#but now here we are 🤷‍♀️

[girl-bateman]

One of those nights again where I try to remember things and gets facts in order while my brain hurts because of how much it wants me to stop

[walkingstackofbooks]

cw: unreality, hallucinations, threatening a child

Premise: Since the war ended, Julian's been suffering from hallucinations of Sloan. Put on medical leave, he accepts the O'Briens invitation to stay with them for a while, and travels to Earth.

--

It's as pleasant a meal as it can be, given the circumstances. Julian's trying to pay attention to the conversation - and he knows Molly's saying something about whales, at least. And he's managing to load food into his fork and take a bite and count to twenty before allowing himself to glance at Sloan again. That's more than yesterday. Hah. Progress.

For the moment, Sloan doesn't seem to be doing anything more than scowling at him. It's still off-putting. Julian ducks his head, trying not to look towards Miles for reassurance. His friend has been doing enough reassuring as it is, recently - Julian doesn't need to worry him for just the standard Sloan skulking. He can ignore it. He can.

He forces himself to smile, even when Sloan starts tapping against the window in an annoyingly imprecise manner, and tells Keiko how delicious the fish is. He can't taste it, but that's not important. Sometimes, when he's eating alone, Sloan poisons his food, and then he can't eat it at all. He's grateful for the O'Briens, the way their presence seems to trap Sloan in his corner.

The tapping increases, turning into banging, and Julian steels himself, resolving not to flinch. Then, all at once, Sloan's beside him, grabbing at his arms, and Julian realises too late that he'd put his cutlery down, had been holding his hands to his ears, trying to block Sloan out.

"I won't have you ignoring me, Julian," Sloan hisses, and suddenly everything goes very still. The O'Brien's conversation dies dead as Sloan picks up Julian's fish knife, and in one slick move, holds it against Molly's throat. Julian doesn't register the clatter of his chair on the floor as he moves to stand up, staring at Sloan with fearful eyes.

"Get away from her." His voice trembles, so small that it barely belongs to him. His heart is lodged in his throat. He can't breathe.

"You were being very rude, Julian," replies Sloan. "Don't you think you should apologise?"

You're not real, Julian wants to say - but there's a knife at Molly's throat, not yet drawing blood, but Sloan's slowly pressing into her skin, and she's crying, softly - and Sloan's unfaltering, cruel gaze is real, must be real, and Julian doesn't have a doubt that the man will kill Molly, if Julian doesn't give him what he wants--

"I'm sorry," he whispers. "Just-- please-- let her go. She's got nothing to do with this."

He shouldn't be panicking. With his training, with his augmentations, he should be able to turn this situation around, think of a way out of it, grab the knife and save Molly and get Sloan away. But he can't think, his mind's blank with terror - Sloan's unpredictable, and if Julian makes one wrong move...

"Nothing to do with this?" Sloan repeats mockingly. "My dear, you've spent all dinnertime lavishing your attention on her, barely sparing me a second thought."

"I'm sorry," Julian says again, and his desperation, at least, is sincere. "I'm sorry, Sloan, but that's my fault, it's not hers, so please--"

"Luther," Sloan says. Julian stares at him, blinking in incomprehension.

"What?"

"Call me Luther," Sloan says, and Julian nods jerkily. Anything to get him away from Molly.

"Luther, please," he begs. The name leaves a sour taste on his tongue. "Put the knife down."

"And what will you give me in return?"

The air is much colder than it was a few minutes ago. Julian shivers. His mouth is dry.

"What do you want?"

His question seems to please Sloan, who smiles in response. "Oh, nothing much. Why don't you just promise me that you've learnt your lesson, and we'll leave it there, for today."

For today. If Julian wasn't so scared, he'd have laughed. Tomorrow, of course, this could happen all over again, and he had no way of stopping it.

"I promise," he says, and, "Thank you." Tomorrow aside, that could have been so much worse.

But Sloan tuts, shaking his head. Julian's done something wrong.

"I want to feel that promise," he says, "I'm not quite... convinced. Let's see, now. Promise me with a kiss."

"A--" Julian's voice shakes, and dies away. But the knife is still pressed firmly against Molly's throat. He has to do this. He swallows down the lump that has risen in his throat, and then a second, squeezing his eyes shut tightly against the tears leaking from his eyes - and then realising that Luther might not like that, and opening then again rapidly.

"Drop the knife and-- and come here then," he says. He wishes the others weren't here to watch this, but he doesn't want to push his luck by asking anything more of Sloan. So long as he leaves Molly...

The knife is placed on the table, and Julian lets out a wobbly breath. Still, he has to force himself not to step backwards as Luther comes towards him. It occurs to him to wonder about how strange a request it is, for the agent to want a kiss, rather than information, or help, or--

He's pretty sure he's crying, as Sloan's lips touch his. He couldn't tell you what they felt like, just that they're wrong, wrong, wrong, and he wants to push him away, wants to throw up, wants to run and never stop running--

Sloan caresses his cheek as he leans away. "Not bad," he whispers. "But hey. Practise makes perfect."

"Go away," Julian whispers. "Please?"

"Please, Luther," Sloan corrects, with a hard glare that turns Julian's blood to ice. But then he turns on his heel, and is gone, and Julian stumbles back against the wall, trying to remember how to breathe again.

