#don't want to expose the author to any hate i might get

[birdkeeperklink]

Holy shit - I was scoping out Titanic fic because yeah, of course I was after just rewatching the movie yesterday, and I wandered into a Thomas Andrews/Rose DWB fic because I was not looking at tags and also I didn’t even know that pairing was a thing, but I kept reading because it was well-written so why not, and wow

That was fantastic and I loved it

I feel like I've been tricked into loving this pairing by this amazing story, lol

[expectopatronum18]

I absolutely hate the whole 'snape loved lily' plot twist. People often equate it to the way Sirius still loved and missed james years after his death and went to insane lengths to protect his son, but tht was so not the case with snily.

Coz snape and lily had such a toxic, imperfect relationship in canon, but instead of treating it tht way it was never addressed. It wud hv been so interesting to explore this, but the series just doesn't.

Both of them r awful friends to each other. Snape's faults r obviously pretty clear (aiming to join a terrorist group tht believes ppl lyk his friend shouldn't be alive...yea tht doesn't need to be mentioned twice lol). Don't get me wrong, lily was completely right to cut Snape off, but it wasn't lyk she was a good friend even before tht. Can u ever imagine Ron or Hermione almost smiling if Draco was exposing Harry's underpants to a crowd of jeering students? Nope. They wud throw hands, period. Can u imagine any of the marauders doing tht to each other? (their internal dynamics might not be the healthiest but they wudnt stand for it if an outsider bullied their friends). Absolutely not. Coz it's not about these characters, it's just... not how u react when ur 'friend' is getting tormented (or anyone else for tht matter, but friend in this context specifically). Also can u imagine Ron or Hermione relying on school rumours saying tht Draco saved Harry's life without asking Harry about his version of the event first? Nope. Can u see what I'm getting at here?

Lily wasn't even a good friend to Snape to begin with, but he loved her until the end (irrespective of whether u want to see it as romantic or platonic). Now, I cud buy the narrative tht lily was the only person who was ever kind to him and thts y he clung on to her, but thts not how canon sees it. The source material doesn't address the nuances of this relationship in any meaningful way other than 'snape loved lily and tht is y he switched sides'.

Which is y the reason he switches sides, and his continued love for lily until he dies at 38 seems sort of shallow to me. Coz it wud be different if he'd hurt someone who truly loved him, but thts clearly not the case (u cud say tht lily loved him and did wrong by him too but tht isn't canon, given tht canon doesn't think she ever wronged him to begin with). Just feels lyk he was gaslit by the author tbh

[mechaknight-98]

Best Buddies Ft SinB (NSFW)

Authors note: I'm releasing my Wednesday release a bit early because I understand that not everyone may like it so I might as well get it out of the way. If you enjoy cool. Feel free to tell me what you like and who you would like to see next.

You enter the code for your apartment tired, and frustrated. Your apartment has always felt cramped. Like a rat inside of a cage. You hated it the artificial lights grated on your senses. You yearned for the countryside or any respite from this artificial city. Before your fury could stew further a voice rings out in comfort.

"Aye, you look like shit," SinB says to you as you walk into your shared small abode. you smirk as she has the temperature just right to shake off the cold, and the smell of pizza fills the air.

“How do you know you can't even see me?” you yell.

“I have seen you come home enough times to know when you'll look like shit. Especially when you're 2 hours late.” SinB chortles.

You smirk at SinB before retorting, "Well yeah some of us have to work normal jobs where we look like shit." you smile when SinB comes into view. Her resting serious face appears stern but to you, it was a facade as you walked over to your buddy. You hug her tightly. SinB looks at you while you hug her

“What’s got you smiling so much?” SinB asks intrigued as she breaks away and walks around you.

You smile harder as you answer “Nothing just happy to be home with friends.” you loved her tough exterior hiding her soft and goofy heart.

“Ah now don't go all sappy on me. It's annoying,” SinB replies feigning an annoyed tone that you knew she was happy to see you.

“Well with the day I had, I get the right to be.” you challenge.

SinB stops in front of you and holds your hands. She watches as they violently shake with the remaining workday jitters and anger

“You need a new job, I can feel your body tremble with rage. Why do you let them treat you like that?” SinB says plainly

“Why are you hiring?” you tease.

SinB smacks your arm as she laughs. Her response is biting, short but true“I'm serious I can feel how sad and angry you are. Why do you let these people walk all over you,”

“I know it's just…” you begin

“I know I know you have to be guarded and can't “expose yourself to harm” but you being the considerate one harming you. consider finding a better environment” SinB implores you

You shrug this job was a massive pain to get and you didn't want to leave SinB hanging so you throw her a bone, “Well if you know where I should look, I will,” you reply

SinB pouts as she watches your features, she eyes you up and down as you change out of your work clothes into normal clothes, “Why don't you go back to photography? You were so good at it!”

You sigh as you've had this conversation over and over “It didn't pay the bills.”

SinB grins mischievously as she counters, “If I remember correctly it paid most of them before we met.”

You groan remembering the context, “Well, that was before we began living together in this dump.”

As you walk to grab a slice of cheese Pizza SinB narrows her eyes and asks “Maybe then we should move back to the countryside at least for a bit. You can go back to photography and I can still focus on Viviz”

Your eyes spring back to life as you excitedly say, “I love that! how about we do that three months from now sound?”

SinB pouts and groans at your lack of impulsivity, “I’m okay with it but I'd rather you quit tomorrow.”

You look at SinB worried “SinB you know I can't do that”

SinB steals your slice and with a partially full mouth garbled “Why not? What happened to my country boy who wanted to document the world?”

“I think he moved in with a famous pop star and needed to not be a burden to her, I need to be careful” you respond

SinB smiles and chuckles. when you walk into the small kitchen area of your apartment you see SinB who smiles at you. She walks over to you and stares at you her adorable pout lives up the oppressively dull apartment you lived in. She gets closer and hugs you as she does she hands you a slice of pizza it's Hawaiian, your favorite.

“You need to get out of Seoul,” SinB says as she caresses your back. You nod as you take a bit of pizza

"Ah, my favorite. what's the occasion?" you ask curious. SinB smiles

She purses her lips before saying, "Well I thought I should get something for my best Buddy before I leave for my world tour."

You smile proud of her and all of her hard work. You take a bite of Pizza then say, "Oh right Congrats. So is this your going away party? Also, this is the reason I can't leave tomorrow we have too much going on "

SinB smiles before she says seductively, "Something like that."

You tilt your head to look down at her. Her eyes are full of excitement but also nerves, which makes you worry so you ask a teasing question."But don't you want to be with your family, friends, or members?" you tease as you finish your Pizza slice

The air drastically shifts from loving to lustful "Well, I would but I couldn't do this. SinB says before bringing you into a lurid and fevered kiss. She also squeezes your ass and begins to massage it. when you feel her tongue venture into your mouth you break the kiss. a trail of saliva being the only remnant of the lip lock. SinB licks her lips.

"So this isn't an innocent meeting between friends?" you ask with feigned annoyance.

"Oh Please it's been a week since we've fucked." SinB said bluntly. She pouted at you before continuing, "We need this. Plus I know you have been dreaming about my body. I know yours has been running around in my mind." as she speaks she closes in on you again and firmly grabs your ass before bringing you in for another kiss. this one is even more hot and heavy than the last. you stay with her in this moment getting lost in each other's taste. When I pull away from SinB she smirks evilly which in this context can only mean one thing. "God I love your ass. I can't wait to pound it to oblivion." SinB mewls as she leads you to the bedroom. Your eyes roll.

"is this the only reason you took a chance on a foreigner like me, just so you could use my ass?" you question your friend with benefits.

"No you pillowy ass is just the icing on the cake. You're kind, smart, honest, and tough so I can be me when I am with you as opposed to SinB the K-pop star. I can be Hwang Eunbi the lady." SinB said wistfully.

You tilt your head at her words, as they stirred your heart not to lust but to care, despite being Lusty partners you had grown to care for Eunbi the girl, and weren't just in it for SinB the star. In the mundane moments you gathered while living together you learned a lot about her. Her likes her dislikes. Her apprehensions and her relations. Besides her members, you were probably the one who knew her best, but that went both ways. When SinB looked into your eyes she saw her “cuddle bear”. She saw the soft-hearted but fierce-minded guy whom she was trying hard not to fall for. She respected your opinions and insights on the world. So seeing you so furious with no recourse at her up. You smile at Eunbi and realize you've fallen for her. This revelation of hers was news to you so you ask, "So would you rather me call you Eunbi?"

Eunbi's eyes cloud over with lust as she stares at you hungrily, "OOh, I like that say it again." she demands in her "Sex starved tone."

"Uh Eunbi." Eunbi's eyes disappear as she smiles with a brightness that can rival the sun. You truly love her goofy eye smile and wish she would wear it all the time. In your opinion it was better than most of the other accessories she would often wear. When she regains her composure she pushes you into the bedroom and locks the door.

"Strip," she commands. you do as she commands as she strips as well. when you are both naked as the day you were born you approach your "friend with benefits."

"I'd usually say take me to dinner first but we kinda already did that." you tease which causes Eunbi to laugh as she looks for her strapon. you kiss her forehead and keep her close for a bit which she appreciates but also she's needy and goes back to her searching.

When she finds the strap she puts it on and sashays back to you before she bends you over the bed and slaps your ass she watches as the flesh jiggles with delight.

Eunbi’s dainty hand actresses your rear, “okay babe relax.”

You hear Eunbi’s slip of the tongue and turn to face her, as you say “Babe?” Eunbi blushes before telling you to shut up. You hear her spit and try to relax.

"Okay, I am going to start, and then after that rail me until I can't walk anymore," Eunbi says with eyes glazed over by need and lust but lit with excitement. As She fastens the strap she moans as one of the heads is driven deep into her pussy. You breathe as she impales you

“God I forgot how tight you were relax babe it will be fine,” Eunbi assures you, and in her eyes you see concern. You know she wants you to feel as good as she does and doesn't want you hurt. So you slow your breathing and calm the jitters. As she thrusts into you again the stresses and annoyances of work wash away. “Atta boy babe,” SinB says as she slides in and out. You moan which makes Eunbi swell with joy. “You like how I fuck that fat ass babe.”

“Oh yes” you moan Eunbi smiles as she keeps thrusting. Despite the uncanny feeling of being pegged. It was a pleasant still euphoric experience. As Eunbi continued her thrusts you moan to her “Oh god yes take all your stress out on my fat ass dominate it.” you almost yell to Eunbi. As she pounds into your ass this strange feeling of compertion sets in. It drives you wild to watch your friend? Have her way with you. So you egg her on even harder letting yourself submit to her. “Oh don't you love this fat ass that ripples each time you pound into it?” you say as you watch Eunbi lose control.

She pulls your back up and says “I love this slutty ass. It's all mine too, and no one else. I love that this fat ass is only mine to fuck and mine to ruin. I love it.” Eunbi says as she continues to speed up her thrusts. You see sweat build on her body, but then you feel your head being jerked to her eyes.

“Be a good boy for me babe and roll those pretty eyes back.” as she says that she goes deeper than you've ever felt and you scream. Eunbi moans “There's my good boy. The good boy who’s always so supportive of me and everything I do. The good boy who left his photography job so he could live with me. The good boy who lets me ruin his ass. That's who you are. Don't let anyone tell you different.” Eunbi says as she continues to pound into you. While she does so Eunbi begins stroking your dick while she fucks you. You Moan and writhe in her arms overwhelmed. seeing this Eunbi decides to send you over the edge. “Is my good Boy gonna cum. Because I think my good boy needs it. Forget about work forget about your terrible boss just focus on me, good boy. Let me take care of you.” to send you over the edge she nibbles on your right ear. her actions and words meteor you over the edge. You start cumming and can't stop your seed flying all across the bed. Eunbi smiles as she continues to use your ass chasing her release now as she watches your cock viciously spray all over the bed. After your orgasm ends you lay on the bed as she continues to rail you Eunbi smiles as she sees your body release the tension you've held since you walked in the apartment.

this stokes the flames of Eunbi’s lust which push her to fuck you harder. You turn your back to watch Eunbi lose herself to the pleasure of her bright smile plastered all over her face

“Babe” she groans you turn to face her “I'm cumming.” you smile as she moans and screams before falling on top of you. You scoop up the smaller lady and you both lie on the bed. Removing the cum stained comforter first obviously. The saccharine scent of sex permeates the bedroom as the two of you lie down together. “I have never seen you cum that much or that violently,” SinB says with a raised eyebrow

You smile as you fix her hair before saying, “Well yeah how could I not when my best buddy takes such good care of me.”

SinB blushes and pouts as she says “Well someone has to take care of my good boy since he won't do it for himself.”

