#despite the chat voting for him to die. and she just went ‘no hes not! because its just a show ^_^’

[boygirlctommy]

was explaining genloss to my mom and she stopped me halfway through bcus she thought ranboo was just a dream smp character and not a real guy

[skyeet-the-writer]

The Love Among Us

Chapter 1-- I’d Never Snitch On Daddy

so i haven’t seen many corpse husband x reader stories on here, so i decided to upload one myself. i’ve been watching jacksepticeye’s among us videos and when i heard corpse talk for the first time, i was like, “hol up” and now i’ve been obsessed with him. also, go stream his music on spotify, it’s amazing. enjoy! x. 

 corpse husband x female!reader

summary: while playing among us, y/n watches corpse kill felix in o2. when his body is reported, however, she doesn’t tell who killed him. 

 word count: ~3.6k

warnings: swearing, mentions of death (not real death), mentions of murder (not real murder)

EDIT: before i wrote this and after i published it, i did not know that corpse did not like to be referred to as “daddy”. had i known this, i would have not even thought of posting this. and since i know now, i won’t refer to him as such in the future. thank you. (10/19/2020)

EDIT 2: this is the first part to my corpse x reader series. i will be adding chapters as we go!

next>

4 rounds before the incident

“I was in coms with PJ!” Sean exclaims. 

“He is doing the liar voice!” Felix shouts with a laugh. 

“I’m not,” Sean tries to say, but everyone talks over him and the voting time ends. Everyone left alive, though it was only four people, had all voted for him and he yells at them as he gets ejected. 

stinky was not the imposter

2 imposters remain

The round ends and everyone unmutes themselves. 

“Lizzie, you saw Felix kill me and you did nothing!” Roomie yells as soon as the round ends and the imposters are revealed. 

“Yeah, because I was the other imposter.”

“Oh. Okay, well that makes sense.”

Everyone laughs and Ken starts the round again. 

“Wait, can I invite y/n to play? She’s doing her twenty-four-hour stream and she just finished playing Monopoly with Mark, Bob, and Wade,” says Lizzie, looking down at her phone as they all appear back in the waiting room. 

“Yes,” Corpse blurts out and there are a few laughs and chuckles. 

“You were quick to answer, Corpse,” Sean teases. 

“Shut up,” Corpse mumbles and there are even more laughs. 

Lizzie smiles and taps into her phone. “I’m gonna invite her.”

~

“I can’t believe that you actually made that deal, y/n,” Wade is telling you after ending the second round of Monopoly that you’ve played with them. 

You smile and cross your legs on your chair. “Look, I was going bankrupt and it seemed good at the time. Besides, Mark was going to win anyway, he owned half of the board.” Your phone buzzes beside you on your desk and you pick it up. “Lizzie texted me.” There’s a sound effect that plays in your headset and you look up at your screen and smile. “Thanks to _lorieplays _for donating a hundred dollars, that means a lot. Thank you so much.”

“Do you want to play another round?” Marks asks. 

You shake your head, reading the text from your friend in England. “No, I don’t want to lose to you again.” You laugh. “Nah, Lizzie wants me to play Among Us with her and a few others. It was fun playing with you guys.”

“It was even though you took all of my money,” Bob snaps. 

You laugh. “Yeah, yeah. See you guys later.”

“Bye,” says Mark.

“See y--” Wade begins but you cut him off when you disconnect from the call. 

“Oops.” You put a hand over your mouth and laugh. “Sorry, Wade. Okay.” You straighten up and glance over everything, making sure it’s all working properly. “I have to pee and I think my roommate ordered pizza, so we’ll be back after this short break. Enjoy this live feed of my pet rats.” You giggle and switch the stream over to a view of your two rats in their cage where you have a camera set up. You take your headset off and head out of your recording room. 

Every two months, you have a twenty-four-hour livestream where you play games with your friends from all around the world. Despite being only twenty-five, your Youtube channel had grown exponentially in the past three years and you’ve had the chance to meet lots of other Youtubers like Markiplier, PewDiePie, and your close friend, LDShadowLady. 

Currently, you’re on hour twenty of twenty-four and you’re beginning to feel the effects of not sleeping for a whole day. You had been drinking coffee and energy drinks for the past four hours and that seemed to perk you up for two hours max. But your roommate had ordered pizza and that would hopefully wake you up. 

After going to the bathroom and grabbing an entire box of pizza, you return to your recording room and sit down. You put your headset back on and eat a slice of pizza before switching the views back to you. “And we’re back. I hope you guys enjoyed my rats because I don’t. They keep me up at night.”

You read a comment while loading up Among Us and laugh. “No, they’re not dead. They’re sleeping. They do that a lot when they’re not fighting.” 

When you finally get into the game and entire the code, you spawn in. You also quickly join the Discord chat and wince when nearly ten voices hit you at once. 

“y/n!” exclaims Lizzie and the other voices die down for a moment before rising to greet you. 

You wince again but laugh. “Jesus, you guys are loud. Hey, Lizzie.” You move your character to the customize tab and go to try and switch your color. But then you frown and realize that you’re stuck with being dark blue. “Damn, I wanted to be white.”

“Do you want to switch?” Corpse asks. 

Your eyes widen you your stomach flips. You hadn’t noticed Corpse was in this game. Immediately, your chat became flooded with keyboard smashing and lots of “omg my shipp” and “y/n rlly said ‘anna oop-’” 

“Uh, yeah, if you don’t mind,” you manage to stutter out and take a bite of pizza as Corpse’s player comes over and the white option becomes available. You select it and also select the goggles in the hats menu. 

“How’s your stream going?” asks Sean. 

You shrug. “Pretty good. I’m super tired, though. I literally almost fell asleep while playing Monopoly with Mark, Wade, and Bob.”

“You went to college, right?” You’re pretty sure that’s Roomie. 

“Yep,” you affirm with a nod even though they can’t see you. “You’d think that those all-nighters writing papers and studying for finals would make me able to do this.”

There’s a laugh in the group and the round starts.

3 rounds before the incident

You scratch your eyebrow and sigh in relief when you’re the crewmate. You mute yourself and slide up in your chair. 

“I like being the crewmate,” you say, heading towards admin as a habit. “It’s a lot less stressful than being imposter.”

After doing your tasks in admin and fueling the engines, you stumble across a dead body in the lower engine and a vent closing. 

“Oh,” you say, and press the report button. You unmute yourself and begin with, “So I saw a vent close but I didn’t see who went in.”

“Who died?” asks Lizzie. 

“Felix,” says Sean. 

You smirk. “It’s always yellow that dies first.”

“Where was the body?” Ken asks. 

“Lower engine,” you reply. 

“I was in medbay with Corpse doing the scan so it wasn’t him,” PJ says and Corpse makes a noise of confirmation. 

This makes your cheeks heat up and you smack a hand over your mouth. Your chat explodes again but you decide to ignore it. 

“And I was doing wires in cafeteria,” Lizzie says. 

“Sean, where were you?” 

“I was in reactor doing the simon says thing,” he answers. 

You sigh. “I hate that one. What about you, Ken?”

“I was with Roomie in electrical doing the power thing. You know, the one where you have to divert it somewhere else.”

“So do we skip then?” asks Lizzie. 

“No one is super sus, so I’m going to skip,” you answer. 

When no one is ejected, you mute yourself again. “I dunno why, but Sean seems pretty sus. Because I didn’t see him on the way down from upper engine. But I guess he could have gotten there in time.” You shrug and run over to the trash chute in the cafeteria. “RIP to Felix, though.”

After doing the trash there, you head down to storage, running into Corpse doing the wires in there. You wait there to clear him and once you do, you run a few circles around him to get his attention and he follows you over to the trash in storage and watches you do that. After that, the two of you head over to electric together and do wires there. 

Suddenly, there’s a body reported and you unmute yourself. 

“Sean just killed Lizzie in front of me!” exclaims PJ. 

“PJ killed Lizzie,” Sean retorts, flipping the blame. “I watched it, he didn’t realize I was there and murdered her.”

“I watched PJ do the scan in medbay, he’s cleared,” Corpse says and you find yourself smiling for no reason. “Sean, you killed Lizzie.”

“I knew he was sus,” you say, grabbing another piece of pizza. You look at the box and your eyes widen. Had you really already eaten half of it?

“Wait wait, how am I sus?” Sean asks. 

You take a moment to swallow. “Because when I was doing fuel earlier, I was running down from upper engine and didn’t see you in reactor. Sure, maybe you could have gotten there earlier, but it was super weird.” 

The discussion time ends and PJ immediately goes to vote for Sean as well as you, Corpse, and everyone else still alive. Sean ends up getting ejected. 

stinky was an imposter 

1 imposter remains

“You’re such a detective, y/n,” Sean says when he gets ejected. 

You laugh. “I just play this game too much.” You then mute yourself and smile. “I am a genius.” 

You end up finishing your tasks quickly after that and then stand in the cafeteria and eat another piece of pizza and read some of the chat. 

“’ What am I going to do after this?’ I don’t know. I might play some Minecraft. Should I have a poll on Twitter? I’m stuck between public Among Us games, Minecraft, and taking random quizzes on Buzzfeed.” You smile and hear another sound effect and something pops up on the screen. “Thank you to coochie man for donating a hundred dollars, that means a lot.” You laugh at their name. “I love your name, by the way.” 

There’s some rattling in the cage behind you and you turn around to see one of your rats drinking water. You turn back to the chat and read another comment. “’ Do you have a crush on Corpse?’” You blush and smile, biting your lip. “I mean, his voice is hot. I’ve never met him since he lives in San Diego and I live in h/t, but yeah, I guess I do. I’ve been listening to his music for the past few days and it’s really good, you guys should go check it out.”

You look up and unmute yourself when a body is reported. “Who died?” you ask. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Are you already done with your tasks, y/n?” Corpse asks. 

God, even the way he says your name is making you blush. “Yeah, I get them done quick.”

“She does that,” says Lizzie, “She always gets her tasks done quick.”

“Ken is dead by the way,” says Roomie and your snort, smacking a hand over your mouth. “I found him in the hallway by navigation. Where was everyone else?”

“I was in cafeteria doing nothing,” you say, leaning back in your chair and spinning around just a little. “I think I saw PJ downloading while I was in there, but I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Yeah, I was downloading,” says Ken. 

After more discussion, Corpse points out that Jaiden had been following him and it looked like she had been faking tasks. 

“No I haven’t,” she says. 

“That sounds like something the imposter would say,” you hum with a smirk. “That’s pretty sus, Jaiden.”

Everyone else agrees and you all end up voting Jaiden out. 

jaiden was the imposter

0 imposters remain

You cheer as the round ends and a blue victory screen pops up for the crewmates. “Good game, guys,” you say and play again, waiting for the host. 

~

1 round before the incident 

“Oh my god, I’m imposter again?” you groan and sigh when you spawn back in. “I was just imposter, I don’t want to be it again. I’m so bad at it,”

After another short round of you and Felix losing to the crewmates, you all agreed to play two more rounds before Sean had to leave. So you move your character to admin where PJ is and fake the card swipe before moving over to the admin security thing where you could see who was around where. Luckily, no one appeared to be near admin, so you quickly kill PJ and escape through the vent and come out through medbay. 

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” you whisper over and over, running down to storage. “That was clean.” You fake getting fuel and go back up to the upper engine. 

When PJ’s body is reported, you see that your fellow imposter, Sean, had reported it. You stay silent for most of the round and only say that you were in the fuel area when it was reported. 

“Yeah, I saw her run past electrical earlier,” Corpse says. You blush and glance at your exploding chat and shake your head. 

After everyone skips the round, you mute yourself once more and head towards navigation. “I hate this.” You drag the last syllable and watch Lizzie enter the room. You wait a moment before walking towards her and killing her, jumping into one of the vents. You let out a sigh and flex your fingers. “I’m so stressed.” You exit out of the vent into shields and your heart stops when you see someone else in there but you realize that it’s the other imposter, Sean, and you relax. 

You run past him and go to the trash compartments and pretend to unload those. And that’s how the rest of the round goes. You kill someone, someone reports it and you vote someone off. Eventually, you and Sean do a double kill and end up winning the round.

You unmute yourself. 

“Let’s go!” Sean exclaims and you smile. 

“I can’t believe you killed me, y/n!” shouts Lizzie. “I thought we were friends.”

You laugh. “There are no friends in this game. I’m not loyal to anyone in this game. You could be my best friend and I would fucking murder you.”

“That’s cold,” says Roomie as everyone else spawns back in. 

“Yeah,” you nod. 

“Wait, PJ disconnected,” says Sean, and you all end up waiting for him to rejoin. 

In that time, you look at your chat and say, “Hey, do you guys have any questions for who I’m playing with. I’m asking you, chat.”

“I swear if someone asks about my hands, I’m leaving,” Corpse says and everyone laughs. 

You laugh louder when you read a comment and read it aloud, “_Ironlady _says that you should be a hand model, Corpse.”

“Okay, I’m leaving,” you hear Corpse say over everyone laughing. 

“No, stay!” you exclaim, trying not to laugh. “C’mon, don’t leave.”

He sighs deeply and your brain goes fuzzy. “Fine. I’ll stay for you.”

You beam and your tummy turns. You ignore the whistles and remarks from everyone else and stand beside Corpse. You suddenly wish that the little bean characters could hold hands. 

When PJ joins the server again, Ken starts the round and you cross your fingers, hoping to get crewmate. 

0 rounds before the incident

You mute yourself and sigh when you’re a crewmate. “Thank god.” You let out a breath and go over to admin with everyone else. You swipe your card and go to the cafeteria to do some wires there. 

The game turns out to be rather uneventful. A few people die and two people are voted off before the game gets truly interesting. And that happens when you walk in on Corpse and Felix. 

“I’ve had this song stuck in my head for days,” you’re saying, walking from electrical over to O2. “And I can’t get it out of my head. Maybe singing it will help.” You hum the first part. “Don't go in there, you'll become one. Freaky creatures, monster party. Eyes of yellow, scales and feathers, tails in tethers. Turn the lights off. Bend the nightmare, you control it. Artful dodger, easy does it. Shut the closet, get under the covers. Snakes and lovers. Turn the lights off.” You do a little dance for a moment and continue hum the song, glancing at the chat as you go towards O2 after doing wires in storage. 

“Like, I know the song, it’s just been stuck in my head,” you explain. “And it kind of annoys me--”

But you stop as you enter O2 and watch Corpse murder Felix. Neither one of you move and you don’t know what to do. “Uhhh.” 

Then, without thinking, you turn straight around and make your way away from the scene of the murder. “I didn’t see anything!” you shout to no one. “I suddenly can’t see who murdered Felix.” You smack a hand over your mouth and stand in the middle of a hallway. “Oh my god, what do I do? I don’t want to snitch on Corpse, he’s hot.” You scratch the back of your neck and shrug, continuing on to reactor. “I didn’t see anything.”

You’re in the middle of doing the simon says in reactor when Felix’s body is reported. You unmute yourself and fidget with the sleeve of your hoodie. You know exactly who killed Felix. 

“--was in O2,” says Jaiden and you focus back into the conversation. “And I didn’t see anyone around.”

“I saw you heading that way, y/n, but I know it wasn’t you because I saw you do the trash in storage.”

You look at the screen when Sean talks to you and you chew your lip. “I know who killed Felix.”

“Who?” asks almost everyone at the same time. 

You close your eyes and swallow. It’s just a game, why are you taking this so seriously? Suddenly, a song lyric pops into your head and your stomach flips. You imagine yourself saying it and no one knows who you mean except for him. 

You open your eyes. “I’d never snitch on daddy.”

There’s a laugh in the chat and you blush fiercely, your livestream chat blowing up once again.

“I think we know who it is, then,” says Sean, laughing. 

“Yeah,” agrees Lizzie and your eyes widen. 

“Wait, what?” you ask, watching everyone vote almost as soon as the discussion time ends. “Wait, hang on, who--”

“We know who you’re talking about, y/n,” PJ tells you. 

You vote for yourself and your brain goes blank as you see that everyone voted for Corpse. He even voted for himself. They knew. They all _knew _about your feelings for Corpse. 

The round ends with Corpse being voted out and the crewmates win. There’s some talking, but you stay on the victory screen. You’re trying to decide if your mad or embarrassed or both. 

“I didn’t know you’d say that, y/n,” Corpse says, effectively breaking you out of your trance. “I thought you were gonna snitch on me.”

“You heard her,” teases Lizzie and you can tell she’s grinning. “She’d never snitch on you, Corpse.”

He laughs and you feel something in a certain place. “Oh my god, I’m gonna die of embarrassment.” You put your face in your hands, listening to your friends tease you in the chat. You suddenly want to jump out your window and run into traffic. 

“Don’t die,” comes Corpse’s voice through the onslaught of teasing. “I’ll be sad.”

“Fuck!” you shout and slam your hand on your desk, shaking your equipment and scaring your rats. “I’m so sorry, Corpse, that was really weird, I--”

“Stop.” He interrupts you and the chat goes silent and you look up at the screen even though you can’t see him. “It’s okay. It was funny.”

Your eyes widen and then narrow. Funny? He thought what you said was funny? How could he think it was funny?

But then he speaks again and he sounds oddly flustered. “Uh, I gotta go. Um, it was fun playing with you guys. Bye, y/n.”

“Bye Cor--” but then he disconnects and you’re left talking to no one. “--pse.”

There’s a long moment of silence until Felix breaks it. “I can’t believe you just watched me die and didn’t do anything about it.”

There are some laughs and you smile faintly, rejoining the game. “Yeah, uh, sorry about that.”

“Are you okay, y/n?” asks Lizzie. 

You blush and swallow. “I don’t know. God, I’m so weird.” You run a hand through your hair and adjust your headphones

“No, you’re not,” Roomie assures you. “He has a crush on you, too.”

Your eyes widen and you scoot up in your chair. “He does?”

“I mean, he called you pretty once during a game and said that he watches your videos a lot, so maybe.”

You groan and sink in your chair. “I’m gonna go, I need to run into traffic now.”

A few people laugh or chuckle and Lizzie asks you if you’re actually going to leave. 

“Yeah,” you tell her. “But not to run into traffic. I’m going to go play Minecraft to soothe myself.”

“Aw.” You can practically hear her frown. “Okay. Bye, y/n.”

“Good luck with your stream,” Ken tells you. 

You grin. “Okay, thanks, bye.”

When you exit the game and leave the chat, you scream. You actually scream and it’s loud. Your roommate even knocks on your door, asking if you’re okay. 

You look at them and nod. “Yeah, totally fine. Probably about to have a mental breakdown, but I’m fine.”

“Okay,” they say and lean on the doorframe. “But I’m not cutting bangs for you again.”

You laugh and nod. “Yeah, okay, fine.” They leave and you turn back to your stream, feeling like you’re about to cry. Corpse knows you have a crush on him. And it seems like he has one on you as well, but now you’re embarrassed because you called him ‘daddy’ on stream.

You rub your eyes. “Well, now I know what’ll be streaming on Twitter tonight,” you tell the chat. 

[a-pretty-nerd]

Tomura Shigaraki x AllMight!Daughter!Reader

Chapter 3 

Premis:

When The League of Villains discovers that AllMight has a daughter, they are quick to snatch you up and hold you hostage. Shigaraki had a careful and thought out plan, but that was before you got there. Now you're in the mood for some not-so-healthy rebellion.

Word count: 1,556 

Warnings: Panic Attack, themes of depression and self-hatred. Later chapters will include violence and nsfw content. 

A/N: 

I'm gonna try and have a pretty regular posting schedule. From now on I'm going to try posting once a day, even of its just a headcannon, I wanna post once a day now. I'M GOING TO TRY AND POST ONE CHAPTER A WEEK. Especially for this series, I'm having a lot of fun with it but Tumblr doesn't seem to like it and refuses to post it to the hashtags. Sorry, I know this chapter is kinda short, but I feel like this series deserves a slow, intense, burn. 

Don't forget, I have a Patreon, where you can join my discord, vote on new projects, and make requests! Thanks for reading!

Chapter 2 Chapter 4

Days passed. 

It all felt like a strange blur. You wondered around the abandoned house the villains called their hideout for the time being. You spent hours watching the news that Shigaraki constantly played. Despite being the daughter of the Japan’s #1 hero, there wasn’t a single report of your disappearance. You were confused. 

“They’re probably keeping the investigation quiet. Y’know, so we don’t see them coming.” Dabi told you one day as you sat on the old dusty couch and watched. You watched helplessly as the group came and went, always having someone stay behind to ‘babysit’ as Mr. Compress referred to it. 

You were allowed to wander around the old abandoned building the villains called their hideout. At first, you thought it was a house but now you realized it was an old office building. The villains mostly stayed in a specific part where they were made comfortable. It appeared that only a certain part of the building had power. Everywhere else was dark and cold and uncomfortable. 

“Yeesh, you stick!-Take a bath!” Twice shouted at you one day. You frowned and crossed your arms over your chest and stuck your hands under your arms. 

“Speak for yourself! Not my fault you guys didn’t exactly grab me a change of clothes, or let me piss alone much less shower!” You shouted in frustration. It all seemed to dawn on them at once, maybe they hadn’t exactly thought this through all the way. 

“Y’know what? You’re right! I’ll be right back!” Toga declared with a smile. 

“Where are you going?” Shigaraki asked as he watched her head for the door. 

“It’s a surprise!” She closed the door behind her and the room fell silent. Spinner soon approached only to recoil in disgust. 

“Twice is right, you do stink.” He grunted. 

“Thanks…” You grumbled. 

“Here take this and go wash off.” He held out a raggedy towel. You were directed to a bathroom with a makeshift shower in it and told to wash off before the bathroom door closed. The water was horribly cold. 

You stood under it and let the water wash over your naked body. Man, you really were dirty. The cold water soon became warmer and you lost yourself in the feeling of it. You closed your eyes and melted. Soon, the feeling of tears running down your cheeks mixed in with the sensation of your wet hair tickling the back of your neck. You crouched down and held your knees to your chest as you began to sob uncontrollably. You couldn’t stop it, the pain in your chest flowed out through your lips are you cried. You held yourself tight, your fingers digging into your legs. The pain was so intense, and your thoughts so muddied, you could see yourself sitting there, just crying. Objectively, you watched yourself and criticized. 

This was all your fault, your mother and father are worried sick about you. All because you pushed yourself too hard and couldn’t fight back. You’re a mess. You deserve this. You’ll die here, they’ll kill you before you can see your parents again. You’re worthless. You can’t even protect yourself. 

These thoughts only made the pain more intense, it made it worse. You sobs grew louder and louder and the pain grew and grew. It got to the point where you felt unable to control yourself. You began lashing out, hitting your own head, and scratching your legs. Then another thought emerged. 

This wasn’t your fault. If it weren’t for him. If it weren’t for your father and his stupid fucking hero work, you’d be home right now. You’d be safe and sound and unbothered by this hero/villain mess. He didn’t even want you to come to Japan, so why were you here? He doesn’t even want you. And your mother, she’s the one that sent you. This was her idea. This was her fault too. Anger fed the pain in your chest and it ached. The attack on your mind and body ragged on, until you heard a knock on the door. 

You felt unable to move, unable to stop. You cursed yourself again. They could hear you, couldn’t they? They could hear you crying. You expected someone to yell, but there wasn’t a voice. The door slowly opened and shut. The curtain was slowly drawn back and two eyes looked down at you. You shook violently as you looked up. Suddenly you became very aware that you were naked. 

“Why are you crying?” Toga asked as she knelt down to get closer to you. You couldn’t respond. “What’s wrong? We’re not going to hurt you, I promise. Hey, don’t cry, it’s alright. Look, I brought you some new clothes.” She reached out a hand and rubbed your naked back. 

“I-I-I’m sorry.” You croaked. 

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” she reassured, “you’re safe here, no one is going to hurt you. And if anyone does, you come to me, alright?” 

“O-Okay.” 

“Are you done washing off?” You shook your head no. “Okay well finish up and try these on. I think you’ll like it.” She set the new clothes on the bathroom counter before leaving you. You sniffled and struggled to stand, but you managed. You took deep breathes and tried to soothe yourself. You felt drained and empty now, if not a little bit better. You stepped out and looked at the clothes on the counter. They were soft and comfortable, how did she guess the right size of underwear but the wrong size shirt and pants? They were just a little big, they fit fine where it mattered, but just a little baggy everywhere else. Definitely not something you’d pick out for yourself, but it would do for now. 

You brushed through your wet hair with your fingers and stared at yourself in the mirror for a moment. Your eyes were red and puffy, your face flushed. It made your heart race to know that everyone was well aware you were crying. You opened the door and everyone turned to look at you again. Oh god. Toga pulled herself away from what looked like a chat with Shigaraki. 

“Damn! One size off! I knew it!” Toga shouted as she approached you to examine the clothes on you. 

“They’re fine, really.” You mumbled to her as she pulled on the pants at the band. 

“Are they comfortable at least?” She asked folding her arms over her chest. 

“Yes. Thank you.” 

“Oh don’t mention it! Next time I’ll have to take you shopping with me!” She smiled. Next time? Take you? You stared blankly at her. She pulled you with her to sit on the couch and watch more of the news. 

“You know. Now that I think about it. I don’t think he wants it out that I exist.” You thought out loud. 

“What do you mean?” Toga asked. You turned to her with a blank face. 

“Its always been a secret. I could never talk about my dad, even when I was little. Everyone assumed I just didn’t have a dad. Even when we came to visit when I was younger, no one knew I was his daughter. If the public asked, I was his niece. They always told me it was for my own safety. I get that now.” You chuckled to yourself. “But that’s probably why there’s no report on my disappearance. No one can know. I’m just a dirty little secret.” 

