#i may expand on this later and i also may not

[norwayromanoff]

You Were Are Hers pt. 2

NR x lover-turned-enemy!r

Summary: Four months later.

Word count: 1k

Author’s note: I fixed it (I’m physically incapable of ending things badly for Natasha… like give that woman a break. She’s been through enough)

You can read part 1 here

FOUR MONTHS AGO

You pull the trigger and the shot rings out, loud, deafening in a way that isn’t just due to the gunpowder’s ignition. Somehow you managed to take the shot even though your eyes were blurry with tears and devastation, with heartbreak you shouldn’t be feeling.

The bullet burns past Natasha, grazing her cheek, minor blood, no mess. She’s quick to turn in the direction it came from, eyes scanning the horizon. She can’t see you, but she feels you.

You missed. You don’t miss.

Natasha knows what that means. It was a warning, a ‘don’t come after me’. It was a plea.

She never was good at not following her heart when it came to you.

ONE DAY AGO

It takes days, months, of more research, more data analyses, more late nights, but finally, there it is. Mistakes—plural—and they’re not subtle. You’re getting sloppy. Something's wrong.

A security camera picked you up in Lisbon, just a fleeting image but enough. Facial recognition scans were able to match your faceprint as you walked along the street. It looks as though you hadn’t even noticed the camera. Mistake. Camera tracing followed you, showed you getting into a vehicle, not unmarked, license plate in full view, trackable. Mistake.

Hope, tentative and perhaps foolish, flutters in her chest. She doesn’t push it down.

PRESENT DAY

Natasha finds you easily, detects you easily even within the crowd. She can already see the change in you. You’re shaky and on edge, not collected or composed anymore. You look human again. Her breath stutters.

She got on a Quinjet only minutes after locking onto your location, stole a Quinjet, actually. She may be in for a lecture later, but you take precedence, you always have. It would be a seven-hour flight to Lisbon by commercial airplane. Too long. She needs you back, now.

She moves forward, steps cautious, still just watching, taking in your unusual behavior as she begins to tail you. You don’t even notice her following. Mistake, mistake, mistake.

At her call of your name, you stop, stiffening, but you don’t turn around. Not yet. Both her voice and the fact that she caught you off guard make you wary. Your name again, closer this time. When you finally glance at her, she can see your fear at your own negligence, and she’s met with a guarded expression on your face. She never wants you to look at her that way, to view her as a threat, to believe she holds anything other than love. She needs you to understand that she’s nurtured it, even with the distance, more so with the distance, allowed it to grow each day, only ever wanting it to expand and swell and spread within her until she found and could give it to you again.

“Natasha, I’m slipping.” Your voice is trembling. You’re acting skittish. You’re unsure if you should be letting her in, and she can see it in your eyes that you’re debating fleeing. She won’t let you.

One hand reaches out, coming to gently grasp at your wrist, not just as a precaution preventing you from bolting but also securing, trying to offer solace when you need it. You don't have to be alone anymore. Her hand trails up your arm and then pulls you into her by your elbow, firm—it’s decided, you’re coming closer. Her other hand then settles on the small of your back, pushing you forward, pressing you against her body. It’s been so long since she’s really held you.

“What happened?” she asks softly.

“You happened. I couldn’t take the shot. I’ve never hesitated before, but pointing the gun at you just-” you break off, “I’m compromised.”

She hears the critical way you’re talking about yourself, almost derogatory, as if mercy isn’t something to embrace.

“You’re strong. Compassion doesn’t make you weak,” she murmurs.

“No, but sentiment does.”

“You’ve always had emotions when it’s come to me.”

“I don’t know how to turn them off.”

EIGHT YEARS AGO

“I love you, you know.”

It’s spoken into the air. Tranquility around you, and your arm around Natasha. Her head is on your chest, listening to the rhythmic and comforting sound of your heart while your free hand traces patternless shapes on her hip. She thinks she could stay like this forever. It’s hard to want anything else when you’re holding her so delicately, as though her skin, scarred over and roughened, able to withstand bullets, knives, and arrows, can’t handle a little weight from your fingertips.

