#i mean they were told to behave when betty was there and look how that went

[grinchwrapsupreme]

i'll never understand people saying the ghosts will have less freedoms in a hotel rather than a residence like when has not being allowed to do stuff ever stopped them lmao someone's radio is getting haunted julian does not give a shit

[lightthewaybackhome]

It’s always a bit difficult to read the books of people you know, or even know sorta second or thirdhand. There’s always the fear that you might not enjoy their book and that uncomfortableness might ensue. I don’t know Carrie Brownell, but I do know the Sarah Gabriel mentioned in the Acknowledgements. As Sarah edited this book, she told me again and again that I needed to read it and that I would like it. I trust Sarah. If she tells me to read something or watch something, I know I’m going to like it, but there is still that little bit of discomfort because what if I don’t like this one? Silly fears. Silly, silly fears.

As I snuggled in to read this middle-grade historical fairy tale, I wondered to myself at what point I would get hooked, what line would be the moment I thought, “Yes, this is it, this is a good book.”

Well, it was the first line.

As soon as I sat down and read “The Rainbow was an extraordinary clipper ship.” I was hooked and happy. Few things fill me with absolutely sheer delight and all the childhood feels like ships from the Golden Age of Sail. They always bring the right cocktail of romance, elegance, imagination, and terror. Ships like the Rainbow so often end up being characters in their own right, which is why this still happens today in Star Trek, Firefly, and Stargate. “And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” (Sea-Fever by John Masefield)

I’ve been reading books about ships my whole life and I always want to read more. This book weaves the high seas adventures of the Golden Age of Sail with Irish folklore, and then brings it all into a modern setting. I could not have been happier with this combination because it is what I desired in childhood. I read folktales and I read history and I read fairy tales and longed for my own adventures. I don’t know about other kids, but I feared the time of adventure, real adventure, was long past, that I had missed it by being born in a more modern era. This book allows a kid like I was to find the adventure I longed for.

The book is beautifully written. I underlined many wonderful descriptions that captured my imagination. Description of trees, the sea, the sand, and stars were all painted into the imagination without becoming heavy-handed. Not only was my inner child being fed, but so was my inner writer. Nothing pleases me more than a wonderful description, even one line, about the beauty of trees. (I am not channeling Tolkien…right?)

What I found most refreshing about this book was the children. They were respectful and obedient. Not perfect by any means, and certainly not dull or lacking in imagination and adventure, but they reminded me of how I and my siblings would have behaved, of how we were raised. They felt real. They did not need disrespect and disregard for the adults to have an adventure and save the day. I loved that. I think if I had read this book as a 12-year-old tomboy, I would have disliked Betty and loved Bert. (I still loved Bert.) I would have felt that Betty was too soft and frightened and cried too much. But looking at her through the eyes of an adult, I feel like she is true to form. My nieces, who aren’t growing up with a bunch of boys like I did, are very much like Betty, and that is a good thing. I would have found her a kindred spirit when it came to imagination and fairy tales. Her feeling when she sees the stars is exactly how I felt. I loved that. I adored Bert. What a boy. What a real boy. I loved how the book unapologetically had Bert look out for the girls, lead the way, and join his father up front. I love how none of the girls felt insulted by this. The men in this book are protective and leading, and the girls let them be. No girl bosses to be found. What a drink of cool water in a parched land. The sibling aspects were so well done. I laughed so hard at some points and nodded at how familiar others felt. This is how siblings behave. It felt so very real. I loved that. The scene where they are at Oak Lair collecting acorns and preparing to be stormed by pirates felt like it had been pulled from my own childhood. That was magic.

I appreciated the parental insight this book included. We got little snippets of how the children’s parents were dealing with things and a realistic reaction from the parents at the end. I also appreciated Cordy’s understanding of the parents even as a woman without children. I loved Cordy so much because she was such a mother to the children, especially the twins. I think it is great for children to read that their parents aren’t always sure of what they’re doing and that they have to wrestle with their decisions. This is a good age to give kids the opportunity to see their parents in a new light as people, not just mom and dad. I love the choice the twins' father made to be a father first always. This made me love him immediately.

There is a wholesome air in this book that is like visiting the sea on vacation after you’ve been in the city far too long.

As for the plot twist… I’m going to try not to give spoilers, but I will say I was so pleased with the plot twist. I was getting nervous as I went along because if there wasn’t a plot twist, I was going to be very disappointed. Then it came! Huzzah!

I think this book gives parents and children lots to talk about. It not only can be used to introduce your kids to certain points in history but also to different folklore and fairy tales. It gives you a chance to develop the idea of the Perilous Realms. That fey and faerie are beautiful but not safe. It provides good platforms for discussing choices. This book won’t teach your kids bad behavior or to cut the grownups out of their lives, but it will let you talk to them about how not everything is what it seems and to be discerning and careful. It will also provide parents an opportunity to talk about life and life ending. All in all, a safe book, but not a stale, boring, or bland book.

“It is said to be a reminder that women have the power to change the world through seemingly small acts of heroism when they stand on the side of truth.” This line literally gave me chills.

[motsimages]

Yesterday I watched the Poker Face episode in the retirement home and I think there are details I may be missing (culturally) but others are there to be seen.

Like we have Charlie who is homeless and on the run, who can't work in a place where they'd legally hire her or pay her via bank so she is not tracked, she needs cash only, and she is working as a cleaner or something like that in this fancy retirement home. It says how the retirement home actually works, though.

It looks cool and fancy: there are common areas but the residents have their own room or, even, their own small apartment. There are nurses who constantly pay attention to the residents' vitals, check their medicatoin, etc. It all looks clean and tidy. They organise activities and trips. It feels like a nice place to live. But they don't hire all of their employees and they don't pay them through the legal-official channels. They probably charge a lot to the families or use up all the retirement funds of the people living there to have such a nice place and show off, but not to hire legally the "lowest class" of employees. And they also supervise if their poorer employees are taking stuff from the deceased residents or the lost and found.

Then we have these two old ladies who are assholes to everybody, who think they are cooler than everybody and then we are proven that they actually are assholes. And I mean, they are. But I feel there is also a kind of "change your mind about hippies, they were actually terrorist" vibe to the message of the episode. This is probably where I don't have enough information to know how deep the propaganda goes, BUT: they were criticising the elites, they were after the children of the rich people and they are now living in this retirement home? How? Were they poor themselves? I don't think so.

I doubt this home for the elderly is public or subsidized in any way, and given how unforgiving the US seem in terms of having debt, being a felon, etc. how are they paying for it? They spent years in prison and they still came out to live in an apartment of their own in this retirement home, with fancy clothes and money to cover all of their expenses.

I think they were also well off and they have had money their whole lives, but they thought they were better than the other rich kids because they had a friend who read Marx and told them about it. They even have the attitude of "better than" that many rich people have: they behave as mean girls do in high schools and they don't want to make any effort to make sharing common spaces with other residents confortable for anybody but them (so much for the spirit of communal living of hippies). On top of that, they really believe they can do whatever they want with whichever attitude and get away with it. They are used to being bullies and getting away with it because they're cute (and they have money) and it has been working up until now. They don't even have regret or doubts about the behaviour that they feed each other. They are sure they are right and smart and better.

So yeah, they haven't known real struggle in their whole lives, probably not even in prison because if they have the money I think they have, they have the contacts too. They were violent posers. They seemed cool as opposed to the other residents but Betty, who might have been too much controlling was actually organising activities for everyone, making sure everyone was more or less confortable in the common areas and not afraid of having fun the way she likes it (she bought the silly hat at the zoo for herself and wore it the whole day).

It is an interesting episode on hypocrisy and how things are not what they look like (more than others, this is generally the idea behind many of these señoras que investigan and particularly this series).

I am still surprised at how badly does Charlie read people. She can tell when people lie but she cannot spot a person to avoid if her life depend on it (quite literally, at times).

[youwontlikethisblog]

The After Math Of Their First Time.

Now in the after math we have an even more confused Armando. While Betty has had yet another dream of hers become a reality.

As I mentioned in my previous post regarding this night(Forgive Me Post) when Armando goes to drop off Betty he brings up the fact that it wasn't Betty's first time(he wasn't her first) he asks her: Beatriz , who were you with before[me]? when she stays silent and worries her mouth Armando's demeanor changes.

"There was another man in your life, right?" She stopped making eye contact with him before he asked this question and nods while swallowing hard, briefly makes eye contact and tells him:

"Yes Sir. There was someone. I had a relationship before[you]."

"Nicolas Mora?" Armando says not missing a beat nor a second. His lips sit in a tight line while he examines Betty.

"No." She says in a low voice, swallows hard and shakes her head. Since her behavior and mannerisms all go in hand with what she's saying; Armando who is a man who is good at manipulating people based on body language(not as good as Mario though) believes her. He stops staring at her, turns to look in front of him and looks to take a breath of relief. "It was somebody else but I don't like talking about that." He turns to stare at her.

"No, I don't want to make you uncomfortable either." He seems more relaxed here than he did seconds ago "Let's not talk about it anymore."

I briefly touched on the subject in the last post that Armando was jealous in this scene, however, what type of jealousy? I would like to expand on this here.

(If you haven't yet; read post Nicolas Mora Is Better Than You before you continue reading this post.)

Jealousy is a bunch of feelings summed into one: Insecurity, inadequacy, resentment, hopelessness, and/or disgust.

While Armando does feel possessive of Betty as an object, harbors feelings of animosity against Nicolas he also is jealous of not only Betty(and her "relationship" w Nic) but Nicolas. He is extremely jealous of him and not only because he is a threat in an economic level or even a romantic level but because he is a threat in all aspects.

To really understand this lets ignore what I said in the previous post about how Armando isn't the one that is actively in Betty's personal life and how he only gets glimpse of it or how Don Hermes approves of Nicolas.

Lets completely ignore that Nicolas is in Terra Moda, Betty is the owner of Eco Moda and working for Armando.

Let's pretend that Betty and Armando met one day and they established a friendship of sorts. Maybe they shopped at the same grocery store, maybe Armando and her interacted when she worked at the banks(bc she never got fired) and from there formed a friendship of sorts.

Though things were always impersonal, Betty had a small crush on Armando who went to the bank on a regular biases where they talked about money blah blah blah and Armando slowly started to wonder about Betty and her personal life and one day Armando finds out Betty has a boyfriend.

He finds out when he goes to the bank by overhearing Betty talking with a work friend about it(in this scenario we'll also be forgetting that he is extremely obsessed with perfection) and he asks her about it once their meeting is over and she tells him she doesn't have one but he ponders about this on his own and becomes paranoid about his feelings and investigates who Nicolas is by asking said work friend of Betty's about Nicolas.

He finds out Nicolas is a man desired my many women, who is relatively economically comfortable, is extremely smart and that Betty's dad, who hates everyone, approves of him and that they see each other mostly every single day and that he's always around and that she's stupidly in love with him and that Nicolas, even though he's a good looking man and who has women fawning and crazy about him is also interested in Betty so he isn't a superficial man and cares about the substance of people which means Betty is really exquisite, but that they aren't actually dating because he hasn't made a move on Betty(I combined what Mario, Bertha, and Mariana said).

What Armando knows of his feelings is that he looks forward to seeing Betty when he goes to the bank because she's always so kind and accommodating to him and communicative as well and that she's always personally helping him so they are constantly communicating and he looks forward to it. He knows that Betty is a smart woman and that she also has really wonderful qualities that he likes and because she's also so unconditional with him he thought maybe Betty liked him, that it made sense she'd be like that towards him and that it made him feel special but now he finds out that somebody else has Betty's heart.

So he decides to ask her out and they embark into this affair of sorts(We're also ignoring the sinister plan). However while he is still curious and wondering about how Betty's personal life is and how her inner world is, Betty hasn't welcomed him into it yet. Better yet Betty keeps him at arms length and though he has been somewhat honest and invited her into his personal life he still stands on the outside meanwhile Nicolas remains on the inside and he isn't leaving any time soon.

Armando begins to resent that Betty isn't letting him in while he has let her in, he begins to resent Nicolas for taking Betty away from him one way or another. He feels that he isn't as important or as special as he thought he was and this makes him insecure as a person. He begins to feel inadequate, for the first time in his life, in the romantic front.

So this night after Betty and him have finally taken their relationship to the next step he angrily asks her if Nicolas was her first.

Why do I bring this make believe up?

We're so clouded by the past actions and who Armando is in the core of it all and his complexities that I'm neglecting this important fact. Armando doesn't just view Nicolas as competition, he feels inadequate next to Nicolas and as he told Betty, he imagined and thought he'd be her first(it most likely is also that he thought no man would have slept with Betty up until he did).

It's why he repeatedly told Mario that he couldn't do that to her. He wasn't talking about not being able to physically make himself have sex with her because she's "ugly". He was talking about the morality of it. That he couldn't take something so valuable from Betty with deception, that he couldn't be the man that she gave her first experience to when he didn't love her because he knew how it would impact her, how it would hurt her when he ended the relationship and he couldn't bring himself to do that to her(however like I already pointed out, while Betty was being vulnerable Armando began to fall in love and that's what made him want to sleep with her).

So when they finally do sleep together Armando is disappointed that he isn't her first time and when he asks her about it and she confirms it, he now fears that Nicolas was her first time. He fears that Betty gave herself, her first experience to him because it means that Nicolas managed to figure his feelings out before him, that Nicolas was better than him both morally and as a man.

He wants to be part of Betty's personal life. He desires to be in her inner circle. We see this when he hears Don Hermes express himself about Nicolas. When he knows that Nicolas has dinner with her family, that he spends time inside her house. He knows what Don Hermes thinks of him[Armando] because he heard him say he'd fight him the night he hid behind their couch(Brutas! La Policía! post). It isn't just that Nicolas could be better than him now, it's Nicolas could be the one to possess something so intimate of Betty's now.

So when Betty explains that Nicolas wasn't her first time all of a sudden the resentment leaves him and he agrees to not talk about it. However Betty's behavior leaves him a lot more curious. Now this confession of Betty's leaves him picado. I imagine that he probably ponders about her first time wonders why she was so off by it, why she doesn't like talking about it. He wonders about the relationship she had before him and who that man was and how it ended. He probably wonders if Nicolas knows about it and again how Nicolas manages to hold something he desperately wants: her trust.

He respects her desire to not want to speak about it and they say goodnight.

I already talked about the argument Marcela and Armando have when he gets to the apartment in the last post but since that post was so rushed and I was like twelve hours in writing that post I just half-baked it so I'll try to briefly, but in-depth, break it down.

As Armando enters his apartment, like a guilt-free man, he plays with his dog(I'mma call this lost soldier GBNF (Gone But Not Forgotten)) and pets him, we hear Betty's monologue.

I've touched on this in previous post, specifically the Tonight A Dream Of Mine Has Come True, the way that scene and this scene are presented is to show us that what we hear Betty saying is what Armando is thinking, I explained it in detail in that post so if you haven't read it, I recommend you do :)

While Betty says "He told me that he loved me but he also proved it to me with actions." we see Armando pondering over this as he stops interacting with GBNF probably telling himself 'I told her I loved her and this time seggs was different, I was different... could I love her? Nah it's probably not that.' except that instead of being able to go into his room to mediate on the night and its events he finds Marcela on his bed.

[I talked about the parallels in my rant post and the Forgive Me post]

While Marcela is mad and Armando is pretending to care that she is and trying to defend himself he behaves towards her very differently here. The day Betty tried a new look Armando told Mario that the only thing that keeps him with Marcela, at least the only good thing about their relationship, was the seggs and that he was satisfied with it, it's why he always gave into her manipulation because even if he wasn't in the mood, even if he told her no, even when he did so out of guilt and responsibility he still got off and at least that was worth it(that's like actually really sad. He needs a therapist for another reason now, bb get you some support and help). As we know this time he plain out rejects her and doesn't allow for her to manipulate him and when she tries to he turns her down.

Marcela throws it in his face that she had been calling him but he hadn't answered the phone since they last spoke and Armando goes on to angrily explain that next time they won't agree to speak until the next day and that he'll constantly call her and report himself so she can control him like a little kid, that every five minutes he can remind her who he is and he looks so pissed and done, like emotionally just frustrated with this argument.

Yes we know Marcela has a reason to not trust him but she feeds the cycle of her own as well. It would be so easy for her to remove herself from the situation/relationship but the problem here isn't that Armando cheats and gaslights her, the problem here is that Marcela doesn't want to let go of him. She feels entitled to him and because of this entitlement she completes the circle of hell. Again I'm not saying that Armando is innocent, he's not, he's a cheating scumbag, but she knew this before they got engaged, like she knew what she was getting herself into and she still wanted in and when they got engaged she felt entitled to all of him(I talk about this in like mostly every post, for once I'd like to write something good about her lol).

Marcela then stops arguing, you can tell she feels guilty for it and reaches out to him, placing her hands on his shoulders but he moves and pulls her hands from him and steps away from her and lays on his bed while Marcela gets on her knees, beside his bed and explains that she was only worried about him, that she thought something bad had happened to him.

Unlike with Betty, who asked him if he felt ill because of the drinks, who had her arms around him(though sometimes he looked like he wanted to take them off of him) when she asked him this and he said he was fine or maybe the drinks were affecting him, Betty told him she'd make him feel better, he asked her how, she said with her kisses and bam consenting make-out town.

The parallel of this is Marcela expressing "worry" about Armando, who tells her he's fine.

"I just want to go to the bathroom wash up, get in my pijamas, and go to bed."

"No, I can't wait that long." She says and starts to kiss him and undress him but he tells her:

"Marcela, Please." he pleas.

