#only 1 day cause I realized I should have posted this before

[dunmeshistash]

There's too many monsters to pick the favorite but I think there's only a few spooky(?) ones. So I wanna know

*doesn't need to be scary looking just which one makes you scared, if none of them makes you scared which one would be a good scary movie monster?

[tojikai]

SUNDERED

Pairing: Gojo x reader

• Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Alt. Ending

Sundered+ (COMMISSION)

Genre: Angst

tags/cw: angst, mean!gojo(kinda), babydaddy!gojo, babymomma!reader, motherhood, insecurities, arguments

word count: 3.2k

One woman’s life lesson is another woman’s better man.

❧ babydaddy!Gojo intentionally runs into you when you’re buying groceries just to show you his girlfriend. The woman was your classmate from high school. At the first meeting, she was shy and tried avoiding your gaze but Satoru just had to call you and ask something about your daughter. Completely unnecessary but he’s just that much of a jerk. Once was considered an accident. But when it happened two, then three times, you already know that you have to change your shopping schedule.

❧ babydaddy!Gojo picks up his daughter from your house an hour late, rubbing on your face that he overslept because he spent “some time” with his girlfriend last night. Distasteful and disrespectful, but you let it slide cause he seems happy. You don’t want to be a killjoy, right? You were never his girlfriend, to begin with. Just someone he got pregnant from a one-night stand. 

❧ babydaddy!Gojo posts pictures of his day out with his daughter online. His girlfriend carrying your kid as the three of them wear matching Mickey and Minnie Mouse headbands. You could only scroll past and continue your work to busy yourself. Maybe you should stop lurking around social media and just use your phone for important messages. Maybe you should also lose feelings for someone who never harbored genuine ones for you in the first place.

❧ babydaddy!Gojo always lets his girlfriend open the door for you when you’re picking up your daughter from his house on weekends. He leans back on the couch, watching you grab your daughter’s things, opening his arms to cuddle with his girlfriend before you even get to walk out the door. It made you feel pathetic and small but what can you do? There’s simply no place for you in that house.

❧ babydaddy!Gojo insists that you spend more time together for the sake of your daughter. You agreed to it and now, you had to sit in the back of the car with your daughter as he drives his girlfriend to work. It made you feel sick and nauseous that you were only able to spend half a day with them before you decided to go home and sleep the day away. Maybe when you wake up, you’ll find it in you to hate him.

“Mommy? Call her, love.” Gojo used a higher voice to encourage his daughter to call you. He knows that he was foul for what happened earlier. But what is he gonna do? He can’t reject his girlfriend’s request, plus it was only a ride. It’s not like she was with you for the whole day. Still, he doesn’t think it’s the reason why you left early. You might be feeling…tired. Even if it was Saturday yesterday and you have no work. You might still feel fatigued on Sunday, right?

“Mama!” The little girl mimicked pointing upstairs. Satoru sighed placing her little bag on a nearby chair as he made his way upstairs. He figured that if you’re still asleep, he could just wait for you to wake up and just look after his daughter here. You’re a single mother for 4 days a week, and on top of that, you also have work. You literally don’t have time to rest. He told himself that he needs to stop messing around just to get a reaction from you. 

Reaching your room, Satoru knocked on the door three times, calling out your name when you didn’t answer. “Wait a second.” You voiced out from the other side, “I’m just gonna call my mom, can you wait for her?” You suppressed a cough at the end of the sentence but it didn’t go unnoticed by Satoru. “Are you sick? I could take her back to my house, we’ll look after her until you feel better. ” The suggestion made your stomach churn. They get to play house with your kid and here you are, being miserable.

You shook your head, realizing how bitter you sounded. She wasn’t unkind in any way to your baby but something in you hurts when you think of them giving your daughter the family experience that you cannot provide. You and Satoru tried to work things out but you just can’t get on the same page. Instead of trying to be better for you and your daughter, he decided to fuck around and date someone else instead. 

You wouldn’t say that your name was clean. What with a couple of threats such as finding someone who could act right. You just didn’t think that he’d really leave. It hurt but now you’re getting yourself used to the feeling. Maybe he just couldn’t act right with you. Because why is he so good with his girlfriend now? She tamed him, as he once boasted to you during a fight.

“I’m stuck with a child that I have with you, but not with you.” He pointed out, leaving a searing pain in your chest. “There’s no way I’m letting that happen.” Tears were starting to form in your eyes as the words come out of his mouth. How could he say something so cruel to you, the mother of his child? All you did was tell him that his girlfriend was getting kind of too much after she told you what to do with your child. And now he’s making you the villain.

“I just told her that—” You tried to explain, voice starting to shake. “If that’s all you did, she wouldn’t come to me crying, Y/N.” You just can’t believe that you’re fighting over this. You already have so much to think about and now this, you also have to be cautious about his girl. “She told you herself, I just didn’t want her telling me how to raise my child!” 

“Of course, she wouldn’t tell me that you’re being harsh to her. Unlike you, she’s actually kind and considerate of other people’s feelings.” You looked down, letting out a strangled sob escape your throat before quickly wiping away the forming tears in your eyes as you turn away from him. Why was he never this defensive of you? He didn’t even try to fight for you when his girlfriend convinced him to take your daughter with them on a trip. Without your permission.

And now he’s talking as if you’ve been nothing but a disturbance in his relationship with her. Everything's just unfair. Yet, you just let it slide because you wanted nothing but peace for your baby. “I don’t want to have this conversation with you anymore, Satoru. You’ve said enough.” You sniffed, walking to your daughter’s room to check if the noises woke her up. Satoru was left standing there, processing all the things that he said.

He watched you disappear into the dark hallway of your apartment, shoulders shaking with your head hung low. Even if he can’t see your face, he can tell that you’re crying and it made him feel like shit. He went overboard, didn’t he? “Fuck.” He threw his keys on the couch, running his fingers through his hair. He wanted to apologize but at the same time, he wanted to prove his point. His girlfriend was only trying to help and you took it the wrong way.

At that time, Satoru thought that maybe she was right. You’re just getting kinda jealous that she could spend time with your daughter and Satoru more and now you’re being too sensitive, letting out your irritation on her. She said that it was a natural feeling for a mother to feel that way but Satoru can’t let you treat his girlfriend like shit just because of your pettiness and jealousy. You have to learn to adjust and accept that some things are gonna be the way they are because of your setup. 

As for you, you felt hurt. Neglected even when you know that you’re not supposed to receive as much attention, much less protection from him. His priority is your child, but not you. You have no choice but to talk and work everything out with them for the sake of your daughter. You know that you could start dating someone of your choice but you wished that it would be that easy. You just want to focus on your daughter and if you’re gonna find someone, you want them to love her as much as you do. 

You wonder what you lacked that couldn’t soften him the way he did to her. You started to think that you’re the problem and that is why you couldn’t fix him as easily as she did. 

You stood up, opening the door for him seeing your two-year-old reach out to you. “Mama’s sick, love, sorry.” You covered your mouth, blinking away the heaviness in your eyes. Satoru watched you pack your daughter’s things. “If you’re gonna be busy, just tell me. I’ll just contact Mom. She can be with you for a few days, just until my cold is gone.” You murmured, counting the diapers to put in her baby bag. 

You don’t want to be away from her, but letting her stay with you when you’re like this puts her at risk and that’s the last thing you want. You can’t stand seeing your daughter through pain and you’re pretty sure it’s the same for his dad. Begrudgingly, you placed the bag in front of Satoru before reaching over for her favorite toy. You smiled at how she squealed when she saw it.

“You know we’re never too busy to take care of her. Just rest, so you’ll get better soon.” You swallowed, nodding your head slowly as you thought of what else they should take. “Yeah, I’ll be picking her up.” You kept your distance from her, sitting down as you felt your head spinning a bit. “Do you...do you have medicine, though? I could get some if you want,” Satoru can tell that you’re really sick and despite his situation with you, he can’t just let you be when you’re like this. You’re still the mother of his child. 

“No, it’s fine. I have some here. Just take care of her.” Your voice was hoarse and your daughter was starting to reach out for you again as if sensing that something was wrong so you urged Satoru to get going. “Be good, okay?” You waved as she watched you with her curious eyes but waved back, nonetheless. You wouldn’t admit it but you feel envious that they could be happy together with her. You’re afraid that one day she’ll prefer being with them over you.

As for your feelings for Satoru, you hated thinking or talking about it. You’re obviously in love with him, but you wouldn’t acknowledge that yourself, either. You fought too much, you hurt each other too much. Other than that, there’s no point for your feelings now that he has someone he really loves and truly cares about. 

You never experienced the boyfriend-girlfriend stage with Satoru. It’s like one day, you just woke up and you’re already parents. You can’t blame him for not having real feelings for you. You do your best to be as civil to them as you can be but sometimes his girlfriend’s just out of bounds. And after a couple of painful fights with Satoru regarding her, it just became too much for you. 

You’re just tired of feeling like a wedge to someone’s healthy relationship. That’s how Satoru makes you feel and you just can’t take any ache from that. 

Another thing that you deny to yourself is the hope that you might fix this all. There are always what-ifs in your mind, and you would never tell Satoru about them. He’ll probably laugh at you and your threats that you’re gonna be with someone who truly makes you happy. You would never destroy his relationship just because yours didn’t work. If you have to cover your eyes, look away and pretend to be deaf every time they’re around you, you would. 

You often think about what it would be like if he settled down with his girl; if they decided to get married and have a family of their own. You don’t want your daughter to feel left out. You don’t want her to feel like she doesn’t have her own family in the middle of them. You also wondered if you’d have moved on by then. You hope so. You don’t want to be this pitiful and heartbroken forever.

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

After a couple of days, you’re finally feeling well. You got up early and sent Satoru a text that you’ll be picking up your baby in a few hours. You missed her and her giggles so much. The house was clean during the past days but you very much prefer it to be messy, as long a she’s there. You’ll never mind getting up in the middle of the night or waking up extra early for her. 

Arriving at Satoru’s residence, you rang the doorbell as you waited patiently for someone to open the gate for you. You were hoping that it would be your baby girl, extending her short, chubby arms to you but instead, it was Satoru’s girlfriend. “Come in, she’s still playing inside.” She smiled at you, opening the metal door wider. “Thanks, I messaged Satoru that I was coming to pick her up. Is she ready?” You asked her as you walked to their front door.

“She is, but she’s kinda fussy about it. Satoru bought her a huge playpen and she just wouldn’t get out of it. She’s enjoying a lot.” She tucked a hair behind her ear and you can’t help but feel conscious of how you look. Opening the door, you were welcomed by the sight of Satoru lying down with his daughter in the said enclosure. She was fiddling with a toy as they watched on the big screen. 

Her favorite toy was at the corner, and for some reason, it left a pang in your chest.

“Sweetie, someone’s here for you.” You hated the way she phrased it but you know that she doesn’t mean for it to be offensive or rude to you. The little girl looked up with her binky in her mouth, blinking before smiling at you. “Oh, you’re already here. She wouldn’t let me out of the playpen.” Satoru explained, probably thinking that you didn’t appreciate that it had to be his girlfriend opening the door for you. 

“It’s alright. I don’t mind.” This place always made you feel like you’re an outsider. Probably because you are and it didn’t help that they’re making you feel like it. “Mama!” She waved at you, pointing at the screen as she sat down. “That’s a nice show, love. Maybe we could just continue watching it at home?” You know that she doesn’t have a big playpen there. The screen isn’t that big, either. She suddenly lied back down, whimpering as she kicked her tiny feet. You felt like telling her that you’d work hard to buy her that too.

She doesn’t want to go home yet and that’s what you feared. 

“Baby, mom’s here. She missed you.” Satoru called out but to no avail. He came to lift her up, trying to see if she was just being too lazy to get up. Her eyes were glued to the television as she sucked on her pacifier. She was too into it, pointing the show to everyone before smiling at you. Oh, how you missed that smile. “Let’s go, now.” You cooed at her, softly clapping your hands.

When you tried to reach for her as Satoru leans her close to you, she started wiggling around. “Down, Mama! Wait.” Her cute language never ceases to make your heart swell with joy despite the fact that she’s trying to get away from you. She runs away, stopping to look around before going to Satoru’s girlfriend and hugging her leg. She was in awe when she picked up your daughter. 

So… she’s who your daughter’s referring to by…Mama. You could almost hear your heart shatter at the realization. Since when did she start calling her Mama?

“You don’t wanna go home yet? But Mom’s here.” She talked in her baby voice and you don’t know if you’re gonna be happy that she treats your daughter really well or jealous that she came running to her when she don’t want to do something. Satoru went up to them, leaving you standing a few meters away. You don’t like what you’re seeing aside from your daughter.

“It’s not good to ignore Mama.” Satoru tapped her nose with his finger which she cutely swatted away, eliciting a chuckle from him. “Y/N, I was thinking… maybe I could just, uh, take her home later in the day. This playpen just arrived yesterday and you know how kids are…” He laughed nervously, struggling to find a nice way to say that your daughter won’t be coming home yet.

“Yesterday, I was joking about giving her playmates and she was so excited, she was running around.” His girlfriend giggled as she shared. It was a simple story yet it was a thorn to your heart. Why does it seem like your every nightmare is coming to life? You just smiled at her, understanding that she was talking about giving your daughter siblings. Satoru was silent, but you didn’t dare look at his face. You know that it’s in their future plans and you don’t have to see him smiling about it too. 

“That’s adorable..” You don’t know what else to say, so you just nodded your head slowly, blinking quickly so as to bring yourself back to reality. His place was huge compared to your apartment. The playpen looks so much more comfortable than the crib she has at your place. She has new toys and a mom and dad by her side. So, now she doesn’t want to leave. Suddenly, you can feel the weakness in your knees from when you were sick starting to come back. You cleared your throat as you straightened yourself.

