#oh yeah hes also big traumatized i lied

[v1ct0r1an]

Season 5/comic vitalasy design YIPPIE

He's only a tad traumatized from S4 theres nothing to worry abt

[gilverrwrites]

Omg, Jason who always considered y/n as an older sister and a pillar of support, she was one of the person which he would go to for advice or confessions, would be traumatized by hearing Dick and Y/n sounds!!! 😭😭😭

Not to mention Y/n would be mortified!

For sure 1 step away from, if not equivalent to hearing Bruce getting laid. Poor boy will have to bleach his ears.

But I’m also kinda taken with the idea of Jay and you being BFFs. Like super close, so overhearing you getting laid isn’t a big deal. You've probably wing-manned for each other on multiple occasions.

One night he drops by your apartment cause he thinks your expertise might be able to help him on a case. It’s late at night, and the lights are out. He has a spare key, so he lets himself in. He’s halfway to your bedroom, about to call out your name when he hears it.

It’s immediately obvious what’s happening. You, lucky girl, are seeing fucking god. You’ll be getting noise complaints, it’s so loud, and lewd, the walls are practically shaking.

He hedges his bets on what to do, he could wait it out, crash on your couch, make fun of you later, but there doesn’t seem to be any signs of your slowing, so he figures he’ll dip out and come back in the morning.

Jason goes home, sends you a text to say he dropped by, but you seemed busy *wink wink*, he’ll come by tomorrow instead. You don’t respond which is unusual, but he figures it’s just because you were probably fucked to death given what he heard.

The next morning, he grabs breakfast and coffee, and he grabs extra in case whatever legend made you howl like a dog is still there. He’s forking around his jacket looking for his key when your door opens and out steps his big brother, looking dishevelled in yesterday’s clothes. Grinning from ear to ear like butter wouldn’t melt.

“Dick?”

“Jay?”

“What are you doing here?” “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see y/n about a case.”

“Oh, yeah. Me too, crazy!”

They both know he’s lying. Jay internally is losing his shit. Not only did his brother and his best friend fuck, not only is he being lied to about it. BUT HE FUCKING HEARD IT. Oh god! He’s gonna vomit. This is not okay, this is gross. Oh god.

Obviously, normally Dick and you are the people that calm him down when he freaks out but you two are the cause of the freak out.

The outlaws are gonna push him to talk about whats up, and he's just gonna explode, and they're gonna be sick of hearing about you and Dick real quickly.  

[gunpowderraven]

critical role: by someone that hasn’t seen any of it

hi so we recently got into dimension 20 and our friends have been tugging us towards critical role for a very long time at this point but we still haven’t watched any of it nor do we know all that much about anything that actually happens in it. however we do intend to actually start watching soon so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to make one of those ‘all the things i know about this thing i haven’t watched’ posts, show it to our critrole friends, and then actually get into critrole and be able to look back and laugh about it later

also the images are all sourced via friend so this is all one hundred percent no wiki no google knowledge, just from tumblr and discord convos and stuff. and some cast compilation videos that were very funny

update: we are now watching cr3! liveblog tag for silly lb -> #cr3 lb

vox machina

from left to right:

- i have literally no idea who the two halflings are. i’ve never seen them before in my life. what. uh. paladin and bard? im literally just guessing. who plays these characters. what

- grog? grug? this is travis’ pc maybe. also hypothesizing hes a half-orc barbarian or something similar? ive seen like one clip of him

- percival frederick von something something de rolo i think there’s a iii in his name as well, his name is long and very german but he does not have a german accent. or a french one. at separate times i have thought this character was german and french and then i heard him talk and was like. What. anyway i know he’s taliesin’s pc and he invented guns and is also possessed sometimes by big bird demon, and he has a nifty plague doctor mask. also tragic backstory. his entire family is dead i think. no mercy percy! he has a thing with vex? also his hair did a wilbur. the gay people on tumblr love this twink. i also think i love this twink

- vax’ildan! i think i may have actually spelled that right! half-elf? vex is his twin? and he’s... liam’s pc i think. yeah that’s it. he gives me angsty boy energy tho. not as much as percy but this boy has seen some shit. also he might be a rogue or a ranger who even knows. he looks like gay jon snow

- vex’ahlia which i definitely didn’t spell right. i think the next one is marisha’s pc so this one is... uh... laura? i think she’s the ranger actually. i think she has a bear. not like a gay bear like an actual animal bear. though it could be gay too i dunno. she has a think with percy. or everyone wants her to have a thing with percy. i genuinely can’t tell. anyway get that traumatized twink girl

- keyleth... marisha’s pc. some kind of spellcaster? maybe sorcerer? wild magic? she Also has a thing with percy maybe. or vex. or both. who even knows. everyone wants that twink. one time she threw herself off a cliff and turned into a goldfish and almost died and it was hilarious

anything else i know about this:

- there are evil bitches called the briarwoods and they might be vampires

- this is the one that got a tv show and might have also been the first critrole campaign idek

- d. ragons? chromia something. dragons. i hope i haven’t been lied to about the dragons. i hope there are actually dragons in this. there’s like a chromium something with dragon symbols tho

mighty nein

from left to right:

- mollymauk! ...tealeaf? another taliesin pc. the trans people like this one. i don’t know what their pronouns are. but theyre slaying every time i see them at any time. no idea what class but maybe a spellcaster?

- ...beau? i know her exclusively through lesbian ship art so i know her name is beau something bc that’s the ship names but i don’t know if that’s short for something. monk? no clue. also no clue who plays her either. maybe marisha?

- i have seen this character but i do not know their name. or anything else about them

- oh this is the sad wizard boy caleb widogast. he’s gay for essek thelyss (or something. i didnt spell that right) who is a npc i think. yeah. sad wizard. every time i see him he’s just being a wizard and sad. the gays love him too but he’s more of a distraught otter than a sad twink. maybe he and percy should start a club tho. also i think he’s played by liam

- i KNOW this character’s name i think it starts with s but i can’t remember for the life of me. scriv? scrat? no thats the rat from ice age. possibly a menace? i think im getting them mixed up with someone else. they look cool as hell though

- jester!! laura pc i think perhaps. i want to get drunk with her and tell her about all of my problems. yeah. i dont know anything about her actually. beaujester exists tho i know that

- YASHA. CRUSH ME HOLY FUCK. sorry im normal ? her voice makes me a little crazy insane. ive seen a few clips of her. mostly gay shit with beau. uh she’s played by ashley and she could kick my ass very easily

oh my god there’s another photo

- i think there’s only one character different here and it’s caduceus clay fun fact i hated this mfer for really dumb shitty personal reasons for a while before deciding it was very stupid to blame a fictional character for interpersonal drama and now im fine with him. wait does mollymauk die or something. wait a second. no, wait, fuck—

- ALSO WHO’S THAT FUCKER IN THE BACKGROUND I JUST NOTICED THAT

anything else i know about this:

- yeah i got nothing. no idea about the lore or the plot or anything bc i pretty much exclusively see gay ship art of these pcs. love wins i support it

bells hells

from left to right, one more time:

- look my brain is just saying gertrude from dungeons & drag queens but obviously that’s incorrect. so i don’t know who this is

- or this! but she looks very pretty and i love the little... monkey... bird? pls tell me these two characters have some kind of wild opposites dynamic they look like they do

- LITTLE ROBOT GUY . fcg? fgc? i think it was the first one. uh. liam pc? ?????? i think he gets bitches

- orym...? i know one of these characters is named orym. and i think it’s this one. i also see gay fanart of him

- i don’t know who the guy underneath him is

- or the lady with the purple hair god i really don’t know shit about this campaign sorry

- ashton greymoore, taliesin pc, my friend luna loves this guy, he’s. rocks? he’s rocks. groovy.

- someone in this campaign is named like dorian or something and im guessing its this one bc idk who they are either

anything else i know about this:

- flying.......... ship?

- this is the ongoing one i think

thank you for coming to my ted talk, i can’t wait to look back at this in a few months and laugh my ass off. hope u enjoyed this mess

[kingmagnificoofrosas]

They love you - they would do anything for you!

Words mean nothing if there's no action to prove them true!

The whole statement from the "evil book" - mind you- "bound for all eternity, nothing can break or bind the evil" is a capital B big fat lie!

A dear anon has already mentioned this before here on my blog through an ask. The gullibility of Amaya and the rest of the people of rosas almost hurts. Of course an evil book would tell you there is no way to get out of the dark!

Disney isn't the first and only one who has been spreading the message of "True love breaks evey curse and true love overcomes all. And darkness can never be greater than the light."

From the christian perspective, it's more than clear that everything said by the evil book isn't trustworthy as far as salvation goes! Evil isn't stronger than the good and never will be!

