#from now on random strangers will learn of two of them going to the military together and automatically assume they're the closest

[persevereforahappyending]

No Man's Land |6|

Pairing: Sam Carpenter x Reader

Summary: Sam can’t help but be drawn to the cute stranger from her gym, even if everything about them makes them the perfect suspect, just when Ghostface has returned.

Warnings: Talks of Killing and Death

Word Count: 4k+

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

Almost as soon as Sam stepped outside, she was bombarded with reporters. She was thankful that she didn’t see Tara around, that meant Kirby got her out of there without getting hounded by the media. Sam tried ignoring the cameras and microphones being shoved in her face as she pushed through the crowd. Everyone was screaming questions at her, asking if Ghostface was back, if she was a suspect, who this new Ghostface was, if the killings were connected to her, if this was all because of her father.

Sam kept her head down, focusing on the concrete and not on the dozens of people crowding her. She was about to crack when she felt a strong-arm wrap around her, the grip tightened as they pushed through the crowd. She turned to see you, staring straight ahead, your arm that wasn’t around her was stretched out, keeping the reporters at bay. Sam couldn’t help but let out a relieved breath when the two of you finally broke free of the crowd and she could see the road and a taxi already sitting there.

She nearly sprinted to the taxi and opened the door without bothering to look back at the reporters, she learned quickly it was best to ignore them. “Gale Weathers,” Sam heard a voice say. She didn’t bother holding in her groan as she gripped the door to the cab tighter. “Channel Four.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Sam asked, whipping around and glaring at Gale.

Gale just laughed at her making Sam frown and only glare at her harder. “Do you think Ghostface is going to go after others since he failed to get you?” Gale held the mic out to Sam.

Sam scoffed, shaking her head, Gale sure had a lot of nerve. Gale knew better than anyone that Ghostface didn’t go attacking random people, not unless they were in the way, every victim was intentional. “No comment,” Sam said harshly.

“What about you, hero,” Gale redirected her attention to you. “Do you think saving Samantha Carpenter’s life has made you a target now?”

You just stared at Gale, it didn’t look like you had been phased at all by her questioning or by anything that was going on at the moment. “She said no comment,” you said. You stared Gale down then flicked a glare at her camera man before turning back to Sam.

Sam didn’t realize she was still staring at you in awe until you pushed the car door open a little more and gave her a nod. Sam looked down, trying to cover the blush she was sure was on her face before quickly jumping in the cab. You were right behind her, slamming the door shut and giving one final glare to Gale and the rest of the reporters.

You gave the taxi driver your address and then the two of you sat in silence. There were a million things going through Sam’s head, she had so many things she wanted to say to you, and she didn’t know where to start. She needed to apologize, she needed to thank you, she needed to explain herself, then on top of all that, she had all these questions that she had no right to ask. You had seemed completely comfortable with jumping into fight Ghostface, you didn’t hesitate in any of your movements, and every time you slashed the knife it was with the intent to kill, even after getting stabbed you still swiped the knife at Ghostface. On top of all that, you didn’t seem too affected by being stabbed, you had other scarring all over your body, and Kirby had called you sergeant. Sam wasn’t sure if you were in the military or law enforcement or what, but it was clear you had training.

“Sorry about the cab,” you said, breaking the silence and Sam’s thoughts about what to say to you. “My Jeep is still at my house.”

“It’s-It’s fine,” Sam brushed it off, looking at you. “And if anything, you shouldn’t be apologizing, when I should be thanking you.” You turned your head, finally meeting Sam’s eyes for the first time since leaving the station. “So, thank you.”

You gave a little shrug. “It was nothing, really.”

“But it was, odds are you’re now a target all because you saved me.” Sam ignored the glance from the cab driver in his rearview mirror.

“And I would do it again.” There was no hesitation in your voice. Sam couldn’t decide if this really was nothing for you, if you truly weren’t concerned about any of it, or if you didn’t know anything. “I don’t run from danger.”

“So, you just run to it?” Sam raised an eyebrow.

You silently chuckled and Sam couldn’t help but give a little smile, she had never seen you smile, let alone laugh, even if it was a small one. “It’s kind of my job.”

“Which is? Kirby called you sergeant.”

You nodded. “Army, special forces.”

Sam let out a whistle. “Well, seems Ghostface is the one who doesn’t know what they’re getting into.”

“That’s for sure,” you smirked.

Sam’s head whipped back up to you. “Do you know something?” she watched you closely, there was still no visible reaction.

Kirby might not have trusted you, but she had enough doubts about you being Ghostface that she didn’t try and hold you longer at the police station and she didn’t put up much of a fight when Sam said she’d go with you to your house. It didn’t stop the thoughts of if Bailey was right from piercing her mind. She wanted to trust you, you were strong and clearly had skills, you saved her life, plus she liked you, but all of that could mean you were Ghostface. Every thought in her mind suddenly stopped, she was being paranoid, if you were Ghostface that meant you set up the whole gym attack, which just seemed crazy. Though crazy and seemingly illogical plans seemed to be Ghostface’s thing, maybe she made a mistake getting into the cab with you and inviting you back to the apartment where the others would be, where her sister would be.

“Having regrets about tagging along?” you asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. Yes, she was, it was like you were reading her mind. She wasn’t sure if that should put her at ease or make her more on edge.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” she blurted out. She tried not to pay any mind to the cab driver whose eyebrows rose, and how his eyes kept going from staring at the road in front of them to the rearview mirror.

You glanced at her out of the side of your eye, though you didn’t seem offended by the question. “You’re not supposed to ask that.” Sam frowned; it was a rather rude thing to ask. If you were special forces, it was a fair assumption that you probably had, but normal people didn’t tend to like to talk about that type of stuff. She opened her mouth to apologize when you continued, “But yes.” Sam could see the way the cab driver’s eyes widened slightly, and his eyes instantly dropped from the rearview mirror to stare straight ahead again.

Usually learning someone has killed before would make a person more nervous but it oddly eased Sam’s worries. The fact that you didn’t try and lie or didn’t brush her off, that you answered and didn’t elaborate or try and defend anything was what eased Sam’s worries about you. If you were Ghostface or the mastermind behind these knew attacks she figured you’d try and justify your actions, saying it was part of the job, they were the enemy, or something, anything to get Sam to understand and let her guard down, but you didn’t do any of that.

“You never answered my first question,” Sam said. She couldn’t let her guard down yet, you knew something, and until she knew what that was you were a potential threat. “Do you know something?”

“We’re here,” is all you said.

Sam rolled her eyes; you were being incredibly difficult with your short responses. She didn’t understand how she could have a conversation with you and learn more about you in a cab ride than she had in the last few months at the gym, but you still somehow came off as even more mysterious. You were somehow a lot simpler and easier to understand when you were just the cute stranger from her gym who liked to box.

You paid the cab driver and opened the door, stepping aside so Sam could slide out and close it behind her. Sam looked around; it definitely wasn’t the nicest neighborhood, but it certainly didn’t seem like the worst. Sam followed you through the metal gate in front of a single level white house. It was tucked between two other houses, leaving hardly any room on the side of the house but you had a front yard with a small patch of grass that was fenced in.

You didn’t have much else though, the grass wasn’t dead, so it was clearly taken care of, but you didn’t have any plants or a garden of any kind. The only thing in the driveway was your Jeep, which she wouldn’t know for sure until she saw the inside of your house, but it seemed like the nicest thing you owned, it had large wheels clearly meant for off roading, if the dried mud splattered on the side was anything to go by and it was a four door, giving you ample room for stuff or people, but Sam had a feeling it was used more for stuff. Even your porch was bare, not even a chair to sit on. If Sam were just walking past the house the only thing that would indicate there was someone possibly living there was the fact that the grass wasn’t overgrown.

She followed you up the concrete steps and waited as you put the key in the door. Your house wasn’t run down by any means, it was taken care of, there was no paint peeling or siding falling off, it just seemed empty. You pushed open the door, giving it a good shove when it got stuck. Sam moved to follow you but froze when she heard a deep growl.

Her head snapped up and past you and deeper in the room was a snarling German shepherd. Sam clenched her fists that were shoved in her pockets, she didn’t dare move, the dog continued to growl and bare its teeth, making sure they were on full display.

“No,” you commanded. You held up your hand in a stop motion and the dog instantly snapped its mouth shut and sat down as if it hadn’t just been ready to attack.

You walked over to the dog and gave it a good pat, scratching behind its ears. It looked up at you and Sam could see the tail wagging, but the dog continued to sit. Sam also stayed where she was, she had no desire to step into your home and be mauled by your dog. As much as Sam wanted to back out and just stay outside, she was afraid to move, she was pretty sure she always heard you weren’t supposed to run from a dog because then they’d chase you.

You glanced back at Sam, and she could swear there was a slight smirk on your lips. “You can come in,” you said. Sam started to move her hands out of her pockets but when the dog’s head snapped to her, she froze again. You fully turned around but still kept a hand on the dog, never stopping running your finger through her coat and behind her ears. “She won’t hurt you.”

“I’m inclined to disagree,” Sam said, looking at the dog warily. She had never been afraid of dogs before, but she wasn’t stupid, if that dog charged at her it definitely wouldn’t be pretty.

You chuckled and crouched down to rub your hands up and down the dog’s neck and under her chin. She was a mostly black German shepherd with bits of brown on her legs, neck, and belly. “She’s harmless.” Sam raised an eyebrow, giving you a disbelieving look, there was no way you could convince her that dog was harmless. “Unless you attack me. So, just,” you nodded your head back and forth as you stood back up. “Don’t do that.”

Sam nodded unsurely but crossed the threshold, stepping into your home fully. She closed the door behind her without turning around, just because you said the dog was friendly didn’t mean she was taking her eyes off it. Sam opted to stay near the door, not wanting to do anything to trigger the dog. The dog also stayed put, it was just Sam and the dog, staying in place and staring each other down, though at least she wasn’t growling at Sam anymore.

You moved away from the dog and into the kitchen which was just past the living room. Sam heard you shuffling around and when you turned around, she saw you scooping some dog food into a bowl. After you set the food bowl down on the floor you came back up with another one, dumping the old water out before giving it a quick rinse and filling it with fresh water.

“How long should this whole thing take?” you asked. Sam finally took her eyes away from the dog to look up at you. “I just need to know if I need my buddy to take her,” you glanced at your dog. “Or he just needs to stop by and let her out.”

Sam shoved her hands in her pockets again and gave a little shrug. “Usually, these psycho’s only make this go over the course of a few days,” she answered. “But you might not want her to be here,” she nodded at the dog, who just tilted her head curiously at Sam. “Ghostface might come here looking for you.”

You chuckled as you put the fresh bowl of water down. “Then I feel sorry for him. Artemis there,” you pointed to the dog. “Is a military dog. She was trained for combat, to take down bad guys with guns, and people shooting all around her.”

“Artemis?” Sam couldn’t help but smile at the name. She looked down when she saw the dog’s ear twitch at hearing her name.

You shrugged as if it was an obvious choice. “Goddess of the hunt.”

“I didn’t think dogs usually came home with soldiers. Aren’t there rules for that?”

“Normally, but she isn’t active duty.” You walked back to the living room and leaned against the doorframe as you looked at your dog with nothing but love. “Got injured and had to retire.” Sam frowned at that, even though she’d never admit that she was slightly scared of the dog she couldn’t imagine what kind of injury she had to suffer to be retired. “That doesn’t mean she can’t still take someone down.”

Sam let out a hum. Based on the greeting she got she wasn’t surprised by that statement. “Let me change and we can go,” you said. Sam nodded and watched as you turned around, walking through the kitchen and into the bedroom in the back.

She bounced on her feet as she waited for you to return. She glanced around your place, the walls were bare, there was a couch, a coffee table, a TV, and a video game console plugged in. It really didn’t seem like someone actually lived in the house, she figured she should count herself lucky that it seemed like you had an actual bed and not just a mattress on the floor. Sam jumped back when she felt a wet nose brush against her. She looked down to see Artemis had moved and was now standing directly in front of her, sniffing her.

“Hello,” Sam said awkwardly. She slowly removed her hand from her pocket and hesitantly held it out for the dog to sniff. Artemis gave her hand a few sniffs before beginning to lick it. Sam couldn’t help but smile, when she wasn’t growling and showing her teeth Artemis was rather adorable.

“You still never answered my question,” Sam called out. “What do you know about Ghostface?” she knelt down to get on eye level with Artemis to pet her better.

You popped your head through the doorway of your bedroom just as you finished pulling your fresh shirt down. “I don’t know anything about Ghostface,” you said.

“Are you kidding me?” Sam looked up. There was no way you didn’t know who Ghostface was, it was too famous of a story, there were so many books and movies about the attacks. “You expect me to believe you don’t know the story?”

“Of course, I know the story,” you continued shuffling around your room. “I’ve never seen any of the movies, I’ve only seen a couple articles or whenever there’s a new attack, of course I’ve heard people talk about it.”

Sam sucked in a breath and nodded. She could believe that. Horror wasn’t really her thing, that was always Tara, she probably never would have seen the movies or known as much as she does if she hadn’t grown up in Woodsboro, and of course if Billy Loomis wasn’t her father. “So, do you know who I am?”

You crouched down at the nightstand beside your bed before looking back at Sam. “I’ve heard whispers,” you admitted. “But I wasn’t in the country last year so no offense, but I had other priorities when whatever was happening to you and your friends.”

“You didn’t look me up just from the rumors? Someone like you,” you raised an eyebrow as if daring her to finish that sentence. “You don’t want to know who’s coming into your gym?”

You let out a sigh and rested a hand on the edge of the nightstand. “Everyone is entitled to their privacy. I also know how the media can be spun; I prefer to form my own opinions.” Sam nodded, she never thought about what you might have seen or done and how the military and media might have spun things for the general public or covered things up.

You looked back to your nightstand, opening the drawer before doing something that looked like pressing buttons, though Sam couldn’t see inside the drawer from where she was. A second later you flipped open the door to whatever was in the drawer and reached down to grab something. When your hand came back it was holding a gun. Sam sucked in a breath but didn’t say anything or move from where she was still petting your dog. You glanced at her as you checked the gun before putting the magazine in and sticking the gun in a holster at your back. You fixed your shirt and if Sam hadn’t literally just seen you put the gun where you did, she wouldn’t have been able to tell you had one on you.

 Sam didn’t know you. You were a complete and total stranger to her; it didn’t matter if you had saved her life. There was no reason for Sam to trust you, to not say anything about the gun and still allow you to come back to the apartment with her. But she didn’t, she kept her mouth shut, she couldn’t explain it but a part of her felt like she could trust you, she wanted to trust you. She also knew all too well how handy a gun could be in these situations and if Ghostface didn’t know you had one then it would only be a plus.

“You asked what I know,” you said as you came back through the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe to the living room again. “I know whoever I fought in that gym is untrained. They had absolutely no experience handling a knife, if it wasn’t for the other one catching me off guard they didn’t stand a chance.”

Sam pulled herself back to her feet, smiling as she watched Artemis walk back over to you. “Most of them don’t have training,” Sam said, nodding along. “In every previous attack they’ve always been seemingly normal people, high school or college kids.”

“They were disorganized. The only reason the one caught up to you was because you tripped. The gym seemed like unknown territory to them.”

“I wasn’t supposed to be there,” Sam ran a hand through her hair. “It was an impulsive decision.”

“Meaning they’re watching you.”

Sam’s eyes snapped wide open. “I shouldn’t be surprised,” she crossed her arms over her chest. “After all, my last relationship was all a lie to try and set me up.” You raised an eyebrow at that. “Long story.”

“Well, it’s hard to make a plan of action without all the information.” You crossed the room until you were standing only a few feet from Sam, Artemis falling alongside you. “If I’m going with you then I need to know what I’m getting into.”

Sam’s grip tightened around her jacket, but she nodded, it was only fair. It wouldn’t be right to literally drag you into her mess and basically expect you to help protect the others and not tell you why any of this was happening. “It will be easier when we get to my apartment, with the others.”

You nodded and grabbed your sweatshirt before leading Sam out the door. “Also,” she said, turning back to face you. “Expect a lot of questions from my sister and her friends, we’re not exactly a trusting bunch.”

You only lightly chuckled at that. “Great, another interrogation,” you said but there was a small smile on your lips. You scratched the top of Artemis’s head and behind her ears before telling her to go eat. Sam could hear the sound of claws clacking against the wood floor as you closed the door. “Are we allowed to take my Jeep?” you asked.

Sam opened her mouth, about to deny it, but ended up nodding. She had already ridden in a cab alone with you and came to your house, also alone, getting in your car hardly seemed like that big of a deal. She also couldn’t argue that not having to pay for a cab back to the apartment would be nice, she didn’t think you were too far from her place but with everything going on she didn’t need the cab fee on top of it all.

Sam slipped into the passenger seat and looked at you as you pulled out onto the street. “Why are you doing this?” she asked. You were a stranger and were literally getting involved in something you had nothing to do with. Anyone else would have told Sam to piss off and would have gone back to their life, never to think about her again.

You eased on the break as you came to the stop sign at the end of your street. “Because you need help,” you said like it was simple. “I can’t just walk away when I know someone is actively trying to hurt you.”

“But I’m no one, I’m hardly worth all this.” You turned out onto the main road.

“I told you, it’s not in my nature to just turn my back on someone who needs help. And it’s clear the authorities can’t be relied on.” Sam scrunched her brow at that. “I don’t know about agent Reed, but I don’t trust Bailey.” You spared her a quick glance. Sam had never questioned Bailey until this new Ghostface, specifically his clear distrust of you. “I might not know you very well, but no one deserves all this,” you gestured with one hand. “You don’t deserve to be hunted down by some psycho.”

“Thank you,” Sam whispered. She really didn’t know what else to say. She knew she was the one to ask you to join them, but you didn’t owe them anything. You were going above and beyond for some random girl at your gym. Sam couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face as she looked at you, your eyes glued to the road. Maybe you were one of the good ones after all, maybe Sam wasn’t completely cursed to only attract darkness.

Taglist: @thatshyboy1998 @artrizzler19 @btay3115 @acutenobody @godamnityess

[bestruction]

Falling in love with a marleyan pt1

N/a: this request got me thinking a lot 😅 i guess that's why is so long and because of that, i'll be making a pt2 for Eren. I'm sorry for it, anon and thank you for sharing such great ideia with me💞 please let me know if you like it

(I inspired myself a little bit in this hc)

You can read the pt.2 here

- Reiner Braun

Since you were the daughter of an important general of the Marley army, you were always around in the headquarters learning about the military service. It was your dad's wish that you could bring honor to the family and for the country.

You never understood really well the importance of all that. You were just a kid.

So when he got busy, you preferred to walk around looking for something interesting instead of listening to hours of a conversation you didn't even understand.

And that's how you met Reiner.

One day, after picking up some book about the history of Marley and Eldia, you went to the patio to sit under the shade of a tree to read. Not long after, other children appeared, running and tired, and since you were behind the tree, none of them had noticed you until then.

“Take a breath and try to reach us later, Reiner. The commander will not like it if you don't finish the training ” said an older voice.

You heard footsteps drift away, and only the owner of the painting breath stays.

You were curious to know who it was since you had never seen children in the area. You came out from behind the tree with the tissue you carried in your pocket in hand to offer to the sweaty stranger.

He was astonished at first, and you noticed the golden armband on his arm.

He was an eldian warrior candidate.

Reiner stared at you for a few more seconds before accepting the tissue. He was afraid to offend whoever you were. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and bit his lips, not knowing whether to keep the delicate tissue or give it back.

The tissue dirty with the sweat of an eldian, but still the tissue of a Marley citizen.

"You can keep it if you want"

"thank you,"  He said almost in a whisper. "But don't you prefer that I take it to wash and then bring it back to you?"

"You don't need to bring it back, but if you want to, I'll be here waiting for you tomorrow"

Reiner ran again without looking back. He did not know how to act after that and when he returned home, he washed the white tissue hidden from his mother to return it to you the next day. He did not expect to see you, so when you came out smiling from behind the tree like the day before, he was more than surprised.

“You brought it! Thanks"

"Thanks…?"

You told him your name and noticed his eyes widen when he heard your last name. It was hard not to know who your father was in the army. So you didn't find it strange and asked the boy's name.

“Reiner. Rainer Braun ”

You smiled again, which made you wonder what was so funny.

"I'm sorry. It's just that it is a name that suits you so much that it is funny. It means warrior. That's what you are ”

You responded by pointing at his armband.

Reiner blushed more than he wanted to admit. Never had a girl said anything like that to him, let alone a marleyan girl.

"It's a pity that we can't talk for more than a few minutes, Reiner. I was never able to talk to an eldian so closely ”

He nodded with his head, still trying to ignore the blush on his cheeks, but it was unsuccessful since you then proposed the last thing that would go through his head.

Your father was indeed a general, but he did not see the eldians as inferior beings. That had been the reason he had entered the military career, had the slightest chance of being able to change that view, that was the honor he wanted you to bring. So he taught you the same thing.

To talk to someone like Reiner was not repulsive, but something that you longed to be able to learn more about the eldians in a narrative that was not what you saw at school.

That's why you proposed that you exchange letters. Secrets so as not to cause any kind of problem for him. He would leave his letter in the hollow trunk of the tree, and you would do the same when you couldn't meet in those brief seconds of his training.

He accepted more for fear of you than willingly, but as you talked about each other's daily lives, about the details you observed in each other, and the disguised looks when you passed by the quarter,  this fear gave way to a sincere friendship.

And without either of you realizing in something else.

When he was chosen to inherit the armored titan, you cried for hours in your room in secret, hugging the box where you hid all the letters exchanged for knowing what that meant.

