#it is in my bio i must live up to what I'm known for

[jaratedeguadalupe]

if my archive doesn't consist of 87% of dukexiety content I've done something terribly wrong

[bluewxrld07]

Cut My Hair

Cole Caufield x female!reader x Ethan Edwards

Warning(s): Angst, situationships, intentions of smut, hints to cheating

A/N: will be a mix of instagram posts :) enjoy!

Summary: Based off of Tate McRae's song Cut My Hair

celebrity.news just posted a photo!

liked by yourusername, yourbff and 18,796 others

celebrity.news Young and famous hockey star, Cole Caufield, seen at a club in Montreal after a post game win Saturday night! But the twist? The girl in the photos is NOT his girlfriend, well known social media influencer and future sports broadcaster, yourusername!! Possible trouble in paradise??

Click the link in our bio to read the article, and see all the photos and videos!

load more comments

user1 Oh no poor y/n 🥺

user2 She is literally the sweetest human being, that's so sad. I can't imagine how hurt she is right now.

user3 She must be so heartbroken right now, that girl in the photo is such a fucking home wrecker!!!

user4 I hope she's okay :( Cole doesn't deserve a baddie like her!!

yourbff just posted a photo!

liked by yourusername, edwards.73, trevorzegras, and 111,741 others

yourbff Heartbroken, angry, sad, confused. Those are just a few I feel for you y/n. He doesn't deserve a real girl like you. His loss baby, I'm so sorry. I'm headed your way right now, be there soon 💜

user has limited comments

user1 send her all of our love <3

jackhughes I am in awe. Let her know if she needs anything, I'll be there.

liked by yourusername

trevorzegras this shit isn't right. my heart goes out for her.

edwards.73 Lu and I are driving out right now. Should be there in twenty.

liked by yourbff

colecaufield I'm so sorry

comment deleted by yourbff

*one month later*

yourusername just posted a photo!

liked by yourbff, jackhughes, edwards.73, colecaufield, and 457,596 others

yourusername Just wanna cut my hair, lose myself, make u sweat

load more comments

user1 omfg YALL WAKE UP, MOM POSTED

user2 the hair color??? the BOB??? HELLO?!

user3 oh boy if this is her silently @ ing who I think it is, he's messed up with losing her

yourbff oh what is this? best friend is blessing my feed???

liked by yourusername

yourbff this bob and hair color was the move, my work here is done

liked by yourusername

jackhughes slay bestie

liked by yourbff

jackhughes He's a dumbass

liked by yourusername

user4 No because it is the fact that Cole liked this but didn't comment, speaks VOLUMES

user5 Cole done fucked up, she's about to slay this glow up

edwards.73 I'm bringing the vodka

yourusername please don't, I can't look at another thing of alcohol after last night lmao yourbff If he doesn't bring it, I will

yourusername just posted a photo!

liked by yourbff, edwards.73, colecaufield, and 601,978 others

yourusername just wanna cut my hair, little black dress, can't forget

load more comments

user1 I'm living for these Tate McRae lyrics

yourbff See??? I knew you'd post this one. Fucking hot ass best friend I've got, these men bouta be on the FLOOR tonight

user2 If she doesn't wind up under someone else tonight after what Cole did to her, I WILL CRY

user3 He be creeping on her page tho, I see his ass in those likes.......

tatemcrae a true goddess 😍

liked by yourusername

lhughes_06 I'm keeping an eye on you tonight

edwards.73 easy easy, I called dibs first yourbff Both of y'all put your dicks away, and chill out? After all it'll be me who takes care of my girly tonight 😙 yourusername None of you are taking care of me tonight, I'll be fine 🙄 edwards.73 That's what you said last weekend and whose bed did you wind up in.... yourusername shhhhh 😳 edwards.73 lhughes_06 kept me up most of the night edwards.73 Idk what you're talking about lhughes.43 yourusername me neither

user4 Am I sensing a lil sum sum between Ethan and Y/n???

User2 If it's happening, I neeeeeed to know because I'd be here for it

colecaufield 😧

yourbff just posted a photo!

liked by yourusername, edwards.73, lhughes_06 and 301,473 others

yourbff Just wanna show you, whatever she do, yourusername can do it better

tagged: yourusername, lhughes.43, markestapa, edwards.73

load more comments

markestapa What a fucking night

lhughes_06 I think I need a cleanse after that fiasco...

yourbff You sure it wasn't from the lake you boys decided to swim in at two in the morning?

lhughes_06 Don't remind me 😑 yourusername You guys were wilding' last night lhughes.43 markestapa says the wild one herself 🤔 lhughes_06 Yeah yourusername where did you and edwards.73 disappear off to? edwards.73 Nowhere yourusername Nowhere markestapa where tf did you come from edwards.73 edwards.73 I saw I was summoned, so I entered the chat yourbff All of you get out of my comments and argue in the group chat

user1 Ohhhh boy I smell quite the upgrade for miss y/n....

user2 If y/n is seeing Ethan Edwards I will die happy

user3 I'm so curious as to what's between those two rn. Whatever it is, y/n seems happier than when she did with Cole

liked by yourbff

colecaufield just posted a photo!

liked by jackhughes, kirbydach, trevorzegras, girlusername and 96,736 others

colecaufield Heard you got a new guy, that ain't fair

load more comments

user1 Nah because it's THE WAY he used Tate McRae lyrics from the same song yourusername has been using on her posts.....

user2 Cole my dude... she deserves better after you did what you did

jackhughes come on C you better than this

trevorzegras she deserves better bro, I'm with jackhughes on this one

girlusername See you soon 🥰

user1 lmfao this girl clueless as fuck user3 Oh honey.... you the home wrecker? sheesh.. user4 DAMN talk about a downgrade 🤣 liked by yourusername

user5 Y'all it's fine he's just depressed and in his feels because he be knowing he cheated and lost a good one

yourusername just posted a photo!

liked by edwards.73, yourbff, jackhughes, lhughes_06, trevorzegras, and 817,748 others

yourusername Just wanna get messed up, find myself, in his bed

tagged: edwards.73

load more comments

user1 I KNEW ITTTTTTTT

user2 now THIS is a pair I can get behind

user3 Their kids are gonna be literal heartbreakers wtf

yourbff about fucking time I was getting antsy. Now get dressed we have a brunch to go to today.

yourusername yes mommy 😣 lhughes.43 Can I call you mommy??? yourbff No yourusername No

edwards.73 Mommy? Sorry. Mommy? Sorry.

yourusername Have you learned nothing?? edwards.73 you never said I couldn't call you mommy😝 yourusername You're unbelievable edwards.73 Do something about it🤭 liked by yourusername yourbff LET HER GET READY YOU ASSHOLE OR WE WILL BE LATE edwards.73 trevorzegras JOJO.....?? HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING...?! liked by yourusername, yourbff, edwards.73

jackhughes I feel like I need to cleanse my eyes from that conversation thread I just read 😨

yourusername You'll survive

liked by yourbff, lhughes_06, yourusername, markestapa and 778,240 others

edwards.73 Good girls, so overrated

tagged: yourusername

load more comments

user1 Wow now this is an upgrade. He gives her her OWN POST????

user2 Cole could never

user1 He was an embarassment

markestapa WOAH give us all a warning here fifty shades of grey!

yourbff Treat her like a queen, Edwards!!!!!!

edwards.73 No.... I'll treat her like a Goddess 🤩 yourusername How long did you wait to use that one? edwards.73 edwards.73 too long yourusername yourbff Long enough edwards.73

lhughes_06 Is the caption hinting that yourusername is a certified baddie?

yourbff yes edwards.73 yes yourusername yes markestapa yes jackhughes yes lhughes.43 Okay no need for the attack damn

yourusername My Eddy 🥰

edwards.73 My baby 😘

[inkedobsidian]

~ imposter syndrome ~

prompt: #58 “ This isn't who I am.” summary: Y/N catches a glimpse of Jin-Man's past life pairing: Jeong Jin-Man x Reader warnings: scars, ptsd, murder word count: 939 a/n: Hi, it's been a while :) Sorry I've been gone for so long I'm hoping to be back but we'll see how I get on! Love you all if you're still here <3 Request Status is in my account bio :) Master-List - Prompts

Y/N hadn't really been in their lives for long but she became a staple in the Jeong household. It had only been a year but the first year was always going to be the worst. When Ji-An was not interacting with Jin-Man she would at least acknowledge and take comfort in Y/N. It started from just a visit once a week to overnight visits to doing the school runs but Y/N wouldn't change a thing. She had grown too attached to both of them at how similar yet contrasting their personalities could be.

This was another night where Y/N had picked up Ji-An and they had decided to go do something together, Y/N was glad that Jin-Man trusted her to be alone with Ji-An. She gave him a quick message that they'd be home an hour or two later and she had to fight the smile of just how ‘domestic’ it felt.

Jin-Man used the time Y/N had Ji-An to be in the basement or working out, he also enjoyed how ‘domestic’ it felt even if he would never let it show. He realized he must have let a bit too much time slip away when he saw the headlights from Y/N’s car pull into the driveway while he was midway through a workout. Although he trusted Y/N that didn’t mean he’d told her everything.

He was almost covered but the door opened too quickly as Ji-An sprinted inside to put something in the kitchen. He knew she’s seen it but there wasn’t anything he could say in the moment. However, even though he was standing there like some massive bomb had gone off Y/N had walked nonchalantly towards the kitchen with the bags she was holding.

She did see them, she just didn’t care. It was none of her business at the end of the day she was just here to help an uncle take care of his niece while they were in a difficult time. Jin-Man moved towards the door slowly as if he was trying not to spook a deer and walked quickly towards the car the minute he was out the frame of the door.

