#i frankly don't blame the gods for getting pissed

[faithfulcat111]

ST Epic Cycle AU - The Sacking of Troy

[hbyrde36]

STWG Daily Drabble 11/7/2023

Prompt: Unexpected conversation

Eddie didn’t know what to think when Max approached him out in the field just as everyone was wrapping up their preparations for going after Vecna. Dustin had just gone off to talk to Steve about something when the, frankly intimidating, redhead made a beeline for him. 

“Hey Munson, we need to talk.” She said. 

He was taken aback. Sure they were neighbor’s and all but they didn’t really know each other that well, and she was surrounded by friends here. He couldn’t imagine what she would need him for, but who was he to deny the girl who’d been cursed by Vecna himself. 

“Sure, Red. What’s, uh... what’s up?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him an honest-to-god once over. Suddenly he felt like he was being picked apart by an adversary and being studied for weaknesses. Which was weird considering they were on the same side here. He was so confused. 

She cleared her throat and held piercing eye contact as she hit him with her question. “What’s going on with you and Steve? I mean, what are your intentions?”

Eddie couldn’t help but burst out laughing. There was no way she could possibly know he was gay, and obviously Steve wasn’t. So it had to be some kind of joke.

Right?

One look at Max’s face silenced him abruptly. 

For some reason, she looked pissed. “Well that’s about as clear an answer as I could have asked for. Is this a fucking joke to you?”

Eddie glanced around, hoping someone, anyone, would come and rescue him from the scary teenager, but everyone was busy with their own taks. 

“Wait, what do you mean? Are you serious?” He said finally.

“As a heart attack, dickhead. I know I don't always show it, but Steve means a lot to me, okay? I don’t want to see him get hurt again.” She looked off briefly in the direction she’d come from. Where Nancy was still working on her sawed off shotgun and making sure she had enough ammunition. 

“I don't understand.”

He really didn’t.

Eddie got the Nancy thing. He’d had a nearly front row seat to the show the night their relationship had imploded in the bathroom of Tina’s Halloween party. He'd been dealing just across the hall and couldn’t help but overhear, but he didn’t know what he had to do with any of that. 

“The boys might all be blind but I'm not,” Max began. “I was watching you guys on the boat through the binoculars.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow. 

“Okay fine, I was watching Steve take his shirt off through the binoculars. Sue me, have you seen him? Whatever, I saw the way you were looking at him and-”

Eddie cut her off. “Max… that’s… you can’t just say that shit, alright?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not trying to out you, Munson. Trust me, I don’t care if you’re gay. I’m not gonna, like, tell anybody.”

Good to know. 

“Okay fine, good, I guess. Thanks. But, what’s all this shit about me and Steve?”

She furrowed her brows for a moment and then something seemed to click in her head. “Oh. So you are as stupid as you look.”

“Hey!”

“Just calling ‘em how I see ‘em.” She shrugged.

“Jesus christ, all you kids and you’re fucking tones I swear to god.” He muttered.

“Look, I'm just gonna say it. Usually I wouldn't get involved, but since no one can blame the dying girl for meddling, I- ”

Eddie softened. “Max...”

He knew she didn't like sympathy, she's made that abundantly clear, but he coudn't help it. She shut it down immedietely though.

“I’m fine, just listen. Steve clearly likes you.”

“I mean, we did have a little talk in the weird freaky woods, and we definitely don’t hate each other anymore, but I…”

Max snorted. “See? Stupid.”

Eddie gaped at her. “Dude, what did I ever do to you?”

She pointedly ignored his outburst. 

“Like I said. I saw the way you looked at him on the boat and then I saw the way he looked at you when you got back. Then there was that whole thing in the RV." She shuddered. "I don’t know what happened in between, and I don't want to, I just want to make sure you know that if you hurt him we will all collectively kick your ass. You might be one of us now, but Steve's been there from the beginning. He’s saved all of our lives, more than once. He deserves to be happy.”

Eddie took a deep breath. He could appreciate what she was saying, and yeah maybe he had started to develop a small crush on the guy. Anyone would after seeing him rip that demobat apart with his bare hands… and mouth. 

Jesus Christ, Eddie stop thinking about his mouth!

“Listen, Red. I think it’s sweet, what you're trying to do here, but I cannot stress to you how unnecessary this is. Nothing is going on between Steve and I. Even if I wanted that– and I'm not saying I do!” He was quick to add. “He is literally the straightest guy I've ever seen.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“He didn't have to.”

“There you go again, putting people in boxes!” Max scrunched her nose in disgust. “Isn’t that against your whole thing?” She asked, gesturing at the general, everything, about him.

“Technically, yes. But…”

“But nothing! You shouldn’t assume things about people. You should talk to him.”

“There is no way in hell I'm asking Steve Harrington if he’s gay!”

“Not that dip shit. Just, i don't know, tell him you like him!”

“Why do I have to put myself out there?!” Eddie shouted, a touch too loud. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just denied it.

Max sighed deeply. “Because Steve won’t. He’s probably scared and he’ll just keep flirting with you until you get the hint and I gotta be honest, I don't have a lot of faith in you on that front after this conversation. So I'm gonna need you to bite the bullet on this one.”

Eddie chewed his lip. He couldn't believe this girl actually had him considering this. 

Was it worth the risk if she was wrong? 

Maybe. 

What did he have to lose it anyway if it went badly?

“Okay. Fine. If we all survive this I promise I'll talk to him. Happy?”

“Ecstatic.”

And then Eddie wasn’t an idiot and he didn’t go after the demobats alone and he didn’t die. Steve however did wind up in the hopistal, because how could he fucking not have gotten an infection with that many open wounds running around in a fucking hell dimension. Eddie sat by his bedside and one night confessed his crush. And then they kissed and lived happily ever after. The end.

[dracoroma]

I think it's safe to say now that Vax is completely fine with the situation he finds himself in. He has all but said those exact words to Vox Machina.

"I would rather not have [The Raven Queen] gone"

"Death is a part of life"

And this should put Keyleth blaming The Matron for "taking Vax from her", and Pike "not giving up on Vax" into perspective.

I don't get why we are blaming The Matron time and time again when Vecna is the one who killed Vax. He would not be in this situation if not for Vecna. Meanwhile, The Matron has to look over all life and death.

Matt said it well in the wrap party for TLoVM S3. She's a neutral entity, she's persuing her own goals,regardless of what society, or even her, deems moral and just. She has to protect the sanctity of death. In fact, she's basically said why to Bell's Hells, she needs to prevent stagnation.

If not for The Matron, how could we ever truly stop people like Lorenzo, the Chroma Conclave, Ripley, the Briarwoods, Avantika? And how do you think people would feel if their loved ones were disrespected and brought back as zombies?

How about we look at the materials for spells that defy the matron, things like clone and resurrection spells. Spells that when tied together can gove one functional immortality. But these are also expensive and powerful spells, that require a ton of resources. This can create a world where the rich and powerful, through magic, are immortal, unable to die. While the common folk do not have that luxury. And this is a world that many a cyberpunk story depicts.

Even on a smaller level, it becomes a world where some people have to wonder why their family member, their sibling, their lover, their friend, was not brought back when someone else was. And that is an incredibly unfair world

But, there's also a spiritual component here. To Vax, this is his choice. It was mentioned before that he would not be willing to come back through true resurrection. It was his choice to accept his death, his fate. To take that choice away from him feels wrong on many levels, from a level of personal agency to that of denying someone their faith. The desire to bring him back to life is incredibly selfish on Keyleth's, and the rest of Vox Machina's, part.

And, I think there's a final component here. Vax is not just dead. While none of the books explicitly say as much, his role as a psychopomp means something. To me, as a polytheist, Vax achieved apotheosis, he is a minor god now, like Heraclese and Psyche in greek myth. It is a metamorphosis for him into something else.

One of my friends has been talking a lot about how "people rebel against the gods" is not a compelling reason to say that the system is irreprably broken. And that's because they, frankly, have a raw deal. Erathis and Pelor and Bahamut, as entities of law, are going to constantly piss off the punk types like Ashton by representing law. Corellon and Avandra, as entities of freedom and change, are going to constantly piss off people who see law as a virtue. And while Melora and Kord can be channeled to do good things, nature and storms and war are forces that do not care about good and evil. They will cause blights and disasters because that is what they are.

And the center of this issue is The Raven Queen. The protector of the dead. The one who stands against necromancy. Because it is important that oir rest, when we die, not be disturbed. And because of that, she cannot make exceptions

[wrenwinchester]

So, I started writing this snippet back in December, and it started based on the whole “and when dad came home…” line from Dean in season five. Obviously. I’m not sure if this will be included in my actual fic, but my timeline is that this happens when Sam is 11, since I couldn’t find a canon age. This is unedited, though I did read through it the other day, and it’s definitely painting John in a harsh light.

I don’t know that this fits all characteristics of how I see them, but like I said it’s unedited and I’m gonna stop stalling and just let you read if you so choose. Happy 4th of July.

TW: child abuse, canon typical violence,

Word count: 4,330

Flagstaff

Sam 11, Millie 13, and Dean 15 (we don't have a canon age for when he ran off.)

"Why do you guys have to go this time? And why can't Dean and I come too?"

Dean's head snaps towards Sam before he looks at me. And I try to hide the worry in my face, and ignore the tension growing in my shoulders as I turn away from the bag I'm packing.

Sammy's voice isn't scared, he's frustrated. I don't blame him. I'm just as tired of this shit as he is.

"Dad told you why. He needs Dean to work on research for that other case, and Dean hates doing stuff by himself. Besides. It's a simple salt and burn, we'll be a week, tops." I smile at him, hoping it's reassuring as I reach up to ruffle his hair. When did I start having to reach up to the top of his head? At least he's still shorter than me. Even if only barely.

I shake my head. And Sam deflates, going to mope in the other room. Fucking preteens, man. Goddamn. I give Dean a look of sympathy. I know he'd rather be the one going on this hunt, hell, I'd rather stay here with Sam.  At least then I'd only have to worry about one brother.

"Mills, if you don't finish packing, Dad is going to be pissed when he gets back." I nod, Dean's eyes promising me they'd be okay.

The door opens, and despite everything I tell myself, my body freezes.

"You ready to go?" Dad's voice is gruff, and I flinch as the door slams behind him. Sam comes back into the main room, ready to fight before Dean gives him a look.

I nod stiffly, not trusting myself. Unlike either of my brothers, I know what this hunt is actually about. And it's not just another hunt, but God do I wish it was.

Dad is using me as bait.

He's using me as bait, and I can't fucking tell my brothers.

"Sam, you'll be fine. Just listen to Dee, and stay out of trouble." I smile at him, reassuringly. He just nods sadly.

"Sam." Dad's voice is harsh as he says the name, and Dean and I both ready to jump in if necessary. "Stop throwing a fit over every little detail." The quiet that sweeps over the room is thick. "If you needed to be on this hunt, you would be." Sam flinches at the words, and I just want to stay and hold him.

But I can't.

Dad has already left the room, so I have to trail behind him.

I glance between my brothers before I walk out the door. Dean can handle Sammy. He always has.

...

Unsurprisingly, the hunt took longer than a week. Hell, it took almost a month, Dad ran me ragged, keeping me up late in the night figuring out what it was, because it sure as hell wasn't a ghost. (I'm still not sure what it was.) Dean had called at some point, but we were busy, and Dad yelled at me for trying to answer it. That was a week ago. I haven't heard from either of my brothers since, but frankly it was weirder that we'd gotten a call from Dean at all.

It had me worried.

But now we're on our way back to the motel where we left the boys at.

"Millicent, stop bouncing." Dad's voice is harsh, and I force my legs to hold still.

My finger starts tapping. "What was that thing, Dad?" I ask trying to distract myself from everything that could have gone wrong with my brothers.

"An Okami, they're rare in the states, 'cording to Bobby, but it stayed down, so guess we did something right." He's demeanor is so calm. It pisses me off, how can he not even be concerned about the lack of communication from Sam and Dean. I rub the bandage on my arm nervously, at least I'll see them soon.