"It doesn't matter , you're fine as you are, please." She begs him in a I guess seductive way?

However Armando has barely touched her, when she neared him he kept his hands up in the air, only has one hand on her back as if trying to pull her from him. He then stares at her, with a cold stare of rejection(I think he's thinking to himself 'did she not hear me? I said no. I said no!') and Marcela reacts offended.

"What's your problem? Do you not want to be with me? Do you want me to leave?" She asks with an angry tone and arms folded in front of her. Armando now stares at her with fear.

Which is different from when Betty asked him if he wanted to no longer be with her and go to Marcela's apartment. When she asked him if he was feeling bad, and if he wanted to drop her off home. Armando explained to her it wasn't that but it was just getting late, however at the club he not only accepted her advances but he also encouraged them(Forgive Me Post). Not only that when Armando rejected her advance inside the hotel room, Betty respected his no.

"I'm tired." He says after trying to find an excuse. His tone of voice shows fear as he talks as if he were out of breath and though he has told her this excuse before, he hadn't given her this stare of determination. He wasn't even going to give her wiggle room and when she notices this she stands up and tells him that that had never stopped him before(yeah cause you manipulated him and pushed his boundaries).

Armando doesn't allow her questioning of his manhood to keep him from staying faithful to Betty. Instead, unlike before when he just basically gave up and let Marcela convince him otherwise, he tells her that tonight it would be an impediment for him but this whole time he looks fearful and nervous.

Now the next day Betty arrived to Eco Moda with contentment and excited to see Armando(dude Wilson is always so sweet to Betty(lets ignore the first couple of ep)).

Betty saw Marcela and Armando arriving together, which we know what that implies to Betty.

So once inside of Eco Moda, after Armando told her they needed to talk, as Betty is going towards their office she sees the personification of her guilty conscious in the shape of Marcela.

What Marcela is saying to her is what Betty is telling herself, while she also tries to justify what they did. When Marcela says that last night when he was done with her she went and made love to her[Marcela] and that it could be that he is playing Betty or her but maybe them both but that she[Marcela] is the one that Armando is going to end up with.

This speaks on Betty's fears.

When she enters their office Armando is waiting for her. He starts off explaining that he knew he had told her that he'd go to his apartment and spent the night by himself but Betty interrupts him by saying: "Nonono Sir. I told you I respect that relationship, I get it." (She sure do have a funny way of showing "respect" for that relationship.

Armando then goes on to clarify that nothing happened, basically that he was truthfully only with her and that he stayed faithful to her.

But Betty tells him that he doesn't need to explain things. Armando then begs her to allow him to explain things to her. Why does he beg her?

In a past post I explained how to Armando it was so important to be able to trust Betty and to know that she didn't lie to him(Betty, My Betty! Part 2.5 post.) but ever since the night that he fought Roman and Co. things have begun to change. Armando has become a bit more attentive and in tune with Betty's needs, desires, and feelings and after last night, it is more evident here that he needs her to know that he was impecable, that he didn't lie to her or hurt her. He needed her to know that he was truthfully only with her and that he wouldn't touch Marcela or another woman after being with her because she was special to him and their first time meant a lot to him as well. He needs her trust him and believe in him.

So he begins to explain things to her, being honest and albeit dramatic(he always is when he's retelling events).

Now for the last scene of this post lets make a deep dive to Mario and Armando's conversation/ Aura Maria and Betty's conversation.

I won't really breakdown the dialogue here, instead I'll breakdown the tone and behavior from Armando and Mario.

After Mario begs him to tell him about the night Armando calls him a vieja chismosa (A woman who likes gossip) and they go off to the meeting room.

A reluctant Armando tells him he did sleep with Betty. He is stiff the entire time as he talks to Mario, showing that he is uncomfortable sharing this with him and that he doesn't, on a very different level, want to share the intimacy he shared with Betty, but he'll only share a bit of it to get him off his back and to also be able to process what happened and how he feels about it.

As Mario says that he can imagine the concentration and imagination that Armando had to have had to be able to sleep with Betty, Armando, sitting still holding his hands(showing he is trying to comfort himself or is angry, looking at the context clues the serious expression, his tone of voice and how he seems to be refraining himself it is anger what he is feeling.) grits his teeth and clenches his jaw.

He isn't only uncomfortable talking to Mario about this but he is angry at him for what he is saying and insinuating. He tries to end the conversation when Mario jokes, telling him that he answered his question, however Mario asks him how it affected him and Armando tries to explain why it affected him to begin with.

In short words Armando tells him that Betty isn't just another woman he slept(one of his models or occasional friend) with but that she is an important woman to him and because of that reason last night was important to him.

"I made love with a woman who is in love, who is truthfully in love." He says this with a tender tone, something that holds importance to him, that makes him happy, that sweetens his life. In other words something that makes him soft but also the realization of Betty's love for him and how true it is. "This doesn't welcome any jokes." He says and angrily tells Mario "So don't expect for me to act like nothing happened. Of course it affects me, my skin isn't made of iron." In another post(Tonight A Dream Of Mine Has Come True and La Arrogancia De La Niña) I explained how Armando doesn't feel comfortable when the subject revolves around Betty as a person so when Mario makes jokes and Armando tries to defend why he feels the way he does and explain himself, as well as try to understand how he feels he stops being so reluctant in the conversation but as soon as Mario starts making jokes again he stops, gets angry and shuts off.

"Okay, one second, you're telling me that you're feeling something for Betty?" Armando looks at him with furrowed eyebrows and concerned eyes and he swallows hard. One could simply assume that he is confused or even simply worried but it goes more than that. This is the exact same expression he had when Marcela was reading that poem(Don't Yell At Her! Don't You Yell At Her! post) he is anguished to tell this to Mario, to be that vulnerable with him but also, that he is worried that he has feelings for her and the implications of said feelings.

Lets rewind a few steps and look at the journey of Armando's feelings so far.

1: He begins to take notice of Betty as a loyal employee

2: He begins to blur the lines of impersonal to personal.

3: He starts to change towards the way he treats her as her boss because he cares about how Betty feels working for him(Which he didn't care about that with the rest).

4: he makes her his confidant in all aspects of his life.

5: he entrust her with his entire livelihood(trust her like no other)

6: he begins to get curious about her personal life.

7: he is forced to face the reality of why he is so "special" to her. AKA the revelation that Betty "has" a boyfriend.

8: He drunkenly confesses his feelings to Betty.

9: he soberly confesses his feelings to Betty.

10: he lives under denial of said feelings but his subconscious is stronger than he is.

11: each night he spends with Betty his emotional attraction grows until it becomes physical attraction(Which he denies).

12: He has had to learn to notice and place Betty's needs, desires, and feelings before his own and enjoys doing so.

13: he is forced to once again face his feelings of attraction towards Betty the night before.

So again, Armando does what he does best, deny.

Due to his obsession with perfection, need to control everything, and his own personal conversations that he has within himself(Why couldn't we get those? I gotta be connecting the dots here a lot) this new revelation is a hard one to swallow. Armando has never been in love and he always thought he'd fall in love with a woman that looks like Marcela, Adriana Arboleda, etc. However now it is possible that he's in love, for the first time ever or at least beginning to fall in love, with Betty, the "ugly" assistant he has, who he knows his best friend would crucify if he found out about his true feelings so Armando, pained by this, denies it and it does pain him to deny these feelings from himself which is why we get this reaction.

To throw Mario off his scent he tells him he feels remorse, and that's it(Have y'all seen that John Mulaney special where he says that when he was a kid this police officer told him to throw his wallet across the street to make robbers run the other direction to throw them off his scent so he could escape? Basically same here).

Next Aura Maria and Betty start to talk. Betty expresses her happiness and how she would have never imagined that it would be like that(she really sticking to her five star review on yelp).

In the room over Armando is telling Mario the retelling of the events the previous night. He tells him that he wasn't capable of physically having sex with Betty when she came out of the bathroom and that of course, she picked up on it and told him she understood, that she knew no man could desire her.

So did Armando sleep with Betty out of pity? Out of compassion?

When we look at the context of previous scenes the short answer is no.

The long answer is this so sit tight. That night Armando did something he'd never done before, be intimate with a woman. Betty was extremely vulnerable with him this night. She gave more of herself to him than in the physical sense. She let him in, she welcomed him into her inner dilema and fears. She moved him, deeply moved him. She gave him something he desired more than sex. She gave him her intimacy.

When he is retelling what happened, especially when it gets to the physicality, he looks up, as if reliving the moment visually in his memory. His expression is of peace and joy. He is not disgusted with the mental image he has, in fact he is pleased with it.

Mario is staring at him the entire time with eyebrows raised, wide eyes and a slight frown. Since Armando isn't staring at him(he's savoring his memory) he doesn't notice this but as soon as he stares at him Mario stops and convers his mouth. He then congratulates him and tells him that so far things sounded like they went well and he asks for more.

In the post Tonight A Dream Of Mine Has Come True I explained the comfort Mario has at asking these sorts of questions implying that both Mario and Armando don't hold back in being explicit when they talk about their conquests and one night stands so here he expects nothing less. He expects for Armando to tell him everything about Betty and what they did. He expects a word for word replay of the night but like the times before when it comes to subjects such as these, Armando shuts it down(finally a gentleman).

Mario pesters, asking who he used as a mental image, who he imagined instead of Betty.

"No inspiration used. Last night I made love to Beatriz Pinzon Solano." Armando says starting at Mario, who looks away from him, closes his eyes and convers his mouth. Armando looks down at his hand , which he's been fidgeting with, with a frown on his lips.

Armando is lying to Mario, not about who he slept with the previous night, but about his feelings and it upsets him that he can't talk this through or talk to his best friend about his feelings because he knows that Mario will just make fun of him for it. This is where we begin to see this change in Armando take shape, while before it was blurry and almost unnoticeable now it is becoming focused and recognizable.

Armando does want to talk about his feelings and he does want to understand them to some degree. Almost like there's this yearning and screaming inside of him to understand what he feels for Betty, especially after the confession he made to Betty and not only how he felt about the whole experience but because he knows, he freaking knows he treated Betty differently than any other woman before her and the fact that he didn't even desire nor want to be touched by Marcela as well disturbes him but he has no safe space or place to be able to talk about said feelings so the best thing he can do is run away from them but unlike before, this upsets him.

It's like denying himself from something he needs.

When Mario once more tries to pry any details of Betty's body Armando gets upset and tells him he doesn't understand how he managed to do that, that it was just something that came out of nowhere. Mario then asks if what is disturbing him is that fact or what it could be he feels something, but Armando tells him that he just feels guilty for it all and his conscious is killing him.

While yes this is true, he doesn't like deceiving Betty, deep down he is actually aware now that he does care for Betty and that he was both emotionally and physically satisfied with Betty. Armando is actually welcoming the understanding of his feelings while before he lived in denial of them and avoiding them, now he wants to understand them but he knows he can't do that with his best friend so he once more, like before, shuts down and gets mad at Mario.

While Betty tells Aura Maria that her boyfriend told her he loved her for the first time, Aura Maria tells her that saying it and proving it are two different things but an overjoyed Betty tells her that he not only told her he loved her but that showed it to her because he was really special and she had never imagined it would have been like that.

Both The Pervert and Aura ask the same question "Tell me how was it?"

Mario throws out synonymous for the words "hot seggs" he is wanting to know what woman was under those clothes that made him feel the way he did, Mario is strictly physical and that's it and while Armando to some point was the same, he knew that Armando also desired a stable and good relationship and to fall in love, as Armando himself told him that.

So Armando tells him she was none of that and that seggs with her was none of that.

"So then?"

"It was like..." He stops to think, looking for the right word when he finds it he smiles, again as if remembering it fondly, "sweet."

"What?" Mario murmurs. "Sweet?" he says in a disbelief tone and low voice. "A-Armando look me in the eyes." Armando does so. "It was really sweet?"

Armando pulls away from the wall he had been leaning and shifts to face him, leaning against said wall again, and after taking a deep breath begins to explain.

"Calderon, that woman is in love with me. What? did you expect for it to not be? It had to be sweet, so yes, sweet." He says explaining. His eyes brows are middle raised, slightly squinting his eyes but his features are soft, he leans against the wall while with one hand he moves in the air to explain things with the other he has it in his pocket. This indicates, roughly, an anxious attitude as well as not wanting to talk more about the subject and that he's upset to continue talking about it.

"I get that she's in love with you but were you really sweet to her too?" Armando, who turned away from him is once more leaning hard against the blinds of the window, arms folded in front of him and eyebrows middle lowers, indicating frustration.

"He was really sweet, Aura Maria. I didn't expect him to be like that. That's why I'm saying that I think he really does love me." She smiles. Aura Maria celebrates with her.

"Okayokay. So it was really sweet for the both of you." Mario raises his arms up in a "I'm innocent." manor.

"Mhm"

"Armando, you're worrying me." He places his hands inside his pockets. Armando is staring elsewhere, worrying his bottom lip with eyebrows middle lowered(almost close together) since he looks somewhat zoned out we can assume that he is in deep thought. "What happened. Talk to me." Armando turns to look at him and defeated lets out a sigh, closes his eyes and goes to sit down and starts to talk.

"I don't know, I have to clear myself. I'm going to try and be as clear as possible with you. Lets see, I-no-best said lets separate two things. One thing is that is ugly, right?(he confused about it now? I'm just joking)." Mario agrees. "And another thing would be that I hate Betty, I don't hate Betty." This time his eyebrows are pulled closer together with really squinted eyes. He is really evaluating his feelings here and making the effort to understand them. "All the contrary, I have an immense endearment for her. She is a very important woman in my life."

(ENGLISH GET A WORD EQUIVALENT TO QUIERO/QUIERE!)

"You cherish her?"(it's the best word I could find to translate this, English is so tragic tbh.)

"Of course." Armando admits, he has a look of relief washed away with panic and now he begins to deny, freaked out by his own emotions he tries to justify his feelings for something they're not. "Of course I cherish her. I cherish her-" he places a finger on his philtrum: anxiousness and hesitant to speak. "like you cherish Sara, your secretary. Yes like my dad cherish Susana his secretary. I-I think that one in life...cherishes a lot of people and the relationship that Betty and I have established is a relationship of..." He starts to fidget with his fingers worrying his bottom lip and staring off at something on the table. "of friends." he stares at Mario and with his hand, open, explains to him. "We're friends and we cherish each other a lot. Man, I start to think and Betty is a person who has always been unconditional with me, who has always been there when I've needed her. She's a person who has saved my life, who risks her life for me every day she's a person( I don't want to use the word love but English you suck so I gotta) I love a lot(he means platonically)" Mario stares at him with raised eyebrows, wide eyes and a frown. "Tell me, why wouldn't I feel that for her? Why shouldn't I feel endearment for her?"

"No, no of course. Why not?" Mario reacts slow. He is trying to "Respect" Armando's feelings even though he wants to make fun of him for it but he knows if he does that Armando will stop talking about how he feels, therefore, stop giving him intel. "Why not? It's just this is the first time I hear you say you love her."

"Because I wasn't aware of this until now!" Armando says frustrated. "Until now that I'm faci...facing Betty." He slightly furrows his brows and stares elsewhere with a shocked expression of revelation. He takes in a deep breath and places a finger in front of his lips, thinking this through. "Calderon, cherishing Betty isn't a crime, bro." Notice his tone of voice as he confesses this final part is full of emotion. This fear that he had been carrying within himself for days, weeks or even months, that he cared about Betty deeply cares but was afraid to admit this to himself much less out loud until now, he finally admits it, he finally says it out loud because he is in a desperate need to understand how he feels about her and he accepts it. He accepts that this is how he feels and that it isn't wrong for him to feel like this because she deserves it.

Armando then goes on to say that what they are doing to her is a crime. To do that to his partner in crime, who loves him and dreams of him twenty four seven and that is what is killing him.

"It should be killing you if you did it with repulsiveness but no, you did so, sweetly. Sweetie pie." he sings at the end. Armando now looks at him in disbelief and anger.

"Then how would I have done it? She's in love, how was I going to do it then?"

Mario is now out of his element, unlike in previous scenes, this time Mario is not in control of Armando so he reacts irrationally.

"Yes but you've slept with Marcela who is in love with you and so far from what I understand the hook-ups aren't so sweet." he smiles, thinking he's found footing in the situation and a way to gain control of it.

"Ah don't talk to me about Marcela now." He stands up, annoyed. "Lets not talk about that woman. Let's change topic, yeah? Last night." He slaps the chair. "When I got to my apartment she was waiting for me." He says so annoyed, again.

"No?" Mario asks "surprised".

Skip the scene with Marcela and Patsy Pats; Betty and Aura Maria are still talking in her office.

Aura Maria is telling her that now that they've slept together that she can't stop doing it and blah blah blah I'm only mentioning it because it's funny when Armando walks into the conversation and now it's him he gets a taste of jealousy like Betty did that morning when she saw Armando and Marcela getting out of his car.

The fact Armando believes this is really about Nicolas is funny but also believable. For one, as I pointed out, Armando feels insecure when it comes to Betty and Nicolas, especially now after they've sinned, fornicated if you will, no wait adulatory because he's "committed" to Marcela. Two because he knows that Nicolas spends time with Betty at her house so when Aura Maria tells her to take advantage of the moments her parents aren't looking or when he goes to the bathroom to sneak in there with him and y'know, sha-bang.

Armando rubs his hand with his thumb, indicating anxiety, however he tries to keep his composure and if y'all haven't notice Armando now isn't speaking so harshly to Betty. He is keeping the same tone he has with her whenever he is being vulnerable. As Armando leaves Betty's office after telling her that he needed some paper work, he shuts the door hard, expressing his anger as well.

