#have i giffed this before? yes. will i continue to gif this? most probably

[baynton]

Jamie and Ariel in You, Me and the Apocalypse | 1x08: Saviour Day

[slasher-fxcker]

Hihi! I was wondering if you can do billy and stu and just the slashers reacting to their someone being hurt at their job and trying to hide it?

A/N: Okay I was going to do this request for multiple slashers, BUUUUUUT I started writing for Billy and Stu and got carried away. I love them too much

Billy & Stu Reacting to their S/O being injured at work.

Warnings: Swearing, mention of blood, brief mention of killing (but I mean this is the slasher fandom so kinda expected lol)

This blog is 18+, Minors do not interact

GIF by casualwriters

You hadn’t been working at the video store for too long but you loved it, your friend Randy had gotten you the job when they were desperate for staff. It was great for the boys too; Billy and Stu would stop by all the time using the place as their personal hang out much to your managers displeasure.

Every Saturday night the boys would swing by and pick some scary movies to watch together after you finished, unfortunately for them you were going to be stuck doing inventory tonight. As usual Billy wasn’t impressed about having to share your time with anyone other than Stu, “Just blow it off what are they going to do fire you?” you rolled your eyes as you continued getting ready. “Yes Billy, probably.”

Stu got up from his spot in front of the tv to try to pull you back to the couch, “Come on babe, do you really think you should be out at night? Don’t you know there’s a killer on the loose?” You try to supress your chuckle as he raises his eyebrows at you, his usual smirk on his face.

You fake innocence putting on your best fear filled voice, “Oh no, what will I do if Mr. Ghostface comes to get me.” Billy laughs one of his rare genuine laughs before Stu steps closer to you placing his hands on your waist, “I could think of a few things.” Smirking as he notices the way you flush at the suggestion. You lightly smack his chest as he laughs at himself once again before you press a chaste kiss to his lips. You grab your bag, blowing a quick kiss to Billy before heading to the door. “I’ll try to get back in time for movie night, but don’t wait up.”

Inventory was fairly boring, you tried to get it done as quickly as possible while Randy spent most of the night showing you his favourite scenes from various movies. Shoving another handful of popcorn into his mouth he continued his rant, “Come on how can you have lived your whole life without watching this movie? Quick you're gonna miss the best part!”

“Randy unlike you I’m actually trying to get this finished before midnight, now are you going to help me or not?” He sighs before finally getting off his ass and heading towards the storage room, 15 minutes go by and he still isn’t back to help. “I swear to god Randy if you're napping on the kart again I’m going to kill you.” You mutter to yourself as you head to the storage room.

You see Randy sitting on the kart going through a box of movies, you try to get a closer look before he sees you. You noticed the box of X rated movies he was looking at. “Randy you perv!” You didn’t realise you had snuck up on him before he jumped up knocking you into the shelves behind you both. Before you could move a box came off the shelf and fell onto you. Your head immediately pounded “Oh shit, Y/N!” Randy hurries to help you up, moving the various tapes that are scattered around to get you back out into the store, sitting up on the counter Randy starts looking over your head. “Oh shit, you're bleeding. Billy’s going to kill me.” You feel him practically prod at your forehead as you hiss in pain and slap his hand away. He helps you clean up the blood and tells you to go home, “Ill finish up here, it’s the least I can do.” You can see how sincere he is when he apologises. Your only worry is how you're going to explain this to the boys.

You decide to head straight home, hopefully the boys will think you just had to stay too late and will leave you be until tomorrow. That way you would at least have time to clean yourself up and come up with a story.

Looking in the mirror the damage is worse than you thought, the red tint on your forehead of smudged blood, the dried blood in your hairline and the bruising that was already beginning to show around the cut that could definitely not be concealed. You sighed as you wet a cloth in the bathroom sink raising it to your head gently, the pain immediately making you wince at the contact.

You raised your hand to try again when you heard something in your room, you looked out the doorway and saw what you could only assume was the boys sneaking in your window. You panicked and slammed the bathroom door closed locking it behind you. You hear the taller of the two call out to you as he knocks on the bathroom door. When you don’t answer he tries to open the door, “Whys the door locked babe?”

“Sorry Stu, I’m not feeling too well.” You try to sound convincing. This time its Billy that answers, “Come out here and tell us what’s wrong.” “Yeah we will look after you.” Stu giggles as you can clearly hear Billy push him away from the door. You feel bad hiding from them, “No its okay, you should probably go home in case I’m uh infectious or something. Yeah.” Your voice wavers and you know you aren’t convincing anyone.

Stu is quiet for once but you hear the edge in Billy’s voice as he speaks, “Y/N don’t lie to us, get out here.” You know they won’t leave, part of you wonders if it would be dramatic to climb out the window at this point. “Don’t make me break the door down.” You would’ve rolled your eyes but you knew he probably wasn’t kidding.

You slowly unlocked the door before slipping out of the bathroom, still not looking at either of them. You try to hide your face but of course they can see it, Stu is at your side immediately trying to make sure you're okay. He gently inspects the cut careful not to touch it. You try to ignore Billy’s stare but you can feel his eyes on you, looking at him for a second regret fills you when you meet his eyes. Billy might be a murderer but everything he does is so calm and thought out, never out of rage. You wouldn’t know that looking at him now, fists clenched at his side as his eyes narrow at you, gaze shifting between your eyes and the cut on your head.

Stu takes you to sit down on the bed, unsure of how to help you. He might be the most caring person when it comes to you but he’s also kinda hopeless. Billy’s gaze doesn’t leave you as you move around the room. Eventually after what felt like endless silence he walks towards you taking your chin in his hand and turning your face to look at the cut better. “Who did this to you?” Any other time Billy’s over protective tendencies would make you feel secure but seeing him like this, eyes dark and glazed over in anger didn’t bring you any comfort.

“No one did this to me.” He cut you off as his grip tightened slightly, “Don’t fucking lie to me. Who did this to you.” You don’t know what to say, you pull your chin out of his grip and sigh, “I was working with Randy and…” Stu seems to pull you closer protectively as Billy raises his voice again. “Randy did this to you?” Billy hated Randy already for so many reasons but this time Stu is the one to speak up, “That little fucker is going to pay,” he stood up and tried to walk away before you grabbed him, “No! I mean please just stay here with me,” you plead him as you pull him into a hug again, you know just how to stop this big softy from making a stupid decision like trying to kill Randy.

“He’s right. You think he gets to hurt you and get away with this.” Calming Billy down was going to be a harder task, “He didn’t hurt me Billy, we were taking inventory and it was an accident.” He scoffed, “He accidentally sliced your head open.” You walk towards Billy and take his face in your hands making him look at you once again, “It was an accident,” he tries to turn his head away but you bring him back to look at you, “And I’m fine now. I promise.”

You watch him as his eyes flicker from your eyes down to your lips, bringing himself closer to you. You reach up to place a kiss on his lips, slightly surprised when he begins to deepen it. His hands wrap around your waist as he starts walking you backwards towards the bed. You know where this is going and as the back of your knees hit the bed frame you break apart smiling up at him as you think you’ve won this one. He gently pushed you back onto Stu’s lap, the kind look gone from his face as he turns to Stu, “Keep her here til I get back.” Stu only seems to nod and Billy starts walking back towards the window, you suddenly realise what’s happening and frantically try to get out of Stu’s embrace.

“Billy no!” you practically yell at him, stopping him half way out the window, “Please Billy, don’t kill him.” He doesn’t respond as he sends you a bone chilling smirk and disappears out of your room.

[cenorii]

Indifference and Excella

Today I'd like to talk about an issue like indifference and its consequences. But we won't talk about whether it's bad or not, I just want to discuss how Excella's indifference changed the history of all the following games.

Excella had known Wesker since about 2003, but had been directly close to him since about 2006, when she gained control of Tricell Inc. From 2006 to 2009, she was close to him, through which she began to experience romantic feelings that blinded her critical thinking. But even without the crush, she was indifferent to what kind of person he was, and that probably always annoyed him in people (Wesker's second report states how he hates people who elevate others only for their background and not for their personal accomplishments. Excella exalted Wesker perhaps not even for his research but for his looks, that is, she did not read between the lines at all and did not pay attention to who was actually standing in front of her).

Being indifferent to his personality, she did not notice at all, so unstable man was next to her. The object of her lust had a huge bouquet of psychological problems and inferiority complexes, which he hid behind a mask of calmness.

However, even this mask gave a crack in re5, you can tell by the animation of the sudden outburst of anger.

gif by

But while in re5 he's angry because his plan is slowly falling apart, in the Lost in Nightmares DLC, it's much deeper than that...

He just learned the truth about his life, and his anger is probably directed at that fact. He's angry at the truth and the fact that his past continues to haunt him (Chris and Jill). His past in the form of Umbrella, who he ran away from, has also caught up with him again, turning out to be the truth he had to face. Because of his pretense and “calm” image, he never learned to deal with his emotions, and I'm surprised that Excella never noticed it, since he must have been angry when the cockroaches mutated on his ship.

Based on all of this, Excella hasn't been paying attention to the fact that the person next to her isn't what she thinks he is. Chris is blind to Wesker's psychological problems too and he is clearly not the person who would suggest he go to a psychiatrist, but he, unlike Excella, has good reasons for this. For example, he's blinded by his resentment toward Wesker (for the mansion, for kidnapping Jill, and so on), he's also blinded by hatred. But Excella treated Wesker well, was directly next to him, and still missed the fact that everything in his character screams that he needs help.

Yes, if someone had offered him psychological help, he obviously wouldn't have liked it, but he would have realized anyway that someone had shown him attentiveness. He would have felt that someone cares about something much deeper in him than his external image, and maybe that would have made a difference.

Just imagine that ONE caring person could have changed the course of further history by showing of the right attention. Especially if this person had appeared long before re5, for example in 2006, when Wesker was the most psychologically unstable because he learned the truth from Spencer. Feeling that someone didn't just sympathize with him, but wanted to help him deal with an deep problem, perhaps he would have made other decisions in the future.

After all, in fact, Wesker is not so much interested in Uroboros and power, as in getting people from it who would be equal to him and consider him. His main problem is a sense of detachment, as if he is superfluous, different from everyone else as a white crow, and so he needs a society made up of white crows like him. He strives to stop feeling "different". And for the sake of this, he has made the mistaken decision to “make others like him”, because he considers "ordinary" people unworthy.

However, he turns a blind eye to the fact that all these people he considers unworthy have a chance to merge with Uroboros and become like him. So it's the same "unworthy" people, just in a different cover, you know? This is another fact that proves that he doesn't care what kind of people will become the Uroboros users, he wants that they just exist. It's important to him that there are people like him.

And if just ONE person in his past had shown genuine empathy for his personality, advising him to see a specialist, maybe the whole RE story would have gone differently. There would be no Jill kidnapping, no Uroboros, no biological weapons and the organizations responsible for them, because Wesker, based on his words, is disgusted by war and pestilence. There would be no reason for him to do all this and pursue his dream through the dirty ways. His dream are of a world without decadence, a utopia where there is no destruction. And biological weapons are precisely the tools of war, pestilence and destruction. If he had other goals, Wesker would have gone up against BOW, and knowing how well he was able to counter his competitors, the bioterrorists wouldn't stand a chance.

Let's not forget that Wesker developed many weapons against bioweapons, the blueprints for which were later found by Blue Umbrella ("Albert System Weapon"). So even being a bioterrorist involuntarily, he developed means against BOW, indirectly speaking out against his own work

Draw your own conclusions, I was just sharing my thoughts on indifference and how Excella's blind love contributed to the situation <3

[justporo]

A Night of Song and Laughter (Part 2)

In which there happens to be some smut... which I didn't plan for in this part but Astarion is goddammn wicked and does what he wants (you go bby) - that includes making Tav squirm while being pinned against a random wall. You can also read this and more parts on AO3 already!

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Astarion/Fem!Tav (You)

These gifs are not mine btw... It's from here!

You were almost at the destination. Before the last turn and before the tavern came into view, you stopped just at the corner and softly tugged at Astarion’s arm. He turned to you and looked at you askingly: “What is it, my love? Weren’t you so keen to get here quickly.”

You bite your lip. Astarion’s gaze immediately drops to your lips. “Listen, you know, I just told you how I hung out very often at this place with my old crew. So uhm, it might be possible we run into them tonight.” You felt yourself getting nervous – you weren’t exactly sure how you felt of your plan all of a sudden. The vampire angled his head slightly to one side. “Soo?”, he drawled slowly and lifted an eyebrow.

“You know, it might be… weird”, you said and rolled your shoulders slightly. “You mean weird, because you just disappeared one day and now you just appear again with this stunningly beautiful man at your side, your incredibly smart and loving and cunning and witty soulmate”, Astarion started. You rolled your eyes at him but couldn’t help at how your cheeks probably flushed when he called the two of you soulmates. “Yes, kind of the weird, I meant”, you interrupted quickly before the pale elf could continue his self-praise. “I mean most of them would be cool about it, it’s not like we don’t all have our secrets or that some didn't disappear for some time, but…”, you bit your lip again.

