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ronwestbreeze · 2 years ago

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TO YOU , WORLDS AWAY : PART TWO : CHAPTER TWENTY - ONE

pairing: jake sully x fem!reader

summary: those that wake from nightmares, whisper together in the aftermath

word count: 1.1k

author's note: this is a short chapter but very relevant, definitely not filler so don't skip! anyway, enjoy!

AO3 | prev | next

Year 2162

The nightmares came again one night.

You didn’t remember much of it but you saw the fire, you heard the screams, and you saw Quaritch. That was enough to shake you from your sleep. The sky was still dark and the forest was quiet. It had to have been early dawn or perhaps you hadn’t really slept that long, you could never tell with these days. Besides, you were honestly surprised you were able to sleep with how sore you’ve been lately.

Neytiri was still fast asleep. But the spot next to her was empty. This was a first. Usually, when you woke up from a nightmare like now, you looked to the others to find comfort in their presence. Sometimes finding Jake’s hand and weaving your fingers through them, squeezing his fingers until you were able to fall back to sleep. But now, Jake was missing. And you were a little curious and worried at the same time.

Carefully, you slipped out of the hammock, careful not to wake the others as you did. As quietly as you could, you wandered away in search of your husband. Fortunately, you did not have to wander too far. You found him near a small river, sharpening his blade when you approached.

His hair was down and curtaining his face when you squatted down next to him. Jake’s ear twitched, telling you he heard you coming.

For a moment, neither of you said anything. Instead you watched him carefully, trying to read his expressions which you’ve found yourself learning with the time you’ve spent with him.

“Talk to me, Jake.” You say quietly for him to hear. “And don’t lie. I can tell when something’s bothering you.”

Jake sighed and stopped his movements with sharpening the knife. You placed a hand on his tense shoulder as he spoke, “Earth’s dying. That hasn’t changed no matter how we look at it.” You frowned as he looked at you, worry written on his tired features. It looked like he hadn’t slept, not just now, but for a while. You wondered how long this had been happening and why you hadn’t noticed until now. “They could come back someday, Y/N. And I don’t…I don’t know what I would do if our family had to be put through war. If we had to be put through another war.” He grabbed your hand, placing the blade in it, “I don’t know what I would do if I lost them. Or you lose you again because of it. So, please…” He ducked his head down to look at the knife he placed in your hand, whispering, “please tell me I’m being paranoid. Tell me that I have nothing to worry about. Tell me that it’s all in my head…”

Your heart was heavy. And your silence was enough of an answer.

God, you wished you could tell him he was being paranoid, that you were also being paranoid with all these nightmares. But there was some form of truth, some part of you that always knew—or was worried about the day the Sky People would return. Because Jake was right. Earth was dying. And now that the Sky People knew about Pandora, there was no way in hell they were just going to let what happened those years ago go.

Not thinking about it, trying to focus on the positives, didn’t make it any less true. But you would try. You had decided since you had gotten your second chance that you weren’t going to waste this new life away, constantly worrying about dangers and what you had to do to prevent it from harming your family. Yes, it was always good to be prepared, but you couldn’t allow yourself to fall into a constant cycle of worry. And you wouldn’t allow it for Jake either.

When Jake saw that you hadn’t responded, he sighed and faced the river with a long look. You placed the blade down and scooted closer to him, until your sides were pressed together, feeling each other’s warmth in the chilly night air.

“If that day were to come,” His jaw clenched at your words but you hugged his arm, comforting him as you continued, “I know you will protect this family no matter what. I know that Neytiri would protect this family no matter what. And I know I will as well. And if we did have another war—”

“I don’t want to fight.” Jake shook his head, massaging his face exhaustedly. “And I sure as hell don’t want our children fighting. I just…I’m done fighting. I’m done with war. I’m done with losing people…all I want to do is cherish every moment I spent with this family…but then I realize that this clan needs to be prepared, needs to be protected in case that day does come—”

“And when that day comes, we will be prepared.” You assured him, squeezing his arm as you did. “Jake, I understand you. Believe me, I do. There is not a single day that goes by where I don’t think about what would happen if the Sky People came back…these days it’s been too often…”

There was a quiet pause between the both of you. After a few seconds of hesitating, you took his hand and slowly guided it toward your stomach. Jake instantly looked toward you, eyes wide when he realized, when he felt your stomach.

“I went to see Mo’at earlier today.” You said simply, a slow smile reaching your lips.

Jake grabbed your face, pressing a kiss against your lips before pulling away to stare at you with a mixture of disbelief, happiness, and utter worry. “W-When…When did you know?”

You shrugged, looking down at your stomach, “I didn’t feel much like myself yesterday. Thought I was sick at first so I went to Mo’at today just to give me some medicine. Then she told me I was pregnant—”

Your words turned to a small squeal when Jake lifted you up into a hug, the both of you now standing. “I love you so much!” He said breathlessly, pressing his face into your neck once he put you down. “I can’t believe it…”

“You’re not nervous?” You asked, despite yourself. Jake pulled away slightly to look at you curiously. “I mean—do you think I will be a good mother?”

Jake smiled softly, caressing your cheek, “I can’t believe you don’t see what I see. You’ll be an amazing mother, Doc. I know that for certain.”

Teary eyed, you pulled him back into a hug, allowing yourself to relish this moment of happiness. “We’re going to be okay. That I believe.”

He pressed a long kiss against your cheek before muttering against your skin, “Hopefully it’s twins.”

You cocked your head back, “Shut up, Sully.”

“What? I was a twin! It’s about time I had some!”

“You’re out your damn mind!”

taglist: @luvvfromme @sully-stick-together @jakesullylvr @s-u-t @ssc7514 @cheari @tojigirll @nyotamalfoy @perfectprofessorloverapricot @naityelen @dumb-fawkin-bitch @raggedyoldwitch @nhemmingsf @biooiuygjjgfsrb @thatsenoughformelol @thotd-f1 @beaniebeensbaby201 @theoriginalwife000 @3leni @23victoria @lovesickollie @atxara @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @ladylovegood-69 @lovekeeh @lilithmoon14512 @n7cje @fyfy-world @cleverzonkwombatsludge @goddesslilithmoriarty @itszzmoon @eternallyvenus @bajadotcom @ducks1188 @alexandra-0011 @sweetllamaparadise @padfootsvixenn @avatarmasterlistblog

#to you worlds away #avatar jake sully x reader #avatar jake sully #jake sully #avatar jake #jake sully x reader #neytiri #avatar way of water #avatar the way of water #sam worthington #avatar 2 #avatar fanfiction #avatar

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rubydubydoo122 · 7 months ago

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Jason gets de-aged because I've seen fics of Tim or Dick being de-aged, and Bruce losing his memory, but no one has realized the potential for angst if you de-age Jason.

Also, and Author's note-- when I wrote this fic, I was using the Latino Jason Headcanon, I don't really believe in that anymore, but this chapter is heavy handed with that headcanon, but it's just filler, so you can probably skip it if you hate it.

Jason tried really hard to find Bruce after that, but he could not cross paths with him. It was like everyone was trying to stop him.

Damian stopped him first, “I’m going to take Titus and Ace to the park. You are coming with me.”

Before Jason could even tell him that he had to talk to Bruce (because Constantine had told Jason that the spell was going to wear off, but he didn’t tell Jason when) he was being dragged out the door.

The park in Bristol was a 20 minute walk from the manor, and somehow, they didn’t need any adult accompaniment. Sure, they were trained, and they were also going to the safest park in town, but still, whenever Jason wanted to go, he had to go with Alfred, Dick, or Bruce. Though, they were also Jason’s only options for company, so maybe that’s why.

Though Titus was up to Jason’s shoulder , and Ace wasn’t much shorter, so big dogs probably helped.

Damian dug through his backpack, threw a rope to Titus and Ace, then took a sketchbook out and sat under a tree. Jason sat down next to him and observed the park.

A lot has changed about it. A lot of the trees and benches were in different places. The walkways that had previously been a concrete sidewalk had been changed to a red rubber track, and the playground had been completely renovated.

A part of Jason wondered if the old playground in Park Row had been fixed up in the past couple years, but he knows even if it was, it probably was ruined again by a rogue attack. Bristol could afford a clean park. It was safe.

He watched as a kid, maybe 5, walked hand in hand, bubbled in between her parents, as they lifted her up in the air every couple of steps.

He doesn’t think he could remember Mami and Papi walking with him like that. Maybe they had moments like that when Jason was too young to remember, maybe they just never had them at all. Now, all he could remember when Mami and Papi were together was when he was under the table, hugging Sparky tight as trying to block out the sounds of glass shattering, or skin making contact with skin.

Jason’s eyes made their way back to the playground, where a kid, maybe 7, was on his dad’s shoulders gripping the monkey bars.

He knew that Papi had loved them both. He had to take those jobs to make money for them. To take care of them. He drank to forget the crimes he did to keep the heat on, or put food on the table. If he didn’t love them, he could’ve left. If he didn’t love them, he wouldn’t have gone to prison for them.

There was a mother laying on the grass with her daughter, maybe 11, tying flowers together in a crown.

And Mami, she had to have loved him too. Jason wasn’t even hers, yet she had loved him like his own. Even though in the end she needed the Heroin more.

Jason could feel Damian’s eyes on him. “What’s up hermanito? ”

Damian shook his head and closed his sketchbook. “Nothing.”

That was…very convincing. “Am I your muse?” Jason pointed at the sketchbook.

Damian shrugged and placed the book back in his bag, “I was drawing you before you…shrank. It was missing something, though now I have an idea.”

“You’ll show it to me when you’re done?”

Damian just shrugged and gave the command for Ace and Titus to come along.

By the time they got back to the manor it was close to 6:30, and Jason really wanted to talk to Bruce. Except he ended up helping Alfred with dinner. And then Bruce wasn’t even at dinner. And then before he could sneak down to the cave to talk to him, he’d already gone out for patrol. Jason wasn’t even allowed to snoop because Alfred wouldn’t let him.

He was standing across from Batman. In a beat up abandoned apartment.

He had the Joker in a headlock. He had a gun in his hands. And so did Batman.

Even with the cowl on Jason could see the look of distraught that drowned Bruce’s– Batman’s face.

“Stop this. Enough. You know I won’t–”

And that was the problem. Jason knew he wouldn’t. He knew Batman could never kill the Joker. But even after Jason revealed himself, he continued to fight him. In fact, the punches felt harder. He thought he had cared. He thought Bruce had cared about him, but he would always put the Joker first. He would always put Batman first. “All you’ve got is a headshot. I’m gonna blow his addled deranged brains out– and if you want to stop me..” He could feel the knot form around his throat, “You’re going to have to shoot me. Right in the face.” Just choose me, Bruce. Show me you still care. I’m scared, Dad. I don’t want him to hurt me anymore.“One…two… the–”

A batarang flew through the air, ricocheting off the wall and embedding itself into Jason’s neck.

He shot up clutching his neck…right where there was a scar.

No. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Batman could never. Bruce would never.

12:23 am. Bruce probably wasn’t back from patrol yet, but Jason needed him. He needed to hear his voice, deep and soothing. He needed to feel his embrace knowing that he would protect him no matter what. Jason went to the library and waited for him

He heard Damian’s door close first, around two, and then Cass’s door further down the hall.

Ok, so they were coming back. It shouldn’t take Bruce too long.

It was just a dream. Why would Jason be holding a gun up to the Joker’s head? Why would he be asking Bruce to kill him?

By the time Tim got back to his room it was close to four in the morning and Jason had gotten halfway through Hamlet. Then Dicks door closed.

Any minute now. Bruce should be coming up soon. Then thirty minutes passed, then an hour, then two, and when it turned seven, Jason was done waiting. He stormed down to the kitchen.

It was Saturday morning, in a house filled with vigilantes, and Duke knew no one would be up. Not even Alfred. He wouldn’t be up until 9:00. Except today was his hair care day. Which was why he was up at 7:00 in the morning, nursing a cup of coffee. So was he startled when Jason came down, cursing in Spanish, looking like he got zero sleep? Yes.

Though Jason stopped in his tracks when he realized he wasn’t alone.

Duke knew that no one would be up until at least 12, and maybe it would be a bad idea to leave Jason alone to brood. “I have some errands to run… wanna come?”

All Jason did was shrug.

Duke learned very early on while living at the manor that Alfred did not know how to cut black hair. And his old barber got caught in a rouge attack, so Duke just decided to grow his hair out. Then he figured out that cowls don’t fit the same when you’ve grown out your 4b hair. So he had gotten into the habit of twisting or braiding his hair on the last Saturday of every month.

Jason probably knew that too. His hair was a little looser than Duke’s, but he still had 3c hair. Duke kinda figured the reason why Jason switched from the helmet to the hood every couple of months is so his hair doesn’t take up space in the helmet.

They drove down to the Narrows, because that’s where the strip mall with the hair and beauty store and the convenience store is.

“Do you… wanna tell me what’s going on?” Jason had been quiet for most of the car ride, and yeah, maybe Jason was just… quiet as a kid, but currently it was a sad kind of quiet.

Jason shrugged, “I’m just being dumb. I feel like Bruce is ignoring me, but Bruce is probably just busy now. A lot busier.”

Duke had to suppress the urge to flinch, because Bruce was definitely avoiding Jason now. After getting the news from Constantine that they were playing russian roulette with magic and Jason’s life, Bruce had shut down, and then rebooted as Batman. “I mean, he is trying to find a witch with a stick. He’s in Batman mode.”

Jason nodded, “I know. But I don’t want Batman, I just want Bruce.”

Duke pulled into a parking space, and turned to face him. “Jason, I think you should tell him that. Or at least, physically drag him. Bruce probably needs that.”

He gave him a tiny smile, and then looked to the shop, “What’re we here to get?”

Duke tugged at one of his twists, “Gotta re-do my hair. The cowl of my suit doesn’t really fit with my fro, and I love Alfred, but the first time he cut my hair I had…”

“So many ingrown hairs.” Janson visibly cringed, “...My mami used to help me maintain my hair. She used to do little braids, but then she couldn’t. And I never learned, so it was usually really frizzy. So I started using pomade.”

Duke patted his shoulder, “Well, I’m not the best, but I can teach you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, man. You taught me how to kick-ass. It’s only fair if I teach you how to do your hair.”

All Duke needed from the Hair and Beauty store was some mousse, but he let Jason pick out a couple of hair accessories.

“Oh my god, Duke. Duke, Duke, Duke.” Jason tapped his arm to get his attention, “They have little bats on them!” Jason held a package of hair rings that had different bat charms on them. And by bat charms, they weren’t like halloween bats, they were ‘Bats and Birds’ themed, with each of their bat-symbols.

