#her and afterwards she goes 'oh well I guess it was probably just because [they had a bad day/other thing that happened/I said the wrong

[running-in-the-dark]

today was exhausting - my friend was here for about 7 hours and I just. oh man I love her and all but it's just a lot sometimes. it's probably for the best that we only meet up like 2-4 times a year now (gives me enough time to forget how draining it is so I look forward to it, and recover afterwards)

I don't talk to anyone but my husband most days, and he doesn't really talk. so that's maybe 15 minutes total of talking. and today it was literally. 7 hours. no breaks except when we were eating (but no even then someone was always talking).

first of all ouch, it hurts (my voice is very hoarse now). and also. it's so so so draining. like. we really have nothing in common at this point. but she's my oldest friend and I do love her so it's tolerable... but just barely. these days there's way too much diet/food/weight loss talk, and also she seems to be getting into alternative medicine which I cannot fucking stand (it's one topic where I can't pretend or be nice about it either). lots and lots of very preachy vegan stuff too (I don't have any problems with it, I admire people who can do it, but fuck dude you know I eat meat and that I've said many times that I *can't* go vegan (I would starve. there's not enough foods that would be left. seriously.) and it feels pretty shitty to keep going on about it every damn time. I'm not sitting there trying to convince her that she should really be an atheist or something, because I know what her thoughts are about that and I respect it.

when she hangs out with her other friends a lot it's mostly just talking about all the issues that come from that (they fucking suck). I don't know, it kind of feels like I'm her therapist. when I talk about something I'm interested in she doesn't ask many questions and it kind of sucks. like, dude I don't care about your plants either, but I'm interested because you care, so. maybe try that too. would be nice!

[balkanradfem]

Friends, I have a devastating/confusing update regarding the hot woman in the building, I don't even know what's going on anymore, you be the judge and tell me what you think.

So, if you remember last time we met, she gave me her number, she didn't have her phone on her, so I called her so she could save my number and call me, and come over. She never called and I assumed she just forgot or didn't save my number at all. So I'm like, okay, she doesn't care that much, it's okay, I no longer have a crush on her, I'm normal about this.

Yesterday, as I was about to head out in the evening, I see her standing in front of the building, as if waiting for someone to let her in. I'm someone. I open the door and she greets me happily, and we start chatting in the doorway. We were chatting for half an hour, she didn't seem in any rush, she was done with work, she told me she's about to go shower and relax for the day.

So in that conversation, we touched up the subject of how it feels to live with other people, since we're both introverts, and I mentioned 'oh but you live with your son and have to take care of him every day, but that's different, that's love' and she goes 'well you could find a guy and then live with him and you'd have love too'. And I froze. My eyes went blank. Soul fully left the body. I stared at the distance. The only reply I managed was a slow 'Oh.' My every thought about her was re-engineered in my head to accept that this woman not only has no interest in me, but is probably straight. Which was tough but I dealt with it, I accepted it, straight people can have buzzcuts I guess, whatever.

I responded with something like 'oh I don't want to clean after them, you know how they are' and we had a fun 5 minutes just trashing males, she told me she got divorced twice so I knew that she knew what was up, she agreed with me on most points.

I think my blank stare and extreme reaction I had about being told to 'get a guy' tipped her off about something, because she afterwards started talking about how she would maybe do better with a woman, and I was like Oh?? But then she backtracked and said she was scared of being heard because people in here are not very accepting of that, but she is, she thinks 'gay is okay' (I am nodding with a smile). She tells me about living abroad and how people are not actually accepting of that, but they don't care as much, nobody bothers you. At this point I'm just confused of what she's saying, like is she telling me about her personal experiences of being openly into women abroad? Or just talking in general what she noticed about homophobia out there? Or was it about trying to survive out there with a buzzcut? I don't know.

Then we sneaked into the bicycle room and she complained how I always wear a hat, so I explain to her that I have to, because I have sick ears; she's asking me over and over can't I just take it off, for a second? Basically begging me to take it off, just so she can see me without it, and I fold, and take off my hat, and she's mesmerized. She's looking at me with this weird shine in her eyes like she's never seen anything like it before, I'm pleased but also utterly confused because if you're straight why are you looking at me like this?

I decide enough is enough and I need to bring her over, so I drag her into my apartment, we've been talking for so long just in the hallway and we could be in my kitchen. She goes reluctantly, and then lingers at the entrance and doesn't come to the kitchen after me. I come back and ask 'Are you uncomfortable here? Do you not want to see the kitchen?' and she apparently was worried she would dirty the floor with her shoes. So I drag her over to the kitchen, and I luckily had a little jar of candied quince which I made the other day! (sidenote, did you know that David Karp makes candied quince recipes online? I have discovered this.) She loves my candied quince, and again, goes 'You're ready to get married' to which I'm immediately SO MAD, and I fight her on it, I go 'Do you think a husband could make candied quince??' and she looks at me 'oh no way' 'Well I DON'T WANT A M*N WHO CAN'T EVEN CANDY QUINCE and she laughs. I also give her a persimmon I got as a gift, because that's a semi-exotic fruit and I want her to try it. She likes my kitchen, gives me nice comments on every little handmade pillow and basket, she's in general so sweet, she hugs me, she likes my paintings, I'm happy. Then when we were getting ready to both leave, she goes 'I see you hate bras just like I do', and I'm offhandedly saying 'yeah who created that evil' but in my head I'm like I'm wearing a sweater right now, I'm wearing a sweater and you noticed? You looked at my chest enough to notice, and then you informed me you don't wear a bra either??? And then I called her phone again to be sure she saves my number, which she didn't the last time, and we both part and go our merry way.

I am driven mad by her behaviour and I don't know whats going on. Could anyone diagnose this situation. I am weeping I've been told to marry off a guy twice. I'm being pressured into being an unwilling bride by a woman with a buzzcut who I had a crush on. Regret and devastation. But then she also does things that I would call flirting if I thought she was in any way interested. I told her to stop calling me child-nicknames too and it did not work. I'm 34 I don't deserve this.

[verinarin]

𝙃𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨; 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬

in which he lets her measure his body for a new set suit for him, riddling him with her innocent touches; his view meaning the fic is written in his point of view

fluff with a lot of tension, like drenched with it. Gallagher lowkey being obsessive and loves to tease and spoil his little lady; 2K words!!

It’s Saturday.

She said she wouldn’t be home until later tonight, so I’m alone for the rest of the day. I’ve been sharing my roof with her for around 3 months now. Funny, I seem to forget how quiet this place is without her. At this hour she would be on the couch with the television on, her favorite shows would air around this time.

Am I being a creep for knowing her daily schedule like this?

Hope not, I mean that brat has been stickin’ beside me ever since day one.

Ah shit, it’s supposed to be the other around. She’s my secretary, but here I am acting like I’m some sort of personal assistant of hers, ah that little minx had me all wrapped around her pretty little manicured fingers huh?

Can’t complain though, not when she does her job perfectly.

It’s just that I rarely wanted her to work, to begin with. Her day consists of following me around like an assistant yet she treats me like I’m her assistant instead. Ahahaha I ain’t setting up a good example as her boss, but then again no one could blame me.

I mean with those fucking doe eyes and pouty lips, she’s the type of woman people wrote on their poetry. At this point, It’s clear as day that I miss that little brat. Y’know I’ll just take a quick shower before she comes home, I don’t want her to drag me to the bathroom again like yesterday.

Stepping into the shower made me realize that every single thing here smells like her. Her vanilla-scented shampoo bottle sits next to mine, her body scrubs, her soap. Damn, I never realized how much product she used, no wonder she cooped up in her for a good hour or more, being a pretty lady like her looks like hard work, perhaps harder than my line of work.

She smells like heaven afterward though, so I won’t complain.

Never mind, I would actually complain about one thing.

The fact that her scent drives me crazy sometimes, not to mention the fact that while working she often clings to me like a second skin. The amount of questions I get asking about why my clothes smell like vanilla and roses is crazy. The other hounds, hell even Siobhan tease me for smelling like a lady.

Well, as long as I don’t reek of smoke and alcohol like I used to I guess it’s a good change. As the cold water rinses through my body, I start to worry about her. She’s an adult, she would be fine traveling around Penacony, but why am I worried about her like I’m her old man? Probably because she didn’t tell me where she was going, this girl goes on a shopping spree almost every week and the one thing she never forgets to bring is her walking ATM, which is me.

Should I go look for her?

Nah, she must’ve needed some time alone. She’s probably sick of an old geezer like me, all I could entertain her with is my crappy dad jokes and a little mixology classes here and there. She seems to like my cringe dad jokes though weirdly enough and she also learns quickly on mixing beverages.

Once I finished rinsing my worries away, I put on a pair of sweatpants. I sigh as I brush my damp hair back remembering that I forgot to bring my shirt inside, my age is starting to catch up on me. Oh well, it’s not like she’s coming home soon. I let out a small chuckle as I looped the small towel I used for my hair around my neck.

The mirror in front of me reflects my rugged face, my fingertips graze upon my stubble feeling the sharp little hairs protruding from my cheek. I’ve been thinking of shaving it clean off for a while, but I remember her weird fondness for my stubble. That girl loves rubbing the back of her hand across my face like I’m some sort of a dog, which in this case relates to my line of work funnily enough.

I figured I’d let it be for now, can’t have her whine about my appearance now like she did last month when I talked to her about cutting my hair short. Her argument was if I did cut my hair she wouldn't be able to play with it anymore, such a silly girl that one.

I should fix myself a cup of coffee before cleaning around the house, it ain’t like I have anything better to do other than waiting for her like a lost puppy. I let out a hefty yawn as I walked towards the kitchen. It's easier for me to find things these days since she arranges it in a specific way. Before her, it took me around 5 minutes to search for the coffee bean, but now I can see the labeled jar from far away.

I couldn't help but let my lips curve into a small smile as I twisted the jar open, the charming scent of the coffee beans she picked emanated through the air, that little lady has good taste I must admit. Heh, she must’ve learned it from me. She used to be a tea gal before she met me, but now it seems she quite enjoys a little more caffeine here and there.

Can’t help to let out a small smirk as I brew myself a cup of coffee. She utterly consumes me at this point, every single damn thing reminds me of her it ain’t funny. I never thought I could still feel this giddy like a teenage kid at my current age, but then again she had always said that I still have my child-like wonder.

I rest my body against the counter, the cold marble hits my bare waist making me wince at the sudden temperature difference. After this, I’ll do laundry and then afterward I should start preparing for dinner.

As I lost myself in my thoughts I could hear the sound of a key twisting inside the keyhole, ah she’s home. “I’m back. Miss me, old man?” she muses as she turns her head towards me.

“Nah, I’m starting to miss my short-lived tranquility though,” I smile, pressing the rim of my glass against my lips to hide my smirk. She on the other hand has her eyes wide open, her mouth wide agape.

She stares at me a little too long before I finally break the silence between us, “Why'd ya look at me that way kid ?” I ask as I gaze toward her small face, analyzing her expression.

“You’re practically half naked, but wait that’s good actually,” shit, I forgot about that. She starts to walk towards me with a nasty smile, oh she’s scheming something alright.

“What? why is it a good thing? you've never seen a man’s body before ?” I snicker, masking away my flustered interior.

“Oh because I could clearly measure it now,” she smiles. Now hold on, measure what ??!!! The seemingly ambiguous sentence drives my mind toward possibilities that would definitely put me behind bars.

“Measure what huh ?” I let out a small chuckle, I put my cup down and leaned towards her eye level.

“You definitely won’t fit a size XL,” she sighs. Well ouch! cut me some slack little lady. I might be slacking off on my training, but I’m still in good shape. “What a way to break this old man’s heart you little brat, fyi I’ll definitely fit a size L,”

“Said that to your shirt. The poor thing needed its button to be stitched back up yesterday,” okay maybe she’s right but it still stings, my lips curve downward as I look at her, she’s out here breaking my heart to pieces.

“I’m not saying you’re putting on weight, what I’m saying is I want to measure your measurements so that I can buy you something custom-made,” she caresses my chest as her eyes lock towards mine.

I could feel my heartbeat drumming against my eardrum as her touch burned against my skin, marking it as hers. Fuck, feels so fucking good to feel her touch. Is it greedy for me to want more of her?

Her pink ‘nd soft lips curve into this delicate smile.

Fuck, she looks so pretty like that.

“Oh, what’s the occasion for dressing up this old hound ?” I smile as I lean forward to close the gap between us, trying to take control of my not-so-innocent thoughts about her lips.

I can’t recall anything worth celebrating between us, maybe the fact that I’m cutting down on smoking, but that’ll be worth something when I fully ditch it.

She merely chuckles before lightly hitting my chest like I’m telling her a funny joke, “You are an old man after all, how can you forget that three months from now is going to be the annual family?”

Ah right….

I was never the person who enjoyed those fancy parties, but hey I have her by my side so maybe I might change my stance.

“Those types of events were never my thing,” I avert my gaze, my finger drums against my nape.

“Well those types of events are my thing, so you’ll come right?” I mean with those puppy eyes, of course I’ll come.

“Fine, I guess this year’s gala could be bearable with you by my side,” I could only sigh as I stroked her hair, truly she dictates the same way as an old friend of mine.

With a smile that rivals the sun curving on her lips, she pulls out a measuring tape from her purse. Ah, so this is the ‘measuring’ part she talked about.

“Since when you’re a tailor,” I snicker as her fingers trace the long tape to find the zero mark.

“Oww hush, you’ll be the first person I’ll measure so be kind,” she mutters as she unravels the tape, “Alright lady,”

She leans closer to me as her finger holds one side of the tape beside my bare ribcage, “Stay still,” she mumbles, easier said than done.

How can I stand still when her fingertips press against my skin? It’s my damn Achilles heel. She’s too close, way too close. I don’t know how to act nor what to think when she’s soo damn close to me, the air feels stuffy and the atmosphere feels way too intimate and somehow sexual?

Kill me now.

