#does anyone know where all the bisexual guys hang out i need to meet them

[concerto-roblox]

actually the worst thing about autism isn’t the sensory issues or the ableism it’s not being able to get bitches because i don’t know how to fucking talk to people

[crimefightingspiderguy]

holding out for a hero

Summary: Shaun (Shang-Chi) offers you go out for drinks and who are you to refuse?

Warnings: Drinking. Talk of sex (none actually happens). No spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the the Ten Rings (but I do give away what his job is in the movie if you didn't know that pre-movie).

Pairings: Shang-Chi x reader

Word count: 2,492

A/N: I did make the female reader bisexual in this piece, but if that's not how you identify, it's only briefly mentioned in a sentence or two and you can just swap out the pronouns, or skip over it really quick, without affecting the plot :) Also, please do not think I'm using the name Shaun because I didn't want to use Shang-Chi or am being disrespectful to his true name. I'm basing this timeline wise, before he reveals his past to anyone close to him.

“Hey guys!” You waved to Shaun and Katy as you walked into the hotel to clock in. You were taking over Katy’s shift. She needed to go home early to go to the doctors, but Shaun was still there for another 3 hours with you. You were very willing to take over her shift when she asked. You loved working with both of them and any chance you got to, you gladly took it. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get paid to hang out with your best friends?

“You’re welcome.” You heard Katy say to Shaun as she was walking inside to clock out, passing you by with a cheeky wink, as you took your spot next to him.

“Well, she’s in an awful good mood for having to go to the doctors. I thought she had a fear of the doctors.” You gasped, “Is she drunk?”

He chuckled, “No. She’s not actually going to the doctors. She just wanted an excuse to leave work early to go to some concert in LA.”

“Oh, that wench! I gave up going on a date to come in for her. I thought she was dying or something.” You pouted, not actually mad at her, but you were still sad you told your date no.

“You had a date? Who’s the lucky one.” Shaun asked.

“Well, she is a lucky gal who I paid to go to dinner without me.” You huffed.

“You paid her to go out to dinner? By herself?”

“Well, we already had reservations, but I told her something came up with work and I had to go in. But she could take the reservation if she wanted, my treat. I’m sure she probably took someone else since it was a reservation for two.”

“So let me get this straight.” Shaun started to laugh, “You paid some random girl to go on your date with someone else?” He was doubled over in laughter by the end of his sentence.

You kicked his shin, “Hey, I was trying to do something nice for someone I stood up… but yeah it does seem like I probably just sent her on a date with someone else.” You started to laugh with him.

“You’re too nice for your own good sometimes.” He patted you on the shoulder. “How about this, after our shift, I’ll take you out for drinks and karaoke, my treat.”

“Well, that would make me feel better.” You grinned at him, leaving his side to help the new guest pulling up.

After the shift, the two of you took a bus to his apartment so he could change out of his uniform. You were going to stop at your house, which was between his apartment and the bar but when you got into his room, a deep blue sweater hanging in his closet pulled your attention to it. You walked into his closet and shut the mirror door over it. Pulling the sweater off the hanger, it was softer than you could ever imagine. You stripped of your uniform top and threw on the sweater. It was so comfortable and after a deep inhale, smelt exactly like Shaun. It was heavenly.

“(Y/N)?” Shaun called out to you, coming out of the bathroom after getting dressed himself. You stepped out of the closet, “Why are you wearing my sweater?” He laughed at your guilty expression as you slowly walked up to him.

“Well, it was just sitting there looking so comfy, I just wanted to try it on, but now that it’s on I’m afraid I’m never going to take it off. It’s too comfy.” You wrapped your arms around yourself, snuggling into the sweater even more.

“It looks good on you.” He smiled.

“It can be our sweater, how’s that sound?” You batted your eyelashes up at him as he threw his head back in laughter.

“Let’s go short stuff before I end up staying here and cuddling. Our sweater isvery cozy, so it’s very tempting.” Him saying he would rather stay home and cuddle with you, and him holding your hand as he pulled you out of his apartment caused you to blush. He let go of your hand to lock his door, turning to you, “Are you blushing?” He chuckled, grazing his fingers over your burning cheeks.

“No, it’s just getting a little warm in this sweater.” You rolled the sleeves up, letting your arms breathe, “There, that’s better.” You lied and turned away to the exit with determination. He just shook his head and chuckled.

You were a few shots deep into your bar night when you couldn’t help but stare at Shaun. ‘Has he always been this pretty?’ you thought to yourself.

“What are you staring at?” He laughed as he set your next drink down. You said nothing but answered him by putting your hand in his hair, “Your hair is so soft. Oh my gosh it’s softer than this sweater.”

“How many drinks have you had?” He burst out laughing, pulling your hand out of his hair and holding it on the table in his own.

“I haven’t had anything to drink.” You slurred as you take a sip of the fruity drink, he put in front of you.

“Mhmmm, and how many fingers am I holding up?” He held up 3 fingers on the hand not holding yours.

“3, now how many am I holding up.” You stuck up your middle finger and stuck your tongue out as he pretended to be hurt and gasped. “I have to pee.” You got up and stumbled your way to the bathroom. It was a pretty simple trip there and back, but when you got out you couldn’t remember where your table with Shaun was. So instead of going to the table you headed up to the stage and picked the first song that stood out to you, “Holding out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler. As the intro music was building up you spoke into the microphone, “This one goes out to that beautiful boy right there.” You pointed vaguely in Shaun’s direction and then burst out into song.

He laughed as he made his way up to the edge of the stage. He was mostly concerned that you’d fall off the stage and land right on your face, but he was really enjoying the performance that you’d likely forget tomorrow. When you finished your song, you held your hand out to meet Shaun’s stretched out one to help you off the stage.

“Oh my gosh, thanks for helping me down. That was like a 20-foot drop. You’re the hero I was holding out for!” You exclaimed as you threw your arms around his neck.

“It’s a stage maybe 3 inches off the ground, but I’ll take the credit I guess.” He pulled back from the hug and grabbed your hand, pulling you back to your seats.

“Oh no, I’m empty.” You pouted when you found nothing in your cup at the table.

“I’ll get us refills. Stay here.” He made his way up to the bar.

You pulled out your phone and opened your texts with Katy,

“OMG KATY THIS REALLY HOT GUY IS GETTING ME A DRINK AT THE BAR. I THINK I MIGHT GET LAID 2NIGHT! 🤪”

“I thought you were at the bar with Shaun?”

“Who’s Shaun?”

Shaun came back to your table and set down your glass.

“Well, hello handsome.” You wiggled your eyebrows at him, “Do you come here often?” You leaned your head on your hand, elbow on the table. You were as Katy would describe it to you, “heart-eyeing” him.

“Okay, I’m glad I grabbed you a water.” Shaun chuckled as he took his seat across from you.

His phone lit up with Katy’s contact picture. He answered it, plugging the opposite ear.

“Hello?”

“Hey, are you still with (Y/N)?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Who else are you guys with?”

“No one, why?” his question was met with silence, then a loud laugh from Katy.

“HA! No way, she totally texted me that a hot guy was getting her a drink and she was definitely getting laid tonight. When I asked her if she was still with you she said ‘Who’s Shaun’ and proceeded to stop texting me. She thinks your hot and that you guys are hooking up, this is going better than I thought it would when I called in.”

“Shut up, you’re messing with me.”

“Well, what is she doing right now?”

“She’s staring at me and sighing contently… OH MY GOD SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHO I AM!?” Shaun whisper-yelled into the phone.

“Well of course I know who you are silly! You’re the handsome man who’s sitting across from me and I’m the lucky gal who gets to look at you.” You giggled as you continued to stare at him with a sweet, but glazed over, look.

“Oh my god she’s so far gone.” Katy laughed on the other end.

“What do I do? Have you ever seen her this drunk?” Shaun was beginning to worry that you’d had way past your limit and you were about to get really sick.

“Oh yeah, definitely. All you have to do is bring her home and put her to bed. She’ll be fine, I’ve seen her drunker than this and not get sick.”

“Okay, should I make her coffee or something?”

“She’s allergic to coffee genius.” Katy rolled her eyes.

“Right, right. I knew that. Thanks Katy.” He hung up the phone and got up to grab your stuff.

“Hey where are you going?” You pouted as he walked up to the bar to pay the bill

“I’ll be right back, just wait here for me.” You nodded your head and waited patiently for him to come back.

“We’re going to go home now, alright?” Shaun pulled you out of your seat carefully helping you land on your feet. You nodded your head and yawned, stretching your arms over your head.

“Shaun, I’m too tired to walk.”

“Oh, now you remember who I am?” He chuckled, and you gave him a questioning look,

“Of course, I remember you, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well about 5 minutes ago you didn’t, I brought you a water and I guess it cleared your head enough. Come here.” He bent over enough for you to hop onto his back so he could give you a piggyback ride.

“My hero.” You mumbled into his back, closing your eyes as he started walking out of the building.

“Hey, (Y/N).” Shaun shook his shoulders to wake you up.

“Mhmm?” You moaned.

“Where are your keys?”

You sighed and climbed off his back, reaching into your purse, you handed the keys to him. He grabbed your hand and led you up to your porch, unlocking the front door and bringing you inside. He locked the door behind him and picked you up bridal style. Your head lolled into his chest as he carried you to your bedroom. He put you down on the bed, pulling the covers up and over you.

“Shaun…” You let your hand reach up to pull his arm back to you.

“What’s up?” He looked at you with concern.

“Can you help me take my pants off?” You laughed, and he blushed.

“Uh… yeah, sure.” Once he pulled back the covers, he realized why you asked. He hadn’t realized you were still in your dress pants from work. He went to unhook the buttons and slowly pulled them down your legs, tossing them into your hamper across the room. He pulled the covers back up to your chin and laughed as you happily took them and snuggled farther into the bed. He went to leave again but you stopped him yet again, “Shaun…”

“Yes?”

“Will you stay with me?”

“I was going to crash on the couch. I’ll be right outside, holler if you need something okay?”

“No… will you stay in here with me?” You opened your eyes for the first time since you got into your house. You gave him a puppy dog pout that made him melt.

“I can set up some couch cushions on the floor I guess…” he began looking around the floor to find a big enough space for him.

“No… Shaun… just come here.” You pulled him onto the bed and scooted over, pulling the covers over him. He hesitated for a second, body freezing, but when you snuggled your body into his side, he quickly melted under your touch. Not strong enough to fight off sleep any longer.

Shaun sighed as he woke up, he forgot to set his alarm last night. He probably was going to be late for work. He opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar bedding surrounding him. It then hit him that he was not alone. He was holding onto someone. Looking down, he saw your peaceful face resting into his chest. Your breath fanning over him, tickling him. ‘When did I take my shirt off?’ He thought as he quickly realized why it tickled. He looked under the covers slowly, trying not to wake you, ‘When did I take my pants off?!’ He questioned himself in alarm as he realized he was snuggled up to you in just underwear. He slowly leaned up on his elbow to look around them. Your pants and bra were thrown haphazardly towards your hamper and his shirt, pants, and socks laid at the end of the bed. He laid back on his side and looked down at his current position with you. He had his hand resting on your back underneath his sweater. Your legs tangled with his, and your hands cupping under your face that was cuddled up into his chest still. He couldn’t help the giant grin that plastered his face. He’s wanted to be with you like this for years. He’s wanted to be able to hold you close when he wakes up, to be able to kiss your forehead as you wake up, smiling up at him. He’s wanted to feel how soft your skin is, how gentle your lips rest against his skin. He’s got goose bumps all over his body as he realizes just how warm you are. He started rubbing circles on your back, trying to wake you up.

“Mhmm. That feels nice.” You smiled into his skin. You slowly opened your eyes and looked up at him, “See, isn’t this so much better than sleeping on the couch?”

“This is way better.” He kissed your hairline.

“I hope you know when I said this is our sweater, I meant I’m never giving it back.”

“You look better in it anyway.” He shrugged, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear, getting a good look at you, ‘Oh yeah, way better in it.’ He thought to himself as he blushed thinking about beautiful you were and how lucky he is right now in this moment.

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Thank you, xx.

[musette22]

So did jock Steve and emo Bucky meet in college or earlier, like high school? How long exactly has Steve been crushing? 😉

[Post 1 & post 2 about jock!Steve and emo!Bucky which inspired this ask]

Oh nooo, it's even cuter if Steve's crush dates back to high school 😩 Or... what if... they met in elementary school in Brooklyn? Back when Steve was small and kind of inconspicuous, while Bucky was a popular, happy-go-lucky kid who was adored by teachers and other kids alike. Steve, too, kind of looked up to Bucky, and when Bucky stood up for Steve once when bullies got a hold of him, Steve developed the child equivalent of a crush on Bucky.

But then, Bucky moved away because his dad got a new job or something, and his teenage years were kind of tough. Maybe they moved a couple more times during his high school years and Bucky couldn't really settle anywhere, maybe his parents had a messy divorce or something like that, and Bucky kind of turned in on himself, stopped being so outgoing and preferred keeping to himself, turned a little shy.

As fate would have it, years later, Bucky and Steve end up attending the same college. Steve has had his grow spurt in the final years of high school and is almost unrecognisable from his former self, plus Steve Rogers is a pretty generic name, so Bucky doesn't really make the connection between little Stevie who used to get bullied in the playground, and Steve, captain of the football team.

Steve, however, has thought about Bucky a lot over the years, wondered how he was doing, and there aren't that many guys called Bucky, and while Bucky has changed, he's still as handsome and kind as he used to be back in school. So Steve recognises him immediately, and all of his old feelings come rushing back to the surface, although now he sees them through a different lens because this time, he knows he's bisexual (no one else knows, but Steve does).

He also realizes that his admiration for Bucky isn't just admiration - it's a crush. His stomach erupts into a cloud of butterflies every time he spots Bucky in class or on campus, and he finds himself unconsciously memorising Bucky's schedule so he can make sure to hang around outside his dorm or classroom at the right time to 'accidentally' bump into him. To Steve's immense disappointment, however, Bucky not only doesn't recognise him, but he hardly even seems to notice him. He probably thinks Steve just another airheaded college jock, and Steve has no idea how to act on his infatuation...

Which is where the next ask I got about this comes in!

I think your suggestions work perfectly as a continuation of the above, @possibleplatypus!

At some point, Steve has a lightbulb moment and he realizes he might as well use the image Bucky probably has of him as a dumb jock type, and ask him for some tutoring. When Steve approaches him about it, Bucky is a little confused and a lot flustered, because while he doesn't know a lot about Steve, he does know that he's one of the most popular guys on campus, and definitely the hottest (Bucky would know, he's gay) and he can't quite figure out why he would be asking Bucky of all people for help. But Bucky has never been able to turn down anyone who needed his help, and definitely not anyone with gorgeous blue puppy dog eyes and biceps bigger than Bucky's head, so he agrees.

So slowly, over the weeks and months that follow, they get to know each other. It doesn't take long for Bucky to realize that Steve isn't just a pretty face, and he's actually really smart and spirited and politically engaged, and they share a lot of the same opinions and interests. Then, Steve confesses he remembers Bucky from primary school back in Brooklyn, and Bucky is stunned, because golden boy Steve is little Stevie Rogers?? And of course, he starts to develops feelings for Steve in return. He doesn't yet know that Steve is bi, though (he's only ever seen Steve with girls, and gorgeous ones at that), so he keeps it to himself, and so does Steve. AKA idiots in love.

But they do start hanging out together more, also outside of campus, doing things like going to music concerts together (Bucky is stunned to find that Steve actually also loves the alternative bands Bucky is a fan off) and they become a sort of phenomenon on campus: jock Steve and emo nerd Bucky who for some incomprehensible reason suddenly became best pals. Fortunately, apart from some snide remarks from some of the other jocks like Rumlow and Rollins, everyone leaves them alone because they all adore Steve, and Steve is also the best football captain this college has seen in many long years.

And then one night (and please just indulge me in my American college stereotypes for a minute), Steve hears that one of Bucky's favourite horror movies is playing in the college drive-in movie theater, and he invites Bucky to come see it with him. They head there together in Steve's vintage car, and things start of like their friendship outings usually do, with lots of banter and animated conversations. 

But then when the movie starts, it turns out that Steve is actually kind of a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror. So when the murderer suddenly pops up on screen, he shrieks and hides his face in Bucky's shoulder. Bucky automatically puts a protective arm around Steve, and then when Steve peeks his nose out again to see if the coast is clear, he can't help but notice how close their faces are. And when Bucky turns to him to ask if he's alright, he seems to notices the same thing and freezes. They stare at each other for a long moment before suddenly, Steve surges forward and kisses Bucky. Bucky makes a startled 'mmphh' kind of sound, so Steve quickly pulls back, already starting to apologize - but before he gets very far, Bucky launches himself at Steve and kisses him back with fervor.

They spend the rest of the movie making out in Steve's car, and from that moment onwards, they're inseparable not just as best friends, but as boyfriends. Steve comes out to his team and eventually the rest of the campus, and apart from the usual suspects, everyone is supportive, if a little surprised to say the least. And then Bucky starts wearing Steve's varsity jackets, and becomes the football team's new unofficial mascot, because whenever he kisses Steve good luck before a game, they absolutely smash the competition. Steve, for his part, encourages Bucky to join a band (he's been playing guitar for years but only in the privacy of his room, and later for Steve) and when he does, Steve goes to every concert to support him and whistle on his fingers to cheer him on...

I have a lot of feelings and thoughts about this, it seems 🥺

[lovysmtalks]

Fallen for the wrong you

(Based on this idea)

Even from when Marinette was a child she liked being more boyish- in her mind clothes have no gender and will never have.

But the world thought differently

Her father didn't like her for that

And neither did the people around her

Nino who was a childhood friend of hers always said that she should be more feminine.

She laughed it off as being a joke but when he didn't laugh with her she just stopped talking about it.

✎

She was 14, after she had one of the girls in her class confess her love for her, she realized that she was bisexual.

She started dating Lila, a popular girl in her school.

But once Lila visited her house, it was like hell was brought on her head.

Lila stated ranting about how she should dress like a lady and be more girly, and she should stop talking like a boy and talk more softly and be more demure.

(while Marinette literally had to go to therapist because she wasn't exactly talking and didn't talk to anyone for 4 years)

Marinette with a heavy heart took her advice and stepped out of her comfort zone by asking her parents to help her be more girly.

For the next few months Marinette observed Lila's personality traits and tried to recreate them as much as she could.

The soft and stutter voice

The soft smile

The pink dresses and short skirts

✎

After 2 years,  Marinette was now known as a bubbly and shy person. Dont get me wrong, Mari observed how Lila was flirting with other guys and started ranting about anything the short girl did wrong.

But Marinette observed something else too

People were really kind to her,

The teachers complimented her on the dresses that she wore

The people in school talked to her more

For fucks sake, even her dad talked to her more.

That kinda her the poor girl, but now she was finally accepted, right?

✎

Last year of lycée...

Year with a lot of exams and brought by excitment of starting a new chapter in your life.

Lila broke up with Marinette at the end of last year, turned out she was just confused and never actually liked Mari.

The girl was really hurt it.

But her dad said suck it and be a man.

(Ironic because he treated her badly when she was more boyish)

✎

When she started college, she met Adrien

A son of a big designer in Paris.

He befriended her, and they spent alot of time together

She started to fall for him and she tried to confess...

but then when they opened up more to each other, it turned out that he was an incel that believed a woman belongs in the kitchen and is basically a sex toy and a baby maker

Mari started to distance herself from him, and made a note in her mind that said "I hate men and I'm shit scared of them, never fall for anyone and dont get in relationships or anything more then hookups."

✎

Last year of college.

Marinette meet Chloe Bourgeois.

The two girls because friends fast due to both of them having similar childhoods and interests.

Chloe helped Mari open more and teched her to not give a shit about anyone or anything

✎

After collage, Mari and Chloe opened their own company

Even tho it was hard at the start.

They started with nothing else then a little help from Mari's uncle, Jagged, and Chloe's mom, Audrey.

It was hard, with most of the industry being controlled by selfish rich men

But they did it

They made it to the top

After 2 years of trying, they finally made  it up there

After many ups and downs, they finally did it.

Both girls were know for being the most kind people in the industry.

And they planned to keep that face on as long as they could.

After all, people dont like it when girls are rough and 'mean'

✎

Damian lost a bet.

That was what started the hell hole

Dick and him made a bet and he lost it? The world must have come to an end.

*Flashback*

"Ok little D, you must stop being in your room all the times,  dont you have friends to hang out with?" Asked Dick

Damian stares at him for a second

"Jon is on a mission with his family, did you forgot?" He said

"Yea but that doesn't mean you just stop going outside." Dick said seriously.

Damian wasn't the type to have many friends or go out a lot, everyone knew it, but now Richard was just being an asshole for reminding him that.

"Look, why don't you get a job? You will have to take father's place one day and you dont even know anything about what he does." Dick said

"Of course I know what he does, I..he..uhm" Damian was at a loss of words

'Am I really that ignorant?' He thought

"Look, why dont you two have a bet, if Dick over here wins, you will get a job, if Damian wins, Dick will leave you alone forever and never bring it up again." Jason said

Damian looked at his two older brothers

"I'm in." Dick said

After some seconds

"I'm in as well" Damian murmured

The bet was who can capture the next villain to appear faster.

Dick was faster with only some minutes, meaning that Damian lost.

*Flashback ends*

He was now standing infront of the building of a company he had no idea of. And he was very lost.

✎

Once Damian stepped through the door, he was pushed by someone, making them both fall on the floor

"I'm so sorry, are you ok?" Asked the soft voice of the person who pushed him

"Yea I am alright" he said

He opened his eyes to see a short girl giving him a hand to get up

They made eye contact

Damian's breath cut short

After some seconds, the girl heard her phone ring

"Oh hell, Chloe must be waiting. I'm sorry I have to go"  she said as she started to run

Damian didn't have time to ask any questions as she ran fast, very fast to the lift.

The guy linked repeatedly as he looked after her, a small smile forming on his lips.

✎

It's been 6 months since Marinette bumped into Damian.

The two of them got closer and they became friends... until the 4th month

That's when Damian confessed his crush on her.

She told him she felt the same.

And they started dating, and neither of them could be happier

✎

It was a late night after a celebration party

Both of them got drunk

When they got to the hotel, they started heavily making out, with no care into the world

Clothes started to come off as they moved to the bedroom

They got to the bedroom with him being in his bottoms and her being in only her shirt

They threw themselves into the bed

Damian slowly started to take off her shirt

But when his hand touches her skin

He felt something weird on her waist

Damian stopped the kiss so both of them could breathe

Once the dizziness from the kiss stopped his eyes went on her waist

His brain took a screenshot

He saw alot of tattos on her torso

Marinette looked up at him

Her eyebrows narrowed searching for his gaze. Once she found it, her mind panicked.

She pushed him off the bed and got up, searching for her clothes

Until Damian woke up from his shocked state, she was already gone out of the door.

He got up to look after her but once he was in the hallway, there was no sight of her anymore.

✎

*Some days after the break*

"Are you sure this is alright?" Marinette asked Chloe, who was sitting at her office.

"Babe, he lied to us about who he was and then got close to you, most probably to use it against you, you know how men are, they are all the same, plus,  you can give the job to someone who actually needs it" Chloe said as she threw a paper on the desk.

Marinette looked at the paper, it was  a dismissal paper.

2 days ago the girls found out who he really was.

The son of a rich competitor. Bruce Wayne to be more specific

Both Mari and Chloe know how the Waynes are.

They are cold, and mysterious.

Marinette was having second thoughts about this, but she couldn't risk her name being stepped on, not after working so much to get where she was.

The girl started to think if their relationship even was a relationship, they both were lying to each other.

She knew he wont accept her as she is, and now after learning who he really was, there was no doubts that it was real, and he probably didn't care, like everyone (besides Chloe) in her life.

"Hi Sam, call Damian in Mari's office please."  Chloe said to the secretary.

Marinette got behind Chloe and tried to ignore what was gonna happen

After some minutes, there was knock on the door

"Come in'' said Chloe trying to hide the rage in her voice

In the door stood tall no one other then Damian Wash- I mean Wayne.