You didn’t hesitate to say it, to admit that the steady beat she’s listening to is hers.

The room goes still, no tension, no discomfort, but no words follow. There are none. Anything, everything, will fall short. Natasha’s whole world goes still.

You said it first.

You know she feels the same.

PRESENT DAY

You collapse against her.

The sound that comes out of you can only be described as a whimper as you finally, truly give yourself to the woman you love but never let yourself have.

And she holds you like she’s determined to shelter you from the world that has been much too unkind. She touches you like you aren’t tainted by every kill you’ve carried out, and she kisses your temple like you’re worthy of softness despite them all. She murmurs that you’re still a person, and you don’t deserve a permanent target on your back, or to be buried six feet under. She doesn’t just forgive you for all of your wrongdoings, she understands them.

“What do you need from me?”

A teary-eyed smile. “You, just you… and I could use some water.”

“Yeah? I’ll be the one getting it for you from now on.”

[househrt]

I feel like a prerequisite for the ducklings getting hired is that they had to have no friends in middle school. every single one of them ate lunch alone and went through varying degrees of character development because of this

[applestorms]

on another note. it genuinely kinda surprises me how many people interpret ivan to be the type of person to Repress and Deny his feelings when, from all the evidence we actually have, he actually seems to be quite open about it?

he does do the dumb stare and watch from afar thing that till does with mizi, yeah, but even there i don’t know if i would necessarily interpret that as ivan like. pushing his feelings away. compare the difference between how till and ivan are framed in these two shots:

in till's, we are pushed way farther back, seeing his full face and a good deal of his body as he slouches back. the colors are bright, fitting in with most of the happier mizisua angst memories, and you can read till's expression pretty clearly, even with his face beaten up. it's cute and mostly innocent, the kind of thing that makes you want to gently push him out from behind the wall to watch him stutter and get all embarrassed but reach out and play with his friends.

in ivan's... jesus. i mean, he looks like a freak (affectionate). you can't read his expression, despite the fact that we are zoomed in much more closely, only really seeing his eye as the placement of his hand covers his mouth. there is very little body language to convey the same type of sweet, childhood Yearning that till has in his staring shot. instead, for ivan, it all comes down to the Eye, how intently he stares as he watches till and mizi. it almost doesn't even feel like he wants to join in at that moment, or not yet, like watching alone is enough to feed the starvation.

don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of Yearning and Angst in that boy-- round 3 alone is enough to demonstrate that. but what i think people sometimes forget to account for is the fact that ivan acts like that specifically because he has already been rejected.

up until [whenever this moment happens in the timeline] ivan seemingly has absolutely no qualms about getting all up close and personal with till. we see this in plenty of the round 6 flashbacks:

he is plenty comfortable getting all up in till's personal space, whether it be to beat him up or just exist near him.

i also like how in this shot (below) we can see him specifically stand up and move seats, just so that he can bother till during lunch and have his little vampire weirdo moment (aww).

ivan's behavior only really shifts after till has already rejected him-- which, i'd also like to note, seems to genuinely catch ivan off guard. perhaps he genuinely didn't even consider the possibility that till would ever push him away?? i guess it's hard to know the specifics of what he was feeling or thinking in that exact moment, but at the very least this speaks to the ease with which they existed around each other previously.

thus: ivan doesn't begin with the belief that till could never love him. he only starts to doubt whether or not his feelings are requited after he has already been rejected, after he pushed too hard and too quick.

after the failed meteor shower date, his affections become a lot more subtle-- sneaking around to take care of till when he needs it, but only when his eyes are closed. the love and obsession and watchfulness is all still there, but he takes more care to hide it better now. until... well, y'know.

he lets the selfishness win. :]

[mariyekos]

I like to imagine Dante's able to use some basic magic beyond just typical demonic stuff. In the opening of DMC1, a magic circle appears below Trish when Dante shoots the motorcycle back at her, so I like to think Dante knows some basic spells, wards, and the like. For the most part he uses it for little things like making a special lock for his Devil Arm vault, maybe heating up soup or a drink that's gone cold, and so on, rather than any combat things. Dante's spells are not at all refined and he doesn't have a natural talent for it, per se, but he has a lot of power he can put into things so he often ends up brute forcing whatever it is. It's not necessarily efficient, but it works, and that's all he cares about. He's not really interested in most precise or specific things.

