#i know my ‘splitting’ with family members was basically me just

[supernovafics]

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄

"i'll be there for you" universe masterlist

pairing: bestfriend!roommate!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 4.9k words

warnings: explicit language, a bit of angst (bc of some family drama), lots of fluff, smut (18+), unprotected piv sex, tiny hint of praise kink

summary: in which a family wedding makes you think about the future

author's note: i love when i randomly get hit with inspiration for this universe<33

general note: everything in this universe/series can be read as standalone oneshots but to understand the full “lore” it would prob be best to read the other stuff too<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Summer 1986

You had been trying to stay on your parents’ good side. They hadn’t been pestering you a lot about your future— specifically college and transferring to the University of Chicago, where they had wanted you to go since you were a kid— and you wanted to keep it that way. And if that meant going to a family wedding in Illinois, then so be it. 

The only bearable part about it was that Steve was coming too, and it had taken absolutely no bribing to get him to say yes. 

“Is this my girlfriend privilege coming into play?” You asked him as you two sat on the couch in your apartment’s living room. “Because I swear if we were still just friends you would at least force me to do all of the driving or something.”

Steve gave you an amused smile. “Do you want me to make you do all of the driving?”

“Nope, not at all,” You shook your head. “So, actually, I’m gonna stop talking now.” 

Steve laughed a little and you focused your attention back on the random sitcom playing on the TV, a small smile on your face. 

“Do you think Dustin will wanna babysit Harold again?” Steve asked as he mindlessly reached out to grab your hand that was buried under the blanket draped over your laps and intertwined it with his. 

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” You answered with a nod, taking a look over at the brown and white hamster’s cage that was sitting on the low shelf you two had next to the TV. “Honestly, I think he’s starting to like Harold more than us.” 

“I’m pretty sure that happened right when we got him.”

“Shit, you’re right,” You said as you shifted a bit and wrapped Steve’s arm around you so that you were nuzzled more comfortably in his side and then intertwined your hands once again. “I actually feel kinda offended about that. Just so you know, I love you and Harold equally.”

“Equally?” Steve said, sounding playfully shocked. “I’ve known you for basically ten years.”

“Yeah, but Harold’s our son, so…” You shrugged, trying to contain your growing smile. 

“Okay, I guess I’ll share the number one spot, then,” He responded as he pressed a kiss to the side of your head.  

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The four-hour drive to the town just out of Chicago where the majority of your family lived wasn’t terrible. You and Steve evenly split the driving time and spent most of it playing silly games; mainly the license plate game because it was a car ride staple, and also a game where you two had to try and think of the same word and say it at the same time, and you two were eerily good at it. 

By the time you made it to the hotel that all of the out-of-town family members were staying at because of how close it was to the wedding venue, it was the middle of the night. Even though Steve didn’t have to work today— he took off the entire weekend, actually— you two still decided to leave later in the day because you wanted to avoid as much unnecessary time with your parents as possible.

Unsurprisingly, you and Steve were the only people checking in at ten o’clock at night. 

“So, it looks like there are two rooms in the reservation,” The lady at the front desk told you; her name tag said Joan. “One under your name, and one under Steve Harrington.”

“Oh,” You said and then nodded after a second. “Um, okay.”

Joan seemed to take note of your slightly confused tone. “Did you not book two rooms?”

“My parents handled all of this, so I guess they did the two rooms.”

She nodded at your words. “I’m gonna go grab the room keys and I’ll be right back.”

She headed off to what you assumed was the back room and you turned to look at Steve who was standing right next to you. 

He let out a quiet laugh as his arm slipped around your waist. “Did your parents forget that we live together and that we've been dating for the last five months?”

“They probably think we still sleep in our own bedrooms,” You said, leaning into his touch and realizing just how tired you were. 

You truly couldn’t remember the last time you slept alone in the past few months since you and Steve got together, and even before that, you both had spent a lot of time in each other’s beds. It probably would’ve made sense for you two to downsize to a one-bedroom place, but you both loved the apartment so much that you couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. 

“Should I pretend that I’m actually staying in the other room?” Steve asked and you quickly nodded. 

“Yeah, just in case.”

“Bad idea that we decided to share a suitcase then, huh?”

When you came up with it, it seemed like the perfect idea for the quick weekend trip. Why bring two separate suitcases that would probably be half empty, instead of just sharing one? 

You sighed now as you took a look at the black suitcase that Steve was holding the handle of. “Very bad idea.”

Joan returned a moment later. “So, good news, the rooms are right next to each other, and they’re actually connecting, so you two won’t have to be too far from each other.”

“That’s great,” You said, grabbing one of the keys from her outstretched hand, and Steve grabbed the other. “Thank you so much.”

She smiled at you both. “I hope you two enjoy your stay.”

You and Steve said another quick “Thanks” before heading toward the elevators. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“Your room is so much nicer than mine,” You said as you slumped back onto Steve’s bed, head quickly finding the pillow that was actually so soft. 

“Do you wanna switch?” He asked from where he stood by the suitcase, pulling on a fresh t-shirt for the night.

The door that connected your rooms was wide open and it would probably stay that way for the entire night. 

“No, it’s fine, I’ll deal with my shitty shower pressure and lumpy bed.”

“You can stay in here with me tonight, y’know,” He told you, moving closer and maneuvering so that he was settled on top of you. It was a comfortable position, even though it probably shouldn’t have been. The way your bodies molded so easily for each other always felt like two pieces of a puzzle coming together. 

You smiled under his gaze. “Thank you for the formal invitation.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Of course, no problem. I wanna be a gentleman.”

You couldn’t help but laugh a little at his words that were said very seriously, but you knew they were anything but. 

You could’ve easily fallen asleep just like that if you wanted to, with his warm body pressed so comfortably against yours, pretty much equivalent to a weighted blanket. And it would’ve made sense to fall asleep after the long drive you two had to endure, but you really didn’t want to.  

His head dipped down and yours tilted upward, allowing you two to meet halfway in the softest kiss. 

There was something about kissing Steve that always felt so nostalgic, and also the complete opposite. Even five months into everything, there was still a newness to being with Steve in this way that you’d probably never get fully used to. Every time felt like the first one, but there was also so much comfort that had been there from the beginning and it only continued to grow.  

After a moment that you considered way too short, he pulled away from your lips and his mouth started immediately trailing along the underside of your jaw and then down to your neck.  

You let out the softest hum as you shifted underneath him, searching for any sort of extra friction. Steve’s low groan was the first thing you heard when you brushed against his hardness and you wished that you could pull off the few layers that separated the two of you in one quick movement. 

“You still tired?” He mumbled against your neck.  

“Yes, but I also really want you right now,” You whispered back as you threaded your fingers through his hair, which was slightly damp from the shower he just took. The only pro about not sharing a room was that you both got your own bathroom, even if the water pressure in yours sucked.  

“Yeah?” He asked as he pulled back a bit to look at you. His voice was teasing, playful, but you also knew how much he loved the reassurance too. 

“Yeah,” You nodded immediately. “Please.”

There was the sweetest smile on his face as his fingers found the bottom of your t-shirt and proceeded to pull the fabric up and off of you. 

You had opted against putting on a bra after your shower, so your chest was left bare for him once your t-shirt was off and he was groaning at the sight. 

“You’re so fucking pretty,” He whispered as the pad of his thumb brushed against your already hard nipple.

For the briefest moment, your eyes slipped shut and you bit your lip to hold back your moan, and then you were meeting his gaze again. 

“You’re really pretty too, Stevie,” You said, smiling up at him as you reached up to softly poke his cheek. 

He laughed a little and turned his head a little so that he was kissing your poking finger. “Thank you. You’re so nice.” 

Your shoulders upturned in the most nonchalant shrug, but the same smile was on your face; you were always the one to bring a bit of silliness into moments like these. “I try.”

Steve was smiling back at you as he gave your nipple a quick squeeze and then his hands moved down your sides and settled at the waistband of your pajama bottoms. He pulled your shorts and underwear off in one motion and tossed them to the floor somewhere along with your shirt. 

He kissed from your collarbone down to your belly button, stopping and teasing different spots along the way which made you squirm beneath him and you could feel yourself dripping onto the blanket below you with every teasing press of his mouth. He moved lower and lower, and then deliberately skipped past where you needed him to be. Instead, he started kissing your inner thighs.

Your fingers carded through his hair as you looked down at him. “You’re being very evil right now.”

“I’m sorry,” He told you, but you knew that he really wasn’t. He spread your legs further and pressed the most featherlight kiss against your clit before looking up at you again. “What do you want?”

There were a lot of things you could’ve said in answer— in that moment, you were craving his fingers and his mouth too— but after the exhaustingly long drive, you simply just wanted to be as close to him as possible as quickly as possible. 

“Honestly, I really need you inside me,” You told him softly, hand moving from his hair to his cheek. “I need your cock. Please. Is that okay?”

He let out a contented groan at your honesty, head falling against the side of your thigh. “Fuck, yeah, of course that’s okay.” 

Steve moved away from you then, his warmth leaving your body as he pulled back to look at you. The juxtaposition of you being naked right then and him still being completely clothed, made you pout at him.  

“Well, this is very unfair,” You said, reaching out to grab at his shirt. 

Steve was smiling as he leaned in to press a quick kiss against your lips. “I knew you were going to say that.”

Before you could playfully complain any further, he pulled his shirt off and your fingers quickly moved to the waistband of his sweatpants. He let you pull them down along with his boxers, revealing his hard cock that you bit your lip at the sight of, and then Steve did the rest of the work of pulling them off his legs and tossing them somewhere to the side. 

When his body was once again on top of yours, his warmth enveloping you completely, he didn’t hesitate to push inside of you, your wetness making it easy for him to fill you to the hilt. 

Steve’s thrusts were languid and slow, both of you simply craved the feeling of each other rather than anything else. His lips found yours in the most searing kiss that was so different from his unhurried movements above you. It was a messy clash of tongues and teeth and one of your hands came up to tangle itself in his hair. 

You broke the kiss when a particularly rough stir of his hips made him push deeper inside of you and you gasped. “Shit, yes, Steve, right there.”

He hit that specific spot again and again and you were moaning louder each time, not worried about how thin the walls maybe were in this hotel. “You sound so pretty screaming for me, honey. You’re so fucking good.”

You nodded profusely, trying to keep your eyes on his, but it was too hard not to let them slip shut with every perfect snap of his hips. “Only for you.”

It didn’t take long for both of you to reach your ends— it was his thumb on your clit that triggered your orgasm, and it was the feeling of your walls clenching around him as you came that sent Steve over the edge too, pressing his face into your neck. 

A quiet stillness took over as your racing hearts returned to normal and a deeper tiredness took over and made your eyelids feel heavy. 

After you weren’t sure how long, Steve started to shift so that he could move off of you, but you stopped him with a hand on his back before his softening cock could slip out of you and told him that you wanted to stay like this for a bit longer. He didn’t protest your words and instead buried his face back in your neck, pressing the sweetest kiss against your pulse point. You two slowly fell asleep just like that for the time being, too spent and exhausted to make any other movements. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

If it weren’t for the incessant sound of someone knocking on the door, you were certain that you would’ve slept for a few more hours. 

The sound woke you up slowly and then all at once. Your eyes opened and you got the urge to pull the blanket over your head. You weren’t even sure when exactly that had happened, but at some point, you and Steve finally made it under the covers and you had also grabbed his t-shirt and slipped it on too. 

You ultimately didn’t pull the blanket over your head to muffle the noise. Instead, you pulled it off of you when you realized that the knocking was coming from your room. 

“Shit.” 

The door that connected your and Steve’s rooms was still open and you were suddenly so certain that the knocks you were hearing were being rapped against your room door. 

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked when he felt you get out of bed. He tiredly rubbed his eyes; you, on the other hand, were suddenly the complete opposite of tired. 

“I’m pretty sure my mom’s right outside my door. Or my dad. Or both,” You answered him as you quickly searched for your underwear and pajama shorts and found them in different random spots on the floor. “It’s probably both of them, actually, and I’ve had no time to mentally prepare for whatever this conversation is about to be.”

“I can go answer it, if you want,” You heard Steve suggest as you hastily pulled on your bottoms. 

“I think it would be better if we kept the illusion up that we don’t sleep together,” You told him. “I’m gonna go see what they want and I’ll be back in a sec.”

You rushed over to where he was now sitting up in the bed and pressed the quickest kiss against his lips before heading over to your room and pulling the door that connected your room to Steve’s shut.  

You ruffled up the untouched bed so it looked like you actually slept in it last night and then went to open the door before another series of knocks were rapped against it. 

“Hi, good morning, sorry,” You rushed out. It was only your mom standing in front of you, and right then it was hard to tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “The bed’s so comfortable, it was hard to wake up.”

She nodded at your words. “The bed in your dad and I’s room is terrible, we’re gonna try to switch to a different room tonight. Anyway, what time did you and Steve make it here last night?” 

“It was a little after ten.”

“And how was the drive?”

“Good,” You answered simply. “Me and Steve split the time so that made it easier.”

“That’s good,” She smiled. “Do you know if he’s still sleeping?”

“Um, yeah, he probably is,” You shrugged through your lie. “He’s right next door, but I haven’t seen him since last night.”

“Okay, well, your dad and I are going to have breakfast downstairs in an hour with your Aunt Tracy and Uncle Sean, you and Steve should come too.”

Her words sounded like a suggestion, but you knew that they were actually the opposite. 

You forced a smile. “Oh, okay, we’ll definitely meet you guys down there. I’ll go wake him up now.”

“Okay, great,” Your mom smiled back at you. “See you two then.”

You closed the door when she started walking away and headed back to Steve’s room. 

“So, what happened?” He asked as you climbed back into bed. 

You settled next to him and rested your head against his bare shoulder. “We’re having breakfast downstairs with my parents, and my aunt and uncle in an hour.”

Steve nodded at your statement. “Honestly, that sounds good. The last time we ate was right before we got here last night and it was shitty McDonald’s.”

“Yeah, those were the saddest burgers ever,” You said with a sigh. 

“Wait, which aunt is gonna be there?” Steve abruptly asked. “The nice one or the one that hates me?”

You laughed a little. “The nice one. But, I feel like I should remind you again that Cheryl does not hate you.”

“You don’t remember that party the way I do,” He said and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his seriousness. 

It had been a birthday party for your mom a few years back. Of course, Steve and his parents were there, and you and him spent most of the night camping out in your room, away from your mom’s friends and your overbearing family members. It had been your idea to sneak a bottle of wine from the kitchen and bring it to your room, but Steve was the one who actually went and did it. Or at least attempted to before he got caught by your aunt and, according to him, was harshly scolded by her. 

“I’ve seen her a bunch of times since that party and I promise you she doesn’t think you’re a bad influence on me or whatever,” You told Steve, lifting your head from his shoulder to press a kiss against his cheek. “And she definitely doesn’t hate you.”

“We’ll see what happens at the wedding later.”

You leaned in to whisper into his ear. “Don’t worry, if she does hate you, I’ll defend you from any and all shitty comments.”

He gave you an amused smile when you pulled back to look at him. “Thank you, that’s all I ask. You’re the best girlfriend ever.”

You smiled at him as you leaned your head back on his shoulder and closed your eyes, attempting to get a little more sleep before you’d have to force yourself out of bed again. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Steve was right and he didn’t hesitate to whisper an “I told you” in your ear seconds after your Aunt Cheryl gave a warm greeting to you and the coldest hello to him. 

You didn’t have time to respond to Steve’s whispered words because you two were being told by one of the ushers to find seats since the wedding was minutes away from starting. The weather was pretty much perfect; warm but not so much so that it made sitting outside entirely unbearable, which was a little surprising for the middle of August but you weren’t complaining. 

Steve was on one side of you and your parents were on the other, and you smiled in thanks when your mom complimented the dress you were wearing; the long pale pink floral dress that you bought only because you knew she would like it, and you had wanted to avoid her saying anything bad about your clothing choices like she usually did. 

About halfway through the ceremony, Steve’s hand found yours, and the simple action made you suddenly feel warm all over. You shouldn’t have felt so fazed by it— that was something that had happened practically a million times before— but the current circumstances made it feel a little different. 

Samantha was one of your cousins that you weren’t that close with— you remembered going to the sleepover for her fifth birthday party and that was one of the last times you two hung out before you and your family moved to Indiana, and then you only saw her during random family occasions— but she looked beautiful and seemed so genuinely happy that it was hard not to feel a little emotional; it was what weddings did to people. 

You tried to listen to the vows and everything else being said right then, but it was hard to fully focus when all you could think about was a future that would someday involve this with Steve, and how nice that sounded. 

Maybe Steve could suddenly read your mind or the subtle smile on your face, but either way, he was giving your hand a light squeeze, as if telling you that he agreed with everything you were thinking about. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

To probably no one’s surprise, you and Steve stayed attached at the hip throughout the majority of the night. Your hand was always laced in his or his was placed at the small of your back. 

You were grateful for that closeness and you were especially grateful for him because he made it a thousand times easier to deal with family members that you hadn’t seen in forever and the forced small talk that came along with that estrangement. 

It quickly became a revolving door of the same topics and questions— how was graduating last year, how is college going now, what are your future plans, etc, etc— and you thought you’d be able to put up with it for the entire night. However, there were only so many times you could say, “Fine,” “Good,” and “I’m still figuring it out” before it became too annoying. 

Therefore, the second the brief conversation with one of your uncles came to an end, your hand found Steve’s and you led him out of the big ballroom where the reception was happening. He didn’t question your current antics and you two ended up outside moments later— it was much cooler out now, but still comfortable— and you headed toward a little garden area with a bench that you had noticed earlier. 

 “Let’s just sit here for a bit,” You said to Steve, not explaining the why behind you wanting to do this right now, but you didn’t have to. 

He nodded, understanding just how exhausting this entire day had been for you, and sat down with you. Things fell into a comfortable quiet, the first silence all night, and you reveled in it. You shifted around after a few moments so your head was in his lap and your legs dangled off the side of the bench.

“Do you wanna leave? I think we’ve been here for a reasonable amount of time,” Steve said, breaking the quiet after a few minutes of you simply holding his hand and looking at all of the flowers in the garden. “We can go to that Dairy Queen we saw when we were driving here last night, if you want. I think it’s only like ten minutes away.”

You knew what he was trying to do— make things light in any way that he could, and in this case, it meant offering up ice cream— and once again you were reminded of just how fucking grateful you were to have him here with you in this moment.  

“I love you,” You said instead of answering his question. “Like, a lot, a lot, a lot.”

You immediately noticed the smile spread across his face as he looked down at you. “Hm, you’re not drunk right now, so where is this sappiness coming from?” 

“Shh, don’t question it. Just let me get disgustingly cheesy with you right now, Harrington.”

“Okay, sorry, continue,” He told you, but then he abruptly kept going before you could start talking. “And I love you too, by the way.”

You smiled up at him. “Aside from all of the family stuff I had to deal with today, this wedding was actually really nice and it made me think about you and us a lot.”