"You called me Chloe?" he asked

Damian looked behind the blonde girl to see his girlfriend (?) Turned with her back and looking at the window

"Its Miss Bourgeois to you." She said in a icy voice.

Damian opened his mouth in surprise

"And yes, I called you, please sign this" the blonde says pointing at the paper infront of her

Damian hesitantly got closer to the desk to read the paper

"A dismissal paper? What's this about?" He asks confused as he looks at Mari again

"Dont play dumb Washington." Chloe said, putting anger on the word 'Washington'

Damian looks at the girl shocked, his eyes winded

"Marinette, if this is about that night I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" the man was stopped by Chloe

"Dont you dare try to talk with her after you lied about everything Wayne."  The blonde said loudly.

Damian let out a sort breath while he still looked at Marinette.

"This is a misunderstanding, I didn't lie to you guys, let me expl-" he was once again stopped by Chloe slamming the desk

"ENOUGH WAYNE, just sign this and were done."

Damian's eyes didn't leave Marinette

"Angel, please let me explain." He pleated

Marinette's head turned a little to the side

"We're over." She whispered, with a hint of sadness in her voice

Damian's eyes winded more

He looks at the paper and gets  the pen in his hand

He took one  more look at Mari

And he signed it.

"You are free to leave" Chloe said while turned to Marinette

And he did leave.

✎

After he was gone, Mari broke down in Chloe's arms as the blonde girl was stroking her back slowly

"I'm sorry sugar, I promise I won't let anyone hurt you anymore" Chloe whispered in Marinette's ear

✎

*at the Wayne mansion*

Damian's slammed the door closed as he entered the mansion, gathering the attention of his brothers and father

"Hey demon spawn, how was work?" Asked Jason as Damian walked past him

"Lilttle D, is everything alright? You seem down" Dick said

Damian stopped.

"I got fired" he says while his voice cracked a little

Bruce's eyes winded

"Son, I know you liked the job, but it's not that big of a deal, you can work with Tim" he suggested

Damian was looking at the floor

"And my girlfriend broke up with me"  he whispered

"YOUR WHAT?" says Tim as he spilled his coffee

"Since when did you had a girlfriend Damian?" Asks Bruce

"Since 2 months ago" he whispers again

"Why didn't you tell us?" Jason asked

"BECAUSE I KNEW YOU WOULD HAVE RUINED IT FOR ME." He screams

The family was stunned

"Master Damian, no need to yell, why dont you vent to us? You're very stressed, I can tell." Alfred says

And he did, he told them all about Marinette, all the dates, all the laughs and smiles they shared together, he even told them about what happened that night

"So you're telling me, you got fired because of some tattos?" Jason asked

"No, I got fired because they found out I was a Wayne" Damian says roughly

"How did they not know?" Bruce says

"They dont look into competitors families, it's a bad habit that both of them have" The young Wayne said

"So for 6 months nobody told them who you were?" Tim asks

"No, because we weren't seen in public, I tried to be as careful as I could so no one would know " Damian sighed

"Well fuck, you fucked up big time, but that's not exactly a reason for her to fire you, not a good one at least" Dick said

Damian shrugs

"Wait, I think I know how to resolve this" Tim says

"What do you mean, Tim?" Asked Jason as Tim put his laptop on the coffee table

Tim started aggressively typing on the keyboard

"We now have a charity event to go to" he smirked

✎

"I'm not sure what to think about this Chloe."said the dark haired girl

"We're going to leave when you want sugar, but we need to attempt at the event" Chloe said as she was looking through Marinette's closet

Since Damian left, he was all Mari could have think

about.

She was distracted, hurt, confused, maybe even kinda mad at herself

"Aha, found it, look Mari! You would look so pretty in it. Plus it brings your tattoos at life" says Chloe while holding a suit in her hand.

Marinette promised herself that she would finally show the world that she wasn't the soft girl she always pictured herself as

She knows her parents would be watching the event, and she wanted revenge on her father for the years of therapy that she needed to get because of him and every man that did her bad, every man that said she couldn't open a business because she was a woman.

So she put on the suit, and left with Chloe who was holding her hand protectively.

✎

Once the two girls exited the car, flash lights were all over their faces

They somehow got into the building

Chloe went to get to get them both something to drink, leaving Mari behind.

The girl looked around the big room, her mind being concentrated at one of the paintings.

Suddenly someone was dragging her out of the room

"WHAT THE HELL, LET ME GO!'' she yells to death ears

She continued to struggle but nothing moved out of the person's grip

They got into a dark room, Mari could hear the door lock, she closed her eyes, scared of what was gonna happened.

She heard the light turn on.

"Will you now let me explain" said a familiar voice

She opened her eyes in surprise

"Damian? What the fuck is wrong with you, have you gone nuts?" She said angrily to him

"You didn't let me explain myself, so I had to do something about it, I cant just go on with my life because I know you didn't know what actually is going on." Damian says trying to make his voice as soft as he could, so he wouldn't scare her away

Marinette remains silent, sign for him to start speaking.

"I didn't mean to lie to you, but have you seen how you reacted when you found out who I was? You started to treat me differently." He whispered

Marinette opened her mouth to say something,  but she decided to remain silent

"I didn't lie when I said I love you, god I still fucking do, but I had no idea how to tell you" he sighed

Marinette sighed a deep heavy

"If we start to confess things, I also have something to say" she says

Damian's eyebrows narrowed

"I'm not this bubbly shy girl, I am not the sunshine I make myself look like" she says

"Oh." He said

"I never was and I will never be, I print myself as that because people would treat me differently if they knew the real me"  she sighed

Damian took a step towards her

He kissed her forehead softly, then her lips aggressively

"Then show me the real you"

(Marinette's tattos/suit and Chloe's dress)

[ripperdaddy]

the viktor vector romance path + ending we deserve

Disclaimer: This is definitely something I came up with in my head. There will be a few instances that are solely made up so it can tie in with the “story.” This is purely fictional; something I wished happened if there was a possible Vik romance 🥰 This is based on my general knowledge of the game & Vik’s life. All gifs + images are from my own personal play through, but wouldn’t be possible without the help of the Appearance Menu Mod, found on Nexus Mods by the creators, MaximiliumM and CtrlAltDaz. And the shirtless Vik mod by the lovely samsnak ♡

It would start after completing the Paid In Full quest where you pay Vik back the eddies you owe him.

I feel like realistically, the general player would have to be at least halfway through the story to have collected enough eddies. I would say that a good point in the story where we can begin the romance is that you’ve already established a connection to Alt and have dealt with the VDB’s.

I think it would be a short side quest like River’s. Vik already plays a big part in the story overall on his own, so I don’t think it’s necessary to make his “side quest” too long. His romance would just be an addition to the ending.

And as much as I would love for him to be a bisexual option for both male/female V, if we’re sticking with the game’s standard with limiting partners to only one kind of partner, he would only be romance-able by a female V with a feminine voice.

V: Finally scrounged up enough eddies to pay you back in full.

Vik: Hold on to ��em just in case - you need ‘em more than me.

V: I’m not taking them all the way to my grave, Vik. Here. And.. thanks again for doing so much work on me ‘thout ever seein’ an enny.

Vik: That’s what friends are for.

Then, there is an additional option for dialogue to trigger the romance path.

V: Friends? I think you’ve been in and out of my body more than anyone else I’ve hooked up with in Night City.

He laughs, with a coy smile. “Well, can’t argue with you there. Why don’t we take some of these eddies and grab a drink. You know, to celebrate. Catch up on old times. Haven’t seen you round here much lately, kid.”

You agree to meet at the El Coyote Cojo tomorrow evening.

You meet around 9 PM and you are welcomed by the sight of Pepe and Vik at the bar.

V: Nice choice of venue.

Vik: Thought you’d like it. Haven't been here since.. well, you know.

V: I miss him, Vik.

Vik: I know, V. Me too.

You immediately take a seat and tinker with a few dialogue options, where you can either have a sweet moment talking about Jackie or some surface questions to ask, like how he’s doing, what kind of drink he likes, etc. But it all winds down to Jackie anyway, where Vik confides in you about his past. Judging by how Vik was so affected by Jackie’s death, and V’s (if you chose the suicide ending), you can tell that he has lost a lot in his life, and keeps his circle very small.

You then achieve an even closer, more personal relationship with him. But, ultimately nothing happens other than the usual, wait 24 hours in game for a text/phone call from Vik to head into the next stage. At least now, you have established the foundation for a future romance.

Halfway through the 24 hour period, you get a text from Vik thanking you for the lovely evening. No reply needed, as he calls you once the 24 hour mark hits and invites you out for another date.

You meet at Tom’s Diner for coffee in the afternoon. It starts off with him apologizing for being emotional the previous night and asks if you’re open to hanging out again and going down to Pacifica to watch a fight with him.

Vik: Hey, V. I just wanted to apologize about last night. I didn’t mean to be such a downer.

V: It’s okay, Vik. We share the same grief.

Vik: I was going to head down to Pacifica and catch a real good match later on today. I was wondering if you’d like to come along, think it’d be great for the both of us, you know, as a distraction.

pssst even Johnny’s rooting for y’all ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Johnny: Hmm, interesting.

V: What?

Johnny: Never thought you'd be going out with this guy.

V: Vik's amazing. And I mean--we basically owe it to him since he practically saved our life.

Johnny: Don't tell me you're going out with him out of pity.

V: I'm not.

Johnny: I know, I can feel you get all mushy-gushy. It's almost repulsive. Just wanted to hear you admit it.

V: Eat a dick, Johnny.

You arrive before the GIM and blend into the crowd.

V: Nothin’ like watching guys beat the shit out of each other to get your blood pumpin’, huh?

Vik: This is a real good matchup, V. This kid’s fresh, young talent.

V: You miss it, don’t you?

Before the fight begins, Vik shares a story about his time in the ring and coming in second in the Watson Boxing Grand Prix.

There’s some extra fun options in the dialogue, you can bet some eddies on who’s gonna win, or side with him. The fight ends, and you two head outside.

Since you’re already out in Pacifica, you head over to the boardwalk (where you would ride the roller coaster with Johnny) and he starts telling you about the last days of his boxing career and how he transitioned from the sport to being a ripperdoc.

You both share a sweet moment with each other, reminiscing about old times and talking about V’s future with the relic. This is where I would see Vik confessing how he feels about you, mentioning how grateful he is for Jackie introducing you to him.

The evening ends and Vik asks you to give him some time to try and dig up some footage from his storage and have you come over to watch. You can kiss him then wait another 24 in game hours before the last quest. Halfway through, he texts you and asks you what you’d like for dinner. You can opt for pizza or chinese.

I haven’t seen or read anything about how or where Vik lives. If I overlooked something, please let me know! But for the sake of the story, let’s say he does actually have his own place that’s now introduced in the game. Personally, I think he has a typical bachelor pad, like a really nice apartment. Not too far from his clinic either. He looks like he would just walk to work. Vik definitely has a lot of money, but he’s so humble I doubt he would choose to live lavishly. As mentioned in the beginning, he typically just “sleeps nights” ever since he was over “being a legend” so I’m guessing his lifestyle is very routine. He goes to work, goes home, sleep. Seems unlikely he has a place like the Peralez’s. It would probably be just the same as V’s but decorated to his taste.

The evening comes and you are over at his place. He’s dressed in just a white undershirt, no exo-glove. You get to know more about his family, how he grew up — scanning things around his place. Then he plays some footage of one of his fights for you, while you two have a conversation and share a beer. As you two sit on the couch, you get close, then have an opportunity to kiss him.

then this is where da sex happen hihihi (ノ・ω・)ノ

The next morning you wake up and you two have a heartfelt conversation about where this is going. He already knows your situation, so I would assume he is very accepting and supportive. And with Vik, he seems like the kind of guy who would still want to be in your life and keep the friendship the same way despite no longer being together romantically. So it’s official. He’s your man 🥵 !!11!1!

Like how River gives you the “fuck the police” tank top after sleeping with him, I think Vik would give you his Night City Devils t-shirt that provides you with a significant amount of armor or some kind of cyberware upgrade that makes you invulnerable for a brief moment while using your hands to fight enemies.

Note: I was thinking of Vik giving V his boxing glove necklace, but because it's part of his character's appearance in the game, I don't think we would be able to essentially "take it" from him - unless he gives you a replica as a keepsake. Which I think would also work.

If you successfully romance, during the rooftop scene near the end of Nocturne OP55N1 (despite Vik’s disposition of him telling you to take matters in your own hands and being a little closed off), you still have an option to reach out to him when Johnny advises you to call a loved one.

V: Hey, Vik. I just wanted to say, thanks for hanging with me, until the end.

Vik: Quit talking like it is, V. Just do what you need to do.

V: I mean, think of it. It’s like I’m heading into the last round of this whole thing.

Vik: Well, in that case.. remember—keep your hands up, guarded at all times. It ain’t over just yet.

V: Heh.. I can feel it, just a few more punches.

Vik: Now look at you - the new welterweight champ of Night City.

V: Thanks, coach.

Vik: Last piece of advice from the coach's corner. Just.. be careful, kid. Remember, I’m with you.

Okayyyy, soooo I’m not the biggest fan of how CDPR gave us two of the same endings (Path of Glory). The only difference is that Rogue’s life is spared. I would have assumed that not only would we get to keep Rogue around, things should have played a bit more differently for V if we took the route of going solo against the corpos. So let’s tweak it.

This specific ending; it should be after getting through Don’t Fear The Reaper where you single-handedly manage to rip through Arasaka by yourself. Johnny goes back to Alt & Rogue is still alive. Yes nobody dies!!!

(honestly this ending can apply to any love interest you choose)

Vik and V are now living together in a lavish penthouse, entertaining an upcoming merc to do their work for them (which is now the current POV of the player.) You were recruited by Rogue at the Afterlife, who told you to visit this couple for a real, preem job.

They give you some vague details about the gig and go on for a brief moment about what you will be doing and what you should expect. Vik emphasizes to you that it’s important you get what they need because it’s for his wife, V, as her life depends on it.

As Never Gonna Fade Away is playing in the background, they tell you to break into Arasaka HQ.

Then the game officially ends.

[lacrimosathedark]

Hamilton Inaccuracies/Corrections (because why not?)

Okay so, I saw a post on reddit that was like, “what’s some inaccuracies in Hamilton off the top of your head?” and I got a whole bunch...and then I had to double check to make sure if I was right...and I’m pretty long-winded...and  now I have this 5,000ish word monstrosity. And apparently you can only post 1000 characters at a time on reddit. Laaaaame. So here’s some Hamilton facts I’ve gathered in my brain. Since it was kinda off the top of my head despite being so long, it’s kinda vague in some places, so if anyone wants to expand on anything (or correct me if I oopsed somewhere) please do! Though nicely please.

Also I am also awful at citing things, but I know I learned some of this from @john-laurens and @ciceroprofacto so thank you.

LET’S BEGIN!

Act 1

Rachel Faucette was not a prostitute, but she was a “whore” in the sense that she did what she fucking wanted with her body. During her first marriage she may or may not have been sleeping around, but she refused to stay with John Lavien, her husband, anymore. So he had her arrested. And he could do that. Because patriarchy and theocracy. And she was essentially put in solitary confinement. You can see why she tried to leave, right? She tried to get their marriage annulled or get a divorce. I forget what the issue was but she couldn’t and eventually she just moved to another island where she met James Hamilton.

The intro song makes it seem like Alexander was an only child. He actually had an older brother, James Jr., but he kinda fucked off after their mother died, working and taking care of himself. They also had an older half-brother Peter Lavien, but I don’t think they really knew him other than as the son of their mother’s abusive ex who took everything from them when she died. John Lavien was able to do that because when Rachel was with James Hamilton, she had not been able to get legally divorced from him so she wasn’t really married to James Hamilton, so James Jr. and Alexander were illegitimate ie bastards. He was an asshole. I don't think Peter had anything against the Hamiltons, but I think he grew up to be a Loyalist so. He actually made some trouble in South Carolina for Henry Laurens, John's dad! But I think I read somewhere he also left money for Alex and James Jr. In his will, which is sweet.

This is more visual since it’s not specified in the song, but in the show, Hamilton’s cousin mimes hanging himself. Peter Lytton’s cause of death if I recall was inconclusive, but he was in his bed and there was a lot of blood. So, yeah, he didn’t hang himself.

Alexander did not punch the bursar. However he did return to Princeton later during the war and blew a canon through the school and apparently decapitated a painting of King George lololol. He was under orders, but yknow. Probably felt pretty good after he was rejected for accelerated courses. He wasn’t the only bastard rejected, though! Ben Franklin’s bastard son was too. The guy in charge of admissions, Witherspoon, hated bastards as a concept and Princeton was a very religious school at the time I believe.

It may have been the plan by Aaron and Esther Burr for Aaron Jr to graduate Princeton, but like, he couldn’t really be sure of that? He was like 2 years old when they died, and his older sister Sally was 4 I believe, maybe 5.

Hercules Mulligan met Alex in 1772. His older brother Hugh knew Alex’s old employer in St. Croix and helped him get to mainland America. Alex and Hercules lived together for a long while, and Hercules is actually who got him interested in the revolution.

John Laurens was in England in 1776. He wouldn’t meet Hamilton and Lafayette until he accepted his post as Washington’s aide-de-camp upon his return in August of 1777.

Lafayette couldn’t have met Hamilton before August 1777 because that’s when he met Washington, and he was appointed as a volunteer to the Continental Army only a week prior, and before that he had been in France. But Lafayette later declared their relationship to be like that of brothers, Alexander his closest connection in the states besides Washington.

Lafayette admired and absolutely adored Laurens and they were besties, but neither of them knew Mulligan. They may have met in passing, or heard about him from Hamilton, but nothing more.

“Lafayette” was actually a nickname based on his title of “Marquis de la Fayette”. In his autobiography, he wrote: “It’s not my fault I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle.” I’m glad he thought it was funny at least. His name is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la Fayette.

Hercules Mulligan is not known to fuck horses.

The Revolution had already sorta started. Actually, Hercules and Alexander had been part of local militias before 1776.

This is more of a miscommunication since the actors are close in age, though the lyrics try to get it across. There’s a reason Mulligan says he’s got the others “in loco parentis”. In 1776 Hamilton and Lafayette would have been 19, Laurens would have been 22, and Mulligan would have been 36.

I think we all know “Laurens, I like you a lot” does not cover the scope of their relationship but that’s rather self explanatory so unless someone asks I’ll leave it at that. And for other clarifications. But at the very least I’ll share this: Anyone who saw them knew they were like attached at the hip (without knowing how attached *winkwonk*) and you could almost always contact one through the other. Laurens was notoriously bad at answering letters, to Hamilton too (and Alex did bitch about it because he is insecure and needs love), but it became quickly known he got back to Hamilton fastest so people would be like ���Tell Laurens I said hi!” or “Hey, I need to get these to Laurens, you send them to him.” Which is hilarious. I just imagine Alexander going, “Why me?”

While all of them are Revolutionaries, Laurens is the only one you could solidly call an abolitionist, and Mulligan’s even shaky on the manumission part. He was supposedly part of the Manumission Society Hamilton helped start, but Mulligan also personally owned slaves and was never known to have freed them (One helped him with spy shit. His name was Cato!). In fairness, Hamilton and Lafayette wholeheartedly agreed with Laurens, and Hamilton was the biggest supporter of his battalion plan, and both of them did try to continue working towards equality after the war, but it was never the top priority for either of them and their lives kinda went to hell, so it fell to the wayside. Lafayette actually did some nifty stuff worth looking at, and Hamilton might have tried to keep one of John Lauren’s freed men from Henry Laurens! But as slavery stuck around for a while, it clearly wasn’t anything significant.

Angelica would meet and befriend Thomas Jefferson in Europe, but she would never manage to convince him to put women in a sequel because he’s a huge misogynist and told her in multiple letters that politics isn’t for women and I think he deserves a shoe up his southern backside. Side note, it always bothered me that Lin played up the misogyny in the musical. I mean, yeah, all of them would be misogynists compared to us, but for their time, Hamilton wasn’t so bad. If there was anyone to play up misogyny with, it was Jefferson, because he would tell Angelica for years and years that politics could never make women happy, and that the women in France were foolish for trying etc.. Hamilton would actually discuss politics with Angelica frequently and openly. And there’s a proto-feminist in the cast that was never recognized—Aaron Burr! He respected Theodosia Sr. as an equal and she was his most valuable political ally, and he made sure Theodosia Jr. got the same education any boy of her time would have. He actually respected women to a decent degree. Not to say he wasn't as much of a ho as Hamilton cuz yeah that's accurate (but they were both disaster bisexuals more on Burr's sexuality later)

Farmer Refuted was an essay Hamilton wrote arguing against Samuel Seabury's posts. They weren't shouting in the public square(but Lin got the sass right. I love his face when Hamilton and Seabury are fighting over the podium). Seabury was also really really old, not young and cute like Thayne, hence the line about "mange". Blech.

General Montgomery didn’t take a bullet in the neck, it was a grapeshot from a canon in his head (and his thighs), but close enough I guess. Side note: Burr actually served a short interim on Washington’s staff, but only for like 10 days because they hated each other lolol.

Alexander didn’t bring Laurens, Mulligan, or Lafayette to Washington. Lafayette joined up with the Continental Army in 1777 and quickly convinced them he wasn’t like the other French nobles; he was a glory-seeking kid with a boner for America (for some reason???). Laurens was requested by Washington to join his military family and he arrived also in August 1777 just after Lafayette. Like previously stated, Mulligan was doing shit even before Hamilton did.

Alexander would not have been in charge of spy shit (though may have been somewhat involved). Washington had people like Mulligan for that, who actually saved Washington a few times. But also, the "King’s men who might let some things slide" was the tactic Mulligan used. He was actually very charming, and his wife was very high in British society and he was a skilled tailor, so they were thought of well among the redcoats, and he got a lot of information through chatting with his customers. He also could usually smooth-talk his way out of trouble. Actually, Mulligan blended in so well, when the war was over, people in the city wanted him out cuz they thought he was a Loyalist. So George fucking Washington paid him a visit and commissioned I think a coat from him, and that cleared that up. He got a LOT of business after that.

Alexander would not be Washington’s right hand man, or at least, not his only one if Lin was using that to mean aide-de-camp. In that case, Laurens would also be Washington’s right hand man, along with many men not named in the musical.

John Laurens may have been reliable with the ladies (comes with the territory of being hot, rich, and a perfect gentleman), but he most certainly didn’t want to be. His father noted, rather proudly at the time, that as a young teenager he expressed no interest in girls. John was also married by 1780, and at least Alexander knew. (he told John he'd found out in the well-known April 1779 letter. You know... “Cold in my professions...find me a wife...the length of my nose...” That one.) Because John apparently didn't tell people he was married. Laurens. Sweetheart. Get. Your. Shit. Together.

John also would not be at this ball. February 1779 to March 1780 he is fighting down south, and this ball was early 1780.

The tomcat thing may be half true. Martha Washington did supposedly name a cat Hamilton, but it was an affectionate thing. The slang tomcat meaning ho wasn’t a thing at that time, so it couldn’t be named to tease Alex for his promiscuity. I believe this was one of the many things John Adams made up to slander Hamilton.

Hamilton and Eliza had met before 1780. They had met once two years prior at a dinner her father had hosted. Also, Hamilton had been courting her friend Kitty Livingston, and his friend and fellow aide Tench Tilghman had been attempting to court Eliza, and they’d actually done at least one sort-of double date (which is adorable). So this shouldn’t have been the first time they’d seen each other. Could still be when they fell in love, though, since they started courting after this. Which is cute to think about.

Speaking of Tench and Eliza! I don't remember when this took place but Tilghman journaled it, he went out on something of a hike with a few ladies and they got to a cliff. Of course, he had to help the girls climb up. Except Eliza who started climbing by herself like a natural to the bewilderment and likely horror of the other ladies. Elizabeth Schuyler was a bamf okay?

Of course everyone knows by now, Angelica was married before Eliza. During the Winter’s Ball, she’d already eloped with Jack Carter aka John Barker Church and run away to Boston.