And then he realized that you had fallen in love with the eldian of the letters.

It all happened very fast. You didn't have time to go to the quarter to see if he had left something on the tree and then read in the paper about the group of warriors sent to the demon island.

You never forget about him.

The years passed, and when Reiner returned, you had just taken a patent for being useful in strategy in other wars and thanks to your family's name.

He didn't expect you to remember him, and after everything that happened, he couldn't even think about it much.

But that thought changed when you whispered to him as you passed down the hall without anyone noticing:

"Look in the tree"

Like when you were kids, you had left a letter in the tree, and for some reason that he didn't know how to explain, it brought a certain comfort to his heart.

In the letter, you said how much you missed him. You had written for the old days since you two could talk without bringing any problem to him because you were in the army too. You asked him to meet you in the most deserted building in the area to talk better.

Reiner went to the place, and after seeing you up close for a longer time, he was sure that time had made you a beautiful woman. You talked for a few hours, and it was as if the two of you had gone back to being a child without the traumas he suffered in Paradis and the ones you got on the battlefield.

Once again, time passed, with you two talking cautiously as a precaution, exchanging a note here and there, meeting when you could.

You were the one who gave Reiner the strength to continue.

• It didn't take long for the childhood crush to become love, and the more you two tried to ignore it, the more evident it became until one day on impulse, in one of the many meetings in that building you kissed him.

And he reciprocated.

Your relationship was not easy. It would be a scandal if anyone knew. That's why you rented an apartment farther from the city to meet with more privacy without anyone knowing.

It was not easy, but you loved each other.

Reiner was your first love and your first time, and even with all the disadvantages, you would never choose someone else for that.

And now you're pregnant.

You haven't been feeling very well in the past few months, but you didn't worry too much because you thought it was just a war result, thanks to the stress that started after Paradis. Now, as a commander, you had more work than ever.

But after throwing up your favorite food, you decided to go to a doctor.

The doctor wanted to share the good news with your father, but no one knew about you and Reiner, nor should he. So you just made up an excuse like:

“I want to tell myself. Please keep it confidential ”  

And went home.

Part of you is happy, and the other is unable to stop “what if?”

What if someone finds out who the baby's father is?

What if Reiner doesn't react well to the news?

Raising a baby is already a difficult task, creating a baby that should not exist in the eyes of everyone ...

You didn't know what to do.

You needed to speak to Reiner as soon as possible.

With the end of the war and Marley's victory, you met in the apartment you had rented some time ago.

You waited for him to lie down next to you on the bed, and while caressing your face, you said:

"I’m pregnant"

Reiner sat on the bed and ran a hand through his hair. He was serious, he didn't need to ask if you were kidding.

"How long?"

"Two mouths"

He got up and paced the room before looking back at you.

"What are you going to do?"

"So now is just me, hm?"

“That’s not what I mean, baby” He snorts heavily “I just don’t know what to say”

“Maybe a‘ I’m here with you' it'd be enough, Reiner”

"You know I’m"

"Do i?"

Reiner saw you cry a few times, but the image of you sitting on the bed where you shared so many moments with your eyes full of tears will always be the hardest to forget in his mind.

     He comes to you, and without saying anything, he cries with you until both are calmer.

     Leaving the subject for later was not the smartest decision to make, but for now, it was what you both needed. So you decided to talk after Willy Tybur's speech that was going to happen that night.

     That night, you expected to end up in Reiner's arms and not having to run to save yourself, Falco, and Gabi.

     And even less shouting his name in a random window to wake him up.

    It was your voice that woke him up to fight. It was your voice that made him overcome the desire to die. It was your voice that gave him hope to move forward, and for your voice, for you, he would find a way to work things out.

     You stayed by his bedside every day while he was in the infirmary, which generated a lot of rumors about your compassion for the eldian.

     When Reiner woke up plagued by yet another of many nightmares, he thought he started to dream when he saw your warm smile.

    On an impulse, you hugged him tightly, leaving Pieck and Pig shocked across the room.

“I knew it. I knew you’d be fine ”You said without let him go.

“I'm here for you, baby” He answered, hugging you back. "For you two"

"How did you get the commander pregnant ?!" You heard Porco's voice.

“Pock, I thought you already knew how these things work at that age” teased Pieck.

“Don’t act like you’re not thinking the same!”

“Let’s go outside, and I’m going to explain to you how mama and papa Galliard made you” She teased again by pulling him out of the infirmary and winking at you.

She knew. Of course, she knew. Nothing escaped Pieck's perception.

    You told your parents about the pregnancy, afraid to tell you who the baby's father was. They understood the situation and helped you both throughout your pregnancy.

    Reiner always showed up at your house around dawn to make sure no one saw him. He always wanted to know how you were doing and compensate you in some way for not being able to go out and see you as a partner would do.

     Many rumors arose about who your baby's father would be, but you tried not to care since it was all rumors after all.

When you went into labor, it was a mess. The initial plan was that he would not come to your house so as not arouse suspicion. Pieck and Porco tried to convince him not to go, but he ran up to your house and entered the back. He couldn't stop thinking about your face. He couldn't leave you alone in a moment like this.

     And honestly, you were more than relieved when you saw the blonde enter your room, hold your hand, and repeat the same words from the day of the infirmary:

“I’m here for you, for you two”

[hag-rambling-on]

Boys hc’s feats Diaspro

Riven

Riven Cassios was born to two Omega prisoners. What surprised everyone, because staying healthy enough to carry out a pregnancy on a planet that sucks your magic is... Obviously the Rocalucce Council keeps an eye on the planet, they took him out of there because no child would pay because his parents, and he has been in foster homes, although it doesn't last long since the requirements for his adoption were more strict than most -which in the long run the Council would realize was COUNTERPRODUCTIVE for his character-. That is what Darcy detects and why the high spheres are somewhat "permissive" with him.

His mother died giving birth, it was already miraculous that she lived so long and ‘bout his father I think I'm going to kill him too, maybe. The father I assure you would be love him (he called Riven to himself Daru, his gift) thought was not his initial idea, the mother always saw him as an experiment (she was a witch who followed the Ancenstresses). Ohm, also in his blood there are dark elves and giants.

Riven surname is actually the name of the galaxy where he was born or a derivation of it, as is common for orphans. So the boy knows NOTHING about the above.

Timmy and Riven are the only specialists who have passed the full course at Fonterossa, without skips. In the end they bond about it. Timmy gives him a recommendation to work as a part-time mechanic at Magix (good boy face, he knows how to use it)

Timmy

Timeus “tshhhh, it’s Timmy.... i’m not my grandfather” fulfills the physique requisits as much as any other specialist, but it is true that his physique and abilities, adapted to the distance, give him a more "feline" air.

He is also the one who wakes up at night and moves silently, scaringthe rest of the squad if they wake up unexpectedly.

His glasses are for both sight and Aura Vision. His parents are rich enough to pay for an operation, but since he would have to wear glasses for his ability anyway, why? Practical guy.

And the glasses make people look down on him, something that when his self-esteem is high and he’s being rational and cunning he knows it’s wonderful, although many others times may hurt. He is mostly leprechaum with something human.

Nex

Nex is still a Paladin born in Lymphea and with blood of literally ALL races. He adapts well to any planet, although not its people at first. His race mix makes his face “charismatic”, like always draw attention even if people don’t know very well why they are draw.

His ability is Delay Sleep. It allows him to hold over his need to sleep for days without going crazy or losing physical capacity or needing many days to recover (he can stay awake for 5 or more days, sleep 8-10 hours and go back to being his usual self). Sometimes he does not control this well and has plenty of energy in need of drop but he is the one who has the most control of his ability.

One of his parents spent time in Rocalucce Fortress as a "guest" so at times he feels like he has something to prove.

Roy

Coming from Andros, most of the population are merpeople with a few elves and humans. which avoids the 100% aquatic population. Roy, unlike Aisha is mostly human-elf with a bit of merpeople in a grandgrandgrand level. One of his parents comes from one of the colonies on the moons of Andros and he was born there although they moved almost immediately.

Roy’s paladin ability being the canon “Triton Aura” used to breathe underwater. That and learning to swim and drive all kinds of water vehicles was what made him feel "adapted" to Andros. But he always try to be useful.

He only became a Paladin at the beginning of season 6, and it was visiting him that the season began. He’s bi but he thinks of himself as straight.

Nabu

I plead guilty to liking Nabu even though I shipped Aisha with Flora and Nex. So I have a hard time thinking about him. Except, EVERY time I try to think of something. EVERY TIME. Rapunzel. So, he will never cut his hair.

But with an island instead of a tower and a babysitter (male and wizard) more dumbledoor (not, actually more like Newt Scamander mentor like).

Sometimes he misses out on some "social customs/things/normalcies" whatever is called due to his little dealing with people. He may seem naive or that don't understand sarcasm. He understands and learns quickly, but people were very respectful to him and there are things he is not used to. 1/2 merpeople 1/4 half elf 1/4 human as both of his parents are half merpeople.

He likes to swim as much as any merpeople, but they didn't let him do it much because they were afraid he would go away or lost, so he usually went off "to the heights", going up to the rooftops and things like that.

Helia

Helia is trans but keeps his first name as chosen name which I don’t understand. Also he has formally tried study practically everything he wanted. Specialist, Paladin, Wizard (of Threads). Painter.

He can't make up his mind, his family hurries him just to STOP making them dizzy and spend a few years with everything -and actually end a single “major” choice- he wants to experience, that he has a very long life and can dedicate a few decades to Everything and they can support them. Well, more or less, but he was vip pass to all these options because family connections.

Long story about Sky, Brandon and Dia.

Sky, Brandon and Diaspro's first meeting was a show. Has it all. Costumes, lies. Confusion. Kidnapping. And that is why Diaspro insists on the wedding (I would like to mention that although I don’t know her romantic orientation yet surely bi or lesbian, here, Dia is asexual. And Sky is non-binary but his parents do not approve so go for he/him to avoid problem with them. And here our story begins)

A bit of background. Brandon actually hails from Isis, the son of the military and was chosen by the whimsical chibi!Diaspro as a playmate and future personal guard (because then she believed that touching children gave "lice" and her character and age did not have the 18like wall of royal education, then in a random encounter he called her among many things what Dia's mind translated in a strange way "uncracked geode", which is a double-edged compliment in Isis that many would not accept from strangers but she liked it). Rarely they would end up becoming friends in the end. When the series begins, Brandon and Diaspro keep up with calls, which will prevent Dia's reaction with Bloom on the one hand.

On a visit (officially only from the kings of Erakyon to to the kings of Isis) for the children to get to know each other, somehow, they all ended up happily dressing up, with Sky and Dia looking like two pretty princesses and Brandon assessing whether his dress would be green or yellow because Diaspro insisted that she and Sky had already taken the blue and red and so it would be more "thematic".

Here began the first of many attacks on Sky's head, because before it had begun to be rumored (true) that Erendor had fertility problems (btw his race dwarf-high elf and Samara is leprechaum-high elf, Sky gots mostly high elf part). When they came in and saw two girls and a boy, Brandon, not the highest IQ, but one of the wisest of his team and definitely the best fighter, played along so he ended up pretending to be Sky (also helps that his hair colors looks like Erendor) Everything worked out well in the end, although Brandon ended up as Sky's squire (better for him, worse for Diaspro), and Diaspro made Sky promise that he owed her a big favor. Anyway they grew up over the years in friendship and they both knew they were not of each other's true love interest, but, they could put up with each other (because that's what royalty does).

Sky and Diaspro have a sonorous (affectionate) war over Sky's hair to annoy/exasperate Brandon. Diaspro always complains that he doesn't grow it and it would look great then. Sky says that he is fine as with his hair at it is (it's actually Erendor's thing). The soft part of Diaspro that she doesn't usually show off has taught Sky many ways to style his hair and subtly put on makeup to look more feminine if he wants to.

How I am amused by that image from wikipedia and that Diaspro entered Sky's guard so quickly. Another headcanon is that Diaspro would sometimes change her appearance a bit and go into Sky's guard to be with Brandon to annoy him and Sky, when Brandon has to talk about her without giving details, she is simply "his sister Charbonne" (she hates that alias). They were discovered when she was 15 years old but she had already trained and the royal families considered it a sign to formalize the engagement since “they search each other” (people only sees what they wants).

The Diaspro family is not good, first Brandon was a shield (emotional) because as a child they were not “that” bad and then Sky joined him (physically and politically), handling things with Bloom so like that was not a good idea when the floor was full of cracked bottles.

... omg i’m sorry you three i’m sorry what I did to you

Also, Brandon's ability as a green user is very interesting and helps with this a lot. I temporally call it “Keypoint Warning” and I like it a lot, it's like a "tic" that tells him "be careful, what you say, what you do now, even the smallest thing could change everything for youself (for better or for worse)”. He actually has a scar on his forehead (not a lightning bolt) that his hairstyle hides after “that” day but a little less fine on the words and the kidnappers might have broken his mouth so... His parents have been cured (spoiler: no) of heart attack since then.

[big1ron]

Another random clone war item that wouldn’t leave my brain until I wrote it.

“Oh I knew him, but not by that name.

Ours isn’t a tourist town. But it is in tourist space. So visitors and hikers are not uncommon. I thought he was a tourist at first. He was dressed like one anyways, all purpose jacket and a backpack. But the look on his face and his body language was more “lost” than “wandering.” Tourism isn’t our main export, crops and eopies are. I’m a farmer, and at the time I was looking for hands. My second son had just left for the flight academy, and I needed some help. And I had to admit I was curious about the stranger. After a week of watching him walk circles around the town I finally asked him.

‘Hey what’s your name, kid?’

He took a second, like he didn’t remember or he was just deciding. ‘Daniel Rex.’

‘Well mr Rex, are you looking for work?’

His response was immediate. ‘Yes.’

‘Well I can pay you 50 credits a day for helping around the farm and shop. Are you interested?’

He was. He started working immediately, and he was surprisingly strong. He didn’t know how to work the equipment, but he was a fast learner and a hard worker. My youngest two, Val and Nora, took an interest in him and bugged him with questions whenever they could, and when their older brother Darro would let them. And when my wife Elama realized Daniel didn’t have anywhere to stay she offered the spare room in exchange for a large pay reduction. He agreed.

He didn’t speak much, definitely didn’t give anything about himself away for free, but he was usually courteous.

Well Elama is quite a gossip and just as curious about him as I was. So she asked what I wouldn’t to a stranger, one day while he broke for a meal “so, why were you on the road?”

‘My family didn’t want me anymore. So I had to leave.’

He probably wasn’t over 20, and he had tattoos that could possibly mean he had a rebellious streak, but it felt like there was more left unsaid. She would pry it out of him with time though, so she left it.

It was about a week, before the rest of the town grew interested in him. They, just like me, wanted to know where he came from and what his business was. There were rumours he was one of the imperial army, sent to spy on our little town, or prospect our planet. They pointed to the way he held himself almost straight, and the way he overused the word ‘sir’ when addressing people as evidence. I didn’t believe it, he spent far to much time concentrated on his work to be a spy. Even when I thought everything was done he still pulled tasks seemingly out of nowhere. Elama caught onto this though, and decided to ask him.

‘Daniel?’ She asked him. ‘Were you ever in the army?’

‘That’s classified.’ That wasn’t a new excuse from him, but it was an intriguing one.

‘I’m gonna take that as a yes. Why’d you join?’

‘I was drafted.’

‘Mm. You must have been pretty young at the time. Unless you’re older than you look. Did you enjoy service?”

This clearly wasn’t a comfortable topic for him, and he took a good minute to reply ‘I would like to stop talking about this now.’

I would have stopped there, probably not have even asked him as much. But I suppose in a town like this, everyone’s business is everyone’s business, and word that he was a military man at some point didn’t sit very nicely with everyone. It just fuelled more rumours. Was he a fugitive? Spy? Just a plain old runaway? They wanted to know more but Daniel refused to talk about his past. Occasional he would slip, especially when talking with Darro. And Darro wouldn’t mean to tell anyone else about it, but Val and Nora knew how to make him spill.

He was arrested at some point, thought he should have served more time than he did. He preferred not to be called mr Rex, he had many brothers that went by that. Didn’t regret running away, didn’t think anyone was going to come looking for him. But he was jumpy. Never really seemed to calm down even after the months I knew him. Certain loud noises scared him, I assume that’s from his time in the army. He grew out his hair some while he was here, just enough to pull back.

He was mysterious, though he did get close to Darro. I never learned too much about him in the months he stayed here. He left just a few weeks ago, knew you were coming. Don’t know which direction. A fair warning though, for when you do find him. He sure doesn’t like his family so I doubt he’ll be happy to see you.”

“Thank you sir. If you see him again please call me. My comm frequency is 501035385”

The stranger that looked just like Daniel calling him by a different name got up to leave. And mr.Desyk thinks he finally knows exactly what ‘Daniel’ is.

[reversecreek]

pops hip n winks at the dash. haaaaiiii. me again. i’ve honestly missed playing lana fr a while she’s one of. my most treasured muses bc she’s jst a silly n vivacious ball of sunshine or alternatively? a train wreck depending on which way u turn her in the light..... i actually hv two playlists made fr her n one is rly old bt it’s more like. songs that Remind me of her which u can find here n then here is more like. stuff u’ll most often catch her blasting on her record player as she dances around in her underwear w the curtains open. OH and here is her pinterest 🍓⚡

* kristine froseth, cis female + she/her  | you know lana jameson, right? they’re twenty-three, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, a few hours? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to play that funky music by wild cherry like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole cherry red gym socks worn with nothing else, doodling penises in the condensation of a stranger’s car window, a bumper sticker on the back of a convertible cadillac that says ‘scrappy doo is a filthy slut’ thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is june 2nd, so they’re a gemini, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( nai, 24, gmt, she/her  )

HISTORY:

lana grew up in a big house in albany, NY. i picture it w dark oak floors n lots of light furniture. albums framed on walls. mayb some rolling stone covers too frm way bk when of the bands her dad’s label signed. kind of like… a rock star palace w no evidence of children at all. i think i described it best in one of lana’s self paras once when i said the garden ws “as big as it was unloved”

lana’s mum victoria (vic) ws a music journalist w a pretty fruitful career ahead of her when she met lana’s dad richard (rich). his record label ws jst starting out, founded on the coattails of his wealthy best friend’s (jensen peters) investment w his other best friend (who he jst calls knoxville). it rocketed to success when they signed poppy injects, a rock band w an electric stage presence, n vic ws drawn to the glitz n glamour of a man tht ws at the helm of his aspiring industry. their love ws very impulsive, all or nothing right frm the start, n it ws almost like she ws mre in love w his accomplishments n what he represented than him.

(DRUGS TW) anyway so jameson records repped a few rock bands bk in the eighties, altho poppy injects r who they’re mostly known fr, namely bc of hw brightly they crashed n burned. they were a big chart success bt the lead singer hd quite an intense struggle w heroin (wsnt rly subtle abt it either while he ws in the public eye as u cn probably imagine frm such an on-the-nose band name) n he ws always in n out of the papers. it eventually brought down his career n it ws a big publicity nightmare

lana pretty much… grew up around figures like this throughout childhood. real characters who wld kind of… b extremely volatile n destructive abt their troubles. the jameson house was an open one as welcoming clients went n a lot of parties took place there. a lot of the time musicians wld b snorting lines in the kitchen when she wnted to grab a bowl of cereal fr breakfast n it was just. a very strange environment fr a child to grow up in. more zoo than home. more shaken snow globe than resting place. (END OF TW)

(ABORTION REFERENCE) her parents always kind of jst… didn’t like her much. her older brother caleb ws unplanned bt they sort of welcomed the surprise more bt… quickly realised they weren’t cut out fr parenthood n then when lana came as another surprise 3 yrs later they didn’t even try to hide their resentment abt the situation. her mum ws actually booked in to have an abortion bt cldnt go through with it at the last minute. once when lana ws a kid she asked her why she’s so cold towards her she jst turned her head frm her dresser, looked at her, told her abt this n said “idk why i didn’t go”. lana didn’t kno wht to say to tht so she jst left her room n closed the door (END OF REFERENCE)

(DISSOCIATION TW) bc of the intensity of her parents ignoring her growing up lana adopted this sense of like…. she didn’t rly kno what it ws bt it ws a delusion of sorts where she thought she ws a ghost bc she gt this strange outside feeling. she’d jst sort of… drift around the halls w no-one acknowledging her n sometimes she ws jst convinced she wsnt actually there or they cldnt see her n she ws jst haunting the house frm a previous family. (END OF TW) her imagination festered an explanation out of smthn she didn’t understand essentially. lana used her imagination to do this a lot growing up. it ws kind of like the band aid she slapped over everything. after all she wasn’t alone if she was sword fighting imaginary pirates dwn the hallway with a poker from the fireplace. 

the one saving grace tho tht sort of?? gt her thru this n made her feel Seen ws caleb. lana quite genuinely hs always thought the sun shines out of her older brothers ass like she jst thinks. he’s the best person in the entire world. wld b rly bewildered if anyone questioned tht. he wld always look out for her n cut the crusts off her sandwiches (he’d cook fr them most of the time bc their parents were too busy/didn’t care to) n sometimes wld even sleep at the bottom of her bed curled up like a guard dog. it ws always lana n caleb n his best friend tommy against the world in tht house (tommy lived next door bt was always over bc he had very strict parents tht he found suffocating)

(ARMY MENTION) SO when tommy announced tht he’d signed up to the army (bc of pressures from tommy’s military dad to fulfil some kind of stupid “legacy” tommy didn’t even care abt) n caleb said he was going with him lana ws understandably…….. completely blindsided. she ws rly upset tht they were leaving n was kind of like “wtf why are u doing this like what do u even think this is gna solve” etc n begged caleb not to leave her there on her own n jst to not sign up in general bc tommy had to bt he didn’t listen. 

