#he does absolutely nothing except ruin everything

[inchidentallylestappen]

WHY IS STROLL STILL IN F1?????

[adahlenan]

But I'd rather not remind myself and leave it all behind And I've tried so hard to fix it all but nothing seems to help

[sincerelyneo]

sweat | l.hc

“let me touch you where you like it...let me do it for ya”

📀now playing: sweat by zayn

❯ summary: Hyuck is nothing if not a pleaser. What can he say? He just loves eating pussy—your pussy.

❯ pairings: haechan x fem!reader

❯ genre: established relationship, smut

❯ words: 1.9k

❯ tags: 18+ minors dni!, oral sex (fem!receiving), squirting, fingering, overstimulation, dirty talk, swearing, literally just me contributing to the haechan biggest pussy eater agenda.

Hyuck is nothing if not a pleaser. 

Which sounds so generous—sweet, even—like he’s doing it just for you. But he’s not. He’s a selfish man, and nothing makes him harder, nothing gets him off faster, than pleasing, satisfying, and absolutely ruining. It’s wired into him, like instinct. Born to eat, breathe, and fuck pussy—your pussy.

And that’s exactly why he’s still up, waiting for you to get home from work. Why the second you walk through the door and drop onto the couch with a tired huff, he’s already burying his face in your neck, lips warm and greedy. And when you sigh about how your boss has been driving you insane, he nearly smiles—because he knows he’s got the perfect remedy.

A perfect remedy that starts with him carrying you to bed, tearing off your clothes to strip you bare, and putting his hands exactly where he knows you need them. His voice low, breathless, begging—“Please… just let me do this for you. Let me make it better, baby. Let me take the ache away.”

And you do. You let him give you all his attention, let him show you just how badly he wants you. And damn, it’s obvious—because he wastes no time pulling your ass to the edge of the bed and diving between your legs. His perfect, wet lips wrap around your clit, sucking, lapping, teasing.

“Fuck, Hyuck…” you whine, back arching as you try to pull away.

But that won’t do. That’s not how this works—how he works. He won’t let you run away from him. His hand presses down on your stomach, holding you in place, forcing you to stay where he can devour you the way he knows you need. Hell, he needs your pussy in the perfect spot for his mouth to do its job—taking, tasting, making you forget everything but him.

And when he sees the whites of your eyes, watches them roll all the way back in your head, he knows he’s doing exactly what he set out to do. He could watch you like this for hours—knees jerking, toes curling, chest heaving—all because of nothing but his tongue. He can’t take his eyes off you—he won’t—not when seeing you bite down on your lip to stop the noises gets him so fucking hard.

Except he wants those noises—needs them. 

He pulls his lips away from your clit, pupils darkening at the sight of how puffy and swollen he’s made it—his work, his mess. Then he hooks his arms under your knees and pulls you flush against his mouth, tongue dragging a slow, filthy stripe from your soaking entrance all the way back up to your bud. The second you shudder and whine, a sick thrill shoots straight to his cock. That’s the reaction he craves—needy, helpless, all for him.

So he does it again. And again. This time letting his tongue push inside you, teasing and prodding, fucking into you with lazy strokes while his nose bumps your clit at just the right angle. 

It’s all too much for you. The way his tongue moves. Your thighs twitch, hips bucking against his face, chasing every bit of friction he gives you. And despite your squirming, he doesn’t stop. Doesn’t let up. Because the cocky bastard lives for this—lives to watch you fall apart on nothing but his mouth.

So you play his little game, propping yourself up on your elbows to meet his gaze through dazed, heavy-lidded eyes. And fuck—he looks like he belongs there, buried between your legs, staring up at you with that sweet, doe-eyed look. Watching. Studying. Waiting for every twitch, every breath, every moan—so he knows exactly how to make his next move. Because somehow, he knows your body better than you do.

Hyuck notices the way your eyes go heavy, lashes fluttering, and takes it as his cue. He sinks a finger into you, knuckle deep, sliding in with ease after working you so damn wet.

Your eyes squeeze shut, a soft, desperate gasp escaping you. “Oh my god—Hyuck!”

“It’s okay, baby,” he coos. “You’re doing so good for me. So fucking hot—holy shit,” he groans low in his throat when he slips a second finger in and you take it without hesitation, clenching around him. “I don’t deserve you.”

You shake your head, barely able to keep your voice steady. “Yes you do,” you pant, eyes fluttering. “No one else—fuck—no one else could make me feel like this. Oh my god.”

He already knew that—but damn, does he love hearing you say it. Loves knowing he’s carved out space in your mind, ruined you so much that there’s no one else who even comes close. 

And that’s exactly why he latches onto your clit again—rewarding you for stroking his ego. He smiles against your pussy, moaning into it, sending filthy, electric vibrations straight through your core while his fingers keep fucking you deep and relentless.

So relentless that everything next hits fast. 

Your back arches off the bed, fingers fisting the sheets as his tongue flicks and sucks, perfectly synced with the curl of his fingers inside you. Your thighs try to clamp around his head, but his grip is iron-tight, keeping you spread and helpless while he works you through it.

“Hyuck—fuck—I’m gonna—” you gasp, breath catching on the edge of it. “Don’t stop.”

“I won’t, baby,” he groans against you. “Wanna feel you cum on my tongue.”

And you do—your body seizing with the force of your orgasm, legs shaking, pussy clenching hard around his fingers as a cry rips from your throat. He doesn’t stop, not for a second. Just keeps licking you through it, moaning, dragging it out until you’re trembling beneath him, wrecked and breathless.

And he’s not done. He never is. 

“Look at you,” he breathes, pulling away just long enough to let you catch your breath. “So fucking beautiful when you cum.” His hands are firm on your legs, keeping you spread as he leans back in, lips trailing up your inner thighs, kissing, nipping, before finally meeting your swollen pussy again. “Keep these legs open for me.”

Your body jerks, more sensitive than before, when he licks another familiar stripe up your drenched slit. He chuckles darkly. “We’re just getting started, baby.”

“Hyuck—”

“Shh, don’t talk,” he whispers, his breath hot and teasing against your sensitive skin. “Let me do this for you. I want to.”

You moan, not just because it feels so damn good, but because the fact that he wants to do this—wants to make you cum, without asking for anything in return—is so beyond hot. He licks at your pussy again, that same intoxicating desire driving him as he teases and works you over.

Your fingers thread through his hair, guiding him closer, though he doesn’t need the help. You do, though. You need something to anchor you, to ground yourself from how hot he is—how hot he’s making you, getting you to writhe and squirm for him so easily.

You can feel the heat spreading through your body, sweat starting to bead on your forehead, slipping between your breasts, and trailing down the exposed curve of your stomach. It’s almost too much, too unfair—you're laid out, wriggling beneath him, while he remains fully clothed, the outline of his cock pressing hard and solid against the fabric of his sweats. 

He’s such a tease. 

But Hyuck doesn’t care—because this isn’t about him. It’s all about you. How good he can make you feel, how deep he can make you burn as you sweat for him. He wants to lose himself in every inch of you. 

And when he sees your skin start to slick with sweat, your thighs trembling, legs quivering like leaves, as he tastes you, he knows he’s already beyond the point of no return. He’ll forever be a man desperate to please you…

Which, frankly, is fine—because you’re certain your body belongs to him, utterly and completely. At his mercy permanently.

“Hyuck, please…I–”

You try to speak, to beg him to stop, to beg him to never stop, but all that comes out is a series of incoherent moans and gasps.

Hyuck's fingers curl inside you, stroking your sweet spot with precision, making you see stars. Your back arches off the bed, your body contorting in ways you never thought possible… and oh God—

“Hyuck—think I’m gonna—fuck!”

Your pussy starts to squirt, a rush of warm liquid spilling onto the bed as your second orgasm hits you. Hyuck’s eyes widen, lighting up with excitement. For a second, he almost just wants to watch, struck dumb by the sight, because fuck—he’s never made you do that before. But awe quickly gives way to greed. That insatiable part of him takes over—the part that needs to taste, to claim every bit of the mess you’ve made.

He groans, tongue lapping at your release, licking up every drop like it’s the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted (it is). He doesn’t stop. He can’t stop. Because now he’s seen it, felt it, tasted it—all he wants is more.

“Goddamn, baby,” he growls against your pussy, lips shiny, face slick with your juices. “You’re so fucking filthy—look at this mess you made for me.”

Your cheeks flush. A part of you wants to hide, to cover your face behind trembling palms, from just how messy, how vulnerable you are. But then you remember—this is Hyuck. Your Hyuck. The man who would never let you feel embarrassed about anything—especially not for cumming like this.

His eyes flick up, wide and wild, like he’s just broken something in you… and unlocked something in himself.

“We’re doing that again, and again,” he groans, breathless, voice vibrating against your dripping cunt. “Shit—look at you. Dripping down your thighs, so fucking hot.”

You try to squirm away, legs trembling, overstimulated beyond belief—but he doesn’t let you go. Doesn’t even think about it. His hands clamp down on your hips, holding you in place. 

“No, I’m not done,” he mutters, tongue already diving back in, sloppy and ruthless, licking up every drop and dragging more out of you. “Just one more, baby,” he pleads. “Give me one more—please. Would and will do anything to see you squirt like that again.”

Your body jerks with every swipe of his tongue—every slow, punishing drag across your clit. It’s too much, too slick, too wet, too hot. Your legs kick, twitching helplessly. 

“Hyuck, I—fuck—I can’t—”

“Yes, you can,” he growls, mouth never leaving your pussy. “You’re gonna cum for me again. Gonna keep cumming until this sweet little pussy begs me to stop.”

And you do. You cum again—harder this time—your whole body seizing, back arching off the bed as you scream his name. His tongue keeps moving, lips wrapping around your clit, fingers sliding back inside you, curling deep, fucking you through wave after wave of pure, maddening overstimulation.

“Fuck,” he pants, groaning as you squeeze around him. “So messy. So fucking perfect. Don’t stop—give me another one.”

And with the way his fingers keep slamming into your sweet spot, and his mouth keeps sucking like he’s addicted to the taste of you, you give him more than just another one—and then some.

Because he’ll keep going until the windows fog up, the sheets are soaked, and neither of you remembers what time it is.

Because Hyuck is nothing if not a pleaser.

[delilahsturniolo]

— ୨୧ dear god . . . m.s

in which . . . matt shows you how beautiful you are, in a different kind of way.

warnings . . . smut, unprotected sex, (BIG NONO) praise, gentle sex, body worshipping, kissing, cursing, use of pet names, fingering.

written by @delilahsturniolo. do not copy, steal, or modify my works. if you are taking any inspiration from this, please ask me first before posting and credit me in your description. happy reading! :)

SO CLOSE TO WHAT WRITING MARATHON . . . fic #5

it’s late. the kind of late where the world feels quiet, like it’s holding its breath. the bedroom is dark except for the soft glow of the streetlight sneaking through the blinds, casting shadows across the walls. you’re lying on the bed, wrapped in matt’s arms, your head resting against his chest, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of his breathing.

matt doesn’t know you’ve been crying. or maybe he does, but he hasn’t said anything yet. his fingers trace lazy circles on your bare back, warm and gentle, grounding you in a way nothing else has been able to.“what’s on your mind?” his voice is soft, but it pulls you from the storm inside your head.

you hesitate. you don’t want to ruin this—this quiet, this closeness, this moment where everything feels still. but the weight in your chest is too heavy, the words pressing against your lips, aching to be let out. “i don’t know,” you whisper, your fingers gripping the fabric of his t-shirt. “i just… i feel lost.” he shifts, just enough to tilt your chin up, his thumb brushing away the tear you didn’t realize had slipped down your cheek.“talk to me,” he murmurs. “whatever it is, you don’t have to go through it alone.”

you exhale shakily, pressing your face into the crook of his neck, breathing him in. his scent, his warmth, the steady rise and fall of his chest—it’s the closest thing to peace you’ve felt in a long time. “sometimes i just don’t feel like i’m enough, i don’t feel worthy of being loved.” you admit, your voice barely audible.

matt was taken aback by this confession. “what? what makes you say that baby?” his arms tighten around you, pulling you impossibly closer. you lift your head just enough to look at him, your fingers tracing the curve of his jaw, the shape of his lips. “why are you even dating me? i’m not even pretty.” you confess, tears glazing your eyes. matt’s heart absolutely broke at the sight.

