#is really concerning. but anyway did we all try the chips i thought the chips were great

[yuwuta]

i need u to post more of your opinions bc everything you’ve posted recently has had me nodding my head. like what u said about those tiktoks people make about people’s profiles on dating apps and the surveillance state and how whiteness is the standard in a lot of self insert fanfic/fanart or just fandom in general to the point that people don’t notice how they box brown and black people out of participating. i’ve been thinking a lot about stuff like this recently and it’s kinda consuming me. like i really hate how racism is still so prevalent in fandom. the other day this fanartist i liked (not anime) deactivated bc people asked her to draw nonwhite and not skinny characters and she went on a colorist crash out bc she only wanted to draw her characters with paper white skin which then opened the doors for her followers to be racist. then “her sister” posted her ai generated apology that uses her bad mental health as an excuse while people became even more racist. like it makes me want to tear my hair out

SHJSDKD i’m happy to hear you like my annoyed rambling posts and i feel you, the rage is extremely consuming. not even joking, for both of our sakes, we have to remember to breathe and count the blessings around us bc it really is so easy to be mad at everything all the time always 😭😭 sometimes i believe in the benefit of the doubt, as in someone who isn’t black/brown and/or darkskin might be used to the way the world presents content, particularly content surrounding love and entertainment, and might have inadvertently been taught to mimic that isms so deeply engrained in it, but you can always tell by their response to being correct, and a colorist crash out and ai apology is absolutely crazy work omfg

[saphronethaleph]

Fluid, Dynamics

“So, uh…” Anakin said, looking around him. “This is weird.”

“Is there something wrong, Master Jedi?” the Kaminoan asked, concerned. “I was going to welcome you to Tipoca City.”

“Oh, I’m actually not a Master,” Anakin replied. “My Master’s busy, I’m just…”

He shook his head. “Sorry about that, it’s very unprofessional of me. I know I’m supposed to be professional, but being around this much water is very odd for me.”

“Being around water is odd for you?” the Kaminoan repeated. “...is there an alternative? I know Kamino is an unusually wet planet, but I did not think the difference was that stark.”

“I’m from a world where there just… isn’t water,” Anakin explained. “The only way we got water to drink was to pull it out of the air, and there wasn’t enough to go around.”

Then he frowned slightly. “Actually, uh… come to think of it, it isn’t all that far from here to my homeworld… do you think I could ship some water over there?”

“That is an… odd request,” the Kaminoan admitted. “But I must admit, we do have more water than we know what to do with. Perhaps we could discuss something like that after our main business is completed.”

“Sure,” Anakin agreed. “So, where do we get started?”

“I will take you to Lama Su,” the Kaminoan decided. “He will show you the current state of progress.”

Anakin nodded, absently, mostly thinking about showing up at Tatooine with a freighter full of water.

“How often does Anakin go on missions without you?” Padme asked, curious.

“It happens, sometimes,” Obi-Wan replied. “Increasingly often these days, actually. Anakin is approaching the point where he will have the chance to become a Jedi Knight, and… I worry about him a little.”

“Is that something a Jedi does?” Padme said.

“All the time,” Obi-Wan replied. “But right now, Senator, your safety is the highest priority.”

He frowned. “Though I must admit, I was expecting there to have been some kind of assassination attempt by this point.”

“You almost sound disappointed,” Padme suggested.

“No, no, it’s pattern recognition,” Obi-Wan replied, firmly. “You see, my missions with Anakin so rarely go smoothly. And if this mission is going smoothly, where the biggest danger we’ve had to deal with is mosquitos, then I dread to think about what is going on with Anakin.”

There was a beep.

“...like that, for example,” Obi-Wan added, taking his comlink out of his pocket. “What is it, Anakin?”

“So, first I want to say, I didn’t set out to do this, Master,” Anakin said.

“...oh dear,” Obi-Wan sighed. “That’s never a good sign. So, what is it that you didn’t set out to do?”

“So it turns out that Kamino was building an army for the Jedi,” Anakin said. “Also, it’s a really wet, flooded planet, they actually have too much water, I didn’t know that was possible! But I said that Tatooine had too little water, and since they had all those giant ships anyway I thought some of them could be used for transporting lots of water…”

“Sorry, Anakin, Kamino was building an army for the Jedi?” Obi-Wan repeated, a little incredulously. “That seems like the most important part of the situation.”

“No, no, the most important part is that some guy called Darth Tyrannus hired this bounty hunter called Jango Fett to be the clone template,” Anakin said. “And get this, he’s the one who killed that bounty hunter we chased, and things got a bit complicated… anyway, I went over the technical details and the clones have this weird chip in them and I think Chancellor Valorum might have been trying to assassinate the Jedi because the chip would have let the Chancellor tell the clones to kill the Jedi… obviously I told the Kaminoans to take that bit out because we didn’t need it and it’s way too much like slavery if you ask me. Anyway, uh, I’ve got the clones shipping water from Kamino to Tatooine for now, the Kaminoans are actually totally okay with it because they’ve got too much water, and I rescued my mother, too! I told you she was in danger!”

Obi-Wan took several seconds to process that particular bit of Skywalkerness.

Then he processed it a second time.

“…you have the clones… shipping water to Tatooine,” he repeated.

“Yeah, it’s going to break the Hutt control over water production and transportation for anything above the subsistence level,” Anakin said. “And it’s going to make Tatooine a way better place-”

“I have to interrupt you there, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said. “You said you rescued your mother? That’s very impressive, but you didn’t tell me she was in danger.”

“I did!” Anakin objected.

“You said you were dreaming about her,” Obi-Wan pointed out. “That does not mean you were dreaming about her being in danger. That’s quite different, Anakin, you must remember to use the right words if you want me to know something.”

“...oh,” Anakin said, and Obi-Wan could hear the shrug. “Well, anyway, I think there might be some kind of Sith plot involved too because of the whole Darth thing. Do you think Chancellor Valorum was a Sith?”

“I see what you mean,” Padme admitted.

[afticxs]

TWILIGHT GEARS chapter eight

“okay,” michael begins, his approach is fast in contrast to the car that now has to obey–safe–city laws as it drives through rifle, colorado.

“so considering we don’t actually know each other that well, how about twen’ny one questions?” he asks, making a turn onto another street. you look at him quizzically, “twenty one questions?”

“you can’t be that clueless?” michael’s eyebrows furrow, “seriously?” you shrug, “i’ve never played it, remember i suffer from amnesia and chained to my house!”

you hold your wrists together in the air to imitate being shackled, “remember?”

he rolls his eyes, “okay, uh it’s just where you ask questions about the other.”

you nod, “i know, i was messing with you.” you look away, a hint of a smile on your face while michael scoffs, “look at that, we have a comedian on our hands.”

it goes quiet between you both as the two of you look at each other from the corner of your eyes. whatever song that was playing faded out and on cue, your stomach rumbled.

you gasp and hold your stomach while michael’s mouth twitches as he tries to hold back his laughter. you listen with embarrassment as michael’s throat crackles and bursts after numerous attempts to keep his giggles in.

wincing, you stare at him through your lashes until his laugh becomes contagious. you join in, a chorus of chortles overpowering the music in the vehicle.

“should’ve asked for something at the gas station,” michael scolds, jokingly as a few final giggles slip and he wipes a tear from his squinted eyes.

“ask me a question,” you demand, trying to get michael to forget about your hunger but your sickly sweet tone doesn’t have the harshness for it to really be a harsh commandment. michael hums in thought. his tongue clicks, “you have any pets?”

you shake your head and michael can see your hair move with your motions, “no, dad says they’re too expensive.”

“he’s not wrong,” michael murmurs, stretching his mouth as he reminisces all the times he’s needed to chip in on pet bills or food in general, “i have a cat, lovely girl but very codependent. when it suits her anyway.”

you chuckle, “i’ve always wanted a cat, i see them on the streets all the time back at home.”

“okay, okay my turn,” you suddenly burst, “what’s… what’s your favourite colour?”

michael taps his thumb on the wheel, “maybe orange or purple. they just happen to be nice, y’know? how about you, what’s yours?”

you hum, “maybe.. i like blue. my dad let me paint my bedroom ceiling and at first it was just baby blue, but then i saw a painting of cherubs for sale on an advert on tv and i decided i’d paint them on my ceiling too!”

“yeah? you must be quite the artist,” michael analyses you with a fond smile.

you shrug, “i have a lot of spare time on my hands. i did get carried away though, he came home to find all my furniture in the middle of my room while i painted the walls… so now i just have cherubs playing in clouds all around my room.”

“was he mad?” michael asks, the tiniest hint of concern in his voice. you shake your head, “no, he liked it but there wasn’t any paints left when i was done.”

“what’s school like?” your question catches michael off guard. what is school like? “well, it has its ups and downs, i guess.”

“it’s just diversity. different age groups, people look different, talk different. you make friends and enemies.”

but michael’s lying. he hasn’t gone to school since he was fourteen.

“really? how long have you been in school for?” you ask, fully intrigued in the life you don’t have. michael hums, “a while, i left school this year.”

if he stayed in school, he would’ve left this summer. but michael’s been homeschooled since 1984 because school became too much for him. how the tables have turned on him.

“but i was barely at school anyway, i preferred to work,” michael dashes a hint of truth into his statement because it looks like you have a good and easy perspective of life outside of your home and he doesn’t want to ruin it.

“oh..” you look down in thought, “i don’t remember going to school, i sometimes think about what my friends think? if i even had friends before.”

michael makes a ‘psh’ sound, “school isn’t that interesting, nothing to fret over missing to be honest. it’s one massive cliche, mean girls, bad boys, nerds and jocks. really, you aren’t missing out.”

michael’s lie is slipping as he rants with passion about the reality of school because he’s experienced it, been on the recieving and giving end.

“my dad homeschooled me when he could,” you noted, “which was hardly ever, but he left me books to read on the kitchen table and then he’d come home late in the evening and ask me about them to see if i read them.”

“that’s effective if you think about it,” michael theorised, “if he didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have a single smart thought in that noggin of yours.”

michael reaches over and taps your forehead, pressing down and jutting his finger for a second before pulling it away and switching the gear on the gear stick.

“yeah, i guess so..” you agree. you look out the window, admiring the mountainous terrain surrounding the town you were currently riding through.

michael asks another question, but you don’t hear it. you’re too busy looking at the clouds that sit on the mountains like a hat. you giggle, spotting how they form to make different images, “that one looks like a fish.”

he stares at you as the car comes to a stop. you feel it, it breaks you out of your imagination, “why’d we stop?”

michael points to the store he stopped outside of, “i’m hungry, you coming in?”

you nod and wait for michael to leave the car first before you do yourself. your legs feel like jelly after sleeping and sitting in the car for nearly eight hours. michael seems unaffected but he notices your sluggishness.

he chuckles, “stiff?”

“yeah, i think i have pins and needles,” you frown and hobble your way over to michael, who waits for you on the pavement. he holds his arm out and you hook your inner elbow around his, “thanks.”

“no biggie,” michael smiles and walks you into the store. you’re met with cool air and the scent of an old carpet. the two of you look at the drinks in the fridges and you shiver, goosebumps run along your exposed arms, “it’s cold.”

“i noticed,” michael notes as he lifts his sunglasses and settles them in his hair. his eyes are blue, bright blue. the sun shines through the window to his left and it peaks at you through the irises of michael’s eyes. you don’t notice how michael reaches for a can of coke.

“pick a drink, i’ll go get snacks,” michael suggested, unlinking your arms and soon, you are left alone. you fiddle with your skirt as you look at all there was to offer. you know your legs are also affected by goosebumps under the thin fabric.

you make eye contact with the glass bottle of sprite and you reach for it. it freezes your palm but you continue to hold it. it’s refreshing, especially in this heat. finished with your task, you go down the aisle michael did to find him hauling a pile of junk food in his arms.

you chuckle as he struggles, “do you need help?” you ask stepping closer to michael as he grunts. he looks at you and smiles, “it would be much appreciated.”

you take three family packs of chips off the top of the pile and his can of coke, “good?”

michael nods, “good. thanks.”

you’ve noticed how well-mannered michael is. he breaks the typical teenage boy stereotype. you’ve watched grease enough times to know that he doesn’t fit the description.

michael has a certain way of words, he doesn’t know exactly what to say. you know because he has been insensitive sometimes, but you’re getting used to it because you know that he’s not rude on purpose. he’s charismatic, like his dad. when you first met michael, he was kind to you and offered services to a complete stranger which is why you’re both here now.

he welcomed you because he’d never seen you before, michael wanted you to feel comfortable because he noticed. he’s a pure soul. you admire and look up to him.

like a guide, or guardian angel–there’s really no difference with michael–he eased your readmission into a once familiar society, helped you every step of the way during such a stressful time. you don’t think you could be more thankful.

you follow him to the checkout counter and slide your portion alongside michael’s as he pulls out some cash from his back pocket. the man tells him the price and michael gives him a ten dollar bill, recieving one dollar and forty five scents in change.

a bag was offered to you two and you accept, stuffing the plastic with as much as you can but even michael has to hold larger items that didn’t fit. you both thank the man and pick up your halves. walking away, michael looks at you, “we should continue our game of twenty one questions.”

you nod and readjust your hold on the bag you have when you notice the handle digging into the base of your fingers. michael kicks the door open with his foot and the bell chimes to signal that people were leaving.

“okay, what’s your favourite food?” michael asks as he tightens his hold of the snacks in one arm to fish out his car keys from his jacket pocket. you hum, looking down and watching your steps as you walk across the car park.

“maybe the pizza at freddy’s,” you confess with a fond smile but when you finally look up at michael to ask him his favourite food, he has this grossed out look on his face that makes your own scrunch up.