ERM i won’t go into it but it didn’t turn out well as u can probably imagine bc the army is a terrible industry n caleb had to return home without tommy. he wasn’t the same after that. (END OF MENTION)

what’d been a rly close relationship before where he ws basically like a surrogate father figure to lana was Not there any more. he ws rly withdrawn n always pushing her away n snapping at her for the sake of getting her to leave him alone. on top of this lana had a lot of shit go down while he was away n rly just shouldn’t have been a kid alone in tht house. regardless lana thought if she kept grinning as wide as she cld she’d convince caleb to join in too. maybe if she seemed fine n happy he’d take the lead. maybe she’d believe it too n start to feel it n everything could go bk to how it was before her world became so different. lana liked the way the sky flipped when she tipped her head back on the swings bt this was different. everything was upside down bt this didn’t make her belly feel like she’d swallowed a butterfly and it wasn’t funny bt still, she kept laughing. always desperate to find something to laugh at n if she couldn’t find it she invented it. as long as ur laughing the world can’t b that bad.

she ws always well liked in school bc she jst tended to treat everyone like they were bffs no matter who like u cld have literally bumped shoulders w her once in the corridor n she’d be like OMG HAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII let’s kiss<3 n like she ws a huge notorious flirt w any n all as well as incredibly impulsive n jst. wild honestly to put it simply too bt things like. changed a bit frm 16 onwards. (HYPERSEXUALITY & IMPLIED TRAUMA TW) she jst became far more reckless honestly n like....... jst didn’t rly seem to care after a certain point abt herself too much.... got herself in a bunch of bad situations.......... kind of jst flung herself to the wolves numerous times without any caution abt the way they’d bite. formed a lot of self destructive habits one of which ws cruising craigslist personals fr random hook-ups n like. she literally cld have wound up in a ditch somewhere honestly it’s a shock she hasn’t. despite various dips n inclines in her journey navigating this side of her it’s very much still present in her life to this day n she struggles to kno hw to control herself at points. sometimes she feels like a melting candle tht needs moulding by thumbs until it can form a person again. sometimes she’s only sure she’s real when she’s being touched. (END OF TW)

ANYWAY. laughs nervously. went to college to study dance bc she’s always loved dance in general bt specifically ballet (despite definitely not hving the discipline for it) n honestly this was both good n bad fr her. had a whole string of terrible heartbreaking relationships bc she tends to fall into those hard n fast n they were w a lot of bad people fr like 98% of the time. she kind of learned more abt what love is during her time there tho which is a gd thing bt she still isn’t very good at knowing hw to believe she deserves it so it’s a process. she hd fun tho. threw 498572598475 outrageous n elaborately themed parties. ws friends w pretty much everyone on campus. 

despite a strained relationship w her brother n having to go home to visit n check on him whenever he got rly bad it ws the first time it actually felt like she’d found a home in a lot of rly loving n genuine friendships n lana will never forget hw much that experience meant to her even if she definitely struggled there too. college felt like a place she belonged n then suddenly she couldn’t belong there any more n there was a big sense of floundering in that. like where do u go now when u’ve never known home elsewhere? how do u happily go out into the world if it means leaving ur world behind?

she applied to a dance company in LA n fell in w a pretentious art scene there full of wannabe andy warhols n the like. became a makeshift edie sedgwick to some guy w dyed white hair n the idea his every concept was revolutionary when rly he jst shot her dancing barely clothed splashing around in a random fountain in his friend’s mansion on an ancient film camera. she’d spend her days floating around on lilo’s and prancing in feather boas and racing with glitter leftover frm last night in her leotard w smudges of faint red lipstick to barely make her job on time. always a sexy train wreck bt this time? make it hollywood. 

(IMPLIED ALCOHOLISM TW) i won’t lie to u lana hs always partied way too hard bt then partying way too hard turned into slurping merlot thru a crazy straw shaped like a flamingo at 4 in the afternoon wearing penis novelty sunglasses n it wasn’t quite so much of a party when u were doing it on ur own. this rly snowballed into place in college bt carried on n wound up getting her fired from the dance company bc she turned up to rehearsals drunk one too many times n they didn’t allow fr sloppiness like tht. it was a “professional operation” that didn’t “accept that kind of behaviour” bt lana was jst like ummmmmmmmm that’s totally dramatic btw way to spank me in the town square like i’m gale w a raw ass n back in the hunger games bt ok sure i’m out ig. BOOP! (literally booped the director on the nose before leaving) (END OF TW)

honestly hd no idea what to do w herself after her job fell thru in LA n was pretty embarrassed actually upon sobering up the nxt day. cldn’t bring herself to tell her friends for a hot minute bc she felt like a failure or smthn n she was meant to be living this glamorous life out there being the classic wild n silly n fun Lana Jameson. cldn’t figure out how to repackage it into a funny story tht wouldn’t worry ppl. eventually wound up jst caving n telling her closest besties (shoutout freya n rosa) bc she ws hving a weird time dating losers n randomly living in LA even tho she didn’t kno why she was there any more after losing the job n they were jst like. fk it then. jst come here. we’re in irving. and so? mizz jameson packed her bags....

PERSONALITY:

always smells vaguely of wild cherries or strawberry starburst or jst the candy aisle in general. if she ws a vinyl record she’d b this one n she’d only play good vibrations by the beach boys, dancing on my own by robyn, play that funky music by wild cherry, femme fatale by the velvet underground n (i can’t get no) satisfaction by the rolling stones

the jameson family r pretty well off n bc of her relation to such a big music industry figure she’s hung out w a fair few relatively high rep ppl thru her teens. mostly kids of celebrities n stuff like tht. she amassed a bit of an instagram following #nepotism bt also fr her style (v penny lane-esque in some aspects. lots of fur cuff trimmed jackets bt then also jst…. a wild combination of everything honestly. pastel faux fur coats, seventies style platforms, bright red cowboy boots, pink fishnet tights, holographic stickers of planets on her cheek n glitter used like highlight, 90% of the time a red lip) n bc she’s not gna make ur eyes bleed to look at or anything let’s b real

growing up lana was always a huge social butterfly. knew everyone n everyone knew her. she ws one of those girls tht ws kind of impossible to ignore or forget. very animated, always made u feel like u were the centre of the universe whenever she spoke to u, always made it feel like u were best friends even if ud only spoken to her once.

deliberately puts on tht kind of Magnetic Alluring Act tht femme fatales wear in movies w most ppl. kind of…. is always playing A Role of the person tht she wants to b seen as. hates being sad n always wnts to be happy / making ppl happy. chameleons to situations. feels like she’s performed as the vivacious n fun loving Lana Jameson fr so long tht she doesn’t rly kno who she is beneath tht bt she isn’t too keen to find out. sometimes gets glimpses n feels the urge to close her eyes.

she’s always been rly spontaneous n adventurous. always doing something weird n wild every weekend. she has ten thousand ridiculously absurd n chaotic stories. she’s like oh ya this one time this guy made me ride him with a daddy saddle like i was woody and he was bullseye. he literally made me call him bullseye. or she’s like. oh ya once i had to run barefoot thru a cabbage patch bc this one farmer wanted to have a threeway w me n my friend tht we met off craigslist n every framed photo in his house was a pig dressed up in cosplay bt honestly they were kind of cute n he was sexy aside frm the murderous vibes n the fact he kept calling me babe which i’m pretty sure means he wanted to dress me up next bt like whatever honestly.... she tells jst the most batshit stuff n the person she’s telling it to is left blinking like. wtf.

uncontrollably flirty. insanely confident. cld make a joke out a paper bag n will try. she tends to laugh when she feels like crying n has a smile brighter than a ray of texas sunshine.

likes to roller skate n hs a red pair she’ll glide around in at night lit up by amber street lamps breath sticky w the taste of wine n lollipops probably heading to a random hookups. who needs ubers?

always dapples her fingers thru the breeze when she’s driving in a car w the window down. honestly likes dangling her whole body halfway out too. she almost always has some sort of sweet on her, whether it’s sour haribo cherries or strawberry lollipops.

luvs bowie (ONLY aesthetically) n prince (wholeheartedly) n madonna (completely) n anyone tht’s a vintage style icon w little care fr what ppl think.

daisies n poppies r her fav flowers bc daisies r wild n overlooked n poppies r the first thing u look at in a green field. she’s had like 8472493874 ‘relationships’ n none of them hav lasted beyond a month / hav been terrible / hav seen her being treated badly / she’s cheated on them. honestly it’s like a burning train wreck but u can’t quite tear ur eyes away. often the heart of many sordid gossip scandals.

PLOTS:

TBA bc she’s only jst arrived in town i won’t lie to u all but i’m gna whip things up on here anyway n link in chat w updates at some point........ that said? lana is insatiable n it isn’t rly unlikely tht she cld’ve bumped into ur muse in a grocery store aisle n somehow a wild spontaneous adventure spawned frm that alone.......... if u have any immediate ideas we can discuss 😋

[soybeantree]

pairing: do kyungsoo x mutant!(reader) genre/warning: it ends in fluff? word count: 4k+ description: sequel to ‘yin and yang’. “does all of this scare you? do I scare you?” just a week long assignment. they told him not to ask questions and to tell no one of what he saw there. honestly, his thoughts hadn’t even drifted to what could possibly be going on inside. for sure he never even considered you.  a/n: august installment of our ‘trying to write a kyungsoo story for every month that he is gone’ 

Following Sensei's movements, you track the flow of energy through his body and force yours to mirror his. Even after three years, the task is difficult. With each breath, you release excess energy and bring the remaining under control.

"You're agitated." The words are a vibration on Sensei's lips, but the sound waves find you. Your brain translates them into words. Unfortunately, the reverse is impossible. You meet Sensei's eyes and shrug. The movement earns you a reproving glance and a shift in your internal energy. Breathing out, you refocus.

These sessions are a brief reprieve from the onslaught of testing and training which have defined your life since the success of your experiment. You dread their end, but as the energy of your guards approaches, you finish your movement and come to a stop. Sensei stills beside you. He hums, a soft, simple tune. His farewell. You smile and harmonize with him as the doors open to the meditation room. Your guards wait on either side, two perfect pillars of order. You bow to Sensei and walk through the doors. The guards fall into step behind you, ready to ensure you have no misstep on your way to your training session. As if you have ever deviated from your schedule.  

The scientists have boiled down your skills to two categories: energy expulsion and energy absorption. You long ago learned how to light bulbs without popping them and progressed to powering an entire building. However, solving the energy crisis was never the intention of your experimentation.  The military personnel want a weapon, and as they have yet to find a way to weaponize energy expulsion, they have switched your training to energy absorption. 

Energy absorption is easier than expulsion. Energy seeks you out. Grabbing hold of it and coaxing more out requires little effort. However, releasing the excess energy in non-catastrophic ways proves more difficult which is why your sessions with Sensei continue. Even with Tai Chi though, the training always leaves a prickling of pain across your skin and, depending on the amount of excess, can leave you incapacitated for days.

Incapacitated days are few and far between now which is why your training has progressed from pulling from a continuous source to spontaneous absorption...i.e. grenades. They pull the pin, drop the grenade, and you have to absorb the energy before it creates a hole in the floor. So far, you've had to move to a practice room with a dirt floor because concrete holes are too annoying to fill, and for your safety, they erected a blast wall between you and the detonation zone. 

Today's training goes the same as every one for the past month. Your ears ring with the sound of the explosions and fresh holes litter the practice field. Plopping down, you focus on the energy at your back. The scientists stalk about, arms flying as they jabber back and forth. Pulling on the energy of their words, you catch the thread of their conversation.

Grenades are low impact and would be the most common explosive encountered during a tactical mission which was why they had started with them. However, your continued failures are leading them to consider alternate methods of practice. A timed explosion would allow for preparation and as you practice instantaneous energy absorption, it would become easier to apply to the grenade scenario. 

Opening your eyes, you let the ringing in your ears deafen you. Your guards approach and escort you back to your room. As you drive through the compound, you pass by the remnants of the building which had housed you during the early years of your experimentation. Failed experiments have led to the building's destruction. As always, the building tugs on the memories of the one who allowed your success.

Three years have failed to erase Kyungsoo. If you allowed yourself, you could bring him to mind in perfect clarity. Your veins hold his energy signature. Dwelling on him has no benefits though. Hopefully, he left the army and returned to his life and family, forgetting about you. 

Three years is not enough time to forget about you. As long as he lives, Kyungsoo knows he will never forget about you. His mind continually drifts to you, and the promise he made to himself. 

His mind often drifts when he really needs to focus. A fist flies at his face, and he nearly dodges the impact. Chanyeol, his sparring partner, laughs at his bewildered expression and retreats to the back of the practice ring where two water bottles wait. Keeping one for himself, he tosses the other to Kyungsoo. After a quick swig, Kyungsoo tosses the bottle back and resumes his fighting stance. While no longer a soldier in the army, he works hard to maintain the physique and the skills he learned during his time in the military. He will need them both to rescue you. 

For the remainder of his service, Kyungsoo had pandered to the higher ups and formed all manner of connections in the hopes that he would hear something about you. His work went unrewarded. Whichever military officers worked in conjunction with your experimenters maintained high levels of secrecy.

Chanyeol stalks forward arms at the ready. Kyungsoo watches his feet, his shoulders. He refuses to be caught unaware again. A shoulder falls. He ducks beneath the coming swing. His fist rises and catches Chanyeol in the ribs. Before the taller man can retaliate, Kyungsoo jumps back. Sweat beads his forehead. He wipes it away before it can blind him.

Becoming a civilian again had come with many challenges. The chief one being that Kyungsoo had forgotten how to be a civilian. He returned to his job and his family, but he felt like a stranger living someone else's life. And always his promise lingered in his mind.  The promise pushed him back into action. He began to extend his connections. Several times, he caught a whisper of you, but never anything to lead him back. As days turned to months and months to years, he lost hope that he would ever find you. He cleared his desk, removed the spider web of clues from his wall, and closed the file on you. 

The sparing comes to an end when Chanyeol pins him to the ground. With a tap, he accedes victory. Chanyeol is quick to his feet and offers a hand which Kyungsoo gladly takes. His muscles ache and his breath comes in spurts. 

"You're getting better." 

Kyungsoo accepts the encouragement with a nod. Months of practice often feel wasted, but he refuses to give up hope again. Following Chanyeol, the two head out to the next area of practice, marksmanship.

After closing your file, he returned to the monotony of life. Every day bled into another, until one day. He sat waiting at his bus stop, reading a random book someone had suggested to him. A young woman sat beside him. Kyungsoo had been taking the same bus at the same time since returning to civilian life. He knew every passenger on his route by sight. This woman he had never seen before. Something about her made the hairs on his arm rise. 

Putting away his book, he stood and started the walk back to his house. Before he could make it five steps, he found his way blocked. He didn't need to glance behind him, but he did. The woman stood there, her face devoid of all emotion. With a nod of her head, a hood covered his face. 

For a day and a night, she and those with her kept him in isolated captivity. They wanted to know about you. The experiments performed on you, the extent of your abilities, where you were. He maintained his silence, his promise to you to protect his safety.

As he resigned himself to his fate, he noticed the woman's scars. She stood and stretched, revealing a glimpse of her midriff. Her scars were not the same as yours, but they reminded him of them. When he met her eyes this time, he found they mirrored yours.

"You were experimented on." The words surprised both of them. The woman nodded, a solemn movement. The discussion which followed led to his release and the formation of an alliance. 

The woman belonged to a "band of misfits". They were experiments (and those sympathetic to them) who had been freed from their captors and who sought to free others. Their information network had brought them word of you and eventually him, a civilian with direct contact to you. In exchange for providing them with all the information he had about you and your experimenters, they would allow him to work beside them when it came time to free you. The work would be far from easy, the woman assured him. This fact could hardly discourage him. He had the chance to fulfill his promise and would push forward no matter the difficulty. He joined the band of misfits and made a home for himself with them on Frankenstein's Island. 

Absorbing energy from a timed explosion is easier than a grenade. You watch the clock tick down, and as it nears zero, you open yourself up. The energy flows into you at the moment of explosion, leaving the bomb an ineffectual husk. 

The success of your practice prompts the experimenters to push you further. The bomb before you could level a building. As such, they have moved their observation area to a building on the opposite side of the compound and have evacuated the entire area surrounding your building. You remain in the practice room with only cameras for company. Their red lights blink at you as you stare through an inconsequential pane of bulletproof glass at the bomb which is ticking to zero.

The numbers are green. The clerks probably gave no thought to the color of the numbers on the clock. When you were in high school, the clock on your nightstand had green numbers. You would lay awake at night watching the numbers and wishing they would blur into oblivion. These numbers could blur into oblivion. During that last night with Kyungsoo, you had told him the reason you had agreed to become an experiment. He had saved you then, but he’s gone now. The numbers are disappearing, offering you a second chance. 

Your success bolstered the confidence of the military officers, scientists, and doctors. They renewed the experiments with unbridled fervor. Subjects came in by the bus load. None of them had Kyungsoo. None of them had success. In your rooms on the other side of the compound, you felt their energy lose form. Dying won’t stop the experiments, but it will free you from them. 

The seconds dwindle away. 1 stares at you, the moment stretching beyond time. You close the floodgates. 0. The energy slips from its shell painting the world in red and orange. Dirt and dust skip along, carried on the wave. You sit ready for the blast to tear you apart, but the energy swirls around like a dog greedy for his master’s attention. It slams into you, flooding your senses. The defenses you spent years cultivating crumble. The energy burns through your veins, erasing all sense of self. You are energy.

Months of planning come to conclusion in a single moment. The date of extraction had been set. Plans had been made, reviewed, memorized. But in a single moment everything changes. He is in training when the news comes. There was an explosion at the facility, you may be dead, the extraction would happen today. Whether you could be saved or not, they would destroy the facility. 

The Rescue Center on Frankenstein’s Island is a flurry of activity. The steel building reverberates with the thud of boots and hum of chatter. The Rescue Party moves through the space in a synchronized dance as each part prepares for the coming mission. Kyungsoo follows Chanyeol to where the Extraction Team waits. The team’s gear sits in five neat piles, ready for them. They dress with swift ease. The plan cycles through Kyungsoo’s mind as they head for the first transport. Twenty-eight minutes by helicopter, thirty-four by truck, fifteen by foot.

They shift from helicopter to truck in practiced movements. The rumble of the truck’s engine, the dips and divots in the road, they take him back. For a moment, he sits three years in the past. He is on his way for another night of guard duty. You’ll be waiting for him at the end of the road, needing his help, wanting his company. Instructions come from the front reminding him that this time when he leaves, you will be with him. 

“We follow your lead.” Chanyeol reminds him as the truck creaks to a stop. Chanyeol heads the extraction team, but for this endeavor, he defers the responsibility to Kyungsoo. During the planning stages, Kyungsoo mentioned that after his first encounter with you, he developed a sense of you. Whenever he came to the compound, he knew where you were. A useful skill for 

the head of an extraction.

He nods, smothering the fear that time may have robbed him of his sense or that death has robbed him of you.

A dense forest borders the back of the compound. Autumn has carpeted the ground with a thick blanket of leaves, but a recent rain dampens them, silencing footfalls. Kyungsoo breathes deep and reaches for your connection, stretching his senses. Heart hammering in his chest, his hope withers before blooming to life. You’re there in front of him, a small flicker at this distance. He stops and, facing the team, gives the signal that you’re alive and ahead. A ripple of relief travels through the men. They continue forward, their feet flying across the slick forest floor.  

The compound’s fence looms ahead of them. They halt within the tree line and wait. An explosion and the ensuing shouts are their signal to enter. 

Lost in the haze of energy consuming your body, you reach for anything to center yourself. Sensei stands beside you, his energy signature pounding in your head. He is speaking, but his words are lost on you. Whatever he’s trying to do is worthless. No amount of Tai Chi will balance the energy within you. While you had hoped for a quick death, this death is more fitting. You are as you were that first day, and this time Kyungsoo isn’t here to save you.

An explosion breaks through your haze. You scream at the out pour of energy, but it fades. The explosion is too far away to add to your current torment. You sink back into your internal hell, ready to let it rip you apart, when you feel him. The pain rippling through you threatens to steal your sense of him, but you cling to it, focusing every ounce of your will on it.

“He’s here.” You rasp as you push yourself up. The movement sends the world cartwheeling around you in a swirl of color. A steadying hand on your shoulder keeps you from pitching off the bed. “I have to go.” Each word rises like a stone through your throat. You stand and nearly topple. 

“You need to lay down. It’s not safe.” The words still carry no meaning, but the hand on your shoulder hardens, keeping you in place. You shrug it off and meet Sensei’s gaze.

Kyungsoo is here. It’s not safe for him here. You have to get to him. If they find out about him, the buses will forever roll through the gates. The words refuse to rise, but you pray your eyes succeed where your voice fails. His grip loosens as his hand slips to your elbow.

Pain laces every step as you struggle down the hallway. The world continues to spin around you as energy seeks you on all sides. Without Sensei, you would crumble. He continues to support you, careful to keep a layer of clothing between your skin and his. Direct contact acts as a conduit. This he learned the hard way during a session. He had grabbed your hand to steady you when he should have let you fall. The shock he received ensured he would never make the mistake again. 

People further complicate your journey. They block your way and attempt to return you to the room. You reach for their skin. While the military personal failed to find a way to weaponize energy expulsion, you had. You reveal your secret. Energy flows from you into your hindrances, setting them ablaze in your vision. They scream or maybe you do. The contact is brief. They drop, tearing themselves from your grip. Sensei releases you after the first victim. The ground comes up to meet you, and several moments pass before you realize you’re no longer moving.