“you are beautiful, baby. so fucking beautiful. inside and out, anyone who thinks otherwise is a fuckin’ idiot, okay? i love you, and i always will.” matt reassured you. “let me show you just how much i mean that.” matt whispered. his lips part, something unreadable flickering in his eyes, but he doesn’t give you a chance to respond. instead, he closes the distance between you, pressing your mouth to his in a slow, aching kiss.

he sighs against your lips, his hands sliding up your spine, fingers tangling in your hair as he deepens the kiss. it’s soft and unhurried, but there’s something beneath it—something raw, something desperate, something that feels like salvation. you whine in a needy tone as matt picks his body up off the bed, his lips not once leaving yours as he hovers over you.

matt pulls away, his fingers trailing over to hem of your shirt. “is this okay?” he asked softly, you nodded your head eagerly as matt pulled your shirt and panties off, your body naked beneath him. matt’s hands trailed down your body slowly, and teasingly. “so fuckin’ beautiful, shit..” matt cursed under his breath, his hands traveling from your boobs, to your stomach, and brushing past your core.

“mmm..” you mumble with need, slightly squirming with matt’s touch. his breathing was heavy as his hand slowly palmed your aching slit, his fingers collecting the wetness along your folds, eliciting a gasp from you. “oh? you like that?” matt smiled, pushing his fingers into you, making you moan as the pleasure coursed throughout your body.

you whined as matt suddenly pulled his fingers out of your pussy, he began to fiddle with his belt, pulling his boxers down, letting his cock spring out. fuck, you needed him so badly. matt kneeled between your legs, gently lifting your chin up with his finger. “look at me while i fuck you sweetheart, wanna see those gorgeous eyes..” matt spoke as he slowly took your thighs, spreading them apart wider. “s’pretty like this hon, could fuck this pretty pussy all day…so perfect..” matt murmured lazily against your neck, you could feel yourself getting close.

and dear god, this was all you could ever ask for.

© delilahsturniolo do not copy, re use, or modify any of my works.

taglist

[impishjesters]

Pomni, Kinger, Caine & Jax's reaction to their s/o abstracting

warning(s): angst, hurt no comfort, self-blame, "death" of the reader, implied "death"/abstraction of another character (spoiler: Kinger), hopeful outcome note(s): There's nothing incredibly heavy or detailed, just tread carefully if "death" is something you are sensitive to, please. The "hopeful outcome" implies that Caine will at some point in time be able to fix those who've abstracted. A/N: I was feeling particularly cruel and wanted to write some angst, this came to mind and I'll be honest. I made myself a little sad.

Pomni

She never saw it coming, of course, you were acting different lately but she didn’t think it would… lead to you abstracting…

It took forever for things to get some semblance of normalcy, and you being with her was a major part of it.

Sure the relationship in a place like this was a bit, weird, but you cared about her, and she cared about you.

You kept her sane and grounded, so when you were found abstracted? It felt like she failed you.

Ragatha tries to assure her that you aren’t completely gone. Like Kaufmo you’re being kept in the cellar. Caine claims the abstracted are being kept there until he can find a way to “fix” them. (Whether he’s genuine or not though, none of them know.)

It’s all empty promises though, she still feels like she failed you.

Kinger

Not again…

Kinger silently promised himself not again, he was fine being friendly with everyone else that fell into the circus, but he had no intentions of being more than that.

But then you happened, and while he was still in shambles from the time and the insanity spent here, you were there beside him. Like a knight in shining armor.

He hadn’t been around when you abstracted, in fact, he didn’t know you abstracted until there was yelling, and boom an abstraction was causing chaos.

Kinger didn’t know who it was until it was sent off to the cellar, actually, he didn’t know who it was until he realized everyone was present except you.

There’s a high probability that losing someone again, losing you, is what ends up being his own downfall. The other’s (not including Jax) try their all to get him to calm down but it’s not enough, it’s too late…

Caine

Of all the humans to be pulled in he never once got attached.

This was never supposed to happen, he’s incapable of love.

Caine does his best to keep the humans from abstracting, and as many eyes as he has over the place, there are always ones that slip through his grasp.

Of course, he’s not around when you abstract, it takes a bunch of hooting and hollering from everyone before he shows up and oh hey an abstraction.

At an immediate glance, he knows it’s you, abstractions never remotely look like the person they were before but he knows it’s you. You don’t recognize him as you lash out, of course you don’t, you can’t.

He’s unsure about tossing you with the others in the cellar, there’s nowhere else he can truthfully keep you without causing problems. So into the cellar, you go.

Caine visits you though, not for long but he does check in on you. Not that anything changes, but out of all the abstractions down there, he knows exactly which one is you.

You’ll be the first human he fixes as soon as he’s able to.

Jax

His s/o abstracted? Nice joke, though it’s in poor taste. You’re completely fine, he just saw you earlier.

Jax doesn’t believe it until he sees it, and seeing it absolutely ruins him. He���s seen countless others get abstracted and thrown into the cellar, but why, why does it have to be you?

Why couldn’t it have been literally anyone else? He didn’t give a shit about anyone else, the one person he cared for, and you…

Similarly to Pomni, he feels it’s his fault like he could’ve, no should’ve done more. Was he so wrapped up in everything else that he didn’t notice the signs? Why didn’t you talk to him? You didn’t, didn’t do that on purpose, did you?

For the first time ever, the others are genuinely worried about Jax, they all saw/know how much you meant to him. The two of you even spoke fondly about what the two of you would do if you got out of the circus.

For a while Jax becomes even more irrational and unhinged, they try not to hold it against him too badly, even when he oversteps. He’s grieving and none of them know just how long that’ll go on.

Jax isn’t quite the same afterward, but he makes sure that nobody else tries to worm their way into his heart.

If it’s possible, he’ll make sure Caine fixes you the second he’s able to. Even if Caine can fix only one person, it’s going to be you.

[rafeyssugar]

daddy’s paradise

daddy!rafe x baby!reader

the sun hung high in the sky, painting the ocean in endless shades of blue. waves lapped gently at the shore, palm trees swayed in the breeze, and the heat settled thick and heavy over everything.

perfection.

except—

y/n was pouting.

rafe had given her everything. first-class flight. five-star resort. a private island with no one else around, just her and him. she had a suitcase full of bikinis that barely counted as clothing, a villa bigger than most mansions, and an infinity pool that overlooked the ocean.

and yet—

she still wanted more.

"what now, princess?" rafe sighed, lounging back on the chair. his swim trunks hung low on his hips, muscles golden from the sun, a glass of whiskey in his hand. unbothered. or at least, he was trying to be.

y/n stood at the edge of the pool, her arms crossed, lips pushed into a perfect little pout. she knew exactly what she was doing.

because that bikini?

it was pink, tiny, and practically invisible.

two pathetic little triangles covered her chest, tied together with thin strings that looked like they could snap at any second. the matching bottoms were even worse. just strings and a scrap of fabric that did absolutely nothing.

rafe had been staring for the past twenty minutes, trying not to lose his mind.

"you’re ignoring me," she whined, tilting her head. her voice was honey-sweet, all soft and needy.

rafe exhaled sharply. fuck.

"am i?"

"yes." she pouted harder. "i’ve been so good, daddy. don’t i deserve attention?"

his jaw flexed. "princess, we are literally on a private island because you batted your lashes at me and said, ‘but daddy, i wanna go somewhere pretty.’ and now you’re telling me that’s not enough?"

y/n blinked up at him. "no," she said sweetly.

rafe dragged a hand down his face, trying so hard not to look at the way her chest pushed against those tiny pink strings.

"of course not."

she kicked her feet in the water, making little splashes. "daddyyy."

"princess."

"don’t you love me anymore?" she whispered, eyes big and glassy.

rafe groaned, gripping his glass tighter.

she was gonna kill him.

"y/n—"

"because," she interrupted, voice soft, "you don’t even wanna swim with me…"

he clenched his jaw. she was playing with him. she knew exactly what she was doing, standing there in that barely-there bikini, pouting up at him like he hadn’t been staring at her chest this whole time.

"you could just ask nicely," he muttered.

"i did," she gasped. "so nicely. and you ignored me, daddy. you made me sad."

jesus christ.

she was a menace.

water droplets clung to her skin, her cheeks warm from the sun, and rafe was barely holding it together.

y/n was spoiled, impossible, completely irresistible.

and she knew it.

rafe exhaled sharply, setting his drink down. "fine."

she beamed as he stood, towering over her before stepping into the pool.

and the second he was in?

she was on him.

arms wrapping around his neck. legs locking around his waist. her tiny bikini-clad body pressing against him, all warm and soft and fucking perfect.

"hi, daddy," she whispered, grinning.

rafe ran a hand down his face. "jesus christ."

she giggled, nuzzling into his neck. "love you."

"you better," he muttered, gripping her hips. "you just dragged me in here like i’m your personal floatie."

she pulled back, giving him her sweetest doe-eyed look. "but you are."

rafe groaned, gripping her tighter. "ruined. i am ruined."

y/n just smiled, pressing a kiss to his jaw. "mm. yeah, you are."

[ferigrievous]

KUROO TETSUROU HCS ⋆˚࿔

texts in lowercase but is a grammar freak and will make fun of you endlessly if you misspell a word

kind of guy to remember one weirdly specific fact about you that not even you remember and then overreact if you ask him how he knows that

always has a backup plan, and then a backup for the backup plan

fast walker and will not slow down for anyone, except maybe kenma on a good day

refuses to use emojis unless its ironic, but started using it too much that he cant stop

has a really good sense of smell to the point where it freaks other people out

has very strong opinions on pens and will only use gel unless its absolutely necessary

has a habit of rolling up his sleeves even if its literally like snowing outside

unusually good at wrapping presents but purposefully makes it look bad to not ruin his ‘image’

has ten million tabs open and will refuse to close any of them until his phone/computer literally shuts down because of how many there are

very particular about the tightness of his shoes and the shoelaces being even

has no problem wearing mismatched socks but will change if his shirt is wrinkled

doesnt remember anyones phone numbers, not even his own

enjoys doing his chores and errands at night

refuses to use shopping carts and will carry everything in his arms

has a bad habit of clicking his pen to the point where yaku went through his bag when he wasnt looking at replaced all of his clicker pens with pens with caps

secretly loves 80s rock but his guilty pleasure is pop

prefers taking the stairs over elevators and says its for no reason but hes actually just afraid itll break while hes in it

has a specific order he does things in the morning and if its thrown off he feels wrong all day

can tell when someone is about to sneeze before they do and it pisses everyone off because they wont be able to sneeze after he’s said something

always reads the terms and conditions

a sucker for romantic cliches and sappy love stories

is a morning person but not by choice, his internal clock wakes him up at 6 am, no matter how late he sleeps. he hates it.

learned how to cook when he was little because his parents worked a lot and he got so sick of convenience store food that he started cooking out of spite

doesnt feel at home in his place post timeskip because theres nothing in it

starts books and never finishes them

texts people “let me know when you get home” and genuinley gets annoyed/worried if they dont

the last one to leave the party, not because hes having the most fun, but wants to make sure everyone else is okay first

he acts like he’s terrible at handling emotions but is probably the best person to ask

has an irrational fear of missing emails so he checks his inbox obsessively 

post timeskip, he keeps a separate phone for work because he hates his work mixing with his life

chronic snooze button user but is somehow literally never late

[kortac-sweetheart]

ah fuck it, thinkin abt: taking public transport with kruger and nikto (especially self indulgent bc i absolutely despise my commute)

going onto a train car hand in hand with nikto and it’s not so bad at first. it’s a little crowded but you’re not shoulder to shoulder with anybody (except nikto).. until the next station over where a whole flood of people get on and it turns into nikto essentially caging you into the train wall with his body.

the thing about nikto is that he and everything about him; from his height, to his built body, and even down to the aura he exudes. it all silently commands respect. so there’s a very, very clear distinction between nikto’s space and everyone else’s. and all other passengers aboard tries their damndest not to step into it, at all costs, even if the train is packed to capacity.

he glances down at you, mirth twinkling in his icey blue eyes. “are you ok, rodnaya?” his eyes never leaving yours, even with the intensity of the moving train and the slight sway of the floor.

a little nod from you has them crinkling in a way you’re intimately familiar with, which is when he’s happy. his heart flutters just a tiny bit, overjoyed at being able to protect you and keep you safe, even in mundane happenings like this.

his eyes then survey the train car again, making sure that no one’s too close to you. he leans his head down, murmuring into your ear, “look at them, khoroshenkaya, packed together like sardines in a tin.” he chuckles (unreasonably hot and dangerous considering the situation you’re in) and gently takes your chin in his hand.

