#like he doesn't have any money and all his stuff is on the revenge

[stzrgirl4norris]

My Kink Is Karma

Max Verstappen x Reader

Summary: After a turbulent break up, Max left you all alone, dealing with the pain from his poisonous words. He was thriving, having the time of his life, and you were determined to see his downfall.

Word count: 9k

Warnings: smut, unprotected sex (don't do that), degradation, Mean!Max, Mean! Reader, they are both toxic to each other, revenge sex, hate sex. All the good stuff

I'm on my Max kick later, specially since the last race. Hope you guys can enjoy my freak with me!!

Three months, twenty eight days since he left.

Actually, since you left. No, even worse, since you were kicked out of his stupid cubicle of an apartment. Why is every goddamn apartment in Monaco so small either way? It's like millionaires have a kink for minimalism or something. There were still a couple of his t-shirts hanging around, shoved down the back of a drawer you never opened. You contemplated burning them down, one by one, or selling them on e-bay, you would probably make a lot of money with it. However, the anger was still boiling hot in your bones, opened. You contemplated burning them down, one by one, or selling them on e-bay, you would probably make a lot of money with it. However, the anger was still boiling hot in your bones, picking up anything with his scent on it would cause world war three, and you didn't want that.

Not because you don't hate him, you do, wholeheartedly, but you would rather see the universe handle it, slowly, sadistically, because you always believed in karma, plus, he didn't deserve any type of reaction from you.

However, almost four months is a whole lot of time of waiting for Max Verstappen to get something bad coming his way. Somehow, that blue eyed man is always on top. McLaren had the fastest car and he was still dominating, pole position, podiums, even fucking won a race against all odds. Max Verstappen not only defied your beliefs around love, but your beliefs in general. He tested your faith. Because in this wednesday afternoon, sitting on your plane sit, next to a crying baby and an exhausted mother, you were wondering if the universe gave a flying damn about how much that man hurt you. Gods Are you listening over there? He left me with no direction, no sense of belonging, stole my pride, joy and clothes. I was left empty. So why the fuck is he the one thriving?

That's why you decided to make matters with your own hands. Karma isn't real? No problem. You would create karma and shove it down his throat. Max Verstappen is not going to hell when he dies? Then, you will make sure he lives through hell while you are around. And the plan starts with a suitcase and an economic class ticket to Bahrain.

The city was scalding. The complete opposite of an early spring in Monaco. Too many people, a legion of tourists who were there for the Grand Prix. You looked around, analyzing the environment, but he was everywhere. In t-shirts, flags, posters, dolls. "The flying dutchman", "The Dutch Lion". That was the worst one. A lion? That motherfucker was just as coward as a toddler being confronted by their angry parent.

Hey. Just landed. Where was the place / was supposed to wait for the driver?

Max: Gate seven. He's already there.

You don't answer. He doesn't deserve an answer.

On the other hand, if the plan was going to work perfectly, you needed him to believe you were desperate for him. Because Max has an ego, he craves the attention. It's Machiavellian, but any current pain is worth the final result. What even is a single text message compared to seeing Max Verstappen’s downfall live and in bright colors?

You walked towards gate seven. Sure enough, the man was there, holding a little white plank with your surname written on it. As if it was needed, since to his left, there he was, wearing his stupia red bull cap, white t-shirt and dark blue jeans.

Classic Max. You weren't taken by surprise, at the end of the day, Verstappen was as predictable as playing chess with a child, at least to you. You knew he was going to be there, just to torment you, prove, somehow, that he never left, his scent, manners, soul, were all surrounding you, everyday since that rainy tuesday when all hell broke loose.

As you approached both men with a confidence acquired from whatever cheap wine they offered on the flight, you could swore you saw a glimpse of relief in his arctic blue eyes.

Max was relieved. Seeing you, full shape, materialized in front of him like a dying man's last vision, as beautiful as ever, maybe even more, left him with a feeling of immense relief. Because ever since the break up, he never saw or spoke to you.

He didn't even understand how the hell that was possible, considering Monaco was just a big gated commune. He had no idea, however, that for those three months you barely left your bed, purposefully avoiding him. The funny thing is, Max could've swore on his career that he saw a different type of glimmer surrounding you, because as you gave him a shy kiss on the cheek, shivers went down his neck, all the way though his spine. There was uncertainty in his mind if, at that moment, you were a salvation from heaven or his worst nightmare.

"I didn't actually think you would come?" He couldn't control the excitement in his voice. To you? Pathetic.

"You know Bahrain has always been my favorite circuit." Lies. "Plus, I really wanted to talk." More lies. Oh, weren't you just the best pretty little liar?

'I agree"

Max had no idea of what you planned. With all the innocence of a little boy in love, who fucked up, he believed that you wanted to try again, that you were able to give him another chance. If for three months you were crying underneath the shower steam, he was begging via text messages, voicemails, red roses and handwritten notes to talk to you and sort things out. In his mind, his words were bad, a disaster. "Your career isn't important, you can't keep crying over this shit." Actually, the words were bad, but the context was even worse. To be fair, you were crying over a minor problem, a grain of sand in the midst of long beach, still, that was the result of a build-up that lasted weeks, days having to suffer countless abuse in your job, burnout was imminent. Haven't you been breaking down, releasing every tension from the stress of your career, you could have actually forgiven him. In contrast, the coldness and nonchalant in his voice when saying "your career isn't important" was what actually got to you. "So, I can't cry over my boss raging at me from mistakes he made, but you can cry whenever your stupid little car isn't 0.5 seconds faster than another car? Why? Because being a Formula 1 racer is the only job that matters? Huh, Max?"

That whole argument spiraled to a rabbit hole of pointing fingers and repressed emotions. Deep down, you knew you hated your job, you wanted to leave every time you stepped a foot in that building, but Max didn't need to know that. And he had no right assuming that it wasn't important.

Arriving at his hotel, the boy next to you handled a room key. 405.

"It's right next to mine"

You gave him a look, the one that said "well, obviously." Another predictable move. God, if any other driver paid enough attention to him, you were convinced he wouldn't be called Mad Max at all, because, in reality, Verstappen was as clear as a crystal glass.

The whole way up to the room, Max was a gentleman, carrying bags, hands on your lower back, guiding the way, walking in front. Just like you never stopped being his girlfriend. Maybe, in his mind, you never did.

The room was brightened with yellow lights, contrasting to the cold of the atmosphere between both ex-lovers. Even though you were trying your best to not give anything away, Max wasn't stupid, he could read you with eyes closed, he knew there was an unsettledness in your movements, he just couldn't point exactly why or what is going on.

"Do you want me to leave? Or do you just want to get it out of the way?" Max didn't quite know what he meant with "it", whatever it was, it has been filling his lungs with deep anxiety. And you knew he was suffering. For a man who was used to get anything he wanted, whenever he wanted, being completely lost in the matters of the heart, hurt his pride and gave him tremendous affliction.

"I was hoping we could catch a nice dinner, properly talk with some good food and wine. What do you say?" The words came off of your tongue spontaneously, as if you didn't rehearse them 300 hundred times during that 11 hour flight.

"Sure, yeah, fine. Even better with people around... That way you won't have the courage to kill me." You could hear the tension in his words when he joked, and he could hear the mockery in your chuckle just as well.

"Pick me up at eight?"

The fact that you made no comment around his stupid joke bothered him to his core. Which is the reason he just nodded and left the room without saying anything else. Just as soon as that door closed, you rushed to the bathroom, kneeling in front of the toilet. You couldn't say what the fuck you were feeling, nausea, pain, anxiety, shame, guilt, rage. You should just open the door, go to his room, throw things around, break glasses, throw his suitcase on the hotel pool, tell the press he is leaving red bull and get on a plan, never look back. Having to wait for revenge to be served cold is what drives everyone insane, and no one talks about that.

Countless of hours later, after two long crying sessions, and screaming, and burning pages of your journal, you were ready. Dressed up casually. You wouldn't give him too much, because you knew he was expecting to show up as beautiful as ever, Lady Di in her revenge dress, so the fact that you were just dressed as his Y/N, raw, honest beauty, broke his heart. Because when he opened the door to your room, he was taken by your perfume and your pure self, just like he did for three years every time he came home from a race weekend and you were waiting for him on the couch.

"Come on, Max, you don't need to give this look." You were surprised by how effective flirting was in maskaring hate.

"What look?"

"Like I'm your long lost childhood love you encountered 20 years later." He shook his head, slightly.

"You're something like that."

Something like that. What the fuck did he mean?

"We should go." You said a little bit more desperate than you hoped. Maybe due to the fact that you were dying to leave. "Lead the way."

*

God. Wasn't middle eastern food the key to all your problems? Maybe if the scent of blended spices and dates filled your nostrils before, there would be no reason for any of this.

For the past couple of hours, you were focused on trying to enjoy the delights Sakhir had to offer.

Notice the word trying. Because with Max Verstappen looking like a god sent angel in front of you, no amount of cloves and cinnamon would be able to erase the scent of wanting that was emanating from him.

Max was paying extra attention to you. Every time you looked excited about whatever you were tasting, he could catch a proper breath. However, one look into your eyes later and he has filled with thousands of questions in his head.

"So, what is the strategy for this weekend?"

"Do you actually want to talk about my racing strategies for the weekend?" Yes. You did. How were you supposed to ruin his life if you had no clue what was going on with the only thing that mattered to him. "You said you wanted to talk, Y/ N."

"We are talking." He raised his eyebrow. You sighed, stomach twisting in ten thousand knots.

"Fine..."

Before you could select which carefully constructed phrase you compartmentalized for this very moment, Max, with his usual quickness, took the upfront.

"Please, come back to me."

It's not that you weren't expecting that he would say something like this, you just weren't expecting how much your internal organs would fire up as a response. In that particular moment, you could swore you forgot all of the lines of the plan you spent one month obsessing over. He broke your character, for just a slight of a second, a fraction.

"You really hurt me." For the first time in this whole entire trip, you were being honest.

"I know. I am truly deeply sorry. I fucked up."

You just stared. Contemplating if you were going to let him talk a little more. The dark twisted part of your brain was enjoying seeing him act as pathetic as you once did for him. That same side of your brain was already collecting ideas. Screw that one month evil plan, Max was giving everything you need to do even more damage than you anticipated.

"Let me show you how much I regret it. Let me make it up to you." The phrase was constructed as if he was asking for permission, but both of you knew, deep down, that he wasn't backing up any soon.

"These past few months were hell to me, Max."

The words were true, but there was no emotion in your voice to actually reflect the pain you went through. Max had no idea. He would never guess.

It seemed to him that you were giving something, but a weird feeling in his gut was sparking a doubt that you were hiding something.

"I will fix this up."

His legs under the table were shaking like the first time he stepped out of a Formula 1 car. Max was speaking as he was walking barefoot on shattered glass. There is no way for you to fix this up. Only me. You wanted to answer. You couldn't.

"Are you excited for the race?"

The deviation of the subject showed Max you were uncomfortable, which is why he decided that was enough of pushing. He didn't know there was a strategy underneath your tongue.

"Are you?" He fired back, letting himself taste a bit of the wine that you chose. It was bitter, dry, unlike the sweet rosés you'd usually go for.

"Thrilled." Your lips curled into a smirk stained with maroon liquid. Something shifted in the tone of your words. It was malicious, Max could sense it, but he was a man after all, guile and sexiness go hand-in-hand, specially coming from a girl holding a glass of wine.

ready to head back, whenever you want to go."

"Are we not going to order dessert?"

Nope. He wanted to leave. Matter of fact, as soon as possible. He wanted to take you to his room, or your room, whichever one is closest to the elevator door, and peel off every lying secret you were hiding behind your sore, tired eyes.

"Do you want dessert?"

You looked at his eyes, then his lips, then his neck, back at his eyes. Licked your lips, the bitterness of the wine reminding you of pure sex.

"Maybe not from here."

You knew you had control over him by the way he looked at you, like a puppy begging for food. Max didn't even try to hide how much he was longing to just touch you in any way, shape, or form. God, men were so easy.

A few formalities and street lights later, you were back to the golden architecture of the place you were staying. It wasn't your first time in the country, but it was your first time in this hotel, hadn't it been the circumstances of your visit, you could have actually enjoyed the experience.

The elevator door shut, fourth floor was a short ride. Helped to ease the tension. Not too much, but just enough.

"I can't find the key to my room."

Max knew it was inside your purse, you knew it too, obviously. There was just no reason to bother looking it up.

"Hm. Thankfully, I got you." He held the white car between his fingers, flashing them with a teenage boy smile.

"My hero,"

For the first time during this night, you felt the tension leaving with the winds of Sakhir. Sex was not on your plan, in fact, quite the opposite.

However, you forgot there was no such thing as a plan when it came to Max Verstappen. Specially not when it came to desire and love. Plus, a girl is allowed to enjoy herself, it's not like you were going to get soft on him now, right?

The closing door blocked all the noise. Suddenly, the room was carried with heavy air, lost faith, gained hope, misery, all at once. If you listened closely, you were able to hear Max's heart beating irregular beats. It felt to him like he was about to have a stroke, a heart attack, a breakdown, or all of the above. You were danger, your presence was too powerful. He needed to get control back, or he would just spiral.

But you would not let him. Not right now.

Just as quick as you left him that night, you were pulling him by his neck. Lips connected like they were never meant to leave each other in the first place. Looking for each other's air because the room was getting smaller and smaller. This was the point of the night in which you didn't need to perform. You were not doing it for the plot, the revenge, you were doing it because you desperately craved him.

Max had only a few times seen you this way. It was unusual, but he wasn't complaining. He didn't quite like the fact that if you asked him to kneel down and bark, he'd do it, however. And he was afraid you'd notice it and just torture him the whole night. The boy was just a little too late.

"You said you wanted to make it up to me." Max didn't know how you managed to get a full sentence out in the middle of what was going on, if he opened his mouth all that would leave his throat were pathetic sighs and moans. "Then prove it."