She almost has her small face pressing against my chest, my bare chest to be exact which made this seemingly harmless interaction so dangerous.

Her other hand still struggles to find the tape behind my back. “Your chest is too broad,” she complains, I just let out a snicker at her statement which made her lose her focus.

“M’sorry anything I could do to help ?” I couldn’t do anything though, I could only extend my arms to the side to let her in, closer to me.

“Just stay still,” she huffs. Alright then, I’m cool as a cucumber. Without any warning, her cheek presses against my chest as she hugs me.

The warmth of her skin seeps through my cold chest, now this warmth burns inside me. “Ah! This works,” well I’m happy for her but there’s practically no distance between us, not even an inch.

“Stay still ol’ hound,” I must’ve been moving too much. I look down at her, her fingers skillfully bring the other side of the tape in front of my chest.

Now her forehead rests against my chest as she struggles to read the number that transpires, “Uhhh how do I read this again ?” she huffs.

“Can’t read a simple measurement now ?” my hand finds its way back toward her head, brushing a loose strand back behind her ear.

“Don’t tease,” well of course I’m going to tease as if I’m not the one who's secretly flustered as hell.

“Alright got it, now I’m going to drag this down to your waist,” she smiles as she drags both of her hands down and tightens the tape around my waist.

I never thought of myself to be a squeamish person, but I am now. “Oh wow, your chest and waist ratio are quite something….”

“What d’ya mean by that ?” I ask as she looks up towards me, “Your waist is quite slim and also your shoulders are broad so you do have that hourglass silhouette…” she muses to herself.

Well, ain’t that interesting…..

“Oh yeah your shoulders and back !” she naps herself back from her trance, cute.

With that, she took a couple of minutes to measure my upper body to the best of her abilities. Albeit the fact that I need to crouch down a bit for her to be able to measure my shoulders and back.

She takes a couple of steps back with newfound determination exuding her. I guess it’s from the fact that she’s getting the hand of measuring me.

“Are we done now ?” I ask, rather impatiently. Her fingers still linger in any direction she wants. Mapping every single inch of me into her memory.

“Still a long way to go,” she huffs. I see that she wants me to be as still as a mannequin, the things I do for her…

She hums a familiar tune, a song I like to hum. She crouches down bringing the tape around my hips, then she circles back in front of me, “Pardon my intrusion,”

Well the sentiment is rather too late now, she had been breaching my personal space since the very beginning. She couldn’t help but rest her forehead against my lower stomach as she looked down, reading the tape.

“Take your time, s’not like I could go anywhere,” I sigh as I stroke her hair, letting her silky smooth locks stream through my fingers. “I thank you for your coordination,” she snickers as she looks up at me, pretty little thing she is.

So stinkin’ cute. I smile as I cup her cheeks, letting my thumb graze against his lower lip, “Anytime, Lady,” I reply, before casually folding my arms back against each other.

Why the fuck did I just do that?

“I’m going to go lower now, I need to get some measurements for your pants,” she continued her current action without any signs of discomfort, thank god. “Oh wow even a pair of pants, you spoil this ol’ hound too much,” I feel as though my chest cavities were filled with cotton, making my heart all warm and soft.

“We both know you spoiled me rotten, Gallagher,” she cuts me, the tape now encircling around my thighs.

“Have I now?” Honestly, she deserves more than I could afford.

“You have you silly hound. Now let me repay your kindness,” her face now rests against my thighs as the tape travels slightly lower.

“Heh is this your way into getting to my pockets again,” I snicker, knowing that it’s one of her best manipulation tactics. Acting all cute and then stealing my money.

“Hey! I’m spending my own paycheck on this mister,” she protests as she stands up. “Oh, she’s a big girl now. She doesn’t need my money anymore right ?”

“Well technically no,” she looks away to the side, biting her lips in annoyance.

“She doesn’t need my money, but I’ll give it to her anyway because she has me wrapped around her little fingers,” I cup her cheeks, guiding her face to see me. “Cuz she’s my lil lady,” I smile as I press our forehead together, I can feel a thin imaginary veil between us.

“Of course I am and you’re my old hound,” she wraps her arms around my neck as my hand rests on her waist.

The thin barrier that puts a blur in our relationship, but somehow it just feels right, whatever we are it’s perfect. I don’t need more or less, just her warmth against mine.

[lo-shouldve-been-an-email]

Why Dionysus was actually clever but got botched.

Okay,this is my first big LO essay so please don’t mind a bit of awkwardness.

The thing with Dionysus is that on paper it’s actually really smart.

Let me explain-

To understand why Dionysus in particular was chosen we need to understand the original myth of his birth,or welll,the original myths.there’s technically two of them but I’ll explain it later-

Let’s start off with the simpler one,aka:

Semele is the mother.

The myth goes like this:

Zeus falls in love with a mortal named semele,and tells her he’s Zeus.

Semele gets pregnant and Hera gets jealous.

Hera turns into an old lady and implants the idea that Zeus might be lying to her about being Zeus,so she must ask him to show her his divine form.

Semele does this and is-unsurprisingly- burnt to ashes,but Zeus saves baby dio and puts him in his thigh until he’s born,by then being upgraded from demigod to straight up god.

Who raises him afterwards depends on the story,sometimes it’s Hermes,sometimes it’s nymphs,and sometimes it’s-you guessed it-Persephone.

So you already have some inkling on why Persephone is raising dio,but oh wait there’s more.

So let’s gets into another version:

Persephone is the mother(?)

Okay,so have any of you played hades?go play it.

But,there’s a character that has an story tied to Dionysus,and people who’ve done a certain side quest might already have an inkling:

Zagreus,the prince of the underworld.

Now,you may be wondering wtf zag has to do with this but I can explain.

Basically here’s the ancient Orphic version of the myth:

Persephone and Zeus have a son named Zagreus.(it’s important to note that hades didn’t really exist at this point or at least he was merged with Zeus,hence why it’s Zeus and Persephone and not hades and Persephone,since yes Persephone actually predates hades)

Zagreus is the golden boy of Olympus and Hera gets jealous.

Hera RELEASES TITANS FROM TARTARUS and they tear Zagreus apart,the part remaining being his heart.

And dio is made with that.

There’s more to the general ancient Orphic origins of Dionysus but that’s just the basics.

I highly recommend overly sarcastic productions video of Dionysus if you want an in depth look at this explaining his origins to his cult.so yeah.check it out.

Why it fails within LO.

I admit,dio is a good reference.

He’s a good nod and a fun idea,it’s just the execution that leads it to having as many positives as a house fire.

First of all,it definitely wasn’t planned from the start.

Other have talked about this but RS has a habit of bullshitting things into the story to reference a real world date.

In this case,dio was supposed to be a Mother’s Day thing,but when matched up to the timeline?well…I don’t know why it’s such a bad decision on Persephone’s part…may be it’s because HER AND HADES HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR LESS THAN A DAY.

Also the whole thing comes out of nowhere.

Zeus just bust into persie’s house,says he’s giving birth and instead of going to a doctor(Asclepius isn’t the only one,zeus)

Then,Persephone straight up refuses to give him to Zeus AFTER HE GAVE BIRTH and takes the baby for herself because “he looks like hades”.

Never mind the fact he’s literally purple-

After that Persephone realised she’s fucked up and ignores hades,but he bursts in and she explain how she basically kidnapped a child.

And it’s supposed to be romantic.

Anyways,I’m probably gonna make another of these rants soon,just with Apollo,but this is why the dio plot point…frustrates me.

On paper it’s an interesting reference but in the end it just ends up being stupid.

[genericpuff]

The Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Hiatus - Part 1

So Lore Olympus' return is right around the corner, and I realize I've never actually talked about the S3 midseason finale. I think I said I was going to, but then I just sorta didn't, probably because I was still reeling in the absolute absurdity of it for weeks afterwards. In hindsight, I should have written about it back when it was still fresh, but I feel like I can do it just as much - if not more - justice writing about them in hindsight, now that they've had time to sit and I've seen what Rachel and WT are clearly planning to do after the comic ends (whether or not they succeed... that's a different story).

CAUTION: THIS IS PART 1 OF A 3 PART SERIES IN WHICH I WILL BE SPOILING MUCH OF EPISODES 251-253. THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE INVOLVING STRANGULATION. THIS WILL BE A LONG POST. BRACE YOURSELF.

So one of the things that really motivated me to finally talk about this was a conversation that happened recently in the ULO Discord - the realization that there are many readers who still don't know what happened after the free to read finale cliffhanger.

Y'know, the one where Hades gets possessed by Kronos and attempts to choke Persephone-

Now, awful dark jokes aside about how Persephone frankly deserves to have her balloon head popped, this was a wild cliffhanger to leave on for free readers, but the strange thing this time around - unlike with the previous midseason hiatus - is that this is where the cliffhanger has stood for free readers for the past 3 months, and it will be 4 months by the time the series returns.

And frankly... this just highlights a huge problem with LO's writing, because this cliffhanger? Like all the others, it's literally resolved within the next episode. The one that's currently under the FP lock.

Man, isn't it a little fucked up that we only ever get trigger warnings when it's concerning Persephone? Where was the warning for when Minthe got turned into a plant? Where was the warning for the entire episode that depicted Hera's trauma from Kronos and how it's still affecting her in the present? It's always either the Persephone, Hades, or Apollo focused episodes that get the trigger warnings, they couldn't care less about the violence being done onto other people in the story.

Anyways. Episode 251 opens up by reminding us, oh yeah, Kassandra exists!

Remember back in Episode 227 when Psyche stole Apollo's USB drive (and by "stole", I mean she picked it up off the ground where Apollo had conveniently dropped it?) And they found a folder with a picture of Kassandra? Well, Episode 251 opens by reminding us of her... 24 episodes later. SEVEN MONTHS OF REAL LIFE TIME, LITERALLY THE LENGTH OF BOTH THE SEASON 2 AND SEASON 3 MIDSEASON HIATUSES COMBINED-

Anyways, I guess Rachel finally figured out what she was gonna do with Kassandra after all that time, and it's... really stupid.

But wait, don't worry about that yet, because only the comic's opening reminds us of Kassandra, we gotta establish the title first and get back to that cliffhanger from before, the one that free to read users have been waiting 4 months to see.

(pay attention to the episode titles here btw, it's probably one of Rachel's lamest 3 parter title sequences yet)

Turns out Kronos is still intent on getting his hands on Hera, even though we've literally already seen Kronos haunting Hera. Is he just a ghost? A hallucination of her traumatized mind? We don't know, it never really explains itself. So Kronos is still looking for Hera.

(kinda weird that we're getting all these redrawn fullbody angles of Hades-possessed-by-Kronos choking his noodle-bodied wife who is doing literally NOTHING to actually fight back besides yelling at him, but okay.)

Turns out Hades isn't really hyped about this choking game going on between his dad and his niece wife, so he goes full on "release the beast" Naruto mode on his ass.

And that's it. That's literally the conflict resolved. The cliffhanger that free to read users were left with over the 4 month hiatus is resolved literally within a handful of panels and Hades just "believing enough" to save his wife.

And then that's just it, it cuts away, and we get this sorta awkward conversation between Persephone and Hades (now himself again) over the fact that he just choked out his wife.

The scene transitions to Hades waking up in his bed (literally that last shot of him and Persephone was it, it transitions immediately). I'm trying not to use up Tumblr's 30 image posting limit so I'm not posting the 3 fucking copy pasted panels of this that just involves Hades waking up, use your imagination lmao

There's literally no actual conversation here, no amount of Hades asking "what happened", somehow despite his possessed state he remembers everything so succinctly that he jumps right to demanding Persephone to see her neck.

(literally removed the panel of Persephone saying "Hades..." because these types of "let me do the thing" "Hades :(((" "let me do the thing" exchanges are literally just Rachel trying to hit her panel limit, once you start seeing these '3 panel' exchanges that copy paste the same shit over and over again, you can't unsee them and you realize this is why so little happens in the comic as a whole, because it's just constant repetition of dialogue and reaction panels to pad out the episodes).

And then we get what I like to call "guy in a position of power manipulating his more vulnerable partner into pitying him without actually apologizing":

No for real, I didn't cut out a single thing from this exchange aside from a couple copy pasted reaction panels, this is the entire conversation. Hades doesn't apologize, he doesn't ask Persephone if she's okay, he just pulls the "you can leave if you want toooo :(((" baiting Persephone into further trapping herself with this jackass. SHE'S the one who's stuck with HIM.

Like, obviously Hades wasn't the one who choked her, that goes to Kronos, but he doesn't even ask her if she's okay. He just looks at her moldy ass bruises and immediately goes "YOU CAN LEAVE IF YOU WANT TO I'M A MONSTER OH GOD-" and then of course she's having to comfort him which is fine but where's the balance? It's always Persephone having to comfort him and listen to his trauma and we never get Hades doing the same for her - the times we do get Persephone talking about her trauma and struggles with him, he always finds a way to make it about him.

Hades proceeds to talk more about his childhood and more of the shit he's already talked about multiple times before, I don't even need to go over it at this point.

That said, Rachel does remember to bring his stutter back. When's the last time he stuttered? 200 episodes ago ?? (literally I don't remember, it's like when he used to twist his napkins, he doesn't have these character traits consistently anymore).

THERE we go, finally some semblance of an apology. It came after more trauma dumping, but at least it's something-

Oh for fuck's sakes.

This is literally such generic "you've come so far!" motivational jargon. And it's made even worse in LO because what has Hades overcome exactly? Just a reminder, here are the things we've seen in Hades' backstory since he was rescued by his brothers:

He started a business in the Underworld that he's been operating with slave labor and profiting off ever since as a tyrannical oligarch

He entered a multi-century-long affair with his brother's wife, his own sister in law

He cost Demeter - Persephone's own mother - the role of Queen of the Mortal Realm and Persephone still does not know this.

He abused and neglected his adopted son - who was literally abandoned on his doorstep - for hundreds of years and used his role as his adopted father to guilt trip his son for getting "special treatment".