"Interesting, why do you think there's one here now?" At least if he's talking I can pretend to be focused on that.

"No idea kiddo, but it's gone now." He reaches over to ruffle my hair, and I let him, if only because I don't want his mood to sour. "Get some rest, we've still got a couple hours 'til we're back with your brothers.

I nod and turn towards the window, watching as the sun sets and stars come out. Wishing more than anything that we were with my brothers right now.

I must have fallen asleep shortly after, because the car is now pulling into the motel parking lot.

Before Dad even has the car in park, I jump out of passenger seat, ignoring the cut in my side as it pulls from the movement.

Dad shakes his head in amusement, as I rush to the door, knowing I'll have to wait at least 5 minutes for him to get our bags and get over here with the key, but I'm too impatient.

Thankfully, I don't have to wait that long, I don't even have to do the knock. Dean opens the door, and within a second, I've wrapped my arms around his neck, and out of sheer habit, he lifts me up to swing me around.

I wince despite wanting to enjoy this rare show of affection, and Dean quickly sets me down on the sidewalk.

"Are you okay?" He asks, worry in his eyes.

I nod, "yeah, just a small cut. I'm fine." I don't mention the stitches dad had to put in, or the cut on my arm, as I check Dean over. Usually when Dad takes just Sam or I on a hunt or to practice, Dean seems healthier, at least more rested.

Dean's only response is to nod back, before turning his attention to Dad.

"Dad?" He calls out, his voice small and scared. I started to worry. Dad had looked up from the trunk of the impala, and I didn't like the look in his eye. I went into the hotel room, I didn't need to be out there, for this conversation, and I'd missed Sam too.

I checked all the rooms for Sam, but I couldn't find him. Dean wouldn't have let Sam go off on his own. I glance back towards the door as the realization dawns on me.

Sam is gone, and Dean is telling Dad right now.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Not two seconds later, Dad is storming into the motel room, Dean following behind earnestly.

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LET HIM GO OFF ON HIS OWN?" His voice is harsh, and once the door is closed, my heart starts beating fast. I try to step in between them, but Dad pushes me out of the way on to the floor. My heart is beating faster, and panic is setting in as I watch, disoriented from the floor.

Dad's hand is... it's wrapped around Dean's throat. De.. Dean is struggling to breathe, I can see it in his face. I try to stand up, dizzy and disoriented, I probably have a concussion now, but that's every other week at this point.

"Dad. Dad!" I rush across the room, throwing myself on Dad's arm, trying to get in-between. "Dad! You're going to kill him!" My voice is harsh, I've never been more scared. As I'm pulling on his arm to get him to set Dean down, I look in his eyes.

"Dad, please!" I'm pleading with him now, but I'd do anything to get him to stop. When he finally looks at me. He lets go of Dean, who then falls to the floor. He brings up his hand, slapping me across the face.

"He lost your brother! The Hell am I supposed to do?" He quickly turns back to Dean, moving on to wailing on him, not hard enough where people would see the bruises when Dean went back to school, but still. My heart breaks more than it ever has.

"Dad! It's not his fault!" I just wanted it all to stop, and he just hits me once in the stomach, hard enough to put me out of commission for a while.

"Enough!" Dean's also out of commission for at least a week, but Dad walks out of the motel. I don't really care where he's going, I'm just glad that he's gone for a while, and assume he's going to look for Sam, or to a bar. Probably a bar.

I crawl over to Dean.

"Dee?" My voice is strained, and I'm pretty sure I have a broken rib or two, and the cut on my side is definitely reopened.

"Are you okay, Millie?" his voice is hoarse, and I can't believe that he is asking if I'm okay, when Dad almost killed him.

"ME? What about you?" I let out a dry chuckle, "Dad almost killed you."

I'll be fine, it's nothing that hasn't happened before." He looks away from me as he says it, his voice barely above a whisper, not to mention the fact he all but lost it from Dad choking him.

My eyes soften, as my heart breaks into smaller pieces. "I knew about the hitting, that's nothing new, but he's choked you out before?" tears start welling in my eyes, and I don't mention the ones I see in his. He just nods. "Oh, Dee." I try to lean against his shoulder, but wince as the cut pulls, reminding me of reality.

"You sure you're okay Millie?" Dean asks, more like coughs.

I try to nod reassuringly, but the sting in my side has gotten worse, and my hand reaches up to grab it. "Shit." Frankly, we should both be going to the hospital, but we both know that's going to happen, and it's not even really an option.

Dean glances down to where my hand is gripping my side, and his eyes widen as he sees the blood starting to show through my shirt. Double shit.

I try to move, but I can't, it just makes it worse.

"Shit. Millie. What the hell?" Dean asks, he struggles to stand, but once he's up, he carefully lifts me up.

"Dean. Put me down. I'm fine." I try to push away from him, but everything in me wants to just close my eyes.

"No, you're not." He sets me on the bed. "Let me see it." It's not a request, but I roll my eyes, trying not to pass out as I do.

"Dean, I walked a mile out of the woods with this, then rode in the car for half an hour before Dad put the stitches in. I'll be fine for a few minutes." I hadn't meant to tell him what happened, especially not how long I'd been bleeding for, but nonetheless, it came out. Stupid delirium.

He looks at me in shock as I continue, "I mean, I didn't have a double concussion, or a broken rib, but still."

"Fuck, Millicent, what the fuck." He stares at me a second more before turning to my wound. Finally, I let him pull my shirt up to look at it. I hadn't checked it since last night, but it was fine. "Shit, Millie." he looked up at my face. I tried to ignore the rasp in his voice, it just made me angrier at Dad, and the last thing I needed was an increase in blood pressure. "I'm going to have to restitch this, and it's going to hurt like hell. Do you know which side the broken rib is? Can you tell?"

"Y-yeah," I sound breathless, and it's hard to breath. I remind myself it's nothing new, and it's not the first time I've had broken ribs. "At least one on both sides. I-I think."

"Motherfucker." Dean sighs. He shouldn't be the one doing this, but there's no one else I would really let. The only reason I let Dad was because I was too far from Dean, and I couldn't do it myself. "Okay, stay awake. I'm going to grab the first aid kit. Can you tell me what happened on the hunt? Or do you want me to tell you a story?"

He got up as he was talking, and I started to panic. "Y-you." my breathing is labored, and I think I'm in shock a little, because the reality of what just happened is just now hitting me. I shake my head. "Tell.. tell me why Sam took off, an-- and when." I say, trying to control my breathing.

When Dean comes back with the kit, he has me lay down on my left side, the side without the cut. I focus solely on Dean's voice as he talks, watching his hands move rhythmically as he sews up the cut in my side. The next few weeks are going to suck ass.

Dean tells me about a small fight he and Sam got in after Dad and I had been gone longer than a week. I nod in understanding, followed by a wince as he pulls my skin together with the floss. It wasn't the first time Sam lashed out when a hunt didn't go as planned.

Dean continues, saying Sam seemed to calm down after that, and it wasn't until a little over a week ago that Sam ran off. That's when he called. He tried to find him for a couple days before he called, but Sam never came back, and he couldn't find him.

"It's probably the most stress I've ever felt, until you guys came home, and I had to tell Dad." his voice feels distant, farther away than it should, and I can't tell if it's because I'm falling asleep, or if his voice is just that far gone.

Not long after that, he has me sit up. "This is going to suck worse, but if you're right, and you do have broken ribs, we have to wrap them." I sigh, wincing as I do, before nodding.

After I'm all patched up, and I can breathe again, I check Dean over for any open wounds, or anything, but there's nothing to patch up.

"I told you, I'm fine. You need to rest." He gets me to lay back down about an hour after he was done fixing me.

"We need to find Sam." I'm pacing now, grateful for my older brother who always watches out for me, but in this moment, I'm focusing on the fact that Sam has been missing for over a week. "Did you check the library? or the I don't know, is the county fair happening?" I ask, I know it's around that time of year, and Dean just nods.

"We're not going to find him in the next few hours, and we both are going to collapse if we don't get some rest. Come on." He practically pulls me to one of the two beds, and I reluctantly follow. He tucks me in, humming "Hey Jude" like Mom used to do before moving to sleep on the other bed.

"Where are you going?" I ask confused, it's almost never a question on whether or not he and I share a bed, hell we still occasionally all three share a bed.

"Millie Wren, you have at least two broken ribs, and a hole in your side," he sounds flabbergasted as he says it, "I'm not risking hurting you in our sleep."

"Dee, please. You know I don't sleep without sharing a bed with someone." That gets him, and he rolls his eyes.

"Dammit Wren, It's not my fault if you get hurt." I smile because for once he actually sounds like a brother, so I just nod in agreement.

A few minutes later, with the lights off, and both of us comfortable in the bed, Dean says, "are you still awake?" I turn my head to face him.

"It's only been five minutes, of course I'm awake." I tease, but even in the dark, I can see the seriousness of the conversation he wants to have.

"We can't tell Sam what Dad did when he found out. It was my job to protect him and I failed, it makes sense, and you know that getting in between makes things worse, it was bound to happen. It makes complete sense why Dad did what he did. He's scared of losing us like we lost Mom." I nod in agreement.

"You're right. Dad's reasons make sense, and We need to protect Sam." He nods and we both turn to look up at the ceiling instead. It's one of those popcorn ceilings, the textured ones. "You know I'm always going to step in right?" I ask him after a minute, and I feel his eyes turn to me as I talk. "You're not the only one instructed to protect their siblings, and that includes you. Besides, I can handle the yelling, the beating, as long as it's directed at me. You and Sam... You guys are my weaknesses."

"I really wish you wouldn't, but I understand why you will." With that comment, the conversation ends as we both know we have an understanding.

The next morning comes quickly, and movement is quickly stifled by pain and stiffness throughout my body. As I sit up, I glance over towards Dean's side of the bed, he's still sleeping, understandably so. Yesterday was one of the rougher days we've had. I glanced over to the other bed, it was untouched, Dad hadn't been back. I just hoped he was looking for Sammy rather than sitting passed out in a bar somewhere.

I slowly move towards the bathroom, the last time I'd been was like 18 hours ago. My mind wanders to Sam, what he's doing right now, if he's safe or not, and what Dad's reaction is going to be when he finds him. I shudder at the last thought before I remember that despite his loud opposition of Dad's orders, he is the golden child.

It takes me a while in the bathroom, literally every muscle in my body aches, I carefully lift up my shirt after I wash my hands, and I see the huge bruise on my left side and back from where Dad threw me on the floor. I sigh.

By the time I slowly walk out of the bathroom Dean is up, and we are ready to go look for Sam.

A couple more days pass by before Dad finally comes back, without Sam. Shit.

He's calmer now, and I can't smell any alcohol, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been drinking. Dean and I are walking on eggshells around him, not knowing what might set him off.

When Dad passes out around 2 that afternoon, a thought occurs to me. "Hey, Dean?" I whisper to avoid waking Dad up. He looks up from the news paper where he is reading for any approximately 11 year old John Does that might have turned up in the past couple weeks, there's nothing. "Isn't Flagstaff around here?" I ask, as an idea forms in my head that I can't believe we didn't think of sooner.

His eyes light up as realization dawns on his face. "Shit, Yeah it is." He looks like his brain is moving a thousand miles a minute. "Holy Fuck, I can't believe we never looked there." He doesn't have to worry about whispering, because even though his voice is mostly back, it's still pretty raspy.

"We have to wake Dad up." I say, anxiety coating my words. "It's the only place that makes sense, and you can't drive the car by yourself.

"Dammit, I hate that you're right." His voice is weary, but somehow less raspy.

"We could wait until he wakes up on his own?" I offer, but we both know it's a bad idea. We'd likely get another beating for waiting to go get Sam from whatever trouble he got himself into. Dean just looks at me. "I know. I know."

"Go to the other room, Millie, I'll wake him up." Dean says, courage building in his voice, but I can hear the fear he's trying to hide.

"No, we're doing this together. I'm not letting you take the heat for this by yourself." I sound a lot more confident than I feel, but Dean doesn't push. Very carefully we wake him up.