You pushed him away, slightly. Max's chest underneath his navy blue t-shirt didn't hide his erratic breathing.

"I am proving it to you."

He leaned in, but was met with another slight push. This time, mixed between his confusion, was frustration. Just as much as you wanted him, he wanted you. No, he needed you. Needed to be close to you as if there was a war going on outside and that was the only way to keep both of you safe.

"No." No? What the hell no meant? "Kneel."

Your command was firm, imperative. You were no stranger to take charge in the bedroom with Max, but it usually lasted around five minutes, a way to spice things up or push him to the edge until he finally broke. In a way, it was fake-control, because you knew it was just a matter of time until you were at his mercy. But not this time.

"What?" He heard you well, the question was put there simply as a way of making you change your mind.

"You heard me, Verstappen. Kneel and beg for me."

Max didn't have a chance to respond or brush it off with a scoffed laugh, your hands were already on his shoulders, applying force to bring him down. It wasn't gravity the one who put Max Verstappen to his knees, it was the magnetic force of your words and the torment of his desires for you.

"Schatje, come on."

"Hm. That all you got?"

The truth is, Max was running out of protests. You knew it took him a lot to put his pride to the side.

He wanted you back, but there was no way he was going to beg for it. Max Verstappen doesn't beg, for anyone. Actually, he never needed to, he always got what he wanted. But his resources were coming to an end, because your posture and the way you were demanding the room, left him with no choice.

With the gentlest touch, like you were made out of the rarest crystal, Max's hand came to the back of your calves, slowly making their way to the back of your knees. He stopped there, didn't dare going further up. His hands were big enough to almost wrap around it completely, and he applied pressure. It was a simple gesture, but goddamn it you missed his fingers touching you, you didn't care where.

You looked down, right hand travelling to his hair, fingers intertwining between some strands, making a mess. He always looked beautiful with messy hair.

"Please." A kiss on your right knee. "Please, forgive me." A kiss on the left knee. "I will do anything for you."

The hand that was on his hair made its way to his cheek. Your thumb brushing the soft skin underneath his eyes. Max was flushing, the blood was rushing everywhere through his veins, heart pounding, maybe after this he should cancel his weekend, because there is no way he would make it out alive.

Then, all of the sudden, your gentle rub became a slap. Not a rough slap, in fact, only a couple of taps, to call out his attention. And, damn, maybe a hard slap would be less humiliating than this. And it didn't help when you had a devilish grin in your lips.

"Come on, pretty boy, just a little bit more. You're almost there. Look at me."

He was. Like a puppy. Like a dog starving. His pupils were so dilated you couldn't tell his eyes were pale blue. You were hell. That wasn't you. Looked like you, wore your clothes, the same old vanilla perfume, but if his whole life Max saw you as his sweet girl, this time he was seeing you as a mythical creature, completely transformed into something else.

"I fucked up. I can't live without you. Please, Y/N, I am about to go insane. I fucking love you, just come back to me, please. I can't make it without you." His chin rested somewhere on top of your legs.

You smiled. Humiliating Max sexually was not a part of the plan, but it was so satisfactory you could go straight back home with fulfillment in your bones.

"Good enough."

You backed out and walked straight to the door. In a sudden movement, Max got up, his legs felt like jelly, his head was spinning. There was no time for him to catch up, you had already left. He heard something like a see you tomorrow, but wasn't completely sure. In that particular moment he was out. Interpreting his feelings wasn't always easy, and right now it sure as hell was the hardest thing for him to do, considering there was a mix of everything inside his guts.

It took all of your strength to not go back, just to get a glimpse of how Max Verstappen looked completely desolated, alone in his hotel room, frustrated, confused. Exactly like you were that afternoon, three months ago. If you suffered, he was going to suffer the exact same thing, but ten times more.

*

"Max, you good? Looks like you're about to throw up."

Sitting in a round table, his salad was untouched, his cup still filled with water. The voices were mushy, he couldn't tell which driver elaborated that question. Truth is, he wasn't paying attention to anything else, too busy looking around, searching for any glimpse of you. Anything to demonstrate that you were still there, because you could probably be back home by now, laughing while sitting on your sofa, seeing his misery on live television.

He was brought back to the real world with Charles' voice commanding his attention, because finally, for the first time during that stupid lunch, someone said something that actually mattered.

"Mate, what is Y/N doing here? I thought you two broke up."

"Where is she?" His voice sounded so desperate, so pathetic, Lando couldn't help but chuckle.

"Just saw her talking to Honer when I passed the Red Bull garage. Could've swore I was seeing things, but it was actually her. Are you two back together?"

Midst sentence Max was already gone, rushing through the crowd as fast as he could before it was too late. He looked desperate, like he was looking for water in a desert island.

The meters to the garage seemed like the distance to the moon. His eyes were filled by the sigh of Horner, talking to someone else, not relevant, nor for him, because the someone else wasn't you. The conversation seemed important, and it would be rude to interrupt, but Max couldn't care less.

"Christian, where is Y/N?"

Horner turned around to look at his driver, bright fake smile. A little annoyed that he interrupted, but there was no way he was going to show Verstappen any annoyance.

"Well, hello to you too, Max. I was meaning to ask, what is she doing here? Thought you left her."

"Where the fuck is she?" Max asked again, this time his tone showed little to no patience.

Horner narrowed his eyes, if anyone else in this world talked to him like this, God would feel sorry for them. But again, the golden boy could do anything he pleased.

"If I'm not mistaken, she was looking for you. My guess is that she is waiting on your driver room."

The boy left. No thank you, no sorry, just simply vanished like dust.

The fragile door was opened with violence. This time, Max was quicker, not giving you a chance to play your game.

Eventually, after two days of deep contemplation, torture and screaming into his pillow, Max decided that he had enough of your games. Now, both of you were going to play things his way. Or so he thought.

"Why the fuck are you here? What the fuck do you want?"

You were sitting, legs crossed. His presence was dominating, but you didn't break character.

"What happened to good mornings? No one taught you proper manners?"

"Cut the fucking bullshit, Y/N. Why are you doing this?"

You got up, making your way towards him. Not too close and Max thanked God for that, because one more step and he would just break down again, crumble into crushed pieces of a boy. However, standing from a safe distance, his mind was taken by frustration, he wanted answers just as well as he wanted to rip your clothes off and make you pay for the little stunt you pulled two nights ago.

"I want to see you suffer."

You knew he would eventually caught up. It's Max, he is smart. And if anyone would understand the reasonings behind your feelings, it would be him.

So there was no reason to hide your true intentions anymore.

Max nodded, hands on his waist. He expressed some sort of laugh as a substitute for just yelling and screaming. He had done that already.

"How's that going for you?"

"Not nearly as close as the amount of suffering I am hoping for." Max was taken back by the cruelness and coldness in your words. "I want you to regret leaving me 'til the day you are buried six feet under ground. If you suffered ten times of what I did for those past months, still, wouldn't be enough.”

"I don't know how to break this to you, sweetheart. But making me kneel and beg, although I appreciate the effort, it was cute, isn't really close to the pain of getting dumped. You'll have to work harder than that."

Your lips curled into a wide spread smile.

"I know."

Up and close to his eyes, between your delicate fingers, a medium sized black piece of something he had an idea of, but didn't want to believe it was real.

"What is this?"

"You should get going, Maxie, quali is about to begin."

"You removed a piece from my fucking car?! Are you fucking insane?! This is psychotic, Jesus fucking Christ!" His eyes widened, his hands went through his hair in a desperate act. "How the fuck did you even manage to do that?!"

"A lady never tells."

Max thanked the universe when he heard a knock on the door, because God only knows what his next move was going to be, hadn't he been interrupted by GP at that second.

"Buddy, we have 10 minutes, you better come." He looked at the clueless man standing at the door, then back at you, who put on your best innocent smile, hands behind your back like you just didn't do the most devilish, disgraceful thing he has ever seen.

"Yeah, okay, give me two seconds.

As GP closed the door, Max took a step closer to you. He contemplated letting people know, snitching on you, but he held his anger and shoved the burning flames to the back of his throat. He wasn't going to play your game. If you were bad, Max Verstappen was worse.

Max's next move wasn't what you were expecting at all. With the gentleness of a first kiss, he brought his lips to your forehead, like he always did before stepping to his car, however, this time, taking a little bit longer, savouring the feeling of your skin beneath him.

"See you later, Schatje."

You were confused. Angry, even, by his reaction.

And then, when he finally left, you felt it. The shame, the guilt. You knew you went too far, but you were too blind by hatred, and too hungry for seeing him break.

On the other hand, Max walked into his car with the confidence and determination he hadn't felt in a while. It was Red Bull. This was a secure place, there were a innumerous amount of people there watching his fucking car. There was no chance that you, clueless girl, could just walk up there and steal a piece of whatever that thing was. God, you didn't even know how a Formula 1 car worked, how the hell were you supposed to remove an important piece? Max thought, hoped, wished, that you just took something he could manage to work without, and it was what gave him a little bit of relief stepping into the car.

Nonetheless, as quick as the relief came, it was washed away by a thought so much darker, what if you had help?

"Hey, Paul." Max called out for the man to his left.

"The car is good, yeah?"

"You tell me, mate." Paul joked around, not quite understanding the driver's question.

"No, I mean, the car is intact, right? Nothing missing?"

Paul arched an eyebrow.

"Of course, Max, it's all good."

The driver nodded and soon enough left with his car.

Qualifying started. You watched nervously through the screen in the garage. Maybe you crossed the line. On the other hand, you knew Max wasn't stupid, he made sure you knew with that ridiculous kiss. No other man could drive you insane. Two days later you were reading him like your favorite book, now, you couldn't tell a word inside his brain, except for, of course, how badly he was cursing you.

And boy... He was. Every time he made a turn and the car trembled he found a new name to curse you inside his mind. Thank God the FlA couldn't hear thoughts, at least twenty thousand fines were proffered only in the first five minutes.

The car was shit, unsteady. It was honestly scaring Max how unpredictable it was. Never in his entire career he felt so uneasy with a vehicle, not even in his rookie years.

"There is something really wrong with the car."

Max added in a frustrated radio message before firing back to his garage.

The crew was there, waiting for him. He stepped out of the car and let the engineers take a look.

You managed to catch a glimpse of him, even though his face was hiding behind the helmet, you knew he was contorted in desperation. You couldn't believe it. For better or for worse, your plan fucking worked.

The engineers cleared the way and Max tried again, completely incredulous on how you managed to ruin his entire race weekend. There was no way your relationship was going to make it after this. Max didn't even know if he was going to make it after this, he might just shove the car into a wall and die inside of it just to prove a point, watch you suffer with guilt until the end of your life.

By the last lap he was third.

Q2 was a bit better than Q1, that until someone crashed their car. Perfect, not only were you ruining his day, but the universe also decided to collaborate with your evil plan. Maybe you got Max's rivals to be a part of it. Maybe the whole entire team and crew were by your side.

By Q3 Max started to actually considering driving his car to the wall. The breaks weren't working. He couldn't break, at all. You fucking destroyed his breaks. You toyed with his car like it was a lego piece. At the end of that session, taking seventh place, Max stormed out of the car and threw his gloves on the floor. He just wanted to get everything off, his clothes, his helmet, his shoes. He wanted to go back home, to his cats, to his pillow, cry for hours.

Yes, the disaster of a bad qualifying hurt, but it was the heartbreak that got to him. Never in a million years he thought the love of his life would be capable of doing something so cruel and evil.

That wasn't normal. A normal thing would be for you to burn his hoodies or slash the tyres of his Porsche. You manipulated his car, possibly messing with his safety. You weren't the love of his life, you were a full blown psychopath. Which is the reason Max thanked that you weren't in his driver's room when he came back.

That being said, he wasn't so blessed when he opened his hotel room and found you sitting on his bed, wearing the same clothes as you were in the afternoon.

"Are you fucking for real? You have some guts coming into my room thinking that I would actually want to see you. I take everything back, I don't want you! I fucking hate you! I want you gone! I want to never look at your face again! You are the most terrible person I have ever met."

He was shouting, yelling, clenching his teeth and jawline. Stomping around like a maniac while the explosive bursts of verbal thunder left his mouth.

"Max, please, let me explain." You didn't raise your voice, you couldn't, you were wrong here.

"Explain what?! Huh?! How you manipulated my car?! Played around with my safety?! Almost killed me?! God, Y/N, I love you and you do this? This isn't normal, this isn't alright, this isn't something you fix with an explanation. There is no fixing this."

His voice became lower, not because he wasn't angry, he still was outrageous, but now the sadness of a heartbreak were too consuming, surpassing every emotion that was battling inside his mind and heart. There were tears in his eyes and they were the bluest you have ever seen. His lips were pink, trembling. His cheeks and nose were red. You felt an agonizing need to hold him.

"Max, you need to breathe." Poor choice of words, you could see it in his entire face as his eyes became shallow. "I didn't alter your car."

Max was about to lash out again, but he didn't believe his ears. As much as he hated you right now, you caught his attention. He didn't slow down, though, his chest was heavy, he was close to breaking down.

"Come again?"

"I didn't take any piece from your car!"

He could see you were crying now and he could swear you seemed honest, like a child trying to prove to their parents that they weren't the one in the wrong.

"Yes, you fucking did, you showed me! Do you seriously think I am going to believe your bullshit right now?"

"No, I didn't, this isn't anything! It's just a stupid piece of plastic!"

In a desperate attempt you held the black piece close to his face.

His vision was blurry, by tears, by confusion and hatred. He caught the piece and analyzed every corner of it. It didn't seem legit, it seemed, like you said, just a piece of plastic.