Vergil on the other hand has a lot more control and a much greater interest in magic in general. A post DMC5 Vergil (and pre DMC3) would use magic a lot more often, and without as much prep. He spent a lot of time learning different charms etc. to use in daily life, and he's a lot more elegant about it. Some he learned when on the run and trying to hide from demons, while others he learned when trying to track down Sparda, and others still he learned for purely convenience reasons. Post DMC5 he gets a lot more into it than he did pre DMC3 when it was more a thing of survival, even if it had the convenience aspect back then too. He's the kind of person who would learn spells for the sake of knowing them, and while he prefers using demonic abilities in combat, he might try to learn a magical combat spell or two just to see what it's like. He mostly sticks to practical things though (which sit on the border of practicality, but he considers them practical, uses them often, and makes Dante's magic look like child's play).

On the magical third (regrown!) hand, Nero's absolutely horrible at magic, to the point of not being able to do basically anything. He's got the magical reserves, but unlike Vergil who can cast precise spells with relatively little effort, or Dante who gets through spells by basically overloading them until they work, Nero just can't get magic to work for him at all. Lessons with Vergil end with him stomping out when he gets fed up with Vergil commenting on how easy it should be, while attempts to get Dante to explain how he casts magic end in frustration when Dante's explanations basically start and end at "I dunno, it, it just works." Sure Nero can memorize and draw a warding sigil perfectly, but any and all attempts to get it to actually do anything end in failure.

Kyrie, in a reveal that surprises everyone, most of all herself, is apparently extremely talented at magic, which she does not know until she sees Nero trying and failing to activate a warding sigil Vergil taught him, puts a finger on it so she can trace over it as she reviews Nero's work in case he messed something up, and inadvertently activates it. After that they end up doing some testing and discover Kyrie is a natural when it comes to magic. The only problem is that while casting spells, activating sigils, and the like come easily to her, her magical reserves are rather small, limiting what she's able to do. When she first activates the sigil Nero had drawn, she ends up unable to get up and Nero has to carry her to bed (which she insists he doesn't have to do, because she just needs a minute to catch her breath, but he insists on)

Nico is stoked to hear about this and ends up figuring out a way to essentially fit Kyrie and Nero with a magic converter that allows Kyrie to draw on the magical reserves Nero can't utilize so that she can use them for whatever she wants to. While Kyrie isn't someone who really cares to use magic for things in her daily life like Dante and Vergil, she does use it to make little charms for the kids, and to establish wards around the house to protect them from demon attacks and other small misfortunes. She and Vergil end up bonding a little bit as he teaches her the spells and other bits of magic Nero was never able to pick up on.

(Vergil himself feels a mixture of pride at how quickly she picks up on things with his instruction, and jealousy when he sees how good she is at things first or second try when he knows it took him a good five or ten attempts to get it down when he was first learning. Kyrie notices and tells him that he's still much better than her in the long run since he's able to use magic without needing a separate "battery" to power him, but Nero absolutely digs into Vergil about it when Kyrie isn't there. Dante meanwhile finds it all hilarious. But he and Nero are pretty proud of Kyrie too.)

