#either way star/light gets on my nerves this season. i cant stand her at all.

[everyurlithinkofistoolong]

I knew the boys was going downhill as a show when starlight literally murders an innocent civilian, admits to not feeling a single ounce of guilt for it, and then proceeds to spend the next season on her high horse talking down to everyone else including Hughie.

At least a-train learned a lesson about his multiple casualties when Ashley called him out for being a massive fucking hypocrite about it. And he finally, finally, gave a genuinely apology to Hughie (which I may add probably wasn't very healthy for Hughie at that moment due to the whole temp V and self esteem issues but I can't blame a-train for that).

And honestly I feel like it's a bit hypocritical given, again, starlight murdered an innocent man with her powers (and it's passed off as a joke as if the whole show isn't based upon the concept of superhuman beings getting away with abuses of their powers) while the narrative in the current season has her so not understanding of Hughie who is struggling with his self worth. Like I'm going to be honest, after the last season I trust Hughie with his temp powers more than I trust starlight with her permanent powers.

And comparing kimiko to Hughie is honestly like comparing apples and oranges to me. Kimikos struggles are completely different from hughies, but to compare them to say that somehow hughies is less worthy of sympathy than kimikos and that hughies struggles since s1 with feeling weak and powerless is just him wanting to be "macho" is just weird. Kimiko comes from a place of wanting to reconnect to her perceived loss of humanity- experimented on and treated as a weapon finally taking some semblance of autonomy that she has to protect the one thing she really has- her love.

Meanwhile Hughie clearly has different issues. He doesn't feel like he's inherently bad like kimiko, he feels like he's powerless. Useless. He wants to change who he is, because he feels like his "normal" self isn't adequate. Fuck, he literally spells that out to butcher and the boys this season. From the beginning he clearly suffers from attachment issues, and also spells it out to starlight that it stems from his mother leaving him as a child. Most likely that planted a seed in Hughie, his habit of attaching to people and never wanting to be alone- only made 100x worse by his gf dying gruesomely on front of him, again him powerless to stop someone else in his life from leaving him. The first time in his life when he actually tries to make something of himself and stand on his own is with Vicky and it blew up in his face!

And man it's like, idk, I can understand starlight's frustration with hughies insecurities but I also feel like for someone who claims to love him she surely doesn't even attempt to understand why he's distraught about not being able to protect her. Yeah, she doesn't need his protection, but it seems like the writers are so bent on framing everything wrong with Hughie as toxic masculinity when like... It's clearly much deeper (and I honestly have my own issues with how so many genuine men's issues and insecurities get just swept aside with the "toxic masculinity" assertion).

There were so many times this season when I was genuinely concerned for hughies mental well-being as he seemed to be desperate to throw himself away. Idk, his need to protect starlight is unhealthy in my opinion and is born out of hughies struggles of self worth but I think the framing as just macho and toxic paints it with a really broad (shallow) brush when it obviously should be treated as hughies issues as an individual with a lot of trauma, rather than A Symptom Of Being A Man.

[thirst-refinery]

Happy New Year {Triplet Ben x Reader} Pt. One

A/N~ As the title says Happy New Year everyone! In this last year alone this blog has come so far and it’s all thanks to you guys and I cant thank yall enough. I love each one of you! This is just part one of what I’m calling a Cinderella-esque au. I worked hard on this and would have quit after the first three paragraphs it wasn’t for Fae, so I gotta thank her for putting up with me and being the true MVP. I hope you guys enjoy this and once again, happy new year!

You didn’t want to be here in the first place and now; tucked away in a nook between the fireplace and nearest corner with a folding chair, you REALLY didn’t want to be here.

“I’ll stay with you all night,” Poe had promised. “We'll drink and eat our weight in expensive cheese, it’ll be fun!”

But five minutes through the door and Poe may as well have been the name of your imaginary friend.

Party goers draped themselves over couches and armchairs, positioned towards the flat screen mounted on the wall. Some you knew, most you didn’t. Half full champagne flutes and plastic plates adorned with cracker crumbs and nibbled cheese litter the coffee table, that someone’s child had conveniently fallen asleep under. The sheer volume of people contained in one house made the air uncomfortably hot and stuffy, the only provision of relief is the opening of the front door, allowing cold air to escape through, and the Pumpkin Spice candle glowing on the mantelpiece you could catch a whiff of every now and then.

Who even has time, or the money for that matter, to throw a party like this?

As if in response you find three portraits of identical boys, hanging over the sofa. Except for one maybe, the far left portrait shows a boy with blonde hair and glasses, but his face looks all the same as the others. Each one is perfectly posed and picturesque, looking like deities up there watching over their domain.

