#each thinking is slipping away and theres nothing they can do

[gunstellations]

unreachable

[jinxed-lemon]

Been thinking about Sonic and Tails and how after a few years the two of them finally feel comfortable enough to start treating each other in that mean way that only siblings can be.

He’d never joke if it was something serious- but whenever Tails gets a wound like a scratch or a bruise Sonic will give it a long, hard look while clicking his tongue and say, “I’m sorry bud, but we’re gonna have to amputate :(“ and Tails will magically pull out a hacksaw saying ‘bet’ and Sonic has to wrestle it away from him.

It’s hot outside and Sonic is too lazy to get his own drink so he stands there begging Tails to let him have a quick sip of his:

Sonic: pls just one sip and I’ll give it back

Tails: …5 seconds and that’s it

So Tails gives him the drink and Sonic is being dramatic like “thank you so much bro this means a lot to me”. And Tails stands there watching as Sonic slurps down the rest of his drink until theres nothing left and his brother hands him the empty cup back like “that hit the spot thanks dude :)”. Tails looks down at the empty cup in his hand then back at Sonic and he just full force smashes the cup to the side of his head, water and ice just splashing everywhere.

Tails is working in his lab and every time Sonic goes to visit him and catch up he will always ALWAYS leave the door open when he leaves. Tails will yell at him to leave it closed and Sonic never listens, he’ll just stand there in the door and go 🤷‍♂️ until Tails chases him around the house. Sometimes Tails will legitimately just lock the door and Sonic will scratch outside like a dog kicked out of its home.

Tails is throwing a tantrum and just being particularly snarky and Sonic will always say stupid stuff like:

Sonic: “I literally gave birth to you???”

Tails: “Mf no you did not ☠️”

They make a bet about who can embarrass the other the most in front of strangers. They’re out getting ice cream or something and Sonic is letting Tails choose a flavor at the front, and the worker is talking to them like “how nice that your brother is taking you out for ice cream”. Tails look up at her with a big smile and says, “It sure is. It’s the first time this month since he’s let me out of the house. I’ll have to enjoy this while I can!! 🥹”. The lady looks horrified and Sonic grabs Tails by the scruff of his neck and tries to de-escalate the situation.

Sonic: ahahaaa wowie!!! Kids sure do say the funniest things am I right?? 😁

Tails: 🦊🍦

They’re out shopping and it’s kinda busy and so Tails slips away while his brother is preoccupied and leaves to go do his own thing. An hour passes by and Sonic has already left when Tails sends him a message saying “You forgot me in the store :(“ Sonic goes through the 100 stages of grief before sprinting back and freaking out thinking he’s the worst brother ever and Tails has already been at home waiting for him to get back just to laugh in his face.

Sonic is hyping up Tails to their fans and he playfully ruffles his head and goes, “Yep! He just learned how to tie his own shoes, I’m hoping that he’ll learn his alphabets soon enough. ☺️” and Tails dies on the inside bc now all these people think he’s a second grader.

Mean sibling bonding at its prime.

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/jinxed-lemon/743795378027184128/miles-tails-prower-enthusiast

[opiopal]

yall wanna know something I think abt a lot? teenage/ little sibling mc au's. Mc gets brought down to the devildom at like 15-16 yr, obviously there is zero romance and instead they just get kinned as the 8th sibling in the HOL.

you guys wanna know what else I think of a lot? little sibling Mc being an agent of chaos when their found family trope isnt paying attention.

I can't help but imagine that once mc is kinned they get crazy spoiled. not spoiled rotten but they know they can get away with a LOT because they're now seen as the cute youngest that doesnt know any better. but obviously they do since they are a teenager who knows how the world works.

and I mention the agent of chaos thing is because they were already attending highschool before hand, so they quickly notice how highschoolish RAD feels, so they were able to jump into the social ring a lot faster then regular Mc. and thus have the ability to get information from people who trust them/like them. so it ends up being useful to them. and now to my leading point: imagine a sort of friendship with Mephisto. its really more like, a symbiotic relationship. they are around each other for a reason. and that reason is RADs newpaper club.

it first started out with Mc staying after at RAD with lucifer to help with a few things, eventually Mc was put in a random room to hang out in after they did all that they could. which turned out to be the room for the newspaper club. after a while they get bored because their D.D.D died and they snagged a paper that was meant for the next day. eventually Mephisto enters the room, goes to tell them to leave which quickly they say "Dia told me I can be in here, if you have a problem with what the lord wants you could always go tell him that!" which shut him up fast. a good couple of minutes go by before the silence is broken by Mc speaking up and going, "You know, this is kinda boring." offended, he whips around, "excuse me?"

"theres nothing interesting here. interviews.. talking about things that everyone already knows about.. like, I could google half this junk." "I- well what would you know!?" "a lot actually. you dont appeal to any of the students here."

he glares for second before inhaling slowly, remembering that diavolo might be nearby.

"oh yeah? as if you could do better." "I could actually," "well i would love to hear it then."

he says sarcastically. though Mc speaks anyways.

mc adjusts how they were sitting and scans over the paper for a second.

"a gossip section would do it good." "what?" "come on dude, its non-sports club 101, if you want people to pay attention to you, you need to appeal to them. I was in theater for a while and we'd bribe people with free food if they sat through the whole show. this place loves drama. and lucifer being drawn riding on a unicorn isn't funny enough to get more then one person to buy it."

slowly they start talking a bit more casually and stop being so hostile. eventually Mc says that they could tell him the gossip they hear if he wants to make a part in the paper for said gossip. so, from then on they slip notes to him about student drama. which does indeed get more papers told!

though one day, someone pisses Mc off. not really that they were the one insulted, but they heard a few demons talking shit about their older brothers. so for the next week Mc takes a good amount of notes on those demons. which eventually they go to Mephisto with their notes and gave them to him. when he questions why these particular demons, he's met with a very angry "if those cunts want to talk shit and not mind their business then why shouldn't their own business get talked about." for a moment he wants to press further... but unfortunately for him he found himself actually caring about this human very much so he couldn't help but just want to make them feel better... and this much of a consititant story would draw people in so its totally not that he kinned this kid as well, totally!! so for about two weeks the gossip section has an ongoing story that causes nearly the whole school to get a paper to stay updated.

of course every bit of gossip uses code names to keep people from being outed on anything. and honestly some of the gossip might end up being people bringing it to the newspaper club themselves, so maybe a small confessions page ends up being opened.

obviously this is something a little cracked, and just a not very thought out thing that exists bc it makes me giggle when I'm daydreaming before I fall asleep<3 and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if there was already a gossip section in the school papers, but unfortunately I was never ever able to make it past the first few lessons of session 2 of obey me, which sucks:/

[ithinktheyloveme]

Baby, I Fall Inlove Every Summertime

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪. Sunsets at the beach with Satoru

ᯓ★ Gojo Satoru x g/n reader

ᯓ★ cheesy fluff!!

ᯓ★ wc : 740~

a/n : been rewatching some 2000s romcoms recently, so this is gonna b rly cheesy and ironic hehe enjoy.

A beautiful symphony of waves gently crash into eachother, birds sing into the hazy orange hues of the sky, yet all you can focus on is your stupidly pretty boyfriend. You look down to see the strongest sorcerer, the Gojo Satoru, reduced to a fluffy heep, laying comfortably on your stomach. Most of the beach-goers have already settled, either already gone, or packing up, leaving the scenery feeling perfectly intimate. You peak at the silly manga Gojo's reading and card your hand through his milky white tussle of hair, feeling each soft strand slipping in between your fingers.

"What's wrong, sweets?" He asked while reaching out to your hand, his eyes lighting up with a playful glint. You chuckle at the feeling of his tender touch and continue brushing through his hair, "it's nothing...just wondering how the hell you can get this kind of hair using crusty 3 in 1 shampoo." Gojo abruptly drops his manga and pouts, looking up at you "Heyyy! It's not my fault I'm so perfect and—ouch!" He gasps as a flick lands on his forehead, cutting off his cocky ramblings.

From this angle, you can see the warm glow of the setting sun illuminating his heavenly blue irises in the just the right ways. You think you might get hypnotized if you stare too much.

He suddenly cups your face with his hands, snapping you out of your trance. Gojo's hands are warm on your cheeks, though still wrinkly from your previous beach endeavors. His blown out pupils dialate even more as he inches closer. "You know," he murmurs, "I could get used to this whole 'admiring' thing, since you're always sooooo mean to poor old me." He drags out his syllables like a fussy kitten clawing for your attention.

You blink at him, speechless.

“Owwww!” he whines, feigning hurt as you land yet another soft flick to his poor forehead. "You're such a freakazoid, Satoruuuuu!" you whine, trying to push him away. His hold on your face doesn't falter, now squishing your cheeks together. "But I'm yooouuuuur freakazoid, baby," he says, mushing your face against his palms. "Sato—" you struggle to utter his name. "Ruuu—". He abruptly stops his devillish ministrations, "Yesssss, baby? he chimes in a sickeningly saccharine tone.

Just as you're about to retort, Gojo leans impossibly closer to you, as if observing every inch of your pretty face. His mischievous grin never faltering, but theres a new formed intimacy in the air. And for a moment, everything around you seems to disappear--just the two of you, sounds of the waves crashing against the shore, the faint scent of salty air, and his handsome face perfectly enveloped in a warm orange glow. In his intense eyes, you see pools of celestia, vast and endless. His pale blue irises speckled with silvers of stardust and glimmer, swirling in his eyes. They hold the quiet majesty of the heavens, as though the very essence of the universe were poured into him.

You can feel the comforting weight of his body, along with the intoxicating warmth of his breath on your skin, contrasting the cold gusts of wind. A swelling feeling builds up from inside of you, softly squishing your chest. You divert from his gaze to fight your sudden wave of nervousness.

"Hey, eyes on me, pretty," he coos, his voice low and tender as he softly directs your face towards him. "What? Do I make you nervous or something?". You feel the bubbling warmth in your chest quickly rise to your face, now blushing at his bold advances. His teasing demeaner is still present, but now you see a glint of something else. "Cat got your tongue huh? What is it you were gonna tell me, baby?".

You shift your position to sit up, his head now laying on your plush lap. His words hung in the air, the tension felt ten folds thicker. Your heart was beating out of your chest, following the rhythm of his, as if mending together into one.

And suddenly, without thinking, without hesitation, you kiss him.

You feel his soft lips caress yours as he melts into you. He rests his hand on your face and holds you like porcelain, as if you're the most delicate thing in the world. The feeling in your chest intensifies with every touch, intoxicating you. 

And the world fades into the backround, leaving only you and Gojo.

──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

[zialltops]

honeysuckle’s & huckleberry’s

Cowboy!Joel (41) X F!Reader (25) | 15.5k | wip | explicit | 18+ minors dni | enemies to lovers | slow burn | au: no cordyceps outbreak

After four years away at collage, you’re finally home with the tools and knowledge to save your family ranch. That is, if their ranch hand would stay out of your way.

Or: Ranch hand Joel doesn’t know how to handle the return of his bosses prodigy daughter, her snarky little attitude, or her sinfully tight jeans.

a/n: this chapter gets me right in the feels every time. I love watching the way Joels character changes and his train of thought shifts. I hope you guys like this chapter because it was so fun for me to write 🥹❄️

Masterlink

Chapter 3: Blue

As it turns out, extreme levels of dopamine in his brain after a bone chilling orgasm is exactly what Joel needs to level himself out while you’re sitting beside him in the passenger seat. It doesn’t make him stop thinking about it, but it does keep the tiny little gremlin in his head that tells him to pop a stiffy at bay. The only thing he has to worry about is his eyes, keeping them off of you and on the icy driveway as he pulls away from the house. The snow has started to melt, leaving behind a sloppy mud that makes the truck slip and slide. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get your car out, even if I can I don’t think you’ll be able to drive it in this.”

You make an exaggerated groan and he doesn’t even need to look to know you’re rolling your eyes at him from your spot beside him on the bench seat. “You just love deciding what I can and can’t do, don’t you? You know I lived here my whole life right?” He dares a glance over and you’re staring at him with your eyebrows knitted together and your arms crossed. His eyes tick down and he wants to kick himself in the head for even looking because your shirt is leaving nothing to his imagination and little to wonder about how good they would look bare with his dick between—jesus christ, Joel, get yourself together Man. “I wasn’t doubting your ability, I’m suggesting that it would be dangerous for you to even try.”

The truck hits the pavement and most of the snow has melted, but the freezing temperatures leave a icy film across the top. He had to go easy on the breaks and hope to god the truck makes it up the inclines he has to take to get to your car. The last thing he needs is to be stuck out here in the cold with just your bodies to keep each other warm. He absolutely one hundred and ten percent wont survive that, not without absolutely humiliating himself. God, he fucking hates how much you affect him against his will.

“Since when do you care about what’s too dangerous for me, huh?” Why in the hell is he arguing with you like you’ve been married for twenty years? “You left me in the snow to freeze to death in my car four days ago, why am I going to listen to you about whats too dangerous for me?” You have a point, but so does he so he just shuts his fucking mouth and keeps on driving.

It takes twice as much time to get down the pass than it usually does, but the lower Joel gets, the more the ice melts into cold water and mud. By the time he gets to your car, the road is clear but the car is still sunk down to the rims in the embankment. Theres a uneasy sort of silence in the truck, something lingering around the cab of the old blue pickup that feels like shame and embarrassment.

“Texting, huh?” He breaks the silence with a crude joke that earns him a deep glare. “Fuck you, asshole. You know, I really don’t know what it is that my parents see in you. My mom always said how polite you were but I don’t believe that for a second after knowing you for a few days.” You prop open the door and climb out into the snow with your car keys in one hand and the other holding your unzipped jacket closed. Your stupid fucking shoes and that tight ass—fuck.

How is he supposed to be okay with the way you make his body react when you literally curse the ground he walks on, thinking he’s the worst thing that ever happened to this damn town? He gets out after you and slips on his gloves to keep the cold off his hands. The winter always leaves him cracked and brittle from cold work, sometimes his knuckles bleed and his bones ache for gentle hands instead of hard callouses and a cowboys scars. “You don’t know anything about me.” He reaches into the back for a chain while you open the door to your car. “I know enough. I know you’re bullheaded and selfish. I know you’re rude and you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

Fucking bitch, like he’s not allowed to have some self preservation after the life he’s lived, always cleaning up Tommy's mess and abandoning his own life in the process. “Don’t act like you’re any better.” You lean out of your car and make a face at him while he hooks the chain to the front of the truck. “Me? You don’t know a damn thing about me.” Like you didn’t just spout off about all the things you think is wrong with him—he can do that too. He has a fucking list of reasons you piss him off. “I know that you’re entitled and expect people to be at your beck and call. I know you’re privileged with no regard for anyone around you.”

He follows the chain to your car and hooks it to the chassis underneath. “Well were just a match made in fucking heaven then, aren’t we?” Its dripping with distain and bitterness, so Joel ignores the comment no matter how much his brain runs and runs about all the way he could be made for you, the way’s he’d fuck that attitude right out of you until you’re quiet. But he can’t and he won’t, he’ll probably spend the rest of his life wondering what you’d feel like, the way you’d shake and scream and beg for more—but wondering is far as that fantasy will ever go.

Because at the end of the day, you’re still Hank's daughter and you’re still half his age and—you hate his guts, which is definitely a deal breaker when it comes to getting someone in your bed. So he keeps his mouth shut and heads back to his truck to tug your car out. “When you’re out, hit your brakes so you don't slam into me.” You sink down into your seat and glare at him. “I’m not stupid!” He never said you were, but he doesn’t expect you to know everything, so he does his best to be the helpful asshole he usually is.

He pulls the little car out, manages to keep the chain tight until it's back on the road and the brake lights come on in front of him. He puts the truck in park and hops out to unhook the chain, but you don’t open the door. When the car is unhooked, you’re already pulling away without a word of thanks. Joel knows he’s well past earning the way you treat him, but that doesn’t make him stop wishing he could just get you out of his head already, wish he could hate you with that same mind altering disgust that you have for him, maybe watching you drive away would be easier.

Two months pass much like the first week. Joel keeps to himself, you frown at him and avoid him where you can. When you do see one another, Joel feels like you’re always at each other's throats. Everyone in the house has started to notice the distaste in your strained relationship, if Joel is willing to let himself call it that. It’s more like a forced acquaintance. Either way, your parents even see the way the two of you bicker and fight, but rarely does anyone but Tommy make comments about it. Tommy likes to bring it up any chance he gets, usually when Joel is alone just to rile him up further. He says stupid shit, like “I bet the sex you guys would have would be crazy good” when it’s just him and his brother at the dinner table and it makes Joel stiffen and run off to the cabin without his plate or a goodbye.

He sneaks in later for his plate and catches you in the kitchen with red eyes and tear stained cheeks, but you cross your arms over your chest and try not to meet his eyes. You’re dressed in just a big tee shirt and he can see from your bare feet to the tops of your thighs. He’s the luckiest son of s bitch in the world that he just worked himself over twice because he would be tenting his sweatpants right there in the kitchen.

That was three days ago and he still can’t get the sight of tears in your eyes out of his mind. He wonders if he did that, if he’d said something that struck a nerve and there you sat at the kitchen table after everyone was tucked in bed, crying your pretty eyes out. He feels like the worst fucking person in the world because of it, so he stays away even more, makes himself sad little ramen noodle dinners in his sad little hunting cabin he shares with his brother and he stares at his ceiling wishing it was you he was looking up at—smiling instead of frowning for once—all he wants is to see you smile. Really smile, for him, at him. He wonders what your eyes look up when they light up, wonders what your skin feels like when its not shaking in rage.

But between all the avoiding and hiding, Joel didn’t even realize how quickly Christmas had snuck up on him. He checks his phone sometime after lunch, his day spent getting the herd ready for another brutal snow storm. He’d been to town that morning for hot feed to keep them warm and any supplies they might run out of while snowed in, while deep, dark clouds hung in the distance. He was leaving the feed store when the clerk waved at him with a polite “Merry Christmas!” When he made it into the truck, he pulled out his phone and realized the date, December 24th. It was Christmas eve and it was an absolute miracle that stores were open right now. It was only eleven thirty and the sign posted on the door says it closes at two.

He starts to put the truck in reverse, turning around to look behind him while he pulls out. When he does, something inside of him doesn’t let his foot off the brakes. He thinks about you—in Christmas pajamas on the floor opening dumb little gifts from your parents because it's the first Christmas they’ve had with you for years. He imagines what they’d get you, probably things a grown adult needs—products, socks, underwear, (don’t even go there Joel) and he thinks about how disheartening that must be to a woman like you, used to proper city living now, expensive gifts and pretty things. You deserve pretty things, Joel wants to give them to you.

He turns around, throws the truck in park and jumps out, heading back into the feed store. He makes a bee-line for the glass jewelry case sitting in the corner, partially scavenged through since it is the day before christmas and all—he should have thought about this weeks ago. He scans through everything, shiny horse shoe earrings, matching pendants, jeweled cowgirl boots on a chain and turquoise ring sets. None of them look good enough, none of them scream you, sweet you—fuck, he’s seen it, when you’re so damn sweet, when you think no one is looking—Joel is, always looking.

He kneels down, scanning the bottom shelf of the case when he spots a simple golden chain and a bumble bee dangling delicately from its tiny hoops. It doesn’t have any stones on it and Joel thinks he likes that more, that it’s simple and graceful, not too flashy or obviously shoutings “look at what you do to me, look at how much I wish I could have you.”

In the end, he has just enough bills in his wallet for the necklace, tells the clerk he doesn’t need a bag as he stuffs the box in his pocket and heads back to the truck.

He has a busy day when he gets back to ranch, Tommy is checking on the pregnant heifers while Joel fill’s multiple feeders with hot grains that will keep them warm through the impending storm. He has just enough time before it starts to snow to get the horse fed and the equipment properly covered in tarps. This storm is set to drop more snow than they have seen all winter and Joel doesn’t look forward to the animosity that comes with never being able to get out of each other's hair. “How’s the heifers?” He asks Tommy when he brushes grain off his hands. “They all seem pretty far out besides one, she was really soft, sort of worried me.” Heifers get soft around the tail when they are close to caving, but Joel doesn’t think she’ll be willing to have her calf in this storm, so he lets it go. Instead, he takes a spot beside Tommy at the stable door.

“Snow’s comin’ down thick now,” Tommy says from the protective covering of the stable, staring out across the yard at the powder covered ground. Snow blows through the big sliding door, filling the building with cold gusts. “We should get inside before it gets worse.”

