#from someone who used to be a scared kid on this day and isn't anymore

[eighteen-gnomes]

Happy national coming out day. For anyone who needs to hear it:

If you came out today, I am so proud of you. You did something really brave and difficult. I am wishing you nothing but joy.

If you didn't come out today, I am proud of you too. No matter what the reason is, whether you are already out, or not at all. Whether you're scared, unsure, in danger, not ready, or just not feeling it, I am so proud of you.

You are a part of this community, you are loved and this day is yours, for you to participate as much or as little as you choose. The decision to come out is yours alone, and it can happen today, any day, or never, however you feel about it you are valid.

If you came out and it was a positive experience, know I am smiling with you. If you came out and it wasn't what you'd hoped, know you can tell me and I will accept you.

[sangunary]

- Draw My Own Wings.

Batfam × Neglected Reader( artist )!

SYPNOSIS: Your only escape from your cruel life is in your own hands.

WARNING: Not for sensetive people! Have several triggers.

Time flew fast and things chance it was simply normal for the earth to continue orbiting it's sun until it's gone.

It was normal for a father to forget one of his children and favour the rest.

It was normal to be forgotten but it's hard to be forgotten and making it obvious you are no longer welcomed in their home.. your home.

Taken by him after seeing your pathetic self and taking pitty he brought you home in his arms as your rested. Like a baby bird nesting with it's mother.

The first time you got to rest, in the arms of an unknown man that took you in his arms with the warmth of father.

It was dangerous to be at mercy so quickly but you were just a kid, tired, dirty and who missed any physical touch. Deprived of others and normality.

You could still remember it so vividly.

You were sitting by the wooden bed scaring away the bugs and pests especially the rats.

You were hungry but didn't dare to move away, scared that they would began festing on your poor mother who haven't woken up in weeks.

The stench could turn anyone stomach into a mush of green yet your loves for your mother stood stronger. Ignoring the stench as you fought off rats and bugs.

Then he came, look at your pathetic state and convince you to stay with him, as you let go of your mothers cold hand's for the first time.

His knees was on the floor as he hug you tight, his arms wrap around your smaller frame like a father meeting their child after a long time a long and hard time.

You remembered his wonderful word that sent you to another life you've never dreamt of.

"You'll be my daughter from today... I won't leave you cold, you'll have a father..."

He himself didn't knew what came over him when he saw you, to speak so unlikely of himself to do. But his mouth moves without any warning and he embrace you.

But now that fatherly embrace and warmth was for someone else... his affection and words didn't last long with you.

He used to read you bedtime story but now he rarely speak to you directly instead he would rather stay at his son bedroom when he's asleep to check on him.

You weren't his priority anymore, your privilege of having a father rip out form your own hands before you could even enjoy it longer.

Even the eldest Dick who was very enthusiastic to meet you acted like you weren't a living breathing person.

Everyday you texted him, updating him on anything because you just wanted to talk, you've never had anyone to talk to never.

You couldn't speak at times because of all the time you shut your mouth while crying so your mother could rest in peace, the countless days you spent covering your mouth so she won't be disturbed.

Forcing yourself to not speak made you hard at speech at times, but talking to him your older brother felt natural and you liked it. He helped you reach your potential yet he left you at the edge by yourself.

You've tried reaching for his hands for him to listen to your voice hoping that he might turn back and everything will he normal again. Your difficulty in speaking only increase when he harshly push you aside.

"You shouldn't be this clingy and desperate, you're not a baby anymore and it's annoying not adorable"

His words simple yet did something weird inside your heart, this wasn't the older brother you've always idolise... He's simple grown tired of you as usual.

You two had something special a bond that you only read about it in novels.. But now he doesn't even seem to recognise your face.

Busy with the new kid as well, who was cocky and full of himself and mean. You didn't understand why they wanted to bond with him so bad for.

You've tried so hard to be likeable and for this new demon to come out of nowhere and to be better? That isn't fair.

He didn't try his hardest to fit in with everything while you did everything to be likeable, you hate the idea of being forgotten when you are already addicted to the taste of being wanted.

You've never had anything great and this kid had something already and he's greedily taking yours, infront of your eyes and unable to do anything.

Now that everything was slowly rotting infront of your eyes you couldn't handle it. Your only escape from the true world was your own art.

"Dick? Are you busy?"

you asked wanting to invite him for a hangout which you've never had in years.

Honestly the only time you even managed to have a word with him was when he was with someone else and they weren't talking, other than that he wasn't around.

Not to see you, not to talk to you and not even when you were crying at nights due to pressure and your poor health yet he never came for you.

Your first ever solution of comfort broke into pieces and taken by another face, you were jealous of course but you couldn't do anything but to watch.

"Me and Damian are going to the museum, I'll be busy"

He wasn't even looking at you, just staring at his phone typing whatever nonsense and it broke you genuinely.

"Could you call him? Im really excited to spend times with my little brother, they're growing so fast better take advantage"

He obviously doesn't see you as a younger sibling anymore, if it wasn't Damian it would be Tim or annoying Jason.

He always went out with him, never you. He acted like you had no feelings nor needs and it's unfair.

Isolation from the world was your only hope in slowing down the damage.

Your family that once loves you now replaced you with another face, that kept you wondering if you ever meant a thing... Was loving you simply a phase?

Is loving you so hard? You weren't extraordinary or anything according to yourself atleast. You've restrained your weird behaviour so they won't be weirded out yet that doesn't mean anything.

your hands are cramping from holding onto the pencil hard, you couldn't careless.

Your tears soaking the paper as you continue drawing, everything ache so badly and you wanted it gone.

Then suddenly a drop of red fell on your drawing ruining it, you sigh heavily.

Your nose was bleeding slowly, the blood dropping onto the white sheet as it got absorbed by it with poor efforts.

Your eyes felt heavy but you didn't complain just looking up as the blood still trickle down onto the sides of your face.

The drawing of Bruce, your supposed father. You have drawn the way you had remembered how you first saw him, that gentle smile and the best hug ever... How come time change people so much?

You tried to wipe the blood to no avail it soak through and smeared the blood all over his face, you turn the next page to saw that your other drawing weren't save either.

The drawing of everyone of them soaked with your blood, you almost cried because that was days of work down the drain because your stupid nose decided to bleed.

"Fucking God... Why me"

You muttered, closing the note at the verge of bursting into tears. Then suddenly something sharp hit you.

Your stomach is tearing itself, that what's it felt like atleast.

You haven't eaten well, Alfred already fed him more leaving you with less portions, always cleaning after him leaving you in the dark alone and scared.

You didn't understand why you weren't allowed basic needs.

Is it because im terrible? I've never done much, I've tried so hard to be good yet they always find a reason... to make me wish myself death.

Nothing satisfied them. Your outstanding scores you achieve with several lack of sleep that resulted into sleep paralysis every tine you slept, you've told dick about it he told you that... it was nothing compared to damian.

There again, always mentioning the slob even when it's about you, clearly nothing in this house is ever about you. You're just the adorable child for three years, easily replaceable.

Right everything you did was just behind him no matter what, no one could celebrate you without bringing him into the conversation... He was your shadow, always mentioned and speak more favourable of.

You tried so hard to not hate or be jealous but something inside of you just want him gone. Away from your family... It's a horrifying thought but your heart couldn't think of anything else better for you.

You clutch onto your stomach as you whimper in pain, you couldn't tell if it was hunger or a normal ache.

Everyone else could be sick except you, cause the moment you utter your sickness everything was always about you right.

"Im feeling unwell, my stomach is hurting..."

You told Alfred alone in the kitchen while he wash the dishes.

You've been ignoring the pain that makes eating unbearable, the feeling of food still in your intestine yet felt undigested...

"Master, you are aware that I am quite occupied as of now?"

His voice hold the same gentleness or you couldn't hear it because of the pain, the underlying annoyance.

"Alfred please, it's been like this son-"

"Master do I have to remind you that you aren't the one with bad illness constantly?"

You stood there shock, you didn't understand why he would even mentioned that... You just felt sick. You didn't mean to... Do anything bad.

"I-"

"You cannot bother or try to attract attention this way Master, those with serious illness are envious of your state yet you perform their greatest weakness... Do behaviour Master"

You were utterly shock, wanted to cry bit nothing even bother to roll out.

You stood there frozen, trying to understand what you said wrong to always be the troubled one...

"Im sorry?"

You didn't know what to do or feel. Sad because he didn't even listen or doubt... maybe he was right.

You don't speak of your illness you can't. Nobody listen, they never do.

Even starvation felt better than being ignored by the people you cared for...

Everyday you wome up you couldn't help but always think of Damian.

How Jason spent more time with him and let's not forget Jason hated your gut from the beginning.

Still to this day while he went easier on Tim towards you? He's an absolute devil on earth ro torment you.

Tim is too busy to acknowledge you as a person, he doesn't even remember your names... Just talked to you to make him some coffe and complain everytime you made them.

"It's too sweet, are you trying to poison me?"

You couldn't tell if he was joking or not, he seems serious his gaze right at yours his brows focus.

"Can't you be useful for anything?"

Alright, you understood your value.

"If you have no use then you shouldn't even be here... I don't need a complete slot as my sibling"

He seems pissed off now, you blamed it on the lack of sleep and over working himself. He wouldn't speak to you like that, right?

"Damian?"

You called his name, abit nervous he did texted you to come outside into the backyard...

He was burning something's, seems like a cramping set-up.

A big smile spread onto your face as you walk closer. Is your wish coming through, did pne of your family members finally remembered you were apart of their family?

So many questions yet no answers, he was smiling as well with a book on his hand's reading.

When you came closer and look at the fuel pf the fire it looks like books- drawing books.

Your face went pale, he threw the book he was holding into the fire you saw the cover... a pink and blue imagine, the same one Bruce gave to you on your first birthday...

You went straight for the fire, not caring how much it hurt.

He was burning your drawing books, every one of them as he watch in horror as you reach into the fire and tried to took them out.

Your hands were burning yet you didn't stop, some note contains pictures of your mother the one you have drawn tons of times to remember... You CANNOT lose them...

The skin on your hand was melting yet you didn't stop, reach inside the fire embracing it and taking the burning note out as hot tears stream down your cheeks.

"No! no no no... Please no, not this- I can't... No..."

You couldn't think straight, the pain the high emotions you were feelings and the thought of losing you mother drawing...

Damian pulled you away from the fire after he saw you reaching in without caring about the fact that your skin was melting off.

"You dumb-ass! Are you trying to intentionally kill yourself infront of me for silly books you've kept away!?"

He yelled at you furious, not because you've hurt yourself to salvage the damage he has cause because he will be in trouble now that you burnt your hands.

"No! Let go, it's still doable! I won't let you take everything from me... It's not fair!"

You scream struggle and even hit him hard for him to let you go, those silly books were everything.

You memories, the mouth when you couldn't express, the feelings you've felt you couldn't tell anyone, the image of another you with the whole family... Everything.

You've kept them hidden for a reason, browsing through each of them whenever life was killing you again.

Everyone have gone out to witness what was going on and obviously the moment they saw the red on Damian face they went off on you.

Ignoring the blood and skin that was all over the place, Damian seems shocked as well. You couldn't stop the tears and your heart from ripping itself.

"It's just some drawings books... I can always buy another, you do not need to hit your brother"

He doesn't understand the value it hold, the new one would be soul less and no love... it couldn't compare.

"You just wanted to hit Damian cause you are helping because you are a spoiled brat that cannot go without attention"

"They shouldn't be here... They only caust trouble for us"

"This is utterly unacceptable Master Bruce, this is a behaviour of a child with no decipline"

Your books were gone... You were sent to your room and Damian was being taken care of... Well they bandage your hands but Damian was still being cared for but much longer..

