#it makes me sad too that a lot of my old interactions are gone

[caspersickfanfics]

sad writer rambles under the cut, feel free to ignore !!

it really messes with my head that i used to get so many more interactions on my old blog(s). not just likes, but reblogs and asks were much easier to come by.

and look— i know, logically, that there are so many explanations for this that have nothing to do with the quality of my writing.

i had more followers then, so i'd established myself and managed to find my audience. rationally, i think this explains a good part of it!!!

i was writing for different fandoms, too, so audience demographics were different - maybe people in those fandoms had more time, back then, maybe there were simply more fans to cater to, maybe the culture of those fandoms was more interactive generally.

this website was very different then! that was over 5 years ago, of course things have changed. internet culture as a whole has changed drastically!

probably other things that haven't even crossed my mind!

i'm writing this list out to try to persuade myself - because it feels like no amount of reason can actually convince my brain. my brain thinks it's all because my writing has gotten worse. it's sooooo frustrating. and it's not like people haven't expressed that they like my writing recently!!! they have!!!!!!! and i always hold those kind words so close to my heart, and i go back to them frequently.

but there's always this little voice in my head that wants me to think even those very, very kind people could be lying to me, just saying things to be nice, whatever. and then i feel awful for doubting anyone!!! i know it isn't productive or fair!!! but i don't know what to do about it, and i need to do something about it because this is the exact kind of thinking that gives me writer's block, and i'll do a lot to avoid that.

i know this comes from my own insecurities about writing, at least. they're not new, exactly, but they didn't used to be so intense or constant. so i'm not sure how to stop feeling insecure about my work all the time. i didn't used to care about interactions so much, either, because i'd write stuff that i liked to read - so even if other people didn't like it, i did. i keep trying to do that; i'm writing fandoms i love, fics i want to read, etc., but it just never seems to work. i'm always disappointed with what i end up with. maybe, rather than getting worse at writing, my expectations for myself have risen, but my abilities haven't.

i've ended up in this weird headspace of - i could crank out low-quality fics so quickly if i didn't care about them and they'd probably get similar interactions and i'd be less disappointed with myself because i'd have lower expectations at least 😂 or maybe i should take more time with my fics in the hopes that i actually improve to the point that i can be even a little bit happy with what i create.

if anyone does have thoughts/suggestions, please feel free to share! i really am looking for solutions here - i've mulled this over myself for so long and come up empty, so new input is definitely welcome!! if anyone reads this and has nothing to say, that's also absolutely okay. it was helpful for me to write this, already, just to get some thoughts out, and tomorrow i'll look it over again and see if reflecting on it after some rest can help me figure things out.

[thingswhatareawesome]

¨

[flamingpudding]

DPxDC Family Week June 24 (Day 7)

Prompts: Distant Relatives | Engrave

A/N: This is what I believe some would call straight up crack :D

AO3 Link: DPxDC Family Week Contributions

How do you tell your great great great great great (how many greats do you add when the child is the x-generation after about… how many years again? Danny had lost count) grand nephew that the ghost king, he just summoned, with an old family heirloom is his granduncle of many generations?

"Batman. Why does the pendant you gave me summon the fucking Ghost King?" Danny heard a familiar man in a trench coat say next to his nephew (he decided he needed to keep it simple there were too many greats to count)

The batman grunted glaring at the man, Danny blinked finally recognising the guy.

"Aren't you the guy who sold like a tenth of your soul to Ellie's spouse? I am sure I also heard Lucifer complaining that Mammon got more parts of your soul than he has." Danny mused as he looked down at them in his eldritch form. Noting how his nephew tensed as he got past that pathetic wall of protection.

Honestly all the protective engravings he had gifted his nephew and nieces through out generations were a hundred times better. How else would a place like Gotham survive on only Lady Gotham as spiritual protection from ghosts of the Ghost Zone and his former rogues that still liked to mess with his children, nephews and nieces? At least Jazz's branch of the family was safe from them this way. He had baby proofed the entire town or better every town a part of his branch family lived in.

"So, trading game, why did you summon me?" He would have liked to stay hidden, you know? The branch family had long forgotten their relation to the Ghost King and Danny had easily accepted that. His own child of chaos had not so much and preferred to play with the earth family branch but that's besides the point. They had used the pendant to summon him, with his own personal engraving. Did that mean they remembered or did his son let something slip to his cousin?

"Trading game." Someone snorted and for the first time since he got summoned Danny noticed the audience around him. His eldritch form did the equivalent to stunt blinking as he straightened up and took count of the children of his nephew. Baby Ghost, Baby Menace, Baby Stalker and Baby Stabby were there.

A gasp left his lips. A Baby Ghost was sick! In a puff of greenish smoke his eldritch form was dismissed and he changed to his favorite 20 years old Phantom form, rushing past his nephew and trading game.

"You poor baby! I didn't realize you were this sick! If I had known I would have done something way sooner!" He fretted as he inspected one of his nephew's babies, hovering around the boy poking and prodding the little guy, well little to him anyway.

"Who are you calling a baby?! Get your fucking hands of me!" Danny only hummed, patting the baby's head, only a little sad that he couldn't look at his face as Baby Ghost was wearing his favorite red explosive helmet and was on duty.

But on second thought seeing their cute little uniforms live was way better than when he had watched them through his ice mirrors. "Don't worry little Red Hood. You will be feeling a whole lot better soon. Your Uncle Danny will make sure of it."

"The fuck?" The sick baby probably looked at Danny like he had gone insane and the ghost king could only laugh. Good had it been long since he interacted with the earth branch family let alone humans. Maybe he should start accompanying his youngest to his visits to earth.

"Constantine! I thought the sigils were supposed to contain him!" He heard his nephew grunt and Danny grinned over his shoulder at them.

"My little nephew. I granted you way better engravings than this pathetic wall of protection." As if to prove a point he flew around the babies, stopping by the youngest and pulling his sword from him. There were gasps of shock as well as complaints and he couldn't help the laugh as little Baby Stabby tried to lunge at him but got held back by the eldest Baby Menace. He just held the sword towards his nephew and trading game as he held his palm against it and let his power flow. Soon the sigils he had placed on the sword as a homecoming present to the youngest baby, when he started living with his nephew, started to appear, glowing and shining.

"You… you engraved your sigils on things the bats own?!" Disbelieve clearly coloring the trench coats' voice as the man paled. His nephew appeared to be close to start brooding like he had seen him do a couple of times through the ice mirrors. Danny returned the sword, huffing amused how little Robin instantly inspected the sword again, the engravings no longer visible.

"Of course I did. I promised my sister a long time ago that I would always protect her children. Though the engravings were certainly hard to hide from one of your babies."

"Sister? Babies?" Baby Stalker aka Red Robin aka little Tim asked and Danny coed. This baby always reminded him of his best friend Tucker and he was glad to have a technology adept child in the family again.

"Yes your great great great uh…" he stopped thinking how many greats he needed to add and ended up sighing compromising with: "...your grandmother many generations ago."

"How many of our things did you engrave?" His nephew finally grunted out, trench coat guy definitely looking like he was having an aneurysm by now.

"Don't remember, decorations, jewelry, toys, weapons, I think I even engraved your belt buckle." The ghost king shrugged, he honestly didn't. Ellie liked to joke that he was way too protective of the earth branch with the amount of protective engravings and sigils he had put up for them without them even knowing. She was still a little cross with them when they started forgetting about their ghostly part of the family after Jazz died.

There was a distinctive frustrated sigh and for a second Danny did feel bad for his nephew. Maybe he should not have just simply spewed everything but he couldn't hold himself back when he saw the sick baby. He was protective of his family, sue him. At least he hadn't given any of his nephews potential mates a shovel talk yet, not like he had with Ellie's spouse anyway. Jazz had banned him from using Fright Knight's Soul Shredder on humans after he had mentally scared and traumatized her first boyfriend with it. Apparently the guy had been too weak to handle it and lay sick in bed for a while after his return from the nightmare realm.

That reminded him! Turning around he flew up to the sick baby again who flinched back from his touch. He ignored that and only made a calming thrilling noise, calling out to the baby's sick core.

"Get the fuck away-"

Poor baby must be suffering badly from uncontrolled anger and ghostly intermittent explosive disorder. No wonder he hadn't developed any of his powers yet. That Disorder tended to be violent, especially the ghostly kind. Carefully letting his power wash over the baby, Danny coaxed out the little underdeveloped core. Usually he would make sure to do these kinds of things for any of his children, nieces and nephews in a safe environment but this was an exception. It was a sick baby core that would receive long lasting damage if not treated.

Gasp resounded as the tiny core came out of the baby's chest, not wasting any time Danny refresh the ectoplasm in it and removed the corrupted one. He then sent the core back into the baby's chest patting him where it sunk back into the body.

"There you go! Should be all good now!" A second after he said it Danny blinked at all the weapons that were pointed at him. He flinched a little as Baby Menace let electricity spark near him.

"WAIT THAT IS THE GHOST KING YOU IDIOTS!" Trading game screamed, apparently finally waking up from whatever stupor he had been in.

"So? He did something to Todd. Who knows what that was." Danny cooed, he knew Baby Stabby cared, his own youngest was similar in that way, just more chaotic in his display of affection, which also earned him his title. Little Damian was also the most intune with ghostly etiquette next to Baby Ghost, considering the reason for the nickname Danny gave him.

"And he can destroy entire dimensions! Do you guys want to doom us all?!" Trench coat countered very much insistent that the babies pull back their weapons.

Danny in return only huffed in annoyance and rolled his eyes. Like he would destroy the home of the earth branch. That man was talking rather rudely to them and he was also stopping him from bonding with his nephews' babies. "Buzz of trading game. This is a family matter and if the babies want to bond then we will bond."

After a moment of consideration he added. "Also don't talk to them like that. They are royalty and I will not have you disrespect them."

With a wave of his hand a green portal opened below the man swallowing him. Being nice Danny decided to drop the man off in his own home. He was the one that taught his nephew how to use the pendant again after all. But he wanted to be left alone with his family. Before his nephew or the babies could panic he smiled brightly and said. "Don't worry I sent him home to his house of mysteries or whatever he calls it. So we can have some family time! Besides, my In-law wouldn't be happy if I harmed his contract even if his soul is a trading game among the demons…"

They all shared a look and seemed to take the ghost king's words for it. Especially as litte Jason finally got out of his shock, patting at his own chest and mentioning that he indeed did feel better. Saying that there was no Pit Madness in his mind anymore, huh so that's what the Disorder got called on earth.

They instantly questioned Danny of what he did to which their ghostly uncle only smiled at the once sick baby without answering. He would have Frostbite to take a second look soon though, just to be safe.

"You mentioned us to be royalty?" The gruff voice his nephew put on when on duty resounded and a warm smile spread across the ghost kings face to the wonder of the bat-clan present.

"I thought that information got passed down through all the generations like the summoning pendant." The ghost king tilted his head. "You do know your part of the Infinite Realms Royalty right?"

"We… are royalty? For real?" One of the babies slowly asked and Danny grinned at them.

"Of course you are. In fact, the little Baby Ghost here-" He flew up to Jason, the once sick baby and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Is the fifth in line should neither my children, nore Ellie or her children want to take over the throne when I don't want it anymore and don't feel like bothering on waiting for someone to beat me in a succession battle."

"Red Hood is? Shouldn't it be like Batman or Robin?" Little Tim asked and Danny sadly shook his head.

"By earth standards, sure. Not by Ghost Zone standards though. They don't have a core, it would be different if they develop a core after death but right now? It's baby Hood here who is in line."

"So… to sum it up." The oldest baby started packing his weapons away and Danny felt just a little bit disappointed but the youngest had his sword out. So maybe a bit of bonding would still happen now that the earth branche knew about their relationship again.

"B is a descendant of your sister which makes him royalty and in turn all his children, blood and adopted equally? And Red Hood is even in line for the throne of another dimension because he has, what you call a core?"

"Yup." Danny popped the 'p', he was about to explain more considering his nephew had adopted quite the stoic look and the babies did appear to become slowly a little too overwhelmed. When a red portal opened and his own son decided to join the family reunion.

"Dad! What is taking you so long? Aunt Ellie is sending me to fetch you cause she thinks you're skipping your meeting with the observants again!"

"KLARION?!" Baby Stalker shouted and Danny blinked. Oh right, his own baby boy liked to bond with his cousin's babies. When was the last time his baby boy visited earth? Oh the babies were taking on fighting stances. How sweet of them! Even his nephew was tensing up and looked ready to fight.

"Baby Spook, are you here to bond with your cousin's again?" Sue him, he couldn't help the excitement. His little chaos was the most interested in playing with his earth branch family compared to everyone else in the ghost branch, including Ellie's children. They liked to mess with entire dimensions though and nearly caused at least three wars in the last ten years. They had also inherited Ellie's ire in regards to the earth branch forgetting their existence. That's why his youngest son had taken it upon himself to teach and bond with the little ones here.

"Bond?" Little Tim questioned while his son sighed.

"Beings of the Infinite Realms bond via fighting. How else are we going to teach babies how to protect themselves and become stronger?" The Lord of Chaos explained in exasperation like he was talking to a toddler. Considering their age differences he kind of was, Danny mused.

"Hold on, does that mean all the times you spent attacking was…?"

"Me bonding with you babies, yes. My siblings as well as older cousins aren't interested so of course that leaves me, the heir and superior cousin, to take care of our earth bound family."

"Even when you messed with the watchtower?"

Klarion arched an eyebrow at Batman. "Just because you are the oldest among the earthly doesn't mean you're any less of a toddler."

"Klarion." Danny warned, his cousins might be babies by ghost terms but that didn't mean he could act all arrogantly with them. Danny might have spoiled the boy since he was his youngest child but he surely had raised him better than that.

