#cause just thinking about it even more pisses me off.

[nightingale-prompts]

Godling-DCxDP prompt

Many don't understand what it's like to gaze into the abyss. To truly know the haunting moment it gazes back. Even fewer can see still stand to throw themselves into that abyss.

Tim never understood why cultists worship monstrosities, being that promised the end of everything for nothing in return. He had seen the remnants of human sacrifices, rituals gone wrong, and man-made horrors beyond human comprehension. Part of him regretted agreeing to partner with Constantine to solve these cases. But another wanted to know more.

After searching through another half-destroyed tome he found something. A location to a summoning circle, an ancient one that these cultists were searching for. The one they needed to finally successfully summon their god.

But they got there too late. The cult had finished their ritual and the "god" they had summoned stood before them.

That god was...perfect. Disgustingly perfect, dreadfully beautiful, and horrifyingly enchanting. His mind etched every detail in his memory. It felt like his mind had conjured this person from his dreams, day and night. It was like looking at an illusion. But his eyes were a hellishly bright Lazarus green.

The cultist bowed to him and his smile, his perfect unnaturally white smile was full of soft warmth. Tim understood at that moment why they worshipped him. Their minds couldn't escape this web of divine energy. They were so enraptured by finally seeing prove of the divine.

"You all have done enough. Your souls will come with me. To the abyss." He said calmly as he waved his hand and each cultist dissappeared.

He sighed softly as he turned his gave to Tim and John.

"You offed 'em? I thought they were your followers." Constantine said gruffly.

"I have no followers. These souls have caused so much damage to this world. They can't be allowed to stay here."

"So you decided to rapture them?" Constantine raised an eyebrow.

"It's complicated. Yes, they did horrible things but if they hadn't discovered the tomes of the old king they wouldn't have ended up this way. Have pity on them. They are just mortals scared and confused searching for meaning. Like I was. I have sent them to the abyss. Their souls with dissipate into the void. There will be no pain. No eternal punishment. Just an end. They will be at peace, I promise. It is what they want." The god's voice echoed, his features rippled as he moved showing afterimages of alternate forms he used.

It was odd. Every fiber of Tim's being screamed for him to bow, to worship, and to give himself to this being. Yet, his feet remained stubbornly planted on the ancient dusty floor.

"Don't look directly at it," Constantine whispered hissed.

Right. You probably shouldn't stare at the otherworldy being that likely has mind warping abilities. Especially one that just said he erased his own followers from existence and saying it was a good thing.

"I'm really sorry. I should make it up to you. Clockwork will be pissed enough that I interfereed so I have to do something to at least make up for this mess."

"You can kick off by doing one and buggering off" Constantine said immediately.

"So cold. How about you? What do you want?"

"I think an explanation would help," Tim said only to get elbowed by Constantine.

"You ain't gotta know nothing, mate. The more we know, the dodgier it gets." Constantine said firmly. "Whatever you are, you need to bugger off. You’ll wreck the noggins of everyone around you."

"I don't mean to. I don't ask people to become obsessed with me or worship me. Mortals have such weak minds they cave at my presence. But I can't help it. I lost my human body recently and can't turn this off."

The being groaned but to human ears it was similar to a purr.

"Seriously, everything I do is filtered through some sensory thing that makes you little mortals think its the greatest thing ever no matter how simple. Touching you would probably melt your brain with how good it would feel. So the trench coat man is probably right."

"You said you lost your human body. How?" Tim asked still staring at the floor as he felt the godling came closer.

"A bad fight. My mortal form wasn't indestructible but saving my family made it more than worth it. But...I haven't seen them since. Im still getting used to this while thing. I just wanted to reach out and find some answers so i reached into this universe and well...you can probably tell what happened next. I just wanted to make it right and fix it. The other ancients said this was the best option and..."

Every moment he spoke the less godly he seemed.

Constantine still wasn't willing to help and had to drag Tim away. When Tim actually tried to look up the fodling was gone.

"Never do that again." The brit said sternly. "Now help me clean this mess up."

[seat-safety-switch]

In diagnostics, there's no tool more powerful than that of positive thinking. Even though your public school teachers, parents, and assorted hippies have sold you a lie about the strength of not complaining too much, keeping motivated when repairing any complex system actually works. It can be easy to get frustrated and give up on your sixteenth straight hour of making zero progress, but remember: you're smarter than the dumb asshole who made this fucking thing, and you're gonna show them who's boss.

Now, psychologists are going to say that this is not actually positive thinking. This here is what they call an "extrinsic reward," or to put a finer point on it, spite. I don't care what they call it, and you shouldn't either: the chances of being able to walk your ass right into 1970s Plymouth HQ and telling the guy who fucked up the design of the torsion bar mounts are extremely low. Especially if you don't have a time machine.

Probably he is already dead, and Hell is regretting taking him. You won't get any satisfaction out of a confrontation at his gravesite, but you will have a working front suspension in your Volare and a couple good tips about rust removal. Also, much less hair and probably a drinking problem, but it's very difficult to pinpoint that to any particular cause. Could be the brake cleaner.