Joel wants to—when he looks off at the two story house, the christmas tree shining through the window, he spots you on the other side of it, fixing and ornament hanging from the nettles. The stable is a stone's throw from the house, Joel can see every feature, the color of your eyes, your sweet, sweet smile—because he’s nowhere to be seen.

He’s so busy staring, he doesn’t catch it in time when your eyes meet his across the yard. That sweet smile falls, those soft eyes harden and he feels his gut lurch. “You go ahead, Tommy. Think I’m going to hit the hay.” Tommy knows this bit just about as well as Joel does, knows he’s been avoiding the house, your parents, you because nine times out of ten, it’s just Tommy at dinner these days. Joel spends his night with microwaved meals and old episodes of The Rifleman to keep him busy until he finally gives in and slips his hands in his pants.

Tommy doesn’t put up a fuss, instead, he claps Joel on the shoulder and gives him this sad sort of smile before heading off towards the house. Joel turns in the other direction, follows the fence line for a half mile until he reaches the cabin. His feet are cold, his lips feel cracked after a long day outside in the harsh weather. He microwaves a sad little dinner, pretends the mac and cheese on the side is half as good as warm food at the table when the people he looks at like family. He’s simply not welcome there anymore.

He gets through two episodes before he promptly passes out, his pants left intact tonight because it’s not his dick leading the way tonight, its that look in your eyes when you saw him across the driveway. The pang he felt in his chest when you frowned and turned away like it hurt you to look at him.

He sleeps through the night, propped up like that on the couch and when he wakes on Christmas morning, his neck has a crick in it and his back is killing him. He barely drags himself off the couch and into the shower before his day has to start. The hot water eases out some of his muscles, but it still hurts like a bitch to stand up straight or turn his head.

But the cattle aren’t going to let him take a day off, the horses won't care for themselves, so he gets to it only a few minutes late. When he heads out the door, the ground is covered in two feet of pure white snow and dark clouds still hang overhead.

His Christmas is spent in the field’s and the stables and the box in his pocket burns a hole through his thigh the entire morning, until he’s shoveling off the driveway and the front door comes open. Louise makes her way onto the porch with a plate in her hands, shuffling down the slippery steps when she gets Joel’s attention. He tosses down the shovel and hurries over when she starts to wobble on the second step and nearly slips. He catches her arm and helps her steady before letting out a cold gust of air that fogs through the chill around him. “Miss Lou, what are you doin’ out here? It’s freezing.” She has a light coat on and her cheeks are red from the cold.

“You’re the one out here in the cold, Joel. It’s Christmas and you’re the only one working. Have you had a decent meal this week? I haven’t seen you at dinner in…well, I don’t know how long.” She’s the one reason Joel feels guilty for avoiding the house, in the years he’s lived here, she's always enjoyed cooking for them, she’d always tell him he couldn’t keep her dream alive if he was malnourished. He feels like that now, running on half the calories a man his size should be taking in and his mind is in a constant state of despair these days.

“Just needed some space is all, Ma’am, nothin’ you did.” He assures her, taking the plate carefully and helping her back up the steps. “I know it's not just that. My daughter can be really difficult sometimes…I know you two bicker. It’s a shame, really—I thought the two of you would hit it off.” That's the whole problem and what a shame it is that Joel can’t look at this woman’s daughter without thinking about all the ways he could have her, make her his. “Would you come inside? Hank and I got you something, he thought you would be in this morning but you never came. I'm sorry if your food is cold.”

He didn’t care if it was cold, his stomach hurt because he was so hungry, he'd eat it if it was frozen. He doesn’t have the heart to tell her no, so he heads inside the house with snow covered boots and a nervousness he hasn’t felt here since the first day he stood in this living room. For so long it's felt like his home too—but now he can't help but feel like an intruder.

When he closes the door behind him, Hank and Tommy are watching the game, but you’re nowhere in sight. He tries to shake off his nerves, moves to the couch beside Tommy and sits down. At his brother's feet is a brand new pair of deer skin gloves, Tommy’s favorite—but hard to come by. He knows they weren’t cheap and his heart aches a little, knowing they’d worked hard to pull together the money.

“Glad to see you can pull yourself away for a few minutes. You know it ain’t goin’ anywhere, stay for a little while.” He knows that—the storm will be with them for four days and he knows there will be more snow to shovel tomorrow, but he can’t stay for long, not when your prying eyes finally detect him in your safe haven. “I’ll stay for a little while, still a lot to do out there.” He knows Hank is too old for that kind of work, Tommy’s too lazy and Joel wants nothing more than to escape. “Got you somethin’, been saving up for it for a while now.” He leans down towards the tree and picks up a rather large box—it’s not gloves thats for damn sure. “Sir, I…I didn’t get you nothin’.” He didn’t have the money, he spent every dollar he had to his name on a stupid necklace for his daughter that would rather see him outside in the freezing weather shoveling snow than on her couch in front of the fireplace.

Hank throws a hand, playing off Joel's concern with an amused huff. “You do so much for us around here without asking for anything in return. You had one when you got here but i know it got tore up taking the cattle to pasture.”

Joel rips the wrapping paper, revealing a simple white box with the word Stetson on the top. Joel doesn’t even want to open the damn thing, he knows what's inside and how much it cost, an arm and a leg, probably a month's saving in the off season. “Hank…”

The olde man shakes his head firmly. “You deserve to have the sun off your neck, son. Just say thank you, make sure it fits.”

He pulls open the box and inside lays a black felt hat with a matching band, beautiful leather work that loops into an ornate metal buckle to hold it in place. He pulls the cowboy hat from its box, puts it on his head and—it’s a perfect fit.

It's been a long time since he had a hat, a lot longer since he had a nice one and a lifetime ago since he had the money for a new one, especially one this nice. “I don’t know what to say—thank you, Hank…this really…means more than you know.” More than he knows how to convey with words. It’s been a long time since Joel had a hat that fit, one that wasn’t second hand or made for someone else’s head. But this—this was made for his head, the measurement must be damn near perfect. “How’d you know my size?” He wobbles his head around and the hat doesn’t budge, hangs on snuggly. He’ll even be able to ride with this on. “I measured your head while you were sleepin’.” Tommy tells him with a smug grin. “That's weird, Tommy. I would have kept that to myself.”

It draws a laugh out of Hank who has abandoned the game in favor of watching Joel's excitement. “Well, what are you waiting for—go check yourself out in the mirror, make sure you like it,” he stands and walks over to the mirror hanging on the wall above a decorative entryway shelf. When he spots himself in the reflection, he realizes just how long it’s been since he’s seen the man looking back at him. He’s graying in his beard a little, the age lines on his face have gotten deeper and more pronounced, but the black hat on his head makes that same man grin from ear to ear.

The stairs creek behind him and he turns half of his body to look up them. Stopped halfway down the stairs, you’re staring at him with a slightly slacked jaw. Joel knew it, Christmas jammies that leave your legs exposed to his greedy eyes. This time, he tries to keep them to himself. “Oh, uh…” he swallows down the lump in his throat and his pocket burns all over again. Should he give it to you now? Will everyone question him if he does? If he waits to get you alone, does that suggest that the necklace means everything he wants it to? A peace offering, an ice breaker, a “I’m sorry about the way I’ve treated you, but I want to try again.”

Instead, he leaves it in his pocket and tries to tamper down the way his cheeks heat. “Merry Christmas, Honey.” He tilts his hat up a tad so he can look up at you, but your slightly dumbfounded look morphs into irritation and discontent.

“What are you doing here?” You cross your arms and Joel’s good mood disappears. “Your mom asked me to come in and eat. Your dad wanted to give me this.” He points to the hat and your eyes roll as you make the descent down the rest of the stairs. “So if you’re in here, who’s taking care of the ranch?”

It isn’t often that someone sticks up for one of them in an argument, they tend to not get between the two of you, but to Joel’s surprise, Hank interrupts his daughter. “He’s allowed to come in the house, Honey—he works hard around here, he’s not a yard dog.” But that doesn’t stop you from sneering at him when you pass him on your way to the kitchen where your mother is. “Sure looks like one to me.” It’s under your breath so Hank doesn’t hear, but Joel does.

And he feels like a fool. A fool for spending the last of his money on this stupid fucking necklace, like a fool for being so plagued by thoughts of you in a different world, one where you don’t innately hate him, one where he doesn’t fuck up every chance he has to change the narrative.

“I should get back to it, I’ll see you guys…later.” He starts to head for the door when Louise pokes her head around the corner. “Please come in for Dinner!” Joel tells her that he will, he hates lying to miss Lou, but he does it because it’s Christmas and the last thing he wants to do is worry her today.

He wastes the day shoveling off the driveway, tries his best to rub out the crick in his neck and finally calls it a day when the sun is nearly set and the animals are bunkered down for the night. It’s started to snow again, so Joel makes his way back to the cabin with tired limbs and a new dusting of snow hanging onto the brim of his hat.

Dinner is just as lonely as the night before but this time he doesn’t pretend it's Lou’s cooking, he lets it be exactly what it is—a tasteless mush and his misery to sip on.

The Rifleman is just as predictable as it was the night before, as is Joel—who falls asleep before he has the heart to get his hands on his dick. But unlike last night, he doesn’t make it long propped up on the couch before a knock startles him awake. He drags himself to the door with sleep in his eyes and a chill in his bones. When he pulls it open, his pocket ignites again. On the other side of the door, you’re standing in front of him with a plate in your hands and a vicious storm letting down behind you. Did you walk here in that? “My mom said I chased you off, that’s why you didn’t come to dinner.” Well, you aren’t wrong. If you were still away at college, Joel would have no problem spending Christmas with Hank and Louise and Tommy who is apparently too good to walk you down here.

“You didn’t have to bring me anything.” He says. He glances to the side where his hat hangs on the rack. “Actually, my mom made me so no, I didn’t have a choice.” Ahh, of course—of course you wouldn’t do something that nice for him. “Well, thank her for me, then…” he reaches out for the plate and his fingers brush yours—bolts of electricity shooting up his arm and igniting his starved skin. It’s been so damn long since someone has touched him with kind hands and all he wants is yours—your soft, gentle hands he’s seen folding laundry and soothing horses. You don’t release the plate, but your eyes track up to his, meeting them across the threshold.

He could hold that gaze for the rest of his life if you’d let him—he’s always wanted a chance to get lost in your eyes and he’s getting it right now, his home pouring with cold in exchange for the heat in your cheeks and the sparkle in your irises. “Joel—“

There's a loud sound somewhere over the fence beside the cabin. It draws both of your attention to the blinding darkness. Joel knows that sound, a distressed heifer, probably the one who was too damn close to calving in a storm like this. There’s no way Joel can save that calf if it doesn’t make it and even if he wanted to, the snow is too thick to help.

“What is that?” You ask, finally dropping your hand away from his when you glance back up at him. “Heifer, think she’s calving—Tommy said she was really soft and her milk came in. Afraid that calf might not make it tonight.”

There's a look of disbelief in your eyes, shooting from Joel to the fence line and back. “You can’t help her?” Joel shakes his head and listens to the cow cry out again. “Nothin’ I can do for her. They aren’t supposed to be calving yet, we still have a few more weeks and it’s too cold out there. We might lose the heifer too.”

Joel observes the way sadness takes over your face, then determination. “I’m going out there to help her.” You tell him, already heading off the porch before Joel can even interject. “Don’t you hear me? She’s not going to make it, honey, just let it go.” But you don’t, you start to jog towards the fence line, so Joel huffs in annoyance and slips into his boots and jacket, finally pulling his hat on on his way out the door. He grabs a spotlight off the shelf by the door and follows your tracks through the snow to the fence line. It doesn’t take him long until he finds you, knelt behind a laboring cow, who’s already pushing in the freezing cold. “I can’t get this calf to safety and this storm is getting worse—it’s not safe to be out here.”

There's blood marring the white snow and your delicate hands. “I’m not letting her die in the snow on christmas because we made her have a baby, Joel—she didn’t ask for this.” Joel sets the light in the snow beside him and rolls his sleeves up, kneeling down beside you in the soaked snow. “She’s not going to make it.”

You make a face at him, one Joel is more than accustomed to. “I’m not letting her die alone, then.” And Joel isn’t going to leave you alone in the snow for a second time, so he stays there beside you, helping deliver the little black calf, who shivers wetly in the cold. It’s a little boy, floppy ears and a wobble to him when he tries to hold his head up. Joel can't help but smile, because this is always beautiful, even if he can't save this little calf. He looks up and you’re grinning right back at him, your cheeks bitten red by the cold and your hands shaking, but you look so fucking proud right now. Joel is too, after watching you pull that calf out of his momma like you were made for that.

“What if we get them inside, would they make it then?” Joel doesn’t see how, the snow is too thick and someone would have to carry him. “They wont fit in my cabin and the stable is a half a mile away. We’d have to drag momma through this snow.” He has a lead in the cabin, he could get her out of this snow, he thinks. Would she even want to go, after having a calf in the ridged cold. “We should try—we should at least try.”

Joel leans back and brushes the blood off on his pants. “Yeah—fine, we can try. Stay right here, keep rubbing him to keep him warm.” He stands and jogs back to the cabin, racing inside for the lead that he runs back to you with. You have the calf laid out along your legs while you rub his wet skin. “He’s slowing down. I can feel his heart slowing down.” He’s getting too cold out here—if Joel doesn’t act now, he won't make it, so he wraps the halter around the heifers head and hands you the lead. “Think you can pull her? She’s going to put up a fight.” You take the lead from him and nod, grabbing the light out of the snow while he picks the calf up under his belly. He makes a little sound at Joel while he starts to make his way through the deep snow.

It’s a long walk back to the stables, but you tug on that heifer and Joel carries the calf the entire way there, until he reaches the gate and manages to push it open just enough to get them through. He makes it to the stable doors in just enough time, throws it open and helps you inside. It’s not much warmer in here, but theres no snow and theres straw in the empty stable towards the back, so Joel makes his way over and lays the little calf down in the bedding. You’re right behind him with the heifer who takes straight to her baby once she has him in her sight again.

Joel plops down in the straw in the corner of the room once they are both situated, trying to catch his breath and warm himself up at the same time. He’s covered in blood, so are you, but you saved both of their lives and Joel has more respect for that than he knows what to do with. You risked your life out there for a baby cow and his momma.

“You did a good thing, out there. I’m sorry I didn’t want to listen to you.” You find a spot beside him in the hay and sink down, leaned against the wood wall with your shoulder pressed against his with how closely you sit. “You have every right to question me…you’re right, you know…I have no clue what I’m doing around here. Four years of school and the only thing I know how to do around here is the books, which is easy because were so broke.” Joel's heart aches for you, the sadness in your tone and the defeated look in your eyes. “I almost got us killed out there.”

Joel shakes his head and leans himself back against the wall too. “But you didn’t. You saved us a lot of money and saved his little life. I’d say that's a win.” He knows it doesn’t feel like one when everything else is coming down on your shoulders, but he can pretend it is for your sake. “Thanks, Joel.” You lean a little more, bumping his shoulder with a quiet yawn.

His pocket begins to burn again, but this time, it isn’t followed by the shame he’s felt all day. “I uhm…I hope it’s not weird, but I got you something…” he reaches into his pocket and starts to fish it out. “You didn’t have to do that,” you interject but he shakes his head. “I just saw it while I was at the feed store, thought of you.” He pulls out the blue box and holds it out to you. He tries not to read too much into the look on your face when you open the box, but he has to know. It looks like confusion, then shock and finally, sadness. “I was really rude to you this mornin’…and you had this in your pocket to give it to me?” You look over at him with big eyes, full of something Joel has never seen in them. “It’s alright—I deserved that.”

You shake your head and start to pull the necklace out of the box. “I called you a dog, Joel—you didn’t deserve that.”

He shrugs his shoulders, trying to rid both of you of the shame of that conversation. You hold the necklace up and admire it for a while, the little gold bee that’s going to lay against your chest, against your heart. You hold it out to him with a little quick of your lips. “Would you?” He takes it from you and you turn your back to him, using one hand to hold up your hair while he undoes the clasp and brings his hands around your neck, laying it around your delicate throat. It feels so intimate, sitting here in the hay beside a newborn baby calf in the middle of a snowstorm on christmas.

His knuckles brush against your neck gently when he does the clasp together, letting is hang from your neck, feels like a fucking brand on his skin. You turn back around, meet his eyes and smile carefully. There's a comfortable silence filling up the space between you, so Joel leans back against the wood and sighs to himself. “Let me walk you back to the house…it’s getting late.” His words are low and slow.

You nod at him and he stands, holding out a hand to pull you to your feet. He walks you out of the stables, through the blizzard and up to the porch of the big white house. “Where are you going?” You ask him when you get to the door. “Don’t know if I can make it back to the cabin in this. Might sleep out in the stable so I can keep an eye on the little guy.”

You don’t say anything, just stare at him for a long moment, then glance behind you at the warm house. “Come inside…Tommy took the guest bedroom but you can have the couch. It’s better than being out here in the cold.”

He wants to decline, but when will he get this opportunity again? To mend what's been broken between you? “Yeah—sure, that sounds better than straw poking me in the ass all night long.”

It makes you giggle and that makes Joel's stomach churn, his cheeks heat and his hands flex as he follows you inside. You get him a blanket, help him get situated in the low glow of the christmas tree in the corner.

When he kicks his boots off and settles down on the couch, you start to head for the stairs. He thinks you’re going to head up, but you pause at the bottom of the stairs before turning to look at him. “Thank you for helping me today.”

He hums, smiles and shakes his head. “It was my pleasure.”

There's another long silence, then you take the first step up the stairs. “Goodnight, Joel…Merry Christmas.”

He smiles back at you with tired eyes.

“Merry Christmas, Honey.”

[richeeduvie]

the princesa’s bullying anon again 😭

thank you soooo much for doing the drabble. you r doing gods work for real for reallll. ever since i started reading madman and following you i keep acting like saul in the first season doing magic to my phone hoping that we will get new princesa and lalo contents (ABSOLUTELY NO PRESSURE if u have to take a break and or dont feel comfortable with it anymore please do. i just want you to know that i really love it and enjoy every thing to the fullest)

re-reading madman and lalo master list again because i want it to be semi-canon to the show and your series so i can come up with more scenarios to bully princesa.

and im starting to think that if i come up with sth lalo will personally appear in my dream and choke me for keeping thinking sick thoughts about his princesa (not gonna complain tho).

THAT being said heres another thought, yk how some tvshow/anime will have a filler beach episode. i think they need that. a hope-to-god-relaxing trip to the beach.

they already see each other body butt naked and have nonstop freaky sex but come onnnnnn the bikini, the pastel yellow floral bikini is a bit too small/revealing still makes princesa shy and conscious abt her body and lalo is staring too long at her ,with dark eyes and she cant see any thoughts, when she ask him to help her put on some sunscreen (hes actually one minute away to cancel this trip and take her home because instinct) (and sometimes in the corner of her eyes nacho is looking at her too - i dont know why the hell they need nacho there maybe extra body guard i just want nacho to see how beautiful she is and cant do nothing about it im sooooo sorry baby 😭)

but princesa ayyyy she in the bikini and she has this red hibiscus behind her ear, a seashells necklace. oh my shes sooooo pretty and cute. lalo watching her drawing on the sand a big heart and then their initials in it, picking every shells that she finds beautiful and put it close to her ear and lalos and say “can you hear the waves” and giggle. the sun the breeze the sea everything seems like making her even more beautiful. (sorry for not mention anything abt me, lalo, im obsessed with my girl. but she also about to climb him the moment they walk out of the changing room. and nacho have to witness all of it)

and something super dumb and very stereotypical happens like shes waist deep in the sea and ohhh noooo the waves are too strongggg and arghhhh her…..her top slips awayyyy. someone please help princesa. but shes just standing there panicking because nacho just tell lalo that he has a phone call from lets say eladio bcs that is someone will make him to go up to the shore and nacho is keeping an eye on her.

sooooo she has to wave him over and ask him to tell lalo abt her “little problem” while she feels like theres smoke coming out of her head.

the rest is lalo style teasing and also instinct but its something really funny…hilarious to him too because he doesnt think it will actually happen.

Anon, this is REALLY showing just how much of a crush you have on Princesa. I was getting hot for her while reading this like damn. I love this. I love this so much.