He picked up another set and looked over all the charms again, “I think the Signal ones glow in the dark.”

Jason cupped his hand over the charm and peeked into the mini cave he made, “That’s so cool.” Then he looked up and frowned, and motioned for Duke to lean in, “Which charm belongs to who?”

Duke couldn’t help but laugh, because of course no one told Jason which identity belongs to who, “I’ll tell you when we get home. The ones that glow in the dark are mine, though.”

Jason grinned and they went to check out.

Then they went to the convenience store, got a bunch of different types of chips, and headed back to the manor.

“Ok, So, let me get this straight. Cass was Orphan, then Batgirl, and now she’s Black Bat. Stephanie was Spoiler, then Robin, then Spoiler, now Batgirl. Tim’s Red Robin? That’s lacking creativity.”

There was a scoff that came from the kitchen, “Hey! It was between that and Drake.”

“Why didn’t you go with Drake?” Jason paused, “Ok, I get that’s your old last name, but that’s perfect. No one would think it’s you because it would completely ruin the point of a secret identity. Also, whenever a villain’s on a monologue–” Jason snickered, “You could quack at people.”

“That’s just–”

“QUACKKK!”Maybe Jason getting no sleep was catching up to him. Oh well, at least he was being silly and not upset.

Duke set down a bag of plain potato chips for Tim, “I hate to break it to ya Tim, but you have to let go of Robin. Time to stop tweeting and start quacking.”

“I-” “Quack!” Did Duke actually think that Drake was better than Red Robin? No. They were both equally bad. He just found it really funny. “Come on Jason.”

Jason found that doing his hair did a really good job at distracting from the dream he had last night and fact that Bruce was ign- nope, busy. He’s just busy.

After Jason got the general motion down—twist left, cross left, on the left half of his head, and the opposite on the other half— he and Duke just started talking. Jason asked questions about his powers, and Duke didn’t seem upset by them, and then they started talking about different books, how much they did or didn’t like them, and before he knew it, Duke was finished with his whole head, and was munching on a bag of pretzels.

Jason was done with the front portion of his head, but his arms were getting sore and the mirror was making him mix up his left from his right.

He felt his eyes start to burn as the twist he was currently working on came unraveled. Why couldn’t he do this?

“Hey, it’s ok, man. The back is always the hardest part.” Duke threw out the bag and washed his hands, “Why don’t you take a little break. I can take over.”

Duke's fingers gently parted and twisted Jason’s hair, and if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine mami, eyes bright, heart and spirit strong.

Jason locked eyes with Duke through the mirror, “This is the first time we’re doing this together, right?”

Duke gave him a small smile, “Yeah. It’s been nice too. Every time I do my hair, it reminds me of my mom. It's usually in a melancholy way, but with you here, it’s more…”

“Reassuring.” It was like Duke knew exactly what he was thinking. “Like, even though she’s not here, she’s still here.”

He nodded, and as Duke finished the last twist, Jason could see the grief flash across his face, until it was replaced with something more hopeful, and then determination, “We’re doing this again. Next month. We can do it at your place if you want to, but we’re doing this again .”

Jason turned around and smirked, “You really thought this would be a one time thing?”

“It better not be.”

Because everyone woke up at different times, there wasn’t really a set lunch time, but everyone was there for dinner. Everyone except for Bruce. Again.

Maybe Jason would’ve been fine with that, if it wasn’t for the fact that he hadn’t seen Bruce at all.

“Hey Alfred, is Bruce in the cave?”

Alfed set down a bowl of roasted vegetables on the table with a sigh, “Yes, Master Jason.”

“Great. I’ll go get him.” and he got up and headed towards the cave.

He heard the sound of chair legs scraping against the floor, “Jason, hold up,”

Nope. Dick wasn’t going to stop him.

He got to the bottom of the staircase and froze when he caught sight of Bruce. Of Batman . Even though it had been hours since he had woken up from the nightmare, the image of him throwing the batarang, the feeling of the blade digging into his skin felt almost like a memory.

Jason crossed his arms, “You’re breaking rules #1 and #2.”

Batman stared blankly at him, and Christ on a stick, he did not get any sleep did he? “How–”

“You left me with the batcomputer unsupervised.” Jason gave Bruce his best imitation of Alfred’s you’ve messed up ™ look.

Not that Bruce was even looking at him. It was like the first night all over again. Jason rubbed the scar on his neck before marching up to Batman, “Cowl off.”

Batman didn’t even dignify him with a response.

“I want Bruce, not Batman.”

They held each other's gaze, and for a second, Jason thought Bruce was just going to turn right back around, but he didn’t. He reached up and pulled down the cowl, revealing his eyebags to be darker than usual, and his eyes were slightly pink.

Probably from looking at the computer all day, because Batman doesn’t cry.

Though Bruce was currently looking at him with a look of concern. “Are you ok, Jason?”

“No. I’m upset with you.” Jason took a step forward, because Bruce was somehow less intimidating than Batman. Even though they were the same person. “You do realize your brooding has an effect on other people, right? Because you kinda just left in the middle of my mystical diagnosis, and you didn’t even bother telling me when the effects would wear off. And I was waiting for you, ya know? In the library, but you never came up because you were busy brooding, and I haven’t seen you the entire day, and I wasn’t sure if I did something wrong—“

“No! No. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Bruce cupped his face, “Jay, lad, did you wait the entire night for me?”

He looked away.

“I just got caught up in everything. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you didn’t matter to me. Because you do. I don’t think words could describe just how important you are to me.”

Jason wrapped his arms around Bruce’s torso, “I know. I know. I just… had a bad dream last night, and I really— I just wanted to see you.” He murmured into the armor.

He felt Bruce’s arms wrap around his shoulders, “I’m here now. What do you need from me?”

“I’m still upset with you, but if you come up for dinner and then watch a movie with us, maybe I could forgive you.”

Jason pulled away and Bruce took him in, “I like your hair by the way. Are those little bats?”

Jason grinned and nodded, “Duke and I are matching. The Signal ones glow in the dark.”

Dick was pretty sure everyone in the manor could tell that Bruce was starting to go on a downward spiral. So imagine their shock when Jason got him out from the batcave. Not only that, but Jason had also somehow managed to convince Bruce to join them for movie night. Bruce hasn’t joined them for a movie night, unless it was the end, in years, but hey, Dick wasn’t complaining. Just suddenly reminded of the fact that Jason was definitely the favorite at this age.

“What movie should we watch?” Dick jumped over the back of the couch and grabbed the remote.

Tim flopped onto the loveseat, but then sat up so Cass could sit behind him. “If you try to get us to watch another Disney movie, I’m leaving.”

Jason turned his head to Dick so fast, he was afraid he would get whiplash, “You never wanna watch musicals when I suggest them.”

…and yeah, Dick stopped watching musicals by the time he was 14 and thought he was too cool to watch them whenever Jason wanted to watch them. It’s just, after Jason had died, and Dick was missing him, he would go on a Disney movie marathon, or watch any of the musicals Jason had suggested, but Dick had just scoffed at at the time. Now they had become Dicks comfort movies “You’ve converted me”

“So you’re saying, if I asked you to put on Frozen—“

“I’d ask one or two.”

He saw the realization settle on Jason’s face, “it’s 2023. That means Frozen II has been out for four years.”

Damian groaned, “We are not watching Frozen II. If I have to listen to Richard shriek Into the Unknown I will peel my ears from my head.”

“What about The Lion King.” Jason suggested.

Duke shrugged, “As long as it’s not the live action.”

Jason looked bewildered “There’s a live action?”

“It’s not good. And we’re not watching the Lion King, Dick is going to sob at Mufasas death, and then we have to pause it.” Tim reached for the blanket that was draped over the arm of the sofa, “What about Jurassic Park?”

“Drake, we’ve seen that as many times as we’ve seen Tangled.”

“So? I don’t see you coming up with any suggestions.”

“All of my suggestion are always vetoed by Father or Richard.”

“Wait, can we watch Tangled?”

“No. Dick will sing every single song.” Duke hopped into the armchair.

“Hey! That entire soundtrack is elite.”

“ Mother knows best, At Last I see the Light, I Have a dream? Top tier.”

“See, Jason gets me.” Dick placed his legs on Jason’s lap, but he shoved them off.

“No. Dick, you don’t get to say that after saying that Beaty and the Beast was a little kids movie. Do you know how much that hurt my heart and soul?” Jason put a hand to his chest and leaned into Bruce, “Tell him, old man.”

Bruce almost had a fond look on his face, “That we should watch Beauty and the Beast?”

Tim shook his head, “Nope, Dick will pull one of us in to Waltz with him.”

Cass giggled, “I think it’s fun.”

“Yeah but then the rest of us can’t watch.”

Bruce reached over and snatched the remote out of Dicks hand, “I’ve got an idea.”

“If it’s James Bond, I’m doing whatever stunts are done in the movie next time I’m out on patrol.”

“Jason, you already make it a point to do one movie stunt per patrol. Where do you think most of B’s gray hairs come from?”

Jason shrugged, “Damian.”

“Todd!”

Duke smirked, “Nah, Damian’s the cause of Dicks gray hairs.”

“I do not have gray hair!”

“It’s ok, Dickiebird. It’s normal for 30 year olds to have gray hair.”

“Oh my god! Jason. I’m not 30! I’m 27.”

Bruce ended up putting on Mission Impossible. Mostly because he knew he could finish the mission before Tom Cruise did, but also because he could tell that Jason didn’t get any sleep, and he finds action movies boring. And sure enough, not even halfway through the movie, he felt Jason slump onto his shoulder.

Bruce knew that the rest of his kids were taking pictures, and he also knew that Jason probably would hate all of them by the time he was back to normal.

If he went back to normal. 25/25/50 chance . It wasn’t good odds. At all. What if Bruce didn’t have the chance to mend his relationship with him? What if 20 year old Jason died thinking that Bruce didn’t care about him? What if—

The Kremlin exploded on screen, and suddenly, Jason was feeling too limp on his shoulder.

No. No no no no no.

The air felt thick like smoke was filling the air. The only thing he could see was the rubble of a warehouse. The only thing he could see was his son, limp, beaten and bloody. The green of his suit soaked brown, the yellow cape splattered red.

No. Jason was alive.

Bruce placed his hand on Jason’s wrist, and felt for a pulse.

It was there. Beating strong.

Slowly the air became less thick, and he realized that Tom Cruise was sneaking out of a hospital building.

Magic really sucks.

#jason todd #batman #batfam #dc comics #red hood #dick grayson #tim drake #bruce wayne #damian wayne #duke thomas #cassandra cain

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stardomtrash · 1 year ago

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this utami person looks like an absolute badass. any matches you'd recommend to someone unfamiliar with her work?

You’re damn right she’s an absolute badass :D And heck yeah I can give you some recommendations. I consulted with a few friends to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Some of these I haven’t seen but they came highly recommended. I’ll try and give a helpful rundown where possible :)

In no particular order…

So the unequivocal best match Utami has had is the 5.5* classic with Syuri. It’s LONG, and it may not be a good one to jump in with first, but definitely keep it in your back pocket. It’s 5.5* for a reason. (x)

Alternatively, Utami had a much shorter but all-killer-no-filler match with Syuri in the Gold Rush PPV last year. Really great match between two of the best to ever do it. (x)

Utami vs Mayu Iwatani for the IWGP semi finals. Again, it’s just two fantastic wrestlers giving it all they’ve got. (x)

Utami vs Tam Nakano in the 5 Star GP. Good thing about the 5 Star is the short time limits, so if you need good intro singles matches, they’re a great place to start. You'll also get to see Utami Nakano. (x)

Utami vs Saya Kamitani for the White Belt. I think this was better than the singles they had for the Red Belt, but I think that might be sentimentality for me. I’d only just gotten into Stardom and this was the first match I was HYPED for and watched live on PPV. It’s still a great match, and considering Saya and Utami are partners, coupled with Saya’s unrelenting desire to complete her one goal of besting Utami, it’s a great dynamic. (x)

Utami vs Momo Watanabe in the Oedo Tai/Queen’s Quest best of 5. This is DEFINITELY just me but it’s one of my all-time favourite matches. It presents Utami as an underdog against a heel that she bitterly hates. It’s only short (it's only the first 20 mins, don’t let the 1hr video length scare you) but it’s great if you want to see Utami fighting uphill. (x)

Utami vs Mayu Iwatani for the Red Belt. I haven’t seen this match (I keep meaning to) but I have it on good authority it’s a banger. Annoyingly this match doesn't exist in isolation, just a part of a whole PPV, so skip to 1:56:08 to get to it. (x)

Utami vs Maika for the Red Belt. Maika has been determined to make Utami her rival and these two put on a killer showdown if you like the power fighter vs power fighter style. (x)

Queen’s Quest vs Oedo Tai cage match. This is a massive storyline match that is the culmination of the increasing drama between Saya and Utami. I wouldn’t recommend it until you’ve seen at least some Saya/Utami stuff before (heck, just take a look at the tags on my blog as a crash course lmao) otherwise you’ll miss out on The Feels lol. (x)

Following on from that, when making this list people said I should include Aphrodite matches (that’s the team name for Utami and Saya), but from the matches I’ve seen personally I couldn’t think of One Match that stands out. I got a vote for their match against Konami and Jungle Kyona for the Goddess Belts, which I haven’t seen but really should, so I’ll put that one forward. (x)

Alternatively, since I haven’t included any Goofball Utami moments in this list (except Utami Nakano), the match between Utami and Saya vs Gokigen Death and Riho is a vibe. Utami is madly crushing on Riho at this point and Saya (who has been in love with Utami since Day Dot) is smarting about it. (x)

Last but not least, her debut match against Jungle Kyona is one I haven’t watched but heard good things about. A way to show you she’s been kickass from the start :D (x)

Thank you to everyone who helped me craft this list!

#utami hayashishita #asks #breaking kayfabe

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plutonicmirror · 2 years ago

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Zero Hour (1994) #0 [and Zero Hour in general]

Let’s continue my Zero Hour first reading. After skipping some filler tie-in issues, I reached the finale. Again, funny numbering gimmick with a 0 issue. I think Marvel also had something similar with their -1 issues back then. Oh, the 90s!

Hal Jordan Parallax reveals his master plan: “I’m gonna erase the universe so hard, I’m gonna create a new one where everything is right and everyone is happy™”. Classic case of a hero reacting to tragedy the readers are supposed to know about the Emerald Twilight story arc, but I’m LARPing as a snot-eating 10yo in 1994 who just started reading comics and doesn’t have enough attention span to know the lore with absurd amounts of cope and a plan that sounds extremely good on paper, but that other heroes must oppose because morality yadda yadda yadda. Looking at you, Injusticeverse.