[tsutsumi-kurose]

yugi twins + rejection of authority

[the-way-astray]

What's your favorite cannon thing you truly like about Keefe Sencen

I DARE you 😈

i've been dared . . .

definitely my favorite thing is the fact that in flashback/legacy he was 100% not only supportive of sophie and fitz's relationship despite having a crush on sophie, but also actively tries to keep sophie from doing something that could even be interpreted as implicative. there was a poll a while ago about whether people thought sophie and keefe were (even unintentionally) emotionally cheating on fitz, and i answered a hard no. and the main reason for that was because of keefe. he does so much to try to keep sophitz together during that time, including telling sophie to confide in fitz, telling her to tell him about the matchmaking thing, shutting ro down (or at least doing his best to), and generally speaking, he did not have to do all that. like, yeah, any decent person would be supportive and not actively try to break their two friends in a relationship up, but keefe goes way beyond that and actively tells sophie exactly what to do in order to keep her relationship with fitz intact. every time fitz "catches" him with sophie it's lowkey painful to think about what keefe must be feeling because he spends so much time trying to prevent that exact thing from happening. there's even a line in legacy where sophie admits this herself. one of the only times he uses his empathy not dubiously is at the end of legacy, where sophie "tells" him (i use the term loosely) that she and fitz broke up. and he immediately says "i'm sorry", expressing out loud his sympathy for their relationship's end.

(one thing i've heard people misinterpret a lot in anti keefe things is the "blond hottie" line, which they say is an inappropriate thing to say about someone in a relationship. that was not said by keefe. that was said by ro. she says that when she's trying to convince sophie that bronte can't be her bio dad, to which keefe then says "unless she gets that from her mom". that's all he says. sophie then wonders whether that meant he agreed with the blond hottie assessment, but that doesn't come from anything he actually says.)

it surprises me that i haven't seen keefe lovers talk more about the fact that fitz literally commissioned him to draw him and sophie in a very romantic pose in a very romantic spot and keefe did it. so i'm going to talk about it. once again, this is not just baseline "my crush is in a relationship, oh well, guess i won't interfere" stuff. this is going above and beyond to keep sophie and fitz together. again, keefe has a crush on sophie. i'm not an artist, but obviously art doesn't just pop up out of thin air. he spent some time making that drawing. and all that time is yet another reminder that his crush is in a relationship. he could've told fitz no, made up some excuse as to why he couldn't do it, and that would've been well within his right. but he didn't. so that's a thing worth mentioning. (i'm going to just say i don't like the argument that fitz knew what he was doing when he asked keefe for the drawing, though. i think fitz just thought "sophie likes keefe's drawings! let me get her one of those" which is sweet in and of itself.)

in unlocked, keefe thinks something like "he definitely should not be happy that two people close to him were going through a rough patch. but, if he was being honest, he wasn't really sad" or something to that effect. and i like that. he has a crush on sophie, so of course part of him will be happy she's now single again. it's realistic. i've definitely talked about this before, but jealousy isn't a character flaw to me. it's only the actions that a character does because of their jealousy that defines whether or not it's a bad thing. but the thing with keefe is that he never allows the fact that he likes sophie to outwardly affect sophie and fitz's relationship in any negative way when they're tentatively dating. sophie and fitz fell apart for a lot of reasons, but the reasons were entirely on sophie and fitz, and had nothing to do with keefe himself. in fact, you could argue they only lasted as long as they did because of keefe.

i complained a lot about how much he doesn't shut up about his hair in my rant. but that was mostly at his humor style and the fact that he literally talks about it at the weirdest times (in his registry file . . . ) more so than the fact itself. and truthfully, he doesn't even talk about it that much. but i think it makes a lot of sense that he takes pride in it. it's the physical manifestation of rebellion against his parents who have controlled every other aspect of his life. he's also an artist, and i think it's a pretty neat thing that that extends to the way he styles his hair. also it looks good. i will die on this hill. just don't look at the laura art. jason chan is my king and keefe's hair is very cool and- *gunshot*

there's also a handful of moments where keefe uses his humor appropriately, to ease tension. best example i can think of is the one katie brought up in this post which is the moment in flashback right before the celestial festival (climax). magnate leto gives them all these sparkler things to light if they're in danger, and keefe sets off a couple prematurely "just to make sure they work" *wink wink nudge nudge* and sophie specifically says the "bit of levity" helped tame the "monster" she's been battling the whole book. when he's able to use his humor appropriately, and not at weird times about weird things, he can be a valuable source of comfort. these moments are unfortunately few and far between, but they do exist.