The atmosphere goes from lurid to chaste as you lay next to Eunbi. Your body eases more as she plays with your hands. She turns and boops your nose, and your heart explodes causing you to say, “I love you Eunbi.”SinB’s eyes widen at your statement and she goes silent. You watch as her brain squirms and tries to process your statement and her own emotions regarding you.

“You’re a dick you know that.” SinB says.

You laugh as she continues to play with your hair, “I told you this would get messy and that's why I didn't want to start this relationship.”

“I know Mr. Know it all but couldn't you have been less annoying about it?” SinB asks pointed you shrug at her question.

“You’ve been so good to me and providing me such peace in all of this how could I not fall for you?” you ask Eunbi

Eunbi smirks and says, “I am pretty great aren't I?” you nod and she starts kissing you again while rubbing your hardening cock at a egregiously slow pace. You groan as the kiss breaks. Eunbi stares at you with wanton eyes, you know what she wants. You get up and move her to her favorite position; doggy. You rub your rod across the edge of her folds. She is absolutely drenched to the point of it pooling under her cunt and as you continue to tease her she yells at you. “Stop teasing me. Be a good boy and rail me.” you smile and oblige like the good boy you are. Your first thrust into SinB is much like her subtle but overwhelming. Shes is always tighter than you think she would be and as you bottom out slowly in her she mewls in fervent pleasure, you groan as she moans saying,”oh yes Zod fill me.”

“Shit Eunbi. How are you always so tight?” you question

“I'm always tight for my good boy,” Eunbi says with a wicked smile before you begin to thrust. You start slowly hoping to give her time to adjust but she yells at you to go faster and harder she can take it. So again you are obliged you watch as she loses herself to the pleasure and says “God you fill me so well.” and as her breath hitches she becomes impossibly tight, oh God I'm cumming” SinB yells as she begins to squirt all over the bed. A first for the both of you actually since you had never seen this before. Her tightness is so overwhelming in fact that it forces you out of her as she rides her orgasm. While her body rages on without you watching as continues chasing the high. After SinB calms down you look at the mess she made and sigh. She looks at you apologetically as you gesture for her to get up so you can wash all of the bedding now. As the two of you wait you go back to the now-cold pizza and begin eating it well you just dive right in Eunbi heats hers up in the oven “like a civilized person” but cold pizza is delicious so you ignore her remark as you continue eating. SinB smirks and after her pizza is finished she sits next to you. She leans on you as the two of you eat pizza naked in your shared apartment.

“Hey Zod why did you agree to move in with me?” Eunbi asks.

“I thought it would be fun. I didn't expect We’d become so close,” you respond

“Do you like us being so “close?” she asks. I can hear the worry in her voice and I respond

“Despite hating this workload and culture I have never once regretted the time we've spent together and would do it all over again,” you answer

SinB looks at you surprised to hear you say such kind words, “oh you've fallen for me hard.” she teases. You nod.

SinB pouts, “How do you do it? How do you stay so calm when everything around you is on fire.” she asks

You turn to her with a simple response, “I always weigh the cost of losing my cool. At work if I hit Mark for saying something smart about you I won't be able to see you anymore.” you say calmly

“So you endure all this for me?” Eunbi asks

“No, you are just icing on the cake.” you tease Eunbi which causes her to hit you.

“I love you too best buddy,” Eunbi says as she leans into you again

[happyk44]

Ya know what I find really weird in PJO but I can't find an alternate explanation for/scene for and so it must stay in my brain as a "I can't find the solution for this and it's making be rage" thought?

The whole "Greek and Roman Deities Fighting Each Other" for the same brain/body. Like, I somewhat get it from the author's standpoint but as someone who knows both of their myths, I'm like??? They literally both have their own gods without "counterparts" like Bellona, which Rick acknowledges within the series and each deity literally has different values within somewhat same domains. Like, Juno? Entirely different epithets from Hera, although they share the same "place" within their pantheons. And, yes, there are some overlaps which come from the fact that Rome came after Greece and has a lot of influence from the Greeks, just like our books and literature has a lot of overlap with ancient cultures and, very specifically, America with European roots. That's just how humans work! Look at literally any fictional book with its own "world" and see all the things it took inspiration from! Even Tolkien! Especially Tolkien! And now look at the things we took from Tolkien.

It's just. I don't know what to do about this and I'm mad about it. Do I like, make the whole scene change when the gods change. Do I replace their entire beings with the other culture's. Do I make them coexist and just pop up everywhere? Answers, brain, answers.

[Coming from an author who's especially enraged bc he's trying to write a Mortal!Big Three AU after the series with a lot of roman influence but a majority of the series is based on Greek Influence--even Camp Jupiter, who has child soldiers??? Dude, they should be adults-. "Oh what about Jason and Reyna?" Make a funny little plot thing where literal adults are tasked by one of their Patron Goddess to take care of a Small Child which they literally did not ask for and raise him/it to be a functioning soldier. Make it so when we're introduced to The Camp via Percy, the soldiers groan because they're literally being run over by children, wtf man. Anyway, if someone writes this into something or finds a fic with an idea similar to this, send it to me <3--and so now he has to do a lot of research based in roman culture with very little Referenced Points.

{The author's starting to but it's gonna take a while and they wanna write this fic now-}]

<3

Fair warning it's like 4:30ish in the morning as I write this and I haven't slept yet so this might be all over the place but, yeah, Risk doesn't do enough to differentiate between the two sides within canon. So I think a lot of people come out of the series assuming that there's little to no difference between Greek and Roman gods and culture, aside from the change of their names. And since there's no perceived difference, they don't really do their own research.

Plus adding in details that aren't accurate to ancient culture/ideology (re: Neptune being hated because Romans weren't seafaring. Like. They were. They had a navy. And they didn't hate Nepetune) and then not elaborating any further on those details (we never see Neptune so we don't get to be exposed to how terrifying or different from Poseidon he is, we have no active child of Neptune to give us a reason why the modern day campers would be fearful other than a story about an earthquake, which I still find ridiculous because really? None of your siblings have ever made a devastating fuckup?)

It definitely could've been more well thought out. I mean I wrote a book featuring different gods, and a key player is Kali. In some text, Kali is an aspect of the goddess Durga. Durga has other aspects as well, such as Parvati. It's sort of similar to how the gods are presented in PJO/HoO. However, I wanted to clarify that Kali is a separate entity, so over the course of the last few centuries and as a result of colonization, she and the other aspects separated out from the principal goddess to be their own. She was the last to sever out. While she is worshipped as an aspect of Durga, she's still a goddess in her own right! But the aspect wording caught my attention and I wanted it to be obvious

With PJO/HoO canon, it could be the opposite. They started as separate entities but public perception caused them to merge. We know through TKC that public perception affects the gods - gods that have been forgotten become senile. Why can't public perception affect them in other ways? In my book, less known mythologies and gods become weaker and weaker, especially as colonization has erased knowledge and artifacts, which is why I had them centralize their power into a collective that equalizes belief among the whole of them (with a little boost for the well-known and worshipped), because hey, if it can happen to them, it can happen to you.

Anyway, a fun way to go about this is maybe making a joke that Hermes and Anubis can't interact because otherwise they start to combine and separating them takes time and energy and other people's help because of Hermanubis. The Greek and Roman gods want to be separate but because public perception tends to conflate them way more than they're already conflated, they're stuck battling it out. Greek gods tend to win more because, again, public perception tends to prioritize Greek mythology (at least I think so anyway) which is one of the reason legacies are so commonplace in Camp Jupiter in a way they aren't at CHB.

By this you can have "designer" legacies - kids with more than one godly ancestor (like Frank) in order to continue on the powers or strengths of multiple gods rather than just the one. With the way New Rome is structured, I can't imagine why demigods wouldn't hook up with one another. With CHB, you can leave so relationships between demigods may fizzle out after the summer or when demigods choose to stop coming back to camp for whatever reason. They also don't have to send their kids to camp, and can train their kids on their own, so less interaction with legacies is had with CHB, and thus godly influence slowly dies out as the legacies don't hook up with one another or other demigods. There's also the ever present risk of monsters, so Greek legacies may survive less.

With CJ, everyone tends to migrate into New Rome when their service is done. Between school, work, and homing options, there's less reason to leave, less likelihood of relationships fizzling out, higher likelihood of multiple godly ancestors among legacies.

One of the things that I've complained about with the Greek vs Roman battling it out thing before and what I wanna reiterate again is that Frank should not have been the one to deal with both aspects of his dad arguing in his head. It should've been Jason!! The one who actually was unsure of his standing as a Roman or Greek demigod.

But there's no differentiation. Even the arguing in Frank's head is just "kill everyone!" and "war is great!" There's no line between Mars as war god and Ares as a war god, despite the reality that there was - Mars being more disciplined and Ares being more bloodlust.

And attempts at describing a difference are either unclear or delivered through secondhand information, like when Thalia claims that Jupiter seemed different to her when he came in that aspect of himself but in text, the actual exposure we get of him feels no different to what we've experienced of Zeus in PJO. Neptune vs Poseidon.

Why does Athena have kids but Minerva doesn't when both are virgin goddesses born from their father's head? Why does Minerva's status as a virgin goddess bear more significance than Athena's to the point she doesn't simply replicate the actions of her other self to have her own kids?

The only line of clarity I can really see is Pluto vs Hades, and even then, the characterization between the two of them is essentially the same, the only weight is in the importance of their godly priorities shown both through their kids (Hazel vs Nico) and described in text (wealth vs dead). But we get little to no other exposure or line of thought from other characters with the same godly parent, just different aspects. How does Frank differ from Clarisse, or Jason from Thalia? How does the chosen aspect of their godly parent affect their personality, their powers, the way they interact with the world or how others see them?

I do like that idea of random adults at camp being given a kid by various gods who are just "take care of this thing for me, thanks" and bouncing off. That's funny. But also lol, Jason being CJ's only child soldier. He's Jupiter's child, and a champion of Juno so he's special and must be treated as such, even if that's by being attacked by wolves nonstop as a toddler and then raised in barracks from ages 3 to 15. And when people go "what about Reyna" or "what about Frank", like, idk how commonplace it is in most places but I know the US has those like junior army clubs or whatever it's called, so why couldn't they just be part of CJ's equivalent to that and then run off to do their own thing with the others because they're teens with ADHD and impulsivity is a thing, especially when you care about your friends.

But, like, also the soldier aspect isn't really key. "What about Reyna?" She was gonna end up at Camp Jupiter either way. "What about Frank?" He needed to be trained because it'd been 16 years and the fact that he hadn't experienced any monsters up to 'til then can be written away as his mom and grandmother defeated them before he could be hurt, and then his mom died and his grandmother realized she won't always be here to defend him so fuck it, let's tell him the truth about his father and send him off to learn how to defend himself.

And again! It's as you said - epithets differ even between similar gods. Their priorities differ - both in ancient culture and with the god themselves. Principal gods differ. Mars was held to higher esteem than Ares - Frank's status as his son should've been exemplified. Mars was second to Jupiter in importance - Jason could've subconsciously adopted Frank as his second in command, which would've been neat because we know Frank struggles with anxiety and confidence and we know he wasn't all that thrilled with being Mars's son at the start, and him getting a bump up in status/importance could've been an interesting arc to navigate, as well as further cement the key moment in HoH when he takes over for Jason as praetor and leads the ghostly army.

[doctoremrys]

So, like any other girl who reads fanfiction, and has so many n/m ships, I too, was exposed to Heartstopper, one day, and became obsessed with it. Yeah, and not only the show, ALL THE NOVElS, I read all of them at least 3 times, watched the show a lot, I even read fics about it beacause I can't wait fir season 3 to come out this year on October...

I fully support the LGBTQ+ community, I might not be a part of it, but, as my dear Imogen said on the show "I'n an ally".

I had lots of respect to tge author and illustraitor of this fantastic novel series, Alice Oseman, but today I found out that she had stated her support for Palestine.

I don't tend to comment about anything on social media, not at all, but after finding out about this, I became too upset and had to write my thought out, so yeah, this post will probably get deleted, and it's not like I have many people who follow me, or people that will read this.

Look, I have nothing against people who want to have peace on this world, besides the war between Israel and Hanas, there are lots and lots of wars happening around the world, having said that, lots of pro palestiniabs, simply don't know the basic facts, so let me starts stating a few of them. Israel became an independent state on 1948. Between 1947 to 1949 Israel had its' first war, what they call in"the independence war". The war started after the UN had agreed on Resolution 181, a UN plan thar divided the state between the jews and the arabs, and had Jerusalem as the capital city for jews and arabs. The jews agreed to this plan immediately, it was barley 2 years after WW2 had ended, the one wherein 6 Million jews were murdered beacause of hate. The arabs however, did npt agree on that plan, a UN plan, and started attacking the jewish citzens on 30th of November 1947. After Israel got its' independent,on May 14th 1948, the neighboring Arab coubtrues had joined the arabs in Israel in their fight against the new country. Israel won. Egupt gor conrol of Gaza. On 1967, Israel won another war, one we call, the "6 days war", and got Gaza. On 1969 Israel gave the people in Gaza Electricity from Israel's Electricity Connector.