His hand returns to your elbow and brings you to a seated position before slipping his arm around your waist and lifting you to your feet. You continue down the hallway. Any other who blocks your path meets the same fate as the first. Sensei holds tight to you each time. 

The grounds are a maze of buildings, and Kyungsoo wishes he had explored them further with you that last night. Aside from that night, his exposure to the compound had been the route from the main entrance to your building. He had never seen the back side through which he now navigates. 

Keeping his focus on you, he weaves through the buildings, his team following behind. The area remains clear, the forces being pulled to the attack. The team still moves slowly, remaining cautious of stragglers. They round a corner, and Kyungsoo stops. The building before him is not the one he visited each night for over a week, but it is where you are. The sense of you surges through him. His muscles ache as he forces himself to remain still and wait. He points to the building and signals to the team that you’re inside. They shift into position, pushing him back as Chanyeol takes the lead. Carefully, they move across the open space. Guns at the ready, they sweep the area.

“Fall back!” The shout comes seconds before a spray of bullets fills the air. Feet scuff against dirt as the team retreats back to safety in a building’s shadow. Lungs heave, but they are all whole. 

Chanyeol checks over them with a sweep of his gaze before sending Minseok around the back of the building to scout the building on their right. He inches around the corner to view the building opposite. The firing has stopped and everyone’s breathing settles to silence.

Minseok returns to inform them that the building beside them has five guards on the roof. 

Chanyeol adds five from the building opposite to the total. The odds are against them. They will get picked off crossing No-Man’s land, and even if some make it across, they’ll never make it back. Even now, the guards will be calling for back-up. Whatever they are going to do, they have to do it soon or abandon the mission. 

The cacophony of bullets pulls them from half formed plans. They peer from the shadows towards the doorway opposite. There you stand. Even from this distance, Kyungsoo can see the ripples of red and orange rolling across your face. Your body sways, kept up only by the man at your side. The bullets pock the ground at your feet, a warning. One which you fail to notice, but the man beside you does. You struggle against his grip, but he keeps you firmly beside him.

The team retreats further into the shadows, but Kyungsoo remains his attention transfixed on you. His body burns, the energy within him rising in recognition. You still. You hold your head straight as your eyes meet his. A brief smile tugs at your lips, but before it can bloom, your face falls. Your head lolls forward and your body slumps. His heart quakes.

Energy still courses through your body. As he watches, it increases. You’re pulling it in, absorbing it when you should be expelling it. Your confession floods his memory, and he wants to scream and rush across the distance to take your hand in his.

“The guards.” Chanyeol’s whisper focuses him. The guards are swaying and falling.

“What’s happening?” Baekhyun voices the collective question.

“She’s draining them.” Kyungsoo answers as he steps into No-Man’s land, his gun hanging limp at his side. 

The scuff of his footsteps echoes between the buildings, startling the man beside you. He shifts you behind him, and you crumble. Kyungsoo hurtles to your side, and when the man tries to stop him, he shoves him away. Your body convulses with the influx of energy. He can feel your heart racing as it approaches its finish.

“Don’t touch her.” The man warns. “You’ll die.” His hand wraps around Kyungsoo’s wrist.

“No, I won’t.” Kyungsoo pries the man’s fingers away, his gaze continually fixed on you. With his hand free, he reaches for yours. The touch is light, a brushing of finger tips against skin, but energy rips through him, filling every inch of his being. The world burns to life around him. 

He can see the energy burning through everything and feel its ebb and flow.

He closes his fist, breaking the contact, and the world shifts back. You lay still. You’re only movement, the rise and fall of your chest. Slipping one arm beneath your head and the other beneath your legs, he stands and faces his companions. They wordlessly follow him as he returns the way they came.

Life passes in a blur around you. Not since the final experiment have you absorbed so much energy. In its absence, you have become an empty shell. Your cells struggle to replenish the vacuum. Waste energy grazes by your skin, but it takes more energy to coax in than it’s worth. The doctors and scientists have abandoned you. It’s for the best though. This is what you wanted all along. If only you could have taken the whole damned place with you, when you went.

Life becomes clearer. Your body begins to work again. The doctors who come to check on you are unfamiliar, and you wonder if you did take down the whole damned place. Your questions lie dormant though, your tongue refusing to form the words. Its unwillingness is due more to the drugs they pump in than your weakness. 

As you lie straddling consciousness, memories filter in. The training, the explosion, Sensei, Kyungsoo. That last memory feels like a dream. Kyungsoo had come for you. He was standing there at the corner of the building and staring back at you. But Kyungsoo left years ago.

You wake, fully conscious. Energy swirls about you, and your mind gives it shape: machines, people, a building. As you shift through the shapes, you find one who is out of place. Pushing aside the last remnants of the drugs, you sit up and strain your senses. Your mind remains steadfast though. He’s here. The dream was a reality. They found him. They have him.

Closing your eyes, you grab hold of every stray piece of energy. You rip it from the machines surrounding you. They squeal as they die. The energy races through your veins. The world comes to life behind your lids. Kyungsoo is two floors below you. The building comes to life around him as you focus on the bits of energy which touch its every corner. There. A staircase. Two doors down from you. 

Your legs protest as you sprint down the stairs, and you fear how long you have been asleep, how long they have had Kyungsoo, what they have done to him. You push your legs harder and sharpen your focus as you reach Kyungsoo’s floor. Five other people are in the room with him. Direct contact is the best option to disable them, but the meager energy you pulled earlier will only provide a shock, nothing powerful enough to incapacitate. Draining them also requires more energy than you have. Regardless of your current state, you will see Kyungsoo safely from this place.

The door swings open as you reach it. A woman stands wide eyed in the frame, and you reach out grabbing her wrist. She collapses with a howl, and you jump over her. Sweat beads your forehead and you breath in gasps, but you rush towards the next captor. 

“OT9, no!”

You freeze hand inches from skin. A chuckle slips out as tears mix with sweat. Turning, you face Kyungsoo. From head to toe, he is whole. No cuts, no bruises, no wires. Jeans and a sweater have replaced his military uniform, but his face is still calm and controlled in the midst of chaos. “What’s going on?” You whisper. “Why are you here?”

“You’re not at the compound. You’re safe.” You collapse, and Kyungsoo is there to catch you. The others leave while Kyungsoo settles you in a chair and begins to explain about trying to find you, how the Misfits found him, Frankenstein’s Island, and the rescue. 

“You’re an idiot you know.” You say as his story comes to an end. He blinks at you. “You should have returned to your life and forgotten about me.”

“You’re pretty memorable.”

You calm the fluttering of your heart by reminding yourself that any person who can pull energy and release it like a bomb would be hard to forget. “What’s next then?”

“The island was founded by experiments for experiments. They have a program that you can go through which will help you adjust to life after experimentation. After that you can choose to stay and make a life here or go to the mainland and reinvent yourself.” He states matter-of-factly.

Laughing, you lean back in your chair. “I’ve missed you, Kyungsoo. I was also talking about you, not me. What’s next for you?”

“I’m staying here.” He holds your gaze. “I want to continue working with the misfits and stop people who do what was done to you.”

“So, I’ll get to see more of you while I go through this program that they have?” He blinks, his shoulders sliding back, and nods. You nod, too, grateful to face the ensuing chaos with him by your side.

[shinycorvidae]

Head Cannon Dump Part 4 of 6

The two Vs, NV/Vic/V Part 1: Physicality and Personality

-NV is Vic, my V, a nomad

-Hiro or SKV, her roommate, then friend, then lover, Street kid background (vaguely), hes @smilepal s

Basic/Physical:

She's 28, at game start

Half Cuban, half white and has lived in a desert for most of her life so she has warm brown tanned skin. Warm yellow/brown eyes which can look piercingly through you or soft and understanding depending on her mood.

Her hair is a blue color with a tinge of green. It was supposed to be a forest green but her sister grabbed the wrong bottle of perma-dye when they broke into the local ripperdoc's clinic to dye their hair.

Her lips are also permanently colored. She likens it to war paint but she doesn't want the hassle of applying it/worrying about it rubbing off.

Ex-nomad, sleeps like the dead anywhere because she's used to having people around to watch her back

Her bones crack like fucking glow sticks.

-Johnny: how are your bones in worse condition than mine were?? I was in my 30s?

-Vic *just finger guns*

Vic sleeps like an idiot, all contorted and sideways

-Hiro tries to push her back into a normal situation so she doesn’t wake up with her back hurting more than usual.

Has a snake tattoo snaking around her chest for Viper, got it with funds from the first mission with Jackie. She also has a devils head and Chippin' In lyrics on her back from her teen years.

V really didnt want to admit to Johnny that she was a samurai fan so she goes out of her way to not look at her back while hes in her head. "Who? Is that some bushido reenactment shit?"

This goes well until Johnny has control of her body and goes to the bathroom to check on her ribs, thinking he broke them.

-J: "I know, Vic."

-Nv: "What?"

-J: I know about your secret."

-Nv: "Ehehe secret? Wha-"

-J: "I SAW YOUR BACK V"

-Nv: "oh fu-"

-J: "BUSHIDO REENACTMENT MY ASS."

Pansexual.

She has a pair of mantis blades, which are basically a safety blanket for her, weapons that can't ever be taken away so she's never helpless. So when she's nervous/feeling helpless she runs her fingers over the seam of them.

They’re her weapon of last resort though so if you find her at home cleaning the blood off them, you know a mission went fucking sideways

They were her dad, Michael's, which he got from the army so they're military issue high end suckers. Also around 50 years old lmao.

They make Vik weep because finding replacement parts is impossible

V only smokes the occasional joint and gets drunk once in a blue moon. She's managed to avoid smoking completely and is pissed that Johnny tried to sabotage that.

“She gives him the occasional cigarettes "as a treat"

"Aww Johnny you were actually a decent human being, here have a cigarette"

"I'm not a fucking cat V"

"Just say thank you, Dickhead"

"Fuck off"

"Love you too"

Has a bullet wound scar on her thigh which is covered up with a simple black band tattoo. Her only other significant scars are some on her chest from a motorcycle crash as a 16 year old. She's always had decent access to a ripper doc so while she's been injured a lot, she doesn't have many scars

Personality:

V is a sweetheart. She honestly believes the best of everyone. She grew up in a nomad community where everyone worked together for the good of everyone, and kind of expects the same of everyone in night city.

She continues to trust people blindly, despite being burned a couple times. She has faith in herself to be able to fight her way out of a bad situation should she get backstabbed, so shed rather bet on people being generally good.

Life can be rough in the badlands. Resources are scarce. Vic learned how to conserve resources from a young age. Shes frugal with her money, hoards anything that might be useful, and is really into reusing/recycling things. Shes brought Hiro cyberware she pulled out of dead bodies and is generally handing with mechanical fixes.

This also applies to food. When youve had days were literally the only thing you had to eat that day were some dusty grasshoppers you managed to forage, your standards for food fall drastically.

This drives Hiro and Johnny nuts who often have to stop her from eating random/possibly poisoned food.

The fact that shes a blindly trusting person just amplifies this.

*V walking in with a plate of cookies*

"..whats that V?"

-Nv: "Oh hey, the neighbor gave me these cookies! Want some?"

*Johnny and Hiro who both know you shouldn't accept random food from strangers in Night City, immediately disposing of them.*

-Nv: "What a waste of food :("

-H: "HOW MANY DID YOU EAT?"

-J: "How did you live before us?!"

-H: "Jackie. It was definitely Jackie, the Saint."

-...Not very long later,

"we see you V, don't eat those out of the bin"

-Nv:" :("

She's very secure in her sexuality, a naturally attractive and sexual person. Her clan had very little sexual stigma at all, its hard to have any shame over sex when there's only tents without soundproof walls. Her whole clan was definitely also very into free love/poly/open relationships, to the point were most kids didn't know who their parents were and were raised communally. Having sex was just a platonic thing that just sort of happened.

-Nv: “It’s hard to get all embarrassed about privacy when you grew up in a place with only tent walls. It’s just sex.

-SKv: “V, you blush and get tongue-tied whenever the hot neighbor even vaguely looks your way.

-NV: “WELL I didn’t normally have to ASK for sex, it just kinda happened and flirting is HARD, AND YOU NIGHT CITY RESIDENTS ARE ALL SNEAKY ABOUT IT”

Shes used to having sex with her platonic friends, her first couple of one night stands in NC were just an absolute mess--then she tried to sleep with Jackie which went predictably well.

-NV: “Do you want to have sex?”

-Jackie: *Chokes on his tequila. “What?! I’m with Misty??”

-NV: “...and?”

-Jackie: “I mean...I mean you never gave any signs?!

-NV: “Signs??”

-Jackie: “Hermana, most people in NC don’t just sleep with their friends. I mean. They do. But they don’t. It’s complicated.”

-NV: “Obviously.”

Considering that, V is. HORRID. at flirting in Night City. She's never really had to do that kind of verbal dance before and a lot of come on/innuendo goes over her head. She also has zero body shame and often walks around their apartment naked and will change nonchalantly in public.

-Nv: *Noticing people staring at her at the club and going into work mode*

-Hiro: *Noticing Nv counting the exits*

"what's wrong?"

-Nv: "That man's staring at me. Maybe he's Arasaka."

-Hiro: "He's staring at your ass, V."

-Nv: "Oh."

Definitely has the occasional “why the fuck didn’t you just say so?!” moments with the boys

*Cue SKv trying to be seductive all day, dropping things and bending over to get them all slow, changing in the living room/working out shirtless, ect. Nv is appreciative but she doesn’t really do anything, and by the end of the day*

-SKv: “For the love of god JUST FUCK ME ALREADY”

-Nv: “What? Alright, geeze all you had to do was ask.”

As trusting as V is, she's an amazing soldier. Her ex military father has been training her to kill people and protect their clan since she was six. She killed her first human at 9 years old.

Due to this while she is a friendly, happy person when she's in a fight or during a mission, she becomes a cold and calculated person, all emotion wiping from her face. She makes quick, decisive decisions, cutting her enemies down at the knees before they have a chance to fight back.

She's a brutal shot with her sniper rifle, knows her way around precision rifle and is deadly with knives both as a close range and throwing weapon.

Vic has a tactical brain/training and is always planning. Its instinct by now. Planning the exits to a room, the quickest way to take down any possible assailants, an enemys open weak points. She takes pride in her skills as a soldier as she sees it as her way of protecting/providing for her family.

As outgoing a person she is she sometimes goes too far when in 'work mode' and needs Hiro to be her moral compass/pull her back.

Her ways of tackling missions is finding a snipers nest and waiting patiently until the perfect moment presents itself, no longer how long that takes. Plus a healthy dose of stealth and pinpoint accuracy.

It takes a lot to push her to revenge but if you threaten her family, she will pick you, your backup, adult (v doesnt touch kids.) family and resources apart methodically, patiently and brutally until your the last one standing. Then she will let you stew, waiting for her final shot. It could come immediately, a week later or even a month

[ghostiewriter]

meet theodore montgomery | character inspection

This is an insight into Theodore Montgomery, a character commonly used within my outer banks fanfictions. He’s portrayed as Pope’s boyfriend, and to save myself from having to explain his personality in each piece of work, I decided to make this post where you could learn all you like about Theo and still enjoy the fanfics he’s in!

Theodore Montgomery is a loveable, coffee-addicted teddy bear that stole the heart of Pope Heyward. He grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his mother. His father in and out due to his work in the military, however, when Theo was 8 years old, he lost his father in the line of duty. Theo tried to hold onto the good memories he had of his father, but the loss of a father figure in his life did has some lasting effects. It definitely made him a much more protective, cautious person in relationships. It takes him a while to get close to people, but once he does, he is a very affectionate and caring person who has no shame in expressing how he feels.

In most pieces of work, Theo will either be someone who has moved to Outer Banks or will be someone that Pope has met during college. His interest lies with Art History, which is very clear when you see his general aesthetic. He wouldn’t say he’s prestigious but he definitely has a lot of opinions. He is generally quite outspoken and extroverted, the type of person that thrives being the centre of attention.

Theo and Pope’s relationship is almost like the definition of “opposite’s attract”. Unlike Pope who struggled to accept and figure out who he was in such a small, judgemental town where uncertainty was seen as a weakness, Theo always had a sense of surety in his identity. It was an odd concept for him, that realisation at a fairly young age that these feelings he had weren’t deemed as “normal” at the time. Luckily with such an accepting mother, he had a safe environment to find himself and figure out who he was. It is something he is incredibly grateful for, and he wished his boyfriend had a similar experience. However, Pope has definitely grown and learnt to accept himself better with the help of Theo, who acted as a strong support system for him.

Theo did struggle slightly trying to fit into the Pogue dynamic. He didn’t want to oppose, but Pope was adamant that he fit in with his best friends. Theo was worried that his relationship with Pope would change when they were around his friends—an insecurity which developed after a few bad relationships—but he was pleasantly shocked to find out that Pope’s friends were very different. It took a little bit of working out but Theo soon felt like he had comfortably fit into Pope’s life just as well as he did with his.

Also a few wee random facts about Theo: he is sucker for young adult fantasy books, Jacob Black from The Twilight Saga was his gay awakening, he is a big dessert person, his favourite colour is yellow and if he had to be stuck on an island with any celebrity it would have to be Ryan Reynolds or Will Smith.

Theo is known to have quite a strong personality which can be a bit off-putting at first. It’s just that he has a lot of emotions and has always been taught to express them as he sees fit. He knows he can seem like quite a lot at first, but he would like to think it’s all a part of his charm. Once you get to know him and befriend him, you will see how caring and protective he can be. He lost his father at a young age, it gave him slightly commitment issues and so sometimes it can take a while but if you’re friends with Theo, then he sees it as a long-time contract. You guys are in this together now, no getting out of it. It sounds daunting but he can be a bit clingy. He’s one of the best friends you’ll ever have, blindly loyal and will follow you to the end of the world.

He is aware of his flaws though. He is stubborn beyond belief, and I mean it when I say that this boy has a memory like no one’s business. He may not hold a grudge for long but he will remember every way you’ve wronged him. And if you get into an argument with him? Well, good luck buddy, because he will be bringing up any sort of wrongdoing from three years ago. It took him a while to find that self-love and realise his own worth, and now that he has it? He won’t be letting go of it anytime soon.

He naturally an extroverted person, constantly being able to talk and entertain anyone no matter where he is. He believes that is one of the things that attracted Pope to him, beyond his own intellectuality (even if he isn’t as scientifically and analytically viewed as Pope). Theo loves to be the person to make people smile and laugh and think and just have a generally good time. It goes quite healthily with Pope’s much more subdued vibe.

Overall, Theo seems like the type of person who would be quiet, sombre and generally keeps to himself. Hate to tell you that you are wrong. Theo has a large, expressive soul that he most definitely isn’t keeping hidden. But he is a loyal, trustworthy friend who you can trust with your life.

In terms of overall relationships, Theo is fairly well off. Even to strangers, he is always acting as though he has known the person for longer than five minutes. He does his best to make sure no one feels awkward or uncomfortable, even if you are passing him in the street or have been his best friend for three years. Theo thrives to make sure that it’s a mutually rewarding relationship between you two.

In his more personal relationships, it’s deeper than this. His relationship with his mother is one that he views as very important. His mother is his best friend, and he has no shame in admitting that. For a very long time, they only had each other. Theo learnt very quickly that no matter what happened, his mother was one of the few constants in his life, and he never took it for granted. Cassie Montgomery is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet in your life. She is always happy and smiley, going out of her way to bake people cookies and help out at local charities when she isn’t working. She is literally an angel and Theo couldn’t be prouder to call her his mother.

His relationship with Pope is one that would surprise people. Due to the contrasting personalities and interests, people tend to assume that they clash a lot—art vs science? Never a good combination in people’s eyes. But Pope and Theo exceed those expectations. They just click. Opposites attract and all that jazz. Theo helped bring out a more expressive, open side to Pope. His sexuality was definitely a struggle to come to terms with whilst growing up in a small town where your business was everyone’s business and breaking from the norm was like social suicide. But with Theo, all these feelings and struggles felt…insignificant. He validated all emotions, made him realise that these fears and worries were not worth risking his happiness and hiding who wants to be. And Pope helped be Theo’s anchor (not in a teen wolf way, lads, Theo ain’t a werewolf). Theo is known to have his thoughts run, his mind go wild and his life just be put on high speed. But it’s Pope that puts a hand on his shoulder and helps him calm down, stay grounded and in the moment. Their relationship is one of the purest and equal ones you could ever ask for, and it’s beautiful.

Theo’s relationship with the Pogues is an interesting one. It took some time but Theo found it easy to slip into the dynamic. Sarah was definitely the easiest for Theo to really get to know and bond with. She was on the same level as him with his extravagance, and it was amazing to talk to someone about different broadways and musicals—Pope was never a huge fan, even though he pretended to be. John B was just happy to see Pope happy, and so he instantly took a liking to Theo. It took him a while to get used to the hugs—Pope didn’t lie when he said JB was an affectionate guy—but he knew that John B was someone who you could always rely on. Kiara took a little bit more effort than the other two, purely because she just didn’t want Pope to get hurt. Theo was the first boyfriend Pope had ever brought to the Pogues, Kiara just wanted to make sure that Theo was as into the relationship as Pope was. Once she saw the love between them, she gave Theo the greenlight and happily accepted him. JJ was quite difficult as well. Theo was this city boy—a little too kook-like for JJ just to accept him right away. Gradually, he saw how happy Theo made Pope, how much brighter and cheery Pope was, and realised that Theo was a genuine guy. After that, Theo was accepted into the Pogues’ dynamic with no problem.