Their courtship was not that fast. Not like, weeks. More like months. Fun fact, Eliza is the only of the five (yes FIVE) Schuyler sisters who didn’t elope and actually got her parents permission! But here’s a heartbreaking fun fact: while Alex was courting Eliza, Laurens was taken prisoner and then on probation. He wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Pennsylvania. He was mentally in a very dark place. Alex kind of procrastinated telling Laurens about Eliza, didn’t say he was courting anyone until they were already engaged.

I can't leave this alone if I'm sad you have to be too. Alex was hella depressed during this time too. Of course he was a soldier so he couldn't see Eliza as much as he'd have liked. On top of that, he kept pushing for an exchange for John and kept getting rejected because they couldn't show preference for him. And then Laurens was sending him very few letters, of course, and the ones he did send were very depressed, even suicidal sounding. He had to work while dealing with that. He had to keep begging Eliza to write to him to be reassured that she still liked him.

No one could show up for Hamilton for the wedding. Some sources say fellow aide James McHenry showed up, but he’s the only one. Alexander even invited his deadbeat dad, offered to pay all his travel expenses and everything, guess how that turned out. So Eliza’s side of the hall was packed and his was empty. God, can you imagine how sad that is?

Another heartbreaking fun fact! John Laurens was out of probation and could have made it to the wedding, was invited (Hamilton, I kid you not, jokingly invited him to a threesome with his new wife in a letter: “I wish you were at liberty to transgress the bounds of Pensylvania. I would invite you after the fall to Albany to be witness to the final consummation.” (emphasis is original to Hamilton. As is the misspelling of Pennsylvania. Yes, seriously.)) and John did not go. Instead he went back to work trying to talk his way out of getting sent as an envoy to France and suggesting Alexander to take his place. You know. His boyfriend who just got married. Sure, he was right that Hamilton was better equipped for the job, but yknow. Another fun fact, one of the guys who voted for John to be the one to go to France was John’s ex-boyfriend Francis Kinloch. Who was a turncoat, and had been a royalist when he and Laurens split. How’s that for some twisty bullshit.

Sorry, this one isn’t about the musical, it’s a tangent, I just got excited about that quote. Both that style of innuendo and the misspelling of Pennsylvania are consistent in Hamilton’s writing. Listening to john-lauren’s podcast about the April 1779 letter can really help you understand how Hammy uses innuendo but also I just love listening to it it’s insightful and hilarious and I love John Laurens but y u do this and my heart hurts for Hamilton but he is also a ho but aNYWAY. As for Pensylvania...well, he kinda made that mistake on an important document. ...It’s The Constitution. He misspelled Pennsylvania on The Constitution. No big deal. Not like something that could haunt his legacy forever. Oh my god I’m so sorry.

Philip Schuyler did have sons. Five in fact. Two of them died pretty young though I think, considering there are three kids in a row named John Bradstreet Schuyler. The other two were named Philip Jeremiah and Rensselaer.

Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan were all married before Hamilton. Hercules Mulligan married Elizabeth Sanders in 1773. Lafayette married his beloved Adrienne in 1774. John Laurens was regretfully obliged to marry Martha Manning in 1776.

Sigh. Again with the misogyny. Anyway, I wanted to comment on the marriage as a loss of freedom. From what I can tell, Elizabeth helped Hercules with his spy work at home. John was literally fighting a war across the ocean from his wife, and probably having an illegal affair with Alexander (though to be fair to him, he was kind of running away from Martha because he didn't marry her for love, gosh, there are no winners here). Lafayette absolutely adored his wife but still was also fighting a war an ocean away, and had multiple affairs, at least one with his wife’s blessing. So yeah, losing your freedom with marriage? Bullshit.

Despite where it is in the musical and Eliza singing the beginning, Stay Alive is roughly about Valley Forge, which would be December of 1777 through June of 78. So before the ball and wedding. (Fun fact! A lot of people theorize Valley Forge as when Hamilton and Laurens’ relationship may have escalated into romantic and/or sexual territory. They may have had more privacy, as small temporary buildings were being made to better withstand the cold, and Hamilton was sick a lot during that time and did need tending a lot. West Indian boi did not like Northern winter.) But yeah, Congress being stupid and the army resorting to eating their horses sometimes and not being able to buy food and equipment? All true. It was a real bad winter.

Mulligan wouldn’t have to go back to New York, he never would have left. He remained there as a tailor and a spy throughout the war. He wouldn’t have been traveling with Washington.

Hamilton and Laurens didn't write essays so much as start working out John's battalion plan and writing letters trying to push for it.

This duel happened in 1778, so like. This timeline is so fucky.

Stay Alive makes it seem like Hamilton was the one who wanted to duel Lee, but it was 100% Laurens from the start. The off-Broadway version demonstrates it a bit better. Hamilton was Lauren's second to save his ass. Hamilton had a rough relationship with Washington, but Laurens admired him greatly and would have willingly defended his commander’s honor. John was a Good Boy who always bowed his head to his asshole father, even at first for his battalion plan, but John wouldn’t let even his father talk shit about Washington. Fun fact about this duel, Alex and John were late to the duel because they “got lost in the woods”. Oooookay. Suuuuuuure. And Baron von Steuben was straight. (Fact: Steuben was very gay and pretty much pushed out of Europe for it. And he actually also had challenged Lee! They talked things out before this.)

Aaron Burr was not Charles Lee’s second. His second was a Major Evan Edwards. Lin wanted a parallel with the final duel. To be fair, that was a really cool way to do it and I like it better that way.

Alexander Hamilton could NOT agree that duels are dumb and immature. He was in 10 duel challenges as a participant in his lifetime, 9 of which he was the challenger. One time he challenged two people at once. One time he challenged an entire politcal party apparently. No, I am not kidding. He had a bad day. And I think you know the one time he wasn’t the challenger.

Lee did not yield on the first shot, nor was Laurens satisfied. Lee was pretty much like, “It’s just a flesh wound!” and wanted to go another round and Laurens agreed, but Hamilton and Edwards managed to talk them down. Yes he was shot in the side. But that wasn’t all because Laurens absolutely roasted Lee at his court martial. 

Lee: Were you ever in an action before?

Laurens: I have been in several actions; I did not call that an action, as there was no action previous to the retreat. 

I love this man. So much. The sass of this man.

We don’t know if Washington was angry about the duel with Lee. We do know that Laurens, and probably Hamilton, had Christmas dinner with him two days later. When Hamilton left, it was because Washington had snapped over a misunderstanding (caused by Lafayette actually, and he really tried to make it better because Lafayette is a sweetheart), and then continued to deny Hamilton the command he requested, and he resigned. It was entirely unrelated to the duel and Laurens. However, the daddy issues are real.

I don’t know if Lafayette went to France for more funds and came back with more guns, but Laurens certainly did! Ben Franklin told him to chill, but he actually got super impatient and ended up supposedly disrespecting and maybe kinda threatening the court, demanding what he needed, and walking out. They were were kind of shocked and impressed into giving more than had been requested. Any existing deities bless John Laurens. I love him.

Lafayette actually nominated his own aide to lead the charge and Hamilton appealed for himself and Washington finally gave in to Hamilton.

Laurens was not in South Carolina. When he finally got back from France, he was sent to Yorktown. He actually was commanding the group Alexander led. (Power couple lol) He also helped with negotiations after the battle. Also, supposedly making the British play ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ on their way out was Laurens’ idea because boy is made of sass and spite.

Henry Laurens would not have sent a letter to Hamilton about John’s death. Even if he would have, he couldn’t. At that time, he’d been locked up in the Tower of London as a prisoner. We have no idea when or how Alexander found out, or who might have told him. We know he wrote to Nathanael Greene on October 25 and Lafayette on November 3 (literally 2 months after Laurens' death), and the mentions of Laurens were very short. It’s thought that he really couldn’t talk about Laurens. People have compared it to the stories of how Benjamin Tallmadge apparently couldn’t hear Nathan Hale’s name without crying.

After Yorktown Alexander resigned and John went down south to flush British troops out of the southern states. His group was ambushed at Combahee River and he decided to charge instead of wait for backup and he died. Many people think it was a combination of his usual recklessness, suicidality, and glory-seeking mixed with a desperation with the war coming to an end. It was such a small skirmish. He deserved better. He left his daughter, Frances, whom he had never met, orphaned, as her mother had died months earlier from sickness. She was adopted by John’s oldest younger sister, also coincidentally Martha Laurens (though married was Martha Laurens Ramsay).

The Levi Weeks case was years later than that, in 1800, though it was alongside Burr. Hamilton actually lost his first trial as a defense lawyer and was not with Burr.

The whole conversation where Hamilton proposes Burr help him write the Federalist Papers is fake. Lin made that up entirely.

John Church’s wealth kinda...varies. He was a gambler. At first, he was actually in quite a bit of debt. He did make it big eventually and he and Angelica moved to Europe. He really didn’t seem to be a lot of fun to most people, but Angelica eloped with him. She chose him against her father’s wishes. I don’t get why Lin kept writing lines saying she didn’t love him, at least at first. He also does this in the cut song Congratulations where she says “I languished in a loveless marriage” bish you eloped wat She also lived as a socialite and was adored by anyone who met her apparently, so like???? da fuq Lin. Didja really do Laurens dirty for these lies or at the very least uncertanties? Could you not prop up that romance without making her say she hates her husband?

Act 2

More of a personality miscommunication. Irl Thomas Jefferson was shy, quiet, and hypersensitive, nothing like how Daveed plays him. If you knew a guy like the real Jefferson in real life you might be endeared to him out of pity or because he seems sweet, but in the short time of a musical that would immediately be read as cold and unlikable. So the best way to portray “this guy is a likable asshole” is to make him loud and made of sass which is what Daveed does magnificently. So, not at all accurate to real Jefferson, but gets the concept of him across.

Thomas was not off getting high with the French. Probably. He was making negotiations for the Revolution. And abusing Sally Hemings (his, at the time, 14 year old slave, who was also his sister-in-law, and 30 years his junior, and was brought along to entertain his daughter). And actually probably chatting up with Angelica!

By the time Philip was 9, he had two sisters, Angelica (7) and his foster/adopted sister Frances Antill (6), but he also had two brothers already, Alexander Jr. (5) and James Alexander (3), with maybe another one on the way since William Stephen would be born next year.

The whole comma thing is backwards. It was Angelica who made the initial mistake. Hamilton pointedly and flirtatiously teased her about it before closing it with “Adieu ma chere, soeur” French for “Goodbye my dear, sister”. So it’s more playful and less lovey dovey in context, so the tone is all wrong. It’s not romantic, it’s teasing and snarky.

Say No To This feels like it’s over quick. The affair lasted a year, not just the summer Eliza was away.

Clermont Street wasn’t renamed until many years later.

I don’t know that Alex has always considered Burr a friend. Irl they weren’t as close, and Hamilton was keenly aware of how slimy Burr could be.

Lafayette was NOT fine. He was imprisoned a lot during the French Revolution, the poor man, and many members of his wife’s family were killed. HOWEVER! Hamilton was not just sitting by. Angelica and her husband did make an attempt to rescue Lafayette, and the Hamiltons fostered Lafayette’s son Georges Washington Lafayette (yes that was his actual name). So Hamilton also did not forget Lafayette.

Not all his defendants got acquitted, obviously. Stop being cocky, Ham.

People comment on how Jefferson whines about Hamilton’s fashion sense while literally dressed in violet velvet. The original plan was to have him in browns, but Daveed is just such a friggin star that they just had to give him something brighter and decided to go with a Prince-inspired look. Originally the browns were going to be representative of his supposed representation of farmers. Though note here: Jefferson’s agricultural representation is much the same as modern Republicans’ rural representation. More for show.

Actually, let's get political for a sec. I've done some research in my hyperfixation and in searches for Hamilton shiz I've ended up stumbling into far-right nonsense and I know how to recognize the degrees of nonsense from years of actually paying attention to it now because this is what I do apparently. Which is weird, right? Lin kinda portrays him like a lefty. Well, here's the thing. Any proud historically educated Republican will tell you that their roots are in the Federalist Party. Which is technically true. What they will neglect to mention is the flip between parties that happened when the Republicans decided to use southerners racism to their advantage in elections. Being subtly racist can get the racists and the non-racists on your side! Yeah, it's gross. Federalists are more like Democrats. The corporatists. They clearly care more about companies and Wall Street, but they put actual action into social progress on rare occasion. Democratic-Republicans are like Republicans, conservatives who don't want social change and rail against it and pretend they aren't for corporate interests while being just as bad as the other guys. But Republicans have a tendency to rewrite history to paint themselves as the good guys, or reclaim things that aren't theirs as their own. Just look at the Civil War! Or...literally just...America I guess. Yikes. But yeah, here's your warning. Don't just go looking at and trusting things labelled Federalist. It likely won't be friendly.

John Adams didn’t fire Hamilton, Hamilton left. Eventually. And this is not the only time this kind of verbal confrontation happens, and not the one that destroys the Federalist Party. That actually happens after the Reynolds Pamphlet. But John Adams hates Alexander Hamilton with the burning passion of a thousand suns and really kinda earns this.

I’m not sure if he specifically called Alex a Creole bastard but I wouldn’t be surprised, there were other similar racist and bastard-related insults. You know the tomcat thing mentioned above. He started the rumor of the affair with Angelica. He accused him of being a rake (male version of whore at the time). He also may have behind closed doors accused him of being a sodomite. His (probably gay) son Charles helped with that one, bringing back rumors from a dinner he had with Hamilton (who he was working for) and John Church because Church joked about Alex being fond of a guy. Adams probably thought working for Hamilton was what made his son gay and alcoholic (Charles was an alcoholic and may have died in part because of that; Hamilton was not an alcoholic, but he supposedly could not hold his drink. He was smol).

Jefferson, Madison, and Burr didn’t accuse Hamilton of speculation. It was James Monroe, Abraham Venable, and Frederick Muhlenberg. Lin wanted to keep consistent representation of the Democratic-Republican party. But anyway, the whole thing went to hell because Monroe sent the letters to Jefferson (or I’ve also heard Monroe gave them to Madison who sent them to Jefferson) who, the spiteful gangly fucker, started spreading rumors because fuck Hamilton, amirite? Hamilton challenged Monroe to a duel over that. And who stopped this duel? Aaron Burr. He gets to be the good guy now and then.

It wasn’t just total strangers that got Alex off the island. He was sponsored by his cousin Ann Lytton and his teacher Reverend Hugh Knox. Also, he was kind of expected to get an education and come back and help out the island...guess what he never did. Oops.

This one I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure. I think Eliza was upstate with her family when the Reynolds Pamphlet was released, away from Alex. I also know she had recently given birth to their son, William Stephen. A lot of people think Alexander had been keeping that in mind. Eliza had had a miscarriage once before, when she was under a lot of stress and alone and with the kids and he had to be away (Whiskey Rebellion), so some people think he made sure she was surrounded by her family and waited until the child was born to drop this on her, and gave her distance from him if she needed it. At least he knew he fucked up, and he really did love her.

Those weren’t Alexander’s guns. They belonged to John Church.

It was quite some time between Philip’s challenge and the actual duel.

Another age miscommunication; Eacker was 27ish and Philip was 19 when the duel happened. There was a whole 8 years between them! 

Eacker didn’t shoot early. Actually, both of them stood staring at each other for a really long time doing nothing. But Philip went to make a move and Eacker shot him.

Alex and Eliza had made up from the Reynolds Pamphlet bullshit before Philip died. When he passed, Eliza was already pregnant with the son they would also name Philip in honor of his older brother.

Hamilton wasn’t really the deciding factor in the election of 1800. But he did say that about Burr and it did help swing the vote somewhat. But also, this was before Philip died. Philip died in 1801.

If a vote is that close, you can’t win in a landslide??? That’s not how words work???? Mister Miranda????? You are a writer??????? Sir???????

Burr actually held a term as Jefferson’s Vice President.

The Burr vs Hamilton Duel was in 1804 and was actually about another election and other things Hamilton was saying about him. Burr was running to be governor of New York and lost but heard about Alexander telling people the things he listed Alexander saying in Your Obedient Servant.

Thayne should not have played Alexander’s doctor. Sydney should have played Alexander’s doctor. Do you know why? Philip and Alexander had the same doctor when they died. Alexander took that doctor with him to the duel. His name was David Hosack.

While there’s evidence to suggest Burr experienced immediate regret (he stepped forward as if wanting to see if Hamilton was okay and supposedly asked after him and wished him well before Alexander passed) in the years that followed, until he was on his death bed, he expressed nothing but neutrality or even pride for having shot Hamilton. The ‘the world was wide enough’ comment could plausibly be entirely made up, and even if it were true, it was supposedly said toward the end of Burr’s life. Burr's life was quite a ride after Alex. He tried to make like his own empire out of Texas, and then of course was tried for treason, but he got out of that, but then everyone hated him for that ON TOP OF already hating him for killing Hamilton, so he had some crazy journey around Europe for a while. He kept a journal, writing entries like letters to Theo. The most notable things I think he writes he'd "been amused for an hour with a very handsome young Dane. Don't smile. It is a male!" which implies maybe Theodosia knew her dad was bi and was at least amused by it? And he spent a while living with Jeremy Bentham, who is generally accepted to have been gay (if you want more Burr gayness look into Jonathan Bellamy and Robert Troup. Troup knew Hamilton too!). Unrelated to his sexuality but I find it important, Burr spent, in modern cash, $40 on a coconut, in his own words, "like an ass." He returned to America eventually. I dont remember if it was before or after his foreign adventures, but his beloved grandson (also named Aaron Burr) died, and then not long after, Theodosia was lost at sea on her way to visit her dad. No one knows what happened to her. It's so sad. Anyway he married a wealthy widow named Eliza, spent all her money on charity, and died the day their divorce was finalized. And Eliza Jumel's divorce lawyer was Alexander Hamilton Jr..

Poor Eliza couldn’t go through all of her husband’s papers. Her son, John Church Hamilton, finished the work for her when she no longer could and put together the biography that inspired Chernow’s that inspired Lin’s musical. (He named a son Alexander and a daughter Elizabeth. He even named one of his sons Laurens! Aw.) And we have come full circle.

The End :33

There’s probably more but that’s what I’ve got. Thanks for reading!

[omegawolverine]

Plesse tell me about queerness in the get down!!

okay okay queerness in the get down let's fuckn goooo

disclaimer: I havent watched this show in full for like 5 months at least, probably gonna get something wrong and/or forget some more important bits. also this wasnt proof read I just word vomited

tws: period typical homophobia, abuse mention, f slur use, bury your gays trope, overdose mention, mention of a creepy possible age gap (the age gap hasnt been confirmed so that's why its possible), cops

going from least to most prominent queer characters, let's start with mylene cruz!

so, from the beginning of this show she has an established romantic relationship with ezekiel (although the status of their actual relationship changes frequently throughout the show) and though this was a relationship she was hesitant to pursue, it is clear that she does have romantic feelings for him and if not for them both having growing careers in very different music genres (zeke specifically working in a genre that she repeatedly labels as bad because she thinks they're ruining records + that it isnt real music because they're using someone elses piece and rapping over it, that's not really important here tho lol) they probably wouldve had a much healthier, smooth sailing romance. that being said theres a few things that happen in the show that, while not explicitly clear, or even really good coding at that—to the point where you wont catch if you really arent looking for it (and trust me, I always look for coding, hers was just so little that it flew over my head until I saw someone else mention it)—are still cool to think about!

so, for starters, I wanna mention the toy box performance, which was performed by mylene and regina, who are best friends. that's all cool and shit, and you dont really think much about it...until you hear about the fact that the show runners purposely colored a lot of the scenes in that performance with the bi colors. like. the writers after the show ended basically said "oh yeah there was plans to make her coding more explicit, but our shit got cancelled soooo" and then dropped the fact that she was gonna be bi (or at least implies bi) in the series, which puts a new twist on a few things.

now, besides the bi coloring in the background of the toy box performance (which was mostly on scenes with her and regina, which involved a lot of uh,, lowkey lewd dancing. with each other. in very revealing outfits. wooooo), there's her music! I dont tend to read too much into this one bc, like I said before, her coding is fucking light and the writers themselves said they didnt really get to do much with it, but I think some stuff with her music is interesting. specifically how her, yolanda and regina's song set me free blew up because dizzee, resident (lowkey enby coded) bicon, got their song played in a queer club. also that the song was majorly important to dizzee and started playing literally right as he kissed a boy for the first time and realized "oh shit I like boys that's bonkers". also that the song can be taken in a gay way since literally the entire thing is about becoming your true self, fully and unapologetically, which is what both dizzee and mylene's entire character arcs are about. dizzee (and a lot of other queer people, apparently), heard this song about being set free and it resonated with them so much that they got that shit most of its popularity.

speaking of dizzee and mylene, they parallel each other a lot in the way that their arcs are about them realizing who they are, coming into themselves and no longer just letting people treat them like shit in a sense (dizzee starting to tell people essentially that they can call him weird all they want, they can make fun of how he acts, what he likes, how he dresses, etc. but he likes how he is and quite literally saying "it's okay to be an alien" as he has consistently compared himself to one throughout the show vs mylene learning that if she wants to be a disco singer she needs to put her foot down, not let anyone, not even the love of her life, not even her abusive father, stop her from achieving her dreams, etc. and continuing to pursue her career with or without their support). one more little parallel that I think is interesting is during I think s2 towards the end of the show is when dizzee and thor are shown together having fun with each other, painting all over the building and each other and are basically just being happy and in love together and then they have these clips of them being interspersed with clips of mylene at a party where she is starting to realize that if she wants to get anywhere she needs to be her own main priority and that she needs to put her career and her dream, which is what makes her the happiest, above all else if she wants to succeed. idk I just think how the show made these two into a weird parallel, accidental or not, is neat. maybe not an explicitly queer parallel, but I think at least how her music and whatnot helped dizzee, the main queer character in this show, blossom, is important.

moving on we got shaolin fantastic also known as "oh no your internalized homophobia is showing-"

so, heres a quick list of...interesting shao facts:

Consistently referred to as fag/faggot (shaolin fanfaggot is my personal favorite); he gets really defensive about this despite nobody actually thinking he's queer, it's just people being assholes to be assholes, and he is the only character consistently referred to using a slur, especially a homophobic one, especially for a "straight" character. dizzee, a canonically queer character, is called a fag less than shaolin is even though dizzee actively goes to gay clubs, has a not so secret dude he "hangs out with" and wont let anyone properly meet, paints his nails, wears less than straight clothes even by the 70s standards and is just all around the definition of fucking queer (and I mean like in the weird way, not the gay way). in fact theres only like once I can remember him being called a fag and it had nothing to do with him actually being gay it was literally just like thrown out there the same way you would call someone a bitch.

