#i mean. it's RAW AF

[papa-evershed]

Do you think you could post the youngest Gifs of Rob you could find? With an estimate of what years the GIFs come from? Sorry I hope it doesn’t come across like a lot to ask/request. Love love love your page!

Hi there, sorry for the delayed response but I'm here! The youngest gifs of Rob available would be from Down To Earth which released in 2005, so filmed roughly twenty years ago. I don't have many gifs from it because it's a bitch to gif but here's what I had lurking in my folder, hopefully that scratches your itch and thank you very much for the kind words. 🤓

[acknowledge-reigns]

TW// Mention of 9/11

TF is wrong with the IWC??! I've been extremely inactive (my wedding is coming up this weekend!! 💖👰🏾‍♀️)

But I just had to pop in and point out that wrestling is NEVER that serious, to say this foul ass shit especially when the 23rd anniversary is in TWO DAYS. People like Zelina Vega who lost her father that day are still out here hurting. Y'all need to seek help deadass.

And a side note, if you agree with some bullshit like this about Jey, yet have Roman as your pfp I would like you to know Joe would fucking hate you. That is all.

Sending love and light to Zelina and her family as well as everyone else effected to this day. Never forget.

[bloodsbane]

daine is the best tortallen protag because she gets to kill her mortal enemy while buck naked

[multi-kpop-fanfics]

thinking about being fuckbuddies and housemates with cheol who is in a frat and popular af. one night at a frat party he flirts with another girl way too much and reader doesn't like it so she takes gyu back to her room and they fuck VERY LOUDLY cuz cheol is right next door. and that's where my imagination stopped working and i need you to elaborate for me!

tw: fratboy!cheol, fratboy!mingyu, college student fem!reader (an adult and she's wearing a skirt), degradation, jealous sex, rough sex, bulge kink, mean dom!cheol, bratty!reader, unprotected sex (pls stay safe), fwb!au - minors dni.

@wongyuseokie this is all your fault

"Cheol, open the goddamn door!" Mingyu keeps banging his fist on the door, "She doesn't even want you, man, give her back!"

Meanwhile, you're laid on Seungcheol's bed, your shirt wide open and skirt flipped over, panties torn and thrown in the trash - except it was Mingyu who did it.

"Look what you have done with your stupid little games." The red haired man hovers above you, half naked.

"If you hadn't gone and flirted with that bitch, none of that would have happened." You snap at him.

"If you could keep it in your skirt and didn't let Mingyu of all people fuck you, neither of us would be mad."

"What, do you hate him because he's hotter and bigger than you? Is that it, Cheol?" You smirk and he clenches his jaw tight.

He gets up and opens the nightstand, taking out all of the condoms he stores in there. He walks to the door, unlocking it and flinging it open.

"Took you some damn time, asshole." Mingyu attempts to walk inside, but Seungcheol pushes him away, strongly enough for his back to crash on the other end of the corridor.

"Hands off my fuck buddy, Kim. Go find someone else to stick your dick in. Oh, and take these," he throws the condoms at the taller man, "She likes it when I fuck her raw."

Seungcheol slams the door shut behind him.

"Lock it." You tell him with a demanding tone and he does as you say, but you know that's all you're gonna get with this attitude.

"I'm really mad at you, Y/N." He unbuckles his pants and slides them along with his boxers, just enough to let his thighs and cock free, "Letting another man fuck your cunt and tear your panties, while you know we had established some rules."

"Rules are meant to be broken, Cheol." You tease him again.

"Then I guess I have to break you and remind you of your place."

He aligns his tip with your hole and pushes in with a fluid motion, a high pitched whine spilling from your lips.

"He's a good pussy stretcher, I'll give him that - Although I wish I was the one who stretched you out in the first place." Seungcheol groans and puts your ankles on his shoulders, hands gripping your waist.

He angles his hips upwards and thrusts slowly yet with brute force, again and again, until he notices the rise and fall of a bump on your pelvis.

"A-Ah, fuck, Cheol- My tummy-" You whimper repeatedly and he grabs your hand, putting it directly over said bump.

"Your tummy is full of my cock, princess." Seungcheol changes to a much slower, excruciating pace, but with enough force to make you bulge up, "Bet that idiot couldn't even use his big fat dick to do that - all muscle and no goddamn brains."

"As if your IQ is Nobel-worthy or something- Fuck!"

"My IQ isn't Nobel-worthy, but I do have the best stroke in the whole campus." He grins like a wolf.

"C-Confirmed by who?"

He bends his torso down, the ends of his red hair barely touching your face.

"You, obviously."

[thedreadvampy]

I mean sure, I can understand this perspective, but I'm not sure whether most people feel less shaken to be thrust into conversations about "self-unaliving" than conversations about "suicide"

and I for one as a survivor would much rather unexpectedly encounter somebody talking about "rape" than somebody talking about how funny it is to have sex with somebody when they don't want to, a normal thing that doesn't need to be named because it's So Normal.

which is to say. this is a post about words. the words are not the distressing thing about the discussion. the distressing thing is the distressing thing about the discussion. sugarcoating, dodging or renaming the distressing thing doesn't make it less distressing but it DOES often make it harder to have a frank discussion about it or address it in serious terms.

[pinch of salt: solid probability from their blog that this person is a Literal 14 Year Old and the perspective from 30 and 14 are very different. I do stand by all the points I'm making but I think this conversation lands a lot different for people at different life stages - there is something to be said for the general issue that the internet has flattened social groups to the degree that I as a 30 year old can make a post to my audience of largely adult millennials that immediately enters the same conversational space as people half my age and still in school. that seems. ungreat. as the primary way we engage in conversation. but I don't have solutions to offer.]

you gotta be able to say "die"

you gotta be able to say "suicide"

you gotta be able to talk about "sex"

they're uncomfortable topics, YEAH for SURE

because LIFE is uncomfortable. Death and suicide and sex and pain are straight up going to happen. not having words for the way it discomforts you doesn't make it more comfortable, it just makes you less able to reach out about it.

even more vital, you gotta be able to say words like "rape", "abuse", "queer" or "racist". cause we fought fucking hard to name those experiences. to identify "rape" as distinct from "sex" and "racism" as distinct from "acceptable behaviour" and "queer" as distinct from "invert"

like the function of communication is not to minimise immediate discomfort. we gotta be able to talk about stuff that's hard or sucks or causes difficult conversations.

[littlelamy]

eight letters, three words: soft!rafe x reader

a/n: a little longer than usual but i hope you guys enjoy it 😘

the grand ballroom was a dazzling array of lights. amidst the swirling colors and the symphony of laughter and music, you felt a surreal sense of detachment. the event, though magnificent, felt secondary to the storm brewing within you.

rare moved through the crowd with an effortless grace, his gaze occasionally catching yours, causing a jolt of anticipation every time. the way his eyes lingered on you, filled with a mix of intensity and something more vulnerable, made your heart race with a tumult of fear and longing. you had sensed for a while that he was holding something back, a truth that lay just beneath the surface of his charmingly dangerous facade.

as the evening progressed, rafe’s gaze never strayed far from you. It was as though an invisible thread connected you both, a thread that tugged and twisted with every glance and every subtle gesture. when he finally approached you, it was as if the world around you had melted away, leaving just the two of you in a private, intense bubble.

“can we talk?” rafe’s voice was low and commanding, with a hint of something raw and unspoken.

you nodded, unable to mask the nervous flutter in your chest. He led you to a quieter corner of the ballroom, where the elegant cacophony of the party was muted, and the dim lighting cast a soft, intimate glow around you.

the silence between you was charged, filled with an unspoken tension that made the air feel heavy. rafe’s usual confidence was tempered by a seriousness that made you feel both anxious and intrigued. he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed, his expression a mask of controlled intensity.

“rafe,” you began, your voice steady despite the rapid beating of your heart. “what’s this about?”

rafe’s eyes met yours with a piercing gaze. “you know,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper, “sometimes words can be the most powerful weapon or the greatest comfort. it depends on how they’re used.”

you swallowed hard, trying to decipher the meaning behind his cryptic words. the grand ballroom’s grandeur seemed a distant memory as the intensity of the moment took over. “what are you trying to say?”

he took a step closer, closing the distance between you. the space between you felt charged, a palpable connection that made your breath hitch. “eight letters,” afe said, his voice barely audible. “three words.”

your pulse quickened, your breath catching in your throat. the phrase seemed to hang in the air, laden with significance. “what do you mean?” you asked, your voice trembling with a mix of fear and anticipation.

rafe’s gaze softened slightly, but the underlying intensity remained. “it’s what i need to say. what i’ve been holding back for too long. and i think you already know what it means.”

you could feel the weight of his words, the gravity of the moment pressing down on you. the vulnerability in his eyes was a rare glimpse into the depths of his emotions. “just say it,” you urged, your voice a whisper.

rafe’s expression shifted, a mix of resolve and uncertainty playing across his features. “i want you to understand,” he began, his voice low and earnest, “that despite the way i push you, test you, and sometimes hurt you, it’s because i care. It’s because i’m afraid of letting you in fully.”

his words struck a chord, resonating deep within you. the pain he caused was tempered by moments of tenderness, and his emotional walls had always seemed impenetrable. “i’ve been trying to protect myself,” rafe continued, his voice trembling slightly. “afraid of being vulnerable, afraid of getting hurt. but i realize now that it’s not worth it.”

you took a step closer, closing the emotional gap between you. your hand reached out to touch his arm, the gesture both comforting and intimate. “rafe,” you said softly, “i love you. even when you’re at your worst, i love you.”

his eyes widened slightly, a mixture of surprise and relief evident in his gaze. “you mean it?”

you nodded, your heart full of love and understanding. “yes, i do. i see through the tough exterior and the games you play. i know there’s more to you than that. and despite everything, i’m here because I care too.”

rafe’s expression softened, the hardness in his eyes melting away as he took in your words. “i’ve been pushing you away, testing you. but i need you to know that I’m trying to be better. for you.”

the sincerity in his voice was palpable, and you felt a tear escape down your cheek. rafe reached out, his hand gently wiping away the tear. “i’m sorry,” he said, his voice filled with a raw emotion you hadn’t heard from him before. “i’m sorry for being difficult, for making you doubt how I feel.”

you smiled through your tears, feeling a profound sense of relief and connection. “i know you’re trying. and that’s what matters to me.”

he leaned in, his lips capturing yours in a kiss that was both passionate and tender. it was a kiss filled with promises and apologies, a blending of fierce love and vulnerability. you responded with equal fervor, your emotions pouring into the kiss as you held him close.

when you finally pulled back, rafe’s gaze was filled with a newfound tenderness. “thank you for being patient with me,” he said softly.

you nodded, your heart swelling with affection. “i wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

as the night continued around you, the grand ballroom and its grandeur seemed to fade into the background. the world outside was irrelevant compared to the bond you shared with rafe. hand in hand, you stood together, ready to face the complexities of your relationship with a renewed sense of commitment and understanding.

with the weight of the evening’s revelations still lingering in the air, you both knew that the journey ahead would be filled with challenges. but with love as your guiding light, you felt prepared to navigate whatever came next. the promise of tomorrow, despite its uncertainties, seemed bright and hopeful, as long as you faced it together.