You get my point, though. Get good and mad at the dumbasses who didn't build it right in the first place, and then convert that anger into motivation. If you're really lucky, the folks who fucked it up will still be alive, and you can send them an email about how much they suck. That'll get them really good and pissed off to build something better next time, just to show you who's boss. It's called a virtuous cycle, and it ends in me being able to synthesize corn dogs out of thin air in my kitchen by 2026. I'll need to be able to, because I have a lot of spite projects I'm working on, which take up a lot of the time I'd otherwise be spending at the grocery store.

[sentientsnakeskin]

Also need to discuss the mischaracterization of Natalie Scatorccio because please look me in the eyes and tell me why people call her a bad person??? Like i get she’s verbally combative sometimes i guess but i can’t think of one time she did something bad that she didn’t genuinely apologize for afterwards. Like… seriously what. It feels like to me, narratively, she’s spent her whole life as a girl who goes through a lot of shit all the time and has unhealthy coping mechanisms, and then she gets shit from everyone around her for those same coping mechanisms. She has spent her whole life being unloved and unwanted and she still has such compassion inside of her and it’s so unreal. I mean i cannot believe the extent of her compassion, and there’s so much about her that I’ve never seen discussed, and I’m gonna talk about it. 

She was most likely going through withdrawal in the wilderness, she didn’t have access to anything and ik we saw her with a cigarette a couple times and we know she brought other contraband, but at some point she had to run out of it. She definitely had the ability to slowly let herself off of it but even that is something to take note of? Like if she did do that if means she quietly took the measures to get herself off it, to prepare for the eventuality that she wouldn’t have anything. And yet she never complained, was never a bitch about it, she even fucking gave what little she did have to Coach Ben cause she knew he needed it

Even with those that she didn’t like, most notably Lottie cause of the mysticism things and Jackie cause of the everything else, she still wasn’t near as rude as she could be? And was actually weirdly nice? She told Lottie to knock off the bullshit because she could see it going badly, and even when it came down to it and everyone started challenging her hunting skills in favor of Lottie, when Lottie needed it, she was there. She made up with Lottie, she apologized, she volunteered her tub of warm water despite also having hypothermia because Lottie needed it more. She could have been a smart aleck, but she wasn’t. She apologized. And even with Jackie, like she had every right to be pissed with Jackie because lowkey Jackie did say some shit abt her, but when it came down to it? She was good to her, she let her out of the closet at doomcoming, she never batted an eye about jackie sleeping with travis, she put aside all the petty shit, and she was the only one who ever showed any remorse for eating her. Nat hated Jackie the most out of everyone and she was the only one to have any reason to hate her, and yet Natalie Scatorccio was the one to carry her bones off to the burial site. She fucking apologized to her bones and thanked her for being the sacrifice they needed to survive, and that’s more than anyone else really did. Like bro… 

She literally always gave 110% for the survival of the group. I’m talking like, she got up at the crack of dawn every morning and went out and tried to hunt despite not getting anything ever, and got up even earlier to search for Javi with Travis despite never finding him. Like she had the same rations as everyone else just less sleep and more work like holy shit she tried?? All the time??? And then spent the time she did have at camp being the voice of reason? Defending the people that needed to be defended? Speaking up when no one else did? 

Also her attitude with Travis was just insane because you’re telling me she made an effort to understand why he was the way that he was even though he was nothing but a jerk to her, then when they got together took the time to go at a pace that was comfortable for him and reassure him of everything he ever needed to be assured of, and shelled out the effort to understand him when he started following Lottie more intensely, never batted an eye at him sleeping with Jackie in a heartbeat when he never did that with her their whole relationship, and even into their adulthood made an effort to help keep him clean and make sure he didn’t off himself while struggling with the same shit herself, even though he was clearly not good for her??? Like that’s literally insane bro 

Also, the stark difference between her behavior and everyone else’s when shit goes down is always stupidly obvious. Like especially at doomcoming? She ate the hallucinogenic mushrooms with everyone else, but she had the sense and the compassion to not only go and check on travis, she let Jackie out the closet, and then confronted everyone about trying to kill him, and stopped them. Like she could have joined in. That’s something she could have done but she didn’t, because she cares about Travis. She cares about people, in general. It’s so bizarre.

All this behavior also continues in the adult timeline. Especially later when she’s at the commune, but we see it earlier too. As mentioned, she continues to chase after Travis, keep him clean and safe. When he dies, she goes on an all consuming investigation into his death. When she finds out he really wasn’t murdered and Lottie saw him die, she spends like .2 seconds being suspicious of Lottie before she’s like okay yeah i believe you. And then despite not believing in Lottie’s like spiritual bullshit cult thing she doesn’t attempt to escape and doesn’t act near as critical of it as she obviously was. She bonded with Lisa, stuck up for her against her mom, stole her fish back in her mouth for her, and genuinely apologized for hurting her. And then she died for her! She sacrificed her life for a girl she knew maybe a week or two at most and im losing my MIND over it 

I probably missed things cause this is mostly just off the top of my head so add on anything i missed, but it’s just so insane to me how kind she was and continues to be despite everything. I just love the exploration of this character who in show is characterized as a bitch and is verbally abrasive but all of that is a cover for her being the most empathetic character ever??? Like oh my god 

[devotion-disorder]

ok but i feel the bailey brainrot... when i first got into the game they annoyed me bc bitch why they hell do you need so much damn money from orphans but now i fear i've fallen for all the sexy bailey propaganda 😔

like the devlog said seducing them will need to involve a lot more so they're definitely not immune to PC but that just made my brainrot worse thinking about all the various scenarios of bailey being extremely horny for the PC but refusing the cave in and PC just keeps pushing their buttons....

