#i still have so much from when i was teen and got obsessed with (female) beauty bloggers

[officialbillhader]

When i was 13/14 i made the most basic ass tumblr feminist post that ended up getting 400k notes (if you were on tumblr in 2014 or so you probably saw it lmao) and obviously it wasnt nuanced in any way like i made the surface level claim that women can wear makeup if they want bc they are doing it for themselves and thats not to say they cant wear it if they want its to say its impossible in our society to wear makeup for yourself. I only bring the makeup part up bc 1. My views have changed obviously and 2. I remember as this post was going around someone anonymous sent me an ask and said she was starting to interview for jobs/going into the workforce and she didnt want to wear makeup but was scared of how thatd affect her. All i could say at the time was, im just barely a teenager ive had no job so i cant say anything then some blanket advice i think. But now im 22 ive had multiple jobs and i want to take her by the shoulders and yell to the thin air that if shes up for a job that socially (or even forcebly, like soriorities do) requires her to wear makeup, IT ISNT WORTH IT. Itll never be worth it! Being forced to wear makeup, a bra, nice feminine clothes, always have plucked eyebrows, never a hair on your legs WILL NEVER BE WORTH IT. Ive got an office job right now where i can roll out of bed and throw on a hoodie and jeans and i love it. I wouldnt give it up for a $10k/annual raise and im being so serious. Im not a doll to be looked at. Im not a dress up toy. Im a girl who didnt have any clothes that truly, fully fit her to wear to the literal interview. They were bordering business formal at best. And im HAPPY.

Makeup is a farce. Whenever i see girls who have it CAKED on their face to the point i cant see their skin anymore i get so sad. Makeup can be fun, it can be cool and pretty on special occasions, its great for costumes, but lets face it, when you feel like you have to wear it everyday (no matter how little or subtle), youve never once put it on for yourself. The minute you let your bare face show enough that you get used to it, youll find yourself so so so much prettier than you ever did, and if youre anything like me, will start to despise how you look in heavy makeup (anything more than mascara and eyeshadow, if we're being honest). No job is ever worth losing yourself enough to forget how you actually look.

[blippymilk]

Do You Have Something to Tell Me?

Veneer x GN!Reader

Summary: You’re a normal teen in Mount Rageous, and the biggest Veneer fan known to man. Everybody that knows you knows it too. Unfortunately it’s highly unlikely to date the celebrity of your dreams…unintentionally.

A/N: I’m working on the request but I’ve had this for a bit so I finished it today and uploaded it for the time being.Also please forgive me if I use a certain amount of pronouns. With other content I’ve made before I’ve usually made female reader content so if I say she, as in referring to you please forgive me.

Happy New Years 🥳🎉

“Seriously (____)?” one of your friends side eyed you as as you burst out in giggles in response. You had invited your two best friends over (Liliana and Romar) for your annual two night sleepovers, and currently you were killing time by watching Veneer and Velvet’s (mostly Veneer) latest concert footage. Well not really killing time according to you, it was a way of life.

“You seriously brought us over here to watch you drool over Veneer?” Liliana continued as your giggling came to a halt. “I did not invite you over here for that. Especially since I am watching Veneer AND Velvet, get it straight guys.” You replied as Romar got up and came over to your bed where you were watching on your MacBook. “Sweetie you literally zoomed in on him and cropped his sister out…” you started kicking your feet and giggling again. “This is insane, I’ve never met anyone with such an obsession over anybody ever. You don’t even pay your boyfriend this much attention.” Liliana said and Romar agreed. “Who?” You said still staring at the screen as your friends both leaned back and cocked an eyebrow at you. “Oh, Jalen…him…right.” You sighed closing your laptop.

It was silent for a while before anyone spoke again. “How about we do our favorite activity to do when we’re all together?” Romar asked as you and Liliana perked up. “SHOPPING!” You all shouted in unison.

________________________________________________________

“Let’s do a challenge guys.” You said to your friends as you all entered the Mount Rageous Mall. “Let’s put outfits together with a budget, a timer, and a person to customize.” You said as your friends agreed. “Bet. But where will we get the details from?” Liliana asked. “A generator or something.” Romar grabbed his phone and typed in a few things. The results ended up being: a budget of 35$, 40 minutes, and Romar got you, you got Liliana, and Liliana got Romar.

“On a count of three…” Liliana started, suddenly both of you almost fell over with the quick take off of Romar running through the mall. “HEY! WE’RE NOT done y-yet…and he’s gone.” She said as you both simultaneously face palmed and took off two different directions.

Your first stop was a store that was highly underrated in your opinion. It had great and reasonably priced outfits and none of your friends knew about it (yes you were gatekeeping but who cares). You ran all up and down the store for something Liliana might like. ‘Her favorite color is green, that’s a start’ you thought. You finally found a green top in her size and were now looking for some bottoms. You looked at the timer ‘32 minutes left’. You had to hurry and find some bottoms because more people started to enter the store. ‘Huh, guess this store’s not too underrated anymo-” your thoughts were cut short as you noticed someone running at the same pace towards you, and quite literally collided with them.

‘Sh*t that hurt’. The person you collided into let out a sort of high pitched “OW” that was very dramatic and dragged out. He almost sounded like…no. You sat up planning to apologize to the person, hoping it would roll over and you could be on your way. After all you only had 29 minutes left to checkout then hit up the accessory store.

“I’m sorr-”

“Ow, what the hell’s wrong with you?”

That shut you up real quick. What weren’t about to do was apologize to a blockhead. There was something weird about the way he responded. His high pitched voice had deepened when he came to his senses. “Excuse me?” You said standing up as he did too. The guy had a purple hoodie on covering his hair, but left some strands of it hanging, which was green. He had on glasses covering his eyes, pale white skin, and purple lipstick. He almost reminded of someone but you couldn’t put your finger on it.

“You should watch where you’re going next time.” The boy said dusting himself off. Now you were getting angry and the guy stuttered a bit. “Wait that’s not what I-” “Who do you think you are?” You blurted out.

“I was just saying…”

“Well maybe if you’d stop running your mouth every three seconds, your future altercations could be less painful.” And with that you grabbed your items off the floor, and made your way to the checkout leaving the boy stunned.

________________________________________________________

After hitting up the accessory store you and your friends had planned to meet up in the food court. “I seriously think I won this, like no joke.” Romar said. “Absolutely not it was me!” Liliana said shaking him. “I don’t know Lili, the outfit I picked out for you was kinda cute.” You said as you three went back and forth.

“Y’all are exhausting and I’m hungry, let’s eat.” Romar said and the disagreement was over as you three frantically traced the smells in the food court. Once in line you told your friends about the interaction with the rude guy you’d met in the store you went to. “Girl I woulda beat his as*” Lili said getting rowdy. “Uh we don’t condone violence over here mam.” Romar laughed as you two chuckled.

Once you ordered Romar offered to wait for everyone’s food and Lili took a phone call. You decided to sit down at a empty table and scroll through social media to kill time. You had scrolled endlessly for a few minutes before a Veneer edit popped up on your for you page. You stopped and watched it again, and again, and again, and maybe another time.

It’s only when a sudden voice snapped you out of your daydream, “Hey.” You jumped quickly and looked where the voice was coming from. It was that rude dude from the store earlier behind you. Rolling your eyes you quickly got up to leave but he stopped you, “Wait please don’t go.” He said. ‘He thinks I’m really gonna stay after the way he was talking to me earlier’ you thought, but you did stay.

You looked up at him waiting for him to speak again, you also noticed him eyeing your phone. The Veneer edit was still on repeat. ‘How embarrassing�� you turned your phone off and laughed nervously. You wondered if he had been behind you when you had the edit on loop, or if you were almost drooling or flustered at all.

“What is it?” You asked him as he turned his attention back to you. “Oh right um,” he sat down in the chair across from you, “I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I don’t usually act that way I actually felt really bad.” He said as you eyed him, like you were scanning him. “I’m so serious, like what I was saying I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I have a lot of things to think about right now and I guess I didn’t think too hard on how to approach the situation.” He continued. You “scanned” him even more, he seemed sincere.

Suddenly your face softened and you could to tell his worry dropped a little too. “It’s ok I get it, I’m sorry for not hearing you out I was just in a rush.” He smiled a bit at this. “So what’s your name?” He asked. “I’m (____). What about you?” You asked. “Oh I’m V-Victor.” He said almost as if he was thinking too hard. “Nice to meet you Victor.” “You too.” “So do you live around here?” You two were in such deep conversation you didn’t see your friends staring you and this boy down until the had to frantically wave at you. You let them know you’d be there soon with your face and they took off somewhere in a hurry. Actually a couple people did, there was a little crowd forming at the front of the mall.

“What’s going on?” You said looking at the front, mid conversation. Victor looked almost panicked for a moment but calmed his face. “Not sure but I think I have to get going.” He said grabbing his bags. “Ok I get it, do you mind if I ask you one more thing though?” you asked. “Hit me.” He replied. “Why are you wearing glasses, can I see your eyes before you go?” You chuckled as he did the same. “Not this time, maybe another time.” He smiled at you, grabbed his last bag, and just like that he was gone.

‘Another time?’ You thought. He’s gotta be stupid there’s like a one in a thousand chance you’ll ever run into him again at Mount Rageous. You looked down at your phone and on top of it laid a piece of paper. You opened it to find a note: “Call me sometime? ;)” with a phone number under it and Victor’s name. He was quick with it.

Was he flirting with you? Why else would he put a winky face. ‘Little does he know, I’m loyal to my boyfriend’ you thought. “And my future husband Veneer.” You thought out loud before quickly closing your mouth and hoping nobody heard you. That’s when you realized more than half of the people at the food court was gone.

Suddenly Lili came up to you and grabbed your hand, “Come on come on! (Name) you will not believe what’s happening!” She sqeauled. “What? Just tell me!” You shouted while she dragged you to the front of the mall. “No you have to see it for yourself.” She said. “Nope,” you stopped and pulled your arm back, “I won’t go until you tell me what it is.” You tried being stubborn and it was working, Lili’s eye twitched a bit. “Fine! You wanna know so bad, it’s Velvet!” She sqeauled loosing her composer. “Velvet? As in-” “THE Velvet! Superstar and sibling to your man Veneer yes!” But you had only heard up to the Veneer part because you took off.

[gatitties]

Hey! Hey. Here's a gift for being a wonderful writer and person 💐💐💐

I just wanted to ask...well, you can take it as a Part 2 of the Platonic Yandere! Monster trio with Teen!Female!Y/n who hot into their world. What if Y/n will get invited into another crew? Not just any crew but Law's or Kid's ? (You can choose one of them or if you feel mischievous both).

Maybe they then kidnapped Y/n.???(Plot twist?)

─Yandere!monster trio x teen!fem!reader (platonic)

─Summary: you try to go with another crew, but that would be very dangerous for you, it's better to stay with them, right?

─Warnings: toxic behaviors, obsession, manipulation, yandere stuff

Part one

omg you're so cute 🫂 now everyone here is yanderes and they want to spend time with reader 😩 (@emtynessinmyworld, @hbk99450 here you go, second part!!)

─ You have to be very lucky that someone outside the crew can even talk to you or look at you.

─ Luffy is still an idiot at least, he won't mind if you meet other people only if they are trustworthy, just like Sanji, Zoro is the least permissive in terms of the people you are allowed to talk to.

─ However, at some point in history Law arrived, you knew it, but as you promised, you were not going to ruin their adventures.

─ They didn't take much importance to it when you and Law started talking more often, after all, now they were in an alliance with him and you seemed to be behaving normally with them, you learned to swallow your fear little by little knowing that they wouldn't harm you physically.

─ The problem was that you fascinated Law with all your history, your world, how you got here, the few medical things you knew and that you could tell him about your world, he seemed to never tire of conversations with you.

─ Of course, he is not stupid and he noticed the obsessive behavior of the trio the more time he spent with you, it seemed that stealing your time irritated them, they always looked for an excuse to get away from him, he didn't like it.

─ Before the alliance ended, he offered you to sail with him, after all he could also protect you, but more importantly heal you if any incident ever happens

─ If you accepted, keep in mind that these three are going to catch you red-handed trying to leave them, why are you leaving? Are you no longer comfortable with them by your side? It doesn't matter, they are the only ones who can keep you safe, you know it well, they are the protagonists isn't it?

─ If you manage to escape anyway, don't think that Law will be more permissive, he will be stricter with certain things, although he knows that he can control you perfectly, he just needs a bit of blackmail to get you to calm down.

─ If you don't succeed, you will be punished, you will have to be locked in your room for a few days, and after that you will have to go with a child leash when you are on an island, they will not lose sight of you and you will have to earn their trust little by little.

─ Then again, if you ever cross paths with Kid without the boys, or even with them, maybe he heard some rumor about a strange teenager traveling with the Strawhats.

─ Kid is an asshole, he will only want you on his ship to annoy Luffy, like starting a war.

─He'll try to kidnap you, you're weak so it's a piece of cake for him, just a little help from his crew is enough to distract the monster trio and leave you alone.

─ Killer will look at him with disapproval after hearing why you were there, but it was too late to return you, they didn't want to have someone useless in terms of strength on their ship.

─ Luckily you exchanged that lack of power with knowledge, god bless those idiotic but useful google searches you did all the time before you got here.