“what?” you ask with a sad and confused frown. michael exaggerates and gags, “those greasy things?”

he points to his mouth and sticks his tongue out, gagging again, “yuck..”

you nudge him, “there’s nothing wrong with them..” you’re so confused. michael’s lip twitches, “the only people who enjoy those pizzas are people with burnt tongues.”

“my tongue isn’t burnt,” you tilt your head and, once again, is confused by his vague term of expression. you hear the car unlock and the back door closest to you open. you watch as michael puts his share inside and you do the same.

“i’m ninety-nine percent sure that the cheese is plastic,” michael dramatises. another trait that you’ve picked up on is that michael exaggerates things often when he really dislikes or really likes something.

“don’t be dramatic..” you round the car and get into your side. michael is already in the car by the time you even get there. he twists the key and the engine starts, “what’s your favourite then?”

michael smiles, puffing his chest out, “my ma’s lasagne!” he’s awfully proud of the statement and you’re happy for him.

“i don’t have a ma,” you point out, your comment unnecessary and nonchalant. michael coughs, “oh..”

“we should probably work on your awkward.. er, comments,” michael suggests and your brows twist, “i don’t think i’m awkward.”

“you are seriously awkward,” michael mirrors your expression and you apologise. you don’t view the silence as uncomfortable but michael does and he clears his throat. you’re thinking of how to rekindle the conversation.

“uh.. oh! lasagne’s nice,” you comment and he agrees, “glad you have some taste to you.”

his smile appears again and you feel warmth bloom in your chest. he approves of your opinion and it matters a lot to you.

“what’s your favourite song?” you ask, hoping to start another round. michael doesn’t take time to think, instantly answering with, “let’s dance by david bowie.”

your lips thin, “david.. bowie?”

“please don’t tell me you don’t like bowie…” michael pleaded and you held your hand out, “wait, wait, wait. it’s not that i don’t like david bowie, it’s my dad that doesn’t.”

“i’m not allowed to listen to him so i don’t know if i like david bowie or not.”

you were so.. casual about this. michael was seriously passionate about things he strongly liked, loved. he loved david bowie. it really would not be dramatic to say he was appalled.

michael’s jaw dropped, “if i had known about that, this trip would’ve had a slim chance of happening..” then he realises what he said and takes a good look at you to monitor your expression, “joking, of course.”

his chest sinks with a deep exhale when you chuckle, “i get it, don’t worry.”

“good,” michael says, reaching for the stack of cds and goes through them until he finds one. while he takes it out of the case and slips it in, he speaks, “since you have never listened to bowie, i can introduce you to him.”

michael drives out of the car park, singing to the intro. his right hand bangs the steering wheel on beat while the left steers out onto the street.

you’re sat stiffly in your half of the car, listening to the song that michael treated as karaoke. it wasn’t bad, honestly. it wasn’t like what you usually preferred, but you really didn’t get why your dad hated bowie so much.

your head tilts from side to side with the beat as you finally feel the rhythm. michael’s a good singer, you realise. this song doesn’t require fancy vocals or anything big, but he’s quite in tune and blends in well.

you can hardly tell the difference.

turning your head, you see michael dancing in his seat and singing. he’s passionate. his hips sway not stiffly but more rigid in a way it looks good. his chest moves to the opposite side of his waist and his arms jerk above the wheel.

you smile, “this song is good!”

instead of responding, michael turns to you and squeezes your cheeks together. your lips jut out, all pouty and plump while michael leans in. not close, but not far either.

he sings at you, eyes squinted nearly shut, “if you say run, i'll run with you..” he takes a breath, “and if you say hide, we'll hide!”

michael sings the adlibs. you feel your cheeks warm up, possibly heating michael’s hand but if he notices, he doesn’t say anything, “because my love for you would break my heart in two.”

he pulls away, pushing your face away gently. michael mindlessly soothes the thumb mark he spots on your cheek, looking away but his hand remained.

“if you should fall, into my arms and tremble like a flower!” when bowie sings ‘flower,’ michael takes his hand away and lifts his arm like freddy mercury did at the live aid concert in ‘85.

you remember watching it on tv.

you still feel the phantom ghost of michael’s strong yet soft grip on your face and it’s all you think about for a while. you’re feeling something unfamiliar, but you’re not against it. it’s warm and fuzzy and your heart pumps twice every second.

by the time the full cd finishes, you and michael arrive at your motel in arrowhead. michael checks you both in with a room with two single beds on the second floor.

“you can shower first, i can put together a meal with what we have..” michael offers, looking at the disastrous bag of snacks that he placed on the small table in the corner.

you thank michael, dropping your bag onto the bed as an act of claiming. you silently move into the bathroom, examining its condition. you expected it to be sort of gross but the walls were spotless and the towels were soft; new.

the sink was built into a counter and the mirror had a light above it. you smiled at your reflection. your hair was messy from the wind coming through the window at such high speed. you’ve looked like this all day.

it’s different from your usual ‘put-together’ self, and you like it.

you twist the knob, waiting for hot water to filter through the cold. while you do that, you take your clothes off. you don’t shiver, it’s hot enough to walk around like this.

when you step in, it’s bliss. you find that mixing hot with hot neutralises your body temperature. you sigh, feeling droplets of water soaked up by your hair drip down your temples. it’s comforting, a reminder of home.

you don’t stay in there long, however, you just relax, wash, rinse and get out.

you pick up the grey towel, swiping it up and down your limbs until they’re dry. you step into the room, your towel wrapped tightly around you, “bathroom’s free.”

michael turns around in his spot on the armchair, eyeing your form in the open doorway. his arms fall off the back of the chair as you head soundlessly to. the bed closest to the door, digging through your bag that was left on your bed.

he finally gets up, pausing the movie he was watching. michael breezes past you without a word, the bathroom door shutting behind him.

considering the weather, you pull out one of your shorter nightgowns and slip it on. you dig for a flimsy pair of shorts to accompany it, just in case.

you find a book so by the time michael is out of the shower, you’re through the first chapter. when he comes out, you don’t look up but you see his figure whisk past the bed and back into the bathroom.

only when he comes back out the second time do you look away from your book. you laugh, tossing your head back and michael has an offended expression. he knows you’re laughing at him.

“what?” his arms are crossed and you can’t help but giggle more. he’s so serious but he looks so silly. michael, in all his glory, is stood infront of you in a red robe and a blue pyjama set.

“it’s too hot for the robe,” you state with a smile, looking at his brown slippers. this is something your dad would wear.

michael shrugs, “utah is way hotter than colorado, it’s cold.”

“really? i’m boiling..” you told him but he sat down, shrugging as he says, “that’s too bad, i’m freezing!” and ending the conversation. you went back to your book, starting chapter two.

after a while, maybe an hour, you check the clock on the wall. nearly eight o’clock.. you turn to michael, he’s draped over the armchair, feet propped up on the sides and he snacks on a large pack of chips.

he’s watching something. its interesting but you don’t know the name, so you go over.

“what are you watching?”

michael is visibly startled, shuffling up the small chair.

“oh, erm,” he stops to think, staring absentmindedly at the tv, “ricco.. uh, the mean machine.”

“can i watch it with you?” you ask, already sitting down on the floor infront of the chair. you see the remaining snacks piling out of the bag and reach for them.

“i don’t see why not,” michael allows you to watch with him and it’s quiet apart from the tv and the rustling of wrappers. he can’t help but notice how you shuffle every now and then and he soon realises that you’re trying to get comfortable.

“hey, do you wanna swap spots?” he’s in a thoughtful, generous mood right now and he enjoys the look in your tired eyes. they light up as if to say how did you know? and you nod. after standing up, you watch michael swing his legs onto the floor and soon he’s towering over you.

“thank you,” you grace as you settle down into the arm chair, curling in on yourself against the arm. michael smiles at you, replacing you on the floor, “it’s no problem.”

once again, it’s silent between you two until the end of the movie. michael expects to hear something from you, however he finally notices your tiny snores once the tape finishes. he chuckles fondly, finding it amusing how your arms are holding onto your bent knees but your head is tilted to the side.

michael walks past, pulling the duvet from his bed off and heading back over. draping the heavy fabric over you, michael doesn’t miss the hum you let out and how you nuzzle into the warmth you’re brought. he lets himself stare for just a second longer before he digs through the stack of leftover tapes for a final movie prior to when he’ll go to bed.

[freshfromhell]

can't believe i discarded this scene a million yrs ago......... 😔

“Look at you, neck deep in pussy.”

Billy Hargrove looked down at the collapsed form before him. Slanted sunglasses, and flushed cheeks, and smeared makeup, and a snoring mouth, jaw all askew. 

Mandy Mueller snorted awake, head half hanging off the old plaid couch in Laurie Binkler’s garage. A big fat cat laid across her neck like a scarf, its furry mass clearly closing off her airway if all the honk-shoo snoring and whistle-tone gurgling was anything to go by. Her head popped up, sunglasses falling off her head and onto the floor in a clatter as she jerked into consciousness. 

“Leave her alone,” a freckled girl called from the opposite end of the couch, her body dressed in the ugly green uniform of Hawkins High’s marching band. Ugh, great, Billy thought with a frown. Billy’s mortal-nemesis: Dweebs. “She said she needs to sleep off all the alcohol she drank or she’s gonna die.”

That was definitely not how that worked.

“Yeah, leave her alone,” Mandy slurred out, agreeing even though she clearly had no fucking clue what was going on around her, squinting around all bleary-eyed in her tired, drunken state. “Asshole.”

Oh, my god. 

“You’re being strangled to death, Idiot,” Billy announced in a bid to be helpful, and Mandy muttered a couple of choice words in reply that Billy was going to pretend he didn’t hear to protect his own feelings. Billy gestured to Mueller’s self-appointed representative at the end of the couch with the neck of his bottle. “Were you really gonna let this fucking thing suffocate her like this?”

The girl scratched her nose with a chipped, painted fingernail, looking at him nervously as she inched out, “Ummm, yeah… We already tried to move it, but it, uh, really likes her, y’know?”

Yeah, well, big fucking whoop. So did Billy, but he wasn’t wrapping himself around her and trying to choke her out, was he? Well, he wasn’t tonight, anyway.

“What?” Billy spat out, eyes narrowing in disbelief at the girl. He looked back down at the fluffy gray cat before him, only to find it already staring up at him with creepy green eyes. He frowned, looking away instinctively, before doing a double-take. Eugh. What the fuck? Why was this fucking thing looking at him like that?

“It is so mean,” the girl explained with severe emphasis, rubbing her head with growing concern. “Some guys cornered it up on those shelves and were messing with it, but—!” She pointed an index finger across the room to the shelves filled with large tools and lumber. “Then Mandy came in here and told them that if they didn’t fuck off that she was gonna introduce them to her new best friend over there—“ The girl’s arm swiveled to another far wall, pointing to the chainsaw mounted by the doorway, before she continued, “And they didn’t believe her, so she went over there, ripped it off the wall, started the thing, and then asked if them if they’ve ever seen Scarface.”

“It was super bad ass!” Another geek exclaimed in excitement over the rehashing of the entire event, and Billy sent a dull frown across the group where they were stationed in a quiet corner of the garage, watching and listening like a bunch of nosy creeps.

Billy shifted in thought, taking a long sip of his drink, before asking curiously, “What the fuck does any of that have to do with moving the cat?”

“Well, we think that’s why it’s so attached to her,” she answered with a shrug, and one of the pimply nerds next to her nodded emphatically. 

Was Billy drunk, or did that not answer his question? He pursed his lips in thought.  

“Wait,” he snaked out, raising a single index finger in contemplation as something just occurring to him. “Do you work at the movie theater?”

“Uuhhh,” the girl droned out uncomfortably, eyes darting around shiftily as she drew her knees in tight from her position perched at the edge of an old coffee table. “Yeah, that’s me, I guess.”

“Rape girl,” Billy clarified with a hum.

“That’s—“ She grimaced as if the name physically pained her, shaking her head as she choked out, “Uh, probably not a great thing to call someone.”

Yeah, whatever, Billy thought to himself. 

“But that’s you—?” He prompted, eyes squinting as he tried to connect the girl before him to the girl from last Saturday. All her different uniforms were fucking with his head a little. She was like a secret agent or something with all the weird get-ups. “Right?”

“Uh, yep,” she popped the ‘p’ awkwardly, hunching in on herself. “That’s me.”

“Huh…” He muttered out loud unthinkingly, before gesturing to the sleeping Mueller offhandedly, “You go to school with us?”

“Yeah,” her lips pinched as she scratched her forehead, fussing with her bangs, “I’ve, uh, gone here longer than both of you combined, I think.”

Billy had to withhold from laughing at that. Holy shit, what a loser. That must have sucked.

“And you’re…” Billy trailed off contemplatively as he looked between the once again unconscious Mandy and the ever-annoying girl before him, “Allergic to cats?”

“Uh, no,” she answered, clearly disarmed by his line of questioning, but what the fuck else was he supposed to think in this situation?

“Then why haven’t you moved the cat off her?!” Billy demanded heatedly as he waved his arms down at the lard ass of a cat.

The band geek before him tossed her hands up helplessly as she stood up and announced, “I told you, already! This thing is, like, so mean!!”

A low yowl interrupted their yelling, and both Billy and the girl paused on either side of the coffee table to glance over at the cat. It stared up at them agitatedly, shifting around in one big loaf-like shape atop Mueller to face them down, its big bushy tail flicking across her face now. It must have irritated her nose, because her face scrunched up almost immediately as she awakened again, letting out an annoyed, whiney groan.

She swatted the tail away without even opening her eyes, calling, “What is your problem, Bitch? Get a grip.”

The cat let out a high-pitched mewl in reply, standing to balance atop Queenie as she writhed around on the couch to get comfortable.