Astarion pressed a kiss on your lips: “But what, darling? Don’t you think after all we’ve been through, we can’t get through meeting your old friends that might be a bit upset at you for being gone? And bringing a new acquaintance to the party?” “It’s just – if they’re here, Eodin is probably with them. And we kinda had a th- I mean he had a thing for me and we kinda also – you know – slept with each other a few times and… But I’ve never really been with him, like romantically – at least from my side, it was just sex and… like you said, you and I, we are soulmates… and the sex wasn’t even that goo…”, you started to blurt out.

Astarion’s eyebrows rose at this new revelation but his signature smirk quickly reappeared: “So, what you are telling me, is, that we might run into your old affair who – from what I think I caught from your rambling – might still be romantically interested in you.” While speaking, Astarion put his arms around you and pulled you closer. One of his hands moved up to your neck, fingers softly tangling in your hair, the other hand moving to your butt, clad in leather pants, and squeezing. “And who wasn’t even worth a mention so far because – as you just explained – it was just sex and at that even so unremarkable you probably didn’t even remember until just now.” You melted into his touch, his ruby eyes sparkled hungrily as he moved you back step for step until he had you with your back to the wall at the corner you stopped. He pinned your body against the stones and moved his right thigh between your legs to make you immobile. His one hand that was caressing your ass moved to lift your leg to wrap around his hips. His other hand curled into your hair and dragged your head back the slightest bit. You couldn’t help to let out a moan as his sudden change in demeanor. Your lips opened and you could feel how melting hot lava started to fill your core, your nipples, which pressed against his chest under your linen shirt, peaking. Astarion’s face was directly above you. He licked his lips slowly and smiled hungrily at you with an open mouth. You could clearly see his fangs shimmering in the light of the street lanterns. He groped your ass again, receiving another moan from you.

“I bet”, he continued and breathed out heavily. He was just as affected by this as you were – but he was in charge. “I bet, he couldn’t even get you as worked up in one whole night as I can in mere seconds, fully clothed and on the open street, my love.” He enunciated every single word but especially the last two. “Let alone make you come”, he drawled and grinned once more, his fangs being on full display. Then he kissed you – his mouth taking yours eagerly and making the heat inside you grow even hotter, manifesting itself in a pulsing sensation between your legs. His fingers in your hair sent shivers down your spine. You were like wax in his hands, gifting yourself to him willingly.

His sheer confidence and sudden possessiveness turned you on massively. And it was true – there never had been anyone like him. Not in the bedroom, but neither in your heart. No one compared to him.

“I don’t think being on the open street is the setback in this scenario, Astarion”, you whispered breathlessly, when he broke the kiss. The vampire threw his head back and laughed hoarsely. “Look at you, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you? Who would have thought you might be prone to some public fun?”, he whispered moving close to your pointy ear, his lips almost touching your skin. He shifted his right leg he still had between your legs to pin you against the wall which made you involuntarily grind against his thigh clad in black leather pants. You inhaled sharply at the sudden jolt of delicious friction. A thought about if he actually would dare to take you right there on the spot raced through your mind. But frankly, at the moment you couldn’t care less.

Astarion moved his lips from your ear to your neck while dragging your head back by your hair even more to gain better access to your throat. He could see your pulse drumming with excitement and arousal. The vein at your throat pulsating promisingly. He’d been rock hard since he had you pinned to the wall but this heightened his arousal even more, making his already painful erection twitch. The tought of having you, the thought of you trusting him so much, the thought of all you already gifted him and the thought that you were his – forever - he'd never felt like this before.

His eyes shone like gemstones while he stared at the display of your racing heartbeat. If he wanted to bite you, you’d let him. You’d not only gotten used to it but you’ve also both come to enjoy it as part of your nightly trysts from time to time. You’d had to admit a little pain had driven your pleasure to newly known heights.

Astarion savored the view of your delectable neck once more before he lifted his head and his eyes went back to yours. He licked his lips again and said: “As much as I’d love to devour you right here and now, my love –“, he moved to grab your other leg and lift you in his arms while your legs already moved to tangle around his hips “- It would ruin our primary plans for the night and I wouldn’t want you to give up on them.” He turned around and set you down on the floor again. You were shortly startled and also didn’t trust yourself to already stand on your own again after his quick demonstration of his talents.

“Also”, he continued, putting one finger under his chin in thinker pose “colour me more than intrigued now to get to know your former acquaintances”. He emphasized some of the words mockingly. “You know, to find out what the ‘competition‘“ – dramatically air-quoted the word “could possibly have on me.” He grinned another mockingly not very friendly grin that showed his canines prominently. Then he laughed and pulled you against him again, kissing you deeply again. But this kiss was not about sexual prowess, just showing you how deeply he felt for you. “Come on, darling”, he said in a deep and affectionate tone after the kiss while leaning his forehead against yours “lead the way.”

[luffyvace]

AIZAWA’S KISSES HEADCANONS<3

The gif is blurry but I really like the angle/scene 😗

I did a post called ‘Zoro’s kisses’ a while ago and it did really well! So I’ve decided to make it a official mini series from @luffyvace w/ different anime characters bc y’all really liked those (ﾟ∀ﾟ)

Y’all probably haven’t kissed even if your already officially together

aizawa let’s it come naturally and doesn’t want to force it at a certain time

therefore it isn’t that he doesn’t want to,

he just waits for the opportunity

You two prob don’t kiss until like 2-3 months after making it official

Plus aizawa doesn’t wanna move too fast since this is likely his first relationship

he doesn’t wanna rush in and give you his first kiss and it doesn’t work out

Of course he’s thinking so rational like that

for your first kiss hcs

it’s def happening at yours or his house and no where else

he doesn’t wanna feel uncomfortable or be stared at right after it 🗿

plus he just isn’t for pda

he doesn’t wanna be that couple smooching away in a public place

let’s say y’all were at aizawa’s house on his couch chatting

you two were sitting pretty close but you didn’t realize it because you were used to it by now! Your a couple after all

The conversation kinda ended which woulda been awkward if you hadn’t noticed how close your faces were

you had a slight smile on your lips and then you both just sorta leaned in

his lips were soft and moist but his stuble beard was rough

You didn’t mind though with how passionately and gently he was kissing you

he was a natural!

you probably didn’t expect that!

actually—you didn’t expect this whole situation in the first place!

You were surely greatful though!

it was a rather pleasant kiss!

You drifted apart while softly smiling at each other before you laid your head on his shoulder

he brought an arm around you bringing you closer

you continued sitting there together in solidarity silence

grinning and replaying the scene over and over again in your heads

then kisses become a much more casual thing :)

dont try grand displays of pda in public tho

he sets the boundary that he doesn’t like it

he just thinks these things should be kept more professional especially while at work

he doesn’t mind a quick peck though

or gentle yet subtle touches

Yamada (present mic) teases him about how he went from a ‘emo loner’ to getting this fine looking s/o

LOLL

(even if you don’t think you’re fine yes you are I can’t express that enough—your personality shows and makes you attractive)

his ‘I miss you’ kisses are so much more romantic

say he or you went on a dangerous mission or one of you had your life on the line

As soon as you get home your getting a ‘I miss you’ kiss

an ‘I miss you’ kiss with him feels like

him embracing you in a hug as soon as you get home and not letting go for a while. him pressing you up against a wall, not even in a suggestive way and kissing you for long periods of time. Getting the most out of every second you spend together. him giving you little pecks in between long ones because he just can’t keep his lips off of you after not having you for so long.

After a life/death situation or hard mission he would be really caring and protective of you for a while

not that he isn’t always but you mind find yourself getting a few extra kisses and such <3

kisses on the temple become casual, especially when alone

hand and cheek kisses frequency increases as well

btw if your not into pda?

No prob! He isn’t either!

if you are?

his kisses are so gentle yet paced, making you crave them all the more

<3

I hope you enjoy my new ‘character’s kisses series!!

[devondespresso]

Background details about Tommy and Carol from Season 1, and how they are with conflict

&lt;very much not an all exhaustive list, i just saw this gif with something interesting and pulled up the whole show to look into it>

Now the one i saw was slightly longer, showing carol and tommy's continued reactions, so ofc we had to learn how tf to make gifs so i can show you guys what im talking about (this ones at .75 speed)

Specifically, to include not just their initial reactions, but also the next thoughts.

Lets start with Nicole, the redhead on the far right, who obviously isn't nearly as close to the trio as they are to each other (she's basically only around at school and this scene and doesn't stick around after they run from the cops). She's our control (if this were an experiment), the normal reaction. She's surprised in the entertained way. Steve's girlfriend slapped him, things are getting interesting.

Then Carol, who's probably got my favorite reaction. A similar surprise and "Oh" as Nicole, but her eyebrows don't stay up if they even jump at all. Then she looks at Nancy and she's mad, clearly on Steve's behalf. Steve's girlfriend slapped him, how dare she.

Next we have Tommy, the only person in this scene to noticeably flinch, bringing an arm up in front of him and playing it off with the cigarette to his mouth and marveling at the event. To me, it reads as a kind of empathy: if he were in Steve place in that moment, he'd block/shield himself and he has the reflexes to do it even when he's standing several feet away. I could be reading into it, but i still think its interesting he make more movement than the two people closer to them, and even the guy getting slapped (who doesn't even turn away, the momentum of the hit changes his angle slightly).

Then another (im sorry its pretty hard to follow, again, just learned how to make half decent gifs) showing interesting stuff from the fight i never noticed until looking for it. Most notably, extra lines/ad-lib from Tommy and Carol I've subtitled, like Tommy telling Carol to leave (the implication that she didn't want to as Nicole grabbed her, combined with her line worrying about him), Tommy hauling Steve up and Steve stumbling like we see in season 2 after his concussion (not definitive proof he has a concussion or something close to it since hes able to run and talk fine after, but its interesting)

Then we get the conflict afterwards, showing up differently for Carol and Tommy.

With Carol, its arguing. It's jabs at Nancy and it jabs at Tommy and Carol. What i think is really interesting is that the shit Steve says genuinely surprises her. Before she's goofing off with Tommy, the both of them trying to lighten the mood and Steve snaps. And her response isn't "calm down" or "what's gotten into you" (that's more in Tommy's lines), shes genuinely taken aback.

And then at the end, Steve raises his voice (not loud enough for a yell, but combined with the motion it feels like one) and Carol visibly backs up, out of frame entirely for a second. (followed by Tommy blowing up at Steve for yelling at her, and the following lines expressing again how its out of character for him)

That, combined with her reaction to Steve yelling from a previous scene (where he's going to check on Nancy and they tease him for caring) (also at .75 speed)

She's definitely got something going on with yelling specifically, especially since Tommy doesn't even look upset after, an expression similar to Nicole's "shit got interesting" expression from earlier.

Then there's Tommy's conflict, which is probably most memorable because its physical aggression (and very... tense.)

(yes i cut out over half of that moment the file size was massive im sorry)

We see from the Carol gif before and in this one that he gets aggressive. One shove when Steve yells at Carol, then the second Steve pushes back he escalates and even after Steve stops responding we get Tommy slamming the car door and hitting the outside even as Steve is driving out.

Its much harder to tell with him what the deal is, especially since he doesn't get the same vulnerable looks as Carol does. I think you could headcanon him having a similar thing as Carol, or as just macho-jock bullshit he learned to stay on top, or even it all leading back to having a crush on Steve.

This also doesn't really prove or disprove Tommy's actual ability to fight (i remember seeing people talk about it but I can't remember specifics) since he could either be a solid fighter who knows how to hit and protect from a hit, or he's talking out of his ass and sticks to intimidation and blocking when he needs to. Again, up to you (i certainly don't know which I find more interesting yet)

I personally also like to think the three of them were really good friends for a while, at least since middle school (but im also a sap especially for best-friendships) I wish we could've seen more of how Carol was taking the split up in season 2 and maybe something from Tommy other than how he hangs out with Billy now. Maybe Carol and Tommy split after Steve left, maybe it happened when Tommy tried replacing Steve with Billy in their trio, maybe they never split and Carol avoided Steve afterwards.

(tho i am kinda glad the story let them go after 2 seasons, we get a lot more room to play around with what-ifs and read into their scenes)

[the-incradible]

Just in case my prodiction is correct, and in a few years, there's going to be classes talking about meme history. This post is for the students. Specifically, those that have an assignment to show how a specific meme affected other memes later on its life.

Hi

I hope you're happy with your life choices.

So it all started with this beautiful face.

This is yasin cengiz. A Turkish tiktoker that got famous from his video of dancing to a song called "dom dom yes yes". The most famous part of his video was his belly jumping up and down to the beat of the song.

This alone became a meme, but we need to look at another meme from the time to continue.

This meme is really important. It's from the movie zoolander, and it's commonly called the zoolander stare. This meme was peared with the song "who is she?", but more importantly, with the song "give it to me". It originally was made as a follow up joke on the light-skin stare meme.