“J-just take her home later. I, uh, bought something for her.” You lied, knowing that you still have to go looking for something you can buy for your lovely child. You wanted to snatch her away from Satoru’s girlfriend, her other mom, but the giggle flowing out of her lips are too precious for you to ruin; the smile on her face as she tickled her tummy was too priceless. Look at them, you told yourself as you started to feel farther and farther away from their little world. They’re a picture of a happy family. 

“I’ll see you later, honey…” You whispered, giving her head a pat as she looked up at you with her big, cerulean eyes. You didn’t wait for any of them to walk you out, you just let your feet take you out of their home, not daring to look back for the fear of breaking down. Your fingers tremble along with your lips and the tiny droplets of rain felt like acid on your skin. Maybe what they say was true. We experience people differently.

One woman’s life lesson is another woman’s better man.

NEXT

[leclercsixteen]

𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆 ! ᶜˡ¹⁶

you're intertwining your soul with somebody else ⋆˚࿔

𝓬harles leclerc x 𝓶ale reader synopsis: it was always y/n and charles, charles and y/n. nobody ever came between them. then, charles got a girlfriend and y/n gets jealous.

genre: social media, angst kinda?? warnings: y/n used for reader. lowk mild angst. mostly told through social media posts. kms joke. reader being jealous for no reason.

author's note: not intended for female readers & not written for female readers. using joris as a fc lowkey haha. also!! no shade to alex at all just a fun piece of fiction for fun :))

masterlist. navigation. part two.

liked by charles_leclerc, lewishamilton, f1, and others tagged: charles_leclerc

youruser think it’s safe to say the break was fun 🫡

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userone now why did y/n only post him and charles yet charles did not post a single picture of him and y/n?? ⤷ usertwo don't tell me my fav platonic bfs are going through a break up ⤷ userone if they are I might kms idk tho

userthree when are they becoming canon ⤷ userfour bro ? canon 😭? have you never been in a non fictional fandom before ⤷ userthree I've been stuck in the 9-1-1 fandom forever free me

charles_leclercs love ya man! ⤷ youruser much love char 🤍 ⤷ userfive "love ya man" daughter or "much love char" son

usersix just kiss already gyatt DAMN bro ⤷ userseven bro chill we don't want to assume anything ⤷ usersix they've literally kissed before wdym 💔��� ⤷ usereight alright grandma lets get you back to bed

liked by alexandrasaintmleux, youruser, f1, and others tagged: alexandrasaintmleux

charles_leclerc mi amor ❤️

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usernine this is embarrassing ⤷ userten wdym? its just a gf and a bf ⤷ usernine no for y/n he posted pics of him and charles while charles only posted him and alex

youruser yall cute or whateva 💁💁❤️ liked by charles_leclerc, alexandrasaintmleux, and others ⤷ usereleven oh babes im sorry 😭

usertwelve where is y/n??????

userthirteen not me looking for y/n immediately .. i might have a problem I fear ⤷ userfourteen no cause I did the exact same thing...

liked by charles_leclerc, lewishamilton, willne, and others

youruser mi vida 🌊

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userfifteen oh my petty king how i love you ⤷ usersixteen how is this petty? ⤷ userfifteen for every break in the f1 season y/n and charles have a shared vacation and post each other but this year charles posted his new gf (dw I love her) and said 'mi amor' in the caption so it's just funny that y/n used 'mi vida' which means 'my life' 😭😭 ⤷ usersixteen while i think you're reaching this is funny

lewishamilton looking great y/n! ⤷ youruser that's all you man! ⤷ userseventeen "chary/n" daughter or "lewy/n" son

usereighteen oh wow

usernineteen an interesting way to propose but yes

usertwenty just realizing we haven't seen much of y/n shirtless...but im not complaining ⤷ usertwenone right?? like chary/n please fight more

HIS VACATION WAS supposed to be relaxing, yet he’s having one sided beef with his closest friend on instagram and causing a ruckus on twitter—and he just knew his pr manager wouldn’t be happy with him at all. but, he didn’t care as he laid on his back in the day bed in the airbnb charles rented out for the week. they found themselves in greece for this year’s break, but that wasn’t the only thing that was different.

charles’s girlfriend was with them.

charles of course didn’t bring her along without asking y/n if he was okay with it, to which he said that it was okay and that charles should invite her along. so, truthfully, it was his own fault. he loved alexandra, he really did. she was nice and the perfect girl for charles, yet he couldn't help the pit in his stomach that formed when charles said that he found somebody a couple weeks ago.

this trip wasn't the first time that y/n met alexandra. he actually really liked her and charles together when he first met her. but, a rock had settled in the bottom of his stomach. he wasn't sure why, but he knew it had to be there because of charles.

y/n had never questioned his sexuality, he was 26 for goodness sake. questioning your sexuality is for teens who fell in love with their best friend—at least that's what y/n thought. maybe he was being truthful or he just didn't want another thing to worry about along with his and charles's f1 careers.

he held his phone above his head in the air as he scrolled on twitter, pursing his lips at every post he saw that included either him, charles, or him and charles together. a knock on his door paused his doom scrolling momentarily.

"it's open," he called as he continued to scroll on twitter. he liked a couple of funny tweets as the door opened and charles appeared in his doorway—well, the airbnb's doorway if you want to get technical.

y/n turned his head toward the doorway and sighed once he realized it was the man he started one sided beef with just a couple of hours ago. "what do you want?" he asked, his voice venomous as he dropped his phone onto his bare chest. it was hot in greece, so he and the other guys on the trip practically lived in linen outfits, flip flops, and swim trunks.

charles scoffed a laugh as he stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind him. "what is wrong?" charles asked as he took a couple of steps closer to the day bed. he stopped just in front of the coffee table that held y/n's iced coffee that he hadn't touched since he got home a couple of hours ago—it sat in its own condensation and the ice melted, making it look like a concoction that a middle school boy would make with his school lunch.

y/n shook his head and feigned innocence, "i don't know what you mean. nothing is wrong." turns out his career choice was the right one because he was a terrible actor as charles raised a brow and looked at y/n like a parent who just caught their kid in a lie. y/n side eyed charles before rolling his eyes. "charles, i'm too tired for this," y/n groaned as he wiped his face with his hands, his knuckles rubbing at his eyes.

"do not lie to me, y/n," charles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. y/n came to the conclusion that this was not a good look on charles; frustration. charles looked better when he was smiling and meeting fans. "you created unnecessary drama on instagram and twitter and now silvia is texting me to fix it while we're on vacation," charles rolled his eyes. he looked like he did not want to be there arguing with y/n, and neither did y/n.

y/n raised his hands in surrender, "hey, i didn't start shit. the fans pointed something out and then i played with it, nothing else! they read into our posts and i thought it was funny."

he did not, in fact, think it was funny, not one bit. he wanted his best friend back, yet his best friends attention was on his girlfriend and making sure that they stayed out of drama on the internet.

charles sighed again and he moved. he now sat on the coffee table in front of the day bed so he was closer to y/n's height and they were now face-to-face. "i get it," charles started, "alexandra is a new addition to the group, but that doesn't mean you get to be dramatic on the internet. it's frustrating for me and for our pr teams. you need to talk to me, y/n, instead of doing something stupid."

"but my reasoning is stupid," y/n said, now feeling like a child who's gotten scolded for something. "it won't make sense to you and it's petty and childish behavior. i don't want to talk about it," he was whining now, and he wasn’t sure where it came from. y/n doesn’t whine, he mocks and he yells, but he doesn’t whine.

"i bet you it's not that stupid," charles smiled comfortingly at y/n, trying to get his friend to open up to him as if they hadn't done this before. "come on, hit me," he laughs as he leans back and rests his hands behind him on the coffee table.

it was silent for a couple of beats as y/n thought about what he wanted to say and if he wanted to say it or not. his brain would sound like car crash after car crash if someone listened in. it was chaotic and he couldn't concentrate, so he just said words and hoped that they made sense and didn't make the conversation awkward.

"i think i like you."

well that definitely made the conversation awkward.

a/n: lmk if you guys want a part two cause yes im leaving it on a cliffhanger sorry ☺️☺️

[gayczennie]

Marked Up

Taeyong x Male reader

Summary: Anonymous ask where Taeyong and btm male reader are both leaders of nct and while doing the 24hr relay cam, fans see hickies on both of them. Flashback scene where they were getting heated in the living room and Johnny walks in on them during his own relay cam.

Warnings: NSFW, hickies, slight exhibitionism, bottom reader, general gay smut 🤷‍♂️

1:00 PM

“Hi Czennies! It’s my turn for the relay cam! The time is 1:00 right now.” Taeyong waves at the camera with a big grin on his face. Panning the camera over, he introduces his guest. “I know you don’t get to see y/nie and me together much since he’s usually busy leading his group, but he’s here today to keep me company while I work on some lyrics.”

“Hi guys. Taeyong isn’t gonna be talking much since he’s busy working on his music, so I’ll show you my outfit while he works.” Y/n takes the camera from Taeyong for the moment and sets it up far enough back to show off his entire outfit. “Today I’m wearing a comfy outfit since I have a break from schedules. I’m wearing my favorite jeans today and a hoodie for a boyfriend look since czennies always like that vibe the best. And czennies told me I look good when I wear my glasses, so I’m wearing that too. Oh and of course I’m wearing my friendship necklace with Taeyong like always! You can’t really see it under my hoodie though sorry guys.” Y/n has his hood on covering up the entirety of his neck. Unbeknownst to czennies, this was an intentional choice to hide the hickies Taeyong had left behind this morning. Taeyong pipes up from behind him “We should show czennie our necklaces together! I’m wearing mine right now too.”

Y/n freezes. “They’ve seen it before Hyung, I don’t think it will be interesting.” Something lights up in Taeyong when he realizes why y/n is hestitating to show the necklace. “Come here y/n, I wanna show them again anyway!” He reaches out and grabs y/n’s wrist yanking him over to the couch where he’s perched, causing y/n to fall into Taeyong’s lap. “Hyung wait!” he yells desperately trying to get out of Taeyong’s firm grasp. Taeyong reaches to unzip the hoodie and tease the younger member. His plan was to unzip it just enough to pull out the necklace without revealing anything else, but he doesn’t plan for the way y/n jerks away from him. Shit. The zipper stops well below y/n’s chest revealing the dark mark he left earlier. Not only that, but his twisting around in Taeyong’s lap caused his hoodie to ride up high enough to show the many many marks scattered across his abdomen. Y/n rolls off the couch at lighting speed and zips his hoodie back up and immediately starts forcing a laugh in the hopes that he can cover up the awkward moment. Taeyong follows suit and laughs at y/n, exclaiming “You’re so dramatic y/n, I was just trying to show them your necklace!” The pair is quick to move on with the video like normal and they pray the moment was quick enough that the camera didn’t actually capture anything.

2:05 PM

Y/n is curled up in Taeyong’s lap again soon after their relay cam together is posted to youtube. Both of them are extremely anxious to see if their mishap was noticeable at all. “Taeyong skip ahead! Faster!” It’s takes everything in him not to snatch the phone out of Tae’s hands and skip ahead himself. “Wait there! stop there! That’s when it happened.” The pair leans in close and watches intently sighing a breath of relief soon after when they see that the moment was extremely brief and they did a good job moving on like normal. “See? I bet they didn’t think anything of it y/n. It just looks like you got embarrassed because you fell into my lap and that’s all.” Y/n feels a little less sure than Taeyong though knowing how closely fans tend to watch and analyze their content. “Let’s look at the comments just to be sure.”

Scrolling through, most of the comments look normal. All saying things like:

“Taeyong is such a hard worker writing music even on his day off”

“It’s so rare to see our two leaders together!”

etc. Until one comment catches y/n’s eyes.

“Did anyone notice the bruise on y/n’s neck when he fell of the couch?”

the comment is quickly getting a lot of replies.

“omg it looks like a hickey!”

“no I bet SM is mistreating him, there seem to be more bruises all over his stomach too if you look closely”

“guys I put it in .5 speed and I noticed there’s a bruise on Taeyong too”

“Oh my god! Right after that weird Johnny relay cam too. What do you think they were doing 👀”

“Everyone be quiet. We shouldn’t speculate about these things”

“Guess they’re not really “friendship” necklaces guys”

Fuck. This might actually be a problem.

10:00 am (flashback scene ~ NSFW plot begins here)

“Fuck! Don’t stop Hyung!” y/n whines out as Taeyong bites down on his neck. Taeyong giggles at y/n being so needy. He wasn’t planning on getting freaky so early in the day, especially out in the open like this… but he couldn’t help but suck another mark into y/n’s neck when he heard how desperate the younger member sounded underneath him. It had started off innocent enough with the two of them cuddling on the living room couch watching a movie together while they waited their turn for the relay cam. Y/n had started it actually. Eager to finally spend some quality time with his favorite person on his day off, he’d began kissing Taeyong. Taeyong’s lips were soft and tasted sweet from the lip balm he’d applied first thing this morning. Y/n could never get sick of the feeling of kissing Taeyong, his beautiful, talented, sexy boyfriend. God, he loved this man to death.

Eventually growing impatient, he began sucking on Taeyong’s collarbone hoping to send Taeyong a silent message. It wasn’t long at all before Taeyong grabbed y/n’s waist and had him flipped on his back so he could hover over him to return the favor and suck some marks of his own into y/n’s neck. His lips began trailing lower and lower until he was sucking and biting down on y/n’s abs earning heavy breathing from him. “You want to keep going pretty boy? Johnny should be at the gym for a while longer with his relay cam.”

“Yes please” moans out y/n. He can feel Taeyong’s member jump as it’s pressed against his thigh. It’s no surprise y/n’s own dick grows hard at the sight of his boyfriend hovering over him looking eager as ever to fuck him right then and there in the living room. “Your wish is my command” he says, pressing another deep passionate kiss into y/n’s lips. He then replaces his lips with a finger, telling y/n to suck on it. “Let’s loosen you up” he whispers, moving his finger down toward y/n’s center—until the door swings open loudly.