He could hear voices from inside the living room and could catch slivers of the conversation as Y/N and Ji-An simply talked about each item as they put them away. With every passing second Jin-Man was itching with a strange sense of fight or flight, in this seemingly ordinary scenario. He felt like he was standing there for about 5 minutes before he finally heard Y/N walking back towards the car for the last of the bags. She knew he’d be waiting so she asked Ji-An to stay inside.

“You wanna help with the rest of the bags?” She speaks so casually it throws him off, not that he shows it again. He just stays in silence looking in her eyes intently, trying to see if he can understand what she’s feeling. Is she scared now? Is she scared of him? After a couple of moments of silence, it was finally enough.

“Do you want me to ask about them because it doesn’t matter to me, but if it does to you I can ask,” Y/N spoke softly and carefully, she’d not known them long but she knew what got them here and she wasn’t even expecting him to open up to her at all. Once again all he could do was stare for a second longer until he saw the light shift behind her head. The door was still open and Ji-An had moved into the hallway to see out the front door towards them.

“This isn’t who I am,” His voice echoed in her ears as Y/N tried to understand what he meant until she saw where he was looking and she spun around to see Ji-An waving at them both. She took a moment to wave back and when Y/N spun back Jin-Man was now looking directly at her, the eye contact almost made her shudder, “I don’t know how to care for her and you do it so well. I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”

“I’m not afraid of you Jin-Man, I can tell what kind of man you are and that’s enough for me,” There was a pause just after she spoke. Y/N took a step closer to him so that there was barely space between them then she turned to grab the rest of the shopping bags, just as she stood up she whispered in his ear “Plus it doesn’t take a genius to realize what actually happened in that morgue from Ji-An’s story.”

Jin-Man’s face finally reacted in emotion as his eyes went wide. He realized that Ji-An had told Y/N about all of that and that Y/N had figured that it was him that saved Ji-An. She figured that out from the story told from the point of view of a 7-year-old, impressive. Y/N took a step back so there was finally breathing room between them, he wished she hadn’t thought.

“Will you stay for dinner?” His voice slightly waivered for the first time since they’d met. Now it was Y/N’s turn to stare at him, let him sit in his emotions as she watched his flickering eyes. Then finally she dropped the stone face and let a slightly cocky smile brace her lips.

“Who did you think was cooking?” She replied as she finally turned and walked back into the house leaving a trail of light laughter behind her as she left. He just stood there for a moment and thought, maybe this could be who he is.

[hittmeandtellmeyouremine]

ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

pairing: college!harry osborn x college!fem!reader

summary: you had known peter parker for a few months now and he had mentioned having a roommate a few times but you never really pay attention to it. well you're left with no choice but to acknowledge it when you're met with him instead of peter while returning notes peter had so graciously let you borrow. maybe he should have so graciously told you he wasn't going to be home but you'd yell at him about that later.

warnings: swearing, brief mention of family issues.

word count: 3.3k

a/n: this is the introduction to my heaven is a bedroom series which uses characters and events from sam raimi's spider-man universe. since this is the introduction you can read it by itself or with the rest of the series! it is mentioned that the reader is a woc but you can ignore that if it doesn't apply.

if there was one thing college had brought you it was the sweet boy you could call a friend, peter parker. you had met peter during your freshman year at columbia university. you had both been placed into biology, seeming as you were a bio major and he was a bio-physics major. peter just so happened to come in late the first day and the only seat left was next to you, i guess no one wanted to be sitting all the way on the left side of the room.

you became friends pretty quickly and even became lab partners. peter was probably the only college boy you actually enjoyed being around. he was sweet and honest, wasn't very reliable though. at least from what he had told you when you finally got him to talk about the girl he liked. you watched peter's eyes light up every time he mentioned her name, smiling to yourself at how head over heels he was for her.

you were entering your third month of college, aka it was finally october. the previous week you had gotten too caught up at the shelter and missed class. thankfully peter had showed up on time that day and was helpful enough to lend you the notes, saying something about how it was the least he could do considering how many times you've lent him yours. as promised, you were on your way to return them to him now.

you had never been to peter's apartment, there was never a need until now. usually it was him returning the notes to your apartment. he had mentioned that he had a roommate. you couldn't remember what he said his name was but it was his childhood best friend. it didn't really seem too shocking because you had the same situation. what college student didn't have a roommate? what person living in new york didn't have a roommate? well, unless you were rich.

the building seemed nice enough as you rode up in the elevator, peter's notebook in hand. the lecture that you had missed had been on arachnids and peter's notes were expert-level. he had even taken the time to drop out some of the species. as the elevator gets to the top you realized you probably should've called to tell him you were coming over. in your defense, he just told you to drop them off on sunday and that was today. he never gave you an exact time so he would probably be home all day.

right?

the elevator finally came to a stop at the ninth floor. you opened up the gate and stepped off, stopping in front of the door and knocking on it. you heard some shuffling and smiled to yourself a bit. knowing peter he had probably forgot you were coming over. you heard footsteps coming towards the door before it unlocked and opened.

wait, this isn't peter.

"hi?" the guy said.

he was cute. he was really cute.

he was tall, a little lanky looking. he had brown hair and honey brown eyes to match. he was wearing a blue button up, the collar of a white tee shirt poked out where the first two buttons failed to meet their match. there was a black watch on his left wrist. he had on these small, little reading glasses. you must've interrupted something.

"hi. i must have the wrong apartment. i'm looking for peter parker?"

"oh pete does live here. he's just not home right now" he answered, flashing you an apologetic smile.

so this was the roommate peter had mentioned.

"he should be back soon though. come in" he said before he stepped to the side and let you into their apartment.

"thanks" you smiled as you stepped inside and glanced around.

it was a nice apartment. you first walk into the kitchen. they had a dinning room table in front of one of the two big balcony doors. there was a small living room area beside the dining room table, in front of the other balcony door. stairs to the left of that, assumedly leading to their bedrooms. their office space was to the right of the stairs.

your eyes fell back onto the dining room table where there were notebooks and textbooks scattered.

so you did interrupt something.

"i'm sorry if i interrupted anything. i was just dropping off the notes he'd let me borrow. he told me to come on sunday" you explained.

"oh don't worry. you didn't interrupt anything, i was just doing some homework. pete stepped out early this morning but i'm sure he'll be back soon if you want to wait. i'm harry, harry osborn" he said, sticking his hand out.

his eyes seemed to linger on you a bit.

wait. osborn as in oscorp? the multi-billion dollar tech company?

"i'm y/n. peter and i are lab partners"

you shake his hand. his palm is kind of sweaty. he nods slowly, like he's putting the pieces together.

"did peter not mention that?"

"well he did, he just never mentioned that you were a girl"

you cocked your head at him a bit.

what was that supposed to mean?

he must've noticed the change in your facial expression because he was quick to explain.

"n-not that there's anything wrong with that. i just didn't realize pete had it in him"

you looked at him oddly again.

"no, i mean not like that. it's just that peter doesn't do too well talking to women. he sort of um... freezes up"

you had heard all about peter's inability to speak to women. he was constantly telling you about his failed attempts at making a move on mary jane watson. the poor guy was like a lost puppy in that department.

but harry wasn't doing any better right now.

"sort of like you're doing now?" a small smirk creeping onto your face.

"yeah, sort of" he chuckled, looking away. "do you want something?"

"no. thank you, but i actually should get going. i have a shift i need to get to. could you just let peter know i dropped it off?" you asked, handing him the notebook.

his gaze fell to the notebook and then back up to you as he grabbed hold of it. those puppy eyes seemed almost pleading. like there was something else he wanted to say.

but he didn't.

"yeah of course. i'll let him know you stopped by"

"thank you", you smiled, "it was nice meeting you harry"

he opened the front door for you and you looked back at him briefly as you walked out.

"no problem, nice meeting you"

-

"harry, no"

"oh come on pete! please?" he pleaded.

"no. i'm not getting involved" peter said, throwing up his hands.

"you have to pete. you're my only in"

ever since peter got home harry had been down his throat. actually, more like on his knees. begging peter to give him information about y/n.

"harry she's going to eat you alive. you ever heard that song "maneater"? yeah that's her"

"well if she's so bad then why are you friends with her?"

"oh she's a great friend but i've seen her crush pretty much every guy who tries to make a move with her's ego. and harry, your ego can get pretty big"

for every time peter rambled to you about mary jane, you told him a story about your massacre of a love life. that wasn't an insult either, that was the way you liked it.

"gee thanks pete" he deadpanned, "my ego will live. i still don't understand how you never told me about her!"

peter distinctively remembers a time that he was walking out of class with you. you two were in the middle of a conversation about the lecture when a guy from class stopped you. it was an obvious attempt to as you out but all the guy got from you was a dirty look and a short, uninterested response. then you continued on as if that interaction had never happen, resuming your conversation with peter.

now every time that guy sees you in class he avoids you like the plague. and you act like he doesn't exist because, to you, he doesn't.

"i didn't know it was so important to you" peter said sarcastically as he started up the stairs, chuckling.

"peter i haven't even been able to finish my homework, that's how important it is to me"

peter stopped mid step, noticeably fed up with harry's investigating.

"she mentioned going to a shift later. at least tell me where she works?"

peter internally smiled. harry had practically taken the short time you were here and engraved it in his memory. surely he had the resources to find out more about you on his own but peter figured he'd make his life a little easier. knowing harry wouldn't let him get through his homework if he didn't.

"she doesn't. she volunteers at the animal shelter." peter admitted before going to his room.

a smile took place on harry's face.

-

a few days later you were at the front desk of the shelter, filling out the paperwork for a new dog that had come in. you heard the front door open, thanks to the bell on it, and footsteps that stopped before you. you started greeting whoever it was without looking up.

