#i understand them more than anyone else which is ofc not at all

[considerthehairpinturn]

rupert cadell and brandon shaw (rope 1948 dir. alfred hitchcock)

you are jeff, richard siken / little beast, richard siken / stone butch blues, leslie feinberg / someday i’ll love ocean voung, ocean voung / i didn’t like you when i met you, danez smith / start here, caitlyn siehl/ boyish, japanese breakfast

[lafleshlumpeater]

hey!! for the luke castellan x child of posideon!reader could you do an enmities to lovers type of trope where he teases and flirts with the reader a lot? possibly fem reader? tysm!!

Ofc!! Thanks for requesting- it’s a little short but i hope that’s okay <3

Warnings: luke calling r nicknames (love, doll), enemies to lovers (?), mentions of weapons, teasing, flirting, fem!reader- lmk if i missed any

(also, so sorry this is so late)

part two luke castellan masterlist

“You’re back isn’t straight, love.”

Rolling your eyes, you grudgingly straightened your back, desperately ignoring the irritatingly cocky smirk of the platinum- blond behind you. All you were trying to do was teach one of the younger kids from the Apollo cabin how to use a bow and arrow, after seeing him almost shoot himself in the eye whilst examining the contraption. Not spotting any of the campers you knew who were more experienced in the field of archery, and lack of anything else to do had driven you to do this. And you regretted it bitterly, when out of nowhere, appeared the one person who learnt all the right buttons to push just so he could push them to his fancy. Luke Castellan.

You didn’t know what it was- a short while after your brother had been claimed, you had arrived to camp and no sooner than that Poseidon had claimed you too. Ever since then, Luke had befriended Percy and the two got along like a house on fire while all he strived to do with you, on the other hand, was to tease and flirt and mock to the point where you were pulling your hair out and Luke remained coolly satisfied, that smug smile which would make anyone with eyes go weak in the knees residing in his sculpted features.

Not acknowledging him still, you gently took the elbow of the young (and clearly naive) Apollo camper, guiding it where he felt most comfortable and it was most convenient for the task at hand. As the younger camper drew the arrow back under your mentoring, his eyes focused solely on the target metres away, Luke tutted once again.

“Feet shoulder- width apart, Nick. Your tutor not doing a good job, huh?”

“Tutor not doing a good job, huh?”

“What was that?”

You bit your tongue after imitating the taller boy under your breath. Why did you let him get to you so much?

It was so infuriating how he was the one person who could break through your usually- cool demeanour, causing you to lose it within minutes.

The curious Nick lost concentration, arms going limp at his sides. He looked up at you, eyes quizzical and bright with amusement. “Is that your boyfriend?”

“He is not my boyfriend,” you hiss, praying Luke hadn’t heard. “If anything, he’s the opposite. Alright, back straight, shoulders-”

“I asked a question, doll,” Luke called out obnoxiously, which in return painted your cheeks an embarrassing red. “Did you just mimic me?”

“Yes I did,” you snap, fist tightening around an arrow. “Now will you shut up? I’m not your love, or your doll, or anything in between!”

Luke remained quiet throughout your rant- not absent of his signature, sly smirk, or at least, signature when it came to you. His eyes were light, flecks of grey gracing his irises as they glinted with familiarity- of mischief. You stopped, wondering why when you felt a hand on your shoulder.

“Hey,” Percy grins at Luke, charming as ever before turning back to you. “Was it you who was yelling? I could have sworn-”

Both of you reply at the same time, you with a flustered “No,” and Luke a confident, arrogant: “Yes”. Percy raised a puzzled eyebrow, eyes narrowed and flicking between the two of you in suspicion.

“I’ll see you later,” Luke drawled, thankfully breaking the uncomfortable silence under your brother’s scrutinising gaze. “I gotta shower.” He fistbumped a still- bewildered Percy, turning his back to the three of you- not before throwing you a wink over his shoulder. Nick’s eyes widen in understanding.

Before his mouth can open, you nudge him, sending him an intimidating glare.

taglist: @quickslvxrr @bibliophile-dendrophile

READ: this account stands with palestine, and so— i require everyone who interacts to educate themselves, and support/donate. READ THESE; 1 and 2, HELP HERE, BOYCOTT. silence is complicity, do not scroll past this.

[whydoyoucare866]

hai :3 can i request an enemies to lover miguel o hara fic where they get stuck in a closet together and reader kinda has to sit on his lap because there isnt any space and so after a few minutes of being in there, reader pisses off miguel and miguel kisses them to shut them up and then the rest is history ig 🙇‍♀️

PLS AND THANK YOU! 🙇‍♀️

also pls make the reader speak spanish im BEGGINGGG.

CLOSET

hi! ofc you can! I did my best! I’m sorry that it sucks and is cringy😀😭

Miguel O’ Hara x Hispanic Reader

Masterlist

Warnings: Suggestive Language, Maybe a glimpse of smut, and Miguel being an asshole

You were one of Miguel’s first recruits, you had been working in the spider society for as long as it had existed, you and Miguel were close (or you would like to consider that) since you both shared the same culture and language and it was easier for you to communicate with him when your English wasn’t as good as it is (since in your universe Spanish was the predominant language) and he would be one of the few people who could understand your accent or you speaking Spanish when you forgot a word.

He took it as his personal job to teach you English until you perfected it and people who didn’t know you wouldn’t be able to guess that it wasn’t your first language( though sometimes you still would forget words in English or express yourself better in Spanish) you would both mutually bring food for each other or bond over music, so yeah you considered yourself close to him.

That was until he started becoming way more stressed about everything, yeah he has been a sour asshole ever since his canon event, but people were at least able to get small responses and have conversations that weren’t all about work with him, but as the spider society grew, he felt a lot of pressure on him and started drowning himself in work to the point that he would isolate himself for days until he got everything he needed done, he could spend weeks without sleeping and eating, and obviously as he became more stressed his memories started to impulse even worse emotions on him than they did before.

Of course this made you and your other teammates worried about him, so you started to bring him lunch, make sure he slept, and just went to see if he was okay, but you checking up on him started to annoy him as he got more irritating because of the lack of sleep and the accumulation of stress, so one day he just decided you annoyed him and soon that annoyance turned into hatred, or that’s what he thought it was.

This made him become snappy at you and we all know he can be the greatest asshole, at first you’re patient with him, thinking it will pass, but as it gets worse you reach your ending point and lose all patience starting to respond to him the same way he talked to you.

The sudden change weirded everyone out, but they also noticed that ever since you started hating Miguel back, his mood became even worse, well everyone noticed except for you, which surprised everyone since you were one of the smartest people in the spider society.

So thats why everyone refused to go to a mission with Miguel when he asked them to, arguing that they already had a mission, or that they had something really important to do, until Miguel had no other option but to take you and you had no other option but to go with him.

“Do i reaally have to go with him? I mean can’t he just ask Ben instead?” You said to Jess

“Nope honey, Ben has a really important therapy session”

“Okay? so then ask Gwen? Pavitr? Hobie? anyone else?”

“He already did, they’re all busy”

“Then why can’t you go”

“As important as the spider society is, I have an ultrasound appointment today, so I can’t go even if I wanted to”

“Well the world just hates me then doesn’t it”

“Maybe it does, or maybe it’s doing you a favor”

“Trust me, being alone with him is not a favor, i don’t want to be screamed at about how i’m annoying and a fucking- what was the word? uhm una carga? how did you say that?”

“A burden?”

“Yeah that! I don’t want to be called a burden and shit like that”

“You’re no burden, but I’ll tell you what you sound like, a teenage girl, come on, you’re an adult, you can take things in a professional way”

“Well the one that’s childish is him not me”

“Uh huh, well i’ve gotta go, good luck!”

“Yeah whatever”

You were now approaching Miguel’s office while wishing you were dead ‘Puta madre neta me lleva la verga, ahora si ya no tengo de otra más que ir’ (Fuck this shit, now I really don’t have any option but to go), you were starting to grow nervous as you approached his door, you hadn’t been alone with him since your last fight where he directly called you annoying and a burden, but now you had no other option.

After finishing the mission without actually talking to each other unless necessary, you both came back to the HQ, when you arrived it was weirdly quiet and no one seemed to be there doing their duties even if it was not that late, which was really weird, that was until you saw Peter B. approaching you with a worried look

“Hey y/n, have you seen MayDay? I can’t find her, usually it takes me an hour, but it’s been four hours and I haven’t been able to find her and I’m starting to get worried” Peter said to you while still running up to you and then catching his breath

“Oh, um I’m sorry but we just got back from a mission so we haven’t seen anything, but we can help you look!”

“No we can’t” Miguel said

“Yes we can, anyways where was the last place that you saw her Peter?” You said after glaring at Miguel as if looks could kill

“Well, I think it was in that one room that has a closet.. I always forget what it’s called”

“Okay yeah, I know which one you’re talking about, let’s go take a look”

Miguel followed them even if he said he wouldn’t be helping, Mayday being on the loose could press a lot of buttons and break a lot of things and cause a lot of problems, so there he was, inside of the closet with you, while Peter “looked” around the room, until they heard a loud noise of the door closing and now he was trapped inside with you, the worst thing is that because of the lack of space you ended up in his lap.

“Great, just what I needed”

“You know I’m not happy about being here with you either okay?”

“Oh is that so? or was this your little plan to get me trapped with you and to get all up on my personal space”

“WHAT? I would NOT do that, and I do NOT want to be in the same room as you you fucking asshole!”

“Oh yeah am I an asshole? sorry I couldn’t understand you with that accent”

“WHAT? okay now you’re being unreasonable, you want me to say it in Spanish? I will, Yo no planee esto wey, yo no quiero estar en el mismo lugar que tu, yo no quiero que me hables, yo no te quiero hablar y mucho menos molestar tu pinche espacio personal, así que neta hazme un favor y cállate un rato que ya no te aguanto cabrón, neta deja de cagar el palo y de ser un pendejo de la nada y ni me trates de culpar porque yo ni se que chingados te hice para que me odies tanto-“. (I didn’t plan this, I don’t want to be in the same place as you, I don’t want you to talk to me or to talk to you or even less to be all on your fucking personal space, so please do me a favor and shut up a little because I can’t deal with you anymore, please stop being such an asshole out of nowhere and don’t blame me because i don’t even know what the fuck I did for you to hate me so much-) That’s when you felt something on your lips, and it took you some time to realize he was kissing you, Miguel O’Hara was kissing you, you sure as hell felt as a teenage girl, butterflies in your stomach and everything.

