#i feel like whenever i do come across a genuinely nice person i end up fucking it up by like talking too much maybe?

[lateseptemberdawn]

not me "bhaad mein jaaye madarchod"-ing my way out of ""friendships"" that never seemed real.

[nadvs]

out of bounds (part two)

pairing zach maclaren and soccerplayer! female reader

rating mature 18+

summary zach has never been the type to rebel, but when he meets you at a soccer camp where you’re both working as counselors, which has a strict policy against dating between staff, he’s tempted to break the rules for the first time.

» part one

» masterlist

Your footsteps fall in and out of rhythm with Zach’s as you walk over the soccer field.

Even under the inky night sky, you can easily make out the sharp white lines spray-painted on the pitch as he stands across from you, your back to the net.

As a center back, this is where you spend most of your time in a game, defending directly in front of the goal. You used to love the nerves you’d feel before a match, but by the final month of the school year, you’d start every game already waiting for it to end.

You hope you can fix that this summer. And Zach is the perfect person to practice against since his main objective in his position is scoring.

He picked up a soccer ball from a storage shed on the way over, tossing it in his hands. You wonder if he offers to help all the newbies work on their game or if it’s just you.

“I don’t know if you know this,” you say, “but the ball’s supposed to be on the ground.”

“Most people say thank you when someone does them a favor,” he jokes, dropping the ball and dribbling it between his feet.

“I think you need to actually do the favor first,” you reply.

Zach smirks. He’s always been the type to chase the feeling of fun, and right now, he enjoys how easy things are with you.

He kicks the ball to you, and you stop it under your foot.

“Don’t go easy on me,” you say. “I’m serious.”

Zach sighs with a smile.

“What?”

“Nothing, just… my sister says that to me all the time,” he says. The memory makes his chest pinch. This is the hardest part of being at camp for seven weeks. It’s only been one day and he misses his family already.

At least when he’s at college, he can visit whenever he wants, but at camp, it’s a no go.

“Does she play soccer, too?” you ask. The ball scruffs over the grass when you kick it back to him.

“No, Avery hates sports,” he says. “It’s when we play video games. She kicks my ass and she tells me to stop letting her win when I’m genuinely trying my hardest. It’s embarrassing.”

“How old is she?”

“Ten.”

You smile. It’s sweet that he spends time with his kid sister.

“And she beats you? That is embarrassing.”

He kicks the ball to you with a chuckle.

“So, she’s not interested in coming here?” you ask, considering Camp Summit is for kids in her age range.

“No chance,” he says. He asks about your family and you continue to chat about your home life while kicking the ball back and forth until you eventually decide to do what you came out here for.

“You ready?” he asks, heading backwards a few steps.

“Give me your worst.”

Zach jogs towards you, expertly kicking the ball with every stride, approaching you quickly. You keep your eyes trained on his movements and the ball, reading the opponent’s body like you always do.

You shift between your feet quickly, trying to gain possession. He side-steps and fakes right, but you notice it in the way he’s positioned, and you take the window of opportunity to steal the ball.

You succeed and rush past him, then turn to smile at him, locking the ball under your foot.

“Jeez,” Zach says, hands on his hips. “Nice one.”

“Stop,” you laugh, convinced he’s just trying to flatter you.

“How’d you catch my fake-out?”

“It’s all in your body language,” you say. You kick the ball to him.

“So, you’re looking at my body,” he says, his tone sarcastically suggestive.

“Don’t let it get to your head,” you laugh, heading to where you were standing originally to reset.

“Too late.” He rushes back to the center of the field.

Your cheeks go warm. He wouldn’t risk dating at work. It’s against the rules. You could both lose your jobs.

But what’s the harm in flirting? He seems to like to do it with you just as much as you do it with him.

Zach jogs towards you again and you turn with him slightly, closing the distance once he comes close enough, mirroring him as he darts over the grass.

“It’s good that you don’t dive in right away,” he says between breaths. “I always get past defenders when they rush me.”

“Are you trying to distract me with flattery?” you ask.

“If it’s working, yeah,” he replies.

You laugh and continue to jockey, both of you moving with sharp, fast movements as he shuffles with the ball.

It’s a struggle, but eventually, he gets past you, sending the ball flying in the net.

“One-one,” he says. “You really made me work for it, though, huh?”

As you watch Zach run to grab the ball out of the net, you’re taken by how kind he is. Even after he gets a ball past you, he compliments you.

You refocus when he resets and jogs down the field towards you again. As the night goes on, you start to feel comfortable enough to make contact with each other, brushing arms and legs.

You stop keeping score, but it feels pretty equal by the time you’re huffing from all the exercise.

“You good to call it?” he asks, looking down at you as he pants after you steal the ball from him yet again.

“Yeah. I think that was more than ten minutes.”

His tongue swipes over his bottom lip as he smiles. He completely forgot he was out here with you, under a time limit, all because he was waiting for his friend to escort yours out of his cabin.

“I noticed something you do,” he says as you walk off the field together, taking turns kicking the ball far ahead of you. “You kind of give up when you think you won’t win the ball.”

“Why waste the energy?” you respond with a tired laugh. You check your phone to see that it’s almost 10:30.

“My coach always tells us that you have to believe that you’ll win every tackle,” Zach says. “It seems like you tell yourself you might as well stop trying.”

You consider his words. It’s true. It’s a bad habit you’ve picked up in the past year, a result of your dwindling confidence. And he’s a sharp player for catching that weakness.

Zach watches you, afraid he might have offended you.

“I hope I didn’t - that wasn’t out of line, was it?”

“No, no,” you say. “You’re totally right. Thanks. It’s helpful.”

You reach the dirt path, approaching the storage shed. He puts the ball away and joins you again as you make your way towards the staff cabins in the humid night.

“Gotta be honest,” he says, thinking back to what you said by the fire, “I’m surprised you’re not confident in your game.”

“My team doesn’t do that well,” you admit. It feels like you’re constantly ruminating over last season’s win/loss ratio.

“And what, that’s your fault?” he asks.

“I am usually the last one the other team crosses before scoring,” you say with a shrug.

“Actually, the goalie is.”

“No, she’s great,” you reply. “It’s not on her.”

Zach snorts.

“What?”

“You don’t blame her, but you blame yourself,” he says. “Makes sense.”

You nudge his firm shoulder. The contact is brief and playful and you’re comfortable doing it now considering you got so close on the field.

Zach nudges you back, touching you as if he always does. As if you didn’t just meet today.

“You mad I’m right?” he says.

“A little,” you reply with a small smile.

You reach your cabins. The shirt on his door is gone. It seems like your cabin-mates are back to their respective beds.

“Yeah, I’m still knocking very loudly just in case,” Zach says.

“Good call,” you laugh, heading towards your cabin. “Thanks again for the help.”

“Any time,” he says. You hope he means it.

Ami’s sitting up in her bed when you come through the door.

“Hey,” she says, “I’m surprised the bonfire went that long.”

“It didn’t,” you reply. “I was out practicing defense with Zach. Because his cabin was occupied.”

Ami grins. After she gives you a recap of her time with Malcolm, which she says went no further than heavy making out, she turns the attention back to you.

“How was practice?” she says. “If that’s what actually happened.”

“It is,” you laugh. “Great. He’s really good.”

“At what?” she asks suggestively.

“At soccer,” you laugh again. “We honestly just practiced. And even if he’s into me like that, he seems serious about the no dating rule. I wouldn’t risk it, either. I don’t know what you’re planning with Malcolm but apparently they’re actually strict about it, so be careful.”

“I will, but I’m not worried. We talked about how we’ll only be casual. And discreet. You be careful, too, okay?”

“Nothing to be careful about,” you say with a shrug.

“So, if Zach asked you out, you wouldn’t be down?”

Truthfully, you’re not sure you’d be able to resist dating him, even if it had to be in secret. Zach is impossible not to like.

“It’s not happening,” you simply reply.

Just like every other year, welcoming campers the next morning is havoc. Zach feels a sense of pride when he sees a familiar face, another kid who loved this place so much that they wanted to come back.

After the campers are directed to their cabins, orientation is held at the dining hall, followed by breakfast.

Voices bounce loudly around the hall as kids dig into their food, every counselor sitting at the head of the table with their cohorts.

He makes conversation, asking his boys questions to encourage them to talk with each other. His eyes flit up to you every so often, hoping he doesn’t get caught staring.

You’re sitting a few tables away, smiling as you chat. He almost can’t believe how much fun he had with you on the pitch under the stars last night.

Things are just so simple with you. He doesn’t have to think about what to say, because he knows you’ll play along or just laugh at his dorky joke. He likes you. A lot.

The rest of the day is dedicated to games across the campground, with training scheduled to start tomorrow. At one point, you ask over the walkie-talkies if anyone knows where extra flags for a game are kept.

Zach replies to check the top shelf of one of the storage sheds. You thank him and even though all he does is say You got it, newbie over the radio, you think about the way he said it for much longer than you would if it were anyone else.

Lunch goes by quickly, followed by more games. Throughout the day, Zach has noticed that one of his new campers, Oliver, has kept to himself. He tried to talk with him every so often, but he just got one-word answers.

So, when Oliver approaches him before Zach blows his whistle to signal the start of the last game of the day, he’s hopeful that he’ll ask about the game and finally show some interest in camp.

“I don’t want to do this game,” the little boy says. “I’m tired.”

It’s disappointing, but Zach doesn’t want to push him. Some kids just need time.

“That’s okay,” Zach says. “You can go sit in the shade. No pressure.”

Half an hour later, everyone goes to the dining hall for dinner.

While he eats, Zach is already exhausted and regrets volunteering to do one of the overnight shifts the first day. Every night, four counselors are scheduled to sleep in one of the four camper cabins, so that campers aren’t ever left without supervision.

It’s a guarantee of a bad sleep. Kids are always way too excited to do anything but talk to each other in their bunks on the first night, having to be reminded over and over that yes, even whispering counts as talking.

But Zach has always hated disappointing people, so he couldn’t risk letting down his aunt and uncle by not volunteering. He has the longest tenure of any other counselor here. He needs to set a good example.

After dinner, the kids are given free time before lights out, free to either hang out in their cabins or by the campfire. This gives some of the staff a moment to congregate by the dock, offering the perfect spot to keep an eye on campers without being heard by them.

It’s just past dusk as you stand by the boarded walkway leading into the shallow waters, looking out to your cohort of campers around the fire. You hear Zach ask about how the first day has been.

You look over to see him chatting with a couple of other counselors, a big smile on his face. It’s a good reminder that he’s simply a friendly guy and might not even be into you like that.

But when his eyes land on you and his smile gets a little wider, your heart refuses to agree with your mind. He must feel something, too.

Zach shifts closer to you, crossing his arms. His biceps bulge under his t-shirt. You quickly tear your gaze off of his muscles and up to his blue eyes.

“You surviving?” he asks.

“Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“Don’t know. Some people just don’t have what it takes.”

“You’re so much nicer to the other counselors,” you tease, looking down and shaking your head.

Zach feels himself blush, tense that you’re calling him out for brazenly flirting with you. But when your eyes flitter back to his, he can tell by your innocent smile that you don’t have any intention to embarrass him.

“It’s all an act,” he says. You laugh and cross your arms, mirroring him. “Your kids getting along?”

“I think so,” you say. “They already have their little cliques.”

“Yeah, that happens,” Zach says. He looks out to the campfire and you catch his smile slowly fade, his strong jaw tensing.

“How about yours?” you ask.

“Got one who seems like he really doesn’t want to be here at all,” he admits.

You follow his eye-line to the boy sitting on the steps of a camper cabin, staring down at the book in his hands as he reads under the porch light.

“Usually with those kids, it just takes a few hours and they settle in,” he says, “but I don’t know. I’ll give it another try.”

Sure enough, when Zach crosses the distance and asks Oliver what he’s reading, he answers with the title, then ducks his head to quickly back to reading.

You notice from far away, confident that if you were close enough, you would see disappointment on Zach’s face.

The next morning, Zach is even more tired than he expected. The overnight shift was full of interruptions. He’s sure he’ll sleep like a rock tonight.

As everyone sits in the dining hall for breakfast, you dig into your food, listening to your campers talk to each other.

Then, your eyes drift over to Zach. You realize he was already looking at you. It makes your stomach go numb. He quickly glances away.

You notice that the same kid he talked about last night is sitting at the end of the table, alone, picking at his food. Considering how helpful Zach has been, and simply because you like him, you decide to see what you can do.

Near the end of breakfast, campers begin to clear off and put away their plates, and you walk over and crouch at the end of Zach’s table.

The boy looks up at you with an unreadable expression. You introduce yourself, pointing to your name-tag, asking him his name.

“Oliver,” he says, looking back down. You notice he hardly ate anything.

“How are you liking camp?” you ask quietly. Your eyes dart up to look at Zach at the other end of the table. His lips quirk into a hint of a smile.

“I’m not,” he answers.

“Is there anything that would make you feel better?” you offer.

“Leaving,” he says. You stifle your frown.

“Besides that,” you reply. “And you can be totally honest.”

“The food here sucks,” he mumbles. You look down at the uneaten pancake he’s pushing around with his fork.

“What if we got better pancakes?” you ask.

“I don’t want pancakes,” he replies. “I want waffles.”

“Waffles,” you say with a smile, glad you at least got an answer. You stand. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Oliver looks up at you with surprised eyes. Something tells you that he isn’t used to being asked what he wants and actually getting it.

You head back to your table to rally your girls, but you find Zach before counselors start leading their groups outside.

“You said you had connections, right?”

Zach turns to see you standing behind him, trying to ignore the fact that his stomach flips when he makes eye contact with you.

“Yeah,” he says. Campers rush around you as you stand by the front door of the dining hall.

“If you can sneak in some waffles, I think Oliver might like it a little better here,” you say.

“He told you that?” he asks.

“No, I’m a mindreader,” you tease. “Yes, he told me that.”

Zach smirks as you turn away to rush back to your group. He can’t stop smiling even after you’re gone.

It’s a long, hot day. You were disappointed when you saw the schedule this morning, because while you like all the vets, you had hoped Zach would be one of the counselors you’d be paired with for drills today. Maybe tomorrow.

All afternoon, your walkie kept crackling and losing signal. You mention it to one of the directors, Ruby, when you see her by the main office and she promises to get you a new one soon.

After the campers go to bed, you head back to your cabin, expecting to see Ami. But her bed is empty. You double-check the schedule in the staff group chat to confirm she isn’t one of the overnight shifts tonight.

You figure she’s hanging out somewhere else on the campground. You settle in for the evening with a shower, then get into your pajamas and decide to do some skincare and self-pampering.