Neither one of us gets yelled at, a welcome surprise, instead, he makes both of us get in the car as he drives to Flagstaff. The car is silent the whole ride.

When we get there, Dad instructs Dean and I to stay in the car. We obey. We've gotten whooped enough times this week, we weren't about to open the door to another one.

Dad goes in to a diner in town to check with locals about whether or not they've seen Sam. Dean and I diligently stay put, the silence in the car beginning to get overbearing. Dad talks inside the diner for a good half an hour or more, and just when Dean and I give each other a look considering disobeying orders, I see Sam.

"Dee..." I start.

"Millie, you heard what Dad said--" he started.

"No, Dean, look. It's Sam." I point out his window, and within a second, both of us are jumping out of the car, broken ribs and all, though at this point the cut is mostly healed.

"SAM!" Dean yells across the street. Sammy turns to face us, shock and wonder crossing his face.

"DEE!" he yells, before he sees me behind him. "MILLIE, YOU'RE BACK!!" I smile at him as relief settles over me, at least he's okay. Sam quickly looks both ways before making his way over to Dean and I. Despite his frustration, I can see Dean's relief in the slump of his shoulders and everything about how he's holding himself.

"I swear to God, Sammy, if you ever, and I mean EVER, do something like this again, I'm gonna throttle you myself," Dean says before giving him another hug. Sam knows nothing but empty threats like this, and I know that is all it is.

I hug both my brothers. "If either of you ever disappear on me again, I'm going to beat your asses." I say, before allowing Dean to guide us back to the car.

"Bitches." Dean says, pointing his word at both of us.

"Assholes."

"Fu-" Sam starts, but Dean and I both stare at him, he just rolls his eyes. "Jerks." I smile at the normalcy of just the three of us, until I remember one of us has to go get Dad.

Dean and I shove Sam into the car, not meanly, just making sure he's not going to slip away again before Dean says, "I'll go get Dad." I just shake my head.

"No way, I'll get him, he'll be softer on me, I'll be fine." Dean starts to object, but I cut him off, "Dean, you've taken the brunt of it this week, let me do this, and one of us needs to keep an eye on Sam." Reluctantly, Dean concedes. It's not like Dad is going to beat us in public, and then Sam will be back, so he'll be in a better mood.

Dean gets in the car next to Sammy, and I turn around sighing, it'll be fine. He's not gonna do anything that might cause suspicion from locals. I force myself to relax, before I walk into the diner after my dad.

It looks the same as most other diners I've been in across the country, a row of booths, a row of tables, and the counter. I glance around the room for Dad. I know he's in here somewhere, he has to be.

As I'm scanning the room for the third time, I finally see him, he's hunched over the counter a coffee in his hands as he's just sitting there. Sam's missing and he's sitting there.

Okay, well, Sam's not missing anymore, but he doesn't know that. I shove my anger down, I have to hold the family together, so I cautiously walk to where he's seated halfway across the diner.

"Dad," my voice sounds small, and I watch him fight the urge to snap at me for disobeying.

"Millie," his voice is strained. "I thought I told you to wait in the car?" It's not a question, he's giving me an out. Do other thirteen year olds think about this stuff, are they this cautious around their dads?

"Yes, sir, but Sam came back." I just blurt it out before he can cut me off, before the anger he's so good at pushing down boils over.

A weight seems to lift off of Dad's shoulders. Perhaps relief, perhaps he's no longer grieving his youngest child, perhaps he's just glad he's not in danger or hurt, or dead. "Good. Go wait in the car, I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Yes sir," I nod, turning around (practically in a perfect military style about face, but that's irrelevant). I go back out to the car, and join my brothers in the back seat of the Impala.

"Everything okay, Millie?" Dean asks, the worry lacing his tone only so much that I could tell, but Sam couldn't. Years of training our expressions taught us that one.

"Yeah, he says he'll be out in a few minutes." Dean nods, and we continue to sit in silence.

"Is Dad mad at me?" Sam asks, and my heart breaks. It's not something he should have to worry about. Ever. "I know I shouldn't have run off, I was just so frustrated."

Dean and I share a look before he looks back at Sam, "Dad could never be mad at you, you just scared him. You can't run off without telling anyone, okay?"

"Okay, Dee."

[nerves-nebula]

So I'm the eldest and I love all my siblings but god ever since I moved out my brother has been such a lil shit to our youngest- back when I lived there I was always the one to deescalate situations (in general not just my brother)- and he in general wouldn't behave that way when I'm around (i always thought its cause me and him are close but once I talked to mom about it and she says that he probably doesn't because he's scared of me... which is not great- I have to admit when the two of us were little I was a lil shit the same way he is now - I only got my shit together at 14- 15 because I realised that there had to be one responsible person in the household and it wasn't going to be our parents- also I just didn't want my siblings to hate me after I died. But since me and brother are the closest in age he remembers more of that time when I sucked than our other siblings do - so I shouldn't be surprised he is behaving similarly especially since he never had to go through the same crisis that i did at 15 (thats not even getting started on how our parents have affected all this)) but that doesnt change the fact he's being a lil bitch to my sister!

And I can't go tell him to knock it off- I have been bullied in school before I'm not dumb- a figure of authority telling a bully to stop it is just gonna make the bully be pissed that the person they're bullying snitched

Idk- he'll be moving out in 2 years so she won't have to put up with him after that but I still feel like I should fix the situation- I want to shake him and tell him "I got my shit together why can't you!" But it would be a bit rich coming from me

He seems to be at least semi aware of it- he tends to avoid people after doing shit like that- but he never apologises and that still sucks!

Tldr I'm very used to being the one responsible for fixing things in my family , but now I have moved and I can't do that and I'm very frustrated about it

Idk, I want to ask if you have any ideas but I know that would be a bit much and I already dumped so much on you- I'm very sorry about that- if you want to ignore this ask feel free to do so

i dont have any ideas, sorry. though my oldest sister might hahahh. that was more their role than mine. for what its worth i feel a similar kind of guilt about moving away cuz my little sister is stuck with mom and my oldest brother and it's frankly terrifying to think about that situation for too long.

my oldest sister has made a lot of progress reconnecting with us though through honest & emotional conversation. they've apologized for what they've done and they've worked on making sure we all don't, like, kill ourselves or something. so maybe you could start with that?

like, instead of starting out shaking his shoulders and yelling at him you just start by apologizing for the way you acted and stuff. and if you can try to segue into a level headed, non-accusatory conversation about why he shouldn't treat his sister this way.

idk i am not incredibly smart when it comes to this stuff so if that goes bad you can't blame ME cuz you're the one taking advice from a depressed art student on tumblr afasdfsdf

[liesmyth]

I actually was sooo surprised by Palamedes missing Harrow!! Sometimes it feels like Muir retconned the fact that it’s GIDEON who made friends, because she is almost never missed and in Nona it’s obvious that they were waiting for Harrow to wake up.

Like Kiriona makes Sex Pal joke and the characters don’t act relieved or sad, and overall act like they don’t care for her even when it’s so evident that Gideon cares and is happy to see Palamedes in Nona, but Pal misses Harrows frown? For real? What’s up with that?

It feels very like “she is not a necromancer so Pal doesn’t care as much and Cam is not really in the place to care about anyone because of the horrors”, but that’s not who Palamedes is. Can definitely liked Gideon a lot. I feel like Muir herself sort of maybe actually contributes to that thing that “Harrow is overrated” anon is talking about.

Harrow is great, don’t get me wrong and I loved how Muir wrote her mental illness, but also Harrow never faces consequences of her being a major bitch if you know what I mean. Harrow acts horrible to most people that she meets, excluding like John who is literally a God. And yet she is treated like the most precious beloved by the other characters. Which is fine but also maybe a lot? Like she is also gods favorite??? And the Earth thinks that she’s special? What else? Should The Universe appear and kiss Harrows ass also?

It’s just not that balanced, I think. Like some of these people were supposed to show preference to Gideon over Harrow on the account of the fact that it was actually Gideon who made friends with them while Harrow was burning herself out and being horrible to everyone.

(ok this is in reference to this other anon from 2 days ago before I was consumed by sanremo blogging)

LOVE ME A JUICY CONTROVERSIAL TAKE. Ok, so.

Ooooh, the "I miss Harrow terribly" line! I thought it felt very #meta. You're right that Palamedes was Gideon's friend before he was Harrow, and they really barely interacted, but in HtN he was absolutely overjoyed to see her. He spent months trapped in the River bubble and she was the one who gave him the opportunity to communicate with Camilla and return to the world. I think that retroactively made him fonder of Harrow than he might have been otherwise. Also, I think that taking care of Harrow's body for six months and seeing Nona behave so differently and carefree played a part, too. Like, I don't think that line was completely random, but I think it was there also to be a wink to the readers.

Team Pal not missing Gideon! You're RIGHT on this one. I think Kiriona's appearance really threw them off; Camilla had just fought a duel nearly to the death to get a chance to steal Gideon's body and then! surprise! Gideon's body is walking and talking and calling herself a Prince of the First House, and she's enormously bitter and nowhere as easygoing as they remembered. I think their reaction is understandable; they'd built up Gideon as this friendly, selfless paragon of virtue in their minds, and she wakes up as they're about to draw blood from her dead body and acts thoroughly pissed off. tbh, that's the same reaction many readers had to Gideon's reappearance in NtN, so I get it! It makes sense! It does make me want to hug her though.

On Harrow not facing consequences: I think she does, though? Like, she is miserable for her entire life. She hates herself, she blames herself for her parents’ deaths, she has actively been sucidal. She does make Gideon’s life hell, but frankly even with all of her issues and absolutely abusive upbringing, I think Gideon was less fundamentally unhappy than Harrow was. Yeah, she doesn’t face “narrative” consquences, but I think the fact that she lobotomises herself to preserve Gideon’s soul shows that she knows she owes Gideon a lot.

Also! I’m very curious how Harrow being Alecto’s favourite is going to turn out in AtN. Because John was also Alecto’s favourite, and her love ultimately corrupted him. I’m not sure if being loved by a wrathful deity is necessarily a good thing. And John IMO was genuinely very fond of Harrow, but a lot of that was because she offered him the unconditional admiration and worship that he craves (and didn’t stop him from manipulating her though arguably that’s how John shows affection) (Also. I have a theory that John wouldn’t have liked no-lobotomy Harrow nearly as much).

Not to throw gasoline on the debate fire, but actually some of what you said re: the narrrative idealising Harrow is how I felt about many of the characters in Nona! Cam+Pal and to a lesser extent Pyrrha, who were framed through a very loving POV and were shown to be well-intentioned and loving and as Good as TLT characters get, which is why I’m dearly hoping for that pedestral to shatter in AtN :3

Anyway. IDK if I have a point to this except I really appreciated this ask and it made me Think! thank you :D

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Sheer Entitlement

Look. I've been called "Boomer", "Coomer" and every other stupid freaking word in the book. However, I'm no boomer, and frankly speaking I think the term "Coomer" is stupid as hell. But I need to discuss this and I know it will not be well received by some people.

Todays generations are royally entitled. And when it comes to Gen Z and Gen A I kind of don't blame them. Because while yes it's f*cked, the reason is because of Gen Y and Gen X. Though not fully.

What we are living through right now is the normalization of Communist ideology. Or rather, the propaganda that leads TO Communism. Which is, "The government should be in charge of everything, and give us everything because EVERYTHING literally is a human right". Except it's not. Your rights stop the moment it requires another persons labor to bring about. What do I mean by this? Scarcity is still a real world issue. And the only reason we have the stores of food we have is due to the labor of SEVERAL different sectors of industry.

The transportation industry. The machining industry. The farming industry, and so on. How do those industries thrive? Due to every other industry that makes it worth their time to do what they do. The local residents that make the water treatment systems work. The people to work on the grid. The people that make the petrol that makes all of that stuff work in general. Our countries require work and industry to survive. If no one works these jobs, there is nothing left. And lest people be FORCED to work these jobs, which under socialism and communism they WOULD be, everything we know and everything we have would crumble.