Lalo and Princesa have seen the other extremely naked and in many, many sexual positions and scenarios, but every time Princesa's in a pretty bikini or swim dress that's downed in florals and a mesh cover-up? It's a new, fire-like sight for Lalo. But he'll have to handle. There's that snaps and sharpens at the idea of taking her in front of Nacho, but something like instinct comes down harsh at the idea of Nacho seeing Princesa while she's at her most...open.

Nacho watches the ocean as best as he can, it's a better visual than Lalo massaging sunscreen into Princesa's skin. And her ass. You can't leave no spot at risk for sunburn, right?

Of course, the man who never sleeps, is very, very close to knocking out when Princesa comes over him to lather his back and legs with sunscreen.

"It's a great day for a swim, right, Lalo? Lalo?"

"...What you said, yeah...I think you missed my ankles, sweet girl."

Princesa offers to help Nacho out with his application with a great amount of shyness, as if they're back to square one in terms of friendship because she'd be touching him bare, but sunscreen is important.

Nacho struggles to get his back by himself. Lalo snorts.

Lalo bullies Princesa for her love of pretty things, a tourist at heart. But he buys her everything. Shell necklaces that are too expensive. Trinkets. He'll make sure she wears it all the time and too much. She'll make him wear it and he'll call it girly, but keep it tucked inside his shirt.

Their initials wash away in the white sloshing of water, but Princesa just draws in again, feeling the wet, tight sand under her nails. She feels like a teenager with how she writes her and Lalo's name over and over, but she also draws hearts. And she tries to draw a bird.

Lalo smokes over the ocean, knees bent beside Princesa.

"Lalo, the ash."

He blows smoke. "It's not like the I set the sea on fire, Princesa. Don't be so worried. Now, help me draw this gun."

He dashes the Salamanca name under the sand-doodled handgun. Nacho might be asleep under the sun.

Lalo's not listening to the waves when Princesa puts the cold shell to his ear because Princesa. Just that. Just her. He'd rather listen to her breathe and watch her try to find the ocean in the shell. Their faces press together and Lalo doesn't smile in how he watches her, not in the blacked-out stare.

He presses his wet toes into hers, deepening their feet in the sand.

"Lalo!"

Nacho's woken by the screaming and the chasing, Lalo yelling out with throaty laughs when he throws Princesa over his shoulder.

Swimming is calmer, and he can't see her body or the way she moves when they're both in the water.

"You okay?"

Lalo's watching them from the shore, because business. Always the family career he's so proud of getting in the way of things. He's expecting a call, so he just gets started on lunch with a sandwich stuffed in his mouth.

The phone rings, the waves crashes. Princesa struggles.

"I know how to swim."

"I would hope so, kid."

"It's just-these waves are not making it easy. You must think it looks so embarrassing."

Nacho blinks up, then down. "You're fine-"

Waves crash.

"No. No!"

A top slips away. Or...more like floats off into the waves, and Nacho barely realizes what's happening until the blood rushes to his head and face.

"Oh...fuck. Fuck. Hold on, don't move."

Princesa sinks herself in the water, cheeks aflame while she watches Lalo busy on the phone. Watching Ignacio try to swim for her bikini top is the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to her, and almost everything is embarrassing.

It's already off into the sea and Nacho would rather not be pulled away with it. He curses hot under his breath, wiping his face with salt water.

"Just-"

"I-I'm sorry."

"...Why are you sorry? It's just...don't move. Fuck. Lalo better find this funny."

Princesa can already hear his teases and feel his nipple pinches.

Lalo's brows curve when he sees Nacho coming out of the water looking odd, more than how the guy usually is. Just in time with the phone call ending.

"What's that out there?"

He feels like he needs those damn...the things you look through, glasses. Damn. What is it?"

"She...she lost her top. I think you should-" Nacho closes his eyes, as if a stutter will reveal something to Lalo. He starts over. "I think you should help her."

Lalo doesn't blink.

"...Did you see anything?"

They forget the one time Nacho saw anything.

"No, no. I didn't try anything but to get her top but that is gone with the water...so, it should be you?"

"...Yeah."

His mouth is thin, eyes dark before he smiles brightly. He slaps Nacho's shoulder.

"Yeah. That girl. Always something, look at the little top in the sea. Princesa! You cold?"

Princesa feels like steam and streams of tears. Her hugs herself more, breast pressing on her arms.

Lalo walks off. "Get to the car, eh, Nachito? Good man."

He jogs into the water, laughing with every wave.

"Don't laugh, plea-please. I didn't mean to-it is cold."

Lalo coos. "Aw, poor Princesa. My poor, poor Princesa. Don't let your nipples swim away too. What would I do without them?"

"...Lalo."

It's a long, soft whine that makes Lalo laugh. He pulls her in and kisses her head.

He squeezes her a bit too tightly, and not out of choice, just something that happens with his arms when he sees Princesa like this.

"I'll warm you up, huh?"

"I should get a towel."

"In a bit."

Princesa's head slumps. "Lalo-"

"Don't whine, nipples. This is what happens when you pick something so small for the waves."

"You said you liked them."

It's high, almost cracking. Lalo coos again.

"Sure, Princesa. Sure."

Princesa accepts his tight, instinctual hold on her better than she accept his continuous bullying in the cold waves. Nacho dries off in the car for ten minutes.

[luvhughes43]

Oh. Ohhhh. The Blake and Nico lake house fight and angst I need immediately !!!!! My heart clenched

blake pulls back her side of the duvet and watches as nico slides in on the other side. they had spent all day around michigan, blake wanting to show nico all of her favourite spots that she missed while they were in jersey.

"and tomorrow, i thought we could go get lunch. my mom says theres this new spot in town and-"

nico sighs, shifting to sit up in bed. "i'm here to see the guys too, not just you"

blake anxiously toys with her pillow case as a harsh lump forms in her throat, "oh... yeah of course," she nods, trying to will away the tears that form in her eyes. she knew she was being extra clingy lately, missing her boyfriend that had been gone for a couple of months.

"i just-" nico starts, but blake turns away.

"no its fine - youre right," her voice is breathy, and nico can tell shes on the verge of tears. "i um,"

"blake-" nico shuffles out of bed.

she shakes her head quickly, "i think theyre going golfing tomorrow"

"i want to go to lunch," he amends, but its no use. blake stays silent.

"i'm sorry, i didnt mean it like that" nico says, eyebrows cast down in worry.

"its okay," her voice comes out squeaky, and she retreats back into her bathroom before he could get any more words out.

────୨ৎ────

blake stayed in the bathroom until she was sure nico had fallen asleep. she brushed her teeth four times, reapplied her moisturizer with shaky hands, and dabbed at the corner of her eyes with heavy tissues.

she woke up early too. slipping out of her bed and tiptoeing around her bedroom - extra quiet to try not to wake up nico. she got dressed in the dark, using her phone flashlight to try and put together anything that matched.

she was out of the house by dawn with nothing but her purse and her gym bag slung across her shoulder.

nico❤️‍🩹: can we talk about this? i'm so sorry. i didnt mean it how i said it. i love you, please text me back or call

7:38 am

blake: we'll talk later. enjoy golf

7:50am

blake silenced her phone. she recognized how childish she was being as she acted, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. if she was clingy she'd disappear for the day.

────୨ৎ────

blake pulls into the driveway later that night clad in her sweaty workout gear. she doesnt greet anyone as she passes through a group of guys congregated in the living room - all fighting over a turn to play the next round of chel.

nico perks up as soon as he catches sight of her long brown hair, "blake!" he calls out, following her through the hallway.

"baby," he tries again, and blake turns around.

"did you have a fun day?" she asks, genuinely sounding interested.

"dont do this,"

"do what?" she sighs, dropping her gym bag onto the wooden floor with a thud. "you dont want me to ask how your day was either?"

"you know thats not what i meant yesterday," nico states, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly. truthfully, he was ashamed by what he said last night.

"well, what did you mean?" she says, crossing her arms over her chest protectively.

"i...''

blake picks up her bag and stalks up the stairs with nico hot on her heels. "where were you all day?" he asks.

she simply sighs. "i was out,"

"i'm sorry,"

"yeah, i heard"

nico stops at the bedroom doorway, watching silently as blake sets down her bag and rummages through her dresser drawers. "blake,"

finally, blake turns her attention to her boyfriend who looked about as rough as she did. they stare at each other for a moment, and tears well up in blakes eyes. she wipes them away quickly but nico sees anyway.

he walks over quickly and wraps his arms around her, desperate to hold onto her after such a tense day.

"please dont," she whispers, wiggling against his hold. he drops his arms quickly and watches as she walks away.

-

-

-

[cb-writes-stuff]

I think my characters are too nice, patient, and forgiving. What if they were mean? What if they ran out of patience? What if they were annoyed with each other?

Hehehe… And the best part…

What if they then had to have dinner together?

Metacommentary below the cut because it wouldn’t fit in the tags.

A good novel has a back and forth, specifically between positive and negative moments. The idea is that if a scene starts positive, it should end negative, and vice versa. This keeps things from feeling stale or stagnating. But if the characters are always cordial and forgiving, then there’s no conflict to be resolved, and there’s no negative. That’s why utopian books and maybe some slice-of-life stuff is boring: nothing bad happens. I don’t like making my characters hurt each other, even in the tiniest of ways, but it makes the scenes interesting to read and interesting to write.

On the other hand, if the characters are always moody and abrasive, then the conflicts are never resolved, and theres no negative. So for the same reason as utopian literature and poorly written slice-of-lifes, teenage-angsty stories, dystopias, and anything grimdark are so unattractive: nothing good happens. (Again, only when it’s poorly written. There are examples of these things done well.) And if the world itself is unforgiving, then there’s never any hope.

What’s considered “positive” and “negative” is entirely dependent on context. Typically, positives are stronger in comparison to negatives; that is, it takes less positive to balance (or outweigh) negative. On a bright, sunny day with not a cloud in the sky, what’s one little raindrop? But when you’ve hit rock bottom, given up with nothing left to lose, that one ray of light can mean everything.

Let’s say a character just got a big promotion at work—that’s a positive. Okay, so we need to balance it out with a negative. So, he goes to the gas station, buys a lottery ticket, and doesn’t win. Doesn’t that just suck? No, it doesn’t suck. He can very easily move on from it. A better negative would be his car getting rear-ended while the boss was shaking his hand. Yes, he’s probably not worried financially, but he has to deal with his insurance company, find the person who rear-ended him, and he has to do something with the car. That’s not a problem he can just walk away from.

Let’s consider the opposite. A character is sent to prison for a horrible crime she didn’t commit. She couldn’t afford a good lawyer, the case was stacked against her. And just when she was about to start her new job. The interview went so well and everything. (Eh? See? Back and forth.) So a few days after the hearing, she’s sitting in her cell when the guard comes around—“Hey, turns out you were found innocent on that petty theft, so that’s a few months off your 70 to life.”. That is a near-meaningless positive. It is not something significant to her, and barely changes the situation at all. Instead, a better positive would be she’s sitting in her cell, when the guard comes around—“Mail call.” The guard slips her a letter. She opens it, and covers her mouth in teary-eyed shock. It’s from her boyfriend, and it says, “I’ll wait for you.”

This back-and-forth idea applies to whole chapters, too. If the chapters starts out negative, it should end positive.

(And yeah, I made this post instead of writing. Oh well.)

[humorisstoredinthetits]

The Heathers + Veronica Backstories (Pt. 2, Senior Year)

TW: Pretty much everything that was in one of the previous segments

Veronica handed Fleming the note

She didn't even have time to consider the consequences or even debate the morality of what she was doing, she just knew that she could get something from this, something that could save her from the hell that was high school

Fleming quickly looked over the note, before sighing and telling them to hurry up and get where they're going

Chandler grabbed the note, and upon realizing that this was an excellent forgery, she demanded to know who she was

Veronica stuttered out her name before adding that she wanted a boon

Chandler debated internally before decided that this nobody had done something for them, so it was only fair that she get something in return, and asked what it was that she wanted

Veronica, surprised they actually agreed, quickly stated that she wanted to sit with them at lunch so people think that they tolerated her

Chandler wanted to laugh, but also realized that this girl had a skill, one they could use to their advantage

Permission slips, absence notes, even prescriptions, all of that could be useful

She glanced at Duke and Mac, who both had the same idea and they nodded

They would make her beautiful

They quickly invited her over to Chandler's place, telling her that if she was to join their clique she would need some better clothes than.... that

Chandler made a disgusted face while gesturing to Veronica's outfit

Not one to look at a gift horse in the mouth, Veronica readily agreed, before exchanging numbers with the Heathers

She headed to class, unable to concentrate

She was joining THE HEATHERS

She would finally float above it all, no one bullying, no more harassment

But she also considered a few things for the first time

They were probably gonna make her stop hanging out with Martha and Betty because they were losers, and the pit in her gut only became deeper

But, she also reasoned, she could use this to her advantage

Maybe, as part of their clique, she could convince the Heathers to stay away from them, and maybe they would finally have some peace

But she also realized that her friends might see this as a betrayal or abandonment, leaving them for the popular girls

And Veronica was still unsure if this was a trick

I mean, she understands that her skills could be useful, hell that's what she was banking on, but she didn't think that they were enough to get her into the Heathers

And god knows what they would make her do with her forging

She realized that she had no idea what she was getting into, but it was too late to back out now

On the other side of the school, the Heathers were not paying attention in class, as usual, and were texting each other in their Group Chat, titled The Gaybians TM

H. McNamara: She's cute

H. Duke: If she took off those godforsaken clothes maybe

H. Chandler: Ikr, especially that scarf

H. Chandler: But don't worry, we're gonna fix that this afternoon

H. Duke: I gotta ask, I know she can forge notes and I get how useful that is, but why invite her to the group? She can do that for us without being in the group, clearly she's desperate, we could get her to what we wanted without her being in the group

H. Chandler: She's got spunk, what can I say

H. McNamara: Just admit you think she's hot Chan-Chan

H. Chandler: No....

H. Chandler: Yes....

H. Chandler: It's not my fault that she happens to be both stupidly attractive even in the ugliest of clothes and has talents that we can use to our advantage

H. Duke: It's alright I think she's good-looking too

H. Duke: But is it a good idea to invite her just because you want her to join the polycule? We know literally nothing about her, and the chances of her 1 being into women, 2 being into us, 3 being open to poly and 4 not hating out guts are slim to none

H. Chandler: I mean theres no harm in trying right, and its not just because she's hot, by keeping her in the group we've bound her to us, meaning that she won't try anything against us because if she does we can just kick her out and she'll be a loser nobody again

H. Duke: I guess you're right, just don't get your hopes up about the dating thing

H. McNamara: Dukie brought up a good point, what if she hates us? She's a nobody and at one point or another we probably did something do her

H. Chandler: I've been thinking about that, she said that she wanted to sit with us so people would leave her alone so I guess she must be a loser, and a pretty desperate one at that to gamble on us agreeing to whatever it is she wanted

H. McNamara: Oh wait I think I remember her now

H. McNamara: She usually hangs out with Betty Finn and Martha Dumptruck

H. Duke: ...

H. McNamara: Oh yeah......

H. Duke: She definitely hates our guts

H. Chandler: Probably, but there's not much we can do about that

H. Chandler: All we can do is keep going, all we have is one more year before we can leave all this shit behind

H. Chandler: No more Westerberg

H. Chandler: No more shitty parents

H. Chandler: No more Kurt or Ram or any of the other idiots

H. Chandler: No more David

Message deleted by H. Chandler

H. McNamara: Chan?

H. Duke: Heather.

H. Chandler: Don't. Just Don't. Please.

H. Duke: We're gonna have to talk about it eventually, we can't just avoid having this discussion forever

H. Chandler: Just stop Duke

H. McNamara: What are you two talking about?

H. Chandler: Don't worry about it Mac, its nothing

H. Chandler has gone offline

Chandler closed the messaging app with a feeling of dread encompassing her

Her and Duke had an agreement, they weren't gonna tell Mac about what she had to do with David, but ever since she started therapy she's been pushing her into opening up or even attending therapy herself, reminding her that she wouldn't judge her, hell Mac would probably be so enraged that she would kill David herself

But she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesn't even wanna think about it

She just wants to forget about it, knowing that she only has another year left of dealing with David and then she never has to see him again

Speaking of the douchebag, she just got a text from David, reminding her that he was throwing a homecoming party soon and he couldn't wait to see her again ;)

God he was fucking disgusting, he acted all innocent over text but in person he was just a monster

But speaking of the party, it was presumably Veronica's first time at one of these, and she needed to make sure she was prepared

She made a mental note to talk to her about that before opening up the messenger app to calm Mac, who had been freaking out ever since she abruptly left the chat

Later that night Duke was instructed to pick up Veronica on her way to Chandler's

She protested this, saying that she didn't want this loser to stink up her precious baby (her jeep) but Chandler just facepalmed and told Duke to just pick up the freakin' nerd

In reality Duke wasn't that worried about that, she still was but her main concern was the whole Martha situation

She tried to forget about how she dumped her out like she was trash, ashamed of how she treated her closest friend

But now she was gonna be stuck with Martha's new best friend for seemingly the near future, and she wasn't ready to have Veronica confront her over it

After taking many detours and finding excuses to take longer, like stopping at 7/11 to pick up some corn nuts for Chandler, she eventually made her way to Veronica's

Living in a mansion she always forgot just how small other people's houses could be, and Veronica's was no exception

But seeing the moderately-sized home brought back memories of the nights she spent at Martha's, nights she would rather forget

She saw Veronica standing awkwardly outside of her home, and it looked like she attempted to dress up nice

Keyword there being looked like, it was still fugly as hell, but at the very least she had ditched the scarf, so baby steps

She shuffled towards the jeep, waving bye to her parents before stepping in to the passenger's seat

To say the ride to Chandler's was uncomfortable was an understatement, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife

Veronica was clearly trying to work up the courage to say something, and Duke was debating on wishing she would just get it over with or wishing she would just stay silent

After the longest car ride of her life they arrived, with Veronica failing to say something

She looked like she was going to as they stepped out, but Duke basically bolted to the door before a confrontation could be had

Veronica was clearly in awe of how ginormous the Chandler Mansion was, and Duke had to remind her several times to stop staring and start walking

Eventually after what seemed like ages they arrived at Chandler's bedroom

As they opened the door Duke breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Veronica wouldn't try anything while the other two were around

Veronica, clearly nervous, made her way into the room, before just kind of standing there, all eyes on her

Things didn't stay that way for long, as Chandler quickly got to work, pulling blazer after skirt after other various articles of clothing out of her closet, barking orders to Mac and Duke as they rushed around

Eventually they were able to get an idea of what size she wears and what her color would be, settling on a nice blue, before deciding to make their way to the mall to pick her up some outfits

While picking up the clothes scattered around the room, they hear a loud crash coming from somewhere downstairs, and you could see Chandler's eyes widen in fear before ordering everyone to get out and to make it fast

Veronica didn't know what was going on, but she followed the others as they made their way to the front door

As the approached Chandler's Porsche they quickly realized that Chandler wasn't with them

Veronica questioned this but the other Heathers remained silent as Duke headed to her jeep, grabbing a first aid kit

Chandler emerged minutes later with a large gash across her face, blood oozing out of it, along with several smaller cuts on her left hand

Veronica was concerned, but all of her questions were met with a 'Shut it Sawyer' and a dirty look from the other two

What really concerned her was how unaffected they all seemed to be like this, cluing Veronica in to the fact that this wasn't the first time this had happened

Looking around, she saw a blood red Lamborghini in the driveway that definitely wasn't there when she arrived, and she quickly put two and two together and realized that one of Chandler's parents came home and must've either been drunk or was in the process of getting drunk, and they had to have thrown a bottle at Chandler, who tried to block it with her hand, with a piece ricocheting off and hitting her cheek

That, combined with the fact that the others seemed prepared and knew how to deal with this meant that this was a common occurrence, happening enough that they were prepared for it

Even more concerned, Veronica countered the deflections by saying that they could talk to CPS or the police or a teacher, to which Duke told her that they don't listen or even care, and in a smaller, softer voice said that nobody did

Veronica had no idea how to respond to that, and chose to just stare at the scene as she grappled with the revelations that she just witnessed

And thus the first crack the teflon facade appeared

As they wordlessly made their way into Duke's jeep, Chandler being unable to drive due to the cuts on her hand, Veronica made a mental note to talk to Martha about Duke's childhood

Speaking of Martha, she never actually told her friends about the fact that she joined the Heathers, and anxiety built up in her stomach at the thought of having to tell them the truth

They were bound to hate her, of course, she pulled an Anakin Skywalker and betrayed them to join the Dark Side, and the Heathers would probably make her abandon them just like Duke did to Martha all those years ago

She quickly resolved to not abandon her friends no matter the consequence

Even after what she saw today these are the Heathers she's talking about, the stone-cold bitches who could toss her aside with no warning over some small flaw, they don't care about her and they aren't her friends

They're basically coworkers, their job being to be popular and shit, and why would anyone in their right mind choose their coworkers over their friends?