Zach lets out a tired, heavy sigh when he sees Malcolm’s text. He exits the dining hall and steps into the thick night air, rereading the message from his cabin-mate.

Ami’s over. I’ll text when she’s gone.

He just came back from the closest grocery store specifically to buy as many boxes of frozen waffles as he could carry after he got the okay from his aunt. He used up all the freezer space he could find in the dining hall kitchen and now, he just wants to lie in his bed.

He’s not sure what to do. He’s never been that confrontational at work, preferring to keep the peace, but if this becomes a habit of Malcolm’s this summer, he’ll have to say something to him.

He heads towards his cabin, just in case his best friend texts in the meantime. He doesn’t.

Before he can turn around to go sit by the lake to kill time, he notices the light spilling out from behind the edges of the blinds on your cabin window.

Maybe you’d like to keep him company like you did the other night. Without much more thought, he knocks on your door.

When you open it, you’re in pajamas, your hair wet from the shower, pink gel strips under your eyes.

Zach smiles, thinking you look adorable and wishing he could say it out loud.

“Hey,” you say. You notice he’s still in his work clothes, even though lights out for campers was over an hour ago. “What’s up?”

“I was, um… I was gonna see if you wanted to hang out,” he says, holding up his phone. “I just got the text version of the shirt on the doorknob.”

You laugh and quickly clue in that Ami is with Malcolm next door.

“So, that’s where she is,” you say. “Come in. We can hang out here.”

When the door shuts behind Zach, you wonder if he also feels the weight of the privacy you two have now. This is different from being out on the pitch the day you met. There’s no chance of anyone seeing you behind your closed cabin door. It’s intimate. Almost risky.

“How was your day?” you ask, sitting on your bed as Zach settles on the chair tucked under your desk.

You’re trying to act casual and relaxed, but it’s hard to when you meet his eyes. He’s too cute not to get shy around.

“Well, I just went into town to buy like, ten boxes of Eggos,” he tells you. “That’s a first.”

“Did you really?”

“I thought it’d only be fair if I got enough for my whole group,” he explains. “Turns out we don’t have a waffle maker, but we do have toasters, so it was the best I could do.”

“Nice,” you say. “I’m glad the kitchen staff were cool with it.”

“Oh, yeah,” he says. “I’m actually sneaking in the kitchen tomorrow morning to make them. The cooks have more than enough work, so as long as I don’t get in their way, I think I’m good.”

You still for a second, endeared. You knew he’d make an effort to help Oliver feel welcome, but he’s going to all these lengths just to make a kid happy?

“Anyway, my point is, thanks for the intel,” he says, realizing he’s tiredly rambling. “I appreciate you talking to him.”

You bashfully glance away. He tries not to stare at you. It feels like trying not to stare at you is all he does when he’s around you.

He’s damn near enamored. He likes the smell of your shampoo, the way you look in your pajamas, how sweet your smile is. He hopes his nervousness isn’t obvious.

“No problem,” you say. “So, you haven’t been in your cabin at all since lights out?”

Zach shakes his head, his smile not quite meeting his eyes. He’s clearly tired and bothered by his cabin-mate kicking him out of his room. You wonder if he’ll say anything to Malcolm, but for his sake, you decide to keep the atmosphere light.

“I have a lot of these,” you offer, pointing to the under-eye strips on your face. “You wanna try? It’ll help you relax.”

“Is it that obvious that I need to relax?” he says.

You only smile in response and stand to pick up a stack of multi-colored packets of gel strips from the basket on your dresser and hold them out to him.

Zach’s eyes travel over the colorful array, sitting still as you stand over him. You’re not surprised that he’s actually going along with it.

Some guys would be tense, acting like skin-care is feminine, and therefore, embarrassing, but he’s relaxed and nothing but green flags, like usual.

“Lots of options here,” he says pensively.

“Are you always this indecisive?” you tease after a long moment of quiet.

Zach looks up and pretends to glare, but the dimples framing his stifled smirk give him away.

“You mad I’m right?” you echo his words from last night.

“A little,” he says, just like you did. You got him pegged. He’s always been bad at making choices, especially under pressure.

“I can pick for you.”

“Bossy,” he replies. “But, yeah. Pick. Please.”

You laugh and randomly choose a packet, opening the purple packaging for him and holding out the film. He takes it in his hand, looking at it with furrowed brows.

You decide to help him out. It’s what a friend would do.

“Here,” you say softly, pushing down your nerves. Warm eyes meet yours and you try to act composed. You peel off one of the strips, pressing it up just above his cheekbone. His skin is hot, his stare strong.

You step a little closer, focus etched onto your face, the corners of your lips slightly turned up. As you apply the other strip, your legs brush against his knees and he imagines how nice it’d feel to drag his hands up the backs of your thighs.

You’re so close and so pretty that it almost hurts not to touch you how he’d like to. You’re just as flirty with him and he’s sure you’d want his hands on you like that, but he’d ask before doing it. That is, if you weren’t coworkers.

You can’t help but giggle when you step back to look at him.

“What, is purple not my color?” Zach asks.

“No, it totally is,” you reply. “Keep them on until they feel dry.”

You settle in your bed again, your back pressed against the wall, legs stretched out.

“How was your day?” he says, having to clear his throat. “I never asked.”

“Yeah, you didn’t. Rude.” Zach smiles at your joke. “It was good. My first overnight shift is tomorrow. How was it last night? Did you actually get any sleep?”

“Not really,” he admits. “But the first night is always the roughest. You’ll be fine.”

He fails to stifle a yawn. You figure that after a bad sleep, a busy day, and running an errand in town, he must be exhausted. Once again, like it always does with Zach, your curiosity is too strong to ignore.

“Does this bother you?” you ask, vaguely motioning in the direction of his cabin.

Right now, Zach doesn’t mind Malcolm keeping him out because it means time with you. And while he’d normally say something like that openly, never having been one to shy away from sharing thoughts like these with a girl he likes, the stakes are so much higher right now.

Because dating is against the rules. Because you might reject him. Because he’s actually never been this nervous around a girl before.

“It’s okay,” he simply says. You wonder if he’s just not one to stand up to people.

“I can talk to Ami if it becomes a problem,” you tell him. “I won’t say you said anything, but let me know if you want me to mention it.”

Before he can reply, there’s a knock on your door. You answer it to see Ruby standing at your front step holding out a new walkie.

“Hey,” she says. “Sorry you had tech issues today. We can swap.”

“Oh, perfect,” you say. “It’s no problem. Thank you.”

Zach freezes when he sees his aunt. This looks like… well, it could simply look like two friends hanging out. But it might look like more.

As you take the new walkie and cross your small cabin to exchange it for your malfunctioning one, Ruby catches Zach’s gaze and offers him a genuine but confused smile.

He decides to try to act normal, even though he feels like he just got caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing.

“She’s not going to get in trouble for breaking it?” Zach jokes, pointing to you.

“I didn’t break it,” you reply with a laugh as you hand the old walkie to your boss. “I’m not in trouble, though, am I?”

“Nope,” Ruby says lightheartedly. Zach nervously chews the inside of his cheek. Her tone could mean that while you’re not in hot water, he is.

He watches you shut the door. It’s not like you got caught hooking up. But he wouldn’t even be able to explain what he’s doing here. It would mean snitching on his best friend for breaking one of the major rules staff need to follow.

A rule that it looks like he’s breaking. His stomach twists. He always hated disappointing authority figures, especially ones he so badly wants to impress.

When you settle on your bed again, you notice Zach peeling off the gel strips, his lips in a firm line.

“Everything okay?” you ask.

“Yeah,” he replies. “Thanks for these.”

“Sure. Doesn’t seem like they relaxed you, though.”

Zach tosses the patches in the wastebasket and stands. Your heart sinks when you realize he’s leaving.

“They did. I just wanna lie down,” he says with a soft chuckle, hoping he’s not being terse. “I’m beat.”

“You can rest here while you wait for-”

“No, it’s alright,” he interrupts, heading for the door. You realize his whole demeanor has shifted after Ruby popped by.

Zach looks over his shoulder to see your features drawn in confusion and sadness. He opens his mouth before the words come to him seconds later.

“Sorry,” he says. “It was fun hanging out with you.”

“You, too,” you reply, your smile erasing the hurt on your face. You want to tell him he’s welcome any time, but he leaves in a rush.

Maybe it’s wishful thinking or maybe he’s simply a nice person, but you’re sure you both feel the magnetism between you.

And he must be really freaked out at the thought of you doing something about it, based on how stiff he got after Ruby came by, possibly suspecting that things are more than friendly between you.

The more time you spend together, the thinner the ice you’re skating on gets. You don’t want to risk the fall and cost you both your jobs.

So, as you get up to brush your teeth, you promise yourself that no matter what, you’ll keep things strictly professional. For your sake and Zach’s.

(part three)

divider credit

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[flower-boi16]

Apology Tour Made Blitz Do The Right Thing for The Wrong Reason

There's a common critique of Apology Tour I've seen regarding Verosika is that the fact that she went out of her way to create an entire annual party dedicated to shitting on her past ex makes her look overly obsessive. While at first glance I can see where this argument is coming from I'd like to disagree.

Blitzo has been frequently established as a fairly destructive person who thanks to his own self-hatred ends up hurting others and pushing them away, the fact that there's this many people in the party shows how destructive of a person Blitzo is, and we see that it's not just limited to his exes, but people in general who he hurt (like Dennis, for instance).

And Verosika is one of Blitz's later victims who Blitz bailed on after she told him she loved him, a very vulnerable moment for someone to be in, and that's the point where Blitz broke her heart. And so she created this party both out of spite for Blitz seeing how much of a horrible person he is and out of sympathy for his many victims who were just as heartbroken by him as she was. She created this party so she could help the people Blitz has hurt cope with what happened and heal from it, creating a sense of community amongst victims.

Apology Tour shows how much Blitzo damages people, how his self-destructive tendencies always end badly for both him AND his victim, leaving his victim broken and making him more broken, the fact there's a whole party made for the sole purpose of helping his victims cope shows that. And Blitz is forced to see how damaging of a person he truly is because of this...or at least, that's the route the episode should have taken.

Apology Tour is an episode with an absolutely fantastic set up with Blitz going to a party where he sees how many people he's damaged and chooses to start becoming a better person, but the problem is HOW the show gets him to see that. The show gets him to start to change himself...through Stolitz.

Blitzo realizes how he hurts others through seeing how he hurt Stolas, who Blitz previously just believed was some classist dick and nothing else only for Stolas to pour his heart out in a musical number, making Blitz realize that Stolas' feelings were genuine all this time and what he was saying to Stolas did, in fact, hurt him...

...at least that's how the writers want you to look at this scene. However, thanks to the general problems with Stolitz writing this development ends up falling flat on its face. The reason for why this development fails despite the perfect set up is because the show is holding Blitz accountable for something he isn't even in the wrong for in the first place. I've ranted about Stolitz many times before but I'll just repeat the same points because it's relevant for my argument here; Blitzo had no reason to ever think that Stolas' love for him was genuine.

Throughout the whole first season, Stolas consistently looked down upon and belittled Blitz, calling him demeaning pet names and always invading his boundaries even when Blitz says no, yet Stolas continues it anyway. YET, the show tries to paint Blitz as biased here because "oh he only hates Stolas for being a royal and is repressing his feelings for Stolas due to self-hatred" or some bullshit.

However, once you factor in the outside context, Blitz never comes across as biased here whenever he rants about Stolas, because he doesn't have a reason to believe Stolas has any genuine affection for him beyond some small, off-screen "nice things" he did for him, and even then, you can still look down upon someone while caring for them. The show wants to present Blitz as in the wrong here for "hurting Stolas' feelings" and being consumed in his bias, but that doesn't work because Blitz had no reason to believe that Stolas didn't look down on him when he literally did.

But despite Blitz not being in the wrong in the situation, he's portrayed as the abuser here and he's the one who apologizes to his abuser, and HE says that Stolas "deserves better than HIM", making Stolas out as the victim here in this situation when the context and framing say otherwise.

Speaking of Stolas, many people have torn him apart this episode already so I won't go that in-depth here, however, it's still relevant to my point. The episode portrays Stolas as sympathetic here when he isn't - in fact, Stolas comes across as extremely unsympathetic in this episode due to claiming that he "never looked down" upon Blitz despite doing that throughout all of season 1.

He THEN gets angry at Blitz for not saving him when Striker captured him even though 1. Blitz was busy and 2. HE LITERALLY SENT HIS CO-WORKERS TO SAVE YOU WHY TF ARE YOU MAD???

Stolas doesn't have a legitimate reason to be angry at Blitz due to the outside context - instead, all of his interactions with Blitzo in this episode come across as him playing the victim and gaslighting him. And All 2 U is the pure culmination of this. A song that is supposed to be the moment where Blitz realizes his mistakes instead comes across as Blitz being repeatedly gaslighted and guilt-tripped into apologizing to his abuser.

HE is treated as the problem, HE is treated as the one who is meant to apologize to Stolas, even though he is NOT IN THE WRONG FOR THIS IN THE SLIGHTEST. Yet, the show ignores past interactions for this to work. It doesn't address anything Stolas did beyond just making the deal - it acts as if that was the only bad thing he ever did even when Stolas did more than just that to Blitz.

Yet, that's never called out by anyone. Stolas doesn't have a good or sympathetic reason to be mad at Blitz - yet the show treats him as another one of Blitz's victims anyway. So, Blitz was essentially gaslit into becoming a better person, which isn't really great writing. Apology Tour had all the ingredients of a fantastic episode but it's severely held back by this specific aspect, Stolas drags the episode down so much and it sucks that the Stolas crap in the episode has to be tied to Blitz's development. Blitzo should have seen his mistakes through someone who actually had valid and sympathetic reasons to dislike him, someone who does actually come across as a person deeply hurt by Blitz's actions.

In other words....Verosika. Verosika should have been the character they used here, not Stolas. Verosika has an actually good reason to dislike Blitz and one the audience could actually sympathize for, SHE should have been the character to get Blitz to realize his mistakes and decide to change and grow as a person. Have All 2 U be sung by her instead of Stolas, with the song detailing how Blitz met and Blitz broke her heart.

Seriously, the concept of the begining scene and All 2 U can work, but they'll work better if you replace Stolas with Verosika in them instead, because Verosika has a good reason to dislike Blitz that could easily be expanded upon and developed, and Blitz would've had better reasoning to become a better person rather than being gaslit and guilt tripped into it. Apology Tour had all of the ingredients for a fantastic episode but the Stolass trash drags it down HARD.