─ Of all the crews, the Kid Pirates were the least concerned about your well-being, which gave you a break from everything you had to put up with the Strawhats or, failing that, if you had finished with Law.

─ Although that does not mean that they now consider you part of the group, being the weakest link, they always had you in their sights in case something happened, Heat and Wire became your bodyguards.

─ They have definitely been threatened by Luffy, he has probably done something out of character for him and that is why they are watching that there is not even a measly wound on your body, somehow, both you and they know that the trio of monsters will return.

[liaromancewriter]

When Sparks Fly

Premise: Aurora Emery was no stranger to breakups, but what happened next was unexpected.

Book: Open Heart (post series) Characters: Aurora Emery, F!MC (Cassie Valentine); feat M!OC Rating/Category: Teen. Fluff. Words: 1,525

A/N: Submission for @choicesaugustchallenge prompt "fireworks"

Aurora Emery leaned against the counter of the nurses’ station, absently tapping her pen against the countertop. The hum of the hospital around her was familiar, but it didn’t have the same soothing effect as other days.

Halfway through a long shift, her mind was usually filled with thoughts of her current cases. Not today.

Today, there was a lingering ache in her heart, the after-effects of a recent breakup with someone who couldn’t quite grasp the demands of her career.

Aunt Harper had warned her this would happen. But Aurora hadn’t listened even though her inner cynic taunted that it was only inevitable.

Female doctors rarely got as much attention or respect as their male counterparts. When a man said he was a doctor, women lined up around the block. The reverse was not true.

Her brows furrowed in annoyance at the memory of her ex breaking up with her by commenting on her Picta post. He didn’t even have the decency to tell her in person or text her.

The only saving grace was that her Pictagram account was private, and her followers were limited to family and friends.

Still, the whole sordid situation was embarrassing, especially when her grandmother called to commiserate on one hand and tried to set her up with an eligible bachelor from her bridge club on the other.

He wasn’t worth it, she reminded herself vehemently.

“That’s a fierce look,” her friend Cassie Valentine commented as she walked toward Aurora, placing one arm around her shoulder in a quick hug. “Forget that jerkwad. He didn’t deserve you.”

She was the epitome of calm, her long blonde hair neatly twisted up. A crisp white coat with Edenbrook’s crest on the pocket floated around her thighs, complementing the blouse and skirt beneath.

The engagement and wedding band combo on her left hand sparkled under the fluorescent lights, stirring a twinge of envy in Aurora.

“You’re obsessing right now and probably a mess,” Cassie said, placing both hands firmly on Aurora’s shoulders and staring intently into her eyes. “But one day soon, you’ll wake up and realize you’re free of a loser with low self-esteem. And it’s his loss for throwing away the greatest love he’ll ever have.”

Aurora smiled softly, amused but also touched. Cassie had been giving her pep talks since they were interns. Whenever she started feeling sorry for herself, her friend was there with advice that helped her see things clearly and snap out of it.

For most of their intern year, Aurora found her annoying and didn’t hesitate to push her away with rudeness. But Cassie was undeterred by her snarky responses. And one day, Aurora realized they were friends, not rivals.

Speaking of, it was time to shake off these maudlin thoughts and get back to work.

“Thanks for coming here for the consult,” she said, squeezing Cassie’s hand to let her know she was okay.

“Mrs. Hartley is too weak to be moved to Edenbrook. It’s an interesting case.” Aurora handed Cassie the tablet with the patient’s medical history and intake notes. “She’s not responding to any treatment. The team is stumped.”

Cassie grinned as she glanced over the tablet. “So, you’re admitting I’m a better diagnostician than you?”

Aurora smirked, rolling her eyes playfully. “That’s not what I said.”

“And yet, that’s what I heard,” Cassie teased with a wink.

Aurora chuckled, shaking her head. “I’m just saying I could use a fresh perspective—and you’ve always been annoyingly good at this.”

“Annoyingly good? From you, that’s a compliment of the highest order,” Cassie laughed, handing back the tablet. “Let’s go.”

They entered the patient’s room a few minutes later, the steady beeps of the machines echoing in the otherwise quiet space.

“Hello, Mrs. Hartley,” Aurora called out as she entered the room. “I’ve brought my colleague, Dr. Valentine, for a consult.”

Mrs. Hartley, who had been gazing out the window, turned her head on the pillow to greet them. Her eyes were warm as she took them in.

“Aren’t you two the prettiest little things,” she said softly. “It’s comforting to know my doctors are such accomplished young women.”

She pressed a button to raise the back of the bed. “Are either of you single? My son is, and he’s a lawyer. As handsome as his daddy was when he swept me off my feet nearly forty years ago.”

Cassie burst out laughing while Aurora blushed, unable to help feel a bit self-conscious.

“Sorry. Married,” Cassie held up her left hand with a smile.

“Well, I suppose your husband might object,” she added with a playful wink. “Maybe Dr. Emery, then?”

“Your son would be the lucky one in that scenario.” Cassie moved closer to the bed. “Now, I’ve reviewed your chart and Dr. Emery’s notes, but I’d like to ask you some questions…”

Aurora sighed in relief as Cassie tactfully ended the awkward conversation.

Was she really giving off such pathetic loser vibes that even her patients were trying to set her up?

A week later, Aurora leaned against the nurses’ station, taking the weight off her tired feet. She checked her team’s notes, making notations where needed. The sound of approaching footsteps and a throat clearing loudly caught her attention.

She looked up to see a man in his early to mid-thirties, tall and broad-shouldered, with an easy confidence in his stride. His three-piece suit looked custom-made—probably overkill for a warm summer day—and his tie was loosely knotted around his neck.

His hair was slightly tousled as if he’d run his hands through it too many times. Dark amber eyes reflected warmth and confidence, complementing his smooth, deep-toned skin.

“Dr. Emery?” he asked, his voice slightly low.

Aurora nodded, curiosity piqued. “Yes, that’s me. How can I help you?”

He extended his hand, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “I’m Logan, Logan Hartley. My mother, Joy Hartley, is one of your patients.”

Recognition dawned, and Aurora straightened, shaking his hand. “Of course, Mrs. Hartley. She’s recovering well after the surgery. I was just about to check on her.”

Logan’s smile widened, revealing a dimple on his left cheek. “That’s great to hear. She sings your praises every time I visit. Says you’re an angel in a lab coat.”

Aurora felt a slight blush creep up her neck. “I’m glad she’s in good spirits. She’s a wonderful woman.”

“She suggested—well, ordered, really,” Logan grinned, “that I introduce myself to you.” His eyes twinkled. “And I wouldn’t mind thanking the doctor who’s taken such good care of her.”

His tone was light, but there was something more in the way he looked at her—something that made Aurora’s pulse quicken just a bit.

Maybe it was the exhaustion from the last few weeks or the unexpected interest from a handsome man, but Aurora found herself smiling widely. “Thank you, but I’m just doing my job.”

Logan leaned against the counter beside her, close enough that she could catch the faint scent of his cologne—a mix of cedarwood and something citrusy. “Doing it very well, from what I hear. You must be really dedicated.”

Aurora sighed, a small, rueful smile playing on her lips. “I love what I do.”

“I can see that,” Logan said, his gaze lingering on her in a way that felt both mysterious and thrilling. “But I hope you also find time to enjoy life outside the hospital.”

The comment was casual, but the implication was clear, and Aurora felt her heart skip a beat. It had been a while since someone had looked at her like that and even longer since she had felt the desire to reciprocate.

A week ago, she’d wondered if the demands of her career would always be a barrier to her having a personal life. But here was a man who seemed intrigued, not deterred, by her passion for her work.

“I try.” Her voice was softer than intended. “Though it doesn’t always work out.”

Logan’s eyes met hers, holding them with an intensity that made her breath catch. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right person yet.”

The flirtation was unmistakable now, and Aurora found herself at a loss for words—something that rarely happened to her. She wasn’t used to the feeling of being seen as more than just a doctor. But the way he was looking at her made her feel breathless.

“Maybe,” she admitted, finally finding her voice.

Logan’s smile was slow and deliberate, sending a warm thrill through her. “We should fix that. When you’re not saving lives, of course.”

Aurora outwardly hesitated but her heart fluttered at the unspoken invitation. She wasn’t the type of woman to just go with the flow. But planning every aspect of her dating life hadn’t worked out, and neither had the various dating app profiles.

So, why not take a chance on something new?

“And by we, I really meant me,” he added hurriedly, his eyes swimming with amusement. “I’m asking you out, in case that wasn’t obvious.”

“I’d like that, Logan,” Aurora said, her smile matching his. “I’d like that a lot.”

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

All Fics & Edits: @bluebelle08 @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @jerzwriter @justyourusualash

@lady-calypso @kyra75 @mainstreetreader @peonierose @potionsprefect

@queencarb @quixoticdreamer16 @snoopdogcone @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

Submissions: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

[certifiedlovergirlsstuff]

The Mall Rats

pairing: steve harrington x female byers!reader

WC: 7.2K

warnings: cursing, light fighting, arguing, and (amateur) smut at the end

summary: The Russians are invading!

A/N: ALL PARTS UNDER THE TAG - The Byers Harrington Story-

im only gonna do one episode this season and probably for season4 instead of mixing two like i did for 1&2. 

@alecmores​❤️

series masterlist / steve harrington

previous chapter  next chapter

“Have a nice day.”

You watched the couple leave the store with cones in their hands and slid up to the counter to face the pouting Robin.

“What’s wrong with you today? Is it your period?” You whispered the second question, not wanting anyone to overhear.

She just scoffed, “no bozo.” And before any other comment could leave her mouth, a new customer walked up to the counter.

“(Y/n)!” Dustin’s high-pitched voice greeted you.

You immediately rounded the counter and pulled him into a tight hug, swinging your bodies side to side, “Dustin! I’ve missed you so much!”

You pulled away from the embrace, hands resting on Dustin’s shoulders to look him over. He’s only been gone a few months, but he already looks older. His tight curls squished under a new yellow cap with the words Camp Know Where ‘85 with a chunky computer in the middle, the only indication that he went out of town for most of the summer.

Dustin looked away from you and flashed a gap-toothed smile at Robin’s bored expression, “hi.” His voice was high-pitched and cheery, as usual.

“Hi,” was her monotone response.

“I’m Dustin.” “I’m Robin.” You watched their quick introductions.

“Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is- is he here?”

“Is who here?” Robin questioned the boy, but you already knew who he was talking about.

And just before you could answer Dustin’s question, the parlor doors swung at lightspeed, with Steve’s shining happiness making his presence known.

“Henderson!” Steve threw his arms above his head, giving you just a glimpse of his waist. And then when he got more excited at seeing Dustin’s face, he jumped over to him, hands waving above his head and putting his stomach on full display for the store, it made you flush a bit.

With your arms crossed over your chest and hip digging into the cool counter, both you and Robin watched Steve and Dustin do an intricate handshake, one that you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing before this moment.

“You got the job!” Dustin pointed out, something Steve must have mentioned to him.

“I got the job! And all thanks to this gorgeous gal,” Steve walked behind Dustin to then walk behind you and throw his arms over your shoulders and pull you into his chest. “Probably wouldn’t have gotten it, if it wasn’t for her.”

You flicked the back of your hand into his shoulder and threw a scowl his way, “Steve, you showed up when we were filming the mall commercial. Also our actual boss knew that a guy would bring in girls.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugged his shoulders, “still wouldn’t have gotten the job if it wasn’t for you.”

“So, you’re saying you’re a stalker and obsessed with me?”

“Yes.” His immediate response.

You ignore the “ews” coming from Robin and Dustin as you turn your head to give a kiss to Steve’s jawline, just as obsessed with him.

With a lull in the conversation, Robin spoke up, “how many children are the both of you friends with?”

“Hm, well, there are the boys. Will, obviously, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin, so that’s four. Then we have Max and El, so that is six. Adding you and Eddie, that’ll be eight for me. Nine sometimes because of Steve.” You answered back with sincerity and sarcasm.

A pinch to your arm jolted you away from the counter and you promptly turned to Steve, who was acting like it was a gremlin that touched you rather than the obvious. You just huffed at his game.

“Dustin, why don’t you go sit down and I’ll bring you some ice cream. On the house as your welcome back.” A flashing smile brightened the teen's face at your words.

“Awesome! Thanks (Y/n), you’re the best. Can I get a banana split?”

“Aye aye captain,” a mock salute before you rounded the counter.

Robin hurried to the backroom when you told her to take her fifteen leaving only you and Steve on the floor. You hummed quietly to yourself as you started to build Dustin’s treat and only stopped when noticed Steve standing beside you, right hand resting on the counter with his left hand resting on his hip. You gave him your attention with a slight rise of your brow, a slight question of, “yes?”

“Nothing, just admiring.” He tilted his head and licked his lips before flashing a smile knowing he got your heart racing.

You bit your bottom lip to suppress the giant smile wishing to form and just rolled your eyes before going back to your task, “don’t you want to catch up with your friend?”

“You mean our friend?”

“Yes, our friend, but pretty sure that’s your best friend. You even have a special handshake.”

Steve stepped closer, your elbow brushing his uniform top, and dropped his head to be closer in height, “are you jealous? Of a thirteen-year-old?”

“No.” Your answer was sure and quick as you worked to add the toppings.