I'm not gonna mention the mewing or look maxing here, but I'm like 90 percent sure that most of it came from the zoolander meme, may it be from the "skyer white yo", guy or the next meme I'm about to talk about. And it later contributed to the chain.

From the two songs, "dom dom yes yes" and "give it to me", a person I wasn't able to identify made a mix of the two songs. These are shown in the video below.

The woman in this video also uses the same concept of making your jawline look sharper, which got popular from the zoolander meme. This video got 18 million likes on tiktok, and gave the song its recegnisability.

Now, it's time...

Unfortunately, this leads us to an all too. Familier meme.

On fabuary 2023, a YouTube user by the name "DaFuk!?Boom!" Earlier known for his sfm shitposts, released a video. That video has one of the male models from half life's head pop out of a toilet and dance and lipsink to the remix.

I'm not going to put the video or a gif here because I consider my blog Holy grounds, and I'm already crossing the lime by talking about it.

You probably heard your professor talk about their dislike to this meme. It was able to separate from late gen z humour and gen alfa humour. But, with how much of a cultural impact it has on us only a year after its creation, I think it might be for a long time before this meme becomes truly irrelevant.

Side note, the mewing and look maxing meme led to the creation of my favourite meme to date.

The friend visitor.

[cloveroctobers]

BONUS CHAPTER: FREE FALL — Dante Torres x OC x Manny Castillo

A/N: The Dante centered episodes always inspire something lol. And considering that they didn’t just let this Gloria storyline go (like I hoped) it was only right that I dip back into my killing me series. Let’s see how what went down in the mid-season finale comes into play for these two or three huh? THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED YET! 😬 p.s. can’t tell you how many songs I went through that fit best for this one!

Warnings: feels. heartache/angst. Feels & language! + me possibly butchering some Spanish so please feel free to gently correct me if this is wrong 🤎

* GIF BELONGS TO: @nicolethered

<- catch up on the previous chapter here.

✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶⋆.˚ ✶

“You know I’m attracted to you, right?” He says to her, warm hand lightly squeezing at her shoulder.

They’re sitting face to face, lounging on her couch back in Chicago. He’s got that stupid grin on his face as she shields her’s at this new (was it?) revelation Manny decided to air out. He’s got his temple resting against his balled up fingers, elbow pressing along the top of the couch while he stares in adoration at the woman across from him.

Seraphina peeks through her fingers, “And what exactly do you want me to do with this information, Manuel?”

“Oh, now it’s the whole government name drop, okay I see you.” Manny chuckles before running his fingers back down her arm again to rest against the hand she has against her balled up knee, “…you can do whatever you want with it.”

Did he mean the name calling or…?

“I probably will.” Seraphina teases.

Manny nods, a grin still on his face. One thing she learned about her new found friend, he always felt like a light at the end of the tunnel. There must have been a reason he entered the bar that one night and why the friendship continued. Seraphina’s old friend Seán (who was off living his best life again, on a cruise with his fiancé—which Seraphina still did not care for) already gave his stamp of approval, although she never asked for it…she still listened on his insight.

Manny checked in, “I know our date…well we’re calling it a hangout to not make it as overwhelming for you but we both know it was a date…went well right?”

She nods.

“I’ve got the most patience in the world you know? I just want to keep reminding you that, I’m open to seeing wherever this goes…whenever you’re ready.”

She’s been freaking out ever since the official date, which was back in August. It felt like Seraphina was supposed to feel guilty by doing this, originally she was supposed to be back in Chicago in September but extended her time out in Rhode Island (and Philly) until late October. That time was very transformative for her, to the point that she could breathe normally instead of taking constant deep breaths. If it was one thing she learned, her parents seemed to be in a better headspace in Kansas City after all these years but…was she ready to give everything up and start over with something that might only last a chapter?

Would this thrill only be temporary?

These were things she started to think about.

Surely vacations are different than spending time somewhere permanently but Seraphina couldn’t erase the excitement at the thought of where she could be. The more she stared into Manny’s dark blue hues with specs of green that surrounded his pupil, she thought there could be endless possibilities instead of remaining stuck.

“I appreciate that.” She finds herself saying, a soft smile playing on her full lips.

It seems as if Manny leaned in closer as he questioned, “Yeah?”

“Yes…I just want to make sure I’m in the right mental and emotional state before I can decide to give you my all.” Seraphina admits, pulling her bottom lip under her top one.

Manny sensed what she was getting at. He heard about what she went through before she ventured off to the New England area and before she reached out, telling Manny that she was out in his neck of the woods on a girl’s weekend trip with her cousin—who ended up wanting to just sleep in the hotel after the first day of sight seeing.

Being a mom was taking Behati out so Seraphina was sympathetic. Which gave her more time to see how Manny was living and seeing him in his element (and his business casual attire wasn’t bad to witness either!) in Philadelphia’s school district. After that he decided to shoot his shot and see if she was down to get dinner with him and hit up the otherworld museum which was trippy but a fun place that brought out their inner child. Seraphina didn’t hesitate to say yes, yet when it got to sitting across from Manny in a intimate setting, she had to tell him that this was a hangout so her heart didn’t burst out of her chest due to nerves.

“We can do that, whatever makes you feel comfortable. I don’t know though, this tension is making me feel like it might be something more, ya know? And if it makes you feel any better, I had to change two shirts before picking you up, I was and still am, so damn sweaty.”

That made her laugh as they both shook out the nerves. Being in his arms felt right that night as they embraced before she went back up to the hotel room to her cousin who was up waiting for all the details. In Behati’s imaginary scoreboard she told Seraphina that Manny was winning but she initially wasn’t trying to compare him to Dante. In fact the longer Seraphina stayed out on the east coast, she found that she wasn’t thinking too much about Chicago. It was all about living in the moment.

Being free.

So Seraphina and Manny met up at the cafe for a quick breakfast before she and Behati headed to the train station to go back to Behati’s home and family in Rhode Island.

…Not without sharing a unexpected kiss which Behati peeped with her shades tilted downwards, along with her mouth open, spying on them from her outside spot at one of the tables.

Seraphina would be lying if she said she hasn’t been thinking about the kiss since she got back. How she preferred Manny with a thicker beard that pricked her skin so nicely, and how his touch held her upright just the way she needed. That didn’t stop the two from talking being five hours and some change away, although closer than Chicago, it felt right to keep things going.

Comfortably casual with a “hint,” of interest.

“Because of Dante?” Manny inquires, eyes trying to catch Seraphina’s.

The bun wearing woman takes a deep breath, “I just don’t want to lead you on and put you through shit if I can’t let go of what can’t be.”

Manny slowly nods at that before a smile splits over his lips again, “Well I love that you’re self-aware and also trying to look after my heart already, Phina-Mena.”

Seraphina playfully rolls her eyes at the nickname but finds herself peeking back at Manny. Actually ready to take on whatever words he needed to say. Manny knew most of the complicated relationship between Seraphina and Dante, although he originally said it wasn’t any of his business, he still listened to what Seraphina felt comfortable enough to share.

It was heavy but most first love’s are.

“And I’m okay with not having all of you right now. Just even a piece of you already tells me you’ll be worth it.” Manny tells her, making her stomach do flips this time, “I also think you don’t give yourself enough credit. I can tell that you have the most giving heart and I think it’s time that you let someone appreciate it and take care of it…properly. Preferably me.” Manny admits, his hand traveling from the woman’s hand and up the side of her neck, before settling his fingertips against her jaw, then his eyes flickered to her lips, “No pressure though.”

Seraphina scoffs, “Now what am I supposed to say after that?! You’re a smooth one Manny, I’ll give you that.”

“I’m a people person, it’s part of what makes me so loveable.” Manny jokes, his nose brushing against Seraphina’s who lightly breathes him in.

Although her stomach should sign up for gymnastics, his scent is soothing her just fine. It’s the same as when they first embraced, fresh like ginger, a dash of salt, lightly herbal with a spec of something warm—probably amberwood. Whatever he had on, it suited Manny well.

So damn well that Seraphina almost placed her lips right on his, if there wasn’t harsh knocks and repeated sound of the door bell ringing that entered the both of their ears that is. The woman feels herself pulling back abruptly, as if to shield that she was allowing herself to sink into Manny’s charm again.

“Sorry,” Seraphina apologized, “I don’t know who that can be.”

Manny caresses at his beard, a bit of disappointment flashed in his hues, as he gently waved her along, “Could be your secret admirer oh wait…”

The brown eyed woman sends him a thumbs down and sticks out her tongue to blow out a raspberry after getting to her feet, “Booo. You should stop eating so much corn.”

“Personally I’m not a fan of starches.” Manny tells with a raise of his hands in surrender as he watches her frown at him over his shoulder, “…It’s a whole thing. We can get into that later though, you got a door to answer.”

Seraphina shakes her head in disbelief, making her way around the corner to peek through her peep hole. It’s a man she doesn’t recognize, staring up at her in the view of a fisheye, curly dark hair with a mixture of grey in it and slicked back on the sides, beady dark deep set eyes, straight nose, pinched lips, and dimples that appeared as he waved at her, almost as if he knew she was analyzing him behind the door.

“Hello, Seraphina Coty?”

“Can I help you?” She says at the same time, not making a move to unlock her door.

He clears his throat, “Sorry to bother you on this crisp breezy afternoon. I’m Charlie Reid, Deputy chief at the CPD. Also a friend of Hank Voight, who I’m positive you’re familiar with. I was just wondering if you had a few minutes to spare and chat with me?”

Seraphina quirked up a brow at this, of course she had her guard up, especially when it came to the law.

It’s not like her and Hank were the best of buddies, it’s not something Dante wanted for her necessarily and although she can make her own judgments, she was held up in a room with the sergeant months ago. However if something like this was coming to her door and the fact that this stranger threw in Voight’s name, made this all a little more questionable to Seraphina.

“I would if this was scheduled, Mr. Reid. You’re kind of interfering with my personal time…especially if this is work related.”

The deputy chief cleared his throat, “I completely get that and definitely should have called to see what works best for you. Yet I figured this kind of conversation you would want to have face to face, considering this not only affects you but also your friend or involvement with officer Dante Torres.”

That gets Seraphina to sharply inhale.

What was he getting at?

Seraphina takes her time unlocking the door, leaving it open but not without looking over her shoulder to see that Manny had moved from the living room and either headed to the kitchen or half bathroom.

She crosses her arms, standing in her doorway as she focused on the man before her.

“Thank you,” Deputy Chief Reid smiles but Seraphina doesn’t match his, “I won’t take up too much of your time since I know everyone has lives to live! I just wanted to inform you that your services can be of good use to me.”

Seraphina feels her brows furrow, “Please feel free to elaborate.”

“You’re a chemist right? Employed at Compound Laboratories and one of if not the best chemist in all of Chicago…although you like to keep a low profile. I respect it.”

She picked up on the slight jab the man tossed her way.

“Right, so as a friend of Voight’s I think you’ll be a friend of mine as well. And friends stick beside each other in their time of need.”

Seraphina didn’t like where this was going.

She didn’t know this man.

She barely knew Voight.

“How am I supposed to be a friend to a stranger I don’t know?” Seraphina tightened her folded arms at the cool air that seeped in from outside, “What if our morals don’t align, Mr. Deputy Chief?”

He leans towards her, almost as if he was letting her in on a secret, “I think they will in order to keep things running as smoothly as possible.”

Seraphina’s eyes goes into slits, “What are you getting at?”

“Your involvement with Officer Dante Torres.” He blinks as if it’s obvious.

“You mentioned that already—

“And his sexual involvement with the late Gloria Perez.” He continues.

Charlie takes in the expression on the woman’s face and he can see that she was left in the dark about that one. Since she’s been back, she’s had little time with Dante and has seen his mother more than him lately. He knew she was back in town, she didn’t ask him to pick her back up which didn’t feel right but he didn’t want to push it, so she took a Uber, and they ended up hanging out the week after. She got back to work and everything felt the same but it really wasn’t.

“I have no knowledge about any of that but I’m certain it’s not true,” Seraphina stood her ground, which makes Charlie laugh.

He points at her, “See, this is why loyalty is a precious thing. You two have been through a lot together, huh? Would do anything for each other…except be together.”

Now he was crossing the line.

“I believe our time is up, Mr. Reid.” Seraphina says and he can tell he struck a nerve, “I don’t know what your goal coming here was but I don’t want any parts of it.”

“Unfortunately that’s just too bad because you immediately became part of it due to your attachment to Officer Torres.” He rasps, “I know you were also aware of his relationship with Perez. Which makes you an accessory as well, therefore you are now part of the top of my contact list.” Charlie explains to Seraphina who’s ready to slam the door in his face, “I just thought I’d ride over here and introduce myself. You’ll be hearing from me soon, so enjoy the rest of your day.”

That sounded a whole lot like blackmail if you asked Coty, who watched the man with ulterior motives slip away into Chicago’s streets.

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“You’re what?” Dante spits out as they’re up in Seraphina’s room, she’s folding laundry and he’s seated in one of the lounge chairs that’s tucked away in her bedroom.