In 1971, the Israeli government decided to rehabilitate the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. Israel did not annex the Gaza Strip to its territory, Israel didn't know what to do with it. On Marah 1979, Egypt and Israel had signed a peace agreement between them. Egyot didn't want Gaza back, so Israel got kind of "stuck" with it, and even after that Israel still did not annex the Gaza Strip to its territory. On December 1987, the first intifada broke out by the palestinians, . At its beginning, it was characterized mainly by mass riots that included demonstrations, stone throwing, roadblocks, and in some cases Molotov cocktails,

Subsequently, the intifada changed its character, and from 1989 terrorist attacks began to be carried out. Kidnapping people, stabbing them to death, shootings, and more, 164 Israelis were murdered. It officially ended in 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords, but the attacks continued. The oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and were meant to give peace, and end to the terror attacks agaibst Israel.

On 1994, as a result of the Oslo Accords, the IDF, left Gaza, and Control of the city passed to the Palestinian Authority. On 2005, all the Israelis who lived on Gaza were evacuated, as a part of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. After that, Gaza started firing more Qassam rocket and missile fire at southern Israel than before. On 2006, Hanas, a terrorist organization, won the elections in Gaza, and started ruling Gaza.

On October 7th Hamas and The Islamic Jihad murdered more than 1200 people, kidnapped 240 people. Many women and men were raped, bodies were violated, organs were cut from victims, babies were murdered, entire families were burned to death. Even to this day, according to Palestinian Statistics, more than 85% of palestinans on Gaza still support Hamas' actions on October 7th. Palestinian citizens had helped Hamas, and there are even released hostages that said that palestinians families had held them captive. Lots of palestinian citizens had helped Hamas, they robbed houses, and killed innocent people as well.

Israel did not want this war, all it want is for her hostages o be released, and be back home with their families. This war is not against thr palestininans, it's war against Hamas. There are still 132 hostages held captive by Hamas, Israel and the world don't know for sure which of them is alive, and which one is not, but it needs all of them back home with. Women, Mean, Children, babies, elderly were kidnapped on this day. How is a one year old baby, your enemy? How is a Holocaust survivor your enemy?

And for those of you that say, that there is a genocide in Gaza. , on 1948, there were 710,000 palestinians ib Gaza, now there are more than 2.2 Million palestinians.

Secondly, Israel supplies the palestininans with food, water, and medicine every single day. I don't think that the US army gave Japan aid on WW2, but you know what they did do? Detonated atomic bombs on her. I don't see people call this genocide, so why is it different when it's Israel?

You don't know what it's like, to fear fron rockets, to fear leaving the house beacause Hanas can shoot at you whebever he wants. You don't live in fear.

But the people of Israel know what it's like, beacause ti them it's their nornal routine of life.

And again, while I'm against violence in general, remember, that this conflict did not start by Israel, no, Israel got attacked first by the palestininns thenselves.

Dear Aloce, I am dissapoined to find out that another jew supports Paelestine. Yon live on the UK, you write about LGBTQ+ characters on your novels. You identufy as a she/her and they/them, you are aroace. The people in Gaza, hate people fron the LGBTQ+ community, they murder every one of them, they do not care for your support, and all your money will go tk Hanas, a terririst organization, because guess what? Hamas controls everything in Gaza, including all the money the people like you, the UN, and other counries give to Gaza, and they use thus money for terror, and for murderm

Why did you have to start being politucal? Why do you support sonething that you dob't fully undestand.

And by the way, Hamas murdered and kidbapped muslims, arabs, and Israelies, they did not care for who you are, which country are you a citizen of, and what are your poltic views, if you were in the wrong place on the wrong tine, they simply did not care, they killed everyone, and kidnapped arabs and Israelies alike.

I still love Heartstopper, but it'a dissapoing to find out that another jewish person supports something that they do not understand. Alice, you will not see this post, but "thank you".

[guardian-of-fun-times]

❄️Toxic Cosplayers: Frostplay❄️

This is going to be a long-ass post, so get comfortable with your favorite drink and a snack. As for me, the tea is hot and I'm ready to spill.

If you don't already know, this is Juliette, better known as Jacoby or Frostplay online. A band enthusiast, cosplayer, influencer, public figure, suicide prevention advocate, and YouTuber hailing from Southern California.

When I first saw Juliette, I assumed they were either Genderfluid or Trans in which they never stated until they made the post: "I'm a Girl!" after an Instagram account "exposed" her for wearing a binder. The account no longer exists because it was reported and deactivated.

I met Juliette at Anime Los Angeles years ago and she was very standoffish and rude to me seeing that I was also cosplaying the same character. I saw her again at ALA as Jack Frost and she asked me what happened to my leg noticing that I was in a knee brace and carried a crutch to lean on while I had my staff in my other hand.

She wasn’t well-liked in the Jelsa community circa 2013-2015 because she used to fail to credit artists. I never really paid attention to their work because of that, and some things she did… she came across at times as if she thought she was actually Jack Frost, and therefore the authority. It was just a different vibe to others who can have fun but, end of the day you know they know they aren't Jack Frost or any other character.

Her YouTube seemed to have some blurred lines where they thought they were THE Jack Frost. There’s a difference between playing the part at a cosplay convention, or for kids, but end of the day, even the Disney face characters know they aren’t actually Cinderella or something.

Another thing that disappointed me. How can you cosplay Jack Frost and ignore children? That’s such a big part of him. He’s the one who gets the Guardians to reconnect with the kids. Jackson was entertaining the kids. Jack was there for the kids well before he was a guardian.

You might know, that Frostplay went to Disney and dressed as Jack to get those photos and videos with the Elsa face character. Disney face characters have to feign ignorance of things outside of their Disney universe, so putting her in a rough position and potentially causing issues for her at work -- all for internet clout.

So, the stuff about Juliette and the Elsa cosplayers is the tip of the iceberg. She went full Q Anon. She "came out" as cisgender and straight in an emotional video. She was pretending to be in love with them for about five years, so it's a whole fucked up thing.

For a while, it was clear that her whole thing with Jack was some sort of coping mechanism for insecurity about who she was. She threw herself into the character so much that she dated two people at the time, both were Elsa cosplayers. So, it wasn't just one. She broke hearts and pushed people away.

There was a girl named Sofie before Alison. Sofie was from Florida and flew out here a time or two. I still think Juliette will one day accept that she's gender fluid or trans. Plus I know someone who told me that she once used a pseudo penis as a vessel to urinate through, sometimes. So, that adds to it. She's from a conservative area and that definitely influenced her. As for her being rude: she seemed to start gatekeeping the character.

She got awfully jealous and upset that GuardianFrosty on Instagram had taken inspiration from her Royal Jack Frost cosplay. He was literally was driven off Instagram and deactivated his account a few years ago for months because of Frostplay and their friends/followers since they kept sending hate, and death threats if he ever showed up at any California convention.

Claiming a character is childish behavior. Cosplay who you want, when you want. If other people have issues, let that trash take itself out.

[fluffyprettykitty]

resentment

Pairing: biker! Sam Wilson x female reader (no other specifications!)

Word Count: 1600 words

Outline: Sam always came around looking for one thing but this time he's gonna find out more than he ever thought he could.

Warnings: hate sex, rough play, swearing, toxicity, spit play, slapping, degradation, use of whore & slut, unprotective penetrative sex, ya know the usual stuff

Author’s Note: This is my entry for Missy's @saiyanprincessswanie 3.5K Challenge! Used the following: biker! au, the prompt, 'do you regret letting us end?' & hate sex. Missy congrats on your growing number of followers, your presence and work in the community are super important and you are such a delightful hard working person! wishing you the best always! Thanks to all you helped brainstorm with him for this fic <3

Main Masterlist ・❥・ Sam Wilson Masterlist

"You really wanna play like that?" Sam asks you, his breath hot on your neck his hands cupping your ass under your shorts in the quietness of the about-to-be-closed car wash.

Well, you would have closed up if your ex-boyfriend hadn't shown up, gold chain on his neck and a white shirt hanging so low all of his chest hair, and arms were exposed. He looked absolutely delicious, any girl would fall at his feet at a moment's notice.

But you weren't rolling like that. There was an argument. Your co-worker tried to defend you but you told her you could handle it and for her to check up on you in ten minutes through whispers and glares. She didn't want to see you in tears, you'd end up in tears anyway. Just not the kind she thought.

But then again not everyone was into what you wanted.

Ten minutes is a lot of time for famous local biker Sam Wilson. One of the most coveted men in California. And here he was pushing your body against the wall and his hand playing with the waistband of your shorts. Oh, how well does his hand fit right there?

"You don't want me here, sugar." He mused finally touching your bare skin that reacts to his touch familiarly. "You wish I'd just drop dead." He whistles playfully licking his tongue all over his bottom lip. You really wish you could remember what the original argument was about, but you know that's not important.

"I'm not that mean, Wilson." You roll your eyes and try to surpass the moan that wants so bad to get out as his large fingers discover your cotton panties. If you'd thought he'd be coming over today on all of the days, you might have worn something else...

"You really out here, entertaining other men."

"Didn't we break up?"

"Is this what you call breaking up?"

"You are only good for one thing, baby, focus on it." You snap back ready to talk the game when you need to.

"Oh is that how it is?"

"Yeah. I know why you're here. "

"So yesterday, late night, you didn't come with your little ugly boy to my club trying to provoke me?"

"Sam you have the only club down the coast."

"Excuses... excuses."

"Sam if I wanted to provoke you I'd fuck a dude right on your hood."

Something snapped inside him and Sam manhandles you in a way that has you now facing the wall, your back to him, a tight grip on your neck.

"Say that again." He whispers. "But mean it this time."

Well, it's not like you're going to hesitate at all.

"I would fuck a dude right under your nose. Maybe even on your bed., maybe I'd even send you pictures."

You know he's gonna see red, you want him to. He needs to stop coming down here where you work and act like this. You haven't been his for a while and it's a decision that was all his.

"I think that I am the only one willing to fuck your little tight ass. Look at it. Can barely hold a dick inside her even if she tried. C'mon who would wanna waste their time?"

To say that his degrading behavior didn't hurt your feelings or made you want to please him, even more, wanting to prove yourself to him, your own salvation, would be an understatement. His grip on your neck pressing your one cheek to the wall possessively has you reaching the most submissive state.

"Who could fuck you like that? Who could have your legs shaking with just three fingers inside the goddamn produce aisle? You fucking love your veggies, don't you, baby girl?"

A smack on your ass and this time you wail.

"Answer daddy. C'mon you remember how a girl can speak or is your stupid brain getting too hazy at the prospect of getting dick. Always such a dumb look on your face, eyes wide and bright begging to get filled like the little pathetic whore that you are. Tell me does your daddy know that the pretty little girl he raised has turned into nothing but a cum storage?"

You have to reply, you are fighting the urge to submit to his command and you master your courage. "F-fuck you, Sam! Anyone can fuck me, your big dick ain't that special."

"Oh. How about you repeat that after I shove it inside you."

"Won't change my mind."

"But you want it inside you."

"You want it more, Sammy, don't fool yourself."

"Only as long as you do, princess."

"Erik fucked me so good last night, cum was dripping down my thigh. I don't need your cock to fuck me good."

You think that would break him, that he'd made him rip your panties and fuck you senseless and your coworker would come inside to find you screaming and shaking. But Sam knows when you lie. Or maybe he stalked you a little.

"Erik sounds like he knows how to fuck a slut. Wanna show me how you fucked him? Wanna show him how you bounced on his cock begging that it was mine?"

"N-no!" You protest and try to look back at him even though it's not an easy task.

"He asked me on a date, something you've never done."

There is silence. Sam expected a lot of things but not this. His grip gets loose and finally, you turn around as his fingers slip from your skin, your mouths breathing air across each other.

Then his lips crush yours and you use your hands trying to push him off of you but you are happy he is finally setting himself loose. His hand finds your panties pushing them to the side, just to use his calloused fingers to touch your skin and amuse himself at your wetness.

But you wanna play. He deserves it.

So you slap him on the face as he lets go of the kiss and he is confused for a split second before he is slapping you back and crushing your lips together again. It excites you, your legs wrap around him as your hands wrap around his neck and he is fumbling with his low-cut jeans.

"You are really bad at holding in your excitement. Look at how wet you are, pathetic. You want me to believe a man fucked you last night? Baby your pussy speaks a different story."

"She just like getting fucked, doesn't matter whose cock is filling it."