He never took responsibility for the financially dependent relationship he created between himself and a lower class nymph and tried to bribe her out of his life as soon as he fell for a 19 year old intern

HE LITERALLY FELL FOR THE 19 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER OF A WOMAN WHO HE HAD SCREWED OVER AND PRETENDED LIKE THAT WOMAN WAS IN THE WRONG FOR NOT APPROACHING HIM DURING THE EVENTS OF THE ACT OF WRATH, AND THEN HE HAD THE GALL TO PROPOSE TO HER DAUGHTER RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER WHEN SHE BASICALLY HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO SAY YES.

Everything he's legitimately had to overcome involving his trauma has gone completely ignored until pop in comes the pink cinnamon roll girl to solve all his problems and do for him what apparently even a therapist couldn't do (because haha he thinks his therapist is a hack.)

Persephone saying "look at all you've done" should be a reminder of all the crimes Hades has committed against people weaker than him, but instead it's used as a term of endearment, because Persephone literally got with him when she was 19 years old. And apparently the whole "eternally 19" thing applies to more than just her body, because even now, 10 years later, she's still lacking all the smarts and self-awareness and maturity to realize marrying this man was a mistake.

At this point Persephone isn't too naive or stupid to realize what she's gotten herself into, she's just a terrible person who's entirely complacent in Hades' bullshit and frankly, they deserve each other.

They literally keep talking about him for several more panels. Hades literally whines on and on about how much of a failure he is, how he feels like he failed the child who's trapped in Tartarus, and then of course Persephone tells him "no honey, you're the most important being in this process!" and she's LITERALLY STILL JUST TALKING ABOUT HIM, THIS WHOLE EPISODE IS PERSEPHONE TALKING ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL HADES IS, NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. HAVE YOU NOTICED WE HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN KASSANDRA YET ?? HAVE YOU NOTICED THE COLD OPEN FOR THE EPISODE HASN'T BECOME RELEVANT YET ?? I'VE ALREADY HIT THE 30 IMAGE LIMIT AND I HAVE TO START CUTTING STUFF OUT-

Persephone and Hades talk about how they should name the interloper, but they don't come up with anything before transitioning to Leuce and Thetis.

And y'all, this has gotta be one of Rachel's worst cases of backpedaling in the entire series. You thought how she turned Leuce - Hades' first wife - into a homewrecker was bad? You thought it was absurd the plot tried to turn Leuce into Minthe 2.0?

Remember those text messages that Leuce and Hades sent between each other? The ones we never saw but kept getting alluded to? Well of course we couldn't have Hades actually text Leuce during Persephone's banishment, because then that would mean he isn't 100% loyal to his little pink cinnamon roll "qween", so what was the next best thing? Kronos possessing Hades and texting Leuce like so many people - even fans - assumed? No. It's worse.

The text messages... weren't real.

This literally makes no sense. First of all, it's once again Rachel creating drama out of "haha woman delusional!" much like she did with Minthe. But second, it literally doesn't make sense after what we've seen leading up to this.

Leuce didn't just talk about Hades texting her. She went to his office, intent on seducing him, with the knowledge of these text messages being real. She even TALKS ABOUT THESE MESSAGES WITH HADES.

But of course, they were interrupted before Hades got a chance to respond, so this was convenient enough for Rachel to try and pull off some 'twist' where she could easily absolve Hades of "cheating" on Persephone (again, the girl he only knew for like 1-2 months) but also not have to deal with the weird logic of Kronos possessing Hades just to text some random nymph.

This is absolutely one of the most absurd retcons Rachel has ever tried to pull to get herself out of the corners she writes herself into.

Now the episode is still going and FINALLY, it gets to Kassandra, after teasing her at the beginning of the episode and proceeding to do a whole lot of nothing throughout the entire thing.

This has to be one of the funniest panels in the entire comic, bar none. Rachel's gotten worse at drawing men despite making this comic for 5 years and having plenty of opportunity to improve, and he literally just looks like the fucking Amazing Bulk, haunting this poor mortal woman with his very presence.

So yeah, it turns out that the "curse" Kassandra suffers from in this "retelling" is, rather than having prophecies no one believes (or at least, if she does, we don't see that), she sees Apollo and no one believes her. Again, Rachel takes these weird liberties with the original myths that don't make a whole lot of sense all for the sake of seeming original, but whatever, Rachel hit her panel limit for the week, because that's essentially where the episode ends, with Apollo greeting Kassandra. As quickly as it was shown at the beginning of the episode, the one part of the episode actually featuring Kassandra is wrapped up in literally 7 panels.

THOUGHT VOMIT TIME

So with Episode 251 now summarized and out of the way, I really wanna talk about how this episode operates as the first FP episode after the midseason finale for free readers.

Despite the fact that it was a 4 month break and despite the fact that WT has always still released these episodes for free on schedule - with the idea that every reader will be up to date with the current content and can start fresh with a new set of FP episodes when it returns - this time around Episodes 251-253 have remained locked.

And I say Webtoons specifically because as far as I know, the creators typically don't have control over this type of decision. From what I've heard from other Originals creators, it's often WT who decides shit like coin costs, FP release dates, etc. This is why during hiatuses the numbers on the episode unlocks never actually align with their real return dates, sometimes they completely undershoot and reset, sometimes they overshoot and tell people LO is coming back in January despite the fact it's been confirmed it's coming back in November. This isn't Rachel's doing. It's clearly Webtoons trying to squeeze as much money out of this series as they can so they think the 4 month hiatus will motivate people to pay... but even the newest episode is still only sitting at 17.9k likes, which is just slightly above the average amount the FP episodes normally wind up sitting at by the time they're unlocked after 3 weeks, but this has been after four months. The hiatus of the comic and its communities absolutely put LO out of sight, out of mind.

That said, I don't know what this means for the series' return, if it'll have 6 FP episode unlocks going forward or if it'll just return with one new FP episode and Episode 251 unlocking for free readers, but holy shit, if that's the case, this is gonna be a shitty way to return from 4 months of nothing. The cliffhanger from 250 implies so much more than what it ends up being and it's, again, highlighting a fundamental issue within LO - it operates purely on a week to week basis, producing episodes on the fly, and concerning itself more with filling up its panel quota so that it can get readers from beginning to end when they can drop some new cliffhanger that likely won't lead to anything or will be completely resolved within three swipes of the next episode. Season 3 has been especially egregious with this and it's clear Rachel has run out of track to run on.

There is speculation that perhaps the reason the timing of this cliffhanger is so off is because Rachel didn't know the hiatus was going to happen and WT forced her on it. That said, it's not something anyone can really confirm besides Rachel. I wouldn't blame her for taking the time she did considering she was attending both NYCC and SDCC this past summer, and it's hard enough for her to keep up with any sort of buffer to begin with, so those conventions would have definitely resulted in episodes getting postponed anyways.

What I'm really interested in seeing is the reception when the comic returns. Hiatuses like this are brutal for traffic, it's incredibly difficult to get every single person who you started the hiatus with to return after it's done. It's not uncommon for comics to come back to only a fraction of their readerbase - and that's where the marketing comes in.

S3's return has been incredibly undermarketed. I've talked about it already but I'll mention it again here - they have done nothing to hype up LO's remaining audience for the ending of LO. Not only has the fact that the comic is even entering its final part been mentioned on either Rachel's or WT's social media pages, but the fan groups have been shut down for almost the entirety of this hiatus, shutting fans away from discussing the comic, making predictions, and just participating in their most active and direct part of the fandom. This was an absolutely absurd decision on Rachel's part, I don't know if this was her trying to shield herself from criticism or if she genuinely just doesn't give a shit about her fanbase anymore, but it's not a good thing if the only active groups to be found online during a comic's hiatus - it's final hiatus before the series ends - are the critical ones. Fans of the comic should not have to find out about its ending from me. I know I've got a way with words, but it's not fair to the long-term fans of this comic that they're being shut out by the comic's own creator, simply because she either doesn't care or is just so afraid of the critics that she'd rather hurt her relationship with her fanbase by shutting them out just to maybe shut out any critics who are nearby.

I don't know what the reasoning is and I don't know how it could have been beneficial. But that leads us to the other theory, one that I can see as plausible-

I don't think Lore Olympus was supposed to end here.

We've talked about this theory before, but to reiterate - it's been speculated for a while (prior to the news at NYCC that the comic would be ending) that S3 of LO wasn't going to be the final season as so many people had been assuming based on past info. There was no indication or marketing implying this was the final season - meanwhile webtoons like City of Blank were marketing their final seasons from day 1 of the premiere - and there were loads of new plot threads being established in S3 that we knew couldn't possibly be wrapped up by the end of the season. Case in point, it took Rachel seven months to get back to Kassandra, and while during that time she's rushed plotlines that shouldn't have been rushed (the wedding) other plotlines have proceeded to drag at a snail's pace or been dropped altogether. The speculation that S3 wasn't going to be the final season was plausible.

But now, suddenly, LO is coming to an end, likely within the next 20-30 episodes, and neither Rachel or Webtoons have said a word about it. No announcement post, no hype, no promotional art, no statement from the Webtoons VP of what to be excited for (which he's done before). It seems like they're either intentionally trying to bury it to keep people from panicking while Rachel retreats into the shadows to hide from the crimes she's committed, or they're intentionally keeping the ending of the comic unannounced so they can backpedal on it later to generate hype over it "deciding to stick around". Chances are, it'll be based on how the return of the series goes, and whether or not it's able to get the performance numbers back in the green.

I do not think it will. As I said already, hiatuses are already notorious for destroying built up traffic, especially on Webtoons where people (many of whom are teenagers and children) are conditioned to expect regular content on a schedule. But there's one other thing that's been bugging me - there hasn't been a shred of promotional art. We're currently less than a month away from the return of LO and not only are Rachel and WT being incredibly hush hush about it, but all the art Rachel has put out has been largely on her Blue Sky, where she has the smallest following, and none of it is exactly indicative of being "promotional art", rather just random sketches and doodles that she's doing on her downtime. Everything else has been promos for her books, SDCC/NYCC, of course, Rachel Smythe Presents, her next venture which she has been hyping up more than the actual return or ending of the comic that made her famous in the first place.

At this point, I'm not even fully convinced she's even started working on the next episode yet, let alone any sort of buffer. If anything, she knows that she's coming back to the series with 3 episodes still locked under FastPass, so all she'll need to technically have ready for launch is one new episode. Rachel has never been good at building buffers, not even in the beginning when she apparently started off with 2-3 episodes of buffer. Even when her comic is nearing its end, she's not learning any lessons, she's not setting herself up for success. And I'm not setting myself up for the hope that the series could possibly come back any better than it was when it left - if anything, I think we're about to see Rachel and the comic outdo itself once again on how bad it can possibly be.

And we still have two more episodes to talk about, which includes the cliffhanger for FP readers that we've been waiting four months on. Part 2 and 3 of these FP episode analyses will be going up as soon as I can get them done, ideally I'll have all three parts done before it returns so we can start off fresh with the newest episode.

Buckle up folks. Pour yourself a drink. We're gonna need it.

[luvmydogzvm]

H.S teacher Spideypool AU

It’s the first day of school and Peter had just dismissed his last class for lunch. With a long exhale, he flopped in his chair so hard it spun a bit and drifted off to the right, nearly smacking him into the wall that hung a calendar dedicated to kitten scientists that was left by the previous teacher. He keeps forgetting to take it down. Till then it’s stuck in June with an orange tabby covered in ash from a failed experiment. He has no excuse why he hasn’t at least turned to the corresponding month. His head tilted back with his neck resting against the top back of the chair, staring up at the acoustic ceiling, particularly at a tile that has a mysterious orange stain.

Peter’s first class went pretty smoothly, if he does say so himself, some mishaps, but that was expected. His second class was also the same, learning from the first period, there were near to no mishaps then. The same goes for the rest of them, so why was Peter slumped in his chair exhausted you ask? Well, while he was prepared with his introduction, lesson plans, and icebreakers, he just didn’t factor in the energetic and rambunctious students. He had no idea how he could forget such a significant detail. It was to be expected really.

Peter inhaled deeply before sitting up again to let out another sigh through his mouth. “It’s your first day Peter, you knew his job was not going to be that easy.” Peter is in his late twenties and that isn’t considered to be that old, but not too young either, so you would think he could catch up with them, right? Flat out wrong, because Peter was getting up and heading to the teacher's lounge to make himself a coffee that came out watery. Using some creamer from tiny plastic cups that he scavenged from the back of a cabinet.

“Are those still good?” Mr.Rivera– Peter reads off his district I.D–asks when walking in.

“Dunno and don’t wanna. I had freshmen for the last two periods and I need anything with caffeine. Expired or not,” Peter poured in a third one before stirring it in.

Mr. Rivera sipped from his travel mug before he spoke. “Understood. Though some advice, bring your own. Coffee is shit here.”

Peter took a sip from his sticky foam cup and smacked his lips afterward, “Eugh, All I can taste is tap water and sadness.” he said, his upper lip involuntarily curling as he stared daggers at the nasty coffee.

Mr.Rivera let out a half-hearted laugh. “Yeah, it does that. I’m Abigail Rivera, 9th grade algebra,” he introduced himself and extended his arm out to shake Peter's hand.

“And I’m Sorry.” Peter said in return, taking his hand and giving it a shake. The side of his lip curled when he got a laugh from the man, “Peter Parker, 9th grade bio and 12th grade chemistry.”

Dropping Peter's hand, he rested his own on his hip. “Gotcha, you’re the newbie replacing Mrs.Newbury?”

Peter nodded while lifting his cup to his lips and drinking his coffee, which didn’t taste any better or worse. He didn't know how to feel about that.

“Her retirement was long awaited. I think she actually stopped teaching three years before and had just made the kids watch Bill Nye The Science Guy.”

Peter mirrored Mr. Rivera's stance as he lowered his cup from his lips. “Oh, Love that guy. Guess that means I’ve got competition huh?”