[lilacxquartz]

Those Late Summer Nights | Chapter 2

satoru gojo x f!reader x suguru geto

plot: you moved to tokyo over the summer to take a teaching job. as you get settled in, you find yourself entangled in a toxic dynamic.

chapter summary: you ended up sharing just a little bit too much to the people you just met but you haven’t scared them off just yet. as a result, you quickly find yourself growing closer to the group.

< Previous Chapter • Next Chapter >

2. Fitting In

“Really?” Satoru interrupted you halfway through your sentence as you explained the small town life, his voice was quite loud at this point. “Not even a single cinema?”

The two of you were sitting quite closely as he had swapped seats with Shoko, who was idly chatting away to Suguru about something else for quite some time now. Your lacking childhood and bleak teenage years were something of interest to Satoru as it seemed as he took personal offence on your behalf whenever you got into the town details and your former student life.

“Yeah,” you nodded along, your tone was a little more relaxed now and you didn’t quite feel so intimidated by him now that you had a good flow going on, “you had to go into the city to do anything at all.”

“Which you’re telling me was also quite far?” he asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

“Yeah, so I guess I just… didn’t, not outside of field trips anyway,” you replied confirming his suspicions.

“That’s crazy,” he added, pouring you another glass again as you held onto the glass but just barely—were you supposed to tell him to stop at some point?

It felt embarrassing in a way to admit what your life was before coming here, but such towns weren’t too far from the norm in the country; the towns were safe and peaceful and sometimes even pretty, but they were boring unless you were a young child or just about to retire.

“Yeah, it was-“ you continued to nod along, your voice slurring just enough for Shoko to notice this and put a stop what she was doing at the opposite end to put the glass back on the table.

“—That’s enough, maybe,” she interrupted you, giving Satoru a disapproving look as she then glanced at the bottle.

“I think I can manage,” you tried to defend your state, feeling so warm and so liquified almost; all of your anxiety seemed to melt away and was replaced with gradually dizzying vision as your body swayed more than it should, but in such a pleasant way.

“Hey, I get it—I drink more when I have to talk to him too,” she smiled, trying to keep your attention, “but let’s all talk together, yeah?”

You quietly nodded as there was some truth to what she was saying. You initially drank more to get into the act of talking to Satoru because he was immediately too much, too questioning and by now you were perfectly tipsy, drunk even.

Maybe another drink would have been a mistake.

You trusted her for now, understanding that she was the binder between the two as she seemed to get along with both Suguru and Satoru in a deeply rooted way. Beyond anything you could understand at least. They must have all been friends for a very long time and if you were honest, you were pretty jealous of their established dynamic even if you didn’t let it show.

It wasn’t as if they made you feel like you were intruding on their space though, if anything, they were the opposite.

“So, you tired of talking about your town yet?” she asked as she let out a slight laugh, moving the hair out of your eyes as she leaned across the table, fixing your appearance up just a little.

“Yeah, I guess you could say,” you said, although unsure how to properly reply, “I can’t really find anything good to say about it.”

“Something happen there?” Suguru asked, swaying the conversation to a direction you weren’t quite ready to go.

But you trusted the company around you, at least currently. You definitely wanted to. It would be so nice if you could just belong for once and tell others your problems rather than keeping them bottled in.

Was it too soon, though?

You were too drunk to care about the consequences, anyway.

“It’s a small enough town that you, uh, become the talk of it if something happens, it’s not like Tokyo where you can hide in the crowd, it’s more like…” you replied as you tried to piece everything along, wondering if anyone picked up on your sudden nervousness already, if it was obvious from the start, “uh, I guess it was relatively clique-like? One dominant family was the most influential so if their kids didn’t like the other kids, then it was tough luck for them.”

“Oh, so you got bullied,” Satoru quickly understood, grunting immediately as Shoko seemingly kicked him from under the table.

“They were just regular people though, right?” Suguru asked as his eyes narrowed, “not sorcerers?”

“Oh yeah, yeah, I was the only sorcerer in town as far as I knew, so… it was just… yeah,” you confirmed.

“Did you get beaten up often or something?” Satoru asked as he tried to understand. It wasn’t that his tone mocked you, it just felt too real to acknowledge it in that way.

At least when Suguru asked, he was vague. You were quick to shake it off though, you didn’t know Satoru too well just yet and besides, you did have fun talking to him, so maybe there wasn’t anything rude about it.

How typical, though. A peculiar thought crossed your mind: even in the new city, your past still managed to follow you all the way there.

You were about to reply with something but you noticed Satoru grunt under the table again as this time Suguru stared at him.

“What’s up with the kicking?” Satoru whined.

“Don’t speedrun the newbie into an actual drinking problem,” Shoko scolded right away, “you can’t just ask people to talk about something like that, what if it was actually really bad…?”

“I’m not asking because I’m being an ass… for once,” he replied, quick to defend himself as he readjusted the clothes he wore, “I’m asking because I’m interested.”

“I-it’s fine,” you spoke up, feeling just a little shaky but you quickly shrugged it off — you wanted to talk about this, to get an outside perspective but it was difficult, “it started off verbally and then it became something completely different when we all became teens.”

You stared at the now empty glasses and wished for them to be full, but they weren’t, wondering where the glass that Shoko confiscated had gone off to.

As such, you sighed and took a deep breath as you continued.

“I changed schools by then and saw her less and less, so it wasn’t so bad nor frequent after a while, but it still happened, I guess.”

It wasn’t all too long before you were rambling off to the crowd that took you in and listened along, describing exactly what went on in the town up north. To Satoru’s credit, he didn’t mock you when you really got into it and as for the other two, they quietly listened as their eyes glued themselves onto yours. The way that their faces slowly changed ever so subtly as you described more and more of what you went through, the jaws clenching, the clearing throats and darkening stares — had made you at least feel like you weren’t as crazy as you thought.

It actually was that bad.

It felt validating, freeing to an extent albeit in a messed up way.

You described that final year of normal school in excruciating detail. You weren’t really sure whether to blame the parents for forcing their kid to go to the same school as everyone else for exposure or whatever it was or if it was just because she was a vile person from birth.

“Wait seriously, there’s more?” Satoru interrupted you ever so briefly to take a breather, his hands resting on your shoulders out of concern as he looked at you with those striking blue eyes.

“I’m almost done,” you assured.

In his defence, he wasn’t wrong about it being a lot. Maybe it actually was too much. You had so far explained the build up of cruelty that Yui, the said bully in question, had slowly kept adding onto. Things like stealing your school uniform after gym class so you wouldn’t have anything to change back into or taking away your towels after using the school pool, so that you’d be stranded naked in the showers. Things like sneaking laxatives into your food and having unfavourable things happen to you during class as a result and convincing the other kids that you weren’t worthy of kindness, even your own friends.

You were soon onto the more extreme explanations now, so things like pushing you face first into a puddle and walking over you as your nostrils filled with water, tripping you up as you walked regardless, pushing you into the road with cars on the way, the playground incident and the like.

You weren’t really sure why you were hated all that much, but you could at least explain every single thing that happened with such detail as clear as the days they all had happened on.

“How much more?” He asked.

“There’s a final thing she did, but it tops everything,” you said slowly, making sure you could describe it despite being inebriated, “well, two final things.”

You didn’t really want to share the actual details to the night she actually ruined your life. Maybe one day, but not just yet. For now, you’d settle on something else she did, really bad but not as severe.

“Hey, you don’t have to if you don’t want to?” Shoko was quick to say, even if she did lean forward a little to listen better.

“I think I want to? But it’s just I don’t want to make things weird or anything…” you replied, mulling the idea that you already did by sharing so much.

“You’re fine,” Suguru assured, his brief yet telling response somehow easing your concerns.

“It can’t get worse than the swing chain around your neck, can it?” Satoru asked.

“Well, during cooking classes for like, the life skill classes, the teacher stepped out of the room while we were using the hot plates to make… something? Stew I think?” you started to remember.

“Uh-oh,” Satoru immediately understood as everyone else’s expressions seemed to tighten.

“Basically,” you worked your way into it, thinking would it be better to rip the band aid off right away as opposed to letting it drag on for too long, “she pushed me onto the hot plate, not only spilling the contents of the pot but burning a good portion of my arm. She held me down there for a while too as her friends helped.”

The collective silence that brewed at the table was strangely loud. You gulped as gripped at the sleeve of the arm in question. Nobody thankfully asked to see the scar, but you did notice that Suguru kept his eyes pointed at where your fingers fidgeted.

“So uh, that’s the gist of what happened,” you added, feeling suddenly nervous as the collective silence brewed. Nobody said anything for a while which added to your quickly building concern.

“These are the people we’re supposed to protect?” Suguru finally asked, taking his eyes off of your arm at last and breaking the silence.

Nobody replied.

“And then finally there was… one more thing… maybe I shouldn’t say…” you trailed off, the drink from before beginning to hit you all too well as it finally settled. Suddenly you couldn’t remember what you thought just moments ago, the eyes on you suddenly focused and concerned as your vision dizzied a little too much.

It was then that your memory blanked, succumbing to meet the end of the night at last.

At least you didn’t say the final thing, or did you?

***

You woke up much later in a bright and airy room that smelled like a mix of fabric softener and stale booze. The window was cracked open slightly as warm summer air spilled in through mesh netting, soothing your pounding headache.

Your body turned as you slowly woke up, feeling someone else rest beside you. Your heart sank for a moment as you peered under the covers revealing that you were partially undressed, but not quite naked.

What happened last night exactly?

It was then that the person in question turned around in their sleep and you realised that you must have been in Shoko’s room as you were sharing her bed with her. You sighed in relief as you put the two together, understanding that you probably crashed at hers because nobody knows where you live just yet and you probably didn’t do a good job of explaining that last night being as out of it as you were.

You studied her a little as she slept so peacefully beside you, her arms hugging a pillow to her chest. She was also partially dressed down; a spaghetti strap camisole in a marine blue floral design that ruched at her midriff, exposing her waist just a little and a pair of underwear. Her legs were fully entangled in a blanket that piled at the end of the bed so she was quite exposed, but it was also summer and therefore quite stuffy in the bedroom.

You slowly sat up in the bed, cursing internally at your headache. So this was what heavy drinking was like. You wondered just how long it would take before you were going to do this to yourself again.

The feeling was nice at the time.

The aftermath however…

You spotted your clothes in a messy pile at the foot of the bed, but upon picking them up, they smelled quite bad. You held the top to your nose as you investigated the stench, your expression soured; was that vomit?

Shoko stirred a little in her sleep, her hand raising itself and waving to you as she snapped her fingers to catch your attention as she groaned.

“You had a bit too much last night and couldn’t hold it down so you’re out of clothes for the day,” she yawned as her hand now pointed at the dresser opposite the bed, “second drawer down, you can wear anything you find in there.”

You did as she told you, rummaging through the drawer until you found something you could see yourself being comfortable in. You ended up pulling out a collection of oversized t-shirts and sweatpants, choosing the one with the longest sleeves.

“Oh and-“ she croaked again, her voice sounding tired, “there’s a washing machine in the bathroom, feel free to use it and throw in my clothes too if you end up doing so.”

“Alright,” you said as you quietly nodded along, feeling the headache taunt you as you bobbed your head. You gathered your things off of the floor and took a step outside as soon as you were clothed to do just that.

Figuring out the machine was easy but what exactly were you supposed to do now? You didn’t really know what to do in situations like these as they never have happened to you before. You sighed as you felt lost, sitting down at the kitchen table with your elbows resting against the table, your palms pushing against your cheeks.

You stared on and off at the coffee machine wondering if it would ease your pounding headache, hearing somewhere before that it can help, wondering at the same time if you could get away with making some or if it was overstepping some unspoken boundary.

As you were deep in thought, a yawning male voice caught your attention as a half asleep Suguru now emerged from the adjacent bedroom to Shoko’s. You watched in an equally tired state as he pulled his loose hair back into a messy half pony tail as he walked into the main area.

“You’re up earlier than I expected,” he yawned, his voice an octave deeper than it was last night as he walked over to the bathroom, not quite closing the door as he used it.

Was this normal?

You weren’t even going to ask.

“The first time I drank so heavily, I was out for a couple of days at least, but then again it was probably a lot more than you had,” he yawned.

Do you dare reply to someone who was just casually using the bathroom? You quickly sighed, deciding to not make it weird and just replied to him as normal.

“Yeah, I guess I couldn’t sleep,” you replied.

“Fair enough,” he said as he left the bathroom after washing his hands, walking to the kitchenette to grab a couple of slices of bread from the bag on the counter, “you’re free to use her kitchen by the way, just replace things if they’re nearly out.”

You nodded as you stared at the coffee machine, your body begging for a little pick me up.

“However,” he quickly interjected as he glanced at the coffee machine as well, “I do recommend something dry and absorbent, like toast,” he said as tossed you a slice that you barely caught, “coffee will only make your headache worse.”

“Oh,” you replied as you took a bite of the toast, going along with it without really questioning it at all. You did find that you quickly now craved water, though.

“Good morning~!” another voice sung from the room that Suguru was just inside of, your mind automatically recognising it as Satoru’s. He seemed freshly chipper as he strolled causally out of the room, as if the many more drinks he had somehow just passed right through.

Suguru’s eyes widened as he guarded his toast slice, diving for a spot on the nearby sofa that Satoru had his eye on, tearing away a part of the toast as he leaped to claim the spot.

“You ass, I swear t-“ Suguru muttered, eating his remaining scrap in a hurry.

“—So, [name], you got really messed up last night, huh?” Satoru spoke as he patted the empty seat space behind him, encouraging you to take a seat with the two of them but you remained sat at the table instead.

“I-I probably shouldn’t have taken it so far,” you replied as your mind blanked out into the distance, realising that you probably spoke just a little too much about things you shouldn’t have shared yesterday night.

“You’ll get used to it as your tolerance grows.” Suguru said, wiping the crumbs off of his hand and onto Satoru. “Listen to your body with the cravings on recovery days, it’ll help.”

“Do you remember much?” the white haired one asked, retaining a slightly condescending smile that seemed almost deceptively friendly.

Was it all in your head? Or was he actually hiding something?

“Only a little,” you replied, trying to keep it vague, “I talked about the town and I mentioned the bu-“

“—The bully, that’s right,” he said, cutting you off and silencing you just a little. You felt less encouraged to continue talking as a result.

“I went that far, huh,” you sighed, regretting oversharing so much.

“I mean, it’s fine,” Satoru settled down, perhaps noticing your suddenly sunken demeanour, “you don’t have to go back to that place ever again,” he paused, his tone shifting to something that resembled concern, “do you?”