On the other side Miguel was starting to get nervous as you didn’t return the kiss, he was starting to pull away and about to say he was sorry and he didn’t mean it when he felt you pulling him close and kissing him again, at first it was just a sweet kiss, but then it started to get heated, he couldn’t help but moan when he started feeling you grinding against him, with each second passing making him harder, he started kissing your neck and sucking “Fuck Miguel- you’re gonna leave marks” but he didn’t care, he continued, hearing your moans was paradise to him, he wanted to take you there so bad, until, they heard a knock “Um guys? are you okay?” Peter B said as he unlocked the door and opened it making Miguel groan in annoyance “This isn’t over.” he said before the door completely opened and revealed a Peter with a smiling Mayday in his arms.

[psychelis-new]

pick a pile: "What a beautiful flower you are"

take a breath and choose the photo or number that calls you the most to read a few words reminding you of how strong, worthy and important you are through every step of your journey. remind yourself of how flower can stand up in the rain and how they may grow through concrete. no matter what is going on, remember that at the end of the day you are always the best, strongest and most valuable flower around at any given time. you can't compare with anyone else, cause you're unique.

don’t take the reading too seriously. only take what resonates with you and leave the rest. if you're not called by any pile, let this reading slid as it may not hold messages for you. if you're called by more than one pile, there may be messages in each of those piles. remember that is a general reading and some things may not resonate with you. energies can change and readings are based on present ones (as you read); you're always in charge of your life. readings do not substitute real life experience nor professionals/doctors advices.

(photos found on unsplash)

- ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ -

1 2 3 - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ -

pile 1

You make beautiful things grow around whatever negative may happen. You find the positive side in anything that happens and know how to start all over again from anything, trying to make it better. You welcome and nurture what hurts, you transform it in seeds that one day will give life to beautiful flowers just like you. I think you help a lot especially people around you in this process of seeing and finding a positive side, a different side from which to look at what happens and what has happened. You give new povs and new life to scraps and past (it could also be something you like to do creatively/practically, btw). I think those coming in touch with you are deeply changed and inspired by you. You probably forget to use this beautiful habit of yours for yourself too. Please, include yourself into this. You're as deserving of beautiful things as others. Nurture your own pain too, and do anything you can to make it grow into something beautiful and bright as you. And don't close off from others, don't hide your pain from those who'd love to help you. Let them do it for you. You deserve as much as you give away.

song: obsessed | mariah carey (don't be overly obsessed in helping others to the point of codependency, help yourself as well)

- ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ -

pile 2

You may have experienced some difficult relationships (eg. family, love, friends, colleagues...) and now you kind of buildt a multi-layered wall around your heart so that people won't be able to make you suffer/betray you again. And yes it's hard for people to get in and hurt you but also to love you. And yes it may make you feel strong and in control but I think you may be also struggling a lot because of this. Being so overprotective of yourself, despite ofc understandable (it's a defense mechanism), is making you feel lonely too because it's blocking your connections from growing. You've been through a lot and you're still here but it's not because of your walls that you made it through. It's because of the love that pulse inside of you. Have a talk with your emotions, with your wounded ego, and realize that not everyone is here to hurt you. You're very much hurting yourself first by not letting others in in fear of something that may never happen. You can survive anything, you can defend yourself, you can call people out or ask for clarifications. It's not you the naive/"wrong" person if you trust others and they let you down or betray you. You cannot control what others do with what you give them, nor you're responsible of/guilty for that. Come back to you, master your emotions.

song: pure shores | all saints

- ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ - ’ -

pile 3

I think at times you're confident and well but other times you let your self doubt come in between and make you fear you're saying or doing something bad? Ruining something or the day of someone else? Like you end up falling easily and fast into this negative mental pattern of being useless and inherently "bad" (guilty? unworthy?). I think it's a matter of growing acquainted with your boundaries, setting some healthy ones and not fear being judged (it may have happened a lot in your life) for them or not being appreciated anymore or abandoned if you stopped pleasing others. We need to respect ourselves too, not just others (and pleasing them is not the same as respecting them anyway: you can disagree/say no and still be respectful). It's like you forget about your worth (it doesn't depend on how good you perform) all of a sudden in fear of being left out. You may feel unsafe in setting your boundaries especially when stressed out (or it just may stress you as said), like you may fear being perceived as rude and left alone. It may be that you got manipulated or gaslighted into feeling always wrong, guilty or bad if you didn't acted as "expected of you". I'm sorry about this: remember you are inherently good and worthy, and you have the right to stand up for yourself. You won't end up alone. Find your inner balance and peace, go slow. You're already perfect.

song: underdog | you me at six

[kurokens]

I'll Be There | Satosugu

anime/manga: jujutsu kaisen

character: gojo satoru & geto suguru

words: 2.6k

pronouns: they/them

request: none

notes: part 4 of In The Middle is here!! might be the longest part of this series, and of my entire blog tbf. i think i like it quite a lot, didn't know where i was going at first but i think it turned out great!! hopefully you will enjoy it. ofc this isn't the end hehe dw

not proof read

song rec: I'll Be There - Zitten

genre: hurt comfort, fluff, slowburn, a little bit angsty, poly?

warnings: satosugu are in a loving relationship, misunderstanding, pinning, a lot of pinning on satosugu's end, reader is so oblivious, insecure and self conscious reader, satoru is quite eloquent

It's been two weeks already, two excruating weeks of you not talking to the two men you once called your best friends. Your mutual friends tried telling you that you should give them a chance to explain themselves, that this was just a big misunderstanding. But they didn't understand, how hurt you were, and how painful it was for you. Of course, you wanted nothing more than to run back to them and forget about all of this but how could you? The people you trusted the most were talking behind your back, and it didn't seem like it was in a good way, and no misunderstanding could ever explain what you heard and erase the betrayal you felt. You were convinced of this, and you thought getting out of their life for good was the best option for all of you, no matter what anyone else said.

Or so you thought, because here you were, standing in front what used to be your home, a shaky hand raised to knock on a door you would usually unlock yourself. Your timid knocks echoed throughout the house and for a moment you felt a wave of doubt overwhelm you. What if you were making a mistake? What if they moved on? I mean after all Satoru's messages stopped flooding your phone after a while. Maybe you should just turn back and leave things as they were, because that's how things were meant to be, the two of them together, without you invading their personal space. But just as you were about to walk away Suguru's voice was heard, and your entire body froze, unable to take another step or make another move.

"No Toru, I doubt it's someone delivering us free pizza. Can you be serious for on-" The dark-haired man was not able to finish his sentence upon opening the door and seeing you standing in front of him.

The silence between you two was loud, way too loud for you, and yet you couldn't get yourself to open your mouth to say a word, just anything would do, and yet not even a breath could cross your lips.

"What's taking you so long? Fell in love with the delivery person or what?" Satoru joked, making his way towards the entrance, his mind and body going numb when he finally noticed what had his lover frozen in place.

"I," You started, trying your best to rack your brain in order to break this silence, to explain why you were there, to stop looking like an imbecile. And yet you couldn't, their eyes fixated on you paralised you and shook you to your core. "T'was a mistake, sorry for bothering, I'll just go." Was what you ended up letting out, the awkward silence and the stares getting to your head, making you doubt your decision to come here in the first place.

But before you could even take a step away you were pulled back onto something hard, rather warm, and shaking quite uncontrollably, which was crushing all of your bones. You try wiggling your way out, freeing your head from the strong grasp, that's then you heard sniffling and realised what was happening. Satoru was the one who stopped you from leaving, and was currently suffocating you in what was possibly the tightest hug you've ever received. He was full on sobbing, his head in the crook of your neck, trying his best to catch his breath but crying harder every time he caught a whiff of your scent. You were awkwardly standing there, not really knowing what to do with this sudden show of affection and outburst. But as if it was almost a second nature, and before your brain could stop you, you wrapped your arms around his torso and hugged him back, which only caused Satoru to cry harder into you.

"Satoru, I think you should let go of them." Suguru tried getting the white-haired man off of you, which broke something in you and brought you back to reality and why you were here now.

"M'not gonna, m'never letting them go ever again, never, never" The youngest whined, tightening his embrace each time as if to prove his point.

"You're not the one who can decide this Toru. And you don't even know why they came in the first place." The raven-haired man reasoned, a hint of sadness at the thought of what made you come back here, scared it was to get the rest of your stuff to move out completely. "Why don't we let them in, and hear them out hm? Think you can do that?"

Reluctantly Satoru let go of you, only to bury his face into his lover's chest, his tears still flowing uncontrollably. Geto gently smiled at you before inviting you in. You hesitated a bit but finally entered, not able to refuse the oldest's pleading eyes. The way to the living room felt endless to you, the silence way too heavy for your liking, and Gojo's soft sobs not helping your nerves at all. After felt like an eternity you finally reached your destination, the two lovers sat on the couch leaving you your spot in your usual chair. You thought it took another lifetime before the silence was finally broken by Geto clearing his throat and starting the conversation.

"So, hm, I don't really know how to start the conversation. Honestly I didn't even think you would ever come back and hear us out, I'm not that prepared, so I will just go straight to the point, I'm sorry." He began his rambling, only serving in quickening your heartbeat even more, scared of the next words that will come out of his mouth. "We don't know exactly what you were refering to with your note, and what you heard. But we can promise you it's a misunderstanding, just a big, big, misunderstanding. You have to believe us, we will never ever hurt you."

"Oh really?" You snickered, the memories of what you've heard coming back to you in a flash, and hitting you in the face even harder than a truck. "So you saying it became unbearable to see me everyday, that you could no longer look at me in the eyes, let alone talk to me, is just a big misunderstanding??" Anger suddenly overflowing your system, replacing all the sadness and nervousness you could feel up until then.

The living room went silent once again, the two lovebirds in a shock at your words. Because surely if you heard this, then, you heard the rest right?? You knew how they felt? Was that what made you this upset? Did them being in love with you repulse you that much that it made you run away from them?? No, no, it couldn't be.

"You heard that?" Suguru breathed out.

"Yes, I did. A bit more difficult to pass this as a misunderstanding now isn't it?" You laughed bitterly.

"Then you know how we feel about you right?? Is that why you're upset?" He continued, still in shock.

"If by how you feel you mean that your hate me, then yes Geto. I know how you feel. And why are you acting so shocked? Is it that hard to believe that me learning my supposedly best friends hate me made me upset?? Or was it suppose to be something I was meant to be aware of from the beginning? Because you sure didn't let that show." You huffed, annoyed at the couple dumbstruck faces, like how dare they act so fucking shocked.

"YOU THINK WE HATE YOU?????????" Both them screamed in unison, the black-haired man having to physically restrain the other one from jumping on you. Their reactions calmed down your anger, only to turn it into confusion.