Has only shown sexual interest in women, yet refuses to have deeper relationships with women in general (possibly because of trauma but who knows) but takes his relationships with his "brothers", specifically zeke, very seriously

Tells zeke and zeke ONLY his real name when zeke was planning to stop being his friend bc shao more or less got boo boo, a like 14 year old black kid, arrested for selling hard drugs; he was clearly scared and trying to do anything to keep zeke around, literally chasing him down the street and hounding him until he got zeke to stop and argue with him

Kept threatening to beat up zeke in the end but couldn't actually bring himself to do so, instead saying that zeke is "fucking lucky" before walking away

Let's zeke get away with things that nobody else can, in general just has a weird soft spot for ezekiel that he shows with nobody else

when shao found dizzee with thor in a vaguely compromising situation (like they were just shirtless covered in paint sleeping next to each other but shao had also seen everything they painted on the walls ((which some of it was sus)), it was clear they had painted on each others bodies and dizzee had been routinely disappearing with this guy for weeks now yet not producing nearly as much art, at least, as far as we audience members know) he didnt judge him but instead, waited for him to get cleaned up and then told him something along the lines of "theres a reason why im so secretive blah blah blah [not everyone needs to know everything about me]", which, in context, kinda implies that he might be a lil. a lil homiesexual. jus a lil.

whenever even the possibility of zeke leaving him comes up he absolutely loses it. he has literally cost ezekiel life changing opportunities because he thought zeke would just up and leave him for them. this could be abandonment issues bc he's a severely traumatized character, and that probably does contribute to it, but it also is just not a reaction he has to any of their other friends just randomly dipping in and out of his life soooooo

generally speaking, this mfer has got either bisexual with a big hard on for zeke coding or homosexual with terrible internalized homophobia and still a hard on for zeke coding. either fucking way, that nigga gay. he gay as hell. gay as fuck man. there wasn't really much to analyze here tbh bc the coding is just so fucking obvious if you look for it or you are/have been a gay person who's dealt with at least a little bit of internalized homophobia.

also, just a sidenote, idk how fucking old shao, but I'm praying hes like at max 19 bc I'm pretty sure zeke is a minor in this show and shao definetly is not so the whole him being heavily implied to have a crush on ezekiel thing is kinda. oof. not oof if zeke is like 17 but any younger than that? OOF.

edit: apparently the characters are only supposed to be a year apart in age but i had no clue about that before writing this post and since shaos age was never actually stated in the show i naturally assumed he was an adult since his actor Looks Like An Adult. this is definetly on me to a certain extent, but i also never saw anything about this when trying to find our their ages so 🤷‍♀️ maybe i just didnt look deep enough, sorry!

now moving on to the main event...marcus dizzee kipling :]

so, first things first, let's talk enby coding bc him being bisexual was already confirmed!

um, to start off, I just wanna say I dont think this enby coding was intentional or even really coding, it's just moreso me being a dizzee kin on main and knowing as a transmasc enby he has very transmasc enby vibes. for example:

cool, gender neutral nickname that everyone calls him

paints nails various different colors

the whole wardrobe is just a transmasc enby heaven...fishnet shirts, jean overalls, jackets and cuffed pants galore, the big colorful pins, etc

gender neutral hairstyle (when I had my fro it was very sexy and made it easy to transition between hyper masc and vaguely fem, which is pog)

comparing himself to/representing himself consistently with an alien character (though this is meant to represent his sexuality, it could also double as a gender thing too, not neccesarily bc of the whole nonbinary alien trope but bc an enby who likes aliens might heavily identify or compare themselves to whatever their idea of an alien is, whether that just be a genderless entity or a motherfucker with fly style and no need to be perceived as anything other Wacky As Hell)

moving on from there, let's talk about how his queerness is presented to us and how, while it may be a really good piece of representation, especially coming from netflix, it still lacks in A Lot of places.

so, let's start with good things!

i personally really like the get down's queer rep with dizzee bc it's (for the most part) nonsexualized and very very soft, about dizzee figuring himself out and realizing there is a place where he fits in, and about two teenagers in the 70s falling in love over their shared passion for street art. it also features an interracial couple where both boys challenge stereotypes both about queer men and men of color, which is epic poggers and very sexy. this piece of rep specifically is very important to me bc I am a queer black person and even tho interracial relationships are mostly normalized now, I've still had people give me shit for primarily dating white people in a town that is...primarily white lol

mm anyways, I can also appreciate how in the get down, dizzee being represented by rumi the alien is not a thing specifically related to gender (as it often is) and instead is about his sexuality and just in general weirdness and how it has led to him being alienated amongst his peers, poc or otherwise. him seeing himself as an alien is not about just his queerness, which is important, it is about him being a queer black man who talks different, acts different, dresses different and is "soft"—he isnt a walking black male stereotype and he wouldnt have been seen as masculine back in the 70s by any stretch of the imagination. this can be relatable to a wide spectrum of queer poc, from queer black men currently who still have to deal with this shit or to people like myself who are afab neurodivergent mixed race enbies that have always been signaled out as weird and alienated for it. dizzee is god rep bc while he has a small part in this show, his parts are very impactful, hard hitting and show queer poc of all ages that they arent alone and that it's okay to "weird", you just need to embrace it because somebody will love you for you, as thor did for dizzee.

that being said theres um. some minor problemas here,,,

namely:

dizzee and thors first kiss

the lack of development this pairing got

the way dizzee was confirmed bisexual off screen, he never said the words himself, just showed interest in both genders

the way dizzee and thor were never even confirmed boyfriends or just fwb so most of the fandom just calls them boyfriends bc Why Not

dizzee was implied fucking DEAD??? AT THE END OF THE SERIES?????? AND THOR WAS IMPLIED ARRESTED?????????????

now, these might have been things that wouldve been fine had the show been given it's full run but it wasnt which is why we are now left with probelms.

so, from the top, let's go over these: dizzee and thor's first (and only "on screen") kiss was one that was shown in a montage of other queer people making over and doing other vaguely romantic/sexual things, one of those things being a whole ass naked titty being mouthed at, but the actual kiss...was just not shown? like they really did just say "yes they kissed <3 you know this from the context clues of it being in a montage with kissing, hickey giving and titty sucking <3 but no we will not show it <3" LIKE HELLO? I SAW A NAKED BOOBIE BUT NOT TWO MEN KISS??? HUH????????

also, dizzee and thor were both fucking high as hell during this bit like this isnt a terrible thing but it's also like sometimes you do shit when you're high that you wouldnt do sober and they just never kissed again on screen so like?? like idk that's not that bad but it does kinda irk me since they deadass got no other on screen intimacy after that unless you including painting on eacher other or sleeping next to each other on a shitty mattress but not touching at all during it bc they were both at opposite ends of the mattress like half way off it

so yeah, that was trash. then we got lack of development, which kinda goes with the "dizzee being a bisexual but he never says it in canon" thing cause like...okay dizzee was already sort of a side character from the get go like he wasnt the mc by any means, but he became way more of a background character as things continued until we basically only saw him for performances or when he was with thor, yet they got no fucking development as a pairing other than "dizzee realize he gay, he like thor, he and thor spend time together and ig probably do some gay stuff but we dont really know bc we only ever see them do graffiti together now" like?? tf am I supposed to do with that shit. answer. quickly. and then theres dizzee not being confirmed bisexual, which is just a running problem with shows literally doing everything to say a character is bi except for having the character just...say they're bi? which would be so easy? like a good way dizzee and thor couldve had some development is by thor teaching dizzee things about the queer community that he didnt even know existed, thor couldve helped him understand what being bi meant and helped him label himself and whatnot but instead we got an off screen confirmation that the writers had bisexual in mind when writing him. which is garbagé.

the whole thor and dizzee never having a confirmed relationship status is also a development problem cause like literally nobody knows if they were just friends who made out, maybe fucked, who knows, or if they were dating bc dizzee does give a love confession but a love confession doesn't mean there is a relationship, especially since thor didn't say he was in love either (as far as I remember, I could be wrong, plus whether or not that really happened or was apart of dizzee literally overdosing during a performance is unclear so 🤪)

and now for the biggest issue...bury your gays trope.

during the season 2 finale, dizzee and thor are chased by cops after they are found doing graffiti, one of the cops is able to catch thor while the other chases dizzee into a train tunnel and there is a train seen headed straight for him before the show cuts to black on a train horn. the show writers claim that if they had gotten another season, dizzee wouldve been alive but since they didnt and since that's essentially super fan trivia knowledge, most people dont fucking know that and instead had to watch a black queer teenager chose death over being fucking arrested by a white cop. on top of that, thor didnt see any of that shit because he was caught and the cop started hauling him off while dizzee was still being chased so thor literally has no clue where his friend/possible boyfriend fucking is or that he's likely dead in a goddamn tunnel all alone, unless you count the fucking pig that chased him in there who wouldve died too. this shows rep was so fucking good as far as most shows go on not having major fucking problems, on not being toxic and over sexualized, etc, etc. and then they just. killed a black queer teenager for no fucking reason. like it was literally the last episode ever, it would add nothing to the plot, it would just devastate fans and devastate it fucking did. I dont cry easy but seeing a character I identified with, who I had hyperfixated on, die because he'd rather that than be arrested is terrible. it fucking sucked.

so yeah. that's my all too extensive thoughts/analysis on the get down's queerness. theres definitely stuff I missed, or misinterpreted, or looked too much into, etc, etc., but this was a fun thing to spend time writing sooo yeah!! thanks for the ask anon, sorry this was just a big rambley info dump, but hopefully you get some enjoyment out of it since it took like 3 hours at least 😭😭 feel free to ask clarifying questions lol

[mianmiansimp]

mdzs au: the one with wen xu (pt 1)

>>wwx has his bisexual epiphany much sooner in life bc Reasons

>>so when he starts crushing on lwj Immediately at cr, he knows it too

>>anyway: sometime pre-cloud recesses, wx and wwx cross paths and wwx is being his usual mischievous self

>>he's very dramatic and flirty and running around on roofs

>>wx is like Hey You're Cute but doesn't catch his name

>>wwx is oblivious so he didn't know who wx was lol

>>they cross paths a few more times

>>wwx just knows wx as 'that one gongzi i see sometimes'

>>then cr happens and they meet again when wwx is heading back to cr with his alcohol

>>wx is like my how charming

>>the next morning the wens show up and wc pisses everyone off

>>and then wwx is telling him off and wc gets pissed and tries to fight wwx while also insulting his status

>>and jc is like EXCUSE YOU and draws his sword bc i'm a sucker for protective jc and will throw in as much yunmeng shuangjie as i want

>>but then wx shows up and tells off wc (bc of wwx) and tells everyone to calm down

>>wx learns wwx's name, wwx learns who 'that one gongzi i see sometimes' is, only one of them is happy with the revelation

>>wx is being weird and oily to everyone and the lans begrudgingly accept the 'apology'

>>wx is publicly weird to wwx, wwx is publicly uncomfy, jc is publicly offended and pissed and defensive and also has an inkling of where wx's head is at

>>cue jc aggressively glaring at wens and shielding wwx from them

>>nhs, who's more aware of what's happening than anyone else bc nhs, helps

>>doesn't stop wwx from adopting wn as a bestie but wn is a kitten so it's ok

>>cr arc is largely the same, wangxian shenanigans, yunmeng shuangjie shenanigans, alcohol shenanigans, you know the drill

>>except for two major things

>>one - wwx has been crushing on lwj since day one but he Knows it

>>and he gets sad sometimes when lwj rejects him

>>so jc is not only angry at the wens but he's angry at lwj's audacity too

>>lwj, who hasn't a clue about anything:

>>two - wx sometimes shows up randomly to 'check up'

>>he isn't, he just drops by to make wwx uncomfy via unsolicited gifts and flirting

>>jc usually passive aggressively intervenes

>>or nhs makes some excuse that is usually 'jc wants to see you'

>>there's an incident during a wx visit where wwx panics bc he really doesn't want to deal with him

>>and essentially bolts from the vicinity and runs right into lwj

>>lwj almost starts telling off wwx but he sees quite clearly that wwx is Not Ok

>>and then they hear wx approaching and wwx basically begs lwj to Get Him Out

>>lwj dislikes wx far more than he dislikes acknowledging his affections for wwx

>>so they quickly run into and hide in a room

>>cue bonding moment where lwj and wwx have a Talk and lwj says they're friends for the first time

>>and then immediately goes silent bc wwx is looking at him with complete adoration and he has to force himself not to kiss him lol

>>this is also the point where lwj has it confirmed that wwx very much does not like wx's presence

>>which is how lwj joins the defend wwx against wx's advances club

>>jc isn't happy about it bc wwx is mooning for lwj still but he lets it slide

>>wn actually joined the club accidentally and discretely

>>jc's like why couldn't wwx get This wen to crush on him i like him so much better???

>>lwj vinegar moment + flustered wn who just thinks wwx is really cool and nice

>>wq catches wind of what's going on and is worried about wn's involvement

>>but also greatly dislikes wx and doesn't want some random innocent boy to suffer

>>which is how she too accidentally joins the club

>>mianmian joins too but loudly bc she's friends with wwx and lwj and also wx sucks

>>jzx is friends with mianmian so he gets dragged in

>>and he might be an arrogant prat atm but he's not a bad guy and wx's behavior is very despicable

>>jzx has some um Revelations about himself and his family

>>and accidentally becomes an honorary member of the club

>>they're all kinda friends now, it truly sucks, thinks jzx with a small smile

>>xuanli engagement is not broken/salvaged much earlier on bc of this whole

thing

>>anyway that's how all the major sects' youth became so closely entwined

>>lqr was very proud that his lectures enacted firm inter sect relationships

>>lxc is just egging on wangxian while also becoming an honorary member of the club

>>waterborne abyss and stuff still happens

>>jc is even angrier at the wens and straight up completely hides wwx the next time wx comes around so he doesn't even catch a glimpse

>>wx is not happy, especially when lwj is silently passive aggressive the whole time

>>cr study ends, there's this whole lingering wangxian moment when they say their goodbyes

>>wwx and lwj are close now but also lwj can sort of admit it instead of shoving it under years of repression and gay panic

>>lwj agrees to visit at lotus pier and wwx looks so enamored that jc gags and drags him away

>>mianmian snickers and pokes lwj in jest, who actually pokes her back

>>lxc is so proud, his brother has Friends

>>wx is a bit more careful around lotus pier, but he does visit once

>>jfm greets him and is very polite but yzy is very blunt and pissed

>>jc upon getting home had immediately spilled all the info on the wx thing

>>yzy doesn't like wwx but she hates the main wen and wx was being vv disrespectful

>>so she kinda tells wx that wwx isn't here (not a lie, he's on a nighthunt) and that he can go jump a cliff now thanks

>>wx is rather irritated when he leaves

>>comes back again on a later date, but this is the day that the cr friends are all hanging out

>>which isn't really an issue bc wwx is a social butterfly, it's part of what wx likes about him, obviously he has friends

>>but he sees the way wwx looks at lwj, and happens upon a moment where they're alone

>>he is Not Happy

>>in the meanwhile the cr friends are all chilling together and making fun of jzx flustering around jyl and eating lotus pods and whatever

>>yzy for once is like not overcome with irrational rage at wwx's presence bc he did something right for once in her eyes

>>so wwx gets some peace of mind at lotus pier

>>madam jin is also very delighted at the xuanli progress and approves wwx for enacting it

>>no one outside of jiangs + cr know why exactly xuanli are doing so well

>>so madam jin assumes wwx just kinda did some wingman stuff and doesn't know about the wx thing

>>anyway, wangxian is progressing quite nicely, and jc is all the more miserable for it

>>jzx kinda doesn't care lol, the rest of the club are delighted by the entertainment, yzy is further not angry at wwx bc wangxian engagement = lan-jiang alliance = advantageous

>>fast forward and we're at the discussion conference

>>jc is scowlier than usual and is literally holding wwx's hand the whole time

>>and wwx is like bro ty and ily but also this is a bit much

>>jc eventually lets go of his hand but he is never more than a few inches away from wwx's side

>>the state of wangxian at this time means we have wangxian blatantly and publicly mooning and everyone's like :eyes:

>>wx is not happy, shows up and immediately starts seeking out wwx, everyone is uncomfy

>>jc at one point grabs wwx and shoves him into the middle of all the jiang disciples

>>kinda doing that zebra camouflage thing but with jiang disciples lol

>>whenever it looks like wx is gonna ask him about wwx he crosses his arms and scowls severely

>>wx takes his seat very unhappily and the discussion conference proceeds as normal ig

>>but the friends are all taking part in the hunt together

>>wwx and lwj have a lil competition for who snags the most shots

>>lots of flirting during the competition, much to jzx and jc's chagrin

>>wn is just :pleading_face: the whole time but he does excellently and gives everyone a run for their money

>>the wc thing goes a lil differently in that wc is more incensed about wwx's existence bc he knows wx likes wwx

>>targets wwx, it backfired bc of lwj, wc leaves in a huff

>>lwj closely attaches himself to wwx after that, jc is pissed bc that's 2 wens who are making problems about wwx

>>the ribbon incident goes a lil differently

>>it happens after the competition, in front of all the sects

>>wx basically

goes oh your ribbon is crooked and fixes it gently and smiles at lwj and lwj says nothing, just quietly nods and thanks him

>>lqr approaches qi deviation, the sects are shocked, wwx is oblivious, lwj is smug, lxc and the friends are all metaphorically eating popcorn, wx is mad, wrh doesn't care, wq is worried bc wx

>>wx actually corners wwx at one point during a banquet when wwx's alone

>>interestingly, it's jzx who steps in to save the day

>>wwx doesn't need saving tbh but there's sociopolitics to consider + he's a lil scared of wx's persistence tbh

>>and he has a crisis bc on the one hand wwx can just run his mouth and hope for the best except he realizes that wx Likes when he runs his mouth

>>so yea jzx steps in and says something about jyl and wwx is like ahaha duty calls again and yeets

>>jzx just says compliments about jyl as they walk back to the jiang under the pretense of wanting to discuss the engagement

>>wwx reluctantly decides he's ok

>>the jiang keep a firm grip on wwx for the rest of the conference after that

>>jyl uses the shijie card to her advantage to get away with dragging wwx with her everywhere

>>the conference ends and wwx is relieved

>>oh btw wwx placed first by a small margin, lwj and wn following, then jc and jzx tied

>>so the sects are leaving and ofc wwx has to say goodbye to lwj

>>and lwj is like what is your request bc you won

>>and wwx is almost like kiss me but then he Doesn't ok

>>so instead wwx is like lemme think of something interesting :wink: to cover his pining

>>and lwj says mn and Smiles at him and wwx melts on the spot

>>wx catches the interaction and is very unhappy

>>fast forward to the burning of cr

>>there's a reason why wx did it personally, and targeted lwj especially

>>fast forward a bit again, wwx is a lil mopey bc his letter from lwj should've come a few days ago

>>they're pining pen pals bc ofc they are smh :rolling_eyes:

>>at this point, news of cr's destruction hasn't spread to lotus pier yet

>>jc is annoyed and yeets him into the lake and makes him swim off the pining

>>cue yunmeng jiang lake shenanigans

>>and then mf wx shows up to personally deliver the invitation to the wen indoctrination

>>jfm and yzy simply Do Not acknowledge wwx's existence at lotus pier in front of him

>>it's a very tense but quick conversation

>>and then wx leaves and hears wwx and heads in the direction of the latter's voice

>>he gets to the lake to see the jiang disciple swimming in the lake, but no wwx

>>bc jyl knew he had come and quickly run over to the lake to warn and hide wwx

>>jc perched himself on a roof to watch wx and let them know when he was gone

>>that meal they had in cql? yea it goes differently this time around

>>it's mostly yzy hissing at the wens and also having a conundrum over whether or not wwx should go

>>jc votes no, wwx votes shut up jc i'm coming with you

>>jfm concedes, jc is irate, wwx and jc go to the indoctrination

>>but jc makes wwx promise to not ever leave his side

>>and wwx is like that's kinda the whole point?? but ok

>>and then ofc that whole opening scene at nightless city happens

>>what with them standing around and then bam an injured lwj

>>ft the cr friends being all fhkjhkjsghk (/neg) internally

>>except wwx, he's very open about his concern

>>wc shows up, spends half the time glaring at wwx

>>he was supposed to be make it hell for lwj

>>but quite frankly he'd be happy if lwj snatched wwx

>>he very much dislikes his brother's infatuation with wwx

>>so yea it's roughly the same, those first few days

>>except wn secretly visits the disciples

>>slips snacks, gives info, exchanges messages between them, and treats lwj

>>wq finds out, scolds him, and then does the same, mostly treatment

>>and then the dungeon day comes

>>by which i mean that day wwx ended up in the dungeons with the dog thing

>>it goes the same as usual, except wc is particularly harsh, and is focused on wwx

>>so it happens sooner, and only wwx is involved

>>spends the night with the wolf thing, wn comes, yk the drill

>>except he knocks out at one point and wx gets him

>>and he wakes up

in a room and wq and wn are treating him

>>he's quickly given a coded warning

>>and then wx comes

>>wc had been forced out of leading the indoctrination and someone relatively competent is in his place

>>wx doesn't really let wwx go back tho

>>just makes wwx stay with him and basically invades his privacy and harasses him

>>for like. quite some time.

>>wwx also meets wrh a few times and it is. not fun.

>>wrh makes thinly veiled threats about war and attacking lotus pier and stuff

>>and wx reveals he was the one who requested and took charge of cr burning

>>and wwx is angry at wx but then wx gets angry and snaps threats

>>and wwx quiets and realizes wx is relentless

>>and that his connections are putting ppl he cares about at risk

>>it all kinda piles up and wx's insistence gets to his head

>>and then the bell scene (which started all this) happens

>>it might seem kinda ooc this whole thing but like

>>sexual trauma is very different from standard child abuse/classic asian toxicity

>>and you have to consider wwx's position as he has to put up with wx's everything

>>am i projecting? probably, but my au my choices

>>so the bell scene begins with all the heirs and their entourages gathered at that. place

>>idk what it's called but that place from cql where wc was lecturing

>>wc's substitute indoctrinator is like so. y'all can go home now. here's your swords.

>>and everyone's like omg????? but also cr friends are like ok where's wwx :upside_down:

>>and it's a very complicated moment

>>and then they give suibian to jc

>>and he almost kills someone bc he thinks they killed wwx

>>and then they're like no he's alive he just won't need that :upside_down:

>>jc is like WHAT does that even MEAN

>>and it's about to be a whole thing but then wwx shows up

>>and it's all ok for half a second

>>bc yes he's here but he is very obviously not ok

>>and it Shows, wwx is doing such a bad job hiding how not ok he is

>>cr friends are like. what did they do. who am i killing.

>>so now we enter - The Bell Exchange

>>wwx comes forward and (very poorly) tries to lighten the mood and tease jc and is like aw did you miss me

>>jc who was very much terrified is just like yes ofc come here Now let's go home

>>and wwx has this look on his face that's summed up as love and affection but also deep apology and secrecy

>>he slowly goes to jc and his hands are shaky as he takes off his bell and grabs jc's hands to give it to him

>>and wwx is very vague about it he's just like i won't be going back it's ok you're all free to go now i'm making sure of it go back home be safe

>>and jc is having the nth meltdown rn bc wwx what did you do

>>nhs has an idea of the gist, and all the c friends are very concerned

>>and then wen xu shows up and wwx does this silent flinch but in his bones and straightens up

>>and wx is mocking the others and stuff and then wraps an arm around a very uncomfortable wwx and is like

>>"you should be grateful to my fiance for his generous nature"

>>wwx is very obviously not having a good time and is not ok with this

>>he looks like he's going to launch himself from a cliff (hehehe) to avoid this

>>everyone is silent for a minute as they realize what happened

>>a lot of the disciples here were at cr indoctrination

>>so they know at least somewhat of wx's pursual of wwx and the unrequited feelings

>>and it becomes obvious that wwx exchanged something - his freedom, hand in marriage, etc - to set all the disciples free

>>jc draws sandu and is about to go for wx's head bc how Dare he

>>but wwx stops him and tells him very firmly but desperately to not try anything, just go, tell shijie i'm sorry, it'll be ok

>>lwj does that death grip on his sword, 2 seconds away from taking wx's head himself

>>jzx is having lots of feelings about this and a lot aren't nice

>>especially with the weird sort of parallels as far as betrothals

>>also he kinda likes wwx?? they're kinda friends?? and they're brother-in-laws to be anyway

>>and even despite all that, the whole situation just Sucks and jzx is kinda an airhead but he's actually pretty noble

>>mianmian is

like So offended and enraged on behalf of everyone she's ready to throw hands

>>nhs is half horrified for his friend and half cold rage and plotting

>>what really worsens the situations is just how bad wwx is taking it

>>bc he always covers up his pain and worries, and very well at that

>>the fact that he can barely even fake a smile now, and has resolved to outright desperate pleading, not even teasing anyone, says a Lot about how bad things were while he was gone

>>they have suspicions about what wx might have done to wwx while they were alone

>>tl;dr: cr friends kinda have an idea of what wx has done and really want him dead

>>but wwx is forcing them out, and eventually they all do leave, miserably

>>they don't know what had happened for them to be let go with their swords and without consequences

>>and they don't want wwx suffering for their (not really helpful atm) stubbornness

>>jc is stiff and clenching his jaw the entire way home, trying to figure out ways to get wwx out

>>lwj is drowning in his emotions as he goes back to the burnt cr

>>mianmian, jzx, nhs are having very complicated thought processes about everything

>>nhs actually goes with lwj to cr first, to make sure he doesn't do anything dumb and to be a friend

>>drops him off, and eventually heads out after a few days (lqr is appraised of the situation)

>>and lo and behold, he happens to find lxc on his way home, and brings big bro lan back to cr

[ main . ao3 ]

[miggydiaz]

For the salty ask 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 16, 20, 22, 23 and 26 for cobra kai pretty please

My answers are so long, so I am putting this under the cut @wonderwolfballoon! Also I just noticed your Daniel icon I SWEAR I’M NOT DRAGGING HIM TO BE MEAN!!!