You tried to draw but you couldn't, the pain was all over the place after the adrenaline wear off.

You couldn't draw... You're dead. You are no longer important, you are to be dead.

You covered your face with your hands as panick sets in, your only escape from everything was gone...

Now you truly are over.

"No... I am dead"

You utter quietly, ever since Damian came into the picture your only superiority was drawing... He was good but not as much as you, afterall you practice till you puke.

Your only talent that surpress the love child... Was now gone, it would be the same thing as dying if you couldn't even be of use now...

Bruce who decided to check up on you to discuss about your behaviour and maybe sending you away came inside.

"We need to talk, your action towards Damian is un-"

He stood frozen, your door creaking as it open further. His blood went cold and the word left his mouth completely.

Your body on the ground with foam seeping out of your mouth, your eyes wide open as a bottle was on your hands.

The same pills he have given to you to ease your stomachache, the one he didn't tell you anything about or how to ingest them... He didn't wanted to waste him time talking about that with you.

Next to you was a paper, a drawing... The mast thing you drew a butterfly with incomplete wings, it was messy and it felt like it was drawn by a young child.

Bruce remembered now... He remembered your soft small hands on his as you would smile at him brightly speaking nonsense.

"I like butterflies, they're free to do whatever... When I die I want to be one! Dad I promise to always visit you if I became one!"

Today was the day you've met him... The day he opened his arms so willingly for a stray he's just met...

What have he done?

[colebabey888]

A few DIY beauty secrets I began doing to elevate my "natural" look | IT GIRL DIARIES

something that I noticed over the years, when looking to enhance your natural beauty, there are 4 main points that build the first impression, hair, eyes, brows and lips..

I have naturally bushy brows that I used to manage with eyebrow gel, but it would start flaking during the day, which gave me the ickk. So, I began laminating them with a kid-friendly relaxer every two weeks (my eyebrows grow pretty fast, which is why I do it so often and i don't get them professionally done because i don't trust people with my brows lol).

I always tweeze my eyebrows instead of waxing them; they seem to grow back slower that way + it's easier to do, just grab a tweezer along with a pocket mirror and you can do it anywhere if you see a hair out of place. ( don't over do it though, i made this mistake and it went horribly, just keep them neat )

Get your lashes laminated !!! Natural lashes are so classy and I don't have to worry about putting on mascara or falsies. This I'd get done professionally though lmao, I would do this myself but I'm way to scared to be messing with anything chemically so close to my eyes, so it isn't necessarily a diy but still, get it done!

ALWAYS make sure your hair, eyes (lashes) and eyebrows are done! You don't have to have a silk press, falsies and freshly waxed brows 24/7 but make sure they're neat. These are the key features that attracts people's attention when youre speaking to them

I have tight 4b type hair, and I used to have to lay my edges with gel or edge control because of how fluffy they'd get when I wore my curls out, but it was super damaging from constantly pulling on them and having them laid down. So, I started relaxing my edges every 3-6 months. Now, all I use is a bit of hairspray to keep them tamed, and now it doesn't puff up even during workouts and it lasts my whole silk press. Yes, my curls are still thriving.

I do weekly deep conditioning, monthly hot oil treatments, routine trims, and always use a heat protectant and frizz control when doing silk presses to stretch them out and minimize heat application. ( my hair has grown so much, leave your hair alone and only feed it when it's hungry! )

you'll hear everyone talking about silk bonnets, but as someone who hates the feeling of having anything on their head or in their face, I always took it off unknowingly throughout the night and it defeated the purpose, so i got silk pillow cases instead, game changer! i don't wrap my hair as often anymore and i don't experience frizz anymore.

I apply a face mask every week depending on what my skin is lacking, whether it’s moisture or something else. It just keeps my face looking fresh and plump in between professional monthly facials.

I use a lip tint every third day. It makes makeup application easier, and it doesn’t wear off throughout the day so i don't have to re-apply lipstick continuously. It also gives my lips a bit more colour so now I just leave the house with a pretty gloss or plain lip balm.

I take zinc supplements religiously!

Vitamin C everyday, all day. Lemon wedge in my greentea for breakfast, orange for a lunchtime snack and a naartjie for a late night movie. My skin is glowinggg!

hair removal cream! this is so slept on, i no longer shave or wax, both of them have caused ingrowns for me and accentuate my strawberry legs. i use hair removal cream now and i don't think I'll ever go back! i use it probably every week or so depending on how much growth i have, it's so easy and mess free. apply it before you get in the shower and use an exfoliating glove to slide it off gently and continue with your normal wash routine. always apply tissue oil and moisturizer after! baby soft skin all day, everyday!

It's not much, but these small changes have completely transformed my overall look. i do them specifically for those actual no makeup days where i want to give my skin a break from makeup or where im working out but still want to look prettyyy and done up..it's like a wash and go except it's for your face lmao, anyways

mwah! xoxo, colebabey8.88

www.investingforbeginners/gumroad.com

---

[starry-bi-sky]

Danny hurts.

That's nothing new, but he thinks he deserves to talk about it still. He hurts specifically behind his eyes, as if he's been doing nothing but stare at a screen all day, and his lungs feel shallow and stifled like he's run for a mile without stopping. There's an ache in his knees like abdominal cramps, stretching down to his calves and slightly up his thighs. His shoulder blades ache, rooting center towards his spine, snaking down to his hips.

It's bearable, but he still hurts.

It was a nightmare that brought him here, with his arms wrapped around Bruce's middle like a cobra and his ear pressed to the man's stomach. It's not a heartbeat, but he's already checked for it, and if he stops and listens, real quiet, he can hear Bruce's internal organs gurgling. So it's the next best thing, it means he's working as he should.

Bruce's curved finger draws a line down his spine, and then back up, slow and soothingly. Danny shudders involuntarily, gooseflesh popping up on his skin, and his arms tighten briefly, then loosen up. He shakes for a moment, and then tries to sigh out of his nose in a way that didn't reveal just how awful he felt.

"…Tell me about flying?" Bruce asks him after a few seconds of silence, voice quiet and low; tentative. The petting doesn't stop, and Danny blinks slowly. To think, first, and then to try and come up with a response. His jaw feels heavy and sluggish beneath the skin, the way it usually feels when he doesn't want to talk.

He cleans the cobwebs off, tightens his fingers around Bruce's shirt. Loosens it. "Incredible," he croaks, "Weird. It was— crazy. Instinctual. All I needed to do was think about it, and then not even that after I got used to it. I'd think about going up and- and I'd go up. Or down. And I'd tell myself to slow down or go faster, and- and uh, I would."

It's weird, talking about his powers to someone who isn't Sam or Tucker- or, or Jazz. Even weirder for it to be an adult. A living one, that is. And one that would just— just listen. Just like that. And ask questions with no judgement, none that Danny could pick up on anyways.

He starts drawing abstract shapes into Bruce's back with his finger, trying to think. "It was- it was so weird, and so cool. Have you ever— have you ever had one of those hyper-realistic dreams as a kid, where everything felt real? It was like that." He continues, and the tension bleeds out of him, and the grief, and the hurt, "I could go as— as high as I wanted, and since I didn't need to breathe, I didn't need to worry about choking."

Bruce keeps quiet, and it's a bit of a relief, Danny's gaining steam. "I wanted to touch the stars," he tells him, staring unfocused, "and I had this revelation one day, uh- I think the summer after my accident, that I could now. I didn't have to wait anymore. I could probably fly up and up and up, and I'd be in space." It'd been a ground-shaking revelation to him, and it'd shaken and then shattered his foundation of rules and what he could and couldn't do.

He focuses back in on the feeling of tracing the edges of Bruce's ribs, and Bruce does the same to his spine. "I- I uh, didn't. Of course. Going up- was— well— I, I'd never been that high before. I tried to, once, just to see if I could. And then I looked down, and Amity was a bunch of specks below my feet. Like an ant colony. Or a bunch pebbles." It had been amazing, and horrifying. He could see it from one end to the other, and he only knew where home was by the OPS Center on the top, sitting like a satellite.

Danny swallows the spit gathering at the corners of his mouth, "It was terrifying," he says, "I thought that if I kept going up, I'd lose Amity and never be able to find it again. I knew Earth was always rotating, I got scared that if I went up, when I went down Amity wouldn't be where I left it." He trembled the entire flight down to the ground. It'd felt like some sort of epiphany to him, or a kind of enlightenment. His mind had pushed past the borders of what it thought to be foundational, and now a bubble had popped. And he didn't like it.

"I went back down, and told myself I'd try again when I was older." And the world was less scary.

[kryannoy]

Hii! Can we have another yandere Andrew graves x reader?

genre: (i don't know what to call this)

character: yandere!andrew graves x reader

warnings: manipulation, gaslighting, andrew traumatizing/scaring the reader, obsessive, possessive

He's cruel. So cruel.

But he loves you madly. Dearly.

And he wants you only for himself. No one can get you.

And the only way to make sure you understand that, is by breaking your heart and rebuilding it himself.

You and Andrew have been friends for quite some time now. In high school, he was the quiet kid with few friends and you were you, just living your life. He would never have noticed you if it weren't for when you made him realize that some kids were bullying him with running a few errands for them. It opened his eyes when you smacked him with a statement; "You know they're just using you to their advantage."

Call him dumb, yes, but he sincerely thought they were just asking for help. He didn't mind it and maybe that's because he's so used to running errands for his younger sister, despite being the older sibling.

Ever since that day, he stopped accepting those "helps" and you decided to approach him more often. You both talked so much and learned so much of each other that he fell in love with you without you realizing. Andrew has always been a chill and nonchalant guy so you often overlook his emotions, not including the times that he can be sassy. But his demeanor makes it easy to talk to and you enjoyed it.

When you started to hang out with Andrew, some of the kids took it as you were showing pity to him. Or you approached him with a trick up your sleeve. Be it all those rumours, Andrew didn't care. He knows you're not that kind of person from all your conversations, your behavior, your gestures. They were all genuine.

After you both graduated high school, he still wanted to keep in touch and you didn't mind. Both of you meet up at your free time and when college starts, he 'coincidentally' got into the same university as you. And how excited was he to see you and the thought of seeing you every single day.

But how awfully mad was he to find out you liked some guy at your part-time workplace.

Andrew tried to keep you from coming to work, or convince you that guy is just another flirty guy who's playing with your feelings. But of course, his efforts went in vain as you somehow landed a date with your crush.

"Y/N, he's not taking this seriously! Don't go on that stupid date."

"Andrew, I understand you're worried. But what if you're wrong?" You say as you keep rummaging through your wardrobe for what to wear. Fancy? Cute? Casual? "Besides, I'm not a kid and you're not my mother, Andy."

He rolls his eyes at the nickname. He felt a sting at your little comment. You really don't see him as someone more than a friend, huh? How is he going to change your mind?

You hold up two shirts in front of you and show them to Andrew so he can choose but Andrew isn't looking at you anymore. You notice the small pout he has on his handsome face and immediately you put down your clothes. You sit next to him on the bed and pull his face to you.

"What made you so mad, hmm? Is it because of my little comment?"

He raises an eyebrow with an unbothered look.

"Because I called you 'Andy'? Or because I'm not listening to you for still wanting to go on a date with him?"

". . . All of it." He may be upset with you right now but he still savours your warm touch on his cheek before you let go.