[yourlocal-edgelord]

heres what i think would happen if the core four started a band

none of their mentors would know, bc like yea obviously, the amazonians would proudly play their music aloud infront of evryone, speedster thru my extent of knowledge is like do u evn know the meaning of subtle i mean they would play their music vids infront of evryone, the bats r just like super nosy and tim figured leave them to find out on their own bc what is communication? And kon just didnt tell anyone out of pure spite, only ma kent pa kent and alfred know bc theres no hiding shit from them.

second they wouldnt be soley famous for hit songs, naur theyd be famous for being the most unpredictable effing band of all time, they have like no chill, just when the audience think they’ve got them pegged they do something wildly unexpected, whats their music genre? All of them. They once released a sneak peak to their next album and everyone thought it would be a heavy metal album, it was country music. The album after that was modern rock and pop if it counts for something atleast. They rarely ever keep only one genre of music in an album though, just when you think this is an album just full to the brim with break up songs the next song is gonna be the most hard core screaming (heavy metal basically) song abt growing up and drugs.

they have no sense of roles in the band they do whatever the fuck they want, 75% of the time tims the one singing with 20% cassie and the last 5% a mix of kon and bart.

They each play an instrument, usually its cassie on the bass, kon on lead guitar, bart on the drums and tim as the rythm guitarist and main vocalist but they switch up with no complaints if the song calls for different people on different instruments bc they have diff playing styles, they each have their own guitar solo each show bc theyr extra like that.

Once they bought in a piano, violin, cello and triangle bc they had a classical song on theyr list

They all have stage name given to them by the fans and they got tiny tattoos of them underneath theyr right eyes

Cassie has a tiny star bc her stage name is star, reason being she always wears atleast one item with a star on it to every show (along with a gold rope wrapped around her waist as a belt) (i also hc that instead of having super short hair she’d have a shaved side and her ends dyed gold at the tips with her hair stopping half way to her elbow)

Bart has a tiny lightning bolt bc his stage name is bolt, reason hes just fast af (hes usually rapping if singing) and the fans dig it. (His hair i keep as its true wild fluffy self bc its so bart for him to have it unconquered on his head jst sitting there)

Kon has a smol fire bc fans took to calling him flame aftr he accidentally set the stage on fire once (i see him keeping his yj98 hairstyle)

tim has a teeny kawaii-ish ghost bc fans started calling him ghost after he screamed his throat raw (like a banshee) during a performance. ( i honestly just hc time as @strange-birb ‘s secret band au tim bc im obsessed with how he looks there)

ALL of them have multiple piercings, Cassie has three ear piercings on each ear and an upper lip piercing. Kon has multiple ear piercing a nose piercing and a tongue piercing. Tim has four ear piercings per ear and his face is untouched. Bart has three ear piercings on each ear and a small stud on his nose.

I see cissie anita and greta watching them and starting their own girl group, which leads to them collabing multiple times.

Their band has a twitter and instagram and its a complete and utter mess ranging from tim passed out on the kitchen floor with pizza sauce on his face to pictures of cassie lecturing kon and bart after they destroy something with a clip of them destroying said thing.

they also have a yt and tt for their band which is a completely different story.

On Halloween performances i see them dressing up with likenesses to previous enemies theyve fought with the crowd being non the wiser

There are hundreds of conspiracy channels trying to suss out what the band is going to do next with them always getting it wrong, once they were so sure they were right when they thought tim was going to release a folk song with him instead singing opera

Gon continue adding more hc’s gradually and maybe put in the effort to build a playlist or draw them

@cristinacclearwater @derp-a-la-sheep @periwinkle-the-11th @stormikitty @yjcorefourenjoyer @veanet @stargazinglesbian

[sarahscribbles]

92. "I can't-- please-- I can't." and 88. "You're so messy." go SO well together because we know Loki loves denying reader but can you image how much he adores over stimulating reader as well?? I mean they go hand in hand anyway but this man would just DESTROY you!!!

PLS I love you and your writing so much!!

-💜 aka horny af anon

Here you go, horny af anon! I miss you and I hope if you read this that it's what you had imagined.

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚?

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐋𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐱 𝐟!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟐.𝟔𝐤

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬: 𝐄𝐝𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐬𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥, 𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲, 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐤𝐢'𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐬

𝐋𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

“I’d say an hour. Tops,” you teased him, quickly tossing a handful of M&Ms into your mouth to disguise the smile that was budding on your lips, threatening to unfurl petal by petal as you watched each word click into place in your lover’s mind.

You watched the small line form between his eyebrows and saw the barely perceptible twitch of his lips. Slowly, he unfurled his fingers from around your foot resting in his lap, ceasing in the gentle massage of tired muscles from an afternoon of arduous training. His expression was frozen in one of disbelief - almost offence - that you could even dare to think he wasn’t capable of lasting longer than an hour in bed. 

But you knew exactly what you were doing. 

“Nothing to say?” you continued, poking his thigh with your toe.

A firm hand clamped swiftly around your ankle, and Loki turned to look at you with mischief glittering in his eyes like new stars in the night sky. It was a look you were all too familiar with and one that never failed to set your heart racing in your chest. 

The sparkle in his green eyes and the set of his mouth in that infuriatingly attractive smirk told you Loki saw your teasing as a challenge - a challenge that he was all too willing to rise to.

Slowly, the silken pad of his thumb began to trace over your skin. It looked innocent, but under Loki’s heated gaze it felt menacing and you fought to suppress a shiver. “What have I told you about that little mouth, darling?” he said quietly, each word dripping with warning. 

Something stirred violently to life between your thighs as raw adrenaline coursed freely through your blood, making your heart beat so ferociously against your ribcage that you feared it might break free. You prayed to whoever - or whatever - was listening that he couldn’t detect the effect he was having on you. 

“That it feels magnificent wrapped around your cock, I think,” you replied innocently, tossing another handful of M&Ms into your mouth in a strained effort to appear nonchalant. 

Nonchalance, though, was impossible with how intensely Loki’s eyes were burning into yours. You could almost see the filthy thoughts playing behind them scene by scene - an unbroken montage of how he’d make you pay again and again and again for your teasing.

Already, you were aching for him, and close to begging for whatever torture his brilliant mind could concoct.

Because it would be torture. 

But it would be exquisite. 

His lips quirked briefly at your wit while his free hand locked around your other ankle. With a playful narrowing of his eyes, he tugged you along the sofa until you were flat on your back, laughing at your quiet squeal of surprise as he moved easily to hover over you. 

“Little minx,” he said, bumping his nose against yours and settling between your thighs. His hands quickly drifted beneath your shirt, pushing it up and letting the cool air hit the exposed skin of your stomach, then your chest. “I said that delightful little mouth would get you into trouble one day,” he continued, running his thumbs over your exposed nipples,

You couldn’t help the small moan that escaped you at how wonderfully teasing his touch was. It was addictive - he was addictive - and it was almost instinctual to arch your back in an attempt to push your breasts further into his hands, all while wrapping your arms around his neck to twist eager fingers into his inky curls. 

“Hmm, maybe one day. I’d need more than an hour to be taught any real lesson, though. Maybe once you work on your stamina a little,” you continued to tease him, biting back a smile at the tiny frown that settled on his lips. 

God, had he always been so beautiful?

A single finger traced along the column of your neck and over your collarbone until it reached the small dip of your shirt. “You are playing with fire, darling,” he said slowly, using two impossibly strong hands to rip the fabric until it falls away to frame your breasts. 

Every inch of you thrummed for him, every pore burned for him, but you fought to fight any trace of it from actively showing. Instead, you answered with a fake gasp of outrage. “That was my favourite!” you pretended to whine, never once breaking eye contact with the god still hovering over you.

His hands quickly drifted to the waistband of your leggings - not without grazing the tips of hungry fingers over your stomach - and easily yanked them off until you were lying naked beneath him. “I don’t care,” he answered, throwing them carelessly behind him. 

You didn’t miss his appreciative glance along your body - slow and lingering as though he hadn’t seen you this way a thousand times before. It sent a fresh rush of affection coursing through you, and you knew you would do close to anything that this man asked of you. 

Impatiently, you waited for him to undress himself, needing to feel his naked skin beneath your fingertips, but when he remained infuriatingly clothed, your hands snaked down from his shoulders to toy with the hem of his t shirt. You had only just reached beneath and grazed the firm muscles of his stomach when a shimmer of green seidr sent them flying backward over your head and pinned them immovably in place over the armrest of the sofa.

Oh. 

“I don’t think so, darling,” Loki purred, shooting you a wicked grin. “Much like my dear, departed friend Icarus, you’ve flown too close to the sun.” 

You fought valiantly to contain the laughter that was bubbling in your throat, but all it took was the tiny quirk of Loki’s lip for it to escape in a wildly unattractive snort. “You know that sounds ridiculous when you say it,” you teased him through the cascade of mirth. “My condolences, though,” you added, laughing even harder at the stoic mask that settled across his face. 

Swiftly, he grabbed your chin between his thumb and forefinger, applying just the barest hint of pressure, and partly lifted an eyebrow as his eyes locked with yours. “Do I need to gag you as well?”

You knew he was trying to sound stern, trying to establish the dynamic, but even a master of sorcery couldn’t disguise the amusement shining like new diamonds in his eyes. 

“No, Loki,” you answered, feigning a contriteness that he could see right through.

His thumb ran lightly over your lower lip, soft as a rose petal, and you couldn’t help but take it between them, sucking gently while still holding his electrifying gaze. 

“Good girl,” he murmured quietly, pulling his thumb from your mouth with a soft pop to instead place his hand between your thighs. You arched into him instantly as he began to tease your aching cunt, feeling your eyes flutter close at the tantalising feel of his fingers stroking your heat. “Mmm, soaking. How long would it take me to make you come, I wonder?” he teased, bringing his fingers back to your lips. 

You parted them obediently, taking his fingers on your tongue and licking your arousal off them slowly, flicking your tongue over them in just the way you knew he enjoyed elsewhere. As expected, his eyes darkened to near obsidian above you. 

“Five minutes maybe. If your stamina really holds out,” you said when he pulled his fingers free, unable to help yourself.

A devious glint flickered in his eyes - a silent promise of debauchery that had your heart leap and your cunt clench. “You are intent on being a brat tonight, aren’t you? Perhaps I should fuck it out of you?” 

The mental image he had placed in your head was decadently obscene, and you couldn't contain the moan that slipped through your lips or the way your hips snapped upwards against his. “Fuck. Please, Loki.” 

His answering laugh was low, dangerous. “Begging will get you nowhere tonight, darling. That I can promise you.” 

It was impossible to fight the shiver that wracked your spine, and you watched him smirk while he unzipped his jeans, only pushing them down far enough to free his aching cock. You tried to reach and sink your fingers into his ass, momentarily forgetting about the ropes of shimmering green that kept you firmly restrained to the sofa. Your bound hands barely shifted towards your prize, leaving his perfect behind torturously out of reach.

“Something wrong?” he asked, quirking a single eyebrow while he slowly stroked himself.

You ignored the searing flame that erupted in your core. “No.” 

His smirk grew just a tiny bit wider. “Good,” he said, and settled deeper between your thighs, letting out a sinful groan that verged on pornographic as he eased inside you inch by inch. He gave a few shallow thrusts once his hips were flush against yours, hissing through gritted teeth as he did so. “Fuck, darling! This little cunt feels better each time.”

“What a shame tha…” The rest of your sentence melted to a moan as he immediately began to build you up. 

God, he felt so good that it left you breathless. All you could focus on was the exquisite drag of his cock and the feel of every vein and ridge as he thrust into you. It was almost a brutal pace and one that had the edge cresting like a wave in your core within minutes. You felt the familiar twist in your stomach as the coil tightened. It would only take a few more frantic thrusts of his hips to send you soaring off the edge into bliss.

But bliss never came. 