Once Aura leaves and Betty goes into Armando's office, Armando throws his jealousy fit, but unlike before when he'd yell at her and question her dedication, her loyalty, her love, this time he tells her that she can do what she wants, that Nicolas belonged to her personal and intimate life(again, showing resentment for that), when Betty tries to explain what happened Armando tries to cut her off, eventually she does though. This is similar to earlier that morning.

We then see the power dynamic here, once more Armando is the one that holds the cards and Betty is supposed to do what he says, which isn't a partnership.

[THE LETTER! WHAT WAS IN THE STUPID LETTER BETTY!]

I think those the next scenes[next few episodes] are pretty self-explanatory. Armando completely forgets about the picture he has of AA in his pocket and he makes out with Betty and Betty accepts to not break up while Armando that once the big meeting is over that he'll break up with Marcela and they'll become official, now he has to learn to accept the idea that he has to learn to accept as an idea(So confusing, I know lol) of a potential future where he is open about his relationship with Betty.

The next post I'll write is one I'm really looking forward to; AA shows up to Eco Moda and my all time favorite scene that brings and ties together this theory that Armando has thought about, for a long time, about his feelings for Betty and what it means to him, AKA the night of the museum.

'Til then :)

[minttangerines]

Can I request something with "Every song reminds me of you"?? 💕

There's never pressure when you're in my inbox. No pressure at all 😅

11:34pm

“When I wake up, well, I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you

When I go out, yeah, I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you

If I get drunk, well, I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you

And if I haver, yeah, I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's haverin' to you”

"Noo-na! Pick up! Why won’t you answer my calls?"

"Please?"

"I miss you."

"I wish you were here. Every song reminds me of you."

11:56pm

“Wish for you on a falling star, wondering where you are

Do I ever cross your mind in the warm sunshine?

She's from the City of Angels like Betty Davis, James Dean, and Gable

Never know what she means to me, I fell for the girl that's on TV”

"Noooooo-na! I can’t stop thinking about you! Do you— do you remember the first time I saw you? Y-y-y- OOOHHHH SHOTS!"

12:17am

“I like 'em round, and big

And when I'm throwin' a gig

I just can't help myself, I'm actin' like an animal

Now here's my scandal

I wanna get you home

And ugh, double-up, ugh, ugh

I ain't talkin' 'bout Playboy

'Cause silicone parts are made for toys

I want 'em real thick and juicy

So find that juicy double

Mix-a-Lot's in trouble

Beggin' for a piece of that bubble”

“What the fuck? Was that him rapping?” Your very generous boss, Seokjin, was doing his best not to out right laugh. He failed.

“Stop! I feel bad for the kid.” You did. You were just trying to be nice to Jungkook since he moved to your branch but its seems like you went too far.

“I really should have asked more about his transfer before accepting it.” His hand slapping the desk was sure to alert his secretary that something inappropriate was going on.

“What do I do? I don’t want to get him in trouble with HR.”

“Let him down gently. Take matters into your own hands. If he crosses a line again, we will go to HR together.”

8:44pm

“I will never find another lover

Sweeter than you

Sweeter than you

And I will never find another lover

More precious than you

More precious than you

Girl you are close to me you're like my mother

Close to me, you're like my father

Close to me, you're like my sister

Close to me, you're like my brother

You are the only one, my everything

And for you this song I sing”

“Jungkook! Stop!” This was too much.

“What? Wait! Noon! You’re there? And I’m here!” At the department happy hour where Seokjin is watching this unfold.

“You cannot keep doing this. Why are you doing this?”

“Music is your love language, isn’t it? That’s what everyone told me.” The fucking doe eyes. Times like these you wish you were a heartless Tin Man oiled up and ready to swing.

Sounds like everyone knew the new guy has been pining for you and leaving you musical voicemails? Great, everyone is getting reported to HR.

“Jungkook, can’t you just talk to me?” You lifted your hand to rest on his shoulder but held off. No need to give his a reason to continue.

“You’re too scary.” He sucked down the rest of his rum and coke.

“How? You can ask me to look over your quarterly report ten minutes before its due but can’t ask me if I ever listened to LFO? Do you even know who LFO is?”

“Flying saucers!” Oh no. “Get home safe Jungkook.” You picked your bag up off the back of your chair and swung into your boss hard. “No! Walk me home! Please?”

“Whatever. You’re paying for my ride home.”

The walk to his place wasn’t too far but far enough in your shoes. Jungkook behaved for most of the walk. He sang all of the lyrics to the Spice Girls he could remember and only got out two words of “It’s Tearin’ Up My Heart” before you elbowed him in the gut. A very toned gut from what you could tell.

“Thank you so much Noona. I appreciate this.” His hug felt genuine. The lack of weight he leaned on you let you know that you can part ways here and not continue to babysit him.

“Don’t mention it. Ever. Chump.”

“Why are you so mean to me? I’m always nice to you.”

“Because you’re inappropriate Jungkook. You can’t behave like this and expect for me to think this is okay.”

“But its how Namjoon-hyung got to sleep with you. That’s what he said.”

The one time you slipped up in office three years ago is now coming back to haunt you.

Instead of leaving voicemails, he sang to you on the rides home you offered him.

Instead of doing it when he’s drunk, he did it when he was sad.

“Go inside Jungkook. Get undressed, leave the door unlocked, and I’ll be right there.”

“Let’s get it!” He scurried off with the biggest smile you’ve seen from him yet.”

When he was inside of the building you made your way to the corner to catch a cab.

“Kim Namjoon, you are the lowest piece of shit that has ever breathed air on this planet. I have never been more humiliated in my entire life. Do you really think making a joke of the feelings I had for you would be funny? You are a dis—disgusting human being and I look forward to seeing you and Kim Seokjin in HR next week.”

You rushed off the phone before your voice could continue cracking. 

[k3rm1e]

hello!! i hope its not much of a bother but could you write tommy x reader whos lovelanguage is quality time? ( platonic ofc ) also i hope you are having a good day :D

spend time with you

hello!! i hope its not much of a bother but could you write tommy x reader whos lovelanguage is quality time? ( platonic ofc ) also i hope you are having a good day :D

hi!! of course it’s not a bother, i’d be happy to write this :) since you didn’t put whether you wanted headcanons or a oneshot, i just went with a oneshot, if you want headcanons instead i’m perfectly fine with writing some <3

cw: cursing 

spend time with you:

  so, you were bored. and lonely. it wasn’t a big deal. you mean, it shouldn't be one. everyone gets lonely and bored, and sometimes the easiest solution is sitting in angst. so as much as try to wallow in solitude, the brain screams for a solution to the isolation. so there’s discord calls and tommyinnit.

  crawling off the hardwood floor, you walked over to your pc setup. you should stream. instead, you logged onto a random parkour server and called tommy. after a few seconds, he answered. “hey tom.”.

  “hello, bitch. what’s up?” tommy replied in a fake angry tone, before reverting back to his usual joking sound. even through his light and airy voice, you could hear the hidden concern. he worried too much, in your opinion. maybe, your brain reasoned back, there was a good reason for his worry.

  “nothing really. just bored, haven’t been out in a while. i’ve been doing in-person learning for a bit. haven’t had much time to talk to you all.” you had a calm facade, a facade that was thin enough for tommy to catch the lonely undertones in your words. you hadn’t been talking to people much, with school and testing. and it’s not like you had any friends from your school, that dream was whipped into the trashcan and then set on fire the moment you began to play video games on the internet for anyone to see. sure, some kids found it cool, but would they actually approach the silent kid to talk to them? no, of course not.

  “oh man, that sucks. have you been out much at all?” when you told him you hadn’t, you heard a thoughtful humming sound through the headphones. “well, you’re free this weekend, right? it’s only like a two hour drive from your place to mine.” the way he approached the idea of meeting up so casually, it was astounding to you. sure, you had gotten the vaccine so there were no covid issues, but meeting with someone you had been friends with online for a while now was a big deal. or maybe it wasn’t and your head had just taken it all in weird.

  “tommy, that is a big deal, you realize that right? for me to just go to your place, that needs planning.” you tried to play it off like he never excited you, like you were as casual about this.

  “oh, come on. planning isn’t that big a deal, besides, i wanna spend time with you!” his voice had risen, and you were once again astounded by the kid you were on call with.

  “yes, tom, i want to spend time with you, but i- i dunno, this is all sudden. i wouldn’t want to impose on you, or, or your family at all.”.

  “seriously, you think you’re gonna be imposing? my mother likes you more than she likes me, the only people you’d be imposing on are betty and walter. and as an act of forgiveness, you can take them on walks.” he had a confident voice, and you laughed.

  “ok, ok, tom. i’ll see, ask the parents.” he muttered a “good”, and the conversation topic had switched to what you would do if you did visit him.

  when you asked your parents about it, there was some confusion but with much pleading and phone calls back and forth between the adults, the ultimate decision had finally been reached. you were able to visit him for the weekend. after a long car ride and reassurances you would behave, you were let out of the car and into his house.

  “tommy! hi.” you ran up to him and greeted him with a hug, trying to grasp the absurd concept that you had finally met your best friend.

  he pulled out of the hug and stared at you, “so, what do you wanna do?”.

  you guys ended up visiting the nearby stores and parks, filming it for the tommy vlogs channel. you ran around, finally feeling better. okay, so maybe loneliness wasn’t a constant and unending toture. if feeling like shit was the only way to feel this way again, you would feel like shit for every weekday.

  “...” you were laying in the grass at the dog park, tired after taking the dogs for a walk and running around with them playing frisbee. tommy flopped next to you, betty laying down with him as walter continued to run around. he moved his hand to pet the dog. “... hey, tom?” you turned toward him as he made a hum of silent acknowledgement.

  “... thank you. seriously. i really needed this, just to get out and spend time with you.” you wished you could put on a natural and laid-back tone, instead of making it so obvious how you felt, baring your soul to the empty air. you were happy, but this conversation felt like you were being torn into.

  “why the hell are you thanking me? we’re friends, why wouldn’t i wanna spend time with you? don’t do stupid, there’s nothing to thank me for.” he turned his head to look at you and his face scrunched up. “stop looking so emotional n’ shit. it’s weirding me out.”

  your nose scrunched up as you laughed at him, smiling again. “ok tom, ok. i promise not to thank you for anything ever, ever again.”

  you heard him start a rebuttal, “well there’s nothing wrong with thanking me for other things, as i am very amazing and above others …”

i hope you liked this! it was a bit more angsty than i planned for but still a healthy amount. bit shorter bc tired though, sorry! anyways, have a lovely day!

[heytherejulietx]

white collar and leather

part one of five

series masterlist

↳ content warnings - swearing, mention of drugs, mention of weapons

↳ 2.2k word count

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the rumble of the motorcycle underneath her was normal. the cool leather of her jacket against her skin was normal. the pressure of the helmet against her ears was normal. what wasn’t normal, was parking her bike in front of riverdale high in the north side. as much as she somewhat cared about her education, she’d much rather go to school literally anywhere else.

fuck this.

betty unclipped the clasp from underneath her chin and took her helmet off, shaking her head a little to loosen up her hair as she hung the helmet over the handlebars. she straightened up her jacket before she swung her leg over the bike to stand up, sighing as she looked up at the school.

for the town with pep this was probably the peppiest place that riverdale had to offer. riddled with annoying cheerleaders and noisy jocks and everything that betty pretty much despised about high school. at least at south-side high, everyone was too worried about getting stoned to bother her. now she actually had to face people. gross.

“cooper!”

betty turned her head, and leaned back against her bike as she spotted sweet pea walking over towards her, toni and fangs following shortly behind him. they were probably just about the only people she could actually tolerate. on a good day, anyways. sweet pea tended to get annoying a lot. although she had stayed at his place for the past few nights, which she appreciated. anything to get away from her trailer.

“you guys better get your pep on.” betty commented as they walked over and fangs snorted.

“can’t believe we actually have to go here, it’s bullshit.” sweet pea rolled his eyes and dropped the cigarette he was smoking on the ground, stepping on it afterwards.

“bullshit we’ll only have to put up with until we graduate.” betty pointed out as she pushed herself up from her bike, glancing over at the school with a sigh.

riverdale high was a completely different experience from south-side high. as soon as they walked in betty could see that, even just in the air. it was clean, and didn’t smell like weed. at least they wouldn’t be second hand smoking all day. it looked like it had just been renovated, honestly. none of the lights flickered constantly. the floor looked like it had been polished five seconds ago. none of the lockers had dents in or had been spray painted. and all of the students looked so… pristine. honestly, they looked like they were all about to walk into the set of some dumb teen drama. it was a joke.

everyone was looking at them strangely as they walked through the school. betty could feel them burning holes into the side of her head as she walked past, and she had to roll her eyes. it was like they had never seen other people before. before they could even get to the end of the first corridor the intercom crackled to life, and a voice traveled through the building. “will all new transfer students please come to the main hall.”

great. an assembly just for them.

“ten dollars we spend the next half an hour being told the dangers of gang activity in school.” toni scoffed, and betty chuckled as she looped her arm through the pink haired girl’s.

“i bet so.” betty nodded, catching the blue eyes of a boy staring at her down the hallway before she carried on to the main hall. she didn’t know where it was, though sweet pea seemed to have an idea of where it was so she just followed him.

toni was right, of course. they were lectured on all sorts of things for thirty minutes; drug use, fighting, weapons, even the indoctrination of other students into the gang. they had to be joking by the end. and if they weren’t then sweet pea and fangs must’ve been laughing over nothing. betty just wanted nothing more than to start her lessons and let the day go by as quickly as possible. as much as the south-side was a shit hole, she much preferred it to the north. at least there she wouldn’t be judged on her shitty life, and she could live said shitty life in peace.

when the principal had finally let them go, under a final warning to “behave like proud students of this school” she took a beeline for the exit and left quickly, promising to catch up with her friends at lunch. during the assembly of mostly patronising nonsense, something had caught her attention; the blue and gold, which was the school’s newspaper. when it had first been introduced, betty had run the red and black for a while, though with the lack of funding and minimal interest that students had in it betty stopped after a few months. though the blue and gold seemed promising, and maybe it would help make her experience at riverdale high a little more bearable.

when betty had finally found it’s office after five minutes of looking (seriously, this school was huge) she pushed the door open and stepped inside, honestly a little disappointed that someone else was there. she had been looking forward to spending her time there alone. the boy sat in the office turned to look at her, and she briefly remembered meeting his gaze earlier when he was staring at her.

sheesh, he looked like he was full of enough pep alright. the boy was almost too pristine. he was probably the epitome of “small town boy“, with a shirt and round-neck sweater, polished shoes, and small riverdale high badge pinned to his bag which sat on the desk. the only thing that stuck out was a grey beanie that sat atop his head, though even that screamed soft. he was adorable.

“oh, hi,” he smiled, obviously surprised to see her there. “what can i- how can i help?”

“your dumb principle mentioned the blue and gold being open to new members,” the boy blinked at her, obviously taken aback. though whether it was about the name-calling to the principal or her willingness to join the newspaper that she was uncertain of. “i’m interested.”

“oh,” he seemed to come to after a moment, and a smile covered his once bewildered expression. “great. yes. we’d gladly have you,” he nodded and stood up from his seat.

shit, she’d underestimated how tall he was. at least he had one thing going. he must’ve been six foot tall at least, and when he stepped out towards her she had to tilt her head up to look at him. at least he wasn’t as tall as sweet pea.

he held his hand out and smiled again. “nice to meet you.”

betty stared at him for a moment before she gripped his hand in return and shook it for a moment. “right. likewise.”

when she had pulled her hand away the boy nodded, and he opened his mouth to say something, though the bell ringing for the next class got to it first and cut him off.

“oh, well i’ll see you soon to sort out what times you can be here?” the boy asked, and betty nodded as she headed to the door.

“hey white collar?” she called back to him as she swung the door open, and his blue eyes met hers again across the room. “what’s your name?”

“jughead,” he responded after a moment, and if he was embarrassed at her entertained smile at his answer he didn’t show it. “what’s yours?”

“betty cooper.” she told him, and before he could say anything else she stepped out of the office and shut the door behind her. that was enough social interaction for one day, even if she’d be working with jughead every day now.

-

“so, what, you’re going to be working with her? alone?” veronica gasped, as she leaned across the table towards jughead. “what if she, like, has a knife on her or something? oh my god, what if she had drugs-“

“veronica, i highly doubt she has drugs.” jughead shook his head as he took another bite of his apple. the way that people were reacting to the south-side high students was mostly irrational, and it was getting a little annoying. he’d had to listen to reggie ranting about how he thought that one of the new students was going to kill him for an hour in his english class.

“some of them do. aren’t they all drug dealers? they’re in a gang.” she pointed out with a huff.

