#my decisions were dumb as fuck on multiple levels!!

[einsteinbrosofficial]

What kind of accident happened that ended with a TNR and a rabies hold? Like I need to know about all of this

@sleepywinchesters Disclaimer do as I say not as I do. This is a story of hubris.

Cat professionals don’t judge me I know where I went wrong I just thought I was built different

Our TNR program only has one dropoff day a week & you have to make your appointment with # of cats ahead of time.

I have two traps so I’m aiming for 2, I’ve trapped for this colony before and it usually took multiple tries to get the right cats! Like I’d have to free at least 2 fixed cats for every unfixed one I caught.

I tell you this so my decision making doesn’t sound as stupid lol.

I was prepared to stake out these cats for hours at a time every night until my drop off appointment. So I start trapping like. 5 days early.

I also set up a big dog cage with some essentials in case I got any of them TOO early, which other cat people will see as red flag # 1 but I SWEAR makes sense with how much work I put into socializing these cats and I would not have pulled that move if I hadn’t been working with this cat colony since 2018.

Ok my dumb decisions have been detailed.

So anyway I literally set myself up with stakeout snacks and everything and I catch two cats within 10 minutes of trapping.

One of the cats I trapped is Charlie Chaplin. I’ve been feeding him about 4 years and he has a mustache and like a week before this he let me get within two feet of him without running.

I go to transfer Charlie to the dog crate (at my home where he’ll be chilling on the patio) and when I go to close the gate door behind him it got STUCK.

Charlie is terrified and he BOLTS and does an actually very beautiful leap DIRECTLY INTO THE POOL.

As I have since found out he’s largely blind in one eye! Which explains a lot of this! So he is now experiencing a pool for the first time in his life completely by accident.

I panic and start throwing all of my electronics off my person so I can jump in. He figures out swimming, escapes the pool, and then scales 10 feet of patio screen and starts trying to spider-man upside down across the roof.

Charlie then jumps down and proceeds to jump directly into the pool AGAIN! I jump after him because his head kept dipping underwater the first time (bc he has presumably never swam in his life before this) and I’m worried. I did not put on my wildlife handling gloves before this, which is another goof. I scoop under his tummy and I’m trying to carry him to the edge of the pool while keeping his head above water.

Anyway to Charlie this is actually even worse because he doesn’t know I’m trying to remove him from the pool, he bites the absolute SHIT out of my arm (valid), I get him to the edge of the pool and let go bc fucking ow, he JUMPS BACK IN THE POOL.

At this point my bonus sister tosses me a towel to grab him with and I manage to catch him safely and deposit him in the crate. Then I had a half hour long panic attack abt whether I had to euth him over me being stupid but I didn’t lol

If you’re unfamiliar with the protocol for potential rabies exposure, the literal only way to test for rabies is to euthanize the animal and biopsy their brains. There’s no way to test an animal while keeping it alive. A lot of the time if you’re able to you need to try and capture the animal that bit you and hand it over to whatever doctor you go to so they can send it for testing. Like. Secured though. Or already dead. Don’t give your doctor a loose potentially rabid animal.

HOWEVER, if the animal is a cat or dog specifically and is not otherwise showing obvious symptoms you have the option to isolate and observe them for 10 days. There’s research showing that dogs & cats who are far enough into the disease to transmit it (apparently they can’t transmit it during the incubation period, yay) will either show symptoms or die within 10 days. ONLY applicable to dogs and cats. If they show symptoms (or die) you send them to be tested, according to the county rabies coordinator I called about this.

I did not in fact have to get a rabies shot because we have already gotten past day 10 of his observation period and he’s chillin.

Also the other cat I caught early did fine, already got spayed and vaxxed and released. I just saw her earlier today when I went to check on the colony and she ran away as soon as she saw me lmao.

[dashitsxx]

if only | various male characters x fem!reader | mha

summary. Maybe leaving him wasn't the best decision to ever do.

genre. dark. explicit smut. nsfw. 18+

word count. 1.7k

characters. aizawa shota (eraserhead). chisaki kai (overhaul). takami keigo (hawks). todoroki touya (dabi).

warnings. dubcon/noncon. all in an established relationship. quirk au. vulgar language. cunnilingus (aizawa). rough fuck. penis in vagina sex. overstimulation. multiple orgasms. creampies. stomach bulge (dabi). manhandling. forcing. evident male dominance. yandere themes. possessive. obsession. mentions of killing (dabi). selfish behaviour. egoistic behaviour. indicated the use of quirk. breeding kink (dabi). praising (dabi).

disclaimer. Please note that this work is entirely fictional. It is not intended to condone, glorify, or encourage any form of violence, illegal activity, or harmful behaviour. All characters (credits to the manga artists), scenarios, and events are products of the author's imagination and/or used in a fictional manner. Any resemblance to actual persons or real events is purely coincidental. The purpose of this work is to entertain and provoke thought, not to promote harmful behaviour.

notes. finally done with this! been itching to post this as quick as possible. i definitely didn't like how i wrote them but enjoy sluts, tried to make it spine-shivering as much as possible! reposting 'cause i found out that tumblr didn't kind of added it into the no. of my posts?? idk why

shota aizawa (eraserhead) — If only you weren't clumsy enough.

Oh love. That was the biggest mistake you have ever made to him. Do you think that you could easily slip away from his sight? Oh my. How dumb of you. You may have a strong quirk but it doesn't surpass his level... and he'll make sure to let it stay that way.

A trembling shaking rattled on the bedframe as you arched your back from the pleasuring sensation. Pants and moans vibrate against the wall of the room. No matter how much you want to try to push the head away from your cunt, your hands prevented you from doing so as it is tightly tied by his binding cloth, whereas with each forceful pull you create, it suddenly stiffens its fabric.

You moan loudly as you squirm under his touch. "Stop moving," he ordered in a vicious tone. Then, a warm wet long stripe was placed on your cunt, making you hold your breath. A strangled moan left your lips as you attempted to break the cloth that was chaining you.

"I-I can't—ah! No, n-ngh! Ah! no, s-stop. Aizawa!" you exclaimed, panting in the process.

"I said stop squirming." he painfully held your hips in place as he halted his motion. Your eyes slide down to him as you find him with a raging fire, "You wouldn't been in this position if only you had been obedient to me."

Then he slowly rises from his position as he continue to glower down at you, "You know you can't escape from me, love."

You heard a rapid swish of fabric as you found your legs bound up in a lewd position, wide open for him. "N-not like this! A-Aiza—" A painful feeling slapped your pussy which made your back arch. "Shut up."

A sinful smirk slowly formed on his lips. Who would have thought that his fantasies would come true? He was thankful that you attempted to escape, but it still does infuriate if you wanted to leave him. He didn't like that idea, nor would he let it happen. Maybe... it is time to mark you.

Then, he quietly placed his hands on the middle of his pants before unzipping it. A look of fear and shock was evident on your face as you knew what it meant

"Aizawa! No, no, no!" you attempt to back away from the raging man, but he grabbed your thighs and pulled you down to him to let you feel his hardened cock with your bare vagina—you moaned at the sensation. Pride was evident on his face as he spoke in a possessive tone.

"I'll always find you, love."

kai chisaki (overhaul)— If only you were fearless.

Darling, darling, darling. Why did you ever think that you would be able to escape from his grasp? He didn't do all those cheesy courtship with no purpose just for you to leave him. He did it all in his satisfaction to have you caged within him despite that you were a great benefit to the yakuza. Hence, you are his possession—and there is no way for you break free.

"Fuck—so... t-tight. Fucking tight." A deep growl emitted from his chest as he thrusts his fat cock into your gummy walls. You moan from your taped mouth and warm tears fall on your cheeks from the overstimulation.

A pleasured moan left his mouth as he stared down at you, a contemptuous smile was plastered on his face. You looked so pretty taking his godly size dick—it fits well with your pussy. Although he's been fucking you for who knows how many rounds, his rage hasn't been satiated yet.

The fact that you tried to leave him really fucking blood-boiled him. He has never felt this way after the heroes attempted to meddle in his business. Upon the thought entering his mind, his eyes darken immediately as he pushed the back of your thighs to your chest.

Your felt your eyes widen at a new sensation as your chest rose, heaving at the new position he put you into. It was the position you knew that would make you feel his size.

Feel him more.

You attempt to push his hands from your thighs with your taped wrists, but it keep slipping off from the body sweat formed. Then, he harshly flicked his hips onto you. Your body jerked as you felt the tip of his dick kissed your womb.

The smile remained on Kai's face as he leaned forward, "Feel that, darling? You're not dumb enough to know what it means." a chuckle erupted from his chest as he pulled out until his tip before slamming back deeply, making your body jerk again and a moan leaving your lips.

Then a sudden shivers crawled on your body under his, making his cock more slick from your cum. Kai lets out a short deep laugh before he slides his hand from your thighs to your clit, having one of your legs hanging on his shoulder.

You try to take in deep breaths as your eyes make contacts with his lust-filled ones. He tilts his head slightly with a naughty smirk.

"You can release one more, right darling? After all, you deserve this punishment."

takami keigo (hawks) — If only you weren't slow.

Sweetheart, you knew that you could never outrun him—so, why did you still do it? You are one dumb girl with a mediocre quirk, but he still loves you. It's just that your stupid mind persuaded you to leave him. Says who? He gave you no order about that—in fact, you have no rights to step away. Once he laid his eyes on you, he knew that he had to fly and catch you.

"Ngh-ah! Fuck! K-Keigo!"

"That's it. Moan my name, sweetheart."

He grabbed your hips before pulling it to his hips with a tight grip, hitting your g-spot perfectly. You hiss at the sensation as you gently place your forehead on the wall, trying to catch your breath. Hawks continued to thrust in your pussy, but it wasn't the usual way he does. He never would have acted so rough to you if you hadn't tried to hide and run away from him.

It aches his heart to put you in this position, but you need to learn your lesson.

Pants and groans escaped his lips as he pushed you more to the wall, drunk in bliss. He snakes his arms around your chest, grabbing one of your tits to twist your nipples and waist to hold you—he wants to feel your skin. Only moans are emitted from you as you try to pull away from him while clawing his arms.

"Ah, ah, ah. Sweetheart, you'll only make it worse. Hah... s-shit. J-Just allow me–ngh–to fuck you like this," he pauses as he pulls his hips until his tip is in you before slamming it deeply to your cunt, you arch your back greatly as you moan—uttering curses beneath your breath. "You'll eventually like this..."

Yes, you will like this. He'll do anything to keep you and a good hard fuck may help him hinder your ability to walk and run.

Maybe, that is a good idea—it'll let him keep watch of you. The thought of that made him more aroused as he slowly quickened his pace. Yet, you were too fucked up in pleasure to notice the malicious intent your boyfriend had in mind.

But it's okay, as long as he has you—he'll do anything.

"Sweetheart, you know I am the only man for you, oh—ngh? Ah—fuck... hmm, right?"

todoroki touya (dabi) — If only you were strong enough.

Dilly dally doll, such a beauty you are. Yet, you are such a fucking pain in the ass. You dare to escape from him—were you insane enough to consider that he'll never find you? Doll, you are wrong there. You have such a weak body with a weak quirk, he definitely doesn't want you to go to unknown places because he actually fucking cares about you. Maybe... there is another method to keep you by his side.

Deep grunts and vulgar words escaped the scarred lips of the villain as he gripped your plump sides, shooting thick ropes of white sticky liquid in your womb.

"Take it all like a good girl, doll. That's it." he licked his lips in satisfaction as he watched the erotic scene before him.

You look so pretty under him, just being a perfect cumdump for him. Although, he just hated your pettiness—who told you that you could leave him? Just because he accidentally put on a show of his ruthless killings of heroes in front of you, you had the nerve to escape. He is just doing his job, it's not really a big deal.

His eyes darken at the thought.

He pulled his dick out of your swollen pussy, letting the cum leak from your hole and giving a painful smack on your ass. A smirk forms on his face as he slides the leak sensually back into your hole, "That's the right place. Keep it in, doll. I really don't want you to piss me off again after that silly little stunt you've pulled."

You yelp in pain when you feel a stinging heat place on your clit as you comply with his order, carrying your body in a doggy position.

A boost of confidence fires in Dabi's core as he looks at your pussy clenching to hold his essence in you. But his ego wasn't the only one that fired in you, his huge cock was standing up again. He contemplates methods

Maybe, there is a way to let you stay with him.

Before you even attempted to get up from your bruising position, your face was suddenly pushed on the bed mercilessly, your ass at a higher height with an inviting pussy, and you felt a prodding tip in your entrance as it was gone in.

A loud moan from you echoed the room smelled of sex and sweat as Dabi let out a hiss to your tightness even if your mixed essence with his served as a lube.

"Touya! Wait, I-I just came!" you exclaimed, turning your head to the side.

A deep chuckle emitted from his chest as he snapped his hips against yours. You felt a protruding bulge on your belly when he snapped, jerking your body in reaction. His eyes held a purpose behind those lust and temptation as he leaned down, marking you with hickeys.

"I need to make sure that my baby mama doesn't waste a drop of my cum. I am certain you'll be a great mama, doll."

all dividers are from @/cafekitsune, thank you <33

[emotionaldisaster909]

Oh, joy))

Just had a fight with my father

Who’s completely lost to the propaganda, because he is extremely easily influenced

So i showed him those videos from Kyiv

And he says

“Answer this: Why won’t Zelensky sign a peace treaty?”

And I ask him

“Answer me this: Is this an excuse to kill innocent people???”

On which he says that every day everywhere people die whether you like it or not

So I ask him

“Are you serious??? Are you insane??? Are you fucked up????”

And he spilled alcohol on me))0

And called me a piece of shit

Who doesn’t understand anything

And who’s opinion doesn’t matter

Now))

This is exactly how our government looks on it’s people

He speaks their words

Because he listenes to their propaganda every single day from every device

From multiple devices at once even

Has been for years

Now.

How am i supposed to change minds of thousands of brainwashed people in my country

If I can’t even change my father’s mind

What am I to do

I can’t even hate him

Because I know that he literally has an official mental disorder

Which made him believe all kinds of liars - cultists, medical frauds - for as long as I remember

What am I to do?

What am I to do when people say that it’s not just Putin’s war, that russians must pay, that Russia must be bombed in return

Aside from the fact that the majority here is agains the war

But, just as in Hitler’s Germany, we are forced to keep our tongues shut

Which we don’t

And we get beaten up, arrested for bigger sentences than rapists and murderers

Used to instill more fear in people’s hearts

And to tell stories about “foreign agents” who were sponsored by “The West”

Should we start a civil war?

Should we kill people who are just too naive and bombarded by all sides by levels of propaganda Goebbels would look up to?

And

As a journalist

Believe me when I say that this propaganda is WICKEDLY smart

It uses all the methods known to history of information in a rapid fire speed

It even turned around my own desire to not see things “one sided” into the decision not to see anything at all in fear of being lied to

Which is dumb

But should i be killed for this?

I just kept listening and talking to people

Different people in my job

And a funny thing about a tattoo artists’ job

Is that there are many soldiers getting tattoos

Good thing is, many of them come and tell us that they quit, that this war is pointless, that it’s just our government making money from it

But some don’t

Yet when I talk to them

They

Talk like

People

Not some monsters

Just people

But they truly believe

That they’re doing a good thing

That they’re fighting to free the oppressed

That they’re fighting to protect their people

Or to avenge their fallen comrades

I

I might be just too naive and empathetic myself

But

I don’t want them killed either

I don’t want any deaths

Haha

I want a third path

Hahaha

Yeah, I might be too influenced by the ideas of a fictional character who is also called stupid and naive for his views

But

I don’t know

The only people I want to be punished are those who rule this machine of war and hate

And not only from our side

But

Maybe it was also told to me by propaganda

But i don’t think that American government wants this to stop too

I think I saw it in english media as well that US government is known for profiting on wars all around the world

Forgive and correct me if I’m utterly wrong

But in that same post that said that the entire russian population supports war

Was said that we could’ve stopped it

We

Tried.

Before the arrest of Navalny and soon after our opposition had the biggest rise in this century

We had so many mass protests

They were all brutally suppressed

Young men, women, literal kids and, I shit you not, literally VETERANS, GRANDPAS AND GRANDMAS who ALREADY LIVED THROUGH ONE WAR were BEATEN AND ARRESTED BY POLICE FORCES which are supposed to PROTECT THEM

After the arrest the oppression of opposition has strengthened

We lost our leaders and organisation

Protests began to lessen

Yet with the declaration of “The Special Military Operation” people ROSE AGAIN

And the same thing happened

But worse

So many brutal laws were adopted

All to ensure not a single negative word or movement against the government

So yeah me and my family might be soooo fucked for what I’m writing right now

I’m really not so sure if tumblr is safe

I’m riding on sheer hope for a fluke

But

I just

I am so sorry for keeping my eyes closed for so long

This app and talking to people here is what made me open them

What let me express my rage and made it boil to the point where I couldn’t shut up anymore

I don’t know if I should post this or not

I don’t know.

I might not

Will it make a single change?

I know a way of doing this safer and for a longer time

Actually

It would even be more influential

Yeah

But I wish there will be time

When I can no longer be afraid

And when my words will be heard loud and clear

Along with all the voices of those

Who stand with the free world

For peace and love

And

Hualian)

[peppertaemint]

I was wondering your thoughts about this still to this day, hate on SuperM from fans of the groups (mostly EXO-Ls), that were in SuperM. A reaction channel recently featured a few SuperM videos and the comment section was a g.d. hot mess. I cannot believe almost 5 years later and people (again mostly annoying ass EXO-Ls) are still being petty and childish asf about them. Anything from: they were created for evil (yes evil lmao) purposes by LSM to it was a horrible time for Kai and Baekhyun because they were so overworked and LSM scolded Baekhyun for his opinins so it's odd that some EXO-Ls would like that group to they were created to "take down" BTS because LSM was jealous etc etc and all that bullshit. Sometimes I can't believe I'm part of the idiot species who think like that lmao None of those excuses for hating a group with seven talented and attractive as hell adult men, make any sense. The overworked shit drives me nuts the most because it's once again babying these grown ups who are old enough to make their own decisions and knew juggling multiple groups was going to be tricky but wanted to be part of it. I am so sick of "fans" being angry, upset, defensive or hurt on behalf of these adults. LSM scolded Baekhyun. Okay??? Lmao Like that's between those two and nobody knows the level of the scolding anyway. Baek didn't say "LSM cursed me the fuck out and told me he's gonna kick my dog next time he sees him" scolding can even be done playfully. I just can't wrap my mind around all the stupid excuses to hate on this group. EXO-CBX are having a comeback this year and Baekhyun is having an Asian tour and a solo album (I forget if that's been confirmed though lol) on top of an EXO mini album. No fucking cries of being overworked there. What do you think is behind this SuperM hate because I saw six (sorry Lucas lol) ridiculously talented people who enjoyed being around each other while singing fun (arguably) catchy songs. People saying that group is over and Baek and Kai will never be part of that group again, meanwhile Taemin in November called Baekhyun SuperM's leader. Idk if that group is done for good but to still be bitter and bitchy about them is mindblowing to me.