[vice-like]

yk i dont think midorikawa has ever been this obvious with her hints so it might be a red herring, but this chapter being bf portrait of a girl arc makes me think about the possiblity that the "reiko" portrait was at the hakozaki house

[justsomeoneunordinary]

See, I don’t usually like to think that Hashirama would’ve killed Tobirama if Madara hadn’t given the choice between Tobirama and Hashirama, because those kinds of thoughts usually only come from the anti Hashirama side of the fandom which I could not agree less with if I tried.

But.

The fact remains that Hashirama at some point went from “I will protect my last brother at any cost” to “I will kill anyone who threatens Konoha, even if it were my brother or even my own children” and it’s never fucking shown when that change exactly happened.

Was it when he reached adulthood and he realized for himself that the bigger picture—in his case, peace—matters more than anything else? Was it after Konoha was built and he became Hokage and his responsibilities grew? Was it after Madara left and his heart grew cold?

I imagine it must’ve been a mixture of being Hokage and therefore having more people to protect besides his direct family, and Madara’s betrayal that must’ve struck him pretty badly that he let his heart grow so cold to the point he’d rather kill his best friend/brother/child if they in any way threatened the village resp. peace as a whole than attempting to talk with them first.

But the question remains: What would have Hashirama done if Madara had demanded Tobirama’s life with no other option? I don’t like to imagine that he actually would’ve killed Tobirama, but as much as I devour fics in which Hashirama goes absolutely batshit after his brother dies with relish, canonically speaking, peace would always be Hashirama’s biggest goal. And it’s driving me utterly nuts that I cannot for the life of me say how Hashirama would’ve reacted in this scenario.

Anyway, Idk where I was going with this, I just had to think once again about this and what a fascinating character Hashirama actually is and how little we know about him at the end of the day…

[faaun]

pls i need to provide updates

[dressycobra7]

ok so here’s a update from my last post: just finished episode 34 of one piece and omgggg Nami!?!? My giiiiirrrllll 😭😭 I was a bit confused at first on why she was being so mean to the boys and couldn’t fully get why she’d do that. like I understood the other stuff like why she was with Arlongs crew (although not gonna lie that took me a couple episodes to get it)

like at first in episode 31 and 32 I thought Nami was a bitch for stealing the ship, and was definitely curious about how she’d get back with the crew (cause I saw some future clips of her with the crew so I was curious about that) considering what she did but I thought it was nice that she helped Zoro escape and everything and thought that was a nice way of telling the viewer that she is still on their side technically but was just trying to push them away

also that Arlong guy is a bitch and I hate him

[kushamiqueen]

Uhhhh werent Zach and Cody minors

I am aware this might be bait. It's in reference to my post about how there was a Suite Life On Deck episode where Zach was made to sneeze multiple times.

I was just recounting a childhood memory (or a surprising lack-there-of).

This show aired while I was in elementary school, so them being teens didn't bother me at the time, no.

Like many other tween girls, I was a Cole Sprouse fan.

It's really not that deep. You are free to unfollow.

[faunandfloraas]

hey sorry for the stupid question but what is the weather like in australia? I used to think it was really hot there most of the year but when chanlix or skz are filming in australia it's not that sunny and it's it doesn't look like it's really hot either lol

Climate change gets the best of us </3 skz has only ever visited Melbourne and Sydney, these are both south eastern states so unlike say Western Australia or the Northern Territory or even Queensland, we aren't as hot as they are- contrary to the image of Australia that tends to exist I.e literal desert in the outback, we get winter and we get rain, it's autumn right now and today's forecasted temp is 27°c so... that's not exactly cold, but it's not always hot? It's all over the place lol

[hythlodaes]

i just realized the injuries emile gets from the final steps of faith have barely had the time to heal before he hangs out with leofard. i’m fine………

[leenesomewhatdraws]

Novembmas, Day 13: First Train / Favorites !

Transcription:

[Ingo brings a mug to Emmet working on his laptop on the couch]

(E) [Emmet] (1) "Yayy ! Thanks, you're the best !"

(I) [Ingo] (2) "So does that mean I'm your favorite brother ?"

(E) (3) "But you're the only one I have ?"

[Ingo puts his head on Emmet's and hugs him from behind the couch]

(I) (4) "But am Iiii ?"

(E) (5) "Of course you are"

(I) (6) "Well you're also my favorite brother"

[nerdie-faerie]

Bout to test this public WiFi

[girl-bateman]

Remind me again not to act foolish with men <3

[tvdfan23]

My brother wants to bring his girlfriend over to spend the night after work because she's currently out of a car and hes driving her to work...so he asked me to not sleep on the couch because it "looks bad" that I dont have a room to sleep in...even though she stayed all Christmas week and knew I was sleeping on the couch...so I'm wondering did he lie to her and not tell her the house isn't ready to be lived in yet and I'm having to stay here or?

[helleanorlance]

Gos I hate the dentist and I am so nervous 😫 and it’s like 3 levels bc a) I’m going to have to get my wisdom tooth dealt with and b) I haven’t been to the dentist in a few years and I’m sure they’ll bring that up and c) this is the dentist that my grandmother helped me find after I refused to go to a dentist because of my anxiety and everyone there knew her really well and knew that I was her granddaughter. And if they ask about her I have to tell The Saga

[pulidoshairgel]

you know what to do @ amaury jr

[gnaga37]

casting "call me by my real name" spell on my family!!!!! in 2 to 3 years they'll be fully under my influence ^ω^