Instead, Loki slowed down until that tidal wave of impending pleasure was nothing more than a faint tingle between your thighs.��

“Loki…wha….!” you whined, yanking against the restraints and glaring up at him with betrayal burning in your eyes. 

He looked back at you with mock sympathy etched in every line of his beautiful face. “Oh, dear. Were you close? Such a pity, but you see, darling, if I have to last an hour then so do you.”

You glowered at him. “That…that wasn’t…part of the deal!” you whined loudly, feeling your protest fade like smoke in the wind as he began to build you up once again. 

Again and again, Loki brought you right to the edge, until the promise of a blinding release shimmered enticingly in front of you like cool water on a summer’s day, but letting the first tendrils of pleasure fade to nothing mere moments before euphoria could claim you.

Again.

And again.

And again. 

After half an hour, your thighs were shaking with how desperately you craved release, and frustration burned like an eternal flame in your core. 

Anything. You’d do anything, say anything, if it meant he’d let you come.

After an hour, frustrated tears began to leak freely down your cheeks - tears that Loki gently brushed away even in the midst of his teasing. You were, after all, still his precious mortal. 

His precious mortal who had bitten off substantially more than she could chew. 

Loki had edged you many times before, but never this relentlessly and never without an end in sight. He was holding back his own release to prove a point and it only had you asking yourself: how long could he hold out?

“What is it, darling? You seem a little wound up,” Loki taunted, now rolling his hips into you in an achingly slow rhythm, enough that each drag of his cock sent faint sparks of pleasure dancing in your core, but not enough to bring you anywhere close to the edge. 

It was heaven and hell rolled into one and you’d gladly be his sinner or his saint. You’d be whatever he wanted just to feel that release.

“Please…please, Lo…,” you begged quietly, even though it would likely yield nothing. Time and time again you had begged - screamed - for release, but Loki had stayed true to his promise that begging would get you nowhere. 

His eyes sparkled above you and pale cheeks were stained pink with desire. Fuck, he was beautiful.

He tutted quietly at your begging. “My poor darling,” he cooed, taking one erect nipple in his elegant fingers to twist it cruelly. The heady mix of pleasure and pain made you cry out and arch into him in a silent plead for more. Always, you wanted more from him, more of him.

“Are you finished being a brat?” he asked, giving your nipple another sharp twist.

“Mmmph!” you groaned at the pain, but nodded quickly. “Yes….promise.” 

Loki laughed softly, locking his hands back around your ankles and folding your legs back to your shoulders. “Good girl.” His praise had your aching cunt throb. “Now, eyes on me, darling. I want to watch every second of you coming apart.” 

It was the only warning you got before his slow pace swiftly became frantic. Each slam of his cock hit that sweet spot over and over, all while his magic tingled on your swollen clit. It was almost blinding, and the edge was on you in mere minutes. Through the heavy haze of desperation and arousal, you heard Loki’s voice ordering you to come.

The climax swept through you like molten lava, swallowing you whole and threatening to drown you in a red hot sea of pleasure. Every inch of you was aflame and it only vaguely registered that you were screaming Loki’s name to the heavens. Praise fell from his lips like honeyed wine - you were his good girl, his precious mortal - and the force of your release had your back arching off the sofa in a near perfect bow, the only thing keeping you locked in place being Loki’s hands still firmly gripping your calves. 

“Magnificent, darling,” he said hoarsely. “I simply must see that again.” 

He didn’t allow you even a moment’s reprieve or a second to fully come down from your high, keeping up the same frantic pace until you were freefalling into another orgasm - an orgasm so strong that you briefly forgot how to breathe. It wracked through you like a creature possessed, pulling your muscles taut and rendering you completely speechless. 

You couldn’t have screamed Loki’s name if you tried. 

Praise still fell freely from his lips, but you were so lost to the aftershocks of pleasure that it sounded warped, as though he were speaking from the other side of the door. Everything was muted, numb, and you were only vaguely aware of his hand releasing your ankle. 

But everything shifted back into sharp focus when you heard the unmistakable sound of your wand buzzing loudly in his elegant fingers. 

Eyes you didn’t even remember closing shot open, watching in panicked disbelief as he nestled the head against your swollen, tortured clit. 

You bucked wildly beneath him, trying desperately to escape the tormenting vibrations. Your scream was a gargled mess in your throat as he circled it tauntingly over your clit, pushing one thigh wide to expose more of you to him. 

“Loki…Loki, please…I can’t…I can’t,” you protested weakly, not knowing how the hell you were going to survive a wand as well as his cock still thrusting deeply into you.

Loki only answered with the same menacing laugh - the one that told you how completely, utterly fucked you were. “Oh, darling, you will,” he taunted and clicked the wand up a setting. “It’s only been an hour, after all.”

[sgiandubh]

I could have set my watch

Known shipper lies? You mean either Dublin Theatre or London Marathon Pics, darling? They were known and discussed for a LONG while, if my understanding is correct. But you know all that very, very well, too.

Caring about grammar? That is correct, some of my readers do make recurring mistakes. Same readers were always kind to me, Anon. Kind and trustful/trustworthy. They have never displayed towards me that insufferable holier than thou, patronizing snarl: this is your Trade Mark, so #silly. Therefore, I see no reason to criticize their spelling or grammar errors - the American bashing is something new, mind you. It is classist and unsavory AF. Until today, there has always been the Spaniards, correct? Is this your lowest, chickadee? Is this where we're at? Wow. Very mature. A round of worldwide applause!

If raw financial data and neutral analysis (I have used a third party's input on purpose, here) is trashing someone, then I am sorry, honey: truth hurts, reality bites.

But thank you for confirming you folks have a personal problem with me and thank you for confirming your lame, coordinated effort to have me out of here. Served to absolutely nothing.

Name calling? Ha! Let me count the ways, off the top of my head: 'Emily White-like', 'deranged', 'cunt', 'hypocrite', 'impostor', 'idiot', 'liar', 'blunt knife'. I could go on and on for a very, very long time, baby. I am not sure what your hateful lot were expecting, in response: a welcome committee?

Of course you're blocked. It is for your own good, after all. And nope, I am not done.

[stellar-solar-flare]

A Fairytale Of A Disaster | S.R.

Chapter 2: Looking For The Happy Ending

Explicit - 18+ only! | Steve Rogers/Doctor!Reader

Your friend set you up with a perfect guy. Unfortunately, when it's time for you to meet 'Grant' for the first time, he has stood you up. On Valentine's Day of all days.

Was it too good to be true? Or does he instead have a very, very good reason why he's late, and a desire to make it all up to you?

FIC MASTERLIST | AUTHOR MASTERLIST | AUTHOR AO3

<< Previous chapter

Fluff, hurt/comfort, meet-cute, misunderstandings, eventual smut, healthy communication. | Background Sam Wilson/OFC.

Chapter Word Count: 2696 words.

Reader Specifics: She/her, late twenties (a few years younger than Steve in this fic). Training to be a trauma surgeon (has completed med school, in residency stage). Likes books and houseplants. No description of appearance (other than clothes and such), no use of Y/N.

A/N: I wanted to write a Valentine's Day oneshot, and then it turned out it has parts. Oh no. Well, here we are. I hope you enjoy this fluffy little trope collection! As always, thank you for reading, and hearing what you think means a lot to me.

Alternate Universe: The Avengers Initiative continued SHIELD's work after its collapse to corruption. The Avengers are living together in the Compound - Bucky has healed, and Civil War never happened because Tony and Steve worked through their differences like adults.

Chapter Warnings: Discussion of Steve's canonical trauma; mentions of Steve/Peggy.

I do not own anything Marvel related. This is an unofficial fan work. No copyright infringement intended. This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

Chapter 2: Looking For The Happy Ending

A part of you was really, really glad that you had decided to order the wine; you could feel your nerves flaring up, now that the initial surprise at the evening’s direction had passed. It was less so that he was Captain America, the literal superhero, the most eligible bachelor in the entire country according to many, and more so that his musky scent and his warm presence were going straight to your head. It felt like on some level, after all the conversations, you already knew who he was, but messages couldn’t have prepared you for everything. Like how the sheer presence this man had, how he could simply stand next to you and send off a signal that he was completely aware of you, was making your head spin. Feeling some initial curiosity and a little crush over messages was one thing; being hit in the face with the raw, sparkling physical attraction you were feeling was quite another. And even as you didn’t exchange words — too much attention here, too many ears listening — you could see Steve stealing looks at you over the brief minutes you waited.

You weren’t quite so sure any more that you didn’t believe in fairy tales.

The car arrived so fast that you were at least half-certain that Steve had carried it with him, tucked into his back pocket with the assistance of some Tony Stark’s bordering-on-magic technology. You barely had time to get your food back in a cardboard takeout container and finish the glass of wine before Steve glanced at his smartwatch and told you that the car was waiting.

You reached for your purse to pay the bill, and he stopped you with a gentle hand placed on your forearm. He’d slipped into the bathroom earlier to wash the worst of the dirt off his hands and face, and now, when he wasn’t afraid of making a mess out of you — oh, your subconscious needed to get things together or you weren’t going to survive this night — you could feel the entirety of his palm pressed on your bare skin.

“Please. Let me. That’s the least I can do for having kept you waiting,” he murmured, his eyes in yours.

He was already going to cook for you; you thought about arguing about the fact, but looking into his eyes, it was clear that this was very important to him. You could have afforded it, certainly, and it did feel a little unfair to let him pay when he hadn’t been enjoying the food at all. But since he was on Tony Stark’s payroll, you doubted the few drinks, the appetizer, and the fish and chips you now held under your right hand were going to make much of a dent in his cash. If it made him feel better…

“Only if you insist,” you replied after a beat, smile on your face.

“Oh, I do,” he smiled. “A lady never pays on the first date. That’s the rule. Especially when I asked her out.”

Apparently, Steve’s rules for a first date also included helping you into your coat and paying for the tip of the person working in the cloakroom. His hands were warm when they brushed against your shoulders as you slipped into the coat he was holding up, even as he didn’t linger. It seemed that he ran hot, or that the suit had some sort of temperature regulation built into it, because he didn’t seem to mind stepping from the warm restaurant into the cold February evening. The biting wind made you huddle deeper into your coat for the few steps from the door to the car waiting at the curbside.

“Ladies first,” Steve smiled, reaching to open the front passenger door of the decidedly nondescript black SUV.

Before you could ask, you realized that the driver’s seat was empty.

When he’d mentioned calling the car, you had obviously assumed that he’d be calling someone to drive you over to the Avengers Initiative Campus upstate; instead, he had literally called the car.

“It’s not on the public market yet,” Steve said, answering your wordless question. “Something Tony’s been tinkering with. It’s easier if we have vehicles stashed here and there in fully automated garages.”

“For date-related emergencies?” you grinned as you slipped into the seat, guiding your skirts with a hand as you did.

“Among other things. Although I don’t find myself in this situation very often,” he said as he closed the door after a quick glance to check that your skirt wasn’t going to get caught in the door. “It isn’t the kind of guy I want to be.”

He was smiling, but there was something underneath his tone. For the few seconds it took for him to go around the car and settle in to the driver’s seat after tossing the shield in the backseat — heedless of the white leather of the car and the grime on his suit — you thought about it.

It couldn’t be easy for him to date; not with the reputation and the fame attached to his title. And not with the demands of his job causing all sorts of delays and rain checks; all the emotions coming through his voice had already told you as much. He would’ve accepted it if you hadn’t been willing to give him a second chance after almost standing you up. He would’ve left it there and never bothered you again. And yes, perhaps that would’ve been fair — there was nothing wrong with not wanting to deal with your significant other having a job like that. But the same could also be said about your job.