(that being said they still piss me off sometimes like wdym you want £4,000 right after i get discharged from the hospital)

SAME.........I am not immune to sexy old man propaganda.........

iirc they are still planning to implement a bailey seduction scene in the future that is more properly in-character...!!! so im v v excited for that. I loooooveee the idea of PC and bailey having a super messy and toxic relationship that is not necessarily even romantic. From Vrel's QnA it seems Bailey does have a slight fixation on PC, probably because PC is the best moneymaker, but there are points that are like???👀??? wdym bailey has had possibly plot-spoilery dreams about PC. wdym bailey would not let PC go even if they've paid all their debts. explain yourself old man!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!1!!!!!!!

Maybe this is the terminal stage brainrot delulu speaking but, sometimes i wonder if Bailey is the way he is only because he knows PC can handle it (eg. Bailey sends PC to Eden betting that PC can and will escape, according to the QnA). I wonder if he's deliberately or unconsciously trying to pass down his intensely mercenary mindset onto PC (and ostensibly all the orphans) because he understands first hand that's the only way you can survive in rapechestershire? I like that he's principled and holds a certain degree of respect for PC - cause if he really wanted to extort PC to the fullest he could've been a lot crueler, like not allowing PC to defend themselves when people pay to fuck PC at night. ok the real answer probably is still just so he can make more money but RAGUUUGJHHHHGHGH LET ME HAVE MY SECRETLY-KIND-OF-A-SOFTIE BAILEY DELUSIONS

also i just wanna put this here

Higher than Whitney? the dude licking PC's face in public at 10 am every school day?

[damthosefandoms]

There's death at my door and I swear that it's following me

(ao3 link)

Summary:

“I’m going to finish it,” he says out loud to anyone who might be listening in his empty house. “I swear. I have to for school, anyway. I’m not handing in an unfinished paper.”

There is no response but the sound of Ponyboy’s own breathing.

“It’s not easy to write, Johnny!” he yells. “This is the part where I get you killed, you know!”

Nothing.

Figures he’d be quiet dead, too.

---

Neither of the greasers who died that cold, September night in 1967 had a funeral—Dally had nobody to set one up, except his friends who couldn’t afford it, and they never found out where the cops took him after they killed him anyway. But a month or so after everything ends, they find out Johnny’s mother had him cremated and that she and his father kept his ashes.

Ponyboy is particularly pissed off. Something about Johnny being trapped in that house his whole life, and even now, after death, being kept in a place he hated more than anything else…

“It ain’t right. I…we loved him more than they could ever dream of.”

As the remnants of the gang sit around the Curtises’ kitchen table, defeated, Two-Bit half-heartedly jokes they should steal his ashes. Darry rolls his eyes. Sodapop says that’s horrible. A heartbroken Ponyboy says, “Dally would’ve done it in a heartbeat.”

A week later Darry and Soda wake up to Pony making eggs for breakfast, with a new centerpiece on the table.

“Tell me that is not what I think it is,” Darry mutters, gesturing to the cheap urn.

Pony’s face goes red. “So, uh… this kid Mark at school taught me how to pick locks, and…”

“Ponyboy Michael Curtis!”

“C’mon, Darry, I had to! It was eating me alive. They don’t deserve him! I’ll bet they won’t even notice he’s gone!”

His brothers look at him like he’s finally lost it. Maybe he has, because Mark’s advice had gotten him nowhere, and Pony swears the Cades’ door unlocked on its own last night.

“All Johnny wanted was to get out of Tulsa. The happiest he ever was, was watchin’ the sunset back there on Jay Mountain. I needed to go get him so we could take him there.”

“Ponyboy…”

“I had to. I just had to. If not for Johnny, then for Dally, okay? ‘Cause god knows we couldn’t do anythin’ else for him.”

He’s got a lot of reasons to believe this is what Johnny wanted.

That weekend, the whole gang drives up to the remains of the church, so they all can say goodbye. Ponyboy pours Johnny’s ashes out over the cliffside where they watched the sunset, and if a little bit of dust gets on his hands, well. He stares for a minute before he goes to wash it off at the old water pump.

“You gotta go, Johnny,” he mumbles. “Don’t stick around me. Don’t do that to yourself. Move on.”

He’s always had a weird relationship with death. 