"Well yeah?? Why else would you say that shit?? Sorry I don't understand why you guys are so surprised right now?" You simply said, staring at them with nothing but confusion in your eyes.

"Oh my god, we do NOT hate you. Oh god. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Oh shit, I'm so relieved right now, I think I could faint." Suguru softly whispered. "Sweetheart, you couldn't be more wrong even if you wanted. Hate you?? Are you insane? We would NEVER hate you. Even with a gun against my head I don't think I could ever utter those words about you."

"I'm so confused, if you don't hate me then why the fuck would you say such things about me? Because there is no way you could be talking about someone else, I heard you say you couldn't bring it up because the person lived with you, and I'm the only one there." You asked, genuinely bewildered by this entire conversation.

"God, this is absolutely not how we wanted to do this, but I don't think we have much of a choice right now do we?" The oldest gently laughed, his smile almost contagious.

"We want you." Satoru suddenly blurted out, startling both of you.

"NO!" Suguru shouted, only to stop himself as if he said the worst thing ever, facepalming before he continued. "I mean yes, but, fuck Satoru this isn't what we talked about."

"They think we hate them! And you're taking way too long, beating around the bush and confusing them more and more. Look at what waiting got us into!! Do you just want them to walk out without knowing how we truly feel?" The youngest rebutted, barely containing himself from pouncing on you and declaring his love for you like he should have done a while ago.

"No.. But do you want to scare them off by just declaring our love for them like that? What we're about to say is not exactly something that is considered conventional in this society Toru. You don't want to startle them and overwhelm them with all our feelings." The raven-haired boy tried to reason.

"I know, but I don't want to hurt them more than we already did." The tallest pouted.

The two lover continued their conversation, as if you weren't there, not realising that they were doing exactly the opposite of what what they were talking about; confessing their unconditional love while being unawere of your dumbfounded self, growing redder and redder with each passing seconds.

"Hm, guys." You finally interrupted. "You know I'm still here, I once again can hear you, and quite correctly this time."

Both men freezed, looking at each other mortified. All of this time spent planning, and carefully rehearsing what they would tell you when they finally confessed, only to do it in such a manner. Suguru was decomposing himself, this house never felt hotter to him as it was right now.

"Haha, what if, you pretended you never heard that???" He chuckled shyly.

"Hm, that would be quite, difficult." You mumbled, your feet and hands suddenly a lot more interesting than the pair in front of you.

You saw something move in your peripheral vision, before a tuff of white hair made its way into your field of vision, Satoru now kneeling in front of you.

"Hey sweetcheek." He softly mouthed, taking your fidgeting hands into his, something that surprisingly eased your nerves. "I know this is quite sudden, and definitely not how we planned to do this, especially not Sugu. But what we said is true, we love you, so, so much. It was hard for us to process, because as Sugu said it, it's not really conventional in our society, so this was really confusing to us. Especially coming to terms with it, but when we realised we both felt the same way towards you, it felt like an evidence. You were the missing part in our life, and you leaving made this even clearer. We cannot function without you, we are too enamored with you to ever imagine a life without you in it. I wanted to just tell you, scream about how much I crave you and your love along Sugu's, but he made me realise this would be selfish. Because, as hard as it was for us to come to term with this, it might be even harder for you, especially if sprung into your face out of nowhere, which we ended up doing any way. And we're very sorry for this. But now that the cat is out of the bag, I want you to know that I love you, God, I love you so much. To think you thought we hated you break me, because there is not a shred of hatred in my body that could ever be directed towards you, and I know it's the same for Sugu. We love you, we love you, we love you." Satoru rambled, his eloquence shocking both you and Suguru.

"And we want you to know that you do not have to reciprocate our feelings, hell, you don't even have to consider them if you don't want to. We just wanted you to know, because that's something that was weighing down on us and we couldn't keep it from you any longer. We don't want this to affect our friendship even more than it already did. As Toru said we cannot function without you, and even if you don't reciprocate our feelings, we want to keep you in our life, because before anything else, you are our best friend, and this will never change. And you don't have to react or say anything about this sudden confession and outburst, you can take the time to think and let all of that sink in. We do not want to pressure you into anything you don't want. I'm so sorry we ended up dumping this on you like that. We had an entire plan prepared but we fucked up. And I'm so sorry we made you believe you were not welcomed in this house, because it's not the case I promise." Geto continued, joining Satoru at your feet, and leaving you no choice but to look at the both of them in the eyes again.

"I, hm, this a lot of information to handle all at once." You exhaled, now realising you've been holding your breath throughout the entirety of the two lovers' speech.

"We know, we're sorry." Suguru murmured, gently stroking your hand, a gesture widely appreciated right now.

"I'm gonna need some time, I think. I don't know what to say." You followed, ligthly squeezing their hands, as if to ground you a bit better in a reality that you were having a hard time to process.

"And we'll give you all the time you need, we've said that already." Satoru replied with a dreamy smile on his face, pleased to be able to have this proximity with you after so long apart.

"Thank you. I think I'll go now." You uttered, hardly moving from your spot despite your words.

"You're more than welcomed to stay here if you want, afterall, this is still your house." Suguru hummed, his face mirroring Satoru's lovestruck one.

"No, I'll go, I won't be able to think straight otherwise. But I'll come back, eventually." You breathed out, still unmoving, hardly understanding anything happening around you that wasn't the two men sitting in front of you.

"Ok, that's fine with us." The white-haired man answered, not moving an inch from his position or letting go of your hand, not helping you in your predicament. But how could he, when he finally could look at you how he longed to do for so long, and who was Suguru to chastise him when he felt the exact same way. Hence why they allowed themselves to endulge a little longer in the skinship they always craved for. You could always do all of your thinking and processing after, was what all of you silently thought and agreed on, just to relish on this moment for a little while longer.

[whetstonefires]

Very fun thing actually about Jin Guangyao is he spent so much time and energy passing himself off as normal. The Normalest Guy, Look How Normal I Am. The Very Best And Most Skilled At Normal Things, Like Being Normal And Having Normal Opinions.

Which is great because on the one hand it reflects how he was kind of aware he absolutely was not. (And that by default this isolated him and this was Very Unsafe.) But on the other you see, with all the times he falls into the typical mind fallacy under stress and projects weird shit onto people, he also on some level believed everyone was doing this.

That being a Normal Person who had Normal Reactions to things, like being appalled by brutal violence, was an elaborate social lie everyone had to maintain to keep up the facade of civil society, and actually everyone was basically the same as him deep down. He was just better at it, and also the smartest.

Which is a very long way to say his character arc is heavily tied up with his evolving relationship with and skills at masking. I'm not gonna armchair diagnose him because that's beside the point, the point is that he is trying so fucking hard to be normal, but without a particularly well-developed definition of what's abnormal about him to begin with, resulting in some misfires.

And then you contrast him to some other characters and it gets more fun. One of his direct foils is Nie Mingjue, who literally does not know how to mask at all, not the slightest bit, but is fortunate enough to have been born the exact kind of weirdo his position in life demands, with special interests in 'saber training' and 'destroying evil.'

(He explicitly, per narration from wwx being inside his head, has no other interests and doesn't really understand the idea of having more than one activity you care about, do not tell me Nie Mingjue is walking around with a normal brain.)

So he is (jgy has a point about this, although he actually makes it about the luxury of having moral compunctions) free to totally embrace the conviction that everyone should basically be their authentic selves at all times, and just not do evil things about it.

On the other hand, and this really illuminates their relationship for me, Lan Xichen is absolutely trying to be normal. Like, he does try to excel, he wants to be best and he knows he's good, but as a person he is also trying to be as normal as circumstances allow.

He understands 'being normal about things' as a goal not in jgy's terms as an elaborate social fiction but as aspirational shaping of the self; if everyone is normal about everything then there won't be needless conflict. Living as normally as possible will optimize your mental health and your respect for others, and it's just a good baseline from which to be good.

Which is fine as far as it goes, but means harmless eccentricity (including gay) is to be tolerated and swept under the rug rather than really supported, and prejudices him to instinctively side with Jin Guangyao and anyone else who is pushing for Let's Be Normal About This, even when the people being weird are in the right.

(This is also to a non-zero degree a trauma response behavior; what Lan Xichen experienced as the largest existential threat to him growing up was something along the lines of being perceived as a selfish disruptor of norms, like his father.)

And then contrast that to Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, who are both very concerned at least initially with how things and people and they themselves are supposed to be, and feel some responsibility for ensuring this supposed-to is reflected in reality.

But neither of them makes any particular attempt to be normal about it.

And then ofc Wei Wuxian, another jgy narrative foil, never attempts to pass himself off as normal. He will sell 'I'm better than everyone ever' and 'I'm scum of the earth' in the same breath before he will try for normal.

Except that he genuinely seems to think his most virtuous traits, his throw-himself-between-victim-and-weapon impulses, are basically normal. If not everyone (who isn't a total shithead) does it, it's because not everyone has his insane confidence they can pull it off.

Which in a good mood he would say is fair, because he is in fact awesome and really good at winning. (In a worse state of mind he would definitely hate on all the selfish cowards.)

Nie Huaisang is probably the most genuinely normal human being in the main cast, probably even more normal than Jiang Yanli, and he's very happy to play that up and present himself as actually even more normal and average than he is, in order to keep expectations down.

Up until his whole life gets fucked and this little pretense turns into the most elaborate and successful mask in the entire book.

[blackbatcass]

helloo :D

So, I keep seeing people saying that Jason is Bruce’s favorite child, and the only one that was actually like a son to Bruce. (aside from Damian) Also that just because Dick and Bruce were partners/brothers too, it means that Dick isn’t really like Bruce’s son. How Jason and Bruce are each other’s favorite and Dick wishes he could be Bruce’s son (basically it just gets worse and worse jekskenjske)

AND I DON’T REALLY GET THIS AT ALL.. I COMPLETELY DISAGREED

But then I saw SO MANY posts about this (just getting harsher and harsher LMAO) and I thought I’d ask someone who knew more. So, yeah, here I am!