"No bonding today, Dad, you do have a meeting scheduled." A sigh left his lips, he guessed it was time to return. The disappointment must have been written all over the ghost king's face as his son huffed in amusement. "Maybe next time, Dad. You can come alone… if you get away from the observants."

"Alright, alright." Agreeing, Danny flew over to the summoning cycle and picked up the pentant before floating to his nephew.

The boy took a step back from him but Danny just smiled and continued forward, placing the pendant around Batman's neck. "My calling card, little nephew. We don't exactly have phones in the Infinite Realms. So use that to call me any time, though now that you guys got reminded about your relation to me I will make sure to come visit more often and not just watch and protect you from the other side."

"See you later Amadillos"

"Bye Bye Baby Bats!"

With that he didn't leave his nephew and the babies time to respond as he opened a portal and he and his son returned to the Infinite Realms, where an angry Ellie was waiting for him. Oh boy…

Meanwhile the bat clan exchanged looks slowly digesting the information dump that had just happened. They had just wanted to have Constantine check on the engraving they had on a family heirloom that happened to be similar to one that was found on an ancient egyptian summon plate and had caused some rather dangerous events.

Who would have thought that the Ghost King himself would tell them that they were apparently related and royalty in another dimension?

"I am so going to rub it in Roy's face that I am Royalty." Red Hood broke the silence.

"I always knew I was of royal descent." Robin added holding himself even prouder than before.

"Am i the only one losing my shit here that B and Robin are apparently blood related to Klarion? Also… just a warning I am going to start digging into the Family tree now." Red Robin informed with a glint in his eyes hidden behind his mask. He was definitely not asking for permission to do so.

"The Ghost King kept calling us babies though." Nightwing sounded amused, watching at how his brothers were taking the news and wondered how the rest of the family would react.

While Batman on the other hand was brooding and appeared to be severely constipated, probably thinking of all the worst case scenarios and most likely trying to figure if he needed a contingency plan for their newly discovered interdimensional family or not.

John Constantine on the other hand awoke back in his home and let out a long and suffering groan with the new knowledge he gained. Apparently the ghost king's in-law had a contract with him and now he also couldn't even be rude to the bats anymore because they were royalty and he would be screwed and potentially risk his entire existence should the Ghost King take offense. He was fucked the next time he had to deal with the bat-clan again.

[perseidlion]

So I am a certified Catwin shipper. I have written a series that currently sits at 90k words that is casefic but also them getting together. But I am also a multishipper and have written some Payneland stories as well.

So I was understandably quite happy to hear we would've gotten Catwin in S2 because I love the dynamic and I love Lukas Gage and his performance.

But it has made me very sad to see how some people are genuinely upset by this news. I don't think it's justified, frankly. People are doing a lot of filling in the blanks, guessing, and supposition. Just because Catwin would have happened doesn't mean Payneland wouldn't have. Also, we have no idea the context in which all of this would have gone down.

It's important to remember that The Cat King also went on a journey and changed as a person throughout season 1 (as did all the characters.) He is not the same person who slapped the bracelet on Edwin when they first met and not just because he died and was resurrected.

He's matured, settled and grown. It's very possible this arc would have continued. Even if you hated TCK in S1, you may have come to love him in S2, or at least hate him less. Redemption arcs are great fodder for stories and I have no doubt the writers and Lukas would have done that kind of arc justice.

Or maybe Edwin would have had his hot girl summer and TCK was the same old lothario. In which case, he'd definitely be no threat to Payneland endgame. This scenario would make me sad for TCK because he does seem to have genuine feelings for Edwin beyond the sexual, but that was certainly a way they could have gone with it.

My point is, we're missing a lot of context. If you were to take plot points of S1 out of context as well, it would be very hard to envision the final product.

I mean:

Niko gets infested with dandelion sprites that nearly kill her. These sprites manifest with cartoon sparkles around her head and they feed on attention. When they get out of her brain, they're tiny snarky humans she keeps in a terrarium.

Jenny gets set up by Niko with a quiet librarian who turns out to be psycho killer stalker.

People jump off a lighthouse and get swallowed up by a giant angler fish who is siren-ing them to their death. Their ghosts linger, and this annoys the ghost who mans the lighthouse so he hires the boys. Charles yeets the Night Nurse into the fish, and inside she has a talk with an oddly calm and optimistic man. Oh, also the fish is called Angie and she didn't do any of this maliciously.

My point is, this show is camp. That's part of the charm of it. Camp plotlines sound absolutely wild when you distill them to one-liners. When you add in inciting incidents, context and character interactions, these turn from wacky scenarios into full, entertaining stories.

Please don't catastrophize based on crumbs! Whether we get a S2 or not, it's really not worth getting that worked up over. We can't draw conclusions based on what we've been given. It's all guesses, and it could have changed a million times before the episodes were finished.

Also please don't get upset at Catwin shippers for being happy about this. We just wanted to see more of Lukas and George interacting. Most of us are Payneland fans, too and understand that would be the most likely endgame.

[fractualized]

I talked about the first issue of Robin Lives! and my high hopes for it, but when #2 & 3 came around, I didn't have the time to post about them.

But this final issue… uh… Let's get into it. ("It" including gun violence and suicidal ideations.)

So as a brief recap: at the end of #3, Jason found Joker's hideout but froze when confronting him, and Joker decided to solve his Robin problem by mind-manipulating him to be a sidekick of his own: Jokey the Boy Lackey.

In #4, Joker takes his new pal to go after Dr. Stoner.

In #2, Joker pretended to be reformed but Stoner didn't buy it, expressing disappointment, which only set Joker off. And that anger reappears here, less about the offense of some nobody little man pitying him and more about insisting that nobody could actually care about the criminally insane. Of course, this scene comes off more like Joker punishing Stoner for caring— or rather, getting Jason to.

But whatever control Joker had over Jason doesn't hold.

Interesting that Joker leaves Jason alive, and Stoner too. Also, Jason is still awake in this scene, so Joker is truly not worried about him.

Compare this interaction to the opening of #3, in which Joker imagines he's watching films of old comedians with Batman, who is having a great time, and that fantasy is interrupted by an imaginary Robin, who makes fun of Joker's sense of humor. Did Joker decide that since trying to kill Robin had too many downstream effects, he should try to bring him into the joke instead? And then confronted with the real Robin's disdain for him, Joker lashes out to make him feel small? In any case, Robin has proven himself a poor fit for Joker's plans, unlike Batman.

Joker returns to his hideout to get his supplies, and he leaves a note for Batman not only with a clue to his whereabouts, but explicitly letting him know that he let Robin go!

Again with the signals that Joker regrets almost changing the game. (Though he still has, considering what happened to Barbara, which is never mentioned in this miniseries, which is disappointing. In all the brooding in #2 & 3, it's not like there wasn't room for it.)

Anyway, Bruce pulls that move where he works with a sidekick just fine until it gets too dangerous.

While Bruce goes to meet Joker, we learn that Jason has been stewing in humiliation and has had enough.

And the narration gives the first signal of how the storytelling in the last quarter of this issue is gonna go. lol

Oh, so you couldn't think of anything plausible? Anything at all? Not even, I dunno, Joker boasting to Jokey about his plan, or Jason catching sight of a map when he was in the hideout? Alright.

Anyway, Bruce finds Joker in the Miagani caves, home to the particular bat left with the note. Joker has figured out a frequency that allows him to control the bats, and he's also infected them with a psychoactive agent that he wants to unleash on Gotham.

UNLESS….

A proposal?! 😍

So it's either a swarm of infected bats or one infected Bat. Batman should forget about the dang kid, who just doesn't get the joke like they do, and join Joker!

Jason disagrees with this, which he demonstrates by popping up and shooting Joker in the chest. But we've known since #1 this doesn't end in a chest shot.

Farewell, sad clown. :(

So like Joker not planning to kill Jason, his expressions say that not only did he not expect Jason to follow through, but he was relieved when the kid did. Compare this scene to #1 when Bruce almost let him drown. Joker looked only distressed then; with Batman, he needs the game to go on. But Jason finally brings the compulsion to a stop, forever.

Bruce, of course, is upset, and he was not planning to drink Joker's toxin.

That face kills me

"WHATCHA GONNA DO OLD MAN"

When Bruce gets up to the ledge, Jason is gone. And while Arkhamverse Bruce nicely carried Joker's body out of Monarch Theater, here he seems to simply panic, per the first panel below. Which is quickly followed by a lot of shit that sure seems too easy??

Alert, alert! 🚨 WFA has breached containment again!🚨

There are versions of this that I could buy. None of those versions have Bruce simply hugging out Joker's murder within hours of him dying.

The next three pages are an unbelievable speedrun of the aftermath. Let's go one by one.

The Three Jokers-esque rundown of why Jason couldn't be held accountable for Joker's death is all fair enough. And it is in character for Bruce to take the blame for Joker's death, and boy howdy does it make the batjokes feels dance when Joker's death prompts the death of the Batman persona.

But Bruce putting all his bad bat-decisions into the dead persona doesn't really reckon with him having made all those decisions. In an earlier issue, Sara notes that Batman was a fantasy Bruce used to run away from facing his pain, and him now running into his parents' roles just feels like the same thing.

Also being told that Jason was "nearly catatonic" and not showing it is just odd.

Next page!

This page is also weird. I suppose if the logic is that Bruce's sin was bringing a child into the vigilante life and he needed to give up the cowl to atone… No, it's still weird, because Dick was also a child brought into that fight. Just writing him off as already damaged goods so Batman can stay around feels like it undermines the meaning of Bruce retiring.

I'm setting aside whether or not Dick would really want to be Batman, because I don't have a dog in that fight. But making him a Bruce clone does not feel right.

Maybe that's the point, though?? That the cycle is just starting all over again, inescapable? Is this just TKJ? 🤔

Before we follow that line of thinking, next page!

Ohhhhhhh, poor Sara. I thought you could still get out of this as a confidante. But no, you're the narrator and you're so familiar with Bruce and his family because you're ✨in love✨ now. We didn't have to do this. There's literally no point to making her a romantic interest. Sure, I can see going with her instead of an established one because they're all in the crime game and Bruce is escaping that here, but still. And don't tell me "it took years" in an attempt to gloss over how we don't even know this lady. WE DON'T KNOW THIS LADY. This development feels tacked on. I hate it.

Though I mean, Bruce only falls in love after Joker is dead. That's something. 😂

And then we have Jason getting multiple degrees related to mental health care and eventually becoming a higher up at Arkham Asylum. Way different than the Jason Todd of today, but hey, this is an alternate universe and—

what

WHAT?

Uh… 🎵 Cue game show music! 🎶 Congrats to the jaydick fans out there! You are the next batjokes!

I have no idea what to think here. You could theorize that Joker's brainwashing lingered, I guess, and influenced Jason to take his place later. Or perhaps that Jason studying mental health made him ponder the Joker too much and he "infected" himself with his late tormenter? Or are Batman and Joker truly inevitable in any universe and Jason is just helplessly compelled to take on the role?

I don't know! This all was going so well and then it just ends with a bunch of stuff that happens!

I wonder if it was always supposed to end this way? I reread all the issues today, and some of the narration is strange if #4 is indicating that the Sara telling this story exists at a point where she knows that Jason is now Joker. Like some of it you read and think, "Ohhh, the inevitability here isn't about Jason shooting Joker; it's about Jason becoming Joker." But then other parts conflict with that, like in #3 when Sara talks about Jason feeling like it's impossible to victimize others, as if it's a present fact. Clearly he does not feel that way!

Also, at the end of #3 when we saw Jokey, I was excited at the prospect of Joker seeing himself in Jason, and perhaps vice versa, and the emotional struggle that direct compare/contrast could bring. And the first couple pages get at that a little, I guess? But certainly not enough that the final two pages aren't completely out of the blue.

You could say that since Jason takes on Joker's old identity as Red Hood, he's just doing the same again here, but there's still no lead-up to it!

In the end, I guess this is just a sad story about how even when Bruce breaks away from his violent coping mechanism to really promote healing, he still fucked over his kids and it's just too late? I mean, fair enough, but still. Could've used one of those big exposition pages to at least drive more at that. 🤷‍♀️

The next mini-series I'm pinning my hopes on is the Two-Face one in December. Christian Ward stuck the landing in City of Madness, so let's see if he can do it again!

[kondensaduhhh]

Brozone HCs (Post Break Up)

- first of all, i refuse to believe that John Dory was any older than 16 when the band broke up, maybe he's just baby faced, but to me, he's at most 16 years old, yall really gonna look at JD in that flashback and see a 20?? hes just a babyyy

- their ages when the band broke up are, JD: 16, Bruce: 15, Clay: 13, Floyd: 12, Branch: 4

- the tunnel escape only happened almost a year later

- Bruce found Vacay Island only months after the tunnel escape, he ran away from the rest of the trolls thinking maybe he'll find his older brother, but instead found Vacay Island.

- Bruce met Brandy and was in love at first sight, instantly tried to impress her by doing the whole Heartthrob bit, which only amused Brandy, but only when he started to mellow out and started to let down the Heartthrob title, did Brandy start to reciprocate.

- Bruce tried to do the whole courting thing with Brandy, but the second she liked him back, she was like "Mmyeah, youre my boyfriend now" and Bruce nearly screamed like one of his fangirls that he had to take a dive in the ocean.

- due to this, Bruce was the only one that didn't experience becoming gray.

- Floyd became gray after the tunnel escape, back when they were still within the cage, he still somewhat knew where his brothers were, except for JD, but he knew his big brother would be fine. so when they executed the tunnel escape, he couldn't find Clay and Bruce, and didnt know that Branch had started to isolate himself so no one has seen his younger brother either.

- he became gray and left the village, as he was going to look for himself. he didnt sing for a long time, but he did start writing songs and poems that eventually became songs, and had the spontaneous thought of singing one song and broadcasting it.