Frankly speaking, I can't blame the modern generations. We've allowed ourselves to be infiltrated by Commies and Socialists. What's more, it's often people who are well off, like Hasan Piker and his ilk. They complain about "Capitalism" while misrepresenting what it actually is. Every single time, blaming Capitalism for the problems not caused by the system in place, but my the government instead. Which fun fact if the government is the one causing the issue, why EXACTLY do you want more government control when THEY are the ones causing the issues? Then again, I already know why. Many of you assholes have expressed why. And the conversation goes as such:

"We want to turn the system on it's head"

"You realize you view the system as pyramid right? If you turn it on it's head said pyramid will shatter and crumble into a pile "Resembling" a pyramid"

"God your stupid. That's the point. We don't care about the bottom of the system. And people like you that try to view us in good faith are great for us. Of course we want the system to collapse by flipping it on its head. WE want to be on the top. F*ck everyone else."

^Those are the people you support. A system that want to look like this:

This is they system they want. The only grip they have is that not only are they not the ones at the very top, they also don't want mobility for others. They are selfish, greedy, and you prop them up believing "It's for the greater good". And "Oh well it's great to make EVERY THING a "Human Right". Healthcare is not a human right. Food is not a human right. Housing is not a human right. Because all of those things require the labor of others. If you are so pissed off about not having food, grow your own. Buy seeds at Walmart or Lowes. Get in home plants or just get pots to plant stuff in. Put it in the window or hang it outside.

And I've said this before but most people sadly become disillusioned by their friends and family or by social media. Often actually by social media more than not. Basically, a "Victim" of our own success. The better we make things the less effort has to be put into having a decent life. We live vastly better than even Royalty from decades ago. We have indoor plumbing and toilets. We have large refrigerators and freezers. We have strawberries year round. And other foods that would otherwise only exist seasonally. Our great grandparents probably worked 12-16 hr days. Between working on a farm or ranch. Potentially having a day job. Coming home to make repairs without fancy ass tools. Without Amazon. Having to wait for professionals to come out and fix something that could take days or longer. Maybe weeks.

We have it SO GREAT and honestly that might not be a good thing at all. People don't have to try anymore. You can literally make money now a days selling pictures of your f*cking feet. There are people that play games online and attempt to entertain people that make a KILLING. Things are so f*cking easy now. Does that mean it's easy for everyone? No. Does that mean that things are not difficult in their own way? No. But to pretend that the people that preceded us had it easier? They really didn't.

Which leads me to now. I honestly can't stand what we are seeing from people today. Everything is "oppressor" this and "Oppressed" that. It's "woe is me things are so hard". Yeah kindly tell that to some of your parents that worked 2 jobs just so you could turn in to an entitled socialist. And that's what most of the people today are. Even if they don't know it. "Every thing should be free". No. Everything should not be free. People deserve to see the fruits of their own labor. Not to be pressured into giving up what they have for other people who don't WANT to work.

Which leads me to my last point. Stop demanding stuff of free. Start teaching your kids the meaning of work. And it's worth. But more than that, start taking them off social media, and teach them the things you know. Teach them how to cook. Teach them how to clean, teach them how to build things. Teach them how to file taxes. Teach them the things they need to know to be prepared for life in the future. And also. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, educate your kids on why government interference in the market on BELHALF of multinational corporations is NOT capitalism. It's Corporatism. And when you just fork more and more power to the government you get the picture I posted above.

We need to start sanding down entitled behavior. People need to learn the value of work. They need to realize that. More over, they need to not replace religion in their lives with cult like belief in failed political ideologies. So many of us really have no idea how good we have it. And some of us that do want to see our country crumble because, "We've had it too good for too long". Yeah, I'm actually mostly fine with that. Because if let things crumble, how many people die in that process? Too many. How many people die if we BOW to climate alarmism? Too many. How many people die if we adopt Communism or Socialism? Too many.

And lastly. Teach your kids common sense. And teach them to stop chasing clout. Why? Look at what's going on now. Look at the "Rage" supporting that Palestinian people. Meanwhile the Uighur Muslims are being raped daily, sterilized, beaten, forced into reeducation, and forced to do labor for things coming out of China. NOT! A! F*CKING! PEEP from these same people. Because it's about hate (for a certain group of people) and it's about clout. If nothing else? Teach your kids to be consistent and teach them critical thinking. We really need to offset the current issues we are having today. BADLY. Anyways. I'm done ranting about this. It's already too long.

[valorfaerie]

It's 2am and I'm thinking about wrestling narrative so i'm gonna put this under a cut...

ok so re: Sami, Kevin, Roman, and Seth

So for Night of Champions we've got Sami and Kevin vs Roman and Solo, and we have Seth vs AJ.

First, Sami and Kevin vs Roman and Solo

I want to preface this with I love Roman, he's an excellent heel. But he's not winning here. You've got Roman, who really hasn't been part of a team since The Shield teaming with, as Kevin hilariously pointed out, Solo a guy whose name means alone. Roman's whole thing is The Big Dog, The Head of The Table, God Mode etc, etc. He's achieved all of this on his own. But which really is a facade because he's had family help for while now. But he's almost at a thousand days, he's taken on the "entire roster twice" (while avoiding Seth). The hubris is really part of the downfall here.

Now you're up against two guys that have spent pretty much the last year fighting their way back to each other, that have achieved this big thing together. When Sami said to Roman, "you're not as good as us". I thought back to Mith's essay about as a tag team the question is, "are we stronger together?" And right now, Sami and Kevin are stronger together. Sami pointed out that they each didn't beat Roman, but together is different.

My interest here is who eats the pin. Does Solo eat the pin and we get kind of a re-run of when Sami did so that Roman can go "i didn't lose, he did" again? Or does Roman eat the pin, and it would be Sami that pins him, so that at least for him maybe partially that demon is excised? I'm leaning toward Solo getting pinned and Roman blaming him and causing further splinters in the Bloodline. But also, there's always the possibility of shenanigans too.

Second, Seth vs AJ

AJ is not winning here. It just makes the most narrative sense for Seth to win. Don't get me wrong, AJ is healthy and this is a great vehicle for him to show he is 100 percent, and those two will put on a good show. But Seth has to win this, it'll piss off Roman so much.

Seth is the guy that will take the screws to Roman over it. He'll rub in that he's a working champion and that Roman's belts are part time belts. That it's easy to get to a thousand days when you only work 3 days a year. And he'll cackle and people will sing his song.

Seth will hold it for a little bit but I also think they'll try to get it on Edge before he retires, and eventually it'll come to Cody by WM 40 so then he and Roman can do a belt unification match, and then Cody will win everything. But starting with Seth is the best way to do it. Frankly, he's earned it. It'll really highlight the consistent hard work he's been putting in all this time while Roman's had the belts. And narratively he'll have some good fun with it.

[richardsondavis]

I personally thought that the AI art and AI writing thing was a bipartisan issue.

What I mean by that is that I thought that the reason AI Art and AI Writing has the most criticisms is because leftists would lose their hold in culture, their influence to the masses and the fact that a machine can do what they do but simpler is fact of that.

I don't like It'sAGundam for the record, I find his voice a tad insufferable and very annoying. Saying that of course, would get me labeled an SJW but I digress. He reviewed the trope of One Piece, the part where the MC goes and collects friends so that he can reach a goal, and said that it's done so many times that an AI would be able to do it. I find that statement to be a support to my initial belief that AI is a threat to the woke left. That the woke left will now be bereft of their influence in the modern world. No more Captain Marvel, No more Miles Morales, no more woke Marvel, no more Te-Nehisi Coates, no more woke writers, no more.

Just don't let Chuck Dixon get a movie, fuck. Although if the anti-woke would hear that I'll be labeled an SJW, fuck.

Christ Almighty, I want to say that the woke and anti-woke are equally bad. I already saw examples of the woke disowning me and being vile to me for making opinions which I am prepared for cause I've been with the anti-woke for years now but in recent years I've mellowed out and have circled to going full purple-pill with a more bluish hue.

I did grow up with Tumblr and Pinterest so I was used to a lot of woke concepts but then again I saw them a lot and I really am very pissed at some concepts like those LGBT drawings or that the trannies unite bullshit. Gets irritating cause those are so immature and fail to see the reason those are made. TumblrInAction would've been better, y'know? They know their stuff and they really are neutral at times. I still question Reddit keeping KotakuinAction but TumblrinAction is a no-go? What the actual fuck? TumblrInAction had more substance to it. Fuck. KotakuinAction has a lot of nutcases in my experience so keeping that shit around is more beneficial in the long run cause they need a Boogeyman to point to.

Someone to blame.

I started this post cause I thought AI art and AI writing is a left vs right issue. It isn't. Oh, god I remember kukuruyo saying to me that Jujutsu Kaisen's women are drawn that way cause he has difficulties in drawing them and that the fact that the JJK author said he draws his women conservatively because the parents are watching is a woke talking point. I am subscribed to that fuck's webtoon by the way because I need to appease my still active anti-woke side. I need to.

Where was I? Oh yeah. I got the answer that AI isn't a right vs left issue from KotakuinAction. I asked. That really helped. And that started a roll for me in really posting my thoughts on that subreddit. I did for a while. Asked about the translation and localization issues. Got some good answers but also got some typical answers. I've considered many of them but Christ.

I've made two posts about it and I've only gotten three answers that are the best. I really loved those answers. They were, in my opinion, nuanced and brilliant. The rest, when considered with my experience doesn't really hold water for me. Perhaps I haven't experienced a terrible localization yet. Wait, Seven Seas. I have seen Seven Seas and I have seen some shit with them that even pirating them is not a fucking option anymore. Fuck them. Christ, them and their insistence on injecting woke bullshit. I was reading this magical girl manga and in one of the panels, the main male MC said that men are trash. That's just fucking bullshit, man. I severely doubt that's what he said and worse part is that there is no other translation online for that chapter aside from the official one by Seven Seas. Fuck.

I am now currently reading Webtoon. Starting with I'm the Grim Reaper again and frankly, I've applied some of the anti-woke rhetorics I've learned recently and it's not helping me out. Fuck that shit. Fuck thinking I'm a villain. Fuck thinking that I should be a victim. I am capable of making my own choices. Regrets are better when you've made the jump. Fucking bastards, why'd I ever respect the anti-woke?

There's this post on Tumblr about a dude saying that one of his favorite YouTubers is It'sAGundam and I don't blame him. His like Nux for Western society. He really is Nux, thinking about it. I liked Nux when he made the Fairy Tail defense video. I found it genuine and really touching.

I should stop but I have a lot to say. I want to stop but I have a lot to say.

I SHOULD STOP BUT I HAVE A LOT TO SAY!!!!!

Stopped.

Thanks for reading.

[grimlins-chaos]

Let's break this down because this was always something that kinda tripped me up upon my first viewing (and i'm a much more recent avatar fan so allow me to offer some fresher perspective)

To start with the first more lesser reason why people shit on aang was because of the aang x katara relationship which- listen, i get it's hard to remember but these are still KIDS we're talking about, i had watched my brother and cousins do dumb and down right life-threatening shit at 12 for no other reason other than "just because" i do not expect 12 year old boys to be good at relationships, hell i don't even expect 16-17 y/os to be good at relationships! They've no idea what the fuck they're doing and they're running around blasting the 4 fucking elements at each other! And additionally Aang comes from a culture where relationships just don't work the same as what most would consider normal, kid didn't have a mom or dad to look to for relationship or parenting examples, he had his entire temple raising him and the other kids.

Could they have handled him and katara better? Absolutely! Like I would have preferred if they either A. Did *more* with aang and katara's relationship, give it more time to develop and everything so when they actually get together it's satisfying pay off or B. Just didn't fuck with ships to begin with

For the second and primary reason why aang gets shit was his refusal to kill ozai which i don't necessarily blame people for not getting, kinda went a bit over my head too outside of the fact that being merciful towards a man who's always been a merciless monster is the top tier pettiest shit ever and i love that

But again you're dealing with a *kid*, a very sweet and empathetic kid who wants nothing but to do right by people after he made the choice to run away 100 years ago which plunged the world into the state of chaos it became when he first awoke- he was *scared*. Like i don't know about any of you guys but i still couldn't sleep without the light on at that age and i would be horrified when faced with a fucking spider, i can't imagine what it's like to be in his shoes to suddenly have the responsibility of the ENTIRE WORLD on your shoulders.