“See?” The girl insisted with a vague gesture to the huge cat where it circled around Mandy’s torso, before seating itself very leisurely atop her chest. Queenie let out a pathetic, wheezing breath under its weight like she was a broken squeak toy. “It really likes her! They’re friends!”

“It’s gonna kill her!” Billy argued as he watched the cat begin kneading her flesh, its nails pricking through her off-the-shoulder sweater and pulling loose the threads as it purred loudly, absolutely delighted to be crushing Mueller under its impressive mass. 

“Well—!” Her words choked off abruptly as she floundered, her arms flailing everywhere in her desperation to convey something. “You move it then! See what happens!”

“Fine! I will!” Billy exclaimed, before looking to the cat in question and hesitating. Were they sure it was a cat? It was so big and ugly, it kinda looked like it wandered in from outside. Whatever. He slammed his bottle down onto the table, before pushing up the sleeves of his jacket and moving towards the couch.

It yowled at him again, this time louder and longer and even more unsettlingly. He ignored it, and it hissed, ears going back on its head as it rose up and swiped at him, making him jump back and nearly trip over the coffee table in the process of getting away.

“It’s not a cat—!” Billy declared vehemently, pointing at it as he rounded the table to stand beside Rape Girl again, hands settling on his hips as he glared at the beast that just attacked him, finishing, “It’s a fucking demon!”

It hissed at him and batted at the air wildly like it understood English. 

“It’s totally a cat!” The girl beside him insisted with an annoying amount of exasperation, “It’s just weirdly protective of her, that’s all.”

“Because she’s its next meal!” Billy gestured with a sweep of his arm in Mueller’s direction.

“No, it loves her! They’re best friends!” One of the other dweebs declared, holding her heart. “She’s like a Disney princess!”

Jesus! What was with this place?! Billy wanted to tear out his hair. He fucking hated it here. 

“Stop shouting! I’m up! Ugh!” Mandy complained grumpily, tucking her elbows under her to prop herself up. The cat only moved, stretching down her body and twisting itself onto its back as it meowed for her attention. It draped itself over her, claws stretching down to her hips as its tail waved in her face. She squinted, swatting at the offending appendage.

She looked at the cat, ignoring the rest of the room as she asked it irately, “You gotta fuckin’ problem with me? Quit showin’ your ass, before I kick it.”

It only mewled in reply, swiveling its head around to blink down at her languidly, and she flopped back onto the couch with an exhausted groan, an arm draping across her eyes. It hurried to her again, nuzzling its face into the crook her neck and rolling around until it was once again wrapped around her head.

“Outta my face,” she muttered, shoving it under her arm pit and tucking it down at her side. The cat went without a fight, twisting itself around onto its back as it settled over her abdomen, its body tucked against the back of the couch with its paws facing the sky. Billy scowled.

“Well, don’t you two look nice and cozy,” Billy called down at the pair, and Mandy’s eyes creaked open again.

“Oh, no,” she whined pathetically, tossing her head around on the couch. “I’m already drunk! What more do you want from me?”

Well, he had a joint in his pocket he wanted to share with her. He nabbed it from a stoner in the backyard, taking pity on her after she rushed off earlier to go barf after he and Tommy filled her full with beer. The only issue was that he was a little worried by the implication of sharing. 

Billy Hargrove was not the sharing type.

In his brief moment of hesitation, her eyes opened, gaze clearer as she looked to him very seriously.

“You actually want something, don’t you?” She groaned out, her nose scrunching up at him. “Aw, c’mon, Hargrove!”

He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he rounded the table towards her spot on the couch.Grabbing the back of one knee, he folded her leg up into her torso and sent the cat back into her face as he slipped between her knees and dropped himself onto the couch with a creak of the old springs. 

“Ow, Asshole!” She complained, kicking the leg he trapped between the couch and his back until she was swinging it into the air over his head and plopping it into his lap to join the other. “I’m a girl, not a chair! Don’t fold me up like that!”

Billy ignored her bitching for the most part, the sound of her nasally voice falling to the backdrop as he pulled the joint from the pocket of his jacket and held it aloft before her with a cool glance. “Ugh! God! What is everyone’s problem—?!”

Her voice cut off abruptly, eyes locking on his fingers. “Who’s that for?”

“You, if you want,” he offered, and her eyes shined at him curiously from over the fluffy body of the cat between them. 

“Why?” She asked, blinking at him. The cat joined her, craning its neck over to him and staring, its tail swishing leisurely over the edge of the couch. 

That was a loaded question. Billy licked his lips, putting the joint to his mouth and reaching for his lighter. 

“You in or out?” He asked, dodging her question. She glanced around the room, gaze a little dimmer than usual, before watching him light the spliff and take an inhale.

The teens around them hunkered down with clangs and gongs of their instruments, seeming to think this was a puff and pass situation, and Mandy rolled her eyes, waving a dainty had around in a silent demand. He handed it over, their fingertips ghosting across one another, before Mueller was pulling the joint to her lips and taking an experimental puff.

She winced, breathing out and coughing as she handed it over. “It’s laced.”

“What?” Billy scoffed, looking down at the lipstick-stained paper in his hand, before bringing it back to his mouth for another inhale, “How the hell do you know that?”

She waved the air, and the cat atop her let out a low, agitated meow in warning. 

“Shut up,” she said to it quietly, like she was embarrassed to be addressing a cat of all things, before she was looking to him. “You can’t tell? Ugh. It’s gross. Keep that shit away from me.”

“More for me then, I guess,” he taunted, breathing out a steady inhale over her way. The cat above her hacked, and Mandy waved the air again, looking to him with supreme irritation as she pushed herself into sitting, pulling her legs from his lap.

Scooting away, she grabbed the cat atop her, tucking it into her lap as she tried to get comfortable, leaning into the arm of the couch and patting around in search for something. Billy watched her lean over the edge of the couch, pulling up her jacket and then her sunglasses, before she was rooting around through her pockets. 

Ugh, god. He could watch her do literally anything and be satisfied. Him and the fat cat in her lap had that in common, apparently. The animal just ducked its head beneath her boobs, looking up through the cage of her arms as she pulled out money and lighters and playing cards from her pockets before she finally pulled out a compact mirror and busied herself with her reflection. 

“Why do I look like I’m melting?” She muttered, and the cat replied with a mewl, which made her startle, nearly dropping her mirror, before she was looking down at the thing with a finger to her lips. “Shhh. Don’t answer that.”

“You can’t really think that thing understands you,” Billy muttered to her, eyes dragging from the cat to her. He could not believe she was entertaining this monster’s bullshit.

Mandy didn’t answer him immediately, busy wiping her face clear of smeared makeup. Billy couldn’t keep his eyes from her mouth as he watched her wipe at the edge of her lips, cleaning her face of the streaks of dark red lipstick. 

“Who cares? I understand him,” she said once she was done, shooting him a curled look of judgement as he blinked away the image of her open mouth, tongue curling into the edge of her lips. “And who even asked you, huh?” 

He shook his head, taking another inhale and letting his head rock back as he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds around the room. Muffled conversation, and the static-y sound of stations changing on the small TV setup across the garage, and the distant thump of music in the house, and Mandy Mueller’s usually caustic voice sounding so soft and sweet and dreamy, asking, “Do you want a kiss?”

The words had his heart jumpstarting in his chest, pictures flying behind the dark shade of his eyelids of all the scenarios he could imagine her sounding sweet just like that, and he took another inhale to calm himself, forcing himself not to launch into action at her words. He held it until his lungs burned, before exhaling and forcing his breath not to tremble as he peeked an eye open in her direction, only to spy her looking down at the cat in her lap. 

He knew it. That fucking bitch. Offering a kiss to that smelly little gremlin when he was literally right here. 

“You look like you do,” she said, voice light and lilting as she cocked her head down at the animal in her lap. It did the same, eyes curious and pupils big and dark as it pushed its nose towards hers, craning its neck up, before reaching up towards her with a cautious paw, gently batting at her cheek, letting out a squeaky mewl in reply.

“Aw, you do, don’t you?” She cooed as it purred at her, settling its paw against her cheek, before its claws kneaded slowly into the flesh of her face, snagging the topmost layer of skin there is it pulled away. The gentle look on her features warped into something cold within a blink, and she grabbed the cat’s face in her palm, manicured fingers stretching over its skull and squeezing cruelly. “I’ll make you regret that.”

She bodied the thing in a flash, slamming it back down into her lap and looking at it forbiddingly through the cage of her fingers as she hissed, “Do. Not. Scratch. My. Face.”

When she released it, it twisted around on its belly, slinking off her lap with its hair on all end, before it was scrambling under the couch by her feet, and Billy sighed, suddenly sympathetic to the creature. He knew how it felt.

“That is so evil!” The girl from earlier called, obviously watching them the whole time.

“It scratched me!” She explained in her own defense, tossing her hands out, “I was defending myself!”

“It’s a cat,” the girl called back smartly, crossing her arms. “It has claws. It scratches.”

Mandy scoffed in return.

“Yeah, and I’m an evil bitch,” she said back in the same snotty tone, before she was sticking out her tongue. “I have those, too. You wanna see what I do with mine?”

The girl deflated at that, looking defeated as she turned back to her friend group, and Mandy scoffed to herself, slamming her compact shut and slumping into the back of the couch with a harumph.

Billy watched her with a sideways smile. God, she was completely out of her fucking mind.  

She packed herself up huffily, hands scrubbing through her hair and arms wriggling into her jacket as she stood and spun on a heel to leave. As she rounded the table and side chair, the cat darted out from under the couch and took off after her, weave through her legs and nearly tripping her. 

She shrieked, stumbling and catching herself just as she passed under the threshold, before she was looking around her confusedly. She patted her pockets, spinning around with a pinched look of confusion, a hand going to her hair, before her eyes settled on him across the room, right where she left him.

“I’m forgetting something important,” she said to herself, before a lightbulb went on in her head and she perked up. She pointed to him, droning out with girly exasperation as she weaved back around the clutter in the garage, “Ugh! Hargrooooove!”

She flapped her hand around with a jangle of bracelets as she neared him, stretching across the arm of the couch to pinch the leather shoulder of his jacket and tug him towards her. 

“C’mon! I’m not leaving you with these losers!”

He took a couple last puffs of the joint, holding the smoke as he tossed the roach in the stained glass ashtray on the table. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he breathed out as she plucked at the sleeve on his arm impatiently. As if he had any hope of denying her.

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 3x9 Thoughts

This one might be tied for favorite episode of the season for me. While I’ve been mostly willing to vibe with the jam-packed episodes, I approached 3x9 with a bit of concern; if it felt like the story was getting bigger instead of smaller here in the final third of the season, I was going to start to lose my patience. (To translate: I am an impatient person but I'm also a pretty long-fused person, and me starting to lose my patience would be akin to someone with a short fuse going fucking ham on someone.) Luckily, I felt like each thread here spoke to the other threads really neatly, like watching a cohesive conversation take place in multiple rooms. Magically. 

For this one, I'm gonna attempt some bullets that cover 3x9 itself, then I need to attempt to process this weird experience of MISSING TED (while also basically appreciating what he's doing, but missing him, but appreciating him, lawjefpawoijfapweoijafwepklajwef) that has me very :eyesemoji: about the next three weeks of my life.

Nate’s desire for connection and camaraderie didn’t overshadow his ability to recognize that Rupert was trying to manipulate him into a toxic night out! There will be consequences for pulling away, and he knows it, but he did the right thing anyway. I’ve seen some discussions and arguments re: Jade’s influence on Nate and whether we should attribute Nate’s backbone and ability to make better choices to the love of a woman, and whether that’s disappointing and belittling to both characters, but I think a lot of those positions (on either side) are too hard-and-fast. Nate has always valued the things he values, and his relationship with Jade hasn’t changed his values or the fundamental truth of who he is. At the same time, being physically and emotionally close to a person you trust feels really, really good. Why shouldn’t those good feelings have a positive impact on the reserves of strength you must draw on to do things like stand up to an evil asshole you hadn’t entirely let yourself notice is an evil asshole? Nate in all his multitudes has always been Nate; Nate who is in love is able to see himself more clearly. If we were all only allowed in our real lives to experience character growth purely independently, we wouldn’t get very far.

I’ve been thinking a lot about influence and obligation when it comes to Rebecca’s storyline, too. I was a little afraid, after 3x3 and the way she initially responds to Tish’s prophecies, that Rebecca would end up a lone actor, in a sense, tracking down clues and answers at the expense of fostering her actual existing relationships. While I’m still curious and nervous and excited about what all of it means, I really appreciate that Rebecca has shown up for people this season, especially here in the latter half. Rebecca is almost certainly being driven a little crazy by the unfinished parts of what Tish told her, but she isn’t isolating herself. In calling Roy out for his avoidant behaviors and lack of accountability for the press conference (and, of course, the way his work performance mirrors his decision to leave his relationship with Keeley), she demonstrates accountability as a boss and as a friend. I don’t need to see Rebecca conducting meetings or writing emails to know she’s working, but it felt really important to me to see her get upset with Roy, both professionally and personally, and break through his exterior. Ted, Trent, Phoebe, and even Keeley have chipped away at it this season, but the epiphany required Rebecca being Rebecca. And the energy between Rebecca and Roy is very !!!

I loved the way the Nate-Rupert-Jade, Rebecca-Roy, and Roy-Isaac(-Will!) interactions all reinforce the idea that no one has the full picture of what is happening in another person’s brain, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act on truths as they are revealed, as difficult as it may be. 

