#i may be a glenn guy but that goes hand in hand with also being a morgan guy

[justablah56]

I need to see more hot butch Morgan art rn . if anyone draws butch Morgan you are required to tag me btw . just so you know .

[desiderio-dixon]

Darkest Before the Dawn

Chapter 7 : I'd Rather Go Blind

Pairing : Daryl Dixon x f!reader (endgame), (unrequited) Glenn Rhee x f!reader

Series summary : When Glenn Rhee comes into your life, you become convinced he's a guardian angel sent by your late best friend. You think he's your soulmate. But then he falls for the farmer's daughter, and you find that your own angel may be a little more blatant than expected; wings and all.

Chapter summary : Leaving the CDC in the rearview mirror, the group faces further obstacles: A misunderstanding arises between the reader and Daryl, Sophia goes missing, tensions build between reader and Shane, Carl gets shot, and Glenn begins the heartbreak saga.

Chapter warnings : uhhh jealousy, heartbreak, misunderstandings, illusions to sex, shane being a creep, sophia goes missing, grief, lmk if I missed anything! <33

Word count : 2.8k

A/N : OKAY SO THIS ONE TOOK FOREVERRR I'm so sorry!! To be fair though, something super serious happened to a family member of mine so my life has just been absolute chaos the last couple weeks. BUT TRUST ME THAT I DIDNT ABANDON THIS FIC!!! Love u guys! (also there may or may not be a Dean spicy fic on the way to all those who voted yes to that poll I made hehe)

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The next morning, you woke to a knock on your door. Groggy and hungover, you wrapped your naked body in blankets and stumbled to the door. You opened it to find Glenn, his head hung low and eyes sunken. He was equally, perhaps more, hungover. He made no effort to greet you, just groaned at you and pushed past into your room. He flopped himself down on your bed, face in the pillows. You sighed, leaving the door open and moving to sit on the bed, still only in a puddle of blankets.

"My head is gonna explode." Glenn cries out. You hum tiredly. Outside of the room you can hear everyone waking, wandering out of their rooms. Part of you wants to kick Glenn out and fall back into sleep. But you don't. You two sit quietly for a few minutes, you're certain Glenn has fallen asleep.

And then, there's a crinkle in your doorway. You look over, surprised to see Daryl. He stands, fully dressed and ready for the day, with a waterbottle clutched in his hand. He'd brought it for you, you knew that somehow. But you watched his gaze rake over your bare shoulders, and the onto the figure laid in your bed. He doesn't say anything, and neither do you. For some reason you feel like you've been caught doing something you shouldn't. He crouches down, setting the waterbottle in your doorway. And then he's turning, leaving.

The CDC is a blur after that. A blur of confusion, panic, anger. Screams and explosions. And an overwhelming loss. Jacqui died, Jenner and the sanctuary you thought you'd found went with her.

You'd never seen something explode like that. What was once there, simply wasn't anymore. No longer an impressive and futuristic building, but a mess of fire and ash. It shook everything. The ground, the air, even your insides felt like they were vibrating within you.

You weren't even sure whose car you'd piled into, simply just eager for cover, but you'd realized too late that it was Daryl's truck, and this was going to be an awkward ride. Though, neither of you said a word. Not about the drunken conversation you'd shared, or him seemingly finding you and Glenn in bed together. There's an air of shock that only silence seems appropriate for. Still, when the caravan stops due to the RV hose again, you break it. Digging into your back pocket, you produce the crumpled pack of cigarettes. "Here, I, uh, found them. Figured you'd like them." Daryl grunts, slapping his hand over yours to grab the pack. Nothing else is said, so you both climb out.

The traffic build up seems to go on forever, cars for as long as you can see. Everyone drifts off into groups to scavenge through the cars. You end up by yourself, sorting through a mini van. The sight of the empty toddler car seat brings a sense of dread washing over your body. You try to shake it off. Surely there's a chance the baby lived, just moved on to another place.

You find a box on the floor, overflowing with clothes. Winter will come quicker than you think, so you begin to rifle through, looking for anything thick and comfortable. Instead, you find a pretty dress. A sundress, with wildflowers printed all over and a dipped neckline. You're not sure that it's something you'd have worn before, but something calls you to it. It's exactly your size. Something tells you to take it, even if it's not exactly practical. So you shove it into your bag.

Then you hear Glenn's laugh, an excited and relieved laugh. You decide you need a little joy in your life, so you seek him out. There, you find him and Shane, drenching themselves with water off a truck. "You guys not gonna share?" You tease. Glenn ushers you forward to stand under a spout, then he releases the cap. You squeal at the sensation, water soaking through your clothes. Your eyes are closed, enjoying the cooling sensation when a hand wraps around your wrist, yanking you to the floor.

You smell them first, the horde of dead stumbling through the traffic jam. You roll under the truck with Glenn and Shane, making panicked eye contact with each of them back and forth. Then you hear them, groaning and shuffling. And finally, you see their feet as they move past. Most of their shoes are muddied and falling apart, ankle skin falling off the bone like good barbecue. When it's finally passed, your heart shatters.

Where you expected silence, you found the cries of a distressed mother. Carol, screaming after Sophia. You crawl out just in time to watch Rick run after her, Lori holding a sobbing Carol.

You want to pull her into a hug, hold her sorrow in your hands to take it off her shoulders. But you're soaking wet, and you're sure she doesn't need a cold on top of everything. You settle instead for a hand on her shoulder, telling her a gentle, "Rick will bring her back." You're not sure you believe it. You have faith in Rick, though you're not sure about Sophia. She's a smart girl, sweet like sugar, and you adore her. It's just that a scared adult is unpredictable, let alone a scared child. Still, you want to hope.

It's only a few minutes, maybe ten. Rick emerges from the forest and you wait with bated breath for Sophia to trail after him--but she doesn't. Carol's sob sends a lightning bolt right through your heart.

Rick gathers a few people up to go look for her: Glenn, Shane and Daryl. While they gather up their things, you stand with Glenn. You feel eyes on you, heavy in their gaze. Turning, you find who'd been staring at you. Shane. He meets your eyes, and something about it turns your stomach. His eyes are dark, and he doesn't look away. You break the eye contact yourself, looking to your shoes.

"You okay?" Glenn asks. You hum, nodding your head. But truthfully, you can't shake the feeling of unease that has washed over you.

Then, just as everyone is geared up to leave, Daryl trots up to you. He tosses something at you. You catch it, unfolding it to reveal a flannel shirt. "Cover up a bit, huh?" He says, looking at you before his eyes flick to Shane. For a moment, you're confused. Then, you look down to your shirt--your soaked, white shirt that has now turned see-through. Your ears burn with a sudden rush of blood, and you hurry to throw on the flannel he gave you. It has the sleeves cut off, because of course it does. It looks ridiculous on you, you're sure, but it works well enough.

You stand, dumbfounded for a bit while the group pushes forward. Another one of Carol's sobs throws you out of your daze.

She stands, hands covering her mouth as sobs pour openly out of it, leaning against Lori. Lori has tears of her own streaming her cheeks, but she stares coldly ahead at the treeline her husband disappeared into. Although the sight of them squeezes your chest, it's the sight behind them that hammers the final nail into your heart.

Carl, a few feet behind his mother, looking sorrowful with tears of his own silently falling, but a determination in his eyes unlike any you'd seen. You walk to him, grazing your hand over Carol's arm gently as you pass. When you reach Carl, you pull him into a hug. His arms wrap weakly around you as you crouch, and he lets out a sob into your chest. "They'll find her. And if they don't--me and you will." You whisper to him, squeezing him tight.

It's not long before Shane and Glenn return. Glenn looks solemn, which quickly gives away that their leads aren't solid. Shane barks orders immediately upon return to search and move cars. You rifle through more cars, coming up mostly empty time after time. After an hour, you produced three items. A leather jacket, thick; good for winter and to stop bites. A box of granola bars, unfortunately your least favorite flavor. And an unopened limited edition Barbie.

The Barbie came from a car with no sign of children, and given how old it is, you assume it's someone's antique. You feel better taking it, given you don't think you're stealing from a dead child. It'll be nice for Sophia, you think. It's the exact thing you'd have loved as a girl. Big, poofy white dress with black polka dots and heaps of frill. A classic red lip and a pair of cute little heels. She's absolutely fabulous. You tuck her carefully into your bag, making sure to not dent the box.

As you weave through the cars to find your next hidden treasure, you spy Lori and Shane. The tension is thick in the air as they whisper-yell back and forth to each other. It's not hard to piece together the contents, despite you not being able to hear them. Surely it's about what once was between them, and what never can be now with Rick's return. Still, the sight sends bolts of unease through your spine. Especially with the way Shane slams his fist against a cars hood, fire burning behind his dark eyes.

You enter some beat down sedan, crawling into the drivers seat and letting your head drop down to the steering wheel. 'Please let Rick and Daryl come back safe with Sophia.' You think to yourself. You're beyond anxious, chest feeling as though a pile of rocks sit in your lungs. Moving on from this stupid highway with your group intact would be the greatest gift.

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It's almost dark now, though the humidity still weighs down the air, thick and heavy. A thin sheen of sweat collects over your skin as you sit and wait. "Oh, God. They're back." Glenn says. Your heart leaps to your throat. Rick comes first, then Daryl, then... Nothing. No Sophia. Just as quick as your heart rose, it sank to your feet like an anvil.

"You didn't find her?" Carol squeaks, sounding small like a scared child.

Rick shakes his head, guilt written in the way his lips draw tight and his eyes drop to the floor. "Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." You knew they didn't find her, but even so, the confirmation feels like a hammer bashing into your heart.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol cries desperately.

Daryl glances to you, then the floor. Shaking his head, he responds. "Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost." You know he's right. He's smart with these things, a natural. But you also know hearing this hurts Carol. Truthfully, it hurts you too. A part of you wants to stray from the group right now, tear the forrest apart until your hands are bloodied to find Sophia and bring her home to her mother.

But Daryl's right--so you stay.

The next morning is early, sun barely up. Dew slides over the morning grass, tickling your ankles as you all trudge through the forest. The air is damp and crickets chirp around you. It reminds you of early wakings during your school days as a child. Up before the sun so you could drown your stomach with sugary cereal before the bus called your name. It's nostalgic in such a bitter way. Sophia will never get that again, whether you find her or not.

The only two that hadn't come on the search were Dale and T-dog. Dale, to fix up the RV, and T-dog to rest. He'd landed himself a nasty gash on his arm during the herds passing. You're thankful Daryl was there.

Everyone else in the group, even including little Carl were gathered around you. Daryl, Shane, and Rick mainly led the charge-- but everyone was equal in effort of looking for signs. You'd lost count already how many times you'd crouched to inspect the dirt, trying your hardest to search for small shoeprints.

The search had been null, up until you found a campsite. Carol had called out, and you all held your breath in anticipation. When nothing came, Daryl investigated. Nothing but a man who'd been dead for a long while.

Now, you stare at Daryl. He's disappointed, maybe even frustrated. You guess he must feel pressure, feel that it's on him to do the tracking and finding. Your feet seem to move on their own, stalking towards him on shaky feet. He doesn't notice you coming, doesn't look up from his boots. But still, you reach a hand out, just mere moments away from touching his bare bicep--until the bells ring.

You freeze, catching Daryl's eyes immediately as he shoots up. And then, as if reality had snapped back into motion, you all run.

The church is a grim scene, the pews loaded with rotting corpses, staring lifelessly at the cross. When you swing the doors, they groan, turning and shuffling loudly across the wooden floors. The smell is overpowering. The air is thick with rot, moist and sickening.

It's fitting. Fitting to the soulless feeling of tearing through walker after walker, only to at the end be met with nothing but a pile of corpses; no Sophia in sight. Carol prays in front of the statue of Jesus, and you can't judge her for turning to faith in a time like this, but something about it turns your stomach.

How could a God allow a mother to be without her child? Suddenly, the air in the church feels like it's no longer air at all. You feel suffocated. You rush out, hand covering your mouth as a nauseous feeling rises. Falling to your knees in the grass, you huff breath after breath of fresh air. When will the constant loss end?

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It's only a couple hours later when you're trudging through the forest, chatting with Glenn absentmindedly as Daryl leads your group back to the highway. And then, like a flash of lightning, a woman appears. The heavy thudding of her horse's hooves matches the rapid beating of your heart, and then she's yelling. Yelling that Carl has been shot. Then, you feel as if your heart stops at the same time the horse skids to a halt. He's stable, she says, but it's still a weight you're not sure you can handle.

You want to cry, to collapse, to give up. You want to curl into someone and share in your sorrow. When you turn to Glenn, your stomach swirls in sickness at his expression. Well, perhaps not the expression alone, but that the expression isn't being sent to you.

There, frozen in place, he stands. Awestruck eyes gazing up at the woman on the horse, jaw open. Your eyes fly between the two of them, time moving in slow motion. You can't even blame him. She's beautiful. Big, green eyes wide in urgency, tan skin slick with sweat, shining in the sunlight.

You can't blame him--but it hurts so bad.

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⤿Taglist (Open)

@celtic-crossbow @scudslut @itwasntaphasema @ryoujoking @i-wear-wet-socks313 @daryldixmedown @duffmckagansbandana @secretsicanthideanymore

[smollbean42905]

Carl<3

Maggie Rhee moves her head a bit and sees Aphrodite with a small blush on her face with the majority of her face stuffed into the soft fabric of the flannel,

"You should eat sweetie" Aphrodite perks up from the mention of food and she slowly brings her head up and turns it to Maggie, making the adults in the room laugh softly,

"Food?" Maggie nods with a smile and points to the bowl of pasta that was slowly growing cold. Dite reaches and winces a bit, she grabs the bowl and curls up with it and pauses

"Have you guys eaten?"

"Glenn has, I was feeding him, I haven't yet and I have no clue about Rick" Dite looks at Rick and holds out her bowl to her future father-in-law. Rick holds up his hand

"I'll eat when I get back to my house" Dite nods and pulls the bowl into her chest and starts to eat, she takes a bite and smiles a bit enjoying the familiar taste of pasta. She eats happily whole the adults talk and finishes quickly. She stands, letting Glenn shake out his arm that fell asleep a while ago, and goes into the kitchen after picking up Glenn's empty bowl as well. She waddles into the kitchen due to the sore feeling in her southern regions, making the group smile at her, and she washes the used dishes. She lets them dry next to the sink and goes back to the group. She sits beside Glenn and goes back to the cuddle sesh and begins to think, her thoughts are filled with Carl. What does he look like, what does he like, what does he do in his free time. She decides to ask when the group stops talking. The second there's a silence Aphrodite ends it,

"What is he like?" Rick looks at her and smiles,

"Carl is brave, strong, intelligent. He loves comic books" he pauses to think and notices that Dite looks confused,

"What are comic books?"

"Oh he'll teach you, don't worry" Rick continues

"Carl is... He is a leader, he loves strongly and cares to much for his own good." Dite nods and smiles at the thought of being loved,

"I can tell he will love you. You two are similar yet different. But he used to talk my ear off about what you would be like and what you would look like. He once told me he had a dream about you" Dite looks surprised, she's dreamed of him as well,

"He described to me what you looked like. He said she would have black hair and the prettiest grey blue eyes. He described you Aphrodite, Carl described you in perfect detail. Of course he was 12 at the time but he loved you from the second he knew that he had a soulmate." Dite starts to stroke her mark, sending Carl pleasure filled shivers. She keeps doing it as Rick continues,

"He would come running to me every time you would do that, he always looked so excited about it. I still see him smile then rub his mark Everytime you do it. If you don't do it for a while he gets antsy and angry. Then when you do he calms down immediately. We call you his soft spot" Dite looks down at her mark,

"Also" hearing Rick's voice suddenly become serious making her head go back up.

"He lost an eye similar to you." Aphrodite nods

"That's fine, at least I won't get judged by him now, also" she pauses,

"Can you tell him about me soon?"

"I'll tell him when I get back" Rick promises the girl which she nods at.

"Speaking of, I should get back now. It's almost dark" the trio look outside to see the sun setting. Aphrodite moves her head to try and see the sunset, it was her favorite to watch. Rick stands with a small groan and straightens up,

"I'll come back tomorrow around noon, Carl may be with me, he may not be. But until then, rest up" Rick nods at everyone and leaves closing the door behind him.

Aphrodite Hart was brought up to her new bedroom, it was right next to Glenn and Maggie's, and was so homey. All the furniture was white, Glenn helps her sit and she flops back to be laying on the bed. She hasn't been on a bed in so long, since she mostly sleeping in trees. Maggie and Glenn laugh softly at the sight,

"We're off to bed, we'll see you in the morning Bear. If you need anything please let us know" Dite nods at the two and sits up watching the couple leave. She sighs happily and looks at her bed seeing her teddy bear. It was cleaner then before, she reached out and picked it up. She hugs it for a moment before slipping under the covers deciding to grab her bag and change tomorrow. She slips under the covers and curls up, even though she slept for a while she's still tired. She grips her teddy tightly and falls asleep slowly with the thoughts of Carl, she imagines him as taller then her with chocolate brown hair and beautiful blue eyes.

Carl Grimes laid in his bed wide awake, it was always hard for him to fall asleep, he sighed heavily and moves his head to look out the window. The stars began to show with the moon raised high into the sky. He thought back to his conversation with his father earlier. Michonne called him down for dinner, simple pasta, and the two were sat at the table eating silently. Carl had his sheriff's hat off and it was safe in his room, the silence comes to an end once the main door opens. It was Rick he greets everyone and ruffles Carl's hair slightly. He gets himself a bowl and smiles into the bowl earning confused looks from the two.

"What is that look for? Did you fall in love with the pasta?" Rick laughs softly

"Nope, just a thought"

"What was the thought?" Michonne asks her lover,

"Carl I have something to tell you" Rick sits at the front of the table to look at his family. Carl looks at him with his single eye a bit confused,

"We found her"

"Her?" Michonne looks at Carl happily and stays quiet as the boy questions his father. Rick points to Carl's wrist making his eye widen.

"Her?"

"Her name is Aphrodite Hart. She is Glenn's niece and exactly how you described her when you were 12, that's also where your flannel went" Carl starts to smile a lot, a smile Rick hasn't seen in a while and one Michonne has never seen.

"How did you find her?"

"I was on my run with Daryl, I heard humming then it all stopped. I went to find the noise and found her passed out against a tree and injured. What happened to her, she'll tell you on her own time, but just be careful with her." Carl nods

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I wanted her to have some time with Glenn first and to get situated in her new home." Carl nods and leans back in his seat with a smile

"When can I meet her?"

"I'm going over there again tomorrow, then if you'd like. I already warned them that you may be with me" Carl stands quickly, his half finished food forgotten. He begins to ramble,

"When are we leaving? I have to shower. What about my eye?" He continues to ramble until Rick stops him,

"We're leaving around noon. She won't care about your eye, and you will see once we get there. Just relax tonight and tomorrow you can freak out" Carl nods and slowly sits back down as silence overcomes everyone once more.

[ceciliasthings]

• Memories in difficult times •

• I wanted to do something if Y/N had a son with Eugene in this fanfic Y/N's last name is Horvath I hope you guys like it :3

One afternoon at the Hilltop you were resting after a long clear day you didn't do any physical exertion,Also because Eugene wouldn't let you carry any weight, he always said "The books say that pregnant women can't do much effort and that any kind of movement or very strong effort can affect the baby" Looking ahead you see Eugene reading more of the pregnancy books you have no idea where he found so many books,Everything was normal until you feel a strong contraction, at that moment a cold wave goes up your spine, a huge pain settles in your abdomen making you fall out of your chair.Eugene, who heard the sound of you falling, ran towards you, holding you, preventing you from falling to the ground, you saw a transparent liquid run between your legs.you knew the moment you were going into labor.

