#loooot of frustrating things about that scene

[tanjir0se]

Ok it will literally always be crazy to me that when Bakugo had a hole in his heart that needed to be SEWN up…and his MENTOR Best Jeanist aka the FIBER HERO was kneeling over him in despair that he needed STITCHES in his heart…here comes fucking Edgeshot aka the who gives a fuck hero to just…get really small? and do it. Like.

Jeanist is Bakugo’s MENTOR and he’s also very notably the fucking FIBER HERO literally WHO BETTER to sacrifice himself and STITCH his heart up?? Yknow with his. FIBERS. Hello??? HELLO?????? WHY

[restlessmaknae]

the heart that wants to see you // hendery

➳ Characters: prince!Hendery x female!reader/you

➳ Genre: fantasy, magical kingdom au, magical school au, angst

➳ Words: 6k

➳ Warning: mentions of pressuring parents, emotional and physical abuse (on reader's parents' part)

➳ A/N: This is a spin-off for my Mark-centered story 'enchanted', but it can be read on its own. If you still want to know about reader (named Yoojung in 'enchanted') and Hendery's previous scenes, but don't want to read a whooping 19k for that, I've put together the briefing of their main scenes from the Mark fic.

Check out the masterpost for the Four Kingdoms' United School of Elemental Magic series!

Also, this story is dedicated to @dat-town. She's an inspiration for so many reasons, and not just because she inspired this story. Love you loooots! ❤️

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➳ NCT taglist: @s00buwu, @winterbeartaehyungbestboy, @sweetjaemss, @stories-inbetween-the-stars, @squiishymeow, @heyditseeey

5 months after the end of the yearly contest

You used to genuinely believe that once you would make it to the Four Kingdoms’ United School of Applied Elemental Magic after five absolutely insane weeks of learning how to tame all four elemental magic - water, air and earth apart from your fire powers - and passing all the rounds, you would be happy. On the other hand, it couldn’t have been further from the truth.

How you had passed the last round made it all seem futile, and you had this gawking guilt inside of you that somehow, you were here unfairly, you had just been lucky. Could it be considered luck though when each and every time you met Prince Minhyung in the corridor, and you didn’t see his friends from the contest, you were reminded why they weren’t here, why Prince Hendery wasn’t here?

You had a deal after all. The last round could have ended with two winners, but no, Hendery had to surrender before the time limit would be up, a few seconds before you could have both been given a pass. You could have both won. You could have both made it to the school. Sure, the judges would have had the chance to let either both of you win, one of you or neither of you since you hadn’t finished the battle within the given 15 minutes, but at least you would have had the chance.

Now, whenever you were reminded of Prince Hendery’s absence, you felt an avalanche of overwhelming emotions, and you couldn’t quite place them. He had explained that he had his reason for surrendering, but how could he have justified it? You had been so angry at him, you had been so frustrated at him because it had hurt your pride that he had let you win as if you had been a charity case, a mere consul and magic professor’s daughter, not royalty, and yet…

You found yourself missing him, his silly jokes, the way he could always light up the mood, the way his blossoming smile made your heart do somersaults, the way he had consoled you on the rooftop tower after the second round when you had thought that you had messed it up for good and you could have been eliminated, and you had missed his mere presence because now there was only a shadow of him beside Prince Minhyung whenever you were having lunch in the canteen. Your eyes were still searching for him in the corridors, in the training rooms, in the canteen, to no avail. He would not come back, you knew that.

And now, there was little to no chance of seeing him again because for the next 2 years, you would be staying at the wizardry school while he would be doing his duties in the Water Kingdom, and he had no reason to visit the school anymore.

Was it betrayal? Was it pity? Was it just him being absolutely stupid?

Call it however you want, but like the bruises that you got when you were carelessly practising, knowing fully well that you could literally get burnt, it fucking hurt. Because you let him in, and he left you right there, all alone, within the walls of your carefully crafted fort.

10 months after the end of the yearly contest

One thing that was easier after the contest had come to an end was to get along with others who had made it with you to study at the school. You could laugh along with Seunghun’s joke instead of seeing a powerful rival in him, you could accept the fact that Xiaoting was genuinely kind to you, not just trying to poke at you with her flawless attitude, and you could finally lean into the reassurance that you would spend 2 years with these people, and no one was at the risk of elimination anymore.

So you and Chaeyoung spent more time together than before even though you were assigned single rooms once the term started, hence you weren’t roommates anymore. Prince Minhyung also stayed his humble, boyish self, and even though he had to go back to the palace from time to time to take care of some duties - attend ceremonies, consul meetings and formal events between royalty -, he wasn’t given any special treatment because he was a prince, and he spent most of his time with you and Chaeyoung.

More precisely, he spent most of his time with Chaeyoung because the two had gradually grown closer since the school started, and you didn’t like third wheeling, so you didn’t bother them when you felt like they wanted some privacy to themselves. Oftentimes, you escaped to the rooftop tower, or squeezed your frustration into practising even more - a coping mechanism that you had grown fond of, too bad it didn’t make you feel better all the time. It was a distraction of some sort, though.

That’s when and where you met Kim Jiwoong, one of the most promising wizards in training of the Fire Kingdom who was in his second year of studies after successfully passing all the rounds in the previous yearly contest. Even though you had never met him before, both of you coming from the Fire Kingdom meant that you had a mutual understanding of your powers, the strengths and weaknesses you had with other elemental powers, and the pressure to do well at the wizardry school.

Like the elements themselves, the families of the Fire Kingdom were the most intense, the most pressuring and the most vicious. The royal family also ruled with iron fists, and there were no exceptions to any of their rules. That’s what you liked the most about your own kingdom, yet, that was also what made it difficult to not feel so worthless when you made a mistake. Having someone older than you (even by just a year), someone from your own kingdom, help you train was an excellent opportunity to improve, and you were both fine with silence as well, so he was the perfect training partner, really.

Months passed by, and the brewing rage inside of you calmed down, you tamed it into a sleeping volcano instead of one that could erupt anytime. You were doing well at school, your teachers praised you, your parents were proud of you, and these were what you focused on instead of the ache in your heart. You almost convinced yourself that it was alright, you couldn’t be swayed by the idea of meeting Prince Hendery again because why would you, it was merely an unrealistically hopeful (or fearful) scenario in your head?

Then, he showed up unannounced at the gate of the school, and when you, Prince Minhyung and Chaeyoung met him in the corridors, your heart betrayed you as it started thumping vehemently. That traitor.

“Hendery!” Minhyung exclaimed giddily and did their signature handshake with the boy before hugging him briefly. Chaeyoung was next, she also let him hug her while exchanging a few words with the boy, but when it was your turn, your legs froze, your mind blank.

Prince Hendery didn’t seem fazed by your reaction, instead, he acted as casually as he usually did, yet, that just bugged you even more. When he hugged you, it felt so out of place, his warm touch not easing the pain of the thorns that were searing your heart at the thought of the boy.

“I’ve missed you,” he murmured into the embrace, and it didn’t slip your attention that he toned down his loud voice, so that only you could hear him.

‘I’ve missed you, too,’ was what you really wanted to say, yet be it your pride or your agony, you didn’t let the words roll off your tongue. Instead, you mumbled something akin to:

“It’s good to see you.”

Hendery let go of you, and the moment he did so, your heart churned. It reminded you of the moment you had shared on the rooftop tower after the second round. When you had almost been eliminated because you had messed up the exercise in front of the judges. You had been so used to blaming and punishing yourself for all the mistakes you had done, that it had come as a second nature to do so by that point. So when the boy had tried to console you, to protect you from your own guilt, you had tried to send him away. ‘How dare he comfort you when you deserve to feel this way’, was what you had thought, and you had managed to push him away, but only until he had caught your arms and put his arms around you.

For the briefest of a moment, something akin to hurt flashed in his orbs too, and you wondered if he was replaying the same scene in his head. Then, the moment was gone, his frown was replaced by his trademark wide smile, and he asked you all what you were up to.

“What brings you here?” Chaeyoung inquired after you all said a few words about your first year at school, and how it was crazy that it was almost coming to an end. Meaning that it was almost a year ago that you had first met.

“I’m here to pass the list of applicants from our own kingdom for this year’s contest to the office. So I’m really just coming and going, but it’s great that I didn’t have to find you for myself because we bumped into each other like this,” he explained as he flashed a content grin, and you wished it had been so easy for you to smile like this. To smile at all.

“It is great,” Minhyung hollered excitedly, and asked about Hendery’s friend, Xiaojun, who had also been a part of the contest until the third round. Talking about the contest came so easily to him just as well as to Hendery.

You hated how it seemed to have such a different effect on you. You were convinced you were over this, the blaming, the frustration, the angst, the second-guessing, and now here was Prince Hendery, and despite dreaming about this moment no matter how much you would have absolutely denied daydreaming about it, your heart was bleeding as if the wound had never healed.

You could see from the corner of your eyes how Chaeyoung nudged Minhyung in the side, and they started talking about having to go somewhere. You knew where this was going, but before you could excuse yourself alongside them, it was just the two of you with Hendery in the corridor, the sounds of your friends’ chatting fading in the background.

You looked up at the boy expectantly, all wide eyes, long limbs, silly little messy locks that covered his left eye almost entirely, ones that you were itching to put aside, but the weight of reality was heavier than your own inner desires, so you resisted doing so. The boy didn’t seem different than the last time you had seen him, but it was probably because he wasn’t in a fancy royal attire, more like a casual one with a satin shirt and cotton pants, paired with dress shoes, all in the many shades of blue, the representative colour for the Water Kingdom.

You stood there in your burgundy inflammable jacket and sport pants, on your way to practise in the Fire Kingdom’s own school attire, and the distance between you two had never seemed wider. He had never seemed more out of reach than now, only an arm length away from you.

“Shouldn’t you be going around with a bodyguard or something?”

“He’s waiting for me at the gates. We deemed that it would be safe within these walls,” Hendery explained with a shrug of his shoulders before inquiring. “Why? Are you worried about me?” He leaned down, leaning closer to you, and you rolled your eyes at his question. Like in old times, you thought to yourself, but you immediately tossed the thought aside. Nothing was like how it used to be before.

“I was just suddenly reminded of the incidence with you and Jaeeon,” you answered truthfully, thinking back to that time when the senate head’s son had punched the prince in the face when most of Prince Hendery and Prince Minhyung’s friends had still been in the competition. Jaeeon had thought it had been because of discrimination, and even though the boy had denied it, saying that one of your friends - Dayoung - had been eliminated already, he hadn’t punched back when Jaeeon had thrown a punch at him. Previously, you had asked him not to cause more trouble because his presence in the competition as a prince had already drawn unwanted attention. He had listened, but oh, how you wished he hadn’t.

“He’s been disqualified either way, so I don’t have anything to worry about anymore,” he pointed out flippantly, and you didn’t have it in you to say anything more on the topic. Truthfully, you wanted nothing else to say to him, but you let a few seconds of silence pass by - expectant, maybe - before you actually announced your intention.

“I think they’re already waiting for you, so I won’t hold you up,” you excused yourself with a bob of your head, ready to turn around to head to the training room.

However, before you could have gotten further away from the boy, he called after you, and fell in step with you, making you halt beside him if you didn’t want him to follow you.

“What?” You laced your arms in front of your chest defensively, looking up at him challengingly.

“I just… Are you still angry with me about the final round? You don’t seem like… like yourself,” he blurted out finally, and his realisation pained you more than if he had been oblivious to it all like how he had been oblivious to a lot of different things.

You held your chin up high, all the emotions of the past year flowing through you like an unstoppable tide, striking out at anyone and everyone. You felt all that confusion, disappointment, guilt and anger dance in your veins, wild and free, and you didn’t put a stop to them. You let them out, you let them burn through your body, to come out in an answer you wouldn’t have said so if you had held yourself back.

“I’ve changed, Hendery. If you hadn’t wanted me to, maybe you should have let the judges decide whom they want to pass instead of surrendering at the last minute, but oh, you just had to play the hero” you replied, cold and strong.