“Only for birthdays and holidays,” you replied a little too soon and then paused, words felt a little more difficult to speak today, “my dad is having his birthday in late June, so I’ll probably have to go there again pretty soon.”

It was the one thing you agreed upon with your parents when leaving the town. Birthdays and holidays as well as keeping them semi updated with texts, just to show you were actually alive.

He seemed to frown at that possibility, his unserious composition breaking away for a moment as his friend also seemed a little uncomfortable. You didn’t remember just how much detail you went, but you could tell that it was far enough based on their reactions.

A short moment later, Shoko emerged from her bedroom at last. She dressed up similarly to you, going straight for the coffee machine anyway as Suguru narrowed his eyes in disapproval.

“Why am I always the last one up?” she half-jokingly complained as she got started on a cup, the machine vibrating against the counter.

“[name] was up first, so it wasn’t me for once.” Suguru said as he leaned back into the sofa further, his legs spreading further out as he pushed Satoru off to the side.

“She probably got snored awake by Shoko-“ Satoru laughed, his eyes bouncing back and forth between you both.

“—Ah, n-no it wasn’t anything like that, just-“ you stammered before you were promptly cut off.

“—I’m joking, I promise,” Satoru assured you, perhaps finally catching on that his personality was a little too much for you to handle so soon, “it’s just that you clung to her all night, so we already know who wins the favourites’ competition.”

“And you’re surprised, why?” Shoko asked as she took a sip from the now full mug.

You zoned out a little as they all talked amongst themselves, once again feeling a little left out but also not quite caring as the headache from the counter was what was on your mind instead.

She did quickly notice this though as she walked up to you as soon as she finished her cup, dragging you to the front door as she threw you a pair of slippers, leading you outside of the apartment and up the stairs.

You were led to what seemed to be a rooftop, giving you an idea of the place she lived in with more clarity; assorted communal pots of growing herbs likely set up by the other residents, along with makeshift greenhouses and benches also occupying the roof. She led you towards the corner of it all, taking a saucer out from beneath a terracotta planter.

The plant that grew in the pot looked suspiciously dead as cigarette butts occupied the soil.

Her hands patted down the hoodie she was wearing before pinching out a cigarette, no, two cigarettes as she propped one of them between her lips, holding the other one out to you.

“I-I don’t really smoke.“ You replied, waving your hands in response but her hand persisted as she slowly drew it towards you, staring you right in the eyes, lighting both hers and your own without a second thought.

“Good, you’re learning to keep up,” she said, eyeing you up and down, “maybe you’ll survive out here after all.”

You weren’t quite sure how to reply as you watched her lean towards the rooftop, her elbows resting along the bricked edge. The clear blue sky and warm sunny glow made the hangover a little easier as the soft breeze flickered against your bare skin.

You inhaled the cigarette slowly, coughing just a little. You weren’t going to smoke again you decided, or at least not unless you had no choice.

“They’re not so bad, I promise, the guys I mean,” Shoko spoke after a while as her head dipped below her shoulders, “we’ve all been through a lot too, but they just don’t really know how to react to you just yet and you’re not the easiest person to read.”

You stayed silent again, unsure if this was meant to be an insult or not. You bitterly inhaled the cigarette instead.

“Not meaning to drag you down or anything, if you think that’s where I'm going with it,” she continued, noticing your reaction, “it’s just been a while since we’ve had a new addition to the group and we’re all so used to losing people, so it’s a way to keep our guard up, if anything.”

“Oh, yeah, I think I get it,” you nodded along as you listened in. It was nice to talk to someone your own age regardless and maybe she was what you needed to finally grow up. Someone who wasn’t afraid to tell you the harsh truth when you needed to hear it.

“Mhm,” she hummed as she took a deep inhale and then exhaled a puff of smoke, “Satoru acts the way that he does because he never got a carefree childhood while being told that he’s the strongest. Suguru is reserved for his own reasons but he’s good to the people that he cares about.”

“And you?” you asked.

“Me…” she laughed, pushing the cigarette butt into the saucer, “…ah, good question,” she sighed as she searched for a suitable response, “I’m not really sure, I guess I’m just neutral, I care about the people I keep close but I try to let them figure it out by themselves if it’s something too personal.”

“I guess I haven’t figured out what I am yet,” you admitted, “I’m bad at wording most of the things I do but I am trying to change that.”

“Yeah?” she asked, yawning a little,” I’m sure it’ll get easier as you find your way, we’ll get along regardless.”

“You really think?”

“I mean, I won’t be around much after the summer break but it’ll be nice to know that there’s someone I can get along with for the time I have off,” she replied as she walked back to the roof entry, “but just try to relax and let everything else happen naturally, yeah?”

It took you a while before you headed back as well, trying to remember what floor and what door number her flat was on.

Maybe you should have followed immediately?

Or at least asked.

30 B was it?

You took a deep breath and chanced it, passing by Suguru on the way back inside. He had an unlit cigarette poking out of his mouth.

You both passed through the doorway and squeezed uncomfortably close by each other, neither quite using common sense as you brushed each other by.

For a brief moment it looked like he wanted to say something, but by then you were already halfway down the stairs so he had no choice but to just keep quiet.

But maybe next time?

He was curious about you, after all.

[spookyscarydemonbabe]

Buggy SFW Alphabet

A- Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they like to show affection?)

Not insanely affectionate when around other people, especially the crew, but when it’s just the two of you it’s quite the opposite. When around other people he likes to be the star, he doesn’t focus on much other than himself. He really just stands with you closer to his side, he loves to show off his earnings and you’re the most precious thing he’s ever earned. He likes to have you sitting pretty on the sidelines while he does all the nitty gritty pirate stuff. It’s always your biggest argument whenever you’re all alone in his quarters. When it’s just the two of you he adores you. Treating you like you’re the most precious treasure across all seas.

B- Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

He wouldn’t be all too good as a friend, he would make his intentions very clear from the start. He wants you more than anything, second only to being the most feared and powerful pirate anyone has known. He won’t stop until he has you either, always bringing you gifts and such to try and convince you further to let him have you.

C- Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle?How would they cuddle?)

He never admits to liking them, but he does enjoy a cuddle every now and then. Either very late at night when he wants to hold onto something to keep warm in bed or early in the morning when all he wants is to sleep in and enjoy your embrace. He likes to lay with his head against the pillow, you pulled into his side with your head on his chest and his arm around your shoulder, one of his hands detaching to hold tightly onto your thigh if it’s a bit too big for him to reach all the way around.

D- Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking, cleaning, etc.?)

Awful. He is just about the worst of them when it comes to either of those things but he occasionally tries to keep things nice for you. He’s not a messy or dirty person per se, but it’s not like he likes things squeaky clean. He keeps his bed made and his things in their spots, it’s all organized chaos. He’ll only cook or clean when you tell him to, he wants to make sure that he can keep you as happy as he can, he would hate for you to leave him. So if that means you need him to scrub the floors of his quarters and make you a decent meal to share afterwards it’s the least he can do to keep you another day.

E- Ending (If they had to break up with their partner how would they do it?)

Politely refusing to do this one 🥰

F- Fiancé (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

He wouldn’t necessarily want to call it a marriage, more so an alliance he wouldn’t dare to double cross. As long as you stayed with him, he’d spare every town you told him to, save for a little bit of looting. You know he would never leave anywhere empty handed. It’s how he managed to get your rings.

G- Gentle (How gentle are they? Both physically and emotionally.)

He was absolutely terrible at being gentle when he first met you, you basically had to teach him how to be more gentle with you in almost every way possible. His grip would be too hard on you, he hated having to talk about issues you had, it was quite difficult for him to figure out when it was time to treat things as a joking matter until you looked him in his eyes and said you’d be gone if he couldn’t be more gentle with you. It was almost a complete 180 after that.

H- Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

It’s rare when he gives you a nice, warm, long hug. He’s never been big on them, but when he’s genuinely frustrated he sometimes just needs you there to hold onto. You make him feel like everything is going to be alright again.

I- I Love You (How fast do they say it?)

He wouldn’t actually say it until it’s been a decent amount of time since you’ve been with him. The only reason he didn’t say it was because he was too proud to admit it was love. He’d always say how he adored you, how you were the most precious treasure he’d ever gotten, but it took him a while to finally figure out that it was love he felt.

J- Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Very jealous. Very quickly. It’s kind of part of the reason you like him so much, he’s very possessive. You have an agreement with each other so he knows that when you’re out at the bars, flirting with other guys for free drinks or information about other captains and their crews, you’re not going to do anything other than some harmless flirting to get what you need. Never anything more. But if he sees one of them get a little too handsy or if they start letting their words cross a line, he takes care of it in the blink of an eye.

K- Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

When he kisses you, he does it one of two ways. He’ll hold onto your collar, pull you in fast and close and kiss you nice and rough. Like he needs it to get through the day. Or, he’ll place his hands to your waist and bring you in slow, softly enveloping your lips. Those times are a bit more frequent than the latter. Either way, you’re happy to pull away with his red makeup smeared onto your face.

His favorite spot to kiss you is your neck. He always makes sure it gets the most of his attention. The sides of your neck, the back of your neck, he’ll even sometimes trail down to your collarbone and back up again. His favorite spot is right over your pulse, he likes to feel that little pitter patter of your heartbeat against his lips.

Strangely enough, he loves it when you kiss him on the nose. He knows people are going to stare at it regardless, he’s just a little more proud of it when everyone else can see the lipstick marks over the fluorescent red paint.

L- Little Ones (How are they around kids?)

Just awful. He has a hard enough time with people as is, but bringing children into the mix is no different. Treats them just the same as he would his crew, and he has absolutely no issue with taking them out if they get in his way.

M- Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

It all depends on which side of the bed he wakes up on. It’s always a 50/50, he’ll either want to lay in bed all day with you, snuggled up and doing absolutely nothing other than admire the fact that he has you there with him. Or, he’ll wake up grumpy as ever, needing a big breakfast and a pretty girl (you) on his lap while he tries to not lash out.

N- Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights are usually much more relaxed than mornings are. He’s exhausted by the time the day is done so he likes a nice and calm evening before bed. You’ll help him with getting his things set up for the next day and making sure your bed is nice and comfortable for him to crawl into.

O- Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything at once or do they open slowly?)

It would take a while for him to reveal much of anything about his past to you until he’s certain he’s got you for the long run. He doesn’t like to show much weakness to others, he comes off as very cocky and confident to most, so you knew he really trusted you when he started to reveal little personal things here and there. It made you like him a little bit more after he got comfortable.

P- Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Very quick to anger, but with you it’s a bit different. He’s the boss of everyone else on his crew, but you’re the boss of him. He’ll never lay a hand on you unless you tell him it’s alright, and you know how irritated he gets when things don’t go his way. You’ll let him have his moment, yelling about this and that while throwing things around and berating his crew, but you know he’ll apologize to you for having to see him like that and clean up after himself. He quite literally begs for your forgiveness afterwards, he doesn’t want his temper to scare you away.

Q- Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they mention every little detail in passing or do they kind of forget everything?)

He does his best to remember, but it always comes at the worst times. He’ll only remember your favorite flower after seeing them on a sellers cart and robbing him of every one he has just for you. He’ll only remember your favorite food after pillaging through another island and taking all their food and supplies and saving it for you to snack on whenever you like. He can be very sweet, but it’s in his own way.

R- Remember (What is their favorite memory of your relationship?)

When you agreed to stay with him, and he remembers that moment often. He’d spent WEEKS doing absolutely everything he could to convince you to be on his crew, offering you food, money, clothes, jewelry, anything he could think of just to get you to say ‘yes’, and when you finally agreed he realized that just being a part of his crew wasn’t enough. He wanted full access to you at all times, believing you to be more valuable than anything he had ever gotten. It got to a point where his special treatment just became the norm, you stay at his side, looking pretty and letting him do all the hard work so he looks like the biggest baddest pirate to ever cross the sea, but he does it all yo make you happy.

S- Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

He’s VERY protective of you. He tries to make it seem like you’re just another crew mate when you’re out and about, not wanting anyone else to figure out that if you were taken from him he would lose everything he’s worked so hard for. He makes sure that whenever you want to go out and have your alone time, he’ll send a few of the crew to keep an eye on you just to make sure you’re not in any danger.

T- Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Like i said beforehand, he’s sweet but in his own way. He’d never mention any specific anniversaries or dates except when you’re alone. The whole day will go by as normal, but as soon as he’s ready to retire back to his quarters, he’ll show you how grateful he is for completing another milestone together. A month, six months, a year, and every year after that. Not to mention how he likes to make sure that it’s very special for the two of you. He has the crew going out and doing tasks that they know only come around once a year. Searching high and low for flowers, candles, little sweets and candies all for you. The cooks will make you a very small but intimate meal. He cherishes you and though he doesn’t show it often, he really means it.

U- Ugly (What would be some of their bad habits?)

He’s got quite a few. He’s a pirate, for one, so cleanliness is not really something he’s worried about. He still showers and takes care of himself a decent bit, but it’s rare. He’s someone who doesn’t really think much before he says or does anything, so he’s very quick to react. Meaning that often times when he injures himself it’s accidentally by his own hand.

V- Vanity (Hoe concerned are they about their appearance?)

Not overly concerned with it, all he cares about is his makeup looking good, but that’s really about it.

W- Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Absolutely. You’re the treasure he’s worked the hardest to get, there’s no way he wouldn’t be lost without you.

X- Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

His hair is actually quite long beneath his hat. He’s got the tassels at the sides of his captains hat made from his actual hair, but as soon as he pulls his striped cap off he’s got very long and quite soft blue hair.

Y- Yuck (What are some things he wouldn’t like, in general and in a partner?)

He wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t know how to take charge. He knows how stubborn he is, and he likes having someone that challenges him a little bit. He actually loves it, and he has no problem with you taking charge behind closed doors. He’s the boss of everyone else on the ship, but you know you’re the boss of him. And he knows it too.

Z- Zzz (A sleep habit of theirs.)

Makes a lot of noise in his sleep. It’s a lot of man sounds, grunts and groans, but eventually it becomes like white noise to you. He also fidgets and moves around a lot in his sleep, you even were able to talk him into a bigger bed and he’d never object to that, but he somehow always ends up pressed against you.

[blackbullet99]

The Idiocy of Aang Haters

First of all. People have a right to hate Aang. But hardly any reasons I come across are valid. Case in point this idiot on Twitter (or X if you wanna call it that).

First of all Aang was never a “nice guy” he was genuinely good person, the only time he started acting possessive was in EIP and even then he realized his mistake by the end of the episode, it doesn’t make up the forefront of his personality. He cared about Katara he never ignored her emotional needs at all, he was literally Katara’s biggest fan and would do anything for her. Also what mythology supports Zutara?