In terms of physical health, Theo has few issues. He is quite fit—not a huge fan of exercising but he does enjoy running or basic cardio, especially when he is stressed or in the need to clear his mind. He is also quite a picky eater (that is also because he has a few allergies), so in terms of his diet, it is very consistent and healthy. However, he does suffer from asthma (which is somewhat ironic with his hobby of running) but it was far more serious when he was younger. As he got older, it became less of an issue. It only tends to get bad when it’s particularly cold or he is has been doing some serious exercise. Otherwise, Theo remains physically healthy.

His mental health is a little different. It isn’t the most obvious thing necessarily when you meet Theo or see his ostentatious personality, but he has dealt with a general anxiety disorder for majority of his life. He has an annoying wee habit of constantly overthinking and feeling the need to prove himself. It was something that affected him as a child and still does now. Over the years and having went to therapists and councillors, he has learnt better ways to deal with all these emotions and thoughts. There are still days where it’s particularly bad, but he is grateful that he has people like his mother and Pope who understand what he is going through and do whatever they can to help him through the bad days.

Theodore Montgomery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 31st July on a bright, summer morning. He was the only child of Cassie and Richard Montgomery, but he was their pride and joy. A bright and jolly kid, he rarely cried and caused any ruckus—except during meal times, the picky eater within him was there from a young age. Life was great for the Montgomery’s for the first few years of Theo’s life, fine and dandy until his dad got shipped off again for duty. It was a hard concept for him to grasp onto as a child but one he got used too—dad being away for months and then coming home for a few more before he was shipped away again. It was a routine young Theo had grasped onto.

What he didn’t really understand was when his mother opened the door and the man on the other side wasn’t his father, they wore the same clothes but this was not his dad. Admittedly, explaining the situation to Theo was much harder than actually receiving the news. It was hard for Theo to realise that his father wasn’t coming back. It was harder when he heard all the other kids talk about their dads on father’s day and such.

It was hard but he had his mother to help him through it, and he helped her.

This was also around the time where Theo’s struggles with anxiety and panic attacks were prominent. His mother put him in therapy quite early on and it was definitely something he appreciated in the long-term, even if he didn’t at the time.

Overall, his experience of school was a rocky one. He enjoyed elementary and middle school—he was a bright boy and never had issues with the academic side of things. It was near the end of middle school and his transition into high school where problems began to arise. Hey, teenagers can be really fucking mean and these ones were no different. There was a variety of things he was picked on for, and though he tried to not let it get to him, it was the fake friends that really bothered him. These ‘friends’ that were just pretending to mock him and whatnot, set him up with a guy just to humiliate him and so on. It was really fucking mean. He was happy to escape.

Depending on the timeline of the works Theo is in, his story goes generally in two directions. For his senior year, he transfers to Kildare County High School where he eventually meets Pope and the rest of the gang. Or more commonly, he doesn’t meet Pope until college where they both attend Boston University, with Theo studying Art History and Pope doing a Biomedical Forensic Science degree before medical school. Theo’s first encounter was seeing Pope on the other side of the communal courtyard where he was giving a fellow student some serious side glare and from that moment Theo just knew this boy was the one for him.

And the rest is in the fics!

[cutebutstillsingle]

... you mean designed to be deleted because the people at @Hinge are not the brightest crayons in the box?

I violated nothing, let me assure you. I have a master’s degree, I’m a perfectly upstanding citizen who was genuinely on Hinge hoping to engage in some harmless socialization with good men.  I wasn't even on there with the intention of seeking a romantic relationship after learning from my last bf (found on Hinge) that shit can’t be moving too quickly. You really gotta take your time with dudes these days. 

So here’s what went down when I reactivated my Hinge account this time, in 2021... 

Within one week of firing up a Hinge account I got Catfished and lied to three times. The first was by a person who didn’t mention they had children, until the baby showed up on the video date-from-home chat. Second, by a guy who looked nothing like his fucking pictures OK? Homie was a good 200 pounds bigger than the person in the photograph, looked nothing like the person in the photo except by maybe ethnicity, and even during the date-from-home video he refused to ever put the camera lower than to allow me to see the top third of his face, while blaming the strange angle on the lighting.  And then, the third, and the worst —I got tooth-fished. By which I mean unfortunately the dude was legit missing multiple front teeth. Which of course did not come across in his photos on his Hinge profile.

No offense to anyone toothless out there, but if you are toothless in your 30s and beyond, you should know by that age to get some dental work done. And if you’re cruising around hiding the fact that you’re the father of a toddler, or that you’re 200 pounds heavier than the photos you choose to put on your dating profile, I don’t know what to say about your mental stability and/or social intelligence. Except that you are lying.  You’re lying to the people on Hinge and you’re lying to yourself and in profound denial about your true state. 

To make a long story short, I’m sure it was one of these guys I had to un-hinge from who likely reported fake violations and got my account shut down. 

But getting banned Hinge did make me realize that as a woman, we need to craft our profile much more mindfully.  Because apparently at any moment’s notice you can get banned by the app without a reason, investigation, or warning.  And God only knows  who’s “reporting” your profile, or what is happening to your information and photographs.  For all you know, the 300 pound creepers with kids they’re hiding and no teeth are screenshooting all of your information, and doing who the hell knows with it. There is theoretically nothing stopping a creepy ass dude from taking all of your photos and turning them into another fake profile or throwing it up on some other website. Who the hell knows what any of these social media apps do with the world’s photos and information, is the point. 

That being said, here is my advice: 

-Leave  off any obvious identifiers that would easily allow yourself to be noticed in public if you don’t want the bitter rejected gentleman callers to be able to spot me in public. Or sex traffickers. Real talk. Listen up, ladies. 

- leave your rare breed pets off the account.

- leave all kids’ faces off dating profiles. I don’t even know how it’s legal for dating sites to allow children’s faces on them; even if it is your very own child, that’s not the point.  The reality is that sex traffickers can memorize you, screenshot that photo, and stalk you and your child at Walmart. Sex trafficking is so real in my state. It is a MAJOR problem. 

- Never, ever  feature your car on your dating profile. This should be sound advice for men, too. I know you males love to floss your vehicles cause dudes are obsessed with cars-- yeah maybe stop doing that. 

- For the love of god never, ever put your last name on a dating profile & maybe even shorten your first name or deliberately misspell a rare name so that stalkers don’t background check yo ass.  If they ask you “is that your real name?” let them believe whatever they want.  The only people who are safe to put a complete name on a dating site are men in the military. Because they know how to operate firearms and how to engage in hand-to-hand combat when they’re in a situation of danger.  The average woman? Not so much. Even those of you men who ARE soldier dads-- don’t put your firs and last name on that shit and make your children vulnerable to sex traffickers. 

- Don’t give people locational details, tell them where you work, or what businesses you own. You can say what industry you work in; so something like “Jenny. Teacher at Public School”. A guy who owns a very specifically-named health bar/ smoothie bowl business in my city told me he was the owner of what he claimed was a family business.  And he failed to realize that he is mixing business and personal life with complete strangers from the internet. If he makes a poor impression, or we don’t end up vibing, I can’t ever go into that business ever again, yenno? And I really like that business. So I made it clear that I would prolly not pursue anything. And I suggested he not tell girls the name of his (family) business, for the business’ sake. 

- Never use your actual phone number as you are getting to know guys from dating sites. Two words: google voice. if you meet up IRL and he is safe & cool, then he may earn your real number thereafter.

- Be extra cautious with travelers. Many men vacation-date. Hell, I’ve vacation-dated, many times (domestically, not internationally).  And you do not know who those fools really are. They could be married. They could have criminal records. Not only are they complete strangers but they are complete strangers from different states. Pay attention to the details they give you. for example, I was talking to a guy on Hinge who said he was a doctor. And then he said he got a Covid test from CVS in order to prepare for his trip to my state. His hometown listed one location, and then he said he lived in another state. I’m the kind of woman who pays attention to these kinds of details. If the man is a medical doctor, why would he need a Covid test from CVS? Would he not be able to get one from the hospital he works at??? Why is Hinge more concerned about people’s ‘hometown’ then they are with someone’s city of residence, yenno? Just me? 

Anyway, I hope these safety tips keep you safer out there as you navigate the treacherous seas of online dating. And now you all know that Hinge will spontaneously delete your account at random if they feel like it.  Maybe Hinge deleting my account unfairly is a blessing in disguise...

[datingintampafails]

Chapter 30: Richard*

Let me start by saying, nothing is wrong with Richard*. I match with Richard* right as the nightmare that is “the microwave” has come to a close. Now that I am mere days away from being fully vaccinated, I break the rules a little bit to give myself a headstart before I am able to actually go on the dates. I figure, what is the harm in working on getting back out there? I send a “Like” to him on Hinge, inquiring about a prompt that mentions he had broken both of his arms. The next morning, I get a reply with the story. After discussing that series of events briefly, he goes on to ask more about me and the video games I play. I step on my soapbox for a time. He tells me that he plays a video game called League of Legends, which has a reputation for having some of the most toxic players online. I ask him half-jokingly if that is his way of telling me he is toxic. He swears by his alibi of not having his microphone on when he plays with strangers, so as to not be tempted. We reminisce about Runescape, and he tells me more about some of the games he plays.

We get into the topic of pets, where he says my dog seems nice. I ask him if he has any pets where I am surprised to learn he has two snakes. We talk briefly about what it’s like having snakes, and we segue onto a conversation about television shows due to my dog having a character’s name in a show he watches, which then segued into a conversation about having coronavirus, and travel, and my changes in taste since aforementioned COVID-19.

I narrate to him a conversation I’m having with my best friend about the show of the moment, “Bridgerton,” on Netflix. Pretty randomly, he officially asks me out for drinks. I tell him I have a caveat, that it needs to be next week, as at this time I am still technically not supposed to be dating yet since I am awaiting my second COVID-19 vaccination. I make a joke that I bet he thought I was going to say I had a penis. He jokes back that he was hoping I would. I continue a joke saying I am pretty sure I don’t have one, but if I do have one it’s extremely small. We learn that we have opposing schedules, “we suck” is how I put it. I offer that in the meantime, we can text/call/video chat in order to continue getting to know each other. He sends me his number though offers that we can talk with a “different method.” Being the jester I am, I turn this into a joke of seeing how many alternate methods I can think of. A good sport, he plays along and adds a few of his own, ending in “Mongolian throat singing.” Despite the ingenious ideas we come up with, I opt to stick to contact him via text message.

Upon texting him and seeing my area code, he recognizes it as his cousins lived in that area. He grew up a couple of hours away in rural Maryland. It is late, so our transition to text is brief for now. In the morning I challenge him regarding who woke up the earliest; I win this challenge due to having a call in at work at four in the morning. We then bond over the legendary Mountain Dew Game Fuel, Citrus Cherry, that would come out at game releases; once my favorite drink, being reminded of its existence brought me anger and sadness, which I expressed I was feeling to him. We are getting along so famously, that I decided maybe I can make an exception to seeing him before my vaccine. He says he is fine either way. We start to plan our date and settle on a brewery I like near me.

Much of our texts are light-hearted jabs at each other, nothing super deep. He compliments my quirks often. He often makes jokes about having a smooth brain and sends me many diagrams. He tells me about his major in college. I then realize I don’t know what he does for a living. I ask him what his job is, that’s when he tells me he is in the Army. The stereotype for men in the military is that they usually get engaged quickly, without knowing a person for very long. Being the jokester I am, I take this opportunity to jab at him. My response to his career is, “oh sorry I don’t want to get married next month.” He says that that is why he doesn't have his job in his profile, because of the stereotypes. I joke that I have been misled to believe he had been a chill down to earth guy.

When it is the day of the date, I jokingly keep saying I am going to wear an evening gown; I mention it a couple times. When I arrive, in my skirt and crop top, I see he’s actually dressed pretty nicely and is sitting outside, wearing long khaki pants and a dress shirt. It is a decently warm day, so I hope he's okay. I compliment him, saying he looks nice and he didn't need to dress up for me. He admits that because I kept talking about the evening gown, that he thought I might have been serious, so he wanted to match my formality. I do notice over the course of the date though that he is sweating through his shirt, especially at the underarms; not the most attractive, but a person cannot help these things.

The conversation goes well, we have a nice time and I regale him with the drama in my video game community and just talk about random things. I have a couple drinks and although we weren't planning on eating dinner there, he ends up eating a burger and I opt to just "steal some fries" since I had a late lunch. He is craving dessert so we walk a block to a local ice cream place and get some ice cream as well. When we return back to where the cars were, I realize that he had Ubered there, because another joke of mine was taken seriously regarding getting super drunk. I feel bad and offer to drive him home. We get in my car and I have him put in his address into Google Maps. I drive him there and when approaching his apartment, I see a lot of construction. He instructs me where I can drop him off and suggests that I turn around in a certain lot. He gives me a hug goodbye and I drive off.

I get completely confused and lost in the construction, between closed streets and cones blocking lanes, so I get stuck in the vicinity of his apartment for five minutes before being able to find my way back to the main road. I let him know of my troubles driving, and also when I got home. He thanks me for going out and says he had a great time. Whereas I also had a good time, I found it strange he made no moves whatsoever during the night and I didn't really feel a romantic urge with him.

I get my second COVID-19 Vaccine and take a day off to recover. We still talk at least daily while he is away on his trip; while he is gone I focus a little more on the other guy I am chatting with, John*. I've told my mom of my predicament between the two men, and between her and I, I decided I'll go out with Richard* again, give him another chance. If things still aren't progressing or feelings startup, I will end it and entirely focus on John*.

Richard* asks me when he can see me again and offers to cook for me. I give him my Friday night, which is a day after I am seeing John* again as well. On Thursday, he texts me to verify, saying "I'd like to see you tomorrow, did you still want to do dinner?" I told him I meant to confirm that day. We don't talk besides that, which is good for me because I don't have to worry about getting texts from him when I'm with someone else. The day of my second date with Richard*, I text him to ask for his address again and ask for suggestions on parking, since the construction was such a fiasco for me, I'm still traumatized lightly. He tells me and after a few hours, I get some complicated news regarding my gaming community, so I ask Richard* if I can reschedule to tomorrow, Saturday. He says it is fine and so we just chat for the rest of the day.

On the day our date will actually happen, he again seems to verify the date, asking me if I'm planning on coming over "today." I snarkily replied, "yeah I don't bail, you said 730." He asks me what I want to drink, as he must be grocery shopping. I panic and say seltzers. I take a quick nap and then let him know I am headed to his apartment. When I arrive, I try to follow his parking suggestions but get confused and don't see anything. After driving around for over five minutes, I start to panic as I don't see anything. I find a random gravel lot that is in earshot of where I had dropped him off on the first date, and I call to admit defeat. I send him a photo as well to show where I am. He comes out to find me and almost walks past my car. I flash my high beams at him to indicate it's me and he hops in the car. We drive around a few minutes and luck upon a spot that is close to one of the side entrances to his apartment complex.

I follow him to his apartment, he is again dressed nicely, and I am wearing more comfortable clothes. He is wearing a nice shirt, but with jeans. We get to his apartment and it is slightly better than a typical bachelor pad, but definitely not overly showy. He is still finishing up dinner, chicken pad thai, and he gets me out a white claw to drink. We chat briefly but he starts acting weird, just off. I just sit in his gaming chair and spin around, look at his one snake, and stay quiet. In a way, I am fine with the silence, as it solidifies my unease about this going anywhere. He eventually speaks up, saying he just got a killer headache and isn't feeling well. Due to his travels, I joke about him having coronavirus.

When the food is ready, I let him serve me, I tell him to go light as I don't eat much. He had talked a lot of game regarding his pad thai being good, and unfortunately, it was pretty disappointing. He used chicken thighs, which I am not a huge fan of, and the noodles seemed almost soggy. Richard* was aware of this, however, and commented that this wasn't his best dish and had used a new kind of noodles. I don't like and say that it's just alright, at least palatable. We watch some Brooklyn 99 and eat on his couch, sitting on opposite sides of the couch. After dinner, I get an official introduction to the snakes and get to pet them, it is bizarre, but kind of cool. Definitely not as fun as playing with, say, a dog. Shortly after that, I say it's getting late and I should probably go home. He walks me back to my car, which is a need since his complex is a maze. Again, he makes no moves and gives me a hug goodbye. For me, it's easy to see that something isn't quite right here. We chat briefly, for the next few days, as I'm not ready to immediately break his heart.

When he texts me four days after our date, explicitly saying the following, I see it is a perfect opportunity to come clean:

He took things very well, and I didn't hear from him again. I commend myself for being a real human and telling people how I feel, rather than ghosting and not giving others closure. I wish more conversations could go this way. I feel bad for the guy. It isn’t his fault that I ended up “playing the game” and doing what you’re supposed to do when you’re dating, which is, not to get stuck on one person and date around. It just so happens, he ended up being the one I obviously didn’t like as much and had to sacrifice for his own good. It’s possible that only due to my extreme attraction to the other guy, that he never had a chance as it was shadowed by my feelings for someone else.

[whitleyschn33]

Ozpin and Ruby: Hypocrisy (Probably a Rant)

Yeah, you probably knew this was coming - as a fan of Ozpin that was very much not happy with how he was treated during the later half of V6, you can probably guess that I had a very bitter taste in my mouth when only 2 episodes in, Ruby told the exact same lies for the exact same reasons as Oz and the FNDM started trying to find every possible way that that wasn’t true, that obviously “Ruby is far more justified and has far better reasons to do so” than Ozpin did, and therefore not being hypocritical. 

Yeah, that’s a crock of BS, and I will go on to explain why in a bit, but first, got to make something clear.

As of right now, this isn’t necessarily an example of hypocrisy yet (stressing that yet there). As of now, there hasn’t been any episodes out to follow up on the thought process of Ruby in this and no chance for her to explain why she did it, so there is a chance that she will connect her reasons for doing this to Oz’s reasons to what he did, and realize that Ozpin was right (or at least justified) in not letting them in on every detail, which would mark this a sign of growth in Ruby’s worldview and a step towards reconciliation with Ozpin, rather than hypocrisy at its finest. 

However - the way that the stolen ship was handled (which I’m also itching to rant about) and the fact that there was no set-up to Ruby learning that Ozpin had reasons to do what he did (no talking with him, no example of trust backfiring in her face, nothing that would indicate her perspective of “we deserve to know everything involved” has flipped to “sometimes it’s necessary to be cautious with information”) makes me pessimistic on how this is going to be handled. The track record of the show so far makes me feel like this going to be played as an “It’s okay when we do it, and it’s totally justified cause we’re the protagonists” moment rather than a “Okay, we now see why it would feel necessary to lie or hold back information” moment of growth, and that makes my blood boil. I could be wrong, I hope I’m wrong, but as of writing this, I don’t have a lot of faith.

That being said, let’s get into the arguments (and if I miss one or you have another one, lay it on me).

The main one I’ve seen is that “The gang can’t trust Ironwood, so that makes them lying to him justified, but Oz should trust RWBY, so him lying is wrong and inexcusable.” That’s bull, though - Ozpin has no reason to trust RWBY whatsoever. We know that they’re (theoretically) trustworthy since they’re the protagonists, but from Oz’s point of view, these are just a bunch of random teenagers that Qrow dragged to his safe house and expected him to explain everything to, despite Ozpin not bringing any of them into the loop himself. With Team RNJR, he’s only familiar with Ruby’s background, and only met her at the beginning of the school year - JNR are all complete strangers he’s had no chance to vet. Weiss, Yang, and Blake literally just show up and attach themselves to the party - they all volunteer or invite themselves into the inner circle, and then expect Ozpin to trust them completely when he has no reason to. That’s what I think a lot of people forget - they volunteered for this. Ozpin didn’t seek them out; they showed up with Qrow and volunteered to help - volunteering before they could possibly know everything there is to know. Ozpin doesn’t trust them, and he has every right not to. We’ve seen firsthand that Oz is constantly betrayed, even by people he does come to trust and bring in. Lionheart is someone that Oz has known for decades, but still betrayed him the moment Salem came for him - while coming off the sting of that, why would he do something so foolish as to put his faith in these random teenagers? JNR and Blake in particular are people that he knows next to nothing about, and all have gaps in their pasts or faked records - any one of them could been an agent of Salem. RWBY and Co may not be able to trust Ironwood for good reasons, but Oz has equally good reasons for not trusting them. 

Another one I’ve seen is that “Team RWBY is risking their lives doing this - they deserve to know everything”. To which my response would be, well, that’s not entirely true. Ozpin has never actually lead them into a conflict zone. Haven was meant to be a safe place to recover and begin rebuilding defenses, I’ve already explained why the Grimm attack isn’t Ozpin’s fault, and everything that goes down in Argus is on tRWBY. The only thing Ozpin haves them do is continue training and hang around while they make sure the lantern is secure - Lionheart was supposed to be an ally, Haven was meant to be a haven. Ozpin has never asked them to head into the line of fire - all he’s asked is they learn and play defense while at Haven. 

But alright, though, I’ll play that game. Assuming that them risking their lives is true, then doesn’t Ironwood deserve to know everything? He’s not only risked his own life all this time, but as the head of the Atlesian military and currently concocting a plan that will draw the lives of all of Remnant into this conflict, shouldn’t he be told everything they know that could possibly be pertinent? Before Ruby lies to him, Ironwood has just laid out a plan that will throw Remnant into chaos and panic and result in many deaths, all for the end goal of finally mustering enough strength to destroy Salem - phrased another way, his entire plan hinges on the idea that whatever consequences that happen will be worth it when they destroy Salem. Ruby then proceeds to lie and not tell him about the part where them learning that, for all intents and purposes at this moment, Salem can not be destroyed is what drove Ozpin away. That is extremely important information that Ironwood, if for no other reason, needs to know since it’s the motivation behind everything he’s doing. At this moment, Ironwood has far more need to know this information than tRWBY ever has since he’s actually about to put himself, his military, and all the people of Remnant in the line of fire and the chaos of panic, but Ruby doesn’t tell him because.... why? She doesn’t trust him because of what’s happening in Mantle, which is being fueled by Ironwood’s current plan which she has the information to dissuade him from? Then telling him would be the right choice, and it wouldn’t come of as massively hypocritical. Gah, this entire situation is dumb.