Yes, the Solo’s; they’re the only ones capable of pulling off a new year party for the entire city.

Digging the toe of your shoe into the living room's pristine white carpet, you listen to the background bustle of the party. The TV broadcasts Time’s Square, a girl’s shrill birdlike laugh, conversations about weather and new years resolutions, a glass breaks somewhere in the kitchen. Each sound piles on top of one another until a buzz becomes a suffocating roar in your ears. Maybe you should just leave.

“Well don’t you look like you’re having so much fun.”

A woman’s voice catches your attention. She’s short, greying hair tied up in an elegant braid that curls into a bun at the back of her head. She’s covered head to toe in party glitter and holds a glass between her slender wrinkled hands.

“I was actually just leaving,” you say standing from your seat.

A frown appears on the women's thin lips, “And leave all this?” she opens her arms to the party behind her, but you only shrug.

“Parties have never really been my thing. Besides, I don’t really know anyone here.”

“You sound like my son,” she pauses, tucking a stray hair behind her ear and looking past you in thought. “How about I introduce you to someone?” she finally says. “MATT, HONEY!”

The woman turns away, shouting over the noise before you could even protest. Curious eyes all over the room train on you and you found yourself suddenly wishing the floor would open and swallow you whole.

A young man appears from the kitchen with blonde curly hair and sporting glasses you’d expect to find in your grandfather’s drawer.

“My boy Matty will take good care of you, he’s a sweetheart.”

As Matt approaches his face becomes familiar and you can feel the watchful stares of the three smiling portraits.

Shit--

You’d come face to face with the party hostess herself and you hadn’t even known it. Not only that but she’d probably caught you digging your feet into her nice carpet; the upkeep for that cant be cheap. A quick glance down and you thank God you hadn’t left a mark on the white fibers.

“Matt, this is--” Leia trails off, you take it as your que.

“Y/N.”

Holding out his hand, Matt offers you a warm smile as you take it. “I’m Matt,” he says squeezing your hand hand gently rather than shaking it like you’d expected. “Nice to meet you.”

You nod, nearly forgetting your manners before stuttering out, “N-nice to meet you too.”

“Okay then,” Leia says retreating back through the living room towards the kitchen, her glass now empty. “You two have fun now!”

If you’d thought the portraits were intimidating, it was nothing in comparison to actually being in the presence of one of them. Solo is a name on everyone’s lips; with Leia Organa~Solo in congress and her husband as a renowned racing coach, who didn’t know of the Solo’s?

“So--nice party.”

Matt nods happily, sunny curls bouncing with the action. “Mom throws a party for every occasion! Oh, do you mind?” he holds up a camera hanging around his neck, “taking pictures is my job for the night.”

“Um,” you fluff out your hair, angling your best side forward. “I-uh. I guess.”

He smiles again at your display, finding you in the camera lense and adjusting it to focus.

Click

Matt looks at the digital screen and turns it around so you can see too, “Perfect.” he smiles again, something he seemed unable to stop doing. Had you not felt so intimidated you may have found Matt to be rather charming.

You’re suddenly interrupted by someone of similar stature and appearance, save for his dark hair that was barely long enough to hang in his eyes, and curled around his ears.

“Who’s this Matty?” his tone is almost teasing as he ruffles Matt’s perfectly groomed hair.

Another Solo, surely.

Matt doges out of his brother’s reach, patting his hair back down before responding. “This is Y/N.”

“Y/N?” he gives you a once over. “I’m Ben.”

Ben.

“Hi.”

Whereas Matt exude a gentle, meek kind of aura, Ben radiated confidence; like he was hot shit, and he knew it. His smile was like that of a movie star, flashing his teeth accompanied with a look that says he only smiles like that for you. Of course you knew that to be bullshit, he had to be giving everyone that same treatment; it’s part of his charm. This did nothing for your nerves.

Ben hadn’t taken his eyes off you nor had he said anything more; staring you down as if he expected you to do something, like a trick monkey.

“Do you want a drink?” he asks, tearing his gaze away from you to look around the living room.

Half of you wanted Matt to intervene in some way but he’d disappeared, probably to fix his hair.

“Okay.”

“Follow me, kid.” he says, sauntering through the maze of bodies and furniture like he owned the place, granted he did.

After fetching you a drink from the kitchen in his mother’s finest champagne glass, Ben lead you from group to group coagulating around his home. Gina, Debbie, Laura, Jessica, and something that started with a L; all from a sorority a few blocks away. Dan, Myra, and someone that was definitely a sasquatch; Family members of his mother’s colleagues. Group after group, Ben introduced you to people whose names you'd probably wouldn’t remember, and each time he filled your glass with more of that bubbling, silvery liquid you became a little more sure of that.