"hi. what kind of animal are you looking for today?"

"well i was hoping you would help with that"

wait a minute. you had heard that voice before.

"harry?" you questioned as you looked up.

"hi y/n" he smiled

what was he doing here?

"i didn't know you and peter were looking for a pet"

he shrugged.

"figured there's no harm in looking"

"no, i guess there isn't" you smiled

"so will you help me?"

-

you had given harry a tour of the shelter. starting with the cats, moving onto the dogs. he didn't really strike you as an animal person but he seemed to like whatever you liked. he also seemed more interested in you than he was in the animals. the shelter didn't take smaller animals so after the dogs there wasn't much else to show. coincidentally, as your tour was coming to an end so was your shift.

"i have to go clock out" you told him as you guys had returned to the lobby.

"well i can wait here. if you want to go grab a drink or something?" he asked.

"a drink?" you questioned with a raised eyebrow.

usually, this would be an immediate no. you didn't have time for this. you were busy enough with classes and volunteering. you didn't need any distractions.

usually, you would write this off as a waste of time. you had no interest in dating or hooking up so what was the point? it's not like you needed a friend either. i mean you had plenty of friends.

right?

you had plenty of friends. you had clover, your other two long distance best friends, your sister, and... peter. they were more than enough. you didn't really have time for anyone else. really.

"well like a coffee or something, whatever you want" he saved.

his nervousness made you smile.

damn it.

"sure harry, give me a minute" you agreed before turning and going into the break room.

you'd be a liar if you said you hadn't thought about harry. the minute you got home you and your roommate had did some stalking to find out what you could about him. you felt bad about it but him showing up here made you feel less bad about it. he had obviously been doing his own research.

harry was the only son of norman osborn. clover had given you wide eyes when you guys found that out. not that it mattered much to you but it confirmed that osborn was indeed for oscorp. apparently, his father was a billionaire.

a rich, pretty boy was almost never a good combo. but for right now you seemed to have the upper hand. you just needed to keep that advantage.

you came back out with your jacket in hand as you made your way over to harry. new york was in fall now which called for a few more layers. you had been wearing a red spider-man baby tee, a black pleated skirt with thermal black tights and tall, black uggs.

"so you like spider-man?" he asked with a smile.

he has a pretty smile.

"you don't?" you asked as you slipped on the jacket and zipped it halfway.

"he's a cool guy"

he held the door open for you as you walked out before leading the way towards a coffee shop he said he had heard was good.

"what are you going to school for?" he asked you.

he has his hands in the pockets of his jacket. the cold wind was making the tip of his nose and ears turn red.

like a little rudolph.

"i'm a biology major" you answered.

your hands were also shoved in the pockets of your jacket. your tan skin made the redness in your face less obvious on you than it was on him but he could still see it. he made sure to.

"that tracks"

you gave him a bit of a side eye. if you hadn't known he had done his research on you before, he just gave it away.

"i just mean because it seems like you like animals. your eyes kind of lit up every time you introduced me to one"

so he's observant.

"you're not wrong. that's what i'm going to school for" you admitted.

and interested. maybe.

"to work with animals?"

"yeah, to be a vet."

"no wonder you're friends with peter. you must be like wicked smart" he chuckled.

you continued to talk until you got to the coffee shop. turns out he's an only child, you're not. he never mentioned a mother, so it must just be his father. he talks so highly of his father, but there's a bit of a falter there. you knew that falter.

stop psychoanalyzing him.

you watched his face drop when he went to order for you two and you told him you don't actually drink coffee. he apologized profusely for not asking before but you told him you'd live. he got you a hot chocolate instead.

when you guys left the coffee shop harry said he would walk you home so you led the way this time. you both sipped on your drinks and continued conversation. apparently, harry also goes to columbia but he was a business major with a minor in engineering. your paths would hardly ever cross on campus.

you had sort of wrote him off to be this fuckboy, you still kind of do. the business major thing doesn't really help his case. but this little walk with him had made you realize he wasn't so terrible.

that didn't mean you were gonna let him off so easily though.

you stopped in front of the building, harry looked confused when he realized what building you two were in front of.

"i told you i would walk you home" he said, frowning a bit.

"i walked you home instead, my place is further" you said, nodding in the direction opposite of the one you guys came from.

that was a lie. but it was too early for him to know where you lived. you had to keep that upper hand.

"i wouldn't mind walking a little bit y/n, really. "

okay so maybe he was actually interested.

"i know but its alright. i gotta get home." you said as you started to walk away from him. "thank you for the hot chocolate!"

harry watched you walk away from him with furrowed brows as he watched you go the same direction you had just came from.

"i thought you said your apartment was further away?!" he called after you.

"i lied!" you yelled back, smirking to yourself.

-

"y/n! i think you should give him a chance!"

you and peter were similar in the way that you both were roommates with your childhood best friends. right about now you wished you weren't.

"a chance to what? fuck me?"

you two were more different than you were similar. clover liked to see the best in people. that wasn't her fault though. she had never exactly been given a reason to do otherwise.

clover came from two loving parents. she was an only child but her parents treated you like a second daughter. sometimes you thought they treated you better than your own parents did. you tried to push that thought away though. it made you feel guilty.

they were the reason you and clover were living together right now. her parents were both tennis players and they must've been good at it because they were are loaded. they started investing in property at some point. and when their daughter told them she wanted to move to new york for college with her best friend, they made it happen.

they bought the whole apartment building actually, making sure to leave the best apartment available for their daughter and you. its insanity but you couldn't be more grateful for them. they did for more you than your own parents did.

"maybe. maybe more, maybe less" she protested

you laughed and shook your head at her. you had predicted this would happen. you were gonna avoid telling her in the first place but she saw the empty hot chocolate and started questioning.

"you've lost your mind. absolutely not clo"

she groaned like you had just told her she was grounded. which, for the record, clover's parents never grounded her. you grabbed bug and headed towards your room.

being a regular volunteer at the shelter gave you the privilege (and curse) of being able to foster some of the animals. you had to limit yourself to one and you picked bug. bug was a big black cat who enjoyed messing with clover during his free time. she wasn't huge on cats and he made it his business to harass her when you weren't home. you didn't mind, it evened the score for when she harassed you like she is right now.

"y/n please! this could actually mean something for you!" she protested.

for clover, this was the equivalent to you shutting off her favorite rom com right before things started to get good. her words not yours.

"it was just hot chocolate! plus, i don't want it to mean anything. i will live just fine without harry. didn't you say yourself that he had a reputation?"

during our light stalking session she said she had heard about him, a few girls had mentioned his name. then she admitted that was a lie and a lot of girls had mentioned his name, on various occasions. apparently he had spent the first few months of college getting some experience under his belt.

probably wasn't too hard for him once girls figured out who his father was.

you remember peter complaining about it once. saying how harry was falling behind and he had to threaten him to not help him anymore if he didn't get his act together.

or was it harry's father?

you couldn't exactly remember.

maybe that's why he was studying when you went over.

"we don't exactly know what that reputation is though! it could just be gossip or he could've changed!" clover called.

you scoffed as you entered your room, "yeah, fat chance clo!"

"a talking stage won't hurt!" she called after you before you shut your door and set bug down. you watched as he made his way onto you bed and laid himself out.

"might hurt" you mumbled.

-

up next: ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 1

[unreliablesnake]

Is it in your DNA? (Phillip Graves x ofc)

Summary: Graves wants to find out who is his bio-dad. But when he finds out, the man isn’t exactly welcoming.

Note: Based on this post by @gravesrafe. You’re a genius, I hope you don’t mind that I wrote this. / The OFC is called April. / Maybe this is a part one. Idk. / The mistakes you might find in this are completely unintentional, I swear.

Until now, Phillip had been staying in his house, always keeping an eye on what was happening in the outside world and at Shadow Company, and getting ready for the perfect moment to return. His girlfriend kept him entertained most of the time, but when she left for a few days to visit her father who had just broken a leg, he realized that his thoughts could get quite wild when he was on his own.

She was really close to her dad, he had seen this several times with his own eyes, and this made him think. He never knew his father. His mother never talked about him, always avoided the topic when he asked, so around the age of twelve he gave up trying.

But now as an adult maybe it was time to find out. Maybe he could use his wealth and connections to hire the best private investigator available to find his father. So once he made up his mind, he made a few calls and soon found who he was looking for thanks to a friend.

“Thank you for coming here on such short notice,” said Phillip as they sat down in the living room.

The man flashed a polite smile at him as he leaned forwards on the sofa. “It's only natural, Mr. Graves, I know how busy you are, and it must be important.”

Clearing his throat, Phillip leaned back in the armchair and stretched his fingers on the armrest. “Well, it's a personal issue.”

“Your girlfriend?”

He couldn't help but laugh. He trusted her more than anyone, he didn't have a reason to start an investigation about her. “It's my father. I never knew him, but I think it's time to find him with your help,” he said after a short break.

The man thought for a second. “Is your mother still alive?” he asked.

“If you want to know if I’ve ever tried to ask her, then the answer is yes, I have. Several times. But she’s stubborn and doesn’t want me to know for some reason.”

“I see.”

That was all he said. Phillip thought he would refuse to work for him, saying it either wasn't worth his time or energy, or was a case that wasn't the kind he would normally pick to work on. But the silence stretched even longer, causing him to shift in his seat from the anxiety that was beginning to take over his mind.

And he wasn't the type to be anxious. The last time he felt that way had been a bit over a year ago, when his girlfriend got into a car accident. It was pure luck that he wasn't away on a mission at the time, so the moment he got the call from the hospital, he told everyone to man up and handle things without him for a week or two.