Oh, Anon. It's a sport to hate SuperM. A passionate hobby for many. Before I had listened to the group, I was told by quite several people what a "fail" they were, how terrible they were, etc. When I encountered them, I was expecting the worst.

Now, there are legitimate reasons to criticize. A lot of the music is ridiculous, the concepts ridiculous, etc. Like, the entire "Avengers" concept was flawed from the get-go. Peak cringe. But, at the end of the day, it's still a group with 6 of the most talented people in the entire genre. That can't be denied. And for that reason, I do have reason to believe it will return at some point. When you have a diamond, you wear it.

If you're expecting EXO fans to stop making hatred a sport, it will never happen. They are the original army; they're the blueprint for BTS's fans. EXO paved the way for BTS, and so did their fans (ppl are so dumb if they can't see that, but I digress...). They love to be butt hurt and make it everyone else's problem. I'm always grateful that the problem with shawols is that their standards are sky-high, lol. And they rarely waste time on such nonsense.

And I'm with you. I give zero shits if Baekhyun gets scolded at work. Who hasn't been scolded at work? I scold and get scolded, lol. That's work. Unfortunately, a lot of the people drawn to the kpop "stan" thing are people who aren't familiar with having an ambitious and demanding career. For us that are chasing something, you do work hard and overstretch yourself and get scolded and fail and try again. Lots of things happen if you're chasing a dream. What I hate is the "overwork" thing you bring up because it's just very clear these people don't know what it's like to go after your dreams and start succeeding. And they don't understand what a lot of people's lives are like. Only slept a few hours and went to work? Yep, that happens. Working all day and hustling a side business at night or studying or something else? Yep, that happens. Traveling for work so much you forget where you are or what your hotel room number is? Yes.. LOL. I have to keep the little thing they write it on or I'll be in big trouble.

[ray-ray-writings]

Catch Me If I Fall-Technoblade

This is a Technoblade x gn!reader in the dreamsmp

Check out my Masterlist here

What was supposed to be a simple mining trip goes horribly wrong when Y/N doesn’t pay attention to their surroundings. 

Y/N’s POV

“Be careful” Techno warned, pressing a kiss to my forehead and then one to my lips. I couldn’t help the smile that graced my face, “Will do,” I responded softly, kissing my boyfriend once more before checking to make sure I had all I needed for my trip. Food, wood, torches, and my netherite pickaxe. 

When Techno and I had moved out of L’Manberg, a lot of his things were taken before we could pack it up, including his many stacks of diamonds. Techno had a lot to do at our new snowy home, so I offered to go mining for us. Techno was hesitant at first, but after assuring him multiple times I would be fine, he agreed and made me an enchanted netherite pickaxe that had Efficiency V, Fortune III, Unbreaking III, and Mending on it so that it would let me mine faster and wouldn’t break in the middle of my trip. 

“You have everything?” Techno asked softly. I nodded with a bright smile, “I do!” I chirped brightly. “Okay… I’ll see you in a few hours?” I hummed in confirmation, “I’ll see you in a few hours.” Techno leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against my lips, I immediately kissed back. A few moments passed before I forced myself to pull away, knowing I would never leave if I didn’t. “I love you so much” I murmured to the pink haired man. A soft blush fell on Techno’s cheeks. Techno pulled me in for a quick hug, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “I love you too, love. More than you’ll ever know.” 

Techno released me from the hug causing me to let out a sigh. I took a few steps down into the mine before turning and waving to my boyfriend who remained at the tops of the steps. He immediately smiled softly and waved back. “Bye baby” “Bye love”. Another sigh escaped my lips as I turned back around and continued down the steps, further into the earth. 

It didn’t take me too long to get to level 12. I immediately got to work on strip mining. I hit many patches of coal, redstone, iron, and many other ores, but no diamonds. I had been down in the mine for about an hour at this point and had yet to find what I actually came down here for. Which is why I was so excited when the next piece of stone I removed opened a hole to a ravine. 

I slightly thanked whoever was above for this. This is the break I was looking for. I quickly removed the other piece of stone that blocked my path and immediately rushed into the ravine. I looked around, making sure to note where the lava was so that I didn’t accidentally walk into it or fall. I quickly decorated my opening with torches so I would be able to tell where I came from so I wouldn’t get lost. After only a few moments in the ravine, I found what I was looking for. “DIAMONDS!” I screeched in victory, rushing toward the patch embedded in the wall of the ravine. 

I quickly mined the diamonds and watched with glee as they kept going. Once I was done with the patch, I had acquired 24 diamonds. I let out an excited squeal as I moved further down the ravine to search for more. Another patch came into view and I ran up to it with excitement. I was so absorbed in my excitement of finding diamonds, that I didn’t hear the drop behind me. Maybe had I heard the telltale sizzling of the creeper that had fallen behind, I wouldn’t have taken so much damage. But I didn’t. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. The creeper had exploded, sending me forward into the stone hole I had made. My face smashed off of the hard wall and much like the creeper, my back exploded in pain. I couldn’t help the scream that escaped my lips at the blast. 

I took a few moments to take some deep breaths before slowly standing up and crawling out of the hole. My legs shook under my weight. “Oh fuck,” I breathed out, my eyes scanning the ravine. A lot of mobs had spawned. A lot of them were ignoring me, but due to the explosion, some had turned to look and found me. As fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast, I turned and limped back toward where I came from, my eyes scanning the wall for my torches. 

The sound of footsteps hitting the ground sounded behind me as mobs dropped from above to chase me. My breath quickly as I slowly began to panic. Icy hot fear ran through me as I realized one fatal thing that I had forgotten on my journey. A sword. A bow. An axe. Literally any weapon to protect myself. I forgot it. I didn’t think that I would need it… I’m so dumb sometimes. 

The groan of a zombie grew closer and closer. A sharp pain shot through my shoulder as something hit it. I let out a whimper as I turned around and found a zombie right behind me. I took a deep breath and punched the zombie as hard as I could, causing it to stumble back, giving me enough time to escape. 

My eyes caught sight of the many torches that outlined my entrance to the ravine causing me to almost cry in relief. I whimpered as I limped faster toward my safe haven, but once again, a sharp pain shot through my shoulder. This pain though caused me to scream. I looked at my shoulder and found an arrow sticking through it, almost causing me to faint. I willed the thought away, knowing that if I did faint, I was a goner and would lose a life. I gritted my teeth and threw myself in the hole I created earlier, immediately turning around to block the path with cobblestone. 

Once I knew I was safe, I allowed the tears that had built in my eyes to fall. Everything hurt so much. I had such a long walk back to the stairs out of the mine and then I would have to walk 50 blocks up and 50 blocks home. I placed down a single piece of cobble and took a seat to try and compose myself. I pulled out some of the food I had packed from my inventory. 

As I ate, my hand brushed against my nose and when I pulled it away, blood coated my hand letting me know my nose was in fact bleeding from the impact of the wall. The food helped me feel a tiny, and I really mean tiny, bit better. I mentally assessed what was happening in my shoulder before deciding it would be best to leave the arrow in my shoulder so that I wouldn’t bleed out on my way back, no matter how uncomfortable it was. I also made sure to check my inventory and was happy to find the diamonds I had mined safe in my care. I had only found about 40 but there was no way I was spending more time down here to look for more. 

After taking the time I needed to calm myself, I slowly stood up and began my long walk back to the stairs. The journey took me about an hour and a half. I had to take it really slow due to my injuries. But I made it to the stairs nonetheless. I almost cried staring up at them though. It took me another half an hour to climb the stairs that normally would have taken no longer than 10 minutes to climb. 

By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I was exhausted. I couldn’t walk anymore, but I had to. The house was about 50 blocks away. For some reason we decided to keep the mine and the house separate and now I cursed that decision. I stared at the warm house and almost sobbed at the sight. “TECHNO!” I screamed as loud as I could. The pink headed man was on the front porch doing something. At the sound of my scream the man immediately dropped what he was doing and booked it toward the mine. “Y/N!” He yelled in return.

My legs quivered as he drew closer and when he was right in front of me, they gave out completely. Techno caught me and pulled me as close as he could to his chest, keeping in mind the arrow that was poking from my shoulder. “What happened?!” He questioned in a panic, his eyes scanning over my body. “Mobs.” I whimpered, clutching his shoulders tightly. “I told you to be careful, damnit” He hissed, scooping my legs into his arms and carrying me bridal style to the house. “I was,” I whimpered. My body must have sensed that I was now in a safe place because my vision went black and I completely collapsed into Techno’s arms. 

*Small Time Skip*

My shoulder’s cold. That was the first thing I could think of when I came too. What’s on my shoulder? I let out a groan as my eyes fluttered open. I wasn’t in the mine or outside in the snow. I was in Techno and my shared bedroom. I slowly turned my head to look at my shoulder. The arrow had been removed and it was now wrapped in gauze and an ice pack sat on top of it. My throat was dry and my body ached, less than it did, but I was still sore. “Techno?” I croaked, hoping he could hear me. 

I didn’t have to wait long. The door swung open within seconds and there stood my pink headed boyfriend. “Y/N” He breathed, rushing toward the side of my bed. He leaned down and pressed a sweet and careful kiss to my lips before kneeling down beside me, clutching my hand tightly. “You scared the hell out of me,” He murmured, pressing a kiss to the back of my hand. “I’m sorry,” I whispered back. Techno let out a small sigh before kissing my hand again. “Don’t be sorry love. It’s not your fault. I should have gone with you or sent you with better protection.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes lovingly, “It’s not your fault” I playfully mocked, bringing his hand to my mouth and kissing it. Techno chuckled deeply at my statement. 

“How are you feeling?” He questioned, standing up slightly, his eyes glancing over my injuries. “Okay” I told him, “I’m a bit sore, but okay. I could use a glass of water,” I hinted. Techno chuckled and nodded, “On it,” He quickly left the room and returned with a glass of water. My boyfriend held the glass to my lips and helped me drink. Once I was done, he set the glass down on the nightstand. “Anything else?” he asked. I slowly extended my arms and made grabby hands. Techno laughed and got the hint, crawling in bed beside me. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around me, making sure that what he was doing wasn’t causing me any pain. Once he was sure I was okay, he pulled me close to his chest, pressing kisses on my head. I giggled at the feeling and allowed myself to relax in his arms. 

“Thank you for taking care of me,” I whispered. Techno hummed, “Anytime love. I’ll always be there for you. Just try not to scare me like that again. When you fell… I just felt my heart stop. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.” I nodded slowly into his chest, “I’m glad you were there to catch me when I fell. My legs just gave out. It took me so long to get back up from the mine and I was so tired…” “I’ll always be there to catch you when you fall. Just don’t make a habit of it.” The two of us shared a laugh about that. “I promise,” I murmured, letting out a yawn. “You’re tired, you should sleep more. I’ll still be here when you wake.” Techno murmured in my ear. I let out a tired hum and nodded. “Okay… I love you” “I love you too… so much”

There you have it! I really hope you enjoyed! If you did, be sure to leave a like!!

[denkineptune]

mha date headcanons- boys and girls :))

♡ request: “i love ur blog already, ur writing is so good!!! im so excited to see the content u’ll be posting !! :D since ur taking requests, how abt some date headcanons for the mha boys (or girls if u want!) ?” - @dianangels​ 

♡ thank you for letting me write girls aaa i chose to do some as first date hc. it was kinda hard to keep jirou’s gn because i wanted to reference wlw stereotypes but i succeeded in gender-neutral because i want everyone to be able to enjoy

♡ dedicating part of this to @anxious-botanist​ because she’s the one who inspired the momo cuddles hehe sorry it took so long

♡ fic details: headcanons, fluff, gender-neutral reader, 2nd pov

characters: kaminari, amajiki, jirou, ashido, yaoyorozu

kaminari- arcade

↠AR C ADE   DA T  E

↠you hear me??? arcade!! date!! ideal man, right here, someone claim him immediately or else i will be forced to take ownership

↠he’s super laid back and chill, pretty childish at heart. he only means the best, though, so i think an arcade is exactly what he would go for when taking you on a date! he doesn’t have a lot of money but still wants you to go home with something to remember the date by

↠he buys like $50 worth of tokens and splits it between the two of you, making sure that he tells you which games give the most tickets, because he’s definitely been here enough times to remember

↠his favorite game is either crossy roads or the big bass wheel- he loves crossy roads because of how cute the style is, but also there is impending stress and levels of  d o o m  as you progress further. big bass wheel is basically just gambling, and i think he’s yumeko jabami.

↠he hacks games to make you win sometimes,, his quirk is bascially designed to do this. it’s like he was born just to take you out on this arcade date. he uses his quirk to short circuit the game and trick the computer into giving you hundreds of tickets

↠he just wants to make you happy and see you smile!! there’s not a feeling quite like succeeding at something as silly as an arcade game, but there’s a certain pride to it that he loves seeing on your face. 

↠kaminari only does it a few times, since he knows that you should be earning your prizes ((not that you know when he does it, he’s really cheeky about it))

↠playyyy multiplayers with him! he loves DDR (dance dance revolution)- you do multiple rounds and are equally exhausted by the end of it akdflad you may not be good, and tbh neither is denki, but you still have fun, which is what matters

↠he also loves taking photobooth pictures, he puts on the most horrendous filters and does the dumbest poses, but it’s so adorable. he does the typical one smile, one “serious”, one silly face, one kith > <

↠kami gets cocky,,, it’s just how he is,, he gets overly confident whether or not he’s been on a winstreak

“heyy, y/n! look at my speedrun on this, i’m getting so many tickets, i’ll be able to get a house by the end of it!”

↠and then he CAN’T because he doesn’t get the jackpot eghgdhgeh

↠by the end of the day, you’ve spent hours at the arcade, laughing and screaming with denki as you terrorize the small children. yes, he’s that kind of guy

↠by “terrorize”, i don’t mean like a bully, but he’s unintentionally intimidating kids with his pockets overflowing with ticket chains, a crazed look on his face as he goes absolutely ham on the shooting games

↠there’s electricity coming off of him, kids sometimes have to dodge it when passing by

↠so anyways, by the end of the date, you’re basically being kicked out of the arcade, because, as kami puts it,

“we were here when it opened and i’ll be damned if we’re not here when it closes,”

↠between the two of you, you’ve aquired tens of thousands of tickets??? the employees probably hate y’all, they had to count those beasts of ticket rolls you’ve accumulated during the 10 hours the arcade was open

↠exactly 62,069 tickets (69 go brrr- kaminari’s brain), and you can basically buy the arcade with that currency

↠but here’s the thing: he lets you spend all of it. you heard me, all. of. it. he just wants to see you happy, and the best way he can think of to get a final glorious memory of your smile is to let you spend the tickets as you see fit, this generosity just to see you glowing as you walk out of the building, arms chock full of amazing junk

↠but of course, you’d feel bad if you spent all of it, especially since he was the one who took you out, so you offered him the half of the tickets that were won

“denki, you won most of these with your amAzINg gaming skills, it’s only fair you get to have something too,”

“my prize will be seeing you- your- your-- aw fuck, i forgot the line, it’ll come back to me, just give me a minute.”

↠he tried to be smooth and it failed, but you chuckled at the attempt, so all around, he considered it a success

↠denki gets a lot of dumb things that will probably end up being thrown away soon, but he also gets you a very soft bat stuffed animal that you should treasure and keep forever 

amajiki- a walk and picnic in a japanese garden

↠tamaki is very shy, very socially anxious. he’s the kind to wait for people to leave a section of a store before he goes there, purposely do his errands in the early morning to limit social interaction, and find any excuse to leave a situation. which, tbh, isn’t that all of us?

↠let’s be honest here, if it wasn’t y’alls first date, he’d probably not go anywhere. as long as he’s with you, he doesn’t really care for anything too fancy

↠but he’s convinced himself that he needs to do something reasonably big for your first date to make sure you don’t regret your decision to go out with him. so instead of deciding to stay in, he goes somewhere that’s only slightly anxious for him, but where he still feels comfortable

↠so he’s decided on a japanese tsukiyama garden! these places are beautiful by design, not cheap but not too expensive, and people are obligated by rules to be quiet and keep their hands to themselves

↠nobody goes to a garden to socialize, in fact, i’d argue most people go just to look around, rest, and clear their heads. there’s usually not any screaming children, no quirk usage, no villains, it’s a little safe haven. 

↠bonus: there’s butterflies :))

↠it’s so peaceful, and he gets to focus on you instead of whatever loud noise is making him anxious

↠he brings a picnic basket filled with all your favorite foods, and his! he makes a show out of displaying what he can manifest with different snacks, making a point to eat edible seeds so he can produce flowers for you 🥺🥺🥺

↠you walk around the garden for a few hours, marveling at the decor and how well-maintained everything is. there’s a koi pond, hanging wisteria trees, and multiple gazebos that create a really comfortable and calm environment

↠speaking of koi ponds, amajiki offers to buy you food so you can feed the fish! you stand on a bridge above the pond, sharing the container with him. the sMILE on his face when he watches you throw the food is so pure i’m-

↠he’s the walking embodiment of “uwu”- his face is so calm and his eyes are shining and he can feel his heart swelling with love i am GOING to cry my eyes out 

↠but honestly, he wishes he could stay in this moment forever- you’re happy, he’s happy, and it feels like you two are the only people in the universe. right now, he doesn’t have to worry about school, villain attacks, his future, or anything that makes him anxious; all that he can see right now is how beautiful and at peace you look. he took you out today, and you’re enjoying yourself. this is one of the few things that makes him confident: knowing that he’s able to make you happy

↠tamaki is silently celebrating; you’ve had a good time and he didn’t freak out, so it’s the best possible scenario!

ashido- rollerskating! ((look at her she’s adorable the smile n the eyes aaa))

↠mina is a very energetic and bubbly person, its quite obvious if you’ve spent any amount of time around her

↠for your first date with her, she’d already have a location in mind!!

↠the atmosphere of rollerskating rinks is so electric, she can’t help but feel happy there, and she wants to experience that lovely feeling with you, too :))

↠you enter the rink, and mina is already borderline bouncing off the walls alskdfj

↠whether or not you’ve ever skated before, ashido is super cautious with you- multiple times she’s fallen on her butt while learning how to skate, so unless you’re a pro, she’s watching your every move to make sure you don’t get hurt

“y/n! please be careful- you’re not getting hurt on my watch!”

↠she jabs a thumb in her direction proudly, with the cutest bigass grin on her face awh 🥺🥺🥺she’s really enthusiastic about sharing one of her passions with you

“try to balance, alright? don’t put too much weight on your heel or toes, because then you’ll fall on your butt. here, take my hand and i’ll help you! hey, there you go, you’re doing great!”