- Eugene! We need to go to the sidqui now!!

Those words came to Eugene like a waking slap across the face, and in a moment, he took you in his arms bridal style and carried you to the sidqui medical wing.Upon arriving there sidqui quickly asks to put you on the stretcher.

- How is Eugene contractions?- sidqui asks as he sanitizes his hands

- Every five minutes but I think it's going to three- Eugene pulls out a chair to sit next On your side.

Rosita soon shows up at the door with hot water and some blankets, you didn't know how she knew but she was there to help sidqui,You feel more massive contraction in your abdomen which makes you scream,Sidqui examines you he realizes that the birth process will not be so smooth.

- She is not dilating I will have to do a cesarean, Rosita call Enid and Eugene you have to leave the room for now..

-I'm sorry but I can't leave my loved one in this critical situation...- he squeezes yours tighter as he looks affectionately at you

- Eugene as it's a cesarean can't have many people in the room, for Y/N's own sake you need to leave..

Eugene looks at you once more you realize he's very worried, he takes a strand of hair from your face and puts it behind your ear, he kisses you on your forehead.

-i'll be across the room please be strong...for me and our baby..i love you

You smile at him and see him leaving and giving you one more look before closing the door, because of the pain you weren't able to talk, Enid soon entered the room and sidqui had to cut her belly, during the pains the screams you lost consciousness for a few moments.during this a memory came to your mind.

-Y/N Y/N!! Are you listening to me?- Abraham sits next to you while the two of you are watching the sunset from the porch.

- Oh sorry Abraham I was thinking of something..- You take a sip of your beer

- May I know what is making you so thoughtful?Let me guess Eugene?- He gives a sarcastic laugh

-Very funny, actually I was thinking about Glenn Maggie... Damn they're really going to have a baby in this world where fighting to live is as normal as the sunset...- You lower your head looking at the beer bottle analyzing glass container.

- I know it sounds confusing now..but honestly even I'm thinking about having kids with Sasha...

It surprised you you knew he'd been a father before this world turned to catastrophe, but he's never talked about it before,He looked at your face and saw that you were going to say something about the past.

- I know what you're thinking, but I've been talking to Sasha and I really want to be a dad again..I miss having kids playing in the house or them being a pain in the ass..-he lets out a light laugh as he takes another sip of his homemade beer

-I'll warn you, I'm not going to take care of any children, I imagine Abraham's puppies hahaha

- you would love them I know, actually you would be their godmother and Eugene could be godparents I've seen you with children.. you never thought about that ?

You really never stopped to think about it, the world was too chaotic to think about having children, of course you and Eugene had sex (A lot by the way) but you always took precautions,But you definitely didn't want to have kids at that point but you didn't know about Eugene.

- I don't think about having children not now, at least, did Eugene tell you something?

Abraham stared at you for a few until he opened his mouth.

- one night we were drinking while on patrol, he told me he wanted to have a baby with you... he told me about his childhood and that he wanted to be the best father and husband..

- Do you think he said that because he was drunk? He never mentioned this to me..- At that moment you start to look at the stars that were appearing in the newly dark sky.

-Well I don't know but it would be interesting to see our children growing up together, and especially a son of Eugene hahaha the boy or girl would need a protector- He puts his hand on your shoulder while laughing, you also laugh imagining a little boy or girl being protected by an angry red haired child.

- It would be really fun, you know, I think we're going to have more peaceful years now..-You rest your head on Abraham's shoulder and he hugs you-You are my best friend Abraham, I'm glad to be your friend..

-me too y/n that's why you need to be strong... and wake up..-he looks at you with a comforting look as if he is saying goodbye.

before you can say what the image of Abraham in front of you starts to blur, you see a flash and hear someone call your name the voice is familiar,You open your eyes and see your lover's eyes looking at you he was holding your hand, he had a worried look on his face you quickly remember what is going on and get up abruptly.

-Where's the baby?! He is fine ?! What happened?

- Y/n calm down everything.. is fine, you need to rest now, you ended up passing out in the c-section but everything went well thank God-He lays you down while covering you with some blankets.

Sidqui soon enters the room with a baby wrapped in a blue blanket, you were so happy you couldn't hold back your tears, Eugene was also thrilled He couldn't even believe you had his baby.

- Congratulations he is a beautiful healthy little boy- Sidqui says this as he delivers the baby to your arms-do you already have a name in mind?

You look at the baby and you see he has Eugene's beautiful blue eyes, when you looked at the baby he laughed like he already knew you,Before you can say anything Eugene interrupts you:

- I didn't expect it to be a boy, my calculations were that it was a girl I even thought of the names, Cecilia, Therese or Lux..-he looks at you and the baby and realizes that you already have a name in mind.- Y/N do you have a name?

You smile at him as you stroke the baby's head that was leaning against your chest.

- Abraham Horvath Porter..- did you see that tears welled up on eugene's face when you said that name you knew that Abraham was special to you both and that you wanted him to be there.

- I miss him.. I think he would like this tribute, let's call him Abraham so doesn't get too confused with two surnames..- he gives a crooked smile as he holds the hand of the baby who was peacefully resting.

- haha you always know how to make me laugh, welcome to the world Abraham.. you will hear many stories about your godfather..

You see the baby give a slight smile while sleeping, really Abraham would have liked to have seen that...

Notes: i think this is my first baby fanfic i write lol, I swear I'm ending this with tears in my eyes 😄I hope you guys liked it

[itsclydebitches]

I’ve been seeing an uptick in “anti-RWDE” posts lately  — which is a phenomenon I’d like to comment on at a later date  — but for now one of them (quite unintentionally) made me realize something about the finale that I haven’t seen others discuss yet. 

So RWBYJNOR saves everyone, right? Let’s just put aside the animation for a moment  — which didn’t show any army members making it out  — as well as the forgotten side characters  — Maria, Pietro, Qrow’s group isn’t forgotten, but still left behind  — and take things on good faith here. We’ll read the finale through the thematic intention: RWBYJNOR saved “everyone” in the Kingdom of Atlas in Volume 8, deliberately contrasting them with Ironwood who was willing to sacrifice a chunk of the Kingdom in Volume 7. Forget all the messiness and just accept that regardless of the consequences  — like a destroyed Kingdom and a “dead” team  — the heroes are heroic because they didn’t give into a “lesser evil” thinking and managed to save everyone. 

Now, how was that possible? 

Let’s go back to the beginning of the seventh episode of Volume 8, “War.” Salem’s grimm have just burrowed through Atlas’ defenses and taken them out. The shields are gone. She flies Monstra into the fields and releases an army of darkness that immediately heads for the city. What’s the very first thing Ironwood does? 

Soldier: Yes, sir?

Ironwood: I am evacuating all citizens to the subway. Prepare Manta Squad Omega, and dispatch to every part of Atlas.

Soldier: But sir-

Ironwood: Now!

He evacuates the people, with “the people” meaning all the Atlesians and however many Mantle folk got to the city prior to Salem’s arrival. When this episode aired I mentioned being confused as to why the soldier was so hesitant. Why wouldn’t you want the people to get to safety when a grimm army is heading their way? Fans against Ironwood took the soldier’s side, claiming that Mountain Glenn proved that any underground evacuation is a death sentence and thus he obviously doesn’t really care about the peoples’ safety. Fans in support of/neutral towards Ironwood pointed out that this is a pretty big leap, no one is coming up with a better idea for what he should do instead, and that within these circumstances it reads like the soldiers is illogically against this idea simply because everyone is against Ironwood now. The show wants characters criticizing his decisions and making him out to look like a crazed dictator... even during moments when it doesn’t make any sense to be upset with him. Shooting the councilman yes, trying to keep the people safe no. Basically, this small exchange was a mess, but the rest of the volume proved that this was a sound call. The subway never collapsed and no grimm ever made it to that enclosed space to pick the civilians off like fish in an underground barrel. 

So, why didn’t that happen? Well, one answer is because Oscar and Ozpin destroyed the whale. But how did they have time to do that? Without the people dying while they were being tortured, talking to Hazel, escaping with Emerald, fighting Salem, etc.? A lot happened between Salem starting her attack and Oscar ending it, so why wasn’t 2/3rds of the Kingdom’s population decimated during that time? 

Because Ironwood sent his army out to keep the grimm occupied. 

Outside of Ironwood’s cartoon villain actions  — random murders and bomb threats  — which get the most attention due to how deliberately, over-the-top horrific they are, these are the two actions that get the most negative attention from both the story and the fanbase. The soldier seems horrified by the order to evacuate. Marrow is devastated that young adults are fighting in this battle. The fandom is disgusted by both aspects of Ironwood’s character: giving orders that, as general, he expects to be obeyed and having an army that follows those orders. Putting side that cartoon villainy, this is what supposedly makes Ironwood the antagonist here. These are the qualities that have existed since Volume 2, resulting in a “he was always a bad guy” interpretation. These are the qualities that have resulted in anyone who likes his character being labeled as a “bootlicker.” We know these qualities make the fandom hate him because otherwise, more people would be confused as to why a presumably heroic character randomly shot Oscar. Orders, armies, and general military associations are at the heart of Ironwood’s presumed villainy. 

So let’s remove them. 

Ironwood has no evil army. Ironwood gives no evil orders. Power and control lies solely in the hands of our non-military heroes. Everything is better! 

...well, no. Because we saw in Volume 8 precisely the choices our heroes made when the attack started: half of them focused on saving a single individual (Oscar) and the other half kept to the sidelines. At no point did our RWB group act after sending the message and prior to securing the Staff. AKA, during the attack of Salem’s army. We got a very explicit moment in which Ruby looked out the window at the battle going on and turned away from it, continuing to discuss ethics instead of joining the fight. The people of Atlas (which, again, includes many Mantle citizens) had no one but Ironwood and his army because a third of the group was trying to rescue Oscar (they never even had a plan to blow up Monstra — that was also Ironwood), a third of the group was up in Amity, and a third was sitting in the mansion. They did nothing to help the people of Atlas being attacked by grimm. 

Thus, if you remove Ironwood’s actions, everything goes to hell. There is no longer an order to evacuate to the subway. Maybe some people go there anyway. Most probably don’t. They run in a panic wherever they can. Hide wherever they can. Go back home for some semblance of safety. 

There’s no longer an army. Either it doesn’t exist because we’ve determined it’s simplistically bad despite RWBY’s grimm-specific context, or Ironwood likewise never gives the order to protect Atlas’ border. Salem’s army moves unimpeded through the city, killing countless people as it goes. How do we know? Because they’re civilians who can’t defend themselves and there’s literally no one else to help. Remember: Ironwood is not giving orders, there is no army, RWB is in the mansion, YJOR is in the whale, Penny is out of commission, the Happy Huntresses are in Mantle. Those in Atlas are entirely alone. In time, Oscar destroys the whale, but by then it’s too late. There’s no concrete way to theorize how many have died, but it’s inevitably a lot. Everyone else is scatted across the city, trying to survive. 

So this scene 

no longer exists. 

When the group gets the Staff and creates portals for “everyone” to escape through, Mantle is ready to go. They’ve gotten everyone into the crater and can funnel them straight to Vacuo. Atlas, however, is in chaos. When Jaune enters the subway there’s only a few people there, many of which may be wounded or dying. He’s right back where he started, in Mantle at the beginning of Volume 8: needing to go door-to-door to find where people have hidden themselves, trying to convince them all to follow him (remember Oscar commenting to Ozpin about how difficult that was?). Except now, he and Nora are the only ones trying to get people to safey, the city is filled with far more grimm, a significant amount of time has passed for people to be killed or injured (making evacuating them even harder, both due to injuries and an unwillingness to leave hurt/dead/missing loved ones behind), he’s trying to convince these panicking people to go through magic portals, not just walk to a crater, and he’s aware that there’s a very short time limit for this task. 

Jaune returns in a panic of his own, explaining how difficult it will be to get that 2/3rds of the Kingdom to Vacuo. How many are already dead. Barricaded. Missing. Closeup on Ruby looking horrified, but then she rallies. They can do it. Atlas is falling, but residual dust gives them just enough time to find, calm, and evacuate those people. They’re heroes after all. Beating the odds is what they do. 

Then Cinder attacks. 

Suddenly, the group can’t evacuate people because they’re trying to keep themselves safe from her. Maybe Cinder gets the powers because Jaune was off looking for civilians, leaving Penny without a mercy kill. Maybe Nora dies because she’s still trying to help people on the city that plows into the one below. Regardless of how details might change, they’re not getting a spread out, decimated population through those portals before Cinder changes the wish and makes them disappear.  

In this version, the story starts with Ironwood wanting to sacrifice 1/3rd of the population to save 2/3rds and the future of the war. It ends with 2/3rds of the population dying instead. 

This is what I mean when I say the majority of the fandom wants to view a very complex situation through a ridiculously simple lens. The fandom wants to denounce every bit of RWBY’s fictionalized military, the context issues of that aside. The story wants to paint RWBYJNOR as the only heroes, in part because they succeeded in saving everyone (“everyone”) in the Kingdom when Ironwood gave up. 

But they only managed to save everyone because of Ironwood. Because he kept fighting for his people to the bitter end. This is why, though his horrific actions obviously exist in the story, they make no sense (he’ll threaten to kill his people so he can... save his people?) and mess up what little is working in the finale. The story wants us to celebrate the group for evacuating Mantle and Atlas, but the Atlas evacuation would not have happened if not for Ironwood’s actions  — the actions that are ignored in favor of having Winter blame him for everything and then killing him off. The rescue of “everyone” was very much a joint effort. RWBYJNOR’s win is not actually a contrast to Ironwood’s intended sacrifice, for the simple reason that their win depended entirely on Ironwood’s actions. 

If we’re going to celebrate the group getting everyone to safety, we should probably also celebrate the guy who got them all to an easy evacuation point and ensured they weren’t eaten before then. Does that mean Ironwood never did anything wrong? Of course not. As established, the story went out of its way to make him into a villain. Rather, it means that other parts of the story failed to maintain that black and white view, complicating the heroism of RWBYJNOR in the process. If we want Ironwood to be incapable of heroic action, always the bad guy, nothing good to say about him whatsoever... then we likewise need to accept that the group is rather unheroic in many regards too. That, on their own, they would have failed to save everyone, just as Ironwood’s plan failed to save everyone at the end of Volume 7. Because they chose their friend over a kingdom. Because they sat around in a mansion. Because by the time they took action again and tried to escape, without Ironwood’s help they would have lost a larger majority than they originally insisted be saved. 

[1d-discourseoftheday]

💙 Tues 5 Jan ‘21 💚

Is today's biggest story really a pair of socks I mean WHY NOT am I right, that may as well happen! With impeccable timing, as the fandom and the world went bananas about Ho-livia WildStyle (a drag queen name for the ages right there), the first of the limited edition TPWK socks that people ordered basically on blind faith (you fully couldn't tell what they were going to look like at all on the website, and now we know why lmao) have arrived with a bang: they seemed to come with either blue or pink hearts, but in fact it turns out you get one of two color combos, either pink and white or, uh: BLUE AND GREEN HEARTS. I'm not one to carry on about like jeans and a green shirt or what have you but this is a CHOICE, and if the antis don't have performative burnings of their evil larrie merch honestly WHAT is the POINT; the resale market of the limited edition socks is already booming though so there's always that option, if either side can bear to conduct business across the divide. My question is, did they really time it to play out this precisely on purpose? Unlikely tbh, but if that's a thing they're capable of I have some THOUGHTS about the way other Harry merch takes like 4 months to arrive...

Larrie socks aside however, the real discourse continues to be about you-know-what, with the players out there fanning the flames wildly. There's too much nonsense to bother with it all (the quoted sources in the articles directly contradicting each other's stories also makes it difficult) so let's just... *spins wheel*....okay I landed on 'tabloids say Harry's wedding speech talked about his girlfriend Olivia' here goes. Sjksdfjks WHY would you be talking about your girlfriend of three weeks in a speech for your close friends' wedding, OMG, how uncomfortable and inappropriate is that?? Imagine if any of this were real, that Harry ('I'd take my time and make sure a thing was serious before telling people about it', end quote, I mean that's ALSO a stunt quote (oh the layers) but just pointing out that it's contradictory) starts dating his co-worker who just got out of a huge relationship and is also a famous person with presumably an interest in privacy, and immediately the two of you get to work setting up a big reveal to happen right away (even in a weird fantasy world where any of this is real the possibility that JEFF AZOFF'S WEDDING had the paps present for any other reason than to do EXACTLY what they were told is flat impossible- what pap or celeb outlet can afford to be on Jeff's bad list?!) and then he casually writes her into his speech (a guy who's so anxious and shy about public speaking and what to say that he begs people to write speeches for him and practices endlessly) uh huh, sure Jan. There are so many things about this that are ludicrous, but more to the point, none of the things they're saying hold up to scrutiny any better than this. There just isn't any point in taking them that seriously though; Harry is a closeted artist and, just like the many queer artists that came before him who he repeatedly reminds us are his icons, he both lets us know all day every day in a million ways that he's queer, and also plays the industry game and winkingly gives the press their Straight Guy Harry fodder. You don't have to like it, or indeed anything at all in this world, but people do need to accept that whether they like it or not is neither the point nor anyone (including Harry)'s responsibility to respond to or do anything about.

Like I said I can't cover every detail but! I always have a little space for the absurd: today, our best entrant is the possibility that the whole wedding we saw was a sham– fans ask, was this public spectacle Jeff and Glenne's actual wedding? Listen if anyone would be up for it it would be this crew, and if they did stage it I'm sure they had a good laugh! Suspicion has been cast on Glenne's dress (allegedly an untailored 2018 off the rack number), the small guest list (wouldn't they just wait and have a huge event?), and the fact that they invited paps there at all. It would make the no explanation robe pics EVEN FUNNIER though if you imagine that was for our benefit but left totally unadressed (undressed). ANYWAY Don't Worry Darling filming is back in business and Harry was papped some more today, out for a casual not at all pap walk hike with a work associate and multiple items of his own merch (including an unreleased hoodie design.) On the topic of DWD, sometimes a different perspective can be interesting-- for example considering whether Harry is the point of all this at all? Or is he but a bit player in the real DWD publicity drama, an elaborate and very public dramatic reconciliation between Olivia and her ex husband? Either way, he's neither a clueless dupe, a helpless pawn, or anyone's 'boy toy', so please: can we rein in the hand wringing and pointless Olivia bashing a bit?

Let's talk about something else shall we? For example! Liam's setlist, just released for the upcoming LP Show Act 4. Look at that song selection! Fireproof! Strong!! Through The Dark!! More exciting 1D faves! Plus Slow and Home With You off his EP, NICE, singles and more, it looks awesome. The Hugo Man fragrance relaunch is less exciting, featuring the dopiest possible articles full of chat about his skin care routine (oh shucks I'm just  manly man, I don't have one at all... *names two products and refers to 'multiple moisturizers'*), trademark accidental candor (“I’m quite tired!”), and of course trying to describe a fragrance, always an entertaining gymnastics (“every time I spray it, it kind of takes me back to being on that rooftop in Berlin”), but also there are manly new pics of Lia.

