Fred looked at me with confusion. "Unless you're too pussy." That wiped the confusion off his face.

"Nope." He grabbed my face and pulled it inches from his.

"I'm just going to warn you, I've never kissed, let alone made out with, a boy before. So I apologize in advance." I laugh-whispered to him, pushing my lips onto his. I grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him closer, running my hands through his hair.

His hand traced my jaw with one hand and the other was gripped to my hair.

"Pretty good for never kissing anyone, you sure you arent lying?" He said quietly in between kisses.

"I would never lie to you." He took my open mouth as an opportunity to use his tongue and deepen the kiss. I was ready to give up at this point, this boy was unknowingly ruining me. "Would you ever lie to me?" More questions between kisses.

"Never."

"You like me don't you?" His nose bumped with mine at the question. Starting to kiss up my jaw near my ear.

"Of course love." He laughed lightly, pulling back from the kiss. We turned back to the group which was a mixture of disgust, confusion, and knowing glances.

"Seemed like a lot of whispers for just making out don't you think?" Georges arms were crossed over his chest. We both shrugged.

"Sometimes friends just make out." I admitted, which was a very obvious lie.

"So you would make out with me then?" George challenged. Fred grabbed my waist and pulled me closer to him with a glare to George.

"I think I won in a different way than anticipated." George smirked. "So are you guys going to get together or what?" Everyone nodded.

"Was that what this bullshit was about?" Fred asked loudly.

"Yeah of course. Two dimwits you are, walked right into it." Hermione shook her head. Fred grabbed my hand and squeezed it, making me blush furiously.

"I win!" He pointed to my heated cheeks.

"Shut up ares hole." I elbowed his side lightly.

"It didnt even take 3 days!" George cheered.

*Boy are we going to have some stories when we get older.*

[skywillsometimeswrite]

Why?

So I got really inspired by @target-block ‘s Evil!Impulse and Evil!Stress AU and so I decided let’s throw a hastily written fic at them

(I have barely watched Impulse, and I haven’t seen much of Stress, so literally it’s all spitballing but they’re evil so its fiiiiine)

Read it on AO3

“Why, Impulse? Why are you doing this?”

Impulse glanced over his shoulder at his old friends, Bdubs physically holding Tango back. If Bdubs even loosened his grip Tango would most definitely charge right at Impulse. He wonders if his old friend would hit him. He was never the particularly violent type, so maybe he would try and talk him out of the high that he was currently riding from his carnage spree. Would he hug him and try and use some heartfelt words to sway him back over to being his old self? The thought amused Impulse, making his smile grow to show his teeth off.

He laughed, loud and hearty, just like he used to at Zedaph’s more ridiculous ideas, or when Bdubs would get himself blown up. He caught a glimpse of Tango’s confused expression shifting into one of betrayal before he looked out on the damage that he had caused.

He breathed in the tell tale smell of wither roses, relishing in his handiwork as ghasts, blazes, and even a few withers flew around the shopping district. The roses had a distinct smell, one that mingled quite well with smoke, nether wart, and spider eyes as he had learned when concocting this most magnificent scheme with his two partners in crime. That beautiful symphony of smells now hung over the shopping district, the once green grass Scar placed now brown and dead or black with the wither effect seeping into its roots. Impulse thought it was quite the improvement. The place had gotten to be a bit too colorful for his liking.

“Why?” He echoes back to Tango, spinning on his heel. He held a wither rose in his calloused hand that had become immune to the wither effect the plant held. His fingertips were stained black and faded as they went down. He had lost full feeling in them ages ago, but that never hindered him. If anything, it helped since he didn’t have to worry as much about his own weapons and traps hurting him when he set them up. Not to mention facing down wither skeletons in the nether had become nothing but a simple chore. “You want to know why?”

“Yes! Why would you betray us like this? What have we ever done to you?” Bdubs’ voice grated against Impulse’s ear drums and he couldn’t help how he nearly crushed the precious flower in his fist.

Impulse walked towards his previous coworkers, circling them on top of Scar’s magnificent  Scara Junior. Impulse picked the black petals off of the rose, letting them flutter down onto the organic material of the stem, and lazily watched as they formed a circle of decay around his enemies. Ordinarily, just the petals wouldn’t do much, but the stem soaked up all of the withering effect that it could. It quickly spread to the point underneath Tango and Bdubs, and despite how the two tried, they were never particularly strong: in will or in body. Their coughs and groans as their beings filled with unwavering pain was music to Impulse’s ears, even more so as he felt the familiar feeling creep up his own legs and reinvigorate him. 

“What have you ever done to me?” Impulse’s voice raised, incredulous, before it fell again, black particles falling from his mouth as the withering effect spread within his body. “Are you serious? The better question is what haven’t you done to me?

All you guys have ever done is use me. I finish one job, and you guys want something bigger. And every time I’m lucky if I get even a little bit of gratitude. I help you with your games, I help you with your projects, I help you with your farms, I give you resources, I design new machines and what do I get in return? A ‘thanks’ and a guarantee that you’ll come back to me when you need something else.”

He kneeled in front of the two hermits, both of them holding their chests as the incredible, beautifully hideous wither spread through them, slowly draining away their life. That was probably one of Impulse’s favorite parts of using the petals over full flowers: it was a lot slower of a death.

He gently put one of his wither tainted fingers underneath Tango’s chin, lifting his head up so he could look into his pain filled red eyes. “Even you, Tango. The only reason I’m here is because you needed someone to do your work for you. I’m surprised you didn’t see this coming.”

Tango opened his mouth, a strangled sound escaping in what almost sounded like a word before it devolved into horrendous coughs that brought a smile to Impulse’s face. He dropped the other’s head, standing proudly over the men.

This was by far the best payment he could have asked for.

-----

“Stress, I don’t understand, why are you doing all this?”

Iskall was precariously balancing on the Logz blimp, his arms out as he tried to steady himself. This sight caused Stress to giggle, and Iskall’s disturbed expression at the almost normal sound was clear on his face. She knew, if it had been anyone else standing in front of him, he wouldn’t have hesitated to charge forward and impale them. But this was Stress in front of him, his best friend. He adored her, and she knew that very well. So of course she was going to use that to her advantage.

“You’re a smart guy, Iskall, I’m sure you can figure it out.” She said, catching how his eyes drifted out over the shopping district and to the roof of the Colored Complete shop. Now that she didn’t appreciate. She wasn’t harmless, perhaps she had to remind him of this.

She twirled a lingering potion in her hand, spinning it on her fingertip before gingerly tossing it at Iskall’s feet. It shattered, the sickly green liquid exploding all over the wood. The fumes quickly wafted up, causing Iskall to cover his mouth, but it was all too late. The poison spread through his body, making his vision sway and his stomach retch, Stress knew. She had tested it enough times to know the exact effects on a person, and she didn’t need a watch to know exactly when it would end.

“You should keep your eyes on me if you know what’s good for you, luv. I’m not some cute dainty flower, you know -- well, I am adorable, but that's not the point, now is it?”

Iskall was definitely one of the tougher hermits, she had to give him that. Most anyone else would be rendered incapacitated from her enhanced poison potions, but he managed to glare at her between wet coughs. He took a few steps towards her, out of the fading cloud of poisonous fumes, and took a deep breath of air. Not that it would help him much, considering the amount of smoke that lingered around them.

“Seriously, Stress, what is all this about? We’re friends aren’t we? What’s gotten into you?”

She rolled her eyes, groaning at such a typical Iskall response. Really, he couldn’t be more predictable could he? She pulled out a splash potion, watching the ink black liquid swirl around inside the fragile glass.

“You really think I’m so simple, do ya?” She took a step forward, watching Iskall take a step backwards from the corner of her eye. “Sure, we were friends, Iskall. But that got old real quick, it did. Y’see I got real tired of being this little do gooder that could do no wrong. The one everyone underestimated. I wanted to prove to all of you how easily you were to fool. How easily I could fool you.”

She grinned at Iskall’s wide eye and shaking legs as she took another step forward. “You’re all really stupid, you know that? None of you even thought to suspect us! And we weren’t barely subtle at all. Luckily for us, you lot were so happy to cling on to the idea of poor Falsie being behind all of our messes that you didn’t look any farther into it!”

She sighed, squishing her cheek with the palm of her hand as she thought about it. “I do feel a lil’ bad, you know. About Falsie. I honestly didn’t think you’d straight up ban her. Must’ve been pretty scary for her.”

“We thought-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know what you lot thought. That sweet ol’ Impy and I wouldn’t hurt a fly, right?” She tossed the potion at him, knowing that he was enshrouded in darkness. Even his mechanical eye couldn’t see past a blindness potion that she had made. She walked towards him, sliding her hand up his arm and getting right up close to him. She wished she could frame his look of terror when she whispered:

 “Do you still think that?”

-----

“Grian, mate, really you gotta explain this to me. All of this. I-I don’t get why you’re doing all this.”

Ariana rolled her eyes at Mumbo. “How many times do I have to tell all of you? I’m not Grian, I’m Ariana Griande. I swear, you all are terrible with names.” She tutted.

“Yeah, right, whatever your name is, you need to stop this. Please. Or- Or at least tell me why you’re doing this. We can figure this out, I’m sure.”

Araina’s heels clicked on the noteblocks she stood on, walking over them as she examined Mumbo carefully. She hummed every note that played with every footstep she took. Sure, maybe Etho’s work was more refined and practiced, but Ariana was known for her voice not her instrumental talent. And of course for her explosive and fiery personality. Why else would Stress and Impulse recruit her?

“I think the better question is why wouldn’t I be doing this?” She asked Mumbo as she hopped off the noteblocks and onto the white concrete that made up the roof of Colored Complete. It was more grey now from all the smoke, but she thought that it looked far prettier that way. Fire always gave things that extra spice they needed.

“What?”

“Oh, come on Mumbo. Are you telling me you’ve never wanted to create a little chaos before?”