↠she pays for everything and will WRESTLE you if you try to disagree aldkfa if you’re the type of person to pay for everything as well, y’all are going to have to fight; mina will not give up

↠ashido comes here a lot, so she’s friendly with all the employees, she has the uncanny ability to make friends wherever she goes ((i mean she’s friends with bakugou,, if she can do that,, she can do anything))

↠she takes one of your hands and backs onto the rink, watching for anyone behind her. once you’re balanced properly, she shows you how to move your feet so that the two of you are in sync

↠skating isn’t super hard to figure out, it’s mostly intuitive, so you’ll get the hang of it quite quickly!! maybe you’re not too fast, but it’s still fun, so it doesn’t matter

↠while you’re moving with care, making sure to focus on your footwork, mina will definitely take the chance to show off her skating skills! she’s moving like crazy, weaving around other people and nearly toppling them over but shh she’s trying to impress you and if i’m being honest??? she’s really fucking good aldkdf 

↠it’s obvious that she loves this hobby, and the fact that she likes you enough to share it with you on your first date is so adorable aaaa

↠mina’s really agile- you don’t know if that’s all the hero training or just something that comes naturally, but the way she moves makes skating look like the easiest goddamn thing in the world-

↠she’s such a romantic, she’s definitely put in a request for the dj to play your favorite song, no matter if it fits the mood or not

↠heavy rock? sure!! as long as you’re having fun, who cares about what other people think? super vulgar rap?? w h y  n o t ? !

↠she just has that extroverted, positive, charming energy that’s infectious

↠you can’t help but feel at ease around her, she’s a genuinely a great person, and what you think the epitome of a hero is

↠all ashido really wants here is to have fun with you- i mean she really likes you, and hopes that she’ll get to go on another date w/ you, so she’s doing everything in her power to woo u

↠and you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t working 🥺👉👈

jirou- hanging out in her room

↠kyouka jirou, being the more introverted person she is, wouldn’t really want to go somewhere super public, like mina would

↠i also believe that she’d want to be friends (or at least acquaintances) with you before asking you on a date- she’s easily annoyed by people, so i think that she’d need to be comfortable around you if she was to be romantically interested 

↠and you’ve ticked all these boxes! you understand her sarcastic, blunt personality, and find it pretty amusing. beyond all that, she’s kind and caring, and deep down, she aspires to be a hero for all the right reasons. who wouldn’t love her for that?

↠so for your first date with kyouka, i think she’d want to be somewhere quiet and intimate with you. she wouldn’t want any interruptions ((specifically from jammingyay, who enjoys butting his head in other peoples’ business))

↠the most comfortable place for her would be her room, since it’s really just an extension of her personality, and since you’re quite close, she’d be okay with letting you in her private space. she trusts you.

↠just two guys bein dudes 🤠 ((if you’re a girl, it’s just sappho and her friend--))

↠music is one of the biggest things in jirou’s life, and i think she’d want to share it with you. that is, if you’d let her :)) she has dozens of different instruments, so if you want to attempt to learn something, she’d be totally down!! 

↠please show her what kind of music you’re into! no matter what it is, she’ll listen to it. she wants to get to know what kind of person you are when you’re not around other people, and music is a great way to do that. even if you don’t have the same taste as her, she wouldn’t mind, since a) she’ll listen to pretty much anything, she’s not picky; and b) it’s something that you’re showing her, and that’s enough to make her happy

↠she’s not a very formal person, so i think she’d just want to talk to you and hang out. i’d think kyouka would be more of a fan of a gradual relationship, one that starts from friends and slowly evolves into more. and yes, as you can probably tell, i am a sucker for mutual pining and friends-to-lovers tropes-- im a simple hoe 😌

↠she’s super fun to hang out with!! her sense of humor is really snarky, she also enjoys talking shit about people she doesn’t like. if you’re not into that, she’s able to carry on conversation really well. there’s not a moment of awkward silence between you

↠jirou actually really likes talking shit about people hsahsh- as long as it’s someone that’s been mean in some way. she won’t say anything bad about someone who hasn’t done anything to deserve it. but if you’ve wronged her in some way, boy, do you have it COMING

↠by the end of it, i just know your cheeks hurt from laughing 

↠she’s just a really fun person to be around, she may not be the most bubbly person ever, but she’s super easy-going and cool ((jirou bias incoming ekejke))

↠i do think she’d try to sneak some kind of affection if she thinks you’d reciprocate- if you’re really getting along well, she might snake her hand into yours when you’re sitting on the bed, laughing

↠honestly you might not even notice until she stops, because your hand feels empty and cold without her like your heart aa

↠if she’s really into you?? might get a smol peck on the cheek 👉👈 please try to get a smol peck on the cheek, it’s very cute and she gets so flustered

↠she goes up to you as you’re about to leave her room, grabs your shoulder, turns you around, and gives you an adorable if not slightly aggressive smooch

↠then she reFUSES to acknowledge what she just did akdfld- she turns away, beet red, and is completely silent

↠meanwhile you’re probably laughing your ass off because wow she’s so cute

↠kudos if you give one back to her, baby is on the verge of exploding ejkdjf 

↠her heart just can’t handle what you’re doing to her

↠and despite what her appearance is, her heart is doing backflips- she’s whipped <33

momo: tea and c u d d l e s

↠she’s a very fancy person, obviously. yaoyorozu wants only the best for everyone she loves, and that, of course, includes you! she loves showing affection through giving things to others. her family status only magnifies this aspect of her personality, as being born into wealth gives her the means to spoil you rotten

↠and even though she’s bougie as all hell, she also somehow maintains an elegant and simple air about her. it’s impressive, really. it’s not like she tries to flex her money, it’s just a part of her life, and she enjoys using her privilege well

↠that being said, what’s more elegant and mature than going for tea? it’s a lovely pastime that momo would love to include you in! 

↠lowkey,, she’s a whole sugar momma dfkdjla im not even joking- she doesn’t try to be, but virtually everything she does shows how rich she is

↠you arrive at the tea room, and by god is it fancy. there’s multiple chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, which is decorated with classic renaissance-style paintings. all the tables are set with white cloth, plates made of pure fine china, flowers and woven baskets set everywhere to create a cottagecore-like setting. the air about it is so sophisticated, from the patrons (wait is that a celebrity-) to the decorations

↠your face is kinda just,,, 😮,, because what in the world did momo get you into??

“momo, you’re so sweet, and this place is lovely, but don’t you think this is a bit much? not that i don’t absolutely appreciate it, it’s just that this seems really expensive, and i don’t want you to have to spend that much for just one date.”

↠she just chuckles, saying that it was “really nothing” (???? MISS GIRL???)

“don’t worry, y/n, this isn’t too much! i want to have fun today, and this place is so nice! let’s just find a table, alright?”

↠like, hunney, you’re so kind, but this is a LOT

↠but if you say so....

↠she looks at you with the most enthusiastic, wholesome eyes, and soon you’re following her like a puppy towards your table. the waiter sits you down, and leaves, giving you a moment to glaze over the menu to find a drink

↠and there’s so many types of teas, at least 30 on this page alone. you hadn’t even heard of half of these drinks, how would you know if you’d like them?

↠yaomomo seemed to notice your puzzlement, and said that you could get a pot of something simple, like jasmine green or earl grey, and she would get something fancier that you could try. why not?

↠a few minutes later, you’ve already adjusted to the sophisticated and intimidating environment, focusing only on the girl across from you, and how her eyes glittered with happiness

↠she orders a few normal tea foods, like scones with jam, lemon curd, and devonshire cream, and finger sandwiches. the fanciest thing she buys, though, is a blooming tea that arrives in a clear pot. it has an open flower inside of it, which is what the tea is infused with. it’s nearly 16,100 yen for one pot, though, and while you protest its expense, momo reassures you that it’s no problem (you just learned not to say anything about money, as it wouldn’t stop yaoyorozu from spoiling you)

↠ngl, it’s so fun to pretend to be fancy for a few hours at a tea room !! you acted as if you were a member of high society, using stereotypes to exaggerate your actions. it made some people only slightly irritated, but hey, it got a laugh out of a pretty girl, so who’s the real winner? 

↠yaomomo taught you some classy etiquette that you should definitely use, it makes her so happy to think that you’re learning about new things while still enjoying your time with her

↠she makes really good conversation!! her intellect seeps through everything she says, anyone who talks to her would be able to tell that she’s extremely well-spoken and mature. momo is modest, and deflects a lot of the compliments you try to give her, so if you try to display your admiration for her, you’d probably need to be very specific about it. she doesn’t have the best self-image when it comes to her heroism and field work. spoken affection sometimes doesn’t get through to her, but you know what does? physical affection!

↠she loves cuddles, and will regularly take you back to her house after a date to cuddle in her bed. her mattress is legendary, and it’s comfortable as hell. there’s an abundance of pillows and the bed isn’t too soft or too firm, and it’s always somehow an amazing temperature???? mattresses are investments, and this was definitely a good one

↠momo loves the intimacy and trust of holding you, it allows her to escape from overthinking and only focus on you, her beautiful partner. she doesn’t care if she’s the big or little spoon, but her favorite kind of cuddling is when you’re on your back and she’s curled into your side, head tucked under your chin and hand on your chest

↠she can do this for hours, please let her. she feels safe with you, confident, because you’re choosing to spend time with her in this quiet moment instead of being off somewhere else.

↠in conclusion,,, 💕women 💕

-denkineptune

[yessoupy]

you didn't ask for this take, but i'm offering it anyway.

i started watching michael phelps in 2000. i distinctly remember the day i found out that he'd gone pro at 16. my swim coach had us all guess who he was talking about and when he said it was michael my brain went, "that kid from last year???"

the athens games in 2004 came around and the kid from sydney was now 19 years old and dominating. he won 6 golds and 2 bronzes and whenever anyone made comments that he'd "failed" with those two bronzes (one in the 200m free when he lost to IAN THORPE AND PIETER VAN DEN HOOGENBAND, THE BEST and the other in the 4x100 free relay where the south africans just came out of NOWHERE and surprised EVERYONE), my reaction was "what the fuck???? he's third in the biggest meet there is???? that's not failure!!! your expectation that he achieve perfection was unrealistic! don't blame him for that." i've been fiercely protective of olympic athletes since a very young age -- i was 10 when i learned about greg louganis and his struggles. that made a big impact on me.

when mike was pulled over for rolling a stop sign back home in maryland and blew a .08 on the breathalyzer? my mind went right to all of the stories i'd found about olympians suffering from post-olympic depression. (were there a lot of stories? nope! but there were enough that it was something i knew about and worried about for my favorite athletes.)

then it was 2008 and mike was going for EIGHT GOLDS IN EIGHT RACES and the media was all over him and his face was serious and i wasn't watching those olympics live, i don't know if i could handle it. (my family had moved to hawaii and the first week of the olympics was the week i spent in texas before heading back to college. i also went to 7 baseball games in those 7 games, and my friend and i watched the prime time re-run every evening......)

the fact that mike was able to accomplish that feat was pure dumb luck. his finish that won him the 100m fly against mike cavic was the worst way to finish a race and every swim coach CRINGED but had he not taken the stroke he'd have lost. i can't even talk about the 4x100 free relay -- that gold was EARNED by jason lezak. EVEN IN THE SHINY SUIT ERA NO ONE BEAT HIS RELAY SPLIT.

but anyway. imagine having all of that pressure in 2008, when twitter was a thing but not really, managing to muscle through a grueling 8 days of racing at the highest level of your sport, being on every talk show and cereal box and magazine and on and on, and then you go home, where you swim AT a university but aren't a student, and you go to a party and hit the bong and a picture gets out and you have to apologize for letting loose because America made you a role model.

Then it was 2012, and that was supposed to be it. He'd retired. But he had no idea what to do with himself.

He didn't know what he was if he wasn't a swimmer. So he went in and competed again in 2016. Imagine being in THAT situation! The only thing you know how to do is swim 10km a day.

Now you see him on commercials for mental health apps, and I think I've seen his interview about Simone Biles' decision like 5 times without even looking for it. He's the greatest Olympian of all time, hands down. (There are some arguments someone COULD make about other athletes, but it's not like he was only swimming freestyle for all those medals .....) The fact that the greatest Olympian of all time is out there saying to the American people that we need to prioritize the mental health of these athletes, and that he supports Simone in her decision? Whether you like the image of that or not, the reality is that that means the WORLD in this space. It's HUGE for him to be on American media and speaking about this to the American public.

And what Simone has done in speaking about her mental health and taking a step back? That's HUGE for the athletes themselves. It's one thing for Mike to be out there talking about what he went through, it's another for her to be out there talking about what she's GOING through. The positive impact that she's going to have on the mental health of other athletes cannot be overstated. "If Simone Biles could make this decision for herself at the Olympics, I can do it too."

I know that Mike is ~problematic. The swimming world is a small one, though, and I've been part of it for 20 years. To me, Mike isn't just that Olympic athlete who's around every 4 years to win some medals. He's the guy who put my sport on the map and whose athletic feats inspired a new generation of swimmers (Katie Ledecky, Joe Schooling, Chad le Clos, the list goes on!). Mike's the guy I almost ran over in the parking garage because he doesn't pay attention in parking lots/garages (this was not the only time; there are multiple stories from multiple people). Mike's the guy who'd always sign autographs for the kids whenever he wasn't actively swimming --

Mike's a human being who's made mistakes and hasn't always been the BEST ambassador for the sport, but you know what? I was proud of him each time he won a medal, but I'm more proud of him now for what he's doing outside of the pool.

[dancingthesambaa]

The Smell of Plum Blossom Tea Ch 9

Summary: Just like a butterfly wing, a single act of kindness can change the course of the future, it certainly did for MK as a black furred monkey put out a hand towards him.

Rating: Teen and up

Chapter 9: Decisions and Hesitations

“You really want to do this, you really want to try and race me?” Mei asks as she sees MK roll up in the restaurant scooter.

“I’m in it to win it!” He cockily said, “and besides I always wanted to try out one of these races, my new powers are gonna seriously help me!”

“So are we!” They see an orange and blue demon with their own car as they posed ontop of it.

“Yin!”

“And Gin!”

“You don’t even know the track!” The pro racer yelled out as she leaned in closer to him.

“I got Monkey King powers! I think I will be fine!”

“It doesn’t work like that!”

Needless to say, both demons were ignored, but the next demon wasn’t as he revved up his engine.

“Quiet peasants! I’m trying to get in the zone!” Red Son called out as he kept his eye on the track in front of him.

“Oh hey Red! I didn’t know you were participating!” MK smiled and gave a wave.

“Well the prize is a worthwhile venture to be acquired,” he huffed out.

“Well I hope you boys will like the taste of my fumes when I leave you both in the dust!” She grinned savagely.

“Please, you will be the one tasting my dust!” The Monkie kid shot back.

“You want to bet on it!”

“Oh yeah! The usual?”

“You know it, you want to join in hot head?” She asked the prince.

“As if I would want to participate in your frivolous competition,” he rolled his eyes.

“Awww, it sounds like you scared,” she began to mock him.

“What!” A burst of flame emerged.

“Chicken! Bawk! Bawk! Bawk!” MK flapped his arms as he did that.

“Red Son is no coward! What is the bet!” He hissed out as steam emitted from his mouth.

“Loser has to treat the other to an all you can eat ice cream!” MK quickly shouted.

“Deal!”

“And it looks like things are heating up down in the tracks!” Yin stated as he and his brothers entered the commenter podium.

“And on a totally unrelated note, we're the new commentators,” Jin added as he grabbed the mic.

“I really shouldn’t be surprised something like this would happen,” MK sighed as he quickly put his seatbelt on.

“And to spice things up we’ve gone ahead and altered the race track!”

“WHAT!” Not only the trio, but every racer shouted out as they saw the now new and updated version of the track on the screen.

“Here’s your start and here’s your finish, get there anyway you like!” Yin said as she pointed to multiple areas.

“Fuck me!” One of the racers screamed out as he slammed his head against the wheel.

“Well there goes all of my plans!” Another angrily said in a red car as she honked her horn violently.

“I’m gonna kill them,” a calm voice said as they gripped the wheel.

“This is fine,” someone’s eye twitches violently, “this is perfectly fine.”

“On your marks!”

“Hold on!” Mei cried out as she tried to figure out if that really just happened.

“Get set!”

“Wait what!?” Red Son blanched as he looked at the commentator sector, more specifically the twin demons, as if he wanted to climb up there and rip both their mouths off.

“Go!” They echoed together as only MK began to drive off as he had no previous experience with racing, so he wasn’t weighed down on the dangers, uncertainties, and screwups that can occur with not having the road memorized.

“See you at the finish line!”

“Oh hell no!” Mei revved her engine and began to chase after him.

“Get back here!” Red Son did the same as he quickly followed and soon enough everyone joined in as well.

“I still can’t believe that they weren’t real,” MK grumbled as he licked his ice cream.

“I still can’t believe the both of you thought it was real,” Mei smirked as she pointed her spoon at them.

“In hindsight, I should have never thought that the peaches of immortality would ever be a prize in a mortal sport,” Red Son grumbled as he bit into his cone. “Every demon, creature, and mortal alike would be flocking at the chance of immortality if it was real.”

“Well jokes on the both of you, cause now I can savor my free delicious goodness,” she held up her cup.

“You don’t have to rub it in,” the boy groaned.

“Yeah, I do. I mean, who was saying that they only needed the great Monkey King powers to win?” She put her finger to her chin, “Oh right! It was you!”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Well since you got me my wonderful prize, your apology has been accepted. Just try not to be dumb next time.”

“All I can do is try!”

“If it wasn’t for you, I would have won!” The flame demon half glared at MK.

“To be fair, how was I supposed to know that I crashed into you when I fell out of the sky!” He threw his hands up. “I was just trying to get ahead!”

“Well now my vehicle is in ruins because of you!”

“You're not the only one, Pigsy is gonna kill me once I get back,” he smacked his head on the table.

“Don’t you have Monkey King powers?” She pointed out.

“Huh?” MK tilted his head as the demon's eyes widened in realization as he smacked his face.

“You could have fixed it!” He roared out.

“Oh right!” He had totally forgotten that he could do that, “I am soo doing that after we eat.”

Red Son grabbed him by his collar and brought him close until they were nose to nose, “I have spent countless months making and fine tuning my car to my tastes and you, noodle boy, have ruined that in less than a second. You will fix my car now.”

“Oor I can do that,” he quickly grabbed his staff and went outside as the two follow.

“Don’t worry,” Mei patted the demon's shoulder, “I know exactly your pain. Love him, but he almost lost a hand after he managed to bust my engine.”

“I said I was sorry!” He called out as both vehicles reverted back to their original state with a few missing pieces here and there.

“Tell that to my motor!”

Red Son inspected his car and nodded his head, “still some parts missing, but an adequate patch up job nonetheless. I will bring it back to its former glory when I bring it back home.”

“Your welcome,” the Monkie kid smiled.

“You're the one who broke it in the first place!”

“Point,” he then walked a little way closer, “soo I guess this means you're gonna head home now.” He said a bit sadly, he liked hanging out with Red, he is one of the few, besides Mei, who can match his level of energy. So it was always a bummer whenever he had to head back to his crummy family, he had heard how parents talked to him and needless to say, he did not like it.