“Xavier! Over here!” 

Your mother called as she stood partially outside a taxi. Xavier, your “boyfriend” waved back to your mother as she dragged along his luggage. 

“Ms. Y/L/N! I’m sorry I’m late! The flight was delayed, I came as soon as you called.” Xavier was a clean-cut, academic genius. He wore slacks and a button-up on a daily basis. He was incredibly smart with several degrees by his early twenties and already on his way to becoming a very successful lawyer. He was handsome, conventionally so. He was handsome, smart, thoughtful, and generous. He was everything your mother wanted for you. 

But that was it, he was a gift from your mother you took reluctantly. She knew his father from work, it was all set up. You had been together for roughly a year now. You liked him enough to date to try and love even. He was nice and even fun at times. But you were lying every time you told him you loved him. You had been meaning to break it off for some time now, but you were unsure. You feared disappointing your mother, again. You were afraid to hurt him. You thought your trip to Japan would allow you to clear your mind and think about things before making a decision. 

Your mother brought him back to your father. Who was far too busy worrying about you to really care to give Xavier the time of day. Xavier had a very specific quirk, one that came in handy in the legal field. He could tell whether or not someone was lying just by making eye contact with someone. He was now going to be a key player in getting you back. He, like your mother and father, was not going to rest until he had you back. You can be sure of that.

Taglist:

@bat-eclecticwolfbouquet-love @craftybean13 @babayaga67 @imjustverable

[nekoannie-chan]

Inexpressive

Pairing: Brock Rumlow X Reader

Word count: 1254 words.

Summary: Brock planned a surprise, however, his attitude confused you, and will you leave him or investigate what happens with him?

Warnings: Angst, injuries, some smut references, nothing explicit.

A/N: This is my entry to the @fanfictionaries ‘ Classic Tropes Writing Challenge with the situational trope:

“Hurt/Protective- Who hurt you? I’ll kill them”.

Also is my entry to the @captainscarletwanda-deactivated ‘s Captainscarletwanda’s 100 Follower Writing Challenge with the angst prompt #9:

“You never loved me did you?”

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistake please let me know and I will correct it.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics be posted in other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other's people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and is not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

My other media where I publish: Wattpad, Ao3, ffnet.

If you like it please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

You woke up, you turned around, Brock was still asleep next to you, and you tried to sneak into his arm and chest, kiss his jaw trying to wake him up.  

"What?” He asked confusedly.  

He opened his eyes and moved to cause you to fall on the bed.  

"Brock!”

You complained when you laid complemented the mattress.  

"What?” He speculated.  

You sat down, approached him and started kissing him.  

"You know what I want," you whispered.  

He turned to see the clock, you had training with the recruits first thing in the morning if you entertained, and you wouldn't be in time at the Triskelion.  

"We'll be late," he said.  

He got up, and you sighed frustrated, you wanted to have some fun before you went to work.  

Although you've been in a relationship for a few months, Brock had changed his behaviour, thousands of questions went through your head, and it looked like he was someone you didn't know.

"Are you agree if we go out for dinner on Friday night?” You proposed while you eat your breakfast.  

Brock took his eyes off his waffles, seemed confused. 

“Did I forget our anniversary or any important date?” He questioned.  

"No, it's just that I thought it would be a good idea...” 

"I'm sorry I have plans with the guys.”  

"Oh... okay," you replied disappointed.  

As the days passed Brock was stranger until one day you decided it was enough, you couldn't anymore, he wouldn't tell you anything, you thought he wasn't honest, but you didn't want to investigate either, maybe if you knew the truth, it would be very painful and you weren't sure if you could take it, you started putting things in your bags, you'd stay a few days with Natasha, then you would decide where to go or what to do.

"I'm leaving," you sentenced to leave your bags on the floor for a moment.  

“Where?” He asked without paying attention he hadn't even seen the suitcases.  

"To a friend's house," you replied by taking the bags.  

"Why?”  

He didn't remember you telling him that you were going to visit one of your friends or that your relatives were sick. 

"We're done," you finally said.  

"What? No, why, I don't understand anything...”

“You never loved me did you?”

Before he answered, you were gone, you stayed at Nat’s, who didn't understand what had happened between you and Brock. 

"Did you even let him explain you?” Nat asked. 

"No, I didn't want to hear him, I was probably going to give myself some excuses that with your charms you'd know how to convince me, but I'm tired.”  

"I'm sure she had an explanation...” 

"And I'm sure he's cheating on me with someone else, now he can go with her," you interrupted your friend

The next few weeks passed, every time Brock tried to talk to you, you refused to listen to him, he called you many times, but you didn't answer the calls, he also tried to talk to Wanda and Nat as he knew they were your best friends even though the girls refused to make a plan so that the two of you would meet, they just didn't want any problems.  

The mission had become complicated, the team they had sent wasn't enough, usually, your team was Brock, but since they split up, you asked them not to send them on missions together, so now you were going with the Delta team, which was made up of Natasha and Clint.  

You had no idea where the others were, it was the fifth time you asked for help and they didn't arrive, it looked like your communicator was broken down because you couldn't communicate with anyone or something was damaged.

You tried to contact Clint and Natasha again without success, you try not to move, the wound kept bleeding, you needed to be removed from the place but you would probably die.  

You knew that at any moment you would lose consciousness, you heard that the door of your hiding place opened no longer had the strength to defend yourself, the question of how would Brock take the news of your death?  

Despite everything you still loved, at least you expected them to find you; someone came in, you closed your eyes, you knew the end had already arrived.  

“Y/N? Love? Brock called you trying to see you in the dark.  

He finally took his lamp to see if there was anyone in the place, that's how he saw you on the floor and ran towards you, started checking you out, you were bleeding, but I couldn't see exactly where your wound was or how deep it was.

“Who hurt you? I’ll kill them”

You opened your eyes when you heard his voice, maybe you were hallucinating with what you loved most before you died or maybe if he was there.  

"Brock? What...? “ 

"I received your message, don't talk, I'm going to try to stop the blood, it's going to hurt, but I need to get you out of here and have a doctor check you out.”  

Almost without strength you nodded, he kept talking to you, you had no idea what he was saying, he was starting to hear himself far away, you complained about the pain and then you closed your eyes.  

You heard the noise of the hospital machines, slowly opened your eyes, you expected Brock to be next to you, I'd probably say some sarcastic comment about what happened, however, he wasn't there, Wanda was in his place.

“Where is Brock? “You asked her.  

"Y/N, I'm glad you're alive, but I don't know where Brock is, and you weren't together, right?” Wanda replied.  

"Yes, well we are, but he was the one who found me. Never mind...”  

You weren't even sure if you were able to have that conversation with him.  

A few hours later Brock came into your room. 

 "Hi," he said.  

You smiled at him, you felt your heartbeat speed up.  

"If you don't want me here, I'll understand, I just wanted to know if you were okay...” 

"Thank you for getting me out of there, you don't have to leave," you replied.  

You were chatting for hours, he began to visit you daily; however, you never spoke of Brock's attitude change.

He was there when you left the hospital, yet it got weird that your friends weren't there.  

"I'll take you someplace," Brock said as he helped you get in the car.  

"I think we'd better go to compound...” 

"No, no, I have something important to show you, seriously trust me," he asked. 

He started driving, the scenery was beautiful, after a few hours they finally got to a house in the country, and he helped you get out of the vehicle.  

"Was this...?”  

"I wanted to surprise you, but I think I screwed up," he interrupted you as you went inside the house.  

"I’m so sorry, I’m sorry, I thought... " 

“I was cheating on you? I figured it, I just wanted to repair this place, and it can be our vacation home, see the whole place, and then you tell me you think.”

You started touring the place, it was really beautiful, Brock had completely remodelled it when you went back to where he was, and he had a little box in his hand. 

"Will you marry me? He asked.  

"Of course!” You accepted.  

He put the ring on your finger, you threw yourself into his arms and kissed him.

[openheart12]

I Did Something Bad

A/N: Today is my lovely adoptive mom’s @burnsoslow birthday! I never thought me making a post about yk what would lead to our friendship and Kryce! I hope you have the best day ever and that it is every bit as amazing as you are! I’m so thankful for your friendship and how you make me laugh until I cry or pee fvhujskdghfn and you’re the only one who could ever make me into a Drake stan. I love you so much! Eat all the cake you can for me! Happy birthday, love! I hope you know how much I adore you ❤

A/N 2: This is very much full of Donald Trump hate and despitement because who wouldn’t hate him anyways jkhkdjgh there’s also quite a bit of cussing 

Word Count: 2,613

Thank you @rigatonireid for pre-reading!! 

“This is bullshit,” Kurns exclaimed as Bryce and Dick were watching the events unfolding at the United States Capitol. “This is why you don’t vote for oranges.” She said while rolling her eyes. 

“Agreed,” the two men replied in unison. 

“Jinx!” They replied again at the same time that led to twenty minutes of them saying “jinx again” in response until Dick finally gave in and let Bryce win. 

“You win, Bryce-y poo,” he had said. Kurns had kept her attention glued to the television during their little game. 

“You okay over there, banana flavored moonpie?” Dick asked, directing his attention over to Kurns. 

“No, look at all those turnips. And the cult leader himself told them to do this shit. People actually voted for this moron? They should all get head CTs to check for brain damage which they undoubtedly have.” 

“Would it make you feel better if we overthrew the government while kidnapping Donnie?” Dick asked seriously. 

“Yes, actually,” she answered with a wide grin. 

“Okay, let me make a few phone calls and can you download some episodes of My Little Pony on Netflix for Bryce?” Kurns nodded her head in response, she also took the liberty of downloading Among Us on their phones so they wouldn’t be bored on the flight. 

The flight from North Delanois was a little over eight hours and being on a plane that long with a toddler, well Bryce, was going to be a challenge. 

It was a private jet so hopefully it would be more bearable, but just in case she also downloaded a few episodes of Max and Ruby and Yo Gabba Gabba. She also downloaded some episodes of Parks and Rec and Friends for herself. 

After packing the essentials; clothing, toiletries, handcuffs, whipped cream, ice cubes -who knew- and My Little Pony gummies, they were off to the airport.  

“Dick Kock,” Dick said introducing himself along with Kurns and Bryce. 

Kurns was decked out in a Taylor Swift 1989 t-shirt and a pair of leggings with her trusty white vans whereas Bryce was dressed in a rainbow colored polka dot shirt, black and white striped pants, one blue croc and the other was yellow, and socks with weed on them. Him and Kurns had forgotten about meth since it already landed them in jail one. Chris P. Bacon was still a sore subject for the pair. 

They boarded the plane and Bryce immediately went to find his gummies. Kurns took a seat next to Dick and pulled up CNN news to get an update on the attack on the Capitol. 

Suddenly breaking news flashed across her phone screen: Taylor Swift set to release her tenth studio album later today. 

“OH MY GOD! BRYCE LOOK!” Kurns exclaimed, jumping up out of her seat to show Bryce. 

“OH MY GOD! TS10! TS10! TS10!” He chanted. 

“Oh wow, that sure is exciting!” Dick chimed in. 

“By the way, D, I think we should call this Operation ‘I Did Something Bad’ in honor of Taylor’s new album.” 

“That’s a spectacular idea, Kurnel Mustard!” Bryce said with a smirk, it had been a new nickname he had given her after the three of them had played Clue one night.

“Shut up, Apple Bottom Jeans, Boots with the Fur,” she retaliated, mocking the Little Pony named Apple Jacks. 

“Stfu,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“You must be really mad if you’re talking in text.”

“Dick,” he pouted, “she’s doing it again.” 

“Be nice you two, we have a long flight ahead of us.” 

For the first two hours, they each did their own thing; Dick was reading a hunting magazine, Kurns was watching the news, and Bryce had already finished the entirety of My Little Pony. 

“Do you guys wanna play Among us?” Kurns asked out of the blue. 

“Hell yeah! I just bought the baby crew mate and I’m dying to use it,” Bryce responded. 

“I’ve never played before but sure!” 

“Okay so you’re either a crew mate or impostor and if you’re a crew mate, you have to do these tasks whilst trying not to die and if you’re an impostor, you go around killing other crew mates trying not to get caught in the process. You’ll get the hang of it eventually,” Kurns explained. 

“Thanks love bug,” Dick placed a quick kiss to the side of her head. 

The three of them found an open lobby and talked in the chat box waiting for the game to start and when it did, Dick asked the question of, “why is my name red?” 

“Oh my God, Dick! Don’t say that. It means you’re an impostor,” Bryce explained at the same exact time Kurns called an emergency meeting. 

“It’s purple,” Kurns typed in the text box, referring to Bryce’s color. 

“What the frick! It’s so not me. I’m not playing anymore,” he pouted, turning off his phone and crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Now, children, can you two not get along? Think about the bigger picture,” Dick intervened. 

“True, but I’m still not going to play with her.”

His statement didn’t affect Kurns in the slightest and she went back to playing the game. Dick joined her while Bryce was running away from an imaginary dragon and he ended up colliding into one of the seats, face first. 

“Ow,” he rubbed his forehead that was now bright red. 

“That’s what you get for being a baby,” Kurns said, not looking up from her phone while Dick went to go check on his blueberry muffin. 

“You okay, strawberry flavored fig bar? That’s quite a hit you took.” 

“Yeah, a kiss would make it feel better though,” he said, using his puppy dog eyes. Dick smiled softly at him before kissing his forehead all better. 

The three of them spent the next six hours playing games, eating, and watching movies from the age of the dinosaurs that Kurns had saved since she was over 10,000 years old. 

After landing in Washington D.C., the trio headed straight to the Whitehouse, if people could storm the Capitol, how much harder could it be to kidnap the president? That was Kurns logic at least and as it turns out, it wasn’t that much harder. 

Kurns went to the Oval Office while Dick and Bryce went to the bunker since that apparently seemed to be Trump’s favorite place in the Whitehouse. But unexpectedly, Kurns found the Donald Duck under the office in the Oval, tweeting away on his iPhone 4s. 

“Mr. Racist,” she called and he immediately turned to look at her. 

“What? I’m tremendously busy if you can’t tell.” 

“I see that, Mr. Pigman.” 

“That is hugely racist towards me. I happen to be winning very bigly at the moment. I’m trending on Twitter!” He said proudly, he then proceeded to show Kurns his crusty ass phone. 

“Come on, I have some candy for you if you come with me,” Kurns coaxed him out from under the desk and led him to the white van they had brought with them, you know, the kind your parents warn you to stay away from. 

“Fake news!” Trump exclaimed with a huff. “You must be friends with sleepy Joe.” 

“You’re right,” she winked. 

“You know, frankly, this doesn’t make America great.” 

“I disagree, I think this definitely makes America great again,” Kurns retaliated. 

“Does Mikey know about this?” 

“Yeah, we planned it with the fly,” she snickered. 

“Well, it’s fake news, believe me.” 

“What?” 

“Nothing you libtards wouldn’t understand it anyways. Anyways, what's that thing on your face?” 

“My mask?” 

“Yeah, what’s that for?” 

Kurns shook her head, not even being surprised by the question. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, Donald Dump.” 

“What’s a panoramic?” 

“Don’t worry about it.” She got out her walkie talkie to talk to the boys. “The orange has expired. Over,” she said, their code word for getting Trump out. 

“Okay, bet, we’re on our way out. Over.” 

“Good job, K!” Dick said. 

“See you soon and thanks! Over.” 

Fifteen minutes later, Dick and Bryce arrived with a six foot cutout of Donald. 

“What the fuck is that?” 

“Hey, that’s me!” Trump chimed in. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Kurns said, she was quickly losing brain cells being in his proximity. 

“That is rude, quite frankly.” 

“We found it in his bedroom… along with some other, uh, questionable things,” Bryce explained. 

“Like what?”

“Like a, uh, dildo with Pence on it.” 

“Ew…” they all turned to look at Trump who was looking away and whistling, trying to pretend he wasn’t there. 

“Oh, um, about that. That was a tremendous invasion of privacy.” 

“Shut the fuck up,” they all said in unison and he pulled an imaginary zipper over his lips and threw away the key like a literal child. 

“I can’t be near him anymore,” Kurns said suddenly, getting out her phone to call someone. 

“Who are you calling?” Dick asked. 

“Joe, I was gonna invite him to go get some ice cream.” 

“OMG! I wanna go too!” Bryce exclaimed. 

“And me!” Trump said. 

“No, to both of you. You two have to keep an eye on Don and make sure he stays off of Twitter.” She was explaining when Joe picked up the phone. “Hey, Joe, do you want to go get ice cream somewhere?” 

“Duh! Taylor is actually here right now and you don’t care if she comes do you?” He asked to make sure. 

“Of course not! You can bring Champ and Major too! I know Jill is busy right now.” 

“Okay! On our way!” He said before hanging up. 

“Where are you going to go?” 

“Probably McDonald’s or something, Taylor is also coming with us, he said.”

“YOU MEAN THE TAYLOR?” Bryce asked in shock. 

“Yeah, him and Taylor are like BFF’s.” 

“I still like her music 25% less, okay?” Donald brought up. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Kurns said again. 

“Fine, fine. But could you make sure Barron is fed?” 

“Oop,” Bryce slapped his hand over his mouth. 

“Yes, now shut up.” 

Kurns was getting ready to go meet Joe and Taylor when Melania walked up to the van. “You have Trump?” She asked quietly. 

“Yeah, why? You need him?” 

“Yeah, could you make him sign this?” She placed some papers in Kurns hand. She read them and wasn’t shocked after realizing they were divorce papers. 

“No problem, hold tight real quick. Dick, make him sign these!” 

“Of course, ladybug.” He took a hold of Trump’s hand and wrote his name for him since he wouldn’t do it himself. 

“Here you go,” Kurns handed the papers back to Melania and she left without looking back. “Okay, I’m leaving. Be careful with that moron and for the love of God, don’t let his supporters know you have him.” 

“Roger that!” Bryce responded. 

“Don’t worry, vanilla brown sugar! We’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone. Have fun!” He called after her. 

She met Joe and Taylor at a local McDonald’s and greeted both of them with a hug. “Congratulations on winning the election and congratulations on album number ten!” She reached down to pet both of the German Shepherds who happily wagged their tails. 

“Thanks!” They replied in unison. 

“So how are the boys?” Taylor asked. 

“Good! They sent their regards. They’re actually, uh, holdingtrumphostage,” she said fast enough so hopefully they couldn’t understand but they are actually educated. 

“WHAT?” Joe exclaimed. 

“Miss gurl, how did y’all pull that off?” Taylor asked while hysterically laughing. 

“It was easier than I thought! Either security sucks or they wanted Trump gone and I can’t blame them for that.” 

“Amen sister!” Joe replied. 

“Can we see him?” Taylor asked. 

“I mean, yeah if you want!” 

“Okay let’s go!” She went to get up when Joe gently grabbed her arm. 

“But the ice cream…” He reminded her. 

“Of course, how could I forget?” She playfully rolled her eyes. They all ate their ice cream before heading back to the Whitehouse. 

Once arriving, Taylor and Joe headed straight to the front doors while Kurns stood there like 🧍‍♀️. “Hey guys, he's actually right there,” she said, pointing to the white van. 

Taylor opened the door to find Bryce half asleep on the ground, Dick was listening to ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and dancing in his seat meanwhile, Donald had his lips glued to the side of the door, making out with it. 

“What the fuck?” All three of them asked at the same time. 

“OMG TAYLOR! HI! HOW ARE YOU?” Bryce shouted, jumping up off of the floor and pulling her into a hug. 

“Hi!” 

“Hello, Ms. Swift,” Dick greeted, gracefully bowing. “Mr. President,” he nodded. 

“How did you all meet?” Don asked. 

“We actually just met, our hate for you is what we bond over!” Joe explained in terms he would understand. Hopefully. 

“Oh,” was all he said and started to play with his fingers. “I don’t know if you knew this, but Washington D.C. is actually the capital of the United Stats. Did you know that?”

“What did you think it was? And it’s the United States, not… Stats.” Kurns asked in a surprisingly concerning tone. 

“I thought it was like a stat… or well state. Whatever it is.” 

“Oh,” Kurns said while Taylor called him an idiot under her breath. 

“That’s embarrassing miss gurl,” Bryce chimed in. 

“ARE YOU TALKING TIKTOK TO ME? I WILL BAN YOU,” Trump threatened. 

“Please, these empty promises you keep making are getting really old just like your term,” Dick said, making the others die of laughter… no literally, some Trump supporter that had been walking by had just collapsed and died. 

“And I oop-” Kurns and Bryce said at the same time. 

“IFHCBXNZNZ, HAHAHAHA,” Bryce barked out. 

“Can we get something to eat? I really want some Dino nuggies 🥺,” Trump pleaded. 

“No,” they all replied. 

“So what are we going to do with him?” Taylor asked. 

“I don’t know, what do y’all want to do with him?” 

“Excellent question, K, I say we feed him to some alligators!” Bryce exclaimed, flapping his two arms together to make an alligator jaw and started running towards Donald who jumped back in fear. 

“That’s not nice,” he pouted, a lone tear trickling down his cheek. 

“Fuck you, but not literally or physically,” Taylor said, making sure to explain what she meant. 

“I want some My Little Pony gummies!” 

“Me too!” Donald said with a smile now on his crusty, orange ass face. 

“No,” they replied again. 

“Fine,” he crossed his arms over his chest and turned his back to them, like the toddler he is. 

“Anyways, y’all want to go get Cookout?” Kurns suggested. 

“Yeah, of course!” Joe responded. 

The five of them headed to the nearest Cookout to get food and milkshakes, leaving Trump behind all alone. After hanging out with Taylor and Joe, it was unfortunately time to head back to North Delanois. With promises to meet up soon, the trio were soon enough taking off at the airport. 

“What ended up happening to Trump?” Bryce asked seriously. 

“He went to prison.” 

“As he should, period,” Kurns said with a smirk. 

“What are we going to do when we land?”

“Sleep!” Kurns and Bryce said. 

“Of course, my love doves. I’m going to try to do that right now, so please try to get along.” 

“Promise!” Kurns said, holding out her pinky finger which he took and kissed. The rest of the flight was surprisingly peaceful, Kurns and Bryce were able to get along while Dick slept. It had been a fun trip, one they hoped they would actually never have to make again. 

Tags: @burnsoslow @ao719 @callmeellabella @rigatonireid because no one else should have to read this :)

[the-dark-swan]

On My Side

“I was under the impression I was an ‘insufferable, territorial bastard’,” he mocked in a terrible impression of her voice. “You can’t have it both ways.”

“No, you can’t have it both ways, Mister Don’t-Touch-Me-Like-That,” Aelin spat at him, crossing her arms protectively over her chest.

the Pandemic AU that literally no one asked for. i wrote the entire thing because of two lines of dialogue that popped into my brain (bonus points if you can guess which ones). 

i’ve never shared anything i’ve written for the TOG fandom on tumblr before so here *chucks story into the void and runs*

(also available on ao3)

“I swear to every god that is listening I will choke you next time I see you, Rowan Whitehorn,” Aelin snarled, leaning her face dangerously close to her computer’s camera.

The speakers emitted a cacophony of howling laughter. She saw Rowan in the little square showing his camera feed, a shit-eating grin on his face. A beat passed, as he waited for a pause in the din of noise. His grin turned feral and he replied, “Do you promise?”  

More laughter shrieked through the speakers, only broken by a choked gagging sound, no doubt from her cousin Aedion. “Could you guys keep it PG for more than 5 minutes at a time? I am begging you,” he groaned.

This all had started as an innocent way for them all to see each other again during their cities’ respective stay-at-home orders. Fenrys, ever the ring leader, had suggested in lieu of their typical March Madness bracket arguments, they could make brackets for other, more mundane things, then argue and vote on them via video chats. The first bracket they had done was MLM power-rankings based on the product and likelihood that Lorcan (the most cynical among them) could be convinced to join. It had taken them two hours before they had reached a conclusion, but for the most part it was goofy and civil.

Today’s debate was more personal: who among them was more likely to start a brawl in a bar. Instead of not wanting to be the one chosen, the group had immediately started vying for the position of most likely to.  The current debate was between Aelin and Lysandra. Rowan had just given his two cents that not only was Lysandra more volatile when drunk, she was also more likely to cause a fight.  Aelin was positively furious.

In the camera, Rowan spread his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. “Sorry, love, Lysandra is more likely to start a fight,” he knew she hated when he used pet names on her, “If the question was who is more likely to finish a fight, I would most certainly have picked you.”

“That’s it, Buzzard, I don’t care about social distancing…” Aelin leaped up and out of the screen.

Her friends couldn’t see her, but she stormed out of her apartment, practically ripping the door off its hinges. She took the steps to the third floor two at a time. One right turn and two left turns brought her in front of Unit 343. There was no resistance as she turned the handle and shoved the door open. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the rational part of her puzzled at what reason Rowan could possibly have for having his door unlocked.

Aelin stalked through the long hallway that opened into his loft apartment and found Rowan sitting on the ground, back against his couch, the laptop still open in front of him. Through the speakers, she could make out Fenrys’s voice.

“... twenty dollars says she spits directly into his eyes from Aedion. Lys has an additional five dollars down that Aelin will bring up the incident from New Year’s…”

Rowan reached forward calmly, pressing a button on his laptop, then finally raised his head to look at her. Pine green eyes roved up her body, making Aelin suddenly very aware that she was barefoot and actually wearing a shirt of his that she had stolen months ago.

“Was there something you needed to say?” he asked.