You heard the chuckling and without looking at his stupid (pretty) face, you knew he had either a shit-eating grin or one of the annoying smirks that made you want to slap him (you would never though). His arms slid and wrapped tight along your abdomen, a firm and comforting squeeze causing your back to be firmly pressed along Steve’s chest.

“No displays of PDA at work, Harrington. You know the company policy and Buckley’s rules.” You gave two quick taps to his forearm.

He didn’t give any type of response, but as quick as a breeze, he left a kiss on the side of your head before removing his arms and leaving you behind the counter, heading over to Dustin’s booth. You stood frozen for a moment, fully and slowly letting your body and mind catch up to what just happened in those few seconds, and when it did register, your face felt hot.

Once the sundae was crafted you grabbed a spoon and headed over to the corner booth and as you walked closer you could hear bits and pieces of Steve and Dustin’s conversation.

“Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No.” “Mm-hmm.”

“Who’s hotter than Phoebe Cates? Gotta be someone special, she’s a babe.” You placed the treat in front of Dustin and slid beside Steve.

“Oh, just my girlfriend,” Dustin smugly replied as he dug in.

Your eyes widened and you turned your head towards Steve, he just gave a tight-lipped smile.

“Brilliant, too. And she doesn’t even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth.”

You opened your mouth to say something but closed it when nothing came to mind. Again you just glanced at Steve and saw he held a similar expression at this new information regarding Dustin and his new relationship.

“Well, I’m- I’m proud of you, Dustin. That’s ro- that’s kinda romantic. Right, (Y/n)?” His voice stuttered for your help. “Yeah, yeah. You’re really growing up, Dustin. Gonna be a real chick magnet when you’re older, just know it.” ‘Tone it down a little idiot’

Dustin grinned at both your praises and continued with his food, “so, do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?”

“Yeah. I mean, sure. It’s not really a good idea for me, though. I gotta keep in shape for the ladies.”

“Oh, and where are these ladies you talk about? I would love to meet them.” You faced Steve head-on with your fist digging into your cheek as your elbow sat on the table.

You saw how Steve’s ears burned red at the tips and how his mouth was opening and closing, only stuttering sounds leaving the void. Dustin was just grinning as he dug his spoon for another scoop of ice cream.

“He’s struck out a few times when you weren’t here,” Robin voiced from a few booths away.

“Oh really?” “She’s cool.”

“Ignore her. She’s not.” Steve responded to both of your statements, “so, where are the other knuckleheads?” His attention was back on Dustin.

The question caused Dustin’s mood to drop a bit, “they ditched me yesterday.” He shoved the plastic spoon into a banana.

Both you and Steve gasped, “no,” Steve replied in disbelief. “My first day back. Can you believe that shit?” “But Will was so excited to see you again, told us himself that morning.” Now you were upset on Dustin’s behalf and upset with Will.

“They’re gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don’t get to share in my glory.” His light was back. “Glory?” Steve looked at you for a second then back to Dustin, “what glory?”

Dustin licked his lips of leftover ice cream, looked around at the pretty empty dining room, and scooted a bit closer to Steve. You and Steve both leaned in closer as well, wanting to know what this glory Dustin was talking about was.

“So, last night we were trying to get in contact with Suzie…”

Steve made a phone gesture and Dustin nodded. “Cute name,” you blurted out. Dustin hummed in agreement.

“And, uh…” he leaned his elbow on the counter and covered his mouth with a hand. He took another glance around the store, customers in seats or booths talking while Robin was at the counter taking orders. Then it seemed that Dustin said something, but it was too low for you to hear a word. Even Steve looked confused, and he was sitting beside Dustin.

“What?” Steve after a moment of processing the nonexistent words.

Dustin clicks his tongue and swipes at his nose, “uh…” he inhaled deeply and once again covered his mouth making his words unintelligible.

“Dude we can’t-“ “Just speak louder.” You and Steve spoke at normal volumes. It seemed to piss Dustin off as he banged his fist on the table and shouted.

“I intercepted a secret Russian communication!”

You sat up straight as all noise died off and heads turned your way. Nervous laughs spilled from your mouth and you threw your hands up, “sorry, my- my friend has bad humor. Please, as you were… please.” You gritted the last word through clenched teeth.

Luckily everyone turned away, a few still eyeing your table, Robin included with her brows raised. You pushed hair away from your face and looked at the boys.

“Dustin, what the hell are you talking about?” “Yeah. What- what does that mean?” The tween rolled his eyes, “it means, Steve, (Y/n), we could be heroes. True American heroes.”

“Huh.” “Mm-hmm?” “No.”

Their eyes turned to you as you shook your head with a scowl. Your nails tapped the counter the longer you thought about Dustin’s words.

“What? You don’t want to be a hero?” Dustin questioned.

Still, you shook your head no. “We’ve done enough ‘heroism’ in the last two years. I’m not getting involved in anything more.” You were putting your foot down.

“Woah, okay, let’s just- what’s the catch?” Steve threw an arm atop the booth behind you.

“No catch, I just need your help.” “With what?”

Dustin grabbed something from his backpack, a book. “Translation,” and when you looked closer it was a Russian-English English-Russian dictionary.

“Do either of you even understand Russian? Cause I don’t. And Steve you barely passed Spanish, which again, isn’t Russian.” Telling the boys the one problem standing in their way. Steve opened his mouth like he was ready to defend himself but closed it and cocked his head in surrender. 

“We’ll manage.” Dustin said with an air of confidence.

You just shrugged and left the booth needing to help Robin with the growing crowd.

-

You sat in the food court with your headphones covering your ears as a cassette played music while your eyes focused on your book in hand. Occasionally you would take sips from your soda and scan the crowded dining area.

You tried to distract yourself from earlier with Dustin and Steve. Dustin instantly thinks about being heroes, American heroes, that is, trying to take down Russians. You saw how Steve’s eyes lit up at the idea, of getting some fame and glory. Probably thinking this would show his dad something or just get him off his back, you weren’t sure.

You wanted no part, not even a finger involved in this little idea that’s festering in their brains. The past two years have already been enough, you don’t need to be doing something for the limelight. Even though Russians are a lot better than interdimensional monsters trying to rip you apart. You would like to just put all that behind you and move forward with your relatively good life.

With your eyes so focused on an invisible point, you didn’t notice the person standing before or even waving their hands in front of your eyes until you were given a light push to the shoulder. You blinked a few times and then when you saw the culprit, they blew wide. You thought it was Steve or Robin just annoying and telling you to head back, but instead, someone you completely forgot about stood before you.

You slipped the orange foam coverings off your ears, “Tessa.” You sounded breathless in your ears.

The girl who stole your first kiss stood tall in the loud mall. Her hair lightened and was full of volume and bounce, a shine to her lids and lips while her lashes were curled in black. She wore tiny gold hoops, a few gold necklaces stacked together, and some rings littering her hands. She wore a flowery summer dress that was designed with flowers in white and orange, it stood bold against her dark skin.

She looked as beautiful as ever.

“Hi, (Y/n),” her smile curled around your name, “how have you been? It’s… it’s been a while.” She held her arms behind her with her shoulders pulled back.

‘did it suddenly get hotter?’ ‘were you sweating?’

“Uh… I’m- I’ve been o- okay. Didn’t think you- I thought you didn’t want to be around me?” You leaned forward a bit, trying to keep that line as private as you could in a crowded and loud shopping mall.

Her head dropped and she rolled her lips, you couldn’t help to follow the motion. You looked away and at your lap, it was like she had a magnetic pull on you. You didn’t like it.

“Yeah… kinda shitty of me to just… leave you in the dust. I’m sorry,” you looked up at the apology, “I- I didn’t want my parents to find out… and with the way you acted at school the following day- I knew to keep my distance. For both our sake’s.” She sat down in the empty chair at your table. She put a hand on the table and stretched towards you.

“I was wondering… if there’s any way we could… be friends again? I do miss you, and Will. He was like a second brother to me.” She gave a comforting smile, her eyes shining from the light.

With hesitation, you jerkily move a hand from your lap and set it over hers. It’s been so long since you shared the same bubble.

“I would- I would like to be friends again. But I think… I think it needs to be done slowly. I can’t just- just cannonball back into it. And, I think we should think about it a little, to see if we do.”

She nodded with understanding, she always understood without many words. She patted your hand with her free one before standing up and walking away, a smile threw over her shoulder and she disappeared into the moving crowd.

‘what the hell just happened?’

You didn’t do much reading after that. You just slipped the headphones back on and reset the cassette. You checked your watch and rolled your eyes as you saw you only had five minutes left of your break so you gathered your things and headed back to your ice cream parlor.

Distracted by the beat and lyrics of your music, you, once again, don’t hear the snickers of girls trailing behind you or hear the rapid clicking of heels. When you’re just a foot from the store, a sudden push to your back made you trip over yourself and hit the square linoleum floor.

Your book smacked the floor, your walkman and headphones crashed with a terrible sound, and thankfully, your empty soda cup didn’t spill anything. Your elbows and knees hurt a bit.

The laughs behind you made a scowl paint your face. You pushed yourself off the floor and turned at the commotion and felt yourself freeze up at the main person, but pushed through it.

“What the fuck is your problem, Carol?” You stepped close to her.

She stepped back and bumped into her followers. Her red hair was curled and styled as usual with shorts and a tight shirt as her outfit. Her eyes raked your work uniform and she laughed even harder, hands holding her stomach from pain.

“Oh,” she sighed, “you are so entertaining to watch. That whole thing with Tessa… what would Steve think?” Your shoulders get tense.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A stiff reply. She continues her snarky giggles. “Oh really? You looked just about ready to ki-“

You shoved her shoulder, hard, making her lackeys hold her for support. You felt the eyes on you but kept yours trained forward.

“How about you mind your fucking business, Carol. Steve and I do, and you’re not a single thought in our heads. Could’ve give a shit what you and Tommy are doing, but from what I’m seeing, you’re still a bunch of jackasses who are pathetic losers that enjoy other's misery.” You hissed the words close to her face before turning away.

You were the bigger person. You weren’t looking for a fight, you just wanted to put her in her place and walk away as she floated away from your thoughts once again. But it was never that easy with mean girls who are looking for a fight.

As your eyes caught the storefront, you saw Steve standing near the entrance with a worried expression. One hand on his hip while the other gripped the doorway, a cleaning rag slung over a shoulder. And then he started moving forward, quickly and you didn’t know why until you felt her claws yank your shoulder and a burning touch spread over your cheek.

Carol just smacked you.

You stood stunned for a second before you leaped towards her and grabbed a fist full of hair and started pulling as she cried like a baby. It didn’t last long, Steve wrapped his arms around your waist, and her friends, with great effort, pried you off her. Steve turned you away from the fight and walked you away as you screamed profanities at her. He went back for your fallen items when you were settled in the back room.

And that’s where you stayed for the next four hours of your shift. 

-

“Do you… wanna talk about earlier?” “Nope.” “Okay.”

The constant ringing of the desk bell pulled Robin away and you heaved a sigh with closed eyes, a thank you to the heavens. Your head gave a small thump on the table in the back room, arms limp at your sides.

Dustin was originally in the back room when Steve dragged you through the double doors, the boy's eyes blown open at your seething energy. Then Robin came through the doors and shooed the two out, Steve tried to talk back but Robin shoved him away and told him to man the counter for a few minutes.

Now you were alone and cooled down, knowing you’ll need to tell Steve about earlier, especially Tessa. You hated that you instantly succumbed to her presence, it’s like you unintentionally cheated on Steve. You love Steve too much to withhold those thoughts and feelings that needed to be said.

You heard the swoosh of the doors and footsteps coming your way, two sets. Then you heard the scraping of a chair being pulled out and stuff being set on the table, guessed it was Dustin and the other person was Steve. And even with your head still down, you had a feeling they were communicating through looks and silent gestures.

“(Y/n)? Baby?” Steve’s low voice was right next to you, “are you okay?” His hand rubbed along your spine.

You didn’t want to look into his eyes, cause the second you do it will either be two things; Steve instantly knowing what’s swimming in your thoughts or you crack and start spilling everything. And you don’t want to have that conversation at work.

By the grace of some angels, Robin called for you up front and you shot up from your chair, the legs screeching against the tile. You push through the doors and stand beside Robin, hands on your hips and a sigh out your mouth; you had to withhold the eye roll.

“Hello, Erica. How may we serve you today?” You plastered on a fake sunny smile and your even faker sweet voice.

Erica Sinclair was in the colorful parlor practically every day since summer started. Always comes in with her group of friends and asks for a sample of every flavor. At first, you allowed it cause she was Lucas’s sister, but just after a week, you were over it.

“I would like to try the peppermint stick, but one of your workers won’t allow it.” Her steely eyes set on Robin who had a bored expression on her face.

“Erica, I’m sure you’ve tried peppermint stick plenty of times to know how it tastes. It’s peppermint.” Your customer voice slipping up.

“Yes I have, but I would like to try it again. Are you refusing me service?” Her hands sat on her hips as she cocked her head. You closed your eyes, having to stop another eye-rolling.

“Robin, why don’t you head to the break room.” And she didn’t have to be told twice. Your attention is fully on the head-strong girl.

“Erica, I was very lenient with you at the beginning. But you can’t come here every day and abuse our sample policy, you’re technically robbing us.” You leaned against the counter.