“Definitely,” Mr. Rivera chuckled. "They still sing his name. But don’t worry, you are young, so you’ll probably get some attention.”

“Really?”

Mr.Rivera, Peter will only ever address him because even if they are colleagues the man has gray hairs from his head to his long stubble, nodded. His aunt May have raised him right. “You are the youngest, and every teacher is married and has kids. Well, maybe not them all, but the majority. There's this one the kids really like. He's got the attitude and humor of a high schooler, so he fits in with the kids—has his own table, actually.”

Peter’s eyebrows perked. He had his fair share of favorite teachers, but he never had any that he ate with—he ate with his friends. Why am I clarifying myself? But seeing other students eating with them? Sure, but having their table, though, maybe that's a little too much.

“Talking about lunch, I'm going to head down there right now. You?”

“Nah, the Mrs. packs me one.” He dangles the most boring style lunch box known to man. Peter thinks it puts his Spider-Man one to shame. “If you see him—trust me, you will—try not to stare.”

Peter raised a brow. “Got it. Usually mine does too, but I was cutting close to being late so I couldn’t stop by any convenience stores,” Peter had finished his sad excuse for a coffee and tossed the cup into the bin that was by the door. He walked towards it, about to leave, but stopped to look back at the confused Mr.Rivera. “I’m Mrs.” He said with a slight grin and left, hearing himself getting another laugh from Mr.Rivera.

On the way to the cafeteria, Peter reflected on his interaction with Mr.Rivera. Saying he made a friend seemed a little too early to say— not to mention desperate, he thinks—but he made a good impression on someone at least, and he could live with that. Then, he reflected on Mr.Rivera. The man looked good for his age. The married man was tall, maybe a foot taller than Peter and he dressed exactly like Peter’s old geometry teacher did when he was a student. A sky blue dress shirt with navy blue dress pants that hugged his legs so snugly that Peter remembered people Mr.Rivera’s age still go to the gym. Or maybe he goes outside, he did have a good tan on him. “Lucky Mrs.Rivera,” Peter muttered to himself before he pushed through the double doors that led to the cafeteria and the noise of chatty youth.

He made his way to the canteen and waited for a student to get their lunch before he walked up to grab a tray. Suddenly, a ladle was shoved in his face, causing him to stumble back and look up wide eyed at the ladle handler.

“End of the line is over there.” She used her ladle direct Peter, he nearly ducked his head. “I ain't dealin’ with none of you line cutters,” a voice too deep and raspy for any woman told Peter. He blinked in response, trying not to falter at the sight of the large lunch lady that looked like she'd dealt with more than just line cutters. Peter had to fight his flight response, which was telling him to go to the back of the line.

Fixing his glasses, which had nearly fallen off his nose, Peter attempted to clarify himself. “Ah no, I'm not a—”

“No?” The woman somehow managed to sound deeper, scarier, and taller too, or Peter was crouching in slight fear.

He quickly patted around his breast pockets, reached into his blazer, took out his teacher's I.D., and showed the women. Swallowing before he spoke. “I’m a—a teacher! Not a student. Though I'm flattered,” he gave a nervous laugh, but it failed to be one and instead, he cleared his throat. He's 28, he should not be having a voice crack.

The giant woman leaned back and her expression changed completely. Ladle safely out of the way of any faces. “Oh! Teacher! Mr. Parker?” She read his name. “Sorry, but you have the face of a baby’s bum. Oh, but the body of a twig! You should eat more, let me serve you sweetie,” before Peter could say, “You don't need to,” a tray was shoved into Peter's hands that had what looked to be everything that was being served. “Enjoy!” Peter looked up to see the giant woman have a giant grin that flashed him a few of her silver teeth.

“Thank you,” Peter squinted his eyes at her name tag. He needed to update his prescription. “Ms. Johnson.” He looked up at her with what he hoped was a smile that didn't show his fear of the woman and turned to leave with his quite hefty tray. He darted for the double doors he entered through—hoping to hurry back to his classroom and eat before lunch ended—when he passed by a large table that was the loudest of the bunch. He stopped in his tracks and took a look because, from the side of his eye, there looked to be a real buff kid—Nope not a kid, Peter corrected himself. Just a big broad-shoulder man sitting with a bunch of teens ranging from tiny freshmen to seniors. The man’s body looked out of place from the children. His silhouette was reminiscent of an old high school bully of Peter's. The only difference is that instead of a varsity jacket and a pair of jeans, the man wore what looked like a black and red compression shirt and a matching red pair of slim-fit gym shorts. So fit, that Peter wondered if it was just barely meeting the dress code.

Oh and the obvious scarring covering every inch of the man that Peter could see, but he wasn't so focused on that. Through the patchy skin, he admired how muscular he was. Eventually his suspicions of him wearing obvious gym attire, his eyes trailed down the man's chest and Peter saw a whistle and the bright blue lanyard around his neck which meant he was a teacher and not some student. Peter mentally sighed in relief—he wasn't trying to get fired or get called ‘The Weird Teacher’ on the first day by looking inappropriately at a student.

This guy seemed more lively than the teachers he'd seen, especially himself. Maybe even more of a student than a teacher by his manners, eating with his mouth open and laughing loudly. Peter guessed the scarred man was in his early forties. He doesn't look too old, but not too young either.

Peter hadn't realized he was staring when the whole table was staring back at him. Those whose backs weren't turned were now. The tight shorts-wearing man was also looking at him blankly.

“Mr. Parker?” A student spoke up, probably questioning why their science teacher was just staring at a bunch of kids and a teacher. Peter did not blame him. He bet on his life he looked like a creep. Great first impression on his future students too, nice going Peter. And the Weird Teacher award goes to…!

Peter was about to say something, he didn't know what, but his mouth opened though the words that came next were not from him.

“You've got a problem Mr?” A male student, who was sitting next to the oh so fit-and-even-fitter clothing-wearing teacher, had stood up with his hands flat on the table as some sort of support or intimidation stance—Peter wasn't sure, probably the latter.

Now Peter is an adult, but the kid was taller and bigger than the others, even compared to Peter he was probably three of him in width. The buzz cut was not helping him look any different than a prisoner. He caught something from the boy's neck—Oh my God, no way that's a tattoo.

“What? No, no! Sorry, I didn't mean to—Just uh, couldn't help myself and noticed you were just sitting here, with them,” he cleared his throat. He jerked his chin toward the other teacher. “I was uh trying to figure out whether you were a teacher or just a special case of a super senior.” He gave a nervous chuckle, his eyes darting away as he used his index finger to push up his glasses.

Some, if not most, of the students from the table eyed him suspiciously. Peter couldn't help but notice a glint of protectiveness in their eyes and from the air around them. Could it be all these kids where this guy's body guards? He could probably take some of the smaller ones. Wait, you are not fighting children!

As Peter was trying to convince himself that he does not need to defend himself like he is reliving his own highschool experience, he saw the scarred man stand up.

“Would you believe me if I say that I get that a lot?” The man said with a grin at the end. Peter saw how the scars stretched and wrinkled at the sides of his lips. “Alright, hold your fire kids! This guy looks like bully food—I don't think there's anything you can say that this guy hasn't heard yet.”

“No Offense, Wade, but if you’re talking about the language back in your day, we can definitely think of better insults for Bobble head over here than just four-eyes.” A girl with mostly black hair and pink highlights spoke up. Peter wonders if her parents know just how much eye shadow is on her face.

“Bobble head, that's a new one.” Peter wasn't the type to over use his teacher powers and get very offended. Peter had to admit this generation was a whole new breed and he couldn’t help but be impressed...

[wreckedandpolemic]

yours - george daniel

(mdni) thank you anon for this request i had a SPECTACULAR time with this i hope i did it justice!!

warnings: 18+, semi-public unprotected sex, degradation, praise, jealousy, bratting, slight exhibitionism

It starts the way it always does: teasing. You don’t think you've taken your eyes off George once since he left your side, always ready with a smirk or sly wink when he catches your gaze.  He’s talking to some indie darling or other, a pretty girl, really, but you can see her hand practically white-knuckling his bicep from across the room. She smiles too big and laughs too hard and you hate her, just a little bit. You can’t stop her — you have no reason to. George isn’t yours, not really. The two of you fuck. It’s not exclusive, there’s no strings, but you’re starting to realise you might have let him in one too many times, let him jam something in the door to your heart; you can’t lock it back up when he leaves anymore.

 George locks eyes with you, expression pleading, and you suppress a victorious grin and delicately lift a shoulder in his direction. This is a game you play; he loves it when you get jealous, though neither of you would admit it. You want him all to yourself, want to march over there and prise that girl’s fingers off him, demand that he never so much as look at another girl. But that would be losing, which you’re not in the habit of, so you swallow your bitter fury and wash it down with a long sip of sweet wine, staring intensely at him over the rim of your glass. The girl goes on tiptoes to whisper something to him, and he stoops low to listen, two blonde heads bending together conspiratorially. Worse, he laughs in response, not a polite, awkward chuckle, but a genuine laugh. And he doesn’t look back at you afterwards.

You drain the rest of your wine and set the glass back on the table with a too-loud thud. Making your excuses to the director? producer? you’ve been chatting with, you stroll across the room, feigned casualness becoming harder to maintain with every step. The self-congratulatory smirk on his face as you approach is aggravating. He’s won and he knows it.

“Well, hello, love. I was wondering when I’d get to chat to you,” he says, hugging you from the side and letting his hand linger low on your waist for just a moment longer than he should. “Was starting to think you were avoiding me,” he adds, voice heavy with meaning, dripping with the unsaid.

“You know I can’t keep away from you for too long,” you grin, trailing a finger down his chest. It’s hot in here, his shirt unbuttoned as much as it’s acceptable, giving you the tiniest preview of the toned chest you know so well. The other girl hasn’t said a word, but she’s still lingering, her presence an unwelcome stain on the moment blossoming around the two of you, both curbing your tongues for her benefit. “Come on, I need a refill. We can catch up at the bar.” You phrase it like a suggestion, but he knows from the way your nails dig into his arm through his suit jacket that it’s a command. He leads you away and you shoot the girl a warning glare as you go for good measure.

“You look incredible,” he murmurs low in your ear, splaying a hand at your waist. The warmth of his palm radiates through you, some Pavlovian response to the simple feel of his fingers on your skin making you suppress a shudder. 

“Thank you, darling. I guess you’re alright,” you tease. He raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Fine, you’re fucking gorgeous.” You wander over to the bar, and you let him order for the pair of you. He knows what you like, anyway. Probably better than any man on Earth.

You still keep your eyes averted, though, because you knows as soon as you meet his eyes, he’ll say, “You really didn’t want me talking to her, huh?”

You roll your eyes, feigning nonchalance. “Oh, please. You were begging me to get rid of her. Besides, tiny, pretty little thing like her? She couldn’t have handled you.” You shrug. The bartender sets two glasses of wine in front of you, one red, one white, and he takes a long sip before replying.

“Maybe you’re right. I’ll never know, now. You dragged me out of there before I could even get her name.” Smug satisfaction courses through you — you’ve got your claws firmly hooked into him, at least for tonight. You bite back the reply of ‘Good. Forget her. Forget them all,’ that springs to your lips. You’re cool, you remind yourself. You’re relaxed and chill, and you can do casual. You’re not that cliché girl who falls in love with her fuckbuddy.

He runs a finger along the edge of your jaw, dipping down to play with your necklace. “My eyes are up here, darling,” you tell him, his warm hands nauseatingly close to your traitorous, beating heart. It thuds harder, calling out to him. You pray he can’t tell that if he wanted to crack your ribs, reach in and pluck your heart from its place in your chest, that you would let him. You wouldn’t even resist.

“I know what I’m looking at,” he says. “God, you can see everything through this dress.” He raises his other hand, knuckles grazing your nipple accidentally-on-purpose, and tucks a flyaway piece of hair behind your ear.

You swallow a moan, leaning close enough to him that his breath ghosts on your face. He tilts your chin up with a thumb, parting his lips in expectation. “You’re a fucking cock-tease bitch,” you murmur with a scowl, startling him into a laugh; that endearing, high pitched cackle that shakes his shoulders near-violently. “Where the fuck do you get off, flirting with her just to piss me off? Touching me like that in public?”

One of his hands glides down to the thigh-high slit in your dress, thumbing over the skin there. Electricity races from the point his fingers touch your skin, so close to where you want them and yet miles and miles away. “You wanna play, baby? Let’s play,” you breathe, gripping his neck and crashing your lips together. It’s harsh, messy, an explosion of lips and teeth and tongues sliding together. You pull back, biting hard at his lower lip just to feel the flesh tear beneath your teeth. To leave your mark on him so that when he kisses the next girl, the sting reminds him of you.

“You’re fucking wild,” he hisses, tongue flicking over your bite mark.

You shrug. “Don’t piss me off next time.” You pat his chest and lean past him to pick up your wine glass, brushing deliberately against him. “Come find me when you’re ready to get out of here. And you’re not gonna like what I do if you try it on with one more bitch in front of my face,” you promise, turning your back to him and taking a few calculated steps away before throwing him a glance over your shoulder.

“Oh, and George? Can I tell you a secret? I’m not wearing any underwear.”

He freezes and you give a self-satisfied grin. Your victory is short-lived, though, his hand shooting out to catch you by the wrist as you try to walk away. He tugs you back towards him, and you obey easily. There was never any question that you would, really. “You’re not fucking going anywhere,” he hisses in your ear. “Come with me,” he orders, keeping your wrist in a vice-like grip as he drags you out of the room. He doesn’t look at you once the whole time he stalks down the corridor, the only sound your heels clicking against the tile as you struggle to keep pace with him.