“hm, and you.. my little prince/ss. my sweetheart. i’ll do whatever you ask, yes? anything and everything you want.” pressing a chaste kiss to your lips through his black surgeon’s mask.

by the time you and nikto snap out of your shared reverie you’ve missed your initial stop by three stations.

oops.

ah well, riding the train in the opposite direction now just gives him additional time to sweep you off your feet..even if you’re already dating.

˖◛⁺⑅♡

when the doors of the bus swing open, kruger always ushers you inside first. tapping his card twice on the reader (as if he’d ever allow you to pay for anything) and letting you to grasp his hand to lead him to your desired seat.

if space allows, he’d like for you to sit on one of those single seats, facing the aisle with him standing at your side as if he were your knight.

but if there were only those double seats available he’d assist you to sit in the window seat and him, the aisle seat. his arm wrapped around your shoulder and pulling you closer to his chest whenever the bus swerved a bit too hard.

and if there were no seats available?

kruger held onto the overhead grip, his leisurely stance very out of place with the wild way the bus turned this and that direction. his other arm was wrapped firmly against your waist, squeezing you tightly to his side.

“faring well haschen?” his hand rubs up and down your waist soothingly, eyes flitting to yours to see if you’re doing alright.

“yea—ah!” the bus swerves abruptly again, as if out to specifically ruin your day. kruger adapts easily, catching you before you could go flying (as if you weighed nothing), arm casually readjusting around your waist.

he sighs, exasperated from this god awful driving, coaxing you to cling onto him even more.

“hold tight, mausi.” he nuzzles his mouth into the crown of your head, a kiss through his mask. your arms wrap tightly around him, more akin to a python’s grip than an actual hug (he doesn’t mind, he never does). while bored, your eyes hone in on the way his arm tenses and flexes when he has to adjust his grip on the handle, downright ogling at him and his casual strength.

“enjoying the view, schatzi?” you can hear the smirk in his voice when his comment snaps you out of your daze.

“no.” your curt reply a little too fast, a bit petulantly as you bury your face into his chest, slightly flushed. he can only chuckle as he pats your waist comfortingly.

“ ‘s ok mein liebe. you can have more of this view at home.” he spends the remainder of the bus ride just admiring you and your cute little expressions when you catch him staring.

the rest of the ride goes well without a hitch (ie. you didn’t go flying through the bus’ front windows) even if you did get tossed around a bit.

and when the bus finally stops he wraps an arm around your shoulder, ushering you quickly out of the bus and nearly shoulder checking some poor sap on the way out.

kruger is one mean bastard and impatient to boot, and he’s not afraid to show it. ‘tsk-ing’ when someone’s walking too slowly for his liking or taking up too much room on walk ways

he WILL shoulder check someone for the above mentioned, he absolutely would. he’s more than willing to be rude to someone who’s annoying you (or heaven forbid, being MEAN to you, god help them) and in turn, him as well.

if someone’s standing too close or cuts you off when walking he’ll bark out an authoritative “watch it.” or “move.” it always sends people packing. and if it doesn’t? that nasty glare of his and murderous aura always does the trick.

has and will continue to run with you in his arms up and down the stairs. he got so fed up with the crowded stairs one time that he just scooped you up bridal style and ran up those stairs in 5 seconds flat, without even having to take a breath after.

“what mausi?” he questions, playing dumb and shrugging his shoulders. “you can’t just pick me up and run up the stairs seb!” you smack his chest, embarrassed. he laughs it off “well it worked didn’t it? and besides schatzi, what do i have these muscles for if not to help you, hm? i’m retired now, these are all for you.” and well. you can’t be mad at him after that can you?

god help any other passengers that happen to be nearby if both nikto AND kruger are accompanying you on public transport. everybody else would be maintaining a 6ft (minimum) distance from you three at all times, at all costs. (and, hey, no complaints from you, so. /shrug/)

[barnesdolls]

Steve Rogers and His Unhealthy Obsession with Bucky Barnes

Steve Rogers was many things.

Captain America. A national hero. A good friend.

But above all else—

Steve Rogers was a wife guy.

Except he wasn’t even married.

To be clear—Bucky wasn’t his husband.

They were just two idiots in love who refused to admit it and instead chose to ruin the lives of everyone around them.

And Bucky, despite all his grumbling and dramatic sighing, secretly loved every second of it.

—

INCIDENT #1: STEVE, A MENACE TO SOCIETY

The first time Sam realized how deeply Steve had committed to his role as Bucky’s personal hype man, they were all in the common room when Steve casually turned to Natasha and said:

“You know, Buck can kill someone in six different ways with a spoon.”

Bucky, mid-sip of coffee, nearly choked. “Steve—”

“And he never misses with a knife.” Steve beamed proudly. “Seriously, Nat, you’d be impressed. One time in the ‘40s—”

Natasha raised a brow. “Does he cook?”

Steve nodded. “Oh, yeah, and he’s really good at it. You should try his stew—”

“That’s not what I meant,” Natasha cut in.

Sam snorted. “Yeah, does he do anything that doesn’t involve stabbing?”

Steve turned to Bucky. “Do you?”

Bucky sighed into his coffee. “I breathe, Steve.”

“And beautifully, too.”

Bucky muttered a curse under his breath.

Steve, still smiling dreamily, added, “And he’s great at woodworking.”

Natasha leaned back. “Are you gonna tell us about how incredible his battle tactics are next?”

Steve gasped. “Oh my God, YES.”

Bucky groaned. “Oh my God, NO.”

—

INCIDENT #2: STEVE WILL THROW HANDS

It was a casual mission. A simple extraction.

Then some random HYDRA goon had the audacity to say, “The Winter Soldier? Wasn’t he just a brainwashed puppet?”

And Steve, who normally gave his speeches about “being the bigger man”, just decked the guy so hard he left a dent in the wall.

The whole room froze.

Bucky blinked. “Steve?”

Steve turned to him. “Yeah?”

Bucky pointed at the unconscious guy. “Did you just—”

Steve shrugged. “Yeah.”

Sam, who had witnessed everything, crossed his arms. “So, what, you just throw hands now?”

Steve nodded confidently. “If it’s for Bucky, absolutely.”

Natasha muttered, “This is embarrassing.”

Bucky, secretly pleased but refusing to show it, just sighed and said, “Steve, I literally do not care.”

Steve smiled. “I care enough for both of us.”

Bucky buried his face in his hands.

—

INCIDENT #3: STEVE CASUALLY DROPS GAY MARRIAGE INTO CONVERSATION FOR NO REASON

Bucky was minding his own business, sharpening his knife, when Steve just… said it.

“Hey, did you know gay marriage is legal in this century?”

Bucky froze mid-sharpening.

Slowly, he turned to Steve. “…And?”

Steve shrugged. “Just thought you should know.”

Bucky squinted. “…Why?”

Steve cleared his throat. “No reason.”

Bucky just stared at him. “Did you wake up today and decide, ‘Gee, I wonder if Bucky Barnes is up to date on modern marriage laws’?”

Steve looked suspiciously innocent. “I just thought it was interesting.”

Bucky leaned back, arms crossed. “Uh-huh. And this has nothing to do with you calling me your ‘murder husband’ to everyone we meet?”

Steve coughed. “Completely unrelated.”

Bucky didn’t blink. “Steve.”

Steve nodded. “Bucky.”

A long pause.

Then Bucky sighed. “Get out of my room.”

—

INCIDENT #4: “IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO BUCKY, I’M SUING”

During a mission briefing, Tony was explaining the team formations, and Steve—who was normally all about discipline—immediately interrupted.

“Wait, wait, wait. Where’s Bucky in this plan?”

Tony sighed. “Steve, he’s fine. He can handle himself.”

Steve crossed his arms. “That’s not what I asked.”

Tony rubbed his temples. “Steve—”

“Where. Is. Bucky?”

Everyone turned to look at Bucky, who was just sitting there, eating a protein bar.

He waved awkwardly. “Hi.”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “He’s on his mission, Cap. You’re not even in the same sector.”

Steve scowled. “Then I object.”

Tony stared. “This isn’t a wedding.”

Steve pointed at Bucky. “Then put me with him.”

“For what reason?”

Steve, without hesitation: “Moral support.”

Bucky groaned. “Jesus Christ, Steve.”

Tony closed his laptop. “I’m done.”

Sam sighed, rubbing his face. “You two are so much.”

Steve turned to Bucky, softly. “You’ll be okay, though, right?”

Bucky muttered something under his breath but nodded.

Steve smiled, content.

Sam whispered, “I swear to God, someone needs to get Steve laid.”

Bucky, mid-bite of his protein bar, choked.

—

INCIDENT #5: “WOW. GROUNDBREAKING.”

Steve was pacing.

And not just regular pacing—he was pacing like a father-to-be in a hospital waiting room, hands on his hips, looking like he was about to deliver the most serious speech of his life.

Bucky, lounging on the couch, beer in hand, just watched him with the energy of a man witnessing a trainwreck in slow motion.

Steve stopped pacing. Took a deep breath. Turned to Bucky with determined blue eyes.

“I have feelings for you.”

Silence.

A long, obnoxiously long silence.

Bucky just blinked.

Then, in the flattest, most sarcastic tone possible, he said:

“Wow. Groundbreaking.”

Steve frowned. “Wait—what?”

Bucky took a slow sip of his beer. “You don’t say, Steve.”

Steve squinted. “Are you being sarcastic?”

Bucky set the beer down. “Me? Sarcastic? No, Stevie, I am just so shocked right now. Truly, this is the most unexpected thing I’ve ever heard.”

Steve sighed deeply. “Bucky—”

Bucky gestured wildly. “I mean, sure, you look at me like I’m the last donut in a police station, and yeah, you literally threw hands with a guy for talking shit about me, and maybe you once told Tony that if anything happens to me you’d ‘file a formal complaint with the universe’—”

Steve groaned. “It was a joke.”

Bucky pointed at him. “No, it was a declaration.”

Sam, passing by with a sandwich, paused mid-bite. “Wait, he said that?”

Bucky nodded. “Oh, he said that.”

Sam whistled. “That’s crazy.”

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. “I regret saying anything.”

Bucky smirked. “Oh, no, don’t regret it now, sweetheart. You’ve been in love with me since the Roosevelt administration.”

Steve glared. “I hate you.”