"What the actual-"

"-I just wanted you to believe I did. I wanted to scare you. I wanted to make you doubt yourself. I would never do anything that would actually put you in danger, Max, I love you. I wanted to prove a point." He couldn't believe it. In fact, he thought he was hallucinating the whole weekend and this was all a twisted nightmare, "Yes, it was selfish, I am wrong, I crossed the line. But I thought you were going to catch up to it. I didn't believe it was going to work, you are you, Max"

Now, add skepticism to the list of emotions inside his gut.

"But the fucking car was shit! The breaks weren't working! I couldn't drive that thing at all!"

"That has nothing to do with me."

Max couldn't tell if he was relieved by the fact that you didn't try to kill and you still loved him, or felt betrayed by how you manipulated his reality to the point he drove like shit just because he believed something was wrong with the car. Or maybe Red Bull just fucking sucks. Both later options were not respectful outcomes to him.

"Please, say something. I am so sorry, Max! I regret it. I should have never done it, I know. I am so sorry. I understand if you never want to see me again and, God, I'll even move from Monaco if that's what you like. I'll disappear, completely."

Your words hit him. He thought about them for a split second. The thought of you leaving his life, to him, was death. Sure, what you did was not okay, he was heartbroken, it would take time to heal. However, the more he thought about it, the more willing he was to try. If you were able to give him a second chance, he should give you the benefit of the doubt. You were taken by passion, by heartache and overwhelming sadness, Max wasn't a stranger to strong bursts of emotions and impulsiveness, which is why, deep down, he understood why you did what you did. Maybe, if he was in your shoes, he would've done worse.

"We are too old for shit like this, Y/N."

You could feel he was a bit more relaxed, which is why you felt an openness to just hold him. You didn't care if he wasn't going to hold you back, you just wanted to show him how much you regret your childish ploy.

"I know, baby, I am so sorry, I love you."

Fair enough, Max didn't hold you back. Instead, he pushed you away, another idea forming in the back of his twisted, unserious mind.

"You're going to work a little bit harder than this, sweetheart, if you want my forgiveness."

In his eyes, you could see there was still anger painted in the black of his pupils, but mixed with the gleam of his almost dried tears, you noticed a different kind of sparkle, one he saw in your eyes two nights ago.

"Do you want me to kneel and beg?"

Max took a step back.

"I want you to kneel, but I think your mouth can do better things than begging."

There was a feeling of delirium happening in the back of your mind, that carefully traveled through your veins as if you had take the most powerful drug available in the market. In just a matter of seconds you were down on your knees, hands playing with the hem of Max's shorts. You looked up, as if asking for permission to take them off. To Max, that was a vision out of the walls of the louvre, you, down, eyes sparkling with sultry glamour, mouth watering.

With an attentive movement, you pulled down his shorts, leaving a trail of kisses on the inside of his thigh, making sure you were scratching every inch of his skin, treating him as if he was the cure to all your worries and troubles. He might as well be.

"Get to it, my love, no teasing."

"Where's the fun in that?" You asked with a tint of playfulness in your voice.

"You're not really in a position to have fun. You either put those pretty lips to use or I will leave you here with nothing."

"Well, since you asked so politely."

You completely removed his boxers, facing his cock. Your mouth watered. You made sure you spread enough saliva around, licking every inch of him, paying extra attention to his sensitive spots you were well familiar with, before taking him with gluttony, tasting every bit he was giving.

Your hands were everywhere, scratching his thighs, caressing his balls, while you moved your head, feeling him in the back of your throat, around your lips.

Max was in pure bliss, his organs were electrified.

He swore you got better since the break up. Or maybe it was the absence that made it much more intimate, filthy, delicious.

"Jesus, Schatje, you're so dirty." He ran his fingers through your hair until he decided to guide your movements with his hands, slowly, making sure the pace was comfortable for both of you. "You look so pretty when you're doing what I want."

He went a bit further and you gagged in response, moaning right after. The vibrations coming from your throat sent Max into a frenzy. You swirled your tongue around his head, looking up through your eyelashes, exactly the way he liked. You loved giving Max blowjobs, it was as pleasurable for you as for him and he could tell, and there was nothing hotter to Max than seeing you get aroused by giving him pleasure.

Each time his cock hit your throat, he could feel he was getting closer.

"Don't stop, keep sucking me off, keep going." You just obeyed, feeling yourself get hotter by the second, you knew your panties were gone by now, yet you still craved more. You needed to taste him more, you needed to take back the time you missed. "Fuck-Y/N, fucking hell. Just like that.

You're so good."

The praise was everything, because you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve him. Yet, here he was, giving you all of him, all of his time and body, the best parts.

One more deeper thrust and you gagged again, the reaction made you squeeze his thighs. Max shut his eyes tight, groaning and moaning a bit too loud, but he couldn't control himself, not when you were on his knees, taking him so well, doing your job like a freaking pornstar.

"Shit, I'm gonna cum." The liquid was everywhere inside your throat. He made sure he finished before removing his cock from inside your mouth, drops of drool spilling on the floor. "You better swallow every drop or we'll do it all over again."

You did as he asked, you wouldn't dare do it otherwise. You stood up, looking right into his eyes as you opened your mouth and stuck your tongue out.

"Good fucking slut."

In a sinful act, Max spat in your tongue, holding your hair tightly in a knot between his palm. The move was so dirty, so filthy, you could come just by relieving the scene alone.

With desperate hands, you started to remove your top and then proceeded to his shirt. Meanwhile, Max was practically ripping out your skirt, abruptly removing every piece of fabric that dared touch your skin.

His kiss was demanding, hard, rough, thrilling.

There was a primal instinct awaken inside you, one that wanted to be with him and serve him for the rest of your life. One that could live in beds with him until you grow old.

Max pushed you to the bed, body towering yours.

Your hands desperately tried to grab his neck, his back, bring him closer, if it was any possible. You felt his hand sliding slowly between your thighs, until he reached your folds. He made sure to spread the wetness around, making a mess on your inner thighs and hip bones.

"Max, please." You pleated, voice cracking, there was no way you could form coherent sentences, your mind was hazy, no other thought inside your head except Max Verstappen and his hands.

"Look at you." His voice was dark, husky. "So wet just from sucking me off. Do you want more?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah? Then ask for it, use your words."

That man had you in the palm of his hands. If he asked you to go to war for him, at that moment, in your situation, you would.

"Please, Max, please." Your vocals were stuck down your throat, you were struggling to speak, the sensations of his hands rubbing your clit ever so slightly you could barely say they were in there was just too overwhelming.

"Pathetic, try again." He placed a kiss on your collarbone, then on the curve of your neck. His lips were wet and hot, a little bit swollen from the roughness of your kisses.

"Max, fuck me, please, stuff me, use me, do Whatever you want."

Max stopped every touch. Looked deep inside your eyes with a smirk on his lips that you just wanted to slap it off, or kiss it off, whichever one your reflexes allowed.

He scrunched his nose and giggle, it was a way of mocking you, you knew that. You knew you sounded pathetic, you didn't care. The humiliation was not crossing your mind, nothing to worry about, it wasn't worth it. He was. Max was worth it.

"Stupid little thing, trying to pull stunts on me, then begging me to use you like you were some sort of cheap whore."

You moaned in response, lifting your hips to meet his. In a firm movement, Max held your hips down with his right leg, applying pressure on your lower belly, making it unable for you to move.

"Stop lifting your hips like a goddamn whore, you're going to take whatever I decide to give you."

He wasn't treating you kindly, you knew there was still resentment somewhere inside him. Sure, there was. Max knew it too. At that moment he was using you, taking his frustration out. But it wasn't like you haven't done the same, only your way of torturing him was a bit less fun than his.

You felt yourself sinking into Max's cock, involuntarily you sunk your nails on his back, trying to fight back the scorching sensation filling you up, making you whole. Max's rhythm was slow, painfully slow, which was unlike him, he never fucked you like this, always fast, slamming, pounding. This was even more overwhelming than his usual desperation and roughness, because it wasn't hurting but it felt like you simply couldn't take it, the lack of pace was driving you insane.

Max knew it, it was taking every single tear of strength left in his tired body to keep it slow, because you felt too good, too perfect wrapped around him. He missed your feeling, he missed your whimpers and cries.

"You feel so good, Schatje, like you were made only for my cock. Nothing more. Too useless to anything else, couldn't even figure out how to take a piece out of my car." He laughed, replaying the scene back in his memory. "Stupid little thing."

You cried out because you felt that he, without thinking, went a little bit harder when remembering what happened. If you wanted him to give you what you needed, you would have to push him only a little bit. You lost the war, you know you did, but there were still some battles left.

"Come on, Max. Slow on tracks, slow in bed. You used to be better than this. What are you trying to do? Fuck me to sleep?"

He looked down on you, with contempt. How dare you talk to him this way? But it was a good try, he was close to snapping, making you regret the whole week, going too hard until you couldn't remember why you were on this earth for.

You were scared of his eyes, how dark they were, but your stomach flipped with the thrill of waiting for his next move.

"Oh, she can talk!" His voice was drenched in disdain. "Let's fix this."

Not even stopping, Max parted your lips only to shove the lace fabric of your panties into your mouth. Fucking bastard. You protested, but now even you had to admit the sounds coming from you were a joke.

"Much better."

Then, in a sudden, fierce movement, he flipped you. Stomach down the mattress, face pressed against the egyptian sheets, a luxury that only Bahrain could provide. Max's left hand was pressing your head further down as he started to pick up the pace, slamming hard and faster. He was, in fact, using you as a personal fucktoy, but you didn't mind it, the feeling was too good.

You felt euphoric, your blood was buzzing. You tried to hold the sheets, grab something, but there was no way for you to control your body. The sounds coming from your mouth were involuntary, so were the one's coming from Max.

It was too much for him, he knew he wouldn't last longer. He never used you like this before, it made him feel like a god. No amount of championship wins would come close to the feeling of being buried deep down inside you.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck- Look at what you made me do, fucking slut." You could feel the tears coming down. Good tears. The hot kind. "Are you going to cry on me now?"

You saw one of his hands coming to your mouth, removing the fabric and tossing far away to the other side of the room.

"Yes, Max, oh God, fuck."

He groaned, the wet noises were feeling the room.

The familiar sensation of fire pooling low in your abdomen started to show up. If he asked you to hold on, God forgive you, there was no way in hell.

You heard him moan a mixture of curse words and your name, but your senses were coming blurry, as if you were about to pass out.

"Max, 'm gonna cum."

"Gonna cum inside you, baby."

He pressed down, letting his weight fall on top of you, that's when you felt the tightness around your organs being released. The sounds coming from you were too much for Max to hold on any longer, not even seconds later he was breaking down. It was animalistic, filthy, pornographic, even.

He never took it out, he stayed inside of you for minutes after he was done. You were too sensitive to take any movement. That experience was whatever religious people were trying to reach with their existence. Who needed faith when you had Max Verstappen as a lover?

You barely noticed that his weight left the top of your naked body, only flipping back around when you saw him coming from the bathroom with a towel. He sat down next to you, breathing slowly, gently rubbing the fabric between your thighs.

"Are you okay?" You nodded, thinking you blacked out for a second. "Do you want a glass of water?"

"I just want you to lay down here."

He did as you asked, letting you wrap yourself around him. You could tell there were no bad feelings around, everything vanished into thin air.

It was just you and Max, same as ever.

"Do you forgive me, Max?"

He placed a long lasting kiss in your right temple.

"Is it bad if I said you should pull stuff like this more often just so that we could repeat this?"

You giggled, fingers tracing drawings on his stomach.

"I think we can figure another game that won't risk our relationship burning to ashes if something goes wrong."

"Fair enough." You felt him adjust his body. "And, yes, I do forgive you."

You needed the reassurance, Max knew that. He knew you. You were a melody from his favorite childhood song, one that he listened to it and it never left his mind.

There was no letting you go. It would always be complex and easy at the same time. But any complication was worth it if it meant you would never leave his side.

[myeyebagsaredesigner]

So I like to imagine that even though Jason is off the streets and has been for a long time, it fucked him up so bad that he still has some habits from that time. One of which is storing part of his food for later. He didn't have any money or access to food at all times, so he sometimes had to go days before he found something worth scavenging.

So he picked up the habit of eating some and then putting the rest away somewhere else so that he'd still have something to eat when he was waiting for the next bout of food. Keeping the crusts of bread, saving the meat or vegetables in sandwiches, the works.

When he got to the manor he kept up the habit, because to him, there was always a chance he would be back on the streets again or they wouldn't let him eat for whatever reason, so he stored part of everything he ate in napkins and hid them away in his nightstand drawer. Bruce only found out because Alfred kept smelling something weird and went to go see what it was, only to find rotten green beans or spoiled roast beef and stuff.

They explain to him that he doesn't need to do that anymore and that he's always welcome to eat if he's hungry. Jason does not stop, but he makes sure to eat what he can before it smells too bad.

Resurrection, revenge era, whatever, and he is back to visiting at the manor and sometimes staying over. Bruce is not aware he still has this habit, and the others never even knew he had it because it hurt Bruce to talk about.

Damian is aware because Jason used to do this in the League, but when he had asked the older boy, Jason told him that sometimes he didn't like the food and didn't want people to feel bad. Jason didn't want to get into his past while talking to this random toddler, so Damian just thought Jason didn't want to hurt Alfred's feelings so he didn't say anything about it.

They all find out when Jason gets food poisoning after eating some rotten meat and they find him lying in a puddle of him own vomit. Bruce decides to put a fridge and lots of Tupperware in Jason's room, because if he's not going to stop, he can at least store the food properly when soothing his mind.

[inkling-talks]

Uuuugh okay kinda late mer may au here we go

Au information under the cut

I've been sitting on this for a hot minute cause I don't think I'm going to do anything with this aside from a few doodles here and there (I got other fanfics to write currently, maybe one day)

So, mer au where all the espers are mermaids and Seasoning City has a bay. Reigen is a son of a fisher man, he's always hated fishing but doesn't have much else for him. However his father got sick and can no longer go out with him, so most of the time he is alone on the open water.