And his cock is out, standing firm in attention, getting stroked a few times with his hand and his spit over it, the sheer sight always making you feral, and then it's inside you, breaching your velvet walls. He is pushing your body against the wall, the bright lights from the open sign illuminating your body. He is rough, he is precise, he is truly running out of time.

"If that's how it is. Maybe I don't need to look at your ungrateful face." He chuckles before he is slipping out of you and pushes your body to the floor you are scrambling to get steady on your knees as his body shields yours and he pushes his cock inside again. Fitting right where it should be. His hands are over yours, his hips moving against your body almost hatefully, aggressively, and possessively.

He fucked you like an object, his object, his to break, his to mend.

Smacks on your ass become more stingy as your hands can barely hold up as he almost stands up now, fucking your body so viciously. He wanted to break you, to make you admit, what you felt for him, hatred, passion, love, something, you must have felt something for him and he is gonna take it out of you.

When his fingers play with your clit, you cum instantly screaming his name and when he finishes he does so without stopping, just keep going pushing his cum right back inside you until he twisted you around again. Loose shirt hanging off his shoulders, chain dinging over your face, his face covered in sweat, his jeans rolled around his ankles. No boxers ever. Your shirt not moved at all, your shorts and panties pushed to the side, just enough to give him access to your holes.

"Did Erik fuck you like that?" He might seem confident cause he knows you haven't actually done that but you know exactly how to make him cry.

"He took my hand, dressed me up and showed me off to the world. Unlike you."

Now you weren't lying. He was a gentleman and after the club, he left you at home and asked to come to pick you up on Sunday for a little beach trip. Sam was tied to his city. Sam never went anywhere.

"This is my home."

"It's not mine though, Sam. One day I will move away, and I need someone to come with me. I can't be tied like this."

He finally snaps holds your chin up with his large hand and his dark chocolate eyes meet yours.

"Do you regret letting us end?"

The moment would have been oh so romantic if it wasn't for that stupid cocky smirk appearing on his face. Without hesitation you shake your head negatively.

There is no end to this. There can never be.

"Have we really ended?"

"Guess not."

"Guess not."

Maybe if you picked it right at the start you could meet each other half way but for now you had to deal with the screech coming from your friend's mouth.

There is no ending for people who never truly started is there?

for updates please follow @fluffyprettykittylibrary!

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

To everyone criticizing or complaining about this incredibly talented author addressing the comments on their work: please understand that you don't have to engage with content you don't wish to see.

It's unbelievable and childish that some of you are losing it over how an author reacts to criticism of their work. Consider this: you're going out of your way to attack someone who has dedicated time and effort to create something for your enjoyment, just because you can't recognize that the story is about a grown adult who doesn't need coddling and can handle some harsh words. Grow the fuck up.

Spencer is not a child. Has he gone through some pretty messed up stuff? Yes! But that doesn’t mean we need to baby him and shield him from all the terror out there. Many people in the fandom have gone out of their way to tear apart an incredible character, stripping away his autistic traits and infantilizing him.

Believe me when I say this: a few harsh words won’t destroy him to the point where he needs to be wrapped in a blanket and coddled because his feelings got hurt. Have any of you considered how absurd that is, especially given that he works in a field where he’s constantly exposed to corpses, crime scenes, and serial killers?

The point is, some of you need to start appreciating the effort writers put into creating something for your entertainment. A story doesn’t write itself; it has to be thought through, written, revised multiple times, and published before it reaches you. No writer, unless specifically requested, writes with one person in mind. Some stories might catch your attention, and some won’t. If you’re not interested in one, move on and find one that does interest you. If you liked a story but didn’t enjoy certain aspects, find another one. If you can’t find anything you like, write your own. Stop bothering authors just because they write for themselves and the fandom, and not specifically for you.

Lastly, if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything. Your input is neither necessary nor asked for.

To the author: Thank you for providing us with multiple incredible stories, and I’m very sorry you have to deal with this stupidly childish behavior.

While I hate to see you go, I’m glad you’re doing what’s right for you. Sending lots of love!

I have been doing a lot of moving chores today so I am too tired to do a very in depth reply to this - but I just wanna say: yeah. You are very smart. Everything you said - applause. Good job.

People in the fandom have literally said that Jason Gideon is a "predator" for luring Spencer into the FBI and "forcing" him to do that job, when it's a job that Spencer clearly cares about a lot (and Spencer is a certified fucking genius with multiple doctorates and big big credentials - so he could get any job he wants and he CHOSE the FBI)

Also people have said that Derek leaving to raise his son (after he named his son after Spencer and called Spencer the best little brother ever) - was him "abandoning" Spencer. Derek Morgan making the right choices for his family was him ABANDONING SPENCER

Spencer is not a baby. He is a grown man

And people either approach fanfiction with the attitude that he's OOC - a completely allistic neurotypical Daddy (borderline sociopath) hard dom with 0 emotions who doesn't give a fuck about anybody else's emotions who is only there to have very rough sex and that is it. OR - he is a puddle of tears and trauma who is a big baby crying all the time and he needs to be wrapped in soft blankets and if anybody looks at him the wrong way or says one bad word to him, he will crumble, at that person is Evil. If anybody in the BAU (like JJ) says something bad to him - they are evil incarnate and they are as bad as every single UnSub that the team has ever taken down.

When my fics take a mid level approach - that Spencer is allowed to be emotional and be yelled at, and his intense emotions get out of control and also hurt other people - the fandom cannot handle that take at all.

Anyway - thank you for saying all that you have said even if I have only managed to respond to one part of it 😂

[amsgrey]

Why would i lie to you?

AUTHORS NOTE: I started hating this like halfway through and I just kept going? but I hate this so if y'all do too I couldn't even blame you. This was supposed to be a request but I don't even like this enough to say it is.

synopsis: You and Gallo are targeted after accidentally coming across something you shouldn't.

warnings: some VERY bad writing, canon-typical violence, mention of kidnapping, head injury, very bad medical understanding, kind of meh ending

Working in CFD meant every shift had the potential to be crazier than the last. You were always expecting something crazy to happen that would spin the entire day into chaos.

The last thing you were expecting on a seemingly random Tuesday was to walk straight into a drug den. You and Gallo were ordered to clear the house next door and ensure no sparks would ignite the abandoned building. You both had to pry the door open, making your way through the front room to check the side for any signs of smoke. As soon as you made it through the front room you were greeted by the sight of enough fentanyl and cocaine to kill the entire house.

You quickly stopped Gallo from barreling in after you, aware of all of the powders around the room.

"Is that...?"

"Yeah," You whispered, hands shaking as you radioed Kidd.

"Hey Lieutenant, do you copy?"

"I Copy, what's up Halstead?"

"We're gonna need CPD and decontamination down here," You replied, "I think we just found a trap house."

There was a pause, you and Gallo looked at each other nervously. You could hear Severiade ordering what you asked for, no doubt also radioing Boden.

"Are you and Gallo okay?" Kidd finally said.

"Yeah," Gallo nodded, "We're good, Lieutenant."

"Gallo," You caught his attention, pointing out the powder on both of your turnout gear, "We need to get out of here."

Gallo nodded, clearly trying not to breathe too deep like you were.

"Lieutenant, we have an unknown substance on our turnouts," You informed, "We need might need Brett and Violet standing by, from the looks of this set-up, I think it's Fentanyl."

"Okay, Copy that," Stella rattled off what she wanted you two to do. She ordered you both to leave the house, following Cruz and Severiade to the hasty decontamination that had been set up. Cruz had all but said that it was CFD policy and you two would be fine, but everyone was still on edge. You and Gallo had to strip down to your underwear, washing any exposed skin that wasn't covered by your turnouts.

"Hey," Kidd entered the tent as you and Gallo wrapped yourselves in Towels, "CPD just confirmed it was fentanyl in that room. They're calling in intelligence."

You and Gallo shared a look.

"Well, do we get to have some real clothes? Or do we have to wait around in towels?" You finally asked.

Kidd shook her head, "Protocol says we have to take you two to Med to get checked out-" You and Gallo groaned "-I'll bring you some clothes there."

"We really have to go to Med?" Gallo pressed, both of you trailing behind Stella as she headed for 61.

She scoffed, "Uh yeah. Now get in."

Violet chuckled from inside the rig, pointing at the two spots next to her, "One of you get the gurney."

"Not me," You snapped, playfully jabbing at Gallo before climbing to sit next to Violet. Gallo grumbled about it being unfair, but climbed into the rig and sat on the gurney anyway.

When you walked into Med, they were already waiting for you. Maggie and Will stood at the ambulance entrance with stupid grins when they saw your frustrated pout.

"You always find trouble?" Will joked, gesturing for you to sit on the edge of the bed in Bay 3.

"I just thought I'd come to see you," You told your brother, giving him a massive fake smile.

Will rolled his eyes as he ran through his checks, "How do you even accidentally find a drug den?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too."

You and Will looked over to see Jay leaning in the doorway, an amused smile on his face.

"We hadn't caught up in weeks, so I thought Halstead Reunion, ya know?" You replied, laughing as Jay tried to ruffle your wet hair.

"You look like a drowned rat," he laughed, wiping his hand on the towel around your shoulders like it was disgusting.

"Wow, that's the thanks I get for doing your job for you?" You retorted.

"Settle down, Children," Will waved Jay away when he started getting in the way.

You had to sit for almost an hour waiting for Med to go through the checks. When they were done, Kidd gave you CFD sweats to change into. When you were sufficiently dressed to look like a cadet, you joined Kidd and Boden to see what CPD wanted you to do.

Gallo looked a lot better than you did, his hair had at least dried and the sweats were his size. You, on the other hand, did in fact look like a drowned rat. The sweats Kidd had given you were much too big. You had to tie the sweatpants to keep them sitting comfortably. Both you and Gallo had Truck 51 shirts on, the goat emblem on the chest making you look like candidates.

Will had given you a towel, helping you dry your hair while you waited. You looked less rat-like but still felt extremely uncomfortable. Will had jokingly said at least you weren't overdosing on narcotics and immediately apologized when you gave him a shocked frown.

"Alright," Jay said as he and Hailey walked up to your little gathered group, "We need you two to come down to the district with us, and go over what you saw one last time on record."

"Alright, then," Boden nodded, giving you and Gallo his 'please behave' look he reserved especially for the two of you. "Keep me updated."

"Will do, Chief," Jay replied, letting Hailey lead the way back to their car.

As you were walking back to the car you started giving Jay shit, "So, do we get badges now? Seeming we found you your case?"

Jay scoffed, "Yeah sure."

He opened the back door for you to get in, smiling smugly. He definitely got too much amusement out of putting you into the back of his car.

You narrowed your eyes at him, "Don't smile at me like that, Chuckles."

Hailey laughed, looking back at the two of you from the passenger seat.

When you were done at the Precinct, Boden had called and informed you and Gallo were off for the rest of the shift. Jay offered to give you a ride home, all but demanding it. As you were headed back to your apartment, you asked him about the case. He waved you off with a lie about it probably being something gang-related and an easy case. You didn't really care enough to press him any further. You had learnt a while ago that pressing Jay for information about the job wasn't worth it - he tried to hide most of the danger from you. At some point, you got so used to it that you always assumed whenever he was quiet it was worth just not asking anything more.

Eventually, he even stopped pressing you about the dangers of your job, it was a weird unspoken recognition between you and him. Not to ask too much.

When you jumped out of the car you wished Jay luck in the case, wanting nothing more than to go home and wash the day away. You were leaving the shower when your phone lit up. Clearly, Gallo had the same thought as you, what an awful way to spend the rest of an on-shift day.

Want to grab a drink?

You laughed, responding; only if you bring it here cbf going out.

Gallo let you know he would be at your apartment soon, no doubt bringing enough beer for you two to drown your sorrows about being benched.

Gallo arrived with a six-pack, putting them in the fridge and bringing two over for you both. He sat next to you on the couch, both of you silently watching the game and just trying to decompress from the day.

"I hate this," You finally muttered, sick of sitting doing nothing while your friends were at work.

"Me too," Gallo replied, looking as forlorn as you felt. After another moment of silence Gallo said, "When I was coming here, it was so weird, I could have sworn someone was following me."

You laughed, "Following you?"

Gallo turned to face you, looking extremely serious, "Yeah, following me. This black ford was behind me up to the store, I thought it was nothing but when I headed here it was two cars behind me, again."

You mirrored Gallo, turning to face him as he spoke. Any sense of drowsy self-pity had vanished and now you were growing concerned, "It followed you all the way here?"

Gallo shook his head, "No. It pulled off a couple of blocks before me, I figured it must have been someone taking the same route, but..."

"But?"

"it just felt strange," Gallo confessed.

You put your almost untouched beer on the coffee table, walking around the couch to grab your phone off the kitchen counter where I was charging.

"What are you doing?" Gallo asked, frowning at you, "You think it really was following me?"

"I don't know," You told him, "But I'd feel a hell of a lot better if Jay came and told us for sure."