As a queer person who is thankfully many years removed from the most stressful coming-out experiences I’ve had (although of course there are still plenty of moments of having to explain or identify oneself to another person—it never really ends—I consider myself “out” in that everyone in my life who I care about knowing knows I’m queer, and, so long as general safety is established, I feel able to explain it to additional people in most contexts without much or any stress), I really loved and appreciated Colin’s storyline here. Very little about my identity or place in the world resembles Colins, but so much of this episode resonated. We’ve already seen Colin describe his relationship to his sexual identity to Trent, and within that same conversation he spoke about not wanting to be a spokesperson with the pressure of publicly representing gay men. I absolutely love that the framing of the locker room scene respected those desires; he tells his teammates and coaches he’s gay, but we the public aren’t part of the several seconds that the literal announcement occurs. We get to see the freedom and relief the truth brings him, but the lessons of this episode are for the people around him. 

The downside of writing this a couple days after the episode airs means I’ve read a lot of discourse, but I don’t think this episode did a disservice to Isaac or Colin. The writers room in s3 included writers specifically experientially equipped to tell this story, and to me, it shows. It shows in the realism of Isaac’s well-meaning questions (which Colin wouldn’t have answered so graciously if Isaac wasn’t so genuinely curious and caring!), and the tiring ways that queer people are burdened with conversational “obligations” and explanations that are just different than what straight people deal with. Ignorance and awareness exist on an incredibly long spectrum, and for me this story was affirming, not traumatizing, beautiful, and yet it also included the exhausting imperfections that cloak even the most positive coming-out experiences. 

I’ve also been thinking a lot about Ted’s speech. Basically ever since Colin said the thing about Grindr in s2, I’ve been certain Colin would come out as gay to the team and reckon with being closeted in the context of the men’s Premier League. And literally since he made that little comment, I’ve been nervous about how Ted would react. I already knew he was a politically progressive person who identified himself as an ally, so I wasn’t afraid he’d have some kind of bigoted rejection reaction. But I did worry that his reaction would be sooooo cringe and try-hard and awkward that I’d legitimately run into issues writing and posting fiction about his obvious latent bisexuality on our home away from home, Archive of Our Own. And while Ted’s seven-layer-dip Denver Broncos analogy WAS cringe and try-hard and off-base, I absolutely loved how unflinchingly imperfect it was and how, despite those imperfections, his instinct re: the point he actually wanted to make was spot on and extremely valuable. If a white, middle-aged, (past-tense-ish hahahahahahaha I’m so normal about the word “was”) straight man who’s worked in sports his whole life had figured out the perfect thing to say, I’d have rolled my eyes at the screen. It felt realistic to me that he desperately wanted to find an analogy or connection point, immediately regretted it, and still—because of who he is when the din of his thoughts gives way actual clarity—managed to articulate that it’s very, very important that Colin’s community actually cares about who Colin is and that he was able to share this information with them. It’s the difference, in many ways, between being doomed to continue to feel like you have two lives (because you’re surrounded every day by people who look past something important to you or pretend not to see the differences) vs. knowing that even if you never come out to the entire world, you aren’t splintering yourself because you’re able to be your whole self around the people who actually matter. Anyway, the speech was imperfect and unwieldy, and that was the point, and his actual message was essential for everyone in that room to hear, and that was the point, and I will be capable of continuing to write fic in which Ted is attracted to men without his reaction to Colin haunting me. (I actually already have an idea for a future fic in which he reflects more, but that’s literally a story for another time.)

At this point in the season, I feel so curious about, um. What is happening. With Ted Lasso. The guy. In both s1 and s2, I felt about a millimeter away from him at all times, even when he wasn’t onscreen. This season, he’s so intentionally obscured. Getting to go to that museum in Amsterdam with him—and, perhaps even more importantly, the Yankee Doodle Burger Barn, and perhaps even more importantly than that, the back of that bus—was a relief and a reconnection point that was much needed, but I am absolutely FASCINATED and MYSTIFIED at this point in time at just how effective and maddening it is that I’m having a lot of trouble understanding how he truly feels about himself and the people around him. Like, I would obviously love to watch him be in love with Rebecca. But I would also love to watch him be in love with a place, or with two places, or with coaching, or with his partially-lost Beard, or with the words and images that have come to him in visions, or even with the unhealthy things that pull at him, like booze and stewing and obsession. Basically every episode—at least for me—contains some glimmer of connection, to his self or to one of his friends, and it’s always fleeting, and I’m holding onto the almost certainty of the fact that the decisions he has to make are going to require some kind of visible reckoning. Most of my nerves about the final three episodes of this show as we know it are related to these questions. 

As for this episode, I don’t think I’ve quite captured the FEELINGS I felt while watching it. (I also completely failed to go into Ted sharing his biscuits with Keeley and continuing his perfect streak of making it super weird whenever he shares biscuits with a non-Rebecca person. I LOVED IT.) This was the episode that made me the most audibly squeal-y this season. And the most curious about how Ted has managed to get so far into his own brain that I actually miss him on his own show! Very curious stuff. What are the next three Tuesdays going to do to my brain and heart?

[imtrashraccoon]

Whew! What with work and prepping for some potentially nasty weather over the weekend, I nearly didn't get this done. Twenty three days in and it finally happens, huh? What is it exactly? Hm...

@scrambledmeggys

First Day, Previous Day, & Next Day.

Day 23: Movie Night

"Hey, Papyrus?" you asked.

"Yes, Precious?"

"Can we do something fun tonight, like say, have another movie night?"

Papyrus smiled and nodded, "Of Course, We Can."

"Can we...also invite Undyne and Alphys?" you asked tentatively, fiddling with your fingernails as you spoke.

Papyrus hesitated and glanced at Sans, who had narrowed his eye sockets as soon as he overheard your question. They both seemed a little concerned about it, which you thought was understandable, but you really wanted to befriend both girls.

"Alright, I Will Ask Undyne And See If They Are Able To Come," Papyrus finally said.

"i don't think they'll be stupid enough to try anythin', but both of you should stay close to us at all times, just in case. i'll be keepin' a close eye socket on them anyways though," Sans stated firmly.

You smiled and hugged Papyrus tightly, which he was completely unprepared for. "Awesome! Thanks so much! I have absolute faith in you guys," you exclaimed.

Papyrus chuckled and hugged you back warmly, but he still seemed slightly concerned. Surely, nothing bad would happen and you would eventually be able to call the two women friends. Surely...

< ~ - . - ~ >

You weren't surprised when it turned out that both Undyne and Alphys had readily agreed to come over for the movie night. Undyne definitely seemed like the extroverted type to you, while Alphys was much more introverted. Still, they seemed like decent people from what you could tell, minus Undyne trying to immediately kill you and Frisk that one time.

They brought snacks with them too, all packaged junk foods like chips that had been unopened, which meant you didn't have to worry they had messed with any of them. You made a big bowl of popcorn for everyone as well which was a huge hit.

This time the movie of choice was a comedy, although it was a pretty bad one in your opinion, but in a 'so bad it's actually kind of good' way. Frisk didn't understand half the jokes but there was plenty of slapstick humour to keep them entertained at least. Still, you kept them close to you for the duration of the movie, partly because you wanted them to be safe, but mostly because you wanted to cuddle with them.

Papyrus seemed to be feeling a bit bolder this time, which was quite evident by how affectionate he was willing to be tonight, not that he was a shy person like you were more prone to be. Rather, he sat pretty close to you and put his arm around your shoulders in a gesture that left you feeling pretty special.

Throughout the movie though, you caught Alphys and Undyne casting occasional glances at both of you. At first, you felt pretty self-conscious and quickly looked away, but to your surprise, Papyrus didn't seem bothered at all. If anything, he seemed quite confident and like he was almost showing you off. You kind of liked it actually... It gave you a small thrill, like you were doing something forbidden, and sort of brought you back to your teenage years.

After the movie, Papyrus took it upon himself to bring the used dishes back to the kitchen. While Alphys and Sans discussed some of the details of the film with you, Undyne seemed oddly quiet. After a moment, she got up and joined Papyrus in the kitchen.

You weren't normally a nosy person, but you couldn't help feeling slightly concerned, especially when you could hear them talking. After a moment, you decided to excuse yourself from the conversation and got up to follow her.

"Why did you give her a collar?" Undyne hissed. Despite the fact that she was trying to be quiet, you could still hear her pretty clearly from just outside the kitchen.

When Papyrus seemed to remain quiet, she continued speaking. "You know this can't work out; she's a human..." Her tone grew softer and she added, "I'm just...concerned for you, okay?"

"I Am Aware," Papyrus answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Paps... I don't want to have to take you in. If the King finds out about this..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish her thought.

He remained silent for a moment before responding again. "I Am Not Planning On Telling Him, So Unless You Are, I Do Not See The Issue." His tone was rather cold now, like he was trying to be intimidating, even though he really didn't need to be.

It was at this point you decided to actually enter the kitchen and stop being a creepy eavesdropper. Papyrus was standing stiffly next to the kitchen counter with his fists clenched by his sides, while Undyne was leaning against the table with her arms crossed, giving him an 'are you serious?' look.

Papyrus noticed you first and once he did, Undyne turned to look at you as well. She narrowed her good eye at you and made a low annoyed sound in the back of her throat.

You ignored her though and walked over to where Papyrus was standing instead. His expression softened considerably, especially once you snaked one of your arms through his and gave him a gentle smile.

"So that's how it is then."

You turned to Undyne and nodded, "Yes, it is."

She looked unimpressed and continued to study you sullenly.

Taking a deep breath, you continued, "In fact... I love him."

You could feel Papyrus stiffen slightly and while you couldn't bring yourself to look at him for fear of losing your edge, you could tell he seemed to be surprised. Undyne's eye widened and she glanced from you to Papyrus and back again. At first, she didn't seem to believe you, but as the moment stretched on, her disbelief morphed into shock.

Papyrus seemed to recover first and he wrapped his free arm around your waist, pulling you slightly closer. He hummed softly and you could almost feel the smirk he had plastered across his skull right now.

Undyne clicked her tongue and glanced away. She took a deep breath and shook her head slowly. "Well, congratulations...I mean that too," she said quietly. "I do think you two are good for each other, but I can't help but be worried. So, be safe, okay?"

You nodded and shot her a single finger gun, as your right arm was still occupied. "I try my best..."

Papyrus made a soft "tisk" sound under his breath, but wisely chose not to say anything.

[i-didnt-do-1t]

Inspired by @noxexistant ‘s notes on the mother of the delanceys because I am having Thoughts after reading them omg (hope you don’t mind the tag!)

(How Oscar talks about women in this one feels kinda icky just as a prewarning)

“It’s her birthday today.”

Oscar looked up from his plate, somewhat depressing in it’s mixture of mash potato and half cooked carrots but it was all they had in the cupboard and good enough for tonight.

“What?”

“Ma.” He knew he was making a mistake as he said it but said it anyway. “It’s her birthday.”

Oscar stared at him for a second before dropping his head again and Morris wasn’t oblivious to the way his hand flexed around the fork he was holding. He stabbed it harder than necessary into a carrot.

“She’s fuckin’ dead, it ain’t her anything.”

Morris waited, leant back in his chair actually, made it casual as he threw an arm over the backrest because he knew exactly what was coming, because Oscar was predictable in that way.

It was a give and take he was familiar with. If Morris wanted to talk about his mother, the only way to do it was through an argument.

So when Oscar opened his mouth again he wasn’t surprised by the vitriol he spat.

“And when the fuck did she try n’ remember our birthdays anyway huh.”

Morris could remember one birthday, his sixth, if he was right, that she had remembered. She had carded a hand through his hair and whispered Happy Birthday in his ear and slipped him a dime. He remembered how she told him not to tell da or Oscar about it.

(And yes maybe it was intentional that he didn’t think about the birthday she back handed him when he small enough for her weak hit to send him to the ground, but if he held that against her, he would have to hold it against Oscar too.)

(He ignored the fact that his Ma’s hits were far more frequent than any that ever came from Oscar. Ignored the fact that back then they had been mother and child not brother and brother who stood shoulder to shoulder, that he could hit Oscar back just as hard if he wanted.)

“You think it was easy for her to live with da?” He said, instead of thinking about.

He meant it as a genuine question, but he also knew it didn’t really matter how he meant it because Oscar would only ever take it one way. Morris knew this, knew Oscar and how he worked like the back of his hand, knew that if he wanted to have this conversation it was never going to be civil because it was them so what was the point in even trying. He had better things to spend his time on than trying to circumnavigate the inevitable.

Oscar laughed at that question at least, a bitter sound with no humour behind it, mean. “I think she was a whore who got ‘herself pregnant with a bastard kid and then had to marry the asshole. She did it to herself.”

“It ain’t like she had a choice though, is it?”

“What, you a suffragette or somethin’ now?”

“I’m just saying da was a bastard and you know he went at her too.” He paused, considered whether or not he should say this next part but Oscar had gone silent and he felt the need to fill it. “I think we ruined her life.”

It was statement, not an apology, he knew she’d ruined theirs too in her own way.

Oscar threw his fork down so hard Morris was concerned it might add another chip to the plate.

“Nah, I’m the bastard, and the bitch sure as hell made sure I knew it,” He said, “An’ if she weren’t our ma, some other poor fucker would’ve ‘ad her and she’d have some other bastard kid. Woulda ended exactly the same.”

Maybe Morris miscalculated. It came as a realisation far too late that he hadn’t accounted for how uncomfortable this might make him feel to hear, even if he’d heard it all before. Hadn’t accounted for his own anger that lay constant and dormant in the cavity of his chest.

“You shouldn’t call her that.”

“Why? What’s she gonna do? Haunt me? Couldn’t be fucked with us while she was alive Morris, don’t think she’s gonna give more of a shit now she’s dead.”

Morris let the silence swallow that statement.

And then too casually, because it was partly a matter of pride that he was able to stay nonchalant while Oscar got angry (Snyder had always said he was good at making people angry-)

“Do you think she was happy?”

Oscar let out another scoff, defused in an odd kind of way by the question and Morris knew it was because there was only one obvious answer.

“No.”