The demon side eyed his friend's words and huffed, “I can do whatever I want, you have no authority over me.” He marched back inside with his head held high.

Both MK and Mei's eyes slightly widened at this, but they both shared grins as they quickly followed him back inside the shop.

“So question, is water wet?” She couldn’t help herself.

“By the-of course it is wet!” He looked so lost at the random question.

“Nope it’s not,” MK stood firm in his belief, he knew what Mei was doing, but he was not about to let this go.

“Of course it is noodle boy! If water makes other materials wet then by default the water is wet!”

“Key word ‘other materials’ the water itself is not wet.”

“That makes no sense, of course it is!”

“It makes perfect sense!”

“Do you have a brain or is it hiding under all that stupidity?!”

“I will not back down from this, water is not wet!”

“In what world!”

Mei happily sat back and enjoyed the chaos she just unfolded.

“Nice job MK,” Monkey King complimented his protege when he saw him master the reverse strike. “You are getting quite the hang of this.”

“Thanks!” He smiled as he swung his staff back to his side.

“You're learning faster than I have ever anticipated, are you learning from another teacher behind my back?” He narrowed his eyes teasingly though it still held a hint of seriousness as he was curious about how he knew some of those moves.

“No!” He immediately said, but he backtracked moments later, “well yeah, but not like that! It’s just that my Dad has been teaching me some fighting moves for the past couple of years.”

“Lighten up,” he jokingly ruffled his head, “I’m just teasing you. Though I seriously have to meet your old man sooner or later, he seems like a pretty cool dude if he’s teaching you all this.”

“Of-,” he cut himself off as he realized what he was about to do. His dear ol Dad, the medicine monkey who has a grumpy temper, the biggest worrier he has ever met, was Macaque, the same monkey who tried to kill the Monkey King and the rest of the gang, albeit under a huge misunderstanding.

He cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to meet his Dad again.

While he doesn’t think that Monkey King will go off the rails and try to exterminate him on sight, he rather not take the chance either way. But, as much as he hates to admit it, there will always be the possibility that the two will meet sooner or later.

“Maybe later,” he nervously said as he scratched the back of his neck. “But how about teaching me something else, likkke a certain 72 transformation technique.” He really wanted to learn this out of all the moves.

The monkey sage merely quirked his eyebrow at his student's blatant tell, but he let it slide…for now. “Oh ho ho, now why should I teach you that?”

“But why not?”

“But why?” He shot back.

“But, but, but it would be so cool!” It really would be so cool, transforming into all those different kinds of animals, but he does have to admit that he does have a certain animal that he is leaning towards.

“It is definitely a cool move,” he agreed as he balanced on his tail, “but you don’t have to learn that at the moment.”

“Oh come on, when will I be ready,” he huffed out.

“When I say you are,” he poked the middle of his forehead then playfully snagged his violet bandana off his head and began to run away.

“Hey! Give that back!” He began to chase the monkey as they traverse up the mountain.

“Here’s your next lesson,” he tied the bandana to his left arm as he was standing on top of a large boulder. “We will be focusing on your stamina next, you seem to have a lot, but I want to test out how long you can go for.”

“Oh I can go on for a long time!” He cockily stated as he had already climbed up halfway to him, “so you better give me back my bandana when I catch you!”

“Good luck with that,” he shot back with the same arrogance as he hopped over to a tree that was quite a distance away. He silently watched his protege leaped from the rock to the tree closest to it, then he saw him stumble a bit with the different texture as he climbed on, but this is when he became a bit confused as he saw him sit down on one of the tree branches and proceeded to take his shoes and socks off. “What are you doing?” He muttered out.

Then he saw MK begin to climb once more and, he noted, that he actually began to have an easier time with climbing and swinging from tree to tree. “Well, I’ll be.”

It was only when MK got closer did he ask, “so it seems that I have underestimated your climbing skills, is this what your Dad also taught you?”

“Kinda,” he brightly said as he kept on climbing, “I was raised in the Plum Blossom Forest, I might as well have been born in there! I think that I have climbed every tree imaginable that was in that forest.”

“The Plum Blossom Forest,” the Monkey King mused. He knew of it, it had popped up a couple of centuries back, but he really never had a chance to check it out before. “Sounds interesting, I didn’t know humans were living there,” he subtly asked.

“There isn’t,” MK automatically said, not understanding the sage question.

“Oh? Is that so? So you visit often,” he curiously asked as he moved to a different treetop.

“Stop moving! But, no I live there, I thought I already told you that,” MK huffed as he moved over to the next tree.

“No, you said nothing of sorts,” he mocked back, “but if there is no human there, then how about you and your Dad?”

“Well I am the only human, my Dad’s not,” he momentarily stopped mid climb as he just realized what he admitted, but continued to climb. “He’s a demon.”

“A demon, that is something you don’t hear every day,” he teased. He has nothing against interspecies relationships, but he does have to admit that there aren't many couples like that out there. Prejudice is a right bitch at times no matter how much the eras may go past. “Your parents must really have a strong relationship with each other.”

As MK was about to say something an idea began to form in his head as he calmly switched tracks and said, “Nah, it’s just my Dad. He adopted me after he found me in the rain out in the alley after I got lost.” While he doesn’t want the two to meet again, he can admit to himself that there will always be a possibility that it will happen, so why not let the Monkey King see his Macaque in a better light.

His eyes widened as he heard this, but other than that, his entire form stayed the same, “Well that was nice of him,” was all he said.

MK only felt a bit bad about trying to manipulate the great Monkey King, but he kinda doesn’t want his Dad to be turned into utter paste if they ever meet again. So he will use every trick in the book he learns from both him and Mei and makes sure that when this all blows up in his face then at least he will have some resemblance of a bomb shelter to shield them from the blast.

So like he said, he only felt a bit bad.

“Yep! He’s been raising me ever since then!” He cheerily added as he eyed a certain monkey keeping his poor bandana hostage.

Wukong opted to stay quiet at this as he let the rest of the implications fall over him on his student situation. Though he did move back to the mountain once he got too close once again.

“Oh come on!”

“Seriously, why does this Forest even have faeries?!” Red Son yelled out as he finally found his way to the treehouse.

“Hello to you too,” MK grinned as he saw him and Mei walk towards him. “I didn’t know you two were coming together.”

“We weren’t,” Mei grumbled in irritation, “but some faeries decided that this is the time that they wanted to be devious, so I was stuck there for three hours!”

“I was in there for two before I saw biker girl,” the demon added as he stomped over to the tree. “If we didn’t spot each other, I was about to set fire to everything around me just so I can finally come here.”

“Agreed,” she growled out. This wasn’t her first time dealing with those half pint brats and she knows it won’t be her last. “Even Baba was laughing at us.”

“If I didn’t respect her so much I would be furious with her,” Red grumbled. He had met the divine creature on multiple occasions as he has always felt like an ant in her eyes whenever they meet. It was both infuriating and fascinating at the same time.

“At least they didn’t try to make deals with you,” MK tried to look on the bright side, only to get twin glares.

“I know better than to even play nice with a murderous being that is not even the size of my pinky! Mei doesn’t fuck with that kind of trickery, I like my soul thank you very much.”

“The faeries of this forest don’t do deals,” both humans looked at him in confusion, “I know, weird, but apparently Macaque told me some time ago when I first mentioned them that he and the Queen of the colony made a deal that they can stay in his forest as long as they don’t attempt to harm anyone that wanders in.” Now when he first heard this he was more than a little skeptical. Faeries, especially Woodland Faeries, are known for tricking their prey into a deal that usually ends with them losing their soul. Just because they look cute and innocent, doesn’t mean that they aren’t cold, manipulative little bastards stuffed with wiggly cruelty. He should know, he and his family have met with several of their kinds in his travels and even his parents refuse to have anything to do with those cretins.

“But they can still do shit like this,” she pointed out.

“Unfortunately yes,” he grumbled and he couldn’t help but add, “and I would have been able to maneuver my way through this if you didn’t insist on going your own way.”

“Me?” She marched up to him and pointed a finger at his chest, “You were the one getting all high and mighty and strutting around the forest like your hot shit! I was just following you fancy pants.”

“Ridiculous! You were the one saying ‘Don’t worry I know this forest like the back of my hand’ but apparently, you don’t know it as much as you hoped,” he slapped her hand away.

“Guys,” MK tried to butt in, but it was no use as their argument grew louder.

“Oh ho ho! Look who's talking Mr. ‘This is hardly a hassle for someone like me!’ But I guess someone like you ain’t worth the title you own!”

“Mei no,” the boy looked towards her.

“Not. Worth. My. Title?!” His head flickered in fury as steam began to come out.

“Red please,” MK practically was begging at this point.

He almost seemed to listen…almost as he calmly retorted “That says a lot a little coming from you little miss princess.”

“Goddamnit,” he sighed as he quickly stepped back as Mei tackled Red Son as she screamed.

“I am no fucking Princess! I am a goddamn Queen!”

The two began to brawl wildly across the area and the more Mei punched Red in the face and Red kneed her in the stomach, more and more bruises began to form.

“Honestly I’m shocked that this didn’t happen sooner,” he admitted as he sat back and watched their fight.

Then when both Dragon successor and Bull prince managed to throw each other away from one another, one brought out a glowing viridian sword in hand and the other lit up his fist in all its blaze of glory.

“Shit!” MK shouted as he began to sprint towards them with staff in hand.

Mei rushed towards Red Son with frustration in her eyes and he charged her with irritation on his own and just before their attacks hit one another a certain staff blocked their way and the trio attack let out a devastating roar.

BOOOM!

They all were pushed back by a tidal wave of heat and air but managed to stay on their feet.

“Okay I wasn't expecting that!” MK was the first one to say as he got his bearings. “A little boom, yes, but not whatever that was.”

“I hate to admit it, but I agree with you noodle boy,” Red Son said as he lowered his arms and looked down at their crater.

“You’re telling me,” Mei looked impressed by their miniature destruction as she looked around the area, “we managed to cause quite a bit of-FUCK!”

“What?!” Both boys whipped towards Mei, who looked oddly terrified as she pointed towards the tree line. They followed her finger and what they saw made them match her own face as standing at what used to be a beautiful grove of Plum Blossoms, was now a charred pile of ash.

“Nononono!” MK rushed over as he tried to examine the charred ground. “I thought I blocked it!”

“Well I think you redirect it!” Mei said in a panic as well, she knew very well just how much the trees meant to Macaque and now they had all done and fucked them up.

“How?!”

“Magic does strange things,” was all Red Son could mutter as he looked down at his destruction. He has never known why these trees were so important, after all this whole forest has an abundance of these, but during his multiple visits here he has gotten small snippets from both Macaque unruly friends and the creatures that dwell here of how important these trees mean to the Six Eared monkey. So, he tries his best to neither harm nor burn down a tree when he visits, despite not knowing why. Now he has thrown that all in the trash as he sees he has ruined something of importance to him.

“Now is not the time?!” MK panicked screamed as he tried to pick up the ash, but it just fell through his fingers. “This is so bad.”

“Are you guys okay?!” They all stiffen and quickly turn to see both Macaque and Ahmed leap towards them with worry on their faces. The monkey continued, “I heard screaming and an explosion.”

They all rushed in front as they tried, and failed, to cover their mess.

“We’re perfectly fine,” Mei grinned wide, “nothing is wrong.”

“She is correct,” Red Son nervously smiled, “everything is quite fine.”

“Yep,” MK didn’t look his Dad in the eyes, “we didn’t do anything bad.”

Both biker and demon elbowed him.

Ahmed and Macaque both looked at each other questioningly.

“Okay, what are you guys hiding?” He crossed his arms and looked to them, more specifically his son.

MK couldn’t help but look up and saw his Dad questioning look and he caved in faster than a house on fire as he wailed. “I’M SO SORRY!”

Mei and Red Son flinched as well as their shoulders dropped down in shame.

“Hey hey,” the monkey kneeled in front of his son as the lion gave a comforting pat on the other two shoulders. “Whatever happened, I’m sure it’s not too bad.”

“No, we fucked up real bad,” she whimpered out with her head lowered. “I am really sorry.”

“No words of apologies can amount to my failure,” the demon lowered his head as well.

“Seriously what happened?” He tried to ask but got only silence and tears in reply.

Ahmed did a quick scan around and he snorted as he saw what was behind them, “I think they're referring to the charred pile of ash behind them.”

The kids all stiffen as they watched Macaque see their destruction and it was only a moment of tense silence that had passed as they all awaited the inevitable yelling, but it wasn’t the one they were anticipating as he started to chuckle.

“Pffffftt, I’m gonna take a guess and say this was you guy’s creation,” he couldn’t help but smirk.

“Yessss?” She drew out the ‘s’ in confusion, “me and Red got in an argument and, well-”

“We fought and then MK stepped in to stop us, but it made it worse and then that happened,” he waved over their mess. “You don’t look mad?”

“Cause I’m not.”

“Really?!” They all shouted as MK continued, “but you told us just how much these trees meant to you and how you grew them yourself and you're telling us that it’s okay?!”

“Yep,” he popped the ‘p’ as he said that.

“But, but why!?”

“Look kiddos, I know both you and gale watched Ahmed and I fight some time ago right,” he said.

“Yeah?” Both humans agreed.

“So you know that we may have gotten more than a little wild with our fight and some things got utterly wrecked.”

“What’s the point of this?”

“I think what he’s trying to say is that during our fight, we destroyed an abundance of Plum trees,” Ahmed stepped in.

“…you know you did, didn’t you,” Mei mused out.

“Oh,” MK blinked as he did remember the clearing getting trashed to the point where it was almost unrecognizable to its previous state. “I suddenly feel like an idiot.”

“You're not the only one.”

“What fight?” Red curiously asked as Mei gave him a quick rundown.

“It’s the thought that counts starlight,” he smirked as he ruffled his son's hair.

“Sure, but I still feel bad,” he mumbled as he kicked a rock.

“Hmm well how bout this,” he grabbed the trio's attention, “to pay me back, all three of you are gonna plant a plant in that spot.”

“Like another Plum Tree or-” the monkey demon cut her off.

“Any plant you want, heck you can even plant daffodils. Those suckers can grow practically anywhere, but you guys will be the ones to take care of your plant. Deal.”

“Deal,” they all nodded.

“Alright but before we do that,” he brings out some bags and gloves, “how bout we clean up your mess.”

“Okay!/Let's do this!/This area will look even better than before!” MK, Mei, and Red Son all shouted as they grabbed the materials and began to clean up.

“I just noticed,” MK said as he put on his gloves with a mischievous grin, as he looked towards Red, “you said my name!”

He blushed as he remembered, but turned away, “no I didn’t.”

Mei matched her brother's grin, “you totally did!”

“It was the slip of the tongue!”

“Awww, you're finally warming up to us!”

“Shut your lying mouth!”

Both monkey and lion shared an amused look as they watched two humans and a demon, one side playfully argue and the other in complete denial, go at it.

It was not until a few weeks later did the once charred spot began to reform back in its former glory, but instead of Plum blossom saplings in its place there was a patch of Protea seeds grown by a Dragon girl, some Lotus buds planted by a Bull prince, and a section of Magnolia saplings nurtured by a Monkey successor.

“One day, you have to tell me how you make these noodles,” Macaque said as he quietly slurped down the rest of the food.

“Trade secret simian,” Pigsy chuckled as he wiped down his counter. “But I might let my lips loose a little if you tell me how you make your Dim Sum dumplings.”

“That can be arranged,” he grinned as he put down his empty bowl, “so, how have you and Tang been doing?”

The pig demon groaned as he stopped himself from slamming his head on the counter, “did Mei put you up to this?”

“Yep,” he unashamedly said.

“Of course she did,” he grumbled, “well tell her that there is nothing there.”

“But you want something to be there,” he pointed his dark green sparkly nail at him. Breezy got him, Comet, and Spitfire to do some nail time and he can say it didn’t turn out so bad. He knows MK was proudly showing off his violet nails against Mei’s bright green ones, even Red was admiring his own sparkly black ones. He even had his long mane of fur braided by them and it goes to show that you can learn new things about someone, he didn’t know little spitfire could braid hair. Apparently, the little prince said he learned it after Daiyu had dragged him off one day to meet some of her siblings, let it be known that he has a weakness towards wide eyed baby birds.

“No I don’t,” he huffed.

He raised an eyebrow.

Pigsy threw up his hands in defeat, “okay fine! Yes! I do like Tang in more than a friend way, happy now.”

“Ecstatic,” he deadpanned as he took a sip of his drink, “so why haven’t you said anything to him? And don’t give me that BS of not wanting to lose your friendship with him.”

“But it is!” He gripped the counter tight for a moment before exhaling, “look, I’ve been through so many crushes and puppy love throughout my life, hell take Spider Queen for one.”

“I think that was more of a lapse of judgment,” he patted the stool next to him.

“Whatever you call it, but for Tang I…I don’t think I ever fell for someone this hard before,” he sighed as he sat down next to the monkey. “I know it’s not a crush, I’ve known him too long and I know him for too long to be something as simple as a crush.”

“So what is it then?”

“I don’t know,” he moaned out as he covered his face with his hands.

“You do,” Pigsy peeked out from between his fingers as he looked at the monkey. “But you just don’t want to say it out loud.”

“Say what?”

“That you love him,” he bluntly stated.

“I do not-”

“So you don’t love the way he smiles?”

“Wha-no I do, but that doesn’t mean-” Pigsy admitted and tried to deny, but was cut off again.

“You don’t like how he looks into your eyes?”

“…his eyes are pretty, but that still-”

“What about how he talks on and on about all that history?”

“Oh fuck off about that!” He lets off a low growl to him, “the man is passionate about what he loves, and goddamnit it’s amazing watching him go on and on about it because he reveres even the smallest of rumors as a treasure no matter how weird they may be! So you can’t sit here and tell me that someone like him doesn’t ignite a spark within your soul as you look deep within him and can’t help but marvel at just how beautiful he is!”

Macaque raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

Pigsy's whole body stilled as he realized what he said, then he firmly said, “but that doesn’t mean that I love him?”

“Why not?”

“Why not? For fuck sake I have never taken Tang out on a date nor do I even know if he even sees me as anything more than an annoying friend,” he slumped down on the counter.

“You don’t have to be dating to be in love,” Pigsy lifted his head to look at Macaque, but the monkey was steadfastly looking forward. “Love cannot be defined in such a small category, there are so many ways that someone can love another without dating. Sometimes it’s when you laughing along with one of their stupid jokes and you realize that there is something there. Sometimes it is loud and boisterous and even when the other is annoying, you can’t help but still want to stay by their side no matter what. Sometimes it’s the quiet times where you are with them and then it clicks that you want something more, that there is something more. It’s that moment, when you're curled up next to them with the sun high in the sky, you know that you love them.”

There was a silence in the air as both demons knew what was implied, but neither had the guts to say anything.