“none of them would be dumb enough to actually bring their drugs into school, even for lowlifes like themselves.” cheryl piped in from beside veronica. jughead wasn’t particularly friends with the redhead, but he tolerated her for veronica’s sake as they were on the cheer team together.

jughead found himself looking past the girls as veronica carried on about drugs, and found betty sat across the room. she was sat with another girl with pink hair, and two guys - one of them taller than the other. all four of them were wearing those gang jackets, though he could see the snake symbol from the jacket on the taller guy’s neck.

jughead didn’t believe that betty was dangerous by any means, but he was a little worried. there were a lot of rumours surrounding the south-side serpents, and it was hard to distinguish gossip from actual facts. were they really drug dealers? did they actually carry weapons on them? did the big guy sat next to betty actually kill someone? okay, jughead was less inclined to believe that one as it had come from reggie, but still. he was unsure on the situation, but there was nothing any of them could do. they’d just have to stick it out.

the rest of the day passed relatively quickly. in history jughead had to listen to a few cheerleaders giggling and fangirling over the taller serpent who had sat in front of them, and then in biology he had to put up with another thousand questions from veronica, though as soon as the bell went he managed to escape and headed to his locker quickly. as he was packing up his things betty passed him in the hallway with the tall guy again, and he couldn’t help but wonder if they were dating.

jughead closed his locker as he shrugged his bag onto his shoulders before he made his way out of the building, and put his headphones in for the walk home. he took the long way back to his house, putting off what he knew was coming. his dad had been more annoyed by the south-side high students joining the school than anybody in his class, and he knew when he got home he’d have to hear it all over again. jughead had decided to not tell him about betty, at least not yet. he didn’t want to give his dad an aneurism or something.

his father’s car was in the driveway when he got home and jughead frowned as he unlocked the front door. he had been hoping that fp would be out of the house for whatever reason, so he could avoid the bombard of questions that was sure to come and just escape upstairs to his bedroom.

“jug? that you?” he heard from the kitchen, and jughead rolled his eyes as he shrugged his coat off. no, he wanted to say, it’s a stranger who somehow has a set of keys to the house.

though instead he called out “yeah.” and walked through to the kitchen, where he found his father sat at the table surrounded by paperwork and his laptop.

“those students all in school todsy, then?” fp asked, and jughead sighed as he took off his bag and went over to the fridge to get a drink.

“yeah, they’re all-“

“they didn’t give you any trouble, did they?”

jughead clenched his jaw and willed himself not to snap at his dad. of course they didn’t, they weren’t monsters, they were still people, no matter where they came from. he couldn’t understand why that thought was so hard for people to grasp.

“no, it was all fine.” he forced a smile as he turned to face his dad, and met his eyes in his reflection of the laptop screen.

“good, just don’t get too close to any of them. god knows what they all get up to.” fp scoffed, and jughead gripped the bottle in his hand tighter as he took a drink from it. they went through all of this yesterday. and the day before. and the day before that. and every day since it had been announced that the schools were merging.

“i’m going upstairs. i have homework.” jughead excused himself to get away from the conversation, and he watched as fp nodded before he grabbed his bag and headed for the stairs, escaping from the lecture that he was sure fp would finish at dinner anyways.

[oboevallis]

reconcile

back in season 16 when amelia was only a couple of months pregnant

“Who was that?” Link asked as his girlfriend stepped into the kitchen, she’d left the room to take a call when her phone unexpectedly rung.

“My mother.” Amelia sighed flopping into a chair at their kitchen table. “She wants me to come visit .”

“Are you going?”

“No!” Amelia chuckled on amusement even though they were a new couple despite a baby on the way, she’d expect him to know the fact she wasn’t on the best terms with her mother.

“It seems like she wants to fix things.” The man pointed out as he plated their dinner.

“Seems like a trap.”

“Seems like she’s trying to fix her wrong. I’m not gonna force you to do anything, you know that but maybe you’ll feel better if you two figured things out.”

“I’m perfectly content with where things are, we had a pleasant conversation on a park bench.”

“Was it enough though?” Amelia sighed at her boyfriend as she not doing subtly rolled her eyes.

“No.” The neurosurgeon mumbled as she twirled her fork into the noodles. “Fine.”

“I’ll come if that’ll make you feel better.”

“No this is something I’ve got to do on my own.”

_______________________________________

Amelia crossed her arms over her chest as she anxiously waited for her bag. She hated the JFK airport it reminded her of when she was going off to college, she’d just gotten out of rehab and her mother could barely look at her but assured her that she loved her before sending her off, her brother was a different story he’d agreed to come but he was absolutely livid with his sister, she had went out and gotten herself a drug addiction while crashing his mustang in the process.

“Amy!” The neurosurgeons mother called out.

“Ma, I told you I’d get a cab.”

“There’s no need, I saved you some money.” The older woman engulfed her daughter in a hug.

“Don’t mean to rush this, but we should get going.”

“Alright let’s get moving then.” The younger woman moved to put her luggage in the trunk of her mother’s car, noticing another suitcase.

“Why is there another suitcase in the back?” Amelia asked as she settled in the passenger seat.

“We’re gonna go upstate.”

“To the cabin?” Amelia asked in shock, it’d been years since she had been there. The last time she had run away she went to the cabin where she was snorting oxy, there Kathleen walked in with her fiancé. As Kathleen was yelling at her, she could’ve sworn their mother had possessed her, and when she made the comment it only intensified her sisters anger toward her.

“Where else would be going in upstate New York?” Carolyn asked, focusing on the road before quickly looking to the side to see her daughters reaction. “Is that okay?”

“Oh, yeah yeah it’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting it that’s all.” The remainder of the drive was filled with a heavy silence, periodic awkward conversation filling the minutes here and there.

When they got to the cabin they went their separate ways and unpacked. Amelia was in the room she’d share with her Lizzie when they were younger, smirking at the bunk beds as she remember all the pranks they’d pull on one another. After getting settled she walked to the closet finding it was still a cluttered mess just as it was 20 years ago. She didn’t realize she was looking for anything before she found it. Her old unicorn stuffed animal, she quickly held it to her chest.

“Amy! What do you want for dinner?” Carolyn called out from the kitchen, the neurosurgeon composed herself before meeting up with her mother.

“Anything you’d like.”

“Come on, there must be something.”

“Your tomato soup and grilled cheese.” Amelia concluded, cracking a smile. Her mother would always make this whenever someone was sick or feeling down, it was the perfect comfort food.

“Will do.” Carolyn smiled at her daughter, she was trying to resolve things between the two of them. Since the death of her son she’d been thinking about her kid’s mortality and upon hearing about her youngest’s brain tumor she’d been terrified especially since they weren’t on good terms. She wanted this weekend to pull them closer together and forgive one another.

“I’ve missed your soup.” Amelia smiled as she carefully blew on it to cool it.

“God, I can’t remember the last time I made this for you.”

“Me either.” That was a lie, it had been the first time she was withdrawing and her mother sat with her the whole time while tears were welling in her eyes. At the time she was mad her mother was crying, she wasn’t the one coming down quickly from an amazing high. She never understood why her mother cried until she met Betty and fought to help her get sober.

“I hate that Amelia. That we can’t remember, it shouldn’t be like that. I want us to fix things, I want to be a part of your life.” Carolyn concluded letting her spoon drop against the side of the bowl, the clanking causing her daughter to jump.

“Okay.” Amelia slowly nodded. “Let’s fix things.”

After the pair had dinner they went to their rooms. Amelia went back into the closet and picked up the unicorn, she had forgotten all about it. She couldn’t remember for the life of her why it was so important to her as a child, baby brain she blamed. Carefully, she lowered herself onto the bottom bunk still tightly holding the toy. For as tired as she was from the long flight and then the long drive she couldn’t seem to settle. She had thought about calling Link but he was in surgery, and then she thought about scrolling through social media but then the blue light would really prevent her from sleeping. After a while of boring her eyes into the top on the bunk, she got up and made her way into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. Noticing the kettle on the stove, she turned around to see the back door opened slightly. She made her cup of tea and made her way to the porch. As kids whenever they’d go to the cabin if they needed their mother she was more than likely on the back porch watching the birds.

“You seeing any birds?” Amelia sarcastically asked it was pitch black out, other than the candle her mother had lit to keep mosquitoes away.

“Don’t be smart.” Carolyn smiled, happy that her daughter had made a sarcastic remark to her, it’d been years since she had done so. When Amy was a kid she’d always get annoyed when she make a smart remark, but now she found them lighthearted and entertaining. “Can’t sleep?”

“Nope.” Amelia ran her finger along the rim of her mug, this mug specifically reminded her of her childhood. It was her fathers favorite, just the right size, just the right handle, just the right curvature to fit in your hands comfortably, he had bought multiple of them and made sure he always had one with him where every he went.

“I see you found your childhood friend.” Carolyn pointed to the the unicorn plushie she had under her arm.

“Oh, yeah.”

“I remember the day you got that. It was a week before your birthday and you had gotten the chicken pox, we had to send all of your siblings to Nana’s because they had never had it. The whole week you stayed in our bed and we had to put two pair of mittens on your hands to prevent you from scratching. You were always a pretty independent child, didn’t want help or comfort from a soul, but that week all you want to do was cuddle with your dad and I. So the day of your birthday, after your dad went to check on the others and made sure they were behaving. He came back with cards they had written for you, and he brought that unicorn home. The four of them all put their allowances together and got you that unicorn, since they were your absolute favorite thing in the world at the time. ”

“I didn’t know that.” Amelia was surprised to hear her voice break, she hadn’t even realized she was crying. Carolyns smile was illuminated by the candle before she looked up at the night sky to try and find a consolation. “I’m pregnant.” It was barely a whisper.

“I was waiting for you to tell me.”

“You knew? Of course you knew.” She had had five babies and an army of grandchildren. She probably always knew when one of her daughters were pregnant before they even did.

“Is it Atticus’?”

“Yeah.” Amelia couldn’t contain her smile. After a comfortable silence the girls mother spoke up again.

“This isn’t like last time.”

“It isn’t.” Amelia agreed, suddenly feeling at ease from her mother’s words.

“Does he know about Christopher?”

“Yeah, he does. He’s been really understanding about my feelings.”

“I’m glad, you deserve someone who can love and support you without making you feel guilty for your feelings.”

“Yeah.” Amelia grinned, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Do you think Daddy would’ve liked him?”

“I think he would’ve, but never would’ve showed it. Out of all of our kids spouses he would’ve been the hardest on Link.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.” Carolyn smiled, thinking about her late husband. It saddened her how he never got to witness any of his kids weddings. He always talked about how excited her was to walk his daughters down the isle and give them away to the right man, and how he’d give Derek his watch on his wedding day.

“Do you like him?”

“I do. I’d like to get to know him better.”

“He’d like that, he’s always saying he feels bad for the impression he made.” She hated how vulnerable she was being with her mother, but was oddly at ease. Never realizing how much her mother’s validation comforted her.

“While I don’t condone the lying, it wasn’t a bad impression. It showed how much he loves you, he was willing to lie for you without question and he stood up for you without a doubt in his mind.”

“He doesn’t love me, it’s way too soon.” The neurosurgeon dismissed nervously, he had only said it once and he was obviously pretty scared. Though she knew he meant it, it was all going very fast, and didn’t want this to end up like the last time she quickly fell in love with someone.

“Amelia, we both know that isn’t true.”

“I just don’t want to screw anything up. He’s so perfect and even the things I can’t stand about him I love. I mean I loved Owen, I still do in a sense, but the things I hated about him I couldn’t stand. With Link it’s different.”

“Seems like your in love.”

“It does doesn’t it?”

[thesimsblues]

8, 18, 22 (esp now!), 27, 38 for marcus, 1, 10, 11, 13, 39 for beau, 15, 16, 17 for alan

Answers under the cut to save your dash.

Marcus

8. What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child?

His parents told him to be quiet a lot because they didn't understand (nor care) that kids like to make noise. By his grandparents, he was told that he could tell the truth because he'd withhold his feelings to not cause "trouble."

18. What embarrasses them?

His parents. When he behaves rashly.

22. How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)?

Marcus gets needy when he's jealous for his partner's focus. He will cling tight to monopolize attention (see also: Neven).

27. What causes them to feel dread?

His past experiences of losing his grandfather and then being abandoned by his parents mean that close relationships feel like they're on a finite timeline and, at some point, he will be parted from his loved one. .........ow.

38. What memory do they revisit the most often?

Being with Grandpa Charlie in The Gutter House.

Beau

1. What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

Beau subscribes to the Betty Draper "Only boring people are bored" school of thought. He always has something to do; he's very good at keeping himself engaged because the alternative is excruciating. So tl;dr--if he genuinely had nothing to do, he would incinerate immediately.

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

Oh god, I really don't know for this one. Beau's not someone who lies very often. I'm sure he lied as a teenager to look cool, and it flopped like a lead balloon. That seems likely for him.

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

He will pretend to understand and bullshit his way through (or die trying) with strangers or Important People. He will ask for clarification and admit confusion with family, friends, close colleagues, and lovers.

13. What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color?

Black. Yes. Unf. But I also dress him in dark blues constantly cuz also unf.

39. How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?

Beau is a romantic and a people person, so I'd imagine he glosses over many flaws in order to engage with people who interest him and/or turn him on. Case in point: Marcus.

Alan

15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

Alan is deliberate in how he expresses himself, including what he says. If he's talking with a stranger or in the public eye, he's going to default to campy messaging. Among loved ones, he's more authentic, but he definitely processes a lot.

16. What makes their stomach turn?

People who listen to true crime podcasts for fun.

17. Are they easily embarrassed?

No. He's got a solid sense of self, and he doesn't take anything people say about his public persona seriously.

[thetaoofbetty]

Thanks for putting up with all the shit you do in this fandom! There’s a lot written about misogyny or whether people just don’t like Betty’s character any more because of her actions but to me it seems like the main change in her character is that she isn’t currently linked to Jughead. I’m a Bughead fan and I think that what was beautiful about their relationship was their support of each other. Betty was very wrong to kiss Archie and she should have told Jughead sooner but to ignore years Of Betty loving and supporting Jughead just because of this one action ( which she stopped by the way- this seems to be overlooked by everyone) and to say that she is responsible for his trauma is ludicrous. I don’t think these people are misogynists but i do wonder, if it had been Jughead who had behaved this way would they still be punishing him now? If Jughead is their fave character and they like Betty purely as his gf and prefer Tabitha If not that is fine but they can’t seriously blame all Jughead’s problems 7 years later on a high school kiss. You don’t need to publish this as you must be sick of trolls and apparently now being criticised on other people’s blogs but I want you know when you are out there taking the hits that a lot of support you!

you’re sweet, thank you for the kind message!💜

everything i say on here is public, doll, so i don’t begrudge anyone for reacting to it. i think some people can handle it better and more respectfully than they do but i’ve never been here to control how people do things in fandom, i share how i feel, how others feel is up to them. 

when the main change in someone’s character is her disconnect from a male main fave that directly correlates to an increase in the hate she gets, one has to ask if the influx of hate comes from a disingenuous place. 

i know people like to think i swooped down from the betty defense brigade last year to yell at everyone who had the audacity to not like her for kissing archie and that’s ridiculous. i was upfront years ago that i waited out s2 fandom wise because i saw the shenanigans from parts of this fandom. i saw the betty hate for no reason. i saw the people who bent over backwards to explain why it was cheating on betty’s part when she and archie kissed while both single in s2. i watched the sexist logic. i saw the bad arguments. i decided, in the end, that i wanted to write fic more than i wanted to avoid those bad faith takes. 

it’s not like i wasn’t upset about the cheating. or mad at the writing. but betty is fictional and cannot literally be hurt. the very real people that were getting attacked because they still liked betty despite her mistake? they could be and some of this fandom was being the very worst version of themselves over fiction. 

and the thing about misogyny or sexism is...you don’t have to be a misogynist or sexist to take part in these behaviors. we all do it. none of us are immune, including me. that’s not how that works. things are engrained in our culture, in our everyday thinking and sure, i’m more aware of it now than i used to be but i’m sure if i had to look at some of the stuff i’d have said without thinking even 5 years ago, i’d cringe now. that’s how being human goes. 

people accuse me of lots of things these days. i’ve been called a jughead hater, that i’m self-inserting as lili or betty, etc and it’s never offended me. because i know it’s not true. if anyone finds offense in the my opinions in response to anons or the trolls in my inbox, i don’t mean for them to be upset, truly. i’m only commenting on the things i’m presented with. i can’t control how others perceive it. 

we all remember the “betty punishment” fic requesting, right? the people who wanted to see her suffer onscreen, right? we all know that happened, yeah? we all saw them call her a w/hore and a s/lut, didn’t we? that she should have to watch jughead date other girls until he decided to forgive her? i know plenty of people saw that. 

so, you’ll have to excuse me if i don’t take all of the “i’m just into the idea of another jughead ship” takes dropped into my inbox seriously and in good faith. same language being used for jealous/punished betty, same names showing up. same desire to see her be alone in the name of her mental health while jughead should get someone to hold his hand through it. 

i’m sorry but i can’t pretend that some of those things don’t come off as insincere. i love betty and jughead. separately and together. i want them both to have better lives and yes, as a bughead shipper, i want them to find their way back to each other.  

that we know the response to jughead doing the same thing wouldn’t be anywhere near the same amount of outrage (look at the reaction to archie—literal crickets at times for it) is telling and i think we all know that by now, some people are just always going to only like betty insomuch as she’s connected to jughead. 

i just don’t feel the same way and i’m not going to sit here like i haven’t been around fandoms for years now with the exact same behaviors, no matter the pairing. this isn’t new, this isn’t different. i’ll see it again. so will you. so will we all. 

[mattzerella-sticks]

Desperation, Baby! (coda to 15x19 “Inherit the Earth”, Dean & Lucifer, Dean/Cas, 2.3k, T)

ao3 link

Death took her sweet time parsing through Chuck's book, meaning Lucifer spent longer than he'd like surrounded by his former vessel, his brother, his son, and a man whose obvious longing made him want to vomit. Instead of returning with his prize, Chuck welcoming him back, he must waste his valuable time playing 'nice; with those he can't stand.

Not that it matters. They don't trust him, each member of this ragtag group of survivors watching Lucifer in shifts. Never leaving him alone.

It's Dean's turn now, and he's driving Lucifer up a wall by doing nothing at all save for broadcasting a never-ending supply of feeling. Can he cut the signal without showing his hand, or put Dean's heart to good use?

