#but that doesn't mean I'm not still bitter 🤗🤗

[ohyesididnotjustdothat]

do u think Porsche ever gets ptsd nightmares from "that night" and it just absolutely devastates kinn

and Porsche is torn bc even tho most of the time it is that dark figure that they never caught, v rarely it is Kinn as the looming figure and that is smth that he just continues to have to reconcile w his sincere love and forgiveness of Kinn????

[krirebr]

I’m not surprised I’ve given myself the rep of being a major vamp!Steve x Ransom ho. I’m so excited to see what you’ve got planned, so consider this as me throwing thoughts into the void if you want.

First of all, I’m still thirsting over the thought of Steve having such unbridled power, yet picking up sweet little Ran in a club (at least, compared to a 200 yo captain), acting like a sweet little thing, himself. I’m assuming this is before Steve considered having a blood reserve? And it makes me wonder, what would it take for Steve to consider a human as worth turning instead of beneath him like he told Cole they were. But if Steve has people he keeps around with good blood by the 70s or whatever, why not keep Ran? And so because of this, why do I picture Ran’s blood as tasting disgusting?? 😂 like, I feel like it’s super bitter and has smoky notes, but they’re not subtle. It’s like, over-smoked and a lil musky where I think Steve would be like “0/10 would not drink again, but would turn into a vamp bc I think he’s half as heartless as me and I love that for this lil pup.”

Okay, not sorry about that, just had to get it out. Feel free to do with these thots what you will, I’m just v. excited as you can tell😏🤗

Ahahaha, oh my gosh Essie, I love it! And thank you for your enthusiasm!! I'm always a little nervous about this one cause there isn't a reader-insert character, so I'm thrilled that you're as excited for their backstory as I am!

But okay! Here's a little background context for Steve in the 70s. I think he's had some sort of stock of blood bags (any human a vampire keeps around for feeding purposes. It's definitely a derogatory term, but it's how all of the vamps in Steve's circles would refer to them) for at least 100 years. At the time of this story, he keeps them at his home base in Brooklyn. But he meets Ransom while he's taking care of some things in Boston. So he doesn't have easy access to his reserves, which means he's hunting a lot more.

Another thing to remember about Steve is that Ransom told LR that he's not sure even Steve knows how many progeny he has. Steve loves turning people. I think he sees it as furthering the vampire cause. I mean, one of the very first things he did as a vampire was to track down Bucky and turn him. And I think he's really instinctual and kind of impulsive about it. I think he thinks that he can tell if a person will make a decent vampire right away. He prides himself on it.

But I love the idea of Ransom's blood not being exactly to Steve's tastes. I'll have to think about that!

[loveandshatteredglass]

Love the imagery in I would die for you but would you, can you elaborate on that a bit please? 🤗

I'm going through this line by line because I worked a lot with metaphors here and it actually is deeper than it sounds at first glance

The bullet through my head

Represents my sudden rushes of overthinking that felt like a shot in the head.

My brain spilling out on a silver plate

Represents the mental effort that went into trying to make things work, about which I tried to talk to him during and after the breakup that's figuratively my brain spilling out on a plate for him.

Bon appétit, my love

I hope it tastes sweet

I'm asking him to eat my brain as a sign of my devotion so he physically has a part of me in him and I care about the taste of it to make sure that what he's eating is delicious.

The knife impaling my heart

The breakup physically stung in my heart as if it had been stabbed and pulled out through the hole in my chest.

The blood I spit out into a wine glass

For my lover to drink

Another cannibalism reference; spitting out my blood into a fancy wine glass for him to drink for the same reasons as in the first verse.

I would die for you but would you?

I'm questioning if he would do the same for me as I would do for him. I feel like I was more devoted and committed to the relationship by doing everything in my power to save us, especially when things got hard towards the end. I would literally die for him, but I'm not sure he would too since he wouldn't even give us another chance.

When my final judgement day arrives

You will be the chief justice

You always see people twice in your life and here that second time will be a long time after we had parted ways, where he will have to make an impactful decision.

Imposing the death penalty

Despite having loved me in the past, he would show no mercy and sentence me to death, which, in a transferred sense, means he would still hurt me after all this time that had passed.