There was something in his voice that coated the word, something that for the first time in years, Morris couldn’t pin down. Like there was a secret between Oscar and their mother’s grave that he could only learn by getting soil under his fingernails.

“I think y’should drop it.” Oscar said.

Morris almost let that be the end of it. Almost.

“She did her best.”

“Jesus Morris. Drop it.”

He recognised the harsh line of his jaw, the tension in his shoulders, the way his knuckles flexed white around the fork. His ma’s expression on his face in the same way his forehead creased like their da, almost the same reflection that Morris saw when he looked in a mirror.

Morris rolled his eyes and dropped it.

It had gone surprisingly better than he expected anyway.

[churchofoverlord]

HI FRIENDS, HAVE A DRABBLE SPUN OFF SOME TFONE IDEAS I WAS DISCUSSING WITH A FRIEND

Mild . . . spoilers? Kinda? Not really? Maybe? Anyway, whenever I write I tend to use a song I like for inspiration/vibes. Linked at the bottom. 😘

The Details for Tomorrow

Loopback worried her lip as she checked the address coded into the chip she’d received. It couldn’t have been true. It was too good to be true. To be recognized for your talents outside of your job and elevated to a higher status . . . no. Not her. It couldn’t be. Her vermillion plating rustled anxiously.

And yet the shimmering seal of the Primes adorned the bottom of the message. She poked at the hologram again, just to make sure it wasn’t a distortion, a glitch in the display software. The golden symbol fizzed back into its proper shape immediately after she withdrew her digit.

Swallowing as she walked, she almost missed the shadowed figure that swept her into an alleyway seven blocks from the place she’d been asked to meet. The bot pressing her against the wall was smaller, but their forlorn optics held her frozen with their urgency and concern. Loopback opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but the other put a digit to her lips to silence her, then looked up and down the alley in a panic.

Finally the other bot removed their servo from the shuttle’s face, practically shaking as they whispered, “I’m not hurt, and I don’t need help. I just need you to listen. Sentinel Prime is going to invite you to dinner. Do not go with him. Trust me. You think it’s wonderful, the most lavish, pampered life you could ever live. But it’s all a lie. H-he’ll ruin you. Just like he ruined me.” They shrank back, pulling their shroud tighter around their shoulders as they realized they had raised their voice too loud.

Loopback squinted in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Shh! Shhhh!” the other bot urged. “She’ll *hear* you! She hears everything . . .” they shuddered.

“I don’t understand,” the shuttle frowned. “He’s offering me a job as his personal detailer.”

“It won’t be enough for him,” they replied, swallowing thickly. “Nothing will ever be enough for him. He sees you as his next shiny toy. A pretty plaything. Once he’s done with you, he’ll make you disappear.”

Finally it clicked into place and Loopback’s expression turned to one of disgust as she backed away and toward the exit of the alley. “You’re Pyreclamp. You should be ashamed of yourself! How dare you touch me! How dare you insult our Prime! After what you did to him?”

“Please! No! It’s not like that!” Pyreclamp begged, reaching for the shuttle in desperation. But it was too late. Loopback had left, the smell of singed dust left behind in the wake of her afterburners.

The smaller bot winced and shrank back. They had failed. Again. This time they didn’t even flinch when Airachnid dropped in front of them.

“I’d give you another warning, but I think at this point you’re only embarrassing yourself,” the bodyguard sneered. “How many times will it take before you realize none of them are ever going to listen?”

Pyreclamp curled up on the ground and pressed their cheek to the cold, slimy wall beside them. “Why don’t you just dump me on the surface already?” they asked bitterly.

Airachnid huffed. “Because Sentinel finds the footage of your antics entertaining.”

Alone once more, the bot shivered, trying to ignore the thought of the hopeful orange shuttle that had no idea the pain that was coming for her.

—————

Loopback slid into the private booth, nervously fiddling with the lucky detail brush in her subspace. And, to her dismay, she jumped when the curtain was swept back and Sentinel Prime himself jauntily slid in beside her.

“Just the gal I wanted to see!” He said cheerily, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “I cannot believe we had such a skilled beautician hiding among the ranks of our transport fleet. I was just completely blown away with the work you did on your colleagues at the depot. I’ve never seen such a well-groomed crew of shuttles!”

“Th-thank you, sir. Sentinel Prime, sir.” Her cheeks burned dark and hot at the praise.

“So tell me, Loopback, is aesthetics just something you do as a hobby? Or is it more of a passion?” His voice dipped lower as his servo slipped from her shoulder to the leading edge of her wing. His smile was soft as he leaned into her audial. “Because based on your answer, I may have a special proposition for you, my dear.”

—————

The brand bit sharply as it seared her wing. Loopback grunted and gritted her teeth bitterly as her plating hissed. But she didn’t scream. She vented evenly, letting the physical pain balance out her mental agony. Her helm shook slightly as she raised it to look to her new leader. The one who had destroyed the mech who had first destroyed her. Destroyed them all.

“Never again,” she swore to Megatron. “Never again will I be Deceived.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Yuu can do it!

Part 46

First - Previous - Masterlist - Next

Enma jolted back to awareness with a gasp, a bitter taste on his tongue. His body – ached, and it took him longer than he would like to recall why.

He tried to sit up, but he was held down, by a crushing weight.

No… not a crushing weight, actually, two… very normal weights.

He blinked blearily. For a moment, he stared at the ceiling. It was different from the one back at Ramshackle,

And then he looked down. They were in a hospital bed. Ito and Kuroki were with him. Kuroki was half on top of him, his legs wrapped around one of Enma’s own, his fingers tangled hopelessly around Enma’s tie. Ito was pressed firmly against his side, their face hidden in the crook of his neck, their arms wrapped around him as tightly as they dared.

But not for long.

Ito sat up some, their eyes glassy with tears.

Enma thought, vaguely, that he had never seen them like this. Even when Kuroki had gotten beaten up by the Savanaclaw students, they had never looked like they were going to cry.

They were trying to guilt him.

“Prick,” he grumbled under his breath, fond despite his better judgment. He shoved at their face. Their expression cracked under his palm, a tiny giggle escaping them.

When he removed his hand, they went right back to their place at his side, curling close.

“So…” they said, teasing.

“It’s different,” Enma sighed.

Ito spluttered. “No, it’s not!”

“It is. I knew I would come back.”

Ito jolted. “Huh?”

“I have enough willpower to come back as a ghost. Would you?”

Ito was silent.

“I think you’re both assholes who are going to give me gray hair at age sixteen,” Kuroki grumbled into Enma’s chest.

“Sorry, Kuroki,” Ito placated.

Enma, on the other hand, did not try to placate him: “You could always have a near-death experience, if you want to make things even.”

“How about all of us stop having near-death experiences?”

“Unrealistic.”

The pillow was stolen out from Enma’s head and promptly shoved over his face. Kuroki didn’t have any problems with near-death experiences, after all.

~

Their fight ended quickly. It wasn’t a real fight, anyway.

Enma dragged them both into a hug.

“Should you be moving right now?” Ito asked, mildly concerned.

“Probably not. Still hurts. But… it’s fine.”

“Cringe,” mumbled Kuroki.

“Gross,” added Ito.

(They hugged him back, regardless.)

~

“Where’s Grim, by the way?”

“He was wailing over you like a widow, so we asked Ace and Deuce to take him to the game,” said Kuroki.

“And he ate another rock, so Kuroki is mad at him,” added Ito.

“Have you seen his teeth? He’s visibly a carnivore! Even if we assume his stomach is really good at digesting, he could chip a tooth! He needs to learn to stop doing that!”

Enma snickered into his hand.

“What?!” said Kuroki, scowling suspiciously.

“I was just thinking that I really care about you guys,” said Enma, smiling softly, resting his chin in his hand. “You’re great.”

Kuroki blinked, immediately disarmed. His face flushed.

Even Ito gave him a wide eyed look.

And then they seemed to decide that Enma needed to be flustered, too, to make things fair, because they pulled out Ace’s phone and snapped a picture of him while he was still distracted, immediately hitting send.

Enma spluttered. “What was that for?!”

“So they all know you’re okay,” Ito said, smiling, all false innocence. They typed quickly, narrating aloud: “‘Guess who lived, bitches’.”

Enma scowled. “I don’t swear.”

Ito didn’t seem to hear him. Because the phone chimed with a new message, and they were too focused on that, surely. “Deuce says: ‘That’s’…” They squinted. “‘gooujgfdzXdgdz’.”

There was a beat. And then Ace’s phone chimed, several times.

“Oh. I’m not repeating that,” said Ito.

“Remind Ace that he’s the one that taught us sleight of hand,” said Kuroki, smiling as he leaned across Enma to read.

Ito did so.

Ace called this time. The three Yuu’s watched the phone ring, until it finally sent ‘Deuce’ to voicemail.

It started ringing again less than five seconds later.

Enma silenced the phone.

Ah, peace and quiet.

~

When Crowley appeared, Enma noted that Kuroki seemed to be even more frustrated with their Headmaster than normal, and that Ito just seemed tired.

Crowley opened his mouth.

“No,” said Ito.

He shut his mouth immediately, crossing his arms, almost seeming to pout.

Enma raised a hand. “Uh… what’s going on?”

“He’s mad that I made a deal with Lilia-sama and not him,” Ito answered, exasperated. “He wasn’t there.”

“I could have been!” Crowley said, his hands on his hips, almost chiding. “If you had simply called.”

“I was panicking!”

“And,” added Kuroki, bitterly. “We don’t trust you.”

Crowley’s mouth dropped open in sheer offense. As if he had ever done anything worthy of their trust. Or, perhaps, he was just shocked by the genuine, open vitriol in Kuroki’s voice. Enma was certainly surprised by it.

“Kuroki,” he hissed.

Kuroki was entirely unrepentant. “He didn’t immediately heal you up. He kept trying to use it to – to rope Ito into… a deal?”

“What… is a deal?” Enma asked.

“It’s a thing faerie do, sometimes. And what that deal is… depends. I don’t know what Lilia-sama is going to ask for, or when he’ll ask for it, but I will have to do everything within my power to grant that wish.”

“... did you sell your soul to the devil?” Kuroki asked, aghast. Apparently, not even he had known what a deal really was. The boy glanced at Crowley, and his hatred for the faerie only seemed to deepen.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can do that Lilia-sama can’t, so he’ll – probably – just ask me to do some things that he’s too lazy to bother with.” They sighed running a hand through their hair. “Which is what Crowley does anyways, even without a deal, so I don’t know why he’s complaining.”

Crowley continued to sulk.

For all of five seconds, before he brightened back up again, as if he had never been upset at all.

“Regardless! I come bearing great news!”

The three Yuus went remarkably tense.

“I have fixed your TV!”

Despite the fact that they were talking about TVs, their brains played record scratches. They froze up, still a little tense, their minds working overtime to try and decipher the strange words that had been spouted at them. Because, surely they had to have been interpreted wrong the first time. Why would Crowley even feel a need to fix their TV?

As if to prove them wrong, their TV was poofed out of nowhere, playing what seemed to be this world’s equivalent of the nature channel. The footage was slightly grainy, the big, boxy TV humming with static… but it was working.

Enma, who had spent the past few months messing with the TV from time to time, was torn between being a little disappointed that he wasn’t the one to figure out how to fix it, and paying rapt attention to the figures on the screen to find out all the minute differences in the animals of this world.

“I… didn’t think you’d remember,” Ito said, after a minute, staring at their hands in their lap like they held all the answers, but they were written in a language they couldn’t read. “… thanks.”

Crowley visibly preened. “Well, I am exceedingly kind! Now, you three may watch the Tournament with your peers, even while I keep Enma-kun here to monitor his health!”

“… he knew we’d end up hurt,” Kuroki said, through gritted teeth. “He fixed the TV because he knew we’d be in the hospital wing during the Tournament.”

“I will admit that I suspected that one of you might have gotten injured when I found out you would be staying at the Savanaclaw Dorm.”

Kuroki’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Crowley’s feathers started to ruffle.

Ito sighed, reaching across Enma to poke Kuroki’s cheek. “Relax, both of you.”

Kuroki, who had never relaxed in his life, only puffed up, his face reddening in anger.

“If you’re not going to be wary of him, then I’m going to have to be extra suspicious to make up for it!”

For a moment, it looked like Ito might argue with him. But then they seemed to decide that it wasn’t worth the effort. Ito pinched the bridge of their nose, and then flopped back against the bed, sighing deeply. “If it makes you feel better, then fine.”

Kuroki looked like he wasn’t sure whether this really counted as a win.

The yellow lights in Crowley’s eyes dimmed, briefly, before brightening back up. He turned to change the TV channel to the sports channel. The real Diasomnia Dorm was walking out onto the field amongst cheers — the cheers were a touch less loud, this time, wariness hanging onto the edges of the sound, but it was still nearly ear splitting thanks to the staticky whine of the TV.

“I’m afraid that I must go now. The competition will start soon, and yours truly is the commentator!”

Without any further ado, Crowley darted out an open window. Ito was the only one to lift a hand in a halfhearted wave. Kuroki was too busy glaring at Crowley’s back to bother, and Enma had stopped paying attention the moment the Savanaclaw team stepped out onto the field.

They were grudging, it seemed. And injured from the remnants of their fight with Leona. Leona himself had a slight limp to his gait.

“They’re still playing?!” Enma said.

“Yep,” said Kuroki, popping the ‘P’.

“While injured?!”

“Mhmm,” said Ito.

“Why?!”

“‘Cause they suck,” Kuroki ‘explained’.

Enma looked at Ito for help.

They mulled this over.

“‘Cause they suck.”

Enma rested his face in his hands. Yeah. Sure. Why not?

~

After watching for a while, Enma figured it out.

Diasomnia put on a show, playing a legitimate game for about ten minutes to show off their skills. Then, they allowed Savanaclaw to gain enough points to win and move onto the next round.