"Andrew," you sigh. "Look, I know you mean well but relationships are never going to be like a fairytale. It needs trial-and-error. So, let me go on this date and see how it goes, yeah?" You smile that sweet smile so he can change his mind instead. Gosh, he wished he could kiss you right now.

"And if you end up crying?"

"I'll come to you and you'll be my shoulder to cry on?" You giggle at this.

Oh, he will. He will make sure you come back crawling to him and never disobey him again.

Andrew tickles your sides and you shrieked. You hear his chuckle indicating his mood has changed for the better a bit. It changed because he has a plan set up.

"And I would have the right to say 'I told you so'!"

-

The day of your stupid date has come and he's all set. He's nervous whether the plan will work or not, but in everyone's right mind, anyone would be heartbroken to see their crush kissing another person that's not them.

You were all dolled up it made his expression dark and deadly. Anyone walking by would be running after their lives.

He allows you to have fun with your date to let you have high hopes for something you would never get in the first place, just to be crushed and make you disgusted by that boy. He brought along his little sister, Ashley, for the plan.

"You're so weird, Andy," Ashley provoked while waiting for the perfect time to move. "You're letting your dear little sister kiss some random guy just for a girl?"

"As if you're not a slut with your boobs always sticking out," Andrew spits back. "And don't call me Andy."

Ashley rolls her eyes as she mutters under her breath, "Goes to show that you have been ogling at it like a weirdo."

"She's leaving. Go, now." Despite the little comment, she still obliges her brother and went after the boy you were dating. Andrew wasn't sure where you're going but the plan was once you return to your date, you'll be seeing a big surprise.

And surprise it was to see your dream boy talking to a girl, smiling and laughing and ending up kissing. Ashley notices your return. Thinking that this was enough sight for your sore eyes, she stuck her tongue out into the boy's mouth and pressed her boobs more into his chest.

Andrew admits he felt really bad for you but this is the only way to get you and make you understand that you don't need anyone else but him.

When the two parts themselves, you can see the boy's eyes filled with want before changing into guilt and fear once noticing you. And you really felt disgusted. You walked up to him and slapped your anger across his face.

"Oof, didn't know you had a girlfriend," Ashley says to act it out.

You heard your name being called by the boy after you left them and ran back home. In your room, miscalls and texts are lining up in your phone but you ignore all of them. There's no way you're going to let him explain what happened. There's no explanation to that evidence. The only person you want to calm you down is one tap away. But then, he would say "I told you so" because he was right and he claimed it. Gosh, you should've listened to him.

Your thumb hover over Andrew's contact but you hear a knock at your door. It must be one of your parents. You wipe your tears and suppress your anger.

"Yeah?" Before you could even tell them to come in or go away, the door opens and reveals Andrew instead. There goes the first person yet the last person you want to see. "Andrew?"

"I'm here." He walks in, closes the door behind him and engulfs you into an embrace. His warmth, his reassuring hug without saying anything, his presence; it all made you burst into tears once again.

"I should've listened to you," you sob into his shoulder, wetting his sweater. He's glad you couldn't see his face because he was smiling widely from his successful plan. He's sure, with this you'll be traumatized to find another man, traumatized that you might be disappointed again. And from here on, he'll have to make sure he'll always be there by your side whenever you need. Be it running errands for you, buying snacks that you can get yourself, or when you're lonely and sad, he'll be there for you to show that he's the only guy who would never betray, never cheat, and never make you run away.

All of these thoughts excite him that he didn't realize he kissed your head. Thankfully, you didn't push him away in disgust. That's the first step.

"I told you so."

[etherealstar-writes]

I WANNA BE YOURS | WOSO X READER | PT 13

pairings: woso x reader

summary: in which you're accidentally added to a random group chat, not knowing they're all actually famous footballers, and obliviously end up having many of them competing for your love and attention.

part: thirteen

part one here

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

liked by ellatoone, alessiarusso99, leahwilliamsonn and 5000 others

yourusername: i'm so proud of you guys!! euros champions wooh!! 🤍💙

lottewubbenmoy: 💙💙

ellatoone: tysm!!

alessiarusso99: 💙💙💙

leahwilliamsonn: nahh what is that photo of me ↳ yourusername: lookin buzzin ↳ ellatoone: buzzin fr

stanwaygeorgia: still can't believe you wore that old rusty metal's jersey instead of mine 😔 ↳ lucybronze: it's because i'm her fav ↳ stanwaygeorgia: you wished

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

(doing a bit of timeskip and let's pretend it's been like around two months since the euros bcuz yeah)

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

THE NATIONAL DIVING TEAM

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ guys look at what leah and i found this morning

stairway YOU GUYS WENT WITHOUT ME ?!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ well i was gonna offer you but leah said you were busy

stairway WHAT NO I WASNT

willlybum oh well that's so sad

earpsy so this is why you were late to training

willybum i forgot we had training

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ more like wanted to forgot

willybum oi don't expose me like that

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ :)) so how's training going

neev y/n save me from this torture we'll go to nandos together and drag jessie along too

the imposter aka y/n ❤️

neev added flaming hot

flaming hot stoppp not this nickname 😭😭 and we can't go to that nandos place anymore did you two forget? we're banned from last time

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ and who's fault was that miss flaming hot

flaming hot i blame niamh for all that

neev bruh you were literally the one that said you could handle the flaming hot sauce fleming and then practically screamed dramatically about how you were dying which got us kicked out

flaming hot I WAS NOT DRAMATIC AND YOU WERE THE ONE THAT PEER PRESSURED ME IN THE FIRST PLACE

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ it was incredibly funny ngl i mean you couldn't really tell the difference from jessie's face and her national jersey colour

flaming hot stop ittt you two are meanies it literally wasn't that bad i recovered fine

neev um you were literally crying the whole day jessie

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ and we had to buy you like twenty iced drinks for you to finally cool down

look this is you finally calming down after your twelfth drink

neev yeah not our fault you can't handle any spice flaming hot fleming but we're still kidnapping you and taking you to another nandos place tonight

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ we sure are

flaming hot i'm gonna pull a houdini

lotte oooh i wanna come along to nandos!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ you're very welcome to

stairway me too!

neev absolutely not

stairway excuse you how can lotte come with you guys but not me?!

neev bcuz she isn't annoying like you are

stairway

neev

elton no wayy you guys

willybum oh my god i do not have the effort for this today what is she going to say

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ oh no

the REAL karate kid

ona batlle uh should i be scared?

kie very much

flaming hot what is happening?

stairway

elton did you guys know that you can lick someone's elbow (also known as their wenis) and they can't feel it

lotte righttt of course i needed to know this

flaming hot HELP WHAT 😭😭

neev the fact that i just saw georgia look at me after reading that seriously concerns me

the REAL karate kid unfortunately it's true 😭😭 she licked my wenis

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ ..... yeah i have no words

ona batlle 😭😭

steph what the hell 😭😭

rusty metal i wondered why everyone stopped working out and started looking at each other ella, i do not wanna know why you know that, and can everyone stop trying to lick each other's elbows it's freaking me out 😭😭

kie i'm convinced ella has no thoughts behind those eyes it is just elevator music. on repeat. all day. every day.

stairway i think lucy's wenis needs a licky lick

rusty metal georgia get the hell away from me

elton ALSO if you look at any object near you right now you know in your head what it would feel like when you lick it like the texture and stuff

mccard nahh that's insane i haven't licked everything near me so why would i know how it would feel?

lotte why did i just see rachel and millie taking glances at each other

rusty metal GEARGIA ISTG DONT YOU DARE TAKE A STEP TOWARDS ME CAN YOU ALL PLS STOP TRYING TO LICK THINGS WITH YOUR IMAGINATIONS Y'ALL ARE FESTY OMG 😭😭

esme NAAAHHHHH WHY DID NIAMH ACTUALLY JUST LICK SOME STUFF TO CONFIRM IF SHE IMAGINED IT RIGHT THIS IS SO WRONG 😭😭😭

flaming hot of course she would do that 😭😭

meado

steph is this just a daily occurrence for you guys? is this normal?

door knob i'm sad to admit that it is

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ i'm kinda glad i'm not near any of this rn

flaming hot fr

neev well i wanted to know if my brain was tricking me or not

esme you didn't need to lick it tho mate 😭😭

neev

alex nahh i'm done i'm leaving the gym just saw daly start walking towards bright like she was preparing to lick her i can't witness this today 😭😭

kie why am i not surprised that it's ella that started this again?

the imposter aka y/n ❤️

ona batlle amen to that

steph seconded so glad kyra and charli aren't in this chat to contribute to this chaos omg

flaming hot amen fr 😭

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ omg kyra and cha cha! we need to add em in here too

stairway wait a sec y/n YOURE NOT BRITISH?!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ nopee lived in england almost all my life but proud aussie here 💪🇦🇺

steph ayeee 🇦🇺

willybum i cannot believe this

elton you're an imposter fr

neev and here we thought you were one of us

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ heyy i am an honourary lioness member isn't like lessi half italian?

thet REAL karate kid yeah?

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ see and she's playing for england i can support both the lionesses and tillies

willybum okay but now that the wsl is starting the more important question is which club do you support?

stairway oh yeah

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ oh uhh i gtg do something really important rn talk to you guys later! bye!

neev y/nnnnn dont forget our nandos!! i'll be waiting!!

the imposter aka y/n ❤️ i won't! better be prepared fleming

flaming hot oh no

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

part fourteen here

[brainrotcharacters]

The (non)chalant

Tags: one mention of abuse, Michael in italics, fluff angst set on a quiet Thursday morning, I told you guys not to leave me unsupervised with @chimckenns

--

Contrary to popular belief, Angel is a smart person. They mastered the game of picking up social cues and surprising someone who thinks no one was paying attention to them. They did it with friends with low blood sugar, nonchalant relatives, as well as Michael whenever he came home tired and didn't want to be disturbed from sleeping.

Angel fully believed they were good at gauging people before they dated David. It must be those unfair werewolf senses, but he says it was basic decency warranted for someone you say you love.

"What is it?" He said without looking up from his paperwork one sunny Thursday morning. They had the day off from their jobs thanks to some holiday or another.

"Fuck you. You need to stop doing that." Angel smiled weakly.

David chuckled, turning his face towards his mate's spot on the couch beside him. "What? Use your words."

Angel leaned their head back onto the couch with a heavy sigh. They already agreed to be more communicative about things in this relationship.

"You should kiss me on the mouth whenever you wake me up. It's more romantic." When David's facial expression showed no signs of anger, Angel added, each word more quieter than the last. "I... Would like it if you did that, please. Thank you."

You want me to do what? That's funny. You're not a baby anymore. Stop acting like one.

David noticed how Angel suddenly looked through him, as if recalling a memory. He placed a hand on Angel's knee. "Okay."

Angel blinked at him, refocusing. There were unshed tears in their eyes. "Hmm?"

"I said okay." His mouth curled up to one side, then he returned to his paperwork. Don't act too eager, but don't seem too indifferent either. Don't scare them off.

I'll only say this once, so pay attention. You're too clingy.

Angel adjusted in their seat, snuggling into the space between David's back and the couch so they have physical sensations around them. In hindsight, it was weird that they stayed with Michael as long as they did. Nonchalant lovers are hypocrites. Every missed opportunity to be affectionate and give what an entire werewolf shifter gives Angel now was infuriating.

He isn't quite sure what it was, but David could tell something was going on. Are you okay? How can I help? "You're soft, you know that?"

"Yeah." Angel's voice was muffled as they palmed their stomach with both hands, jiggling it.

That made him laugh while he fiddled with his pen. "Not just that. It's your insides, too. And before you say another word―"

"You'd know all about my insides, wouldn't you?"