“Macaque,” the pig demon put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Love is not so biased to one category,” the monkey demon continued as if nothing happened, “it cannot be contained in just one. So, I’ll ask again, do you love Tang?”

“…I didn’t even realize when I fell hard until I was listening to him talk about some underwater temple and I just couldn’t stop staring at just how beautiful he was at that moment. He was hella annoyed when he found out I wasn’t even paying to him, but that was then I realized I truly did love him,” Pigsy softly chuckled as he put his hand down.

“You did?” His head shot up at the familiar voice and he turned around to the front of the door to see Sandy, MK, and Mei all surrounding the voice, which made his heart drop as he saw Tang.

“How much did you hear?!”

“Ever since the little crush bit,” Mei smiled widely.

“Mei!”

“We heard it all,” MK joined in.

“MK!”

“It was really sweet Pigsy,” Sandy cooed.

“Sandy!” The pig demon didn’t know who to yell at first and instead turned to the monkey, “Macaque! You knew?!”

“Well I did say I was helping Mei with her plan,” he shrugged with a smirk.

Before Pigsy could lay it on him, he felt a warm hand touch his shoulder and his attention was brought back to a wide eyed historian.

“So is it true?” He asked with something the pig demon didn’t recognize, “did you really mean that?”

It was at that moment when he really wanted to just say it was all one big misunderstanding and maybe, he would be able to salvage the tender relationship he still had with Tang, but when he looked into his eyes he knew that he couldn’t lie to him, not now. “Yeah, I do. I love you and I know this is out of the blue, but I…oh.” He cut himself off as two arms encircled his neck and hugged him as tight as he could. “Uhhhh?”

“We could have been doing this so much sooner,” he heard a small chuckle coming from Tang.

“Done what?” His brain hadn’t had time to properly comprehend what was happening at the moment.

Tang then leaned back to put his own forehead on his head, “I realized I love you a few years back when I saw you cooking dinner back at your apartment, you just looked so content at that moment, just smiling as you sang so badly to that song-”

“Never was a good singer,” he couldn’t help but say as his heart beat faster in his ears.

“ThatI just couldn’t help myself from falling in love with you,” his eyes twinkled.

“You don’t say…” he whispered as he drew the human in closer, “it seems we’re a pair of idiots.”

“You're not wrong there,” Tang agreed as he gave a small kiss on the demon's forehead.

His face blushed a fierce red as he mustered up his own courage and kissed the back of the historian hand that was entwined with his.

Tang's smile also grew brighter as he hauled Pigsy up closer to him and placed a kiss right dab on his lips. It wasn’t until elated cheers that the two released each other from the other lips, though they still didn’t let go of the other as throughout the exchange their arms wrapped around the other.

“Woohoo!” MK cheered as he leaped in the air.

“Freenoddleshipping for the win!” Mei pumped her fist in the air.

“It’s about time,” Macaque smirked as his tail swished behind him.

“I am so happy for you guys!” Sandy wailed as he picked both his friends up in a giant hug.

“Sandy! You're kinda crushing us over here!”

“And there goes my bones.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m just so happy for you guys!!”

“Sandy!”

“Operation Lovebird is a success!” The twenty year old grinned as she lobbed her arm around MK's shoulder. “I told you it would work, we just needed the right guy or the right monkey.”

“None of you knows subtly unless it hits you on the head,” the monkey demon said.

“You're not wrong!”

“Speaking of love,” the ponytailed boy walked up to his Dad, “it seemed that something was going on in that speech of yours?”

“Yeahh,” Mei slid up to him, “it seemed like you were talking about someone? Who is it?”

“It’s no one,” he slightly shook his head as he had a nostalgic look on his face, “just an old flame.”

The two shared a surprised, but curious look.

“Now how bout the three of us say our congratulations to the lovebirds for finally getting their head out of their asses before Sandy cuts off their circulation,” he grinned as he ruffled their heads.

“Yeah!/ I am so gonna hold this over both of their heads for a long time,” both monkey and dragon successor grinned as they followed their Dad. Though that little conversation did not leave their mind in the slightest as it was only shifted to the side for now. If the monkey simply thought that they were gonna let it go like that then he has another thing coming.

‘We’re gonna look into this?’ MK’s eyes said as it sideglanced Mei.

‘Duh, like hell we’re gonna let it go.’ Mei agreed with a slight narrow of her eyes.

They had to develop some kind of method to sneak past Macaque and his six ears, else they would have never been able to catch him by surprise.

He did not like this. This technically doesn’t go against the deal they made with Macaque, but he does not like this in the slightest.

‘Why does he have this? Why couldn’t any other mortal or demon have the skeleton key?’ Red Son silently thought as he snuck into MK’s room. ‘Why does it have to be ones I’m acquainted with?’

His eyes widened as he saw, lying precariously on the nightstand, was the skeleton key. ‘Why did it have to go to MK of all people?! Wait? Why the hell did you leave such a dangerous object out in the open?!’ He wanted to scream the last part out, but he held it in instead as he looked towards the key.

He then reached out to grab it, only to stop and retreat a few steps back then he worked up the courage to go back and grab it only for his hand to stop once more and he let out a frustrated groan as he pulled his hair.

‘Damn it! It’s right there and all I need to do is grab it and get out! But I made a deal with Macaque, but this technically doesn’t go against the deal as I’m not physically attacking him, but this still feels wrong!’ He angrily huffed out as he paced the room in agitation as he tried to work himself back up, but then he deflated as he walked to the window.

‘But I can’t do that to him, to them. I can’t,’ he opened the window with his head lowered as he was about to jump out, but then he froze as a prominent thought drilled out.

‘Mother and Father will be disappointed with me.’

He lowered his foot that was about to go out the window.

‘Mother and Father will be disappointed with me.’

He let go of the hand that was on the window.

‘Mother and Father will be disappointed with me.’

With that he rushed over to the key, quickly snatched it up, and placed it in his pocket as if it burned as he leaped out of the window and leaped from rooftop to rooftop.

‘I’m sorry MK, but I can’t have Father and Mother disappointed with me.’ Was his final thought as he moved further and further away from his friend's apartment.

[thesoftboiledegg]

OK, now that I've gotten my least favorite episodes out of the way, here's my ranking of my favorite Rick and Morty episodes (up to season four):

Season one: "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" I don't think this is necessarily the best episode, but it's still my favorite episode of all time. The Citadel of Ricks sounds ridiculous (or rick-diculous) in theory, but somehow that episode makes it work. This show introduces so many great concepts: the Citadel, Doofus Rick, evil Morty, the evil Rick robot. It was fascinating to see a sweet, gentle Rick that got along well with Jerry as well as an evil Morty whose true motivations are still unknown. Plus, this episode was fun and hilarious to boot. It's basically the ideal Rick and Morty episode--a fun, exciting adventure that introduces an intriguing sci-fi concept and sets up a bigger story that carries through the rest of the show. I'm still wondering what Rick's comment about a "cocky Morty" was about (and I'm pretty sure the rest of the fandom is, too.)

Season three: "The Rickshank Redemption" OK, this is it. This is the best Rick and Morty episode of the entire series. The episode cleverly starts with a fake-out, then turns into an exciting, fast-paced adventure that actually shows Rick's brilliance instead of just telling us that he's smart. We get our biggest glimpse of Rick's backstory to date (who knows how much of it is true, but still), character development for Morty and Summer, worldbuilding for the Citadel of Ricks and a brilliant callback to "Rick Potion #9." At the end, Beth and Jerry finally separate, a decision that has major impacts for the rest of the season instead of resetting itself in the next episode. The insanity all culminates in Rick going on another unhinged, manic tirade in the garage that ushers in the "darkest year of our adventures." This episode also had a huge cultural impact with the now-infamous Szechuan sauce reference. I don't think Rick and Morty is ever going to top this one, which is so well-paced that it feels like it's longer than twenty minutes.

Season three: "The Ricklantis Mixup" The Citadel worldbuilding is excellent (and again, it's a concept that shouldn't work, but somehow does), but what really makes this episode stand out is how it weaves together multiple stories that seem like they're unrelated at first but come together in the final conclusion. This episode is a brilliant commentary on the issues that plague modern society (which is rare for Rick and Morty) and explores how Ricks and Mortys from alternate realities can be wildly different, which doesn't really come up in other multiverse episodes. The artwork in this episode is top notch, too. Just a phenomenal episode all around.

Season two: "Interdimensional Cable 2" This is probably the episode I've watched the most. I wasn't a fan of the first Interdimensional Cable episode, but this episode pretty much fixed all the issues that I had with it. Most of the clips were so bizarre and unfamiliar that you actually felt like you were watching episodes from another reality. "Lil Bits" and "The Adventures of Stealy" are my favorite clips. The framing device with Jerry was also hilarious and gave us a fascinating glimpse at an alien hospital (OK, it was mostly jokey, but still.) Rick and Morty has some issues with the animation, but the alien designs are always excellent.

Season two: "Mortynight Run" This episode was just an awesome Rick and Morty adventure. I loved the brightly colored alien worlds that they explored and the way Rick's plans spun wildly out of control. Blips and Chitz and the Jerry daycare sound kind of silly in theory, but they ended up being perfect additions to this episode. Plus, this episode had a lot of memorable interactions between Rick and Morty. "That's the difference between you and I--I never go back to the carpet store."

Season two: "Total Rickall." This episode is so much fun. The concept is brilliant, and the solution to the problem is actually really clever, not a dumb cop-out. The crazy characters that keep showing up are hilarious--and best of all, this show introduced Mr. Poopybutthole. I love how the animators added him into the opening sequence. Plus, the twist at the end of the episode is genuinely shocking. The audience thinks that they have it figured out and the Smith family is naively letting him stay in their lives. But nope--Mr. Poopybutthole is actually real, and Beth might have just killed him. To top it all off, the after-credits scene is brutal. "He says he's sorry that you didn't have any bad memories of him."

Season three: "Rest and Ricklaxation" I probably don't have to tell you how much this episode is a brilliant exploration of Rick and Morty's characters. What I love about it is how it doesn't go the way you'd expect. Rick and Morty become "nice" and happy, but it's actually detrimental to their personalities--Rick is a hollow shell who doesn't care about his grandson, and Morty is basically a high-functioning sociopath. The part where detoxified Rick burps and says "Excuse me" is pure genius.

Season three: "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" I feel like a lot of people don't like this one, but it was a fun send-up of superhero movies (I'm saying this as an MCU fan) as well as a great exploration of Rick's toxic, codependent relationship with Morty. I mean, the entire plot basically happens because Morty said (or implied) that he likes the Vindicators more than Rick. This was also one of the rare times when we see Rick when he's hardcore blackout drunk (as opposed to his regular level of drunkenness.) "Who the fuck is Noob-Noob?" is my favorite ending line of the entire series.

Season four: "The Vat of Acid Episode" I didn't rank this one higher because I have to be in a certain mood to watch it, but it stands out because it's utterly different from any other Rick and Morty episode. This episode wasn't afraid to take risks, like setting up a basic plot (Rick and Morty being stuck in the vat the whole time) and veering away from that altogether. The long sequence with Morty's girlfriend was also pretty risky. I thought it was out of place when I first watched this episode, but now I think it adds a lot to the show. Then there's the fact that Rick's plot is so utterly cruel and brutal, even for him. The only slightly "redeeming" thing about it is that he created a way to undo the whole thing--but still, he put his grandson through an insane amount of emotional trauma just because he was starting to stand up to Rick. This episode also had some of the best Rick and Morty interactions of the entire series. "The Vat of Acid Episode" was complex, challenging and another one of those rare times where we see that Rick is truly brilliant.

Season three: "The Wedding Squanchers" I don't rewatch this episode all the time, but I liked this one because it had some good character moments like Beth finally admitting that she tolerates Rick's bullshit because she doesn't want him to leave again. This is also one of the rare episodes where Rick does something truly selfless that doesn't benefit him. We also see that Rick claiming that he doesn't care about anything is a bunch of bullshit--the way he screams when Tammy shoots Birdperson is tragic and horrifying. Plus, who saw that twist with Tammy coming? And of course--this episode sets up the best episode of the entire series.

[spaceorphan18]

You’ve probably discussed this a million times before, and it’s all a bit tedious, but I’m relatively new here in fandom, so forgive me.

I detest the Klaine cheating storyline in 4 SO MUCH. Ok people say it wasn’t OOC of Blaine, as he had all these abandonment issues, but there is no way you can convince me he’d have cheated. Four episodes before, he’s looking for reassurance that they’ll always be together, and he started having his panic of being left behind from mid season 3 onwards. - he was so devoted to Kurt. And then they get him cheating? I’d have believed it more if they’d grown apart, or lack of communication for a few more episodes, then an almighty fight and them splitting then for a while, but not cheating.

I see people say that Blaine and Klaine followers don’t call him out enough for his shitty behavior, this bring the prime example. I can see his faults, but never believe he’d have cheated on Kurt. This is one example of where I really do blame the shitty writing, the inconsistency of plot, and it just puts a whole big black spot on what is really an adorable love story. (Yes they should have issues, but not like this).

Hi Nonny! Welcome!

The interesting thing in watching new people get attached to the show is watching them go through a lot of the same feelings and emotions a lot of us went through at time of airing. And I totally get that! I HATED the cheating story line when it happened in real time. I was incredibly resentful that we had to go through that, and I feared that it was going to destroy Blaine as a character for me.

I have softened considerably over the years. Maybe I'm just old, maybe I've just analyzed the shit out of this show too long, maybe I've just gotten to the acceptance part of being fan, lol, I don't know.

Some things to consider, and things I've come to after years of hearing different people's view points on the matter. (Keeping in mind that I'm not attempting to change your heart or your mind, just how I've made my peace with it.)

1. Glee's connotations with cheating work on a different level than that of the real world. (I'm half convinced Ryan Murphy has inner trauma with cheating, which is why it's everywhere in his work.) Every character on this show cheats on everyone else in some capacity. Everyone. Some are more extreme than others, but it's a theme that plays through every character. (Kurt did it multiple times if you want to get technical - though he cheated on other love interests with Blaine, so people see it differently.)

And I think it's important to remember the lens in which Blaine's cheating is seen through. The focus point is on Blaine and this bad decision, while others get to skate by without it being a lingering plot point. So of course it's going to feel bigger. I'm not necessarily going to reprimand a character more than any other character just because their mistake is more glorified.

2. It isn't entirely out of character - at least according to a lot of Blaine stans who identify very deeply to him.

Now, personally, I still feel that it was cheap and easy writing - and the only way you were really going to break up Klaine is if it was a big thing like this. And Ryan Murphy is a sadistic little bitch.

But I do see Blaine as someone who self-sabotages. And I do see how the narrative can get from point A to point B. Yes, I do think more set up would have worked much better. But I can see that a Blaine who already feels his relationship is over would drown himself in another person in an attempt to make himself feel better. Humans don't always make sense in their decisions. Emotions are complicated things. And 17yos are kinda dumb. (My regards to 17yos - but you're still learning a lot about life at that age and your emotions and feelings are still very extreme.)

The other thing to keep in mind is that Glee likes to present big things and skip over the details. It does big sweeping moments like break ups and getting back together, but the finer nuances of smaller stories, and the links between those points, are often lost. (Which is why we have so much great fanfiction!)

And that said -- I would much rather we see a show about Kurt and Blaine suddenly stopping, and spending a great deal of time working their way back together than to see a long winded, downward spiral of their relationship.

3. I think one thing to remember is that after all this darkness, they end up together and happily married. Kurt wasn't completely innocent during the whole first break up. He neglected his relationship, thought you didn't have to work at it, and figured it'll be fine, etc, etc. That is definitely not an excuse for anyone to cheat on anyone else! But... they both learned something from the experience (same with the second break up). That relationships are hard work, and that it's something you have to work at maintaining in order for it to last.

The fairy tale romance of the second season is broken, and that's okay! Because they learn to love each other as actual people, not a romanticized idea of what a relationship should be.

**

I see people say that Blaine and Klaine followers don’t call him out enough for his shitty behavior, this bring the prime example

Nonny, this is not me putting you on the spot, I promise. But if there's one thing that I'm absolutely over, it's the fandom wars -- and how one group needs to be right by calling out all the shit on the other side, and then claiming things like the above statement.

The only time I see people refer to this is when anti-[insert thing] start shouting from the rafters about all the faults of the characters they don't like -- and instead of having a nuanced conversation within context, they just want scream about all the bad things that happened.

There have been fans of any character who do idolize them to the point where they do no wrong. And I don't think that's a healthy thing. But I think those of us who engage normally (subjective word I suppose) like the characters for their high points and their low points. Characters (like real humans) fuck up. If they didn't - they wouldn't be a good character.

I'll always call out shitty behavior (I most certainly did for Kurt in my meta). But I'm over the idea that someone with a biased attitude is going to make me feel guilt or shame over enjoying a thing because I don't hinge on every bad thing like I do the good things.

[hopelesshawks]

Physical Fatality Part 6- Ultimatum

18+ Hawks x fem, pro hero!reader

Summary: You’re a rising star in All Might’s agency. Hawks is the darling of Endeavor’s. By virtue of your job descriptions, the two of you are supposed to hate each other, or at the very least be cautiously neutral. For a long time that’s exactly what the two of you did. You stayed out of each other’s way and formed little opinion of the other. One fateful night at an HPSC gala changes all that. Based on the album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom by Halsey.

If you don’t want to see Physical Fatality content blacklist #hopelesspf

This story will have multiple NSFW parts so it is 18+ ONLY minors dni

Warnings for descriptions of unprotected vaginal, minor wing kink

Masterlist

Hawks knows what he’s been doing the past several weeks isn’t fair to you. In his defense, he was attempting to reconcile two different facts in his head. Fact 1: He is completely in love with you. Fact 2: He is completely loyal to Endeavor. Some days fact 1 wins out and he acts the perfect almost boyfriend. He helped you move into your apartment with Mina, he’d leave little gifts on your desk if he found something that made him think of you, and he kept things quiet so the reporters and your coworkers wouldn’t sniff out potential scandal. But some days fact 2 wins and he hesitates and grows distant. It’s not so much that he sees it as betraying Endeavor. He always has and always will think the Endeavor-All Might feud is dumb. But he knows that Endeavor will see it as a betrayal and like it or not Hawks owes a lot to Endeavor.

He sees the way you constantly try to anticipate how the press will interpret your every little move. Frankly, it looks like it makes an already exhausting job even more so. All you want to do is save people and instead you spend a nontrivial part of your day hyper analyzing your every move to anticipate the next day’s headlines. The other day you’d confessed to him that another bad headline could literally mean the end of your time at All Might’s agency and Hawks can’t even imagine that level of stress. And therein lies the problem. The only reason Hawks can’t imagine it is because the HPSC wiped all record of his name and Endeavor agreed to hire him once he completed training. So it’s not so much that being with you feels like a betrayal as it is that at some point he’ll have to tell Endeavor and when he does there will be hell to pay.