He spluttered, looking at her as if she was crazy before gesturing to the currently crisping shopping district. “This- this isn’t just ‘a little chaos!’ Grian, if you think this is all some harmless prank you gotta snap out of it, man. This is way, way, way worse than anything else you’ve ever done.”

“Ariana.” She corrected him again before walking to stand next to him and survey her fine handiwork. She had to compliment Impulse, the nether mods definitely helped a lot with the fire bit. And the ghasts certainly helped in the blowy-uppy part. Of course, most of the larger destruction was her own direct doing and she was quite proud of it all, even if it had made her skirt flutter up a little bit. She could sacrifice a little modesty for the sake of her art.

“And Mumbo, my dear Mumbo, I don’t think this is some harmless prank or whatever. No, I think,” she threw her arm over his shoulder, the heels making the reach less awkward. She still had to pull the man down to her height, though. “I think this is art. Beautiful art.”

She let him go, happily skipping back over to her noteblocks and sitting down on one, crossing her legs as she smiled out over the marvelously demolished shopping district. Her smile grew as a blaze lit a lone piece of TNT, the explosion adding to the brilliant cacophony of sounds that were already in the air. The crackling of fire, the screeches of ghasts, the breathy roars of withers, and of course her favorite sound: the panicked screaming of the hermits as they scrambled to salvage as much as they could.

Really, did she even need to explain why she did all of this? Why they did all of this? It seemed pretty obvious to her.

“You see, Mumbo, it’s all about making a statement.”

[ihearthorror]

My Top 10 Favourite Horror Films of 2020

Every January, most people who review or talk about movies on YouTube tend to piece together a Top 10 list of their favourite movies from the year prior. In order to stand out from the crowd (and also because I was too lazy to do this sooner), I decided to wait until March, by which time most YouTubers aren’t really talking about movies from 2020 anymore.

I know what you’re thinking: sounds kinda stupid – why would anybody care about a Top 10 list of the best movies of 2020…THREE months into the new year!? Well, as you’ve likely heard, 2020 was a year like no other, and as result of the ongoing global pandemic, movie release dates from 2020 were pushed back months, sometimes multiple times. Some films that were supposed to be released last year didn’t arrive until 2021, even though they’re officially considered “2020 films,” according to their profiles on websites like IMBD and Letterboxd.

And so, some of these so-called “2020 films” were not available (at least to me) until only recently, such as Saint Maud or The Dark and the Wicked. I feel like I’ve now had a chance to see almost all of the horror films I’ve wanted to see from last year. In this video, if you care to stick around, I will share with you my Top 10 favourite horror films of 2020. So, here we go…

#10/ The Dark and the Wicked:

A sister and brother return to the family homestead where their father is slowly dying and their mother is understandably distraught but also disturbed and distant. The siblings soon realize that something evil has invaded their family home as they are terrorized by whatever is slowly killing their father. Directed by the same guy behind 2008’s The Strangers, The Dark and the Wicked is at times bleak and unsettling, and it does a good job at keeping you intrigued in this family’s unnerving conflict. However, it felt a bit rushed and undeveloped at other times, and its ending left me somewhat unsatisfied.

#9/ Relic:

Soon after Kay and her daughter Sam return to their remote family home following the disappearance of the family matriarch, the widowed Edna, they discover that something sinister has taken hold of both Edna and the house itself. Although Relic – which was co-produced by Jake Gyllenhaal and marked the feature directorial debut for Natalie Erika James – isn’t exactly offering up any enticing twists or salacious gore, or even a original concept for that matter, it relies on evoking dread and building tension to compel its audience to stay invested until the bitter end.

#8/ Amulet:

Taking its sweet time to unravel, Amulet is centered around Tomaz, an ex-soldier who is now homeless but is offered a place to stay at a decaying house in London, which is inhabited by a beautiful young woman named Magda and her dying mother. As the story moves along, we see that Tomaz is starting to develop feelings for Magda, who seems a bit…off. His feelings for her don’t wane even after Tomaz discovers that there’s something insidious going on in the attic of the house, where Magda’s mother is seemingly imprisoned. Toss in a suspicious nun and you’ve got yourself a creepy little film that seems to have fallen between the cracks.

#7/ The Beach House:

One might argue that not a lot actually happens in The Beach House and that the payoff isn’t worth the investment, but if you go into this film with an open mind and zero expectations, you should at least be satisfied. Two troubled college students head to a deserted beach getaway to spend some time together, but end up struggling to survive alongside some unexpected guests as a mysterious infection disrupts their holiday. Although it is a slow build up to the film’s climax, it is a tense and intriguing ride along the way, as a series of unsettling events give way to an apocalyptic episode that feels almost like a throwback to the sci-fi films of the 1950s. Making his feature film directorial debut, Jeffrey A. Brown elicits with The Beach House those brooding existential thoughts that lay dormant in the deep boroughs of our minds. 

#6/ The Invisible Man:

There’s always an elevated risk when making a modern film based on an old story that has already been told through cinema numerous times before. The last time H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel The Invisible Man had been adapted by Hollywood was in 2000’s Hollow Man, which was panned by critics despite making a sizeable profit. The 2020 adaptation is far superior and is perhaps the best adaptation of Wells’ classic in any medium. Elizabeth Moss gives a stellar performance that draws real emotion, so that we agonize alongside her as she is essentially haunted by a relentless ghost hellbent on controlling every aspect of her life. We live in an era when technology has advanced enough to bring this 124-year-old story to life like never before, while a polished script and an exceptional lead performance gives The Invisible Man a deeper level of emotion and terror.

#5/ Saint Maud:

For most of Saint Maud it is unclear whether certain experiences are actually happening in reality for the main character or if it’s all simply in her head, as some sort of mental breakdown caused by a work-related tragedy. Maud is a young hospice nurse and a newly-converted Roman Catholic who suddenly becomes obsessed with “saving the soul” of the woman she is currently taking care of, Amanda, a hedonistic dancer with a chronic illness. Maud’s behaviour worsens, as does her mental state, as horrific scenes and visions make us question if she’s actually losing her mind or experiencing something beyond this world. Saint Maud is an A24 feature by the way, so that should be enough to know what you’re getting here in terms of quality.

#4/ The Lodge:

Isolation is often embraced as a way to pad a horror film’s fear factor, and it works especially here in The Lodge, as a soon-to-be stepmom becomes stranded at a remote holiday home in the middle of winter with her fiance’s two children. The kids begin to untangle the dark past of their stepmom-to-be and a series of disturbing events transpire as their hope for survival fades. The Lodge is a dreary, atmospheric slow burn that leaves you somewhat unsettled. With its wintry backdrop, stylish sequences, and almost claustrophobic dread, the film doesn’t ever allow its audience to feel at ease for long, insisting that an underlying foreboding remain intact throughout. Although I found the ending somewhat disappointing, I immediately began to concoct a possible prequel that would delve into the backstory of the film’s lead character. One can hope.

#3/ Host:

It’s increasingly difficult to be innovative and original when it comes to horror films these days, especially in the particular genre of so-called “found footage.” Rob Savage’s Host, however, comes off as something different, setting itself apart from most films in this realm in various ways. It centers around six friends who hold a séance via Zoom during a COVID lockdown, guided (at first) by a medium they hired. The séance then takes a dark turn and things soon escalate into madness. Sure, there are elements in Host that are prevalent in numerous horror films, but it uses a modern and topical way to implement them, while also refusing to overstay its welcome by cueing the credits less than an hour in. Overall, this film’s popcorn-and-Saturday-night-movie fun factor is why it ranks so high on this list.

#2/ Possessor:

It’s always a treat to come across an original idea, especially when it’s within the horror realm, and Possessor is certainly unlike anything else I’ve seen in awhile. Andrea Riseborough plays an elite corporate assassin who uses brain-implant technology to take control over other people’s bodies in order to kill high profile targets, though with every mission she gets further and further away from her true self. With her latest possession, she becomes trapped in the mind of a man who threatens to obliterate her for good. It is a provocative vision by director-writer Brandon Cronenberg, who just so happens to be the son of legendary Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, and it serves as a disturbing piece of dystopian fiction that is even more frightening because it isn’t too far beyond belief.

And because everyone else is doing it, here are five honorable mentions that narrowly missed the list:

- The Call

- Color Out of Space

- Don’t Listen

- The Mortuary Collection

- Porno

#1/ His House:

In addition to its emotional storytelling and genuine moments of terror, His House – from first-time director Remi Weekes – sheds a light on the plight of refugees in a way that feels both respectful and empathetic. After a Sudanese couple make a harrowing escape from their war-torn homeland, they are granted asylum in England, where they struggle to adjust and fit in. They are assigned a shabby house on the outskirts of London, where the couple begin to experience terrifying and unexplainable events. His House is built around a fresh concept, two fantastic leads, and some truly haunting imagery, and I wish that more horror directors would put as much effort into quality filmmaking as Weekes did here. If this is his first venture into feature filmmaking, I am excited to see what his future has in store. 

There you have it, my Top 10 favourite horror films of 2020. What did you think and were any of these titles on your own Top 10 list? Please tell me your thoughts and recommendations in the comments below.

[betheflame]

Saving the Multiverse

A Fluff Fill for the @stevetonygames​.  Square: Multiverse Shenangians Capwolf + Everyone Lives in the Tower + Soulmates + Royalty AU + Superior Iron Man Universe: What If #3: What if the Avengers had Never Existed

“Your Majesty.” Jarvis cleared his throat and waited for Steve to turn from the weight bag.

“Yes, Jarvis?”

“King Anthony has requested your presence in the basement workshop I am not supposed to know about.”

Steve snorted. “What did he call it this time?”

“The Situation Room.” Jarvis sighed deeply and Steve started laughing. Nothing gave his husband more joy than winding up his valet and long-time right hand man, and nothing seemed to frustrate Jarvis more. 

“He’s been watching too much old American television again,” Steve laughed. “He must have gotten a hold of more the last time we visited Earth 199999. I’m on my way, Jarvis, don’t worry.”