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?* My biggest IDGI ships for CK are probably Elimetri or Kiaz. I’m not here to yuck other people’s yums or anything, but I do think there is something to the idea that Migueli isn’t popular because it’s a ship predicated on mutual respect for one another. Kiaz has the obvious enemies to lovers vibe and I just generally don’t sail those ships. Elimetri has... its problems, IMO, most especially around the idea that Demetri has to like... save Hawk from himself? Idk. I just like romances that I feel are based on love and mutual respect and not ...tropes.

 I am also not a Lawrusso shipper although I have a lot of those on my dash and you all are great! Again, not yucking yums! Daniel just makes me want to head butt him too much to pair him romantically with anyone 😂 I don’t even want his wife with him. He needs to self reflect~ 

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?* 

I once saw someone ship Amanda and Anoush and I noped out of that so fucking fast I almost tripped over myself. I’m not sure if they’re popular. I just think some people feel the need to get Amanda out of the way to sail their ship and stuck her with Anoush which... no. Just no. Let Amanda be a messy single queen with a martini hobby, thanks! 

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?* 

Not in CK. I’m lucky because I pretty much stick to my little Migueli bubble and I’m okay with that? Lmao lord knows the Squad on my dash is all about the DISCOURSE™️ so idk if I just don’t feel the need to get sucked into the wider ship wars because we have good healthy debates, but so far, so good. 

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?* 

I never hated it... I just didn’t have many feelings on shipping with this show in general at first. Then I was in the CK tag one day and I saw Migueli fan art. Then I discovered @afurioushawk‘s falconry series and it was all over for me after that! So fandom DID make me love a ship, just not one I hated.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why? Oh boy. How much time do you have? In some instances, it’s a good thing season 3 happened because otherwise, this would be a multi-page essay on the problems with race and class privilege as it pertains to Sam LaRusso and just some... generally not nice comments about Demetri that I’m conflicted about because I’m not sure if the writers are intentionally trying to write him a specific way and it’s just not translating to me or what. But season 3 revamped both of their images with me a lot. I’m way more flexible in terms of Demetri, but lmao I was the number one Sam LaRusso hater for a minute there (or maybe number 2, I can think of at least 1 other person who was in that boat with me back in like... August/September, but I won’t call them out because I don’t want them to get hate...) However, I have grown a bit in my opinions of Sam, and even though I still think she’s responsible  for a lot of shit she NEVER gets held accountable for, I also think that’s a reflection of the adults around her too, and this includes my otherwise unproblematic queen, Amanda.

But honestly, my most hated character (other than the obvious villain that is Kreese) is Daniel. No matter how handsome Ralph Macchio looks in cable-knits, because Daniel has always been a sanctimonious, shit starting drama king and I say that about KK Daniel too. I’m not saying Daniel was the ~true villain~ or anything, or that Johnny was innocent -- I can only drink so much Red and Yellow Kool-Aid -- but Daniel’s always been annoying to me as a protagonist, and turning him into a smarmy wealthy car salesman who is also a class traitor did not do him any favors in my book. I will say, I also like Daniel more in season 3 than I have in previous season, but since he is the adult, I will be mad at him longer than I will be at the kids, ya feel?

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

 Johnny’s entire season 3 storyline. The sheer level of REGRESSION at every turn drives me bonkers. It’s like watching him go through all of the stumbling blocks of season 1 all over again, but without the “he’s learning! He’s going to make mistakes!” free pass that I was willing to give him the first time around. He regularly jeopardizes Miguel’s recovery and it’s played for laughs. He fucks up on every level with Robby. He spends most of his time running away when things get hard or too real. He drops the ball completely with Hawk, and like, not to put too fine a point on it, but a lot of Hawk’s issues are because Johnny put Hawk on this ‘flip the script and be a badass’ path and then offered him no guidance for how to walk that path and instead left him in the hands of Kreese. And then he has the nerve to go to Hawk and basically be like “I made you what you are!” lmao yeah Johnny, you sure did, that’s why he’s breaking peoples arms, hoss. And then all of the nonsense with Ali and Carmen, like... if you were planning on teasing KK fans with Ali and him getting back together, why write her as married in the first place? Why even tease the idea of Carmen and Johnny until after you were sure what you were going to do with Ali as a character? Instead, they do what they did in season 3 and it makes him look like a colossal jerk. So yeah. Literally every choice they made with Johnny this season, I hated.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom? People who hate Tory are not valid, sorry not sorry.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? I would have kept Miguel entirely out of Tory and Sam’s beef. Or at least not directly inserted him into it like he was with the kiss. I know the writers thought it was necessary to push Tory to the point of inciting a fight at school, but I am just so exhausted over girls being unable to fight about anything but boys. Also I would bring Aisha back.

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom? 

I am probably biased, but I still maintain it’s Migueli. Look, Miguel stood up to Kyler for Eli and Demetri both. Hawk joined CK because he saw what it could do for some skinny nerd who was getting his ass kicked. And he took to CK, really took to it! Even flourished before he started getting mixed messages. And he and Miguel were pretty much inseparable after that. They coordinated their wardrobes ffs. Hawk dubbed him El Serpiente and no one else calls him that — it’s Hawk’s nickname for him. Miguel confides in Hawk only secondary to Johnny, who is like a father to him. The entire Coyote Creek exchange shows they can fight and disagree but... well, to use the cliche, they don’t go to bed angry, you know? They’re square the very next day. Hawk is the first person at Miguel’s side when he gets kicked over the balcony and the LOOK he gives the second floor where Robby is? That boy is out for blood immediately to avenge Miguel. So much of his s3 behavior is fueled by that need for vengeance because MD is wholly responsible for what happened to Miguel. And Miguel is so confused and betrayed by Hawk’s shift in behavior, and yet still holds out hope that Hawk will see through Kreese’s BS and come with him to The Dojo I Refuse to Name. And when Hawk does make that deflection finally, he shows up at MD with Miguel. There’s so much more that I know I’m missing but whether someone ships them or not, that is a tried and true love and respect for one another, a willingness to fight for and defend one another that you don’t often see in TV friendships... or even in most tv relationships. And I just think that’s the best ❤️

22. Popular character you hate?

 Daniel, hands down. I mean... I don’t even necessarily hate Daniel, you know? I just think it’s really, pardon the pun, rich that a guy of immense wealth and privilege can’t get a therapist or turn to his far too patient wife for help with his existential crisis over his high school bully opening up a karate dojo to make some money and help a kid who is getting the crap kicked out of him. I get that Daniel’s narrative is necessary for the rivalry, but it does nothing to make him sympathetic as a character.

23. Unpopular character you love?

 Tory, definitely! Everyone hates her and then there’s me and the Squad over here banging away on our Coors Banquet cans yelling TORY RIGHTS! Seriously she catches so much flack for a teenage girl who is... the sole income provider for her family? At 17? While caring for a sick mom and a little brother? And fending off a creepy landlord? Tory has it so rough and then she meets a cool girl at her dojo who asks her to hang out at some fancy ass country club which is probably the nicest place Tory has ever been in, and then she gets talked down to and accused of being a thief and has another girl lay hands on her, only to find out that same girl is her new boyfriend’s ex and... ugh. I HATE that Tory gets shit all over when Tory and Sam wouldn’t even have beef if Sam had apologized to Tory as she SHOULD have. Tory isn’t innocent, but damn, I’d be pressed too.

 My other unpopular character I love? Nathaniel. Seriously that kid is THE best. He’s a literal child but is out there like I WILL FUCK YOU UP, even though he’s MD. Honestly, his Cobra Kai energy is so ferocious I won’t be surprised if he moves back to CK eventually. Anyway, I love him.


26. Most shippable character?

 Miguel, hands down. It’s because he’s so affable and sweet overall. And because his hair is so fluffy and pettable that no one can resist touching it. I like to imagine that one day he and Hawk are talking about their hair and Hawk makes a joke about how Miguel’s mane is getting so long that it’s going to be bigger than his own, and then he reaches out to ruffle it and internally has a bisexual meltdown because oh no IT’S SO SOFT AND NICE. But uh... anyway, yes. Definitely Miguel.

[kissingcullens]

In the spirit of Sam and Cas being Weird Girl Best Friends and spending their spare time just hanging out, chatting about Angel Stuff and doing the odd experiment on Sam’s body—

A fanfic where they’re making conversation, Castiel describing what human experiences he finds underwhelming or unsettling— and which ones he actually enjoys, what he’d like to experience for the first time, etc.

And of course the topic of sex comes up-

“I haven’t had many “normal sexual experiences,” you might say. But I have enjoyed sex.”

“Oh yeah? Not a Peanut Butter and Jelly situation?”

“Not at all,” Castiel replies, “In fact I’ve been making a list of things I’d like to try, sexually, now that I have some “Me” time.”

“Ah, that’s great.” Sam smiles, tamping down on his own embarrassment around any frank discussion of sex. “It can be hard to meet people in our line of work, but there’s online dating now- could be a good place to start.”

“Yes. That’s one of the first things on my list; I understand there are cellphone apps specifically for gay men.”

Sam resists the urge to do a double take, but the surprise is clear in his voice, “Oh! You’re...? Interested in guys?”

“Yes.” Cas says, voice even and casual. But Sam sees there is a noticeable tension in Castiel’s body language that anyone else might have missed, “Not exclusively... but I would like the experience.”

Sam thinks, not for the first time, about the tragedy of an Angel learning human shame from a couple of incredibly fucked up human men, and mentally kicks himself.

“That’s cool!” He hurries to say, “I’m the same way... I mean I’m bi, and it’s definitely tougher to meet guys- there’s all these added barriers, you know?”

“Yes.” Castiel visibly relaxes and smiles.

Sam smiles back- it’s worth the hot embarrassment and the exposed feeling to see Castiel at ease again.

Sam huffs out a loud sigh and laughs, “You know what? I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve actually said out loud the words ‘I’m bisexual,’ and almost all those times were when I was at Stanford.”

Castiel looks at him gravely, “I’m glad you trusted me with the information. I know that humans have... baggage around this.”

“Yeah— you too, Cas.” Sam smiles at him, then frowns, adding, “And I mean... Dean knows, it’s not a secret or anything. But we... we don’t really talk about it, you know?”

Castiel nods. “I understand.” After a few more threads of conversation, Cas digs out his phone, “Would you like to see my list? Let me know if you think I’m missing anything.” And he and Sam pore over Castiel’s Notes App list of “Sex Stuff to Try.” Which brings Sam to tears of laughter, Castiel frowning and asking “What’s funny?”

A few months later, after Cas has several disastrous internet dating encounters, they’re both hanging out in Sam’s room (as is their habit these days) talking about the latest dating debacle...

Sam, loosened up by beer and the open feeling of total acceptance and comfort he always has when he’s with Cas, suddenly exclaims,

“Hey!! What if WE had sex?”

At Cas’s blank look, Sam immediately shrinks back into himself, “No, you’re right, that’s weird, forget I mentioned it.”

“No, no, I’m not opposed ...it’s definitely an idea.” Castiel’s expression is thoughtful, and Sam relaxes slightly. “I do find you very attractive. But I don’t want you to do anything YOU don’t want to do, just to satisfy my curiosity.”

Sam kisses him.

Or he tries to- his head is swimming and the reality of being alone, buzzed, in his own bed with a hot guy who thinks he’s “very attractive” crashes down on him and he suddenly feels unbearably sexy. But Cas is too surprised to reciprocate, and he pulls away almost immediately, placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

“I think you’ve had a little too much.” Cas says gently.

Fuck- Sam feels shame wash over him- WHY had he drank so fucking much? (It wasn’t that much) Was he really SO buttoned up that a few beers and a little bit of sex talk got him embarrassing himself like this?? Why had he even opened his mouth???

Sam sits back and scrubs a hand over his face.

“Shit, I’m sorry...” He clears his throat, “But uh.. having sex wouldn’t be me doing you a FAVOR or something, Cas, I’m... I think you’re attractive too. I mean, I think you’re really hot, and you’re my best friend...” (shit, he IS embarrassing himself) “...but I dunno... I didn’t really think it through, it’s probably a bad idea... I mean it would probably be awkward, right?? I’ve never really done a friends-with-benefits thing.”

“Wouldn’t you know; “an awkward friends-with-benefits-thing” is on my List.” Castiel half-smiles, and Sam has to laugh, “But you may be right... let’s talk about it later and see if it’s something we want to try out.”

“Sorry. Yeah. Shit, I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Sam. But I do think it’s time for bed now.”

“Yeah, you uh... sorry, would it make you uncomfortable to be in the same room tonight? I know you’ve been crashing here but I don’t want you to feel like you have to if I made it weird...”

“Not at all,” Cas assures him, then his eyes glimmer wickedly, “Unless that’s your way of saying that YOU need some Alone Time before you can get to sleep.”

Sam hits him with a pillow, “I take it back, you’re not sexy at all, you’re the worst!!”

But they’re both laughing, and Sam’s embarrassment breaks and dissipates into peals of laughter. They’re okay.

Cas does end up leaving to “get some research done,” and if Sam jerks off thinking about “satisfying Castiel’s curiosity” before slipping into boozy sex dreams, well, who can judge him?

Spoiler alert, of course they work it out and the fic is all about them making their way methodically down Castiel’s list of Sex Stuff to Try (with Sam’s own List making an appearance) and of course realizing they’re deeply, deeply in love by the end. ❤️

[theprodigypenguin]

Percy and Oliver were each others only roommates for seven years because they had no gryffindor boys in their year (the war so kids died or were never born) and like they absolutely had something going on put Percy fell for Penny and they still had this weird thing and then Percy and Audrey happened and then the divorce and Percy and Oliver were still friends and then became even closer and still ha this thing which just like turned into them being married even if they didn’t realize it at first

First of all it took me forever to confirm that Oliver and Percy were the same age. It seems like they are, I remember that in GoF Oliver had been put on the National Quidditch League Reserve while Percy had JUST started working for Barty Crouch. Okay yes, they’re the same age NOW, please forgive my following Perciver rant! Because I have some THOUGHTS!

So I never even considered they might be the ONLY boys in their room, but I love it so much wow! But here’s my canon of their relationship: Oliver is gay, Percy is bisexual, but Oliver was more comfortable with his sexuality. Percy went through a lot of anxiety about his sexuality, mixed with his stress at trying to be perfect. I mean why else would he take 12 OWLs? He’s trying to be everything for his family, for his mum, prove that he’s as good as Bill and Charlie, but he doesn’t take any time for himself. He focuses so much on being perfect that he doesn’t realize it’s practically killing him.

Oliver is way more laid back and chill, he’s very calm, and Percy would probably take a lot of comfort from Oliver being there. I definitely see them NOT getting along at first, because Percy is all neat and put together, he probably folds his socks, meanwhile Oliver is the kind of guy to sleep on top of the blankets and throw his clothes and books all over the floor. Percy would want to strangle him most days, but after mmmmaybe halfway through their second year? Percy starts to get used to Oliver, even looks forward to seeing him at school.

Percy tutors Oliver in some subjects, probably helps him pass his OWLs and NEWTs even, and Oliver teaches Percy to let loose a bit. I think Percy would immediately stiff up and go back to his usual self around his family/siblings, because he thinks he NEEDS to. He thinks he’s required to be the adult, he thinks he needs to be another parents. Probably because of Molly always going “why can’t you be more like percy” or “percy i’m glad you’re so easy, not like your trouble making brothers” or something like that.

Around Oliver he can be genuinely himself, and I can see Oliver offering to give him flying lessons (though Percy suuuuuucks at flying and that is funny to me).

Anyway, Oliver has always known how he felt about Percy, but Percy never really came to terms with it (though he definitely felt the same way, he couldn’t fully accept it). He’s definitely attracted to Oliver in every way, but he also likes girls, and it’s confusing to him because he’s never been educated about bisexuality, so he thinks there might be something wrong with him.

I think Oliver was his first kiss, but I also thing Percy completely rejected the fact he enjoyed it. I think when Ginny wasn’t herself (when she was possessed by Tom Riddle), he cried like a baby and was stressed beyond belief, to the point of not sleeping, so Oliver would lie in bed with him and let him vent. Even though Percy would never confide in anyone else, not even Charlie or Bill, he could always talk to Oliver.

Then they kissed, probablyyyyy at the end of their fourth year, and that’s when things get awkward between them. Percy doesn’t respond to any of Oliver’s letters over the summer, he starts seeing Penelope Clearwater, Oliver is heartbroken but “it was just a kiss anyway, it didn’t mean anything”. He says he’s happy for Percy, and Percy is angry because part of him unconsciously was hoping Oliver would fight him on it, say he should break up with Penelope and date him instead (Percy secretly wants Oliver to fight for him, yknow?).

Remember that’s the year Percy starts getting a “big head”, but I headcanon it’s because that’s the year he really starts being at odds with Oliver, and starts struggling so much with his sexuality as well as his studies, the stress to be everything. When he graduates he doesn’t think he’ll see Oliver again and it crushes him, so he buries himself in his work to the point of being near impossible for his family to deal with. He’s not pompous, he’s just hiding his grief and confusion by trying to succeed and gain the approval of the family he loves so FUCKING much.

And when he has his fight with Arthur and walks out, that’s it, that’s the final nail in the coffin. He stops thinking, really. Stops caring. Just goes through the motions and tries to survive, even though he doesn’t know why he’s working at the Ministry anymore. He doesn’t remember what his ambitions are anymore. He doesn’t remember why he’s supposed to care so much. He broke up with Penelope years ago, so what is he even DOING anymore?

At the Battle of Hogwarts, he runs into Oliver again after YEARS of not speaking, and Oliver is older now and super handsome and Percy is flustered but he can’t pay attention because he’s fighting Death Eaters. Then Fred is killed and Percy is beyond devastated. He turns entirely hollow, and when the war is over he just sits outside where it’s quiet and he stares out at the wreckage and ruins of the battle.

Oliver sits down with him and they’re alone, and they talk, and they talk about Fred, and Percy cries, and for a moment they both think there’s something, maybe, but then Percy gets swept back into the crowd of his family, and there’s no more time to think about maybes, because there’s so much to do.

Percy stays in the Ministry under Kingsley, because he wants to make things right, but he doesn’t enjoy it. He hates the work, it’s stagnant and boring and eating at him day by day. He meets Audrey after a few years (after everyone else has gotten married and had kids). They get along, they like being around each other, Molly makes a quip about Percy not being married yet, so Percy proposes to Audrey and they get married (because that’s what’s expected of him, right?).

The bit of life he feels when he gets married doesn’t last. Oliver isn’t invited to the wedding of course, though George asks Percy if he should send and invitation. Percy says no, and he feels guilty and uncomfortable. Doesn’t know why.

Molly is born first. Lucy is born shortly after. Percy is so focused on his girls that he starts to neglect his wife. He does it unconsciously, avoiding her and not meeting Audrey’s eye. He makes an offhand note about wanting to be a stay at home dad when Lucy is a few months old, and Audrey goes off. It’s a huge fight, and Audrey storms out. They divorce a few months later, and after that, for a while, Percy is a single dad working full time at the Ministry to take care of his tiny daughters.

He runs into Oliver by chance. I think it would be cute if they met at the Quidditch store in Diagon Alley. Percy is getting something for Ginny’s birthday, Oliver is picking something up for himself (he’s single and still playing Quidditch professionally, he’s very accomplished and successful). They hit it off like old friends who’d never stopped talking, they start hanging out more, Oliver takes to the girls immediately and the girls absolutely ADORE Oliver (Lucy especially has a special bond with him).

They don’t start dating till a few months later, and after that they date for several years. Oliver moves in with Percy and the girls, and they get married when Lucy is five. Percy FINALLY quits his job at the Ministry, Oliver retires from Quidditch and takes over Ludo Bagman’s job at the Ministry. Percy goes to therapy once a week and Oliver is insanely supportive and loving. It takes Molly a bit of time to accept that Percy is marrying a man, but Oliver is so charming, and Percy has never, ever, in his entire life, been so happy QwQ

Percy Weasley marries Oliver Wood who encourages him to quit a toxic job and become a stay at home dad while Oliver takes over as breadwinner because Percy has been through so fucking much and Oliver just wants the chance to take care of him and he does. He does take care of him. And their two precious daughters as well.

I love they.

[sapphos-darlings]

Hey! I have a big question here. I've been struggling with my sexuality for a while, so I'm searching for sources or sites with accurate tips or information. I've read the Masterdoc, but I have seen many people say it's not reliable. Are there any other sources where I can find more signs/tips/etc to "find out" my orientations? (speficically to find out if i'm really a lesbian or not). Thanks!

Hi, Lavender here!

Ah, the questioning phase. Perhaps calling it a questioning ‘phase’ isn’t that accurate though, it makes it sound so temporary and unimportant, when we are actually constantly learning and growing throughout our lives, and no part of your life, no matter how temporary, isn’t so unimportant that you can just wave it off.

People are right though. I don’t know what masterdoc you’re referring to, but it is unreliable. Sexual orientation is not a horoscope, a personality type or an illness that you can diagnose.

The only source for the question “what is my sexual orientation?” is you. There is no personality test, online quiz, master document or any other shortcut like that. The only question that you need answering is “who am I attracted to?” and honestly, you only find that out by living your life, having experiences and pondering on your own wishes and hopes.

I can totally understand that not having all the answers and struggling with something that feels very important and urgent is frustrating, but there really isn’t a test you can take on these things.

Other people’s experiences and whether you relate to them or not are honestly pretty unimportant at this stage. Of course it’s wonderful to find things you share, but you don’t need anyone else to tell you who you are attracted to or what you want. Those are things that come from within you, and are not handed to you from anyone else. No one else is an authority on you.

That said, I could share some experiences. Again, I will mention men on this post! This is your warning. (Good heavens, a second time within a week).

For me my orientation has been very steady for 15 years since I started thinking about it, but I have friends who have struggled more and had several questioning phases down the line too.

For me, I was in middle-school when crushes started actually turning serious for me and other kids around me. There were flirty texts, hanging out together, attempts at dating, and also suddenly new sensations in the form of hormonal teenage sexual desire. During that time, I fell for my best friend, which I realized because I wanted to hold her hand, spend time alone with her, felt so special and wonderful when I got confirmation of being her best friend in return, and hugs from her caused me to feel so warm. She didn’t return my feelings, but I did come to a conclusion that it was that crush thing everyone was raving about, and I get those on girls.

I was surrounded by straight girls, and everyone was talking about boys. It felt like all the time, and I just didn’t get it. It was dawning on me that the girls around me felt something when they looked at guys: Men were handsome and made them giddy, they wanted to lean against them and kiss them and be seen and held in return. During late night biking trips we did, there were giggly conversations about sex and what we might like about it. All theoretical, all very jokey, but also very curious, and together our friend group was building an idea about what it might be and what they liked.

I never felt anything like that. I look at a man and see a human sure, but he’s just about as interesting to me as a house plant. The idea of having him touch me, or thinking about a man - no matter how cool and fun and hot - in a sexual situation with me feels unnatural and makes me recoil.

So, lesbian. Fairly simple, when I had crushes on girls and my sexual desire focused on women, and a thought of a man makes me turn completely cold.

Then again, I have many bisexual friends. Most of them are women and prefer other women, but they have still had crushes and fantasies about men and some have had actual boyfriends. A friend of mine sort of checked her bisexuality some years ago because she’s been interested in pretty much only women, but then suddenly had a very fiery even if brief thing with a man. It’s just she doesn’t meet many men, and ever fewer are actually interesting and make her interested. She is interested in men rarely, but she has that potential. So, bi.