A new song Niall co-wrote is coming out! The JC Stewart song, Break My Heart, will be out this Fri! Charlie Lightening posted pics from a year ago on the Walls music video set, featuring an intent Louis in the sun (and fashion voter underrated excellent Looks), and Louis commented on Dave Allen's post (“top man!”)-- the famous boxer is offering to help friends through lockdown by facetiming 3or 4 people a day for home workouts, damn, and also aww. That shitty Doncaster secondary school turned out some really sweet dudes, against all odds tbh. With Los Angeles experiencing some of the worst COVID surges we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic, Grammys organizers have elected to postpone the (already limited) ceremony. Originally scheduled for Jan 31 it is now TBA, tentatively for March. Harry's stalker, who menaced him in and near his London home in 2019, is being charged with violating his restraining order by attempting to contact Harry via social media, Global Fund for Women thanked Harry for donating, and HLDaily and other accounts were suspended for posting pap pics, always a risk, but one trick potato Jeff is on the job; HSD is back up and running, cause they can't have a proper stunt season without their most faithful mouthpieces. Niall continues to vote for himself on twitter threads about what to listen to in the New Year.

[harryswatermelonsegment]

Pool Party

Pairing: Reader/Harry Styles

Rating: R, text book smut

Word Count: 5k 😳

Warnings: Slight sub/dom tones I guess? & alcohol consumption

A/N: Sorry this is late, life somewhat resuming here in the UK so it means I’m back at my job. I managed to fall asleep mid edit folks 😳, this is my entry for the @helladirections Summer Feeling Fic Challenge, with the prompt “pool party” click the link for the masterlist. I’m still writing two more, one for @berrynarrybanana ‘s Sex Bucketlist Challenge but it’s turning out to be a 20k slow burn I wasn’t expecting 😬.Oops. But enjoy this one, I’m proud of her. My one other blatant thirst fic can be found here. Reblogs get free gratitude for the next 5 years 🍉💕

You'd been friends with Jeff since your teens, when his parents (despite their wealth), wanted him to get a job at the restaurant you worked at. In their rightful thinking, they wanted him to learn you had to work from the ground up.

Despite your clearly different class background you found a ton of common interests making the whole thing immaterial. He was a caring, down to earth guy and you were both people who really enjoyed sarcastically taunting each other every shift. You'd got used to visiting his house in the hills even though you'd been scared to get lost at first around his parents large house. Becoming solid friends quickly, you'd managed to keep in touch, as much as adult life would now allow anyway.

You knew his main role was managing a pop star but you'd not caught up in a minute and when you did, you kept your job chat out of the conversation where you could. This is why, as you barge through the kitchen, to the pool outside, you're shocked to nearly knock a stunned Harry Styles onto his behind.

"Fuck, shit I'm so sorry" you clutch your chest looking at the red wine on his tank top and his now empty glass. The soiled garment was tucked into some dressy shorts and partly covered by a loud hawaiian patterned shirt. Oh god what had you done?

You were quite honestly mortified. You'd never actually met the man himself, usually meeting Jeff at his for a few drinks or at a restaurant. You'd heard him mentioned in stories about travelling or how his campaigns were running Jeff into the ground with meetings. So, although you weren't a massive fan of his per se, in the way you didn't ask Jeff for updates or info, the way you'd hope you'd meet the attractive pop star was definitely not this.

He looked down at the offending stain then back up into your eyes, keeping his head angled down and blinking through his lashes. You couldn't read his blank expression and it put you on edge.

Maybe it was the heat trapped in the doorway, but as your eyes stayed locked you suddenly felt a fire spread from your navel up to your cheeks, and then from your center down to your toes. Your lower stomach clenched as you stared back at the guy covered in a good 2007 French rouge.

Fuck me he's pretty, you thought.

A rapid film reel of moments; sweaty bodies, those large biceps holding you against the nearest wall, smacking of lips against skin and moans of release flashed in your brain.

It had definitely been a while since you had got laid in your defense, your mood and pent up sexual frustration getting worse by the day as you tried and failed at the L. A. dating scene. Maybe you were picky, but horny and picky was an awful place to be.

However, the reality of the embarrassing scene you were currently a star of, flipped you back into the present.

Seemingly over the initial incident and hopefully not a mind reader to your thirsty brain, he takes you in and smirks.

Harry knew from the way your breathing hitched looking at his torso that you were at least a bit interested. He had clocked you the second you walked in through the big glass doors. A shirt of a band he liked and a natural beauty he wanted to spend some times with you he pondered. Ideally naked.

Zig zagging across the world promoting the album and had left little time to enjoy another person. Status and obligation to his job making it hard to just go out and meet someone. But here you were, dressed unlike anyone else, looking absolutely adorable in your embarrassment. You must be trustworthy if you're in Jeff's home,he wasn't a "bring your friends too" kind of host with his clients usually around.

This could be a fun evening for you both, he thought. Something unspoken, almost magnetic, drawing you both to one another. Surely that wasn't all his side right?

"I was told it was a good year, but I wasn't planning on consuming it quite this way?" inwardly he rolled his eyes at the barely there quip. But you laughed anyway.

"I am so, so awfully sorry, look, let's see if there's some dish liquid or something, possibly some of my next months rent in there too if I have to replace it" you let out a nervous laugh as you walked towards the kitchen. But in all honesty you weren't kidding.

Harry laughed at your sarcastic remark, impressed by your confidence in owning the situation and getting on with things. He casually watched your hips sway past a few people in to the open plan kitchen with as much subtlety as he could, you were confidentially locating all the parts needed to try and remove the offending stain.

"You seem to know your way around 'ere. I'm er…I'm Harry by the way" awkwardly waving as you mixed some solution in the sink drenching a sponge in it.

"Yeah" you smiled turning from the sink with the damp rag "known Jeff a good while, have definitely spilt red wine here before. I'm Y/N" you giggle. The beam from his own mouth matching.

"Ah! Y/N, of course, I've heard him mention you, didn't you once hide rotting mackerel in a unpleasant guys blazer?" he chuckled

"Heyyyy. Only after he spanked my ass getting him the check. Deserved a hot plate to the crotch too" you shot back.

You weren't sure where to go from here the thought of wetting down the white tank yourself definitely appealed but also seemed far too forward.

"Um…" you began gesturing with the sponge in your hand. You expected him to take it from you to sort himself out but..

"Oh yeah sorry" he replied shimmying his shirt off, dumping it on the back of a bar stool, then, crossing his arms across his stomach and lifting the tank top over his head you were slack jawed and frozen taking in the lean muscles and tattoos littered intermittently across his abdomen. He spread the top across the islands worktop flat, then grabbing the sponge with a simple "thanks" and knitting his eyebrows together in concentration as he tried to rid the dull red mark from it's center.

You still hadn't moved. A pink twinge to your cheeks as you watched his shoulder blades and back muscles scrubbing. Dirty thoughts circling your brain still.

"I would have helped you but I didn't want to start a wet tshirt contest in such a high end establishment yknow?" you thought out loud.

"Oh yeah, good call. I'm fiercely competitive Y/N so would probably be under that fancy waterfall thing by now showing off m'moves in my pants" he wiggles his hips trying to suggestively show you his "moves" but you can't help but smirk at just how endearing this man is. Dammit.

When he's finished with his shirt he drapes it over another barstool before handing you the sponge back.

If anyone asks him if he blatantly and deliberately got naked to gauge if you were into him he'd definitely deny it. But the truth is, he definitely did. Luckily for him, with the way you bite your lip and drag your eyes down his flesh as he brushes past your side to get back to the sink, he's right.

"Speaking of getting in the water in your" you use air quotes "'pants' I'm off to get out of mine" you declare, pushing yourself from the counter and keeping eye contact a second as you stroll back to the sliding doors leading to the pool.

"I… What??"

" The pool Harry?.... What did you think I meant?" you narrow your eyes and press your lips together before shutting the glass door again and turning once more to smirk at the opened mouthed man still by the sink.

--------------------------------

You'd been schmoozing in the water for a few hours now. There were probably only 20 or so people still here and the 3rd frozen marg had got you buzzed. You were in the small hot tub type pool, attached at the top of the main one on a slightly higher level. You hadn't seen Harry for a while but the last few times you caught his eye he'd been surrounded by at least 3 other people fighting for his attention, so you banked your flirtations to soothe your own ego, grabbed another marg and tried to forget about how he had started a tornado inside you, yearning for his hands on your thighs and head peering up at you from where they met in the middle. The strong pull of lust was clearly in your head then. What a shame.

You put it to the back of your mind as you finished catching up with Glenne. Both flushed and giggly as usual, she was the perfect match for Jeff and their chemistry unmatchable. You always enjoyed hanging out with the both of them, if anything, they gave you hope your own match may be out there. She left you in the tub alone, as she went to grab herself another drink and check on her host duties boyfriend.

"Don't you find drinking whilst already in water the weirdest thing?" you look up to find Harry standing over your right shoulder as you sit with your back against the pool wall and your elbows propping you up behind you, drink in one hand. His eyes unsubtley slip down to where your breasts lay pushed together in your halter neck bikini. You definitely weren't imagining it then. Fucking fantastic, you think.

"I mean drowning yourself on the inside from the alcohol and being in more than 4 inches of water really adds a danger element to my life if I'm honest" you reply sipping your drink.

And there goes those dimples again.

He's just in a pair of yellow swimming shorts now which doesn't help the alcohol flush at all. Sitting by your right side, putting his short glass full of amber liquid and ice, on the side of the pool and sliding in to join you. He leaves a small gap, as to not appear a total letch but your smart mouth has him hooked.

Taking a sip of his drink with the water up to his collar bones he hums.

"I do feel incredibly dangerous now, you've got a point"

"I mean if you think that's danger" you edge closer, not drunk but buzzed enough to take your chances you whisper into the shell of his ear. "You should see what thrills are in the guest bathroom. 1st floor on the right? " he chokes on his drink as your suggestive whispers make his dick twitch. He definitely couldn't get out of the pool for a while.

You're gone before you get a verbal reaction. If this all goes badly then you can just hide in there and slip out to an Uber and never see Jeff again right? Right. Cool.

With a soft white towel around you and your heart rate high as you reach the main guest bedroom you enter the room, you notice a large weekend bag in there and freeze. Shit. Someone's staying over, you hadn't factored that in, but a glance to the tag and the embossed H. E. S tells you you're good. Well, if not you'll just be a creep hiding in someone's bathroom but let's not think about it too much. Your faux confidence was working well so far and what other chance was going to arise like this one? Hot celebrities need fun with strangers too right?

Entering the bathroom you rub the towel over you, leaving mostly dry skin. You'd peel away your bikini if you were definite you wouldn't need to peel it back up your limbs should this plan backfire. You move to the mirror to adjust the black flecks from your minimal makeup dispersing under your eye and just as you're about to smooth down the stray baby hairs that humidity has got to around your face, you see Harry appear in the mirror behind you. Your belly flipping over and over with the thrill he'd took the bait.

Wasting no time he smirks and holds your gaze, wrapping his hands around your waist whilst his lips attach to the junction of your neck and collarbone. His tongue drags over your soft skin and he licks and softly sucks swirls onto it with his plush lips.

"Hm. You're right. This is a more fun type of danger" he says between kisses but before he's even finished his sentence you've spun around in his arms.

The bottom of your spine cold against the marble countertop, arms around his neck as you smash your lips into one another's with urgency. Tongues and wet noises as you get to know one another through your bodies alone.

He runs his hands down your back and presses his hard length against your thigh. He's definitely packing you think as you lift up a little rub your pubic bone against his front, panting out a little moan as the sweet friction of your bodies colliding sends you into overdrive. Catching the noise through your parted lips he gently tugs on the bottom one, teeth grazing the supple flesh. This combined with his large palms kneading your ass and pulling you further, tighter, into the roll of his hips. Only two layers of damp clothing separate you,forcing your lips to break from his mouth and fully moan, not caring who may be around. You could not remember the last time a perfect stranger knew your body quite this well.

His own grunts were speeding up when he suddenly grabs the back of your thighs and hoists you up beside the sink, you gasp in shock but it was more the way the lean man thrusted you up there like it was nothing. What else could he do? You expect him to go back to kissing you but instead he pulls back with his rock hard erection outlined in the wet shorts he still has on. Looking at you dead in the eyes both raging with lust and concern. Whilst you try not to worry how you were going to accommodate him inside your tight walls.

"Is this…? I mean, you want this too right?" his hands are resting at either side of your parted thighs. You nod. "Need you to say it Y/N" he steps forward, lips wet and brushes the pad of his thumb across your bottom lip that was now puffy and pink from the earlier biting. He knew you were down to fuck, but now he wanted to test your preferences. What kind of fun you were about to have shall we say. So when you lick his thumb tip, holding his fist still and grazing your wet tongue up and down from knuckle to tip before closing your eyes and humming around the entire digit, he knew you were both in for a good time.

Removing the thumb he whispers a barely audible "fuck me" before smashing your lips back together, tongues massaging together as he peels your underwear to the side with his hand swiftly and presses digit you'd lubricated with your mouth against your clit, moving it fast from side to side with just the right amount of pressure to make your head spin. Gasping, you throw your head back, hands clasped around his neck as you lean back and feel yourself start to leak a little with arousal. The few spots dripping down on to the counter.

You could say it had been a while but really this guy was moving his way round your body in the same way you tune a guitar in key. Calloused fingers applying the right amount of pressure as you felt yourself start to get to the edge already. He was kissing down the front if your chest, between your breasts, not missing a beat when he pushed both triangles of your bikini aside and you moaned loudly as he kissed and sucked hard around your nipple, tentatively pulling it between his teeth firmly, the sound you let out made him clamp a little harder before sucking in the whole nipple again, soothing the skin his tongue. Most likely leaving a mark behind, but you kind of liked the idea of proof he'd been devouring you in all honesty.

You were becoming blissed out from all the stimulation. Clenching and moving your hips around nothing but this magical thumb working your clit up and down hard. You were overcome with this whole situation playing out the way it had. You broke away from his mouth again.

"Oh fuck.. Harry, I'm… FuckFuck I'm going to come, I'm gonna fucking… Ahhh" he pulled back one arm steadying you as your head hit the mirror behind you in your release. He just watched you and slowed his thumb down watching as the liquid cascaded onto the counter.

After you'd come down you open your eyes and shyly smiled before kissing him passionately, his hands moving around your waist tightly. You moved your hand to his shorts, teasingly grazing the outline of his cock between your fingers in hopes of repaying the favour. He does a single throaty laugh and removes your hand, holding himself against his thigh. You look at him in confusion when he splutters,

"Sorry, sorry its just I'm going t'blow my load if you touch me." then he's back on your lips "Too. Fucking. Sexy" he says between wet kisses to your jaw, neck and clavicle. "Wanted to do this since I first set eyes on you" one hand is on the back of his neck twisting nape curls between your fist whilst the other rests behind you, stopping you from hitting your head on the mirror again.

"Oh yeah? Before or after I ruined your clothes?" you laugh teasingly as he slides his hands around your back to finally remove the bikini top properly, lifting it up over your head and tossing it aside somewhere on the floor. He let's a laugh out himself completely entranced still by how natural you are around him, it was often hard to connect with strangers in his position.

"I'd spotted you walking in, was trying to open the door for you m'love" he says before sucking a red mark into your breast and massaging and pulling the other nipple slightly with his hand.

You struggle through sharp intakes of breath for a reply.

"Well….ah...that's what chivalry.. Oh.. Get's you these days I guess" and you're both laughing a little.

"Hmm. Have to try harder with my manners then won't I? I mean, I've got to clear up the mess I've made here" he cups his hand against your pussy rubbing it up and down a little with his palm. You let out a guttural noise at the friction. "Ladies first and all'tha too right?" he giggles again at himself.

You're practically cumming right then, you couldn't remember the last time someone actually went down on you. Your previous boyfriend not particularly into offering you foreplay. A main point of why he didn't stick around too long.

Harry kisses down your abdomen now, soft sloppy, sensual pecks, humming into your skin every so often in appreciation as he works at removing your soaked bikini bottoms with his hands, pushing them down to your knees before you help, letting them fall from the remaining ankle to the ground.

Harry is moving far too slow for you, kissing across each hip down to the top of your slit, breathing over where you desperately need him before paying the other side the same attention. Then he's licking up each crease where your thigh meets your pelvis.

"Y/N, just.. Just turn, that's it and lean back as far as you can there, shuffle forward until can't balance anymore" you shift your ass as forward as possible on the lip of the sink and prop yourself up on your elbows trying to be as flat as possible on the cold counter as you could, your toes behind the sink with one foot the other dangling over the edge. You keep you thighs open as Harry hunches over the counter where you now lay diagonal. He places his arms under your thighs and bends your legs flat out as he can stretch you, you're expecting some more teasing but he just looks down at your pussy licking over his lips and almost whining before burying his tongue inside you immediately. The force of his tongue lapping up your previous climax causes you once again to knock the side of your head against the mirrored wall. You turn and watch the scene almost as a spectator, witnessing yourself bare to this beautiful man, curly brown hair between your fists and making sounds like he's savouring every taste. He catches you watching before taking his mouth off you, immediately, you're whining in protest.

"Watch my eyes not my reflection baby, I'm right here"

His authoritative tone eclipsing every thought you had about the casual nickname, you stared down at the wonderful site of him lapping and suckling on your clit. Pointed tongue and firm laps against the swollen button. He then starts lapping up at your glistening hole,unhooking an arm to spread your lips open between his fingers and licking right from the bottom to the top with all the sloppy wet noises involved. He was feeling you contract as he locked faster and faster over you. His tongue deserved an award never mind his music. You couldn't believe you were on the brink of a second orgasm so quickly but when he sunk his middle finger into you at the same pace his tongue was working at, you were screaming his name into the extractor fan above before you knew it. You felt waves of liquid cascade from your pussy as he gently lapped up the produce of his work from you. You flinched in overstimulation but he cleaned up every last drop tenderly before carefully closing your legs and pivoting you round to your previous sitting up position on the counter. Neither of you had spoken a word since you came but as he leads your arms to drape over your shoulders, holding your fucked out body against his chest whilst peppering your temple with soft pecks . Then he kisses you intensely, letting you taste the sweet juices of yourself on his lips. You hummed in approval of the sweet taste as you came round.

A few minutes of carnal making out and things were heating up again. Your hands cupping his jaw then sliding to graze fingernails up and down his back, digging them in a little harder now and again and causing goosebumps to pierce through the skin rapidly under your touch.

You could feel him swallowing down grunts from the friction he was getting from his shorts covered cock brushing up and down between your slick folds.

He'd made you cum twice. Hard. He always got off of making his partners cum of course, so he was feeling beyond turned on and the slight heat of your glistening folds against his length was almostvsending him over the edge.

"I want you inside me" you whispered against his lips desperately.

No sooner had you said the words, his left hand was frantically searching through the vanities top drawer in hope. Finding a packet, checking the date quickly then tearing it between his teeth, spitting the seal onto the floor and pushing his shorts to his ankles, stepping out of them at speed before kicking them away.

He smirked when he caught your eyes bulge at his cock. He knew it was above average but the reaction was always a further compliment he thought.

Stepping forward he put on a show of putting the condom on, first rubbing the drops of sticky pre cum at the head and down his length keeping his eyes locked to yours as you wriggled on the counter with anticipation. He whined a little as it squeezed him rolling it on, so red and over sensitive from turning you on. So that's why, when you grabbed for it, he stilled your hand. Dimples appearing back in his cheeks as you looked again in confusion. He kisses you, languishing the moment before grabbing you forward from the countertop to the floor again, still keeping your lips attached. He lightly grips at your hips and turns you round to face the mirror once more.

Harry lightly grabs your throat, and the way you whimper and push your ass back against him, makes him mentally bank that idea for later perhaps. He runs his left hand up the column of your neck lightly holding your jaw between his thumb and forefinger, forcing you to look at him with his hand on your face and the other already working up and down your folds.