“Your Majesty,” Jarvis replied, “if I may remind you that the Duke of Brooklyn and Lord Baltimore are expected for dinner, so please implore his majesty to be brief with whatever discovery he is going to share with you.”

“Sure, J,” Steve laughed again. “I’ll just rewrite my husband’s entire personality. But I hear you.”

Steve took off his boxing gloves and toweled off the sweat that had accumulated during his workout. He wound his way through the corridors of the Starklandia Palace and hit the panel in the library that led to Tony’s workshop. 

King Anthony Edouard Stark, King of the Iron Islands of Earth 6729, was the 27th Stark to sit on the Iron Throne. He was one of the first to do so with a common born soldier and the absolute first to do so with someone of the same sex and gender as himself. 

Some of his subjects had expressed… concerns when he declared Steven Grant Rogers of the Iron principality of Brooklyn to be his groom and fellow ruler, but Steven’s record as an excellent servant of the crown smoothed things quickly. 

As did Tony’s two best friends, Natalia and Virginia, working their way through every single organization and club in the Kingdom and doing the most intense charm offensive anyone had ever seen. The fact that Steve’s childhood best friend was the heir to the Brooklyn dukedom didn’t hurt either. 

“Hey baby, what’s the emergency?” Steve called as he entered Tony’s beloved lair. 

“I got a message from Inventor,” Tony replied. “His Thor heard of a universe where Thanos is threatening but there are no Avengers.” 

Steve’s knees nearly buckled. “No Avengers at all? In any iteration?”

Tony shook his head. “Inventor and Cap are, as you can imagine -”

“Fucking petrified,” Steve interrupted. 

“Language, Your Majesty,” Tony said with a cocked eyebrow. 

“Apologies to your delicate sensibilities,” Steve said. “They’re absolutely fucking petrified and probably shitting bricks.” 

Tony grinned and crossed the room to kiss his husband. “They’ll need all of us.”

Steve nodded and started doing calculations in his head. 

About five years previous, on Steve’s 35th birthday, Tony had called him into the workshop and shown him his present. 

“You invented what?”

“A way for us to travel between fixed spots in the multiverse,” Tony explained. “You said you always wanted to see the historic artists in other universes.”

“I did, in the same way that Bucky has always wanted a herd of unicorns to raise as his personal pets,” Steve replied. “Travel between the universes is metaphysically impossible.” 

“Not anymore,” Tony said and handed Steve a pile of clothing. “Go put these on. They’ll keep us invisible in the other universes so we don’t cause disturbances. Chop chop, handsome, we’re heading to watch Van Gogh’s pain dry in whatever universe you choose.”

Steve had been skeptical - how safe could it really be - but soon, the pair were hopping all over the universes. They soon let their best friends in on their secret power and traveling together became a favorite pastime of the group the citizens referred to as The Royal Family. There was the Duke of Brooklyn, James Barnes, and his partner Lord Baltimore, Samuel Wilson. Lady Virginia Potts, Duchess Natalia Romanova, Lord James Rhodes, Lord Clinton Barton, and others rounded out the group, who comprised the closest advisors and friends of the royal couple, as both had been orphaned at a young age. 

The travels were fun and playful - but then they’d started to meet versions of themselves. 

The first time was on Earth 1872, where Tony was a blacksmith and Steve was the sheriff and they told all of the locals that they weren’t together, but then the kings saw them sneaking off behind the barn. 

“Do you think that we’re together in a lot of universes?” Steve had asked later that night. “Do you think we’re similar people, I mean, that if you and I meet, we bicker and spar and fight but ultimately fall in love?”

“I’d like to,” Tony confessed. 

They mostly observed - especially that one universe they ended up in where Steve was a werewolf everyone called ‘Capwolf’ and Tony was a vampire and it all felt a little… farfetched - until they landed on Earth 199999 in New York City on the top of Avengers Tower in that Earth year 2012. 

“Who the fuck are you and why are you wearing Tony’s face?” A blond man with a bow quickly drawn asked. 

“I could ask the same question about why he is wearing mine,” Tony replied calmly, “but the answer is that we are from another part of the multiverse.”

“Impossible,” a bespectacled man said quietly. “That’s a metaphysical myth.”

“Myths are just things science hasn’t proven yet,” both Tonys said at the same time and the room froze. 

“I am King Anthony of the Iron Islands in Earth 6729, and this is my husband, King Steven,” Tony said calmly. 

“You know anyone named Targaryen?” The man with the bow asked, and Tony noted he had not stopped aiming it at him. 

“There’s a clan by that name that my family defeated centuries ago,” Tony said, “but there are none living.”

“Check for a chick named Daenerys,” Bow Man snorted and then looked at his Steve. “Those are characters from that show, Cap. This can’t be real. What do you want us to do?”

“Can you guys give us the room?” New York Steve answered instead. There was a brief argument from a few of the room’s inhabitants before they all left. When the room was empty, New York Tony gestured to the couches. 

“Get comfy, fellas, we may be here a while.”

As they four talked, they came to several agreements: one, the Tonys would work on establishing cross-universe ways of communicating so that they could share intel and the Steves could share strategic plans; two, codenames for all duplicate creatures would be necessary, so Earth 199999 chose ‘Inventor’ and ‘Cap’ and the kings went with their given titles; three, they would come to each other’s aid as often as possible. 

King Tony shared the technology of multiverse travel with Inventor and within months, they were all connecting universes together like never before. And it turns out, Steve’s question on that quiet night was correct - they were connected in every universe. Sometimes platonically, sometimes romantically, but always connected. When they fought, the universe was vulnerable. When they were in accord, the universe was strong. 

When one of them turned evil… 

Tony still had nightmares about their battle with Superior Iron Man. Steve would often find him in the lair, muttering to himself over holograms and computers and talking to Inventor or Engineer or Toni or one of his other selves about what they could do. The rest of their family met their versions as well  - there was always mischief about whenever the Duke of Brooklyn and Bucky Barnes got together. 

In the last five years of adventures, they’d seen universes where everyone was divided in dominant and subordinate, universes where instinctual mating trumped consent, universes where everyone had purple skin, universes where horses were in charge because they were deemed more intelligent than the humans. Steve’s favorite, however, was the ones where everyone had a soulmate. 

Earth 1493, for example, was where everyone had two soulmates - a platonic and a romantic. In that universe, Steve’s platonic was Bucky, and his romantic was Tony. Tony was platonically attached to Pepper, and Pepper and Bucky were romantically mated to each other. Steve and Bucky didn’t have super powers in that one, but Tony and Pepper still ran SI. They all had kids who grew up together - with Sam & Carol, and Rhodey & Nat, and Clint & Laura - and they’d met their counterparts at Tony and Steve’s 25th anniversary party. King Steven had cried over how beautiful everything was. King Tony had rolled his eyes affectionately and held his husband as he cried. 

“Steve, baby,” Tony said, interrupting Steve from his reverie. “I’ll go tell Pep that she and Harry have the kingdom, and you get everyone else?”

The other constant in the multiverse - besides Tony and Steve’s connection - was Thanos, the Mad Titan who was attempting to destroy each universe. He’d succeeded in far too many, and they’d learned the only ones with fighting chances are ones where the Avengers were present in some form. The idea that Thor had found one where there was no Avengers Academy, no Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, no Tsums, no Avengers at all, and they’d found out before Thanos had destroyed everything… 

“Avengers Assemble,” Steve said into the communication device the Engineer had concocted for them. 

It was time - once again - to save a universe.

[hopefulpride]

Twisted fates //All For One

@pillar-of-peace​

These days were almost glory for the Symbol of Evil, a shame though; for one to be forced to admit his defeats even if it was done mentally. If he could erase a few things from existence only then would his world become perfection. To do so, the male needed a good plan only he could execute and could trust none making his task a bit more difficult. All for one would have to understand and know when to walk away and fight another day. In the end, Shigaraki always had time on his side as well as his quirks should he actually find serious trouble. When failing to accomplish goals it was only natural for one to fall into repetition learning to never make those same mistakes again. The more he pondered, the more he grew a bit more frustrated but this was his cause and he was relentless with it and his influence.

How was it that a man can become god and yet the things that should have been so simple ended up being the most difficult? Man-kind was already submitting to those who held the power with or without quirks and yet his Nemesis rose in all of its various forms to tell him his views were flawed. What right is given where a man can stand in front of another and tell him his cause means nothing and that he should abandon it. It was infuriating in the least but also part of the fun and Shigaraki held no regrets on that matter. Every time he heard a Hero speech he would roar in laughter on the inside with the humor of irony. Such hypocrisy in every word yet one always seems to refuse to look at self first, and he is to accept their cause? It was pure nonsense!

He held everything necessary in the palm of his hand but he couldn't ascend to the throne yet. Why?  One would easily point a finger and blame the multiple circumstances but in the end anything worth holding never came easily. Even as Hero's and Heroine's chose their paths the path of a villain was also chosen. Why was there a title to separate the paths of the chosen, shouldn't one be free to choose his own fate? The conclusion that came caused his thin lips to curl into a smile and a soft deep chuckle to escape him.

Those who choose to stand by idolized concepts should fall in the most glorious of ways to make an example for the rest. All for one believed that one was born with a destiny and that justified his reasoning. After all, to be gifted such an opportunity would in itself explain why he was worthy. His cause would be heard and those in his path would yield or die regardless. Shigaraki had made many errors and took heed to the many things he learned from them. Some situations had to be handled delicately and being a gentlemen with words often assisted him in matters like these. With years came wisdom and habits after all. Shigaraki wasn't too worried with what might happen because it was futile to ponder on such things. If he tried a plan it really didn’t matter the outcome because in the end time was his friend. Besides, How else was a guy to spend the years? A body at rest dies and a body in motion stays in motion. It was simple physics, why should he give up his will on their terms without a decent fight? To do so would be simply disrespectful.