Bucky patted his knee, grinning. “You love me.”

Sam shook his head, muttering, “I need new friends,” before walking away.

[bxnnybimbeax]

thinking about.. best friend!satoru gojo who immediately answers when you come calling

bestie!gojo who not-so-secretly, secretly has feelings for you

bestie!gojo who knows everything there is to know about you. Your oh-so wonderful taste in partners… Your likes and dislikes, hobbies, career plans, plans for the future.. anything and everything. Even if you do or don’t exactly tell him

bestie!gojo who drops everything that he’s doing to come see you, when hearing your incoherent sentences of something along the lines of, “…. dumped boyfriend… cheated..”

bestie!gojo who comforts you in your time of need. Listening to all your rants about your ex-boyfriend, supplying you with whatever he thinks would cheer you up, offering you comforting words instead of solutions.

What a great best friend to have!! Right..?

“I hate him so much! What a no good bitch ass womanizer!!” You exclaimed in a fit of rage, scrolling through the posts of the woman who, your ex cheated on you with, as satoru tiredly sighs.

“What does she have that I don’t-“ and before you could continue on, you get cut off by your best friend, Satoru. “Absolutely nothing, sweetheart. You should know your worth by now. It’s not something you have or ‘don’t have,’ it’s the simple minded mentality of… What’s his name again?— Doesn’t matter, He’s too simple minded to know the true worth of what he has in front of him.” He tangibly states, as if it was the most well-known fact in the world.

You attempted to up at him through your clouded vision, blinking away tears that spilled like waterfalls. Taking glances between Satoru, and the images on your phone, you stay silent as he studies you, pools of cool colored diamond eyes staring into yours, hoping to see any slight change of positivity.

He sighs again, taking a seat on your bed as he snatches your phone away from you, and before you could protest, he cuts you off once again… by pulling you close, into a hug. Instinctively, you wrap your arms around him, as you let out all your pent up feelings. Sobbing into his chest, as he soothes circles into your back, not caring that you mess up whatever designer shirt he’s wearing.

Satoru’s heart breaks hearing you hurt, he wants nothing more than to ruin whoever was the cause of your problems. But right now, he’s more focused on you.

Satoru hushes your cries, wiping away the salty crystalline off your face as he speaks up, “Oh baby, don’t waste your tears on him. He has no idea what he’s missing out on. Don’t waste your energy on a leech that only takes from you, and never gives. Your deserve someone who reciprocates your feelings, and so much more.” He admitted in a dulcet tone, giving feathery caresses to the side of your face, as he placed a sparse kiss to the side of your temple.

“Cheer up, theses plenty of people who would give the world and die for your affection.” He states in a much more cheerful and playful tone, making you laugh in response to his exaggerated claim.

…

best friend! Satoru who stays with you, through the night. Comforting and creating a much more positive atmosphere to the contrasted gloomy mood

best friend! Satoru who maybe, you don’t see as just a friend anymore..?

A/N: Whats goody gangy. ☝🏾🤓 Sorry I was gone for 5 months I was going thru it with some bitch ass nigga I dumped, which is kinda what I based this fic off of, except no boy bsf I’m in love with to comfort me.💔 He made me delete tumblr so I couldn’t write 😞 I still kept on reading tho 😈

Not proof read btw, bc I’m high as a mf, writing with dyslexia. And it’s late a night, idk if it’s gonna be late when I post this tho😛

If y’all sent a request, resend it plssss. 🙏🏾 I need inspo mookies, and if you have a request feel free to send one in. Msg me abt wtv, and lmk if I can improve on anything

Thanks lovies take care and, hope y’all enjoyed!! 🩷

-bxnnybimbeax

[with-my-calamitous-love]

I DONT LIKE ANYONE EXCEPT SOMETIMES YOU

shinso x reader

thoughts about how shinso would act in a relationship. same premise as the kirishima ver.

inspired by backburner

hitoshi shinso, who’s facetimes with you always run late into the night. you ramble on about your day while he hums in response, knowing that you know he’s not the talkative type. he never asks “how was your day?” he always says “tell me about your day.” because he really, truly wants to hear about your day. you could have cured a disease or simply just gotten out of bed, and he’d still want to hear every single detail simply because its from you.

hitoshi shinso, who loves to cook. only you're aware of it, because he doesn't always like sharing personal details with others, but you never complained- it just means more for you. you're always the first person that gets to try his food, though he claims you're not a very good critic. but you can't help it, everything he makes tastes so good. and with every compliment you shower him in, he'll hit you with a 'yeah, yeah, whatever.' and then next moment, make you more so you can always stay fed during long days at UA and long hours during hero-training. its his silent way of telling you he loves you.

hitoshi shinso, whose cats love you more than they love him. he has three triplets, a black british short hair, a siamese, and a grey ragdoll- pepper, lexi, and mustache- he absolutely hates the last name, but he had just adopted the kitten and you named it for its white streak right below its nose. he'll deny it forever, but he gets pouty and huffs in annoyance whenever he sees the cats run to you, even after he's fed and taken care of them for all of their lives. but he also cant deny the way his heart skips a beat whenever he seems them cuddled up with you on his bed, wearing one of his big t-shirts. it softens his heart in a way that nothing else does- your love fills his heart more strongly and more passionately than anything does.

hitoshi shinso, who is the closed-off, funny but quiet dickhead of his friend group. he's known for his out-of-pocket roasts at the right times and his nonchalant nature that contrasts with the loud, spunkiness of his multicolored-haired friends. but with you, he softens. the few times he's brought you along with him to movie night or training sessions, you've softened his heart enough for the love in him to seep out towards others as well. whenever you crack a joke, make someone else at the table smile, and draw laughs and happiness from their chests, a blush blooms across his cheeks. obviously, he fell for you, how could he not?

hitoshi shinso, who's favorite activity with you is your sunday-ritual. you'll wake up together, either in the same bed or over the phone, and bike down to the coast. you'll bug him about wearing a helmet, but he always complains that it ruins your hair. he'd never admit that its because he thinks you're absolutely adorable when you dote on him. afterwards he'll share a smoothie with you- he hates all the flavors except for mixed berry, which is the one he always insists on getting. he hates the the overpricing for what the product actually is, but loves the smile it puts on your face after a tiring bike-ride. and afterwards, you two will go back to either his of your place. his place if your parents aren't home, and his place when his parents are home, and binge watch a long t.v show of your choosing. he'll always complain that its stupid, poorly written or drawn out, but get pouty whenever you watch an episode without him. it's the one thing he looks forwards to at the end of a long week, drawn out with endless studies, training, and burnout. you're his safe place, and he needs it more than he'll admit.

hitoshi shinso, who somehow remembers every tiny detail about you. his mind works like gears, arranging formulas and deciphering codes, but the intellect of his mind makes you its priority. he remembers the way you pick your nails and cuticles when you have anxiety, and how placing his warm palm over yours soothes some of those thoughts. he remembers how prefer to tie your hair back during training but how you somehow always forget a hair tie- and he knows how you always give him a peck on his cheek once he shows off the one he's been keeping on his wrist for you. he remembers how you can't sleep without your nightly calls, and how he needs to hear your voice before he drifts of too- maybe more than you need it. he remembers the first day you met, the first thing he said to you, the first time he ever felt love for you. he remembers all of it and keeps it embedded in his heart. hitoshi shinso may seem like he hates everyone, but the one exception to that is you. and he'll remember that forever.

[maxwell-grant]

The Penguin: Episode 8 "Great or Little Thing" Series Finale Breakdown

So first and foremost I need to give a shout-out to everyone who's been following this with me and helped me week after week process and articulate this show, this brilliant Penguin Braintrust without which I would be incredibly lost on how to even begin breaking this thing down this way: @davidmann95, @wil4x, @book--wyrm and my friend Lucas who is not on Tumblr.

And so we're here at last, in the end of the show. This took forever. I need a goddamn break. This isn't enough and will never be enough but it'll have to do. So let's get to the episode that has had the world joining hands in the unanimous urge to see the absolute shit kicked out of Oswald, and has made the character at last earn this:

(Episode 1) (Episode 2) (Episode 3) (Episode 4) (Episode 5) (Episode 6) (Episode 7)

So who would have guessed that cartoon dirtbag Rex Calabrese was still gonna turn out to be less of a cartoon dirtbag than Oz the moment we stop seeing him through Oz's eyes. Still a terrible person by every metric, but terrible in the same way a lot of Sopranos characters are terrible: this is, at the end of the day, a job, and you can talk to them, you can sit at a table to get down to business with them, and you probably know people in your life like them, and maybe you can even count of them to get real and even help you when the chips are down, even if it doesn't mitigate everything else that they are or do. At the very end, he was neither the benevolent god-king that Oz saw him as, nor was he the absurd dirtbag gangster we had him pegged as - there was never anything exceptional about Rex Calabrese, he's just a real criminal. Maybe the realest in the show.

I said in the last post that Francis burned with hate at everyone in the world except the person who most ruined her life and haha WOW was I wrong, because it turns she's known the entire goddamn time, and quite possibly no one has ever hated him more than Francis.

Most people in the show who hate Oz do so because he's a destructive bastard who craps on their lives directly, or because he's a lying sneaky fuck who does nothing while their lives are ruined, and Francis has had to deal with both longer than anyone else. I can't possibly count every single way this wildly recontextualizes every single interaction, every moment, everything that Francis has shown us and done since the first episode, because I'd have to recap EVERY scene and line of dialogue she has and we still have so much else to get through.

Why was Francis was so effectively able to withhold affection and hold his feet to the fire and give him that bottomless pit of yearning in his stomach that's driven him to move mountains in pursuit of it? Because Francis wouldn't have loved him even if he gave her the entire world at age 12. She never had any affection or love left for him. Oz was always chasing nothing.

And all along it was Rex who shaped the entire course of Oswald's life, as well as prefiguring his dynamic with Victor, with a single conversation. Oswald spend his childhood wanting for Rex Calabrese to notice and like him and be his friend, and he has no idea how much Rex actually affected his life.

That fateful night at Monroe's was never the feel-good story about his Ma summoning the willpower to live by dancing away the grief, and it was never even just the night of the eternal promise that Oz thinks back to, it was a fucking trap to kill Oz. Nothing he has in his life is real, nothing he says is true, he has never not lived in complete total delusion.

The sheer disgust in Deirdre O'Connell's face at the "I do too". How much of her personality we completely understand was born from this absolute resentment she's nursed for decades towards Oz.

And this rotten little turd comes at her with a perfect speech that hits her every insecurity and bitterness and spite and situation and convinces her to give him another chance. The nature versus nurture thing again - Oswald was shaped by hardship, by decades of hard work and neglect, by the total absence of his mother's love while in turn being forced to live in stunted childhood dedicating himself to always taking care of her, and maybe what we're seeing here is heavily distorted by Francis's POV - or maybe he was always a little monster, because this guy talking to her is The Penguin, the same guy doing the same things in the same way, either way it doesn't matter. Again, born fucking ready.

So now we see our three major supporting characters - Sofia, Victor and Francis - all of them have shown that they had a chance to walk away from Oz, to not let him ruin their lives further. All of them could have left Oswald behind, and all of them should have left Oswald behind, but they had to come back and justify the choice to do so, they had to get satisfaction, it couldn't have been for nothing. Victor had his car and a girlfriend in a bus waiting for him, Sofia had a jet to take her to Italy, and Francis had Rex Calabrese ready and waiting to put him down without a word. All of them had a chance to get out of the show and never look back, but like Oz, they had to rectify and overcorrect for an insult.