“In a good way or a bad way?” He was so obviously teasing you because you were certain that he knew the answer to his own question.  

You shook your head at him. “I don’t even want to dignify that insane question with a response.”

He laughed a bit as he pulled your intertwined hands up and pressed a soft kiss to the back of yours, and it was hard not to smile at the action.  

“This entire day made me realize that when we eventually, one day down the road, do this, I don’t want it to be anything like this,” You told him. 

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t want all of this huge fanfare and I don’t want a bunch of people that I don’t ever talk to, to be there either. If we just have the kids, and Robin and Eddie, and Nancy and Jonathan too. Oh, and Harold, of course. That’s more than enough for me. Is that okay? Does that even make sense?” You looked up at him to see if he understood what you meant, and of course he did. He always did. 

Steve nodded immediately. “That sounds perfect, honestly.” 

“I know that probably won’t be able to happen because of how involved our moms are gonna want to be with everything, but I just think the thought is nice,” You said with a halfhearted shrug. 

“We can do a small thing with just everyone that we want to be there and then let our moms take the reins on the huge fancy thing that they’ll force us to do.”

“God, you’re so smart,” You said and you wanted to sit up so that you could kiss him— you’d been craving it all night, actually— but you felt too comfortable to move right then. “So, is this a proposal, Steven?”

You were the one doing the teasing now, a smile playing on your lips as you looked up at him and he looked down and met your eyes again. 

He shook his head as he smiled at you. “Give me some time to plan the most elaborate one ever.”

“Take all the time you need,” You told him, and you genuinely meant that. In your eyes, there wasn’t any rush to get to that place. Even though you loved talking about the future with him, you didn't feel the need to make it happen before it was meant to. You two were already happy and in love and you felt so certain that that would never change, so you felt content being in this place with him. “Thank you again for coming with me to this, by the way.”

He lightly poked your side, making you let out the quietest breath of a laugh, before speaking. “You know I’d never say no to you.”

“Aw, I love it when you also get sappy with me,” You sat up then and finally leaned in to slot your lips against his. You hummed in contentment the second he eagerly reciprocated the kiss and your hand instinctually moved to the nape of his neck as you pushed yourself closer to him. 

You savored the moment for as long as you could before you had to pull away to take a breath. “Okay, now let’s get out of here and get ice cream.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(requests are open for stuff you wanna see in the universe/series!🫶🏾)

[boiohboii]

The Royal Way 《Pt.2》

(Leclerc!reader x Prince of Monaco!oc)

After his older sister marries into the Monaco Royal family, Charles knew he would be treated differently, to his surprise (and his sister's disappointment) his F1 team, ferarri, treated him the same way.... and that did not sit well with the new princess of Monaco

or

in which YN Leclerc uses her new familial connections to fuck up ferarri just like how they fucked up her baby brother's hopes and dreams.

N.B: so, this was supposed to be longer and the last part, but it's currently 3 AM and I have classes at 8 AM thus me splitting this little fic into a trilogy. Hopefully, I will have time tomorrow to post the third and final part! Thank you for reading and let me know what you think!! WARNINGS: NOT REALISTIC AT ALL!! if you are looking for a realistic revenge sort of plot, it is not here, I tried as best as I can to search up what the whole electronic system does and it's relation to the DRS, BUT I AM BY NO MEANS AN EXPERT NOR HAVE ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE, SO EXCUSE THE POOR RESEARCH. The car designs are from Pinterest... Some swear words (fuck, bitch, etc...) Let me know if I missed anything else please!

Faceclaims:

yn leclerc --> anya taylor joy

Prince Thierry --> louis partridge

Masterlist // part 1

Liked by ferrariisdone, charlesthefrench, leclercfam and 716,920 others

F1_updates_live: Prince Thierry and Princess YN Leclerc heading into the Ferrari motor home in LA. Neither of the Royals look ecstatic to be in this position and it's no doubt to do with the statement released by Ferrari's Formula one media team, where they had essentially blamed the newly wedded Princess, YN Leclerc and their own driver, Charles Leclerc, for his DNF in the previous GP.

username: let them cook

username: the amount of bodyguards they have is insane

username: they do not look happy

username: yeah, no shit sherlock, ferrari basically said that it was yn's fault that Charles is distracted

username: ferrari blaming everyone but themselves

LEAKED AUDIO FROM LAS VEGAS GP, FERRARI'S MOTORHOME: tensions rise in the Ferrari garage as the young royals of Monaco, Prince Thierry and Princess YN Leclerc, threaten Fred Vasseur of taking him to court after buying out the rest of Charles' contract with Ferrari.

(Princess YN Leclerc,Prince Thierry, Fred Vasseur)

"It has been proven time and time again that the team is so incompetent! Why won't you do any changes?"

"Do you think that it's easy? These are people's livelihoods we are talking about"

"You do realise you are talking to a princess, right? She is well aware of how to run a business and a team, unlike you."

"I am just saying that I can't just fire people because Charles can't manage the car!"

"CAN'T MANAGE THE CAR? Are you out of your fucking mind mr. Vasseur? There is evidence, very strong evidence for your information, that the problem was from the electronic system. Do you have any idea how fucked up your engineers and strategists have to be to send out a car with failed electronic system?"

"Correct me if I am wrong my darling, but don't the electronic system control the DRS?"

"Mmhhmmm"

"And if the DRS opens in a corner it might result in a crash, am I correct mr. Vasseur?"

"The DRS was fine, there was-"

"My husband is asking a yes or no question Fred."

"Yes."

"So basically, Ferrari's Formula one team had, intentionally and with their knowledge, put a member of the monegasque royal family in direct danger."

"But Charles isn't a member of the royal family! He is only YN's half brother!"

"PRINCESS YN MR VASSEUR! YOU WILL DO WELL TO REMEMBER THAT!"

"Charles is my brother, and you dare put him in harm's way. I am princess YN Leclerc of Monaco, I can and I will hold you accountable as the principal of this team."

"You can't do anything! Carlos had the same car-"

"Carlos did not have the same car and you know it!"

"We already know Fred, we have had professional inspections done on both cars, it's quite deceiving really, telling a driver that he's the priority and still disappointing him every single time."

🔊 a thud is heard 🔊

"This is the amount of money to buy Charles out of Ferrari, but don't spend it Fred, we will be getting it back in court."

"YN WHAT WE-"

"PRINCESS YN FRED! *sigh* it seems like no matter what you are still convinced that you and your workers did no wrong, we will see about that."

"There is only one race left, there will be no team to take in Charles now!"

"Oh, we are not looking for a team to take him in, we made a team for him."

{Taglist: @phillydilly @f1ln4dr3cl16mv33 @omgsuperstarg @formulas-bitch @brakingboundaries @kyuupidwrites}

[epwritten]

Neuvillette ~ l.f (part 1)

Description: You were convinced Felix isn't real, because who just looks like that?!

Author's Note: Hey loves! I know I haven't written in forever. This has been sitting in drafts for so long. I started this back in April and never came back to it because it was so long and I had no direction of where to land it. I finally decided this will have an other part! So enjoy part 1! :)

Words: 8K

Additional note: College!you, 2nd pov 'you' format. Slightly comedic (at least I consider Seungmin is)

Thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first time you met Felix was truly an unforgettable experience (that you would like to burn from your memory if you had a chance).

You were partnered with Seungmin for a presentation for physics class and had met at the public library to plan ahead. The study session was great. You both were alike in terms of work ethic and you were grateful. Not only because Seungmin actually was on board to make plans to meet up and work on this project, but also because he managed plan to split the slides accordingly. This meeting you both did was just a brainstorming so you both just got the basics, but for the first time in a while you felt confident that you would do well.

"Alright," Seungmin said, closing his laptop. You watched as he stretched his hands over his head and yawned. "I'm about ready to go home."

You nodded, doing the same. "Me too. Can't wait to sleep."

"How are you getting home?" Seungmin then asked as you both were putting stuff away.

You shrugged. Your family had a shared car that was constantly in use by different members depending on the day. Right now, it was parked in your dad's workplace and would be there for a while. You bused over for meeting up with Seungmin and you would probably bus back.

"Bus." You replied, closing your notebook that had three pages worth of notes just from today's brainstorming alone.

Seungmin nodded as he stood up, slinging his backpack strap over his shoulder. "Okay, so I'll drive you, is what you're saying."

"Huh?"

You turned and looked at Seungmin. You could recognize that he was indeed serious and wasn't even joking. You shook your head.

"I never said that. I said-"

"I kind of parked out back, but that's okay."

"Seungmin-"

"Yes? Okay! Let's go."

You just stared at him. Seungmin wasn't listening to you, and he knew it. You tried to protest but each time you did, he would interrupt and say something else about his car. And then he gave a mischievous smile. There was no backing out even when you tried to convince him it was fine to take the bus.

And so somehow you ended up stepping outside with Seungmin walking through the parking lot. The sun was now setting beautifully, with orange and pink coating spread across the sky.

"Whoa...look at that." You muttered softly, stopping to take a few photos.

Seungmin was busy texting away on his phone and you patted his shoulder.

"Look at the sunset!"

"Yeah, it's so cool..." Seungmin said staring at his screen as his thumbs worked.

You chuckled and rolled your eyes then noticed Seungmin frown.

"What's up?"

"We have to go pick up my roommate first." Seungmin said flatly.

The two of you finally reached his car and you stopped in hesitance. "I can take the bus..."

Seungmin shook his head, unlocking the car doors. "Not happening."

"Then let me sit in the back then?"

"You don't have to do that. He's nothing special." Seungmin said with a shrug. You saw the corners of his lips twitch to hold back a smile and you laughed.

"You're a little jokster." You commented, and then opened the back door. "I'm still sitting here."

You got in the back of the car and waited for Seungmin to get in before he started driving. You stayed quiet, looking out the window. You didn't ask questions about the roommate or how far he was. You didn't even know Seungmin had a roommate to begin with. There were no official dorms at the college you both went at, but everything was expensive so you knew that a lot of international students just lived together to make life easier.

You didn't know where you both were headed. This roommate of his could be anywhere. But when Seungmin suddenly drove to the entrance of a nearby park, you were a bit confused.

"Is your roommate here?" You asked.

Seungmin nodded. "Yeah, he's somewhere by the water I think. I tried texting him that I'm here but he's not responding. Come on, let's go look for him." He unlocked the car doors and stepped outside.

You shrugged and got out of the car as well. You had nothing better to do.

The two of you walked through the padded grass and you instantly smiled at the scene in front of you. So many people were out. There were kids playing frisbee, families eating, couples walking, photographers taking nature pictures...it was all so beautiful.

You and Seungmin got to talk more as you headed closer to the picnic tables by the water. You liked his humor, it was sarcastic and funny and you found that you could actually be good friends with him. Finally at one point, Seungmin let out a breathe.

"Ah, there he is." He said.

You squinted. "Is that a birthday party?" You asked with a small smile.

"It seems so."

A family was all sitting together by the far left with birthday balloons, food, and birthday hats. You tried to look for Seungmin's roommate but it was hard without description. Plus, you didn't really see anyone around your age except...

"Felix!" Seungmin called softly.

Okay, now you got the roomate's name at least.

Seungmin paused, stopping abruptly and you turned and looked at him, giving a questioning look. Seungmin gave an embarrassed smile.

"He's talking to somebody." You said.

You smiled "Oh."

You stood awkwardly with Seungmin a few feet away and you looked ahead to who he was referring to. Then you saw someone who physically made you do a double take.

There was a man, or...at least, it seemed so? He looked like a genuine anime character or fairy of some sort. Which, was weird to think but you've really never seen anyone look like that. He was dressed in a soft beige gold shirt underneath a white blazer on top of white pants. His silver hair was long, just under his shoulders that matched with his pale skin. A matching set of golden necklaces and bracelets sparkled as he moved and talked with gestures. He smiled genuinely as he talked with what looked like the mother of one of the kids at the birthday party. When he smiled, his eyes crinkled and your heart did a flip. You've never seen anyone so beautiful, but also so fictional.

Your mind turned with questions as you stated, not noticing that you probably looked a little creepy just staring like that. But who looked like that? No one physically and casually just looks like that.

And then it clicked.

You looked over at the table of the family again, this time noticing that a small boy had a birthday hat and sash. You concluded that he was the one having the birthday and that Felix was a part of the celebration.

You turned to Seungmin. "How often does your roommate do this?" You asked.

Seungmin looked at you. "Do what?"

"Cosplay. Is it like, he gets requests from families to be gaming characters for kid's birthday parties?" You asked.

You gestured to Felix with your head pointing in his direction. "That's Neuvillete, right? From Genshin Impact? He has the long silver hair."

Seungmin stared at you for a while. Then he burst out laughing.

"What?"

"He's not cosplaying anyone right now. That's just how he looks." Seungmin told you.

You paused, your brain trying to process what you just heard. After several seconds of silence (except for Seungmin's laughter), you looked at him.

"He...what? He just looks like that?!" You said in disbelief.

"Yes...?" Seungmin said. "What, is something wrong?"

You shook your head. "No, nothing's wrong, it's just..." Your voice trailed off as you stared back at Felix, Seungmin's roommate that stood a few feet away from you.

He looked unreal. Completely unreal. There was just no way. You'd seen pretty guys before, somewhat, but not on a level quite like this. There weren't even any words to describe it.

Felix suddenly looked over at the direction you and Seungmin were standing and you quickly looked away from him. From beside you, Seungmin was still giggling.

"Oh, I'm going to have so much fun telling him about this." He said.

That caused you to immediately turn and look at Seungmin. Your face flushed and you could feel your heart beat rapidly.

"Please don't."

He ignored you, as usual, as he suddenly cupped his hands to his mouth. "Felix!"

You placed your hand on Seungmin's arm in panic. "No, he's still talking with-"

You paused and saw the horror of the woman returning back to the table and Felix starting to walk to you both. You let go of Seungmin and stood awkwardly, eyes darting around the park just as you were suddenly graced with this man's presence.

And wow...he was even more beautiful right in front of you.

Seungmin smiled. "Hey Felix, how was the photoshoot?"

That caused you to blink. So....this Felix character was at the park for a photoshoot? Was that why he looked that...unreal? You were more confused than ever.

Felix gave a grimaced look, placing his hands on his hips as he sighed.

"I think it was good. I don't know. I'm still not very used to being out in places where there's so many people staring at me, but Hyunjin made it a comfortable experience." The sound of his deep voice paired with an Australian accent threw you off guard.

You blinked, but tried to keep your face as normal as possible.

That low voice coming out of a dainty figure? Just who is he?

Seungmin looked over at you and gave a knowing chuckle. He was surely enjoying your confusion and panic. It looked normal, like he had to deal with that with every stranger getting to know Felix the first time.

Seungmin placed a hand on your shoulder and pointed. "This is my roommate, Felix. One of our friends Hyunjin is taking a photography class and used him as a model."

You turned to Felix and looked at him. He was wearing light makeup, it automatically looked better than your own. The glitter in the corners of his eyes contrasted beautifully with his black eyeliner. His lips were pink and glossy, skin glowing. He gave you a gentle smile as he stretched his hand over to you.

"Hi, I'm Felix, nice to meet you."

You took his hand, trying not to get lost in his eyes. They were hazel-ish, but you could tell they were contacts. But still big and doe-shaped, like a lost puppy.

You said your name, kind of breathlessly. It was hard trying not to look affected when that was exactly what you were. Affected.

"We have a presentation together for our physics class so we were just working on it." Seungmin explained. Then he smirked.

"She also thought you do cosplays for little kid birthday parties." He said directly to Felix.

You felt your heart drop. Your eyes widened as you looked at Seungmin, shooting a "how could you say that?" look. He obviously laughed in reply.

When you did find the decency to look Felix in the eyes (after long seconds of hesitance), he gave a slow smile.

Felix blinked. "Cosplay?" He asked slowly, his eyebrow raised and he smiled, his face with slight amusement.

"Yeah, she thought you were being Neuvillete for the birthday party over there." Seungmin continued.

That caused you to looked over at him.

"Seungmin!" You said.

"What? That's what you said. You literally asked me if he was cosplaying Neuvillete." Seungmin pointed out with a smile. It took everything in you not to slap his arm right then and there.

You turned to Felix, your face completely hot. "That was a misunderstanding. I just thought-"

"Hey, it's okay." Felix gave a gentle smile. "You're not really the first person to say something along the lines of that."

Seungmin laughed. "Yeah, he always gets asked whether he's a boy or a girl. Or an anime character. Or a fairy. He even was asked what kind of animal he was once."

If this was Seungmin's way of trying to make you feel better, you somehow felt even more embarrassed as your face turned a pink hue. Felix seemed to notice that and he gave a soft smile.

"I used to actually cosplay a little when I was a kid. I love cosplays, though, I think they're very cool. Are you into it at all?" He asked, guiding the conversation to you.

"Um...yeah, I mean, I like it. I'm so sorry again though, I didn't mean to think that-"

Felix gave a chuckle, his whole face lighting up as he shook his head and touched the side of your arm reassuringly. "It's okay, don't worry about it. I'm curious though. You mentioned Neuvillete, do you play Genshin?" He asked, this time his eyes perking interest.

You shook your head. "No, I don't really know a lot about games. But my brother plays Genshin and his character is Neuvillete so....yeah." You end awkwardly.

Felix smiled. "That's nice. So, what do you like to do in your spare time?"

You three were walking now, following Seungmin to the car. As you spoke, Felix was nodding along and giving eye contact for every little detail, verbally saying "okay" or "uh huh" to let you know he was presently hearing you. It made you somewhat relax, the fact that Felix didn't take anything you thought of him personally, and the fact that he also pick up how embarrassed you were and diverted the conversation to something else. You appreciated him for that.

By the time you did get home, the replays of the day were in your head.

...

You didn't see Felix for the next few days, and for some reason...you wanted to. He was the most intriguing person you've ever met and admittedly your mind would drift back to days past where you first saw him.

Now, granted, you were still embarrassed about the cosplay thing (it kept you up at night sometimes), but you were more so drawn to the thought of him talking to you as carefully as he could, even though Seungmin laughed and teased your mistake like it was the funniest thing to dwell on.

It was pretty funny how often you saw Seungmin in comparison to Felix and there was a part of you that maybe wanted to ask Seungmin about Felix, but it would be awkward to bring up. Especially because it was Seungmin. The man would make a big deal over everything.

A few days passed and you and Seungmin would work a little bit more on the presentation, but those days your car was actually available so you'd depart from him after the study session, having no idea if he would pick up Felix or anything. And you sort of wanted to see Felix again at some point, if there was the chance. But it was impossible.

It drove you crazy that you hadn't heard anything about Felix, or saw him. There was just that one encounter and that was it. It had been about a week and a half now, and still nothing. Your mind drifted to Felix in the middle of the day. How was he? Was he modeling for other photoshoots as well? Was he in his room, his PC setup in front of him, playing video games? Was he working? A student? Was he single? Taken? Married?

Your mind didn't rest for even a second.