And with none of his own people to guide him especially his master who was basically the closest thing to a father that he had- all he had were the things that they left him: their lessons, culture, their memories. And aang has to carry all of that on his shoulders, he can't EVER forget unless the airbenders are well and truly dead, and quite frankly i'm pissed that yangchen straight told him to throw *all* of that away. She never had to worry about her people's extinction, she could afford to disconnect herself but aang *can't*.

Let's go back to my point of Aang defeating Ozai with mercy: when you're dealing with someone who's cruel and heartless as Ozai, what is the one thing you can do that guys like him fucking *despise* more than anything else? Facing consequence. Especially at the hands of someone you underestimated as weak and worthless.

Ozai being spared his life at the cost of his bending taken away is a fate worse than death for him because if he had died that day he would've never had to face the consequences for his actions because death is an easy escape, for once in his pathetic life he gets to live lower than the people he put down to the dirt in order to raise himself up and he gets to live like that. Ozai did nothing to earn his power he lied, stole, abused, and CHEATED.

Yes there are unfortunately some situations where someone is too dangerous to be left alive, god forbid anyone have to make that choice and thankfully aang didn't need to. Was the lionturtle a smidge bullshit that the writers pulled out of nowhere? Yeah, probably could've done a bit more set up back when aang tried to unlock the ability to control the avatar state at will just so there's a bit more build up but eh the entire show itself was air-tight enough to work and that's what matters for the most part.

some of your goofy asses for the past 20 years

[despair-to-future-arcs]

Mahiru’s being stubborn!

Well hey, all I'm saying is-!

Mahiru... enough and just for once-

Listen to me! I get it your pissed, I get your frustrated and you have every damn right to be angry but CAN YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO WHAT I'M SAYING?!

...?!

I'm trying to explain everything to you but you keep interrupting me and just want to question everything or judge me for the things I do, look I'm sorry but I ain't perfect but you have to accept that not everyone is! I mean god damn, do you EVEN HEAR YOURSELF TALK OR DO YOU LIKE BEING THIS VOICE OF REASON WHEN YOU CAN BE AS BIAS AND JUDGEMENTAL!

Wa-Wait I was...I just...!

So, you want proof, huh? Okay fine, I'll get you proof and show you seeing as you want to continue denying that the tragedy didn't happen or any of this, very well...

But don't say I didn't warn you, alright? I'll be right back...

*Nagi walks away as leaving Mahiru, Hajime and Kei alone...*

...

Mahiru... can't you just listen to Nagi for once here instead of just questioning her on everything she does?

Huh...?

Um...we-well...I mean, it's just that I just took some issues with her how she's running things...

Look I'm sorry but Nagi is trying her best here, she is trying to be patient with us and if anything she's doing all she can and frankly, it's the best we have!

Honestly I can't even blame her for losing her patience with you; honestly I be the same too - especially when Future Foundation is breathing down her neck right now!

But Hajime, I was just-!

No, you listen here! I'm sorry to say but right now we are on this island and we are getting help, if anything; this is the best damn help we can have plus this is the tragedy right now - that is the norm she and everyone else outside of us lives in and it's best you accept that or your just going to be alone!

Either you accept what's given to us and stop questioning it or you can choose to be alone, no one is siding with you - we all are trying to be patient with you but the sad reality is that we only have each other - Nagi, Masuyo and Hotaru didn't need to stay on this island but chose to.

I know, it sucks and it's awful but your not going to make things better if you keep questioning or trying to get the last word in but your just going to lose the argument.

So just... listen to her instead of trying to start something with her; she's trying to do the best she can but your just making things hard enough as is.

...

...He correct Mahiru, I know you want to question her but constantly interrupting her and not accepting this is our norm will make your experience on the main land very difficult...

As say; myself, Teruteru, Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko have all been to the mainland, we seen a bit of the tragedy ourselves and were told how the rest of the world has been so either you accept this is the reality or be left behind, your choice.

...But it's hard, how... how can anyone get use to this? I just...I don't get it...

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

Stewy and #16 pretty pleasee

Ooo sure :D

Prompt: “You fainted…straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.”

Warnings: Intoxication; mentions of drug and alcohol consumption; passing out (per the prompt); cursing

You will blame it on your best friend for as long as you live. Look, you're not a big partier, so you don't exactly know where your hard stops are. You have a drink now and again; you're not a big drug user, but when someone offers you Molly, you figure—fuck it, why not.

But it turns out that fuck it, why not, is the wrong attitude to take in this instance.

You remember dancing; you remember going down the hall to go to the bathroom; you remember turning down a bump of coke that someone offers you at the sink; and you vaguely remember leaving the bathroom, but things after that are a little...Blurry.

"Alright," You hear. You don't know the voice, but it's warm, and soothing. It grows a little louder, and is chased by the sound of people around you, and the thudding of bass a room away. The voice adds,

"I think we've got it—Hey, don't fucking instagram live this, how do you still have your phone? Hey!" The voice snaps and yells for security. The thudding of boots swiftly follow. You groan, turning your head away from the cacophony.

"Take her fucking phone—No," You hear, "You know what, all of you go, you and whoever's in your party, round 'em up, you're barred...I don't give a shit who your dad is, get out."

"Dude, shut up," You mumble, raising your hands to scrub at your eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, princess. Is someone waking up on the wrong side of the futon?"

"...What?" You manage to pry your eyes open and look around. You're slouched back against someone, your legs splayed out on a purple velvet futon. You tip your head back, and find an attractive man looking down at you...Upside down. Well, technically, he's right side up. You hurry to sit up, and the man warns, "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there." He rests his hand on your shoulder as you sway a touch.

"What the hell happened?" You ask nervously, glancing around at the few people still watching you.

"You fainted…straight into my arms," The man says. He goes on as you turn to look at him properly: "You know, if you wanted my attention, you didn’t have to go to such extremes. I respond pretty well to a 'hi, my name is'. ”

"Oh, my god," You mumble, lowering your head to rest in your hands. "I'm so sorry."

"You feelin' okay?"

"...I've felt worse, but the mortification is fast outpacing the headache."

The man chuckles softly.

"You want some water or something?"

You nod, swallowing against your dry throat before muttering, "Please."

You glance up, watching him go, before looking around. You could try and make a quick escape...But the elevator is so clunky, and frankly, you don't think you could find it just now. Your head is still spinning; your legs feel like jelly.

"Here."

You look up, giving a small smile as you take the proffered bottle of cold water.

"Thanks."

You expect the man to leave it at that, but he sits down beside you.

"How're you feeling?" He asks.

"Still mortified."

"Eh, that'll fade."

"No, no. This is the soul-staining kind."

"First time at Rhomboid?" He chuckles.

"First time at anything like this."

The man hums thoughtfully.

"A lot of first-timers over-do it. Don't let it get to you."

"Do all of them faint?"

"I've seen three people piss themselves on a bad acid trip."

You glance over at the man and find him nodding, brows raised a touch. And then you take a speculative glance down at your legs. The man laughs, and you find yourself smiling just a touch as you open the water, taking a sip.

"I peed right before I passed out," You tell him (though you regret it immediately).

"Perfect timing, then."

"I guess." You hesitate, looking down at the bottle in your hand. The evening's been pretty gnarly, but maybe you can make something good out of it.

"Do I get to know the name of the guy I fainted on?" You hedge. There are a few harrowing moments of quiet before a hand is lifted into your field of vision for a handshake.

"Stewy Hosseini."

You introduce yourself with a little smile, and a gentle handshake.

"You gonna chill out for a bit or get back in there?" He asks, nodding toward the crowd. "Boot and rally?"

"Ah, no. I think I'm just gonna head home."

"What? It's so early."

"Is it?"

"Yeah, it's only, like...three AM."

"...That's early?"

Stewy smiles warmly, and it takes you a moment to decipher whether the fluttering feeling in you chest is his smile, or some kind of palpitation.

"Drink your water," He urges, nodding to it.

"You don't have to sit with me," You mumble.

"Maybe I wanna know more about who fainted on me. Gotta mean something."

"You don't strike me as the type to believe in fate."

"Then let's change that."

[diavolosthots]

Hey dear! I hope that you have a good time! I want to make a request, but please delete it if you don't feel like doing it.

I saved that request in the notes and been waiting for you to open them 😊

For request

First fight with brother (any of your choice) and one of them (I mean MC or that brother) thinks that it's end of relationship (because never had anything serious), but they reconciled in the end. I want some heavy angst with happy ending. MC can be GN if that is OK.

If you don't mind you can do for Mammon, but feel free to choose another one if you don't feel like write for him. Or if that would be better to write as headcanons for all the brothers. That's up to you!

I haven't been doing requests for ages. Please don't hate me if there is something wrong! I've read the rules, and I hope I haven't missed anything.

Anyway, sorry for long ask. And thank you for your writings!

(I forgot to look if you did anything similar, and remembered it at the end of writing that ask. Sorry if you already did something like that!)

Hey babes ❤ I did end up doing HCs for all of them because I thought it would be cooler (or more like I know someone is gonna request separate fics for all of them if I dont and I'm saving myself that trouble lol) I still hope you like it ! ❤ also this got SUPER LONG so its under a cut

Warning: angst -> happy ending-ish

THE BROTHERS in a fight with MC and thinking that they’re over (yikes)

Lucifer:

Everyone always says Lucifer is quick to lose his cool but he’s honestly been nothing but patient with you. He may have hinted at several things he doesn’t condone and he definitely has that ‘look’, you know the disappointed dad look, but he has held back a lot so as to not ruin the beautiful relationship you have with him. Everyone snaps, though, and when he finally did, it was ugly. He did NOT call you names, but oh he didn’t. He went straight for your feelings and pointed out every mistake you ever made for as long as he’s known you. Ouch. In his defense, you weren’t nice either. The argument ended nasty and ‘I hate you’s!’ were definitely thrown around, but none of them were meant, right? Goodness, he doesn’t know. After you left, he threw himself on his bed, literally, and just stared at the ceiling. His anger slowly fled away and he began to feel… guilty. Not necessarily because of the argument itself, but because he delivered some low blows and he knows that. Are you over? Done with him? You haven’t texted or called or talked… you’ve been actively avoiding him and he doesn’t like that, but his pride is such an issue, goodness. He can’t straight up apologize, that dickhead, but he’s sending you flowers and standing in front of your door with a sad face that says it all. 

“Forgive me? I made reservations at your favorite’s? We can talk over a nice dinner?” 

Mammon:

Mammon is known to get mildly agitated over the silliest things, let’s be real. He’s also quick to revert to the “are you dumb?!” argument, which is never effective. But he loves you and he would do anything for you so even if you do do something that he deems ‘dumb’, he usually bites his tongue. Doesn’t mean that doesn’t get on his nerves, though, and he definitely has a short temper, although people tend to overlook that. You just managed to push his buttons today and he used the “are ya stupid?!” argument, to which you obviously defended yourself, and rightfully so. This ended in a massive screaming match and him saying “Then leave! Ain’t nobody keepin’ ya with me!” He regretted it the minute those words left his mouth and you could see his eyes grow wide in shock at his own words, but that didn’t mean you stayed. “MC!” he tried running after you immediately but you were faster and honestly, who can blame you? He fucked up, and he knows it, and he feels terrible about it. Honestly, he’s crying just at the mere thought of you taking his words seriously and he can’t… he can’t bear to lose you, you know? What’s he gonna do? You’re the light of his life, as pathetic as that may sound to some…. So he won’t let you run away. Homie will hunt you down and beg for forgiveness. 

“Please, MC! Forgive me! I’m dumb, not you!!! Don’t leave me…” Don’t leave him. He will continue crying. 