Another friend of mine likes women and very feminine men. I call her jokingly “a very bad bisexual” because she basically wants women or men who look like women. She also has severe trust issues regarding men, so she leans heavily into her attraction to women. She is basically 98% homosexual and doesn’t act on that remaining 2%, but men are still a part of her sexual attraction and fantasies, and she’s open to the possibility of some absolutely singular and wonderful man coming into her life one day when she’s ready for it. So, still bi.

Basically we know our sexual orientations by simply meeting people and letting our sexual and romantic desire do its thing. We have had crushes, girlfriends, some boyfriends, talked about our feelings with each other, kept diaries, and so on.

Honestly, in the end sexual orientation is very simple. It’s very important, personal, exciting and affects many things, so it does feel confusing and overwhelming at times especially when you haven’t explored it much yet, but you are what you are. You have the experience that you have, you are the person you are, and just getting an accurate label doesn’t change anything fundamentally.

It is also very possible that you simply haven’t felt anything serious yet. Love and desire are things you sort of know when they happen. Again, time is what you need.

You have your whole life to figure this out, and anyway, it’s the loving and desiring part that’s fun and wonderful about your sexuality, not labelling it.

[violetta-incorrect-quotes]

Ima just do some headcanons for the (girl) characters finding out they aren’t straight

Violetta: Never really had a chance to feel something for anybody until she moved back to Buenos Aires. She spent most of her childhood either alone or making friends but having to leave a month afterwards. Violetta hadn’t even heard of the word bisexual until she came and thought having crushes on both the female villain and the male hero in her favorite show was normal.

She came to the studio and probably had a crush on Francesca since the first day but pushed it away as a friend crush. The two hung out a little and Violetta’s feelings developed more. Once at a sleepover with Camila and Francesca, Cami mentions something about thinking a few of the students are bisexual which prompts Violetta to think about herself more.

The summer in between season 1 and 2 is when she probably realized. Once she went to pick Francesca up and was overwhelmed with feelings is when she knew. She never really mentioned it and continued to live on but both of the girls tended to do things that you wouldn’t exactly do with just a friend.

Eventually one day Camila probably either locks them in a closet or tells one of the two to just confess already. She shoved them into the instrument room and locked the door.

Violetta knows what she meant but she isn’t sure if Fran does. Suddenly Francesca asked her if there’s something she needs to say and Violetta confesses that she’s bisexual. Francesca seems relieved and admits the same. Both of the girls have a little moment but nothing else, until their at Madrid that is.

Francesca: She never really bothered to label herself while younger. Had her first crush on a girl she met in Italy at a young age but she’d forgotten about it. Once she arrives at the studio, she meets Camila, who she assumed was bisexual from the moment she saw her. Francesca wasn’t really interested in figuring out who she was until Violetta came.

Obviously at the time she was into Tomás, but she couldn’t deny what she was feeling for Violetta either. It didn’t hit her until one night where Camila just tells her she should tell Violetta how she feels. Francesca hesitates and thinks about it but she never does.

Then she’s with Marco, who she really does love and care about but no matter what, she can’t forget Violetta. Once she broke up with Marco, she kind of felt free and got closer to Violetta who didn’t really notice.

Obviously, in Madrid they almost kissed but didn’t discuss it. Both of them knew the other was bi but had a mutual agreement not to mention it. Once they got back, Francesca and Violetta eventually sat down and talked over their feelings.

They agreed to having crushes on each other but decided to not take it further. There were a few times where one or the other wanted to make a move but held back. Although when Roxy and Fausta started, the two saw it as maybe a little chance to break free and possibly could have gone on a “date” as them.

Camila: She’s always had a great “gaydar,” (predicting Franletta, telling Fran to go for it, always noticing the tension between Naty and Ludmila etc...) but never really thought about it for herself. She’s always assumed she was straight but probably has had crushes on girls in the past and thought that’s how everyone felt. Although she’s always been interested in the LGBTQ+ community and knows a lot. One night over the phone (pre season 3) she brings it up to Francesca who’s like, “That’s not very straight.” And Camila’s more confused then ever, claiming “What are you talking about? Everyone does that?”

After Francesca’s explaining, Camila just kind of hangs up and thinks about it. She’s embarrassed at herself (especially for being the last one to realize it) but also kind of relieved. Now it makes sense. She thinks back to when she was testing with the different boys and realizes why. She stayed up most of the night to think about it and decided to label herself as Bisexual, which she’s very open about now and loves talking about it.

She probably went to the studio and realized how Naty acted around her which she just didn’t see before and realized she does the same thing, which lead to some awkwardness and Naty finally asking what’s wrong. Cami just kind of mumbled something and moved on. Her crush grew, which is when she also realized she kind of had feelings on Ludmila which confused her more.

Then she had to practice the kissing scene and she’s like “Ok, this is it.” Camila asked Naty who accepted and that’s where it happened.

She’s also the studios supplier of pride flags which she has a worrying amount of that she gives out in June but won’t reveal where they came from.

Ludmila: Has so much internalized homophobia she tells Naty in season one that she would rather die than date a girl. Naty doesn’t respond and draws back a little, causing her to go with Maxi which makes Ludmila unbelievably jealous.

All her life her mother has always told her to find a rich boy, and that girls shouldn’t marry girls. Ludmila took after that, probably why she didn’t like Camila originally because she always thought she was bisexual. Eventually Ludmila’s jealousy gets the best of her and she tells Naty that Maxi will just hurt her. Naty snaps, almost crying and tells her that she would do the same. Then she storms off, leaving Ludmila confused and hurt.

Once it hits around season 2, Ludmila’s started to recognize her feelings for Natalia but forces them away. She hates herself for it and has a few bad months where she just felt terrible and confused, leading her to come up with the idea to hurt Violetta, who she’s always admired and kind of crushed on but would never admit it. She kind of catches feelings for Camila which just makes her worse and she keeps so many of her emotions kept up she just snaps one night and doesn’t leave her room for a week. Eventually Ludmila realizes she never really felt the same way for a guy that she has for girls and her world is literally crushed. Federico was there to try to help her but she just lied and said she was done hurting people, never revealing the actual reason she was like this. She did like him but never in the same way.

Then it’s season 3. Ludmila becomes Violetta’s stepsister and her feelings for her are gone, but her ones for Naty and Camila grow. One night it’s probably 3:00 am and she’s sleep delirious and mentions to Violetta something about not knowing who she loved. Violetta gives her advice and tells her about how she was feeling. The girls never mention it again.

One day she and Naty are arguing and they both accidentally confess their feelings. Naty is shocked and Ludmila immediately regrets it, saying she could never be with a girl and runs, leaving Naty heartbroken. The day her mom is arrested though, Violetta urges her to go talk to Naty and Ludmila realizes she can finally be herself.

Natalia: Always admired her sister who wasn’t afraid to tell anyone who she was and was open to anything. She caught feelings for Ludmila around the end of season 1 and tries to push them away by being with Maxi. Eventually she confides in her sister who tells her to just be who she is.

Naty liked Maxi a lot, she still does. She’s always thought that was what a crush felt like, but in the end she realizes it was more one sided and platonic.

Knowing Ludmila would never be with her, she stays with Maxi in an attempt to maybe just forget her feelings but she never can. That’s when she catches feelings for Camila at the start of season 3 and now she’s more confused than ever.

She starts to hang out with Cami more. The two of them connect immediately. Naty realizes she’s only ever really crushed on girls and takes a few quizzes one night. She eventually decides she identifies as a lesbian and is terrified to tell anybody. She’s also poly.

Camila probably figured it out before her and Naty wasn’t sure what to do about it. Then they kiss, which is when she admits her feelings and Camila does the same. Naty really loves her but feels bad about it because she feels like she’s betraying Ludmila. Camila tells her that she needs to talk to her.

Once she does, Ludmila gets jealous but understands. She admits she has a crush on Cami too and Naty’s shocked. Eventually the girls figure it out and Camila brings them little matching pride pins .

I’ll do some for the boys later, or at least Diego and Leon but I don’t want this to be too long lol

[imagineaworlds]

I Love You (Part Nine) -- Aaron Hotchner

Written By: @desperately-bisexual​

Request: None.

Warnings: Cursing. Sexual assault triggers. Mentions of child pornography. Alluded rape. Please be careful reading if you have any such triggers!

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Greenaway!Reader

Word Count:  10769

Timeline: Season 1 Episode 22. Right after part two.

Aaron’s chest was warm as we cuddled together on the couch. After the night we just had, there was no way we were moving all the way up to the bedroom yet. We couldn’t even move to put on our clothes, to be fair. We had worn each other out to the point that we just collapsed on the sofa and finally fell asleep like that. I was tucked under his arm, trapped between his warm body and the back of the couch. My head lifted and fell as he breathed calmly in his sleep. It was enough to make me fall asleep only a few minutes after he did.

Just after I managed to fall asleep, the phone on the table behind our heads began to ring. I groaned, still forcing my eyes shut, and patted Hotch’s chest a few times until he woke up again. He sighed and reached for the phone, still half asleep himself. We weren’t expecting a call from the office, not since we were given the two weeks vacation for the team. I wasn’t sure who else would be calling so late at night, but I also knew that it wasn’t my place to know unless he wanted to tell me. So I just tried to fall back asleep as he answered.

“Hotchner.”

There was silence for a minute as he listened to the other end of the call. That meant that it certainly wasn’t from the office. If it had been, the call would’ve been short, and Hotch would have already been throwing my clothes at me and sorting for Jack to stay with someone. Yet, I could still feel Hotch’s chest and arms tensing, specifically when the arm draped over me pressed in to hold me close and safe.

“Who is this?” he asked.

His breath hitched and he didn’t move a muscle. I woke up entirely at the silent alarm his body was sending out. I looked up at his face to see how pale he was. My brows pressed in as curiosity struck me.

“What’s going on?” I asked, resting my chin on his peck.

“I don’t know.”

Hotch reached up again to put the phone back. He carefully moved, swinging his feet off the couch, lifting his arm off of me, and helping me sit up so that he had room to stand. I watched as he went to grab a piece of paper and a pen from a nearby drawer.

“Aaron. Who was that?”

“I don’t know,” he repeated while scribbling something down.

“What are you writing?”

“Just one second,” he insisted with a more strict, boss-like tone. I fell silent and pulled the blanket over my body. When he was done writing, Hotch picked up the paper and walked back over to me. He held out the paper for me and I took it eagerly. “That’s everything the guy said.”

“Don’t waste time on the first victims. They were unrepented bad men. She’s the important one. Remember, everything starts at the beginning. There won’t be much time. The youngest holds the key. You must help him save her. Take Agent Greenaway with you. Only the one you love, however. The other one is being dealt with.” I looked up at Hotch. “What is this supposed to mean?” He shrugged while picking up his clothes from the floor. “It could just be a joke. It’s probably just some kids messing around. Why call you when he could call Gideon or anyone else?”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter.”

“So then why are you so freaked out?”

“Because he knows that you’re here.”

“So?”

“That means he was watching.”

I looked over at the window. The translucent white curtains were pulled shut, but the opaque red ones were still wide open. Anyone on the street would have seen our shadows moving as one only a few minutes ago. My heartbeat sped up.

“Hotch,” I croaked. He looked at me as he buttoned up his shirt. “What did he mean when he said ‘the other one is being dealt with’?”

He took a moment to look at the panic on my face while he thought about all of the possibilities. He began to snap the buttons together faster, “I’ll call JJ and Garcia. Do me a favor, there’s a number on the fridge for Jack’s aunt. Call her for me and tell her to pick up Jack in ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?”

“She lives two blocks from here. She’ll be here just before we leave.”

I nodded and jumped off the couch. I grabbed my clothes and threw them on in a rush as I hopped my way to the kitchen. The number was on the fridge just like Hotch said it would be. I dialed and Jack’s aunt picked up after the first few rings. I apologized for calling so late and told her that Hotch needed her to pick Jack up in ten minutes, just as I was instructed to do. She sighed on the other end of the call before agreeing to come. I thanked her before hanging up then running back into the living room.

Hotch spun around as he hung up his cellphone and stuffed it in his pocket. “JJ says that Elle was just arrested in Jamaica as a murder suspect.”

“What?”

“She’s arranged for us to fly down there. You’ll meet with Morgan at the crime scene and I’ll get Elle out as soon as I can. Then we’ll come back and deal with our Unsub.”

“He’s an Unsub now?”

“What else would he be?”

“I… I don’t know.”

It was still dark out when Hotch and I got on our six hour flight to Jamaica. We had called Morgan just before take off, and he told us that the local police weren’t going to let him into the scene until a supervisor came by to actually clear him as an agent and not just some asshole trying to muck up a crime scene in order to protect a friend. Hotch sighed and said that we would be able to get him into the scene in the morning, but there wasn’t much else we could do from the plane. Morgan understood and said that he was going to head down to the police station to make sure that Elle was alright during questioning. We thanked him, Hotch hung up the phone, and we were off to Jamaica.

I always thought about visiting Jamaica. I think that was why Elle was so confused when I turned down her offer to go with her and Morgan. Afterall, she was my sister and he was one of my closest friends on the team, and the three of us would have a blast in paradise. But I wanted to stay home because I wanted to be close to Hotch— and maybe it was a good thing that I did stay home. Who knew if it could have been me instead of Elle sitting in Jamaican police custody.

When we landed in Jamaica, we headed straight to the resort that Elle and Morgan were staying at. We flashed our badges at the guards standing out front, and they looked to each other with confusion before letting us in. Morgan was standing in the hallway by the elevators on the floor where the body had been found. It was the same floor that he and Elle had been staying. We walked with him as he told us everything.

Him and Elle were at the beach all day, you know, as one does in Jamaica. Nothing was out of the ordinary. In fact, he went with some girls back to their room, and Elle went clubbing with a guy she met. Morgan thought that everything was fine until he came back to his room late at night to find that his floor had been taped off for the crime scene and Elle was practically being carried out of her room in her underwear by the police.

My blood boiled at that detail.

Morgan said that he tried to talk to the lead detective before calling Hotch, but she wouldn’t let him near the scene, even though he even showed his FBI badge. “She laughed in my face,” is how he explained her response to him. That was when he called and just had to wait for us to show up.

Hotch wasn’t too happy with being dragged down to the hotel when he was desperate to get over to the station to sort things out with Elle. But this detective was being a pain in his ass, and he needed to get us into the scene so that we could figure out who actually did this— because whoever did do this was surely the same guy who called the house when we were sleeping. Right? There was no way the two incidents were connected, especially considering the Unsub mentioned that Elle was “being taken care of”. Was arresting Elle for murder “taking care of her” or did he have a grander plan?

“S.S.A Hotchner,” Aaron said, holding his badge up for the lead detective who met us outside the door of the crime scene, like she was anticipating our arrival. “Seeing as one of my agents is being accused, as her supervisor, I would like to have my team take a look at the scene and report back to me with any of their findings.”

The detective took Hotch’s badge to examine it closely. “You have ten minutes,” she told us, still reading his information.

Morgan and I looked to Hotch, who just nodded his head towards the door, a signal for us to go in. We pushed past Hotch and the detective and headed into the hotel room where the body was. Well, part of a body. Laying on the bed was a decapitated, naked man. His arms were positioned into a T across the width of the bed, while his ankles were crossed over each other. Above him, painted on the wall in blood, it said: “SAVE HER”.

“Walk me through it again,” I told Morgan while putting on a pair of rubber gloves that the coroner had set down on a table in the corner.

Morgan walked around the other side of the bed to inspect the decapitation. “We were at the beach all day. A couple of girls caught my eye, so I wondered their way, but not too far that I couldn’t see Elle. She was tanning in the sun for a few minutes before a guy approached her and asked if she wanted to play volleyball with them. Before I left the beach, I made sure that Elle would be alright, and she told me that she was getting dinner and going clubbing with the guy she met. I know that she can handle herself,” he explained, leaning over the bed to get a better look at something, “so I left. When I came back to the hotel, I found that the police were already here.”

“What did they find and how did they find it? Why do they think that Elle has anything to do with this?”

I lifted the right shoulder of the victim to see if there were any marks on his back to indicate any kind of restraints or defensive wounds. The cut on his neck looked somewhat… old… not like you would find on a body that had just been decapitated the night before. That was concerning to me, but without our own corner or even Reid there to correct me, I couldn’t make any assumptions.

“The trail of blood in the hallway,” he pointed to the door, “it goes from the elevator to this room to Elle’s room. When the police burst into her room to arrest her, they found blood everywhere and another message written in blood that said, ‘It’s been handled.’ Whatever that means.”

“Shit,” I cursed under my breath.

Morgan raised a brow, “What?”

I realized that he heard the concern in my voice, but I wasn’t willing to give up the information about the phone call from the night prior yet. Hotch and I still hadn’t told anyone that we were together— and while it was entirely possible that they had their suspicions, we were waiting to tell the team until we knew that things were serious. And after last night, I was pretty sure that things were serious… But I knew that Hotch was still having a hard time after Haley, and it wasn’t easy for him to trust or fall in love again, and so I didn’t want to rush him. If he wanted to tell our alibi differently than how it actually went down, I wanted to give him that chance.

So I stood up straight and looked Morgan in the eyes. “Let’s look at Elle’s room.”

Morgan agreed, still eyeing me like he knew that something was off, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it yet. He led me down a few doors to Elle’s hotel room. Well, he was right about the blood trailing right to her door and even inside. It was concerning that if Elle hadn’t done this— which I knew she hadn’t— then how did the Unsub get into her room and make it look like a blood bath without her noticing? I guessed that was why the police were so convinced it was her, and rightfully so. All of the evidence led to Elle, and without the inside perspective that Morgan and I had, this would’ve looked like an open and shut case. But FBI agents just didn’t go around brutally murdering anyone. Besides, if they did, they would likely be much smarter about it than leaving a blood trail right into their room. Elle was one of the smart ones. She wouldn’t have ever done such a thing.

Blood soaked the floors and everything around the bed to the point that we couldn’t even step into the room without proper gear, which we didn’t have. And just as Morgan stated in the other room, another message had been painted onto Elle’s wall, just above her headboard. To tell the truth, it didn’t look good. If she weren’t my sister, and she weren’t apart of the BAU, and the Jamaican police had called us down to help close the case, I would’ve said that it was Elle, too. All of the evidence led to her. Well, maybe. Our last hope was any prints, hairs, the Unsub’s blood, etc. Literally any kind of physical evidence that could clear my sister.

“There were no prints,” Morgan responded when I asked. “Not a single hair, no dirt under the nails of the victim, and there’s too much blood to go through all of it to tell what’s what.”

“So we’re pretty much fucked.”

Morgan nodded, “Yeah.”

“Find anything of interest, agents?” the detective asked, sneaking up behind us.

Morgan and I turned to her.

“How did your officers know to come looking in this building for a murder?” I asked.

“My men got a call about eight hours ago from the front desk of the resort, saying that an anonymous man called them to tell them that there was a murder on this floor.”

“So he called the hotel clerk instead of the police,” I told Morgan.

“He?” the detective questioned.

“If someone had come up here to see blood all over the walls, and was suspicious of there having been a murder in one of the rooms, they wouldn’t just calmly go call the front desk. No, they would scream, call the cops, run for help. Literally anything other than stay calm and call hotel management.”

Morgan’s cousin— the one who managed the resort, got them the discount on their rooms for the two weeks, and received the call from the Unsub— walked up to us in a hurry. “The man who rented the other room was named Marty Harris. He checked in a couple of days ago with another man named Frank Giles, and he took the adjoining room.”

Morgan and I pushed past his cousin and the detective and hurried to the crime scene. Morgan fiddled with the door handle that led to the other room, but it was locked from the other side, and there was no time to wait for a key. Morgan took a step back, gathered his strength, then kicked the door in. We pressed into the room, hoping to find Frank Giles, but there was no one there. We searched the entire room and the bathroom, but it was empty, and everything looked untouched. The bed was made perfectly, the chair at the desk was positioned correctly, fresh towels were hanging on the bars, and the complimentary soaps were still in the bathroom. Frank Giles likely never even stepped foot into that room.

“He’s gone,” Morgan stated the obvious. “Let me call Garcia, see if we can find anything about this Giles guy. Call Hotch and see if those Bureau lawyers ever showed up.”

“I nodded an agreement, “Alright,” and headed back through the crime scene and into the bloody hallway. I dialed Hotch’s number and it rang a couple of times before he finally picked up. “Any news?”

“The lawyers arrived a few minutes ago. They’re going to meet me at the police station. What did you guys find?”

“Blood. Lots and lots of blood. The trail starts at the elevators, leads to the crime scene, then to Elle’s room. It was like someone wanted the body to be found and for it to be connected to Elle.”

“Think it’s the same guy from last night?”

“I think so. He wrote on the walls with blood in both rooms. In the victim’s room, he wrote ‘SAVE HER’ and in Elle’s room, he wrote ‘IT’S BEEN HANDLED’. When I looked at the body, he was left almost like Jesus on the cross, and the decapitation wound looked old.”

“Old?”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Hotch, I think this guy has been dead for at least a few days.”

“Go with the coroner and see if they can give you a time of death. If anything, we’ll just have to fly a specialist down here.”

“We don’t have that kind of time.”

“I know, but it’s the best I can do. Take Morgan with you, then come down to the station as soon as you can.”

“Alright.”

“Hey, Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

I smiled against the phone. “I lov—”

“Greenaway, let’s get out of here,” Morgan said, joining me in the hallway.

I paused and thought about how I wanted to tell Hotch that I loved him, too, but Morgan was still standing there, waiting for me to hang up. “I’ll see you later,” I told Hotch before quickly hanging up the phone and stuffing it in my back pocket. “He wants us to go with the coroner to get a T.O.D.”

Morgan sighed. He looked so tired, and I was sure that he hadn’t slept in at least twenty-four hours. But were we supposed to do? There was only so much time we had left to get Elle out of jail and head back to Quantico. There were still things that needed to be sorted when it came to the phone call we got, and how it could possibly be connected to Elle’s situation, 

We followed the coroner to the morgue and waited outside the autopsy room as they completed an entire investigation. I was sitting with my phone in the hands, praying for a call from either Hotch or Elle to tell me that everything was alright and that we could finally just go home and not worry about this anymore. But no such call came.

Once the autopsy was done, the coroner came out while still dressed in a surgical gown and scrubs. They pulled off their bloodied gloves carefully as they explained to us that my hypothesis was correct. Marty Harris had been murdered prior to Elle and Morgan’s arrival to Jamaica. The neck wound was old, yes, but that wasn’t enough to prove anything until he searched the contents of the stomach and only found a meal that Harris had consumed two days before.

I immediately called Hotch on our way to the car and told him everything. Hotch told me and Morgan to meet him at the airport. He hung up first to go tell the lawyers, who would then go tell the Jamaican police and demand Elle be released at once. This was good news. It meant that we could finally get the hell out of Jamaica, which was all I wanted. I was starting to think about how I always wished I could go on vacation there, but now that I had been there because of my sister’s arrest, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of ever returning.

Hotch drove us to Quantico after we landed in mid-afternoon. By the time we had left the house last night, gotten to the jet, and flown to Jamaica, it was around six in the morning there. Then, from landing to arriving at the hotel, going through the crime scenes with Morgan, waiting for the autopsy results, then getting Elle out of jail, it was about three in the afternoon, Virginia time.

We had all been through a lot in only a few hours, so I was surprised that Hotch didn’t send Elle and Morgan straight home. Instead, he took us all the way to Quantico, and waited until we were walking into the BAU to ask if they wanted to go home and rest. And what did they say? No. Of course. Both of them were the most stubborn out of everyone on the team, and they didn’t appreciate that their vacation had been fucked with, so they wanted to stay and find the bastard who did this to them. Elle, most of all, wanted answers, understandably— which was why Hotch decided to not fight her on it.

She wanted to start with the lead that Morgan and I found at the hotel. While on the plane, we told Hotch and Elle everything we saw and leaned. When she had been pulled from her bed in the middle of the night, Elle couldn’t even see what had happened, nor did she get an explanation. So she was rightfully unsettled by the fact that someone had broken into her room in the middle of the night and made it look like the elevator doors in The Shining exploded in her room.

“How do we even find this Frank Giles?” Elle asked, pushing the glass doors to the BAU open for us.