George crowds you into a bathroom, attacking your lips the moment the door slams closed. You barely register the quiet click of the lock, letting him flip you so your back is against the door and pin your arms above your head. The second he frees your mouth you moan, trying to squirm away from his lips against your neck and collarbones, but he holds you fast. He dips his head into the valley between your breasts, licking at the skin there. “I love your fucking tits,” he says, mouthing wetly over the fabric that covers your nipple.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” you sigh, voice full of false bravado that can’t cover how weak his touch makes you. “Get on with it, or people are going to notice we’re missing,”

“Greedy girl,” George chastises, but his eyes shine with want and his hard cock presses against you through his trousers. He steps back, and your whole body mourns the loss of his skin against yours, aching for him. “Bend over for me, baby,” he orders, a bolt of lust striking you. He knows acutely that all he has to do is tack on for me? and you’ll do whatever he asks. You lean over the sink, cold porcelain biting into your thighs. His eyes meet yours in the mirror, and he lowers his head to kiss your bare back. It’s soft, intimate, in stark contrast to the rough way he’s handling you. It adds fuel to the sickening flare of hope deep in your chest that gutters and gutters but never goes out. “Keep your eyes on me, okay?” He’s gentle, all of a sudden, gathering your dress in one fist and pulling it to the side. You gasp, your cunt fluttering in the cool air, and George grins.

“Come on, just fuck me,” you groan, rocking your bare cunt against him, the friction from the fabric of his clothes burning your clit deliciously. Your breath fogs up the mirror, the tap presses uncomfortably between your breasts and the corner of the counter cuts into your thighs. You hardly feel any of it, singularly focused on the man behind you. He removes his steadying hand from your hip, unbuckling his belt and shoving his trousers and boxers down just enough to release his cock. You contort your body, twisting to look over your shoulder at him, his cock red and dripping, begging for you. He still looks so put together, crisp and elegant in his suit, his reflection immaculate above you. You look even more wanton by comparison, hair tumbling over your shoulders and lipstick smeared across your chin. Desperate, hot desire drips out of you, your pussy clenching around nothing.

“Beg for it,” he orders, and you’re too far gone to feel embarrassed. He slides a hand between your legs, just barely grazing at your clit. “Oh, God, George, please fuck me,” you moan, mind-wiping pleasure licking from where he toys gently with your swollen bud. “Shit, I need it. Nobody fucks me like you, baby. It’s you, it’s you, it’s always you,” you gasp, biting down on your lower lip before you let slip another incriminating admission.

He swipes a finger across your cunt, dipping teasingly into your entrance and pulling away before you can even react. He licks your arousal off his finger, both of you moaning softly. “Wish we had enough time for me to eat that sweet little pussy. Always so fucking wet for me. Don’t worry, baby, you’ll get what you need,” he promises. You watch him reach into his pocket for a condom and shake your head wildly. “Oh, my dirty girl,” he murmurs, interest colouring his tone. My, your heart gets caught on. My, my, my. My girl. The words ricochet in your skull, bashing against your brain, denting it, leaving it bent out of shape with enough room for George to shove his way in and stay firmly glued there. “You want it raw?”

You nod desperately. “Want it fast. Hard. Dirty,” you plead. “Come on, baby. Ruin me.” At that, he can’t stay teasingly out of your reach any longer, guiding himself to your dripping entrance and thrusting into you in one fluid motion. You’re full so fast you’re practically choking on him, biting down hard to keep a scream at bay. You marvel every time at how well he fits inside you; your body feels made for him. Coherent thought escapes you, euphoria twining through all of your limbs at once.

He paws at your tit with the hand not holding your dress, pinching your nipple cruelly and sending a shock of pleasure-pain spiralling through you. His thrusts are quick but measured, exercising a control that you can’t even begin to fathom as you cling to the edge of the sink for dear life. Your thighs bash against the counter, but you can’t even begin to care. The only thing you know now is George. His hand digging into your waist, nails biting at your flesh, sharp pinpricks drawing a constellation of pleasure in your skin. You’ll be glad, tomorrow, to have the marks, the physical evidence of this encounter, proof of the ownership you feel over him.

“Is someone in there?” somebody calls from outside. You freeze. George only laughs, low and breathy in your ear, teasing, taunting.

“Well? Is someone here, baby?” he whispers, fucking into you again as he speaks.

You choke back a whimper, thrill stealing up your spine at the prospect of getting caught. Someone is right there. If they decide to open the door, there’s no hiding the dirty display you and George are putting on. Being seen like this, bent over, stuffed full of him and begging for more should be humiliating, but inexplicably you almost want to be caught. Maybe, if those girls out there could see how perfectly you fit, how well you fuck him, they’d leave him alone.

“Yeah, I’m in here,” you choke out, clapping a hand to your mouth to stifle a moan when George rolls your clit between his fingers, hot euphoria dripping down your spine. “I’ll— I’ll probably be a second!” you manage, his teasing fingers not giving you even a moment to breathe. Footsteps recede from behind the door and you breathe a sigh of relief, letting a string of suppressed whines and curses fall from your lips. Before you can chastise him, he perfectly hits that spot inside of you and you scream out, mind going blank from pleasure.

He groans. “You’re so fucking beautiful like this, baby. My sweet girl, stretching so pretty around my cock.” You whimper, widening your legs to draw him in deeper. George lifts your head up by your hair, forcing you to make eye contact with yourself in the mirror. “Look at yourself,” he commands. “Look at my pretty girl, falling apart for me.” Your soupy mind latches onto that my again, that little word choking you as effectively as if he had wrapped his hands around your throat. “Made to take my cock. Isn’t that right?”

“Tell me you’re mine,” you gasp, so, so full of him.

“What?” he manages between pants, hips never slowing from their brutal pace. Your skin slaps together, wet, sopping sounds ringing through the small room.

“Fuck, George, just say you’re mine. You don’t even have to mean it,” you coax, moaning low in your throat when his fingers brush your clit. “Come on, baby. Who else do you get it this good from? You know you own my fucking pussy. Let me pretend I get something back,”

He stills for a split second, as though your words cut through the fog of lust swirling between you. Another girl might not have even noticed, but you know every motion he makes inside and out. A broken beat in his perfect rhythm means everything to you. He leans down, slow and deliberate. “I’m yours,” George whispers, and you can’t hide your physical reaction, how good it feels to hear those words. Your blood turns to syrup, heart beating deadly fast to keep it pumping through your organs. “Does it feel good when I say that?” You nod wildly. “I know it does. I can feel what that does for you. I’m yours, baby. Yours, all yours. As long as you’re mine,” he croons, breath hot and sticking in your ears. He’s ruining you. You won’t ever be able to lay under another man without thinking of him, of this.

“I’m yours, George, you know that. Ugh, fuck, I’m getting close.” You slip a hand between your legs, both of you rolling circles on your clit. Tantalising pleasure builds and builds, churning in your gut, setting your body alight. George doesn’t let up, words failing the pair of you, grunts and moans dripping off his tongue in the place of gratifying words. Pleasure coils in your belly, winding tighter and tighter, dragging you ever closer to your high.

One final thrust and you fall apart, unspooling under his quick, clever fingers. Euphoria seeps into your bones, sticky heat keeping you glued to George. Your toes curl in your shoes, your legs shake, unsteady on your feet. He fucks you through your orgasm, stroking your flushed skin as his thrusts become more erratic. You cry out something that could be his name, rocking your hips, half retreating from overstimulation and half chasing his orgasm. You squeeze your cunt around him and he comes with a shout, his body loosening against you, his hand dropping from your hip to catch himself on the counter. He spills inside you as your name spills from his lips, smooth and sweet on his tongue. He pants, hips resting against yours, and catches your eye in the mirror with a smile.

“Fuck,” he mutters, grinning tiredly. He pulls out of you with a sickening squelch, cleaning up as best as he can in the bathroom sink and tucking himself away. You stand upright slowly, clutching your abused muscles.

“Fuck is right,” you reply, wincing as you feel his cum trickling out of you. “I think you’ve shattered my hipbones, darling.” You adjust your dress, crumpled where George had it clutched in his fist.

“You love it,” he fires back. You shrug, tipping your head in acknowledgement. “Sit up here for me, love,” he says, patting the counter. You balance on the edge and let George fuss over you for a moment, cleaning you up as gently as possible, plying you with soft kisses when you whimper and squirm away, oversensitive. This is always the worst part of your hookups — he takes such good care of you after, and for those few minutes, you feel what it would be like to be really his. You stand on shaky legs and try to breathe some life back into your body, try to reel your mutinous heart back in.

“Shit,” you hiss, registering your reflection in the mirror. You look utterly fucked, hair wild, dress ruined, makeup smeared, chest heaving. “I can’t go back out there like this,” you complain, swatting at him when he smirks. Of course, he still looks completely put together, composed as if he wasn’t crying out your name and cumming mere minutes ago.

It takes a minute, but you manage to wrangle your hair into submission and scrub the lipstick stains from your face. There isn’t a lot you can do for your dress, though. Your thighs burn every time you take a step, and your bare cunt is desperately sore. George swats you on the ass and follows you out of the bathroom. Matty catches your eye as you slink guiltily back into the party, shooting you a wicked smirk. You can’t help but love him, even if it does mean everyone in this room is going to know your business by night’s end.

“Hey,” George says, still keeping a supportive arm around your waist. “If you really want me, I’m yours,”

Your pulse speeds, your tender heart smashing against your ribs, bruising to a pulp. “Can you repeat that?” you manage.

“I’m yours, love. As long as you’re mine,” he promises, taking you by the waist and staring deep into your eyes. You’ve always wondered whether he could read your thoughts with that look, and now you have your answer. Stretching up on tiptoes, you sling your arms around his neck and catch him in a long, sweet kiss. You link a finger around his.

“Yours. All yours,”

[rippeanuts1950-2000]

i hate u, i love u

Prev|Next

Chapter 2)

“YOU DID WHAT!?”

Laney winces at how loud Konnie is shouting. “I made a bet with Corey.” She repeats. It’s just her and Konnie at the lunch table as Kim is in the science labs checking her experiment with Carrie, and Larry just doesn’t have this lunch period. “Okay, but why?” Konnie stresses as she picks up her grilled cheese sandwich from her lunch tray. “If you guys win the battle of the bands, he leaves me alone.” Laney explains with a shrug as she digs around in her backpack for her lunch box. She finally finds it and pulls out a bag of chips. “But if we lose?” Laney deflates a little. “I have to rejoin Grojband for a month and if I enjoy being a part of the band again, I have to consider staying permanently.” She tacks on.

Konnie shakes her head. “Well this gives us more of a reason to win. But seriously, why did you think this was a good idea? You’re literally the brain cell of The Newmans, that’s why you’re our manager.” She points out. Laney opens her mouth to answer her but finds that she doesn’t know what to say. Like she knows the main reasons why she said yes, but in all honesty she paid attention to the pros instead of the cons. Why did that happen? Laney usually goes for the cons first instead of the pros.

“I-I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t thinking about what would happen if The Newmans lost. You guys wouldn’t leave me if I had to go back to Grojband, right?” The bag of chips Laney has been holding pops open and chip crumbs fall onto Konnie’s lunch tray. Fortunately the other girl doesn’t seem to care however and just organizes them into a little pile on her tray while she answers Laney’s question. “Of course not, Penny Lane. You’ve become an important part of our group since you’ve started hanging out with us. Even before you became our manager, you were important to the team.” Konnie assures her, using the nickname that the band gave to Laney when she first started hanging out with them to further prove her point.

Laney takes a deep breath, silently reminding herself to breathe evenly so that she doesn’t work herself into a panic attack. Though even if she did work herself into a panic attack, she’d be okay because she’s hanging with Konnie right now and Konnie knows how to calm her down the best. “Thanks Konnie.” Laney says, feeling a bit more assured. Konnie nods. “Girl, you know I always got your back.” As sweet as the sentiment is, it makes Laney laugh afterwards because Konnie is sprinkling chip crumbs from her plate into her mouth. Though Laney would probably do the same. “Hey, do you have work today?” Konnie asks once she’s swallowed some water.

“Yep, it’s gonna be a long shift too so I’ll be doing homework there.” Laney says with a sigh. “Well, me and the others are gonna stop by and visit you. We could do homework together if the shop’s not too busy.” Konnie suggests, making Laney smile even more. “Yeah, that sounds good. You guys ARE always a great buffer for Corey.” She says, popping some chips in her mouth. “Oh and let me know if they need to hire more people because I will try to get hired to keep you company.” Konnie adds, finishing off the grilled cheese. “You don’t have to do that but I’ll keep you posted.” Laney says with a laugh.

Out of all the Newmans, Laney was the closest to Konnie. After the big blow up between her and Grojband, which had happened at school with an audience of no less than thirty, Laney had run off to cry in a janitor's closet. Konnie was there when the blow up had happened so she chased after Laney and comforted her. The rest is pretty much history, with Laney being added into the Newman’s crew as their manager that week at lunch. Being as close as she is to Konnie also meant that she knew a lot more about Konnie than most people. Like her secret boyfriend.

“How are you and Kon doing by the way? He hasn't sent me cryptic emails on his burner account asking for date ideas in a while.” Laney asks, causing Konnie to blush. “Oh we’re good. Coming up on that one year, so he’s been trying to prove that he can plan the perfect date without your help.” She says, her eyes practically morphing into hearts. Kon was the only member of Grojband that Laney had a good relationship with to this day, so she very much approved of the relationship between Konnie and Kon. “Well as long as he's treating you well, I have no complaints.” Laney says with a grin and a shrug. She pulled out the last of the food in her lunch box.

“Want my cheese stick?”

*****

You know what sucks?

Writing lyrics and using your own inspiration instead of your sister’s. But Corey knows it must be done if he wants to get his thoughts out. This of course, means that he has to write yet another song about Laney that he’ll never perform. But getting the words out isn’t as easy as it sounds, no, no, no. If anything, he’s having more trouble than usual, what with the bet that’s gonna put Laney back in his life for a month, the fact that the Newmans are currently in his dad’s shop and have been here for the past two hours, oh and that shiny necklace in the display shelf Corey is writing on isn’t helping much either.