"I want you to watch us. Want you to watch yourself come apart. Want to watch you cum around my cock yeah? " he whispers in your ear. You noticeably shiver with excitement of what's to come.

"Please Harry, please, need it, need you."

You watch yourself babble and beg for his cock. The pathetic whimper from yourself as you try and circle your ass into his crotch again to encourage it happening. You were never patient and he's driving you insane here.

Bringing two fingers infront of your lips as you watch yourself in the mirror he looks you dead in the eye through the reflection.

"Spit" so you do, "good girl" he says kissing your cheek. His saliva lubed fingers are back rubbing your clit quickly whilst his knee nudges the back of yours to spread your feet wider as he kisses the back of your neck and shoulders. When he pauses next you're not expecting the hard thrust of him entering you entirely, sure you were dripping wet with the result of two orgasms but you cry out in a mix of stretch and pleasure as he pounds into you at a furious pace. His spare hand not on your clit is holding the bottom of your spine down as he keeps up his rhythm. His pace was that of a man desperate for release after watching you fall apart on his fingers and tongue. The build up meant he was already close as you tight walls fluttered around him. He pleads with you to stop tightening your walls around him or he's not going to last he whimpers.

You were already close again, you'd never cum this many times or this quickly in your life but you were ready for another round and by the sounds of him and the stutter his pace kept slipping you knew he was close too.

You quickly removed his hand, sucking your own fingers into your mouth to replace his own at your clit.

"M'gonna cum, but… OhOh fuck.. But need you harder. Deeper" you manage to get out.

He grunts a curse before squeezing your hips at a pressure that will leave marks tomorrow but the delight in the speed he was now able to snap his hips against the swells of your ass, was well worth it. It only took a few more seconds with the fingers that knew you best, for you to gush against his cock. Feeling absolutely exhausted you slump your sweaty chest onto the cold counter.

His orgasm taking him by surprise when you clenched up to milk him dry. He all but shouts your name as his hips stutter and you feel the warmth of his cum fill the one barrier between you.

His lips were back on your sweaty neck for a second whilst he disposed of the used condom. He ran the walk in shower and wordlessly you took his offered hand to join him under the hot spray. You'd never had an encounter end like this before not that you were a seasoned professional but after 3 orgasms the way his hands moved round your body under the water, washing away your antics with sweet strawberry-banana smelling suds on the flannel, left you with a warm floaty feeling the worn off alcohol never had.

He gently wipes your makeup from under your eyes then, smiling at the cute way your nose wrinkles slightly as he rubs at each eyebrow.

"I don't even have words" you finally laugh out blushing, not able to stand his gauge as you say it.

"Oh. So that's how to make that smart mouth o'yours stop is it? " he grins, you gasp in mock offense and go to say something but going under your chin with his thumb with his forefinger to connect your lips under the warm water spray he kisses you when you pull away you can't help but ask.

"So does this make us even on one ruined fancy vest then?"

"Hmmmm" he ponders with both hands on your face looking at the ceiling out if the falling water. " I'm not sure, I mean it was a custom, pretty high going rate those yeah"

"Yeahhhh you're right, you're right. Better factor in the cost of the custom job then hadn't I huh?"

You hurriedly sink to your knees on the tiled floor.

[daresplaining]

A Few Thoughts About the Current Run

    I feel like I ought to say a few things about my feelings on Zdarsky’s run, as of right now (August 2020, pre-Annual-- that may be important). I haven’t said much about this run, and I should admit that I actually stopped reading it for a while. At a certain point, I realized I was dreading the release of each preview, and took that as a sign that maybe I should take a break and just re-read some back issues instead. This is, above all, supposed to be fun; I never, ever want reading DD to feel like a chore.  

    That said, I am now caught up and feel ready to begin untangling exactly why this run is so distasteful to me. I’ve been fortunate to have other DD fans to chat with about this, which has helped me to pinpoint what my problems are... because on paper, this run seems like something I’d enjoy. Matt accidentally kills a guy; that’s always fun. Marco Checchetto is great. The story explores Daredevil’s relationship with the citizens of Hell’s Kitchen, which I love. Foggy helps Matt with an action-y Daredevil thing; that’s awesome. There are some very cool fights. Elektra is in it. Stilt-Man is (briefly) in it. It has all the trappings of an interesting narrative. But there is a giant hole in the middle of this run, and that hole is Matt Murdock-shaped and impossible to ignore.     

    I read Daredevil comics for a lot of things (anyone who’s been following me for the past few years might think I read Daredevil comics for Mike Murdock, and you may have a point there) but first and foremost, I read them for Matt. There is a lot that makes a good DD story great-- historically, the comic has featured great supporting casts, and that’s another problem with this run that I’ll get back to in a minute-- but Matt is always the anchor. One of the greatest strengths in Daredevil comes from the fact that the protagonist is such a compelling character. You are interested in what he’s doing. You want to follow his story. You enjoy being inside his head. I’m not saying that you can’t write a good Matt-free Daredevil story-- you definitely can. But if Matt is present and written poorly, the whole story will collapse around him, and that’s been my experience with Zdarsky’s run. Part of the reason I’ve taken so long to write this post is because I’ve been trying to figure out if my complaint comes from my own personal taste-- which is not a basis on which I can critique this comic-- or whether the problem is inherent in the work itself. Having discussed it with other people, I feel comfortable saying that I think the problem is in the writing. 

    Zdarsky’s Matt feels profoundly unfamiliar to me, and that in itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but I don’t find this new version of my favorite superhero interesting. I actually find him a little repellant. If this run had been my introduction to Daredevil, I would’ve said “Nope” and read something else. Matt is a character with depth. He is intensely multifaceted. His relationship to superheroing is complicated, his views on justice and morality are rich and often contradictory. Zdarsky somehow missed all of that and has crafted a one-dimensional character with a blatantly black-and-white sense of morality. Matt’s reaction to accidentally killing someone seems to be to decide that all superheroes are bad-- something I complained about at the beginning of the run and which, unfortunately, only grew more annoying as the story progressed. Zdarsky’s Matt is painfully self-righteous, to a degree that makes him extremely unlikeable (at least to me). And yes, Matt has been written as unlikeable before. I actually love when Matt behaves badly; I find that fascinating from a narrative perspective. But I’ve realized that the key reason that has been effective in the past is because the story has never condoned that behavior. When Matt was emotionally abusive toward Heather Glenn, Frank Miller went out of his way to show us-- via the side characters, via blatant expressions of Heather’s pain-- that Matt was in the wrong. When Matt was a jerk in Bendis’ and Brubaker’s runs, when he drove his friends away, when he acted irrationally and harmfully, the narrative commented on that jerkiness and irrationality. 

    But Zdarsky does not do that in his run. He presents Matt’s irrational and jerkish behavior without comment or nuance, as if it’s a perfectly normal, reasonable way for Matt to act under the circumstances, and I have been surprised to realize how distasteful I find that, and how bad it makes Matt look. There’s a difference between having a character who is comfortably flawed-- whose behavior you’re supposed to occasionally question-- and a character who is just unpleasant and unlikeable, seemingly by accident. In the most recent issue (#21), Matt has an extremely upsetting interaction with Spider-Man, one of his oldest friends, and Matt is positioned as heroic for behaving this way, and it made me feel a little ill, because there’s no textual examination or questioning of this behavior. It’s just Matt, pushing people away, being Angsty(TM) and Gritty(TM) and lone wolf-y just because, in a way that is grating and unpleasant and completely lacks nuance. 

    The other major element of Zdarsky’s characterization of Matt is religion. I’ve mentioned before (as have other DD fans before me) that Matt is not generally written as religious, and it’s a strange phenomenon that this characterization has appeared in multiple adaptations (the movie and the Netflix show) while having very little actual presence in the source material. But it was a key theme in the Netflix show, and while hopefully that influence will disappear from the comics as more time passes, we are still in a honeymoon phase wherein MCU elements are still popping up in the 616 universe. It’s clear that Zdarsky really liked the show, and Soule as well; I’m certainly not letting Soule off the hook here, because the idea of Matt being devoutly Christian showed up his run first. But there, you could get away from it if it wasn’t your thing (which, for me, it’s not). Soule had whole story arcs that didn’t mention it. But Zdarsky has made it 75% of Matt’s personality. When he isn’t fighting or sleeping with someone in this run, Matt is angsting about God. 

    I hesitate to complain about this because it’s Zdarsky’s right as a DD writer to change the protagonist however he likes. It’s frustrating, yes, but not actually a sign of bad writing per se. Plus, not everyone is me. Many people-- probably including many people who were fans of the Netflix show and are entering the comics via that connection (which seems to be the target audience for this run)-- may be religious and may connect to MCU/Zdarsky Matt in that way. And that’s wonderful. I want to be very clear: it’s not the religiousness itself that I’m complaining about. My complaint is this: if you’re going to drastically alter a character, you need to back it up. You need to dig into it, make that new personality element feel powerful and real, and integrate it into the character’s pre-existing personality. And if you’re going to base the entirety of that character’s emotional journey on that new trait, you need to work to make sure it’s accessible to your readership. I, as a non-religious person, have no sense of why Matt is so upset about God. I have no frame of reference for his pain, either from my own experiences or from previous Daredevil continuity, and Zdarsky does nothing to develop or explore the basis of Matt’s faith, and so it all just falls flat. I feel alienated by this run. I see an angsty, self-righteous, prickly jerk ranting about needing to do God’s will, and then I put the issue down and read some She-Hulk instead. If Zdarsky (or Soule-- again, he could have done this too) had made an effort to actually explore and explain Matt’s feelings about his religion, rather than lazily shoving that characterization in there and assuming readers will just accept it, it wouldn’t bother me nearly as much as it has. 

    Also, I feel I have to mention; this is a fantasy universe. Matt went to Hell and yelled at Mephisto in Nocenti’s run, and it was awesome. Maybe this is just me, but if you’re going to bring in religion, at least have some fun with it! Bookend Nocenti’s run: Matt goes to Heaven, runs into God, and she gives him some free therapy and a souvenir t-shirt (or, I don’t know, something). To give Zdarsky credit, he did at least hint at that sort of thing in Matt’s conversation with Reed Richards in #9. 

    I'm going to cut this post short, because I really don’t enjoy writing negative reviews. I’d much rather post about things I love, and over the next few weeks I do plan to highlight aspects of this run that I’ve enjoyed. But I’ll end by saying that the weaknesses in Matt’s characterization could have been mitigated by a great supporting cast. Having prominent secondary protagonists would have provided outside perspectives on Matt’s behavior and given the reader other characters to root for when he got too out-of-hand. They would have drawn out the human elements in Matt’s character and helped give him that nuance he so desperately needs. But this run, just like Soule’s before it, is woefully underpopulated. Foggy’s presence is extremely weak and his appearances far too infrequent. Apart from brief cameos in MacKay’s Man Without Fear mini, Kirsten McDuffie and Sam Chung have both vanished, and I’m worried that Kirsten might have joined Milla Donovan in the limbo of still-living-but-permanently-benched ex-love interests. The women in this run are all either villains or people for Matt to sleep with (I was pumped about Elektra’s return and the idea of her training Matt, but her characterization was disappointing (I may write a separate post about this), and Mindy Libris could have been really compelling as a moral person trying to survive life in a crime family, but instead she was just a one-note, underdeveloped victim for Matt to lust after). To Zdarsky’s credit, he has clearly been trying to give the Kingpin a humanizing story arc, but even that I haven’t found compelling enough to want to keep reading (though that could just be me). Cole North was intriguing at first, but he ended up feeling more like a concept than an actual person. And none of these characters engage with Matt on a human, emotional level, which is what a good supporting cast needs to do. I commented early-on that this run felt like all flash and no bang (Is that a term? It is now.) and I think I still stand by that-- it’s all bombastic plot concepts and big ideas without any of the actual development or nuance necessary to make them work. There is nothing in this run that has pulled me in and held my interest; in the absence of a Matt I can connect to, I need something, and so far I haven’t found it. 

    I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. This run was nominated for an Eisner for best ongoing series, so apparently someone likes it, but it has become clear that-- so far, anyway-- it’s just not right for me.  

[pinejayy]

NSFW Alphabet for Dr. Robotnik

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Robotnik may seem like he only cares about himself but when you guys finish having sex he will make sure you're alright and satisfied, because your satisfaction comes first. He will whisper sweet things to you, cuddle you and even run you a bath.

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

His favorite body is probably his lips because duh his mustache is literally right on top of them, and he loves kisses you okay. Kissing your neck and inner thighs and loves hearing you giggle and moan. Because boy he can sure put those beautiful lips of his to work.

His favorite body part of yours is probably your neck. Because he loves leaving hickeys or bite marks on there, it's a turn on for him to mark your neck. And when you do have marks you can show everyone who you belong to. And he loves wrapping his hand around your neck when he's fucking you.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

Depending on his mood, he prefers to cum inside of you because he loves how you feel around his shaft. Or if you're feeling in a slutty mood he will gladly cum on you. Cum on your face, stomach, back and inner thighs.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Okay let's be real here he probably works all the time and spends most of his time in the lab. So he wants you to get on your knees and give him a blow job while he works. He doesn't care if Agent Stone walks in he just wants it to happen but is shy to ask thinking you're going to say no to him.

And he has a other dirty secret, he loves to steal your panties that weirdo.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

Not much actually, he's had sex once or twice before meeting you but they didn't mean anything to him. And considering he's alone most of the time and hates people he really doesn't know what he's doing but please be patient with him he's a quick learner.

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

He loves missionary, he wants full eye contact with you because he feels really close to you and he can just lean in and kiss you, kiss you neck or whisper dirty/sweet things in your ear. But he loves doggy style or when you rude him.

But he's also a fan of the 69.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

He's a goofy man okay, he loves to crack up jokes as he's fucking you against the bed. Or when he's pleasuring you orally he will kiss your inner thighs and tell you jokes or a funny story. But sometimes he can be serious but that's only when you've been a bad girl and he wants to punish you.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

He's well trimmed and groomed, he doesn't fully shave it off but some hair is there.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

He is very intimate the poor guy hasn't gotten any affection or love in his life and he wants to love and appreciate you. He's a big fan PDA because he wants to show everyone he has someone and isn't some lonley loser. Hand holding, small kisses or even make outs in public he don't care.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

He really didn't masturbate since he was always so busy working and thinking of a plan to catch Sonic but now that you're with him he will fuck you but when you're not in the mood he will jack off.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

He's a huge fan of choking, he even bought you a collar with a leash with it. This man has a lot of kinks, hair pulling, chocking of course!! He likes body worshipping either if it's at you or to him. And he's an open guy and trying out new kinks and your kinks he won't judge you.

Huge daddy kink!! Call him daddy and watch were that gets you.

He's into roleplaying, like doctor and nurse.

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

The guy wants you to ride him while he's in his eggpod but he doesn't want to give people a free show. But he loves fucking you in the bedroom, shower and he's favorite place is his lab. He loves throwing everything off his desk and putting you on the table and give you a good pounding.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Whenever he loses a battle against Sonic he gets all worked up and wants to do something to let off steam. So he will walk in and pin you to the wall and fuck you right there. But also you wearing chokers gets him going. He also loves buying you lingerie, the black or red ones are his favorite.

He loves it when you compliment him on his work or just him in general it just shows him you actually love him and that really turns him on and he just wants to show you how much he loves you.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He will never degrade you because it's always happened to him and he doesn't want that. Or he won't also bring you to his fights against Sonic he can't lose you.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

He prefers giving since he loves seeing you moan as he eating you out like there's no tomorrow. When you're sleeping in the morning he will crawl under the covers and just spread your legs and move your underwear to the side and get a morning snack.

But does sure love a good blow job and you do the job right. It makes him hard seeing you on your knees as your lips are wrapped around his hard member as he pulls on your hair moaning.

P = Pace (Are they fats and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

He's quite rough and fast okay, but when you guys are having a serious romantical moment he will take his time with you. But slow sex is nice since he can tease you. When he's being rough with you he loves all the loud moans your doing.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

He's down for them, he will pull you close and have a quickie with you. But most of his quickies are after a battle with Sonic. But he prefers to take his time with you.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

He's down to experiment your kinks and other new kinks but he will never put you or your body to risk he doesn't want to hurt you. But he's down to make sex drones only if you're down with it.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

He can last about two or three rounds, depending on what you're doing. But he won't cum quickly he wants you to cum first since he wants to pleasure you and you're his first priority during sex. But on a lazy morning he will be slow and gentle, I mean who doesn't like morning sex.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

He isn't going to buy you some cheap plastic toys why he can make them for you. He once made you a vibrater, and he loves using that on you. He also made a sex drone, it's basically a drone that will pleasure you and he loves using that as he sits on a chair watching you as he strokes himself.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

This mustache wearing wackjob is a huge tease, he wants to hear you beg and whimper for him. He wants you to beg for his dick. He even gets you turned on before a battle against Sonic and just leaves. Leaving you alone and waiting impatiently for him.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

He doesn't get to loud but sometimes he does let out a few loud moans. But he mostly moans or grunts softly he wants to hear your moans. But he loves whispering "You've been a naughty girl, now let daddy punish you."

Deep moans. Grunts. Panting.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

He's a huge sugar daddy for you. He will buy you anything you want even though you tell him it's okay but he wants to spoil you rotten. You're his queen and he's gonna treat you one.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

He's a little above average and thick. And he knows how to use it right. 🍆

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Very high, you guys are always fucking like rabbits. If you are in the mood he will be down even if it's in the middle of the night. If you want to suck his dick at 6 in the morning he will whip it out and enjoy the blow job.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He makes sure you're okay and sleep first. Once you've fallen asleep he will hold you close and listen to your soft breathing. He will greatful that you're with him and he has someone that actually loves him. He will be happy and fall asleep soon after.

Tagged Robotnik list: @misskirsti @flutterskies @hs-killjam @xxcherry-killerxx @doctor-rothotnik @iclown69 @arvadswife @along-the-lines-of-space @jimbotniks @read-me-to-pieces @agent-catarina-glenn @penelope-potter @ssdarlin @shiniapples @smokindoinksinthejungle @a-frozen-bag-of-corn @beeetleejuicee @enaelyork @baerura @namus-things @icrackunderanysocialpressure @brenda7x13  @jasminerobotnik ​

[the-daily-multi-fandom-post]

hello !! May I please have Shane Walsh x reader where reader passes out from stress please ?

Sorry it took so long to post. I hope you like it! 🖤 Let’s imagine Shane didn’t die and he was with them inside the prison! And that he’s not a bad guy and Judith is ricks child even though we all know she’s probably not his.- 😅😂

-this is long and half of it could just not be there and nobody would never miss it but I didn’t take it out. It’s probably obvious of what I’m talking about but it’s 2:28 in the morning so... enjoy! 🖤 sorry for any mistakes.

You were driving yourself crazy. Your group finally found shelter, somewhere you can call home. You prayed for this and finally your prayers were answered.

When you guys first found the prison you guys were so thankful. The prison was once just a building holding a bunch of prisoners to now being y’all’s home.

You were there when Lori died. You were a nurse before the end. You loved your job and when the end of the world came you were very Thankful for all the training you had.

You always helped Hershel when someone needed help or just help in anyway you could. You would go on runs, take a shift on watch, you would help clear out some of the walkers that lined the fence. School some of the kids since rick thought it was good if they still had an education -you just was always trying to help in anyway you could. But today was not your day. This is how your day went:

You were finally sleeping soundly. No longer listening to the moaning, groaning walkers. But rather listening to the quietness of the prison. You just enjoying the peaceful night. Shane, your boyfriend of three years, spooning you with his arms wrapped around your waist on the small bed. The two of you practically tangled together on the small bed.