           It’s pathetic, truly. Lucifer huffs, deflating, sinking further into his seat. Weighed down by obscene amounts of longing that poured freely off Dean like a broken hydrant. Funneled into his awareness because its usual drain was cordoned forever. It flooded these now silent angelic air waves, Lucifer growing more annoyed with each, excruciating second. Until, finally, “Holy hell, can you please quit it?”

           Dean startles from where he stood, jaw tensing. Mouth flattening in a thin line as he glares, “What?”

           “Quit. It. Quitit!” He hisses, leaning forward. Stretches his arms across the table, reaching for Dean. Fingers twitching, Lucifer imagines Dean’s neck between them. “Seriously, you’re giving me a migraine with all your feelings.”

           “Good.” Dean surprises Lucifer with his response. No attempted denial, nor misdirection. His gaze unflinchingly pierced through Lucifer’s vessel, pride bolstering its blow. Lucifer cannot detect any shame that usually clings to his soul, none of that smell lingering. He’s grown since they’ve last seen each other. Stunning character development. “Deserve it, after that dick move you pulled earlier.”

           “You still upset about that?” Scoffing, Lucifer rises. Meanders across the room towards Dean, gaze never straying. Easy since it’s only them. “I thought my gift would have more than made up for that.” He grins, rocking on his heels. A breadth of space separates them now. “How else was I supposed to get in, anyway?” he continues, “Not like if I called as myself you’d’ve rolled out the welcome mat.”

           “But… Cas?” Lucifer savors the taste of his brother’s name, drenched in sadness. Ripped from Dean’s heart in a barely controlled sob.

           “Nasty habit,” he giggles, “Though the results speak for themselves. I mean – you know how easy it was smooth-talking little Sammy when I looked like his ol’ flame, Jess?” Dean doesn’t laugh, snarled lip suffocating Lucifer’s airy mirth. “You’re no fun.”

           “Sorry,” Dean growls, “why don’t you try later when the world’s not ending.”

           “It’s always ending. In one way or another.” Lucifer waves his hand and a chair drags itself over. He straddles it, gazing up at Dean. “If we waited for peace to enjoy life, there’d be no time. Better to… say what’s in your heart, even if it kills you.” He frowns, mockingly, “Or in Castiel’s case… did kill him.”

           Dean slams his fist against the wall. “You have no right –“

           “Timeout there,” Lucifer smirks, eyes glowing red. Reflection of Dean’s entire face, blood rapidly swelling his cheeks. “Don’t want to do anything you’ll regret…” He holds Dean there, frozen, waits until the other man seems calm. Dips his head, tries catching Dean’s gaze. “If I let you go, will you behave?” Dean remains silent, yet Lucifer hears him. Tunes into his frequency, actively sifting through his frenzied emotions. “Seriously,” he lets Dean go, hunter falling on his ass, “how are we supposed to work as a team if you’re not willing to cooperate?”

           “This… isn’t a team,” Dean spits, “you’re working… with the Empty.”

           “And the Empty’s trying to take Chuck out!” he argues, “So, enemy of my enemy is my friend or all that nonsense –“

           “Go to hell.”

           “I wish I could, but I’m kinda on a short leash.” Bored with Dean’s resistance, Lucifer threads his next few words with seriousness. “Listen, once Betty’s done with the book I’ll flit on out of here and one, two, three – humanity is saved from dear, ol’ dad! We can make this all painless if you’d just trust me, or we can keep doing what we’re doing. I, personally, am tired of this bullshit. Rather be napping back in the Empty, but no…”

           “You should be.”

           “Beg pardon?”

           Dean bares his teeth, roiling hatred knocking Lucifer back a few inches. “You should still be sleeping, back there,” he says, “if anyone were supposed to come back, it’d be Cas. Not… you…”

           “Ah, Castiel, yes…” Lucifer sighs, “that would make sense, wouldn’t it? Of course, he lacks my raw power and charm, but… yes, you’d trust anything that he said.” Hand on his throat, he affects his vocal cords. Mimicking the other angel’s gravelly tone again, “Dean, please go along with Lucifer’s wishes and help him –“

           “Enough!” Dean kicks at a chair leg, interrupting Lucifer. Tears threaten to pour, dangling from his lashes like morning dew. “If you really wanna play nice, you’d stop doing that.”

           “This is nice, buddy.” Lucifer pokes at Dean’s leg with the toe of his boot. “Why don’t you grow some thick skin, huh? Where’s the real Dean Winchester? That tough guy with endless bravado instead of this sad, sorry piece of shit that’s pining after some dead guy?”

           Dean turns, Adam’s apple bobbing. “That isn’t me. I… he never was.” An intimate confession whispered into ancient brickwork. Meaningful for a different crowd. Except Lucifer shows little care, sarcastic clapping shattering Dean’s moment.

           “Wow, Dean… really fantastic. Amazing!” He climbs off the chair, crouching closer. Tongue dragged over his lips, smile wide. “Your verbose diction astounds me… did you whip that together after my brother got dragged into super hell? Are you still workshopping it – okay if I give you a few notes?” Lucifer pinches Dean’s cheek, poking this rabid grizzly. “At least you’ve got that face. Clearly Cas didn’t fall for your emotional maturity, your observational prowess or timing…”

           He weakly bats Lucifer off him, “You don’t know anything…”

           “I think I know quite a lot,” Lucifer challenges him, “Between the both of us, only I managed to slip inside my tight-ass little brother. Probably why I knew all his little… perversions, although it was clear as day how he felt about you to everyone – well… almost everyone.” His hand settles on Dean’s chest, atop his heart. “Do you know amazing it was, when I slipped my blade through him? You were a buffet that night… fear, relief, hope… despair. I could’ve ended him in that other dimension, but I waited until he crossed back. Knew how much more painful it’d be.”

           “Monster,” Dean says, “Fucking psychopath.”

           “The old me, maybe.” Lucifer teleports, sitting on a nearby table. Legs absentmindedly pedaling, stirring confusion within Dean. “But I’ve been reborn on the right side, Dean. Nobler. I’ve got purpose.”

           “You’ve got a load of shit,” he accuses, standing on shaky legs, “that you’re trying to sell me. Us.”

           “Come on!” Lucifer groans, hands flying skyward, “Isn’t this supposed to be your eleventh hour? How can you be so stubborn? Here I come, with a Hail Mary, and you’re turning your nose up at me like some snob. Like you have better options waiting. All because you won’t work with the Empty –“

           “It’s not just that,” Dean corrects him, “I also don’t want to work with you.”

           He crosses his arms, pouting. “You’re gonna have to suck that up. So the Empty wouldn’t send your boytoy, do you blame them? For a broken, little thing he sure is popular. Who’s to say Cas’d come back once this all wraps up? At least the Empty trusts me.”

           “I guess something has to.”

           “You can, too, if you want.” Lucifer casts his reel wide, waiting. Eyebrows waggling like baited worms. “It’d be a hell lot easier than what you’re doing now. Come on…” he needles, “why is it so hard to believe in miracles?”

           “Please…” Dean says, hiding his face behind his knees. Arms circled around his legs, curled into a ball. “Stop talking.”

           He relents for the time being. Proud of what cracks in Dean’s armor he made. When Chuck sent him, he asked Lucifer to ruffle a few feathers. Mess with their heads, ensure this ragtag group of losers would stay down. Accept their fate, end this miserable experiment called humanity in sadness. “Don’t provoke them too much, though,” Chuck warned, fists curled along his jacket’s lapels, “Betrayals only work when the other side doesn’t expect them. Plot’s stretched thin as it is, bringing you back doesn’t really make sense –“

           “I love you too, dad.”

           “That’s why you need to lay it on thick,” he said, “steer them away from why, keep the action moving.”

           Lucifer stared down at his father, frowning. “Anything else you need?”

           “No,” Chuck clapped Lucifer’s shoulder, nodding. “Just be yourself.”

           Except none of them wanted him. Especially Dean. He wanted… Castiel.

           It’s a little off-script, but Lucifer bets Chuck will enjoy what he plans. Even if it’ll involve his least favorite character. Lucifer hops off the table, grace burning across his body. Razing this vessel’s form, stealing its characteristics and distinguishability. A tall mound of clay left that he molds into a new body. Darker hair, sturdier frame, and bluer eyes. “Dean,” he says, swallowing his laughter. “Dean…” He tries again, sounding exactly like him.

           Like Castiel.

           Dean tenses, “Cas?” Barely audible, Lucifer strained to hear his prayer. That hope, sweetness quickly bittering as Dean digests the scene. “No…” he sighs, mumbling into his legs. “Lucifer, thought I told you to quit it.”

           “Lucifer is gone, Dean,” he lies, kneeling. “I’m here… please, Dean, look at me.” Lucifer grabs at Dean’s head, thankful the other man lets him. Green finds masked-blue, their ‘reunion’ drawing a pained breath.

           “What?” Dean asks, a single tear slipping free. Trails along his cheek until it falls off his chin. “How – how is this happening?”

           “Because of you, Dean.” Lucifer’s hands shift, a thumb smearing that tearstain while he runs fingers through Dean’s hair. “You refused Lucifer’s help, even though what he said was true. The Empty saw and decided, if we were to truly end Chuck, the risk of sending me will be worth it.” Expression darkening, Lucifer leans into dramatics. Lips quivering as he recites his next line, “Though not without conditions, Dean – I… you know I can’t stay, right?”

           “You will,” he says, “Cas – we will… if this book really can end Chuck, and we take him out, what can the Empty do –“

           “Take you,” Lucifer cuts him off. “Take you… Sam, and Jack. I step even an inch out of line and we all get sucked into their being, with no hope of actually defeating my father.” He nearly breaks character, watching how the light in Dean’s eyes flickered before being snuffed. Lucifer regains composure, growling his next words. “You understand this, then? What it means?”

           Dean nods, snaking his hands across Lucifer’s wrists. “Means we don’t have long,” he barks, squeezing tight. “I have to set it right, right now.”

           “Dean –“

           “No, Cas,” Dean talks over him, guiding Lucifer’s hands off where they rested. Silences the disguised archangel by chaining him, making Lucifer a helpless victim. Awe real as he waits for Dean, cowed by longing powerful than his earlier annoyance. “I… I need to get through this because – well, the last time you didn’t let me get a word in edgewise and I, there was a lot left unsaid that I don’t want to stay that way. If we can’t have a future, then at least… at least we have here.” He laughs, choking on it. More tears dance their way down.

           “When you told me you loved me, I couldn’t believe it,” Dean confesses, “and then, when you told me why I – I was… I believed that less. I mean, you… you’ve listened to your heart more than I have. Even if a few of those times it was wrong, everything you did was for love. Knowing you was – that was my happiness. Having you, in whatever way you’d let me. Because there you were, this shining beacon, and for some reason you kept on letting me bask in your glow. I felt I… I didn’t deserve it. That I didn’t deserve you.”

           Dean brings Lucifer’s knuckles to his lips, pressing a light kiss along a patch of skin. The gesture disgusts him. “And you were right about how – I thought of myself so… so poorly, it kept me from saying and – and doing things I wish I’d done sooner. All my life I thought there were things I couldn’t have, rules I had to live by, and I never questioned them until you saved me from hell. Literal and figurative. Because of you, I wanted to be a better person. I wanted to be good. But I never believed I could. Then you tell me you loved me… because I was good. I already was the kind of person I thought seemed impossible. I couldn’t believe it. What’s stranger… I didn’t have to believe it, to know it’s true.” Dean smiles at him, Lucifer mirroring his gesture though it pained him. “I’m the person I always wished I could be, and even when you’re gone I’ll still be that person. I’ll miss you, Cas. Always. I’ll miss you, and I’ll love you. I’ll love you always.”

           It happens before Lucifer realizes. Distracted, nauseated by Dean’s powerful emotions, he missed how a hand snuck its way towards his neck. Pinched there, startling him. In that second, Dean forces Lucifer into an embrace. Lips crashing together, Lucifer stays frozen while Dean attacks his mouth. Mewling, whimpering.

           Disgusting.

           He pulls the curtains back, reverting to his previous form. Delights in how Dean senses the change, peeking with one eye as Castiel’s face vanishes. The other man violently hurls himself to the side, gaping at him. “Why Dean,” Lucifer grins, awkwardness heavy in his tone, “if I had known that’s how you felt about me…”

           Dean sobs, wiping at his lips. “How… what the –“

           “You really thought I was Cas, didn’t you?” Laughing, Lucifer towers over him. “I figured you’d catch on but… I underestimated you. And for that I’m sorry.” He devours these new emotions radiating from Dean, eagerly lapping them up. “I’m also sorry that you’ve convinced you deserve a happy ending,” he twists the knife further. Dean flinches, turning. Fleeing. Lucifer shouts at his retreating figure. “That’s not your story, Dean! Don’t ask for more, be happy with what you have!”

           Then, as he waits for his next babysitter, Lucifer’s eyes glow red. “Because soon enough… you won’t even have that.”

[imaginationintowords]

Folklore [song series]

the 1

Modern Day AU! Bucky Barnes x OC!Reader

Plot: Inspired by Taylor Swift’s new album Folklore. The story follows the timeline of Bucky and Elizabeth’s relationship throughout the years.

Word count: 2404

Warnings: smut implied, loss of virginity implied, mention of alcohol abuse, mention of abandonment

Previous part

Series Masterlist

Age: 26

Year: 2020

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Elizabeth sat on the floor of her mostly empty childhood bedroom. She hasn't been back since Christmas, and that was almost 8 months ago. Her parents called her last month letting her know they are putting the house up for sale, deciding to move to a cottage upstate where it's much quieter.

They had asked if she wanted them to pack up her old bedroom for her, but she told them she would make the trip out to them to spare any storage space the stuff might take up, knowing that only a few special items would need to be kept.

She was sat on the floor going through old photos, the last thing she had to do before she would be done.

Photos from the time she spent here. A pile for which photos she will take back home, and a pile that her parents will keep. She was finally down to the last three photos, all flipped over on their back.

The first one scribbled in her mother's handwriting read:

Steve, Betty, & James. Halloween 2001.

She shakes her head at the nickname, she hasn't been called Betty in almost a decade. The nickname was tarnished, no longer having any special meaning.

She really should've kept it only for family.

She flipped the photo over. There was seven year-old Elizabeth, standing in between a young Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes both had their arms draped around her shoulders. All dressed up as pirates.

She smiled at the memory.

So young. So innocent. So unknowing of what the future held.

She focuses mostly on the boy to her right.

James Buchanan Barnes.

Her first friend here. Her first best friend. Her first kiss.

Her first boyfriend. Her first time having sex. Her first heartbreak.

The boy at the time she didn't know would completely change not only her life, but who she was.

Her first best friend here, she immediately thinks of their first meeting. So kind. Him insisting on teaching her how to ride a bike. Took him two weeks but he did it. That halloween was a memorable one, for both good and bad reasons.

She saw a different side of Bucky after seeing first-hand how his father behaved, due to his alcoholism.

Years later Elizabeth had learned Bucky's father's deepest secret, he had struggled with alcoholism, starting two years before her family moved across the street. It was a secret his family had kept until that Halloween weekend in 2001.

Bucky and his family had spent the weekend with Elizabeth's family, while his uncles came to take his dad away. His father went to go live with Bucky's grandmother and uncles to try and get sober. He returned home after three months, but sadly the disease was a lot stronger than that. His father was fighting a long battle that he was sadly losing.

After a grueling year his mother made the ultimate decision to divorce his father, not wanting to put herself or her children through the dangers once again. Bucky's maternal grandparents moved in to help his now single mother out, seeing as his father was no longer in the picture.

His dad would pop in from time to time never consistent with his visits, after Bucky turned 13 and Becca 10, his dad stopped coming around all together.

His father ended up meeting a woman who helped him get sober, they later on got married and started a new family of their own. Forgetting about the one he had abandoned.

The next photo was dated:

Summer of 2008.

The summer right before they started high school. That was the summer that they all reached peak puberty. Bucky and Steve shot up like weeds, while Elizabeth grew slightly in height. They no longer looked like the pre-pubescent tweens, and officially looked teenagers embarking on their first year of high school.

It was a candid photo of Bucky and Elizabeth at an end of summer party Steve had at his house.

The night of their first kiss together, and Elizabeth's first kiss in general.

It wasn't a cliche kiss that happened because a game of spin the bottle. It was a little more private than that.

Bucky and Elizabeth made their way back home on that cool summer night. The nights had just started to get cooler as the months made the transition from August to September.

"Do you think Steve knows how obvious he's making his crush on Peggy is?" Elizabeth asks breaking the silence of the walk.

"Probably not, I mean the punk is way to oblivious to notice that Peggy also has a crush on him," Bucky laughs, "Plus he's too chicken to even make a move."

"He's just shy," Elizabeth smiles, trying to defend her other best friend.

"Well he isn't going to get the girl by being shy," Bucky says.

"That's what you think," she winks at him.

"What do you know?" he asks her with an accusatory tone.

"That Peggy is going to ask him to go to the movies tomorrow night," Elizabeth recalled from her earlier conversation with Peggy, "That's why she stayed to help cleanup."

"Well then, I stand corrected," he bows his head.

"We should do that," Bucky says after a few moments of silence as they round the corner their houses now in sight.

"Help clean Steve's house?" Elizabeth asked confused.

"No, go to the movies."

"We already do that."

"I meant just us two, no Steve or Rebecca to tag along," Bucky reiterates.

"Like a date," he quietly says looking at his hands.

"Oh," it dawns on Elizabeth.