"I―" he laughed, "Am talking about your heart, you nasty goblin."

A soft chuckle escaped Angel. Comfortable silence fell for a moment, then David asked. "Have you been abused before?"

Before I could know you and love you quick enough to want to save you?

Angel propped themself up on a hand, giggling emotionlessly into the couch cushions. "The silly thing about abuse is that it's not just brute force, apparently. It would seem that it can also be neglect, according to the esteemed professionals of this modern non magical world." They sat up. "My ex boyfriend never hit me, no. Let's just say he never needed to."

There was enough pain in the words that the pit of David's stomach dipped. Then Angel smiled, and the smile didn't reach their lifeless eyes. Oh.

David never meant to hurt... But this entire time, he thought Angel knew he wasn't serious. He knew Angel was stronger than people gave them credit for. Menace. Idiot. Mom and Dad used that all the time on each other when he was a kid. He was just doing what they did. And when he got older and bigger, he put in the work to be as harmless as possible to his friends, his loved ones.

Setting the papers aside, he inclined his body towards Angel and murmured. "You know I love you, right?"

"Yeah! Yeah, of course." They answered too fast. And grinned too wide it was clear it was practiced. Fuck. "I love you, too."

David leaned in, planting a featherlight kiss on Angel's lips that sent a tingling sensation through his entire body. That fragile, precious mating bond. This vulnerable, beloved mate of his. "Do I keep going?"

Angel's breaths stumbled, but they nodded and kissed him back. Melding their mouth with his own, there was a hint of the latte David had for breakfast. "You should keep going. You have no idea how much going you can continue doing right now."

David giggled into Angel's lips, and in between kisses apologized. "I'll be better. Thank you for letting me know."

"You're not mad?" Angel pulled away, searching his face. Their kiss swollen lips were the most beautiful thing David had seen of them in the last fifteen minutes. "I need to be sure."

He shook his head, kissing them even deeper. "I'm not mad... Are you hungry?"

Angel threw their head back cackling, tugging at David's nape to bring him closer. "All the time."

Angel fully believed they were good at faking joy before they dated David. He says the signs are easy to spot for those with the heart to see.

[aphroditesmoon]

Hi!! Same person who requested the Hades oneshot lol! I loved it alot and I know it's like super early to request another but I wanna get this out before I forget ^^. Okay so what about a Fem!Reader who is a mermaid or siren. Poseidons daughter, who is usually aggressive to anyone who enters her waters but Clarisse somehow is dating her, reader only has a soft spot for clarisse so when they need to cross her waters during capture the flag only clarisse can convince her ^^.(also reader often adopts random fish and clarisse is always swarmed with them when in her pond/waters.) Thank you!!

love letters from the sea to the shore

clarisse la rue x fem!siren!reader

warnings: reader doesn't like demigods, possibly ooc clarisse.

wc: 2k

a/n: i hope u like this🩷🎀

If there's one thing you hate more than demigods is their little capture the flag game. You view these half breeds as unresponsible, mischievous, and disrespectful beings.

You never saw the appeal in gods mingling with mortals and making children with them when they are so many other creatures they could be with.

Your father have tasked you into protecting the waters, and that is who you are. Lady of the lake, guardian of the sea.

The job isn't exactly glamorous, it have been more than a few time that you have caught some sneaky, filthy demigods canoodling in the waters, making out or doing worse.

Your ways into scaring them to leave have gotten less and less subtle as the years pass by and more aggressive. A few weeks ago, you had come close into strangling a kid from the Hermes cabin who had thrown his empty Snickers wrapper into the sea. You were deeply reprimanded by Chiron that same day.

You never see the boy near the waters anymore since that event.

But today...today is different. Every year, the demigods participate in the game of Capture the flag, and though every year they would try and use different routes and strategies, passing through the waters is always necessary. Which meant that whether you liked it or not, the demigods would pollute your waters anyways.

"I'm not going in." You could hear the kids argue among themselves. "Last time someone did, they got jumped by that thing."

"Mermaids don't jump, dumbass." His brother countered, only to be corrected by a familiar voice; "She's not a mermaid, she's a siren, and we don't have a choice."

Both of them were right. You would try and scare anyone who dares enter in, but you would let them in sooner or later. Even though you knew that rules must be abided.

"Move aside, I'll talk to her." Clarisse spoke again.

You weren't that close to land, but swam up nearer when you heard her approaching your territory. "Hey-hello?", she called out as her feet steps into the water.

"Lady...protector, I ask permission to speak to you." The daughter of Ares spoke as if she was unfamiliar with you, and either it was because her siblings were there or because she still considers the concept of your relationship a strange anonymity.

You knew who Clarisse was, you first met her 2 years ago. You wish you could say that she's different from the other obnoxious children, but she isn't.

The girl is as foolish as she is brave. She did not believe in other's warning to tread carefully around the waters, and so when you appeared despite her doubt that you would, she ran off in fear just like all the kids before her.

But a day after that, she came back.

She sat by the edge of dry land and waited for you to appear. And when you did, the same anxiety you've seen on many people's faces before was etched on hers.

But she did not run off that time, instead she gave you an apology, and a gift. A string bracelet made of tiny seashells. An offering, she called it. As if you were one of the gods.

You told her to stop collecting seashells, but thanked her for it anyway.

Since that day, she would come down ny the water more often, not too much that it'll annoy you, but enough times for you to grow a liking for her.

Some nights, when you're in a good mood, you'd even let her meet your sea creature friends. Not a lot of people manage to get close enough to not scare the fishes and crabs.

You are not in a good mood today.

Small waves were sent back up as a response to Clarisse, but it seemed that she needed more. "We need to cross the water." She informed, straight to the point.

She knew you wouldn't be answering her verbally, it isn't like you to appear in broad daylight. You kept the waves coming to indicate your presence and waited for her to speak again.

"Let us pass quickly, and we won't bother you for the whole year again." Clarisse attempted to bargain.

The truth was, she didn't need to ask you at all and you would've still let her pass. But she didn't know that and neither does her siblings, so you act as if you're still contemplating her deal. A few minutes later, the waves slowed down until they completely stopped, a finalised decision has been made.

"Is that a no?" Her brother asked. They couldn't read you like they could.

"Just get in the water." Clarisse instructed with an annoyed sighh as she lead the way, letting the waters surround her legs. That was another thing you had in common with her, you both agree that everyo e else in camp is insufferable.

You watched them waddle their way through from below, hidden from the side of the sea until eventually, they crossed over to dry land, getting closer and closer to the flag.

No one else tried to enter the waters again for the rest of the day. And 20 minutes after you had granted Clarisse safe passage, you could hear the cheers coming from the red coloured team.

---

As midnight approaches the hour, a rare sight comes into view around your space.

Fireflies dances above the large body of water, glowing over the places where the moonlight couldn't.

It's time like this where the most glorious parts of nature would come out of their hiding, the quiet is inviting. And the peace, comforting.

This has been your life since you could remember. And you were content with it. Despite your mother merely being a siren, your father acknowledged you and gave you responsibilities that he'd only give to people he trusted. The creatures of the water and the trees are your friends, a distraction for boredom and repetition.

And though you've had no problem repeating the same cycle of routine daily, you only knew what yearning meant after you met Clarisse La Rue.

Before her, you never knew what it felt like to wake up waiting on the best part of the day. You never knew what loneliness had meant up until you met her.

Only after Clarisse, did you realize empty and unfulfilling your life had really been. To be so good at what you're doing and yet, not having anyone who notices it or to care for you the way you've been caring for the sea and rivers.

But the thing with Clarisse is you never know when she's gonna come. It's impossible for her to visit you ever night, what with Chiron's guarding. And she had her own life apart from you.

Your infatuation with her soon lessened moderately when you realized just how ridiculous it is for you to assume that she views you as more than anything but a fascinating mythical creature, but your liking for her never truly leaves you.

You were not expecting her tonight, knowing full well how taxing and tiring their little game was. The children would all sleep like babies tonight.

And yet, from where you're sat, back leaning against a boulder, you hear her footsteps entering your grounds.

You tilt your head slightly, sneaking a glance at her before you turn back to your front, watching the fireflies disappear and the fishes lurking near your feet.

You felt her presence behind you and said nothing. It isn't uncommon for you to be silent around her, after all there is a risk of you accidentally affecting her with your voice.

You only turned to her when she knelt down to your left. Her face is shadowed by the darkness, without the fireflies, it was harder to see things.

"Hey." She greeted in a hushed tone. You stare at her quietly, responding to her in your mind. "I wanted to see you tonight, to thank you." Clarisse explained.

Her team had won, thanks to your cooperation. You offered her a small smile, something that is rare even between the two of you. Clarisse grinned back, encouraged by your positive attitude.

"I know how much you hate it when there's people over. You didn't have to let us cross, but you did."

You did have to let her cross, there are rules even you had to follow. But she didn't need to know that. Plus, if it were anyone else, you would've made it harder for them to cross.

The tiny goldfishes are surrounding your lower half that's still soaked inside the water, as if guiding you back under, you ignore them as your eyes remain on Clarisse. She looked beautiful like this, with her hair down and sleepy eyes that only you have the privilege to see before the sun rises.

She was pulling something out of her pocket suddenly and fixing her sitting position."I also got you something, a gift."

You had expected this. Clarisse often came to you with little gifts. Flowers, shiny rocks, dead butterflies.

Her hands are wrapped around the item strategically to hide it from you. If she was trying to get you excited, it's working. You push your neck out to try and get a peak on it, but it's gripped closely.

Clarisse pushes her hands outband slowly opened up her palms to you, exposing a circular bracelet, covered in a bright yellow colour.

"Gold." You noted aloud and looked up at her. "It is. Do you like it?" She asks, smiling.

You nod your head once and extend your wrist to her.

Clarisse easily puts it on over your hand, the size fitting perfectly. You wondered if this notion have somehow changed something in your relationship, but didn't know how to ask.

"I had someone from the Hephaestus cabin to make this for you. I wanted it to mean something...not just for you, but for me too." She had said it all so well, your heart skipped a beat over her words.

Clarisse probably didn't know, but for your species, gifting and offerings are usually considered as courting methods. And so you found it genuinely amusing how easy it is for her to be going around, getting you stuff unprompted.

You also had a gift for her. Something you've been keeping to yourself for months, contemplating on whether or not you should actually give it to her.

But it's been sitting down deep in the water, safely waiting to be retrieved.

And so without saying anything, you moved away from her and dived into the waters. You made sure to be quick, swiftly reaching for the closed shell into your palms.

And as you make your way back up onto the shores, you see that Clarisse is thankfully, still waiting.

Your fingers found hers as you tried to climb back up onto dry land. She does not hesitate to wrap her long arms under your elbow, pulling you up towards her.

Once you're seated next to her again, you nudged the shell onto her hand and waited for her to open it. Clarisse cracked open the pouch and opened her mouth to let out a soft breathy sigh at the sight of a singular white pearl that sat inside of it.

"Are you...giving this to me?" She asks, turning her head towards you. You nodded as a yes.

"You know, I think this would make a decent ring." She tells you, thumbing the stone. You raise your hand up to lightly graze over her collarbones. "You think I should make it a necklace?"

You nod again. Clarisse seemed pleased at how engaging you've been throughout this whole meeting, trying her best to coax a conversation out of you.

There are so many things you want to tell her of. Things you aren't ready to tell her yet. And so for now, whatever this is would have to be enough.

Clarisse shoves the pearl into her back pocket after. “Thank you.” She says gratefully. The silence was no longer excruciating nor suffocating. Instead it is loud in unsaid confessions and comfort in understanding.