“Aright made it back home czennie! I can’t believe I forgot my gym bag!” Both of them panic hearing his footsteps get closer. “Shit!” Taeyong grabs the closest throw blanket off the back of the couch and yanks it across their bodies hastily. “Oh hey guys! I didn’t think you’d be up yet. I forgot my bag” Johnny says, walking into the living room. “Everyone say h-” Johnny pauses his movement taking in the sight of the two boys in front of him, eyes darting to the way y/n’s chest is heaving up and down and then to the marks on both of their necks. “Um actually, I think y/n is still sleeping, so I’ll just let you guys see Taeyong and y/n later during their relay cam. I uh… think it’s at one. Let’s head back to the gym” He says blushing like crazy with embarassement. Taeyong mouths out thank you and Johnny turns and walks out as fast as he can.

“Um. Let’s move to your bedroom please?”

“Yeah… sorry y/n” Taeyong blushed.

The end.

ps. sorry the story kind of ends abruptly. I wrote this in a rush as per usual, and decided to just keep this one kind of short. Let me know if you guys would be interested in a part two or if you have any ideas! Thanks for reading :)

[venusacrossthestars]

your hands in mine

Pairings- Charles Leclerc x fem!reader

WC-1k

warnings- fluff, thunderstorm, 1 sexual-ish innuendo

A/N: this is something special for @arieslost and her obsession with hands, especially Charles' hands. I wrote this and am posting in today (3/12) in honor of our 3 years of friendship. I wouldn't be who I am without her. nyoom duo till the end.

f1 masterlist

The roll of thunder is what startles you out of your slumber. Senses clouded by the lingering effects of sleep. For a moment you are unsure as to where you were. This looked nothing like your apartment. Another wave of thunder brought back the realization, I spent the night at Charles’. 

You and the Monégasque driver had spent the entire day together, doing everything and nothing. He had a week off between races and was adamant about spending it all with you, not that you were complaining. This night had been no different. The two of you had gone out for a nice dinner, a little local spot near Charles’ flat that had live music. Your walk home was filled with a comfortable silence, which was one of your favorite things about being with Charles. The two of you didn’t need to be in constant conversation with each other, just each other presence was enough. 

The peacefulness followed the both of you as you worked through the motions of your nightly routine. Yours ended with reading a few chapters of whatever book you were reading and Charles practicing the piano. Kissing him before you each went off to do your own routine was the last thing you could fully remember. You must’ve fallen asleep out on the balcony and Charles must’ve carried you to bed. 

Turing over in Charles’ arms was a task easier said than done. Anytime the two of you spooned his arms would magically become vice grips, impossible to get out of. However, Charles must have been equally, if not more, beat than you. The rain helping lull him to sleep as it had done to you, his arms were lax across your middle, making it easier to roll over to your opposite side. 

As the wind picked up, a cool breeze swept through the open windows making you nestle further into Charles’ bare chest. Your hands coming to rest across his chest. Another thing to love about him, he always slept shirtless. It was impossible to deny how handsome Charles was, and contrary to popular belief of the media, you weren’t with Charles only for his looks and fame, though it was a perk. You didn’t care about any of those things. When he was with you he wasn’t Charles Leclerc Prince of Ferrari, he was just Charles and that’s all you needed. 

The rain began to pour harder and you couldn’t restrain yourself from staring at Charles’ sleeping figure, it was as if Michelangelo personally carved him out of marble. His sharp features only a tad more relaxed in his slumber. Shamelessly, you move your hand from his chest and lightly begin to trace his face with the backside of your hand, carefully trying not to wake him. Content with your mapping skills you move your hand back to his chest, now mindlessly drawing shapes into his tan skin. 

You continued your drawing, listening to the sounds of the storm as it raged on, lost in your own world. You would’ve stayed like that for longer if it wasn’t for a practically bright flash of lightning followed by a wave of thunder that had enough force to shake the room. This startled Charles from his slumber, which in turn startled you. 

“We should close the window before the floor gets all wet,” Charles mumbled out, still in the clutches of sleep. 

“Too comfy, don’t wanna move,” you mutter into his skin. 

Charles slides out from under you, causing you to whine at the loss of contact. 

“I’m going to be right back, mon cheri, do not worry.” 

With your eyes well adjusted to the darkness of the bedroom, you can make out the outline of Charles’ back, along with the muscles that flex as he closes the window and redraws the curtains that have been blown open. You watch shamelessly. How can a man be that perfect? 

“See something you like?” Charles teases, standing at the foot of the bed. 

“Best view in the city.” Your answer seems to satisfy Charles as he climbs back into bed, back to your previous position. 

Now, instead of your hands tracing Charles’ features it is Charles whose hands soothingly roam your arm. On one particular ticklish pass of his hand, you let out a small giggle and before he can go back to try and tickle you again you grab his hand. 

With his hand in yours, you bring it to your lips and press small kisses against each of his knuckles. Happy with the amount of kisses you have given him you bring his hand back down and absent-mindedly play with his fingers. Charles, still awake, says nothing and continues to let you do as you please. 

“I love your hands,” you admit. 

“I know,” he chuckles out, “I like my hands too, especially when they are wrapped around your throat.” 

You gasp at the statement, “you pervert. I’m complimenting you and your head is stuck in the gutter.” 

“It always is when you’re around.” 

You roll your eyes at his comment and he pinches your side in retaliation, “you can’t even see what I did.” 

“I know you, and I know you just rolled your eyes at me.” 

Well, he’s got you there. You stop messing around with his fingers and now it is Charles’ turn to fiddle with yours. He copies your motions, bringing your hand to also kiss each knuckle. Instead of stopping as you did with his, he lightly massages the meat of your palm. 

You are fighting the feeling of sleep, but it is a losing battle between the massage Charles is giving you and sound of the rain hitting the now closed window. Charles mutters something that your foggy brain is unable to catch. 

Laced with sleep you ask, “what did you say?” 

“Just that I love your hands too.” Charles says while kissing your ring finger but you are too far gone to hear the last part. “And one day I’ll put a ring on your finger and be able to call you mine forever.”

[estrellami-1]

If I Should Stay

Y’all are the absolute funniest most of the tags/comments on part 2 were either “oh shit Nancy????” Like we as a collective Steddie hivemind genuinely forgot Steve and Nancy were a Thing for a minute and I think that’s so sexy of us. OR y’all went “OH THANK FUCK ROBIN REMEMBERS” which. Y’all. Y’all don’t understand how little control I actually have over this fic 😂 like genuinely I’m not creating anything, it’s writing itself, I’m just writing the words down. It’s fantastic. 😂 also keep in mind I have a tentative posting schedule of every 4 days so expect something on/around the 16th! ❤️

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Eddie runs.

He’s terrified and a coward but it’s kept him alive this long so he runs, books it back to his van, ignores Harrington calling out for him, only realizes when he’s most of the way home that he’s still got the ring clenched in his hand.

He stares at it long enough at a stoplight that someone honks at him when it turns green. “What the fuck,” he whispers again, placing it on his desk when he gets home. “What the fuck.”

Wayne knocks on his door then immediately pokes his head in, which completely defeats the purpose of the knock, but Eddie’s door was open anyways. “Eds?”

“Yeah?”

“Y’alright, kiddo?”

“I think I hallucinated.”

Wayne’s silent for a few long moments. “Did you take somethin’? Or are you bein’ dramatic?”

“I didn’t take anything.”

Wayne sighs. “Wanna tell me what you think you hallucinated?”

He’s about to, it’s on the tip of his tongue, but he can’t quite say it. Like there’s a dam at the front of his mouth, and the words can’t break through. He lets out a desperate chuckle and shakes his head, flopping backwards onto his bed. “I don’t even know.”

Wayne raises a brow, but before he can respond, there’s a knock on the trailer door.

Knock is a polite term for it. It’s more like someone’s trying to break down the door with their fist. “Munson!” Someone yells. “Open this door, dammit, or I will drag you out by your ears!”

“Boy,” Wayne says, looking at him. “What the fuck did you get yourself into?”

Eddie groans, grabs his pillow, and screams into it.

When he surfaces for air, Wayne’s gone, talking to the person at the front door. Eddie vaguely recognizes the voice. Female, young, probably someone he has a class with.

Wayne, the traitor, lets her in, and Eddie’s suddenly faced with a furious Robin Buckley. He blinks. “Buckley?”

He tries to think back, but he hadn’t sold her anything recently—or ever, for that matter—so he has no idea why she’s here, looking like she’s about to murder him. “You said you’d listen.”

He blinks again. Sits up to face her. “What?”

“Steve. He told you.”

“Steve- Harrington? Oh, come on, Buckley, are you delusional too?”

Blue eyes narrow at him. “You’ve got a little stick-n-poke on your thigh. It’s an upside down star. It’s crappy ‘cause you did it yourself, but that’s why you love it. He already said your favorite song, so I won’t repeat it. You’ve had a frankly ridiculous crush on him practically since the moment you laid eyes on him. You call your guitar your sweetheart because that’s what your mom called you, and she’s the one who taught you to play.” She crosses her arms. “I can keep going.”

“I suppose you’re from the future, then, too?” Her words catch up to him and he suddenly blanches. “I, uh, I’m not sure about your second point.”

She softens some, which is rather unexpected, but he’s grateful. “Oh, Eddie.” She sits on the edge of his bed. “Me too. It’s alright. I’m sorry, I got upset because you ran, after you told Steve you’d listen, and…” she sighs, looking around his room, before standing when she catches sight of the ring on his desk. She picks it up and studies it. “This is practically all we have left,” she says softly, and Eddie feels like throwing up.

“Because I die?”

She looks at him like she’s seeing a ghost. “Yeah.”

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[heartburriedinvenice]

the end is undeniably near (and i keep running towards it) - steve h.

(steve harrington x hopper!reader)

a part of my phoebe challenge 🎞🪐💌🕯

based on the song "i know the end" by phoebe bridgers

in which you always wanted to escape hawkins, indiana, until you didn't anymore.

or

in which the billboard said "the end is near"

content warning post season 3 (SO SPOILERS), mild cursing (maybe), ANGST like the whole time, unhealthy coping, and hawkins being hawkins, reader is an implied theater kid (im sorry not sorry)

a / n i disappeared on y’all, I’m sorry!! you know life is getting weird when i randomly return to tumblr.  just dipping my toes back in the water of all this so i apologize if i am a little rusty. this is just a piece of a hopper!reader show rewrite that has been in the works for a while so if anyone likes it enough, lmk, I’d be be happy to start posting the whole thing,starting from season 1! any feedback would be awesome (and also requests cause I need inspo back). okay enjoy some angst!

No one ever got out of Hawkins, Indiana. Like the town was somehow enclosed within some heavy-duty bubble, only a few people ever got the nerves to squeeze through. Until you did, until you did the one thing you believed was impossible. You packed your bags, loaded up your car, and left hell. And you did it without a goodbye because the only way to do the impossible was without one. And deep down you knew you were a coward, even after fighting monsters and otherworldly creatures, you were a coward. You could not face what was left behind or allow yourself to acknowledge it.

And it ate away at you in a way you could have never imagined. Too busy pretending like it never crossed your mind, like Hawkins never existed in the first place. Still, it chipped at you piece by piece until the guilt of escaping Hawkins, Indiana finally caught up with you. Until one day that guilt would sneak up and trip you, sending you tumbling all the way back down a hill to only land right back at the gates of Hawkins, at its green sign, Welcome to Hawkins! That warm welcome, the warmest welcome, with its murders and second dimensions and its people. Those people. Those people who worked their way so deep into your heart before you could even realize it. So deep that leaving felt like removing deeply grown roots from a garden, so impossible, so hard to tell where they even stopped growing.  You weren’t sure entirely when they grew so deep, you don’t really remember at all how they got there. When you let them? Why did you let them? After everything, you should have known better. You shouldn’t have let them.

You were fifteen when you knew you could never live in Hawkins, Indiana your whole life. It never felt real, artificial, fake. Mass-produced nuclear families and white picket fence houses and stale dead-end jobs. 

And then Steve Harrington needed an extra art credit and found his way as the lead in Hawkins High’s production of Romeo and Juliet. When rehearsing turned into giving Steve girl advice and driving with him to drop off flowers. When running lines became swinging a bat of nails and finding an alien in a fridge. When the day before the play performance had turned into icing Steve's bruises on your couch as you ran lines back and forth because neither of you could sleep. When a whole group of middle schoolers sat in the front row and your dad sat center with a bouquet of flowers. They were your family. Your strange and messy family all pretending to be interested in the gibberish mess of Shakespeare on stage. Them watching with stifled laughs as Steve stumbled through lines, as the balcony scene turned into him and you having a staring contest trying to figure out whose lines were next. And though your director would have your heads later, the two of you sat giggling during intermission and had to hold the laughter again when your director asked why you didn’t have time to be memorized to perfection. Because you had all the time in the world, didn’t you?. 

Unbelievable as it was, you began to question what you at fifteen had promised you would do. Because you had found more than stale every day Hawkins. You had found their odd-balls who taught you to play Dungeons and Dragons in their basement, who reminded you so much of your sister. And you had found Steve Harrington, a pretty boy with a heart of gold, who risked his life for his Juliet that night at the mall. Who held you tight when it all got too much.

When you moved back to Hawkins, Indiana, after Sara, after your parents split, you were sure life would never be the same again. You needed a fresh start, to completely reconfigure your life and pretend none of what had happened had happened. That you never had a sister, that your dad hadn’t completely changed, burrowing himself under alcohol and late shifts. That your mom wasn’t actively trying to forget and build another life over the one that had been left abandoned in that New York apartment. You were so sure you would have to move on, cut it all out the minute you graduated from high school. You were sure you had to escape on your rickety old bike right out of town.