---

Ever since Ponyboy was little, he’d been told he had a strong imagination. His brothers call him a dreamer. His dad used to laugh and say he had his head in the clouds; his Mom said he was just the creative type. He learned pretty fast that no one else saw the things he could see, and he learned even faster not to talk about it. He thinks his brothers never believed him, but they also never forgot.

It’s one of those things where Ponyboy doesn’t see things unless he needs to. He got real good at tuning out the supernatural at a very young age, and it’s not something that comes up in his life very often anyway; death may follow him wherever he goes, it may show up at his door but he does not let it in. He doesn’t know why he’s like this. It’s like there is just something special about him, something he figures he won’t understand until he is much, much older. Or maybe he never will, and he’s just crazy.

The first time death comes to visit, Ponyboy is not feeling well. It’s been a month, it’s almost Halloween, and it is the first time since Johnny and Dally died that he’s sick again. Pony’s got just a low-grade fever, but Darry lets him stay home because that’s for the best. He promises to work on his English assignment.

Darry and Soda head out to work with promises to check up on him during their lunch breaks. He picks up his notebook and flips through it, but he is at the part where he runs into the church to save those kids and he can’t bring himself to pick up the pencil and admit that it was his cigarette. His fault.

His pencil rolls over the edge of the desk. It clatters to the floor and Ponyboy reaches down to get it. When he sits up, Johnny’s ghost is staring at him, pointing at the blank page. 

He blinks and he is alone again, but he can still feel the presence and knows deep down he isn’t. He sits back and groans. He can’t be normal for ten minutes?

“I’m going to finish it,” he says out loud to anyone who might be listening in his empty house. “I swear. I have to for school, anyway. I’m not handing in an unfinished paper.”

There is no response but the sound of Ponyboy’s own breathing. 

“It’s not easy to write, Johnny!” he yells. “This is the part where I get you killed, you know!”

Nothing. 

Figures he’d be quiet dead, too.

But writer’s block grabs him by the throat and doesn’t let go, so Ponyboy picks up his pencil again and begins to doodle on that blank page a picture of his current situation.

He falls asleep at his desk, and when his brothers come home, they find him there, snoring over a picture of himself at his desk, writing in his notebook while Johnny Cade stands watching over his shoulder like some kind of guardian angel.

---

Time passes and school starts up again, and around a year or so after the Windrixville nightmare, Ponyboy announces to his brothers that he’s going to some school dance with a couple of friends. He’s really non-committal about the whole thing, but Soda thinks it’s a good idea, and maybe Pony doesn’t really like the group of guys he’s going with but he knows he has to get out of his comfort zone and this is one way to do that. He promises to be back before curfew, so it’s not like he’ll have time to get into any trouble.

Apparently, his first mistake was one he’d made literal months ago, back in the spring—saying no to going out with Angela Shepard.

He knows it was shitty of him, the way he'd barely even acknowledged her presence after she waltzed up to him that day, but he also he knows it was never about him. It was her, expecting Pony to have her back whether or not he actually was interested in her, because that's just what Curtises and Shepards do.

But the day she approached him was—would've been—Johnny's seventeenth birthday. So, you know. There are a lot of reasons he'd turned her down. 

And now here they are, in October of 1968, at this stupid school dance. Mark’s brother Bryon brought a date and Bryon never liked Ponyboy anyway, so he and Mark walked off together to let those two hang out, and then Mark wanted to go out to Terry’s car because he brought alcohol or something—Pony was not interested in drinking the slightest, but he followed anyway—and then his second mistake must’ve been simply being at the dance or something, he doesn’t actually know. He doesn’t think he spoke to Angela the whole time.

(Later Ponyboy finds out she was trying to piss off Bryon, who he later finds out is her ex. She was mad he'd brought a date, or something like that. He still doesn't really get the whole thing, and probably never will. If you ask him, Angela should've known better than to have taken it all personally when she'd known exactly what she was doing.)

They’re sitting on the hood of Mark’s friend Terry’s car and some guy walks up that Ponyboy has never seen before. 

And the guy just swings at him! Of course he swung back!

Pony knows that he does not have a tough reputation, but he is one hell of a fighter—he may have gotten his ass kicked in the rumble but he also helped kick ass, and he’s been working out a bit with Darry so he can keep up with the track team, and he was briefly considered an accessory to murder, so clearly he can handle himself. Just ignore the fact he'd been drowning in the fountain for that whole thing. He figures Mark didn’t get the memo, because when the guy smashes a beer bottle to swing at Ponyboy’s head, his idiot friend decides to pick that moment to tell the other guy to relax.

Next thing Pony knows Mark’s on the ground bleeding and the school-sanctioned cop appointed to keep kids from killing each other at the dance grabs him to haul him away. Some job he’s doing.

He goes to get Mark’s brother, and he explains that the guy meant to hit him and not Mark, and Bryon says something about Angela Shepard but he doesn’t really explain. Pony decides he doesn't care. Mark groans and his eyes open, but it’s like he can’t see anything and Pony winces, because he knows all too well what is happening.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Shock,” Ponyboy says, and he takes Dally’s old leather jacket off and throws it over the guy until the ambulance arrives and the EMTs take over. He’s careful not to let any blood get on it, though. It’s already been through enough.