From the computer, someone asked, “Oh my god, Rowan, is she in your apartment?” to which Rowan responded by turning the volume down.

“Technically, you shouldn’t be here,” he added, his voice rumbling in that way that did funny things to Aelin’s heart.

Before she could stop the words, she shot back, “Technically, I thought you were supposed to be on my side, not Lysandra’s.”

“Did he mute them? I can’t hear anything,” a voice complained through the computer speakers.

He cocked his head at her, ignoring the laptop entirely. “You’d sound jealous if I didn’t know better.”

Aelin opened her mouth, but no words came. “Does anyone read lips?” Fenrys asked through the speakers.

“I was under the impression I was an ‘insufferable, territorial bastard ’,” he mocked in a terrible impression of her voice. “You can’t have it both ways.”

“No, you can’t have it both ways, Mister Don’t-Touch-Me-Like-That,” Aelin spat at him, crossing her arms protectively over her chest.

Rowan went still, in that eerie, preternatural way of his. From the computer, someone murmured, “I think she just brought it up.”

The New Years’ Incident. Nausea rolled through her stomach every time she devoted any thoughts to it. The memory of Rowan yanking her hands away from his face, growling “Don’t touch me like that,” while everyone around them counted down the final seconds to midnight, was not a memory she liked to dwell on.

He rose to his full height, unfolding long, muscled limbs from where he sat on the floor, towering tall enough that Aelin swore he had his own gravitational pull. “Are we finally going to talk about it?”

In her chest, Aelin’s heart took off in a nervous gallop. Did she want to have it out with him over it, finally? Three months of carefully maintained distance from Rowan had been painful. Sidestepping him when he went to touch her, letting their inside jokes die on her tongue, sandwiching herself between Fenrys and Aedion at shared meals like they were bodyguards. Now that she thought about it, this was the first time they had been alone together since that night, despite living in the same apartment building.

Across the room, Rowan moved slowly, rounding the coffee table that separated them in measured, calculated steps, as if he was approaching startled prey. Aelin remained rooted to the floor, swaying a bit as he came within arm’s reach. This close, she had to tilt her head back to look him in the face.

“I’m sorry, Aelin.”

She shook her head, swallowing around the lump in her throat. “You don’t really even have anything to be sorry for. It was nothing.” In her head, ‘Don’t touch me like that’ played on a loop.

“It wasn’t nothing, Aelin. You won’t let me within three feet of you. And I miss you. Although, given the pandemic, maybe that has been for the best.” He paused for a beat, raising his hand out towards her. When she didn’t retreat, he moved closer, reaching for her hand and grasping it gently. She offered no resistance as he lifted it towards him and pressed it to the curve of his jaw.

Beneath her hand, his mid-day stubble bit into her palm. “Rowan,” she started, but he shook his head, cutting her off.

“Lately, it feels like the world is ending, and I keep thinking how you might have never known how much I miss you and how sorry I am,” his voice cracked and he swallowed roughly. “I didn’t mean it, what I said. I got… I got scared, Aelin. You mean everything to me. Everything. I thought if I… if we… if we kissed, it would ruin everything. I couldn’t risk messing everything up and losing you, but then I did that anyways.”

Her body rocked into his gravity of its own accord, her other hand automatically bracing against his chest. Talking over the pounding of the blood rushing in her ears, she said, “You didn’t lose me. I trust you, always. And if friendship is all you can give-”

“No,” he interrupted gruffly. “No, Aelin. I’ve had three months to be honest with myself and this has never been just platonic.”

A shuddering breath stuttered through Aelin’s chest at his confession, hope clogging her throat, preventing any more words from escaping. Rowan left her hand on his face, moving his own to cup the back of her neck and tip her face further up. This close, she saw the way his pupils had swallowed most of the green of his irises. She licked her lips and his eyes tracked the movement.

Just as he started to drift towards her mouth with his own, a voice startled them both. “Do you think they’re kissing or fighting? Lorcan had ten dollars on a brawl, Elide had twenty on a make out.”

“Could you excuse me for one moment?” Rowan whispered, his breath ghosting across her face. Removing his hands from her, he marched over to where the laptop sat open on the coffee table, bringing his face back into view and unmuting it.

“If you would kindly stop interrupting us-”

“I’m sure there’s lots of talking-” the unmistakable voice of Lysandra quipped.

“Like I said, there's money down on fighting or fucking pick your-” Fenrys added unhelpfully.

“Shut up ,” Rowan growled, leaning his face nearly all the way into the camera. “If you could shut your traps and stop trying to profit off of your friends’ love lives, that would be great.” Aelin slapped her hands over her face, a blush spreading like wildfire across her face. Love lives? Love? She hadn't dared to acknowledge the way that word rattled around her brain when she looked at Rowan, yet here he was casually throwing it out into the world. Through her fingers, she saw Rowan note her reaction.

“Goodbye, fuckos.” He snapped the laptop shut unceremoniously.

His steps were near silent as he made his way back to her, wasting no time drawing her back into his arms. Aelin brought both her hands up to his face this time, letting her thumbs drag over his cheekbones. His thumb brushed across her lower lip, as if to remind her where this moment was headed.

“Did that word scare you?”

She shook her head. “Nothing about you could ever scare me. Like you said, I don’t think this has been platonic for a long time, if ever.”

He considered her again for a moment, eyes tracking across her features. “What if you deserve better than me?”

“Don’t tell me what I do and don’t deserve, Buzzard.”

“Gods, you’re such a brat,” he murmured, and then his lips were on hers.

[yakumtsaki]

Alright you guys, sorry for the delay, I’ve had to restart this post 20 fucking times because my changes weren’t being saved in the draft and then I kept getting the ‘upload failed’ error. In case you don’t remember wtf is going on you might wanna re-read the last update (I certainly had to) which is apparently from JUNE 2018. Jfc I suck so hard. Now this was gonna be really long but tumblr wouldn’t post it so I’m breaking it up in 3 parts, part 2 to be posted tomorrow. For those that don’t feel like reading back, general recap of the last couple updates:

Jojo cheated on Wyatt with Max Flexor and my solution to that marital crisis was to adopt our first dog ever, a puppy hilariously named Maxx.

The puppy grew up to be an asshole and is constantly beating up the cats, who have turned into giant pussies (no pun intended) and are losing every fight to him despite the fact they’re named after Mortal Kombat characters. They’re a fucking disgrace to Alegra’s/Victor’s/Ronroneo’s memory and I haven’t settled on a cat heir yet because they both suck.

Jojo is perma miserable, I don’t even remember how much money away from his 100k LTW, and still not a werewolf despite my pathologically persistent attempts to make him friends with the wolf.

Fucking useless Wyatt didn’t get promoted while Komei was alive providing us with his 100 townie friends, we spent 20 updates befriending every rando that crossed our lot to secure his promotion, and then finally on the day he was supposed to become Captain Hero, Wyatt got, of course, fired and is now on track to take longer to complete his literal career based LTW than Komei took to get 6 pets on the top of their careers.

Absolutely everyone hates noogie addict Shajar, she got a Kylo Ren makeover, and we still don’t know what her sexual orientation is thanks to her ridiculous fitness/fatness turn ons and cleanliness turn off.

Golden child/10 nice points freakshow Cyneswith grew up, rolled romance with the most disturbing turn-ons/offs possible (grey hair/mechanical & charisma turn off) and the 20 simultaneous lovers LTW.

Wulf grew up into a kid, got an Amadeus makeover, is officially a Wyatt clone and the only member of this family I don’t completely hate yet.

Now I’d like to begin the first Union post in more than a year by requesting you do me a solid and lower your expectations for this thing as far down as humanly possible. Like really try to recreate the Jules Verne classic “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with your expectations here, because my brain is so fucking fried that there’s a 20% chance I randomly start citing sources at some point during this post. This grad school crap has seriously been the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever. And speaking of bad trade deals, let’s get this update rolling with the man, the myth, the legend, the husband who managed to make Komei look like a dreamboat in comparison..

..Wyatt fucking Union, née Monif. It’s been a long time, but I’m not gonna lie to you Wyatt, not nearly long enough. Looking good man, just one small question, where the fuck are your eyebrows?

-You àccidéntally deléted thém, imbécilé, et I cannôt exprèss my irritatiόn prόperly becausé I hàve non eyebrôws!

Did your selective French accent get thicker this past year or is it just me?

-It géts thickér whén je suis distrésséd, givé moi mon eyebrôws bàcc!!!

No can do, brother. Actually can do, but I think the Mona Lisa look is working for you, and more importantly I still hate you, so I’m just gonna hardcore ignore you for the rest of this post if that’s ok. Talk to me when you finally get promoted, aka never the way this shit is going.

-Non! NON! MON EYEBROWS!

It’s been lovely catching up.

Jojό I mean Jojo, goddammit Wyatt, is spending most of his time building robots in the mausoleum (sweet hipster band name alert)..

..giving financial advice in Shajar’s room (inb4 what’s the difference between the mausoleum and Shajar’s room)..

..building evil snowmen alone in the middle of the night, like all mentally healthy middle aged men with 3 kids are wont to do..

..and getting the piss harassed out of him by the cat ghosts in the bathroom (sweet hipster band name alert #2). How is this like the fourth time this happens in the exact same spot, will you just stop autonomously cleaning the bathroom after midnight? It’s obviously where the cats hang out, give it the fuck up already.

-I’m actively TRYING TO DIE you absolute moron, what does a guy have to do to get killed around here?

Yea can’t say that I blame you but not happening, you can commit suicide by Ghost Alegra after the kids fuck off to college, ok? I promise.

-Oh like you promised me being heir was a route worth pursuing??

Um obviously you too need to go back and re-read your own life story, because I spent the entirety of our “““cherished””” time together telling you heirship is a shitty gig at generation 2. And then to top it off you went and married Wyatt to ensure maximum shittiness, so there you go, fucking enjoy. God I am so sick of both of you losers and we’re only 5 pics in. Let’s check in with your spawn, I’m sure they can’t possibly be more annoying than their parents-

-oh right, I forgot, this is the generation with 10/10/9 active points where the party never stops. Cyneswith are you somehow twerking to classical music?

-How else am I gonna attract all those hot senior citizens per my grey hair turn on and 20 lovers LTW?

Ok great yea I see how this is gonna go, you’re trying to entice people into voting you for heir based on how torturous playing this fucked up LTW is gonna be for me, well forget it, my readers are intellectuals and completely above such petty entertainment. (istg mofos, don’t even think about it, i already did Komei’s 5 pets career shit, i will burn this place to the ground if you saddle me with Cyneswith banging the elderly for 30 years)

-No need to worry your stupid little head, I will beat Cyneswith for HEIR just like I beat her HAIR up daily! HAHA!

Shajar no offense but you’re a fucking war crime of a sim, nearly everyone who’s ever met you hates you including your parents, and the fact that you’re the alternative here is really not helping my situation in any way. Also how the fuck are you gonna be heir when the only thing you seem to be attracted to is giving noogies, you’re like one week away from college and I still don’t even know if you’re str8 or gay or bi or w/e the fuck you are. You have Jojo’s personality combined with..

..yes exactly, DANIEL’S SOCIAL ABILITIES. I mean I was joking with the whole ‘Shajar’s the spawn of Satan’ thing, but this combo of traits was clearly drawn up in Hell’s boardroom.

ANYWAY. It’s a snowy Sunday morning, and anyone who has been a teen knows what that means:

Time to go clubbing! Man I remember being like 15, waking up on a freezing Sunday morning and my mom making me a cup of hot chocolate before I drove off to the club. Those were the days.

-Uh, Shaj, when did you learn how to drive?

-Don’t be stupid, Cyneswith, people don’t need to ‘learn’ how to drive.

-They absolutely do, actually.

-Well what can I tell you, the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

-Here we are, safe and sound! Celebratory noogie!

-YOU RAN OVER 9 PEOPLE

-How many times to I have to explain this to you, Apartment Life townies are not people.

Can’t argue with that logic. Let’s just go in and find out what Shajar’s sexual orientation is once and for all so I can spend the rest of this update aggressively promoting Wulf’s candidacy.

Now I consider ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ one of the dumbest sayings there is, but even I have to concede that this particular picture truly is worth a thousand words. Quick poll, what is more horrifying, Shajar’s literal Joker face or Cyneswith, whom I’ve never seen read a book ever, autonomously pulling one out in the middle of the dance floor, in what I can only assume is an attempt to attract old perverts with the schoolgirl routine?

And I know what some of you are thinking, you’re like ‘bro, you’re just reaching to make a bad joke bro, Cyneswith is just a sweet nice introvert and not like other girls, she doesn’t feel comfortable in the club’, well to that let me reply with another picture that is worth a thousand words:

Yea that’s right, on the first minute of our first time out WE RUN INTO THAT ONE ELDER TOWNIE THAT HAS WRINKLE MAKE UP ON. GODDAMMIT CYNESWITH

Do you guys remember how Jojo was obsessed with Stephen Tinker as a teen? Are you seeing the connection here?? Those kids have literally inherited the worst possible traits from both their parents turned up to 11, it’s fucking unreal.  

Right after I get over Wrinkle’s presence I turn around and what do I see, those 2, who have never had a non-noogie physical interaction, autonomously doing the family kiss thing. I didn’t even catch it on time because I was loling irl, we came out here so these assholes can find age-appropriate partners, and instead they’re kissing each other. Seems about right with this family, and clearly Striped Scarf’s dumb ass ships it.

-They look so much alike, it’s meant to be!

Yes, and they even share the same last name! Talk about written in the stars.

Thankfully Abhijeet is here to save us from incest by perving on Cyneswith. GTFO ABHIJEET. Anyone like ‘bro townies just autonomously come to greet your sims on community lots regardless of age, stop calling them perverts’, see you in about 5 pics down.  

I try to have Shajar chat up Striped Scarf and suffice it to say Shaj ~stole her heart~ and presumably put it on this stick to wave around.

NO. CYNESWITH NO. I’m seriously having déjà vu of all the times I was like ‘NO. JOJO NO’, jfc.

Shajar is unsurprisingly exhibiting no interest in socializing with anyone around her, instead she’s trying every activity this terribly lit place has to offer, and she looks demented while doing it:

I’m feeling a primal urge to photoshop Darth Vader’s melted helmet on the bowling ball here, someone please remind me to do it for the heir vote photoshoot.

-HA. SUCK IT DENISE JACQUET

That’s Denise Jacquet?! I can’t tell who anyone is for shit anymore. The default replacements are a scourge upon premade brands, I’m getting rid of them pronto. Speaking of scourges, where the hell is your sister?

-Who cares?

I wanna say ‘me’ but we both know that’s a lie.

Oh ok, THERE SHE IS.

-So you see Cyneswith, just because something is technically ‘illegal’, doesn’t mean it’s morally wrong-

Yea yea fascinating stuff, now get out of the hot tub or I will fucking neuter you, I don’t know if a eunuch mod already exists for medieval games but I will make one if it doesn’t.

Here, Cyneswith, drink some water, have a nice G-rated convo with your sister about violins and stop pissing me off. 

-First of all this is straight vodka.

Great.

-Secondly Shajar is talking about Mozart’s coprophilia.

-I sure am.

Amazing. Well, I guess it’s at times like these when you need to look inside your heart and truly ask yourself, what did you expect from Jojo’s children.

ABHIJEET ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME DID YOU EVEN HEAR ME TALK ABOUT CASTRATION

-Ha, I went home and put on my most elderly-looking formal wear!

-I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave Ab <3

CYNESWITH SHUT UP. I can’t believe you people are actually making me miss Gunther’s teenage whoring, at least he kept it age appropriate.

-Is some random lady pressing her breasts against my head?

She most certainly is, Shajar, because it is now crystal clear that this bowling alley doubles as the site of annual perv townie convention and we walked right into it-

-and it’s also clear we have serious issues and are enjoying ourselves. Shaj I legit don’t know what to tell you, this is the first time you get along with someone right away and it just had to be the adult with the bad haircut and the flasher’s trench coat???

-You’re damn right it did.

Alright then, I’m officially going to nope out of this situation, safe in the knowledge you’re a noogiesexual and nothing will actually happen with this freak, so I’ll focus on Cyneswith instead who is much more of a loose canon. 

Here Cyn, talk to this guy, who I’m 90% sure is the same guy your father rejected in favor of stalking Stephen Tinker when he was your age.

-Ohhhh, he’s dreamy!

Omg really?? Halleluj-

-oh never mind, you were of course referring to adult ass Brandon Lillard. I do like that our townies have recurring roles each generation, we should make rejecting Blondie a rite of passage in this family. We should also officially gtfo because this is happening:

-Um, now that I’m looking at you in harsher lighting, it’s gonna be a no from me dawg. 

Oh, thank the fucking lord.

-Let’s celebrate the fact we didn’t get hopelessly obsessed with any adults here by doing the traditional Dance of Normality!

-We beat Dad’s genes, we beat Dad’s genes!

-We’re normal!

Yes, and we’re definitely showing it. Can we please leave now so I can make sure I’ve uninstalled Inteenminator and turn off free will? 

-Nop! Venue change!

-Got-out-of-the-car celebratory noogie!

-Made-it-to-the-door celebratory noogie!

Shajar you unironically have a noogie addiction, I’m not kidding in the slightest, you need to see a doctor.

Great, great, not another teen in sight and to top it off Denise followed us here to ensure maximum elder presence. I feel comfortable officially declaring this day a complete waste of time.

God, the vintage pink dress and the pink alcohol combo is some straight up current era Taylor Swift nonsense. That’s it, we’re outta here, back home where no one is lurking, waiting to strike at us-

-SOPHIE NOOOOOOOOOOOO💔💔💔💔💔

-The Lord is my shepherd.

NO HE ISN’T EVERYONE KNOWS YOU CAN’T HERD CATS PLEASE DON’T DIE

-Nop, I’m over it. Goodbye heathens, it’s been nice, hope you don’t find your paradise. 

UGH SOPHIE, my beloved Westboro lunatic, the last gangsta generation 1 cat we had.. I can’t believe you’re gone and all I’m left with is stupid Goro and D’vorah who can’t even beat up the fucking dog. This is truly painful.

Yes, pets, I agree, Kaylynn is completely to blame for Sophie dying of old age. The time has now come to decide on a cat heir-

-and since Goro ran away like a little bitch after Sophie’s death despite the fact he didn’t even like her, he’s automatically disqualified and will be going off to live on Melody and Daniel’s farm once returned to us. Congratulations to D’vorah I guess, on being the least terrible of two terrible options. 

On the topic of terrible heir options, Cyn has non-stop wants to go on dates and have her first kiss and all that crap, and since our Sunday morning clubbing was a bust we invite over the matchmaker.

-Hello there young Union, I see your house has been upgraded since I was last here.

Oh right we haven’t required your services since Daniel was a teen and we lived in a trailer, well we are flush with cash now!

-Hopefully your payment reflects that.

It will!! Just please give us someone good, I can’t deal with single teen Cyn for one more second.

-Oh my, what a beautiful BLANK PIECE OF PAPER.

WHAT!? NO THAT’S 5K IT’S JUST A SNOW GLITCH 

-What do I look like to you, a money thawing service?

Does such a service.. exist??

-It does not, so I have to go home and use a hairdryer on this!

Just come inside and we’ll give you non-frozen money!

-No, no, you’ll get what you paid for..

-Have a magical time!

...

.........

......................

Lakshmi this was so fucking evil that I almost want to age you down and see if you and Shajar hit it off. 

-As if, the whole neighborhood knows what you did to Komei.

Helped him achieve his insane 6-pets-career LTW?

-Turned him into a servant while your sim was lounging around all day!

Oh yea I did do that. But Wyatt was also a townie and he does literally nothing, Jojo is the servant now!

-Only because Wyatt is too fucking stupid to do things! Word has gotten out, no townie will ever marry in this family again unless they’re brain dead, so it’s Wyatts only for you from now on, sister!

Well this has been a complete fucking disaster. It was great seeing you again, Lakshmi, thanks for the dream date with the adult farting machine, 5k well-spent.

Pretty sure it was you bro, and yes, how about we don’t do that again.

Wyatt has brought over Amanda from work! (Aka Victoria’s only friend and subsequent lesbian lover, who is really pretty and is definitely getting married in at some point, preferably after the brown hair genes have been weakened so we can go back to being gingers.)  

-Wow Shajar, your grandmother, God rest her soul, mentioned you were her favorite and now I can see why! Loving the Kylo Ren look!

-Is someone being genuinely nice to me?! What is happening?

-Yes, please stop being nice to her, Amanda, we don’t want her getting used to it.

Jojo istg.

-Cyneswith dear, tell Amanda all about how much money your grandmother left you so she can stop being nice to Shajar. 

-Soooo much money, Miss Amanda!

-Ah, what a polite child I’ve single-handedly raised.

-Now, Cyneswith, you really need to get back on the dating scene so you have ample time to find the perfect spouse and continue our line, since you’re clearly the only one of my children that is remotely heir material. 

-Dad, Shajar and Wulf are right next to you.

-Oh they are? I’m wearing my special contact lenses that make those disappointments invisible to me, but even better, they need to hear this. Shajar is a noogiesexual and thus incapable of reproduction, and Wulf is not even a Union, I mean have you seen that kid? Wyatt reproduced by himself like the amoeba he is. Now, your grandmother-

-YOU MENTIONED ME 3 TIMES AND HERE I AM

OH FUCK VICTORIA, deleting the default replacements gave you base game hair!!!!

-That’s the part you’re scared by, not my Beetlejuicesque entrance?

There’s literally nothing scarier than your ghost sporting this haircut for all eternity, I’m re-downloading that default immediately. 

-Oh mom, so good to see you! Let me just hug my beloved child, Shijer-

-Shajar, dad.

-SHAJAR, let me hug Shajar, like I do all the time. 

-I’m glad to see you’re not picking favorites among your children like I did, the way I treated David-

-Daniel, mom.

-DANIEL, is the one thing I’ve truly been regretting in the afterlife. That and not skinning Marisa Bendett alive when I had the chance. 

-Well, as you can see by Shajar’s totally normal and not at all shocked reaction to my hug, I am a wonderful, fair, and emotionally available father. 

(Bruh this freaked me out so much when it happened, I mean I KNOW it’s an animation glitch but I was convinced my sims had become sentient for a good while after)

-Is your grandmother’s ghost still on the premises?

-Yup. 

-When will this nightmare end, paying attention to you is the worst. 

-Ok she’s gone.

-FINALLY. Now it’s back to the crypt for you, and don’t you dare go complain to her urn!

-Ah, Stephen, Stephen, my life is crap and I can’t even🎵

And with the knowledge you have composed a theme song for Stephen Tinker, part 1 of the Union comeback update is concluded. Will Shajar’s sexual orientation reveal itself? Will Cyneswith find true love? Will Jojo become a werewolf? Will Wulf continue to be the only dignified member of this family? Will D’vorah have kittens? Will Wyatt do literally anything worth mentioning? Tune in for parts 2 & 3 to find out, unfollow button on the upper right corner for those who need it. 

[halothenthehorns]

ARAGOG

  ARAGOG

Remus took the book very unwillingly, not looking any kind of excited to see how right they were about those 'attacks a day.'

The weather was showing its end of the year spirit, showing the brightest of blue skies and the grounds bursting with garden life.

"Sounds lovely," Lily sighed, wishing her favourite time of year wasn't so amok due to the events of this year.

The inside of the castle was the opposite. Every face inside was now permanently etched with worry and fear now that Dumbledore was gone. Harry and Ron were now barred from entering the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey fearing that someone could return and finish off the students inside.

All five of them winced, James saying, "err, yeah I guess that could be a possibility. We still don't even know why those students were attacked."

"Man this is depressing," Sirius huffed,"makes me wish for the old years where the students were just being hauled out of school because of paranoid parents."

"That wasn't any more comforting," Remus snorted.

The corridors were barren, students could no longer linger around and chat as usual, and any laughter that could be heard faded quickly.

"Now that I remember," Lily sighed.

"I couldn't stand that after my third week," James sighed, "I grew up in a pretty quiet house, I wasn't going to stand a quiet school!"

Harry kept turning Dumbledore's last words over in his head, but who was he supposed to ask for help? The teachers looked just as confused and scared as anyone.

"I thought he meant it more metaphorically," Lily grinned, "not literally."

While Harry smiled at his mother for the light comment, he also sighed, wishing he had someone to turn to back then.

Hagrid's comment was much easier to understand, but the problem was there seemed no spiders around. Ron wasn't very eager to help find them.

"Yeah," Remus nodded, "I picture Ron looking for spiders like Sirius looking for a dragon's nest."

Sirius huffed and muttered something under his breath.

They didn't get much of a chance to look though, as they were being herded through the corridors by teachers, much to Harry's exasperation.

"As would I," they all agreed, that sounding annoying.

The only person who looked to be enjoying this new mood was Draco, who had been seen strutting about and preening in pleasure.

"He's really trying his hardest to make himself not look suspicious, huh?" Sirius laughed.

Harry wasn't sure what he was so happy about,

"He's pleased because his wish came true," James growled to himself, "wasn't he the one who wished it was Hermione that got petrified next?"

"Thanks for that reminder," Harry grumbled, his fists balling up all over again.

"Are we sure Malfoy doesn't have something to do with this?" Sirius asked. "Cause if you ask me, he's still taking this too lightly."

"Well, since nobody but Muggleborns have been attacked yet, I'd have to say he doesn't have anything to worry about," Lily sighed.

until he overheard him talking loudly in their next Potions about how happy he was his own father had been the one to get rid of Dumbledore.

"Oh yes, now let's brag about your father getting rid of the greatest headmaster ever," Remus growled.