Then things happened and somehow you found yourself again, found your father again as you sat together for your first Christmas dinner in years. Celebrating the return of the young Will Byers and the return of something else, something more, something familiar and warm. It wasn’t perfect, far from it, but it was yours. You saw your father again for the first time in years that night, Christmas Eve, sitting on the porch as light snow fell and hit your heads, bundled in warm jackets, pretending the coffee you made was not mediocre at best. The police chief and his daughter, a messy duo. And that was perfect to you.

And then things happened again and again and again and finally everything just shattered.

And you left. You did what you had always hoped to do. But you didn’t feel the pride you had thought you would feel when you dreamed it at fifteen. You weren’t heading towards a new life, you were sitting in a stuffy apartment in the city. You were stuck again at what felt like the beginning. Unable to go with the Byers, you immediately made other plans, back at the apartment you had spent so many nights trying to forget. 

No one ever got out of Hawkins, Indiana. Like the town was somehow enclosed within some heavy-duty bubble, only a few people ever got the nerves to squeeze through. Until you did, until you did the one thing you believed was impossible. You packed your bags, loaded up your car, and left hell. And you did it without a goodbye because the only way to do the impossible was without one. And deep down you knew you were a coward, even after fighting monsters and otherworldly creatures, you were a coward. You could not face what was left behind or allow yourself to acknowledge it.

And it ate away at you in a way you could have never imagined or wanted to imagine. Too busy pretending like it never crossed your mind, like Hawkins never existed in the first place. Still, it chipped at you piece by piece until the guilt of escaping Hawkins, Indiana finally caught up with you. Until one day that guilt would sneak up and trip you, sending you tumbling all the way back down a hill to only land right back at the gates of Hawkins, at its green sign, Welcome to Hawkins! That warm welcome, the warmest welcome, with its murders and second dimensions and its people. Those people. Those people who worked their way so deep into your heart before you could even realize it. So deep that leaving felt like removing deeply grown roots from a garden, so impossible, so hard to tell where they even stopped growing.  You weren’t sure entirely when they grew so deep, you don’t really remember at all how they got there. When you let them? Why did you let them? After everything, you should have known better. You shouldn’t have let them.

You were fifteen when you knew you could never live in Hawkins, Indiana your whole life. It never felt real, artificial, fake. Mass-produced nuclear families and white picket fence houses and stale dead-end jobs. 

And then Steve Harrington needed an extra art credit and found his way as the lead in Hawkins High’s production of Romeo and Juliet. When rehearsing turned into giving Steve girl advice and driving with him to drop off flowers. When running lines became swinging a bat of nails and finding an alien in a fridge. Or jumping into a hole in the ground and lighting up never-ending tunnels of vines straight from those horror movies you used to watch with your sister. When the day before the play performance had turned into icing Steve's bruises on your couch as you ran lines back and forth because neither of you could sleep. When a whole group of middle schoolers sat in the front row and your dad sat center with a crumble bouquet of flowers. They were your family. Your strange and messy family all pretending to be interested in the gibberish mess of Shakespeare on stage. Them watching with stifled laughs as Steve stumbled through lines, as the balcony scene turned into him and you having a staring contest trying to figure out whose lines were next. And though your director would have your heads later, the two of you sat giggling during intermission and had to hold the laughter again when your director asked why you didn’t have time to be memorized to perfection. Because you had all the time in the world, didn’t you?. 

Unbelievable as it was, you began to question what you at fifteen had promised you would do. Because you had found more than stale every day Hawkins, you had found their odd-balls who taught you to play Dungeons and Dragons in their basement who reminded you so much of your sister. And you had found Steve Harrington, a pretty boy with a heart of gold, who risked his life for his Juliet that night at the mall, pulling you up when you twisted your ankle running up a flight of stairs and getting you out to paramedics when it was over. Icing your ankle and holding you when it all got too much. When you watched everyone exit the mall but the only real family you felt like you had left. When the police told you your fathers body couldn’t be found, buried under ash and grime in the mall fire. That he was the hero, that he saved your lives sacrificing himself. 

When you moved back to Hawkins, Indiana, after Sara, after your parents split, you were sure life would never be the same again. You needed a fresh start, to completely reconfigure your life and pretend none of what had happened had happened. That you never had a sister, that your dad hadn’t completely changed, burrowing himself under alcohol and late shifts. That your mom wasn’t actively trying to forget and build another life over the past one that had been left abandoned in that New York apartment, calling only for holidays and those important life events she was so sad she had to miss. You were so sure you would have to move on, cut it all out the minute you graduated from high school. You were sure you had to escape on your rickety old bike right out of town.

Then things happened and somehow you found yourself again, found your father again as you sat together for their first Christmas dinner in years. Celebrating the return of the young Will Byers and the return of something else, something more, something familiar and warm. It wasn’t perfect, far from it, but it was steps in a direction. You saw your father again for the first time in years that night, Christmas Eve, sitting on the porch as light snow fell and hit your heads, bundled in warm jackets, pretending the coffee you made was not mediocre at best. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something for the two of you. The police chief and his daughter, a messy duo. And that was perfect to you.

And then things happened again and again and again and finally everything just shattered.

And you left. You did what you had always hoped to do. But you didn’t feel the pride you had thought you would feel when you dreamed it at fifteen. You weren’t heading towards a new life, you were sitting in a stuffy apartment in the city. You were stuck again at what felt like the beginning. Unable to go with the Byers, you immediately made other plans, back at the apartment you had spent so many nights trying to forget. 

Spring of 1986, the New York apartment was driving you insane. You felt like you might start running up the walls if you didn’t get out soon. At least that would be ten times more interesting than sitting and watching your Step-Dad watch golf—a sport you didn't understand. Seeing how bored you were, he tried to explain it, but you didn't process a single word he was saying.

You didn’t want to have something with him, you didn’t want a thing you bonded over and you especially didn’t want that thing to be golf.

You debated moving, you debated being drastic and dying your hair to make your mom upset but what good would that do other than feed the part in yourself that no longer cared, no longer wanted to care. Everything you cared about had slipped from your grasp, had disappeared, no matter how tightly you clutched it was gone.

Fuck.

You stared at the wallpaper, one you knew your mom had probably gushed over at the store and chosen. And you glanced at the patterned carpet, and the family picture you were not in. And even though they all reassured you that you were family, deep down you knew you had uprooted their whole routine. You especially saw it in your moms eyes when she looked at you a little too long, a constant reminder of what she had lost all those years ago.  

You listened to the busy city traffic below the apartment and the sound of wailing sirens you had completely become ignorant of after you lived in Hawkins so long. You glanced at the kitchen, the sink with no dishes and a fridge actually filled with food that wasn’t leftover take-out, mediocre pasta you had cooked, or boxes of Eggos. And you looked at the man beside you, silent, watching golf. It was all so different.

Every day it remained that way, your mom got home from work late, your stepfather came home before you got back from school, and then Liam, your step brother would come home.

He made it all a little more bearable. The littlest but only because he reminded you of home. He reminded you of Dungeons and Dragons in Mike Wheeler's basement, and your found sister, and the party that always had you on your toes. But even you could not warm up to the boy because he would never be them. And it was unfair. It was cruel of you to make comparisons between Hawkins and New York, to allow that to shut out the only family you now had. But it was one habit you could not seem to break no matter how hard you tried.

Hawkins, Indiana was quiet, it was small. Hawkins, Indiana was both a breath of fresh air and a tightening grip that had you gasping, clawing for a second to breathe. New York was loud, so loud that the sounds of sirens and blaring car horns became only white noise in your head. It was big, not big in the welcoming and warming way. Not big in the feeling of catching sight of a friend in a crowded room. It was big in the way you could not point out a single person at school that you had seen more than once.  It was big in a way similar to that of being alone in the middle of a large party. It was so big that being alone in a quiet, dark, empty room would feel the same as walking amidst the large crowds on the street.

And New York didn’t have Steve Harrington. New York didn’t have crazy kids and weird aliens, New York didn’t have Robin Buckley or Nancy Wheeler or Jonathan Byers, New York didn’t have comforting hugs from Joyce, and New York didn’t have your dad and it never would again. The thought of it was enough to make you sick, nausea filling every inch of your body, barely able to swallow down the fact. But you would swallow it down like you always did, like you did everything else.

Your mom would always tell you you could talk to her if you needed to, that no matter how long you were a part she still cared about you. But you still remember the look on her face when you had turned up at the apartment after all those years. Finally back together face to face, the only words she was able to muster was, “you grew up”. 

You kept busy filling the days with nothing. On a good day Liam would show you some project he did in class that day, him seemingly the most unbothered by your move-in. And your stepdad, Bill, would ask you how school was to which you would reply fine. It was fine, it would always be just fine.

And you would stare at the phone on the wall in the kitchen. Dialing and hanging up and dialing and hanging up, hearing him pick up and then slamming the phone down, falling back into the chair at the kitchen table. Sometimes he would call back, you knew he caught on, you would just listen as the phone rang, head in your hands. You couldn’t face it, it was all too much and answering that call, hearing that voice would only throw it all back at you at once. It would knock you down and hold you there as you tried to gain control of the emotions you had locked up so tight once again. You felt sick to your stomach once again and the feeling spread, it spread all throughout your body, all the way to your fingertips and toes. For the first time in your life, you begged your body to just throw up, hoping the feelings would go along with it, until the pit in your stomach was completely washed away. 

It was this sinking feeling every time you heard the phone ring and as much as you wanted to convince yourself otherwise, you weren’t sure if you would ever pick up. Maybe you would just forget about it all. But it was hard when your mind was plagued with images of creatures you could only describe as otherworldly and when every time you looked at yourself in the mirror before a shower your eyes would draw focus to the deep cut scars that littered your body. You would never truly escape Hawkins, Indiana, it was impossible, and it would follow you around until you finally gave up and went back. But you refused to allow it to have that control, until you picked up the phone…by accident.

It was late, a Saturday evening of all things. Your mother was working late that weekend, your step dad was asleep on the couch, and your step brother had abandoned his books on the table and gone to bed. And the phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing, over and over in repeated increments. One call, two minutes passed, another call, three minutes had passed, and a third call with three minutes passing and on and on and on-

“Will you turn the damn thing off!” Yelled the man on the couch, whose deep sleeping was even disturbed by your past trying to creep back in. 

And it worried you, as you apologized and turned back to the phone, head aching from the noise. It worried you because every time before, the phone would ring one, maybe two times before the line went silent. But tonight, you had lost track of just how many times you had slammed the phone down to stop the ringing.

You looked up at the phone again, quiet for much too long, longer than before and RING. RING. RING.

The grunt of your step father filled the empty room and without a second thought, not wanting another lecture from your mom about not getting along with him, you reached for the phone line. Slowly placing it against your ear, you instantly pulled it back as a voice blasted through, louder than the ringing of the phone itself. “Goddammit! please pick up the phone-”

“Hey,” was all you said, it was faint and quiet in contrast, laced with guilt that had piled up from months of avoidance and pretending Hawkins didn’t exist. But it was loud enough to stop the yelling as murmurs and whispers filled the background of wherever your caller was calling from. 

Your Steve Harrington, your Romeo who deserved answers. After everything you had been through he deserved something from you that you had failed to deliver.

“Oh thank god, you don’t know how happy I am to hear your voice,” and what you expected to be anger was anything but, rather the clearest sound of overwhelming relief. Relief that all came crashing down the minute he spoke his next words. “You need to get back here, like... like-“

The sound of struggling came from their end of the phone and your heart rate sped up in a panic, only realizing how tightly you were holding the phone to your ear.

Dustin’s voice quickly came through the line, a complaining Steve evident in the back, “like right now, like ASAP, like as soon as possible.”

Dustin’s voice, his tone did nothing to loosen your grip on the phone, nothing to ease your panic and you almost slammed the phone down again. Back home, back in the familiar, back to memories of people that haunted your every thought. You wondered if they had called the Byers, your sister, you wondered if she was there too. 

“We can pay your bus ticket, but I can’t really explain like this and we just, we need your help,” Dustin practically cried. “We all need you. We can’t let anyone get hurt again.”

That was all you needed. Hawkins had a pull on you, a force you tried to ignore but eventually pulled you back anyways. Steve was back on the line soon after, you already scribbling a note to your mom, phone pressed against your ear by your shoulder. And when you heard his voice again your breath caught in your throat…it seemed to always do that with him.

“Steve, I-”

“You don’t have to say anything.”

“No, but, Steve I really, just…I don’t know where to start,” you tried to explain, losing any of the words you had planned to say while lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling. 

“You don’t have to,” he simply said. But you knew you would, you had too many words to speak. “Just show up, just be here. We need you, even if you don’t believe me. It’s getting crazy again.”

Hawkins would never not be.

“I will be,” you reassured, really reassured. “I will be, I promise.”

And if everyone in Hawkins knew something, you never broke a promise, never. You got close sometimes, sometimes it seemed like you would, but you always met your end of the bargain. You said you would be back in Hawkins, Indiana and you would be. Setting the phone down back on it's holder with a quiet click, you jumped from your chair in the kitchen, as the wood chair quietly screeched against the floor. Open and close, open and close, the drawers in the kitchen were opening and closing until you found a tape role, cutting away a piece. Grabbing your note off the counter, you secured the piece to it and stuck it against the fridge where it would be noticed by your mom.

She would know what it meant, you knew she knew all along, that New York hadn’t been your home in a long time. That Hawkins had grown into something much deeper than you could have ever anticipated. And even then, in that kitchen, in that busy city…you knew, the end was near

[jazeswhbhaven]

A Christmas beneath Heaven P2 | React | Days 1 & 2

Woooo we've made it to the second part of the event ya'll! And just as I expected, this is already crazy within the first two days of content Let's do a little recap though, just in case ya'll are seeing this first hand and not the other posts I've made!