Shout-out to my man Danger, a D-lister that was brought to the final fight fOr a ReAsOn. I’m gonna be honest, I skipped his tie-in because I couldn’t give a fuck about who he was. I usually like me some B/C/D/Z listers, but I also don’t give a fuck about DC’s Titans and his book was apparently tied to that whole mess so I was like “meh, next”. I mean, this young dude is a nobody right....?

*one trip to a comics wiki later*

Oh...

Ahem, moving on. The Spectre shows up looking for REVENGE after all of the JSA folks get ultra aged up or straight up deleted from existence, even though they had previously asked him for help and he was like “nah that’s human bullshit, I ain’t movin’ any finger”. Good job, asshole.

So yeah, remember our D-lister? Turns out his power (which is absorbing energy and making explosions) is specifically needed to counter Parallax’s new Big Bang. So our heroes’ plan is...to recreate the universe exactly as it was. So basically Parallax’s plan but done by them because fuck you Parallax, you don’t get to play God. Except...it doesn’t come out exactly as it was, because there’s “““subtle changes”““. In a meta way, this event was supposed to be a soft reboot to fix some of the fuckery that Crisis on Infinite Earths (a big event I haven’t read yet out of fear) caused. Was it accomplished? According to Comic Pop’s Back Issues video on this event... it kind of wasn’t. Sidenote, I highly recommend that channel’s Back Issues series, after reading an event it’s fun to watch a recap that adds background bits for the uncultured (like me) even if I sometimes feel the critique of the host is too harsh.

A not-Killing-Joke’d Batgirl from another timeline who temporarily sided with Parallax because she was doing her best “I want to be a real boy” Pinocchio impersonation got killed in the heat of the moment, so the other normal-powered hero in the room (Green Arrow) gets pissed at his former bestie. After this whole event he ragequits btw and apparently a common joke is that many readers think that should be the standard reaction to the whole thing.

Parallax is seemingly killed but it’s comics so he’ll be fine, trust the process. If I recall correctly, Hal gets to be the new Spectre for a while [*Vietnam flashbacks of Identity Crisis*]. I forgot to mention that the current Green Lantern of the time Kyle Rayner and Wally West were also “killed off”. Again, they’ll be fine. I just didn’t care enough to read a wiki and find out how they come back. But that bit brings us to this “oh yeah, that happened” moment:

Power Girl was pregnant and gave birth to a baby with the help of Wonder Woman who conveniently decided to play midwife instead of stepping up to the threath. Bue hey, guess who also was sort of born in the aftermath of this event? That’s right, I was! So surely that means that baby is a very important char-

Whoops, nevermind.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE WHOLE EVENT:

“7/10 it was alright” - IGN.

The contrarian in me doesn’t hate it like most nerds out there do, but it’s certainly not the greatest event ever written. Granted I went in without knowledge of a lot of stuff, like how was I supposed to make sense of what was happening in the Hawkman tie-in issue aka the whole “let’s try to solve the problem of having multiple origins for this character by literally merging them all into one” thing? How could I know what CoIE fuckery needed to be fixed if I don’t know the big impact of CoIE besides Supergirl being killed off (this fact is cultural osmosis at this point)? Did it matter to me in the long run? Not really, because it’s not like I feel compelled to keep reading DC continuity and make sense of it for the time being. The art was good, the colors were pretty, the Parallax suit was rad, the pose Ollie made at the end was Jojo-esque and dramatic, Batman fucking off from the final fight via being killed was good.

Now, the tie-ins. Some of them were fun, some of them were a drag to read because I had no idea of background info for most of them. Almost all of the Superman tie-ins were fun to read with the exception of Steel because I was tired of wiki-hunting when I reached his issue, shout out to the alternate Jor-El and Lara, the Alpha Centurion and the “Superman tries to save the Kents during the chronal rift” stories (Superman vol. 2 #93, Adventures of Superman #516, Action Comics #703 respectively). The Legion of Superheroes and adjacent issues were extremely confusing to me as a casual but oddly engaging. I had no idea what was happening but it was sort of fun. It revived my itch to read LoSH comics even if I’m still feeling overwhelmed at the mere thought of going further with that task. Oh yeah, the silent Green Arrow issue was a lot of fun! (Green Arrow vol. 2 #90).

The characters introduced were a mixed bag. On one hand we have Bart Allen aka Impulse, who was created in the prequel to this event and was sort of interesting. But then the chronal rift time erasure bullshit happens and since he’s from the 30th century he basically does nothing of importance... Alpha Centurion, as I mentioned, was a fun read in his Adventures issue but in the core event he was... a convenient minion. Thriumph? Thriump was an annoying character, one of those “oh yeah he was totally there in the beggining of the big team but the big name characters just don’t remember tee hee!”. Don’t worry though, he would later die of a cold. Or something like that. Extant felt edgy throughout most of the core issues and the tie-ins, he really had that Madara Uchiha endgame villain energy...until he was revealed to be just a pawn that was just rebelling. And then he fucks off. Shout-out to this specific goofy panel:

Tie-in issues skipped: Anima #7, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #31, Damage #6, Robin vol. 2 #10, Showcase ‘94 #10, Steel #8, Team Titans #24 (yeah, this team got erased from existence and I just couldn’t care), The Darkstars #24. Also skipped: all of the Zero Month aftermath gimmick #0/soft reboot issues.

New Year’s resolution when it comes to DC? I’ll get around reading the 70s Green Arrow and Green Lantern book. Ever since I found some academic paper on it that mentioned the words environmentalism and malthusian I was like “ok wtf I have to read this”.

Tytyty for reading my blog.

#actual blogging #comic book reading blogpost #mmmm yes continuity fuckery

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azulawriting · 2 years ago

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The Fullbring arc, oh boy

Recently, I watched a video essay detailing how the fullbring arc was, in fact, the best arc in Bleach. The reasons given were somewhat compelling before I read the arc. I mean, I don’t think I could’ve enjoyed the Soul Society arc as much as I did if it wasn’t for the Substitute Shinigami arc, which still is, to me, the main reason why I got hooked on this show/manga. I daresay that the first arc of Bleach is even more enjoyable in manga format. There’s a bunch of cut content that makes it all the more addicting to me, even now.

When it comes to my impressions of the Fullbring arc in the anime, I was surprised to know it wasn’t yet another filler arc. I think that, like many others back then, ending Bleach after Aizen’s defeat was a good decision. It was the culmination of the story, and I really wasn’t sure where the story would even go after it. The Fullbring Arc was interesting as a time skip and how Ichigo would deal with being a completely normal human being while all his friends were not, but I would not have “dragged it” for an entire arc, however brief it could be.

My feelings towards this arc have somewhat changed with the manga, but not that much. I think that, in hindsight, it is a necessary arc for TYBW and it introduces a “power-up” for characters like Orihime and Chad, which will become useful for the upcoming arc. I think Ichigo’s introspection about where he would go with no powers is rather powerful, and it gets to shine a little bit more in the manga, but it is not part of my favourite arcs in this manga. Again, I don’t think the magic of the Substitute Shinigami arc will ever be reached again, though I will admit the Fullbring Arc gets very close.

I will give the manga credit where it’s due in that it made the stakes about Ichigo’s character and how poorly he could handle ever coming back to being a nobody, basically. I think it’s something not a lot of shonen manga have tackled something as heavy as “what would happen if MC lost his powers but the threats didn’t stop?”. His dependence on Ginjo and Execution built a good betrayal plotline but, and I do feel bad to say this, I don’t find any of the new characters all that enjoyable. And that’s my main issue with it. The first arc introduced a varied and interesting cast of side characters, but there’s not much of that in this arc. Tsukishima is somewhat interesting as a villain due to his power, but not much else. The same goes for the rest of Execution, who, at least to me, don’t stray too far from being tropes.

It’s a shame, really. I appreciated the flashbacks for Ginjo and Tsukishima in particular, but man do I wish we had more. Then again, that would have perhaps played against the mystery/betrayal plotline that was decently built over the span of the arc.

I don’t think I’ll continue reading the manga from this point on. I hated the Quincy arc for how rushed and outright bad it was. The anime is airing right now and I’m honestly more interested in revisiting the arc by watching the adaptation. From what I’ve heard, Kubo has the reins and will add some anime-original content to improve the arc. So far, I like the anime and I hope a certain captain does not miraculously come back to the battlefield. If he does, for any reason at all, I’ll have to wonder if the rest of the arc will be improved or just rehash the mistakes from the manga. I don’t want it to come to that.

Before I finish this post, I wanted to add one last thing. Since I mentioned Kazui in my first post ever about bleach in this blog, I do plan on making an even longer rant on the Hell chapter and my problems with it, as well as speculate as to where it could go, assuming it ever gets another chapter. I might do this old blog justice again and write something short for the Hell arc, but I doubt I will even get the time for it. We’ll see.

#bleach #manga review #fullbring #hell chapter review coming soon???

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ciaossu-imagines · 8 months ago

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A couple more hours in the day would be awesome, along with the ability to postpone feeling the need to go to bed. Thank you so much. I’m just not used to being a super late replier so couldn’t help but bring it up 😅 It’ll be interesting to know how right or wrong you were and I’m looking forward to talking about it when the time comes and we’ve both read those chapters in English. We haven’t talked about it any more but yeah, I hope so. She’s now watching something called ‘Sign of Affection’ and recommended it to me so I hope to watch that at some point. And that’s so nice that you can do that with screencaps of the manga. It really is great and powerful in another way and I’m so happy to hear that’s the case. Those screencaps are so beautiful, in all kinds of ways 😭

Of course. Your rambles are always a great read. I most definitely am and even though I haven’t read what you posted yet the previous days, I do hope to at some point because they do seem interesting. And that sounds so great. I’m so happy to hear that. And I do like your plan of distributing everything evenly since it lets you try out all kinds of things. That’s nice 😃 I’m looking forward to hearing your opinion on it (the Black Butler manga) when the time comes. Yeah, like we’ve discussed in our private conversation. Like I used to use this website called ‘Anime Filler List’ that would say to what extent every episode was filler or non-filler and it really was so handy for when I didn’t feel like watching certain episodes, though sometimes the wikis also have that on the main episode page. Reading Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! sounds like a great idea since you do deserve some light-hearted stuff after all that heavy business. And that’s great to hear, that you’re catching up and rereading everything at such a good pace 😃

Of course I like reading your textwalls / novels since they really are so great and interesting to read. Yeah. Like I have WhatsApp downloaded on my computer so it’s another app and it makes it easy to send long texts to my friend but I can indeed imagine it being quite overwhelming for her at times. And it most definitely is when it comes down to word count since there is no maximum so it could all go in one block and the image sharing is pretty good but one of the things that I don’t like about it is that when you send a bunch of images or receive them and go out of the conversation for a bit and then go back into it, they’re no longer under each other so I can’t as easily respond to them one by one like I usually try to do. It most definitely was and even though I know we’ll never see that animated, by the gods that would be amazing to see. Though of course I’m happy that I got to read more about them. That’s such a shame to hear and so strange since Haikyuu is quite a popular series. Hopefully by the time that you’ve watched everything there is to watch about it, it’s back on the app. Yeah, it’s because of that growth that I became so much less normal about my two absolute faves. Different I’ll say. Like he appeared twice before (so once in the first proper time-skip chapter near the end and after that in the first special chapter) and both times he was wearing the same kind of clothes and I was just like ‘In my mind he only wears these kinds of clothes and I love that about him because the thought is just so funny’ and then that chapter appeared and he’s wearing something else and it’s just casual so I love that. That image has become the death of me in more ways than one. But like I’m still convinced that he still mainly wears the clothes that he wore before, this is just a special occasion. And thank you so much for that 😭 Okay. I’ll send it later then and it’s nothing since editing pics like that doesn’t take a lot of effort. I see.

Thank you. There might be some more Nanbaka chapters translated past that point but I don’t think it’ll be that far but yeah, I’ll tell you where I am when the time comes and we can work with that. Oh, that does sound awesome and really handy. Okay, I’ll add it along with the image. I’m glad to hear that you’re healing slowly but surely and do hope that it doesn’t last for much longer. It’s a godsend for me as well since sometimes I forget to close the code for the italics and then I see that there’s something off in the preview so then I just have to go back and check where I forgot to do it. Also, you can save things as drats and I think it’ll remain there for two weeks, it does tell you at the top I think so you don’t have to post things straight away either. Ah yeah, I see. Luckily since I copy from Word I don’t have to use those breaks but yeah, now you know what’s possible and I think there is some more info on the FAQ or anything more that you might need to know. That’s nice 😄

I am definitely starting to think I need more than a couple more hours in every day! I got so caught up in writing yesterday that I ended up pulling an all-nighter, relying on coffee to keep me going when I started nodding off. I mean, I’m glad I got a good chunk added onto the queue and it’s going to be increased to twice a day now, but just a couple more hours in these days would be lovely so I can sleep and still do all these things! The ability to postpone needing to sleep would be amazing as well, not going to lie. I’m definitely going to need to tuck in early tonight to catch up on that sleep but I hate it. It sucks to feel like you’re wasting productive time passed out. And I’m looking forward to finally getting that reply to you via dm so we can chat about it but yeah, I called one of those twists, but I still can’t figure out why! Just…WHY!! And I know you normally answer super quickly, a stark contrast to me, who is always running behind on replying to people. I make a kind of lousy pen-pal that way, but thankfully everyone is really kind and understanding about it 😊 I’ve never heard of that one before? Sounds like a romance though, so it would make sense for me not to have in that case. I hope if you get around to watching it that you thoroughly enjoy it though! And yeah, I am horrible – every single panel that has information I want to remember or just has my favourites looking really cool gets screenshot and put into a folder on my phone. I have an SD card the folder is on because it takes up much more room than I would like to admit. I keep saying I’m just going to transfer them on over to my laptop so I can do comprehensive ‘Dee reads’ style reviews of chapters of things I’ve recently read or am reading but I never do get around to that. And thank you for saying that – to me, they genuinely do capture the theme of the manga and are just beautifully done art wise! I hope maybe they’ll get even one more person into the manga, because it truly is a wonderful one!