You know what Hawks has been doing the past several weeks isn’t fair to you. The hot and cold, on and off again is starting to give you whiplash. At first it was ignorable, after all you were busy settling into your new place so you spent quite a bit of your limited free time getting to know the woman you’d be living with from now on. Mina is a goddamn firecracker and you love her for it. Sure you’d seen some of her antics on Instagram before but you assumed it was all for the camera. Now as her roommate you’re realizing that’s just how Mina is. So for the first week Mina kept you busy even when Hawks would be in one of his weird distant moods. Then more time passed and it started to irk you. Was it or was it not his idea for this to not be a one time thing? So why was he being so distant suddenly.

Then the first fight happened. It was one of those days Hawks had been oddly distant. The task force had managed to narrow the possible groups responsible for the terrorist attack down to five and Hawks insisted each of you should take one to run surveillance on and the sixth person could coordinate. You thought it was a better use of resources to assign some of the lower ranked heroes to the surveillance and have the task force just coordinate and analyze what came through. “Don’t you think it’ll be a little suspicious if we suddenly aren’t doing our usual rounds because we're performing surveillance? Plus a lower ranked hero won't draw as much attention!" you argued. "This case is way too sensitive for us to be working off second hand information!" Hawks fired back. “I don’t know how you all do things over at Endeavor’s agency but our lower ranked heroes are competent enough to handle some simple surveillance,” you pointed out with a of roll your eyes. “What? Like Monoma?” Hawks shot back. “Maybe we should reel it in guys,” Midoriya tried to intervene but it was too late. “Yea like Monoma. What about it?” you replied, anger starting to build. “Just seems like a conflict of interest to me,” he shrugged. “A conflict of interest?” “That’s what I said isn’t it?” “Oh fuck off.” “So you’re not denying it.” “I am literally the first person to shit on Monoma in almost any situation but he’s a good hero.” “Interesting.” “Are you trying to die bird brain?” “OK! That’s enough!” Midoriya finally interrupted. “We’ll present both plans to Endeavor and All Might, let them decide,” Shoto had said simply. In the end they decided on Hawks’ plan.

The two of you probably should’ve talked out your almost relationship then. It was obvious to everyone else in the room that the argument was, fundamentally, not about task delegation, but you and Hawks were in denial and the angry sex afterwards made it easier to kiss, makeup, and just pretend it never happened. Except it did happen. And it happened again and again. On the good days you two are amazing, all sweet words and loving looks. On the bad days you’re a ticking time bomb. Every time you try to address it Hawks gives you absolutely nothing back. It’s driving you nuts. A fact you frequently make apparent to Bakugo and Midoriya. “Oh my god enough already,” Bakugo groans, interrupting your ongoing rant about the difficulties of being almost with Hawks. “Oh I’m sorry are my problems bothering you?” you ask sarcastically. “Look, we get it. He started this shit and now he won’t finish it. But if he won’t then why don’t you fucking finish it yourself,” Bakugo points out. “Kacchan has a point,” Midoriya adds in. “Not you too Izu,” you pout. “Don’t give me that look, I’m just saying maybe it is time to put your foot down,” he elaborates. “I’ve tried talking to him and he never tells me what’s going on with him,” you sigh. “Then stop talking and just hit him with an ultimatum,” Bakugo scoffs. “Yea! Tell him he has to make a decision now or you’re done,” Midoriya agrees. “What if he decides he doesn’t want this?” you ask. “Then it’s his loss,” Midoriya says. “Yea and we’ll kick his ass for it,” Bakugo adds. You really do have the best friends.

Hawks doesn’t know what to expect when you ask him to stick around after the task force meeting, but the thumbs up Midoriya gives you and the warning look Bakugo gives him don’t exactly bode well. Shoto exchanges a look with Hawks to confirm he’ll be fine and, when Hawks nods, Shoto and Tokoyami take their leave behind their former classmates. “So what’s up?” Hawks asks once the two of you are finally alone. “We need to talk about us,” you tell him and you can already feel him preparing to argue you down from having this conversation. “(Y/n)-“ he starts, but you’re not having it, not this time, so you cut him off. “I don’t want to fight right now. I know you’re always right. But even though you’ve been through the ups and downs with me, and even though I care a lot about you, you don’t seem to feel the same.” “That’s not true,” he refutes but even he knows his actions lately haven’t exactly conveyed how much he feels for you. “Really? Because we’ve been through it all, met each other’s moms, shared each other’s tragic backstories but lately, when it comes to talking about us, you can never spit it out for me. It’s like I’m trying to talk to a wall but you can never tear it down for me,” you insist. “That’s what happens when you ask personal questions while we’re still at work.” “What other choice do I have? You never pick up or call me.” “Maybe I just need more time.” “We’re running out of time.” “We don’t have to be! Let’s just talk this through later.” “No, we’ve done enough talking. It’s gotta be right now. I want you to hold me down forever, I do, but it’s your choice. Will you love me now or never?”

Hawks stares at you trying to process what you’ve said. He isn’t oblivious. He knows you’ve been getting frustrated with him being hot and cold. He knows the two of you getting involved was his idea in the first place. He knows he hasn’t been open with you about why he’s suddenly so hesitant. But he still hasn’t decided how to reconcile his love for you with his loyalty to Endeavor, so he still hesitates. “Can we please just figure this out later,” he pleads instead of answering as he reaches for you but you step back and out of his reach. “No. I’m drawing the line. I wasted two years of my life chasing something that wasn’t real with Monoma. I refuse to do it again. Especially when being with you literally puts my career at risk. So you don’t get to take any more time up. I need you to make your mind up. You’ve gotta decide Keigo. Now or never,” you insist.

It hits him then just how serious you are. There’s no talking his way out of this one. It really is now or never and something about the choice feels fateful. As if how he responds to you right now will determine his destiny. Almost his whole life he’s been looking for the kind of earth shattering, all consuming love you see in movies and tv shows. Something to fill the void his parents and the HPSC hollowed into him as a child. The stakes are so much higher with you than with the previous women he’s dated and he’s always been such a lousy gambler. Are you really the best bet? His mind is spinning with the daunting choice in front of him but then you sigh full of resignation and heartache and start to leave. It’s like someone mainlined ice water directly into his veins because suddenly the never is real. It’s real and terrifying and it’s about to be solidified by you walking out that door and he can’t. He absolutely can’t imagine his life without you in it right now so he lunges forward and grabs hold of your wrist. “Now! Fuck baby, I choose now,” he insists so desperately and when you turn to face him you both look absolutely cracked open.

The two of you collide together, mouths finding each other immediately. There is so much need and want and relief in that one kiss because for a horrifying moment both of you felt what it would be like to never have each other again. To never again feel that unique magnetism that constantly pulls you both together. Or worse, to feel it and yet be forever condemned to ignoring it. Keigo pulls you against him by your hips and his grip is hard enough you wonder if you’ll bruise. You make quick work of each other’s shirts and pants, desperate to be closer to each other. One of his hands reaches down to rub you through your panties and you’re already so wet for him. The little gasp you give at his feather light touches is absolutely intoxicating and he can’t believe that he almost lost this. Lost you. “I’m so sorry Love. So sorry I made you wait,” he whispers against your lips as he slips his fingers past the damp material of your underwear to stroke along your sex. “I need you Kei,” you whimper. “You have me.” “All of you. I need all of you.”

You don’t have to tell him twice.

The floor of the conference room perhaps isn’t the most ideal place to finally consummate your love but neither of you has the strength or desire to complain or postpone this moment. Scratchy carpet or the finest silk sheets, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the two of you are together and finally, finally you can call him yours and he can call you his. So when he’s on top of you, underwear cast aside and nothing left to separate the two of you, you can’t even feel what’s beneath you. All you feel is his erection pressing at your entrance, his chest pressed to yours, and both of your hearts hammering in your chests as if anxious to beat against each other. You feel him in each and every one of your senses. As he presses into you, you both gasp at the sensation and just like that first time it’s so, so overwhelming. You clutch desperately at him to bring him impossibly closer and by the time he bottoms out inside you, you’re both on the verge of tears. “I love you,” he confesses and he thinks it may be the first time he’s ever meant it so utterly and completely. “I love you too,” you reply and for the first time in a long time the words don’t feel like ash on your tongue.

He starts moving his hips and it’s heaven. Each thrust into you feels like a solidification of the bond the two of you have formed over the past couple months since meeting. For the first time since Keigo had started getting distant it feels uncomplicated and you’re reminded again of why you’d thrown out all your rules for this man. This wild, beautiful man you could now call yours. You slide one hand along his back until you get to the base of one of his wings. You run your fingers through the soft plumage and delight in the shiver it draws out of him. One of his hands goes between the two of you to stimulate your sensitive clit and with each thrust you’re both seeing stars. His free hand finds yours to entangle your fingers together and he suspects that the tingling he feels throughout his whole body has less to do with the sex itself and more to do with you and the wondrous revelation that you want all of him, even the broken bits, just as much as he wants all of you. He ups the amount of pressure he’s applying to your clit and you tighten your grip on his feathers to match and soon you’re both hurtling over the edge into climax. You moan each other’s names into the limited space between you but there are multitudes contained therein.

You moan each other’s names but it sounds like I love you.

You moan each other’s names but it sounds like wedding bells and a family.

You moan each other’s names but it sounds like forever.

Author’s Note: This chapter feels short and I can’t tell if it’s because it’s actually short or I’m just paranoid about it being short because I made y’all wait a little bit for it. I’m happy with it or at least happy enough to post it but it’s not my favorite part that I’ve written for this series so far. I’ll try to make sure the next part is longer again to compensate for this one ❤️

Taglist [open]: @akkaso @cathy8taffy @eeppff @iikillerkitteh @pixelwisp

[gallavictorious]

I loved Gallavich in 10x08 but struggled quite a bit with them in 10x09 and 10x10 (even if I personally loved the brawl proposal), partly because Mickey's behaviour in regards to Byron makes me cringe so hard, and partly because we don't get a proper explanation for how Ian goes from ”how do you know you love me” to ”and if you let me...  “ and this bugs me.

However, never let it be said that I'm not ready to do whatever interpretative work needs to be done  for my favourite couple to make sense, so here it is:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Episodes.

(Disclaimer: I'm just now watching season 10 in its entirerty and you guys have been at this for a while. If you've heard it all before, please be patient with a newbie who just really needs to sort through her thoughts and emotions.)

Now, I know that many fans would have preferred Byron to actually like Mickey, and I've seen pre-episode 10x10 takes where people theorized that Byron, rather than list all the ways Mickey sucks would list all the way he soars, thus leading to an eavesdropping Ian's realization that he needs to be with Mickey forever. And while that would have been very sweet in its own way – I am myself very much here for more people appreciating Mickey – I think it would ultimately have been far less realistic, for two reasons: 1, Mickey was never going to treat Byron well, and 2, Ian's reservations about getting married were never rooted in a lack of love for Mickey.

Mickey's cringe-worthy treatment of Byron stems from him trying to perform two different roles at the same time: he strives to be demonstratively affectionate whenever they're in front of Ian, but this reads as fundamentally false becuase this is not how Mickey normally shows affection. But Mickey's usual mode of loving communication is both far less overt than this, and thus less fit for the purpose, but also something he would never allow Byron to experience, because Mickey being loving is largely tied to Mickey allowing himself to be vulnerable, to be open and himself, and since Byron is not someone he trusts, or even respects, that's never going to happen. I'd argue that Mickey chooses Byron exactly because he perceives Byron as ”weak” and so someone he can use for his own means without Byron putting up a fight about it - but at the same time, associating with this ”weakness” actualizes all of Mickey's internalized ideas about strenght, manliness, South Side, etc, which leads him to revert back to his extra special thuggish behaviour in order to continually establish dominance and distance himself from the more effeminate homosexuality Byron represents. So, he treats Byron rather nastily, while at the same time employing conventional means of demonstrating affection whenever Ian's around, which serves both as a means to show oh god, how very very much in love with Byron he is, and as a means to always maintain a distance from Byron himself. Which is actually very realistic, given what we know of Mickey, but makes for a whiplash watching experience, and yes. Cringe.

And I'm pretty sure Mickey isn't even trying to fool Ian here: he doesn't expect Ian to believe that he has suddenly fallen in love with someone else. (So again, the unconvincing declarations of love on Mickey’s part serves a purpose here; they’re unconvincing on purpose, if maybe not alway consciously so.) This is an act calculated to provoke a response, becaue he needs Ian to prove something to him, to fight for him. (This bit, about Mickey needing a grand gesture rather than words have been discussed by many others in more articulate ways, so I'm not going to dwell on that.)

But regardless: everything Ian overhears Byron say is true (well, apart from the dumb bit – but I think Byron can be forgiven for not getting that, becaues I doubt Mickey made any effort at all to put his smarts on display, and our boy sure does act dumb from time to time). So why is hearing Byron say it enough to spur Ian into the grand gesture Mickey is looking for? Sure, we all get really pissed when hear others talk smack about the ones we love, but Ian's reluctance to marry was never rooted in Ian doubting his feelings for Mickey, so realizing that ”oh, I need to beat this one up because he's mean to my man” can hardly be the catalysator here. Actually, I don't think it is the catalysator – it just paves the way for the moment that is.

Bear wih me for a while:

That Mickey believes that it's Ian's feelings for him that waver isn't hard to understand: Ian has left him, multiple times, and considering how hard he went for the ”if we love and trust each other the maybe this decision isn't that hard” I absolutely get that Mickey, when Ian backs out, comes to the conclusion that Ian does not, in fact, love and/or trust him, at least not enough. But Ian does, and he verbally reaffirms that throughout these and the previous episodes. Does his insecurity, then, stem from an uncertainty that Mickey will be able to love him throughout his highs and lows? This is what he tries to tell Mickey when the whole promise rings thing fall apart, and I get that it pisses Mickey off, because hasn't Mickey already demonstrated, again and again, that he will stick by Ian, no matter what? Is Ian really so dense and insecure as not to see that?

I actually think that Ian absolutely knows that Mickey will stand by him through thick and thin, and this scares him because what if he develops into someone that Mickey no longer can love but feels obligated to stay with anyway? Ian hates being helpless; Ian hates being a victi; Ian hates feeling indebted to people because that implies he can't take care of himself, and I think that nothing terrifies him more than being a project, or being someone people stay with because they pity him or worry that he can't take care of himself. The issue here, I think, is that he doesn't trust Mickey to leave.

Why this would would be a bigger problem than it already is if they were married I don't quite get, but marriage typically speaks of a stronger and more formal committment and so is even harder to break up from, maybe? Hm. This part I haven't quite figured out yet.

Anyhow. Ian's problem is that he is scared that Mickey will stick with him even when Mickey really would rather leave, Mickey's problem – apart from him being pretty nasty to Byron – is that he wants a Grand Gesture and Proof of Love from Ian, because just expressions of love doesn’t cut it with him. This, I think, is not the proposal, but the fact that Ian shows up with a fake date. This obvious attempt at making Mickey jealous is enough to prove to Mickey that yeah, this means something to Ian too. Particularly since it comes right at the heels of Mickey experiencing a moment of true fear, when Ian announces his new partner: what if this is real, what if Mickey took things too far, what if he fucked this up? But then he sees Cole (who is, btw, awesome) and he sees Ian's face, and he knows exactly what Ian is up to. I think it was fiona-fififi who noted that they both realize that they'll be going home togheter this evening, even though they also have to go through the movements of a proper reconciliation. I tend to think of this as Mickey knowing they're going to make up, because he's prepared for that now, but Ian doesn't know it, yet. Mickey's just waiting for the opportune moment, and he's probably feeling a bit insecure, too, because how do you make the first move after all this?

But then, when Ian tops the whole thing off by beating up Byron (which Byron really didn't deserve, becaue after what Mickey put him through, he has earned the right to badmouth him – even if he is a coward for not just making Mickey leave), yeah, that's Mickey done for, that was all he needed. When he walks over to the pile of bodies, going ”hey”, that's an overture of peace: at this point, Ian doesn't actually need to propse to win him back. That is already a done deal.

I think Ian knows this too. I actually need Ian to know this too, because otherwise it will forever feel like he agreed to something he really didn't want just to have Mickey back, and this doesn't sit right with him. But then the question remain – why the fuck did he propose? What changed, that he suddenly felt confident enough in Mickey's ability to leave that he felt comfortable formalizing their union?

Maybe it's the simple fact that Mickey did leave. When he felt himself unfairly treated by Ian, he did leave and hooked-up with someone else. Admittedly and obviously in an attempt to get back at Ian, but he stubbornly stuck with it through Ian's various attempts at getting him back. Mickey is utterly in love with and devoted to Ian, but he's no wiltering flower: he will stand up for himself, and if he feels like he's not being treated right, he sure as hell will make certain Ian hears about this. Seeing Mickey standing there over him, returned only now that Ian has satisifed his need for proof of love, I think this is what Ian finally gets. This, in combination with feeling on a very deep and visceral level that he never wants Mickey to walk away and have to return again, is what prompts the proposal.

And hey - maybe he's still not completely sure about this whole getting married business, but he is sure about Mickey, so he's prepared to take the leap. Mickey may be rough in a lot of ways, but he's perfect for Ian in a way that no one else has ever been, and that's worth taking a chance on.

Anyway, this is what I think I think at the moment. Maybe I'll think something else in a while? Do you have thoughts? I'd love to hear them.

TL;DR Everything that happened in 10x09 and 10x10 actually makes sense and are in character, but should I really have to work this hard to get that?

[cptnsantiago]

safe in my arms when you finally come

summary: Amy’s afternoon between Wuntch’s funeral, a wonderfully timed meltdown, and arriving home. 7x07 spoilers.

read on ao3

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Amy was frustrated to put it lightly — no matter how high she put the AC on in her car, the sweat was not letting up.

It wouldn’t be long before her entire car was flooded of her sweat. And tears, probably. This wouldn’t be a problem if her stupid body would get pregnant as easily as the rest of the Santiago clan, so she wouldn’t have to stick needles in her back every morning. It didn’t help her frustration that one of her brother’s just announced that their wife was pregnant once again, apparently a total surprise to them.

Amy just wouldn’t get that luck. She was stuck in a stuffy car with soaked with sweat hair and an empty uterus. Surely this wasn’t normal.

She had done her research before agreeing to take these fertility drugs. Possible side effects of course included mood swings, hot flushes among a host of other symptoms, but Amy couldn’t believe that it was normal to the extent of sweating through layers of clothes. It made no sense to her; how she had been taking the drug for almost a month but only now were these symptoms making themselves known?

It sends her into enough of a panic to call her doctor.

Dr. Lowe was a fantastic doctor, she had multiple awards for fertility research, so she was the best of the best and had a great instinct on how to deal with anxious women trying to get pregnant. Her voice is calming, making the loud noises of New York sound like a white noise machine as she asks Amy to describe her symptoms to her.

“Well, I’ve been sweating profusely all day, and intense mood swings, like probably an equal amount of sweat and tears all week… And I know these are normal symptoms, because as you know I did my research, Dr. Lowe, but I really can’t exaggerate enough how much sweat there was.” Amy knows she’s ranting, and probably for nothing but being told that it was completely normal.