“I did it for you,” he justified, desperate and soft.

You let out a small huff of air before turning on your heel, and this time, Hendery didn’t follow you. Maybe he realised he had made the wrong choice the last time you had met.

2 years after the end of the yearly contest

Everything was white, blue, burgundy, green, white, blue, burgundy, green…

Everything was in the colours of the four kingdoms - the impossibly vivid green plants, the sea-like deep-blue ornaments, the burgundy flames of the candles dancing within glass walls, the white of the drink that was passed around to guests, and you weren’t even sure what was in it -, and it made your head spin. If it wasn’t already dizzying just how many people were in the hall of the Four Kingdoms’ United School of Applied Elemental Magic when you were used to seeing only a few dozens of students and professors alike, the colours definitely didn’t ease your discomfort. Much like the fact that your parents were there.

It was your graduation though. Everyone was celebrating that these 2 years were finally over, that this day would happen only once, and that now you were a much more valuable part of society. Some of you would become advisers for your respective kingdom’s royal families, consuls in the senate or professors in training at the school. Prince Minhyung, for one, would go back to the Air Kingdom, but now not just as a prince, but also as an adviser at the palace. Chaeyoung would join the senate just like her parents had done so. Yeonjun - who re-dyed his hair to a new shade of blue for this day - would join the royal palace in the Water Kingdom - his own kingdom - as a tutor for a princess, so he would not only teach her magic alongside her other tutor but also teach her how to fight since he seemed to be particularly good at that. Serim from the Earth Kingdom would help rebuild a a few towns of the kingdom that had been destroyed by a fire, and afterwards, he would continue helping out in development projects - both with magic and both with his leadership skills -, while Yeoreum had become interested in magical medicine, so she would train to become a magical healer in the Earth Kingdom.

And you, you decided to stay here to train as a professor. Not only because you had been prompted by Jiwoong who had also stayed at the school a year prior after his graduation, but also because you had grown fond of this building, more of a home to you than your own home in the Fire Kingdom. This way, you wouldn’t even have to see your parents more than it would be necessary, and as sad as it sounded, you felt more at home without them than with them.

Your choices after graduation were announced when you were called to take your certificate from your professors, and a member of the royal family, the senate or a future tutor - depending on your choice - also handed you a paper with your offer as a symbolic gesture. You took it from Jiwoong, for instance, while Yeonjun took his from Prince Hendery since he would be joining his kingdom.

It had been more than a year since you had last seen the prince, and despite the bitter ending of your last conversation, you only felt uncomfortable by his presence because others were around, including your parents, and you would hate to appear anything less than perfect in front of them.

However, everything became a bit too much after a while - all the colours, all the noises, all the fake smiles -, so you excused yourself, taking your bouquet of flowers (gifted by your parents), your certificate and your offer to your room, the one that you would be leaving a day later, only to get a different one in the professors’ ward a week later. You put everything down with a sigh, and turned on your heel to go back to the hall, only to change your mind at the top of the stairs.

You did a full 180, and headed upstairs instead. The walk up to the rooftop tower was more than familiar by now, and you welcomed the same kind of reassurance as you always did here when you stepped above the threshold. Taking in a few deep breaths, you let your eyes linger on the different buildings of the school, content with your choice of staying here. Two years ago, you had been determined to get into the school, and now, you deliberately made the choice to stay here. Who would have thought?

“I had a feeling that you would be up here,” said an all too familiar voice as you were deep in thought. You would have lied if you hadn’t thought about turning back at the sound of him coming onto the rooftop, but you decided otherwise.

“Old habits die hard, I guess,” you shrugged casually, hoping that the light breeze of this summer night would carry your lies as smoothly as the petals from the nearby tree.

There were a few seconds of silence that stretched between you two while Hendery walked up to you and halted beside you. You kept your eyes on the horizon, on the way the tall gates of the school kept out all the hustle-bustle of the Circle, the circle-shaped governmental capital of the Four Kingdoms where the senate also resided, on the way the sky and the far-away sea became one and the same in the distance, on the way light and the dark existed beside each other.

Everything co-existed peacefully beside each other, and yet, it never felt more wrong to stand beside Prince Hendery than now.

“Congratulations on your graduation! I hope you will enjoy teaching the future generations of wizards here,” the young prince broke the silence, and his voice was cheery. As if he had no care in the world.

“Thank you,” you bobbed your head as you turned towards him, letting your eyes focus on him this time, on the deep shade of blue of his uniform, on the way the belt around his cotton pants highlighted his slender build, on the way his hair seemed sparkling under the light of the torches nearby, on the genuine care in his eyes.

Truth is, you had missed him, but you told yourself that you would miss him even more if you had more to remember about him. As if that one month with him hadn’t been enough, now you would have more memories to torture yourself with. However, you decided to give him one chance, just one more chance to explain himself before you would go back inside your walls, in the lonely yet safe home they had created for you.

“But it could have been both of us, you know. Graduating together and such,” you pointed out honestly. The prince’s features hardened hearing your words, but you didn’t want to back away now. Not anymore. “Won’t you tell me why you actually surrendered at the last minute?”

“Does it matter anymore?”

“It does!” You exclaimed, your frustration lashing out on him. You didn’t even want to keep the hurt from your voice, you had to know it, you had to know it now or else, when else might you have the chance for it? “You don’t know how many times it crossed my mind that you might have pitied me, you might have wanted me to pass because I’m just a charity case for you-”

“A charity case? No, god, no,” Hendery cut you off immediately, shaking his head fervently. You had never seen him so confused before, alas, you had only been spending a month together. However, back then, each and every day together had felt like an eternity - for better or for worse -, and it hurt to realise now that it had been only a month, and yet… how much you had let yourself fall for him, how much you had let him in…

“I… I thought you had a feeling why,” he started cautiously, but when you just rolled your eyes at his cryptic words, he continued. “One of the judges in the final round had been tutoring me and my siblings at the palace before. I had a feeling that he would convince the other judges to let only me pass if I didn’t surrender. I didn’t want to take your chance or risk taking it. Besides, I wanted you to make it because I didn’t want you to go back home, I didn’t want you to face your parents after being eliminated. After what you told me about them on the rooftop, I couldn’t have just let it happen.”

It felt like the air was punched out of your lungs, your body filled with tremors. Your heart didn’t beat faster, but it beat heavier as if it had a weight to carry between two heartbeats. Now you weren’t dizzy because of the colours around, but because of all the emotions inside of you, of everything that suddenly came over you like an avalanche.

You knew exactly what you had said at the rooftop, but even then, when he had hugged you, you had thought it was out of pity. Because he had felt sorry that he couldn’t have done anything about your father who had punished you physically and emotionally when you had not been as good as he had wanted during practices - sometimes he had not given you dinner, sometimes he had hurt you physically, sometimes he had burned marks into your skin to make you remember, at least for a few days, what you could receive if you didn’t live up to his expectations. He could have done so because your mother had been living in the Circle, not at your house in the Fire Kingdom, because the senate was closer to her this way.

On the other hand, with the weight of the whole contest, of the chance of making it into the Four Kingdoms’ United School of Applied Elemental Magic with only a handful of other wizards, it couldn’t have been just pity. There had been too much at stake.

“I… but why? Why did I matter so much to you?” You asked in disbelief, your voice trembling by the end. He made it really difficult not to cry, but you couldn’t cry. You weren’t that weak.

Hendery smiled a bitter smile, one that you rarely saw on him, so rarely that you could have convinced yourself it didn’t exist, and let out a sigh before he let out a giggle. You furrowed your eyebrows, totally confused, and he sure took his time with the answer.

“I know you will probably say that I’m crazy, but I guess I can’t get any crazier in your eyes than I am now, so I guess I can tell you that I fell for you. It might have been just a month, but if I had ever felt like I loved someone, it would have been then, with you,” he confessed, his words carrying his usual carefree tone, but there was an underlying layer there, a kind of affection you had purposefully wanted to avoid acknowledging.

Even if you had been meaning to say a million different things, nothing came out. You had your answer now, and you couldn’t believe that you had been hating him for his choice when he had truly wanted the best for you all along. Not out of pity or hurt, but because he had loved you. Love… such an unfamiliar concept to you, love in its most selfless, most innocent form, love in smiles, in hugs, in jokes and in making choices for you that would serve you the best… this kind of love, you had never known before.

Or maybe just for a short while, and it was gone now, turned to ash, becoming one with the past.

Hendery might have taken your silence as disapproval because his bitter smile turned into a shadow of itself, a mere reminder of a smile.

“I know we would never work out either way, we’re from two different kingdoms after all, we wouldn’t even manage to see each other much because you know, I live in the palace in the Water Kingdom, and you were here and will continue to be here. But it was worth it for me, making that choice 2 years ago, so you could have this kind of future for yourself, and trust me, I’m the happiest that I could see you graduate today,” he continued talking, and it was so him, to want to fill the silence with his monologues, that with the knowledge of why he had made that choice back then, you found yourself closing the distance and throwing your arms around his frame.

“Thank you,” you whispered into the crook of his neck, the words you couldn’t have brought yourself to tell him all this time, and you felt the moment the boy believed you, the moment he eased into your embrace.

“Anytime,” he answered easily, loudly, proudly, and it hurt for you to realise that you knew, that you knew that he would have done this for you over and over again, anytime he had the chance.

And then, it hurt even more to realise that you knew, that you knew that he was right, and you two would never work out.

Just for this moment though, you let your walls down after those 2 years, and you let him in before you would let him go eventually because he was him and you were you, and your paths might have crossed, but they would not continue together.

4 years after the end of the yearly contest

Everything was blue and red; ocean-blue, cherry red, midnight-blue, wine red, and the list went on and on. There was such a wide array of colours that it was a surprise that everything seemed to blend in well despite the striking difference between the two colours.

You looked around expectantly, feeling uncharacteristically nervous because you had no idea how the day would unfold. Even though you had been to Prince Minhyung and Chaeyoung’s wedding the year before, it was different this time. They had held their wedding in the Air Kingdom, and everything had been pure, innocent, vivid white, the whole nation had been celebrating because it had been out of love. Not to mention that the kingdom had been lucky to welcome such a kind-hearted and determined young lady into the royal family who would be willing to make a change - to provide more chances for magical education for the less privileged, to give equal chances to women in higher-up roles and to promote more collaboration between the four kingdoms.

This time though, it was a princess from your kingdom who would get married to a prince in the Water Kingdom, and even though all that crossed your mind was ‘why, why, why not me?’, you pushed the thoughts away because you were happy, you were truly happy.

“Are you ready to go in?” Jiwoong inquired quietly as he stepped up to you after finishing his conversation with a consul nearby, his eyes gentle and intent on yours. Your features immediately softened, your lips curling upwards. Despite his cold demeanour, he had a heart of gold, and you weren’t surprised that all the girls at the Four Kingdoms’ United School of Applied Elemental Magic were swooning after him.

“Sure, let’s go!” You bobbed your head, and when he held out his arm, you linked yours with his as you stepped into one of the halls of the palace. You had never been to the Water Kingdom’s palace before, you had no reason to, but it was magnificent in its own way, and it felt like being underwater, surrounded by crystal clear water, away from the brightness of the outside world. As the sun shone through the giant glass windows, it really felt like it broke through the surface of water, dim and faraway, like a dream, like something out of reach.

When you stepped into the finely decorated hall, there were even more people, and rounds of polite greetings and introductions were obligatory. All kinds of wizards were here from the four kingdoms, and you caught sight of a few of your old classmates, including Prince Minhyung and now Princess Chaeyoung who were deep in talks with someone important-looking, so you waved in their direction before taking your designated seats with Jiwoong.