And then they would attempt to beat Savanaclaw into the ground.

Enma remembered that ‘game’ he played against Savanaclaw, back when he was visiting the form for the first time. Where they had used the ‘game’ as an excuse to fight them without consequence, because anything goes in a game of Magift.

Crowley had let Savanaclaw stay in so people could get their revenge.

Maybe Kuroki was right. Crowley was the worst in so many unique ways.

~

Enma was the only one really watching the Tournament. Kuroki didn’t seem to care about sports enough to watch — no surprises there — and was snoring away against Enma’s shoulder. Ito was too busy snooping through Ace’s phone to bother doing much more than glancing up and giving a sympathetic hiss whenever the TV replayed a particularly devastating blow a Savanaclaw member earned.

And Enma would claim, until the end of time, that he was only watching for the catharsis of seeing the Savanaclaw members getting absolutely destroyed. It was even, somewhat, true.

But…

The Savanaclaw crew was, actually, pretty good at the game. Even despite the people trying to pound them into the ground.

Leona made some surprisingly smart plays that managed to score a few goals even after Diasomnia had stopped letting them get free points. Ruggie was quick on his feet in every sense of the word. Jack was a very aggressive forward, surprising the opponents again and again with just about every unhinged play he made. And, when Jack got too possessive of the ball, Foxy would steal it from him and pass it to a teammate. Lucius played a mean goalie. The two thugs that Enma had played against that first day at Savanaclaw were still surprisingly proficient in magic, able to block a good number of attacks sent Savanaclaw’s way.

They needed to work on their teamwork, yes. They stole the Magift disk from each other just as much as they stole it from the opposing team. But it seemed that that was a commonality among NRC students in general.

For all that their opponents were letting Savanaclaw win so they could advance to the next round, which would allow the next team to get their revenge… well, it was clear that Savanaclaw had actual skills.

Regardless of how much Enma did not approve of their methods… he, quietly, hoped that the ones who wanted to move forward and make this into a career would be able to.

(He still cheered when Ruggie and Leona got a facefull of dirt, though.)

~

About a game and a half in, the door to the hospital wing swung open, revealing the Leech twins. They smiled.

Enma recoiled instinctively.

“Ko! E! Bi! Chan!” Floyd said.

“Your mandated break is over,” said Jade.

Kuroki looked like he would rather stay here and be forced to watch the game, taking notes the entire time, than go with them. Alas, contractual obligations.

~

A Magift Disk escaped the field, beaning a Mostro Lounge worker on the head, sending them to the floor in a flurry of snacks and merch.

Ito and Enma were silent for a solid minute and a half. There were no cameras in the stands, so all of the footage was grainy and far away, but Enma had a sinking feeling he knew who the blurry person was.

“There’s no way…” said Enma.

The stands erupted in blue flames, thrown at anyone who dared to come near the slumped body. Two people struggled to contain the monster.

Ito sighed. Deeply.

“I’ll go get him…”

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep3: The Chute

I hadn't watched this one since it originally aired. It's not one I disliked, per se, it's just one I didn't enjoy, since it's not any fun to watch your favorite space bros get put through horrors. Looking at it through a more critical lens as an adult, though, I can at least appreciate it more than I could as a 9 year old kid, who was experiencing it more viscerally as something bad happening to characters I liked.

This was a pretty big episode for Harry, since most of the focus was on him for the first time since season 1. Less so for Tom, because he was basically dying from a stab wound for most of it, but their friendship was the main theme of the episode.

I didn't like the cold open starting right in the prison setting, since it felt like playing catch up to figure out the context of what was happening. I'm sure they were going for shock value for the audience, presumably because they thought it would mirror the characters disorientation, but the characters would have had some context for where they were from the events that preceded being sent there. I would have liked to have had a scene on the planet, so we get the sense of surprise and dread as one minute everything is fine, then the next minute they're hauled away. (And it really should have been an actual away mission- are they kidding us that it was shore leave?! Seriously?! The Captain just let the crew beam down to some unknown planet without knowing anything of their society or their laws?? Did everyone simply forget that time on the Enterprise when they did that, and a bunch of half-naked blonde people tried to kill Wesley Crusher for stepping on a plant?? Really?!)

But we just get exposition dialog instead, and find out about the implants in their heads that make everyone more violent, and we find out that Tom apparently just carries a knife around when he goes on shore leave?? What?? Maybe he's meant to have stolen it from another inmate, idk, but that probably should have been explained, since that's very much not a Starfleet thing. (I mean, sure, he's been in prison before, but Federation prison seems more like a nice vacation than a gritty dog eat dog hellscape like this one lol.)

We finally get a little respite from gritty prison hell with some scenes on the ship with Captain Janeway and crew trying to find Tom and Harry (with bonus concerned B'Elanna- I love that she's become bffs with Harry and Tom now, aww).

Anyway, Tom saves Harry from becoming some other prisoner's bitch, I guess?? It's never actually clear what exactly the other guy wants Harry for, but in the context of actual prisons, one can imagine what they'd want the young pretty boy for, ew. But Tom makes it very clear that Harry is his bitch belongs to him (nope, still sounds pretty gay, lol die mad about it Berman!) and they plot an escape. Harry tries to rewire the chute they came in through, but Tom gets stabbed defending him, and 100s of whump fics on Ao3 were born now Harry is the one who has to take care of Tom.

They make an alliance with the resident crazy manifesto guy so he'll let them share his shelter (though why any of them need a shelter when they're indoors is a bit of mystery- y'all are all under one roof dudes, just pick any corner, you don't need a tent over you, it's not gonna rain inside a room!! The ceiling doesn't have weather patterns!! Lol wtf??) and he tries to convince Harry to give up on Tom and let him die to save himself, which Tom, who loves risking his life to save other people every other episode, does too. But of course, even starving and beaten and with an agression chip in his head, Harry would never do that to his bff. One of the things I feel worked in this episode was seeing Harry get put in this truly awful situation, and never break. For all he's the inexperienced baby marshmallow of the Voyager crew, we see him really grit his teeth and fight through it all with his Starfleet ideals held firm. There's a rather nice shot that follows him walking around the prison, and stays on his face as he goes through all the emotions of anger and frustration and doubt as he struggles to ignore manifesto guy's defeatism and stick to his course of saving himself and Tom. It's a really nice moment where we get to see that sweet little Harry actually has an iron will underneath it all.

And of course, the scene where he takes care of Tom while he's sitting there dying is just heartbreakingly tender. When Tom gets so sick that he stops being self-sacrificing and tells Harry not to leave him, it's hurts, for Harry and for us. Of course it spurs Harry on to take on an entire prison to protect him, but luckily, their mom comes to pick them up in the nick of time- Captain Janeway has been working to track them down, and when diplomacy fails, she opts for a prison break. She jumps right in there with a rifle to get her boys home- and it's honestly glorious. Prudently, she did bring back up, but tbh, you believe this one tiny woman could terrify a horde of violent men singlehandedly. All hail our badass space mom!

In the last scene back home on Voyager, Harry is visibly still shaken, as anyone would be. Tom is chatting away normally, as if he hadn't just been on death's door, because he knew he had Harry to get him through it. Which is very sweet, but honestly it felt a little too shallow, given the circumstances. Tom was mind controlled, starved, stabbed, and almost died, that's some pretty traumatic stuff he should be processing, it shouldn't be cutesy time at that point yet. If they wanted the cute ending, why do this story? Why did they have to go through hell just to say 'hey, I appreciate you being my friend and looking out for me'?? And if they really wanted to do this story- at least have the characters process the trauma, and like, give each other a hug, for crying out loud!

I couldn't get away from the feeling that this whole story was kind of predicated on an underlying toxic masculine sensibility that men can only express love and devotion to another man if one or both of them are dying. It reminded me of that art piece I've seen around, the one that says something to the effect of 'you construct elaborate rituals to touch the skin of other men'. Which also reminds me thematically of another Voyager ep that's coming up later, where Captain Janeway goes through this elaborate ritual and puts herself through trials she didn't really need to because she thinks you're supposed to suffer to gain the prize or knowledge you need. This episode felt like that, on a meta level- while I appreciated highlighting the unshakeable bond between Harry and Tom, why did we have to put them through hell, and mind control, starve, beat and almost kill them, to do it? It's not pleasant to watch, and I never have rewatched in all these years till now, because whatever good there was here- and there was some good- it didn't really feel justified. I knew Tom and Harry loved each other and would do anything for each other already, without having to torture them to get them to show it. And I have to believe that by the 24th century, we'll have a better society, where men can tell other men how much they love each other without having to suffer to justify it.

[curseofbreadbear]

[Cassie's reassurances did little to calm Gregory's nerves; she was playing it off, but he saw the way she shuddered. She was in a lot of pain -- of COURSE she was. The basement was a ways from that elevator's destination. Gregory didn't know how far up Cassie had been when it dropped, but that didn't matter -- any elevator crash would be cause for concern. This was all his fault. There was no way he'd stand by while she sputtered and shook.]

❝ Hey-!! ❞ [Gregory cried instinctively as he watched Roxy hold Cassie tighter, convinced that she was only worsening the situation. Roxy had always been Cassie's favorite, but he didn't trust a single move she made. Elevator crash or not, there was no way that being cradled by an animatronic as damaged ( and strong ) as Roxy would help her.]

[Gregory glared daggers at Roxy, but was deterred when he saw how soothed Cassie was. Gritting his teeth, he backed down. Regardless of the impact on her physically, it seemed like Roxy was comforting her. She definitely needed that right now.]

❝ I'm not stupid. A fall like that...it could have -- ❞ [Killed her. Gregory bit his tongue and pushed away the intrusive mental image. There was plenty of time for blame later...but for now, he had to make sure Cassie was safe. He already wouldn't forgive himself for the harm she'd sustained -- if he lost her here because he'd wasted time, he'd be devastated.] ❝ I'm not taking "no" for an answer, okay? Come on -- ❞

[Gregory went quiet as Cassie spoke up again; connected to the system? A mask? A chip -- ]

❝ Oh, no. ❞ [No, no, no. He would have wondered if he'd heard any of that correctly, but Cassie's nose scrunched. She knew she'd said too much. This was a familiar scenario to him; there were too many connections to Vanessa's situation for him to dismiss it. That mask...if it was what he thought it was, then Cassie was in serious danger. She'd escaped from the thing in the basement, but this was going to mess with her forever. He had to do something.]

[Okay -- new plan. Kind of. He'd already planned to take Cassie back to Vanessa, but now he'd have to consult her on...this. Gregory had only managed to save her by sheer luck. How the hell was he going to help Cassie here? Was there ANOTHER series of Princess Quest cabinets he'd have to find and play?]

[...He could think about the details later. For now, Vanessa was his best bet of preventing Cassie's mental state from deteriorating.]

❝ Cassie, don't do it. I mean it. That thing might not be trapped anymore, but we can't worry about it right now -- besides, if the elevator fell, then it doesn't have a good way to escape. ❞ [At the very least, it would delay the thing from reaching the surface. Cassie might be here now, sure, but she'd navigated herself all the way there and back. If she'd taken the other elevator to Roxy Raceway without encountering it, then maybe it was still down there...he could hope, anyway. Maybe Freddy would be willing to stay behind with Roxy and fight it off, or...]

[Ugh, he needed to stop overthinking this and get Cassie OUT of here. That was all that mattered right now.]

❝ The point is, you need to avoid connecting with the system as much as you can, okay? It's dangerous. Just -- come with me, okay? We'll help you. I promise. ❞ [He'd never looked so desperate in his life; Cassie's safety hinged on her listening to and trusting him. He didn't deserve either right now, but...he really was trying to look out for her.]

If Cassie had been feeling better she might have quipped, asked if she was the only one in the room who never tried to do a murder. Though she didn’t have concrete proof Gregory tried to kill her…..and whatever happened between Gregory and Roxy she’s got no idea about that story. Those questions were for another time, for when her head didn’t feel like if she closed her eyes it would be quite a struggle to open them again. She could get one out at least, she had to know about that elevator. His answer would either be the reason the three of them leave together, or she gets Roxy to run back the way they came to try and lose him.

Carefully watching his reaction once she recounts her experience, watching closely because she knows him. They were cousins not siblings, but Cassie knew him just as well as a sister might know a brother. She knew his tells even though he was mostly good at hiding them, and she was rather sure he knew hers as well. Simpler times when her nose would scrunch up swearing she wasn’t scared of what made a noise in a nearby bush.

Shoulders relax slightly at his panicked huh, the panic in his eyes as he tries to ask about her current bruised and bloody condition. Call her a fool, and she certainly was one after her actions tonight, but Cassie felt like maybe just maybe she could trust him. And if it was just all one big lie she hopes he-.....she just wants her best friend back if only for however long he’d be willing to keep this up.

“I d-don’t think anythings broken…I d-don’t th-think. Al-Alot of stuff h-hurts but-"

There’s a small shake, familiar at this point to her, of the mall and Roxy protectively hugs the injured girl closer for a moment till the shake stops. The thing from the basement could be out by now, Helpi hasn’t said a word after the fall but she should still be able to-.

“I sh-should check the cameras.I th-think i’m still c-connected to the system. D-Don’t think that st-stupid chip the mask at-attached broke in the-”

Oh there’s that nose scrunch of hers she was remembering, as realization sets in very fast that she probably should not have said some of that out loud. Thankfully he shouldn’t know much other then what she just said so hopefully he’ll take it somewhat okay. Be freaked out sure, but surely nothing to worry about right this moment.