And for you I will happily take it

The golden thread through this poem: the willingness and almost eagerness to sacrifice myself for him because my love for him is stronger than the pain of anything he puts me through.

Burn me at the stake

A reference to the song Melissa by Mercyful Fate because it was a special song for me and my boyfriend. Maybe I would be burnt as a witch for seducing him or something.

And watch my skin turn into coal

A pictorial description of the burning process as a sign of my obvious suffering from his choices.

Is this what you wanted?

Are you enjoying the show?

The rhetorical question, both to make sure my suffering is pleasing enough for him and to give him a bad conscience. Of course he wanted this and must be enjoying the outcome because he himself made that decision, but I'm holding on to the small chance that he might realize what he had done, regret it and set me free.

When nothing is left of me

But my ashes and footprints of sin

Footprints of sin represent my own mistakes in the relationship that left a permanent mark, along with the ashes at the stake, which represent the wounds from my heartbreak and in a certain way how things went up in flames as the only option seemed to be a breakup without any attempt to save the relationship.

Will you ever think back to me

Or forget about the good times we had?

I wonder if when I'm not there anymore, he would ever think of me again and remember the many happy moments in our relationship or instead suppress those and focus on what had gone wrong in order to feed his bitterness and convince himself that he doesn't miss me and I don't mean as much to him as he means to me.

Maybe curse me even in death

Wish I had suffered more, died slower

I don't know how he feels about me at this point, so it's possible his resentment for me is so strong that he still wasn't satisfied with the way I suffered and wishes the torment had been even worse, longer and more painful.

Either way I don't care

For I'll sacrifice myself for your sake

What happens afterwards doesn't matter to me anymore because I would have the feeling that I had sacrificed myself for the person I love, even if he had broken my heart before.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

🤗 for Vince

"Hey!" Vince lunges forwards, but he's too late - the little orange and white scruff of cat that follows Jameson around goes racing away faster than he can catch her with his leg still healing. "Jameson, your cat stole my food!'

"Sucks to be you, then!" Jameson yells back from another room. There's a pause. "What was it?"

"Mackerel on tomato and toast!"

"Mackerel? Like canned fish? Fuck, what did you expect, you're eating cat food!"

Vince groans and drops down into a chair, staring around the cramped little kitchen with its out-of-date cabinet and sun-faded curtains over the kitchen sink window. "Those cans cost twenty dollars a-fucking-piece," He mutters, and rubs a hand over his face. "Marinated in olive oil, imported from goddamn Spain-... Twenty six dollars apiece!"

He throws the rest of the can at the wall, watching it bounce and fall to the ground, olive oil splattering like a spray of blood.

His hands are shaking.

Why is he suddenly so afraid?

"Hey, you-... You good?" Jameson's hoarse voice has lost some of its raspy mockery now. It's softer, almost... hesitant. "Uh, Vince, are you-"

"Your cat," Vince says, somehow finding calm, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths, "Just ran off with my lunch. And I brought it from my house, I brought s-so little from my house but I brought this because he hates my fucking canned fish, he-... He always hated it but-... He's dead and I hope he watches me eat canned fish every fucking day in hell only I can't eat it if your cat steals it from me!"

His hands are up over his face, his eyes, as he fights to breathe. Hands close tight around his throat, not really but trying to breathe feels just the same. His eyes burn.

"... Jesus," Jameson mumbles from the other room.

Vince forces down a bitter laugh.

Even the pets think he's fucked up, huh? Sounds about right. God, he needs a drink, he needs a drink so badly-

His head throbs as he gets to his feet. There's beer in the fridge. It'll do in a pinch. He just. Needs. A drink.

How is he supposed to do this without a drink? How can he keep his hands steady sober when he hasn't been sober this many days at once since he was twenty-one years old?

The can is cold in his hand.

He pops the top with a satisfying hiss. He hates beer, but if he has just one...

There's a hand on his arm and he turns. Jameson is there - how he didn't hear him coming, Vince has no idea. But there he is, leaning hard on one crutch, hand gripped on tight to the little handle, one of his legs bent at a sharp angle, unable or unwilling to hold his weight.

"Hey," Jameson says, and shakes his head. He has... weirdly pretty eyes, Vince thinks. Like you can almost see that he used to be someone softer than this, before the scars. "Don't, man. You want to stop, you can't pick it back up."