He didn’t let go of your arm even after you sat down, and when the ceremony started, he squeezed your hand gently, glancing sideways to see if you were doing okay. You turned your head to look at him, and when your gazes linked, you mouthed to him:

“I’m fine,” you reassured him when Prince Hendery and Princess Ahyun from the Fire Kingdom walked in. Theirs would be the first cross kingdom wedding of the decade because mostly wizards from the same kingdom - like Prince Minhyung and Chaeyoung - and royalty from the same kingdom - like Prince Kun and Princess Sujeong from the Earth Kingdom - tied the knot as it was the norm, but the Fire and Water Kingdom had a pretty intense trade argument last year that they wanted to cover up with this wedding.

As much as you would have liked to hate how this turned out for the prince - having to marry for his country, rather than for his feelings -, his smile seemed genuine, really genuine, and Princess Ahyun was a fierce yet just princess, so you couldn’t look at them with hurt or fury or disgust. You were just there, watching the events unfold, and when it was time to congratulate the couple, you didn’t shy away from it.

“Thank you for coming! I wasn’t sure how busy you would be beside your duties at the school, so I’m really glad you guys are here,” Prince Hendery beamed with his trademark wide smile when it was your turn to walk up to them. His smile didn’t falter when he caught sight of your hand in Jiwoong’s hand even though you hadn’t met him since your graduation, so you had not told him about Jiwoong. Maybe Prince Minhyung had told him, or maybe he had just heard about it somewhere when he had come by the school, and you hadn’t crossed paths.

“Of course, we came,” you replied honestly, and you were so genuine, it almost hurt because you looked at him, and he was so different yet so similar to the boy you had met 4 years ago, and the one you had last seen 2 years ago. Maybe he was even taller, he was definitely broader and stronger, but there was still that mischievous glint in his eyes and his smile, oh, his smile was the same!

It made you wonder what would have happened if you had been born as a princess, not as someone outside a royal family, if you had met under different circumstances, or if you had just been in a different universe, not having to worry about titles and contests and magical powers. Despite the time spent apart, despite the distance between you two, you had never stopped wondering about the what ifs; you had merely let them pass by reality like the scenery surrounding a building or the negative thoughts you had learned to silence beside Jiwoong.

“Congratulations on your marriage!” Jiwoong’s deep voice brought you back to reality as he held out your gift to the newlyweds, and the princess took it with a polite smile, thanking you for visiting. However, you didn’t have much time to yourselves because you were ushered to move on, but when you locked eyes with Hendery, his lips pulled into an even wider smile, you had a feeling that he was feeling the same way: bittersweet, grateful, but most of all: at ease.

You would forever be grateful for him because he had shown you that you could be loved, genuinely loved, and it was why you had been willing to let Jiwoong in when the time had come. Hendery made you believe that you could be loved, but it was Jiwoong who made you believe that you could love someone else with all your heart. Hendery might have wanted the best for you, but no one would understand you as much as Jiwoong - someone who came from the same kingdom, had the same powers and had a similar childhood. Hendery made you see who you really were under the surface, but Jiwoong helped you become a better person, a more authentic version of yourself.

The past and the present, your first and current love, the old version of you and your current you collided in that moment, and as Jiwoong guided you through the crowd, you let it go, you let it get lost in the sea of time, in all the reds and blues of the night.

A/N: Thank you for reading my story until the end! I hope you enjoyed this story of mine. Let me know what you think.

@dat-town this is for your information, but when I told you, this reminded me of something we've seen together after wrapping it up, I meant 'my precious' because their love story seemed cute and fun in 'enchanted', but it turned angstier when the boy made a decision that the girl didn't appreciate just like in the movie. Plus, I would bet all my money that you knew who was THE cameo when you saw Jiwoong's name haha. Also, the possible other spin-off that came to my mind when I wrote this was the wizard tutor!Yeonjun x princess one, and I purposefully didn't write anything about them in the last scene because who knows whether I actually end up writing it, and if I do write it, what kind of love story they might have hihi

Either way, I genuinely hope you enjoyed it all, love you again and again ❤️

P.S.: title is taken from 'Horizon' by WayV

If you want to read more stories of mine, let it be for NCT or for other artists, consider signing up for my taglist here.

Hope you have a lovely day/night! Take care! ❤️

[rivetgoth]

Tbh I think one aspect of goth club environments that I find a bit frustrating, though generally keep to myself/my close circles who know I'm not coming at this from some massively judgmental angle but more passive observation and ultimately minor grievance, is that I think there's two pretty distinct camps in most of them where Camp 1 is "people who love goth [or otherwise dark alternative] music who want to hear it played loudly and dance while socializing with other individuals who love this music as much as them," and Camp 2 is "people who are weirdos and freaks [affectionate] who wanted to find a place where they could express themselves comfortably and safely and meet other weirdos and freaks." And these aren't completely separate spheres, but the two circles of this Venn diagram are not nearly as overlapping as you would think.

I consider myself first and foremost Camp 1 as the one and only reason I became goth and began participating in this community was the love of the music, the music has kept me alive and shaped me into the person I am today, the reason I go out to these events is for the music, and every close friend I've made in this scene has been through the love of the music, but I don't have any negative feelings towards Camp 2 and I relate to them in many ways as well. I think goth clubs are fantastic accepting spaces for queer people, kinky and sex posi people, autistic and other neurodivergent people, and people who otherwise just do not fit into the norm, whether it be due to something outside of their control or just having Weird Person Interests that have gotten them kinda stigmatized by wider society. I totally found solace in the goth scene due to being a lot of those things myself. But I still connect first and foremost with the people who love the music. That is THE THING that has kept me going. While when it comes to the exclusively Camp 2 people, a loooot of them kind of come out to these spaces specifically to be amongst other likeminded individuals and feel accepted for their weirdness, and the music is practically, just, like, incidental lol. Ironically they don't necessarily realize how much of the reason that these spaces ARE historically safe for them is due to what the music itself, the musicians making it, and the fans of the music have stood for.

The thing is I don't really think anything needs to be "done about this" or whatever, I hesitate to call it a problem at all, firstly I think that the dark alternative scene SHOULD be a safe space for individuals who exist outside of the norm and I don't think they should need to pass some sort of knowledge test in order to gain entry to these spaces, second of all I think many of them over time do come to love the music, even just by being around it enough to develop positive association, and third I think that supporting these spaces with physical bodies, generating financial revenue, etc is the best way of keeping them alive so ultimately it doesn't really matter how much or how little they know if they're showing up and materially supporting the scene. But I do think it's like... person to person, a little sad, I guess, that the dark alternative scene is so muddled with just the general broad category of humans that is "people who are weird and don't fit the norm" that it's kinda difficult to find people who are there because they love the music and a lot of the people who I get excited to connect with because they're openly trans or something reveal quite quickly they don't really listen to any of the bands I'm there to hear, they just heard from a friend who heard from a friend that you can meet other cool queer people and be GNC safely there. And that's great! It really is. But I do wish that the people who were going to these spaces without knowing much about the music would spend some time exploring it. I think they'd probably find a lot to love about it honestly.

[a-caterpillars-world]

So. I finished Homestuck.

Reading Homestuck in 2024, over a decade since it started, was definitely an experience. There was a lot that i was spoiled for, but a lot that took me by surprise, even though "spoilers" are just about everywhere. I'm glad I was able to go in blind, there's a lot that wouldn't have felt nearly as impactful had i known about it beforehand. I'm not great at just directionless rambling, so I'll organize it in the form of an FAQ of a sort, under a read more since I'm expecting this to be a longer post.

Did you enjoy yourself?

Honestly, yes. I know Homestuck has a kind of negative reputation, and now that I've finished I can certainly see where it comes from, but even considering all of that I can't say I had a bad time. I think Homestuck has a lot to love, even if there's also a lot to hate. Personally I think there's several elements and characters of Homestuck that deserve a better rep, there was a lot I read that was very funny or very narratively compelling even through all the obvious flaws. I had a good time, I don't regret picking up Homestuck.

Do you plan to read anything else related to Homestuck (eg Homestuck 2)?

Maybe! I'm not entirely sure how much I'm missing out on, or how much the various side stories impact the main canon. If one of them seems particularly interesting to me, I'll look into it, but right now I'm good. I'm not even entirely sure how deep the Homestuck rabbit hole goes, though I suppose I could look it up and find out for myself.

Do you have any favorites/what do you think about [character]?

This is a hard question to answer, as Homestuck is a series with a loooot of characters to talk about. If you want to know a more in-depth opinion on your favorites, send me an ask! I love conversation and even since I started my liveblog I've been open to asks being sent in even if we've never spoken. Maybe I'll make a tierlist to organize my favorites, that could be fun.

Should I read Homestuck?

It depends. Homestuck can be a very good and interesting story at times, but a lot of what makes it a great story is hidden behind layers of questionable-at-best humor and casual ableism. I think if you can approach it as it is and understand the flaws inherent to it, it's definitely worth at least checking out. And then if it isn't for you, then it isn't for you, but it did end up being for me so take it as you will. Even if you're just looking at it as a part of internet and webcomic history, I think it's not a waste of time to give it a read. Via the downloadable archive though, not the browser version. Homestuck suffered greatly from the death of Flash, so it's best to read on a version that can better support all the unique elements it utilized without much risk of it crapping out on you (like it did to me, in several key points including the finale.) I also recommend reading with a friend, preferably one who's read Homestuck before so you can talk about things as they come up naturally.

Final thoughts

Homestuck is a fascinating piece of internet history. It's a near-perfect capture of the humor and culture of the late 2000s and early 2010s, largely dependent on a web service that is now entirely defunct. Were it not for the actions of archivists and fans, it's entirely likely we could've lost massive chunks of an incredible piece of webcomic and fandom history. It certainly isn't for everyone, its flaws have been talked about with regularity by essayists and internet historians with the whole spectrum of opinions on it. Even with its flaws, though, it still puts together a quite lovely story, with several compelling characters and scenes that grab your attention and hold it tight. Not only do I not regret reading it, but I completely understand how Homestuck created such a storm of a fandom especially when it was being actively updated. I'm glad I read it, in the end. It brought me a lot of joy in the best moments, and even at the times when I was most frustrated with the story I can't say there was ever a point where it was too much for me. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to check on the liveblog, whether you're one of my friends or a stranger checking in from the Homestuck fandom. It has certainly been an interesting ride, and I'm glad that I got to take it, even if I am in fact several years late to the party. Until next time, everyone!

[normalbrothers]

peaky blinders naturally <3

hehe! of course

My rating (1-10): well in my heart it would be a pretty uncontested 10. but some of the fairer criticisms are ones i also share and there are things that i find tendentially frustrating while watching or in retrospect. despite this the show is still a very, very solid 8.5-9 for me

My favourite character: tommy, my love ... followed by arthur and polly (i don't have a very elaborate palate here)

My least favourite character: well, each seasons primary antagonists are rather unlikeable (barring luca changretta and michael who i have many sympathies for), but beyond that i don't really have a least favourite character. as long as they are interesting enough to spend some thought on, i tend to like them, where this isn't the case i just ... don't care, but they don't bother me. (i'm not overly fond of alfie though, all things considered, he should have stayed dead after s4)

The character I think I'd be friends with: possibly none of them. i'd like to hang out with curly though he's a pretty uncomplicated and nice fella

The character I think I won't hit off with: ... most of them.

My favourite episode/scene: well. s03ep04 is the best episode that ever aired on tv, and nothing could possibly beat that, so it's that one. when it comes to scenes it's either the confrontation between arthur and tommy after arthur killed the boy in s2 or the cellar scene with arthur and tommy in s6. but beyond that ... so many, hhdhd watching an episode usually feels like i've been running a marathon, SO much is going on at any given moment

Whose clothing style I like best: i think when it comes to polly and lizzie you can really see how their character development is reflected in their wardrobe (same as ada), so that's pretty nice. i like polly's suits, lizzie's green dress, and ada's grey ensemble with the dead fox in particular. when it comes to the men i have a soft spot for arthur's satorial choices: the somewhat idiosyncratic preference for bowties and i adore that checkered scarf he wears at the derby in s2. tommy's dress up is often a talking point, but what I'm specifically frequently thinking about is the red lining of his coats, i also like how puppetish and small he looks in his working class attire in s1, but even going forward, there's often something almost, uh, drag-like about his appearance (though it's less the clohtes and more like. the entirety of the character). that's fun.