He should have known the Ewmans were coming when Lanes asked his dad if her friends could come to the shop and do homework with her. His dad said, yes, of course because Laney is his favorite employee and apparently she gets her work done or something. Which sucks because when Corey asks his dad if Kin and Kon can come hang out with him in the shop, he’s told “No, Corey, finish pricing the rare books section and organizing it by price.” To which Corey would like to say that it’s not his fault that they never get anything cool at the pawn shop, like instruments or boxes of mannequin heads.

Wait, what was he supposed to be doing again? Oh right! Writing lyrics. Here’s what he had so far, 

Am I the boy you dreamed of? Oh(might need to tone down the oh, don’t want people to think we’re too much of a boy band, if we ever played this)

Living in your subconscious, oh oh

Do you believe in love? Oh

And is it because of me?(i hope she still believes in love)

Yeah, if it's up to me

Am I the boy you dreamed of? Oh

Living in your subconscious, oh oh

Do you believe in love? Oh

And is it because of me?(once maybe, prob not anymore)

So not much, but soon it will hopefully become something. But he doubts that it will happen today, because once again, the Ewmans are in his general area of space, talking to his Lanes. Right now they were talking about some Disney Channel franchise that he knew Laney probably didn’t care less about and was only humoring the Ewmans in their conversation. That’s Lanes for ya, always so considerate and willing to listen to people talking about things she doe- “By the way, Laney, did you finish writing that song?” Carrie’s stupid voice really needs to stop interrupting his thoughts.

Hold on, Laney writes music now? Since when? “No, I still need to do the sad ex part. Angry ex is done though.” And she’s writing songs about heartbreak? Who broke her heart, Corey would like to know. “Care to share it?” Kim asks, her voice is less stupid than Carrie’s but it’s still stupid.

“Uh, sure.” Laney glances his way to make sure he’s not paying attention so Corey pretends to be doing something that doesn’t involve looking and paying attention to her. This seems to work as he can hear the rustling of paper and Laney says, “Larry could you read the highlighted part? It’s my favorite part. Also I’m thinking kind of like a slow piano part with this song if that makes sense. ” Corey hears the Ewmans agree and Larry begins to read the paper;

“Do you miss me like I miss you?

Fucked around and got attached to you

Friends can break your heart too

And I'm always tired but never of you

If I pulled a you on you, you wouldn't like that shit

I put this reel out, but you wouldn't bite that shit

I type a text but then I never mind that shit

I got these feelings but you never mind that shit

Oh, oh

Keep it on the low

You're still in love with me but your friends don't know.

And if I was you I would never let me go.”

Corey’s heart is pounding wildly. Did…Did Laney write this song about him? The Ewmans’ feedback falls flatly on his ears as he starts to scramble to figure this out. She did write that friends could break your heart, which did happen at least to him when they stopped being friends. And Lanes did used to always be tired but she also always listened to him and the others with as much attention as she could give them. She was right about how he would have felt if she did what he did to her. He would have hated it. He would have hated her. 

All the signs were saying that the song was about him with the only part being wrong that Kin and Kon didn’t know about his feelings. They did, and were most definitely tired of him ranting about how he missed his chance and that he wished he could take it all back. 

“We should sing that for battle of the bands!” Konnie says, pulling the brakes on Corey’s speeding thoughts. “If I can get it done in time, it’s hard trying to do the sad ex.” Lanes says and out of the corner of Corey’s eye he can see her putting paper into a blue folder. “Either way, that’s probably one of your best works, Penny Lane.” Larry says and Corey wants to yell at them to stop calling Laney Penny Lane because that is a stupid nickname even if he DOES like the Beatles sometimes.

But he doesn’t because last time he did that, Carrie threw a book at his head and told him that he doesn’t get to pick Laney’s nicknames. The book ended up breaking a shelf and Carrie had to work at the shop for a month to make up for it, so Corey would rather not have a repeat of that incident.

A ball of paper hits his face. “Riffin! What’s your band’s setlist?” Carrie asks and Corey has to fight the urge to vomit at the sight of Carrie’s face. “Uh for what?” Corey says when he realizes he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “For the battle of the bands.” Carrie says with an eye roll. Corey scowls. “We’re not fully decided yet but we have agreed on 2 BEST FRIENDS, Old Me, and Monster.” He says. Sharing setlists is a thing he and Carrie do so that each band can do the opposite of what the other is doing. “Angry and rueful songs, huh? Guess we’re gonna have to do the opposite. Happy and content.” Carrie mumbles and Corey glances at the rest of the Ewmans and Lanes who are deep in thought. 

“Yeah that’s great, can I have my personal space back?” Corey snaps and Carrie rolls her eyes some more. He hopes that one day they get stuck in the back of her head. “Jeez, what crawled up your ass and died? I’m just making sure we don’t sound the same and no one is gonna confuse our bands again, literally nothing about that is out of the ordinary.” She says, raising an eyebrow. “Three reasons. One, I don’t like you. Two, I’ve had to listen to your stupid voice for the past two hours. Three, It’s almost six and you and your band are still here, distracting my coworker from doing her job.” He snaps, crumpling the paper in his hands.

Carrie scoffs. “One, I don’t like you either but at least I can be civil with you. Two, your voice is annoying to me but do I say anything? No, I don’t. And three, you’ve literally just sat there for the past two hours doing nothing while Laney has been doing homework, going over stock in the display case, and keeping a steady conversation with us. I don’t think you get an opinion on what she does. And anyway, we’re leaving soon.” Corey opens his mouth to argue but for once, Carrie is right. He hates it when she calls him out but when she’s right, ugh that is the worst!

Carrie smiles. “That’s what I thought.” She turns around and Corey just watches numbly as she and the rest of the Ewmans say their goodbyes to Lanes. He hated the Ewmans before everything that went down with Laney, but now that they took Laney from them he hates them even more.

Faintly he can hear the door close so he looks over at Laney and starts to take her in. She’s not paying attention to him, so he can stare for as long he wants. Earlier today when they made the bet he noticed that she hadn’t straightened her hair that morning so her normally straight hair was curly. Corey had always thought Laney looks pretty but when her hair is in its natural state, it just does something to him. It’s like he’s seeing her for the first time all over again. Her eyes are darting over the stock notebook and he truly finds it incredible how expressive they can be. No matter how stoic her face is, her eyes always give her away. Her freckles cover her face perfectly and Corey just wants to kiss each one of them, one by-

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Lanes’ voice interrupts his thoughts. Corey jerks back a bit, embarrassing himself further after being caught staring. “Just taking in your natural beauty.” He responds, which is true but he knows Laney just thinks he’s messing with her when he says stuff like that. “You look like a stalker.” She answers, checking something off the stock notebook. Laney’s not even looking at him, she just knows he’s staring. “You’re a piece of art, Penn. I need at least an hour to take you in.” Corey says, grinning mischievously.

Laney looks up from the notebook, her expression a bored one. “Did you get that pick up line off the internet again?” She asks and Corey blushes. He really hopes it doesn’t show. “Ouch, you wound me. That was a Riffin original.” He says and Laney throws a pencil at his head. “No wonder it was bad then.” She reaches the stock notebook out towards him. “I’m going to stock check in the back, finish this for me will you?” Corey takes the notebook from her and their fingers brush. Just like when they did the pinkie promise, her skin feels warm and electrifying. She disappears into the back room as Corey lingers on how her touch makes him feel.

He loves it.

Almost as much as he loves her.

And the second chapter is done! Sorry if the ending seems a little awkward I didn’t know how to finish it. As always, send me asks about this, I would to info dump for this!

[lvrcpid]

front stage center - modern!au

includes: fem!reader. implied neteyamxreader. implied aonungxreader. dad tsu’tey agenda. i had so much fun writing this. the play is hamilton btw.

imagine being in the school play with modern!avatar.

——————————————————————————————

in the beginning!

— you’re a theater kid!

— your schools annual play was hamilton this year

— you just needed more people to audition with you

— you were lowkey scared

— who else better to turn to than your friends

— lo’ak only did it because tsireya agreed off the bat

— neteyam said yes because he actually enjoyed watching the play on disney+

— you had to bribe ao’nung with a date

— kiri is behind the scenes (lights and stage hands)

— spider was in earshot and did it just to be around y’all

— rotxo did it cause he’s also in theater with you!

after auditions!

— lo’ak got the part of james madison and hercules mulligan

— tsireya got the part of angelica

— you got the part of eliza

— ao’nung got the part of thomas jefferson and lafayette

— neteyam got the part of hamilton??? (ooo yuh get it i guess)

— spider got phillip and laurens

— don’t play with spider that boy can SING.

— roxto GOT AARON BURR??

— ao’nung wanted hamilton but the theater teacher said he fit perfectly for thomas…genuinely think it’s cause of the curly hair… OH WELL

opening night

— why was your dad already tearing up???

— you didn’t even get on stage yet

— THE PARENTS GETTING FLOWERS FOR YOU GUYSSSS

— tuk having a special flower just for you

— jake probably gave her candy to hold her over since you guys were doing the whole show which was 2 HOURS LONG

— kiri is stressed out cause she’s literally doing all the work HERSELF

— well she made herself do all the work

— it’s her friends and her siblings for crying out loud

— neteyam and you practicing together

— ao’nung arguing with hair and makeup

— lo’ak and tsireya taking pics

— rotxo is PANICKING WITH KIRI FOR SOME REASON??

— the whole cast is either freaking out or creepily calm

during the show!

— neteyam definitely is going on broadway

— he was made for this???

— jake and neytiri are so PROUD OF HIM

— being shocked because it’s going really good just for act one

— ao’nung being salty cause you and him have no scenes together while you and neteyam LITERALLY GET MARRIED

— you singing your ass off during helpless and that would be enough

— no literally your mom had to bring tissues for your dad

— spider eating the girls up with his vocals

— lo’ak spicing it up with humor that goes off script a bit

— kiri smiling at all of you from backstage but probably still stressed out

— she ate with the stage hands though don’t play with her

— the audience loves it so why not

— tsireya definitely is made for this cause she portrays angelica so well ??

— it was a one night only show since it’s two hours long and y’all are kids…

— THE TURN OUT WAS GREAT

— the chemistry yall all had was to die for , you guys looked like naturals!

after the show!

— you guys all screaming like little girls cause y’all are so proud of yourselves

— neteyam got you flowers and hid them till after the show :(

— tonowari hugging ALL OF YOU

— bear hug anyone?

— tsu’tey still crying cause of who lives who dies who tells your story

— your mom handing you the flowers HE was supposed to give you

— lo’ak was still in character for like a week afterwards

— tsireya was so proud of herself and everyone that she made little gift bags for everyone

— she’s such a cutie i love her

— tuk probably fell asleep, not cause it was boring she actually really enjoyed seeing it , it was just past her bedtime LMAO

— AONUNG WANTS TO JOIN THEATER NOW.

— i can just see him actually having the time of his life on stage

— she was sad she missed it when she woke up

— kiri is probably so relieved that it’s over now she can go home and sleep

— you guys took a group picture that you all got framed the next day

— y’all went to dinner afterwards in your costumes since the theater director said y’all can keep them 🤭

[eliotquillon]

I know your fic is from Camerons pov, but I'm really curious about Chases state of mind throughout the loop. We know he's openly worried about her, but is he more in touch with his feelings for her? If she puts distance between them, does he respect it? Does he ever go to House or Foreman? Does he go back and break into her apartment?

OH THIS IS SUCH A TRICKY QUESTION.

it’s difficult to answer because, well…chase is kind of a puppet of the loop, just like everyone else who isn’t cameron. his mindset and behaviour can only change when cameron’s do—cameron’s the only one who really has proactive power here; everyone else is mostly reactive. this is why house only decides against telling stacy about stealing her psych records on days where cameron’s behaviour leads him to suspect the loop’s existence—it’s that (suspected) new knowledge that makes him modify his behaviour, nothing else. chase will always try to seek out cameron to discuss methgate (even when she avoids him); he will always start the loop concerned about her; off-screen, his morning routine will always play out the exact same way up until the moment cameron walks in (or doesn’t walk in) and he gets to react. so surprise! this answer is really going to be a hunting analysis in a trenchcoat.

i have always been soooo struck by that final shot of chase at the end of the episode—staring into the mirror, washing his face—and the way it parallels cameron staring into the mirror and crossing off her calendar. because first of all: this immediately pulls focus to chase in an episode that has been a Very Special Episode About Allison Cameron and also very focused on house/stacy. the screentime chase gets in hunting is mostly in the context of cameron: they’re together when they meet the patient for the first time, chase tries to comfort cameron on several occasions after the HIV exposure, they search kalvin’s hotel room together, they sleep together, they talk about it afterwards. and this is honestly not an uncommon episode setup—one of the team pulls focus and another team member becomes their ‘deputy’ in their scenes (this happens a lot with kutner and taub). chase getting a look-in in that final montage is therefore kind of weird! but it suggests that there’s more going on in chase about what happened with cameron than he’s willing to let on in the rest of the episode. he talks a good game about how the sex was good and how they probably shouldn’t do it again because it’ll get complicated, but this final shot suggests that there’s maybe a bit more to it than that already. so i guess because MY personal interpretation of this scene is that chase is more in touch with his feelings for cameron at this point than he’s willing to let on, this is also how his mindset is in the fic.

this also ties in with the mistake, and how, as @all-pacas has pointed out, chase very likely sleeps with cameron either immediately before or immediately after his final examination with the dead patient’s brother that leads to him being sued. in time loop fic it’s set so that chase has that conversation after sleeping with cameron (actually, i’m specifically setting it the day after loop day) so that doesn’t have as much of a bearing on chase in this fic as it might if he’d had that conversation before sleeping with cameron, but it’s still weighing on him. so in time loop fic chase is worried about cameron, yes, and also going ‘oh shit i think i have feelings for her’ (because let’s be real, chase has been on/off nursing a light crush on cameron since chekhov’s gun in s1), but he’s also got the Conversation on the horizon. will he talk to cameron about this, i hear you wonder…i plead the fifth. the point is that chase always has a lot swirling around in his brain even before cameron starts messing with the events of the loop and goes around changing things.