Then there’s the fact that the first thing she lies about isn’t about the Relic, isn’t about what they’ve learned - it’s about why Oz isn’t there. Ironwood wants to speak with Oz, and Ruby lies about why that isn’t possible. You can make the argument that she’s lying to protect the last Relic question, or protect the information that Salem isn’t able to be destroyed, but that’s not what she’s directly lying about, those are a few steps down the line. What she initially lies about is why Ozpin isn’t present, and she practically cuts Oscar off to do so - and that comes off so much like her trying to hide what they did to Ozpin, and honestly? That’s what really makes me mad, because they have no right to hide that. If they’re so certain that what they did was right and justified, why hide it? Why cover it up? Is it possible you realize using the Relic against his will to dig into his past and trauma and then, when he was on the ground and crying after you forced him to relieve his own deaths and the death of his children, attacking him about it was a shitty thing to do? It feels so much like trying to hide what they did so they won’t face the consequences, and after all they did to Opzin for not telling them all of his mistakes and trauma? It’s so insanely hypocritical that I want to scream. 

Speaking of the Relic - lying about the Relic now, are you, Ruby? But I thought that was a no-no - after all, you all freaked out when you realized that Ozpin lied about the number of questions left and that was the driving motive for you to use the Relic on him. Why is it okay for you to do that when it wasn’t okay for Oz? “Well, we can’t trust Ironwood to not waste it/use it poorly -” Great! You just realized why Ozpin didn’t tell you! He couldn’t trust you all either, especially when the first thing y’all did after learning what it was was start trying to come up with questions to ask. So, same reason!

As I’m sure you can tell, the more I talk about this, the more ticked I get. All the justifications Ruby could have for lying to Ironwood are the same reasons Ozpin would have, but honestly worse, since it comes off as them not giving Ironwood the information he would need to stop his disastrous plan and hiding their own sins. It all seems so incredibly hypocritical, and if we don’t some kind of follow-up discussion of all of this, it will be. I want to think that CRWBY will find a way to make this a moment of growth and understanding, but they failed to properly set that up when Ruby switches from “we deserve to know everything” to “it’s okay to lie to people you don’t trust” without any reason that she may have come to change her mind on this between those two actions, and so far, the show hasn’t been batting a hundred with showing any consequences for the team doing something stupid. I want to be hopeful, but for now, it’s just left me feeling incredibly bitter.

Probably a poor way to end this, but I’m technically in class, and I feel like if I rant any longer, it will devolve into incoherent rambling, so - let’s just end it here.

[pernatius]

Lost in Space Part 6: Ch 4

Ch 3

Summary: With the fate of the universe resting in her hands, an unnamed Space Explorer and Saamuki first must find Syco to get back their friends.

Lost in Space on Tumblr

Lost in Space on ao3

“There’s a computer chip attached to the back of her head and there’s also an address somewhere embedded in it. I want you to find the address without hurting her and the chip sending any signals.”

Leaning forward and resting his hands on his thighs, he sternly looks at Saamuki. Saamuki looks back unphased by the change in character. “That’s not too much of a task, but, Saamuki, this is a human. You know that and you also know that her homeworld just got detained. That, of course, should mean all of humanity is being tried as we speak. If they find out one is missing and that she’s in our hands, your hands especially-”

“Don’t worry. We’ve been careful, Sakhra.”

“I hope for the sake of the two of us you are. For your sister’s sake, I hope so. I don’t have the same obligation towards you as I did with her, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have morals. I’ll do my best. I won’t ask why, but I could only hope it’s the safest route for you.”

“I owe you again, Sakhra.”

“Let’s hope this is the last time you will.”

Another surprise is that Sakhra had things other than rocks, a hyper-realistic painting of what I later learned is of a deceased lover and a random splotch of green in this muddy colored setting that rested between the two couches. He has quilts that depicted what I assume to be ancient history. White-colored beasts breathed out golden flames onto a town. The townspeople reacted by either throwing spears or running away screaming. Interestingly, the former have similar red symbols as the ones Sakhra just painted on. Death is depicted as well. There are symbols off to the side, also similar to the symbols on him, that I assume are explaining in depth what’s happening in the various images. Again, I’m unable to read the alien language. My now rock ally mounted them over the windows and ceiling. That’s not to say he’s a ten-foot giant. He used a ladder for that part. Then, moved aside the couch he was sitting on, which revealed a translucent screen. Some typing and clicks later and he’s walking towards us with the screen and has his eyes on me. Motioning me to turn the other way, which has me to look into Saamuki’s eyes for reassurance, I do so after I get the needed response. Still, that doesn’t stop the quickened pace of my heart. I’m trusting a stranger I’ve only met once before, but even with that instance, I’ve only known this man for an hour. In that hour we haven’t shared any words. It’s only now we’re sharing looks. 

“This shouldn’t take that,” he interrupts himself as he kneels, “Actually, no. This might take a bit. There’s been some code added.”

“Complex code,” Saamuki added. 

“For the inexperienced, yes. It’s nothing I can’t handle. It’s similar to the type of code used for military personnel. No, actually, it’s much more similar to what Space Pirates use.”

“That’s not surprising.”

“I’m not going to ask, but it is worrying that you now have a connection with Space Pirates. Well, a deeper connection now. Ah, I got it.”

She grabs the screen from him. “That was a lot faster than I expected.”

“You’re surprised, yet you came to me? Wait.” Still turned away, I get the sense his face turned pale. 

In the corner of my eye, I see Saamuki smiling at the screen. I’m not surprised I can’t read any of it. 

As her eyes move further down the line of alien symbols, her smile fades. “Wait. Why there? Why is he there?” She looks at Sakhra then looks at me as if either of us knows something she doesn’t. She looks at me like she’s expecting me to tell her there are cameras hidden everywhere and I and Sakhra have been planning this prank for weeks. Like she was then expecting our friends to come any minute now with streamers, confetti, and laughter. “Syco is above my dead homeworld.”

With her grip loosened, the screen falls from her hands. Sakhra catches it before it can hit the floor and shatter. “Syco? Why in the universe are you connected with the man that started the second war. It’s because of him our supplies are low. We’re both criminals, yes, but even those on this world don’t claim him. By now even most Space Pirates wish not to associate with him as well.”

“I thought you weren’t going to ask,” she snapped. 

“And I thought you quit drinking, Saamuki.”

“If you weren’t at that barbaric ceremony that I’m certain my sister has made it clear to you she hated as well then I would’ve kept my promise. Besides, it was only one drink.”

“Firstly, no one else knew she hated it besides the two of us. It would look suspicious if I didn’t go. Also, I had to go for other reasons. Secondly, you might not be as intoxicated as last time, but that doesn’t mean you’re no longer a lightweight drinker. I’m going to get you some water and maybe medicine if I still have any before you get even fussier.”

He got up and left the room. A late huff came out of Saamuki with a shout, “I don’t get fussy!”

Not too long after he came back with a glass of water and a small patch of what I presumed was the medicine he mentioned. He placed both in front of her. She looked up at him, offended, and then snatched both from his hands. My serpent-like companion peeled back the plastic from the patch and stuck the pink square onto her right arm as she gulped down the water. “I’m not owing you for this, but that doesn’t exactly mean I’m not thankful.”

After letting out a snicker, he takes the empty glass and replies, “No need. You having to suck it up and admit I’m smarter is payment enough.”

“I didn’t say anything like that.”

Teasingly he voices out, “That being I have more up here than you.”  He taps the side of his head. “No, Saamuki, you didn’t say it, but you did admit it the moment you chose to see me again.”

She gets up and grabs my hand. “We’re leaving.”

As she turns around and wraps her hand around the doorknob, he grabs its wrist. “No, you’re not. Saamuki, I’m not exactly sure what you’re planning to do, but what I am sure is that I can’t let you do it because it means getting yourself entangled with Syco even more.”

“You’re trying to stop me? I’m an adult, Sakhra. It should be physically obvious I’m a fully grown woman now. You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do anymore. I thought the last time we spoke had you finally see-”

“See what? The last time we spoke it cemented the fact you haven’t grown yet. You’re still a child, Saamuki.”

It felt weird watching this familiar circumstance as a third party. I kept my eye on Saamuki, but I so desperately wanted to just run out of there without her in hand before the future I know is going to happen becomes the present. 

Exploding, yanking her hand free from the doorknob and his grip, she turns around and jabs a finger into his chest. “You don’t know shit about how much it hurt me and you definitely don’t know shit about being an adult. Sure, okay, maybe I don’t act like one here and there, but I could tell you for sure I know I did at that moment. At that time I would’ve risked her life. If the same were to happen right now I’d still be risking her life. It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve made in my entire life and it would’ve been childish for me not to do otherwise. Now I’m making another one. I’m going to do what’s best for everyone and even you, a sad excuse for a father, whether you let me or not.”

“Saamuki,” I begged for her to stop. 

Ignoring me, “You always try to talk all big, but that’s just to overcompensate for your insecurities. You’re projecting onto me because I was able to do what you couldn’t do. Maybe I would’ve ended up like your wife, dead, and what would’ve been the father of our kid would’ve ended up like you, grubbling for love from a man that only used him for his lustful desires. Maybe he’d take care of his painting better than you by getting less handsy on it.”

Everything has blown out of proportion. I wish I could’ve acted quick enough, but I still grab both of her shoulders and ask for her to stop before what’s even left can be blown away too. She’s still heated, but I get the sense she went down a few pegs by the look in her eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” Sakhra apologized. 

I let go of Saamuki and turn around to him.

She asks, “What?” 

“I’m sorry, Saamuki, for everything. Yeah, you’re right I am projecting onto you. I’m jealous of you. My wife and I knew too late about the complications. Both of them are now dead and I couldn’t do anything about it, but even as I grew jealous I still helped you do it because I care about you, Saamuki. You and your sister were the only ones I had left in this cruel place we call the universe. Now you’re the only one I have left.”

Turning back to Saamuki, her head is down. Then, in a heartbeat, she runs forward and wraps her arms around him. Both he and I are surprised. The former of which had stepped back and raised his arms. It took him a moment to relax and wrap his arms around her. Just like with Mikrovos he’s trying to hold back as much of his weight and strength as he could in fear of crushing her. For me, I’m just a bystander. 

“I’m so sorry, Sakhra, for everything that I said. I knew how much it still hurts, yet I stupidly tried to use it against you.”

Resting his head on top of hers he concludes, “It was just the alcohol talking. It’s okay. Besides, I deserved all of that. I needed that. Thank you.”

“I wish I could make it up to you by avoiding Syco.” 

This wasn’t my chapter to finish, but I wish it was. Their moment of reconciliation is cut short with the sound of blasters being fired. Breaking his embrace from her, he motions for all of us to stay silent as he approaches and moves the recently made curtain away from the window closest to him. Doing so, and he quickly finds what’s responsible for the noise.

Closing the curtain and turning back around to us to relay, “Space Pirates. Lots of them. They’re fighting against some of my brothers and sisters.”

“None of them are Tauvoxes, right? Syco, specifically,” I asked. 

“No. A large group from two different factions. Although, things are getting messy out there. I’m going to escort you two back to your ship, so you can get off-world before things get any messier.”

Saamuki interjected with, “But you’re going to get hurt, Sakhra.”

“You know better than anyone that I don’t get hurt easily. Besides, it should be physically obvious.” It was at that moment I got a good look at the scars underneath the red paint, reminded by the aftermath of him going toe to toe with The Commander. “Please, Saamuki, let me do this. You won’t have to owe me for this either.”

“Fine,” she sighs, “We can’t afford for me to argue more than I already have.”

We’re off. Saamuki is in the front and I’m in the back. Sakhra is our shield at our right as a battle between two types of criminals, ones who are Space Pirates and who aren’t, wages on the other side in front of the memorial. One faction looks octopus-like as their tentacles, which each have a streak of purple paint, snake out of their shimmering cloaks as they shoot at the residence of this planet. The other faction is covered in red armor with streaks of yellow. A blue, rectangular forcefield that’s been manifested by the armored faction acts as a wall between the two groups. I get snippets of names being called, nothing important. Blasts stray away, bounced off, and hit our bodyguard. Saamuki of course notices and becomes worried. We both saw what happened in the bar, but she’s understandably blinded my emotions. He brushes her off by reminding her we have to keep moving. 

By the time we get to the ship, he’s covered in blackened spots. While dusting them off Saamuki apologizes profusely. He tries to tell her he’s okay, but she’s not having it. She becomes overbearingly concerned and eventually scolds herself, which Sakhra tries to tell her there’s no need. If the world around me was some summer blockbuster then everything seemed to go frame by frame, slow-mo, as the climax hit. Everything went ridiculously slow. I couldn’t mouth my warning fast enough. It all came with a long pause between each word. Sakhra, midway through his efforts trying to recompose Saamuki, became impaled. A familiar dagger flew right through his chest, missing where I assume is his heart by a few inches. The owner of the weapon, which the other two are slowly finding out, is the very bitter brother that wanted nothing to do about waging war on the Lords. 

[kirareykenobi22]

Reylo Coffee Shop AU

"You know," she heard her best friend Rose say. "As a barista, I feel like I should tell you that you look like you could use more coffee. But as your best friend, I feel obligated to tell you that maybe you just need some sleep."

Rey groaned as she straightened up from leaning against her open textbook at her table. "It's not like I can sleep in my dorm room. My roommate is the worst." Giving up on studying, she packed up all her supplies as she started into a rant. "She got this new boyfriend, and he basically lives in our dorm now. I barely want to study with a stranger in the room, I definitely don't want to sleep with him around. And do you know what my roommate said when I talked to her about it? She had the nerve to tell me that I'm just jealous." She slammed her textbook and looked to Rose for encouragement. "Can you believe that?"

She was met with pursed lips from Rose. "So I'm not saying what she's doing is fine, cause it isn't, but are you sure that none of this hostility is coming from just a little bit of jealousy?"

"I am not jealous."

Rose raised her hands in defense. "All I'm saying is that you also seemed a bit touchy like this when Finn and I started dating."

Rey rolled her eyes harder than she ever had. "You guys met here. At a coffee shop. Do you know how cliche that is? Who actually meets their soulmate in a coffee shop?"

"Technically we met in freshmen biology. I just didn't work up the nerve to ask him out until he started coming here everyday for coffee."

"I have not had enough caffeine for this conversation," Rey said massaging her temples.

"I'm not making you anymore coffee," Rose warned, getting to her feet. "One sec, I've got another customer."

Rey's eyes followed Rose back to the counter, and she sat up a little straighter when she saw the waiting customer. A well-dressed man stood at the counter and gave a small smile as Rose took his order. Maybe it was just a result of all the relationship talk, but Rey couldn't help but notice that he was insanely attractive. He had dark wavy hair and dark eyes that swam with hidden depths of mystery. And he was tall. Rey was rather tall herself for a female, but this man would've towered over her still. Even though a counter separated them, she could see that the top of Rose's head didn't even reach his shoulders.

Rey immediately felt self-conscious of her hair, which was pulling up in the world's messiest bun, and of her shirt which may or may not have had more than one coffee stain on it. Her gaze didn't stray from the man, but he never looked her way. He simply waited for his coffee, and he left as soon as Rose handed it to him.

Rose returned to Rey's table a minute later taking off her apron as she sat. "And that is officially the end of my shift."

"Who was that guy?" Rey asked with a one track mind.

"Why?"

"Just curious," Rey shrugged.

Rose chuckled. "I don't really know except that his name is Ben. He's been coming in every day for about two weeks now to get coffee. And you've been sitting at this table studying for about two weeks now. But I guess you just now noticed him?"

"Ben, huh?" she asked, her mind drifting. "And you said he comes in here everyday?"

"Yeah... What are you planning?"

"Absolutely nothing."

*****

"Are you wearing mascara?" Rose asked incredulously the next day.

"Maybe," Rey said coyly as she dropped her backpack on the ground at her table.

"Who are you trying to impress? Is it about that guy you were asking me about yesterday?"

"Can't a girl just feel like looking nice just for herself?" Rey asked as she pulled out her laptop.

"Well of course a girl can. But you never do."

Rey may or may not have put a little bit of extra effort into her appearance when getting dressed this morning. She put on a subtle layer of makeup, although obviously not subtle enough, wore a nice black blouse, her best jeans, tall boots, and even wore her hair half down. But it's not like she was trying to impress anyone. Nobody but Rose paid attention to her anyway.

"I just felt like changing things up today. Don't overthink it."

Rose narrowed her eyes as she returned back to work. One peppermint mocha latte later, Ben walked in the door. Rey stared over the top of her laptop as she pretended to be writing her research paper. Once again though, he got his coffee and left without even looking in her direction.

She frowned slightly as he walked out. It was fine. She wasn't upset. It's not like she'd been expecting anything. Only people like Rose got cutesy love stories in coffee shops, and Rey's life certainly wasn't a fairy tale.

When Rose's shift ended and she came to sit, Rey didn't hesitate before speaking. "So his name is Ben Solo."

"What? No middle name. I'm disappointed." Rose laughed.

Rey glared. "His full name is Benjamin Lucas Solo. Now may I finish?"

"There's more?" Rose sighed as Rey's glare intensified. "Of course you may finish."

"He's a senior in his final semester here. He's graduating a semester early in case you were wondering. He's a political science major with a minor in literature. His mom is Leia Organa and his dad is Han Solo! And that means his uncle is Luke Skywalker!"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Should I know who any of those people are?"

Rey groaned. "Leia Organa is only one of the most influential senators of this generation. and Both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are famous war heroes. Han with the Air Force and Luke with the Army. Come on, Rose. And I thought I lived under a rock having grown up in an orphanage."

"Okay, okay," Rose said. "So he's related to pretty important people. How did you even find any of this out?"

Rey waved a hand. "The internet knows everything."

"But how did you..." Rose trailed off and shook her head. "Never mind. I don't wanna know. So what are you gonna do with all this information?"

Rey sighed. "Nothing. There's nothing do with it."

"You know, you could just try talking to him. He seems nice enough."

"He probably doesn't want to talk to me. He's related to so many important people, and I'm just some random nobody."

"Well, you never know until you try."

Days passed and Rey continued to dress nice to stare as Ben came to get coffee only to leave without speaking to her. One day she was almost certain that he looked at her, but that's about all she had to show for her efforts.

On the last day of finals, the last day she could see him before he graduated and left forever, Rey had an idea. As soon as she got to Starbucks, she walked up to the counter where Rose worked.

"Grande peppermint mocha latte?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"No," Rey said firmly. "Well, yes. But also no."

Rose scrunched up her eyebrows. "I'm confused. Do you want one or not?"

"I do. But I was also wondering, do you know what Ben's order is?"

"Of course." Rose smiled. "He orders a black coffee everyday."

"What?" Rey scrunched her nose. "Why? Why come to Starbucks and just order a black coffee? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy a Keurig?"

"Maybe," Rose shrugged. "But he said this gives him an excuse to see someone everyday." She sent Rey a pointed look.

She blanched. "You don't think he means me, do you?"

"Look around. Who else is in here everyday?"

"Then why hasn't he ever spoken to me?"

Rose let out an exasperated sigh. "Why haven't you ever talked to him? You both are assuming the other doesn't want to know you."

"Okay, okay." Rey took a deep breath. "I'm going to buy his coffee today. When he comes in to order just point him in my direction."

"I can do that."

Fifteen minutes later, Ben walked in and Rey felt her stomach flip. What if she made a huge mistake? As he walked up to the counter and talked with Rose, Rey honestly felt like running for the door. She watched Rose hand him his coffee and point in her direction, and she braced herself for the inevitable.

He walked over to her table with a small smile. He gestured to the empty seat across from her. "May I?"

"Of course," Rey forced herself to smile instead of showing the anxiety she felt.

"So you're the one who bought my coffee today." His voice was a low rumble that somehow seemed to make him even more attractive.

"Oh yeah," Rey tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I see you in here everyday, and I've been meaning to introduce myself but I never got the chance, so I figured this was just as good a way as any."

"Do you know who my parents are?" he asked.

"I do, but that's not why I wanted meet you."

"Really?" He seemed genuinely shocked. "That's usually the only reason people talk to me. They see me as their gateway to fame."

"Well I promise that's not me," she said. "I just think you look like a really nice guy is all." And you're super cute so if you wanted to marry me that'd be cool too, she added in her head.

"You're Rey, right?" he asked.

Her jaw hung open for a moment. He knew who she was already. He knew her name. "That would be me."

He smiled. "I've read some of your research papers the university published. If you could actually manage to create the technology you proposed that could change the world."

Now her jaw was definitely hanging open. "No way! You actually read those papers? The department made a big deal out of publishing them but I didn't think anyone would even look at them."

He laughed. "Well I read them. And I'll admit, it made me a little curious about the girl who wrote them so I may have done a little research on you."

"And learned that I come to this Starbucks to study literally every single day?"

"I may have noticed that."

Rey laughed now. "So do you have big plans for after graduation?"

He shook his head. "Not really. I want to go into politics like my mom obviously, but my dad's still bugging me to become a pilot. And my uncle has always wanted me to join the army. Did you know that my uncle made me do an army military camp with him one summer in high school?" He laughed. "Worst summer of my life."