She was jolted out of that train of thought by the jeep coming to a stop as they arrived at the mall

As they exited the car Chandler told Veronica to just follow their lead and to try and not stand out so much

She didn't really understand but decided to just try her best

They had only walked about ten steps before they stopped and started criticizing Veronica's walking, telling her to stand up straight and to walk with purpose

She asked just what the hell walking with purpose meant, and they looked at her like she grew a second head

Eventually she was able to get it down, and they made their way into the mall

The mall wasn't a place Veronica frequented very often, Martha and Betty preferring to stay home and watch movies, so this was an exciting opportunity

**Line break**

As they walked the floors, she was amazed at how other people treated them

She knew that the Heathers commanded respect at Westerberg, but even here at the mall total strangers would see them coming and get out of their way, shopkeepers didn't pester them, trying to sell them products, and they didn't have to do anything besides just 'walk with purpose', whatever that meant

They headed towards the side of the mall with the higher-end stores and Veronica felt out of place as they browsed the aisles

She tried to tell them that she couldn't afford this, but they just laughed before telling her that she thought they were gonna make her pay for it? Of course not, they knew that she didn't have that kinda money, they'll cover it don't worry

It wasn't intended to be mean-spirited, but it made her feel even more inadequate and out of place

After much deliberation and arguing, which Veronica got no say in, they finally picked out an outfit, a nice blue blazer and grey skirt with some blue high socks to go along with it

They then proceeded to grab four more of the same outfit

She questioned it before they asked her how she hadn't noticed they wear the same outfit every day

In her defense Veronica tries to stay as far away from the Heathers as possible and as such didn't really look at them, but they went on to explain their outfits kept them recognizable no matter where they went, and that consistency was key to building and maintaining an image

While she considers that apparently popularity had some kind of psychological backing to it, Chandler pulls her to a different section of the store away from the other Heathers

This section had party dresses, and as Chandler grabbed several and headed towards the dressing rooms she explained what was happening

In two weeks from Friday they would be going to Remington University to attend their homecoming party, and as her first major outing as a Heather she would need to look her best

Chandler took a quick look around before pulling her into an even more secluded area of the store

Veronica was sure she was about to tell her to not fuck this up, but instead she took on a much more sincere tone and told her that the guys at this party were creeps who did not care that she was underage and would do anything to get into her pants, legal or not

She told her to stick with a Heather at all times and to never, under any circumstances, go anywhere with anyone who was not one of them

She also knew that this was probably gonna be her first time drinking, and told her to not drink too much, a few shots or cups of beer at most, and to always watch her drink

And, if she drinks something and feels off, get one of them immediately and they will take her home

She ended by looking at her directly in the eyes before asking her if she understood what she was trying to tell her

Veronica, still blindsided by this abrupt change in character, nodded, before Chandler turned back to finding her a dress

She wanted to ask more questions, like why were they going if there were gonna be all these creepy guys there, or why did they put up with this shit and not call the police, but something told her that Chandler was not too receptive to questions and she kept her mouth shut

After many, many dresses Chandler found one that she deemed suitable and they paid and headed out

As they made their way out Veronica's stomach grumbled, being too nervous to eat, and so she asked if they could grab something to eat before heading out

The Heathers shrugged before heading to the food court

She grabbed her purse to grab some cash before Mac saw and gave her some money, way more than she needed, telling her that as long as she was a Heather she didn't need to worry about paying for things

She saw Chandler head to Subway, Duke to Panda Express, and Mac to McDonalds?

You know what, a Heather at McDonalds was not the weirdest thing she's seen today, even if she seemed to be grabbing three Happy Meals, and looking around she saw a pizza place called Smokey's

She looked over the menu before seeing a challenge, if she was able to eat the big slice in under the time of the previous record holder, which was currently 9min 25sec, she would get free pizza next time she came

She decided why the hell not and ordered it, and when it was done she brought it to the table where the other Heathers were already eating

As she sat down she saw a look of horror pass over their faces, before Duke questioned if she really was gonna eat all of that

When Veronica responded that she was gonna try, Duke looked like she was gonna pass out

Veronica started chowing down, much to the dismay of the Heathers

She finished it in 4min 12sec, beating the previous record by over half and getting her coupon for free pizza

They left the mall, and they dropped her off at her house

She headed inside only to see her parents waiting there

Rightttttttt, she may have forgotten to explain what was going on, and they were probably concerned why their daughter got into a stranger's car and came back with 2 giant sacs of clothes

She explained in the most concise way she could that she was part of the popular clique now and they took her out to the mall to get her 'fashionable' clothes

She tried to make a joke out of that but her parents were not laughing

They then hit her with the 'we're not mad we're just disappointed', reminding her of all the crap these girls put her and her friends thought and how this could all be a trap

She tells them that she knows, but she's willing to take that risk, telling them of her plan to try and get them to back off of Betty and Martha

Her father agrees that it's a good idea at least, but her mother is still unsure, and tells her to just be careful and that you can never know what these popular people really want

She then headed up to her room, the sinking feeling of disappointing her parents weighing her down and making every step feel heavier as she treaded up the stairs, only to remember that she had to tell Betty and Martha too

She opened up her messenger app and with a heavy heart began to type

The Princess Brides

V. Sawyer: Guys, I got something to tell you

B. Finn: We know that you're bi Veronica, you don't have to tell us again

M. Dunnstock: What is is?

V. Sawyer: So I may have accidentally totally unintentionally joined the Heathers

B. Finn: WHAT

M. Dunnstock: ....

M. Dunnstock has gone offline

V. Sawyer: Look it was a spur of the moment thing, I wandered into their bathroom and Fleming was about to give them detention but I realized I could get them out of it by forging a note and could probably get something out of it so I did and when I told them I wanted to sit with them once to people would tolerate me they invited me to their group and took me to the mall and bought me clothes and jesus fucking christ this sounds even worse typed out

B. Finn: yep.

V. Sawyer: But don't worry I have a plan

V. Sawyer: I'm gonna get to be their friend and once we're good friends I'll ask for a favor and as their friend they'd be happy to help me out, and I would ask if they could leave you two alone and then you wouldn't be bullied anymore

B. Finn: Veronica that is the most half-baked plan I have ever seen

B. Finn: You didn't think this through, did you

V. Sawyer: Like I said it was spur of the moment, if I didn't take the chance I never would have gotten this opportunity again

B. Finn: So let me get this straight, you are risking eternal humiliation from the Heathers for the chance, THE CHANCE, that they leave us alone

B. Finn: I understand that you had good intentions, but this can and probably will end up backfiring badly on you and on us. The Heathers know that we mean something to you, and will probably threaten to harass us again if you don't do something they want, or maybe they'll use us to get to you, the possibilities for the fucked things they could do are endless

V. Sawyer: I know it's a long shot, and maybe I'm being a little optimistic, but from what I've seen today I don't think they're all bad, there's still some good in there, even if it is buried deep down

B. Finn: Veronica they're The Heathers, I wouldn't be surprised if they had devil horns hiding under their hair

V. Sawyer: Betty be realistic here, they aren't demons, they're just bitchy teenage girls

B. Finn: I am being realistic here, those girls are bad news. I don't know what you saw today, but there is quite possibility nothing that could convince me that there is a shred of humanity between them

V. Sawyer: You know just as well as I do that the Heathers were just as much of losers as we were at one point. If they changed back then, they can change again

B. Finn: Popularity changes people Veronica. It seems like it's already changing you.

B. Finn has gone offline

Well that went about as well as she expected

It only strengthened her resolve, however

She would show Betty and Martha that the Heathers were people, maybe not the best or most morally righteous people, but still regular, actual people

She saw things today, signs of humanity in them, actual factual proof that The Heathers cared about something other than themselves or popularity

They still weren't nice or even good people, but there were shreds of kindness and humanity there

It sounds ridiculous, but up until today she never even considered that the Heathers were people

Before they were like goddesses, ethereal beings who were simply above it all, simply untouchable people who simply didn't have the problems the rest of them faced

Popularity meant that they were separate from everyone else, that they were wholly irredeemable monsters who were destined to die young, their own hubris causing their downfall, at least thats what her parents told her

But now she saw at least part of the truth

The Heathers were like puzzles, and she couldn't wait to put all the pieces together

Sure maybe it wasn't the most healthy thing in the world to think of your new friends as puzzles, earning more pieces as she progressed in their friendship until she eventually got the whole picture, but the Heathers were just so intriguing

She spent hours laying in bed, just wondering what made them into who they were today, almost forgetting to sleep

The next two weeks passed by in a routine

She would wake up early to get her makeup done, before getting dressed and eating a quick breakfast, before being picked up by Duke and heading to school

Once they arrived they would enter school together, before heading to class

While Veronica didn't need the help with her work, she did appreciate being able to help out the Heathers with theirs

She felt like she was contributing to the group in a way that didn't relate to popularity in any way

And it stopped them from pressing the nerds into serving their needs, so it was a win-win situation

At lunch, the four of them would sit at the Heathers' table where Veronica would just listen

She didn't have much to contribute, not being well versed in these matters, so she just listened, occasionally suggesting some ideas that were less cruel, but they were often shut down

But either way, the way they functioned as a machine of sorts, taking in information on gossip and outputting responses with seemingly no effort, was so fascinating

After school there was always something, wether that be a sleepover, a trip to the mall, going out to eat at a fancy restaurant, or whatever else

She also found the intra-Heather interactions to be interesting

She expected the strict hierarchy with Chandler commanding the other two to continue into private, but when they were alone it melted away

They also seemed to be weirdly close, with Heather McNamara in particular being really touchy with the other two

If she didn't know any better she would say they were gay, but they're the Heathers, there's no way

If Westerberg even got a hint that they were homosexual, their popularity would disintegrate

But things weren't all sunshine and rainbows

Neither Betty nor Martha would speak to her, still clearly upset

She made an effort everyday to talk to them, but with all of the after-school activities she was always too tired to do so or simply forgot

She was also still grappling with the immorality of her actions, sure she was finally free from the bullying, which was the most beautiful feeling in the universe, but in doing so she facilitates the bullying of others

She knows its wrong, but she can't bring herself to upset the balance that had been created, unwilling to go back to being a nobody and facing the bullying once again

All that changes on the Friday of the Remington Party

At lunch, Chandler asked (demanded) her to write a note in Ram's handwriting

It was a love note, inviting the mystery recipient to the Remington Party to reconnect

Having a bad feeling about this, she asked who this was for, only for the Heathers to look at each other and try to change the subject

This only confirmed Veronica's fears, and she tore up the note right in their faces, declaring that she didn't care what they said or did, she would not be humiliating Martha

As she stormed off Mac took at look at her girlfriends

Chandler was red in the face, the color matching her blazer, spewing curses, muttering that they're running out of time

Duke looked... happy?

No, she was relieved, probably because with Veronica presumably gone she wouldn't have to confront her past actions towards Martha

She felt relieved as well, but for a completely different reason

She knew what they were doing was gonna piss Veronica off, but they needed a good idea for a prank to pull at the party as David had asked, and they were uncharacteristically out of ideas, forcing them to go with a shelved idea from before Veronica joined the group

But at the same time, she didn't want Veronica to step aside and let them do it, she seemed like she had a good head on her shoulders and didn't want her to give that up for popularity

She'd come to admire her strong moral code, something Mac wished she could do but knowing she didn't have the resolve to do

She quickly pulled them into their bathroom before Veronica's outburst could be noticed, pulling them into a tight hug

After a minute they both calmed down, and they discussed what to do next

David had told Chandler that he wanted them to bring a nerd to humiliate at the party, and with it being tonight they were running out of time to come up with something

They were out of time to find someone else with a crush on a popular student, so they decided to just throw a shot in the dark and have Mac write a note and drop it in some nerd's locker when no one was looking

The reason they didn't do this before was because they wouldn't be sure if the nerd would take their bait, but they knew Martha was gullible enough and they knew of her crush, but now they were just gonna have to take the risk

But now, the question of what to do with Veronica was up in the air

They could always kick her out, but Mac argued that they knew this was gonna piss her off and they still did it anyway, so it was their fault she stormed off, a point which neither Duke nor Chandler could contest

Duke tried to say that it would simplify things to just kick her out, but Chandler just told her that she was trying to get out of having to talk about Martha

Duke looked like she was punched in the gut, but quickly recovered and told Chandler that 'I'm trying to get out of it? Just like how you're trying to get out of talking about David?'

Chandler saw blood and told Duke to shut up, Mac looking on in confusion, but knowing that she wasn't going to get an answer out of Chandler she stayed silent

Mac, trying to diffuse the tension, suggested that they just go find Veronica and apologize, to which the other two begrudgingly agreed

Only issue with that, they couldn't find her anywhere

Flashing back, Veronica stormed out of the cafeteria, momentarily thankful for it's chaos, as it allowed her outburst to go unnoticed

She wandered aimlessly through the halls, knowing at her social life was pretty much over

And it was gonna be even worse than normal, because Betty and Martha probably still hated her and would want nothing to do with her

And quite frankly, she couldn't blame them for it

She brushed off their valid concerns and dove headfirst into this life of popularity, and look how that ended

She was so deep in thought that she didn't even notice the guy in front of her until she ran into him

**Line break**

As she fell to the ground she got a look at the guy

He had black hair, a trenchcoat and devilishly good looks

Blushing, she spewed out several sorrys while helping him pick up his things

He told her that he saw her little freakout in the caf, and that he's proud that she stood up to the swatchdogs and diet-coke-heads, because clearly, unlike most people here, she was doing a good job of keeping her soul clean

Impressed with his Baudelaire quotations, she asked for his name because she's never seen him around before, to which he replied that he didn't throw it

She then goes "damnnnnn that was smooth" to which he says thanks, before saying that he was actually on his way out, because right after she left some morons in letterman jackets started harassing him so he kinda kicked their asses and got suspended, so if she wanted to join him she was more than welcome to come along

When asked how they were getting out, like if he had a car, he said he had a bike, and that was all Veronica needed to agree to leave with him

The drive was magnificent

The feeling of the wind blowing against her, the speed, it was just amazing

Her thoughts and stresses were blown away by the wind and the guy sped through stop signs and traffic lights, and eventually they arrived at 7/11

Heading inside the guy went straight to the slushy machine, and as Veronica checked her phone she was overwhelmed with hundreds of notifications, from Chandler angrily telling her to get back here and explain herself, to Mac telling her that they aren't mad and just wanna talk, to her parents wondering why they got a call from the school saying that she didn't show up to class

She decided to just put her phone on silent and headed over to the counter

They paid for their semi-frozen treats before heading outside and sitting on the curb, where they began talking

Veronica learned his name was JD, short for Jason Dean, and he moved around the country a lot, never staying in one place for too long, and that Sherwood Ohio was just another stop

Veronica for her part told him about the Heathers and their color-coded reign of terror across the school, and how she found herself a part of the group

JD looked like he was going to say something but before he was able Veronica launched into a rant about how she didn't fucking understand those girls, they could be so kind and sweet sometimes but on the drop of a hat they could turn into the cold, uncaring bitches the world sees them as, and she just doesn't fucking get it

He told her that he's dealt with people like the Heathers at every high school that he's been too, and that they're always bad news

And while did he say that they might not be bad people, morality being subjective and all, and that just like everyone else they had reasons for doing what they do, at the end of the day actions speak louder than words, and he can imagine they've done some pretty cruel things

Thinking back to only a few short hours ago with their prank on Martha, Veronica found herself agreeing with JD

As their conversations turned to some lighter topics, they see what appears to be a bright red blob speeding through the streets before pulling in way too quickly into the 7/11, almost wrecking

As it came to a screeching halt the Heathers popped out, already dressed for the party, relief clearly written across their faces

Veronica asked how they found her, and Mac sheepishly admitted that they put tracking software into her phone

When she exasperatedly asked why the hell they would do that, Duke responded "in case something like this happened"

Veronica asked them if they understood how creepy and violating this was, the jab not seeming to phase them in any way

Chandler told her that her running away proved why the tracking was necessary, they had no idea where she went, for all they knew she could've gotten kidnapped

She also reminded her that she left school during school hours, which was incredibly unlike her, and they found her at 7/11 with some stranger (she gestures to JD), what were they supposed to think happened?

She then quickly pushed that aside and told Veronica that they needed to start getting ready for the party, and to hurry up and say goodbye to Jessie James

Veronica rightfully told her no, and that after the shit they did earlier there was no way in hell that she was going to do anything with them

Clearly frustrated, Chandler told her that they would explain everything after the party, literally no question off limits, but they had to leave now to be fashionably late, otherwise they would be unfashionably late and that it would reflect poorly on them if they were

Veronica asked why they couldn't just explain it to her now, but they told her it was a long story that they didn't have time for

She was torn, on one hand she should tell them to go to hell and stay here drinking her slushie, especially after the malicious and downright creepy things they've done

But, from the way it sounded it didn't look like she was getting kicked from the group, and they sounded sincere in everything they've said

Plus they were technically right in that she dipped from school with a complete stranger who she's known for less than 3 hours, so they might've had a point there

She sighed before agreeing to go with them, only after reiterating that she would be getting an explanation for everything once the party was over, which the Heathers agreed to

JD looked concerned, but Veronica told him that it would be fine, probably, and that they would talk tomorrow

The car ride to Veronica's was silent as Chandler sped through the town, ignoring all road safety laws as she did so

They skidded to a halt in front of Veronica's house, with Chandler telling her to make it snappy

She ran into her house, ignoring all protests from her parents as she made her way to her room, putting on the dress that Chandler bought for her a few weeks ago

As she began applying her makeup her parents came into her room, telling her that they were worried about her, and that ever since she joined the Heathers she's not been acting like herself

Guilt pooled in her chest as she started to explain, but as she did so they heard the sound of a car horn and someone yelling "VERONICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH", which she knew to be Chandler's preferred way to tell someone to hurry the fuck up

Deciding that she probably shouldn't piss her off anymore than she already has, she made her way to the car, makeup only half done

Chandler barked for Mac, who was sitting in the back with Veronica, to do her makeup as she drove

Apparently this wasn't Mac's first time doing this, as she was able to skillfully finish the rest of her makeup despite Chandler's erratic driving

They arrived at Remington University and pulled into a fraternity house parking lot

The party was clearly already raging inside, with various drunk students making their way around, bottles or red solo cups in hand

They exited the car, and before they opened the door Chandler turned to Veronica, and with the same intense look she gave her at the mall all those weeks ago, she asked her if she remembered what she told her about the party

Veronica nodded and Chandler opened the door

Quickly the stench of weed and vomit became evident, and it took all Veronica had to not vomit right then and there

They moved further into the house, passing by various groups who cheered as they walked by

**Line break**

But Veronica noticed that most eyes were on her, and remembering what she was taught gave them all a slightly flirty smile

They made their way to a table filled with various cups and shot glasses, and Duke looked over the selection before handing her a cup and 2 shot glasses, telling her that this would be about as much as she could tolerate and to not drink anything besides it

As Veronica drank the alcohol, which was fucking gross, a rather burly guy approached them

He was wearing a varsity jacket, not unlike what Kurt and Ram usually wore, and like the two jocks he gave off an aura of creepiness

He was also clearly intoxicated, noted by how slurred his speech was when he spoke to them, telling them all how hot they looked, before turning his attention to Veronica

He looked her up and down, most of his attention on her breasts, before asking if she was the Veronica that he's heard so much about

Before Veronica could reply he suggested that they go back to his room to 'get to know each other better'

She internally panicked before Chandler intervened, whispering something in David's ear which made him giggle, before she led him away

Duke had a pained look on her face as the two walked away, and Mac was already on her fourth shot

She tried asking Duke what was going on, but she ignored her, grabbing a cup and downing it before heading to a different part of the house

The three of them moved in a pack, Veronica trying to get an answer out of Duke whenever they had a moment away from it all, but her lips remained sealed