Times I watched it (and if I would again): well more than once, but far less than people would suspect. i'm definitely planning to rewatch soon while taking a loooot of notes

[polyhexian]

Finale thoughts:

pacing up until luz's death was acceptable, fine, no problems really

pacing really fell apart toward the end

why were amity hunter gus and willow even in their own subplot if that subplot was so minimized it was almost entirely irrelevent? why couldnt they be there for the big boss battle and to see luz's death? :(

wow. all luz's friends and camila really became completely irrelevant LOL. raine got more than hunter.

no stab :( i still think they wanted it but. rip

wow family really... got dropped this time. im surprised that for all the wonderful eda and king and luz togetherness... we never had luz call eda mom or eda use the word daughter, and luz never called king her brother. or hunter. its so built up that hunter and luz are belos and caleb parallels and like. siblings as hell. im... surprised that was completely dropped

post canon rejected sorry

waffles can stay

no, i mean. theres a lot of things in the timeskip i do like but. a loooot i do not care for.

luz moved back home and finished human school? why? i really thought we were building up to camila letting her go, that she loves luz more than she loves having her, that the same way vee doesnt belong in the boiling isles anymore luz no longer belongs in the human realm. uh. guess... not.

morningmark really hit it on the nose with that darius and hunter meeting comic huh

love that darius points out his shirt and gets the boy infodumping and also love the little alador scene but also

seriously darius cannot have custody

i am.... SHOCKED he did not get adopted as a noceda. i am legitimately shocked i was 100% that was a forgone conclusion

shocked and disappointed actually. sorry yall, fully rejected im just going to have to ignore this

damn hunter got tall lmfao

every single hairstyle after thanks to them has been so bad oh my god. give willow her hair back. cut hunters fucking hair again. GIVE EMIRA BACK HER HAIRRRRR.

i like that the portal is in the center of town

love the integration of nature and native boiling isles culture into civilization and modern culture. all the little titan imagery weaved into clothes, the big ol tree

i am still baffled and confused about humans and staff magic. luz's list of classes and the way she talks still seems to imply she cant do normal magic but. shes? she does magic. what? whats happening

what is going on with hunter. can he do magic? can he do spell circles? what?

lol owlbert allowed to exist again

not liliths raven i guess

do love her getting a raven harpy form last minute tho. did not need to be in the climax, just fine as a post canon reveal

they should not have done a timeskip. name one time a story has ever ended with a significant timeskip that has been satisfying. a timeskip of a few weeks or even a few months can work, aftermath, but a timeskip where development or major life events happen without the viewer? its never satisfying. it always leaves people a llittle hollow and frustrated. they should have just done her actual quinceañera after the defeat of belos and like. idk. a few weeks or a couple of months as our time skip instead of three-four years. dont like that at all.

im sorry what the fuck. the collector... left? we had a perfect excuse to depower him and let him stay and live among mortals and grow up. like i legitimately thought right before they said he left that eda was going to adopt him and he was going to join the family. im.... alright

im sorry. i dont like luz's titan magic form.

haha get fucked goop man

LOVE luz looking down at him with silent content

LOVE that it is boiling rain that begins to destroy him. it is the world itself, all of nature that ends up, he is rejected by the world he has invaded. and then he gets fucking stomped to death lmfao

also just like. fucking YES THANK YOU saying point blank to luz, no, killing the genocidal maniac does not in fact make you as bad as him. like. at all. thats ludicrous

luz's death scene was so fucking perfect, the scene itself was framed, scored and paced perfectly. i legitimately felt fucking sick watching it. i was full on nauseous. powerful and impactful. no matter how much i knew she was obviously not dead dead, it GOT me.

god please fix hunters hairrrrrrr

[1358456]

Random Rambles!

Sure is quiet around here. I guess I’ve run out of stuff to post or want to post, and my mind has reverted to “enjoying death (of 135)”. So... ramblin’ time? Because this kind of silence from me really delays when I can go back to that state after I’ve reached the arbitrarily determined “10 pages of no frustration posts” objective. 10 pages would be 100 posts, so I just have to reach ??47 posts but round that to the nearest 10 for good measure. ... I’m not even halfway there!

Anyways. It’s a common occurrence, I’ve noticed. Like... I want to do something at one point, it never leaves my mind until I finally get to it, then I start it, and some time later, I’ve basically had my fill, and I no longer have motivation. Like my stories, if you remember. Take Heart, for example. I really wanted to start it, and so I did. And my motivation for the story lasted 3 whole chapters and then it hit a flat 0. Combine that with a lack of view/review, and the story doesn’t get updated until something changes. Like Wings! Why did it exist? Because the thought wouldn’t leave my mind. Why did it not get updated for over a year before my “death”? No motivation from me, no views from you.

Like that Voices post that was supposed to be a thing! That thought plagued me for months. It would not leave me alone. So I started to compile it after the return. And at some point, I was done with it. And now it no longer bothers me!

Hehe. Did you know? I actually did write stuff while I was “dead”. 28000 words, in fact, which is a lot (Heart has 34000). Not coherent by any means, it’s more like random bits and pieces compiled together. In a document titled “Thought Dump” because that’s quite accurate. Got a story idea that won’t f*ck off? Flesh it out here and then walk away. It reminds me of the days when I was making the SA outline back in 2009. Create the critical scenes and then piece them together for the whole story! Heh. I haven’t touched the document in like 5 months.

That Hands post? That was supposed to be followed by a short story. That’s why I gathered the “prior hints” of the topic that was going to be covered. But after I made the post, I didn’t want to do it anymore. Of course, a big part of that is because the tone of that short story does not match my mood nowadays. And the crap that I write usually matches my mood. If I feel like sh*t or something, disasters like SL get made. ... Speaking of which, the coin said no, so I didn’t delete it.

Well then, what mood am I in nowadays, that would determine if I actually do make something? Well, my mood nowadays is... frustrated! The more I work at my parents’ store, the more frustration and deep bitter hatred build up towards the stupid selfish sh*tbags, also known as the average person in the general populace. Oh, I could rant about all that bullsh*t for hours! But the objective is to not have frustration (on average) in the posts, so... silence it is!

So... no frustration. In that vein, the QnA tag is no longer accessible through the tags drop-down menu. I don’t remember why I called it QnA, when the asks aren’t tagged as such, and only review responses were. Hmm. But boy, was there a LOOOOT of frustration and anger in those posts. I guess the looming death did affect me in some ways.

Heh. I wonder if I should make one for the time I was gone. “Review Response, October 23, 2020 - January 30, 2022″. That’s quite the time gap. I don’t even know how many are there. I know there are some, though. ... Speaking of which... a certain someone who has promised to review all of Destiny before I went away... never did as such, nor continued with it while I was “dead”. So is the zombie Mew going to be knocking on the door, demanding “what the f*ck”? Is that what’s going to happen? Hahaha. ... I don’t think that person even knows I’m back.

Anyways. Another thing that factors into story writing is... inspiration! Are the things that I’m seeing or experiencing usable in stories? ... Well... no. Bits and pieces? Sure, but that requires the full chapter worth of stuff already. Like... I can’t include John and Arthur’s antagonize lines from Red Dead Redemption 2, without the chapter’s story already allowing such a thing to happen. I seen mushrooms with bigger brains! And more personality too! But they didn’t smell as bad!

At best, I can use some for banter posts like I have been doing, but even then, some just don’t work out as well as the inspiration. So... I guess until a suitable idea pops up (I’m not actively trying to come up with one), things are going to be pretty quiet...

... Well, this post has certainly gone all over the place. As it should, in the spirit of random rambling!

[randominagines]

Request: hiii, how are you? Can you write a Peter Pevensie X female reader in which she is at Miraz's castle and she is maybe Caspian's bf or sister idk and they save her and Peter likes her. A happy ending if possible. Thanks a loooot

Requested by: anon

Pairing: Peter Pevensie X fem!reader

Setting: Caspian's time

Warning: violence, blood, death of minor characters (very minor), what if, angst

P.s. if you find any mistake please correct me, English is not my mother tongue and I want to improve. Reblog, if you can, it helps a lot, thank you💕

P.p.s. gif belongs to the creator

Worthy

Miraz's Castle was a proper maze: Peter was running through the corridors hoping to find the way out without having to ask Caspian. He was still mad about his deviation, thanks to him the plan was totally screwed up.

"Wait, we need to take someone with us" Caspian said and suddenly stopped, he turned left and crossed a small aisle, Peter and Susan couldn't see where it led.

"Can we stop waisting time?" Susan whispered while following him, Peter was about to go ballistic. The aisle eventually ended up and led to a big brown door.

"What on Earth are we doing here?" Peter asked, his voice filled with frustration and his hand almost squeezing the hilt of his sword.

"My mentor, Doctor Cornelius, he has an apprentice who appears to be my best friend, I want to take her with us" He said while slowly pulling the handle of the door down. Peter and Susan exchanged a look and checked if someone was around. The heavy door opened with a mild squeaking. Caspian looked inside and tensed up: she seemed to be nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe she escaped"Susan whispered while taking a look inside the room. "Impossible, she knew that she would have endangered Cornelius, she couldn't even know that I sat him free" Caspian said nervously, he was starting to panic: she was the only person, besides Cornelius, that he really cared about.

"Let me check" Peter impatiently said and pushed the door, he took a step inside and before he could see anything he felt the cold of a blade's tip behind his back.

"Not another step" A female voice firmly said, he let go of his sword and raised his hands. "Y/n, it's me, Caspian" The boy whispered and the girl immediately turned back.

"Caspian, I thought you were dead" She said and hugged him, the boy gently caressed the back of her head, in an almost fraternal way. Peter turned around and, as soon as she unknotted the hug, he saw her: he didn't know what to expect, but he certainly did not imagine that she would have been that beautiful. Her Y/e/c were intense and fixed on his, her Y/h/c were morbidly framing her face, she had pink lips and she looked fierce. Peter noticed she was not wearing an elegant dress: she was wearing a pair of beige colored trousers and a white big shirt tucked in her trousers, a pair of boots completed her outfit. She was probably ready to escape or fight.

"These are..."

"I know who you are. You are Queen Susan, the Gentle" She interrupted Caspian and pointed at Susan, she nodded. Then the girl turned toward the blonde boy again.

"And you must be King Peter, the Magnificent. You are in every single illustration of the ancient books but I thought you were just legends" She said intensely looking at the young King, Peter smiled.

"Well, we ruled a lot of centuries ago, Y/n" He joked and she gave him a hint of a smile, she liked how her name sounded when told by him.

"I'll explain everything, Cornelius must be waiting for us, we have to go now" Caspian said all the rest of them nodded, she took her sword and they left the room. They crossed the castle while the noises of the soldiers preparing for the battle was filling their ears.

"What's the plan?" She asked, Caspian looked at her as if she had made a mistake by asking that thing. "The plan has been delayed, but we open the gate now and let our army in" Peter said and she opened her eyes wide.

"Not to be a party killer, but I guess you just lost the surprise element and Miraz is not the kind of man who make prisoners" She said and Susan looked at Peter in concern, he kept walking toward the gate. "Peter!" She called in his name in order to draw his attention.

"Our troops are just outside, come on" He said and while crossing the entrance courtyard to reach the gate. The three of them followed him.

"Now Ed, now, signal the troops!" He screamed while grabbing his sword and killing one of Miraz's men. She took her sword too, ready to fight, while looking toward the tower: she saw a boy and thought that he must have been King Edmund.

"I'm a bit busy, Pet" He answered while fighting against a man. She looked around and realized that Miraz's army was surrounding them, there was no time.

"Peter, it's too late. We have to call it off while we can" Queen Susan screamed trying to make him think clearly but he was already spinning the wheel to open the gate. Y\n looked at Caspian: they knew they were screwed up. They grew up in that castle and they knew that it was a impossible to take.

"No, I can still do this. Help me" The King screamed and they started to help him.