Ponyboy thinks maybe he has, too.

The brothers get into the ambulance and Cathy Carlson, the girl that Bryon took to the dance, walks up to him and asks what happened, so he tells her. She mentions that Bryon borrowed a friend’s car to drive them there—Two-Bit drove Ponyboy to the dance and then ditched him for the first girl he saw at the party, and must be long gone by now—and she points it out to him in the parking lot. She heads off to see if she can get a ride to the hospital from someone. 

Ponyboy wants to thank Mark for stopping the fight, if he can. He’s not as bad as everyone thinks he is; Pony’s got no clue why Dally used to be so insistent he stay away from the kid. He also kind of figured Bryon would need a way home too, so…

He hotwires the car. He hopes he didn’t break anything in the process, and he makes sure to have Cathy drive, because she has a license and Darry won’t let anyone but himself teach Pony—and he won’t do it until Pony’s sixteen. Probably for the best considering Soda and Steve have a million speeding tickets each and Two-Bit is chronically under the influence.

When they leave, Ponyboy and Bryon have to help Mark walk out because he can’t on his own just yet. Pony’s in the middle of saying he gets it, “I had this killer concussion last year after some soc kicked me in the head during the big rumble, and I remember bein’ out of my mind loopy after, laughin’ at how I couldn’t run… straight…”

He trails off.

He realizes he recognizes this hallway. The door across from him is slightly open and it is the room Johnny died in.

Mark half-falls ‘cause Bryon kept walking and Pony didn’t, and it takes Cathy asking if he is okay to snap him out of it. He says yes but his chest is starting to feel tight and his eyes burn.

He blinks a few times and shakes his head and mumbles a “sorry,” which just gets him an odd look, but no one really asks after that. They get Mark in the car and the only thing he says for the entire ride home are the directions to his house.

Except they don’t get all the way to his house, because they are driving down the street Dallas Winston died on and the pain in Pony’s chest gets worse and he looks out the window toward the street lamp and yells “STOP!” because he sees someone standing there and is convinced they are about to hit them.

Everyone stares at Ponyboy like he is insane but he does not care because Dally is crumpling to the ground just like he did that night, calling out Pony’s name and dropping dead. Then he is standing up, and the bullets are hitting him, and it repeats and repeats like some horrible loop. Pony feels like all his hair is standing on end. He can’t breathe.

Don’t think about how you heard Dally and Johnny’s last words, how they called for you, but you’ll never know Mom and Dad’s. If they screamed for help. If they held each other as they died. If they watched the train coming and knew they couldn't run.

“Uh, I forgot to tell y’all a turn, I… I’ll get out here. Thanks for the ride.”

He doesn’t wait for a response before he gets out of the car and shuts the door. Cathy’s got the window down and she asks if he’s okay and Pony is normally a good liar but he isn’t tonight.

“I’ll be fine. See you later.”

They drive off and Ponyboy sits down on the curb and stares at his hands. He’s never hanging out with any of them ever again.

He thinks about his dreams, the horrible ones that wake him up screaming and shaking, the ones he can’t ever remember, and he wonders why he had to be the one cursed with this stupid ability. To know something horrible is going to happen before it does. To see what happened to his friends after death. Why he has to be the one to know Dallas Winston will never move on. He has this feeling in his gut and he knows he needs to walk down this road to get home but he cannot bring himself to go anywhere near that street lamp. He already has Johnny’s spirit attached to him. He can’t deal with the idea of Dally being there too. He is too angry, and even from this distance, it’s starting to affect Pony, too.

He takes the long way home, because maybe he has a jacket tonight but he figures that if he’s going to get jumped tonight for walking home alone, what’s the worst that could happen after last time? He’s already lost two friends. He lost his parents. Who even cares anymore?

When Ponyboy gets back to his house it is well after curfew and he can see the light on inside and it is like deja vu. He has a black eye and his lip is cut, he knows it’s swelling up because he never put ice on it, and his chest feels tight and he knows he’s shed a few tears and he just. He can’t even bring himself to care as he walks inside.

“You’re late again,” Darry says. Soda is nowhere to be seen. 

“Yeah, whatever, Darrel,” Pony mutters.

“Where were you? I told you to be home by midnight. What happened to your face?”

“Some guy swung at me. Don’t worry about it.”

“You really think I won’t, Pony? We’ve talked about this.”

That is a lie. They didn’t talk. They just promised Soda not to fight anymore.

But Pony is tired and Dally and his heart hurts and he feels like he is going to explode, so he does.

“I was at the hospital, Darry, is that what you want? My friend got hurt trying to help me out because some guy I ain’t never seen in my life decided to swing at me at the dance even though I didn’t even do anything and I went to the hospital to check on Mark. And you know what? I had it all under control and then I hadda walk past that stupid room Johnny died in and now I know my brain is broken ‘cause I can’t stop thinking about it and about Dally and— and I don’t want to talk about it!” Ponyboy can’t even finish. He just storms past his brother and down the hall to his room.