Aww, you make me smile and blush saying that! I’m glad they’re fun to read though and thank you for wanting to get around to reading all the daily posts I’ve been spamming everyone with. Again, I can’t say it enough, but I really do appreciate all of you lovely readers allowing me to have so much fun with the unrequested prompts so that I can write for all the fandoms I love! I haven’t gotten to the Black Butler manga, though it’s definitely on the list. My manga app is really handy in that it allows me to save all my favourites one place and then to save the ones I still wanna read in another list and I’ve just been working my way through that list bottom to top, which is why there’s really not too much consistency with how I’ve been reading and watching things, haha. I hadn’t known websites like that existed but that sounds so frigging useful, honestly. I’m not a huge fan of filler episodes, which is why I don’t normally love going anime only if a series has a manga, other than the obvious fact that I read a lot quicker. Finding ways to skip that filler would make anime watching a lot better for people like me. I really enjoyed finally reading the manga for Iruma-kun! It’s a lot of fun and the story is great, but I’m also not going to lie…I actually do prefer the anime for this one. The voice acting and especially the music really do add so much to this and I actually prefer the art of the anime more. That being said, having read the manga, I know we’re in for some amazing seasons of the anime!!

I honestly hadn’t know WhatsApp had an app for the computer as well! I know it has one for my phone, but I’ve honestly never tried it out, since I just text or use SnapChat. But having it on the computer would definitely make it easier to type out the long messages and I still maintain that I am sure she loves them, even if it might take her some time to read them all! Ouch on the images doing that though. That would kill my OCD, not even lying. Am I going to be missing out on a lot, by the way, just watching the Haikyuu!! anime? I did find somewhere I can read the manga, but it costs me $2.99 a month and I can only read 100 chapters a day, which will slow me down on my days off where I will sit and binge read. It’s the only thing that really bothers me about my manga reading app – they’ll take stuff down or off the app completely for no discernable reason. All I can guess is licensing issues? And I find being normal about characters overrated, haha, but I get very attached to all kinds of characters myself, haha. And I am going to be very interested to talk Haikyuu with you once I do get all caught up! I’m balancing it around another anime, that way I get to watch something heavily shounen when I’m in that mood but also get to watch something more easy watching and sports themed when I’m not in the shounen mood. And thank you again 😊 You’re very kind!

I keep holding off on reading the Nanbaka manga, just because of all the spoilers I have seen make me really think that I am going to hate the way it wraps up. But at the same time, I want to read it and say I caught up and see what happens with the characters I love! Thank you for that, by the way! I am finally all healed from the cold and hoping I manage to avoid any more like that. Dangers of working in a pharmacy. I legit had one lady sneeze straight in my face, not even bothering to cover her mouth, when I went to hand her her medications. Thank god my work is good about keeping our sink stocked with jay cloths and lots of antibacterial soap because I had to go and scrub my face after that. I love any site that thinks to put in the preview feature. Every writing site, in my mind, should have that feature just automatically built in, because I think it’s easy to forget, but how a story is formatted and presented can really affect how well people receive it, on top of the actual story itself. Thank you so much for the heads up about the draft files too! I love that and will probably make good use of them, knowing me!

#admin chatter

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years ago

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What would a cw adaptation of Harry Potter look like?

Having not watched too many cw shows myself (I just hear about their nonsense), I phoned @therealvinelle who made the poor life choices of having watched much more of The Vampire Diaries than I have and watching any Supernatural.

The following is her beautiful response:

So for starters, we merge Snape and Tom's characters. This is because Snape isn't hot, and because Tom needs to be near the kids. Tom still looks like Tom Riddle, and he's a teacher who seduces Hermione. At no point are any thoughts about the fact that he's a teacher sleeping with a student had

Harry is a blond now, and he's also dating Hermione. A love triangle ensues, one where Tom will hover sexily but dangerously in empty classrooms and make vague threats that Hermione find very sexually arousing.

The love triangle is the focal point of this show.

Voldemort is Tom's evil alter ego, who killed Harry's parents over that prophecy. He wants to kill Harry as well, but it's not the season finale yet so he's not actually doing anything about it. Too busy seducing Hermione.

Instead he just does vaguely sinister things, like release a basilisk that Harry heroically saves Hermione from.

He every so often has charged conversations with McGonagall (Who has been aged down and is in her thirties. She's still considered ancient), implying they had an affair once.

Harry and Hermione piece together that Tom and Voldemort aRe ThE sAmE pErSoN.

(Piece together meaning that Dumbledore, who only appeared in the second half of the first season and the show never bothers to clarify what his job actually is, gets a focal episode where he tells them the story of Tom Riddle through flashbacks. Terrible flashback wigs and costumes galore.)

Tom will later, in season 3 where he goes full woobie and we learn that none of his evil deeds were ever his fault, reveal that there's more to the story. That orphanage he grew up in? It was a special school for muggle-borns where they trained a future wizarding militia. Tom was the only one who broke free of their oppressive regime. The other children... GREW UP TO BECOME THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.

But I'm skipping how season 1 ended. The answer is that Hermione disavowed Tom in the season 1 finale since he was evil, he was too sexy bad boy to care except subtle wigglings of his eyebrow told the captive Tomione-shipping audience that he did in fact care. Harmione shippers think they're all delusional. She then jumped into Harry's arms.

Which was poor decision making on her end, because in season 2 Harry joins the dark side. This lasts for half a season, mostly because the arc featured so much filler. Tom, who was imprisoned in season 1, becomes Hermione's supportive pen pal through this ordeal and she starts to wonder if maybe there's good in him after all.

Sirius Black is introduced, he's a lawyer living in the Muggle world and he was in love with Lily. We get a flashback showing us how sad Sirius was when she married James, and there is buildup for an arc where Harry's paternity will be questioned. This arc is scrapped, and Sirius is written out of the show altogether, never to be mentioned again.

Ginny gets pregnant by Neville. Neville dies tragically shortly afterwards, killed by Harry because Harry is a dark wizard now. This is actually the spinoff door episode to the new show the CW is trying to launch, "The Weasleys".

Neville's death has no real consequences, Harry returns to the light and is forgiven in time to become the child's godfather.

Oh, and can't believe I forgot: they've all been aged up to 17.

End of season 2, Tom escapes prison.

Season 3, we get the whole "DUMBLEDORE is the real villain!" arc. Tom killing Harry's parents in season 1 is forgotten, the show doesn't outright retcon it but it doesn't want the viewers to remember it either.

Hermione is once again in a love triangle, only this time Tom and Harry have both done bad things (but we'll only bring up the 2 bad things Harry did (killed Neville and said a mean thing to Hermione) and none of the 282985204592 bad things Tom did) so Hermione has a hard time.

Hermione also discovers that she's a uniquely powerful witch. She has the power to make windows shatter, candles flicker, and wind blow all about. Everyone is frightfully impressed with this.

Mid-season 3 finale, Dumbledore destroys Tom's body. It's terribly dramatic, but then turns out to only be a mild inconvenience as he is resurrected four episodes later. He's resurrected by Hermione's window shattering powering, she closed her eyes very intensely and bam, he's back.

We learn about the horcruxes, which by themselves are shockingly similar to the horcruxes of the original books. The big change, however, is that this Tom didn't know he had horcruxes, those evil bastards at the orphanage split his soul in the night through ominous rituals (another flashback here). He has no idea where this other half of his soul is.

Season finale, we learn that Hermione is in fact his horcrux. This is why they had so much in common (they don't have anything in common) and why she got through his bad boy persona (he hasn't been a bad boy since season 1!). They were soulmates this whole time!

Harry despairs in the face of this, and he and Hermione have a teary conversation where she confirms that yes, the Tomione shippers won.

He also has a pleasant conversation with Tom, as a bromance has bloomed between the two.

Alas. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as the door flings open dramatically. Dumbledore walks in, bearing proof that Tom made an Unbreakable Vow to always serve the Order, a Vow that was obliviated from him. He drags Tom kicking and screaming away from a crying Hermione, the season ends with her resolve to find a way to save him.

(Sorry, I'm on a roll here)

Season 4, a year later. Harry and Hermione have been searching ever since Tom disappeared. They've become closer than ever, but apart from three or four moments of extreme sexual tension per episode, Hermione is Faithful™

News of Tom's terrorist actions as an Order member reach them with regular intervals. Hermione remains convinced that he's being forced to do all this and doesn't actually want to hurt anybody, Harry's not so sure.

They catch up to him in Minneapolis (did I mention this entire show takes place in the states? All the actors are American.) and he tells them to stop trying to save him. Hermione, devastated, takes this to mean he never loved her, he was only ever a psychopath playing with her feelings. She tells him as much, and Tom confirms, yeah, he's a cold-hearted son of a bitch (Harry's favorite insult for him).

They break up, and Hermione gets back with Harry. They return to their home city in North Dakota.

At the very end of that same episode, Tom is able to visit Harry for 15 seconds in the form of a specter and very dramatically tell him how he does love Hermione but he's not good for her, better to make a clean break, yada yada. DON'T LOOK FOR ME.

Harry agrees, sure no problem, he can do that. Just one noble bro to another.

Tom nods, thanks for having sex with my girl while I rot in hell, bro.

It is in this same season premier episode that the show introduces the Blacks. Remember Sirius Black? Yeah, this is sexy family.

They become instant fan favorites, and one of them is shipped with Tom (the fans now hate both Harry and Hermione).

Pandering as always, the show lets said character run into Tom. And it's not Bellatrix, oh no. It's Athena, a CW original Black. She's indistinguishable from the original Bellatrix and it's unclear why she's not just Bellatrix.

Tom is ordered to kill her, but they have a moment of truly intense eye contact so he only injures her (the killing curse doesn't exist in this show. Don't ask how Harry got his scar. No really, don't ask, the show never explained it). Shippers go wild.

Tom is eventually able to break free of the Unbreakable Vow through the power of true love (book fans are sobbing, this show gets nothing right), and he returns to Hermione, begs her to take him back. She rebuffs him, and he goes to get drunk at a bar. This is where Narcissa (aged down to 25) finds him. They have sex.

He has a brief fling with her, only to get into a more serious relationship with Athena. This leads to Hermione getting jealous.

We're now dealing with a love pentagon, of sorts. Harry and Tom love Hermione, Tom also loves Athena, Narcissa wants Harry but she has undeniable sexual chemistry with Tom.

The show descends into back-and-forth-ing, and does not get renewed.

The end.

POST SCRIPT:

The oddly popular side character that the CW never wanted to be popular at all and keeps having to make mysteriously vanish for half a season so that the plot(?) can avoid being derailed is Draco.

He's super competent but the show will never admit that.

Later, Athena plays this same role.

- @therealvinelle

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter headcanon #cw #cw meta #meta #headcanon #opinion #vinelle #therealvinelle

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woman-child91 · 2 years ago

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I’ve never once thought of Gaara as the Uke in his ship with Naruto. And I’ve watched (OG) Naruto and Naruto Shippuden four times!!! So I’m going to explain the reasons why I, personally think that it’s GaaNaru and NEVER EVER NaruGaa.

The first time these two met, Naruto, pretty much acted like a schoolgirl when she sees her crush. For Pete’s sake! Even my younger cousin who has never seen Naruto (she tried it twice and didn’t like it) said so. I showed her the scene where they first met and there’s one in Shippuden that is actually closer to how they met in the manga than, the (OG) Naruto version. But, it happens during a "filler" episode that almost all of you probably skipped. Well, newsflash people!!! Some filler episodes are a mix between canon and filler stuff. Meaning? The episode has both canon and filler stuff mixed in together. Anyways, during their first meeting… Naruto blushes!!! Naruto freaking blushes!!! Because, he thinks that Gaara is either cool or handsome. Because, we all know that he loves red hair. While, Gaara is uninterested in him at first glance and just starts walking away from him.

Okay, has ANYONE ever bothered to read between the lines of when these two actually met? Like, at the very beginning Gaara didn’t care at all about Naruto? But, Naruto was actually angry and upset about him ignoring him. Well, a douchebag in Stranger Things actually summarized something that just backs up my reasonings on why it’s GaaNaru and NOT NaruGaa. He said and I quote, "If you want a girl to like you, you should ignore her and act like you don’t care. This will drive them crazy". Like, again, Naruto fits the female role that’s mentioned here and Gaara fits the male role.

When they’re already friends and everything. That time when Naruto saves Gaara and Granny Chiyo revives him. Well, when the two boys are saying their goodbyes and all… Naruto, once again, is acting like a schoolgirl around her crush! He’s blushing and acting all nervous around Gaara. He can’t even make eye contact!

And still when they’re saying their goodbyes. Who makes the first move? Gaara!!! Naruto is too timid and flustered to even think about making any move. But, the redhead is not! He uses his sand to pull Naruto’s hand towards him and HE shakes the blond’s hand. Throughout Gaara’s entire 16 years of life at this point had he EVER had any physical contacted with another person? Not counting with his pretty, pretty Uncle Yashamaru? No! He hadn’t! He also never wanted to engage in any physical contact with anyone, after he turned evil. BUT, HE WANTED TO TOUCH NARUTO! HE FELT THE NEED TO TOUCH HIM! Not to be touched by him! He didn’t want Naruto to hold his hand! HE was the one who wanted to hold Naruto’s hand!

Gaara is ALWAYS written as being submissive to Naruto in fanfics. But, after watching the fandom for 4 times and paying meticulous attention to every single detail… I can honestly say that this is not real! I mean, Gaara is head over heels in love with Naruto. Yes! Even Gaara’s English VA said so. Gaara is infatuated with Naruto. That’s also true. He may even be whipped. BUT, he is not submissive to him!!! He’s not afraid to put his foot down and argue with Naruto when he disagrees with him. He doesn’t simply go along with everything Naruto says. He’s not afraid to speak his mind. ★ When he told Naruto that he was going to have to fight Sasuke. ★ When he first saw Naruto in the battlefield during the 4th Great Ninja War and was visibly angry. He told Naruto that he had better have a good excuse as to why he was there. But, if he didn’t? Then, he would drag Naruto back to the turtle island, himself, if he had to. ★ (Filler but, STILL a valid point for my post) During Killer B’s Infinite Tsukuyomi Dream he actually got jealous and possessive one time. He showed us a bit of his old self when Naruto and him were in the middle of a mission. Because, Sasuke showed up out of nowhere and Naruto was going to chase after him. Gaara was NOT happy with this and he didn’t simply acted as the submissive, meek and obedient Gaara you all read about in the NaruGaa fics. He actually talked in a loud, commanding and jealous/angry tone. He told Naruto, "Naruto! Don’t forget our mission." He was able to STOP Naruto from chasing after Sasuke. Excuse me but, if anyone was submissive, meek and obedient in here? It was, Naruto! He actually obeyed Gaara and stayed with him. ★ There’s a movie (which all you filler haters have probably skipped since, it’s not a canon episode) where Gaara stops Naruto from chasing after Kakashi. Because, Shikamaru or Jiraiya (I can’t remember) told Gaara to stop Naruto from going after Kakashi. Because, Kakashi made his own choice on leaving the village (no! Not a Kakashi version of Sasuke’s rescue arc. Kakashi actually left the village to protect it and try to save it from an enemy all on his own.). So Gaara argues with Naruto to the point where NEITHER is willing to submit. So they actually end up getting in a fight.