MC is down with what they call a 'christmas cold' in Hell. Solomon had it before as well. The symptoms with MC is in short, they can't stop masturbating or getting horny and it's pretty much draining the life out of them. The Kings meet and decide that they must cure her and with the help of Bael finding an old devil with some information the medicine is located in the Middle Realm that is guarded by the first fallen angel, Achazriel. Because they all can't infiltrate all at once, each King must go one at a time, but it's looking like it's more cumbersome than they expected.

Now that you get the general idea without the extra stuff let's continue- S u M m A r Yyyyy~

The first King to make an attempt to infilitrate the Middle Realm is Belphegor. The problem though, is that everyone, including Belphie himself all turn to Beleth who's confused as fuck until he realizes, he's the one that must go in his King's stead.

When I say, that nobody had his back on this, not even Belphie I mean it. Beleth though says that it shouldn't take him long and he'd be okay.

I find it funny though that it was brought up that it's kinda messed up to send a fallen angel back to deal with other fallen angels and everyone's like ????!!! WAIT as if they didn't realize that.

But then we have Bael, sweet bby worried about Beleth and I have a small ramble about that. Not only are they neighboring countries, but the two of them are literally twins in the sense of they both babysit their King, and pretty much run things for their respective countries. So he has sympathy for him in that regard.

Beel doesn't really care though, saying that everyone should place bets for how long it will take Beleth before he comes back. Bimet is doing the math in his head, Asmodeus guessed it...they have this odd moment...

That odd moment being that Bimet was curious as to what made Asmodeus agree with him that 2 days would be the max and Asmo teases him into saying that he can't possibly believe he'd give away information without 'something' in return and Bimet is just kinda like 'oop. my bad... 😶' when Asmo's like...'these devils not giving me bussy is cruel' (not really but he's probably thinking that)

And well, everyone puts their bets in other than Leviathan and Lucifer because they find it pointless. Lucifer honestly just chooses to not engage due to "professionalism" (lmaooo) Belphie even randomly wakes up and is like "yah 3 days is my bet" and goes back to sleep, Bimet changes his bet too. Like good lord everyone believe in my bby pls.

Well...and just as Asmodeus (and Bimet but sadly he changed his number) guessed it...Beleth is back in two days and the poor babes is beat up badly. But at least Asmo agrees to share the winnings with Beleth (he has a thing for him I swear)

I'll spare you the theatrics of how they tried guessing what happened to him, but there was joke that he was fighting Harumon, which wasn't the issue. The issue is that Beleth was paranoid of the traps set, transformed into his cat self, and well...did a cat thing and got trapped anyway because his size triggered them all at the same time. (Let me add that Lucifer was able to tell what injuries Beleth had just by looking at him and what the cause was a "catfight" is what he called it)

The kings are all laughing at him (aside from Lucifer and Levi) like even Belphie is poking at him and I'm just like??? Leave him alone ????? So what he was a clumsy kitty, cats do dumb shit all the time here on Earth 💀🥺😭 I'd pet him and tell him he's a good kitty.

Levi however, is only upset because he came back with just the info of "there are traps" but nothing else. I think Beleth tried his best, he was just.....not on his A-game sadly.

So the next devil to go is Mammon. He just straight up grabs the dice, rolls it and his number comes up. And with no surprise, he gets through the traps so easily it's second nature to him and his giant hands. But the timeline for traveling through all the traps was half a day compared to Beleth getting beat up for two days. 😭

Now, he DOES make it all to the way the gate, Mammon interested in the door and it's materials, and then it opens on it's own so now he's like OOOO NEW TECH MINE. (one track mind...)

So he walks in, and it looks really pretty btw...I'd probably sleep there and he sees the first fallen (hot asf) angel Achazriel. So it appears that this fallen angel is for the most part docile and just kinda sits on the chair he's in. Though, he does know who Mammon is, though very little is known about him.

He doesn't even want to fight, he challenges Mammon by asking him one question, if he answers it within 10 seconds he won't have to leave. In the Middle Realm, his word is law, so if he loses Mammon will be forced out by that rule.

Guess what the question was? "Who is most precious to you." I was like OH this is easy, MC! Well....our uh big stud here went through all of ten seconds thinking of other things and people even the souls in his body before he realized it was MC that was the answer but it was too late 😒🙃😭😭 Like??? Okay Mammon thanks love you too. Because the point of the entire trip was to heal MC and I'm like??? W T F. Satan could have answered that question easily I bet (he seems to be the OTP Kings wise)

So...Mammon failed, but at least he had more information. He didn't tell them the question that was asked, which I assumed no one asked him directly so he had no reason to reveal. (I bet you Satan would have laughed at him for getting it wrong and be like HA the answer is MC you idiot. or something like that)

Beel is up next! And well...since Mammon did all the footwork, he basically just had to walk up there, meet Achzariel and was straight up like "Give me the medicine." Beel....pls.....

PHEW so this summary was longer than the others because yeah so far Part Two's stories are far longer than Part One's! When I do the screenshots hopefully everything fits in this post. Some may have to be exlcuded ;w;

Let's get to the screencapssssss

idk i found this cute because no Satan you can't do that. Time out chair again.

I feel like this is Luci's polite way of saying..."I ain't got the time nor patience for this foolishness"

Beel. LMAO really now? (this was toward Beleth going first and Belphie was like "I ain't" and went to sleep.) Bael was like.....o k.

He's so worried, let me give him kisses for being a sweetie.

NABE DOG FORM CAMEO (gives him treats and scritches)

AYo??????? We just gon' fap in front of everyone present? ASMO ??

Leviathan was ready to beat his ass like

Like srsly he was done at this point lmaooooo

😭MY BABY OMG

I'm sorry Levi has been irritated this entire event and I'm crying because it's either Beel or Asmodeus annoying the fuck out of him. 💀

They were so mean 😭 like I know they were just joking but this man came back battered and torn being called a rag by Asmo and now they're calling him a clumsy cat. It's okay Beleth com'mere and and I'll give you hugs and smooches. (He seems to not be too graceful as a big kitty and that's okay)

Tryna capitalize on strange self opening doors, okay Mammon

Bye, taking a nap here.

I know you fine as fuck, wait who said that? I'm supposed to be napping

what do you mean, what????

ok.

Pretty much. LOL

And just because there's room to throw this in....

He really said, "you goin' fam." and went back to sleep.

Classic Leviathan roasting.

LIKE ya'll there's so much interactions between the Kings and their nobles in this event, it's really nice to see them acting in their natural state without MC around even if they are simply just in a quarantine room jackin' off to the thoughts of Minhyeok.

Since Beel boldly just went up in Middle Realm and asked for the medicine directly I wonder how that's gonna work out for him...I can't imagine too well since he's...ya know himself lmao

[wowowokay]

Sorry this is a day or two late but here are some more fic recs!! Also these are Batman fic recs but Tim Drake centric (I’m obsessed with Tim so don’t be surprised if I semi frequently post Tim drake centered fics lolol)

(Also there will be a note at the bottom)

Everybody Knows - White_bread_with_a_wig

Hilarious fic basically Tim never became Robin and instead took over drake industries at a young age and he accidentally reveals JL secrets he didn’t realize were secrets during an interview and now he has a bunch of hero’s and rogues him!

Words: 7,728 Chapters: 1/1

I’d kill myself if you ever leave - Violettavonviolet

Basically Tim realizes the mistreatment he received as Robin while he watches how Bruce treats Damian 4+1 fic really good I don’t know how to explain more about it without spoiling sorry 🥲

Words: 3,492 Chapters: 1/1

Red Robin: Undead - bridgesburn

Amazing fic but I’ll be totally honest it’s been a minute since I’ve read it but I totally remember most of it!! I just don’t want to accidentally spoil anything so here’s the authors summary!! And I left some of my own description? Thoughts? At the end!

Death is usually the end. Finality. That's kind of the definition of it.

And falling several stories toward concrete usually meant death. Timothy Drake had certainly assumed as much in the final seconds before he hit the sidewalk at terminal velocity.

But Tim should have realized that, given the complexity of his life, his death would never be that cut and dry.

Enter: a severed head, ten missing months, and an immortal cult leader.

A little less simple. And for some reason, Jason Todd seems to have some answers to his missing months and the violent urge that curdles beneath his skin.

(Yet again amazing fic!! It has some hilarious comedic points and it’s just amazingly well written and the plot doesn’t disappoint it’s just mwah! Amazing!!)

Words: 167,318 Chapters: 25/25

Note: okay that’s all the fics for today!! Also thank you to the people who started following me and left likes and reblogged!! Seriously it’s insane!! But I also wanted to just talk about maybe a posting schedule? I think I’ll be trying to post every other day? I definitely wanna keep some kind of schedule cause I love reading fics (obviously) and I’d love to be able to recommend some of my favorites to you guys!! But warning the amount of fics I’m recommending might fluctuate it depends on how busy I am since I work and I’ll be going back to school soon unfortunately 😭 but yeah! Also I will most likely be recommending Batman and Marvel fics but also occasionally my hero academia, Percy Jackson/Heros of Olympus and Voltron! (I’m not finished with reading Heros of Olympus but when I am there will probably be a flood of those fic recs lolol) also sorry if my grammar is horrendous English may be my first and only language but I still suck at it lolol but yeah! I hope you guys enjoy!!! :))

[abyss-seer]

Disclaimer: All content in this reading, including interpretations, messages, and images used for picking a pile, belongs to me. It should not be copied, reproduced, or distributed without my permission. Unauthorized use of any part of this reading is strictly prohibited.

The Background image used is "Ukiyo-e Tale: The Creative Circle" by Nicolas Castell. The images for pick a pile reads, are mine

Pick A Picture Reading

How can you embrace some of your inevitable life experiences and see it from a higher perspective?

Pile 1 - The Table and Chair

Pile 2 - The Lamp post

Pile 3 - The Bench or a Swing

Welcome to today’s tarot reading! I always find tarot readings enjoyable, like reading chapters from a fascinating book. Before we dive in, let's set the scene and align with today's reading. Remember, this is a timeless read, so the messages can apply whenever you come across this post.

To start, take a moment to meditate on the question, and then choose the picture that draws you in. It could be a random object in the image or just an inner nudge guiding you to a particular pile. Feel free to choose more than one pile.

Today's question is inspired by some metal art shops I passed by: "How can you embrace the scars you experienced in your life and see how they shape you in a positive way?" Just as metal can be shaped under pressure into something beautiful, our experiences mold us, often in ways we don't realize at first.

Life can be tough, and we may come to dislike our scars because of the pain they represent. This reading aims to help you embrace those scars, transform them into symbols of victory, and find a positive outlook on life.

Remember, when life happens to you, you’re not a victim but a survivor. Warriors survive battlefields, and kings rule with confidence only after healing their wounds. This reading is about healing those scars fate has carved on you and seeing how they shape you into a beautiful, stronger version of yourself.

Enjoy the journey, and have a wonderful day! 😊

Trigger Warning

This reading has focused on the scars you could have got due to inevitable things you had to experience in your life. This reading aims to be a healing experience rather than a reminder of past hurts. If you're not ready to confront these aspects, but you appreciate the concept of this reading, feel free to save it for later.

Remember, this is a general reading, so take only the messages that resonate with you and leave the rest. A tarot reading offers insight or answers to your subconscious questions. It's important not to force yourself into any interpretation that doesn't feel right; readings are meant to be more about entertainment and reflection than precision.

Be mindful of not taking things personally. This is a collective reading, and while some aspects might resonate with you, others may resonate with someone else. My readings tend to be comprehensive and detailed, which some may find lengthy or time-consuming. Please take your time with this reading. These messages are intended to awaken and provide insights, so I hope you find value in them. Enjoy the journey through these reads.

With Love

Abyss Seer - Tarot Readings 🫶🏾

Pile 1

How to Embrace the Scars You've Got in Life**

**Pile 1**: You might tend to give up when responsibilities and burdens pile up. You could have a scar related to staying committed to something that eventually dies out, leading to FOMO (fear of missing out) due to feeling stuck. You might often jump into new things when the current endeavor gets tough. These constant changes can make you feel overwhelmed, sometimes leading to explosive anger when things don't go your way.

Instead of suppressing your anger and letting it explode, find a creative outlet. Many in this pile might use relationships or intimate activities to channel negative emotions rather than facing them. Sitting with your emotions might remind you of times you were taken advantage of, causing frustration.

Rather than getting caught in your mind and shaming yourself for taking time to decide, embrace your role as a catalyst for change. People might see you as moving at the speed of light, like a hurricane that changes too fast and crushes whatever stands in the way.

To embrace these changes, meditate when making big decisions, especially if you're considering a new venture due to feeling overworked. Take risks and make informed decisions instead of overthinking. Slow down and reflect before making any changes. Consider others' perspectives and be mindful not to crush their hard work. Give space to others and their plans while you pursue your goals.

**How to See These Scars from a Higher Perspective**

These scars teach you to let go and heal from past imbalances and unequal exchanges. They help you become more mindful about investing and spending resources to achieve your goals. You're learning to move on from disappointments and regrets involving selfish people. Now, you invest in trusted individuals who share your vision and walk away from situations that don't work for you.

You’re becoming more aware of your intuition and avoiding disasters before they happen. You’re learning to express yourself fully and not squeeze into places you don't belong. By letting go of what doesn't serve you, you embrace change and become your most authentic self, no longer hiding behind corners. Don't think too much and take action.

These references could hold some significance or some extra messages for you

Manjhi - The Mountain Man movie

Seeing repeating 22

Travel by train

Ludhiana

Someone with some body deformity

Table of Manifestation : An altar

A collaborative project

Pile 2

*How to Embrace This Scar**

There might be some kind of coalition in your community or workplace. Pile 2, you could be dealing with financial loss, lack of progress, or unresolved arguments with colleagues, leaving you more confused. These arguments might drag on for weeks. You need to strike a balance in your work life and set boundaries.

If you're facing intense pressure from the market or conflicts with colleagues, tread carefully. Currently, with Mars in Taurus and the South Node in Libra, you might find it hard to feel at ease. Use your intelligence to gain an advantage in these situations.