Folding his arms over his chest, All for one set with his eyes closed the silence of the room comforting him. Shigaraki needed to sort these matters without distraction. In his mind he could reason but the reality was he had a problem that could not be fixed by force alone. Things were not going his way and if he acted in rash manner he could loose everything. Fear was to be controlled and that was what held back his hand; why Shigaraki took the time to think through his matters before reacting. All for one thought himself to be a patient man cultured by time. The male felt that organized chaos was able to be controlled if one was smart enough to understand it. These thoughts circled his mind as he set for hours in the silence. The weight of the task at hand was heavy but still Shigaraki did not move until he had the perfect plan. Instead he crossed one leg delicately over the other his arms still folded over his broad chest. A simple digit tapped his bicep, tapping with repetition to each thought that passed through his twisted mind. Shigaraki wore a peaceful expression upon his features keeping the rage within under a tight leash.

In the end Shigaraki came to one realization. The problems sorted in his mind meant he could not do more than represent his cause and back up the heart-beat behind his agenda. That was fine so long as there was somebody who could take his place. Such contradictory, but it was indeed critical for his plan to work. He could build up many but they all either ended up destroying themselves or changing to uselessness in the end so taking that path was pointless. A exasperated sigh left the other as Shigaraki  slouched forward bringing his hands together clasping the digits together over his lap. He now had a plan and it was time to execute it; just as time was his friend it was also his greatest enemy. It would lay way for a trail of twisted hope and that could bring a halt to his plans.

He first had to access the files hidden away but the hands of the naive handled those. His eyes grew darker as Shigaraki sorted the many faces he would have to visit. He had pawns everywhere and figured it shouldn't take too long to find the one who was perfection in his eyes. One for all was quite troublesome but that would be handled in the same means. Two birds one stone, if you will. If All for one was to end her then he would have to do so before she passed the quirk.

Shigaraki could bring up a new face she would not see coming and use that to weaken her stance. Why was that damned flame was so difficult to put out? Again the male began to wonder what kind of person it would take to tie into her heart enough to move her. Rising from his seat he was content, jerking his sleeves down before casually brushing himself off his mind finally made up. All for One needed only find one who is able to handle the weight he would place upon their shoulders and simply push them to move forward with his vision. 

The strings of course, would never be cut but he could make such puppet strings out of kind words and a soft touch, as well as a little encouragement. Everything would play out perfectly and in the end he could destroy One for all before it could be passed. The smile stretched across his firm features as he moved through the halls. The shadows cast from the lights shifted about as he passed through the halls in silence. This would play out so beautifully, like a song you play on repeat. He was almost beside himself in the thought of vision. Even if those thoughts were only plan A, he had already concocted a few ways to handle should the plans fail one by one. There was always more than one way to skin a cat and All for one was quite persistent. Any who rose to stop him he could simply turn into an example.

After spending months to search and prepare his eyes settled on a bright young blond boy that held promise captured in the picture. Setting aside the other files he began to decipher the exact location of this child. Shigaraki would find himself spending a lot of time to mold a creature vile enough to push through his plans without objection or conscience. The others he could tell simply by looking at them that they could not stomach the fight much less the war.

"Yagi?"

The boy was quirkless to speak and perfect. Residing within region was also a plus considering All for one would not have to cross the lines of diplomacy in his search. Shigaraki though emotionless in body language was very pleased with his conclusions. It was as if fate had handed him a picture of perfection and molded it with the intention of All for One picking it up to groom before tossing into the world. Holding up the picture he studied it with a tilt of his head a soft laugh echoing out from the male. He was beside himself and slouched down patting the young male before him on the back.

"You have done so well and I am beside myself with gratitude!"

As his hand moved across the others back the smiling male leaned over his shoulder so he could see the others face as the last words left his lips. Why would any who is called a villain miss the moment when fear arises in ones soul.

"I think that I should....."

Before he could finish the words the minion jumped from his seat with quick frantic bows shoving away the offer he knew was coming. The sadistic smile on Shigaraki’s lips sent chills down the others back. All for one began again a bit irritated to have been interrupted in the first place.

"Oh no, you seem to misunderstand. I truly am grateful."

Placing a hand over his own chest he met the male with emotionless features holding the intent for a second he debated his actions. Shifting in his step Shigaraki turned to approach once more in calm steps. The clank of his shoe echoing out as he waited for that perfect spine tingling moment that usually comes aright after life flashes before ones eye.

"Do understand, this is only because I cant really have anyone for the so called "Heros" to track and as anxious as you are now I doubt you took much caution. It is quite fine all the same because you DID accomplish your goals."

As All for one continued sweat formed on the males brow his breathing growing ragged as he backed away. All for one could see it! The mind searching for a way out of the situation in panic. Shigaraki couldn't help the chuckle at the sight counting the seconds deciding to give his last tiny push.

"You see, this is my favorite part when..."

Lifting a finger in calm manner to point out the others disregard of all decency he paused allowing the moment to manifest. His lips sealed as the begging came and he took a another deep breath narrowing his eyes his free hand still holding the file that was given to him earlier. 

Once the door again slid open again, Shigaraki made his exit as if nothing had happened. His eyes were glued to the information on the page, thankful he had made it this far so flawlessly. Glancing down to his Suit coat he lifted the pin stripped fabric closer to his eyes to inspect. Narrowing blue hues he noted the blood that had splattered onto it. A soft breath left him as he again comments out-loud this time.

"Well almost.........flawlessly"

He catered to his own humor in his exit laughter roaring down the hallway. If he planned this right he would be able to rid himself of one for all and find a puppet to dance across the lands in his place. He held no issue handing over the power however it was up to the recipient to be able to handle it.

"Yagi Toshinori, I will be seeing you soon my child I certainly hope you are worth my time I despise those who are useless to this new world of quirks!"

[seolhe]

I was wondering,,, why do you say the dark wife is one of the worst books you've read? I read it a few years ago, and I dont remember anything about it tbh, so I'm curious

Oh boy, where do I start? I had a lot of problems with this novel, both as a Greek myth retelling and from a writing standpoint. Now, keep in mind that I read thisabout 2 years ago, so I might be forgetting some small details here and there, but I’ll try to explain the main reasons it bugged me so much. So buckle up, because this is gonna be a long one.

Characters: All the characters are two-dimensional and poorly developed. None of them have any amount of nuance or depth.Zeus is moustache twirling villain who is evil for the sake of being evil. Hades is as good as Zeus is evil, endlessly noble and selfless and devoted. I genuinely can’t remember a single defining trait of Persephone? She’s such abland and generic protagonist, nothing really stands out about her in my memory other than her obsessive pining over Hades and hatred of Zeus. A lot of this feels like it’s pulled straight from the shallow and occasionally downright inaccurate readings of Greek myths that have become so popular in recent years, especially on places like tumblr (Zeus as an evil rapist, Hades as a pure cinnamon roll, Persephone descending willingly into the Underworld, etc.).But there are also more confusing takes on these characters, like turning chaste virgin goddess Athena into a self-centered, promiscuous lesbian (not to say that being a lesbian or being promiscuous is bad, it’s just such a strange interpretation of Athena’s character that doesn’t make any sense)And don’t even get me started on poor Charis! Charis, Persephone’s first lover in the book, exists solely to be raped and killed by Zeus. She’s fridged to show us that Zeus is BAD and giving Persephone a reason to hate him. The author’s treatment of this character is lazy and offensive. I’m sure this is something that won’t bother all readers, but as someone with a deep love for the mythology, I found the portrayal of the Greek gods franklyinsulting. Plot:“Three thousand years ago, a god told a lie.”Here we run into a big problem with the narrative. We’re told from the very prologue that the story of Hades and Persephone we’re familiar with is a lie, a narrative created by Zeus, and this is Persephone’s attempt to set the record straight.These are the first lines of our story: “I am not my mother’s daughter. I have forfeited my inheritance, my birthright. I do not possess the privilege of truth. The stories told by fires, the myth of my kidnap and my rape, are all that remain of me. Forever I will be known as the girl who was stolen away to be the wife of Hades, lord of all the dead. Andnone of it is true, or is so fragmented that the truth is nothing more than ashadow, malformed. The stories are wrong. I am not who they say I am.I am Persephone, and my story must begin with the truth.Here it is, or as close as I can tell it.”Well, this doesn’t really make any sense when, at the end of the story, Zeus is defeated and thrown into Tartarus. Why does this narrative survive into modern day when Hades and Persephone won? Why is Persephone only able to tell her story now, after thousands of years without Zeus in power? Speaking of Zeus and lies, the justification for the whole “What, Hades is awoman?!” thing really doesn’t make any sense. We’re told that Zeus calls Hades “lord” of the dead as a joke, Hades even refers to it as a “slur” in the story. The reason given for this is that Hades is only attracted to women. Well, if that’s the case, why doesn’t that same logic apply to Athena, who’salso shown to be attracted only to women? Or to Persephone for that matter? Same-sex attraction, even between women, is never shown to be frowned upon in their society, so why would Zeus single out Hades for her attraction to women? And why do all the other gods apparently go along with that “joke” to the point that Persephone literally didn’t know Hades was a woman until she meets her in person? And why, again, did this idea of Hades being a man survive into modern day? The story is constructed so poorly on so many different levels. There are so many threads that are just dropped entirely. For example:- The story starts with Demeter confidently proclaiming that Persephone will become the queen of the gods, setting up this big rivalry between her and the daughters of Hera and Aphrodite. This plot never goes anywhere, in fact, I don’t think it’s ever brought up again after the first chapter, and Demeter basically spends the rest of the book cowering before Zeus. - There’s a significant plotline about Pallas having Persephone try to deliver a message to Athena, a plotline that is unceremoniously dropped without anyresolution. After all the build-up, there’s a throwaway line about Pallas giving the note to Persephone right before the big showdown with Zeus, and that’s the last we hear of it. We never see it delivered, we don’t get to see Athena’s reaction to it, we don’t know how this impacts Pallas, if at all. In fact, Pallas basically doesn’t show up at all after this point. Then there’s the main conflict of the story: Zeus wants Persephone, and as we’re told over and over and over, Zeus always gets what he wants (the author really beats this into our heads). We’re never really given any motivation for any of Zeus’ actions, so this conflict feels weak and contrived. It doesn’t help that we get so much build-up for what a terrible threat he is, and then Persephone defeats Zeus, the most powerful god, feared by all, in like… two pages? It’s such a weak and anticlimactic end to the story.