(Again, another filler episode. But, it’s definitely a valid point. Specially since it backs up my strict "No Seme!Naruto" policy) There’s a scene where, Naruto, yet again lets us know that he might have a crush on Gaara and wouldn’t mind bending over for him. ;) There’s an episode where Deidara is trying to capture the 9 Tails. At one point, Naruto’s chakra is nearly completely gone and he’s got no strength left. He’s just about to get taken by Deidara. When, Gaara appears out of nowhere and saves him. Naruto gets hearts in his eyes, he’s blushing, (for the THIRD time!!! Which actually reminds me a bit about all the times I saw, Minato, blush. And guess what? They were always caused by Kushina! So yeah, I’m just saying. Naruto’s crush on Gaara is canon!) and he actually says, "You are so cool, Gaara!" Please! Open your eyes! This scene is just like Videl’s Close Call in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2!!! And once again, Naruto is comparable with the girlfriend and Gaara with the boyfriend.

#I had already written this on a post about a month ago. But #but the stupid tumblr app deleted the entire thing that took me an entire hour to write!!!#so I hope it doesn’t happen again.#gaara x naruto #top gaara #seme gaara #bottom naruto uzumaki #uke naruto uzumaki #gaanaru

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paranoidpoltergeist · 2 years ago

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Transformers: Cyberverse Review (2/2)

So I finally watched cyberverse and figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and do my review while I was at it instead of having to rewatch it later. This ended up being so much longer than I expected and I tried to look back over it to the best of my ability but I wrote these directly after finishing each season so at some very odd hours of the day if anything is worded weirdly sorry about that. Please keep in mind this is my opinion and you might not agree:) Season 3:

Lemme start this off by saying I was so excited to see G1-Esque Laserbeak again but the absolute BUTCHERING of my boy drifts character. I was so sad dude, let him have his redemption arc:( plus Hot Rod, Cheetor, and Shockwave dying?! Not even right. I also lied because episode 5 of this season is the most confusing thing I’ve ever seen. I am so completely lost. How is Hot Rod back? What is even happening? Is that squid thing a Quintessons? Two of which were partially answered. Next episode we find out what happened with Hot Rod and you’ll notice one great detail here that was missing from season 2 THEY EXPLAIN WHAT WAS GOING ON.

So far the pacing feels a lot better even if the random time skip is a bit odd, BUT WIRL IS HERE AND HE’S GREAT. STUNTICONS well Stunticon, Dead End is great, I love his design even though I had no idea it was him at first. I don’t know if Hot Rod's voice actor had a cold or something while they were recording this but he was just constantly whispering and it made it so hard to take him seriously bc he’d be yelling somebodies name and it just sounded so flat. I didn’t think I’d like Perceptor at first but I ended up liking him a lot, Soundwave as always was great. I figure I’ll have a soft spot for this version for a long time, now if they’d just let him have all his cassettes back.

As of episode 12, Skywarp has been name-dropped once, and while I think I know which one she is she hasn’t been introduced yet and I’m on my hands and knees absolutely begging rn PLEASE let us have Skywarp. SPOILER ALERT SHE NEVER SAYS ANYTHING. I am devastated, Skywarp has got to be one of my favorite characters so every time I hear his name mentioned anywhere near a show or movie I get straight giddy bc we see Skywarp less than TC which honestly is a feat so you can imagine how sad I was when after being name-dropped AS THE COMMANDER she doesn’t get a single voice line. Finally, get TC and Warp and have them ripped away. L. In other news, have I mentioned that Starscream’s upgrades are the goofiest yet? Because they are. Judge Starscream has got to be the single worst thing to come out of any piece of transformers media like ever.

When I tell you I gasped when Megatron admitted he mistreated Starscream, never in a million years did I see that coming. I mean part of it is that Screamer got power-hungry, that his ambitions were too large, that he went a little crazy along the way, but part of it was that he was hurt. Does that excuse him deciding his entire world needed to be destroyed? No definitely not. I feel a character study coming along, but this isn’t the time or place so instead, I’LL TELL YOU HOW HYPED I WAS TO SEE ASTROTRAIN AND THE INSECTICONS. Hey, I’ll let you guess which faction is my favorite lol. The rest of this season is straight goofy and it’s mostly filler. Wild Wild Wheel, in particular, is one I want to touch on. It’s surprising how often the media does this but, as hurt as I know I’d be if I was left behind by my team I feel like you’d also have to realize well it’s war and casualties are in abundance. Someone goes missing and you usually have to assume they’re dead. The last episode was a bit weird but it was alright. In the end, this season wasn't bad at all but I do wish they'd cut it off at episode 18 and said the rest was season 4 or something. 7/10

Season 4:

This season was weird and I loved it and hated it. The first episode was great but the second one dude I’m so sad. I wish Astrotrain had more screen time I feel like he could have been a super cool character but alas he’s the 207th Decepticon gone. They killed the entirety of high command I was clinging to Soundwave and they VAPORIZED HIM. The way he went out was so sick but man you could have let us have at least one.

Now to the actual review part. I loved the Dinobots it was a different take on their story and I liked it. Letting them be an actual combiner was cool but Soundblaster destroying literal planets over a beatbox competition is the funniest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. The story flowed pretty well honestly, though I almost immediately knew what they were doing when Tarn showed up. The look my mom gave when I screamed “IS THAT TARN?!” was great but I did NOT expect the Megatron bashing they had him do lol. It’s a little hard to compare this season with the others because it's so different but I liked it, it was enjoyable. 6.5/10

How my system works:

When I do these reviews I base them on a couple of things 1.) What made it different 2.) How enjoyable is it 3.) How’s the plot, pacing, character designs, etc? So while I might really like a character there’s still a chance I’ll dock points because they didn’t just create a new character altogether instead of just stealing a name.

What makes it different?

Most of the changes they made were good. I loved 90% of the design changes, I even really liked the way they used the plot and what we already know from the original story. As confusing as our initial time skip is, it's not hard to fill in the blanks with any other continuities time on earth. So we skip the stuff we already know and instead get new stuff, which kept me interested! However, this part could have been really hard to understand for new viewers. Their approach to the Quintessons was a tad weird but it worked so I’m not complaining. 7.5/10

How enjoyable is it?

It was pretty good. I liked it and despite them killing off half the characters I liked I never felt like throwing my phone down and not watching anymore. It kept me interested and for the most part, it wasn't way too easy to guess exactly what was gonna happen. The number of characters they’d name-drop just to never use physically hurt me and sometimes I’d get frustrated with how they used certain characters or how they set something up or their weird time skips but so I’d pause it, get up to grab some water or something and get right back to it. Which for me is pretty good. 6.5/10

How’s the plot?

Despite the plotholes, the plot was good. They made it different but close enough I’d still be able to tell it's Transformers if they took away the name. Sometimes the way they won *cough* cybertroniansunitething *cough* was odd but all in all, it's fine. I thought the parade loop was creative and interesting to watch. The apocalypse part was honestly my favorite but I wish Hot Rod's frustration led to something. You win some you lose some ig. 6.5/10

How was the pacing?

The pacing was ok in most episodes. (I’m looking at you Sea of Tranquility) They managed to bring back the absolute mess I feared season 2 would be so I’m giving them points for that. Again the time skips can be weird but close to every episode BUT SEA OF TRANQUILITY THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE did a pretty good job closing up those gaps for us. 6/10

How were the character designs?

I’ve already partially touched on this but it usually needs its own section so without further ado. Two-thirds of Starscream’s upgrades are the worst, most terrible horrifying things and I hate them with a burning passion. His original design however I liked and his voice actor did a great job. I liked almost everyone's designs until the Allspark got involved EXCEPT FOR JETFIRE whose design was just ok. I’m just kinda sad he wasn’t our gentle giant. That and he was really annoying, sorry anybody who liked him. 8/10

Overall: I think I have more conflicting feelings over this show than I do Micheal Bay's first TMNT movie, except its none of the low expectations or nostalgia and all mild confusion. This show is… weird, it was interesting and enjoyable despite Hasbro's never-ending fear of new characters. They took an old premise and made it new even if I can never forgive them for Judge Starscream, they kept the character designs reminiscent of G1 but still kept them fresh and I really liked it. I wish they used the Titans and Insecticons more or expanded on the multiverse part and it could have been interesting to see some of the other combiners. They might have had plans to use some of that before the show got canceled but we’ll never know.

Overall score: 6/10

#tv show review #tv show reaction #transformers #transformers cyberverse #starscream #skywarp #megatron #soundwave #cheetor #soundblaster #laserbeak #Me and sea of tranquility could fight #i felt like i randomly started watching an entirely different show #i'm still pressed over skywarp #but im hyped for her in earthspark #more ADHD fueled ramblings as a treat

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qqueenofhades · 3 years ago

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did you watch lucifer season six and what are your thoughts pls and ty

Ahaha. Yes. Yes I did watch it. Then I cried for a literal hour and attempted to compose myself, only to start crying again when I lay down and kept on thinking about it. Then I had more feelings. Then I slept like the dead due to emotional trauma. Then I reblogged gifsets and had More feelings. Then @buffaluff and @flynnanimal watched it and also required emotional support due to drowning in their own tears. So, uh... we're all fine here now. How are you?

My main takeaway from the final season was the sheer amount of love for the characters, story, and fans that you could feel shining through all the episodes, and which made SUCH a refreshing change. I had feelings in my tags the other day about how a show about the devil was constantly goofy, hopeful, loving, and uplifting, rather than all the grimdark nonsense they could have easily done with it. (As I said, just imagine it as written by the GOT idiots?? NO THANK YOU.) The writing really loved everyone and wanted to give them a proper ending and emotional journey, and it wanted to show the fans that they weren't stupid for having invested six seasons of effort and emotion into this, and just... that is so much rarer than it should be? Compare all the movies and TV shows that treat their fans like the enemy, that want to outsmart them at all costs even if it means changing major plot elements, that ferociously guard spoilers and think that "shock value" means good writing, by throwing hackneyed cliche upon cliche and making everything Depressing, and just... Lucifer had its hiccups and slow points and missteps, of course, but I am SO glad they didn't do that. The entire show consisted of Lucifer slowly but steadily progressing toward being a better man, despite mistakes and setbacks and sometimes a little too much will-they-won't-they. (Season 3 was the only one where I got bored and skipped over the filler episodes with Pierce/Lucifer/Chloe in order to get to the end).

That is an essentially simple premise, but they stuck to it, and they didn't try to create more drama by randomly wrecking what they had already established. I wrote a fic all the way back in mid-season 2 (In Nomine Patris) that ended up predicting quite a few of the future characters who had not yet appeared on the show at that time, including Eve, Michael, and Azrael, and several plot points, including the very major one of Lucifer returning to hell for the sake of his daughter with Chloe. And while this might mean that I am just that good at guessing TV shows (I would like to think this....) it also means that the writers set expectations, followed through on those expectations, and didn't suddenly derail everything or turn it totally on its head just for the sake of cheap shocks. As we can all attest, they certainly caused PLENTY of drama, anguish, pain, and suffering, but they did it in a way that remained faithful to the overall premises of the story and the characters, and wanted to see them become the best versions of themselves. I cried my eyes out at the end and then thought, "hey, I might want to watch the whole series again," which, if you ask me, is the mark of doing your job right. There have been so few TV endings recently where I didn't immediately swear off the whole thing or have to pretend that canon didn't exist, so yeah.

As I said, it was just refreshing to watch something that had that essential deep generosity at its core, where the message is that everyone is worthy of love if they make the hard and painful effort to change and become better, and that even if earthly things feel small next to all this messy celestial drama, they still matter, and that you are loved no matter what. I loved that Amenadiel became God and Lucifer returned to hell as a choice in order to help all the trapped souls be able to work through their guilt and go to heaven. There were obviously certain echoes of The Good Place in that ending; I don't know if it was something they had planned all along or if the success of TGP, another series asking deep questions about life, death, morality, and human nature within the framework of a goofy heaven-and-hell sitcom, influenced it, but either way, it worked so well. Even if it tore my heart out and stomped on it on the ground, it was fitting and oh so lovely to see Lucifer, once the most selfish being in the entire universe, following in Linda's footsteps and becoming selflessly dedicated to helping other people. Just. Chef's kiss.

And of course, Deckerstar. The Hades and Persephone vibes were IMMACULATE this season, and while it did take Lucifer and Chloe the best part of four seasons to get together, they never significantly backslid, never had third-party issues or cheap cheating storylines once they were officially a couple, and Tom Ellis and Lauren German REALLY killed it this season in particular. It was never easy for them and sometimes the drama went on a little too long over the course of said six seasons, but the love story was beautiful and incredibly meaningful and always true to the fact that the actors and characters and writers (not to mention the fans) all loved it so much. They were so much the emotional heart of this, and when they went to hell together in episode 6x03 (where they turned into cartoons because wHAT even IS this show), Joe Henderson said in an interview that this was to give the fans a view into Lucifer and Chloe's future (after) lives post-6x10, and to offer them a basis to write fanfiction. I mean... the showrunner saying to the fans "here, we love you, have something to write fic about!" is likewise pretty shockingly rare. It's again an example of how this show always audaciously poked fun at itself, never took itself TOO seriously, and was always welcoming its fans and the people who loved it to do so, rather than making them feel stupid or taking joy in wrecking beloved characters or plots.

Obviously, I loved Rory, the badass lesbian half-angel goth Deckerstar child straight out of My Immortal (seriously, she was SO edgy, it was amazing), because of the fact that Lucifer's entire arc was always about feeling abandoned by his father and that he was going to have to face it for himself. Dorky Devil Dad Lucifer trying his absolute HARDEST to bond with his daughter was simultaneously hilarious, adorable, and heart-wrenching, and yet again, the Growth. We all remember when he could barely tolerate Trixie touching him, and now we're here. Also, any variation whatsoever of "this is just a brief moment of time that we must be apart, love is eternal and stronger than death and we will never really leave each other" as a line is guaranteed to make me bawl my eyes out. So that was fun.

I got a big kick out of Ghost Dan running around and trying to get everyone to see him, and had feelings about seeing him in heaven with Charlotte and his beloved Pudding Pops at the end. I had feelings about how they handled Ella finding out the truth (or rather demanding to know why nobody had told her) and of course, I obviously loved Maze and Eve and their goth/femme wedding and the fact that they got a good three-season romantic arc (indeed, I wanted more of them). My god, Trixie is SO BIG, she used to be a tiny little nugget. I love that Linda was the moral and emotional rock all along, from the first episode to the very last, and that Amenadiel was Deeply Vindicated when Charlie's wings appeared at his first birthday party. I love how Lucifer in s6 is absolute thousands of light years from Lucifer in s1. And as ever, Chloe was Perfect. I am happy that I spent six seasons with these characters and saw them become better, and that I was never made to feel like an idiot for trusting the writers to end everything in a beautiful and emotional way. Because, well. They did. Sure, maybe I could go back and pick at a plotline here or a detail there, but I don't terribly feel the need to do so? It might not have been perfect, but it was perfect, and I am so grateful that it existed.