He wished April was there with him now. Just taking her hand, feeling the soft skin and warmth would have made him feel a lot better. But she wasn't here now, and he had to handle this on his own. After what felt like an eternity, he cleared his throat to prepare for the question that had been on his mind for a while.

“Have you even tried to find him on your own?” the man suddenly asked, surprising Phillip. “I know about your company, I'm sure you have the resources and connections to manage on your own.”

“I'd rather have someone else do it,” came the honest response.

The private investigator suddenly stood up and dusted off his dress shirt before straightening his tie. “All right. I'll get to work tomorrow and get back to you once I know something about him.”

“Thank you,” was all Phillip said as he shook his hand.

Two days after this conversation his girlfriend finally returned, and she was extremely interested in his sudden urge to find this father he had never known. As they were lying in bed with her head resting on his chest, she drew circles into his skin as she kept asking him questions about the man he hired.

“Do you think he will find your father?” she asked quietly.

Phillip gulped at the thought. It's not like he hadn't thought of the possibility of the private investigator failing to do this simple task. Because how hard could finding one man be? “I'm sure he will,” he replied eventually.

She rested her chin on his shoulder as she looked up at him. “You don't sound too sure,” she pointed out, to which he only responded with a groan. “Okay, okay, I'll let you off the hook.”

“Have you talked to your dad since you got home? Is he okay alone?” he asked before gently kissing the crown of her head.

A sigh left her lips, then she simply turned on her back and looked up at the ceiling. “You know how stubborn he can be. His neighbor offered to help, I offered to hire someone to help, but he keeps saying he can manage on his own,” April replied, her tone giving away that she was tired of her father’s nonsense.

He couldn’t blame her for feeling like this, after all he had gone through the same thing with his mother after she had a surgery. Sometimes he joked that they should be together, maybe this would benefit them, but he knew neither of them would be happy.

Days passed painfully slowly, each feeling longer than the last, making him believe the private investigator got to a dead end. But then his phone rang, and he saw his name on the screen. “I was beginning to think you found nothing,” he admitted after the suggestion to meet for dinner later that night.

Phillip didn’t want company, so he reserved a private room in a fancy restaurant he often took his girlfriend to. The man arrived on time, as if he had waited outside until the very last minute. “As I said on the phone, I have good news, Mr. Graves,” he began as they settled down. He took out a thin file that he set down between them. “I found your father, although I must warn you; he’s a very private man.”

“But you still found some things, right?”

“Yes. His name is Russell Adler,” he began as he opened the file and handed his client a photo from the top. “He works for the CIA. I had to pull a few strings to get this information, but I’m positive that this is the case.”

As he picked up the picture, Phillip took a good look at the man. He looked similar to him, even had a nasty scar on his face like he did. Well, his scar apparently wasn’t nasty, at least his girlfriend always said she loved it about his face. A smile crept on his face at the thought of her, but he quickly regained his composure and looked up at the other man.

“How in the hell did my mother meet someone like him?” he asked, already afraid that the answer would be a drunken night out.

“Your mother lived in the same building for a short time. I don’t exactly know the full story, but they had a fleeting relationship,” he explained. “From what I’ve heard, your mother never told him she was pregnant. He went on a mission, disappeared for months, then by the time he returned, your mother was already gone from that apartment building.”

The Shadow put down the photo and reached for the whole file instead. “So my mom didn’t want him to know, huh? I wonder why that is.”

“He’s… difficult. I talked to a few people he used to know, and they all said the same thing. He lived for his job. He’s known for being a true patriot, always putting the best interest of this country before his own.”

“Sounds just like you,” his girlfriend noted when he told her everything later that night. They were sitting on the couch with her head on his thighs, his hands buried into her hair as they talked. “Do you want to meet him?”

“I don’t know,” Phillip admitted. “He has no idea I exist. And if he was already working for the CIA when Mom got pregnant, then he could have easily found her after he returned from that mission. But he didn’t care enough to look for her.”

April reached for his hand that was resting on his stomach and raised it to her lips. “But what if he would be glad to find out he has a son? You’re successful, intelligent, and so stupidly handsome.” He couldn’t help but laugh at this. “You should give it a try.”

The smile that stayed on his lips grew wider when she sat up and turned around to kiss him. If his men knew how smitten he was with her at home, they would probably make jokes about him behind his back. But he didn’t care, not as long as they were together. She made him a better person, made him see things in a different light most of the time.

Even now she managed to convince him to meet that man. “But you’re coming with me,” he told her before kissing the tip of her nose.

And so a few days later they were sitting in a rental car outside the man’s house. Phillip was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white, but he loosened up a little when she put a hand on his shoulder to give it a gentle squeeze.

“Listen, I know I said you should do this, but if you changed your mind–”

He shook his head immediately. “No, no, it’s okay, I’m ready.”

She didn’t find him convincing enough, but she nodded nonetheless. They got out of the car and walked up to the front door, which to their surprise opened before they could even knock. There was the man from the photos right in front of them, eyeing the pair with a suspicious look on his face.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Adler,” Phillip said with a nod.

“Do we know each other?”

He took a deep breath before pulling out an old photo of his mother from the inner pocket of his jacket. “Do you know her? Her name is Mary Graves,” he said, carefully examining the man’s facial expressions. There was a glint in his eyes, something that told him he recognized her. “So?”

Adler let out a sigh, his eyes narrowing. “Don’t be mistaken, I know who you are, Mr. Graves. The Shadow himself,” he began. “I assume that woman is your mother.”

“You never answered my question.”

“I used to know her, yes,” the older man said as he folded his arms over his chest. “Based on your possible age and the time I knew her, my best guess is that you believe I’m your father.”

“I hired someone to look into this issue, he was the one who found you. Look, I know it was my mother who left, and she never said anything bad about my father. She just… avoided the topic, especially after moving in with my stepfather,” Phillip explained as he put away the photo that was given back to him. “All I want is to get to know my bio-dad.”

As Adler took a better look at the man who claimed to be his son, Phillip absentmindedly reached out to take his girlfriend’s hand, fingers tightly laced with hers while they waited. “You’ll need a DNA test to prove this,” he finally spoke up.

Phillip couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped his lips. “Of course. I was expecting this answer,” he said eventually. “I’ll arrange everything, you just have to be at home when they come for the sample if you agree.”

After a nod, the man turned to look at the woman on his alleged son’s side. “And who is she?” he asked.

“My girlfriend. She was the one who convinced me to come and talk to you.”

“I’m April,” she said with her usual kind smile as she extended a hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

For the first time since they arrived, Adler’s lips curled into a smile. “Likewise. But as pleasant as this conversation is, I’d rather not invite you in yet. Let’s wait for the result of that test,” he said, his expression gradually turning into a condescending one as he turned to the other man again.

Phillip nodded. “That’s understandable. They will give you a call to arrange an appointment. See you later if the test proves it’s true. If not, then this is the last time you see me.”

“Have a nice trip back home,” was all he said before closing the door.

The two of them got back in the car, and Phillip began to drive towards the airport without saying a word. His girlfriend tried to talk, first about neutral things, like what they should eat for dinner or how they could go and spend the following weekend in his lake house. But he didn’t seem interested in any of these topics so she gave up and stepped back to give him some time to figure out how to say what was on his mind.

And sure enough, about half an hour later he licked his lips and said, “I can’t believe that guy. He didn’t even want to get to know me. He didn’t even consider being my real father, he denied everything.”

“He didn’t deny anything, honey,” April began as she reached out to take his hand. “You wouldn’t invite some stranger into your home only because they claim to be your son. He just wants to see the result of the test first. Once you’re proven right, he’ll be more cooperative.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I know I’m right,” she said with a laugh, earning a warm look and a kiss on the back of her hand in return. “He’ll come around. Don’t worry.”

[waterfire1848]

A little twist on the nonbender!Sokkla -AU with a Azula being a prodigy in archery instead of a swordfighting-prodigy. Hit us with your headcanons, please :)

Hello, @subterraneanwatcher !!!!

(Side note but I'm loving the nonbender!azula asks) (Also, changing this up just a bit so that it doesn’t seem like a copy and paste of the sword AU)

1. When Azula was born a nonbender, Ozai wanted her dead or thrown in an orphanage. Ursa and the Fire sages intervened on her behalf though, arguing that she had some promise. So, Ozai allowed her to live but she was forever treated as the unwanted child. Ozai wasn’t fond of either of his children so Ursa did her best to split up time between the two but Azula still felt left out most of the time. She would often wander the palace alone, as the child servants and nobles would look at with disgust or pity, and try to find something to fill her time. One day, she saw the Yuyan archers practicing in the court yard and asked if she could try. The archers decided to humor her and helped her use the arrow (because again she’s a child) and Azula fell in love with the craft.

2. She begged her mother and father to let her enroll in archery classes and while Ursa was worried about her (because Ozai’s words about her being weak were getting to her) Ozai decided to let her so that he could have an excuse to not have his nonbending daughter around. When Azula started her lessons, she excelled. She was a natural and very fast learner. When she turned 11, the archers asked Ozai if they could take her with them. He gladly agreed.

3. Azula officially became a member of the Yuyan archers when she was twelve, the youngest member, and grew to love her little family. Most of them treated her like a younger sister or daughter. They joked around with her, brought her into the circle when they ate, gave her tips and praised her (all things she was missing from her bio family). Azula started going on missions at the age of twelve as well and became known as one of the Yuyan archers most accurate hitters at 14.

4. Azula was annoyed when they were hired by Zhao (who didn’t recognize her thanks to her makeup) but didn’t complain because the task of capturing the Avatar seemed like an interesting on. Azula remained with her brothers and sisters until the Avatar escaped and she attempted to stop him. Aang accidentally hit her head and she slammed it against the stone and was knocked out. Feeling guilty, he takes her with him and runs off, leaving the Yuyan archers devastated and believing her to be dead (don’t ya just love Fire nation propaganda??)