anyway where was i. cameron backing off and trying to put space between her and chase will never work—there’s a bit of this in ch2 already, with him paging her and them having a big argument about it. cameron ghosting people is a sign that she’s freaking out about something, and chase is, naturally, always going to assume that she’s freaking out about the fact that they slept together—that’s something he’s involved in, something that’s in his own best interest to try and ‘fix’, so he’s uniquely motivated to try and step in. again, this is still reactive behaviour; if cameron were to go along with the day’s events just as they played out in the episode and have a clear-the-air conversation with him, chase would, ironically, be more inclined to give her space than if she flat out avoided him. by the time cameron figures this out, she’s less inclined towards avoiding him anyway, so there won’t really be an example of him backing off in-fic (because where’s the fun in that!).

he goes to foreman quite frequently. well, more specifically—foreman goes to him. one thing i will always respect about foreman is that despite talking a big game about how he doesn’t want to be involved in work drama, he nevertheless lives for meddling in workplace gossip (even if it’s for the sake of ‘protecting his peace’ lmao). without the whole ‘do you always wear a condom?’ conversation to bring up the topic organically (and without cameron accidentally telling him because she thinks he already knows, lmao), foreman will almost always go to chase off-screen and point out that a) something’s up with cameron, and b) chase seemed worried about cameron as soon as she walked in, meaning c) chase knows what’s up with cameron and is probably involved. how cooperative chase is with this line of conversation depends on how erratic cameron’s behaviour appears to them: in some loops, where cameron seems mostly normal, chase will brush foreman off entirely. in other loops (particularly the earlier ones), where cameron appears to be acting completely insane, chase will confess to seeing her the night before and will allude to the meth, but won’t admit that he slept with her. chase and foreman aren’t friends, but it is in their collective interest that cameron’s alright—she’s their colleague, she’s usually the bridge between them, and they do both care about her. sleeping with cameron isn’t foreman’s business, in chase’s opinion (and tbh, also in foreman’s), but the meth sort of is. that said, cameron hates chase and foreman talking about her behind her back and both of them know this, so cameron rarely finds out about any of these conversations.

house is, as always, a bit messier. one of the ‘canon events’ of this loop is that house will always put two and two together about chase and cameron, although not always at the same point in the day (again, no condom conversation to pull the strings together). a lot of the time house figures this out early enough that chase doesn’t want to deal with the inevitable teasing that comes from saying he’s worried about cameron afterwards, and the times that he doesn’t…well, he puts it together as soon as chase expresses concern lol. but house’s reaction to chase coming to him is usually to do exactly what cameron is concerned he’ll do in ch1 and 2: pathologise her. after all, cameron consistently ‘solves’ kalvin’s case early enough that there’s the rest of the day to play with, and that in itself is something house finds interesting—as much as i love cameron, she rarely outright ‘solves’ cases in canon like house or chase do, and yet suddenly she’s coming into work with a confident diagnosis of something completely different to the previous options they’d all come up with (including her own—sarcoidosis). cameron is furious the first time she realises this has happened, and from then on will take steps to prevent chase from going to house (usually by just talking to chase directly). this doesn’t always stop the pathologising (again, house occasionally gets an inkling about the loop on his own as a result of cameron’s actions—butterfly effects often occur), but it does put a stop to chase talking to house about her.

chase never breaks into cameron’s apartment in the loops. not even when house tells him to lmao (and this will happen off-screen a handful of times, including in ch3–cameron doesn’t know, and therefore it won’t be obvious to any readers, but i am Word of God telling you that in loop 3 house tries to get foreman and chase to break into her apartment lol). he has no reason to—from his perspective, he was just there the night before. he already knows about the meth. he was the one who slept with her. he can’t see what else he could learn from it. he also feels very conflicted about sleeping with cameron in the first place—‘don’t turn into a good guy on me now’ got to him, she was high and he was sober, he has feelings for her and he’s pretty sure she doesn’t feel the same way—and would only feel worse about it if he violated her privacy by breaking into her apartment. a lot is rattling around his pretty blond head. there’s also the fact that chase breaking into cameron’s apartment would seriously put a spanner in the works of cameron slowly un-repressing her feelings for him—she would be so, so mad, and while chase wouldn’t remember doing it, she would. it would take a really long time for her to get over it, even with the knowledge that it’s just a ‘loop thing’, and there are only 29 loops, remember. so logistically it wouldn’t work anyway. but also chase just wouldn’t.

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Laws of Attraction ep 3

I might redefine my colour theory as I go...and just from the first minute I'm wondering if the red is actually Charn's connection to his mother and therefore revenge (rather than the law)...(also, something something the blue flowers covering the red of his mother's shirt).

And flashback to happier times (hence the yellow shirt, I guess) with Charn's mother in pink again and wearing the ring on her necklace.

So Charn fought government officials (above the Mayor) to help the people keep their land but the powerful didn’t take kindly to his actions so killed his mother as a backlash?... I don't think we've got the full story here but this could be why Charn doesn't care much for the rich and powerful (despite him saying he likes money and power - but that's probably only because he needs both to get revenge).

"Unnamed body" is that the bodyguard that Charn and Tin fought last ep?

(Sorry, I just need a moment to get over how beautiful Ploy's mother is... 😮)

There's so much red and green...this has to mean something. Maybe the green is for Tonkhao and the red is Charn and Tin's revenge...but that means I'm less certain about Charn and Tin themselves (unless they're lapis lads - both loyal blue boys - hmmmm 🤔).

We've found the toy! And it looks like it's going to disappear with Ploy!

Rose telling Charn he cares about Tin and his world whilst flanked by so. much. red and green (on the wall and the cushions). (also Organ is amazing. It's so good seeing her play a different character to Tanya).

Please! I adore all these *pikachu face* don't call me uncle! I'm phi to you conversations we get in qls. 😂

The toy dog recorded an incriminating conversation maybe?

Charn's face when he realises Tin is comparing him to the kids! And then Tin calling Charn luung! Love it!

And the blue is finally back! On both of them! (*chanting* lapis lads lapis lads lapis lads *fingers crossed for @respectthepetty*) and Charn tells Tin to take his blue denim jacket off to pretend to be something he's not to garner support from the public. Delicious if this is correct!

The red line of revenge joining them at their shoulders in the background.

Evil babygirl activated! I love Charn's face here.

"I don't know who taught him that" - comedian of the year award goes to Thatthep.

Oooo the green (of Tonkhao and what she represents to them) looming behind both Thatthep and Tanthai.

The 'anger management room' is fantastic. So, so deliberate to first smash the green vase whilst wearing a red jumpsuit (since everything else he smashed were big appliances) and then the tv afterwards (symbolic of the truth eventually being revealed to the public?).

I mean...I feel for Tanthai but he brought it all on himself (under the huge influence of his father but still...). I really want to know what that toy will reveal.

I wonder if Thee will be on Tanthai's side or do as Thatthep says...

I love how it goes from all serious 'we're being threatened' dramatic music to romantic music and 'you can talk to me about your troubles if you want'.

Ooof. That is not a healthy father-son relationship. I know they want us to feel sympathy for Tanthai, and even see a romantic connection between Thee and Tanthai, but I just can't until I know what Tanthai did.

I think Tin suspects Charn of starting the fire himself. Aaaaand yes he does.

SILVY! (in loyal blue. Loyal to Charn?)

So I'm leaning more towards Tin (and maybe Charn as well) being blue... Charn walks Tin backwards away from the blue window whilst telling him he can't be his righteous self, he has to go against his true nature to get ahead of their enemies.

It's interesting though that Thatthep and Tanthai also wear a lot of blue. More to ponder on for later eps...

Oh and the clenched-fist-shot-my-beloathed. I haven't seen it for a while. And I'd rather not ever again.

[patchun]

Emerald Seaglass Elite 4 Saga

This is not a challenge romhack or anything but I am on Hard Mode and I do really like my team so I figured I'd document my experience here. Just one post this time no worries lol.

This has been a fairly casual run with me, as usual, coming overprepared and taking the game far more seriously than it should be taken for the majority of it - but nonetheless, in the interest of not wasting healing items and such because the economy was actually kind of rough, I've been playing on Switch mode. But, for the purposes of a more challenging Elite 4, I have switched() to Set.

First is Sydney. No real documentation on the trainer changes in this game so I'm just going to assume Mightyena lead. Fairy/Dragon Altaria should be more than enough to deal with pretty much his entire team, but should I need it, I do have Absol with Sacred Sword in the back. Here we go-a.

Yeah no Moonblast just wiped the floor with all of his Pokemon one by one lol. I kind of wish this WAS a challenge romhack because Pokemon is just kind of braindead otherwise BUT moving on

130 base Attack. Buffed to 95 base Speed. Sharpness. Night Slash, Psycho Cut, Sacred Sword - Absol is the best its probably ever been here. And if she isn't enough, Ghost/Normal Banette (whose best attacking move is unfortunately Phantom Force) should be able to handle anything else. The two complement each other well, with Banette being able to switch into Fighting moves and such.

..was that necessary

Oh actually Mismagius is a genuinely scary Pokemon, Ghost/Fairy and undoubtedly going for Moonblast here. My Fairy answer is Yuumi the Chimecho so I'll pivot into her before switching Misery in on a Ghost move.

Misery took a Moonblast before going for Phantom Force,... which then gave Phoebe the opportunity to switch to her own Banette. A better physical Ghost move would have been cool here. Predicting a physical attack like Darkest Lariat, I switched to Walrein (Fur Coat... it's so bulky). But this is a special attacking Banette who used Thunderbolt, so I switched out again, this time to Chiyari.

Which brings in Froslass... Okay, these ghosts are actually pretty tough. I go Yuumi on the Ice Beam and then Jill on a... Will-o-Wisp. I then swap Skadi in on a 150 BP Infernal Parade... or at least, I thought it was 150 BP? Skadi basically took nothing. I'm not sure I'm telling you this walrus is insane in this game.

okay well fuck me for saying it was easy or whatever hahaha.

I finish Dusknoir off w Yuumi so that I'm in this position when Mismagius comes in. Highly expecting either Shadow Ball or Infernal Parade, one if which I'm confident I can survive - HOWEVER, I'm also confident that Flash Cannon won't kill here. However if all goes well I should be able to switch into Misery afterwards to get the kill with Shadow Sneak.

If this were a Nuzlocke losing Flygon would have been devastating. But it's not so onward

so yeah Ghost type was pretty rough to deal with but surely Ice wont be so bad ri-... *looks at team*... Well it really depends. I went ahead and taught Yuumi Calm Mind which I was holding off on. Skadi also knows it, and Jill has Sacred Sword - but bringing her in might not be possible, so I guess I'll lead with her. (side note you may notice my low level pokemon yes because my exp share is turned off for the sake of challenge(

What madman was responsible for making Walrein one of the best defensive Pokemon in the game lmao, the battle just came down to Skadi beating up the other ice types with Bouncy Bubble

Anyways onto Drake now, and I have quite a few answers for Dragon types. Gonna go ahead and turn the EXP Share back on for this fight seeing as I am now at a 6 level disadvantage that should be enough lol

What's particularly nostalgic about this, and the big reason I've been wanting to use Flygon lately, is that my very first time ever beating the Elite 4 was with a Flygon. Playing Ruby version at my grandmom's house in the country, I must have lost so many times, even though I'm 100% sure I was definitely using Groudon too. Probably Blaziken and Gardevoir and Breloom on there... good memories.

Drake brought in Altaria so I swapped to Yuumi,,, he then proceeded to set up two Dragon Dances and then hit me with a terrifying +0 Dazzling Gleam. lol.

Which brings in Drake's own Flygon but like... what is it gonna do to me. A weak Flamethrower? Oh Crunch no, that's actually bad. Okay Skadi your turn dear

A Crunch into a CRIT Earthquake did that much like... what is this

Now then, with my underleveled ass two water-resist ass team,,, onto Wallace.

I'll spare you the details as this fight was mostly stat-checking but Jill came in very clutch with a crit on Whiscash in the end and this one might have in fact been necessary >:D

[tuiyla]

What’s your favorite seasons for Santana, Brittany, Quinn, Rachel, Tina and Mercedes?

Ohh this is such a fun question! Thank you Anon xx There's such an urge to choose a different one for each because six seasons six girlies but I shan't. At least not with that intention.

Brittany - Season 6

Starting with her because it's sooooo easy to choose. Gosh, how I wish we could have had season 6 Brittany for longer. If only she could have always been here, blessing us with her confidence. I cannot overstate how much this is my favourite version of Brittany. I also think it's a good albeit brief season for her plot-wise, and though I hear the criticism that she set Santana up for failure by pulling that Alma shit, she meant well and goddam did she do it in a fun way. Don't tell me the Brittany who tells Santana's homophobic grandma that sex with her granddaughter is great isn't the best version of herself.

Tina - Season 5

It was that or season 4. Listen, listen, I know a lot of people prefer her in the earlier seasons but they're wrong because diva Tina who has stuff to do is superior. It felt like season 5 finally allowed her to not only be part of the club but honestly be the de facto female lead. And it's a bummer that she's but a guest star in season 5B but season 5A has some of her very best vocal moments and is generally when I think she gets her dues. There's Tina in the Sky With Diamonds, of course, but even beyond that. Frenemies, Trio! The girl is actually getting plot! So yeah I guess you could argue for season 4 but iirc she sings the most this season and is still sort of the butt of the joke but it feels less disrespectful because she is actually being featured. She's beloved.