#lucifer #lucifer spoilers #deckerstar #anonymous #ask

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unbridgeabledistances · 4 years ago

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hi 💜💜 i got a prompt about ian x body image a while ago (my inbox is a hot mess and i may have deleted the prompt lol, but i did paste it into my phone notes)- and i was feeling some feelings today & had some spare time amidst my travels & ended up writing this!!

prompt: can you write about ian and his relationship with his body image, esp post-canon when they move to the westside

(tw for body image/eating disorder/food mentions)

He didn’t really even think about it the first times that he did it— skipping a few meals that went unnoticed in the morning clamor of the Gallagher kitchen. He noticed his skin growing tauter and tighter around his abdomen with every passing day, a hollow absence sitting like a rock in the pit of his stomach.

He did it for a reason—he’d been getting more lingering looks under the flashing lights at the club, more unwelcome fingers pressed against the now-present ridges on his stomach, tracing his toned upper arms. The less there was of him, the more they wanted him.

The thing about Ian is that he was always disciplined; the middle child, the one who was overlooked and ignored and blended in until he decided that he had to make a name for himself. He and Lip and gotten into hair-tugging, jaw-smashing fights about this very reality; Ian was completely, totally, absolutely ordinary. Until he made himself extraordinary—until he burst through the storefront labeled “ARMY” at a strip mall with smudged windows and said with a tall chest: I want to enlist.

Everything had led up to this— every push-up on the creaking slanted floor of their childhood bedroom, every jog at the crack of dawn. He was going to make something of himself, he was going to be a hero.

He was going to get the fuck away from Mickey, and his wife, and whatever else kept pushing him down and holding him back.

When Ian came back from the army, when he was sleeping on exposed floorboards and working at the club all night—that was when it all actually started. When he decided that less of him meant more—when he decided that he should give people the best show he could, because everything else was fucked up anyways. This was all he was good for.

But then Mickey came through the door, pale skin flashing in the strobe lights, wearing that fucking dark button-up with sleeves folded to his forearms and smelling like nice cologne that he’d almost definitely stolen from one of his brothers’ bathroom shelves; and for a brief moment after the initial shock set in, Ian was proud— proud of how much negative space surrounded him, proud of how he could press his thighs into stretched golden spandex better than any of the other men thrumming to the beat beside him on the podium. Proud of how much other people wanted him, when Mickey didn't.

It was only later, after Mickey carried him home (easily, too easily) after he’d passed out in a snowbank, and Ian had woken and waited for Mickey to burst into his bedroom door at the Gallagher house while he leaned against the wall and scribbled on a notepad— later, when Mickey was about to curl on the floor and sleep using one of Liam’s balled-up t-shirts as a pillow— that Ian noticed Mickey’s eyes lingering on his uncovered torso, a second longer than the quick glances of admiration from the well-dressed men with greased-back hair and grubby fingers at the club. It hit Ian, then, when he saw Mickey’s gaze that was soft around the edges, the same fuzziness and confusion of Fiona’s stares when he would chatter on for too long in the mornings:

He’s worried about me.

But Mickey played along— Ian was back, and Mickey stayed beside him this time, and chuckled when he walked down the stairs to the sight of Ian cutting off the bottom half of his old ROTC pants, now multiple sizes too big and hanging baggy even at the hips. Mickey curled beside him on the twin bed, silently stroking hair back from his forehead and cradling his cheeks with a feather-light touch as Lip and Liam’s even, sleeping breaths swirled around them. And Ian kept doing pull-ups, and told Carl that he liked the way that Mickey smelled. Mickey came out for him. And for a while things were really, really fucking good, and Ian didn’t even think about the gnawing hollow feeling in his stomach at all any more.

Until a grey morning came, quick and silent, and kept him frozen under the sheets for days.

In the months afterwards, Ian trained harder, faster—he met up with Fiona as she pushed Liam in the stroller and jogged beside them, ran before and after shifts at the club, did push-ups on Mickey’s grimy floor while he was out handling Rub N’ Tug shit.

I’m not Monica. This wasn’t going to happen again. His body could do this. His body could fix his brain.

It couldn’t.

Most of what happened on the “road trip” with Yevgeny (that was the only phrasing that Ian could really mentally use to name the incident, the only semiotic filler for “kidnapping” that didn’t want to make him burrow even deeper under his tattered blankets) was a blur—Mickey feeding him fistfuls of pills and room-temperature Gatorade, luring Mickey to the dugouts where he tried to do a pull-up and felt a quivering in his limbs, a weakness rather than a familiar and fulfilling burn. Slamming Mickey in the face with a fist that was too flimsy, too weak—a fist that still left the blooming of a bruise on Mickey’s jawline, a splatter of blood caking into his eyebrow. But still weak, still not enough. Definitely not strong enough to fight off two MPs with loaded guns, tangling his hands behind his back and forcing him into the backseat of a car.

More blurry days— on the road with Monica. Breaking up with Mickey. Getting a job at Patsy’s. Withering away, purple bags sagging under his eyes. Becoming less, always less.

Then, a glimmer of light— he met Caleb. He studied to be an EMT. He got a call from Mandy, got to wrap her in his arms in less-than-ideal circumstances.

“I got tired of starving myself to fit in that golden thong.”

It was the first time he’d said it out loud.

He started to run again—and he started to not miss it, the hollow feeling gnawing at his insides, the twisting lack. He met Trevor, he went to brunches, he ordered mimosas and muffins and kept himself in shape, but didn’t push himself too far.

So it surprised him, really, when once again his body and mind weren’t in sync.

That was the biggest thing he’d think about, in the idle hours of he and Mickey’s prison cell, months later—that for once in his life, years after the nights at the club or the hazy early mornings at Patsy’s or in a baggy janitor uniform, he was actually doing really, really fucking good. He had a following. He was strong. Or at least he thought he was.

But something about being near Mickey pulled him out of his head and into his body, centered him— it always did. Mickey had always liked his body; Ian remembered how Mickey’s eyed at lingered that night at the dugouts, when they were two kids doing pull-ups and Mickey watched his muscles clench in the moonlight, two sets of shining eyes and bodies warm with beer leaning closer to each other in the muggy air. But Ian never felt a need to flaunt his body, or change his body, for Mickey— and in so many ways, those first days in prison were like his body was coming home. Sometimes it was hard, and fast, and filthy words whispered into each other’s skin—and sometimes it left them grasping for breath in an entirely different way, in fingertips lazily skimming over collarbones and fisted into roots of hair, of breathed “Fuck, you’re so fucking beautiful”s escaping Mickey’s parted mouth that Ian mentally stored but never brought up again, because he knew in the best case scenario Mickey would just roll his eyes and call him a “soft bitch,” and in the worst he would just flat-out deny it. But Ian felt balanced in a way he hadn't in months, with all the "Gay Jesus" bullshit pressing in. He took his meds, he did his nightly sit-ups, he counted down the days—until the hourglass was slipped out from under his fingertips and he was teleported back to the Gallagher house, back to the place where so much of this began and so much was about to end.

The hollowness, the hunger, didn’t really need to be there anymore once he was out— it was only a dull murmur. A ghost, a memory trapped in dreams of strobe lights and prying hands.

Mickey got out, and they got married—and in the moments before Ian called Mickey an “ugly motherfucker” as he let a smile crack onto his face—and he knew Mickey felt it, knew Mickey heard: I have never known anyone as beautiful as you.

And Ian’s fullness just kept blooming and compounding and radiating after the wedding; they fought, and then they didn’t, and it didn’t matter anyways because they were fucking married. Ian kept doing sit-ups before they went to bed, even though he felt like he didn’t really have to anymore. Something big had shifted; something had settled and given way, had filled in all the cracks.

So he’s surprised, when they move to the West Side, and that feeling starts to stir again; faint, fuzzy, like some sort of invasive and shapeless amoeba in the dark corners of his brain, whispering and hissing that there should be less of him. On their first morning in the new place he heads to the gym, wearing a camo t-shit that covered his torso and shoulders—and of course he ends up making a fool of himself next to some guy, some guy that he could have been, with sweaty toned abs and bronzed skin and rippling muscles. He doesn’t know why it gets to him, that small interaction—he’s so much happier now, so fucking happy he’s buzzing with it, but there’s also something churning in the faultlines of transition; that aching for hollow absence and stretched skin and interested eyes, that feeling that made him woozy and lightheaded as a kid but also sickeningly proud, like every moment of standing tall, of dancing, of staying alive was a statement, a challenge, a test of how much he could push his ability to be desired.

He immediately pushes the thought down. He doesn’t fucking need that anymore to keep his head above water; he’s stable, he’s loved, he’s fed. He’s growing organic tomatoes, and definitely developing a farmer’s tan from his days hunched over their way-too-tiny community garden plot tenderly watering and pruning the vines and brambles. He is desired. So it doesn’t make fucking sense that the hunger, the clawing in his stomach for the absence, doesn’t really stop.

“Okay Gallagher, spill.”

Ian felt his eyebrow raise instinctively at Mickey’s tone. “Huh?”

“You’ve been staring at this fancy fucking chicken thing you made for, like, twenty minutes. Stop staring at it and eat your goddamn dinner.”

He felt a twist in his gut. I don’t want to.

“M’actually not really that hungry.”

Mickey’s eyes narrowed. “The fuck’s up? You stressed about work shit?”

Ian huffed out a breath of relief. “Nah. It’s not that.” He fiddled with his fork on the plate, drawing lines into the sauce pooled under the tomato-basil chicken he’d made. It was healthy, it was good, he’d worked out today; he could stomach a couple bites of dinner if he fucking had to. He just had to work up to it. Even the smell was making his stomach twist— it had smelled good while he was cooking it, placing fresh-scented basil leaves into the simmering sauce, but now it just was too much.

Mickey’s boot nudged against his calf from under the kitchen island. “Ey. Is it a tired thing? Or a… sick thing?” His eyes darted to their kitchen cupboard, where Ian kept his meds on the bottom shelf by the water glasses. “Or, like, a food thing?”

Ian felt his fingers go slack around his fork. “A food thing?”

“Yeah, man, y’know. When you get all weird about food.”

A tightness in his chest. “What the fuck? I don’t get weird about food.”

Mickey’s eyes flickered to meet his—and Ian would have gotten more pissed off if he didn’t see the soft concern bleeding into Mickey’s gaze, how cautiously Mickey was trying to broach the topic. Ian blew out a breath. Of fucking course Mickey noticed this shit— he always did.

“Weird how?”

“I don’t know, man. You’re usually good, especially compared to when you were fucking starving yourself when we were kids. But, uh… I don’t know.” Now it was Mickey’s turn to play with his food, scraping his fork along the remnants of sauce on his plate that was nearly clean. “You got kind of weird about working out and shit in prison. And then at the house, with all the quarantine bullshit the first few weeks. Eating fuckin’ cereal all the time, then not eating at all. You’ve been normal since then, or whatever. Lookin’ healthy.” Ian felt Mickey’s gaze drag over him. “Just don’t want you getting stressed out and not eating again or whatever.”

Ian felt a muted warmth blooming in the hollow of his stomach, filling in the cracks of where the jagged feeling continued to claw. If it was anyone else laying out this fucking analysis of his habits Ian would’ve gotten defensive—or at the very least annoyed, that someone was pinning down yet another one of his behaviors, putting them under a fucking clinical microscope.

But of course, this was Mickey— and the difference with Mickey was that he cared, he cared so much that it made Ian’s body ache every time he realized it. Those words wouldn’t have come tumbling out of Mickey’s mouth if they hadn’t been building for a while, hadn’t been gnawing away at some corner of his mind over time.

Ian raised a hand over the table to clasp into Mickey’s warm palm—reaching over the empty plate, the plate of uneaten food.

“It’s, uh. A food thing.”

Mickey’s eyes met his—open, listening.

“You’re right about all the starving myself shit from forever ago. And the not eating. And the… quarantine stuff. I guess I just thought that now that things were good, it’d go away? And I feel so fucking good right now. But sometimes I just have weird days.”

Mickey huffed out a breath. “I fucking know you do, dumbass. M’just saying that I notice that shit. And we can figure it out.”

Ian felt the corner of his mouth tick upwards. “I really thought it was gonna go away. I’m a fucking adult.”

Mickey shrugged. “Sometimes shit doesn’t work like that, Gallagher.” He chugged a sip of water from his glass, apparently glad that this heavier part of the conversation was over now that he knew what was up. “It’s like what you tell me about my shit with Terry. Trauma doesn’t just magically fucking disappear.”

Trauma. He’d never really thought about it like that before—he had plenty of childhood shit to work through, between abandonment and raging mental illness; and he’d never really thought that his body image issues made the list.

But maybe they did— maybe this was another wound, one that he could learn to heal.

Mickey kicked his shin under the table. “There’s cereal and stuff in the cabinet, I got the Fruit Loops shit you like. Want me to wrap up the chicken and shove it in the fridge?”

All he could do was nod— and once again feel that warmth on his insides that Mickey was this good, that he knew how to make shit like this easier.

And he snuggled into the couch beside his husband, a bowl of soggy cereal in his hands.

#idrk what this is but i wrote it at LIGHTNING speed #can u tell that i reached the destination of my childhood home & am having lots of thoughts and feelings about body image LOL #i was like !!! i have a prompt about this #love u all xoxo #gallavich #shameless #shameless fic #gallavich fic #gallavich fanfiction #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #ian x mickey #ixm #tw eating disorder #tw food mention #tw ed #tw body image

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shurisneakers · 4 years ago

Text

shut in [7]

Summary: When your high profile mission goes terribly wrong, you’re forced to hide in a safehouse with a man you’ve never met before. With seemingly nowhere else to go, you’re forced to work together to figure out who is trying to have you assassinated before it’s too late. (Sam Wilson x Reader, Hitman AU)

Warnings: cursing, implied abuse, death, implied ptsd, injuries, broken bone, origami and paper planes

Word count: 3.7k

A/N: ONE MORE WEEK !!!!!!!!! ONE MORE WEEK !!!!!!!! also gif is somewhat related except steve isn’t there sorry to crush any hopes

i also appreciate feedback so if you would like to, please consider dropping me an ask or comment ly guys!! also if you want to be on the taglist, it’s mentioned at the bottom of the chapter.

here’s my ko-fi if you’d like to support my writing <333

Previous Part || Shut In Masterlist

“Is there a reason you’re back so early?”