Eventually Chandler emerged, her hair frazzled, makeup smudged, dress wrinkled, and hanging off of David, who had the biggest grin on his face, kissing Chandler before walking away from her

Suddenly all the warnings that Chandler told her made a lot more sense, and her blood grew cold and she knew she had to get the hell out before it happened to her

She quickly told Duke that she was going home, but Duke was so drunk that she gave a response that was no more than a noncommittal grunt

Remington was located on the far reaches of Sherwood, and as she walked the streets she realized just how far away she was from home and how stupid of an idea it was to leave without the Heathers, especially this late at night

As she walked down a shadier street, she looked around just in case there was something hiding in the night, only for her eyes to lock on to a familiar motorcycle outside a house, with a SOLD! sign still in the yard

Not believing her luck, she dialed JD's number (they exchanged it earlier) and he answered groggily, asking her why the hell she was calling at 1 in the morning

She explained that things hadn't gone well at the party, and that she kinda dipped and was walking home when she saw his motorcycle and figured that it was his house

She then went on to say that she was worried about walking the rest of the way home and asked if she could stay the night

JD took a moment to answer before telling her to come around the back

Walking around, she saw an open window on the second floor, to which JD's voice came thought, telling her to climb the nearby tree, a limb of which came extremely close to the window

She took off her heels before throwing them through the window and climbing the tree, and with some difficulty she was able to get in

Once she entered she saw a rather bare-bones room, with only a bed, desk and dresser as decorations

JD was standing there rather awkwardly as they both just looked at each other

He broke the silence by saying to be quiet so she didn't wake up his dad, and that he was gonna go get some blankets, and to make herself comfortable

Eventually he came up with some blankets, throwing one on the bed and grabbing a pillow, making himself a makeshift bed on the floor

Veronica protested, but JD told her that it was fine

Exhausted and a little tipsy, Veronica fell asleep rather quickly

She woke up the next day with the sun blaring into her eyes

She turned to her side as she remembered the events of last night, and as she pondered how the Heathers were going to react she noticed something she didn't last night

JD was shirtless the entire time, and he had scars going under each of his pectorals in a semi-circle shape

Not wanting to stare, she quickly turned away, only for the noise to wake him up

As he awoke he made note of the situation, quickly realizing that he was shirtless, to which he quickly scrambled to cover it up before realizing that it was pointless and that she already saw

They both stood in silence, and before Veronica could say that he didn't have to talk about it if he didn't want JD told her that they were his top surgery scars

It took her a embarrassingly long time for her to get the implications of that statement, responding with a 'ohhhhhh you're trans'

Not really knowing how to respond she stayed silent, and worrying that he might've ruined their budding friendship he asked if that was gonna be a problem

Veronica shot up, surprised, before saying of course not, and that she would be a hypocrite if it was, considering that she's bi

He replied with a niceeeee before they fistbumped and had a laugh

They quickly sat down and talked, JD further breaking the tension by asking her to guess what his deadname was

Veronica asked him like isn't that personal information and that he didn't have to give it out if he didn't want to, to which JD said normally yeah he wouldn't but in this circumstance he's gonna because it'll be really funny

She replied with Veronica? to which he said no, and after going through a couple of other names she landed on Heather, to which he said 'ding ding ding'

Veronica laughed and said no fucking way, and he said that it was a fucking weird coincidence but it's true

They talked a bit more about lgbt stuff and how they were treated at Westerberg, before the conversation eventually turned to what exactly happened last night

Veronica told him that all the guys there were creepy as hell and she realized that some bad shit was happening and she didn't feel safe and so just got the hell outta dodge

JD asked why she even went, to which she said that she didn't even know, she guesses that she just wanted answers like the Heathers promised her

Speaking of the Heathers they were probably pissed at her and she went to grab her phone, only to not find it

She quickly panicked and looked around, and once JD realized what was going on he helped her look to no avail, with Veronica realizing that she must've dropped her phone while walking here

He quickly got dressed before making the 'shhhh' gesture as they tiptoed their way through the house, seeing what Veronica presumed to be his dad passed out at the kitchen table, empty beer bottles surrounding him

They made their way outside and began searching the streets for a phone

They didn't get far before they heard a car engine coming towards them rapidly, which screeched to a halt once it came closer

Out popped out who else but the Heathers, each of whom had a different reaction to seeing her

Chandler yelled "VERONICA BARRETT SAWYER I SWEAR TO GOD I AM GOING TO IMPLANT A TRACKER IN YOU IF YOU PULL ANOTHER STUNT LIKE THIS AGAIN"

Duke dropped to her knees, relief evident

Mac ran towards her at mach speed, crying and pulling her into a tight hug, telling her in between sobs how worried they were that something happened

When she questioned how they found her, Duke explained that once they realized she wasn't at the party they freaked out, even more when they found her phone sitting on one of the tables

Duke pulled said phone out of her pocket and handed it to her

**Line break**

So they went everywhere, to the 7/11, to her home, having a rather awkward talk with her parents who almost called the police, even going to Martha and Betty's house to ask them if they've seen her

When all those leads turned up empty they figured that she went to Jessie James' house, but they didn't know where that was because he just moved here, so they went onto a realtor site to see every recently sold house, visiting each to see if they could find his motorcycle

Veronica then realized that she underestimated how intelligent the Heathers could be when they put their minds to things

They asked her to come with them, they'll get something to eat and talk about what happened

JD, who up until this point was just standing off to the side listening, stepped between the Heathers and Veronica, saying sarcastically yeah she should go with them, because it worked out sooo well the last time

Chandler told him to stay out of this, to which JD countered with that last night she called him at 1am to tell him that she was at his house and needed a place to stay for the night because she left the party because guys were being creepy and that unspecified bad shit was happening

They were the ones who brought her there, so why should he trust them bringing her somewhere else

Veronica then intervened, telling JD that she understood why he was concerned but it was fine and she was going to go with them

He looked dumbfounded but she explained that they went through all this effort to find her, and they did warn her about the party beforehand, she just didn't really listen or take it all that seriously

He begrudgingly let her go, whispering that if there were any issues to call him and he would come pick her up and bring her home, to which Veronica thanked him for his help before getting into the car

Despite what she told JD Veronica was still not thrilled with how the Heathers had acted and once she got her explanations she fully intended on parting ways with them

As much as she still believed that people had the ability to change and that the Heathers weren't the cartoonish villains she had once thought of them as, their world was a dangerous one that she no longer wished to be apart of

During the drive she looked through her notifications, sending messages to her parents, Betty and Martha, letting them know that she was ok and that she would explain everything later

They made their way to a house that Veronica had never been too before

She deduced that it was Mac's after she pulled some keys from her pocket and opened up the house

They made their way into the kitchen, admiring the sheer luxury the house radiated

Mac pulled out some equipment before asking Veronica if she liked anything on or in her pancakes

When she replied chocolate chips she grinned and said of course she did

She watched in amazement as Mac worked, gliding through all the steps with angelic grace, pouring a liberal amount of chocolate chips into the batter

Once the cakes were done she plated them before grabbing sprinkles, butter, syrup, whipped cream and 2 bowls of chocolate chips and placing them all onto the table

They quickly dug in, and oh my god it tasted fucking amazing

It made Veronica momentarily reconsider her decision to leave the Heathers if it meant she could have more of these

She watched Chandler apply a small amount of butter and some syrup, Mac cover them in whipped cream and sprinkles, and Duke slathered hers in butter and syrup before dumping one of the bowls of chocolate chips onto them

Once they finished eating and cleaning their mess, they headed up two flights of stairs to what she assumed to be Mac's bedroom

Veronica only had one word to describe her room; YELLOW

The walls, the ceiling, the bedsheets, everything had a yellow tint to it

Mac took a seat on the bed, the various Pokemon and My Little Pony plushes shifting as the bed adjusted itself to accommodate for her weight, with the other two Heathers siting on either side of her

Veronica grabbed the obviously yellow desk chair before turning it to face the Heathers and sitting down

For a long moment no one said a word, before Chandler sighed and said that she (Mac then elbowed her), she meant they would like to apologize for everything

Not satisfied with the nonspecific 'everything' Veronica asked her to be specific for what they were apologizing for, to which Chandler looked momentarily agitated before calming herself and began listing whatever she could think of

Trying to force her to trick Martha with the note, putting the tracking app on her phone without her knowledge or consent, making her go to the Remington Party.... she trailed off

Mac interjected, adding in bullying her and her friends for years, before nudging Duke, who took a deep breath and exhaled deeply before saying abandoning Martha back in 8th grade

They then looked to Veronica expectantly, who nodded, indicating that they got at least most of it

Veronica told them quite simply that they had offered her an explanation for everything, and that she would quite like to hear it

Chandler asked where she wanted her to start, and when told the beginning, she began to weave the tale of their lives

She told Veronica about her parents, the divorce, her mom's abuse, the years spent trying to protect Mac from the bullies before coming to the realization that the best way to protect her from the bullies was to essentially become one themselves

When she got to their first Remington Party she hesitated, but Duke looked over and told her that it was time to tell the truth

She told Veronica that what she was about to tell her was a secret she planned on taking to the grave

The only reason Duke knows is because after it happened she broke down in front of her and told her everything, before making her swear to secrecy

She told her that in exchange for popularity, she's been having sex with David every party for the last 4 years

David originally wouldn't even let them go to the party, but she knew that those parties held the ticket to improving their status, so she offered him the only thing she had that he would want

Veronica interjected, stating that he was at least 4 years older than her, that meant that...

Chandler cut her off before nodding, tears falling down her cheeks

Veronica felt nothing but pure hatred in her heart for David

Chandler couldn't have been older than 13 or 14 when she went to that first party, and he still had sex with her

He was a goddamn pedophile, and Veronica questioned why she didn't call the police

She said that David's father was on the force and that he would protect him from any consequences, and even if that wasn't on the case she couldn't, without him their ticket to the Remington Parties was gone, and the news that the Heathers had been uninvited to them would make them the laughingstock of the school

She glanced over to Mac, who up until this point had remained silent, but with rage that somehow eclipsed her own started screaming at the top of her lungs, telling Chandler that she was so fucking stupid, that she could've found another way or just not done it, and that popularity was not the end all be all

Chandler in complete contrast looked at the floor before saying in a soft voice that she told her that she told her many years ago that she would do anything to keep her safe, and she meant anything

Mac did not look satisfied by that answer at all, but she stayed quiet as Chandler continued her story, unknowingly to Veronica omitting the part where they started dating, before eventually reaching the events of yesterday

She explained that David told them to bring a nerd to the party to humiliate, and as she explained before they couldn't just say no to him

**Line break**

They had to find someone who was gullible enough to believe whatever reason they came up with, and someone who would have good enough reason to drop all their Friday night plans to drive across town to a university

Martha, with her crush on Ram, fit both of those criteria, so they came up with a plan

They figured that Veronica wouldn't agree, so they decided to make the letter's contents vague enough that she wouldn't be able to immediately know that it was for her, and to keep her away from it when Martha was humiliated at the party

Veronica once again interjected, telling them that none of what they just told her was an excuse for what they tried to do to her

They agreed, telling her that they weren't trying to defend it, just explaining why she specifically was chosen

As the story finished Duke kicked Chandler lightly with her food, asking her if there was anything she forgot about, and when Chandler said nope Duke took matters into her own hands, going over to Chandler before pulling her into a deep kiss, before doing the same with Mac, breaking the latter out of her angry stewing

She then told Veronica that they were dating, all three of them

Veronica was surprisingly unsurprised, saying that in hindsight that it was extremely obvious, especially with the color-coded outfits and how touchy they were when they were alone

Mac then started, giving a heavily abridged version of her life, mostly because Chandler had already covered most of it

It was then Duke's turn to speak up, to which she did with great reluctance

Veronica once again lost her cool when Duke started telling her about her parents and the abuse she suffered at their hands

Duke looked surprised, thinking that Martha would've already told her

Veronica then realized that she forgot to ask Martha about Duke's childhood in the midst of their falling out over her joining the Heathers

She asked why she never told anyone, to which Duke replied that Martha did, its just that no one cared enough to do anything about it

She had no reply to that, and as Duke finished her story she pondered over all that she had just learned

She always kinda assumed they had shitty home lives, but not that shitty, like seriously their parents needed to be arrested and like publicly whipped or some shit, same with David

And she could see that they had noble intentions, plus she thought that it was kinda sweet that Chandler did everything she did and put up with all the bullshit just so Mac wouldn't have to

But at the same time, they weren't saints either, becoming the very people they had tried to avoid, and just because they've had some hard lives didn't excuse them from shit

Even when considering that her own anti-Heather bias from her years of bullying might be clouding her judgement, she still found some of their actions to be disgusting

And she told them just that, that while she could sympathize with their quite frankly horrible childhoods and all the shit they've had to put up with, it didn't make up for anything that they've done or excuse what they've done in the name of popularity

She then went on a well-deserved tirade, asking them how they could justify all the things they've done when they themselves were victims of bullying for all these years

Chandler looked at her straight in the eyes and asked her if she could actually say that she wouldn't have done the same thing if she was in their situation, to which Veronica wanted to answer with a 'of course I wouldn't have', but she knew deep down that she would've done it 10 times over, hell she joined the Heathers with the intention to try and protect Betty and Martha, just like how Chandler wanted to become popular to protect Mac

She then told her sadly that it was an eat or be eaten world, and sometimes you gotta do whatever you gotta do to not get eaten

That didn't mean that she didn't feel bad for it, but she didn't regret doing it because it helped protect the people she cared about

And maybe that makes her a bad person, but she doesn't care as long as they're safe

Things weren't black and white, everyone was a shade of gray, a fact which she felt like Veronica never really accepted

Veronica wanted to protest but she found herself unable to disagree with the point she was making

She did ask why they chose Martha specifically for the prank, and she told them that David only told them an hour before lunch and they had little time to make a plan and put it into action, and if they would've had more time they would've picked someone else

The answer did not satisfy Veronica but she knew it was the truth

She then turned to Duke, asking the question that the green-clad girl knew was coming but wished it never would

Veronica questioned her abandonment of Martha in 8th grade, and with a bit of encouragement from Mac she explained about how as she became tired of her parents abuse she pushed herself into study, hoping that it would make her grades get to a point where they would be proud of her

As she delved into study she saw everything, and everyone, as a distraction as she became more desperate to improve her grades by any means necessary

That included Martha, but she just couldn't bring herself to dump her, she wasn't brave enough to handle the situation that maturely, so she settled on just ignoring her until she eventually went away

She said that she wasn't proud of it and she wanted to apologize, but by the time she came to that conclusion she had joined the Heathers and she could no longer be associating with losers under fear of loss of popularity

Veronica again wasn't satisfied with this explanation, but she had no reason to doubt what she was saying was the truth

Mac then spoke up, saying that they wanted to make it up to her, and they were prepared to offer the following things in an attempt to earn her forgiveness

Chandler sent her over 100 screenshots of text messages of their flirting, leaving no doubt that the Heathers were dating each other, and that she was free to spread this at any time, ruining their social standing in the process

They would ensure that nobody touched a hair on her, Betty, or Martha's heads, and they could even extend that to the weird trenchcoat guy if she wanted

They would also give her and her friends some money, more than enough to get them into any college of their choosing

And, she would be allowed back into the Heathers at any time, all she had to do was ask

She pondered it, then asked if they didn't regret what they did, like they claimed, why are they offering her things to compensate for it

They repeated that they didn't regret it, but they felt bad about ti because if hurt someone they considered a friend

Veronica was quick to point out that basically meant they were sorry that their were consequences to their actions, a statement to which the Heathers had no retort

Despite her agitated appearance, Veronica was quite touched that they considered her a friend

She considered what she was being offered

She was reconsidering her initial intent to leave the Heathers, so being able to rejoin was nice

They were giving her what she originally wanted when joining their clique, and she couldn't complain with that

She also knew that as much as her parents tried to save up for her college it wouldn't be enough, so the extra money could help her pay for her dream school, making Harvard, Duke or Brown actual possibilities instead of dreams

And she also knew Betty and Martha's folks were not well off either, and they would really appreciate the help

But what intrigued her the most was their first thing

**Line break**

She checked her phone to see the screenshots sent, and from a quick scan she could see that they were filled to the brim with flirting, which made her feel a certain kind of way that she decided to ignore for now

These essentially made her the most powerful person in Westerberg, giving her the power to ruin their reputation or even blackmail them

Knowing that they gave her the ability to destroy what they had done everything for, Veronica finally understood that the Heathers were being genuine about their guilt over what they had done, and that everything they told her came from a place of honesty

She made her decision, looking at them and telling them the following;

She would forgive them and rejoin their group, under a few conditions

The bullying would have to slow down, she understands that it can't stop completely otherwise people would think they were weak, but they can only do the bare minimum needed

They would have to match the amount given to her, Betty and Martha as a donation to an anti-bullying charity of her choosing

And, they would have to go to Betty and Martha, today, and give them an apology for everything (she looked at Duke when saying the last part)

The Heathers huddled, before returning to their original positions and telling her that they agreed to her terms

Veronica raised an eyebrow at that, not actually believing that they would agree, questioning where they were going to get the money from

Chandler scoffed and told her they were stealing it from their parents, and that a hundred thousand here and there wouldn't go noticed

It was at that point Veronica understood just how rich they were

She told them to get in the car, and that she was going to text Betty and Martha and tell them to meet up at the park where the Heathers were going to apologize to them

They looked uncomfortable with this but nevertheless got in the car and started making their way

The Princess Brides

V. Sawyer: I know this is sudden, but I need you to come to Westerberg Park, I'm gonna be there in around 15 minutes

M. Dunnstock: Why, so your fRiEnDs the Heathers can bully us again?

V. Sawyer: No, they're coming to apologize to you.

B. Finn: Yeah right

B. Finn: Who is this texting, cause it certainly ain't Veronica

M. Dunnstock: I bet its Duke

V. Sawyer sent a photo

V. Sawyer: It's me

V. Sawyer: And seriously they want to apologize

V. Sawyer: Well, maybe not want to, but they are going to

B. Finn: Pray tell, how did you convince them to do that, the Heathers we know would never be caught dead apologizing

V. Sawyer: We made an agreement, I'm not going to give any details because that's for them to tell you, but I will be there to make sure they don't omit anything

V. Sawyer: Just come to the park, please, I promise it'll be worth your while

V. Sawyer: And just to be clear, you don't have to forgive them for anything, but I will ask that you listen to what they have to say

M. Dunnstock: Fine, but we want an explanation out of you too

M. Dunnstock: You join the Heathers out of the blue, ignore us for two weeks, and then we get woken up at 3am to the Heathers looking like they've seen a ghost asking if we've seen you, only for them to get even more panicked when we said no and then they wouldn't answer any of our questions

V. Sawyer: That's fair, I promise I'll clear everything up between us

B. Finn: You better

At least she got them to come, Veronica thought as Chandler drove uncharacteristically slow to the park

They eventually arrived, and while stepping out of the car she looked around and saw her friends sitting under a covered pavilion

JD was also there, and when the two groups saw each other there was silent moment before the Heathers and Veronica made their way over to the table, sitting down

Veronica asked JD how he got here, to which he said after the Heathers kidnapped her he remembered they said that they went to their houses looking for her, so he went online and found Betty and Martha's social media accounts to let them know what was going on, and around 20 minutes ago they let him know this little meeting was happening and he figured he'd tag along because he also wants to know just what the hell is going on

Veronica decided that that was fair

Both groups sat in silence, before Veronica let out an awkward cough and asked the Heathers if there was anything they'd like to say to Betty and Martha and she guesses JD

Betty responds in a sarcastic tone "yeah, what do you have to tell us"

Chandler grew enraged but remembering her promise she quickly cools down, taking a deep breath and saying that on behalf of her group she would like to apologize for all of the harm that they have caused them over the past couple years

She remains silent after this, and Veronica has to intervene again, asking her what specifically she is apologizing for, and that goddamn it Heather they just went over this

Betty then interrupts them, telling Veronica to stay out of it, and if they Heathers truly wanted to apologize like they said then they should be able to do this themselves

Parroting what she told Veronica earlier, Mac chimes in, telling them that they feel bad about what they've done to them over these past few years

It's Martha who interjects here, telling her in a sarcastic tone that she's doing a great job at showing it

Veronica is getting frustrated and is thinking about banging her head on the table

Duke tells them that they want to be civil about this, but Martha laughs, saying that that's rich coming from her