"Exactly who are you doing this for?" Queen Susan asked while y\n and Caspian exchanged a look filled with confusion.

As soon as the gate opened, all sorts of creatures y\n had never seen before flocked inside: minotaurs, centaurs, mice as big as cats, dwarfs, fauns. She didn't thought that Narnia's population still existed. She was fascinated.

"For Narnia!" King Peter screamed raising his sword. She did the same together with Susan and Caspian and the battle begun.

It was impossible to win, too many men were surrounding Peter's army, but they still fought with such a passion. At a certain point, a man pushed her on the floor by hitting her back, she lost the sword; she turned around and saw the man pointing a sword toward her face. Y/n was about to kick him when an arrow came out from his chest. His body crumbled on the floor and she saw Susan behind him, her expression concerned.

"Stay behind me" Queen Susan kindly told her while Y/n was standing up and picking up her sword. Another man ran toward them and she pushed Susan aside before stabbing him.

"Or you stay behind me, your Highness" She said and took a quick bow, she was surprised. Y/n turned left and saw King Peter looking at them with an amused smile on his face.

The battle went on for a time that seemed infinite, but they were losing. At a certain point the gate started to fall down: a minotaur stopped the heavy gate and king Peter looked at him in concern, he finally had realised.

"Fall back, we need to retreat. Get her out of here, now" He started to scream while commanding to a centaur to save his sister. He took Susan on his back and ran toward the exit. Caspian and Y/n stole two horses and reached Peter.

"Take this, your Majesty" Y/n said while passing him the reins. He took them and nodded in gratefulness. Caspian jumped on the back of the other horse and was about to take her when a man hit her on her aarm with his sword, a deep cut opened on her skin. She screamed and took her sword

"Get the hell out of here, I'll bring her" Peter said and Caspian looked at him as to warn him to be careful to her; he started to ride toward the exit, Cornelius following him on another horse.

Y/n killed the man stabbing him in his chest and Peter pulled her on the horse. She crossed her arms around his torso and felt his heart pounding under her hands.

"Fall back" He kept screaming while riding toward the gate. As many creatures as possible followed them, others were laying on the floor. She looked around and felt her heart heavy: they lost. As soon as the King crossed the gate, the minotaur let himself go. The gate crushed on him with an unpleasant thud: many were still inside. Peter stopped the horse and turned to look at them: she could feel his chest raising and lowering quickly as if it was hard to breath for him. She looked at him and noticed his watery eyes. She gently squeezed her arms around his torso and leaned her hand on his shoulder , as to comfort him.

"Peter..." She whispered as to invite him, he looked at her and touched her hands before turning back to a scene he would never had forgotten.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone was painfully quite during whole way back. Y/n kept hugging Peter with her head was still resting on his shoulders. The wound stopped pulsing at a certain point, because Peter had ripped the edge of his own shirt to bandage up her arm.

Arriving at the rock building and witnessing the argument between Caspian and Peter had been even worse. The air was tensed up after the fight and the general mood was on pieces.

"Are you okay?" Queen Lucy kindly asked Y/n while she was during her own wound. "Yes, your Majesty, it's just a cut" She said while stitching the wound. Luckily Cornelius has taught her how to medicate. As soon as she was done, she went outside: Peter was sitting on a rock, his eyes stuck on the horizon.

"Your Majesty, are you okay?" She gently asked while sitting next to him. He looked at her, his deep blue eyes filled with sadness.

"Please, call me Peter" He said with a calm voice and took her arm, he gently caressed the fresh bandage. "Does it hurt?" He asked and looked at her, she shook her head.

"I'm fine, I stitched it" She said and he gave her a glimpse of a smile before letting her arm. "This is my fault, I have rushed this and a good King doesn't act like this" He whispered looking at the rest of his army.

"Peter, you did what you thought was best, but you are human. A mistake doesn't make you a bad King" She said and caressed his arm, he runner his fingers through his own hair before looking at her.

"You helped me calming before, and you are helping now, thank you" He said and smiled at her, she did the same. "Peter, you will fix this, don't dwell on today and do not feel like you need to prove your worth, your people are already aware of it" She kindly explained to him and took his hands into hers, he looked at them and caressed them with his thumb. She felt weird, she didn't even know him, only through the books Cornelius made her read, but she felt the deepest connection to him.

Peter looked at him and felt in peace, he didn't expect to find himself in front of a stranger and perceive her as so close to him. He got closer to her, he felt the desire to kiss her. She closed his eyes, but before their lips could meet, a noise coming from the inside drew their attention. They quickly looked at each other and stood up; they walked toward the source of the noise, their swords in their hands. They entered the stone table room and Edmund was immediately by their side, maybe he had heard the noise too. They finally saw it: a big wall made of ice was standing in front of Caspian, and inside of it, Jadis was staring the Prince while reaching out her hand toward him. The kings and Y/n quickly moved: while reaching him, three creatures stopped them. Peter killed a creature that resembled a wolf, Edmund crossed his sword with a dwarf while y/n stabbed another creature with hers. She turned back and saw Peter standing in front of the wall, Jadis now talking to him with her hand extended toward him.

"What happened" Y/n asked helping her best friend to stand up, he looked at her and hugged her. She gently caressed his back, he was like a brother to her. "Jadis was tricking me into setting her free by offering me the power to succeed" Caspian explained and she immediately turned her face toward Peter: she was doing the same to him.

"Peter, you don't need this" She screamed and walked toward Peter. he didn't even turned, he seemed in a trans. Before she could do anything, Edmund stabbed Jadis from behind. The frozen wall broke into a million pieces and exploded. Caspian protected y/n by pulling her away. Peter kneeled down and covered his head with his arms. She looked at him and saw the disappointment in his eyes, he felt lost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Peter, wait" Y/n called him but he didn't stop, he was desperate. She reached him a took his arm. "If you don't start believing in yourself things won't sort out" She said and he looked toward the forest, his eyes were filled with tears.

"I keep screwing things up and Miraz's army is now surrounding the building" He said, his voice was a mix of anger and sadness. She put a finger under his chin and raised his head, now they were looking at each other.

"Listen to me: I've read anything about you, you saved Narnia when you were practically a kid, you have been the greatest leader for this people. You are their King: they love you, the believe in you and they will follow you. You don't need to prove that you are worthy of your title and this competition against Caspian is only going to make thing worse. Put your shit together and show them why you are King Peter the Magnificent, because you really are" She said without stopping looking at him in his eyes, her voice gentle but firm and her hands holding his. He did not say anything, he just hugged her. She was initially surprised, then she held him back.

"Maybe I needed this, you are all right" He whispered and she caressed his back. He moved back to look at her for a moment, then he crushed his lips on hers. She immediately melted into the kiss: Peter's lips were soft and warm, his scent was strong but pleasurable and his hands were gently caressing her waist. She runned her fingers through his blonde locks while opening her mouth and letting his tongue in. He pulled her closer, now their bodies were attached and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest. The kiss became more passionate when she bit his lower lip, he growled while she smiled and stopped the kiss.

"Easy your Majesty, there are more important business to handle right now" She joked and he smiled on her lips. "You are all right, y/n. I have an idea to buy us time. Come with me" He said and gave her one last quick kiss on her lips before taking her hand into his and walking toward the building. She looked at him in concern.

"Do I need to worry about this idea?" She asked while keeping up with him and caressing his hand with her thumb. "Probably" He said and smiled, she shook her head: that boy was going to make her crazy.

[paramedictk]

To get to write for a major network show that is super popular right now and this is what they come up with? It’s not always bad of course I’m not saying that. But I just mean the constant Owen in our face. And I’m also not saying he’s a bad writer or he doesn’t deserve his job as a writer for lone star I’m saying it seems like he feels like he HAS to write like this because his dad is a major actor on the show and has influence behind the scenes and so maybe he’s like oh I have to write about his character so much. Dude I’m sorry but that’s just downright not good. And I know he has potential to write other good storylines because Marjan’s storyline was rly good. Owen has not once progressed as a character so how good are you even writing him? Yeah he has his nice moments but they’re always overshadowed by him being an asshole or ignoring TK or trying to be a hero over anything else, including sitting down with TK and formally meeting Carlos’ parents for dinner. To purposely choose not to develop other characters and write for them with less energy as you write for Owen is downright just wrong. I know it’s not all his doing of course but he’s one of the writers for the show so he has an input into this. It’s just not right. I want to be a tv show writer and eventually showrun and create my own tv shows one day so to see someone who just has the job whether it’s because of their last name or because they worked for it just choose to write like this for this show is kind of frustrating to me. Because I see moments in some episodes of how good the show could be. If they just unclenched and stop acting like we care about Owen when we don’t. What are the causal viewers seeing that we aren’t because Owen isn’t even likable. Sorry not sorry. If you’re gonna make it the Owen Strand show at least make him likable. This isn’t even meant to be mean it’s just an observation from someone who wishes they had the job that his son currently has and seeing what we see every week with each new episode. It’s so frustrating. Just my opinions though

i have a loooot of problems with the writing. i can't remember if it bothered me this much during s1, maybe i just didn't pay attention to it or maybe it's the fact that even though owen was on screen a lot at least he wasn't insufferable idk... but apart from ep8 and a few scenes in other eps the entire first half of the season was torture for me and that's entirely because of owen

i think you could be right about john lowe feeling like he should focus on his dad's character but that goes for other writers as well. even when you look at the difference between the social media management of 911 and 911ls it's so obvious that r* b lowe is taking advantage of his influence as executive producer. i've never seen angela bassett act so selfishly, hogging the screen time and being the main focus of every promo. and i've said this before, angela is not only more talented but definitely has more star power than r*b lowe. maybe it just comes down to the fact that r*b seems like the type of guy who constantly needs his ego stroked idk. he kinda has minear and murphy in his pocket so i wouldn't be surprised if the writers were pressured to give him a certain amount of screen time every week

when it comes to owen the problem is that he has an actual decent multiep character arc about survivor's guilt and depression and that could make for a very interesting story but for some reason the writers responsible for individual eps are not executing the steps of that arc very well and the whole thing just falls apart. that's why it feels like we're just going in circles instead of seeing actual character progression. and after making the first half of the season so hard to get through they honestly can't expect the fandom to have much patience left for owen lmao

i just hope they learn from this and listen to fandom feedback because at this point almost everybody is getting tired of them constantly using their diverse characters for woke points while still favouring the white cishet man over them

[theyarebothgunshot]

woo okay 4lw time!!

i didn't end up binging the whole thing but i did stay up reading until 4 am and i read the last two chapters this morning and i have Thoughts nsfdgd

gonna get into spoiler territory here, just a heads up for anyone reading

first off, it was really good!!!! like the type of good that makes me reminisce about my first life-changing fic experience when i stayed up reading all night for the first time ever, which only happens like. a couple times a year

gotta say, i liked the cute, flirty library scenes the most, but i mean that's mostly cause as a lesbian.. the entertainment value of men having sex is um. limited, to say the least nsfhdfsfd

dean's self-hatred was a little hard to read at times, but only in a way that like. i wanted to shake him by the shoulders because he was so frustrating hsfsfhd even harder were his breakdowns cause oops! too relatable! have to admit, i cried twice, when dean talked to cas uhh i mean "jimmy" before the library roleplay and then after he came out to bobby. it was like 2 am and i was emotional okay?? nsfhdsf

also, one of the things i liked the most is how realistic the situation was? what i mean is you would not fucking expect the nerdy professor to be the phone sex hotline worker nsfsgs like if i found out that any of the teachers or professors i've known was also doing a sex hotline i have no idea what emotions i'd feel but i'd probably go insane hsfgds, absolutely cannot blame dean for freaking out

oh also, funny thing is the whole two person love rectangle thing is actually something i'm super used to cause a couple years back i was really into miraculous ladybug (which mayhaps is one of the reasons i chose ladybug as my anon name hahaa), and that's essentially the whole premise of that show. so it was super fun to read about that dynamic again!!

okay, that's all, i've rambled enough hsfgds tldr: i loved the fic 🐞

I AM SO GLAD YOU LOVED IT!! yes it definitely gave me All The Feelings as well and i dont remember if i cried but i definitely understand that you did!!

i also loved the library scenes a loooot, and the scene where they circle "their" letters is so so so adorable and heart warming and yeah i am very much dean coded so like, this fic was chefs kiss !!!

i honestly am not very familiar with the trope but it worked very well for me here, it was so good!