Instead of replying immediately, you let him focus on merging into the traffic, even as you realized that compared to the things he usually did, driving — even in New York — was probably as easy as breathing. You shifted in your seat to recline more comfortably.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re that guy,” you replied. “Not the one to keep someone waiting without a very good reason, and not someone who dates just for the thrill.”

He gave you a chuckle in reply, but something about the way he glanced at you was so warm that it tingled in your veins.

“Thank you. And it does mean a lot. I can’t say I…” he murmured, his eyes back on the road again and you were certain it wasn’t just about the traffic. “I didn’t exactly have the easiest time concentrating today. I kept thinking that I’d blown the chance to have something great once again, that the world had again decided that I wasn’t making it to a date.”

His words lingered in the air for a few seconds, during which you very clearly understood what he was talking about. Of course, it was ancient history in more ways than one, but everyone knew the story of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter and the dance that had needed one hell of a rain check because he had sacrificed himself to save the world from the alien weapon. After the seconds ticked by, he glanced at you again, redness on his cheeks and something panicked in his eyes.

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound like that, I don’t… I’m not comparing, I don’t want to compare, I’m not looking for any sort of replacement for a road not traveled, it’s just…”

He sighed, trailing off again. His eyes stared forward, and his hands squeezed the wheel of the car hard enough that they might leave finger-shaped dents behind. Finally, he spoke again, something resigned in his voice:

“I’m sorry. Look, if you don’t want to do this, if you don’t feel like you’re up for this after that, just say the word and I’ll drop you off where you want,” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to make you feel like you’re a second choice or anything like that. I’m obviously not great at this and if you don’t want to deal with that… ”

“Hey,” you said very softly. “No need to go looking for a grenade to throw yourself on, Captain. This isn’t an army camp.”

You reached over, letting your fingertips brush the top of his hand right there on the edge of where the wrist turned into the back of his palm. He glanced over at you again as you sank back to your seat, and even with the brief contact, you didn’t miss the fragile hope in his gaze.

“I’d rather hear how you feel than leave this car,” you continued. “I don’t think there’s anything very surprising about those things crossing your mind, and it doesn’t have to be about comparison. Obviously being faced with rather similar circumstances to the ones that were present when something very traumatic happened to you would bring up memories. Of events, and of people.”

Some of the tension drained away from Steve’s shoulders, but the chuckle that left his mouth was a little joyless.

“You’re pretty good at that,” he said.

“I’ve trained,” you raised your brows. “Comes with the skillset. But seriously, I’d understand if you need a rain check after what has obviously been a pretty intense day for you. We could plan something else.”

Your eyes flickered back to that cut on his chest, visible through the tear in the suit. The wound was already closing, and probably in a few hours it would be completely gone. You wondered if people thought that the same also happened to everything he experienced. If the public accounts about the eidetic memory were true, then he remembered everything, and even as his brain was probably better at processing things and arriving at the place where he could look at experiences logically, that didn’t mean the experience wasn’t intense.

You pulled yourself back to reality, reeling in the doctor and the researcher in your head and looking up at him again. He was staring at you — as much as he could, with his head halfway turned towards the road, but nothing about the way he was driving indicated that he wasn’t focusing on that, too.

“Is everything alright?” you said.

He breathed out, scrambling for words again as he returned his complete attention to the road.

“No, yes, it is, I mean…” he breathed back in, gathering his composure. “I am not used to anyone… getting that. Or even asking that.”

Something twisted in your chest, and had he not been driving, you would’ve wanted to take both his hands into yours. It hadn’t taken you more than a few texts with him to realize that this was a thoughtful man with a big heart and so much to give, and now, it didn’t surprise you that he wasn’t used to people understanding what it was like to be him.

“I don’t think anyone can ever understand another’s experience, not really,” you said. “And I wouldn’t dream of thinking that I know what it’s like to be you, what it was like to go through everything you have gone through. But I know how it is to have to be the one who has everything under control in the operating room. I know how it feels to feel like your job takes over all other aspects of your life. How it is to wonder if you’ll be lonely for the rest of your life and… And thinking that the best chance of finding something great you had had in a long time had just slipped through your fingers.”

You could feel the heat on your cheeks as you said the last words. They had halfway escaped your lips, brought forth by the way he’d accidentally served you his heart on a platter. Even as you hadn’t been fighting gods-knew-what in Antarctica, it had still been quite an emotionally intense night, and that was obviously bringing everything out in the open. You lowered your gaze to your hands in your lap, not really daring to look at him. You might’ve just made everything beyond awkward.

But when Steve spoke, it didn’t feel like that. His voice was genuinely warm, so warm it made the atmosphere change too. As if some sort of miniature sun had suddenly been trapped in the car and its rays were now transforming whatever floated in the air into something you could just let be there, existing in between the two of you.

Forming a bond of trust.

“Thank you,” he said. “For trying to understand. And for telling me all that.”

“I don’t think that’s something you should need to thank me for,” you murmured back. “But I do want to hear, if you want to talk about it. And I want to hear as someone who wants to get to know you, not as someone who is a medical professional.”

The cautious smile on his face had spread a little, and upon your disclaimer, it briefly lit up his whole face. Then, his expression returned to a more somber state, but it wasn’t quite heavy anymore. Just serious, as he looked back to what had once been, and a tiny hint of nostalgia had crept into his voice.

“I think it took me a couple of years to get back out here not because of any burning love for Peggy but because I needed to let go of the life I would’ve had, could’ve had, back in the forties. So that everything wouldn’t be tainted by comparison, not to something that was necessarily better but to something that was familiar. I’d built all these hopes about my life, if I got healthy, if I got into the army, if I met someone with whom we’d hit off… Realistically, it wouldn’t necessarily have been Peggy. It might’ve been, but it might not have worked out at all with her if things had ever progressed beyond some chemistry and one kiss in the middle of a war zone. But I had these images in my head about a happy ending and everything it meant in that era, and I think that if I’d tried to find one here earlier, before I went through all the therapy, I would’ve not been able to appreciate the good things — not because they wouldn’t have been as good or better than what I’d thought I’d have but simply because it wouldn’t have been the exact image I had conjured in my mind. And now, when I finally felt like I was ready to try to find that happy ending again, I was pretty scared that something great was going to slip through my fingers again, as you put it,” he said, and smiled a little sheepishly as he stopped. “I don’t know if that makes any sense. But I don’t want a rain check, if you don’t, despite everything.”

You smiled, not just at his honesty but the admission in between the lines, that he truly thought this might become that happy ending and that it had already felt like something great to him. It wasn’t really a surprise, after what he’d said about being marriage-minded when it came to dating — realistically, things wouldn’t have progressed this far if he hadn’t been thinking that — but it was still different to hear it like this, sitting right next to him and feeling the words, rather than as an explanation of his general mindset over messages.

“I think it makes a lot of sense. And I appreciate your honesty, and the fact that you worked on yourself and made sure you are doing things for the right reasons,” you said. “And for what it’s worth…”

You smiled to yourself, peeling open the cardboard container that held your food and extending it to him.

“…I don’t see a reason why this night can’t be absolutely great despite everything. Want some fish and chips?”

He chuckled, reaching over to grab a fry. As he did, he brushed his little finger briefly over the knuckles of your hand holding the box, sending a tingling feeling of electricity up your arm, and you knew that he heard what you’d said between the lines, too.

I don’t see a reason why this can’t be our happy ending.

Next Chapter >>

[the-fiction-witch]

Do not ever forget to love her P3

Media - House Of The Dragon Character - Oscar Tully Couple - Oscar X Reader Reader - Y/n Rivers (Riverrun Maid) Rating - 15 (Sad AF death) Word Count - 2106

"Thank you," Oscar murmured, his voice hoarse with emotion, "Thank you, for being here for me."

"you have no need to thank me, my lord." she smiled guiding him down the corridor, down the stairs and into the study. She led him to the window seat looking over the river and letting him sit, she brought a cloth for tears and a mug of warm tea

Oscar leaned back against the wall, He accepted the handkerchief and tea, running the cloth over his cheeks to wipe away the lingering tears. The warmth of the tea in his hands was a small comfort, a small gesture of kindness in the midst of overwhelming pain and loss. He took a sip of the tea, the warm liquid soothing some of the rawness in his throat, and he closed his eyes for a moment. He allowed the sound of the water to fill his ears, letting it drown out the noise in his mind. Finally, he opened his eyes again, his gaze falling on her. "I... I feel like I'm drowning," he admitted softly, his voice barely above a whisper, "Like I'm lost in the storm and I don't know which way is up."

"All storms pass." she said sadly "Even winter must break for spring's embrace. take your time."

Oscar nodded, her words echoing faintly in his mind. He knew she was right. But right now, in the midst of his grief, it was hard to see anything but the storm itself. He took another sip of the tea, letting the warmth of the mug in his hands ground him. Then, he turned to her again, his eyes locking onto hers. "you'll stay with me? Until the storm passes?"

she nodded "Of course my lord,"

Oscar couldn't help but let a small smile tug at the corner of his lips. her reassurance, her steadfast presence, was a balm to his aching heart. He set the mug of tea aside, turning his whole attention towards her. Without even thinking, he reached out, his hand finding hers. He wrapped his fingers around hers, holding on tightly, anchoring himself to her like a lifeline. "I... I don't think I could bear being alone right now," he confessed, his voice barely above a whisper. "you... you're the one thing keeping me afloat. I don't know what I'd do without you"

"Shhh shhh shh, you need not worry what you would do, becuase I am here. and I will never not be here. you have no need to fear a time without me. I promise I will be here as long as you wish me to be. Even if that means you and I sit at this window until winter comes to swallow us all."

Oscar's heart ached at her kind words, her promise ringing loud and clear in his ears. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift for a moment, to sink into the comfort and security her words offered. But at the last part, he couldn't help but chuckle softly. "Don't tempt me," he teased weakly, his hand giving hers a gentle squeeze. "I might just take you up on that offer."

she smiled "Then so be it" She tightened her grip on his hand, for a moment they both sat in the quiet but after a while y/n broke it "... did you hear what he said, before the end?"

Oscar's smile faded, replaced by a contemplative look. He nodded slowly, the memory of his Grandsire's final words still fresh in his mind. "I...I did," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper. "He... he told me not to make his mistake. Not to forget to... to love her."

"... the failing mind is ever a mystery" she softly smiled

Oscar chuckled quietly, amused by the irony of it all. His Grandsire's mind had been weakened by age and illness, but his parting words had been clear, and true. "It is," he agreed, "But... somehow, I don't think that was a failing mind talking. I think... I think he knew exactly what he was saying."

“You do? He called you by your father's name, called me by your mother's... I think he was... lost in a memory"

Oscar's brow furrowed slightly as he considered her words. But the emotion behind his words, the desperation in his grasp... that couldn't have simply been a memory. "Perhaps," he agreed, albeit reluctantly, "But... I can't shake the feeling that there was more to it than just a memory. He... he knew what he was saying, even if the names were wrong." Oscar paused for a moment, his gaze drifting back out the window, "He... he knew what he was saying," he repeated, his voice firmer this time, as if trying to convince himself as much as her. "He... he was trying to tell me something. Something important."

"... Lord Grover, his wife... she... she jumped from the north tower. It was years ago,"

He was silent for a long moment, his mind reeling from the revelation. All this time, he had thought his Grandsire's wife had died of sickness or old age. But... but this... this was something else entirely.