The next week, you and Seungmin had presented in front of the class. Because of the preparation, you both were well prepared and could tell that even the professor was nodding along as he jotted down some notes. When the class was over, Seungmin fell alongside you, leaving the North building.

"You got any more classes for the day?" He asked.

You shook your head, a smile on your face. It was a Friday, meaning you had an early weekend. "Nope. That's all. I'm going home." You replied.

"Me too." Seungmin said, ducking his head under a low tree branch as he walked.

You smiled at him, and then pointed to the street where you would go to the bus stop, since on Fridays your sister had the car.

"I'm crossing." You told Seungmin when he awkwardly started walking in the other direction, continuing to talk to you.

Seungmin turned around, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Oh, my sister has the family car today, so I'm busing." You told him.

Seungmin shot a weird look. "No, you're not. I'm giving you a ride." He said.

You shook your head. "Seungmin, you don't need to-"

"Yes? Okay, let's go." Seungmin smiled, pulling your arm so you practically flew into the other direction. He let go of your arm with a laugh and you playfully shoved him.

"You could've broke my arm!" You protested.

"Relax. You're being dramatic." Seungmin commented as he got his keys, unlocking the car from the distance where you could see his car in view. The two of you got in, and you took the passenger's seat without thinking much about it.

Seungmin started to drive, turning on the radio to some retro soft rock song you didn't recognize.

You looked at him. "So, how do you think we did?" You asked.

Seungmin smiled, his eyes on the road. "I think we did pretty good. We rehearsed really well, and it wasn't even nerve-wracking to speak up there." He said.

You nodded. "Yeah! I was a bit nervous at the start, but it ended up being really chill." You said.

You lived about 15 ish minutes away from the school, so you recognized the distance and roads needed to take. But when the usual highway exit passed, you looked at Seungmin quizzingly.

"Did you miss the exit on purpose?" You asked. Knowing Seungmin, he totally could've done that.

Seungmin shook his head, his eyes squinted in concentration as he glanced at the screen in front of him. Then he looked at you.

"What's the exact time right now?" He asked.

You awkwardly got your phone out from the back pocket on your jeans, and then looked at the screen.

"4:27" You said.

"Ah." Seungmin nodded. "Okay." He muttered to himself.

He took the next exit and you could see that where he was going you had no clue. You blinked at him. "So, are you going to explain why you missed my house? Or....?"

Seungmin sighed. "Fine. If you must know..." Then he smiled, looking right at you.

"Our good friend Neuvillette is finished work in 3 minutes and we're in his area. So, being the gentleman I am, you know, it only makes sense..." He gave a smirk.

Your face burned once more hearing the word 'Neuvillette'.

"You're not going to let that go, are you?"

"Never. I think it's a cute name. He wouldn't mind you calling him that. I call him that all the time now." Seungmin said.

You slowly looked at him, your heart panicked and in disbelief. "You don't..."

"Nah. I don't. But I should though."

"No, you really shouldn't. I still get embarrassed thinking about it so if you don't mind, let's drop it before he's in the car." You said, a small shiver running down your back at the mention.

After all this time, you were going to see Felix today. You didn't even expect it or prepare for it.

Seungmin didn't say anything for a while. But it wasn't until he looked at you, he suddenly grinned so much that you couldn't help but inquire.

You shot him a confused look."What are you smiling about?"

Seungmin gave a chuckle. "It's pretty obvious. You like him, don't you?"

You felt your face heat up, but just punched Seungmin in the arm, before turning and looking out the window. "I don't like him, I don't even know him." You said.

"Okay, good. Because that would've been embarrassing for him and his girlfriend if they knew."

You felt your heart immediately drop. It was weird the way it dropped so fast as if Felix was someone you knew. He was allowed to have a girlfriend, there was no problem with that. Actually, looking at him, there was no way he wouldn't have a girlfriend. But the fear of your silent reaction made you question something even worse. Did you care that much because you actually did like him?

"Oh, yeah, no...no, I don't like him, no." You practically stuttered quietly. You continued to look out the window now, not wanting to look at Seungmin's little smile that you knew he was carrying.

What did she look like? Who was she? How good did they look together?

Seungmin started to laugh out loud once more and you gave him a confused look.

"What?"

"I'm just messing with you. He doesn't have a girlfriend. I just wanted to see your reaction." Seungmin gave a proud teasing smile and you shook your head.

"I didn't make a reaction." You defended, even though for some strange reason hearing this fact made you feel lighter, almost like weirdly enough you had a chance now.

Seungmin smiled brightly, his eyes filled with mischief. "Yeah, you did. You were 0.5 seconds away from asking me just "who the lucky girl" was. Remember, I'm Felix's roommate. I see people have that look every time they're around him. Then they ask me for the follow ups." He said.

You breathed out a sigh. "Well, I'm sorry, some of us were never met with that kind of...beauty right in front of our faces."

Seungmin smirked. "Beauty, huh?"

Your hand made contact with his arm in a playful slap once again. It was basically a reflex at this point.

You felt quite curious now as your hands fiddled in your lap and you slowly looked at Seungmin. It was good to know that Felix didn't have a girlfriend. Well, maybe not good for him, but...you couldn't help but wonder. Even if there wasn't a proper label, surely there had to be someone.

"You said he didn't have a girlfriend, but...he's definitely seeing someone, right? Or-"

"Your ears are red." Seungmin suddenly commented. "Man, you're getting this worked up for someone you don't like, huh?"

"I don't like him. I don't know him enough to like him."

"Then why care if he is seeing someone? Asking if there's anyone he's seeing, it makes you sound pretty...possessive, don'tcha think?"

"Please stop talking."

"You're not denying it."

It was true. You weren't denying anything. And that was the problem. Who cared whether Felix had a girlfriend, or boyfriend, or partner, or was seeing someone, or officially dating, or engaged, or married, or completely single? You shouldn't care. But it would be good to know...at least, that's what you were telling yourself.

It was practically for educational purposes.

Seungmin didn't say anything for a while, and you ended up sitting in silence, all except for the occasional humming along to Everybody Wants To Rule the World playing on the radio. But after the song was over, Seungmin spoke out.

"Hmmm...let me call him real quick to check to see if he doesn't already have a ride or anything. We're almost there." Seungmin said, suddenly taking his phone out.

You watched as Seungmin went to contacts and clicked on one of the recent ones, before setting his phone on speaker and holding it with one hand.

The phone rang twice before it picked up.

"Hey."

Your eyes closed for a second before you forced them opened. That dang voice. It was deeper than you remembered.

"Hey, did you need a ride? I'm like, 3 minutes away." Seungmin said.

"Oh, yes, please. Thank you so much. I'm getting out, I'm just packing a leftover box. Did you want anything?"

"Yeah, do you guys still have those raspberry biscuits?"

"Ummm...I don't think so- oh wait..." There was some rustling in the over the line before Felix came back.

"Yeah, they're here. Only two though, it's the last of the batch, is that okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine thanks. Oh, just letting you know, there's a hostage in the car with me so you'll just sit in the back." Seungmin said, his tone serious.

You didn't hesitate to punch his arm once more.

Over the line, you could hear a sigh. "Seungmin, you need to stop saying you have hostages-"

"Yeah, but-"

"-while I'm on speaker."

"Oh."

You turned to Seungmin, your eyes widened, but he just gave a smug smile. "Whoops."

There was seriously something wrong with him.

"Did anyone hear that?" Seungmin asked, though the smile was still there.

"Luckily for you, I'm in the back by myself. But, I am leaving the kitchen right now though, so Kim Seungmin, think before you speak." Felix said, drawing emphasis on Seungmin's full name.

You smiled. You liked their friend dynamic. It was pretty interesting seeing how Seungmin was with how Felix was. It was like you had someone sensible, and then a complete menace.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Who is it, by the way?" Felix asked. "Who do you have with you, Hyunjin?"

Seungmin shook his head, eyes on the road. "Physics classmate. The one I had the presentation with. You know," he smirked. "She thought you were Neuvillette."

"Seungmin!" You mouthed, giving him a punch on his leg. Seungmin just laughed.

Felix, on the other end, didn't say anything for a second. When he finally did, you heard rustling once again in the background.

"Oh, okay, did she want anything?"

Seungmin suddenly passed his phone to you, and you mini panicked as you held his phone.

"She's on speaker, you can ask her." Seungmin replied smugly.

You shot him a glare. Why was he like that?

"Hiiii, how are you? How was the presentation?" Felix's voice was warm, dating back to the first time he talked to you. Like, even in this moment he knew somehow that you needed to relax and he provided that option.

"Hi Felix. I'm good. The presentation was really good, thank you. How are you?" You were aware how small and frail your voice sounded and Seungmin gave a certain smile as you spoke but you chose to ignore him.

"I'm doing well, thanks. I'm just packing a leftover box from the bakery I work at, was there anything you wanted? Like cookies, brownies, biscuits, scones, anything like that?" Felix asked.

You smiled at his courtesy but shook your head. "Oh, no...I'm good, but thank you though." You said shyly.

"Are you sure? It's really no problem. I bring back leftovers all the time."

"No, I had a late lunch so I'm a bit full," You let out a nervous chuckle which Seungmin definitely noticed. "But thank you so much, Felix."

"Okay. If you're sure."

Seungmin parked on the street across from a small bakery called Modern Bakeshop Inc, a place where you remember driving by sometimes but you never checked it out.

"Okay dude, we're right outside."

"Okay, one second."

The phone hung up then and you sat up a bit straighter as you looked at the entrance door. An elder man came outside of the doors, and you watched as he turned the "Come in, we're open" sign to "Sorry, we're closed". The bakery officially closed now and you knew that in a matter of seconds Felix would come.

And then he did.

It was hard not to miss him. He looked elegant, dressed in a simple white oversized shirt over jean shorts. His hair was tied up in a messy bun with front strands all over his face. You watched as Felix spotted the car and smiled, showing the box before he started crossing the street towards the car.

"Who do you think he's cosplaying this time?" Seungmin asked as he leaned towards you, the teasing plainly heard in his tone.

"Shut up."

Felix got to the car and it was when he was by the door did you realize you were sitting in the front. You suddenly pressed the button to slide down your window and when Felix saw that, he stood in front of the open window, looking down at you.

And man, if his beauty wasn't enough, you just realized in addition to his ethereal face, he had freckles.

F r e c k l e s.

"Did you want to sit up front?" You asked, trying not to look too flushed at the radiant prince of a man in front of you.

Felix shook his head, giving a soft smile. "No. I'll be at back. Don't worry about it." He said.

"Okay, if you're sure."

Felix gave a final smile before he started to open the back door and you could hear Seungmin muttering about how insufferable the two of you were.

As Felix settled in, Seungmin waited, turning to look over.

"Can I have a scone please?"

You looked through the sun visor mirror and saw Felix blink up at Seungmin, and you found it semi-cute how his doe eyes would resemble that much of a child in his natural habitat.

Pfft. Who were you kidding? It was adorable.

"You're hungry for one now? You don't want to wait until you get to the dorm?" Felix asked.

Seungmin smiled. "Yeah, I'll have one now in the car, and one in the dorm."

"Okay." Felix opened his leftover box and you watched how he carefully handed a scone to Seungmin. At this exchange, he looked at your and your heart flipped at the eye contact.

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Felix asked you.

You nodded. "I'm sure."

"Promise?"

The butterflies in your stomach did cartwheels once more and you had to smile, no longer looking at Felix because he would see you literally flustered without explanation. The thing was, there was no explanation as to why you were like this. Felix just had that effect and you weren't sure why. But you just nodded and flashed what you hoped was a friendly smile.

"I promise."

Felix leaned forward in his seat, looking at you through the sun visor mirror.

"And... if you did end up wanting anything, you'd tell me right?"

You broke eye contact, smiling to yourself like a crushing schoolgirl. This was bad. You didn't know what was worse. The fact that Felix had an effect on you so strong from basically just existing, the fact that he was right there and that meant he could see you quite literally melt, or the fact that Seungmin was watching the whole exchange with a look you could depict well. You prayed silently that he wouldn't say anything about this.

You just nodded, your face warm. This didn't make sense. Felix just asked a simple question and yet...? You were that entranced?

"Okay." Felix then sat back in his seat, putting his seatbelt on. "I'm ready to go home."

Seungmin started to drive then, and you were still shook up, and not speaking as you looked down at your lap. From the corner of your eye you saw that Seungmin had noticed, of course, and to you caught a sudden smirk he carried throughout the ride back home.

Seungmin could think whatever he wanted. It didn't change the fact that you didn't truly know Felix, and probably wouldn't have even a chance with him. A man like Felix wouldn't be single for long. There was no way there could ever be an interest.

...

The next few days you didn't hear anything. You still had your class with Seungmin, but between schedules and other classes it was difficult to even talk to him. Now that the presentation was over, there wasn't really any need to still be around him technically, though you spent time thinking of the past events of last week. Was it already a week ago since you last saw Felix? It was annoying how much you were thinking about him.

But it wasn't until Thursday when just like normal you were leaving your afternoon class that Seungmin - who wasn't in that class- caught up with you.

"Hey, you don't have any other classes do you?" His voice sounded rushed and he looked frantic and you turned, stopping in the hallways to look at him.

"No. What's up, Seungmin, everything okay?"

"Not really." He blows out a breath.

You furrowed your eyebrows. "What's wrong?"

Seungmin scratched the back of his head, his eyes not meeting yours. "I have this friend, Jeongin. You know Jeongin, right? Always smiling, baby faced....he's a music major."

You paused and nodded, slowly getting an image in your head. "Yeah, think I've seen him around study hall."

"Yeah, so he sings and makes music and tonight he's doing a set at the open mic night in the cafe on Bright Street."

"Oh, cool!"

The open mic cafe was an event that would happen every Thursday at 7pm at the cafe. It was organized by students after the cafe's closing hours at 5pm, and was there for the purpose and reason of showcasing student talent. Whether it was singing, spoken word, dancing, jokes even, you knew of these open mic nights and liked its cause.

"Yeah, but I have a problem." Seungmin said.

"What's up?"

"So...he wanted to show up a couple of hours earlier to practice the acoustics...he usually shows up before anyone else just to practice, that's how dedicated he is. But...he doesn't have a guitar pick with him, and I told him I'd meet him at 5 to give my guitar pick,"

You nodded along.

"Okay,"

"But I just realized that my sister- who studies abroad, comes home at 5 for her reading week and I have to pick her up from the airport. We're probably going to be grabbing dinner and catching up, which means I can't make it to open mic night, but I already told Jeongin that I'm on the way with this pick. I just got a text from my sister saying 'see you soon' and I just realized what day it was, and I mixed up the days and everything..."

Seungmin's voice trailed off. He looked at you, with desperate eyes, almost like there was no one else. And technically, there wasn't, when you assessed how it was 4:53 and somebody should be at the cafe to meet Jeongin if he was going to be there by 5.

"Well, I...I can give him the pick." You answered slowly.

Seungmin looked at you, his face drawing into a smile. "You will?"

Before you could confirm, Seungmin already dug at his pocket, handing you a deep brown colored guitar pick. You gave a small smile, taking it.

"Thank you so much! You know where the cafe is right?"

You nodded. "Of course. And it's fine. Have fun with your sister." You wished.

"Thank you! I'll text Jeongin and let him know you're coming!"

Seungmin and you parted then and you watched as he jogged down the hallway, headed to the parking lot exit. You smiled. You didn't have the car with you for Thursday (as your brother needed it last minute), but luckily the cafe was about a good seven minute walk down the campus.

You opened your phone to check the time. It was now 4:54pm and you hoped that Seungmin would make it to the airport on time. You knew that there was a near airport to the university that you were sure he was referring to. You smiled as you started walking. It was nice of him to do this. You didn't even know he had a sister, you just saw him as the menace he was.

You started to exit the building, grateful that the spring weather was nice and warm but not too much. You spotted buds starting to form off the branches of tall trees and noises of students leaving and going to classes have you a certain romanticised feeling of life, where moments like these you could breathe in deeply and allow yourself to live.

You liked walking. Some days music would accompany your trails with the perfect background set from your earphones, but other days like today- where there would've been too much of a hassle to get your earphones from the front pocket of your backpack- you ignored the need of lyrical disassociation, and chose to listen to the sounds of nature instead.

When you finally arrived to your destination, you smiled, feeling the guitar pick in your pocket and headed to the cafe, which you could see from the windows that the lights were already on. Jeongin was probably already there. You hoped that Seungmin at least texted Jeongin and let him know it would be you to hand in the guitar pick instead of the familiar face of his friend.

You slowed your walk, getting to the door, gave it three seconds, and the pulled it, indicating the top bell to chime. You spotted near the side of the cafe, a couple of guys had mics set up and Jeongin was sitting on a stool, guitar in hand, currently doing a mic check. He noticed you come in and although you both didn't officially know each other or meet, he gave a smile, his hand shooting up in the air indicating that he could see you and was awkwardly calling you over. You smiled, doing the same before you walked over to him.

"Hey, um...Seungmin said-"

"Yes, of course." Jeongin smiled, his eyes gentle. "He told me you were coming."

You smiled, taking your guitar pack from you pocket and you handed it to him. Jeongin smiled.

"Thank you." He bowed his head towards you and then turned to the stool, going back to sit. Before sitting down, you heard a voice from behind you, low and familiar.

"Did you want a spotlight for your set?"

Felix.

At least, that was who you thought it was, but you couldn't believe it if it was true. You didn't expect him in this place, as you've been to multiple open mic nights before and never seen him. A part of your brain said maybe it wasn't Felix, that it could be someone else, but somehow you knew. Plus, that rich Australian accent was irreplaceable.

You took a couple of steps back and then slowly turned, just as Jeongin smiled.

"Yeah, I think I want a spotlight. Thanks Felix."

Jeongin turned and walked back to the stage just as you felt someone stand next to you in a white t-shirt under a leather jacket and black joggers. His hair was down and the front strands were brushed away and tucked behind his ears, revealing his bare face dotted with pretty freckles. You didn't realize how much he had, it was almost more each time you saw him. It was a simple attire but he looked immensely good in your eyes, and to be someplace where you weren't expecting him to be and suddenly seeing him, your stomach caught butterflies.

Felix looked over at you and smiled, his eyes lighting up. "Hey you, what are you doing here?"

You smiled at his greeting. "Hey, um...I was just giving Jeongin his guitar pick that Seungmin was supposed to give, but...he has to be with his sister." You said.

At your words Felix paused, a confused look flashed his face as his eyebrows furrowed.

"You gave it to him just now?" He asked.

You blinked, looking back at Jeongin who was starting to tune his guitar.

"Yeah...I did."

"Wait that's weird. Seungmin told me to give him his guitar pick. I was just setting up the lights and monitor in the back so I forgot, but..." You watched as Felix took a guitar pic out of his pocket. "Seungmin gave this to me this morning."

That made you blink once more. "But, he gave me a pick right after class..." You said suspiciously.

Felix paused for a silent beat before he eventually gave an easy going smile, shrugging his shoulders. "Perhaps he forgot he gave it to two people."