“Already done,” JJ said, coming down the ramp from her office. “He flew out of Montego Bay last night on a red eye— just before you were arrested— and he flew to Virginia.”

“Virginia?” Morgan questioned, just as shocked as the rest of us. “You mean that he’s from here?”

JJ shrugged and handed us case files, “It doesn’t look like he’s from here, no; but he’s here now, at least. And he’s got a huge rap sheet, so we should be able to find him fairly quickly.”

“And what about the victim?” Hotch asked.

“Marty Harris,” JJ hummed, flipping a few pages over to find his record, “was a registered sex offender and had been arrested twice for robbery.”

“And that’s the head that showed up at my cabin last night,” Gideon sighed, coming over to us. “I just got the call that they identified him.”

We were all on the move towards the boardroom. We needed to regroup there while we waited for Reid to fly back from Las Vegas, where he was visiting family.

“So… what? Giles cuts off Harris’s head, ships it from Jamaica to Gideon’s cabin, and blames it all on Elle? Why?” I questioned.

Hotch pulled out the piece of paper he wrote on last night after we got the call from the Unsub. He unraveled it and began reading, “Don’t waste time on the first victims. They were unrepented bad men. She’s the important one. Remember, everything starts at the beginning. There won’t be much time. The youngest holds the key. You must help him save her.” He folded the paper again before he could read the last bit about me.

“What’s that?” Elle asked, setting her bags down on the couch.

“I got a call last night before you called from Jamaica,” Hotch answered, taking a seat at the table.

“Any mention of a ‘her’?”

“You must help him save her.”

Everyone else sat down, too. Not Elle, though. She kept pacing around the room, her mind working overtime to figure this out. I knew that she wouldn’t have cared as much if this guy had gone after someone else. But he chose her, and it was personal now.

“Can I read it?” Gideon asked.

Hotch tensed. “No.” Everyone raised a curious brow at him. “Sorry, I just… My handwriting is horrible, you wouldn’t be able to read it.”

JJ changed the subject first, “Let’s review, where was everyone last night?”

“My cabin in the woods,” Gideon answered, leaning back but still eyeing Hotch. “And I got the wonderful gift of a man’s head and a 1963 Nellie Fox baseball card.”

“Elle and I were in Jamaica,” Morgan said. “We were blessed with one mess of a crime scene and a trip down to the Jamaican police headquarters.”

“Reid was in Vegas with his family,” Elle added.

“We don’t know what he got— if anything,” JJ said, “but a shadow box with a rare butterfly and a note inside was delivered to my office this morning.”

“I was at home,” Hotch said. “Got a phone call.”

It was all down to me. Where was I? What was I doing? Did I receive anything like the others had? I couldn’t tell them that I was with Hotch, right? I mean, it wasn’t against policy for us to be dating. Yeah, it was Gideon’s general rule that he didn’t like dating within the team, but it wasn’t like we could get in trouble or lose our jobs. The issue was that I didn’t know if Hotch was ready for people to know yet. Haley likely knew now since I was the one who had to call Jack’s aunt, and she saw me with Hotch when she came to pick him up. But these were our work friends, the people we saw most of all. In a way, they were our family. Telling them was a huge step in our relationship— more so than saying “I love you” for the first time.

So I had to lie. “I was at home.”

“How did you get to the jet so fast with Hotch, then?” Morgan pried. He knew something was up. He had guessed back in Jamaica, but chose to not say anything until the time was right. He had caught me in my lie and was calling me out in front of everyone.

“I— Hotch called me to tell me that my sister had been arrested.”

“You live thirty minutes away from here if you’re speeding down every road,” Elle commented, also catching on that something was off. “The flight log said that you guys took off only twenty-three minutes after getting the phone call from Morgan.”

“Hotch lives just down the road. He’s the closest out of all of us,” Morgan clarified Elle’s point. They were teaming up on me now. Great. “You wouldn’t have been able to get here on time if you came from your house.”

“What does it matter, Morgan?” I questioned roughly, trying my best to deflect.

“We’ve got a psychopath who’s taunting us, and you won’t tell us where you were. How are we supposed to put the pieces together if you won’t tell us the truth—”

“They were with me,” Hotch admitted. The whole room fell into an uncomfortable silence. “They came over to have dinner with me and Jack. We got the call…” He took a moment to find the right words to explain what we were doing without actually having to say it. “We got the call when we were asleep.” My eyes fluttered as I tried to look at anything around the room but the team. Hotch pulled the note out again and read it in its entirety. “Don’t waste time on the first victims. They were unrepented bad men. She’s the important one. Remember, everything starts at the beginning. There won’t be much time. The youngest holds the key. You must help him save her. Take Agent Greenaway with you. Only the one you love, however. The other one is being dealt with.”

“Love?” Elle chuckled quietly. She couldn’t believe that I had kept this secret from her. She couldn’t believe that I had been dating Hotch all this time and not a single one of them knew about it. It almost made her mad.

“He watched us last night. He knew that we were together and he knew that…” He hesitated again. “He knew that we had just had a certain conversation, which is why he said what he said about taking Y/N with me— whatever that means— instead of Elle.”

“So the call was for both of you, but for different reasons. He told you, Hotch, that you need to ‘help him save her’ and he told you, Y/N, that you’re supposed to go with Hotch somewhere. Now we just have to figure out who the ‘her’ is and where you two are supposed to go.”

“Reid just texted. He landed and he says that he received a skeleton key,” JJ said, looking up from her phone.

“The youngest holds the key,” Hotch quoted.

“There’s something else,” Gideon said, leaning forward after getting lost in thought for a minute. “Nellie Fox was my favorite player on the 1959 White Sox lineup. My father took me to nearly every game that year. So is it coincidence or did he know that about me?”

“Wait…” JJ whispered. She started pushing all of her papers to the side in search of something. She picked up the shadow box that was sent to her and turned it around for us to see. “I used to collect butterflies when I was a little girl. That’s how I knew what kind of butterfly was in the box.”

“So, then, he knows us,” Morgan shrugged. “He knows where Hotch lives, he knew that Y/N was with him, he knows about Gideon’s childhood hero, JJ’s hobby as a kid, and where Elle and I went on vacation. How?”

“Because that’s all listed in the FBI database,” Garcia said shyly as she stepped into the boardroom.

Garcia was never shy. Never. She was always the bubbliest out of all of us. She always came to work with a smile, and she always had a good attitude about everything, even when some of the cases were taking a toll on us. Garcia being quiet was like fire being cold to the touch. It just didn’t make any sense. So not only was something wrong with the entire field team, but now something was going on with Garcia, too. Had the Unsub done something to her? Had he done the one thing that could possibly mortify her? And if so, what was it?

“He hacked me,” she admitted, wiping a tear from her cheek.

“How?” Morgan asked worriedly. He was always protective of Garcia. The two of them were the closest out of everyone on the team. When she was upset, he was upset. When she was happy, he was happy. Since she was clearly in distress, he had jumped into protective mode. “Garcia, how did he do this?”

She looked at the floor for a moment. She was ashamed of the truth. She didn’t want to tell us in the same way that Hotch and I didn’t want to admit where I had been. Garcia sniffled, “I was playing an online video game… He got in through there.”

Gideon sighed with disappointment, and everyone cringed slightly. So that was why Garcia was upset. She knew that she had fucked up and she was scared to admit it. I didn’t blame her, honestly. It was like when I thought that Hotch hated me… It ate up inside because I respected him and I cared about what he thought of me. When it came to Garcia, we were the only family she had. She couldn’t afford to think or know that we were disappointed in her or hated her. So, of course, she was ashamed.

“But I found him. His name is Frank Giles, and he lives four miles from here.” Garcia handed the information to Hotch, not knowing that we already had Giles’s file.

“Garcia, you’re sure that it was Giles?” Morgan asked.

She nodded vigorously. She didn’t understand why we were all scrambling to our feet and rushing for the door. For all she knew, someone could have just died; when, in reality, she gave us every reason to go after this son of a bitch. He just hacked the FBI. We didn’t have anything on him for the murder in Jamaica, but we could get him for this.

The SWAT team went in first, just before Morgan and Elle, who were leading our team inside. Giles was living in a building that was going to be demolished in the two months, meaning that nearly every occupant except for him and one other family on another floor had moved out already. The building looked practically abandoned from the outside— and even on the inside as we started storming up the flights of stairs.

Morgan kicked down Giles’s front door before even knocking or calling out his name. There was no one in the living room, so the team moved into position in front of the closed doors that led to the bedroom. Morgan looked to the SWAT team, then to Hotch and I behind him. Hotch gave the signal, which was a slight nod, and Morgan kicked in this door, too.

“Frank Giles! FBI!” Morgan exclaimed, rushing into the room.

We all followed in, but not as fast as we saw what was in the room. Frank Giles was there, yeah. But not in the way we had expected. He was dead on his bed— which was really the only thing in the bedroom at all. It wasn’t even on a boxspring or a bedframe. It was literally just the mattress with no sheets or a pillow. A mattress and Giles’s dead body pinned to it with a greatsword that you would see in a medieval setting. Above his body, painted on the wall with blood, just like in Jamaica, was a riddle that read: HERE THY QUEST DOTH TRULY BEGIN.

I pulled my vest off so that I could move around the scene easier. Hotch and Gideon called in the forensics team, which included the coroner, who handed out gloves to me, Morgan, and Elle. Morgan immediately went to investigate the duffle bag sitting on the floor to our right, while Elle went to investigate the blood on the wall, and I crouched down side the body to get a better look at what we were dealing with.

Morgan held up two stacks of cash that he had pulled from the duffle bag and showed it to Hotch and Gideon. There must have been thousands of dollars inside of that bag, which meant that our Unsub had paid Giles to go down to Jamaica, kill Harris, then pin the blame on Elle to make sure she was out of the way, for some unknown reason. When Giles returned from Jamaica, our Unsub didn’t want any strings, so he lured Giles in with the promise of payment, then killed him.

“He was strangled,” I said just as the coroner came in. She sat down with me to take a look at my evidence. “The bruises on his neck and the swelling of the glands.” She nodded and started writing down some notes. Hotch crouched down across from us to get a better look, too. “So he was strangled, but there are no defensive wounds. After he was dead, the Unsub came back and pierced his chest with the sword.”

“But why a sword? Elle queried.

“It goes with the motif of medieval times,” Morgan guessed.

“Yeah, but he hasn’t done this until now. Why start phrasing things like this?”

“Because he wasn’t the one sending the messages in Jamaica or to Hotch’s house. Giles did that. Our Unsub sees this as a roleplaying game of some kind. He gives Spencer a key and the rest of us have a quest of some kind to complete. And he’s the ultimate villain,” I said.

“There’s something etched on the sword,” the coroner spoke up.

Hotch leaned in to read it, “To learn of what should be done, leave the blade ‘til the hour is none.”

“Hour be none? Leave the blade? What’s this guy on about?” Morgan questioned, crouching down, too. We were all huddled around the body now.

“He means 3PM,” Spencer answered. “The days used to be broken into hourly intervals, the canonical hours of the breviary. Prime was 6AM, Terce was 9AM, Sext was noon, None was 3PM, and Vespers was 6PM. It was a medieval way of telling time.”

“Medieval,” Gideon repeated with a slight chuckle. “Everything this guy does is a clue.”

“So, what do we do? Wait until 3PM tomorrow? We don’t have that kind of time. Especially when there’s a ‘her’ out there that we need to be looking for.” Morgan pushed himself to his feet.

Reid put his bag down in the corner. “No, no, no. We don’t have to do that. If we have a flashlight, we can imitate where the sun would be at 3PM to figure out what he wants us to be looking for.”

I pulled the flashlight from my FBI raincoat and handed it to him. He thanked me before squatting in the corner with the light on. The coroner and I moved out of his way. As Reid started to move the light up the wall in the same way that the sun would be, Morgan moved the duffle bag out of the way so that he could start tapping against the wall for a rip in the wallpaper or maybe even a hole behind it with another clue. Morgan tapped down the wall slowly, following the shadow of the sword until he found something of interest.

“It’s hollow,” he told us, knocking on the different parts of the wall to show us the sound difference. He pulled out his knife and started cutting into the wallpaper. When he pulled the wallpaper back, it revealed a box that had been shoved into a square space in the wall. “It has Y/N’s name on it.”

I scrunched my brows and approached to see what the hell he was talking about. “What the fuck…” I cursed under my breath, taking the box from Morgan. He eyed me suspiciously as I investigated it.

I could’ve sworn it was my jewelry box that I had growing up. The very same one. But how was that possible? I brought it with me to Virginia when I moved out of my parents’ house. It was in my apartment just yesterday before I left to go over to Hotch’s house. My heart fell to my stomach and I felt like I was going to be sick. The same engraving I had carved into it when I was a kid was on the bottom. It was mine. This son of a bitch broke into my house and stole my jewelry box. The only thing that had thrown me for a loop, which made me originally consider that it wasn't mine, but was instead a replica, was the fact that it had a lock on it. But once I saw the engraving, I knew that it was mine.

“How did he get this?” I croaked, turning it over in my hands.

“Get what?” Hotch asked.

“Elle bought me a jewelry box for my eleventh birthday. We carved our initials into the bottom of it so that I would always have something of her, no matter where I would move or what I would end up doing with my life.” I held the box up for Elle to see, and she looked as pale as I surely did. “He got this from my apartment.”

“Do you have the key?” Morgan took the box back from me.

I shook my head, “No. It never had a lock on it.”

“The youngest holds the key,” Gideon spoke up. He was right. The Unsub had made it perfectly clear that Reid had a key, and we weren’t sure what it was for, but now it was entirely possible that this was its purpose. “Give it a shot.”

Reid hurried over, digging in all of his pockets to find the key. Morgan held the box steady as Reid penetrated the lock with the key and turned. The lock popped and released its hold on the box. He carefully opened it, possibly worried that there could be a bomb trigger connected to the lid, that would send us all sky high if he wasn’t too careful. When the coast was clear, though, he opened it all the way and a song began playing.

I had to sit down on the floor. “That wasn’t there before… That song… It was different when Elle gave it to me… I used to listen to it every night to help me sleep.” My head was spinning. How was this happening? Why was this happening?

“It’s called The Trout Quintet by Franz Schubert,” Gideon explained.

There was a note inside that Reid picked up to read. “Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man’s sight.”

“There’s something else,” Morgan said, pulling at something inside of the box.

There was a tab on the lid of the box, which, when pulled down, revealed a hidden space. As it opened, it revealed a CD labeled: THY QUEST, and it had a lack of string pulled through the center circle of the disc. I hid my face between my knees as I tried to calm down. I was rocking back and forth, trying to understand all of this. I didn’t have any personal stake in this until now. Even when Elle was arrested and the Unsub knew that I was at Hotch’s house and we said “I love you” for the first time, I wasn’t bothered. Every Unsub is a sicko and can get to us one way or another. But this…

Hotch’s hand started rubbing soft circles over my back to try to ease my nerves. I kept my head down as I tried to explain why that freaked me out so badly, but I couldn’t find the words. He was trying to soothe me with a calm hush as the others analyzed the new evidence.

I took in a deep breath. “I used to hide things in there when I was in high school. Cocaine, joints, list of boys that I liked. No one knew about it. The day after I graduated, some kid sent instant photos to my house of me at a party with my top off… He said that if I didn’t give him a certain amount of money, he’d send the copies to everyone I knew. Those pictures would have ruined my scholarship and my chances of getting into the FBI. I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t have any money, so I just gave him everything that was in the jewelry box. He said that there weren’t any other copies and that I could keep the photos. I didn’t know what else to do with them but hide them, so I put them in my jewelry box. It’s been so long, I forgot they were even there.” I was going to be sick. Some twisted motherfucker out there had those pictures of me, and he was probably enjoying them as we were talking about them. “Oh, god…”

“We’ve gotta take a look at what’s on this disc,” Hotch insisted to the rest of the team while still trying to console me. I prayed that it wasn’t digital copies of the photos. Anything but that. I might have actually preferred a literal sex tape compared to those pictures. “Let’s bag everything and get back to the office.” Everyone concurred and started to do as they were told. Hotch moved closer to me and whispered, “You’ve gotta stand up.”

“He has those pictures of me, Hotch.”

“I know—”

“They weren’t just topless photos,” I whispered back.

I didn’t want Elle to ever know the truth. If she thought that they were just a few silly photos of me dancing half naked on a table while drunk at a high school party, that was fine. But the truth was worse. The truth was worse than that or even a sex tape. I was in high school. I was just a kid. When it happened, I didn’t understand it, I guessed. But in my line of work, when we would take cases eerily similar all the time, I knew. I knew the truth now. I wasn’t blind. That was what made it so mortifying, though. That was why I was so terrified of him having those photos. While they had left my mind due to suppression of bad memories, this Unsub was likely finding pleasure from them.

Hotch grabbed my hand, “You have to get up, though.”

He understood why I was panicking, and he certainly felt bad for having to pressure me out of feeling that, but we couldn’t afford this right then. There was a lock of some girl’s hair connected to that disc, and we were being told that it was our quest. I could guess that the quest was finding this poor girl, if she wasn’t already dead. Our top priority had to be searching for her, not some guy who stole my high school trauma.

I leaned into Hotch as we both stood. “We’re going to get this son of a bitch, okay?” he whispered, still trying not to draw any attention to us.

We had done so well hiding our relationship. We kept our distance at work, we tried to not favor one another, and we certainly didn’t touch. But now he was going out of his way to touch me and be close to me just to make sure I was alright. The feeling of him being by my side gave me enough comfort to the point that I could slow my breathing and stop the world from spinning around me.

Back at the office, Garcia played the disc for us on the DVD player. I was still shaken up and pale, despite how many times I had washed my face, and how many bottles of water Elle brought over to me. My mind was racing with only the memories of that night and what this Unsub could possibly be doing with those images. The video started, but I was still staring directly at the empty wall space just beneath the TV.

Morgan and Hotch’s voices sounded muffled to me, like they were underwater or stuck behind glass. I couldn’t understand them, and I wasn’t trying to either. I was just… staring and thinking. Then the Unsub started talking.

“Welcome, members of the Behavior Analysis Unit. Welcome. By now, you should know that you’re on a quest to find this girl. Beautiful, isn’t she? Beautiful, but in distress and in need of your help. Her life depends on the success of your quest. In order to complete this quest, however, you must follow my rules. They aren’t complicated, and they aren’t long; so listen closely. The first rule is that only the members of your team can participate in the quest. Jason Gideon, Aaron Hotchner, Y/N Greenaway, Elle Greenaway, Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau, and Penelope Garcia are the only ones cleared to participate. No outside resources and no media. The second rule is just as simple… Aaron Hotchner must follow my instructions given last night. Without obeying those instructions, your quest will fail. See? Simple. No worries at all. Now, you will be receiving an item soon that will hold the final clue you need to complete your quest. You will also need a book, which has inspired many an adventure like mine. Believe me when I mean that I hope to see you all soon, as it means that this quest has reached a successful end for all of us.” The video cut out the second he was done speaking.

The entire team started talking and hypothesizing again, but it still sounded all so distant. The Unsub’s voice was ringing in my ears, every word echoing through my body. He had gotten to me. He did it. He took something from me just so that he could gain something for himself. Wait— Gain something for himself.

“He wants something in return,” I interrupted. They all fell silent to listen. “He said that he hopes to see us soon because it means that the quest will have been a success for us all. That includes himself. If he just wanted to fuck with us, he wouldn’t have included himself. He has personal stakes in this— That’s why he wanted our attention. He knows that whatever it is that he wants, we can get it for him—”

“Agent Hotchner,” Agent Anderson said, bursting into the room, “there’s someone here to see you.”

“Who is it?” he interrogated.

“I think it’s your son and his aunt? At least that’s what she said.”

“Jack…”

I scrambled to my feet with Hotch, both of us running for the door. Hotch pushed Anderson out of the way and we ran down the ramp and into the maze of cubicles where Jack’s aunt was standing, holding holding hand, both of them looking around for Hotch. I slowed down as relief washed over me when I saw that they both seemed fine. After everything that had happened so far, I wouldn’t have held it past our Unsub to take Jack. In fact, I didn’t hold a single thing past him.

Hotch ran up to her while I stayed a few steps back. “What are you doing here, Jessica? Is everything alright?”

“We’re fine. I tried calling you, but you haven’t been answering your cell,” she explained, letting go of Jack’s hand.

He hurried over to me with his stubby little feet and started pulling on one of my pant legs. I reached down to pick him up. “What’s going on, little man?”

“I brought your favorite dinosaur,” he said, waving the red triceratops in my face.

I laughed and took it from him, “Thank you.”

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Jessica continued, catching my attention. “A strange man came to the door, said that I needed to give you this because a girl’s life depends on it.” She held up a large folder that she had brought with her and Jack.

Hotch looked over his shoulder at me and Jack for a moment before turning back to Jessica. “He came to the door?”

“We were at Haley’s place. She needed me to pick something up from there and bring it to her at work.” She turned the folder around to show Hotch the address, “It has Jack’s name on it.”

Jack waved his favorite car in front of my face now, “I brought this one, too. Can we play?”

My attention turned back to him while Hotch kept asking Jessica some questions about the man who came to the door. “Maybe in a bit, Jack, okay?”

Hotch was starting to freak Jessica out. I mean, it was one thing that the Unsub knew where Aaron lived, and it was also plausible if he followed Jessica home after we sent Jack away with her. But to address a folder of some kind to Jack and have it delivered straight to Haley’s house while Jack and Jessica were there? It was unnervingly specific. It meant that our Unsub was keeping tabs on the Hotchner family. And it almost felt like a threat that meant to say: “Remember, if you don’t follow the rules, I know where your family lives.”

He gauged her panic almost as quickly as he recognized mine back at the crime scene. He was pretty good with that kind of stuff. So he offered to talk to her in the break room where she could sit down and have a cup of hot chocolate to warm her nerves. She accepted the idea, but he asked for the folder first. Jessida handed it over, and Hotch handed it to me to give to the team. I carried Jack up the ramp and into the boardroom. JJ turned off the TV as quickly as she could to prevent Jack from seeing the crime scene photos.

“Haley’s sister just dropped this off. The Unsub sent it.” I handed it off to Morgan.

He inspected the cover, “This is addressed to Jack.”

I looked at Jack who was rolling the Hot Wheels Car over my shoulder in circles. I nodded to them, however, and said, “I know.” I carried Jack back out of the boardroom and we went to meet Hotch and Jessica in the break room.

As I walked in Hotch looked up to see that it was me and mouthed, “Thank you.” And I smiled. I set Jack down in one of the chairs next to Jessica and put the red triceratops on the table for him to play with. Hotch continued questioning Jessica to see if he could find out more about the delivery man. He asked at one point if the man looked injured, and when Jessica asked why, I realized that was one of the things the team had profiled while I was out of it a few minutes prior.

“No, he wasn’t injured,” she admitted. “He was just a normal guy who said that he was giving me that folder and that it was important for you to have it because a girl’s life depended one it.”

“That’s unusual,” I commented, sitting down next to Jack when he kept pulling on my sleeve for my attention. He handed me the dinosaur again and started butting heads with it and the Hot Wheels car. “Normally deliveries don’t just come with messages like that. What did he deliver?”

“A piece of paper with a bunch of random numbers on it.”

I played along with Jack, picking up the dinosaur and tilting it to the point that it looked like it was trying to eat the car. Jack tried to roll the car back and jam it into the side of the dinosaur this time. I made a quiet roaring sound as the dinosaur bucked up onto its hind legs before falling over, defeated. Jack did a victory lap with the car around the table, claiming glory for all to see. I smiled and looked up at Hotch again, who was trying to focus on the case, but I was being more than distracting. Honestly, I was just happy that Jack was alright. He had stolen my heart, I swear to god. I’d die if anything were to happen to that kid.

“We’re going to put you, Jack, and Haley in a hotel with a security detail. We’ll send you guys home as soon as we catch this guy. Do you mind staying here with Jack while you wait for an agent to collect you?” he asked Jessica. She shook her head. “Thanks.” He looked to me and gestured for the door.