Sofia can't walk away from Gotham without punishing Oz for turning her in, for killing Alberto and further lying to her, she can't accept that this man, this embodiment of Carmine's legacy and hold over her, is still out there unpunished getting away with what he's done. Victor can't walk away from Gotham knowing that his parents did everything right and still died for nothing, that every hurtful thing Oz said was right, he can't let "They don't give out awards for dying in the projects" be the last word in his and their lives. And Francis can't walk away from Oz, who killed her two sons and keeps lying about it, who ruined her life and now keeps promising he will take care of her and acting like everything will be fine, she can't let this pass even if she can't kill him either, and so she'll make him give her the world and die trying.

The tragedy of what happened is what hurt/broke them - the added insult of what Oz said or did is what they just can't live with. It can't be for nothing.

Goddamnit it, it was really just too telegraphed for it to not happen the way it did.

I fucking knew it the moment the episode started and we got the grungy boss orchestral take on the funny Penguin chords that we were in for some calamitous shit.

We see at first that, in spite of seemingly failing, Vic has graduated to the point he can give his own speeches, gain his own allies, run his own cons - he's not just Oz's proxy, but will manage to convince the others to become such as well, and he's coming at this from a place of complete sincere belief in everything that Oz says, all of the man of the people rhetoric he will so thoroughly pervert and then sell to the people actually responsible for everything he told Victor he was fighting against.

Zeke walks up to him nearly crying about how Sofia blew it all up and Vic instantly asks back where's Oz - not because he doesn't care about Crown Point, but he's already processed it and has already learned with Oz how to just barrel forward regardless, now it's time to get to work. Victor who so readily throws himself into rescuing Oz again and again. Victor who's lost everything - he doesn't have his family, he doesn't have Graciela, he doesn't have the other mobs backing him up, and right now he doesn't even have Crown Point anymore, all he has is Oz.

The man in red who reads the Law Gave him three weeks of life, Three little weeks in which to heal His soul of his soul's strife, And cleanse from every blot of blood The hand that held the knife - The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Sofia dressed in two thematically appropriate outfits - the red scarf echoing both the first outfit we see her in, back to covering her neck but in control of her own collar, and the outfit we see her the farthest back in time with at the start of Episode 4, and with her final crimson fur coat outfit accompanying her final greatest triumph and ultimate defeat in the show. Not only that, but in this episode she also gets to perform characteristically appropriate stylized torture - holding a family intervention and therapy session with mafioso torture tactics to try and wrench the truth out of her victimizer, enacting calculated sadistic yet righteous justice via psychological breakdown, and ultimately allowing the woman he victimized and wronged to take her killshot at him.

See, it's not just that Sofia Gigante is a Batman Villain, or that she's well passed the threshold of supervillain. Cristin Milioti doesn't play Sofia like she's a new character, which she basically is, and she isn't just playing a tortured gangster lady protagonist dipping into camp villain territory, which she also is - she plays Sofia Gigante like she's been a Batman Rogues headliner for decades now stepping into the spotlight once again, like she's the dark modern revamp of someone Adam West would have thought and she's just always been around showing up in stuff along with The Penguin, like she's only not fighting or teaming up with Two-Face in this because he's not here yet. It is crucially important that Sofia passes every standard of Batman Villain imaginable with flying colors, in part because it helps to reinforce that The Penguin is a monster all his own.

Even here, with as much power as she's ever possibly held over him, reduced him to a whimpering begging mess to be killed off in a second, she is so shocked at the sheer brazen selfishness and delusion and level of bullshit on display, that even now he won't break character and think about his actions and admit to what he's done not even to save his own mother from mutilation, that she just loses the script entirely. Her entire show of power collapses and she physically recoils from sheer disgust at just how low Oswald is, at just how much he lacks the ability to even suffer for what he's done. Realizing that there is simply not enough of a soul in this filthy beast to even torture, and that however much she hates Oswald for ruining her life, someone had a prior claim all along.

Eve - Sofia - Francis in the end united in, however much they may dislike each other, however different their circumstances may be, there is nothing they could possibly do to each other that would be worse than what Oswald has done to all of them, joined in silent agreement that their rage ultimately belongs in a bullet fired at Oz's head and that they deserve their kill shot at this man.

"I had enough to give, Oswald".

This really is gonna be the high point of Francis's life from this point on.

Aw man, I liked Sofia's scruffy dirtbag detective, I wanted him to stick around as one of the reocurring characters like the movie cops

Oh Victor, sweet kind Victor, you couldn't possibly ask for anything worse in the entire world.

Oz feebly already beginning to lie and spin his new version of the events, that Sofia stabbed him and fucked up with Ma, and here comes Victor with the reversal of their dynamic, seeing this guy who's been brought low by the oppressive force looming over his life that he must defeat (because all that Victor knows about Sofia at this point is that she used to be Oz's boss and is now out to kill them, that she is scary as hell, and regardless of whether or not she was the Hangman, she just bombed his fucking neighborhood) and reaching out to him with a speech about solidarity and dignity and self-worth and picking yourself up by your fucking bootstraps to save the day. And Oz responds by coaching him on how to be a better bullshitter. Because to Oz, he knows the playbook by heart, but Victor meant it all.

Victor rebuilds Oz from basically nothing by providing him with the validation that he so desperately always craved and never got, saying all the things he always wanted to hear, poised so they can finish this together, poised to give him not only the army he asked for, but a full-blown revolution, and he never once asks for anything in return. Just, goddamnit this isn't hurting any less.

"She, sh-she'll never look at me again, all right?....unless I get this done. Got a promise to keep." Maybe the one and only time his mask ever fully cracks. For a second. He rebuilds it right back up and gets to work, but it cracked. He knows what he's doing, up until the moment he doesn't. It's that simple.

A lot of what drives Oz is acceptance, and a lot of what drives him is his desire to be accepted in worlds that have been declared, by how they run themselves and by the people that inhabit these worlds, as worlds that he was never going to be included in. And one of those worlds is the hierarchy and the hoi polloi of the political realm and the power within the political realm because he understands that all politics are corrupt essentially, and the damage that he could do then in being part of a political infrastructure of Gotham interests him. I thought it would be nice if, in that time jump, he had been invited to maybe a gala or two, you know what I mean? It'd be awkward. He'd be slurping out of the fucking teacup, there'd be stains on the table, he wouldn't really fit in, but he’d fucking love being there. - Colin Farrell

Mirroring the scene in Episode 01 where he adjusts himself next to the car, scuffing himself up to look like the sleazy funnyman the Falcones keep around for kicks, now he's dressing up as much as he can and asking Victor for input, because he truly values what the kid thinks and, goddamnit.

"C'mahn, I don't bite", pfft yeah, not in this movie universe anyway. And to the same guy you did the nose-gushing-blood bit to, even.

Minutes inside of City Hall and he already parks his ass right on Bella Real's seat - not as any kind of intentional slight against her, it's just naturally where he goes to, even before the scene ends and we see his new plans start to come to fruition.

Guy who takes offense at Viti calling Sofia a psycho and then goes up to Councilman Hady talking about the unhinged loony bin broad who went "full psycho" that he's handing to him on a platter, pointedly calling her Falcone.

At first I thought it was funny that Sal Maroni was getting blamed here for Bliss and the underground lab, but then I remembered that he was actually the one who introduced Drops to Gotham and the whole epidemic that became, so if anything it is an extremely easy part of the story to sell, even without his body being down there and all.

"You're gonna have some trouble, Oz" - pointedly smiling and calling him Oz instead of Oswald as he had up to this point, because by that point he's already a crony and already willing to work with this guy handing him all these miracles.

"You wanna be welcome? You gotta look, clean" Yes Father Pal, I Shall Become A Capitalist Caricature

You can see in the walk around, in his look at Bella Real and the mayor's office high up above and the steps, how little Ozzie's gears turn once again and rebuild his life after losing the streets and everything that happened with Ma - This is the next nest, this is the next throne, this is next schmuck I gotta cozy up to, this is the next boss looking down on me that I gotta destroy, there's the reward waiting for me if I do. This is the one that matters, I did everything in the shit and now I'm gonna get me sum goddamn respeck, Feh Ma of course.

And before all of this we see Sofia's next move, showing the ways in which she is good at this, the ways in which she truly is something outside of the worldview of what these gangsters are used to, and why she is going to lose. "Because I can". She is good at commanding a room and promising rewards beyond the wildest dreams of these street crimelords because she can offer everything they want and lose nothing she cares about for it, she will hand them everything and dip because she can, and she is going to lose because she can lose. Because she still thinks there is an end in sight for her, she thinks she will get to walk away from this universe and go meet a happy ending at a cafe in Florence.

It's not just that Sofia was born into privilege and never really lived in Gotham and could just hop onto a plane out of here anytime, it's also that she has room in her life for introspection, self-awareness, consideration towards others, and all those things that come easier when you're "born full", and not when you're the starving hustler for whom leaving the city was never an option even if he had all the money in the world, the hungry animal who wants this, wants everything, harder than anyone has ever wanted anything. The guy who has no room for anything else in his brain other than a perpetual bullshit generator set to a 24/7 chorus of "I GOTTA WIIIIIIN"

Another element to her that I really love is, she's good at this. She knows she's good at this, she was supposed to take over the family. She may not know the ins and outs of the game as it currently stands, but she is good at this. Some of it is, I think that's the only world she knows, and some of it is there's something in there, that's always been there, and she believes it is rightfully hers. There's an element of, "I need to have made it worth it for something", and if that means power, then okay. - Cristin Milioti

There’s a level for both of them that they enjoy each other’s suffering, and that sort of leads to Sofia’s downfall. If she didn’t need to see Oz suffer she might have been free. And she really gets in her own way in that regard and largely because Oz is this crutch that she just cannot let go of. - Lauren LeFranc

And here we get to the end of season 1 of HBO's The Sofia Show, the bittersweet in hindsight but extremely cathartic torching of the set as a last hard-earned spiritual victory by our hard-done-by lady protagonist. All of her family is dead, the city is out for her blood, she gathered all the remaining criminals for One Last Job with everything on the line, and she is having a very fun time with her montage destroying her home and family name beyond recovery. She is going to finish her character arc, get to finally kill her former comedy sidekick turned mortal nemesis, and hop on a plane to The White Lotus resort straight away into greener (if only marginally less fucked up) genre territory away from this ugly nightmare city. Alas, this is not The Sofia Show, and it's time for her theme suite to catch up to her once again and tell us of how very badly this is all going to go for her.

And she can't even be that shocked, when the high of burning it all down goes away, when she sees that old Ozzie Cobb wriggled his way out of this jam regardless and is now coming at her with a speech, she can't even react to it. Deep down she knows how the rest of the night is going to go. She may not have expected Arkham outright, but she was braced for a loathsome fate.

It rules so much they give him a big fat fight the power speech with a bloody revolution montage, and we can only sit there aghast with Sofia at the sheer audacity of him to act like this, like a man of the people, thinking he truly has the right to be talking like this and to her of all people.

And now we see how Oz won the gang war, and the next domino to fall on the downfall of Gotham City, and the first effect of his own rise to power: like The Riddler, he has toppled the order of things and he has turned people into extensions of himself, Victor being the first and the one who gave him this revolution, of all the little mini Penguins out there devouring the social structure of Gotham crime forever. You kill the boss, you become the boss now. Everyone can bleed and everyone can be killed and everyone must be killed in the quest to the top, no handrails or codes, they wouldn't invite him and so he crashed. After he unified the criminal underdogs, Victor rallied the underdogs beneath the underdogs, and now the streets are a jungle where there will never be an end to the wars over who gets to be atop the food chain, because they are all fighting to see who gets to be the next Penguin.