Veins bulge on Duke's face and Mac has to cover Duke's mouth before she says something that would ruin this whole situation

Veronica is finally fed up, slamming her fists on the table, drawing the attention of everyone before saying that they all need to chill the fuck out

She turns to the Heathers, telling them that she knows this is hard and that admitting you fucked up isn't exactly the most fun thing in the world, but they were going to have to try and be sincere about this, not trying to deflect responsibility being being vague

And turning to her friends, she reminds them that while they have every right to be pissed at the Heathers, they came here to apologize and that they promised to at least listen to what they had to say, and that it can't happen if they make comments after every little thing the Heathers say

Both groups stay silent after Veronica's outburst, and she thinks she's ruined it before Martha speaks up in a much softer tone than she had been using, asking them what changed, why now after all of these years do they decide to apologize

The Heathers take a moment to think on their answer, before Mac speaks up, deciding to tell them the story of the past 24 hours, starting with their plan to trick Martha

She explained how the guy who threw the party demanded they bring a nerd to the party to prank, and that with such limited time and knowing the difficulty of luring someone on such short notice, they settled on Martha, who with her crush on Ram would be an easy target

Martha looked like she wanted to say something, but remembering Veronica's words remained silent

They knew they couldn't tell Veronica about who the note she was forging was for because she would refuse, but she found out anyway and stormed away, before they realized that they fucked up and went to find her, before realizing that she wasn't at school, and so they used the tracker app they installed on her phone to find her at 7/11 with him (she gestures over to JD)

Betty questions tracker app?, to which Veronica tells her that yeah it was really fucked up, to which Chandler then reiterates that she left school with some random guy without telling anyone who she was going with or where she was going, all she did was prove why the app was necessary, imagine if they didn't have it and couldn't find her

Betty then says she guesses that its reasonable given how Veronica acted but that they probably should have told her or asked her permission, to which Chandler agrees that yeah they probably should have

Mac then continues, saying that they then convinced her to go to the party, promising her an explanation when everything was over, only to go to the party and have her disappear, and that's when they freaked out and looked literally anywhere they could think of for her

They then explain the process of finding her at JD's house, before they took her to her place and they had a big talk, leading them to where they are now

Silence once again falls over the group as they consider what was just said

Martha decides to ask why Veronica left the party, to which she explains that there were creepy guys and she just felt really uncomfortable

JD speaks up for the first time, questioning the Heathers on why they would even bring her there to begin with, since they obviously weren't blind to the fact that there were creepy guys there

Chandler explains that the Remington Parties were like the Met Gala of popularity, being invited and going meant that you were at the top of the pyramid

Martha said that she didn't understand, to which Duke had to explain that popularity didn't come from thin air, and that someone already popular has to vouch for you and build you up, and going to these parties is not only a sign of status, but it was also where they met people who were already popular

Popular people in college had younger siblings at Westerberg, and so they go to these parties and connect with the right people who tell their siblings and their friends about how cool they were, and they tell their friends and so on and so forth, giving them status before they even started their first day of freshman year

She then asked why did they keep having to go once they became popular, to which Duke said that popularity was like a car, once you got it you had to keep up it's maintenance, and just because you are popular now doesn't guarantee you will be tomorrow

Betty commented that she didn't think popularity was so complicated, to which Chandler replied in a dark tone that it gets worse

Veronica then interjects, reminding her that she doesn't have to talk about it if she doesn't want to, but Chandler tells her that for them to understand they need to know the whole story

She then poses a question, how do they think they got invited in the first place

She sees Betty and Martha have a questioning look, but JD's stare grows cold and she knows that he's figured it out

She then says that you need to have something to bring to the table, you don't just get invited for nothing, and shakily she says that as a woman she had one thing that she knew all men wanted

Betty and Martha visibly recoil at her statement, understanding the implication

Martha shakily asks that this had to have happened before freshman year, did that mean?

Chandler's sad glance is all she gets in reply, but it's enough

JD then reaches his hand across the table before grabbing Chandler's shoulder, looking her in the eye and telling her that this is so completely fucked, and that if she wants her problem dealt with he could help

She says that she's tried but nothing will help, his dad is a police officer and will protect him, to which JD replies not from murder

**Line break**

Everyone visibly reacts in shock, Mac almost falling off the bench

Veronica asks him how he could just say that so nonchalantly, to which JD replies that this wasn't his first time dealing with creeps

Everyone goes dead silent, before Betty coughs and says that she's glad that she's not on his bad side

Chandler says that she'll keep that in mind, but for right now she needs him, he's the one who invites them to the parties in exchange for her having sex with him, without him no one would invite some high schoolers to their college party

JD then says that they never really answered his question, asking why they brought Veronica

Mac says that her just being part of the Heathers wasn't enough to solidify her status, going to the party would put her on the same level as them

He then asks Veronica if she left because someone tried to do something to her, to which she says thankfully not, but that the guy Chandler is taking about tried to, but she stopped him

Martha then asks if they warned her about this kinda stuff happening, to which Chandler replied that of course she did, but by Veronica's own admission she didn't really take it super seriously until she actually got to the party and saw it firsthand

Martha takes a glance over at Veronica, who nods, confirming Chandler's statement

Betty then says that while she still doesn't like them, she feels really fucking bad for them, no one should have to go through that kinda shit

Martha then speaks up, saying that it's even worse than that

She looks at Duke for permission, and she nods

She then tells her that Duke at least was abused for years, telling stories of Duke coming to school in tears over some of the inhumane shit her parents put her through, or covered in bruises, or even starved, and how Martha would try and help to the best of her ability

Some of the stuff she mentioned were things Mac and Chandler didn't even know about, and they were positively horrified, Mac pulling Duke into a hug and not letting her get out of it

Betty then asks, gesturing to the other Heathers, if they went through something similar, to which they both nodded

Everyone can literally see the anger radiating off of JD and while attempting of calm himself down he says through gritted teeth that he fucking hates child abusers and if he had his way no one would ever find their bodies

No one really knows how to respond to that, except for Martha who says that while maybe she wouldn't go that far she thinks that their parents should all go to jail

Chandler tells her bitterly that their parents were rich and could just pay their way out of any problems

JD comments that this country is so fucked, to which the Heathers can only nod in agreement

Martha then speaks up once again, saying that her initial question wasn't really answered

She understands them a bit better now, but she still doesn't know what changed

Chandler replies that they saw how much their actions hurt someone close to them

Before it was just the three of them, and outside of their parents and David nothing ever really could hurt them, they were invincible, a three-man team of steel

But Veronica wasn't like that, she had a soul, a heart, something the Heathers long abandoned

And while something like pranking Martha didn't really hurt them, it hurt Veronica a lot, something that they knew would happen but didn't really understand what that meant

And after she ran away twice, the second time leaving them with no idea where she was, they finally understood what they were doing to her

The fact that she would literally run away from them, going with anyone else, even a literal stranger over them, made them realize that they weren't treating Veronica with the respect that she deserved and that it needed to change

They then proceeded to tell them about the changes they planned on making, courtesy of Veronica, and what they gave her to earn her forgiveness

Upon mention of the screenshots revealing their relationship, Betty sighed before fishing out a 20 dollar bill and handing it to Martha, explaining they've had a running bet on which of them were dating

When Duke exasperatedly asks how they could've known, Betty responds 'color coded outfits, no straight people do that'

The eventually reach the final item, the money being given

Mac grabs her purse before pulling out two thick envelopes, and when Betty and Martha open them, revealing the cash, Chandler explains that this would be more than enough to pay for tuition for any college, or if they decide against that path, a down payment on a decently sized house, or anything they want to use the money on

Betty and Martha look at each other and then Veronica, who just gives them a smile

Betty jokingly says that they're trying to bribe them, to which Chandler replies that yeah they kinda are, but that and everything else are supposed to show how deeply sorry they are for their actions and that they are trying to make up for it all

Betty then takes a deep breath before reiterating that she doesn't like them, and doesn't think that she could ever forgive them for the literal years of torment they put her and her friends through, but that this is a step in the right direction and while they won't ever be friends, she'd like to not be enemies

This gets a positive reaction from the three Heathers, ranging from a small smile from Duke to a huge smile accompanied by a happy noise from Mac

Martha remains silent, saying that before anything else she wants the truth out of Duke

She knew this was coming and so had some time to come to terms with it, but she still found it hard to speak as she began her story

She explains the day she broke and just couldn't take it anymore, her shutting out of the rest of the world, her inability to just tell Martha the truth and her decision to just ignore her, hoping that the situation would solve itself, and how it was the hardest and worst thing she's ever done and how she regretted it the minute it happened, and how she could never work up the strength to ask for her forgiveness because she knew that she didn't deserve it, and-

She starts violently sobbing, tears splashing against the rotting wood of the park table

Martha stands up, drawing all eyes to her, and she moves across the way to where Duke is sitting, before pulling her into a hug

Duke was initially shocked and frozen, before starting to sob even louder and harder, leaning into the hug

Duke apologized profusely as she sobbed into Martha's shoulder, who only shushed her and patted her back as she cried

Duke eventually calmed down and Martha returned to her seat, before telling the group that she can see that they truly do feel guilty over their actions, and while she can't forgive them just yet, she hopes to eventually reach that point one day

Chandler mutters that its more than they deserve, and Betty responds saying maybe it is, but it's their forgiveness and they can give as much or as little as they feel appropriate

Mac tells them that they don't need to feel sorry for them just because their lives had been rough, to which Betty tells them that it's not because of that, that just explained why they did what they did

Its the fact that they made reconciliation attempts without even being prompted by Veronica and that they realized on their own that they needed to change that showed them that they truly understood the gravity of their actions against them and how they needed to change

Betty and Martha both get up, before telling Veronica that she might want to come with them, because her parents have been freaking out all night and are about to call the police, so she might wanna come home and deal with that

**Line break**

Veronica gets a 'oh shit' look before telling everyone that yeah she should probably go do that and bye, before getting in Betty's car and driving away

The Heathers make their exit, but before they can do so JD stops them, telling them that he was serious, if they needed help with their parents he could make it look like an accident

Mac tells him that it's fine, her mom was the abusive one and she doesn't even know where she is

JD tells her that he could find her and make her life a living hell, and Mac looks interested

Chandler and Duke tell him thanks but no thanks, they hate them and are planning on never talking to them again once they move out, but murder is a little too extreme

He tells them to suit themselves, but his offer is always on the table if they change their minds

And, if they need to talk to someone about these things, he knows all too well what its like to have shitty parents

As he gets on his motorcycle and drives away, the Heathers become really glad that they made up with Veronica's friends, otherwise they'd probably end up drinking drain cleaner or some shit

Veronica eventually arrives home, telling her friends bye and she heads to the front door, knowing the shitstorm that is going to occur as soon as she knocks

She momentarily debates seeing if the Heathers would be willing to let her stay forever, but she knows she's gotta face her parents eventually, so she knocks on the door

And a shitstorm it was

From the moment her parents answer and see her standing there they're fussing over her, making sure she's okay and hasn't been drugged or attacked or anything like that

Once her parents are 100% sure that she is mentally and physically alright the yelling starts, asking her what she was thinking leaving school, do they have any idea how worried they were when they got the call from the school telling them that she didn't show up for class, they almost called the police, why did those color-coded girls show up at their house at 3am asking where she was, they thought she was with them, and on and on it goes, Veronica answering to the best of her ability without revealing any sensitive information

When she has to reveal that she spent the last night at a friend's house, a guy they've never heard of named JD, they almost pass out before Veronica has to loudly and quickly tell them that they didn't have sex, they DID NOT have sex

When it's all said and done Veronica is grounded for two weeks, which she thinks is fair considering how much stress she put them thought

She is also able to keep her phone, explaining that if she didn't have a way to message the Heathers they might think something happened and they might show up at 3am again

The Heathers seem to be growing on her parents however, her dad telling her that he's glad she's found some friends who care enough to come looking for her at ungodly hours

Things become a lot better from this point on

The Heathers make an effort to be a lot nicer to her

They often shower her with expensive gifts of jewelry or new clothes, either trying to brush it off by saying she needed a new wardrobe (Chandler, Duke) or by telling her that its another apology for how they treated her and her friends (Mac)

Whenever they have their daily gossip check in, Veronica is included and allowed to contribute her ideas, which are taken seriously and considered

But, she's also noticed a different sort of change in them

Stares linger a little too long to be friendly, Mac's hugs (which happen at more frequent intervals) last a little too long to be friendly, and at their weekly sleepovers (which she had started to be invited to) they start to make comments about how she can join them in bed if she wanted

She initially brushed this all off as either her reading too much into things or a joke, but the frequency at which they occur is making her think otherwise

She decides that she is not thinking about this, and pushes it to the back of her mind

It makes a resurgence when she's trying to sleep or when they're changing at gym class, but for the most part she puts those thoughts into a box labeled 'do not touch' and put it in a part of her mind where she'll just forget about it

As for her friends, they Heathers kept their word, and from the Monday after the incident onwards not a single person has done anything to Martha or Betty or even JD

Not a single comment or thing thrown or locker defaced, everyone seems to have agreed that they were off-limits

She also found more time to spend with them, and does so without fear of retaliation, the Heathers making it explicitly clear that she could spend time with her friends whenever she pleased and they would not stop her or make comments or even get offended if she chose plans with them over them

She also found a good friend in JD

He's someone she finds she can talk to about the hard things that the others wouldn't get or she doesn't want them knowing about

They'll often go to 7/11, get slushies, and just talk

His tactics of freezing your brain seem to work wonders on... those thoughts she would rather not talk about

He also had become good friends with Betty and Martha after everything, hanging out with them when Veronica was busy with her Heather duties

Over a month passed before something had to happen to break the fragile tranquility established

Veronica had been making her way up the stairs at Mac's house after stopping to talk to her Dad, who she found to be a very caring man and who she can see Mac got her gentle nature from, when she opened the door without knocking

There she saw the Heathers.... doing things that made her cheeks burn and heart beat fast

The 'do not touch' box in her mind was touched, hell it caused a nuclear meltdown in Veronica's mind

There was a moment where all four of them stopped and looked at each other, before Veronica came back to reality, slamming the door shut and running out of the house, ignoring the shouts of 'Veronica!' behind her

She got in her recently acquired car and drove to 7/11, heading straight for the slushie counter, only to see JD standing there, giving her a questioning look

After his usual 'greetings and salutations' he jokes that freezing your brain is usually his thing, only for Veronica to not acknowledge him and down her cherry delight

Feeling the brain-freeze take her over she sighs in relief, which only made JD even more concerned

They paid for their treats and headed to their usual spot before JD told her to tell him what's going on

Veronica takes another large sip of her drink before stuttering out what she saw the Heathers doing

JD, being aroace, was mostly repulsed, but eventually he realized Veronica's dilemma, asking her outright if she had a crush on the Heathers

Veronica stood up faster than the speed of light before yelling NO

JD just gave her a look and she sat down, admitting that yeah she did, she guesses

Having found himself the group therapist, with Chandler and Duke coming to him to talk about their shitty parents, he was well versed in these matters

Love in the sense Veronica was talking about was foreign to him, but he knew enough to be able to figure it out

First he wanted to make sure that this was love not lust, a question which he posed to Veronica

She looked confused by it, but JD explained that he wanted to make sure she wasn't confusing a crush for being attracted to them, because from what he understood the Heathers were very conventionally attractive people and she could just think they were hot, but it could also be both, and her first step should be to figure out exactly what she was feeling

**Line break**

Veronica took a minute to seriously consider what he was saying, and considered the idea of a romantic relationship with the Heathers as well as a sexual one, and while the latter was definitely extremely appealing, she also desired the former, and she told JD that it was definitely a crush

With that settled, he got straight to the point

The Heathers totally had a crush on her too

Veronica laughed before one look at him told her that he was being serious

He told her that it was so fucking obvious and that they needed to just fuck already

Veronica told him to be serious and he told her that he was, the Heathers clearly had a crush on her, even Betty and Martha saw it

Veronica then thought about it, and all of the things she dismissed as 'thinking too much into it' suddenly made wayyyyy more sense, and she said 'ohhhhhhh my god the Heathers are into me'

JD responded that it took her long enough, you useless lesbian

He then told her that the Heathers likely also been flirting with her for weeks now and that she didn't pick up on it

Veronica then said thats probably what they meant the many times they asked her to sleep with them at sleepovers

JD was about to start banging his head against the pavement, telling her that she was so fucking oblivious

She then started freaking out, asking him what was she supposed to do about it

He told her, simply, to ask them out

She started blubbering about how she couldn't do that, they were so pretty and hot and blah blah blah

JD covered her mouth, told her to shut up and listen

He told her that those girls partially gave up the thing they worked years for and suffered for, gave her the power to ruin their lives, changed their attitudes and even more all because she was upset with them

They were whipped, and they would probably react like little happy puppies if she asked them out, at least McNamara would

She still looked unsure, and JD told her that while he couldn't force her to say anything he would strongly recommend doing so ASAP

She told him that she would think about it, but she was also worried how Betty and Martha would react

She would literally be dating all three of their major bullies, even if they were on better terms now there was still history between them

JD simply asked if it would make her happy to be with them, to which she said yes, and he replied that it would be the only thing that mattered to them when they told her

She asked how he could be so sure of all of these things, to which he told her that he paid attention to his surroundings and that people say more through their actions than their words

As they finished their slushies, who should come up but the Heathers, having found Veronica through the tracking app that Veronica consented to keeping after realizing that it wasn't there for any creepy reasons, only for knowing where she was if something happened or she ran away, which was becoming a concerning pattern for her

They apologized profusely, explaining that they didn't know she was coming so early so they thought they had some time

They were blushing hard as they explained themselves, as was Veronica when she told them that it was ok and that she should've probably knocked before going in

JD felt his brain cells deteriorating at how they kept dancing around their obvious crushes, and he was tired of it

He sat up before looking them in the eyes and told them to just get a room already

The four of them blushed even harder which only fueled his resolve

He told them that they had a crush on Veronica and that she had a crush back on them, now go ahead and date already

Various sounds of protest were made by all of them, but JD ignored that as he got on his motorcycle and started to speed away, not before telling Veronica to call him once her and her girlfriends got things figured out

Once JD left they just stood there awkwardly, before Duke said fuck it, went over, and smashed her lips onto Veronica's

Veronica reacted in shock before realizing that this felt really good and started to reciprocate

They made out for a few more seconds before Chandler pulled them apart, saying 'Goddamnit Duke Mac was supposed to get the first kiss, you are in so much trouble'

While they argued Mac took her chance, pulling Veronica into their own kiss

Duke's was rougher, filled with passion, a battle for dominance with every kiss, but with Mac had much softer lips, each one feeling like it's own unique expression of 'I love you'

Not wanting to get kissed for all 3 of her first kisses, she took the initiative, going over to where Chandler and Duke were arguing, before grabbing Chandler and pulling her into a kiss

It was much gentler than she expected, each movement seemingly perfectly crafted to feel as good as possible

Once that was done the four of them just looked at each other, before coming to some wordless understanding, getting in the car and heading back to Mac's place

They left Veronica's car, which she didn't realize until many hours later

Life continued as Veronica started a new life with her girlfriends

As JD had predicted, Betty and Martha were happy for her, excited that she found people that she loved and that loved her back

But they also told her that if the Heathers ever hurt her that they would be joining JD in killing them, which didn't scare her at all

Her parents were another story, she had to explain that not only did she like girls, she was dating three of them, and those three were the Heathers, who up until a few months ago were her bullies

The Heathers waited outside her house while she explained the situation, ready to take her to Mac's if things went south

It went about as well as you expected, which is to say not well at all

They weren't upset about her being bi, or even that she was dating three women, the issue lay in the three women she had chosen

Her parents questioned that of all the women in the world she had to pick those three, reminding her of all the awful things that they had done to her and her friends over the years

She retorted that they've changed, to which her parents questioned the legitimacy of it, wondering if this was just another prank, one giant one to end their time at high school with a bang, telling her that she didn't think this through and rushed into it too quickly without thinking that it might be a trick

Eventually Veronica got fed up and sent Duke the signal (a pineapple emoji) that things didn't go well and they needed to leave

Chandler slammed the car door shut as she exited the car, heading to the front door, narrowing missing it hitting her as it swung open to reveal a pissed off Veronica

Chandler pulled her into a tight hug before looking at her parents, telling them that they don't have to like them, but that they WILL respect Veronica's choice to be with them, because that's what she chose

And they don't have to believe that their feelings are genuine, because she knows they are, and that's all that matters

With that she turned around, still holding Veronica tight before depositing her in the backseat with Mac, who similarly pulled her into a hug as Chandler got into the driver's seat and sped off to Mac's

They had prepared for this given that it was the most probable outcome by a long shot

They set up a pillow fort on Mac's spacious bed, various snacks and drinks spread about

They climb in, Veronica staying in the middle as her gfs cuddle around her

Mac, who was holding the remote, asked her what she wanted to watch

She responded 'nothing with parents' to which Mac muttered 'no Disney then' before shutting off Disney+

**Line break**

She couldn't really decide, so the Heathers, who had been doing their best to learn Veronica's interests, decided to put on an anime, landing on something that looked colorful and light-hearted called Bocchi the Rock!