Thanks for answering if you do, and have a wonderful day!

anon do you want me dead. is that what's happening here

JK JK my first fanon jason ask... what a historic day! basically you're completely right. I don't know where this frankly insane take comes from but whenever me, my mutuals, and pretty much anyone in this corner of the dc fandom sees a post like it we roll our eyes to the heavens. to put it simply the idea that jason is bruce's favorite and the only one he actually loved like a son is a complete fucking lie lol.

first of all to claim that bruce didn't love dick like a son is......I mean. let's just say people saying that have probably never read a comic with bruce and dick before. literally the number one thing to know about these characters is that the love bruce and dick have for each other can be seen from outer space. they have never been normal about each other. bruce raised dick since he was eight. they are thee og codependent father-son partners 'we saved each other we are pack bonded for life if anything happened to him i'd kill everyone in this room and then myself' duo. I mean... there is nuance to be had where they had a very complicated tangled up hard-to-label relationship that had elements of being father & son, elements of being brothers, and ofc partners as batman and robin but that is a function of their relationship being TOO crazy and close not the other way around lol. it is patently true that bruce and dick know each other better than anyone else in the world. it is pretty much true that if you're going to play the favorites game, it's hard to deny that dick is bruce's favorite. that's his eldest his most trusted his saving grace his person who understands him better than anyone. I could pull like an endless amount of panels as evidence that dick was bruce's favorite. there are so many 'dick is the only thing i did right' 'i only feel pride when i look at nightwing' etc etc. dick is his child in every way that matters basically

which is not to say that jason isn't bruce's son! he definitely is! bruce does love jason, but jason was his second kid lol. and it's...i mean jason was robin for a very short time in the grand scheme of things. you can blow through his robin run super fast because it's just not very long. the idea that bruce loved jason more or there's more of a father-son bond to be found in the few issues they were together for as opposed to the 10 years dick was robin is actually insane. bruce literally admitted that the reason he let jason be robin was because he missed dick. lol. lmao even.

basically yeah claiming that jason is bruce's favorite and dick was never treated as bruce's son is just a lie. it's not true. it's like that 'jason is tim's favorite robin' nonsense that was going around a few months ago; it completely ignores canon and essential character elements in jason's favor. I don't know why some jason fans are so obsessed with putting him up on a pedestal by bashing other characters on his behalf. and like...it is possible to have two sons? and love them both? lmfao? and that's not even getting into like tim and cass (also bruce's adopted children). I don't know why people just decided this was a thing but it is false<3

[indig0trolls]

BIRTHDAY ADOPTS GIVEAWAY RAFFLE!

Wow! I haven't done one of these in a long long time, so bear with me, but I've just felt incredibly lucky and grateful that so many of you have been so supportive, in general but especially since the start of the year, that I wanted to give a little something back as a thank you!

And what better occasion than my upcoming birthday!

So without further ado... onto the important parts!

RAFFLE RULES

This is a TOTALLY FREE TO ENTER raffle!

The only requirement to enter? You MUST be following me! (This is a thing to say thank you for all the support and kindness, after all!)

HOW TO ENTER!

Fill Out these forms! -> Warm Dusk -> Just a Little Squirrely

You MAY enter for both designs, but you can only WIN one!

One entry per person! If I catch you entering multiple times, or having someone enter for you... it's the blacklist for you, sorry kid thems the breaks.

On that note. NO! You cannot enter for someone else to give as a gift! I just see that getting really messy and don't want to have to sort that out.

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If. IF you get to a point where you have the design and you don't want it anymore... Give it away again! Host another raffle or gift it to a friend (with respects to my blacklist ofc).

RAFFLE ENDS ON MY BIRTHDAY,, WHICH IS JULY 23RD, AT 4:00PM EDT.

SO YOU HAVE 3 ISH DAYS TO ENTER!

And will be rolled shortly thereafter! (Probably around 5:30pm edt if we're being honest!)

FULL TOS UNDER CUT

TOS

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BLACKLIST

[milaisreading]

Hello, is possible for you to make fanfic in which ego makes y/n change teams to manage for like 1-3 week?

(So sorry if it’s difficult to understand, English isn’t really my first language)

Author: ofc! Thank u for requesting, it really makes me feel happy that u all are interested in the series so much 💗 💖 hope u enjoy this🩷

Warnings ⚠️: nothing really. Reader uses she /her and there is mention of Bastard München (manga spoilers). Requests are open! Also, if u all are interested I will write a pt 2 to this request from the Reader's perspective and her stay in Germany

⚽️Blue lock belongs to: Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura⚽️

The Blue Lock team was watching in curiosity as (Y/n) kept talking and showing things to an older staff member. The team was a little farther away, so they weren't able to make out what (Y/n) was saying, but all they knew it must have been important, as the girl had an unusually serious face and the man tried to write down every word she was saying.

"Ahhh~ (Y/n) looks so cute when she is explaining things." Reo sighed, dreamily watching the girl as Otoya and Gagamaru nodded their heads in agreement.

"Her eyes shine a special way when she is all serious." Gagamaru added.

"I honestly wish we went together to school, would have loved to have her as my tutor." Otoya said.

"I would have failed all my classes for that then." Bachira chuckled as the others started adding their own thoughts. Rin and Baro were the only ones who didn't say anything, too immersed in their own thoughts.

'Who is that guy? Is he here to write down some inventory or?' Rin raised an eyebrow and looked over at Baro, who had a similar expression.

"You think this off too?"

"Yeah. It's also weird how much more often Ego-san has been calling (Y/n) into the office. Teieri-san seemed a little upset these past few days too." Baro said as they watched (Y/n) say goodbye to the man and walk over to the group.

"Did something happen? You guys don't usually stop training unless Ego-san tells you to." The girl wondered as she sat down between Isagi and Kunigami.

"We were just wondering who the man was. He has been coming over often these past few days." Nagi said, not looking up from his video game. That earned him a small scolding from Reo and Yukimiya, but it was left ignored by him.

"Oh, that's Suzuki-san. He is a very sweet staff member, he will be my substitute for the next 3 weeks."

"Oh, that's good." Chigiri said as Niko nodded his head in agreement. There was a short silence, until (Y/n)'s words fully sank in and they all looked at her in horror.

"Substitute?! What do you mean by 3 weeks?!" Nagi and Karasu yelled as Bachira jumped in front of her.

"Where are you going for 3 weeks?! We won't be able to survive here without you!" Hiori yelled as (Y/n) got over the initial shock and rolled her eyes.

"Now you are being dramatic, it's just 3 weeks, and Suzuki-san is more than enough capable for the job."

"Where are you even going? On a break?" Kurona was the next one to speak up, trying to hide his disappointment.

"Ego-san got a request from Noel-san to help out the Bastard München for the next 3 weeks, since their manager seemed to have had an accident or something..."  (Y/n) explained as Kunigami and Isagi grew stiff at the mention of the German team.

"What?! Why them?! (Y/n), you can't go there alone!" Isagi argued, dreading the fact that his manager will now be shared with Kaiser. Kaiser of all people!

"Why not? Except for some of them being obnoxious, they seem like a solid team. And based on what Ego-san told me, Kaiser and Ness recommended me to Noel-san. As much as I don't get along with Kaiser, it is a huge thing to get a recommendation from him." (Y/n) explained truthfully.

"Not Ness... I completely forgot he was on the team..." Aryu whispered to Rin and Baro, the whole group remembering how (Y/n) eyed the payer when they visited the last time.

"Let's hope that creep lost interest in her and will treat her like anyone else."

Baro added, making sure that (Y/n) didn't hear them.

"Yeah, (Y/n) shouldn't be with someone like him... even my brother is a better option." Rin muttered.

"When are you leaving?" Reo suddenly asked, feeling his heart squeeze in pain as Nagi silently watched her, his game long abandoned.

"This friday."

"Oh..." Was the only thing that came out of Chigiri's mouth.

"Will we stay in contact tho?!" Niko suddenly asked, thankful that his eyes were hidden behind his hair.

"Of course! I am not abandoning Blue Lock, just helping out another team. Don't worry, we can talk everyday, as long as the timezones allow us."

Reo, Nagi and Kunigami let out sighs of relief as they heard she wasn't abandoning them.

"Wait Friday? So you are leaving in 2 days?" Gagamaru suddenly asked as he remembered that today was Wednesday.

"Yeah."

"This isn't good! We are spending the next two days hanging around! Forget the training!" Otoya said quickly, in the heat of the moment forgetting that Ego could hear them.

"If you don't start training again, I am sending (Y/n) to Germany tonight." Ego's voice came from the speakers. This triggered most to get up and resume what they did previously. Bachira, Isagi and Hiori stayed around for a while, using the excuse of needing more rest.

As Friday came the boys grew more and more nauseous, the thought of (Y/n) being alone in a different country scared them. But as fate will, the moment she had to leave came and the team was... less than pleased. Bachira tried to stop her by throwing some weird excuses of needing help, which were shut down by Ego calling Suzuki to help. Once she was gone, Ego and Anri went to look for the team, only to find them moody and depressed in their shared room.

"What are you all doing here? Training is still going." Ego sighed in annoyance as Anri sent them a sympathetic look.

"Do we have to? Today is a tragedy!" Bachira yelled as Aryu nodded his head.

"Yes, a national day of mourning."

The black-haired man blinked and narrowed his eyes at them.

"I don't care what today is! Get out and train, otherwise you all are out of Blue Lock." Groaning, the boys got up and slowly walked to their designated spot. Once everyone was gone, Anri let out a small sigh and looked at the agitated man.

"Don't be like that, you know how close they are with (Y/n). You yourself were pretty upset too when you approved of (Y/n) going."

"I do not know what you are talking about. That wasted talent can go wherever she wants, I wouldn't care." Ego coughed.

"You literally started googling and telling (Y/n) which places to avoid in Munich-"

"I don't want any issues with her parent."

Anri sighed, giving up on arguing and following after the man.

'It's kind of sweet how much of a soft spot he has for her.'

The 1st week for the Blue Lock team was... was quite a rollercoaster of emotions. The team went through nearly all the stages of grief, except for acceptance. Reo and Nagi were more snappy and snarky than usual. Baro was more aggressive on the field and no amount of warnings from Suzuki could stop him from starting arguments with Kunigami. The said orange-haired boy was way easier to provoke now and he was doing a lot more dirty tricks while playing. Isagi and Rin were less motivated to play and would argue way more than usually. Gagamaru was just standing next to the goal, not even bothering to keep up with the team. Niko was way more moodier and less willing to get out of bed, only when Ego starts threatening him does he do that. Chigiri and Aryu missed (Y/n) and her braiding and playing with their hair. It always relaxed them after a long day of training. Karasu tried to keep up with his daily routines, but it was less fun when he knew there wasn't someone cheering him on. Yukimiya and Otoya were trying to keep the peace as much as possible, as they didn't want (Y/n) to hear any of this. And Bachira... well he was just there, he was playing but less enthusiastically. Hiori was more moodier and Kurona shut himself completely off. The only time they really were their normal selves was when they texted or called (Y/n), which wasn't as much as they wished.

Ego was slowly losing his mind as well, since he couldn't take Suzuki's complaining any longer, so that's why Anri started listening to him and writing everything down.