keefe is also good at calming sophie down when she's panicking, when he's not using his empathy to force her to tell him her feelings. i personally like it more when he's comforting her using his words than his emotional breezes, because that speaks more to his personality than it does to his ability to use his emotional breezes to calm her down. another example katie discusses in the post above is when he's talking to her about the bronte-is-her-bio-dad theory. sophie was panicking because she was thinking about the implications of it (prentice, him acting horrible to her, etc.) and keefe brings her back down to earth with his reassurances that this doesn't change anything about her. when she says bronte can't know she knows, he immediately gets her to reconsider in a gentle way, because like. that's the entire point of her search for her bio parents. he does all this using his words (actually i just checked and he does use his emotional breezes a couple of times but his words do have an impact on their own so we're disregarding that), which does prove that he's very good at knowing what to say to keep her calm.

(also the fact that he was even helping her search for her bio parents is another example of him going above and beyond to keep her relationship to fitz intact. he didn't have to do that at all.)

and lastly, i think i mentioned this in my rant and maybe a couple other places, but i think keefe's jealousy when it comes to family is written very realistically. in neverseen, he's jealous of fitz, biana, sophie, and dex when they hug their parents, and there's a line where he specifically says "i hate watching it. them and della" (them referring to fitz and biana). in unlocked, he's again jealous of dex's family and wishes he'd been born into a family like his. and i think that's written really well. it's pretty subtle and not really shoved in your face, too. i'm pretty sure there's a total of three times it gets brought up: the "them and della" line, one line at the end of neverseen where sophie and dex are hugging edaline and kesler, and then the line in unlocked. very blink and you miss it but i like that. it's one of the few things the narrative doesn't dump a truckload of pity on keefe for, and it makes the few times it is brought up even sadder.

oh, and also i think he's handsome. sue me.

[1am-s0-veryt1red]

according to Oxford dictionary emulation (n.) is an effort to match or surpass a person or achievement typically by imitation. throughout his character arc, bakugou uses his relationships with his classmates and pro hero mentors as a foundation to become his best self, making emulation bakugou katsuki's love language. in this essay I will

[banesberry-anomoly]

Bexley the Bearcat/Binturong

- He/It/Vi/Any

- Rockstar-like persona & plays multiple instruments

- Part of the 'Lights After Dark' program at Indigo Park, which catered to older teens and adults

[the3rddenialist]

Thoughts:

I think it's interesting how different of a character Marvin is in the Altrverse comics as opposed to Marvin's Magic.

Which makes sense, MM!Marvin is basically just Sean, whilst Altrverse Marvin is so far his canon.

But compared to MM!Marvin, who is very loud and boisterous, bro Altrverse Marvin is quiet

Like dude does not talk that much, fairly visually expressive, but my man is a lot more quiet.

Like the few instances of him talking a lot is when he's with someone more close, like Moira, Sunday or Ramesses (who are all very chatty around Marvin, Moira and Ramesses a lot more so) and typically if he's enthusiastic. But he would much rather listen or, with someone he doesn't like, stare in the distance with an annoyed expression than talk. He's definitely a more 'talk when necessary' type of guy. Which makes sense in the magic business where words are powerful. But it's kind of funny cause if you got into a disagreement with him he'd probably just stare you down lol.

There are pages where Marvin doesn't say anything, it's just interesting. Real quiet kid in Vol 1 too.