[eth3real-ess3nce]

14 and 17 💘☀️

Thank you ♥️♥️♥️

14. What was the most unexpected thing in your life in 2020? (Apart of the pandemic haha)

I had multiple awakenings tbh, mostly about how the world works and I'm still rebuilding my personal beliefs.. but I realize how "beliefs and opinions" are ego concepts and we shouldn't cling onto them too much. The universe doesn't have a fixed nature, therefore we should learn to get along with it more. There's so much shit behind the scenes we don't know about ❤️

17. What are you the most proud of this year?

Turning more inwards tbh. I dropped other people's expectations / rude remarks about what I should or should not be doing, because it all stems from their inner fears and insecurities. Mirroring and projecting was shown to me a loooot this year , it got me frustrated af but in the end I started empathising more with people as I realised they carry their own traumas they barely have awareness of. Became soo much more self assertive & btw still learning to make peace with things I can't change 😁

[divine17]

↳ LOVE HER TOO | MASTERLIST

Fandom: Stranger Things

Request: “hey!! could you make steve x fem!reader where robin has a crush on steve’s girlfriend (reader) and robin gets drunk and tells steve this ! tyyy” - Anon

Warnings: Sadness/angst but slightly inspirational if you squint, a minor consuming a loooot of alcohol, minor ripoff of robin’s coming out scene (you decide whether or not that happened already or if this is that), i accidentally used some arctic monkey’s lyrics somewhere in here, that’s probably it

Word Count: 2123

A/N: this is actually kinda angsty/sad because i have no clue at all what direction you wanted this to go in so... i made it sad. because that’s what i do best.

“Your girlfriend...” Robin hiccuped, her gaze falling to the tiled floor. Her knees pressed up against her chest, her arms around them. She knew she should’ve been nervous as she internally prepared to spill her heart out to the brunette boy, but the warm alcohol coursing through her veins prevented that. She knew that she shouldn’t be doing this, that she’d regret it in the morning. Her newfound friendship with Steve would be ruined, most likely. But the liquid courage which she’d consumed (in an absolutely obscene amount) certainly didn’t want to let her hold back.

Robin wasn’t even completely, absolutely, one hundred percent sure how she ended up here, sitting in the kitchen floor of Steve Harrington’s parents house. She was at a party, some girl who works in the food court in the mall had invited her. Then she ditched her, not a word, no “Sorry, I can’t make it,” nothing. So while she was there, Robin decided to drink. Drink until she couldn’t feel the confines of her body anymore, drink until she was having a good time in the stuck-up party, drink until she forgot about the girl completely. Next thing she knew, her Scoops coworker was roping through the crowd to find her, gently taking her wrist and leading her back to his dark red car. She remembered being excited to see him at first, then annoyed that he made her put down her cup. Frustrated when he told her she was in too deep, but excited when he promised her a cheeseburger when she was sober. Delirious, yet relieved, when he told her that she was going to stay the night at his so her parents didn’t see her like this.

Steve took her into his house, silently thankful that his own parents were away for a couple days. Not that they’d care notice, much less care, that he had a drunk girl in the floor, but still. That’s one thing that he’d rather not have to explain. He gave her one of his t-shirts and a pair of boxers and a hair tie, taking her clothes that smelled of that too-familiar scent of vodka and sweat and putting them in the wash. She changed clothes and disappeared, and found her shortly after sitting on the cold tile. So, naturally, he sat down opposite her. Both were silent until she spoke, asking about his girlfriend. Odd.

“Y/N? What about her?”

“You know... Do you remember when I told you about Mrs. Click’s class? At work, the other day? About me being jealous, and... obsessed? it was never because I had a crush on you, Steve. I just want you to know that.”

“Robin, you don’t have to-“

“It was because you had her. You had Y/N. She looked at you, and she still does, like you’re her whole world. Like you’re the only person she sees, the only one she cares about. She only had eyes for you. I was so mad, so upset, that of all people, she was with King Steve, ‘The Hair’ Harrington. I didn’t think she deserved you.”

“Robin, let’s talk about this when you’re sober...” He tried to stop her, to keep her from spilling her guts or saying something she might regret. But the girl just kept on, not even slowing down to listen to him speak. So instead, he listened to her drunken ramblings, morbidly curious. His curiosity would kill him one day, he was sure.

“I was mad because I wanted her to look at me like that. Iike I was the only person she wanted, or would ever want. I wanted her to hold my hand between classes, sneaking kisses in the stairwell before school started.”

“And I just didn’t understand why... Why she loved you like that, why she looked at you like that. All the heart eyes and rosy cheeks when you talked to her. And I really just didn’t get it. You were so messy, you always asked dumb questions and passed notes around in class. You partied hard on the weekends and did stupid stuff. But she stayed home, cleaning up your messes every single time you got into something you shouldn't have. I just didn’t understand why she stuck with you through all that, and then I realized...

“Steve, she does all of that because she loves you. She loves you so much that she was willing to put up with all of your shit just to be with you.”

“I know.” His head dropped, not able to look her in the eye, knowing she was right. He should probably be mad, frustrated, upset that she just confessed her crush for his girlfriend. But he felt everything but those emotions. Steve knew Robin was right. He didn’t deserve her then, not in the slightest. And hell, he wasn’t sure if he deserved Y/N now. She was the best goddamn thing that had ever happened to him. He loved her more than anything or anyone else in the entire world. But he always had that hanging paranoia of whether or not he was good for her, that loud cloud of thunder that rained over him, making him so anxious and drowning in the overthinking it caused, making him wonder if he truly did deserve her.

“If really shocked me, shocked me to my core, Steve. but I like you, I really like you. You’re a good guy now. But I also just really really like Y/N, and every time I look at you, all I can see is her. The memory of her looking at you like that and remembering how much I craved for her to look at me like that.”

Steve found himself stunned. Speechless. Shocked. Surprised. Whatever word you want to use. He was just at a complete loss for words as she spoke, not bothering to look up at the drunk girl. And so he just opened his mouth, letting whatever came out come out. He didn’t care. It’s not like she would remember much of this in the morning anyway, given how much she had drank. How many shots she’d downed, how many cups and bottles. Nights are made for saying things that you can’t say in the day, right? Fuck it.

“King Steve, high school Steve. He didn’t deserve Y/N, not in the slightest, not even a little. I didn’t realize that then. I didn’t realize how serious it was until school ended, the popularity began to fade And King Steve died and she was still by my side. She loves me for me. And a whole year of our lives, our relationship, I treated her like shit, pretty much.”

“Yeah.” Robin agreed. It was blunt, but quite frankly, she didn’t have much of a social filter at the moment. Couldn't bring herself to have one.

“I’m a bad boyfriend. Even when I was with Nancy Wheeler, I was a bad boyfriend. And you know what? I’m glad she broke up with me. Byers is better for her, and I know that, I do... And now, I try to be good to Y/N, learn from the mistakes, but fuck... I just don’t know how. I always manage to fuck it up. Always. It’s a talent, really. But she doesn’t care, she never has. She’s so good to me, Robin. She’s the best girl I’ve ever met. She shows me so much love and cares for me so much, and what do I do for her in return? Nothing, it feels like.”

“You’re a bad boyfriend, yeah. King Steve-era-you didn’t deserve her at all. I think it’s a miracle that she stayed with you through all that. But now? Harrington, you’ve changed. I don’t know what happened from Point A to Point A, but you’re a different person now. I mean, for God’s sake, I’d call you a friend now. You could’ve offered me a hundred dollars back then and I never would’ve called you that, I would’ve laughed.”

The two of them fell silent after that, simply letting the silence overcome them. Robin’s eyes grew heavy, slowly closing on her as she began to doze off. Meanwhile, Steve was invested in his thoughts. His mind raced as he fidgeted with his hands, anxious. Filled with questions from his conversation with the girl opposite him. Did he even really deserve you? Or was Robin right, that he’d changed into a completely different person than he'd been this time last year?

A few moments later, he finally spoke up again. 

“I wonder what Y/N would say if she was listening to this right now.” He laughed lightly “She’d giggle all sweet, she’d pull me close. Probably laugh and joke with you and point out all her flaws to make us feel better.”

She shrugged, coming to. “Maybe.”

“I’m really sorry that I ignored you in Click’s class. And I’m sorry that I was messy and passed notes around and that I made out in the stairwell when we thought no one was looking.”

“It’s okay, Steve. I promise. It’s not like we could’ve been friends anyway. Band geek and the King? Unlikely.”

After a moment, he noticed the girl’s drooping eyelids, her shallow breaths.

“C’mon, you look tired. Had a long night.” He stood from his spot on the floor, holding out his hand to the smaller girl beneath him. She took it and stood with him, following him as he led her to the living room. Steve gestured to the couch, and she laid down on her side, letting her eyes wander over the room. He gave her a blanket, spreading it over her body. She’d be knocked out soon, he was sure.

“If you need anything, I’m upstairs and right down the hall. Second door to the left, alright? Bathroom is just down the hall there.” 

She nodded, pulling the cozy blanket further up her chest, letting her eyes begin to flutter closed. But as he began to walk away, she couldn’t help but call his name. 

“Steve?” She asked. He turned back towards her. “Thank you, for this. You didn’t have to rescue me.”

“That’s what friends do, isn’t it?” He teased, switching the light off, leaving the dim glow of the table lamp. “Goodnight, Robin.”

“Goodnight, Steve.”

It wasn’t long before he found himself in bed too, silent in the pitch black darkness. But he couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Something was eating at him. He grew restless as his thoughts grew louder and louder until finally, he turned the lamp beside his bed on, grabbing the phone. The brunette boy quickly dialed your number, not expecting you to pick up. It was late, after all. Just past midnight, last time he looked at the clock. It was certainly well past one in the morning by now.

“Hello?” Your sleepy voice said. He smiled upon hearing you speak. 

“Hey, baby. It’s me.” He said lightly. 

“Steve?” You were happy to hear his voice. He sounded tired, stressed. But that melted away with every second he was on the phone with you, relief washing over him. “Is something wrong? It’s late, you should be asleep.” 

“No, no... I just needed to hear your voice. I was gonna go crazy, I think.” 

“What’s up?” You asked, leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen. You’d fallen asleep on the couch a few hours ago while watching some old rerun on TV and when the phone rang, it woke you, and in your hazy state, you answered. And God, you were glad you did. “Talk to me, baby. I’m here.” 

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just... I don’t know.” He lied. Wasn’t a very good cover, and he was sure you knew it was a lie. You could nearly always tell when he lied. His voice would get shaky and soft and he would play with his hands more than usual. “I’ve been thinking. And I just wanted to tell you how much I love you, Y/N.”

You smiled. “I love you too.” 

“I love you so much, and I know I’m not really a good boyfriend sometimes. And I’m going to work on that. I promise.” The boy said lightly, leaning back against his headboard. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, you know. But I don’t know why you keep me around anymore.”

His last sentence was punctuated with a soft chuckle, making you blush. His laugh always made you blush, causing you to laugh as well. “Well, it’s been almost a year, right? Little late to toss you out now. Guess I’m stuck with you.”

“No refunds, baby.”

“It’s a good thing I don’t want a refund then, huh?”