- the song became an instant hit, and slowly has he started to build his solo career did he gain his colors back.

- Clay lost his colors when they found the hold course to reside in. he lost it a few weeks living in the golf course, did reality set in that he might never see his family again, a lot of the putt putt trolls lost their colors too.

- when Viva saw this, as heartbroken as she was too, she was the firstborn of the king, and as their princess she cant let any of this sadness continue to consume her people, and she found ways to cheer the putt putt trolls up and bring their colors back, including Clay.

- Clay actually only started doing the boring stuff to get away from his previous title of The Fun One, but as things continued on, he did it to keep his mind off of being fun, because being fun reminded him of his family, the family he will never see again.

- but Clay does enjoy keeping the putt putt trolls safe and not gray, he even invented 'protocols' which were essentially games to keep them happy, which he would never admit were games

- JD's colours were on and off for a year when he left the band, and when he came to visit for Branch's birthday, everybody was gone, his colors went to a cooler colour where he cried for days in their pod, and then went gray when the tears subsided. when he left the cage, his colours were so dull, no bergen saw him leave the tree, bc he left with no caution whatsoever

- John Dory doesn't know how much time has passed. he used to have a calendar where he would cross out the days to keep track, but he forgot if he crossed the date out too early or too late and eventually just stopped.

- Floyd became a songwriter to multiple different species

- the brothers who had a hard time fitting back in the pop village from least to most was Floyd, Bruce, Clay, and JD.

- Floyd still had his social skills, better than the rest of the brothers due to the being a songwriter and all, Bruce, while not interacting with trolls, he wasnt living in the past like Clay was, and JD only had Rhonda with the occasional small talk to other trolls whenever he needed supplies that he couldnt make out of scratch.

- JD nearly died a few times. being mostly alone in nature was a lot of trial and error. he got sick/injured so severely that he would write barely intelligible notes about who his brothers were and to tell them how sorry he was and how to take care of Rhonda, pass out and completely forget about the letters. they're tucked into the nooks and crannies inside Rhonda.

- Clay tried to write letters to his brothers, if they were out there, but when it came to sending them, he didn't know how. so he just has thousands of letters addressed to his brothers, varying from asking how Branch was doing, if Floyd still bakes and how he misses his baked goods, asks if Spruce can tell him how to do his hair because it was growing out of control and he always had the best hair out of all of them, and telling John Dory how much he hated him and that it was all his fault and that he misses the soup JD used to make for him specifically, and how tight JD hugged him and missed his stories and how he missed him. How he missed all of them.

- Bruce had a bit of a hard time in raising his kids, not realising that the Vacay Puppets aged differently from trolls. that while most trollings could hold a whole conversation with understanding at the age of a year and a half, some even just after hatching, while his children only babbled and said very few words and short, broken sentences at age 3. he was very worried about their development until Brandy told them that they actually developing pretty quickly for a Vacay Puppet (idk wtf to call them😭😭)

- ppl think that JD is stupid, but the truth is he just misses social cues, and has been out in the wilderness mostly alone so, what is common sense to most trolls, John Dory has completely forgotten about

- Floyd is obviously the most sensitive, but this not only means he is quick to shed a tear, he is also quick to be offended/mad. sometimes it scares Floyd how much he sees JD in himself, but this also made Floyd empathise with JD somewhat, knowing the shame that comes after the anger that came too quick and left just as quickly

- accessory HCs: Floyd has a total of 4 ear piercings, all in one ear,

Branch has got both his ears pierced, the left being a small, mint green gem, and the right a magenta barbell,

Bruce def a navel piercing, a shell necklace with 14 shells on it to represent his wife and kids, and a teal, yellow, pink, and blue woven anklet,

Clay doesn't have any piercings but he does have tats on his legs of those fuck ass stars, hearts, and diamonds on his legs, all below the knee, bc Viva wanted to try tattooing,

JD has a tongue and nipple piercings, he doesn't remember getting them, all he knows he that he got really sad, and then next thing he knows he's awake somewhere he knew he didnt fall asleep in, he kept them anyway

- pop trolls' hair can change when they undergo extreme negative emotions, which was why Clay's hair went from straight and yellow, to curly and green

- when Bruce had an all girl quintuplets (bc i refuse to believe that they had all those children one by one😭😭) he named them Jane Dolly, Clair, Flora, and Briar ((btw i only just found out that Bruce only has one daughter but shhh))

- Floyd has written songs for/about all his brothers, but never said their names in them or even mentioned that it was about Brother specifically, always a vague family member or loved one.

- John Dory was the best at any culinary skill out of all of them, he's the one that taught Floyd how to bake, from how to make the fluffiest chiffon cake, how to laminate pastries, to knowing how to do everything from scratch, to how to do everything without any baking equipment, like a thermometer or a timer.

- However, Bruce, despite being a father and owning a restaurant, is the shittiest cook out of all of them, he either forgets an ingredient and/or under/overdoes it.

- nature is oddly nice to Floyd. not bc of anything in particular, they just really like him. JD used to call Floyd their lucky charm whenever they go camping.

- JD, Clay, and Floyd are adrenaline junkies.

- Clay knows pretty much everything there is in fabric making, from crocheting, knitting to tapestry making, he can do it.

- Floyd absolutely LOVES denim. he will most likely have one piece of his outfit be denim, be it his pants or a bracelet

- after years of being alone, and only having Rhonda be his constant companion, JD has a concerningly high pain tolerance, and being around such a big creature like Rhonda and no one else to compare pain to, whenever he does react to pain, he thinks he's just being over dramatic bc when Rhonda had a splinter the same size as the one he is currently injured with (AKA HUGE) she merely limped, so hed probably be fine.

- Clay looks the most like their mother

- And John Dory is their half brother

[residentialsinyomakai]

Obligatory refs + Info of my Yokai Watch Ocs (*＾▽＾*)

Under a cut because there's gonna be a lot of yapping and art stuffs....explodes +□+

Caspian Hernandez || Any Prns || Watcholder

Basics:

The 15 year old 'basically Nate replacement' of this universe!

Lives in Blossom Heights mostly alone, parents are gone pretty often for one reason or another.

In addition, she lives with Baddinyan who is the only reason they're always out of Chocobars

Can see yokai through their glasses (ability can't be deactivated, but he has to focus on yokai for a few seconds in order to actually see/identify them)

Summons them w/ the Yopple-Brand summon band :'] (Customizable! That's why it looks like a disc attached to a Brute Bracer; because it basically is.) Insert disc into a slot in the side!! Whoopie!!!

Not very socially aware due to doing online school up until the age of like 12 (EVIL CAT interactions early on are constantly like 'lol that thing they said actually meant this you dork ahah you fool' 'hush weirdo I'm trying to focus')

((^ i mean in addition to that hes also based on me so like. Neurodivergent canon?? Maybe?? Idk i unintentionslly write characters like me sometimes

A bit goofy and switches moods easily. Some days can be pretty apathetic if she's in a slump.

Gameverse Friend Team of 6: Baddinyan (duh), Badude, Casanuva, Babblong, Tut'n'K'mon, and Rawry

VC: Unbearaboy! from the 'Yo-Kai Watch!' Sub (the blue one in this scene) ((yes I know it's goofy but it's the only clip I could find, skip past the beginning flashback 😭));

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Kerosque || He/Him || Formerly-Alive Yokai

Basics:

Water-Attributed Rank-B yokai of the Tough Tribe

Phrog is about in his upper 40's.

Inspirit; is kinda like when people tend to be kinda cold/curt in the mornings for seemingly no reason.

Runs a ramen stand someplace on the outskirts of Yo-kailafornia. (He's a pretty good chef too)

((He also has little custom pins you can get for free depending on who you are ^u^ a few of his customers/friends tend to.))

Uses his ladle (however you spell it) as a bit of a weapon thing. Comically large goofy ahh 😭

Doesnt go to the human world more often than he needs to. Too much everything

This man HATES stepping foot in downtown he does NOT wanna be there ever-

Kinda perpetually grumpy, resting mildly angry face. He tries to be polite but isn't very talkative at all lol

He does in fact croak. I love frog

Not pictured cause I forgot but like. Has a little swirly stomach pattern

Reoccurring yokai at his stand tend to be: Roughraff, Sick-Kun, Quinn, Ebi, Caspian, Master Oden, and occasionally Bruff.

VC: No clue yet, something along the lines of a higher version of Walrus Captain from A hat In Time, or a less enthusiastic Captain Caviar from Cookie Run? (If you got ideas, feel free!)

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Dread || He/They/Xe || Human-Born Yokai

Basics:

Drain-Attributed Rank-S yokai of the Shady Tribe

Inspirit; kinda similar to intrusive thoughs. Worse case scenario stuff, things that make you think you're an awful person, dreading situations or overthinking anything, etc etc

Is sighted quite a bit around high-schools. Hormones+anxiety+prime place for embarassment? Makes his job too easy

He has low empathy, but isn't completely incapable. Doesn't make a lot of friends and honestly he could care less either way.

Rather flippant, dry humor kinda guy, kinda similar to Jax from tadc for reference

He does have hair under there (i thought thatd be obvious but then again you'd probably also expect him to have skin and a chest/stomach under his hoodie so aifkwod), but it's usually kinda greasy.

Heart is a weak point in battle. If he ever let's it be exposed in the first place, that is

Cannot be seen by Caspian earlier in the story. Around the point I'd expect him to be in most of my drawings, he's at 'watch' Rank-B

Likes to taunt people, the easier to provoke the better. He feeds off of negative reactions and emotions for both entertainment and soul food nom nom

Usually a sad reaction is better than an angry one for him. If he finds someone's emotional weakness he most likely Will Exploit it XnX

While he doesn't care for anyone, he tends to harass Fuwhirl and Negatibuzz the least.

VC: Dont kill me but Raggedy Andy from Raggedy Anne's Musical Adventure

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Swiss || He/Him || Human-Born Yokai

Basics:

Electic-Attributed Rank-C yokai of the Eerie Tribe

Inspirit; is why people (usually kids) are picky eaters. This can look like randomly losing an appetite/ just finding several things repulsive/I'm bald/nuance/ref

Wanders around wherever. Lives in one of the Tranquility Apartments officially tho.

(Fuwhirl lives w him after they reunite <333 long story short they know him)

Has pretty poor eating habits himself tbh

Is edible!! Technically!!! He would not reccomend it (he's cake roll flavored :'])

The swirl in his hair can be dyed different colors.)

Going off of that, he can regenerate. Useful, but kiiiinda painful

He's a bit of an a-hole, and absolutely doesn't know when to shut up. He doesn't like to fight tho surprisingly (°>°)

Sarcastic and quick to snap back at someone =u=

(There's a strange old man he helps with experiments concerning his odd biology....he hasn't been posted yet but he belongs to my friend @sketchdeath22)

VC: lol idk

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Fuwhirl || They/Them || Object-Born Yokai

Basics:

Wind-Attributed Rank-D yokai of the Mysterious Tribe

Inspirit; Makes people dizzy either randomly or after standing up ×□×

Lived at a circus for a while, but eventually it moved out of town. After a bit of aimless wandering they found their way to Blossom Heights 🌸!!!

Kinda stumbles when they walk, it's worse when they're distressed but a bit more easy to navigate when they're happier &u&

Naive, likes to think anyone's nice under the surface +▽+

Is kinda like Tattletell's in the way he had to be latched on to you to be effective. Typically via a backpack

Has one of those build-a-bear hearts inside him!!! Whoopie :)

VC: Uhhh I forgot atm but I will come back and edit lol

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Anyways, that's not including my like 'ocified versions of pre-existing characters' agsgydirofor I love yapping about ocs!!! Wahoo :)

[liampaynemysteriousdeath]

Liam Payne’s watch was missing when he fell.Robbery gone wrong? The prostitutes allegedly set him up and he never called them…one of the fans recording him that day is missing.hotel employees were making fun of him in the private chat room.(plus other strange things I found from the locals)

Section 1 my theories/ideas of what I’ve read.Most people aren’t taking this suspicious death seriously because he was an addict. but addicts can be victims of crimes too. (Aka the room could have been trashed on purpose to make it look like a setup). The guy they interviewed who had a room near Liam said he heard a lot of noise. Who knows if Liam was alone. Liam did have lots of injuries. Someone mentioned he had a yellow bruiseBruise on his neck and red mark under his right jaw from courtyard video. Aka the one put on IG filmed a few days prior.Also lots of time me celebrities publicist will have a bunch of videos from the past ready to post when the celeb doesn’t feel like posting.

Unless Liam was alone and only he had access to his account? I assume his team dropped him since the label did? Idk.Locals mention ground zero is the first floor. So technically he fell from the fourth floor.The cameras supposedly didn’t work that day. Even though there’s rumors police have cctv.

Timeline is off. Could someone make a timeline of Liam’s last days? I had heard he was kicked out of a prior hotel. So that’s why he checked into that one. Also supposedly the video where Liam is sitting at that table with his gf was at a friends house was a few days old but barely posted the day of his death. . (Or maybe the previous hotel he got kicked out of.?)No one is talking about Rogelio. Source: Perez Hilton mentioned Rogelio’s full name but idr. Someone said that it was his friend/manager. Idk how true that is.Allegedly one of Liam payne’s fans is missing because she was live recording him the day of. Which is a new development.A comment below mentions he was outside hotel with fans that day and planned on coming back out to visit more fans after he was going to eat something. People mention it was only about an hour before his death those videos are allegedly taken.This post contains Some positive fan interactions, speculation from locals, and other stuff to discuss. We fans want the truth to his death. Therefore we must explore all options. This is a collection of comments I’ve gathered from YT. I will probably have to extend post to comments section since I will go over character limit.