"Maybe...." Your voice trailed off.

At that very second you felt your phone buzz in the back pocket of your jeans. You shot Felix an apologetic look and took a few steps back looking at the new text from Seungmin himself.

When you saw the text, you took a double take, trying not to show the redness in your face. It was a small message but even via text you could still hear the smugness in his tone.

Thought you could've used some company so I may or may not have given Neuvillette a spare pic and asked him the same thing I asked you.

You're welcome ;)

You snuck a glance at Felix who now had his arms crossed, eyes ahead and glinting in awe to Jeongin's practice, and his head nodding to the beat of the track playing in the background. You looked back on your messages before you typed back.

Seungmin?????!?!?

Answer me WHY.

You saw that he was online and you could envision the smirk on Seungmin's face while at the airport.

If he even was at the airport.

You got a text back immediately after and you read.

Simple. You like Felix, he finds you endearing, and I find it all annoying.

So I may have decided to push things along.

With the both of you at the same place, that forces you to get to know each other without my presence. I don't need to babysit all the time, do I?

Hold up. Rewind.

You pause, staring at the message for quite a bit. What did Seungmin mean, Felix found you endearing? Endearing? That was a big word. Was Seungmin making that up? Was it true? Were you sure that was even what he texted? Is this just a plot for you to admit your feelings and have yourself be rejected?

When you felt like staring at the word didn't do anything to change his you felt, you slowly started to text back.

What do you mean he finds me endearing??????

A minute. Nothing. He was online as you spoke but now when it mattered most he wasn't there?

Seungmin???

Left on read.

KIM SEUNGMIN I KNOW YOU READ MY TEXT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN ENDEARING?!?

After long seconds, you saw that he texted back and you were nervous to see what Felix's own roommate would say.

I have to meet my sister now. Why don't you ask him?

Oh btw....what's he cosplaying this time? ;)

It was your turn to leave Seungmin on read. You sighed, closing your phone.

"Everything okay?"

You forgot who was standing next to you. You slowly turned, locking eyes with Felix who gave a curious look. He nodded to your phone and then looked back at you, almost questioning the past minutes you had. You started to feel your face heating up and you quickly nodded, averting your eyes back to Jeongin.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I had no idea he could sing." You made a small comment, trying to move the conversation elsewhere.

Felix followed your gaze and smiled. "Yeah, Jeongin is talented. He has a beautiful tone." He said.

You both were quiet after that. You weren't sure what was under Felix's mind, but you for sure knew that you were thinking about what Seungmin said. How could you casually ask Felix about what he meant, when you weren't even sure nor had the proof of him calling you endearing? Was this something you even would confront Felix on or would you just leave it be, and wait to see if maybe he would say something first?

You were shy. And it was Felix, for crying out loud. That man was too beautiful to be bothered with. You were at least sure he was talking to someone. He had to have been. No one with that level of beauty could absolutely have no one. So many people must have come up to him and expressed their interest and out of the many, he probably found someone he liked.

...

Originally, you were going to go home.

That was the plan. The only assignment you had was to hand Jeongin the guitar pic and be back by no later than 6pm. Not that anyone at home was expecting you at a certain hour, but you were expecting yourself to end the day with the completed duty. But what you didn't know was that you would be there until the very last showstopper. Open mic night wasn't a long event anyway, and so by the time it did end the sun was still up at 7:30. You enjoyed college talent and liked the atmosphere of people everywhere showing up for their friends.

The highlight of the night was definitely Jeongin who sang a soothing original that brought a proud smile to your face, despite only officially meeting him today. At the end of the night, you congratulated him and he thanked you.

People soon dispersed, talks of grabbing dinner or hanging out in the air, and the cafe started growing empty. Now you were going to wait a little bit as you saw the next bus that would come would be in 10 minutes. You saw the tech crew start to take things down and coil wires from the stage mics and you figured you should probably stand outside to get out of their way.

You wanted to at least say goodnight to Felix, who during the night, you lost in the swarm, but if you couldn't find him (which was like right now) you concluded it was okay and you would see him sometime. At least you had a moment before the open mic night even started to talk to him for a little bit.

You gave one more scan through the cafe, but you told yourself he probably either went home or was in the back somewhere. You headed to the door now and twisted the knob, walking out.

But it was when you stepped outside, you heard a sudden commotion and saw Felix and Jeongin to the left of the sidewalk, putting stuff in the back of his car. You watched as Felix gave a smile, handing the guitar that was propped on the pavement to Jeongin, who put it carefully in the back. When the door slammed closed, you watch Felix give Jeongin a dap and then bro-hug.

"Take care." You heard his voice say just as Jeongin departed, smiling as he walked over to the driver's seat. He waved behind him in the process of getting in the car and then closed his door, starting the engine.

Felix took a couple of steps back and waved at the Jeongin's car now driving away. You stared at the now gone interaction, finding it difficult to move now from where you stood outside the cafe door.

Felix was walking towards you now, but he didn't see you as he fetched for what looked like keys in his pocket. He swirled them mindlessly, whistling to himself before he looked up, pushing back strands of silver away from his eyes in a swift motion. When he did that, your eyes locked with his and Felix blinked, stopping in his walk for a second before he restarted, giving a soft smile.

"Hey! Thought you left already." Felix said, reaching you.

You have a nervous laugh as you looked down briefly, trying to will yourself not to completely lose it and blush in front of him.

He just looked so...perfect. How does one keep calm when conversing with an ethereal being?

"Yeah, no, I am I just...Bus." Your ability to formulate real sentences failed you and so you just pointed down the street to the bus stop instead, hoping Felix would understand.

Somehow he did, because then he looked at you, tilting his head slightly.

"You're taking the bus?" Felix asked, shifting the weight in one leg. His eyes were big, full of interest, or at least that's what you were telling yourself.

You nodded. "Yeah, my brother has my car right now. Or, the family car, I should say. We take turns...with the car and...yeah."

You were so awkward. You couldn't believe there could ever be a time where you were missing Seungmin but hey...there were first times for everything.

Felix just gave a gentle smile and nodded, never once showing that he couldn't understand you, almost like you excelled in communication and he had no problem getting what you were saying.

Maybe he was pitying you. It would make more sense if he was.

You remembered something Seungmin said once. He said that there were plenty of people who had the same reaction or effect when meeting Felix, and then they would reach out to Seungmin for questions on his mysterious fairy like roommate. This nervous reaction you were giving right now was probably something Felix was used to.

But what you weren't used to, or at least expecting however was Felix looking over his shoulder at the bus stop and then back at you.

"I'll give you a ride."

Your heart skipped a beat and you looked up at him. There was no way. He said it like it was the most normal thing.

Maybe it was normal, but to you that added on a whole other level of nerves.

You were a mess, like an actual nervous wreck and you would blank out everytime just looking at Felix and now? Now you would be in his car? With him? Driving you home?

"Uh...." You cleared your throat. Then you shook your head. "No, you don't have to."

Of course the angel just smiled. "It's no problem. My car's just down a block because of parking times, so we have to walk just a little bit, or I can go to the car now and just come to you." Felix said.

You shook your head, first at the offer, and then at the kindness. "I don't want to disturb you..."

At that Felix gave a light laugh that immediately sent butterflies to your stomach.

"You couldn't disturb me. Seriously, it's no problem at all. I know Seungmin would drop you off sometimes, this shouldn't be a problem." He said.

You weren't going to argue in the sidewalk all day so despite your nerves, you nodded, smiling shyly.

"Okay."

How you were going to do this, you had no idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

part 2 coming soon!! <3

[liedownquisition]

Hi, Hello, and welcome to:

Snowbirds Don't Fly is Kind of Good, Actually, and You Should Read it and Rethink Your Biases About The Story It's Telling You

By yours truly.

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: now like a lot of people who read older comics, I do have my beefs with dear ol' Denny, but there are a handful of things that your criticism starts to teeter into more than a little bit of a red flag. I'm going to discuss why that is, alongside why I think more people need to learn the core message of this arc.

I HIGHLY encourage people to read Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86, which depending on where you read might just be listed as part of the Green Lantern (1960) series because it is in fact technically part of that.

And when you do so I want you to actually read what's being said in the comic, in particular I want you to read Roy's lines. Because it is so, so important to acknowledge that, as a whole, this particular arc SIDES WITH HIM. Which is, honestly incredible.

Like, guys, I'm not going to say you're wrong when you say this is an anti-drugs PSA. I'm saying that if you read this comic and saw it only as an avenue for the "War on Drugs" then I'm not sure you really processed some of the messages in this comic. Because most War on Drugs propaganda is NOT interested in empathizing with the addicts in question, and encourages isolating them ("Just say no, and stop hanging out with people like that" being a familiar refrain from school assemblies over the years.)

Listen, I'm American, I've been having anti-drug PSAs preached at me my whole life. War on Drugs all around me. Grew up in somewhat poorer neighborhoods, literally was told to my face by multiple people that they were surprised how well I turned out because they thought that despite everything I was going to grow up to become a "drug whore." I'm not fucking joking about that one. I had family members say that to me, even.

Anyways, just, keep that in mind. I grew up around dealers and addicts and I have a lot of feelings about their portrayals in media. This whole thing was originally going to be part of a different media but it's probably best to split it up this way anyways.

TW: Slurs, drugs (obviously)

SO, without further ado,

Dennis O'Neil, in addition to comics, has a background in Journalism and some investment in social activism. He actively stated that he thought that he could use this in his comics, especially because, at the time, Green Lantern comics were potentially getting cancelled so he had a bit more freedom to do whatever he wanted. Basically, if it flopped in a probably-cancelled comic anyways, nobody had anything to lose. Think something along the lines of that Flinstones Comic by Mark Russel and Steve Pugh.

Ignore the goddamned cover, it's sensationalist and meant to get your attention, and it does the job. READ the WORDS. The above image is straight off the first page of the book. O'Neil takes off running with the utmost of compassion for the addicts in question, emphasizing their humanity, their mistreatment, and their suffering.

Now, lets be realistic with ourselves: Not every addict is so nobly tragic* as are depicted in Adams & O'Neil's story, but if you've heard people talk about addicts, both then and now, you'd know that it really does mean a lot that they come into this from an empathetic angle. *Yes I'm aware that I called them "nobly tragic" despite actively betraying Ollie & Hal and helping to drug them & leaving them to get caught by the cops while drugged up. Though they do express some hesitation at different parts along the way. The fact of the matter is people often ascribe a certain "nobility" to "victims" that they have enough distance from - whether by them being fictional or by not knowing them personally or changing their narratives after people's deaths to support themselves. in real life it's not uncommon for victims to be unpleasant to be around, they can also be perfectly pleasant people. They're human, and humans cover the whole range of personality and experience. Even if they are not "noble" & even if you do not have that distance, they deserve dignity.

Now, while our first introduction to the addicts (who we don't immediately know are that) they are trying to mug Ollie for money for dope (the dope part is implied). The second time we're introduced to one, however...

We are immediately thrust into the struggle of: quitting. Not using, but how difficult it is to quit. That's the worst part. This won't be the last time we discuss this.

Now, this is an arc where we see Green Arrow, who's typically the more liberal voice voice to Hal's politically neutral straight man, but I have to admit that as a Flawed Ollie enjoyer, I like to see him make a mistake, and he makes a LOT of them here. He is, in particular, harsher with the kids than he should be, and he holds a very very common position of seeing addicts simultaneously as "victims" of their dealers, while also refusing to sympathize with them.

The world is hard for everyone, why can't they Just Say No?

Up to this point, we're looking at pretty standard War on Drugs-style propaganda. But near the end of the story in #85 and for the bulk of #86, this is where I'm going to flat out say that the most important voice in this entire comic, is Roy's.

Roy doesn't at any point hesitate to stand up for himself (verbally) and call his generally well-meaning guardian out for his bling hypocrisy and ignorance. We see that neglect and loneliness led him here, but lets go back a bit and look at the reasons from a few of the other addicts:

Discrimination, cruelty, a need for an "escape." Any even mildly sympathetic media will have addicts explain that's their motivation, and I worry sometimes that people hear this and don't process it, because it's only one part of the circumstances that lead them there. the War On Drugs not only took the people who needed the "escape" the most and shoved at them a bad "solution" then imprisoned and profited off them.

From here we go back into Green Arrow's flawed logic:

He's a good, flawed man. He's like many parents who bring up their kids a certain way, a way they think is right perhaps because it's not unlike how THEY were brought up and absolutely missing the ways that they're harming them. Ollie will eventually see the error of his ways and regret these mistakes, but they're very common and very mundane flaws for him to have.

Alright, I'll admit I included this page mostly because that composition makes me giddy. Like, holy SHIT that's gorgeous. And now we are once again introduced to the idea of the struggle we were shown at the beginning: Quitting Cold Turkey.

It's extremely painful. It's dangerous. It could potentially even kill you as sure as the dope does. This is not something for everyone, and definitely not something to handle alone, which Hal himself expresses some uncertainties over, before inquiring what led Roy to this.

Is he wrong? Are the things he's saying any less true now than they were back then?

Even now there is plenty of pro-war propaganda (Just the other day I overheard someone talking about how their grandfather was in a war "Not World War 2, but one of the other Good Ones."). Even know there's lots of explicit and implicit racism that is treated as if it's justified and really MEANS anything about our humanity (Immigration/border control/ect). Even now we have people who believe that wealth is a measure of a man's worth to society or that it makes them inherently better (... I mean, I don't think I have to explain this one).

Hell, this doesn't even touch on gender (Whether discussing strictly feminism or if it's a trans issue) or sexuality or ableism (Whether physical or mental). Do you know how many people I've heard tell me they won't go to a therapist because they don't want to be reliant on a drug that might get prescribed to them? (ignoring the distinction between different branches of the psych field here, they never know the difference)

These are all things that get parroted to kids. We've seen the rising resurgence of gender essentialism, we've SEEN the rise of neo-nazi-ism, and TERFdom, and all these extremist views and movements and they ALL originate in the exact same place.

"What does that have to do with drugs?"

It's the same story. They're dismissed, they're disdained, they're not treated as equal living and learnign human beings. They are TOLD but they are not EDUCATED and they aren't treated with the kind of respect that leads them to think that they can even believe adults when they ARE being taught.

That neglect will be filled, whether by ideological groups preying on the vulnerable or by drugs or something else.

And here we meet our villain. We see society tossing the children away... and a man profiting off their despair. A CEO of a pharmaceutical company, even. Though, that's not really revealed until a few pages later.

... I'm so obsessed with this page you guys have no idea.

Our villain could have been a foreigner, a slumlord, a stereotypical drug kingpin, but it's not. It's a man with an abundance of wealth and a pristine reputation. A man so well known that he's on TV.

Denny O'Niel may or may not have known about the deliberate efforts to put drugs into black communities and prosecute them for them, but he clearly did see that the root of the issue was NOT someone among them, but something that someone else who could exploit them was bringing down to them.

Bringing this back to the dismissal of the youth and Roy's voice being the single-most important one in the story. Roy explicitly states that he only made it because he had support. Kicking a habit when you're on your own isn't impossible, but it's sure as hell not that far off. And, as I've mentioned, going "cold turkey" can also be deadly.

Now, yes, we have managed to create pharmaceuticals that can be useful for getting people off the harder drugs, and sometimes you can even find it for fairly "cheap"... but in our current day and age I don't think I should have to explain how predatory "Big Pharma" (and the health insurance industry) tends to be for those who have a need.

Like many things these days, even something like a rehab center is an industry - largely for profit, and the ones that aren't are often religiously and ideologically motivated. Even THOSE have issues that many result in incredibly dehumanizing conditions. (I was trying to find an article I read a while back including a few interviews from people discussing the conditions and treatment they faced while in rehab to link here, but I can't seem to find it. Must've gotten lost in all my other links and bookmarks.)

Despite there being places online you can look for how to spot a bad rehab center, the fact that these places will continue to exist with bad treatment methods and a complete lack of regulation and many people fall prey to them especially because they don't know to look for this stuff remains. Even still, and this particular one might be a bit outdated, It's not fully understood how best to treat addiction, especially since the one thing we do know of for absolute certain is that it has to be judged on a case-by-case basis. Though there have been good outcomes recently using MORE.

Social stigma and discrimination Including in media and news journalism plays a huge role in perpetuating these systems. And most people have this mentality of thinking it can be "cured", rather than being a chronic disorder with a management system. Here's another page discussing addiction treatments. Have I made my point yet?

My point is that this comic only reads as war on drugs propaganda if you're only listening to Ollie, who is FREQUENTLY being challenged on this throughout the entire arc by every person around him. Ollie in this is someone who has heard and fully bought into the propaganda, despite being a good person who typically tries to help those in need, He Is Not Immune To Propaganda.

There is a reason that this comic starts with a statement emphasizing that the story is about humans being mistreated, and ends with Roy calling Ollie out.

Ollie comes away from this with a changed perspective. It's not outright stated at this point but it's strongly implied because of how proud he is at the end there, and the ways he tries to repair his relationship with Roy down the line without (mostly) being too overbearing.

I would definitely say the worst part of this comic is that the solution our "hero" (Roy) uses is going cold turkey, which is a miserable, godawful, and dangerous experience. I will allow some forgiveness because it's likely that better addiction treatments weren't well understood back then.

So, in conclusion, Denny O'Neil is not without faults, but if you're issue with his works are "He wrote one of the most human-focused anti-drug propaganda pieces of his time, if not also compared to a lot of our time as well" or "He incorporated a lot of social justice topics into his comics" then I genuinely think you need to reevaluate yourself. Maybe he's a little heavy-handed with it, but have you SEEN people's reading comprehension even TODAY?

Sometimes a heavy hand reminding you that other people are human too, and you need to face the "ugliness" of our society and how it treats them and how YOU treat and think about them is the kind of kick in the ass people need.

I'm not even mad that they used Roy, because nobody is above addiction - not even a hero. It doesn't ruin him, because addicts aren't ruined. It's interesting and dynamic. If later writers take this history and write dehumanizing storyline that frame Roy as the villain of his own addiction, that's their biases, not the original story.

Anyways, ending this on my favorite moment that's not fully relevant but not irrelevant, from Justice League of America (2006) #7:

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Black Family Tree

I mentioned here how I have my own versions of various wizarding family trees, well, here is the Black one. Comprised of the official one drawn by JKR, corrected based on book quotes and my own headcanons. So, it isn't a strictly canon one (added plenty of headcanons and OCs to fill it up), but it's the one I tend to use (image split up for better resolution, but tumblr still killed it a little because it's a big photo):

Tree Notes:

Grey square means removed from family tree/disinherited

Greyed-out letters are characters that technically aren't part of the Black family and most of them would not appear on the tapestry, for example.

The shirt color corresponds to that character's house. (Grey shirt stands for muggle/squib. Fleur's light blue shirt stands for Beauxbatons)

Except Sirius Cygnus' shirt is grey because he died too young to have gotten sorted at Hogwarts.

A '*' marks a character I made up the name of. Some are implied to exist in canon and some were just added to fill it up.