She felt a blush creep on her cheeks. The cool breeze not helping the warmth spreading throughout her face.

Elizabeth has had a crush on Bucky for as long as she can remember. She just always thought he would never see her in that light. Compared to the girls he's used to liking, she was the polar opposite. Her skin wasn't as pale as their's, she had what her mother called a "Puerto Rican" tan due to where her family lineage is originally from. Her dark curls were always everywhere, even when she had them contained. It's not like she stood out per se, they were surrounded by diversity. She just didn't look like the girls Bucky had a crush on.

"You want to go out on a date, with me?" she hesitantly asks.

"Yeah, I do," he smiles finally looking up to meet her eyes.

"Why?"

"Because I like you," he says confused why she would ask that.

"It's okay if you don't want to, I understand," he quickly says when she doesn't say anything. He goes back to looking down and kicking at invisible rocks.

"No," she says grabbing his hand, making them both stop in front of her house, "I do want that."

Bucky looks back up taken back by her response, "Really?"

"Yeah, I would love to go on a date with you," she smiled so big.

"Okay, wow. Cool," Bucky stumbles over his words, his smile matching her's.

"Tomorrow, you and I will go to the movies," he says, squeezing his hand that was still being held by her.

"Perfect."

"Perfect," he whispered staring in her eyes, he glanced down to her lips then back to her eyes.

Elizabeth noticed bucking glancing at her lips, she couldn't help herself and do the same thing.

Bucky grabbed her other hand as he slowly pulled her closer to his body. Leaning his head slightly down. Both closed their eyes and slowly met each other half way, their lips touching in a soft kiss.

What felt like hours, but was only seconds they pulled away slowly. Smiles gracing their faces.

"I'll call you tomorrow for the details," Bucky says.

"Okay. Goodnight," Elizabeth says, still holding onto Bucky's hands.

"Goodnight," Bucky smiles, letting go of her hands before jogging across the street.

Elizabeth had walked up to her porch and turned around to see Bucky turning around from his own porch. She waved and he waved back, their final goodbye for the night.

That was the perfect end to the summer before they had started high school. It was the start of something new and beautiful.

The last photo read:

Winnie and Keith's wedding. 11 Aug. 2010.

She flipped it over to see her and Bucky smiling dressed in formal attire, next to Steve and Peggy.

Bucky's mom did later remarry while they were in high school. She had met a lovely man named Keith, who loved her deeply and her children as if they were his own. He was a good man, someone Bucky really needed in his life.

The photo was taken during the reception. Bright smiles across all of their 16 year old faces.

Both couples had been dating for two years at that point and things were going great.

The smiles showcased how happy they all were. Probably had to do with what they all had planned after the wedding.

They had all convinced their parents into letting them stay at the hotel the reception was at that night, and Bucky would drive them all back home the following day. Their parents had agreed, the only rule is that the girls would stay in a room separately from the boys.

What they know wouldn't hurt them, right?

It was the night they were all planning on losing their virginity. Their hormones were racing, trying to keep it contained as to not draw attention to themselves:

After the wedding they all walked up to the floor they would be staying at. Bucky waited outside the girls' door as Elizabeth gathered her overnight bag, and Steve doing the same from the boys' room.

She walked out with her bag on her shoulder, and a smile on her face.

"Ready?" he asked, grabbing her bag from her shoulder.

"Yeah," she nodded, feeling the nerves start.

Steve walked up to them with his own bag, "See you guys in the morning," he smiled before walking into the room, closing the door behind him.

Elizabeth could remember that night clearly. She had done a lot of prep beforehand, being an overachiever she needed to know what she was getting herself into. But nothing could prepare her for what had really happened.

It was filled with a lot of stumbling, awkward touches here and there. Both new to this sex thing. She's not going to lie and said it didn't hurt, she had prepared herself for it hurting. It wasn't the best sex she's had, but it was a moment she wouldn't forget.

After they were done they were cuddled in bed, Elizabeth's head resting on Bucky's chest as he smoothly raked his fingers across her arm.

"11:11, make a wish," Elizabeth whispered, closing her eyes.

"What'd you wish for?" Bucky asked.

"How many times do I have to tell you," she said, turning her body to lean on his chest to come face to face with him, "I can't tell you what I wish for, otherwise it won't come true."

"And how many times do I have to tell you, that that's not true," he teased.

"Well, you have yet to prove me wrong," she smiled.

"Come on, just this once."

"You," she stated, feeling the blush creep on her cheeks.

"What about me?"

"I wished for you," she says, "You and I. For us to have many more moments like this."

"Well doll, your wish is my command," he joked.

"I'm serious Bucky."

"So am I," his tone getting serious, "I love you Betty. It's you and me. Forever."

"Promise?" she held up her pinky.

"Promise." he linked his with hers.

They trusted each other. They were comfortable with each other. They had loved each other. And honestly that's all that mattered.

Now as an adult she realized how important your first time was. It was important that her first time was with Bucky, because she never regretted until she had.

She had really thought Bucky was the one. They would always talk about their futures together. What college they would attend together. When they would get married. Where they would live. How many kids they would have. All of it they had planned together. A future that didn't seem like just a dream.

Sadly with every first love comes every first heartbreak.

Her grandmother once told her that the greatest loves of all time were over now.

She had thought that when her relationship with Bucky had ended.

It truly felt like the end of the world. Like any breakup at that age felt like. She had sworn she would never feel love again. Her mother, Caterina telling her to just wait and see.

Caterina didn't believe in her own mother's words about greatest loves being over, because she was experiencing her's. She promised Elizabeth that she would experience her greatest love story when the time was right.

At the time Elizabeth didn't believe her mother. How could she when her heart was aching.

But like all the times before, her mother would be right.

She looked at  the last three photos in her hands. Without a second thought she placed the Halloween photo in the take pile and the other two in the parents' pile.

A soft knock on the door frame startled her, she looked behind to find the man she has called her's for the last few years. Her greatest love.

She couldn't help the smile that came across her face whenever she would see him.

"Ready?" he asks, a smile upon his face, as he leans up against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, let me just put these back in the box for my parents," she tells him cleaning up the photos and taking the ones she kept for herself.

"Look at this one I found," she says showing him the Halloween photo.

"Oh my gosh, we were so little," he smiles and laughs lightly raising his arm for her to go under, "Gosh I was such a dork."

"Was?" she playfully jokes, wrapping her arm around his waist and snuggling into his side as they head towards the stairs in each other's arms.

"Hey you fell in love with this dork," he jokes back.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way Steve," she smiles leaning up to kiss his lips.

[jessmalia]

Riverdale 4x17 - First thoughts

Pre-thoughts/expectations: Im very exicted for once. At first I was dreading this epiosde, because, you know, it’s a musical one, and you know how the last one went... (first thoughts on that here). But then they dropped all the Barchie stuff so now I’m PUMPED!

Warnings: Swearing and caps lock, also I didn’t edit any of this. 

First thoughts: 

Jughead: “It was over.” Me: Bughead?

I’m glad to see Jughead back writing in Pop’s tho

God another tape? I honestly completetly forgot about those

Oh no Jughead is singing again

It was god awful last time

I’ve only heard three words and it sounds like ha has inproved but I don’t wanna get my hopes up

Okay Cole’s singing is better (maybe that’s because he’s singing a low tone now though?) but I still think it’s a weird creative decision to have Jughead sing tbh. It just feels really weird and out of character. I know he’s not actually singing but still. I think the musical episodes would work better (or less bad) if he was the only one that didn’t sing. 

Oh now Archie is singing that is so much better

And Veronica too

I don’t know which musical this is from but I promise I won’t judge it based in Riverdale’s interpertation 

The people singing at Pop’s are really funny to me but I don’t know why

But also SWEET PEA YAY

I love Veronica’s outfit can I have that?

I hope Hiram dies

God Archie and his big mouth

He and Hagrid should be friends

I would honestly pay to see that spinoff 

GOD ARCHIE IS SO PRCIOUS AND JUST WANTS TO HELP I LOVE YOU

“The salem witch trails, definitly.” You fucking took the words right out of my mouth Jughead

Knowing that Brachie is coming is giving me the streangth to get through Bughead scenes without wanting to puke wow that hasn’t happened in a while

How do you know it’s a he, Charles? Do you know him? Is it you and your boyfriend in prison? 

Really Mr. Honey? Let Kevin sing! He’s the best of the cast!!!

“We’re generation Z” God that fucking cracked me up. No you’re not you’re all 30! I know they’re probably trying to give us a voice but I feel worse about being gen Z now that Kevin said it like that

Kevin sings tho so that’s good

Doing something like this, giving teenagers today a voice and trying to express how they feel is something I really wanna see more but it doesn’t work in Riverdale. Riverdale is so far removed from reality that doing these kind of realistic and relevant things and topics can’t work. If you’re gonna give generation Z a voice then you need to do it with people who behave like real gen Z teenagers, and the characters in Riverdale don’t. I don’t mean that all media have to be realistic, but if you’re gonna do something like this it kinda does. 

The musical numbers aren’t as awkward as in Heathers. That just hurt to watch, but this is totally fine. 

If no one had number 69 I’m sueing 

The Archies? Does Archie have a secret twin too?? With the same name???

THE CAR BETTY HELPED HIM FIX UP YEAH

yes bring back the Fred Heads

I can’t concentrate on the Fnags/Kevin scene cause I’m just thinking about that tickling thing and how fucking weird that was

I like Fangs being a supportive boyfriend tho

Yeah Betty’s about to roast Jughead this is great

Jughead’s lying to Betty again what a surprise

I’m fine with Jughead being in the band as long as he doesn’t sing

He can play drums like his dad

OH FUCK YEAH KEVIN IN DRAG LET’S DO THIS

The receptionist looking at Kevin OMG 😂😂😂

Shout out to Miss Bell

OMG SWEET PEA IS HELPING AND HE’S PLAYING THE GUTIAR???? TIGER PRINT HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD

OMG YESSSS KEVIN KISSED ARCHIE THAT WAS AMAZING DIDN’T KNOW I NEEDED THAT

At least Honey let him finish the song before he pulled the plug

This scene would’ve been so much cuter if it felt like Betty, Veronica, Toni, Cheryl and Kevin were all actually friends

Hate to break it to you Betty but that’s not a wig it’s a tiara

Wow they’re really making up for 3 seasons without drag

God Toni’s wig and Cheryl’s hair

OMG IT FEELS SO GOOD SEEING BETTY IN A WIG THAT ISN’T THAT SHITTY D*ARK B*ETTY WIG

Sugar Daddy is the best one yet but I don’t think it’s the right one to convince Mr. Honey

aaand I was right

Can all of them be barred from Prom? Cause I really don’t wanna see that unless Barchie goes together

Honestly I don’t think Veronica has the right to be that mad at Archie. Hiram isn’t his dad he can’t just make him go to the hospital. He tried to talk to him but he refused to listen there was litteraly nothing more he could do. Maybe he should’ve told Veronica earlier but th episode doesn’t tell us how long it took him to do it but it looked like it was the next day

Betty has more of a reason to be mad 

Also Jug don’t be so dramatic you didn’t actually die you idiot

OH NO DON’T SING

FUCK I CAN’T WITH THIS ANGSTY SCREAM SINGING BULLSHIT STOP

When Betty said “How do you think I feel” it sounded completely diffrent from the rest of the audio. Seriously, that shitty amature dubbing is kinda inexcusible from a big show like this

They look kinda funny screaming at each other

sSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsown up 😂😂😂

FUCK YEAH EVERYONE’S IN DRAG NOW

Wait so are the fights happening during school time? Wtf? They’re editing the events like they take place during the same time so why aren’t they at school??

NEVERMIND REGGIE IN DRAG SKJKFLHJSHF

FUCK YOU HONEY YOU CAN’T CANCEL THE SHOW BECAUSE OF A PEACEFUL PROTEST WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

fUCK YEAH THE BARCHIE SCENE IS COMING NOW BE PREPARED FOR MORE CAPSLOCK

You didn’t screw up shit she shouldn’t have gotten as mad as she did because of that

“We peaked in the 1st grade” God they’re so adorable 

OMG THEY’RE GONNA DO A CALLBACK TO SEASON 1 WHEN ARCHIE LOOKED AT BETTY LIKE THAT AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHSKJJSH

Ok nevermind it was about Fred sill really cute

God they’re gonna sing a song called Origin of Love.... I don’t think I’m mentally prepared for this

Do I even have to say that this is the best song number in the show?

Veronica what are you doing I want Barchie

No not Jughead ugh

CAN THOR PLEASE KILL THEM ALL WITH HIS HAMMER THAT WOULD BE GREAT

Okay Cole’s singing has improved a lot I’ll give him snaps for that

I take back not wanting Veronica or Jughead right now this is great Jeronica and Barchie parallells

I really hope this cheating plot line will bring Jug and Veronica together that would be so great

OMG THE FLASHBACKS TO BARCHIE SEASON 1 MY HEART

AND FLASHBACK TO THE BARCHIE KISS FUCK YEAH

FUCK YEAH THEY’RE KISSING NOW SJKSLHJSDBVHBRGVHWR WFHBVHVWKJHRVBRHBVHRBH

That was better than all Bughead and Varchie kisses combined don’t @ me 

She looks happier and more in love in the picture with Archie

OMG JUGHEAD IS HERE YES BRING THE ANGST

I can’t wait to see Jughead’s reaction to finding out Betty cheated on him with Archie

LOL Archie has 1 picture with Veronica and 4 with Betty that’s so in character I love it

omg they’re still gonna perform it’s gonna be so awkward I love it

YES THEY’RE LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDOWS NOW I LOVE IT

OH MY GOD THIS SONG WTF IT’S GIVING ME SO MANY FEELS

OH MY GOD THEY’RE DANCING IN THE OUTFITS FROM THE DANCE IN 1X1 I CAN’T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT I’VE EVER WANTED 

NAME ONE BUGHEAD MOMENT THAT EVEN COMES CLOSE TO THIS YOU CAN’T

THE HANDS AGAINST THE WINDOWS HHHHMHMHNJBNJTNBDNBN

I WISH THERE WAS SOMETHING BIGGER THAN CAPSLOCK TO SHOW HOW I’M FEELING

Yes they’re preforming now this is gonna be so awkward

And they showed Sweet Pea for another second 

Did they forget that he’s a fan favourite??

Jughead’s playing the drums but he still has a mic fuck

He looks so confused when Betty won’t look back at him God that’s hilarious 

Fangs and Sweets singing with to the misfits part yess

WHY ARE THEY STANDING ON THE ROOF THATS SO STUPID THIS WAS AN ACTUAL GOOD EPISODE DONT RUIN IT

How many fucking people are there I thought Riverdale was a small town

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.......................................wtf was that?

I don’t know wether to laugh or cry

Final thoughts: BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE BARCHIE with a really wird ending like wtf

[youwontlikethisblog]

A lil rant

After watching this episode a fourth time and certain scenes a lot and thinking about it a lot I wanted to explain further than I did in the last post.

I focused a lot on explaining the consensual aspect of their first time and explaining the motivation behind Armando's actions as well as Betty's, but didn't elaborate much more, for one like I said I'm an insomniac and was out of it lol, try writing a post for nearly twelve hours and tell me you wouldn't either. I do see that I should probably draft a lot of my "analysis" when I write them because I am not all there so I don't explain things as well so I'll start doing that so the post are a lot more consistent and clear as opposed to me starting with one point and never finishing it. Anyway now that this disclaimer is out of the way here are my thoughts on said episodes as a writer.

Many times when writing we have to revisit our work as we are writing it. This allows us to pick up on certain plot holes and mistakes as well as even figure out some plot twist in the future. Often times when you know your characters and the moral and ending of your story, the story ends up writing itself and forming it's own path. I've mentioned in past posts that the first draft is to write with tears and blood and the when that's over you clean up your crime scene.

Now, all writers are imperfect and we make mistakes, duh, so there's inconsistent things in this show, like the dog, Camila, Beatriz Valencia, etc.. etc.. however when it comes to the main character's personality there really isn't much of a flaw, in fact they are very realistic and consistent, the actors did a phenomenal job bringing said characters to life, one of my all time favorite details of the characters in this show is how they all have ticks. Guti Guti does that thing with his lips, Patricia flips her hair, Betty worries her lips a lot and when she is explaining certain things she often has this really adorable thing where she rocks on her feet and speaks very certain of what she's saying. Armando has so many ticks that it's hard to keep up with them. Point is they all have so many realistic behaviors that it's hard not to notice them and even harder to disregard them as not part of the story when they are. They are a huge part of being able to credit or discredit the motives and actions that move these characters.

For that exact reason Betty's character in the past few episodes was so heavily important to understand where she was coming from. It wasn't just that she was drinking that got her all riled up and excited that night. It wasn't just that she missed him days without him made her longing and desire increase ten fold. There is always a cause and effect.

What caused Betty to behave this way? How did that effect her relationship? What caused Armando to react that way? How did that effect their relationship? Most importantly, how did this affect them both?

There's a clear understanding of who Armando is and what his secret desire and motive is to make Betty fall in love with him. Though his pride and ego are so huge he can't see past it to dissect and understand his feelings aside from the prejudice he has against women who are not the status quota, in the mildest of all of that there lays one true objective: Betty's heart. We mustn't forget that Armando IS worried about Eco Moda and most certainly that he never wants to admit that he was wrong.

However much like a future dream demonstrates it, Eco Moda is just a farce for his feelings towards Betty. Though outwardly he is motivated by the desperate desire to be validated and loved by his parents, to be better than Daniel, and not admit that he was wrong, inwardly what really pushes him and makes him go after Betty is his desire for her.