Erica stood her ground, not making a move and you weren’t either. You weren’t in the mood today. When you saw people entering the store and getting in line, your customer service voice perked high. “If you’re not planning on buying any ice cream today, may you please move out of the way so I can attend to the paying customers behind you?”

She stayed in place and you were worried you would have to give in and get a stupid sample of peppermint stick for her. But she rolled her eyes and walked away, you held your chin high at the small win today.

As you helped the last customer in line, you turned around to head through the doors and you could hear the boys and Robin talking. And just as you entered you heard the end of a sentence she was saying, something amazing as Steve and Dustin wooed in awe.

“That was pig Latin, dingus.” And Steve smacked Dustin with his banana peel, “Idiot.” “But I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I’ve been in band for twelve years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me.”

Steve looked up your way, arms crossed over your chest as you leaned against the door frame. Your brows were raised, giving him a silent ‘what are you gonna do?’, he eyed Robin with a cautious look as he held the tape recorder.

“Come on, it’s your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. I don’t even want credit. I’m just bored.” She leaned in with her hand held out.

The bell wouldn’t stop dining, but you couldn’t move. You just stared as Steve debated in his head, eyes closed with a pout on his lips as he tilted his head side to side, before sighing and swapping the recorder for the scooper in Robin’s hand. With an eye roll, you pushed through the doors and back to the counter to help with the restless customers. Steve joined a minute later and posted behind the cash register as you scooped the desserts.

You hated this stupid situation. How you were having a good summer and then when Dustin returns, saying he has a Russian message, Steve jumps into the action. And now Robin’s being lumped into the mess, you wanted to kick something. Why can’t these types of things leave you alone, why is there always something happening in Hawkins?

You slipped away from the counter and started to bus tables. Spray bottle and towel keep your hands busy as you let your mind go blank, or at least you think your mind goes blank when in reality you’re scrubbing hard at an invisible spot with a scowl painting your face. 

“Everything okay?” Steve’s sneakers entered your eye line. You didn’t bother looking up, “peachy,” you gritted out.

“(Y/n), come on. Look, it's not that big of a deal. It’s just translating.” He huffed and it just made you angrier. You scrubbed harder at the clean table, “I don’t care if it’s just translating, Harrington. I don’t want Robin roped into you and Henderson’s stupid, heroic crap or whatever. Even just something as simple as listening to that tape could have horrible effects and I don’t even want to think about the-”

Steve pulled you into a hug with a hand holding the back of your skull, keeping your face close to his shoulder. He whispered reassurances about how everything was gonna be fine and that the upside down is gone. You wanted to believe his words, but you couldn’t. You pulled away from Steve, dropping the cleaning supplies beside you.

“Uh… can- can I go on a break? I- I think I need some air.” Eyes focused on your dirty sneakers.

Steve’s hands rubbed along your arms before slipping to hold your hands, “yeah. Yeah, I can cover up front.”

You slipped from his touch and rushed out of the loud and crowded mall.

-

After sitting at the entrance for ten minutes, you cooled down enough to head back inside and plow through the rest of your shift. As you shuffled through the crowds of people, there was a strong slam to your chest and it knocked the air from your lungs. A hand came to your chest as you were preparing to tell the person to watch it, but instead, you saw three dipshit kids.

“What the hell are you three doing here?” Daggers pointed at their shocked faces, “You know, Dustin’s at the store right now. Even told me how you guys left him yesterday, he’s been gone for three months.” Fist on your hips.

“Woah, okay, it’s not like that.” Mike spoke up first, “We helped set up his radio tower so we could hear from his ‘girlfriend’.” quotes around the word. “Plus, Mike and El left right away. Max and I, along with Will stayed into the night.” Lucas added.

“Hey! Screw you, man!” “It’s true!”

“Okay!” You held your hands out to stop the arguing boys, “look I don’t care about that. Why don’t you go apologize to your friend while you’re here for… whatever reason. Actually, what is your reason for being here?”

“It’s the mall, why do we need a reason?” Will asked. You watched the three boys, “Cause you’re all up to something. I can tell, and it’s nothing good. Plus where’s Max?” You knew Hopper didn’t allow El to visit the mall, which you thought wasn’t fair, but didn’t comment.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders, “we’re on a break, so she hasn’t called.”

“You mean, you’ve called, but she hasn’t picked up.” Will retorted. Lucas gave him a quick punch to his bicep.

‘stupid boys’

“Whatever. Just stop by the store and talk to Dustin and you all better be home before dark, especially you Will.” You ignored the eye-roll from Mike and gave a quick kiss to Will’s hair as you continued your walk to the store.

Steve was behind the counter serving a couple of girls as you walked over to him. He turned his body towards you, head tilted with a tiny smile. “Feeling better?” “Eh.” He chuckled.

“Oh! Guess who I ran into a few minutes ago.” “Hmm… Daisy Jones?” You shoved his shoulder, “No. Thing one, thing two, and Will. Pretty sure they almost rowed me down when they were running away from something.”

His brows furrowed, “huh.” “What?” He pointed a finger lazily, “Max and El were in here earlier. And then giggled when I asked if El should even be here before they ran out.” You squint your eyes, “huh.”

“(Y/n)!” Robin called your name through the open divider, her elbows on the counter. “We have one sentence translated, The week is long.” She said in a poor Russian accent.

“Oh… great.” You weakly gave thumbs-ups, a strained smile.

-

“The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west.”

The four of you gathered your belongings and Steve pulled the metal gate down to lock the store, “I mean, it just… it just can’t be right.” “It’s right,” Robin reassured.

“Honestly, I think it’s great news.” “How is this great news?” Steve scoffed, “I mean, so much for being American heroes. It’s total nonsense.” 

“It’s not nonsense. It’s too specific. It’s obviously a code.” Dustin argued.

“Great. Feels like I’m in a James Bond movie now. Dealing with Russian codes and shit. Something bad in the plot is gonna happen and we’ll all be in deep shit.” Hands flared in the air at your dramatics. Robin and Dustin just shook their heads at your antics while Steve grabbed your hand closest to him.

“Yeah, it could be a code or Buckley’s translation skills are just crap.” “No, they’re not, Harrington. It’s correct and obviously, they’ll use codes over radios. They aren’t gonna blatantly say, Fire the warhead at noon. So them saying The silver cat feeds- why would anyone talk like that unless they’re trying to mask the true meaning of their message?” 

“Exactly.”

“And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?”

“Exactly.”

You stayed quiet and zoned out as Robin and Dustin talked back and forth, also missing the mocking face Steve was pulling at their words. It’s been a long day, you don’t even want to think about Russians invading Hawkins.

“I can’t do evil Russians. I just want one normal year.” You muttered. Only Steve heard you as Dustin and Robin conversed and continued walking.

With your brain on auto-pilot, you didn’t notice Steve’s abrupt stop until there was a sharp yank to your arm making you stumble. Your sneakers squeaked against the tile as you looked at your boyfriend as he dropped your hand to begin patting his pockets as he stared at a horse ride. He pulled his pockets inside out and loose change spilled to the floor, but he just shook his head.

“Steve?” You stepped closer, “what’s-”  “Steve, what are you doing?” Robin called to him

“Uh, it’s a quarter. I need- Does anyone have a quarter?” He looked at you and you just shook your head no. He called for Robin and Dustin again and they joined the two of you.

“Sure you’re tall enough for that ride?” Robin jokes. “Quarter!” Steve voiced again and Robin threw in one. He spun as he caught it out of the air. Then he placed the coin in the slot and the golden horse started its gallop as its cheery music followed.

“You need help getting up, little Stevie?” A gentle shove to Robin’s arm was your silent ‘stop it’ and Dustin chuckled at her teasing. Steve just shushed everyone as he was focused heavily on the melody.

“Would you two just shut up and listen?”

They quieted down and continued to listen. You looked between the three of them, Dustin’s face changing as the music played longer. Your brows were creased in confusion.

“I don’t-” “The music!” and Dustin stripped his backpack and pulled the recorder out. He played the tape just as the ride ended.

“I don’t understand.” Robin finished your earlier thought. “It’s the exact same song on the recording,” Dustin answered. “Maybe they have horses like this in Russia,” Robin supplied.

“But it’s called the ‘Indiana Flyer’. I don’t- That wouldn’t make sense.” You inputted. Steve shook his head, “This code, it… didn’t come from Russia. It came from here.” His eyes are on the three of you.

A wave of uneasiness crashed over you.

You scrubbed your hands over your face then carded your fingers through your messy hair, “god dammit.”

-

The car was silent. Just Steve driving the both of you to your house, radio so low it wasn’t even playing music. An elbow propped against the window with your fist digging into your cheek as you stared at the fast-moving trees. Your lips were sealed shut since leaving the mall and saying a meek goodbye to Robin and Dustin.

“Baby?” Steve spoke quietly, a hand on your thigh, “what’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” His thumb rubbing your knee.

You kept quiet, thoughts in space with glazed-over eyes. Russians were in Hawkins. Evil Russians were doing something in Hawkins and now it was basically up to your little group to figure out a code. Why the fuck were you suddenly given the Spider-Man treatment? With great powers must also come great responsibility, the responsibility to fight demons and find hidden Russians.

“Why didn’t Dustin go to Hopper?” Your first words after half an hour. You didn’t turn your head, but you felt Steve’s eyes looking your way and the quick squeeze he gave to your skin.

“Well, you know Dustin. Always ambitious, and he wants to be a hero.” “But this is something that the government should be handling. This isn’t something we can just stick our noses in for fun. It’s Russia for fucks sake-” “We’ve handled Demogorgans, I think we can handle decoding a Russian code.”

The maroon BMW pulled into your driveway, headlights shining bright on your dark house. Jonathan and Joyce’s car was parked so everyone was home and asleep right now. Steve cut the ignition and you instantly grabbed your things and left the car.

“(Y/n)!” Steve shouted before you heard his door slam shut and his fast steps against the gravel. You walked through the front door and headed straight to your room, already knowing Steve is just a few steps behind. You threw your things on the floor, kicked your shoes off and grabbed a pillow from your bed, and turned around just as Steve walked in and closed your door. You started to smack him repeatedly with the pillow in hand.

“Wha- (Y/n)...” “You’re being a dick right now, Steve.” A huff and you stopped hitting him. “Okay, what’s going on? You’ve been off all day.” Steve stepped closer. You dropped your pillow and curled your fingers into claws.

You gripped the hair at your scalp, “everything, Steve! This whole day has been a fucking mess and I feel like no one is listening to me! I- I don’t want to deal with shit like this anymore! I can barely sleep at night, Steve. Nightmares sink into my brain if I were to close my eyes for more than a few minutes. And- And with today… how Dustin mentioned being American heroes- oh I knew you took his simple bait into helping him.”

An empty chuckle fell from your lips as you turned your back to Steve, “and then fucking Tessa Anderson walks up to me in the food court and… and my heart skipped a beat. And I hated myself during our conversation cause I just thought about how beautiful she looked and I stuttered on my words, I- I even said I would be willing to be friends with her again, but I don’t even know if she was part of the whole Carol incident.”

Small tears dropped from your eyes and rolled down your cheeks and off your chin, you turned back to a motionless Steve and his wide eyes.

“Steve… I- I,” you took a step towards him with your hands clasped in front of your face, “please, please know that I love you so much. It was just old feelings, I- I- I’m a fucking idiot and- and I understand if this ends our relationship-”

Your words were cut off by the force of Steve’s lips, his hands holding your face. You unravel your twinged hands and fisted them into the cotton of the scoops uniform that the both of you were still wearing. Your bodies were so close that your feet stumbled as you leaned back to contact as Steve leaned in further.

Steve pulled away first, his hands still holding your cheeks. You chased after him, scared that it was a final kiss, but he gave two quick pecks before moving out of reach. Your eyes blinked a few times before fully focusing on Steve who held such a gentle gaze.

“I love you so fucking much,” he all but sighed out, “and I’ve been a blind idiot all day.” Your eyes squinted and pursed your lips.

“Wha-“ “I wasn’t paying attention closely to how you were feeling or acting. I just brushed it off like it was nothing, that’s shitty of me. At least with the Russian stuff, I mean. The Tessa stuff… I’m glad you told me, I- I mean I knew you would tell me. Cause you mauling at Carol had a reason behind it- other than her slapping you.”

With closed eyes and a sigh, “Steve… I feel like I’m being a shitty girlfriend.” “How so?” Fingertips ghosting over your earlobe.

You licked your lips, “well, firstly, Tessa. I wasn’t gonna leave you for her, never in a million years. But just- the way she made me feel is how you make me feel and you not being the cause made me feel sick.”

Steve nodded at your words, “wanna know something?” You slipped your hands from his shirt to the band of his shorts and you looked into his eyes.

“Last year… when we started to get closer, and Nancy was drifting away from me… you started to make me feel things. My heart would race and my stomach would form knots, and it was because of you. Nancy used to cause that feeling and when it changed to you… I was worried. But then they stopped completely at the sight or even thought of her one night and soon-“ Steve leaned close, “do I consume your thoughts? Every waking moment? Every dream you have at night? Cause you do.”