Tome is still obsessed with aliens but she also loves all sorts of supernatural stuff. Seasoning Bay has rumors of mermaid sightings but they're very rare. She likes to sneak onto Reigen's boat, because he's the only person that hasn't turned around to drop her back at the docks, even though he yells at her every time and puts her to work, he lets her stay. Plus the longer they know each other, the kinder to her he is, and they often talk about the supernatural stuff even though Reigen doesn't believe in it at first. It's also the summer so she's not missing any class.

There's not a lot of fellow fishermen on the water, because most have been pushed out by the fishing company Sun Union (with the same people we know from Sun Union in canon). Reigen has beef with the head guy, like canon, but often ignores what they're doing unless it affects him directly.

I haven't decided if I should give them esper powers or not yet, but they do have some abilities. They can see ghosts (just so Dimple won't be forgotten), they can create bubbles underwater that can go around heads and help humans breathe underwater temporarily. And if they kiss a normal human, that human can see ghosts and be able to breathe underwater permanently.

Mermaids are well known creatures in the world, but they're extremely rare to find, as they often hide from humans. Some countries have laws against hunting them, but they are classfied as animals (despite their human intelligence) and some are kept in aquariums (this is looked down upon though), or research labs. If you're able to catch one alive, that can go for a lot of money. If you poach one, that can also go for a lot of money if you know the right people.

So at first there are only three mers in the bay. Shigeo, Ritsu, and Teruki. Teru likes to go to the surface often and people watch, but he's super careful to not get caught. He often sees Reigen alone, or with Tome, and decided that out of all of them Reigen is less likely to hurt them, mostly because if it comes down to a fight the three of them could take him together.

When Reigen meets Mob for the first time, it's because he comes to him to help Ritsu, who gets stuck in a net that is tied attatched to a sunken old ship far out into the bay. He brings Reigen underwater to him, and thankfully Reigen has a knife on him at the time so he's able to free him.

After that, Mob and Teru decide to visit Reigen a little more frequently when it's just him on the water. It's not often that he's by himself, but he's curious, so he starts setting sail earlier in the morning to meet them more often.

Eventually he does bring Tome along to meet them. She's super excited and gets along with Teru instantly, the two of them asking questions about each other's species.

At some point, Serizawa and Shou move to the bay. They used to live farther into the ocean, but their old coral reef was dying. Serizawa has taken it upon himself to care for Shou, as his mother died when he was young by humans, and his father died when he was a little older after deciding to get revenge on humans against smaller ships (this is just me getting him out of the way for this au).

Shou and Serizawa are very untrusting of Reigen and Tome, obviously, but over time they watch their interactions with the other three and decide they're not so bad. (Or maybe there's an event that gets them to trust them). Serizawa is a little easier to presuade than Shou.

Ritsu kinda doesn't like Reigen, but he just doesn't trust humans in general. Considering his first interaction with Reigen is when he saved him, he's not hostile, but he does make jokes at Reigen's expense. Shou joins in on this when he's more willing to be around Reigen.

And ofc because I'm a serirei lover, they do eventually fall in love. However because of their powers (and also his anxiety), he doesn't want to kiss Reigen until he has to to save his life. After that, Reigen is able to breathe underwater and see ghosts.

Or ghost. Really. Dimple is the only ghost that haunts the bay. Most ghosts stay on land, but Dimple likes talking to the living and has befriended a lot of mers in his afterlife. And because the mers of the bay flock to Reigen's ship the most, he haunts his ship.

I may come up with more for this au, because I think it's really fun, but if I ever do write about it, it won't be until I finish my current fic on ao3. Which will be after May, sadly, but oh well

[kujakumai]

On the subject of being good with children, which characters do you think WOULD be good babysitters?

YUGIOH CHARACTERS AS BABYSITTERS, RANKED

TOP PICKS:

Seto Kaiba runs an entire company dedicated exclusively to safely entertaining children, and unless his parks are getting continually sued I believe he knows how. Your kindergartner is not only safe with him but will probably leave knowing how to play chess and write in C++. He may allow them to play with knives, but only if they're 9 or over, plus he has all the emergency numbers on speed-dial.

Hiroto Honda babysits his niblings on the regular. Can warm a bottle and change a diaper. A level-headed and practical guy. He’ll be fine as long as his friends don't drag him into a horrible game-themed deathtrap. Don't ask why that caveat exists.

Rishid Ishtar is safe, experienced, has dad energy, however he will crumple like wet paper at the first sign of conflict re: ice cream for dinner / no bedtime / blood-soaked cross-country quest for revenge / an extra episode of cartoons over the screentime limit.

Ishizu Ishtar would make a great babysitter. I don't really have a quirky joke here she just would.

"MAYBE"S

Jonouchi used to watch his little sister and I think he'll do about as well as any other teenager you're paying minimum wage, and with a lot of earnest enthusiasm. Your child will be fine at the end of the night, though they will probably have eaten some junk food and played a T rated videogame.

I do not think Atem would know what to do with a baby, and may panic about it, though if you have an older child he will be happy to offer a rousing speech and some deep-voiced mentorlike advice while teaching them to play board games. Not a bad choice, just try not to leave him with anyone under seven.

Yugi knows zilch about kids and often appears a little annoyed by them. Same general rules as Atem--do not leave him with a baby, but he'll probably just teach an older kid to play shogi or something.

Mai Kujaku will put the kid in front of the television and order pizza while she paints her nails. Honestly, though, what more are you paying her for?

Listen, I love Anzu. I do. She’s smart, driven, and big-hearted, but she is also sort of short-tempered and impatient, and patience is like 90% of child-rearing. Please do not ask Anzu Mazaki to watch your children. She WILL say yes because she needs the money, and she WILL go into it with optimism and gumption, and yes, both she and your child will both be in one piece at the end of the night, but it will be clear from both of their frazzled expressions that she lost most of her sanity an hour in after the fifth "Why?"

DEFINITELY NOT

Ryou Bakura would in theory be a perfectly good, if kind of spacey, babysitter, but you cannot trust him to remain Ryou Bakura, and the other guy is definitely not someone you want anywhere near your children.

I don't think Marik Ishtar has ever interacted with a child for very long and the number of people he talks to that are even his own age is in the single digits. And he is definitely not getting spat on or dealing with any bathroom stuff. I'm not saying he can't figure it out but the learning curve is going to be steep.

I have to put Yami Bakura here in principle and yet for some reason I think it wouldn't go that bad? I mean he definitely doesn't care about the safety of your child. And he may enlist them to the armies of darkness. And he's not cleaning anything up. But he's like, a weird socially awkward over-the-top guy? And children love those? Honestly I think they would both have fun. For at least an hour until everything goes horribly wrong.

Please do not summon Zork Necrophades to babysit your child.

[tevantarlos]

Unpopular Opinion 911 - et all

I'm a bisexual woman and I've known that I'm bisexual since I was 11 years old. I legitimately am attracted to both men and women.

I've been watching 911 since 2 months after season 1 ended in 2018. I got into the show for Bathena and have loved them ever since.

I keep seeing people complaining on the official show pages about how Athena abuses her authority as a cop, and while they're not wrong, they're also blowing things way out of proportion. I'm pretty sure the people saying that have never watched the NBC show Chicago PD, because if you compare what Athena's done, to what Voight on Chicago PD has done, you'd know that the stuff she's done has been pretty tame.

On Chicago PD:

1. Voight has locked people up in a cage and literally tortured them for information.

2. He has killed people for revenge. He killed the guy who killed his son, Justin. He killed the guy or people who killed Al. There are probably even more occurrences than that, but these are the one's that mainly come to mind for me.

3. He literally threatened Matt Casey, Hallie Thomas, and Gabby Dawson, when his dumbass son, Justin, was on drugs and caused an accident which paralyzed someone, because they could report Justin to other police who would've actually locked Justin's stupid ass up. I get that Voight was trying to protect his kid, but that doesn't make this shit okay. Also, it's weird as hell that Antonio worked with Voight for 6 years. How the hell did Antonio not kill Voight for threatening his sister's life? That's garbage.

4. He literally stole money and drugs from criminals.

5. He has threatened his detective's lives on more than one occasion, and not in some way to make sure they are more careful and protect themselves, but as a legit threat.

Returning to my 911 thoughts.

Oliver Stark has claimed that he's been playing Buck as bisexual the entire time. No, he has not. He just wants the clicks and attention from pretending that this has been happening all along. Buck has had no interest in men until season 7 and the BuckTommy storyline happened.

The episode of Lone Star that's the crossover, doesn't prove Buck is bi. He wasn't flirting with TK, it was a misunderstanding on TK's part. Buck is literally confused when TK says that he's with someone, as he wasn't flirting with TK, he was only inviting TK to come to LA as a friend to hang out.

Buck says on the show that he's checked out hot guy's asses before. He hasn't done that in canon. It's one of many things that they claim is canon, but isn't because it happened off screen. He has literally been obsessed with women from the first time we see him, until Tommy returns in season 7.

Buck can't even say that he's bisexual on the show. He hasn't done any research, when he used to research everything. He hasn't spoken to people like Hen, Karen, or even Josh in depth about his feelings for men. There was one scene, right before the relationship ended, where he talked to Josh, which didn't even amount to anything and was just a waste of time since they made Tommy OOC and broke up with Buck. Hell, he (Buck) didn't even know after 6 months that Tommy was gay and not any other identity.

All this to say, 911, TM, OS, they don't genuinely give a shit about Buck, his supposed bisexuality, Tommy, or even the other main characters on the show. From one episode to the next, they have them say one thing and then retcon it right after.

The whole Buck is bi thing was a hoax. They just wanted to attract the gay and bisexual crowd back to the show since Henren and Josh haven't been getting that much screentime, and Buck and OS are like the golden child of the show. People think he's an idiot, but that he's a sweet idiot, who can do no wrong.

As I stated above, I started watching 911 before season 2 even aired. I don't like the way the show is handling their characters and storylines and I'm finally getting tired of the shitty writing. I love Bathena, I love Henren, I love Madney, I loved BuckTommy. However, if Tommy is thrown aside like yesterday's trash and Buck moves on, only to fuck a bunch of women and/or men with the excuse of exploring his sexuality, I will be checking out and dropping the show.

I like Buck's character, but he's not the reason I watch the show. He's also not enough to keep me watching. Henren are constantly being threatened to have their kids taken away. Bathena is constantly put in crazy life or death situations that end in some super unrealistic way: Kid landing a plane, remember? Madney don't have anything interesting going on. Literally, all they have going on, is that they're having another kid. Eddie has spent years obsessed with his dead wife, Josh hasn't had much of a plot in years, since the only boyfriend he's had on the show was some homophobic jackass who lied and said he was gay, so that he could beat Josh up.

May is gone, Harry is gone, Sue is gone, Carla is gone, Chris is gone. All the side characters that helped make the show a little interesting, is gone. The found family dynamic is lacking or entirely absent this season. Also, making the point to show Tommy sad and longing for a family, only for him to end up sad and alone, doesn't make me want to keep watching this show.

I think I'm finished bitching for now. I know that my thoughts are all over the place, but I've kept my mouth shut on how I feel about OS and Buck's bisexuality, this whole time, but now I'm finally going to fully speak up.

As always, I know many or even most people aren't going to agree with me and that's fine. This is just my feelings and opinion on the show.

[amaltheas-garden]

This snip from S7 script

"Jon has truly never seen a girl like this before. Her beauty, her strength, her grief and the pain in makes him feel... they all push him to the realization that he loves her

What do you think D&D were thinking when they were writing this? Did George give them the notes about jonerys falling in love or he told them Jon and Dany will have an affair and D&D took that to mean it's love? In the books, most are convinced there will be a marriage for love between them but we never got that in the show. Why would D&D not have them marry if it's such an important mileage in their relationship? All we got was the "parallel' with R and L but that's actually not a parallel because we were shown RL getting married.

I'll preface this by saying I haven't watched any season in full past 3, so most of what I know of the later seasons comes from yt clips and posts on here.

This is going to be in three sections:

Why did J/D not marry in the show?

Why J/D won't marry in the books

Why J/S could happen in the books despite not happening in the show

1: On the first point, idk what d&d were going for, and I absolutely have no clue what grrm told them regarding Jon and Dany's relationship.

The main point of contention seems to be in reconciling the J/D romance and Dany's death, with a large portion of the book fanbase expecting a J/D romance and marriage. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I just don't think Jon and Dany will be the main love story of the next books. Regardless, the short answer to 'why did d&d not have J/D romance end in marriage if it's an important milestone in the books' is that they won't get married in the books either.

2: As far as using the show as an indicator for the books, I'd say focus on where characters end up, not how they get there. For instance, Sansa and Theon got completely butchered because d&d saw an easy way of cutting corners. They knew they needed a Theon pov to know what was going on w/ Ramsay and Winterfell, and knew Sansa had to go from pawn to player and meet Jon at the Wall for the eventual retaking of Winterfell. So, they thought instead of doing separate Theon-Sansa storylines with a few girl-in-grey red herrings and spending money on a tourney scene and boring Vale politics, lets just skip over the Vale stuff, have Sansa be Jeyne and kill two birds with one stone! With Arya, they sent her off to Braavos to become a badass, cut out the thematically important Stoneheart stuff, and then just shuffle her back to Winterfell. And Bran, the worst offender of the bunch, is practically cut from the show before being brought back to be king. That's all the evidence you need to know D&D only cared about taking the shortest, simplest route possible to (grrm's) predetermined endpoints. (I might have one-sided beef with brando sando, but d&d reallyyy could have benefited from hearing Journey BEFORE Destination!)