The brown eyed woman clenched her eyes shut, not realizing that she let this slip out. They were just chatting after Dante popped up, he didn’t give her much notice, informing her with a simple text that he was outside. Now that Seraphina knew the truth, that Gloria Perez had been gunned down, she could only imagine how Dante was taking it. Those ideas were very much confirmed, when she unlocked her door to peer into his eyes.

The bags underneath his spring rain eyes were so deep that you could probably float in them. He didn’t look okay and he didn’t originally plan to show up to Seraphina’s place. Dante couldn’t stay home with his ma because it felt suffocating—although she didn’t know everything—she sensed something was up with her son. Which resulted in calls to Seraphina who didn’t feel it was her place to mention that this was part of the bullshit that still lingered.

He went to church, begging for forgiveness and confessing his sins but nothing Dante did with his time off felt like enough. He needed to be around the one person that made him feel safe, and so he subconsciously ended up at the building that felt like home.

Seraphina didn’t bring it up, trying to be normal and give Dante the space to bring it up himself, yet Dante knew Seraphina. She wouldn’t push unless he gave an opening. However he did not expect to hear that her time away from Chicago influenced this.

“I,” Seraphina inhaled as she held a folded up sweater against her torso, “It was just a thought. Nothing is written in stone and it really just slipped out so there’s no need for you to look at me like that.”

Dante pressed his elbows into his knees, “How am I looking at you?”

“Like I’m about to break your heart right down the middle if I ever did decide to leave this city for good.” The dark haired woman blinked, a slight crease appearing in between her brows.

Dante runs a hand down his face in frustration, “I won’t lie…I wouldn’t like it. You stayed away for much too long and it doesn’t feel right here without you.”

Seraphina begins to feel the overfamiliar pluck at her beating heart again at his words, “…I told you my cousin said you were always welcome to visit if you wanted but you chose to stay here.”

“I have a life here, Nina.” Dante voice was croaky as if he hadn’t been sleeping, “And you do too.”

“And how’s that working out for us huh?” Seraphina snapped, tossing the sweater on top of her other folded clothes.

Dante raised his brows, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re not happy here either, Tay.” Seraphina tries to keep her tone leveled, “This place has brought us a lot of grief…we’re just free falling through. Don’t you think we deserve to experience what could be better elsewhere? For the first time, getting out of this city that’s supposed to feel like home, heading to the east coast…I felt like I could finally breathe. I come back and as I’m looking at you, all I see is defeat. Why is that?”

Dante looks up at the ceiling, his eyes glistening with the light pouring in from the bedroom window. He puffs out a breath, “…Maybe it’s because my best friend is choosing to leave behind her home for some guy she barely knows. Or at least considering it, I don’t know.”

Seraphina feels herself sucking in a breath and holding it. There was no way Dante was trying to flip this right now. Had he been silently watching the house while Manny was around or what? If that was the case then some things needed to be said.

“I think you’re deflecting because you don’t want me to find out why you’re really here. It’s not just some casual visit this time.” Seraphina starts, “You’re in mourning over Gloria—

Dante holds up a hand, “Don’t. Don’t say her name, please.”

“And you want me to patch it all up and be part of your healing process like time and time again.” Seraphina feels herself rambling, “Because that’s always my job right?! You come to me when life gets a little too screwed up and expect me to put the pieces back together with a big fucking band aid.”

“I’ve never asked you to do any of that—

“You don’t have to because that’s what you do when you love someone! You almost died but she took the bullet for you like I’ve been doing. And you still can’t see that you diving back into old habits was all for nothing.” Seraphina shakes her head, followed by a laugh.

Dante gets to his feet, pointing, “I think you should just be quiet. You don’t know the first thing about what Gloria and I had.”

“No?” Seraphina tilts her head at Dante’s anger but it wasn’t anything she hasn’t seen before, “I know a woman like that only loves a power trip more than anything. We’ve been around enough of that. So…was it real or part of the game?”

Dante tightened his eyes at the woman that stood across from him on the other side of the bed. “I’ve…been trying my hardest to protect you and I should have never let you in on that part of my love life. I was better off, then you wouldn’t be acting like this. Assuming.”

Seraphina scoffs, “I don’t have to assume a got damn thing. The difference is I know all parts and sides of you, that bitch just saw a glimpse and thought she had it all figured out.”

“Hey! You show some respect!” Dante points at her.

She laughs, hand going to her hip.

“You know she approached me at my job not long after I got back,” Seraphina decides to tell it all, “Gloria felt like she was free to start over—which must be nice. She said that she knew there was something more to you. That I had a hold on you that even she couldn’t touch, something real. Which was enough to tell me that she didn’t value your heart. You were just a piece in a game of chess.”

Dante shook his head in denial.

He didn’t want to believe that but nobody ever truly knows what someone is like when you’re not watching. Via that bugged conversation with Cook. Dante let his guard down multiple times and not once did he ever think Seraphina and Gloria’s paths would cross. He didn’t think Gloria would have stayed in Chicago for as long as she did, tried to forget about her while burying himself into his work like he commonly did but most importantly, he couldn’t fathom Seraphina leaving for good.

“…I understand that it bothers you that I was able to move on but you just don’t know.”

Seraphina laughs, “Anyone would be lucky to be loved by you and she wasted it. Played in your face and you want to stand there and keep acting as if I’m clueless? Don’t insult me, Tay. I deserve better than that and this.”

“With Manny? Really?” Dante presses, “You think he’s going to be the answer to everything? Just drop all that you worked so hard for, for some random guy?”

There it is.

“Looks like we’re actually two sides of the same coin.” Seraphina hisses, “And no. I’d be moving for me because this is my life and I get to decide how it plays out, no one else.”

The tension was filling the room up with smoke and it felt like it was so thick that it was clouding up Seraphina’s bedroom, making the two friends suddenly hard to reach.

Dante felt his eyes burn, “…I’m not trying to tell you what to do…just that I can’t lose you too, Nina! What part of that don’t you get?”

“And guess what? I can’t keep doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“The wishful thinking, the being your friend when there was a time that I believed we could be much more once you pulled your head out of your ass but you’ve told me enough times that we couldn’t be that. Part of me convinced myself that maybe it’s just not the time. Then I had to hear you come up with this delusion that you wanted someone else. Someone who wasn’t good for you.”

“I loved her!” Dante yelled before resting a shaky hand against his five o’clock shadow followed by a clearing of his throat after Seraphina widened her eyes, “It wasn’t fake for me, it’s was real and all those things she said to Cook was just her putting a wall up. A wall that I had the chance to see behind. I’m sorry okay? I’ll always be sorry that I’m not enough for you, even beyond friendship, that I can’t give you more. But if you leave…he’ll never be me.”

Those words felt like the two were slowly being tipped back, like a glass being knocked over from a table in slow motion. Every word was dividing the old friends apart and as much as it simmered, some things were true. It was a tale as old as time like they liked to say. Dante truly felt like he loved Gloria, he got attached and the nature of how it came about was wrong he saw it now with how it was affecting the whole team especially but he couldn’t be sorry for how he felt. Just like his dear Nina, she was always firm in wanting to be together. They had so much history together, years worth and history couldn’t be rewritten but it could be the beacon.

Seraphina tosses her head back, trying to hold back her own tears. Her hands are digging into her hips as she takes in Dante’s words. She knows that. Knows that Manny is nothing like Dante and like she said, she never wanted to compare the two just like she hoped Dante didn’t ever compare her to Gloria. They were all their own people but humans are flawed beings.

Nothing can be perfect but loving can be tragic…when it didn’t have to be.

“He doesn’t need to be.” The woman finds herself saying through quivered lips, “He’s actually the first person that I’ve been talking to where I don’t try to look for you in. And I think that says a lot. You know what else says a lot? Us being so codependent on each other. Me feeling needed by you in ways of comfort and you wanting me because I’ll always be around. Time was never on our side but maybe time is finally telling us to let go and fall back.”

Dante felt himself holding his breath, “No. No, don’t you dare say that to me! Not now.”

“If not now, when? When you’re done grieving? Well that just seems like that’ll be everlasting around here.” Seraphina states, “And I’m not sorry Gloria’s dead…I guess I’ll have to take that up with god at some point…but I’m sorry that you became part of her story. Even if it was only a small part in her eyes. Gloria fucked you up just like I knew she would.”

“So what is this?” Dante feels his blood boiling, “A ‘I told you so,’ moment? I thought you said you’d never be like that. Not with me.”

Her hand goes to her forehead, pushing her hair back from her face as she goes to sit on the edge of her bed, “It’s not that. I think I just realized that I had enough and it hurts…real bad but this will probably be doing us a favor.”

Dante felt his eyes clenching shut and his whole face began to hurt. His legs felt wobbly but he still managed to find a spot right beside Seraphina, thigh to thigh. Her head went to his shoulder and he eventually moves to wrap an arm around her, his lips going to her hair. She took shaky breaths, to control her sobs but Dante couldn’t stop his own warms tears from flooding his face.

Maybe it was all too much after all.

He always wanted her to be happy and if he wasn’t bringing her that anymore, what kind of friend would be if he didn’t wish her well? The dark of Dante wanted to be selfish and keep her far away from this Manny character but there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes when she spoke about him. He noticed. Perhaps he could give her what he couldn’t and that made the acid in his belly rise and it’s been a few days since Dante could stomach anything. Dante knew the few prior weren’t good enough—maybe that Deacon guy could have been but—he had to work on some things truly on his own this time.

Dante needed to process everything, including this.

They were ultimately pushing each other apart to be better on their own. Seraphina was beginning to see that now and she’s held on for a while.

As well as Dante Torres has known Seraphina Coty, his Nina, Dante could see that the end of an era had to happen. His knew his ma wouldn’t let him hear the end of it once this came out but…he’ll learn to deal with it, like he always did.

When Seraphina falls asleep in his lap, he puts her to bed, covering her with a throw blanket, and puts away her laundry. He hesitated in her room, watching her body slowly rise and fall in her slumber with a dry teared face. There’s a lump that formed in Dante’s throat the longer he stares at her. His belly is cramping and his heart felt like it finally snapped in half.

There’s a beating in his ears that blocks out the sound of his footsteps as he sits back on the bed. His hand rests on the dip of Seraphina’s hips, his touch doesn’t wake her, even when he leans over to place his lips against her cheek.

“Thank you.” Dante pressed his forehead against her jaw for a moment, “Do what you gotta do to be free, Nina. I’ll get it someday…Dios sabe que siempre te amaré.”

He can’t tell you how much longer he sat in that room but eventually he leaves. Yet he breaks down again in the driver’s seat of his car before he pulls it together, ignoring a call from Kim, to head to the bar, his guard down as he drives by a parked car that contains the deputy chief, who continues to plot.

What exactly?

Only time will tell.

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Open case file two here.

[virginiaisforvampires]

I keep rewatching gifs of the trailer moment with lestat screaming on the ground in his wolf cloak 😭

Presumably because he’s just witnessed Armand abducting Nicki? Does he witness this in the book?

Sam’s acting even for that split second is making me emotional already. And to think what similar moments lestat might have with Louis and Claudia later in his life. Do you think Lestat is so very very distraught like that because he thinks Nicki might already be dead? And in this version of events has he and Armand met before? Did Armand interrupt what would have been the first time Nicki has maybe seen lestat since his transformation?😭😭😭

I have so many questions and the writers have chosen the turn events into an even more series of upsetting events, I both can’t wait and terrified

I was just talking about this with someone. I am so bloody excited, but also absolutely dreading this part of the story. I think it’s quite possibly the most harrowing and heartbreaking arc in all of the books. And yes, it is going to be devastating to watch. I get a nauseated lump in the pit of my stomach just thinking about it. 💔

And yes, Sam is doing the damn thing. I’m not certain of the sequence of events, because Lestat does not witness Nicki’s abduction in the book, but I do believe this:

….is when Armand kidnaps Nicki. It would appear that they are perhaps extending Lestat’s time at the theater, and he is seemingly attempting to continue being an actor instead of just the one (unintended) incident like in the book in which he terrifies the audience and gets shot as a result. I also think they’ll probably extend the conflict between Lestat and Nicki in which Nicki demands the Dark Gift, but Lestat doesn’t want to condemn him. There’s a conversation between Lestat and Gabrielle in which she asks why Lestat won’t give Nicki the blood, and Lestat tells her that Nicki has his whole life ahead of him, but Gabrielle points out that Nicki could be killed at any time, and Lestat is visibly distraught. So yeah, a lot of leeway there to punch up the emotional impact.

I also think this:

….is probably when Lestat goes back into Paris to look for Nicki’s violin after he finally turns him but finds Armand, and they have yet another moment in which Armand begs for Lestat’s love and is rejected.

It would seem this:

….is happening on the same night as this:

….because Armand appears to be wearing the same clothes:

If you notice Lestat’s face when Armand throws him back, he is scared. A key point to all of that is the fact Lestat was always thinking of Nicki and thinking of how to best protect Nicki from both himself and the other vampires. When we see him on the ground screaming, it’s because he’s terrified of them either hurting Nicki or killing him. It’s Lestat believing he failed to protect him, and that weighs heavily on him. He always blames himself for Nicki’s fate and calls Nicki his “greatest failure” all the way up to the Prince Lestat era.