She’d heard enough of completely normal. It was completely normal that it took so long for her and Jake to make a baby, completely normal to be sweating out of every single pore of her body and completely normal that she wants to kill the bird that just pooped on her car’s windscreen. Why couldn’t the thing that was completely normal thing in her life being the nausea she feels everyday because she’s growing a baby inside her? But no, yet another symptom of this dumb fertility drug.

“That’s definitely not normal, Amy.” Dr. Lowe begins cautiously, causing Amy’s heart rate to spike to an unhealthy level as she waits for her to speak again. “I do have an idea of what might be the problem here… Well, I wouldn’t call it a problem!”

Amy doesn’t know how to process the next words — Dr. Lowe spitting out a theory that she could be pregnant, causing her to experience double the symptoms from the medication. Amy, you might be pregnant.

The words bounce around her head for a while after she hangs up the phone. Dr. Lowe tells her she’s excited to hear back from her, willing to make time for an appointment as soon as she needs but Amy barely hears any of it as she processes those words. You might be pregnant.

For months on end, Amy had been convincing herself of symptoms that always lead her to a negative result on a plastic stick but now… Now her own doctor thinks she might be pregnant. Amy really didn’t want to face that disappointment again, and Jake. She didn’t want to disappoint him yet again. He goes on about how it’s okay, we’ll get pregnant and he’s there, always, to pick her up when she’s down but she knows how he’s feeling.

Amy can see the disappointment on her face every time she came back with a negative result, just to disguise it as fast as he could with his supportive words, but she could see it still hiding it. She sees it in the way he talks about Nikolaj, how badly Jake wants to be a dad, how badly he wanted to add a child into their family. He tries to hide his admiration of the couples with strollers on their nightly stroll together, but she can see it, because it’s exactly how she was feeling.

Every stroller, every toddler and every pregnant woman they passed just a cruel tease of what Amy apparently couldn’t have. She was bad at making babies, as much as Jake reassured Amy that it wasn’t her fault. It was almost constantly in the back of her conscience, nagging at her deteriorating patience.

She probably sits in her car for another minute longer before she resolves to go home and just rip off the band-aid and let the scab bleed all over the place. The duration of the car ride is spent debating whether to tell Jake, so he could be by her side. If she didn’t tell him, then she only had to deal with her own disappointment. An instant after that thought she had made her decision; Jake would stay in the dark for the moment.

Jake doesn’t think much of her weird behaviour when she arrives home. Probably because of the extensive knowledge of the fertility treatment that she made him read about, so he shoots her a simple smile she barely sees as she runs straight for the bathroom. Her hand moves to the medicine cabinet like clockwork, her hands shaking as she takes out the pregnancy test.

Keep your expectations low, Amy. She tells herself, but Dr. Lowe’s words ring in her ears, Take the test, it’s possible you’re pregnant and overwhelmed by hormones.

The three minutes pass slower than… Fuck, she’s too nervous to think of a good analogy. But it’s a slow moving three minutes she’s sure of. Looking down at the test sitting in the sink, Amy thinks she might pass out.

Two lines. Clear as day. Pregnant. Amy was pregnant. Her uterus wasn’t doomed to be empty forever. Jake was going to be a dad. They were going to have a baby.

The overwhelming amount of emotions she had felt all day hit her like a fucking train once. Tears were streaming down her face, her hand shaking again as she held the test in her hand and she simply forgot how to breath. She was going to have a baby with the love of her life, after months of struggle and tears, they were going to have a baby. This was her reality.

Amy doesn’t keep track of how long she spends in the bathroom trying to pull herself together, but once she pinches herself and snaps out of her emotional stupor, she’s quickly formulating a creative way to tell Jake. It takes a little while to think it through and compose herself — she had started crying again when she straightened her shirt over her stomach, remembering there was a baby in there and then again as she wondered if their baby would have Jake’s curls — but as she makes her way into their bedroom, her whole plan is thrown out the window.

Jake is cursing Wario once again, and she almost starts crying on the spot again. That man, her husband, was going to be the best dad on the planet. How she gets through telling him without crying is a mystery to her, but now their hug had moved to the bed, she lets the river flow at last. He listens to her anxieties she had been feeling that day, wiping and kissing away every single tear as they come. She does the same for him, heart swelling as his own tears of joy start to pour down his face. Amy couldn’t feel more love for this man even if she tried, his dedication was unmatched.

They come to a point where it was impossible to find the words to express how they were feeling, so outside of booking appointments and taking out her pregnancy binder with a light layer of dust on it, they mostly just smile at each other. That and kissing, there’s a lot of that. Kissing is interrupted by Charles knocking their door in the middle of the night, who makes sure to mention that he tried his best to hold himself back when he woke up and apparently just knew. But he’s respectful enough of the space they need, so he’s soon gone, and Jake is quickly back to kissing Amy.

Falling asleep that night after he talks to her flat stomach for a half hour is otherworldly. Jake makes sure to make her feel more loved than ever, through words, kisses and all. It’s not at all what she expected at the start of the week when she found out that Madeline Wuntch had died, but she couldn’t be happier with the turn of events.

They were finally getting their half-Jake, half-Amy. And as Charles had screamed, their little Peraltiago baby.

[caden]

Honestly thank you for saying that. I also don't hate Travis but can't stand the way he goes about proving his "wokeness" he's obviously good natured but his approach is just so off and it's awkward when listening to the other brothers try to swerve around it, being more self aware than he is. I can't listen to the new Adventure Zone arc because her went out of his way to create a disable character and then be like "are you gonna ask me about my wheelchair" it's just too fucking much dude.

This is a super long rant-y response that doesn’t really say much of consequence, but...

yeah i have not enjoyed his arc so far sadly. I’m still going ahead with it for the time being, it’s worth listening to but honestly TAZ hasn’t gripped me all that much since balance. I feel like one of their issues is that balance really really tactically built up to its big emotional dramatic moments, everything felt really natural and just flowed so well-- whereas with these other arcs, I feel like they just jump the gun and try to constantly have dramatic stuff happening without ***earning*** it. The nature of most roleplaying games is just that they’re long form, and IMO the most important element of nailing a podcast like TAZ is making sure that the downtime is really enjoyable-- that means having really charismatic side characters, engaging and open-ended worldbuilding that allows for lots of different situations, and PCs that have clear and interesting motivations. Travis just isn’t a good enough DM to pull that all off. He’s decent at roleplaying IMO, but his personality / skills are just better suited to being a player. He clearly isn’t as good a storyteller as griffin, and even griffin’s storytelling has been strained from time to time. 

I honestly really really really wish that they would play a more Critical Role / MCDM style DnD game, where the worldbuilding took front-stage over the characters, and where it was assumed that the main players would cycle through MULTIPLE characters because their characters could actually die if it was dramatic-- or even just if the players fucked up in combat. I’d love to feel like they were in a setting that allowed them to have guest players on, where the world has internal consistency (unlike the live shows which are always fun but clearly not sustainable for a long-form story), and where the whole thing isn’t all built along railroading players down an ultra long-form epic story in the vein of Balance. Like one thing that’s great about DnD for me is that if you don’t currently feel like you’re gelling with the character you’re playing, you can just make a new character! If the quest you’re on isn’t incredibly engaging, you can tell the DM that you want to explore something in your character’s past or independently pursue some other motivation instead. I really wish they would experiment with a more freeform, noncommittal story, where they could lean into their improvisation skills (which is what they’re very good at) over their storytelling skills (where they're sort of lacking). 

I also feel like-- and this is just an unintended byproduct of the general vibe that they’re going for-- one big problem that I notice with their storytelling is that all of their characters are just like... too good. I feel like they’re so committed to being wholesome and non-stressful that everything about their worlds just has no edge at all. I’m not saying that I want TAZ to be game of thrones, obviously that would suck-- but so much of the conflict in their worlds feels awkward or forced because they don’t create their characters to be as flawed as I think they should. Justin usually being the exception. I think this is reaaaalllllly coming to the forefront in the new arc, Travis just isn’t capable of putting the kind of tension into his stories that Griffin was because he’s too committed to making his world crunchy and chill and, dare I say, woke. But I think the wheelchair thing is coming from a different sort of bad storytelling-- writers put a diverse character into their story and then feel so immediately proud of themselves that they forget to actually make the character interesting or memorable beyond that, inadvertently tokenizing the characters. 

Griffin also did something really smart when he was DMing, which was that he intentionally never told us anyone’s race. He explicitly said that it being an audio medium allowed the listener the freedom to imagine whatever race they want, as well as imagine trans-ness, disability, etc. Which, even though it might sound kind of like a cop-out, is IMO the best way to handle it. If they play characters outside of their race, people will be mad. If they don’t have enough diversity, people will be mad. If they have explicit diversity but portray something insensitively, people will be mad. I personally think that griffin would have been smart enough to do these things sensitively, but he’s always erred on the side of caution. The only exception in balance was them explicitly stating that Lup was a trans woman, which was also handled very well IMO. Travis just isn’t taking that level of subtlety to his DMing because he isn’t as perceptive about these things as Griffin is. He’s stating all this stuff explicitly because he wants people to know that his world is diverse. Which is cool, but it comes with the baggage of actually having to execute that diversity with some level of insight. In this case, I honestly think the players should be more comfortable going ahead and making characters that are explicitly NOT cis white (or white-coded) men. They made the move after balance to start playing women, which was good. The alternative is just constantly having protagonists that, even in fantasy/sci-fi settings, are cis-coded, white-coded, or male-coded. 

All in all, the big issue for me rn with the Mcelroys is that i have much more of a sense now that they’re the types of creators who are entirely just trying to please their fanbase. This is really visible in the style of comedy that they’re doing these days as well. They aren’t trying new things, they’re just finding what’s comfortable, what fans clap for in live shows, and doing more of that. I remember once in a live show they said “okay guys, we’re making a change. we’re no longer gonna allow you guys to ask questions that are just you bragging about a cool thing you did”. That was one of the best decisions they made from a content perspective, lol. Their most interesting work of the last three years has been the Trolls 2 podcast, because it’s stylistically VERY different from their normal stuff, and because NOBODY was asking for it. And as a result, it was able to be a novel, funny concept. I feel like in the age of streamers, youtubers, creators who are basing their brand off of PERSONALITY over CONTENT, we’re gonna be getting more and more of this kind of art. As creators, the Mcelroys aren’t trying to do something new, to create exciting thought-provoking funny content. They’re just repeating the things that have found them the most success. They take the desires of the fans a bit too seriously, which keeps them from going in new directions, because fans can’t validate things that don’t exist yet. The fans shouldn’t be the ones who create new trends or decide the tone of the content. That should be entirely in the hands of the creators. You can sorta tell that at times Griffin and Justin are unhappy about it. I think this was at its worst about a year or so ago, and they’ve realized it and started to work on course-correction. They stopped doing TAZ live shows with the balance characters, which was a good choice. I DON’T think that the issue is that they ran out of ideas, it’s just that they’re overdue for a creative renaissance. I would love it if instead of just doing more TAZ and mbmbam, they continued to do a bunch of small unusual projects in the vein of Trolls 2, the old Monster Factory videos, the new non-DnD TAZ live shows, etc. I’m also enjoying The Besties (I listened to it before it got canned and was excited when it came back), because I feel like Griffin and Justin act more like normal humans on that show and less like Mcelroy brothers. 

WITH ALL THAT SAID, their content is still often very fun, and I think it’s really good that they exist as successful creators. They’re a net positive force in the world, the small attempts people have made to cancel them for dumb shit will always be petty and stupid. They’ve more than earned a spot in the podcasting hall of fame, I don’t think they’re just has-beens, and I will continue to listen to plenty of their stuff for the conceivable future even if it’s not always exactly what I want from them. 

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 34: AMJ #6.1

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Master Post

You know I considered ending this series after the initial arc. I may well discontinue it after awhile. But for now at least I am going to press on. Thus begins the second of what I and dead certain will be a shitty arc of AMJ. Pray for me.

Before we dive into the issue I want to quote for you the solicit for this issue:

WELCOME TO NY, MJ! After the CAN’T-MISS events of AMAZING MARY JANE #5, your favorite redhead is back home! First stop: Spider-Man! But has her relationship with Mysterio changed things with the love of her life? Next stop: a press tour! Complete with iconic New York guest-starring gigs, and OH NO WHAT’S THAT?!?

We spent over 10 years of seeing Peter and MJ separated in the 616 universe.

Thanks to Nick Spencer they blessedly got back together.

Across 25 issues we got to see Peter and MJ interact and 99% of the time it was awesome and helped some old and open wounds get a little better.

It wasn’t every issue, but that was good. Don’t want to get indulgent right?

Then this series came along and Peter/MJ interactions got limited again due to the nature of the story.

That was a shame but at least we were going to get a great MJ story right?

Except we didn’t. We got a story that paradoxically simultaneously celebrated MJ whilst also inadvertently character assassinating her and just being a disgusting fucking mess in general.

But here we have MJ back in New York where Spider-Man is. This issue is even promising us an interaction between them.

Sounds good right?

Let’s see if it will deliver.

As always here we get the recap.

And once more it gives us the full title of the movie in spite of the comic yet to have done that.

As for the ‘strength of his vision blah blah blah’, you know the drill by now. That’s all bullshit, Mary Jane would never connect to Beck over that or allow him to walk free because of that.

There is also a passage in the recap claiming that MJ connected to Beck over familiarity with his situation. The idea of this being their last chance to make it big. I’ve already talked about how that’s bullshit, see part 12.

Finally, the recap confirms that MJ has still failed to tell Peter the truth. Nice to know MJ will continue to be hardcore out of character moving forward into this new arc.

As the issue starts we see MJ introduced as a guest on some kind of chat show.

As has been the case throughout the series, the art is (stylistically at least) gorgeous.

Beyond that there is little to about this page. Except of course the fact that Mary Jane has thought captions.

Let me repeat that.

For the first time in six  issues the readers are being given an insight into the thoughts of title character!

You know, if this were a brand new run, a re-launch or even say the beginning of an outright new era for a series maybe that’d be okay.

But it isn’t. It’s the same run, the same volume, the same story, merely the next arc. This is like if Nick Spencer hadn’t used thought captions throughout the first five issues of his ASM run but then randomly did for the Trivia Night storyline with Boomerang.

Thought captions are perhaps one of the single most potent weapons in the arsenal of a comic book writer. It allows for immense development of characters and enables writers to combine the strength of prose stories with those of more visual mediums.

Now, it’s not that it’s bad to simply not use them. But be consistent. Thought captions would’ve gone a long way in helping us understand Mary Jane better in the first arc along with elaborating upon her asinine decisions there.

Not to mention for a character so often written off as shallow or just eye candy wouldn’t an insight into her thoughts have helped dispel such accusations? Jed Mackay has been doing that pretty consistently since the first issue of his Black Cat run. There it has done wonders for Felicia and fleshed her out more.

It’s especially bad when we consider we got more of an insight into MJ’s thoughts and feelings in one issue  of Nick Spencer’s ASM run than in the entire five prior issues of her solo title.

Anyway, as her interview with Reilly Redding begins there is some quips and verbal jousting going on. Reilly asks if the movie has wrapped but MJ explains that McKnight and the crew are still shooting in L.A. Reilly asks if MJ is sure about that.

This isn’t a positive, more a general observation. I’m not overly familiar with chat shows, let alone American ones, but to my eyes the host seems influenced by Ellen DeGeneres.

Anyway, let me dispense with the pettiest of gripes first. I hate Reilly’s hairstyle. I hate that hairstyle in general. To me it looks really stupid, like you went for a haircut but gave up halfway through. That’s not in anyway shape or form a fair criticism. I totally own that. It is just a tiny point that really bothers me personally.

On the more positive side, Williams continues her frustrating tendency to nail  MJ’s personality traits within a problematic context. MJ’s social skills are one of her greatest powers and here her charisma and ability to play verbal tennis with Reilly is executed superlatively. When Williams does stuff like this she delivers some of the best Mary Jane writing in a long time. Which is why I hate saying and believing that she shouldn’t work on the character over all. She makes traits of MJ shine whilst nevertheless damaging the character over all.

Case in point, the movie is still filming right? And the Vulture (and probably the other members of the Savage Six) are still out there. Let’s be kind and presume they are in a new secret location. That means Vulture will still want to find out where they are, so all the people (and their families) from issue #4 are still going to be harassed by the Vulture’s paparazzi gang and potentially threatened by the six themselves.

Oh well, MJ still DGAF I guess.

Guess she doesn’t care that she’s appearing in public (in NYC of all places!) in spite of six villains now holding a very direct grudge against her.

Also, we FINALLY get the full name of the movie in the story itself, not the recap pages.

As the interview continues, MJ takes questions from the audience. One man asks what it’s like for her to play a real hero for the first time considering she’s played normal female roles before.

MJ responds that they are all heroes to her. She doesn’t really make the female role distinction quite the same way either. It’s more like she plays a hero who is also a woman.

The next question is about the weird press speculation about Cage McKnight’s conduct. The woman asking the question wants to know what he’s really like. MJ responds that he’s great, just dedicated to the craft and protective of his crew. She points out the paparazzi didn’t take kindly to him because he in turn didn’t take kindly to them hounding the movie.

Reilly then reveals McKnight is here for the interview.

Once more, Williams (with a huge help from Gomez’s art) conveys the charisma and social savvy of MJ here. Gomez’s body language demands particular praise. He conveys MJ’s beauty, flirtation, charm, etc. And he does it on multiple levels. The subtle genius of this page is how Gomez captures MJ putting on a performance for the public, to convince them she’s being utterly genuine and casual.

As for the dialogue, the best faith interpretation of the man’s question, he meant MJ has never played a super hero before, just normal non-powered women. He didn’t mean stereotypical female roles. That interpretation makes MJ’s response make more sense than if the former was the intent. So I’ll give Williams a pass and presume that was in fact her intent.

As for the second question it further highlights the unethical nature of allowing Mysterio to impersonate McKnight. The real McKnight has a lot of gossip and a new public image that was not of his own making. It wasn’t even an unfair fabrication by the press, it existed specifically because someone else was using his name, face and reputation for personal gain.

Also the audacity of Williams to directly reference issue #4 where Ken was harassed by the Vulture’s paparazzi squad but just ignore the fact that that should still be going on.

To MJ’s confusion Cage McKnight joins the interview. However, he doesn’t seem to know anything about the movie at all. He says the first he heard of the movie was when he was contacted for the interview. Meanwhile MJ frantically contacts Beck on her phone. Reilly notices and calls MJ out just before Beck confirms he’s still in L.A.

To MJ’s horror she realizes she’s sitting next to the real Cage McKnight who’s returned from his penguin expedition. Reilly asks why he came on the show if he doesn’t remember movie. Cage responds that just because he doesn’t remember making the movie doesn’t mean he didn’t. he explains that in the past he’s made movies in ‘artistic fugues’ and presumes this is just one such time.