Section 2 all the comments I’ve rounded up so far from the locals.@sunshineonmyshoulder480049 minutes agoLiam unfortunately had a very addictive personality. He was addicted to more than drugs and alcohol. He was addicted to fame and attention.(I believe) when his starwasn’t shining as bright as it once did… he couldn’t handle it. Then his ex girlfriend chastised him publicly (even writing a book casting him in a bad light) and the last straw for him was being dropped by his record label. He went into a deep dark place with feeling of rejection and shame. When his current girlfriend left him alone he slipped further and further into darkness and drugs.

You see, he was having an issue with his visa so he couldn’t leave … I heard he begged her to stay with him but she left. I wish she had stayed because he didn’t need to be alone. Reports say he requested the company of two prostitutes the day of his death. I would venture to say he didn’t necessarily want sex but he just didn’t want to be alone… and maybe he didn’t want to do his drugs alone. Remember, an idle mind

@BuenosAires-es!17 minutes agoSUN I MET HIM AT MY BDAY SW YEARS AGO IN BUENOS AIRES, I JUST HAD BROKEN UP A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP AND THE MOMS FROM MY CHILD’S SCHOOL ORGANIZED A DINNER AT A COOL RESTO &PUB IN THE CITY.I WAS SAD BUT WHEN I MET LIAM HE JUST CHANGED EVERYTHING IN MINUTES… GREAT GUY UNFORGETTABLE, HE WAS SO HAPPY AND FUN WE SPENT GREAT TIME MADE ME LOL, I DIDN’T KNEW ONE DIRECTION SINCE I’M OLDER THAN HIM SO I MET NOT THE FAMOUS BUT THE AUTHENTIC LIAM, OUR GAP AGE DIDN’T SEEN TO MATTER HE WAS VERY WISE AND CONFIDANT, A GENTLEMAN SO WE HAD A GREAT TIME..THANKS A MILLION WISHING STAR FOR LIFE IS A CHAIN FULL OF MOMENTS AND YOU SHINE SO BRIGHT NOBODY COULD EVER DIM YOUR LIGHT~~~~~

@DEUTSCHLAND.0072 days agoI firmly believe he didnt mean to kill himself.I lived in Argentina for a few years. I believe those 2 girls that came to his room were connected to the drug dealer.Some dealers use pretty girls to lure and to deliver drugs around hotel areas.Sadly, they’ll never admit it, they’ll say it was just a hookup.He was given a substance that caused him visual and auditive hallucinations.~~~~~

@kayceeyoung84801 day agoOne person said he jumped and people are running with that when there’s so much more evidence pointing towards him falling and not jumping. Obviously, the hotel doesn’t want to be blamed for not getting him medical attention so they are gonna go ahead and say he jumped, and it makes me so mad.

@dorothysmith38503 days agoI thought he was found with signs pointing to the fact that he did not tense up or react instinctively when he went over the balcony. This is why he was thought to have been unconscious. Even when people jump, there is an automatic body response to try and protect yourself.~~~

~@kayceeyoung84801 day agoExactly. He somehow jumped without having control of his muscles. Its bs. The hotel doesn’t want any blame so they are gonna go ahead and say he jumped. I dont buy it.凸2 日@justagirlfromphoenix10231 day ago

And his eyes were open when he landed : ( Saw the terrible pictures on Twitter and reported them I think these woman drugged him up so~~~~~~~~

@SuperAnimelov… 4 hours ago (edited)@justagirlfromphoenix1023Psychic Roberto, said Liam was dead before he was pushed off the balcony.~~~~~~~

@Longislandteaboy46 minutes ago@justagirlfromphoenix1023i saw them too. It definitely looks like he just leant back with no struggle at all by the landing position.~~~~~~~

@sandradelanney95763 days agoThere are actually reports that the police are saying it is supisious and believe simeone else was w/ him. Anunconscience person who is convulsion is not able to stand up.~~~~~~

@user-qh8nh7oe6d1 hour ago@sandra. Exactly. Becoming unconscious with drugs and drink, plus the seizure, there’s no way he could have suddenly recovered to be up and walking within 5 minutes.People are usually out for hours and it’s the danger time for choking if vomiting while unconscious.~~~~~~~~~

Someone who they claim fainted and comvulsed and had to be carried to his room, how did he get the energy to jumb~~~~~~~

@roadpizza34702 hours ago45 feet is not a huge distance. Head Injury for sure and maybe a random fracture.But all those long bone fractures don’t sound right.~~~~~~

~%%%%%%%%%%wupsau2:33If he wasn’t thinking straight, could it also be possible that he accidentally dropped his whiskey bottle (edit: and his lighter or his celphone) into the courtyard, then he went over the railing to try to retrieve it, without it occurring to him that doing so might cause injury and death to himself?1⑦日

X@wonyena5 hours ago (edited)overall heartbreaking story a lesson to get professional help early for mental and psychological issues, a person thats mentally stable wouldn’t have to erase themselves through drugs this guy was struggling in ways we probably will never understand to get to this extent…is extremely saddening to imagine the distress he must’ve been in…yes he turned into an awful person but that’s~~~~~

@quinn41595 hours ago (edited)It’s not like he was in LA or London, where there are celebrities. He could had walked in on a robbery. He stood out as being a wealthy celebrity in a drugged up state, alone in BA. The postatuites may have gotten word out to the pimps.6 5日1M@MaquitaTarot-hx2nd1 hour agoIn Argentina the prostitutes and the pimps are the cops. I have family and friends living there and they all tell me this凸⑦回

@RoxanneKnapp-kf3rpSo Liam was on Clonazepam? Was he trying to stop taking Clonazepam and having Withdrawals?凸 47 hours ago@jocelynanonymousvlogs54184 hours agoOnce again NOBODY CARED ENOUGH TO STEP UP AND STEP IN TO HELP HIM!! even the words in his songs speak volumes and NOBODY ACTUALLY LISTENED!! he was not compes mentes when he went crashing through the balcony doors and this is what saved him feeling anything….the only fault I find with the Hotel set-up is the fact that the rail around the brick and mortar of the balcony was way way to

@MaquitaTarot-hx2nd1 hour agoNot to mention that all his fans reported that he was not drugged up or drunk just half hour before all this happened. And one of the witnesses who was recording everything live is now “missing”.凸@MaquitaTarot-hx2nd1 hour agoBtw EVERYTHING you just said is absolutely true. I am a ex medical assistant for 17 year’s and a forensic psychologist and ex criminal investigator.This was a MURDER.

@koontyb48273 hours agoI’ve considered that 911 phone call to be a bit iffy. The hotel staff member saying about the balcony danger for the guest, to me it sounds like a perpetrator covering up an incident he/she/they have committed. Wasn’t it said, that a neighbouring room heard male shouting coming from Liam’s room. Has law enforcement even considered there could have been a fight in his room with another hotel guest or staff member hence so many injuries 25 injuries right. I know it is said that Liam fell 30/40 ft off a balcony but come on that isn’t such a great height to cause such catastrophic injuries? IMHO there is more to this, than meets the eye! A fall of up to 12m/39-40ft is survivable but could have life threatening injuries unless you land directly on your head. I just don’t get it. RIP Liam we are all behind you to find the truth if this was a crime by a perpetrator. PS. I’m no drug userand naurhaunhut ion’t that nInt of

@xIwy568I am still shocked the whiskey bottle didn’t smash after the fall..心8回24 hours ago(UR-ce6gt3 hours agoThe bottle could have been there before the accident史

回@elena 79rus37 minutes agoThere is a lot of weird stuff about the fall. I just saw another video where they were analyzing the position of his body after the fall. Supposedly his body was not lying under the balconies where it would logically be after his fall, but quite far from there.

@Window34571WHERE was his security,in all this?~~~~~~The phone call to the dispatcher seem oft, how the person talk about the balcony.After worrying about what, he might do to himself. Tell me something in this investigation, that doesn’t seem to make sense at this point.凸 2B

@BrittenyMcKenzie1 hour ago@o_huskywolfdean7 yes they literally said in some reports l’ve heard he blacked out and was having convulsions in the lobby. If that’s the case like you said why would they lock him in his room? Nothing is adding up!! I hope they get to the bottom of this so his son and family will one day have peace and some kind of solace in knowing they at least know for sure what happened to Liam. This is trulyheartbreaking he was a bright light and you could tell he truly cared about his fans in how he interacted with them. I get he’sfan

@BrittenyMcKenzie2 hours agoWhat if management/ hotel employees threw him off? They got angry bc how he was acting and the employee that gave him drugs got scared beat him then they threw him off!!That seems way off all of it they were worried bc a balcony is in his room? None of it adds up at all!!

o_huskywolfdean/1 hour ago (edited)There something definitely not adding up here. Like the way they handled Liam and sent it to his room, locking him in there with only balcony he had access to.Not calling an ambulance when he blacked out after he was feeling unwell, they didn’t give him any medical attention that could save his life.The phone call to the dispatcher seem off.く

@lindaw. 58361 hour agoWas the whisky bottle that was found on the floor next to Liams body in pieces??? Nobody has mentioned broken glass, just a whisky bottle as if it was still intact?山2回

1@gutierrezmaria7730 ft fall and it conveniently survived intact.凸1

@gutierrezmaria7730 ft fall and it conveniently survived intact.凸155 minutes ago@codtetrisexpertlevelgamer32311 hour ago (edited)whose dna were on the smashed telly? or what kind of object was used to smash it? and if there was remnants of that object on Mr. Payne’s hands?or was there telly glasses embedded on his shoes if he like, kicked it?凸 3回

@sharonwamsley398744 minutes ago~~~~~~@taisha8733He was apparently clear when he did the medical for his Visa just days earlier from what I have read, also he was seen only minutes earlier regarding other injuries.Interesting take on the subject, thanks.

@nicolarussell4663He was unconscious when he fell, so how did he get over a balcony山 53 hours ago@Zuqui-fr3yg2 hours agoThe hotel guy did not want the police to be calledIf you have a guest that allegedly is destroying the room, it makes sense to call the police and ambulance.Also, I wonder if the drugs were injected ?The missing part is the truth .

@KimBurleson2 hours agoI’m just wondering… where did his watch go?If you look at all his videos before his death and even that day as he was seen outside his hotel visiting with fans, he has his watch on.I’m thinking he was robbed after being carried back to his room, fought back causing things to break in his room, thrown over the balcony unconscious, and then the room was staged with drugs..

@fairuzmaileen56913 hours ago (edited)The “witness” saying he was passing out drugged-up is an employee from the hotel, hotel which in this moment is under investigation. Fans witnesses saw him an hour before his death and say he was lucid and sober, he spoke to his fans

凸 4@bonniecole1303 hours agoI saw a video of him falling on Twitter just after he died that was obviously very quickly removed and he was mostly definitely alive and conscious~~~~~~

@louisejabelal5 hours ago (edited)OR.. he was targeted..surely there are cameras that face the court yard… why hasn’t anybody from police state that saw those videos.The 25 injuries associated with the fall.. I feel those injuries, especially where they were found on his body, was from an incident with someone who wasn’t happy with himOnly Liam knows what really happened and it is really sad… where was the“girlfriend? She’s leaving him alone, especially when he was under distress ….Seems off to me as well. I hope they figure it out.

Translation in English

Room? It doesn’t matter that this boy is a drug addict and irresponsible, that doesn’t give you the right to treat him like trash. These guys and women from the hotel were making fun of Liam in the chat groups and someone from there brought him all the drugs, it was convenient for them to have him there spending money and getting high. I hope justice is done but in this country there is no justiceSpanish commentdesmaya, lo llevan a su habitación y ellos mismo dicenque se puede caer por el balcón, entonces para que lo hacen entrar a la habitación? No importa que este muchacho sea drogadicto e irresponsable, eso no da derecho a tratarlo como basura. Estos tipos y mujeres del hotel se venían burlandoFull Spanish commentBuenos19843 hours agoEl punto es si cuando el encargado del hotel llama a la ambulancia no se sabe si Liam ya estaba muerto, entonces significa que el encargado estaba mintiendo. No entiendo por qué no hay cámaras en el hotel?? Liam se desmaya, lo llevan a su habitación y ellos mismo dicen que se puede caer por el balcón, entonces para que lo hacen entrar a la habitación? No importa que este muchacho sea drogadicto e irresponsable, eso no da derecho a tratarlo como basura.Estos tipos y mujeres del hotel se venían burlando de Liam en los grupos de chat y alguien de ahí mismo le llevaba toda la droga, les convenía tenerlo ahí gastando plata y drogado. Espero se haga justicia pero en este país no existe la justicia.~~~~~

~@treesoul005 hours agoI have a theory about the timing of the call.The guy’s so monotone about it like, this spiraling pop star has been stressing us out for a while now this, great got to cover our butts. At least that’s the vibe I got.

nillyk56/12 hours agoAnd why is no one mentioning his manager/friend/business partner? He had been with him the whole time but left him all alone when he was having a crisis? Moreover, that guy is known for being a shady character.

@koontyb48272 hours ago@falalalalaa “escorted back to his room”,“a guest below Liam’s room heard a man screaming prior to alleged fall” what’s to say a fight started between Liam and the person who escorted him back to his room. There is so much that doesn’t make sense.凸3

@kathikay894255 minutes agosounds sketchy what the hotel employee said. How do we know if he hasn’t already fell when the call was made

nillyk56713 hours ago@rebeccapugh2297 There are parts missing because the cameras were turned off.凸

@nillyk56713 hours ago@falalalalaa See? That’s a lie because there’s contradictory statements from the employees. They first said he had to be escorted to his room but then the head of reception said that he walked to his room on his own. I listened to the recordings myself. They keep contradicting themselves.

@nillyk56713 hours ago@falalalalaa The disturbance story is strange. The ones who made a big fuss were the two escorts that wanted to get paid. Liam was talking to his fans and was completely fine one and a half hour before he passed away.

[0rb0t]

Don't mind me, just talking about Shadow as being on the autistic spectrum, and how his portrayal in the games and anime (before 2010s era) reflected this even if it was never outright stated.