How does this start off? He blurs the line at work, where things no longer are just professional coming from him. He makes certain achievements of Betty's in her profession and even morale his own, as if they were a team facing the challenges together. He inserts himself into Betty's life and he inserts Betty into his personal life a lot. With his affairs, his feelings regarding the company and his worries. He trust her as his confidant, as his best friend. He trust her with his feelings more than he does with his actual best friend and his fiancé and this all starts days before the plan is even a plan to him.

The cause of this? Betty's faithfulness and unconditionality.

The effect? He feels like he is special to Betty, as he said himself he had been so special with her(If you haven't yet I suggest that you read the posts Nicolas Mora, Un Amigo, Betty, My Betty! Parts 1-3).

As their relationship progressed his feelings continued to grow to the point that this night, not after he slept with her but before he did, he fell in love. It was when Betty was being vulnerable and apologizing to him for having been overbearing that he fell in love.

However Betty had already been in love with him, way before. She knew him in and out. She knew the good and the bad. She accepted him as is and all she wanted to do was give him her affection and love and that's what she's done, it's all she's done and this feeds a cycle of desire and motivation for Armando where her love motivates him to change, it inspires him to be a better version of himself to make Betty happy because seeing her happy makes him happy, it challenges him to change his own prejudice of society and people. She is a safe haven and she achieves that, how wasn't he supposed to fall in love with her this night when she does exactly that?

Betty's cause to behave like this was her conversation with Aura Maria days before where she questioned if Armando felt more for her than just admiration. She questioned if he too desired her. The effect of that conversation was her testing to see if Armando did in fact feel the same way, that he was on the same page.

It is also so satisfying to see the parallels! Oh how wonderful they are!

The extreme contrast between Betty and Marcela are so visible, so vivid, so in your face that you cannot say that Marcela is a victim of Betty's.

I won't defend Betty's actions for involving herself with a man that was in a contract with another woman(I say contract because it was not an engagement. What Marcela and Armando had was a contract, he did her the favor of marrying her and she owned him.) I understand that she is insecure but she was always shown to have morals and ethics above all, where did those go? Out the window that's where. However I still love her so imma be a supportive mother to Betty and call her out but lend her my two shoulders to cry on, okay?

Moving on.

Betty did not and I will repeat this BETTY DID NOT MANIPULATE OR FORCE ARMANDO TO SLEEP WITH HER.

We get two contrast of the exact same scenario for that exact reason people.

Betty and Marcela literally ask the exact same questions to Armando: Am I making you uncomfortable? Am I bothering you? Do you not want to be with me?(Marcela asked Do you want me to leave?)

However they ask it with different intentions and motivation.

Marcela never pays attention to Armando's body language. Instead she focuses solely on herself, her feelings, and what she wants, this is not a person who is insecure, this is not a person who has no self-worth. This is a person who has a huge ego. MARCELA IS SELF-CENTERED AND SELFISH TO THE CORE. For this exact reason she refuses to let go of Armando because she believes that she deserves him not as a human being but as a trophy to satisfy herself that she tamed a man who sluts it out left and right.

This night we get to see that.

While Betty asked him these questions to make sure he was on the same page as her, that he too desired her just as she desired him; Marcela asked these questions to trap him. She wanted to be like "Aha! You do have a lover! Now I'm going to make your life a living hell because I was right!"

No sis, calm your tits, you need a therapist.

While Betty was legit asking for it, for Armando to consent, Marcela was asking for him to satisfy her. There is a huge, and I mean huge difference between asking for consent and wanting to be satisfied.

Ironically my current WIP pushed me down a rabbit hole on information that explains the dynamics of a survivor and a romantic relationship and how to be a supportive S.O and a lot of the articles I read mentioned the importance of intimacy.

What is intimacy? It is forming a friendship with your S.O and establishing honesty and respect. It comes above the physical aspect of the relationship because it makes you feel safe when things are leading to something physical.

Marcela and Armando don't have that. Armando has even told Marcela that he doesn't want her to have his intimacy. When I first saw that scene I was like "Take a look at this an*s! Why is she with him?" and then I saw why... Marcela be blabbering his business to everyone. She tells everyone that Armando is unfaithful(I mean in that aspect he do be deserving that) but it goes so much deeper than that. The reason he cheats on her is because he is trying to escape, have control, and feel validated and then that feeds her possessiveness over him, which then feeds his desire to cheat(@el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle already made a meme about that lol). She never does anything to gain his trust, instead she demands it and when she doesn't get it she has this "Aha! It's because you're a cheating whore and I'll destroy the woman but stay with you because you belong to me you puny little man! But I will also ruin you if you leave me!" Their relationship sucks. It's honestly just a moral enemies to sex trope. That's it. Like there's nothing there.

Which is not the case for Betty and Armando.

They in fact do have intimacy. They talk about their feelings, they face trials together, as a team, they push one another and inspire one another. They were friends(a lil more than friends doe) long before. In the scene where they are talking in the hotel room Betty tells him she understand him, that she understands that he doesn't feel that sort of attraction towards her and just because she loves him he isn't obligated to sleep with her.

I want to repeat this in cause people are still confused or saying Betty forced Armando to sleep with her: She said :YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE OBLIGATION TO HAVE RELATIONS WITH ME JUST BECAUSE I WANT TO.

What does that sound like to you?

Imma wait for crickets.

When Armando then tries to engage into relations she pulls away and tells him that he doesn't have to.

She is literally placing his needs, his feelings, before her own, however Armando has just barely fallen in love and he wants to. He wants to sleep with her. He wants to engage in fornication and sinful actions with Betty.

He gets frustrated when Betty tells him that he doesn't have to and we know it's because he hates it when people, especially Betty, invalidate his feelings or efforts. The fact that Betty now was telling him no upset him because he did want to sleep with her, however he did not pressure her either. He explained why he did want to sleep with her and when she consented and he too consented they sinned.

However later that night we get almost the exact same scenario but with a different tone.

Marcela, after they argued, sits by his bed where he is laying down and goes to take off his tie and tells him that she desires him. Armando was laying still he told her he was tired, wanted to wash up and go to sleep before she did this. He did not look nor welcome her actions, which is different from when Betty told him that she wanted to make him feel better. In that scene Armando asked her how she was going to do that and when she said with her kisses, they both leaned in to kiss. This time Armando just lays there, like all the other times before but he looks at her with a cold stare.

When he jumped back from Betty when they were making out, Betty asked him what was wrong and he expressed himself.

However this time when Marcela asks him her tone is different. This time she's angry at him as she yells at him to deny that he has a lover now.

Marcela wasn't looking to be with her man, she was looking for her man to be with her. She wanted him to prove to her that he hadn't been sluting it out(like how was he supposed to prove that when she been knew that he still went and slept with her after he slept with whomever? Like she knew he did that and she still consented? WHAT? which y'know feeds the notion that she just wanted her socks rocked) but it contradicts what she says the next day to Patsy Pats at the office. Marcela just wanted him to satisfy her. She wasn't looking for it to be team work, she was looking for it to be about her.

This is why that night was so important. These little scenes, movements, play on words and parrales are there to show us two different relationships; a healthy one and a toxic one.

Marcela didn't respect Armando's no, she just had no other option because this time he wasn't just laying there letting her do what she wanted, this time her emotional manipulation didn't work, this time her seggsual manipulation doesn't work so unless she was gonna r-word him than she had no other choice but to be pissed about it.

Betty did respect Armando's no. She tried to explain herself and apologize to him. She even double checked with him when he told her he did want to. Betty was willing to not have relations with Armando if he didn't want to, for the sake of their relationship and what they have, she would not jeopardize their relationship just to get her socks rocked nor would she make him feel guilty for it.

It wasn't a happy little accident that we get these parrales in one episode.

Understanding the cause and effect helps us determine this.

Understanding the character's inner desires and dilemas helps us understand this.

So no, once again, Betty did not force Armando to sleep with her. Everything before, during, and after that scene shows us and tells us this.

We get both a cause and effect with the added bonus of show, not tell.

This novela reads like a book, so there isn't much of a speculation when we are being shown to compare both of these relationships when they are saying the same things, in the same scenario but with different tone and reaction from the character of interest in both scenarios.

The purpose of this novela was to break social norms of how certain women and men are presented in the media and to question why that is. It isn't simply a love story, if it was I wouldn't be able to watch it as stuff like that makes me want to puke, again this is all a funny ironic joke that someone is playing on me.

[EDIT:

Another key things to take into account(I mentioned it in the Forgive Me post) is that even Mario's tactic to manipulate Armando had nothing to do with Eco Moda or his ego. It had everything to do with Betty's feelings and Armando's desire to make her happy. That same day Mario took notice of Armando's behavior towards Betty at the office and the guilt he felt over forgetting her B-day. Mario played with Armando's feelings and he pushed his buttons to see just how much it mattered to Armando.

When Armando said at the bar that he couldn't go through with it, Mario told him he was convinced, a sincere reaction of his, and he didn't have to do it anymore. However when Armando said he couldn't do that to Betty because she was really looking forward to it, Armando was smiling when he was talking about her enthusiasm to spend time with him, and Mario took notice of that.

So again, Armando did want to sleep with Betty, he just didn't want to do it under deceit or manipulation. He didn't want to be Betty's "First" under those conditions and Betty didn't force him.

My rant is over.

[EDIT: On the Forgive Me post I went back and did two corrections, they are in bold so if y'all want to read them, that would be awesome :)]

[drunk-onsunlight]

Day #6 of Promptmas

Chapter 6: To break this spell!

Summary:

Identity reveal & Superhero shenanigans ruining plans

Read on Ao3 

Concept: Identity reveal & Superhero shenanigans ruining plans

Dialogue: “Listen, Santa doesn’t have to know about this” & “Oh, I know exactly what you’re trying to do. But you will not ruin my Christmas. Not again. Not this year.” & “Keep doing that if you wanna end up on the naughty list”

December 22nd

Ned: See you in thirty. You know where

Time to buy the ring!!! Peter was actually very much excited about going to buy the ring for Betty, it didn’t matter that it was 9am and that he didn’t sleep the night before. He didn’t know where they were going but the reunion point was the Rockefeller Center. He gathered all his things and put his suit on his bag (just in case, you never know what could happen in New York, what if he crossed paths with Black Cat again? Or Rhino? He needed to be prepared).

He decided to walk, it was a long way on a very cold day but he needed to think. Ned was probably going to ask him about him and MJ and what was he supposed to say? Lies? Ned knew better than that. He needed a good plan if they want this lie to survive almost five days. When he arrived to the Rockefeller Center he send a message to Ned telling where he was. After a few minutes he saw Ned walking towards him.

“Hey, Ned!” Peter said enthusiastically

“Hey, fake friend” Ned looked at him with a little bit of disappointment in his eyes and tone

“Are you kidding me?”

“Why you didn’t tell me? How long how you been guys dating? I can’t believe May told me and not you”

“May told you?” Oh no! Probably half of Queens knew he was dating his roommate and they weren’t even dating

“You told her and not me! I can’t believe it, seriously. I have been waiting for this since high school and I didn’t know anything. Ok maybe the movie night was kind of a clue but anyway, I wanted confirmation not speculations” What? There was too much information in Ned’s rant that he needed to process

“Wait… what? What do you mean? First of all, May didn’t know. Second, waiting since high school for what? And third, what about the movie night?” Ned had started walking and Peter was almost running after him

“Oh, whatever. You will have to tell everyone the story tonight or Betty is killing you” He decided to leave the topic if Ned was giving him a way out of the real reason behind the surprise relationship with MJ

“Where are we going?” Ned had slow down a little and Peter was walking next to him with his backpack on his back

“Right here” Ned stopped in front of a store that had a sign where it was read MDC Diamons. Fancy and probably very expensive.

“Wow. You’re going all in, aren’t you?”

“She deserves it” while Ned said that, he pushed the door and closed it behind them

“Good morning. Welcome to MDC Diamonds. How can I help you?” A blond girl behind a glass showcase talked to them

“Hey. I’m looking for an engagement ring for my girlfriend” Ned spoke to the girl like he was telling her top secret information

“Do you have something in mind you would like to see or should I show you lots of options?”

“I want something that’s not common. Maybe different stones and not just one, gold maybe” Peter was impressed, Ned obviously had a very clear idea of what he wanted for Betty

“I have a few options for you” The girl moved around behind the showcase colleting different things

“First I can offer you engagement ring with two different stones besides the central diamond” she showed them to rows of beautiful rings. One row had green stones and the second one had blue stones “These ones have Colombian emeralds, the best quality. And these ones have Australian sapphires, also the best. They all have a gold ring and the central diamond is up to you and your budget”They looked to all the options anf then shared a worried look “Do you like a carved or plain ring? That can make it easier for you” the girl offered them a solution to their turmoil

“Maybe with some kind on design, a simple one” Ned moved his eyes from ring to ring, not daring to touch them

“What about this ones” Peter showed Ned a few ring with different designs, some with emerald and some others with sapphires

“I like this one” Ned pointed at a particular ring. The girl took it from its place and showed the ring to them

“This ring is a 14 karat yellow gold ring with engraved butterflies, a little rope design and 6 round green emeralds. The diamond can be from 5mm or bigger. Emeralds are not so common for engagement rings too”

“How much?” Peter couldn’t hold himself, he needed to know the prize

“It costs 1.650 dollars. Without the Central diamond”

“Without the diamond?” Peter knew engagement rings could be expensive but wow

“Can you show me the diamonds, please?” Probably Ned didn’t hear the prize or something, he was delighted watching the ring and not freaking out about the prices

“What kind of shape do you want for the diamond? We have round, princess, emerald, asscher, oval, radiant, pear, hearts, marquise, cushions and trillions” Now Ned was looking at her with total panic. How was he supposed to know what shape the diamond was best for the ring and Betty?

“What do you recommend?” Peter asked while Ned was looking at the girl with worried eyes

“For this kind or ring it’s recommended a round diamond but if you want something different the best options are the princess cut, asscher and trillions”

“I like trillions. What about you, Ned?”

“I like them too. What options do we have with trillions?”

“We have two options. I will show you” The girl walked inside the store and after a minute she returned with two small boxes

“The first one is a 0.45 carat diamond that costs 840 dollars and the second one is a 0.44 carat diamond that costs 1.071 dollars” She opened both boxes to show them each diamond, they were beautiful

“Why the difference in prices?” Ned was looking at the diamonds, probably trying to understand why such a huge difference when the cheapest was bigger

“It’s the size, the clarity of the stone, the colors, the symmetry and even the quality in the cut” Peter felt the hairs on his neck tingle. The diamond and ring talk totally forgotten now. He moved to the front door and saw it. Rhino was a few blocks from them.

“Ned!” Peter didn’t turn around to call Ned

“Yeah?”

“Can you come here for a second, please?” He felt Ned moving toward him. When Ned placed himself next to Peter he moved from the glass door to face Ned.

“Did you see that on the outside?” Ned had a confused face while looking at Peter, but as soon as he turned to face the glass door his face changed from confusion to fear “I need to go, stay here” Ned moved his head up and down but didn’t say a word. He liked being a Friend of Spider-Man but never quite liked being too close to the action, he was good just being the Guy in the Chair and now just the supportive voice in Peter’s ears while patrols

“Yeah, ok” The girl was looking at them as if a third head had grown in both of them “Just be careful Peter” Ned knew how bad it could get when Rhino was involved

“I will, but you need to be safe too” Peter opened the door but before he went out he heard Ned speaking again

“Peter? I’m not mad at you for not telling me, just shook. I’m actually really happy for both of you. You guys deserve to be happy” Peter knew he was going to be terribly mad when he told him the truth about their pretended relationship

Without another word, Peter moved to a close ally to change his normal clothes for his suit. He hadn’t done that since high school, he always tried to find more private places to change. He webbed his backpack to a wall behind a dumpster, a trick he developed as a freshman in college after losing two bags on the same week.

He used his webs to swing the few blocks to where Rhino was. When he got there he found a mess in the street, people running around screaming, cameramen reporting Rhino’s appearance, police trying to control the crowd and then, there was Rhino. He was grabbing a police car and he threw it across the street

“Hey, big guy! If you wanted a car as a Christmas present from Santa you probably just needed to send a nice letter and behave over the year, no need to steal them” When he got Rhino’s attention he webbed the car and pulled it down again. Nobody was hurt.

“Take as much people out of here before it gets worst” Peter said to a police officer but he didn’t move, he was standing there looking at Rhino.

“Let me help you, Spider-Man” Peter turned around and found a man on a green suit with a blue cape. Peter remembered seeing the same suit a few nights ago, on the small park in Queens. “Go away cop” The man talked to the officer while looking at his eyes and the cop immediately moved away, but without helping anyone else. There were a lot of people in danger

“Karen? Take notes on his abilities. Investigate him. Find as much as you can” Peter spoke to the AI in his mask

“Got it Peter”

“Oh, look who’s here! My dear friend, Black Cat” The guy on the green suit spoke past Peter

“Prowler” Peter turned around and found the same girl in black leather suit and silver hair behind him

“Do you guys had a bad guys reunion and forgot to invite me? Rhino is mad because he didn’t like who he picked for Secret Santa, right?” when he finished the phrase Rhino moved to the Rockefeller Center tree and started shaking it

“Oh, I know exactly what you’re trying to do. But you will not ruin my Christmas. Not again. Not this year.” Peter remembered last year very vividly. Rhino knocked him down using a regular tree that he threw at his head. He was unconscious for three days so he missed Christmas. He wasn’t letting Rhino ruin this year’s Christmas too, he had a fake relationship to put up that afternoon

Peter moved to Rhino, leaving Cat and Prowler behind. He would take care of them after Rhino, he was the bigger threat. Peter webbed Rhino’s hands to a building near them. He had designed a bigger devise for the web liquid he designed in the labs, every time he fought Rhino he ran out of webs. He wasn’t making the same mistakes twice.