The sun slowly started to rise, making the prison have some sort of light in there. It was about six in the morning as you started to wake up. Shane was still snoring as you woke. You moved slightly trying to get out of his tight grip. “Shane,” you whispered as he pulled you closer to him. He groaned putting his face into your neck. “Shane, I need to get up.” He opened his eyes. His brown orbs staring into your Y/e/c ones.

“Good morning, baby.” He kissed you and smiled. You smiled at him and kissed him back. “It’s time to get up.” You spoke, you were kinda upset with yourself, but you knew the two of you had things to do today. But sitting there in the bed was wasting daylight. “Five more minutes.” He mumbled as he kissed your neck. You hummed as you thought about it for a second. He kissed your neck and down to your collar bone.

“Shane.” You moaned softly as he kissed and sucked on your special spot. “We can’t, Carl’s right beside us.” You whispered softly. Making sure only Shane would hear you. “Then you should stay quiet.” He continued kissing you and smiled looking into your y/e/c eyes. He rolled so he was on top of you. He slipped your (his) t-shirt off you and you gave up fighting him from there.

“Good morning, Y/n.” Carol smiled as you walked into the kitchen. Carol was fixing some oatmeal for breakfast. She was smiling brightly as she looked at you. She seemed to have more of a smile now that her abusive husband was gone.

“Good mornin’, Carol. How are you?” Your voice was happy, as was your attitude even in the early morning.

“Just fine. How are you?” She asked you as she fixed you a bowl and handed it to you. “I’m good, thank you. You took the bowl telling her thank you and sat down at the table right near her. Giving her someone to talk to since barely anyone was awake.

Rick came in talking to Daryl and Shane right behind them. Shane’s face lit up as soon as he seen you. He waved as he, listened to Rick and Daryl talking. You waved and smiled as Carol started talking about supper for tonight.

“So I was planning on fixing some salad from the garden, do some fried green tomatoes and then a deer roast from the deer Daryl got yesterday.

“That sounds good.” You spoke, nodding your head as you continued to eat your food and talk to her. “I was wondering if you could pick some of the green tomatoes from the garden though. I was gonna go out there but I have to do lunch and the girl that usually helps me isn’t feeling well.” Carol added giving you a soft, friendly smile. “Sure.” You nodded wiping your hands against your blue jeans. “I’ll do it as soon as I finish up breakfast.” You told her with a smile. “Thank you so much, Y/n. Your the best!” Carol thanked her friend then went back to give some of the people who were lined up breakfast.

Just as you were finishing up breakfast Shane came sitting beside you. His own breakfast in his hand. “So, I was just informed I was on morning shift tomorrow. They also asked if you wanted to be on morning shift with me?” Shane asked Y/n with a smirk on his face. “Don’t be so cocky.” You teased him and slightly slapped his shoulder. “That’s fine, I guess. I gotta go. I got some things to get done today.” You told him. Giving him a soft kiss then getting up from your spot. “I Love you.” Shane said grabbing your hand before you could leave too soon. “I love you.” You answered him with a smile.

You were grabbing a bucket for the tomatoes when Maggie had walked up to you. “Hey, Y/n. I was wondering if you could take my shift on fence duty. I want to have some time with Glenn before he goes on a run this afternoon. You nodded giving Maggie a smile. “Sure, it’s no problem.” She smiled and gave you a hug. Thanking you as she ran off to tell Glenn she had time to be with him before his run.

It took about half an hour to pick enough tomatoes for supper. You also picked some of the fruit from the fruit trees and placed them in the bucket. When you were done, You gave the bucket to Carl to give to Carol.

It was barely 8:00 when you started clearing the walkers at the fence. It was you, tyrese and Sasha clearing some walkers. “I can’t believe they put us on fence duty.” Sasha complained, completely forgetting you were right there beside her.

You rolled your eyes as you stabbed the walker through the eye. “They probably want to see what your strong place is. Weather you better on fence duty or something else.” Tyresse told his sister. Trying to keep his sisters attitude down. “I mean, it’s not like I’m not thankful. I am, I mean they are giving us shelter, water, and food. It is the least we can do.” She added looking at her brother then to You who was still killing the walkers.

You were hot and sweaty. The hot Georgia sun shinning brightly down on your back. You were probably getting sunburn. You watched as the walkers slowed down. You took just a minute break. Grabbing your water that was right beside the fence. Drinking some of the refreshing water then going back to the fence.

“Hey, Y/n. Since there aren’t many out can we go take a break?” Sasha asked. You looked up looking at the twenty walkers that were lined down the fence. Not in one spot but all up and down the fence. “Umm..” you started looking at the walkers and then back to her. “I guess, just be quick, 5 minutes top.” You told them and they were quickly gone. Tyrese thank you and gave you a big smile. Sasha was gone ready not to be on fence duty.

You were there killing most of the walkers. You worked quick so luckily most of the walkers were dead now. There now were only two or three lurking out far away from the fence.

Your shift finally finished. Sasha and tyresse came, back but you were already finished. There wasn’t any walkers right there. You were putting the crowbar down on the table they had right beside the fence. Taking your water bottle and drinking some water and then you start walking towards the door to the prison.

“Hey, Y/n!” Carl called waving you over. He was right beside the fence where he and his friend was watching you killing the walkers. “Hey, kiddo.” Carl glared at her and she had to hide her giggle. “Sorry, sup Carl.” She re-greeted him. “Hey, Patrick.” She fretted the other boy. “What’re y’all doin’?” “We just wanted to see if we could help you. We don’t have anything better to do.” Carl spoke looking at h is “aunt Y/.”

You have known the grimes for years. That’s how you and Shane got together. You went to school with them and then when you went school to be a nurse you ended up leaving for a little while. But you always visited them. But as soon as you got to be a CNR (certified nurse license) you were always around them. Not that they were always in the hospital, but you had more free time then when you were in school. Lori actually set you and Shane up on a date. From that date on you and Shane we’re together. You were very, very thankful for Lori. Sometimes she was an bitch, but you guys were still friends through everything.

“Well, I’m not quite sure what you can help with. Did you do your school work?” You asked the two of them. The two avoid your eye contact and you chuckled. “We kinda didn’t do the school work.” You shook your head at the two boys and smiled at them. “Do you guys need help with your work?” Patrick was the first to nod and you understood that’s what they were coming out here for. Not to see if they could help you, but they needed your help for their school. “I’ll see if I can help you. I’ll see y’all in the library in 10 minutes. That gives y’all some free time before I go help. Tell the other kids if they need help to go to the library in 10 minutes.” The two nodded and started running to the other kids. You were glad that Carl had kids his own age to hang out with. It made you feel better about the prison. It may be a prison but the group changed it around so it felt like a home.

On your way towards the library Beth stopped you. “Y/n, can you take Judith? I really need a break?” You nodded as you took the 7 month old baby in your arms. The child smiled as soon as she was in your arms. “Thank you so much, y/n I owe you one!” You nodded as you walked towards the library.

You got to the library earlier then the kids. Grabbing the books that they were learning out of. You already knew most of what they were learning, but teaching it was probably gonna be the hardest. Making sure each of the kids understood everything, you prayed that you were going to able to teach them.

Flipping through a math book you had found in a run in a book store you copied down a few of the problems on a chalk board as a handful of kids started walking in there.

“Hi, Y/n.” Mika greeted you as she came over to see what you were doing. “Hi, Judith.” She smiled at the baby. “How are you, Mika?” You asked the young girl. “I’m good. What’re we doing for school today?” She asked you with a smile on her face. You never have met a kid that was so interested in learning.

“I’ll explain it all in just a second. Why don’t you go sit down over there at the desk?” You asked her with a smile.

“Alright, guys and gals let’s sit down.” You had lined the tables in a line surrounding you in the middle against the window. You had a desk with some paper, pens, pencils and books you were going to teach out of.

“Take one paper and one pencil and pass it down.” You told Carl who was at one end of the table and then handed him the cup of pencils. “Alright, were gonna do the least favorite first.” You started as you placed Judith on the high chair letting her play with some of her toys.

You were watching Judith teaching the kids helping them with their school work and making sure they were having fun while doing school.

“Alright, Mika. 30 divided by 90 equals what?” You asked the little girl. “It’s three.” You nodded with a smile. “That’s right! Alright, this one is for all of you. As soon as you do this problem you can be done math for the day. If we had thirty people here in the prison, and we had to give each person three meals a day. How many meals would we need a year. And remember there’s 365 days a year. As soon as you finish that hand me your paper and then you can take a break for luch.

You had the answer (which was 32,850). The kids worked while you picked up Judith who was getting a little fussy. You walked around bouncing the little one as Shane came in. You didn’t even realize he was even in there until a few minutes later when he had tripped over a stack of books in the floor.

Everyone had finished and handed you their paper. You were happy to see they got it correct. Some of the younger ones needed help, but the older ones who had already learned to do multiplication and dividing were great. Doing most of the problems with ease.

“Shane, what’re you doing? I thought you were going on the run with Glenn, and them?” You spoke looking at your boyfriend. He nodded as he looked the baby in your hand.

“I thought about it, but then Maggie wanted to go so she took my places and I stayed.” You nodded as he leaned against the desk. “I just came here to see if you wanted to go get lunch together.” You smiled as you looked at your caring boyfriend. “Sure.” You told him. With Judith on your hip and Shane by your side you guys made your way to eat lunch.

You thought you were going to be able to sit down and enjoy lunch but you weren’t that lucky. First you had to work on of the kids who broke their finger by getting their finger accidentally shut in a door. Then you had to stitch up one of the young adults from Woodbury that had an accident with a knife they were playing with.

“I guess I should stop playing with knives.” The man spoke to himself. You chuckled as you finished up the stitch. “Yeah, your lucky you didn’t hit a vein.” You told him as he sat on the chair in the infirmary. “Well, I think your good. Don’t do too mucc you’ll rip the stitch and it’ll hurt like a bitch.” You told him as he stood up from the chair. “Thank you.” He told you and you nodded.

Leaving the infirmary you went back to the kitchen to get some lunch. Lunch was way pass over. The kitchen was already cleaned, none of the food left out for You. Which made you grow annoyed. You walked back out of the kitchen and went to go back and work the fence.

“Hey, Y/n!” Rick called you from his spot in the garden. You smiled while walking over there. “Hey, Rick what’s up?” “I was wondering if you were up to go for a quick run? We need a few things and I forgot to tell the other group. You’re one our best supplies runners so I figured if you weren’t doing anything you could go for a quick supplies run.” You nodded, telling yourself it’s just one thing they need. It’ll be quick twenty minutes top.

“Thank you so much! Here’s the list.” He gave you the list and you looked over it. Medicines, pads and tampons, baby clothes, toiletries, batteries, flashlights and more.

“If you can’t get what’s all on the list don’t worry about it. We can get it another day.” You nodded looking at rick with a stressed smile. “Don’t worry I’ll try to get all of it.” He nodded and gave you a hug. “Thank you, y/n. -oh also Shane has some free time you might be able to get him to go on the supplies run with you.” You nodded as you pocketed the list. “I’ll go get ready.” You told him and he nodded.

You grabbed your backpack with some supplies if you have to stay out for the night. (Emergency food, water, extra flashlight.) You grabbed a couple empty duffle bags and went towards your white ‘89 Chevrolet crew cab. truck. You asked Shane if he was going and he said he was so he met you at the truck. You drive and he rode shot gun.

You were driving down the rode just enjoying the quietness. No hearing anyone asking you to do something. It was nice. You were wore out, but you knew you needed to do this for the group. It was the least you could do. Shane stared at you. He could tell you were wore out. It kind of worried him. Thinking you may be too wore out to do the run safely. But he trusted you and trusted what you said. He smiled as he had a plan.

“Did I tell you how beautiful you look today, Miss Y/l/n?” You looked at him with a knowing look. Shane had used a strong southern accent and you knew what that meant. He was trying to get you to laugh and smile, but you like to mess with him. Keeping a frown on your beautiful face which made him upset. Because he always loved seeing your smiling face.

“Well, Mr. Walsh. I ain’t gotta clue what your talkin ‘bout. The only person who calls me beautiful is my man.” You his your smirk in a frown. “Your man?” He asked looking at you confused. “Yes sir, my man is waitin’ for me at home. You know, he calls me beautiful too. But he also make sure my lunch don’t get taken up while I’m workin on someone who’s hurt.” You copied the southern accent.

His mouth was gaped he understood what you were saying now. “Well, maybe he was a bit busy doing something. And he thought the people in the kitchen knew you were gonna be back?” He offered you. “Well, he’s gotta make it up.” “How so?” “Well if a man really wants me. He’ll figure it out.”

You pulled up to a small town. About twenty minutes from the prison. Pulling in front of a small country store you looked at Shane with a serious look.

“Alright this is the list of things we need to get. We get what we need and get out. Don’t waste bullets. Use them when it’s needed. Knives only.” You told him and he nodded. You smiled leaning in and giving him a small peck of a kiss. “Alright, lets go.” Handing him a duffel bag and getting yourself one. You pulled out your hunting knife holding it up in a safe way as Shane pulled out is gun, just in case you opened the door and it be a lot of walkers there.

The run went alright there were a couple walkers were found in the store. You managed to get some of the things off the list. But by the time you got back to the prison you were wore out and still stressed. You were worried the things they had on the list were needed as soon as possible. You just worried yourself.

You managed to eat supper then you went straight to the showers and then went to bed. Your head was pounding as you sat on your bed. You tried to drink some water to get rid of the head ache, but it was still aching. You held your head when Shane walked in.

“You okay honey?” You looked up at him. “I’m fine. My head just hurts.” He nodded as he walked over to you. He looked like he just got out of the shower. His hair was wet and he had clean clothes on. He was just wearing a white shirt and a pair of pants. His feet bare as he took of his boots.

Your eyes were dropping as you slowly started to pass out. “Y/n?” He wrapped an arm around you and your eyes finally closed. You passed out from all the stress and from all of the things you’ve done today. You were just so wore out, your body just shut down. You did too much and this is your body telling you that. Shane tried to wake you up. Try to see if you were okay.

He picked you up and took you to Hershel. Luckily it wasn’t late and Hershel was still awake. “Hershel!” Shane called as he carried you inside the cell. “Shane, what happen?” Hersel looked over You trying to find any wounds to figure out why you were passed out.

“She passed out. I don’t know why. She was complaining about a headache before she passed out.” Hershel looked you over seeing no wounds then he remembered all you did today. He knew you were stressed. You told him the other day you were getting stressed. Shane Laid you onto the cot. “She passed out from stress.” Shame looked at Hershel confused. You hadn’t told him anything about being stressed. He knew you were, but not to the point of passing out.

“She’ll be okay. She’ll wake up in a few minutes.” Just as he said that you started waking up. You sat up holding your head. “Good morning, Y/n.” Hershel greeted you giving you a soft smile. You smiled at the old man but you were confused. “What’s going on?” You asked. “You passed out from stress. You do too much.” Hershel said as he took your hand in his. He felt your wrist feeling your pulse making sure your heart beat was good. “You need to rest. I’m glad Shane was with you when you passed out. You could fell and hit your head.” You nodded as you looked at Shane. Giving him a soft smile and taking his hand in yours. He rubbed soft circles on your hands.

You guys went back to bed. You laid down and smiled at Shane as he laid down beside you. “Thank you, for everything.” You gave him a soft kiss and pulled back. “You don’t need to thank me.” He told you as he wrapped his arms around you. “I love you.” He mumbled softly. You smiled and kissed his cheek. “I love you too.”

*****

Ugh, the cringe. This I feel like is one of the worst I’ve ever wrote in my life. It makes no sense and to me seems rushed. So sorry if you don’t like it. 😅

[kineticallyanywhere]

I'd love to hear those fusion thots :eyes: the pacific rim ones were V good

If you’ve been around this house for a hot minute you might know that fusion aus are My Entire Jam Garden so you might imagine I’ve already put some thought into this and you would imagine right. The following was brainstormed in consort with @aryashi my second brain. 

The basis for this au is that fusion is possible in the forgotten realms and is just a thing people there can do. This also applies to sudden interdimensional travelers. 

tl;dr I wrote basically a one-shot’s worth of words down there but in short fusion is rad but also there's an unexpected amount of drama. which is basically a summary of the podcast but replace "fusion" with "fatherhood"

(preface: fusion is not a sex metaphor, just like pacific rim. Platonic fusion is normal. Familial fusion is normal. Okay, continue.) 

First inter-dad fusion: “I silence his dumb ass with a kiss” except its “I silence his dumb ass by accidentally fusing our bodies and consiousnesses into a single being w h o o p s” 

I like to name fusions as something other than their romantic ship name so let’s call him… o h yeah we named all of Henry’s fusions after animals. So this guy is Hare (like Darryl). Hare is pretty stable from the outside, but their internal dialogues clash really hard so they're incredibly slow to make decisions. 

Internally, Henry feels like he's crossed Darryls boundaries. They have to hold it, but he lets Darryl take the wheel and all similar mistakes are made. They make it through the thing with the Lance before unfusing. Darryl has no idea what that was and already has a lot of intimacy issues, so he’s not particularly inclined to try that again for funsies. Henry is curious, but there’s a buried part of him that’s making him deeply unsettled by the whole experience. He can barely have a straight thought about it, much less articulate the feeling, so he doesn’t try. He lets it go. 

First sons fusion: When the Lord of Chaos throws back his robe, yelling “Dad! !” it’s a GIANT Lark&Sparrow. They’re like trying to fuse two rubies together, you just get a bigger ruby. This changes a bit later, when the twins start to diverge from each other vis a vis Love Wolfism, but basically the Lord of Chaos is an Oak Twin the size of their dad. But still looks 12. It probably actually takes the Love Wolf speech from Henry and their divergent reactions to get them to unfuse. 

Second inter-dad fusion: That other time Henry and Darryl smooched while high on drug flowers. It was very unpleasant, they don’t talk about it, they don’t try that again for a while. 

They get a book on fusions from the Library that reads almost like a birds and the bees talk and there is minor culture-shock panicking about whether fusion is Like That, but something in Henry is telling him “No. It’s not Like That.” He doesn’t really know why he’s so solid in that belief. He understands that fusion is unique and powerful and a wonderful thing, but something about doing it is just… getting under his skin. 

Third inter-dad fusion: Glenn and Ron. I’m not even sure the exact context or anything. Maybe they were just vibin’. All I really know is that I imagine these two occasionally fuse for the weirdest things, like

Fourth inter-dad fusion: also Glon, fishing magic items out of a giant toilet. They needed to be taller. 

Glon is… gosh, what the heck is Glon. Performative out the ass, for sure. Down for basically anything. Allowed to wear bootie shorts. 

Back up a hot minute though, because first dad-son fusion: almost happens on the Tower of Terry. It comes so close. They’re in that hug, and Ron thinks maybe if they fuse, the magic won’t take TJ. Or even if it takes them both, that’s better than TJ getting taken alone. They don’t have to say “I’m sorry” or “I love you, son” out loud, but before it really takes, Terry gets ripped away. Because Willy can’t have that, can he? 

Fifth inter-dad fusion: is Glon again, but the circumstances are way different because Ron just saw the mummy of his wife and Glenn is trying to help him breeze past it and it works until it doesn’t and they fall apart with Ron a crying mess. 