If you've been wounded at work, embrace these scars by focusing on your tasks, showcasing your talents to your higher-ups, multitasking, and mastering your skills. You might have lost some work confidence due to these conflicts. Don't waste time dwelling on these issues; focus on your work.

There might be sadness from wasted time or potential, but it's time to work hard. Don't let this opportunity slip by. Your scar might be feeling unable to express yourself and being misunderstood. Remember, the louder you shout, the more likely you are to be

ignored.

How to See These Scars from a Higher Perspective**

Some of you might feel like you chose the wrong company, relationship, or community, leading to some kind of loss. You are being called to cleanse and nourish yourself. This Summer Solstice, like Maa Kamakhya, close your doors to unwanted situations and take yourself on a self-care retreat to experience your inner sacred workings. Forgive yourself and let go of the pain others have caused you.

Pile 2, you might feel distracted, waiting for things to happen, and dependent on others for your finances. You're being asked to socialize and heal, taking a break from work to come back rejuvenated. Stay grounded and socialize with people around you to maintain harmony. Don't show weakness in family, friendship, and relationships. You are learning to develop a strong boundary to avoid being taken advantage of.

Be careful, Pile 2; you might feel stagnant and stuck due to giving your energy to people who don't deserve it. If this has already happened, you are learning the art of facing your enemies and staying calm despite life's challenges. This situation might have left an invisible scar that not many can see. Stand strong against adversity and don't let unnecessary involvement of others extend your problems. You are learning to weed out unnecessary people from your matters and socialize only as needed.

Learn your lessons with grace and call your energy back to yourself for self-nourishment. See these scars as past mistakes and learn how to not overshare and keep people out of your business.

These references could hold some significance or some extra messages for you

Seeing repeating 8's and 7's, or 88's and 77's

Cleansing or Purification

Proficiency in English language

Coalition in workplace settings

The song Choti Choti Ratein from movie Tum bin

Someone or Something's name could be Donna

Oh Mehrama by Darshan Raval

Pile 3

Are you trying to embrace the scars that you got in your life amidst ongoing feuds about your future or your destined inheritance? Some of you could be from Pile 1.**

**How can you embrace this scar?**

First, commit to the work you are doing. You might feel a lack of inspiration to move towards your goals and dreams. Are you boldly pursuing your desires or just waiting for a miracle? Are you taking practical steps to achieve your dreams, or are you stuck in old stories, taking leftovers because you've lost hope?

You see big dreams and new opportunities, but are you too scared or uninspired to reach them? In today’s world, people often turn to social media to feel better, getting lost in information. You know what to do and which advice to take, but are you making that bold move? Your scar might be this void of success, leaving you uninspired and holding on to past achievements, ideas, or relationships that no longer serve you.

Express gratitude to those who helped you and let go. Embrace your scars and move boldly towards achieving your dreams, Pile 3.

**How to look at this scar from a higher perspective?**

Once you boldly commit to your goals and reignite your hope, you'll have a reason to celebrate. There might be something unique you want to do but are unsure about. From a higher perspective, one day you'll reap the rewards of your sincere efforts. This unique dream could turn into a legacy. Your scars were meant to make

you strong.Some of you might have lost a parent or experienced childhood neglect or abuse. I'm deeply sorry for your pain. Sending all of you my deepest condolences. 💗

"All I can say is 'Show me how it gets better' by Sah D Simone. Show the world how people with experiences like yours shine with their own light. Only you can show the world how it gets better, Pile 3.

Stop wasting time numbing your emotions. Turn your life experiences into motivation. Show the world how someone like you can make it better despite all these scars. Fully concentrate your energy on what you want to do in life and let go of what doesn't serve your purpose."

These references could hold some significance or some extra messages for you

Scarpetta, maybe you don't like wasting an inch of your food

You might go for travel soon

The song Oh Nanhe se Farishte

Barbie and 12 dancing princess

Khamoshiyan

Seeing repeating 2's and repeating 4's,

[darkeralmond]

yeees i would definitely enjoy a celebrini fic <3

EYES LIKE SIRENS

previous < Chapter 1 > next

Pairing: Macklin Celebrini x Emilia Richardson

Summary: While Emilia’s is on another date in an effort to get over Macklin, she reminisces on her past HOCO proposal which made her realizes how much she likes Macklin

Warnings: Implications of sex, but no smut

Apricot Speaks: hi guys!! i missed u all sm!! i have been working hard on these and ive also been wondering if i should post these on wattpad too. lmk and pls support my writing!!

“Emilia, this is really starting to become a problem,” Clara called out from her bed. I rolled my eyes at her comment, but due to how small our room was, she saw my reflection causing her to add,“Don’t roll your eyes at me. It is a problem and you know it. This is the 3rd guy in the span of 2 weeks.”

Finally looking back at her, I replied, “Shouldn’t you be proud of the fact I’m not home moping around like I was before?” When I look back, I intensely stare at myself as I focus on acquiring the perfect cat liner.

Behind me, I heard her sigh as she jumped off her bed and making her way into the bathroom. She stopped next to me and though I wasn’t looking, I could the disapproval as she stared into the side of my head. “Maybe if you stare long enough, you can burn a hole into the side of my head and I can cancel this date.”

“Ha,” She answered dryly. I finally looked over at her when I finished the second eye with a smug smirk on my face. “Why do you even wanna go on this date?”

“Because I need to distract myself from brooding in bed all day.” I played with my hair, perfecting a natural messy but sexy look.

She huffed again signaling her distaste in it all, but it wasn’t her concern what I was doing with my free time. Even if it was in an attempt to get over M- someone. “Is your location shared at least?” She asked, raising her brows as she did so. There are so many things she does which resembles my mom which annoys me, but it at least makes me feel somewhat comforted in a way.

I smiled slightly as I answered, “Yes, Clara. I’ll text you where I’m at at times, and I’ll send the safe word if things go south.” Even with my best attempts at reassuring her that not everything will end bad, she still has the same disapproving look on her face. “Clar, I’ll be fine, you don’t have to worry.” I took her hands into mine in my final attempt to assure her I’m grown and can make my own decisions.

I understand Clara’s concern, but what she doesn’t realize is that I know my date’s intentions. I knew this was only going to be a free meal followed by a one night stand, it’s basically what I signed up for when I hopped on these dating apps. All the dates she’s referring to could be considered more as hook ups and actual romantic dates. It’s what I need right after Macklin. Dammit, there goes my 10 minute streak of not thinking of him.

Sometimes I think she has mind reading super powers the way she’s able to redirect the conversation without me saying anything. “So, who’s the lucky bachelor tonight?” She asked as she holstered herself onto the sink counter.

“Jason Redding. He goes to NYU for business.” She bumped her shoulder against mine playfully, causing a small laugh to bubble out of me. “He also plays hockey, which is weird ‘cus I didn’t know they had it there.” Normally I steered clear of hockey players, but somehow Jason landed right into my DMs and it was a love story from there. And by love story, I mean his opening line being ‘This is why I prefer blondes.’

And they say chivalry is dead.

He didn’t make any effort in hiding his true intentions, which I appreciated since other ones did. He suggested taking me to dinner at a very fancy Italian restaurant before taking me to his dad’s hotel located nearby to stay for the night. Now why he was in Boston, I didn’t know.

Well that was until Clara said, “Oh! They play the boys on Tuesday. That’ll be interesting.” I forgot that Macklin had said something about playing NYU in their opening game. If I had known that I definitely would’ve cancelled on him, or never answer him at all.

“You can say that again,” I mumble. I heard my phone ding with a notification, prompting me to look down and see a message from Jason. “He’s here. I’ll text you when I leave the restaurant, alright?” I grabbed my coat off the bed and shimmied into it before tossing my purse over my shoulder.

“Please be safe!” She called out as I left our dorm. I heard the door shut behind me as I made my way towards the elevator.

When the elevator doors shut, I let out a long exhale. Not a nervous exhale, just one final sigh before I put on a fake facade for this guy for the night. Why be myself when he won’t stick along long enough for him to cherish it. I used to not be this way.

I used to be jittery going down this elevator to go out on dates. Now I felt numb and ready to get the night over with. I knew there were no feelings attached to any of these hookups that spawn in my lap, so why worry over something that’s not gonna progress. Let alone affect my future.

I thought my feelings would change eventually. That I’d meet the right guy and feel all the waves of emotions I used to feel in the past, but I haven't. It was my fault I wouldn’t either, so I knew not to feel sorry for myself.

As soon as I stepped out of the building, I wished I would’ve picked a warmer outfit. The weather in early January Boston was hellishly cold and my tights did nothing to prevent the wind from freezing my legs. At least I looked good in my skin tight leather dress.

I wasn’t suprised when I approached Jason and caught him eye fucking me. “Well, hello to you.” When I was in close enough proximity, he wrapped his arm around me and kissed my forehead. I didn’t expect this type of contact so soon, but I didn’t tense up either. I had more in store for me later anyways. “You look even better than you do in pictures.”

My fake laughs had become more convincing the more of these “dates” I go on, but at least this one was giving me stuff to work with. “You’re not too bad yourself,” I said, and I wasn’t lying either. He was super attractive. Brown eyes, blonde hair, a chiseled chin with peach fuzz. He just wasn’t my type.

He opened the car door for me, so I crawled in. The car felt so warm, causing me to melt into the seat. Before shutting the car door, Jason said, “Yeah, don’t fill up too much. I’ll have desert waiting for you in the room.” I was waiting for him to say something along those lines and it didn’t even take 5 minutes. I closed my eyes momentarily as I let the heat thaw me out.

On the way to the restaurant, it was silent minus the sound of traffic around us. With nothing else to entertain me, my mind had resorted to reminiscing on the past.

It gave me a healthy reminder on when I was young and naive, I used to fantasize about my soulmate sweeping me off my feet in a grand romantic gesture in front of a crowd of people. Guys, like Jason, have lowered my expectations of having an Uber paid for me when I used to appreciate aftercare.

…

Junior Year

I would like to believe that since my break up I was doing an incredible job on focusing strictly on myself and school. That, however, went out the window when I came to the realization that it was going to be my first homecoming dance without Westyn.

I stared at my ceiling above, taking in all the teenage version of One Direction staring back down at me. If only one of them could come to life and save me from this catastrophe, preferably Zayn. “I don’t know, maybe I should text him and ask. It will be my final time ever interacting with him.”

“Please don’t make me drive over there and snatch your phone away from you so you don’t do anything stupid,” Macklin replied on the other end of the phone.

I laughed as I rolled onto my stomach before responding, “Then you’d be late for your game.”

Without missing a beat he said, “Then, I’d risk being late for my game then.”

“Aww, you do really care about me. I thought you were heartless,” I teased him.

He scoffed, “It’d be for my own sake so I don’t have to hear you complain about him ever again.” I rolled my eyes and laughed again. He got serious again when he said, “Look, I’m sure someone will ask you soon. It’s still a month away.”

I dramatically groaned before flopping back on the mattress. “But I need to get my dress now!” I took the phone off speaker as I brought it up to my ear. . “I’ve already decided pink is my color this year and I wanna be able to find something glittery and unique.”

The sound of him driving was replaced with his laugh which caused a smile to appear on my face as my face grew warmer. “Alright, I’m pulling into the rink now. My parents will be there to get you in an hour so please be ready. Oh, and, Emilia?”

“Yeah?”

“It’ll happen,” He said in a low, almost secretive, tone which made my stomach flip for some odd reason. “Alright, see you later.”

I say bye and hang up, looking at the time on my phone. I should start getting ready now since the Celebrinis will be here in the next hour, but for now I stay laid down in my same position. . I continue to stare at my One Direction poster as I let my mind race with a million thoughts at once.

Ever since the night of Westyn and I’s break up when I came crying to Macklin, something changed within me. That night I saw some sort of spark in his eye which made me reconsider everything. His eyes drew me in like a siren, but I was able to break away and leave before anything could progress.

It had to have been my imagination, because the next day things were normal between us. Maybe it didn’t happen or maybe it’s the way Macklin naturally looks. Whatever it was, that look was dangerous.

I heard my phone ding, causing me to pick it up. Macklin had shot me a text which read:

I know ur still laying down, get up.

…

I didn’t feel crazy anymore for the way I was feeling in bed, because waiting for Macklin to come out after tonight’s win felt different. His parents didn’t help soothing my nerves any, as they were also acting weird. Like they were anticipating something.

I continued chucking it up to my own paranoia until Macklin came out of the locker room and I noticed his mom now held up her camera. “Hey, you!” He greeted me with a cheesy grin as he came out, holding his arms out for a hug. With my brows furrowed, I still accepted the hug because I wasn’t going to leave him hanging just because of my own derailing thoughts.

Without skipping a beat, Macklin’s mom announced, “Let me take a picture.” Macklin spun me quickly to face her, and part of this felt rehearsed. His grip on my waist as we posed for the picture felt tight that if I tried to squirm out of it, I would fail miserably. As my head rested against his chest, I could hear his heart racing. Maybe it was just due to post game adrenaline rush, but he also seemed nervous. I watched as Macklin’s parents, specifically his mom’s, faces lit up as they looked past us which made me think something was occurring behind us.

As if Macklin noticed it too, he glanced back as his grip loosened. I also turned my head, but in an effort to do so, I noticed a bundle of bright flowers against the black sweatshirt Macklin was wearing. I gawked at the arrangement of different pink flowers which were wrapped with a pretty pink bow. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor as he held them out for me to take.

Accepting his flowers, Macklin gently held onto my waist as he diverted my attention to the scene behind us. I was greeted by five of his teammates holding up poster paper spelling out ‘HOCO?’ with joyous grins on their faces.

I could feel my jaw beginning to cramp, indicating how long it had been open due to the amount of surprises thrown my way in the span of a minute. I thought Macklin had been acting weird about Westyn because he liked me, but it was really because he wanted to make sure I wasn’t going with Westyn.