You searched through your phone for Jay's name, quickly calling him and walking back to Gallo. As you heard it start to dial, you heard the unmistakable sound of a car screeching to a halt.

"Tell Jay what's going on," You ordered Gallo, shoving your phone at him for him to take. As Gallo rambled off what was going on to Jay, you slowly approached the windows. You pressed to the side of the window, trying to not be seen by anyone outside. You gently parted the curtains, glancing through the gap to see four armed men getting out of a black crossover.

You ducked away from the windows quickly, grabbing Gallo's arm and yanking him along with you to your ensuite. He handed the phone to you with a breathy, "Jay wants to talk to you."

You nodded, grabbing the phone off him, then pushing him into the bathroom, "Stay in here, get low and lock the door."

Gallo protested, "What about you?"

"I'll be fine, just do as I say," You snapped back shutting the door quickly and as quietly as you could.

"-Y/N? What's going on? Y/n!"

You held your phone to your ear with your shoulder, making your way back out of your bedroom and into the lounge to get a vantage point on the car in your street.

"Jay, there are four armed men outside," You weren't sure why you were whispering, the men hadn't even approached the windows so they wouldn't be able to hear you.

"Patrol is 5 minutes out, we're not far behind, okay?" Came jays response.

"Okay," You whispered. You ducked around your couch, using the furniture to hide your figure as you tried to look for a license plate on the car.

"Shit!" You cursed, barely having time to press yourself flush to the ground before three of the men unloaded their magazines into the front of your apartment.

"Y/N?" You could hear Jay's concerned voice coming from your phone, but it had skidded out of sight when you hit the ground.

The rain of bullets left your ears ringing, all around you were shrapnel of your apartment. Tiny fragments of glass mixed with the ripped-up wood of the floors, essentially creating one hell of a scene.

You dared raise yourself off the ground, getting to your hands and knees and psyching yourself up to crawl to the kitchen to hide behind the counter. The ringing in your ears subsided briefly for you to hear the crunching of footsteps approaching. The footsteps belonged to a pair of dark military-style boots. Before you could think too much about the fact, one of the boots came down on your back, kicking you to the floor and winding you.

You let out a puff of air at the force, gaping and hiccuping trying to regain your breath. The pair of boots were joined by another and you were hauled to your feet.

"Where is it?"

Both of the men were dressed in military-style tactical gear, all black aside from their vests which were camo. Their faces were covered by goggles and balaclavas. It was no doubt meant to be intimidating, but all you could think was what the fuck did they want with you.

"I don't enjoy repeating myself, where is it?" The man on your left snarled, he had a tight grip on your arms while the man on your right loosely trained his rifle on you.

You didn't know what to say, this was all so absurd. Instead of replying to the man you just laughed, a laugh of shock and surprise. The two men looked at each other, and then one of them punched you straight in the stomach.

"Jesus Christ," You swore, doubling over and struggling not to empty your stomach on their boots, "I don't know what you're talking about, okay?"

The sound of police sirens and the bright flashing lights were surrounding you at once. You could hear the patrol cops shouting orders at the men outside your apartment, then the repeated sound of gunfire.

"Last chance," He warned, "Tell us where it is, or we'll kill you."

You almost screamed when the man's chest exploded, his blood spraying over your face and chest. At least you were expecting it when the second man went down too.

"Chicago PD!"

In your line of work, you had been covered in other people's blood more times than you cared to count - but this was different. As you stood shell-shocked, a swarm of officers filled the room. The ringing in your ears grew and grew, all you could do was stare at your shaking hands that were covered in the men's blood.

Someone was grabbing your arm, pulling you towards the door and away from the bodies. Your legs shook so badly that had to support you as you walked. Your vision was blurring from tears that clung to your lashes, every step you took felt like you were slowly sinking into the pavement. You were led through the sea of CPD to an ambulance then gently sat on the back step. You could hear the rustle of action going on around you now, but the blood rushing in your ears drowned most of it out.

Someone was gently taking your face in their hands, guiding you to look up at them. Hailey smiled down at you, slowly talking you through the wave of panic that held you. She wrapped a thick blanket around your shoulders, tucking it under your chin as you sat immobile. Hailey sat down next to you, grasping your hand tightly in hers and rubbing a soothing hand up and down your back.

"Just breathe, you're safe," She kept saying, whispering it quietly into your ear as she soothed your hair away from your face.

Once you finally felt like the world had stopped shaking and the ringing in your ears subsided you realized what was really going on.

You let out a small sigh, turning to Hailey with wide eyes. You wanted to ask what the hell had just happened, to swear and shake the anxiety out of you. Instead, you just looked at her, distraught.

Hailey knew what you were trying to say. She smiled softly, her tone was so soft it almost made you feel warm and safe, "Don't worry about that right now. What matters is that you're okay."

You nodded, letting her pull you into a tight hug and hold you there for a moment. When you both pulled away, she waved over the waiting paramedics, who gave you a few damp wipes to clean your face.

Hailey helped you wipe the blood off your face and neck, watching you struggle to not be ill at the idea of someone else's blood covering you. She kept you calm and held your hand, reassuring you that everything was alright the whole time.

When you were done clearing your face, she took both your hands and started whipping your arms and hands. As she did, your eyes wandered to the scene around you. There had to be at least 6 or 7 patrol cars all parked haphazardly around the street. Uniformed officers were already setting up the tape and directing crowds and media away from the debris field. You could see Gallo sitting in a different ambulance, he looked unharmed, probably just as shaken as you were. Kevin and Kim were standing by, talking to him and the paramedics.

Voight was standing with the rest of intelligence and Trudy, commanding the uniformed officers and lab techs around the scene. As you looked over you spotted Jay, who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He glanced over as you were looking, making eye contact and breaking away from the group.

Voight and the others watched him approach you and Hailey. When he got up to you, he quickly pulled you into a hug. He was squeezing you so tight it was almost constricting. You didn't have the heart to tell him that. When he pulled away he forced you to sit back down next to Hailey.

"Are you alright?" He asked gently.

You couldn't find the words to reply, just shaking your head.

Jay grimaced, nodding in understanding. "Hailey is going to go with you to Med, yeah? I'll come as soon as we finish here."

You nodded, your voice still having not returned. Jay pressed a kiss to your hairline, helping you to your feet and into the ambulance. He sent you one last smile before he shut the doors and watched the Rig pull away.

"She okay?" Voight asked as he rejoined the gathered officers.

Jay sighed, "I don't think so, she's really shaken."

Kim nodded, "Gallo told us what happened, she locked him in the bathroom like she knew they would open fire on them."

Jay remembered all the times he told you when you were younger - the safest place in that situation is in the bathtub. Seeming you didn't have one, the bathroom had been your attempt to make do with little resources. The team kept looking at him like they were expecting him to snap, such a brazen attack on his sister with so many witnesses meant there was something bigger at play here. Jay wasn't angry - he was seething. The white-hot fury that slowly burns away at your heart, that would make you act like never before.

Will was feeling something similar when he watched you walk into med for the second time that day. This time, however, he knew you were hurt. Hailey was holding you up, tightly gripping your forearm and steering you into the ED. You had refused to be wheeled in on the gurney, adrenaline coursing through you still, making you unable to feel the pain.

Will dropped his tablet on the desk, running over to you and taking your other arm as you pitched to one side.

"What the hell happened?" He asked, taking in the smudges of blood on your skin and the stains over your shirt.

Hailey answered for you as you fought to stay present, your mind wanting to swallow you whole and ignore the outside world.

Will helped you into the bed, the deja vu of the situation made your skin crawl.

"Hey, what's going on?" Dr Marcel asked as he wanted in, a nurse on his heels. Will looked at you to explain, but you were replaying the night before you. Watching your apartment rip apart again, hearing the crunching of footprints over and over.

"Y/N?" Will grabbed your hand, smoothing your hair back as he tried to calm you down. The monitors started to beep as your heart rate rose and oxygen levels dropped. "Try to breathe, squirt."

You shook your head, unable to slow your breathing or gather any control to do so.

"Can we get a cannula on her please?" Dr Marcel ordered. You could feel the tube being placed on your face, looped around your ears. It made you uncomfortable but there was nothing to do about it.

You gripped Will's hand even tighter, choking on sobs and your own gaps for air. Will watched helplessly, trying to calm you to no avail.

"Will," Crockett spoke, ".5 of versed?"

Will knew the last thing you would have wanted was to be sedated but your oxygen stats were dropping, even with the cannula. He nodded to Marcel, letting him know to go ahead.

He prepped the meds quickly and behind his turned back, when you caught on to what was going on you were already too far gone in your own panic attack to protest. Eventually, the versed did its job of calming you down enough to allow you to relax and feel safe.

"Sorry," You croaked, throat raw from the earlier events.

Will smiled, "You just had to see me again, huh?"

You laughed a little, the movement sending an ache through your stomach, "Don't make me laugh," You pouted holding your abdomen as if it would help.

Crockett watched you two with an amused grin, now that you had calmed down, he asked where you were hurt.

Will had to give you his stern 'I'm the eldest so you do as I say' look, knowing how you and jay both resisted hospitals greatly.

"My right side," You explained to Crockett, gesturing to your right ribs where you had been cruelly sucker punched.

Crockett gently lifted your shirt off the area, even through his gloves you could feel how cold his hands were. He pressed against one of your ribs, causing you to let out a strangled, "Fuck," at the sudden pain.

Crockett smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."

You scowled at him, "Yeah, sure you are."

"Glad to see your humour is still intact," Crockett joked, laughing at Will who looked less than impressed at the two of you bantering.

You smiled at your brother, trying to reassure him that you were fine now. Even though your mind was still full of fog. Every time you stopped to think about it, you were brought back to the events in your living room.

When Dr Marel finished his prodding, he said he would get you on the waitlist for a CT, but that it might take some time. You had to bug Will to go back to his shift, promising that you wouldn't pull a Jay and try to break out. He had only agreed after Hailey promised she wouldn't let you leave either.

"How's Gallo?" You asked Hailey, having not seen him since the ambulance.

Hailey smiled, "He's alright, Sarg took him back to the precinct until we figure out the best way to handle all this."

"Okay," You replied, sighing at the idea that this wasn't all over, just yet.

After the CT scan Dr Marcel assured you and Will - although mostly Will - that you had no broken ribs, but some gnarly bruises that might leave you stiff for a few days. You had grumbled about not being able to go back to work and Dr Marcel laughed at how irritated Will looked.

Hailey had helped you get dressed in some clean clothes, some of your sweats she'd nabbed from your apartment. She helped you put on a zip-up, apologizing at your winces when you had to move too fast. Will had given you a gentle side hug as you and Hailey left, promising that you could crash at his. 

After you got done at the precinct and relayed your statement for the umpteenth time, Jay drove you to Wills. He hovered more than usual, giving you his jacket to keep you warm and letting you know he would go to your apartment and grab some of your stuff. 

“You don’t have to go out of your way,” You laughed, letting him bring you a coffee. 

“I won’t be,” Jay replied, gently squeezing your shoulder, “Working the case remember?” 

It took a week for you to get back to work, the bruising had gone from purple to green, looking more gnarly than before. It didn’t hurt so much anymore, at least not enough that you couldn’t work. You walked into the firehouse at the start of your shift expecting the ‘surprise’, but it still scared the living daylights out of you. When you walked into the common room, there was no one around. Expecting them all to be gathering in the locker room like they normally did, you thought nothing of it. 

When they all rounded the corner into the room shouting you jumped hallways to the roof. 

“What on earth?” You asked, laughing as they handed you a small box. 

“Ah,” Hermann waved his hand, “Just open it.” 

You laughed, flipping the box open to reveal a plastic police badge. Immediately you burst out laughing, “A police badge?” “Yeah! Seeming you got Intelligence that case, you’re like a cop now,” Gallo joked, playfully elbowing you. 

“Oof,” You grabbed your side, slightly doubling over where Gallo elbowed you. 

Brett was at your side instantly, grabbing your arm and asking what was wrong. Gallo had gone pale, looking terrified he had just hurt you again. 

“Are you alright?” Kidd asked, coming to stand next to Brett with her eyebrows knitted. 

You straightened up, dropping your hands, “Yeah, I’m fine.” You grinned, “Just wanted to mess with Gallo.” 

Everyone laughed, cheering about how it was good to have you back. Gallo grabbed you into a hug, complaining about how that prank was cruel. You sat down to have breakfast with them all, telling Gallo, “It’s payback for that god-awful date you set me up on.” 

Being back to work was exactly what you needed. As much as you loved your brothers, they were hovering a lot and it was nice to get back to a little bit of normality. Your apartment was being repaired, the landlord taking her time and dragging her feet about the ordeal. So, living with Will had meant everything still felt strange. Your truck never treated you any differently though, being back sitting with Gallo and Carver in the truck was the best you’d felt since the incident. 