"Really? Was it really that bad?"

"Oh it was the worst. I told him I was going to burn the place down to save other children from having to go through what I did."

Rey burst into laughter. "I'm assuming you didn't actually burn it down."

"No, but I came close."

"Okay, but seriously, you've gotta have some kind of a plan for what you're about to do with your life."

"I do," he relented. "But my goals are more long term. The short term goal is to get to know you outside of this coffee shop."

Rey gave a small laugh. "You're just messing with me now."

He shook his head. "I'm not. Here." He passed a napkin over to her with his messy scrawl on it. "It's my phone number. I'm hoping you'll get good use out of it. Being the son of national heroes means you're actually pretty lonely most of the time."

Rey smiled broadly as she took the napkin. "Well you're not alone anymore."

Ben smiled back. "And neither are you."

[mystech-master]

A while ago, I made a post discussing my thoughts on Nu and Lambda, in it I also described why I personally can’t ship them, even if I also said you could do mental gymnastics to ignore the Saya clone stuff (read it to understand what I mean).

But, they aren’t the only ones to have this issue; What about Noel and Celica, two more MAIN characters who have a similar issue in their storytelling.

I will go into that now, starting with Noel (beware possibly long-ass post)

Noel is one of the main characters, and one of the most important characters in the setting (to many fan’s displeasure), so of course she is highly tied to the MC Ragna, even getting a lot of shippy moments with him. This is in spite of her being a Murakumo.

Now in my Nu and Lambda thing I said that b/c Ars Magus is weird and not an exact science and seem to be made from Saya’s soul not her DNA you could do mental gymnastics to ignore that and make the shipping okay. Could you do that with Noel? I say NO.

Not only is Noel MUCH closer to Saya (seriously put a picture of her next to young Saya from flashbacks and she looks exactly like what she’d grow up to be), but she is also apparently made from the largest chunk of her soul.

The games seem to go along this thought process with her:

Noel is a Murakumo -> Noel is not human -> Noel is a weapon -> cue angst

but the fans have the thought process of

Noel is a Murakumo -> Murakumo Units are clones of Saya -> Saya is Ragna’s sister -> Murakumo Units are clones of Ragna’s sister -> they are Ragna’s sisters.

This gets even more stupid once Izanami comes in and we learn SHE is Saya, not Noel (her being an amnesiac Saya would’ve made things much easier), because then it is like “See, Noel isn’t Saya, THAT’S Saya!”. Also Blazblue has a while thing about roles, like Ragna has ONE little brother and ONE little sister: Jin and Saya, respectively. But fans say he can have multiple little sisters but the story doesn’t because “roles” or whatever (using the weird stage terms that Rachel and Amane use).

Like, here is an idea I had for CS’ plot with more emphasis on Noel actually being Saya rather than just a clone/copy, or at least more focus on her connection with Ragna to HAVE that sibling instead of just taking the “I am not human” thing from the Murakumo:

They escape from the Cauldron at the end of CT, and Ragna now gets a god look at her, maybe he does think that this IS Saya, and you can have a bit of an emotional scene here, but Noel runs off b/c A. she is still shy girl and a MAN is so close to her, and B. this is still the SS-Class Criminal Ragna the Bloodedge. A bit of angst there because Ragna supposedly thought something horrible happened to Saya (based on a flashback in CF with Jubei).

Much, MUCH later, he can meet up with Noel again, before she is kidnapped by Terumi for the final act of being the Godslayer, maybe with Makoto there. This is where they can actually talk and bond for a bit so Ragna has an actual reason to go running off an saving her. This is where Ragna can explain his little sister to the two, maybe thinking that he got Noel confused for Saya since she looks just like her.

But, then they start piecing together everything. Noel has weird memories of Ragna, and she has amnesia from before the destruction of Ibukido after the Ikaruga Civil War. SO, what if Noel IS just an Amnesiac Saya who has trauma induced amnesia from the Ibukido stuff? This is great for Noel because all this time she might also be worried about her humanity after the shit with Nu in CT’s true ending, and maybe a cryptic line from Terumi/Hazama, but now with this information, she reaffirms that she is HUMAN, she has a family (imagine the reaction when she learns that major dickbag Kisaragi is her big brother). We could then maybe cut back to someone watching them cryptically commentating, and when we cut back Noel is in the middle of telling Ragna, her newly re-discovered big brother, about what she’s been up to, her adoptive family and her time at the Military Academy. Maybe here we could also have a gag reel where, like a later one where they try and help Celica improve her sense of direction, Ragna and Noel cook something. We get some fun-sibling time and get to see Ragna’s cooking hobby in semi-canon action. He’d call her Saya, but everyone else calls her Noel since that’s what they know her as (think of it similar to how Vegeta calls Goku by his Sayan name “Kakarot” while everyone else just calls him his Earth name).

THEN we have Terumi come in and kidnap her.

Rachel stops Ragna from running after them for cryptic warning BS, then the fight with Jin, then the fight with Terumi, etc. everything happens the same from there. Only it isn’t some random stranger who Ragna all of a sudden is risking his life for, this is the little sister he lost so long ago.

Then comes the shit with Izanami. One idea that  had was that Noel IS still a Murakumo AND Saya, but she is Saya’s good half fragmented off when Izanami was made. Izanami is one part the Origin’s Drive and one part Saya’s Darkness. So Noel breaking off from Saya is kind of like M.Bison from Street Fighter removing all the good from his soul to use Psycho Power, resulting in Rose.

Then in CP, we can have an extra layer of conflict because Noel is trying to save Tsubaki, who points out that she is affiliated with a wanted criminal, Ragna the Bloodedge. Remember, Noel just wants to be a normal girl with a normal life. She already has the issue of her humanity with being a Murakumo, but then you have the more societal BS of being related to a super criminal. She cannot be “normal girl“ Noel Vermilion, AND friends with Ragna the Bloodedge, SS-Class Criminal at the same time.

Tell me that wouldn’t all be a really good alternative.

Also being able to refer to the three MCs as “The Siblings” is just so much easier.

and then we got Celica A. Mercury.

she flops back and forth between, Ragna’s mom, and Ragna’s love interest.

Celica A. Mercury in Blazblue Chronophantasma, is well, a Chronophantasma. A copy of someone who isn’t supposed to be alive in the current timeline. Specifically, Celica is the younger sister of the Great Sage Nine, one of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast 100 years before the setting of the games. the ORIGINAL Celica, after the Six Heroes were almost wiped out by Terumi, proceeded to become a nun/sister in a church built over the remains of the Black Beast’s corpse, as she has a unique Order power to nullify seithr. With her healing magic keeping her young and healthy she lived there alone until Jubei brought the three siblings, Ragna Jin and Saya, to be under her care for an undisclosed amount of time. This is where people get her being Ragna’s mom, even thought nuns/sisters are more just general caretakers instead of parents, but she is still a female maternal figure who looked after Ragna so you can see where people get that.

But then you get “teen” Celica, the one the games show in the story. She is from the Dark War, where she actually met Ragna first. Ragna was sent back in time, with Amnesia, to fill the role of the unsung 7th Hero “Bloodedge” and stop the Black Beast for a year allowing Nine to arm humanity with Ars Magus. Celica apparently fell in love with him because she is very affectionate and familiar with Ragna once she is brought to the future as a Chronophantasma.

The story really does ping pong between her being very motherly, specifically her scolding Ragna and Jin for fighting in CP, and just being a naive child, see her complaining when people get on her case about her awful sense of direction. But it is really hard because the image of the sister seems to flash over her, which the other characters seem to notice, but much like Noel and Saya, no one in the story EVER seems to connect the dots and have that change the relationship between them.

Now I personally don’t like the ship because she is a naive child in a woman’s body, with the stupid no sense of direction gag, to her scolding Ragna and Jin as if they were Natsu and Gray from Fairy Tail who are just fighting for some dick measuring contest when we all KNOW the actual reason is more complicated but the story just seems to abandon that and GGRRRR!!!

But, looking at Celica, really you can;t do the whole “Schrodinger’s Relationship” thing like they’re doing with Saya and Noel and the Murakumos. They need to COMMIT, to a role.

If Celica is Ragna’s MOM, no ifs and or buts, then 1. They need to make her less of a cutesy child. and 2. Maybe age up her design, Litchi has the design vibe of someone who is “older” than the cast, maybe something similar to that. Just imagine another angsty scene of Ragna meeting this woman who has the same face as the Sister who raised him who he KNOWS 100% is dead, so no mistaken identity shit like I already suggested with Saya/Noel, and her looking at him with her face is just MOCKING him, especially since his first two meetings with her in CP are after he gets his ass kicked (once after he is sent back in time after Nu kicking his butt, and once after Kagura knocks him out and arrests him). Also you’d have to undo ALL ship teasing in Phase Shift, or just use one of my friend’s ideas and just have Ragna be a reincarnation of Bloodedge instead of going back in time.

If you want Celica to be the cute girl love interest, and this is the option I feel most people would want either b/c shipping or the cute girl waifu factor that Japan likes (I base some of m reasoning based on “could this be made”, then you’d have to undo all connections between Celica and the Sister. My simple idea was instead of Celica living all those years she dies there, but Nine also had a bunch of other caretakers go with her to help take care of the church. I mean Nine is one of the Great Sages AND a member of the Six Heroes you’re telling em she wouldn’t use some of tat fame and authority to make sure his little sister is safe when she is all alone out there. Seems almost out of character with how fiercely protective Nine was of Celica. Of course this all means that the Sister that raises Ragna and the siblings is less important as she is just a nameless backstory character in a similar vein to Noel’s adoptive Parents, but is is a much easier thing to do than the previous option.

Either of those two options are good IMO, but I still think Celica needs to grow up a bit and release how much everyone around her is an asshole before I can fully ship her and Ragna.

So, what do you guys think? Noel being fully Ragna’s sister leading to much more interesting plot stuff, and Celica committing to either the cute girl love interest or mom role. I feel lkike my ideas are good, but what d you guys think?

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

i would love to hear a s3 rant tbh

i started writing this a few months after s3 came out, because i needed that long to sort of soak up all the feelings and changes that came along with it. now i’m used to it enough that i don’t find myself thinking too hard about s3 when i get to it in rewatches–it’s a shift, but one i’m adjusted to. and now it’s premiere day for s4! so i’m finally done writing the rest of it. 

it is a shift, though, and i think that’s why so many of us in the fandom had mixed feelings about it–we still loved it, but we didn’t come away from s3 with the same lingering mood that we did after s2. for me, s3 was the first season that ended on a truly happy note. there was no heartbroken elena at her quinces, there was no distraught family hoping lydia would wake up.

s3 left pretty much all the characters in a good, hopeful place, so why did we find ourselves more inclined to pick it apart? why did it feel different, when all the individual character arcs and plot points were in the same world we love, and clearly handled with the same amount of effort and care as we expect?

the following giant analysis is my attempt to articulate an answer to that, as a fan who has watched the whole show….so many times. so many times, guys. just so much. i don’t even have a number anymore.

to give you an idea of what you’re in for, here’s the categories you’ll find behind the cut:

each season’s focus was different

brothers and other strangers

dr. b’s inclusion minimizing other relationships

schneider being more isolated from the family

schneider’s sobriety

schneider & avery

avery + other characters

penelope & mateo

misc other gripes

feel free to reply to this and/or send me asks, i spent way too long on it. :)

each season’s focus was different:

obviously, odaat is an ensemble show. every character gets moments of their own, and most have larger arcs. but because the show needs a focus, each season arguably belongs more to some of the characters than others.

the stars of s1 are penelope and elena.

penelope is our anchor to the family and the story, the one that everything else orbits around. we’re watching her live through the end of her marriage and become more settled in her new role as the primary parent to her kids. elena is figuring out who she is, then dealing with the fallout from sharing her truth with the people who matter to her. her quinces is the topic of debate in 1.01 and closes out the season in 1.13.

lydia steals scenes a lot, but she doesn’t really have a larger arc in s1. at the end of the season, she’s the same person she was at the beginning, just changed by her involvement in elena and penelope’s stories. same goes for alex–he has stories, but they’re a lot smaller and more contained. and schneider and leslie are only involved in the season because of their friendships with lydia and penelope, then in schneider’s case, his dynamic with alex later on.

the stars of s2 are penelope and lydia.

penelope goes back to school, has her first serious relationship post-divorce, and finally deals more seriously with her mental health struggles. lydia decides to become a u.s. citizen, struggles with her feelings toward leslie, and ends the season triumphant after a major health scare.

elena plays a major role in s2, but a lot of her story is a continuation from s1, with the return of victor and her first romantic relationship, and developments like her new job as a handyma’am are awesome but not the central focus of the season. alex gets to be the star of a few episodes, more than in s1, but they’re not really tied in to an overarching arc. his first job, his anti-immigrant bullying, and his time at the movies with penelope are all standalone plots.

schneider has a larger, more serious role in s2, going from ‘you guys are like family’ during quinces in s1 to ‘now, you’re my family’ to lydia in not yet. but he’s still on the outside, looking in. and leslie’s role remains one that supports penelope at work and lydia in friendship, rather than giving him his own plot.

the stars of s3 are alex and schneider.

in s3, penelope’s story is more settled, because so is she. her job is secure, her schoolwork is coming to a close, and her kids are growing up. she has a romance, but mateo is less important to her than max was, and the plot reflects that, with mateo barely around until penelope’s neglect of him becomes part of the joke. pen’s reacting to what’s going on around her more, whether that’s alex’s drug use or elena’s anxiety and secret hotel room or schneider’s sobriety.

that’s not a bad thing! justina kills it in every episode, penelope’s still funny and a tearjerker and strong as hell while flawed…but s3 is the first season that doesn’t completely revolve around her, storywise.

elena’s story is also more settled, on some levels. victor’s return gives her a much-deserved coda, evidence that her life couldn’t be neatly tied up in a bow after a year and that emotional scars do real damage. but even that plot, like her first time with syd and her driving lessons, are part of larger episodes involving other stories rather than the main focus of all of them. victor’s wedding, the finale episode, tries to move forward five of our six main characters, compared to elena’s quinces, which was almost exclusively her show.

lydia’s s3 plot includes her fabulous bouquet list, ideas about aging and motherhood and family. but she’s back to being a scene-stealer–even her bouquet list exists as a subplot in other people’s episodes.

having focused the most on the alvarez women in s1 and s2, the show finally gives alex more room to shine in s3, a development that surprised me but pleasantly so because it turns out that the more they give him to do, the better marcel is at it. s3 shows us an alex growing up, making dumb choices and learning from them, but also being there for his family in bigger and more mature ways, schneider included.

and schneider…gosh. schneider’s arc in s3 is so important that it’s the one they foreshadowed ominously before the season was even on netflix:

he did step into the spotlight as promised, and by the end of the season, he was a full-fledged canon member of the family. not that we needed them to tell us that, even if schneider did. :)

to start with, though, that’s part of why s3 feels different: because it is. the focus widens to different characters, and the ones we’re used to following more closely have more contained arcs.

brothers and other strangers

s3 also decided to introduce new family members. a LOT of new family members. and while they all added to the story, some fit in better than others. the funeral did this well, finally giving lydia’s estranged sister a face to go with the name, and giving us more of a glimpse at the big family penelope grew up around before the military and parenting narrowed her everyday focus.

but the show’s decision to anchor an episode on brothers gave us what felt like a lot of consistency issues. they explained pen’s sudden s3 brother, tito, by making his absence during lydia’s coma a topic of discussion. they couldn’t actually include a never before mentioned sibling for penelope without creating bigger confusion, though. it just wasn’t possible.

tito is apparently the older brother that lydia idolizes, but until 3.04 she’s never mentioned him in conversation once? when she’s in a coma reflecting on her family and how they’ll go on without her, her beloved son isn’t worth a mention? i can forgive the show for deciding to give pen a brother three years in, but i can’t pretend it wasn’t jarring when odaat treated her like an only child before that.

and this is a much smaller issue, but also in s3 suddenly syd has a younger brother? who is homeschooled too? when they were telling elena their only classmate was their chinchilla the year before? like i said, a relatively small thing but it still bugs me because it’s so random.

schneider now has sibling(s) too, apparently, but his comment about not being his father’s favorite child was the first time that came up, in three years of him talking about his parents and household staff and childhood stressors. i have so many questions. hopefully future seasons will clarify some things.

anyway, hermanos was a deeply confusing episode for me because tito came out of nowhere and schneider’s conversation with leslie, while lovely, was the first time we heard schneider (or anyone actually) label his relationship with penelope a sibling-ish one. it was clear during lydia’s coma that he considered lydia a friend who was also somewhat a maternal figure in his life, but it wasn’t until s3 that the show extended that dynamic, from ‘lydia is like his mom’ to ‘therefore he and pen are both her kids.’

i’ll get into this later, but i honestly think that was meant more to tie into the episode’s theme than because it was supposed to shift his friendship with penelope into new territory. we’re watching penelope deal with tito, and elena deal with alex, and schneider makes the one comment during an important scene with leslie. it’s still jarring though.

the very fact that schneider wasn’t with the family during their vacation felt like an inconsistency to a lot of us, whose two-seasons-worth of headcanons about schneider make ‘he secretly books the room next to theirs and crashes their vacation’ more believable than him staying home alone.

it was done in service to the season’s goals of adding tito to the mix and folding leslie in more, and both goals were accomplished…it just felt a little strange.

dr b’s greater inclusion minimizing other relationships

speaking of leslie, s3 for him was what s2 gave schneider–more ties to more characters, and the first real subplots we’ve seen him have about serious subjects. for good or bad, a lot of what stood out to me in s3 as different was related to the show making more room for leslie.

schneider not being with the alvarezes on their vacation, even though he’s at every family event including funerals now? penelope made it happen by ‘entrusting’ schneider with the care of her house(plant), but really it played out that way so we could see schneider and leslie bond.

elena’s driving lessons being handled by leslie? it’s fair enough that penelope isn’t the one doing it, since she’s busy and it stresses her out, but if you want me to believe that schneider wouldn’t have jumped at the opportunity, even with avery in his life now, you’re crazy. there’s no believable canon reason in s1 or s2 why leslie would be the one doing that, but it played out that way so we could see elena and leslie bond.

even alex gets to know leslie better because he’s more involved with elena, meaning that after s3 leslie finally has connections to the whole family (which schneider accomplished in s2 once he was mentoring elena in building repairs).

by the season finale, leslie is attending victor’s wedding, mistakenly butting in on elena’s time with her dad, and finally traveling to cuba with lydia while he shares his practice with penelope.

however you feel about s3 in general, the show had to change its usual dynamic in order to include leslie more in situations like driving lessons and weddings. it just wouldn’t have worked otherwise. for example, the funeral at the beginning of s3 doesn’t involve him at all, because why would it? unlike schneider, he hasn’t spent a ton of time bonding with the extended alvarez family prior to s3. he’s involved in big moments because he’s close to lydia or penelope.

s3 is the first time we really see him get involved in the story just on his own merits. and that required less schneider in family moments, which paired nicely with the season’s other visible difference.

schneider being more isolated from the family

the schneider we know and love from s2 would have offered to take over elena’s driving lessons as soon as he realized they were stressing pen out. he would have found an excuse to join them on vacation, and he would have been present when penelope realized elena was sneaking off to a hotel room with syd.

schneider prior to s3 was always around that way, witnessing threesome porn on alex’s laptop and picking up strangers at the airport for the quinces, making it easier for penelope to go to him when she needed advice or a hug. in s1, she may have started out getting his help as a last resort, but by late s2, she was often turning to him instead of her own family, or her support group. pen was reluctantly aware of his many hookups because she was at his apartment so much.

once avery’s in the picture, though, we see less of schneider in the family orbit, and it’s really not explained. penelope pulls him (literally) into alex’s drug storyline, but after that he’s mainly in other people’s storylines, like lydia wanting to teach penelope to cook, or alex spending too much on shoes.

even in anxiety, schneider’s status as penelope’s most trusted person is one scene in an episode that shows how she interacts with everyone in her life, rather than the climax of it–the way his time with her is in hello penelope.

beyond individual episodes, it’s the relationships that matter, and we just see a lot less of that with schneider and the family in s3. in s1 we saw him bonding with alex all the time, and in s2 schneider became more important to elena. but in s3…where is he?

alex goes to his apartment because penelope ordered him to, to get a lecture about reckless spending, and that’s the only one-on-one time we see them have before the laundry room in drinking and driving. are they still close? i’m assuming they are, because alex clearly still cares about him and vice versa, but whether it’s because alex is growing up or because schneider’s busier with his first real girlfriend, they’ve stopped hanging out.

i feel the same way about schneider and elena. her support of him when he relapses (how amazing is it that elena is the first alvarez to use the word ‘love’ with schneider, when he’s been closer to lydia and penelope longer? i adore one gay cuban teenager) makes it clear that he’s still important to her, but even her building maintenance seems to be done alone now. the only solo conversations they even have are at the funeral, in the very beginning of the season.

and while schneider and penelope remain friends in s3, the nature of their friendship has changed in a lot of ways. she’s at his apartment less, he’s at hers mostly when the whole family is around, and until his father’s visit they’re less close physically along with everything else.

schneider’s absence in big moments like elena learning to drive or smaller ones like a rare family vacation can be explained as storytelling choices, but they also make it easier to understand how he started drinking again, and how it was possible for him to keep it hidden (along with his avery breakup) before victor noticed.

when penelope went off her meds, schneider was the first person to confront her about her unusual behavior, but penelope doesn’t see the change in him until she’s looking for it. some of that is the show arguing that alcoholics are really good at covering their secrets up, but it also only works because though schneider is making appearances at meals and still involved with family, he’s around a lot less than he used to be.