There was also some sort of convoluted plan concocted by Zeus to, idk, have the dead rise up and overthrow Hades? For some reason? Again, we never get any clear motivation from Zeus. As far as I can remember, we’re never told why he hates Hades so much, or why he wants to overthrow her. I don’t even remember if the author explained what Zeus was going to do with the Underworld without Hades there to rule. I’m sorry, I genuinely can’t even remember the details, but it was just reallybadly set up and, once again, easily solved in a few pages.And that’s really the main problem with the story, everything is so easily solved. Our good guys all get happily ever afters with no sacrifices and no consequences for anything, and there’s always a quick and easy solution to any threat or conflict. Mythology:So how does it hold up as a Hades and Persephone retelling?Well, not great, imho. A lot of classical elements are incorporated into this retelling, but they’re stripped of any meaning or importance to the plot. The pomegranate? It’s there at their wedding, but it never figures into the greater narrative.Demeter causing famine by bringing infertility to the fields? She does freeze the world in this story, threatening everlasting winter, but unlike in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, it’s not an act of agency on her part, refusing to submit to the will of Zeus and fighting to be reunited with her daughter. Nah. She’s just being manipulated by Zeus and it’s used as a cheap reason to tear our lovers apart.And somehow, I don’t even know why seeing as it doesn’t tie into Demeter freezing the earth or Persephone eating the seeds of the pomegranate, butPersephone is still forced to spend half the year on earth and half in theUnderworld.In the epilogue, we see her in modern day New York*, acting as psychopomp (for some reason???), happily guiding the souls to the afterlife, which we’re told is her duty for the half of the year she spends above ground. I’m just so confused as to what the author was even going for here. Where did this come from? It doesn’t originate in the original myths, but it’s also not explained (as far as I can remember) in the book.*This isn’t a problem with the book per se, and it’s 100% a matter oftaste, but I personally really dislike it when mythological figures appearin a modern setting, especially when the author has to put them in anAmerican setting rather than the geographical location of their origin, whetherthat’s Greece or Egypt or Scandinavia or what have you. Romance: Hades and Persephone are destined soulmates and instantly fall in love pretty much the moment they first set eyes on each other, which doesn’t allow for any growth or progression of their relationship. They’re instantly deeply and madly in love with each other and their feelings never change over the span of the story. They spend most of their time together staring lovingly into each others eyes and when they’re separated for literally 3 days Persephone basically spends her entire days languishing in despair.It’s ridiculously melodramatic and cheesy, which again, personal taste thing,I’m just really not into. Other writing issues: - The worldbuilding is pretty much non-existent. The story doesn’t feel grounded in any particular time period or cultural context, and you never get any sense of the setting, or how the world works and what this society is like.  - The pacing was really poor, either dragging or exploding into rushed action. - A lot of page time is spent on describing things that doesn’t really further the plot or has any thematic relevance. One example would be the garden of metal and precious stones Hades made for Persephone. It’s cool I guess? But what purpose does it serve? We also waste a lot of time which could be better used developing the characters or moving the plot forward on watching Persephone play with puppy Cerberus or petting Hades’ horses (see poor pacing). - There’s a lot of talk about Persephone having some sort of grand destiny, and that her actions have been prophesized. This is never properly explained and it only serves to weaken Persephone’s story arc, stripping her of agency by implying that she doesn’t really have a choice in the matter. Prophecy and destiny are story elements that have to be handled delicately and are easy to screw up, and they’re just dealt with so clumsily here.  - Also the writing was just… not very good.I’m sure there are more things I could dig up and complain about, but I feel like this is probably too long and rambly already, so I’ll stop here.

Obligatory disclaimer:This is obviously just my personal opinion. There are a lot of people who love this book (going by Goodreads ratings, I am clearly in the minority) and I am genuinely happy for them! I also mean no disrespect to the author who seems like a genuinely lovely person. 

[vonlipvig]

Ok, I’m in the mood to rant about some AA stuff, specifically some of the Big Baddies. Not an angry rant, by any means. I;m just full of AA Love right now.

(Spoilers for all games except both DGSs!)

Under a readmore cause it got LONG

Ok, so I’m replaying AAI2 right now, and I’m playing through case 4, and I honestly had forgotten how MUCH i hated Blaise Debeste (hate as in “You’re so fucking despicable”, not in the “I hate him as a character” way, I delight in hating him, as we all do, I suppose). And I guess that set me thinking about all of the Big Villains of AA, and how exactly I feel about them.

So I asked myself, “who are the scariest AA villains?”, and I think the answer to that--at least for me, of course--is Damon Gant and Blaise Debeste, with Quercus Alba nipping at their heels.

Now, hold your horses, let me explain. I think those three--but those two to a more certain degree--are the most terrifying antagonists in the games, and that’s because of one thing: power. These guys have the institutional power they need to do whatever it is they want, and that’s really fucking scary. And yes, you can have power and not use it for your own, selfish needs, but these guys do exactly that, and to perfection. Gant, for one, is terrifying just from his appearance, cause everything from his stance, to his stare just says “do not dare cross me” and that’s spine-chilling. I guess what’s also very scary about him is that somewhere in his mind, at the very beginning of his career, maybe he did want to do good? But I think his own selfishness overtook that from the moment of the Darke and Marshall murders. I don’t think he cared at all that he was killing an innocent person. he just cared about his own reputation.

And Blaise...god, talking about Blaise makes my skin crawl. just as Gant, Blaise also has a LOT of power (and I’m talking a LOT, this man has affected the lives of so many others), and he sees people as mere objects to use and discard as he pleases (I’m replaying AAI2 so my memory is not that fresh, but like, he made people disappear, even his wife I think). And what’s even scarier than Gant is that he truly looks as if he enjoys tormenting others, so it’s not just that he sees others as things, he just truly delights in causing others pain. AND SPEAKING OF CAUSING OTHERS PAIN, he also straight up abuses Sebastian, his own son. He fucking went so far as to ORDER HIS SON KIDNAPPED. I’m about to cry cause I just HATE HIM SO MUCH, OH MY GOD.

Ok, like the AAI stan that I am, I have to say that I also really enjoy Quercus Alba. I don’t know, I think he’s not as developed or as interesting as these others, in a way, but to me at least he seems like a really cool and really scary villain as well. Selfish, uncaring, and almost unbearably proud (GOD THOSE GODDAMN EXTRATERRITORIAL RIGHTS), I really loved the whole smuggling ring plot point from AAI, so I guess your enjoyment of him hinges on if you liked that or not. I did. Oh, and I just love his sprites, what a fucking tree bastard.

So I gotta talk about our friend Manny von Karma now, oh boy. THE OG bad boy. The thing with Manfred is that his “evilness” kiiiinda pales a bit once you know the events of AAI2. He got vital information kept away from him during the IS-7, courtesy of Blaise, so you get that sense of “oh, there was someone above him in the command chain”, and yeah, there was. But the man was still ruthless, and he was still not above forging and cheating to get what he wanted. In that respect, very much like the other guys. But what separates him from the others is that his big crime--the murder of Gregory Edgeworth--was much more passional than anything the other guys ever did. He didn’t murder Gregory because of money, or to keep his mouth shut, and it wasn’t even something he planned. The opportunity presented itself, and he was so full of rage for his wounded pride that he murdered him. In a way that makes him less scary to me, because I understand emotions, but I can’t understand cold, psychopathic calculation (ok, but he gains a lot more Evil Points with the whole “adopting the child of my enemy and raising it to be all that he despised” thing, YAKNOW?).

Morgan Fey, too, is another villain that is very passionate yet still cold and calculating. Her pride is everything to her, and the blow that was dealt to her by being cast aside as a “branch” member of the clan was devastating to her, and made her into the woman she is. What’s really interesting about Morgan is that we see the character of the doting mother at first in her with how she treats Pearl, but then we see that that could not be further from the truth. I think maybe she tries to convince herself that what she does, she does for her love of Pearl, but that’s not true at all. It’s great to see this side of the “mother” archetype.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. None of them are actually my favorite villain. The one who I believe is the most compelling, entertaining, thought-provoking of all the AA killers is Simon Keyes. I mean, what does it tell you, that when I’m talking about a manipulative murderer the first that comes to mind is sadness because he got dealt a very bad hand in life? This is not me justifying his actions, because none of the things he did were justifiable in the slightest. But this man, this kid, had no-one (He had Dogen, actually, but hey, a great role model to have, right?). He felt betrayed by the ones who were supposed to be his closest protectors and friends, and that turned him sour. He’s as cold and calculating as the other baddies, but his story just shatters your heart, especially because it is paralleled so well by other AAI2 characters, in Sebastian, in Miles, in Kate Hall, etc. Basically, AAI2 best game.

And I could add Dahlia in the same category as Simon, I think. it’s...not the same, granted, but Dahlia’s background are incredibly interesting to mull about. She was born in the Fey Clan, so from the day she was born she carried an enormous burden on her shoulders. The whole thing with Misty and Morgan, which ended with her father taking her with him, left her very jaded and hateful (and betrayed, I believe, deep inside), and that set her on the path she would then take. Then she gets foiled my Mia, and that absolutely devastates her, and driver her to seek revenge. I think not only revenge because Mia managed to finally expose her crimes, but Mia also represents that “Main Branch” of the family, that which had been taken from her, and that which caused her so much pain. I really love Dahlia, I think she’s a bit more over the top than Simon, but I really enjoy her character.