I'd also point out that book-show personalities are different: Sansa is still a young girl desperately trying to still cling to hope and belief in goodness and kindness like the heroes in her stories, Arya is a traumatized child who just wants to go back home while also trying to balance her desire to protect innocents and take revenge against those who wronged her family, Bran had all his dreams taken by one man's actions and now has to find his place in the world, and Jon was intended to be the subversion of the classic fantasy-hero archetype. But in the show, Sansa is an ice queen, Arya is badass sword girl, Bran is there, and Jon is a dumb stereotypical hero. Show Jon just doesn't behave in a way book!Jon would, so I'd expect a lot more complexity in book!J/D's relationship than straightforward romance. Point being, D&D are fine having characters end up where grrm told them to put them, they just don't care for the getting there part (also known as a story). If J/D was supposed to be a romance ending in marriage, they would have done that. Jon lives, Dany dies, Sansa rules the North, Bran becomes king, Arya continues her adventures are the points we should take away from the final seasons. The journey of how we get there is something we'll only find out when grrm publishes the books 🤡.

3: And because this is a filthy Jonsa blog, and I must connect everything back to it:

Some (most) of this is going to contradict what I just said, but bear with me. Dany's death was clearly meant to be the big shock twist of the show. The main criticism of her arc was that it came out of nowhere and was underdeveloped. D&D had to accomplish three things: J/D meet, Dany dies, and the audience doesn't see it coming. Easiest way to do that is have J/D romance, tease a possible marriage to unite the North with Dany, then have a half assed rug pull where she goes coo coo for cocoa puffs and her former lover stabs her. Regardless of the sincerity of the feelings, a romance subplot was the easiest way to insert melodrama, Stark infighting, and make the audience believe there could be a happy ending between the two. Was it done well? no. But could I see what they were trying to do? yeah.

So how would book Jonsa come into play and why would D&D ignore that element? Simply put, if Jonsa happens, it would have started developing in S6, and if Jon knows he feels for Sansa in *that* way, it makes the idea of Jon going team Dany less likely, and in turn makes the audience more suspicious of Jon's true motives. This will be even worse in the books, seeing as Jon will have (hopefully) developed a closer relationship w/ Sansa, got his beloved baby sister back, and the last of his half-brothers. The close sibling bonds keeping him allied with House Stark means Dany's main in with Jon so to speak would be through a romantic relationship, and if that place is already occupied by yet another Stark, it becomes pretty obvious that Jon will never fully be on her side. This is a problem, because we pretty much know the Starks are supposed to come out on top, so being in conflict with them isn't a good sign for Dany's endgame. Making Jon and Sansa's relationship platonic/familial instead of romantic makes a happy J/D endgame feel more likely to the audience/ makes her villain turn & death less obvious.

Grrm is a self-proclaimed romantic at heart, and I find it very hard to believe we won't get a sincere romance involving his favorite Byronic hero. This is pure speculation on my part, but I tend to think Jon will entertain a marriage with Dany as a way of securing the Starks' safety/ making peace between Dany and the North in a very obvious act of Duty over Love. Having those good ol' forbidden feelings develop between Jon and Sansa in Winds, being separated by Jon's decision to enter a politically advantageous relationship w/ Dany only to discover they're cousins and could have been together adds a nice dimension to the Starks v. Dany conflict. And Dany dying in the end means Jon has the choice to choose a love marriage over duty. But if we assume (and I'm aware it's a BIG assumption), that Jonsa is a book possibility, then the romantic aspect was played down in the show to make Jon's betrayal of Dany less obvious and preserve the shock value of her death. And at that point, they couldn't really end the show with a Jonsa marriage because there was no basis for it (not that that stopped them from doing King Bran I guess but whatever... a girl can dream). If I were to make a snide comment on the ending, GoT did like doing surface level girlboss moments, so Sansa ending up as a solo queen instead of a sappy Aragorn-Arwen love story was consistent with their other character decisions. (I honestly do love Sansa's coronation scene and there are some good metas on Sansa-Elizabeth I, so I don't want to dismiss that possibility entirely, I just think D&D's track record of throwing Arya/Sansa/Dany into the same stoic/badass stock character blender might've influenced their choice to downplay Sansa's possible romantic storyline despite it being a central theme in the books).

Just to summarize, Jon and Dany didn't get married in the show because they won't get married in the books, the book relationship will be much more complicated than the show version, and D&D's character writing in terms of their internal journey doesn't matter that much since they overtly changed character personalities from the books, and only care about characters getting where they need to go regardless of how it comes about. Assuming book Jonsa happens, this subplot was abandoned to prioritize shock value and keep audiences guessing who would win till the literal last episode. And because of the scrapping of a romantic relationship between the two, their respective endings were modified.

[the-au-collector]

Hi I loved your sicktember series you did last year (only just found out you have tumblr XD) !!!!!!

Do you have any information about the 'Time is batman' au? I love it so much

AHHH THANK YOU 💖💖💖

I have... quite a lot about that AU actually. The basic jist is, of course, Time is Batman and adds each of the Links to his family. They're all still named Link in this AU but they still use their LU nicknames. The vague idea I have is to have a series where each of the boys get their own book about how they end up getting adopted by Time. Some will get more books loosely based off their games or if the plot deems it needed, but everyone gets at least one.

So, all of them live in Termina City, which is this universe's equivalent of Gotham. I'm not quite sure how the wider world works yet, but most, if not everything, should center around Termina City. Also, this universe's Justice League is called the Council of Courage.

Ummm I guess here's a rundown of the Links, Malon, and Granny? (putting it below a cut because its kind of long)

Time (Link Treewood I) - Bruce Wayne/Batman equivalent. He's called The Mask. Was formerly a superhero known as the Fierce Deity, but that hero began becoming a symbol of fear instead of hope, so Time changes his persona to be The Mask instead. He's divorced (with an eventual remarriage to) from Malon. He was adopted as a kid by a guy named Deku Treewood, and after Deku's death, was taken care of by the house maid, who insists on being called Granny.

Warriors (Link Castle I) - Called Warrior 16, and he doesn't really have a stand-in. I didn't want Time to adopt him so he became Time's cousin. He has a whole Plot with getting kidnapped somehow, then saved by Lana, and then training with the Sheikah Clan (namely, under Artemis). I'd say more but this whole plot is the B-plot for book 1 lol.

Sky (Link Loftson II) - The superboy stand-in for this AU, except of course he's adopted by Time. He's the son of this world's Superman, called Loftwing (*cough* First *cough*), and a hero called Hylia, who both come from another planet. His parents die and the entire first book would focus on him tracking down their killer and meeting Time. His final hero name is Crimson.

Twilight (Link Treewood II) - his final hero name is The Wolf, and he's the stand-in for Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing. He's Time's biological son with Malon, who lives with Malon, and ends up getting wrapped up in the hero stuff because his aunts Romani and Cremia (who work for the circus) get murdered, and his mom gets hurt, so he wants to track down the guy who did it and make him pay. When he's older (like, 18-20) he gets a plot about Midna (who's a witch/magician in this AU) but idk what it is quite yet.

Wild (Link Tearbreath) - The Jason Todd of this AU, but a little more stable (and also mixing in some Stephanie Brown/Spoiler). This special guy has 2 books (at least. Maybe 3)! Indeed, he dies and comes back to life. He knew Twilight as a kid before Twi moved to Termina City permanently. Wild and his family eventually moved to Termina City but tragedy struck and he was left alone on the streets. Cue him getting adopted by Time after trying to get revenge on the guy who conned his family out of money (Khoga). He goes by Zero then, eventually becomes a Champion for the Council of Courage, dies, and is ressurected because of the Sheikah. Legend ends up training him and helping him get back to Termina. Also, he's a mix of Age and Wild. In the beginning, he's called Age, but changes to Wild after being ressurected. He also gets amnesida from being ressurected.

Four (Link Smith) - This universe's Time Drake, except he's poor. Is fascinated by The Mask and figures out who everyone is, but unlike Tim, somehow ends up getting himself in trouble with a derranged scientist named Vaati and getting his soul split into pieces. That's... about the extent that I know his plot. I keep going back and forth about making Shadow the 5th piece of his soul, or his twin brother. It could go either way right now. Oh, and his hero name is Doppelganger because he gets his splitting ability after his soul his split.

Legend (Link Treewood III) - The Damian Wayne of this AU. Also Time's biological son, though this time with Lullaby, who's part of the Sheikah. He's pretty much raised to be a weapon, but when the Sheikah end up going through a civil war or schism of sorts, Lullaby takes him to Time to keep him safe. Cue a whole plot about him trying to re-gain his mother's favor by tracking down Majora (this universe's version of The Joker). What could possibly go wrong?

Hyrule (Link Advent) - He also doesn't have a clear-cut equivalent, bit I also take elements of Jason Todd's backstory for him? And a bit of Duke/Signal too. He's basically a street kid who ends up helping Time during a tough moment and Time immediately is like "I'm keeping him" and no one argues with that because Hyrule is a sweetheart. I think he's going to join the family the same time that Wind is going through his own plot. His hero name is Fairy because he can heal.

Wind (Link Castle II) - illegitamite son of Warriors and Lana. Lana gave him to Wars to keep him safe, so Wind grows up in Termina with Warriors. He doesn't know about the heroing stuff until he's about 8 and accidentally finds out, and ever since then dreams of helping them out. He ends up making up his own persona. As of right now, it's Spirit, because he can see ghosts, but I kind of want to change in case I want to somehow insert Spirit later. Anyways, Wind begins going out on his own in secret. He makes friends with a Robin Hood-type girl named Tetra (alias: the Swindler), and her gang called the Swindlers. When Warriors (and Wind's step-mom, Artemis) find out, Warriors is extremely upset about it initially and this will absolutely become the B-plot of one of these books.

Malon Lon - called Agent M, she doesn't really have an equivalent. She's Twilight's mom, but she ended up divorcing Time when Twi was around 5 because she thought Time was cheating (Time was actually just doing his Fierce Deity thing but never told her about it so he could protect her) and couldn't trust him. Eventually, she agrees to give Time a second chance and ends up helping adopt all these tramatized boys. Of course, there will be a re-wedding for her and Time. Eventually. She goes by Agent M when she's helping from the Depths (this universe's equivalent of the Batcave).

Granny Waker - the Alfred equivalent in this AU. She was a maid for Deku Treewood, and ended up raising Time after Deku died. She's spunky, and she cares so much for the boys. They all swear by her soup. She's known as Agent G when she has to help, though she doesn't like that they're endangering themselves by being vigilantes. Oh, and no one knows her actual name. She just goes by "Granny"

That's it for the main characters! I hope to add in as many extras from LoZ as possible. I already have plans for most of the Zeldas, as well as the main companions (so, Midna, the King of Red Lions, Ravio, Linebeck, the Champions, etc.), and most of the villains. Please lmk if you want to know more!

[follows-the-bees]

Stede Bonnet character study in 2x7.

What the audience sees and what Stede sees/feels/thinks are different, and I think that's a really important perspective to consider, especially with everything that happens in Man on Fire.

When Ed went to the party in 1x5, he was having the time of his life at first: dancing, making up stories, winning them over. And then when they turned, he had Stede. Stede came through using the "upper crust use cutting remarks" method.

In a direct parallel, in 2x6, this time Stede is getting recognition. His entire life he's been bullied, beaten down, laughed at and - just like Ed - he is having fun being the center of attention. This has never fully happened to him, even his crew - especially at the beginning - didn't fully respect him.

So, let's talk about Stede's perspective of Ed and his crew vs our audience perspective.

We know the crew loves Stede, he is their captain - for better or worse - but they continually choose to stay with him and use the methods he taught them to get through: the act of grace, Jim telling Fang the story of the wooden boy to make him feel better, the marooned crew continually to stick with him at Spanish Jackie's and saving money to buy a new vessel, using the safe space talk when the two new crews come together and the trauma makes them paranoid of each other. And of course, arts and crafts time to bring them together again as a crew but also to present Izzy the unicorn leg and welcome him unconditionally.

Out of all these instances, Stede only sees the act of grace and them sticking together and getting back to the Revenge.

Stede has been prioritizing his crew a lot more this season - even over his self interests (mainly, there is some stuff we can talk about how he immediately leaves after Ed is voted off the ship and then spends all day with him and brings him back.) But he kicks Calico Jack off, he saves the marooned crew from the island, and then for the Pirate Queen's ship, holding back his grief of Ed's death, only going to him after the crew is safe. And after he realized how much the curse was affecting him, he does ultimately give up the suit.

Now Ed. We of course see how much Ed loves him. I wrote a lot about Stede's perspective of Ed coming to his room after he kills Ed and how much that is a substantial moment for them. Not just because of the sex but because in the past Ed shuts down and leaves when Stede stands up (when he kicked Calico Jack off - Ed leaves, he doesn't do anything when Izzy challenges Stede to a duel, etc)! So Stede is afraid Ed will leave, but Ed doesn't, he shows up. He's there for Stede. Read that meta here.

But we also know what's going on with Ed's head, his insecurities coming back, his wanting to not be a pirate and seeing Stede become the biggest one right now. But Stede doesn't get it.

So everything spirals so quickly in 2x7, Man on Fire. As I mentioned previously, Stede is enjoying being the center of attention after a life of not having any respect from anyone.

And in his mind, him and Ed are partners. "But we're a partnership" it's already set in his mind, probably further cemented by them sleeping together and taking that next step. So he goes to Ed, realizing he's not by his side and Ed tells him he's leaving, already made up his mind, randomly mentions the fish - which Stede doesn't understand the meaning of - and then tells him that last night was a mistake. This has to be a mindfuck for Stede. Ed chooses to come to him and then immediately saying he regrets it - we know it's not the sex but the moving too fast - and is leaving, something that he was already afraid of happening and he thinks has happened in the past when Ed shut down. He tried to salvage it "well, you know, this can be whatever we want it to be."

So now, his boyfriend broke up with him and he's spiralling even more, and like Ed does when he is spiralling (hides under a blanket or in a blanket fort, or Stede's robe, getting comfortable and warm) Stede surrounds himself with people. His own warm blanket of loose acceptance.