"I will genuinely sob if someone doesn't punch that kid in the face soon," Sirius hissed.

Going on in high spirits about how the next Headmaster hopefully wouldn't even want to close the Chamber.

"I shudder at the thought," James sneered.

"What, is he hoping his dad will be the new headmaster as well?" Lily asked.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Sirius gagged at the thought.

McGonagall surely wouldn't last long.

"No," Remus snapped, "if the worst happens and Dumbledore really can't come back, they'd have to kick her out as well before being able to replace with their own Headmaster. Even then,

McGonagall has her own right to designate her own second."

"You kind of scare me when you start ranting like that," James told him honestly.

Remus shrugged, only simmering down slightly.

Then Malfoy turned to Snape and asked if he was going to get the job next?

"Then I'm sure I'd roll over in my grave," James hissed to himself.

Harry suddenly felt like he'd been sucker punched between the eyes, but surely he must be misunderstanding Malfoy. There was no way in Merlin's pants that Snape could ever get ahold of that position...right?

Snape was clearly pleased, unable to suppress a horrid looking smile,

"I'm sure he's just sobbing with grief," Sirius grumbled.

but he corrected Malfoy that he was sure Dumbledore would be back soon. Malfoy disregarded this and said that Snape would have Mr. Malfoy's vote should he apply, how Lucius had always said Snape was the best teacher at this school.

"If he kisses up to him anymore, I'm going to be forced to make a very lame brown nose joke," Sirius huffed.

"For the love of Merlin, please don't," James groaned. "Since most of your jokes are bad enough as is."

Snape was still smirking as he turned away, thankfully missing Seamus faking vomiting into his cauldron.

All five of them cracked up laughing at this, finding it a more than appropriate response.

Malfoy was still talking, saying how he was stunned the Mudbloods hadn't jumped and left themselves yet,

Remus finished that sentence with a foul taste in his mouth. He hated how casually this child threw that word around.

and said that he was positive the next one would die. He was just sorry it wasn't Granger.

"I can't believe this," Lily gasped, losing a shade of colour. "Who could say something like that? Let alone a child?"

The other three boys agreed, but Harry puzzled over something. He had a distinct feeling that, when it came down to it, Draco wasn't a killer. What on earth could possess him to think this? No one noticed his silent questions, Remus was already done agreeing with Lily and moving past this.

The class was moving towards the door now, cutting off Ron's attempts from lunging at Malfoy.

"Attempts?" Sirius frowned in annoyance, "who's stopping him?"

"Sirius think about it," Remus sighed, "he's in Snape's classroom."

"I don't care," James snapped, backing up his friend, "I'll take fifty detentions just to punch that git in the face for saying something like that."

Harry shook his head sadly from side to side, saying, "while I agree with you, Snape would have stopped Ron before he even started. Then he would have gotten the detentions, without the

satisfaction."

"I love it when you reason things out like that," Remus grinned, "shows a lot more thought than these two ever did, or even Lily for that matter."

"I've no idea what you're talking about," she grinned.

"Don't even," James huffed, sitting back in his seat, "we all know you've got a temper, and you would have cursed this kid sky high given half the chance. So far the only one who can keep their heads in this sort of thing is Remus, and Harry it seems."

Harry just smiled and shrugged.

Harry and Dean were holding him back from doing anything rash, despite Ron's very verbal protests that he didn't need his wand to kill Malfoy with his hands.

"There's that to," Remus chuckled, "he doesn't want to go puking slugs up again now does he?"

"Like he said though," Sirius shrugged, "fists can work just fine."

Harry and Dean still wouldn't release him until Snape had escorted them all to Herbology, when the Slytherins went back inside and they were standing outside the greenhouses. The class seemed very off with two of their numbers now missing.

All five of them shivered at once, hating to hear that aloud once more.

Sprout set them the assignment to prune an Abyssinian Shrivelfig, and Harry turned to see himself facing Ernie Macmillan.

"Not this one again," James groaned, placing his face in his hands, "I already want to punch one twelve year old in the face today!"

"I really hope he's not going to start throwing insults at you again in the middle of class," Lily huffed.

Harry tensed up for another fight, but Ernie surprised him by apologizing to Harry for ever thinking it was him.

"What's this?" Sirius asked, craning around and trying to pull away the book.

"Knock it off Padfoot," Remus griped, keeping the book closer to himself, "and let me read. I think I like where this is going."

He said how he was foolish to think Harry could hurt Hermione. Then he offered his hand.

"Well that was nice," Lily said, brightening at once.

James hesitated for a moment before nodding and saying, "any kid who can admit they were wrong, and then apologizes like that. Yeah, guess this kid's not all bad."

"Still a gullible idiot," Sirius grinned, then nodded along saying, "but not all bad."

"Well this couldn't have worked out better," Remus smirked, agreeing full heartedly with the other two, "hopefully the rest of the school follows that same line of thinking, and you'll stop getting rumours following you around."

"I sure hope so," Harry agreed.

Harry took it and let the whole matter go, so Ernie called over his friend Hannah and they all started working on the same plant. Ernie began the conversation by stating how he'd instead come up with a new idea for the Heir of Slytherin, Malfoy.

"Now he's at least more on the right track," Sirius grinned.

"To bad he's wrong," James huffed.

Ron snarked back that he must feel so smart, clearly not as forgiving of his earlier slight as Harry was.

"And that's how a real friend does," Sirius nodded, "even if your mate stupidly gets over it, you hold a grudge for him."

"That doesn't make any sense," Lily rolled her eyes at him.

Sirius just shrugged, it made perfect sense to him.

When Ernie asked if Harry agreed, Harry said no so forcefully, it made the two Hufflepuffs stare.

"Well that wasn't very thought out," Remus out right laughed this time, "you should have at least given a good reason as to why you thought not, or even better agreed with them. Just because you know they're wrong, doesn't mean you can't indulge them."

"I didn't see the point in spreading rumours," Harry defended, "I hate them, even aimed at people I don't like."

"Maybe he's less like Remus then I thought," Sirius grinned.

Then Harry's attention was distracted by spotting some spiders scuttling over the grass through a crack, and Harry hit Ron's hand with the shears to get his attention.

"Ouch," Sirius winced, "what was that for?"

"To get his attention," Harry pointed out.

"A simple poke would have been kinder," James laughed.

When he pointed out what he saw, Ron looked far from happy, and when Harry followed their path further he noticed that they must be heading for the Forbidden Forest.

Lily then said something very unladylike.

"Mum?" Harry asked in concern.

"You're not actually going to follow them in there are you?" She demanded, going a little wide eyed.

Harry mulled that over for a moment before shrugging and saying, "if I give you one of my gut answers again, are you still going to be mad if I'm right?"

"That's a yes then," she moaned, beginning to gnaw on her lip at once.

"This can't be good," Sirius huffed, "this can not be good."

Harry thought back to the stories these boys had been telling him about the Forbidden Forest, and then agreed out loud with Sirius.

"So you lot have never seen where the spider's den is?" Lily asked pitifully.

"Nope," James shook his head sadly. "We followed them in pretty far once, but then we came across some that were twice the size of us. We hightailed it out of there and never went back."

"Why would Hagrid say to follow them anyways?" Remus demanded. "It didn't even occur to me that when he said to follow the spiders, he meant the ones that would lead him into the forest!"

"Where else did you think they would lead?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, maybe to the chamber, or if you followed them backwards, to where the monster was hidden. Not to their den!"

"This isn't going to be good," Harry sighed, before encouraging Remus to go on anyways. None of them looked the least bit happy about this.

Ron looked even unhappier about that.

"Can't imagine why," Sirius muttered.

When that class let out, Professor Sprout had to take them all to their DADA class.

"Great," James huffed, "even more of an annoyance to deal with."

"Believe it or not, I'd take a double Dark Arts class with him over that bleeding forest," Lily shuddered.

Harry and Ron fell behind to the back of the group as Harry whispered to Ron that tonight they were going to put the invisibility cloak back on and head out there. They'd take Fang along, since he always travelled the forest with Hagrid.

"Now that's fair," Remus nodded, "last year Hagrid did say nothing would hurt you with Fang around."

"Think that holds true for the giant spiders?" Sirius asked. "They saw me and didn't have a problem trying to eat us."

"I don't think it works with just any dog," James disagreed. "It might just be Hagrid's dog in particular."

"Here's hoping," Lily murmured.

Ron agreed without any enthusiasm. Then he voiced out loud a common rumour that werewolves had been seen stalking that forest.

"So glad that rumour never died out," Sirius chuckled as a brief distraction.

Harry chose not to answer that,

"Oh that was comforting I'm sure," Lily muttered.

and instead reminded Ron of some of the good things going around there, like the centaurs and unicorns. Ron had never had the pleasure of being in the forest before, and Harry's one escaped had not led him to want another go. They'd reached their next class by this point, and Lockhart came bounding in with high spirits.

"As blundering and useless as always then," Remus grumbled to himself.

When he saw the students all sitting quietly and tense, he demanded to know what they were so upset about.

"I'm not even going to answer that," Sirius declared.

"Thank you," Lily said sincerely.

No one bothered to answer him, and Lockhart was all too happy to point out to them that the danger the school was in was gone! The person who'd done these terrible things had been arrested.

"Oh please," James huffed.

Dean demanded to know how he knew that, and Lockhart laughed lightly before pointing out that the Ministry would have never arrested Hagrid if they weren't positive he was the one.

"And here I thought he couldn't get more stupid," Lily said in disbelief.

"The Minister was covering his own arse by taking in someone who hadn't done a thing wrong-" Sirius began hotly.

"Yes Sirius, we know, and it is wrong," Remus pacified, "but stop that now so I can read."

Sirius slouched back and kept up his muttering anyways.

Ron shouted back that yes they sure would. Lockhart brushed him off by saying he knew far more about the goings on of the situation then Ron.

"You flatter yourself too much," Remus snapped in disgust.

"Besides, I doubt you know a touch more about anything over a toddler. I'm one hundred percent sure my little four month old upstairs could do more magic than him," James growled.

Ron was about to bite back and say he definitely knew otherwise, but Harry kicked him.

"Ron seems to be getting attacked by you a lot today," Lily grinned.

"He is acting out," Remus noted in surprise.

"I'd be even worse if one of my friends had been attacked," Sirius defended.

Shushing him and reminding him that they weren't actually supposed to know anything. Still, Harry was half tempted himself to chuck Gadding with Ghouls at Lockhart by the end of class.

"Slow applause for your show of strength anyways," James sighed.

He contented himself with instead writing a note to Ron that they were going to do it tonight.

"Can't you do it never?" Lily muttered under her breath.

Ron hesitated, glanced at Hermione's empty seat,

"Best motive for doing anything ever," Sirius agreed.

and nodded his agreement. That night drew on much longer than usual, the twins having come over and decided to play a few rounds of Exploding Snap,

'Well that was rather nice of them,' Lily thought, noting they hadn't really been known to do this yet, and she couldn't help but wonder if Ron's siblings were trying to be extra nice to him in sympathy for the temporary loss of his friend.

while Ginny slumped in Hermione's usual chair and looking rather morose about it. Harry and Ron kept losing on purpose,

"I guess I can see the point of doing that," Sirius shrugged, "but still, wouldn't that look a bit suspicious?"

"They didn't seem to notice," Harry shrugged.

and finally Fred and George grew tired and went to bed along with their sister. Harry and Ron took the chance, went upstairs for the cloak, and once again left the tower.

"Well here you go boys," Lily snarked, "Harry and Ron are finally doing something with the cloak you should approve of."

"Please Lily," James moaned, "is now really the time for that? Yes, we snuck into the forest all the time, but we never intended to go find giant man eating spiders, except for one time! Then we didn't again when we realized how bad they were, give us some credit."

Lily tried for a smirk, she had been trying to push some humour into the room, but it didn't seem to hold the same effect.

They once again had problems with stealth, the teachers still constantly patrolling all of the floors, but they still managed to make it onto the grounds without getting caught.

"It really should be harder to get out of the school," Lily noted.

"Nah," Sirius disagreed, "I insist they make it easy on purpose. The teachers know we need out of the castle more than they allow." Present time excluded of course, where they were clearly going out of the way to stop them.

"Soundless logic as that is," Lily snorted.

Ron tried to convince himself that maybe the spiders hadn't really been headed for the forest, they could have veered off in another direction.

"Poor kid," Remus winced, "boy is he in for surprise."

They made it to Hagrid's hut, and Harry let Fang out

"Oh, please tell me that someone's been letting him out," Lily fretted.

"I think someone said something about McGonagall taking him out," Harry soothed.

"That's an adorable thought," James grinned, "picturing her coming out and around and taking Fang out to go potty."

who began barking with mad joy. Harry quickly fed him some of Hagrid's food which promptly sealed the dog's jaw shut.

Sirius started laughing very loudly, and it took him a moment to calm down before he breathed out, "I think that's base torture."

Harry decided to leave his cloak inside Hagrid's place, as he didn't really think he'd have use for it in the already dark forest.

"I disagree," James scoffed at once, "there are plenty of reasons you don't want to be seen in the forest. Fold it up and carry it or something."

Harry just shrugged, he had nothing to say to that and it was already done.

They walked over to the edge of the forest, where Fang promptly lifted a leg and pissed on the nearby trees.

"Well at least he's going to have a good time," Remus chuckled.

Harry took out his wand and used the spell Lumos to light the tip of it, giving him a glow of light. Ron said he'd do the same, but his wand would probably set the whole forest on fire if he tried.

"That's probably true," Sirius snickered.

Harry glanced around at his feet, and sure enough, came across some spiders heading in. Ron sighed, but didn't argue the point and led them inside.

"That's some friend," James grinned from ear to ear, "walking into literally a real fear just to find out a secret that might help his friend."

"Best kind of friend there is," Sirius and Remus both grinned, Sirius privately thinking he'd brave a dozen dragons' den if it would stop this catastrophe of a future he was hearing about.

It wasn't easy, keeping track of the tiny black crawlers going over leaves and through bushes. Many times Harry lost sight of them and it took some time to come across some more. Deep into the woods, they caught sight of them again, heading off the path.

Lily shuddered in disgust, remembering Hagrid's words clearly about not leaving the paths, though also trying to comfort herself with knowing that these four boys in the room had obviously ventured off the path and seemed to be alright. Still, she herself didn't much like the idea, no matter how much she heard about it.

Harry hesitated as he clearly remembered Hagrid's words of warning against this,

"Sound advice," Lily sighed out loud this time, "wish you would have followed it," clearly to herself.

but Hagrid wasn't here, and they had to do something. Harry was startled out of thinking when something cold touched Harry's hand, and he startled so bad he jumped onto Ron's foot, but it only turned out to be Fang's nose.

"Jumpy much," Sirius said in forced light tones, not finding it remotely funny.

Ron shrugged it off and pointed out they'd come this far already, they may as well keep going.

"No, the correct response to that was, we shouldn't go any farther," Remus muttered under his breath.

So deeper they went, until Harry's tiny light was the only break in the darkness. At some point the ground began to slope beneath them,

"And that's about when we ran into the giant spiders," James nodded in remembrance, "when the ground began sloping towards the middle of the forest."

"That was not comforting, in the slightest," his wife informed him.

and Fang scared them both again by barking.

"Not good," they all muttered. Anything Fang barked at was never good.

"Thought Fang had his jaw glued shut?" James randomly giggled as a distraction.

"It wears off," Harry reminded, pointing out how he'd earlier wrenched his jaw apart to snap at Hagrid about his crack in wanting a signed photo.

Ron was going pale with fear, his eyes shifting around to figure out what had startled the dog. Harry whispered that he could sense something big, listening intently.

"Please tell me you just run away once you find them," Remus hissed without any conviction.

They both remained tense and frozen, Ron consistently muttering 'no' under his breath,

Even as Remus read that, he could hear the faint echoing of it in the room from the other occupants. No one wanted Harry anywhere near...well anything that was big and in the forest.

and Harry could feel himself growing even more stressed as time elapsed and nothing happened. When Harry said this out loud, Ron muttered whatever it was, was probably getting ready to pounce.

"I don't want Ron to answer questions anymore," Lily muttered.

Still they stood there, until finally a bright flash of light,

"Light?" Sirius asked in confusion.

"You think a teacher followed them out?" Remus asked curiously.

"Nah, or they would have been stopped long before this," James disagreed.

"Then what would cause a light in the forest?" Sirius asked redundantly.

Since none of them had a real answer, Remus read.

came boring down on them. Fang startled and tried to make a run for it, but only managed to get tangled up in a thorny bush.

Lily very much wanted to feel sympathy for the poor dog, but she was far more worried about her little Hare Bare and his extremely vulnerable, wandless, friend.

Harry was blinded and blinking spots out of his eyes, when Ron sighed in relief and exclaimed it was the car!

"The car?" they all repeated in confusion.

The fear that had been mounting in Harry's face suddenly relaxed again to confusion and slight amusement. "What on earth would the car be doing there?"

"Did no one ever go and get that thing out of there?" Remus demanded, rubbing at his chest from delayed fear.

"Wow, that car's just been running around the forest this whole time?" Sirius asked, slightly bemused, and trying to shake off his want of screaming from the mounting fear.

"Better it than Fluffy," James muttered.

Ron wasn't wrong. Harry finally made out the shape of Mr. Weasley's Anglia, which was scratched and muddied, but nudging up to Ron like an old dog greeting its owner.

"Wow, Mr. Weasley must have had the car for ages for it to be so imbued with magic," Lily said, rather impressed.

"Kind of want to enchant my bike like that now," Sirius said, grinning brightly, "looks like it might be loyal."

Lily dearly wanted to smack him for that, not finding it funny in the slightest.

Ron was laughing with relief as he patted the hood and noted that the car must have been running around the forest this whole time turning wild. Harry went over and got Fang untangled from the bush, and then joined Ron while putting his wand away.

"No," James shook his head frantically, "I'd still keep that out." He couldn't quite get the image out of his mind of the last time Harry had been in the forest. Sure he had better backup then Malfoy now, at least Ron wouldn't run at the first sight of trouble, but with a broken wand he still didn't feel that secure about the place as normal.

It didn't hold Harry's interest long though, as he told Ron they'd lost their trail of spiders and they had to get going.

"Can't you just get in and go back to school," Lily groaned.

"Now what would have been the point of going out there?" Harry asked rhetorically.

Ron did not respond. He was looking ten feet above Harry's head.

Remus' voice began pitching with fear, this didn't seem good.

A fixed look of terror in place.

"Well that's not good," Sirius whispered, right in line with Remus' line of thinking.

Harry didn't even get a chance to turn around, as something caught him around the middle and he found himself dangling upside down.

Lily's mouth was half sagged open, like she wanted to scream but couldn't find the air. Harry gave her a very concerned look and asked, "ah, Mum?"

"Ten, ten feet," she stuttered, then gave a great shiver as if trying to shake them off herself.

"I, dang yeah, they were about that big," James was a little off colour as well.

"I hate acromantulas," Sirius muttered, rubbing goose bumps out of his arm.

"But I'm fine," Harry reassured at once, "and this trip is really important, I'm sure of that."

"So long as you and Ron come out with all four limbs," Remus huffed.

Harry tried to get loose, but whatever was holding him seemed not to even notice. Harry spotted Ron and Fang in the exact same situation, all of them being carried away farther into the forest.

"Fang's probably why they didn't eat you outright," Remus reasoned aloud, "like Hagrid said, the spiders must have recognized Fang and knew not to attack."

"I really kind of want to know now how Hagrid made a pact with spiders," Sirius said honestly.

"Whatever he did, thank Merlin for it," Lily shuddered again one more time, that horrid mental image of her boy being clutched in a sea of spiders still not quite leaving her, "because it's

probably what saved these boys' lives."

Harry caught sight of what was carrying him, and wished he hadn't. Six legs were marching along, while the front two were holding him aloft above sharp pincers.

All five of them gave one last wince of disgust, hoping the book would quite describing this now.

There were dozens more all moving across the leaves, and before he knew it the car had faded away.

"Wish the car had gone to protect them or something," James muttered.

"I think it was trying to," Sirius offered, "seems a bit of a coincidence it just showed up then yeah? Personally I think it was trying to warn them to get out of there."

"Too bad they didn't listen," Lily huffed, giving Harry a sidelong look which he sheepishly ignored.

When Harry's vision adjusted to the dark ground again, he saw the floor of the forest was nothing but a carpet of the smaller spiders.

"Okay, I don't even have a fear of spiders, and I'm starting to freak out," James gaped.

"Poor Ron," Sirius agreed, "and you," he added on thoughtfully to Harry when he saw his pup watching him.

They were brought into a natural den, surrounded on all sides by the carthorse sized arachnids.

"How big do they get?" Lily asked in disgust.

"They keep growing until they die," Remus seemed to be regretting having to answer, but willing to anyways for their benefit, "and they can live for up to sixty or seventy years. They also have some form of a hierarchy, a dominant male and female, that continue reproducing until the mother of the group is too weak to fend off the young. Once they grow too old, their young will eat them, and a new hierarchy will start to form."

"That was more than I ever wanted to know about them," Lily grumbled, "but thanks all the same."

They were dropped onto a thankfully spider free patch of leaves, and Harry was now staring at the largest spider web he'd ever seen in his life. Fang was dropped on one side, the dog nonstop whimpering, his tail tucked up tight beneath him. Ron fell on his other side, his eyes so wide they looked likely to fall out of his head, and his mouth seemed frozen in a scream he couldn't get out.

"He must be living in a nightmare right now," Sirius said pityingly.

"There goes any hope of Ron getting over his fear of spiders," James agreed.

Harry's ears then tuned into the fact that the spiders were speaking.

"They speak?" James demanded in disgust.

"How smart are they?" Lily yelped.

"Human smart," Sirius and Remus both said.

"They just get better and better," Harry muttered.

They were calling out the name Aragog.

Harry went bright eyed for a moment, nodding to himself as yet another name slide into place in his mind. It wasn't a very important name, of that he was sure, but one that he felt he should have remembered vividly and feeling pleased he now could.

The largest spider of all came climbing up the web, equal in size to a small elephant, each of its eyes pure white. This spider was blind.

"That is almost funny," Sirius said curiously.

"Just as dangerous without his eyes," Remus disagreed, "so whatever you're thinking, the answer's no."

"You're no fun," Sirius told him, while privately he was scoffing. Like he really wanted to go anywhere near those things.

The underling spiders announced they'd brought humans, and Aragog at once asked if it was Hagrid. When they said no, he simply said to kill them,

"Yeesh, harsh much," James winced, going several shades paler.

that he'd been sleeping.

"And now we know not to disturb you during your nap," Sirius grumbled, "next time, we'll give you notice."

Harry found his tongue and shouted out that he was a friend of Hagrid's.

Remus nodded, knowing on instinct this was the best thing to say right then.

Aragog hesitated then, telling how Hagrid had never sent people into their place before. Harry explained that Hagrid was in trouble, and was shocked to hear Aragog repeat this with concern in his pincers.

"Aw," Lily said in surprise.

"Wow, I'm genuinely impressed," Remus agreed, "most acromantulas don't form human bonds. In fact, I'm almost positive this is the same giant spider that Riddle tried to kill, and Hagrid

protected."

"It would make sense," James nodded.

"Well then thank Merlin for Hagrid's oddity with monsters," Sirius shrugged.

Then he asked what had happened, and Harry said that Hagrid had been blamed for something going on at the school, that he'd been sent away to Azkaban. This didn't seem to be the right thing to say, as the spiders all around him began smashing their pincers, making it sound like a horrid mockery of applause.

"Not a good idea to be agitating them right now," Sirius fretted.

"I'll keep that in mind," Harry responded calmly, giving all of them a chance to give him a weak smile.

Aragog protested that all that had happened years ago. Harry spoke of how it was all happening again, then asked if Aragog was the monster from the Chamber. Aragog denied he was, stating that he came from an egg from far away, and Hagrid had taken him in.

"Oh that's even better," James muttered, "seems Hagrid is the one who started the Acromantula colony in the forest himself."

"Yeah, Hagrid just lost some brownie points with me," Sirius grumbled, taking back his earlier comment a bit.

He'd hidden him up in the castle and fed him scraps from the table.

Lily might not like the idea of giant man eating spiders much, especially ones that so casually said her son could be eaten, but she did feel grains of pity for this creature and could understand why it felt so partial to Hagrid now.

Hagrid had been a good friend to him over the years, even acquiring a female named Mosag.

"A little too much goodness if you ask me," Remus frowned, "I think giving him a girlfriend was going just a bit far."

"Oh but it's so much fun picturing it," Sirius grinned, "think of little Hagrid talking to a lonely Aragog, and then him asking about girls and whether Mosag liked this or-" he stopped when

Remus smacked him, even though Remus didn't seem to notice the nasty glare Sirius was now giving him.

Harry confirmed that Aragog had never hurt anyone, and Aragog said he never had, though it was in his nature, he'd never harmed a human out of respect for Hagrid.

"Bet your kids can't say the same," James muttered to himself, having heard a few stories in his time of other students wandering into the forest and not coming back out.

The girl who had been killed all those years ago had been found in a bathroom,

Harry nodded to himself, saying aloud, "that's it. That was the important thing I remembered about this night."

"So you went out there only to find out it was Myrtle who died," Sirius frowned. "Honestly, you could have just sat around and talked to her with much less deadly results."

"I didn't know that then," Harry defended.

"Guess there's no point in arguing it then," Remus butt in before Sirius could respond.

and Aragog had never left his cupboard. Harry asked if he did know what had killed her, and Aragog actually sounded afraid as he remembered begging Hagrid to let him run away when he heard the creature moving through the castle.