As it got later and Ben ran out of people to dangle you in front of, you found yourself on the Solo’s balcony overlooking their backyard. Below you the pool was covered for the winter season, a lonely looking set of chairs surrounding a table with a light blanket of snow over each one. Dead shrubs line the fence surrounding their yard and you can't help but to imagine what kind of parties they host down there when the weather is warm.

“You know, I’m never going to remember all those people.” you say, kicking back the remnants of your last drink, your head spinning as you set the glass down on a table behind you.

Ben shrugs as he leans over the railing, resting his forearms on the deck’s wood fencing. “Yeah, me either.”

“I don’t even like parties,” you started, “they’re so loud, and busy, and- and I wouldn’t have even come if it wasn’t for my dumb friend, but he ditched me and then your mom found me, and somehow I ended up with you.”

Ben tilted his head looking at you from the corner of his eyes as you rambled on and on, but he didn’t seem to mind; he was a little tipsy himself.

“And then we met all those people,and-um- I don't really remember what happened after that,  but now i'm here but you know something Ben?” you didn’t give him time to answer, “I had a really good time.”

He turns to you now, still leaning on the rail; more for support than anything else, his words lazily spilling from his lips. “You know what, kid? I did too.”

His statement made you warm inside, or was that just the liquor? You couldn’t tell anymore, you couldn’t tell anything anymore.How long have you been here? Where did Poe go? How are you getting home?

Wait a minute.

You looked over at him, “Did you just call me kid?”

He laughs, rolling his shoulders with a shrug, “I've been calling you kid all night.”

“You have?”

He pauses, “I think so.”

Leaning back against the railing, you let the cool air attempt to clear your head. Now you remember, he’s definitely been calling you kid. Like right before he’d told you to hold his glass so he could invite his much more athletic cousin to a handstand challenge.

“Shit.” Ben hisses under his breath, pushing himself up to his full height and adjusting his cotton blue t shirt.

Your first instinct is to look over the balcony, thinking he’s dropped something. “What?”

“It’s almost midnight.”

“So?” It was just a time, and here he had your drunken mind panicking.

“So,” he says looking back to the house in urgency. “I haven’t found anyone to kiss. You know, New Years and shit?”

“Oh,” your shoulders fell, relaxing back onto the rail. “Can’t relate.”

He looks surprised, perking at your words. “You’ve never kissed anyone on New Years?”

“No, why would I?”

“Because it’s- it’s tradition, like good luck or something,” he waves his hands around, grasping for the true meaning but comes up empty. “I’ve been doing it for years, find a girl, kiss her and never talk to her again.”

The thought is appalling. Why kiss someone you’ll never talk to again, it sounds almost sad and as he says it, his typically cheery self loses its luster; a certain kind of sadness is hidden behind his brown eyes.

“Well,” You check the time, 11:58; it was running out. “You can kiss me.”

Ben turns on you, maybe a little to fast because his tall frame sways twice before stabling out. “What?”

“You can kiss me,” You say again. “You won't find someone in time, especially as drunk as you are.”

You take his hand as he starts to sway again, and he doesn’t pull away. Instead he looks down at your joined hands, linking your fingers together before making up his mind. “Okay.”

From deep in the house you faintly hear the cheers of people as the ball drop began on tv. Ben stepped closer, hearing it too.

5

His free hand found the side of your face, cupping your cheek as you shuddered against touch.

4

Your eyes looked up to his when you felt his thumb brush your cheekbone. His eyes held admiration as they traveled your face, but maybe you were just being hopeful.

3

Taking this moment to memorize him, you noted each little freckle and mole decorating his skin, the way his haircut handsomely framed his face; that was probably intentional by design.

2

“Are you ready?” he says quietly, breath smelling sweet like the champagne you’d been drinking all night.

He licked his lips, you nodded doing the same.

1

That’s it. Ben presses his lips to yours, and you expect him to pull away just as quickly but he doesn’t, and suddenly it's not a simple New Years kiss anymore it’s something more. You can feel it. Fingers thread into his hair as he pulls you in closer, you whimper into the softness of his mouth. The dizzy feeling you'd had earlier was nothing like the spinning your head was doing now as you dived deeper and deeper into each other.

A firework explodes in the distance and Ben pulls away, you absentmindedly chase after him immediately missing the contact, but he’s too tall.

With cheeks tinted pink, and a little breathless, he speaks. “Happy New Year.”