Both of the men nervously glanced at each other, silently urging the other to talk. A quiet form of encouragement.

“We chec- we checked all the neighbouring towns. All your safehouses,” one of them finally sputtered up after his partner elbowed him in the ribs.

“And?”

“We coordinated with all our guys across the country to look for them-”

“All I’m hearing are a bunch of excuses,” they twirled the gun on its barrel like it was a plaything. “Get to the point.”

“No one knows where they’re hiding,” he finished, swallowing thickly. “We’re still looking though. We just thought-”

“What?” their voice was surprisingly calm. “That your little status update would impress me? That I’d feel sorry for you for working so hard?”

“N-no boss,” his partner finally pitched in, saving face for his companion who opened and shut his mouth wordlessly. “Just keeping you in the loop. We’re close, I can feel-”

“Do you remember what I told you the last time you were here?”

Both of them shut their mouths immediately. Knuckles white, nails digging into their skin as they clenched their fists shut.

“That you wanted them dead,” the first one said with faux confidence. A waver in his voice gave it away.

“Yes, but you’re forgetting the important part,” they tsk’ed, shaking their head, eyes downcast.

They didn’t give anyone a chance to react. They slammed the gun down, swiftly picking it up before taking aim at his partner’s face.

“I said I’d blow your brains out.” They pulled the trigger.

Bits of bone fragment and blood splattered across the first agent’s face. He inhaled sharply, chest rising and falling haphazardly. He had his eyes shut tightly, face away from the carcass slumped over next to him..

“I want every fucking part of this country searched,” they roared, throwing the gun to the side carelessly, leaving someone else to scurry after it. “And since it’s so fucking hard for you to finish two tasks, just get me their location.”

The agent barely nodded, looking like he was about to throw up. His partner’s blood trailed down the side of his face like sweat.

“I’ll kill them myself.”

Hugh Grant was starting to look less appealing on your 6th rewatch of Notting Hill. In fact, he was starting to blend together with the characters from Die Hard and it was becoming difficult to differentiate which part belonged to which movie.

Sam sat opposite to you at the dining table, a set of papers assigned in front of him. The TV was left on, serving as background noise and occasional fillers to substitute the lack of conversation.

“That movie is not making sense anymore,” he stated objectively.

“It stopped after the third time for me.” Your words were hushed, your focus remaining on the swan you were trying to create from scratch.

“If I hear her say ‘I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy’ one more time, I actually think I’ll projectile vomit.” You could tell that his eyes didn’t shift from the screen though. “I can feel the bile. It’s going to happen.”

You only hummed in agreement, more interested in his lamenting than the actual movie.

Although origami wasn’t one of the skills you picked up in the fucking mafia, you still knew a few basic things. The rest you just folded with confidence and prayed it would work.

What other options did you have when you were stuck together in a house with no WiFi?

Sam had made a paper bowl to hold the car keys and the few dollars you picked up from Pierce’s place. It looked like it would fall apart at any given moment, its structural integrity questionable at best.

You had made a small flower that rested on the table in front of you. You were sure it would go missing the minute a draft entered the room.

He had given up after his contribution of the bowl. Apparently his creative expertise extended only towards that and paper airplanes, not that that stopped him. He was folding and manufacturing them with a vengeance.

“How is this supposed to help, Wilson?” you questioned, unable to contain the smile that grew on your face at the sheer number of planes he was making.

“Just because it’s not a decorative marvel-” he shot back in its defence, “-doesn’t mean it’s useless.”

“Oh, yeah? What else can it do other than not fly?” You watched as he launched one of them. It did a loop before falling miserably to the floor.

“Hey, you can put a message in it. Maybe one of those button trackers, a microphone. The possibilities are endless.” He laughed, folding another one out of the limited supply of paper he had left. “Besides, your thing won’t even lift off the ground.”

“Yeah, but this one can float.” You held up the swan that you had created. That about concluded your knowledge of origami.

“That’s actually… pretty cool,” he admitted. “Teach me how to make one.”

“A true master never reveals their secrets,” you eluded, placing it on the table.

“I dare you to make another.” Sneaky bastard. He knew you wouldn’t be able to replicate it. He saw you struggle the first time.

“Why, so you can just copy off of me?” you dodged, and Sam narrowed his eyes at you. You followed the same.

Neither of you blinked for a while.

“I’m out of paper,” he finally relented, gesturing to the fleet of planes that littered the table.

“I’m out of ideas.” You paused, looking down at how you’d spent the last hour. “Do you wanna go test these outside later?”

Sam looked up eagerly and you could just tell he was intending on getting competitive. “Hell yeah.”

“I’m going for a run in some time.” You got up to stretch your limbs, shrug off the fatigue that was setting in. Along the way you left the swan and one of the paper planes on top of the mini fridge alongside the car keys. It was cute. “We could do it then?”

“Sure,” he affirmed. “What time?”

“At around 6-” your eyes landed on the clock on the wall before widening, “-shit, shit, shit, I didn't realise it was five thirty. We have a call with Ransone.”

“Phone’s on the couch,” he mentioned to the living room, sitting up straight. “Why are you freaking out? We still got a few minutes to go.”

You pushed yourself away from the table, forcing yourself to shakie off the drowsiness that had begun to set in.

“You wouldn’t get it,” you mumbled, “He gets pissy if I don’t do things his way.”

You grabbed the phone, punching in the buttons and having it at the ready.

You noticed Sam focused on you with knitted eyebrows but not voicing whatever he had on his mind.

“Ready?” you questioned, but more as a formality. You had to do it regardless.

He simply nodded, looking on as you let the phone ring. If he had noticed your antsiness towards the call, he didn’t bring it up.

Ransone picked up on the last ring, not skipping a beat in answering, “Y/N.”

“Hey Ransone.” You switched the call to speakerphone.

“Are you alone?”

You glanced at Sam. He shook his head, arms crossed over his chest, edging you to continue with the arrangement you had planned the day prior.

Ransone trusted you more. He was more likely to communicate openly if Sam wasn’t around.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Where’s the other one?”

Sam silently scoffed.

“He’s taking a nap.”

“Ah,” Ransone’s tone was condescending. “How have things been?”

“It’s fine.” You press your lips into a straight line, not elucidating. “What’s the update out there?”

“Everything is a mess. We’re trying to figure out who attacked you but since there wasn’t anything left behind or any kind of trace, it’s proving to be... inconvenient.”

“Is it safe to travel?”

“What, with your face on national television?” he laughed. “Nah, I’d say it’s a little too early to be thinkin’ of a road trip. Just stay where you are, I’ll tell you when you can come out.”

Your fingers were thrumming at the table rhythmically, peeking at Sam every now and then for anything he found suspicious or wanted you to ask about.

“Listen, we’ve paid off every big guy to keep this under wraps as much as possible but Pierce was an important person. All the higher ups want this to be solved as quickly as possible. They don’t care about sacrificing a player here or there.”

Pinning the blame on you was easy enough. The faster you were put away, the faster they could stage an “accident” in prison so that none of their secrets were exposed. Wasn’t like they hadn’t done it before.

“Others in the business aren’t likin’ us accusing them of attacking one of our own. Our best bet right now is Serpentine but we haven’t gotten anything to prove it.”

You doubted they ever would. Even if they did do it, Serpentine was notorious for being cunning and stealthy in their operations. They made sure there would be no tracks leading back to them.

“So, we’re at a dead-end,” you verified. There was no telling when this would end, your exit looking further and further away. “We’re fucked.”

“No. We’ll just- Y/N, listen to me,” Ransone called out, drawing your attention back to the call.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve always protected you,” his voice was noticeably softer. “Don’t you trust me?”

You felt the temperature in the room drop.

“You said there would be no one there!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ransone scoffed. “I never said that.”

“I walk in there and there’s four people, completely armed.” Forcing yourself to recall it was making your head spin. Maybe you could ask the nurse for a painkiller. “It was supposed to be empty.”

“I think the blood loss is making you delirious,” he chided, looking at the bag of drips hanging above your bed. “It wasn’t even that bad-”

“You’re lying.” The words slipped out before you had the chance to think it over.

“Excuse me?” he tilted his head, tone suddenly sifting to that of warning.

You knew he was. You had agreed to this mission because it was supposed to be easy. It was a break.

“Ivan was there when you briefed me.” You lifted your good arm to point at him shakily. “He knows you’re lying.”

“Does he now?” Ransone quirked an eyebrow, studying his aid who stood in the corner of the dingy hospital room.

A beat of silence passed where Ransone stared at Ivan, waiting for a reply of confirmation.

Ivan only lifted his shoulders in unawareness. “I don’t remember you sayin’ that.”

Your mouth fell agape but you quickly rushed to shut it. Fucking liars. You shouldn’t have expected anything better.

“Told you.” Ransone shrugged. “You’re a smart one, Y/N, so I’m going to let that slide this time. But next time you accuse me of something I didn’t say…”

He trailed off, resting a hand on your broken shoulder. You flinched, jaw clenched so tightly you thought your teeth might break. You tried to imagine yourself somewhere else, desperate to reduce the quivering of your body when he squeezed it lightly.

“You know I’ve always tried to protect you.” He put a finger under your chin, tilting your head to meet his eye. “Don’t you trust me?”

A beat passed before you responded.

“I do,” you said through gritted teeth, pulling your face away from him.

“I’ll ask them to up your dosage.” Ransone took a step away from you, dropping his hand. “I’m going to need my best player on the field as soon as possible.”

You didn’t acknowledge his statement. Every part of your body felt like it was going to combust.

Did he really say that no one was going to be there or was it just the injuries playing with you?

“Get well soon,” he offered, one step out the door. “Buttercup.”

“You trust me, don’t you Y/N?” he repeated when you didn’t respond.

“Yes.” You swallowed, gaze falling to the floor.

“And I trust you. You wouldn’t do anything to break that, would you?”

Sam raised his one hand questioningly as if to ask what the hell he was talking about. An intimidation tactic. He had been using it for several years to reinforce your loyalty.

“I wouldn’t.”

There were things you weren’t telling him, of course. Details about that day or where you and Sam were hiding right off the top of your head. More if you thought about it deeply.

“Good,” came his response. “So if there’s anything you need, let me know. I’m always a call away.”

“Thank you.”

“Talk to you soon.” He ended the call there.

You stood there blankly for a while before dropping the phone to the ground and crushing it. Usually you wouldn’t have to do that; removing the battery would be enough. This time you wanted to.

Your chest rose and fell heavily. You loathed him. Yet, you couldn’t fucking leave.

“Hey.” Your eyes snapped back to Sam. “We still going on that run?”

The wind felt good.

Your muscles were burning and you could feel the constriction of your lungs but you liked it. The endorphins were working their charm.

Sam was right beside you, not questioning why there was so much aggression in your movement. You had lost track of how long you had been running. You couldn’t bring yourself to focus on that.

The path was paved with fallen branches and roots sticking out, forcing you to hop over some of them to avoid falling. It only annoyed you further.

You wanted to punch something. Or someone. The tension was rolling off your back in waves, and if someone saw you the’d probably believe you were going to commit an act of violence.

It was a while before you felt your steps begin to falter, the need for a proper breath taking precedence over the want to run more.

“Timeout?” you asked Sam breathlessly, slowing your pace to a jog.

“Sure about that, Usain Bolt?” he huffed, slowing his pace to match yours.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he dismissed it. “T’was fun.”

Now that you had slowed down, it forced you to come to terms with how much energy you had just burnt out.

“You wanna talk about what’s on your mind or ignore it?”

“Rather not talk about it for now.” The more you thought about him, the angrier you got. And as of late, you had realised that your method of dealing with that anger wasn’t the best.

The air was getting colder. It was getting harder to see what was in front of you, relying on the few rays of sunlight that shone through the treetops. You took a roundabout at your self declared checkpoint, changing course back to the house.

Sam followed wordlessly, but his presence was strangely comforting. Warm.

“Thank you.”

“For...” he trailed off, prodding you on.

“I don’t know. This.” You gestured to the path ahead of you. “I didn’t think you’d agree to it.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” His eyebrows knit together in puzzlement.

You didn’t have an answer to that. Probably because you weren’t used to people just doing nice things for no apparent reason.

“How are you so calm all the time? I’ve never seen him get under your skin,” you asked quietly. “How do you do it?”

He didn’t answer straight away. He mulled over it as he dodged broken sticks and upended roots on the ground. You would be fine if he didn’t answer either; as long as he knew that you appreciated it.

“I just realised that everything he put into me was destructive. Actively worked on unlearning it,” he replied after a while. “It took me years to even begin.”

You expected to hear that but it didn’t make it easier.

“I don’t even know how to start,” you mumbled. It was so tiring, even thinking of where and how it began. It was all you knew. All you were taught.

“If I could add something?”

You looked at him questioningly.

“You had a different relationship with him than all of us, Y/N. A deeper one. It’s not easy to forget that,” he pointed out. “But… you’re not him. That takes strength.”

These weren’t new revelations. It was things you had told yourself earlier to rationalise all your actions. You knew it on a surface level but it was difficult to convince yourself sincerely.

You didn’t say anything, just continued jogging with an eye on the ground.

It felt better to hear it from someone else. A starting point to maybe get to where he was, too.

“I just can’t believe anyone took him seriously enough for him to get this far,” Sam added, a tick of annoyance in his voice. “I don’t condone bullying but someone should have just punched him in the face as a child.”

It wasn’t even the funniest thing you had heard him say but for some reason it elicited a snort from you, soon giving way to a laugh.

His face snapped to yours at the sound of your laughter, a small smile growing on his face.

His brief moment of distraction was all it took for him to not notice the tree root sticking out in front of him. His ankle got caught in the wood, sending him stumbling to the ground face forward.

“Oh shit,” you cursed, halting in your place immediately, dropping to your knees to where he was.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he groaned, turning onto his back. “I think I broke my face.”

“That may be a bit excessive but your nose is definitely bleeding,” you knew this was serious but you were finding it difficult to control your laughter once you realised it wasn’t a life threatening injury.

“Just leave me here to die.” He covered his eyes with his elbow, refusing to look at you.

“C’mon, Wilson. Let’s get you fixed up.” You stood up, offering your hand. He grabbed onto it, hoisting himself up. “Can you stand up straight? Do you think you have a concussion?”

“World class assassin,” he grumbled, shaking his head to imply he was fine other than a possible broken nose.

“Promise I won’t tell. Your reputation is safe,” you said it humorously but with conviction, hoping to make it less embarrassing for him. Not that you’d let him forget it any time soon.