'Two more weeks...' The black-haired man sighed.

'Hope that brat is at least having fun.' Ego smiled a little, which was hidden by his hand as Anri talked about some decisions the JFU made.

"V-vielen Dank." (Y/n) stuttered as she took her fries and joined Kaiser and Ness.

"Was that right?" She asked as the magenta-eyed boy smiled as usually and nodded his head, while Kaiser patted her back.

"Yep! On point, seems like I am a better tutor than you expected." Kaiser said smugly, and as much as (Y/n) hated it, he was right.

"Yeah you are... the fries here are very good!" The girl said as she bit into her food.

"Told you these food stands have better quality than any restaurant in Munich. Now let's go, we got to show you the most popular bar here. They have non-alcoholic drinks too." Ness said softly as (Y/n)'s phone went off. Kaiser and he raised an eyebrow as she quickly typed something back and put the phone away.

"Your phone has been going off a lot in the past hour." Kaiser remarked.

"Yeah, during this time the boys usually finish off with their training, so we text a lot then."

"Oh." Was the response that came from Ness and Kaiser hid a irritated look.

2nd week was a bit....a bit better,at least Suzuki was telling it to himself. While the boys were more willing to listen to him and commit to training, it was like some soulless people were playing the whole time. Gagamaru for example was more willing to avoid the ball flying past him, but there wasn't the same amount of euphoria he usually had. Bachira kept on saying how his monster didn't like this anymore, Chigiri wasn't in his usual speedster mood. Isagi and Rin were arguing less and were just doing their own things on the opposite sides of the stadium. Reo would mop around in the shared bedroom along with Baro after training, and Nagi was just sleeping. Sleep helped him escape this hellhole for now. Karasu was somewhat back in his usual shape after he would reread the compliments (Y/n) had sent him. Yukimiya and Otoya's guards were less on now, as the group was getting less wild and Niko, Hiori and Kurona were just training together, often exchanging what they missed about (Y/n).

"Great job you two! The fans will surely enjoy the game in two weeks!" (Y/n) told Ness and Kaiser as they were leaving the training grounds of the club.

"And you can't stay a week longer? Getting you a VIP pass won't be hard if you decide to stay." Ness said, a little sad that they only had a week with the girl left.

"Sorry, I have my own team to return to and your manager probably misses his work, too." (Y/n) said, a little sad that she has to leave the country soon, as she did grow attached to the duo. But she was very happy to go home to her team, she missed the chaos they cause at times.

"Well, if you do decide to stay, it won't be hard to find an arrangement. Just tell Ness or I." Kasier added, hoping that she might agree eventually.

And finally, finally the end of the 3rd week came and the boys were in their old form as it dawned on them that (Y/n) will be back soon! Ego was happy that the boys were back to their normal and was busy telling Chris off for a manager exchange.

'No way am I going through this mess again.' The man thought.

"(Y/N)!!" Bachira, Isagi and Hiori yelled as they hugged the girl as soon as she entered the building.

"We missed you!"

"Please don't leave like that again!"

"It was hell!"

"Ahh it was? I heard that Suzuki-san had everything under control though." (Y/n) said as Isagi helped her up and Bachira kept on hugging her.

"It's really not the same."

"Yeah, please never leave like that." Kurona and Isagi protested as Reo and Nagi ran to their side and hugging the girl.

"We missed you!"

"The new arrangement was such a drag."

"Lukewarms, move away."

"Hey, I want a hug too!"

"Welcome back, (Y/n). Never leave again."

The whole team was soon at the entrance, hugging the girl and saying how much they missed her.

"I missed you too guys! But I need to go and talk with Ego-san now-"

"No!"

"Come on, we will catch up in our room."

"Ego-san can wait."

As the group started dragging the girl away, Ego watched the interactions with amusement.

"Welcome back." He whispered, deciding to let some of the comments slide for now.

[batbabydamian]

so, Batman #147… rambling about the difference in how Zdarsky portrays the two current Robins

this is a fantastic run for Tim, and very much written like a return to form of what plenty consider the best dynamic duo, but even more so "the best Robin". once Damian's introduced in this run, Zdarsky really makes sure you still know that lol

1. "We don't need anyone else" VS "I need my family"

#147 clearly exemplifies the contrast, so i'll go through it first. Damian, having fallen for Zurr's lie and accepted him as the real Bruce, goes so far as to say in the very first page "We don't need anyone else." it's cold colors, machinery, and hollow declarations of "father and son" for these two.

towards the ending, Tim has deduced where the real Bruce is hiding and brings him food expecting Bruce's knack for self-neglect. it's all warmth, sunshine, and mutual understanding - also a cute back and forth of "Batman and Robin" between them. on top of this, where Damian isolates Batman & Robin from family, Tim is the one to remind Bruce about "helping each other." Bruce heartily agrees with "I need my family" for a weighty end.

along with this parallel, from #138 Tim makes it clear that even in opposition, he's only ever trying to help Bruce. Damian was still on the wrong side with Zurr-induced-Bruce here at the time too 😭

2. Tim's independence as both a hero and partner

Tim is written as the ideal Robin to Bruce's Batman, and has made Robin its own independent hero on equal footing rather than a sidekick - it's made in statements by both Tim and Bruce, and through the entire narrative. he takes initiative and tries to foresee what would ultimately help Bruce. beyond being great partners, there's many bits showing their emotional connection ("i'm scared of being lost, but i'm more scared of losing you, Bruce" hit me like a bag of bricks). tbh this almost could be a Batman and Robin run lol

added the first panel from #126 of Tim declaring he's his own hero outside of Bruce, proven plenty especially in his backups in #131-134!! the other panels are a few highlights from #128, #130, and #135 of the partnership between Tim and Bruce

granted it's Zurr, but Damian is mostly seen following orders and given pensive looking panels when there's something concerning. While Tim continued to represent Batman's ideals during his own solo quest to find Bruce, Damian doesn't question or take action against "Bruce's" sudden shift in ethics

Batman #134 Backup - Tim showing support toward Toyman VS Batman #146 - Zurr and Damian confront Harley as she pleads about her change of heart

another kiinda parallel in #147 is Bruce acknowledging Tim's hard work to become Robin compared to Damian who's out here going Batman and Robin/Father and Son. i don't think it's an intended parallel but just the state of continuing to show Tim in a better light - Tim put in the effort "to become the second-best Robin" while Damian is Robin because..."son." supposedly less effort on his part too, because LOA.

second pic is from Batman/Catwoman The Gotham War: Scorched Earth, felt fitting to add since Tim mentions needing to "know everything" in both. and the humble brag. which ofc Tim believes Dick is the best!! but also. jic we didn't know Tim is the best current Robin sdfgh

3. Damian's blind loyalty as "Bruce's son"

there's a weight to the Robin title when regarding Tim, whereas Damian's "Robin" role is excess and counterintuitive. he's delegated to desperate sidekick to Bruce, as well as becoming an obstacle to the family. being Robin only seems significant to Damian in how it ties himself to his father, and his single Robin quality is a loyalty that's been written to an extreme fault. the only positive angle i could see this in is Zdarsky aiming to put Damian in a sympathetic light in how far Damian was willing to fall to stay by his father's side, hence, fooled by that nightmare story/confession. the problem with this is that we have not seen a single emotional connection between the two in this run, so why should we care about that relationship.

also, Damian constantly bringing up his position as Bruce's son just makes him look entitled? since Bruce rightfully expressed his claim of having the others as his sons too (with the unfortunate exclusion of his daughter)! so it's like a "lol you're not that special" vibe when looking at it from the outside?? ykw concerning #138, Damian saying "You're the one trying to destroy my father" also could have been in contrast to Tim saying "We'll help our dad" at the end.

Zdarsky seems to believe the only meaningful part of Damian being Robin is he's the son of Bruce, and not a single nod to any noble aspect Damian's achieved beyond that. we're constantly reminded of Tim's greatest hits as Robin, from taking on the mantle to pull Bruce out of darkness (#135, #138), mastermind a whole takedown (Gotham War: Scorched Earth), and always being on the same wavelength with Bruce etc. the entire run sings Tim's praise, and it's deserved!! my problem is how it's in stark contrast to Damian's portrayal of being the other Robin who's only special because he believes he's the greatest son and wants to be at Bruce's side.

so all this to say, if your fav is Tim YOU'RE EATING WELL!! personally as a chronic enjoyer of things, this has been an entertaining run! as a chronic enjoyer of Damian, it's definitely not for many of his fans at this point in time.

i did like this part!! his grin!!

[junipers-archive]

Hiii, love your work. I'm asking if maybe there could be a Part 2 or something about this: https://www.tumblr.com/junipers-archive/715380966834782208/spencer-reid-x-baureader-pining-over-each-other?source=share

Maybe they confess and start secretly dating? I don't know just would really like to see more of it bc its really cute.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚✧ CONFESSIONS --> (word count: 1.1k)

❥ heyy thank you sm!! And yes ofc ofc❥ (It's not necessary to read part 1 but it adds to the story if you do!!)

❥ You and Spencer have been pining over each other for ages, everyone at the bau sees it and you finally get the nerve to bring it up!! Results in confession and hints towards secret dating :)

It had only been week since the last case, when your co-workers not-so-subtly hinted towards Spencer returning your feelings. And despite yourself you couldn't get it out of your head. As of right now you were seated next to him in one of the black SUVs, picking your nails nervously and attempting to avoid eye contact.

You tried to look at your phone, but then it'd look like you were careless, then out the window but then you might look sad, and in the end you couldn't take your eyes off him.

He was driving so it gave you more wiggle room to glance every now and then, he was wearing a light purple dress shirt accompanied by one of his few but favorite ties, the light was hitting his hair so that his locks looked close to blonde.

You don't realize you've been 'glancing' too long until he speaks,

"Did I do something?"

Sputtering you try to answer, "I-What?"

He scrunches his eyebrows, puckering his lips like a genius who'd been stumped. And to be truthful he was, you'd been avoiding him non-stop all of this week, leaving him with only awkward greetings and little to no interactions. He missed you.

And when he'd gone to the other team members to ask about it they only gave him vague answers, Derek said you were just frustrated, Emily had only smiled knowingly, Penelope had giggled like she knew something and Rossi had told him to talk to you. Overall it'd seemed like everyone was in on a joke that he wasn't apart of.

He swallows before answering, only furthering your already distracted ogling as his adam's apple bops up and down.

"You've been distant, I just, when people are upset with me they tend to tell me what I've done! A-And I totally understand if I need to apologize for something, but can you at least tell me what for?"

You tilt your head giving him a view of the expanse of soft supple skin of your neck, which he tries his best not to stare at.