(TIME FOR A CHARACTER ANALYSIS ABOUT SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG)

    When I was in high school, I struggled a lot in social situations, I'd go completely stiff and just watch people. I had a "resting bitch face", I never really could have conversations and seemed to just fixate on things. I'd make observations that irritated people. I'd ask "why" a lot. (Asking why or even asking 'obvious' questions seemed to make people think I was questioning their judgment, or that I was challenging them. But no, I just didn't understand and wanted clarification. I still run into this a lot and I wish people would stop assuming I have ulterior motives. I just wanna understand stuff better cause it doesn't connect for me. Even if it seems obvious. I'm the genius that asked my mom why she was crying at her dad's funeral when I was 11. It's not that I didn't understand why Grandpa was gone, I knew he passed away, but it hadn't really landed for me, and my brain registered my mom's sadness before it registered the why.)

    I didn't like small talk (still don't) and would rather every interaction have a specific purpose. You'd never catch me at a party and I didn't think drinking or drugs looked fun or interesting. The act of rebelling didn't interest me either. The few interests I did have were something I'd always go back to, and I couldn't function without them. (For me, drawing has always been a huge part of my life and if I didn't have a pencil or pen and paper, then I couldn't hear. I know, very weird. If I were doodling or just even had my sketchbook open, I could study a lot easier. In High school, my teachers started telling me to put the sketchbook away, and my grades plummeted because my attention did, too. Trying to tell them just kind of led to the same old "well everyone else can't doodle so you can't either". I wasn't in any of the special ed stuff because I guess I masked too well.)

    Sonic 06 and Sonic X have the same characterization for Shadow, especially in Japanese, and I think that's honestly the best he'd ever been-- he's quiet, he's reserved, he observes and he doesn't like to "waste time". Not because he's edgy, not because he's a jerk or too serious, but because he struggles in social situations and he's more introverted. He doesn't want to be the centre of attention, he doesn't enjoy any of that. Shadow also behaves like an adult, and I'm sure a ton of us on the spectrum have heard that before, that we're very mature for our age. In reality, we can't relate with our peers and have very fixated interests that don't really expand to other things. Limited interests and we just wanna do stuff tied to that. We know so much about that one thing or those things, but those things won't get you ahead in school. Unless you're LUCKY and your fixation is math, oy vey! (My fixation was etymology. I loved learning and knowing where words came from. Useful for 2 seconds in English class, quickly loses its usefulness in a skill-oriented world.)

    I don't even think he's naturally boastful, at least he wasn't since SA2 (when he was an antagonist), but Sonic brings out a competitive side in him. Sonic brings out the childhood-self that he lost to trauma and being sealed away. Shadow never got to be a normal kid/adult. He has always had expectations placed on him. I think Sonic really brings out a side of him that even surprises himself. It's why he will even say very often "What am I doing?" or "This is such a waste of time!" but he won't STOP… Because he's having fun and doesn't know how to describe his own feelings. Shadow's the type who'll say "I'm fine" no matter what state he's in when you ask if he's okay. My spouse is like this actually-- I can often tell when he's feeling down, but he doesn't know how to describe emotions beyond functional things like "i'm healthy" or "i'm unhealthy", so he'll say he's fine even if he's having a melancholy day. I struggle with understanding my emotional responses, but not necessarily identifying them. A lot of people on the spectrum do struggle with identifying their emotions beyond empirical things. "Do I feel sick? No? then I'm fine" Shadow is exactly like this. And because his expression is so neutral, sometimes intense, he gets mistaken as being angry or too serious. In reality, he's just standing there. He's not gonna expend energy smiling when he's got nothing to smile about. Why force yourself to emote for people? Especially if it feels unnatural.

    Another thing about Shadow being autistic is if he's got nothing to say, then he won't say it. If he wants to leave, he'll leave. Good luck stopping him! But for many actual people it's not an option to leave. We can't just teleport out or skate at lightning speeds like he can, so we have to just sit there and do little coping or self soothing methods to keep ourselves in the moment and calm. We don't often see Shadow stimming in traditionally understood ways, like lip biting or rubbing his arms or fidgeting with his fingers-- but he often stands with his arms crossed. This CAN BE a stim. Feeling the weight of your arms on top of each other, it allows for you to be aware of your own body. I fold my arms a lot in public, because I'm usually playing with the hem of my sleeves, or I'm rubbing my arms or squeezing them. Shadow doesn't seem to do any of that but he's rarely seen without his arms folded.

    When his arms aren't folded, he stands so still and just stares at people. He looks completely out of his element. He doesn't seem to have a relaxed stance--until the anime, where he's shown standing with his hand on his hip. Rouge also does this, leading to the popular headcanons that Shadow is unintentionally imitating Rouge-- his masking leads him to identify the most 'normal' person in the room and copy their behavior in order to blend in better. Unfortunately it rarely, in my experience, leads to people NOT thinking I'm weird. Sometimes I'll even start imitating speech patterns or accents and BOY. I don't even realize I'm doing it until it HAPPENS. So embarrassing. But Shadow absolutely imitates everyone around him. We can see him do this even as far back as Sonic Heroes--that scene where he's nodding or shaking his head to whatever Rouge is saying. The scene where Sonic starts getting competitive and Shadow starts kind of imitating his posture and his way of speaking to become competitive with them-- I don't even think he realizes he's doing it. But it also makes sense with his NAME.

    His name is Shadow. I think of Peter Pan, where Peter's Shadow can sometimes get away from him. Usually it does everything he does, but sometimes it gets away and does its own things, and Peter has to catch it. Wendy sews the shadow back on in Hook. I think Shadow's name is referencing that as well, that just like a shadow, he mimics those around him. He's watching over them, but also copying them. Learning to blend in.

    Another moment I adore is in SA2 (and Sonic X) when Amy Rose hugs him from behind. According to the 2010s era and early IDW, you'd have expected Shadow to push her away or yell DONT TOUCH ME or whatever. But no, he actually just goes REALLY RIGID and doesn't even say anything. It isn't until Amy realizes her mistake that Shadow turns around to look at her, smiling like 'What are you doing???' But in Sonic X, they changed this scene further into autistic territory--

    Shadow doesn't even TURN to her. He goes rigid, yes, and his eyes widen and he just stands there looking towards the audience like 8| He's completely OUT OF HIS ELEMENT. He prepared for the mission, NOT to deal with random people HUGGING HIM. He's probably not been hugged since Maria over 50 years ago. We don't even know if Maria hugged him much because Shadow has always seemed pretty touch-averse. I love GIVING hugs and I love receiving hugs but only from people I'm REALLY close to. I don't even like getting hugs from extended family. My spouse? VERY touch averse. He'll get hugs from me but hugging and touch are just not his thing. Shadow is not a huggy person, but he does tend to hold hands.

    We know he grabbed and held Maria's hand, running with her-- but we never actually saw that until Sonic X (2003) he can be seen running with her away from the military, and he's holding her hand as he leads her. In Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria often grabs Shadow's hand when telling him things. This is also a grounding method to bring the person into the moment. For me, I feel like I can focus better on what my spouse is saying to me when he holds my hand and it's crowded or busy. Even in our home, if he wants to tell me something, I recommend that he hold my hand or touch my arm so I can focus on him better. This happens with Shadow.

    Sonic doesn't tend to hold peoples' hands. In Sonic X he usually just picks people up, but we do see him grab Elise's arm in 06 and run with her. But holding hands? Not really his thing! Shadow does do it more often though. In Sonic X S3, in the episode, Molly's Dream, Shadow's immediate way of leading Molly away from danger is to grab and hold her hand. He even keeps holding her hand until she lets go. It speaks to me the sort of childlike behavior he may still be exhibiting, but not that I'm trying to say that autistic people are more like children. From my experience on the spectrum, I am more childish than my peers. I still react like a kid might to things, and I don't really think like an adult is expected to. I am mentally behind my peers as well, I think my emotional maturity is lower? But it's hard to measure that without a doctor. It's not just about laughing at fart jokes or knowing to pay bills, it's like, how I problem solve is more creatively aligned with kids than it is adults. This is both great and terrible, depending on the situation. A situation that requires math and stuff cannot be solved my way. A situation that involves encouraging kids to try again or be nice to each other, well it's very useful because I can communicate with them on their level (I was a teacher in South Korea for over half a decade, my brain was great for being a teacher but not great for other things).

    I think Shadow really gets misread as a mean guy a lot, but he really isn't. I also don't really enjoy the headcanons that imagine him as very outgoing and whimsical when he was on the ARK, and I especially don't like headcanons that infantilize him-- I really don't like headcanons where people infantilize autistic people. We've seen Shadow when he loses his memories a few times. In Heroes, but also in S3 of Sonic X-- his personality is still the same. He's still reserved, he's still quiet, he still struggles in social situations and prefers getting to the point rather than dilly-dallying. I'd argue that he was exactly like that before the incident on the ARK, too. It's just that the incident caused his inner peace to be destroyed. His precious person, Maria, was no longer around and he lost everything all at once. He doubled down on the one thing that made sense: Revenge. But even after all of that was sorted out, he's not gonna just magically be a different person. He's still reserved, he's still serious, he's still "get to the point". If he played FFXIV, he'd only focus on main quests, and never do side quests. He'd never spend money on cosmetics, probably. He's likely a person who values gameplay over story. If the game is broken or the mechanics aren't utilized well, that's probably more what he'd be fixated on than whether the story was good or not. He'd skip through dialogue because he reads fast, even if the dialogue is voiced (my spouse does this and it drives me nuts. SHADOW I BEG OF YOU PLEASE DO IT FOR ME, DISABLE THE VOICE ACTING IN OPTIONS SO I STOP HEARING THE FIRST UTTERANCE OF A WORD EVERY TIME U MASH THROUGH THE DIALOGUE)

    Trauma affects people in all kinds of ways. I don't think all autistic people are like Shadow, because autism is a spectrum and no two people present exactly the same, although there will be similarities. Shadow's trauma happened at a time where he barely knew himself already, so that's why it was so easy for him to fixate on revenge, and then he'd be content with dying afterwards because he figured he had nothing left to live for. Finding out he was wrong was the best thing that could have happened to him.

    I was really saddened when SEGA decided he was an edgelord who hated everything and had no friends because that's such a horrible read of this nuanced character. In my personal headcanons for Shadow, he's actually very into plants and flowers, because Maria loved the planet so much. And eventually he learns to love the planet because of nature. Shadow's never going to be a people person, in fact he probably still doesn't care much for people as a whole, but that doesn't mean he won't step up when they need his help. Which is why his line in Sonic 06 is still so poignant. "If the world chooses to become my enemy, then I'll fight like I always have." Basically, it really doesn't matter, I've made my choice, I know who I am now and I get to make those decisions. No one else will shake the foundations of who I am.

    And because he knows who he is, he doesn't feel the need to repeat it and boast about himself. He's confident, not arrogant. He can be smug and competitive, but that's playfulness, not cruelty. He's quiet and may just straight up walk away while someone is mid-sentence, but that's not because he's evil or intentionally being a jerk-- it's just how he is. He needs to work on it if he wants to have friends, but his friends already understand him very well. They know that he's like that, and from what we saw in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, occasionally they forget it's not personal. I'm happy to see them admitting "oh no, I completely misjudged you, I'm so sorry!" because it's been way too long since we've heard the main cast apologize to Shadow for assuming he was a big jerk on purpose.

    Knowing the restrictions on how Shadow is written have been lifted, I'm really hoping we can get more of how he's meant to be, the reserved, socially awkward but well-meaning hedgehog we love. Autistic Shadow FTW!

    

(our experiences and headcanons

may differ, that's okay.)

[dearsnow]

EVERYWHERE, EVERYTHING

- your best friend comes home for the first time after joining the military. (jon snow x gn!reader, modern au, some parts are sad but it’s mostly fluffy). part of the mixtape 2: our version collab

based on “everywhere, everything” by noah kahan

word count: 3,530

a/n - i love jon sm but me personally? i would not be able to stand having a military man because i would be sad he’s not in my arms every day 🥲

Coming back to his large family house in his little hometown leaves Jon feeling conflicted. The snow is the same. The barren trees, the little snowmen on the front lawn, the crunch of leaves underfoot- everything is the same. It’s so similar to the life he once had, yet so different. As he gazes upon the once-warm house in the cold north, he finds it hard to swallow. His half-siblings have grown so much that he can hardly recognize the littlest ones; they went from lumps of blankets and tears to little people with their own thoughts and complicated personalities.

He will see you, too, and he isn’t sure if he can even handle the idea.

Leaving to join the military was one of the hardest things he ever had to do, yet it was necessary. Northward Base, lovingly nicknamed “The Wall” by its residents, had opened so many opportunities for him. Honor to his family and whatnot. He had gone through so much with his brothers, and there was yet more to come. But he is back now, at his old doorstep.

Sansa stands in the doorway, leaning on the side of it. Arya hasn’t spotted him yet, though he is sure she will rush him with a hug and a million questions when she does. Robb offers to take his luggage in with him, but Jon shakes his head with a smile. He can carry his own bags now.

You’ve been waiting for this day for so long. After years, years of waiting and writing to him and sitting in your own isolation, your best friend is at the tips of your numb fingers. As you stare out your window, almost afraid he would disappear again if you blink, you remember the day he left.

It was barely the middle of fall. There were dead leaves raked in piles outside of his house, the house you frequented, and you felt an almost childish urge. Who could stop you, though?

You jumped in a pile, the material underneath your boots giving out a crackling noise so loud it alerted the attention of the newly eleven-year-old Arya. She quickly jumped in with you, tackling you to the ground. You fell with a ‘fwump’, a giggle bubbling up through your stomach like warm cider. The ground was hard, the hidden rock underneath the left side of your back even harder, but all you could feel was joy.