"I'm just... really tired of doing this sober," Vince whispers. "I killed him, and I can't even drink to get rid of how he looked-... And the way the blood smells-"

"I know," Jameson says. "I remember." He looks pointedly into the fridge and back. Vince works his jaw, but finally he gives in and puts the open beer back in there. The door closing feels so final.

"How... When you-... How did you-"

Jameson doesn't answer the question. But he gives Vince a hug, brusque and one-armed, before he pulls back and makes his slow way back into the living room.

"Sorry my cat was a shit," He says without looking back. He even sounds like he might mean it. "I'm gonna order Thai food in like... Ten minutes. You want some?"

"Uh..." Vince looks at the remains of his snack on his plate, then sighs and dumps it into the sink. "Sure. Yeah. Sounds good."

He pours himself a glass of water.n

He'd kill for a beer.

But he makes himself walk away and join Jameson in the living room instead.

[insomniactalks]

I feel like people that hate Portwell often times misinterpret Portwell’s love story. Look I get it that some people don’t ship Portwell and that is fine. I have seen haters call EJ a “loser” for liking someone younger than him instead of someone his own age and say that he should focus on his future instead of being in a relationship. Personally I don’t think EJ is giving up his future for Gina. I think EJ just doesn’t know what he wants to with his life right now and that is fine. 1/2

It’s perfectly normal for high school seniors to not know what they want to do with their life it doesn’t mean they are loser for wanting to take a gap year to figure some things out. EJ all his life wanted to make his father proud by following in his footsteps by going to Duke. EJ realized from talking to Gina that he wants to do his own thing and follow his own dreams. EJ can still follow his own dreams and still be with Gina who inspires him it’s not impossible like what some haters say. 2/2

I mean, anon you said it perfectly! ❤ Ppl forget how young EJ really is. He's only 18, still a teenager who still has a lot to figure out post-high school. Like you said, he has a lot to figure out soon about his future (like Troy) but that doesn't mean his relationship with Gina is holding either of them back. Just like Troy decided Gabriella was still going to be a part of his future, perhaps EJ decides the same with Gina? 😚

It's a bit hard to see, but the wall says "Where do you see a future?" before panning to EJ. Personally, I think the show already visually foreshadowed where EJ sees his future:

He gives Gina not just any Duke hoodie. He gifted her a third-generation Caswell family heirloom. He clearly trusts her with something that's important to his family (which Gina knows about since she was right in front of him when his dad presented it to him on Career Day). In this same episode (2.08), PW have their wonderful conversation on the couch.🥰 They learn more about each other and connect on a deeper level. After talking to Gina, and taking the "lesson" she taught him about being a "good guy" who "tries really hard to do the right thing" (plus being inspired by the "bravery" EJ sees in Gina), he confronts his dad later that night:

EJ's body language suggests not only is he nervous, it looks like this is the first time he's ever actually confronted his father. I suspect we'll see more of this in S3, where EJ will probably be pressured by his dad to make a final decision about college (whether it's a gap year, out-of-state college, local in-state college, what he majors in, etc) 🤔. Gina is probably (definitely) the first girlfriend EJ's ever had that he can be truly, 100%, authentically himself around. Because of that, I think conversations with Gina will continue to inspire EJ to do what feels right to him. Make his own choices and follow his own dreams (not what his dad wants for him). 😅

Ppl who call EJ a "loser" for liking Gina back are simply bitter PW is moving forward and are the focus of S3 (from what it looks like, at least). Younger fans in particular are quick to label him as such b/c they see 18 as a fully-realized adult. It's not, btw. EJ can vote and drive. That's it. Like literally that's it. 🤦🏽‍♀️ How many ppl do you know knew exactly what they were gonna do after graduating high school? Not many.🤷🏽‍♀️ And that's okay! Like Gina says:

I know the above lines aren't specifically referring to PW, but I can't help but point out EJ and Gina are literally the faces of East High with their (co-anchored!) morning show. I'm inclined to believe EJ and Gina are "East High" and they "can make anything work" (which EJ enthusiastically agrees with🤗). I guess we'll just have to wait and see in S3. 😁