schneider’s sobriety

deciding to dive into schneider’s sobriety was the defining choice of s3, in my opinion, that made it feel so different. if i had to pick just one, that would be it, because so much else spiderwebs out from it. 

finally seeing more of the world schneider comes from, in the arrival of his father? a major relapse trigger for him.

penelope telling him that choosing his father over his tenants means he’s not part of their family? seemingly the last thing she said to him before he drank.

his inclusion in the alvarez family museum? a way to show how his sobriety is the most impressive work he’s done in his whole life. 

penelope (and the rest of the family, but especially penelope, once they’re alone) doing whatever they can to support him and convince him to keep fighting? the clearest sign we’ve had in three season of how important schneider really is to them.

it’s an amazing story arc for him, and as much as it hurts to watch, i love it. 

but boy does it make season three a change from the first two.

after first setting up how proud of him dr b. and lydia are (the closest thing he has to loving parents) for his years of sobriety, we then see him tempted to drink thanks to his father’s actions and just general presence. 

but because of how the show handles the reveal, we actually don’t know for sure that he’s drinking again until penelope and lydia confirm it. we can be rightly suspicious–i saw that the dangling tag was no longer on the bottle when he placed it on his coffee table, and assumed then that he’d already opened it–but we can’t know.

which means that for the first time, just like penelope, we don’t know if we can trust schneider. schneider! who has wanted nothing more than to earn and keep the family’s trust this whole time. 

it’s so unsettling. as is his visible unraveling once he realizes he’s been caught. 

and the thing is, that we’ve seen this before, just like penelope has lived it before–the worst of her fights and fear with victor happened offscreen, but when he comes back we see him lie to her, try to convince her he can handle his own problems and she should leave it alone. 

but that…that was season one. that was victor, who moved in and out of the picture often in really hurtful ways, and who we weren’t encouraged to get attached to. 

schneider is lovable, and loving, and present. and yet in season three, he also becomes a version of himself who is reactive, and dishonest, and will do whatever it takes to avoid being confronted about his relapse. including trying to hurt and push away the people he loves most.

i think part of why his relapse is so effective as an arc is because it’s as hard for the viewers to expect such a sharp turn from the sweet, laid-back guy we met in s1 as it is for penelope and her family. but that’s also why s3 leaves us shaken.

schneider & avery

oh gosh, schneider and avery. i’ve talked about them a lot before, so i’ll just say here that they brought her in with great potential, then let her stay so far on the sidelines of the show after the valentine’s day episode that it became impossible to know who she was anymore, what role she played in his life, and what their future could possibly look like now that they were reunited at the wedding. 

is she the gorgeous nerdy artist who has just enough in common with him to be a good fit long-term? is she rich and more suited to the world he comes from? is she uninterested in his life outside of what they do for fun together, so that she’ll never get to know his chosen family at all?

it seemed to change each time we saw her, and by the end of her involvement in schneider’s s3 storyline, we didn’t even know what had broken them up before we were supposed to be rooting for them to get back together. 

my theory continues to be that the people making the show were blinded by the impossible cuteness of real life marrieds todd and india, and forgot to make sure their plot threads on the show made sense. 

because avery was never going to get a ton of screen time, she was a minor character–but revolving any part of his story around her kind of gave the show a duty to at least give us a clue of what the heck was going on.

avery + other characters

my other major complaint about avery (who i genuinely adored, at least for her first couple of episodes! my liveblog of her existence in s3 is just a lot of flailing about her being so freaking cute) is that the show keeps her in a totally unprecedented bubble.

penelope’s love interests? always interact with her family. whether it’s ben getting a text from lydia, because he wasn’t around long enough for more, mateo joining an unexpected party, or max spending whatever time he could at her house…we always got to know how her guys related to her family, and that helped us understand them and the relationships better. 

syd of course spends a ton of time around elena’s family, and we’re going to see alex’s girlfriend meet the family this season. you could argue that those comparisons are different because schneider’s not one of them, his storylines are less central than say, penelope’s are–and that’s true. but even dr. b’s girlfriend got a long bathroom scene with lydia and we see/know much less about leslie than we do schneider. 

mostly though, this bugs me because avery clearly spends time in their home! she’s there for valentine’s day, and penelope also tells schneider to invite her during ‘the man.’ and she works at the kids’ school, so she’s in their orbit on another level. penelope is able to get in touch with her and find out they broke up.

and yet, the first real love interest for schneider that could be a healthy and serious relationship…and onscreen, lydia never meets her. doesn’t try to figure out if she’s good enough for the adopted son lydia has been encouraging to find love for three years. they never interact. 

elena, who developed a serious interest in alex’s love life and a taste for gossip in season one, appears to have no interest in the woman schneider’s seeing. alex, i could understand not caring, because he’s generally happier caring about what directly affects him and what he can do to help others…if schneider’s happy, i get why he might stay out of it. 

but it just sort of grates on me that none of the women in schneider’s family have a conversation with avery onscreen, beyond the moment when penelope is trying to kick her and schneider out and she pushes back. if avery is in a scene, she’s talking to and focused on schneider, or nikki, or schneider’s father. none of the family. is that because she doesn’t feel like she has to make an effort to know them? or because the show just wasn’t thinking about that? even though we see it with every other love interest brought into the house?

i mean, when you pay attention to that, then of course we don’t have a clear sense of who she is! how can we when there’s no reason to believe that anyone who cares about schneider does either? 

penelope & mateo

penelope’s relationship with mateo puzzles me almost as much as schneider and avery–and in some ways, even more. we see their friendship first, we watch them deny interest in more than that with each other. then penelope pushes the issue and they do decide to date, but just like with avery, the show doesn’t have a lot of screentime to offer him. 

so what we know about her new boyfriend is that they have some things in common that she really values but maybe too much in common to avoid fighting about it–and then we barely see him again, learning mainly through his absence that she’s just not that into him, until eventually they break up because it turns out he was more into his ex than her anyway.

there’s a karmic sort of humor in that for penelope, but for me it left mateo feeling like a waste of a love interest. we really didn’t get to enjoy their relationship much, especially if they wanted us to miss it when it was gone…so was it worth the time they spent setting it up in the first place? 

for me the answer to that was no. especially since as her ‘longtime’ school volunteer buddy, we’d never seen him before. and i feel like it’s not likely we’ll see him again.

penelope & schneider

this is a frustrating one for me because while i have complaints about these two and their relationship in s3 it was also AMAZING and i LOVED it. both are true.

the confusing part is that their dynamic is inconsistent in s3. think some of that is because the show is trying to do so much at once. fully bring schneider into the family, focus their romantic lives on other people, deepen their bond, deny the possibility of a romance between them, keep them each other’s person.

in s1 they’re landlord and tenant but also becoming real friends. in s2 they’re best friends and he’s a honorary part of the family now (though still an outsider). 

but in s3 he’s established clearly as her best friend and most trusted person, a guy who’s become deeply important to her and her whole family–so much so that after his relapse, they come together to support him much like they all did lydia in s2. 

but penelope treats him dramatically differently from moment to moment and episode to episode in s3. like an annoying brother when he’s getting cooking lessons from her mom, like a life partner when alex’s behavior has her angry and scared, like a bff when she’s considering dating mateo, and even a little like a flirting companion at the wedding.

it’s not completely unprecedented for their dynamic to have multiple layers. his relationship with lydia is complicated too. in past seasons, he flirted with both penelope and her mom–while they also laughed at victor calling them a couple and he told comatose lydia how important her mothering was to him. 

but they lean harder into it during lydia’s cooking lessons, while still hitting the beats hard of ‘are you sure you’re not dating?’ during penelope’s support group and schneider’s dad’s visit. the contrasting takes on their friendship is just a lot of whiplash in a single season.

another thing about s3 that’s different is the kinds of physical contact between penelope and schneider. you might not notice unless you’re looking for it, but penelope actually touches schneider more than he does her. lightly, casually, briefly. she makes contact in a friendly, familiar way all the time. schneider is more likely to touch her when it’s important, in big moments, as though he knows that she trusts him and welcomes him in her space but he doesn’t want to abuse the privilege.

i studied it for making gifsets, and she touches him more every season. and while he touches her a lot more in s2 than in s1, s3 is actually about the same amount. penelope grew visibly closer to him this season, but he held himself back from getting any more familiar. he was also the only one of the two of them who compared her to blood family. for now,it’s really up to interpretation if there’s a deeper reasoning behind that.

for both of them, though, more than half of the physical contact they make in s3 happens in just two episodes, both towards the end of the season. not only does schneider’s father’s visit and his relapse bring them closer together, literally and physically, but the season up until that point has them further apart. 

they spend time together stalking alex, or with schneider talking her down from her panic, but the casual dinners are less, and she’s going to him less for advice–which means there are less small touches, less moments where schneider sits her down on his couch or she nudges him affectionately. 

that makes it all the more intense when they do connect, with penelope holding his hand and them hugging twice all within the same few minutes. and then after his relapse, their conversation alone in the apartment is so tense and so much more separate than they usually are.

the last time she touched him was in the man, the most open and complimentary she’s ever been, and look what happened. this isn’t the man she knows and loves, she needs to reach her best friend who’s still in there somewhere under all the pain and self-loathing, but she tries to do so with honesty first, with bluntness, with tough love, with listening kindly but not without pushing back, and finally with his place in her family–as a role model for the kids. 

only once he’s agreeing with her about the course of action and just doubting his ability to survive it does she reach out. once he’s himself again. and then she’s more there for him physically than she ever has been before. this is a new level of intimacy between them, schneider letting her in rather than excusing himself during tough times, her giving rather than just taking support, her being his silent rock the way he always is hers.

it’s just different than the previous seasons, between them. the problem is that while you’re watching it, it’s hard to pin down what message about their relationship the show is trying to send, since they touch less but more deliberately, and they’re family but not in a way that has well-defined boundaries.

misc other gripes

elena’s world shrinking

as of s3, what exactly is elena’s life outside of syd and anxiety? don’t get me wrong, i love her relationship with syd, and the anxiety plot was good–driving lessons too, which were tied to the anxiety somewhat. 

but if we’re pulling back to look at the bigger picture, elena in season one was a lonely club leader, figuring out her identity, and navigating disagreements with her family. 

elena in season two was experiencing her first relationship, finding her first group of geeky friends to hang out with irl, confronting the fallout of victor’s behavior in s1, and continuing her academic hard work while also adding lots of political engagement.

in comparison, elena in season three exchanges ‘i love yous’ and has sex for the first time, as well as makes up with syd after their first fight. she learns she has anxiety and gets her driver’s license and continues to heal her relationship with victor, but…she has no friends anymore? no mention of josh or carmen or any of the echo park gamers? and she’s studying for testing, it seemed like, but she’s not in clubs anymore or volunteering or protesting? her whole world outside her family isn’t really syd, is it?? because i know first love is amazing, but that’s not healthy.

i said up there that less of the story belongs to elena after s1, and this is a large part of why i feel that way. the show treats her like some of her bigger arcs are settling down, rather than expanding, giving her subplots instead and making room for the other characters. it’s weird to watch though when just a quick comment here and there would have implied that she still spends time with friends or fellow social justice warriors.

lydia’s humor goes dark

when it comes to lydia, season one includes some jokes about her ending up in a home–or to be more specific, the fact that she never will. her comedy in season two revolves a lot around her identity, with her decision to become a citizen. 

and then, we go into season three after her coma. though she appears to be in good health, the family is still worried, and elena especially tries to protect her from herself.

whether it’s specifically related to her near-death experience or not, season three involves way more death jokes. things like lydia looking up, and inviting god to reunite her with her husband ‘berto, i am ready,’ she says, then sort of shrugs when death doesn’t arrive. 

it’s not unfunny…but it’s a different kind of humor. i can’t say i enjoyed the edge to it, probably because i was elena’s age when my grandmother died, and she was also a deeply religious woman who was awaiting her invitation to heaven. 

alex also has no friends anymore? does he still play baseball?

the way that s3 gives alex so much more to do, storywise, is awesome. but just like elena, his world seems to have gotten smaller in terms of socializing. we hear about his girlfriend but don’t meet her, and we never see him interact with friends, either–besides things like instagram. 

this one’s really a minor complaint because he has whole important storylines in s3 and at least the show does imply he still has friends…but it’s a little odd for the most popular alvarez teen to spend more time chatting with dr. berkowitz than any friends his own age. especially when he used to be so involved in baseball that we at least saw his teammates. 

it’s not clear to me if season three just didn’t overlap with sports season for him this time around, or if he gave baseball up–but if it were the latter, you’d think they would mention that.

scott came back but not lori

i honestly don’t know which of the show’s casting choices are influenced by availability and which are choices they make for plots they want–other than carmen leaving, because i know ariela went to another show.

but while lori hasn’t been around since season one, scott went missing after the second episode of season two…and then appeared in the second episode of season three before never showing up in the rest of the season. 

there’s no continuity problem with this or anything–i just don’t like scott and wish that if they were only going to keep one of pen’s coworkers, it would’ve been lori. i know that wouldn’t have let him do what they were able to with scott. but still.

max came back why?

i like max, for the record. he’s been my favorite of all penelope’s love interests so far, and i felt bad for them both when they broke up. but in terms of the finale, it felt really jarring the way they included his little appearance. 

in that one scene, the show managed to remind us that they truly loved each other, genuinely supported and cared for each other, had common background and went back a long time as friends–and that out of all the men penelope had been with, he was the one she was still hurting over.

and then he left, as easily as he appeared. 

besides reminding us that her major relationship in s2 was with max, what did that scene accomplish? it didn’t feel like closure, because it didn’t add anything to their original breakup. but it also didn’t change anything about how they ended–he remained someone she wasn’t going to be with, even though they loved each other a lot. 

the only explanation i can think of is that the show wanted to work with the actor again. because if their goal was to confirm that yes, she and max really were great together even though she wasn’t going to be with him…we didn’t need more confirmation of that. we got the message in s2. ed quinn is great though.

[anika-ann]

Think Again (When You Stop Freaking Out) - Pt.1

Good Morning... Me?

Pairing: None                   Word count: 1586

Warnings: language,  hella lot confusion, vomiting, blindness, sensory overload, ... irony and sass? ;)

Summary: Matt doesn’t feel like Matt. Steve doesn’t feel like Steve. How did that happen?

Story Masterlist

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Matt Murdock woke up with a startle and found out he was blind.

Now that wasn’t a strange occurrence. Unfortunately, Matt had been waking up unable to see for the past two decades, ever since he had been in an accident involving messed up chemicals and an act of spontaneous heroism on his side. In return, he had gained extremely enhanced senses and with time, he had learned to use them to see.

Which was exactly what was wrong at the moment.

Matt woke up… feeling blind.

The room he was in was strangely silent, no intrusive smells attacking his nostrils, no distinctive taste on his tongue, no extremely smooth sensation on his skin– gripping the sheets, he was very sure these weren’t his silk ones, this was not how silk felt and yet, the sheets weren’t scratching his skin so hard it would make him cry. Matt would think they were simple cotton, but this was not how it supposed to feel.

And he fucking couldn’t map the room as he couldn’t pinpoint his radar sense; his world of fire lacked fire.

He snapped his eyes open, his breathing raged, sitting up with a jolt.

He was not ready for the picture in front of him.

After all, this kind of picture only existed in his memories. This kind of picture had colours. Sharp edges, painfully so, as if every freaking atom had its place. Then again, Matt wouldn’t be a good judge of the state of his eye-sight, he couldn’t tell if it was 20/20, because he couldn’t remember what it felt like.

What could tell and was hundred percent sure of, was that… yeah, he could definitely see.

It freaked the shit out of him.

Feeling the bile rising to his mouth, his body jumped up on instinct, taking a bee line to the bathroom. It was only after he emptied his stomach that he realized that he had no clue which bathroom it was and how he had known where to go.

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Several blocks over, a man jolted awake, snapping his eyes open, only to be met with darkness.

He gasped, blinking, but there was nothing. His heart started hammering in his chest, a strange sensation vibrating through his ribcage, warmth spreading into his body with each thumb-thumb. A fraction of second later, the noise of the city assaulted his ears and hit him like a train – a train passing him by inches. He jumped back, hitting the wall behind him, quickly rolling over, falling off bed and shooting to his feet, his arms raised and fists curled up.

The noise didn’t fade out, making him raise his hands to his ears.

There was a weak taste of mint toothpaste in his mouth, barely covering other strange tastes he couldn’t quite place. His nose was itching with at least twenty different smells, mingling together and overwhelming his brain, easily causing him a headache. Not to mention his whole body was aching and he felt like every freaking cell of his body was alerting him on pain.

He thought the sweatpants he wore felt soft, yet there was an itch against his skin, as if they were made of the roughest fabric he ever felt. His balance was complete shit – the room around him pounded, the floor shaking with what he was sure was a subway train riding right under his feet and on top of all that, he was still in darkness, a strange darkness that felt somehow vibrant, flashes calling out for him.

What the hell was happening?

Calm down, soldier. You know better than to freak out. Deep breaths- oh god, so many smells, breathing in deeply was so not a good idea-- focus. Think of it as of a recon mission. In a very loud environment that resembles a battlefield, but those you know too.

Yeah, but going in this blind is a bit unusual.

Three quick knocks – and he would swear he felt them echoing in his bones, his ears pretty much bleeding with that sound – snapped his mind from racing.

“Matthew, I swear to God, if you don’t open the door, I’ll—… use my own key,” somewhat familiar voice threatened, apparently changing his mind in mid-sentence and offering a less violent solution.

It didn’t matter. Because he was in some serious trouble. The voice was too loud, joined by cacophony of tens others whispering or yelling in his head, everything felt wrong, his head hurt and apparently, he was in some Matt’s home.

He couldn’t remember drinking last night, but he made himself a promise. Steve Rogers swore that he would not get within a ten feet distance to Thor’s Asgardian liquor ever again.

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Exiting the bathroom after a very long shower – and about an hour spend on the floor, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the tiles didn’t feel as hard as they should against his knees, his body feeling overall wrong, definitely not his, and oh yeah, he could fucking see –, brushing his teeth for at least three times (why did the toothpaste taste so faintly again…?), and examining himself in the mirror – blond? He was blond now? – he went to examine the space he had woken up in.

The apartment was rather plain, but definitely belonged to a well-situated person, only if judging by the fact Matt found himself in at least thirtieth floor. During his freak-out, he had come to a bit unorthodox and, let’s be honest, totally insane conclusion, that he had been in a body of someone else. A steroid-freak, by the way, because what the hell, Matt was sure this amount of muscle tissue could not be natural, what was the guy doing apart from drugs? So yeah, that was a thing.

The thing was, there wasn’t much else to go on. He discovered an impressive closet, ranging from work-out clothes (wow, so many work-out outfits), comfortable homey sweats and t-shirts  and hoodies (Matt’s clothing of choice for now), to shirts and suits (not too many, which was strange, because again, rich guy, clearly).

In the nightstand, there were two sketchbooks (one extremely well worn) and Matt was no expert, but the drawings in it – mostly pretty random – were quite good. Huh. Rich. Freaky-ripped. Most likely on steroids. Handsome though. Artistic. Matt was surprised he didn’t find a woman’s (or man’s, whatever) underwear lying around at least, because this guy could to be a playboy for sure.

This guy. In whose body Matt was now, waking up, just like that.

He ran his hand down his face.

“Good morning to me,” he murmured, not even startled by the stranger’s voice which was – naturally – not his own.

“Good morning, Captain Rogers,” a female voice with thick Irish accent sounded above him and Matt jumped back, immediately raising his fists to protect himself (not himself) from the intruder (who might actually live here, unlike him). He saw no one.

Saw no one. Hilarious, Murdock.

He squinted, looking around, which was something he was not used to goddammit, he was supposed to sense the person coming, but while he guessed his hearing was alright for an average person, he was definitely not fine.

“May I be of any assistance?” the woman asked and Matt tilted his head in attempt to locate her better, which was perfectly useless.

What, was she invisible? Because that would be so fucking ironic he might even laugh. Able to see after two decades and the first person I meet is invisible. Congratulation, Universe, you managed to fuck it up again.

“N-no,” Matt tried out, hoping the weird… thing? Person? Would disappear and leave him alone to his inspection.

“Apologies, Sir. You seemed confused.” You have no idea. “And you were sick. Shall I inform anyone about your-“

“No, thank you. I’ll do it myself,” he blurted out, not even caring it probably didn’t sound very convincing.

“Understand, Sir.”

Matt slightly shook his head, easing his fighting stance and allowing himself to breathe in. He didn’t even know how he would fight. The self-awareness of his body, his ability to control the incredible mass was way too low, but hell, he would not have had a choice. And who knew, he might be able to pull out few moves, this body clearly remember something..

Because apparently, he was a captain. Captain Rogers. He thanked God he had a name now, at least. Now, if he would meet someone, he would at least know to turn around if someone addressed him.

It actually made sense, this guy being military. Retired maybe? Then again, he seemed fast and agile, which he would expect from an active soldier, but he wasn’t exactly an expert.

He wondered for a brief moment if he should call Foggy, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Firstly, he only found a locked phone, which sucked, secondly, he still had no idea where he was, thirdly, he didn’t want to put his friend in danger, and finally, he was aware that if someone called Foggy, claiming he was his best friend and business partner, but had woken up in the wrong body, Foggy would probably hang up anyway.

With a deep breath, he walked through the room, gathering courage to exit the relatively safe space. Gripping the handle – which cried under his determined hold, the material curving, what the hell, steroids, seriously - he opened the door, feeling like Alice going down the rabbit hole.

“Alright, Captain Rogers. Let’s do some recon.”

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Part 2

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Tags: @mermaidxatxheart​ 

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