An then there’s...well, the Phantom. I don’t know what to say about them, they really don’t have the depth that other villains have, as we don’t know anything about them except the “feels no emotions” thing. And I don’t know if I like that, as a character train. I don’t mean to say I don’t like characters that feel no emotions, cause hey, see the guys up top, but to make it such a gimmick was...meh. Oh, but I will say, that part where Aura says that one phrase and then you feel a deep chill in your spine because “oh my god i know who the phantom is”? Very good.

We also have Kristoph and Matt, and.......come on, I love them to bits, Farewell My Turnabout is one of my all time fave cases, and I think Turnabout Trump is SO GOOD for a first case, but...these guys are absolute clowns, they’re so fucking stupid, ok? At least von Karma was just like “OH HE’S UNCONSCIOUS THIS IS MY CHANCE”, these dudes went back to their sad lairs and concocted some dumbass plans. Ridiculous djfdhfjdhf.

And then there’s Ga’ran and I gotta say I don’t remember a single thing about her, The End.

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (65): Tue 17th May 2022

Went along to the restaurant by the seafront for breakfast where I had some really nice blueberry pancakes and took time to wake up in my own good time. There isn’t an awful lot to do here but this trip was about relaxation rather than activities. I’m not even sure what potential activities the village could put on. I suppose they could do a few Prisoner-themed activities like blow up a giant white balloon and have it chase us all down the beach but that would hardly be fair as I’d win this race easily due to being the youngest person here by at least sixty years. I had another walk around the village, stopping off at Number Six’s house and listening to the Iron Maiden song “The Prisoner” as a kind of symbolic gesture. It’s bizarre that one of my favourite bands wrote a song about one of my favourite TV shows and it’s also one of my favourite songs. Number Six’s house is now a Prisoner themed gift shop where I bought a Number Six badge and also got to see actual fucking jacket that Patrick McGoohan wore on the show and I’m definitely not going to steal it. Seriously I’m NOT GOING TO STEAL IT!…I might try and steal it. I also took a picture of the whole village from the green domed building. I know that the village was only used for external shots and most of the show was filmed in a studio but being the Prisoner fanboy that I am I keep expecting the inside of Number Six’s house to look like it did in the show even though it’s tiny. I also keep thinking that the green domed building is the entrance to a secret lair where the village bad guys concoct their evil experiments. Man it’s such a shame that I’ve sworn off drugs for the rest of my life because this would be the perfect place to take some acid. During my walk it started to piss down so I jogged back to my cottage and stuck the TV on. Sky Arts are re-showing Tales Of The Unexpected so I watched a couple of episodes. There’s one great episode where a girl gets taken to a hotel by her friend who’s arranged for a gigolo to come to her room so she can lose her virginity. Meanwhile a businessman staying in the hotel who is also a virgin is told as a prank by his friend that if you wink at the receptionist three times that’s the code for him to send a prostitute up to your room. He does so but the receptionist has no idea what he’s talking about and also gives him the wrong room key. Long story short the man and the woman end up in the same room and believe that the other one is the prostitute and end up banging and they have such a good time that they get married. This is a perfect episode of TOTU in a way, it’s got a good cast, good setting, well written dialogue, clever ideas and the whole thing is really fucked up. Went to dinner at the restaurant and seeing how fancy it and the menu were immediately made me feel out of place. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb in my leather jacket and Shoe Zone trainers. The food was also incredibly fancy and RIDICULOUSLY overpriced. It was £60 for a full three courses and while I would never normally pay the kind off money I could get 10 pizzas for, I was hungry and there was nowhere else open. The food was cunting tremendous ( My phone keeps changing “Fucking” to “Ducking” so now every time it does I’m going to write “Cunting” instead to teach it a lesson ) for starters I had a Poached duck egg on some sort of fancy cracker, then for my main a cunting incredible Cheese soufflé with some green shit and then for dessert some chocolate thing with ice cream. They all had really fancy names and I didn’t take a picture of the menu so you’ll just have to imagine what it was like based on my childish recollections. As I was eating my main course and enjoying the atmosphere things turned reeeeeeeeally nasty. The only other people in the restaurant other than me were an couple who the waitress for some reason sat a couple of booths down from me. They seemed a bit hostile as they walked in and although they started off at a low volume their voices (mainly the husbands) started getting louder. Out of nowhere the woman slammed her hand down one the table and said “I can’t handle this anymore, I want a divorce”. At which point the man started flipping out and the woman started crying and I started eating much faster. The man carried on flipping out until the waitress came over and asked him to knock it off at which point the man stormed out. The woman stayed behind and by this point was openly weeping and I asked for my desert to be brought out asap, wolfed it down and got the fuck out of there. Ho….ly….shitballs that was awkward. Well aside from the unpleasant domestic spat the food was really good…and expensive. In the next few days I’ll be squeezing out the most expensive shit of my entire life but at least I went all out to maximize my Portmeirion experience. Now that I’ve been here for a full day I feel like I’ve gotten my fill and I’m now just thinking about the long journey home. I didn’t realize the trip was doable in one day because if I had I would have just stayed the one night. Don’t get me wrong this has been an amazing trip but the worry about the travel has kind of soured it for me. Either way I’m really glad I made the trip and I can certainly see the allure that drew Patrick McGoohan to it to film The Prisoner here. At least when I’m on my deathbed in 200 years time I won’t be looking back and regretting the fact that I never went to Portmeirion.

[nightcoremoon]

Callout post: me

lying, manipulative, hold grudges, constantly paranoid, would absolutely 100% check out a teenager if nobody was looking because "it's a harmless crime", liar, cycle through idealization and devaluation, 'sick of fat people trying to be the next civil rights issue and making it that much harder to get civil rights for people who are ACTUALLY oppressed like gee idk poc and muslims and the mentally ill and queer people', frequently fantasizes about committing violent acts against people I rationalize they deserve it including family members, untruthful, attention whore, pedantic AND pretentious, tells lies, doesn't believe in one sister's claim of sexual assault (went to smoke weed with the alleged perpetrator), UNAPOLOGETICALLY AGAINST ASEXUAL EXCLUSIONISM (LITERALLY FUCK YOU DUMBASS FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS WHO SHRIEK THAT QUEER IS A SLUR, SHUT YOUR GODDAM FUCKING WHORE MOUTHS YOU DUMBASSES AND GO THE FUCK OUTSIDE OR READ A BOOK), would absolutely punch a child over an insignificant internet argument, secretly sought out sexual pleasure from two friendly seemingly platonic encounters with two girls I just met within twenty four hours, overreacts to the slightest provocations and has bitches at or vagueposted at several people who did not deserve it, has used mental illness and physical handicap to evade trouble from being late for work because video games and laziness and excessive sleep, has spent maybe a thousand dollars on fast food in 2018 alone, evades bills for medical care from an actually great clinic, lying sack of garbage, gave up on calling out family's bigotry and is now an accessory to prejudice, despises terfs predominantly for their refusal to fuck me because of being trans and yet meanwhile would not engage in sexual relationship with another trans woman or cis man unless reeeeeeeeally drunk, can and will blame being sexually assaulted as a child which probably didn't even happen because I don't think I remember it, unabashed furry, probably as addicted to video games and masturbation AND LIES as I almost was to alcohol, pretended to have almost been an alcoholic just to "win" facebook arguments about addiction, doesn't give a fuck my dad almost died from heroin JUST because he's a *little* homophobic and racist and classist and xenophobic because of a christian upbringing, would literally fucking murder him if he EVER PUTS HIS HANDS ON ME AGAIN, only slightly depressed because of laziness and a lack of drive and ungrateful to my family because hey they didn't kick me out for being trans so HEY THATS SUPPORTIVE ENOUGH FOR SOME OTHER PEOPLE SO WHY CANT I BE HAPPY WITH THAT, legitimately salty about ~the friendzone~ and just makes fun of incels because everybody else does, takes the moral high ground for not being a misogynist even though I don't deserve a pat on the back a lap dance and a blowjob for not hating women, overly sensitive about stupid things, thinking about faking having a trigger warning for more discourse credit, HUUUGE ASSHOLE to men I deem unattractive for no other reason than every single ugly fat guy I've ever met has been an asshole, rationalizes it after the fact because they eventually say something shitty because all men are terrible, probably a little bit of a cisnormative misandrist because trans men tend to be much better people, finds trans men attractive (specifically and significantly more so than cis men) so must clearly be fetishizing them, relatively okay with people referring to me as deadnamed and the wrong pronouns so probably just lying about being trans to everyone including myself, not 100% okay with the hijab for 'no reason other than all organized religion is evil and opposed to its mandate and the shame it forces on many women in many situations the exact same way I'm opposed to no sex before marriage and wives being subservient to their husbands and treating women as property in the torah and quran alike because ITS ALL BRAINWASHING' so is clearly not unlearning islamophobia and doesn't want to let that go, hypocrite because I believe in the basics of judeochristianity

and loathe atheism and atheists entirely because their smugness and smarm literally sets my blood pressure through the roof of what is safe and normal and yet claim to hate all organized religion, mansplains yet gets so pissed off when other people mansplain to me, judgmental of other cultures because they don't have the exact same values that I have, james gunn apologist, talks and talks and talks about anarchosocialism all damn day but would beat the shit out of a coworker for leaving me to do things because they're lazy because "any job worth doing is worth doing well" and other capitalismisms, literally couldn't give less of a fuck that his mother is dying because people die but it's no reason to make my life slightly harder and making me work hard when I work because BOO HOO MY LEGS HURT FROM THE LITERALLY MOST MILD CASE OF MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY I COULD'VE BEEN BORN WITH, hasn't actually performed real suicide attempt ever but still claims to have done so to attain sympathy that may result in physical affection, countless other shitty terrible things that yeah I recognize are bad but CANT SEEM TO CARE BECAUSE I HAVE DEPRESSION... WHICH IS THE WEAKEST FUCKING EXCUSE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE GODDAMN WORLD

I am not a good person, okay?