A '^' marks a character we know the name of and we know for sure they existed, but I made up their connection in this tree or part of their name (i.e, known last name and I added a first one or vice versa).

Headcanon notes:

Araminta Black is mentioned to be Walburga's cousin who appears on the family tapestry, which is why I added an additional son for Pollux and Irma to make such a cousin possible.

Pollux & Cygnus had their first kids at a reasonable age instead of 13.

I made up appearances for some characters so everyone could have a little face next to their name. I tried to make the appearance logical based on what we see of their genetics in canon when the information was available.

I made up many of the birth/death years, especially for the various witches/wizards who married members of the family, as this information doesn't appear on the semi-canon family tree JKR wrote.

I added my headcanon regarding Molly and Ignatius.

You'll also notice that I added middle names to almost everyone since it seems very common in the wizarding world to have a family middle name. The first son gets the father's name as a middle name, the first daughter gets the mother's as that seems to be the case for many characters in the WW. Some middle name headcanons came from the mother's family and not the Blacks.

I added familial connections to other wizarding families in a way that made sense to me. I mean, there are different "levels" of pureblood, and the Blacks don't have that many families they consider "pure enough" to choose from. Also, their society is so small, that it's likely they are all related if you go four generations back (as Sirius says in OotP: "“The pure-blood families are all interrelated,” said Sirius. “If you’re only going to let your sons and daughters marry purebloods your choice is very limited, there are hardly any of us left.").

As you can see, I decided Euphemia is a Longbottom, since I like this headcanon. There is no deeper reason.

(I'm working on a Weasley/Prewett and Potter trees like this too. Unfortunately, I have to make up way more names in both these other trees. Like, we know Arthur Weasley had two older brothers, one of which I assume is Billius, and the other mistook Harry for his son at the wedding (I named him Hector, as you can see, cause I felt it fit). Arthur's father, Septimus, had six older brothers, who went on to have only sons but basically nothing else is known about them. Similarly, we know Charlus and Fleamont are related, somehow, and I just decided they're brothers in my headcanon and that Dorea and Charlus' 1 son is a squib to explain why he basically doesn't exist in the story. I just really like making up wider wizarding family trees, OC's and headcanons included, it's loads of fun, but I try to be canon-compliant-ish)

[beifong-brainrot]

I've honestly always loved the scene between Zuko and Katara in the Crystal Caves during the Crossroads of Destiny, even though it's been kinda diluted by shipping discourse.

I love how this scene showcases how far Zuko's story has come, but that it still has a ways to go. It's also a great moment from Katara, showing off her compassion and kindness, despite her rightful anger at Zuko. And this moment of "reaching across the aisle" between two children who were forced into something much bigger and crueler than they could ever be apways makes me quite emotional.

But I'm kinda tired of seeing this scene in just that vacuum, when looking at it in relation to two other scenes makes it so much more interesting.

The first scene we can compare this interaction to is pretty obvious, since it's basically "the other half" of Katara and Zuko's moment. It's Iroh and Aang's conversation in the tunnel.

I adore this scene it's just such a vibe I too would like to walk through a tunnel with a nice old man who gives me good advice (even if said nice old man is a war criminal)

Of course the first obvious parallel between these two converastions is a member of the Gaang (two members who have been most affected by the fire nations actions btw) having a genuine, deep conversation with a banished member of the Fire Nation royal family.

I also think this conversation contrasts Katara and Zuko's conversation very well. It juxtaposes Iroh and Zuko, showing us how far Iroh has come and how far Zuko still has to go.

I think it's very symbolic that Katara and Zuko connect mainly on their pasts, while Iroh and Aang do about the present and future.

Two quotes in this conversation stand out to me particularly.

Iroh: Perfection and power are overrated. I think you were very wise to choose happiness and love.

It not only relates to Aang's current predicament, but it also foreshadows Zuko's dissatisfaction with his life after he returns to the Fire Nation at Azula's side. After Zuko helps "kill" Aang and take over Ba Sing Se, he has acheived what he believed would be his version of perfection, while also getting back the power he was born into. But he is miserable. He's dissatisfied, wracked with guilt and constantly second guessing himself and the world around him. He even says this: During the meeting, I was a perfect prince... the son my father wanted. But I wasn't me.

But Zuko was also unable to fully choose a simple life of peace and happiness in Ba Sing Se, choosing to fight Azula when she attacks him and Iroh. Because he still subconciously was searching for that feeling of power and wasn't ready to allow himself to prioritise things other than his honour. He wanted to fight Azula and prove himself, but he just eneded up allowing himself to be captured by the overwhelming force of the Dai Li.

While Iroh has learnt to see the merit in a simple life and actively rejects the power (for better or for worse) that comes with his status as a member of the royal family.

Iroh: I don't know the answer. Sometimes, life is like this dark tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, [Aang earthbends the rocks away one last time. Iroh's fire blows out. He smiles.] you will come to a better place.

Of course, this quote could relate to many things, including just the whole story of the show, but it also obviously relates to Zuko's redemption arc. Zuko's story is the epitome of continuing to slowlu crawl through a dark tunnel until you reach a better place. He stagnates and stumbles occasionally, but he keeps goingm and eventually gets there.

He reaches his better place.

It's interesting to see the contrast between Zuko and Katara's interaction and that of Iroh and Aang.

I think the scene in which Aang and Katara split off from Zuko and Iroh.

Aang and Iroh maintain eye contact, and Aang even gives a respectful bow. While Katara tries to make eye contact with Zuko, but he turns his gaze away, as if ashamed of his moment of weakness. Eye contact is very important is ATLA's visual storytelling, as I've spoken before in my post analysing the mutuality of Kataang's gaze.

I believe this scene foreshadows Zuko siding with Azula and Iroh siding with the Gaang at the end of the episode. Iroh and Aang have reached an understanding, and therefore, they are represented as facing each other and parting on good, respectful terms.

While in Katara and Zuko's case, Katara tries to make a similar connection with Zuko, however he rejects that connection. Ultimately this forces Katara to turn her back on him too, which may foreshadow her rightful anger at him in B3.

Ok, so the first interaction I want to metion gives us a bit of insight to Zuko, but what about Katara?

For that we have to go all the way back to B1, to an episode that I don't really see talked about in relation to Katara's story. Jeong Jeong is only the second friendly firebender Katara has encountered in probably her entire life, the first being Shayu, with whom she had very little interaction. Of course, I think this would at least give her pause.

Jeong Jeong and Katara's conversation is very short, but I think it had a great impact on Katara.

Jeong Jeong : You have healing abilities. The great benders of the Water Tribe sometimes have this ability. I've always wished I were blessed like you - free from this burning curse. Katara: But you're a great master. You have powers that I will never know. Jeong Jeong: Water brings healing and life. But fire brings only destruction and pain. It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually, we are torn apart.

Jeong Jeong is the polar opposite of the firebender archetype Katara had in her head. He's thoughtful, disciplined and very careful with his firebending. Jeong Jeong's hatred of his own firebending also stands as a contrast to Katara considering her waterbending a vital and beautiful part of who she is as a person.

I always found it interesting that outside of Aang, Jeong Jeong was one of the first people in the series to respect Katara as a waterbender and see her potential, as he even connects her abilities to great waterbenders. It's especially a stark difference to how he treated Aang, the literal Avatar.

The way Jeong Jeong talks about firebending also reflects what Katara has seen herself of it.

Yet she pushes back at his self depreciation, showing that she still sees the value of his abilities. This foreshadows Katara's compassion for the people of the Fire Nation, especially when paired with Sokka's distrust of them.

I also think it's quite interesting that healing is often involved in Katara's attempts to connect with Fire Nation people. Her first connection is with Jeong Jeong, then she offers to heal Iroh, later Zuko's scar, she heals people in the village during the Painted Lady incident. Finally, the crowning jewel of this series of events is her healing Zuko after the Agni Kai.

This is especially poignant in the story of her and Zuko's relationship, with Katara offering her healing services to him twice, but being either rejected or interrupted. And finally she does heal him at the very end of the show, after he took lightning for her, symbolising a "bridging the gap", so to speak.

I think Katara and Zuko's conversation ties back to Katara's interaction with Jeong Jeong for a few reasons. Firstly, there's the obvious of Katara having a moment with a firebender with a facial scar. Also Katara's wording when she offers to heal Zuko's scar: instead of saying that she's a healer, she says "I have healing abilities ", which is exactly how Jeong Jeong described her power.

Ans once again, Jeong Jeong is the one to protect Katara and buy her time to escape, ehile Zuko betrays her. This once again just shows how far Zuko has yet to go before B3.

I've always thought that the way ceratain Avatar scenes intertwine with themes and similarities is very fascinating and fun to pick apart.

The scene between Zuko and Katara is profound, but I think it's often viewed in isolation, be it due to people wearing ship goggles or it just standing our more. But I think one of the reasons it's so wonderful is that it interweaves into so many other events of "reaching across the isle", of our protagonists connacting with firebenders. It's not just a good character moment for Zuko and Katara, it's a mark that connection and peace with the Fire Nation is possible, that it can be acheived, that it slowly is being acheived. Every one of these interactions is unique, but they all form a good foundation for B3, when we really get into humanising the Fire Nation civillians.

The scene between Zuko and Katara is beautiful not only because of what it is, but also because of what it symbolises: the hope of peace.

Ok this was "stating the obvious", once again brought to you by Quill in their pretentious humanistics student hat. I like to vomit words and some of you like to read them! So thank you if you have read them

[cooking-with-hailstones]

Statistical analysis of the most popular A:TLA fics on AO3

(All of this is accurate as of May 27 2024)

I like numbers and statistical analysis and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So last night I made this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the A:TLA fandom on AO3. I was genuinely surprised at some of the results!

Observations and analysis under the cut:

TL:DR, the fandom fucking loves putting Zuko into Situations.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of results from the most kudos'd, commented, hits, and bookmarks tagged under the Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon, 2005) tag on ao3. I am deliberately not including any larger multifandom flash fiction or drabble collections because I don't think they're super relevant. This ended up including 38 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Salvage - MuffinLance

Fractures - EvieNyx

Embers- Vathara

Towards the Sun - MuffinLance

The Art Of Burning - hella1975

Max: 1,407,170 (Salvage -MuffinLance)

Min: 78,168 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 349,442

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Salvage - MuffinLance

The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

Fractures - EvieNyx

The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain

Max: 59,947 (Salvage - MuffinLance)

Min: 3293 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 19,868

Top 5 most popular fics by number of comments:

The Art Of Burning - hella1975

Salvage - MuffinLance

Fractures - EvieNyx

Towards the Sun - MuffinLance

War Games - Lovely_Elbow_Leech

Max: 13,469 (The Art Of Burning - hella1975)

Min: 358 (Hallowed - Haircrescendo)

Average: 3634

Top 5 most popular fics by number of bookmarks:

absence of heat, excess of destiny - theycallmesuperboy

Salvage - MuffinLance

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris

The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain

Max: 150,317 (absence of heat - theycallmesuperboy)

Min: 430 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 9297

Highest kudos/hit ratio: Safety First - Haircrescendo (20.36%)

Lowest kudos/hit ratio: My Heart Burns For You - alwaysZutarian (0.89%)

Average kudos/hit ratio: 8.25%

Fic Ratings:

G: 9

T: 18

M: 6

E: 2

Unrated: 3

Popular authors (people who showed up more than once):

Aloneintherain (3)

Haircrescendo (5)

MuffinLance (4)

WitchofEndor (2)

Characters:

Literally all of these fics are Zuko-centric. Not all of them are Zuko-pov but every. single. one. focuses on Zuko as a main character. At least one of the following tags is on every single fic in this list: "The Gaang & Zuko", "Zuko & Zuko's Crew", "Zuko & Iroh" "Zuko & Azula" and "Zuko & [insert gaang member here]"

Relationships:

Ok this is what actually shocked me the most. I fully expected to see more Kataang, Zutara, etc in the top rated fics, but NO! Only 21 out of the 38 fics had any relationship slash tag, and of those, 20/21 were Sokka/Zuko (shoutout to My Heart Burns For You as the token Zutara fic to make it into this list). I did NOT realize Zukka was so popular! Now I'm super curious about what it would be like to run these numbers on FF.net because I know so much A:tla fanfic was written before ao3 existed and most hasn't been cross-posted, and Zukka wasn't a popular ship until more recently.

Other random observations:

There seems to be a pretty even split between post-canon firelord Zuko fics and canon-divergent "Zuko joins the Gaang early" fics.

Only one modern au as far as I could tell! (shoutout to "The Good Vanilla")

We all seem to love a Dadkoda fic

There is a very strong correlation between one-shots and a high kudos/hit ratio.

Seemingly no correlation between word count and number of kudos. The top kudos'd stories were mostly under 10k words, while all the other catergories were dominated by fics in the 100k+ word count.

I didn't really see much correlation between hits, kudos, and comments overall.

There were LOTS of fics that only showed up in one category, which was really interesting! I figured each list would look pretty much the same, and there were several fics that did show up on the front page of every category (Salvage definitely sweeps the board for overall most popular fic), but there was a lot of variation between each list! Some fics had TONS of hits but very few comments, some had truly wild kudos/hit ratios, some were just massively bookmarked.

Thank you for indulging in my nerdiness, and feel free to tell me what I missed or anything you're curious about!

Update: I did it again, this time with Legend of Zelda

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

wibta to come out to "my" family? (🎭🐉 so i can find this later)

without giving away too much info, i'm part of a system of nine members. we split fairly late as far as systems go (probably around 9-10 but it's unclear), so there's the "me" the family knows and there's the actual us. none of us are the person who originally existed pre-split, though we've been pretending for a while so as not to out ourselves.

recently, we went from four members to our current nine (due to some very stressful irl circumstances) and it's harder to mask as time goes on. i've suggested just ripping the bandaid off, but the others are worried about telling "our" parents that their actual kid is basically dead.

we're heading to college within the year, so theoretically we could just fake it til we make it, and i don't think they're onto us either since they don't really know what did is. but it's getting really frustrating not being able to explain why [name] has constantly shifting tastes, terrible memory, and several distinct manners of speaking and acting.

tl;dr is i want to come out as a system to the body's parents, but that would mean telling them their original kid is gone. wibta to just go through with it?

What are these acronyms?

[heelsofboreas]

So here's my essay/rant about how I think parentification can be incorporated into your c!Punz and how you can use that to give c!Mercenary duo a tense and fun complex relationship.

Helios, you might be asking, what the fuck is that word? Parentification? It sounds like a disease and I'm an audience stand in.

tw for child abuse. discussed and not in detail, but as a concept for plot and mentions of long term impacts

Great point. I genuinely want to discuss what parentification is from a psychological perspective to make sure we're on the same page. So, basically, Parentification happens when a child (teens included), intentionally or not, is forced to take on developmentally inappropriate roles and responsibilities often because an adult won't/can't. If it's developmentally appropriate it's not parentification. Its been primarily divided into emotional and instrumental. Emotional is when a child is handling the social/emotional needs of family members in a way that isn't appropriate. Instrumental involves physical tasks like cooking, cleaning, and even providing financial support. A child fetching something from the fridge for an adult making dinner is not parentification. A 10 year old having to wake up in the middle of the night every night to change a diaper is.

Genuinely take some time to research it before you write it. I don't have time to get into things like the gender bias, but trust me there is a huge gender bias. Eldest daughter syndrome is a phrase for a reason, but it's not an issue restricted to being the oldest or being the daughter.

So, how can you utilize this to make a less black and white Punz was just awful to Purpled and abandoned him vibe? You make it so for some reason, Punz was the parentified caretaker of Purpled and there was no one to support Punz. Not anyone that would be able to fix things, anyways. This makes it so Purpled can have been very hurt by the situation, because the reason this would be so awful is that Punz was Also Just A Kid. Punz would not be fully equipped to raise another even younger child. It becomes a tragedy that they had to endure together but with a power dynamic that Punz can still have botched as the older brother.

This is also a very flexible situation. Did Punz pick a child up off the street to keep baby Purpled from freezing to death? That's what I write. You can also write them as bio siblings with absent/neglectful parents. Or bio siblings on the street. Maybe Punz is too young to understand the consequences of running them away from a shit life. Or maybe even from help he doesn't understand as safe. Either way, Purpled is now left alone in the hands of someone who isn't prepared to take care of him. What's next?

A few options. In my version Purpled gets incredibly sick and is for a while because Punz is like 10 and doesn't know how to treat a sick infant. In the end Punz takes Purpled to a church, where Punz starts doing work in exchange for Purpled's medical care and a place to sleep (he does this a lot). But they ditch the place when the grown ups start talking about getting them placed with a family. Specifically a placement that might split them. From there Punz is determined to make it work alone regardless of the cost to them.

You could also do Punz is playing protector and caretaker. With one or two parents that are in a sense useless or abusive. My Punz only really has parentification involving siblings, but you could easily make it even more complex by involving one or more shitty and/or passive parents. I sometimes do this in modern aus because it's just more realistic in that setting.

Additional things you can do with this:

Purpled gets taken away from Punz/their family, and resents the perceived abandonment

Punz gets taken away/put a in a position where for Purpled's safety they can't interact (kicked out by family, job things, abusive situation)

They just don't like each other. They can always just not like each other. Maybe Punz was too hard on Purpled. maybe Punz is just not the kind of caretaker Purpled needed and failed him (but they were a kid/teen too so there's nuance)

It's an act. They pretend to hate each other and not be related for safety concerns, but at the end of the day they do care (some of that fake resentment could even be actually real resentment that leads to some miscommunication issues)

So now the fun part for me, why your c!Punz should have been parentified:

Parentification can lead to difficulty establishing boundaries - this can be improved upon but often it becomes difficult to say no (which can contribute to enabling others, see: the criticism that punz enables dream's destructive tendencies)

I think it just makes any post-prison recovery arcs more interesting because Dream is going through all of that while Punz is quietly falling into a familiar role just one they chose this time instead of one that was forced on them

Parentification does increase your risk of long-term mental health issues. I don't know how I would even begin to write a neurotypical Punz and I'm happy for the clear justification to not have to

"No one can/will help me. I take care of myself." the whump potential. are you hearing me?

also the potential for a caretaking role swap

Punz is overall a pretty angry person and quick to act on perceived threats. Being in a protector role in childhood would establish that tendency early and make it concrete. Especially since Punz is CLEARLY a protective person (cough "don't touch dream" cough)

So that's just about my thoughts on that. Maybe this will make me write more Mercenary Duo once I finish like real people do.

[heretherebedork]

re: P10L

as for the horrible parenting on Faifa’s mum’s part, you’re completely right. what struck me during this entire show is their interesting concept of “divorce.” 🤔 for full disclosure: by some miracle, my parents are still happily married. so all my experiences are 2nd hand (through family and close friends).