Notice his face here:

….he looks like he’s been crying. He’s hearing the madness and malice in Nicki’s head. He sees how they’ve hurt Nicki. He feels this is all his fault. You can literally see the utter devastation, the terror, the love, the heartbreak written all over his countenance in this moment. This is Lestat believing his light has destroyed the one he loves, because his light was why Magnus set his sights on Lestat in the first place. That was the “test” Lestat had passed. That was the reason he didn’t end up rotting away in death with the rest of the lookalike corpses. And in escaping his fate with the wolves, in his mind, it led to this….his beloved Nicki — hurt and in darkness and turmoil all because of Lestat’s wretched existence.

Sam. Motherfucking. Reid.

He captured every bit of that history in one facial expression. 😭🤌🏽🙌🏽👏🏽🙏🏽♥️

And yes, be prepared for an even more heightened version of this:

….when we eventually see the true trial, and he sees Louis and Claudia like this:

….because had Lestat been in his right mind and at his full power, he would’ve went ballistic and would’ve tried (and probably succeeded) to destroy the entire coven for doing this. That is part of the tragedy. Lestat, yet again, failed to protect his fledglings. He blames himself, and that is doubly gut-wrenching for him when Armand lies to him and tells him that Louis is dead. His beloved Louis — destroyed like Nicki….all because of Lestat’s wretched existence. The trauma repeats.

IT. WILL. SHATTER. OUR. HEARTS.

[iamcautiouslyoptimistic]

Deja Vu ~ Russell Adler x Female Reader

{Author's Note} This was inspired by @alypink's recent Adler render where he's leaning against a muscle car AND HOO BOY that put tons of thoughts in my head about a younger Adler before he heads off to Vietnam. Reader in this story dated him before he went off to war and they got together again after the events of the Cold War game. I probably got some timeline stuff wrong but I did my research and tried to keep it consistent lol. A horrendous sinus infection has given me a short break from school as I start some medications to clear it up so that means more time for writing! Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this! I've got plenty of ideas for a younger Adler x reader series so expect more in the future! And let me know if you'd like to be removed or added to the tag list🫶🏻 I don't know if I managed to include everyone that I wanted to so please let me know! AND YES I'm using a Robert Redford gif because they're basically the same person in my eyes LOL {Tag List} @littlemissclandestine @alypink @mctvsh @adlerboi @deadbranch @a-small-writer-in-a-big-world @ghostlythots @glitterypirateduck

Russell Adler x Female Reader

❌Content Warning: none❌

~ ~ ~

1965

“When are you leaving again?” 

Adler sends you a glance through dark shades as you pass him a bucket full of water. He takes it easily, hefting it with little issue while you had struggled to lift it only moments ago. 

“In a month,” he responds and splashes the bucket’s contents across the windshield of his car. “Higher ups are gettin’ worried about the increased communist presence in Vietnam so they’re sending in some troops. I’ll be going on behalf of the CIA to do some recon and see if we can figure out what’s happening over there.”

You knew that already. He’d told you half a dozen times before but he answered you anyway. He knew how worried you were about the threat of impending war, especially when he was being sent into the midst of it with little choice to refuse. 

All you can manage is a nod as you focus on sponging down the window opposite him. He notices your silence and rounds the car, drying his palms on his already damp tank top. 

“I’ll be fine, sweetheart,” he murmurs softly as he grasps your chin and guides your face to look at him. You blink back tears and he wipes away the few that manage to escape with gentle thumbs. 

“Just gotta make sure the Soviets aren’t meddling in things,” he continues. “It shouldn’t take long.”

You nod as he caresses the curves of your cheeks. “I just want you to be careful.” 

And come back alive, you think to yourself. Come back to me. 

He leans to press a kiss to the crown of your head. “I will. Promise.”

His lips meet yours in a tender kiss, one that makes you smile and clears the mist from your eyes. 

“Now, help me finish cleaning this thing before Sims gets here. He needs to see this baby in all her glory.”

You laugh, feeling your heart lighten as Russ turns up the radio. He bobs his head to The Beach Boys song flowing through the speakers and you promise yourself to commit this moment to memory. The glint of his shades in the sunlight, the shimmer of golden hair as he pushes it off his forehead, the movement of his arms and back as he leans over the hood of his car. The image is imprinted in your mind’s eye for years to come.

~ ~ ~

1982

Adler has changed, though your memories of him have not. He’s still stubborn as a mule with an envy-inducing sense of style and a love for muscle cars. He’s older now, quieter and less open, scarred both physically and mentally after his time in Vietnam. His most recent escapade involved a former Soviet agent who he refuses to talk about so you don’t push the topic. You’re just happy he’s come back to you.

“You gonna keep staring or help me clean this thing?” Russ says with a slight smile. His shades reflect the sun the same way they did all those years ago and you hurry to his side, upping the radio’s volume on the way.

Russ likes to talk about cars and so you let him, enjoying the sound of his voice as he guides you through the inner workings of the machinery before you. He's gentle and careful with his movements, and you notice the serenity in his features. It was one of the few times he was able to relax, a brief moment where he didn't carry the world on his shoulders. You know he's not perfect, far from it, but he deserves this temporary peace and you're thankful that you're present to enjoy it with him.

“Do you know that I love you?” you ask suddenly. The comment makes Russ pause in his work, gaze lifting to yours as he straightens.

"That so?"

You giggle. "You're supposed to say it back, you know," you tease, fully aware of his tendency to play coy with this sort of thing.

He brushes stray strands of hair from your face, the pads of his fingers delicately tracing your features. He was hesitant to touch you these days, fearing you'd be disgusted by his calloused hands, but you made it a point to remind him that such things were a sign that he had survived and kept his promise to you, even if it had taken longer than either of you had anticipated.

"I love you, too," he murmurs, his voice a low whisper, as if he were afraid to release the phrase into the world where it could be taken from him.

You grin and lean to press a kiss to his scarred cheek, hearing his contented sigh as his arms settle around your waist. You promise to commit this moment to memory, just as you had countless times before, adding it to the complicated collection of images and sensations that made up Russell Adler.

[lovelettersforthedamned]

Hello, can you do Jake Lockley (moon knight) + "i don't mind wasting time on you."

Also, congrats on your 400 followers! here's to many more 🥂

Waste of Time

✮ jake lockley x f!reader

✮ word count: 0.5k

✮ summary: after a night out gone wrong, jake reassures you that he'll always be here for you. especially when you're by yourself in a shady part of town.

✮ warnings: fluff, a smidgen of angst, mention of drunk people, anxious thoughts, yelling, a few smooches.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

main m.list ⋆ moon knight/jake lockley m.list

✮ gif by @jokeperaltawrites

You wish you had another choice, but as you stand outside of the dinghy club at three in the morning, you send a text to Jake asking to come pick you up. 

He’s about to end his night, no doubt exhausted from driving drunks around the city. A wave of guilt and hesitation washes over you as soon as the message is delivered. He’s going to be mad at you. Terrible thoughts plague your mind. 

You check your surroundings often as you continue to look down at the unsent text, your finger hovering over the send button. A sharp yell rings in your ears, the sound coming from the alley behind you. Just a second after that, you send the message, suddenly on edge. 

Wrapping your arms around yourself, you wait for a response back. A minute passes before your phone rings, Jake’s contact picture appears on the screen. You sigh, preparing yourself for his harsh tone before you even accept the call. “Hey, Jake. I know I’m probably wasting your time–,” you’re cut off before you could even say another word. 

“Muñeca,” he starts, “you’re not a waste of time in any sense. You know that.” You’re silent as you let him finish, “And besides, I don’t mind wasting time on you.” A warmth rises to your cheeks as a soft smile appears on your face, but it quickly drops as another yell erupts, causing you to tense. Apparently Jake heard it too, because you can hear him huff before he asks, “Where are you, my love?” There’s a tone of urgency in his voice. 

You clear your throat, “I’m at that bar on Main and Thirty-First street.” 

“That’s the one where Diana had her birthday party, right?” You respond with a hum. “The place where you fell on my lap?” You can tell he’s smirking through the phone. 

You laugh for the first time tonight, “Yes, Jake. That’s the one.” Even in the most stressful of moments, Jake can make you choke out a laugh. 

“I’ll be there in five minutes, muñeca,” he mumbles before hanging up the phone. 

You’re still on edge when you end the call, but a wave of relief floods your body at the thought of Jake arriving soon. A few minutes pass, and you hear the familiar hum of a car pull in front of you. 

He rolls down the window, and leans down to meet your gaze. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing out here at this time of day,” a stupid smirk on his face. You shake your head and laugh at his stupidity as you pull open the door. 

Jake greets you in a sweet kiss when you settle in the seat. “Let’s go home, I’m exhausted,” you mumble into his mouth. 

“You don’t have to tell me twice, mi amor,” he presses another kiss to your lips before he begins to drive to your shared apartment. His mind is focused on why you were out here by yourself, but that question is for another time. 

✮ author's note: i'm slowly but surely clearing out the rest of the 400 follower bash requests lolz. thank you so much for requesting dear anon, and thank you for being patient for this to come out!! don't forget to like, comment, and reblog!! ok, ily bye!!!

[wekiamo]

fell harder pt 2

skeet ulrich x fem!reader

a/n: here goes part 2! this is a lil longer than my fics usually are, i hope thats not a problem! have fun reading 🤍 BTW SKEET IN THIS GIF BYEE that man is something else

pt. 3 & masterlist

warnings: swearing, fluff

you didn’t get to sleep a lot at night. maybe it’s the anxiety you’re feeling, knowing that today you were going to meet almost everyone you were going to see very often from now on. it’s not a big deal for you, the only big deal is that in “everyone”, skeet ulrich is included.

you fear you’re gonna get nervous and say something weird, act weird making him dislike you. if that was anyone else, it would be okay. but imagine skeet ulrich disliking you? that’s what you think for almost 5 minutes after getting up from bed, while looking at yourself in the mirror.

you figure out you have to convince yourself that he’s a normal person just like you, and that there’s nothing to be scared about.

“yeah, it’s not a big deal. so what if he doesn’t like me?” you tell youself, before opening your fridge and grabbing an apple. you continue talking “i shouldn’t care about what he thinks of me. he’s a human like anyone else, so i’m gonna act like i always do. that’s it!” you sound more convinced than you thought you would be, and that makes a smile grow in your face.

you jump happily around the house, until you get to the couch and throw yourself on it. you turn on the TV and you start watching some kids show, too busy biting your apple to change the channel.

it’s silly, but you find yourself not wanting to change it, so you just keep watching it until you’re done with your apple. you turn off the TV, and start feeling sleepy.

you close your eyes slowly, and then you fall asleep.

—

“damn, that was the best nap i’ve took in such a long time” you say, before checking what time is it.

it’s 4 pm. you remember you didn’t ask dave what time you’re supposed to show up to dinner, then you make your way to your room to get your phone.

“Hey Y/n, meet us at 7. I can pick you up if you want to” 2:20 pm

“smart guy” you think “it’d be cool if he picked me up. meeting someone for the first time in their car would be a… would be definitely a new experience”

“hey, sorry for taking too long, i took a nap” 4:07 pm

“but yes! imma send you my address rq hold on” 4:07 pm

you send him your adress.

you’re hungry.

it’s time for Topanga’s Burgers - your favorite place in the world. well, not really but thats what you call it. actually, it’s just your favorite place to eat burgers. its really near your house and that makes you love it even more. you have befriended literally all the workers there. you love the fact they’re all kind and they really like what they’re doing, you really appreciate it. it makes you remember of how amazing would it be if you had a job you’d love doing. and your last job was definitely not something you loved doing, in fact, it was the complete opposite. you quit it not too long ago and you were living with your savings and your mom’s salary. she lives with you, but she’s on vacation now. anyways, Topanga’s Burgers definitely gives you motivation to keep working hard to get where you want.

you take a bath, put on some clothes you like, do your personal hygiene, and you leave your house.

“y/n!!” a worker greets you with a big smile on her face, leaving the cashier area to come and give you a hug.

“keisha! hey, how have you been?” you hug her back tightly, happy to see her again.

keisha is a 40 years old cheerful and awesome woman. she’s probably one of the most fun friends you have. she also gives you amazing advice about literally anything you ask her about. she’s the best

“i’ve been worried about you. it’s been 3 days you’re not even coming to greet us anymore!” she says, with a genuine look of worry in her eyes. that statement of hers make it pretty obvious you come here a lot.

“yes, and i’m sorry! but i got some pretty good news”

“save it just for a minute” she says, and turns around to call the rest of the workers to hear the news you have “guys, come here! y/n’s back with good news”

everyone in the burger shop starts looking, but you don’t really care. it doesn’t embarrass you anymore.

you greet everyone coming your way as they make a circle and adjust to it, to hear the news.

“come closer” you say, and they do.