Sixth inter-dad fusion buckle up because we’ve reached Ravenloft. Before dad-fusion 6, Henry gets caught in his dad’s claws. He feels something very familiar and rejects it with everything he has, and escapes to grab Glenn. Then he gets hit by Calm Emotions, Glenn reaches up, trying not to fall, and Henry is already super chill about everything all of a sudden, so when Glenn tries to fuse out of panic, Henry goes for it. 

Gila—Henry and Glenn—can do actual bard magic. They’re like Opal, in that a single moment of disconnect is enough to snap them apart and finding that disconnect is not difficult. But when the situation is saving their kids and telling their asshole dads to get lost, that’s plenty enough connection to cast an actual magic-ass thunderwave with a guitar and maybe a bit more. 

(Barry didn’t like that.) 

So another fun thing about adding this factor to cannon is that this lets the dads have glimpses inside each other’s heads. So certain conversations could change a little bit. For example, in the van while they’re driving away from the Ravenloft fight and Henry’s explaining a few things. 

Henry: I don't have a lot of memories from that time in my life—  Glenn: Not a lot? Try "not any.” Henry: Glenn—  Glenn: Dude, none of my business, but your brain was weird.  Henry: Glenn.  Glenn: Like did the government get to you when you showed up on earth or—   Henry: Glenn what the fff—rick are you even saying just shut up Darryl: …

Darryl had noticed, too, but Glenn has other fusion experience to compare with. Henry could catch glimpses and imprints and trains of thought which ground in different points of Darryl/Glenn’s entire life, and Glenn and Ron can do that equally with each other. But a bunch of things for Henry, if you try to backtrack to where the decision comes from it just. Stops. Especially with using magic, which Glenn got to do. And Henry’s thoughts on fusion end dead hard. 

(filtering all of this through Freddie’s headcanon that Glenn always figured Henry was from Faerun but was just wildly wrong about all the details is so much fun)

This is the part in the fic series where there’s a one-shot about Henry having a panic attack just outside of the camp at night, and the most he can explain is just that something about seeing his dad again set him off. 

And then we get to a lighter turn for first dad-son fusion but for realsies this time: Ron Stampler nat 20s to hug his son and then also is the son. And that dad. And dads are supposed to be inside to do a ritual for a demon cow. 

RJ is the sweetest dude. Also if you don’t sit on him he will wander off and do the most extreme version of the first thing that comes to his mind for a problem solution or release from boredom. And he will not tell you about it in advance, so seriously. Sit on him. 

So they stand there for a second like "yes... Yes. Yes... Okay. Im... I'm the dad. But I'm the kid? But im. The dad. And all the other dads are also the kid so... Dad... Trumps kid status. And I'm the dad... Cool." and they go in to help with the demon cow. 

The kids are flipping out outside. 

Henry spots them and drops the cage, almost like he’s Garnet and just spotted Stevonnie. While all the other dad’s are freaking out/fawning/curious, Glenn lifts their glasses and theres four eyes and he drops the glasses and never mentions this again. 

Rj: hi um. I'm a dad.... Yeah. So I'm here tooooooo frickin kill a demon cow let's do this Rj: got the good dad vibes comin out of my butt

For realsies though Terry should be outside, so they unfuse for the cow thing and the bbq but then Dennis happens. 

Second dad-son fusion: Dennis: are you sure you've got this?  Ron: i can do it  TJ: he can DO it dad GIVE ME YOUR HAND

RJ’s an arcane trickster and it’s real cool and Dennis looks so jealous ha ha ha and also they separate after the fight and suddenly Terry’s unsettled and needs to talk to Ron for a second because “Hey Dad is Dennis not real????????” 

Third dad-son fusion: is way less eventful, but who the heck can say no to more reasons to cry about the Wilsons at the tail end of the Supper Bowl arc? 

Fusion is not a replacement for talking, but it is a bit smoother in communicating emotions. It doesn’t happen until the end of their talk, when Darryl’s got his arm around Grant. I don’t think either of them are super attached to this whole fusion thing, (If Grant is, it certainly wasn’t his dad he’d been thinking about trying it with. Maybe one of the other kids… “maybe Terry.”) so they may not even pick a name. Henry certainly cries at least twice as hard, but when they want to just get something to eat and maybe just hang out for a while, nobody pushes. 

I think the most important part of this is that it gives Grant a kind of… emotional break. Lets him feel something nice again— like he does in the show, too, but in a way that’s a bit more stable while it lasts. Like the feeling when you’re a kid on a long car ride with your parents, one that ends in getting home late and you’ve fallen asleep and they carry you out of the car. 

Good things for Grant Wilson for til forever. 

Somewhere in that arc, though, Glenn approaches Henry by themselves. Glenn’s not really a feelings guy, but whatever’s going on in Henry’s head is a problem. It’s a one-up the o-dads have on them, and they can’t afford that right now. 

Glenn: so you like... Really don't hardly remember being a kid?  Henry: Glenn, I don't want to talk about it  Glenn: I bet your dad's gonna wanna talk about it  Henry: well... i don't care what he wants  Glenn:... You seriously don't know how you got to earth?  Henry: [exasperated] the frick are you-- I got to earth like anyone else, Glenn. You know where babies come from, right?  Glenn: of course i fucking know where babies come from. A mommy and a daddy love each other very much and then their kid runs away so hard he skips dimensions  Henry: wh-- wait you-- do you think I'm an alien?  Glenn: obviously  Henry: Glenn that's-- [sighs, rubs his face] Glenn this isn't the kind of time for your conspiracies  Glenn: hey as far as I'm concerned, a man who sleeps with an axe under his pillow is a fool every night but one. and you shoot poison from your hands and shape shift into bears

Which adds nicely to the slide of heading to Oakveil next

Henry: y'know what. When we leave here, we can get my kids next.  Glenn: your interdimensional kids  Henry: to prove to you you're being crazy. Again.  Glenn: De Nial is a river man, and we left it back on earth

And one more dialogue bite, because…

Glenn: claim your powers latched onto you from this world all you want. But that language you and your dad spoke, didn't come out of the air, it came out of the door in your head

...fusion means the other dads get to learn about the metaphorical brain door. 

This brings us into the most recent arc, heading into Oakveil. He and Ron sneak in, and Beary tells Henry he’s home, and pieces start to click together. Henry’s from this world, so he understands why he’s had such a particular view on fusion and that basic cultural understanding. That it’s considered normal. And that it’s even normal for a kid’s first fusion to be with their parent. Their parent who loves them and knows them wants to see them grow. 

Bear Ry’Oak is not that. 

First O-dad fusion: Henry’s first fusion was with his dad. 

I think the worst thing is that, when fused with his dad, Hen doesn't feel like he's not himself. one of the interesting things about the Oaks is that they're kind of all slight alterations on the same traits. Like as gross as it feels to admit, Beary is just Henry but with the condescension turned up to a billion and his high horse is basically an elephant and no self-awareness or care for how others might have different perspectives from him

But Beary is still so overwhelming to Henry that it just flattens pretty much anything that makes Henry, Henry. Specifically the parts that Barry dislikes. like Henry's anger. To directly quote Aryashi: “Beary thinks using fusion for combat is barbaric. obviously fusion is for Conflict Resolution. Fuse with Beary so he can sort out your disagreement with him!”

(and then bathe in bleach)

So Beary finds them in Oakveil and Henry starts panicking and he tries to Handle Henry like he did when Henry was a kid, fusing with him to stomp down on his feelings to cut a panic attack or outburst off at the pass. If Henry's in no place to fight back it usually works, but if Ron's there--literally pressed against Henry's back--to see the fusion coming, maybe he reaches for a fusion, too, and lets Henry's instincts choose which pull to follow, and Henry's instincts choose Ron.

Seventh inter-dad fusion: Wren is suddenly there before Beary can even start his attempt to coach Henry through breathing (his half-effort to help Henry and be able to say that he tried freakin hate him) and is sitting on the ground and the disgusted look Beary gets seeing this. (Fusing with an outsider is something he considers so beneath his son.)

Beary:... Ah. Ronald.  Wren, existing, suddenly, and mostly being Ron's processing power as Henry's mental wheels try to slow down to match Ron's pace (cultivated through a childhood of dealing with Willy) rather than amp them both up: uhm... It's just Ron, actually Beary: would you mind... (there's other people around so he can't say "decontaminating") liberating my son. (as if ignoring the role his son had in choosing this fusion over his) Wren: Henry is uh... (me? Not me? Yes me, not up for this, we should go somewhere else that usually works fine, we can just leave and find the others and that'll be fine) he's good. We're good, we're gonna... (looking at the other people who look like Henry and the "not amping each other up” thing is working less and less)  Wren: bye

And then they just stand up and fast-walk away

Wren is either chill af and rolling with every punch or the living equivalent of a coke bottle that you popped a whole roll of mentos in and then closed immediately. At this moment, it’s very much the coke bottle side. Beary lets them go because he knows Henry will be back, and they make it just outside of town to where the others have just shown up before they fall apart. 

Ron: We found the door!  Darryl: what door?  Ron: the one in Henry's head!  And all the dads know what he's talking about Glenn: did you open it?  Henry: no  Ron: a little bit  Henry(probably now starting that panic attack): the anchors in there  Ron: his dad came out of it  Darryl: his dad???????? Henry, vulnerability, Oak: I AM FEELING VERY VULNERABLE RIGHT NOW AND I HATE IT  [chorus of mumbled sorrys] Ron: oh also Oakvale is Henry's home Darryl: WHAT Glenn: Uh hey anyone gonna pick up the phone cause I FUCKIN CALLED IT Henry: That's not my home! My home is with Mercedes back on Earth! Glenn: Yeah, this is just where you were born.  Henry: Glenn I swear to God-- Glenn: Dude lay off, I was agreeing with you! Home's where the heart meds are and all that jazz Darryl: Wait, you have heart meds? At home? When was the last time you took your heart meds? Glenn: Uhh... not since I came here? It's fiiiiiine. Never felt better! Ron: Not to interrupt but Henry's on the ground breathing funny. Glenn, are you sure you don't have any heart meds? Henry: being hugged by both of his sons in a simultaneous way that is not their normal simultaneous way (i.e. the Lord of Chaos way): WHY ARE MY SONS TALLER THAN ME Glenn: I'm more surprised that they're hugging you  Lord of Chaos: to assert dominance! Any moment now, we will turn this hug into a suplex!

And that basically brings us to now? I want a Triple Oak Fusion (the King of Chaos) but with how the fight with Beary went I’m not sure where it’ll go. OH YEAH. 

Autumn stopped fusing with Hen even when he was a kid because she couldn’t stand to see how much her son craved the approval of that evil man who stole her life away. And whether or not Henry ever fuses with anyone ever again after finding out he’s got Eldritch in him has gotta be up in the air. 

And at this point I could easily be convinced that the next inter-dad fusion is Darryl and Glenn, those beautiful idiots. They could be… Denn. Glarryl? We’ll workshop it. 

[pastelsapphy]

Why does Sylvian hates himself?

(This ended up being really long whoops)

*cracks knuckles* time to talk about my boy

[All quotes taken from the Fire Emblem Fandom Wiki, so there may be some slight inaccuracies]

Okay so first off Sylvain grew up in a shitty environment, to say the absolute least, and that fucks with your head.

First: his brother. He attempted to kill Sylvain on multiple occasions as kids because Sylvain had a Crest. And Sylvain just like, accepts that??? You can see that a lot in his A support with Byleth. He talked about being shoved in a well and being left on a mountain in winter by his brother, and almost immediately followed up with “I have no right to complain” because he, in theory, got lucky: he got the Crest.

And you figure, he would’ve grown up apologizing and made to feel guilty just for existing. You can see in his dialogue against Miklan, in chapter five:

Miklan: Hmph! Hurry up and die already. If not for you… If it hadn’t been for you…

Sylvain: Shut up! I’m so tired of hearing that. You’ve always blamed me for something that isn’t my fault.

He’s definitely been saying that since they were kids. That kinda stuff really fucks with your sense of self-worth after a while.

Then we have the rest of his family. We don’t hear anything about his mother, or much about his father, but we can infer some things about the latter: Margrave Gautier disowned, abandoned, and cast aside his first son in favor of the one with a Crest. Considering the dialogue about “everything being taken away” from Miklan, it’s possible that he was being raised to be the next Margrave, because someone had to inherit–with Crests becoming less common, who knows how long it would’ve taken to get a kid with one, if they got one at all? They needed a backup plan. And then Sylvain came along, with the minor Crest of Gautier, and suddenly Miklan didn’t exist. That’s fucked up, and it shows how little Margrave Gautier cared about his kids. I honestly doubt he showed Sylvain any kind of affection or attention growing up, and probably only interacted with him for inheritance- and Crest-related reasons. To him, Sylvain was a walking Crest, not a person (Sylvain’s fear of people only ever wanting him for his Crest, and not as a person in any respect, had to come from somewhere).

(And, if I can add a bit of an aside, I feel like this is the root of his philandering. Makes me think of the whole “even negative attention is better than nothing” kinda thing. You figure, Little Sylvain would have been incredibly touch-starved and desperate for attention. Humans are a social species and we literally need attention and affection to live well. I mean, he flirted with Ingrid’s grandmother when he was eight. I can only imagine what he said/did if Ingrid remembered it, considering she would have been five or six at the time. And kids that young don’t really know any better yet. Poor kid probably just wanted attention.)

(Additional aside that came to mind while writing this: I wonder if seeing the arrangement between Ingrid and Glenn affected this at all? Like yeah marriages in that kind of setting were purely political and such, but Ingrid was engaged to Glenn because (a) House Fraldarius was a powerful, well-to-do noble family and House Galatea really needed the resources, and (b) Ingrid was desirable as a wife because she had a Crest. Of course, we don’t know the exact circumstances of the arrangement, but we can infer from her other prospects. Sylvain still would have essentially seen Ingrid being used for leverage because of her Crest.)

So long before the events of the game, Sylvain is already pretty fucked up, emotionally. Trauma does that to you, especially when you have an “everyone else has it worse and I, actually, got lucky, so it doesn’t count and I’m not allowed to feel bad about it” complex. Survivor’s guilt is a hell of a drug lemme tell you. Sylvain has already internalized that,

He’s only good for his Crest

Any negative feelings about his Crest don’t matter, because those without have it worse.

No one will ever truly see him as a person–he’s just a Crest.

Already, that’s a pretty fucked up view of oneself.

By the time he gets to Garreg Mach, he has a carefully crafted persona set up: He’s an asshole, a liar, a serial flirt and cheater, dumb as a box of rocks, and a self-proclaimed “good-for-nothing.” In his B support with Dedue, you hear that people describe him as “indefensibly worthless,” which is followed by,

Sylvain: Indefensibly? Heh, that’s a bit harsh.

Dedue: I already knew your reputation concerning women. But these new rumors deprive you of all redemption. I did try to correct them. But I doubt I was believed.

Sylvain: Well, thank you all the same. Listen. You don’t need to worry what people think about me. As you well know, it’s not easy to correct misunderstandings or change people’s minds. And if I’m going to behave so badly, it seems misunderstandings are inevitable.

He doesn’t even argue, just kinda brushes it off and accepts that’s just How He Is (listen, Sylvain can definitely be an asshole at times, but I have to agree with that being harsh). He doesn’t want people to expect anything from him (well, not anything good). In his supports with Annette, he’s shown to be pretty smart, but admits he hides it because the pressure it puts on him is suffocating. He kinda goes out of his way to hide his more redeeming qualities like that. Also on that point, we have this bit from his B support with Ashe,

Sylvain: […] My advice on the whole thing is just to follow your instincts. That’s what I do. If someone’s in trouble, I help them. You don’t need to be a valiant knight to know that. Doesn’t matter if the person is an ugly old man or the cutest girl you’ve ever seen, you help ‘em.

Ashe: So, you’re saying…

Sylvain: Everybody’s the same, deep down. It’s our job to help anyone who needs it.

Ashe: Ah!

Sylvain: What? You’re looking at me funny. Did I say something wrong?

Ashe: No! No. I’m just surprised, that’s all. You’re actually a much better person than I thought.

“You’re actually a much better person than I thought.” Several of his supports have some variation of this line. Usually after he does something kind. And I mean, Sylvain is a kind person, under the philandering. Most of his supports involve him helping others out somehow.

He helps Dimitri with the girl situation (he kinda got him into it in the first place but I digress)

His whole C with Dedue is pretty much “racism is stupid and I’m going to be your friend, fuck what everyone else says.”

In his supports with Felix and Ashe, he helps them out in battle, at a detriment to himself (You can also throw Byleth in here, during their A support, but he was a jerk in their C and B).

In his Annette supports, she calls him out for going easy on her during training. He admits he was, but only because he didn’t want her to feel bad because she puts so much effort into her work while he “sorta gets by on [his] wits”

Okay I need to say how much I love his supports with Bernadetta???? He does genuinely try to compliment her work, and when he sees speaking to Bernie face-to-face won’t work, he goes out of his way to write a nice and well-worded review (a fairly lengthy one, according to Bernie) and compliment of her work–which Bernadetta takes to much better than she did talking in person. And this is one of the few supports where he doesn’t try to flirt. He’s just trying to give her genuine compliments on her writing and goes out of his way to do it without upsetting her.

His support with Hilda could go a few ways, but he did return the books for her and he did apparently get yelled at for something he didn’t do and didn’t even try to deflect that. And it seems that’s not even why he confronts her later: it’s because of how her actions were detrimental to other people (”And those books you left in your room for so long? Teachers and classmates needed those. So stop lying, and maybe stop being quite as selfish too.”). It’s not until she asks if the librarian said anything that he’s like “Oh, yeah, they yelled at me.”

And a fair amount of people still see him as “indefensibly worthless.” Sylvain often goes out of his way to help people, but he tends to brush it off and keep it lowkey.

I got a little off track here, but my point for this is Sylvain projects an outward appearance of being a really shitty, deplorable person. Almost everyone he has supports with is GENUINELY surprised when they realize that no, he’s not as bad as all the rumors about him imply. Sylvain just doesn’t really want people to know. And, as much as he plays it off like he doesn’t care, that kind thing gets to you after a while. So everyone except a handful of close friends seeing him in such a negative light? It filters in eventually, even if you’re not already emotionally fucked up.

Another thing I want to point out: A lot of times, it seems like Sylvain does not give a shit about what happens to him. A few of his support conversations involve him taking a blow in battle to protect someone else (and his attitude afterward is “better me than them”). Reading his A+ with Felix, “…protecting me like that. You’re so weak and yet you always… always…” this is definitely something Sylvain has a habit of doing. Additionally, we have one of his goal requests: “The best way to impress people is to save them by diving into harm’s way. That’s what a Great Knight does, yeah?” In true Sylvain style he covers it with “I just want to impress people” but he’s still devoting his training to being the guy who jumps in front of everyone else to tank the hit. Fully committing to that kind of thing takes more than just a shallow want to “impress people.” Then there’s his Monastery line to Byleth, toward the end of Verdant Wind I believe?, where he says he fights like he wants to die. Which…. yeah.

Another line of his that sticks with me: “burn until we meet again,” after defeating an enemy post-time skip. A friend of mine pointed out it might just be dramatic, but I think about that a lot. Does he think he’s going to the 3h equivalent of hell??? Does he think he’s that terrible of a person??

Uh this turned out to be a lot longer than i thought. So I guess to sum up:

Sylvain grew up internalizing the idea that he doesn’t have any worth as a person. Everything he is and has is related to his Crest. Everything that people feel towards him is related to his Crest and not who he is as a person.

He internalized the idea that because he has a Crest, that he’s not allowed to be upset about any of this, because he got lucky.

Growing up with Miklan’s abuse, he was definitely made to feel guilty about simply daring to exist. So he grows up hating himself.