"I just...do you like anyone?" It seemed childish to ask but you were curious, at least the way you were asking could be interpreted as a friend-ly.

He freezes when you ask though, a million questions running through his mind. Did you know?Who had told you? Was he that obvious?

"I-no?" he wasn't lying, what he felt for you was beyond liking, it was something much deeper that he felt every time he set his eyes on you.

"No?" You shoulders slump, if he liked someone maybe you had hope, if he liked anyone it would've made your day.

"Do-Do you like someone?" His heart clenches at the thought of you even looking at someone else.

"Yea, yea I more than like someone alright." you grumble.

"oh." its all he can muster up, his brain in short-circuiting.

"I think he knows me better than I know myself to be honest." this was the closest you were ever going to get to a confession, might as well take advantage of his obliviousness.

"He's a gentleman, sweet, kind, he knows everything about me really and he's got these eyes, I swear I could get lost in them and I feel like myself around him..."

To your surprise as you're speaking he pulls over, his hands are clenched around the wheel and he looks...angry?

Once he's stops the car he begins to ramble just as you had, with the acception of a few more hand gestures.

"You can't like someone else. I'm the one that gets you your coffee every morning, I'm the one who knows you're allergic to specific flowers, knows that carry a book with you everywhere you go, that you can't go a day without dessert, that you'd rather stay in then go out, I know you Y/n. I know you better than anyone! Who could possibly know you better than I do?!"

Your eyes are wide, taking in everything he's said, because he's right, you were best friends before you were anything else. Nobody knows you better than him.

"You, I like you Spence." Its a quiet confession, one that you thought you would've said more confidently in retrospect and it takes a minute for him to process but he gets it eventually.

"Oh. But- but you said that- I thought- you-you like me?"

The grin on his face makes butterflies swarm in the pits of your stomach, "I was talking about you, genius. And I more thank like you."

"Yeah?" He questions, even though he's gotten his answer he likes to hear you say it, likes to hear the words leave your beautiful lips and enter his ears like music.

You role your eyes playfully, "Yeah...dummy." Your head is now ducked bashfully.

He feels like he's in a dream, a wonderful, amazing, and ethereal dream. "Would you- I mean you don't have to say yes- but- um-I was thinking maybe you- and I- together I mean-could-"

"Yes." When you get the jist of the question you answer immediately, you've known the answer to that question since the day you met him.

You're both grinning like idiots when he finally starts the car again, managing amazingly he notices not to swerve off course every time he glances at you too long. You talk about how the team wasn't a big help to either of you, swapping stories about the ways they would tease.

In a try to keep the conversation going he asks, "Should- we- um tell the team?" He still can't believe you more-than-like him, or that you agreed to a date, he feels energized, elated, and like he's won.

You're trying not to jump up and down or come off too happy, catching his gaze every now when you look at him and he's already looking at you, only worsening your growing cheerfulness.

"Nah, let them have a taste of their own medicine, lets just enjoy being together, we are together, right?"

He's turned red at your assumption, probably jumping far to quickly to answer, "Yes! I mean- yea, yea we're together."

"That's nice!" You also reply far too quickly, which ultimately gives you both hope, if the two of you were this whipped for one another then you must be meant for each other.

[abacus-jpg]

Anyone else not understand why people are moving to cara. Like I understand it’s because ai and shit,, but like. What confuses me is as long as your art is on the internet, aslong as you chose to post your art online anywhere, doesn’t matter where, it is prone to being stolen by ai. To me ai is nothing more then when people trace your art and call it their own. Ofc I don’t want people to do it, but ultimately that will not stop them. I do have a cara account, I was the first to claim abacus. When I tried posting there a few times I’ve been met with an error message, alongside that the app is really buggy and slow. I don’t see why people feel the need to come up with new apps to post art on when you could just use tumblr, but then the argument with tumblr is that there’s no engagement. But if we all flock to tumblr like people are flocking to cara then I don’t see why engagement would be such a big issue. Even then, if engagement is your main concern with your art I feel like you should reevaluate why you are pursuing art in the first place. I had this struggle ages ago where I didn’t feel my art was worth anything because I couldn’t cap 10 likes. But I realized, my art is for me. I’m the one that should be enjoying it, and my reason for posting now is for other people to enjoy it, so if they don’t,, I really don’t care all the much. I understand it is really detouring to post ocs and to have zero engagement, but that’s just the way art is. Unless you are producing fanart consistently of shit that is made into content farms, I really don’t see how you can garner a following just doing ocs. That’s why, doing art for your own sake is more important than trying to please everyone. I can guarantee there’s atleast one stranger on the internet that will fw your stuff the way you want. And the more you post, the more the number will grow. Most of the time it’s gradual, but one goes to two, two goes to three. And maybe you’ll only get one or two. But the important thing is, there’s someone. If you feel like you have no one, remember your art is for yourself. You’ll always have one, even if that is yourself. This might all seem contradictive. But trust, only you matter when it comes to your own artwork.

This “speech”, if you can call it that, isn’t to deter people from drawing and posting their ocs. This is just to say, engagement shouldn’t matter. As long as you’re happy, that’s all the matters. Post and draw what you want aslong as it’s not straight ripping from someone else. Idc.

This whole thing was supposed to be abt Cara but it turned into a uhh,, Ted talk of sorts. I’m not saying people shouldn’t use cara, if it works for them then by all means go for it. But personally I will not be making it my main form of social media. In my opinion, it’ll be like that other art app people were using for a week before they forgot abt it, I forget the name of it but I remember the interface was a light pink, similar to Instagram,, but somehow worse.

IM GONNA SPECIFY THAT I DONT CONDONE AI STEALING PEOPLES ART EITHER,, just putting that out there because some people have a way of misunderstanding or misinterpretating things. Which is okay!! Because some people genuinely get confused and that’s alright. But like please don’t use so first handedly. With that being said, I’m just a nobody on the internet so why would you listen to me,, you won’t. But i uhh,, am gonna put that there anyways

Thanks if you read allat,, idk why you would but that’s anyways I guess😭😭😭

[meepmeep19]

Out of all the Hunting Dogs members, Tachihara rly seems to be the closest to Jouno (after Teruko ofc) But why is that the case?

I mean just LOOK at how proud Tachihara looks in this panel after receiving that praise from Jouno! It’s sooo cute I-😭 But why is Tachihara so close to Jouno of all people?

Well I HC that when Tachihara first joins the HD, his criminal background makes him understandably very distrustful/fearful of everyone else. It feels less like the HD are his coworkers and more like they’re just cops keeping an eye on him, just waiting for when he’ll inevitably slip up so they can finally lock his ass away. He just can’t get that criminal-cop mindset out of his head yet.

Jouno was the only person that could understand and relate to Tachihara considering he was also a formal criminal (tho I don’t think he was ever scared of the HD, he still felt that same distrust in his first couple years as well)

And so to make Tachihara feel more comfortable/calm (cuz he’s actually starting to care for the boy getting sick of constantly hearing Tachihara’s too fast heart beat) Jouno decides to casually bring up all the stupidly profitable crimes Tachihara could’ve committed with his ability, going into suspiciously criminal amounts of detail. Most of the heists that he brings up r stuff that he himself was planning to do in the mafia before he got arrested. Jouno talks about this to help remove the whole ‘HD-dangerous-cop’ association that Tachihara has made.

At first Tachihara is very suspicious and hesitant to answer, assuming this must be some sort twisted way to set him up. But then he realizes Jouno just genuinely enjoys talking about crimes as if they aren’t surrounded by Japan’s elite police force. And yet no one ever actually does anything to Jouno, even tho everything he says is so illegal, that he should’ve already gone to prison 20 times over just for even uttering half that stuff lol.

These conversations rly help Tachihara to stop seeing the HD as just ‘cops’ and he immediately begins to open up. Soon he and Jouno r having like hour long conversations, literally just discussing various heists in great detail.

They make Tetchou slightly uncomfortable with their blase view of big time crime so every time they start talking about this stuff, Tetchou just silently walks out of the room lol (Jouno 100% teases him for that, constantly inviting him to join their conversations, to which Tetchou always politely declines lol)

Ofc, to remind Tachihara that at the end of the day, they ARE still just only coworkers (not friends), Jouno likes to end their conversations laughing, saying ‘Of course, if you were to actually try any of this, I would not hesitate to gouge your eyes out and feed them to the dogs’ which always keeps Tachihara from being too casual.

Despite that tho, Tachihara can’t help but still see Jouno as older brother figure. A terrifying brother figure, but a brother figure nonetheless. In some ways, he actually somewhat prefers his relationship with Jouno than that with his actual brother. Don’t get me wrong: he still loves his brother but… unlike with his brother, no one pressures him to be like Jouno; if anything, they actually discourage Tachihara from becoming too much like him lol.

The HD never make him feel like he HAS to live up to anyone. Instead they actually want him to become his own person so he can add something unique to the team. They never make him feel like he’s not enough. And that just means so much to someone like Tachihara, who spent his whole life feeling so inadequate compared to perfection of the dead.

So yeah, that’s how Jouno and the Hunting Dogs became Tachihara’s found family

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Role Reversal

Roman kept mentioning that he doesn’t like transformations and it kept reminding me of Patton turning into a giant frog and Janus disguising himself as other sides. It would be very cool and epic if you could make some Roman angst based off this concept (no pressure obviously) – anon

The song "I Am in Great Pain, Please Help Me" by Crywank reminds me so much of Roman (specifically, your brand of Roman angst). I was wondering if you had the spoons for it, to write something inspired by it? No pressure to, ofc! – anon

Perhaps something where Roman is comforting Logan and then after Roman leaves, Logan is like, “Wait, shit, I should have been comforting YOU!”. You know the scene in What Makes A Perfect Gift where Logan asks for Roman’s input and Roman looks genuinely surprised? The angst potential for Roman not thinking he’s needed at a BRAINSTORM is so slept on. I know you’ve had a lot of Roman angst asks lately so I understand if you don’t want to do it, but I definitely wanted to ask just in case! – anon

Roman angst disguised as Logan centric. Logan Sherlock fic about him trying to figure out why Thomas’s mental health is so bad. – anon

Read on Ao3

Warnings: roman being insecure, logan being insecure

Pairings: logince can be platonic or romantic you decide

Word Count: 3143

Logan feels stressed about Thomas's mental health and goes to Roman for help discussing a possible upcoming video, only for Roman to accurately guess that Logan's feeling insecure about his own role in keeping Thomas happy and healthy. Little does Logan know: there's more going on than meets the eye and it isn't until later that he realizes Roman's far more fragile than anyone could've guessed. After that, well, there's really only one course of action.