After a couple of shifts, you’d fallen back into the rhythm of it all, you and Will worked differing shifts so you would often get home to him leaving for work or vise versa. The more you were back on the job the more you started to forget the whole incident. You were at Molly’s one night after shift when Jay and Hailey had come to chill. They had let you know if passing the case was still unsolved and that the police chief had set them up on another case seeming that one didn’t have any leads. You didn’t mind much, it was easier to leave it in the past. Besides, the men who had attacked you and Gallo in your apartment had been locked in prison out of state, you barely had to testify seeming the entire encounter was captured by your neighbour's security cameras. You had gone back to your normal life, responding to fires and car crashes and the occasional ‘how did they get stuck there’ calls. 

“All Units, Structure fire, S Canal St.”

You all jumped into action, suiting up and climbing into the rig. 

“S Canal street? Isn’t that warehouses?” Carver asked. 

“Yeah,” Kidd replied, frowning at her screen. 

When all the companies pulled up the address, all of you climbed out to see the seemingly abandoned area. 

“Where’s the fire?” Severiade asked no one in particular. 

You were all suited up, Truck, Engine and Squad prep with SCBAs with no fire to respond to.

“Spread out, see what you can find,” Kidd ordered. You, Violet and Brett walked around the side of the warehouse to see if you could find anything. As you were approaching the back of the building you saw a door left open. 

“Lieutenant,” You spoke to the radio, “There's a door open on the B side near the back.”

There was no reply, you frowned and tried again. When there was still nothing you turned to Brett and Violet, “Maybe the radios are down?” 

Brett frowned, trying her radio to no response. 

“Help!” 

You looked back into the warehouse, trying to decide what to do. 

“Okay,” You sighed, “I’m going to go in, maybe you guys can go back and get the others?” 

Brett looked apprehensive but agreed, telling Violet to go get Kelly and Stella while she grabbed the gurney. You walked into the warehouse, grabbing your tac light and turning it on to look around. 

“Fire Department, Call out!” 

There was no response, the warehouse was so quiet you could hear your footsteps echoing off the walls. 

“Fire Department, Call out!” You repeated. This time you could hear a reply. As you headed further into the warehouse you heard a loud slam. You frowned, turning around to see the door you entered from was shut. 

“Brett?” You spoke into the radio, “Anyone copy?”

You started to get uneasy, there was something wrong here. Turning back to where you heard the victim last, you came around a corner to see a room full of machinery. 

“Fire department!”“Here!” As you stepped into the room, you knew for sure something was wrong. It felt like your entire body was charged with nervous energy, the hair on your arms standing on end. You had got to stop getting into these situations. 

You raised your halligan a little higher, ditching your flashlight and opting for the more weapon-like thing you had. You tried to check every corner and crevice as you walked through the room, but there was nothing to see. Or nothing that you could see. You walked around the final corner where you saw a man lying on the ground, half under what looked like some kind of crusher. 

“Sir?” 

You took an apprehensive step forward, lowering the Halligan. As you did, you felt the smooth metal of a blade being pressed above your collar. 

“Drop the bar.” 

You did as you were told, letting the metal clang to the ground and offering the suspect your hands. The man who was on the ground got up, simply sliding out from where he was. 

Just my luck.

The man lowered the blade and grabbed our hands, pushing you forward towards a door back to the main warehouse room.

“...stead… do you… rep…” 

You were dragged from the first floor to the basement, zip tied at the wrists and forced to your knees. A man with a rifle stood at the doorway, wearing the same black military tac the men t your apartment were wearing. 

‘Is this about the drug den?” You demanded, “Because I told your buddies when they destroyed my apartment, I don’t know where the police put your stuff.” 

One of the men walked up, your mind immediately started to go over the features you could see from how covered he was. 

6’2”, brown eyes, white.

“I don’t believe you, Lady firefighter.” 

Texan accent. Texan Accent?

“Why would I lie to you?” You snarled, “I really don’t feel like dying in the dirt and I’m clearly not a cop.” 

You could hear the smile in his voice, “I don’t care about the product anymore, love.” 

“Then what?”

“You got four of my best men locked up.”

“Clearly they aren’t the best if they got themselves locked-”

His fist slammed hard into the side of your face, sending your head snapping to the side. You could taste the copper in your mouth from the blood. You licked your lips, feeling the split that started bleeding. 

“Halstead… …are you…” 

Texas reached for your radio, he fiddled with the buttons as if trying to inspect its functions. 

You pointed to the button on the side, “You hold that button to turn it off,” You told him, smiling pleasantly knowing it would irk him. 

“...firefighter Hal… …respond… …you copy…” 

Kidd was sounding more and more frantic in the broken bits you could hear. 

Texas was clearly getting fed up with the interruption, he held down the button on the side. The radio crackled signifying it was relaying to the team. 

“You know, they will call the cops if I don’t respond,” You said, trying to act casual. 

“Let them,” Texas hissed, “You’ll be dead before they get inside.” 

He let go of the button, frowning at it and waiting to see if there were any more responses. 

“...Repeat that…”

“...CPD… the way…” 

“You fucking bitch.” 

You smiled, teeth stained red from the blood on your lips, “You really should know how to use a radio, jackass.” 

Violet came running around the corner up the Kidd and Severide as they stood trying to figure out where the caller is. 

“We found the entrance,” She told them, “We heard someone, Y/N went in” 

“Alone?” Kidd demanded.

Violet nodded, gesturing to Sylvie, “Brett had to get the gurney, our radios aren’t working.”

Severiade gestured for Violet to lead the way to the door as Kidd rounded up the rest of the company. 

When they all got to the door, they realized it was locked tight. 

Severiade tried opening it, pulling it to no avail. 

“We could force it open?” Stella asked.

Kelly frowned, gesturing to the door, “It’s an old-style security door, the hinges are on the inside.” 

Kidd turned to him, “Something doesn’t seem right.”

“I agree,” Kelly responded, looking up the building for signs of other ways to get in. 

“Can squad get the door open?” 

“Yeah,” Kelly replied, “But it’ll take some time.”

As kelly started barking orders to the gathered firefighters, Kidd stepped back at tried the radio. 

“Halstead,” She spoke into the radio, “Do you Copy? Report.” 

There was no response. 

“Our radios weren’t working at all before,” Violet offered, “Maybe there's some kind of interference from inside?” 

The group watched as Cruz and Severiade made slow work cutting through part of the door, trying to find a way to break into the door. They had to keep replacing the blades to the saw that broke, making the job tedious. 

“Halstead, are you okay?” Kidd tried again 

She sighed, “Gallo, Carver, did you find any other entrance?” 

Carver shook his head, “Only an old garage door, but it’s bolted up from what we could see.” 

Kidd sighed, knowing the best chance would be to get you on the radio somehow. 

“Firefighter Halstead, respond. Do you Copy!”

There was a crackle in everyone's radio. 

“...know… …call the cops…” 

Everyone grimaced at the sharp scratch the radios made.

“... dead before…”

“That wasn’t Y/N,” Mouch noted, it was definitely a male voice who spoke the second time.

“Y/N, can you repeat that?”

Silence. 

“Dispatch, this is truck 51 requesting immediate police backup. We have a possible hostage situation here.” 

“Copy that, Truck 51. Patrol is on route.” 

“Halstead? CPD is on the way, what’s going on?”

Adam took the stairs two at a time, bounding into the Bullpen and telling them all to be quiet. He turned the volume up on his radio. 

“...Units on the city-wide, any available units to 1399 S Canal St, Truck 51 reported a possible hostage situation with a firefighter.” 

Jay stood up from his desk, grabbed his phone and called you. The phone rang and rang but you didn’t pick up. He frowned, searching through his contacts until he found Stella Kidd's name. He only had her name for emergencies and this was definitely one. 

“Jay?” Kidd answered. 

“Stella, what’s going on, we heard dispatch call for cars to your location.” 

“Listen,” She responded, “Y/N went into a warehouse and the door locked behind them, we can’t reach them on the radio. We got a broken bit of a conversation, she said ‘call the cops’ and a man responded ‘dead before’.” 

Voight immediately ordered the group to tac up and head to the location, knowing how important this was to them all. 

When they all arrived, they joined the firehouse at the side door. By now, Squad had almost got the doors open, they only had to pry them open with the jaws before it would all be a go. 

Voight ordered everyone but Severiade and Cruz back to the trucks, but the firefighters all stubbornly refused. 

“We’ll stay out of the way but we gotta be close, what if they need us?” Kidd had argued. 

Voight didn’t have time to argue, letting them stand far enough from the door that they wouldn't be in the line of fire if there was an offender at the door. 

“Ready?” Severiade asked the gathered officers. “On three. One, two, three.” 

He and Joe pulled the door open, getting out of the way for the 7 police officers to rush inside. 

The team quickly and quietly cleared every room, making it around the basement until they found the stairs to the basement. Voight gave them the clear to make their way down the stairs, letting Kevin and Torres lead the way. At the bottom of the stairs there looked like there was nothing. The room was pitch black, the only light from the teams flashlights.

Kim sweaped her flashlight across the room, "Hey, Adam?"

Adam joined her side, "What is it?"

Kim pointed to a door, a large metal vault door similar to the one outside. It was cracked open slightly, sending a slight draft around the room.

Adam nodded, gesturing for Kim to lead the way to the door. Adam opened it and Kim lead the way into the next room. The room was less a room and more the landing to fire escape.

Kim called out to the rest of the team, they all gathered on the landing, coming to the same conclusion, the suspects had left the building and now they were playing catch up.

All you could think about was all of the times Jay told you about these kinds of cases, about how he and Atwater found Kim through Kim's persistent efforts. How most of the time victims had to fight to be found. He mentioned once how he responded to a call as a patrol officer, to find a women had jumped out of a moving car to avoid being kidnapped. At the time it was his way to teach you to be careful, but you were freshly 21 and laughed him off.

You really should have payed more attention.

It hadn't been long, definitely less than an hour since Texas had forced you out of a fire escape and into the back of a car. You'd given about as much trouble as you could, kicking him in shin when he'd shoved you into the care. You knew it had to hurt with your uniform boots, but he didn't seem too happy about it.

You had passed at least two blocks and tried to count, but the warehouses made it hard to focus. The driver turned down a street and then into a car junkyard. You would have laughed at the irony had it not meant upsetting Mr texas more.

When he and the driver got out of the car, they stepped away to talk to a new person you didn't recognize. She was at least dressed like a normal person if more fancy than you would have thought necessary for a junkyard.

As a last-ditch effort you tried the radio, "Lieutenant, do you copy?"

There was no reply. You were on your own.

The door was thrown open and you were dragged out of the car. As if they finally remembered they were kidnapping a firefighter, they roughly grabbed your SCBA and threw it to the side, ditching the equipment somewhere near a line of crushed cars. Texas and the driver grabbed you by the arms and pulled you along the gravel until you were towards the back of the yard. You kicked and screamed, trying to break the ties on your wrists or bring any kind of attention.

They threw you on the ground, Texas brandished his revolver and pointed it at you. All you wanted to do was scream and plead, but there was no time. The gun went off and you hit the ground.

The first thing you recognized was the PASS alarm. It was far enough away that it was slightly muffled, but you could hear it clearly through the yard. You hoped that maybe someone would hear it over the traffic noises going on around you. Any sense of fight had left, it was clear this wasn't a kidnapping it was an execution. Now all you could do was lay hopelessly in the dirt.

"Dr Acher, Dr Asher, we got incoming!"

"Brett, talk to me!" Hannah called as she joined gourney rolling through the doors.

"Y/N Halstead," Brett started to rattle off, "GCS 9, perforating head wound. CPD found her in a car yard, no idea how long she was there."

Will had to hold Jay back from barrelling straight into the room, trying to persuade him that it would be okay without fully believing it himself.

"Page Neuro," Dr Archer ordered, "Let's get a CT and push fluids."

Hannah's face was hovering over you, you could feel a sharp pain in your chest as she performed a sternum rub.

"Y/N?" She pressed, "How are you feeling?"

You groaned, trying to swat her hand away but being held back by the nurses. Everything was moving so fast, it felt like your head had been hit by a sledgehammer. Any sense of time or spacial awareness was gone. It was like an out-of-body experience, but not the fun kind.

When you were next aware of your surroundings, your hand felt clammy. You forced your eyes open and grimaced at the brightness. You pulled your hands towards your face, trying to block the light.

"No, hey, don't," Jay protested, grabbing your hands and pulling them away from the bandages on your head.

You frowned at him, unable to muster up any more energy to fight him. You were half asleep, the feeling of not knowing if your dreaming or not. Jay was at your side, holding your hand. You wanted to tease him about how clammy his hands felt, but talking was too much energy. Hailey was beside Jay, she smiled brightly at you and pulled a blanket higher around your body.