"Well this just got unbelievably creepier," Lily frowned, "I'd hate to meet what scares an acromantula."

Remus nodded to himself, as if he needed more proof of what he thought was in the bowels of the castle.

All around Harry, the other spiders were growing with agitation, inching closer and still rustling their pincers.

"Could you please stop describing that now," James groaned, trying to ignore the fact that it was getting hard to hear at all from the harsh thumping in his chest.

"Kay, you got your information," Sirius said, starting to bounce in place again, "can you please leave now."

Harry had his own look of unease in place, but he was still determined to talk to the spider as long as possible.

Aragog then snapped that he did not speak the name of the creature,

"Which is a real shame, cause I would have liked to known by then," Harry muttered mostly to himself.

he'd never even told Hagrid. Harry was starting to feel closed in, all he could see around him were infinite spiders of all sizes still getting closer. Aragog seemed to be back away now, clearly growing weary of talking.

"Now, we were wanting to leave," Harry agreed with Sirius, forcing back a sense of unease that was starting to build.

Harry couldn't help but notice this, and said that they'd just be on their way then. Aragog disagreed,

"I'm sorry, I'm starting to wish Hagrid hadn't ever found this stupid spider," James snarled, "cause I don't like it."

"Agreed," everyone else muttered.

saying that he may be able to stop his children from attacking Hagrid, but not any random person that came in. He called a goodbye to the friend of Hagrid.

Remus couldn't help yet another shiver of fear and disgust as he read that. Acromantulas were extremely hard to kill, so how on earth had his cub gotten out of this? He didn't wait for the stony silence to erupt into outrage at the spider, he simply read on swiftly.

Harry and Ron jolted to their feet, Harry pulling his wand out despite knowing it was no good, he definitely didn't know any spells to get him out of this mess, but knowing if he was going to die he was going to go out fighting.

Then he had to stop again to choke off a strangled sob. All he could picture was James, doing this same thing for his soon perished life-he jumped slightly when Sirius nudged him in the ribs, hard. His eyes were too bright, he looked like he was trying to force himself not to blink to hold back tears, but one glance over to the couch showed that the little family of three were having their own issues with that sentence. Knowing Harry was fine and alive only slightly comforted him as he forced himself to keep reading.

Before anything else could be done though, another to bright light came barrelling onto the scene, as Mr. Weasley's car came hurtling down the slope.

Lily blinked once, twice, then she burst out in half hysterical laughter. "I-I'm sorry," she gasped, looking around at Harry and finally getting out, "I am so sorry for having yelled at you for taking that car to school."

Harry grinned at her, never having held the scolding against her, but pleased all the same she didn't seem to be holding that against him anymore.

Almost giddy with excitement and laughing at this bit of circumstance, Remus now read eagerly.

It came swerving to a stop right in front of Harry and Ron, doors thrown open.

"Definitely going to be enchanting my bike," Sirius said with real conviction now, watching Lily warily to see if she was going to get mad at him again, "it seems like it will be handier than harm."

Lily pursed her lips, but then chose to say nothing. While she was still a woman of the law before a lot a things, she decided just then she might be able to turn a deaf ear to what he had just said...the benefits seemed far more important just then.

Both boys lunged inside, Ron grabbing up Fang and hauling him in as well. The doors slammed shut and the car revved off of its own accord, knocking into many spiders on the way.

"They deserve it," James muttered mostly to himself, though no one would have disagreed. They were all still just a little winded at yet another horrifying deadly experience that happened to Harry, heart rates weren't even considering going back to normal until Harry and Ron were far away from that den.

The car followed its own path, somehow knowing where the widest gaps in the trees were.

"I hope that car never leaves the forest now," Sirius grinned wildly, "can you imagine the sight of that?"

"It seems to come in handy," James agreed.

Harry glanced over at Ron and found his mouth was still frozen open, though his eyes looked a little less huge.

"Ron seems to have gotten quite a bout of bad luck this year," Remus noticed with a slight wince.

"Walking into the forest into his worst nightmare," James agreed, "takes some kind of kid not to have run screaming."

"Didn't you hear though?" Sirius asked, trying to keep a straight face, "he was silently screaming the whole time."

"Knock it off you three," Lily finally cut in, "enough of your joking around, this isn't funny."

"We didn't say it was," James defended, now massaging his chest and hoping his heart rate would go back to normal before the next catastrophe, "we're just sympathizing with Ron."

Lily watched them for a moment more before shrugging and letting it go.

Harry asked if he was okay,

"I'm going to guess the answer to that is no," Remus said sadly.

and Ron seemed unable to find the words to answer. The car carried them all the way out until they could finally see the moon above again.

"Now for the love of anything, please tell me you don't go back in there!" Lily moaned.

"Ah," Harry wanted to fervently agree with his mother, but he had a sinking feeling it would be a lie if he agreed, so he instead said nothing. They all noticed this, and it didn't improve a mood one bit.

When the car parked itself and opened its doors again, Fang launched himself out, running full pelt back to Hagrid's with his tail still tucked between his legs.

"Poor dog," Sirius said in sympathy.

Harry stumbled out as well, thankful feeling had returned to his limbs, while Ron tumbled out and just sat in the grass. The car gave one more slight rev of its engine before turning tail and going back into the forest.

"Sweet," James said, finally finding a grin again, "I can't wait to spread the rumour about a car trundling the forest."

"Let's see how many people you can get to believe that," Remus snorted.

Harry went back into Hagrid's and grabbed his cloak and came out to find Ron vomiting over by the pumpkins.

All five of them winced, hoping Ron wasn't going to do something worse like pass out. He had just lived through his worst nightmare, so the kid could afford to be more than a little queasy, but it would be really bad for the two of them to not be in bed in the morning and Ron passing out would make that all the harder.

He finally found his voice again when he ran out of vomit and swore he'd never forgive Hagrid for leading them into this.

"That does make me really wonder what Hagrid was thinking," Lily agreed with Ron.

James opened his mouth to say something, but then Remus caught sight of the next sentence and read loudly.

Harry offered that Hagrid must have thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his.

"Thought?" Lily hissed, "well he shouldn't have tested that theory on Harry."

"He was scared," James defended, "and desperate. Maybe he thought Aragog would give Harry some more useful information about why he was in Azkaban."

Lily didn't think that excused Hagrid's negligence, but she couldn't find it in her heart to be too angry with him either. He hadn't known what was going to happen, of that she was sure, so to hold a grudge for it would be petty, so she let the matter go.

Ron still wasn't happy, demanding to know what the point of them going in there was!

"Another piece to the puzzle," Harry sighed, "which you guys mostly worked out already."

"Don't feel too bad," James said at once, "we're older, and time really does add on to experience. Plus, this is kind of something no one your age should even be looking into, so the fact that you do know what you do is kind of amazing in itself."

"Yeah, don't beat yourself up because you weren't old yet," Remus agreed.

Harry couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face then.

Harry reminded that Hagrid hadn't opened the Chamber, that he was innocent. Ron snorted in disbelief, clearly thinking that hiding an acromantula away in the school wasn't exactly innocent.

"Well innocent of murdering the girl then," Harry amended.

"Close enough anyways," Sirius chuckled.

They made their way back to the castle as Harry mulled over all that he'd heard tonight. The way Aragog had been speaking made this monster sound something like a Voldemort creature.

"Now that's a creepy parallel," Lily said, not liking the comparison one bit.

Harry collapsed back onto his bed and still wondered over the whole thing, like how Riddle had obviously got the wrong person, but the Heir of Slytherin was still out there. Was it the same person then who was doing this now?

"That is still a big question," Remus agreed.

There was one other thing, and Harry realized what it was as he jerked upright with a start, waking Ron who awoke with a muffled scream of fear.

"Nightmares," James said with a frown, "boy's going to be having nightmares for a month."

"Can't even blame him," Sirius agreed.

Harry quickly explained his epiphany, how Aragog had said a girl had died in a bathroom, what if she was still in there?

"I still say that mad trip was worth figuring that out," Harry shrugged, quickly adding on, "though

I hope to never repeat the process."

"Guess I'm going to have to live with that," Lily grumbled.

Ron had to rub some sleep out of his eyes before he caught on, whispering the name Moaning Myrtle.

"Yeah, whoever would have suspected that nutter," Remus agreed as he passed Lily the book.

[disneydreamlights]

Pick five random questions (and also do the post apoc question as a sixth ;3) for Ticole, NiNick, Skyuuya, Matt/Luca, and whatever tf your otp for dark materials is?? i haven't been keeping up with your trash so idk what to ask for that one but also indulge yourself in your current trash plz

Yu I’ve been sitting here just like “I’m so sorry you asked” about that HDM pairing for the past ten minutes.

Partially because of the self indulgence and mostly just because they’re a train wreck.

I’m just gonna go in order for once because like...does anybody following me even care about this series? Or is this going to be me being self indulgent like I normally am with my oc ships. XD

Ticole:

2. Who is the most insecure and what makes them feel better?

Absolutely Tip. He lacks self confidence to such a strong degree. One the flip side, Nicole is great at being there to comfort him, either by reminding him that everything’s okay and that  he’s loved or by providing whatever it is he needs and wrapping him in a blanket burrito. 

9. What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

I refuse to take criticism that for Tip this isn’t the time that they were in Dragonspyre after reuniting and Tip started meowing at Nicole because he was very tired and she was just like “That’s cool you’re alive” because she was so relieved to have an alive Tip. 

For Nicole, it probably would have something to do with her falling asleep in the middle of doing something. I have a lot of thoughts on the idea of her spending a lot of super late nights reading once he falls asleep and she just ends up falling asleep in the middle of it because she’s not paying attention to the time. It’s hard in general for Nicole to get embarrassed in front of Tip because he’s just so naive about everything.

15. When they watch a film what do they choose and why? Who gets the final vote?

Mostly animated things. I see them watching a lot more wholesome movies and given Nicole’s origins, she’s very obviously a Disney fan. She also gets the final vote since what they’re watching isn’t important to Tip.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

Mmm this is an interesting question. On one hand, they’re badass and together nearly unstoppable even in the pre-revival stuff (which is what I’m going to focus on in general because that’s a more fun Ticole anyways) so the chance of anything taking one of them down once they make it to shelter? Unlikely. They probably serve as pillars of emotional stability and comfort for each other as they keep themselves safe from zombies.

But this comes with a stipulation. They’re untouchable so long as everything they love is safe.

It’d be unlikely for anything to happen to Ian or Charles but if it did, it’s pretty likely that Tip at least would fall apart.  So this could end up bad.

21. Where do they get nervous about going with one another?

Not counting worlds where they almost died??? I don’t think they would. Like literally the only place I could think of would be the bedroom because sex between the two of them? Super daunting there’s a reason I skipped the sex question every time RNG pulled it up.

27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?

Oh dear god 95% of the annoyance with them I guarantee is directed at Nicole. Nicole is overprotective as shit over Tip and it gets to be ridiculous. The first couple of times she’s angry over somebody hurting Tip it’s scary but afterwards. “Nicole. Nicole plz. I know you’re upset but Nicole listen please shut up Tip’s fine. Nicole.”

I’m honestly surprised Ian hasn’t done anything yet tbh about this.

NiNick:

1. Who makes the first move and how?

I’m like...95% certain the person to take the leap was Nina? I don’t remember it’s been ages since I read the scene.

7. What do they get up to on a night out?

They take nights out? *shot*

No in all seriousness, these two when they do go out for the night probably have super romantic times. Nick’s supposed to be a romantic, so I could see him setting up candlelit dinners, figuring out the best showtime to watch the movie Nina’s really wanted to see, really doing the most to make their night out all the more special.

8. What do they like in bed?

Oh my god.

Nina’s not vanilla so her kinks go as far as Nick’s will that is all I will say on the subject.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

They try to keep moving on. I feel like they both alternate who’s functional on different days. Some days it’s both, and when it is they’re valuable resources to wherever they are. When one isn’t, I’d imagine the other just holds them while they try to cope with the fear and loss. There probably is some sex involved in all of this, because they can use it to help them forget that the world is ending and who knows when their next time could be their last.

Thankfully at least, they’re also social creatures. I’d imagine the two of them would stay in groups for as long as possible.

20. Where do they go on holiday?

Nina? Absolutely big amusement park nerd. I don’t think it matters where Nick wants to go she absolutely plans all her vacations around the fact that they might be able to stop by some kind of amusement park.

26. Why do they need to have a serious chat?

Somebody please stage an intervention for their sex habits. Please.

Skyuuya

4. Who can’t keep their hands to themselves?

Emphasis first of all in that these touches are always not sexual, but I can see Yuuya just always reaching for her as like small little gestures. Grabbing her hand if he notices she’s starting to panic. Giving her a hug when she seems just a little down. Just all sorts of reassuring small touches that absolutely mean a lot.

7. What do they get up to on a night out?

When they find the time to have a night out uninterrupted, I’d imagine it’s whatever dates Yuuya manages to come up with near where they’re based. This could be anything from beach trips to theme parks to nice dinners. It’s not really a specific thing they plan on a night out so much as just enjoying each other’s company for them.

But that being said I also see them sometimes just enjoying the peaceful nights by relaxing together for once and trading stories and talking. Like of course Yuuya wants to go all out on these dates but it’s despair world. He literally can’t because you always gotta be on guard so they make the most of it however possible.

14. When one has a cold, what does the other do?

Yuuya would be the most doting fuck if Sky got sick. She keeps telling him to stop. He’s gonna get sick. He really needs to stop. Except he absolutely doesn’t and brings her tissues and soup and wraps her in ten thousand blankets and “YUUYA IT’S A COLD I’M NOT DYING I DON’T NEED THIS MANY BLANKETS” except he’s not doing it because he thinks she’s going to die, he’s doing it because she’s Sky and absolutely deserves the best care she could ever get.

Then once he gets sick afterwards she throws a box of tissues at his head. granted she’s also making sure Yuuya has everything he needs for a full recovery from the cold but that’s less relevant.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

They start preparing to kill zombies. They’re the couple who just shows up on a motor cycle with their back towards each other and start shooting. They’re the zombie apocalypse dream team. They’re certified badasses. They’ll be fine.

22. Where does their first kiss happen?

First kiss after the prison (and not the peck Sky did to fluster Yuuya after getting together) is probably a little bit after the game??? Like they’re both together and spending time anchoring each other but like so much stuff went down and it’s just a lot to unload? And it’s not so much the where that matters but the when. Because I really would like to imagine like they’ve spent so much time worried and searching for their little siblings who mean the absolute world to them they have kinda put their relationship on the backburner in terms of being overly affectionate. And then they just finally find Sera and Sakuya and Hiyoko and they’re sitting there talking later that night and overwhelmed by emotions over the whole thing and idk who starts it but it’s like a “I’m really so glad we finally succeeded we found them” kiss.

Pre-PoD though? That’s a lot less happy. So I know we discussed that like...some really bad shit goes down and they start off not really getting along and gradually growing to care about each other because of an event that really forces them to understand the other? Well all I can imagine is whatever the terrible thing that happens is that really makes them get along? It happens. And of course even though they’re supposed to not like each other, but the other one of them is still listening to the other and supporting them because that hatred has been gone for a really long time and just like the one who’s hurt realizing that the other one has been there the whole time and they just realize “fuck I really like them” and somewhere in all this the kiss happens. So I guess in their room in the future foundation would be the answer to this.

26. Why do they need to have a serious chat?

Why don’t they? *shot*

Well, for one, there’s definitely some things they need to work out. Yuuya is still a spy. Sky still has her duties as a Keyblade Wielder. Both have ties to literally different worlds and different duties and they need to figure out how to make that work, and how to work on being in a relationship despite the possibility of not seeing each other for months.

There’s also one very specific scenario we discussed, the one that cemented Leone’s hate for his dad because he thought that Yuuya ditched them or died? They definitely have serious talks over that. I mean, Yuuya’s probably around his thirties by that point. He’s not young anymore and death is a very real threat for him, just like it is for Sky. They both probably have to address that. Which speaking of Leone, they also probably have a lot to talk about given he’s their son and has awful darkness issues.

Luca/Matt

3. Who is the most romantic?

I could write an essay on this but we both know it’s gonna be Luca.

15. When they watch a film what do they choose and why? Who gets the final vote?

The movies vary, but given Luca’s taste? It’s either absolutely shit or a horror movie, there’s no real way around it. And Luca tries to give Matt the final vote because he knows he struggles with keeping attention so he wants to give Matt like...the best chance of being able to keep himself focused and comfortable during the movie, but he ends up with the final vote anyways.

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

So long as Matt and Lila are fine? Luca’s doing awesome the entire time. He serves primarily as the moral support, and encourages his best friend and boyfriend to survive. 

Now why did I mention Lila? Because if something happened to either of them, that’s it. Luca’s shutting down completely. This boy is so reliant on them that he literally would be just done for in a zombie apocalypse. 

18. When they fight, how do they make up?

Whichever one is at fault will like apologize. If Luca’s at fault, he’ll do it after he’s calmed down but if Matt’s the one at fault he’s probably immediately apologizing. Then once they’re both chill I see them talking about it and the make up is probably in the unsaid “we’re working on our issues together.”

That being said this is Luca so true confrontations are probably pretty rare.

22. Where does their first kiss happen?

Luca’s apartment, after Luca nearly fucks up Matt still kisses him anyways. Luca questions if his boyfriend has taste or sanity immediately afterwards.

30. Why does it work (or not work) between them?

This is a twofold question.

It does not work between them the first time because Matt is a cultist who literally betrays Luca’s trust because he’s in fact working against him. This in turn is the last crack on Luca’s faliling mental health and he shatters and they very obviously have a lot to work on.

But once they get back together, because they do have the ability to work through it all? They work because they know better. Luca is all in and he loves Matt, and he brings out the best in Matt I’d like to think. They put forth the effort to be better and make it work because they both love each other, and so it works.

HDM Ship (Ma/sriel)

4. Who can’t keep their hands to themselves?

Asriel. I could elaborate but the scene at the end of S1 really does speak for itself on this one. Of course Marisa doesn’t do the greatest job of this either or else the series wouldn’t exist.

5. Who says ‘I love you’ first?

I really had to think on this one but Marisa. She’s the younger of the two and despite her excellent facade in the series I do think her emotions would be a bit more free than Asriel’s, who’s shown to be emotionally in control for like the entire series. In spite of this it’s still an incredibly rare thing. We’re talking every once in a while, not frequent.

14. When one has a cold, what does the other do?

First of all they tease the other mercilessly. Neither Asriel nor Marisa are particularly doting (not until near the end of their life anyways) so they’re not the type to drop everything to take care of the other, especially since their relationship is secret in the first place. That being said they do make sure to check to make sure the other is alright when sick. Marisa probably brings some medicine and Asriel who funny enough I see as slightly more doting in this instance does his best to bring her things after she’s recovered (since she ya know, has to deal with the whole actually having a husband thing this is an affair why is this the ship hell I sunk into.)

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

God they’re probably studying the zombies to figure out how they came about because they’re like scientists. I hate this. XD

18. When they fight, how do they make up?

They don’t. I ship this but it’s highly dysfunctional. Marisa and Asriel are both stubborn and pigheaded and a part of me would honestly believe for them that fighting is a part of foreplay. Occasionally one might apologize for a fight but it’s not like either of them will really budge on either of their positions (well okay that’s a lie. At the end of TAS Marisa has decided god has to go too but that took three books to get there, and it’s still not so much because she hates religion so much as if he doesn’t die her daughter will and she would do anything for Lyra.)

But on the flipside, they also forgive each other? Like it’s like...they’ll fight, neither will apologize, but both sides will accept it. Because even when their relationship is absolutely at their worst and they hate each other for twelve years, they still care. Asriel is one of the only two things to get an emotional reaction out of Marisa. Marisa is one of the only two things to get an emotional reaction out of Asriel.

It’s really hard to explain, it’s less like they’d ever make up and more like they would just move on from the argument. They only have so much time to waste on it.

21. Where do they get nervous about going with one another?

Um literally everywhere. These two are literally having an affair behind Marisa’s husbands back they aren’t going to go broadcasting it. That being said it’s mostly travels around London that get bad. The farther away they get from Marisa’s home the more likely they are to throw caution to the wind. And of course when they’re doing research they also tend to be a lot less nervous because there’s nothing wrong about it that could cause them trouble (on the surface).

[psychic-timetraveler]

Time Traveler’s Oliver and Company AU

Drabbles (x)

___________

Rose is a troubled teen running from foster homes left, right, and backwards. Finally after being in one of the more abusive houses she’s been sent to, she runs. This was the first time that they decided to give chase. Weaving in and out of people, she accidentally bumps into a man when she takes a second to look back. The collision knocks her down and he quickly helps her up. One look at her, he could tell she was running from someone. He hides her from the men chasing her to bring her back. The second they’re gone, he makes her explain what’s going on and if she’s okay. She gives this man a quick rundown of her situation. He agrees to at least walk her somewhere in case the men come back. They chat for a bit. When she asks him for his name, he just simply says that his friends call him Dodger.��

A few blocks later, the men catch sight of her again. He gives her his jacket and sunglasses with a few bits of instructions. She follows them and runs. The second she went to look for anyone, Dodger popped out of the alley saying that they wouldn’t be bothering her anymore. As his word, he walks her to the nearest subway station. She returns his jacket and thanks him again. In seconds he’s gone again. Not before she realizes that she still has his sunglasses. With quick glimpses of the heroic rescuer, she follows him to the docks to an abandoned warehouse. She climbs up a catwalk in the warehouse that a bunch of people are set up in. Computers and monitors everywhere. Hacker hive or something, Rose assumes. She knows she’s in the right place when he hears Dodger getting chewed out by his friends/coworkers whatever they were. He goes into this outlandish story where he says he was dodging the cops in this amazing heist. That was, until the catwalk she was on broke and she fell into a pile of cardboard boxes, probably left over from the warehouse. A box is taken off of her face and it’s Dodger giving her a look while his cohorts point guns at her. In his defense, he didn’t tell her to follow him. He asks how the hell she managed to find this place and she said she followed him and hands him back his sunglasses. One of the others says she’s quiet and would be of use to them. Another one says she has a heart and went all of this way to return a pair of sunglasses. Dodger says no but he’s out voted until he gives in and accepts the young girl into their hacker ring.  While out and about trying to find their next job, Rose runs into a friend from her transfer high school. His name is Brad and she had a quick conversation. The second he left, Quincy found their next job. They report back to their little HQ and get to work. Brad’s father is away on business and is home alone for a week or so. Seeing that the two are friends, Quincy and Rose both go over to his house so Rose could get any information on the company and plant a device in the house to get into their computers. Quincy has a quick run in with a cop and is asked to move and he has to leave her there on accident. She looks out the window and doesn’t see him anymore. Brad asks if she wants to hang out and thus they do. He finds out she’s a foster kid and offers for her to stay over for a while, go to school, and mostly just hang out. She hasn’t even thought about Quincy and the rest of the hackers. That is until she walks outside to smoke at Brad’s house when she’s kidnapped by the gang.  They take her back to the base and she explains what she’s been doing. She then says that she actually really likes staying at Brad’s house. That’s when Quincy takes it to heart. If she wants to go there, then go. Now upset about everything, she leaves. On her walk back to Brad’s house from the docks, she’s taken again by a rival company of Brad’s dad. The rival is threatening to kill Rose if they don’t back off and do their job of completely ruining Brad’s father’s company. They decide to destroy everything but not before getting Rose out. Charlie and Melissa go to the location of the rival so they can attempt to talk while the rest try to break Rose out. Things were going well until one of the dogs sensed the intruders. Guns are out and now it’s time to go.  Now it’s a race through the docks to get out without getting shot or eaten by dogs. Somehow they end up on the railways as an escape route. No. The rival follows closely behind. A train is suddenly approaching and in the shortest amount of time possible, Quincy shoves both himself and Rose off of the tracks, not giving the rival enough time to jump.  Everything was calming down and the rest of the gang was getting ready to move to a new location in case of the cops showing up from the evening prior. Rose refuses to go back to Brad, despite enjoy his company. She belongs with these insane ride or die hackers who have accepted her as their own. She goes back to Brad’s and tells him what’s going on; she found a new foster home that is a lot better than the last handful she’d gone through and is just there to say goodbye and collect her things. She hugs her friend and says she’ll see him in school again. She leaves and Quincy is immediately is waiting for her. This felt right, going with them. 

[fluffyseapancakes]

With a Little Help from Best Friends

This fic is definitely lengthy (almost 3,000 words!) and the tickle scenes aren’t that long, but I wrote this because I’m aching for friends right now and writing this was my way of coping. I apologize for grammatical/spelling errors and if I got the British terminology wrong, this fic was written when I was sad and lonely and I didn’t really pay attention to the technical parts of it. If you read this entire fic, thank you. If you just skimmed through it or skipped it, that’s completely understandable. So here goes...

Your family disowned you right before the holidays so your best friend Dan Howell invited you to his and Phil Lester’s place for Christmas. You realized that you were living your family’s dreams the whole time so you dropped out of uni and started a career as a YouTuber. Your best friends gave you endless support and love, and they made Christmas truly a magical holiday. (TRIGGER WARNING: homophobia and mention of suicidal thoughts) 

_______________________________________________

You and Dan have been friends since primary school. At first you thought he was weird and quiet, but after he helped you clean up after some bullies threw orange juice at you, you two have been inseparable. University had split you and Dan apart for a while, but you always texted him about the kid who picked his nose sitting in front of you or the horribly boring professor in physics. Dan shortly quit university and moved to a flat in London then created his YouTube channel. The channel blew up quickly and the more subscribers he got, the prouder you were of your best friend. When Dan hit a million subscribers, you screamed with joy and immediately called him and congratulated him a dozen times. Somewhere along the way Dan made a friend named Phil Lester and they became flatmates, they made dozens of videos together and you were happy that Dan had another good friend that he could count on. You two still texted each other everyday and Skyped at least once a week, Phil often joined in the Skype sessions and the three of you instantly became close.