I get that Newton/ Yota/ Faifa’s mother doesn’t live in Thailand, so she doesn’t have her own home there. (although, at the rate of her visits he might as well acquire one… 🙃) but constantly visiting N/ Y/ F’s dad and then demand an assembly of all the family members…that’s just strange. we never see her spend quality time with any of her sons individually (you know, doing activities that they might actually enjoy). now this might all be on account of her bad parenting.

as for the relationship between mum and dad, I definitely do not suggest a ww3 scenario. but their interpretation of “coparenting” is weird to say the least… the fact that they literally split up their children suggests some animosity. but during their forced gatherings they seem to be a sort of happy unit…

[now assuming that the dad is the more attentive parent in this scenario]

sorry, but if I noticed one or more of my children suffered significantly from my ex-partner, who I feel at least a little animosity to, I think I would at some point put my foot down and say “enough!”. but none of that seems to have happened here. (or at least not significantly)

where was the dad here? it’s good that he pointed out they are bad parents, but it’s a little too late. I know it’s awful to say, but at this point I would’ve even preferred a loud argument, because that at least would’ve suggested that he actually stood up for his children.

honestly this just makes me a bit sad. especially since they don’t seem to have an “alternate parental figure” (a grandparent, aunt/ uncle, family friend).

ugh…BL and parents…you could write a book about it. 😒

love,

— Thel. 💚

You could write many books about it, though I would not be the one to do it.

But basically... yeah. It's wild. They're bad parents and they hurt Faifa so much and mom claimed she knew the entire time and did... nothing?! Abandoned him again and again? Said he was sulking when he, for once, showed her that he was hurting?!

I still will never forgive her for literally forgetting about his allergy. That was the first thing we learned about her, that she didn't remember her son's allergy... and we're still supposed to believe she loves him equally to the two sons she wanted to take with her to her new family without him?

It's a family dynamic that tries to say it's solved because of a single conversation but doesn't actually touch on the other issues.

Still mad that neither Yotha nor Newton ever apologized for leaving him waiting for five hours and that mom's apology was basically just passing the blame to his father, in the end, no one acknowledged that Faifa has been hurting for so long. Mom apparently knew! Everyone was there when Faifa stared straight ahead in absolute misery while Yotha and Newton forgave her.

How did none of them see him!? He wasn't even SUBTLE!!

Anyway.

Yeah, it was an unsatisfying end and I knew it would be. Alas. GMMTV has done a few better and I had a small hope... but nope. I really wish the show had spent more time on the brothers. I really wish we'd been able to see their relationship as brothers grow and get better. Because, truthfully, seeing Yotha and Newton figure out how to show Faifa that he was loved would have been better than any amount of forgiveness that Faifa gave his mother.

[moonyskarma]

SHORT AND EXTRA SWEET . . . ask game

who said i can't answer these myself without being sent asks??

answering for my formula 1 dr ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊

🍦  𑅕  TASTE  ＼  how do you leave traces of yourself? a signature scent? one of your interests? perhaps just your appearance is enough to leave a mark?

i'm quite fond of bleu de chanel... yes, okay, maybe it's a little basic, but i love it. except for that, lando always likes to point out that i always smell like cigarettes?? i literally barely smoke so idfk. multiple people have said my freckles are like constellations and that, along with my little pointy canines, are probably my defining characteristics as well

💭  𑅕  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE  ＼  what’s something you’ve always desperately wanted? something from a luxury brand? your childhood friend?

a fucking world championship. and then i got that! so... who knows. no, all jokes aside, you know what i really want? like, might give up my career if i don't get it? charles motherfucking leclerc. oh my god that man drives me INSANE. need him biblically.

☘️  𑅕  GOOD GRACES  ＼  who’s the person you trust the most? is it a family member? friend? maybe not a person, but a pet?

so there's a lot because the people closest to me are close for a reason. i'll start with my parents—definitely trust them with my life. my siblings too—my brother tom and my sister lily-rose. would die for them and vice versa! my best friends, genuinely, i trust them so much. but alright, if i had to choose one person... i suppose it'd have to be my dad.

🪚  𑅕  SHARPEST TOOL  ＼  what’s one of your most personal items? a gift from a loved one? something from a good time in your life?

i'm a sappy little sentimental motherfucker. me and my twin brother tom have these necklaces—leather cords with a little silver ring on it. it used to belong to my dad—he had both rings, but when me and tom were born he split the necklace and gave us each a ring. so it's really important to me and never take it off. that's not the only thing, because i keep literally every gift i've ever received, but that's the most important to me.

🎲  𑅕  COINCIDENCE  ＼  when was one of your luckiest moments? so lucky that you thought it a coincidence ..

monza. 2022. worst crash of my life. fighting max verstappen for third. i pushed, he pushed back, and we collided. i went spinning off the track and somehow hit the wall so hard the car fucking flipped??? genuinely do not understand how he just went "oh damn thats crazy" AND DROVE AWAY. LIKE I'M UPSIDE DOWN COME BACK??? anyways somehow i was fine?? like, obviously that was terrifying and i was so mad i almost started a brawl in the middle of the paddock but i was unharmed somehow.

🛏️  𑅕  BED CHEM  ＼  how do your express love in your relationship? physically? through gifts?

hehehe im gonna keep part of my answer to myself but i'm a very physical person. not even in a freaky way (ok maybe a little bit shh) but no i'm just a very touchy person. hugs. leaning on someone. holding hands. head on char's shoulder, stuff like that. that's also how he knows when i'm not doing well because i'll pull away and not be as touchy as usual. also, i'm a gift giver !! i'm a gift maker. i love giving gifts, i love receiving gifts. yeah.

☕️  𑅕  ESPRESSO  ＼  what in this reality gives you a boost of energy? maybe a special someone? your favorite activity? 

RACING. nothing can compare. nothing. ever. you're going so fucking fast you can barely move cuz the g-force, one little mistake could be lethal, the adrenaline.. i love racing so much.

✉️  𑅕  DUMB & POETIC  ＼  what about you juxtaposes another trait of your? do you hate the spolight but love to be appreciated? do you love taking care of people yet neglect yourself?

physical touch is my love language but if i'm not doing good i pull away from that and i'm not as touchy. also i'm kind of a hypocrite? i don't know im kind of a walking juxtaposition ...

🪵  𑅕  SLIM PICKINS  ＼  what’s something you regret settling for? did you know that there was something better out there for you? did you moan and bitch for a while or just accept it?

hm. there's been a few incidents but nothing that majorly stands out? just a bunch of little things with other drivers and stuff where i've been forced to take a penalty or agree to stop doing something when i disagree with it. (im looking at you max verstappen and the stewards)

🍼  𑅕  JUNO  ＼  are you good with kids? do they cling to you or run away in fear? do you even like kids in the first place?

I AM SO GOOD WITH KIDS i love kids so much yes. kids love me in return. i'm really good at making kids laugh? if you can't find me in the paddock it's probably because i'm playing hide and seek with another drivers kids. i want two kids.

🥠  𑅕  LIE TO GIRLS  ＼  what’s a lie someone has told to you? how did it affect you after you found out? how severe was it?

there's a few! that's always great. somebody (max verstappen is praying on my downfall i swear to god.) told me, when i had just signed with mercedes, that lewis hamilton thought i was annoying and i was genuinely devastated because he really is my idol and i wanted him to like me so badly. so that sort of led to me pushing myself harder and harder to try and win his approval? when the entire time he thought i was brilliant and never disliked me at all. that was great.

also the chapollo/lecdepp situationship era was NOT fun i'd just like to mention. me and char were so.. on and off.. for a while. idfk what the hell was up with him but he decided to pretend he wasn't in love with me for like, months, and i'd try and talk to him about it and he'd just deny everything like BITCH WE MADE OUT LIKE AN HOUR AGO WHAT DO YOU MEAN "we're just friends ollie." YOU CALLED ME CUORE MIO YESTERDAY.

🦷  𑅕  DON’T SMILE  ＼  who in this reality can make you laugh even at the worst times? do they purposely try to get a giggle out of you? is it completely unintentional?

daniel ricciardo. somebody needs to keep him away from me during more serious interviews because genuinely he will do the smallest thing, crack the most casual joke, and i'm over here falling off my fucking chair. like SHUT UP BROTHA IM TRYNA FOCUS.

🕰️  𑅕  15 MINUTES  ＼  how do you work in a time crunch? are you calm and composed or all over the place? when is a time where you’ve demonstrated this?

literally before every single race i'm internally tweaking but externally i look perfectly fine. "oh my god, apollo's so calm, how is he always so composed?" im not. im freaking out. there's always hella things to do in the few minutes right before the race starts—getting the car out onto the track, making sure everything works, that we're perfectly in our grid box, that everybody's clear, it's... stressful.

🪞  𑅕  COULDN’T MAKE IT ANY HARDER  ＼  what’s something about you that might push others away? is it the way you express yourself? how you talk? is their perception of you accurate?

i'm kind of mean? especially when i like someone? i'm kind of mean to charles. and everybody else. idfk guys. also i will not hesitate to call someone out and my PR team fucking HATESSS that. especially when i don't listen to them and say something anyway and then they have to do damage control. (sorry guys.) also x2 i'm kinda stubborn! my race engineer (claude) gets so pissed at that because he'll tell me to do something like overtake or let someone past and i just... won't.

💼  𑅕  BUSY WOMAN  ＼  what do you do for a living? how much time does it occupy in your life? have you always wanted to do this?

FORMULA ONE DRIVER. literally occupies all the time in my entire life, i'm in another country practically every week, but there's nothing i'd rather do. i was i think four? five, maybe? when i saw michael schumacher win the world championship and i just knew. i wanted to do that. i wanted to win. it wasn't until i was nine, seeing lewis hamilton win the 2008 world championship that i fully locked in and told my parents that hey, we need to move to london, i want to do that.

📰  𑅕  BAD REVIEWS  ＼  silly question! what’s your least favorite movie/show(s)? how did you come across this media? what about it is so bad? costuming? production? maybe the actors just suck.

the new lord of the rings thing—rings of power or whatever?? im not even the biggest LOTR fan but you know who is? lando fucking norris. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BULLSHIT I HAD TO ENDURE LISTENING TO HIM RANT ABOUT THIS? don't let his little adhd gremlin personality fool you. he is a fucking nerd. idk i cant think of anything else tbh.

[the-bee-graveyard]

Yellowjackets S3 theories

I've been wanting to make a post on this for a while so instead of making a bunch of little ones I've decided to just make one big one. I don't necessarily believe all of these to be true but I think they're all very interesting and I wanted to talk about them all. They're in this order:

Queen Card Theory (Alternating Antler Queens)

Pit Girl Theory

Woman In Trailer

Coach Ben is alive

Split Theory

I'd be really interested in discussing these or hearing any other theories!

Queen Card Theory (Alternating Antler Queens)

This is the first theory that really captured my attention when I watched Yellowjackets, and it's basically that there will be four antler queens throughout their time in the wilderness, each representing a different one of the missing queen cards. Natalie is obviously the queen of hearts, but there would also be a queen of spades, queen of diamonds, and queen of clubs.

I've gone away from this theory for the most part since the season 3 trailer, since there's obviously been a significant time jump and I'm not sure if they have enough time in the woods left for there to be three more different antler queens. I do however think the remaining three queen cards will become a significant plot point at some point in the show, and that they will be uncovered.

Pit Girl Theory

I don't have much to say on this one, other then I think that the Pit Girl will be there last kill in the wilderness. I do believe in to be Mari, and I don't think they're hunting her in the scenes from the trailer. The parallels in those scenes though confirmed it for me.

For side characters I think will die this season, I think because Melissa is getting a larger role in the trailer, she's most likely to die. Which brings me to my next theory.

Woman in Trailer

I know a lot of people think that the woman in the trailer is adult Melissa, I personally do not think this. I don't think she's any of the Yellowjackets, really based on one line she says "you really are crazy" (or something like that). If it was one of the Yellowjackets I feel like she would know this.

More likely I think she's a private investigator, or a family member of one of the deceased Yellowjackets, poking around in the Yellowjackets investigation. I think both Travis and Natalie's death happening in such close proximity to each other would seem highly suspicious to anyone who's been following the Yellowjackets, and could get them some attention.

I saw a really interesting theory on tiktok that she's hired by Paul, who is trying to find out what happened to Ben, which I'm not going to cover in this post but I thought it was really compelling and would love to explore more.

I do believe all of the living Yellowjackets have been revealed. In the trailer Van says, "everyone who knows about this is us or dead", which could be said after the eighth survivor is revealed, but I don't think so. I think the eighth survivor is either already dead in the adult timeline or...

Coach Ben Is Alive

This one is a longshot I know but I've been obsessed with it for a while. I originally was a Javi is alive truther, but since that obviously is not the case, I've turned my attention to Coach Ben being the eighth survivor. I just feel like him dying is too obvious.

It's assumed from the trailer that Natalie is protecting Coach Ben from the Yellowjackets, maybe even helping him. I think the trial shown in the trailer is not for him, but for Natalie, for helping him.

Somehow Ben makes it back, whether he is rescued with the girls or on his own. For whatever reason the girls either do not know he was rescued, or believe him to be dead.

The "somebody wants us dead" in the trailer in this case would be referring to Ben, who, after learning about Travis and Natalie's deaths, could believe the Yellowjackets are up to their old tricks again.

Split Theory

This theory follows the Lord of the Flies parallels in Yellowjackets, which I simply had to talk about because I love the book. Basically sometime during their time in the wilderness, the girls split into two separate factions.

Based on the path the end of season two and season three seem to be following, I believe the group will split in half, half of them following Natalie (who represents Ralph in Lord of the Flies, righteous, "chosen leader") and Shauna (who represents Jack in LOTF, more violent and careless)

I believe the groups will split like this

Natalie's group: Travis (obvious reasons), Lottie (she believes Natalie is the rightful leader), Mari (follows Lottie loyally, also if she's Pit Girl her death could represent Piggy's in LOTF)

Shauna's group: Taissa (follows Shauna, pictured with her a few times in the S3 trailer), Van (follows Tai), Akilah (again, close with Tai, not very invested in Lottie's spiritual stuff)

Unsure: Melissa, Gen, any new characters

I'm also on the fence with Misty. Although she does seem very devoted to Natalie in the adult timeline, if we're following Lord of the Flies imagery, I could see Misty falling into the role of Roger, who does side with Jack. I also believe Misty could possibly switch sides to protect herself if she sees Natalie losing support.

Either way I think the groups come together at some point before the death of the pit girl.

[buckseb]

always hold you

pairings — tasm!peter parker x bff/gf!fem!reader

summary — in which, she needs her boyfriend's support more than anything else, after another particularly bad fight with her father.

word count — 2.6k.

warnings — a little bit of angst, use of pet-names [dove, sweetheart, darling, love, bug], reader calls peter pete, lots of fluff and this is basically just a hurt/comfort fic, protective/soft!peter, this is also sort of similar to my other peter fic (take as a part two that one), peter comforting reader, mentions of the reader's low self-esteem issues and it being explained a bit more, both physical and emotional abuse (manipulation and gaslighting, but not from peter), hugs and cuddles, forehead kisses, peter just taking care of the reader and showing her the love that her family refuses to do, gwen is in here for a second and being the comforting platonic best friend that she is to reader, peter comes off as a little harsh and scares reader a little bit but he makes up for it in the end.

notes — hi! so, this is really more of a vent fic. i know i've written in the past about dealing w/ a toxic family member and how i really enjoyed writing fics similar to my experiences with my favorite comfort characters to comfort the reader because that would usually help me deal with everything. but recently, the abuse that me, my mom, and my brother have been experiencing has become a lot more complicated and traumatizing for me to deal with. and things have only gotten worse. so, i figured i'd do another comforting fic like the other peter fic i wrote about going through that said abuse. i really just feel that it's important to not hide my true feelings and act like everything's fine behind a screen and i just want to be able to talk about this topic a lot more (especially in my writing), because it's so serious and not nearly talked about enough. but, nonetheless, if there's anyone out there that sees this and is a victim of abuse (whether it's emotional/mental or physical abuse, or both) please don't feel obligated to read this. i really don't want to trigger or upset anyone who's dealing with this situation in a very heavy and overwhelming way. just remember though, no matter what anyone says or does to you, you ARE strong and deserve the entire world. i love you all <3. anyways, i hope this makes up for the lack of posting anything (i've been really struggling with a lot, but i'm trying!). gif and divider creds to owner!

p.s., feedback is very much encouraged and appreciated <3.

other fic

main masterlist

IT'S OBVIOUS NOW THAT SHE was stupid to think that he could change. it was even more stupid of her to go back to that apartment.

but, she's always been one to see the best in people — in her case, it's come to bite her in the ass.

even now, as she awaits her boyfriend to return home from his nightly patrol around the city, [y/n] knows that she should've known better.

she trembles as she sits on their shared bed, one of her legs bouncing anxiously — the thought of how peter will react to her foolish decision and the outcome from it is stressing her out, beyond words.

after how he responded the first time he found out about the truth about her father's cruelty and what she'd had to go through, she's worried of how he will react this time — it took almost everything in him to not confront her father, when he first found out.

she abruptly jumps when she hears the front door of the apartment shut softly.

a shaky breath leaves her lips, wondering if it's too late to try to hide the marks on her face and body.

but, when she hears him call out her name from the living room, she knows that it's too late — there's nothing she can do now to hide this.

and even if she wanted to for a split second, she promised peter she'd never lie to him again — after the last time, they promised each other that they'd never hide anything from the other again.

so, with another shaky breath, [y/n] sighs and hesitantly pulls the bedroom door open.

she keeps her head down, her hair falling around her face and covering the marks as she walks out and into the living room.

"sweetheart..." peter's voice trails off, eyes wide with shock and worry.

her breath catches in her throat as soon as she finally looks up at her boyfriend and sees the intense, protective look in his eyes.

"i—i'm sorry, peter." she whispers, voice too raspy to get any louder.

a flash of anger fills his eyes. "please... tell me that you didn't go back to him!" he exclaims in a quieter tone of voice as he pinches the corner of his eyes.

[y/n] flinches at the amount of frustration in his voice.

"peter, i—i'm sorry... " her voice trembles, guilt and regret quickly filling her — she just feels so stupid.

peter sighs, regretting taking his anger out on her.

his eyes immediately soften. "sweetheart, i'm sorry." he murmurs, before starting to walk over to her.

but, before he can reach her, she flinches and winces.

he stops short, freezing in place. more guilt fills him as he realizes that in this moment, she's scared of him.

"look... i—i know that i shouldn't have gone back," she whispers, tears clouding her eyes as she remembers the anger and hatred in her father's eyes.

peter's silent for a moment, waiting and giving her time to explain more — if she's able to.

"i'm... i'm so stupid, peter." she whispers, too ashamed to talk any louder.

peter's eyes widen in shock, not expecting that statement to come out of her mouth. "w—what? darling, that's not true."

this time, a tear falls down her cheek. "yes, i am. peter, who's stupid enough to choose to believe that their abusive, monster-of-a-father can change? me — it's me!"

the rambling and the self-loathing words coming out of his girlfriend's mouth becomes incredibly clear to peter as he walks over to her.

this time now, he doesn't hesitate to pull her into his chest as her voice becomes more trembling and wavering, "this is on me — it's my fault."