[watermelinoe]

I think I’ll try to get his flute on my next replay, it’s about high time for one anyway. I liked the original LA graphics better tbh, but that might just be nostalgia speaking, haha. The remakes biggest upgrade was the shell thing, I always messed that up in the original. The dungeon maker didn’t really add anything and got boring after the first five minutes but I liked seeing Dampé and his career change. (1/5)

I won’t lie, I kept getting lost in LoZ1, but I did finish it. LoZ2 is close to impossible imo without saving, but I did beat it once. Only to never ever play it again. Would you consider those two the older games or would you add ALttP too? I remember watching my mom play that one on the SNES and wanting to play it too only to get terrified by the icemonsters in the Ice Palace. (2/5)

WWs remake was good but I feel like they did very little beyond cleaning up the graphics and making the boat go faster. What I hated about the MM remake was how they changed the bossfights. The fight against Goht was awesome as it was, rolling around as a Goron and launching yourself into his face was so cool. But instead they added an eye? And they did the same with Gyorg changing the bosses from being able to be fought solely in Goron/Zora form to having to switch back to Hylian. (3/5)

For TP HD they should have cleaned it up a bit, you’re right. A bigger difference between the Twilight realm and the normal world would have been cool, but I can’t see TP with a SS like color scheme. Some areas that popped with color though, like Zora’s Domain could have been much bluer and shinier, that would have added a lot. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if TP was remade/actually cleaned up and released for the switch or the next main console. So we might see it yet! (4/5)

I’m so excited for BotW2! I wish they’d release more info. I love traveling through the Akkala region and I want to go back there to see what happens after Calamity Ganon died. But please no redeads, I’m still traumatized from walking into Castle Town after the timeskip in OoT and being screeched at. The choking noises still haunt me. Sorry about the length! - Pokenon (5/5)

i like the og graphics a lot, but i felt like the style they went for in the remake worked really well. i don’t really like how most of the “next gen” top-down games look tbh, like especially with pokemon, i prefer the pixel art to the 3d models. a link between worlds is super fun but the characters look like chipmunks lol, with the link’s awakening remake i think the simplicity worked really well and i’d love to see a more stylized pokemon (tbh i’d love to see a new pixel-art nintendo game)...

i used a guide for part of loz1 when i played it, but i think the idea was to tell your friends about secrets, do a lot of trial and error, etc. i feel like there was a map or guide that you could get when the game first came out but maybe i’m making that up lol. i beat zelda ii once and haven’t touched it since, it was too frustrating for me. never got the hang of the hitboxes. i gave the final fight a good ol college try and then resigned myself to poking dark link to death from the corner rip... i would group the first two together, but to me the “older” games would be up to oot when they went 3d for the first time. i’m on the younger end though bc i wasn’t alive when the first four games came out lol

i should replay ww hd, i thought they also gave you the gale song earlier but i could be misremembering... and yeah it’s kind of weird that they changed the mechanics of the boss fights in mm. it seems like they were trying to emphasize that the creatures were just infected, not actually evil, but they could’ve just made it an aesthetic change.

and no, i don’t think tp would look right with ss colors or even the oot/mm colors... imo if the greens and blues were a bit more saturated that would be enough. and i think they could render link’s hair and face much better now. they used a loooot of textures on basically everything (link’s hair, the grass, water, stone, etc.) to make up for what they couldn’t really do yet for “realism” and the effect didn’t really work for me, but i think touching up select things, esp character models, would make a big difference. i hope they give it another go for the switch, and of course i want ww on there, too....

yesss i hope we get to see the aftermath of defeating the calamity in different places, some scenes of zelda and link working to rebuild... the redeads scare the crap out of me but i love them! if we have a zombie ganondorf we deserve more zombies lmao. don’t worry abt the length, i never get to blab abt zelda so it’s fun for me <3

[el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle]

@casfa88 thank you!! Armando would totally start to be kinder to her, little things like noticing the time she fell qnd hurt her leg and be softer with her, not taking away her meal by mistake, and definitely not leaving her all night in her office! ((Hc too that, the days he thinks were the ones he acted THE WORSE, are the days he now acts the kindest. No one understands why Armando seems to some days be inexplicably more cheerful and gentle; only he knows thag he's trying to compensate for his past actions!))

Thank you!!! I love and hate writing these bukketed fanfics lol they help me write faster and make the ideas flow, but I also get frustrated because every once in a while I get an actual scene in my head! Lol, maybe I'll try to start writing those as Little Extras to Chapters jajaja

Tbh the "X character is pregnant" is one of my fanfic guilty pleasures, but I totally despise it on canon material lol thanks, I love writing angst, and after thinking about a lot of scenarios, I think a pregnancy AU would be one of the biggest sources of angst lol

To be fair, ysblf didn't have a clear timeline, s I understand the confussion some fanfic writers may have. I tried to build one but it's pretty vad because there's lots of contradictions in ysblf, so I like to take loooots of of little writer freedoms lol It also irks me, but it's understandable given that Gaitan made the novela on a rush...

Forcing and rushing the ending was a crime against humanity 😔

About the questions of the pregnancy after the honeymoon-- I think Armando was super excited. Betty was also excited, but also a little... confused ig? She was planning on not having children so soon. But I think this little shock lasted very little. I think she'd soon be just as excited as Armando, particularly by seeing Armando's and don Hermes' happiness!

Btw don Hermes will tooootally be those kind of grandpas that get super happy and excited whenever he gets to babysit his grandchild. He totally has vibes of "strict dad, spoiling grandad" lol

Do u know those "and it was all a dream" AUs where some character wakes up at the begging of a story with all the acknowledge of what's to come? I can't stop thinking of that with Armando, I just can't help but wonder what'd he do differently, how he'd react to being engaged again to Marcela and Betty not in love with him yet, his daughter not being born yet. Like, what'd he do? Do you have any hc for that?

Also, porqué carajo hablo en inglés jajaja

Omg nooo, I had never heard of that but it's super interesting!

There's two paths that could happen:

1) Armando chooses to do everything differently, but with the fear of not achieving the same results

2) Chooses to do it all the same.

I think Armando would choose the first one, because by the end of the novela, Armando is much less selfish and truly sees for Betty's wellbeing above his own and everything else.

The biggest thing here is that by the time the novela starts, Armando had alreadh presented his proposal and basically won the presidency with it, therefore, he can't change it. If he were to gathet the Board to admit thay he KNOWS tbe proposal is flawed, he could lose the presidency and Daniel would get it. Now, as we know, After-ending Armando doesn't care about losing the presidency (he knows Betty is better suite for it and admires her for that) but the thing is that if he were to admit the flaws and Daniel were to be president right now, Betty would never be hired. Thus, they would never get close. The only solution is repeating what he did before: take the presidency under an extremely flawed proposal and defend it with teeth and nails.

It's not easy for him. He is now a changed man, and he doesn't want to defend his awfuk proposal and be an ego-driven egoistic man again, but he has to in order to assure the presidency.

The hardest part is consciously bettaying his dad's trust.

One thing he absolutely will change, is that wouldn't get engaged with Marcela, both because he knows he doesn't want her (he wants his wife!) And because it's totally useless. His reasoning in the novela was becuase she was "lo mejorcito" and because he wanted to prove "maturity" to his parents. Now knowing rverything that will happen, he knows both of those reasons were idiotic and empty.

He obviously has to break up with Marcela soon, but doesn't know how or when. It was extremely difficult to leave her last time, and he dreads to think that that whole thing will repeat: the crying, the begging, the empty promises, the facing of awful truths.

He would probably be waiting for the right moment, but meanwhile, he'd totally stop sleeping with her. As well as with all the models, ofc.

Mayyybe he'll try to treat her a little nicer (remember he admits feeling bad for all that happened with her, also as a way to compensate not sleeping with her) but even with all thay he's changed, Marcela still has a gift to make him lose his temper.

Also, he'd refuse to hire Patricia. He doesn't care about keeping his relationship with Marcela, therefore, he has no reason to hire Patricia, especially knowing how much Patricia bullied his wife.

Marcela would throw a biiiig fit over this, but Armando would remain unmoved.

The new issue here would be that Betty would now get a desk in the hallway, far away from him... he'll miss her presence, but she never belonged in a dark and humid closet. She never deserved to be hidden, and he was never truly embarrassed about her appearance.

His willingness to put her in the hallway where she could be seen would also put him in trouble with his parents, bjt once again, he doesn't care. (Remember Roberto and Margarita criticized Betty's image the first time they met her and argued that she was giving Ecomoda a bad reputation)

His friendship with Mario will also immediately go stiff as soon as he sees him. ((As always I'm ignoring Ecomoda, therefore the last that this Armando knew of Mario was when he quit after Armando hit him for reading Betty's diary.))

Mario would immediately notice Armando's sudden change with him (cuz Armando is super easy to read lol) and so would Marcela.

However the biggest red flag for them both is Armando's reaction to Betty. Armando is soooo bad at hidding his emotions, that Mario quickly noticed how he gets incredibly irritated and even shuts him up every time Mario wants tk joke about Betty's appearence.

Of course, Mario constantly teases him about having a crush on her, and he just changes topic.

Armando tries to tolerare Calderón, and even sometimes do really enjoy his presence, but tries not to fall for this fake friendship. He needs Calderón for all the sketchy stuff they'll do in order to "try to fulfill the business goals"

Armando obviously is super nice and sweet to Betty (as much as a boss can, of course!) And after just a couple of weeks, he raises her to assistant position. This time, he raises her salary as well. It is at this point that he realizes that he does need a secretary... and unfortunately, no one else hired the little sea lion, so she ends up as his secretary nonetheless.

It's a big defeat, but at least he was able to spare Betty a few weeks of bullying...

Also, as soon as Olarte is out, Armando gives Betty his office. This time, she has to accept it because now Patricia is going to use the regular secretary desk and the old closet never became an office, so she's happy to accept it.

The only thing here is that even though Armado was able to get rid of Patricia for a few weeks, Marcela is wayyy worse now with Betty.

Tqlking about Marcela, she is now in a big dilemma: Armando no longer sneaks out so she's sure that he doesn't have a mistress, but he is also refusing sex. The night when she dressed up as an executioner remains one of the most humiliating nights of her life, because he stood his ground firmly and didn't cede. He rejected her sexual advances and said he'd wait for her to get changed to talk. She felt so ridiculous and humiliated.

She doesn't understand what is going on, but she’s incredibly frustrated and angry, constantly snapping, and most of her anger is directed towards Betty.

Betty is absolutely in love with Armando since he always defends her, of course.

Also, Armando tries to leave subtle hints that he likes her, even though he knows she won't be able to tell. The day she decorates his office when he came back from a trip, this time he notices it and thanks her for it. Since he knew she was going to do that, he also brought her a little present (just a littlw and cheap souvenir, nothing extravagant because that would be too suspicious)

Anyways, most things go the same way, except that by the time Mario suggests to Armando make Betty fall in love with him, Betty and him have been secretly dating for a while lol as if this dude were to be able to keep his hands off her more than a coupleof months lol (also he misses his daughter so he kinda wants to rush things lol)

Obviously, Calderón never knows about this. Armando now trusts nothing personal with him, but Mario is still implicated in the qhole scheme of Terramoda.

Therefore, thwre is never a Letter of Instructions. Calderón is fooled into believing they aren't lovers, and he thinks Armando is simply having a weird crush thay for some reason refuses to act on it (e,cept that Armando IS acting on it lol)

There is no Le Noir dinners, expensive clothes for Nicolás, purposeful jealousy, nothing.

Also, since there is no Mercedes, Nicolas and Patricia never get together.

The only reason he hasn't broken up with Marcela is because he doesn't want to risk anything that vould possibly vhange the outcome of Betty becoming President. So, Marcela and him remain together publicly, but there's no intimacy. He dreads kissing her, as he feels like he is cheating on Betty.

That is also tbe only reason why he continued the business proposal. He knows Betty would never have a chance of becoming president if it's not under difficult circumstances.

Everything falls down furing the board meeting. This time, it is Daniel who uncovers them. Betty is fired. Armando feels awful about putting her through all this, especially because he knew Daniel was going to uncover them (remember in the novela Daniel was going to the board meeting with that intention)

Marcela also discovers about the affairs that same fay, when Betty cleans her office and is about to leave. Just like in the novela, Betty puts all her stuff in a trashbag and wants to make it seem like it's just trash (not out of disgust like in the novela, here she does it because she doesn't want anyone finding out the stuff and discovering the relationship. Remember there isn't a letter nor a betrayal)

The scene is INTENSE because when Marcela finds out the truth, Betty also breaks down and begs forgiveness ans all that. Remember she isn't full of spite here and feels terrible about being a mistress.