[kaynanyn]

Was watching some Tik Toks to kill time and I stumbled across that one dad that runs around the house and just scares his kids daily. And I fucking loved it. I imagine Bruce doing it to young Dick and Jason. But not like, EVERY day, neither monthly, just, random days of the year, because he felt like it. And he LOVES to see his kids.. Being kids, being humans. Even if it means Bruce will pretend for the rest of their lifes that he doesn't run around the house or hides in random places to spook them.

After Jason's death, Bruce stoped doing it, Dick is not around anymore that much, there's no reason for him to do it. But now the family is back together. He'll have the house full for at least the whole week plus one weekend, he got time. Barbara, Cass, Steph and Duke are also there. So he finds its the perfect time for him to do it again. He hides in the kitchen's cabinet [somehow. He's Batman.] and waits for his first victim.

————————

Tim walks in the kitchen to get a snack while waiting for his turn in the videogame, when suddenly, he hears small knocks in the cabinets direction and he just, stops working. He glances at it unsure if he's heard it wrong, he might have, there's no way someone or something snuck in the Manor with, he recounts in his head, nine vigilantes. Not counting the Manor's insane safety system. Sure, they can just be hanging out and relaxed, but they're not careless. The cabinet is quiet, he decides to ignore it, which can be a dumb decision, but no way someone actually snuck in. He goes back to picking up snacks when he hears it again, small knocks in the cabinets direction. Now he's sure he isn't going crazy. He puts the snacks down and goes quietly as possible in its direction to see who or what the fuck is there, come face him, coward. He's not scared, but when Bruce opens the door abruptly [After making sure Tim is still far away enough so the door doesn't hit him] and gets out of it as if nothing happened, the high pitched sound that comes out from his mouth is almost inhuman.

————————

Bruce's next victim isn't that much longer after Tim, he was planing to spook one at a time for the whole week, but Duke is right there. Okay, he knows he's not able to scare or surprise Duke like he did with Tim but for sure he can confuse him.

Duke got upstairs to take a bath and change his clothes into more comfortable and clean ones after him and Jason got into a playfull sparring in the middle of the living room because he and Steph bet that he could use Jason's own fighting style against him and last at least 10 minutes, which ended up with him getting thrown in the table of drinks, but it was worth it. He's currently leaning close to his rooms door [He has a room, okay?] on his phone waiting for everyone to clean the mess that was made, he's not going to help clean it because hey, he had nothing to do with it, he was the victim. He's starting to get kinda bored when suddenly he sees it. Bruce running as fast as possible, three times down the hall and whispering "Merry Christmas" over and over. It's June. He starts to think that his powers are tricking him or somehow they're breaking but... No. His powers are working just fine. Bruce comes down whispering "Merry Christmas" over and over. In June.

Duke:

Bruce: Running and whispering Merry Christmas

Duke: Bruce what the fuck

Bruce: Still running and whispering Merry Christmas

Duke: Bruce.

Bruce: Merry Christm-

————————

The next day he decides he'll try Steph. She goes for the fight in fight or flight so he knows to not let her get too close to the China Cabinet he managed to remove the shelves so he could fit in it the night prior. No one barely glances at it when walking by, he could use it more than once but he knows she'll tell the others about it. He's gonna have to be quick in placing the shelves back.

Steph is walking across the hall and Bruce waits for her to be close enough to get startled but not too much to be able to hit, and opens the door softly, which okay, a door opening quietly usually wouldn't scare anyone but its a China Cabinet, and no one is in front of it.

She lets out a short scream and some steps back before realising that its just Bruce.

Steph: Oh my god THIS is what Tim was talking about.

Bruce: *Casually closes the China Cabinet door and starts walking away from it*

———————

Cass was his fourth victim. He made sure to not spook her that much like the others, she could be... quite scary. He was just going to surprise her. He was hiding in one of the shadow corners and waited at least 2 minutes before saying something to her. Her wide eyes and a paralyzed form could not be much for others, but for Bruce, it was everything. This would be the most he'd get to surprise her before her instincts made her ready to fight, and it was worth it. Seeing her just be. Not a trained to the bones fighter.

————————

Damian's turn came the next day. Right after breakfast, Bruce rushed off the table, with just the exact amount of time before someone got suspicious, and pratically ran to Damian's room, which he knew his son would get back to it, since he was obviously sleepy from not getting any sleep after another game night with his siblings. And hid under his bed waiting for his youngest son.

The moment Damian stepped in front of the bed to lay down and sleep, Bruce touched one of his ankles, making him scream and jump in the bed before getting something to fight. Worth it.

————————

He tried Barbara next, but she somehow always knew what he was going to do before he even tried to do it.

She was around the time Bruce did it for the first times, and honestly? She's enjoying it, Steph came after her to see the footage of the hallway the day it happened. Barbara had deleted it the moment she heard her scream. Same with Tim and Duke. Cass wasnt something unbelievable, so she found no use of deleting it. She made sure Dick knew nothing about it. After all, he was the first kid, he knows very well about Bruce's game and wouldn't get startled at all. She wants to see the nostalgia hit him.

————————

Dick was next. He's sitting in the end of his bed with Damian, who was claiming that something was under his bed yesterday and he refuses to go there, sure that someone hid a trap there because as soon as he was going to fight it, it vanished. Dick finds it amusing that Damian is being a kid, in his own way, so he goes with it, cradling [Against his will, but he doesnt try to fight at all] him and telling him that it must have been the bed sheets or something like that, but never saying that it didnt happen, of course, always validating him. He's almost convincing Damian that it's okay and saying that he's going with him to his room to prove him its safe, but then a heavy unexpected banging in his door startles him so much he falls of the bed with Damian, which immediately runs to the door to fight, because, who in their right minds would bang that loud on a door? But Dick.. Dick starts laughing so hard after a few seconds that tears come down his face and his stomach starts to hurt from laughing so hard. Now it all made sense, but he cant explain to Damian what happened without starting another laughing fit.

————————

Jason was the last one, Bruce had waited for the right moment to do it, because he still had some hope that Jason would remember it from before the explosion. He wanted to enjoy the week with his kids before seeing more of the crushing truth that happened with his Baby Boy.

He waited for Jason to sit in the armchair of the living room alone before throwing slightly a tenis ball from one of the doors behind him, and ran across the Manor making no noises to get to another room which had a door facing the front of the armchair.

Jason saw the tenis ball rolling and immediately turned his head behind him to see who was there. Once he saw nothing he got up grumbling about something and started walking to the door that the tenis ball came from, but not eve two steps in, Bruce opens the door abruptly that was now behind Jason and runs towards the door Jason was getting to, while asking something that made zero sense. Jason, of course, had almost fallen because of the mattress that was acroos the living room [Siblings nights, no one slept in the room]

Jason: BRUCE WHAT THE FUCK.

[acowardinmordor]

while taking a short break from the absolutely insane deadline I'm trying to hit for this project that just got the rug pulled from under us, my brain was thinking about how much we love having Steve captured by people. Usually with Eddie bc unknown bat venom magic or whatnot.

Has anyone captured Steve and Dustin though? I'd normally jump to this post S3, where the russians have Dustin's name, and Steve is there too, but consider if it happens after S2.

Dustin is the loudest human on the planet. Says something or was recognized by someone lab-adjacent. They can't find El, but they know that this kid knows her, and look at him, its not like this child is going to be all that resilient to pressure. They grab Steve with him, as an accident more than anything else. Steve was taking Dustin to do errands, or something. Dustin took too long, Steve came to complain about the delay, Steve ends up in the back of the van too.

And these lab guys would, lets be honest, have killed Steve once they got back to their base bc what do they need this random guy for? Its the kid that knows about the girl.

However, the combination of Dustin never knowing when to shut up, Steve needing to protect Dustin, and the Lab Dudes being vaguely uncomfortable with actively hurting the kid... By the time they're back to wherever they're taken, Steve is the target, and he's actively encouraging it. He's never met El, but he has heard some stories in the last few weeks, enough to make it seem like he knows her. And hey, bonus! He can't actually tell them anything important about her because he doesn't know anything!

Dustin telling Steve to stop talking just ensures that the lab dudes think Steve has valuable information.

It's rough. Vaguely shaped like Steve and Robin with the Russians. And if he was protective of Robin? Yeah, no, there's no way he's going to let them hurt Dustin. he's only known the kid a month or so, but even when Dustin was essentially a stranger, he was down to risk his life for him.

Dustin isn't entirely left alone, but they're not really hurting him beyond incidental stuff. Kid is also smart enough to realize that he does know things they want to know, and that if he tells them, they'll find El, and have no use for Dustin or Steve at all anymore.

For the sake of a plot, lets say that there's a chance for an escape. Its been a month, they're being transported somewhere else, something something, Dustin gets out, and finds the closest cop he can, tells them to call the Hawkins PD, and put Hopper on the phone. He gets back home, and manages to tell El what to look for before Claudia wraps him in a hug and won't let him out of her sight. He can't even pretend he's upset about that btw. Yes, he's scared for Steve, but it was horrible and he's a child, and he's falling apart about it.

And again, plot armor. They're gonna find Steve. He's alive, they get him back. It's been at least another month though. Add in two weeks in a hospital, and two more weeks of recovery at Hopper's place, and... yeah, Steve's not graduating that year.

His parents, who assumed he'd run off with some money and his car since its not like he was going to get into college anyway, sorta wash their hands of him when he comes back. Its not like he can say that a group of G Men kidnapped him to find out what he knows about a little girl with psychic powers. He came back looking like a drug addict to be honest, and they can't be bothered. He's 18 already, so that's that. They're out.

Dustin would be - God. He'd be devastated by that part. Yes, by it taking so long to find Steve, by blaming himself for Steve getting taken too, for how long it will take Steve to recover, for Steve repeating his senior year, but Dustin Henderson finds out that Steve's parents were only back in Hawkins for a couple days to handle paperwork? That would be a gut punch.

I don't know how much he tells his mom, not everything about the monsters, but that the Lab was shady and they thought he and Steve knew something, and tells her that its his fault Steve got hurt, and that Steve kept him safe.

Obvs. That is now her brand new son, Steve Henderson.

And All THIS means that there's not really a fall from grace for 'king steve' He was bruised to hell at the end of Fall semester, and just didn't come back in the spring. Then there were rumors, then he was back, but not in school, and eventually, word went around that he was repeating.

By April, he's recovered enough to be applying for summer jobs. Not sure about Starcourt yet since I don't think I'm cruel enough to torture him twice, and maybe this requires a Steve With Powers situation, but all of this means that the start of the new school year creates an absolutely insane dynamic for Steve and Robin and Dustin and Eddie

[dreamescapeswriting]

Stray Kids Reaction || They're Protective Over You [Mafia Edition]

⤜Copyright: © DreamEscapesWriting - September 2023

⤜MASTERLIST

CHAN:

Ever since Chan's driver had almost hit you with a car all those years ago there was someone with you, always. It didn't matter what you were doing, he was just with you constantly. It never really bothered you, if your husband wanted to make sure that you were protected then you were happy to take part in that, as long as it wasn't going too far.

"You know, she doesn't need a babysitter while I'm around," Kat said snarkily to the bald man who was walking beside you, holding his hand out in front of your body to prevent you from crossing the road. You looked at Kat and smirked a little, you knew Chan was just trying to look out for you but Kat saw it as him trying to dictate your every move and she was worried you were too blind to see it.