“you know when i auditioned for scream 7, right? so… i did it”

“YOU GOT THE ROLE?” keisha screamed, as some other workers gasp.

“I DID” you reply with a big smile and a happy nod, as they start jumping and screaming in excitement as you do too.

“you’re not so useless, are you?” tom joked, and everyone laughed including you.

“but seriously now, who’s going to be working with you?” tom asked in a curious tone

“there’s someone special. really special”

“hurry and give us a hint” said angelica, a funny old woman who works as a cleaning lady.

“okay, okay, you’ll have to get it right. it’s this really hot middle-aged man who you all know i always had a crush on”

“no way. skeet ulrich? he’s going to be in scream 7 too?”

“yes ma’am!”

“guys, didn’t scream end in the third movie?” linda asked.

“shut up linda, let her speak” the old woman shushed her daughter, making everyone let out a laugh

“and i’m going to meet him. today”

“wait the shootings are already starting?” tom asked you.

“no, it’s just that the cast is going to have dinner together today. and i’m going to meet SKEET ULRICH”

“tell us more. where’s it gonna be?”

“i’ll tell you all after you take my order, ‘cause im like really hungry… please?”

keisha comes running to the cashier area, to get your order. there’s another man there too in all black with a black cap too, kind of covering his face - he's probably waiting for a while now since the workers were all in a circle screaming and jumping few seconds ago.

you watch keisha greet the guy and take his order, walking to the cashier area to stand right beside him.

as she’s there taking notes of his order, he looks at you and pushes his cap up, while you turn your head to see him. you’re now able to see his face.

“oh my fucking god” you think.

“hi, i’m skeet. what a funny coincidence! we’re filming scream 7 together, right?” he greets you with a handshake and a grin, as you turn your body to him and not just your head

keisha gasps. she starts laughing at your face as she goes to prepare his order.

there’s no fucking way. skeet ulrich is right in front of you and 100% heard you saying he’s hot and you have a crush on him. your cheeks turn red.

“hello” you say stuttering a bit “i’m y/n y/l/n, it’s nice to meet you” your hands still in his. his touch is warm and you find yourself not wanting to drop it. but you did, before it makes the situation awkward.

it’s not like you love him. it’s just that you’ve had a crush on him for the last 15 years. not a big deal… right?

you remember your own words.

i shouldn’t care about what he thinks of me. he’s a human like anyone else, so i’m gonna act like i always do.

“that’s it” you finish your sentence once again, but this time not out loud.

“so…” he starts

“here’s your order, sir. sorry for the wait, again”

“it’s okay, don’t worry about it. i was called hot, you know”

he really heard you. “shit”, you think to yourself

keisha laughs. you eye her, looking done and she covers her mouth to stop laughing.

“i’ll wait for you”

“nice. he wants to sit with me. how awkward is that going to be?” you think, but you stop quickly “no. it’s not going to be awkward. once again, he’s just a normal guy who’s talking to me! nothing more than that”

“like always, please”

keisha nods, still with a smile in her face stopping herself from laughing again. she goes to the kitchen and start preparing your order.

“listen, i’m sorry. can you pretend you didn’t hear me? please?”

“right ma’am. you didn’t lie, though. i am indeed hot”

“hey!” you reply, chuckling.

“sorry, sorry. but you laughed”

you start talking to him, waiting for keisha to come with your order. she’s usually really fast with your order, but today it’s taking a little too long.

she’s definitely doing it on purpose for you to keep talking to him.

you’re really enjoying it, though. he’s a nice guy and you’re a nice girl, a perfect match. you seem to get along really well. you notice something quickly - his moves are gentle and not too fast. you’re the complete opposite, but you love it when people move calmly like this, it comforts you, you have no idea why.

keisha gives you your order as you thank her and gives her a smile.

“let’s go ma’am” he smirks at you, guiding you to a table.

“you come here often?” he asks, obviously making fun of you

“take a guess” you say and you both giggle.

“is it going to be your first time?” he asks

“hm?”

“playing a part in a movie”

oh.

“ah yes. i’ve never been part of a movie before. i’m really nervous about it to be honest. i’m not sure if i’ll be able to do my best”

“don’t worry, it’s not rocket science. all you’re going to do is pretend to be someone for a while”

“are you sure that’s all?”

“well, i told myself that exact same thing for every role i played and it went great”

“i’m talking to billy loomis right now, so i guess i’ll have to trust you.”

“yes, i’m a middle aged hot man, you should trust me”

you both laugh and he starts again “jokes aside, i’ll always be on set. if you need some advice, just call me and i’ll help you, ok?“

“thank you skeet. i really appreciate it”

you kept talking to him until you were both done eating.

somehow, this guy makes you feel comfortable around him. maybe it’s just your daddy issues, but you doubt it. this man has something in him that feels just right.

“we gotta go now. we have dinner with the cast, remember?”

“am i gonna have to see you again?” you joke as you get up and he does too, and he gasps ironically

“the middle-aged man here did not like it!”

“oh stop it” you say walking beside him to the exit and he chuckles softly.

“you want a ride home, kid?” skeet asks you, as he turns to you.

“no thanks, i live near here. you can go”

“okay then, see you later tonight!” he waves tilting his head and smiling softly as he enters his car. you wave back.

“wait”

“yes?”

“do you want me to pick you up for dinner?”

oh god. you wanted to say yes, but what about dave? wouldn’t he be upset?

“i’m sorry skeet, dave’s already going to pick me up” you say, with sort of a sad tone, trying not to upset skeet.

“it’s alright. dave, huh?” he smirks at you

“do not.” you reply quickly, raising your eyebrowns and lowering your head

“okay, okay” he laughs “see ya!”

you smile in response.

in 3 seconds, you’re going to process everything that just happened.

3,

2,

1.

“no way” you say out loud.

someone touched your shoulders behind you, making you jump with the unexpected touch, relaxing right after you see it’s angelica

“little girl you better tell me everything” she said with her hands still on your shoulders.

[fartasticdurge]

2024 Writing Year in Review

Fine, I'll pull a @alwaysmauria and say that when enough people tag you, you finally give in to one of them, albeit begrudgingly.

Words posted (on AO3): ~370k, excluding those I share with @strixamans and @vakariansyndrome, so probably ~330k

Fandoms: BG3 & DAtV

Skipping past stats. No one but those who sort by hits or kudos should care about this. And if you do, that's fine.

Fic I spent the most time on: Fated, my first baby. It's a gruesome 162,186 words-filled monster, but I love her for all she taught me.

Fic I spent the least time on: The Lord, the Thief, their Mistress & Fart's Lover, only because @vakariansyndrome did most of the heavy lifting after the words spewed out of us.

Favourite thing I wrote: Does Emmrich still know how to do dishes. It started off poorly, I couldn't get Emmrich's voice to sound less like Sherlock Holmes and House MD combined, but this story made me reflect on the process of writing more than anything had before. And it's probably no coincidence that it's currently ranked my most-read one-shot.

Favourite fics I read this year: I saw you guys doing 4+1 here, but fuck that. #tageveryone

Resonance by @tthisonebites and, honestly, anything you ever write. But that one was viscerally good and stuck with me. One of my favorite authors.

Midwinter's Rest by Professor_Rye. And not just because this was a gift from them, but they truly hit me in the feels with anything they write.

Waiting, Jealous Little Thing, Reckless Little Love, Drizzt, darling? Really? by @vakariansyndrome - you are a writing machine, woman. You edge me (in writing) like no other. And yes, that Halsin fic will forever be on my mind.

Not an exotic pet by Cesela. You made me love bats and I love your butt(inside joke).

Strange Highways by @nocryptographer and your poetry. Still have not finished it, I am afraid I will no longer hate Cazador. You are too powerful and someone must stop you before you ascend.

The Accountant’s Guide to Taking Down an Evil Vampire Lord (and maybe bagging Astarion while you are at it) by Cinnamontails - I have never inhaled a long fic like this one before.

Hunting Creatures by @strixamans and The Vampire's Verses to top it off. Thank you for tolerating me.

Apples by @alwaysmauria, also another writing machine. try and see if you can delete this message, Mauria (inside joke).

Catch Me If You Can and poems by @dramaticchimpmunk. seeing writing through your eyes has inspired me and reminded me why I write.

Walking on Eggshells (Ascended Astarion & Tav ), Painting Problems (Ascended Astarion and Tav One-Shot)  by JacksonCrowe. Jackie, my first writing mentor. Thank you for existing. Best first, loving AA fic I read.

I'm pretty sure I forgot people and that's on me, sorry.

Writing goals for 2025: Oh boy, do I have plans. Whether or not I act on them is another matter. My goal for this year is quality over quantity and I started taking steps towards that. Stay tuned.

New works for 2025: I will continue working on the short fics in the Bellara Lutare serials, which is currently the thing that brings me most joy to write about. And probably many short stories. I can't or don't want to commit to any long fics right now. I have too many wips that stare at me and I hope I might one day return to them, but likely not right now.

Here's to more writing in the new year and thank you all for being amazing human beings and writers who inspire! 🖤🥂

Astarion & Emmrich gifs for the long post as payment.

[astoryisaloveaffair]

Fix You - Chapter 15 - High and Dry

*gif by @pedrohub

Pairing: Frankie “Catfish” Morales x Fem!Reader

Fic Masterlist

Read on A03

Spotify Playlist

»»———————►

Chapter Summary: 🤷‍♀️

Word Count: 4K

Rating: Explicit!! 18+!

Chapter Warnings: Cussing, violence, drugs, sex fantasies. I will not be warning anything else due to spoiling the story. We are all grown. You can stop reading when you want to.

A/N: Thank you all for being so patient! I hope this doesn’t disappoint! It is a bit shorter than my chapters in this fic usually are but ending it where I did felt right, and I don’t want to beat you over the head with F E E L I N G S. Please keep in mind for this chapter that I am continuing based off the exact themes from Triple Frontier. If you find some things in Triple Frontier offensive, I probably wouldn’t continue reading. This has been the arc I have been working towards for almost two years, and I'm not going to waver. Just stick with me like you have been. It’ll be worth it.

* If a character is speaking in Spanish, I will put “[ ]” around the dialogue. I speak pretty decent Spanish but not good enough for this 🫠

Suggested Songs: “High and Dry” by Radiohead, “Breathe Me” by Sia, “Demons” by Guster, “Cry” by Cigarettes After Sex, “Cold Little Heart” by Michael Kiwanuka

For a few seconds you can’t even figure out what you’re looking at. Or maybe you can, but your brain doesn’t want to process it, the black of the night and the black of the gun meld together so there isn’t a clear outline.

It’s the shiny glint off the gun barrel under the streetlight that makes it real, and then you startle again when a male voice calls to you, muffled through the door.

“Get out of the car!!

You blink, your hand on your chest slowly inching towards your phone that you stashed into your bra in order to not carry a purse at the fair.

“Ah ah ah. No moving except open the door or I will blow your fucking brains out. You be good, I won’t hurt you. Get out.”

Your thoughts race and it feels like you’re silent for almost five whole minutes but you know it’s only seconds, because your hand reaches for the door.

You’re quick enough to figure out that if you try to put the key back in the ignition, he will shoot you before you can leave. If you pull out your phone, he will shoot you before you can place a call. If you try to hide, he could break the window in and grab you and it will make him pissed off.

Your only option here is to fight. You have no idea what this man’s intentions are and you are not going to ignore any chance you may have. Maybe if you hit him and ran—-

You swallow and open the door.

Immediately a gloved hand shoots in and grabs you by your hair, yanking you out of your seat and stumbling to your feet. There’s no respite once you catch your balance, as the man’s other hand pushes you hard in the chest back against the hard shell of your car and covers your mouth with the most foul smelling gloved hand you’d ever smelt.

It’s then that you notice, before you can even try to fight and make a break for it, that there isn’t just one man. It’s four. And all are dressed in black with masks on, completely encircling you. One presses a gun right up under your raised jaw, the other two aim at you from a distance.

There’s no way you can run. You can’t fight off four men, it would be suicide. But you’re not sure what other alternative you have. They might kill you anyways. Or they might let you go…after getting what they want. What they want could be worse. Your brain shuts down in panic, your eyes watering because your body will not allow you to close your eyes out of adrenaline or fear.

Then he speaks to you again.

“Where is the money”. You simply continue to stare, confused.

The man leans in closer, where his nose would be under the mask almost touching your own. It does nothing to dull how rank his breath and B.O. is.

“I’m going to let you talk, you be quiet and do not scream or I shoot you. Yes?”

You nod erratically, and he takes the rancid glove off your mouth.

For a moment you do consider screaming. But it wouldn't matter. By the time someone would even make it all the way across the parking lot to help you’d already be dead.

He asks again. “Where is the money?”

“What money?” You scrunch up your brow and you can hear your voice wavering. They know how scared you are. The gun against your neck pushes deeper, and you can feel the metal forming a bruise with how oppressive it is. “I–I don’t know what you—I have my credit card! You can take it, please have it!” Your right hand gropes its way into the open door of your car like you could magically summon the wallet to your hand.