5. Aang brings her back to the cave where Sokka and Katara are still sick and lets her rest because she’s still knocked out. When Sokka and Katara wake up, they debate about taking her with them or not: Aang wants to because he doesn’t feel right about leaving her here alone so they decide to do that. After getting her onto Appa and getting in the air, Azula wakes up and demands to know what’s going on, yelling about her arrows and bows and the other archers. Aang explains what’s going on and that they can’t take her back but are more than happy to set her down and let her walk back (which isn’t an option because they’re in deep EK territory and Azula would very quickly be captured). Azula agrees to come with them until she can find a way back to her own people.

+1 (because there was no room for Sokkla) - Azula takes a notice in Sokka’s weapon and asks him to show her them. He gladly does which leads to a conversation about Azula’s archery skills. (Sokka: Wow! Your family must be really proud! Azula:…Not exactly. Sokka: What do you mean? Azula: My father only wanted benders as children. I’m a nonbender so he pretty much threw me away before I could even crawl. I don’t care. I stopped trying to impress him years ago.) Slowly but surely, the two grow closer and closer until the North Pole happens. Azula refuses to return with Zhao and (with a bow and arrow given to her by Yue) stops him from killing Tui (Azula: I’m not called the sharpest Yuyan shot for nothing. Sokka:…Do people really call you that? Azula: No, but I want them too, and I just saved the fish. I think I’m entitled to a cool nickname). Yue remains alive and in the North Pole but agrees to get them to start participating in the war. Azula, having killed Zhao, officially sides with the Gaang and her relationship with Sokka grows. All of them unaware that Zuko, who was trained under Ozai, is now after them.

[kick-a-long]

the algorythm or whatever fucking hamster wheel runs this broke ass site saw that I advocated a little too often for a clear separation between terrorists, theocratic repressive governments, and normal arabs/muslims just living their lives (aka: don't be racist to third parties just bc lots of violent assholes are racist at you) and decided I must hate jews.

My for you page is suddenly filled up with some of the most direct and single issue "jews killed jesus" "jews cry out as they strike you" "ZOG" type antisemitism bullshit. so now i'm id-ed as "zionist" in my bio so I can warn off antisemites who might reblog me thinking I'm their good self hating token jew. i want nothing to do with those moronic creeps and i'm sure they will make their feelings about that loudly known, which is going to be FUN /S.

I have probably blocked around 2000 blogs at this point. i had a perfect ecosystem working. my garden was tended and the weeds aggressively blocked, free to go outcompete someone else's good vibes. now there's hundreds popping up again.

where are these dill weeds coming from? do they reproduce asexually like bacteria? did russia see trump's win and get a second wind to fuck up my jewish life specifically? what the hell is going on?

[moony7drac]

Whos everyone favorite sibling >:D

I used to have a simple, straight to the point answer for this one, but then they started to develop more... (If you get what I mean).

Short answer, the most common/ best-known combo's, are Ludwig and Larry, Iggy and Lemmy, Roy and Wendy, and Morton and Junior.

As for the longer, more complex answers,

I'm gonna respond to this one as if the answer comes from the Koopa themselves. (Much more fun that way).

Every time you see "Ian", that's me. (I needed another person to kind of interview them, and since this is my AU, we're using my main OC).

But, as to not make this an unskippable ad, I put a "Keep reading in here". So, for the long answers, go down below.

Some of their answers are longer, and others are pretty straight foreward.

(Also, I colourcode everyone in what they do and say. There are a few letters which are somhow not coloured, but I swear, I edited this like, 4 times already, but they keep showing up. So, please forgive me for that, as that is truly Tumblrs fault).

First up, Ludwig and Iggy.

I think Ludwig and I are the most biased with this question...

My favourite is Lemmy. I mean, he's my twin brother. How can I not?!

And mine is Larry. During our time out on the streets, (time between losing bio parents and found by Bowser), Larry was really, really young... He started seeing me as his parent, and, well... While he definitely also is my little brother, he also feels like my son sometimes... How weird that may sound...

So, yeah... Of course, my favourite is my twin, and Ludwig's is his "son"...

Ludwig leaves to go back to what he was doing before answering this question.

But, honestly? Ludwig is a very, very close second...

The camera switches over to Ludwig, who's walking through the halls back to his room.

He's always been there for me when I was feeling (more physically) down... And, well, he's my favourite science buddy!

(I also really love Morton. The sweetheart looks up to me, and is always there to help. His curiosity for what I'm doing or making is also really admirable, even if he doesn't understand it. Plus, his hugs are the best. (The title "gentle giant" didn't come from nowhere, after all...~)).

To be completely honest, while Larry is probably my number one, I can't deny that Iggy had that spot before that/before our lives completely flipped...

He truly cares about everyone's well-being. After all, he has healed my fingers a lot of times, whenever the piano fallboard fell onto my fingers...

Plus, while I am not going to admit this to his face, his hugs are actually pretty calming. Somehow...

Lemmy

Iggy. I mean, of course I dearly love all of my siblings, but, well...

Iggy's my twin... It's really, really hard to beat that.

Roy

Roy flicks his eyes back and forth and sweats a bit at first at hearing the question.

He then folds his arms over his chest and turns his head away.

Pff. Like I have a favourite.

Ian: O, really? Then why do you seem to enjoy their presence so much?

What about the Just Dance battles against Ludwig? Or the study sessions with Iggy? Being Lemmy's spotter during new acrobatic stunts? Being the one to help Wendy when she has a new idea for clothes... Or sparring against Morton... Playing sports against Larry... Or, and don't try to deny this, having those fire breathing contests against Junior?~

Roy sighs as his shoulders sag a bit. He grumbles before he answers.

If you must know... That's exactly why I don't have a favourite.

Roy blushes a bit as he looks away again.

I can't choose...

Wendy

Well, I’m not sure… Roy is probably my favourite, but he is also very much a menace for me.

A few seconds pass.

Actually, so is Junior...

How about this, as they are both as well at the top as at the bottom of my list, they both 50/50, and therefor count as one.

Ian: Yeah, okay, I can work with that... But, give me the explanation in return.

Deep sigh.

Roy has pretty much always been my older brother, you know? While the other three also always have been there for me, Roy was there for me on a different level. But, we also fight quite a bit...

As for Junior. While he's a spoiled little brat, he does, admittedly, have artistic talent. It's often that I explain a design I have in my head, and Junior is able to draw it pretty correctly.

Morton and Larry

Hmm... Can I really only choose one?

Ian, off camera, "Kinda, yeah."

I suppose...

Morton suddenly perks up and smiles.

My favourite younger sibling is Junior, my favourite older bro is Roy, and my favourite big bro is Iggy! There! Just one!

You can't be mad, he did give just one... Just one for different categories...

As for mine, Ludwig.

Larry chuckles and rubs the back of his neck.

It's actually been that way since hatching...

Mom and dad had told us the story of the day I had hatched...

Apparently, I had been crying pretty much since I got out of my egg. Iggy and Lemmy were already home at that point, and the rest weren't trusted enough by mom and dad to safely hold me...

But, no matter who held me, I just wouldn't stop crying...

But then, Ludwig came home. He had been doing some after school stuff, which is why he was late. Mom had pushed me into his arms, becoming frantic about my crying, and trying whatever she could. But the moment I was in Ludwig’s arms, I apparently immediately stopped crying.

So, yeah... Ludwig's my favourite... and he has been that since my birth...

Lastly, Junior

Morton! He's always there when I need him. He's always willing to make me food or carry me around on his shoulders.

Small bonus bit, just cause I can-

Roy: Wait! How do you know about the Just Dance battles and the study sessions? Those are secrets between them and me!

Ian: I have my ways~

Roy: Growl. Just... Don't tell anyone about that, capiche? No one is supposed to know that Luds and I play Just Dance, nor is anyone supposed to know that I like biology...

[kassandras-one-braincell]

I'm no longer gonna be able to comfortably play my special interest, which fucking sucks. Rant under cut. It's about League of Legends and Riot's anti-cheat software, Vanguard, if you're interested.

Riot Vanguard (vgk) is a kernel-level software that scans all of a system's processes to detect cheat engines, which itself is fine - industry standard - except it boasts a particular effectiveness due to how it's run. Vgk runs on start-up so that it's running before a user has the chance to launch a cheat engine, and it can ID hardware so that if a player is caught cheating, they won't be able to play again on the same device. Unless it is disabled manually, it will run 24/7, whereas other AC software will start and stop in line with the game's execution.

It's more effective than other AC software, but it absolutely bricked some PCs back upon its initial release when Valorant dropped in 2020. This was a new game, fresh code, but the anti-cheat borders on a fucking rootkit - a term I'm using liberally, because vgk isn't malware, but it works in the same way on a systemic level. Equally as invasive, and can potentially be equally as destructive; one of those is intended, and the other is an unfortunate by-product of invasive software being developed by a video game company.

League of Legends is a 15 year old game with some pretty tragic code. If vgk caused people to bluescreen after exiting Valorant, then even more people are going to encounter issues with the shitshow that is LoL's code base.

Three weeks ago, an attempt to fix a bug regarding an in-client feature fucked over a far more significant API in several major servers. Every time a particular game-mode called "Clash" launches (every other month or so), it bricks the servers. This is currently a running gag in the community: that whenever the client acts up (embarrassingly often for such a well-funded game) Riot must be dropping Clash early. But when you introduce a bloody rootkit into the mix that runs in tandem with spaghetti code and beyond the closing of the game app, this is going to undoubtedly fuck some computers up.