Even though I felt relieved that my initial guess was wrong, for some odd reason my heart felt a sudden pain at the thought of Macklin not liking me. That’s a good thing though… right?

“Emilia?” Macklin spoke up, grounding me back to reality. I looked over at him and noticed the panicked features embedded on his face.

I laughed as a reaction to everything before answering, “Yes, duh!” I threw my arms around him as I grinned from ear to ear. People around gave subtle applause while his teammates cheered loudly.

When we pulled away, I captured the same look that I saw the night I came to him crying. That same longing look. My heart dropped as I swiftly shifted my eyes to look elsewhere, breaking eye contact that made me want to risk everything.

“Now, you have to find a different way to ask me to prom,” I joked as an attempt to distract myself from what could’ve happened.

He laughed before responding with, “I’m sure you’ll have a new date by then.” With that, he put an end to the delusion I’ve had for the past month. I simply nodded my head, looking back down at the flowers.

…

Now

Jason’s hand found its place on my leg, bringing me back to the present as I looked in his direction., “Are you ready to head inside, gorgeous?”

For the first time tonight I felt something that wasn’t numbness, disappointment. Disappointed that I wasn’t looking at Macklin’s smiling face. Disappointed that I let things slip through my fingers because I couldn’t balance my chaotic life.

Swallowing that feeling down, I nodded my head and answered, “Yes.”

As I was escorted inside, my head kept reeling back to what Macklin could be doing right now. What if he was seeing someone as well? What if he’s actually moved on?

No matter what I keep telling myself, thinking about Macklin is inevitable. How am I capable of moving on whenever he breaches my mind every minute of every single day. There was no possible date that could solve this yearning.

[judesmoonbeauty]

Miss Fairytale Keeper, Come Have Fun With Us: Nica Schwartz EPILOGUE

Translations will not include screenshots or CGs as mentioned here. Fan translation only. Not 100% accurate. Please expect grammatical errors. Cybird owns everything. Feel free to re-blog, but please do not post my translations elsewhere. Thank you, for you support! ☾.

Nica: She truly is a cute robin.

I heard a muttered voice and turned around, but he just smiled and waved.

Kate: Did you say something?

Nica: Nothing at all. Anyway, if you don’t go home, then will you keep doing naughty things with me?

Kate: I won’t!

When I turned away from him, Nica began to walk ahead, chuckling.

(I’m so tired today…..)

(It’s all because of Nica’s teasing me)

As I watched his nonchalant back, I felt a little irritated, but I didn’t feel any regret about taking his hand.

[Transitions to the Palace.]

One day, a few days after the mission —

(I’m glad the issue was exposed because there was evidence of illegal gambling.)

It was thought that the evidence had been lost in the fire, but a ledger left at the scene revealed illegal gambling, and was delivered to Her Majesty the Queen.

(This is just the tip of the iceberg.)

I recalled Nica’s words and came to a halt.

(Still, I think we need to solve the problems in front of us one at a time.)

With a changed mindset, I started walking,

(Maybe I should talk to Nica about it?)

I turned on my heel to search the entire palace to lay out the facts.

Nica: I found a cute robin looking for me.

At that moment, Nica appeared before me and I jumped in surprise.

Kate: How did you know I was looking for you?

Nica: Heh, so you really were looking for me.

(I’ve been taken along for a ride…..)

Nica: Is there something you wanted to say to me?

Nica: How about some tea?

When I accepted the invitation with a nod, he escorted me to the drawing room, where I sat down on the sofa.

Nica: So, you wanted to have a chat about the casino the other day?

Kate: How’s that….

Nica: I’m a staff officer, right?

Nica: Information gathering is a skill.

He takes a sip of his tea and begins cutting the deck of playing cards he has in hand.

Nica: The core of the aristocrats were arrested, but the children of the upper class were released on bail.

Nica: Well, they’re nothing more than debauched sons and daughters.

Kate: …..People who’ve lost everything because of gambling.

Nica: At best they’ll go to a rescue institution, otherwise won’t they die in ditch somewhere? [1]

Nica: I don’t care what happens to the gambling addicts.

I frowned at his skillful shuffling.

Kate: They certainly brought it upon themselves.

Kate: But I don't believe that all of the people who attacked me had ill intentions that were beyond the point of no return.

Whatever the reason, it was a crime to cause an explosion and attack so many people.

Kate: I don’t approve of methods that do not allow room for rehabilitation.

Nica’s eyes widened and he blinks repeatedly.

Then, there’s a loud laugh.

Nica: I’m jealous that a kind young lady is worried about them.

Nica: Would you like to gamble to find out how they feel?

Kate: Huh?

Nica: You might understand if you experience the thrill of not knowing if you’ll win or lose,

Nica: The exhilaration of winning and the despair of losing.

When I gazed at him who was dealing the cards alternately,

Nica: What will you bet? Money? Your body?

Kate: I won’t bet that!

Nica: The bigger the stakes, the more intense it is.

When he picks up the cards dealt,

Nica: If I win, show me around the city.

Nica: Of course, without telling Crown.

Nica discards a pair of matching cards, and I realize this is a game of Old Maid.

Nica: You might not be trusted as a fairytale keeper anymore.

Kate: What’s in it for me?

Nica: If you win, I’ll tell you all about us.

Kate: What?

He flashed a card,

Nica: What’s our aim, what we’re going to do, I’ll answer all your questions.

Nica: What will you do?

He smiled meaningfully and crossed his legs.

(Maybe I can learn about “their lies” that Harrison was talking about.)

Kate: I’ll do it.

Nica: Now you’re talking.

Taking a deep breath I faced it.

Nica: Ladies first.

As he said that, I reached and pulled out a card, but

(Ah,)

I drew the joker, and resisted the urge to make a facial expression.

Then Nica smiled widely.

(Maybe he knows what I drew…..?)

Nica: Why are you staring at me like that. Have you fallen in love with me?

This battle may have been decided who’d lose from the start.

Ftn [1] 野垂れ死に 'Notarejini' - Literally, to die in a field or die a dog’s death.

[Master List] Dividers: @.adornedwithlight

Tags list: @sh0jun @theimaginativelyreticent @sapphire-323 @letter-from-afar @nateko Please let me know if you'd like to be added to my tags list!

[jumpingwjoy]

another watercolor painting!! im going through my pokemon sun playthrough as ricky, and this outfit is what i dressed her up in ^_^ i tried to match her band au fashion as much as possible 🫡

i’ve got game screenshots and long ass ramble under the cut 😭

realizing tumblr can let me ramble continuously as much as i want so i could talk about my thoughts and my previous pokemon runs too woaw...maybe i’ll post pics of those playthroughs one day, but probably on my main blog instead 🤔

here's ricky's current team where i’m at and what she looks like in game!! i was sooo peeved that twin tails are locked in post game, even if they don’t even look like ricky’s hairstyle at all, i just think she needs some kind of ponytail…i used to have her with straight bangs to imitate her three bangs style, but it kinda looked ugly af… :V

i’m just before vast poni canyon so gummy will soon be the rail gun beetle that ricky deserves ^_^ i decided on a sweets/dessert nickname theme, tho i did consider a norse mythology theme, but i thought she’d be more cutesy in a pokémon au/world where she is not in life threatening stakes.

i want to write out my reasonings for each pokémon pick too, this team isn’t exactly what i had in mind since it’s limited to the sun pokédex, but i’m pretty fond of them!! mostly, i thought she could have a non-dex rotom (but since it’s like this, her rotom dex is definitely named mike), and i also thought she’d have a porygon - but u can only get it post-game and i’d have to deal with trade evolutions o<-<

i also chose pokémon sun as ricky’s game since i headcanon her to be wasian HAHA specifically japanese and american/german - since hawaii is known for its japanese immigrant population (which is also reflected in the game itself), i liked the idea of her having an actual game background of immigrating from kanto

1. alolan raichu - pikachu is the iconic mascot, just like ricky XD alolan raichu shares her love of sweets, and i think lets her identify with being alolan too

2. vikavolt - he’s a rail gun!! ricky should always have fun with guns. i think ricky has an affinity with machines, and vikavolt has gundam aesthetics hehe. his pre evolutions are cute too, which i think ricky would like. notably he’s another electric type, a remnant from when i used to have ricky as an electric type specific trainer, before i decided to diversify types for eo teams. rotom also would’ve been another electric type…😅

3. metagross - another association with machines—it reminds me of gladsheim as well. i like the juxtaposition of this hulking creature made of metal next to ricky too. showing off her cute and cool sides...

its name is ike as a companion to mike, making them fit into the sweets theme LOL

4. wigglytuff - i headcanon that ricky enjoys singing (and is the lead singer in band au) so i wanted a music related pokémon. maybe in universe, she would stay as a jigglypuff?

5. toucannon - also because of gun. i actually hunted a shiny version, bc it looks like the bi pride flag aghdjshfd. i think ricky can be prone to have a temper, matching toucannon's angry look

6. alolan ninetales - ok so i was conflicted bc i wanted an ice type, as a reference to ricky’s cryo sleep lol, and i was also considering vanillite bc ice cream… but its moveset sucks ass!!! sorry!!!! i do like ninetales as an additional reference to her heritage though…i have vanillite in rosa’s hypothetical team too so it wasn’t really meant for ricky in the first place :P

honorable mentions:

i chose litten as her starter since i think she’s a cat person, and also someone who likes buff people……….

vanillite like i mentioned—harder to catch than i thought cause it needs to be snowing for this guy to show up as an sos helper >:0

alolan exeggutor - long long yggdrasil

this turned out a lot longer than i thought im not used to writing down so much even in tweet threads but it was fun to spill out some of the very specific things i think about in my day to day lol...if you somehow read all of this, thank you for your time wakjhsdg 🙇🏻‍♀️

[nobylerdoubt]

Let's Analyze - Season 1 Mileven

A couple of notes first:

In 2016, when Season 1 released, our society was MUCH more heteronormative than it is now. It may not seem that long ago to some of us, but this was only one year after gay marriage became legal in the US.

For reference, I remember in 2018 when Love, Simon came out, it was a huge deal - this was a mainstream movie about a gay boy finding love. It was groundbreaking. It wasn't the first by any means, but I just remember it being such a huge thing, so keep in mind this is 2 years before even that.

All this to say the 2016 the general audience was much different than it is now.

Next, I will say it's fairly well established that the first season of Stranger Things was written as a stand-alone. There was always a hope there would be more seasons, but in writing season 1 the Duffers didn't know the characters as well as they would after filming.

In Beyond Stranger Things, the Netflix special post-season 2 they explain that it was post season one, before season 2 was green lit Netflix had the writers, the Duffers, and Shawn Levy all sit down and plan out season 2, and the course of the future of this series.

So looking back at season 1, we have to take everything with a grain of salt - the scope of the series hadn't fully been realized yet.

Final note: This post more argues a narrative for if Mike is a gay character, rather than bisexual. If you are a Bi Mike Truther, this post may not be for you. More on my opinion on this here.

So let's get into it.

From the beginning the foundations for Mileven are rocky at best.

We know that Mike's season 4 speech was a lie - his life didn't start the day he found her in the woods, this was not love at first sight.

When Mike, Dustin, and Lucas find El and bring her back to the Wheeler's house, Mike is the only one treating El like a person. Lucas and Dustin seem to act more like the kids that they are.

Mike is the one who offers up his coat to El, who is only wearing a T-shirt.

Mike asks questions about how they can help her get home - whether there's a number they can call, if she's in trouble. Dustin asks questions about El's hair and if she has cancer. Lucas asks if she ran away, and if that's blood on her shirt.

So right out of the gate these our the boys first impressions of El:

Dustin: She's weird and different. Lucas: She's potentially dangerous. Mike: She needs help.

And this assessment holds up throughout the rest of this scene as well - Dustin fixates on El's willingness to openly undress and how that's weird. Lucas makes comments about how dangerous she is, kind of agreeing with Dustin's "crazy" assessment by insinuating she escaped from Pennhurst Asylum. Mike strives to make sure she's comfortable and has a place to stay for the night.

So it's definitely apparent that Mike is softer on El than the other two boys are - but does that make it inherently romantic? I would argue no.

He's really only being just a bit more nice and a bit less immature than Dustin and Lucas here, and this is also just a key part of Mike's character.

We know, especially in hindsight, that Mike desires to be needed. We wants to be a protector. He's doing that for El, but he's also doing that for Will too. If he had to choose between the two of them, he'd choose Will.

Here's the play by play of the conversation here to illustrate my point:

Dustin: I think we should tell your mom. Lucas: I second that. Mike: Who's crazy now?! Lucas: How is that crazy? Mike: 'Cause, we weren't supposed to be out tonight, remember? Lucas: So? Mike: So if I tell my mom and she tells your mom, and your mom - Dustin: Oh man. Lucas: Our houses become Alcatraz. Mike: Exactly. We'll never find Will. Alright, here's the plan. She sleeps here tonight - Dustin: You're letting a girl - ! Mike: Just listen! She sneaks around my house goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She'll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We'll be totally in the clear. And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will.

How romantic.

Okay okay, but we know the Mike speech in S4 was a lie - that doesn't mean that Mike didn't have a crush on her in season 1, right?

Alright, before I go on to make my next point I want to say this - I think Bisexual Mike, who once had feelings for El but has bigger feelings for Will is entirely plausible. I think if you watch earlier seasons and just can't unsee Mike's feelings for El, can't convince yourself otherwise - I do think that a possible way things could have happened with them. We don't get a ton of insight into Mike's feelings in this series, so it really is hard to draw conclusions on whether he liked El or not, when did he realize things were turning sour with his and El's relationship - has he realized at all yet?

So if you disagree with what I'm about to put forward, there's no need for Byler doubt because it's just as plausible and valid that Mike did actually have feelings for El that faded over time. However from my perspective, and my theories, I just believe otherwise.