His voice dropped in octaves, a shiver sprinted over your spine and you released a shaky sigh, “you do. Your smile would flash in quiet moments and sometimes I hear an echo of your laugh. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you fill my thoughts even if I’m with you. And at night, if I’m alone-“ you moved a hand to hold Steve’s neck as you pushed his face towards your shoulder so your lips would brush the shell of his ear, “I imagine your hands touching me. Your palms slide over my arms and stomach, fingers squeezing my thighs or boobs as you trail wet kisses any place you can reach. And when my heart is racing and my bare chest is panting with want, I set my index finger to my collarbone pretending it’s your tongue. And with a teasing pace, I’ll slowly trail it between my lonely breast, passing my belly button, and stop just before-“

Suddenly you were lifted into the air, the world turned upside down. There was a swift smack to your ass and then you bounced against the springs of your bed with Steve hovering over you. He pulled his scoops shirt off in that attractive way boys do, and then his shoes followed before setting a knee on the bed. His fingers tugged at your top so you leaned forward to permit him.

His fingers sunk into your hair as your lips melted together, bodies moving automatically. You bent an arm behind your back and easily unclipped your bra and slipped the straps from your shoulder and flung it away. You let your fingers tangle in Steve’s messy locks as he trailed his lips toward your neck, making you lean it to the side for more access. Your eyes were squeezed shut and your lips were parted as light pants sang into the quiet night. Your grip tightened on Steve’s hair as you gave small tugs, his groans vibrating on your body.

Your nails scratched his scalp as he dipped his head lower, sucking purple bruises along your collarbone followed by the wet trail of his tongue to the valley of your chest. You laid on the bed as Steve moved his hands, his left going to your right boob and his forearm keeping him propped up.

His mouth latched onto your left breast, tongue wetting your nipple until it was hard and you were arching your back. His thumb swiped over your other nipple and it made you sigh from pleasure.

“Steve…” you moaned quietly.

He gave a kiss to the perked nipple before latching to your lips again. Your knees bent on the side of his hips, trying to push him closer.

Steve pulled just a hair away from your open mouth, “I’m gonna show you just how much I love you.”

He kissed your lips, then your neck which followed to your two breasts that he took more attention towards. His left hand slid further down your waist and stopped at your shorts. His mouth set simple, quick pecks over your stomach that was moving with your fast pants.

One more kiss to the skin above your waistband and he set his eyes on you. Propped on your elbows with your head thrown back before jerking at his stopped motions. His brows rose and he did a quick tug on your shorts, you quickly nodded your head. In one pull he took your uniform shorts and underwear off, leaving only your white socks. You pulled your knees closer to your body before Steve crawled over and set his hands on your calves, pulling your legs down a bit and then pushing your thighs open.

“Steve…” Your fingers curled into your sheets as Steve’s pretty brown eyes just stared at you. His chest was bare and displaying his dark mess of hair along with his thick thighs straining against the seam of his shorts.

He laid on his stomach and pressed kisses to the inside of your right knee, his supple lips dragging further up your thigh. The air of his breathing ghosted over where you needed him most.

“Steve-“ A more desperate whine.

“Don’t worry, baby. Just gonna lull you into sweet dreams.” And he gave a lick of his tongue.

...

taglist: @heartyhope / @preciousbabypeter​ / @dessxoxsworld​ / @piper3113 / @animiacorn​ / @burn1ngw00d​ / @drxwstxrkxy​ / @m-rae23​ / @noisyeggsmoneystatesman​ / @yournan69​ / @thats-s0-ravenn​ / @ameliabs-world​ / @mayonesavegana​ / @gracella0709​ / @gengen64​ / @alecmores​ / @choclate32 / @stvrdustalexx​ / @redheadedfangirl​ / @agustdeeyaa​ / @yappydoo​ / @liberhoe​ / @hehehehannahthings​ / @ladybug0095​ / @sweeter-innocence-fics​ / @j-6o / @voteforevilthoughts / @harrysflowercrownrry / @ilovereadingfanfics / @sorrow-has-a-place-here​ / @80strashbag​ / @sunsumonner​ / @sweet1peach / @cierrajhill​ / @we-out- here-simping / @nix-rose-a / @x-theolivia​ /

*striked out means tumblr wont tag you*

[radfem-rage]

do you ever think about how emotionally immature TiMs and TiFs are? Everything I see them hung up on as been stuff I dealt with when I was 12-18. Yet they're out here hung up on it despite being 23+. Stuff like being obsessed with having followings, treating trivial things like it's their personality (gender, pretending their bad habits makes them cool, etc), being a mindless consumer (they all act like teens- wanting all this junk and being equally bad with money), not wanting to work because it's soooo unfair, being mad at the way SoCiEtY is (in regards to trivial things), etc.

It's honestly kinda creepy seeing TiMs in their 40s sounding the same way as 16yr TiMs, since literally most trans people sound and act the same fucking way. Its so uncanny, but it's due to their sheer lack of personality. They then turn into little "clusters" of appearance. Are you an it/itself/pup *posts pictures of furries and bdsm* trans or are you a they/them *posts pictures of cottagecore* trans? Don't even get me started on their physical appearance, because yes they even look alike physically and there's sets of "clusters" in regards to style. Are you the kidcore-esc dyed hair still feminine they/them girl or are you the porn-addicted dead-eyed blond twink trying to mimic an e girl? Or are you Chris Chan? lolol

When I see how they all function, especially with how I had plenty of friends who transed out.... It makes me conscious of how much I matured over the years. I wonder if I would be less mature if I wasn't actually dealing with systemic issues? Like abuse, homelessness, discrimination, etc. I went from "youre so mature for your age" to feeling like a "child within an adult body" to now feeling like my actual age. Progress! Yet with these people, there is no progress. They all come across as children in adult bodies.

Holy shit, yes!

What scares me is how the trans community has no problem telling the mentally ill youth that if their pretend identity isn’t affirmed at all times or if their insane demands are not being accepted immediately, it is a valid reason to threaten to commit suicide or shoot yourself. Things like:

• Demanding your parents never call you your “deadname” again out of nowhere

• Parents being forced to forget about how their child used to be before they got mentally ill and when they obviously struggle (because duh, a woman that gave birth to a girl will obviously struggle when that now teenage girl pretends she is a boy) they’re evil

• Tattoos of deadnames must be covered up or “fixed” to have the TiP’s new name or be removed all together

• Genital mutilation surgery the moment they want it and if the parents refuse or want to wait they’re evil transphobes who deserve to die.

• Never being allowed to share news articles about Trans pedophiles or rapists because “transphobia”

• TiF’s invading gay bars and TiM’s invading lesbian bars and then act confused when no one wants them around even though they have been shown multiple times no one wants the opposite sex in gay bars.

Trans people are indeed like children in adult bodies. They have never been told the word “no” and can’t accept it, either. They are stuck in a trans hug-box all day long that will affirm their bullshit and lie to them at every second of every day, they will only depend on other trans people because everyone else is transphobic and slowly lose connections with sane individuals. Then the moment they realize they were never born in the wrong body after all and underwent FGM/MGM for nothing the trans community will backstab them and tell them to k!ll themselves.

I used to have 2 TiM friends. Both were addicted to porn and thought women lived life on easy mode. They were acting extremely feminine and like a sexist stereotype, because they thought that was all a woman was, the moment I stopped affirming their bs and told them women aren’t regressive stereotypes or “feminine people” but adult people of the female sex, they dumped me as a friend. I never once regretted it because truth deserves to be spoken and I got nothing to be ashamed of. I too, changed a lot over the years and became more mature and outspoken, and grew & improved myself a lot, from libfem to radfem, and I love that about myself. ✌🏻

[yanderes-galore]

Hi can I request Yandere Vanessa(and vanny) with a younger sister darling?I looked up when Security Breach takes place and it said 2023-2029 so we are like 18-19 year old?

I'll try, here you go.

Yandere! Platonic! Vanessa/Vanny with Younger Sister! Darling

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Female Darling, Obsession, Trauma, Manipulation, Clingy behavior, Overprotective behavior, Violence, Kidnapping/Isolation, Forced companionship/family dynamic.

Honestly, a younger sibling may be perfect for her to keep her company.

This would give her someone to talk to, especially since she's shown to be lonely and dealing with all sorts of mental trauma.

Vanessa is in her 20's, I believe she's 22.

So yes, you could still be a little sister at like 18-19.

What may be easier is if you and Vanessa both work at the Pizzaplex.

Maybe she got you a job there so she could keep an eye on her little sister.

Plus, extra money doesn't seem so bad for the both of you.

Her behavior would certainly change between Vanessa and Vanny.

Let's do Vanessa first.

Vanessa often wants you around her during work, day shift and night shift.

She makes it so your shifts are nearly always the same.

She really hates being away from you.

Vanessa speaks about her interests with you and is sure the animatronics keep you safe when she isn't around.

You often speak of fashion and puppies as she likes them.

She also eagerly listens to what you like.

You won't have to worry about being hurt, she keeps a close eye on you and has you registered in the system.

Vanessa seems like she'd be teasing with you, essentially having you distract her from the evident mental issues she has.

Vanessa feels less anxious around you and actually feels happier.

She loves you as her sister and has vowed to herself to protect you no matter what happens.

Due to being conditioned by Glitchtrap as a teen, she probably ends up calling you her "little bunny".

It's a nickname, she loves to call you bunny.

She finds it as cute as you, her little sister.

You haven't minded the nickname, although you wish she didn't use it during work often.

You swear some of the animatronics call you that at times as they hear her calling you it.

Vanessa herself is rather normal.

She has a tendency to be overprotective and clings around you, yet there's nothing violent.

She's... just your sister, one you love very much.

Then there's Vanny... the true manifestation of her more violent thoughts.

This version of your sister is more playful and childish, only coming out during the night shift.

She's also fully capable of murder and violence... fully molded into what she is by Glitchtrap.

Honestly, you wouldn't know she was your sister at first.

She skips about the Pizzaplex, following you around during work.

You feel uneasy around the robots at the Pizzaplex when Vanny is around.

The band acts weird... the STAFF Bots seem to stare.

The red eyes of the rabbit gaze into you.

This version of your sister leans more into the nickname she calls you.

You're affectionately referred to as "bunny", "little bunny", "rabbit", "cottontail", etc.

That's a hint that you're dealing with someone you know.

Then soon Vanny drops the bomb... she's your sister.

You're terrified of her, the patchwork white rabbit stalking ever closer.

It's unknown if Vanny would actually hurt you... but I like to think she wouldn't.

Vanny would probably trap you in a room and never let you go.

She loves to hug you and call you nicknames.

Part of her wants to make you like her... to answer the orders of Glitchtrap and help her in her "job".

You're adamant on not doing that, making Vanny disappointed.

So instead... the white rabbit keeps you tied to a chair under her care.

If you managed to escape then Vanny will have every animatronic in the Pizzaplex hunt you down to bring you back to her.

She has control here... even as her sister you feel powerless.

In her eyes... this is still protecting you!

No one can hurt you if she's here to watch you.

If anyone did... well... it's not like she hasn't killed before, right?

She doesn't understand why you look so scared.

She's your sister!

If anything she's planned hours of fun for tonight...!

So much so you'll never want to leave.

[hoshiumi78]

I’m gonna make a little happy “rant” here about Lloyd from Ninjago and just the cartoon in general.

I’ve always liked Lloyd. Ever since I was a kid, he was the one who I favorited over the others. Sure, Kai is awesome, Cole is super inspiring, Nya is an absolute baddie, Jay is funny, Zane is real cool, Pixal is an amazing robot girlfriend and samurai, Skylor is such a cool and strong female character to look up to, and etc. (Dareth, Nelson, Sensei Wu, Garmadon, Morro, Cyrus Borg…)

And yeah, a lot of people “like Lloyd” because he’s the “Green Ninja” or he’s “super cool”, but for me… that’s not it (I mean, a bit of it is, hehe. But not all of it). And as I become older in my teenage years, I’ve honestly been thinking about it a lot. I’ve been thinking about why I like this Lego character so much, and why this is the only “children’s” show I actually fan over where I can watch the show over and over throughout the years, write fanfics for hours on it, and spend my money on the sets and merch…

***Now I should probably say before I start, I’m not some crazy obsessive fan lmao. I just really like this character and show, and I want to shine some light on Lloyd (differently than he already receives, of course lol).***

Lloyd has been through a lot, yet he still came out as stable as he is (at least as much as the cartoon shows to the audience). One thing about Ninjago I like is how they make the characters realistic. I didn’t particularly realize this until I got older and I re-watched it, but all Ninja have a unique story before, during, or after they became Ninja. Though one thing that differs Lloyd from the rest is how young he was when he clearly knew his situation with his father, mother, “Ninja-acknowledgement”, family, etc. And I know what a lot of people are going to say, “But what about Kai and Nya? Cole? Possibly Skylor?” And I know, I agree. Unfortunately, all the ninja had to grow up with something traumatic in their childhood (the only one who didn’t was Jay; though later he had to find out he was adopted, which stinks finding out the way he did. I’m just glad Ed & Edna were as amazing as they were <3). The one thing that all the rest of the ninja have besides Lloyd within these situations, is they all still had *someone*. Kai had Nya, Nya had Kai. Cole still had his father, even under the circumstances. Skylor still had her father and etc with the rest. Lloyd had *no one* as a kid, and it makes me want to give his little baby-self in seasons 1-2 a massive hug.