"it's okay now, love. don't blame yourself." he murmurs as she stops holding herself back and breaks into breathless sobs into his chest.

after a while, her crying slows and quiets down with her tears now dried on her cheeks.

she faces him and takes in a deep, calming breath as he wipes away the remaining tears away and looks over her bruises more intensely.

"i wanna kill him for doing this to you — again." the venom in his tone sends shivers through her spine — knowing what he would do to protect her comforts her.

but, on the other hand, she also knows that hurting her father isn't going to do anything for them or fix anything.

"no, peter. i know you don't mean that." she murmurs seriously.

an angry frown places itself over his lips. "no, i do."

she sighs. "okay, maybe you do. but, it won't fix anything and we both know that," she says, moving one of her fingers up to smooth out the crease in between his very furrowed eyebrows.

"it's okay now — i'm okay." she whispers seriously, grabbing his hand and rubbing soothing circles over his thumb.

you'd think from how she's comforting him that peter was the one that got hurt, not her — that's just how she is; she always finds herself taking care of everyone else, when she really should be taking care of herself.

maybe that's why they're such a good pair — while they're taking care of everyone else and their loved ones, they can trust the other to take care of the other.

"that's the thing, love. it's not okay! you shouldn't have to go out of your way to avoid him, just to protect yourself." he exclaims, ripping his hand out of hers and this time pacing around the living room with his hand now gripping his hair in frustration.

she sighs, frowning — this is exactly why she didn't want to tell him because she hates worrying him like this.

"it may not be fair, but if it's what i have to do to protect myself, then that's what i'll do — i should've kept doing that, instead of being an idiot to believe he'd change." she admits, shrugging, trying to play this all off, as if it's not that big of a deal.

"don't say that — don't do that!" he abruptly yells, turning around to face her defensively.

she flinches — once again — at the volume of his voice. "don't do what?" she asks meekly, her voice too soft.

he sighs in regret. "i'm sorry. i'm not trying to scare you." his eyes are downcast at the floor, before he looks up again, the guilt clear in his irises this time.

"it's okay, peter." she gulps, berating herself for some part of her being afraid of him — after all, she has no reason to fear him because he'd never intentionally hurt her.

"it's not. i shouldn't have gotten so angry — i'm not mad at you, i promise," he says in a much more quiet voice, sighing as he sees that look in her eyes — the one that she always has when she feels like a burden and feels like she should be apologizing.

"sweetheart, don't even think about apologizing. none of this is your fault."

[y/n] sighs in exasperation. "maybe it is. i'm the one that is always making a fool out of myself by believing in the best of everyone."

she sighs when a flash of irritation shows in his eyes. "what?" he whispers, his eyebrows furrowing together.

she takes in another breath when he walks over to her and hesitantly places his hands over her cheeks.

[y/n] sighs again.

"this isn't your fault, love. know that," he murmurs, his eyes searching hers for some kind of understanding. "please, tell me that you know that."

she sighs again, noticing the tears filling his eyes — it becomes incredibly clear to her how much the man in front of her cares about her.

"peter... " her own eyes fill with tears, even spilling to her cheeks.

without another thought, he gently wipes away her tears. "promise me that you understand me."

she sighs again. "y—yes, i understand," she murmurs, hating the hope that fills his eyes. "but, i just don't believe it."

he opens his mouth to object, but she interrupts him before he has the chance to say something, "i want to. but, i can't just shut off the way i feel — i was raised the way i was and with the trauma i have gotten along the way, i can't just forget it."

more tears fills his eyes, before he moves incredibly closer to her and brings her close to kiss her forehead. "knowing you want to believe it is good enough for me."

when he pulls away from her he smiles warmly at her. "let's go cuddle now, yeah?"

the softness in his voice makes her smile. "sounds like a plan, pete." she murmurs with a nod and leads him to their shared room.

once they're inside of their bedroom, [y/n] walks over to their shared bathroom, to change into her set of pajamas she set aside earlier in the day, after she had just gotten back from her father's home — she used to call it her home, but that all changed once her once-very-close relationship with her father changed.

after she changes and brushes her hair and teeth, she takes in a deep breath and tries to mentally prepare herself for the rest of the night.

but, when she shuts off the light and opens the door, she comes to realize that the bedroom is empty.

she walks out of the bathroom and looks around, her eyebrows quickly knitting together in confusion.

and just as she's about to call out her boyfriend's name, she hears hushed voices outside of the room.

with much more confusion filling her body, she slowly walks out of their room and into the living room, only to see peter standing at the door, talking at the door in a hushed voice.

"pete? is everything okay?" she asks as she walks up from behind him.

he jumps a little in surprise, before motioning towards the door.

the blond hair of their current guest surprises her.

"oh, gwen. hi." she greets her best friend and then her boyfriend, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning into him with her chin resting on his shoulder.

"what are you doing here?"

gwen shrugs. "i just wanted to check up on you — your dad called me, yelling at me because he thought that you'd left to go hide at my apartment."

the words that come out of one of her best friends' mouth shakes [y/n] to her very core — anytime she hears anything about her father, she gets easily nervous and scared.

in a matter of seconds, [y/n] slowly pulls away from her boyfriend's body.

she knows that she should try to pretend everything's fine and as if her friend's words don't affect her, but she can't help it.

if she had a few more seconds, she'd probably fall into a state of mind where she'd completely shut down.

but, when a light touch to her shoulder by peter shakes her out of her daze, she sighs and nervously finds her boyfriend's eyes on her.

"what's going on, guys? did something happen?" gwen asks worriedly after seeing the tense look on [y/n]'s face.

peter doesn't speak. he doesn't even look away from his girlfriend — his eyes simply say that the decision is all hers.

despite the fact that him and gwen are pretty close friends, he's always respected [y/n]'s choices.

with a sigh, [y/n] turns to gwen. "i kind of had a run in with my dad earlier."

as she hears that statement, gwen begins to notice the bruises on her best friend's face.

she frowns. "are you okay?" she asks, but after a moment, she groans and rolls her eyes at herself.

"i'm sorry. that was insensitive — of course you're not okay."

[y/n] laughs, despite the seriousness of the situation. "it's okay."

gwen gives her a pointed look, not believing for one moment that what she asked was okay.

"really, gwen," she says, finding some courage inside of her. "i'm probably not okay. but... " she trails off, suddenly feeling like everything is going to be okay with the ones that truly love her by her side.

"for the first time, i think i'm going to be okay — that everything will be okay." she says confidently, moving even closer to peter and practically burying herself into his arms.

gwen smiles. "good. i'm glad."

—————

AFTER A LITTLE BIT MORE of talking, they all finally say their goodbyes and peter shuts the door gently.

they move over to the couch, peter covering them — mostly [y/n] — with one of the fuzzy throw blankets that was lying over the front of the couch.

"you doing okay?" he asks softly as she lays her face into his neck.

she smiles, feeling reassured for the first time.

she lifts her head back up to look at him.

"i know going back was stupid. i do—" before she can continue, he interrupts her with guilt evident in his brown eyes. —"i'm sorry, bug. for how angry i got earlier."

she tilts her head in confusion. "what do you mean?"

"i shouldn't have gotten upset with you. and i'm sorry for startling you. i was just worried." he murmurs seriously, frowning at her confusion.

"i just... every time i think about your dad being near you or hurting you, well, it drives me crazy, sweetheart." he says, trying to ignore the anger in his voice every time he thinks about the type of person his girlfriend's father is.

"pete... it's okay. i'm not going to go back — i learned my lesson." she says, cupping his jaw with one hand, in order to try to calm him down.

he sighs, leaning into her hand and covering it with one of his own.

"that's the point, sweetheart. you shouldn't have to be cautious and scared to avoid him, so that he doesn't act like that. it's not okay."

she frowns, wishing that she could stop him from worrying.

but, she also knows that he needs to get these feelings out and off of his chest.

"tell me, peter. what is it?" she asks, being the understanding girlfriend that he loves — no matter how cliche that actually sounds.

"i love how good-hearted you are, sweetheart. the way you always see the good in everyone, despite what they've done to you — it's amazing," he starts, pulling her hand away from his jaw to hold over one of his legs.

"and i never want you to stop being that person. but, i also hate that you have to avoid him. you shouldn't have to give up your happiness and peace."

she nods in clear understanding.

he groans again, leaning his forehead over hers.

"it's okay, peter."

he pulls away and opens his mouth to say something in defense, but she stops him by speaking before him, "peter, i know it upsets you that he doesn't get to be punished for his actions and i get that."

he stops short, giving her a chance to finish talking.

"i know you hate that. but, i know that you love me more than any urge that you have to give him what he deserves — and that's what i need you to do, okay? love me more than you hate him." he frowns at her words.

as if noticing his hesitation, she says, "for me. please?"

he sighs in defeat and nods. "fine. for you." he murmurs as he pulls her closer into his embrace and body.

she smiles in victory as she lies her head on his shoulder. "i love you, peter parker. you know that?" she murmurs, cuddling up close to him.

"i know i can always count on you." she says, once more, smiling as he chuckles and stretches over to kiss her on the forehead.

"good. because i love you more and i'll always hold you when you need it, dove." he murmurs, smiling at her calm and at peaceful face.

and like that, they cuddle until they fall asleep with peaceful expressions on their faces.

[chimerasreach]

I just want to say I really love the concept and execution so far of this blog/ story, Greek mythology has been one of my earliest hyper fixations along with Warriors! The sacrifices part makes it so interesting

What sorts of occupations are available to the cats? I know we have Hearthkeeper, Soldier, and Scribe

Oh boy, this is gonna take a minute: it has involved me solidifying the roles I want, deciding what roles the city-state is missing since the war and the responsibilities of each.

Before I go further, something about training and occupations. Training is categorized into an occupation, yes, but each role is truthfully quite broad. One scribe could be dedicated to maintaining the history books while another considers themself a philosopher, understanding the world. It's more so a field of study that allows each member of the city-state to contribute to a certain set of tasks.

Unlike the humans of Greece, feline culture rejects a societal model of goods and services only going to those who can "pay". In feline city-states modeled off the grandeur of Artema, each working cat is guranteed a specific share of necessary provisions (food, shelter, medical care), with extra received through favors, the production of extra goods for trade, or the offering of services. Long story short, no apprentice is trained to expect pay for their services. They are trained to support their community and develop their own skills, should they desire more than the basics.

King/Queen/Monarch

Each city that forms the unified body of Chimera's Reach is ruled by a king/queen/monarch (the latter is used for olymp, better known as nonbinary, cats). Each city has a special crown for their ruler: Lion's Head has a taxidermized lion scalp, Goat's Head has a cap with curling horns, and Snake's Head has a spiked band with a snake wrapping around it. Upon gaining the throne, the ruler receives a divine audience from their patron god or goddess. This patron becomes an advisor for the ruler, frequently visiting when they are alone to guide the ruler's leadership in their image.

The ruler of the city is responsible for leading the city from their palace, where the city's Council meets. The Council is a body of cats who discuss important laws and issues and work toward a final decision under the ruler's approval and guidance. A ruler's spouse and legitimate children are guaranteed permanent spots on the Council, alongside permanent residence in the royal palace and other privileges. Sometimes a ruler's parents and siblings also get these rights, but this can vary. For example, Rockfleck's brother Merlinear is on the Snake's Head Council, but Orangemoon is not on the Goat's Head Council.

The three rulers and their heirs form the Reach Council, a body of six that dictates the shared customs, laws, and decisions of Chimera's Reach. Each ruler has an equal vote while their heirs are considered advisors.

Heir

The heir is the second-in-command of their city and the second-most senior voice on their city's Council. Despite the name of the position, an heir cannot be the child, spouse, parent, or sibling of the current ruler. This is a tradition from Artema, designed to encourage a wider range of voices and perspectives in the Council. Each heir also has a special accessory. The Lion's Head heir wears a lion's jawbone as a necklace. The Goat's Head heir has their own cap with smaller nubs for horns. Lastly, the Snake's Head heir has a snakeskin collar.

The heir helps the ruler run the daily affairs of the city and gets to live in a special room of the royal palace with their immediate family. The heir often manages the minutiae of leadership. They navigate issues, make sure tasks are handled, and act as a go-between for the ruler and their citizens.

Priest/Priestess

There is only ever one priest per city in Chimera's Reach. The spiritual matters of the city-state and the communication with the gods is considered too important a task to split among many. This means that the priest is highly protected. For harm to befall a priest means bringing danger to Chimera's Reach. It also makes apprenticeship unique. A priest can allow a kit to train as a priest once they've reached retirement age (10 years old). When the kit finishes training, the old priest must retire immediately, becoming a counselor.

Priests help the cats of their city worship the gods they want to worship in the proper ways. There are few gods considered taboo to worship, after all, and Chimera's Reach encourages worship of as many as feels practical to an individual. Priests interpret dreams, consult on the Council, and conduct most of the city's major events: ceremonies, sacrifices, rituals, festivals, and more. Many priests have special clairvoyant or prophetic powers: some get visions, some get prophecies, and some get visits from the gods themselves.

Healers

The physicians of Chimera's Reach, healers work from their clinics, which are built in the city walls and modeled after human Asclepieion, or temples to the god of medicine, Asclepius (called Vipercure by cats). Healers work and live within their clinics, with visits to those who don't need nest-space in the temple itself. Those with severe conditions who need a constant eye can stay in the clinic.

Healers often consult the city's priest due to the powerful spiritual connections of healing, but they have some spiritual training as well! One of the most common approaches to medicine involves incubation dreams, where the sick sleep within the clinic in order to learn the best treatment from Vipercure or his many daughters. Healers can interpret these dreams and determine the best medicines and surgeries to use.

While these dreams are important, healers are still very well trained on their own! They make medicine from plants and animal products, perform surgeries, and do many of the same medical procedures as their human peers.

Mediators

A well known role to those of you flocking here from classic Warrior Cats tales, mediators act as diplomats, negotiators, and trades-cats. A mediator's key job is to assist in relations between the three cities and to other settlements. They follow the will of the ruler and negotiate toward their goals. This often manifests as trade work. Mediators barter with one another using the city's resources and feline strengths, as cats detest money.

The other major factor to their work is managing disagreements and personal problems within the city itself. Cats should come to mediators to assist in complex arguments, and mediators should try to be called before guards, who will loop in aspects of law and punishment into what could be handled civilly.

Mediators can even assist cats in conflicts with themselves. They receive mild training alongside healers on psychoses, neuroses, and the ways the gods can inflict madness upon cats. They will help family members treat the mad at home, helping them right themselves in the eyes of the gods and come to grasp with their symptoms in ways us modern readers may understand better, such as an awareness of the body, connection to nature, and correction of faulty logic. This is the most stigmatized work of a mediator; some cats won’t go near a mediator following work with a mad patient (a catch-all phrase for mental illness in Chimera’s Reach) until they’ve been in a cleansing ritual.

Artists

A city is privileged when it can have artists. They keep Chimeric culture alive! Artists are dedicated to telling stories, playing music, and creating art in its multitude of forms. They are one of three production-oriented occupations alongside craftsmiths and hearthkeepers, and thus experience some training alongside them. An artist’s work, whether physical or performative, is highly valued and bartered for in trade, making them a major part of city diplomacy.

Artists will typically choose whether they specialize in physical or performative art. They’ll dip into both as needed, but are most valued for their beloved art forms. Performative artists work on storytelling, music, and various forms of direct entertainment for the city. They help with festival and party organization, keeping up morale. Physical artists, meanwhile, produce a wide range of artwork paw-in-paw with craftsmiths. Sculpture, murals, architecture, jewelry, all of that!

Craftsmiths

Craftsmiths are dedicated to the design and repair of tools, structures, and certain materials. They are often seen in forges and workshops, tinkering and smithing. Craftsmiths are trained to divide their work into three categories; artisan work, which partners with the artists; hearth work, partnering with hearthkeepers; and forge work, solely the domain of the craftsmiths. While the lines between categories can blur, especially with buildings and tools, knowing who you’re working with and the intention of the work is helpful.

Artisan work includes pottery, building design, jewelry, fashion, instrument maintenance, and more. Hearth work involves, among a few other things, construction, leather-making, and fabric production. Forge work, meanwhile, lets craftsmiths make tools such as surgical blades, pauldrons, pickaxes, and other items designed for feline use.

While craftsmithing is considered an important aspect of family culture, with strong ties to mollies and their children, craftsmiths work on the highest quality items in the greatest volume. Lion’s Head craftsmiths can make purple cloth, while Goat’s Head craftsmiths are the only ones in Chimera’s Reach who can make parchment rather than trade for it. The cities wouldn’t survive without craftsmiths.

Hearthkeepers

Hearthkeepers keep the city running. They are the last production occupation and focus on maintaining the city and its inhabitants. Their jobs focus on cooking, processing raw materials, maintaining hearths, building, and cleaning. They make dye from plants, strip leather off animals, and take everything they’re brought and turn it around into something usable. This focus on resources makes hearthkeepers the quartermasters of their cities. They keep track of the city’s shared possessions and those of individuals.

Hearthkeepers collectively decide what will be made for the city’s two meals, one at midday, the other at dusk. They take suggestions, yes, but they decide what everyone is eating. If you want something else, you need to make it yourself. This makes them the main cooks of Chimera’s Reach. They also go about and make sure hearths and other such fires stay lit. At the same time, they’ll clean streets and gardens and occasionally work on larger construction.

Seafarers

There is a great world beyond Chimera's Reach, beyond the descendants of the great city of Artema. Someone needs to visit those cities, to meet cats beyond Chimera's Reach and bring back treasures and new citizens. That is a seafarer's job.

Seafarers are trained to be self-sufficient away from the city. They hunt, fight, cook, repair tools, and learn important survival skills. They are to be ambassadors of Chimera's Reach to cats who may have never heard of the great city-state. Whether they head out across land or on a ship from the Chimeric Docks, seafarers leave for months upon months at a time, potentially never to return. When they do, their cities celebrate and collect the treasures they've brought home.

After returning home, a seafarer will typically spend a year recovering, retelling their adventures, and assisting around the city as needed. They are required to rest for at least a season, but some feel the call to adventure and decide to set off early. While seafarers are trained to leave on great quests and expeditions, they often bring other cats from Chimera's Reach with them.

Heralds

While only one herald (Aircatcher of Snake's Head) survived the war against Rizos, the herald position is important to city relations and the survival of Chimera's Reach as a whole. Heralds are the fastest cats in the city-state, responsible for delivering messages and announcements between cities. Unlike other cats, who must ask permission to enter a rival city, heralds can enter all the cities at any time, bringing guests with them. This makes heralds distinctly barred from any conflict that may arise within Chimera's Reach.

Heralds spend their days traveling between the cities with their announcements, documents, and fellow travelers, encouraging the trade and comradery that makes Chimera's Reach possible. A herald should not only be fast, but have a strong memory and good rhetoric ability.