I gave an acknowledging look before turning back to Jack. “Alright, little man, it’s time for me to go.”

“You can’t stay?”

“No… Your dad and I have to go work.”

“You’re a superhero like my dad?”

That took me by surprise. I didn’t see us as superheroes… And Jack’s comment suddenly showed me how much he loved and respected his dad, even though he hardly got to see him. Jack had no clue why his parents separated— or at least he knew, but he didn’t quite get it. All he knew was that his dad was this awesome super secret agent who was off all the time, busy saving the world; just like Superman or Batman would. He didn’t see a man who was so consumed by his work that he didn’t know how to make time for his family outside of what little he was given. Jack looked at Hotch the same way people looked at Batman. The ultimate hero.

I didn’t know how to answer Jack’s question. I wanted to be nice and play along, say that I was a superhero like his dad, but it felt wrong. It felt undeserved considering how many people we let die or suffer every day before we could pick up the cases. In a way, we were just the clean up crew. Something bad would happen and we’d be called in to fix it. We dealt with the dead bodies and the rape victims. We didn’t beat criminals to the punch before they could do harm. We had to wait for something bad to happen in order to make a difference, and that didn’t feel like being a superhero.

There was a knock at the door that saved me from having to answer Jack. Gideon carefully entered and told us that they ID’d the girl and that the team told him what happened with the folder. He looked to Jessica and told her that he’d have a sketch artist come in to meet with her before she would leave. Hotch tried to tell him that they hadn’t discussed that because the Unsub didn’t want us to go to the press. All Gideon did was look at Hotch and say, “I don’t care,” before trading spots in the room with the sketch artist.

Hotch chased after Gideon, and I used that as my excuse to leave the room, too, but I knew that I couldn’t follow them. I went back into the boardroom to find that JJ had left to go organize the press conference that Gideon wanted, Elle was asleep on the couch, and Reid and Morgan were still trying to piece together something about the video. They were trying to figure out what book we needed in order to complete the mystery, but they were really struggling to find any clues. I sat down and offered to help.

Morgan looked up at me from the shadow box that JJ had received from the Unsub. A smile curled at the corners of his mouth. “So… you and Hotch, huh?”

“Not right now, Morgan,” I hissed quietly.

“Wait— What?” Reid questioned.

Morgan’s smile grew. “Greenaway and Hotch are sleeping together.”

“We’re not sleeping together,” I hissed again. I was really trying to hold myself back from talking about it, as it wasn’t the time nor the place, and we would talk to the team about it when we were ready. Not when Morgan suddenly got bored with the case.

“Oh, yeah? Then what are you two doing? Cuddling the night away?” He puckered and smacked his lips together to make kissy sounds in order to tease me.

I rolled my eyes and picked up the baseball card that Gideon received. “We’ve been dating for four months.”

“Woah—” Morgan and Reid gasped simultaneously.

“Wait. Really?” Reaid asked, totally confused like a lost puppy. “How did we not notice?”

I shrugged.

“Elle,” Hotch said, coming into the room. When she didn’t wake up, he approached her and gently rubbed her shoulder, “Elle.” She sat up straight suddenly and began denying ever having fallen asleep. Hotch wasn’t having it. “I’m sending you home.”

“No…” Elle quietly argued, her eyes still trying to open up and adjust to the light in the room.

“You need to get some rest. You, Morgan, and Y/N are all going home.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” I spun around in my chair, “I’m not going anywhere.”

He stared at me, a challenge that I wouldn’t back down from. I wasn’t going home— especially since the Unsub had taken something from my place. And I wasn’t about to go home with Elle or Morgan either. Elle needed to sleep and not worry about babying me, and Morgan would only pester me for more answers about Hotch. The only other option, realistically, was going back to Hotch’s place, but even then, the Unsub kept taunting the Hotchner family.

Hotch broke eye contact with me, giving up before I could. “Fine. But, Elle, you need to go sleep in your own bed so that you can be on top of your game in the morning.”

“It’s already morning,” she teased. It was two in the morning, she had him there, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, so he started glaring at her this time. She gave in easier than me. “Fine,” she threw her hands up in surrender. “Fine.”

“Morgan,” Hotch urged, gesturing to the door.

“No, sir, you could not pay me enough money to leave right now.”

Hotch sighed, knowing that he couldn’t win. “If anyone else falls asleep, I’m taking them home, no questions asked. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Morgan saluted playfully.

Elle grabbed her bags from the floor and walked with Hotch out of the boardroom. I could hear Hotch outside asking Anderson to drive Elle home, and her arguing that she could drive herself home. She wasn’t very good at arguing with Hotch. She just wasn’t good at arguing in general. She always gave up too easily.

Hotch came back into the boardroom after seeing Elle and Andersoon off for the rest of the night. “Are you sure I can’t convince you to go home?” he asked me. I shook my head. “Alright. JJ’s almost done with her press conference. Jack and Jessica are at the hotel with Haley. My work is done for now. I’ll be in my office, if you guys find anything.”

We all silently waved him goodbye as he retreated into his office and we were left to review the evidence yet again. Morgan was looking through the video tape and again, I was trying to decode the paper Jessica brought in, and Reid was examining my jewelry box. He had tried earlier to find some prints on it, to no avail— just like all of the other pieces of evidence. This Unsub just hadn’t left anything for us.

All we knew as of five in the morning, when the sun was beginning to rise for a new day, was the name of the girl he had: Rebecca Bryant. She had been missing for two years and no one ended up looking for her, but even more concerning was the fact that the Unsub hadn’t killed her yet. Reid always liked to quote the statistics of kidnapping victims' odds of surviving, and living past a year was nearly impossible. Usually, if they were being kept for long periods of time like Rebecca Bryant was, it meant she was being kept as a wife of sorts. But why would the Unsub want us to find her if that were the case? What did he gain from giving her up? What did he want from us?

My head was spinning again, but I didn’t want to fall asleep and have Hotch order me to go home. So I chose the next best thing. “Who’s up for some breakfast?”

Morgan sighed with relief, “I thought you’d never ask.”

“Donuts?”

“You treat me just right, mama.”

I chuckled. “Reid, want anything?” He shook his head. I stood from my chair and grabbed my things. “Text me with what Hotch and Gideon want.”

“You got it.” He winked and snapped his fingers at me. I rolled my eyes at him and hurried to the door. “Thank you, Greenaway!” he called after me. That was Morgan for you. He could be deadly focused on a case one minute, then teasing you about who you’re dating the next, then begging for you to get him something to eat. He was just lucky I liked him.

[crystalstar8]

Knights of the Night (ch.3)

Chapter 3

Ch 1, ch 2, ch 3, ch 4, ch 5

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29139240/chapters/71536491

pairing: Jungkook x oc

genre: vampire au, college au, twilight, romance

word count: 1,905

warnings: blood (obviously), kidnapping, child kidnapping, needles, France

notes: vampires, vampire au, college, college au, so many twilight references, blood, needles, kidnapping, children, homelessness, dance, ballet, flashbacks, romance, slow burn, probably no smut, idk yet tho, France, French things, attempted genocide, inaccurate French history, bisexual main character, @strawberriewithchocolate-blog @mozy-j  @daechwitad-2

summary: Catalina starts college in a small town all the way across the country. She doesn’t know anyone and isn’t exactly looking for friends. She just wants to focus on dance. But when she meets fellow dance major, Jimin, and adventurous, fellow freshman, Jungkook, Catalina ends up discovering a whole new side to the small college town; one that is dangerous but oh so enticing...

               The following day found Catalina following Jungkook to the campus library. They had gotten their tests back in French class that day and they both got Ds. Their professor set them up with a tutor, whom they were on the way to meet.

               “I can’t believe we got Ds,” said Catalina. “We studied!”

               “Yeah! We totally studied and it didn’t help us at all,” said Jungkook. Catalina thought back on their study session at her apartment; French textbooks open, bottles of wine scattered about, two full glasses, and the Twilight movies unironically playing on Catalina’s laptop.

               “Yeah we totally studied!” she said.

               The campus library was a huge, old building with towering bookshelves and dark wood furniture. They went down one of the halls where there were tables and chairs set up between the aisles. At the first table was a ridiculously handsome man, who stood up when he spotted them.

               “Well, well, well,” he said. “Look who’s failing his class already in the first week.”

               Jungkook frowned and stopped in his tracks. “You’re our tutor?”

               “Hey! Why are you saying it like that? You should be more like, ‘Oh, Jin! Thank goodness you’re helping me pass my French class, how can I ever repay you?’”

               “I’m assuming you guys…know each other?” said Catalina.

               Jungkook sighed and said, “Catalina, this is Jin. As you can see he’s very old and his dementia is setting in, making him talk nonsense-“

               Jin rounded the table and swatted at Jungkook, yelling, “Hey! I’m tutoring you out of the kindness of my heart and this is what I get?”

               A librarian stuck her head around the corner and shushed them angrily. Jin apologized and gestured to the two chairs across from his.

               “Yeah, I’ve known Jungkook since he was a child,” said Jin. “I practically raised him.”

               “He used to live next door. He babysat me and my brother like, two times,” said Jungkook.

               “So, are you two dating?” asked Jin. “Because I have some wonderful childhood stories to tell.”

               Catalina laughed and said, “We’re not dating, but I’d love to hear them.”

               “Jin,” said Jungkook. “Jin.”

               “What?”

               “I’ll kill you.”

               Jin laughed for several seconds, then sobered up in an instant. “Anyway, let’s get to work.”

               He flipped the French textbook open and began.

               “So, what are you guys having trouble with?” he asked. “Let’s see your tests.”

                 Catalina left the tutoring session feeling a bit better about her French class. As they walked out of the library, Jungkook said, “So, I’m having a party at my house tonight and you’re invited. My parents are out of town for this healthcare conference thing so everyone’s gonna be there. It’s gonna be awesome.”

               “And what do you mean by ‘everyone’?” asked Catalina. She’s always kind of wanted to go to one of those cliché house parties where a bunch of unwanted guests show up and the host is freaking out about their parents’ china cabinet or whatever. Her friends back home were pretty boring, so she never got the party experience.

               “I mean, like, everyone. Like, a bunch of people from my classes and from high school and stuff,” said Jungkook.

               “Okay, I’ll go. It sounds fun,” said Catalina. “Do you think a lot of people will show up despite the people going missing in the neighboring town?”

               “I mean, it’s not happening in this town so…” Jungkook shrugged.

               “Yeah, it’s probably fine,” said Catalina. “Anyway, I’ll come over late tonight. I have homework I need to finish.”

               “It’s okay, the party doesn’t start until late anyway, if you know what I mean,” Jungkook said with a wink. “It’s gonna be lit.”

               “I’ll see you later JK,” Catalina said, laughing. The two of them parted ways, Catalina wondering with trepidation, and also excitement, what the party was going to be like.

                 The party, as it turned out, was not lit. Catalina arrived around ten, after getting most of her homework done with minimal procrastination. There was only one car in front of the house besides Jungkook’s, and no lights on inside. Catalina texted him to make sure everything was alright. He answered, telling her to come to the back yard.

               The backyard was small, a tall wooden fence along the back separating it from the woods. In the middle of the yard were two people sitting in lawn chairs around a bonfire. Jungkook stood up and waved.

               “Hey, you made it!” said Jungkook. He gestured to the bonfire and said, “I told you it’d be lit.”

               Catalina cringed.

               “I’m sorry, that was terrible. I can’t believe I just said that,” he said.

               “I think Jin is getting to you,” said the other person sitting at the fire. Catalina realized that it was Jimin.

               “Jimin! I didn’t know you’d be here!” said Catalina. Jimin stood up and they hugged. “I didn’t know you guys knew each other.”

               “Yeah, we grew up together,” said Jimin.

               “Does everyone in this town know each other?” asked Catalina.

               “I mean…” Jimin started.

               “Kind of,” said Jungkook, setting up a chair for her. They all sat down. “Not really, but this town is pretty small. There’s only one high school so…”

               “I see,” said Catalina. “So, what happened to the party? I imagined like, a big house party with a bunch of people we don’t know, getting drunk and tossing vases around like footballs.”

               Jimin laughed so hard he almost fell off his chair.

               “What? Did you get that from Mean Girls?” asked Jungkook. Catalina nodded. “I don’t know, I guess everyone is “scared” of the “serial killer”, or whatever. They don’t know what they’re missing, because I plan on sharing some great horror stories around the bonfire tonight.”

               “Jungkook, I just want you to know how irresponsible this is!”

               Jin came into the backyard and stood there with his hands on his hips. Another man joined him, equally as handsome. This man was blonde, built, and wore a bomber jacket with patches all over it.

               “There is a serial killer on the loose and you’re throwing a party!” said Jin.

               “Well, you showed up so you’re just as bad. And you brought your boyfriend,” said Jungkook.

               “We are not dating and I am just here to tell you that you should end this right now. We are going to get kidnapped,” said Jin.

               “Catalina, this is Jimmy K, the local bad boy who is all of a sudden mysteriously hanging out with Jin all the time now,” said Jungkook.

               “Local bad boy, I love it,” said Jimmy K. He held out a hand to Catalina to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said with a wink.

               “Oh,” Catalina blushed, caught off guard. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

               Soon, they were all sitting around the bonfire listening to Jungkook begin his scary story.

               “This is something that happened to me when I was kid, and I never told anyone this before, because I was afraid no one would believe me. When I was nine, my brother and I were staying at our aunt’s house in the mountains while our parents were out of town on a relief mission. One day, I went out to explore the woods and do some climbing. I found a big rocky crag, which I climbed, hoping I’d end up at the top of the mountain. It wasn’t the top of the mountain by far, but I did find something else: a mossy trail leading deep into the woods,” Jungkook said, lowering his voice dramatically.

               “When is this supposed to get scary?” asked Jin.

               “Shut up. So I followed the trail. The sun was beginning to set and I knew I needed to head back to my aunt’s house soon, but I needed to see where the trail led to. I wasn’t disappointed. The trail opened up to an old cobblestone driveway, and at the end of the driveway was a huge house. It was old, one of those gothic Victorian houses, all dark brick and carved wood. I could see the sky from the clearing, which told me I had about an hour before it fully got dark. I went to the front door anyway. It was unlocked, so I went inside. There were cobwebs everywhere and sheets over furniture, a real classic haunted house, but I wasn’t afraid, because I knew ghosts weren’t real. So, I went deeper into the house. All of a sudden, the front door slammed shut behind me. I was thrown into darkness. Then I heard a voice somewhere in the house say, ‘Don’t you know trespassers get eaten, little boy?’ I was terrified, so I turned around and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The voice was laughing. Finally, the door opened and I ran from the house as fast as I could. I ran back through the trail, climbed back down the rocks and ran. It was dark now and my lungs were burning. Eventually, I made it back to my aunt’s house. She was waiting outside for me, angry. She said, “dammit Jungkook! I told you not to go too far in these woods. There’s monsters out there who eat reckless little boys like you!’

               “And that’s the story of how I found out ghosts are real,” Jungkook finished.

               “That was more like listening to a trauma story than a scary story,” said Jimin. Jungkook took his shoe off and threw it at Jimin, who actually fell off his chair laughing this time.

               “I thought it was a good story,” said Jimmy K, who was listening with interest.

               “Thank you,” said Jungkook.

               “That didn’t actually happen to you, did it?” asked Catalina.

               “Yeah, it did. Minus the cobwebs, sheets, and locked door. But my aunt definitely did say that when I got back. Actually, I remember the real life house being really pretty and not dark, which made me realize that I had just broken into someone’s house. That’s when I ran away. So, who’s next?” said Jungkook.

                 Catalina was running again. They were right behind her. Her heart was pounding in her aching chest as her bare feet thudded against the forest trail. It was close, just a little farther and she’d be safe. The footsteps behind her were getting closer. They were heavy and fast, much stronger than she was. Finally, the house came into view and she threw the front door open. She tried closing it behind her, but the door was too small for the frame and it wouldn’t close all the way. She could feel tears pricking at her eyes. They were going to catch her and she couldn’t do anything about it… Catalina turned around and ran deeper into the house. As she rounded the corner, she found herself in a den, running right into someone. But she wasn’t afraid of this person. She knew she was finally safe here.

“They can’t get you here,” the man said as he held her against his broad chest. She looked up at him. He smiled down with his dimples and perfect teeth. She felt herself melt against him.

But it didn’t last long. Soon, he disappeared and the fire went out in the fireplace, leaving the room in cold darkness. An unfamiliar voice chuckled, the laughter bouncing off the walls to taunt her.

“Don’t you know trespassers get eaten, little girl?”

Catalina jolted awake that morning, a scream lodged in her throat.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Things Duggan could do/could have done with Pyro in Marauders:

This list is partially me being bitter, but it’s also just kind of a creative exercise, thinking about the development potential that Pyro has.

1. Redemption arc - This seems obvious.  Pyro is already hanging with the good guys, but is he actually undergoing a redemption arc?  Is he actually changing his views or becoming a better person?  We don’t really know because we barely see anything from his perspective, and it’s usually shallow comic relief when we do.  The groundwork is there to give Pyro a redemption arc.  He was already regretting his actions and questioning the Brotherhood’s methods when he had the Legacy Virus, leading up to him saving Senator Kelly.  Why not follow up on that?  Does he still feel the same way, or is he disillusioned because Kelly was killed right after he saved him?  Are the Marauders (all of whom are better people than Pyro) rubbing off on him a bit?  Maybe he’s starting to enjoy helping others or learning to trust humans?  (Or not?)  In today’s issue, Iceman was confronted by a Reaver that he had previously maimed, which was interesting, but that’s another storyline that I think would also fit Pyro.  Pyro has surely been maiming some people - maybe being confronted with the results of that would help him reconsider his actions.

2. Legacy Virus stuff - Pyro hasn’t said a damn thing about the way he died, and I understand him not wanting to talk about it.  But again, that sparked a semi-redemption arc for Pyro back before he died.  And now he’s on a ship that is taking medicine to humans that need it, and just built a hospital in Madripoor.  Maybe his experience being sick has given him a greater sense of empathy, and a desire to help sick people.  If Masque can find meaning using his powers to help humans, you’d think there would be space for Pyro to say something serious about his Legacy experiences while they are dedicating a new hospital.  Even just a throwaway line.  Hell, Storm was dying of some kind of nano-virus for part of Marauders (although it was never mentioned in the book at all), maybe he could have sympathized with her over that?  Maybe having Yellowjacket inside him - another case in which his body has been invaded by something microscopic that can kill him - triggered some Legacy feelings?  We could have explored that, instead we got a “funny” scene of Magneto pulling Yellowjacket out of Pyro, and Pyro wanting to kill him. 

3. Team bonding - Pyro has been accepted on the team surprisingly quickly.  Faster than I would expect, really.  And of course, he’s small-potatoes evil compared to even some people on the Council, but I’d still expect a little bit of friction between him and his team-mates, given that he used to try to kill them.  Even without that history, he’s still the odd man out on a team that already knows each other, and are friends, or at least former team-mates.  We had that kind of friction with Emma and Storm, why would we not get that friction between Pyro (the former terrorist criminal) and the others?  I would have expected at least a little bit of distrust, followed eventually by some kind of bonding issue where Pyro is more accepted by the team, and in turn accepts his place with them.  Who does he even consider a friend when he refers to them as “his friends”?  He seems to like hanging out with Bishop and Iceman, but we’ve mostly gotten that through wordless background panels and a couple of “funny” scenes.  Do any of them even like him or consider him a “friend,” or do they just tolerate his presence?   

4. Writer - One of the things I find most interesting about Pyro is that he had a whole-ass career before joining the Brotherhood.  He traveled around Southeast Asia, he was a journalist in Indonesia and Vietnam, he wrote romance novels.  And most writers don’t explore that at all, but you’d think it would come up when the Marauder is traveling around the ocean.  Maybe he speaks another language that would be helpful.  Maybe his investigative skills as a journalist come in handy.  Maybe he takes them to an old haunt or meets up with an old contact he knew in Vietnam.  Maybe he spends his spare time writing smutty historical pirate-themed romance.  I would have enjoyed that much more than the goofy “dream sequence” that Emma planted in his head, at least that would have felt like authentic character development rather than something being pushed upon him from the outside.  Most comics writers don’t really get into Pyro’s civilian career, but as a regular on a book, I’d expect it to come up at least once, even as a thowaway line.

5. Brotherhood and past history - Pyro has had absolutely no contact (that we know of) with his old Brotherhood pals.  He doesn’t even mention them.  Why is that?  Why isn’t he hanging around the bar with Blob when the Marauder’s at Krakoa?  Why isn’t he texting Avalanche?  Has he become estranged from them after saving Kelly (which would be an interesting plot point if Duggan developed it), or is he just hanging out with them off panel?  You’d think there would be some mention of his past history at some point.  Even in today’s issue, when he, Iceman and Bishop got attacked by Reavers.  Pyro has a history with Reavers!  He fought them on Muir Island as part of Freedom Force, and the team lost both Stonewall (which happened right in front of Pyro, and he seemed broken up about it) and Destiny (which completely destroyed Mystique).  The Reavers in this issue were not the same ones, they were a new breed, but you’d think Pyro might have something to say about encountering Reavers again. 

6. The gay thing - This is more my own personal preference, but Pyro WAS deliberately queer-coded in his earliest appearances, and John Byrne intended for him to be gay.  They couldn’t openly write him that way back in the day, but nowadays I think no one would bat an eye if Pyro, a fairly minor villain, was somewhere on the LGBT scale.  He wasn’t always queer-coded, but he had an ambiguous relationship with Avalanche, his sexuality was never firmly established (he was never in an open romantic relationship anyone), and he died a lingering, painful death from the virus that was intended to be an AIDS metaphor.  It would be quite interesting to see Pyro as a closeted gay (or bisexual) man resurrected in a world where different sexual orientations are far more accepted, and slowly opening up about it to Bobby and Christian (or even Shinobi).  Not to mention, it would give Bobby and Christian more to do, and Christian could talk about his own traumatic experiences without it being all swept under the rug.

7. Doubts about Krakoa - When the team first met Pyro, he was trying to steal a boat and run off, because he’d realized that his resurrection was mostly just a lab experiment to test the process.  Now he seems to be all-in, and dedicated to the Marauders’ mission.  What changed?  Does he harbor any doubts about the Quiet Council, or is he a true believer now?  Does he EVER talk to Mystique, to whom he used to be extremely loyal?  Pyro can be written as dumb at times, but more frequently he comes across as one of the more intelligent and thoughtful Brotherhood members.  Maybe he’s decided that everything on Krakoa is so new and confusing, he’s just gonna turn his brain off and enjoy his new life?  That would also be fine, if it was actually treated as character development.  

8. Divided loyalties - If I’d expect anyone to betray the team, it would be Pyro.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean I want him to do that, but I’m surprised it hasn’t come up.  You’d think Shinobi or Sebastian Shaw would approach him to act as a mole in exchange for lots and lots of money.  Hell, I half-expected him to be spying for Mystique when he first showed up.  And again, it could still happen, but there’s been no lead up or suggestion of that at all.  I would honestly find it disappointing if Pyro suddenly turned on the team or was revealed to be a spy, because he hasn’t bonded with them well enough for it to be meaningful at all. 

The thing is, any of these ideas could be explored, and still keep Pyro as the comic-relief party animal that Duggan is currently writing.  He wouldn’t even have to have significantly more focus (although some focus would be nice).  This could be accomplished through small scenes, little asides, throwaway lines.  Duggan wastes so much page time setting up “moments” and atmosphere (Kitty and Emma riding horses up to Sebastian’s castle comes to mind).  He spent a whole issue beating up Sebastian Shaw without any other significant plot advancement (then crams all his plot into the issues that feature other characters).  He spent a few pages on a goofy fantasy dream sequence that told us nothing new about Pyro, and again, turned out to a falsely manufactured dream that Emma planted in his mind.  We could have used those pages to show Pyro writing something, or show a different side of him through Yellowjacket’s spying, and it STILL could have been comic-relief.  If Duggan actually wanted to explore Pyro in a more serious way, there’s both the space and potential for it.  He just.....doesn’t. 

Anyway, this is all wishful thinking of what could be.  I’ll just have to write fanfic or something.