“Fine I won’t come home this week mum, at least I have better things to do than be a miserable witch,” you angrily hung up and threw your cellphone on the dormitory bed. Tears fell down your face and you held back a sob. You heard the faint sound of your cellphone ringing and you grabbed it.

“What?” You snapped, not even checking the caller ID to see who it was.

“Y/N it’s Dan, did you tell your mum?” Dan’s familiar voice calmed you down but the tears kept on running.

“She told me not to come home,” you mumbled, trying to keep your voice steady, “she said I was a disappointment.”

“Oh Y/N…you should come stay with me and Phil this Christmas! Fuck your family if they don’t accept who you are, we’ll be your family,” Dan’s voice was soft and comforting, you knew he was concerned about you by his tone. You looked out the window and saw snow falling heavily on the ground. The room next to you was playing Christmas music and the realization that you were alone for the holidays hit you. You let out a sob and crumbled on the floor, letting yourself cry freely and you curled up on the ground that was covered in a layer of dust and hair.

“I’m all alone Dan,” you sobbed, “I’m a fucking failure, I should just die.” “Y/N,” his voice got louder and firm, “I’m buying you a train ticket to London. You are coming to stay with us and we are going to have a great time. If you hurt yourself I wouldn’t know what to do,” you heard his voice waver for a second, “the day you finish exams you are coming here.”

“I don’t have time to get you two presents,” you cried, clutching the floor rug into your chest.

Dan laughed, “That’s what you’re upset about? Y/N you don’t need to get us gifts, seeing you is more than enough.”

You wiped your tears away with the rug and smiled softly, you haven’t met Phil in person before and you were dying to see both him and Dan. London will be fun, you thought to yourself.

“My last exam is in three days, you better stock up on eggnog.”

…

London was a busy and loud city, hoards of people pushed you out of the way as you navigated your way to the Starbucks where you were meeting Dan and Phil. You got yourself a hot chocolate and miraculously found a quiet corner with comfy couches. You weren’t used to being in the city so you anxiously looked around, gripping the hot cup with both hands and your legs bounced up and down.

“Y/N!” You looked up and saw your best friend looking down on you with a goofy smile.

“Dan!” You squealed and immediately ran into his arms. He was more than a foot taller than you and you sighed in his warm embrace. After a few moments you two stepped away and you took a good look at Dan. It’s been a couple years since you last saw him and you noticed he stopped straightening his hair and he had filled into his body, making him look more like a man than a kid.

“Y/N this is Phil,” a man stepped out from behind Dan. He was slightly taller and had jet black hair, his eyes were bluer than you recalled seeing from the computer screen and he had a shy smile on his face.

“Hiya Phil!” You gave him a hug and you heard Phil laugh, he hugged you back tightly and warmly.

“I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you!” Phil looked at you and grinned, “you’re shorter than I thought.”

“Hey!” You laughed.

The three of you sat on the couches and talked for a while, you completely lost track of time. Dan and Phil also got hot chocolates and got you a cookie to nibble on.

“We should probably head back home,” Phil looked at his phone and out the window. It was starting to get dark and the vehicles outside had their headlights on.

“Yeah, I’m starving,” Dan got up and grabbed your luggage despite your protests, “maybe we can order pizza tonight and watch some anime.”

You smiled and followed the men out the door, “I vote for Free!”

Where you went to school everyone either drove or rode scooters because everything was so far away. Your legs were definitely not used to walking as you desperately tried to match Dan and Phil’s freakishly long strides. They were chatting about their tour coming up and the release of their book, you smiled sadly to the realization that they had accomplished so much in a few years and you have achieved nothing in the same amount of time. You were, of course, happy for Dan and Phil but you felt like you were a failure compared to them.

“Um excuse me, are you Dan and Phil?” The three of you turned around to see a young schoolgirl and her friend nervously looking at the men.

“Yeah we are! Do you watch our videos?” Phil smiled kindly at them and motioned them to come closer.

“We’re huge fans, we’re coming to your tour in London,” her friend shyly smiled, “could we take a picture?”

“Of course!” Dan laughed and ran his fingers through his hair, “you caught us on a good hair day!”

You took a couple pictures of Dan and Phil and the young girls, their cheeks were bright red from excitement and they thanked you as you handed them their phones back. The men happily said goodbye and the three of you resumed the trek back to their flat.

“Do fans recognize you often?” You asked, trying to hide the fact that you were softly panting from physical exertion.

“Sometimes, they’re all super nice though,” Phil shrugged, “we’re recognized more often in the States.”

“The hardest part is when we’re busy or in a bad mood,” Dan added, “we try not to be mean but it happens.”

You nodded and quietly walked alongside them. You didn’t realize how popular Dan and Phil were, you knew they had a lot of subscribers but it was like they were a celebrity status.

“Here we are,” Dan and Phil stopped in front of a pretty nice complex and they unlocked the door. You followed them up the stairs into their flat, there was a cute houseplant in the corner by the door.

“Welcome to our palace!” Phil cheerfully led you in and the first thing you noticed was another larger houseplant across the hallway. Dan and Phil gave you a short tour of their flat, you noticed they had hidden little toys everywhere and scented candles decorated every flat surface. They had a fancy gaming room that you recognized from DanandPhilGames and their bedrooms were small but comfortable.

“Let’s order some pizza,” Dan opened his laptop once they were in the living room and he sunk into his spot on the couch.

“Y/N did not come all the way here to eat Domino’s pizza, we have to order Chinese from that one famous place,” Phil poked Dan’s belly, making him yelp and jump. The older man grinned and tweaked his sides, Dan screeched and curled up on the couch, his dimple was more noticeable as he laughed loudly.

You suddenly remembered the tickle fights you two had as kids, Dan screamed more than he laughed and he would curl into a ball. The taller and bigger he got, the more often you fell victim to his torture. You smiled and walked over to Phil, you put your thumbs on Dan’s hipbones.

“You’re getting the wrong spots Phil, this is where Dan goes nuts,” you drilled your thumbs into his hipbones, Dan screamed even louder and desperately tried to grab your hands, he was laughing out incomprehensible pleas of mercy. You laughed and gave him mercy as Dan lay on the couch, whimpering and giggling.

“So Chinese?” You grinned up at Phil.

……

“Wake up Y/N it’s Christmas!” You slowly opened your eyes to a grinning Dan looking down at you.

“What time is it?” You groaned and crawled deeper into the covers. While you were visiting, Dan insisted on having you sleep in his bed while he crashed on the couch. At first you felt guilty about it but you and Dan knew that you would have struggled with sleep if you were on the couch. “I can sleep anywhere,” Dan had proudly said. You knew he was right so now you were snuggled comfortably in his bed.

“7 in the morning!” Dan chirped and suddenly grabbed the duvet and ripped it off of you.

“Dannn!” You whined as you felt the cold air hit your skin, you curled up into a ball and whimpered.

“Oh stop being such a drama queen,” your best friend reached over and grabbed one of your ankles, he wiggled his blunt nails against the sole of your foot. You squealed and kicked, except Dan grabbed your other foot and he tickled the soles of your feet. You bucked and squealed with laughter, desperately trying to kick off Dan. He held on tight and kept up with his torment.

“I’ll get up!” You screamed with laughter and hit your fists on the mattress.

“Good,” Dan grinned and stopped tickling you, you quickly pulled in your feet and giggled. You got up from bed and followed Dan into the living room. The three of you have decorated the tree the night before and the ornaments looked beautiful as the sun hit them perfectly. Underneath the tree was a small pile of gifts stacked underneath. Phil was already standing by the tree nursing a cup of coffee in his hands, he smiled when he saw you two come in and he waved, “Merry Christmas Y/N!”

“Merry Christmas,” you smiled and sat on the couch, you nodded towards the presents, “are they from your family?”

“Some of them, there are a few here for you too,” Dan handed you a small present. You immediately knew Phil had wrapped it by the numerous pieces of tape and questionable wrapping skills. “This one is from us.”

“You guys, I can’t take this. You already have done so much for me,” you felt your eyes water a little but you quickly blinked it away.

“Oh shut up, we got you a gift so open it,” Dan laughed and pushed the present into your hands. You slowly ripped open the package and unwrapped a small camera.

“It’s one of my older vlogging cameras from a few years ago, you always said you wanted to open a YouTube channel so we were hoping this will help you out,” Phil sat down next to you and gave you a small hug, “the quality’s great and it works perfectly.”

You looked at the camera in your hands and you smiled, “Thank you, this is really going to help me start my channel.”

“You can vlog about university and talk about your classes,” Dan suggested, grabbing another gift from under the tree.

“I…I don’t think I’m going back to uni,” you sighed, “the whole uni thing was my parents’ idea. But now that they don’t want to talk to me, why should I go back?” You shrugged and looked at Dan and Phil, “I’m thinking about moving to London, but it’s expensive so I need a roommate and a job.”

“Hey,” Dan sat on your other side so you were sandwiched between the two men, “we’ll help you out in anyway we can.”

“Yeah,” Phil rubbed your back, “we can do a collab to bring traffic to your channel and we can teach you how to edit and stuff. We might have friends who are looking for roommates too.”

“Thanks you guys,” you leaned into Dan’s shoulder, “that means a lot to me.”

Christmas for you was bittersweet, but you were more than thankful to have such wonderful friends supporting you. You watched Dan and Phil open up their presents and you thought about the huge changes you were making in your life. You were scared and nervous but also excited and filled with hope.

…

Dan and Phil made videos quite regularly, especially on their gaming channel. At first they refused to work while you were there, but you insisted on them working so they don’t disappoint their fans. Usually you just sat in the living room with your laptop watching Netflix while sounds of laughter and screams leaked through the walls. Today they were filming some kind of Would You Rather game and very quickly you heard yelling and protests. You became curious and walked over to the gaming room, you put your ear against the door and listened to them talking.

“I choose neither!” Phil yelled, laughing awkwardly.

“You have to choose one!” Dan was laughing uncontrollably.

“I don’t want to be tickled by Edward Scissorhands or be tickled by spiders,” Phil moaned.

You grinned and slowly opened the door. Was this going to ruin a part of their video? Maybe. Is it going to be worth it? Oh hell yes.

“Or you can be tickled by me,” you bursted into the room, Dan screamed in surprise and you quickly latched onto Phil’s sides and squeezed them. Phil squealed and laughed, he desperately tried to grab your hands but you were too quick for him. You tickled the older man’s belly, sending him into hysterics. Dan watched you two in amusement and shook his head, laughing.

“N-no!” Phil shrieked as you shoved your hands in his underarms and tickled mercilessly.

“Y/N, Phil’s gonna piss his pants if you don’t stop,” Dan chuckled. You smiled and stopped your torture on the poor man. Phil sat in his chair panting for breath, giggling. You quickly left the room in case Phil came back for revenge.

…

It was the last night with Dan and Phil, you sat on the couch and browsed online for flats to rent. All of them were way above your price range and the only jobs available in the area were food service and retail jobs. You sighed and closed your eyes. I’m going to be homeless at this rate.

“What’chya thinking about?” You opened your eyes and saw Dan standing by the couch looking concerned. You moved over and patted the empty spot next to you, Dan sat down and you turned to look at him.

“I’m broke with no job and no place to live because my parents are homophobic pieces of shit, Dan I have no place to go after this,” you rubbed your eyes in frustration and groaned, “I should have found a place to live before I withdrew from uni.”

“Actually that’s what I wanted to talk to you about Y/N,” Dan rubbed your back, “me and Phil would like you to stay here until you find a place to live. We’ll have you in our videos to help out your channel and we’ll show you how to film and edit, it’ll be like a YouTuber bootcamp,” he laughed, “once your channel grows and you make money, you can afford a flat.”

“Seriously?” You looked at Dan in disbelief, “you and Phil have already done so much for me, I can’t have all of this for nothing.”

“Well some help with chores and cooking is great,” he looked into your eyes, “I know uni was miserable for you and I want you here safe and happy.”

You rushed into Dan’s arms and he hugged you tight and gently stroked your hair.

“You’re my best friend Y/N, I’m not letting you crash and burn by yourself,” he whispered.

“Thanks Dan,” you relaxed in his embrace.

You knew being a YouTuber was going to take lots of work and effort, and some of Dan and Phil’s fans were not going to be happy with a female presence, but you knew eventually everything was going to be ok. After the talk with Dan you went into his bedroom and sat on his bed. You took out the video camera and turned it on, taking a deep breath, you raised the camera to your face. You looked into the lens and pressed the record button.

“Hey guys,” you smiled and waved awkwardly, “welcome to my channel.”

[survivor-mountmerapi]

Ep. 6: “You never know what some people may have up their sleeve” - Rachel

DeNara

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY VOTED OUT JAMES!!!!!! I AM SOOOOOOOOO FLIPPING MAD!!!!!!!!! HE WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THIS GAME I WANTED TO PLAY WITH!!!!!

This has Julia written all over it.... I don't expect to make the merge now, but if I do, I am going for blood....

Julia

HOW ARE PIETRO AND I STILL HERE?!?!?! This is sexy

Pietro

I cant believe this allow me and Julia to survive another round. We not only have now a 4 person alliance, but Julia told me she has an idol. We are running this game and we are here to stay, and we will keep slaying the favs. Julia was telling me earlier the day that she was gonna play her idol cause everyone was definately voted her out, but when I talked to Rachel I realised there was a chance she could flip, so I quickly made a group chat with me, Julia, Anastasia and Rachel to try to get them on our side... and it worked!! I LITERALLY THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA TAKE US HOURS TO FLIP THEM, and they decided to flip in 5 minutes.

AND ALSO, this people are playing so stupid! Like Elle in tribal saying how much she trusted James, and how Moth backstabbed her in the past like girllll why are you revealing so many info to EVERYONE?? you are a warrior or a wannabe?? I'm probably sounding very cocky but damn it this people are all so easy to read!!

Raffy

So. Much. Happened. Tonight. Firstly, I think DeNara and Nicholas both realize that Warriors are on the bottom after watching the other tribe's tribal council. This put them both in Mess mode. According to Steven, Nicholas told him about a 5-person alliance that was created with Madi, Gian, DeNara, Ginnifer, and Nicholas. Nicholas said it was created to take out the Winners (Steven and I). He said to Steven that he wants to work with us and to get the tribe to a 2-2-2 tribe split by voting out Ginnifer. Voting Ginnifer did not require this amount of effort as I believe she was the easiest target tribe. But wait. It gets messier. DeNara comes to me and tells me that Nicholas is snaking everyone on the tribe. She says that Nicholas came up with the whole alliance, and that he's been trying to play Steven and I (which we already kind of figured from Gian and Madi). Steven told her that Nicholas was throwing her under the bus which prompted to send quote receipts to both of us about how Nicholas has been playing puppet master to get the newbies and winners to target each other. Now, DeNara fully thinks Nicholas is trying to snake her, and she created an alliance with Steven and I to get him out pre-merge. Meanwhile, this required no prompting from Steven or I as we watched the Warriors eat themselves alive without even going to tribal council. These people are a Mess. And I love it. DeNara also told me that she thinks Julia is running the other tribe from head to toe. She believes that Julia is the reason one of her allies (James) was voted out. Therefore, I told her about Julia's idol to get her to target her even more come merge. DeNara seems very willing to vote out Julia, and to enact some revenge from another ORG which I happily fueled. Now, I can go into merge with someone who will target Julia FOR me. This is what happens when you mess with me and try to play me. Julia whenever you read this, I hope it was worth voting out Ellie. Kisses ~Raffy

DeNara

Well, Nicholas is screwed. I spilled the tea to Raffy and Steven about how hard Nic has been playing and they spilled some tea back. Nicholas has been playing all of us and got caught. They even tried to use me as a scape goat. Works for me because now I have an alliance with Steven and Raffy to get out Nicholas and get revenge for James by taking out Julia. TEA, she has an idol apparently. At least I know now! I really hope this goes my way.

DeNara

Nicholas seems like they almost want to get voted out! They are so chaotic. Nicholas was on call with me and Steven saying we should vote out Ginnifer. Then they told me privately it was to lower our target and then take out the winners. THEN messaged Raffy saying he was their Ride or Die! oh my goodness! Nicholas you are a great person, I really think you are fun to video chat with, but this intense premerge play is gonna get you voted out next.

Raffy

Nicholas is already thinking about tribal before the challenge has even ended. He's already trying to "manipulate" everyone into voting Ginnifer when it would not even take half the effort he is putting in to do it. I'm sure everyone would be happy to vote out Ginnifer, but Nicholas is playing so messy that we have to get rid of him now. He's calling me his "ride or die" and how we have "so much in common" when I have barely had two conversations with the dude. I suggested to Revenge R Us (DeNara, Steven, and I) that we could potentially throw next challenge if we win this challenge to get Nicholas out pre-merge. I feel like a devil on their shoulder.

Elle

God I hope it's actually round 6 😅 Not entirely sure lol uhm anyway yayyy Pictionary went great despite me rushing to get dinner done and then setting up my tablet on call 😂 and photoshop temporarily fighting against me its fine we did it folks we made it to merge✨ well after tribal tomorrow for the others. Now the annoying part: I severely doubt I'm lasting more than like, one, two rounds post merge 😔. I think by being an important piece on so many winning challenges (shape memory, with DeNara and Nicholas in Storytelephone, having a big role in the movie trailer challenge (which won in my heart ❤️), and being the drawer in the Pictionary) I'm like... well I'm entirely and utterly screwed 😂. I can hope people like me enough to keep me around maybe? But that's not really how the game is played... oh well. Oh and because I didn't make an earlier confession: I'm so upset they kicked off James it completely blindsided me D: my buddyyyyyyyyy ugh I should've known that if the math was obvious to me it was to the others as well, it was smart to boot an og warrior :(. James didn't deserve this though!! Upsetting, completely and utterly.

Ginny

Me and the warriors strong alliance have a huge plan in store sucks to suck

Gian

Nicholas being a pot stirrer, but that’s gonna cost him his game :)

DeNara

Holy Crap! This is pure chaos! We found out we we were going to tribal and it was scrambling and messages from everyone to everyone. After talking to Raffy and Steven, I made a group chat with the newbies calling out all of Nicholas' chaos. The 5 of us are splitting the votes between Nicholas and Ginnifer in case Nic plays an idol. My brain is hurting today lol.

Raffy

DeNara started a 5 person alliance with Steven, Gian, Madi, and I called "Down to Business." She did this so the plotting of Nicholas' demise can begin. First of all, Ginnifer and Nicholas are throwing everyone's name under the sun out. Secondly, Nicholas has been PM'ing Madi and Gian about what they should do NEXT TRIBAL after they get Ginnifer out. I have no idea why he would ask that because we have to deal with THIS TRIBAL at the moment. Thirdly, it seems Nicholas has been trying to throw the Winners under the bus. Or, at least, he's trying to set himself up to play the middle between the Wannabes and the Winners. However, his plan only works if we don't talk to each other which we did. Now, it's a #NicholasExposedParty over in our alliance. The plan is to split the vote 3-2 to get out Nicholas and, in case he has an idol, vote out Ginnifer. This plan should work because even if Nicholas votes with Ginnifer he gets out. Plus, even if Nicholas votes for Ginnifer, it ties 3-3-1 which would send Nicholas out. Additionally, I threw Julia under the bus hard to Madi and Gian, making them not trust her at all. It's all coming together for me tbh. These next few rounds should be HIGHLY entertaining if you are a Raffy Stan or a Drama Stan.

Moth

I’m gonna make the merge omg. My life in the game was definitely on the line, I was worried about getting voted tonight because it was between me and Elle and I think they’d vote me out first

DeNara

Morning of my first tribal day..... I really hope I can trust Steven and Raffy tonight. Really my fate rests with them for now. I trust Steven more because he seems to play a more loyal game. Raffy didnt want to make an alliance chat last night and that is suspicious to me... I really hope he isnt lying to me abs Revenge R Us is strong

Julia

Pietro and I are low key running this game right now it’s kind of amazing. I am so here for this it’s iconic. We’ve gotten what we’ve wanted each tribal so far and people really haven’t figured it out yet. I’m hoping Steven still wants to link with us at merge because I think the three of us could run this shit

Rachel

Well, I know the merge is upon us. The plan is for hopefully Gian and Madi to survive the vote (i'm going to be praying all day at work; i miss them!) and us six make it to merge(which includes myself, julia, pietro, anastasia, gian, and madi). We could then have a 1/6 shot of winning this if we can convince someone from the other side to flip at the vote! but realistically, it will be hard and you never know what some people may have up their sleeve. *cough cough* raffy *cough cough*. This game is so mentally stressing, but I love it!

Anastasia

We won the competition thanks to Elle's really good drawing skills. I have a feeling merge is coming up so me and my alliance are making plans for majority. We know that if we have Madi and Gian, all we need is one more person and we have majority. So, we just need to persuade someone to join us before it's too late. I am thinking that we could recruit Moth or Elle (or both) but they could still be loyal to the warriors. Plus we voted their fellow warrior out... So I don't know what they would do. What if I just threw the idea out to both of them? I think I have nothing to lose? AHHH maybe I do have something to lose because I cant like expose our plans.

Moth

The tea is... I have no clue what’s gonna happen after tonight, I’m not sure anyone does but I feel like I definitely would have been voted out had we not won this challenge —

Nicholas

We finally are going to tribal! I’m a little nervous but hopefully the plan to vote out Ginny works. I’ve been using Ginny this whole game with the trading gear back and forth and etc. I think I’m the only person Ginny talks to. I got Ginny who was already people’s target to make herself even more of a target by throwing out lots of names. I also tested people by having Ginny tell them to vote me. Steven and Raffy immediately messaged me and Gian told me only after I was talking to him but that’s probably because he didn’t care what Ginny was saying. Hopefully Ginny doesn’t blow up and call me out at tribal when she starts getting votes.

Steven

https://youtu.be/nLX0HYo7dh4

[bitchyandwitty]

Omegle Chat - Drarry (Post War)

I’m so sad that the stranger disconnected. If I could find anyone that would continue this and play Draco, I’d be the happiest person in the world. It was just getting good too. The other person started as Ron and then moved to Draco. Please send me a message if you’re interested. 

Stranger: (Post-Battle of Hogwarts, everyone is staying in hotel rooms provided by the Ministry of Magic during the trials. Sent at 2am) Mate, wake up. Dad just came in, I can hear him talking to Mum about something /big/. - RW

You: Ron, why couldn't this wait until morning. I'm trying to sleep. HP

Stranger: It's /important/. - RW

You: What's it about then? HP

Stranger: Trials are over, officially. The jury finally reached a verdict about the Malfoys. - RW

You: At this time of night? Merlin, what's the verdict? HP

Stranger: Yeah, they've been working through the night. - RW

Stranger: Well, Narcissa and Draco are free to go. They pleaded guilty but it was overruled by the evidence you gave. - RW

You: That's good. I mean that was the plan. I'm assuming Lucius was found guilty. Does he have an azkaban sentence? HP

Stranger: Try a /life/ Azkaban sentence. Whole inner circle's got one. - RW

Stranger: And, uh...you know how the Ministry stopped using the Dementor's Kiss a while back? - RW

You: Can't say I'm surprised. Did your parents mention how the family took that news?