I just pretend to be sometimes.

I'm sick of doing it, I'm sick of trying to do well and earn people's approval by doing and saying the right things only to just be ignored which is a step up from receiving many anons that hey, never actually told me to kill myself, but did take my words out of context to paint me as a racist. I am not the kind of racist who would vote for trump and march with the kkk. that is one of very few good things I can say about myself. but I'm an arrogant, violent, and angry opinionated perverted manipulative judgmental lying asshole. I'm not a good person. I have let myself fall so much and I deserve to be alone. my only connections to people were built on personal gain and I swear to myself that I do love them but those feelings fall away in direct correlation to how much they interact with me. I could love you to the point of obsession and stalking and one month later be completely and totally disinterested. I'm a bigot who pretends to not be bigoted and just parrots what other people say not because I believe it but because it's the right thing to say, and I only say what the right thing is to say because whenever I say a good thing something good will happen to me and if I say a bad thing something bad happens to me. it's all just self preservation, nothing else at all. but now I'm at the end of a road of just trying to do good and I'm alone. out of the only two friends that I can really say that I have left, one is far away and trapped in a guilt spiral that I caused by being too clingy, and the other has been behaving in a way my mind has decoded as defensive around me which makes sense as I have been very... the best way to describe it would be the way a dudebro incel interacts with any person who possesses a vagina/breasts but sneakier. in both relationships I've pushed my own wants and desires in extremis... I can't for the life of me recall the last time I have ever offered something in return other than my own company or paying for a meal at a restaurant or I guess transportation. and instead of sex I just want them to express even the slightest bit of intimate platonic physical affection towards me but that's still a lot to offer someone who has clearly expressed the existence of a sexual and maybe something near the realms of romantic in one of the cases physical attraction because for this aspec it's practically the same fucking thing.

and I've manipulated them to attain this goal. at this point my shit brain has considered just fucking going to town on my wrists with a razor blade to draw sympathy so that I'll get a hug or something beyond just a simply hello/goodbye, and finding a way to induce tears to concoct a sob story to reach the same end result, and one time very briefly via threat and intimidation so you can clearly see that I've gone far too into irredeemable territory. I've been playing and replaying cry of fear because it's just too similar to my own issues and the first ending where he just kills everyone he loves and then himself... I see me in that ending. and it scares me so much more than the sprinting screaming twitching one hit kill chainsaw guy ever will. I don't want that to be me, I want to change something, but I just can't get the help that I need. I had hoped to go for a domino effect, where if I could be cuddled for like five minutes or something, I'd have the energy to be more hygienic, which would make me feel capable enough to take on two jobs, which would get me the cash flow I need to pay my bills and take care of my hormones, which would put me in the headspace necessary to effectively use psychological help, which would let me get over my illnesses and actually become a more successful person instead of the pathetic husk I am here in non-fantasy land.

but that won't happen.

I'm just sitting here in the dark angsting about how nobody will touch me in a way that would produce oxytocin, and it's making me so sick, so physically sick, that it's affecting my brain too. I'm in pain, nauseous, vengeful, spiteful, paranoid, judgmental, and lonely. I'm stuck and I can't even kill myself because my mind wants me to stay alive and suffer through all of this because "oh it gets better" people have been saying that for well over half of my life. I was six or seven years old when I asked my mother to kill me, and that same level of desperation and bitterness has only gotten worse as time goes by. when does it get better? I'll tell you when it gets better, after I'm in prison or comatose or forty five years old with a cane and bad eyes and high blood pressure and lung cancer from all the secondhand smoke I've breathed in my life. when my life is over, that's when it gets better. I DONT WANT THAT. I WANT A NORMAL FUCKING LIFE RIGHT NOW. I WANT NORMAL FRIENDSHIPS AND A NORMAL HOME AND A NORMAL EDUCATION AND A NORMAL CAREER AND A NORMAL FAMILY. or at least I want someone to hold me and make me feel like I'm not so horrible and broken that I can't be touched.

but that's too much to ask for.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 291: The Endeavor Pamphlet

Previously on BnHA: Dabi showed up atop Gigantomachia’s back and was all “you’ll never guess who I really am!” and the readers humored him and were all “who?” and he was all “TODOROKI TOUYA” and we were all “WOW └(・。・)┘ OH MY GOSH I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED”, except for Shouto and Enji who were GENUINELY SHOCKED. Anyway so Touya was all “and guess what I’m doing right now!” and before anyone could even try, he was all, “STREAMING MY EMMY-NOMINATED MINISERIES ‘HELLO, I’M EVIL BUT ALSO TRAGIC AND SEXY, NOW LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT MY DAD WHO SUCKS’’, THAT’S WHAT.” And everyone was all “oh my god” and Touya was all “ヽ(⌐■_■)ノ♪” for basically the rest of the chapter, and that’s pretty much it! Oh, wait, except for the part where he also doused himself in bleach in a fit of pure theatrics, which is actually pretty much the main takeaway from the entire chapter really because it was just wild af. ANYWAYS.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi introduces Baby Touya, the world’s most enchantingly sweet character, and is immediately all, “I sure can’t wait to tell you guys all about how his fucking jaw burnt off.” Thankfully he doesn’t (YET), and we cut back to the present pretty quickly, where Dabi explains how he took all of his brain cells that should have been used to stop him from pouring bleach over his head, and instead put them all toward his big brain plot of releasing an elaborate video detailing Endeavor’s various abuses and crimes, and even throwing Hawks under the bus as well because WHY NOT. He then leaps off of Gigantomachia’s back (like I said, no brain cells) all set to blast them with a Prominence Burn, only to be stopped by none other than THE LEGEND HIMSELF, MOTHERFUCKING BEST, PRETTIEST, NICEST, MOST OUTSTANDING MOTHERFUCKING JEANIST. Who’s no doubt outraged by the crime against hair he witnessed only moments earlier. GO GETTIM JEANY BOI.

so I haven’t had time to answer any of them because this has been the stupidest week, but I just wanted to tell you guys that I received no fewer than nine asks about Dabi’s hair. which, in a week filled with election memes and tumblr’s most cursed fandom briefly rising back up from the dead, is a pretty impressive feat for him if you ask me. like, I know I was making fun of it basically nonstop, but it sure did generate a lot of discussion so maybe I should rethink my opinions on Dabi’s PR strategies now, idk

anyway. it’s Saturday. time to catch up on this shit. let’s see how fucked the Todorokis are

OH NO HE’S CUTE

HOLY SHIT THIS IS TOO MUCH TO FUCKING PROCESS. I’M JUST TRYING TO ENJOY MY DAY HORIKOSHI, ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO TRAUMATIZE THIS POOR CHILD RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY SALAD

“thanks for being all right” the fuck

who allowed this child to be so cute. I’m serious. who signed off on this

how could a child this adorable possibly want to murder his equally adorable baby brother. please, your honor. there must be some mistake here

guess how prepared I am to read all about Touya’s tragic past. mm. that’s right. zero ready. none ready

anyway. TWO THOUSAND DEGREES LOLOLOL. NO TRACE OF A CORPSE HOW CONVENIENT. A PIECE OF HIS LOWER JAW BONE FFFFMSGHKLSh. LOVELY. LOVELY

LMAOOOOO

listen you guys. I just want to take a moment to appreciate that Horikoshi Kouhei did one of two things here. either (1) he planned it out FROM THE VERY START that Touya would be born with red hair Because Fire Powers, but would then have his hair turn white due to trauma, thus making the Dabi/Touya connection very slightly less obvious, although Let’s Be Real Who Are We Kidding. OR, (2) the anime got it wrong and gave him red hair, and rather than allowing this plot hole to continue to exist, Horikoshi took it upon himself to concoct this elaborate storyline and pretend it was never a plot hole at all! in which case I sure hope someone at Bones is sending him a VERY nice Christmas card this year. got this man sweeping up all your messes for you. you’re just lucky he has some sort of wild compulsion to address these things

anyways!!

FATHER AND SON. how sweet. :| still zero percent ready for any of this btw

STOP BEING CUTE

THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I’M SO MAD RIGHT NOW. HE IS THE SINGLE CUTEST CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE SERIES, and do you even know how many other baby characters I’m betraying in order to say that?! baby Kacchan, baby Deku, baby Ochako, baby Shouto, Eri, baby Hawks. I’M LOOKING YOU DEAD IN THE EYE RIGHT NOW AND TELLING YOU THAT BABY TOUYA IS CUTER THAN ALL OF THOSE PLEBS. AND YOU’RE LOOKING BACK AT ME RIGHT NOW ALL “YEAH IT SURE IS A PITY ABOUT HIS JAW MELTING OFF THOUGH.” THAT’S IT, I QUIT THE SERIES

and Enji’s smiling at him. he’s so proud of him. but then Touya won’t be able to do it, and Enji’s gonna stop training him, and Touya’s gonna feel like a failure and keep pushing himself in order to try and win his dad’s affections back, because that’s all kids fucking want, all they want is just love, that’s fucking it, you couldn’t just give him that?? and then he’s gonna immolate himself fflkdlskfh THERE YOU SEE HORIKOSHI, I KNOW THE WHOLE STORY ALREADY, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THE WHOLE “SHOW THEM THE DEAD DOG” THING YET AGAIN YOU PIECE OF SHIT

OH SNAP THERE GOES THE TWIN THEORY. R.I.P.