He developed an outward persona that only reinforced these ideas–he makes and lets people believe he’s a piece of shit.

His attitude in battle shows how little he seems to care about himself.

tl;dr: Sylvain grew up without any love or affection, and was severely emotionally fucked up by his family, which complicated his relationships with other people and his view of himself as a person and his worth. He purposely projected an image of himself to support this, letting people believe he’s a shit person and doesn’t argue back because he feels it’s well-deserved. He doesn’t seem to think he’s actually worth anything. Sylvain, of course, like all people, has negative traits–that’s just part of being human. But his sense of self has been so warped and twisted over the years that he can’t seem to do anything but hate himself.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Cabin Theory 2.0

Okay, so here’s my Cabin Theory 2.0. I’ve been wanting to revisit this since I did my 5x09 post a few weeks ago. I realized that the cabin Tyreese stays in with Baby Judith and Martin in 5x01, and the picture of the cabin in 5x09, were probably related. So, I’m going to list the cabins we’ve seen and then talk about similarities between them to try and figure out what this symbol means in the show. You’ll see that there are some interesting implications for the Leah situation.

1. S3 – Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and co run from walkers into a tiny cabin where they find a guy sleeping in there and Rick ultimately kills him. There’s also a dead dog in the cabin, so we’ve long attributed this to early Sirius symbolism.

2. 4x07 – The cabin the Governor and his pals stayed in with all the Native American symbols in it.

3. 4x12 – The Moonshine Shack. I honestly wasn’t sure this one fit the pattern of the others, at first, and wasn’t sure what to do with that. But upon closer inspection, it does. No worries. I’ll talk about it.

4. 4x14 – The cabin Tyreese, Carol, Lizzie, and Mica stayed in, and where Lizzie and Mica died.

5. 5x01 – The cabin Tyreese, Martin, and Baby Judith stayed in while Carol rescued everyone at Terminus.

6. (Not in the show yet, but there’s also the cabin where Emily filmed that we believe will be part of the missing 17 days.)

7. 5x09 – The picture of the cabin in the room where Ty is bitten, that gets blood dripped on it.

8. 6x04 – Eastman’s cabin, where Morgan spends a lot of time in that episode.

9. 7x03 – The cabin Carol lives in after she leaves the Kingdom but before AOW starts.

10. 7x11 – Dwight and Sherry’s old cabin where she leaves her rings and a note for him.

11. 8x11 – The cabin that Father Gabriel and Dr. Carson stay in briefly before being recaptured by the Saviors and Carson’s death. This episode and cabin are chalk full of Beth symbolism.

12. 9x5 - Cabin Rick stops by before he’s blown off the bridge. This was an extremely minor detail, but probably parallels well with Beth’s cabins, and it was purposely placed in the sequence.

13. Leah’s cabin (to be seen in bonus episodes).

I’ve probably missed a few minor instances. I think Aaron was at one this past season briefly, and there’s the place Alpha was killed, and where Negan stashed Lydia. But these are the major ones. And for only 10 seasons, this symbol crops up a LOT.

Okay, a couple of notes before I go on. I’m not going to talk about the cabin from the missing 17 days because we haven’t actually seen that and don’t know what goes on there. So I can’t say if it fits this pattern or not, though I suspect it does. Same with the cabin in Ty’s death scene, which is technically a picture, not an actual cabin. I believe that cabin is a symbol for Beth’s cabin (the one from the missing 17 days) so they are probably synonymous and not knowing what happened there applies to both. Just FYI.

So here are the similarities I’m seeing in different instances:

1. A character staying in the cabin is wrestling with some kind of internal turmoil or conflict. There is often more than once character involved, and both can be wrestling with things, but more often it’s the member of TF or more mainstream character that the cabin is about. If there’s only one character in the cabin, obviously it’s about them. (Don’t worry; I’ll give examples). Their conflict often revolves around an identity crisis of some kind. Who they are, who they want to be, who they will become, etc.

2. Death is involved. Either someone dies in or around the cabin while the character is staying there, or what happens there leads to someone’s death.

3. I honestly think the cabin is the beginning of a character journey or arc. Generally it results in something negative that happens, that the character feels guilt over. Sometimes this is synonymous with the death I mentioned above, but sometimes they’re two different things as well.

4. The character will spend the rest of that journey or arc trying to overcome that thing they’re feeling guilty over. Once they’ve accepted and/or forgiven themselves for it, the arc ends.

5. In each situation, there is a return involved. Either the character returns to someone, or someone returns to them.

So, let’s go through these again.

S3 Cabin: I give slightly shorter shrift to this one, only because it’s S3 and Gimple wasn’t in charge, yet. That said, it does check most of the criteria. The conflict there was short lived. It was weather to kill the guy or not because he was being loud and putting everyone’s life in danger. So there’s the death. I don’t think anyone felt overly guilty about it. However, in terms of character arcs, especially with the dead dog, what we see right after this is Daryl reuniting with Merle for the first time since he disappeared in S1. So we definitely have a return. Soon after is the episode “Home,” where Daryl comes to realize where he really belongs. And those are all themes we see around Beth. Just saying. So, return = Merle.

Overall, it doesn’t fit everything, but again, with Gimple only being a junior writer on the show back then, it may have just been less heavy-handed than most of these other examples.

4x07- Gov’s cabin: This was more or less the beginning of him returning to brutality which ends with him bulldozing the prison and losing his own life. Plenty of death comes out of it, including that of his own men and Hershel. His turmoil is about whether he’ll continue to be “Brian” or go back to being the Governor. His arc ends when Rick/Michonne/Lily kill him at the prison. That’s the return. Also, he’s been gone from the prison and TF for months and presumed dead. This is the beginning of his return to their lives.

4x12 – Moonshine Shack: As I said, at first I didn’t think it fit the pattern, because it didn’t end up being terribly negative. No death came directly out of it. But I think this was kind of the mother of all cabins. It was a much longer game, so it took a lot longer to see the entire pattern. 

The emotional turmoil in this episode is extremely obvious, especially to our fandom, so I’ll leave it at that. The real trick is that there isn’t any immediate death that comes out of it. In this case, I believe its Beth’s “death” that comes out of it. We don’t often link that directly to the moonshine shack, but I believe the writers do. Everything is cause and effect for them. I think the emotional breakthroughs she had with Daryl led to her being stronger, wanting to stand up to Dawn, and that led to her getting shot. And that is obviously the negative thing Daryl then feels guilty about. 

You could argue this arc ended with Coda, though most of us know better. When Daryl looked at Glenn’s painting with Lydia, he smiled, which shows that he’s forgiven himself for that. But his smile still slipped when he looked at Beth. So for Daryl, nothing’s over yet.

4x14 – Carol, Ty, Lizzie, Mica: The deaths here are obviously Lizzie and Mica’s, and they occurred at the cabin itself. Obviously that’s the negative thing both Carol and Ty felt super guilty about. But what was Carol wrestling with here, before the deaths? It was her guilt over killing Karen. She needed to come clean with Ty. This was the beginning of her journey that didn’t end, imo, until she saved Henry and married Ezekiel. That’s when she finally forgave herself for all the children who have died around her, including Sophia, Lizzie, Mica, and Sam. The return is a little muddled here, but what happens at the cabin prompts them to leave, which helps them return to TF, rather than stay apart from them. So it leads to reunions.

5x01 – The cabin Tyreese, Martin, and Baby Judith stayed in while Carol rescued everyone at Terminus. This is the instance that helped me figure all this out, and I covered it in some detail in my 5x09 post. In the cabin in 5x01, Martin was razzing Ty about being a “good” guy who saves babies. He kept saying that being good like that would bring death, and Ty didn’t want to accept that. So his turmoil was about whether to stay a good guy, or become more brutal and kill Martin. See? Identity crisis. He ends up leaving Martin alive and lying to Carol about it (for which he’ll later feel guilty) and this leads to Bob’s death. His arc, obviously, ended in 5x09 when he forgave himself, and then succumbed to the walker bite. TF returns at the end of this episode and Sasha and Tyreese reunite.

6x04 – Eastman’s cabin, where Morgan spends a lot of time in that episode. This one is about Morgan. He’s obviously wrestling with himself and his dogma throughout the entire episode. He’s still in his crazy state of mind at the beginning, but Eastman helps heal him. The death is Eastman’s himself, and Morgan does have some guilt about it. (There’s also Tabitha the goat.) This is the beginning of the Morgan we see in S5 on, where he follows Eastman’s philosophies. I honestly think this arc has ended now, as he has slightly different beliefs now, in Fear. At the end, Morgan begins his journey to return to Rick.

7x03 - The cabin Carol lives in after she leaves the Kingdom but before AOW starts. Here, Carol is wrestling with the deaths of the children around her. This is slightly different than in 4x14. Remember there, I said she was wrestling with the fact that she’d killed Karen and David. But her guilt over the children started there. Here, it just continues. The death is Benjamin’s (Henry’s older brother). Remember, Zeke brings him to her when he gets shot, and he dies on her kitchen table. Her guilt, though, comes less from his death and more from Abraham’s and Glenn’s. When Morgan tells her about them, you can tell she feels guilty for not having been there, and it prompts her to go to Ezekiel and join the war effort.

7x11 - Dwight and Sherry’s old cabin where she leaves her rings and a note for him. Dwight is dealing with the loss of Sherry and the fact that he’s become someone she doesn’t recognize anymore. (Identity crisis).  Plenty of deaths follow, but the most specific one is that of Dr. Carson at the Sanctuary, who Dwight frames. His guilt comes from following Negan at all, which leads him to turn spy for TF. This guilt arc continues until Daryl lets him go to search for Sherry.

8x11 – The cabin that Father Gabriel and Dr. Carson stay in briefly before being recaptured by the Saviors. This one, most directly, is about Father Gabriel. He’s dealing with physical things (loss of his eyesight) and also a crisis of faith. The death is of Dr. Carson, who dies outside the cabin at the end. This arc, for Gabriel, lasts, I believe, until he becomes the stronger, more confident leader we see now. Back when Jadis and Rick disappeared, he hadn’t become the man he is now, yet. It must have happened sometime during the 6 year time jump. Which is interesting, given that he found love in that time. (I have an Ask in my inbox about this and how Gabriel and Rosita are actually a foreshadow of Beth and Daryl. Stay tuned for that.

Okay, so let’s just recognize that, especially as there are return symbols around all of these, massive Beth symbolism at most of them, and a cabin in the missing scenes from S5, this is obviously a Beth thing. I think the cabin we see when they finally show us those missing scenes will symbolize the beginning of Beth’s arc away from TF, which will last until she reunites with them.

9x05 - Rick’s cabin: This obviously represented the big of his journey away from TF and into the CRM. The death and negative events that come out of it are, for now at least, obviously his own. This parallels almost exactly with Beth and the moonshine shack because, in this case, we KNOW he’s alive, but the other members of TF don’t. And of course there will probably be more deaths and negative stuff for him once he’s away from TF, but we haven’t seen any of that, yet. 

So how about Leah’s cabin?

Well, it seems obvious what Daryl will be wrestling with: figuring out where he belongs, especially with Rick gone. (Identity crisis). But my question is about the death. Spoilers say Leah has a son who dies, but the spoilers are so muddled and many of them contradict each other, it’s hard to know what will actually happen with that. Will that be a source of guilt for Daryl? Maybe have something to do with the scene in the trailer where he’s screaming? Maybe.

I think it’s equally possible, though, that something about what happens here will reach across to when Leah shows up again and maybe something tragic will happen then. This is what really got me intrigued about this cabin motif. Because yes, it’s true that in some cases (ie. Father Gabriel/Dwight) the deaths that resulted were of minor characters. But MOST of the cabins led to major tragedy for team family, and I’m wondering if the same will be true of the Leah situation. Especially as this concerns Daryl, who is a much more major character than FG or Dwight, I have a hard time believing that the tragedy coming out of it will be limited to the adopted son of a character no one really cares about. I’m just saying.

Of course this is all conjecture until we see the episode (and possibly S11). But it’s something to chew on. And it kind of feeds in to the question of whether or not Leah may end up being villainous. I’ll conjecture more about that in a day or two. ;D

Thoughts?

[ddixons-angel]

Fated: Season 2

Summary: Gloria Rhee narrowly escapes Atlanta with her brother as the outbreak reaches the city. Luckily, they find a camp outside the city and together, they fend through encounters with the living and undead.

Starts a little before Season 1 and then follows the main storyline of the show.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Glenn Sister!OC

Warnings: major TWD spoilers, language, violence (the typical TWD stuff)

A/N: Chapter 4 is here! I’m thinking of posting this twice a week for now, maybe for the next two seasons since people are going to be stuck at home, I wanna provide stuff to read for you guys hehe, and I’m still working on the rest of the requests I promise!! 

Chapter 4:

The group had made their way over to the front of the barn where they could hear the undeniable groans of walkers emitting from within, confirming that what Glenn had just told them to be true. Lori’s hold on Carl tightens as she stands beside Carol, both women looking at the barn with a shared expression of fear and horror. Gloria, mounted on the crutches, stands with T-Dog, Andrea, Dale and Glenn, Daryl in front of her, making sure she stays behind him. Rick and Shane are right in front of the barn doors, inspecting it and discussing what they should do.

“I’ll talk to Hershel, we’ll figure this out, we will.” Rick says aloud for everyone to hear.

“No, we need to get off this farm, it’s too dangerous to stay here now,” Shane objects, visibly getting angrier and more frustrated by the second, “we should have left for Fort Benning a long time ago!”

Rick grabs onto Shane’s arm, “we can’t leave here, not yet.”

Shane scoffs and pushes Rick off him, “and why not?”

“Because Sophia’s still out there.” Carol cries out, taking a step towards the two men.

Shane lets out a breath, sighing, “Alright... you know what, I think we need to face the facts, face reality, okay? Chances are Sophia’s dead.” 

“Hey, I’m close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago!” Daryl exclaims in rage.

Shane scoffs at this, “You found her doll, Daryl. That’s what you did, you found a doll. Finding Gloria alive was a damn miracle, we ain’t gonna find Sophia, not after all this time! Not alive at least.” 

“Man, ya don’ know what the hell ya talkin’ ‘bout!” Daryl shouts.

“I’m just saying what needs to be said!” Shane shouts back.

Unable to hold her rage back any longer, Gloria starts to hobble up to Shane, “Shane, stop being such an asshole and just shut up!” 

He glares at her and walks up to her, “you look me in the eye and tell me you still believe Sophia’s actually alive.” he challenges her.

Not faltering one bit, Gloria says through gritted teeth, “would you be able to say that to Lori’s face if it were Carl who went missing?” something changes in Shane when he hears her question, he stays silent, making it obvious that his answer is a negative, “then why do you think it’s okay for you to say any of that shit around Carol?”

Shane stares down at the ground as he backs away from Gloria, ashamed, unable to look at anyone. 

“Alright, that’s enough.” Rick tries to diffuse the tension, “I’ll go talk to Hershel about this, I know we’re all worried about the barn, but it’s still Hershel’s property, and we have to respect that.”

Everyone, even Shane, nods in agreement. Gloria’s still glaring at Shane, her chest heaving in rage. She looks away when she feels a hand on her arm, seeing Carol smiling softly at her, silently thanking her for standing up for her. Gloria forces a smile back and nods, telling her that it’s going to be okay. The group parts ways from the barn, each to do their own things. Gloria hobbles her way over to Dale who’s at his RV.

“Hey Dale.” she calls him.

Dale smiles at her, “Hey Gloria, how’s it feel to walk with three legs?” 

“Never better!” she laughs, “so, you’re old... and you know things-” Dale’s laugh interrupts her.

“You and Glenn really are siblings, he said the exact same thing to me when he first told me about the barn.” Dale grins, amused.

Gloria chuckles at this, “yeah, he copies me a lot.” she says, adjusting her spot on her crutches.

“So what are you looking for this old wise man for?” he smiles.

“Well, just wanted to see what you thought about the whole situation, with the barn, with Sophia, us staying,” she purses her lips, furrowing her brows.

Dale sighs at this, “well, we’ll deal with the barn eventually one way or another, but whether it’s a good way is a whole other story. Personally, I’d like it if we could all stay here, and as for Sophia...” he pauses, “I honestly don’t know what to think.”

Gloria looks down and nods. She then looks over towards the chicken coop as she notices Glenn walking out from it, holding his hat with his hair coated in egg.

“Did you get attacked by a hen?” Gloria blinks, amused.

He looks at her, “Yeah... a pissed off hen. She’s mad that I told everyone about the barn.”

Dale grabs his hat from the RV and hands it to Glenn, “here, you can wear this for now.” 

“Thanks.” he says solemnly. 

“Hey, it’ll be okay. If you want, I can try talking some sense into Maggie for you.” Gloria hops, adjusting herself on her crutches again. 

Glenn shrugs, “I don’t even know if that would help anything, I broke a promise, remember?”

“You did, but it was for the greater good. Leave it to me, you know how convincing I can be.” Gloria smiles reassuringly.

Glenn smiles a bit, rolling his eyes at her confidence. From behind Glenn, Gloria spots Daryl storming out from the horse stables and Carol looking after him with a concerned look on her face. Gloria excuses herself and makes her way towards Carol, wanting to ensure that she was alright. 

“Daryl wants to go out and find Sophia but he’s still heavily injured.” Carol says once she spots Gloria, running to her. 

Gloria ponders, not knowing what’s the right thing to say, “w-we still need to find Sophia...”

“But I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” Carol says, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. 

Gloria balances her body on her crutches then places a hand on Carol’s shoulder, “listen, no one else is going to get hurt, Daryl just got unlucky because of the horse he took and I was just careless, but that’s not going to happen to anyone else, okay?”

Carol wipes her tears that ended up falling then nods, “thank you... thank you.”

“I’ll take care of Daryl, you go over to Rick and Glenn and ask them to put together a search party, alright? We’ll find her.” Gloria says confidently.

Carol nods, a small smile on her lips, then she does as Gloria instructed and goes to find Glenn. Gloria makes her way to find Daryl at his tent that’s set up further away from the others, he’d always liked to be apart from the rest of the group. Daryl was packing up his arrows, his crossbow already slung on his back, getting ready to head out.

“Hey.” Gloria calls out as she stumbles to his area, “where’re you going?” she asks, playing dumb.

“Where do ya think?! Goin’ to find that lil’ girl!” he shouts at her, annoyed that she even had to ask such a question.

“You’re not going alone,” she stops right in front of him, “you’re still injured.” 

Daryl scowls at her, “are ya gonna try an’ stop me?”

Gloria shakes her head, “nope, I’m not exactly in any condition to stop you.” 

He looks at her and scoffs, then turns to leave without saying anything else. Gloria just turns in his direction and starts to follow him. Daryl turns around to look at her again when he hears that he’s being followed. 

“The hell ya think you’re doin’?” Daryl asks, frowning at her.

She doesn’t stop hobbling towards him, “I told you that you’re not going alone, I’m coming with you.”

“Nah, ya ain’. Go back to the house.” he orders, pointing in the direction of the house. 

Gloria finally makes it to him, “are you going to try and stop me?” 

Daryl sighs out of frustration, “we gotta find that lil’ girl!”

“I know that! Don’t think for a second that I don’t want to find her, but Carol... she was crying to me, she doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt, Daryl.” she sighs, ”We all know you’re a badass and probably the best tracker we have, but right now you aren’t at full potential because you’re hurt, and we can’t afford to lose you. We just can’t. I had Carol get Rick and Glenn to form a search party, we will find her, Daryl. We aren’t leaving the farm until we do. Walker barn or not.”