I'm not someone who cheats at games, but I care about my system too much to risk this. Something that relies on the BIOS, that is known to have caused permanent damage to systems while running alongside a much better programmed game, that continuously scans your system while it's active (and always activates upon start-up until disabled) is obscenely risky. With a 24/7 invasive software, it can disable drivers regardless of what you're playing and when; the worst cases - plural - I've read about anecdotally were people's cooling systems being disabled erroneously by vgk, causing gpu melting. You bet any antivirus software you have installed is going to scan without pause because of it, which will cause more system-wide performance issues, too.

There's also the (albeit minor) risk of other scripts triggering the uh-oh alarm and leading to unfair account bans, and I've poured almost 7 years into this game. I mod some of my single-player games and write scripts. No thanks.

And while I'm lucky enough to have a decent system, the TPM 2.0 and secure boot requirement for Windows 11 users means that vgk will effectively - while the phrase is crude, I haven't seen a concise alternative - "class-ban" League players. Similar to the release of OW2, where a unique SIM was required for every account, including existing ones until that got changed after enough backlash - except buying a phone number is far cheaper than buying a laptop or PC. Even with the requirements, the performance issues will tank low-end systems, which would already be at higher risk of hardware fuckery from increased and extended cpu usage. And the game is currently designed to be comfortably playable on low-end rigs, so it will force-out a good number of players.

If you play League and intend to continue playing after vgk is made mandatory in Jan/Feb 2024, give it a few months after it goes live before you play. That's enough time for any catastrophic issues to unfold, because if the testing period was anything like it is for game features, it won't be sufficient, and the number of cases of system damage will be worse than it was for Valorant upon release.

This rant does read like I'm trying to dissuade people from playing post-vgk, and I'm not, but I am urging people to be cautious and informed on the legitimate controversies surrounding Vanguard, especially anything hardware related. Familiarise yourself with how the program works and assess whether your system will likely be affected, and how permanent any damage could be to your hardware. Read forums (that aren't moderated by Riot employees where possible) and verify the information you're reading. Including this. It's 3:30am and I'm writing this angrily, so my limited explanations of the software could stand to be more thorough.

I'm hoping that there will be enough of a reduction in League's ~200m monthly player-base to spark a reversal in the decision to implement vgk. Not out of consideration for people who don't want to install a rootkit for a video game, but because Riot would lose money and shit their corporate britches.

Having to say goodbye to my favourite game, a universe I love and one of the more significant outlets to socialisation in my life absolutely sucks, though. The actual season changes looked super cool too, and I was stoked about Ambessa coming to the game. I'll enjoy the game while I can, but yeah this feels like a bitter breakup lmao.

[oldfangirl81]

Okay, I saw this post a while ago about why do fic writers make the Buckley Parents be truly horrible people. Most often this shows up in writing them as racist, homophobic and physically abusive jackasses. Given I have a fic where I am making them truly horrible people this has been kicking around in my brain.

So beware my deep thoughts on this...

Okay, so first off I have some personal experiences that color my views. Some parental grandparents stuff I'm still working through. So I'm always going to lean towards found family if canon bio parents suck. So I'm already not inclined to write redemption/forgiveness towards shitty parents who haven't made an effort at change or did it for all the wrong reasons so it is temporary. (oh no my neighbors think I'm bad for not knowing what is happening in my adult child/grandchild lives I must pretend for a while.)

But generally speaking it can be hard to accept that basically okay humans make some very selfish choices that cause harm. It is easier to accept if we only highlight the bad in them. Or we use things our personal beliefs say are characteristics that only bad people have.

We know if we are writing any "realism" eventually Eddie & Buck are going to face homophobia. Yes, even in California. Southern California tends to vote more conservative but northern California has its jackasses too. I was called slurs when protesting Prop 8 by a minivan family. Now I'm lucky and the important people in my life didn't get flustered by me coming out as bi. But that is not always the case. Writing can definitely be a way to process that. Be it an actual experience or just the fear of coming out. So that can be a factor in people writing the Buckley Parents as homophobic jerks.

And often in reality if you find a homophobic/racist jerk then you've also found an ableist jerk. Now again my own personal experience with my grandparents ableism is clouding my judgement. They did and said horrible things when I was a kid. It is believable to me that the Buckleys might not be the greatest with Chris.

Now my grandparents also lost a child. Not as young as Daniel but it was before I was born. It was tragic and unexpected. But they never wanted/allowed my father to grieve beyond what they felt was appropriate. They had a distaste for therapy. It was for OTHER people, the ones with real problems. So I can see the Buckley Parents saying and doing shitty things around Postpartum and PTSD issues because I've known people whose own losses just made them jerks, even to those closest to them.

I also think a lot of us are just tired of shows pushing redemption arcs for shitty parents solely based on the fact they are the DNA donors. I've stopped watching shows when they lean too heavily on that for me. SWAT comes to mind as a more recentish one I stopped because of that. We want the characters to be validated that they don't have to accept shitty people in their life. Be it the mother who fakes her death to work with the CIA or the father who abandoned his family for another or the father who constantly kept his kids traveling to train to kill monsters or the parents who created a child solely to save their other child then never told him while treating him different his whole life. We want these characters to eventually get closure/revenge/peace that leads to love and happiness. Because maybe we know we'll never get that in reality or not as satisfyingly. (The closure/revenge part, hopefully we all find the love, happiness and peace part.) So writing the Buckleys getting verbally sliced up by Eddie is satisfying.

So I think there are a lot of complex reasons to write the Buckleys as extra shitty. But also it is easy to build an antagonist off a slightly established character.

Or maybe I just need therapy and I'm overthinking.

[sealrock]

still slowly working on my carrd, it's 60% finished for the most part. I still have my old bio pages up to read, but just know once I'm through they will be taken down as I'll consider them out of date

I added some new lore bits, removed some old bits, revamped the current bits to be more cohesive, and I'm considering some extra bits to add but I'm not 100% on them yet

here's some crumbs in random order under the cut:

I was trying to avoid this, but tauvane drinks dragon blood (courtesy of her brother-in-law zeumont) and fights the dragonsong war on the side of the dragons, thus making her public enemy #1. she has scales that she doesn't show to anyone and goes through a mild transformation that gives her superhuman speed and draconic features

evander is trying to create the philosopher's stone to cure a fatal illness related to his unstable aether, and he'll stop at nothing to obtain forbidden knowledge through rather unethical means. he owns and operates a tiny chemist guild in ul'dah and they always struggle to secure funds and resources as they're in direct competition with the alchemist's guild. he has a team of mammets that monitor his health and a rag-tag group of fledging chemist guildmates who strive to make life-saving medicine more accessible and affordable to the smallfolk in and around eorzea

achille may or may not have abilities related to tauvane's dragon blood addiction. he doesn't crave blood, but it sends him into a spiral thinking that he can turn out like her despite his efforts to save his mother. and instead of limsa lominsa since I'm moving away from the sea pirate angle, achille was born in coerthas in an abandoned cabin and wasn't allowed to go outside for the first 8 years of his life until he met chiron. he was almost executed by the halonic inquisition as a child after they found tauvane's hiding place, as they believed he was a draconic spawn that must be put down

patroclus has trauma-based amnesia that's related to the night his parents died. he was an unlikely witness to what would later be known as a murder mystery, but he can't remember much of it. instead of being killed, the perpetrator left him in the desert in hopes he would perish from exposure as he was still a child when it happened. after almost a week he was miraculously found wandering alone by a traveling merchant; he was weak from hunger, barefoot, and mute from shock. patroclus didn't speak for almost two years after the event. priam only took him in to keep patroclus from revealing the truth of his parents' murder

hector and halmarut have a more personal relationship with one another than anyone had ever realized. think of gaia and mitron but it's not romantic, it's more akin to beyond: two souls, amnesia: the dark descent, and outlast with psychological horror elements mixed in. hector is plagued with horrific visions and moments of dissociation because of halmarut's influence, though he didn't know it then. he only associated this with what he called 'the shadow', a terrifying but strangely protective entity

kirke was a scientist for the garlean military, the body she inhabits was once a conscript soldier from a far away province, she effectively killed off the host to take over the corpse like a parasite. she rose through the ranks quickly once the higher-ups realized that she's a living relic of allag. kirke doesn't care much for garlemald's conquest of the world as long as it doesn't interfere with her work of mixing science with necromancy. she held the rank of 'mal' (praefectus medicorum) and was the head medic of an imperial legion before the fall of garlemald

andromache may or may not be involved with a shadowy organization (NOT the ascians) with the goal of destroying hydaelyn the mothercrystal. this organization saved her life after the 7UC and helped her get back on her feet despite her amnesia. they want to go back to a time when man once had the power to become a living primal without the need to temper others, they share a common goal with the scions in stopping the ascians from completing another rejoining

yves can transform into a giant voidsent canine with multiple heads (aka shadowkeeper). despite his moniker 'the accursed one', the mages of mhach worshipped him and his mother cessair as their savior and destroyer of amdapor. think silent hill with the order and alessa/alessa becoming god. yves' sire is still being figured out he may or may not be related to golbez just based on yves being extremely powerful

paris and their voidsent have a relationship much like light and ryuk from death note. they bicker, they argue, they fight, they joke, but they have a contract with one another: the more paris borrows its power, the higher the voidsent sets the price for paris' aether afterward. in the event that paris is no longer able to control the power, the voidsent is allowed to eat them whole, thus the contract would be fulfilled. it makes the climax of endwalker incredibly dicey because of paris and zenos' deathmatch against one another, paris quite literally almost died out there if it weren't for meteion's timely intervention

azem (helen) is much more of an outsider and firebrand than originally conceived. they never conformed to any of the rules and fought back against society's conservatism and politics, which earned them a lot of enemies and very few friends. their parents, highly esteemed scientists, strived for them to earn a respectable seat in the convocation since the seat of azem in my vision is less respected and more mocked for its reputation of attracting odd seat holders like venat. instead, helen became the new azem, which infuriated their family enough to cut off all contact with them. helen is related to lahabrea, and they despise each other. helen enjoyed hanging out with erich however

[avrablake]

Hi! I’m sending out WBW asks a day late this week. I’m wondering about your merpeople and space angels story. I don’t know enough about it to ask really detailed questions but I’m dying to hear about any worldbuilding you have! What is your merpeople culture like? Is the space alien actually an Angel or just reminiscent of one? Are there other space cultures? Feel free to skip anything you have yet to come up with, but please infodump as much as you want!