You were too grown to be playing like that, and you knew it. You figured, though, that you had too little time to not enjoy every second of it. A mildly shocked Jon watched from the sidelines.

“Having fun?” He called. You laughed, the sound ringing out like a harmony to his ears.

“Definitely. Why don’t you come join us?” You tried to stand back up, but the child in your lap was making it a lot harder. Arya stuck out her tongue.

“Yeah, have a little fun!”

Jon shook his head. “Not today, I’m afraid.” He hesitated. “I actually have something to talk to you about.” He was looking so deeply into your soul you were sure he could see the words rumbling at the back of your throat.

Arya knew. She knew what he had to tell you, and she knew what you would say, and she decided that she would rather die than see the light fade from your eyes. She looked between the two of you for a moment then scampered away into the house behind her.

Your head was spinning. Why would she just leave like that? You knew her. She needed to know every moment, every interaction, every little glance between friend or foe. She would surely stay, unless (of course) she was already clued into the situation.

Jon took a deep breath, and you could tell his heart was aching just by the look in his deep brown eyes. His fists were clenched at his side and his breaths formed quick clouds in the cool air. You stood up, and he didn’t move to brush the leaves out of your hair like he normally would. His hands stayed still, so you took them in yours. He was ice cold.

“I’m leaving.” Oh, your Jon. So quick to the point.

“When? To where?” You questioned. You knew he had to leave at some point. You were leaving for college in the next month, though your university was so close to your home it was barely a drive.

“Today,” He whispered, “to join the military.” Your heart dropped down to your feet. You could feel a sting in your eyes, like a wave of salt water had suddenly drowned you. You now understand why Arya left so quickly.

“Today.” A prickle formed behind your eyes. “How could you not tell me? I won’t be able to see you for so long.” 

He wilted like a dying flower. “I was going to. I would’ve told you when I first thought about enlisting, but it was finals week. It felt like a bad time. Then, so much happened and I just… I just couldn’t do it. But I’m leaving for Northward today, and I needed to tell you before I went.” He swallowed thickly. You looked so crestfallen, with your teary eyes and shaking voice. He wished he didn’t have to leave you like that, but he had made up his mind long ago.

“I wish you had told me earlier.” You choked out. He winced a little bit. “At the very least, I could’ve spent more time with you. Gotten milkshakes at the café by the church one more time,” his fists tighten more than he even thought possible. “but I want you to know that I support your decision. I believe you’ll be the best they’ve ever seen.”

You wanted to scream. To yell, to beg and clutch at his coat and plead for him to stay. A rabid animal had taken over your heart, clawing at your insides and shredding your resolve like cheese.

Jon could tell you were on the verge of tears just by looking at your shifting eyes. If you were a subject, he would pass with flying colors. He didn’t know what to do except embrace you.

You sunk into his arms like they were a plush comforter. The sun was collapsing, but with him, you were safe. That would have to change soon. 

You could feel your tears making wet little marks on his shirt as your feelings finally bubbled over. He was leaving. You wouldn’t see him for a long, long time after that day, and you didn’t know how you would be able to stand it.

He lifted your chin with gentle hands. He hated seeing you cry, whether it was from a sad movie or something far more serious, so he did the only thing his heart could think of doing.

He pressed his lips to yours, and the sun finally exploded behind you.

You step out onto the sidewalk nervously, and past his driveway, you can see Jon. He’s just standing there, exchanging banter with Robb. Your heart is nearly beating out of your chest. Then, finally, he turns around.

When his eyes lock with yours, it’s like nothing ever changed. He’s taller now, with more muscle, a lot more scars, and a lot less hair. But he’s still Jon. You know his face like the back roads in Winterfell, the ones you can drive with your eyes closed. You know him like the little dorm that has been your new home for the past few years. God, you know him.

When you were sixteen, and he had just gotten his license, he took you out for a drive. He went on the back roads, the bumpy ones that sent you flying if you weren’t properly strapped in. You sat in the front seat of his brother’s old truck as you talked about anything and everything you could ever talk about.

When he reached his destination and laid out blankets in the bed of the truck, you didn’t know that in a few years, he would be gone. You laid in his arms that day as you watched the clouds meander by overhead. It was summer. The air was fresh, the grass field was peaceful, his breath was on your neck, and the birds were singing their twittering little songs. For a quiet boy, he sure talked a lot when it was just you and him. He was curious and lively in those little moments. His stoicism was put off to the side and he could talk freely when you looked at him. Your eyes were just so inviting he couldn’t stop his words from tumbling over the edge.

“I want to join the military someday. It’ll make my dad happy, I think, knowing I’m in there with my uncle. For once, maybe I can be more than my father’s unfortunate mistake. But I also know that it means leaving Winterfell behind, maybe forever. It means leaving everywhere, everything, and everyone. I wonder if I could even make a decision like that.” He said, eyes glued to the sky above. It was nice like that, you thought. Watching him watch the clouds.

“Whatever you decide, I’ll always be here for you.” You responded simply. It was true. Somehow, you knew you would still love him even if he was a million miles away. You would love him if he got a lover, though you would try your best to stop, and you would love him when he was dead. You would love him when you were dead, too. You would love him so deeply the worms would taste his lips on your rotting skin. “Just remember to write me every once in a while.” You didn’t know how soon he would be leaving, and looking back on it, you should have seen the signs. You should’ve known that he would leave the moment he graduated. He was always like that, persevering and fighting and marching forward the moment life called for it. But in the moment, you couldn’t even fathom life without your best friend. The only thing that mattered was the present.

He had brought a little laptop, and you both binge-watched bad rom-coms until you fell asleep wrapped in blankets that smelled like him. 

He takes a step towards you, unsure. You’re unsure too, but a magnetic force pulls you forward until you’re both stumbling over your feet to get to each other. You crash into him, and he holds you like you might shatter and break. “Jon,” You whisper, “I missed you so much.” He smiles.

“I surely missed you more.” 

You shake your head with a laugh. “Impossible. I wrote you so many letters they could fill a book, and I saved all of your texts.”

He looks at you with soft eyes. “You never left my mind when I was up there. Never.”

Robb hoots from the sidelines, and Sansa giggles. The Starks had been your rocks while Jon was away, though Robb was often gone, and you love them like siblings. They’ve always been your siblings, in a sense.

“Save some love for me, brother!” Robb calls. Jon looks over with a joking glare before Sansa pulls the other Stark into their family home. She was the wariest of you at first, but she quickly became one of your most trusted confidants. You guess she liked having someone around that she could spill drama to- none of her siblings cared for the latest whos, whats, and wheres.

Jon is still hugging you, but he pulls away just the tiniest bit. “We should go get milkshakes while I’m home. Is Hot Pie’s still open or has it closed down since I’ve been away?”

You narrow your eyes. “It’s still open, but don’t you think you should greet the rest of your family first?” He pauses like he just now realized. He laughs a little heartwarming laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right. Here,” He pulls out his keys, “Just wait in the truck. I’ll be out in a little.”

The ‘little’ was more like half an hour, but you were happy to wait. You realized, in those thirty minutes, something that you should have known years ago. You need to savor life while it lasts, let it melt on your tongue like a chocolate before you’re too old to taste it. You need to savor him while he’s yours. Everything will end someday, and you need to act like it. You set your resolve when you see him speed walking towards his truck. The same one from all those years ago, passed down to him when Robb had gotten something fresher and newer. Jon was never one to waste, so when it was his turn to have it, he fixed it up. It still felt the same, but the air freshener on the rearview mirror was an entirely new scent. 

He got in the driver’s seat, and everything felt familiar. It felt like a wave washing over you, reminding you of all of the memories you have ever had with him. 

There’s a little smile on his face as he turns the keys in the ignition.

“What did you do while I was away? Anything new you didn’t mention in your letters?” He asks. He’s watching the road, and you’re staring at the usual blur of snow and bare trees. 

“Oh, nothing. I just studied a lot and missed you. I made a couple new friends in college, and I definitely missed you. Oh, have I mentioned that I missed you yet?” You tease. His cold heart warms in his chest as he chuckles.

“No, I don’t think you have.” He says, eyes flickering over to you for a minute.

“What were you up to?” 

He shrugs. “I got promoted to lieutenant. I didn’t really want it, but it’s what I had to do. I was also attacked by my own platoon and my heart stopped. Got released from duty after that. I should have just stayed home.”

Your mouth drops open. “And you didn’t mention any of that to me?” He squints at the road.

“I didn’t want you to worry.” He replied simply. What a doofus, always concerned about you when all you want to do is be there for him.

“Well, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But if you do want to, my ears are open.” He laughs at that, and you laugh, and you’re both laughing so hard he almost misses the turn to Hot Pie’s. It’s not that funny, but somehow, it rekindles an old, dying flame.

The rest of the short drive is filled with words spilling from the surface of your skin. You have so much to talk about. Things both of you couldn’t express through letters or texts bubble up, and nothing stops them. You’re breathless by the time you reach the door of the café. 

He opens the door for you, always a gentleman. When you step through the threshold, the familiar smell of sweets and freshly-baked bread wafting through the air, the boy behind the counter gasps.

“Our favorite customers, back again!” It’s Hot Pie himself, now grown and definitely friendlier than he once was. He was lovingly nicknamed after the place he worked a long time ago, and it seemingly stuck to this day. His name tag reads “Hot Pie Jr”. 

You shoot him a smile. “You know we couldn’t stay away for very long.” He nods, satisfied with your answer.

“I guess it’s the usual then. An Oreo milkshake for m’lord, and something special for someone special.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and you snort. He still knows your order. 

When you sit down at your usual booth, you notice a new painting on the wall. It’s a gorgeous landscape featuring the sun setting over a grassy field, one that looks so much like that certain spot in Winterfell it makes you shiver. You wonder if the café’s owners had it commissioned. Jon notices it too, and he gives you a slightly confused look.

“Is that…?”

“I think so.” It’s such a coincidence. There are reminders of your time in the bustling town everywhere. It’s like you can never escape it, and you’re quite sure you don’t want to. “That’s so weird, but I feel like it’s meant to be there.”

He nods in agreement. “Everything feels like it’s meant to be here. Especially you.” He makes no attempt to elaborate, so you gently coax the words he’s choking back out of his mouth.

“What do you mean by that?”

He hesitates. “You just feel like home to me. Being back here, not giving inspiring speeches or training or listening for gunshots and talking to you makes me think I could have a real second chance at life. When I’m with you, nothing else matters.” He looks at you like he expects you to kick him where it hurts. You don’t even consider that for a second.

“I feel the same way.” You offer, giving him a watery smile. The way he words things sounds so poetic it makes your head spin. You can feel tears rushing to your eyes again and the rough patch in your throat flares up, choking you with words unsaid. Something about him makes you emotional in a way you can’t even hope to stop. He lets out a deep sigh and looks even deeper into your eyes.

“I love you.”

You’re a little shocked. He’s not one to express his emotions so openly, but you’re glad your friend feels safe with you. “I love you too.”

“Not in that way. I love you so much it almost hurts. Every minute you’re gone I think about you, and I think about you even when you’re right in front of me. I’ve never loved anyone this deeply.” He confesses. You’ve been waiting for this moment since the moment you met him.

You met when you were both extremely young. His parents invited yours over for a dinner party, and you hit it off so well with the quiet boy that he has been stuck to your side ever since.

You loved him at first sight. From the moment you saw him, you fell head over heels into a never ending spiral of him. Down, down, down the rabbit hole you went, and you don’t regret a single second of pining. Everything has led up to this moment.

He looks so earnest and kind it sends a throb through your heart. He laid his inner workings on the table in front of you, and you can only respond in kind.

“Me too.” His eyes widen significantly, but he lets you continue. “I’ve loved you like that since we were little, before I even really knew what love was. I just saw your little frown and curly black hair and thought ‘yes, he’s the one’.” He smiles at that. “But really, I fell in love with your heart. I fell in love with how you care about other people, especially Arya. I fell in love with your intelligence and sparring prowess and messy handwriting. I love everything about you.” Your words come out in a ramble. You can’t stop yourself, the reasons just keep pouring until there’s nothing left. 

He listens with thirsty ears. When you’re almost out of things to say, he can feel his heart beating just as fast as it did when he told you about his decision to leave. Butterflies are flocking in his stomach, but he leans over the table anyways to capture you in your second ever kiss. His lips are warm, just like how his hands usually are. They’re a little rough, too, but you don’t fault him for it. At the moment, nothing else matters except the fact that your passion is leaking out of every pore on your body.

When you finally break away to suck in greedy gulps of air, the volcano in your heart erupts and sends your mind reeling. 

“Oh my god.” You’re so dazed you can barely function, and he doesn’t look much better. He’s panting a little, and that’s when Hot Pie decides to bring over your drinks.

“I didn’t want to interrupt, but here you are. On the house, lovebirds.” He teases. Jon’s face flushes red, and your cheeks warm so quickly you could rival a stovetop. He leaves you alone after that, and you couldn’t be more grateful.

Jom clears his throat. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” You ask, breathless.

“For not asking to be your boyfriend earlier.” There’s a teasing lilt to his voice, and it makes you laugh.

“Well, you certainly can be. I would appreciate it if you didn’t wait until the day of to announce your next departure, though.” He cringes. 

“Understood.”

It’s a long time before you’re ready to leave Hot Pie’s, but in your eyes, it’s the most meaningful time you’ve ever spent. When you walk out, you walk out hand in hand, and for the first time in a long while, you truly feel alive.

Comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated!!