Daryl nods, not saying anything. Gloria moves a little closer to him, wanting to check his wounds to make sure they’re healing properly. Slowly, she moves her hand to his left temple where the bandage is, she notices that he flinches slightly. 

“May I?” she asks, her voice soft.

He looks at her hesitantly then nods again. She smiles softly at him, slowly and carefully pulling back the bandage, seeing that it’s healing fairly well. Gloria repatches the bandage on his temple then takes her attention to the wound on his torso. She looks at him, asking permission with her eyes. Daryl shifts awkwardly, lifting up his shirt only enough to reveal the stitched wound. She smiles when she sees that it’s also healing well. 

“You’re one hell of a man, Daryl.” Gloria comments, causing him to blush again. 

“Ya should head back.” Daryl says, making his way back to his tent. 

He enters his tent without saying anything else to her. Gloria chuckles at his behavior then slowly makes her way back to the rest of the group’s tents. When she gets there, she spots Maggie walking by herself. Thinking back to her conversation with Glenn, she decides to go and speak with her.

“Hey Maggie!” she calls out, hobbling her way towards the young woman, “can we talk?”

Maggie stopped in her tracks when she heard her name being called, “Sure...”

“I understand why you’re so pissed at Glenn,” Gloria starts when she’s in front of her, “you have a reason to be, but I hope you can understand that Glenn had his own reasons for what he did too. I know he broke a promise to you when he told the others about the barn, but he couldn’t risk their safety and keep it to himself. The first people those walkers will target if they ever got out would be my group sleeping out in their tents, not your family in the house protected by walls. And I don’t think any promise is worth the lives of my people.” 

As Maggie stays quiet, Gloria starts to worry that she offended her, “Look, I’m sorry if I’m being too blunt and I upset you more, but whatever you and your family thinks about these walkers still being people waiting on a cure, I can guarantee you that they cannot be saved.” 

“I know that!” Maggie snaps, “I’ve seen them first hand and I know how dangerous they can be! When I went on that run to the pharmacy with Glenn, one almost bit me and that’s when I realized it. That’s when I knew daddy was wrong about them.”

Gloria frowns, now confused, “Wait so... if you know how dangerous they are, why are you still so upset at Glenn for telling everyone?”

“I was mad at Glenn for breaking our promise, but that was the last thing on my mind. I care about Glenn, I think I might even love him.” Maggie blushes as she speaks, she sighs, “and because I care about him, I keep thinking back to when your group first got here, there was a walker in one of our wells and they lowered Glenn in to get the walker out.”

Gloria blinks in confusion at the story as it’s her first time hearing this, assuming that this was before Daryl had found her, “They... did what?” her voice coated with a protective rage.

“They used him as walker bait.” Maggie tells her simply, “and for some reason, Glenn was happy to do it for them! And when I... when I realized how dangerous they were, I just got so upset that Glenn was willing to throw away his life to protect people who don’t care about his safety.” 

Gloria sighs at this, “I know... that’s just how selfless Glenn is. Always putting others before himself, which is why we gotta protect him.” she smiles pointedly at Maggie.

Maggie smiles back at her words, “I meant it, when I said I care about Glenn.”

“I know, I can tell. And I know Glenn cares about you too. A lot. Which is why he had to tell everyone else.” she sees Maggie’s confused expression and continues, “he knew that Hershel wasn’t going to do anything about the barn, but Rick and Shane will. He had to make sure it was dealt with as soon as possible to protect everyone here, and that includes you and your family.”

“You’ve given me a lot to think about.” Maggie says, gently grabbing Gloria’s arm and squeezes softly, “thank you.”

“Anytime," she nods, “oh and if you can, please make up with Glenn? I’m never gonna hear the end of it until you do.”

This causes Maggie to laugh, “I’ll think about it.” then resumes walking on her path. 

Gloria chuckles and sighs, thinking that the talk went very well. She makes her way back to the tents and plops herself on the stump by Glenn’s tent. Taking a deep breath, she sighs in relief, today was a very productive day. 

---

Next Chapter

Yay~  Gloria and Maggie had their first sisterly kinda talk, and Daryl and Gloria shared a moment~ I’m loving this haha, I hope you guys enjoyed this too~! Next chapter will be out this Friday! 

In regards to everything that’s happening though, I really want to say I hope everyone stays safe and healthy, please don’t panic, we will get through this!

And as always, I would really appreciate any comments left for me! I’ll be replying to any comments in a new post because this is a sideblog!

[stonecoldjerseyfox]

Jersey on my mind (part 8)

While humming along to The Allman Brothers Band, Mila increases the speed, drumming on the steering wheel. She feels excited. Spending two days in bed was enough to make her feel better, more well rested than she’d felt in months. Of course, she’s in pain to the point where she could vomit, but that didn’t stop her from crawling out of bed that morning. 

She got herself dressed, or more like wrestled the clothes onto her body, before crashing down the stairs. Carol cooked breakfast in the kitchen. Rick sat at the breakfast table, with Carl, Michonne, Morgan, Glenn and a big red-haired man with an astonishing mustache, who introduced himself as Abraham. She and Juri had, on occasions when they were awake, been visited by all sorts of people. Carol brought them meals and was happy to sit down and talk to them. She had also offered to prepare a bubble bath for Juri, when Denise checked on Mila’s wound. Glenn and Maggie had dropped by to give her cigarettes, no vodka though, and sat down and talked for a while. Michonne and Carl kept her and Juri company in the evenings.

 Though in isolation in the bedroom, Mila found out everything she could about the community outside from the others. It sounded like a soap opera. The same night Daryl had brought her there, people had died. The leader of the community, Deanna, had lost her husband and the man in charge, Pete, had also been killed. Deanna had broken down by grief, understandably, and left all responsibility to Rick. And as that was not enough, Rick and Morgan had discovered a quarry filled with walkers. One thing was certain, there wasn’t a shortage of drama. 

And then there was the enigmatic archer, Daryl Dixon, whom she hadn’t seen in days. Well, until now.

Mila looks at the man in the passenger seat. He has stopped moping over the fact that she insisted on driving, but has remained silent. Every now and then he has given short commands about where to drive. Otherwise, he’s been silent. Mila hasn’t taken note. Instead, she pushed one of her cassette tapes into the car stereo, to Juris delight. In the rear-view mirror she sees how he nods his head side to side with the music. He loves music. That walkman he got for his second birthday was truly a blessing. It has been very helpful when Mila needs to ward off walkers, it keeps him occupied, shielded off from the gruesomeness to an extent.

”What exactly is this quarry?” Mila breaks the silence and looks at Daryl. ”Everybody’s talking about it.”

”A quarry.” Daryl shrugs.

“Yeah. Thanks. What else?” 

“A couple of hundred dead bastards trapped down there.” Daryl says. ”The barricade may burst. We need to lead them away.”

”Ah.” Mila searches Daryl's gaze. ”Hey, I didn't lie when I said I'm a good shooter.”

”Never said you weren’t.”

”Well then you can stop moping about me tagging along?”

”Was it really wise to bring the kid?”

”The kid-” Mila gives Daryl a sharp gaze. ”has a name. And he’s my responsibility. I bring him along everywhere. Besides, he wanted to come.”

Daryl looks away, his gaze wanders to the rear view mirror.

”Ya’ alright?” he says towards Juri, expects an answer, but Juri just nods back at him. ”Not that talkative?” Daryl asks.

Mila smiles as Juri makes a grimace, frowns a little and the side of his mouth goes up. Daryl looks like he doesn’t know what to say. Probably he thinks that one doesn’t need to say more than necessary. So far, he’s a living example of that.

”He's mute.” Mila says frugally. ”Believe me, I’ve tried everything. Ice cream. Candy. Toys. But he’s stubborn.” she smiles at the boy in the backseat. ”Your time is coming, malenkiy. Perhaps.”

After a while she’s instructed to stop the car along the road. The road is blocked by at least a dozen cars. They have to walk the last bit to the gas station. Daryl shows the way. The broad-shouldered hunter strides on at a rapid pace and has to stop many times to wait for them; Juri scurries while Mila walks at a decent walking pace. She’s in no hurry and, to be honest, she’s out of breath from being wounded. Despite his farouche, grumpy attitude, Daryl Dixon seems harmless. A crude hunter, but innocuous. Juri hurries up next to him as best as his short leg manages. He’s curious with the big man, but it might as well be the crossbow in his big hand. Mila can’t be sure. A few seconds later Juri turns his head towards her and makes the sign for ‘bowman’, then points at Daryl.

”He likes your crossbow.” Mila calls at Daryl’s back.

Daryl slows down and looks at Juri, who scurries next to him.

”Thanks.” he replies, slightly uncertain. As if he doesn't completely knows what it means to be mute or how on earth to communicate with him. ”Yeah…”

”You can talk to him.” Mila calls. ”He is not deaf.”

”I know that!” Daryl mutters, though Mila can see more than well that he absolutely didn’t know.

Juri, that little rascal, doesn't make the situation better. His angelic face turns into a cheeky, incredibly charming, laugh. Daryl grunts, and shoves him lightly. Juri lets out a laugh, one of very few sounds he actually manages to utter, and shoves him back.

”He can laugh?” Daryl looks surprised.

”Also the only thing he can do, or say.” Mila says and walks up next to them. ”He’s also a snorer.”

”How old is he-” Daryl asks firstly towards Mila, before remembering that Juri can understand him perfectly, and turns the question towards the boy instead. ”How old are you?”

Juri lifts three fingers and wiggles a fourth. Those six months are very important. Then he points at Daryl, as to ask how old he is.

”Ain’t got that many fingers, kiddo.” Daryl replies.

Mila smiles. She observes the broad man with the crossbow. He’s a big guy, tall, muscular and rough. The hair is messy, the stubble looks a few days old and the eyes are melange, with elements of green and blue. He wears a worn out ripped shirt, biker west and cargos. A bit rough overall. But on the other hand, Mila probably wouldn't have cared that much either if she didn't have Juri to take care of, making sure that he is clean and dressed. Although he belongs to a community of people, he doesn’t seem completely comfortable socially, talking to her.

They reach the abandoned gas station a few minutes later, in the middle of a parking lot, surrounded by a supermarket, a coffee shop and a liquor store. Mila’s eyes are drawn to the liquor store and she immediately gets very, very thirsty. There’s no living soul around when they arrive, no dead ones either for that matter. They pass an abandoned Chevy with punctured tires, standing in the middle of the road and heading towards the pump stations next to the convenience store. Three emptied vending machines are lined up against a wall, with glass scattered around.

”First and second pair of pumps are out of order.” Daryl says, pointing toward the two remaining, working pumps. ”I’ll get a can.”

”I’ll go to the liquor store.”

Daryl gives her a suspicious look, before he starts walking towards the convenience store. Mila looks down at Juri.

”You wanna go with me or him?”

Juri looks at her, then casts a glance towards the convenience store. He knows very well that he can find sweets and chocolate bars there. And at the end of the world, his mother can’t deny him sweets. To Mila's relief, Juri scurries after Daryl, as fast as his short legs can. 

Mila exhales and pulls her hands over her face. Shame and guilt washes over her, but she quickly shakes it off and walks toward the liquor store. She should stop drinking, for Juri's sake. But in the current situation it has been almost impossible. The booze suppresses the overwhelming anxiety and grief she carries around inside of her. How else is she going to handle those feelings without her dying from practically feeling too much? Booze keeps her in balance in a fucked up way, but it could also be just an excuse for her to have a drink, any time of the day. 

Brusquely, she opens the glass door to the store and raises the rifle in front of her, in case a walker would find it funny to surprise her. 

[itsclydebitches]

Rewatching RWBY there's this chilling lack of empathy through the volumes that I used to just wave off. Yang has no empathy for Tai, Blake is just entirely about what Blake needs, Weiss almost kills a woman at a party and her takeaway is 'my dad is mean so I'm going to run away'. Qrow sinks hard into depression in vol. 6 and Ruby's reaction is to yell she's never needed him. No one has EVER helped a civilian. It's so prevelant. Knowing how 7&8 go really changes the earlier writing.

I think there was a great deal of well-written empathy in the early volumes — after all, this cast was designed as the kind, well-meaning heroes — but that care was expressed almost solely within the group itself. Ruby sits by Jaune in the hallway and says "Nope!" to his self doubt. Weiss offers Ruby a hand up after she fails to kill the death stalker. Yang seeks out Blake and gets her to open up about what's bothering her. Now, I want to emphasize that there's nothing inherently wrong with this. It actually makes perfect sense. These are our main characters and they're written as peers co-habiting the same space. Of course whatever emotional growth we get, which automatically includes moments of compassion, would be directed towards each other. Similarly, the dynamics originally introduced — that of teachers and parents — likewise (rightly) puts the burden on the adults to provide the comfort, not the other way around. Port snaps Weiss out of her arrogant mindset. Ozpin reassures Ruby about her leadership worries. Tai is there to support his daughter when she's recovering from a lost limb. That's the natural order of things, so to speak.

The problem, to my mind, begins to occur when the group exits those dynamics. They're no longer students, they're licensed huntsmen. They're no longer kids, but equals who never needed adults in the first place. They're no longer doing things for themselves and their friends on personal downtime, they're doing them for the community at large as a profession (to say nothing of the world-altering war they've insisted on shouldering responsibility for). That's what a huntsmen is meant to be, a defender of the people, not someone who uses that power for personal interests alone. All of this is a huge change from where we started out: cutesy kids going off on comparatively low-stakes adventures because one or more of their teammates are invested, only just beginning to realize that they're signing up for a job where their desires come second (that fireside conversation at Mountain Glenn).

This change invites — demands, really — that the audience read them differently too. Qrow's spiral in Volume 6 is a good example of this. If Ruby is demanding to be treated not just as an equal in terms of maturity and experience, but also as the primary leader of this group, then the viewer expects her to treat her uncle as an equal too, not dismiss his hardship. I've seen numerous fans defend that arc with some version of, "He's her uncle. He's supposed to take care of her. He's failing" but that, according to the show, is no longer the dynamic. Qrow is now just a member of Ruby's team, someone she's responsible for as their leader. It's easiest to see the problem if we switch out Qrow for any of the other members. If Blake developed a drinking problem, do we think Ruby would just shout at her until she magically got over it? If Jaune endangered the group, do we think they'd all be angry about it, rather than trying to figure out the source of what caused the mistake? We don't even need to think hypothetically for that one because we saw it on screen. Jaune attacked Oscar and drove him off, not just threatening him, but arguably endangering the whole team by requiring a search party. Fans have long insisted they had to steal that airship right then because being in Argus was too much of a risk, but if we buy that reading (which I personally don't, but), then that means Jaune made things exponentially worse by forcing them out into that super dangerous city, rather than allowing everyone to stay hidden inside. He made a massive mistake which, according to the logic of Qrow's arc, should be met with frustration, disdain, and eventual demands to get over his anger at Ozpin or ship out. But, of course, he received nothing but concern. Yang was worried about him, not Oscar. The search becomes about his grief for Pyrrha and his team's willingness (as well as Pyrrha's family member) to provide more comfort. Suddenly, the tendency to express care solely towards those within the group becomes a flaw the story won't acknowledge.

And then it spirals. The thing to remember is that no single act here is bad on its own, especially when we consider that yes, we want flawed characters. Rather, it's about the pattern. Ruby is allowed to get mad at Qrow for his behavior and chuck her scroll in frustration. She's human. I'd be crazy frustrated too. However, if Ruby is meant to be written as a caring, sympathetic character, she should not only respond to the situation with frustration, yelling, a refusal to listen, and demands that he follow her lead, no questions asked. We can, and should, acknowledge that Weiss was the victim during that party. Her father was hurting her, the woman was beyond insensitive, Weiss was triggered in regards to a horrific event, and her power acted on its own. However, if we want to write Weiss as a compassionate, mature huntress to-be, she should acknowledge that she nearly killed someone — even an asshole someone — and vow to work on her control because she's not willing to put someone in danger like that ever again. Both of these moments have a "They could have been handled better" response attached to them — the former more-so than the latter imo — but these moments are made far, far worse due to later events in the show, events where the characters are cruel without any justification attached. Weiss didn't mean to attack that woman, but she did mean to ignore Whitely and threaten him with her weapon. So once we see that, it informs our understanding of what came before it. "Oh. The fact that Weiss never reacted to nearly killing someone isn't just a bit of missed potential, it's an early indicator that she... doesn't seem to care. If she endangers people, threatens people... that's fine with her." The group has a right to be frustrated with Qrow. The group did not have the right to magically steal Ozpin's entire life story, assault him, and blame him for the world's problems until he felt his only course of action was to run from them. So when we see that it becomes, "Oh. The fact that the group treated Qrow so poorly isn't just a one-time mistake born of a stressful situation and young adults being out of their depth in regards to alcoholism. They really will just abandon anyone the moment they start making mistakes." Anyone outside of their group, that is.

To say nothing of how all of these moments interconnect. Yang's recovery isn't just about getting used to not having an arm, it's about getting used to having a new one. Weiss' party isn't just about nearly killing someone, it's about not committing manslaughter because someone else stepped in. The Volume 6 arc isn't just about trying to escape with the Relic, it's about trying to get it somewhere safe. Fans frustrated with Ironwood's treatment don't harp on these details out of some desperate attempt to make him look good post-murder spree, rather, they recognize that he's a character that's been around since nearly the beginning, originally written as a good guy, and thus has accumulated a number of key connections with the cast. So when none of those connections are acknowledged during an arc about trust... that makes the group look very uncaring. Yang doesn't care that he gave her the arm, Weiss doesn't care that he saved her from hurting/potentially killing someone, Qrow doesn't care that he's trusted Ironwood for years (in a rival-bros way) and that they've been heading towards him this whole time. And when Ironwood begins to spiral, they don't do anything to try and help him, let alone acknowledge that their own choices, that lack of trust and empathy, had a hand in getting them here. "But it's not their responsibility to fix him!" Isn't it? Even a little? Just as human beings seeing an ally struggling under horrific decisions and circumstances? Sure, they don't have to try... but that doesn't make them look very heroic to my mind. And we can't even shrug that off by simplifying things with, "Well, Ironwood is evil now so who cares about him." They simultaneously don't care about finding Qrow who is missing, then captured. They don't do anything to try and find their missing teammates, with the exception of sending May to do it instead. They don't help the army fight off the grimm. Don't try to make sure Pietro and Maria had portals to escape through. Barely hesitate when the newly resurrected characters goes, "Kill me. That's the easiest thing for everyone." And these are just a few of the big ticket moments. It doesn't even begin to cover all the details we get that paint a picture of, "Wow okay. They just really don't care about people outside the group, huh? I mean, they say they do, in a life-or-death way, but they're not putting forth effort to show it on a daily basis."

And if you pick up on all that, if you acknowledge how much the group has changed based on where they started out, you might wonder when in the world that started. Surely we didn't just flip a switch around Volume 6. So you re-watch early stuff and, sure enough, there are moments that feel like setup for what's to come later. Not intentional setup (quite obviously), but a lack of care towards details across the series that, once the dynamic changed, became far, far more pronounced. Characters should be at least somewhat recognizable from start to finish, especially characters who have only experienced about two years of in-world time, so if we now get to see Ruby blandly commenting on all the people who are dying, or Weiss using her weapon as a means of coercing her little brother into doing what she wants, or Yang and Jaune dismissing Ren until he gives in to their point of view... we're going to look for the beginnings of that behavior early on. As you say, we were able to wave all those little details off due to a number of important factors. Now though? Now they feel like they hold a lot more weight, simply by virtue of that early material proceeding what we have now.