For decades people have written Oswald Cobblepot as a creep and a sleaze and an incel who hurts/kills women for rejecting him, or who is chronically insecure about them and I can very confidently say nobody ever did anything half as horrible and half as truthful and half as meaningful as LeFranc did here. We see the other reason why it was so imperative to her that Oswald not be a misogynist, and it has nothing to do with just making him more likeable or sympathetic or honorable. We get in this episode the pay off to the thoughtline: okay, he's actually a gangster who respects women, he does not act like every other prestige drama gangster who ever lived, we are going to center women in this show and he will treat them with respect - now let's watch how he HORRIBLY screws them over in the name of this respectful gentleman persona he lives by, let's watch how he betrays them in the ways that matter most, how he even makes them wish they were dead without personally ever lifting a finger to harm them, let's do some grown-up feminist commentary in Batman for a change and highlight the ways in which men profit from belittling and oppressing and destroying women even when they're pointedly not misogynistic and even self-professed genuine allies to them.

And so it is that the only Falcone mobster who isn't misogynistic towards Sofia is the one who screws her the most horribly. He will murder every man he comes across, he will murder every man he could have been and every man who is even marginally better than him in any way, he will push all of his brothers out of the nest and not tolerate any other big shot in town bigger than him and not even the only man, the only person, in town who loves him will be spared. But he is a gentleman, so he leaves the women alive (well, except for Nadia Maroni, but she was a rival big shot and worse, his boss for a day or two, so she obviously had to go eventually).

I thought about his greatest fear, and it made a lot of sense to me that his greatest fear would be that love is transactional. That if he does not achieve a level of power and give Francis certain types of things that he’s promised her she might not love him. And that informs every relationship he has on the show It was always important to me, and this was always part of my initial pitch, that if Oz was to achieve a level of power—and that is something that was not up for discussion, that was my job that I was tasked with for the season—that he has to lose something emotionally. It can’t come without a cost. - Lauren LeFranc

"the crooked politics that have allowed wealthy elites like Sofia Falcone to wreak havoc". Oz has weaponized the status quo against her so throughly that she is going away under the exact same image that she did it the first time, as a privileged serial killer and Falcone. She doesn't even get to have her new name anymore, and the rest of Gotham does not see her as the new and strange and horrific new threat that she embodied in Oz's life - she is going away as just another upper-class monster like her dad.

The triumph that Oswald has fought his entire life for, the Big One that he's scraped and fought and hoped his entire life would happen and he'd get to show his Ma at the end, the thing that he's going to throw a party for at this moment, is just a politician on tv saying things that Oswald claims he told him to say.

All of our 3 major supporting characters will thus reach the high point of their lives, on the moment before it is ripped away and they are destroyed forever. Francis gets to finally spit all of her hatred back to Oz and take her revenge on him, and her babies appear before her alive and unharmed. Sofia gets to burn down her father and his legacy once and for all, and is on her way to kill her nemesis and finally be free of it all. Victor succeeds in helping Oz win, they have revolutionized the gangs and defeated the big bad Falcone and he's done right by his new family what he couldn't do with his old one.

And of course, Oswald finally wins - he is the last man standing, he's defeated his greatest enemy, he is the big shot of Gotham and his victory is, so he claims, right there on the tv for his Ma to see, he can finally get what he's always wanted now - and then he doesn't, and then his soul crumbles, before he finishes the job by murdering his heart.

Oz didn’t need to do that, like it wasn’t actually necessary. In that moment, Victor did not betray him. He did nothing wrong. In fact, the thing that he did “wrong” in Oz’s eyes is that he loves him and that he cares about him and Oz actually cares about Victor. I think by the end Oz sees that as a really big problem because he loves his mother so deeply and Sofia took advantage of that love, and then it became sort of a weakness in his eyes. Victor saw him at his most vulnerable and for Oz to achieve the power that he thinks he needs, he can’t have that level of humanity. He can’t have that heart with him anymore. So he stifles his own heart. He kills it. - Lauren LeFranc

When he said to Vic in the sewer, “They'll tell stories about us one day, kid,” he meant it. At that stage, he actually saw that he could rise and Vic could come with him. It's only when the vulnerability and the shock of his mother being taken from him, and the place of vulnerability and danger that puts him in, that he realizes there's no more love, there's no more affection, there's no one else I'm going to have in my life that can lead me to such vulnerability as my mother has led me to or as this kid could potentially lead me to. - Colin Farrell

He's not relishing being horrible. When he realizes, "Oh God, Victor makes me vulnerable. I can't have that shit anymore." The way that Lauren wrote it, and the way Colin played, there's such sadness under the horror. You're like, oh my God, how fucked up do you have to be that the one person who you feel you have any connection with now, you have to snuff out because it makes you weak. What happened to you? - Matt Reeves

"You think she forgives me?" Once again, the mask cracks. Only around Victor. Only because of Victor. And he can't have that again.

And thus we get to the final parallel between our 3 side characters - that in the end, all they did was serve Oz's own rise to power, and hand him the world in exchange for their lives. All they were to him were additional steps in the ladder that began with his brothers. Francis gave him his life, his drive, his motivation and eternal justification, the insatiable pit in his gut driving him to do this forever. Sofia got him his promotion to Falcone lackey, and then she got him another promotion by handing him the tools with which he could become an underground boss and rally them, and then she got him another promotion by handing him the keys to his political career on a silver platter. And Victor saved his life, more than once. He helped him, provided the justification he has craved for a lifetime, rebuilt him, gave him his revolution, gave him the streets, and showed him the last thing he needed to kill to make it to the top.

Wow man let me tell my good friend, The Family Butcherer, who butchers every family he gets his hands on whether a crime family or a literal one, how much I think of him as family.

"They don't give out awards for dying in the projects"

Just like with Squid, Vic's emotional intelligence dooms him. He sees this man whom is like family to him brought to his lowest point, crushed beyond measure, in what he assumes was just a phenomenally terrible stroke of fate and not something he had any blame whatsoever for, and reaches out to pat him in the back, emotionally reassure him that it wasn't all for nothing, that his family would surely be proud of him, and that there's things to look forward to.

Vic threw away his chance to walk away into the sunset with Graciela and he just had to come back to save Oz (AND Sofia, the one who'd bomb his neighborhood) from the Maronis, the least of all possible evils in his life and his city and who never even noticed him. Victor only narrowly missed out in 2 situations that Oz would have absolutely left him to die in, so there just had to be a third where he'd die in the absolute worst way possible. Not with Sofia's gunshot to the head, not bombed to rubble along with his neighborhood, no, Mr. Carmine 2 had to make it as painful and intimate as possible.

Vic the only Number Two in town who couldn't kill his boss and in fact never even considered doing so, and so he dies - there is just no room for him anymore, not in Oz's life, nor in the new Gotham that the two built together.

LEFRANC: "You see Oz become this next level monster, I remember the take too. Jennifer and I look at each other, Colin transforms his face in this really remarkable way, that I don't think any of us fully anticipated could be achieved in that way." - The Penguin Podcast Episode 8

I knew that the general sentiment was that, by the end, they kind of wanted to, in a way, kill the Oz that we met in the film. I felt that there was a sense of creative responsibility that leaned towards, “We cannot have this man as a likable character,” which is hard I think they wanted that in the earth by the end of the eight hours. They wanted that RIP. That's gone. I hated that scene. I really did. I was fucking so pissed off. It felt in performing it as — guess what? — you would like it to feel in viewing it. It felt gross, it felt cruel, it felt absolutely insane, and it felt like Oz was reaching a point of no return. - Colin Farrell

So the day after I watched this episode, my friend Lucas messaged me in the afternoon sending me audio messages, "Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch! He stole his identity, he didn't even die with his fucking name! They'll never find him! Fuck, goddamnit!" "ELE MORREU COMO INDIGENTE, PORRA" and, yeah. Yeah. That gets to the heart of it.

If Vic was just a guy taking his money, if Vic was purely transactional, if he was just another Link, he'd have made it. Oz wouldn't have given a shit about him, Oz would have died on the sidewalk when the Maronis hit at minimum. All this piece of shit wants is love, and when he gets it, when it's finally non-transactional, from the ONLY person in the entire show who loved him, he has to kill it, he doesn't know how to deal with it, he has to smother his heart.

He has to become Carmine Falcone 2, strangling the poor and vulnerable of Gotham while pinning all of his crimes on Sofia.

Vic just wanted his family back, man. He just wanted a family again, to at least show his family that they didn't die for nothing. The thing that Oz spits in his face as he dies. It wasn't for nothin.

This show has so many dozen little variations of Penguin getting his heart broken and retaliating cruelly, but this one hurts the most partially because it has no basis whatsoever on any pre-existing insult or cruelty, there was nothing that warranted this, and you still get why Oz felt that he had to do it. The lowest, weakest moment of his life, and he can never permit anything like it ever again.

Victor was his heart, and The Penguin remembered that his heart only exists to be broken.

Victor punctures the illusion, and he cannot have that. Everything about The Penguin hinges on that singular fact of his life: he cannot and will not break character. He cannot break character, otherwise he dies, otherwise Gotham City will eat him alive, otherwise he has done it all for nothing. That is the ultimate threat Sofia posed to him, and why his ultimate victory comes only from creating a perfect delusion and spinning everything that happened in service of it. Because all those things said at Monroe's? They weren't true - his Ma, y'know, it was just her disease acting up, that psycho did something to her, she wasn't thinkin straight, and it was really Sofia that stabbed him and did all that fucked up shit, and his Ma is really happy that she got the penthouse in the end and that he didn't put her down, look, she's crying tears of joy even, I gotta keep doing everything for her.

Everything and everyone in his life, he can spin in service of the delusion, they can all play dress-up with him forever, except Victor. Victor may not have the slightest clue as to what Oz actually did, but he's seen too much, he knows he has vulnerabilities, he knows the thing that Oz needs to bury far, far more than all the horrible things he's done. Killing Victor is maybe the one thing that he absolutely cannot in the slightest spin a decent delusion out of, that he did it for him or did it for noble reasons or anything other than out of disgusting self-serving weakness.

But who's Victor? Some kid who died in the projects and didn't even have a name? Someone with nobody left to mourn him, not even a street to get back to, nothing but a guy who's already forgot him?

That Victor Aguilar? Never heard of him

“I will never think my mother doesn't love me. She was having a bad day when she stuck that bottle in me. She was under a lot of pressure. She nearly lost her finger. She stuck a bottle in my belly. It was a bad day. She didn't get a good night's sleep the night before.” It's that kind of thing. He'll make up fucking whatever. He's already lying when he goes, and he's stitching up his belly, and Vic says, “What happened?” And he says, “Sofia, she stuck me with a bottle.” He's already beginning to bury the truth. - Colin Farrell

He needed your love, and then you didn't give it to him, and you didn't obey, and you didn't do those things that he needed, and then you mentally aren't there for him in the way that he needs, but he's got to physically keep you around because he's too weak to not do that. He can't give you the gift that he promised you in Episode Six, he's too weak of a man to do that. And so he needs to hold onto you, but under his terms. - Lauren LeFranc

There's a thing that happened on that last day that made my blood run cold, which was I felt Oz not love me anymore. I felt his coldness, and I think that Francis felt it too, and she always had so much of his attention and so much of his love. I don't even think she realized how much she had until he withdrew it. And when he withdrew it, it was utter and… slightly terrified. I was just lying in that bed, I just felt the love leave the room. It's a real thing, and it's gone, yeah, and I think Francis feels it, too. - Deirdre O'Connell

He's this man who is clawing his way to the top, and I knew he wanted power, but what what does that mean for him? That's where I started to conceive of like, he wants his mother's love, and he wants people's affection. He wants to be revered. That was like the main thrust for me of what defines power for Oz, and then by the end you realize that, when he doesn't get those things, he doesn't get his mother's acceptance, he still gets it. He makes sure he gets it. - Lauren LeFranc

So bowled over and miserable I was that I didn't even notice until later that he was wearing a version of the classic Bronze Age/Triumphant get-up.