If Logan had not been paying very, very close attention, there is every possibility that he could have missed it.

He almost did; despite being entirely focused on his goal, he has to admit that it wasn't something he saw as necessarily related, and as such, dismissed initially as not relevant to solving the problem of why Thomas's mental health had been in a steady decline since the wedding. However, upon further reflection, he can conclude that not only was the sudden tightening of Roman's expression related, it was most likely the strongest indicator he's seen since he began.

"Sorry, Specs, I think my hearing cut out of a second there." Roman scratches the back of his head almost sheepishly. "Can you—can you say that one more time?"

"I believe it would be helpful for Thomas for us to do another 'low-key' video, as it were, and for you and I to work together."

"Yes, I heard that part."

"As we want to focus on recapturing some of Thomas's whimsy and zest for life—" here Roman's expression quirks towards amusement— "it would be apt for you to try and recreate some of the dreams Thomas has held onto in the past."

"Right, but not like—"

"Including transforming into those he aspired to be or the roles he aspired to fill," Logan finishes, frowning when there's that momentary tightness in Roman's smile again, "do you concur?"

"I—so I'm all for helping Thomas fall in love with his dreams again, you know, but, um…" He twists his fingers together. "I'm not sure that this is…the best way to do it?"

"You are the embodiment of Thomas's Hopes and Dreams. Who else would be better equipped to help me?"

Roman blinks as if he hadn't been expecting the comment. Which is in and of itself a little odd; Roman typically never passes up the opportunity to remind them of his standing in Thomas's psyche, nor to claim credit for half of the things Thomas does even when it's far more of a group effort. "Right, but I don't see how me turning into various things would be helpful."

"Thomas is a very visual learner. It's been proven in the past via various theater productions and other activities that he thrives in environments where he can immerse himself in what it is he's doing. By having you, his Creativity, directly mimic the dreams he wishes or wished to obtain, we draw a more substantial connection between the Thomas that he is now and the Thomas he aspires to be."

Roman's mouth works. Logan frowns.

"If you have something you want to say, Roman, by all means, speak your mind. This brainstorm won't be nearly as successful if only one of us is contributing."

"Where is this coming from, Logan?"

"I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"This." Roman gestures back and forth between them. "This sudden need to 'fix' Thomas. You've been pretty clear with the rest of us that you don't think staying 'in his head' would be helpful, not when you're working so hard on your lists that you want him to do."

"Well, it's been pretty clear those aren't working, so—"

"But they have been. You know they have been—we all celebrated when Thomas finally managed to clean his kitchen and you were right, he did feel better afterwards. Your methods were working, are working."

Logan swallows. He did feel very accomplished after the last bowl had been placed in the cupboard, and no one had been happier than he when Thomas not only made himself dinner but cleaned up afterwards, but this was different. "Thomas deserves the drive to go after what he wants as well as doing the maintenance required to sustain his current lifestyle."

Roman nods. "And what sorts of things are those?"

"Roman, I don't understand—"

"Please," he interrupts, holding up his hands, "humor me?"

"You're the one who's Hopes and Dreams," he protests feebly, "you're Creativity. I'm not going to be good at coming up with them."

"Just try. You're better at it than you think."

"O-oh." He blinks. "Thank you, Roman."

"Of course."

"Uh—well, I think Thomas has a passion for filmmaking that he hasn't fully realized in shooting the YouTube videos due to the constraints of the channel."

"Okay."

"He's been enjoying doing the modeling shoots for Instagram as well. And he has a few shows that he wants to catch up on—not a dream, I know, but something he wants to do."

"That's good, Logan. What else?"

"Does he still have the dream of being an actor? On a more professional level?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Well, there you are, then."

Roman nods. "And if we go off of your transformation idea, what—what exactly would I be transforming into?"

He furrows his brow. "Well, you would be—if you were doing—I suppose you—ah. I see your point."

"It's not that there's something Thomas isn't that we need to make him into," Roman says quietly, "we can just remind him of the things that are already inside him that he can chase and pursue."

"…that is a very valid conclusion to have reached."

"He doesn't have to work all the time—I think both you and I know the dangers of letting yourself believe you can," he says with a gentle nudge to Logan's shoulder, "he can give himself time to rest and work on things that he wants to, not things that he has to."

"And I suppose making another video would be counterproductive to this aim, as it requires a level of work that would not be outweighed by the reassurance it might provide."

"I don't know if I would've said it nearly as well as you, but yeah, pretty much."

Logan sighs, closing his notebook with an almost despondent flap. "Then I suppose I have nothing else to work on."

"Good."

He frowns at Roman. "'Good?'"

"Well, now that means you can do the things that you want to do."

"M-me? What on earth are you talking about?"

"Did we not just go over how important it is to not be consumed by work all the time?"

"Well, yes, but—"

"Did we not just talk about how it's necessary to rest and do the things you want to do from time to time?"

"I don't—"

"Did you not just say that you have nothing else to work on right now?"

"I know what you're doing," he says, meaning for it to come out accusatory and missing dreadfully, "it's not going to work."

"Me convincing you to take time for yourself and enjoy spending your time how you want to spend it isn't going to work?" Roman grins, leaning forward onto his elbows, propping his chin on his hands. "Are you sure?"

"Roman," he warns.

"What? It's not like I was the only one who came to this conclusion about Thomas a second ago, you were instrumental in figuring it out, Specs."

"Roman."

"And we all know that you're way smarter than I am, so if you're going to take your own advice—which you should, then—"

"Alright!" Roman laughs as Logan buries his face in his hands, trying not to smile too obviously at the praise or blush from how many compliments Roman's just given him, "you've made your point, you can stop now."

"I think you mean I've just reiterated your point, but that's alright." A warm hand pats his shoulder. "You're doing great, Logan. You don't have to stress out about this right now. Thomas has earned a break and so have you, okay?"

"…I suppose there are a few things I've been waiting to do that could occupy my time."

"There you go!" Roman claps his hands and gets up, affectionately ruffling Logan's hair and dodging his attempts to swat him. "Let me know how it goes, I'd love to hear about whatever you're working on."

Logan aims another swat at his shoulder and misses, watching Roman sink out. He shakes his head, unable to keep the growing smile off his face as he thinks about his own projects. Yes, there are several things he could do, he could work on refining the data for the experiment, he could read that study he's been eyeing for a few days, he could look over the manuscript he's drafting…

It isn't until he gets back to his room with a different notebook open on his desk that he pauses.

Why had Roman been upset at the suggestion of transformation?

They had agreed upon resting and doing what they wanted, letting Thomas do what he wanted. They had agreed that resting was good, pursuing one's own passions was good. What about transformations had rankled Roman so? He hadn't directly addressed it—something virtually unheard of for Roman. Perhaps it had been something to do with the act of transforming itself? But no, Roman had always been among the first to thrill at being someone else, or pretending to be someone else. What had caused such a dramatic shift?

What sorts of transformations had they done recently? There had been the whole thing with Remus—Logan suppresses a shudder as he remembers Remus's song and everything that happened in it—but Roman had been unconscious for most of it. Aside from that, it had been…

Well, Janus had been transforming into them more often than not, but that was him, mostly, not Roman. And Patton had become the giant frog, but that hadn't really affected Roman that much either. No, the last time Roman had been the one transforming, it had been…for…

Logan stands up, eyes still fixed on a point in the distance as his mind races.

Roman hadn't transformed for himself. It had always been at the whim of someone else. Roman was Hopes and Dreams—Thomas's Hopes and Dreams. Roman did things for Thomas. He was Thomas's wants. Despite how often they all called him selfish, he…he didn't really fight for the things that he wanted.

Could he name a single thing that Roman wanted that wasn't something for Thomas?

I think you and I both know the dangers of believing you can work all the time.

There's nothing that Thomas isn't that we need to make him into.

"Oh, Roman," he whispers into the quiet room, "when did you get so good at hiding?"

He doesn't want to know the answer, but his mind is already coming up with a helpful list of every time he can remember where Roman let himself get pushed to the side, overruled, scolded, overlooked, for the sake of someone else. He thinks about the times where Roman had been obviously uncomfortable with what they wanted him to do, and then did it anyway. He thinks about how long it's been since he's actually heard Roman say what he wanted, not what Thomas wanted, not what Patton or Janus or even he wanted.

How long has it been since someone wanted Roman for Roman?

He looks back down at his desk and pulls out a different notebook. He's underestimated Roman. He won't go into this upcoming conversation unprepared.

***

He knocks on Roman's door as softly as he can, waiting for the quiet come in to push it open. Roman looks up from his—

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, no.

"Oh, Roman," he murmurs before he can stop himself, crouching next to Roman's slumped figure and carding a hand through his hair, "I'm so sorry."

"N-no, I'm sorry, 'm sorry, I can—" he scrubs a hand harshly across his face— "it's fine. What, um, what do you—"

Another sob interrupts him before he can finish asking if Logan needs anything, which only makes his chest ache all the more. He eases himself down next to Roman's buckled legs and wraps a comforting arm around his shoulders, pulling him close enough to wipe a thumb across his cheek.

"Shh," he says when Roman tries to speak again, "don't stress yourself. I'm not here for anything other than this, little one."

The pet name rolls off his tongue before he can stop it, but at the slightly wounded noise that leaves Roman's lips, he resolves to use them as often as he can. He scratches his nails lightly against his scalp, shushing him again when he tries to stifle another sob.

"I'm here because I realized I'd hurt you earlier," he continues, still speaking gently, "and I did not attempt to comfort you in any way. No, no—don't pull away from me, dear. Shh, don't fret, don't fret, I'm not upset—look at me, Roman, do I look upset?"

Roman's eyes, still filled with tears, roam frantically over his face. Logan keeps his expression as soft and open as he can, letting the concern write itself plainly over the furrow in his brow. After another moment, Roman sniffles and he's already reaching for the tissue box he can see perched haphazardly on the end of the desk. He takes it with a grateful mumble and blows his nose with a honk.

"You were right. You don't need to change to be worth something, or to be fixed. You don't need to become something you're not—oh, darling, hush, now," he says when Roman's eyes grow wide with distress, "I'm not angry, I'm not—oh, you poor thing."

For Roman had begun to sob in earnest, trying in equal parts to pull away from Logan's embrace and push himself near into his chest. Logan slides an arm under his legs and pulls them into his lap, tucking Roman's face into the crook of his neck and kissing the crown of his head. There's a moment where Roman tenses and he fears he might pull away, but then he all but collapses into him and buries his nose in Logan's shirt.

"There you go, little one, shh, it's alright. You can cry, crying is good. You're alright, you're safe, I'm right here." He runs his hand up and down Roman's back. "Shh, shh, that's it…that's it, my dear."