"maids say she caught him at a pleasure house, and they argued for days. Until she jumped. many said he never really recovered from the loss"

Oscar's eyes widened at her words. The thought was almost too much to bear, and yet it explained so much. The grief his Grandsire had carried, the regret in his heart... it had all been caused by that single act of betrayal? He felt a tightness in his chest, a pang of sympathy for his Grandsire. Life... it could be so cruel, so filled with pain and suffering. He could only imagine the guilt and anguish his Grandsire must have felt, living with the knowledge that he was the cause of his wife's death. "I... I never knew," Oscar whispered, his voice filled with both shock and sadness. "I never knew... about any of this."

"I don't imagine he'd have told you... but he made you promise, not to forget... to love ... to not make his mistake"

"He did," Oscar confirmed, turning his gaze back towards her. He tightened his grip on her hand, finding comfort in its solidity. "And I... I won't forget," he promised, his voice firm. "I won't forget to love you. I won't make his mistake."

"M-Me?"

Oscar nodded firmly, his gaze steady on her. "you," he said emphatically. "you, and only you Y/n." He released her hand, lifting his own to cup her cheek, his thumb gently tracing the line of her jaw. "you are the one thing in this world I cannot forget," he continued, his voice dropping to a low, fervent whisper. "The one thing I will never let go of. you are my everything."

"you- you're upset, emotional..." she tried to rationalize what she was so suddenly hearing

Oscar nodded, acknowledging the truth behind her words. He was upset, his emotions in turmoil after everything that had happened. "Yes, I am upset," he agreed, his hand still cupping her cheek. "But this... this is more than just an emotional outburst. This is how I truly feel. How I have always felt." He stepped closer, closing the small distance between them. His fingers were still on her chin, gently tilting her face up to meet his gaze. "I... I love you," he confessed, the words tumbling out in a rush, almost stumbling over themselves in their urgency. "I love you more than I ever thought possible. And I... I want to be with you, always."

Y/n began to softly cry, the sad events of the day replaced by a mix of tears of joy and sadness "As do I... I love you too, I have always loved you, always wanted to be with you..." she cried "But..."

Oscar's heart both ached and soared at her words. Hearing her say that she loved him, that she had always wanted to be with him, was a moment he'd been wanting, and fearing, for so long. "But...?" he repeated, his grip on her chin tightening slightly in anticipation of her next words.

"But... I am a commoner. A smallfolk girl... you are now... Lord Oscar Tully, Lord of Riverrun and Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. I... I am not worthy of you,"

Oscar's heart clenched at her words, a wave of frustration washing over him. He brought his other hand up, now cupping her face in both of his palms. He leaned closer, his eyes boring into hers. "Don't say that," he said with passion. "Don't ever say that. you... you are more worthy than any highborn lady in this kingdom. I don't care about titles or status. All I care about is you Y/n." He paused, his thumbs gently wiping away the tears that had started to fall down her cheeks. His voice softened, filled with a quiet tenderness. "I... I don't care if you're a commoner. I don't care if you are smallfolk. I don't care if you are nothing more than a flea-infested rat catcher. Those things don't matter to me. All that matters is you, and how much I love you."

"... your lords... they- they would never allow us to marry..."

Oscar gritted his teeth, a flicker of anger sparking in his eyes. "I don't care what my lords think," he said, his voice firm. "I don't care if they approve, if they understand, or even if they like it. I'm a Lord Paramount, aren't I? If I want to marry a commoner, then that's what I'll do." He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers, his eyes closed. "They can say whatever they want," he murmured, his voice soft but filled with determination. "They can call me a fool, a madman, a lunatic. But they won't stop me, not when it comes to you."

she laughed softly through her tears, and smiled "And... you will uphold your promise?"

Oscar's expression softened as he heard her laughter, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He pulled away slightly, his hands moving down from her face to rest on her shoulders.

"I will," he affirmed, his voice filled with sincerity. "I will uphold every promise I've made to you. I will always remember to love you, and I will not make my Grandsire's mistake."

Y/n couldn't help her nervous laughs as she wiped away her tears "Is that a proposal My lord Tully?"

Oscar chuckled, a mix of relief and happiness fluttering through his chest. Seeing her laugh, even if it was out of nerves, was a sight that eased his soul. "yes, I suppose it is," he said, grinning widely He paused for a moment, his smile turning serious, but no less sincere. "Y/n, would you do me the honour of being my wife?"

"I would be honoured and delighted,"

Oscar's heart soared at her words. A wave of happiness and relief washed over him, leaving him grinning like a fool. Without a second thought, he got up from the seat he pulled her into a tight embrace, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around in a circle. He laughed happily as he did, his heart practically brimming over with joy. "I love you," he whispered in her ear as he set her back down. "I love you more than anything in this world."

"and I love you more," she cooed rubbing her nose against his before she laid her head on his tunic shirt

Oscar's heart melted as she nuzzled her nose against his. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, pulling her close against him. He dropped his chin to the top of her head, enjoying the feeling of her body pressed against his. "More than the stars in the sky?" he asked with a small grin, his voice filled with gentle teasing.

she scoffed and smiled "If you sit and count the stars from the window, all the fish in the sea and rivers, every blade of grass that may just be the start of how much I love you,"

Oscar chuckled, a low, warm sound that echoed through his chest. He pulled back slightly, just enough so that he could look down into her eyes. "That... that is a lot of love," he said, his voice filled with a mixture of wonder and affection. "More love than I ever thought possible." He brought a hand up to her face, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I count myself a very lucky man to be loved so fiercely." he cooed, “and I love you, more than the count of every star, every fish, every blade of grass and every stone in this world. And I swear I will never forget to love you,” 

[notsogoodphotographer]

Hi i want to talk about my all time favorite camera 📸

pls ignore all my grammar mistakes, i’m not professional reviewer 😂 i just wanna talk about this camera.

This is the Sony RX1Rii, this is the third and “most recent” version of this camera. i put “most recent” in quotes because this camera is almost 10 years old. don’t like the old age fool you because this camera can keep up with the newest cameras in its niche.

This little point and shoot sports a 42mp full frame sensor. YES, F U L L F R A M E!! This tiny camera is actually smaller than all the x100 series (minus the lens on it). The camera has an incredibly sharp Zeiss Sonnar 35mm f2 glued to. This camera has 399 af points, with eye AF. The camera is incredibly fast and accurate!! the camera is pretty much a tiny packaged Sony A7Rii!

One of my favorite features of this camera is the pop-up EVF! This is a feature that was added to only this version of the camera and it’s a feature that i wish sony continued to incorporate into some of their other smaller cameras like the A7c or a6k series!

The camera does shoot video up to 1080 120fps, but does not have picture profiles such has S-log or HLG. This was a camera made strictly for photos, which is probably for the best because the battery life on this camera is terrible, any kind of prolong video shooting would absolutely burn through these batteries in minutes.

That brings me to my next point, my cons. There’s not many but i figured i’d point them out anyways for those who are interested in this camera. these aren’t make it or break it cons, these are just issues that hinder it from being the greatest camera ever released (IMO)

1) battery life, i believe it’s rated for like 220 shots. Ive definitely gotten it to last twice than that. That tiny body processing all that data on some of the tiniest batteries makes sense why it’s so bad. Luckily batteries are cheap and like i said they’re tiny, so they’re pretty easy to carry around!

2) no picture profiles in video. i know i touched on it briefly up above and this camera is mainly a photo camera AAAAAND hybrid cameras were just beginning to grow in popularity around the time this camera came out but it would’ve been amazing to have s-log in this camera for little snippets here and there. i know at the time IG and other photo sharing apps were mainly photo sharing apps, and a camera that was built strictly for photo has no business having usable picture profiles in video.

3) no crop mode in RAW. this one is weird to me because i know the A7Rii has an APS-C mode where you can shoot RAW photos with an inbody crop and there’s times that i’d love to shoot something at 50mm (35mm + sony’s 1.5x aps-c crop). there is a digital zoom option but that’s for jpg only.

4) PRICE!!!! why the fuck is this camera still being sold for $3200??!! this is a 10 year old camera with outdated tech. i bought mine used for $1900 (which is about the price of the fuji x100V at the time of purchase) and i still think that’s a little too much.

that’s really about it aside from minor complaints of not having tele/ wide converters. i’m also sure all of those cons stem from the small battery. I’d love to see all of these corrected in a Mk3 one day, but as of a couple weeks ago sony just discontinued the Rx1rii’s production. I’m being a little hopeful but maybe that means we’re getting a successor, i doubt it but a boy can dream.

I don’t really do reviews or anything but this camera has had my heart for the past 9 months so i had to show it off/ talk about it. this to me in the perfect everyday camera. it never leaves my side and comes with me to any and every trip! Im always blown away by the photos i create with this little camera and i know whenever a mk3 comes out im going to hop on the chance to buy on immediately!

[cordate-chordata]

Hey this is a weird thing to ask but do you have relationship headcanons for knockout x soundwave

An unusual question to get, so it could be called weird, I suppose, but I'm happy to be asked this! My favourite kind of weird! :D I haven't drawn them in years, but it's still a ship I really like

Answer under the cut

I do have headcanons about them, I guess. They depend on the scenario they're in, though. Like, what their life is like. I most of all like assuming that Transformers Prime played out as it did canonically, and KO and SW then got together afterwards. The exact How and Why? That's more murky. There's multiple cool ways to go about it.

There's a narrative one could thread about KO helping SW get out of the shadowzone. Which is sweet and all. I prefer a narrative where SW gets out on his own. Which, honestly, makes it trickier to spin a narrative on how they ended up together. If Knock Out had helped him, that would have created a reason for why they were interacting already. Without that, something else needs to be the reason why they get in touch again.

Which brings me more into headcanon area and not just plot threading. One of my headcanons for KO is that he's not a particularly good fit for staying an autobot. I see him as someone who'd do good being a neutral faction.

Soundwave is a decepticon through and through, for multiple reasons - political ideals, sunk cost falacy of having lost his cassettes safe for Laserbeak, more of a fighter who sticks to his goals than KO, tunnel vision, etc. I headcanon him to be in a lot of emotional pain with the decepticons disbanding. I like the idea of him begrudgingly coming to Knock Out for help with something (i.e. the best option of a medic available to him), and as they get talking (one-sided talking (at first?)) Knock Out's disenchantment with any faction starts rubbing off on him, OR, starts disillusioning him from how highly he holds the decepticon cause in his mind. Soundwave seems stupid to me with how he keeps holding onto the war instead of noticing how it's never going to achieve his goal of equality between all Cybertronian castes. He's not seeing the full picture whatsoever. Well, "stupid"… mean to say when I believe his reasons are tied to being mentally unwell and traumatized from his losses. His judgement isn't sound; let's leave it at that.

So then they become a neutral duo. Yippie!!! Trio with Laserbeak.

I headcanon Soundwave to have a face under his mask, which is half broken. So it's funny KO has another partner with a broken eye, since I hc him to have been in a relationship with Breakdown. Also sharp-toothed Soundwave supremacy. Also on the broken side the fangs are always visible because his lips and cheek are gone there oops

Also I hc Soundwave to fully lay off his vow of silence, but still not talk much.