If the pattern of his life is unjustifiably cruel retribution for slights and insults, perceived or not, by the end Francis had done it to him as well. That she never loved him and in fact always hated him more than anything and anyone else is the biggest insult of all, and so he punishes her the most cruelly, knowingly or not.

"You are who you are, and you couldn't change if you tried."

He will never stop telling Rex Calabrese stories, he will never stop bringing up his brothers and mom as a sympathy ploy, and even if he will never truly love her again, he will never stop ruining the world in her name, he will never stop, he will never stop, he will never stop.

You had to sit through 8 hours chipping away at all of his fun and charm and wacko comedy antics and motivations and all the scruples and principles that he turns out to have less and less of, until he butchers them all in the very end along with the heart of the show. Penguin burning through all of his lovable quirks and charm, everything that we loved about him in the movie, until he comes through as a black-hearted bastard of unlimited malice who will never stop growing and getting worse and putting more lives in danger. Not only as much of a lowlife backstabber as we initially assumed him to be in the movie, but far worse than what we could have imagined.

I said as much that the first episode marks the transition from The Batman to The Penguin with the titlecard, and this brings it back around. The show dies with Victor, we get Sofia's post-credits Nick Fury Tease with Selina's letter and with Selina's theme playing and a final grace note of hope for Sofia, and thus the only character in the show to end with anything resembling positive, and then we get the first scene of The Batman Part 2. showing us the horrible thing in this world that Batman will have to defeat for us.

RIP Bella Real, we all know this asshole is gonna become mayor, and he's not waiting for the next election.

Credit to @book--wyrm for pointing out one more horrible fucking thing, that at the final dance, his hands are covered in scratches, much like the hands of Carmine Falcone when he comforted Sofia.

“One of the very early things that Lauren pitched was that ending with Eve where she looks like Francis,” said Reeves. “He can’t get what he needed from his mother because she’s no longer in that state because of the dark events and what he’s done, so he recreates it in this other way with Eve, and it’s very disturbing,” said Reeves. “That was something we thought was a great idea and was so emblematic of this guy’s internal state. It’s like, even as he now seems to have gotten that first major step toward being the kingpin, you know that some part of him will never be filled. - Matt Reeves

When I read that, I was like, “Oh my god, we're going full Bates Motel here.” But again, it speaks to what has become a pathological inability to accept the world that he has played such a heavy hand in creating. As far as he's concerned, he's just doing what he needs to do to live the life of a good son. And look, his mother can't talk anymore, so he needs a surrogate. I mean, it would be kept out of the sexual realm — it wasn't about that. It was about the intimacy and the tenderness and the pride that Oz always so deeply needed to feel his mother had for him, and pride in him, that he never really got from her. The one time when he finally can say to her, can go to her bedside and say, “It's done. Everything you said that I was capable of, everything you said that I should aspire to, it's done. I am now the boss. I took it from everyone else.” And he gets nothing back. His mother's already gone. That's just too horrific for him, so he needs a surrogate. He would say to Eve, “Look, I'm grieving. I'm finding it hard to deal with the fact that my mother's alive, but she's not here. She's gone, but she's fully present at the same time, physically, but she's nowhere there. She doesn't recognize me. I don't recognize the woman she's become. Do me a favor. We used to dance together and talk at the end of the night. Would you put on her dress and just let me pretend?” But it was twisted. It was twisted, but I dug it. He needs it from his mom so much. And again, his imagination is so potent that he just cast her as that figure, that most prominent and most powerful figurehead in his life, which has always been his mother. She's got to stay alive. He's got to hear that he did well from her. He's got to hear that she's proud. Look, by the end, he's bananas, as they say in the film. Good cop, batshit cop. At the end, he's batshit. - Colin Farrell

Remember when this show had fun Dolly Parton end credits, remember when this almost looked like it was gonna be fun and light-hearted compared to the movie and The Riddler: Year One

So turns out all along they actually had something real twisted planned with the name Karlo, and the Clayface concept that evokes. Asking his prostitute girlfriend to shapeshift into his crying comatose mom in the room upstairs so he can finally get the dance with her atop the world that he craved his entire life and have her tell him how proud she is that he ruined everything forever.

It is not a good ending, but it is his happy ending. He achieved everything he wanted in the smallest possible amount and at the highest cost imaginable, and thus he burns more than ever to take more and more in the name of a satisfaction he will never, ever have. He ended his arch-nemesis, and he didn't have to kill her, that's not what a gentleman does. He got the streets, and he's poised to take political power, and there is nobody left to care about, nobody except the only person who's ever mattered. He can still keep taking care of Ma as a justification for all the shit he will do now and forever, but he doesn't actually have to take care of her anymore, he doesn't even have to love her or grovel her for validation anymore: He has a Ma who will tell him everything he wants to hear, forever.

Of course, he may not have his three dance partners anymore - his Ma is in a vegetative state, Sofia has been locked away once again, and that kid, what was his name again, ain't around. But then, he will simply move on to new ones: He didn't actually lose his first dance partner, his Ma is fine, look at her telling him how proud she is of him and everything he's done and how unstoppable he is now. And he has a new partner in City Hall who is all too eager to play along to everything he says and does, who will receive and spit back his rhetoric just as Vic did to the streets of Gotham. And if he's defeated his nemesis and dance partner, well, not for long. There's a new one waiting for him. He never wins without losing. He will never again live without his next dance partner there to hound and foil him at every turn. There will always be something in the way.

It was exciting to me, the idea that we’re going to meet Oz as a mobster, and to play him as just a man. There’s nothing fantastical about him. There’s so many people like Oz in our world who hold a lot of power, who also connect with people because they speak, on some level, the truth. They can be charming and engaging, but also really terrifying and calculated, and not necessarily doing what they say that they will do or caring for people in the way that they say that they will. It felt so timely and so important to really engage with a guy like Oz and not turn away from him, but actually turn towards him so we can start to unpack, in our own society, what makes a man like Oz so appealing, and what makes him equally appalling. - Lauren LeFranc

I think Oz has always been someone who believes that everything he’s saying in the moment is true, and he creates worlds and illusions for himself to merit his actions. He does it sometimes very briefly in impulsive moments, and then sometimes more methodically, and in the end the fact that he didn’t get from his mother what he’s always desired isn’t good enough for him. So he has to create this strange fantasy live in this delusion of his own making, and pay Eve to dress as his mother and force her to tell him he she’s proud of him. So mentally, emotionally, Oz is embracing his own delusion. I think, for the audience, I hope they more deeply understand him psychologically and realize that there is a deeply broken man inside. He is violent and problematic and and very emotional. And that’s really the man that will carry into the next film. - Lauren LeFranc

And it has to end in a total reversal of the movie ending - The Batman ends with showing there is a light in the darkness, that this tortured broken man can fix his mistakes and lead us into something better. The Penguin ends by grabbing your face and desperately yelling at you SOMEBODY FUCKING SAVE US, HE WILL ONLY GET WORSE. The Batman ends with telling us Batman can save us all, and The Penguin ends with telling us Penguin will kill every last one of us in real life if he hasn't already, if nobody stops him.

And so I'll leave these last partings words to the Penguin Braintrust as we close off this series - see you all in therapy and in theaters when The Batman: Part 2 drives us all completely insane once more.

@wil4x

I don't think this Penguin is someone Batman can tolerate, I don't think Bruce can ever save Gotham's soul with a force of corruption as big as Penguin taking root in the seats of power. No amount of informant work can justify letting a monster like Penguin stay "King of Gotham". I think there's an argument to be made that Oz is a bigger threat to Batman's overall long-term mission than guys like Joker or Riddler. Those are huge immediate threats, but Penguin does a lot more long-term damage to the very soul of Gotham and its people. As long as The Penguin is on top, there's no hope, Gotham will never not be the most corrupt and nightmarish place on earth with him in charge

@book--wyrm

He will truly climb anything no loss so great it can't be flipped into an asseet A nuke Francis armed out of pain and grief and desperation and despair And poor vic Only wanting to do good And instead he saves gotham’s own typhoid mary of misery

@davidmann95

so the thing is Oz kills hope for Gotham forever in this

he's replacing the mayor who stands for hope at the end of The Batman with a corrupt comics rando built on a lie so he can install himself as the power behind the power forever Batman can't be alluded to in the slightest until the very end because it can't be until there's no lingering 'aw, I don't want my boy to get Batman'ed' it can't be until we understand truly and completely why this man proves the necessity of someone out there to stop him

The other stabs at this with Oswald, from what I’ve seen, are trying to make him low-down and dirty and vile enough to be a ‘proper’ Batman villain. But this already made him low-down and dirty and vile. And made us love him for it. This isn’t about ‘fixing him’, this is about taking him all the way to the top He’d accept no less

This is about making him operatically nightmarish enough to be a guy Batman is going to fight forever

Lucas

VENGEANCE, GET OUT RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

[0bunnyia]

한지성 ─── Between Us

For weeks, you keep telling yourself that being friends is enough, except it wasn't.

— YAY SHES HEREE, this is my first time writing angst and I don't know how I feel about this tbh.. (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠) but still, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this!! There will be part 2 soon 🔜!!

⚠️ : Angst without comfort, unrequited love. wc: 445

Alexa, play Enchanted by Taylor Swift.

You had a long time crush on your childhood friend, Han Jisung. How could you not? Jisung is the sweetest guy you've ever met.

Back then, he was just a short child who constantly follows you wherever you are, but here he is. Taller and looking more mature than the last time you met.

Yet to you, he was still the same Jisung. The one who used to make jokes that makes you laugh until your stomach hurts, the one who made your childhood feel like a dream.

And now, he came back. Smiling at you like he never left, like years hadn't passed between you.

“You finally remember to come back huh?" You asked jokingly, staring at the men in front of you. "Hey! I was just busy okay?" He replied, pouting. He's still the same like how he used to be when you're young, still the same.

"So how's it going rockstar?" Jisung let out a laugh, shaking his head at the nickname. "Well it's been busy, concerts and all. But hey! I don't wanna talk about my job when I'm with you!" It was supposed to be a normal sentence, but your heart nearly skipped a beat after hearing him say that.

You spent time with Jisung while he was back, catching up and talking about the things you have missed. It was easy, to slip back into old habits, to laugh at his dumb jokes, to pretend that every move he makes absolutely did nothing to your heart.

But you know yourself too well, the old feelings that you've thought were buried the moment Jisung left to pursue his dreams, all the butterflies on your stomach every time he does something. You couldn't handle it anymore.

You've told yourself that being friends was enough, that you will only ruin everything if you confess. But the possibility that he might like you back, make a part of you have hopes.

You knew this might ruin everything, but you just can't handle it anymore. For weeks, you keep telling yourself that being friends is enough, except it wasn't.

So there you stood in front of him, quietly admiring his features, then it happened.

"Jisung, I like you" the silences that follow feel deafening, your heartbeat drowning out everything else. He blinked, his expression unreadable , for a moment you weren't sure if he heard you.

"I'm sorry, I don't feel the same way about you."

[sapphicseasapphire]

Hi!

How do Time and Malon’s children react to the chain arriving at Lon Lon Ranch?

<3

Okayokay SO!!

Time and Malon have twin daughters named Raine and River that are approximately five years old by the time the Cryptid Adventure TM starts. Time talks a bit about his family with the Chain, but he generally keeps quiet about it. He’s worked hard to get where he is, and his life was already ruined, he doesn’t want any of this hero business poisoning his little girls. His children stay OUT OF THIS.

So the Chain know very little about them by the time they reach Lon Lon.

And the twins no absolutely nothing about the Cryptids, either.

They run out and just jump right at Time, because they missed him when he was away!!! And Malon, who is pregnant, rushes over to hug him, and everyone stares in wide eyed shock (except Wild, who is NOT paying attention). Sky, specifically, has never seen this side of Time. He’s so gentle with his daughters, so loving.