"Sorry—'m so sorry—"

"Shh-shh-shh, no apologies from you, not about this. You're overwhelmed and overworked, it's perfectly alright for you to be emotional right now. You can let it out, I don't mind at all. In fact, I'm here to help."

"Help?"

"Mm. You took great pains to comfort me earlier, even when I did not ask, and you," and here he gives Roman a little shake, "have not let anyone comfort you in quite a long time. So yes, I am here to comfort you, to help, and if that means letting you cry in my lap for as long as you need, then that is what I shall do."

"It's so hard," comes the sniffling whisper from under his chin, "I keep—I keep trying to be what they want but they don't know what they want and then it's my fault and I can't—they keep changing and wanting me to change and I can't—"

"Shh, shh…hush, my dear, it's alright. That's right, just let me hold you…"

They spend a great deal of time like that, curled up on the floor. Logan keeps carding his hand through Roman's hair, soothing away the more violent of sobs with gentle touches up and down his back or patting his chest. How long has Roman been holding this in? How long has it been since their prince has let himself fall apart without remorse? And how long has it been since they took pains enough to notice?

He pulls himself from his own thoughts when Roman's head turns, bumping slightly against his chin. He tilts his head to press a kiss to his temple, leaning back just enough to see the blotchy face come into view. Taking another tissue, he carefully dabs up the last of the tears he can see, holding it so Roman can blow his nose again.

"…thanks, Logan."

"Of course, my dear." He raises an eyebrow at the little shudder that goes through him. "No?"

"N-no, yes. Yes. Very much yes. Sorry."

"None of that now, my dear. Do you feel any better?"

"A little bit."

"That's excellent. Shall we sit here for a little longer, or do you want to move somewhere a little more comfortable?"

"C-can we just stay here for a little longer?"

"Of course we can." He runs his thumb over Roman's cheek again. "I am truly sorry it took me so long to figure out what was going on, little one. But I'm here now."

Roman averts his gaze and once again Logan is struck by how different Roman is right now; no longer does he see their fiery prince who so eloquently made him take his own advice mere hours ago, instead he sees a shell of a Side who shies away from a gentle touch like a dog too scared to eat. The comparison alone is enough to coax him to lean forward and kiss his cheek, cuddling him against his chest.

"I'm here now," he repeats, "let me look after you."

"You will?"

"Yes, Roman, I will. I'm right here—" he pulls him a little closer— "I've got you, little one, you're alright."

"I don't know what to do."

"Right now?"

"…anymore."

Logan's heart clenches in his chest and he forces the ache away, running his thumb over his cheek once more. "Well, what do you want to do right now?"

"I want to stay here."

"Then we shall stay here. And when you're ready to figure out what you want to do next," he says, adjusting them until they're both comfortable as can be, "I will be here to help."

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[witchspeka]

I dont think Mob is naive as much as he's socially unaware, like the reason why he trusts Reigen so blindly is a bit more complex than just him being naive

Cause Mob reached out to Reigen because he was desperate to find someone like him, someone who understood his psychic specific issues, someone that could truly know what he's feeling and going through and give him guidance and support

Post incident Mob's thinking process was something along the lines of my powers hurt people -> my powers are bad -> my powers (my emotions, my instincts, myself) cannot be trusted

So he lost all confidence and trust in his own actions, resigning to being as passive as possible to avoid any further damage to anyone else, thus he started doubting his own perception of reality too

He's a kid already struggling with being ostracised for being socially inept, who just got traumatised and all of his insecurity increased by the tenfold, he doesn't know how to process what he's going through. He needs help.

And here comes Reigen, seemingly reliable, a responsible adult in a child's eyes, someone who claims he can understand him

Even tho Reigen doesnt. But it doesn't matter, because Mob finds comfort in his words and takes them to heart

Even if Reigen doesn't fully get it, even if he doesn't see the bigger picture, even if his advice isn't always the best

Eventually, Mob grows up, realises Reigen isn't as honest as he seemed through his 11 year old perspective, but like most things, he refuses to acknowledge it on a deeper level

Mob knows, but never tells Reigen, never thinks about what all those lies mean to him (ofc until he forces himself to face those doubts regarding Reigen, to properly acknowledge both of their flaws and accept them as they are, I should scream into the void about Confession Arc more God)

Due to his lack of trust in himself, Mob has relied on Reigen for years now to shape his moral compass, his thoughts, his decisions

Because well, Reigen lies, sure, but he isnt a bad person. When he hurts Mob, it isn't intentional or with ill intent, he still wants the best for him, what's the issue?

Except that it stunts Mob's growth. He doesn't develop as a person, doesn't have goals or wishes or ambitions, can't make choices on his own, he doesn't even let himself acknowledge his own emotions, he refuses to let himself exist

But Mob realises in time that he wants more than that, he wants to become better and be independent and feel again

Still, he puts the acknowledgement of the lies on hold for as long as he can, unwilling to question the way things are

This can make him feel a little naive, he constantly relies on Reigen and trusts his decisions and raises questions rarely until separation arc when he finally puts his foot down

And I do think that moment is the most resounding proof we have that Mob knows and allows himself to be used by Reigen, not wanting to shake the status quo, until he gets fed up

I mentioned the social ineptitude at the beggining but idk if I should even elaborate on that, you've watched the show, you know what I mean

He's blunt and can't read social cues or tonality that well and can't speak in front of crowds and is overall pretty awkward and I do think some people conflate that with naivety

Mob is still a child, he doesnt fully understand how the world works at the ripe age of 14 years old, but some folks take that as him being inherently naive/innocent/whatever which I don't find true

[dootznbootz]

I'm not very fond of Epic AUs where Odysseus adopts Astyanax.

It's fine for a one-off joke or comic and ofc this is just my opinion but... if Astyanax lives (like in Racine's play), he should always stay with Andromache. His actual mother, yk. Not with one of the men who sacked Troy. Zeus' prophecy is bound to happen and Odysseus knew keeping the infant around was a bad idea.

If Astyanax dies, I want to see him in Elysium with his father, finally in a peaceful place and having all of eternity to catch up. Then Andromache joins them (sending her to Asphodel would be too cruel) and they finally reunite.

Would anyone picture Neoptolemus adopting Astyanax ? The son of Achilles, who dragged Hector's body in a chariot. No ? So Achilles' associate doing the same would be weird.

And Odysseus ? I want him CRAVING for a son, waiting for so long until he can express his paternal affection (and always cursing Palamedes even after his revenge 😂).

Him meeting Telemachus all grown up should be his first real shot at fatherhood. It'd be underwhelming if he already had a little boy with him. If Telemachus has a little brother, Penelope should be the mother. Or they adopt another baby together afterwards. No Astyanax and ESPECIALLY NO TELEGONUS !

So yeah, imo Astyanax and Odysseus don't belong with each other. Any thought ?

Headsup: This is just an opinion. My opinion does not matter. If you like this AU, PLEASE don't let that stop you from creating! Just because it's not for me, doesn't mean it's not for you or for someone else :D

I absolutely agree and you absolutely put into words WHY.

There's the term "woobifying" and in some cases...I think that's what people just often do with Epic/The Odyssey. (especially from Epic) I'm saying as someone who is a very soft and fluffy person. I love soft and sweet fics and ideas. I love stuff that makes me smile. But I almost feel as though with certain soft things, you're taking away what makes characters who they are. which DOESN'T make me smile lol

like I think there's more fun in simply a "no-war AU" than the "Astyanax lives AU" xD like, that way, Odysseus is with his family, gets to be a dad, Astyanax gets to live (let's not think too hard about how "no war may have meant no Astayanax")

As that way, they still get to be in character as well.

Penelope and Odysseus for example, are scallywags lol. They scheme and swindle. They giggle and kick their feet when they get extra cattle. They hold grudges. They can be snooty and prideful. They're as full of love as they are full of hate. Odysseus, during the Sack of Troy, in both the Odyssey AND Epic, will do whatever it takes to get home. Like yes, in Epic, Jay has it where Odysseus has to "become ruthless" but I can understand what he's doing with the narrative. Odyssey Odysseus? Um...Iphigenia is proof that Odysseus is already ruthless.

Btw, why is Astyanax the only one Odysseus would want to save with these AUs? What about Iphigenia? Is it because of Epic?

Yes, I DO think Odysseus (and Penelope for that matter) have a lot of parental instinct. I plan to write Odysseus carving lil wooden toys for random kids just as something to do. He does tricks. (ngl, while it seems they weren't around in the Mycenaean era, Yo-yos were a thing in ancient Greece. I just KNOW Odysseus would be the type to do so many tricks. (also string and wood🥹)) He has a soft spot for Greater Ajax's boy. My goober was friends with Menelaus and Agamemnon even before he met Penelope (he saw two exiled guys take back their kingdom and thought "hm??? vulnerable state??? They're very rich?? hehe >:3" but then became fond of them. The reason why he went to Sparta was to help Menelaus with Helen but fell in love himself.) and he's carved lil toys for Agamemnon's kids

He's carved lil Iphigenia toys. She likes Dolphins. He still helps sabotage the letter in some myths and even hypes up the crowd.

Even if it IS just based on Epic, "The Horse and The Infant" and "Just a Man" are HUGE turning points for Odysseus. Or even just a show of character. Like yes, "Odysseus is learning ruthlessness" but he already is ruthless. He literally says "I would trade the world to see my son and wife". AND HE STILL DOES THE DEED! HE WAS RUTHLESS SINCE THE BEGINNING! The Second song in the Musical and it already tells you about Odysseus and what he is willing to do. Is he sad and haunted? Yeah. Still did it.

And I really love that as that's Odyssey Odysseus as well! Odysseus isn't an unfeeling violent villain. He's just a man.

Also...What happens in the Odyssey is no fucking place for a child. ;~; The cyclops, the Goddesses, the monsters? Why should a lil boy be anywhere near that? How did he survive while drifting to Ogygia? Does Poseidon try to keep them together? As no one would be in the state to take care of each other together for that many days.

And in general, in the Odyssey, to me, it's such a huge thing that he literally lost EVERYONE. THAT HE IS ALL ALONE. All of the people who were with him are now dead, and there was nothing he could do. It was already fated.

It's horrible but there's something so poetic in him being the "Sole Survivor", especially after all the hell he went through.

Also yeah, I DO really hate the thought of Telemachus knowing "You took care of this baby when I needed you?". Like my OdyPen have a daughter after he returns as the whole "only one son" and that's already really hard for Telemachus to watch Odysseus be a father for her, regardless of how often and how adamantly Odysseus reassures him that Odysseus desperately wished to do the same with him.