[hopeyblogs]

Mind feeding into my guilty pleasures with More tyler babe content 🙏 I LOVE HIM UR HONOUR

I would be honoured to feed your guilty pleasures bby! <33 I'm your girl! ⇢Masterlist

Such a doting boyfriend, caring, you're his baby.

he's so cheery, he radiates sunlight. His soft smiles is infectious.

hugs, hugs, hugs. Bearhugs, long hugs. His hands needs to be on your body. A hug a day keeps you smiling all day <3

"hi sweets, miss you so much" grabby hands pulling you into his embrace and kissing you deeply.

"hi ty. miss you too" mumbling through kisses.

"mhm. you're so pretty" not letting go of your lips.

He's a patient and calm guy

He begs for your attention by staring at you until you realises.

He'll smother you in kisses once he gets you

"Ty stop staring, you're gonna have dry eyes" no answer just keep staring.

Puffing out a small sigh. "Fine, what do you need baby?"

"you." he shrugs. You did ask.

overprotective. Your happiness and safety comes first

Hates seeing you other than happy with him

Say the word he'll settle each of your problems. Always with you if possible.

You were sitting on one of the park benches waiting for him to buy something. A guy approaches and hits on you.

"What's a girl doing here all alone huh?"

"I'm with my boyfriend. Thank you for asking"

"a sassy one, I bet you i could control that attitude huh? You'll like that huh?" creepily snakes his hands on your thighs.

Slapping his hand away and standing up away from him.

"Get the fuck away from my girl" Tyler grabs the guy collar shoving the creep away from you.

He immediately pulls you away to somewhere of private, concern flooding him.

"You ok sweets? Did he do anything?" he holds you softly trying to find anything wrong.

"I'm ok ty, he just touched my thighs"

He wasn't one to mess with. He's pissed and it wasn't a good look

Out into the night he makes the move to find the guy who harrased you

The next day, news comes that the guy who harrased you suddenly died?

"Ty baby, look. The guy yesterday, he was found dead in his house. What a weird coincidence"

"mhm yeah. Atleast we know he's not gonna bother other people anymore right?" he queries while kissing your forehead.

He's so devoted to you. You're his and he's yours <3

His socials is just filled with you. Proudly showing off his girl to his friends.

Does not hesitate to defend you when his friends makes fun of you for being a freak.

"Dude really? A freak from Nevermore? Thought you hated them" One of the guys laughs.

"Yeah i know right. You stooped so low for a girl like that??"

"Call my girl a freak again, I'll have you looking like a freak" he was pissed.

After that incident, he cuts all contacts with all his friends.

he knows all your likes and dislikes.

he'll do anything to keep you happy, his attention is always on you

Late night calls, dates or even delivering some food for you

Ringing floating through your dorm, picking the phone up. It was Tyler.

"Hi sweets, how's your studies?" he asks. Such a dad fr

"It's good. Taking a break right now, eating some chips" you replied

"Do you want some food? I can send some" he offers

"Nonono need ty, I'm not really hungry just tired yk" declining his offer.

"Alright then, I'll leave you to rest a bit ok? Love you"

"Love you too babe"

Few minutes later he's texting you to meet him at the greenhouse that's connected to the forest. You obeyed anyways.

"Tyler why did you ask me to meet you here? It's dangerous!" you asked.

"Here, i got some leftovers dinner. I made em" He puts a container into your hands.

"I told you I'm not hungry! Tyler don't trouble yourself please"

"so? i want to. Love you anyways" he shrugs off.

You heaved a small sigh just asked him to go back home before anything bad happens. He's your loverboy <3

[moemoemammon]

Omg that one you did of Mc asking the boys to do things they love was sooooo adorable. How about one with the brothers of when Mc calls him his name instead of the usual 'sweatheart' 'darling' 'love' or 'honey'. I love watching those tiktoks when the boys get all concerned or scared lol.

"Honey?" You NEVER Call Me That!

(Feat. GN!MC and the Demon Bros)

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Lucifer

Lucifer isn't a man who fears the tone of a person's voice. And yet something about yours made him... tense.

Not that he'll show it, though. So you can expect a mellow reaction as he approaches you, brow raised like YOU did something.

Got his arms crossed over his chest in that pompous way of his, but you can see the slightest crease in his brow. You're giving this man even more grey hairs

He doesn't speak at first, but now he's going over every plan he's ever made with you. Did he forget something? Your birthday? A date?? No, there's no way he would. His schedule was always memorized perfectly....hmm........

"What is it, MC? I'm assuming there's something you'd like to talk to me about? Judging from the tone of your voice, I'm assuming something's happened? If it's something I've done, I'd like to hear it."

Mammon

IMMEDIATE FEAR

Hearing the singsong tone of your voice when you coo out a sweet "Honey~" is enough to send shivers down his spine. What do you wANT 🔫

VERY CAUTIOUSLY approaches you, peeking around the corner like a scared puppy. He doesn't think anything good can come from this...

Also ready to fight though? It's his defense mechanism. He's already got his fists up like he’d ever use em against you tho

"Wh-whatever it is, I ain't have any part in it! Beel's the one that was eye in' your leftovers, and all I said was that you probably didn't want em anymore! I didn't think he’d- .... wait, that's not what ya wanted..? Then ignore everythin' I just said!"

Levi

His gamer instinct tells him something is wrong-

Did he forget to send you AP? Did you guys have a raid scheduled that he missed out on?? AH! DID HE ACCIDENTALLY CALL YOU RURI-CHAN AGAIN?!?!

Please don't do this to him Levi is a sea creechur made out of anxiety you know this pl- wait a minute he saw this trending on tiktok

You FOOL.. the sickening sweetness of your tone has NO EFFECT!!! His poison resistance is through the roof!!!

"Ha! You thought I wouldn't see through your normie tactics?! I never forget an internet trend!" "....But you know, I didn't really hate it when you called me that-"

Satan

Immune to your foolishness

Honestly would just respond with 'yes'? because there's nothing about your tone that fazes him.

You fool... Satan is the MASTER of vague yet sinister one-word threats. It's practically his entire personality.

He still thinks it's funny that you're trying to get a reaction out of him, but you'll have to try harder than that. There's no way tiny baby MC can scare him ✨

"If you really want to scare someone, why don't you try that on Mammon? Don't you think his reaction will be funny? Or better yet, you could do the 'MAMMOOONNN' thing Lucifer does. Would you like me to record it?"

Asmo

"Yes, love~?"

Also immune. It's not that he doesn't think you're scary, but-... well.. actually, he probably doesn't think you're scary.

Then again, is there anyone Asmo takes seriously?? Probably not lmao-

He'll pinch your cheeks and spin you around the room, completely disregarding the sappy tone in your voice. Is there any reason you'd be mad at him anyway? You can't be angry with a man THIS gorgeous!

"Did you miss me that much? Oooh, I bet you did! That's why you had to use that tone with me, isn't it? There there, I'll give you lots of love!❤️"

Beel

You made him INHALE a potato chip and now he's choking.

When he recovers, he's looking at you quizzically. Then the caution starts to set in, and now he's recounting every sin he's ever committed against you.

There's so much he's done that he hasn't told you about, but that was before he cared about you! You can't be mad, right? Er.. you're not, right??

wait what did Mammon tell you whatever it is it's not true he can explain-

"Mammon tricked me. He told me you wouldn't mind if I ate your leftovers, so I did. Then he took a photo of me and told me he’d use it as blackmail. I didn't know, so I'll treat you to lunch, and-"

Belphie

How you managed to make him wake up is unknown, but the way you said 'honey~' made Belphie flinch awake like he was having a nightmare

He's looking around like a scared toddler and finally spots YOU, standing in his doorway

It takes him a minute to process what's going on, but now he's AWAKE.

You're not really mad, right? He knows you don't normally call him that, so he must've done something. But how is that possible if he's been in the attic all day??

"...Huh? What're you angry with me for? I was sleeping here all day, so- Wait... don't tell me I forgot something important today? Did we have a date??"

[honeybeewhereartthee]

IMAGINE, for some reason some random dude think kidnapping you could land them some money or the fact they are inspiring murderer wanna be.

Spoiler: they are so bad on their job.

Your treated like a guest than a captive as they give you some food as well drinks while being under their kin (fidgeting and nervous) eyes. Through he did wear a face cover so he won't get recognize.

MC: I'm not to judge you but I can't really eat this cake if my hands are tied. Can you at least untie one.

You say while pointing at the very taste cake they offer to you.

???: Ooh! Ok... Here you go..

he fidgeting did one the knot he tied like a proper scout on your right hand.

MC: nom nom. Finally peace.

You mumble not caring you been kidnapped or more like be murdered in a few hours. But you been overwork for a while now, this kind of break is odd bit it's a break at least.

???:... Y-you aren't trying to escape?

You look at the kidnapper of yours.

MC: it's very normal to be kidnap at my place.

???: Kidnapping isn't normal, right...?

You could how many times kidnapping happen at your school and work.

???: Wait... What are you c-counting?

MC: the amount of times this kind of thing happen.

Your kidnapper stared at you, as if shock about the fact it's more than the abnormal times.

MC: lucky you. I'm quite close to the kidnappers!

???: What.

MC: for the cake, I shall teach you how to properly kidnapped someone--me edition. First never call the one called MAMA or answer the call from MAMA.

???: You don't want to worry your mother ?

You stared at them.

MC: it's more of your life in the line if you did answer and told MAMA about this.

???:... What.

MC:... I cannot break it to you in a nice way.... Just don't do it. Actually if you call anyone in my phone it's better to throw it away because your fate is sealed.

???: I actually sold your phone.

You cannot believe he thought of that.

MC: noice. That's leads to you being alive after this is much higher chances then.

???: Errm... What, that sound ... Concerning.

MC: I mean, you made a bad mistake... Well we can still fix that... So did you remove the trackers.

???: What, why do you have a trackers on you... Wait did you say with emphasis of more than one?!

You chuckle at their reaction.

MC: I'm not sure but I kinda sense that person put a chip on me...

You stared at the empty cake as if debating about your life choices.

MC: and I live with it because it's not like it would kill me...

???: I think that's not very normal relationship....

MC: your not wrong. But his good looking so he get a pass.

???: Your logic would probably kill you one day... and your probably happy about it too.

MC: wow your probably good on future sight then. Because I'm sure of that too 😂 anyway... You seems sane to talk too. Why did you enter such path buddy?

???: ... I don't know what to do. I tried many good deeds but it all end up as a failure and mistake. Might as well be a bad guy. I get fired because of endless misunderstanding... I'm no good for everyone... They hate what I look too.

MC:... Ah.... That sound so tragic... Anyway how good are you in self defense and combat?

???: I trained before... I was almost black belt but I quit.

MC: wow!! You could survive then. What about academic ? Can you do some paper work? Can you cook?

???: I am in and out of achievers in my school before, I also work in a cafe before as a chief.... Why are you asking this...

MC: you seem fine. I'm trying to see how to save you since I don't sense malice on you. So how about working for me? I get paid enough to hire you to assist me.

???: W-what... Really?!

MC: that's right! Anyway, my name is MC--

*background music: EYE starts playing

MC:... Did you hear that.

???: Hear what.

You start to look around as you can hear the music and singing getting louder.

MC: HOLY SHI-- we need to leave....!

You quickly remove your binding on both your legs and hand and hold the unfortunate soul as you already realize who is here.

???: W-why are we running away.

You dragged him to a Cabinet with you. You cover his mouth.

MC: shh don't speak.

Soon you could hear the door slamming open.

Madara: my child ~~~ mama is here!!

Kohaku: Madara-han can ya please not call MC han like that out in da public..

Madara: my, my. This isn't public. This is a future murderer home.... That would sadly perish before being one. :)

Kohaku sigh as if he can never make sense out of his unit mate mind.

Kohaku: let's just get this over with. Shall I do the killing? I always wanted to do it.

The person your holding suddenly froze. Your sweating like crazy. You both feeling dread as foot step approach your direction. Almost felt your heartbeat stop the moment you realize someone stood in front of the door. You swear you forget how to breath but the person outside the door move away which made you both sigh in relief--

"FOUND YOU!"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA/AHHHHHH!!!" You both unconsciously screams like bloody murder as Madara open the closet door after fooling you two, to think he left when his not.

You both then faint at the spot, as you cannot carry the scare you both taken just now.

"Madara-han, do you really have to do that?" Kohaku who was been signal by Madara earlier to shut up, sigh as Madara come out of the closet carrying your unconscious form.

"Well, mama have to scare my child to make sure they won't go taking some kidnapper in as an assistant the next time around." Not only did he put a chip on you, he also put a listening device on you. He walk to the door as kohaku grab the kidnapper of yours who also fainted, he put them over his shoulder like a sock of potato.

"Ah... Your going to let this dude live?" Kohaku suddenly become disappointed.

"For now." Madara smile.