Santana - Season 4

I swear I'm not doing the season countdown thing on purpose. Obviously I love Santana in every season and I'm a firm believer that if you don't love her at her season 3A you don't deserve her at her season 4. And I reject the notion that she peaked in season 4 in that she didn't continue to be beautiful breathtaking brilliant never been done before afterward. But with all that you don't love my fave like I do talk aside, yeah season 4 is probably my favourite for Santana. Ironic because she actually misses a lot of episodes but she just has such an Arc and goes through such a journey. I love how lost she feels and how vulnerable she is after the breakup and how hard she tries to be a good friend but how much she sucks at acting like a normal person. The writers should have gotten her to New York sooner and my god do I have other notes for improvement in terms of writing but Santana herself? Beautiful perfect baby girl. She goes through your bags and drawers and hugs and holds you while you cry. Season 2 is also a contender.

Mercedes - Season 3

Oh poor Mercedes gets such a chaotic season. Unfortunately I don't think she has a standout season because she never gets enough of a story but season 3 feels the closest to having an arc. There's a bit there in season 1 but it's lowkey and in B plots, and season 2 similarly feels like they mostly forget she's there. Now I very much do not appreciate the way season 3A frames her because season 3A SUCKS but she gets to take a stand and shine. She gets shit done, stands by her principles and herself, gets The Troubletones going, demands the respect she deserves. And then season 3B sees the love triangle thing with Sam which I'm not a huge fan of but it does give Mercedes character drama and even then she stays so principled. She ultimately gets many happy moments and her stardom gets kicked off. So yeah I just love to see her stand up for herself and work towards her goals while also not being left out of the romance drama, which on Glee equals screentime.

Quinn - Season 2 I guess

I simply refuse to consider season 1 her best. I think people who only like Quinn in that season must not like Quinn very much at all because she's constantly decentered during her own pregnancy and has so little agency in it all. It also feels, just, sadistic to say all that horrible shit happening to her was the best. Then again horrible things always do be happening when she's around. And I think my latest Quinn ask was exactly about the messiness of season 2 so clearly this season isn't perfect, either. But she has stuff to do, you know? It's fascinating to see her completely reject the pregnancy. She refuses to be the teen mom people want to perceive her as. She clings desperately to a sense of normalcy, nay, superiority, and it leads to tensions with Santana and a messy dating life and Quinn ultimately crumbling at the end of the season. So, you know, still sad shit, but my god at least it's not You're Having My Baby. My other choice would be season 4 but she's in the grand total of two and a half episodes and I just happen to project a lot into it.

Damn it's really hard to choose for Rachel. I'm going to sound like such a hypocrite because I explicitly said I won't just do the girl-a-season thing but here goes:

Rachel - Season 1

Like with Santana, I would once again like to note that if you don't love Rachel at her season 5 maybe you don't deserve her at her season 1. And I do really like season 6 for her, for example, but it's been so long since I've seen that season that it wouldn't feel right to say it's my fav for her. Season 1 Rachel is just such a delight. Again, I think there's good in her (and for her) in every season and it feels too mainstream to say season 1 but goddam. It's the popular answer for a reason. Rachel is so earnest and so over the top and so hilarious. But then she has these come-down-to-earth moments and especially when Shelby the devil comes around we see how she's just a lonely girl desperate for love. She's so so precious I just wanna wrap her in a blanket. And I hugely dislike the Finchel stuff but unfortunately, that is what it is. Lots of other great moments.

Again great question, hopefully good answers too.

[chidoroki]

I already asked officiersnicker about it but i would like another opinon and also i love to speak with my fics with people. And I love yours analysis of Ray and Isabella.

Still about the Isabella has twins after the escape AU

Ray has been under a lot of stress// emotional mess moments// grief since the attack of the bunker right? And everything here happened in like…one month? October - Novemnber 13th? I'm not sure than Ray has sleep enough during all days. Except for few nights where he was able to rest, like in the Paradise. Same with food, probably. Except wome good meals, he has not had the best diet. And before that, he and the rest of the team were just coming back of exploration and were probably already tired.

And then after their arrival in the human world, Emma vanished + the worry for his mum + the discovery that he has blood siblings + he's forced to live with them.

Then Ray will work to pass all the exams in the human world for be freed of the scholar system since school is obligatory for a 13 years old child. He has to finish all the exams to not have to worry about it. I don't know if he will pass it as much easly than Norman. I guess yes. But maybe not as quick. He barely study in almost 2 years after all. or it will be super easy for him. Who know. He's super worried for Emma. He barely sleeps and eats because he's so focused on his search. 100% not enough sleeping time for his age. He drinks too much coffee. He also help Norman with the creation of his entreprise.

He's almost never at home or goes to work very early so nobody is awake or return very late so everyone is asleep.

So he barely interact with Isabella or the twins. Which make him feel bad. While orther GF kids visit their mum and the babies very often. ((The babies quickly learn to say "Noma" when they see Norman =) and gave such nickname to a lot of GF kids)) Ray will feel awful *of course they love more Norman than me. I'm such a bad son and bad brother but i must find Emma, she count on me to find her, i will make thing better as soon i find Emma*

And i decided that, around 18th December, he will collapse from (physical/emotional/mental) exhaustion, and suffer from overwork. So he'll be forced to stay at home until half January. To rest, to have a better diet, to babysit the twins (Gilda will have to show him how change a diaper because he didn't know and he refuses to ask his mum because he's ashamed to not know already XD). At the end, he'll work at home but with Isabella to control his working hours.

"You can't tell me to go to sleep, mum. I can decide myself

"Like when you decided that three hours of sleep by night were enough for you?"

Do you think that it's believable that he collapses from exhaustion and suffers from overwork after only a little more than one month? He's only 13 after all. Physically he's a child.

Correct. The shelter blowing up, losing Yuugo & Lucas, invading a farm to steal medicine for Chris, the journey to the paradise hideout, the Seven Walls, the trip to the demon capital where all of Norman's annihilation plan takes place, followed by the trip back to Grace Field to take over headquarters and finally crossing over into the human world all happen with a month. I often find myself looking back at the full timeline Tag once put together because everything these kids accomplished in the span of a couple years is insane.

Oh, Ray definitely doesn't get enough sleep. If there's any possibility that their family could be in danger, he's on guard to protect them.

And it's not like this is a new behavior either. I'm sure he spent many nights studying everything he can in order to successfully prepare the escape plan to save Emma & Norman as well.

Not to mention that he's suffered countless nightmares during his years at Grace Field (and probably afterwards too).

So yeah, safe to say that Ray was absolutely paranoid once in the human world and everyone set out to search for Emma. The poor guy was already a mess during the three weeks without her after Goldy Pond, not only from keeping a constant watch over the rest of the kids but worrying whether or not Emma was alive and safe as well.

Just imagine the amount of stress, panic, heartache and anger (towards demon god and possibly himself) Ray felt during those two years. It's amazing he doesn't look completely exhausted during ch181 because he totally should be after all the hard work and effort he put into finding our best girl. (okay, so it depends on the panel really, but he looks relatively normal for a majority of them! here he does look tired though.)

I would hope he doesn't become so immersed in looking for clues during the Emma search that he misses out on meals, but if he's out with others then I'm sure he's keeping track of when his family eats so they don't collapse and taking a moment for himself to do the same. With him being the team chef, he's gotta know that eating will allow him to keep his energy up to continue searching.

(now that I think about it.. searching for Emma in the human world is kinda like the Sevens Walls; it's a totally new, unknown place for him, where he has no idea if progress is being made or not. it may not play intricate mind games on him like the Seven Walls, but he's surely losing his mind all the same. biggest difference is that his number one support is not beside him trying to solve this mystery, which add a whole new level of difficulty to this trial.)

Anyways, add all that on top of the elements in your story and this boy will be lucky if he manages to sleep a half hour a day. I still believe Isabella would provide as much assistance as she could while she recovers, but then the idea of caring for the twins will probably hold Ray back from searching for Emma as often as he would like to.

I have little doubt Ray would have any trouble with passing some exams with all the knowledge he's retained from the endless supply of books he's read throughout his entire life. Only problem might be exactly when would he actually have time to take such exams in between worrying about everything else going on with mom, the siblings and Emma.

Coffee will definitely become Ray's new friend during all this.

(as if he wasn't a fan of it already. at least, i'm pretty sure it's coffee considering the steam coming from the cups. s2ep3 has them drinking water but the next ep shows ray's was colored brown as well as during that moment in the paradise hideout. so.. apologies. i'm rambling about nonsense.)

I can see how he might prioritize looking for Emma rather than care for Isabella and the twins. Not only are there other people who are more suited for those roles (our medics Zack & Anna looking after Isabella and Gilda watching over the twins since she used to help looking after the babies while at GF along side Emma. not to mention she is that Mom Friend) but also because Ray's relationship with his blood family is kinda rocky at the moment as well. He would feel bad about kinda ignoring them though.

Pfftt, I imagine Norman acting so smug whenever he's around the twins with Ray as they would prefer to spend time with him rather than their actual brother.

MHHMM exactly! Gilda would totally teach Ray how to handle the twins better. He's already a decent brother since he's had to look after everyone else since the escape, but never to children that young (that I'm aware of).

I live for any sort of interaction between Isabella and Ray just acting like a typical mother and son. Of course they would both try to mend the bond they have to a more normal state but they would be so snarky with each other too and I would literally die if we had the chance to see them act this way.

It would absolutely be believable that Ray would crash after that chaotic last month the demon world. It's honestly amazing that he didn't (from what we've seen anyways). I have no doubt that once Emma is found and they return home that night, Ray passes out instantly and stays asleep for a good day or two. It'll be the first time in his entire life that managed to sleep soundly without any sort of worries.

[away-ward]

I actually believe the verse(s)? You included in the last anon goes well with emmy’s relationship with Martin.

“Lord what will become of me once I’ve lost my Novelty?”

I feel like in some way Martin lives vicariously through Emmy and takes ownership (I can’t think of a better word) of her accomplishments. However, despite everything Martin still abuses her so she puts less effort into being put together because it doesn’t matter what she does Martin will still be Martin.

“How long will it be cute

All this crying in my room

Whеn you can't blame it on my youth

And roll your eyes with affеction?”

Before their parents died Em described their relationship as somewhat amicable, especially because she was little kid. However, once their parents died and Em was older maybe 13-14 yrs old Martin did not see her as a little kid anymore and In fact probably resented her because he was left to take care of her.

Thats just my thoughts on those lyrics but I feel like it can also be definitely be tied back to will I guess in some way.

Oh I really like this interpretation! And your points fit really well too.

Not to keep referencing lyrics, but when you say Martin was living through Emory, it does remind me of Billie Eilish's happier than ever, "You made all my moments your own". Along with all the points you brought out, I think of how Martin liked when people complimented him on Emory's accomplishments. He wanted her to be perfect so he can shine. Anything that she did reflected on him, and he could act as if they were his good deeds. It's why he got mad when she quit things. It was always about him. Every accomplishment, every award, every good or positive remark, he took credit for.

I like how you linked the lyrics back to her childhood, when they had somewhat of a good relationship. She said he was always looking for perfection from her, but there were times he was genuinely nice. I think the saddest thing is there was probably no escaping this issue with Martin. If it wasn't Emory, it would have been another girl, or his future wife and children. Not trying to say he couldn't have controlled himself if he wanted to, just that he always had the inclination and made the wrong choices.

And more than that, I think it even fits the first verse very well to, which was a little bit of stretch for me since emory didn't go out have have fun. But Martin would mock her, almost encouraging her to get hurt by the privileged boys - telling her he would have wanted her to get knocked up just so he could have an in with their power and money, as if that's all she would have been good for. But afterward, he still wouldn't have loved her. He would throw her away as soon as he didn't need her anymore and he did. As soon as she signed that paper, he promised never to see her again.

Oooh, Martin is a piece of work isn't he?

[flecks-of-stardust]

HMMMM Mothiva and Zasp with 4 and 5, please?

[ask game referenced] [link to ask box]

OEUFHEUOFUEOEUEUE

4. Receiving a present

oh this will vary so much for mothiva. heavily heavily depends on what the present is, who's giving the present, and her mood when she receives the present. it can range anywhere from being absolutely delighted and her preening herself because obviously she deserves the present, and also genuinely appreciating the thought, to screaming at whoever gave the present to her and then crying in the corner afterward. it's really a wild mix of all three things, so her exact actions will vary. in general (because she probably gets a lot of gifts from fans), she'll try to act surprised by the gift, coyly try to refuse, before eagerly accepting and opening it on the spot. it's very practiced for her. if the gift is from a friend or from zasp, it's a lot easier for her to react more genuinely, and it'll also hit her less hard if she doesn't like the gift. if it's from someone she doesn't like, depending on whether she thinks she's better than them or not it could range from disgust and contempt to a full blown rage. so it varies a lot. she can be genuine though! it's just a really vulnerable thing for her to express true enjoyment of something, so typically she hides it behind a few layers of acting surprised and whatnot.

zasp is comparatively very consistent. his reaction always goes 'oh, for me?' then he stares at it before hesitantly taking the gift, stares at it some more while trying to figure out if he should open it now or later, and then kind of awkwardly goes 'thanks!' before stiffly walking off with it. unless it's mothiva, in which case he opens it in front of her and then hugs her afterward.

5. Giving someone a present

this... also really really varies for mothiva, but she's generally really bad at gift giving. she's already bad at noticing what other people like, let alone want, and she also struggles to just flat out ask them (again, vulnerability), so if she even bothers trying it'll usually be something she guessed they might like that's usually also kind of hard to get/expensive. she also doesn't really do gift giving, imo? she shows care in other ways. for friends, her way of giving presents is usually in less material things, like going over to their place and helping them clean up or making them a meal, stuff like that. she does pamper zasp though, because she knows him well, and because she knows he would never get this stuff for himself.

zasp is also not good at giving presents KJDJKA but it's because he's awkward and anxious. he'd spend way too long trying to figure out if they'd actually want the thing he's getting them, and then stress out about the budget, then about how to wrap it, what to say when giving it to them, then he'd watch their reaction like a hawk, etc etc etc, so he normally just. doesn't. it's too stressful for him. the person he gives gifts to the most is mothiva, for obvious reasons.

waroarbajhrgrhjagshjahjrghjarggahjrghjara i love these two