The only time we see Zuko comfort Katara twice in the whole show, which are both nice moments showing Zuko is a compassionate person. But to act like Aang never comforts Katara and just stands there is objectively wrong. When Jet dies Aang simply places his hand on Katara’s shoulder and thus reassures her, he also comforts her after bloodbending. We see Aang support Katara by offering to take her to The North Pole to waterbend, he gives himself up to Zuko to save Katara’s home. He helps Katara commit eco-terorism, he literally helps brings fun and levity into Katara’s life.

Aang doesn’t see Katara as an object, again that point is objectively wrong. We see Aang is literally Katara’s biggest fan. He admires her for her heroism and compassion in Imprisoned and The Painted Lady. He admires and respects her as a Waterbender and his Sifu. Whenever Katara’s in danger he’ll drop everything to save her. Even when they disagree about something they usually calmly talk it out even if they disagree. To act like Aang doesn’t value Katara is a gross mischaracterization. Sure Aang has feelings for Katara, but they��re friends first, they have a friendship built on mutual trust/respect where they value each other outside of attraction and their feelings exist within their close bond and friendship.

Regarding Aang and Katara kissing. Their first kiss outside of the cave in Omashu was mutual, sure Aang initiated it and it surprised Katara but it’s not like it was a one-sided affair. The one in EIP was wrong definitely, but that’s the point, Aang misread the situation, Katara was rightfully annoyed and Aang realized that it was stupid. It ain’t that deep, and it’s not like Aang S/Aed Katara. Also Aang had a dream about kissing Katara, okay? How is that bad?

“Both Zuko and Katara are people who've been shaped by a life of hardship thrust upon them at a young age by no fault of their own and therefore had to mature extremely quickly in order to deal with their environment. It's why they understand each other so well but Aang doesn’t”. Aang literally lost his entire nation. He was forced to carry the weight the of the world as The Avatar, younger than most too. He left because of many reasons, the weight of the situation, her peers alienating him, threatened to be taken away from his father figure. When he returned he saw his entire race was killed and he literally saw said father figure’s corpse. Aang also had to mature quickly and experience hardship through no fault of his own. Both him and Katara are both victims of genocide and colonization, both of their parental figure were killed. Zuko is a victim of child abuse, which is still very bad. This idiot ignoring Aang’s trauma doesn’t surprise me, given how they straight up downplay the effects of genocide and act like it doesn’t effect Aang because he was absent for 100 years and because he’s still able enjoy life and have fun.

So much of these points are downright repulsive, I don’t even know where to begin, this heartless POS is literally downplaying a child seeing their father-figure’s dead body and even though Aang was gone for 100 years, from his perspective he literally left The Air Temple only a few days ago and there would’ve been Airbenders around if The Fire Nation didn’t attack. Additionally it’s not like the genocide didn’t affect Aang, it comes up constantly in multiple episodes, it’s a core part of his character, he has survivors guilt, it’s why he’s so determined to save the world this time, it one of the reasons why he was so broken up when Appa was taken. But apparently because Aang likes to have fun, it means he has no trauma, what a braindead take, so people who have trauma can’t have fun. Aang literally chooses to enjoy life and have fun DESPITE what he’s been through, and that’s an admirable characteristic, it’s not like Katara isn’t above fun, in fact she’s drawn Aang because of this. They probably think Zuko is super mature because he’s so serious and focused on finding The Avatar and isn’t shown having fun, because to this moron, having fun mean you have no trauma whatsoever.

Back to this guy’s main point, while there are similarities between nations. The Fire Nation literally has the most power of the four nations and was straight up colonizing and invading The Water Tribe. Zuko and Katara do both get angry, both Zuko is much quicker to anger and even then two people who both get mad isn’t a good match for couple, they literally shot themselves in the foot with that one. Katara is literally a Waterbending Prodigy, love Zuko, but he isn’t a prodigy. “They care deeply about the people close to them”, so does Aang, so does literally everyone in The Gaang.

Literally none of this idiot’s points make sense. They clearly don’t understand the show they claim to love or its characters. They obviously aren’t a real fan of this show and it’s painfully obvious that shipping has blinded them.

Not to mention this person is a POS for downplaying and denying the effects of genocide, but also posts racist stuff like this. Scumbags like this honestly don’t deserve to have a voice or an opinion and the world would honestly be better off without trash like this loser. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were a Zionist too.

[nyoomfruits]

Ooooh Ellie! Love these prompts.

Maybe “do any of the clothes you’re wearing belong to you?!” For lestapstri? Maybe some Norris thrown in as well? Up to you!

HIVE MIND HIVE MIND HIVE MIND

“Where have you been,” Pierre admonishes, when Charles rushes into the restaurant roughly twenty minutes after they’d said they’d meet up.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Charles says, letting himself fall down in the chair across from Pierre, taking off his jacket as he goes. “I was hanging out at Max and Oscar’s place, lost track of time.”

Pierre frowns. “Max and Oscar moved in together?” He asks. It’s not surprising, they’d been pretty serious lately, but he’d just assumed-

“Yeah, the lease on Oscar’s London apartment was ending, and they’ve talked about it before, about moving in together. And Max got that massive place down near the harbor just a few months ago, so it just makes sense.” Charles says, flipping through his menu. “Seriously, the place is huge. It has this really big open living room with the most beautiful piano you’ve ever seen. What Max needs a piano for I have no idea, I don’t think he even know how to play it.”

Pierre feels a headache coming on. This is not what he’d signed up for when he’d agreed to lunch with Charles. “Yeah,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I wonder why Max would buy an apartment with a piano in it.”

“Right? But he lets me play it whenever I’m over, which is nice. I’ve been trying to teach Oscar, but he’s absolutely horrid at it, so mostly he just sits on the bench next to me and watches me play,” Charles flips the page of his menu. “Are the burgers good here?”

“Burgers are fine,” Pierre says. “So when are you moving in?”

“Hm?” Charles looks up, confused. “Move in where?”

“With Max and Oscar, Charles,” Pierre says, rolling his eyes. “And the piano neither of them knows how to play.”

Charles’s mouth drops open in a surprised little ‘o’ and he flushes bright red. “No, no, no it’s not like that. We’re just. They’re just friends,” he says, a little frantically.

“But you sleep with them sometimes, right?” Pierre says, raising an eyebrow.

Charles flush darkens. “I mean, yeah, but that’s more of like, a friends with benefits thing. You know. It’s just fun to add a third sometimes. Max and Oscar are very happy together.”

“Right, sure,” Pierre says. “And how many times per week do you sleep over? How many times does Oscar cook you dinner? How many times do you and Max go for an early morning run together?”

“Pierre, stop, no, that’s just. It’s just convenient, sometimes, the sleeping over. And you know how bad of a cook I am. And it’s just nice, having a running buddy. Keeps me motivated,” Charles looks genuinely distressed now, fiddling with the corner of his menu.

“All right, other question,” Pierre says, leaning back in his seat. “Do any of the clothes you're currently wearing actually belong to you?”

Charles falters, glances down at his outfit, gets a guilty, pinched expression on his face. “Yes?” He says, hesitantly.

“Right,” Pierre says, “So you, a Ferrari fan down to your core, just own a Red Bull hoodie for funsies, and for someone who barely ever wears shorts, somehow own a pair identical to the ones Oscar’s always spotted wearing around the paddock.”

“Fuck,” Charles says, and lets his head fall down on the table. “Okay, I, yeah. Fine,” he says, when he raises his head again. “Maybe I’ve been a bit of an idiot. Maybe I fell a little bit in love with them. But that’s fine! I’ll get over it. Eventually.”

Pierre frowns. “Why would you want to get over it?”

Charles shrugs. “I mean. They’re happy together, right? The two of them.”

Pierre pinches the bridge of his nose again. “They have a piano, Charles.”

“Yeah? So? Plenty of people have piano’s,” Charles is fiddling with the corner of his menu again.

“Max is literally the most practical person I know. Do you really think he would put a full sized piano in the middle of his living room if he didn’t think someone was going to regularly use it?” Pierre asks. He loves Charles, he really does, but sometimes he really can be the most dense idiot on the planet.

“…No?” Charles says, voice a little small.

“Exactly,” Pierre says. “Now, I’m going to order us burgers, and we’re going to eat, and then you’re going back to Max and Oscar’s apartment and talk to them, yeah? And you’re not going to do that thing where you fill in what they want before they’ve even said it, you’re going to listen to them.”

Charles snorts. “Yes, dad,” he says, jokingly, but there’s a soft smile on his face, a hopeful little glint in his eyes.

Pierre nods, and waves a waitress over. At this rate, if the whole F1 thing doesn’t work out, he can always consider becoming a couples therapist.

[tinypandacakes]

Helloo! I love ur fics sm u genuinely make my day better whenever u post. Ur such a talented writer and I can see how much work u put into ur writings and I admire u a lot. Ty for giving us some amazing art to read *chefs kiss* BUT ANYWAY enough of the sappy stuff lol I had a question abt König from ur series ‘Trapper Keeper’ and was wondering abt his past relationships or lack there of. Has he ever been intimate with another woman besides reader or were any of the women he has been with (if he has) were intimated by his size (also how big is he) and didn’t want to have sex?

Hi! Ahh thank you for saying so ☺️ you’re very sweet!

mildly NSFW and spoilers below for people who haven’t read yet ~

I’m not diving super deep into his social/sexual history in this story, but I HC König in his late thirties or early 40s. personally, I like him on the older end of that range, but I leave it vague so you can imagine what you like :3. probably some relationships here or there. he makes a comment about not meeting the right person when Hase asks if he has a spouse, so the assumption is he has never married.

It’s definitely possible his height and dick have intimidated partners in the past though 😭 and while he has learned to play nice through the years, his personality can come across as way too intense, so there’s that too

ive been trying to show that he’s definitely not some shy virgin, but it has been a while since he’s been with someone. Hase would assume that he’s probly only jerked off for the ~ two years he’s been at the cabin :( abusing his poor cock with his rough and calloused grip

He seems to know what he’s doing sexually but was rusty and anxious around her in the beginning [his hands shook the first time he undressed her when she was sick, when he touched her in the bath he was too rough/fast on her clit until she guided him] But now that he’s comfortable with her, he doesn’t want to take his hands off her. :3

He is not a sex god or something in this fic but is aware that he is bigger than average and doesn't want to break his toy before he's even gotten to play with it properly, y'know? That wouldn’t be fun for anyone. And the chase is half the fun, anyway….

But he is very eager and interested in making Hase pliant feel good! She is conflicted but internally admits to sort of liking it when he’s a little rough and scary, which :) suits König just fine :) because :) he does seem :) to have a teensy bit of sadistic streak in him…. :)

But really...it’s not his fault that Hase is so adorable when her big doe eyes are wide and full of tears, and she’s just looking up at him, willing and waiting for guidance 🥺 poor little thing...lost and confused. good thing König knows what she really needs 🐇💕

[pickastitch]

Hai i want to listen to you talk about gem again. Any thoughts on empires s1 gem ? (If u already told me then tell me again plz n thank u <3 )

confession time, the s1 e!gem that is always brainrotting is pretty different from canon s1 e!gem (from what i can remember) so i'm going to talk about my pantheon au version of gem

i like to think gem would say, "it's free to be a hater" after sausage or fwhip does some stupid shit. on a more serious note, i feel there has to be some genuine resentment towards them two for dragging her into their bs, even if it's not a lot it is there. gem killing sausage in that one important lore bit was so cathartic to her

gem really admires katherine mainly because of how non involved she is with everything. she always feels the need to help everyone (see my gem character analysis post), and the fact that katherine just steps back is enviable to her

in my head, gem also uses a lot more fire magic than she does in the series; this contracts nicely with katherine's nature magic. gandalf, her cat, will decide if they like a person or not, and that will be gem's first impression of a person. it's quite hard to break from it too

now i'm going to dip in to some hc s8 territory, but it will come back to esmp s1. at the start of the series, gem has no clue she is bi and false is actually her gay awakening. gem looks up to her a lot, and she watches her run away and leave her friends behind. this leads to her reaction during the rapture (season ending), where she only takes fwhip because he directly asked, instead of helping out everybody. like come on, they both fly away on their base defining organic

fwhip and gem were royalty, but because gender roles, their parents were forcing gem to be king (trans roseblings tust), gem felt like her only option was to run away. when she finds out about the crown made by fwhip, she is a little uncomfortable with the concept but doesn't say anything. though when others try to convince her she should get it gem is beyond pissed

before she ran away, pearl showed her all about rifts (it has something to do with amethyst shards, but that's a whole different post) and offers to take her to hermitcraft, which she refuses. until she wants to run away and then goes to the place she wants to set up her village and then goes to another world while everyone is searching for her

gem's relationship with shrub is very unique because she so wants to just yell at them for bringing xornoth to the overworld and then spreading it across her place. on the other hand, she sees herself in them as someone who also ran away from home. but then that gets ruined when she is infected with xornoth via shrub

when she still lived with her family, pearl and sausage lived in neighboring empires, and they all grew up together. gem and sausage dated a bit when they were really young, so they are exs on technicality. most of her romantic feelings have gone away, but whenever sausage firts with her, a crush appears for a day and then goes away. she hates this more than anything else. then they grow up, and gem realizes she likes women and then realize she likes pearl specifically. and then pearl and sausage get together (actually qpr, but gem doesn't know that), and she swears off of romance

and the connection to the void and the end and all that stuff is a pretty important part of this au but ehhhh y'know

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 23

Hello all, time to see the episode where the writers give up on making their writing believable in favor of cheap, uninspired emotional appeals!

Now, with this episode, I could take my time ripping into the show fixating on this fantasy in its head that Chloe is a genuine threat... but I'm not going to because that topic has been talked to death a hundred and one times. Instead, I'm gonna focus on the moral of this episode... and how it utterly falls apart.

Namely, the episode seems to be pushing the narrative that you can't wait around and rely on people to solve your problems for you, you have to do it yourself... or at the very least just reach out and let others KNOW you need help. Why does this fall apart? Because in addition to the fact that Chloe being a problem at all is forced by the writers blatantly ignoring how she has no real power and the police could just drag her out of office whenever they like... Adrien does literally nothing this entire episode to solve HIS personal problem about his dad forcing him to move.