------

“Every time you are around something goes wrong, Cat. What are you doing here?” The Prowler started walking around her. She didn’t like it

“Do you believe in superstitions?” She loved that mind trick, as the human representation of a black cat, everyone believed she carried bad luck with her

“I do not. But maybe I should. What do you want Cat? Are you on Spider-Man’s side?”

“Yeah. That’s definitely why I’m helping him right now fighting Rhino. He’s your guy, isn’t he? Yours and that octopus man from the other day” She needed more information, and she wasn’t in anyone’s side

“So not with the Spider. Well, maybe the bad luck will go away from us if you join us. Doctor Octopus will be very pleased to meet you” Ok, so the octopus man was the leader of this weird gang

“What about Rhino? Is he good?” She needed more information from the inside to try to end that stupid group of people that hurt innocents for the sake of power

“He’s out of control. The Doc is not happy with his behavior but at the same time, he is strong enough to end the Spider and if he does that, we can all move on to our own plans. Care to join Cat?” No, thank you very much

“Maybe if you tell me what would happen if the Spider is gone” She was waiting the Prowler would be stupid enough to tell her. While she waited for more information, she saw the fight between Rhino and Spider-Man on the back. She saw Spider-Man trying to move the people out of the fight range. She was really glad for her contacts, she could see everyone’s faces from far away without a problem.

That’s when he saw him. What the hell was Ned doing there? Wasn’t he supposed to be with Peter buying last minute presents for today? Where was Peter? She couldn’t see him near Ned

“Sorry Prowler, need to go. But we have a long pending conversation” The man on the green suit didn’t say anything. He just started moving closer to Spider-Man and Rhino. Well, good luck to the Spider. She needed to take Ned out of here before he got hurt

She walked into the crowd and past the media. Rhino was breaking Spider-Man’s webs from his hands and grabbing different things to throw at him but if Spidey wasn't fast enough the objects could hit him or the people watching the fight

“Ok everyone! You need to get out of here. This is getting bad. You all need to get out of here. NOW” She was standing in front of the crowd and started pushing the people softly to move them away from the fight

“I’m not going anywhere” She heard the phrase and cursed Ned in every language she knew. Why he wanted to be there so bad?

“Are you seeing the flying objects?” The frustration was getting the best out of her “Don’t you have someone close by to take you out of here? A Friend?” Where the hell was Peter?

“I’m not going anywhere” Ned repeated and she wanted to kick him now, instead, she grabbed his arm and started moving him when a flying car crashed next to them, the hit was so strong and close to them that they ended up on the floor. Ned hugged a little package and when he tried to lift himself from the ground, the crashed glass of the car cut his knees and hands. The fear in Ned’s face was visible and her rage grew even more if possible, the stupid Rhino hurt Ned and she was ready to kill Rhino by herself.

---

After Rhino threw that car to a running crowd he saw it. Black Cat was pushing someone to a building. What the hell was she doing? Now she was kidnapping people? First Rhino doing a tantrum, then Prowler trying to hurt him and now Cat kidnapping people? What the hell was going on?

“Hey Cat! Where you going?” When she turned around she released the man’s arm and he also turned to face him. When he saw who was, panic and rage ran through him “what are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to go?” his panic didn’t let him think about the consequences of his words

“You know him?” Black Cat asked Ned with a surprised face

“Everybody knows Spider-Man”

“Of course everybody knows him, but he knows you! Spider-Man, can you tell your friend to get the hell out of here? He is not listening”

“Why should he listen to you? You were dragging him to a building for what? What if you hurt him? Saw you with the Prowler. Making plans or something?” Peter knew he messed up in the moment her face turned a bright red, the rage was palpable. What if she was actually helping Ned get out of there?

She spoke to Ned’s ear. Whatever she said made Ned’s eyes opened and his brows went together. Ned looked at her from head to toe and he started moving with the crowd, away from the fight

“My job here is done Spider” Her tone spit venom. He saw her moving away from him and couldn’t hold himself, he felt guilty

“I’m sorry! He is my friend, we’ve known each other for long and I care about him. Freaked out a little when I saw you pushing him. He didn’t look like he wanted to go. I shouldn’t have reacted like that, you were helping” Peter didn’t know why he told all of that to Cat. His senses were always off around her, like she wasn’t a threat. Maybe he could trust her.

Before she could say something, Prowler and Rhino tried to attack him. His senses screamed at him at the danger. He webbed the car Rhino had thrown a few minutes before and he launched it to Prowler first and then to Rhino’s head. They both were on the floor after the hit and Peter saw the police moving to them. He took the opportunity to thank Cat for helping not just Ned, but the other people that was around

“Thank you for helping. You saved him”

“How long have you known each other?” Her curious eyes went through him

“School” Maybe his senses were off around her but he couldn’t trust her completely, she was talking to Prowler after all “You said something to him that make him go. Can I know what that was?”

“I know what he was supposed to be doing, and maybe I dropped a name that made him move.” Betty. Her name made him go. So she actually knew Ned. Maybe it was someone from college or work.

“Can we talk somewhere else? I have a few questions for you”

“Lead the way, Spider” Peter bet she had a lot of questions too if they both tried to save Ned.

“Can I take you with me somewhere safe?” Peter had a confidence rush and decided to act on his weird attraction to Black Cat

“How?”

“Swing with me?” He saw the doubt on her face for a second and then it was gone

“Why not? How are we supposed to do that?” He moved closer to her while he thought about his next move

“That’s a very good question. I have never done this. Amm, you can hug me?” He said the last as a question just to give her more options if she wasn’t comfortable

“Yeah. I think that will do” Cat moved closer to him and placed her arms around his neck. He could smell her perfume and found it familiar, she smelled like MJ. He didn’t get his mind around that thought, lots of people bought the same perfumes, nothing worth to think about

He placed his hand around her waist to pull her closer, when he shot his web they both jumped. She placed her long legs around his waist making the position very intimate. Peter moved through the buildings for a minute and decided to land on a rooftop high enough so they could talk

“Thanks for the ride, Spidey” Cat moved her legs from his waist but her arms remained around his neck. “Listen, Santa doesn’t have to know about this, you are probably on the good boys list and I don’t want to ruin your Christmas present” Peter didn’t get what she was talking about until she kissed him on the cheek, his mask between them, many thoughts and feelings running through him. His main thought was MJ, he was supposed to have a relationship her. It was a fake relationship but he still felt bad, like he was cheating on her

“Keep doing that if you wanna end up on the naughty list” Peter said and she moved her arms from around his neck while containing a small laugh. Peter knew it was a terrible come-back but it was the only thing he had in mind at the moment

“You had questions”

“You obviously know Ned and Betty. How?”

“School” Her answer was simple but it implies many things. Did she know who he was too? His silence have her the clue to keep talking while he freaked out a little. What if she knew who he was and wanted to hurt him? Now they were alone and his senses were too calm to be true “Why don’t you take off you mask, Peter? This is getting ridiculous”

“What?” He felt the sudden change in her voice. She didn’t sound as smooth as she had just a few second ago

“Let’s do something. I take off my mask and wig and you tell me how on earth the clumsy, nerd, loser Peter Parker ended up being Spider-Man. Deal?” It wasn’t her, no! That’s impossible. He was speechless

Black Cat took off her gloves. Peter was watching everything in slow motion. Her right hand moved to her silver hair and her left hand moved to her mask. She removed the wig and mask, brown curls falling over her face and again, he was speechless. It front of him was MJ, his roommate and fake girlfriend for the holidays, with a black leather suit, silver wig and a cat mask on her hands

“You can take your mask off, Peter. No need to hide” He felt like he had woken up from a dream, a nightmare actually. He was getting out of air inside his suit and his hands moved to the back of his neck. The mask was on the floor after a few seconds

“How the hell this happened?” The shock was visible now on his face

“How the hell you happened? I always thought about the possibility of you being Spider-Man but you both are so different, yet so similar, it was very confusing. After living with you I believed you were just good friends with Spider-Man for the Stark connection with the Avengers”

“A radioactive spider bit me on a school trip. Did a radioactive cat bit you or what happened?” MJ laughed at his comment and took a while to answer his question

“No radioactive animals for me. Just a little bit of tech, training and a nice suit.” Peter’s first thought was that it was a very nice suit in fact. He had so many questions for her, that’s probably how Ned felt when he found out Peter, his best friend, was Spider-Man.

MJ sent her hand to a belt she had around her waist and pulled out her phone. She unlocked it and all Peter could see were her eyes and fingers running through the screen

“Ned is asking where we are, if we are ok, he says we were on TV and knows we are together somewhere but would love to know if we are ok. He is already at the Stark’s house, they are waiting for us” She read the messages to him and saved her phone again on her belt.

“We should go and talk about all of this later”

“Yeah. We have lots of things to talk about. For now we have a fake relationship to put up for our family and friends. Remember me to take some pictures and send them to my sister explaining why I’m not going to the family dinner with the Jones”

Peter saw MJ move to the edge of the building and disappearing when she threw her rope somewhere he couldn't see. He moved to the edge too and shot his web to go home with MJ dressed as Black Cat, the thief he had being wondering about from a few days ago and a decision, they were going to convice everyone they were dating, not to prove them the opposite

[bluesfortheredj]

Hitsuzen

Hitsuzen - A naturally foreordained event. A state in which other outcomes are impossible.

Chapter 6.

“It’s okay, I’ve got the class,” you reassure Adam as he looks from John to Charlie in complete bewilderment.

“Right. Yeah. It’s fine, I’ll be back by lunch probably,” he finally responds, snapping out of his initial shock, “uh, I need my bag, it’s by my desk, can I…?”

“Nelson, you go with Miss (Y/L/N) to retrieve Mr Carter’s bag please, and I’ll escort him to the car,” John instructs.

They walk out of the staff room together then you nod for Charlie to follow you through the school to the classroom you shared, your hands brushing against one another’s as you walk side by side along the corridors. Not a word is uttered until you get into the empty classroom where suddenly you both feel safe enough to speak, and Charlie breaks into a smile as soon as you’re alone.

“I really enjoyed last night,” he admits shyly.

“So did I. It was really lovely,” you grin as you bend down to pick up Adam’s satchel, “didn’t expect to see you so soon. I mean, you didn’t have to threaten to arrest someone just to see me...”

“Thought it’d be a good excuse though,” he winks, picking up the bag from the desk, “but seriously, I would love to do it again, sometime this weekend maybe?”

“I’ll have to see if John and Sarah can have Evie...”

“Evie can come along if they can’t. I just… I just really want to spend more time with you.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” you nod, “alright then, she can play third wheel if they can’t have her.”

“Great! Well, I’d better go, but, uh, I’ll message you later.”

“Sounds good,” you smile, then he quickly pecks your lips and leaves within a matter of seconds.

It was a bold move but you find yourself swooning like a fool, and you walk over to the window to see Adam staring listlessly out of the window of John’s car as Charlie hops in next to him with the bag. You look back at the classroom and genuinely wonder if there was anything here that could kill someone, opening up the cupboards as you walk towards the door and checking for any mysterious looking bottles.

“Miss! Is it true Mr Carter was arrested?! Did he kill someone?!” you slam the cupboard door shut at the sound of the first students entering the room with a million questions being asked at you, and you roll your eyes as you walk past them to the desk at the front.

“Okay! Everyone settle down please… thank you. Right, Mr Carter is helping police with their enquiries, he has not been arrested, and this is not a dramatic episode of Eastenders, so everyone calm down and let’s get on with our end of year show planning,” you announce.

Eventually the whispers die down as the students focus on their work and you make your way around the classroom quietly, offering help to anyone who needed it and giving encouraging comments to those who didn’t. It was quite nice to be in the classroom without Adam in all honesty, the pupils were well behaved and listened to you just as much as they did to him, and you fell quite naturally into taking the lead at the head of the class. Maybe it wouldn’t turn out to be a completely horrible thing if he did happen to be arrested…

“So, how was your morning?” Sarah asks as she steps into the classroom at lunch once all the students have left.

“Really good!” you grin, “I think I’ve got this teaching thing nailed.”

“Of course you have! You’re a complete natural at it, I wouldn’t have hired you otherwise,” she winks.

“Oh stop, you’re going to make me blush! Oh, speaking of… could you possibly have Evie at the weekend at all? It doesn’t matter if not, Charlie said she’s more than welcome to join us.”

“But if Evie joins you, she’ll be the one getting the night kisses and not you… and we can’t be having that now can we?” she smirks.

“Sarah!” you laugh.

“We will be delighted to have her, and Betty will be thrilled as always! Actually, we were going to get the sand pit out, so they can have an afternoon of getting sand everywhere while me and John sit back with a glass of wine.”

“Well that sounds absolutely lovely, and I almost wish I was joining you!”

“But not quite, because you have handsome Charlie to see.”

“You think he’s handsome?” you tease.

“Oh, and you don’t?!”

“Oh Sarah, I fear the worst… I fear that it’s an actual full blown crush I have on him. How stupid is this?! I sound like a teenager!”

“It’s not stupid in the slightest, and it’s not as if the feeling isn’t mutual...”

“How do you mean?”

“John happened to mention that Charlie hasn’t been able to wipe the smile from his face all morning, and for someone who despises early starts I’d say that was nothing short of a miracle. You’ve obviously had quite the effect on him!”

“Well, what can I say?” you sigh confidently as you flick your hair back with a laugh, “in all seriousness though, this is like David all over again. The feelings are the same, but different, if you know what I mean?”

Sarah walks over to you and places her hands on your cheeks gently with a smile, “I told you, this is meant to be!”

You return the smile, still disbelieving of the statement, but intrigued as to whether there may ever be some evidence to prove any truth behind it. Her hands slip from your face then she nods towards the door and the two of you head to the staff room for a much needed cup of coffee and some food before the afternoon lessons begin. It’s a strange atmosphere in the room as you spot a small huddle of teachers very obviously whispering about Adam in the corner and looking over at you every now and again before resuming their gossip between bites of food.

“Sarah, what do you think is going on with Adam?” you ask quietly as she settles into the seat next to you with her lunch.

“I honestly do not know,” she sighs, shaking her head, “he’s never really mentioned friends or famil apart from his ‘bitch of an ex Maria’ of course,” she says, putting her plate on her lap to use air quotes.

“Hmm… do you think he’d be capable of-?”

“I do NOT need escorting up here!” Adam yells as he bursts through the door, throwing his bag down so that it accidentally hit your legs.

Charlie steps forward immediately but John quickly holds his arm out to stop him before turning to Sarah.

“I did suggest that Mr Carter go home after his time at the station but he insisted on returning to work. However, he has just hit his colleague with his bag, so I would strongly advise you to send him home yourself Mrs Barnaby,” John states professionally as you kick the bag to the side and rub your calf.

“I didn’t mean to do that did I?!” he sighs exasperatedly, “you made me!”

“We did no such thing Mr Carter,” John replies.

“Adam, you should take the rest of the day off,” Sarah says calmly, “before you do or say something you regret.”

“You as well? Are you all in this together or something?” Adam questions with narrowed eyes.

“You’ve obviously had a stressful morning, I’m simply suggesting you go home and relax for the rest of the day then come in with a clear head on Monday,” Sarah explains, “we’re just trying to help you Adam.”

You sit in a stunned silence at his outburst, not that you hadn’t seen glimpses of his temper before, then flinch away from where his bag lies as he picks it up and storms out of the room with a loud huff. John raises his eyebrows at the man’s actions then lets out a deep sigh and looks over to you, still leaning over to one side on your chair.

“Are you alright (Y/N)?” he asks.

“Yeah, yeah, I just…” you look over at the circle of nosey teachers then lower your voice, “I just didn’t expect that from him. I mean, he’s had little outbursts before but nothing quite like that.”

“How do you mean? At you?” Charlie worries, stepping closer to your chair and squatting down next to you.

“No, no, at the students. Like the other day he said he’s asked them to not mention me finding the man, and of course the first question that was asked was about the body… he flew off the handle and yelled at everyone to shut up about it. We were all taken aback by it. When I asked him if he was okay he said something about Maria getting back in touch.”

“His ex?” Charlie confirms.

“Yeah,” you nod.

“Something he failed to mention...” John frowns.

“Who was the guy I found anyway?” you ask, looking from Charlie to John with expectation.

“Maybe we should take this somewhere else,” John sighs as looks over at the group in the corner.

You all head to Sarah’s office where you can speak more freely without anyone eavesdropping on your conversation, and you and Sarah take a seat while the two men stand next to one another.

“Now you didn’t hear this from me...” John begins.

Sarah scoffs at his opening line, “we’ve both heard that one before!”

John rolls his eyes before continuing, “anyway, the man you found was his previous housemate; he’d only shared a house with him for a month before he was declared missing by his family, then one week later he turns up under bushes here.”

“He never mentioned a housemate before...” you hum inquisitively.

“Well, I don’t think many people knew to be honest, but since his ex wife had moved out he was struggling to pay the mortgage on his own so put out a newspaper ad for a housemate soon after,” John explains.

You furrow your brow as you think and Charlie smiles at the sight of the cogs turning inside your brain, “so, Maria leaves him, he then has to get a housemate, then Maria gets back in touch and I find this guy dead on the field?! That’s way too much of a coincidence, surely?”

“Ah, careful Nelson, we have an amateur detective in the room,” Barnaby smirks.

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