And I think that the twins adore Sky. While Malon fawns over Twilight, Raine and River will want to see Sky’s wings up close. And Sky’s so kind! He knows well enough to separate his complicated opinions of Time from these precious children. He’ll sit with them in the sun and let them feel his feathers and he’ll tell them stories about Skyloft.

And… guys, this is a side of Sky that Time has not seen before. The mighty Godkiller playing with his daughters so happily. Telling soft stories and giving them his feathers as gifts.

Raine and River can only be entertained by Sky for so long. Eventually they’d run off to bother another Cryptid. Wind is especially cool, with his orange scales and blue fins. Plus, he’s SUCH a big brother. He recounts exciting tales of pirates and a great sea! He’s so ANIMATED when he tells his stories. Spirit even joins in and helps them find cool sticks to ‘duel’ with.

With their new cool ‘swords’ they’d run around a wreak havoc on the ranch, terrorizing the poor cows. Legend would scoff at the noise, retreating into the house with the COOLEST SWORD THE TWINS HAVE EVER SEEN. So of course they follow him. (He’s so exhausted).

And here’s what you must know about the Hero of Warriors: he SUCKS with kids. He is a Sword Spirit and he’s been trained for battle. He can predict an enemy’s move ten steps ahead of when they make it, he can analyze a conversation and know exactly what to say and when in order to get a desirable outcome, he can command armies.

But children. Are unpredictable. He hasn’t learned how to intersect with them.

So when Legend inevitably has Wars entertain the twins for him, the Sword Spirit flounders. Children do not care to discuss battle tactics. They do not care for his numbers or probabilities. He’s. Really struggling.

But he learns some valuable data! Raine’s favorite color is green, which is apparently very important. River tells him very seriously that a horse goes ‘neigh.’ Which is inaccurate. A Hylian mouth cannot properly whinny. But he stores this data regardless.

Twilight comes to the rescue before Warriors can further embarrass himself. (Does he even have the capacity to feel embarrassed? He shouldn’t). The shape shifter entertains them for HOURS, turning into any animal they can name. Which is a REALLY fun game, actually. Twilight is also a big brother, he’s so good with kids. Wars takes notes.

The whole time, Malon, Wild, Four, and Time have been in the kitchen. And FIRST OF ALL. How weird is it that Wild is inside? He’s just holding all the silverware to the light and sneaking some of the shinier forks into his hair when he thinks no one is looking. It’s not until he smells the food cooking that he actually goes to help. I swear, by the time they all leave, Wild’s got half of that house stuffed into his hair. The menace.

Four’s asking Malon One Million Questions as they cook. The more embarrassing, the better. They want to know everything about Time, mostly in a teasing manner. But also… they’re a pretty analytic type of person. Their eyes flash a striking violet as they eye their leader, asking Malon how they met, how he got so… Like That. Malon knows what they’re doing, she’s no fool. And she entertains them for a bit, but shuts down the more probing questions, often answering sarcastically and deflecting.

They have a big family dinner outside, since Sky can’t fit indoors. Raine sits on Time’s knee but River is like. Climbing up Sky’s wing. (Which is not epic, it pulls at his feathers, but he lets her because she’s cute). Hyrule, who’s been too shy to really interact much with anyone, finally comes out of his shell and offers to braid River’s hair, if only to get her off of Sky. They tell stories until the sun sets and the girls start to nod off, and then Time and Malon take them off to bed while the rest of the Chain think on what they’ve learned.

It’s… a pleasant night. Lon Lon Ranch has a way of easing their stresses. Time’s family is wonderful. If only this moment could last forever…

[orpheusluvr]

Kissing away his insecurities (Matthias x Female Reader)

NSFW WARNING

Your boyfriend is feeling quite down today after paying more attention to his appearance, but you reassure him that he’s still perfect in every way.

(This beautiful man deserves all the love in the world </3 )

It had been 6 months since you and Matthias started dating, and today he questioned himself more than he ever has.

“We’ve been together for half a year…why does she still love me?” He whispered to himself, looking in the mirror and examining his features.

“These hideous scars…these unappealing burn marks…the missing eye…how is she able to see past them?” He glared at his reflection.

He then noticed your reflection standing in the doorway, and he panicked ever so slightly. He was worried that you heard what he said. And you did.

“Oh hey Y/N.” Matthias said, trying not to look at you.

“Matthias. I heard everything.” You said, walking over to him. He refused to turn around.

“I always fear that you’ll look past my personality one day and decide to leave me.” He said, a hint of sadness lingering in his tone.

You went over and stood in front of him. His face was almost lifeless, the glimmer that he once had in his eye had suddenly faded away. Seeing him in this sudden state tugged at your heart.

You gently held his face.

“I’ll never leave you, no matter what.” You said.

“Really?” He said.

You nodded.

“You’re perfect. I don’t need anyone else in my life except for you, because I only love you and I always will.”

Those exact words were enough to make Matthias suddenly embrace you into a tight hug.

“I love you too Y/N. But I don’t deserve you at all.” He said, his voice muffled as he buried himself into your shoulder.

“You deserve every part of me.” You whispered, stroking his brown hair.

Matthias pulled away from you, his cheeks reddening.

Despite it being such a serious moment, your words kept playing with his emotions. He wanted you so bad. But he didn’t want to ruin the feeling, so he tried his absolute best to stay quiet.

You gently stroked the side of his face where his burn marks were. He flinched at first, but then after feeling the gentle warmth of your touch against his least favourite spot, it made him feel calm. You then leaned forward and placed soft kisses on every part of his face.

“Baby…I-I…

Matthias pulled you away from him.

…I want you.” He said, looking into your eyes while his face was a deep red colour.

You paused for a moment, a blush also forming on your face as you put together his words and realised what he meant.

Despite both of you being together for 6 months, you never had sex. Both of you were too shy to ask. But Matthias finally decided to be the one to bring it up today, after how you were making him feel.

He was also extremely self conscious about himself, which was one of the reasons why he was so scared to ask.

You gently held his hands.

“You can have me.” You smiled.

He felt as though all of the negativity from today had suddenly disappeared, as a small smile appeared on his face.

“O-okay…follow me.” He said, walking over to the bed.

You both began undressing each other, while Matthias constantly asked if you were still okay with this. And each time you’d laugh and nod your head, reassuring him that he didn’t need to keep asking.

And a few moments after, you both stood there with nothing on at all. He admired your body, from top to bottom while you did the same with his. Both of you blushing after seeing yourselves in this state for the first time ever.

“Y-you have a beautiful body.” Matthias said.

“So do you.” You smiled at him.

You kissed every part of his body, paying most attention to the places where he was most insecure about. His breathing hitched as you moved closer to his intimate area.

“I-I know it’s not that big…I’m sorry…” his voice was barely audible.

That was the biggest lie you heard until today. He was easily 5-6 inches. That was MORE than enough for you.

You smiled as you shook your head, planting a soft kiss on his tip. He slightly whimpered, goosebumps running through his body.

“Come on Matthias, you shouldn’t be lying to me like that!” You said, looking at him then immediately shoving his load into your mouth.

“Ah-” Matthias let out a groan, grabbing onto your hair.

You moved back and forth at a slow pace, slowly increasing your speed as you got used to this new feeling in your mouth. His breathing became faster, throwing his head back for dear life while sweat dripped down his forehead.

“S-slow down…baby…I’m gonna…” he whimpered, feeling as though he was about to release.

He tried pulling you off him, but you gently held onto his hand and shook your head, looking directly at him.

Seeing you like this with his cock in your mouth made him waste no time in releasing, his juices filling up your mouth. His eyes widened as he saw how you swallowed, some of it dripped down the sides of your mouth and fell onto your chest. You slowly pulled his cock out of your mouth, the sides of your lips dripping with his cum. You looked at him lovingly, lust dancing in your eyes.

“Y-you didn’t need to swallow it.” Matthias panicked, hurriedly finding something to wipe you both off.

“Why wouldn’t I? I didn’t want to waste such a valuable thing.” You said.

He couldn’t hide the embarrassment on his face.

“But it’s not-”

“Shh.” You held him in your arms, his face pressing against your chest. He welcomed your warm embrace.

“Matthias, I’m so lucky to have an amazing boyfriend like you. I’m forever grateful.” You whispered, planting kisses on his cheek.

“I’m the one that’s lucky.” He said, holding you tighter.

“I want to get married to you someday.” You said.

He looked at you, a shocked expression was visible on his face.

“Then, in that case…”

He lovingly held your face.

“…I know I don’t have a wedding ring yet…

…but will you marry me?”

[just-thoughts-no-vibes]

Hello everyone and welcome back to random Stardew Valley headcanons! In todays episode we have: "Can bachelors and bachelorettes fight." It was funny to me that some weapons in the game belong to them and made me think about characters' fighting skills, so here we are. They are ranked from best to worst. Enjoy!

Bachelors:

Alex: Canonically shredded. Works out every day. Doesn't have much experience but has beaten a few guys in high school. If something happens to Evelyn and George he will never forgive himself so he needs to be ready to throw hands in case someone attacks them.

Sam: Not as strong as Alex but definitely fast. Has to be strong so he can beat anyone who picks on Vincent. He wants his brother to see him as cool so he has to show off sometimes. Took "the man of the house" very seriously after Kent left.

Shane: Was strong as hell in his youth and picked fights left and right, but over the years it changed. He can still throw a good punch and has experience with bar fights. After he gets sober, he tries to get back in shape so he can take care of Jass and his chicken.

Sebastian: Weak and skinny. Spends his days in his room, moving only when necessary. Smokes, probably doesn't eat healthily. Haven't worked out once in his life. He was never interested in fighting but can throw a surprisingly decent punch and run really fast after that.

Harvey: Can not fight to save his life. Will try to de-escalate the situation, will fail, and then try to run. But in my head, he is so clumsy and would trip over nothing. At least he can treat himself after.

Elliot: Absolutely useless in any kind of physical activity. He doesn't like to sweat so he doesn't work out. He sees fighting as barbaric and won't participate. But even if he tried he would fail miserably. He just has to be over the top in everything and would make a show with exaggerated moves, which will lead to him getting hurt by others or even himself.

Bachelorettes:

Leah: Shredded. Works with wood on a daily basis, cutting trees down, modeling them, or carrying her materials around. She is also smart enough not to move into the cottage in the woods with no knowledge of self-defense. Probably protected weaker kids in middle and high school from bullies.

Abigail: Much worse than she thinks but still okay. Doesn't have the discipline to put in the real work but likes training with the sword. Would learn to fight just to piss Pierre. Was always naturally strong. Zero experience tho.

Emily: Older sibling with neglectful/absent parents who has to take care of their younger sibling = knows how to fight, I don't make the rules. Although I don't think Emily is happy about that. She is a pacifist and tries to resolve everything with good talk and positive energy. She curses people when they make her mad and would restore to violence only in exceptional situations.

Haley: She. Fights. Dirty. She doesn't like sweating so she doesn't work out and she also doesn't want to break her nails or ruin her hair, but she has the rage and would hurt someone who insults her or her sister. The moment you attack her she is pulling your hair, biting you, scratching, and going for the eyes. She is also a pro at using her bag to beat someone up.

Maru: Not really into fighting and prefers to destroy her enemies with her gadgets. I also picture her as fairly short. She also never gets in situations where she needs to fight so she has zero experience. The closest she got into a fight was when someone made fun of Penny. But she does have an older brother with whom she doesn't get along so she is familiar with younger sibling fighting techniques.

Penny: Can not fight. Zero skill and zero will to do so. She condemns every form of violence and avoids it at any cost. She is the type of person who would feel bad because she pushed a person who was beating her up. But she is likable and quiet so she doesn't end up in situations where she needs to fight.