It's also intersting to note that the evil force (green evil magic) is potrayed as this shadow entity 👇🏼

Also, why trust the words of something that literally does nothing but evil and harm?

Even if we look at the whole Magnifico situation purely objectively, like my cousins daughter, not through the lense of faith and leaving the knowledge of trauma aside, the "He's a villain now and can't be saved" is utter nonsense!

The first half of the movie we are told and shown Magnifico's true intentions. His ambitions and desires. We saw him being genuine all the way. He's always been honest and kind. He never lied, played or manipultated anyone and even further explained multiple times how he feels and why he does what he does. And then we are shown "the book" the big bad thing that will defenitly do harm and take posession of Magnifico should he use it!

That's the information! If Magnifico uses the book, he will be "controlled" by the evil from this book! This is what even Amaya said! Plain and clear.

Also, geeky side fact to the orgins of the book : Magnifico didn't get the book himself, nor did he built the evil lair where he later on created his staff. From the art book we know that he found both the book and the evil lair during the renovations. [ He's built his castle on top of an already existing building ] That means, Magnifico didn't even go to pursue such a book. He found it and kept it. Cause we already know why - trauma rooted fear, anxiety, paranoia.

If someone is controlled/posessed by something, it's more than clear that the person isn't at fault for the actions done by the evil in them! Just look at the insane difference!

Oh yeah ... I know a posession by evil if I see one. And in this case, we had the facts served on a silver tray. It's not even a guessing game.

The only thing we can hold Magnifico accountable for is the fact he did reach for the book. But then again, we also need to consider WHY he did. Reason - his trauma! He was terrified!

If the book hadn't been there, believe me, this poor man would have had the worst mental breakdown and we would have probably found him huddled together on the ground suffering out his panic attack.

People don't understand the merry go round of thoughts a traumatized person has. And the emotions that come with it. In a situation as intense as Magnifico's we do have a domino effect. Or a wildfire-effect. One tiny spark on dry grass will eventually lead to a big fire. He was already triggered and highly stressed out, and severly traumatized people oftentimes aren't able to make the best decissions - or decissions at all.

If I think about it - if I had suffered a trauma as intense as Magnifico, already more than burdened with anxiety, fear and paranoia, and then something happens that triggers me immensely, I spend an entire night feverishly searching for an answer or solution, no sleep, no food, immense stress…. on top of that, no one in the entire kingdom that truly understands me ... Boy, I'd probably freak out and snap too.

The most support he's gotten during his spiral of misery was a pat to the shoulder. Not one single hug, no truly comforting words, a gentle stroke over his cheek, a kiss, truly loving words. That poor man got nothing!

Btw this is a quote from my cousins daughter. And she told it to my face randomly before I could even say anything! She said "You know, Magnifico isn't bad. The book is. He only wanted to protect everyone but the book made him evil. Bad book!"

And if that wasn't already enough, her younger brother watched the movie as well and then also randomly told me, "Bad book!" Furthermore - I wheezed and cried of laughter, because 1. I didn't expect this and 2. it was absolutely brilliant! - The daughter sat at the table and was drawing again, and then she told me, "The movie ... the magician and the bad book ..." The title she gave WISH! She made Magnifico the protagonist and the evil book the villain! Exactly right!

Anyway, then it happens, everyone KNOWS Magnifico is "controlled/posessed" and yet all of the sudden he himself is the evil? What??

In the past ten decades, disney had always done a fantastic job in displaying true evil and the - true love always wins - message. Even with quite recent movies such as Tangled, Frozen, Encanto etc. We've been introduced to the trauma topic and that "antagonists" can and should be saved.

I mean, I'm absolutely glad that we got Magnifico the way we got him, but I'm enraged about the toxic stance toward trauma.

If I'm looking at what disney did in the tangled series with Varian and Cassandra, who both had a short time period where they've been pushed down the "villain" road by trauma and by the hurt of not feeling valued, seen, heard or treated right and how this got resolved, I can only shake my head at what disney did in Wish.

Cassandra as much as Varian in fact- especially Cassandra- threatened the whole kingdom and also strived to hurt Rapunzel more than just once.

And she wasn't directly posessed by evil but heavily manipulated and blinded by it. All her "Evil actions" were completelty on her! And Rapunzel stressed that no matter what, she'll never give up on Cassandra. Why? Because she truly loved her! Because she knew that this evil wasn't who she truly is.

Rapunzel said "Even when I look at you now, after all that's happened, no matter what we've done to each other, I still see that look in your eyes. You're my best friend, Cassandra, and I will never give up on you!"

Can you imagine what could have been if Amaya and all the citizens of Rosas would have had that attitude towards Magnifico? Truly loving him for who he is and not only seeing him as a source for favours? They all simply didn't care! If they had, they wouldn't have given up on him as quick as the snap of a finger.

So we've seen antagonists and semi-villains getting redeemed before and we've seen the "True love conquers all" more than enough, and now, especially with Magnifico, disney and some ignorant haters want to tell us that this isn't what could have happened to Magnifico too?

It's ridiculous!

And the citizens of Corona forgave both Cassandra and Varian!

Now, once more, the "book" said - nothing can bind the evil magic! Yet this is exactly what happened after the people of Rosas unified and sang! The lights glowing in their chests is actually symbolic for their hearts unifying! It was immediately stronger than the hold of the evil magic, even though the book said, it's untouchable!

The evil magic was bound, "star" was set free and Magnifico pulled into the curse realm. You cannot tell me if they all had done the same thing with the goal in their hearts to free and save Magnifico, that they wouldn't have succeeded.

[rapha-reads]

IWTV rewatch

Season 1 episode 7 [The Thing Lay Still] - part 3/3

- Okay, the triple confrontation Daniel/Louis, Daniel/Armand and Louis/Louis is long but there's so much to say, I have to quote it entirely:

[Daniel] "Well, isn't that neat and tidy?" - THANK YOU DANIEL, I know I can always count on you to point out the flaws and holes in the fabric of Louis' recollection.

[Louis] "'There was a ship. We did get on it.'

[Daniel] 'Yeah, I read that, the first 50 pages. Not exactly the, uh, adventure-of-our-lives feeling I'm feeling.'

[Louis] 'It was a traumatic escape.'

[Daniel] 'Yeah, but she didn't say that explicitly. […] But, um… there's a feeling that she hated your guts there for a while. Why is that?'"

Trust Daniel to always see the little thing that would be inconsequential to anyone else.

[Louis] "'I was haunted by my brother's death, by the abandonment of my sister, by the murder of Lestat, I…'

[Daniel] 'Murder? What murder? It was an act of mercy. You didn't kill Lestat. You spared him out of some fucked-up idea you had about love.'

[Louis] 'Love? I bled him like a pig and waited for the death rattle.'"

Oh, Louis. You are so good at lying to yourself. Good thing Daniel's too much of an excellent investigative reporter to let you fool him like you're fooling yourself. Notice how Louis looks as Daniel undoes all his lies and smoke mirrors? Like he's still trying to cling so hard to the story he's told himself for the past 80 years, like the lie is the only thing that keeps him upright, like if he admits the love, admits he wanted to save Lestat, that would completely undo him and there would be no going back?

[Daniel] "You were shot point-blank by an alderman. You were dropped a thousand feet and survived. You torched Antoinette just to make sure. Where does the trash go, Louis? You take the trash down to the street, some guys show up in a truck and they throw it in the back, and then, they drive it out to the middle of nowhere, right? No. They take the trash to the dump. And having lived two blocks away from the dump just outside of Fishkill, New York, with my first wife, I can state, with authority, what else you'll find there. Rats. Big fucking rats, the size of Kevin Durant's sneakers. Enough blood in them to bring back the dead. Especially one in a trunk with locks on the inside. You knew it, Louis. You had to. The biggest rat eater of them all."

Thank you for bringing back Moonlight Sonata! Haven't figured out yet if it's intra or extradiegetic tho. I love its presence in this episode. It's my favourite piece of classical music (I know, very original) and it's so gothic par excellence.

Mention of the first wife, Alice/Armand, no, I will not get down from this hill.

I love how Daniel's theory posit Louis as having done some planning for himself outside of Claudia's and even Lestat's, with the trunks locking on the inside and the rats needed to revive.

[Rashid/Armand] "'This session is over.'

[Daniel] 'How many days in the Islamic year? How many names are there for Allah?'

[Rashid/Armand] '355 and 99.'

[Daniel] 'Why does a 200-pound bouncer pass out after he sucks him off, and you, a wet T-shirt away from 130, doesn't even blink?'"

Ha, Daniel said 'okay who the eff are you and why am I smelling bullshit'. Meanwhile Armand said 'oh shit we're getting too close to dangerous waters and Louis is about to lose it, better reassert control'. But also, Muslim!Armand. Definitely. Not a throwaway line, not just pretence. Rolin Jones I'm counting on you to not fuck this up.