Scribes

Scribes are considered the most intelligent cats in Chimera's Reach. They are philosophers, seeking to understand more about the world. They study the known sciences: mathematics, biology, ethics, rhetoric, aesthetics, astronomy, etc. They learn so that others can learn and thereby improve the technology and culture of Chimera's Reach. Scribes take their studies and their knowledge and try to find practical applications. They use math to better construct their world, biology to understand the nature of the food they eat, ethics to guide their laws, the list goes on. This may seem like a daunting task, but scribes record their information onto parchment and form scrolls, carefully stored and read. This allows them to specialize and reduce the stress of memorization.

The ability to read and write makes scribes the chief historians for Chimera's Reach. They record the happenings of the city for future generations to read and understand. There is always at least one scribe taking notes on important meetings and festivals. Their position as recordkeepers and historians take up the majority of their time, but when they can, they are able to utilize their knowledge to help invent many of the tools and techniques that make life in Chimera's Reach easier.

The last major role of the scribes is as quartermasters. They keep track of what is owned by the city and what is owned by individuals. This allows them to ration supplies and know just what the mediators can trade with.

Guards

Guards keep the peace within their city, monitoring for both external and internal threats alongside the soldiers. Guards do more than keep watch, however; they are responsible for implementing and upholding the laws decreed by the Council. They are highly knowledgeable in the law and investigating breaks in that law. Their daily duties are similar to those of soldiers until an issue involving city law is brought up.

Guards are trained in investigation, finding guilty parties through witness interviews, tracking, and sometimes divine assistance. Upon making an accusation, they arrest the suspect and guard them in the city jail. One guard will be an accuser, presenting the evidence of the crime. Another will defend the suspect at trial, arguing for innocence or lighter sentencing. These trials will be explored more at a later date, but they include a jury with the ruler acting as the judge.

Caretakers

Caretakers are responsible for managing the land claimed under their city’s jurisdiction. They monitor prey and predator populations, do a large share of the hunting, and manage gardens and crops. They are farmers as well as hunter-gatherers, which allows Chimera’s Reach to stay rooted in place and worry less about prey populations running dry. 

Caretakers manage the prey farms owned by each city. All three cities have mice farms as their major staple of easy meat, but across Chimera’s Reach, you can also find rabbit farms and chicken farms. These three animals are the easiest for cats to breed and raise. While herds of the great beasts of man, like cows, goats, and sheep, would be wonderful, cats are simply too small to manage them, and must rely on trade with humans in order to obtain those resources. With the recent war with Rizos, it will be some time before Chimera’s Reach is comfortable trading with mankind again.

Each city also grows its own crops and gardens, each tailored to what their land is most suited for. Greece as a whole can be tricky with agriculture, but caretakers manage rich orchards, fields of wheat and beans, and gardens of herbs, such as sage, mint, and the blessed opium poppy.

Rangers

There are no rangers left in Chimera’s Reach following the war, but the three cities have worked hard to retain knowledge of the rangers in their records, so future apprentices can restore the important profession.

Rangers are responsible for overseeing the wider lands of their city alongside the caretakers. Where caretakers focus their energy on tamed lands like the orchards and gardens, the rangers seek to maintain the natural order in the unharvested areas of their city. They monitor populations of wild prey, keep track of tree growth, note wildflowers and new herbs, and keep an eye out for intruders.

Rangers are also specially trained to hunt big game. This includes deer, elk, boars/pigs, large birds of prey, even some more dangerous predators that form a rare slice of Reach diet. Rangers work together, often with soldiers and caretakers, to track a given beast and take it down. These hunts are especially important in winter, as the rich resources from a single deer can save many lives. Rangers will sometimes prepare hunts against more tamed beasts like sheep and goats, but as these animals are usually part of a human's flock, they risk aggravating the most dangerous mortal predator they know in their hunt.

Nurses

The care of the young, the old, and the infirm can be as daunting a task as patrolling the land or tanning hides for leather. Yet Chimera’s Reach and the cats of Artema before them discovered that those who could not support themselves, who had to lean on the strength of their families, could still suffer as those families worked to support the rest of the city. Cats don’t force mollies to stay in the home like humans do; they may have their own gender expectations, but they never had such odd distinctions of purpose before Artemis’s gift, and find the whole thing rather absurd. As such, the human model of care, pressed upon the female of the home, could not work, and a solution had to be invented; the nurse.

Now, nurses are commonly mollies, largely due to their physical role of child-bearer and nurse (hence the terminology). Many mollies will often take up temporary nurse duties when they have kits so they can contribute to society while still watching over their kits. The position of a nurse is still gender neutral, however. 

Nurses look after kits in the city’s nursery while their parents work, teaching them the foundation of Reach culture and guiding them through development. When they reach apprenticeship, nurses assist in education and monitor the apprentices as a whole group, filling in the gaps their mentors couldn’t fill and helping them explore their passions. They tend to the counselors, making sure they have all they need in their old age, as their family connections pass on and their bodies fade. Lastly, nurses assist healers in caring for patients. Nurses will visit patients in their homes to check in on conditions and help them to the clinic as needed.

Soldiers

In the traditional universe of Clangen stories and the Warrior Cats fandom, these would be your typical warriors. However, as this universe is separated from both IPs in as many ways as possible, the soldiers of Chimera’s Reach are instead a well-organized force dedicated to the protection of their city and combat against all who threaten its interests. While all citizens of Chimera’s Reach are expected to defend themselves, with different positions given different levels of training, only soldiers receive the most advanced combat training, alongside unique tactical training that prepares them for all-out war.

A soldier’s daily responsibilities involve structured patrols along the borders of their land, using traditional scent markers and physical markers more akin to their developed technology, such as the occasional stone wall or travel marker. Other times, a soldier may be assigned walking patrols of the city alongside guards, just to keep the peace. They are trained to run to the defense of their fellow citizens at any moment, whether fighting a cat, a fox, a boar, a human, or some mythical beast. Soldiers form war patrols to deal with threats, stalking out with strategies and heightened combat techniques to defend and conquer. The city Council decides when war patrols are needed.

To both train themselves and entertain the city, soldiers perform in their city’s stadium as the gladiators, fighting off whatever foes will amuse their friends. Sometimes they are smaller predators the cats can capture, like rats or weasels. Other times, they fight one another in both wrestling matches and actual combat, drawing blood. Soldier apprentices rarely graduate without winning at least one gladiator match.

Apprentices

A litter of kits picks up an apprenticeship when they are half a year old. By this time, their minds and bodies are grown enough to handle the stress of training (although kits will often get lessons on skills they can perform in the city itself, encouraging their interests). They choose a field of interest and participate in an important religious ceremony to mark their acceptance into the three oikoi (“houses”/families) inherent to Greek feline culture. These are, in order of importance; the blood oikos, marking family members whom an individual draws resources, strength, and support from; the trade oikos, the other members of an occupation who share sleeping quarters and responsibilities; and the oikos of the city, the shared sense of community and power belonging to all citizens.

An apprentice is neither kit nor adult, but something transitional, dedicated to learning and growth. They move into the quarters of their occupation and take up training under their entire trade oikos. The senior member of the occupation acts as the key guiding figure and guardian for the apprentices of said occupation, but all members assist in the apprentice’s education as part of their familial culture.

Counselors

A citizen is allowed to retire from their responsibilities at the age of ten years. At this point, they become a counselor and live among their fellow seniors, although many will sleep alongside their kin in whatever quarters they wish. Counselors are to be respected and cared for, honored for the work they put in to their city.

All counselors are given a position on their city’s Council. They make up the bulk of it, but still treat the ruler and heir as their leaders. Counselors use their vast knowledge to advise on laws, orders, and diplomacy. These are not the only cats who make up the Council, however.

As said earlier, the ruler’s family is a permanent fixture of the Council, but there are other traditions followed with less consistency. The city priest and their apprentice are usually part of the Council, but if there is no religious importance to the discussion or any wisdom from the gods, they will often sit a session out. The senior most citizen of a given profession is also a common fixture of the Council, although they must be six years old at minimum. Some rulers bend that rule, while others hold it tight. After that, a Council position is given out by the ruler as they wish, and those positions can be taken away just as easily. A counselor’s right to advise is protected by law, however.

[femnoah]

Hear me out, give Neha a really angsty background and when she gets herself voted off as ‘Noah’ on Total Drama and reveals herself and background to Chris and Chef when she becomes an intern, they straight up adopt her. How would this change season 3? Would she go on as ‘Noah’, Neha, or would she not participate at all? And if she does participate, would she reveal and stay on the plane to help with challenges and all that, or would she have to jump out of the plane?

Bonus: If alenoah is added, how would Alejandro (and the rest of the group) react to Neha’s relation to Chris?

Ejjdjsksbsusj I'm gonna have to split this into multiple parts

Part 1. Part 2

This kind of reminds me of this one fic I've currently been written snippets for, so it's kind of a work in progress. It came to my mind because usually people write Alejandro having the angsty backstory and Noah having a happy home life so I was like, why don't I just switch it? The fic is basically- she and Courtney figure out that they both have pretty similar home life situations and decide to just f*** it and troll everyone else for the rest of the competition and do what they want to do for a change before they're forced to go back to their normal lives.

So I'm just going to borrow her backstory for that cause I feel it's angsty enough and add in what you suggested because that sounds like it could be pretty funny and wholesome in a really weird way.

Neha's parents are both doctors, her mother is an orthopaedic surgeon and her father is a cardiologist. She rarely sees her mother since she's constantly working or is just out.

Her youngest older brother is 10 years older than her so she really doesn't talk to them much either. Unless they come round for family dinner which is rare.

All of her brothers are prodigies and her father is pretty entitled over it and a misogynist in general. He loves all of his perfect sons equally.

So when she outsmarted them at a young age- her amazing brothers and incredible parents- he was not happy. Especially since he sees her as a genetic mistake for being born a girl which is you know... Great. She's constantly referred to as Neha number nine. Or even just nine since it's 'close enough'.

She also got the whole overachiever deal, doing an instrument, a sport, tons of clubs and obviously the vocal lessons just to try and impress her parents

So when she figured out that she can copy people's voices (at 8) and sound like a male, she immediately went to her dad hoping he would finally be proud and the next thing she knows, she's using the male one more and her actual one less

Then things just got worse

Her hair was constantly cut short for 'easier management'

She was only given her brother's hand me downs to 'save money'

When puberty hit she had to bind her chest so 'people wouldn't stare at her deformities, she wouldn't want people thinking there's something wrong with the family would she?'

She had to take the pill everyday after her first period to 'make life easier for everyone involved since no one wants to deal with messy hormones'

She was told she could either be a silly little girl or an actual member of the Devi family.

Her parents wanted one of the kids to follow their path down medicine and it was originally Vikram but he switched over to biomedical engineering which left it up to Neha to fulfil it as the only one left. So, she gave up on her dreams on being a television host and focused on that

She graduated early and managed to claw her way into early acceptance into uni for the medical course hoping that she could finally prove herself. She had to sacrifice everything, not having time to do anything other than study

Eventually she realised that nothing she does will ever change anything so she just gave up trying, became more bitter. Just going through the motions of life. The only thing that she cared about was the golden retriever puppy her mother bought since she heard it helps with the image of a perfect family. Except, Neha was the only one around to actually look after it so it's really her dog.

Every aspect of her life is controlled.

Everything. Even her love life.

Her father wanted to maintain connections with one of his friends. So she was set up early on playdates with an older self-entitled idiotic party-obssessed pretty boy who literally only sees the whole marriage thing as having a future roommate to take care of all the boring things while he has fun. So she kind of projects her hatred of him and her life on the other contestants at first. Especially Justin and Lindsay.

Even going on total drama wasn't without some kind of clause- she had to go on as Noah so she wouldn't disgrace the family name and the only reason she was even allowed to participate was because it's not legal to work as a doctor under the age of 18

When she's on total drama and finds out about the accommodation thing, she immediately gets herself eliminated. Why would she pass up the chance to just relax for once, have her every need catered for?

Then she gets forced to work for Chris because of the elimination clause...

[barkly-523]

About Dutch van der Linde

Hello tumblr rdr space! I do not go here, but I post on tiktok sometimes and have a dear buddy of mine who ive been talking to about some posts on here!

I will post a proper introduction at a later date, but for now I would like to put my own two cents in on some stuff ive been seeing recently, about Dutch.

Dutch is an incredibly COMPLEX character, and I feel that some people really horrifically miss that point sometimes. whether it be "Oh, he bonked his head!" or "Oh, this man is a monster!" both points are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but I believe they greatly miss the overarching theme of his character and who he is, and was, as a person. To merely dismiss all of his actions by saying "oh, hes just a monster, abuser, groomer, thats why hes the way that he is" shows nothing above a surface level understanding of his character, nor the characters of the people around him and those who choose to work with him. These characters were designed to have depth, to be studied, and understood on a deeper level. Why take such a basic explanation? I am not here to say Dutch is not without flaws (because he has alot of those), but I AM here to say that calling dutch a "groomer" or some sort of "cult leader, master manipulator" is just, factually incorrect.

Firstly, with the grooming point. This is an incredibly stigmatized word nowadays, so its crazy to use in general here, but by no means were people "groomed" into being outlaws. These people had flaws of their own, took bad paths, and ended up crossing paths with Dutch. Why did they cross paths with him? Well, I went through every "how they joined the gang" story I could find, and its about a 50/50 split between they tried to rob or kill dutch, Or that they were on the run and dutch gave them a safe place to stay, with some exceptions. The odds of these people bumping into someone far worse, in all cases, are exceptional. Most of the gang were in bad places when dutch found them, and they were getting desperate. Its incredibly possible they wouldve bumped into someone who wouldve killed them instead. John was saved from being hanged. Had Dutch and Hosea not been there, he wouldve died. Arthur outright says "dutch saved me, saved most of us." and although things did not turn out right at the end of the day, to believe that dutch was nothing more than a power-hungry manipulator is shown to be incorrect in the media itself. Colm exists. Hes literally right there. An antagonist who; doesnt know the names of the men in his gang, is shown to hit Kieran, who cares more for numbers than connection. Their feud goes back YEARS, and it all seems to stem from a fatal disagreement about how things were being run. When they split paths, Dutch keeps a tight knit gang of people who he considers family, Colm continues to grow his gang in numbers. At the very start of the game, dutch makes it clear that hed prefer the gang doesnt split up, that they stick together so *he can be sure everyone is okay.* He shows sympathy for Sadies situation, and takes her in to help her. Not once is it stated shes obligated to be there, in fact, its stated that she can stay as long as she needs to, to get back on her feet. She has the final say on whether she stays in the gang or not. The reason so many people stayed in the gang until it was actively collapsing, is not because dutch was forcing them to stay. They saw him as family just as he saw them.

Its why his character arc is so interesting. Its why watching his downfall is impactful. he ISNT a bad man, he does bad things out of desperation towards the end of the game, just as other gang members did in the very beginning. Dutch had bad tendencies, but he had people there to help him stay on the right track. His beliefs were good, its why he had people who stuck with him. They believed in what he taught. He had incredibly intelligent people in his gang, I'll use Lenny and Hosea as my examples for now. Lenny was taught by his father to judge peoples character, and even if his time with the gang was short he absolutely wouldve picked up on dutchs behavior if he was hiding behind some sort of mask. and HOSEA, has been with the dude for 20 YEARS. You cannot fake something for that long, and hosea is far from stupid aswell. He is a conman by nature. If dutch was trying to con everyone, surely he wouldve noticed. Arthur still regards dutch incredibly highly for a good majority of the game. He sees the man as a mentor and is clearly deeply affected watching dutch spiral and do bad things as the game goes on. At the beginning, when told Dutch had shot a girl on the blackwater job, his first response is to say that it "doesnt sound like him". Dutch is shown to have remorse for his actions, although he chooses to rarely talk about blackwater, and avoids the subject when its brought up, he explains to hosea, with shame, that he "really messed up" in blackwater. Micah had egged dutch on (as stated by John in a camp interaction) and dutch is shown to be regretful, that job really put everything in motion, but I truly believe micahs manipulation is what changed dutch.

Micah fed into his impulsive side, and tried to reassure him when things went wrong. When Arthur was kidnapped by Colm, Micah explained that Arthur was the type to wander, and surely, theyd see him back at camp. Dutch, ONCE AGAIN, shows regret. He shouldnt have put Arthur in such a position, and knows it. Dutch has impulsive tendencies, he has paranoid thoughts. This is shown in multiple camp interactions and even stated in one of the games first journal entries about the land they were going to settle on before the ferry job. To simply blow off all the depth of his character by saying "oh, hes bad" is so,, lame? Why focus on dutch specifically to say he did all of these bad things on his own accord when micah is, right there. Dutch literally goes crawling back to him in the epilogue. Partly for revenge, since seeing arthur on the cliffside was able to briefly break him out of the funk hed been in for the last few months (albeit far too late), but also partly because I dont think he knows how to be alone. I dont think he can handle it. Hosea and Arthur had been by his side the longest, and he had to watch both of them die. Late game conversations between dutch and arthur have always been fascinating to me, and even in Guarma dutch is still set on going back to keep the gang together. Thats his family, and he cannot lose them too. He outright states he'll do whatever it takes to make sure they survive. Arthur is startled by this, as dutch has been shown to be deadly and irrational, he isnt processing things well, and cannot handle the pressure on his shoulders, and it certainly doesnt help that Micah is in his ear telling him that Arthur and John are betraying him. He clearly doesnt want to believe it, but he cannot wrap his head around hoseas death, and assumes that the only way it couldve happened was if someone ratted, completely overlooking micah.

Dutch is not a smart man, and truthfully, he should have never been in a position of power, but he is not evil. He was desperate, and he was trying to keep his family together. Although I do not agree with the "Trolley Theory" for reasons stated above, I highly doubt him bashing his head like that helped with his mental state either. Dutch is desperate. Dutch does bad things, but he is far from a bad man. He helped the people in his gang, and although the found family turned sour in the end, they mattered to him, and it mattered to the gang. Dutch, CANONICALLY, was not always "bad" either. Arthur, Dutch, and Hosea robbed a bank, took what they needed, and gave the rest to the local orphanage. Dutch scolded Arthur for robbing someone who was "too poor" and said that doing that made them just as bad as the system they were fighting against, Dutch helped Hosea get on the right track and stopped him from stealing just about anything he could get his hands on. Dutch is a man who had good ideologies, and wanted to help people in his own way, but the pressures kept adding up and it broke him. Dutch, in RDR1, is a more objectively "bad" character, But look at how they fleshed him out in rdr2. Was the cliff scene nearly as impactful before the release of rdr2? absolutely not! Playing as john, we were thrown in with a baseline knowledge of their history, and now knowing the full story makes the cliff scene quite the harrowing experience if youre able to grasp the intricacies of dutchs character, to look at him as more than "just a villain".

This turned out to be far more ranty then I wanted, but I am so tired of seeing so much mischaracterization and demonization of a character with literally days worth of content to look at and study that shows some of the points I see from people to just be blatantly wrong. Lol