*pinches bridge of nose*

Oh my Gooooooooood this is so dumb.

I get the desire to have humour in a story for the sake of levity. But the world of Spider-Man is not even remotely a borderline Deadpool or Harley Quinn or Lobo comic book. The humour doesn’t come from absurdity or a cartoonlike breaking of logic and reality.

And make no mistake, this is absurd. Scratch that, it’s contrived to the nth degree.

First of all I’m not that well read up on fugue states so I briefly consulted Wikipedia who had this to say:

Dissociative fugue, formerly fugue state or psychogenic fugue, is a dissociative disorder[1] and a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state can last days, months or longer. Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity. It is a facet of dissociative amnesia, according to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

-Wikipedia

Basically a fugue state is a sort of similar condition to Dissociative Identity Disorder, more commonly known as having a split personality. Only instead of an individual’s psyche fracturing into different personalities that take dominance, it’s someone’s mind running away with itself and becoming someone else. The individual forgets aspects of who they are and becomes someone else.

A very good example within fiction can be found in the Doctor Who episode ‘The Next Doctor’. In it a man named Jackson Lake suffers a traumatic experience and in the midst of it (through a sci-fi gizmo) absorbs a lot of information on the character of the Doctor. His traumatized mind consequently decides to imitate what it regards as the Doctor.

What I’m saying is McKnight’s dialogue about his fugues are very probably bullshit unless someone can cite evidence to the contrary. 

Using the above description though McKnight has gotten this rare  psychiatric disorder multiple times and specifically in conjunction with his job as a filmmaker. Yeah, no. Not buying it and neither should you.

Being a film director isn’t a muscle memory skill you can’t forget no matter what. People with amnesia or Alzheimer’s disease do not forget how to play the piano or how to drive. But directing a movie? There are so many moving pieces to that job that rely upon you knowing how equipment and more importantly individual people operate. You have to bear a shitton of theory in mind too. It is physically  impossible to repeatedly  have fugues and then maintain that job.

And even if it was, oh my lord, that is the single most contrived thing in this series yet. Are you SERIOUSLY telling me that Mary Jane and Beck and the entire production got this  lucky. The guy who’s reputation is what the movie is riding on happens  to be someone who repeatedly deals with this incredibly rare mental condition?

Holy shit. That’s Superior Spider-Man levels of contrived.

And yet if you still swallowed all of that it still wouldn’t make sense!

McKnight presumes he made this Mysterio movie in a fugue state right? But he wasn’t, so he would remember his life during that period of time. Meaning that there are lots of public records and personal accounts testifying that he was making the movie at the same time that he  knows he was observing penguins.

If you suffer amnesia or blackouts or DID then there are obviously gaps in time you cannot account for. The overwhelming majority of people who deal with those conditions make a point of keeping track of those gaps, for practical reasons if nothing else. So McKnight would know that there isn’t a gap in time he can’t account for and certainly not for the time period the Mysterio movie has been going for.

Shit, the movie is still  filming! How the Hell does he believe he is still making this movie in a fugue state if he’s consciously aware of lacking any knowledge about it?

Not to mention if he’s been in the Falkland Islands this whole time. A quick Google search informed me that by plane it’d take over 14 hours  to travel between the islands and Los Angeles. How the fuck is anyone supposed to ever commute that distance, let alone regularly. And McKnight sincerely believes he was doing both at the same goddam time?

You couldn’t even argue that McKnight believes he made the Mysterio movie before his penguin expedition. Because the movie is still being made and all his other ‘artistic fugues’ would have a movie as proof of what he was doing during the fugues.

This is just mind-numbingly stupid and lazy writing. It smacks so hard of Williams trying to desperately paper over the holes in her initial story.

More importantly, how fucking stupid is Mary Jane or Beck to never considered this possibility? I don’t mean the fugue bullshit, I mean the idea of McKnight just coming back  from his penguin adventure.

Was Mysterio honestly so incompetent as to have never accounted for that? He seriously never had anything in place to make sure McKnight wouldn’t just decide to cut his journey short? Jesus, and I was dumb enough to buy his line about McKnight spending a year with the penguins.

Even putting that aside, what the flying fuck was MJ and Beck’s plan for when he eventually  came back in the first place? Say he really did spend a year with the penguins then came back to the USA. Suddenly he has a movie with his name attached to it and lots of controversy. Let’s say McKnight’s fugue bullshit added up, there is no indication MJ or beck knew about them. So how the Hell were they planning on getting away with the obvious questions he or his friends or family would have had?

And if they did know about the fugues, why didn’t Williams address that before? That was kind of  a lingering question hanging over the story until now wasn’t it?

God I can’t believe I paid for this!

On the next page MJ spots a guy in an Oni Mask backstage. She presumes he’s there to scare her as part of the show. However, she notices that the P.A.s haven’t seen him. Meanwhile Reilly set up a stupid game for them to play.

I got nothing to say about this page beyond McKnight’s dialogue. Williams is clearly trying to frame the real McKnight in a less than sympathetic manner. There could be many reasons why. I suspect one of the reasons is to incline us more towards Beck’s version of McKnight and to make us not feel as bad about Beck (and MJ) exploiting his identity.

Because being vaguely and lightly sexist means you deserve to have your career, public image, sense of self and life violated and damaged I guess?????????????

As Reilly brings in people from the audience to compete against McKnight and MJ, the latter thinks that there is something weirdly familiar about the Oni-masked man.

I have little to say about this page too.

Reilly’s attitude and facial expressions make me dislike her, even beyond her stupid haircut.

And as for the Oni-Masked man (I’ll just call him Oni for now) my only guess is that he’s affiliated with Mister Negative somehow. He had his goons wear Oni masks at times. And MJ interacted with them and Mister Negative himself in the popular 2018 Spider-Man video game by Insomniac; and it’s adapted comic book City at War. As such perhaps Williams is trying to tie-in or capitalize upon audience familiarity with that.

As MJ plays the dumb game he ponders if Oni could be a lesser member of Peter’s rogue’s gallery. Observing him again she notices him murder a civilian.

The dumb game annoyed me, but that’s just me.

Beyond that all I can say is that MJ’s dialogue about Peter’s rogue’s gallery is interesting. It proves that MJ has at least a working knowledge of Peter’s major foes. Which just further proves she would have been familiar with Mysterio and his crimes, just in case anyone was still clinging to the idea that she wouldn’t.

Also, the art and especially that splash page were beautiful.

Unfortunately for MJ, Oni notices she witnessed his crime. MJ is nervous and backs away in fear, annoying McKnight when she bumps into him. Meanwhile Spider-Man swings across town yelling for to hold on as he is on the way.

Gomez draws a nice Spider-Man.

Anyway, more of Williams making us dislike McKnight, see above for more on that.

MJ backing away in fear has me apprehensive. I don’t know if that’s in character for her. I guess the shock and surprise could’ve thrown her for a loop. And if Oni doesn’t notice her then it gives her a better chance of raising the alarm and capturing him.

I must say, I do like MJ being on the backfoot here after issues #1-5 made her often overconfident and over capable at times (see her nonchalance over the Savage Six in issue #5).

Also, isn’t MJ going to give Oni the benefit of the doubt? Maybe he’s sorry for murdering that guy just now. Maybe he wants to make amends by creating a movie about his life. So why is MJ so scared?

Sure, he just murdered someone, but what is that next to the laundry list of Beck’s crimes?

As it turns out, Spidey wasn’t on his way to save MJ. He was in fact en route to a French restaurant to have dinner with her. He is actually before MJ for a change.

I know Gomez isn’t the only artist on this issue and this doesn’t look like his work. Who ever is drawing it though is doing a very bland depiction of Peter with a overly wrinkly forehead.

The joke about him arriving first for a change was funny though.

Back at the studio, the show wraps up. McKnight insults Reilly’s profession just in case you’ve not realised he is a jerk yet. MJ thinks about persuading everyone to evacuate and searches for her phone. She notices Oni leaving and decides to leave her phone behind.

I already know MJ is going to pursue Oni herself. The stupidity of that aside why the fuck wouldn’t you grab your phone before doing that? You could use it no matter where you wind up and it wasn’t so far away that he’d get that much of a head start.

In fact, if Oni knows MJ is a witness why did he bother hanging around in the first place.

And why didn’t MJ raise the alarm immediately, the worst that would happen is the guy would run away. He’s just stealthily murdered someone and is in a mask. He obviously isn’t going to take the audience hostage, so if her priority is protecting innocents then raising the alarm immediately (or in fact earlier would’ve been her best bet. Yes that’d probably mean he’d have escaped but unlike with say Peter’s origin, getting him the Hell out of there would’ve reduced the immediate threat to the civilians present.

And on top of that if she figures he’s targeting her because she was a witness to his crime then by alerting everyone to his actions she’d have removed his need (at least for the moment) of sticking around to eliminate her, thus getting him away from the audience.

If he’s leaving anyway, MJ could also just grab her phone and put a call in to Peter, her super hero chums or the police and get them on the case immediately. If she was really so determined to go after this guy herself she still could but would’ve had a back up just in case he escapes or kills her. If she fails then she’s insured someone will still pursue him.

And as I copiously detailed in parts 19-22, MJ is not a super hero (and she knows that). She has no idea what this guy’s skills, weapons or powers might be, nor does she know what resources or assistance will be nearby to enable her to survive or subdue him. This isn’t like an armed cop, a martial artist or a super powered person going after a regular crook. She really doesn’t know what she is in for. Even if he is just a normal man, he clearly has a height and weight advantage over her, is obviously willing and capable of chocking a man to death and is armed. MJ meanwhile has little self-defence training, no weapons and hasn’t got the weight or muscle capable of taking him on if she’s backed into a corner. And she’s pursuing him back stage where presumably there is a fair chance of encountering many corners!

I understand that she doesn’t want to endanger innocent people, but there is no point in risking her life there is a much more practical and likely to succeed option available to her. Live to fight another day and all that. Yes the guy might hurt people during or after his escape but that’s a lesser evil vs. going after him herself when she is very unlikely to subdue him, far more likely to die and then the guy will get away without her having passed on any valuable intel on him to someone more qualified to pursue him.

Also once she sees the guy leaving she could just tell everyone the situation and ask the audience to stay put.

Basically if raises the alarm right there on stage and/or calls Peter or the authorities she is over all putting less people in danger and increasing the chances of the guy being apprehended in the long run. But no, instead she is going to gamble on the far slimmer odds that she can capture the guy.

Not to mention, why would the guy even give a shit that MJ saw him? Why would MJ give a shit that she is a witness to his crime? He is wearing a mask! She couldn’t identify him even if she went to the police. It is literally part of the reason her goddam boyfriend wears a mask!

And by the way, are there no security cameras backstage? Wouldn’t MJ consider that or Oni himself?

McKnight apologises to Reilly (so not that much of a jerk I guess) as MJ pursues Oni (barefooted) backstage. As she does this she rehearses what she will say to Peter in her head. This entails telling him that she had to get away from the killer. As she is thinking about this the body of Oni’s victim is discovered. Backstage she comes face to face with Oni who refers to her by name.

Yay. MJ deliberately planning on lying to Peter again. It’s so awesome that Williams understands why this isn’t a really bad idea for the reasons I pointed out in part 17.

By the way, I suspect Oni knows MJ personally rather than just recognizing her work.

I’m actually going to leave it there for now as the next part of the story has a shitton to unpack.

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Master Post

[bae-roman]

Can you do 54. “They’re not your kids, back the f*ck off.” for Roman or Bill

Ahhh I’m so sorry this took literally 5ever, but as promised, I’m clearing out my inbox so here you go! Hope it was worth the wait  😘

You and Roman had been over for 2 years. As much as you loved him, you couldn’t get past his constant self destructive ways. It was fine when it was just the two of you and Nadia, due to her not being biologically yours, you didn’t have much say despite your many efforts. But when the twins came along, everything changed.

As much as you wanted to stay with him, you had to do what was best for the children so you took the kids and moved out. Though Roman was extremely angry and hurt at what you’d done, he agreed for you to bring Nadia because you were essentially her mother and you both agreed that all the siblings should be raised together.

Despite whatever resentment he had towards you, he shoved it aside and put all his focus into co-parenting your children.

Though he hid it well, Roman was a complete wreck without you. He wallowed in his grief attempting to self medicate with drugs, hookers and alcohol but none of it came close to filling the void you left. You, alternatively, had put all your efforts into being the best mother you could be. You still loved - and believed you always would love- Roman but it wasn’t only about you anymore. You hadn’t even considered dating someone else until your friends made you go out on a date with one of their co-workers, Avery.

Avery was a catch. Steady career, independent, smart, funny, handsome, great in bed��� but he wasn’t Roman. You had continued to see Avery, hoping that you would feel something close to how you felt for Roman but that never happened.  If there was a spark between you and Avery, you and Roman had a wildfire and being completely honest with yourself, Avery was nothing more than a placeholder. You knew it was wrong of you to stay with him for so long, lying to him and yourself about your feelings but  you were terrified that if you didn’t move on now you would be stuck on Roman forever.

You waited seven months before introducing Avery to your children. Roman obviously wasn’t thrilled about this, let alone the whole Avery situation altogether, but you allowed him to do all of the security and background checks he wanted until he no longer had any reasonable grounds to object.

In preparation for this new man entering their lives, he took the family on an impromptu trip to disney world and then let them run wild in Toys R’Us, giving them multiple reminders that “Daddy is the best”, “They only have 1 dad” and “Avery sounds like a girl’s name”.

The kids and Avery had gotten along well. You introduced him as a friend that would be spending more time around as opposed to your boyfriend - though the boys were too young to even grasp what a boyfriend was.

As time went on, the children got more comfortable with Avery and Roman became more comfortable with you having another man in your life. He knew that there was no longer anything he could do to change your mind but if it was his decision, you’d still be with him.

On one of the days Roman was meant to pick up the children, he informed you that he was running late. You were out at a work lunch and the kids were at home with the nanny. Despite your offer to pay her extra, she couldn’t stay later due to her own family commitments and even with you leaving now, there’d still be 20 minutes where the children would unsupervised. Desperate, you called Avery and asked if he could go over to your place early. You’d already had plans to spend the weekend together so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. Under normal circumstances, you would never leave your young children alone with anyone but this was an emergency, the kids liked him and you trusted him. You updated Roman, who was already on his way, of what was happening and told him you’d be there as soon as you could.

When Roman arrived to your home, the sight in front of him made his blood boil. The boys were playing on the swing set in the yard with Avery while Nadia was sitting alone on the porch, looking sad.

Roman parked the car and walked up to her, “Hey princess, why aren’t you playing with your brothers?” he asked, while picking her up and kissing her cheek. The 5 year old wrapped her arms around his neck and replied, “Avery said I’m bad and can’t play and I have to sit here…but I wasn’t being bad daddy!”

Roman wanted to kill him.

“I know you weren’t, sweetheart. Go play with your brothers.”

At some point during this exchange, Avery noticed that Roman had arrived and walked up to him. Before he could say anything, Roman cut him off, “You ever try that shit with my kids again, I’ll break every bone in your fucking body, got it?”

“You weren’t here, you don’t know what she did. She’s a fucking brat.”Avery, not one to step down easy shot back while poor Nadia was still in ear shot.

Roman fought back every instinct he had to snap the man’s neck in half solely due to the presence of his children. He did, however, place a firm grip on Avery’s shoulder, hard enough to leave bruises in the shape of his fingers.

“They’re not your kids. Back the fuck off” Roman growled.

“I would, but your ex seems to want a real man around.”

At this point, you came home to see your twins still on the swings and Nadia looking upset while standing near her father who was clearly furious. Knowing Roman, you assumed that whatever situation you were walking in on had something to do with dumb male jealousy so you rushed over to Nadia, grabbed her hand and led her away from the angry men, over to the porch.

Still having no idea about what the argument was really about, you crouched down so that you were eye level with Nadia and brushed her hair behind her ears.

“Don’t worry baby, Daddy and Avery are just… play fighting. Like your brothers do”

Nadia looked down and shook her head, “Am I bad?”

“What? Of course not sweetie, where did you hear that?

“Avery said it. And he said bad words and that I was a brat” she responded sadly.

You instantly saw red.

Giving Nadia a peck on the forehead, you assured her that she was nothing short of an angel before instructing her to get her brothers and take them inside.

You marched over to the adults, in the middle of an increasingly aggravated argument and gave Avery the dirtiest look you could muster.

“Me and you are finished. You fucking piece of shit” you spat at him then turned to Roman, “You have my full permission to do whatever you feel is necessary. Just make sure the kids and the neighbours don’t see.”

Avery tried to say something but before he could form a full word, you slapped him across his face as hard as you could. You rushed to the door, meeting your kids just as they walked into the house.

Roman smirked at Avery and dragged him into the back garage.

It was hours before Roman entered your home. You noticed he had changed his clothes.

“Kids napping?”

You nodded, continuing to make dinner

“How are they?”You sighed, “The boys are fine. Nadia is…. better. I think we should have a talk with her later, both of us. I mean I told her that Avery was just a bad man who lies and that she’s not even close to what he said but I feel like it might be better if she hears it from both of us?”

Roman nodded his head.

It was quiet then, for a bit at least. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

You finally broke the silence, “So Avery… he’s gone?”

Roman nodded once again, “Yep. His car too, there shouldn’t be any trace of him around here but incase the cops come knocking-” “- Say nothing and call you, I remember the drill” you both chuckled then, and it was nice. Like old times, when things were good between you two.

“Did he suffer?”

Roman ran a hand through his hair, “You really want to know?”

You debated for a second before nodding

“Yeah, he did.”

“Good” was all you could respond.

Once again it was quiet.

“Are you okay?” Roman asked, genuinely concerned at you lack of reaction.

It wasn’t what he said or how he said it, but you burst into tears. You were trying to hold them back but couldn’t any longer. It wasn’t that you were sad about Avery. Finding out what he said you your little girl was more than enough to make you hate him with every fibre of your being, you just couldn’t get over how blind you had been. You’d been with this man for over a year now, you went on trips with him, slept with him, brought your kids around him thinking he was this great guy but really, you had no clue what he was capable of. You felt so guilty and ashamed and stupid, like you were the worst mother in the world.

Once you broke down, Roman grabbed you and held you in his arms while you let it all out. He rubbed your back and comforted you as best as he could.

“You know you’re like the best mom, right? I would have never let Nadia come with you if that wasn’t true” You sniffled an nodded your head, keeping it buried in his chest.

“And you weren’t stupid you were… in love” Roman continued, audibly grimacing as he said the last part.

You couldn’t help but pull away form him and laugh, “The only person I’ve ever loved is you Roman, he was just….a warm body to keep me company.”

Roman smirked, “Well what did you expect? You already had perfection. It could only go down from me”

You rolled your eyes and playfully smacked his chest before going back to finishing up dinner.

“I know it’s supposed to be your weekend but do you want to just stay over? We can have family time and take the kids to the park or something? Isn’t the carnival in town? That could be fun”

“Yeah, that sounds nice”