Innocent Beginnings

So my theory is that we start to see somewhat of a shift in Mike's demeanor towards El after the conversation with Lucas on the Baseball field.

We see three main Mike and el interactions before Lucas teases Mike.

First when Mike showing is El around the house that day. This scene to me gives off that while Mike is definitely trying to impress El - but its in the same way he might try and impress his friends. Talking about how his TV is ten times bigger than Dustin's, how fun the lazy boy recliner is, and showing off his toys and being a nerd about star wars.

Then later when Dustin, Lucas, and Mike describe to El what a friend is. Mike is very excited to jump into the explanation of what a friend is. You can very much see in this scene that what Mike wants is for El to be their friend.

Finally, the scene where Mike tells El to meet them behind his house at 3:15. 3-1-5. This is definitely a tender moment, but I also see this excitement in Mike both to go out and find Will, but also to invite El to join them. And as always, Mike is very careful with her because he can see she is afraid and a bit lost. Tender, but not explicitly romantic.

Overall, all interactions between Mike and El so far have been about Mike trying to be nice to El, and furthermore wanting to invite El to be friends with the group.

Then we have this scene - notably in front of a baseball field. I plan on making a separate post about the baseball motif in the show, but for now just know that baseball in the context of the show symbolizes conforming to societal expectations.

So we have this conversation:

Lucas: If you love her so much why don't you marry her? Mike: What are you talking about? Lucas: Mike, seriously? Mike: What? Lucas: You look at her all like... "Hi, El! El! El! El! I love you so much! Would you marry me?" Mike: Shut up Lucas.

Now with this scene I'm looking at Mike's tone. He's not blushy or bashful, trying to get Lucas off his case. He's genuinely confused, then annoyed. from his tone, what I interpret is that from Mike's perspective, Lucas is way off base (heh) with this claim.

But now I come to you with some personal experience with being a queer person. Regardless of whether or not you actually have a crush on someone - if someone else claims you do, you question it. Sometimes, you start to believe it yourself. Especially when your this young, and you think everybody must be experiencing life the way you are. So you think "wait, maybe this is the way 'liking someone' feels" because, as Lucas and Dustin have established, a boy can't just be friends with a girl like that. It has to be different.

So now lets look at Mike's interactions with El after Lucas's claims.

Peer Pressure

Here El asks Mike what happened to his face, which Mike initially tries to wave off as nothing and assure her he's fine. El reminds him friends don't lie, and that she understands. This is a genuinely kind interaction, and we see the gears in Mike's head start to turn. There's a little bit of a double take and a smile. In my opinion this is Mike kind of questioning things. the seed has been planted - he's a boy, and El's a girl. Is this feeling more than just friendly?

I'm skipping over a few parts here, but I'll get back to them.

When they dress El up to go to the school and use the AV club room, Mike does seem to have some sort of reaction to El's "Cinderella moment". I talk more about it when answering this ask, but I view it more as curiosity and mild surprise, followed by annoyance when he catches him self calling her pretty - because he knows Lucas is going to make a comment about it.

Kind of a big jump now to when El saves Mike when he jumps off the quarry. El admits to mike that she's "The Monster", and Mike assures her she isn't (which is similar to what we see him do with Will in season 2). The two hug, and Dustin joins them.

This moment was the butt end of jokes for a while when the series first came out - Dustin joining what is clearly a romantic moment unawares. But during my latest rewatch I couldn't help but noticed that there isn't so much as a pause on the moment between just El and Mike before Dustin joins. If this were a romantic moment, there would have been a beat or two before Dustin joined for the comedic follow-up beat. Instead this reads as a hug between friends.

Then, there's this brief moment where Mike helps El clean up. She mourns the loss of her wig, but Mike assures her she doesn't need it.

Eleven: Pretty? Mike: uh... yeah... really pretty.

This part in particular I interpret as "uh, yeah, sure." He's being nice and assuring her she doesn't need a blonde wig to be pretty, though pretty isn't exactly a word he's used to using with his friends.

When Nancy and Mike get to catch up upon reuniting, they promise to not keep secrets from each other anymore.

Mike asks if Nancy likes Jonathan, to which she says no. Then Nancy asks if he likes El:

"What? No! Gross!"

But now that's two people who have pointed out to Mike the he might or should have feelings for El.

Mike talks to El about how after all this she can live with the Wheelers. And his mom can be like her mom, and his sister will be like her sister.

But like, uh, he won't be like her brother.

Mike here is describing his ideal of how this will all turn out after this monster stuff is sorted. What he's describing is more akin to being friends - more truthfully siblings. But with the expectation that other people have put around his relationship with El, that can't be what it is.

So he kisses her.

And that's the main scope of the highlights of Mike and El's relationship in season 1. On a rewatch of everything outside of characters outright telling us he likes her and the kiss scene... there isn't romance to be seen.

But in the words of Avril Lavigne... he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious.

Of course that's not all of the Mileven interactions this season. I skipped a few to talk about in this final section.

So This is Love?

There are several moments throughout season 1 where Mike loses his cool. It's not exactly giving endgame couple to me.

When they see Will's body in the water at the quarry, they're all understandably very upset. Mike, perhaps, most of all.

When El goes to comfort him, Mike smacks her hand away.

Mike: Mike? Mike what? You were supposed to find him alive? You said he was alive. Why did you lie to us? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?

Now I understand Mike here. His best friend just died, and El had led him to believe he was still alive and able to be saved. In the heat of the moment I would lash out too.

But I think what we have to remember here is that this show isn't real life. It is written in specific ways to give intentional messages to the audience - should they choose to listen.

They could have written it where Mike leans on El for some emotional support (similar to how she emotionally and literally leans on him for support throughout the season) or if that was maybe too raw for the character, he resists her support and runs off. But instead they have him slap her hand and then ask what's wrong with her.

Mike berates El even more when they get back to the Wheeler house until El shows him that Will is alive.

Once again I think if the writers wanted to convey that these two would one day make a good couple, Mike could have apologized. He could have said it's just really upsetting knowing Will was gone.

But again no attempt is made to soften the edges of a supposed endgame couple.

After El throws Lucas off of Mike and knocks him unconscious, Mike turns on her. Once again asking "what is wrong with you?"

The following episode showcases a really harsh fight between Mike and Lucas. They both have an unwillingness to apologize as Dustin tries to facilitate forgiveness.

Mike's unwillingness to apologize to his friend reflects his doubling down on his aggression with El after Will's "body" was found.

Again, I see Mike's response as human, the way I'm phrasing it may seem negative but the boy is going through a lot right now and I think his response is understandable. I just think it's interesting that Mike would have a similar response to anger against El as he would with Lucas.

Especially when we see in upcoming seasons that there is one person who doesn't seem to ever get the full force of Mike's anger...

So to sum it all up:

Before Lucas points out Mike's supposed crush on El, Mike's interactions are just very friendly

After Lucas points out Mike's "crush", Mike's interactions with El are still mostly friendly, but somewhat more affected by this idea Lucas has planted in his head

Mike lashes out at El several times throughout the season, which I see as a choice the writers made to illustrate that this relationship is not going to last.

[thenoodlesadventures]

Also: you guys are welcome to chat with me about any of the training stuff you see on here. I'm posting all of this publicly because I think 1) it's important for other people to see a variety of what this stuff can look like since every dog is different and 2) it's good to see how much trust you can get from an animal that very much didn't used to trust me.

When I got him, I was working with a high pressure trainer who used a lot of pain compliance. This is very much not how I train now but think: stringing dogs up by their collars and waiting until they submit to the strangulation before lowering them back down, nailing them on ecollar on high and only stopping once they've listened to their "lay down" cue and then only stopping after they've decided to just lay there and take it, hitting the dog with serious intent because it dared to express it's discomfort with being assaulted and then continuing until they give up. That's the type of person I was training with. They literally sharpened their prong collars for stubborn dogs. If you've seen pictures of dogs with two rows of evenly spaced punctures and thought "well that's ridiculous animal rights/peta propoganda! I've seen prong collars! My dog wears one! The tips are dull/rounded! They couldn't do that to a dog!" well that's because you haven't encountered a true high-pressure trainer. This is a common practice among high-pressure/pain compliance trainers who are looking to obtain their goal behavior at any cost.

I protected thenoodle from a lot of that, but certainly not enough of it. He shouldn't have ever had to deal with ANY of it. No dog should.

Like he shouldn't trust me at all. He leaves the room if I sound intense (like adamantly debating comics/movies with my partner. Not mad, just into it.). The fastest way for him to hate another dog is for me to get angry with it where he can see.

However, he'll literally GIVE me injured body parts UNPROMPTED because I consistently give him good experiences for doing so. If he corrects me, he's so freaking gentle. Not because he's afraid I'm going to hurt him if he isn't but because he trusts that I'm not going to hurt him for it at all.

I literally tripped and fell on him the other day (tangled leashes because I wasn't watching the puppy I was walking closely enough and thenoodle leaned against me riiiiight as it wrapped my legs with the leash and to avoid stepping on the puppy, I shifted my weight forward into thenoodle) and the worst I got from that is a bruise on my forearm from a very gentle (and well-deserved! I practically stepped on him and it definitely hurt!) nip that he didn't even continue to pursue and that I wasn't worried he was going to pursue. Didn't even cross my mind. He got pets and snuggles and butt scratches after and was sufficiently mollified.

I think it's important to tell and share stories like this because it feels so hopeless when you look at your dog and realize that they wouldn't choose you. When you still have to provide for this animal that you love that doesn't want you to touch it.

He used to hate being petted. Now he loves it. I spent an entire year naming different kinds of touch so that he never had to wonder what I was doing. We spent months building up personal play because he used to get too aroused while wrestling with me and would try to eat me. With no serious intent but he's a massive dog and I used to cause him a lot of pain and stress and being in close contact with me was clearly emotionally difficult for him because he was blatantly concerned.

We're here now. We're good. There are things we can improve and we're working on them but everything is just as much about his comfort as it is mine.

So if any of that resonates with you: keep trying. You'll get there. All is not lost. There are some things he'll never get back and neither will I, but where we are is good. It's okay. He's happy. He's comfortable.

[dinarosie]

Snape’s Legacy Goes Beyond His Flaws: part 1

I wrote this post to highlight moments when, despite his personal wounds, Snape still chooses to save the lives of the Marauders. My goal was to show how, no matter how flawed, Snape acts as a brave hero who prioritizes human life. The comments below genuinely surprised me, and they actually make me want to quote specific passages from the books to showcase Snape’s actions. I'm splitting this post into two parts, as including all the quotes from the books makes it quite long.

It’s honestly hilarious when some people keep telling: 'read the books,' while they seem blissfully unaware of how things actually go down in the story. One can only hope that one day they’ll realize fanfics aren’t the original books. Shocking, I know—but those are just fans playing with their own imagination, not a hidden version of the canon.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, THE PRINCE’S TALE: dark night: He was accompanied by other hooded Death Eaters, and ahead were Lupin and a Harry who was really George. . . . A Death Eater moved ahead of Snape and raised his wand, pointing it directly at Lupin’s back — “Sectumsempra!” shouted Snape. But the spell, intended for the Death Eater’s wand hand, missed and hit George instead — Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, HERMIONE'S SECRET: “I don’t know — Harry, look at Snape!” Together they peered around the bush at the other bank. Snape had regained consciousness. He was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Hermione, and Black onto them. A fourth stretcher, no doubt bearing Ron, was already floating at his side. Then, wand held out in front of him, he moved them away toward the castle.

Let me lay it out clearly: in this scene, Snape’s priority is to save the lives of four people and uphold justice:

Snape is taking the most honorable approach here. He knows that three of his students have directly disobeyed him, put themselves in harm’s way, and even teamed up with Black, a known fugitive, against his warnings. Yet he controls his anger because his first priority is their safety and getting them back to school unharmed.

Snape believes at this moment that Black has conspired with Voldemort, betrayed the Potters, orphaned their son, killed Pettigrew, and murdered twelve innocent Muggles. It’s no wonder he feels Black deserves the Dementor’s Kiss. Even Harry, when he believed these things about Black, felt that justice should be served and saw no issue in Black paying the price for such crimes. And remember, when Black learns the truth about Pettigrew, he’s furious enough to try to kill him on the spot. Yet, Snape has the composure and discipline to restrain his rage and sees it as his responsibility to bring Black back alive. He leaves the punishment to the legal system and to justice, refusing to take it into his own hands.

And let’s not forget: just an hour before, Sirius was openly willing to drag Snape’s unconscious body to the castle, fully prepared to bash Snape’s head against the ceiling—purely out of lingering childish hatred for Snape’s appearance and background. Sirius had no regard for the injuries he might inflict on Snape.

Barbara: I was very disappointed to see harry use crucio and seem to enjoy it his failure to perform that kind of curse in the past has been a credit to his character why the change, and did harry later regret having enjoyed deliberately causing pain J.K. Rowling: Harry is not, and never has been, a saint. Like Snape, he is flawed and mortal.

His character flaws don’t erase all the good he’s done or the impact he’s had. If you believe that being “flawed” or “grey” prevents someone from being a hero, then you’ve missed one of the core messages of the Harry Potter series. By that standard, no one in the books would be a hero because nearly every character has their own set of flaws. Even J.K. Rowling herself draws parallels between Snape and Harry, calling both of them imperfect. If you find Snape unforgivable, then logically, you’d have to find Harry Potter unforgivable, too.

Snape is a hero because he spends his life atoning for his mistakes. He stays on the right side even when there’s no personal gain, saving lives, healing others, and standing by his principles despite losing his way in darkness. He has the strength to return to the right path and stay loyal to it for years. Thanks to his courage and sacrifices, the wizarding world is freed from a dark wizard’s crimes. Because of him, innocent children like Harry aren’t left orphaned, and young mothers like Lily don’t lose their lives and families. Because of Snape’s loyalty, teenage souls like Draco Malfoy’s don’t get lost in darkness.