[Louis] "'I couldn't burn him.'

[Daniel] 'But Claudia could.'

[Louis] 'No', she couldn't.'

[Daniel] 'She stuck a pen in his neck. She recorded his last words in his own blood. The girl did not have a fuckin' problem tossing him on the grill, okay?'"

And Louis' wall of lies is breaking and shattering… And the pebbles of the zen garden, his other big trauma, don't help either…

[Daniel] "You cursed her into the darkness. You chose Lestat over her time and time again. You don't need a memoir, Louis. You need a hundred sessions of EMDR. You know the shit they put soldiers through when they see one of their platoon buddies get blown up in front of them?"

Say it, Daniel! These messy vamps need therapy.

Making jokes to avoid the sheer anguish in Louis' face, voice and body language, both in the 1940 flashback (the image of Louis holding Lestat's body and yelling is tattooed on my eyelids) and in 2022 (Louis sitting in his zen garden hugging and rocking himself, eyes screwed shut, trying to block Daniel and Armand's voices and the memories lives rent free in my mind).

[Daniel] "'144 years and you're still Louis the Pimp, paying a whore to sit in a room and talk with you. 'Cause why? You got some story you wanna tell the whole world about yourself?'

[Rashid/Armand] 'When you hear it you'll be ashamed, ashamed of what you say to him now!'"

Please don't hold back, Danny, do tell us what you think exactly. But hey, Louis needs to hear it.

The fuck are you talking about, Armand… Also notice how agitated he is? Feeling protective of Louis, or feeling like he's losing control of the interview, the interviewee and the interviewer all at once?

Love Armand taking off is gloves in the background. So subtle, so crucial. And then the lenses.

[Daniel] "'This is the same shit that happened in San Francisco.'

[Louis] 'Not exactly.'

[Daniel] 'How is it any different, Louis?'

[Armand] 'This time I won't save your life. Louis can sometimes act out. I protect him from himself, always have. Stopped him that night in San Francisco.'"

Oh, hello, Armand's decided to play Superman. Aaaaah, Armand's orange eyes, I love them!!!

Can we talk about Armand's infantilisation of Louis? "He acts out, I protect him from himself"… Like a child that can't regulate his feelings and needs to be put on time's out. The manipulation is deep and multi-layered, it's not just the memory alteration. Notice how Louis is pretty much dissociating, staring at the grey wall, face slowly becoming inexpressive and voice returning to flat and empty, from the moment Armand started telling off Daniel?

[Daniel] "'You were there.'

[Louis] 'You don't remember.'

[Daniel] 'No, I don't remember.'

[Louis] 'What was that you said about memory? 'A monster', was it?'

[Daniel] 'But I saw you standing in the sun.'

[Armand] 'As we age, the sun loses its power over us. What's a mediocre star to a 514-year-old vampire?'

[Louis] 'Daniel Molloy, I'd like you to meet the vampire Armand, the love of my life.'"

One, don't be too cocky, Louis, there's plenty you don't remember about that night too yourself.

Two, and we've come full circle again, the monster memory making itself fully known after lurking all season long.

Three, shut up Armand, the Sun is not a mediocre star, it's part of the entire reason there's life on this planet, show some respect. Sun deities are some of the most frequent deities around the globe. You need to come back down to earth.

Four, all the books being out of reach to Louis, another way Armand's exerting subtle control.

Five, "love of my life", BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAGA *deep breath* HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA, that line kills me every time I hear time. Why you lying Louis, stop fucking lying all the time. Sorry, Armand.

Daniel seeing them side by side and hearing that stupid line after listening to Louis ramble and compose poetry on the spot about Lestat for the past week or so: "hm. I sense bullshit of the highest degree. Time to destroy that whole tower of lies one by one.".

Aaaaaaaaaah, that was such a rich and intense episode!!!! What a grandiose season 1 final!!! So many different elements that have got to be revisited by other perspectives to get the full painting. So many seeds planted for season 2 and even season 3!! The writing is flawless, the acting is exquisite, the music is gorgeous, the costume, set design and stage direction are masterful. I am in love with this show.

ep1 | ep2 | ep3 | ep4 | ep5 | ep6 | part 1 | part 2

[muffinlance]

Fellow Prisoner Li, Part 3: Subtle Zuko is Subtle

Continued from the original post || Read all chapters on AO3

Li, Sokka was coming to realize, had the worst sense of direction. 

“Where you going, buddy?” Sokka inquired, as one does, when one’s former fellow prisoner and current traveling companion was dragging the Avatar off into the forest by his arm. Given the kid’s excited bouncing, the arm grabbing was probably to keep him on the ground. Or at least, ground-adjacent. 

“Firebending training,” Li said. 

“Firebending training!” Aang beamed.

“In that direction?” Sokka clarified.

“Yes,” Li growled, as the Avatar continued to echo him, but with a hundred more years of pent-up enthusiasm.

“The direction we saw that big Fire Nation base in as we flew in?” Sokka further clarified. 

“Y— No. Pohuai isn’t this way. It’s—” their resident directionally challenged firebender looked in many other directions, before picking the one exactly opposite of where he was leading Aang, and pointing with the complete certainty of a gambler who couldn’t take back his chips. “That way?”

If we ever need to know where the nearest Fire Nation presence is, we just need to spin you in a circle and tell you to walk, Sokka did not say, because Katara was already pointedly glaring at him from over by the fire, projecting her sibling telepathy so hard he could practically hear the lecture she was rehearsing in her head. Something something be nicer, something something traumatized prisoner. Also, and more importantly: Li had started helping with meals. Particularly in the delicious delicious pan-searing of meat and fish (and, if Aang was to be believed, various fungi, which Sokka did agree needed to be lit on fire). Sokka’s plate could get suspiciously crispy if he upset their broiler’s delicate Shout-o-Meter. 

“And even if it is,” Li was continuing, because being wrong was an art form that he practiced diligently, “it’s easier to predict military patrols than random civilians. So this is better. For not being seen?”

“You,” Sokka said, ignoring his sister’s increased attempts to shut him up from across the camp, “really don’t think things through, huh?”

Their broiler let go of the Avatar, with a certain sulky slumping.

“...No firebending practice?” Aang also slumped.

“Yeah, no,” Sokka said. “We need to talk flight paths. I am getting really sick of that Zhao guy.”

* * *

“So,” Sokka said. To summarize. “We can’t travel in the Earth Kingdom, because you’re a firebender, and they would kill you.”

Their firebender nodded.

“We can’t go deeper into the Fire Nation colonies, because you’re banished, and they would kill you.”

Additional nodding occurred.

“All right,” Sokka said, with a great deal of patience. “Then we’ll just have to find a way to travel from here to the North Pole. Instantaneously. Without crossing any intervening Earth or Fire territories because that is the entire map.”

“We could go to the Fire Nation,” Li said.

“Li,” Sokka said, “remember the ‘thinking things through’ thing?” 

Li crossed his arms. “No one would expect you to go there.”

“Because we will be in the Fire Nation,” Sokka said.

“There won’t be wanted posters for any of us.”

“Because,” Sokka said, “we will be in the Fire Nation.”

“I don’t know why you even want to go to the North Pole,” Li shouted, throwing up his hands, and also a few sparks. 

“Explain that,” Sokka said.

* * *

The North didn’t teach women to fight. 

The North had not seen the look on his sister’s face upon hearing this, or they would know that women did not require tutelage in the concept, only the techniques.

* * *

“So where can we find a waterbending teacher?” Aang asked.

“You’re from the South Pole,” Li said. “Why don’t you get a southern master?”

Sokka exchanged a look with his sister. Then Katara spoke. “Li. We… don’t have any left. That’s why we left.”

“You might not have any,” Li said, “but the Fire Nation does.”

Oh no.

“They’re alive?” Katara asked.

“I don’t know how many still are,” Li said. “But there’s a prison in the southern isles, it wouldn’t even be far to fly if we go straight across the ocean—”

Oh no no.

“Li, buddy,” Sokka said, even as his sister and Aang were leaning towards Li and, by extension, his terrible idea. “We are not breaking into a prison—”

“Didn’t you already break out those earthbenders? Why not your own people, too?”

“Yeah Sokka,” Katara said, with a scowl she’d learned since Sokka had made the mistake of exiting his own prison break with a friend, “why not?”

Oh no they were doing this.