But then he sees his crew getting supposedly poached. (I'm not sure if he actually knows anything about Olu and The Queen). And now everything comes crashing down again. Ed left him, his crew is leaving him, he doesn't think he's good enough. All those insecurities, things falling apart. And his self esteem issues are raging.

And then Steak Knife dies (I assume he is supposed to be dead) for him. Another person to haunt Stede's dreams.

Yes, you can read Stede challenging The Queen only as an ego trip, but in no way do I think that's all of what's happening. It is more of a frightened traumatized man at his wits end trying to save his family. "We've been through hell together."

Everyone is leaving him, he's got tears in his eyes, and he's doing something, anything to keep his family together. Even if it's something against an opponent he can't win against. Cause isn't it better to at least show his crew he's there for them again, than have to see everything he has built, he has loved, walk away from him?

[soft-pine]

spn20rewatch: 1.20 dead man's blood // cn: brief discussion of the finale and SA

okay oh boy here we go.

unfortunately, i cannot watch this episode without thinking about the finale. from the title to "once a vampire has your scent, it's for life" to jenny (here credited simply as "woman" (also she and dean literally do not interact at all. in 15.20 why does she say she has "dibs" on dean? sam is the one who wakes her up after she's been turned??)) and to the devastating added layers to

DEAN: Well what the hell do we do now? JOHN: You gotta find the nearest funeral home, that's what.

right so that's all terrible and gutting and i already talked about dean and vampires and john and 1.20 in my finale post and if you think about it for too long, you'll claw your eyes out. so let's think about other stuff.

we can talk about one of my favorite visual themes of john's character... being introduced as a thing in the dark watching sam and dean, only later revealed to be "reassuringly" their father.

this also occurs in 1.16 when john's waiting in their room. (the shot of john appearing and scaring dean is one of the most unhinged scenes to me)

we can talk about john being visibly shaken by elkins' death, similar to how he will react to caleb and pastor jim's deaths and we can remember that he never checked in on dean after 1.06 or 1.09 or 1.12.

we can talk about dean's face when john opens the fancy tool chest he had custom installed in his truck.

the "wow." the lips forming words he doesn't say aloud. keep in mind dean has been excited about free money and food all season. keep in mind john is about to tell sam that he spent both his and dean's college funds on ammo.

we can talk about how when john's pissed at sam for keeping demanding answers and pushing back, he takes it out on dean. who has been faithfully following orders without complaint mind you.

JOHN: (looks at Sam) Any more questions? SAM looks away and stays silent. JOHN: All right, let's get out of here, we're losing daylight. Hey, Dean why don't you touch up your car before you get rust? I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it.

we can talk about luther saying "revenge isn't worth much if you end up dead."

we can talk about how dean is john's errand boy. both here and in 1.21, john sends dean off to get something while he and sam stay behind.

in 1.20, the conversation sam and john have is a tearful reconciliation, which john apologizing to sam for being more like a "drill sergeant" than a father, AND saying about sam going off to school, "all I could think about, my only thought was, that you were gonna be alone. vulnerable." (me queuing the part of 14.12 that's always playing on loop in my head: "dad would send me away when I really pissed him off")

we could talk about how when dean gets back with the dead man's blood he was sent fore, john doesn't even react to dean's silly little, "whew man, some heavy security to protect a bunch of dead guys," but just says, "get it?" (please god laugh. my babygirl is funny. he's FUNNY and SILLY! all he's ever known is hunting and stress and life or death situations and he's just trying to lighten it up a bit. please laugh, god, please!)

we could talk about, "you know what to do." and the wide-eyed hitchhiker routine layer. and the "you thinking what i'm thinking" layer. and and and

we could talk about kate assaulting jenny. and then assaulting dean the same way.

the dean and vampires and sexual assault theme that carries us literally to the end of the show will always make me want to chew glass.

so yeah we can talk about a bunch of really upsetting things with upsetting implications, parallels, and consequences.

but we can also talk about some truly lovely things!!

like dean telling the people the vampires had caged up that he was coming back to save them. and then doing it! "i told you I'd come back." oh my good boy!!

and we can talk about the cracks in dean and john's relationship that have been widening all season. and will continue to do so right up to and through 2.01.

in this episode that manifests as dean saying, "that means you too" when breaking up sam and john's fight. (that means you too that means you too that means you too GOD!)

and here:

JOHN: You are my children. I'm trying to keep you safe. DEAN: Dad, all due respect but, uh, that's a bunch of crap. JOHN: Excuse me? DEAN: You know what Sammy and I have been hunting. Hell you sent us on a few hunting trips yourself. You can't be that worried about keeping us safe.

I AM SO FULL OF LOVE I COULD EXPLODE!

dean's face is almost certainly still sore from kate's finger's here. his face probably still hurts from where she slapped him to the ground. he can probably still taste her breath. he can probably still feel the prickles on the back of his neck from when he had to hunch over the car's engine and keep his back to the woods and the noise even as he knew something was hunting him. he probably still remembers wondering, each moment that kate toyed with him, what was taking john so long to shoot her.

"you can't be that worried about keeping us safe."

[ihni]

Imagine, a charity auction - you know, those ones from the movies where people bid on another person and it's like a "date" or a picknick or whatever. I'm not sure about the setting or the story behind it (school? basketball fundraiser? country club stuff?), but Steve goes there (is dragged there, perhaps) and he's Over It already and thinks it's stupd, but he's got money and it's for charity so whatever, he figures he'll do his duty and bid on someone and maybe have a meal and exhange awkward small talk with whoever, and then go home.

Anyway, to his great surprise, Billy Hargrove is one of the people who have agreed to be auctioned off for charity (unknown to Steve is that the charity is for abused kids or animals, and Billy feels Strongly about that, okay?). And like, he's wearing a good shirt, unbuttoned to his chest, and tight jeans and he's smiling with white teeth and his hair is perfect and Steve hates him suddenly, is filled with rage about this guy, his bully, standing there and smiling and thinking he's gonna bring in a lot of money and probably, like, score with whoever buys him.

And the announcer must know that Billy will bring in the most money, because she saves him for last, and when she presents him she wags her eyebrows and says that whoever buys Billy will have him all to herself, for the whole evening, and that he's up for almost anything and like, Steve wants to throw up a little.

But then an idea hits him and he thinks, what better way for payback than to bid on Billy? If he wins, Billy will be his for the whole evening; he can make Billy do whatever he wants - like rearrange the garage or clean the upstairs bathroom with a toothbrush. Or maybe, just maybe, he can demand an apology for that time when the guy gave him a concussion - he doubts that it'll be sincere, but just the possibility of watching Billy Hargrove growl out an apology, however insincere, is enough to have Steve's heart speed up.

Okay, so the most likely thing to happen is that Billy will laugh in his face and refuse to do anything Steve tells him to do, but at least if Steve wins, Billy won't be going home with any of the women here. Won't get laid, if that's what he's counting on. And honestly, even if Steve won't get to live out his petty revenge fantasies, it'll be worth it just to ruin the guy's plans for the night.

So Steve checks his wallet, and then waits until the bids are trailing off - they're already higher than for anyone else, and perhaps not so strangely, it's mostly adult women who have been bidding - and then he clears his throat and doubles the latest bid.

Everyone turn to look at him, but Steve only has eyes for Billy. His eyes are very blue in the light of the spotlight where he's standing, and wide as if startled. The smile has fallen off his face, but he quickly puts it back when people's attention drift back to him for his reaction.

The gavel falls, and Steve has just won Billy Hargrove for the rest of the day.

Now. What happens next? It could be a kind of pick-your-own-adventure kind of thing.

Romantic/fluffy: They are awkward at first, but they eat their food and Billy really IS kinda different like this, when it's just the two of them, and maybe Steve asks about why he even did this, and Billy lets slip that he really DID do it for the charity, that he doesn't care about the ladies but the CAUSE, and maybe he thanks Steve for the bid. Says that it will help a lot of kids/animals. And that thank you startles Steve, because who knew that Billy could be polite, huh? Human, almost. So he doesn't go through with his plans of making Billy work for it, but instead they just hang out for the rest of the night and like, they CLICK, you know? And in the end Steve confesses that he was GOING to make Billy do menial work as payback, and when Billy laughs and asks why he didn't, he just shrugs. "I don't know," he says. "This was ... better, I guess." And Billy looks down and then back up and licks his lips and nods, too. "It was good. Thanks. For not making me scrub your bathroom with a toothbrush." And they laugh, and then maybe they drink a little more and i don't know HOW but once they're both a little tipsy and interested and such, they kiss, too.

Angsty af: Billy 100% definitely expects the worst. He heard what the announcer said, too, and he's seen the leering way these women looks at him and he KNOWS it's a meat market, barely veiled prostitution, okay, so he knows what's expected of him by whoever wins. He's been psyching himself up for it - he's gonna sleep with whoever wins him, and he'll make it worth their while because while he won't enjoy it, it's what's expected of him and besides it's for a good cause and it means that he can somehow help kids/animals who are being abused so he'll just ... do it. But then STEVE is the winner, and Billy is so confused. Because he knows that Steve hates him, he's never made a secret out of that ... so why did he bid on Billy, when he has to know what kind of auction this is? (Spoiler alert, it's not REALLY that kind of auction, but of course Billy believes it is) Obviously it's payback, right? Right. So Billy squares his shoulders and figures he's gonna take this, too - if he can sleep with some old lady, then he can definitely stomach Steve and whatever the guy has in store for him (because at least Steve is a GUY, and also maybe possibly Billy might have had a tiiiiny crush on Steve since he rolled into town. Okay it's not so tiny. Okay it's still ongoing. Fuck). It's not gonna be like in his fantasies, maybe - Steve still hates him, after all - but he'll take what he can get. And so when they get somewhere alone and Steve starts making awkward smalltalk, maybe Billy is so set on what he's sure going to happen, that he decides to take the first step. Get it over with. Rip the bandaid off. So he turns so he's facing Steve and is like "Okay, so how do you wanna do this?" Steve looks confused and is like, "What?" Billy continues, powering through, "How do you want me? On my knees, or ...?" or maybe he just drops to his knees, to show that he's not gonna back out, he's not a pussy ... Cue a very confused and appalled Steve, but not for the reasons Billy probably thinks. Bad continuation; Steve goes with it, because hell, how many chances are he going to get to shut Billy up this way? Less bad continuation; Steve is horrified and pulls him to his feet again and they talk and clear the air. Billy being like "... but I thought you bid on me for payback" and Steve's like "Yeah, I was gonna make you clean my bathroom, you idiot!" (and Billy's like "... I'd rather suck your dick.")

Somewhere in between the two: Steve DOES go through with making Billy do menial work at his house as a means of payback. And Billy knows that he doesn't have to do it, that he can just up and leave, but he figures a) he kinda owes it to the guy for breaking his face that one time and also b) it's for charity and Steve DID shell out a lot for his payback so Billy will play along. So he rearranges Steve's garage, with dusty heavy boxes and stuff. He cleans the bathroom ... with a goddamn toothbrush, because apparently Steve is mentally eight years old. Steve, in turn, didn't expect Billy do ANY of the things he came up with, and is confused as to why Billy hasn't punched him in the face and left, yet. So he comes up with worse and worse things for Billy to do; hand-wash his dirty socks. Crawl in under the crawlspace under the house to remove old building material. Clean the drain under the sink. The whole time, he's expecting Billy to snap and just, stop. But he doesn't. So when Steve tells him to climb onto the roof and remove the bird's nest in the chimney and Billy's only reply is to ask for a ladder, Steve snaps (because that's dangerous, okay? he could DIE). "What the hell, Hargrove, why are you doing this??" "Doing what?" "Everything I say!" and then they shout a bit and it all ends with Billy saying that it's his way of saying sorry for what happned at the Byers' house, and Steve is stunned because he did NOT actually expect an pology. And of course Billy is embarrassed for not understanding that Steve didn't actually expect him to do all that stuff, and Steve feels like shit for making him do all that stuff when apparently the only reason why he did it was as a way of an apology. And by then it's pretty late so Steve offers for Billy to have a shower at his place and he'll get a late dinner started (they never even got to the eating part, since Steve didn't think Billy would even stay around for the FIRST task). And they have a late dinner together. And talk, like two civil people. And actually learn a bit about each other, after that.

(I'm sure there are like 20x more events that could happen, too. I just like the charity auction plot and I want like ALL the variations.)

Thoughts?