He opens the door, grabs Sodapop out of the bed and shoves him out, and then slams the door shut behind him. The doorknob clicks locked and they hear a noise that sounds an awful lot like a heartbroken sob.

Soda looks at Darry.

“I told you waiting up for him would just piss him off.”

“Shut up.”

[nicholaschavezobsessed]

I Love the Rain

warnings: cursing, suggestive language/thoughts

wordcount: 855

authors note: something sweet and simple since it was storming here today!

You stepped outside, the humidity fogging up your glasses; it was the one thing you hated about having glasses. You pull them off, wiping them against your sweater. It was an unusually dark day, the clouds brewing something big, something nasty. You continue walking, your vision completely blurred, but you knew the way to the coffee shop like the back of your hand, but what you didn't take into account was the amount of people on the sidewalk, trying to make it to their destination and beat the rain.

Still wiping away your lens, damn the humidity, you think to yourself, stumbling along the way, trying to dodge the blurred figures the best you could. What felt like years later, they finally adjust, no longer fogging up, but as soon as you slip them on, you bump into something solid, more specifically someone's very solid chest. "Fuck, I am so sorry!" I mumble quickly, mentally kicking myself in the ass. A soft rumble comes from the person's chest, how embarrassing, I think to myself as they laugh. You take a step back, glancing up at the person you ran into. Shit. This man was something straight out of a book. Tall, gorgeous, brown hair, piercing eyes, and a smile that could light up the whole damn town. "No need to apologize, I wasn't exactly paying much attention either." He trails off, his hand ruffling up his perfectly laid out brown hair, brown hair that needs a good, rough tug. You toss your hand in the air carelessly, "Really, it was on me, I hadn't had my glasses on yet, this weather just wants me to cause some chaos. " You clear your throat to stop yourself from rambling on, yet your mouth seems to have a mind of its own. "How about I buy you a coffee, or tea? Whatever you want to drink, it's on me." Your thoughts flood in, hoping he doesn't reject the offer.

He flashes that smile, sending a throb between your legs. What can I say? His smile just has that effect. "Ah, how can I say no to that?" His words slip out like honey. Without a second thought, you start heading in the direction of your original destination. The streets emptied out as the sky got darker, if that was even possible. Thunder rumbled out, almost as if the sky was pissed off. "So... uh, I didn't catch your name..." He trails off, glancing at you, waiting for an answer. "Y/N.. you?" You keep walking, hoping to beat the rain. "Nicholas, so where were you in such a rush that you just so happened to bump into me?" He questioned, a hint of playfulness in his voice. "Well, I was on my way to the coffee shop, but someone just so happened to be in my way." You tease, cursing yourself as you feel the drops hitting the top of your head. "You've got to be shitting me." As soon as the words escape your lips, almost as if on cue, the clouds open up, releasing a downpour. Well, there goes my morning, you huff loudly, the cold rain pelting the both of you. His hand reaches down for yours, pulling you down the street with him. "You know the more we run, the more wet we'll get?" You yell over the booming thunder, giggling in the back of your mind at your choice of words. "Trying to get us out of the rain!" He wipes his face as we dodge people trying to find somewhere dry.

You try to keep up with his long strides, your grip slipping on his hand the more the rain comes down. It gets harder and harder to see, barely visible five feet ahead of you, until the sight of an awning catches your eyes, despite the water droplets coating the lens. "There, to your right!" He quickly looks over, finally taking notice of the awning. He pulls the both of you under, his chest heaving up and down. "Fuck, I did not expect it to come down like this." He mumbles quietly as he takes in the sight of the streets flowing with water. "I didn't either, or else I would've just stayed in bed." You rolled your eyes as you run your hands down your soaked clothes. A mischievous glint shines in his eyes as he faces you. "Come on now, you can't tell me that wasn't exciting? Running down the streets, in the pouring rain at that, with a stranger?" Your mood lightens a bit the more you think about the events that just occurred. "A bit romantic if you think about it." His voice lowers as he steps closer to you, your heart beating wildly out of your chest. "Yeah..." His voice barely above a whisper as his eyes glance over you hungrily. You take a step closer, your cheeks burning bright red. This is definitely not how you expected your morning coffee run to go. He leans down, capturing your lips in a passionate kiss. "I love the rain..." You mumble against his lips, causing him to smile.

Taglist: @nicholaschavezslut69

[afinestoutlove]

things i love about heartstopper 29/?

This moment is such great character development for Charlie, I love it so much.

Yes, we all know Charlie could knock this coursework out in a couple days and then he’d be free to see Nick again. He didn’t have to go sneaking around and get grounded. He could have finished his work and supported Nick with his exams. He definitely didn't have to end up writing a whole essay 3 hours before it was due. I have 3 teenagers, and if my kid was doing this it would drive me spare (although I'd definitely take a different approach to Jane Spring…).