After a few episodes Veronica perked up and started to feel a little better

They watched some more episodes before deciding to call it an early night

Veronica found sleeping with her gfs to be one of the most relaxing things, the feeling of their bodies, the sound of their breathing and heartbeats, the knowledge that they were right there, all of it worked to soothe her and help her sleep

When she woke up the next day and checked her phone, she saw several messages from her parents, begging her to come home and that they just wanted to talk

She told her gfs who viewed it with some suspicion but they decided to go anyway, reasoning that Veronica was a minor so her parents could technically just call the police and have them forcibly take her home, and it would be better to just do it willingly

They did decide to dress their best, telling Veronica that they weren't going to let her talk to her parents alone, and that they had to dress to impress

Deciding the Heather's logic was sound, they made their way to Veronica's

When they answered the door, Veronica's parents had tears in their eyes, exclaiming that they were so worried

Thats when they notice the Heathers standing behind her, dressed like they're going to church or some fancy dinner

Veronica told them that if they wanted to talk, they had to be invited too

Her parents looked nervous about it but acquiesced, asking them if they would like something to drink

In the most polite tone and manner they could they told them that it wouldn't be necessary, but thanked them anyway

They sat down on the couch, Chandler sitting on one side and Mac and Duke sitting on the other

The couch wasn't big enough for the four of them so they had to squeeze, Mac even having to sit half on Duke's leg to fit, but they managed to get it to work

Veronica started, explaining that she was dating them, all three of them, and that they were also dating each other, the three of them having dated each other for much longer than they've dated her, but that didn't mean that she was loved the least or not wanted

She then went on to say that she loved them more than she's ever loved anything before, they care so much even if some of them try and act like they don't sometimes (she looks at Chandler), they've been there for her and the few short months she's known them personally have been some of the greatest of her entire life

Her mom interjects, brining up that they were friends for only a few weeks at most when they started dating, don't they think they were rushing into things

Chandler replied cordially, explaining that the feelings were already there at that point, and waiting would do nothing but make them miserable because they knew what they wanted but couldn't have it, so there was no real point in waiting

Her mother also questioned the dynamic, considering that up until a few months ago they were her bullies, but suddenly they turn around and want to be her girlfriends, well they can't blame her for being a little bit suspicious of the whole thing

Duke then tells her that her suspicious are reasonable and come from a place of care, but they are just that, suspicions, that they wish to prove incorrect

Her dad then steps in, saying that he trusts his daughter's judgement, and that she's never given them a reason to doubt that

Her mom pulls up the incident a few months ago, but her dad says the only bad decision she made was to go to the party, she left school to avoid a potentially dangerous situation (he looks over to the Heathers, seemingly expecting a reaction, but they keep the same smile on their face), same thing with leaving the party, and she chose to stay at a friend's house instead of walking home, and most importantly she didn't have sex with him, that seems like good judgement to him

He says that if Veronica believes that the Heathers have changed then he believes that as well

Veronica then asks her dad what's changed, yesterday he was all against it

He tells her that he realized that she's growing up, and he needs to have faith in her and her decisions

She's always been a good kid, and now its time for him to see the adult that she's become

And if it turns out bad, then she learned a lesson and can do better next time

And if it turns out good, then she's found people who truly love her

Veronica tears up, untangling herself from the Heathers, goes over and hugs her dad, thanking him for having faith in her

He hugs her back, telling her how proud of her he was

And while he tells her that he doesn't trust her girlfriends just yet, he would like to give them the chance to prove themselves

Her mother, the last holdout, realizes that she's basically backed into a corner and gives in, but tells Veronica to just be careful, she doesn't wanna see her get hurt

With all the obstacles gone, life goes on

Mac tells her dad about Veronica joining them, to which he just laughs, telling her that it was about time

He still gives Veronica the whole 'if you hurt my daughter i'll end your bloodline' speech, but it seems like it was more of a formality than anything else

They go on their first group date, they establish a schedule for individual dates, and so on and so forth (can you tell I'm tired of writing this already)

Everything is happy and wonderful and of course something comes along to ruin it, this isn't My Little Pony (much to Mac's dismay)

One day when Chandler is getting ready for school her mother drunkenly barges in, bottle in hand, telling her that she's finally found a use for her wasteful self, just laying around her house and mooching off of her money

She says that some man contacted her and gave her a pretty penny for her hand in marriage

Her blood runs cold

She already has an idea of who it is, but just to be sure she asks her mother, who confirms that it was some guy named David, she figured that she finally found herself a boyfriend who was stupid enough to date her dumbass, at least he's rich

Chandler yells that she won't marry him, only for her mom to launch her bottle at her, which narrowly misses her

She says 'like hell your not' and said that either she marries him or she gets out and she cuts her off from all of the money

Chandler, knowing that this isn't a battle she can't win, at least not know, gives in

When she arrives to school at a normal speed, her girlfriends are worried, even more so when she steps out, tears in her eyes

They pull her into a hug, Chandler a sobbing mess, bordering on hysteria

In between sobs Chandler manages to get out the information her mother told her

Her girlfriends are pissed, but none of them really know what to do, so they decide to just head to school

They are extremely downtrodden, but they are able to keep it hidden from the school population

At least, most of it

JD approaches them, a sight which once caused controversy but now drew no attention, asking them what's up

No one says anything for a long minute, before Duke squeaks out that Chandler just got engaged. to David.

The rather jovial, nonchalant attitude JD had dropped, and his eyes took on a murderous tint

Mac, Duke and Veronica take turns explaining what they knew, while Chandler just sat in silence, staring at the table

He then says that there's a rather simple solution, murder of course

Veronica tells him to stop joking, this is serious, but the look in JD's eyes shows that he's not joking

He tells them to meet him in the park after school

The four of them look at each other, and nod

**Line break**

They meet him, and he explains his plan

Veronica will forge a new will for Chandler's mother, which will leave the Chandler fortune to Chandler

Then there will be a freak accident when they go to Big Bud Dean, hoping to buy a private airplane off of him that he was planning to demolish, only for him to forget to remove the explosives and accidentally set one off with a cigarette

Chandler questions where he's gonna get a private jet, only for him to say that the plane part is completely real, and that his father mentioned to him that several rich people have come to him, asking him to sell it to them instead of demolishing it and selling it for scrap

All she has to do is play along with the marriage thing until she can convince them to have the wedding in a faraway place and that she really wants a private jet to bring them there, and just "get sick" the day they are supposed to tour it, the rest of them coming over to keep her company while her mother and fiancee are away

None of them can really see an issue with this plan, only that Chandler wishes she could kill them with her own bare hands

JD laments that it is an issue with the plan, but if the corpses were mutilated it would be obvious that it was a murder

This entire time, Duke had a devilish smile on her face, and when questioned she tells them that she knows two other shitty abusive parents that would be interested in getting a private jet on a discount

Mac asks JD, well, wouldn't it also kill your dad?

He tells her that originally that was his plan to kill just his dad, but he modified it a bit when he heard what was going on with Chandler

So the plan is set into place

Veronica forges new wills for Chandler's mother and Duke's parents and she is able to get them submitted without any serious issues, so when they die all of their fortune will go to their children named Heather

Chandler plays along with the marriage, her mother not really caring about the change in demeanor overnight

David is more than enthusiastic that he "bagged this hot piece of ass" and is fully convinced Chandler is head over heals to marry him

While they get the wedding details planned Chandler is able to convince them to have it in California, but also that she doesn't want to fly like a commoner on some airline

A few days later she brings up an ad she found for a private jet for really cheap, sure it would take some maintenance work but it would be less expensive overall then buying one new

Already over how expensive this turned out to be, her mother agrees to go take a look, David agreeing to go with

This become even better, as somehow her father hears the news and comes to Sherwood to help celebrate, and as the owner of a private jet himself he'd like to go and take a look with them

Chandler cannot believe her luck, and Veronica quickly forges another will

At the same time, Duke plants a flyer for the jet outside her home, advertising a showing for the same time and day Chandler's family is supposed to be there to take a look at it

Within a few days her parents inform Duke that they will be going out on that day at that time for 'business'

The night before the accident, JD goes to the jet, still covered in explosives that his father was too lazy to remove, even when rich clients were coming to check it out

He's already been here before, so his fingerprints if discovered wouldn't be too out of the ordinary

He knows his father likes to smoke, but also that he would put it out before heading into the jet, so he sets a trash can right outside, a little too close to the jet to be considered normal but not close enough to arouse suspicion

Being around guests JD know he won't just throw it on the ground and will throw it in the bin, which has a screen over it, covered by some very flammable trash leading to one of the nearby explosives

If all goes well Big Bud will throw his cig into the trash, which will set it on fire, the fire will move up the trash until it reaches the explosive, at which point he'll be inside the jet with his guests as the plane explodes, killing all of them

The day arrives and Chandler feigns illness, which is thankfully believed, and she texts her friends to come over as she's not feeling well

Once they arrive the feeling of nervousness is palpable, just waiting for the police to arrive

This could all go poorly, they know, but JD is confident that this won't be traced back to them, as theoretically none of them are involved in anyway

Eventually there's a knock on the door, and when Veronica goes to open it she sees two police officers standing there, asking to speak to Heather Chandler

She lets them know that she isn't feeling well but are welcome to come in

Everyone's heart is beating loud and fast, and upon seeing JD and Duke they mutter that it's an odd coincidence, which only makes their nerves worse

Thankfully they tell them that there was an accident, and that their parents, Chandler's fiancee and JD's dad are dead

Having practiced, Duke and Chandler burst into tears, and JD becomes stoically silent and stares at the floor

The cops offer some reconciliatory gestures, before letting them know that foul play was not suspected, but that they had people looking into it

Veronica and Mac, playing the role of concerned friends speaking up for their grieving friends, ask what they meant by foul play

The cops explain that the jet just randomly exploded, and they have a team trying to figure out why

Thats why JD pretends to slowly come to a realization, saying that something must've set off the explosion, and he knows his dad is, sorry was, a heavy smoker

The cops make a note of that, saying that they'll let their team know that it could be that, before making their way out

They hold their breaths until the cops leave, before they all let out a sigh of relief

A few days pass, lawyers come over to handle will proceedings, and the contents of the Chandler and Duke fortunes are placed in the hands of Chandler and Duke, respectively

They started to make plans for a funeral, and family from all over the world comes over

They are all shocked to hear that the fortune went to the girls and for the most part are outraged, especially Duke's siblings and Chandler's half-brother, who demand that they share the money

They both refuse, saying that mom and dad left us the money for a reason, and that they won't be giving anyone a red cent

Realizing that they aren't getting any of the money, most of the family leaves, with only a few members staying for the funeral for appearance's sake

Eventually the cops return and question the girls and JD, but they had prepared for this, and gave answers that painted them as having a stroke of luck to escape a horrible fate (Chandler) or an unknowing girl who never even got to say goodbye to their parents (Duke) or a bitter son who knew his dad's habit was gonna kill him one day, but not in this way (JD)

The cops were suspicious of the wills being changed so close to their deaths, especially Chandler's dad, but with no evidence tying anyone to the deaths they were ruled tragic accidents and the police visits became fewer and fewer, until they stopped entirely

And just like that, they were free

High school passed in a blink of an eye, and before they knew it they were graduating

They elected not to go to the ceremony, saying that high school wasn't a time to celebrate

It brought out the worst in them, made them into detestable people that they hope to never be again

They all decide to move into Chandler's old mansion, selling all of her mom's things and burning all of David's

They turn it into a paradise, a place safe from the outside where they can be themselves

**Line break**

They decide to sell the Duke mansion to Betty, JD and Martha for $1, which at first they refuse to accept, but after some persuasion and showcases of aspects of the house, like the huge pool, they agree and move in

And from this day forward, they would be happy, no high school, no Remington parties, no popularity, no Heathers, just Chandler, Duke, Mac, and Veronica, together forever

Can you tell I was done with this towards the end? I know it could’ve been better, but I was ready to move on to something new

Thank you to everyone who read this, and an extra thank you to everyone who likes, comments, or reblogs my writing, its y’all who really give me the motivation to keep writing, it lets me know that there are people out there who enjoy what I do and I am so thankful that you took the time out of your day to read something that I worked on

Also sorry for not posting anything in a month lol this was kicking my ass

[foreverrandomwritings]

What’s In The Vows?-Part 4/5

Summary: It’s finally yours and Natashas wedding day. Will everything go to plan? Will tears be shed? 

Pairing: Natasha “Phoenix” Trace x afab!Reader

Warnings: Super fluff, sex mentioned at the end, mentions of alcohol and drinking. I don’t think theres anything else though. 

Word count: 1719

Masterlist   Series Masterlist

A/N: This can be read as a stand alone but will probably make more sense reading the other parts first. “What’s In The Envelope/Box/Plane?” The venue in this story is actually a venue I found doing research. 

You and Natasha had planned your wedding quickly after you had proposed to her. You had both realized she could be called away for a mission anyday and wanted to plan everything together. By some miracle there was an opening at Darlington House and you had booked it for June 3rd. 

The ceremony would be outside and the reception a mix of inside and outside. The florist, DJ and baker were all found quickly. The venue included catering. There would be an open bar. Penny knew someone that did photography and had availability. Natasha had decided against dress whites. The both of you found your dresses and had them sent for adjustments within a week of the planning starting. 

Phoenix had asked Bradley, Bob, her younger brother and sister to all be a part of her wedding party. You had asked your chosen 4 as well. Pete would be officiating the wedding. Jake and Javy were going to be flowermen and ushers. The whole squad had somehow gotten approved for that day off. Meaning no one could be sent on a mission that would overlap with the day. The both of you wanted to be sure they could all attend as they were practically family. 

The bridal shower, engagement party and bachelorette parties were all on one day and combined. Neither of you wanted to do your own things for the Bachelorette party and also wanted her younger siblings to be able to enjoy it. So it was basically just everyone involved in the parties hanging out watching movies eating junk food.

As the day approached you were both growing jittery. Not at all nervous as the both of you were excited to spend the rest of your lives together. But you both wanted everything to go to plan. You had decided to stay the night before and night of at a nice bed and breakfast close to the venue. 

You had whispered sweet nothings to each other as you laid in bed together the night before. Tangled in the sheets and each other. Soaking in the calmness of the night together, the buzz of the wine from the rehearsal dinner still vibrating through your bodies. Until the two of you fell into a blissful slumber nothing but a mess of limbs and even breaths. 

The morning of the wedding was spent peppering each other’s bodies in lazy kisses. Embracing the peace of your quiet room before the rushed hours to follow. There was an early breakfast in bed feeding each other various foods in between your giddy giggles. Looks of love and adoration were shared. 

Then Bradley came knocking on the door saying your time was up and he needed Nat to start getting ready. So the two of you reluctantly separated, a final kiss planted upon each other's lips as she slipped out of the room. Bradley took his job as man of honor very seriously and had already made sure Bob and her younger siblings were in the bronco before pushing her out the front door of the quaint bed and breakfast. 

You were whisked away to the venue shortly after with your entourage in tow. The both of you had packed everything you’d need in the trunks of your respective cars the night before. It was easy to get set up in your rooms and before you knew it you were heading out the door for your first look. 

The both of you had decided to do the first look in one of the many gardens the Darlington House had. You both had tears in your eyes as you saw each other. She had on a form fitting white dress that accentuated every curve of her body nicely. There were pearls and lace placed in the perfect places. The back was cut low exposing most of the skin underneath. The neckline was just low enough to expose her collarbones and worked into lacy sleeves along her arms.

Her hair was in a messy styled updo with occasional strands of hair hanging out. She had on a subtle makeup look. She had forgone jewelry except for a pair of pearl earrings her grandmother had gifted her. She looked utterly radiant. 

“You look absolutely stunning, baby girl.” She had whispered to you as she held your hips in her hands staring into your eyes. You rested your forehead against hers as you resisted the urge to kiss her just yet. 

“I have never seen a sight as breathtaking as you sweetheart.” You said breathlessly as you brought your hands to rest on her cheeks. Then you were kissing her, slow and sweet. Wanting to mark your last kiss as Fiancés as memorable as your first kiss as Wives would be. You pulled away and rested your forehead against hers once again. 

“Let's get married, Nat.” You spoke to her as you finally pulled your hands away from her face. She gave you a final peck on the lips before parting ways with you. 

She was walked down the aisle first by both of her parents. Then you were walked down next by your respective people. Seeing her standing at the altar had your heart fluttering. You had dreamt of this day as soon as you saw her in that bar all those years ago. You just never imagined it would be as amazing as you’d hoped. 

You joined hands with her as you passed your bouquet off. You wore matching smiles on your face. Full of love and hope and trust. It was a feeling like no other when your eyes connected with hers. Tears springing forwards once again. But you held them back, desperately wanting to see her clearly. 

“We are gathered here today to join these two wonderful women in matrimony.” Pete began the ceremony.

“They have decided to speak their own vows, Natasha will go first.” He gestured towards the woman standing across from you. You squeezed her hands as she took a deep and shaky breath. 

“Growing up I was always certain of one thing. I was going to be a pilot in the navy. After I finally achieved that I wasn’t certain about anything anymore. I had never thought about life beyond flying a super hornet. That was until the day I met you. I was confident then that I was going to marry you. As I stand before you today I am now confident that I will spend the rest of my life fighting to get home to you. You will always be something, someone I am confident in. You have been an unwavering support in my life for so long now. I will love and cherish you for the rest of my days, baby girl.” Tears were steady along your cheeks as she finished her words. She brought one hand up to wipe them away giving you a smile that meant so many things; reassurance, commitment and unconditional love. With a squeeze of your hand that was still connected to hers you began to speak. 

“I have feared many things in my life. I have feared the unknown of what the future would hold for me. I have feared heights and I have feared not having you come home to me. But the one thing I have never feared is loving you. I know with you by my side I will never have to fear again. I will not fear the future because I know it holds you. I will not fear heights because it is something you crave and find peace in. I will not fear you not coming home because I know you will fight with everything you have to come home to me. Sweetheart, I will love and support you for as long as forever lasts.” Then it was your turn to reach up and wipe at her tear stained cheeks. You stared at each other like it was the day at the bar all those years ago. You were completely entranced by each other that the world around you came to a halt. It took Pete loudly clearing his throat for your eyes to separate. 

“May I please have the rings?” He turned to Bradley who quickly reached into his pocket and handed them towards the captain. You steadily slipped the rings onto each other's fingers as he went over the meaning of the rings. Then you waited with bated breath to finally have her lips on hers. 

“You may now kiss the bride.” He spoke out and that’s all it took for the both of you to surge forward. 

Your lips crashed upon one another as steady as waves crashing upon the shore. Your hands wove around her neck as hers cradled your cheeks. The kiss was confidence and happiness. Once you pulled back from each other lightheaded and blissed you let out a quiet giggle. She smirked at you as she pulled you back towards her, giving you another slow kiss. Lips making promises of your future together. 

After what felt like only a moment you were twirling around the dance floor enjoying your first dance as a married couple. You had picked a song that had been on in the bar the night you first met. You hadn’t needed dancing lessons as you both decided to just wing it. It was full of laughs and stolen kisses. 

Then came the time for speeches. They started out as Bradley cracking a joke and then crying towards the end at the thought of his best friend being married. Bob came up and wished the two of you luck. Then it was her siblings who were laughing through the whole thing. Her parents gave a brief sentimental one. It worked quickly through your party. 

Before you knew it the night was coming to a close and you were both climbing into the back of one of Petes' many restored cars. He whisked you away as the crowd cheered and roared behind you. You held each other's hands trying to keep them off each other until you could get into your room at the bed and breakfast. You had both gotten breathtaking lingerie pieces for the night and couldn’t wait to see the other adorning them. You both looked forward to the honeymoon awaiting you Monday morning.