You: And yes? why? HP

Stranger: Well, Narcissa's already fucked right off to Paris, apparently, she's gonna go lay low with friends. Ministry's claimed Malfoy Manner so it's not like she's got a place to stay here anyway. - RW

Stranger: They're making an exception. Dementor's Kiss one final time for the inner circle around Voldemort. - RW

You: I can't say I blame her. But I didn't think it'd be so soon. And Draco, he went with her as well? HP Are you serious? There was a reason the kiss needed to eradicated. They can't actually plan to do that! HP

Stranger: Oh nah, apparently Draco's still here. There's a plan to let us come back to Hogwarts for eighth year and complete our N.E.W.T.s, so I reckon he'll be in London until the end of summer. - RW Oh, they're serious. Dad looks proper uneasy about it, but they're really gonna do it. They already apparated Lucius to Azkaban so considering how fast they're moving it'll probably be done tonight. - RW

You: Tonight! Why didn't you tell me sooner? We need to stop this from happening. Why didn't you dad stop them? HP I did not almost die for this crap to still be happening. HP

Stranger: His hands are tied, mate, half the Ministry protested it but the ones who are pushing for it to happen won out by a slim majority. A lot of them lost people because of what Lucius did, they want revenge. - RW

You: Revenge isn't going to solve this. Everyone lost people. The kiss is dreadful if they had any idea how cruel it is, they'd reconsider their vote. HP

Stranger: Yeah, /I/ know that, and honestly half of them know that too, they're just...angry. - RW

Stranger: It's too late, mate. Lucius was apparated after his trial ended, Dad had to sign confidentiality paperwork before he even came up here...chances are it's already happened. - RW

You: If I'd known this before, I could have done something or said something. I mean Lucius was a right bastard, but no one deserve the kiss. HP

Stranger: Nobody knew, the jury deliberation and the verdict was a closed and secure room. - RW

Stranger: Even dad didn't know until they announced it, then all hell broke loose, but they went ahead with it. - RW

You: I don't even know what to say at this point. I'm so disgusted with everyone. And I'm sure their just going to sweep it under the rug and brush it off. Has anything really changed? HP

Stranger: Voldemort's dead, that's what's changed. So, knowing them...yeah. They'll sweep it under the rug, try and get back to normal. - RW

You: Right so another dark wizard can rise up? I wonder who'll stop them next? HP

Stranger: I dunno what to tell you, mate. It's bloody messed up. - RW

Stranger: They want us all out of the hotel by tomorrow morning, too. Worried about security issues since they made some controversial decisions tonight. - RW

You: I know. I'm just pissed. HP Bloody wonderful. Guess we'll just hop around until they ship us back to Hogwarts. I don't even want to go. HP

Stranger: I'm heading back home with mum and dad, Hermione's coming too. You'll be welcome, if you don't wanna stay at Grimmauld by yourself. - RW

You: I don't know. I'll think about it, yeah? HP

Stranger: Yeah, 'course, up to you. Point is you've got options. - RW

Stranger: Mad, though. Dunno what everyone else is gonna do. - RW

You: I appreciate it. Promise. Everything you and your family have done. HP I suppose you could write them. Hopefully Pig won't get too lost. HP

Stranger: I know, don't worry. You're family, we're not just gonna leave you. - RW Yeah, we'll figure it out. I might as well start packing now I reckon, mum and dad are still talking so I won't be able to get back to sleep. To be honest I doubt anyone who's heard the verdict tonight'll be getting much sleep. - RW

You: Agreed. It's just odd to think how different everything is going to be now. If we do go back to Hogwarts, perhaps we'll have a normal year for once. HP

Stranger: Doubt it. There's barely anyone going back, they're already talking about just lumping us all together for classes, and in dorms. No more houses. - RW

You: You can't be serious. The students need some normalcy. They could still have the houses, but promote inner house unity or something. We've seen first hand that not all Slytherin are evil. We could change the rift and make it better. HP

Stranger: Doesn't look like it, mate. All one big lump, and that means sharing dorms, too. You know what that means - ever fancied Malfoy as a roommate? - RW

You: Merlin, everything you spit out just makes thing worse. Do you have any good news? HP

Stranger: Uhh. Nah. Not really. - RW

Stranger: Put it this way: you can't be having a shittier night than Draco. - RW

You: Fair. But maybe we could do something about that. Do you know if he's still in the hotel? HP

Stranger: I'm guessing so, he literally ain't got anywhere else to go. - RW

You: Well maybe I could send an olive branch. He might take it? Not like he's got much more to lose? HP

Stranger: If you like, your call. I'd help but...y'know. Packing. -RW

Stranger: Plus Hermione's kinda...asleep on my arm. - RW

You: It's fine. I get it. HP

You: I can handle this alone. HP

Stranger: Alright, mate, good luck. - RW

Stranger: Think he's on the top floor. Nobody else is up there, everyone's either run off or been sent to Azkaban. - RW

You: Right. Thanks for the information. I doubt anything will happen, but if I don't message you tomorrow, send a look out party for me. HP

Stranger: Oh yeah, you got it. - RW

You: Alright. talk to you soon. HP (Would you like to do paragraphs or initial messages between Harry and Draco?)

Stranger: ((Up to you! Paragraphs are fine with me if you'd prefer :) ))

You: (Alright sounds good to me)

You: Despite the aches Harry was still feeling from the war, Harry made himself get up. He didn't bother changing out of this pajamas. If Ron was right, then Draco would be seeing him this way everyday at Hogwarts. Plus, he liked being comfortable. Before he left, he grabbed a pair of trainers and his jacket. Finding Draco's room wasn't hard. It was the only door that was shut on the top floor. As Harry approached, his nerves were starting to get the best of him. He paced in front of the door for a few minutes before he found the courage to knock a few times lightly on the door. He played with the frayed hem of his jacket as he waited for the occupant to answer the door.

Stranger: Draco was the only person left in the hotel who'd had to stand trial, the others - like his father - either being transported to Azkaban immediately after the verdict or, if they were found innocent like his mother, running away to other countries to hide from the fallout of the trials. He'd been told he could say goodbye to Lucius before he was taken, since everyone knew the Dementor's Kiss would leave him in a mental state where he wouldn't ever recognise him again, but Draco had refused. Deep down - perhaps not even that deep - he knew that his father deserved this. And a part of him, the part that had suffered Lucius' abuse for years on end, felt a horrible twisted sort of relief. Still, Draco hadn't been able to get any sleep since the verdict had been read. He was sat on his bed fully clothes in black slacks and a white button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled right down to hide the dark mark on his forearm. He was paler than usual, dark circles ringing his eyes and his hair dishevelled. When he heard the knock on his door he frowned, helpless to defend himself since his wand had been held in custody for the time being. He stood up slowly and went to go and answer it, opening it a fraction before realising who was on the other side. "Potter?" he asked, his voice betraying his genuine confusion.

You: It felt like an eternity before Harry saw the door move and only a slither of the other man was visible. He let out a breath that he only now realized he was holding. He bounced nervously on his heels trying to come up with what to say to the other and scolding himself for not thinking about it before. "Right....hi, um, Dra- or Malfoy. Whichever. It makes no difference to me." He glanced down both hallways before looking back at Draco. "I guess I just came up here to see how you're doing. Which is dumb and....uh....I'm sure that I'm one of the last people you'd want to see and I don't mean to bother you. And well if we have to be roommates, it might as well not be the most awful thing if we talk or I can go. You probably want to be alone. I get that. I wanted to be alone too. Need to think and all. Right...?" He rambled out, glancing back to the elevator and wondering what possessed him to act like such an idiot.

Stranger: Draco blinked, looking him up and down for a second. He'd had a lot of time to think about Harry Potter recently - how he'd felt when he'd thought he was dead (awful), how he'd felt when he found out he was actually alive (elated), and how he felt watching him testify for himself and his mother during their trials (grateful). It was a far cry from the childish hatred he'd held for him back in their earlier years of school. After a moment he stepped aside, opening the door a little wider to let Harry into the room. Once he was inside he closed it again, silently going over to sit on his bed like he had been before, back against the headboard and one long leg stretched out in front of him with the other pulled up to his chest. "You can sit," he said eventually, gesturing to the end of the bed. There was a tray of untouched food on a table by the window, a full pot of tea that had gone stone cold. He considered using a charm to heat it up so he had something offer him, but he didn't think he could stomach drinking it himself yet. "So. I assume Weasley told you everything."

You: Harry looked around the room. Taking in every detail before finally sitting down on the bed. He rested his elbow on his knees and stared at his clasped hands. It took him a moment to finally nod and turn his head slightly toward the other. "Yeah, Ron overheard his parents talking about it. I--This is all still so fucked up!" He said. His voice rising with clear disapproval. "I suppose it was stupid of me to thing everything would just change in the blink of an eye."

Stranger: Wonderful, so word was already getting out. He knew that by the time he had to leave the hotel the next morning, there'd be a throng of reporters from the Daily Prophet waiting to get a photo of the boy who was now as good as an orphan. "I'm not surprised," he said, his voice coming out as more of a drawl. He'd had his time to come to terms with this - their lawyer had suggested it could be a possibility right from the start, so he'd had a few days to think it all over. He reached out to his nightstand and picked up a neatly folded piece of parchment, holding it between two fingers and extending it towards Harry. "It's not as if he's dead. They gave us his cell number and told us visiting times, in case we ever want to go and watch him drool onto his clothes." He turned his head to look out the small window, though all he saw outside was pitch dark. He already knew he wouldn't go and visit - he didn't want to. His mother might, perhaps, but only once she'd stayed in hiding for a good long time. "I've got other things to think about. Hogwarts doesn't start for another three weeks."

You: Harry let out a sigh and took the paper even though he had no plans to read it. He set it down next to him. "Still.....It was banned for a reason and I'd hoped that people would remember that. We're no better off if people continue to act this way." Harry shook his head feeling as if his words were a mute point. "Hogwarts shall be interesting. Ron said their won't be Houses anymore. Sounds rather distressing in my opinion. I'm planning on trying to get McGonagall to change it back."

Stranger: "You shouldn't. It'll already be bad enough for Slytherins in the younger years. Sticking the eighth years in green robes too will be like putting targets on our backs." Draco leaned his head back against the headboard and stared up at the ceiling. There was a drip coming through a crack that had been keeping him up the past few nights, and he was almost glad to be leaving the hotel just to be away from it. "They're not getting rid of them completely. Just for us. There aren't enough of us coming back." He closed his eyes for a second. "Blaise isn't coming, neither's Pansy. Or Millicent. It's just me."

You: Harry turned to look at Draco shocked. "You can't just get rid of Slytherin. You aren't all bad and people ned to see that. I'm just so tired of all the hate. Why can't we try to understand each other instead of thinking that the other is wrong or better." Harry fell back onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling as well. "I guess that's just how I pictured things would be after this was all over."

Stranger: "You've got a very optimistic way of looking at things," Draco muttered, flipping the piece of parchment containing his father's prison information off the edge of the bed. "They're not getting rid of Slytherin. First years will still be sorted into Slytherin and all the other years get to keep their house affiliations. But nobody's coming back from Slytherin except for me, I'm the only one, there's no point me wearing green just to stand out. I've had enough of that," he said, picking at a hangnail on his thumb until it bled. He didn't know /why/ it felt strangely comfortable or normal to have Harry Potter laying out over the end of his bed - well, the bed he'd been given for now, anyway - but somehow it did. It was better than being alone, at least. "I assume you'll be leaving with the Weasleys tomorrow," he said, wanting to change the conversation away from what was going to happen back at Hogwarts.

You: "I guess it's what kept me going each morning." He replied honestly. "Something had to...." He grabbed at the frayed hem on his jacket once again at the mention of the Weasley's. "He have a shrug. "Don't know. I've an invitation, but it still sort of feels like I'm intruding. What with Fred....and Ginny. I'll probably just end up at Grimmauld Place until it's time to leave. At least the press can't find me there."

Stranger: Draco didn't know what was going on with Potter and the Weaslette, he'd stopped paying attention to their personal lives once everything in his own started going downhill. The only thing he really knew about was Granger and Weasley, because they made it virtually impossible to ignore with how they were always all over each other - it was going to be a nightmare back at Hogwarts. "Oh. The Black place," he said, giving a short nod. He remembered hearing about it, mostly from Bellatrix and mostly in the context of how to attack it. He felt sick for a moment, rubbing a hand over his tired face and closing his eyes.

You: "Yeah, Sirius left it to me." A small smile forming on his face at the mention of his godfather. "It's really all I have left of him. I though about maybe trying to clear some of the junk out of there or fix up some of the rooms. I don't know. Haven't planned that far. But it'd give me a way to spend my time. Not have to think about what's happening outside." Harry rubbed his face with his hands. "I don't sounds sort of stupid now that I've said it aloud. Sirius didn't even like that place."

Stranger: Draco gave a quiet hum to acknowledge he was listening, while he thought about his own arrangements once he had to leave the next day. He could go to another hotel, he supposed, but with so many of his family's assets seized by the Ministry he couldn't afford to burn through money too quickly. And besides, who knew if another hotel would even take him, once he gave them his last name? "You should keep it," he said, wondering if Harry would accept the advice or dismiss it as useless since it was coming from him. "A house is a house. If you fix it up it won't even look like it used to."

You: Harry nodded along. That was rather good advice. Harry also had a feeling that Sirius would like if he fixed up the place. Harry knew it would take longer than three weeks. The house was huge, especially if it was just him fixing it or trying to. It would be a start, at least. He could come back afterwards and fix it the rest of the way after graduation. "Thanks, Malfoy. I'll see what I can get done in the three weeks we have left until Hogwarts." He glanced over at the other and frowned a bit. Here he was talking about having two options of places to stay and Draco probably did have one. "What about you? Do you know where you'll go in the morning?" He asked softly. Really hoping that Draco could tell that he genuinely cared.

Stranger: Draco shook his head. "There's an apartment above Borgin and Burkes, a studio," he said, going back to fidgeting with the hangnail. Even though it was bleeding he barely even felt it. "Down Knockturn Alley. It was my...it belonged to the Lestranges. As far as I know there was never a contract so it hasn't been seized. I think that's my only option." He'd been there before, when they'd spent long nights teaching him to use the vanishing cabinet. It was a grotty place, the roof was glass and offered little privacy or warmth so it was perpetually cold, it would definitely be leaking by now with all the rain that was coming down, and it had mould all over. Still, he supposed it was something.

You: "Oh...right. That sounds..." 'Dreadfully awful.' he supplied in his head and based on Draco's facial expression. He didn't seem too thrilled either. Harry could only imagine what the place was probably like. Grimmauld's was already petty dark and unwelcoming. He expected the Lestranges flat to be worse. There was also the fact that Knockturn was still slimy. There could be a chance that someone could break in or try to mug Draco on the street. He could already see it. Draco showing up to King's Cross with a black eye. "You could always stay at Grimmauld's. It needs a lot of work, but there's plenty of space. You could have a whole floor if you wanted."

[suggers-got-dingled]

ok so I know it's been two whole days and everyone's probably ~~over~~  the buzz by now but I never will be until my dying day and I still have many feelings that keep bursting out in sudden rushes of weeping, smiling emotion every time I think about and look at my photos from the TV choice awards so whilst I'm finally feeling more human yet shattered and still in my bubble of happiness and daze and joy and laughter that seems to treble in potency late at night I'm here to relive the best moments from 4th September 2017 which is now officially declared National Ryan Hawley Day by his number one fan and tv husband Daniel Benedict Miller *deep breath* here we go...

getting off the Leeds to London train to find out Iain, Sally, Charlotte and John were also on it and we were completely oblivious to the fact we were sharing the same enclosed air as soap's best loved cast and most loathed man lmao (honestly we should have known from then on that it was going to be the most momentous day?!????)

seeing Iain once again as he walks past and ignores a group of very bitter robron fans whilst everyone tries their best to hold back with a couple of oooh's here and there, awkward tension that you could literally cut with a knife and comment of the night "can we all hush because he won't give us robron back at all" WHAT IS THIS TUMULTUOUS LIFE I LIVE I HIGH KEY WANTED TO LEAVE EARTH

the same very bitter robron fans forgetting about any foregoing drama, gathering together both in person and online to love and appreciate and support our boys. Meeting fans we'd spoke to for months (even years) for the first time and instantly connecting because of our mutual passion. It was just so pure???? and lovely??? and comfortable???? how happy and delighted and wrapped up in dryan we all were sat on those cold, hard floors cuddling for warmth, bonding and crying over how kind everyone was being as we posted our photos. It was one of - if not my favourite - times in the fandom (aside from the soap awards) and it made me realise why we're all still here on this rollercoaster journey

all being in a designated group waiting in anticipation for Danny and Ryan content as well as their arrival on the red carpet and making the loudest most inhumane noise as soon as the first photo was released, to say all eyes on us was an understatement IT WAS GR8

getting the news of more photos and videos and interviews and articles and reacting together it just made the experience so!! much!! more!!! special!!!

 chatting with Kate Oates for a good few minutes and her giving an awkward side eyed chuckle as we tell her we miss her and need her back HONESTLY she is such a babe and I think she just about gets our current despair lmao bless

completely missing Danny and Ryan rolling up looking a solid 12/10 as they dive straight in the door and feeling deflated but also on top of the world (pretty sure my only view was Ryan's blonde locks sticking out from the crowd of heads and I have never felt more fortunate)

deciding to sit round the front in the dark and wait for any signs of the boys whilst contemplating how and why this god damn ceremony won't just start and it ending up being THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DECISION OF ALL DECISIONS

some random man asking if we're waiting for Danny Miller because he sensed 'that vibe' I don't think I've ever related to a passer by so much in my life it was amazing 

seeing Danny first (of course, how many times does that boy want to take a cig break outside?!?!) him casually strolling over to us after he'd dealt with the sought attention on the other side whilst we're all must remain cool and collected, must try and not transport my thoughts from my brain to my mouth about how much I want to rip that suit without a tie off him and ruffle his perfect hair

him being the sarciest little shit??? "you travel about you lot don't you" were the very first words to come out of his mouth and I'm just??? thanks Danny for reminding me what a high key mess my life is it's all because of you I hope you know that!!

him saying he'd record Ryan's speech before the knowledge of him winning was actually in (LOL HE SO KNEW AND I'VE NEVER KNOWN SOMEONE BE SUCH AN ENTHUSIASTIC FANGIRL FOR RYAN HAWLEY I WOULD HAVE SOLD MY SOUL TO SEE HIS NERVOUS BEAMING LIL FACE THE MOMENT HIS NAME WAS ANNOUNCED)

Danny saying Ryan said he'd come out to see us later and us being all *insert everybody calm down it's happening gif here*

THE MOMENT WE FOUND OUT RYAN HAD INDEED WON BEST ACTOR AND NOW BOTH OUR BOYS WERE AWARD WINNING ACTORS there were genuine tears of merriment with hands clasped over faces it was a beautiful sight to behold and I've never been as ecstatic  

Danny coming out (again) once the show was over and Emmerdale had smashed yet another award show, us applauding from a distance and Danny cheering with us from the other side of the road

us getting told to be quiet by the security for the hundredth time that night

 then the biggest blur of the century occurring almost immediately afterwards as Danny tells us he's gonna bring the winning man out to us not even giving us chance to compose ourselves

A WILD RYAN HAWLEY APPEARS WITH THE BIGGEST GRIN ON HIS FACE CLUTCHING HIS SHINY AWARD AND MY LUNGS NEARLY GIVE IN

DANNY FOLLOWS RIGHT BEHIND HIM LOOKING SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY AND PROUD OF HIM HE WAS ON THE BIGGEST HIGH AND I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN HIM LIKE THAT EVEN WHEN HE'S WON HIMSELF, HE HAS SO MUCH SUPPORT AND LOVE FOR HIS CO STARS IT'S SO UPLIFTING

RYAN'S FACE AS HE HEADED TOWARDS TO US WHEN HE TURNED HIS HEAD AND SAW US ALL THERE I'M LITERALLY NEVER GETTING OVER IT him straight away asking us if we'd voted, thanking us for doing so whilst telling us how much winning means to him with his dedicated adorable speech. Him saying he thought John would win and being totally shocked, he genuinely never expected it all and he was so grateful and appreciative as everyone was congratulating him and singing our proud praises WHY IS HE SO FUCKING LIFE RUININGLY LOVEABLE AND ADORABLE AND MODEST HE'S THE CUTEST ANGEL I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HIS SMILE AND HIS SWEET WORDS

Ryan just melting my heart to mush and reminding me why I hold so much admiration for him I'm just so honoured to have seen him right after his win and so unbelievably pleased we could show him outright the love he deserves and has instead of hearing it from second person IT WAS SO CHILLED AND SO PLEASANT TO SEE RYAN SO RELAXED MEETING US I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN HIM SO AT EASE AT A TIME WHEN HE ACTUALLY LEAVES HIS HOUSE (the drinks and Danny’s company probably helped)

DANNY JUST STANDING BACK AND LETTING RYAN DO HIS THING AS HE PRACTICALLY PUSHES HIM TOWARDS US EMOTIONAL AWAITING FANS I'm getting flutters in my tummy typing this out why am I like this why do they do this to me like???? what the fuck??? he just started filming randomly after he purposely went inside to bring him out and let him know there's plenty of people who are proud of him??? like he needed to witness him all there with us and he came out with him as backup because he wanted to record the moment we all gave him double the love he gives him on a daily basis I will never ever ever ever recover from this HOW WILL IT SINK IN HELP ME

us being completely unaware that Danny was filming at first and then just being in a state of belief about it, after we found out it was on Instagram and watched it back it was meltdown I tell you I have never been so thankful to be hidden behind a bush LMAO WILL I EVER GET OVER DANNY GLADLY EXPOSING US ALL AND CAPTURING THE FOCUS OF MY FRIEND JADE AND HER LIL CONFUSED WAVE NO I WILL NOT IT MAKES MY LIFE LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE

Danny getting us into trouble by the security for the third time that night and him just howling about the fact whilst carrying on filming despite the professional demands HE'S JUST WALKING AROUND FILMING HIS KING WHY THEY GOTTA RUIN THE VIBE IDC IF PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING RYAN HAWLEY AND DANNY MILLER ARE WITHIN REACHING DISTANCE IN THE SAME ZONE LET US ENJOY THE EUPHORIA

Danny being a cheeky, playful little shit 2.0 "where's that video going then" "never you mind" *smug smile and wink* "you so knew Ryan had won didn't you that's why you said you'd film the iconic moment for us???" "oh I can’t tell you that can I" *another smug smile and wink* I LOVE HIM WITH ALL MY HEART

A DRYAN PHOTO MY FUCKING DREAM COME TRUE I WAS SHOOKETH TO THE CORE I STILL AM I CAN'T STOP WEEPING OVER IT EVERY TIME I CATCH A GLIMPSE OF MY LOCK SCREEN

explaining what being shooketh is to Danny and hearing that word from the horse's mouth what a weird encounter

ridiculously happy Ryan Hawley holding his award up in every single photo like a proud child receiving their first medal with a school sticker smile IT'S ALL I NEED IN LIFE HE'S SO PRECIOUS

Ryan still finding the time to be the caring dad being concerned about how fans are going to get home, introducing himself with a handshake and reassuring them with a "don't be nervous" I was all awwwww'd out it's just sheer lunacy I can't cope with him

DANNY COMPLAINING ABOUT GIN AND TONIC BEING £20 SAYING RYAN CAN GET THE DRINKS IN SEEN AS HE WON AND DIRECTING HIS NEED TO GET WRECKED IN RYAN'S INFLUENCED AND BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS AURA "let's go get fucked" - that both ends my life and resurrects me every time it crosses my mind p l e a s e

us being all I LOVE ROBRON, hugging and just genuinely being inconsolable after the power duo said bye and headed off to enjoy the party together like there's so many mixed up memories it was that overwhelming and surreal I think I'm still in the midst of a dryan hangover

walking round London at midnight on autopilot and a delusional bubble just going through the motions breathless with no idea where we are or what we're doing, not even looking when crossing the road, nearly getting run over and not even caring because if we died right there and then we'd die at peak levels of happiness

heading back on a 5hr megabus journey just absolutely shook to the core, recapping and waking up from two hours of broken sleep turning to each other and being like OH MY GOD WE ACTUALLY GOT A PICTURE WITH DANNY AND RYAN

I ended up walking through Leeds at gone 6am in the pissing down rain, my onesie and no makeup but it was well worth it to see Emmerdale sweep the board clean and the two men I owe my life to TOGETHER! IN! THE! FLESH! Honestly I wish I could bottle up the moments and the feelings and just dish it out for everyone to experience because literally nothing compared.

I really do have such an overwhelming amount of love for Danny and Ryan and I'm about to cry again like wow they are just too cute I've never seen a friendship so heartwarming, two people being so loving and tender and supportive towards each other in real life whilst being in a constant cycle of snogging, fighting, problem facing, soul consuming and devoting deeply onscreen. I'm still in disbelief I can't even concentrate on reality nothing else matters but them those two married tv husbands and I don't think I'll ever love anyone more. I was just here living a normal, basic life being a normal, basic human being and then dryan came along and changed everything hehehehe the pain. Seriously, Emmerdale has destroyed every particle of my sanity lately but it's times like this when it hits me that there's no denying they own my ass completely EVEN ON MY DEATH BED THE EVENING OF THE 4TH SEPTEMBER 2017 WILL STILL BE THE LAST I SPEAK OF DESPITE THE REST OF MY DIRE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LIFE EVENTS CONTINUING AS I GROW OLD

[claremal-one]

Will South Carolina Be Biden’s Firewall After All?

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): With just one day before the South Carolina primary on Saturday, former Vice President Joe Biden has a 14 in 15 shot at winning the most votes in South Carolina, according to our forecast. He is a heavy favorite and is expected to win 39 percent of the vote, on average.

But a lot of Biden’s gains in South Carolina, both in our forecast and our polling average, have come in the last several days as polls following Nevada and Tuesday night’s debate have started to trickle in. Prior to this week, things had looked pretty close in South Carolina, and the model even had Sanders in the lead there prior to the Nevada caucuses.

So Galen, you’re actually on the ground in South Carolina. What are you seeing and hearing?

galen (Galen Druke, podcast producer and reporter): For now, it looks like Biden has managed to reverse the trends of the past couple weeks of Sen. Bernie Sanders and billionaire Tom Steyer gaining support — in particular black support — here in South Carolina. A Monmouth poll just came out today showing Biden up by 20 points and winning black voters by almost 30 points.

But to give you some on-the-ground color for what it’s like: I spent yesterday morning at the National Action Network’s Ministers’ Breakfast at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, a large black church in North Charleston, and what I observed in both speaking with attendees and observing the crowd’s reaction was that Biden was far and away the favorite of the candidates that spoke.

In the afternoon, I went to a Sanders rally in North Charleston that — while more diverse than his New Hampshire rallies — was still very white for a state where 60 percent of the Democratic electorate is black.

geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): Yeah, Galen, that lines up with some of what I found going through South Carolina polls after my visit to the state a week and a half ago. Sanders has often led Biden among white voters in the polls, but Biden leads among black voters, which is very important. The margins for each candidate could decide whether the race is close or not, though.