After a while Will came into the room carrying coffee cups, he grinned when he saw you half awake. He gently pulled you into a hug, helping you prop yourself up on the bed.

"I don't get a coffee?" You croaked, attempting a chuckle that ended in coughing.

Will helped you sit up, holding your arm as you coughed like a child.

He and Jay helped you lay back down, Will fussed over the monitors and jay pulled the blanket back up again. You lazily pushed his hands away mumbling about being fine and he was smothering you. Jay ignored you and continued fussing.

You spent 3 weeks in the hospital, Dr Abrams had kept telling you about how lucky you were to be alive - let alone spend such a short time in the ICU. During that time, Will and Jay were almost always around. If they weren't, it would be someone from 51 or all of them.

You had woken up one day to the entire lot of them crammed into the room, somehow managing not to wake you with their rowdiness. They had all teased you about the situation,

"Only you would get yourself in that situation, Halstead," Violet joked, playfully poking your arm.

You had shrugged and proclaimed you wanted the paid time off.

When you were released, Dr Abrams had schooled Will on everything to look out for, warning the both of you to be on high alert. You were expecting it, but still the scolding only made Will more protective.

He always doctored you and Jay, but now it felt like he was less your brother and more a live-in doctor. Staying with him meant you didn't have to worry about your own apartment - which you had essentially been evicted of. And gave both Will and Jay peace of mind. It also meant that Jay could come around whenever he wanted because he had a key.

Will had found you both on the couch one day after his shift. Jay was watching some rerun of a hockey game and you had your legs thrown over his lap, completely passed out covered in blankets.

Even after you had gotten much better, Will insisted that you stayed with him. Jay had teased the two of you were lonely and had gotten used to each other's company and neither of you could argue because he was right. You had been cleared by Abrams to do light duty and got to play Fire Cop alongside Lieutenant Seager. Joe hadn't stopped giving you shit about it. Every time you came to Molly's he'd declared, "The fire cops here!" and envelope you in a massive hug.

After almost 8 months of doing nothing and working a desk job, you finally managed to beg Boden and Abrams to sign off on letting you back on Truck. The company had been functioning without you for so long that you worried they might eventually have to replace you. It took more convincing Jay to let you go back to work than Will. Will knew you were stronger than ever - having come with you to most of your appointments. Jay however, was worried about you getting hurt again.

You had rolled your eyes and said, "what like you do?"

Hailey had to hold in her laughter at the stare off the two of you had.

You'd sworn your brothers and Boden to secrecy, knowing they would accidentally tell the house if you didn't tell them to keep their mouths shut. You'd even gone so far as to bum a ride off Will, not wanting to let them know you were there.

You'd walked into the briefing room when Boden was declaring there was a new addition to Truck. You hadn't known he had set you up for an entrance - which made it all the more amusing for you when you walked into the briefing room and they all but exploded with excitement. Violet and Brett were the closest to you, they both jumped out of their chairs and pulled you into a hug. When you pulled away, Gallo and Ritter were pulling you into their own hugs.

When the hugs and welcomes were done, you felt like you were finally home. Things were back to normal, sure they were different than before, but maybe even better.

[floofiestboy]

Alright, floof. I'm not sorry.

Here's the list.

1, 5, 7 (if you feel like exposing yourself), 10 is an evil question to ask you so I must, 11 because I'm convinced there's neat stuff, 12, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22.

I lied, accidentally. It is twelve questions, I went through the list again and realized I do also want to know your favourite tropes <3

No pressure and all, feel free to pick and choose what you wish to answer :3

Thanks for the ask, Iris 🥺 (ask meme here)

1. What is the first fandom you were ever a part of?

If you define fandom as "first piece of media I got merch of", then I guess Detective Conan since I got DVDs and manga volumes at like, seven or something. If you define fandom as actually participating with other fans, then Percy Jackson- my first fic was written for it.

5. Favorite platonic pairing?

I think Hattori and Shinichi should be platonic life partners. Start up a detective agency or something, you know? Move in together after university? The only problem is finding a compromise between Osaka and Tokyo...

7. Least favorite headcanon?

I refuse to believe Akai returns to America post-BO takedown. I just don't see him as having much attachment to the FBI and the US.

10. Fandom that you've spent the most money on?

Help. This is a hard question. It's in between Detective Conan and Senyuu. I have more DC merch, but it was generally cheaper since it's official... I also have more Senyuu doujinshi and purchased any official Senyuu media out there except for the DVDs. Not to mention purchasing every online Senyuu chapter...

Eh, I'll go with Senyuu, but it's close.

11. Most unique merch you have for a fandom?

In terms of a unique type of merch, these akam gloves:

In terms of overall uniqueness, these one-of-a-kind yuuyona plushies I commissioned from an alibaba merchant:

12. Craziest thing you've ever done as part of a fandom?

I downloaded an app that gave me access to a Chinese payment method so I could send money to an old Chinese scanlator of Suginami on Chinese patreon-like app to see if they still had the high-quality image of an official Suginami illustration that no longer exists on the Internet.

They never responded :c

14. Fandom you keep returning to?

DC...

16. Fandom you'll probably end up joining?

Can't think of anything, honestly. The muses are fickle and strike with little warning.

19. Fanfic you read again and again?

To be honest, I don't re-read fics that often aside from my own to cry over typos I missed. At most I might reread fics after a year or so when my memory of them has gotten blurrier.

Hm, I guess esama's Assassin Creed fics are probably the ones I've reread the most. I reread them whenever I get into an AC mood.

20. All-time favorite fanfic author?

yellow_caballero's D:BH fics were hilarious. Loved their narration so much.

It turned out that Hank was secretly nice, but the sensation of vivid death wishes was novel and rewarding. You could do anything when you secretly hated everything. Connor found vast new avenues of perspective opening before him. Suddenly it was possible to wish death upon anything - the bus when it was running late, the other android in front of him when he accidentally stepped on his toe, any human who shot him a dirty look. The world was his oyster, and the pearl was hatred. It was a slippery slope of deviancy - you start out thinking of witty comebacks to everything Hank said, and before you know it you’re releasing thousands of robots from captivity and helping lead the robot rebellion.

I'm also a big fan of all of Vamillepudding's batfam fics. Comedy gold.

Immediately, Tim perks up. “Yes!” he says, sitting down by the kitchen counter to watch Jason work. “Full disclosure, I already know how to play catch. I wanted my dad to show me, but he didn’t have time, and then they taught us in school, and my teacher thinks I’m really good at it so she wanted me to join Little League, but I didn’t want to so I told her no, and then my mom said I should have joined, but then my dad said I should join the boy scouts instead, and then they got distracted so they hung up and their secretary told me they’d call me again in two weeks.”

Throughout Tim’s monologue, Jason has been slicing vegetables and adding them to a large bowl, and now, while he works on the dressing, he tries to get Tim back on track. “So…you know how to play catch?”

Tim nods. “Yeah, but I like the idea of you teaching me, so let’s recreate that. I’ll pretend like I don’t know anything, and you can correct my posture, and when I finally get it right, you can hug me and tell me you knew I could do it.”

21. Favorite fic trope?

Identity reveals are my guilty pleasure, along with the POV character being unaware of an upcoming identity reveal and the misunderstandings that arise from that...

I also really love soulmates AUs where the soulmate reveal only happens after the ship is already in love. I don't like the idea of them being pressured to be together because of their soulmate marks or something, but I do like the idea of them feeling secure in their existing love thanks to their connection.

22. Least favorite fic trope?

Love at first sight. I'm picky about my ships as it is, I can't get into it if they only "fell" for each other at first from their appearances.

[bonefall]

You've said you want to show stigmatized disorders in positive lights in BB; any characters planned to have NPD traits? It's very much seen as the 'big bad' of PDs, so seeing it in a positive portrayal would mean a lot to me

The biggest reason why I don't currently have any planned is because I've tried like 3 times to sit down and do my research, and can find no good leads to personal accounts of what it's like to live with NPD

It's SO stigmatized that finding good accounts and resources has been impossible. I feel good and confident with BPD because I know someone who has it who's happy to talk about it, and they gave me access to the resources that their therapist gave them.

When I'm unsure of something, I ping them like, "babe does this look good?" and we chat about how to better approach the writing, if there's any unfortunate implications that may be accurate but are best avoided, good characters to pick to dispel stereotypes etc.

(good example is when I was considering Hollyleaf having it; since she has a very long arc about betrayal, murder, and political tyranny, we decided it might be unproblematic but it was a pretty uncomfortable thing to do to a BPD character when the disorder is already so stigmatized and associated with unreasonable fear of rejection.)

So, it's personal experience. Secondhand, yes, but still personal. Without them, I have a hard time even getting first-person BPD accounts without drowning in a deluge of,

"OOGABOOGA BPD BAD HOW TO RECOVER FROM EVIL WOMAN DISORDER ABUSE"

I really, sincerely do not want to accidentally stumble into the 'I Hate You Don't Leave Me' of NPD, if that makes sense, and walk away with a dehumanizing or inaccurate idea of what it's like to have it.

(side note: jesus christ IHYDLM is written like instructions for how to train a grizzly bear and i both cant believe it's the authority on BPD and am not even remotely surprised)

If you have good pointers though, like, forums I can visit, books I can read, websites with resources for people who have NPD, I'd appreciate it so I can finally do some research without being exposed to 3 sieverts of radiation poisoning from google's top results

[alphabetboyluvr]

hiii holly! i hope november's treating you kindly so far!

i wanted to ask whether you have any advice for writers that are just starting to publish. literally any modicum would be greatly appreciated.

it's really hard to assess whether one's writing is any good when literally no one ever reads it :( at the same time, I know I should write for myself first and foremost. can't help but want to be held accountable by the possibility of an audience, tho (maybe that's just my brain chemistry??) I fall into the pit of thinking "if no one's reading it, why am I even writing? I can daydream indefinitely and be satisfied. Why write?" Yet I always come back to writing; it's something magnetic.

it's not the same to ask close friends to read ur stuff bc they are ur friends, and may not give you the sincerity ur looking for so as to not discomfort u. conversely, they might not be interested enough so as to pick up on the fine details.

f/u question: how do you deal with publishing your work on the internet for free? does it ever scare you that strangers could copy and republish ur work without your knowing?

I guess that's one of my main apprehensions about posting loyally on writing platforms. I'm scared I'll write something I'm very proud of and have it plagiarized and not be able to track it back as my original property??

anyways, enough of my self-exposing on your q and a's feeling v vulnerable sharing my doubts so openly lol

thank youuuu :) ly <3

hiyaaa!! it's getting chilly, i won't lie, but other than that November has been pretty typical. likewise, i hope it's treating you well too!

honestly the fact you casually drop words like modicum probably suggests you're a paygrade above me in terms of writing hahaha

my answer is a long (srsly i just kept on going lmao) ramble, so I'll put a read more here haha

i've many lovely friends who i absolutely adore that I've met through writing that are now irls, but none of my friends that i know independently outside of writing have ever read my stuff - I've even got irl friends who are deep in the ao3 trenches, who are paying for other tannie writers' patreons, but we have an unspoken rule that my work is not to be read by them. i just don't let my friends read my work, full stop, so i get that sentiment.

the thing is, humans are naturally inclined to be storytellers - it's been that way for thousands of years. our tales are meant to be told. sharing is just a very human thing for us to do.

I've been publishing on wattpad (within the tannie space) for 4 years, now. readers didn't appear overnight - i actually recently found a screenshot of you up? from march 2021. it had 28 parts, 2.03k reads and 313 votes.

it now sits at 62 parts, 1.45million reads and 55k votes.

that's a little bit perspective for you, i guess - i'd written half of an entire novel that was averaging around 70 reads per chapter, but i loved that world, and i had story to tell, so i told it. some people viscerally hated it, some loved it. i was writing for me, and the numbers prove that. if you worry about the numbers, you'll never satisfied.

similarly, comparison is the thief of joy, or so they say.

comparing yourself to other writers is never healthy. there are far more 'successful' authors on wp in terms of reads, but i genuinely mean it when i say i think i have the most fulfilling and rewarding space on tannie wp because my readers are so unbelievably lovely. i wouldn't trade my current readership for bigger numbers, not a chance.

in terms of plagarism, there are 170,000 words in current use within the english language, and 36 plot types. we've exhausted a lot of them, already. overlap and similarities are bound to occur, so i try not get fixated on it.

take cv for example - i was so gassed up with myself when coining the terms mono and multi, only to find out after i'd finished writing the story that there was a drama with a similar concept that also used the term mono for a similar condition that aired after i'd already started writing cv. overlap happens.

similarly, we're a product of the media we consume. endeavour is my favourite word, because it was in a song i liked when i was a teenager and it stuck with me. i use it all the time, and we can trace it back to the pen of alex gaskarth lmao.