I remember when I watched seasons 1-7 (especially 1-2) as a middle schooler, I thought little and early-teen Lloyd was so annoying (still do). But now, years later, it makes me really sad to think about his story. He’s the only ninja who had received *no* love from his parents or anyone around him until he met the ninja, and even then he later had to learn what *that* meant and how to have self-love… which he still has trouble doing a lot of the time throughout all the seasons. It makes me want to give him an even bigger hug!

And one thing about Lloyd I truly admire, is even through all of this crap, he *still* cares about his mother and forgives her so easily! The way his mother abandoned him as a child I completely disagree with, and how she just left him saying she was doing it for “him” (even though it *really* was for herself), and yet he STILL treats her kindly and respectfully, which is amazing of him. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t forgive, it’s just how he accepted it like a champ is something that is completely admirable. Especially with how young he really was…. You have to remember Lloyd was only around 10-ish years old around seasons 1-2, yet he was able to accept his mother with opened arms. And sure, he probably was only doing this because he was attention-starved (explains why he wanted to become like his father as a kid), emotionally-starved, and starved for love, yet still as he got older and probably realized this more and more about his mother and their relationship, he still has *always* treated her with respect and kindness. And sure, people within this fandom get mad at how bitty Lloyd acted, yet we also have to remember how he was raised, which really wasn’t being “raised” at all.

Then we go into Garmadon and Lloyd’s relationship, which is a whole other can of worms. Yet unlike Misako, Lloyd’s mother, as a fan I 100% respect Garmadon as a parental figure than I ever will for her. Sure, he’s the biggest and baddest villain throughout the series. And sure, he too abandoned his son; yet unlike Lloyd’s mother, Garmadon made *up* for that time lost, and personally, I give him my upmost respect for that. He gave his son what he was lacking in receiving from his parents, and actually *cared* enough to do that for Lloyd. He showed his son what if felt like to actually be loved by your parent (in his own ways of course), he gave his son attention, and he showed what it was like to have an emotional connection with your child. GARMADON ACTUALLY SOMEWHAT HAD A REASON TO ACT THE WAY HE DID, HE WAS BITTEN BY A SNAKE THAT MESSED HIM UP FOR LIFE, YET UNLIKE MISAKO HE *STILL* TREATED LLOYD MORE AMAZING THAN SHE EVER COULD. Yet instead, throughout the 5 most healthy seasons of Garmadon and Lloyd’s relationship, especially seasons (3-5), SHE DIDN’T EVEN PUT IN THE EFFORT TO MAKE THIS A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP! Instead, she was hanging with Wu, Lloyd’s uncle. And I know for a fact we *all* know something’s going on there, which as a kid I even noticed, and I absolutely hated even then!!! Misako would pop in like everything was fine and dandy every-so-often, and yet Lloyd STILL treated her amazingly!!! That’s why Lloyd is my favorite! No matter what anyone does to him, says to him, or how he is treated, he still cares for them! He still wants them to have a happy ending, and he hasn’t even had his yet. It makes me really happy that he had the opportunity to meet the ninja, because without them as the loving family they are, I don’t think he would *at all* be the same kind-hearted character he is. The real loving people in his life are the team, and even though this is all fake and just a “silly” cartoon as some would call it, I’m GLAD he was given such a loving atmosphere.

Then we go into Seasons 8-16. Lloyd grew up, finally caught up mentally to his body (which I found terrible that he had to go thru that, yet he STILL acted like a champ when there were no expectations to!!!) and this is where I like his character even more. Still, even through all the darkness and pain he had to go through growing up (it gets worse as he gets closer to adult-hood), he still acts amazing! His father now isn’t his real father anymore, his mother is completely gone into oblivion (gone like she always has been, pfft), and he falls in love with someone who manipulates him because she herself is broken! (And yes, I probably should say now that I do ship Llorumi. Some of you may think I’m crazy, which I am lol, but I also have my reasons for supporting it, and I will most likely (someday) make a post like this explaining why I do, but right now we’re focusing on Lloyd. ;)) Yet Lloyd *still* forgives, accepts, and loves!!! After years of thinking about and watching this show, I’ve finally narrowed it down to those three attributes within him that I’ve seen consistently throughout the series. I believe we should all look up to Lloyd for this! Just being able to forgive and love the same people who had hurt and abused him, is truly a wonderful thing a person can achieve!

Plus, Lloyd is also funny, entertaining, and would be an amazing person if he were to be real. Sure, he has his own stuff he stores deep inside of himself, and he probably jokes as much as he does because he’s trying to make everything look okay, but ya know what? That is some amazing writing right there! Being able to make a LEGO “CHILDREN’S” show entertaining for kids to watch, but it also is able to make the older audiences feel recognized and noticed in attributes and personalities within some Lego Ninja? That’s some crazy awesome writing! It truly shows how if the right minds are put together, a show for “kids” can turn out to be fun and *emotional* for us older audiences to watch because we see these characters within ourselves.

So there it is, my rant as to why I do really love Lloyd as a character and not just some “Lego Ninja.” There’s some others, I mean his personality in-show and mine irl match up pretty well, so there’s that lol. I also like how he sits and listens to your problems and gives advice. He honestly is ✨the man✨ But there’s also multiple other things I didn’t even get around to mentioning in here that I like about his character too! There’s so much to unpack it feels within these characters. It’s almost as if this show *isn’t* for kids anymore, and it’s growing along with the viewers, yet still pertains to the “children” mindset.

Anyways, I’ve already spent two hours of my life writing this, so I’ll stop haha. But if you made it this far, feel free to comment and tell me your thoughts. I’d love to know. :)

P.S. HoW iS LlOyD, a PlAsTiC LiTtLe LeGo So GoOd LoOkInG <3333

[tragedy-peanut-gallery]

what are your thoughts (and potential headcanons) about aegon iv's nine mistresses?

Ouffff well I gotta be honest I probably won’t have as many headcanons about them as I did for the daughters in law of Daeron and Myriah- but I’m more than happy to share my thoughts about them!

Falena Stokeworth

Thoughts: Groomer!!! Get lost lady you’re literally his dad’s age!!!!! Should’ve locked her up in Harrenhall and thrown away the key maybe!

Headcanons: Honestly I think canon already kind of spells it out for us given her age relative to his own, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was preying on Aegon’s whole mommy issues deal in order to get into a relationship with him. Pain and suffering all around.

Megette

Thoughts: Honestly poor girl she deserved sooo much better :( pretty sure her whole deal was supposed to be another commentary on how nobility don’t actually give a shit about the smallfolk even when they’re lovers and all that, but goddamn I just feel bad for her :(

Cassella Vaith

Thoughts: Ngl another girl who deserved so much better- it’s kind of weird how they give her a description but not the other mistresses but hey who am I to judge- makes her easier to draw ig?

Headcanons: Oh she was absolutely psychologically tortured during her time with Aegon because that man is notttt capable of being nice to any woman. I imagine the reason she wasn’t married off after being returned home was because of how traumatized she was

Bellegere Otherys

Thoughts: Okay this may sound stupid as hell given all the shit I talked about Aegon prior to this but like…. Idc, I support her decisions in choosing one of the most rancid men in Westeros to be her lover. In her defense!!!! Pickings for royalty were very slim- her only other options were a former teen dad who’s still hung up on his ex wife and is always busy trying (and failing) to keep his nephews from dying, a member of the kingsguard who’s obsessed with his own sister, and Baelor, of course she was gonna go for Aegon! Bellegere can get the one exception because I think pirate women are really cool and tbh I think she’s also the only one who was with him for funsies before dropping his ass like a sack of potatoes when he got too annoying for her

Headcanons: Ngl I kinda like to think her daughter Nahra took up the whole trading/smuggling/pirating business after her, and Bellegere got to retire and chill in Braavos watching all the shit go down with the Blackfyre rebellions. Good for her <3

Barba Bracken

Thoughts: I mean…. She’s a bitch, but tbh she kinda deserved better too. Even if she is meant to be a bad person, she was also just a teenager when Aegon began sleeping with her and was mostly pushed forward by her own dad, and its sad that she then continued the cycle of abuse to her own sister :(

Headcanons: I kinda like to think she and Daena had a very toxic frenemy-ship, that’s my main reasoning to explain why Aegor was so loyal to Daemon lmao

Melissa Blackwood

Thoughts: I mean, she’s one of Naerys’ only canonical female friends so she gets an automatic like in my books. And also kinda funny that the Bracken/Blackwood slap fight actually caused another Targ civil by just pushing their female relatives in front of a horny king. She absolutely deserved so much better

Headcanons: I refuseeee to believe she died in childbirth, in my head she’s also retired chilling in Raventree Hall with her daughters and occasionally got updates from Brynden about the war crimes he was committing <3

Bethany Bracken

Thoughts: Deserved so, SO much better. Mr lord Bracken sir I will see you in HELL!!!!!

Jeyne Lothson

Thoughts: Only thing I have to say is…. Absolutely gothic horror girlie because holy shit. My god. Was George intentionally writing her story to be horrifying or was it a weird fetish- I’m hoping to god it was the former. Anyways she absolutely deserved so much better than all the adults in her life

Headcanons: For added flavor aka more horror! I do headcanon her to actually be Aegon’s daughter, and I believe Danelle was either her daughter or granddaughter because- well, we do definitely need to sprinkle in some more cursed bloodline shit to the house that’s already doomed cause they’re living in Harrenhall, yippe :))

Serenei of Lys

Thoughts: Boring as hellllll that she died from childbirth like- COME ON!!! Let the lady die from implosion, or slipping on a banana peel or something!!! Also kinda sucks that we barely know anything else about her! I want the lore George!!!

Headcanons: Due to lack of lore, I’m stealing someone else’s previous headcanon that she’s actually a Hightower bastard because 1. Absolutely hilarious and is absolutely the level of hustling scam-artistry that I would expect during Aegon’s reign, and 2. Kinda explains her whole deal- why Jon even brought her to court, why we know nothing about her past, why she’s so distant and kinda secretive. Shout out to whoever came up with that headcanon cause that lives in my head rent free forever now

[glittering-snowfall]

At the time even the film's creators seemed nervous about what they had created. Like, when Diablo Cody in defending the film's same-sex kiss talked about her intense female friendships, how she "wanted to sleep at my friend's house every night, I wanted to wear her clothes, we would talk on the phone until our ears ached." Yeah Diablo, I had that with some of my guy friends as a teenager too, it was called being gay. The article that quote is from still finds the time to chide Cody for not doing good feminist representation, though, and I guess that makes me somewhat sympathetic to Cody here. Did she know that culture was in fact going to be too dumb to get the way Jennifer is both a predator and victim, the way her love for Needy is at turns beautiful and toxic, the way expressions of queer desire get warped into complicated, problematic forms by a diseased culture?

The film is full of uncomfortable joke/horror ambiguities, which were at least grasped by some critics (the film did have a number of favorable reviews, though they couldn't compete with the horrible marketing). As far as I can tell, the developing blogosphere, on the other hand, understood none of this from the moment they got their grubby cheeto dust covered fingers on the script before the film's release. Diablo Cody had amassed a considerable loud hatedom at that point, of both the aforementioned cheeto boys and their female counterparts,  going apoplectic over the "fantasy" that "Diablo Cody is a magical snowflake who can spray her unique pixie dust on an otherwise conventional script and give it indie cred". Perhaps the film's obsession with female relationships characterized by violence, jealousy, and crab bucket behavior cut too close to home for such critics?

Or maybe they just genuinely hate Diablo Cody's "twee dialogue". You hear about this? Yeah, Diablo Cody writes twee dialogue. This mantra seems completely unassailable now, basically accepted by even her defenders. What's so god damn twee about it though? To be sure, I remember mentally grouping Juno in with Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine. Jennifer's Body reveals just how much "twee" is a function of the film in its totality, though. I mean, I feel like this should be obvious but the exaggerated quippy dialogue comes across a little differently in the context of a film featuring sexual assault, people being burned to death, ritual murder, demonic possession, and teenagers being sadistically eaten alive.

In that context her dialogue comes across more like a nightmare funhouse mirror version of Joss Whedon's now eye-rollingly ubiquitous quips. Whedon and his bazillion interchangeable hack studio vat clones never aspired for much actual wit beyond the "umm well THAT just happened". Cody's dialogue on the other hand is baroque, in love with weird wordplay and uncouth associations. Needy refers to Jennifer affectionately as "Vagisil". Jennifer, in a line that caught me totally off guard midway through taking a big sip of water, jeers that Needy needs to "Move-on dot org". Yeah, no man, you're right. This isn't how "real" teenagers talk. Also, Jennifer's not "really" possessed by a demon, it's a thing we call "Movie Magic".

Though, actually, it's not totally unreal. This baroque, warping dialogue feels now like how teens trash talk under ideal conditions: on the internet. This movie's dialogue is posting. Like Homestuck, the point is not to capture a literal representation but instead a vibe of the kind of unrestrained, often vulgar and offensive dialogue of teens shit talking each other over America Online Instant Messanger or replies to their friends' Xanga posts. It makes perfect sense that both Jennifer and the various Homestuck teens would call each other retards, for example. There's a real sense in the film of characters pushing boundaries, testing the limits of their ability to perform adulthood. It's not just an act in the sense that it's a movie you plodding dullards, but in the sense that these characters are performing their idea of maturity.