[jewishcissiekj]

hi let's talk about her

Honestly I have so much to say about her. so much. so here's some of it

-Asajj (NOT VENTRESS THAT'S HER LAST NAME ISTG PEOPLE JUST HATE USING HER ACTUAL NAME AND IDK WHY I GUESS IT'S A COOL NAME BUT ASAJJ IS ALSO A COOL NAME AND)

-Asajj was last seen in canon in the Dark Disciple novel. Where she died. I would never recommend that book to anyone so if you haven't read it yet please don't. In short, after becoming a Bounty Hunter in The Clone Wars she grew out her hair, got a cool yellow Lightsaber and for some reason teamed up with Quinlan Vos to try and kill Dooku. They didn't manage to do it. And Asajj died (was fridged) trying to protect Quinlan. The Bad Batch will not contradict that, as was said by the creators. So this is just a summary for anyone who hasn't read it because I wholeheartedly believe that book is bad

-I have not watched a single Bad Batch episode in my life. As a disclaimer. I started the first one, watched their TCW arc and saw memes screenshots clips and spoilers but I do not know this show. I will watch it now that Asajj's there tho

-She does not have the same outfit anymore! It's a change, and we haven't gotten a clear look at her new design so idk how to judge it yet. Might be to look less recognizable, but it has a very different vibe than any of her prior outfits. There's a leftover shoulder pad and probably some other stuff from her last design but I feel like they kinda clash with the new one and tbb's design language in general. The Bounty Hunter look has a very TCWish feel to it and this one is a sharp turn in another, much more casual direction. I'm not inherently against it but I guess we'll see how it looks in action soon

-In my opinion the hair looks like shit. I don't think she should have hair ever. I don't understand why she can't be bald. Why is she bald when she's evil and has hair when she's a padawan (good) and when she is "redeemed"? guess we'll never know. It's a leftover from the cancelled Dark Disciple TCW arc design (and the Dark Disciple cover and promotional material ofc) and it's bad if you ask me but to each their own and if you like it good for you

-Her Lightsaber!!!!! Same case as the hair in terms of irl development but I like it so much better. The yellow just fits her character and it's pretty. Would love for her to find another one and get back to dual-wielding (I know that won't happen)

-The bag and pouches make me so happy as a design element do you think she carries a (tooka) cat in there

-Now, visually she looks great and the animation style is smoother and nicer than TCW (as is the quality), but what about the direction the character's going in? I didn't like her being dead before, but I felt like it was somewhat better than her being shoved into being a cameo character in new content. If you can't touch her after a certain point, you also can't mess her up. But I do wonder where they're going with her. A few questions:

-Asajj in canon is a directionless character. Also, a partially nonsensical and inconsistent character in her choices and storylines. I've talked about it a lot but in short she just feels messy. What's her purpose in life? Her motive? Her origin story doesn't really make sense, even. She's a Bounty Hunter, sure, but why? If all she wants is revenge on Dooku and maybe money (which was pretty much the case in Dark Disciple), what's she doing after the Empire? And more importantly, why?

-Obviously, the question I haven't asked yet because I don't like it: How the fuck is she alive? Nightsisters have a weird relationship with death but seriously, how?

-She's a Force User after the Rise of the Empire now, so what does he do about that? Is she founding The Path? Fucking around and finding out? Making a not-Jedi-not-Sith order with other force users she finds? Is the Empire after her? Do they know she's live?

-What about her girlfriend? Is Latts Razzi safe? Is she alright?

-Why is she in The Bad Batch show? Are we making her into a cameo character or is there a purpose? Why'd they bring her back? For fun? What is she doing after the show? Floating in dead space? Cameo-ing? Will we have a book?

-OK enough for tonight but if we see Quinlan Vos in the show I'll become violent (/neg). We probably will (he might just get mentioned idk).

[shadow-genesis-yay]

Alright. I am. Genuinely curious

Whats with all the living car stuff you've been reblogging?

I don't really know what almost any of it is

(Feel free to infodump if you'd like :] )

Hehehehehe OK SO, beware it's long as fuck. my shitty explanation of my favorite horror movie because my brains a paper shredder and nothing stays put easily

I was originally watching the Final Destination movies on tv because they had a marathon. Then when the 3 one was over, I expected the 4th to play, but instead it was a movie called Christine, a horror movie based on a book by Stephan King.

It starts off inside a car factory with music playing over it (Bad to the bone by George Throgan and the Delaware destroyers). It shows 1958 Plymouth Furys on a factory line. All except one are beige colored. The red one is the star of the movie, Christine. Fresh off the factory line and she immediately starts causing havoc by closing her hood on someones hand, and trapping another inside her and suffocating them.

It then cuts to high schoolers names Arnie and someone else I can't remember the name of. it shows them being bullied by some gang of bullies.

The bullies kinda get reprimanded but later want revenge which is important for the story. It then cuts off to Arnie finding Christine being sold by someone named LeBay. Arnies friend tries telling him not to buy it, but Arnie doesn't listen. He loves the car and so with the money that he saved up to originally go to college with, he buys it. His parents aren't happy about it, and so they make Arnie keep Christine in a do it yourself repair shop.

He takes it there, and slowly starts fixing up Christine, who in turn possesses him, and makes him become obsessed over her and turn toxic and shit as a "thank you", because his love for him brought her back

Christine gets jealous and upset over people who harm or insult her or Arnie, and so she goes out in kills em.

The first time it almost happened, was with Arnies girlfriend, Leigh (I think). She and Arnie got intimate and shit in the car, but Leigh stopped because she got a bad feeling about Christine. As a result, Christine purposely made a windshield wiper stop working, so Arnie would have to step out of the car and fix it

When he did, Leigh started to eat one of the burgers she and Arnie bought for the drive in movies. She started choking immediately, and as a result, Christine locked her doors and made it so they couldn't be opened.

Eventually Leigh got out, and so a stranger had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on her. After that things are kinda normal other than Leigh saying she hates that car (Christine)

Then the bullies from the groups high school, go to the repair garage where Arnie keeps Christine because his parents don't approve of the car, and trash her. Christine gets beat up and totaled overnight. It's their so called revenge.

When Arnie returns and sees his beloved car all destroyed, he gets aggressive when his girlfriend touches his arm and tells her "leave me alone sinner" (I think), causing Leigh to walk out of the shop and leave the relationship.

Later in the day I think, when Arnie and Christine are alone and Arnies cleaning Christine's headboard up (because one of the bullies shit on it), some metal clinks and gets Arnies attention. He looks over and sees Christine's motor all fixed

And I guess because of that, and Arrnie and Christines connection, Arnie can tell somethings special about her

So Arnie tells Christine to "show me what you can do", and as he finishes saying it, Christine is repairing herself from the damage caused. She looks brand new again. After that, Christine goes off one by one to kill the bullies. One by squishing to death, the others by explosions (which lead to the iconic red car with fire on it) and running over them. Also killing Arnies boss/the owner of the repair shop later on because he decided to sit inside her for some reason after she came back from being on fire.

I had a major train of through that derailed and forgot wtf I was gonna say but uh basically Christine kills a bunch of people who were insulting or getting in the way of her and Arnie, and so as a result, Arnie best friend, and his girlfriend plan to kill Christine. They do so by luring her over to the repair shop, and running her over with a construction vehicle (bulldozer I think)

It doesn't work the first time, since they didn't crush her fully, so she repairs herself. Then they do it again and put her in a compactor. After they walk away, bad to the bone plays again and shows Christine's fender moving on its own.

So that's the end of the movie. After I finished watching it, I got so excited I went on Tumblr and just randomly posted the "id love to own a red Plymouth Fury, but I don't want to risk it possessing me after repairing it", and then scrolled the Tumblr tags for more stuff.

I then saw that other cars that are alive/sentient I like, were also being posted there. Alot of people had the same idea of "what if they all met up" kind of thing.

And there, we got K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R. from the 1980's Knight Rider TV show, Herbie the love bug from his own movie, The Car from the same movie from 1977, the truck from Duel (1971) and VIN from Fast Layne (2016). I didn't know the show existed, and it was apparently gonna be a Herbie reboot

Kitt is from Knight Rider. A TV series about a guy named Michael Knight who gets hired after an accident by a dying old rich man that runs an industry caller Knight Industries. Kitts name stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand, and his purpose is to protect all human life (mostly Michaels tho). Meaning harming them is completely against his programing (which was a plot point in an episode where KITT gets reprogrammed)

KARR is KITTs prototype twin that's more self centered, mean and reckless, but also oblivious. He was originally voiced by Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) before being changed later on. Both kitt and karr are indestructible cars that have ai in them.

Herbie is a goofy, lovable Volkswagen Beetle that's basically just like a big golden retriever. He got a girlfriend in one of his movies, and that was probably the only romance my ass didn't go "ew" at for some reason. (I don't like romantic stuff at all, but that was cute) Altho I gotta watch it again

Duel is a mostly silent film, where a guy is terrorized by a mysterious semi truck with a hidden driver. It's paranoia inducing, as the MC gets paranoid over everything and everyone he sees. Good movie as I first thought it was someone dealing with schizophrenia since nobody seemed to believe him with the truck, but since people would actually see the truck later on when it terrorized a school bus, it wasn't. Good in that sense but for some reason some old lady with exotic animals god picked on and had them get ran over :(

The Car, is a Lincoln Continental Mark II that was forged from the depths of hell itself (demon car!!). It's a terrifying, terrorizing piece of shit that goes on a rampage of havoc. It "speaks" but using its horn. It laughs with it and I like it

VIN, I don't know much about other than it's also a sweetheart like Herbie.

Now some honorable mentions I wanna dump about as well;

Goosebumps, the Haunted Car; not really a show to my knowledge, but the blue car from Goosebumps is really cool. Love em so much. And I love that they were in the movie was well (a black car this time) and drove slappy around. Altho I wish it had more screen time and personality. Or at least personality, cause it did in the book (it was possessed by a little girl)

Trucks; a 1997 unmake of the movie Maximum Overdrive, where trucks come to life from alien abilities. Except it's all trucks instead of multiple things. Personally I liked it, as the ending leaves multiple questions about it, and the main antagonist truck returning all scorched and burnt was cool AF. The movie was supposed to be what MO was going to be, before being changed.

The Wraith; A boy gets killed by car driving bullies in a rigged race, where he later comes back as a vengeful spirit. Driving a suped up car that is completely alien looking, he goes off to purposely cause the bullies to crash by challenging them to races. Once he finishes, he leaves the car to his brother (the main character) and is now at peace basically.

The Car: Road To Revenge; a unofficial sequel of The Car, that takes place in a dystopian cyberpunk city. A business man gets targeted by a gang, and in the scuffle of it, gets thrown out the window of his office building and lands on his car. His spirit possessed the car and now uses it to plot his revenge on the gang members

Roadkill/Road train ; I don't remember much about this movie other than it's a vehicle that runs on blood/humans. It hypnotizes it's victims into acting insane, and sometimes makes them kill one another so they can put the body in a grinder to fuel the truck. It's a never ending cycle, as the truck plans carefully. The truck makes the sane driver crash into a vehicle that's near by, leaving the people stranded so they have to take the truck. The truck makes them go insane, and start killing each other and using the body's as fuel. The survivor is always covered in blood and hysterical, as they fought off friends to survive. It scares the new victims away in the truck, and repeats the cycle.

I like my sentient cars. Bonus if they're evil ones.

So yea that's basically why. I got my fixation sparked back up for a bit. Teehee

[dhaaruni]

Hello! I've seen that you read a bit of romance, so I just wanted to ask if you have any recs for het romances with little to no power dynamics, and preferably with the woman taking an active role in the relationship. I've been trying to read mainstream romances but they all have some kind of unequal dynamic without fail and its so disheartening. I'd be very glad to find some good stuff

So I mostly read historicals but I'm sure you know that lol. I think something interesting is that in historicals, the only heterosexual romances that seem truly egalitarian (with a few exceptions) are those where the woman is born rich and the man is born poor, even if he eventually becomes wealthy a la Derek Craven in Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. But here's a short list:

Uptown Girls (series) by Joanna Shupe: Joanna and I both describe these as the Schuyler Sisters (from Hamilton) going downtown, meeting rough-and-tumble guys and immediately being like "but daddy I love him!!" and their dad blustering and folding lol. In these books though, the girls are from a wealthy, blue-blooded New York old money family and the guys are self-made men, the first is their dad's attorney who made up his entire past a la Don Draper, the second is a casino owner, and the third is just a well-meaning criminal.

Lorraine Heath has a few good ones, but the one that comes to mind is The Notorious Lord Knightly, which is a second-chance romance and the woman ruins a man in revenge for his wronging her (also see: The Harlot Countess by Joanna Shupe).

Enemy of my Dreams by Jenny Williamson: This is a real old-school enemies to lovers that takes place in the days of the Roman Republic, and the protagonists are the haughty sister of a Roman emperor and a Barbarian warlord (I know), and it's fantastic.

The Widow's Kiss by Jane Feather: Basically, this detective guy is sent by Henry VIII (I know) to investigate a widow, who's been married 4 times (thus far) with her very wealthy husbands dying mysterious deaths, for murdering her fourth husband (spoiler: she might have done it). It's fantastic although I don't like either of the sequels.

Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean: Sarah is braver than the US Marines for writing a romance novel where the hero publicly cheats on the heroine and somehow manages to redeem him. Somehow, despite this, the book doesn't end up being one-sided where Sera, the heroine, magnanimously forgives her husband's sins, and that's why I'm including it here.

Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas: I'm going with this Kleypas because it's a proto It Happened One Autumn but with more edge because like at one point, Lily ties Alex up after he wins her in a card game and he rescues an abused bear for her (at which point I cried).

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera: I know you said heterosexual romance but the reason this book works despite the age difference is because the two leads are both women and I think you'll really like it if you haven't read it. The other two books in the Las Leonas series are great as well.

Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt: She’s perfect and engaged to his brother, they meet when she walks in on him fucking another woman, he HATES her for being holier than thou, she hates him for being a degenerate loser and gin runner, and infidelity ensues.

The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan: She’s a genius botanist but can’t share her research since she’s a woman, and he’s her public face but refuses to continue anymore. He’s always been in love with her, she’s as oblivious as they come, and she's deeply traumatized by a history of miscarriages, and they square their shoulders and fall in love anyways.

Forever Your Rogue by Erin Langston: He's her brother’s friend who is recruited to help her manage her estate after her louse of a husband dies. She flits around constantly in anxiety and never sits still or shuts up, and he loves her for it.

As a bonus, here are some historicals with major power differences that don't make me want to throw something (see: An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn):

The Duchess Hunt by Lorraine Heath: Basically the prototype of the perfect employer romance where she's always held a torch for him and when he asks her to find him a wife, he realizes he's been in love with her the entire time

Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt: Think like Georgian era Batman where a duke falls in love with the poor cousin of his intended wife and is super snobbish about it like right before he takes her virginity, he goes "I can't offer marriage to you" and then she's like "yeah okay" and then he succumbs anyways.

Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare: A duke's mom is demanding her get married to ANYBODY, so he picks a barmaid and well, there's a sex scene approximately 70% into this book that made me cry my eyes out, 10/10 recommend it.