I've seen readers of mine publish work that's been heavily inspired by my work - with and without 'permission' - and i just sort of shrug my shoulders whenever i notice it.

the way i see it, we'll never tell the exact same story. likewise, no two readers will ever read identical texts the same way. i encourage creativity, and know how important it is for me to empty my brain, so I'll never go for someone's throat for doing the same. that's how myths were born, right? people telling and retelling the same stories over and over again? how am i gonna write a romeo & juliet x greek mythology inspired fic and then get annoyed for someone taking inspo from me?

just like the way hair will always grow back after a terrible cut, new words can always be written after a disappointing discovery. idk, i just don't take it very seriously, i guess.

as for whether or not your writing is any good - it's totally subjective. there are people who have explicitly, publicly stated their disdain for my writing. I've had cruel opinions about my writing projected and amplified to large followings. and it sucks.

but there are people who have been exceptionally kind about my writing, too. i get some of the loveliest messages in the world. there are tiktoks with hundreds of comments of just unadulterated loveliness directed towards my work. I'm afforded so much grace and love that it can be overwhelming at times.

not everything is for everyone, and that's okay. you can't let yourself get hung up on pleasing everyone.

the one thing i will say, is that if you're seriously concerned about your IP, write original characters, and use wattpad as your platform. i know they have a reputation, but they give a shit about copyright infringement and the second someone gets reported for plagiarism, they'll investigate it, and take down the story.

no reward without risk - you gotta decide if the risk of plagiarism is worth the reward of sharing your work.

and plus, ai is taking over anyways. may aswell write while we still can lol.

so i guess tl;dr - don't let outside influence impact your internal need to create. the right readers will find your work eventually, but it's not an overnight miracle kinda thing. if i stopped writing just because i didn't see results in my stats, then i would have stopped after kumiho, and we'd have never gotten throttle, or bd, or anything else of mine you might have read.

do it because you love it, and it fulfils you. i love the communities built around my stories, and that's why i share them. writing without sharing doesn't fulfil me in the same way.

okay i've really rambled too much so i'll leave it here, but i hope that helps a little!!! or at least has given you insight into my brain!!!!!!

luv u byeeeeeee

[opheliaintherushes]

I told myself I was done tormenting my kind and non-Riverdale-watching mutuals, and besides, I am too old and weathered for this fandom anyway, but really, the final, final thoughts on this finale and season as a whole:

First, and separately, does anything that happened after the characters got their memories back make sense? What was the point of it? They seemed completely unaffected by anything and happy to roleplay 50s teens. Were they even teens? Were they twenty-somethings sticking around high school like the vampires from Twilight for no explicable reason? Also, I'm sorry if you want to play the sentimental card, but if I was one of a handful of people who had traveled back in time and was stuck living in the past for 60 years or what have you, I would not lose contact with the others who also had. You would go insane! What did Archie tell his Modesto wife and child? Was Veronica picking up options on scripts she already knew would win Oscars? Did Jughead and Betty rewrite old issues of Mad and Ms. they might have read in the past? And is Gloria Steinem okay??? Also Betty and Jughead should remember they kind of hated each other in the future after the cheating and the voicemail, and Veronica should be so jealous of Betty for getting Archie, and Jughead should be so jealous of Archie for getting Betty, and my brain is hurting -

Almost more irritating were a) this idea that Archies are fundamentally stuck in the 50s (I owned the decade collections as a kid and the 60s and 70s were by far my favorites - very groovy), and b) the presumption that they did anything to address, expose, and or/fix actual problems of the 50s. Let us recap:

The school is already desegregated and this is never, ever discussed. The Black students are allowed to compete in beauty pageants, form their own literary club, dance on an integrated TV show, and join cheerleader squads, and this all happens with zero fight from the villains of the season. Fake Ray Bradbury and Fake Ray Bradbury's sweet but stupid wife think they could have settled in the south as a married couple in the forties. But? This is Riverdale, you say? They fixed everything? Sorry, you don't get to use Emmett Till to open the season and then eat your cake too.

Homophobia seemed to be the writers focus this season - except that every other episode someone would threaten Cheryl or Kevin, and then the next episode it would be an open secret at school with zero repercussions. Also, of course only the bad guys are homophobic (sorry Evelyn); our heroes are as forward thinking as they come. Hell, even Buffy had a moment to be wigged out by Willow and this was 1999! Anyway, look up what Lou Reed's parents did to him ('don't you know they're gonna kill your sons')

Let us not even discuss Reggie, who conquers racism through the power of athletics. Look up Richie Allen. Heck, watch the actual School Ties. It doesn't work out so well for David Greene in the end.

And then there's Fangs and Midge: first, rock and roll was seen as a huge menace, Fangs should've been on the school's hit list. Second, the writers obviously never read up on rock and rollers (who were generally older) and teen girls if they thought that was a good storyline. Third, they definitely never read any memoirs written by women in the 1950s, which all feature back alley abortions, slimy lovers, and shady doctors. (We don't even have time to get into Betty's idea of feminism being about sex all the time, everywhere, and becoming a burlesque dancer rather than, like, equal pay. Who knows, maybe she could have been the one harping on non-stop about the Beats and seen the cold face of her future there).

They didn't change anything. EC (sorry, Pep Comics) shut down. The Comics Code Authority won. So apparently all those artists who never worked again were just fine, right Tabitha?

[sam-glade]

Happy STS! Does your reading taste match your writing taste? Tell me about both!

Hi Lynn, happy STS💜

I'd say there's a huge overlap. I almost exclusively read speculative fiction nowadays, and write only SFF.

I'm a very fussy reader though, especially when it comes to traditionally published books, and I'll often put a book down halfway through e.g. because it's over-explaining things or because something about a character dynamic rubs me the wrong way, and I'm not enjoying it. And conversely, I strive to write books I'd enjoy reading. And re-reading.

However, there are certainly things outside the overlap. Let's imagine it as a Venn diagram.

In the middle, there would be inspiring, earnest adventures about people pushing themselves and finding their inner strength, with characters who are overall nice people and aren't too hateful or selfish. Most importantly, they don't hurt others for fun - I dislike cruel POV characters. The stories I like will have some banter and lighter moments, but will be far from cute and fluffy. (I know I keep bringing it up, but Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive might be the best example of the tone I mean.) The plot itself doesn't have to be that memorable, as long as I enjoy tagging along with the characters.

Also very much in the 'I like to read it, but I'll never write it' category - tragedies. I like bawling my eyes out while I consume the story, but when it comes to writing it myself, it becomes too depressing and taxing, having to go over the harrowing scenes over and over to polish them.

When it comes to reading, I like a consistent but very distinct voice (looking at Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb and Seth Dickinson's Masquerade series). However, when it comes to writing something like that, I get self-conscious about being pretentious - though The Fulcrum is an attempt to get over it.

I'd like to write a clever heist or detective story, but right now I'm not confident I can pull it off. Until that day comes, I'll enjoy reading them.

On the other side, I will occasionally write fluffy and cute scenes, especially to cheer myself up after getting past a bleaker section of a story. Even if they won't make it to any manuscript, it's a treat. At the same time, I don't read much fluff anymore. On too many occasions I've found it either too saccharine or like the author was trying too hard but the characters themselves didn't commit to it.

And finally things that I neither read nor write include grimdark - I don't like all of the characters being awful people; I want to root for someone, not wish that everyone will fail. And also a lot of romance, and especially heteronormative romance.

And I'd like to take this opportunity to vent about it just a little. Sorry, this will get lengthy and slightly off topic.

When I was in school, I tried to be just a normal girl (heh) and fit in. That was around the time when Twilight became a thing, and yes I've read it, since my friends insisted, and I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. I then tried various typical romances, and none of them resonated with me. I couldn't get through Pride and Prejudice even, despite the gorgeous setting and so much more to it than the romance.

What I think was going on was: in straight romance that I was exposed to there was this assumption 'there's a boy and a girl, of course they'll fall for each other'. Sometimes it was well-disguised, sometimes only thinly veiled, but once I noticed it, I couldn't unsee it. Even if the characters themselves were described as someone I might find attractive, I rarely got a good idea of why their love interest finds them attractive. So many times the answer seemed to be 'why wouldn't they'. And because I wasn't on board with the characters' feelings and didn't have the rose tinted glasses on, very often I'd go 'wait no I wouldn't want any partner to do this to me' about things they did to each other.

In comparison, in almost all of the queer romantic plots and subplots I've read (note: it's still not many, and even fewer of these books were first and foremost a romance), there's a lot more subtext and more nuance. I don't know if it's queer authors feeling (subconsciously?) the need to justify why these two people are together, or having more awareness of what's healthy in a relationship, or falling back to the subtlety we're used to seeing in media, from when queer representation was barely a thing, but that's what I enjoy a lot more. Also, in queer romances, I often find the characters having many more individual traits described in creative ways. Traits that aren't considered typically attractive. And my impression is that there's less pressure on characters to fall in love in queer books, but when they do, they're more active and decisive about it. Even when the decision and the action is to deny it.

And to bring it back to your question and the comparison to writing. I've attempted to write a straight couple twice, and in both cases I wasn't convinced there was any chemistry between the characters - at least not in both directions.

Obviously I haven't read that much straight-up romance overall, so this isn't based on a huge sample, but it's still enough for me to decide it's something I'll pass on. At this point, I'm quite happy saying: I don't have to write it if I'm not enjoying it.

[mixelation]

You know earlier today I was reminded of your posts about people condemning certain authors/their work and how they do give them even more visibility by always bringing them and their latest antics up, all because I saw some people do it again. Like I get that for some authors you can't ignore them fully because they're too big a presence but them getting brought up every damn day is not a solution either.

LOL, yeah. Like I get wanting to follow drama and the antics of someone you don't like (i do it all the time, RIP me), but you can't do that and also claim it's morally wrong to interact with the author's work? That doesn't make any sense. Please practice self control. You're hurting yourself.

I think some people see constantly blogging about certain celebrities as genuinely Raising Awareness, and blogging about recent events might be that to some extent, but I often see it being done in ways that... are literally just spreading access to whatever OP claims they're against? Like last time I vagueblogged on this topic, people gave a screen cap of tweet from one such author tens of thousand of notes on tumblr because it's cool to blog about how shitty they are, never mind that they're LITERALLY EXPOSING MORE PEOPLE to that person.

More recently I keep seeing posts about practicing abstinence not hate-watching Velma. Like. If you want no one to watch whatever horrible mess that is, you need to top talking about it obsessively, because you're just playing into their PR plan. Also no offense, but "hate watching" is not the horrible sin you think it is.

[captaindamianos]

Ooooh a 10 things I hate about you Lamen AU would be so cool! What are you envisioning? What are the moments you most want to see in it?

Anon!! Sorry it took me until today to respond. I was so excited to receive this message; I don't remember anyone ever asking me about my ideas or AUs. It makes me so happy that someone is willing to indulge me here.

I watched the movie recently, when I was on sick leave, but this has been on my mind for a long time now, and every time I see a gif set for the movie I get the craving for this exact AU all over again.

I have to pre-face though that I've not read The Taming of the Shrew, so I'm really just basing this on the vibes of the movie alone. My first language isn't english, so I grew up and learnt about different literature in school than Shakespeare/english literature. That wasn't quite the level we read on as far as I remember.

This was the gif set that did me in this time around haha

I know it's not a 100% fit, but in scenes like this (the paddleboat) there's echos of their dynamic to me. The honesty, the slow thawing of their relationship in general. I just think that the initial rocky relationship, becoming something really genuine is something both stories have in common.

I could definitely see canon elements being incorporated in an AU, like the CSA. So an overall darker tone might be necessary. But I think as painful as it is, experiencing abuse as child/pre-teen shaped a lot of Laurent's personality. And I like when authors keep their personalities intact as much as possible.

I'm really not sure if this would somehow be possible as an Auguste lives AU. But then, I've seen very varied interpretations of Auguste, and the more complicated their relationship, the more I usually enjoy it haha. I could see it work, if Laurent resents Auguste for something, for example something related to being exposed to their uncle. But they would work it out throughout the progress of the story. Then again, I guess the whole plotline about one of the sibling dating, so the other can as well, might also be possible with Nicaise or someone else filling the role of (foster) brother.

I can see some possibilities that could be used to mirror canon, like Kat getting drunk at the party vs Laurent getting drunk to impress the Akielons.

So the paddle boat is definitely something I'd want to see, or something in that vain. The scene in the courtyard!! I do like to think that Laurent enjoys flashy gestures, even if he'd never ask for it. He got an entire foreign/rival army as a courting gift smh.

I feel like I need to rewatch the movie again and take notes. But oh my god, you've made me more invested in this fandom than I have been in months asking me for my thoughts. Thank you so much!! If you have any thoughts on it as well, I'd LOVE to hear them!!