But in terms of teen development, this moment is so important. It’s actually crucial for kids - especially kids like Charlie, who are constantly apologising for their existence - to rebel against their parents. Especially when their parents are overly strict or unwilling to discuss/negotiate things. Charlie lives in a house where it's his parents' way (mostly Jane's way) or nothing. He doesn't get a lot of meaningful agency, except when his parents aren't paying attention. He's treated like he's incompetent - which is different from recognising skill gaps in teenagers.

Homes like this, even where parents are genuinely loving underneath the strictness (which I argue Jane and Julio are), make it really hard for kids to develop into healthy adults. Rebellion is super important for those kids (all kids) in order for them to develop their own ability to think critically, learn from mistakes, and figure out their own personalities and values.

It's bloody hard, of course, and often results in kids doing damn silly things and seemingly making choices for the sole purpose of pissing off their parents. And it can go badly in some cases. But when that kid is surrounded by kind, (relatively) sensible friends, when their rebellions are fairly minor (like sneaking out to hang with their boyfriend and his dog in a park, or fall asleep in front of a Marvel movie), it's really valuable. It sets them up for adulthood way better than just doing what their parents want.

It's also important that Charlie does sneak out, but when he's caught he doesn't lie about where he was, he stands up against what he sees as unreasonable restrictions. Charlie does hide things, and this causes problems for him, but he also pushes back sometimes, rather than simply trying to get around things secretly. This is definitely going to drive his parents round the bend, but it's also better for him long term, because just learning to lie in order to avoid conflict isn't great... Tori would probably have just lied, and that creates its own problems long term (most of us who had strict parents will relate!).

Even when it’s obviously silly and unreasonable, and just doing the damn thing would have been a way easier and more sensible option, Charlie leaning into anger and non-compliance is really great for him. Yeah, it takes him a long time to fully lean into his full strength, and for so many reasons it's a long fight for him, but we start to see him trying to claim some independence and the right to be angry about stuff. It’s so good.

[jackdaniel69nice]

Mirko and tokoyami!! For @bl00dykitt3n

Tokoyami will be looking for someone new to intern with for his 2nd year. He bounces around with an assortment of pros because he can’t seem to tolerate their methods for long. One of those internships is with mirko because hawks asked her to. At first she’s skeptical but likes his sassy personality and thinks dark shadow is funny.

Hawks wanted mirko to take a shot at teaching him for a few reasons. The first one is that she’s fast (duh). The other is that Tokoyami managed to chase hawks on foot for hours during patrol, he has to have hella strong legs. Not to mention Tokoyami’s fighting style almost exclusively uses his legs. So tokoyami gets some leg training in with her. It leads to him getting insanely good at jumps that’s for sure.

Another aspect that’s isn’t really important in canon but for me is their lunar ties. Tsukuyomi is the god of the moon obviously but rabbits are also a mythological symbol of the moon as well. It originates as the Chinese story of the moon rabbit. Mirko recognizes this reference by having a crescent moon on her costume and naming one her moves “Luna Arc”.

While mirko is amused by Tokoyami’s angsty behavior Tokoyami is increasingly pissed off by being ganged up on by her, hawks, and dark shadow at the same time. Mirko is also fueling dark shadows more aggressive side and encouraging more destructive behavior from them. Which is both bad and good. It helps dark shadow blow off steam to actually let themself go wild but it’s getting increasingly harder to calm down afterwards. This leads to a cycle of Tokoyami and dark shadow sharing each other’s agitation until…you know.

Mirko sees that a truly out of control Dark Shadow is incredibly dangerous, some instinct deep within her is telling her to flee. Dark shadow eventually calms down but what did all this mean? Well mirko has no clue, it’s not like she’s a teacher or anything. Less thinking and more punching is her motto!...but it’s obvious tokoyami is afraid of his power, his strength. And she knows about fear. She tells him to embrace his inner darkness and make it his own. Even when she wants to run, when she feels like prey trapped in a corner, it drives her wild. That survival instinct, that urge to fight back can be harnessed and used. He just needs to wield that fear the right way.

When it comes down to fight or flight, tokoyami is the flightiest (being a bird and all) but dark shadow has always been a fighter. Their different reactions to fear cause a bit of dissonance between them. Mirko is right, they need to work together and be on the same page! “Embracing your darkness” means working with dark shadow and helping to guide them. Tokoyami has been through a lot in his life and has a lot of fear in him. He has to embrace that fear and the rage that comes with it or it will continue to control him.

It isn’t the first time someone has told him something like this. This is his biggest struggle and he can’t seem to bridge the gap. If he wants to be a hero he’ll have to be brave…good thing he still has another year of school to get a handle on things.

Tokoyami ends his internship thinking mirko is crazy and extremely volatile but he has a strong respect for her. Dark Shadow still thinks she’s amazing but learns about humility and not letting to much power go to their head. They both agree this internship was leagues better than their one with fatgum XD

I think it would be nice if they also hung out tougher in casual. Hopefully tokoyami would pick up on her “take no shit” attitude.

[theflagscene]

I’m hoping it’s just a mistranslation. Seems like some heavy company interference to basically gut what an entire series premise is about. They should not have introduced the omegaverse concept or made a s2 if they were not planning on delving deeper into the lore. You are satisfying nobody by doing this. Lots of companies have learned the hard way to not piss off fandoms in an effort to appeal to wider audiences. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If they think anyone cared about the car racing they have rude awakening coming.