BABY FUYUMI. PRETTY CUTE. NOT AS CUTE AS TOUYA THOUGH. HEY LOOK, NO REASON TO GET MAD AT ME I’M JUST STATING A FACT HERE

YEAH THIS IS GONNA GO REAL WELL OH BOY

I keep pressing the emergency stop button but this industrial tragedy machine just keeps on chugging along anyway, I’m pretty sure this thing is not up to code

:| I am so sorry sweet boy, Horikoshi is only getting started with you

FUCKING HELL WITH THIS NARRATION

but he wasn’t actually a child to you, he was just a little puppet child for you to live vicariously through!! and then you went and did the same fucking thing with Shouto afterwards and never learned your lesson until just six months ago!! fucking hell, Enji

so now he’s all “Touya is dead, that’s an unforgivable lie” fflkdhflk motherfucker does he look dead to you. if you really think that, tumblr and twitter have got a little over five years’ worth of archived theory posts to show you

oh shit Touya’s countering with “it’s an unforgivable truth”, which, damn. I actually think Horikoshi’s dialogue is one of his weaker points as a writer a lot of the time, but that comeback was snappy as fuck

actually guys, now that I’ve seen how ridiculously fucking cute baby!Touya was, I can almost understand why Shouto and Enji never put the pieces together before lol. any passing similarities would have easily been dismissed on account of he’d need to be at least 10x more adorable in order to get the full resemblance

OH MY GOD

NOW YOU SLEEP??? SO YOU POINT BLANK REFUSED TO PASS OUT WHILE YOU WERE BUSY MAIMING ALL OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS, BUT NOW THAT THERE’S AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEE YOUR REACTION TO THE “YOUR LIEUTENANT WAS SECRETLY RELATED TO ONE OF YOUR WORST ENEMIES THE WHOLE TIME” BOMBSHELL, YOU FINALLY DECIDE TO GET YOUR FORTY WINKS. I SEE

WOW DABI

I’M SURPRISED YOU DIDN’T ALREADY HAVE YOUR ANCESTRY.COM RESULTS PRINTOUT READY TO FOLD INTO A PAPER AIRPLANE AND ZOOM ON DOWN TO HIM

LOL NEVERMIND

gotta say, so far The Endeavor Pamphlet is just about as spicy as I could have hoped

(ETA: Natsuo’s face as he watches his beloved dead brother come back to life only to literally and metaphorically set everything on fire in one fell swoop is :/. why must you do this to me Natsu. can’t you see I’m trying to throw a Welcome Back Jeanist party here.)

HAVE YOU READ THIS?! TODOROKI ENJI ABUSED HIS OWN HEIR, AND DABI WROTE IT DOWN RIGHT THERE

WELL HE’S NEVER GON’ BE NUMBER ONE NOW / NEVER GON’ BE NUMBER ONE NOW / THAT’S ONE LESS THING TO WORRY ABOUT / THAT’S ONE LESS THING TO WORRY ABOUT

btw I neglected to mention this last week, but yes I do recognize and appreciate that this is Can’t Ya See-kun himself whom Horikoshi has chosen to be the face of this existential crisis which the general public is about to experience. rip CYS-kun

OOF

excuse me. putting aside the implications of Dabi sharing this context-less murder video of Hawks with the entire world for a moment, I just have to pause for a sec here, because when exactly did he get a chance to edit this all in?? complete with voiceover that seamlessly ties in with the prerecorded footage of him with DNA test results sans shirt?? you’re telling me this motherfucker, with all the smoke that was in the room thanks to his own quirk, somehow got a PERFECT SHOT of the PRECISE MOMENT when Hawks drove his feather knife into Jin’s back, using his MAGIC CAMERA THAT HE I GUESS HAD THE ENTIRE TIME IN THE POUCH RIGHT NEXT TO HIS BLEACH BOTTLE, and then immediately somehow got this very next shot as well FROM AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ANGLE

ALL THE WHILE IMMEDIATELY RUNNING THROUGH SCRIPT REVISIONS IN HIS HEAD, WHICH HE THEN PROCEEDED TO RECORD... WHERE, EXACTLY?? WITH SKEPTIC, WHILST RIDING ON MACHIA’S BACK??

AND THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF???

and this after I just wrote that whole long paragraph positively GLOWING about this man’s ability to plug up a plot hole. jfc. just scratch out every damn word I said lol. just forget all of it

are you fucking kidding me, the footage was from the cameras Skeptic planted on Hawks??

that’s... actually... okay you know what, it still doesn’t make any sense in the slightest, but the determination to address it nonetheless... just, dammit... I feel like I’m constantly at war with myself over whether or not I want to shake this man’s hand or slap him lmao. whatever, then!!

anyway, since Shouto and Enji can’t actually see the damage that Touya is dealing to the hero industry even as they speak, Touya is taking it upon himself to give them the highlights

I think it’s a testament to how much Endeavor cares about Hawks that he managed to zero in on that comment even amidst all the craziness of his eldest son returning from the dead to announce how he’s been carefully plotting their destruction for years and years. like, he heard “Hawks” and his face immediately went like that. you think he’s worried that Dabi did something to him? because he’d be right to worry lol

so the Endeavor Pamphlet narration is now explaining all about how Hawks totally killed the Number 3 Hero Best Jeanist as well! yep... he sure did... totally...

OH MY GOD WE’RE CUTTING TO HIM AHHHHH

Hawks, that is. lol. not Jeanist. NO, JUST MY POOR HALF-DEAD WINGLESS BABY SON

NOOOOO HIS LITTLE WING STUMPS. BUT SOMEHOW HIS FACIAL HAIR IS STILL INTACT. OH TO BE AN ANIME PRETTY BOY BEING SET ON FIRE. “HEY, TAKE IT EASY, WATCH THE FACE”

EXCUSE ME WHAT

interesting! we suspected as much, I think, with the clues that Ending dropped, and the little flashback right after the name reveal. still not clear how Dabi found out about it though!

looooool okay here we go, breaking out the heavy-handed holier-than-thou shit now

you know, I do find it interesting how trying to model themselves after All Might’s noble Symbol of Peace image has kind of ended up being the heroes’ undoing here. like, I could write a whole essay on this, but what it basically boils down to is that they were all trying too hard to be perfect. All Might went out there and did his thing and was amazing, and so the powers-that-be built an entire system centered around this seemingly-infallible person, and they acted like the system was infallible as well. and so most of the population ended up becoming complacent over the years, and meanwhile the people who were unfortunate enough to fall through the cracks understandably wound up disillusioned and perceiving the heroes as these false idols

anyway, but I think one positive takeaway from this is that the new up-and-coming generation of heroes represent a breakaway from that system. like, imo what we’re witnessing is the downfall of the Perfect Hero, and the rise of the imperfect hero. and this new generation doesn’t shy away from their failures or pretend like they never happened. they pretty much can’t pretend, because their failures are all right out there in the open for everyone to see. Bakugou Katsuki, just to name one example off the top of my very biased head, has had his own personal character journey basically play out right in front of the media’s eyes. his humiliation at the sports festival, his kidnapping by the League, and all of the fallout afterward. this isn’t someone who can ever go out there and convince the world that he’s perfect. but what he can do, instead, is show the world that he’s trying. that he’s trying with everything he has to do his best, to be the best. rather than this untouchable godlike image, it’s instead the image of someone painfully human who is nonetheless striving with everything he’s got to keep moving forward, flaws and all, and work his way to the top

and ultimately I think that’s going to be a much more positive image to send out to the world when all’s said and done. because rather than merely inspiring awe, heroes like that inspire people to take action themselves. or at least that’s what I hope! and not just Bakugou, but the others as well. we’ve got Shouto, whose own personal trauma is being aired in front of the whole nation even as I sit here ranting. we’ve got Deku, who cries at the drop of a hat, and who fought to become a hero despite being quirkless (and I think it’s only a matter of time before that eventually becomes public knowledge as well). tl;dr because I’m getting way too long-winded here, but these kids have effectively been humanized in a way that the old generation never was, and I think that’ll go a long way towards building trust between them and the people they’ll someday be protecting, and inspiring the next generation in hopefully a much healthier way

anyway so where were we. ...oh yes, Dabi was explaining that heroes only protect themselves, and is presumably building up to his grand conclusion of “therefore you should all just let the villains take over and burn down the world”

omfg. YOU GUYS

DOES CAN’T YA SEE-KUN’S SHARK FRIEND ACTUALLY CALL HIM “CAN’T YA SEE-KUN.” HE HAS A NAME YOU KNOW!! UNLESS HE LEGALLY GOT HIS NAME CHANGED TO CAN’T YA SEE-KUN. OH MY GOD

ALSO, IS THAT CAN’T YA SEE-KUN CRYING IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT THERE OMG. GIVE THIS CHILD A HUG. EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW AND HUG HIM

BAKUGOU IS BARELY HANGING ON THERE LOL. GOTTA STAY CONSCIOUS... SO MUCH TEA BEING SPILLED... FOCUS... CONCENTRATE

IIDA’S ANGLING HIS HEAD IN A WEIRD WAY, LIKE DUDE. LOOKING SUSPICIOUSLY SNUGGLY THERE. MMM THESE IIDABAKU CRUMBS

HADOU IS ALL “WHAT EVEN IS ACTUALLY GOING ON” LMAO

LASTLY, POOR SHOUTO OMFG. WHEN YOU’RE ALL FINISHED HUGGING CYS-KUN THIS CHILD NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION!!

so now Dabi’s leaping off of this ninety-foot-tall gargoyle man like that’s a normal, smart thing to do. unless he can fly too now? saw his dad doing it back at Fukuoka and was all “hmm”

OH MY GOD SOMEONE TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHAT WORD SHOUTO IS USING TO ADDRESS ENJI, THESE TRANSLATIONS LOVE TO MESS WITH MY HEAD

ENJI GET MOVING DO YOU NOT SEE THOSE TEARS!!! SNAP OUT OF IT YOU BIG TREE

AHHHHH

OH KACCHAN YOU WOKE UP A LITTLE MORE THERE, HUH

lol he and Deku both look so determined but they’re basically sitting ducks. their “oh shit” faces do look remarkably like their “TIME TO SWING INTO ACTION” faces but don’t be fooled, they have one good arm and about six pints of blood left between the two of them. looks like this one’s all on you Shouto

-- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH --

BAH GOD... WHAT’S GOING ON HERE... THAT’S BEST JEANIST’S MUSIC

y’all. can’t even talk right now, my brain has completely shut down lol. just. ...

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