Continued in Part 4: Zuko Goes to the Time-Out Thinking Corner || Read all chapters on AO3

[smithsibsceo]

lets unpick this because wow

SCREENSHOT BELOW BTW ⬇️⬇️

“i havent watched the actual show in ages” great starting point for a b*lly stan. means you havent recently seen/gone over the other horrible and racist actions b*lly has committed throughout his run in the show. amazing.

just to refresh your memory, billy has:

attempted to run over four children with his little sister in the passenger seat

only reason he didnt run over said kids was because his little sister had to physically yank the steering wheel to stop the car from hitting them

described lucas to max as a type of person she should stay away from. not dustin, who was also hanging around max and talking to her, just lucas. i shouldnt even have to point out why.

abused max, if not physically then emotionally.

called multiple girls at his school ‘cows’

literally tried to hatecrime lucas (whilst dustin was right there next to him)

in runaway max, he broke max’s friends arm for hanging out with her, and then lied to the paramedics and parents and forced max and her friend to do the same

in runaway max it was also explicitly stated that b*lly and n*el didnt like people who werent white or men. do with that what you will.

and what was another one? oh yeah - he nearly killed steve.

because, lets be honest, thats what happened. he first pushes him to the ground to get inside the house, then tries to hatecrime lucas. steve begins the fight to defend lucas, during which billy delivers several blows to his head before smashing a plate against his head (with enough force that the plate actually shattered). he then proceeds to beat steve to the point of unconsciousness, and even after steve becomes unresponsive he continues to punch him over and over. by this point steve is bleeding all over, has cuts from the plate and multiple accounts of serious bruising. and this is just on his face.

b*lly would have actually killed steve if max hadnt stepped in. even after max had drugged him, steve stayed unconscious for at least 3 minutes. enough time for the kids to briefly argue about what to do with him, find a bandaid to put on his face, load him into the car and start driving away from the byers house.

“If someone is knocked unconscious for more than a minute and symptoms don’t fade within a few minutes, it is important to bring them to an emergency room to get checked for a more severe traumatic brain injury. Doctors will check to make sure there is no internal bleeding or bruising that can be dangerous.”

steve was unconscious for more than triple the amount of time mentioned in the article, and didnt go to the doctor. also keep in mind that this article references unconsciousness in general. steve was unconscious due to multiple blows to the head, so he almost definitely suffered a severe concussion that shouldve been checked out by a medical professional.

also, i think op’s forgetting (mustve been bc they havent watched the show in a long time 😔) that a big part of steve’s character is his martyrism - hes self sacrificing and always tends to others needs before his own. so the fact that steve, a character that canonically does this as well as suppress his own emotions, brushes off the kids concerns and goes to play the hero again isnt ooc. of course he’s still hurting. of course he’s still in pain. he just doesnt want the kids to see it, and he doesnt want them to get hurt.

[primeministerofantarctica]

A3! reading club: act one (chapter 1-6)

(cw: talking about parental neglect and abuse, orientalism, one mention of suicide)

Hey, ten out of twelve isn't bad, all things considered! This very well could have gone down in October. Also, since it's February (March if you wanna be generous), does that mean everyone in Harugumi's slightly younger than their Year One ages now? Ack, timelines are confusing.

Izumi casually talking about how Yukio neglected her and following it up with "well, it was probably because he loved this theater so much!" is. Oh, girl. No wonder she snapped when Sakyo suggested he'd abandoned Mankai, because if he hadn't loved it, then why did she have to go through with that?

I'm not versed enough in Japanese particles but I recognize "daijoubu" and Tsuzuru watching this trainwreck unfold and saying something along the lines of "are you guys, like, okay?" is extremely funny.

Then we get to Sakuya and Masumi's family situations, which. From a meta perspective, it makes sense to want to give your minor protagonists the freedom that having parents limits. That's why the trope of "young protagonist in kid's spec fic media is conveniently an orphan" is so common. (was? I think it's becoming less common now.) The problem lies in the lack of willingness to follow through with the emotional conflict it creates, or resolve said conflict in a satisfying manner. Sure, I'm assuming they weren't starved or physically abused, but being treated like a burden when you're a child is still fucking traumatizing! Basically I think Izumi Sakuya and Masumi should start a union. And I'm glad later chapters go the reasonably more toned-down route of "my parents have a reasonable amount of trust in me to make these kinds of decisions".

Also, can we talk about Sakuya and Masumi, because they're one of my favorite brotps here. The way Sakuya appoints himself as Masumi's surrogate big brother? He's so eager to potentially share a room with him ;-;. (personally I hc that Ms. Sakuma was expecting another child before the accident or whatever killed them, so Sakuya's been a big brother without a younger sibling all this time </3)

Wow, that doesn't sound like a metaphor for anything! You're right, Izumi, why would you go the easy route of taking something prepackaged and guaranteed when a bunch of wildly different spices can create a delicious meal if you know how to utilize them right?

Am I grasping at straws here. Probably.

The little ka-ching sound effect is adorable.

Tsuzuru, I'd think "antagonist" should be near the top of the list...also, there's plenty of plays that have been pulled off with two or three actors. Just put on "night, Mother" or something. (Joking. Don't look up night, Mother if you're sensitive to themes of suicide.)

"Tsuzuru, you picked this troupe because it had a dorm, right? ...Then maybe our best bet is to focus on more people in your shoes."

"People in my shoes? In other words...."

"The homeless?"

I CAN'T ASJHGSKSDSK

he's literally doing the 😔 face i'm on the floor.

HE'S HERE! Funny how Izumi's right about Citron not being a regular tourist right off the bat. He may not be from another troupe, but he's definitely "in character" right now.

Also, oof. Citron's my second fave in Harugumi after Sakuya, but it's glaringly obvious how much of his character is rooted in orientalism. Sure, maybe it's an act, but why is he talking about how "shameful" showing skin is when his top is (conveniently for us) THAT low-cut.

On another note, I know people have pointed out his distaste for pig's feet as evidence for headcanoning him as Muslim, but I haven't seen anyone point out how he calls Veludo Way a "mecca" of theatre. Like yeah, mecca can just mean hub, but...why didn't they just say hub? Words Have Connotations. I'm not saying this coding is good or bad, it's just a neutral observation.

AND HERE'S THIS BASTARD (affectionate)

Oh, Kasumi! (insert pointing reaction pic bc I've run out of photo space.) It's Kasumi, guys! :D

[sketching-shark]

Do you like the sun and moon allegory that the show push for swk n LEMH n to a lesser extent how the fandom r pushing it futher by including mk as the star??

I dont rlly get why that of all symbolisms gets to b hammer in the most. My feelings for it is v much went from neutral to dislike bc it box in swk into this sorta narrative that ‘oh things were easy for him n hes so bright!” And oh poor macaque he got stuck in the shadows of swk bc he the moon! Like huh?? Definitely didn’t spurred me bc of how some ppl were quick to equate “sun” as what it mean in sun wukong name.

I just rlly don’t like this inclusion to the whole LEMH v SWK. I got more to say but this just it for rn soo thoughts?

Monkie Kid spoilers below

asdfrgerwredsff well as the local "guy who gets stupid angry at how completely western canon and fanon refuses to engage with the og classic true & false monkey king arc" I can't say I'm a fan anon. And yeah the automatic equation of the "Sun" in Sun Wukong to the English word "sun" was a bit goofy if understandable at first (we all work under particular assumptions based on the cultures and languages we were raised in after all), but now in a lot of ways it seems to stand as one more example of how many people in a dominant culture won't take the time to even do a quick google search to see what a word's meaning in its original context was.

But aside from that I personally don't feel like this sun and moon allegory & the underlying insistence on a close relationship is doing either Sun Wukong, the Six-Eared Macaque, or even Qi Xiaotian any favors...I've given my thoughts about this in other posts, but a quick summary is that even though Monkie Kid appears to have veered away sharply from the interpretation of the Six-Eared Macaque as a living manifestation of SWK's worst aspects and made him more of an independent character, his ongoing violent obsession with the Monkey King still means he has basically 0% traits or things in his life that aren't defined by SWK in some form or another. Everything from his apparent goals to his artistic expression is focused on the Monkey King, and given how thoroughly he hates him in the show's present well that is not a good situation for anyone to be in. In regards to SWK himself, the decision to give his and LEMH's relationship more importance through pushing the sun and moon allegory also has been a pretty big part in the presentation of the Monkey King as a worse and worse of a person. Because in Monkie Kid LEMH was originally introduced as an antagonist, but the route that's been chosen partially to make him more sympathetic was to repeatedly frame SWK as a betraying power-hungry bastard, just like LEMH claimed in his shadow puppet play. So now it's like we started with an image of SWK as genuinely heroic, but as he keeps making disastrous calls in the present and and information about his past comes out it's like him as a sun wasn't so much about providing life-giving warmth as it was about blinding and burning everyone around him, with the show itself being like "psych! turns out SWK lies all the time. psych! his plan to stop the Lady Bone Demon was indeed hot garbage. psych! actually all he ever does is hurt those who loved and trusted him. psych! it's been hinted that even Qi Xiaotian in his deepest and darkest truths is now convinced that SWK is nothing but an agent of chaos & destruction & he's terrified he'll turn out just like him." And then of course Qi Xiaotian is there having been repeatedly traumatized not just by the main big bads but also by LEMH repeatedly beating him up and also by the disastrous consequences of SWK's carelessness & bad judgment. So. Lmao.