Hey Moshke, thanks so much for the ask! I am actually answering on the same day you asked, which is amazing for me.

So this wip is my very very back burner wip. I haven't written more than a few snippets and it's very much in the brainstorming phase, but I'm happy to info-dump. I usually get ideas when I get the chance to ramble a bit.

The idea for this wip came when @emelkae gave me two prompts and said it would be neat if there was a way to combine them. The two prompts were :

A male mermaid falls in love with a female castaway.

A disgraced angel who hates humans is forced to live amongst them.

(you can find the post here)

Merpeople Culture:

Merpeople have a social culture among their own kind. They can communicate telepathically and through hand signals and clicking noises. They can communicate with some of the more intelligent sea animals and can mentally influence the less intelligent ones. They are taught to be wary of humans and even have a collectively negative opinion of them. They try to avoid humans, though some will be hostile to a lone human or small group of humans, depending on the situation.

Keeping themselves and their home a secret from humans is a top priority. This means their magic is highly regulated so that they don't draw attention to themselves. They are ruled by a council of elders. Only those who have passed certain exams are supposed to use magic outside of training, and only under the direction of the council.

Merpeople honor those who are talented with magic, but they also value skilled hunters and warriors.

Finn is naturally adept at using magic, but hates magic classes. He's always sneaking off and using his magic in ways he isn't supposed to.

Merpeople build their homes in underwater cave systems and caverns. These usually have a central hub for socializing and gatherings. They are often decorated with bio-luminescent plants Many merpeople keep bio-luminescent creatures as pets. Their eyes are sensitive to light so they tend to only swim near or above the surface at night. They have developed a love for the night sky and the stars.

It is a secret known only to the council that Merpeople are actually aliens too. They fled to earth a long long time ago when their home world was attacked by the angels.

Angels

They are not actually angels but an angel-like species. Their "wings" are actually a manifestation of their magic. They are like a transparent light effect rather than actual wings. All angels use tech to enhance their magic. Using magic without the aid of technology is a rare skill and takes years of training. Even the royal family, whose magic is strongest, doesn't bother with this kind of training anymore. Here is a post about angels and their history with magic.

Their culture is one of elegance and opulence. Ambriel's mother is essentially the most extra being in the universe. Everything must be glittery, shiny, expensive looking, and perfect. This fits in with their culture as a whole, she just takes it over the top. Even servants and lower classes mostly dress in elegant, flowing gowns unless they are doing work that just isn't conducive to such attire. Ambriel just wants to be comfortable and tinker with her tech. She would rather melt her own face off with a blow torch than wear a fancy gown, but as a member of the royal family she doesn't have much choice.

Other cultures

I haven't delved into this yet other than that I know there are other alien races and the angels do have contact with them. They did a lot of invading of other planets in the past but now lean more toward diplomacy and interplanetary deals–though there's always a little bit of the underlying threat that they will use force to get their way if they have to so you might as well agree with them and hope you get something out of it too.

[hackshaw-d]

Moved back to @acidcorrodes

Indie horror/crime oc. Selective. Plot-heavy. Multi-para & novella. Must be 21+ to interact.

Winters in Russia are cold. Death is colder. A lifetime of sorrows was definitely not enough to prepare him for the greatest of them all — coming back. Sometimes the past won't go away, and sometimes —oh, sometimes— the buried won't stay dead either. What do you do with infinite lifetimes, a thirst for revenge, and a frustrated fucking deathwish?

A legacy of: love and hate, life and death, remembering you will die, killing what consumes you and consuming what kills you, choosing gentleness in the face of abject horror, and forgetting to forgive but remembering to remember.

Content warning: Horror and mature themes will be present. This blog includes depictions of: mental illness and trauma, alcohol and drug use, death (intentional and accidental). This blog also includes mentions of abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Religious (Catholic) themes and imagery frequently occur. No triggers will be tagged. Reader discretion is advised.

As memorialized by Charlie (she/her, 27) since 2013. GMT-4:00. English/Spanish.

About Dmitry [ full bio ]

Half-Russian, half-American, full nerd. After being raised in a household dominated by his abusive father, druglord by excellence, he took matters into his own hands. That is, he killed the guy... and eventually, himself. Then he came back, a little less human, a little more angel. He roams the city with his sometimes-human, sometimes-cat Lisbeth [ @deadlist ]. Death seems to have an affinity for him, and he doesn't seem to care. On the contrary, he actively pursues paths that lead to death. An artist and hopeless romantic, Dmitry never fails to see beauty in living. He's just bad at remembering that, and bad at staying dead. He has never met a challenge capable of dissuading him once he's made up his mind. True, he's the poster boy for several chapters in the DSM, but you can't have it all, can you?

Guidelines

Basic stuff: be kind, be respectful. Mun ≠ muse, just because a muse does something questionable or even awful doesn't mean I as the writer endorse it.

I enjoy writing longer replies but I generally will match your length and don't mind so long as there's something to reply to. I enjoy using gifs, not static icons, but I can also do text-only replies.

I will be extremely selective regarding new ships, giving preference to ships I already have or ships with writers I've known for a long time. This blog is multiship, in that regard. Similarly, I will be extremely selective about writing sex scenes.

I enjoy writing out interactions between characters organically, so I'd rather not assume pre-existing connections unless we've discussed it prior.

Saying this again because it's important: I won't be tagging triggers, it'd be too much to keep track of. I will however gladly discuss with you if there's topics you want to avoid/skirt over in our threads. Just let me know and I'll keep it in mind.

If you're using unreadable font in your info pages or blog, I won't bother. I'm here to read and write, not to increase my glasses prescription.

I archive my blog using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. If you don't want your content archived, do not interact.

I account-hop often. If you can't reach me here, message me at @acidcorrodes. Additionally, I prioritize replies to my 1x1 roleplay at @nyantry using Dmitry also. You're welcome to read, but I'm highly selective with interactions there.

Republicans DNI.

Note: I will often include Lisbeth (as a cat or as a human) in threads. I write her at my sideblog [ @deadlist ] as the main character instead, whereas here I'm focusing on Dmitry as the main character. The two are, however, inseparable and they exist in the same universe and timelines, so anything that happens here or at her sideblog may be referenced in the other in any threads that occur in the same verse. The separation into a sideblog is just for my own convenience.

Previously: dmitryhackshaw -> nyantry -> @acidxcorrodes -> @acidcorrodes

Other blogs: @camsweb, @deadlist, @nyantry

Tags: meme tag, starter tag, headcanon tag

Last updated: 2024-12-01

[makutaservaela]

Introduction (Temporary)

Hello, friends.

I've had a Bionicle fanfiction since I was a child, shortly before the series ended. I've come in and out of working on it for a few years at a time randomly since then. I've decided to start storing my ramblings of the story online, so I won't as easily lose bits and pieces.

When I first picked up the series, I sped-read through all of the books retained about 30% of the information, and then made an intense fanfiction based on that for about 2 years, and then dropped it for some other fandom. Every few years since, I would randomly pick up the series again, speed-read through it, retain a partially overlapping 30% of the information, and then retcon the story.

The current iteration will be shared on this blog bit-by-bit, including fanfics I created years ago, and new story today. I'm not going to share one direct story, since many of the details of the early adventures were lost in the cringy child-me's memory. I'm going to start where I am currently in the story, and then just give random pieces of information to help piece the story together- connecting the beginning with the current.

I will also create a masterlist post that links to the various references.

Overall, the story begins with this:

Long ago, the planet Spherus Magna was shattered by war and conflict. The inhabitant sapient races could not agree, could not civilize. The Great Beings, a group of mysterious scientists, decided that this would not do. The people must learn civility- but from where?

It was decided that, with the guidance of the Great Beings, a robot should be created. This robot, dubbed the Great Spirit, or Mata Nui, was sent into the galaxy to observe the way other cultures run. This robot would house inside it a world of robots to maintain it. Once the Mata Nui was finished observing, it would return, fix the broken Spherus Magna, and present the information it had obtained.

One Great Being who took the name "Velika" hid himself if the Mata Nui. For his own amusement, he edited the programming of the Mata Nui, causing all beings inside it to be slowly provided the information Mata Nui was obtaining. Bit by bit, the little robots became more sapient, more aware.

Then, trouble struck. Now and then, inhabitants of the Great Spirit rose up against him in rebellion, only to be defeated by his more loyal followers. However, one known as Makuta Teridax took the upperhand, took over the robot, and cast Mata Nui's spirit away. The two rematched on Spherus Magna, where the planet was reformed in their brawl, but at the cost of the death of the original Mata Nui robot, its head smashed open.

The head that stored thousands of years of information on culture that it had collected. The planet was restored- but at what cost? Without that information, the inhabitants of Spherus Magna would simply rise in war again someday all over again.

And this, was when the Great Beings realised something peculiar: the little robot inhabitants of the Mata Nui had culture. They had traditions, emotions, feelings- they were never meant to be this way. The Great Beings learned that the information Mata Nui had collected, the information they needed to bring peace to Spherus Magna, was safe in the minds of the Matoran, Vortixx, Steltians, Toa, and all of the other races. All the Great Beings needed to do was let them go and live, and study their ways.