Leviathan:

His constant need to put himself down is frankly, quite annoying. To you anyway. But you put up with it and just reassure him that, at least to you, he’s the most amazing demon that ever existed. It’s just facts. But a person only has so much patience, right? You can’t always spend your days trying to lift him up when all he does is dig himself a bigger hole. Who has the emotional time for that? You sure don’t. “Oh my God, Levi! Shut up! I can’t take it anymore!” Followed by “See! You’re just like everyone else! Leaving me!” and then you slamming the door to his room shut. It’s frustrating and understandably so. It makes you feel awful that you can’t even make your own boyfriend feel good about himself and get at least a little bit of self confidence and it’s so, so, so very draining to have to constantly listen to that. At this point, it’s affecting your own mental health and you just… you just can’t…. But Levi can’t lose you because he knows you’re right. He has to work on himself if he wants to keep someone as amazing as you with him and that’s why he’s crawling back to you now. 

“Look I… I know you’re right… I’m sorry. I promise I’ll … I’ll try. For you.”

Satan:

For being the Avatar of Wrath, you always admired Satan for his ability to keep cool. He prefers the relaxed and easy going life much more than the type of life people expect him to live, and you respect that. That doesn’t mean his constant need to one up Lucifer, through whatever means necessary, didn’t bother the hell out of you, though. You tried talking to him about it once or twice in a calm manner, but you always got the same answer “Pfft.. it’s Lucifer. Who cares?” And it never sat right with you. Just today he decided to pull a prank on the eldest and you had enough, standing in front of Lucifer and letting the bucket of cursed green slime land on you instead, to everyone’s shock. “What are you doing?!” Now that you’re thoroughly green from head to toe, you were also beyond pissed. “What am I doing?! What are YOU doing?!” But Satan matched your anger tenfold, accusing you of favoring Lucifer over him and oh! “You probably got an affair with him, too!” Which was a stupid thing on his part, but it looked like it the way you defended him. Anger doesn’t even begin to describe the emotion you felt running through you and had it not been for Lucifer, you probably would’ve physically fought Satan for such a dumb accusation. Lucifer took you to get cleaned up and lifted the course, giving you your natural skin and hair color back within a few days and plenty of scrubbing, and Satan felt like shit. You’ve always been there for him and, rationally speaking, he didn’t have a reason to doubt your loyalty to him, but he just can’t help but feel insecure beside Lucifer…. He decides to come apologize anyway, a deep blush on his face and guilt in his eyes 

“I’m… sorry for accusing you. It wasn’t my right to speak out of anger and jealousy…” 

Asmodeus:

How can anyone fight with the Avatar of Lust? Seriously, the guy is super easy going and he loves pretty much everyone. Not as much as himself, but almost. You on the other hand… you didn’t. Well you didn’t NOT love him or yourself, but you were just… you. You didn’t spend 4+ hours in the bathroom trying to get ready when you knew you were only going to the kitchen down the stairs. Like?? Although you never brought it up to Asmodeus, he constantly bothered you about skincare and what foods to eat and what not to eat, etc… It’s quite annoying, honestly, and at some point you just gave him a passive aggressive “Okay, whatever. Can we move on now?” To which he didn’t take lightly. He was still nice and sweet, trying to convince you that at least one of these things will make your skin glow brighter than a unicorn’s ass but you just had enough. “Can you stop?! You’re indirectly saying I’m ugly without that shit ton of product in my face and a diet that would make me starve before it helped me! If you want a skinny VS angel that barely holds onto their skeleton, get one!” It was more hurt and frustration speaking than anything, but your outburst still shocked him and he was taken aback for a moment. And then you ignored him for a week straight and as someone who thrives off of attention, especially the kind he gets from you, he can’t handle that! So he showed up in your room in sweats and a tshirt and messy hair and no product on his skin. 

“You’re right… we’re all naturally beautiful…. Wow that… that really hurts to say MC but can you forgive me?” 

Beelzebub:

Oh the sweet, sweet angel. He’s far from innocent and you know that. We all know that. But for this story, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. His reliance on Belphegor is just really… annoying. Belphegor this, Belphegor that. “Belphie used to…” or “Belphie said….” or “one day when Belphie and I….” Like why does everything have to include his twin? It’s so annoying and so rude when your significant other is right here !!! and planning their own future with you, Beel, thanks. It makes you feel less than and like Belphegor will always come before you. It makes you feel like shit, quite frankly, and who is to blame you? “Hey MC did I tell you what Belphie---!” “No! Shut up! I don’t care! It’s always about Belphie! The day you come to me and don’t let that name drip from your tongue is the day Jesus comes back to save me and we both know that will be never! I’m tired of always being stuck with Belphegor! We are not equals!” Granted, you shouldn’t have yelled and Beel was more than confused at your outburst, but you wouldn’t talk to him anymore after that so he left you alone. He thought you may need an hour or two, maybe a day tops, but that day turned into a full week and he even lost his appetite just because he knows you’re angry with him. It’s been a week, does that mean you’re over? His heart aches just at the thought… 

“I’m sorry for bringing Belphie up… I don’t want you to feel less than, MC. You mean a lot to me and so does Belphie, but you’re not Belphie and I need to learn that…”

Belphegor:

Honestly it’s a miracle he hasn’t lost his temper at you yet. Well, he partially blames it on his own laziness because if being angry or getting upset didn’t take so much energy out of him, maybe he would’ve snapped by now lol, but he tries really hard not to because he thinks your relationship with him after everything is pretty good, considering yall kiss and snuggle and fuck on a regular basis. But anyway, that’s exactly the issue. Considering everything, you’re still holding *that* against him. It’s never direct either, which makes it worse. It’s always said in a joking manner and something like “haha look it’s just like that one time you killed me” or “Beel’s grabbing that ham like you grabbed my throat” or “I remember seeing jesus for a moment there” and it agitates him. It makes him so angry, and he finally snapped. “I know I fucked up MC! Stop holding it against me! What do you want? A medal of honor? A survivor's certificate? Maybe a pat on the back for developing some sort of Stockholm syndrome that made you come back to your abuser?!” And then he left. And you may have cried both from confusion and your own anger, he isn’t quite sure. It’s just so…. Aggravating. He can’t deal with it. He knows it was a mistake spurted by his own insecurities and survivor’s guilt which ultimately led to his hatred but please, stop holding it against him.. He can’t keep putting up with it from the person he’s grown to love. He’s the one ignoring you and he won’t budge either because he’s a stubborn ass, but maybe if you come up first… 

“I’m sorry for yelling at you… I’m just so tired for it being held against me… I love you, and you should know that, and I do feel guilty about what happened.” 

[timelesslords]

Can u pls write a percabeth fic where Percy and Rachel are dating and percabeth are best friends and they end up spending the night together and it's been a week and they don't know how to tell Rachel and Rachel being bitter ?? Pls

This was kind of out of my comfort zone in terms of what I usually write lol but I tried my best!! I imagine this as like a mortal college AU :)

send me a prompt!

“Beth, you can’t walk home like this,” Percy said, exasperated.

“I’m fine! I’m hardly even drunk,” Annabeth said, trying (and failing) to quash the butterflies in her stomach when he called her Beth. Percy, having been her best friend for almost a decade, was the only person in the whole world who was allowed to call her that. He only pulled it out in rare situations, and every time he did Annabeth would swear her heart skipped five consecutive beats.

Not that he could ever know that, of course. Now felt like a more precarious situation than most-- she’d come over to his dorm so they could watch a movie together, and had ended up curled up together on his bed around his laptop. In fairness, his dorm was tiny and there was nowhere else to sit besides his bed, but if Annabeth imagined really hard she could pretend that it had all been completely intentional, and he was sitting this close to her because he wanted to.

“Hardly?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. And, fine. Annabeth had had… an amount to drink. A non-zero amount, some might say. More than Percy, and she had a way lower tolerance than him. She was buzzed, sure, but not buzzed enough to walk back across campus to her own dorm.

“I’m fine. It’s barely twenty minutes,” Annabeth protested. She started to stand up, but Percy gently tugged her back into the bed. She should have put up more resistance than she did, but, well. Who could blame her.

“It’s also three in the morning and you’re drunk,” Percy said, “Come on, just stay the night.”

“Stay where? Grover’s bed?” Annabeth asked, repressing giggles at the thought. It wasn’t really that funny a thought, but, well, she was tipsy.

Percy’s roommate was gone for the night to visit his girlfriend, leaving his bed empty. Grover was a cool guy, but he also had a weird tendency to leave soda cans just about everywhere, including in his bed.

Percy just rolled his eyes. “No, here.”

It took Annabeth a few seconds to realize exactly what he was saying.

“In your bed?” Annabeth asked, hesitantly.

“We’ve been sitting on it together all night,” Percy pointed out.

“Yeah, but…” Annabeth trailed off.

It was different. She knew it was different. And frankly, any other time she’d be absolutely delighted that Percy was offering that difference, but there was also the issue of Percy’s girlfriend. Percy’s girlfriend, who he’d met their freshman year and hit it off with despite the fact that Annabeth had been in love with him since she knew what love was. Percy’s girlfriend, who was in another dorm on campus not ten minutes away, not here but also not not here.

“But what?” Percy asked. There was the tiniest bit of a smirk on his face, and Annabeth shoved his shoulder, rolling her eyes.

“You know what,” she said. Maybe it came off a little more seriously than she’d meant, but he didn’t seem to care.

“It’s not like we’d be doing anything,” Percy said. Annabeth tried not to feel hurt at how foreign the concept of “doing anything” seemed to him in relation to him and her. But she didn’t have any right to feel any type of way about that, because she and Percy were just friends and Percy had a girlfriend who was not going to be happy about Annabeth spending the night in his bed, regardless of which activities did or did not take place there.

“Yeah, I know, but its just… I don’t know, don’t you think Rachel will be mad?”

“You’re staying here because you need a place to crash. She can’t be mad about that.”

“I’m pretty sure she could find something to be mad about,” Annabeth muttered, mostly to herself. Percy heard her though. They were sitting so close their shoulders were touching, so it would have been a miracle if he didn’t.

“Fine, I’ll sleep on the floor. She can’t be mad about that,” Percy said, actually making to get up like he was about to lie down right there and then. It was Annabeth’s turn to pull him back onto the mattress.

“Don’t be stupid, you’re not sleeping on the floor in your own dorm room,” Annabeth said, “Besides, she’d just say I kicked you off your bed.”

Maybe Annabeth should’ve kept that last bit to herself, but she’d never been very good at hiding her feelings about Rachel. Percy sighed, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it.

“Well I’m not letting you sleep on the floor,” he said stubbornly, despite the fact that Annabeth hadn’t even suggested it. She had to bite back a laugh at the indignant look on his face.

“Percy, I was never going to sleep on your floor. I was going to go home,” she reminded him.

“Well I’m not letting you do that either,” he said, “So I guess you’re stuck in bed with me, unless you want me to spend the night on concrete.”

“You’re so goddamn annoying,” Annabeth grumbled.

“Does that mean you’re staying?” he asked. His expression brightened considerably at the prospect, and Annabeth had to physically force herself to calm her heart rate down.

“Well apparently I don’t have a choice,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes, praying to every god in the universe that she wasn’t blushing.

“Right,” Percy said, putting on some exaggerated confidence, “Obviously. So am I taking the floor or the bed?”

Annabeth knew he would sleep on the floor in a heartbeat. If she told him that she was uncomfortable being in his bed with him, he would gladly spend the night on cold concrete in the middle of winter in a dorm that had, frankly, terrible heating.

But she wasn’t about to make him do that. And if she was honest with herself, being in bed with him was the opposite of uncomfortable.

“The bed,” she sighed. Percy grinned triumphantly.

“I knew you wouldn’t make me sleep on the floor,” he said, and Annabeth finally let herself laugh.

“Yeah, because I told you so twice.”

“I think it’s because I know you so well, actually,” he said, finally closing his laptop that had been playing the movie earlier, and setting it on his bedside table. They’d turned the lights off earlier, and without the soft glow of the computer screen the only lights in the room were the faint street lights outside.