Now of course I need to note that there's still a lot of unanswered questions about what precisely happened in the past from SWK's perspective, whose answers may indeed help clear up this toxic morass that is the current dynamic between SWK, LEMH, and Qi Xiaotian. And chances are good I'm forgetting more positive stuff or making the context appear worse than it actually is. Even so, I think you can point to the "the hero and the warrior were like the sun and the moon" as being one of the main starting points for the "SWK actually sucks and LEMH is the main victim of his terribleness" thesis that seems pretty popular in fandom and increasingly in canon. Again, I might just be carrying too much of a negative nancy pessimism about all of this, and of course it must be acknowledged that the overall situation is more complicated, but at least to me as it currently stands the sun and moon allegory seems to have not accomplished much except flip the "good" and "evil" designations between SWK and LEMH (X_X)

[1-up-chump]

The day mk abandoned the kung fu death tournament high eastern fantsy aesthetic and then copied the Dcu/mcu aesthetic

Is the day mk fuckin died. It started with the cash grab crossover, then the dlc guest characters, and now this convoluted inconsistent assassination of characters.

Examples:

sin\del (was supposed to be manipulated by dark magiks from q=uan chi. Was never fuckin evil and never killed jerrod bc SH/AO KAH/N DID AND THATS SCREWING HIS CHARACTER OVER TOO all for some mommy dommy milf fantasy which is absolutely from a "hetcis man's" gaze dont fool yourself)

ku\ng la\o (turned him into a second banana cocky type and just keep killing him for shock value when before he kinda never got this treatment. He was is and always WILL be li/u kan/g's equal in skill and warriors heart)

ra\iden (a LITERAL GOD who was so strong he was only bound by the rules of mortal kombat and the elder gods and his soft spot for mortals and loyalty to protecting earthrealm, kind and wise. Turned into a supposed dEmi-GOd who was willing to use the realm that was his charge as a fucking bargaining chip to a man who's more untrustworthy than shan/g ts/ung, he's hardly around OR he's suddenly not as powerful until he remembers he can obliterate ppl with lightning, he's a cold hardass who's so alien to mortals emotions despite being around them longer and basically raising one like his own son)

li\u k\ang (turned into basically every shonen protagonist ever type levels of character development, gets fucked over in the romance department Although kit/ana has her fair share of problems with writing too, becomes a god in the most deus ex machina way possible and is so intrusive to kun/g la/o and his legacy to meddle with the great kung lao like some sort of savior bs)

sha\ng tsun\g before aftermath (having his whole ass character trashed to the side for some milf dominatrix fantasy in 9 is the only reason i fucking need here lbh)

son\ya (her whole character is stale and practically revolved around the fact she fucks and marries a dude she's so incompatible with just bc of "we need the original characters to make next gen characters we dont care if they're compatible lol" literally has an accidental pregnancy literally divorced jo/hny and then fucking dies, and then comes back anyways "but its the version fans like right oh btw shove in the fact that Son/ya's purpose is to malke cas/sie and thats it shes just mom character now but #gurlboss am i right plz buy game")

ja/x (gets traumatized to hell and back for very little payoff used as depression fetish exploitation, at least his tower ending is great despite the "#woke" bs, his daughter however has the most fucked ending to basically erase herself to make j/ax happy like???? Sonya literally has an avengers/justice league ass tower ending all peachy keen but the black woman cant have any happiness huh mmm sure ok yeah.)

Jacq/ui (honestly im not too into her character but when i heard about her tower ending it pissed me off so much and made me hate the writing even more like oh some characters get basically whatever they wanted no consequence but some characters are doomed to be fucked??? Like hello favoritism MUCH?!? -coughhanzosgodofwarripofftowerendingcough-)

with new characters added that have so much potential but poor execution (i mean seriously you wanna tell me ce/trion and kroni/ka actually killed the elder gods THE ELDER GODS AKA THE BIG POWERFUL DIVINE COUNSEL but have trouble with making rai/d/en and li/u fi/ght and kill each other??? Let alone try to kill one at a time??)

I do like some things like kolle/ctor and ge/rus and cet/rion like i like those characters but by god cetr/ion was wasted potential you cant drop her brother was fucking shinn/ok and then proceed to basically make her some weak errand girl who i feel in the end is making fun of the "divine feminine gaia" aesthetic like the writing wants her to be the bad guy but also sympathetic in the dumbest way possible and she sounds like someone on Twitter who just learned about the concept of "balance" and slaps buddha quotes incorrectly

Also i never cared for shin/nok until recently when i was like "hey wait no his concept kinda slaps actually"

At the end of the day we all have our opinions i guess. And mine is: mk new timeline is written by people who like superheroes movies when mk should be written by people who like kung fu movies

[gr1evance]

1 and 4 for Strudel!!! 5, 6, and 8 for STARB!!!

for strudel:

1. What kind of person is your OC in a crisis? Are they calm and collected? Do they panic? Or are they chronically the cause?

oh in a crisis he will.. be one of the first to freak out about it. but not really in a loud way he tends to withdraw and just kind of want to hide for days on end. and it kind of eats him up inside because his whole thing is wanting to Be The Hero but. he cant really handle much anymore. especially considering the crisis hes currently in is VERY very life threatening i dont think anyone can handle it. but yeah he goes quiet or hides though on rare occassions he can push through enough to be a steadying force. but then he needs to go hide afterwards

4. Does your OC have a failed friendship or relationship they still think about? What happened? Is it an unresolved regret or is there a chance for reconciliation?

you could probably consider his relationship to patty to be that. they were still hero and villain enemies when the show got cancelled and they never really had a chance to resolve any of that. he always wanted to though even though they were trying to destroy the city because he just wanted to give them a chance since it seemed like no one ever had. but the show got cancelled before he could and now hes real and theyre not. he definitely still thinks about it a lot even though theres nothing he can do anymore

for starb:

5. Does your OC have a signature weapon and/or attack? How long did they train to master it?

one of his powers is being able to make these like big stars that he can throw to knock people back or use like a shield and i consider that his signature power probably. it took him.. a very very long time to get control of his powers so he could do stuff like that instead of Just Exploding

6. Does your OC know magic? Were they born with magical ability or did they train to acquire it? What is their favorite type of magic? Least favorite?

uuhhh well i wouldnt say Magic but he comes from like. superheroes world where most ppl have powers. he was born with his powers though theyre like. entirely emotion based and consist of like i mentioned above those stars he can summon they vary in sizes and when his powers are under control theyre generally glowing light yellow and rounded so they dont actually hurt people. but when he gets too emotional (any very strong emotion including positive ones) his powers get more dangerous and his stars specifically get a dull gray/white and are sharp and dangerous. when hes excited or just happy little cosmetic stars can like appear and float down around him. he also has slow falling which again he can only use when hes emotionally calm and healing which works by him like. again being calm but he has to wish to heal the person like wishing on a star its cute. and finally when his emotions are. extremely strong he does risk just straight up exploding, it doesnt injure him but it Is just an explosion to the area around him. he likes that he can help people with his powers now but ultimately hes kind of resentful of them and afraid of himself for all the harm he did in the past that was just an accident bc he couldnt control it. it very much haunts him

8. What was your OC's most embarrassing moment? Does it still bother them or are they able to shrug it off?

oh god.. im not sure honestly. i dont know if id count his past like. destruction and manslaughter as Embarrassing as much as traumatizing. i dont think he tends to get embarrassed too often? okay actually no i lied i think the entire time he was at scelestic after they kidnapped him and he met tesla (his husband) was the most embarrassing for him bc it was. really really gay. but he would never regret meeting his husband

[two-sides-samecoin]

I know I've brought it up a thousand times but I was watching season 4 and Nancy lying to Wayne is so painful. This man has found a dead body in his home, his nephew is missing and possibly committed a murder and he says he doesn't want to talk to reporters and Nancy Wheeler just comes in, lies, says her paper is small and doesn't have the staff to keep up with the big ones and she's just looking for something, anything about what happened last night. And then after Wayne says that she probably has it all figured out and she counters with "You've been talking to the post, yeah, Chuck Bailey, he doesn't know his ass from his elbow." AND THEN SHE FREAKING SAYS LET ME TELL YOUR SIDE OF THE STORY. And oh my god, it makes me so mad because she lied to this man who again just found a dead body and his nephew is missing and said that I'll tell your side of the story when it comes across that she'll never write it, especially later in the season and Nancy just uses him for information. Does she want to sell it to a bigger paper? Does she intend on publishing it in the school paper? Does she intend on writing it at all? It doesn't matter because she freaking lied to get her information, showing a lack of integrity. If she just lied once to see Victor Creel or they show her having some doubts, I would be fine. My problem isn't with Nancy doing bad things, it's about the narrative twists them into good things or ignores the bad things. Like and Nancy isn't the only character who gets the whole narrative is on their side thing, but she's never been on the opposite end. The show never shows her as wrong. Like with Robin in the library and at Pennhurst is the closest we get to Nancy realizing that she's wrong but she doesn't learn from it. She doesn't see Robin as having her own strengths, she looks annoyed when Robin makes the point that a mystical journal could have the answers they are looking for. And that's fine, but she doesn't value Robin's perspective at Pennhurst, she doesn't learn, I guarantee if they hadn't gotten in, Nancy would have blamed it on Robin's interuption, despite the fact that Nancy's approach wasn't working anyways. Anyways feel free to ignore this, this is just me venting and I have not verified a lot of the information in here except for the Nancy Wayne conversation.