Dare to Love a Duke by Eva Leigh: The hero's a duke and the heroine's a former sex worker who still hosts sex parties and somehow, it feels like the two of them are equals and they earlly earn their happy ending

[duhragonball]

Thanks for answering my ask, well, about the sparkling zero thing is that the game will feature some what if stories and scenarios that looked like fan fiction which might be rather interesting to hear you talk about, I am getting the game today to form my opinions but in case you do look at those I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on them

I finished all of the Story Modes that were available to me, and I have to say, I'm not impressed with the What If scenarios. But then again, I wasn't expecting to be in the first place.

Most of the Budokai and Sparking games had What-If content of some sort, but it's usually pretty thin. Budokai 3 had some grand plans to give every character a story mode, but by the time the actual game released, all most of the characters got was a bunch of sound files from the scrapped stories. You unlocked these as "Memories of [X]" capsules in the game. Either they cost a lot of money, or you had to wish for them with Dragon Balls, I forget which.

I remember the Android 16 one had audio of him having some sort of climactic match with Goku, and there's audio of Goku conceding defeat and accepting that 16 will kill him, but I think he spares him. So it's a what-if scenario in my book. So was that Uub story mode that actually made it into the game, where Uub has to save the world from Omega Shenron. That was pretty cool, but the "Memories of..." capsules pointed to a much bigger project that never materialized.

Other than that, the most memorable what-if content was probably that "Fateful Brothers" think in BT3, where Raditz turns good and Goku takes him in. They have to stop Piccolo from killing him, and he warns him about Vegeta and Nappa. I think it ends with Raditz meeting Bardock in hell.

But a lot of it is pretty flimsy stuff. Not bad, just nothing earth-shaking. It's usually just some cutscenes to set up an unusual match that you could just as easily arrange yourself in vs. mode.

And that's kind of the gripe I have with Sparking Zero's what-ifs, because they're really just minor tweaks to the original story. There's one where Frieza and his goons invade Earth instead of the Z-Fighters facing him on Namek. And it's fine, but it's basically the same series of battles you'd fight in the "correct" version of events. There's one where Vegeta and Trunks actually cooperate in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and they end up getting the big win over Cell, which sounds awesome, but it's not all that different from going through the Cell Saga normally with Vegeta, Gohan, and Goku.

I haven't unlocked much of this stuff myself, mainly because I'm still getting the hang of the game, and a lot of these branching paths require a lot more skill to activate the right win condition. But I've been watching Kirran and Grant play the game on Goodtimes Zone, and I've found myself enjoying their live reactions more than the stuff they're reacting to. And they like the what if stuff we're getting, but I keep noticing a hint of disappointment, like they were expecting a bit more. More branching paths, and bigger divergences from the canon story.

For example, they were hoping Cooler would show up in the middle of any Frieza-related branches, and yeah, that seems obvious, doesn't it? Hell, King Cold is in the game too, isn't he? Do a thing where he shows up on Namek, or maybe have Cooler wipe out the Androids because he's here to get his own revenge on Goku.

Instead we got... well, I'll cut for spoilers if anyone's interested...

We got Gohan Black. Now this might sound pretty impressive at first, but it kind of doesn't work. So the what-if scenario is that Gohan actually beats Frieza in Res-F before Goku arrives to help, and then Gohan starts training more seriously, so he joins the U7 team for the Destroyer Invitational and defeats Hit to win the whole thing. (Oddly, you don't get to play Gohan vs. Hit, which seems like an oversight in a what-if scenario, but whatever.)

So when the Zamasu arc starts, it turns out that Zamasu steals Gohan's body instead of Goku's in this version, because Gohan was stronger at the time. And that's fine, but it doesn't actually change very much. The real Gohan joins Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks in the battle, but it's the same Zamasu and Black. The only difference is that Kyle Herbert is playing Black in this version instead of Sean Schemmel. Actually I guess in Japanese it might not be that different at all, since Masako Nozawa plays Gohan and Goku.

Gohan Black doesn't even look that different from Goku Black. He just kind of looks like the original Goku Black with a different haircut. He fuses with Zamasu in the end, and they actually changed the Fused Zamasu model to reflect this, but they didn't have to change it very much.

And you have the real Gohan in the story, which is something new, but here's the problem: You already play the Zamasu arc in four other story modes: Goku, Vegeta, Future Trunks, and Goku Black. And it plays out the same way every time.

Good guys vs. Black

Good guys vs. Black and Zamasu

Good guys vs. Black and Zamasu again

Good guys vs. fused Zamasu

Good guys vs. fused Zamasu (corrupted)

I was already sick of it before I bought the game, because I hate the Zamasu arc. But for some reason the game devs thought we should play it five times. And yeah, Gohan remembers the damn jar for the Mafuba in his version, but so what? I still have to look at that ugly-ass stage the whole time, and I still have to listen to Zamasu preach during the fight.

As I understand it, there's a what-if where Trunks joins the U7 team for the Tournament of Power, and that also sounds like a decent idea, except it's kind of the same problem. We see the Tournament of Power in five story modes already: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Frieza, and Jiren. I hope Trunks has something fresh to do when he runs through it a sixth time, but I'm not optimistic.

It just feels kind of weak. Maybe they're saving cooler what-if scenarios for DLC, but that seems like a poor strategy when the base game has such weak what-if scenarios. It leaves me skeptical that they even know how to write a cool one. I mean, you've got a bunch of GT and movie guys on the roster. This should be easy. Middle schoolers do this stuff. Here's some ideas I thought of off the cuff.

Goku invites Cell to compete in the Tournament of Power instead of Frieza.

Kefla defeats Goku and now she has to defeat Jiren and Goku's teammates to win the tournament. Vegeta and Gohan fuse into Vegehan in a last-ditch effort.

Golden Frieza Black.

Cell wins the Cell Games and accidentally releases Buu from his ball while terrorizing the Earth, and now he has to team up with the Z-fighters to stop him.

Dabura convinces Babidi to seal Buu up again, and they do evil stuff with Majin Vegeta on their team.

Vegito kills Super Buu, so now Dragon Ball Super plays out with Vegito.

Piccolo survives Nappa's blast and fuses with Kami to sweep the next several dozen episodes' worth of bad guys.

Ginyu Force-Kamikaze Fireballs War.

Turles shows up on Namek and kicks Frieza's ass with fruit power.

Gero sics Android 13 on the Z-fighters during the Saiyan invasion, so Vegeta and Nappa have to do a truce to stop him.

I could probably think of better ideas with some more time, but the point is that none of this would require a lot of extra assets that aren't already in the base game. But they would involve a lot of different battles and settings that you wouldn't see in the other story paths. I don't understand why they didn't get more creative with things. They had all the stuff they needed. All they had to do was think outside the box a little.

[wanderingmind867]

Listening to Christmas music today, remembering my mom's birthday was on christmas, and thinking of my own issues led me to end up writing a 10 page outline for a Mr. Freeze miniseries involving a lot of personal connections to stuff i feel like i've gone through (also, the phantom stranger ends up playing an important role). So here's what I wrote:

In reference to the Twelve Days of Christmas, we'd have a 12 (possibly 14, if I do a prologue and epilogue) Issue Mini-Series about Mister Freeze on Christmas. It's a story all about him, in fact. While Batman's away from Gotham, Victor Fries escapes from Arkham only to find that someone stole Nora away from him, and left him a note: If Victor doesn't find her within 12 days, she'll die.

This story would explain everything about Victor Fries: His childhood, how he met Nora, how she got Cancer, how he became Mr. Freeze, etc. We'd also address some big unanswered questions, like: did Victor and Nora have any siblings or living parents? What happened to them? What was Nora's childhood like? All of these questions would be answered. The story is a story of Victor Fries in the present, but it's just as much a big biography of the lives of Victor and Nora Fries.

The story would be arranged in 14 parts; a prologue, an epilogue and 12 chapters in between. On his quest, Victor Fries ends up helping people, reconnecting with his and nora's family, and rediscovering the joy of christmas. Grief counseling through trauma, in a way. But the story would feature as many characters as I can fit in it: The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, Superman, Captain Cold, Captain Marvel/Shazam, Batman's Rogues Gallery (pretty much all of them), etc. It's a big story, with long chapters.

But since I know I'll probably forget it if I don't write it down now, let me reveal the real villain of this story. The one responsible for kidnapping Nora and blackmailing Victor is… Ferris Boyle, with an assist from Nora's vindictive mother. Ferris Boyle lost all of his money after Victor's story made it to the presses. Gothcorp went bankrupt, and Ferris lost everything. His brain couldn't cope with that, and he swore revenge on Victor. He then found an eager accomplice in Nora's mother, a vindictive and judgemental woman who always felt hated her daughter (yet who also felt Nora was too good for Victor). She blamed him for Nora developing Cancer, and she eagerly agreed to team up with Ferris Boyle.

For 12 days, they lead Victor on a wild goose chase across the country, until he finally manages to confront them back where it all began: in the wreckage of the old house where him and Nora lived together. Seeing what Ferris Boyle is trying to do to him (and that Nora's mother is still trying to take her daughter away from him, when he knows how she treated her), Victor snaps.

In the chaos of the fight in the wreckage, Nora's cryo-chamber breaks. The shrapnel shoots into all three of them. Ferris Boyle is impaled on a chunk of glass shortly after talking about how love is fleeting, while money is everything. Victor's suit breaks, meaning his life is now in danger. And Nora's mom got a chunk of metal caught in her leg. Victor cradles Nora's body, and he just cries, knowing it's hopeless. He has no time to build a new cryo-chamber and save her. It's all over…

And that's when the miracle of Christmas comes into play. The Phantom Stranger appears, and he promises to get Nora safely to a hospital. Victor gently passes her over, and the Stranger begins his walk to a hospital. Meanwhile, Victor has to deal with the injured form of Nora's mother, and the dead body of Ferris Boyle. Knowing that Nora's mom doesn't deserve to die in agony (even if she is a horrible person), he bandages her injuries and trudges off in the snow towards The Phantom Stranger. But the twist: Boyle isn't dead yet; he's merely dying of blood loss. But he trails them too.

At the hospital, Victor and The Phantom Stranger succesfully get Nora back into a cryo-chamber, and then get her mother into a hospital bed. The Stranger vows to look after them, while Victor goes for a walk. Victor goes to sit in the snow outside and think, and that's when a dying Ferris Boyle ambushes him. Pulling the shrapnel out of his chest, he uses it like a knife and tries to stab Victor. He misses, but he keeps trying to fight. He mumbles incoherently about how Victor took everything from him, only for Victor to snap and punch him in the face. And that punch was the finishing touch. Ferris Boyle finally dies, his broken body falling into the snowbank…

And now, for a somewhat happy ending to this story (and something that just feels religious enough to work in a christmas story): Victor hears crying near Ferris's body. Trudging over to it, he finds a baby in the snow, clearly abandoned by his mother. Seeing this as a sign (him and nora could never have kids, and christmas day was nora's birthday), victor takes the child in as his own. And then our epilogue would show Victor finally reconciling with as many of his and nora's family as he can, and then him having a big christmas gathering with all the people who helped him during this twelve day quest.

Then, when he's finally alone, he cradles the baby in his arms and tenderly talks to a photo of Nora. He'll never stop working on a cure for her, but these twelve nights have felt like a sign. A sign he needs to try and stop living in his past, in isolation and loneliness. And he's going to try to fix this, for Nora's sake. She'd want him to do it, for himself if nothing else. And as he cradles the child and rocks them to sleep, The Phantom Stranger watches over it all from the shadows…

[blatantprinterpropaganda]

alright this is just the mad ramble of a brain fresh off of episode 8 but currently what i WANT to see happen in the final four episodes is. kan is working towards revenge and either the mysterious guy she's working with (who is presumably someone from the community of her old neighborhood) actually is a little evil but kan still has good intentions OR (preferably) he only seemed vaguely evil because of the way we were introduced to him now, but it's intentional, because it seems like the show is trying to trick us into taking the rich family's side and sympathizing with them at every turn at the moment. they're getting all this hate, they're such sweet people, they don't know what they're doing wrong. this is true for home, who is generally clueless and doesn't understand where his wealth comes from, but uncle somkid definitely Knows (and... i'm not convinced he's happy home survived? this got lost in the muddle a little but i'm pretty sure that response to the news on the phone was not a yay <3 one), and of course so does the lawyer (mr. big), but we all knew the lawyer was bad news from the start. then there's granddad, who i'm pretty sure is also a bad guy knowingly, but he thinks he's doing it For The Family (and his grandson, etc) so of course he doesn't see himself that way, and this Family Curse he's talking about essentially seems to be "nobody likes us, oh boohoo, we're so misunderstood" when what they seem to have done is flatten a neighborhood where people were living to gentrify it/build some construction project that made the family a lot of money. so now home, who knows his grandfather as this nice loving silly guy with a lot of jokes, is on the task to lift his family's Curse and restore their reputation - but what does that mean? fighting the bad guys, who are the people who had their neighborhood razed to the ground? so. what i WANT is for home-peach-pangpang to work on this task of home's for an episode or two while actively trying to oppose kan, who they think has gone to the dark side, until they realize she is the one fighting the good fight even if she's going into it very hard - and either she makes amends for that itty bitty murder attempt (though i don't think she meant to hit home with that at any point), OR we'll learn it was never her work in the first place and this was another misdirection, which i honestly think makes more sense perhaps. i could fully imagine the next episode giving us another twist that tells us it was uncle somkid behind the accident, because again, we know he's doing bad stuff, he's been too kind and cool, and he didn't seem particularly happy to know home survived - AND he was the one trying to get home to drink alcohol before telling him to get into a car. either way though. parts of this episode seemed dangerously set up to be a plot that goes "these rich people aren't so bad, they don't deserve this hate" but dear god, i hope i'm reading this right and that's not where we're headed, because not only would that make less sense, it would also be unhinged (and very sad) if they went for that note with this series. i think we're good though. i do think we'll probably be okay.