When Marcela slaps her for her "descaro", Betty takes it.

Now if you're thinking the whole Cartagena thing didn't happen here, you are WRONG. Armando makes sure that she "coincidently" meets with Catalina there (Armando sends Betty there under the excuse of "shielding her" for a while), and becomes her assistant.

Cata helps Betty much like how she did in the novela, except this Betty's wounds are only about the breaking of her morals, the betrayals she committed to the Pinzon and Mendozas families, all that. No broken hearts.

In fact, Armando told her if she needed some time to disconnect from it all, that she did, and he'd wait for her return. He insists she do, that it'll be good, and she eventually accepts.

Obviously ghe whole French man thing goes a little different. When Michel tries to kiss her, she apologizes profusely for "misleading him" and tells him she has a relationship

He accepts it well.

Cata does help Betty change physically. It takes a lot, but Betty eventually understand she feels that way because she feels she isn't worthy due to her insecurities, which comes mainly from the idea that she's ugly.

Cata convinces her to try something new.

Betty returns from Cartagena as a changed woman, like in the novela.

Also, Marcela and Armando never get back together. Armando never goes to that bar to get killed, and he doesn't drink like in the novela

Now this all obviously affect him, but he tries to remain firm because he knows it is temporary and that the business will be well when Betty takes it over.

The hardest moment is when Betty leaves and goes NC with him during Cartagena, because he almost feels like he is back in that nightmare when she thought his love for her was fake... so he has to constantly reassure himsekf that it is not like that at all, that they are well, that she’s fine, that he didn't break her heart this time, and that she's healing and improving herself in Cartagena.

Obviously all this past year has been very difficult for him constantly feeling like he's going crazy, but he knows it is all temporary, and that (along with Betty) is what keeps him grounded.

His primary motivation to keep it together is the promise of eventually being back to his old life with his wife, and to see his daughter again.

Betty becomes president and Nicolás starts officially working at Ecomoda (it is onky at this moment that him and Patricia officially meet)

There is obviously no big reconciliation, because they never fought.

Michel doesn't come back.

Idk how or when does Mario leave, lol my brain wrnt dead.

Oh and btw, Armando becomes official with Betty as soon as she comes back. There is nothing holding them back anymore.

(About Nicolas and Patricia, it didn't work out, like in the novela, but it took Nicolás a little longer to figure it out because since there was never a "false rich thing", Patricia never shows her true colors...)

The end.

Brain is ded.

Tadaaa, those are my hcs lol what do you thkn🥰??

Also, idk, a mí me encanta hablar en ingles jajajaja

[townnightwalk]

SCRAPPED BEGINNING, FIRST PLOT STRUCTURE

28/04/2017

-bellow includes the first structure plan of the game and first rendition of the beginning of the game, planned and written but eventually rewritten. The structure was also changed as the game proved to be much longer and aiming to complete it all in the time set was impractical.-

- the reason it was rewritten was the beginning felt too slow, so it was cut and redone to be more interesting and mysterious.- It was actually produced in the game engine also before it was scrapped-

- there is also a scene attempting to improve on the previous idea, trying to highlight a characters gender identity and including some issues they have to overcome. this was also scrapped as it still felt unnatural and advantageous. in the final script a simple mention is all that is included so far in the final game. The reason why was to make it more ‘normal’, to make sure his identity is mentioned but not taken advantage of or introduced with an uncomfortable situation/traumatic situation.”

I'm now aiming to complete one act of the game by the due date set by the class, bellow is a break-down of act 1 split into the major scenarios and decisions/consequences of each scene

I've also managed to get through a lot of the artwork, I'm trying to have an array of sprites with different facial expressions for different emotions to work with each scene. Lastly I have coded part of the first scene and put it together in the game engine in order to make sure it works properly with what I had planned- I learned that due to some coding barriers I had to rework how the scene worked, and this has helped me realise what borders I need to work under.

 ACT 1

SCENE 1

·        Driving through the night

·        Drive off away from homeless man

·        Hit the monster and pass out

Major Decisions and consequences- if you drive away too quickly the homeless man appears dead

 SCENE 2

·        Wake up and get carried to shelter by jones and sybil

·        Enter church courtyard

·        Meet kit

·        Monster attacks

Major Decisions and consequences- convincing them the monster is real- if you cant they refuse to believe you, and one goes outside to be trapped and doesn't return until later

 SCENE 3

·        Experience visions of past

·        Ended by kit connecting to monster

Major Decisions and consequences- calm down sybil or kit gets seriously injured, as opposed to just minor injury

 END OF ACT 1

    Written scenes

First scene

·        Start with prose

 Sometimes, memories are hazy,

Like lines of heat on a distant horizon,

Wavy and uncertain, tricking you

Sometimes the haze is heavier

Like white noise and static on an old tv

When you turn the dial on your grandparents set

All you see and hear is a deafening mess of white and black

Sometimes, you can find places like this

Liminal spaces, wedged between real life

But very much real, although they feel like a dream

These spaces can confuse you, scare you

Consume you

Beware of those who live there

  Your hands feel locked to the wheel you've been clutching for hours. It's quickly obvious that you've been disassociating while driving again, with the streets unfamiliar and no clue of how you arrived here. It floods back as you turn to a sleeping passenger, resting her head against the glass. She doesn't snore, but there is a tiny trail of drool that leads to the mess of hair working as her pillow.

 You're shaken from a haze again by a voice coming from behind your headrest.

[jones]: what's the time?

[Prue]: oh um, it's 2 I think.

[jones]: how much farther?

[prue]: til what?

[jones]: you pass out and we crash

DD

[prue]: I'm fine< 1>

Or

[Prue]: fair point< 2>

 <1>

You can hear him huff with minor frustration, but he lets it out with his sigh and starts again

[Jones]: we should have a plan for where to sleep

[Prue]: just follow sils lead

[jones]: I'm pretty sure sleeping in your car is illegal

 DD

[prue]: well, then we can sleep at the station if they catch us. Problem solved.1

[Prue]: heh, bullshit, if we get booked for that over everything else 2

1

[jones]: joking?

[prue]: joking. But, you got any other ideas?

[jones]: …none

  2

[jones]: ok look im not sleeping in a car on the side of the road, didn't you go through the high school creepy pasta phase?

[prue]: just because Sybil's asleep doesn't mean you're safe from getting your ass kicked for comments like that

[Jones]: I don't want hook man to kill me

[Prue]: I promise I'll kill you first

 <2>

[prue]: I feel like I passed out a few hours ago

[jones]: I can take over driving for a while?

[prue]: you don’t have your license and this is still technically a stolen car

[jones]: sure, if there is a cop prepared to stop a random car at 2am on a Tuesday

[Prue]: another fair point

  There's a silence that passes over the car, not uncomfortable, mostly uncertain. You indicate left and line the car up with the sidewalk and turn the key to silence the engine.

 DD

Crack the window? 1

Keep the windows closed. 2

 1 The heat keeps flowing through the ducts but you crack a window for a source of fresh air. <if this is done, the homeless man gets his fingers through

2 The heat keeps flowing through the ducts as you shuffle in your seat to get comfortable.

 [jones]: do you think he called it in?

[prue]: the car? I don’t know. Maybe. There's a chance he didn’t even notice yet.

[jones]: would he call it in on you?

DD

[prue]: he's done it before, this isnt the first time I've taken his car out1

[prue]: what about your mum?2

 1

[jones]: how far did you get

[prue]: like 30km out of town, I was about 16 though, maybe he thought if he didn't he'd get in trouble

[jones]: what do you mean?

[prue]: 16 year old driving off, that’s two illegal things. All I'm doing now is stealing, can't get in trouble for letting an adult run away.

 2

Jones response is measured silence, and looking at him you can tell he's still guessing himself.

[jones]: not the stealing, but she might call you in

[prue]: for the car or kidnapping her innocent son

[jones]: maybe both, she'd probably blame sil for everything though.

[prue]: heh, all she did was enable me, shes as guilty as you

 Your eyes sting, with even the faint reflections of the street lamp making them burn. Your body is begging for sleep, and there's no way to fight it off. Jones was right, another 10 minutes and you'd be sleeping in a ditch after being jettisoned through the windscreen.

[jones]: night prue, we'll figure it out in the morning

[prue]: figure what out?

[jones]: every fuck up from today

[prue]: that’s a loooot to deal with

[prue]: night

 Your eyelids are shut for the last few exchanges, and you fall into sleep in a matter of moments.

You see no faces and hear only the distant sound of a motor, with pricks of rain hitting your feet. A hand takes yours in the most gentle hold you've ever felt, with soft skin smooth against yours. Her hand is a contrast to yours, soft white and with maintained oval nails too short to hurt as she grips tighter. The motor sound gets louder, and her grip gets tighter. The pricks of rain start to hit your head and the feel like nails that drill into your head with the noise of the engine now blaring in your ears. She lets go and you look up to see a mound of flesh, with lumps and bumps and holes that could only be formed from extreme weather. As you take in the details you can make out a nose, cheekbones, and other facial features. As you make the connection the eyes burst open and stare into you, a person living with a rotting face. They howl and scream and you see rotting teeth that are bared and lunge at your face.

The glass stops them from reaching you.

[sybil]: PRUE!]

You blink again and the face is still screaming and starting to leave marks on your window, a hand grips your right shoulder

[sybil]: PRUE DRIVE!

 DD

you fumble for the keys 1

Scream 2

Freak the fuck out and try to punch him through the glass 3

 1

You reach down without taking your eyes off him, fumbling until you find the key. The engine comes alive with a roar and you slam your foot on the accelerator. You screech down the street and stare straight ahead as you fell Sybil clamber into the back see to watch him from the back window.

 [sybil]: He fell! Oh shit he isn't getting up. Who the hell was that creep?

[Jones]: I don't know but he must have been drunk, maybe he was a homeless guy with like?

[jones]: a skin disease?

[Prue]: god I think I'm going to be sick

 2

Your body is frozen, you can't move as he keeps clawing at the window and starts to slobber as he yells. Instead of words all you can manage is a weak scream, you've never experienced a genuine scream of terror before.

 [sybil]: GOD. MOVE!

Sybil shoves you even closer to the window as she forces herself beside you, turning the key and slamming her foot on the accelorator. You burst forward and you see the mans face skid against the glass with torturous detail, leaving snot, spit and blood along the side of the car

 3

When your fist hits the glass he flinches and staggers back holding his nose, but as he looks up you see he is unharmed. There's a tiny crack visible in the fog on the glass, and your hand feels like someone tried to crack your knuckles until they heard the bones break.

    VISIONS

THE SAME PARTY- things go badly for everyone involved, who you pick decides whose point of view scene you see. All end with prues sister and then kit brings them back

 Sybil and jones- childhood friends, seperated when jones was homeschooled and because his mum hates sybil

They reconnected online and sybil found out where he'd moved and turned up at the house one day, climbing into the window and dragging him outside to hang out with her

Vision of the party, his first actual party with sybil, he gets disoriented and freaks out

 Jones: you told her?

s: told her what?

J that I'm

S a guy? I just used your pronouns dude

S was that the wrong thing to do?

J I don’t know

S sorry, I thought it'd be nice

S its not like shes going to meet your mum and use the right pronouns in front of her

J yeah I guess

s I thought it might be good for you, let you be yourself for a night

S that may have been overstepping on my part

J DD

1 no, its nice.

2 just ask first

 1 It does feel nice. I mean, it just took me by surprise is all

S im glad dude, but if I did fuck up you can tell me k

J yeah, ok

2 just maybe ask first, im not saying I don’t trust her or think she might do something but.

S she wont, but I get you and ill remember. We ok?

J yeah we're fine