There's nothing of that performance when Jennifer, in the back of a van going who knows where, sobering up and getting a grip on her real situation, asks the members of the band Low Shoulder, "Are you guys rapists?"

The climactic flashback, late in the film, when we witness the band's brutal murder of Jennifer, still has plenty of quips, of course. It's just that now Jennifer's ability to perform any kind of mature confidence has been brutally ripped away by a bunch of third rate emo douchebags. All the quipping, over top of her desperate pleading for her life, issues from the douchebags, who treat the whole scene as a joke. The affect of this scene feels complex to me. It's still Diablo Cody's script so there's some pretty good one liners. Megan Fox, though, is playing the scene for pure horror, so the humor adds to the horror for me. For these guys, rape and murder is just, like, kind of a fun night out. They can sing pop songs while ramming a bowie knife ("Bowie! Nice!") into a teenage girl's body because their biggest concern is whether or not they can get their shit band on Letterman. 

I think it's notable that for a solid number of people--particularly though by no means exclusively women--this scene is not damaged in its horror by this dissonance. At least not now. And why should it be? Horror has never just been about what's "scary" or worse about startling people with jump scares. Horror has always partaken of a complex mix of affects: fear and visceral startlement, yes, but also grief, shock, disgust, rage, contempt... attraction... humor. The best horror might fuck with the viewer's head, prompting arousal or humor simultaneous with disgust or fear. Why play these things off each other? Maybe to destabilize us. If we feel a moment during Jennifer's brutal murder where we're just a little bit charmed by these self admittedly cute boys, maybe that prompts a question like: what other monsters might be hiding behind charming façades?

The post-9/11 years and incipient Obama cultural revolution were unfortunately for Jennifer's Body a time for dumb affects. We pretended Rudy Giuliani hadn't spent several years turning NYC into a characterless, facile police state before bungling the 9/11 disaster response. Clear Channel, now the insipidly named "iHeartRadio," banned numerous songs for fear of causing even a shred of offense. The FCC got more censorious, waving its own dick around to far more culturally degenerate effect than any superbowl nip slips. Even researching this period is tedious: the articles I access are full of euphemistic phrases ("Mr. Bush was caught on videotape last July using a common vulgarity that the commission finds objectionable") so tortured they could have been dreamed up by the Bush admin's army of Eichmanns. I did discover that the maximum penalty for saying "fuck" went under Bush from a draconian $32,500 to a wild-eyed spittle-mouthed $325,000. People who objected to the dogshit state of culture and politics were drummed out of society, as The Dixie Chicks were. Or, more commonly, folks sorta slipped out of the public eye after getting played off at awards ceremonies, quietly shelved.

The primary objection to all this unfortunately did not come from anything really resembling a left but libertarians, constitutional bill of rights fetishists, and South Park. Democrats, never willing to lose an opportunity to supplicate themselves in spineless nematoad subservience to reactionary forces, attacked the Bush FCC for not fining stations MORE for Janet Jackson's sexual harassment by Justin Timberlake. Cool!

I wanted to talk about how this extended into the Obama years but here's the weird and ominous thing: a lot of the statistics and research material on the FCC's censorship actions just sorta stop in 2006. A lot of the relevant links from the FCC's own website are dead now. I doubt that means things improved under Obama. I mean, why should the FCC have stopped fining people for saying "dickhole"? It's not like any of the natsec state's border wars ceased, or the detaining of people without trial in the torture pits of Guantanamo, or the deportation of migrants, or the wiretapping of civilians. The prosecution of whistleblowers actually increased drastically under Obama, as did the lobbing of drones at wedding parties.

We bore this because Obama offered an alternative to divisiveness and the stale politics of the Bush era. We didn't have to tear down and dismantle what the Neoconservatives and Bible-brandishing Evangelical cultists had built through rancor and strife, we simply had to present a different way. A way that would unite the country. A way of hope. THROUGH THE TREEEES I WILL FIIIIIND YOU I WILL HEEEEAL THE RUINS LEFT INSIIIIIDE YOU

Now Needy's increasingly frantic sense that something is very wrong and all the memorial rallies and posters in the world can't fix it resonate pretty strongly with me. And, of course, after watching Low Shoulder brutally murder a teenage girl the whole grief and recovery (with a hit song!) thing feels like a cathartic confirmation of what I felt a lot during this period: that all sorts of cynical fucks were exploiting tragedy to their own ends. It never seemed to be quite the right time to bring up how cloying and often disturbingly fascistic a lot of the Strong In The Face Of Tragedy pop culture was. It was either offensive to the victims of terrorism, or offensive to Our Troops, or, extremely conveniently, before the critique even had a chance to be levied it was suddenly old hat: the Village Voice sneeringly dismisses this film's "routine “risky” digs at 9/11 kitsch". It was hard to tell Republicans to go lick a d*ckh*le when President Obama was wearing flag lapels and having grotesquely performative "beer summits" to bring together a completely innocent black college professor with the racist pig that arrested him. You wanna talk kitsch? Obama was so fucking kitsch, homeskillet. Kitsch and twee to a degree no Diablo Cody dialogue could ever sink.

Here's something that's not kitsch or twee: Needy finding the sacrificial knife that stole her friend/love interest, and using it and inherited succubus powers to murder the shit out of every member of Low Shoulder. That's cathartic as hell. I said earlier that no one in this film really deserves what happens to them. Low Shoulder are the exception, and it's so satisfying to see that knife buried to the hilt in the lead singer's shitty torso.

from We Were Too Stupid for Jennifer's Body

[cherryp0p224]

~General ROTTMNT HC’s~

Here, I’ll be posting my personal headcanons for rottmnt. Over time, I’ve noticed a lot of traits within the characters and certain quirks that I’ve associated with ideas that would fit the boys and other characters perfectly.

(I’ll be adding onto this whenever I have new headcanons)

Headcanon #1

Both of the disaster twins use contacts. As seen in the episode ‘Air Turtles’, Leo wears protective glasses (glasses used for athletes to see better without harming their vision), which means his vision is possibly impaired. As for Donnie, we all know Donnie used to have glasses when he was younger, but since glasses can be a huge boundary when in battle, both of the twins decided to switch to contacts so they could still see when fighting

Headcanon #2

Splinters vision is just as bad as his two sons. Splinter sees things a little blurrier than everyone else so when he sees his sons, instead of identifying them by their features, he identifies them by their colors, hence why he calls them by their colors (Blue, Red, Purple, Orange). When he was still Lou jitsu, he had some glasses, but I feel like he had them designed to fit his movie star look, so while his glasses are for seeing, he had still wanted them to look good. Teen Lou jitsu and Leo are the same thing Fr

Headcanon #3

Donnie doesn’t do too well with emotion nor does he seem to interested in romance, so the first thought that came to my head was ‘ARO/ACE DONNIE’. Aro/Ace : having little to no romantic or sexual attraction. I do still believe Donnie could fall in love, the feelings just wouldn’t be as intense as it is for those who are neurotypical

Headcanon #4

I think Mikey definitely has ADHD. Mikey tends to be very impulsive and wild when he’s fighting. In fact, he’s so impulsive, Donnie made him an inflatable suit so he wouldn’t get hurt because this boy is a loose canon. He also seems to be very hyperactive and can’t keep his focus on just one activity, hence why he has so many hobbies like cooking, drawing, skateboarding, and other things. We gotta love this ball of energy

Headcanon #5

Raph has GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder). We all know this poor boy has a lot of anxiety and always stresses himself out when it comes to his family. Due to carrying the weight of his family on his shoulders, he tends to stress out a lot, but when you stress out a lot, your brain finds it a custom and a normal occurrence, so anything that might start up the slightest bit of stress could possibly turn into a full blown panic attack (I know cuz I’ve got GAD :((). He also overthinks A LOT

Headcanon #6

Casandra has gotta be nonbinary/gender-fluid.I headcanon Cassandra using she/they pronouns, why? While cassandra is presented as female in the show, she seems to be in touch with both her masculine and feminine side and I definitely think that if someone were to refer to her as a boy, she would not give a flying fuck, she just doesn’t seem to care for gender labels and you gotta love that

Headcanon #7

Sorry to the people who don’t ship this, but I see April and Sunita as a lesbian couple. In Tmnt 2012, April was placed in more as a love interest for Donnie, but it was just so forced and his obsession with her was concerning. In Rise, April poses more as an older sister for the boys and her relationship with Donnie is so sweet too. Instead of April and Donnie being lovers, Rise decided to make them best friends and they’re dynamic is something I am in love with. Rise April doesn’t really seem to have much of an interest in men, nor does she seem to be interested in having a boyfriend period, but I have noticed that she seems more interested in creating a bond with other girls (like Taylor and Sunita). When Sunita was first introduced, she was presented as just beautiful (flowers along with a beautiful background) and the way she was presented was how April perceived her, we were looking from aprils point of view. So, in conclusion, I think the girls a lesbian, argue with me if you’d like, I stand by this

Headcanon #8

Casey Jones is most definitely a trans man. The first time I saw this boy on screen, I pointed to the tv and said ‘That is a trans man’. Now where Casey came from, I have no idea. I’m not sure if he was birthed out of Cassandra or if he was a dumpster child found by Cassandra, but either way, something about Casey caught my attention that made me come to this conclusion. Ofcourse we know Casey is a teenager, but it seems like he hasn’t yet hit the full point of puberty, he’s got little scruffs on his chin and I’ve noticed his voice does crack a bit (which I love. I would die for him) but I think he has these traits because he’s still in the process of transitioning fully. In all honesty though, I have a crush on this boy, I’m down bad bro, I wish there were more fics for him

[bunny-hoodlum]

If it's alright for me to ask a second question (🤭), you said "Duty Bound" is the Juvie AU. What else can you say?

No problem! I appreciate you asking, Chloe! 🫶💕

I'm afraid I might end up repeating the original post, but I'll try to delve into it more.

So, basic premise: Hinata is a troubled teen. She's still a dandere, super withdrawn, mysterious and gloomy. The lack of disobedience in her behavior inside juvie is perplexing to the seasoned counselor, Naruto, that works at the all-girl facility she gets sent to.

He's used to the girls that come in there to be mouthy and promiscuous, they either come from female gangs, have personality disorders, or got in trouble for prostituting themselves. Their behavior is so predictable that they can never get a rise out of him, and he's able to see right through them, too.

Except for Hinata.

Naruto's life is pretty secure. He's good at his job, he gets results, and his girlfriend of two years brightens his days.

Maybe he comes from a family of troubled women, so he entered this line of work. His distant cousin Karin, even his own mother. Helping others who can't help themselves is in his nature, it's his calling.

He has to chip away at Hinata's walls in order to help reform her. Because she becomes his first challenge in years, he becomes a bit obsessed with her, bringing work home with him at times.

Eventually, he can't deny he harbors some sort of affection for her, though he doesn't understand when it happened. Maybe she brings out his hero complex, gives him more purpose than his own girlfriend and fails to notice when he's begun to neglect her. He thinks he's not being inappropriate and that his girlfriend is being selfish.

Hinata, who is good in every conceivable way, and very much a victim of circumstance, may be the worst and best thing that's ever happened to him.

So, the idea was inspired by a doujin where the FMC developed a sexual interest in middle-aged men due to a childhood trauma (the hentai depicts her as once bothered by the experience, but the doujin depicts her as unbothered). I was thinking Hinata became one of those promiscuous girls, too, but she never sold herself. She's kind of nymphy in that sense, like she just has this compulsion she needs to scratch, and it is due to fetishing her own trauma. She may have a very subtle way of hitting on older men, like Naruto, where her innocence cannot be easily questioned. She's going to be very sneaky trouble for him. And Naruto will succumb to desperate measures to cure her sickness. 🤭

Naturally, he has to keep this a secret from everyone.

It's not just his girlfriend or his bosses, it's the other girls in juvie too, who've been trying for months to drag him off his pedestal and get in his pants. If they find out he's exploitable after all, he'll be targeted by them and he'll never be able to complete Hinata's treatment. 😏😈

[ofxendless]

Oooop have another post

Hi! You can call me C, I go by she/her, and below is some info about me.

• I’m 25 and I will only interact with those over 21.

• My tumblr will seemingly always and forever screw me over and not show me messages properly, so please feel free to head straight to my discord at cee98x

• I’ve been roleplaying since what feels like forever. I started super young one summer before school started up, and I’ve been on-and-off ever since. I began in roleplay groups roleplaying Harry Potter, then got really into The Vampire Diaries-verse, and have also enjoyed Percy Jackson, supernatural town, royal rpgs, and a bunch I’ve popped into over the years so am open to different things.

• I do come from a land down under *cue the flute*. So AEST timezone, but my schedule is alll over a lot of the time.

• I’m looking to rp over discord. Fair warning, I am still getting the hang of rping on there and I have no idea how to do real fancy stuff but I’m a quick learner so we’ll be fine. I still feel like it was yesterday when I dragged my feet big time transferring from roleplaying on facebook to tumblr. Ah, time flies.

• I’m a very easy going person! Your length, I’ll match. Your ideas? I’ll pretty much lap up everything. Hate fandom rp? Cool not an issue at all! Hate oc rps and prefer fandom? Wicked! If I don’t know the lore well, I can try to wing it! Struggling to get a reply out? No stress! I’m well passed putting so much pressure onto things that they feel like a chore. I’d love to chat about our ships and discuss fc’s and get excited and really have some fun!