I hc Knock Out to be more into bulky mechs (Breakdown, Optimus), but he thinks Soundwave's sleek appearance is attractive in an entirely different way - assuming SW remains in his Prime form, WHICH I want him to because that's my fav Soundwave design, even if others are really good too. KO finds records of gladiator Soundwave someday, where he still looks bulky AF, and loses his marbles over it. Confronting Soundwave about it earns him the information that that look was due to still having had all his cassettes. That info is like a punch to Knock Out's face, making him feel like shit. It becomes a depressing moment lmao sorry

I hc Soundwave to be really old, one of the first Cybertronians to be sparked. Knock Out on the other hand is young in comparisson, having been forged not super long before the war broke out. I like to think he's only just finished with his medical studies and established himself a slight bit in the field up until that point. I don't hc this because of an age gap or smth. I just like viewing SW as this old entity who was still very raw in the way he came to be and took his shape. Since the birth mechanism of Cybertronians is very wishy washy in canon, I have my own headcanons about that: Early Cybertronian's sparks simply appeared randomly on Cybertron and gathered mass around them to form their bodies - Soundwave was one of those. This spontaneous creation became less and less, and when it did happen, it became harder for the sparks to find unused ressources to form a body. Existing Cybertronians started forging bodies for those sparks, and also (maybe; not sure if I'm satisfied with this idea) came up with mechanisms with which to channel new sparks, easing them onto the planet, as the perimeters for them to appear in "the wild" became worse over time. Knock Out's spark appears towards the end of a time where sparks could still be eased in and could be eased in semi-frequently, but not long after that they started to wane and stop appearing at all. So he's the result of a time where only a few Cybertronians were worried about too few new sparks, and then after he'd been alive for a bit, it became a big deal with less and less and then no sparks coming. He didn't care for it much because he was busy with other things and hadn't been around for long enough to see it as his issue. Also he's just not the sort of person to care about that. KO just... doesn't seem like someone who's been alive for ages, to me.

That's a lot of headcanons about their lives separate from each other. What about them together? I don't have many headcanons there, I suppose. I like to think they'd co-exist nicely together. Not a super duper over the top heart eyes for each other couple, but something more mellow, always there for each other but not broadcast as a huge deal. They become deeply tied to each other and do yearn for each other's company, but can exist just fine alone, y'know? Soundwave causes Knock Out to be a bit more serious and less vain sometimes, and Knock Out causes Soundwave to be more lighthearted and show his shitlord memer side more often, when they're around each other.

I can see Knock Out be very caring towards Laserbeak, even if, if pointed out, he'll deny any sort of motherly or fatherly energy he gives off when with the cassette. And yeah, I subscribe to Laserbeak being sentient. At some point I read that they're supposed to be a mindless add-on in Prime (or was it stated in the show?), but nuh-uh. That's a mute mini-bot with no humanoid form.

I think that's all I got! Thanks for asking!

[eatmangoesnekkid]

You must water yourself and feed the tissues in your body with the light from your thoughts, perceptions, nutrition, to the things you watch, listen to, and read. This doesn't mean that you try to escape the tragedies of the external world. It does mean that you understand that your body responds to your own love and care more than anything else. Daily care and aftercare are essential during times of war and peace. As we sit with the paradox and nuance of being human and our predatory animal nature to take, pillage, and harm, we must show up for it all, including caring for our bodies. Your body responds to your daydreams, thoughts, and touch. When you touch your body, let your heart be as light as a feather...as much as possible. The light in your hands sculpt, shape, and heal your body. I told my friend the other day that my breasts sit up the way that they at 47 years old because of how much love I have given them over the last 15 years, how much I take time and care with my body, how often I lay back and just listen. So many of us with breasts carry burdens in our bodies year after year. God needs us to transmute all the shame, tension, anger, repression, embarrassment, and fear so that we can access more of our divine nature to help evolve this world by channeling raw and uncommon solutions.

Because if the voting and marching were working, we would be not be where we are in the world today. I still bow to my sisters and brothers who are on the front lines. But what I also know to be true is that we must take time to detox in order to recalibrate the hate, repression, shame, and war living in our epigenetic line that continue to create war in our bodies--the diabetes, cancer, chronic jealousy, womb aches, breasts ache, lack of sensation, and lack of full-body orgasms, and also the molestation and scarcity in the family line. These entities. We can't continue to "take in" and not let out.

Bringing More Love to Your body Changes the World Around You and Opens Up More Pathways to Love and Loving

When you live "spirituality" as a lifestyle, more of your DNA unlocks open. When there is high emotion in the collective, I transfer that energy into self-care--bathing, skin care, making good food, listening to good music, resting and caring for who and what is around me. I made a bone broth chicken soup and brought some to my massage therapist. I know what's happening in the world but I'm not constantly attuned to it in the 3D, meme after meme, news story after news story. I'm living life that around me and praying for those who are fighting for their actual lives. I do not take for granted what it means to have more freedom.

Shifting my focus in various ways over the years has kept my body more nourished and youthful than what it would have been otherwise. I priortise sweating often, lik in a dry Finnish sauna, wet sauna, or sweating while working out in high intensity classes. I have no goal to stay younger-looking. I love being grown AF. It is merely what naturally happens when we take care ourselves (our cells) and release, release, release. When we release, our tissues let go and bodies respond favorably. Our care creates the conditions that allow our bodies to flourish in ways in which we beautifully and radiantly age, but we don't age as quickly. -India Ame'ye, Author

[phantomoftheorpheum]

The Umbrella Academy Season 4 Review/Critique

Fair warning- this is ridiculously long. If you expand this post and don't actually want to read it, it will be a pain in the ass to scroll through; I would advise against it.

Just to be 100% clear, these are my opinions and interpretations of the show. If you don't want to see criticism (and quite a lot of it) or read a pretty raw, unfiltered/unedited review of the season, this is not for you. This is a casual platform, so I tend to just let myself think out loud on these posts, meaning that I don't go back and heavily edit my thoughts. I may express ideas for the storylines that would need some refining, I'm generally just spitballing.

This is a very criticism heavy post, I have a lot of issues with this season, so if that will upset you, please just don't bother to read this. I will be tagging anti tags (due to the large amount of criticism I have for the show) for filtering purposes.

*** Spoilers for all 4 seasons of Umbrella Academy ***

Good Stuff First

I always like to start with my favorite stuff from the show, because usually if I am bothering to critique, it means I have a lot of criticisms, but I always want to acknowledge what the show does well before I start getting into what it does not do well.

Individual Characters & Dynamics - In particular, I thought Klaus's unique character voice was present and well written and the performance continued to be top notch (I have some criticisms about the actual storyline, but I think Robert nailed what he was given from an acting standpoint). Many of the specific dialogue and character dynamics felt consistent to earlier seasons, which can be difficult with such a wacky show. There are definitely some characters who were able to shine, regardless of what they were given.

Visuals/Sets - The show still looks as good as it ever has. It's never been groundbreaking cinematography, but you can feel the budget in the aesthetics of the show. It has been able to maintain this weird "almost our world, but not quite" reality in a visual manner since season 1. It has a distinct style and look. The sets largely feel big and textured and expansive, even when they're fairly simple. I like that we've at least glimpsed the house in every season.

Tone/Humor - The Umbrella Academy is weird. It has always been weird. It must be weird or else it would feel... bad weird? It does succeed in continuing to be weird AF. I like that the show isn't afraid to be incredibly strange. It is a show that swings big. The humor is still there. Humor is hard, and I think they hit more often than they miss.

Family Road Trip - The group dynamic, family bickering, montage effect of 4x02, etc. was one of the lighter and more enjoyable choices made in season 4. The bit of "annoying song stuck on a loop" that continued to crop up throughout the season worked for me.

Abigail Completely Failing at Being Gene - This is only a very small part of the season, but Nick Offerman playing an alien cloaked in a (very weird) human skin and very poorly pulling it off added some levity while it lasted.

Soundtrack - While I think there are fewer distinctly standout tracks for this season (but this is entirely a personal opinion, maybe others feel differently), the show's commitment to its distinctive sound and use of music is still solid. I particularly appreciated the callbacks to season 1, obviously I Think We're Alone Now, but also by selecting Dead To The World in 4x06 for Five (I prefer In The Heat Of The Moment as a song, personally, but the choice was very clever). This is a show that I genuinely like to go listen to the soundtrack of after the season, and I intend to do that with this season as well (except for the Christmas stuff, I am not a big Christmas songs person).

The Cast - This is related to point one, but I really think 99% of the cast did they best they could with the material they had to work with.

Despite all my criticisms, I still found myself sad to be at the end of the journey. And I think that says something about the strength of these characters. A perfect journey? No. But one I'm still glad that I took.

My Criticisms

I want to start by saying that if I bother to critique something, that means I believe it has enough potential to be worth discussing. If it didn't, I absolutely would not bother. So while I think this is going to come off quite harshly, it is coming from a place of "I love what this show can be when it's at its best, and here's how I personally think we could have been closer to its best."

A lot of times when I write up my thoughts about a show, I start with my most specific criticisms, and as I examine those, it points me to a bigger underlying issue. Sometimes I work the other way around, thinking about the larger elements I have criticisms of, then searching out examples. But in this case, either way, I find myself ending up at the same place with the same issue, and that issue (perhaps ironically for this particular show) is time.

I believe the largest issue with season 4 is time management, crafting storylines that are interconnected and therefore justify their screen time, and pacing. Yes, I have some criticisms that could not be fixed with better time management, but a lot of my issues lead back to this. Pacing is always a tricky element, is at the top of many criticism lists of many shows, and has been at the top of my list for several shows I reviewed this year. Pacing issues seem to be cropping up more and more with streaming service based shows on all platforms, and I don't think that's coincidental. But, imo, Netflix is our best example.

One of the greatest strengths of Netflix Originals, back when they first started, was the guarantee of a full season before a cancellation. Because they had no feedback on a show before producing and releasing an entire season, there were no early mid-season cancellations. This allowed writers a little more room to stretch out, knowing they wouldn't walk into work the next day and be told they have 2 or 3 episodes to wrap up a story, or worse, wake up to just no job at all. So while the seasons were shorter, the time was guaranteed. Many of Netflix's early properties, particularly if their first season was successful, were greenlit for multiple seasons at a time, a practice which has been all but abandoned (Bridgerton and Stranger Things have been afforded this luxury in recent years, but few other shows). But as Netflix (and other streaming services) got its legs under itself, it came to realize that there was more profit in producing the first season of many shows, then cancelling all but the most successful. This epidemic of unfinished stories has been spreading rapidly. Now, not only does Netflix have an extremely high cancellation rate and rarely renews a show for more than a season at a time, it has also been shortening seasons, bringing down production costs, and trying to minimize risk and maximize "safe" profits. Minimizing risk in favor of maximizing safe profits rarely results in good art. Which explains a lot.

And so, unfortunately, I think The Umbrella Academy is a casualty of this increasingly mercenary system. Not only was it forced to make creative decisions with the constant threat of "This could be the end, but you won't know it until after it airs, so it also has to work as not the end," during the first three seasons, but though it got warning of its final season, it received a limited run to complete the show. Now, I can't fault anyone for wanting to write each season as a possible ending, considering how often Netflix cancels shows. Is this smart? Yes. Is this also limiting? Yes. And shows like The Umbrella Academy, with universes that become increasingly complicated with increasingly detailed lore, suffer quite a lot when trying to contain a story to each individual season. And finale seasons are particularly difficult. Expectations are high. Netflix's production model gives audiences years to build up their anticipation for the finale. Too much time to think, to pick holes in what has already been created, to cool to something they were once passionate about. Delivering a genuinely satisfying finale under these circumstances would be a daunting task.

But with all that being said. Season 4 only has 6 episodes, and it somehow manages to waste so much time. I don't know what's in the water over at Netflix, because I don't know if anyone knows how to waste limited time like Netflix does. If it weren't so irritating, it would almost be impressive.