“No. The money. The money they stole. Where is it?! They’re your sweethearts, yes? They share the money with you, and killed many of us. We came for the money.”

Your heart drops into your stomach as the night’s events flash before you at hyperspeed.

“How he went on a STUPID fucking mission with these idiots to burglarize a fucking drug lord completely off paper?...

Fuck. Fuck. But why would they come for you?

“I—I don’t know where it is. I, I understand now. I just learned this, I know what you’re talking about but I don’t have it, I don’t know where it is, they didn’t tell me anything about this, I swear—”

Your head almost recoils back with the force of his gloved hand, the large palm connecting to your cheek, leaving it stinging and your nose feeling like someone ripped it open. Your eyes water once more as you struggle not to start crying. Stay strong. You have to stay strong. Do not cry.

The man who spoke to you starts pulling you away from your car and into the dark, and despite it being an idea you’d already talked yourself out of, your instinct is to resist. “I told you, I don’t know where it is! I don’t! No–I’m not going anywhere! I don’t care how much you hit me–”

One of them turns to the other, rapidly speaking in Spanish that, thank god, you know just enough to interpret.

[“We should just kill this whore, then kill the big one’s other woman and take the baby. They can always get a new whore. They will come for the baby.”]

And suddenly it’s like your brain is the most clear it’s every been. “No! No, I’ll go! Take me, they’ll come for me, I promise. They will. And—and I’m easier to transport than a baby. You’d have to take care of it right?? Until they come?? That would be a lot of work! I’m—-I won’t fight I swear! Please just take me I promise you’ll get the money. Okay?”

The men look at each other, sending some secret silent message you can’t interpret. You look at the one standing in front of you. You can barely even see his eyes in the dark.

“Please. They’ll come.”

And then you don’t remember anything else.

It took everything he had in him not to turn and look at you, to shoot up off the couch and peer out that window to watch you leave, to rip the door open and run to you, apologizing for all of it. But he didn’t.

Instead, he sat there with his head in his hands, eyes screwed shut to keep the threatening tears from spilling out. Eventually, time and space faded out, he felt nothing but everything. It felt like he had been sitting on that couch forever and also for just one second. He felt dead inside. When he finally got up and trudged down the hall to bed, it was three in the morning.

He wakes to Gabi crying. “Fuck.” He grunts, as he rolls over to glare at his phone that didn’t go off. Except it did go off. He had slept through it, and it was almost 11am. His head is killing him, and he presses his lower palms into his eyes to try and alleviate the pain. It felt like he had a hangover, but he hadn’t had a drink or used. An emotional hangover.

Frankie hauls himself out of bed and stumbles to Gabi’s room, she is absolutely beside herself calling for him and rattling the railing on her crib. He can tell her diaper is full and she hasn’t had breakfast and now he feels like extra shit because of that.

“God, baby, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry honey…” he scoops her up and pulls her to his chest, cooing and lightly bouncing her to soothe the cries. “Daddy didn’t feel good, I don’t know what happened, I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” She sniffs and nods, wiping away a snot bubble. “Ok so I know you’re starving but you would probably also feel more comfortable after a bath. Does that sound good? Which would you like first?”

Gabi sniffles again. “um…baff.”

Frankie nods and carries her to the bathroom, immediately taking off her soiled clothes and starting to run the bath. While they wait, he softly brushes her hair, using his fingers to gently separate the cute little mats she sometimes gets in her curls.

He bathed her in silence, and he knows Gabi knows something is wrong, as she usually likes to play with her sea animal toys when she is in the bath. Today she is simply swirling the bubbly water with her finger.

He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know what she understood and what she didn’t. When he broke up with Lex she was too young to realize or know any better but now…now she was aware. And she had loved you…

So did he. His chest seizes in a searing pain as he thinks of you, the way your face looked when he said what he said. He hadn’t meant any of it.

It was a new level of heartbreak, because he had known better not to cater to his impulsive stubbornness, the insults and hateful comments that spill out of his mouth when he gets caught, when he feels backed into a corner. He knew better and he couldn't stop himself, his defensive and selfishness overwhelming him. And then you asked him about the farmers he shot. And it hit him.

He was a bad person. There was no denying it. He’d wanted to keep that side of himself away from you, he’d change the topic or just blatantly lie, but he liked the man he was with you, he wanted to prolong the feeling as long as he could before he messed it up. And he messed it up.

It suddenly didn’t matter to him in that moment that you could possibly forgive him. You SHOULDN'T forgive him. His past, his life, his actual shitty personality…you deserved more. You were so young, you could find someone new easily who didn’t have all his problems. So he pushed you away.

And you were fun to fuck, I’ll admit that. Let me do fucking anything…

He whips around and all but flings the toilet seat cover off the entire toilet and promptly vomits.

He is a horrible person…but he knew, deep down, that you would have forgiven him, that you would have stayed. And as the world fell apart and it all came crashing down around him, he knew you shouldn’t. But it still pissed him off that you listened to him, even when he knew this was right. He could not deny he selfishly still also wanted you to come back, to refuse to leave and beg and plead and tell him how much you love him. Everything is so complicated.

He pulls his head up and rests it in the crook of his arm along the rim of the tub. He feels a light poking and looks up to see Gabi.

“Daddy we done?”

He blinks, looking down like he had forgotten where he was and what he was doing. He reached for the loofah to rinse it from soap later. The water was getting cold.

Jesus fucking Christ.

He says nothing and nods, wrapping her up in a blanket and putting on her favorite mermaid scale leggings and a little Fleetwood Mac shirt you’d gotten her so she could match with him.

After settling Gabi with her food, he trudges into the living room, collapsing on the couch and opening his phone.

It barely rings before it’s picked up.

“Hey, Fish…was just ‘bout to text you. You ok?”

“No.”

Will began to speak, but Frankie cut him off. “Look I need you to watch Gabi for a couple days. I’m…off my dad game. Can I bring her over?”

“Yea…sure.”

Frankie could hear the hesitation in Will’s voice.

“I’m not gonna use.”

“I didn’t say you would.”

“Right. Be there in a bit.”

He told them mostly everything. If there was one thing he learned from you, it was that talking about it did make him feel better.

They said nothing at first but listened, offering words of support, because there was nothing to say. Your reaction was completely justified, and you were rightfully upset about being lied to. So was Maidali.

“Yea she won’t talk to me right now either.” Will sighs, and Frankie feels a twang of guilt that he had spent the entire time talking about himself.

His sad eyes make contact with Will’s. “I’m sorry.”

“It is what it is. Hopefully she can get over it. Flower too.”

“She won’t.” They could see this was a struggle for Frankie just from the muscles clenching in his jaw. “I made her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I made her break up with me. I—-said some really horrible shit. Shit I didn’t mean. Well, maybe I did at first cause I was mad but also…she doesn’t deserve this.”

“Deserve what?” Said Benny.

“Me, this, everything!” He throws his arms up gesturing to himself and around him before they thump back down on the couch cushions. “I wish I did deserve her but I don’t, and she has so much life ahead of her! I don’t want to tie her down to an old, fucked up, lying murderer, ok.”

“So…you White Fanged her?”

“….I don’t fucking know what that means, Benny.”

“Like, you loved her and knew she needed to be out there in the wild, it’s where she belongs, so you threw stones and shit at her to make her hate you and leave?”

Frankie blinks. “…yea.”

“But you still love her? You still want her, yea?”!

“Yes, but—“

“Well text her! Call her! Do something!”

Frankie hangs his head. “I already did. Cause I’m fucking weak. But it didn’t deliver. She blocked me. It’s what I deserve. It’s over.”

Before either of them could speak he stood up, indicating the discussion was over.

“Listen, just…watch Gabi for a couple days for me so I can feel like fucking shit and get over it and not have to listen to Lex’s fucking nagging if I ask her to take Gabi early.”

Will and Benny nod, each giving him a long hug before he said goodbye to Gabi and trudged right out the door.

And immediately texted his dealer.

He knew he shouldn’t. This wasn’t like his argument with you. He knew damn well he shouldn’t do this, that it would ruin his life probably. The difference is he just didn’t give a fuck. He didn’t deserve sobriety. He didn’t deserve good things. And he was tired of feeling the excruciating pain of heartbreak and abandonment that he had never wanted to feel again. The sharp twisting and turning in his chest coupled with nausea and dread. He felt you in every fucking heartbeat. He felt like he was dying.

He didn’t want to feel it this time.

He sighs, finished with chopping the chunky white powdered clumps up with his credit card, grabs a dollar bill from a his wallet, rolls it up, puts one end to the line of cocaine and the other his nostril, looks up—

And sees pictures of him and Gabi. At the zoo, washing his truck together with hose water splashing everywhere. A photo you took of Frankie and Gabi sleeping spooned together on the couch.

All new memories. All memories he got within the past 6 months. Memories he never would have gotten if he was still using.

No. He did still deserve that. Despite everything, he deserved to have Gabi in his life, and deserved to have a life sober. It was fucking poison, not just for his body but his soul and his life and his sense of self and even if it hurt, even if…

Even if you never come back to him. Because you told him he needs to fix himself for himself.

What you meant to him…what he had with you before he fucked it up, it meant everything to him. It wasn’t right to just get completely blitzed out to get through the pain. He needed to feel the pain. You deserved that, at least.

Before he can think about it he scoops the powder into his palm and runs to the toilet, throws the powder and the rest of the dime bag in, and flushes. Then he heads straight to bed.

He stayed in bed for days. Yea, he got up to eat, use the bathroom, answer “are you alive” texts, eat some crap junk food. But immediately after he would collapse back into bed.

He jacked off thinking of you constantly and hated himself for it. Your smile, the way you whimper his name as you came on his cock, he’d scroll through your secret nasty WhatsApp chat blowing his load to everything you’d texted to him, the voice notes you’d send him when he was at work of you masterbating and thinking of him…

That last time he’d fucked you when you’d been sleepy on the couch only in one of his old giant tshirts, how he’d pulled your panties to the side to look at you, so perfect and flushed. He’d placed a pretty kiss against your pussy and crawled over you, pulling his boxers down and pushed himself into you, groaning with a smile as your eyes fluttered open with a gasp. He’d slowly rocked into you as you whimpered in his ear, “Frankie Frankie Frankie Frankie I love you I love you I love you…” He had kissed you as you came because he loved hearing your moans vibrate against his lips.

That one time you joked about getting pregnant while he was fucking you and he had cum so fast he didn’t even know what happened.

Your pretty eyes looking up at him as you sucked him off, taking him deep and letting him cum where he wanted.

Your laughter.

Your smell. The sheets on your side of the bed still smelled like you, and after he orgasmed to you, he’d fall asleep clutching the pillow you used, burrowing his head into it as far as he could to remember your smell, pretending it was really you. Your smell was fading. It scared him.

He started not caring about meals when he learned you'd apparently blocked all his friends, even Benny.

It’s really over.

He slept for days. Because at least when he was asleep, he was either with you, or not conscious to realize he wasn’t.

You wake up to your entire body vibrating and your head searing with pain. The ground is cold, hard, and smells weird and your skin sticks to its texture. You feel liquid dripping slowly from your scalp and you try to wipe your brow but you can’t, and as you emerge from the foggyness in your head, you discover you have your hands bound and arms pulled behind your back. Your legs were bound too, all the way up to the knee and wow, obviously that’s why your shoulders and neck hurt so much.

You’re further disoriented as whatever transport you are in swerves in a tilt to the right and you slide across the floor and into a pile of boxes against the wall. A corner hits you in the back and you almost gasp out all your air from the force but you had a nasty rag stuffed in your mouth.

“Eh!” A sharp voice from further up in the vehicle calls. “You stop moving or I throw you out the plane!”

The plane. The rumbling was from you being in the fucking air, the texture sticking to your body was the metal framework of the cabin, and you didn’t know where the fuck you were going. You try to slow your breathing so you don’t hyperventilate and panic.

Surely the government watches all the planes flying around, right? They can’t just fly a plane in the airspace without them noticing? Right?!

But the plan is not stopped, not challenged, not asked to land.

You look over the top of the boxes and notice there’s a window, and you struggle to push yourself up against the cartons with your bound hands to stand, and continuing to use those boxes, you shimmy on bound legs to look out the tiny window.

You were flying over the ocean.

No one will be able to find you.

It’s finally too much. So you cry.

[kattze]

PT.1 GHOST X GN READER slow burn

(Pt.2)

So y'know a few people MIGHT read this and honestly if you do THANK YOU!!!!! anyways if there's any mistakes please tell me (pretty please with a cherry on top).

I slowly walk to my Captains office dragging my feet along the way. "Christ... I'm about to get an earful." I roll my eyes at the thought of getting another lecture, but I won't be surprised if I do... either way it's not my first time messing up during missions and causing people to die it's not the most positive thing about me...I cringe at the thought of people dying because of me.

I pause in front of the captain's office pondering on my choices before knocking. I hear a firm, "come in '' I make my way into his office. He gestures to a chair in front of his desk.