lol this was a few days ago - sorry i haven’t been keeping up. anyway YES seeing nancy and wayne interact is painful! and the narrative doesn’t even fully set it in the painful manner it is- i believe it only has something sinister going on because of what is happening with fred in the background. Wayne seriously has gone through so much and the one person who he thinks is on his side: uses an agenda to get info out of him. someone who also doesn’t fully end up believing him anyway. Wayne doesn’t want to talk to anyone but then gets comforted by nancy’s words in a way with saying that she’ll post his side of the story which in grief and pain: you most likely would turn to that because you want someone to hear your side.

okay but nancy saying that fr shows me that she hasn’t learned a thing from season 3! with the elbow comment like now she’s trashing someone else professionally all to get Wayne to side with her. she’s using her personal bias of someone to get Wayne to talk about something that is traumatic to him. yeah her lying does show a lack of integrity ! it’s also like she specifically used someone’s pain to get some info (and while it did help her out in figuring this shit out- it’s like she very much used this tragedy to her advantage- hell she even lies about why she’s in the trailer park which she lies about checking up on max. which is something that she NEVER did!) same like it’s no the fact that nancy is lying - it’s more of how the narrative goes about it! they just never address it being a negative trait - it’s seen as some heroic act. it’s not! and it would be so wonderful to make it seem as some growth with her but it’s never used in that way.

yeah like nancy isn’t the only one that gets this treatment from the narrative but it’s so present with nancy! i totally agree with that about how nancy would probs blame robin for her blurt out moment if it didn’t work not realizing that her plan was bound to fail anyway like sorry but their plan was so half baked and nothing solid was coming out of that. honestly robin is the true mvp of that pennhurst trip!

[iamacolor]

when you study philology (polish, german, scandinavian, english... whatever you pick), you focus mostly on literature and linguistics but also theater, film, art, music... i truly had all sorts of classes, including history and philosophy as well. basically everything important to understand not only literature and language but also culture of the country. and yeah, you also answered your own question about latin haha 😂 but the sentence is actually from the 13th century 😉 not that it's important lol. btw my year in uni was the first one who didn't have to take old church slavonic... truly a blessing because historical grammar was already hard and imo it counted as a foreign language... proto-slavic is nothing like modern polish 🥲

yeah, jewish people lived everywhere. from big towns to small villages. i always try to read and learn as much as i can, even about the most traumatic parts of their history here, and it always makes me feel like there's a big hole here which will never be filled.

oh i do like paris, it's a lovely place, so full of art and history 😍 i hope i can go at least one more time and experience it all again. that reminds me i went to a small shop with turkish pastries with my friend and the owner didn't know the word poland in english but he really wanted to know where we're from (he was super nice) and we tried everything, including explaining that it's where chopin was from but it obviously didn't help 🤣 luckily a younger guy came and explained it to him in turkish lmao. and another time i was standing in a line for something and some old guy approached me and started talking a bit in polish (he heard me talk on the phone), said he worked on ships and lived there for a bit so he still remembered some of the language 😂 so yeah, i met some nice people...just not "native" parisians 😬

we do study some history of music in schools but my passion comes from my mom who loves classical music and opera! i basically grew up on it. of course, i am not an expert or anything, just an enjoyer, but i listen to it a lot, go to many, many concerts and just love it dearly. and yes, film music can be classical music, of course :) as for chopin...i can't pick a fave, it really depends on my mood. my mom's ringtone is the so-called revolutionary etude 😊 if you want you, can try listening to ingolf wunder's chopin (he's my fave classical pianist) and if you like jazz, definitely check out leszek możdżer's impressions on chopin! but please don't feel obligated or anything, these are just my little recs 😳

oh and as for jp2, he actually saved the entire world. just so you know 🙂🙃🙂🙃

that genuinely sounds sooo interesting and fulfilling to study! also can't believe wikipedia lied to me like that about the date 😤 old-church slavonic does not sound fun lol

a huge part of the country's people and history is gone with them... even though they built this country as well and are part. I read last year a fantasy novel titled sinning silver and its main character is jewish and I think the author is polish-lithuanian-american so it's heavily influenced by the history of jewish people in the region

I'm glad you had a good time here (and also that I'm not the only one who didn't know where chopin was from 😂) there are so many nice things to do and see (and eat!!)

it's so cool that your mother shared her passion with you and that now it's also yours, that's a lovely thing to have in common 😊 my parents didn't listen to a lot when I was growing up and for some reason the only type of classical music that I can remember them listening to (although I know they listened to a bit more than just that lol) are some stabat maters because my father had a compilation cd or something like that lol but my grandmother loves it so I did go to an open air violin recital with her once (I don't know if you've heard of the menton music festival but it's her region and the setting of the concert is gorgeous, I love this town) and she once offered me a subscription for a program of operas being broadcasted in cinemas it was really cool! I've came back home this weekend for my birthday so I listened to some ingolf under (I picked the chopin recital album) and it was perfect to listen to as I watched the landscape go by my window on the train, but I do like jazz so I'm looking forward to your other rec!

also another fun info : we had my birthday lunch today (even if it's tomorrow) because it was more practical and so we got to also have a little celebration for my brother's girlfriend's birthday, anyway I love most cakes and her fave is what we call a tropézienne (named after the town, St tropez, where it was created) so that's what my mother made and by researching a recipe she learned that it was created by a polish pastry maker who came to france after ww2 and adapted a recipe from his grandmother to the south of france so after a week of chatting about poland and france I've had a french-polish cake for my birthday 🥰

[crazycookiecrumbles]

Idiots, Total Idiots

Masterlist

A/N: VERY MINOR S4 STRANGER THINGS SPOILERS BARELY SPOILERS THO

✨✨Reblog/ comments PLEASE i love feedback ✨✨

Pairings/Characters: Steve Harrington x Reader; Dustin Henderson; Mentions: Eddie, Nancy, Robin, Billy

Warnings: swearing, smartassery

Summary: Dustin is so exhausted by this dancing around each other you and Steve are doing, yet again, during another pressing mystery of Hawkins.

Dustin stared at Steve without blinking for far too long. It was unsettling, and Steve was fighting the urge to turn and smack Dustin in the face. Groaning, Steve finally put down his comb and glared at Dustin, “What, asshat!?”

“Okay. First of all, so rude and uncalled for,” Dustin said as he stared at Steve. “Secondly, you’ve been fixing your hair for the last ten minutes. For a library. Who the fuck fixes their hair for a library?”

Steve rolled his eyes as he put his comb away, “You said we needed information — “

“I mean, really, you’re going back to Douchelord Steve. That’s so Season 1 of you.”

“Season 1? Really? Of what?”

“Of your coming of age story, duh.”

“I was already of age — “

“Whatever,” Dustin shouted over him. “What are you doing? No one’s in the library except for that bitter old librarian who I think is upcharging my fees and —“ he paused as his eyes lit up in realization. He smiled, eyes half-lidded now as he stared at Steve with his big, cheesy grin. “Y/N’s new job is here.”

“No, it isn’t,” Steve scoffed, but Dustin saw through his lies. “How did you know?”

“I saw her after her guitar lesson with Eddie before Hellfire Club,” Dustin shrugged easily. “Still makes really good cookies, by the way. I mean, is she traumatized from the mall? Probably, but, like, who isn’t? Still, can’t believe you blew it like that.”

“I didn’t blow it! You can’t blow it if it never started.”

“Right and it never started because you wanted to practice dating and get out there in the world before settling down with Y/N. Like she’d even want to settle down with you, which is bold, by the way. I mean, maybe before, but now? Definitely not.”

Steve groaned, hands gripping the steering wheel tightly to help him keep from strangling Dustin, “What, she too busy with Eddie Munson?” He asked, venom dripping when he said his name.

“Oh, my god, you’re so sad,” Dustin laughed in his face. “Dude. Get over yourself.”

“I’m totally over everything!”