[noonthemoon]

(person who is deeply normal) I think genderswapped jzx would go so fuckinv hard(it would the messiest situation in the world). Girljzx vs. jgy in Inheritance...what would madam Jin think of this how would jzx herself interact with this- if we still go through on the betrothal thing(would we? Would mmJ sacrifice her only solid power- a legitimate heir- to marriage, given that she was the one who arranged the betrothal in canon? If we also genderswapped JYL how would that impact dynamics within yunmengjiang? Especially if he keeps his weak cultivation and how the jin sect has 1. Tons of influence and 2. Only The One Heir(at this point) and the Jiang sect has two sons- how would all that shake out?) If we kept the betrothal intact- though it probably wouldn't be- that would make jin (jiang) ling a very solid heir- like a True consolidation of power- a male heir! How would that interact with JGY after zixuan dies? He's from the female line and also, crucially, the Jiang sect heir-but he's from the legitimate line- and JGY doesn't have any children- what happens after HE dies? What would jin(Jiang) ling's insanely fucked up Inheritance look like? Esp since ymj is so much weaker than lanlingjin at the time of jyl &jzx's deaths, how would all that shake out? Realistically JGS could also just legitimize more bastards but would mmJin allow that? This is all assuming that xuanli get married like in canon which woulf be somewhat up in the air! Also, if they did, their betrothal would definitely never be broken.

[lesbiancarat]

hello!!!! i just stumbled upon your carat resource carrd and want to thank you for putting in the effort and time for such a well made and informative library of seventeen content!! i noticed that there are a few songs missing: seungkwan's cover of 'text me merry christmas' w/ AKMU suhyun, and the HHU songs from the diamond edge tour (joker - wonwoo solo, what's the problem, and madness maxed out)

also i think the miss you by sicboy ft. vernon MV is missing from the carrd :)

ahh thank you! i try my best to get everything but sometimes little things slip through the cracks so i appreciate you letting me know! i can't believe i missed some of these lol. these should all be added now!

Music -> Covers -> Text Me Merry Christmas

Music -> Unofficial & Unreleased Songs -> Joker / What's the Problem / Madness Maxed Out

Music -> Collaborations -> Miss You

[sophieswundergarten]

@nobodysdaydreams @oflightningandstars

Here are the beginning dregs of my Wolf 359 MBS AU:

Constance is the incredibly odd and unique AI that runs the space station (She's got some secrets!), while Reynie is the Communications Officer whose job it is to ensure that messages and recordings are being made and stored or sent back to Earth as needed. Kate is the Commander of the ship, and she loves her job so much. She gets a harpoon gun. She has full run of the air vents. It's awesome. Sticky is a scientist, but he's only really had book experience, so the samples and experiments that he's responsible for are maybe something that their bosses should have not given him charge of with no explanation.

(Also, Mr. Benedict is not part of command. You should be very concerned that these people are cool sending children into space)

[dangoulains-devotion]

yuffie has many interesting elements to her but people refuse to move past "i find energetic kids annoying" and it makes me sad

[crueclown22]

your nikki in lace leading to polycrue post is keeping my mind happy today, thank you 🙏💕

you are absolutely welcome, hope you're well and sending lots of love and happiness your way!! 💕

[padthaifan]

Fuck it. Project Zomboid gyjo AU

Johnny Joestar, recently disowned ex-jockey who is now unemployed living off his previous race winnings in a shitty apartment in Muldraugh KY when the outbreak happens.

Gyro Zeppeli, Italian medical student doing a rotation at St. Peregrin hospital in Louisville KY. He is visiting a clinic in Muldraugh the day the outbreak happens.

Gyro’s pockets consistently look like this.

[prayers-to-hyliarceus]

💥

Why do you pride yourself in eating consistently? That's taking time away, time you could be using to help people, heal them, save them? You can eat when no one is suffering, and only then.

Indeed, why do any of you pride yourselves so much in how much you waste your time on frivolous joys instead of saving lives. You are heroes, Champions. You do not have time to be people.

(OoC: i apologise if this is too nasty — i'm thinking about the, uh. 'you shouldn't eat you should save people' thing in specific — but i had the brainwave and decided to get evil with it.)

I learned the hard way that depriving myself of basic necessities and joy only harms others more, especially since it leaves me all out of sorts. Then I cannot function properly, and neither can my powers.

To your second statement, anon, and to add onto what Mipha said, you clearly do not understand what happens when you do try to do that. Would you like to see one of my deeper lightning scars?