It took longer to walk back considering how far you had ventured out, along with the fact that you had to guide him as he held his nose in the air to try and control the bleeding.

You pushed open the door to the house, holding it open as he walked in. Sam made his way to the dining room after you told him you’d get the first aid kit for the second time during your stay there.

By the time you returned from the bathroom, grabbing an old t-shirt along the way, he had a single ice cube pressed to the bridge of his nose.

“That’s not going to be enough.” You dropped the kit onto the table, opening the mini fridge. You emptied the ice cubes from the tray onto the t-shirt, twisting it into a small ice pack.

“These are my battle scars.” You could tell that he was trying not to use his nose. He sounded ridiculous.

“Whatever makes you feel better, Sam,” you chortled. His mouth eased into a half smile and you didn’t get why until you realised it was the first time you had called him by his name. You didn’t acknowledge it, surprised by how easily it slipped out from your mouth when you weren’t actively stopping it.

You gave him a bit of cotton to wipe off the blood that had dried on his face.

“Look up,” you instructed, standing over him so you could assess the damage. He complied, letting you cradle his jaw softly, tilting his head to see if there were any signs of a fracture or anything worse.

It was a bad fall, but nothing he hadn’t been through before in terms of severeness. It wasn’t going to leave a mark.

“Definitely going to bruise but it’s not broken,” you concluded, going over it once more to make sure.

“Thanks, doc,” his voice came softly from below you. Only then did you realise how close you were standing to him. You could feel his breath on your wrist that was still caressing his face.

It felt like eternity, but he didn’t make an effort to move or shove you away. Your eyes flitted down to his lips for a second. If you just leaned dow-

“Right,” you cleared your throat, taking a step back. “Just hold this to your face for a while to reduce any swelling.”

You handed him the makeshift ice pack, feeling the heat creep up your neck.

“Your turn to use the bed tonight, right?” His voice was significantly lower than what it had been a few minutes ago, something you weren’t acclimated to hearing. It only made your face feel hotter.

“Yeah.” You avoided meeting his eyes, using the time to close the first aid kid. “Unless you want it.”

“No, go ahead.”

It was too early to retire for the evening but suddenly you weren’t all that hungry anymore. Apparently neither was he.

“See you tomorrow, then?” you inquired, turning away before he could see you cringe.

“See you tomorrow,” he confirmed, “Good night.”

You just gave him a short wave over your shoulder and physically restrained from walking to the room, shutting the door and never looking at him again. You hoped he didn’t notice or at least never bring it up if he did.

You couldn’t do this. Not again.

Not when you knew the consequences.

Next part

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xmyshya · 4 years ago

Photo

summary: Terushima is here for you. As he’s always been. You just haven’t noticed. genre: fluff, a bit of angst in the beginning warnings: mentions of being neglected (not by characters) betas: @vanille--kiss thank you so much, I love you my birdie! special thanks: @prismatales for this beautiful banner! I love you baby a/n: This work is a part of HQHQ server collab with the prompt “When will I be someone’s first choice? Tell me, when?” Check the event’s masterlist here! wc: 674

Terushima is in the middle of dressing up for the date, when he’s interrupted by a violently ringing doorbell. He’s not expecting any guests, and for a moment he considers pretending he’s not home. Curiosity eventually wins, which he’s grateful for, because behind the door he sees you. In tears. To embrace you is what he wants to do, “it would be crossing a line” is what he thinks.

“Come in.” is what he says.

You go to his room and plop on the bed, before noticing clothes everywhere. On a Friday evening. Shit, you didn’t even ask if he had plans, which, of course he did. Yuuji joins you in the middle of your frenzy, with two cups of your favourite hot chocolate, and shuts the door with the heel.

“I uhh, I didn’t know you were busy, I’m sorry, I- I’ll go now, so-” “Oi, babygirl, you’re not going anywhere.” “But I don’t want to interrupt your outing!” “Too late, already cancelled.” “Yuuji…” “Y/N~...”

“So, what happened?”

The faux blonde asks like the best friend that he is, after you take a few sips of the drink and calming down a little. Though, in contrast, feeling your head leant on his shoulder makes him feel agitated.

“He…”

Oh good, your boyfriend did something. He’s mentally scolding himself for being hopeful, this is not about him.

“He went to her. Again.” Sniff.

“We were supposed to go,” sniff “on a date, but he…” sniff “she asked him for help and he cancelled. Third time this week.”

Yuuji is quickly eyeing your form and notices you’re wearing a cute dress. For the date, probably. He wouldn’t let it go to waste, if you were his.

“Didn’t he also bail on you last week?”

Ah, he shouldn’t have said that. Your choked sob confirms. Truth is, it wasn’t just last week. He’s been calling off some of your meetings for a little more than 3 months now, only lately so frequently. The excuses? “Sorry babes, friends invited me to a gaming night.”, “I know we were supposed to watch this movie tonight, but there’s this party and I really wanna go.”, “I know you’re not feeling well, honey, but she needs me more.” You’ve had enough.

“Yeah, and today… Today I told him that I was his girlfriend, that I needed him more than some chick.” “Atta girl!” “So we fought and he… he dumped me.”

You bawl out your eyes onto his shoulder, staining one of his favourite shirts. Terushima doesn’t mind, all that matters is that he has you wrapped tightly in his arms. Even for a price of a few snots on the fabric.

“And it’s always like this, always! Everyone just treats me like a time filler and runs whenever an opportunity comes!” “Hey, that’s not true, babygirl.” “Is it so hard? Would you give up parties and all the other girls for someone?” “I would, for you.”

He didn’t mean to say it out loud.

“When will I be someone’s first choice? Tell me, when?”

You realise what he just said and raise your head to look him in the eyes. His gaze is soft, as he brushes wet hair off of your face, wipes tears with his finger.

“You’ve always been my first choice.”

Memories flash in your mind. Terushima leaving a party, because you called him and said you were scared of going back home from your friend’s house alone. Him going with you to see a movie he hated, when his teammates were having a gathering. Skipping practice to tutor you for a test you were anxious about. And just now, he cancelled another date, just to hear you cry about your now ex-boyfriend. Maybe your feelings for him that you’ve been trying to suppress for so long, are mutual. Maybe you don’t have to suppress them anymore, because, you realise, you’ve always been his first choice. And it’s time to choose him too.

“Yuuji?” “Yes, babygirl?” “I choose you, too.” “What am I, a pokemon?”

#haikyuu x reader #terushima x reader #terushima yuuji x reader #terushima fluff #terushima yuuji fluff #terushima angst #terushima yuuji angst #terushima comfort #terushima yuuji comfort #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu angst #haikyuu comfort #haikyuu x y/n #terushima x y/n #terushima yuuji x y/n #hqhq server collab #mysh.whitedwarf.[hq]

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roger-that-cap · 4 years ago

Text

weatherman

at first, you loved the words on your body that connected you to your soulmate, your one and only. but the older you got, the more annoying and mocking they became. what weirdo sings rhianna when they first meet their soulmate, anyway?

steve rogers x fem!reader

soulmate au!

word count: 1.7k, she’s a baby :,)

warnings: none besides the fact that this was written in an hour and a half, flufff!

By the time you were old enough to read, the song wasn’t out yet. At the time, you had no idea it was a song, of course, and the words were still cute. It sounded like you had a sweet soulmate. You thought of your soulmate coming to you in a million different ways in your imaginative little brain every single time it rained.

But when you were eight years old, the song came out. And then, you were teased for your words relentlessly. They started to hum the song when you walked by. Someone drew you a picture of a raindrop. One kid was even bold enough to laugh right in your face and tell you that Rihanna herself was your soulmate.

And every morning, you would turn on your side, lift your arm up, and look at the words inscribed in semi-neat cursive, your soulmate’s writing.

You can stand under my umbrella

Who even said that? It was so… cheesy. As the years went by, you doubted that it was rain at all that made the words come out of your soulmate’s mouth. By the time you were in high school, you were certain that it was a pick up line. You no longer longingly stared at every rain shower that happened.

Even though you had a certain, tiny disdain for whoever was behind the words, you knew that you missed them in a way that you didn’t understand fully yet. Perhaps the reason was that everyone else around you was happy with their other halves, living perfect lives with the person destined for them, but you knew that wasn’t their fault that you didn’t have yours. By the end of high school, most people already met their soulmates. You didn’t have yours yet, and it was your second year of college. Naturally, you started to worry.

What if they didn’t exist at all?

The possibility of not having a soulmate and just having filler words in the form of a Rihanna song plagued you every day, and the thought only got stronger when it rained. When you were younger, rain meant good luck, and it was your comfort weather. Now, all it brought was the cold and negative thoughts.

§§

It was your lucky day, because it was quite literally pouring while you served the drenched customer her coffee. You watched her yank the door open and rush towards her car through the glass windows, and you swore under your breath when you remembered something.

Your car was in the shop, and you were supposed to be walking home from work. That meant walking home in the torrential downpour.

You sighed and shook your head, leaning over the counter and already anticipating getting ultimately drenched on your short walk home.

Your boss let you go home early and started closing shop, and you didn’t know if you wanted to thank her or send her the bird for not letting you wait out the storm. She had never let you go home early before, not once in the entire history of you working there. It was unusual. You had full intentions of asking her if she had a hot date, but she started to turn off the lights before you could ask her what made her want to do something nice for once.

You shook your head again as you realized that you didn’t even have a hood or jacket or even worse, and umbrella. You sighed and braced for the cold, yanking the door open and folding your arms, pushing through the uncomfortable feeling of the cold, wet rain with your head down.

You got caught at a crosswalk and had to watch cars fly by. Of course you did. There were footsteps behind you, and you sighed and regretted the second that you stomped your foot, looking up to the sky and letting the rain hit you right in the face. “This is the worst fucking day of my life.”

There was a gasp from beside you and you didn’t even open your eyes. You assumed that whoever it was, was offended by your language. “Sorry,” you said, but you didn’t sound apologetic at all.

Someone cleared their throat from beside you, and you turned your head to the side to see a handsome blonde man with a dark blue umbrella and a pink flush on his face smiling at you, already moving the umbrella your way. Your heart raced. This couldn’t be it. Was it? Your hands were suddenly shaky as you waited for the man to say something, anything. No, not anything, you were waiting to hear the predestined offer (or pickup line) that you now loved again.

“Here,” the man said, and the sound of rain hitting the roof of the umbrella was almost as empty as you felt in the moment. You mustered up a smile at him and said a small thank you, trying to mask the disappointment that came with being so close meeting your soulmate after all.

The man held the umbrella for as long as he walked in the same direction as you, and then he apologized for not being able to hold it for you any longer. “It’s alright, thank you” you said, and hoped that the sound of the pounding rain was enough to hide the tremor in your voice. You were not about to cry.

You went to stand under the roof of a building on the side of it, hoping that the wave of rain would be over in a few minutes. It was better than running for two minutes, you supposed. You saw another blonde man with large strides walk past, with an even darker blue umbrella in his hand, and he was dry.

You groaned. “How am I the only one who didn’t know about the rain?”

The man stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at you with wide, blue eyes as you stood nonchalantly under the roof, arms crossed and still a little hurt after the universe teasing you with the first umbrella man. When all he did was stare at you, you have him a harsh look and looked away. Staring men always meant trouble, and the meaner you were, the faster they would leave you alone.

“You can stand under my umbrella,” the handsome man said, and slowly, your head turned back his way. Your eyes locked again, and it was your turn to stare like an idiot. “I-I mean, if you want to.”

You leaned off of the wall of the building and took a step towards him. “Did you really just say that?”

A grin lit up on his beautiful face, and you already decided that his smile was your favorite thing on earth. Screw churros from the fair. “Depends, did you just say something about being the only one who didn’t know about the rain?”

You threw yourself into his arms, and he nearly dropped the umbrella just to hold you. His embrace was warm and strong, and he used just enough pressure for you to feel he was there. “I didn’t think you were real.”

It truly did felt surreal. You were in your soulmate’s arms after all that time wondering, worrying, and losing sleep, and now it all felt like it was going to be alright. You could see the happiness in you near future coming your way, the questions and the subtle and uncontrollable bitterness towards others fading away quickly. You already held this man high in your mind, and just like that, he was a priority. And you didn’t even know his name yet.

Instead of asking him for the name that you so desperately wanted to know or saying any of the cheesy words swirling around in your mind, you decided to talk about the words. “Because, who quotes Rihanna?”

“Who doesn’t look at the weather before leaving the house?” He retorted, pulling back a bit to study your face. You were glad that he was able to do it, because you discovered that his face was just as comforting as the warmth of his arms.

“Shut up, weatherman.”

He smiled down at you, blue eyes giving you a fond look that only soulmates could give each other after meeting so suddenly. He poked you right on your nose, a fluttering touch that made your heart skip a few beats.

“I can walk you wherever you need to go.” Your heart warmed at his kindness. It turned out the younger you that hoped that your soulmate was a sweetheart was right, after all.

“No, it’s okay, it’s probably out of your way,” you said anyway, disregarding the way the inner you was screaming at the part of you that had control over your mouth.

“I’m not even supposed to be all the way over here right now, and I think I already missed my appointment.”

“Where are you supposed to be?”

“The barbershop.”

You frowned at him. The barbershop was all the way on the other side of town, and he didn’t seem like he was lost. “How’d you find yourself over here?”

He paused for a second, like he was debating on whether or not to tell the truth. “Something told me to walk this way.”

You could have fallen apart, and you believed that without even knowing you, he would have known how to put you back together again. “Looks like you listened,” you breathed out, in awe of the man before you, who was staring at you with the same look of bewilderment.

“How could I not?” He took one of your hands in his after asking for permission with his eyes, and you felt the tingling build up at the connection. “I’m Steve.”

You told him your name, and he repeated it once, and then twice, and then a smile was on his face, like that was the one word he needed to hear. You resisted the urge to touch his face now that you could see the subtle stubble growing in. “Don’t wear it out, weatherman.”

You took a step forward, and his long legs only took half of his normal stride to match up with you. He walked you home while you talked about anything and everything with him, every now and again talking about the words on your respective wrists and how glad you were that you found each other.

It felt so right.

You met him the next day at the park, and it was as sunny as it could be. He was carrying a tackily designed gift bag that he put red tissue paper in, and from then on, you knew he was a big goof. He handed you the bag with a huge, dopey smile on his face, and you cackled when you opened it.

It was an umbrella, an poncho, and a copy of Weather for Dummies.

******

omg omg not my first soulmate au lmao and many more to come in different shapes and sizes bc-

i’m obsessed

hope y’all liked it!!! <3

#steve rogers fluff #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers soulmate #steve rogers soulmate au #soulmate au #marvel fanfic #my fics

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