"Mama save the day again." He kiss your forehead as he carefully put you to the car to bring back to your home, so you could sleep peacefully and tommorow his gonna tell you basic stuff you shouldn't do when kidnapped. Like don't befriend the kidnapper, unless it's him. :)

[camellcat]

yes yess I also thought the reveal would be then. I think it's extra interesting that since they're not interacting with giles, they wouldn't know about the prophecy would they? do you think buffy would try and spend one very concerning last night with them like she did for her mother? would they learn just as she's gone down to die trying to find her? I know they'd be furious haha. scare the HELL out of everyone in the library. even if the wil and xand know of them I doubt they'd have flat out spent any time with them before, and what a way to be introduced

oh! or! so it's all canon really from there, when xander says he thinks he knows how to find her. so he meets up with the vamps, and tells them the news, and fears for his life a bit but stands his ground like hey we need to go now lose your mind about this later, so they all gang up together to save her because yesss "their girl needs them" love that. except it's too late anyways and they find her floating corpse. thank god for xander and alive lungs that can actually work to bring her back. though unlike canon where angel just accepted she's dead, I doubt these guys would so easily give her up, especially spike who would I believe absolutely take her death the hardest emotional guy he is. team effort here, not just xander remembering cpr exists

either way I think would be right fun and they both intersect anyways, it's just a difference of when they'd meet the scoobs

s2 omggg that would be SO interesting. kendra survives!!! though okay I know you said darla saves her, but imagine it's dru actually? would adore that turn-around from canon. darla and buffy are trying their damnedest to figure out a way save angel from one of his old turns because yeah I like that I can't think of anything better, and kendra's got herself in a nasty situation, but dru shows up last minute and saves her, getting them both the hell out of there. but there's still a corpse in the room of whoever it was trying to kill kendra, so that would still give buffy a reason to be on the run from the coppers

as for angel... I'm thinking maybe it's still his blood that's used to open it even if he himself doesn't want to. I'll be honest I'm not so clear on the details of what the hell was going on with acathla, but I think it was his blood specifically that opened it right? so maybe not much has to change really. he's held captive and used to open the portal, whatever. love what you said about spike and dru taking buffy though. very sweet, yes yes yes

(#also. joyce (and dawn) adore spike and dru. giles and jenny and kendra get along very well with darla. angel is good friends with faith.) btw the relationship dynamics between the vampires is on point!! both with buffy and all of the others. what you said was exactly what I was thinking too fantastic

uhm oo l.a. with a majorly depressed trio. buffy keeps them afloat while spike tries his best to chip in, and I don't think dru would really leave their apartment. dawn and dusk are spent together in a pile, quiet, before one of them inevitably has to leave. rough times before buffy decides she's ready to head home and obviously they follow her. the experience make these three VERY close for the rest of the series I'd think. aka totally the first ones to get together when that starts to happen lol. but it gives them a bond buffy was missing in canon. also okay I think darla would be missing for a bit in the beginning of s3 due to angel mourning. no one knows where she's gone and she doesn't reappear until faith shows up. actually hell maybe shows up WITH faith? I think darla would be kinda distant for a little, especially seeing how much closer buffy's gotten with spike and dru, but she comes back around once angel's back and in need of all of them

I love buffy's realization moment though haha. like during one of their better days, it just hits her, and it's very oh no! ohhh no! that's SPIKE'S girl!! giggling wonderful wonderful

honestly I can't really imagine s3 as well with faith only being a potential... or really anything past s2. I think anything past s2 would just have to be seriously with the off-canon route. but if you come up with more I'm dying to hear

#i didnt get to s4-5 in this i kind of ran out of steam BUT you are right about riley. i think that no one really thinks the vamps#are genuinely into buffy. i think faith and giles and jenny all think they have some level of sexual-slash-lusty attraction to her#and joyce and dawn think that they have some level of like chemistry with her but no real intent behind it#buffy loves the vamps and knows that they love her but if you put the word Love as in Romantic Love to it she would be SHOCKED#but RILEY jealous idiot that he is is like. these fucking monsters are trying to steal my gf. and he's RIGHT.#it's terribly simple

!!! no one believing the vamps are actually in love with buffy including buffy herself? god. yeah yeah. I think willow would root for them but it's really only her. be a bit scandalized at the idea but love to tease buffy about her crushes. once riley's in the picture she's kinda like oookay whatever to support my best friend. and riley thinking they're tryna steal his girl.... cause they are. snickering

s4 would be so silly fun with these guys around, and while I still like how s5 gets progressively darker, I still don't think it would be as bad with her vampire harem to follow her around and love her

theres an au somewhere in which the romani spellcaster that curses angelus doesnt just curse angelus, but rather curses every vampire of the aurelian line in a, say, twelve mile radius to get their soul back.

it's rough, especially for the first few years. spike's the weepiest, but angel takes it the hardest, oddly enough. dru's absolutely nutty over it, but she's always nuts, and anyway, having the three of them to wrangle gives darla something to focus on other than the weight of her sins. they manage.

(one thing she does is research what, exactly, has been done to them. when she finds out about the loophole - even a moment's happiness - there is a gut-lurching second where darla thinks to herself, i can end our agony. and then she thinks of her last kill, a young couple and their toddler. the father had begged darla to spare the little child's life, to take him instead. the mother had clawed at darla, covering her child with her body, screaming as she died.

rather than find that moment's happiness, darla begins new research, looking into ways to secure an immortal soul to a vampire's body permanently. closing the loop, as it were.)

spike eventually gets it into his head that he wants to do the slayer thing - not kill them, like he'd planned, but to help the poor girls. dru gives him the idea. angel leaves them, at that point, in the dead of night, without telling them where he's going. darla lets him go.

there's a girl in peking - xin, her name is, and she's understandably skeptical, but she accepts their help. they fight with her until she dies, a few months later, at the hands of an apocalypse. it breaks spike and dru quite badly - cuts spike's face up, too. darla gets them out, gets them back to europe. leaves them in italy. looks for angel.

she finds him eating rats in new york city, of all places. she shakes some sense into him and gets him some clean clothes, some blood, a place to sleep out of the sun. he's wallowing, which is to be expected, but how does he figure he's going to atone for his sins if he's rotting in the gutter like so much trash?

she's too practical, he tells her. he's too fucking dramatic, she tells him, and makes him eat some more pig's blood, cold.

darla tells him about spike and dru, what they've been up to these past few decades. he shudders when she tells him about xin, her throat ripped out by enemy fangs. angel's intrigued by the concept of helping slayers, but he confesses quietly to darla that he's not ready for that yet.

so they part ways again, with the understanding that they'll stay in touch. darla bounces around the americas, running into spike and dru - sometimes just dru, as spike is off chasing rumors of slayers - until the late 1990s, when she gets a call from angel.

angel's found a girl, and he wants to get the gang back together.

[mammonswhore]

Soo what if the MC was suicidal and depressed, so when the boys threaten then and stuff (like how lucifer was gonna kill them when protecting beel and luke) and they don't care or they ask them to do it no balls xD

I like this prompt bc they will be like fucking shocked if MC was not afraid of them. Anyways always remember to check on your mental health🖤♥

Brothers react to an MC who doesn't care about dying.

✒Lucifer

He was in complete shock. Every individual who he threatened was quick to apologize and surrender to his will but this human wasn't?

He dislikes that type of attitude but is also very curious about what happened to them to be this way.

When MC tried to climb up to the attic and he threatened them they just simply said "you know anything can kill me,right? You are not special for that one,Lucifer"

What the actual fuck is going on here?

He forced them to leave anyways but he was thinking about their response all night.

No one talked back to him besides Satan and Belphie and the first person out of his family talking back to him was human. A human! He was annoyed to say the least.

When the relationship between him and MC progressed he become more concerned about it.

He tried to get the truth out of them subtly and without acting suspicious or worried but when they finally said "Lucifer if you want to ask me something, do it. Don't try to get answers out of me that way,it won't work"

When they finally revealed that they were not worried about dead because it will get to them anyway,Lucifer was sad.

He was not only sad because he knew that MC was going to die but because they were not a little bit worried about it.

A sudden wave of sadness gets into Lucifer's chest and he proceeds to hug his lover and tells them that he will take them to therapy.

✒Mammon

He was very happy about MC not caring about dying at first since he couldn't care less and he never properly threatened them as well so they never got to talk back at him.

But once when they were escaping from two witches,MC got hurt and they didn't care at all. Like they literally didn't say shit about the wound on their leg and it took Mammon almost half an hour to realize that the blood he was smelling it was from their wound.

"MC WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING? ARE YOU DUMB? COME ONE,HUMAN! W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? I'M GOING TO HELP YOU,FUCK!"

Very stressed out about it,starts yelling about how they need to be careful with their lives because they are weaker than the average and things like it.

"Mammon I don't care about death,I'm kinda craving for it at this point"

His face drops. A sudden feeling he couldn't recognize was placing on him. He was worried but it was not the type he was used to feel around them.

The single thought of MC dying send shivers down his back. He was borried and it was not because Lucifer would kill him but because he couldn't stand that thought.

"Don't go saying things like that,MC... I don't want you to die,human"

He hugs them kinda afraid they might order him to let them die right there.

He is going to look for help and tell Lucifer about it so they both can keep an eye on MC in case of anything.

✒Levi

His first thought when he heard MC saying they wanted to die was "honestly same."

When he was about to kill them on the TSL quizz thing they didn't even flinch. They were not about to run,hide or beg.

When Lucifer stepped in,Levi was fucking shocked but angry at the same time.

"Damn normie,who do they think they are?"

When both of them formed a pact he became more worried about their health,not because they were his master but also his only friend and he was not about to loose them for some stupid shit.

When they hurt doing some stupid shit with him Levi freaks out and has a mini meltdown but tries his best to control his emotions to help his Henry.

"Stupid normie... Can't you be more careful? Dumb,dumb,dumb human... Agh"

He is mad but he is more worried than he is mad so he is trying his best to ask them how are they so stupid without being rude.

He became more careful with his words since he thought that maybe a little push will send them over the edge and make them commit suicide.

Very sharp when others point out that he takes care of them,gets defensive easily and will lock both of them in his room for a while.

✒Satan

He can not properly understand what's going on with them. His first thought is that they are very much dumb.

Gets annoyed by that attitude easily but never looses a chance to asks them if they are really that dumb or if they want to get killed.

"Oh sorry Satan,did my attitude happen to bother you?"

Ugh. The mocking tone in their voice made him furrow his eyebrows and spit venomous words.

"Indeed it does but I can easily understand why are you so reckless,you are defenseless against me and you are still trying to argue with me. I must say you have some guts MC but I don't think it's late for a good reminder that I can kill you easily."

And then they smirked and stepped closer to him with a daring attitude.

"Do it,anything can kill me and I will die eventually so your meaningless threats don't scare me not even a bit."

He was waiting for them to run,to hide and scream for help. But Satan was not expecting that answer.

His demon form unleashed and he was ready to attack but something inside of his his head told him that he was not capable of killing them. And when he realized that he just patted their head and went to his room.

Later on when they made the pact and MC helped him when coming to terms with Lucifer,he was quite scared for their daring attitude.

Every time they went out even if it was with one of his brothers,Satan will check on them with messages or calls every time he could.

To be honest,MC doesn't need this type of checks on them but appreciates it since Satan knows better than anyone how hard it can be to control themselves.

He still gets very pissed off when MC makes snarky comments,dares him for anything or that type of things but he still won't attack them because he loves them way more.

✒Asmo

He is no the type to threaten someone unless they are threatening him first but he was very tired of MC's attitude through the day and he snapped.

"Can't you remember your place,MC? Every single person around can kill you and you still seem to be as sassy as ever."

He was about to apologize with them about his words since he was not the type to talk to them like that but he was surprised when they talked back (again).

"Asmo if you haven't notice I truly don't mind getting killed here,it would be more interesting that dying in the Human Realm to be honest and also everyone is going to die and no one is going to remember me so fuck it."

That was worst. His eyes were very lost trying to figure out where did those words came from? What was going on?

"MC don't day that,please" he whispered very nervous.

Asmo hugged them and calmed himself down. Even for a demon who has seen a lot of people die he was not ready to loose MC and he was also not ready to hear those words fall from their mouth.

"Asmo calm down,please."

"You were joking,right? You don't think that about your life,don't you?"

He might not seem like it but he was completely worried for their health and well being. Being MC the only person he ever considered as a friend and possible lover,he could not stand for what they were saying.

He became more careful with what he said to them and what the others were allowed to say,if someone tried to insult them or make them feel like less he will snap right away of that meant MC will get rid of those awful thoughts.

✒Beelzebub

He threatened them about eating his food but they were unfazed about him,it was the first time he threatened them after making the pact and honestly,his reaction was totally wrong and he knew this and he was ready to apologize but he was shut down by MC's words.

"Do it,I honestly don't care."

What? MC what the hell are you saying?

He calms down and says that they shouldn't say things like that around his brothers because they might explode and actually kill them. He was worried,yes but he was more worried about eating something because his stomach was growling like crazy.

"Why would you say something like that? If it wasn't because we demons can't kill our master you will be dead now,MC."

Beel was stuffing chips into his mouth while watching MC think about an answer, more worried than before.

"I didn't mean to scare you,Beel. But I will die anyways so it's just a matter of time and if someone dared to make it right now I wouldn't stop them."

He feels the chills going through his back, the feeling of loosing someone he loves again was a lot to process and the fact that MC was unfazed and really sure about their words made him feel full suddenly.

"I don't want to loose you,MC. I know that you are a human and all but can't you just take care of yourself a little? I don't want to loose you." *sad beel noises*

Reassuring him that they will try to find help, MC hugs Beel and promises to try to stop this type of comments.

He was still very very worried about them so he was always around keeping an eye and ear on them so no one killed them.

✒Belphie.

This was after the attic events,he was still very unsure about MC's presence on his life but he was hanging on there still getting used to them.

Until they were assigned to wake him up from a 10 hour nap to eat something.

"You dumb human,I will rip your head apart of you wake me up again."

"It's not like if you haven't tried already now wake up and eat something or Lucifer will be pissed."

He was very amused,they were not afraid of him anymore and decided to talk back to him. But he still was shocked to say the least.

The human who he killed once was now giving him orders without a pact or relationship that established that he had to obey them. They had some guts,that was for sure.

When their relationship progressed and he became closer to MC,he was not going to stand for that type of comments.

"MC you can't go around saying that you want to die! It hurts to see you this way, jeez!"

"I can't help it,Belphie. Sometimes my thoughts just slip through my lips without me even trying."

Now that was something he was not expecting to hear. What did they mean? They really wanted to die that bad?

"Listen here you little shit,I already lost you once and I'm not going to loose you again so stop making those stupid comments or I will tell Lucifer to pay you a good therapist... Fucking idiot."

Belphie was worried even if he seems like he was just annoyed by them,he was even mkre worried than what he will like to admit.