“It’s guitar lessons you fucking freak, not sex lessons!”

“Ew, Dustin. Don’t talk about her like that — “

“She was my god damn babysitter, I get more leeway here!” Dustin scoffed and threw his hands up in the air. “Look, man. They’re just friends — “

“Why does she even need guitar lessons? Like, for what, you know —“

“Believe it or not, hobbies exist, you hair-obsessed freak,” Dustin replied. “Dude, they’re just friends —“

“You know who else she was just friends with? Billy.”

“Here we go fucking go,” Dustin leaned back in his seat while Steve bolted up and now had hands out in front of him as he spoke animatedly about your past.

“She and Billy were just friends! Billy! You know, the guy that tried to kick my ass?”

“He did kick your ass,” Dustin mumbled.

“No! I had him on the ropes, everyone knows it,” Steve replied. “But, right, yeah, her and Billy are totally just friends.”

Dustin took off his hat, looked up, begged Thor to give him strength, then scratched his head before putting his hat back on. He turned to Steve and grabbed his shoulders, “Dipshit, she tutored Billy, and that didn’t even last long. She tutored him a few times because his dad was threatening to beat his ass over his grades, and that was that. She didn’t even like him that way. And, I don’t know if you remember, but Billy kind of, oh, I don’t know, kidnapped her with the intent of feeding her to the Mind Flayer.”

“Okay—“

“And immediately she was all, ‘is Steve okay?’” he mimicked in a high-pitched voice, “Because she knew Billy hated you and she was worried about you, as told to me by Will, who also thinks you two are stupid for each other.”

“Can it, Henderson —“

“So, really, you two idiots have just been dancing around each other the entire time and wasting everybody’s breath because we keep saying you two should be together and you’re being stupid and she’s being stupid and you’re both stupid!”

“Eloquent. Are you done?”

Dustin thought for a moment before nodding, “Yes, I am. You talk to your not-girlfriend, and I’ll look for clues. I thought Nancy and Robin were doing this. Why are we—“ he stared at Steve who cleared his throat and looked down. “You are the biggest waste of resources, Harrington.”

“What!”

“We could be doing other things — “

“Oh, whatever,” Steve got out of the car and slammed the door shut. Dustin followed behind him, muttering that he was wasting precious, valuable time and energy over nothing because he wasn’t going to have the balls to talk to you, anyway.

Steve looked for you, of course, instead of asking anyone who worked there where they could find you. After wandering around, wasting time, avoiding Nancy and Robin and hiding from Dustin’s prying eyes, he finally found you. You were in the fiction section organizing Stephen King books and humming to yourself. Steve slowly made his way towards you, standing behind you and staring down, watching as you picked up the books from the floor, reorganized them quickly, and stood back up to place them on the shelf as they should be.

Turning around, you saw Steve staring at you and jumped. You started to shriek, which scared the life out of Steve who quickly looked around as he covered your mouth and pressed you against the bookshelf.

“Jesus, Y/N!” Steve whispered loudly. “You’re going to get us in trouble here. People are going to think I’m some sort of weird pervert.”

You lowered his hand and clutched your chest, “Aren’t you? Jeez, Steve, you gave me heart attack.”

“Sorry about that —“

“What are you doing here?” You asked, as you came down from your fright and looked around to see if anyone else had followed your cries to the aisle you were in. “Shouldn’t you be at work or on another date?”

He grinned, “You follow my dates, Y/N?”

You rolled your eyes, “As if, Harrington. You know people talk when you’re the slut of the town. Anyway, what do you want?”

Ouch. Slut of the town? Was that how lowly you thought of Steve? Okay. So it may have been the truth at the moment, but still! He didn’t sleep with everyone, he just went on a bunch of dates…and stuff.

Steve floundered for a moment. He could hit on you right now, ask you out on a date, leave you alone after that, but that would defeat the true purpose of being there. 

Steve didn’t come to the library because he thought you could help them do research — even if it was true and that you were smart and capable of doing so, but, no. Steve didn’t want that from you. The truth was, Steve was worried. The second something fishy started happening around Hawkins for the millionth time, his first thought was you. Last time something happened, you two were separated the entire time. You had been kidnapped by Billy of all disgusting people — okay, he was possessed, but it still counts — and he wasn’t there for you. Steve wasn’t there to be your knight in shining armor, the kids were. Steve wasn’t there to keep you safe from harm. Steve wasn’t there to kick Billy’s ass for you. Steve was hopelessly and utterly helpless to keep you safe. 

He couldn’t repeat that.

“It’s happening again,” Steve said quietly, head tilted down as he spoke to you. He found it hard to hold eye contact with you, because if he did, he was just going to blurt out his feelings for you. Instead, he kept his eyes on the choker you were wearing so he could keep his focus. “There was —“

“The high schooler, yeah, I heard, “You nodded once. “I thought —“

Steve shook his head, “It’s weird again, Y/N. And I just want to make sure you —“

“I don’t want to be involved, Steve. First couple of times, whatever. But after last —“

“I know,” Steve nodded quickly and grabbed your hands, holding them up and giving them a squeeze. “Trust me, I know. You deserve to be totally normal in your totally normal and not-at-all-boring job — “

“Wow — “

“ — but I would feel so much better if you were with us. I know you don’t want to be in this, but I’d feel so much better if I could keep an eye on you, rather than worry about something happening to you and I’m not there to keep you safe. Just….just let me try to keep you safe, Y/N.”

Your cheeks were burning. Steve Harrington, Grade A idiot with a heart growing to be one of gold, coming over to your place of work and saying how he wanted to keep you safe during all of this. It was sweet. It made you wonder where this was coming from. Was it from your new friendship with Steve that started when he got sucked into the drama with Dustin’s friends a little while back, or was it from the other place of shared, lingering glances, touches, and running to each other the second you saw one another during these life-changing events?”

“Steve —“

Dustin, of course, with his impeccable timing, showed up right beside the two of you. “Are you two going to kiss and get it over with so we can get the fuck out of here?”

Narrowing your eyes, you cast one look at Dustin. His own eyes widened as he quietly nodded to himself, turned, and walked out of the aisle to give you two some privacy.

Steve stared in awe, “You have to teach me that.”

“Sorry, it’s a gift,” you chuckled softly and looked up at Steve. “I’m not gonna lie, Steve. I’m really scared this time around. Things just keep getting worse.”

Steve nodded, his hands coming to rest on your shoulders, “I know, but we’ll be together, we’ll keep an eye on each other. Okay?”

Nodding slowly, you finally agreed to go with him. “Okay. I trust you.”

“Great — “

“So you want to kiss me, Harrington?”

Now was Steve’s turn to be flushed. He chuckled nervously, hand coming up to run through his hair as he looked down at you and bit his bottom lip.

Before he could speak, you did, “Is it going to be that same kiss you’ve given all your latest conquests, Sluttington?”

Steve shook his head as he stared at you and saw the mischief twinkling in your eyes, “When I kiss you, Y/N, it’ll be unlike any kiss you’ve ever had.”

“I’m concerned.”

“Don’t be. It’s not concerning at all,” Steve said as he leaned in close, lips ghosting over yours, “It’ll be mind-blowing.” He stood up tall again, took your hand, and started leading you down the aisle, “Now, come on. We’ve got a mystery to solve.”

[kyber-crystal]

okayy but headcanons for reader being part of the top 1% and not knowing how to drive a car?? the crew lovingly teasing them and then a cute date with hangman trying to teach them. pls pls ur headcanons r cute and he’s a sweetie i just know it

SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO GET TO THIS BUT YES. also i'm so so sorry if this isn't what you imagined, my writing has just gone downhill lately lol

hangman loves how you're a woman of many talents. you can fly planes. you're almost unbeatable at darts. slick with pool. can rival him in dogfight football. and you're one of the only people he goes soft for

(lies, he loves everyone. but you in particular? there's almost nothing he won't do for you)

you're set to head out to the beach again and taking one big car

you're asked to drive but then you get into the front seat and just sit there, frozen in place

and that's when the crew puts two and two together and realizes you can't drive

so the next few minutes are spent teasing you (lovingly, of course)

"how are you in the top 1% but don't know how to drive a car?" hangman had asked

you explained how you took your test before leaving for top gun, but failed

and since you didn't have much time to practice you never re-tried it

but it was also because you were highkey scared to

(also you had very faint memories of maverick trying to teach you back @ home. very traumatic. he was gripping the overhead handle for life even though you weren't even on the freeway yet...)

hangman ends up driving, right. and you know when guys do That thing when they drive/reverse? yeah, he does that

and. you're speechless as you watch because you have the greatest view of his arms and side profile from where you're sitting

(like what the fuck nobody ever told you that lieutenant jake seresin had some really, really nice arms.)