The bed was just a regular old twin, with not much space for either of them. That was why they were touching so much, Annabeth reminded herself. Just that. No other reason. He just put his arm around her shoulders because it was more comfortable that way, that was all.

It was late, and Annabeth was drunk, so falling asleep was easy. But she’d be lying if she said Percy didn’t help with that too.

***

It’d been a week since Annabeth had spent the night at Percy’s dorm, and they hadn’t talked about it at all.

She’d woken up the next morning completely hungover, and also with her and Percy’s limbs completely tangled together. The bed they’d shared was small, but it wasn’t that small.

Percy, of course, had acted like it was nothing. He’d teased her about her bed head and she’d half-heartedly teased him back about his morning breath, and then she’d packed her stuff from the night before and made her walk of shame back to her dorm. Except it wasn’t even a proper walk of shame, because they hadn’t actually done anything.

He hadn’t brought it up since, like it had been no big deal at all. Annabeth wished she could be so lowkey about it, but it was the only thing she’d been thinking about that entire week.

They’d already planned to meet up at the end of the week again, only this time in a group setting. A group setting meant Rachel was going to be there, and Percy might think their little sleepover hadn’t been a big deal, but Rachel was definitely not going to share that opinion. Annabeth was honestly dreading facing her so much that she considered bailing at least ten times. In the end, she decided that she had to just suck it up— she was going to have to face Rachel at some point, it might as well have been now.

All that to say Annabeth was a little surprised when she showed up at the party, only to find Rachel acting completely normal towards her. She was irritated towards Annabeth, but that wasn’t unusual. Rachel was always irritated towards Annabeth, and Annabeth was always irritated towards Rachel. But Rachel wasn’t pissed at her like Annabeth expected her to be. She wasn’t even not pissed, she was downright cordial.

All it took was one look at Percy for Annabeth to confirm what she already knew. He hadn’t told her.

“I need to talk to you,” she said, grabbing Percy’s arm and pulling him down the hallway. Rachel was going to be pissed at her for that, but Annabeth didn’t care. Percy followed along without complaint, not even bothering to shoot Rachel an apologetic look.

The hallway was empty, or as empty as a hallway at a college party could be. The music was loud enough to cover up their conversation, anyway.

“Did you not tell her?” Annabeth asked, keeping her voice barely above a whisper. Percy immediately looked guilty.

“You don’t know that,” he said, as if everything about both of their demeanors hadn’t given it away instantly.

“Of course I do, she wasn’t absolutely furious with me,” Annabeth hissed. Percy looked, if possible, more guilty than before.

“Okay, fine, I didn’t,” he admitted, “But what’s the big deal? It’s not like we did anything.”

And there it was again, those two little words and the way he said them, as if anything happening between the two of them was an impossibility. It felt like a dagger straight to the heart, but Annabeth ignored it.

“I dunno,” Annabeth said, “I mean if I was your girlfriend, I think I would want to know.”

Percy had choked on his drink halfway through her statement, and was already coughing before she could finish it.

“Are you okay?” Annabeth asked, alarmed. Percy just shook his head.

“Fine,” Percy managed to choke out, “I’m fine.”

“Am I going to have to heimlich you again?”

“Hey, you promised you would never bring that up again,” Percy said, pointing an accusing finger at her as he coughed again, clearing his throat a few times for good measure, “Besides, I don’t think it works for soda.”

“Fair. But don’t change the subject.”

“You changed the subject first,” Percy accused, in a not subtle attempt to change the subject once again.

“Because I thought you were choking, dumbass. You have to tell her.”

“Why?” Percy practically whined.

“Because the fact that you don’t want to means you know she’s going to be mad about it,” Annabeth said.

Percy groaned, letting his head fall back against the wall.

“Why are you so smart?” he asked. It sounded like a complaint, even though she knew he didn’t mean it that way. It sure felt that way, though.

“‘Cause one of us has to be,” Annabeth sighed.

If Annabeth were smarter, she would’ve never agreed to spend the night to begin with. But it was way too late for that now.

They went back and joined the group, but Annabeth knew Rachel was staring (bordering on glaring) at her the entire rest of the night. She couldn’t even really blame her. She was going to be a hell of a lot more mad at Annabeth once she found out the reason Annabeth had pulled Percy away to begin with.

The very next day Annabeth was in her dorm room, trying to finish a project for her architecture class. It was due on Monday, but she’d been so distracted the entire week that she’d barely even made a dent in it at all. It wasn’t coming together the way she wanted to and Annabeth was three seconds away from snapping her pencil in half and throwing the whole draft away. Before she could, there was a sharp knock at the door.

Annabeth glanced down at her phone, but she didn’t see any texts. Maybe it was the RA doing an inspection, or maybe Piper had forgotten her key again.

But when Annabeth opened the door, she found Percy standing in the doorway. He spoke before Annabeth could even open her mouth.

“So, I told her,” Percy said, with absolutely no context. He knew she didn’t need it. Annabeth found herself gripping the door so tightly she thought her fingers might break.

“You did? What happened?” Annabeth asked, trying not to sound frantic. Why was he here? Why didn’t he just call her? What if Rachel had made him swear to never talk to her again and he was just here to say goodb--

“She asked me to tell her with 100% certainty that I didn’t have feelings for you,” Percy said, impossibly calm.

If Rachel had asked him that, why was he standing in Annabeth’s doorway?

“And?” Annabeth said, voice small. Her heart was practically pounding out of her chest, but Percy just shrugged.

“And, I couldn’t.”

“You couldn’t?” Annabeth repeated, just to make sure she had heard him correctly.

“Nope,” he said, easily, too easily, “To be honest, I couldn’t even give her like, 1% certainty, but that would’ve felt a little rude to say.”

“So…” Annabeth trailed off. She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. It didn’t make sense in her brain. Percy had feelings for her. And he’d broken up with Rachel, which meant— which meant—

“I think now is the part where you tell me if you like me back,” Percy said, interrupting her thoughts. He was smiling though, like he already knew the answer.

Annabeth did not currently have the mental wherewithal to form words. Thankfully her feet did the thinking for her, closing the already small distance between them and kissing him like she’d wanted to do for years.

“So I take it that’s a yes?” he said with a grin, when they finally broke apart. Annabeth was pleased to see he was a little breathless, at least.

“Shut up,” she laughed.

“Gladly,” he said, leaning down to kiss her again.

[wtchwtch]

TT014_Transcript

TT014: When D Met Jess

This is a fanmade transcript, please let me know if you see any errors.

TT014

(Intro music)

(Tape recorder sounds)

Mark: Oh, thank goodness. Oh, thank you, God or, or god's or godesses or Mighty Turtle, Lord of Earth, or whatever! Just thank you. Listen to this:

News Reporter: Breaking local news, just in. Seven days ago, a young woman was abducted and sadly, authorities were not hopeful as an initial search came up with little to speak about.

The local search was expanded yesterday morning, province-wide, with the help and coordination of both provincial bodies as well as the RCMP in an attempt to build leads in a case where there seemed to be none. Jesse Sygard, who who was allegedly kidnapped and brought daylight with no witnesses to the event had been found alive.

First responders commented stating her condition was stable, but the exact plight of her capture is yet unknown. Local authorities stumbled upon her in Breyer Park seeming dazed and confused. From there, she was rushed to hospital due to suspected dehydration. We will update as more news comes in regarding a case that has grip the community in a state of fear for nearly a week.

Back to Doug with Sports at half past the hour.

(Tape recorder sounds)

D: Is he coming or what?

Mark: I'll be honest, when I say I'm only thinking 60% sure he is coming.

D: You said you talked to him!

Mark: Well, I texted him.

D: Mark...

Mark: He'll be here!

D: Good. We've got lots to talk about.

(Tape recorder sounds)

Cole: D, I'm so sorry.

D: What are you apologizing for?

Cole: If. If I'd never come up with this stupid idea, then, then Jess never would've.

D: You're seriously making this about you.

Cole: Wait, I'm, I'm sorry. What?

D: This was never just about you.

Cole: D, my name was on the list. The letter was to me. I'm, I, I'm not trying to be self-centered here, but-

D: You're an absolute dweeb, who cares if your name was on the list? Who cares if the letter was just to you? When someone threatens you, they threaten us. It, it could have very well been me or or Mark whose name was on that list as well. I mean, would you have blamed either one of us?

Cole: Well, hold on.

D: No, no, I'm not holding on for squat here cuz frankly you've got nothing to say that I don't know on the topic and a lot better than you.

Whatever skewed version you have of yourself in your head where you're like the main character of every story, let it go. Yeah, I know in a lot of those stories you cooked up and the versions of the events, you're the bad guy too. And I'm sure you're not the best person in the world all the time. Just let us beat you up, huh?

Don't go doing it yourself

Mark: Hear hear!

D: All I wanna know right now, Cole, is, what are we gonna do about it?

Cole: Do, what are we gonna do about it? I, I don't know what the hell we can do about it.

D: They took Jess, Cole, and I wanna nail those suckers to the wall for it.

Cole: What?

D: Aren't you mad? What are we gonna do is just roll over and let them win? Hell no.

Cole: D, anything you'll say, they'll just-

D: What the listener will hear? Oh Lord. No. Not the listener. Yeah, I know they'll hear me and I've got a story to tell them just so they know how much they piss me off.

(Tape recorder sounds)

D: My grandmother used to get me those plastic princess heels, the ones that come in packs of two or three different pairs. They're all clear plastic with a pink or blue hue and sparkles throughout, like something a four year old would imagine a princess would wear. Christmas, birthdays, she'd always make sure I had my princess heels and, and to be fair, I used to love them.

I'd put on my prettiest gown, which was usually a ratty old night dress with stars or unicorns. And slip my tiny little feet into those sticky, clear plastic princess heels with the sparkles, and I'd walk about the house imagining I was Rapunzel, or pretend I was asleep on the couch like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.

I used to love getting those heels because my grandmother would giggle so hard, she'd cover her mouth and make little snorts as the tears streamed down her eyes when I put them on and clip-clopped about the house, shuffling my feet to keep them on in, flicked my hair with every ounce of drama I could muster, and declare that I must have chocolate milk with my lunch.

That was me at three and four and five and six years old. I, I used to love the girly things because my mom and my grandma loved the girly things, and I loved the giggles and smiles and pictures they'd take and all the wonderful things they'd say to me when I used to parade about like that.

By the time I entered primary school though, I felt a little different about the princess heels. And soon I felt a little different about my long hair and my painted nails too, so piece by piece I changed them, cuz they didn't feel right anymore. They didn't feel comfortable. So I cut my hair and trimmed my nails and rubbed them with acetone until all the pink chipped nail polish was gone.

It's funny looking back, you know. I got really lucky. I was lucky my mom never really made a fuss about it. It went from her rushing home from a sale at Zellers with a hot pink backpack to her rushing home from a sale at Zellers with a pair of knockoff converse and a crisp flannel shirt. She never missed a beat.

It was the same excitement either way for her. Same with my grandma too, princess heels to cap guns, and a plastic sheriff badge, and she barely blinked. And she still giggled watching from the window as I played cops and robbers with you two idiots in the cul-de-sac.

Not everyone's that lucky. Most people aren't, but I was.

No- no matter how lucky I was though, it didn't change the fact that I was different. Different wasn't bad, not for me, but it can be lonely. Jess and I met years ago at Bible Camp. During that one summer, my parents thought maybe having a little Jesus in the house would be a good thing. Yeah. We must have been the only two people at camp who argued over who would have the bottom bunk.

I wanted it, because I was paranoid of stepping outta bed, half asleep to use the washroom and falling five feet to the ground. She wanted it because it was near the only outlet where she could plug in her nightlight. Eventually, a counselor got involved and settled the fight, putting Jess in the bottom bunk because she said she was afraid of the dark.

But she wasn't afraid of the dark. She just wanted to stay up late reading her books. It pissed me off, but it was cute. She was cute. We didn't talk much after our yelling match on the first day, and I didn't really think there was anything between us. Jesse left a day early from Bible camp. Her mom got sick and her dad wanted her closer to home.