The truth is, very few of the main characters really matter to the overarching plot of the season, which is a very weird choice, particularly in a final season. It's basically Ben, Jennifer (who we barely know and just met), Hargreeves, Abigail, and tangentially Viktor. Five & Lila are basically completely taken out of play for an episode and a half, where their actions have practically no relevance to the main plot, and the critical information Five gets while using his "new" power could easily have happened without this storyline. Luther & Diego are similarly sidelined by the CIA storyline. And, again, Klaus & Allison are occupied with a side plot that removes them from the main conflict of the season and does not tie in to the finale.

I do not mind the centering of Ben & Jennifer for a season of the show in theory, but with only 6 episodes to tell this story, I think it was a stretch to believe they had the time to do this plotline justice and waste so much time elsewhere. I don't know if this was solely a me issue, but I just... didn't care about Jennifer. I mean, sure, I rooted for her in a passive "she seems nice" kind of way, but even by the end we barely know anything about her. I can live with a "cosmic connection" insta-love situation between Ben & Jennifer (not my favorite trope, but it can be okay), but just because Ben instantly connects with Jennifer, that doesn't mean the audience does. And, to make matters worse, this version of Ben is one that we don't know that well, anyway. Like... his defining character trait is that he's mean and angry. I didn't mind that in season 3, as he was new to us and at odds with our protagonists for most of the season, but we don't really learn much new about him in season 4, either. The bit of Ben's history that we get is from Umbrella Ben, not Sparrow Ben. And Sparrow Ben's personality and history isn't touched on. Why is he like this? It's never explored, not beyond the shallow "the Sparrow Academy wasn't raised as the family that the Umbrella Academy was" that was established in season 3. The fact that we know so little about this version of Ben makes it harder for me to connect with him, as well. So to center these two characters in the final season, and then not even give us scenes to flesh them out as individuals, it just feels like such a waste of time. It didn't need to be Ben and Jennifer. In fact, it very much felt like it was only Ben and Jennifer because everyone has always wanted them to tie "the Jennifer incident" into everything. Again, I think this plot could work fine if given the correct amount of screen time, but as it is, it feels rushed and shallow. We might care about Sparrow Ben (might), but we don't have much reason to care about Jennifer.

Lack of direction - There are only six episodes in this season! Every minute needs to be used wisely. This should be the most focused of all the seasons, every storyline streamlined to tie into the finale of the show. Which is the opposite of what we got. For the vast majority of the show, nothing Klaus or Allison does matters. Nothing Diego or Luther does matters. Nothing Five or Lila does matters. Sure, those storylines touch on individual character development, but when you're planning to kill everyone off in a couple hours anyway, why are we starting down unconnected character arcs that are destined to be left hanging? Every bit of interpersonal character development should be written in a way that ties into the finale plot of the show, so scenes can pull double duty and maximize the limited time available. What was the purpose of Lila and Diego fighting (other than to physically separate them)? What did they learn? How did they change or grow? They didn't. They are split apart, sent down different dead end roads, only to be gathered back up in time to die. They speak words of understanding, but we don't actually get to see them learn or put those changes into practice.

I think about it this way- if Lila and Five had gotten lost into the weird limbo subway system and we never saw what happened to them, and instead they just reappeared from that adventure for the finale, would that fundamentally change anything about how the show’s main plot plays out? No. It wouldn’t. If Klaus had stormed off in 4x03 and Allison had gone after him and we’d never seen either of them again until the finale, would that fundamentally change anything about how the show’s main plot plays out? No. It wouldn’t. If Diego and Luther had gotten their CIA passes and walked into that building and vanished from the story until the final episode of the show, would that fundamentally change anything about how the show’s main plot plays out? No. It wouldn’t. Even Viktor, who is directly addressing the main plot point of Ben & Jennifer’s connection becoming apocalyptic, has very little impact on that storyline leading up to the finale. He speaks to Ben once, he insists on trying to save Ben, and spends the rest of the time working through personal issues with his dad or being attacked in a sequence that has no consequences. The conflicts that these characters encounter have very little bearing on the physical events of the show (they get shot at, they escape. They fight, they escape. They are chased, they escape) and what are the specific consequences? There aren’t any. Viktor gets to use his powers to save Hargreeves and gets shot (I think??) doing it, but he’s fine, and it doesn’t change their approach or goals in any way. Five and Lila are trapped together for years and have a romantic relationship, but then they “go home” and it doesn’t lead to any of the characters deeply changing or acting notably differently in the following events (Five and Diego fight at a bad time, we get a funny reaction from the other siblings, etc. but it doesn't change anything) and then it is never truly resolved. Luther and Diego go to the CIA and this plot is used as a vehicle to reveal the villainy of Five’s boss (so??), but ultimately Luther and Diego get a big fight sequence, learn very little, and take up a lot of screen time for a reveal that could easily have happened in seconds. None of their actions in this storyline blatantly effects the outcome of the show. And Diego feels set up for some character work, but all it really leads to is him being like "I get it," and that change never getting a chance to be actionable. Allison and Klaus reconcile, but only after a lot of screen time is spent on another side quest. Do they really change as people from this story? We don't know because there's not enough time to see. This is clearly not a legit substitution for actually addressing the issues between them, but we don’t have time to do that, either. Not to mention, the conflict between Klaus and Allison isn’t some slow burn issue. It’s doesn’t exist before this season. What is the point of any of these plot lines? Why send Allison and Klaus off together to resolve issues that we only just found out exist, when Allison has canonically been estranged from all of her other siblings since the events of season 3? That is blatantly an unresolved issue, but instead of using her screen time to address her season 3 actions, they create a whole new issue for her and Klaus to fight and then reconcile about. Wouldn’t it be much more interesting to see Allison and Viktor work through their issues once and for all? Or to address all of the ways Allison betrayed Luther in season 3? What about Klaus reconnecting with this version of Ben? What about Luther working through being betrayed by his father? What about Diego and Lila actually being parents? What about really getting to see how this life that Allison sold them all out for isn't even the dream she thought it would be? What if, instead of getting a montage of Lila & Five’s romance, we got a montage of Jennifer and Ben finding and destroying each other in many different worlds? You want to sell me on this tragic, cosmic connection between them? Okay. Sell me on it. Make it hurt. 

Five - I'm just going to be brutally honest here- I believe Five is the strongest driving force of the show and his sidelining in season 4 was a huge mistake. Five might not be the emotional core of The Umbrella Academy, but he is absolutely central and critical to what has worked well in previous seasons. And yet, in season 4, he's pushed to the side and basically written out of the main plot for half of 4x04 and all of 4x05. And then, even when he is around, he's lost a lot of the elements that make him a fan favorite. Let's talk about that- in season 1, Five's return and his mission is where it all kicks off. Yes, technically the inciting incident is Hargreeves' death, but gathering the family without Five's arrival would have been useless and led nowhere. Five drives the entire plot of season 1, while the rest of the siblings get character arcs around him. He makes things happen. He withholds information from his siblings and from the audience. Without him moving the plot forward and tying things together, season 1 would have been a disjointed mess. In season 2, we follow Five's attempts to reunite the family and fix yet another doomsday. Again, he is the one that pushes the plot forward, while the other siblings wander down various other storylines (which is not to say that they are not involved and don't contribute, just that they don't move the plot along to the same degree). In season 3, Five attempts to "retire," but pretty quickly he's back in the thick of things in search of answers and solutions. He is set against Hargreeves in an intellectual face off and is ultimately the one who pieces together the hotel's puzzle. He also discovers that he is, essentially, his own nemesis and behind a lot of what happened in previous seasons (a storyline that feels like it had a lot more to give, possibly, but is abandoned and explained away as "something a version of him did in some timelines,"). But in season 4, Five is... Well, he's suddenly not that relevant. He starts out fine, undercover and attempting to infiltrate The Keepers, and he does push the initial plot forward with his investigation, but then he just drops off the map (literally and figuratively). Five, who has always been the character to seek out answers and the character the audience trails through the bigger plot points of the story, is suddenly out of play. Now we're watching him wander around the multiverse (presumably for an attempt at character development, which ultimately falls flat) where he learns nothing important and falls unconvincingly in love with his brother's wife for an episode and half. Why? Because... they didn't know what to do with him? Honestly, I can't explain why. Five's acerbic wit, his tendency to be one step ahead of the audience, his cockiness, the uncanny personality that is a quirk of being an old man trapped in a young man's body, his absolutely brutal and ruthless methods to protect his family, and his cool fight scenes, it all just vanishes. Suddenly, for the first time, he feels the age of the actor. He feels erased long before he literally is. After 3 seasons of him having one of the coolest powers that leads to some of the coolest scenes, we're suddenly in a world where everyone else has some useful version of their power, while Five's kind of sucks. And like his teleporting power only reappearing at the very end (spurred on to save Lila specifically, rather than his family, because ???), Five's personality is frequently missing. Which leads me to-

Five and Lila - This may be a controversial opinion, but in concept this could have worked. Am I mad at the idea that two characters who are stuck together for years with no one else as company might fall in love, even if they're an odd pairing? No. Like I said, it's okay in concept. But only in concept. In reality, there was neither the time, nor the necessary casting to make this storyline hit properly. Regardless of Five's character's age, or the fact that his actor is (technically) an adult now, this felt flat out wrong to watch. Not only does Five still very much look like a teenager (inevitable, as while Aidan has aged over the course of filming the show, the age of young Five would now, still, vastly outstrip his real age of 20), but we also know that Lila was introduced to him as a child. Lila and Five meet in season 2, in which he is (physically) still a 13 year old boy, while Lila is an adult woman (considering she has the same birthday as the rest of the Umbrella Academy, this would put her at approximately 30 years old at this time). Yes, the exact ages of these characters is a bit messy to track, but no amount of text on the screen telling me so many years have passed is going to allow me to forget this detail, which makes this whole situation, at best, deeply uncomfortable. The fifteen year age gap between the actors is incredibly evident, and this romance is ultimately completely unnecessary for them to evolve in the (frankly minimal) ways that they do. They also pretty brutally sacrificed Diego's character for this. All of Diego's negative traits are cranked up to 100 this season, while Lila's are generally turned down to a low simmer (until she nearly dooms everyone to a meaningless death). While I don't think their relationship being on the rocks, or either of their character's struggle to fit into domestic life, is a bad idea, I again find myself questioning what the point of this storyline was for this particular season. We don't get much of a conclusion. Diego is basically a buffoon all season, Lila is less blatantly fucked up most of the time and also somehow less likable for it, and Five feels out of place in this storyline. Why did we do this? As far as I can tell, it's because they didn't have any other ideas to keep these characters busy while the actual plot happens around them. That's really not a good reason to blow up a dysfunctional but well liked dynamic (Diego and Lila) and never even bother to mop up the blood. And that leads me to-

Lila - Just, in general, I found myself asking "who in the writer's room is ridiculously obsessed with Lila, because that is the only explanation for any of this." For example, Klaus names everybody's problems and can't think of any real issues for Lila?? LILA? Her erratic, risk taking behavior and serious mommy/family issues are the most intensely Lila thing about her?? This is what her entire character is built upon? Why are we acting like she's not been a complete wildcard for the last two seasons?? Her new power doesn't make any kind of sense. Everyone else basically got some version of their old power back (and we eventually learn that Lila does have that power back as well, despite wildly underusing it), but now she has laser eyes.... Because? Her inability to properly control the laser eyes is funny, but also doesn't make any sense. In previous seasons we see Lila quickly adapt to using new powers only moments after acquiring them. If there is any one single person in this whole show who should have adapted to a new power immediately, it would be Lila. And somehow, for some reason, they center Lila during the finale conflict. Everything rests on her decision to stay or go. On her connection to her family (despite us barely seeing her in a room with them all season), instead of literally any of the main Umbrellas we've been following all along. And she gets the last line of dialogue from our main characters. We spend an extended sequence watching The Umbrella Academy slowly sacrifice themselves and Lila gets the last word?? And all of this is coming from someone who actually really loved Lila in seasons 2 and 3. She was one of my favorite characters coming into this season, but this... It just felt blatantly disrespectful to all the other main characters.