Taglist: @lovelyliliya @the-jess-life @hopelesswritergall @watercolorskyy @cecespizza01

[fang-and-feather]

Nostra Unica Famiglia

Ikemen Vampire - Leonardo & Pureblood! Reader

(background Charles x Reader)

Written for Fluffbruary from @fluffbruary Day 13 Prompt: Choice and the Shapes of Love Creation Challenge by @violettduchess and @lorei-writes Prompt: Storge (Familial Love)

Words: 687

Summary: You thought Leonardo would be mad about your relationship with Charles, but when you finally talks to him, you're in for a surprise

IkeVamp Masterlist / General Masterlist / AO3 Link

You found Leonardo smoking on the balcony. Nothing new, but this time you felt apprehensive of approaching.

The Christmas party went well. Or so you thought. But now that the party is over and Charles has gone home, you feel like all the masks will come off, and you are afraid of what lies underneath. You still brace yourself and call out.

“Uncle?”

“Ciao cara. Why are you still awake?”

“I drank a little too much to sleep.” Not a lie. You did drink a little more than you’d ever had. You weren’t drunk, but still a little buzzed.

“It doesn't seem like it did you any good, Piccolina. You don’t look too cheerful.”

“I’m not that little!” You never could help complaining when he treated you as a child.

But this time, your answer did not lead to the usual banter. Instead, he turns to you with a smile that looks strangely sad, puts out his cigarillo, and ruffles your hair gently.

“I know. You have never been. Not even when I met you. But you are young, and I know how the famiglia is. Rebellion can be tempting, but it can lead to hastily made, poor decisions you might regret later.”

“Is this about Charles?” You knew he would talk about it, but any preparation you had made beforehand seemed to escape your mind when you finally needed it.

Leonardo turns back to look at the starry sky, and you walk to stand beside him, doing the same.

“You’re old enough to make your own choices, and I don’t doubt you when you say he is a good person. But the others he’s with mean trouble, and he chose to follow them. He chose his own path, and I’m afraid you’ll end up caught in it."

He was right. Vlad is a weird pureblood, who wasn’t too satisfied with your relationship with Charles either. Comte had promised to tell you about his relationship with Vlad later, but had said they were friends who had a fallout because of Vlad’s ideals.

But you also had a good feeling about the interactions you had with them while trying to build this relationship with Charles.

Not an easy or short task. You had a lot of time.

You were about to tell him that, when he started to speak again, turning to smile at you.

“But I saw you today, and this relationship sure seems real. You are young, but I trust your judgment. Just be careful, and know you can come to me if anything happens, okay?”

You were not expecting such support. Such trust. Your relationship as a family barely had a year, either. It had been fine, but you often had this impression Leonardo saw you as a little child. How long had you longed for a little of that love? How lucky you were to end up in this time and place, as strange of a coincidence as it was? Fighting back tears, you hug Leonardo.

“Thank you for trusting me, uncle. You are the only famiglia I currently have, of course you are the one I will turn to if I turn out to be wrong. But I am confident in my choice.”

Hands on your shoulders, Leonardo gently puts some distance between you.

“I know. You sure don’t need it, but you have my blessing.” He leans down to kiss your forehead. “And I hope whatever choices you make from now on will make you happy. Not make you regret it.”

You only hug him back. You know it’s hard for him to say that, but he chose to trust and believe you, like no one in your family ever did. And you know it’s because supporting you is important for him too, who never had a true family either. He chose to be that family to you. It wasn’t just a coincidence that you met; it was fate. Who said destined bonds were only for romantic partners?

That doesn't mean your boyfriend will escape without a talking to, not only from your uncle, but it's already more support than you expected.

Tag List: @tele86, @nightghoul381, @natimiles, @bicayaya, @eventinelysplayground, @queengiuliettafirstlady

If you want to be tagged/untagged on future writings, you can reply to this post or send me a message

IkeVamp Masterlist / General Masterlist

[carakook]

Hi 🥲

So.... remember how I said I'd be back before? Lol, well right after that post some shit happened and it honestly made me not even want to open tumblr anymore. I won't go into deep detail of course, because I wish nothing for the best for these people. However I had some friends that were not actually friends, and some of them took things too far within our friend group. Long story short, I lost a good chunk of the friends I previously mentioned in my post, and some of them knew about my tumblr account (even though I did not give it out freely, they just found it and shared it with each other) and they were sending me asks pretty much making fun of me. Mocking my writing and my love for BTS in general. I also was sent screen shots of them talking badly about my writing, and it really just made me feel insecure, angry, and sad. This isn't everything that happened of course, but it is the reason I have not posted or even been on tumblr in months. It's immature really, I'm 26 years old, and don't have time to be dealing with bullshit like that. But, I do suffer from mental health issues (I'm sure you guys could tell, huh? ADHD and Anxiety gang wya?) and anxiety is a big thing for me. This entire situation really messed with me, but made my anxiety flare up horribly. So when this started happening, I got really bad anxiety about posting and interacting on tumblr in general. I had a lot of irl stuff going on too, and it felt like my safe space to be creative and cope with that shit was intruded on. All of this is to say that I'm sorry I didn't come back when I said I would, literally the week I was going to finish Bloom, this happened. A lot of stuff came to light, and then my tumblr asks were invaded, and I just felt burnt out and lost my spark. But I do wanna say thank you to J and K for being such good friends to me throughout all of this, they have been encouraging me to pick up my story and even make new ones. I love them a lot, they are probably some of the best friends I have ever had and they have been so helpful throughout all of this. The good news is, I am feeling a lot better about it all now. We have all moved on, and my anxiety is gone because I got over it. Just don't care anymore really. I'm more at peace. So I think I am ready to come back! I also wanna thank the author of Mutual Help, @personasintro, I don't know her personally but she recently uploaded a new chapter of Mutual Help (if you have not read it, and you are a Jungkook lover, GO READ IT??? IT IS LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAV FF EVER.) and that heavily got me in the mood to write again. Her writing is beautiful, and she always inspires me. So thank you Mimi for being as amazing as you are. <3 I am sorry again for being gone so long, but I want to come back. I love writing and I love BTS, other groups too, and I really love being delulu and turning it into little stories. So I hope you can all welcome me back and get excited. I won't give a timeframe yet, but I will be uploading the new chapter of Bloom very soon. Might have some smaller stories posted while I work on Bloom and refresh my brain. I have some work stuff I need to catch up on, and then my focus will be on Bloom. In the meantime, how are you all doing? Are you eating well?? Getting rest? Anything new? Taking care of yourselves? I'd love to hear. I have really missed you all so much, and god I have missed tumblr. It took a lot for me to open the app recently, but after I finally did, I realized everything is ok. To those who have waited for me patiently, thank you so much, I love you more than you understand. I can't wait to start again! I have a lot of stuff planned for the future, and I still have Metamorphosis to upload. So please bare with me while I get back into the swing of things.

P.S, shoutout to @wearentdelulu, she’s my best friend and has helped me a lot. She’s recently started writing stories on tumblr, please check out her page. She’s an amazing writer. But beyond her writing, she’s a great friend and inspires me to be better every day. She is a big reason I want to come back to you guys, knowing she’s here gives me courage and inspiration, so thank you J. 💖

[luminecent-sky]

How my team would in sagau: Zeph national

Had way too much fun making the first one sooo here's the second one!

Ok so: Scara is main dps, Bennett is healer, Xingqiu and Xiangling are sub dps.

Now interactions and voicelines ahead!

A/n i think you guys know who i like the most out of this team ahahha, been writing this for hours lol.

Tw: Yandere

》 Zephyrus - The Wanderer

The 10th to be bestowed a golden star.

He's cordial with them all, although quite displeased at how Bennett's bad luck happens to get them into some form of trouble, Xiangling's insistence at finding a new creature to cook with her... eccentric methods and Xingqiu's ravings about how this book series hes been reading for weeks keep ending in clifhangers. He knows that they are all blessed by the creator so he should be nice to them.

One of the few golden blessed to have a star in his constellation be illuminated in the sky.

Ah yes the boy who took my al haitham guarantee..... he is such a menace... his flight ability is quite useful though. Got his c1 trying to lose the 50/50 like bro i love you but???.

Voicelines:

》About the creator: In the arms of the divine

Hah. You want to know about my connection with her? Fine then, her grace gave me a new life through The Traveller and Lesser Lord Kusanali. Even chose the name i now use. She's one of the only gods to be so kind to me... What are you clapping about? Everyone here is a devotee of their grace, i'm no different.

》About the creator: Abandonment

Having gone through what i have, you think i would let this opportunity go to waste? If her grace willed it so that i had to suffer for her blessing, i would go through it all over again. To be abandoned by a god only to be taken in by the creator herself... Wow you've got some audacity, to even ask that question, do you want to die? My answer is simple if their grace decides to abandon me then i would make sure that she would find me worthy of her again, any way possible. She took me into her arms and moulded me into this, i am hers and hers alone.

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

》Bennett

Blessed by the creator,

He gets along with the other teens however keeps his distance with Zeph, he knows that his bad luck causes them to get into a lot of trouble. Keeps his distance but is always ready to help his team through everything.

Ah yes my boy, my son. I only got him during the 2.8 yoimiya re-run, yoi came home before he did.

》About the creator: Fortune of the divine

Hey! Care to join me on an adventure? Don't look so worried, ever since their grace blessed me my bad luck seems to be lessening! Sure there's the occasional lightning strike and stuff but her grace is always there to heal me up!

》About the creator: Worry

You know, i owe the creator so much, without them i probably would have gotten myself injured way more. I want to be useful to their grace. I don't want to be traded away because of my bad luck. I'll make sure their grace is safe when she decends- is that what the nuns said? Oh right!- into teyvat.

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

》Xiangling

One of the original blessed, was once put aside by the creator and now basks in their light.

She gets along well with Xingqiu but thats to be expected since their friends. She usually helps tend to Bennett when he gets injured, and as always Zeph keeps his distance and only interacts once the creator is included.

Ah yes my old sub dps until i got diluc... shes still good for someone i haven't really used until getting scara.

》About the creator: Food for the divine

I only need a few more ingredients and- oh what's up? This is a new dish im making based on what her grace was talking about earlier. I'll make sure that i can recreate that until their grace is satisfied.

》About the creator: Satiafaction

Being abandoned by her grace made me sad for a long while, but she gave me another chance! I'll make sure to use this chance nicely, when their grace decends i will serve them only the best. If she’s not satisfied by it then I'll keep trying harder until their grace is happy.

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

》Xingqiu

Blessed by the creator,

As a member of the guhua clan he upholds his values and make sure to keep them. Gets along with the other teens and is cordial with Zeph.

Got his cons for the lantern rite instead of yaoyao... he does great damage sometimes but hes there for vaporize.

》About the creator: Values of the divine

Did you know that the values of the guha clan match those of the creator? Ever since i found out about this I've been making sure that those values are ingrained into my head

》About the creator: Chivalry

To be blessed by her grace is one thing, but to embrace and live by the virtues they have set out is another. Everyday i train to make sure i uphold these ideals. To defy their values would be blasphemy. Their writing is law.

Tagging:

@meimeimeirin

[pensat-i-fet]

A familiar face (Rúben Dias x Reader)

**I found this on my drafts and thought it could work for the request I got of writing something that involved some cute interactions with kids. I can try something else in the future if this isn’t good enough. And I hope everyone enjoys it anyways!! ❤️❤️**

Word count: 2512

Masterlist

Wattpad

“Auntie, please!!”, I hear my niece begging for the 20th time in the last two minutes.

“Leah, leave your aunt alone. If it was just you it’d be fine, but you can’t ask her to babysit your entire friend group”, I hear my brother say.

My niece Leah got tickets to go watch the next Manchester City match from one of her friends. She and two more friends want to go but neither my brother nor his wife can go to the match with them. So she wants me to take three kids with me to a stadium where there’ll be thousands of people. And a lot of them will be half-drunk by 3 pm. 

“Richie’s dad can come with us. Pleaaaaase!”

The idea of taking so many kids to a match terrifies me, but seeing the tears in my 8-year-old niece's eyes is a lot worse.

“Ok, I’ll take you”, I say to her. 

“You sure?”, asks my brother. But it’s too late to change my mind. I’ve already been tackled to the floor by Leah.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

And that’s how I find myself driving three kids and an adult I have never met before to the Etihad on a Sunday. 

“Don’t worry about them too much”, tells me Richie’s dad. “I’ll keep them in check. You enjoy the match too”.

The seats are in the fourth row. I’ve been to the Etihad before but never in such great seats.

Leah, Richie and Amanda sit in between Richie’s dad and me, to make sure we can keep an eye on them more easily. 

“Auntie! Can we get some food?”, asks Leah when the players are coming out to do their warm-up.

“Sure, what do you guys want? Also, what are you guys allowed to eat?”

To that, Richie’s dad laughs. “Burgers and fries should be fine. Maybe something sweet for the second half if everyone behaves, ok?”

They all nod and I move to go back inside and get the food for everyone.

When I get to the lower area of the stands, I turn to look at the pitch before heading to the stairs. The players are all divided into three groups, each doing a different type of exercise to warm up. 

Before I turn again to leave, I notice one of them looking at where I am. I look behind me to see who he might be looking at and find no one. But when I look back at him, he’s gone. 

“Here you go”, I say, trying to give everyone their food and not drop it. It was a struggle to bring it all back by myself.

“Thanks!!”, they all say in unison. They really want those sweets.

“Auntie”, says Leah, “who is your favourite City player?”

“Um…not sure, to be honest. I haven’t had the chance to watch them a lot this year but I guess De Bruyne is still a good answer, right?”

“Yes!!”, screams Richie, who is wearing his De Bruyne shirt.

“I like Mahrez”, says Amanda.

“Great choice!”, tells her Richie’s dad. “What about you Leah?”

“I would usually say Bernardo but I think I like Rúben Dias better today”.

“Why is that?”, I ask her.

“Because he’s going to give me his shirt after the match”.

I look at her confused. Where is she getting those ideas from? I don’t want her to think it’ll happen and then be sad when it doesn’t.

“Maybe he will, yes. But if he doesn’t it’s ok”, I say.