"Relax babes, it's just Chan's way of watching out for me." You whispered as the man you'd come to know as - Pike - gave you the all-clear to cross the road. Kat slipped her arm into yours and you began crossing together, you could tell this was playing on her mind a lot and you wanted her to express herself with you.

"Doesn't it make you feel like a child though? Having someone tell you when you can and can't cross the road?" Kat looked at you suspiciously and you smiled a little, you didn't like that he was there but you didn't hate it either. God, you'd tried to fight Chan on it but he was adamant that you needed Pike around to look out for you.

"Not a child. Besides, I'd gotten Chan down to only giving me one man instead of the five he originally wanted me to have," You laughed, looking at Pike who kept his eyes in front of him and not getting involved in your conversations.

"Five?! What would you need five men for!?" Kat laughed a little and Pike let out a low chuckle,

"To surround her in a circle and protect her from oncoming traffic." He teased, winking at you both before you both giggled and headed inside the store you'd come to.

MINHO:

Over the years you'd gotten used to Minho's little quirks, you knew your husband was a protective man and was always looking out for the best of you.

"All I'm saying is, I don't need an armed escort to the cat sanctuary every day," You told Minho at breakfast, the two of you were discussing what you could do to lessen the number of men that stood outside of your work place every day. If it was down to Minho you wouldn't be working there anymore but he wasn't going to stop you from doing something that you loved doing.

"What if someone comes in and tries to take you? Or one of the cats?" You stared at him and sighed, you knew that he was right but ten guards was a bit much.

"Okay, then how about we compromise." You suggested, lifting a strawberry to your lips and taking a bite out of it.

"Three guards," You suggested, trying to make this as an easy business deal for him to agree to but Minho looked at you and put a strawberry in his mouth.

"Five," He suggested, shrugging his shoulders at you.

"Three."  You smiled warmly but he just shook his head at you. There was no way he was going to put you at risk by leaving you alone. You knew he was a powerful man but you still didn't want the ten guards outside of your shop scaring everyone away.

"Nine." You stared at him as he told you his suggestion and you blinked completely stunned by him,

"This isn't how that's supposed to work, you're supposed to lower." You pouted at you and Minho resisted the urge to smirk at how cute it was to see you like this.

"Five. Final offer." Sighing you nodded your head, agreeing to it and shaking his hand as if this was a real business deal you'd done together.

"Fine."

CHANGBIN:

Changbin had never been clingy before in his life but there was just something about you, something that bought out that side of him and he rather enjoyed it. Ever since the two of you ha gotten married last month, it seemed he'd gotten clingier. 

"You know, I could walk in the garden alone." You giggled a little as Changbin walked by your side through the gardens of your home. The two of you lived in a huge mansion which meant the gardens were just as - if not more - as big and you could get lost.

"What if you fall and no one is there to watch out for you?"

"Binnie." You giggled, he despised anyone else using that nickname for him but hearing it come from your lips made his whole world shine brighter,

"I know I get a little protective but with good reason. Anything could happen out here," He gestured around you both and you arched an eyebrow at him. When the two of you first started dating one another he wouldn't let you out of his sight, he would walk you to and from the club every night and then a few months into dating you were living together. Not that you minded, you enjoyed having this side coming from him but you didn't want this to become tiring for him.

"I don't want anything to ever happen to you," He told you as you both stopped in front of the rose bushes that lined the property, you smiled and reached up running your hand across his cheek,

"Nothing will, I promise you." You whispered, kissing him quickly before pulling away. As soon as you were apart a twig snapped and you were suddenly on the ground with Changbin above you,

"Binnie..I think it was a rabbit, not a spy or anything." You told him when you saw the panicked expression on his face, he nodded a little.

"I'm getting you a guard," He mumbled before standing you both up and you agreed, knowing you could never change his mind.

HYUNJIN:

"What do you think you're doing?" Hyunjin quizzed as you walked into the living room attempting to put your earrings through your ear and looking out of the window.

"I'm running late for girls' night," You'd told him a million times what tonight was but it seemed he'd forgotten once again,

"I know that, but what are you wearing?" You looked down at your outfit and frowned, there was nothing wrong with what you were wearing. It covered your body and it wasn't anything extremely revealing - unlike what you used to wear on nights out.

"A dress?"

"Says who?" He quizzed and you resisted the urge to quote a film and sighed,

"Hyunjin, it covers everything." You told him as he shook his head at you it wasn't that he didn't trust you because he did, it was everyone else he didn't trust.

"But it's so tight, everyone will be watching you...Looking at you, looking at what belongs to me." He let out a low growl at the thought of it and you stared at him,

"No one will. They all know I'm yours and if they value living they'll keep their eyes on something else," He smirked a little as you told him that but it didn't put his mind at ease.

"I'll send someone and if anyone so much as looks at you for longer than ten seconds I'll take names and faces," He told you sternly and you nodded, you knew you weren't going to go out completely alone without someone there to watch over you.

"Sure, I'm going now." You turned away from him but you were quickly spun into his embrace and kissed roughly.

"Now you can go," He winks, making you giggle as you walk for the front door.

JISUNG:

Whenever it was storming outside Jisung cancelled everything he had going on, even if he was in the middle of a meeting, he would cancel and walk out without speaking to another soul about what he was doing.

"You can't keep doing this," You giggled as you watched your husband kick off his shoes and crawl into the bed with you, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you closer to him.

"I can, I'm the boss." He reminded you, laughing as you cuddled closer to him. You weren't even THAT scared of thunderstorms but ever since your first meeting with your husband he'd been there for every single storm. It didn't matter what he was doing, if there was a storm he was racing home to you to make sure you were okay. It might have seemed silly to anyone from the outside looking in but this was Jisung's way of being protective over you, watching out for you to make sure you were cared for.

"You are, but you know a boss has responsibilities," You teased before you let out a loud yelp when the sudden crash of thunder made you jump. Your hands clutched onto his shirt and you hid your face in his neck, suddenly very thankful for him being right there with you calming you down with his breathing and small kisses on your skin.

FELIX:

"You're being ridiculous." You told Felix as you stood in the kitchen together, your new chef standing and cooking for you both as you glared at your husband. You couldn't believe he'd done this after you told him not to, it was a simple accident.

"I could have done that at any point, it was an accident. You didn't need to get a chef," You mumbled, smiling weakly at the chef who tipped his head at you. 

"You hurt yourself. So now, it won't happen again because I took you out of the kitchen," You rolled your eyes at him, you could hardly believe that he'd resorted to this,

"But you love my cooking." You reminded him and it was true, Felix adored everything you ever made him but if it came at the cost of you hurting yourself he was never going to let you in a kitchen again,

"I love you more." He whined making you roll your eyes, it was one tiny cut that you'd done it wasn't as though he knew about all of the other times you'd hurt yourself by accident.

"Felix, I won't seriously hurt myself. It was one tiny little cut-"

"And a burn, Don't think the maids haven't told me about the accidents that have happened when I'm not even here," You shot a look at the two maids who were quick to make themselves look busy and avoid your gaze.

"One day I'll get back in that kitchen," You warned him before he kissed your cheek, walking you into the living room where you could watch a movie while waiting for your food.

SEUNGMIN:

It wasn't that he was too protective but Seungmin wanted you to have privacy and if that meant emptying out a whole store just like his men had done the day he met you then he would gladly do that for you. But this was a bit far with his protectiveness, you never would have expected this.

"Seungmin, baby, don't you think this is going a step too far?" You quizzed as you stared around at the completely deserted mall and then over at your husband,

"No." He mumbled, running his hand over the small of your back, he'd planned this weeks ago when you mentioned wanting to go dress shopping for a charity event. The last thing he wanted was for someone else to see you in a jaw-dropping gown, instead, he wanted it to be a surprise.

"Seungmin, other people need to shop as well." You mumbled at him, there was no one around besides the workers in each of the shops and you could hardly believe that he'd done this.

"This is insane," You laughed listening to the way your voice echoed inside of the mall. It felt like something from a horror movie and Seungmin was enjoying the smile on your face,

"Let's go wherever you want, no one can disturb us." He told you as he took your hand in his and began to walk through the deserted mall together.

JEONGIN: 

As soon as news spread that there was a shooter inside of your hotel Jeongin wasted no time in getting to you. You'd tried to text him but were taken hostage by the crazy man wielding a gun around and you were starting to regret not taking Jeongin up on his offer for a security guard.

"I suggest you release my wife before you lose a hand," Jeongin said as he stared at you, tears were springing in your eyes as the metal of the gun was pressed harder against your temple.

"You better get out of my way if you want her to be alive," The man stuttered out, It was clear he was nervous about this and you knew Jeongin was going to play on that.

"If you were going to kill her you would have by now." Jeongin stared at you, studying your face to make sure you were truly okay and you smiled weakly at him, letting him know he hadn't hurt you yet. 

"GET AWAY!" The man screamed as Jeongin tried to step closer to you and he yanked you backwards, everything happened within a matter of seconds. One moment you were in the man's arms and the next you were on the floor with something warm over your face.

"What-"

"Thank you, boys," Jeongin said to two men who were standing above you, you recognised them as some of the new bell boys you'd hired a few months ago.

"How do you know them?" You stared at him and a smirk began to take over your husband's lips.

"Baby, they're your private security."

"You got me security," You grumbled as you let out a laugh, you should have known.

"Did you really think I would let the love of my life walk around without protection?" He scoffed, laughing a little as you hit against his chest watching as the two men began to clean up and you straightened yourself out.

"I need to comfort the guests, you can help." You told Jeongin sternly as you both got up.

Tagline: @chiisaiblog @hanasonmi @sw33tnight @taestannie @acciocriativity @scarletemeterio @halesandy @aerastus @laylasbunbunny @critssq @lenfilms @btsiguess-kpop @meowmeowisdaname @imafivestarkpopstan @lost-leopard-beanie @djeniryuu @backintomykpopphaseagain @choisoorin

[the-media-pit]

can never stop thinking about van and how endlessly fascinating of a character she is. i love her so much. she's so fun and good at entertaining and her personality is so much lighter than the hand she's been dealt (because of the hand she's been dealt). and then the plane crash happens and she has this strong sense of what she wants to do, how she wants to proceed, and she doesn't waver.

it isn't until shit starts to hit the fan even more with the wolf attack and laura lee and doomcoming that she starts to rely on what lottie represents. a form of escape, a sense of understanding, a name for the uncontrollable things happening to them. and, as s1 ends and throughout s2, she lets that idea of faith pull her forward, pull her through the wilderness. it's the only thing that can get her through the winter.

she's hungry and she's scared and she wants to disconnect from what's really happening. because if she focuses to much on reality it becomes real. it's a little bit like coach ben and his daydreaming, but instead of pulling away from the others, she throws herself fully into it. to the point that she sort of seems to lose herself. especially, in all of the scenes revolving around javi's death.

it's the most blunt she's ever been, but she's also trying to get through by breaking it down to the most digestible answers. the wilderness chose and she got to live so why shouldn't she be happy about that? it was out of her hands. it was fate. she can't control fate. lottie's the closest they have to someone who could control fate and van isn't lottie.

but in the present in s2 she's found some version of herself again, as they all have, and she has that sarcastic edge back. she still likes stories, but she can't tell herself the ones that she used to believe out in the wilderness. not on her own, at least.

which is why i really really love the exchange between her and tai in s3 in the teen timeline where she finally voices the fact that they didn't simply survive, they ate a kid. they ate javi. there's that crack that's showing now that summer and fall have come and are starting to go again. the warmth has brought her back to herself, the storyteller, and she can't really hide behind lottie's faith anymore. because it wasn't van's faith. not really. it was a warm meal and a pretty story. and, sure, she did survive, but javi had to die for that to happen. so, in the harsh light of day, the meal soured in her mouth and the story warped into something awful.

and facing another winter, she can't find that same escape.

for all of the coping mechanisms she built up for herself over the years of not really having a childhood, she can't cope. there's only so far she can take herself. the sat phone is hope and mari's death is despair. and van is feeling every ounce of it.

i just,, one thing i did really love about s3 was seeing more of that bridge between the teen and adult versions. it was evident in all of them, but, to me, especially noticeable in nat, misty, and van. how van became that woman running a vhs rental store, unwilling to let go of her creature comforts. unwilling to revisit the past all while trapping herself inside it.