And so, the Great Beings converted the robots into Bio-organic beings and let them free.

[n1ghtcrwler]

I don't go here (that is, I don't post that kind of content, and the couple blogs I follow that occasionally do post anything adult-themed do so sporadically amongst a different category of stuff that I actually followed them for), but this sounds a lot like a symptom of the fear of imperfection that has been cultivated in the modern day.

Now, I'm not going to sit here crying about cancel culture or something; I saw a post a while ago that did a much better job of explaining how people under the age of like 30 have never known a life without constant surveillance, and I'm piggybacking off that idea. There is an environment, largely created by people older than me and anon, in which every single thing we do in public spaces is monitored, stored, and available for recall at any time. People my age (early 40s) joke about how happy we are that the things we did in high school were just kind of forgotten instead of being spread all over the internet, very rarely coupled with an apparent awareness of how traumatizing it must be to not have that comfort. The invasive nature of the social media-driven web, government surveillance, and the ever-present world of people with smartphones recording anything that strikes them as odd or wrong, have created a world where there isn't any room for error in any way, even if it's something that ISN'T an error but someone with ill intentions can spin as one.

So you have people in their 20s who have only ever known a world where their every mistake was like a bullet loaded into some metaphorical gun, just waiting for someone to use it against them. They have no way to even fully understand what it's like to live in a world where their every step and action and word isn't their fault. And I don't mean that in terms of "you're responsible for your own actions," which is true, but rather "every thing you can possibly do in every single situation can be exposed as an offense by someone, and you are always on trial." And in that world, and in that mindset, there is no concept that anything can be someone else's responsibility.

So they seek some sort of out. Some way in which they can point out that they did everything that could be asked of them, and then some, to ensure that when blame inevitably falls on them for something, they can deflect it at least a little bit. Accounts that don't list their age (like mine) don't give them that. They don't have the reassurance, inaccurate as it may be, that they did what they could do and can't help it if someone else lied to them. They can't be passive. They can't just assume people will let them off the hook if a kid sees something they shouldn't see because they were in a place they didn't belong. Because the world they know has never worked that way. They need SOMETHING to use in their defense. Always. Everywhere.

I think we forget, sometimes, how much fear people younger than us have been taught, and therefore don't adequately account for what that fear does to them. We keep looking at the world as if it's the world we grew up in, and it isn't. And that doesn't mean that we need to put our ages in our bio or whatever, but it does mean we shouldn't act like they are being utterly unreasonable. They are taking reasonable precautions against an unreasonable world; and they aren't yet in a position to make that world more reasonable.

The thing about horny blogs demanding their followers post their ages publically is that it ultimaely means nothing.

If you understand that people can lie on the internet, then you have to accept that someone who says they're 19 could actually be 16. But you see that sequence of digits and assume their acting in good faith and you're off the hook (whatever you think that means) from a minor seeing the word "cock".

But if you're making good faith assumptions like that, you should also accept that someone who likes your posts without publishing their age is *also* acting in good faith. If you assume that your followers with exact ages are not lying and that the act of typing two characters into a Tumblr bio is enough to get you off the hook, then the act of pressing the like button on your text post about sexy tdick is also enough to get you off the hook.

You just can't assume that people would never ever lie about their age on the internet, while also assuming that people run all over the place liking posts that aren't appropiate for them.

Either ageless and age-in-bio blogs are equally capable of lying, or everyone who follows you is indicating that they both want to see your posts and that it's legal for them to do so. One or the other, it can't be both.

~Signed, and 38 year old who is getting damn sick of 20-somethings thinking that no numbers in the bio indicates someone trying to get them in trouble. (Sometimes when people ask I just roll a d10 for the second digit of my age. It's not like they'll ever know.)

--

[britishassistant]

I'm curious: how did the rest of the villains find out that Crowley is Yuu's bio dad? Did Azul/Leviathan let it slip during the next villain's meeting (I have a feeling some also use it on occasion as an excuse to complain about certain heroes and it's one of the few times they don't fight/argue with each other) since Crowley only seemed to make that "don't tell anyone" threat to the twins? How would they have reacted to this revelation and how does Crowley either deal with it or twist it into his favor?

“I want to tell the other six.”

Azul stops and stares at the reporter. They keep walking, hugging their arms close to their body.

“A-are you serious?” He sputters.

“Yes.” They turn and fix him with a level stare. “It’d be better for them to just hear it from me straight, rather than if they find out during a more high stress situation where people could get hurt.”

“Of course, because there’s no way the situation wouldn’t get out of hand once those guys hear about this.” Azul mutters sourly, walking so he’s alongside them. “It’ll go just as smoothly as one of our League picnics.”

He accepts the gentle nudge to the side that earns him as they continue their journey to the exit.

“It’s not like I’m going to tell any heroes, the civilians, or Great Seven forbid, my boss’s boss. I’m not stupid.” The reporter looks down at their shoes. “It’s just. Better for them to hear it from me than to hear it from him.”

“From hi—?” Oh, they have to be joking. “Yuu. You can’t be suggesting that you’re willing to expose a secret of this magnitude to the people who could view you as a rival to their ultimate ambitions so recklessly, just because you dislike Crowley-sama.”

The reporter’s expression twists. “It’s not just ‘dislike’. Besides, do you know what he’s probably doing to Jade and Floyd right now?”

He shoots them a suspicious glance. “And what, pray tell, is that?”

“The stupid bird’ll be finding a way to twist this whole thing into a way for him to blackmail you, rather than the other way round.” Their steps become more akin to stomping, shoulders rounding as they hunch in on themself. “That’s what he always does. It’ll never be his fault, never his problem, he’s just soooo kind and sooo gracious, it’s always your fault for daring to try and make something of yourself outside of his plans for you, you’re the selfish one, you’re the ungrateful one, you’re the self-destructive one, exposing yourself to all those dangerous supervillains that he’s just trying to protect you from!”

Azul can only blink in befuddlement as Yuu exhales harshly at the end of their rant. The reporter must catch sight of his expression, because they sigh and begin again in a slightly calmer tone of voice.

“That’s one of the things the old bird tried to use to control me, you know. After he met me for the first time in twenty-two years.” Yuu scoffs, bitterly. “He claimed that you all were guaranteed to find out about me and kill me, or worse, to take my place as his successor. That is, unless I abandoned everything I loved and worked for to go ‘live’ under his protection and ‘defend my birthright’, as he put it.”

Azul’s mouth works silently for a moment.

He wants to deny it vehemently, to sputter at the sheer audacity of Crowley to think that Azul could do such a thing to Yuu—

Except, whispers a small part of his brain, would you have really been so kind, back when all you knew of Yuu was that they were a cute reporter who poked their nose into supervillain business? If you knew that cute, nosy reporter could be a threat to your ambitions back then, can you honestly say you wouldn’t have done your best to get them out of your way by any means necessary?

He doesn’t like the answer.

So Azul just swallows to try and find his voice again. “He...he may have a point, you know. With some of the others. Maybe not all, but. Some.”

“I know.” The reporter keeps rubbing their arms, like they’re cold. “But hey, at least it’ll beat the suspense of waiting to find out!”

Azul blinks, trying to digest that sentence and the false cheer that accompanied it as they near their destination.

“You’ve—you’ve been scared of that all this time, haven’t you?” He mutters, as they stop in front of the door to the outside. “Whenever you got kidnapped.”

The reporter lets out a suspiciously wet sounding laugh, dabbing at their eyes with the sleeve of their jacket. “It was worst with my first kidnapping by Royal Flush, back when all this started, because I had no idea what he wanted from me. At least when I got into snooping around on everyone else’s schemes later on, I knew you guys’d be more likely to kidnap me for that rather than anything else.”

Azul massages the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He thinks he can practically feel his blood pressure rising. “I thought you were supposed to be the stable one out of all of us.”

That actually gets him a real, honest laugh. “With how little sleep I get? Azul, please.”

They linger at the door for a while, until they hear a car pull up outside and honk it’s horn.

“You’re really going through with this?” He asks them, resigned.

The reporter swallows, hands trembling slightly, but nod, resolute. “Yes. It’s the best option for everyone here.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.” He grumbles. “Just. Promise me. Promise me you’ll tell me when and where you plan to do this.”

Yuu blinks. “Why wouldn’t I? I was planning on asking you, Jade and Floyd to come with me anyway.”

“I won’t accept you being stubborn over this, I’ll draw up a contract if I have—” Wait, hold on, what had they just said? “What–but–why–what??”

“Well, you haven’t exactly being trying to make a contract with me so that you can become the heir instead, or murder me for it on the way out.” Yuu glances up at him, almost...shyly? “I figured that meant I could trust you, at least.”

Oh Great Seven, please don’t let his heart explode from this. It’s pounding so fast in his chest it feels like it might.

“A t-terrible decision really.” He hears himself say, and wants to bang his head against the wall the moment the words are out of his mouth.

Yuu laughs again, almost gently. “Well, I am known for making those. I think I can live with this one.”

And on that bombshell, the reporter slips out of the lair’s door and into the taxi that will hopefully see them safely home.

Azul watches the car pull away, and then closes the door. He turns around and goes to find the first pair of minions he can, ordering them to tail the car and call him immediately if any of the other six supervillains show signs of trying to stage a kidnapping en route.

Azul then strides further into the lair, mind whirling with all the favors he can call in and strings that he can pull.

If he’s going to be ensuring that his naive little reporter is able to go through with this insane plan safely, then he needs to be prepared to be able to defend them against the six potential threats they’ll be up against.