While I was there, it seemed like Biden might be in trouble, yet some recent polls show him with a more comfortable lead. That might come from Steyer fading after Nevada, though it’s unclear.

sarahf: Galen is right that that Monmouth poll is a really strong point in Biden’s favor, but I guess I’ve been kind of surprised by how much overall support Biden’s lost since Iowa. Granted, this is from an average of national polls, but the fact that the gap between Biden and Sanders’s support among black Americans has closed so dramatically in recent weeks makes me wonder how overwhelming the support will be for Biden on Saturday.

clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): Voters love a winner! 2016 taught us that. His weaker showings have redounding effects.

sarahf: That’s true, but I have to imagine the storyline to watch on Saturday will be how Biden does with black voters. And I’m curious how this plays out across age, given Biden’s downturn since Iowa (although maybe last-minute surge now). Because one thing that has divided voter choice overall — including black voters — is age.

Do we think we’ll see that kind of age split in South Carolina? Or because it’s a more conservative southern state, maybe not as much as, say, a state like California?

galen: Yeah, Sarah, when it comes to the generational divide, you’re right. In 2016, Sanders pulled even with Clinton among black voters under the age of 30, even though she won almost 80 percent of the black vote overall.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that young people don’t vote at the same rates as older voters, especially in primaries, and that will probably be true here in South Carolina as well.

geoffrey.skelley: Right, Galen. A plus for Biden is that most voters will be older. In South Carolina’s 2016 Democratic primary, 65 percent of voters were 45 years or older, according to the exit poll. So even if Sanders can gin up younger voter turnout some — and it’s unclear whether he’s really been doing that so far — the electorate will likely lean toward older voters.

sarahf: On the point of Biden’s mediocre performances so far, how have folks been grappling with it, Galen? I know Geoffrey heard a lot from folks earlier this month who said what happened in the first two states didn’t matter to them.

galen: I haven’t heard a lot of people express doubt about Biden based on poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire. After all, a lot of the support Biden has is based on years of his presence in the state and his association with the country’s first black president. That can’t really be erased in a couple weeks.

Biden has also had a good — or not so bad — week in the news cycle. He came in second in Nevada, he performed fine in the debate, and he got the coveted endorsement of House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Wednesday. By the way, I spoke to Clyburn about why he decided to endorse Biden, and he expressed the same skepticism about Sanders’s candidacy that I’ve heard from other older black voters as well.

clare.malone: Yes, Galen. I wrote about that this fall when I followed Biden around for a couple months, including in South Carolina. There’s a lot of history and effort that black voters feel Biden has put in, and they’re quite attuned to candidates who might be just dropping in and pandering to them.

geoffrey.skelley: Like quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. in your first response to a debate question, Clare?

galen: Clare, I have talked to a number of voters who have complained about pandering. Voters here are VERY attuned to it and it is SO transparent.

sarahf: So I think both Clare and Galen are right — despite his national slump among black voters — Biden’s support in South Carolina is pretty sticky. But at the same time … how do you explain Steyer in third in our state average there?!?

Is it noise? Or has Steyer maybe made serious inroads there aside from all the ad buys?

galen: MONEY $$$$$

clare.malone: Steyer’s ads are interesting, since he frames himself not as much as the IMPEACH guy, but as a businessman. That’s more moderate imagery, and the black electorate in the Democratic Party tends to skew moderate. So he’s doing something smart!

But I’m not sure if that’s actually going to translate into like, a third place win. But never say die.

galen: I mean he looks like he’ll come in third, so I take those polls seriously. But I don’t think what happens here for Steyer in South Carolina says much about the rest of the race nationally.

geoffrey.skelley: It’s more than just ad spending, though. I saw Steyer’s organization first-hand, and it seemed pretty impressive. They’ve made huge investments in attracting African American support, not just with typical election pitches but also community engagement. The campaign has held a bunch of block parties, for example. And the campaign seemed to be everywhere. I even talked to one Sanders volunteer at Sanders’s headquarters in Columbia who said he’d knocked on some rural doors, and the only other literature he’d seen at those places was from Steyer’s campaign.

galen: Steyer’s performance in South Carolina, where former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t on the ballot, could be a little test run for Bloomberg’s approach, though. If Steyer’s support in polls is reflective of his support on Election Day, that could bode decently for Bloomberg. If he underperforms his polls, though that may suggest that support “purchased” through massive ad/campaign spending may not be that sticky.

sarahf: Right, and we saw how well that worked for Steyer in Nevada. He invested heavily and still finished in fifth place.

geoffrey.skelley: It’s worth noting that Steyer got 9 percent of the initial preference vote in Nevada, and he was at 10 percent in our polling average before the caucuses. So I’m not sure that he really underperformed there.

clare.malone: Though I will say, Bloomberg has perhaps purchased his support slightly differently. It’s ads, sure, but he’s also got a massive philanthropic network that local and state officials might have benefitted from and therefore will endorse or campaign for him. That’s probably a little more effective than Steyer’s ad blitz.

galen: Well, Steyer has gotten some notable endorsements in South Carolina, but he’s actually been accused of buying the backing of South Carolinians, which is similar to criticisms that have been lobbed at Bloomberg.

But the big question regarding Steyer in South Carolina, I think, is whether he can really clear the 15 percent threshold to get delegates, cutting into Biden or Sanders’s totals.

sarahf: Editor-in-chief Nate Silver had a piece on Thursday where he gamed out three scenarios for how the South Carolina primary could go: 1) Large Biden win (by 10 percentage points or more); 2) Modest Biden win (by less than 10 points); and then 3) a Sanders win (no margin specified). Essentially, what I took away from that piece is the margin on Saturday really matters for Biden going forward.

Is that fair?

geoffrey.skelley: A big win for Biden resets the media narrative just a few days before Super Tuesday — and that could be big. It might pull back some moderate voters who had been testing out Bloomberg into Biden’s camp.

galen: Yeah, I think the media is ready to tell the Biden comeback story so if it is born out in the actual election results, well, all the better from a narrative perspective.

Also, the Democratic Party apparatus is not super excited about Sanders, to say the least, so if Biden were to win big, they could start to rally around him in a more concrete way if he wins decisively.

clare.malone: And as the Biden people will tell you, they’ve always put a big focus on the trove of Southern states that the March contests will bring.

They think they have a lot of strength there and that they can mine a whole lot of votes.

galen: TEXAS BABY

geoffrey.skelley: Yes, basically if Biden is able to get a large enough win and then do fairly well on Super Tuesday, you might see a rallying effect for Biden as the Sanders alternative. I’ve been keeping track of the endorsement picture in 2020 vs. the 2016 GOP race, and what you saw then was a bunch of GOP Congress members and governors made endorsements after South Carolina and Nevada. That hasn’t happened in the Democratic race post-Nevada, so maybe they’re waiting for South Carolina and Super Tuesday.

clare.malone: That’s fair. I think we’re going to see the big reassessment post-Super Tuesday, to be honest.

South Carolina is the shot, Super Tuesday is the chaser. We’ll see what the Wednesday morning after scene is like.

sarahf: So … this is DEFINITELY a broken-record type question at this point, but where does this leave the other candidates in South Carolina? What’s a good scenario for Buttigieg, Warren or Klobuchar in South Carolina moving forward into Super Tuesday?

Is there one?

galen: A good scenario for those candidates coming out of South Carolina is a clear Biden win because if Sanders wins the race, it’s basically over.

But if Biden does well, that could also weaken Sanders in Minnesota and Massachusetts, states that Klobuchar and Warren hope to win, respectively.

Now, I don’t think that means they will win the majority of delegates or the nomination, but I think they’d be doing their part for the party establishment to block Sanders by winning those two states, because otherwise he would probably win them.

geoffrey.skelley: I mean, breaking the double digits might be a reasonable goal for Buttigieg or Klobuchar? They’re at 7 and 4 percent, respectively, in our South Carolina polling average.

Warren is at 8 percent, so her too, I guess.

galen: I just don’t see it happening for Buttigieg and Klobuchar, but hey I’ve been wrong before.

geoffrey.skelley: Buttigieg and Klobuchar might benefit if more white moderates vote in the Democratic primary. South Carolina uses an open primary, so keep an eye on that. There are Republican-leaning voters who are a little skeptical of Trump in places like suburban Charleston and who helped flip the South Carolina 1st to Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham in 2018 — that’s a district President Trump carried by 13 points in 2016.

Not to mention, we saw both Klobuchar and Buttigieg do well among white moderates in New Hampshire, for instance, so it wouldn’t be too crazy to think they might replicate that success here.

galen: To Geoff’s point, I went to a diner in North Charleston yesterday and spoke with a white voter who called himself an independent and told me he really likes Buttigieg. However, he told me he would be out of town and didn’t plan on voting. He said he didn’t realize until he heard on the radio the other day that he could vote in the Democratic primary.

geoffrey.skelley: Democracy!

clare.malone: What a recommendation for the radio!

galen: I also spoke to an elderly man wearing a MAGA hat at the diner. A reminder that President Trump is holding a rally in North Charleston in Friday even though there isn’t a Republican primary here.

You might call that … trolling?

sarahf: It would be interesting if Biden does well among black Democrats in South Carolina but not as well among white Democrats (and independents, etc.), and we see a kinda a repeat of what happened in New Hampshire.

Does that undermine Biden’s electability argument at all if he continues to not win over white moderate support?

galen: Well, if the Monmouth poll is any indicator, Biden will do fine with both black and white moderates here.

geoffrey.skelley: If South Carolina does work out that way, Super Tuesday will end up answering that question. Is there a notable increase in Biden’s support among white moderates? Or does he continue to split them with Buttigieg, Klobuchar and, of course, Bloomberg, who debuts that day?

galen: The big question to me is how likely it looks like this is all headed to a contested convention. If it looks that way after Super Tuesday, then the other moderates will have a reason to stay in. But if Biden looks like he can win a majority or strong plurality, I think the party will be like PLEASE GTFO of this race.

And considering that Buttigieg and Klobuchar want to be in good standing with the party, they will probably oblige.

I have no idea about Bloomberg, though.

geoffrey.skelley: It was so clear that Clinton was going to win easily in South Carolina in 2016 that I don’t recall people making much of the fact that there were only three days separating South Carolina from Super Tuesday last time around. She was the favorite for the nomination and was going to win the Palmetto State in a walk. This time, though, the favorite for the nomination — Sanders — is behind in South Carolina, and as Nate wrote, a big Biden win could alter the race’s trajectory to some extent. But once again, there are just three days between these events, so how South Carolina affects things is more uncertain.

sarahf: So how important, then, is South Carolina for the rest of the race? To me, it feels like the stakes are higher than in the first three states, because it really is a question now of whether Biden’s campaign remains viable, right?

galen: So, I think South Carolina will help shape the narrative of the race going forward, but like Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina is actually not very representative of the Democratic party demographically. There are only five states in the country where the Democratic electorate is majority black — South Carolina being one of them. (Nationally, black voters make up about 20 to 25 percent of the Democratic electorate.)

Also, South Carolina is an overwhelmingly Republican state — 17 points more Republican, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric. So, in some ways, if Biden does well there, that doesn’t necessarily mean he can do well across the rest of the country.

geoffrey.skelley: It seems like Biden will most likely win South Carolina, but if it’s a pretty narrow win, that could be a sign of weakness that doesn’t convince voters who are still considering Bloomberg or Buttigieg or Klobuchar to jump ship and come over to him on Super Tuesday.

If Biden does win by a big margin, though, that could make his campaign far more viable in the long run by winning over some of those voters looking at other moderate alternatives.

As Galen said, South Carolina may not be that representative of the Democratic Party, but it’s certainly pretty important for Biden’s long-term hope of being the leading Sanders alternative.

clare.malone: South Carolina will prime the tank for Super Tuesday, so it’s a really important set-up. If Warren, for instance, finishes low again, perhaps even lower than Klobuchar, and then performs spottily on Super Tuesday, I really wonder if her campaign is over. A sad political story of steady rise and precipitous fall.

Especially if he has a particularly strong showing, I think Biden could potentially set the table for a comeback of sorts (or maybe a campaign to tie or a “no one wins”). But as we’ve said and written before, this whole thing is Sanders’s race to lose.

from Clare Malone – FiveThirtyEight https://ift.tt/2TgPxBO via https://ift.tt/1B8lJZR

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): With just one day before the South Carolina primary on Saturday, former Vice President Joe Biden has a 14 in 15 shot at winning the most votes in South Carolina, according to our forecast. He is a heavy favorite and is expected to win 39 percent of the vote, on average.

But a lot of Biden’s gains in South Carolina, both in our forecast and our polling average, have come in the last several days as polls following Nevada and Tuesday night’s debate have started to trickle in. Prior to this week, things had looked pretty close in South Carolina, and the model even had Sanders in the lead there prior to the Nevada caucuses.

So Galen, you’re actually on the ground in South Carolina. What are you seeing and hearing?

galen (Galen Druke, podcast producer and reporter): For now, it looks like Biden has managed to reverse the trends of the past couple weeks of Sen. Bernie Sanders and billionaire Tom Steyer gaining support — in particular black support — here in South Carolina. A Monmouth poll just came out today showing Biden up by 20 points and winning black voters by almost 30 points.

But to give you some on-the-ground color for what it’s like: I spent yesterday morning at the National Action Network’s Ministers’ Breakfast at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, a large black church in North Charleston, and what I observed in both speaking with attendees and observing the crowd’s reaction was that Biden was far and away the favorite of the candidates that spoke.

In the afternoon, I went to a Sanders rally in North Charleston that — while more diverse than his New Hampshire rallies — was still very white for a state where 60 percent of the Democratic electorate is black.

geoffrey.skelley (Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst): Yeah, Galen, that lines up with some of what I found going through South Carolina polls after my visit to the state a week and a half ago. Sanders has often led Biden among white voters in the polls, but Biden leads among black voters, which is very important. The margins for each candidate could decide whether the race is close or not, though.

While I was there, it seemed like Biden might be in trouble, yet some recent polls show him with a more comfortable lead. That might come from Steyer fading after Nevada, though it’s unclear.

sarahf: Galen is right that that Monmouth poll is a really strong point in Biden’s favor, but I guess I’ve been kind of surprised by how much overall support Biden’s lost since Iowa. Granted, this is from an average of national polls, but the fact that the gap between Biden and Sanders’s support among black Americans has closed so dramatically in recent weeks makes me wonder how overwhelming the support will be for Biden on Saturday.

clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): Voters love a winner! 2016 taught us that. His weaker showings have redounding effects.

sarahf: That’s true, but I have to imagine the storyline to watch on Saturday will be how Biden does with black voters. And I’m curious how this plays out across age, given Biden’s downturn since Iowa (although maybe last-minute surge now). Because one thing that has divided voter choice overall — including black voters — is age.

Do we think we’ll see that kind of age split in South Carolina? Or because it’s a more conservative southern state, maybe not as much as, say, a state like California?

galen: Yeah, Sarah, when it comes to the generational divide, you’re right. In 2016, Sanders pulled even with Clinton among black voters under the age of 30, even though she won almost 80 percent of the black vote overall.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that young people don’t vote at the same rates as older voters, especially in primaries, and that will probably be true here in South Carolina as well.

geoffrey.skelley: Right, Galen. A plus for Biden is that most voters will be older. In South Carolina’s 2016 Democratic primary, 65 percent of voters were 45 years or older, according to the exit poll. So even if Sanders can gin up younger voter turnout some — and it’s unclear whether he’s really been doing that so far — the electorate will likely lean toward older voters.

sarahf: On the point of Biden’s mediocre performances so far, how have folks been grappling with it, Galen? I know Geoffrey heard a lot from folks earlier this month who said what happened in the first two states didn’t matter to them.

galen: I haven’t heard a lot of people express doubt about Biden based on poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire. After all, a lot of the support Biden has is based on years of his presence in the state and his association with the country’s first black president. That can’t really be erased in a couple weeks.

Biden has also had a good — or not so bad — week in the news cycle. He came in second in Nevada, he performed fine in the debate, and he got the coveted endorsement of House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Wednesday. By the way, I spoke to Clyburn about why he decided to endorse Biden, and he expressed the same skepticism about Sanders’s candidacy that I’ve heard from other older black voters as well.

clare.malone: Yes, Galen. I wrote about that this fall when I followed Biden around for a couple months, including in South Carolina. There’s a lot of history and effort that black voters feel Biden has put in, and they’re quite attuned to candidates who might be just dropping in and pandering to them.

geoffrey.skelley: Like quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. in your first response to a debate question, Clare?

galen: Clare, I have talked to a number of voters who have complained about pandering. Voters here are VERY attuned to it and it is SO transparent.

sarahf: So I think both Clare and Galen are right — despite his national slump among black voters — Biden’s support in South Carolina is pretty sticky. But at the same time … how do you explain Steyer in third in our state average there?!?

Is it noise? Or has Steyer maybe made serious inroads there aside from all the ad buys?

galen: MONEY $$$$$

clare.malone: Steyer’s ads are interesting, since he frames himself not as much as the IMPEACH guy, but as a businessman. That’s more moderate imagery, and the black electorate in the Democratic Party tends to skew moderate. So he’s doing something smart!

But I’m not sure if that’s actually going to translate into like, a third place win. But never say die.

galen: I mean he looks like he’ll come in third, so I take those polls seriously. But I don’t think what happens here for Steyer in South Carolina says much about the rest of the race nationally.

geoffrey.skelley: It’s more than just ad spending, though. I saw Steyer’s organization first-hand, and it seemed pretty impressive. They’ve made huge investments in attracting African American support, not just with typical election pitches but also community engagement. The campaign has held a bunch of block parties, for example. And the campaign seemed to be everywhere. I even talked to one Sanders volunteer at Sanders’s headquarters in Columbia who said he’d knocked on some rural doors, and the only other literature he’d seen at those places was from Steyer’s campaign.

galen: Steyer’s performance in South Carolina, where former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t on the ballot, could be a little test run for Bloomberg’s approach, though. If Steyer’s support in polls is reflective of his support on Election Day, that could bode decently for Bloomberg. If he underperforms his polls, though that may suggest that support “purchased” through massive ad/campaign spending may not be that sticky.

sarahf: Right, and we saw how well that worked for Steyer in Nevada. He invested heavily and still finished in fifth place.

geoffrey.skelley: It’s worth noting that Steyer got 9 percent of the initial preference vote in Nevada, and he was at 10 percent in our polling average before the caucuses. So I’m not sure that he really underperformed there.

clare.malone: Though I will say, Bloomberg has perhaps purchased his support slightly differently. It’s ads, sure, but he’s also got a massive philanthropic network that local and state officials might have benefitted from and therefore will endorse or campaign for him. That’s probably a little more effective than Steyer’s ad blitz.

galen: Well, Steyer has gotten some notable endorsements in South Carolina, but he’s actually been accused of buying the backing of South Carolinians, which is similar to criticisms that have been lobbed at Bloomberg.

But the big question regarding Steyer in South Carolina, I think, is whether he can really clear the 15 percent threshold to get delegates, cutting into Biden or Sanders’s totals.

sarahf: Editor-in-chief Nate Silver had a piece on Thursday where he gamed out three scenarios for how the South Carolina primary could go: 1) Large Biden win (by 10 percentage points or more); 2) Modest Biden win (by less than 10 points); and then 3) a Sanders win (no margin specified). Essentially, what I took away from that piece is the margin on Saturday really matters for Biden going forward.

Is that fair?

geoffrey.skelley: A big win for Biden resets the media narrative just a few days before Super Tuesday — and that could be big. It might pull back some moderate voters who had been testing out Bloomberg into Biden’s camp.

galen: Yeah, I think the media is ready to tell the Biden comeback story so if it is born out in the actual election results, well, all the better from a narrative perspective.

Also, the Democratic Party apparatus is not super excited about Sanders, to say the least, so if Biden were to win big, they could start to rally around him in a more concrete way if he wins decisively.

clare.malone: And as the Biden people will tell you, they’ve always put a big focus on the trove of Southern states that the March contests will bring.

They think they have a lot of strength there and that they can mine a whole lot of votes.

galen: TEXAS BABY

geoffrey.skelley: Yes, basically if Biden is able to get a large enough win and then do fairly well on Super Tuesday, you might see a rallying effect for Biden as the Sanders alternative. I’ve been keeping track of the endorsement picture in 2020 vs. the 2016 GOP race, and what you saw then was a bunch of GOP Congress members and governors made endorsements after South Carolina and Nevada. That hasn’t happened in the Democratic race post-Nevada, so maybe they’re waiting for South Carolina and Super Tuesday.

clare.malone: That’s fair. I think we’re going to see the big reassessment post-Super Tuesday, to be honest.

South Carolina is the shot, Super Tuesday is the chaser. We’ll see what the Wednesday morning after scene is like.

sarahf: So … this is DEFINITELY a broken-record type question at this point, but where does this leave the other candidates in South Carolina? What’s a good scenario for Buttigieg, Warren or Klobuchar in South Carolina moving forward into Super Tuesday?

Is there one?

galen: A good scenario for those candidates coming out of South Carolina is a clear Biden win because if Sanders wins the race, it’s basically over.

But if Biden does well, that could also weaken Sanders in Minnesota and Massachusetts, states that Klobuchar and Warren hope to win, respectively.

Now, I don’t think that means they will win the majority of delegates or the nomination, but I think they’d be doing their part for the party establishment to block Sanders by winning those two states, because otherwise he would probably win them.

geoffrey.skelley: I mean, breaking the double digits might be a reasonable goal for Buttigieg or Klobuchar? They’re at 7 and 4 percent, respectively, in our South Carolina polling average.

Warren is at 8 percent, so her too, I guess.

galen: I just don’t see it happening for Buttigieg and Klobuchar, but hey I’ve been wrong before.

geoffrey.skelley: Buttigieg and Klobuchar might benefit if more white moderates vote in the Democratic primary. South Carolina uses an open primary, so keep an eye on that. There are Republican-leaning voters who are a little skeptical of Trump in places like suburban Charleston and who helped flip the South Carolina 1st to Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham in 2018 — that’s a district President Trump carried by 13 points in 2016.

Not to mention, we saw both Klobuchar and Buttigieg do well among white moderates in New Hampshire, for instance, so it wouldn’t be too crazy to think they might replicate that success here.

galen: To Geoff’s point, I went to a diner in North Charleston yesterday and spoke with a white voter who called himself an independent and told me he really likes Buttigieg. However, he told me he would be out of town and didn’t plan on voting. He said he didn’t realize until he heard on the radio the other day that he could vote in the Democratic primary.

geoffrey.skelley: Democracy!

clare.malone: What a recommendation for the radio!

galen: I also spoke to an elderly man wearing a MAGA hat at the diner. A reminder that President Trump is holding a rally in North Charleston in Friday even though there isn’t a Republican primary here.

You might call that … trolling?

sarahf: It would be interesting if Biden does well among black Democrats in South Carolina but not as well among white Democrats (and independents, etc.), and we see a kinda a repeat of what happened in New Hampshire.

Does that undermine Biden’s electability argument at all if he continues to not win over white moderate support?

galen: Well, if the Monmouth poll is any indicator, Biden will do fine with both black and white moderates here.

geoffrey.skelley: If South Carolina does work out that way, Super Tuesday will end up answering that question. Is there a notable increase in Biden’s support among white moderates? Or does he continue to split them with Buttigieg, Klobuchar and, of course, Bloomberg, who debuts that day?

galen: The big question to me is how likely it looks like this is all headed to a contested convention. If it looks that way after Super Tuesday, then the other moderates will have a reason to stay in. But if Biden looks like he can win a majority or strong plurality, I think the party will be like PLEASE GTFO of this race.

And considering that Buttigieg and Klobuchar want to be in good standing with the party, they will probably oblige.

I have no idea about Bloomberg, though.

geoffrey.skelley: It was so clear that Clinton was going to win easily in South Carolina in 2016 that I don’t recall people making much of the fact that there were only three days separating South Carolina from Super Tuesday last time around. She was the favorite for the nomination and was going to win the Palmetto State in a walk. This time, though, the favorite for the nomination — Sanders — is behind in South Carolina, and as Nate wrote, a big Biden win could alter the race’s trajectory to some extent. But once again, there are just three days between these events, so how South Carolina affects things is more uncertain.

sarahf: So how important, then, is South Carolina for the rest of the race? To me, it feels like the stakes are higher than in the first three states, because it really is a question now of whether Biden’s campaign remains viable, right?

galen: So, I think South Carolina will help shape the narrative of the race going forward, but like Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina is actually not very representative of the Democratic party demographically. There are only five states in the country where the Democratic electorate is majority black — South Carolina being one of them. (Nationally, black voters make up about 20 to 25 percent of the Democratic electorate.)

Also, South Carolina is an overwhelmingly Republican state — 17 points more Republican, according to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean metric. So, in some ways, if Biden does well there, that doesn’t necessarily mean he can do well across the rest of the country.

geoffrey.skelley: It seems like Biden will most likely win South Carolina, but if it’s a pretty narrow win, that could be a sign of weakness that doesn’t convince voters who are still considering Bloomberg or Buttigieg or Klobuchar to jump ship and come over to him on Super Tuesday.

If Biden does win by a big margin, though, that could make his campaign far more viable in the long run by winning over some of those voters looking at other moderate alternatives.

As Galen said, South Carolina may not be that representative of the Democratic Party, but it’s certainly pretty important for Biden’s long-term hope of being the leading Sanders alternative.

clare.malone: South Carolina will prime the tank for Super Tuesday, so it’s a really important set-up. If Warren, for instance, finishes low again, perhaps even lower than Klobuchar, and then performs spottily on Super Tuesday, I really wonder if her campaign is over. A sad political story of steady rise and precipitous fall.

Especially if he has a particularly strong showing, I think Biden could potentially set the table for a comeback of sorts (or maybe a campaign to tie or a “no one wins”). But as we’ve said and written before, this whole thing is Sanders’s race to lose.