[raziiyah]

Can we all agree that

Randall is NEITHER a Sweet woowoo misunderstood baby NOR is he a completely Heartless and soulless demonic creature with 0 feelings?

Like even in Monster's at Work we can see that Yes. He's definitely an awful person who has done terrible things and is still out to go do more terrible things BUT we also can see he has shown to be genuinely grateful to Johnny for saving his life and actually considered Johnny to be his Best Friend (even if it was completely one-sided on his part)

yesss randall is definitely not one or the other for me

i LOVE randall but i do not see him as a sweet misunderstood baby. he has done so much awful things and as of now shows no sign of remorse. it's supposedly been 20 years since college and he's only gotten more bitter over the years; far from who he was at the beginning of college. it's unfortunate that he got mixed up in the wrong crowd, but every bad choice he's made was his choice to make. also i feel like some people forget just how messed up his plan with the scream extractor in mi was, not to mention his sadistic and murderous desires (if randall was visible during his fight with sulley it would NOT be family friendly 💀)

but he isn't doing what he's doing just for the sake of being evil, yes he's mean, but at his core, it's just that randall will go through great lengths to get what he wants, to get the recognition he craves so much, and most especially, to one up sulley. his mindset was warped by ror, which changed his life forever. monsters university fleshed out this part of randall's character, as it provided context on why he’s the way he is, and gives a different meaning to his words, actions and intentions.

though i felt randall and johnny's best friendship was random considering what happened in mu, it was an interesting change of pace to see post mu randall actually like someone. randall mentioned that he owed johnny one, but i feel like they still genuinely enjoyed each other's company. like you can see that randall and johnny actually have a connection that isn't just strictly business, unlike randall and waternoose.

i do think that part of randall also still craves johnny's attention like he did in mu. considering he's been wanting to get in with the “cool kids” since literally day one of university suggests he's been wanting recognition and status for a very long time. and with johnny still having power and status as the ceo of fear co., i feel like randall would've still wanted to work with him despite what happened in mu.

i feel that even post uni randall still feels a need to impress johnny. like when he scares tylor, it seems like he immediately looks to johnny for his reaction and approval. then, he makes a joke at chet's expense, and after, goes to stand by johnny's side. with chet being johnny's former right-hand man, it makes sense why randall takes digs at him

i imagined that sometime in university, randall said something mean to chet and johnny found it funny, so he kept doing it for his attention (like the chet-wetter thing) and even now, he still brings it up and likely says and does other mean things to chet to raise himself up and put chet down

i would've liked to think that randall narrating johnny as his “best friend joined at the hip” could've just been something he made up for his own sake, but since maw johnny seems to actually neglect chet in favour of randall, i guess the writers just decided randall would actually just be his bestie moving forward (though i think leaning into the other concept would've been cool)

would randall feel like johnny was just using him, perhaps like he did in university? maybe. but perhaps he'll take a false sense of love and acceptance over nothing

though i don't think randall would've stuck around unless it benefited him, and that proves to be true when randall abandoned johnny after he got jailed lol, with johnny not being in a place of power anymore, he's useless to him now

now that randall is on his own, i want to see him work solely for himself, by himself. not under anyone, no boss, no more with being a follower. unless some other random monster shows up or they bring back waternoose or something, randall is very likely going to be the main villain of the next season, and this could be an opportunity to see more of his personality, especially since we still have yet to see randall interact with mike and sulley

maybe he could show a shred of regret, acknowledge the weight of his actions, or how much he's changed, but still show that he's gone too far now to go back to how he was. maybe he hates who he was before. or maybe he hates who he is now. but he's done too much and worked too hard to just accept that he's lost and go back to how he used to be

maybe mike could say something along the lines of "what happened to you, randall? what happened to the nice, friendly guy i knew in university?" and randall could be like "the guy who was naive? the guy who was insecure? the guy who was nothing more than second best? that guy is gone wazowski. long gone."

or maybe randall could tell sulley how he genuinely feels about him, and how much he was affected by always being in his shadow. perhaps sulley could acknowledge his skills and say that he could turn things around and do great things at the factory, and randall could laugh at the idea and say some stuff like "work together? under your management? what a joke. i don't think so. i'm not standing in your shadow, sullivan. not anymore."

idk lol but i think it would be cool to give randall some kind of scene that acknowledges his past or makes you sympathize with him a bit but not excuse his actions, or something to make the audience reflect on how tragic his character is or what could've been. i'd also like if he went as hard as he did when he nearly pushed sulley off the door to his death, especially considering the position sulley is in now

mu's existence changed and fleshed out randall's character (even if he didn't have as much scenes as he could've) and i would love to see this show do the same. except tylor is the main character and the show focuses more on mift; even mike and sulley aren't really the focus so i don't think they'd put that much emphasis on randall (but i'd love to be proved wrong)

for the record, though i currently think randall is in a state where he's far from redemption, i'm not completely closed off to the idea as long as it's in character and written well. though no offense but idk if maw/disney could actually manage to pull that off lol. whatever happens i just hope they do his character justice at least 🙏

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Precaratize bosses

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SUNDAY (Apr 21) in TORINO, then Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

Let's talk about some of those accusations. Remember the moral panic over the CARES Act covid stimulus checks? Hyperventilating mouthpieces for the ruling class were on every cable network, complaining that "no one wants to work anymore." The barely-submerged subtext was their belief that the only reason people show up for work is that they're afraid of losing everything – their homes, their kids, the groceries in their fridge.

This isn't a new development. Back when Clinton destroyed welfare, his justification was that "handouts" make workers lazy. The way to goad workers off their sofas (and the welfare rolls) and into jobs was to instill fear in them:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/welfare-childhood/555119/

This is also the firm belief of tech bosses: for them, mass tech layoffs are great news, because they terrorize the workers you don't fire, so that they'll be "extremely hardcore" and put in as many extra hours as the company demands, without even requiring any extra pay in return:

https://fortune.com/2022/10/06/elon-musk-jason-calacanis-return-to-office-gentlemens-layoffs-twitter/

Now, there's an obvious answer to the problem of no one taking a job at the wage being offered: just increase the offer. Capitalists claim to understand this. Uber will tell you that surge pricing "incentivizes drivers" to take to the streets by offering them more money to drive during busy times:

https://www.uber.com/blog/austin/providing-rides-when-they-are-most-needed/

(Note that while Uber once handed the lion's share of surge price premiums to drivers, these days, Uber just keeps the money, because they've entered the enshittification stage where drivers are so scared of being blacklisted that Uber can push them around instead of dangling carrots.)

(Also note that this logic completely fails when it comes to other businesses, like Wendy's, who briefly promised surge-priced hamburgers during busy times, but without even the pretense that the surge premium would be used to pay additional workers to rush to the restaurant and increase the capacity:)

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/feb/27/wendys-dynamic-surge-pricing

So bosses knew how to address their worker shortage: higher wages. You know: supply and demand. For bosses, the issue wasn't supply, it was price. A worker who earns $10/hour but makes the company $20 profit every hour is splitting the surplus 50:50 with their employer. The employer has overheads (rent on the shop, inventory, advertising and administration) that they have to pay out of their end of that surplus. But workers also have overheads: commuting costs, child-care, a professional wardrobe, and other expenses the worker incurs just so they can make money for their boss.

There's no iron law of economics that says the worker/boss split should be 50/50. Depending on the bargaining power of workers and their bosses, that split can move around a lot. Think of McDonald's and Walmart workers who work for wildly profitable corporate empires, but are so badly paid that they have to rely on food stamps. The split there is more like 10/90, in the boss's favor.

The pandemic changed the bargaining power. Sure, workers got a small cushion from stimulus checks, but they also benefited from changes in the fundamentals of the labor market. For example, millions of boomers just noped out of their jobs, forever, unwilling to risk catching a fatal illness and furious to realize that their bosses viewed that as an acceptable risk.

Bosses' willingness to risk their workers' lives backfired in another way: killing hundreds of thousands of workers and permanently disabling millions more. Combine the boomer exodus with the workers who sickened or died, and there's just fewer workers to go around, and so now those workers enjoy more bargaining power. They can demand a better split: say, 75/25, in their favor.

Remember the 2015 American Airlines strike, where pilots and flight attendants got a raise? The eminently guillotineable Citibank analyst Kevin Crissey declared: "This is frustrating. Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers":

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/american-airlines-flight-attendants-bash-citi-analyst-who-put-shareholders-before-workers-14134309

Now, obviously, the corporation doesn't want to offer a greater share of its surplus to its workforce, but it certainly can do so. The more it pays its workers, the less profitable it will be, but that's capitalism, right? Corporations try to become as profitable as they can be, but they can't just decree that their workers must work for whatever pay they want to offer (that's serfdom).

Companies also don't get to dictate that we must buy their goods at whatever price they set (the would be a planned economy, not a market economy). There's no law that says that when the cost of making something goes up, its price should go up, too. A business that spends $10 to make a widget you pay $15 for has a $5 margin to play with. If the business's costs go up to $11, they can still charge $15 and take $1 less in profits. Or they can raise the price to $15.50 and split the difference.

But when businesses don't face competition, they can make you eat their increased costs. Take Verizon. They made $79b in profit last year, and also just imposed a $4/month service charge on their mobile customers due to "rising operational costs":

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/1c53c4p/79bn_in_profits_last_year_but_you_need_an_extra/

Now, Verizon is very possibly lying about these rising costs. Excuseflation is rampant and rising, as one CEO told his investors, when the news is full of inflation-talk, "it’s an opportunity to increase the prices without getting a whole bunch of complaining from the customers":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

But even stipulating that Verizon is telling the truth about these "rising costs," why should we eat those costs? There's $79b worth of surplus between Verizon's operating costs and its gross revenue. Why not take it out of Verizon's bottom line?

For 40 years, neoliberal economists have emphasized our role as "consumers" (as though consumers weren't also workers!). This let them play us off against one-another: "Sure, you don't want the person who rings up your groceries to get evicted because they can't pay their rent, but do you care about it enough to pay an extra nickel for these eggs?"

But again, there's no obvious reason why you should pay that extra nickel. If you have the buying power to hold prices down, and workers have the labor power to keep wages up, then the business has to absorb that nickel. We can have a world where workers can pay their rent and you can afford your groceries.

So how do we get bosses to agree to take less so we can have more? They've told us how: for bosses, the thing that motivates workers to show up for shitty jobs is fear – fear of losing their homes, fear of going hungry.

When your boss says, "If you don't want to do this job for minimum wage, there's someone else who will," they're telling you that the way to get a raise out of them is to engineer things so that you can say, "If you don't want to pay me a living wage for this job, there's someone else who will."

Their accusation – that you only give someone else a fair shake when you're afraid of losing out – is a confession: to get them to give you a fair shake, we have to make them afraid. They're showing us who they are, and we should believe them.