He never mentions it to any of his friends OR his girlfriend (who he can hold down a long-distance relationship with if it DOES come down to him moving, as his and her video-chatting in the prior episode demonstrates), and the one time he bothers to acknowledge that there's nothing that can be said to his dad to make him change his mind, it comes off more as a lazy excuse on his part not to share how he's feeling. Throughout this entire episode, and all the episodes in which this plot has been leading up to now, Adrien takes the worst decision every time towards opening up and sharing his problems while also doing nothing on a personal level to help himself. He just... stands around, feeling sorry for himself.

How can you push the idea that people need to stand up to injustice themselves when you can't even have one of the two main leads stand up for HIMSELF?

I could add more details... but I think this gets my point across nicely. Thank you, and now, onto the review! As always, warning for any profanity on my part.

Episode 23: Revolution

Okay, and we get the opening scene of "Mayor Chloe" talking to Nadja that she has "Outlawed Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Monarch." Because outlawing someone who is already a terrorist that nobody can find and the only people capable of stopping him is SUCH A GOOD IDEA FOLKS!!! God fucking dammit. I'm not too pissed off yet, but the fact that nobody in law enforcement is dragging her out of that office and calling her out on her BS of being Mayor because her dad was Mayor is utterly stupid. If this is meant to be some kind of jab about "the rich are the new nobility/royalty" or something like that, it fails. Miserably.

Nadja asks if "this will last long" without actually specifying what "this" is, with Chloe having to be fed lines by Lila over an earbud so as to not blow it already. She also fumbles "democratic" TWICE. News flash Astruc, Dumb Blonde jokes have been in bad taste for a few decades by now!! Chloe then ends things while declaring that her new robots will be upholding "her law in Paris," never mind that not only is her position totally illegitimate, Mayors DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO ARBITRARILY DECIDE WHAT IS OR ISN'T A LAW.

Now, we get to the heroes, with Chat pointing out that they have a moral obligation to stop Chloe, and Ladybug saying that they can't because she's not Akumatized... which is bullshit, as both the specials and incidents like the fight against the flying dinosaurs proved. Yes, they can't attack her... but why the hell would they NEED TO ATTACK HER? Literally just going in, marching her out to the ACTUAL police and having them detain her would accomplish literally the exact same thing. Saying "they'll look like the bad guys" is a completely bullshit non-answer.

Aaannnd... they passed the buck onto "adults, an authority figure" to handle the problem. Because clearly that's a good lesson to teach kids, don't stand up to what you see as a systemic problem in the world or an abuse of power, even if you have the means to oppose it, just leave it to someone else. THAT'S what you should be teaching kids, not that doing what is right, even if it's hard, is important.

Now they head back home, and Marinette is watching videos on the news reporting what's going on and citizen reactions. First up, a pair of ladies who I'm thinking that Astruc had designed to give off the same vibes of "smug, elitist, rich white person" vibes as Chloe is meant to give off, saying it's a good thing that Chloe is in power because she's a "young person, like us, representing us!" Next we get the racist cop who denounces superheroes as pointless due to not stopping Monarch yet, and then publicly airing a conspiracy theory that they are all in on it together. Then we get another adult, who points out how utterly stupid having a teenager declaring herself Mayor is.

Now it's on to Adrien, I wonder how he's doing? Staring at a picture of Marinette on his phone it looks like. And once again all that's going on is that he's angsting over telling his girlfriend that he's moving. After all, it's not as if he can HAVE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP, or, I dunno, PRACTICE TELLING HER BY TELLING HIS OTHER FRIENDS!!! Seriously, do Nino, Alya, and the rest of his classmates mean NOTHING to him in terms of telling this info? Does he honestly believe they'd have no advice to share!? What is wrong with this guy!?

His answer on why he's not saying anything? He's hoping he'll be able to convince his dad not to send him... fuck that. Dude, FUCK. THAT!! For absolute FUCK'S SAKE THIS IS THE GUY WHO HAS DONE NOTHING BUT BE AN UTTER BASTARD TO YOU FOR YEARS, YOU AREN'T GONNA CONVINCE HIM!! HECK, HE MADE IT CLEAR HE'S DOING THIS TO SEPARATE YOU FROM MARINETTE!!! JUST RUN AWAY ALREADY!!!!

Okay, now we got Plagg, the guy the show has made repeatedly clear LOATHES and is annoyed by romance, shilling Marinette as "the most amazing girl in the whole universe." Please give me a moment while I hurl; it's not even over how utterly fucking CHEESY this is, it's how unironic they are at shilling the girl who has dropped the ball REPEATEDLY, and has routinely violated Adrien's boundaries without his knowledge. This is disturbing to me. At least he's stating the simple solution of asking someone for help... still fucking pissed that it's all centered around MARINETTE rather then exploring his OTHER FRIENDSHIPS that are a lot closer than whatever tangled mess he has going on with Marinette. You know, like his best friend that the narrative conveniently forgot about as soon as they could?

And upon a call from Marinette, NOW he decides that this is the right time. It's really fucking ironic that all of Adrien's scenes and relevance to the plot this season is all about Marinette, whereas Marinette's scenes actually DO SOMETHING towards expanding upon what's going on around them all. And it is immediately derailed by Marinette asking him to watch the news. So much for her call being "a sign." Now we get more reactions to Chloe's dictatorship, Hooray! First off is a guy saying she can't be worse than her father... yeah, she absolutely can, seeing as her dad was corrupt, but she's corrupt AND a literal teenager with no qualifications. And another guy brushing off any issues since they'll have an election soon. It's really, REALLY fucking stupid how these people are both taking her at her words, and ignoring how A TEENAGER DOES NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO ASSUME POWER AT HER OWN SAY-SO!! SHE IS NOT EVEN AN ELECTED OFFICIAL!!!

"Someone's bound to do something." Nope, no one will, never mind the fact that CHLOE NEVER SHOULD'VE EVEN GOTTEN THIS FAR! Oh and Marinette interrupts Adrien's attempt to explain his situation by calling everyone to do something. Clearly this can't possibly go wrong and will have an actual meaningful impact! Surely it will. /s

Now we get a scene of Chloe playing with her toys testing the incredibly advanced "police robots" Gabe and Tomoe are bribing her with supplied to City Hall, once again having the narrative IGNORE HOW NONE OF THIS IS EVEN REMOTELY LEGAL!!! Oh, and Audrey is present too for some reason. She also fires that one butler that is more prominent than the rest of the staff because she's got robots now... whatever happened to her words at the Diamond Dance, what was it again, something about how the robots aren't as fun because she can't boss them around or something?

Gabe proceeding to layer the flattery on thick with Chloe... wonder how that'll go. Probably terribly. "All the superoffenders have disappeared." BITCH IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A FUCKING WEEK YOU ASSHOLE!!! But that's also the perfect thing to say to Chloe in this scenario, she's too much of a self-centered idiot to spot the obvious fault in her decision. Oh, and it looks like Lila had Chloe recording the meeting.

So far, I'm mostly just banging my head against a wall over how stupid this entire plot is. THERE IS NO SITUATION IN WHICH A TEENAGER IS GOING TO HOLD THE POSITION OF MAYOR. EVER. Tomoe and Gabe proceed to plot about how they are going to use Chloe's incompetence as a Mayor (STILL IGNORING HOW SHE CAN'T LEGALLY HOLD THE POSITION!!!), and at least acknowledge that there isn't a chance in hell Chat and Ladybug are gonna ignore this for good, before Monarch personally visits Chloe... instead of, you know, sending the Butterfly and communicating with her directly, something he is FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING!!! Meaning the guy is deliberately waltzing into the lair of someone who has declared him an outlaw. Not as if she couldn't just have her robots capture him, take his Miraculous for herself, and establish herself as Queen of Paris in truth, but that would require the writers to think these things through and for Chloe to be allowed to have a brain.

Oh look, they actually had Chloe be smart enough to have her robots target Monarch! Now if only he wasn't LITERALLY STUPID ENOUGH TO SHOW UP IN PERSON. And we learn that as the creator of them, Tomoe has an override of the system... how in the world did she even see the screen targeting Monarch? She's supposed to be blind, right?? Can she hear them targeting through the screen or something!? And just as Chloe is about to do the smart thing and refuse Monarch's offer for an alliance (YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE THERE IN PERSON, IDIOT!!!), Lila tells her to accept... ugh...

This, this is just stupid. IT IS IDIOTIC!! IT IS BULLSHIT!!! NOTHING ABOUT THIS MAKES SENSE!! IS CHLOE MENTALLY DISABLED!? IS THAT WHAT THIS IS!? BECAUSE NO ONE CAN POSSIBLY BE THIS STUPID!! SHE IS NOT A THREAT, SHE IS JUST A DUMB KID DANCING TO SOMEONE ELSE'S STRINGS!! HOW THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TAKE HER SERIOUSLY AS THE "WORST OF THE WORST"!? WE CAN'T!!! FUCK THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!

And we learn the specifics of the deal is that Monarch will Akumatize her, yadda yadda yadda, make it look like she's not an Akuma, yadda yadda yadda... NONE OF THIS EXPLAINS WHY HE IS IN THE FUCKING ROOM WHEN HE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE!!! HECK, HE COULD HAVE GIVEN HIMSELF THE POWER TO COMMUNICATE AT A DISTANCE!!! The obvious answer is that they wanted an excuse to keep Monarch from learning about Lila feeding Chloe lines, but that if anything just shows how weak their efforts in making Lila a threat are. If she's only a threat when they actively keep the antagonist from knowing she's in the know, then she's not a real threat.

Oh, we also get the stupidity of Chloe's robots having multiple powers. Not even gonna get into that bullshit.

Now we are back to the school, and Adrien announcing his determination to tell Marinette everything... because obviously it's only Marinette that deserves to know that his father is forcing him to move to London, and not any of his other friends. (Rolls eyes)

Apparently Marinette, Alya, and Mylene came up with some kind of protest...? Watch and be amazed as it amounts to nothing when Chloe shows up in her "covert Akuma form," with once again NO ONE OBJECTING TO THE FACT THAT A TEENAGE GIRL IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE THE FUCKING MAYOR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!! Oh, and Chloe also lying to the news about giving limitless freedom to the citizens of Paris... I'll be honest, I could actually see her doing something like that, not out of any kind of goodness of her heart but more due to just being too ignorant to understand the consequences of basically letting everyone do whatever they want, no questions asked, and doing so would make her own life easier as well.

And it turns out the protest is over Miss Bustier... because their fired teacher, who the Mayor NEVER HAD THE AUTHORITY TO AUTHORIZE THE FIRING OF, is the real issue over the fact that one of their classmates is illegally holding a position of power. Also, them calling her "Miss Bustier the Great" is pretty cringe. It's blatantly forced just to make the rhyme work.

And their big protest is... to refuse to go to class. Okay? That... is utterly fucking pointless. Seriously, "REFUSING TO GO BACK TO CLASS" IS THE BEST THESE IDIOTS COULD COME UP WITH!? WHO FUCKING CARES!!! IT'S NOT A COMPELLING THREAT BECAUSE IT'S NOT HURTING ANYONE BUT THEMSELVES AND ISN'T DISRUPTING ANY OTHER PROCESSES OR EVENTS GOING ON!! IT IS ENTIRELY PERFORMATIVE BS THAT AMOUNTS TO JACK AND SHIT!!!

WHY should Chloe CARE that none of you want to go to Class!? SHE DOESN'T!!! Oh, right, Lila is talking in her ear. Also, I don't know why Chloe singled out Zoe for "pretending to be her sister" since I'm pretty sure that isn't exactly public knowledge!? She didn't even CALL YOU her sister, so why are you bringing it up!? Also, them shoe-horning "libertarian" in there; that... amounts to nothing.

...She's seriously calling them willfully sabotaging their own education "holding the school hostage"? This is... this is moronic. That is the only thing I can call it, this is utterly MORONIC. Aside from her blatantly slandering Miss Bustier, her throwing shade at Damocles' obsession with acting like he's a Superhero is spot on as he's shown that he hasn't learned his lesson, and how it negatively impacts his work; her refusing to reinstate him (not that she even COULD) is one of her few smart decisions.

The protesters do point out how she's twisting the situation stupidly, but it falls apart since this ENTIRE FUCKING PLOT is held up by tissues and prayers by writers high off their own farts. Seriously, why is Lila even BOTHERING to try and manipulate Chloe? Chloe can't even keep up an act good enough to last TWO SECONDS when around anyone who doesn't enable her BS, this entire thing is stupid as fuck. What is the point? What is supposed to be going on!?

Okay, the one interesting thing going on is that Chloe tried to burst Marinette's bubble about what Adrien is being made to do... seriously, DO NONE OF THESE IDIOTS REMEMBER THAT A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP IS POSSIBLE!?

Mylene and Ivan disappear after having publicly stood up to Chloe, Hmm, I wonder if there's a connection!? We also see that Chloe SOMEHOW managed to get a gold statue of herself made. HOW!? WHEN!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!? Oh, and Chloe literally having Ms. Mendeleiev prove to be a fucking disaster of a teacher by spoon-feeding her her own propaganda.

Chat and Ladybug doing nothing about the stupid as fuck statue because "Monarch had nothing to do with it," DID THESE IDIOTS LOSE THEIR FUCKING MINDS!? SERIOUSLY, CHLOE'S POSITION IS ILLEGAL!! IT HAS NO BASIS!! NO LEGITIMACY!! YOU COULD LITERALLY DRAG HER OUT "OFFICE" BY HER EAR AND IT WOULD BE JUSTIFIED SINCE THE POSITION OF MAYOR DOESN'T PASS TO THE MAYOR'S CHILD!!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!

Yet another case of Adrien trying to tell Marinette only to clam up when she asks him to talk to his dad to get him to stop Chloe... it's funny how this episode is ignoring that Gabe is a fucking terrible person, ESPECIALLY MARINETTE!! Girl, HE THREATENED YOUR FUTURE IN DESIGNING AND IS A TOXIC CONTROL FREAK!! YOU KNOW THIS!!! WHY THE HELL WOULD HE EVEN CARE ABOUT STOPPING CHLOE EVEN IF HE WASN'T MONARCH!!!

"Talking to my father won't solve anything." That's the most reasonable thing anyone has ever said this episode. And just as he's about to elaborate, Chloe shows up in a helicopter and yells at the Ice Cream Idiot if he got his permit, which he said he doesn't need. THIS is one of the very few good things she did this episode; over dramatic or not, you shouldn't EVER have someone without a permit selling food, especially not out of a fucking pushcart!!!

"No one can ever prevent you from bringing so much happiness!" What happiness? He's an annoying idiot who is hyper-fixated on relationships and throws a temper tantrum bad enough to get AKUMATIZED whenever he's "wrong."