Everyone Dying is a Bummer - Okay, don't get me wrong, I'm not set against tragic endings in general, but... I don't think The Umbrella Academy earned this ending (at least not in this way). This idea of the world being better off without them, like they are a mistake that fundamentally ruins the world and must choose to sacrifice themselves in the name of saving humanity, that would (could) be fine. Except that it doesn't feel thematically well supported by the previous seasons, or even just season 4. At its heart, seasons 1-3 followed the ups and downs of Five's journey to save his siblings from the apocalypse, even though they are the ones to cause it. This is his entire goal. He wavers, he actively tries to walk away from this, but he cannot help himself, he always comes back around to this goal. This is what we buy into in season 1. So the idea that this is impossible and that they all must die anyway, feels antithetical to why we are asked to care in the first place. We haven't been asked to care about the world (not in any tangible sense). We watch random, innocent people, or vaguely antagonistic people, get killed in horrible ways left and right in the show and we are not asked to care. We're often asked to laugh. We care about them saving the world because we care about them saving the family, this dysfunctional group of oddballs. Sure, on a very basic and fundamental level we don't want humanity to be wiped out, but the humanity of the surrounding world is never deeply touched upon in the show. And their death wipes out infinite universes. We're told this is "right," but we don't tie any real emotional stakes to it.

Season 4, which centers around saving (or failing to save) Ben and Jennifer, around Viktor's desire to find another way because he loves his brother (even this version of him) and his siblings have always fought so hard to find another way because they love Viktor, asks us to care for these same reasons. Not for the world, but because we care about these particular characters. And the writers decide to sideline Five, whose centering I believe is absolutely essential to pulling off a "they must all die at the end" storyline to begin with. Why? Because he's the one who has fought so hard to save them. To have him not be at the center of the storyline where saving them is not possible makes absolutely no sense. Do I think that a final season where we follow Five coming to the conclusion that they are all doomed could possibly work? Yeah, if they had (and here it is again) the time to dig into that story and show us how he grapples with and fights that resolution tooth and nail until he cannot anymore (they point at it with the diner scene, but don't have the time to let us feel the weight of it). But they don't do that. We don't get to follow him throughout a season trying to cope with this impossible truth. Instead, he accepts that fate in a matter of onscreen minutes and with immediate resignation. (Yes, you could argue this is what he has been doing the last 3 seasons, but we're never truly given the impression that he is trying to prevent an absolute inevitability, only that he is trying to prevent a specific reality). It undermines the foundation of his character, and because Five is the driving force of the first three seasons, it undermines the foundation of those storylines as well. With the limited amount of time they were given to wrap up this show, instead of ending with a "everyone must sacrifice themselves" storyline, I would have, instead, centered Five's personal journey in season 4, which concludes with him realizing there can be one universe in which his family can all live, but only if he dies. They live, but he must sacrifice himself and be erased from existence so they will never mourn him, never know him, never know to be grateful. What could be more fitting for the show, more simultaneously sad and happy, than Five achieving what he set out to do in 1x01 and saving his family and that costing him everything?

Now... how to work that in and fill in some major plot holes at the same time? Well, I have some ideas, but I'm gonna save them for a different post, because while writing this review, I found myself re-outlining season 4 and trying to fix some of nonsensical elements of this season and if I get into that, it needs its own post. But I think it could be done. And speaking of nonsensical events.... Why do the Umbrellas have to die now? Like, logistically speaking, if The Cleanse is a necessary event and every single other world except the "perfect" timeline ends in apocalypse, then why can't they jump on that subway to a different universe where they have more time to be really, truly sure that's the only answer? At the very least they would have had a chance to really say goodbye to each other. We know there are plenty of universes where Ben & Jennifer both exist, there's no reason it has to be now. Since there are infinite "wrong" universes, they have all the time in the world. This is not a decision that has to be made exclusively in this moment, despite being portrayed that way. They don't die, The Cleanse doesn't work, they fact check their solution in a different universe, they get a chance to say their goodbyes, etc. etc. The urgency makes no sense. For that matter, why doesn't Five blip them all down to the subway where the show has already established in this season that time does not pass, so they can have a real conversation about this? There is literally no reason not to do this. They, quite literally, have a character who can take them to a timeless limbo where they can take as much time as they want/need to sort this out. They, quite literally, have that character take an entire family to this place, proving that he is capable of bringing a group of people there, and they don't use it.

It Doesn't Get Better - One of the major themes of Umbrella Academy is dysfunctional family and the way we cope (or don't) with childhood trauma. How burying that pain is destructive and hurts the people around us. And while I don't think the show's intent was to send the ultimate message of, "Actually, it doesn't get better, you'll never heal those wounds, and your existence is a destructive mistake," that's... kind of what it implies anyway. Throughout the whole show we explore the ways these characters are trying to work through the abusive household they grew up in, to move past the things that happened to them, and we watch them process and come together as a family and stand up against their abuser and grow into better versions of themselves and lose their way and pick each other back up. And then we're told that it doesn't matter because they all have to die. It sends a strange message. Personally, I think the show may not ever have intended to really send a message at all. It's absurd and irreverent and tragic and silly. It has never shied away from violence. It's always had a bit of a flippant nihilism hanging about it. And I think there is an argument for "People don't always get what they deserve. Sometimes they just get the short end of the stick and it sucks, but that's just how it is," being an underlying theme worth exploring. It's just... they don't really explore it, they just kind of dump it on us at the end. And because we don't have time to come to terms with this messaging (time, it's all about time), I think a lot of people feel like there's this bait & switch happening. For the last 3 seasons, we've been watching a show that is constantly addressing this childhood trauma and a toxic family dynamic, but then the end of that show is like "and all of these kids are a casualty of their abuser's arrogance and there was literally, not from the moment they were born, anything they ever could have done to grow away from that." It's pretty fucking bleak, to say the least.

Plot Holes For Days - There are more plot holes in this show than a block of Swiss Cheese. There are so many, that I'm still mentally trying to sort out an ending that feels... somewhat in the spirit of what season 4 was intending, and doesn't leave us up to our eyeballs in nonsensical plot points. For example- in The Umbrella's original universe, they already changed things so that they don't exist anymore long before the apocalypse. One of the major plot points of season 3 is that Harlan accidentally killed The Umbrellas' mothers before they were even born (obviously this is a paradox, as Harlan could never do that without meeting Viktor). But Hargreeves was still able to adopt Marigold enhanced children! Marigold kids were still born! We're told in 1x01 that 43 women spontaneously gave birth without having been pregnant, but we're supposed to believe that The Umbrellas, right here and now, have definitely got all of the Marigold in this universe? (And that doesn't even get into the questions surrounding the Marigold's presence in this world, since The Umbrellas did not bring it with them, we see no sign of other super powered versions of them existing in this universe, but if it didn't already exist here in some capacity and no children were born with these powers, then there's nothing inherently wrong with this universe, meaning the apocalypse wouldn't need to happen, and on and on and on. Like if all the Marigold was just in that jar and that counts as being in this world, then they could have just chucked that thing at Jennifer and bam, problem solved.) We know that in the original timeline Hargreeves didn't adopt all the Marigold children, because that's the entire point of Lila's backstory. And what about the other 35 women who spontaneously gave birth and those kids? So how could The Umbrellas possibly know if they are destroying all the Marigold by sacrificing themselves in this world? They can't know that. The existence of The Sparrows (and in another universe The Phoenix Academy) also implies that there could be many universes where The Umbrella kids don't all even exist, but other children were born with their powers, so specifically The Umbrella kids all dying isn't something that would need to be set in stone, since none of the other Marigold kids had to die for The Cleanse to work in this universe. Now, a lot of shows have plot holes or paradoxes or questions left at the end, and a lot of shows I would cut some slack. I'm even willing to ignore a lot of the smaller plot holes in this show, but this is the culmination of the entire series, the explanation for what must happen and why, and the justification for all our main characters being wiped out, and it just doesn't hold up under more than a moment's scrutiny. And that, imo, is a pretty big problem.

Gene & Jean/Villains - So, on a slightly lighter note, another thing that I don't have a problem with in concept is Gene & Jean. They're weird and quirky, as all Umbrella Academy villains seem to be, and I love both actors. It's just that season 4 has a serious problem with its villains in general. That is, there are too many of them and their plans are too convoluted. The ultimate villains being in some way connected back to Hargreeves (and specifically Abigail, who up until this point has had very little to justify her existence in the show) makes sense to me. But the absolutely convoluted mess that is The Keepers cult led by Gene & Jean being at odds with Hargreeves' men who are hiding Jennifer, being at odds with Abigail masquerading as Sy Grossman and then as Gene (I still don't understand why she needed to kill Gene or Jean, like Gene & Jean were already trying to bring about The Cleanse, why is she infiltrating them??), instead of using her resources/position as Hargreeves' wife, is ridiculously messy. The person I watched this season with actually asked me after 4x04 if I had any idea what was happening because they were completely lost. Generally, I am pretty patient about how a show shares information. I always assume that I am picking up what they're putting down, and if I don't understand something, I will when I'm supposed to. That... didn't always feel like the case to me this season. I don't think it was so much that it was hard to follow, but that it just didn't make a lot of sense. The "why" for so many character actions, but particularly the villains, just never fully materializes. Abigail and Hargreeves' sides are fighting in this season, with him attempting to prevent the apocalypse and her trying to bring it about... But what is the justification for the completely convoluted nonsensical path it takes to get there? She seems to have plenty of power over Hargreeves when the kids visit. Why does she need to infiltrate The Keepers? Why do The Keepers need to exist at all? It's just a coincidence that they have the same goals as Abigail? If she actually started them, then I assume she would have installed herself into the organization and not needed Gene to infiltrate it. I don't understand her choices. There were many, many simpler ways to get where they ended up.

So... it's not as if The Umbrella Academy is the first show to do this ending. In fact, one of my favorite shows of all time does this ending (not mentioning it by name because that would be a massive spoiler, obviously). I think this ending is completely possible to pull off. But I also am neither convinced from an in-universe logical point, nor from a storyteller's point, that it earned this ending. Did I want it to be a happily ever after? No. I don't think that would fit tonally with the show. But I wanted it to feel necessary, truly inevitable, and both physically and thematically, I don't buy that it was.

My advice to anyone who was starting this show for the first time would have to be, "don't think too hard about it," because ultimately, if you do it will crumble. Just enjoy the vibes and the bickering and the comedy and strangeness. There's no point in asking too many questions. And for some people, that's totally okay. That's enough. I'm just (shockingly) not one of those people.

So, if you're still with me, I'd love to hear what you guys think. Did you feel emotionally fulfilled? Were there particular plot points you loved or hated? What was your favorite musical choice of season 4? Should I release my redesigned season 4 outline? What ending would you have chosen? I'm open to all opinions! I don't agree with all opinions, but I will very much consider them.