“No, I know he will”.

“Leah…”

“She’s right”, says Richie’s dad, surprising me. “He told her he would while you were gone”.

Now I really am confused. 

When the teams go out to start playing, I lean down and whisper to Leah. “Which one is Dias?”

I really haven’t been watching them in the last couple of seasons. I’m not super familiar with the new players.

“Number 3. He’s looking at us right now”, she says, pointing at one of the players.

When I look up, I see she’s right. And I see that it’s the same player I saw looking my way before.

The match ends with a 3-0 win for City. And by that time, I’m more than ready to go home. The kids have been good, but they are a lot of work.

I’m so tired I actually forget about Leah and her deal with Dias. But she hasn’t forgotten, of course. And neither has he.

He approaches our area, pointing at Leah and asking her to come closer. She grabs my hand and runs downstairs.

“Hi, what’s your name?”, asks her Rúben.

“Leah. And this is my auntie”.

When she says that, he looks at me and I don’t really know what to do anymore. Not only is he ridiculously good-looking, but he also has one of the most beautiful smiles I’ve ever seen. And he’s directing that smile at me right now. 

“Hi”, he says to me.

“Hi”, I say back, surprised I managed to get a word out.

“So, can I have your shirt?”, asks Leah, interrupting the moment.

“Of course”, he says, giving Leah another smile. A different type of smile, though. 

When he takes his shirt off, I try to look away. I’ve always had a thing for tall and strong men like him. 

“Did you enjoy the match?”, I hear Rúben say. And when I look at him, I realise the question is directed at me, not Leah.

“Yes. It was great. You were all great”.

“Auntie, we need to go. Richie’s dad is calling us”.

I turn to make a gesture to Richie’s dad, letting him know we’ll be there in a second. And then turn back to Rúben, who is still there, looking at me.

“Thanks for the shirt. We have to go”.

“Right”, he says, looking unsure of himself all of a sudden. “I hope I get to see you, both of you, at another match”.

And with that, he runs to join his teammates. What did just happen?

                                       **

Working at a bookstore is a bit of a dream for me. I get to be surrounded by books and get a discount when buying them. And of course, I buy way more than I should. I love chatting with customers about the novels they want to buy and helping them discover some hidden gems. I even advised my bosses to create a "staff recommends" shelf where we could put all our favourites so customers could ask us about them. And it's definitely helped increase the sale of some more unknown books.

I am on that shelf now, talking to a lady about why the book Stephanie recommends will be great for her grandchildren. Once I've convinced the lady to buy not only that first book but the second and third in the series too, Steph herself comes to the area where I’m working at the moment with an annoyed look on her face.

"Something wrong?", I ask.

"It's madness down there", she sighs. "There is someone famous and people are fighting to get photos taken with him".

"Someone famous?", I ask, curious as to who could come to our little shop. "Like, an author?"

We sometimes get authors coming to the store to sign some of their novels, so that's my first thought.

"No, I don't know who he is but even the children are going mad".

"That's intriguing. How about you stay here and I go to your place so I can see this famous guy. Now I'm curious", I laugh.

"Go ahead. I'm not coming downstairs until he leaves. Two kids stepped on my feet to get to him", says Steph, rubbing her feet with a painful look.

"I'll be careful", I say with a chuckle while I make my way downstairs.

I'm not even halfway down when I see him. The guy everyone wants a photo with is none other than Rúben.

I freeze and just stare at him, smiling and taking photos with everyone. Being particularly cheerful for the adoring children.

"Sorry, miss, I need to go downstairs", I hear being said behind me. When I turn around, I see a woman waiting for me to move since I'm blocking the stairs.

"Of course, sorry. You go first", I tell her, moving to the side.

I move to Steph's checkout area, trying not to look at Rúben. And trying to control my nerves. 

"Hello?"

When I hear the voice, I look up from the computer to find Rúben staring at me, with five books in his hands. 

"Hi. Can I help you?", I say, trying to remain professional and not show my shock at him being here. He won't even remember me anyway.

"I would like to pay for these", he says with a smile. He's even closer than he was at the match. And he's even more gorgeous dressed in an all-black outfit than he was with his sky blue City kit.

"Of course", I say before I start to scan the books. "This one is great", I say, noticing he picked one of my recommendations from last month.

"I'll have to read that one first then", he says, making me look at him again. He seems to be looking at my face trying to find something there. So I look down again, nervously.

"Do you have a loyalty card?"

"I do but I don't have it with me now".

"Oh that's ok", I tell him. "Just tell me your phone number and I'll find your profile in our system".

When I find it, I look up at him and ask. "Rúben, right?"

"Yes. But you already knew that".

"I'm sorry?", I say, shocked by his comment.

"We talked at the match the other day when I gave my shirt to your niece. I know you know who I am", he says, laughing at my expression.

"Right. Yeah. Um…I did not expect you to remember me", I say, blushing fiercely. "There were thousands of people there".

"Yes, but some faces are easier to remember than others", he says, leaning closer.

When I look into his eyes, I lose the sense of time and place for a second. Until I start to notice how long the line behind him is.

"Um…right. Are you paying with card or cash?"

"Card, please".

"Of course, it's ready now".

"You know", he says while entering his pin number in the machine, "since you know my number now from the loyalty card, maybe you could use it to let me know more book recommendations".

What?

"I don't think I'm allowed to use the client's private information for personal purposes", I tell him putting his receipt in his bag and giving it to him.

"You got my permission to do it", he says with a big smile. "Bye, hope to see you soon. It was nice to find a familiar face here today".

"Bye…thanks for…umm…the purchase", do I know words?

He just smiles again and leaves. I turn slightly to watch him walk to the front door when I hear a throat being cleared.

Right, I'm still at work. I forgot for a second.

“Sorry, sir. How can I help you?”

                                       **

A couple of days later, I’m putting some new releases on the shelf when I hear Stephanie approaching and talking to someone else.

“Yes, there she is! She’ll be able to help you”.

“Thanks”.

I turn to look at who’s talking to find Rúben looking at me, a big smile on his face.

“You didn’t give me those book recommendations I asked for, so I had to come back to get them. The book you told me was good was incredible. I read it in one sitting”.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it”, I tell him, moving away from the mountain of books I still need to sort out. “But…this feels a bit stalkerish. No offence!”

He just laughs and raises his hands.

“I get it. It does. But I swear I didn’t know you worked here. That was a coincidence. A great one, I might add”.

To that, I look down to hide my blush.

“So”, he continues, “can you recommend more books to me or not?”

“Sure, that’s what I’m here for. Let me tell one of my colleagues to continue sorting this pile before”.

"Were you looking for some romance?", I say, pointing at the first section we walk past.

He looks at me with a small smirk on his face. I guess he got the double meaning. "Maybe, but not in my books".

"You don't fancy reading about a hot Duke that will make you swoon?", I say, holding a copy of Bridgerton.

"Not today", he laughs.

"Yeah, not my thing either".

"What type of books do you like?", he asks me.

"Literary fiction, fantasy, maybe some romance…it depends on my mood, really. I even read horror sometimes. Even though I'm a baby who can't watch horror movies".

"I might be interested in horror. But I'll need someone to hold my hand while I read in case I get scared".

When I turn to look at him, I notice how close he is.

"You've got plenty of big teammates that can do that for you I think".

He laughs. "Not what I had in mind".

Twenty minutes later, I walk Rúben to the checkout so he can pay for all the books he’s buying today. 

“Do you have a piece of paper?”, he asks.

“Sure”.

“Ok, here is my number. I gave it to you. And I want you to use it, ok?”

“I don’t know. I…”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No”, I say.

“Girlfriend?”

“Not one of those either”.

“So would you like to come on a date with me?”, he says.

As always, I want to overthink this. But what is it to overthink? A handsome, nice and smart guy wants to go on a date with me. 

“Yes”, I say, smiling at him.

“Perfect. Then text me your number and we’ll talk more about it”.

I nod, giving him his bag full of books.

“Do you actually want all those books or did you just buy them to have an excuse to talk to me?”

“Oh, I want them. But it’ll take me a year to read all of these. Another trip to try to woo you and I’ll have enough books to last me my entire life”, he says, blushing slightly.

I laugh at his words and say goodbye to him.

When I turn back to go upstairs and finish the job I was doing, Stephanie stops me.

“That’s the famous guy from the other day”, she says.

“Yes”.

“And he was flirting with you the whole time. How do you know famous people? And what does he even do to be famous?”

“Footballer. I met him when I took Leah to a match”.

“Shut up! Are you dating a football player?”

“I’m not dating anyone”, I laugh.

“He looked like he’d be happy to change that”, she winks before leaving.

I guess he did.

[blaperile]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon (reactions pages 626 - 637)

This has GOT to be my favorite Homestuck^2/Beyond Canon update so far.

I've always loved the potential of what Jake COULD become and this update really makes some amazing strides to that. I love that he manned up against Jane and showed her how a bad mother she's been and that he somehow did not blow his rebellion cover (which I really thought the update was leading to at first, psyche!).

On the other hand, Jane did reveal now that she realized Jake was gone for a while and stayed with John, while earlier she did convincingly pretend she didn't know he was gone at all. Could it be she IS aware or at least suspects him of spying for the rebellion?

What if the story about the laser on the moon is fake and she just wants to see if the rebellion takes the bait so she knows how Jake's allignment really is?

In any case, I'm so happy to see Jake's fully convinced himself here that he can't let Jane win. The question is just, what is he going to do about it?

I assume he's going to inform the rebellion about the laser, but what else? IS he really going to confront Jane himself? And if so, what will be the result of that? Can he truly kill her, or will he hesitate and will it cost him his own life in the process? :(

I don't know how Jane's response would be to Jake truly confronting her. Would she be horrified in a good way, that she finally realizes she's gone too far and lays her weapons down, or would she just completely flip her shit?

I doubt we're going to get a repeat of the Game Over timeline with both of them dying together (at least I hope not), but I'm really unsure of who will make it out alive here…

God, it would be awful if the upcoming flash is like [S] GAME OVER 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO and basically everyone but the kids end up dead. That's a horrifying thought which I will choose to ignore for now.

Anyway, enough paranoia, back to the awesome stuff!

I'm absolutely AMAZED by the reference to the old snapchats!!! All this time it's been so unclear whether they were supposed to be considered canon or not, and now we know for sure!!

But this changes A LOT! Because it means The Felt is here (already shown in this update), Ms. Paint is here, but also that JACK NOIR is here.

Last time we saw Jack in the snapchats he was both literally and figuratively put on a leash by Jane. Is he still under her control? Is she going to use him as some kind of secret weapon? And if so, in what form? Like, ok, he doesn't have the queen's ring anymore so he's definitely not as powerful anymore as he used to be with those First Guardian powers, but does he have robotic enhancements or has he perhaps gone full crockertier like when Jane was under The Condesce's control?

Brain Ghost Dirk was also absolutely golden in this update. I'm a bit sad about the implications that we're not going to see him again though (at least on Candy Earth, perhaps he will still pop up with Meat Jake).

I mean, yeah, like they said Brain Ghost Dirk is perhaps more Jake than he is Dirk, but he does kind of represent what a truly GOOD Dirk could be. Which made me personally hope that, like briefly happened in the Game Over timeline, Jake was going to make Brain Ghost Dirk truly physically real. But alas, doesn't seem like that's in the cards anymore.

Which also reminds me of how Nannasprite represents what a truly good Jane can be. It would be nice to see Nannasprite again and see Jake interacting with her.

In any case it was nice seeing a bit of the good side of Jane again in this update (hopefully she wasn't faking it of course). Yet, at the same time it's like she's becoming a walking Star Wars reference what with her moon laser (Death Star) and army of clones (Stormtroopers).

I love the detail in Jake's and Brain Ghost Dirk's emerald eyes, it reminds me of some of those panels back in Act 5 Act 2 with the eyes of the kids being shown in close-up.

Also, quick shout-out to the Hiveswap reference there, with Jane speculating about what other kids of Jake could be like! It's nice seeing such a cross-reference. Which reminds me of how I've been speculating that The Point is a portal similar to the one in Hiveswap, except for connecting the Meat and Candy timelines.

Briefly seeing (a living) Gamzee again in this flashback panel, for the first time in Beyond Canon, gave me goosebumps. I've always loved him best when he's SCARY AS FUCK

Finally, not too much attention went to it but for the first time we got to see all 4 kids (Harry, Tavros, Yiffy and Vrissy) together in one panel! That's a very notable milestone.

It's the combination of all these things that make me incredibly in love with this update. This was just so good.

Let me end this post with just one final thought: I'm looking forward SO HARD to 6/12 right now. Bring it ON! :D

[ass-sassafras]

For years, my mom and dad's marriage has been a struggle. They fought a lot and they talk shit about each other behind the other's back. 90% of the time when they interact in front of my sister and I, it's very tense and they seem to hate each other.

When I got divorced, my mom told me multiple times that she was sad but proud of me and she wishes that she'd had the courage to leave my dad. She bitches about him constantly and talks all the time about how men are awful, they don't know anything, etc.

The other day she was at my house and I sort of came out to her as asexual and aromantic. I told her I have zero interest in a relationship, I have not once missed sex and I don't ever want a relationship again. She rushed to tell me that although my dad pisses her off and makes her life so stressful, she'll miss him when he's gone and she doesn't want me being alone when I'm old.

I wish having close friends instead of a spouse or a romantic partner was more accepted as you age. I do realize that life might be lonely when I'm older, but to be fair, hers will too. He's 7 years older than her and in much poorer health. She'll definitely be alone for several years in her late 60s through her 70s. And instead of spending her life cultivating friendships and hobbies, she's been taking care of my dad and making all the compromises it takes to stay married. She doesn't even know who she is outside of being our mom and his wife.

I'm not sure what her point was, but I don't think she made the point she thought she did.