phoenix kicks you in the ankle and gives you a look that tells you she sees the look on your face. and your brightened cheeks

it's hilarious

you cannot stop yourself from staring when you get to the beach. he can drive well, he flies well, and he's ripped? a far better 3 in 1 combo than the shampoo you're sure he uses imo

everyone gets into this huge water fight after the game

(and no, it was not rooster's fault for instigating the conflict)

hangman jogs toward you and is all like "hey sweetheart, give me a hug)

and you fall for it

and so you get soaked from head to toe because he's drenched with seawater

but later as you're walking out he notices you're shivering pretty badly

and he feels so bad

so he takes off the brand new shirt he'd changed into and gives it to you

and the mf walks shirtless all the way back to the car it's fucking hilarious

and he's like "let me make it up to you. i'll teach you how to drive. no more traumatic memories from mav, and you get to spend time with your favorite person :)"

the next day he comes knocking at your door...when it's still dark out

you're pissed off and ready to beat the shit out of whoever it was but then you realized it was hangman and you're like. oh. never mind

you want to question why the fuck this man is trying to take you driving at 4 in the morning. but you don't, because he has yours and his best interests in mind. usually.

the sky goes from black to grey as you hit the road and you're shaking

but this time it's most likely because his hand is on your thigh (to steady you, of course. but we all know this lil shit is using it as an excuse to get closer to you. this whole lesson was his excuse to get closer to you, honestly)

hangman is very gentle and surprisingly so good at explaining things. so within minutes you're calm again and driving smoothly

he gives you directions on where to go (keeping his hand on your thigh the whole time ofc lmao)

there was one time where you were pulling up to a traffic light and supposed to slowly hit the brakes. but instead you pressed the accelerator and went shooting forward

if this surprises hangman, he doesn't show it

"sweetheart, i don't know how you mix the two up. let's pray we don't have to pay a fine or something"

and you end up at this nice area with a stunning view of the ocean

he puts out his jacket for you two to sit on and watch the sunrise

"worth the drive, wasn't it" he whispered into your ear and you're like hell the fuck yeah it was

though it was terrifying going on the freeway. even if that was only for a little bit

you drive slower on the way back and you end up being late to one of maverick's training maneuvers

but it's worth it

oh also. you go to the local dmv maybe a month later. hangman lets you borrow his car. you pass with flying colors)

(he had bribed you with a date at your favorite italian restaurant so that was part of your motivation)

(most of it was because of the fact that you could spend more time with him. you'd take any and every chance you got)

when you do pass, hangman has the crew throw you a giant party and it's so funny

but it makes you happy because it shows how much they all cared

:))

you don't get ticketed for that traffic light incident btw. somehow you got lucky that day

tags, including people who might be interested (under the cut):

@walkonthewiidside @sarcastic-sourwolf @totomoshi @sebastianstangirl01 @dilfsandtherapy @purelyfiction @93joons @yeehawnana @lunamoonbby @hazelgirl355 @multifandom-fangirl4 @paintballkid711 @lyn-lc @azari-anna @thelifeofthelifeofme @spawn0fsatan @milestomaverick @teacactusworld @icemansgirl1999 @cherry-waved @newlibrary @ellabellabus07 @criminalyetminimal @whatlovegattado @lets-be-gay-for-the-angel @vane28282 @thisismypointofview @organabanks @hufflepuffprincesse @ice-mans-world @burnedbrisket @fangirlinc @marveljunkie45 @knowledgefulbutterfly @levis-butterfingers @minivture @teacactusworld @lunamooncole @skylynch03 @coastingline @chaoticassidy @hbstre @fantasias-creativebubble @mercury-mae @light-the-moon @winteryoungie @aie1840 

[thranduel]

This may be a hot take but i think the way the Duffers and some actors talked about Mike's monologue was a bit insensitive. They know that Will, a traumatized gay child, had to push this confession and watched it with tears in his eyes, and yet nobody seemed to acknowledge this fact. I know that they probably do not want to spoil anything, but this is something that bothers me a bit. Any thoughts on that?

OH YES i completely agree!!

like i obviously i understand they can’t say anything major because of spoilers, and i get that they have to go along with the mike being in love with el storyline because that’s what the characters think and what the viewers are supposed to think at this point as well, but it’s very weird to me that no one mentions will AT ALL when talking about mike’s monologue when he is literally the reason it happened in the first place? like not even a “thank you will for making this happen”? not even acknowledging how strong mike and will’s relationship is (regardless of whether people see it as platonic or romantic), and how mike felt comfortable enough to talk to will about his insecurities and will instantly made him feel strong and loved by confessing his own love for him and giving him the painting that he made for him?? like no one even wants to acknowledge their relationship at all and how will is the person that inspired mike to say “i love you” and it’s so weird to me.

and seriously, if they wanted to make the monologue a big moment for mike and el and no one else, fine. but they never should’ve involved will and messed with his feelings. they never should’ve used him as a plot device to force another couple back together. they never should’ve confirmed he’s been in love with mike since the beginning if it was going to be unrequited. people have every right to be angry because it’s messed up, cruel and unnecessary. they could’ve easily avoided including will in this storyline but they didn’t. they could’ve given him another love interest and allowed him to be happy for once in his life, but they didn’t. and worse, they made him sit there and listen to the confession knowing how hard it would’ve been for him? and obviously in that moment he was worried for el’s safety too, i am not ignoring that at all. but he was also breaking inside while listening to the boy he’s loved for most of his life confess to someone else, and there’s no doubt about that. there was a specific shot where mike copies what will told him in the car (about being scared to lose someone and how bad it would hurt) and it shows will turning to look directly at mike with tears in his eyes right as he says this, emphasising how much it hurt to hear him say that. they knew exactly what they were doing here and it was intentional.

and maybe i’m just very defensive when it comes to will because he’s my comfort character and this whole storyline and his suffering hits hard but a little bit of gratitude would be nice after everything he’s sacrificed?? like he’s literally the reason why this relationship still exists. they were on the verge of a break up and pretty much realised it wasn’t working because they don’t communicate properly and can’t be themselves with each other, but then will lied in the van and mike thought he was talking about el.

will is the one that inspired mike, gave him strength and made him feel loved. it was his OWN feelings and his OWN painting that changed everything, but he used el’s name to disguise it. that’s the only reason why mike felt ready to confess to el, because he thought it was her feelings and that the painting was her idea when it WASN’T. it was all will.

even when el was on the table choking, will had to push mike to say it. mike wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without will. and that’s not a spoiler, so i don’t understand why the cast, writers and other viewers can’t acknowledge it and show appreciation for will when talking about the monologue? and yeah, i know some people might say “it was mike and el’s moment”, but that’s the thing… the moment they decided to involve will in this storyline and confirm he’s been in love with mike since the beginning, it stopped being just about mike and el. they chose to put will in EVERY single mike and el scene (except their fight). they chose to make WILL be the reason that mike says “i love you”. el couldn’t even make him say it when she was crying and begging him to say it. she couldn’t make him say it when she was showing him affection and kissing him and sending him letters. he couldn’t even write the words “love, mike” on PAPER. but will’s OWN feelings and painting is what made mike finally able to say it. the writers are the ones that literally chose that. people aren’t mentioning will for no reason or ignoring mike and el’s moments or trying to invalidate them, but will has literally been shoved in this storyline and in all their scenes for a reason.

that’s why it feels really insulting when people ignore will and don’t appreciate him for this when he’s suffering so much and feels like he’ll never be loved back and that he’s a mistake for being gay. he was literally having a breakdown in that car because he sacrificed his own feelings just to help their relationship. THAT is how kind and selfless he is. after everything he’s suffered, he still puts people before him, and people still don’t want to acknowledge him or thank him? they say things like “mike’s love for el saved the day” (which is… kinda awkward because they didn’t win) and that the monologue was so “beautiful and genuine” (even though he was pressured into saying it and lied during most of it) and act like mike is such an amazing boyfriend for FINALLY saying it after years when will is the one that motivated him to say it in the first place?? and did people forget el literally had a breakdown because he couldn’t say it to her a face a few episodes earlier when she was practically begging him to? he made her cry and she felt like a monster and he didn’t do anything until that scene in the van with will.

if they wanted to make the monologue about mike and el, fine. if they wanted them to have a big forced love confession, fine. but they never should’ve involved will. it’s so simple. they could’ve easily avoided using him as a plot device because it’s so cruel and unnecessary. that’s why it really hurts when people compliment the monologue scene without mentioning will, even just a tiny bit of acknowledgment, because he’s the person who made it happen in the first place. it’s like he’s being ignored AGAIN, as always, while everyone else gets credit and gets to be happy in their relationship and hear what they’ve wanted to hear for so long, while will gets left with absolutely nothing. not even a “thank you”. he has been abused, bullied traumatised and suffered since he was a child and he still has nothing. it’s heartbreaking.