In her Daily Show appearance, FTC chair Lina Khan quipped that monopolies are too big to care:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

Philosophers of capitalism are forever praising its ability to transform greed into public benefit. As Adam Smith put it, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." The desire to make as much money as possible, on its own, doesn't produce our dinner, but when the butcher, the brewer and the baker are afraid that you will take your labor or your wallet elsewhere, they pay more and charge less.

Capitalists don't want market economies, where they have to compete with one another, eroding their margins and profits – they want a planned economy, like Amazon, where Party Secretary Bezos and his commissars tell merchants what they can sell and tell us what we must pay:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Capitalists don't want free labor, where they have to compete with rival capitalists to bid on their workers' labor – they want noncompetes, bondage fees, and "training repayment agreement provisions" (TRAPs) that force their workers to stay in dead-end jobs rather than shopping for a better wage:

\https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Capitalists hate capitalism, because capitalism only works if the capitalists are in a constant state of terror inspired by the knowledge that tomorrow, someone smarter could come along and open a better business, poaching their customers and workers, and putting the capitalist on the breadline.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

Being in a constant precarious state makes people lose their minds, and capitalists know it. That's why they work so hard to precaratize the rest of us, saddling us with health debt, education debt, housing debt, stagnating wages and rising prices. It's not just because that makes them more money in the short term from our interest payments and penalties. It's because it de-risks their lives: monopolies and cartels can pass on any extra costs to consumers, who'll eat shit and take it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#overinflated

A workforce that goes to bed every night worrying about making the rent is a workforce that put in unpaid overtime and thank you for it.

Capitalists hate capitalism. You know who didn't hate capitalism? Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. The first chapter of The Communist Manifesto is just these two guys totally geeking out about how much cool stuff we get when capitalists are afraid and therefore productive:

https://pluralistic.net/SpectreHaunting

But when capitalists escape their fears, the alchemical reaction that converts greed to prosperity fizzles, leaving nothing behind but greed and its handmaiden, enshittification. Google search is in the toilet, getting worse every year, but rather than taking reduced margins and spending more fighting spam, the company did a $80b stock-buyback and fired 12,000 skilled technologists, rather than using that 80 bil to pay their wages for the next twenty-seven years:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Monopoly apologists like to argue that monopolists can rake in the giant profits necessary to fund big, ambitious projects the produce better products at lower prices and make us all better off. But even if monopolists can spend their monopoly windfalls on big, ambitious projects, they don't. Why would they?

If you're Google, you can either spend tens of billions on R&D to keep up with spam and SEO scumbags, or you can spend less money buying the default search spot on every platform, so no one ever tries another search engine and switches:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Compared to its monopoly earnings, the tech sector's R&D spending is infinitesimal:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#capitalists-hate-competition

How do we get capitalists to work harder to make their workers and customers better off? Capitalists tell us how, every day. We need to make them afraid.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

Image: Vlad Lazarenko (modified) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_Sign_%281-9%29.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[bad268]

Hello my friend! I've recently discovered your work for the frog boys and also saw you have requests open (if this isn't true anymore I'm terribly sorry!) I was wondering if you could write something about Pezzy (and maybe the rest of the frog house included if you want) playing horror games with his s/o? Have a good day!

Scared in Love (Frog Boys X Reader)

Fandom: RPF/Miscellaneous

Requested: Clearly (I decided to make this part of [Blank] in Love. I could be read alone though. Thank you my friend <3)

Warnings: Horror games

POV: First Person (I/me)

W.C. 1027 (about 250 each)

Summary: Horror games are scary, who knew?

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

Technically can be read alone, but Part 4 <-

~~

Puffer (At Dead of Night)

“This is stupid! All we’re doing is running from a bald guy,” I laughed as I controlled the movements in the game as we ran between rooms. Puffer had been asked to play At Dead of Night. Despite knowing he did not like horror games, he agreed as long as I was there for it. Neither of us had heard much of this game, and so far it was pretty boring. “Am I supposed to lock this door?”

“Maybe? Isn’t the guy chasing you?” Puffer answered as he leaned closer to the screen. He broke his glasses recently, so he was blind for this stream, and that’s the main reason he asked me to join. “Wait, why is that light flickering?”

“Like I know,” I scoffed as I immediately moved toward it. Nothing happened. “See chat, y'all just be hyping up this game, and it's plain.” I turned around in the game and jumped in my seat as some random person showed up. “Holy shit!”

“Dr. Bose was accused of the worst crime possible,” Puffer joked with mock seriousness. “We need to go to the ground floor now to see the police lights!” He took over the controls, again leaning close to the screen to see.

“Maybe you shouldn’t speed run out of the room,” I advised.

“Nah, we’ll be fine,” And almost like Jimmy was listening, he jumped out from around the corner to kill us. Puffer jumped back in his chair, causing it to fall back.

“What did I fucking say!?”

~~

Pezzy (Doors)

“It’s Roblox. How scary can it possibly be?” were going to be my famous last words. I was sure of it.

“I swear to god if one more of these things pulls me out of the closet again, I will throw my controller at the screen!” I shouted as I died once again. 

“Welcome to the club,” Pezzy laughed, “It only gets worse.”

“I’m going to cry,” I joked as I respawned. “This is literally torture! I did not agree to do this!”

“Yes, you did!” Leave it to Pezzy to pull up the receipts in the form of a text you sent him a while ago. He briefly showed it to the camera before clearing his throat, and imitating my voice, “I doubt it’s even that hard. I bet that I could speed run it faster than you.”

“I don’t remember saying that sober,” I admitted as I ran through the doors, ignoring Pezzy’s laugh. “I really don’t. In fact, I think a certain someone stole my phone and texted someone while we were drunk. I wouldn’t put it past you honestly.”

“I cannot believe you would accuse me of such a thing,” Pezzy gasped as he put a hand to his chest. “I seem to remember you bragging about not being scared of anything. You’re eating your words now, huh?”

“Never,” I said definitively. It didn’t last long as, almost immediately, the red skull thing chased me through the rooms. “I swear! PLEASE!”

~~

Droid (FNAF Help Wanted)

“It’s not even that bad,” I laughed as I glanced at chat while Droid stood behind me playing Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted. I had played it before since I was practically a FNAF channel, so Droid made it his subgoal to play it when they hit 5,000 subs. Granted, he did not think it would happen that quickly. “Just wait until you get to the third game.”

“You’re kidding me!” He shouted as he frantically looked around the room. “There’s no way it gets worse than this! You’re capping!”

“Nah, you’re just a baby,” I laughed as a highlighted chat caught my eye.

“You should shove him.” it read. Thankfully, he could not read chat while in the game, so I took this as my opportunity. With a smirk, I stood up and walked around to stand behind Droid. Just as the music picked up in the game, I grabbed his shoulders and he was jumpscared. From me and the game as Bonnie jumped out at him. 

He flung his arms back to try and drab me, but I ducked and ran back to my chair. He pulled the headset off and immediately glared at me. He let go of the joycons as he pointed and slowly approached me. 

“I will murder you,” He joked as he leaned down to be at eye level with me. “I will threaten domestic violence live on Twitch.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I joked back as I raised my eyebrows.

“WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! Nah, don’t even!”

~~

Grizzy (GMod Horror Maps)

“I don’t like the squidward-looking thing or the witches,” I cried as I ran my character through the dark maze. “Why did you mod them in?”

“Because I knew you didn’t like them,” Grizzy laughed as his character followed mine around. “I can remove one of them if you want.”

“Please do,” I laughed as I purposely let myself get killed by Squidward, so I would respawn. Grizzy exited the game to fix the mod as I stayed on the call with him, entertaining his chat. Eventually, he got it changed but did not tell me what he put in. 

“Can I know what was spawned?” I asked as I reloaded the game. I had to update it since the mods changed, and I got stuck on the loading screen for a minute. I thought he would have told me at that point, but no. When I loaded into the game, I saw a hoard of witches immediately. I slowly looked over to Discord to see Grizzy’s face cam, and of course, he’s got that malicious smile. “I will murder you.”

“You always say you could outrun the witches,” Grizzy laughed as his character also loaded it. As soon as he spawned, he threw a bomb at the group. “I’m testing you.”

I screamed as I ran my character the opposite way through the maze, “What the fuck is wrong with you!”

“See!? It’s not so easy, huh?” Grizzly laughed as he watched my character run. ”What are you mumbling?”

“California girls were unforgettable,” I said a little louder than before as my voice got higher. “Daisy dukes bikinis on top.”

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[eltheabberation]

Bird boy!!

@tokyoghoulartfight2025

Info below cut:

Name: Yousuke Watanabe (渡辺 耀左)

Age: Mid to late 20s

Born: May 22, 1995

Education: Never went to school, junior high education (from homeschooling)

Gender: Male (but this is flexible)

Species: Ghoul

Kagune type: Koukaku, think like Ryouko's but only two wings and spiky

Size: 168 cm

Blood-type: A

Likes: His job, his boss, jewellery, coffee, birds, rock music, marigolds

Sexuality: Unlabeled Achillean

Hobbies: Collecting things, origami, killing people, stealing cool clothes off of people he killed, listening to music, learning to play guitar (he's trying)

Personality: (Not the best at this sort of thing but I'll try ;w;)

Positive traits: Loyal to a fault, hard-working, determined, fearless

Negative traits: Fairly cold if he's not close to someone, single-minded, merciless

Background:

Okay uh so I created Yousuke for an au where Takizawa (Yes this is a Takizawa-centric au I'm sorry this is just how my brain works) joins Aogiri somewhat willingly (the choices are join or bleed out and die so it's not a real choice but it feels more like one) and (after going through the procedure and all the shit with Kanou) ends up being an actual executive member with his own sort of group so that's the setup

Yousuke was a member of a very small ghoul group that got absorbed into Aogiri when the 13th ward got taken over, initially he just worked in manual labour since he was fairly weak and was scared of fighting. When Taki got promoted to an exective he got added to Taki's little group since he reminded him a lot of how he used to be, and Taki ended up appointing him as one of his closest subordinates, since he figures "oh since this kid is a lot like how I was I'm sure he'll be able to go through the same thing I did" meanwhile Yousuke had no clue what the FUCK he did to get his position but he didn't want to piss off one of the most dangerously unstable people in Aogiri so he decided to just play along. Eventually through a lot of very extreme training he ended up (for better or for worse) becoming more like Taki (or the image Seidou projected at least) in the sense that he no longer feared fighting or death and ended up becoming really powerful.

Anyway fast forward a few years into the future, Aogiri's disbanded but some of the groups within it managed to survive, including Seidou's. They relocated their base of operations to the 24th ward and now they mainly just kill investigators for fun and for meals, he's still serving as Taki's left hand.

Also additional info about this au:

like half the cast is dead but I'm leaving it ambiguous as to who is and who isn't so you can decide

the only person who is absolutely for sure dead is Kaneki who was killed by Arima at the end of TG

Shikorae is the only canon character who's also a part of Seidou's group (they share him with the clowns) but this is flexible

Amon didn't get taken for experimentation but again, this is flexible

Moral of the story everything is flexible so you can do whatever you want

DOs:

Honestly anything :D

Ships I'm okay with:

Him x Seidou (either requited or one-sided (on Yousuke's side)) is the only canonish one in this au but I'm fine with anything, I'm actually curious to see who he gets shipped with if anyone :>

DON’TS:

Ships I'm not okay with:

Uh nothing that's him x a minor but other than that anything goes

So excited to be participating again in art fight! I thought I was cooked since my ability to draw killed itself but it revived right like two days ago so we ball :>

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

(Also if you want you can draw Mason instead but honestly I don't consider him a tg oc anymore since he's part of his own project now)