And now Alya's missing!! What could ever be going on- oh for fuck's sake, it's obviously Chloe!! Seriously, how in the world is it that hard to wrap their heads around the idea that Chloe is snatching up and arresting anyone and everyone who she dislikes!? Even without Akuma powers, she could probably get it done by just hiring some shady goons!!!

And apparently Chloe sent the Dupain-Chengs to Detention... whatever the fuck that's supposed to be, for the crime of expecting her to pay like everyone else. Why the fuck is that even a dealbreaker for her!? HER WHOLE DEAL NOW IS THAT SHE'S RICH SO SHE DOESN'T NEED TO WORK OR DO ANYTHING, SO FLAUNTING HER WEALTH SHOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM FOR HER!! Seriously, I'm pretty sure they only did this to ensure Marinette "got on the right track."

Honestly, I'm genuinely confused on what Chloe's end goal is even supposed to be. She's just getting rid of anyone that annoys her. What is she gonna do when there's no one left to make go away?

Now FINALLY Adrien catches on that something is weird, and it looks like everyone is missing by this point, and when he finally goes to confront Chloe... her big "threat" is just to tell Marinette that Adrien is leaving to go to London at his father's insistence, which, again, even ignoring how she has no way of knowing that Chloe couldn't possibly know that he's been trying to tell Marinette ever since this nonsense started, LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS ARE A THING!! I GUESS that the fact he's been lying to her would put a strain on things, but not THAT big of a fucking strain!!

Also, while it's meant to be mean-spirited mockery, Chloe is basically spot-on that Adrien's been acting like a spineless puppet for who knows how long by this point. Even ignoring the whole "He's a sentimonster" thing, he has been completely spineless and a wet blanket regarding Gabe and refuses to actually stand up to himself for real.

We get a look at what "Detention" looks like, and apparently she even sent Andre there. I can't tell if Chloe deliberately designed the place without an exit, or if she just forgot. She's been made so stupid I wouldn't put either one past her.

"How can Chloe pull this off?" SHE IS AN AKUMA!! SHE LITERALLY TELEPORTED YOU INTO A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AREA!! HOW FUCKING THICK CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE!? IT SHOULD BE ABUNDANTLY OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO SHE HAS BROUGHT TO "DETENTION" THAT SHE IS AN AKUMA BY THIS FUCKING POINT!!!!

Honestly, it's a bit weird that Chloe would have her screens say "I'll protect you, you can always count on me." Like, it honestly sounds GENUINE when the screens say it. If I didn't know that it's meant to just be a sign of how EEEEVVVIIILLL she is, I'd say that it's a reflection of her own deluded belief that she's the good guy and is in the right for her actions.

Okay, ignoring how Chloe somehow has this weird facility just... IN PARIS for some reason. Not even gonna acknowledge how much of a blatantly stupid cop-out it is. I'm just baffled how no one collapsed from hunger if she's had them literally doing nothing but walking in a huge-ass loop for hours?

I'm sincerely baffled how anyone would buy that Chloe has made "Paris utterly better then how it was before." She's basically done NOTHING, and why the FUCK would Chloe think anyone besides her mom and her mom's cronies would actually BUY THIS!? FOR GOD FUCKS SAKE!!! THIS ENTIRE BULLSHIT IS RUNNING OFF OF EVERYONE IGNORING THAT HER ENTIRE POSITION IS BULLSHIT!! WHY THE FUCK HAS THIS EVEN LASTED THIS LONG!? GET THIS THE FUCK OVER WITH!!!

At this point, I think there won't be anything more of depth to be said, so to spare my blood pressure, I'm just gonna wait for when she's defeated and I can unleash my rage on the ending.

Never mind, already reached my breaking point, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BULLSHIT!? CHLOE LITERALLY JUST ADMITTED TO BEING AKUMATIZED IN PUBLIC!! HOW THE FUCK HAS NO ONE COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS!? WHY THE FUCK DID IT TAKE SEEING THE INVULNERABILITY-ENHANCED SHELTERS BE WHAT TIPPED THEM OFF THAT MONARCH IS INVOLVED, SHE LITERALLY PARALYZED AND TELEPORTED THEM WITH ROBOTS!!! THIS IS UTTER FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!! FUCK THIS ROTTEN NOISE!!! BURN IT ALL DOWN TO THE GROUND AND DANCE ON THE ASHES!!!!

Oh, and the entire plot of "we can't wait for someone else to solve this problem, WE should've been solving it from the start" doesn't work even remotely because CHLOE NEVER EVEN SHOULD'VE BEEN A FUCKING PROBLEM THIS EPISODE!!!!

OH AND NOW IT APPEARS THEY CAN JUST TELL THEIR DETRANSFORMATION NOT TO HAPPEN BECAUSE FUCK WHATEVER INTERNAL CONSISTENCY EXISTS IN THIS BULLSHIT I GUESS!!!

WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY EVEN DOING THIS STUPID SPEECH ABOUT "KEEP FIGHTING WITHOUT US" SUPPOSED TO BE!? WHAT FIGHTING!? THIS ENTIRE PLOT IS UTTER STUPIDITY BASED ON THEM ALWAYS DOING THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE OPTION!!! FUCK ALL OF THIS!!! FUCK THIS PLOT!! FUCK THIS AKUMATIZATION!!! FUCK ALL THIS STUPID FUCKING NOISE!!!! THIS IS NOT SOME INSPIRATIONAL SCENE!!! IT IS STUPID!!! IT IS NOTHING BUT A WASTE OF FUCKING AIR!!!!

AND NOW GET THE POINT WHERE THEY LITERALLY FORCE THE DETRANSFORMATION TO REVERSE BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT!? WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK NOT!? WHAT BETTER WAY TO TOP OFF THIS BULLSHIT SUNDAY OF A FIASCO BY GIVING THEM THE ULTIMATE WRITERS COPOUT TO HAVING BEEN SET UP TO FUCKING FAIL IN THE MOST RIDICULOUS WAY IMAGINABLE!!!! GET THE FUCK OVER IT ALREADY!!!

"I guess they must've grown up, Master." GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THAT STUPIDITY!! THAT IS NOT WHAT BEING A GROWN UP MEANS!!! THIS IS JUST STUPIDITY!!!!

AND IT LOOKS LIKE THAT WHAT LILA WAS AFTER WAS THE STUPID FUCKING LAPTOP TOMOE HAD, NOT LIKE SHE COULDN'T HAVE JUST HAD CHLOE ARREST THEM WHEN THEY WENT TO MEET HER!!!

"I'm sure the people of Paris would love to have a Mayor like you!" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK UP!!!!

AND NOW WE GET TO THE UTTER STUPIDITY OF CHLOE GETTING VERBALLY ABUSED BY AUDREY WHILE ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK!!! THAT IS CLEARLY A FITTING PUNISHMENT FOR AN ABUSED CHILD!!!

"I'm going to take control of your life again, starting with your education." WORD TO THE FUCKING WISE, ASSTRUC, IF YOU WANT TO CLAIM CHLOE ISN'T ABUSED, DO NOT HAVE THE WOMAN YOU REPEATEDLY MAKE VERBALLY ABUSE HER IMPLY THAT SHE HAS ABUSED CHLOE IN THE PAST!!!!

Huh, they actually had Chloe show an extremely brief moment of regret and vulnerability when looking at Sabrina's photo in her phone, too bad that won't amount to anything, especially when she immediately starts flicking over to Marinette's contact! Speaking of which, why the hell does she even HAVE Marinette in her contacts?

And Adrien never actually manages to tell Marinette he's leaving, what a WONDERFUL resolution to this stupidity thus far! And once again Nathalie proves to be a spineless worm in her refusal to actually stand up to Gabe's abusive control of Adrien and enabling his crimes.

And we get to see Adrien having an argument with Gabe about him living his own life. Wow, it's almost as if he's both forgotten that he can have a long-distance relationship AND can just, you know, run away?

If this scene of him calling Marinette with tears in his eyes is meant to be sad, it's ruined by the fact this show has utterly squandered Adrien's character by reducing EVERY FUCKING THING IN HIS LIFE UP UNTIL NOW TO BE ABOUT MARINETTE!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GUY WHO BROKE OUT OF HIS OWN HOUSE TO GO TO SCHOOL!? WHY IS HE STRUGGLING NOW OF ALL TIMES TO STICK UP FOR HIMSELF!? WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT OF IT ALL!?

I'm seriously baffled why Gabe's current plan requires Adrien to be away in a different country "to be safe," because it's not as if Adrien being safe has ever fucking factored into any of his plans prior to now!!!

And.... they kiss. Now. On the entryway to a plane, after WHO KNOWS HOW FUCKING LONG of teasing this bullshit. Also, HOW THE FUCK IS THE GORILLA AND A GROWN MAN STRUGGLING TO SEPARATE TWO FUCKING TEENAGERS!?!?

Now we are at the moment Chloe tries to tell Marinette the truth to hurt her, and it ends in Chloe crying alone on the plane when Marinette shuts her down by revealing she already knows (too late) and that she's fed up with Chloe's bullshit, despite having already said that in Season 1, and the entire thing ends on Lila trying to pry open the laptop she stole from Tomoe.

[enden-agolor]

The way you draw the funny gay block men makes me very happy and makes my brain go wacky /pos

Is there any headcanons about any of the characters you haven't gotten the chance to share?

YAAAY thank you 😍 It's kind of amazing how much damage they can do to ones brain

As for headcanons hmm let's see.

I have been asked once if I had any trans headcanons for any of the characters, which of course I do. Radar is one of them. I see his adventure with Jesse and everyone in season 2 not only as a growth of personality and his strength to overcome the dangers of their world, but also as a means of finally finding comfort in his identity, especially with his friends who make him feel safe and comfortable with himself enough to come to terms with this, and finding it much easier to live his best life surrounded by friends who support him. I love to imagine later after season 2, Radar gets like a girlfriend who is so kind, loving, and supportive of him and he's seriously the happiest little guy in the world. I don't tend to make ocs for existing franchises though, so nothing will probably ever come of that character. It's just a nice thought I run by from time to time.

Speaking of Radar, I also like to hc that the tattoo on his arm is the witherstorm. Being such a big fan of Jesse himself, I think he'd definitely get a tattoo of what it was that began the whole story.

Also I know it's like, widely agreed upon that Radar is a child for some reason, but I hc him as a young adult because children can't get tattoos, run an adult job, nor do I think Jesse would be down for child labor. That's just me personally though, everyone has their own hcs.

--

For Aiden, I know I don't talk about him much because I genuinely hate him lmao, but I do hc that he and the Blazerods built their own lives in what used to be Sky City. Maybe owned up for their actions, and became notable citizens out there. That letter Jesse received at the end of season 2 from him, I imagine Jesse read and tossed into the trash. Aiden will never be a part of his life ever again after his attempted murder of both him, Lukas, and the rest of the Sky City people. Aiden's own story is just that. His own. Especially after the events of episode 5. The Blazerods will never be welcome back in BeaconTown so long as Jesse stands as leader. They get to continue their story without Jesse, and honestly? That is the best possible way it could ever be.

--

As for Petra, if you have read my Recovery fic, you know I hc her leaving BeaconTown at the end of season 2 and going on her own way where she discovers a path of being a griefer bounty hunter. It takes a long time for her to realize her inspiration to help people comes from the way Jesse does, but they both do it in completely different ways. Whereas Jesse stays in BeaconTown, leading and providing for his people, while Petra on the other hand chases down the people who leave towns burning, finding the utmost gratitude from those towns when she brings those griefers who looted and vandalized these peoples homes to justice. It's everything she needs. Adventure, combat, and a sense of belonging. She finds that she loves her job, but of course misses her friends dearly. She knows though that Jesse and the rest of her pals would be so happy for her for finding her calling, and when she does comes back, she gets to gloat about how much of a badass she's become, and how much people in towns across the world see her too as a hero. Jesse couldn't be more proud. Always embrace in the tightest bro hug they both can muster whenever they see each other again.

[ericstoltz]

life update!!!!

hi hello friends good morning good afternoon good evening its that time of the month again! this isnt really a big life update like the last time bcs i just thought id list down a bunch of things ive had on my mind.

first of all, im very happy to announce that i was able to watch 16 movies last march !! exciting!! i know ive said the last time that i quit the bingewatching thing but HONESTLY im in a work from home setup and the only way to keep me inspired is by watching a movie ... i am yet to find other ways to stay inspired so watching movies will just do for now... ALSO im gonna try to update my newsletter for the first time this year and itll probably be about the movies that i saw this march that i liked ! im now comfortable with turning the newsletter to be more about movies bcs nothing major has been happening in my life lol . so pls stay tuned for that newsletter post if ur interested!

another thing is ive decided to make this blog more personal! for the past year ive made this blog to be more about movies and gifs and stuff, and as much as i love getting the notes and reading ppl's tags, im going to try and make this blog work for me this time :) hope it doesnt get annoying or something... im also in the process of fixing my about pages and tags and all. ive used tumblr since 2012 so im still struggling with the setup. LIKE yes i want to maximize the fact that you can edit html pages and its cute and lets me be creative but at the same time, im on my phone majority of the time . and i dont like being on my laptop after work because ive literally just been using a laptop the whole day. for work. im rly shy to post some stuff about me (bcs i havent done it before fr insert the tom hanks dialogue from joe vs the volcano abt doing some soul searching and coming to the conclusion that hes just boring so he stops doing it) so if u see me doing it as an attempt to fix the personal pages on my blog, im sorry! AAAND as for the gifs thing, im thinking of changing my film diary tag, one thing i really enjoy is taking note of dialogues i love from a movie so i might just do screenshots. i really miss making gifs even though most of the gifs i end up with are LQ , but it just really isnt feasible now . (also some movies are just so tempting to gif LIKEEE valley girl and everytime we say goodbye 😭😭 it physically hurts me that i cant gif josh whitehouse and tom hanks in those movies....)

ALSO im really very very happy that ive gained new followers recently. i enjoy chatting with you guys and get so happy whenever i get the notif that someone sent me an ask/message!! ive been idle on stan twt/fandoms in general so its been a really long time since ive actually... talked to people... it makes me really happy talking to u and im sorry if my happiness doesnt show in my replies/posts. as i said, its been a while since ive done this and i usually go on here as soon as im off work (when my brain is semi-fried and the words are not wording anymore) . i hope i dont come across as bored/uninterested :(

and it isnt just about fandoms too, im genuinely insterested what u guys are up to lately and all... (in a non stalker way). it just feels nice to have friends in general ^__^

SO YEA, i think thats about it :) if u've read this all until here ilysm! thanks for ur interest and lmk how ur day was! or just send me something u want to talk about !

have a nice day :)

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

1, 4, 10, 13, 14, 23, 25, 29

what song makes you feel better?