I'd spent the entirety of Sleepaway camp giving her dirty looks and ignoring her, but I was sad to see her go, like my chance to turn things around was gone? I didn't really know what I could've done or how I would've done it, but I felt like I lost something when she left. You guys might not get it, but no one was talking about non-binary identities or being queer at that time, especially not a couple of people at Bible Camp.

It's weird when you don't have the words to describe something like how I felt about Jesse the first time I saw her. If I was being honest. I didn't really care about the bottom bunk. I just wanted her attention, but I also didn't know how I felt because I didn't know how I was supposed to feel, and that's where my loneliness lived.

I had no one to ask, no one to talk about my feelings with, not anyone who would understand the complications of feeling different than seemingly everyone else around me. I yelled at her about the bottom bunk and held a grudge for the duration of camp. All because I had a crush on her. And before I could figure my feelings out and put the words to it to make it make sense to me, she was gone.

That night when I went to bed and stuck my hand under my pillow to touch the cold side, I felt the spine of a book. Jesse had left a parting gift for me: Perks of Being a Wallflower. I told the counselors that I felt sick and stayed in my Cabin on that last day reading until my parents came to pick me up at dinner time.

It was like Jesse was speaking to me through that book, like she was telling me in some small way that she knew, at least in part, how I felt, and that she accepted me and, and wanted me to accept her .

(D chuckles)

D: Oh, what a way to leave an impression on a queer 14 year old coming to terms with their identity. Leave a copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower to express some unrealized infatuation. Feels cliche now.

We found each other on social media a year or two later and left the odd comment her heart on posts, but that was it for years. Then she asked me for coffee a few months ago. I've never felt the way I feel about Jess, and now I know the feelings I'm having don't actually need to be explained to anyone for any reason.

I mean, we've barely been official for a month but... I'm falling in love with her and, and I,

I love myself even more for allowing myself to love her and I love us and all the things we do together. And I can't begin to tell you how liberating that is to say aloud instead of feeling like it can't hurt me so long as I don't talk about it. Jesse makes me feel a part of the world. She doesn't make me feel different because even when different isn't bad, it's still apart from the rest and and lonely.

But with her, I'm not different. I'm just me and I'm just me and she's just Jess and I wouldn't want it any other way.

To whoever is listening to me right now. The stalker, the listener, the creep in the shadows. Whatever you call yourself, there's one thing you ought to know about me: I'll do anything for the ones I love.

I'll do anything to protect them. My family, Cole, Mark, and Jesse. It may not be today or tomorrow. It may not be for a week or a month or a year or decades from now when you are weak and frail and infirm, but I will find you and I intend on making you pay for what you've done.

(Tape recorder sounds)

D: I'm not angry at you, Cole, for anything outside the bounds of our friendship, but I am absolutely furious and we; Mark, you, me and Jesse, we're gonna take our pound of flesh before this is over.

Mark: Good Lord Macbeth. Dost thou be-est a little dark, nay?

Cole: Jesus...

D: Mess with me or mine? No, not a chance.

Cole: All right, then what do we do then?

D: First we need to hear from Jesse exactly what happened. She's been talking to doctors or police or resting since they found her. Haven't seen her yet, so we let her rest and then we get in and we hear what she has to say.

Cole: It doesn't get us that far, D. I- I feel like we would have heard by now if she could have told police, or anyone, who took her.

D: It'll give us somewhere to start.

Then we're gonna sit down and start recording cuz we got ground to cover. I listened to that interview you did with Dr. Rutland Cole, and I've got some serious questions, and now that damn ransom letter or abduction notice, or whatever the hell that was, I feel like something's starting to click in my brain.

Mark: You know, I've been thinking a lot about that too since you both left me, myself, and I together for a week.

Cole: Sorry about that.

D: Sorry.

Mark: The letter from the listener, the one that Jess was forced to read out seemed kind of self contradictory at first. But when you put it beside the interview, it starts to make a lot more sense.

Cole: I'll be honest, I'm emotionally exhausted. Can, can we take a knee for the night and come back to it-

D: in the morning? Absolutely.

Mark: Look at us back at it again. Feels good, you know.

(Tape recorder sounds)

Mark: Tiny Terrors is an anthology horror podcast produced by Pulp Audio and licensed under a creative commons attribution, non-commercial share alike 4.0 international license.

D: This episode was directed by Cole Weavers with sound production and editing by Mike LeBeau.

Mark: To find additional information or to join our Paton for additional content and ad free episodes, visit our website www.tinyterrorspod.com

D: Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at TinyTerrorsPod,

Mark: Or join the Pulp Audio discord by clicking the link in the description below.

D: Rate and review us on Spotify and Apple.

Mark: And finally, thanks for listening.

[frogtanii]

hi! noah anon here again, um ahaha, i may have been inspired to write a part 2 to my previous atsumu hurt/comfort drabble, i hope that's okay! ive been living for protective!y/n ever since they fought meiko for suga, so i wanted to sort of portray that!

-

from the way atsumu's breathing had evened out, you assumed he'd finally fallen asleep. exhaustion from the rough night he had taking over as he laid in your bed, wrapped up in your comforting embrace. atsumu's forehead rested in the crook of your neck and his nose pressed up against your collarbone, soft breaths tickling the sensitive skin. his arm laid across your stomach, keeping you close. for the first time since he walked into your room that night, he looked peaceful.

you on the other hand, were pissed; still stewing with rage over the events of the night. the main target of your aggression being none other than miya osamu himself. how could someone be so cold to their own twin?

the more you thought about it, the more restless you got, a pit of frustration growing and twisting uncomfortably in your gut. laying still was starting to prove a difficult task. with all of this frustrated energy you just needed to move — do something, before you went insane. so as carefully as you could, you slipped out from under atsumu, gently pushing a pillow under him for support.

shutting your door as quietly as possible you padded your way into the kitchen to grab a glass of water and an aspirin for atsumu. he'd probably need it for when he woke up, and it was the perfect excuse to get up and move around. however, as you neared the kitchen, you noticed a figure searching through the snack cabinets, grey hairs poking out into your field of vision. of course now of all times you'd run into the object of your current frustration. did you universe hate you or something?

just ignore him, you thought to yourself, no sense in getting into a conflict tonight.

as quietly as possible, you pulled a glass cup from the cabinet and filled it up with water. you had asprin in your room, so there was no need to grab any from the common area. your next objective was to exit the kitchen as quick as possible before your urge to punch osamu in the face increased any more. at this moment, his mere presence was enough to up your anger levels.

however, the second you spun on your heels to leave, osamu was also making his way out of the kitchen, causing the two of you to almost collide. luckily osamu reacted quickly, stepping back and preventing anything from being spilt.

"fucking watch it!" he spit out, expression twisting into one of contempt.

you scoffed at his outburst, ready to hit him with a few choice words, but by the time your lips parted he was already storming out of the kitchen and into the living room. a high pitched voice could be heard when he entered, sending another wave of fury coursing through your veins. "thank you 'samu, you're the best!"

"of course baby," osamu responded, "now let's start our movie."

the noise of some cheesy romance movie soon filled the living room and all surrounding areas, way too loud for this late of an hour in your opinion. it only added to your irritation, and without even thinking you were marching yourself to the living room with conviction, glass of water left behind on the kitchen island.

usually you never sought out trouble, and you weren't too fond of confrontation when it could be avoided. in the beginning of your time in the hyper house, maybe, but as time passed you soon learned nothing you said would change anything. so to save some sanity you resorted to short quips and just plain ignoring your housemates, once your contract was up none of it mattered anymore anyway. but after holding atsumu for an hour while he sobbed, and osamu's entitled attitude, something in you snapped. fuck being the bigger person.

so with your shoulders back and head held high you stormed into the living room, snatching the remote from coffee table to pause the movie playing.

that certainly grabbed their attention.

"the fuck is yer problem?" osamu vetted, standing to square up to you, fists clenched at his side and jaw tense. meiko followed suit, but took her position slightly behind osamu, nimble fingers gripping his bicep.

"my problem? hmm let's see, maybe my problem is the fact that i just held your brother as he cried himself to sleep while you were out here cuddled up on the couch!"

meiko snickered from behind him, and you had to stop yourself from lunging at her. how dare she laugh at his pain?

"'tsumu's fine, he'll get over it. now leave so we can watch our movie." your eyes went wide at osamu's response. did he really not care?

"he's your brother, and you hurt him." the annoyed expression on osamu's face fell slightly at your statement, but he quickly recovered, expression morphing into one that could kill.  "don't act so innocent, you were probably in there twisting his mind with your little lies. you know everything that's happened between us has been your fault? you're the one that turned him against me!" his voice was gradually increasing him volume and malice, you obviously getting under his skin.

"oh please, you're still telling yourself that?" you inched closer to the pair, chin lifting up to meet osamu's steely glare, your attempt at intimidation working only on the small woman behind him.

"'samu, shes scaring me, please make her leave," meiko whimpered. Osamu placed a protective arm around her, pulling her into his side, "don't worry baby, i won't let her near you." you rolled your eyes at meiko, her feigned fear sending your patience over the edge.

"oh shut up, meiko," you snapped, causing her to coward further into osamu.  "hey, don't talk to her like that!" he shot back at you, eyes darkening as he towered over your form, but you refused to back down.

"i'm texting iwaizumi, he can make her leave." meiko began typing furiously on her phone.

you chose to ignore her, prioritizing getting in your final words before iwaizumi could come to their resuce. "you've got your head completely up your ass if you think anyone but yourself is to blame for your broken relationship with 'tsumu!"

"you have no right to—"

"what the hell is going on here?" iwaizumi stormed into the room, large arms crossed over his chest as he placed himself between you and your victims.

"iwa, thank god! me and 'samu were trying to watch a movie when y/n just came in here and started attacking us! it was so scary, please make her leave!"

you scoffed at meiko's fabricated story, but before you could even begin to defend yourself iwa spoke, "y/n, go back to your room before im forced to take action." despite his dagger sharp gaze, you refused to shrink. you were going to get your point in regardless of any threats iwaizumi threw your way. so shooting him a quick and dismissive glare, you turned your attention back to osamu and meiko to get in one final blow.

"look, i don't know what your problem with me is, and frankly i don't care. but leave atsumu the fuck out your sick little games." the venom in your voice was enough to strike real fear into meiko, who was now completely hiding behind osamu for protection. even osamu's intimidating demeanor faltered at your protectiveness over his brother.

iwaizumi was the first to break the tension, "y/n, go—"

"yeah yeah, i got it, im leaving." your cut him short, giving osamu one last glare before exiting the living room, stopping to grab the glass of water from the kitchen before heading back to your room.

in your frustration you'd completely forgotten atsumu was asleep, accidentally shutting your door back with a little too much force. "angel?" atsumu's sleep drenched voice pulled you from your stewing thoughts, and you felt any and all anger melt away when you locked eyes with him.

"where'd you go off to?" he asked, rubbing at his eyes and sitting up. you snatched a bottle of asprin from your night stand and extended it to him along with the glass of water, "figured you'd want this when you woke up."

the corner of his mouth lifted up into a lopsided smile as he accepted your offer, downing a pill and half the water in one go, "yer too good to me, angel."

you offered up a soft smile as you took the glass and pill bottle back from him and set them on your nightstand. you took a seat on your bed next to atsumu, pushing back his disheveled hair back with one hand, prompting him to let out a content hum.

"i'm sorry for waking you," you whispered, letting your hand trail down the side of his face before coming to rest against his jaw, "how are you feeling?"

atsumu leaned into your touch, "much better, thanks to you. but, can we lay down again?"

you nodded, falling back to a laying position with atsumu following suit. however, this time he pulled you into his chest, holding you in his arms. you sunk further into him, finding it much easier to sleep this time as his warmth surrounded you and calmed your nerves.

-

i got a little carried away and this ended up a little longer than i intended, oops, oh well! i hope you like it!

— noah anon

hhhh,,, BESTIE OMFG UR SO SO SO TALENTED WTF???? do u have a blog cs if so sharty drop the @ ahaha (jk only if u feel comfy!!) i just mean WOW WOW WOW WOWIE