A/N: The Honeymoon part will be coming up soon. That part will most likely include smut.

Tags(open): @wkndwlff & @sylviebell​

[milfygerard]

For the ask game: Dorothea, tis the damn season, cowboy like me?

oughhh the trifecta...

dorothea: If youre ever tired of being known for who you know y'know, youll always know me....dorothea

I just love when taylor really leans into wordplay and turns of phrases and this might be one of her most effective and smoothest examples. evermore is probably one of her albums with the least amount of what I affectionately call Taylor Clunk, which comes in many forms but here is where taylor has a specific idea she wants out and refuses to cut but she cant quite make it fit leading to awkward vocal patterns, rhyming a word with itself or painfully basic obvious rhymes, songs where the structure just doesnt quite click etc. You can find it plenty in her catalogue but especially on the better bonus/cut tracks like jump then fall (rhyming face with face, you can almost feel her irritation that she cant fix that), its time to go (the "thing" bridge that feels just a little too vague and awkward compared to the rest of the track) and IION (the verses are just kind of a mess structurally). This line? is what happens when taylor has nothing but time to hammer out each kink and annoyance and just make a lyric that flows like water. Its extremely singable and noticably clever but also still clears as smart if you sit and think about it while working beautifully within the song and still feeling real to the character taylors inhabiting. HM: "skipping the prom just to piss of your mom and her pagent schemes" "from you i'd buy anything"

TTDS: theres an ache in you put there by the ache in me/but if its all the same to you, its the same to me

what a profoundly sad and resentful lyric in a profoundly sad and resentful song. This one line I think really captures what TTDS is about which is that constant sense of feeling trapped. You felt trapped in your home town and you ran away, you escaped, but the escape alone isnt enough as you have what feels like all the same issues but somewhere else, and how a few times every year you have to walk back into the open spring-trapped cage and be reminded of the comfort of the cage you already know compared to the one youre pursuing. the what if of "should I just come back and be unhappy here if theres at least one person who will truly understand that?" Old habits are slipped into easily but not unknowingly, and the ache is still there even as dorothea and her lover pretend for just a weekend that they are still two anchors in one terrible place kind of silverflitn if you think about it i mean what. When paired with Dorothea as a track its also a tale of poor communication, dorothea as a character creating a sense of resentment from her lover far more intesne than the fond sadness in her namesake track. HM: "if I wanted to know who you were hanging with while I was gone i would've asked you" "I parked my car right between the methodist and the school that used to be ours"

CLM: now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon/ with your boots beneath my bed, forever is the sweetest con

AMBIGUITY BABY!!!! CLM has a stone cold poker face with a bleeding gash of emotion on its cheek and i love it so so much (the my own private idaho AMV that exists in my head for this song goes so crazy you wouldnt believe). this weird little third-verse-bridge-thing (the structure of clm is batshit even genius barely knows what to do w it i cant believe the track works as well as it does)plays on the surface as plainly romantic but like all the best stories it doest quite line up. The song itself feels like a story being spun a story is true a story is untrue i mean what by someone trying to avoid the direct stating of a too-painful truth. Even within this imagined narrative, reality slips through. The Gardens of Babylon are a great and beautiful thing, an architectual wonder lush with life. They also most likely never existed. A common thread throughout evermore is the questioning of its own reality, of if any of it was real or just a construction of marriage or suburbia or the law or death or a dream or our own anxieties, almost none of the songs have a conclusive, clear-cut ending and some even loop into themselves (tolerate it and gold rush both end how they began). In the end, this is a tale told over a campfire under the new mexico night sky as you watch the storyteller look off into the distance and you wonder if anything theyve told you is even a little true. HM: "Never wanted love just a fancy car/now I'm waiting by the phone like I'm sitting at an airport bar" "tellin all the rich folks anything they wanna hear/like it could be love, it could be the way forward only if they pay for it"

[lemontongues]

yknow ive been thinking again lately about how i would like to see more realism in batman content, both canon and fandom, but not the Dark And Gritty kind. the kind thats like.

yes actually he is highly emotionally intelligent and does understand himself quite well and has just accepted that he is A Freak and decided to roll with it rather than being so horrifically emotionally repressed that he can barely even acknowledge that what hes doing is based in trauma. hes been in therapy since he was like 9 years old. he studies human psychology extensively both for himself and so he has better odds of predicting whats gonna go wrong and how when hes up against a rogue or negotiating a hostage situation or whatever. he meditates for two hours a day and is fully capable of keeping a healthy handle on his anger 98% of the time. he's nice to people and fun to be around and sincerely caring. if he were just Always Right but super isolated and reactive and cruel and controlling everyone would fucking hate him and no it wouldnt be enough to sustain his crimefighting activities, thats a stupid lone wolf fuckboy fantasy

he has a strict 9pm bedtime that he only breaks for mandatory WE/brucie activities or emergencies. if theres a gala where he needs to rub shoulders with ppl to gather intel or keep his company running he'll do it but hes Not Happy about being out until midnight and cuts out early as often as possible, and when hes chasing the joker around until 3am hes lamenting his poor sweet circadian rhythm that did nothing wrong ever in its life the whole time. when hes batmanning hes expending a fuckton of energy and he needs to make it up and have a well-established routine to counteract the punishment hes putting his body through. on a similar note, this man is building braces and compression into his suit and doing extensive physical therapy exercises every day of his life bc he wants to have helpful little things like "knees" and "shoulders" by the time hes 40, and hes probably eating a small farms worth of assorted leafy greens and several chickens per day

he is simply Never drunk and he doesnt actually have that much sex. hes really really good at faking a) being drunk and b) getting a high priority phone call from lucius the minute someone hes making out with starts trying to get his shirt off. he also does a lot of "hey look i gotta get out of here with my reputation intact, can we help each other out and pretend we're gonna go fuck?" kind of negotiating with ppl (see: his 9pm bedtime, plus sometimes hes gotta slip away from an event to be sneaky), which is how a lot of the more wild stories about him start circulating lol. this is a man who's regularly getting gassed/injected/etc with highly experimental substances created by maniacs trying to torment or kill him, he does NOT want substances like drugs or alcohol in his body that could potentially interact with them, and the last thing he needs is to be dealing with a pregnancy or sti scare. plus if he can play it safe with someone and have them think of him as a nice and trustworthy dude who just has a bonkers reputation, all the better for his batman activities!

idk i just feel like theres unexplored potential in a lot of that stuff bc so much of recent batman mythos is like HES SO HARDCORE AND CAN DO ANYTHING AND HES ALWAYS RIGHT CAUSE HES SO PARANOID AND DISRESPECTFUL OF PPL AND THEIR BOUNDARIES BUT ITS OKAY BC ITS IN THE NAME OF BEING RIGHT and im like. okay. gotta admit that i dont rly find that believable or in line with my values. can we talk about WE's sweet sweet employee benefits package and bruce designing his suit to take most of the impact off his knees when he jumps off a roof. members of the jl discovering that he gives shockingly balanced and insightful advice about their mundane personal problems. bruce printing his own batsymbol envelopes to leave people cash after he misaims his grappling hook and breaks their window. things of that nature.

[nicomrade]

A genuine question here, but why do you dislike The First so much?

well its a weird thing to talk about cause really its the same reason why i dislike stolen lupin or any other low tier TV special. the real question is why other people liked it so much and i think its only because its such a pretty movie, its jaw dropingly gorgeous and the lupgang banter is great but just those 2 together isnt enough to make a good MOVIE. but it is enough that u can have a good TIME if u dont think about whats happening. thats the short version, its just a bad movie. sorry🐅

i purposefully havent been too frank when talking publicly about it (why i kept a mean tweet about it in drafts for literal years) but compared to the unlimited love it gets from the fandom it looks like thats enough for people to pick up that i dislike it so much lol. so lets talk about the first!

ill be brief on each point. that ancient technology thing it does w the eclipse? thats a bad trope. its a very very bad trope. its the atlantis conspiracy theory, its 1 throwaway line away from slipping into ancient aliens, they pull the same shit in a couple other TV specials and none of them are fondly remembered so hopefully we all know this plot point sucks and is racist. if not you can google it. lets move on

the nazis. after watchin harimao i said it was more anti-nazi than the first, idk if id stand by that cause i havent seen it again since but i mention it to put it in lupin context. generally if it isnt OK to have lupin scam an ex-nazi in part 2 ep 3 by disguising himself as hitler, whys it OK for lupin to steal from nazis by disguising himself as hitler? at no point is the movie actually anti-nazi (though i wouldnt call it pro-nazi either) and its fucking weird to see lupin disguised as hitler in modern lupin cause each time nazis show up in classic lupin everyone agrees its tasteless & overdone.

laetitia! TMS did a genius thing w her cause shes incredibly well written as a self-insert fic protag. it is very easy to watch the first & pretend u urself are best friends w the gang by projecting urself onto her. this doesnt balance out her lack of character it only helps the audience not care about it. compare her to mariya from tokyo crisis- one could be written out of her own movie and we only get info bout her to move the plot (the bad, boring plot) forward, one is essential to the core of her movie and shes realistically affected by the things that happened to her and makes believable connections with some of the gang. yay! a character!!

the movie is also very segmented between "plot scenes" and "lupgang banter scenes" you will notice everything fun about lupin STOPS when we are being explained Plot Elements. lupin talks to laetitia and its a boring nazi ancient treasure movie. then we get a scene thats not about the eclipse or laetitias grandpa or the nazis and all of a sudden its super fun !!!!!!! this is bad writing. lol. watch fuma & see how lupin at its best can blend comedy and plot and exploration and fun banter.

my personal experience w the movie! the first time i watched it i had to pause it cause i was bored out of my mind. iirc it was more or less when lupin gets on the eclipse ship thing n all banter stops cause its just him n the nazi dude n i realized hey this movie kinda sucks actually! i texted a friend about it n he was like. yeah having to force urself to finish it sounds like ure not enjoyin this movie. i did watch the first 3 or 4 times? i did gif it a lot. theres scenes i like (the banter) but it doesnt make it a good movie. like i said when i first wrote my personal review of it: "I think looking at gifsets of this would be more enjoyable than actually watching it". laetitia really embodies her movie in that sense, shes a really good character if you only look at her. she shares her name with all of her ancestors! just who is she? why is she wearing short shorts? why was she a cop? how old is she? then you realize theres nothing there

and ultimately this IS a reaction to it being an unpopular opinion. there are so many lupin entries a lot more worthwhile than the first (2019) that dont even get half of the hype. in my personal ranking its in the bottom 10 (tho ive skipped 2 specials so u can consider that the bottom 12). i genuinely dont like it but im not as vocal about lets say, angels tactics, because we usually agree thats a bad one- or at least we dont recommend it to newcomers. the first has a good reputation so i feel more strongly about it despite liking it more. i would be just as vocal about dragon of doom & voyage to danger if people talked to me about them more often. (and i have a much more coherent critique of dragon of doom lol)

so i dont really know how to explain why i dislike the first cause i just do; the same way u just dislike a bad part 2 episode, the same way most of the fandom just finds napoleons dictionary kind of boring. how do u explain why u dislike the nazi ancient tech self-insert npc girl movie- except by calling it just that? i guess i wasnt blinded by how pretty it is which makes me sound full of myself LOL. but its true a lot of animation can get away w god awful writing if its well animated enough- and if its too ugly no one will watch the best written animated movie. i love animation too and it has so much to offer and i want to see more done in the style of the first with the story of [insert your personal favorite TV special]. im glad it opened the door for vs cats eye to look that way (though lets not forget the 2012 3DCG lupin short!). but the WRITING the STORY the MEAT of the first just isnt any better than any other mid to low tier lupin TV special. is it really worth recommending the first as someones entry into lupin just because it looks pretty? is it really better than the anime that made the author reboot his own manga? why are we even still talking about the first?

[neurodivenport]

okay scenario idea. a popular jock or cheerleader or whatever asks chase to help them study for a class they’re pretty much failing. chase thinks that they’re just going to have him do all the work, make him help them cheat or do all of it for them with nothing in return but immunity to getting beat up for the next few days.

but to his surprise, they actually just want him to help them study. they just have a hard time with this subject, and chase is such a genius they knew he’d be able to get their head wrapped around it in no time.

so!! they meet up all the time. at each other’s houses, at libraries, but never in school because they’d get trashed if anyone saw them hanging out with chase. they start becoming genuine friends.

after chase sees how hard working and genuine they are, he starts developing a huge crush. they’re so receptive to everything he says, talented in every way, and sings nothing but his praise when ever he shows them something they don’t understand.

but, chase starts getting sad about the fact that they don’t want to hang out with him in public. he figures since they’re so ashamed of being his study buddy, theres no way they’d be comfortable being shown off in a romantic way. he starts avoiding them, making excuses for why he’s not available to help them study.

but then the next big game mission creek is playing in comes along. bree literally forces chase to go. his crush on them is obvious, practically every conversation he’s had with bree has been about them, and she’s just not letting him slip this by.

so he shows up. they are so excited when they see chase in the crowd, they practically lose focus on what they’re doing and it almost turns into a huge disaster.

after the show, chase is fully prepared to leave. he’s too scared to talk to them, too sad by his own insecurities and what if scenarios he’s made up in his head, he’s fully prepared to leave.

that is until he sees it. in the stands, a teammate of theirs borderline harassing them. he can’t even hear what they’re saying but he’s practically fuming. before he can even register it, spike is coming out and trudging towards them.

he grabs the person by the shoulder, asking him what they think they’re doing. they make some rude remark about chase’s crush, asking who the hell he thinks he is coming up here like that, and spike, without a second thought, says “i’m their boyfriend. who the hell are you?”

they end up grumpily walking away, too embarrassed to even continue the altercation. chase’s friend is sitting there in shock. this is before their bionic secret came out, they have no idea about spike, and are shocked about how quickly he came to their defense.

chase comes back practically as soon as they talk to them. he doesn’t want to let on too much, so his conversation is awkward and full of half assed explanations.

they ask him if he really meant it. chase stares at them, doe eyed and horrified, before they repeat it. “the whole… ‘i’m their boyfriend’ thing?”

chase is fucking mortified. he’s terrified he ruined it, he threw away any remnants of a chance he had, they’re going to make fun of him, they’re gonna tell all their friends and he’ll be the laughing stock of the whole school.

“cause i would like that. a lot.”

he’s in a COMPLETE state of shock, but they kiss him on the cheek and tell him that they’d much rather spend time with him than the stupid after party they were invited to.

and they spend the rest of the night together. and many many more

[lyss-butterscotch]

btw im obsessed over furina too shes literally just me and if you by aaany chance wanna ramble about her feel free to, tis an invitation. if not thats fine too! boop

Omg kiki hi!!! You have no idea that i just like buried my face to a pillow cuz oh gee golly gosh oh sovereigns above this girl. THIS GIRL.

[Obvious spoilers for fontaine archon quests and furinas story quest]

Literally abnormal about her she deserves all in the world. We have hands to give furina pats on the head we can speak so we can tell furina she did it i am so jdhdjsyshjsjsjsn waaaaaaaaa

I love how they paced her characterization throughout each patch, idk i just feel like its well paced. The first patch shows that shes all bark and no bite. All the flare all the drama with neuvillette being the one truly working the system (you can see it in the patch art too!). I just couldnt understand how she is oh so shamelessly show offy when she literally has nothing to show for but her title like damn i felt bad for neuvillette for dealing with her. But the way she falters and hesitates, just makes you think theres something else going on. But i still felt like she HAS a bite, she just for some reason doesnt use it so i was just expecting her to break and show power later on.

Then act two. Man i never wanted to punch a character so bad like arlecchino LEAVE HER ALONE MAN SHE DOES NOT DESERVE THIS SLANDER. Its when i start to think shes not the god after all. She keeps saying she has plans but its 'secret', as much as i wanna defend her arlecchino was right. She has nothing to show for, she has no plan, no act to help fontaine so what is there to defend? But she CLEARLY cares for the prophecy so WHY ISNT SHE DOING ANYTHING. Arlecchino saying that furina might not be a god after all just makes me even more insane about the plot. Like okay theres no way the gnosis isnt in the oratrice and neuvillette is the sovereign so what the hell is going on with furina???

Then the final patch. Omg oh god oh golly oh my lords above. I hate how even as she got duped into a trial she is still trying to keep up her bark. The way she says 'THE TRIAL OF THE HYDRO ARCHON SHALL NOW BEGIN' with so much fervour like she is STILL trying. It made me think shes gonna reveal some super important bg plot shes been working on to make us go 'wow she really is a great archon'. BUT THEN. BUT THEN SHE GETS OUTED FOR NOT KNOWING WHY THE ORATRICE LET OUT A WRONH VERDICT, NOT WANTING TO SHOW OFF HER HYDRO POWERS, AND BEING AFFECTED BY PRIMORDIAL SEA WATER???

Like at that point i think furina youre done. Its over. But the way she cried and begged for people to believe her still WAAAAAAAA. LIKE GIRL WHY ARE YOU STILL TRYING STOP THIS HURTS TO WATCH. Then she goes full catatonic once the trial is over urgh bby no :(

AND THEN THE WHOLE FOCALORS LORE DROPPED AND LITERALLY EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE, ALL HER DRAMA AND BARK MAKES SENSE. AND THE WAY IT REVEALS THAT NOT ONLY DID FURINA ***NOT*** KNOW FOCALORS' PLAN, IT ALSO MEANS SHE THOUGHT THAT HER FAILING THE TRIAL MEANS ***SHE*** WAS GONNA BE THE REASON FONTAINE WAS GONNA DROWN. AAAAAAAGAFAFDAADFAGAAGSHS

I hate how focalors specified that furina had to act like 'how people think gods act' and not just 'act like a god'. I hate it. I hate how she was trying to be nice but in fear that itll blow her cover she had to shine brighter to blind the people, when there was nothing to show underneath it. Dies dies dies!!!!!!!!!

As much as i hate that they didnt really show furina moving out of the palais mermonia. I think its fitting. How shes so tired of all the flair she has to put up she really just... wanted to leave. Be done with it. No flare just slips away silently.

Im glad that she and neuvillette is still in good terms, i think atleast after 500 years of putting an act together + neuvi finding out the shit she had to go through, he'd atleast have some form of camaraderie or respect for her. The fact that he is supportive of her being involved in a performance after she moved out is so waaaaaa she deserves it!!!! I think its clear that despite her needing a break, performing what she wants is something she likes to do and im glad she has something thats entirely her own going on for her :)

Also also la vaguelette is the song ever. I hope hyv is happy that they made a song that can make me cry 1 second in. Literally best song after yunjins opera song. They did not hold back and my heart weeps everyday.

Also the fact that now she just eats macaroni everyday is a mood. Boop

[forlorn-crows]

Hi im so here for hypno ghouls, im like super normal about the idea actually.

A friend and i toss around the concept that Swiss has the ability to hypnotize others (mainly because the idea of him abusing this ability is very fun, and lets be real he would use it deviously)...and i mean, hes a multi ghoul, theyre meant to be versatile and adaptive! I never considered where he might have picked up the technique until now, but oh i adore the thought of it being from Aether.

Theres a clear difference in the way they both do it as Aether's comes from deep at the core of his power, he puts his entirety into it to clear away each idea, but Swiss is a mimicry...not that what he does is any less effective, but he fills the gaps where one thought ends and meets another. He slips in and methodically plucks away at whatevers bouncing around in your head until theres nothing left.

Aether carries you under while Swiss walks you deeper, floated down as opposed to being led further...

Yeah....

Like i said im Super Normal, you can trust me just open up the the door to my enclosure :)

-@divine-misfortune

(Apologies if i dont make much sense i just woke up, it is the middle of the night, and this was rattling around in my head)

at this point its just a chain of passing on quintosis knowledge from ghoul to ghoul.

i know many of us like to think of sunny as a multi ghoul as well, do we think her powers would be strong enough to do it? itd probably be so lulling from her, like a cool summer breeze that makes you turn up your head and close your eyes in gratefulness.

i think aether is the talker. his powers are enough to take you under, but he's always been afraid of taking it too far. talking gives him more control, so he uses that to his advantage and comfort

swiss is allll feeling. he can probably feel a little bit of what the other is experiencing, being more susceptible to its pull; he ends up too loopy himself the first few times he tries with aether (who has enough experience to pull them both out if he has to). he has to remind himself not to be too eager, because his powers are stronger than you think

also, omega teaching aether the skill? chew on that