Okayokay. So it’s a cover of an unreleased song that someone made on garageband. Okay. Wasted Summer by MaybeEh (lyrics are incorrect, just ignore those guys)

I don’t know what it is about this song!! it just!! scratches an itch in my brain that other songs just Can’t reach. And I don’t get it!

Several weeks ago I was having a mental Time; my brain’s loudness level was at record-breaking levels (not even in an overtly unpleasant way, but my gosh it was Loud) and the only way I could think of to deal with that/cope was pace around my room Aggressively wave my hands and hum tunelessly. for like. minutes.

But then !! I remembered this song!! And I laid myself down on the floor of my bedroom, stuck in my earbuds, turned the volume up Real loud, and let the song play. AND IT HELPED SO MUCH IT WAS CRAZY!!! The loudness of the song overtook the loudness of my brain!! And by the end of the song I had successfully calmed down :)

It was a very neat experience and I find it quite amusing that the only thing that truly calmed me in that situation was listening to garageband song covers at loud volumes lol

what flower would you like to be given?

I do Not care to be perfectly honest. I’m not much of a flower person, never have been, though I do find them pretty and I think I would Melt if I was ever given any. Someone could pick me a single dandelion and if it was given to me out of love I would treasure that weed until it wilted apart.

THAT BEING SAID! I adore cherry blossoms and would get very excited over them :]

what’s something you’re excited for?

Sleeping in a real bed 😭 I miss my bed… I haven’t been able to sleep on it in so many days. I miss my bed, Bia. I miss my bed. Bed.

what’s your comfort food?

I’m not too sure if I have a comfort food? I have foods that I really really like & enjoy but calling them comforting feels a bit of a stretch. I will gladly eat an entire bag of peanut butter chocolate chips so perhaps that <3 Or a starbucks frappuccino maybe…

favorite feel-good show?

Bluey :’) That show has made me Almost Cry and that is incredibly un-easy to do. Definitely my comfort show. The Sign hits way too close to my chest and Mackenzie is so cute and it’s such a genuine & good show. It makes me smile a lot :)

OH OH OH and also this episode/stream of Dream SMP that is about Tommy & Ghostbur spending time at Technoblade’s house <3 It’s so soft and fluffy and is filled to the Brim with wonderful Ghostbur moments. I have watched it so many times. I love him so much.

favorite piece of clothing?

MY GHOSTBUR SWEATER!!! orrrrr my green bucket hat!! My Ghostbur sweater fills me with lots & lots of happiness and it’s Definitely my most comforting piece of clothing; I often put it on whenever I’m feeling a bit sad or in need of comfort, and it really does help me feel better! The pure excitement I felt when I came across it in a thrift store Oh my goodness.

And my bucket hat is just part of my character design at this point. My friends recognize me by it, it is so silly & whimsical, it pairs nicely with most of my outfits :)

what’s the best personal gift someone could give you (playlist, homemade card, etc.)

Literally Anything would make me get emotional & would overflow my heart with love okay I am Not a picky girl when it comes to gifts. That being said my heart overflows in a Certain way whenever I am gifted art!!

morning, afternoon or night?

Morning, mayhaps? It’s a very pleasant time of day for me. I really love it whenever I wake up (accidentally) at like 6am and the world is still dark and no one else is awake yet so I have the house to myself and I can make myself food and wander around and pretend that I am alone and !!! I wrote an essay about this actually.

[ur-frndly-neighborhood-memer1]

Alicent Hightower: Villain or Victim?

(part 1)

While we're all waiting for season 2, I thought an essay about Alicent Hightower would be nice to understand her character and her motives better. Is she really a villain or a victim? Let's analyze!

Before I start analyzing, I wanna start with asking a question: what is character development?

If we go by the definition, it's "In literature, character development is the craft of giving a character a personality, depth, and motivations that propel them through a story. Character development is also defined as how a character evolves throughout the course of a story."

The point of a character development isn't about making the character a better person. It can be though; such as what we've seen with Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and of course with Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire... These are the characters who eventually became better people and actually put an effort to redeem themselves.

Yet, there are also characters who started off bad but only became worse in the process instead of being good. Zuko's sister Azula, or Jaime's sister Cersei are good examples for this. They didn't get any better as the series continued. Just the opposite, they were bad and they only became worse. Which is a good thing, at least for me, because I don't think all villains should be redeemed. They're not any better than their irredeemably megalomaniac and tyrannical fathers after all. And speaking of the fathers, Ozai and Tywin are also good examples for this character archetype.

However, there's another character archetype... Not only the characters who became good from bad, or went from bad to worse, but also characters who were good but eventually ended up being bad... Yes, I'm talking about Alicent Hightower.

I know many people in fandom, especially Black supporters collectively hate Alicent. And I understand this hatred. After all, she made her son usurp Rhaenyra's throne even though she was the King's true heir... And yes, Alicent is definitely a villain in the book. She comes across as a pretty Cersei-ish bad guy. Vain, cold, self-centered, manipulative, hostile... It's easy to imagine her like Cersei Lannister. Which is why many fans often compare her to Cersei.

However, Alicent in the show is a very different song. The showrunners clearly intended to make her more sympathetic and relatable to the audience. Because Alicent doesn't start off villainous. Just the opposite; we see a courteous, understanding but also overly anxious and shy teenage girl. She literally picks her fingernails and make them bleed whenever she's uneasy or stressed. Do I even need to explain how sad this is? She was tearing apart her fingernails during the tourney, and Rhaenyra had to stop her friend from hurting herself... And that's just sad.

(Couldn't find the exact image, but them holding hands is still cute)

When the series starts, we don't see an ambitious Alicent who is actively scheming to become the Queen. In fact, she didn't have any personal ambitions of her own but was only used by her father Otto as a pawn.

Because even if some people disagrees with me, I never believed Alicent was trying to seduce the King in the first place. We've seen that she was only doing what her father was telling her to do. And at this point, she had no power to object to him, she wasn't Queen at this point. But yes, Alicent was indeed being close and "friendly" towards Viserys. However, I wouldn't say she was trying to manipulate him at all. I think she was being empathetic. Because she also lost her mother at such a young age, and she was alone with no one there to comfort her and allow her too feel the agony. As she said, everyone told her to move on. So, Alicent knows better now. She knows this is not how you should treat people who just lost someone they loved. And she knows Viserys is feeling lonely. And she genuinely wants to make him feel better. Not because she really wants to seduce him though. She is trying to help him, because she is an empathetic person, just like when she comforted and helped Rhaenyra.

So far, Alicent isn't a power-hungry b!tch who is plotting to steal the throne. But just a teenage girl who has no choice but obey her father's commands. Yes, she actually ended up marrying Viserys, much to Rhaenyra's shock and disappointment. And she technically betrayed her best friend. But again, I wouldn't say it's Alicent that we should blame here. It was Viserys who didn't tell his daughter about his marriage plan. He should have informed Rhaenyra about the whole thing, and he should have done it in privacy, not announcing it in front of a public.

Even Tywin Lannister was informing his children about his marriage plans before announcing it. Because things need to go accordingly. That's how you set up political marriages. Yes, Cersei and Tyrion hated it, but they weren't taken by surprise at least.

But Viserys really took Rhaenyra by surprise there in front of the whole council, which wasn't professional at all.

But this is where most of the fandom started to hate Alicent even more. Because they say Alicent was so blind with her ambitions that she didn't hesitate to betray her best friend. But that's not even true. Yes, Alicent shouldn't have been visiting Viserys, and even if she was, she should have told Rhaenyra about this marriage. But as I said, she didn't have much choices due to her father's orders and King's wishes. If you want to blame anyone, then blame Otto for using his daughter like a sex object instead of treating her like a human-being. And let's not forget, it was totally Otto who literally said "Go and sleep with your bff's dad after he lost his wife. Oh, and make sure you wear your dead mom's dress too!" So yeah, we all know who is actually the guilty one here...

But let's not forget, even after marrying Viserys and getting pregnant with Aegon, Alicent still made attempts to keep her friendship with Rhaenyra. She genuinely cared about Rhaenyra and valued their friendship. So, she isn't a heartless b!tch that some people in fandom are trying to make her.

And even after Aegon's birth, Alicent still had no personal intention to make him the King. Let's take a look at her interaction with Otto about this topic:

Instead of directly saying she wants her son to be King, Alicent replies that "What mother wouldn't?" Again, it's not her personal wish. But in that political system, mothers/fathers would want their sons to be Kings. Remember when Catelyn wanted Sansa to be Queen? Or how proud she was when Northerns followed Robb as their leader? Or how eager Cersei was to crown Joffrey? Or Mace Tyrell repeatedly trying to set up marriages for Margaery to make her the Queen? Anyone with political ambitions would want to make their child a King/Queen.

But Alicent had no such interest. Because she really loved Rhaenyra and was supporting her right. Also, she saw the heavy burden of being a King. She is living with Viserys, she sees all its conflicts and struggles, she sees how the pressure of the throne slowly destroys him. She wouldn't want her own child to go through what her husband was. So, the answer of this "What mother wouldn't?" question should be no mother who knows what it's like. But then, why does she want it for Rhaenyra? Mainly because she wants to keep her own son away from bearing this burden. And also because she really thinks Rhaenyra is strong enough to deal with it. As she told Otto, Rhaenyra would be a good Queen.

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I don't want to make this post any longer. So I will continue writing in part 2. If you agree or disagree with me, let me know it!

[bandofchimeras]

more autism processing/longposting

the more i think about it the more i'm like wait why the fuck have so many people been mean and rude or dismissive towards me??? or just like, acted like my emotions are cringe. i actually don't deserve that, i am kind and nurturing whenever i can be, i do fuck up and get defensive but nothing exceptionally bad. i am friends with people who have done fucked up stuff and i don't really think its a reason to be mean to them? and then realizing, its probably because i come across as nice and naive and accomodating. people are always nicest to me when i am either at my wits end and they can help/save/feel good about themselves, or when i come across as stoic, intimidating and authoritative. people are nice in relation to perceived power.

when i show my genuine weakness, or avoidance, any real vulnerable/not acceptable autistic traits, people respond to their own discomfort with a bullying, blaming or condescending attitude. I know this because i feel the instinct too! Its like a human shared cringe thing. oh this person is acting socially unacceptable, i must restore Balance by pushing them back into Their Place. even if people are being Too Nice or naive - you want them to realize they're not safe, or something. that is to say, people don't usually sit there and maliciously want to make you Feel Small - THEY ARE UNCOMFORTABLE. these are also huge aspects of White Colonial culture - saviorism, niceness as social currency, keeping people In Line. This is great fucking news. I've wasted so much time in life worrying that people are mean because somehow i do things to deserve that, I am narcissistic or something, and trying to give more and be kinder. When really its an instinctive human social response to discomfort at witnessing someone Play the Game Badly. And that belief I have held is a result of childhood abuse and being told repeatedly that selfishness = punishment.

[surskip]

Literally your tags where you talked about ppl not understanding aa characters was SO TRUE...esp about maya and ESPECIALLY about phoenix 😵‍💫😵‍💫 whenever people just portray him as The Nice One to contrast edgeworth it is so lame bc he genuinely has such a great full personality

THANK U FRANKIE....!!!! i had to retype this cause i accidentally deleted it so i hope this makes sense.

maya is soooo misunderstood like.. this is not to say that she is Only tragic. she and phoenix goofing off is the best part of the games i think, like i havent stopped thinking about her calling him a toilet freak in the stolen turnabout it made me laugh really hard. but also i think people forget that she is shown to be actively repressing her grief so many times; she was traumatized by the events in the 2nd game and refused to go back to kurain village or train for months, and mia said that she was concerned about maya. she feels the need to be strong for the people around her to her own detriment. like the only people she's close to who are still alive are pearl and phoenix. she wanted to know about her mother and meet her and know what happened to her for so long and then her mother was murdered in front of her (before she even learned she was her mother and before they could really talk). like at the end of the last trial of aa3 she says that she doesn't want to be the master and doesn't want anything to do with the fey clan anymore but after the trial she continues training and presumably took the role because she knows she's the last person pearl has left. i've talked about her so much and this post got really long but ahh (explosion sfx) i want people to talk about her in ways that aren't related to making her a plot device for other characters to get together

i think sometimes people try to fit phoenix and edgeworth into like. you know that trope of the "mean one" and the "sunshine one" when they really do not fit.

phoenix is really easy to project on to and i don't have a problem with that, but he also very much has a personality of his own and i think that gets erased sometimes. he is a genuinely nice guy* (asterisk because i'll get back to this not because i don't think he's a nice guy) but he also like.. he has a very strong personality and feels things super intensely and is really devoted to the people he cares about even at the cost of his own health. i think he and maya are really similar

like when he was with dahlia in college that was 99% of his personality and he ate a metal and glass necklace that also had poison in it to stop her getting convicted of murder (also i do think the whole dahlia thing had a big impact on his ability to trust people/how he doesn't give up on people). he ran across a burning bridge for maya even after he kept saying how scared he was of it even before it caught on fire. in the second game his mood instantly sours every time edgeworth is brought up because of how much grief and anger he's feeling, and this is one of the first things he says to edgeworth after learning he was alive the whole time. from his perspective, he has no idea why edgeworth faked his own death especially after turnabout goodbyes, and he thought someone who was a huge factor in the trajectory of his life died. so he's really upset, and that's understandable

edgeworth and phoenix are i think so much more similar than they are different. like edgeworth in that scene is the one to give the 'friendship will help' speech when peolpe might expect phoenix to. i think phoenix operates more on instinct while edgeworth needs to operate with some outside logic and evidence. they both want to do good and help people; phoenix is open about it, and edgeworth operates on like 5 layers of repression and von karma/dl-6. (like for example i think edgeworth didn't let phoenix come to the cavern in bridge to turnabout because he didn't want phoenix to have to see if maya had died there.) i think people want edgeworth to be the always cool always knows exactly what to do archetype but every time he's in a situation where he doesn't know exactly what to do he just loses all his cool points. like in all the end of the game "let's go eat a meal!" parts he is just kind of going "umm... ok" whenever someone makes a joke at him. like he's like someone scruffed a cat he loses all his cool factor when he doesn't have a solid framework of experience and knowing The Rules to prop himself up with

*: you just have to look at phoenix's interactions with pearl to see that yeah he's just a genuinely good guy. but also, and i think that sometimes this gets erased in fan stuff.. he is kind of catty and it's great. his inner monologue is full of snide remarks like this and he really likes to mess with people (especially apollo, especially messing with apollo with trucy)