According to the author alittlebixtch (dude why did I not know this was her online handle!?!? So appropriate at this point) she actually tried to get the company to removed the A/B/O aspects before the first season aired but they didn’t, so it’s not company interference, it’s actually the author.

She’s taken to Twitter recently to talk about the uproar this announcement has caused, saying that she didn’t realize how problematic the tropes were when she started writing the first novels a couple years ago. Which just proves to me that this was someone who had absolutely no idea what she was writing about, she did like a 50 Shades of Grey level amount of research into what these terms actually meant and what the Omegaverse was. Seems like she just went for it, not actually knowing anything about it and now that she’s been met with a fandom that has expectations based on decades of lore and world building, she’s panicking.

A/B/O is not a new thing, it’s been around since the 1970’s. The omegaverse became a more flushed out and ‘mainstream’ thing in the 20-ish years of Supernatural’s existence when people started using it as a way to explain the biological differences between humans and angels, then with the rise of werewolf popularity thanks to tv shows like Teen Wolf, adding the wolf lore to the omegaverse, you ended up with an extremely rich fantasy world built on a solid foundation of lore and mythology.

Seems like the author dipped her toes into the pond, and then was surprised when she found out exactly how deep that pond was. I appreciated some of the ideas she brought to her work, like how not every person has heightened senses or special powers, and how there was an even rarer subgender—enigmas—but now that she’s realized that she’s been playing in someone else’s sandbox without a bucket, she’s getting angry that there’s sand on her.

If she didn’t want to write in a genre of romantic fantasy that she deems ‘problematic’ then she should’ve gone the sci-fi route and called them mutants or genetically engineered humans, both things have far more wiggle room to create your own world around them because those terms don’t have a step by step fantasy world prebuilt around them.

But it seems like—from what she says—that the second season is not being written by her, she has no control over what the second season of the series will hold, hell her second set of Pit Babe novels aren’t even written yet. So I doubt CHANGE2561 is going to gut their best selling show to date just because the author of the novels they bought the rights from suddenly has cold feet about knocking up Babe.

Pit Babe was CHANGE2561’s first ever BL, and they changed (excuse the pun) the landscape of the industry by taking on an omegaverse story, even if it wasn’t completely within the world and just dabbled on the edge of the well known lore. It was still new and exciting and it made them millions, made their actors superstars and gave them the opportunity to make QLs freely because they know they have a fan base around their actors now. I highly doubt that they are going to change much—if anything—because they own the rights to the series and can make the second season go wherever they want, regardless of what the author wants since she already signed the contract and has no control over what the screenwriters want to do going forward.

In fact, if you look at the screenwriting team that worked on Pit Babe season 1, you’ll find a team that has also worked on Petrichor, The Heart Killers, Dead Friends Forever, This Love Doesn’t Have Long Beans, The Gifted and Be My Favourite.

So I’m actually less concerned now that it seems like the author is just talking out of her arse, until CHANGE2561 comes out with an official statement—which I have a feeling they will be doing soon—I’m going to assume that the omegaverse aspects are still very much alive and well within the Pit Babe universe 👍

[letsgetitblog]

Old wounds resurface by just one tweet.

I got a bone to pick with y'all 12 tmnt haters too just y'all WAIT.

Late 2022 & Early 2023 crossover tmnt fics were hell and y'all need to be adjourned for you're sins. Immediately!!!

[lala-blahblah]

I will never make this because it would be for an audience of one (me) but ever since reading "If we Were Villains" (story about serious drama kids in college who perform shakespeare and deal with a murder) I have been entertaining the thought of a crack fic crossover with High School Musical The Musical The Series where the staff decides they will no longer put on shakespeare after the tragic accident that happened at Thanksgiving, because Shakespeare plays would only increase the tension and drama. So they hire Ms. Jen who decides their spring play will actually be High School Musical (which exists in the 90s in this universe) and it ruins the vibe so much that everyone gives up on being dark and mysterious because they're universally pissed at Ms Jen for making them learn choreoraphed basketball dancing.

[talkorsomething]

Actually i feel like my voice goals are not that unreasonable since the people i get jealous of the most really are my age or older

......

Well, reasonable though they may be, realistic is another matter

[rapidhighway]

Hnngg

[spearxwind]

parents will literally blame insane shit on you

[dennisboobs]

most annoying thing about being me is that i cannot engage with like. any fanon shit about dennis because i'm constantly on some advanced derangement and the stuff i thought two years ago when i was first getting comfy in the fandom is still the way everyone else looks at dennis but i'm like. yes but its Worse than this. you're like a quarter of the way there. this isn't the interesting bit, this is a symptom of it, keep going.

[hana-bobo-finch]

I fucking hate miya I fucking hate miya I fucking hate miya I FUCKING HATE HER SO MUCH I HATE HER SO FUCKINH MUCH someone is gonna have to sedate me before I EXPLODE