"Sit down soldier," he sighs and shakes his head before speaking once more "You are being transferred to a new base which means a new team." He looks at me studying my reaction

I shake my head before responding "so I'm not getting discharged...? Well...where am I going sir?" I say curiously waiting for his response.

"I am not sure, soldier but they'll be here at 1500 hours. I expect you to be ready for departure." He leans forward with a stern expression. "You may leave." He gestures towards the door. I quickly leave and go to the barracks.

I look at the clock next to my bed and it reads '1445 hours' 15 minutes before I leave. I have my belongings packed and ready to go. I rub my eyes and let out a yawn. I wander around base until it's time for me to leave. I walk to the helipad and get into the helicopter. I look at the old base that I'll never see again as the helicopter takes off. I lean my head back and take a nap, I wake up once I feel the helicopter landing. I exit the helicopter and I am greeted with a guy with a fishing hat(or bucket hat idk whatever makes you happy) , and another guy who's tall and bulky, who's also wearing a ski mask with a skull. The older looking one with the fishing hat walks up to me. "Captain Price, good to meet you kid." He offers his hand for a shake

I shake his hand and introduce myself "good to meet you too Captain. I'm Y/N L/N but my codename is c/n."

He smiles and points to the guy with the skull ski mask. "That's Lieutenant Ghost, he'll show you around, and you'll get to meet the others soon."

Price walks away and Ghost stares at me like he's reading my thoughts. He turns around and starts walking. "You comin' or you gonna keep staring like a twat?"

I raise my eyebrows in surprise and scoff at the insult. "Yeah yeah I'm goin ''" I shake my head as I make my way towards him. He's quite tall and built, I wonder how long he's been in the military? I decide to ask out of curiosity

"so, how long have you been in the military?" I ask as we continue to walk towards base.

"None of your business." He answers coldly as we finally enter the base.

"Jesus.." I roll my eyes at his answer. He shows me around base keeping his cold and monotone voice the same throughout the whole tour. He walks me to the barracks,

"You'll be staying in the barracks, lunch is in 20 minutes." Before I could respond he turns and walks away.

(NOT MY GIF)

Honestly if this flops I'll probably continue posting more parts out of boredom idk it depends.

[bronx-bomber87]

Good evening fandom! Welcome to my inaugural mini review post. Holy hell I can’t believe we’re finally here. These probably won’t be as detailed as normal like I mentioned. Mini review is the goal. It’ll be initial thoughts and feelings. Which will be fun cause all the other seasons other than S5 I had ton of time to reflect on moments. These thoughts for S6 could change when I rewatch the season for review purposes this summer. The exciting thing is having those first reactions. That's what these will be.

So you're getting hot off the presses thoughts haha I just watched it couple hours ago. These are thoughts I had while it was happening. With some editing to make it readable ha Want my reactions be as authentic as possible with these. Why I avoid spoilers tbh. Be interested in seeing what everyone else’s are as well. The gif library was an absolute turd so I didn't get to use all the gifs that were made yet. So I made some. Anyways this so friggin exciting to delve into so let’s get started.

6x01 Strike Back

Tim got scruffier from the finale to now-and I’m here for it. Mm. Plus he's in Metro gear. Phew Lord. Something about scruffy Tim gets me going. Adore them riding together automatically after their battle. I truly love it. The little things I continually love with them. Also LOVING the Metro call sign. Yum If this going to be his call sign all season I am about it.

Oh my lord why is her sitting at his desk so squee worthy to me? It’s getting me all in my feels. I love that Lucy can just use his office as her own. So cute using it to steal it for some study time. I love this so very much. Then her asking if they can ride together so he can quiz her? Tim doesn’t hesitate for a moment before saying yes.

Still amazes me we’re in the place with them. The Tim of old would’ve groaned and moaned about such a task. He jumps right on it for her. Ready to help her out. Even though he’s not sure how much it’s gonna do. Clearly very aware Primm is out to get her. That is common knowledge now.

Lucy is right when she says it sucks. That she has to battle this and face possible wild cards.. It isn’t fair when she's earned her spot more than most. Fought and clawed for everything she's done in this department. Definitely more than Nolan... Hey wouldn't be a review if I didn't pot shot Nolan would it? lol I love Tim finding a solution for them. Saying they can take out do the box calls all day. Widen her knowledge a bit on it. Sharpen her skills with odd calls.

I love her grateful smile when she says 'Thank you.' Loves this man. Damnit they’re so cute their banter coming out of his office is on point. Tim saying she learns best when she’s pissed off. I mean if that isn’t her rookie experience with him in a sentence. Lucy saying this feels like she is giving him permission to be an ass. Heh it kinda is no matter what Tim says.

You know he kinda loves being able to make her his boot again in some form. He is going to enjoy himself with this. There is no doubt about it. That's why he's doing that smile of his. Lucy calling him out knowing this man so well. Pointing her finger and all. God I love these idiots so much. Tim trying to tell her just his smile. Uh huh sure it is Tim.... Lucy following after him with a smile of her own. These dopes I've missed them so damn much.

I’m very much loving Tim has not really shaved in 6 weeks ha. The scruffy remains and I’m excited about it. Lucy is starting to question asking Tim to help her. We all know she learns best from that man sitting next to her though. I also always enjoy when she gets to drive. Another micro shift that has changed that I love so much. Her heart eyes when he says Angela’s cop brain is just booting up LOL Loves this goober of man.

Lucy absolutely losing it and going on a rant of epic proportions had me rolling. LOL Massive emotional downward spiral happening here. I’m dying as I watch Tim take it in. God Eric the master of expressions crushing it again. This was a huge one for her holy crap. Nuclear really. Well done Melissa getting all that in with one breath basically. By the time she’s done I’m cackling at Tim’s expression. LMAO Oh my god these two. God I’ve missed them so much it pained me.

Lucy knowing Tim's reply without even looking at him. Just epic married status at this point. Doesn’t even have to look at him or for Tim to say anything. It’s already there because of that crazy good connection they have. How deeply they know one another. It’s so good. Tim being the smart man he is says nothing. Lucy knowing he’s thinking it haha

Lucy coming to conclusion she will do crazy wild card during the day and the manual at night. She will sleep when it's over LOL Tim shaking his head. Knowing there is nothing he can say right now that'll make this better. Or to derail her crazy train of thought. This is like S1/S2 them with the added benefit of them being together now. It’s glorious.

Getting serious Plain Clothes Day vibes from this episode as well. Except this time Lucy light years away from who she was then. Confidently reciting what she’s going to do Tim nodding along. Tim wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t rock her boat a little though. Lucy getting in her head about the crime scene now. Tim isn’t wrong she did tick all the obvious boxes. That the point of today is looking for wild cards. That’s what he wants her to engage that brilliant brain of her's in. It's why he's here.

To zero in on the 'Out of the box thinking'. Poor Lucy spirals out not being able to decide if she wants his help or not. I ADORE Tim telling her it’s ok to not know the answer. Not shaming her in the least just needing her to make a call. God how far we’ve come. Tim pushes her because he knows that is when she learns best. Trying to add a little urgency to her decision making. Unfortunately it backfires. I kinda loved them calling each other by their ranks in this heated exchange.

Lucy is so flustered it’s giving me PCD vibe once again in the best way. The sprinklers turn on and Lucy panics. There’s the wild card….We watch as a bullet leaves this man’s body and enters the storm drain never to be seen again. Lucy being so very disappointed in herself. It’s reminiscent of the disappointment she showed in s1 but only now she's far more experienced. So it hurts much more now….Oh Lucy my heart. You poor thing. Couldn’t have gone more wrong if she tried.

I can’t believe they played clown music upon her entrance.... Beyond cruel but that's cops. Always taking shots when people mess up spectacularly. Tim trying not laugh.... Babe she is spiraling right now maybe don’t lol Poor thing I would be mortified too. I love how both Tim and Lucy smile when they see Wes and the wee one. My heart. She wants Wes's opinion and he just crushes her with logic. Ugh She needs a hug. Bad day for our girl.

Lucy continues to break my heart as they sit in front of the crime scene. She is on the verge of tears. Verge of a breakdown it feels like as well. Killing me softly. Saying she should skip the detectives exam. My girl. Tim doesn't want her to give up. I will say this fight I feel like I would be Tim. Trying to be so supportive it’s come off as agreeing with her she can’t do it. When really he was just trying to be supportive of whatever she wants.

Can't win for losing right now Timothy. She is in a bad way right now. Lucy has some weight to her argument though. if I was her in this moment I would feel the same way. If I’m in a bad headspace I need reassurances. So I can relate to both of them in this fight. It’s not a fun time for either of them. Tim is still learning that emotional depth he needs to have with her in these moments.

Being supportive has worked before so he's not sure why it's backfiring right now. They’re solid but always room to grow beauty of them. Lucy spots someone pull up to crime scene crying. She has them peel out with Tim not really understanding why. Lucy catching her digging through her trash. She ends up getting a confession. Phew Well done Luce.

Oooh this final scene. Oh my damn lord. This is some PRIMO productive angst holy hell. Eric and Melissa came out swinging with it. I knew they were going to have one more scene about it. I just didn't think it would be this explosive. I adore Tim picking up on how short she is with him. Grabbing her by the arm and confronting her. Growth continuous growth for them both continues to show. Love it. Look at Tim being the one to come at this. I’m so proud of him.

Throwing her words from 5x21 somewhat back at her. Saying this isn’t going to work if she isn’t honest with him. Then Lucy really lays into him. Now do I think he purposely undermined her? No I don’t. Not ever. That’s not in his DNA to do that to someone he loves. I was deeply hurt for him when she suggested this. You can see how hurt he is when she says as such. He’s getting emotional and it makes me as well. I just wanna hug him.

Tim as we know is a DEEPLY loyal person. Also one of my main relations to him as a character. To purposely hurt someone they love isn’t fathomable to a loyal person. It's unthinkable. You have to hurt them first. To undermine Lucy would be to hurt her so he would never. To be accused of such by your favorite person? That cut's so insanely deep for him. I haven’t seen him this hurt since the 'Tim Test' line from her in 4x08. I’m legit wounded for him. He is so upset she could think that of him.

Now Lucy might be onto something with the subconscious part. He could’ve done it not realizing what he was doing. Because love isn’t rational. Man is hardwired to protect her and want to keep her safe. So I could see this especially with her psych background. I think this is solid guess at what happened. Now was this the right time to lash out at him for Isabel stuff? I don’t know…

Felt like a low blow when he was already down for the count. She is throwing him daggers with her eyes most of this conversation. Feels like its more than just the UC right now but that's just my guess at this point. Let's not forget she was having UC doubts towards the end of last season.

Now do they need to have these fights and conversations? HELL YES. My god this subject needs to be discussed. Especially with how 5x20-5x21 were. Want to reiterate this is my first impression. I was literally writing this as I experienced their fight for first time. When I rewatch it this summer this could change. My POV could shift. But right now I see a man who only thought he had her back and was raked across the coals in this moment.

So for me right now in this moment I feel like Lucy had pent up frustrations and took it out on Tim. The protective side of me for him isn’t pleased with that tbh. Doesn't mean I love Lucy any less. I adore her so much. You all know that. But my gut leaned towards Tim in this fight. That may be bias idk but it’s how I felt when it was said and done. Tim was very very defensive when she brought up Isabel. Which hasn't happened in awhile. But his emotions were heightened and he was on the defensive before they'd reach the topic of her.

Lucy basically kicked him while he was down and he felt it. I'm not discounting her feelings at all. She is allowed to feel overwhelmed. Has every right to be. She is STRESSED and it is coming out in all kinds of ways. Ways that aren't like her. I think she stewed on this thought the ENTIRE shift and it came out in the worst way. Which also isn't like her. What she did had him defaulting back to old school Tim. Cutting off the conversation before more emotions were to be had or he said something he would regret.

Basically cut the fight off at the knees and walked away. Lucy’s face says it all when he walks away. She wasn’t expecting that. Shocked he just left her like that. Oh Lucy, you wounded him more than once and he retreated HARD. Leaving her standing there wondering what the hell just happened? God this is so good though everyone. This is the type of angst I'm all for. What a way to start the season off hot damn. Hurts so good angst to get us going. I could not be more excited for where we go this season. Feel free to comment on this. Love to chat with you all about this. All uncharted territory for us all. We're in for quite the ride.

~~~

Side notes-non Chenford

Who are these friggin people? They’re insanely ruthless. Like Rosalind level ruthless in how they just dispose of people. Sending two their team out as a distraction to be blown up. Jesus. Then sniping their own guy. They’re smart but cold af. Then killing who I thought was the boss at the end. Shit. Consider me intrigued.

I liked the 6 weeks later. Makes sense need to do a time jump.

Celina being more afraid of Tim than Harper. LOL little does she know they’re basically the same person haha

Poor Aaron wants to be back in the game and can’t be. I agree with Grey he’s not ready even if he thinks he is.

God I love Nyla Harper. Took that mofo out like the complete bad ass she is. Came with repercussions which made me sad for her.

Angela being more excited to see burritos than her husband lmao I love this woman.

Feeling little potential flirty action for Aaron and his therapist.