• I play mostly female muses! I know, I’m so terribly cliche, but I am pretty meh with male muses. Although, it’s been a long time since I’ve given it a go and I’m always happy to compromise! Very much wanting sapphic plots too!!

• I’m open to smut and most ideas! Don’t like super dark kinks or anything too out there but, again, always willing to try new things within reason! Plot and smut should be balanced. I also have no triggers.

• Some fandoms I’d be interested to rp if that was your jam would include The Vampire Diaries, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, True Blood, Teen Wolf, The Umbrella Academy, Bridgerton, The Sandman, Doctor Who, and I’m sureee there’s more I am forgetting. This also includes creating OC’s set in any of these universes.

• Some themes I’d loveee to explore include supernatural/fantasy/paranormal, enemies to lovers, best friends to lovers, boss/employee or professor/student, soul mate/ride or die/meant to be, fwb, ewb, age gap (legal!), horror, crime, mystery, and soo much more honestly

• Face claims I’d die to use include Renee Rapp, Emily Bader, Maia Reficco, Madison Iseman, Anya Taylor Joy, Camila Mendes, Elisha Applebaum, Hannah Dodd, Sadie Soverall, Adelaide Kane, Anya Chalotra, Simone Ashley, Josephine Langford, Danielle Rose Russell, Abigail Cowen, Conor Leslie and Zaria Simone

• Fave opposites include all of the above and more, Matthew Daddario, Noah Centineo, Robbie Amell, Henry Cavill, Rege-Jean Page, Aria Shaghasemi, Ross Butler, Jacob Elordi, Glen Powell

I’m really after some big romance plots, open to literally an array of ideas!! Love supernatural/fantasy plots, enemies to lovers, best friends to lovers, soul mate, slice of life, and anything that will give me something to obsess over thanks xxx

[cto10121]

How The New Twilight Series Will “Fix” Twilight

Bella is now a Strong Female Character(tm), which means she will FLIP OUT at Edward’s watching her sleep, call him out on his overprotectiveness and mood swings, demand that he tell her the truth at all times, be mildly depressed in New Moon, insist on going to college for at least a year (and only change her mind when she is in danger and should therefore probably be a vampire asap), and overall do reckless shit like antagonize vampires and werewolves without consequence. She will also stand up to Jacob’s jerkishness, but also be way more into him because we got to play up that nonexistent love triangle. Her female relationships will get much more screen time and development because it’s Problematic(tm) that Bella’s closest relationships are with her love interests. And of course, Bella’s parentified personality (Cinderbella) would be removed entirely à la Movie Twilight. She will be perfectly perfect in every way and completely intolerable.

We’ve seen Movie!Twilight as an indie teen rom com/CW teen drama. Now get ready for Twilight as a higher-budget fantasy series that will de-emphasize the romance as much as possible. Or simply drain all the spice and tension from the relationship and make it as unproblematic (and thus completely boring) as possible

If they go for this, then Bella and Edward are no longer the protagonists. The Lore(tm) is the protagonist, which means more focus on the other Cullens, the Volturi, vampiric world in general, the Quileute werewolves, and the mysteries. Hell, throw in a couple of murders of human characters we know, because Twilight is totally a murder mystery now. What? It’s what the fans who are totally fans and not antis with a weird obsession with this series want, right???!!!!

Everything to do with the Quileute characters will become more true to the real-life Quileute legends regardless of whether it fits Twilight or not. To do so otherwise would be ~culturally appropriative and ~problematic. Also, the Quileutes will get more screentime and be portrayed as practically perfect in every way. Jacob may also get this treatment by proxy and his more problematic traits will be yeeted out the window.

Edward will be either be even more overprotective and high-handed, his charm and his sense of humor erased (to contrast with our new Gary Stu Jacob)…or simply be perfect for Bella from the get-go. He will agree with her on everything and have zero problems listening to her and trusting her. No misunderstandings, no social comedy, nothing. The latter is most probable if Meyer is there to make sure her canon is adhered to, but there will still be a passive-aggressive undertone in the writing for Edward.

The Quileutes’ attitudes towards Leah will either be portrayed as misogynistic and Leah will definitely call them out for it in the most cringeworthy scene ever…or be removed altogether. Now the Quileute boys are totally fine with Leah joining them. Hell, they just might remove Leah’s bitterness altogether and her role in getting Jacob injured.

They will change how imprinting works. I don’t know how, but it is guaranteed to 100% suck worse than the books, fall apart at the slightest scrutiny, and divide the fans further.

[lurkingshan]

Inspired by @waitmyturtles and @nieves-de-sugui, sharing my journey through BL! Putting this under a read more because I really found a lot of words on this topic. Feel free to skim at will - now that you got me going I have a lot to say!

First, a bit of background. Three big interests of mine really converged to make BL kind of a perfect storm for me:

Romance: I have been an avid consumer of romance stories as far as back as I can remember. When I was a kid I would read several books a week and before I even hit my tween years I always gravitated to the romance genre. Add in film and television and it's safe to say I haven't gone a week of my life without consuming some form of a story about two people falling in love. It is absolutely my shit.

Asian dramas: More recent but no less intense an obsession for me. I watched my first kdrama in 2019 - my favorite gossip blogger (shoutout to Lainey) was constantly posting about a drama on Netflix (It's Okay Not to Be Okay). So I decided to try it out and I instantly fell in love. Kdramas are written nearly exclusively by women, they respect romance as a genre, and they cater to female audiences. It was unlike anything I ever experienced watching Western media. I started watching them more frequently, then when the pandemic hit I found myself with a ton of time at home and a fun new focus issue, and watching dramas with subtitles was a huge help.

Fandom: Since I was a teen I was always kind of hopping in and around internet fandom. When I like something, I like to enjoy it with others and find community around shared interests. And when I'm frustrated with media, I really like to dig into that and explore ways to fix it, so I became an avid fanfic reader, as well. Fandom to fandom my level of involvement varied - sometimes I just lurk around fandom spaces, sometimes I actually develop a presence, and in one instance I even got deeply involved in a fandom community to the point where I was posting meta, writing fic, and leading fan activities.

ANYWAY, after that long preamble, I come to the point: Because I was so into kdramas, and had watched/read a lot of Western QL romances, when I saw Where Your Eyes Linger pop up on my Viki recommendations I clicked on it. I liked it, and immediately wanted to understand more about it, because it was the first kdrama I had ever seen with a same sex pairing, and the format was so different. So I did a bit of research, and that was the first time I ever heard of BL. I was a little mind blown - there's a whole genre of QL romances in Asia??? So of course I set out to find more. I did a general search and the first thing I found was 2gether. This was June of 2021, so it was already about a year following the initial frenzy of that show, but it was still hugely popular and there was fan content about it everywhere. So I journeyed to YouTube to watch it, and that was my introduction to Thai BL and the wider genre.

From there I started looking for guidance on what to watch, and because of my time in various fandoms tumblr was always a go-to place where I knew I could find other people watching whatever obscure thing I was into. I found @absolutebl quickly and started reading their history and analysis posts on the genre. That was when it really sunk in for me how much culture and history there was to dig into, and I was really intrigued by the different styles and industries of each country. So I started working my way through their lists of the top 10 BLs from each country and it all just kind of spiraled from there.

I will not go into detail about every show I watched, but a few highlights:

TharnType: This was the first high heat BL I ever saw, and because I came over from kdramas, the first high heat Asian show I had seen, period. This show is messy and the writing was a hilarious hodgepodge of strong character work alongside absurd plotting and what I came to learn was typical Mame problematic content, but the chemistry between the leads was off the charts. It really set the bar for me in that respect, and got me looking for other examples (which at that time were mostly from Taiwan).

Theory of Love: This one inspires mixed opinions in fandom, but for me it was the first time I realized a Thai BL could not only be fun, but also good (no disrespect to other early Thai BLs but... yeah lol). There was a coherent emotional narrative arc! Smart story structure! Believable character development and earned redemption! Good actors! This one set me on a path to find the good stuff.

I Told Sunset About You: Which led me to ITSAY, the drama that convinced me BL could also be high cinema and art. This show blew me way, honestly. And got me more interested in finding the other more cinematic entries in the genre, which I mostly found from Japan.

The Untamed: When I saw this one on the list for China, I was like wait why have I heard of that? The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi is one of those fandoms that is so big and ubiquitous, anyone who spends time online will have heard of it long before they know what it actually is. This show opened up a bunch of new fixations for me - a new all-time fav character, an introduction to cdramas and the xianxia/wuxia genres, and the discovery of Chinese web novels. It's a very expansive universe with a lot going on outside the romance, unlike most BLs. Which I guess can be good or bad, depending on your perspective.

Bad Buddy + Semantic Error: These are the shows I credit for fully sucking me into the BL fandom on tumblr. Before BB aired, I was just kind of lurking about (it’s right there in the handle, fam) checking a few blogs periodically for recommendations and watching shows at my own pace. But BB and then SE caused such a frenzy that I decided to start watching them live and checking tumblr every week for reactions. I found more excellent blogs (like @bengiyo @negrowhat @laowen @liyazaki) that were posting not only BB and SE content but also commentary about other shows. Eventually I gave in and created a new tumblr account so I could actually follow them instead of going to their blogs on web browser like a weirdo, and my participation in fandom escalated predictably from there.

By early 2022 I had pretty much caught up on most of the history of the genre (though not everything - I refuse to watch Waterboyyy, I do have some standards) and developed a fairly solid understanding of the cultural context around it. I then started trying to keep up with new shows. As a cishet, it wasn’t the thrill of representation that drew me into the genre as much as the thrill of finding a genre that brought together so many of my favorite things, combined with the excitement of seeing the community grow and getting the chance to learn so much from the brilliant people who were watching these shows. Checking reactions to airing shows became a weekly habit, and my watchlist kept getting longer and longer. I learned about which platforms I should be watching on and where to direct my $$ to support the genre. And I heard about so many shows I never would have known existed without this community.

So that’s me! If you made it to the end of this post you are a true champion. Thanks for inviting the conversation @waitmyturtles - it was fun to reflect!

[papirouge]

"l also think they went hard on her bc she's very beautiful and nothing angers conservative men more than attractive liberal women lmao"

You are onto something here. I remember once in my country there was this polemic because a right wing politician said in a show he hosted that a female leftist politician had stated that pedophilia "had to be reinstated", which turned out to be false. This sparked a conversation in which a member of his political party (and also ex co-host of the show) also spoke up. He talked about how many middle aged men from the right would obssess over the young women from the left. He said that this guy was like this; he would say a lot of outrageous things about pretty leftist women just so they would go to his show and be near him. He also said even right wing women though he was too much and too sexist and pervy.

He also expanded on the right wing's men obsesion with young leftist women, saying how many of their conversations would focus on these women physical appareance. He also commented that male right wingers also had this delusion/fantasy where they believe they can 'save' these women from the left with their masculinity and rationality, and they compare themselves to the 'effeminate, somewhat homosexual" men from the left, believing themselves to be superior to these 'soyboys'.

Funnily enough, this same dude who would antagonize the young pretty women from the left just so they would pay attention to him, also tweeted something like "teen girl first anal", apparently confusing Twitter with the search engine. Once he also told a reporter he was attracted to her since she was 12 years old. He was 19 when she was 12.

Conservatives? Being hypocrite sex freaks? Color me shocked ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

This also confirms my theory that conservatives are ultimately only attracted by liberal women to have the satisfaction of taming/humbling them. Such gratification is impossible when they date doormat conservative pickmes. Look at all the women fawning at Musk or Andrew Tate... they aren't those they pick to date or breed with.

This obsession with tranny groomers and gay pedo of conservatives is peak projection. It's insane how the straight up pedo narrative of some conservative figures is glossed over, but someone being gay or with a gender identity is enough for them to suspects them of being a predator... I always said conservatives didn't care about pedophilia unless it was to dunk on liberals or "progressive" symbols (Epstein, Balenciaga, etc). They won't peep a word about conservatives caught with teens if not defend them (isn't Russell Brand -although not conservative got into conservatives good favor ever since he got vocal against the c0vid vaccîne- is accused of dating/sexually abusing a minor? and yet they're defending him like there's no tomorrow). Lately there's a twitter account who got suspended for accusing Musk of being a pedo (to get back at him after he accused a marine dude of being one when he refused his held when rescuing kids lost in a cave in Asia). I really think there's something to dig with him about it.... I'm still not over how fast Musk simps shrugged off his twitter side account where he role played as his own child and made sexual tweet.... His laptop should be investigated. Unfortunately the Musk savior syndrome is so strong, I think he could be caught raping a child people would still defend him, so.....

Sexual offenders & pedophiles are in the majority cis straight male so their obsessions to paint LGBT as these predatory groomers is lowkey insane. I've always said that since rape and sexual abuse stats disproportionately incriminate MEN they are desperate to find way of other'ing the issue. They'll either point fingers at non White men (so ugh, still men) or promote the idea that these stats are over amplified by false rape allegations 🤡

Aren't most father of teen moms grown adults? But suuuure, we should be focused on trans people in schools... controversial opinion but a drag doing a lecture in school is less concerning than grown men impregnating young girls...

I think the obsession with AOC of many conservatives also reeks from the fact they lowkey want to bang her.